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Written by Mary Kay Barton
An insidious plan to install the “New World” state-supported religion – Environmentalism
“Agenda 21” was first introduced to the world at the 1992 UN-sponsored “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro. It addresses virtually every facet of human life and describes in great detail how the concept of “sustainable development” should be implemented at every level of government. (click map to enlarge)
“Agenda 21 proposes an array of actions which are intended to be implemented by every person on earth…. It calls for specific changes in the activities of all people.… Effective execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all humans, unlike anything the world has ever experienced.” [emphasis added] Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet, United Nations (1993)
“The Sustainable Development Challenge Grant program is also a step in implementing Agenda 21, the Global Plan of Action on Sustainable Development, signed by the United States at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. All of these programs require broad community participation to identify and address environmental issues.” Environmental Protection Agency, 63 Fed. Reg. 45157 (August 24, 1998).
On January 26, 2012, I attended the final meeting in Batavia, NY for the Finger Lakes “Regional Sustainability Plan,” part of New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s $10 million statewide program to have regional Planning Departments orchestrate “sustainability” plans described in NYSERDA’s “Cleaner, Greener Communities” Program. Following is my take on what is going on across New York State in regard to these extensive plans in the making.
As those who have studied the United Nations’ “Agenda 21” plan know, “Sustainability” is a key buzzword that is part-and-parcel of the UN’s Agenda 21 agenda. It’s also meaningless and malleable – allowing activists and planners to bend and shape it to serve their agendas.
the Hollywood crowd loves sustainable development, Agenda 21 and Al Gore.There is no doubt that the “Sustainability” Plan currently being devised by Planning Departments across the state, all of which are acting “under NYSERDA’s thumb” (as one planner phrased it at their first meeting in Batavia), is Agenda 21, under development and in practice (think carbon taxes, “green” energy transfer-of-wealth schemes, and one-world governance). No wonder
At the “open-house style” meeting in Batavia, folks were asked to read the poster boards relevant to each part of the overall plan: Land Use, Water Use, Agriculture, Forestry, Waste Management, Economic Development, and Energy – and then use sticky notes to post their comments on the boards for each particular segment of the plan.
Free-market economists sharply differentiate between central government planning and decentralized market planning (See F.A. Hayak's, Road to Serfdom, pages 34 - 35). Thus, while many see little wrong with developing an overall plan, remember that their coercion crowds out your own planning. And while different aspects of the extensive plans look good at first glance, the devil is in the details.
The fact that NYSERDA is the bureaucracy overseeing this process is the tell-tale warning sign, as the development of renewable energy across the state and ways to regulate hydrocarbon use and carbon dioxide emissions is the overarching goal in each area of the plan.
This should leave everyone very wary about the remaining $90 million – which came from the Northeast’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) ratepayer dollars, and which will be offered as “grants” (the proverbial “carrots” used to lead the sheep) to guide our communities into “compliance” with the overall underlying agenda – that of Agenda 21(video series, part 1 on left).
Who knows where the money will come from for Governor Cuomo’s proposed billion-dollar “Green Bank” and $1.5 Billion dollar Solar fund? Remember when Obama President Obama said there were other ways of “skinning the cat” besides cap-and-trade?
One of the biggest warning flags I noted at the meeting (besides the “green” energy push and carbon regulation goals) was on the chart regarding “Land Use.” I noted one line that said, “Home Rule” interferes with inter-municipal cooperation.…” The obvious subliminal message here is that “Home Rule” is a bad thing.
Our municipalities’ long-held, Constitutional right to “Home Rule” is being progressively undermined through this whole process of State-led planning. We are unwittingly, slowly and methodically giving over total control to unelected bureaucrats, planners and activists, who are devising these “green” “sustainability” plans – which are part and parcel of Agenda 21 (which many officials and bureaucrats insist they still know nothing about).
The sad reality is that most of these planners are not at all educated about energy and power. As I was getting ready to leave the meeting, one of the FL Planners asked me what I had thought of the display.
I told him straight out that the obvious push for “unreliables” (aka “renewable”) like wind is a complete waste of our tax- and rate-payer dollars. I told him that while I am certainly all for scientifically-vetted, economically-sound energy-innovation, industrial wind was the biggest scam to ever come down the pike.
Sadly, he responded with the decades-old propaganda line, “Well, we have to do something. Oil is responsible for so much of our pollution.”
I responded, “I’m not talking about oil – which is used for transportation. I’m talking about unreliable wind power – which is used for electricity!”
He tried to argue that eventually we would end up going to all electric vehicles. I just laughed, and said, “Sir, I’m afraid you’ve drank the Kool-Aid! I couldn’t even make it home and back in an electric car.” And imagine trying to recharge car batteries using expensive, intermittent, bird-killing wind turbines!
Thankfully, a local guy who does get it stepped in and said, even if electric vehicles became more prevalent, they could never be used to do the kind of heavy work required on our farms.
As our conversation proceeded, we had the attention of the entire small crowd that was in the room – which played out great, as the facts totally destroyed this planner’s entire argument.
Not one of the five planners who were there knew what “Capacity Value“ was, nor that wind provided virtually NONE. I told him that wind is not the future, and in all actuality, there is a direct correlation between RELIABLE, AFFORDABLE power, and increased health and longevity in this country, which he could verify by doing a little research.
I ended up leaving a copy of John Etherington’s The Wind Farm Scam: An Ecologist’s Evaluation and Robert Bryce’s Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green” Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future with one of the head planners there.
Hopefully, they will actually read them and reverse course, so that New York State can cut its budget, preserve the environment, and safeguard our neighbors’ quality of life and property values – all at the same time. As it is now, the energy-illiterate planners guiding the development of (UN-initiated) “Sustainability Plans” in New York State (Governor Andrew Cuomo and his cohorts at NYSERDA) are not basing their decisions on sound science, but on politics surrounding the UN’s “New World,” state-supported religion of “Environmentalism.”
As Paul Driessen stated so well: "Climate alarmism and pseudo-science have justified all manner of regulations, carbon trading, carbon taxes, renewable energy programs and other initiatives that increase the cost of everything we make, grow, ship, eat, heat, cool, wear and do – and thus impair job creation, economic growth, living standards, health, welfare and ecological values."
Whether the “Sustainability Plans” are in New York State or Timbuktu, there is nothing at all that is “sustainable” about any of this.
Mary Kay Barton is a retired health educator and New York State small business owner, and a tireless advocate for scientifically sound, affordable and reliable electricity for all Americans. She has served over the past decade in local water quality organizations and enjoys gardening and birding in her National Wildlife Federation “Backyard Wildlife Habitat.” | <urn:uuid:b34abff3-91bb-4af6-9073-fd2a89982cd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rightsidenews.com/2013030732132/life-and-science/energy-and-environment/new-yorks-sustainability-plan-aka-agenda-21/print.html | 2013-05-19T02:24:37Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949649 | 1,903 |
Demons cleared, guilty, fined
- Integrity intact: Demons
- ROHAN CONNOLLY: Tanking saga leaves us with more questions
- EMMA QUAYLE: Dees winners? We'll know in about 2015
In the end it all came down to one meeting in July 2009 in an old tin shed at the Junction Oval known as ''the vault''.
It was there that Melbourne's then football boss, Chris Connolly, is alleged to have warned an estimated 15 officials against the perils of winning more than four games that year.
It was there that jobs were allegedly threatened and that two teenagers by the names of Tom Scully and Jack Trengove were mentioned. The Demons had just emerged from back-to-back victories and were perilously poised with three wins for the season.
It was that meeting which appears to have provided the best and most damaging evidence of what former Demon Brock McLean declared last year ''Blind Freddie'' could see. That Melbourne had deliberately lost games of football.
Not that the AFL announced as much when it revealed on Tuesday what it had told Melbourne four days earlier. The club was found guilty of little it seemed except that it was forced to take responsibility for the behaviour of Connolly and the club's former coach, Dean Bailey.
The AFL has achieved some expedient backroom deals in its time but this one will compete for the most pragmatic, political decisions in the game's history. To his credit Andrew Demetriou's most likely successor, Gillon McLachlan, made a good fist of justifying the inexplicable.
Both Connolly and Bailey are the scapegoats of something the AFL privately believes was sanctioned by others. According to McLachlan, Connolly ''made a terrible and stupid decision in the context of an AFL rule which has since changed. I know he now regrets that comment''.
They were found guilty of breaching AFL rule 1.6: That they had acted in a manner prejudicial to the interests of the competition.
If the Demons' board knew nothing then it is paying a heavy fine for what Connolly and Bailey did. The club has been fined $500,000 - almost double Adelaide's fine for draft and salary cap tampering. Only Carlton and the Demons themselves have ever been fined more in the past and both those were for salary cap cheating.
Intriguingly the club did not lose draft picks and McLachlan himself admitted the punishment was made in the context of a priority pick rule that had put clubs under pressure and has now been removed.
Melbourne reluctantly accepted the deal McLachlan crunched on the basis it did not lose draft picks. And on the basis that the investigation concluded that the club, coach and team had not set out to lose matches. It fought to have the $500,000 fine cut in half to the end but failed.
The AFL Commission talks on Monday were robust to say the least and there was a view that the club had escaped lightly. Again this was a messy, confusing political decision but at least there was a decision.
The board and Connolly's legal team fought not to have him carry the can for the entire affair but there had to be a scapegoat. Connolly himself denied for six months at least that he had been serious in his address to his staff in ''the vault'' that fateful winter's day back in 2009 but in the end he could not fight against the weight of evidence.
Or the political context in which this whole saga has been played out. The Demons also fought for Cameron Schwab not to be charged and in the end McLachlan admitted there was not sufficient evidence to do so despite some strong opinion to the contrary.
Significantly had the club, its board or chief executive had its integrity put in question then its Bentleigh Club pokies' licence could have been threatened.
Melbourne claims its integrity is intact and Jim Stynes' legacy has been preserved. Don McLardy, who was the ailing Stynes' deputy that year but pretty much in charge, slammed the media dialogue that has surrounded this whole unhappy episode.
He said he was entirely comfortable with the manner in which both he and his board conducted themselves in 2009.
McLardy said he was happy in terms of integrity that the club's name had been cleared but accepted that in the current sporting climate of match-fixing and drug allegations the AFL had to take a stand.
Demetriou will not be forced to explain his promise that any coach found guilty of deliberately losing games would never work again in football. That's because Bailey was found guilty of acting in a manner prejudicial to the AFL, but not trying to lose. Interestingly he was the only coach at Melbourne that year to have done so.
Demetriou defended his late withdrawal from Tuesday's public announcement saying it had been McLachlan's investigation, not his.
He said the evidence and findings had been put before an independent Queen's Counsel who had agreed the investigation had no sufficient evidence against any other officials or board members.
So the Demons won the legal argument that they did not tank. McLachlan admitted he wasn't even sure what tanking meant. Nor could the AFL prove, despite significant evidence played out before its very eyes in games such as rounds 17 and 18 against Sydney and Richmond respectively, that any on-field moves made in 2009 constituted deliberate attempts to lose. And yet the club, which scraped together a $19,000 profit last season, has been slapped with the third-largest fine in AFL history.
A club official, Chris Connolly, boasting a 40-year history with the sport has been banned from all football clubs and arenas for a year and yet Melbourne will still somehow manage to unofficially pay him.
A coach, Dean Bailey, who - under pressure from that official - acted before games in a manner prejudicial to victory but not during games, cannot coach for 16 weeks but can remain at his club and still get paid.
That's it in a nutshell. Messy? No messier than Melbourne's football operations in 2009. Confusing? No more confused than the Melbourne players were when they were victim to some very strange team selections and on-field moves that season.
Poll: Has the AFL made itself look foolish on the issue of tanking?
Total votes: 7350.
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Poll closed 20 Feb, 2013
These polls are not scientific and reflect the opinion only of visitors who have chosen to participate. | <urn:uuid:5edcd83e-13a9-4de0-b392-dcc8f375a0c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/demons-cleared-guilty-fined-20130219-2epm0.html | 2013-05-19T02:26:17Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989563 | 1,339 |
"Silver Linings Playbook" is a frequently hilarious, often poignant romantic comedy about two deeply damaged people. At the center of it is Bradley Cooper, who strikes notes of despair not previously explored in his more mainstream films like "The Hangover" and "Wedding Crashers."
While his co-stars Robert De Niro, Jennifer Lawrence and Jacki Weaver are all past Oscar nominees (or, in De Niro’s case, Oscar winners) whose work has been celebrated, Cooper’s biggest kudo to date was being named People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. On Wednesday, he won best actor honors from the National Board of Review for "Silver Linings Playbook." It’s not belittling his work in the "Hangover" films to say that we didn’t know he had this in him.
In David O. Russell’s sharp, smart film, Cooper is a revelation as a bipolar man struggling to readjust to life after a stint in a mental institution.
This film and this role are a challenging mixture of comedy and drama. Was that intimidating?
I was very nervous starting out because nobody had ever given me the opportunity to do something like this before. I thought, “I don’t know if I can do it, and I certainly know that if it’s David O. Russell directing, I can’t fake it.”
Was there a lot of rehearsal?
No. It was very much, Show up having done your work. Without the rehearsal process, the exploration occurs on film. There is no, “Let’s nail the scene.” With David it’s all about, “Let’s explore the scene.” There are these emotional buoys to get to, but there are many ways to get there.
This is your second movie with Robert De Niro. Why do you like working with him?
It’s the safest place you want to be on the field. It’s like saying you’re going to do this two-on-two basketball game, and Michael Jordan’s your partner.
Was De Niro helpful during filming?
I was trepidatious about many aspects of this film, and Robert De Niro was a big part of the reason that I thought that I could possibly do it. He allayed any fears I had by saying, “Don’t worry. You’re from Philly, you know this.” He said, “Your mother should play your mother. We should screen test her. Let me talk to David.” I said, “Bob, hold on, I don’t think my mother needs to play my mother.”
David said he saw a lot of anger in you. Did you know that was there?
He’s talking about the character I played in "Wedding Crashers," that he saw a lot of real anger in me, not acting anger. We talked about our past. I’m 37, and I’m a lot different than I was at 25 and, yeah, there are parts of my life that I was ruled by anger, I guess. I never thought the first thing you get from me is anger. But you know what, he’s a very sensitive guy, and he might not have been wrong.
There is such a strong sense of place in the film. This Philadelphia suburb is almost a character in the movie, no?
Very much like "The Fighter." He’s in a real sweet spot with that, David O. Russell. It’s something that interests him and inspires him, stories about specific cultural entities. The house also is almost a character in this movie, and one almost believes we’re living in that house. David had people cooking as we were shooting so you could smell the food.
Football culture dominates this movie. You grew up in Philly, were you an Eagles fan?
Huge Eagles fan.
Is it as violent a culture as it is in the film?
Philly is notorious. Philly is the town that throws batteries at the opposing team and famously threw an ice ball at Santa Claus.
Have you experienced that culture at all?
My father was old school, and he would take us to games all the time. When he grew up, the idea of stadium was a huge deal and we would wear ties. Man, oh man, that’s asking for trouble, because I had this bowl haircut and blond hair and looked like a girl with a tie on. As I got older I took him to Eagles games, and that was kind of wonderful. Right before he died -- the Sunday before he died -- I took him to the Green Bay-Philly playoff game.
The movie has a lot to do with fathers and sons. Did you draw on your own relationship with your father?
You draw on everything. In this film, Philadelphia, that house, the smell of the gravy, the creaking of the stairs just like my grandparents’ house helped. All of that makes the imaginary feel very real.
Did you research what it’s like to be bipolar?
What I’ve learned about bipolarity is that it’s like snowflakes: No two are the same. It’s about how do I find that in my life, by using my experience and what I’ve observed. That meant exploring things in my life and people I know, and that also meant looking at documentaries, footage, tons of stuff.
You don’t want to overpower the audience with the condition, because they’re not going to come on board. We found that in the first week of shooting. I tried some things that felt real, and David thought it’s just too much, we needed to dial it down a bit.
One thing you seemed to do was alter your speech to signal that something is a bit off about this guy.
This guy doesn’t have a filter when he speaks because things are processed differently. He speaks in a completely different pattern than the way I talk, and that pattern was guided by David O. Russell and the way it was written.
Is the film trying to remove the stigma associated with mental illnesses?
It’s not for us to say. I remember watching Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson being interviewed after a screening for "There Will Be Blood," and they were asked, “Is this an environmental indictment?” And they said, “Uhh, it’s about this guy.” From knowing David and going through this process, he had one objective and that is to tell an authentic story about people who are very dear to his heart. The more specific you make it, the more things that can be extracted. If you try to start with a big idea, it could become pedantic.
You seem to be doing personal projects after appearing in more mainstream fare. Are you enjoying the rewards of being bankable?
I never was like, “I’m going to make three movies like "The Hangover" which will finance my friends’ movies and then work with the directors I’ve longed to work with my whole life.” It’s really simple: I just want to work with great directors.
From De Niro to co-star Jennifer Lawrence, you have frequent collaborators. Are you trying to create a sense of community through your work?
I’m always looking for a sense of community in life and work. There’s a reason why Martin Scorsese works with Robert De Niro for six movies and then Leonardo DiCaprio for six movies. Because when it works, cinema is a collaborative art form.
To that end, you are working with David again. What is your next project about?
It’s an untitled project about Abscam. In the late ’70s in New Jersey and Delaware, there was a takedown of politicians through an FBI sting operation. It’s not a good guy/bad guy thing. Just like "The Fighter" wasn’t really about fighting, it’s the same thing. It’s about this world.
What about directing. Is that in the cards?
Oh yeah, dying to. If I had a project, I’d be doing it right now. There’s one that me and my friend are writing. We’re adapting this series of books by Dan Simmons called "Hyperion," but it’s a massive story. It’s like saying, “There’s this thing called "Avatar" that I’m looking to get my hands on.”
What does it mean to you to be in the Oscar conversation?
If I’ve learned anything from the 10 years I’ve been in this business, it’s don’t ever listen to hype. I remember doing "Kitchen Confidential," this TV series. After shooting the pilot and that got picked up, someone said, “Sit back, your life’s about to change. You’re going to get an Emmy.” I said, “Really?” Three episodes aired. They canceled it after three.
What do you think about awards?
They are ridiculous, in the sense that, How can you pick the best of a subjective art form? That said, I grew up watching the Oscars. I don’t think I’ve ever missed an Oscars show. I’ve definitely succumbed to the pageantry of it all as a lover of film, while at the same time recognizing that it means nothing. If you ask somebody do you know what was the best movie the year that "Goodfellas" came out, I would be reluctant to think that people would say "Dances With Wolves." Yet that won Best Picture.
Are there any performances this year that you’ve been impressed with?
Yes, Sam Rockwell in "Seven Psychopaths." I know that he’s had a lot of success, but I still think he’s under appreciated. I loved what Tom Hardy was doing in "The Dark Knight Rises." I wish I could have seen his face more, because I think it was so clear that he was tapped in. | <urn:uuid:a03c0fe6-e0f3-4af2-838f-10ce6d5fd35e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thewrap.com/awards/column-post/silver-lining-playbooks-bradley-cooper-goes-mental-67556 | 2013-05-19T02:09:27Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979356 | 2,187 |
Enterprise organizations seek more and more to adopt telepresence and HD video solutions that offer instantaneous, in-person virtual communication more pervasively across their organizations. While they may use the technology to connect with colleagues, partners, and customers all over the globe, these businesses want to access their video collaboration tools in one very specific place – the cloud – as they plan more pervasive deployments across their organization and ecosystem.
Why the cloud? It’s simple: The cloud allows for flexible deployment models, easy implementation, seamless integration of mobile and other remote users, and scalable video that can expand with the pace of business while freeing up resources to focus on their core business. We’ve empowered our partners to bring these invaluable benefits to their customers with our cloud-based telepresence solution, the Cisco TelePresence Exchange System.
Read More »
Tags: Cisco, cloud, collaboration, HCS, in-person, TelePresence, video
Gartner recently released their 2012 Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony, and I am incredibly pleased to share that Cisco was placed in the leader’s quadrant. These results come just after Cisco was recognized as a leader in Gartner’s 2012 Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications. We believe that, together, these reports signal the momentum that Cisco is experiencing as a leader in Collaboration.
And yes, the momentum has been strong! This past April, Cisco achieved a new milestone by shipping more than 50 million IP phones. We’ve also gained significant traction with Cisco Jabber, which enables instant messaging, conferencing, voice and telepresence video on multiple devices, increasing 55% in license volume year over year.
Our history of success has been validated many times before, not only by sales growth and market share gains, but also acknowledged by technology analysts as an industry leading vendor in this space for more than ten years. Most of you have followed this validation and we believe this year’s Magic Quadrant is just another example.
At Cisco, we understand that our customers don’t make decisions on data, voice or video alone. Instead, they are looking for integrated solutions that deliver the rich media capabilities their users demand, and at the same time, provide the agility, resiliency and high quality experiences the business demands.
According to Gartner analysts Jay Lassman, Geoff Johnson, and Steve Blood in their Corporate Telephony report, “We evaluated vendors for their understanding of how customer needs are changing (both for users and the IT group responsible for managing telephony). It was especially important to see how vendors proposed to complement, or compete with, UC collaboration solutions.” Read More »
Tags: collaboration, Gartner, HCS, IP Phones, jabber, telephony, UC, unified communications, virtualization, vxi
Organizations small or large can deploy collaboration technologies on premises, on the cloud, or on both with a hybrid deployment. I believe that the source or the provider of collaboration technology should be transparent to the end-user and that the experience should be the same regardless of deployment model or device used.
At Cisco we’re very focused on offering flexible deployment models that support on-premises, cloud, or hybrid deployments of our collaboration technologies. Of course, these are built on our collaboration architecture to ensure the interoperability and user experience. Read More »
Tags: Accenture, AT&T, Callway, Cisco Collaboration Cloud, Cisco HCS, cloud, Cloud Computing, collaboration, collaboration cloud, CSC, HCS, OBS, Sprint, Verizon, vodafone, WebEX
In today’s economic climate, a value-conscious shopper may look to wholesalers such as Costco to stock up on household goods. I frequently find myself at Costco versus specialty stores, because I know I can get the same high-quality olive oil at a fraction of the price.
And when you switch out the olive oil for network solutions, the concept remains the same.
Earlier this week, I shared a blog post about Nexus IS’ experience with wholesaler Neutral Tandem’s Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) proof-of-concept trial. We got to hear the VAR’s side of the story, but I knew you’d want to know more. So I checked in with Ian Neale, Neutral Tandem’s VP of Product Marketing, and asked him to give me an insider’s look at his company’s wholesale model.
What I really wanted to find out was what our partners could expect when working with them, and, more important, how they can help partners increase their revenue opportunities. Want to know what I learned? Read More »
Tags: Cisco, HCS, Hosted Collaboration Solution, Neutral Tandem, partner, VAR, wholesale
Would you buy a car from a dealership where none of the salesmen knew how to drive? Or order prime rib at a restaurant where the chef was a strict vegetarian? What about when it comes to your customer’s network? Are you willing to risk installing products that you don’t have firsthand experience with? I’m guessing the answer is “no.”
When making purchases, big or small, customers want to have confidence that the company they partner with has in-depth knowledge and can stand behind the products they sell. Consider Amy Smith, Director of Collaboration at Nexus IS and a Cisco Gold Certified Partner. She’s committed to live by her company’s marketing motto: “Know it, use it, sell it.”
This was the case when Nexus IS decided to add Cisco’s Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) — an offering that allows partners to provide a wide range of Cisco collaboration applications to their customers as a subscriber-based service—to its portfolio. Their first step was to go the wholesale route and participate in Neutral Tandem’s proof-of-concept trial. This was an easy decision, since Nexus IS always tests new products on its own network before installing them on a customer’s network. It’s all about fully understanding, embracing, and discovering best practices of a product before offering it for sale.
Think HCS would be a great addition to your list of offerings?
Learn about Nexus IS’ trial experience and why the timing is right for the HCS market. Read More »
Tags: Cisco, Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution, HCS, Neutral Tandem, nexus IS, partner, VAR, wholesale | <urn:uuid:3ba111d9-0312-42ba-bf1f-f7ff41f2a029> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.cisco.com/tag/hcs/page/2/ | 2013-05-22T00:08:01Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939127 | 1,366 |
Pinnacol: John Hickenlooper's John Cevette appointment could put a good fox in henhouse
Pinnacol Assurance, the quasi-public workers' compensation insurance fund, dodged a bullet last year when the legislature backed off on a proposed $500 million raid of its reserves to help fill budget gaps. But now Governor John Hickenlooper has nominated a critic to the Pinnacol board who'll be the proverbial fox in the henhouse -- proving himself to be crazy like a fox.
In exchange for agreeing to act as the agency of last resort for companies seeking workers' comp insurance, Pinnacol (subject of the 2003 Westword feature "Adding Insult to Injury") is exempt from state taxes; the governor governor also appoints the members of Pinnacol's board. That's been about the extent of the state's oversight -- until CEO Ken Ross threw a very public temper tantrum last year on the golf course at Pebble Beach, when KMGH reporter Tony Kovaleski asked him why Pinnacol was spending $318,000 on the junket. Ross's over-the-top response suddenly put Pinnacol in the spotlight.
Yesterday, the focus was again on Pinnacol's bad behavior, when a state Senate committee considered the proposed appointments of businessman Blair Richardson, who'd been nominated by Governor Bill Ritter, attorney John Plotkin and Senate Majority staffer John Cevette. After they vowed to skip the expensive perks, all three passed committee, with only state senator Shawn Mitchell voting against Cevette.
After that temper tantrum at Pebble Beach, Cevette had written on blog that Ross was an "idiot." And that wasn't all: "Coupled with a penchant to act like a Guido on a New York street corner, he is more a composite of a thug than the CEO of a state workers' compensation agency," Cevette wrote -- and he stands by that.
"We shouldn't be afraid to question this behavior," Cevette said in a statement released yesterday. "The management of Pinnacol has engaged in activities that are questionable, and it is important that the board evaluate those decisions and determine what changes are appropriate and necessary to ensure Pinnacol continues to fulfill its mission... Pinnacol is a good company that employs good people, but it has struggled under questionable management practices. I'm honored to be asked to serve as a member of the Pinnacol board. I look forward to supporting its mission to serve injured workers and provide affordable coverage for employers."
At the confirmation hearing yesterday, Mitchell asked Cevette whether he'd supported Senate President Brandon Shaffer's past proposal to take $500 million from Pinnacol's reserves. Committee chair Lois Tochtrop told Cevette he didn't have to answer, prompting Mitchell to write this letter to Shaffer:
I am writing to express my concerns about today's confirmation hearing for the members of the Pinnacol Assurance Board of Directors.
During the hearing, I asked Mr. Cevette a question pertinent to the position for which he was nominated. The chair of the committee, Senator Tochtrop, informed Mr. Cevette that he did not have to answer the question. Senator Tochtrop did not rule the question out of order; she arbitrarily shielded the witness from answering it. I believe that the members of the committee and the public deserve an answer, as the matter was directly related to Mr. Cevette's potential role as a Pinnacol Board member.
My question was whether or not Mr. Cevette expressed an opinion to the President of the Senate regarding SB 09-281, the bill which would have transferred $500 million from Pinnacol's reserves to the state's General Fund. The matter of whether or not Mr. Cevette approved of the bill at the time, or offered advice on it, is highly pertinent to his potential work on the Board.
Mr. Cevette's actions in the past regarding SB 09-281 cut to the heart of our concerns about his appointment: that serving on the Board of Directors while continuing in his present job will place him in a position of unavoidable conflict of interest. If Mr. Cevette continues to assert "staff-principal" privilege when questioned about potential conflicts of interest arising from his role as an advisor to the President, such secrecy will inevitably cast aspersions on the Board's work.
I respectfully request that Mr. Cevette provide the Business, Labor and Technology committee with an answer to my question. We owe nothing less than complete transparency to the public and the thousands of small businesses who have a stake in Pinnacol Assurance's success.
Senator Shawn Mitchell
Frankly, we have no problem with Cevette answering the question -- no matter which way his answer goes. One good way to assure transparency? Put a critic (or two, or three) on the Pinnacol board who can tell the company's managers when they're going the wrong way.
Cevette sounds like a much better bet than boardmember Debra Lovejoy, Pinnacol's head of ethics (and a former Shmuck of the Week), for example, who had no problem with taking the Pebble Beach trip -- or the pricey, pink lady's golf balls.
All three nominations now move on to a full Senate vote.
More from our Calhoun: Wake-Up Call archive: "Urban explorers invade remains of Denver's Stapleton International Airport." | <urn:uuid:d6dac792-3da3-4d96-91fd-35a00cde96f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2011/02/pinnacol_john_hickenlooper_john_cevette.php | 2013-05-22T00:15:50Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96265 | 1,130 |
[Ronald Hutton, History of Pagan Witchcraft, in
Witchcraft and magic in Europe: The twentieth century
ed. Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark, p. 54]
1."Witchcraft doesn’t pay for broken windows."
Indeed, Gardner's witches did multiply, and soon Doreen Valiente had formed a new, sister Coven, in 1957. A number of factors contributed to this growth, among them being the publication in 1954 of Gardner's book Witchcraft Today, combined with Gardner's eagerness and talent for courting of public attention.
However, a great deal of the resulting attention paid to Gardner and his Witches was decidedly negative. According to Hutton (continuing on in his essay on The History of Pagan Witchcraft already quoted above), starting in 1955 the popular press began to "run features attacking witchcraft as Satanism .... In 1957 and 1959 the original London coven was denounced sensationally and unscrupulously, putting a considerable strain on its members and fracturing relations between Valiente's group and Gerald Gardner." In response, Gardner came out with (in 1959) The Meaning of Witchcraft: "answering the press attacks and attempting to establish the historical credentials of his religion more firmly by relating it to a string of ancient religious texts and images, and later magical groups." [p. 55]
(It should be noted, at least parenthetically, that, Hutton's crude misdirection notwithstanding, the connections drawn by Gardner, in The Meaning of Witchcraft, between 20th century Wicca and "ancient religious texts and images, and later magical groups," constitutes a seamless continuation of the way Gardner had presented the history and roots of Wicca previously in Witchcraft Today. In fact, Gardner had included in the Foward of that earlier book a prominent reference to the Mystery cult of Isis and the writings of Platonic philosopher Apuleius, who was an initiate in the cults of Isis, Asclepius, and Hermes, and possibly that of other deities as well. Gardner also devoted an entire chapter of Witchcraft Today to "The Witches and the Mysteries", as well as another chapter titled "Out of the Land of Egypt", which is also primarily focused on the Mystery Religions of the ancient world. And there are in addition significant references to the Mysteries in the chapters on "Witch Beliefs" and "Witch Practices".)
The following two passages from the first chapter of The Meaning of Witchcraft give some indication of the kind of hostility that Gardner and "his Witches" were up against:
"I am a member of the Society for Psychical Research, and on the Committee of the Folklore Society; so I wanted to tell of my discovery. But I was met with a determined refusal. 'The Age of Persecution is not over,' they told me; 'give anyone half a chance and the fires will blaze up again.' When I said to one of them, 'Why do you keep all these things so secret still? There’s no persecution nowadays!' I was told, 'Oh, isn’t there? If people knew what I was, every time a child in the village was ill, or somebody’s chickens died, I should get the blame for it. Witchcraft doesn’t pay for broken windows.'
"I can remember as a boy reading in the papers of a woman being burned alive in Southern Ireland as a witch; but I could not believe that there could be any persecution nowadays in England. So, against their better judgment, they agreed to let me write a little about the cult in the form of fictions, an historical novel where a witch says a little of what they believe and of how they were persecuted. This was published in 1949 under the title of High Magic’s Aid.
"In 1951 a very important event occurred. The Government of the day passed the Fraudulent Mediums Act, which repealed and replaced the last remaining Witchcraft Act, under which spiritualists used to be prosecuted in modern times. This Act is, I believe, unique in legally recognising the existence of genuine mediumship and psychic powers.
"I thought that at last common sense and religious freedom had prevailed; but even so, the passage of this Act was highly obnoxious to certain religious bodies which had been preaching against Spiritualism for years and trying to outlaw it as 'the work of Satan,' together with any other societies to which they objected, including Freemasonry and, of course, witchcraft.
"About a year previously, this Museum had been opened, and I had flattered myself that showing what witchcraft really is, an ancient religion, would arouse no hostility in any quarter. I was to find out in due course how wrong I was!
"Any attempt to show witchcraft in anything even remotely resembling a favourable light, or to challenge the old representation of it as something uniformly evil and devilish, or even to present it as a legitimate object of study, can still arouse the most surprising reactions. The virtues of humanism, which Charles Saltman defined as 'sensitivity, intelligence and erudition, together with integrity, curiosity and tolerance,' have still quite a long way to go in their struggle against the mentality which produced the Malleus Maleficarum."
[The Meaning of Witchcraft, pp. 11-12]
"The Old Horned God of the witches is not the Satan of Christianity, and no amount of theological argument will make him so. He is, in fact, the oldest deity known to man, and is depicted in the oldest representation of a divinity which has yet been found, namely the Stone Age painting in the innermost recess of the Caverne des Trois Freres at Ariege. He is the old phallic god of fertility who has come forth from the morning of the world, and who was already of immeasurable antiquity before Egypt and Babylon, let alone before the Christian era. Nor did he perish at the cry that Great Pan was dead. Secretly through the centuries, hidden deeper and deeper as time went on, his worship and that of the naked Moon Goddess, his bride, the Lady of Mystery and Magic and the forbidden joys, continued sometimes among the great ones of the land, sometimes in humble cottages, or on lonely heaths and in the depths of darkling woods, on summer nights when the moon rode high. It does so still.
"From time to time the public have been treated to various highly-coloured and highly unconvincing 'revelations' in the popular Press and elsewhere upon the subject of 'Black Magic', 'Satanism', and similar matters, and occasionally these have been linked with witchcraft. Let me state right away that I personally maintain an attitude of thorough-going scepticism towards these things, and that even if they do exist I do not consider them to have any relation to the survival of the witch cult. Alleged 'confessions', especially where witchcraft is mentioned, bear ample internal evidence of their own meretriciousness, in that they are obviously modelled upon sensational thrillers and reveal no knowledge whatever of genuine witch practices."
[The Meaning of Witchcraft, pp. 21-22]
"That there is no positive evil."
Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique is an Oxford educated anthropologist who is chair of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at l'Université d'Etat d'Haïti. She is also a highly respected Priestess (Mambo) in the Haitian Vodou religion. In September of 2009 (fully 55 years after Gerald Gardner wrote Witchcraft Today), Beauvoir-Dominique was interviewed in conjunction with an exhibit on Vodou at the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg, Sweden (too see the interview, go here).
The first question asked of Professor Beauvoir-Dominique was "what is Vodou?" A perfectly reasonable question, to which the Mambo gives a very informative answer. However, it does not take long for the other shoe to drop. The second question was "Are there any evil forces in Vodou?" To which Professor Beauvoir-Dominique again gives a very educational answer, part of which is:
"Vodou ... is part of Haitian culture, and in this culture we don't see that there is Evil. We think that the word Evil is constructed, it comes from other places, and is really not ours. The "good" and the "bad" are very Christian notions, very Manichean. We think more in terms of grays, of black becoming white, of white becoming black. Of Yin and Yang. As in the figure of Yin and Yang -- there is a perpetual movement of things. And for us there is no Evil. Things become evil when they are seen through evil eyes."
This chapter on "The Black Mass" is, in fact, the section of The Meaning of Witchcraft in which Gardner introduces Sallustius' Peri Theon kai Kosmou and pronounces it to be "a general statement" of the beliefs of Wiccans (as discussed in Part One of this series). The first portion of Sallustius' Pagan Manifesto that Gardner quotes is the entirety of Section XII: "The origin of evil things; and that there is no positive evil."
"The Gods being good and making all things, how do evils exist in the world? Or perhaps it is better first to state the fact that, the Gods being good and making all things, there is no positive evil, it only comes by absence of good; just as darkness itself does not exist, but only comes about by absence of light.
"If evil exists it must exist either in Gods or minds or souls or bodies. It does not exist in any God, for all god is good. If anyone speaks of a 'bad mind' he means a mind without mind. If of a bad soul, he will make the soul inferior to body, for no body in itself is evil. If he says that evil is made up of soul and body together, it is absurd that separately they should not be evil, but joined should create evil.
"Suppose it is said that there are evil spirits: - if they have their power from the Gods, they cannot be evil; if from elsewhere, the Gods do not make all things. If they do not make all things, then either they wish to or cannot, or they can and do not wish; neither of which is consistent with the idea of god. We may see, therefore, from these arguments, that there is no positive evil in the world.
"It is in the activities of men that the evils appear, and that not of all men nor always. And as to these, if men sinned for the sake of evil, nature itself would be evil. But if the adulterer thinks his adultery bad but his pleasure good, and the murderer thinks the murder bad but the money he gets by it good, and the man who does evil to an enemy thinks that to do evil is bad but to punish his enemy good, and if the soul commits all its sins in that way, then the evils are done for the sake of goodness. (In the same way, because in a given place light does not exist, there comes darkness, which has no positive existence.) The soul sins therefore because, while aiming at good, it makes mistakes about the good, because it is not primary essence. And we see many things done by the Gods to prevent it from making mistakes and to heal it when it has made them. Arts and sciences, curses and prayers, sacrifices and initiations, laws and constitutions, judgments and punishments, all came into existence for the sake of preventing souls from sinning; and when they are gone forth from the body, Gods and spirits of purification cleanse them of their sins."
[On the Gods and the Cosmsos, Sallustius, Section XII: "The origin of evil things; and that there is no positive evil."]
"The inner meaning of religious rituals."
The section of Sallustius that Gardner turned to first requires little or no explanation. It is, in fact, one of the clearest explications of a Pagan answer to the so-called "Problem of Evil". Less clear, perhaps, are Gardner's reasons for his next selection from Sallustius, which deals with, as Gardner styles it, "the inner meaning of religious rituals."
"It is impious to suppose that the divine is affected for good or ill by human things. The Gods are always good and always do good and never harm, being always in the same state and like themselves. The truth simply is that, when we are good, we are joined to the Gods by our likeness; when bad, we are separated from them by our unlikeness. And when we live according to virture we cling to the Gods, and when we become evil we make the Gods our enemies -- not because they are angered against us, but because our sins prevent the light of the Gods from shining upon us, and put us in communion with spirits of punishment. And if by prayers and sacrifices we find forgiveness of sins, we do not appease or change the Gods, but by what we do and by our turning toward the Divine we heal our own badness and so enjoy again the goodness of the Gods. To say that the Gods turn away from evil is like saying that the sun hides himself from the blind.
"This solves the question about sacrifices and other rites performed to the Gods. The divine itself is without needs, and the worship is paid for our own benefit. The providence of the Gods reaches everywhere and needs only some congruity for its reception. All congruity comes about by representation and likeness; for which reason the temples are made in representation of heaven, the altar of earth, the images of life (that is why they are made like living things), the prayers of the element of though, the mystic letters of the unspeakable celestial forces, the herbs and stones of matter, and the sacrificial animals of the irrational life in us.
"From all these things the Gods gain nothing; what gain could there be to God? It is we who gain some communion with them."
[On the Gods and the Cosmsos, Sallustius, Section XIV (partial): "In what sense, though the Gods never change, they are said to be made angry and appeased." And also Section XV: "Why we give worship to the Gods when they need nothing."]
The issue here is not merely the accusation that Pagans do evil things, but rather that we worship Evil Things. This accusation goes back to the earliest days of Christianity. Among its clearest expressions is that found in the writings of Augustine, and his City of God, Against the Pagans in particular. Somewhat ironically, Augustine wrote that work largely as a defense of Christianity against the accusation, from Pagans, that the Christian prohibitions against the worship of the old Gods had led to the downfall of Rome (some of the historical background to this is discussed in Reflections on Vergil and Augustine.)
In Book VIII of his Against the Pagans, Augustine asserts that the traditional Gods worshipped at Pagan festivals and in the urban Pagan temples are "rather malign demons than gods." Furthermore, Augustine employs a favorite Christian trope that is still popular today with Ronald Hutton and his fanbase, in which it is claimed that the religion of ancient philosophers is somehow different from and unrelated to that of the Pagan masses generally. (By this logic the "philosophy" of Augustine is equally unrelated the lowbrow Christianity of the ignorant, unwashed masses who make up the vast bulk of the Army of Christ, thus making Augustine no Christian at all. But any such appeal to consistency is lost on the likes of Hutton.)
And so Augustine now focuses not on "the fabulous, that is, the theatrical" theology of the plebs, nor on the more staid "civil, that is, the urban" theology of the aristocratic priests and priestesses serving the deities of the polis. Instead, Augustine explains that he wishes to address himself "not to ordinary men, but to philosophers ... concerning the theology which they call natural." In particular, Augustine, and here he shows that he knows what he is about, directly attacks the magical and erotic theology set forth by Socrates in Plato's dialogues.
In his famous speech in the Symposium, Socrates had revealed what the Witch (for surely she fits Gardner's profile for ancient Witches) Diotima had revealed to him as a young man concerning the nature of Eros. She had instructed Socrates that Eros is not really a God, per se, but rather a Daemon: "A great Daemon, Socrates; for the whole realm of the Daemons is intermediary between the Gods and mortals." At this point Socrates had inquired about the "powers" possessed by these Daemons. And here is Diotima's answer:
"Interpreting and conveying things from men to Gods, and things from Gods to men, prayers and sacrifices from one, commands and requitals in exchange for sacrifices from the other, since, being in between both, the Daemons fill the region between both so that the All is bound together with itself.
"Through this Daemonic realm moves all prophetic art and the art of priests having to do with sacrifices and rituals and spells, and all powers of prophecy and enchantment. The Gods do not mingle with mortals, but all intercourse and conversation of the Gods with humans, waking and sleeping, are through this intermediary realm. Those who are wise about such things are truly divine, but those who are wise about any other arts or crafts are mere technicians and mechanics. The Daemons, then, are many and manifold, and one of them is Eros."
[202d-203a, taken from R.E. Allen's translation, with some liberties]
Almost two thousand years later, Marsilio Ficino wondered why Diotima, in addition to describing the great Daemon Eros as clever, philosophical and a sophist, had also imputed magical powers to Eros:
"But why do we think that Eros is a magician? Because the whole power of magic consists in Eros. The work of magic is the attraction of one thing by another because of a certain affinity of nature. But the parts of this world, like the parts of a single animal, all deriving from a single author, are joined to each other by the communion of a single nature. Therefore just as the brain, lungs, heart, liver and the rest of the parts draw something from each other, and help each other, and sympathize with any one of them when it suffers, so the parts of this great animal [the cosmos as a single living being], that is, the bodies of the world, similarly joined together, borrow and lend natures to and from each other. From this common relationship is born a common love; from love, a common attraction. And this is true magic .... [T]he works of magic are works of nature, but art is its handmaiden .... The ancients attributed this art to Daemons, because the Daemons understand what is the inter-relation of natural things, what is appropriate to each, and how the harmony of things, if lacking anywhere, can be restored .... They [the ancients, such as Socrates, Zoroaster, Apollonius of Tyana, and Porphyry] seem to have become magicians through friendship of the Daemons, just as the Daemons are magicians through understanding the friendship of things themselves. And all nature, because of mutual love, is called a magician."
[De Amore, Marsilio Ficino. This is specificaly from Speech VI, using the translation by Sears Jane, p. 127 of the 1985 Spring Publications edition]
The take home message from Augustine's polemics against Plato, Apuleius, and Hermes is that the whole Daemonic realm is, in reality, Demonic in the sense of being purely Evil. In other words, what Plato portrayed as the liminal realm of the Cosmos, situated above the human realm, whose purpose is to connect us with the Gods, and which is responsible for the efficacy of both religious practices and magic arts; that this is in fact an infernal realm populated with demons that are "arrogant" and "deceiving" who prey on those who seek "divine refuge" by "feigning divinity". These demons are everywhere "lying in wait for the deception of man!"
The Christian view, then, is that (1) Pagan religiosity is generally evil, (2) more specifically, the spiritual Powers upon which Pagans call are evil beings, and (3) the whole spiritual realm (outside of the Holy Ghost and "angels") is filled with and characterized by malignant Evil. It is in order to counter these dark (and as perversely self-serving as they are self-revealing) Christian fantasies, which they sometimes try to hide behind the philosophical niceties of the so-called "Problem of Evil", that Gardner invokes the words of Sallustius on the subject of the "the inner meaning of religious ritual." In essence, Gardner wishes to categorically disprove any idea that the magical/religious practices of Wiccans amount to calling upon evil forces. However, Gardner chooses not to explicitly defend the liminal/Daemonic aspects of Platonic theology but to explicate Pagan rituals in such terms as (1) being "joined to the Gods", (2) having "the light of the Gods ... shining upon us", and (3) "by turning toward the Gods we heal our own badness and so enjoy again the goodness of the Gods." All this and more comes about because "The providence of the Gods reaches everywhere and needs only some congruity for its reception."
The fact is that Sallustius provides no opportunity to more directly defend the intermediary spiritual realm, for, true to the title of the work, he sticks to "the Gods" and "the Cosmos". And it is unlikely, anyway, that Gardner would have thought there could be anything to be gained by trying to convince the general public that Wicca relies on daemons, but not on demons. And then there was also Gardner's choice to (dishonestly, as is now generally accepted) deny the very real connections between his Wicca and Ceremonial Magic (where explicit references to Daemons are easy to find).
But (even though he avoids direct references to Daemons) it is quite clear that Gerald Gardner in 1959, just like practitioners of Vodou today, had to defend himself against the mindset that all spiritual powers outside Christianity are by definition infernal, evil and Satanic. And Gardner turns to the Platonic Paganism of Sallustius to assert both that (1) in terms of belief, "Wicca positively denies the existence of a Power of Evil" (using Gardner's words), and (2) in terms of practice, the Gods of Wicca "are always good and always do good and never harm" and "worship [of the Gods] is paid for our own benefit," with the end in mind that by such worship we might "live according to virture" and be "joined to the Gods by our likeness to them" (using Sallustius' words as cited by Gardner).
Modern Paganism and the Ancient Mysteries:
- Part One: Sallustius, Gardner & Wicca: "A general statement of their creed."
- Part Two: Gerald Gardner, Sallustius, and the Problem of Evil
- Part Three: Gerald Gardner, Sallustius, and Reincarnation
- Part Four: "Divested of their garments" | <urn:uuid:7a87a1c6-1f46-4355-8ff0-d8b55ca5cd19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://egregores.blogspot.com/2011_02_06_archive.html | 2013-05-22T00:28:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962954 | 4,944 |
Gain insights and improve your skills related to interacting with youth about sexual health issues. A special emphasis of this conference/training is to learn about current and emerging issues in sexual health, and the roles of culture and technology in young people's lives. Join us for this one-day conference on May 31 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Rhode Island College. Online registration is required. CMEs available.
HEALTH is investigating a cluster of deaths that appear to be related to the use of a fentanyl analog drug, a synthetic analog of fentanyl. The Office of the Medical Examiner has noted 10 deaths since March 7, 2013 of patients who appear to have died with this substance in their bodies. The most recent death was April 11, 2013. Most of these patients are from the Woonsocket and Pawtucket areas. Original screening of this substance identified this substance as fentanyl; however, a secondary screening revealed that the substance is an analog and not the prescription FDA-approved form of the drug. HEALTH encourages all providers to refer patients with addiction to appropriate resources
Please be advised that beginning May 1, parents of children who attend John Brown Francis Elementary School in Warwick, Rhode Island are being informed by letter of a couple of cases of pertussis in students who are siblings, that have occurred a few weeks apart. This may prompt additional calls to other healthcare providers with questions or concerns about the situation and about early childhood vaccinations for pertussis (DTaP). Parents of children in the the siblings' second grade and fourth grade class rooms will receive a different, two-sided letter advising targeted prophylaxis. The specific instructions for parents are: If your child has a weakened immune system, ask your child's doctor for your child to receive antibiotics to prevent pertussis (prophylaxis). Please do the same if your child lives with a woman who is pregnant, an infant less than 12 months old, or anyone with a weakened immune system. Current pertussis clinical,laboratory, and reporting guidance for Rhode Island healthcare providers can be found on the HEALTH website.
As a part of the Action Speaks series, the state of healthcare in Rhode Island will be discussed at two upcoming community forums in Providence. A forum on May 1st ('OBAMACARE': What It Means For Rhode Island) will take place at the Roots Cultural Center from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. A forum on May 8th (How Rhode Island Can Improve Health, Reduce Cost, and Restore Our Economy) will take place at AS220 from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. Director of Health Michael Fine, M.D. will be speaking at the event on May 8th.
The 2013 Rhode Island School Nurse Conference, "Managing School Health Issues Together," is open to physicians. The conference will be held on May 29, 2013, from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick. Registration is required.
Read this month's newsletter for information about closing a practice, applying for the health professional loan repayment program, registering for the Rhode Island Preconception Health Summit, and more.
All physicians who see patients with influenza illness in travelers returning from China -- regardless of season -- should contact the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) Division of Infectious Disease and Epidemiology at (401) 222-2577. As of April 4, 2013, public health officials in China have reported the first known human infections and deaths identified with a novel avian influenza A (H7N9) virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of the 14 patients hospitalizations associated with this strain, all had severe respiratory illness and six deaths have resulted. Read the complete CDC Health Alert Network Advisory: emergency.cdc.gov/HAN/han00344.asp.
The summit will provide strategies to integrate preconception health into policy, programs, and practice, move forward the state's strategic plan, and optimize healthy pregnancies and pregnancy outcomes. The agenda includes a keynote address by Tricia Rose, PhD, addressing the social context of sexual and reproductive health, a panel discussion, and technology-assisted audience response.
We invite you to join us at this event on Thursday, April 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 801 Greenwich Avenue in Warwick. Registation required online.
Penelope Dennehy, MD will give a public health grand rounds presentation on April 4 titled "2013 Immunization Update." The event will take place from 8:30-9:30 am at the Rhode Island Department of Health (Public Health Auditorium, 3 Capitol Hill, Providence). Additionally, the presentation can be viewed live via webcast.
As of March 8, 2013, the office of Christopher Huntington, M.D. is closed. Dr. Huntington had approximately 450 patients who were on long-term Schedule II and Schedule III medications. We expect that the abrupt closure of his practice may present some challenges to the physician and healthcare provider community. The Rhode Island Department of Health is working with Dr. Huntington's office on its transition plan for Dr. Huntington's patients. Information about where and when patient records will be released will be posted on the Department's website as soon as it is available.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has reported an outbreak of meningococcal disease in men who have sex with men (MSM). Healthcare providers are advised to administer meningococcal vaccine to MSM in Rhode Island if their travel (or travel plans) include visiting New York...
The availability of Pediarix will be limited for the next six months because of increased demand being experienced by the vaccine manufacturer. Between May and September, healthcare providers will need to supplement their vaccine supply with the individual vaccine components (DTaP-IPV-HepB).
The Yale/Tulane Planning and Response Program, in conjunction with the Yale University Department of Emergency Medicine, has produced this special report as a result of the recent outbreaks in China involving Avian Influenza (H7N9). This power point presentation was compiled entirely from open...
A manufacturer of purified protein derivative (PPD) used in the tuberculin skin test (TST) is experiencing delays in production of Tubersol, resulting in a nationwide shortage expected to last through the end of May 2013. Additionally, the manufacturer for APLISOL is also expecting shortages to...
Pursuant to Rhode Island General Laws 23-17-21 and -36, and R23-17-HCW Rule 5.3 of the Rules and Regulations Pertaining To Immunization, Testing, and Health Screening For Health Care Workers, the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health hereby declares on this 11th day of February, 2013,... | <urn:uuid:5c67b67f-fe7e-44b0-a4a4-3918ac4d5d3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://health.ri.gov/news/for/providers/index.php | 2013-05-22T00:35:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94329 | 1,425 |
Texas Sate School Board
Dear Mrs. Leo,
I read about the ugly confrontation you recently had with Barney the Dinosaur. I know at first glance, it may have seemed like just another attempt by the secularists to poison our children's minds with science, but their choice of Barney hints at an even more sinister purpose.
Just take a look at him. He's as purple as a church deacon in The Castro on a Saturday night. Don't you doubt for a moment why he's colored in that hue. He's purple for a purpose. He's telling the world he's out and proud and here to recruit our children by pushing his homosexual agenda in their schools.
He's a huge threat to our efforts to put God back into the classroom. And you, as one of God's staunchest defenders on the school board, have to stop him. Now, you're not going to get anywhere challenging his science curriculum or attacking his homosexual agenda. We've been trying to defeat both for years without success. You need to take another approach; you need to bring him into Christ's fold.
I suggest you try to convert him to Mormonism. Yes, I know it's kind of cultish and all, but it does offer an advantage you can't find in any other sect--it will bleach the purple right out of his 5000 year-old hide. According to Mormon scripture, his skin will turn "white and delightsome" once he joins the Lord's team. Then, he'll be useless to the Gay and their scientist co-demons.
Heterosexually yours in a chaste and biblically appropriate kind of way,
Gen. JC Christian, patriot
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Political Cartoon is by Nate Beeler in The Washington Examiner.
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I'm sure a lot of you were wondering what happened to Ann Coulter this election season. The right has trotted her out to wage culture wars reliably ever since 1998. But she hardly was visible at all this year.
Well, if you happen to be one of those lost souls who belongs to the Conservative Book Club, then you received one of these e-mails in your Inbox this week from Coulter.
[Click here to see the full letter.]
As you can see, it's a letter that starts out by teeing off the emerging right-wing meme attempting to blame Barack Obama for the current economic meltdown, mostly by noting that Wall Street firms donated more heavily to Obama's campaign than to John McCain's:
If you've been wondering why the financial industry is in meltdown -- and taking your 401(k) or investment portfolio down with it -- now you know.
Let's face it: The former frat boys who populate Wall Street today understand economics as well as the pinko professors whose courses they snored through.
Now, it's true that Democrats were heavily preferred by Wall Street campaign donors this year, but that has far more to do with their historic preference for lining up behind the perceived likely winners of a given election season. And even a blind pig -- or a right-wing pundit -- could sense before the season even started that the Republican brand was giving off the distinct odor of fetid slop.
But if those same Wall Street pinko-educated frat boys are as ignorant of economics this year as Coulter claims, then wouldn't they have been equally so in 2000 and 2004, when they gave heavily instead to Coulter's then-preferred candidate, George W. Bush? Something doesn't exactly add up here.
That's all just throat-clearing, though, for Coulter's main pitch: She's selling you a financial newsletter written by a fellow named Mark Skousen, whose PhD in economics seems to impress Coulter mightily (if only she gave as much credence to people who actually won the Nobel Prize in economics).
Three years ago, Skousen was selling the same scam through the Heritage Foundation, promising super-hot stock tips if only you subscribed to his pricey investment newsletter. No word on how that hot tech stock actually did -- but I'd wager it performed about as well the return on assisting former Nigerian prime ministers.
Skousen, however, is not just your average "conservative economist." He actually is an adherent of the same far-right school of "libertarian" economics as Ron Paul: he advocates a return to the gold standard, the dismantling of the IRS and the Federal Reserve, and most of the other conspiratorial nonsense that accompanies these theories. Like Paul, he's a devotee of the Ludwig Van Mises Institute, which promotes much of this malarkey, and he's likewise actually a Bircherite in libertarian clothing. Indeed, Paul was one of the headliners at Skousen's "FreedomFest" earlier this year in Las Vegas.
Like most of the Bircher wing of the libertarian movement, Skousen consistently takes a far-right political position on labor issues, too. He wrote a piece denouncing "card check" union organizing just last month.
Skousen is the nephew of the late noted John Birch/Mormon figure W. Cleon Skousen; his brother, Joel Skousen, is famous for promoting Patriot-style "New World Order" conspiracy theories. All three of them promote the far-right version of "constitutionalism," which is all about the belief that secret elites manipulate the economy and the political process, wield the IRS and Federal Reserve as political weapons along with a huge federal bureaucracy, all of which violates the original unamended (or "organic") Constitution.
So this is what Ann Coulter is reduced to these days: Shilling for Patriot-style right-wing moneymaking scams.
But then, I guess it isn't surprising that Coulter is heading down this same path. During the past campaign, she actually came out in support of Ron Paul.
Well, fools and their money are soon parted. And anyone foolish enough to take their investment advice from Ann Coulter will get everything they deserve.
But I'm wondering when we'll see Coulter turn up in late-night infomercials for gold Liberty Dollars with her own image stamped on them. Because that's the road -- the one leading to ignominious obscurity and irrelevance -- she's headed down.
And I can't think of a more deserved fate.
With the resolution of Missouri for McCain and NE-2 for Obama, the final EV count is 365-173. Which makes the winner of our Presidential Forecast Contest reader Roger Lewis, who had the only entry which correctly guessed the exact number of Electoral Votes. (Full list of entries here). Interestingly, no one got all the states (even ignoring NE-2) correct. It was the MO/IN combination that was difficult - only two entries correctly gave MO to McCain and IN to Obama. Roger had the two states wrong, but still nailed the total EV count since both states had 11 EVs.
Johnny, tell Roger what he's won:
Roger, you've won an assortment of credentials to Democratic Conventions, both from this year and from years past. You've also won an official Obama-Biden yard sign, and other Obama "stuff".
Thanks to everybody for taking part.
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Go Gators! Just to kick off our nightly college football discussion. Just kidding.
This is an Open Thread.
Chris Cillizza has the scoop: Barack Obama has cut a new 60-second radio ad in support of former state Rep. Jim Martin's Senate campaign in Georgia. In the ad, which was obtained by The Fix moments ago, Obama thanks everyone who voted for him on[...]
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During a White House meeting last week, a group of governors asked President Bush and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about their backup plan for Iraq. What would the administration do if its new strategy didn't work?
The conclusion they took away, the governors later said, was that there is no Plan B. "I'm a Marine," Pace told them, "and Marines don't talk about failure. They talk about victory."
Pace had a simple way of summarizing the administration's position..."Plan B was to make Plan A work."
And now, as the White House scrambles to get a Status of Forces agreement signed:
Q: I just have a quick one on Iraq. The Hill is being briefed on the final agreement. What happens if the Iraqi parliament does not approve it on Monday -- or Sunday or Monday? Do you have to then go to the U.N., or what happens there?
MS. PERINO: Well, our focus is on Plan A, and trying to get Plan A to work, which is to get this agreement done...
Q: So you don't think there's any Plan B that's going to take place?
MS. PERINO: We think we're on a good trajectory right now.
Once again, with lives on the line, the White House is flying by the seat of their pants.
Rupert Murdoch’announced today that Fox News’s top executive, Roger Ailes, has signed a five year contract extension with News Corp. “Roger has done a remarkable job building FOX News into a force in journalism and built a great asset for News Corporation,” said Murdoch in a statement. Ailes said that he looks “forward to carrying out Mr. Murdoch’s legendary vision in the future.”
I bought a copy of the homeless written and sold Street Sense magazine today, after seeing this[...]
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Can Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt strike twice?
By STEVE SIMMONS, QMI Agency
Usain Bolt of Jamaica is seeking history in London at the 2012 Summer Games, where he could become the first man in history to win the 100M dash at consecutive Olympics. (Reuters)
LONDON - These are the star-first Olympics that Jacques Rogge has always envisioned: A Games in which the biggest names in sport garner the largest headlines, the loudest cheers.
Michael Phelps won his 21st medal Friday night, his 17th gold — imagine that — with a stirring come-from-behind finish in what will certainly be the last individual Olympic race of his incomparable career.
A few hours earlier, legendary Roger Federer needed more than four hours on centre court at famed Wimbledon, with Kobe Bryant in the stands watching, to win a breathtaking 19-17 third set against Juan Martin del Potro and advance to the tennis final.
The best swimmer in history. Arguably, the best tennis player in history. And with Andy Murray winning his semifinal, you can add a Wimbledon rematch at Rogge’s high-profile Olympics.
And now for the main event of the Summer Games.
The men’s 100 metres — the signature event of this and every Olympics — begins Saturday morning at the massive and noisy Olympic Stadium. It isn’t just about Usain Bolt anymore, although it was four years ago in Beijing. Now the thinking is, it’s more of a match race than a one-man show.
It is Bolt vs. Johan Blake. Or some might say Blake vs. Bolt.
Two sprinters from one country. Only one can win it all.
“He wants to win, and I want to win,” said the lesser-known Blake. “Win, lose or draw we’re still friends.”
But this isn’t about friendship. This is about being perfect on the one night you have to be. Bolt may have had opposition in Beijing, it just didn’t seem that way. He rendered the rest of the world’s sprinters irrelevant in the finals of the 100- and 200-metre races, winning three gold medals, setting three world records, and brought along his engaging personality to go with his uncanny speed.
That was then.
Now we’re not sure what to think about Bolt now. Not after facing adversity for the very first time.
Blake beat him in the world championship last year when Bolt was disqualified for false starting.
Blake beat him again in the recent Jamaican national championships, when Bolt was reportedly nursing an injury.
The first victory is understandable, especially with an unforgiving rule. The second victory has been interpreted in all kinds of ways since. Those wins, whatever the circumstances, should have made Blake the favourite here, except the local betting houses in London have Bolt as a 4-6 favourite to win the 100 on Sunday and Blake the second favourite at 6-4.
This much needs to be known: No sprinter in Olympic history has won the 100-metre race in consecutive Olympic Games.
Officially, Carl Lewis has gold from the 1984 and gold and a world record from the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, but no one who saw that race can ever say Lewis won it. Or, in retrospect, deserved the gold or the world record. Defending a title is more than a challenge.
What nobody knows — except maybe Bolt and the Jamaican coaches — is just how ready Bolt is, just how healthy he is, whether he can play big-stage again and blow the opposition away. There are those in the track world who figure Bolt is just playing possum, ready to leap come Sunday. And there are those, like former world-record holder Maurice Greene who believe it’s Blake’s time.
“Blake is going to win,” said Greene. “Blake is just a little bit better and if you go back and look at the Jamaican trials they say Bolt had a bad start, but look at Blake, too, he was right back there with Bolt, they both had bad starts and Blake was still able to come out victorious in that race. I mean even though he is having slow starts he still gets second, though, so he is still able to overcome some things.”
Greene believes the winner of the 100 may again shatter the world record. Bolt did that in 2008. Canada’s Donovan Bailey did the same in 1996. But there was one significant difference between those victories and the Games of London: Those times were run in extreme heat. On the first night of track and field Friday, the winds were blowing, the temperature feeling closer to winter than summer and anything but Jamaican weather.
“I close my eyes and dream about it,” said Blake. “That is why I am ‘The Beast.’” That’s what he’s been called since his world championship win. “My philosophy is, when I am working, other guys are sleeping. I never stop working. I want to be the best.
“I am a man of surprises ... you never know.” | <urn:uuid:5189694e-5ae2-40b0-a7d4-d8ef90bd81be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Olympics/2012London/News/2012/08/03/20065191.html | 2013-05-22T00:35:45Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965834 | 1,092 |
O Bee Credit Union is rolling out an innovative “Capture The Tag” mobile phone promotion centered around Microsoft’s Tag technology. Participants armed with smart phones will embark on a treasure hunt to find and scan 30 MS tags at local businesses in the credit union’s area. Prizes include $15,000 in cash and five iPads.
MS Tags are Microsoft’s version of QR codes. They are basically barcodes, except they use clusters of brightly colored triangles instead of square, black-and-white pixels or lines. Special software is required, but once you’ve downloaded it to your smart phone, you can take pictures of MS tags and you’ll instantly be directed to a message, website, video, or other type of digital data.
O Bee said it wanted to leverage the latest technology with a fun, creative contest that educated people about their personal finances while promoting local businesses. According to the credit union, the campaign was developed “to promote local commerce and to educate participants about finances, fraud and saving money in a fun and unique way.”
“The goal is to get the participants to visit local area businesses and capture the MS tag located inside/outside the business,” the credit union said.
The credit union has placed MS tags at a total of 20 businesses. Snapping a photo of the tag at each business will trigger a promotional video on the participant’s phone. At the end of each video, participants are given clues to the location of the next tag. Additionally, ten locations have bonus tags that play an educational video on personal finances.
Everyone who collects all 30 tags will be invited to a special party, where prizes will be awarded. First prize is $10,000.00. Second prize is $3,000.00. Third prize is $2,000.00. Participants who capture all ten educational videos are entered into a drawing for one of five Apple iPads.
Participants can sign up at CaptureTheTag.org, where they will find an instructional video and contest rules. The site also provides a link where participants can download the required scanning software to read the Microsoft MS Tags used in the game.
O BEE CREDIT UNION – CAPTURE THE TAG MICROSITE
O BEE CREDIT UNION – CAPTURE THE TAG INTRO
A two-minute instructional video with details on the promotion.
The promotion is mostly funded by participating businesses who pay a small entry fee in exchange for foot traffic and a video spot about their business.
Unlike many retail financial institutions these days, the credit union didn’t design the promotion with Gen-Y in mind. “We want to both engage and challenge Generation X and tech users to socially connect offline, as well as online,” the credit union said.
O Bee’s “Capture The Tag” is co-sponsored by 94.5 ROXY (radio station), The Olympian (newspaper), TwinStar Credit Union, The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, Helix Group and NW Media Company. Clues and contest information will also be featured on the cosponsors’ websites, as well as “Capture The Tag” Facebook and Twitter pages.
“There is a whole lot going on here,” notes Lee Wojnar, Vice President of Marketing for O Bee Credit Union. “They’ll get an introduction to some area businesses where they can become customers, they’ll get some personal finance lessons, and in the end, they’ll get a chance to come together at a great party.”
“There are plenty of opportunities for fun and knowledge along the way,” Wojnar added.
The game officially starts on January 21 when the first clue will be released. Entrants have to be 18 years of age or older.
Based in Tumwater, Washington, O Bee Credit Union has three branches, around $140 million in assets and 15,000 members.
O Bee’s Wojnar is right, there is a lot going on. But is it too complex, with mobile phones, downloads, clues, tags, videos, 20 locations, financial education, a party and two tiers of prizes?
Getting co-sponsors to help shoulder the marketing burden is smart. It’s unlikely the credit union could stimulate significant interest in such a promotion on its own. Having media partners including a radio station and newspaper will help immensely.
It’s great to see a small, scrappy credit union testing the latest technology, but building a promotion entirely around something as new and unfamiliar as MS Tags is risky. MS Tags have not yet been widely adopted by the smart phone community.
On the upside however, things like QR codes and MS tags make it easy to focus promotions on a specific geographic area. Participants can only find tags if they live or work in the vicinity, which means you can get 100% local relevance and zero marketing “waste.” This makes QR codes and MS tags especially attractive to smaller financial institutions like community banks and credit unions who have limited geographic footprints.
O Bee may simply be looking to test the viability of MS Tags as a future marketing tool, but without any direct offer or clear product tie-in, it may be difficult to judge the success of this promotion and its impact on the bottom line.Search For More: Contests & Sweepstakes, Mobile & Tablets, O Bee, QR codes
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Eileen knows she is a ticking time bomb. Breast cancer runs in her family: Her mother and grandmother both died of the disease. And yet, when Eileen herself falls ill and must undergo a double mastectomy, she’s unprepared for the shock of confronting her own mortality. For help, she leans hard on her family: her eccentric and outspoken aunt, a kind friend who embodies the word “sisterhood,” her red-headed cousin whose free-spirited nature results in a revolving door of men as diverse as the United Nations, but who gives Eileen an unselfish gift that leaves the entire family speechless, and her two spirited young sons, who bring out her momma lioness.
Eileen’s certain she can teach her cancer a lesson; but cancer has some lessons in store for her. As she battles her disease, she must confront the true nature of her relationship with her less-than-loving boyfriend, she must reconcile her own cancer experiences with memories of her mother and grandmother, she must turn to God and faith more than ever before, and when an old flame reappears in her life, she might finally get her happily ever after—but only if she can find the strength to seize it for herself.
Overwhelmed, she let her head fall toward the table, and she buried her tear-soaked eyes in the bend of her arm. Why is this happening to me? Her chest felt heavy. Her mind was singed like blades of grass during a summer drought. Deep within there was still life, but the diagnosis made her exterior crumble. Seconds later a nauseous feeling overcame her, and she rushed to the bathroom, fell to her knees, and emptied the contents of her stomach in the toilet. She tucked her dangling hair behind her ears and rested her hands on the white porcelain throne as clear liquid continued to come up. When the flow had finally stopped, she slowly lifted herself up. Her knees cracked as her legs straightened. Standing, she made her way across the linoleum to the small wooden vanity. A toothbrush and a washcloth freshened her up instantly, but neither removed the excruciating pain of reality tearing through her head.
The corners of his mouth turned up. Eileen’s cheeks warmed. Within milliseconds, her insides felt mushy as a Popsicle on a hot summer’s afternoon. He was tall, handsome, clean-cut, and somewhere in his early twenties. His broad chest sculpted his tailored blue suit, and the scent of his cologne, geraniums with a woody musk base was a delight to her nose. Her mouth filled with saliva. Now she understood the hype in psych class about Pavlov’s dog. She swallowed several times.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes.” She stood before him, mesmerized. Was jet fuel pumping through her veins instead of plasma? All she knew was that her head was definitely in the clouds.
“Okay, but did you make sure the gun is still here?” Sammy asked.
“No, but he wouldn’t take the gun. We only have it in case someone breaks in.”
“I don’t think he’d take it either, but I’d feel a whole lot better if you checked. You remember no one thought Tony would try to commit suicide either.”
“That’s ridiculous!” There he goes again comparing James’s emotional state to his father’s.“If it’ll make you shut up, I’ll show you,” she shouted. Eileen stormed to her bedroom. The sea-blue walls looked red through her enraged lenses. She grabbed hold of the doorknob and slung opened the closet door. It crashed into the plaster. But she didn’t care. Sammy had hit a nerve—severed the damn thing with his ice-pick tongue. Eileen pulled out the footstool that James had made her in shop class from beneath the rack of clothes. She saw Sammy watching her tensely. With her feet planted firmly against the wood grain, she reached high on top of the shelf where she kept the gun beneath an old blanket. Sammy offered to help, but she ignored him. Hadn’t
he done enough? She ran her hand along the wooden shelf and could feel a metal handle graze her fingertips. With her fingers locked around the metal, she pulled her hand back for Sammy to see. The proof was in her grasp. He was going to eat his words. All of them—choke on them like a big fat side of beef.
Get to Know CJ:
1. Where do you get your inspiration for your books?
I get my inspiration from my environment. I write about things that I’ve been affected by in some way or that I’ve heard about or seen in my environment. I select a topic and a message I want to communicate about that topic. Then, I build a story around it.
2. What other books have you written?
My first novel was Stop the Music, a story about domestic violence. My second novel was Straw Dreams, a story about one girl’s dream to escape a dysfunctional family environment for a better life. This May, I released my third novel, Every Twenty-Four Hours, which is a story about breast cancer.
3. Who are some of your favorite authors?
I don’t read as much as I’d like because I work full time, volunteer for Hospice, and am always trying to write something. However, some of the authors I enjoy are Lisa Dale, Terry McMillan, and Toni Morrison.
4. What’s the hardest part of writing a novel?
The hardest part of writing a novel for me is editing. It’s difficult to become unemotionally involved with the characters to make the tough choices about cutting or rewriting scenes. However, the goal is to make the manuscript flow nicely for readers so making those choices are necessary.
5. What advice would you give others who dream about seeing their manuscripts in print?
I’d tell them to self-publish. They should never let someone else define their destiny. Some of the rejection letters are brutal, but you can’t let that stop you from accomplishing something you believe in. I don’t ever want to look back at life and know that I didn’t accomplish something I wanted because I let someone else discourage me.
6. How do you react to reviews about your novels?
Everyone wants a good review, but we’re people and we aren’t all the same and don’t enjoy the same types of books. I believe there is a market for the inspirational stories that I write, so I don’t mind it if someone doesn’t like my novels. I just hope everyone doesn’t feel that way.
7. What do you hope to have accomplished with your writing in ten years?
I hope that the amount of people that I touch with my novels grows by leaps and bounds, and I’d love to someday see something I’ve written be translated to the big screen. But mostly, I hope readers feel empowered by my heroines’ journeys.
Cynthia Johnson (CJ) is a Christian, wife, mother, college graduate and a career woman. She is also a breast cancer survivor and Caring Angel volunteer for Hospice of Dayton. CJ has been jotting down storylines and poetry since grade school. She has self-published two previous novels, Stop the Music and Straw Dreams, which are both inspirational novels that deal with her love of and dependence on God. She loves animals and long walks on the beach with her husband of twenty-five years. She someday hopes to retire from her day job and lead a national cancer initiative to provide family support services for cancer patients. | <urn:uuid:50a63496-8b7e-4a46-87cb-a33063977f6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thepovlounge.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/aambc-blog-tours-with-cj/ | 2013-05-22T00:07:56Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976766 | 1,677 |
When ordering a meal in a restaurant, the customer is agreeing to pay for food, drink and service. This creates a contract to which the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 applies.
This act does not apply in Scotland. However, the parts of the 1982 Act giving rights to consumers for goods supplied alongside services (as opposed to the services themselves) DO apply in Scotland. Additionally, Scottish common law offers protection which is similar to the rights under the Act.
All pubs and restaurants should clearly display their prices to their customers. Restaurants must show prices with their menu at or near their entrance so people will know what their bill will look like before they go inside. All outlets that accept payment in foreign currencies have to display any extra costs, like commission and handling charges. Bars should display prices for their whole range of drinks and not, as has been common practice in the past, sting customers with over-inflated hidden prices for soft drinks. Restaurants and bars that don't comply with these will face a fine.
Although most people do not realise it, when they make a booking with a restaurant they are entering into a contract with the restaurant. That contract says that in consideration of the restaurant keeping a table free for you at the time you have specified and for the number of people you have indicated, you will attend at that time and eat a meal.
Should you fail to turn up, then the restaurant would have a right to be compensated for such profit as it could have expected to have made from a meal sold to you at the time, less any amount it is able to recoup by letting someone else have the table. If you're taken to court, the restaurateur must prove his or her loss of taking. Fortunately for those who fail to show, restaurants rarely pursue this right.
Similarly, if you arrive at a restaurant after having booked a table and there is no table available, if you are not willing or not able to wait, then you can claim from the restaurant for breach of contract. This claim can be for the inconvenience and disappointment of not being able to eat the meal at the time booked, and any other incidental costs which arise as a result, for example, the costs of travelling to the restaurant or the costs of going on to another restaurant.
Food sold in a bar or restaurant must be of 'satisfactory quality' (Section 4 Supply of Goods & Services Act 1982), and served with reasonable care and skill (Section 13 SGSA). A customer ordering hot food should therefore expect it to be hot. If it is not, then the customer is entitled to a full or partial refund. If food is served at the incorrect temperature or improperly cooked then the restaurant could be reported to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) if it may pose a serious health risk. There is additional legislation covering the commercial provision of food which may be relevant, depending on the nature of the complaint.
For more information see the FSA page on.
For example, if chicken is served raw, the restaurant would be in clear breach of SGSA section 13 because it had not provided food of reasonable quality or taken the necessary care in preparing it. The restaurant would be liable to pay compensation for breach of contract, but only for the offending dish, plus an element to cover the distress and disappointment felt by the customer.
If a meal that you are served is unsatisfactory, you should always report this to the staff when it is served or after you've tasted it for the first time. You can ask for another meal to be prepared or seek an alternative meal in its place. If this is refused or if it is not possible, for example, because you are with someone else who would also have to wait if your meal was to be re-cooked, or because you simply do not have time, then you are entitled to deduct a reasonable amount from your bill.
Many people, however, do not want this kind of confrontation in a restaurant, especially if the meal is for a specific occasion. In these circumstances you should pay the bill in full, but indicate that you are doing so under protest and will consider taking steps against the restaurant. If after you leave the restaurant, you decide that you wish to complain about the quality of the meal and demand a refund, you can write a letter demanding a refund for an unsatisfactory meal.
Under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968, the description of the food should match the food that arrives on your plate. For example, food described as homemade should indeed be homemade. If it is not then it constitutes a breach of the Trade Descriptions Act in criminal law and should be reported to the local trading standards department. It also constitutes a breach of contract, so you could fairly deduct the value of the difference between homemade and manufactured cost.
It is an implied condition of any contract (by reason of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982) that services or goods delivered will be of a reasonable quality and fit for the purpose for which they were provided, delivered or sold. This applies as much to the service for a restaurant meal as it does to the meal itself, especially in those restaurants where service is expressed to be included. If you order the meal where the service charge is indicated on the menu, you agree as part of the contract to pay the service charge. However, in making the charge, the restaurant must ensure that the service with which you are provided is acceptable and if it does not meet the standards which a reasonable person could expect in a restaurant of that particular quality or reputation, then you are entitled either to deduct the amount from the bill, or to deduct such amount as reflects the extent to which it was unsatisfactory.
You should make it known to the staff or manager at the restaurant at the time, why you felt the service to be unsatisfactory and why you are making the deduction. If, however, they are not prepared to accept this, then you should pay the bill in full, but do so under protest, and make it clear that you may seek recourse against them in the future. After leaving the restaurant, you can write a letter to the restaurant complaining about unsatisfactory service as a first step in the process.
If you do decide to make a claim against the restaurant you are entitled to claim not only the service charge you have had to pay, but also any other loss that the poor service may have cost you, for example the cost of cleaning or replacing clothing damaged as the result of spillage.
If a restaurant does not include service charge, then it is up to you whether you pay it at the end of the meal. You cannot deduct from the cost of the meal an element for service if it is discretionary. You can, however, still claim the cost of replacing or cleaning clothes damaged as a result.
All restaurants should provide toilets for their staff and, wherever possible, for customers as well. Premises that are open after 11pm or have a drinks licence must have toilets.
Any restaurant that is licensed to serve alcohol must provide tap water free of charge, if requested.
Restaurants that are not licensed to serve alcohol do not have to provide tap water to the public. If they do, they may charge for it, since the provision of any water includes an element of service, such as pouring the water into a jug and/or glass and cleaning the jug and/or glass.
It is illegal for a restaurant to pass tap water off as bottled water under the Trade Descriptions Act. | <urn:uuid:a104e162-ffdc-4b63-b2b6-06e1ceb9331b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aalegaldocuments.co.uk/aa/index.cfm?event=base:article&node=A76076B0D76384 | 2013-05-22T00:15:13Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972425 | 1,520 |
ACLU Sues Over Failed Privately-Run Alternative School In Atlanta
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: [email protected]; (212) 549-2666
Group Says Students Denied Constitutional Right To Education While Corporation Profits
ATLANTA – In a case with national implications, the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Georgia filed a class action lawsuit today against the Atlanta Independent School System (AISS) and Community Education Partners (CEP) for violating students’ constitutional right to an adequate public education. CEP is a for-profit corporation paid nearly $7 million a year by the city to run its alternative school, which is among the most dangerous and lowest performing schools in Georgia.
“The appalling performance of Community Education Partners is matched by the dereliction of the city of Atlanta in its duty to provide students with an adequate public education,” said Emily Chiang, a staff attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program. “It is a national disgrace that the Atlanta school system has handed over its constitutional responsibility to a private, for-profit corporation and let the taxpayers and children of Atlanta pay the price.”
The ACLU’s lawsuit, which was brought on behalf of eight students, charges that the school district and CEP are in violation of multiple federal and state constitutional obligations, including the students’ right to be free from unreasonable searches. AISS-CEP was designed as a privately-run, taxpayer-funded alternative middle and high school for students with behavioral problems. However, the placement process is often arbitrary and students who do not belong at AISS-CEP are given few meaningful opportunities to challenge compulsory assignment to the school.
CEP has run alternative schools in Houston, Philadelphia, Richmond, Orlando, and Florida’s Pinnellas and Bay districts through contracts with public school systems since 1995. In 2005, CEP’s annual revenues totaled $70 million. Since its contract began with AISS in 2002, Atlanta’s taxpayers have paid CEP a total of $36,570,941. CEP’s record nationwide is similarly poor and suggests a political strategy to win contracts and increase profits, not a commitment to education, according to the ACLU.
The performance and practices of the AISS-CEP school is abysmal by nearly every available measurement. For example:
- Not a single child at the school made it to senior year in 2006;
- The school has a “no homework” policy and also prohibits students from taking supplies home – including books.
- AISS-CEP has no cafeteria, no gym and no library;
- Students are subjected to full body pat-down searches that include even the soles of their feet every day, and all students – both boys and girls – are forced to lift their shirts up to their necks in front of the search team;
- Watches, jewelry, purses, combs, brushes, keys, and money in excess of five dollars are all considered contraband and are strictly prohibited — girls are not permitted even to bring tampons into the building;
- In 2006-2007, 91.1 percent of students failed to achieve proficiency in math and 65.8 percent failed to achieve proficiency in reading on Georgia’s statewide Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests.
- Fewer than 23 percent of students at the school met or exceeded standards across all subjects, compared to two nearby alternative schools where over 50 percent of students did; and
- The AISS-CEP School alone accounted for 67.7 percent of all reported incidents of battery, 46 percent of all reported incidents of vandalism, and 20 percent of all reported incidents of gun possession in the district.
“Parents and taxpayers deserve better than a system that simply funnels their children through a pathway to prison,” said Reggie Shuford, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program. “It would be a stretch to even call this a school since there is little to no academic instruction and its students are treated like criminals – it is nothing more than a warehouse largely for poor children of color.”
The education practices at the AISS-CEP school range from the bizarre to the blatantly unconstitutional. For example, no functional curriculum exists at the school and teachers spend little time instructing students. Rather, students spend most of the day filling out worksheets, for which they receive no feedback. Teachers employed by AISS-CEP are extremely inexperienced relative to their local peers. In 2006-2007, teachers at AISS-CEP averaged only 0.94 years of experience compared to teachers in other local alternative schools, who averaged 19.07 years and 10.58 years, respectively.
“Under this arrangement, students suffer while a private company prospers and nobody is held accountable,” said Mawuli Davis, a cooperating attorney from the law firm Davis Bozeman. “If Atlanta is going to farm out its responsibilities to a third party, it must still uphold its constitutional obligations to these children.”
Attorneys on the case are Chiang, Shuford, and Larry Schwartztol of the ACLU Racial Justice Program, Nancy Abudu of the ACLU Southern Regional Office, Chara Jackson of the ACLU of Georgia, and cooperating attorneys Davis and Robert Bozeman of Davis Bozeman.
Profiles of clients in today’s case are available at:
A copy of today's legal complaint is available at:
More information on the work of the ACLU Racial Justice Program is available at: www.aclu.org/racialjustice/index.html | <urn:uuid:7c1029c6-c343-4438-aa19-cd22e17635b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice_drug-law-reform_immigrants-rights_womens-rights/aclu-sues-over-failed-privately-run-a?quicktabs_content_video_podcasts=0 | 2013-05-22T00:17:22Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951493 | 1,167 |
Plane terror suspects convicted on all countsSeptember 5, 1996
Web posted at: 11:45 p.m. EDT
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The three defendants stood impassively as a federal jury foreman in New York announced guilty verdicts to each charge of an elaborate plot to destroy 12 U.S. airliners in Asia last year.
The jury found Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the scheme, and two other defendants, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah, guilty on all counts after two-and-a- half days of deliberations.
The verdict represents a high profile victory for the Justice Department and comes at a time of heightened concern about terrorism.
Yousef, 29, also is the alleged mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and still faces trial in that case.
Yousef, who holds an Iraqi passport, also has been linked to schemes to assassinate President Clinton and Pope John Paul II during the pontiff's visit to Manila.
Also convicted Thursday was Murad, 28, and Shah, believed to be about 30. Each man was charged with seven counts of conspiring and attempting to bomb the 12 planes in 1995. The bombings could have killed 4,000 people aboard the planes.
"The horror of it is impossible to comprehend," said U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White.
The defendants all face mandatory life sentences and are scheduled for sentencing December 5, 1996. During the trial, prosecutors called 47 witnesses over a 12-week period.
The defense called five witnesses, including a police officer from the Philippines who admitted that he had mixed up evidence he had examined.
"Each and every one of you got an extraordinarily fair trial," U.S. judge Kevin Duffy told them.
The attorney for Shah maintained the evidence against his client was flimsy and said he saw several grounds for appeal.
Fire led to arrests
Officials uncovered the airline plot in January 6, 1995, when a fire broke out in a Manila apartment where, they said, Yousef and Murad were mixing chemicals.
Yousef fled the apartment, according to witnesses, after the fire and eventually fled the country.
Police arrested Murad as he allegedly came back to the apartment to clear out incriminating evidence, including nitroglycerin, bomb-making equipment and computer disks containing information on airline flights.
Yousef, who had been sought for 23 months prior to the fire, was captured in Islamabad, Pakistan, the month after he fled the Philippines.
A Secret Service agent testified during the trial that Yousef boasted during his extradition flight to New York that he would have blown up several jumbo jets within a few weeks if his plan had not been discovered.
The government said the defendants even devised a name for their airline terror plot: "Project Bojinka."
During the summer-long trial, which began in May, Yousef represented himself. Speaking clearly and calmly in his closing argument, he accused police in the Philippines and Pakistan of planting evidence against him.
Yousef's self defense put him face-to-face with witnesses such as a flight attendant who said she saw him sitting in the Philippines Airlines seat where a bomb went off on a later flight.
Evidence against Murad was no less compelling. Interrogation tapes played in court depicted Murad elaborating on the technical specifics of bomb making. He was also recorded talking about how much he enjoys killing Americans.
Prosecutors said there was little doubt that Yousef orchestrated the "Bojinka" plot, trained his two co-defendants and tested a watch timer.
In what prosecutors said was a test run, Yousef was charged with placing a bomb on a Philippine Air Lines 747 flight to Tokyo. It exploded, killing a Japanese passenger.
Defendant Shah is accused of testing a different timer by leaving a bomb in a Manila theater.
Shah's attorney dismissed the evidence, saying his client lost three fingers from his left hand fighting in Afghanistan and was hardly a canidate to plan an airline bombing.
CNN Correspondent Brian Jenkins in New York and Reuters contributed to this report.
© 1996 Cable News Network, Inc.
Terms under which this service is provided to you. | <urn:uuid:6c974bce-fe96-4aad-96ce-a6cd9bf70faf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/US/9609/05/terror.plot/index.html | 2013-05-22T00:43:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977971 | 878 |
On a calm and cold winter day at his home – just 20km from Soccer City where South Africa made history by being the first African country to host a FIFA World Cup™ exactly 12 months ago – Tokyo Sexwale, the celebrated South African figure who spent years at the now infamous Robben Island before working his way to prominence in both the political and business spheres, reminiscences about that historic day which ushered in a new era.
As he casts his mind back to the Rainbow Nation’s journey that was marked by both pride and tenacity, Sexwale spoke exclusively to FIFA.com about the long-term benefits of hosting the event. The FIFA World Cup might have left South African shores, he argues, but its spirit and momentum lives on in the nation's people and Africa as a whole.
FIFA.com: On Saturday, it will be a year since the 2010 FIFA World Cup began. In your opinion how has that event changed the face of South Africa?
Tokyo Sexwale: It was a privilege for an African country, more especially South Africa to host an event of this magnitude. I think it has been said time and again that the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a resounding success – the first World Cup in Mandela’s country – a man who had worked so hard for this country. The World Cup has left a number of fantastic legacies. First you look at the technology, the stadiums that will be a legacy for football, the roads, airports and infrastructure. But more importantly for us, it helped to build the road, Mandela’s road to reconciliation, and to cement the feeling of unity within South Africa. What we wanted was what I call the ‘Barcelona Effect’ – I'm talking about the Olympics that were held in Spain where the legacy of those games was celebrated for a long time. The World Cup gave us a platform to showcase our country.
We often hear people talking about an African Renaissance. Do you think the World Cup played a role in delivering that message to the rest of the world?
There is no doubt about that. Remember that because of discrimination, Africa was regarded as no-hopers in some sectors of the world. Today, Africa is playing a meaningful role in the global economic sphere. Concerning South Africa, I think the country has grown in its influence and stature. A lot of credit must go to FIFA President [Joseph S.] Blatter, who stood against opposition from many corners in the world, and we thank him for believing in the African potential. South Africa’s government invested billions in upgrading infrastructure in the last year or so. I believe that our people will continue to enjoy the fruits of that legacy for a long time.
You are someone who is well acquainted with the business world. How has this event boosted the country's economy, and how do you think South Africa can continue to gain from it in the long-term?
We believe that confidence grew towards South Africa from the global community, and I think this changed the way we will do business. We used football to show that we are organised and that we can be trusted. That is good for business, and that trust will go a long way. We are looking forward to many international investors coming to our country. We have sent a strong message to the rest of the world: invest in Africa. We need to invite a lot of clubs and national teams to play in our country and utilise the infrastructure that we have.
What about the standard of football in the country, has that also improved?
Oh yes, that’s for sure. You look at our domestic league this year; we had a very fascinating [South African Premier League] title race. But more importantly, we have seen a steady improvement with our national side. We were ranked in the 90s, and now we are on the right side of 40. We just achieved great results against the record African champions, Egypt [in the AFCON qualifiers]. I think now we have a belief in ourselves and what we can do.
How would you want South Africans to celebrate the fond memories of the World Cup in the future?
Nelson Mandela! It’s the spirit of the man we must celebrate whenever we think of this proud moment for our country.
Your story - that of being jailed in Robben Island for believing in the emancipation of your people and for human rights - is well documented. How do you think the era of hosting the event and beyond has amplified the values you fought for and embodied?
South Africa was kicked out of FIFA in the 1960’s following the shooting of unarmed protesters in Sharpeville. That’s a very poignant part of our history. FIFA made a stand against a system that violated human rights. FIFA took sides with us in our liberation struggle against racial discrimination. For us at Robben Island, we defied every law of the apartheid government, but nobody defied the laws of FIFA. As one of FIFA’s ambassadors against racism, it was a great to see the World Cup in our country – a country with a documented history in the fight against discrimination.
What is your fondest memory of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and why?
Seeing Madiba at the final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, that was an epic moment for me. It was one of those moments that will stay in the minds of many forever. There was a debate within the family and foundation before that whether the old man should attend – you know he is ageing and it was very cold. We knew there was no way people who travelled from overseas to watch the World Cup in Madiba’s country could leave without seeing him there – and it was important for him. Madiba stood up and said, ‘I want to be part of this celebration’. It was a proud moment for many of us. | <urn:uuid:056c01f8-8747-4a1d-8e4d-fa4c911cf894> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fifa.com/newscentre/news/newsid=1450288/index.html | 2013-05-22T00:44:39Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974777 | 1,202 |
Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) - An intervention which aims to develop an individual’s ability to participate in authentic emotional relationships by exposing the individual to those relationships in a gradual, systematic way.
Regression - Process in which children appear to develop normal language and social skills but then lose these.
Regressive Autism - Form of autism in which children appear to develop normal language and social skills but then lose these with the onset of autism before age 3. Some forms of regressive autism are severe enough to be classed as Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.
Receptive Language Delay - Difficulty understanding language. Symptoms may include difficulty following directions, decreased comprehension of "yes/no" and "wh" questions, limited vocabulary, poor understanding of grammatical markers (i.e. verb tenses, possessives) and syntax and difficulty attending to spoken language.
Rett Syndrome - A complex neurological disorder which is genetic in origin. It affects mainly girls. Although present at birth, it becomes more evident during the second year.
Rotation Diet - Diet which involves eating different things at different times.
Salicylates - A plant hormone found in leafy vegetables and fruit. Some people advocate a low salicylate diet.
Sara’s Diet - A lutein-free, soy-protein free and casein/gluten-restricted diet which also restricts or removes some artificial additives.
Secretin - Gastrointestinal hormone that helps promote digestion of food.
Seizures - Sudden changes in behavior due to an excessive electrical activity in the brain.
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Enhancer - A class of anti-depressant drugs that enhance the reuptake of serotonin instead of inhibiting it.
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI) - A class of drugs that works by stopping (inhibiting) the uptake (loss) of serotonin, which means that more serotonin is available to help pass on messages between nerve cells. SSRIs are used to treat a variety of conditions including depression and anxiety. Some people believe that they can also be used to treat people with autism who have other problems, such as repetitive behaviors or social deficits.
Semantic-Pragmatic Disorder - Condition characterized by good grammatical language but lack of ability to use language in a socially appropriate manner.
Sensory Deprivation Therapy - An intervention based around sensory deprivation i.e. minimizing sensory inputs such as sound, lights and smells.
Sensory Integration - The capacity of an individual to receive and process information provided by the senses.
Sensory Integration Therapy - Intervention that is designed to mitigate abnormal behaviors caused by sensory sensitivity.
Sensory Integrative Function - Condition characterized by unusual reactions or sensitivity to sensations such as sound, light or touch.
Sensory Processing Disorder - Disorder of the brain which makes people misinterpret everyday sensory information, such as touch, sound, and movement. This can lead to behavioral problems, difficulties with coordination, and many other issues.
Small Intestine (Small Bowel) - Its primary function is to digest (break down) food and absorb nutrients (vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats).
Smith Magenis Syndrome - A genetic disorder where common characteristics include some degree of self-injury, sleep, disturbance, developmental delay, short stature, decreased sensitivity to pain, hyperactivity and destructive or aggressive behavior.
Social Skills Groups - Social skills groups provide an opportunity for individuals with autism to practice and improve their social skills in a safe, supportive environment.
Social Stories™ - Short stories for children on the autism spectrum designed to aid their understanding of social situations.
Son-Rise Program® - An intensive training program based on the idea that the best way to help a child with autism is to follow the child’s lead. The program is a home-based, one-to-one approach, typically implemented by the parents, often with the assistance of a team of volunteers.
Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) - A strict, complex and restrictive diet which excludes complex carbohydrates, such as those found in rice and potatoes. These carbohydrates are replaced with simple carbohydrates.
Speech and Language Therapy - An intervention in which a therapist works with individuals to help them develop their communication skills using a range of techniques.
Steatorrhea - Stool that is frothy, foul-smelling and floats because of a high fat content. It is common in malabsorption syndromes. This may be the result of the lower small intestine unable to absorb fats, or simply too much fat for even normal digestion to handle. Sometimes this can indicate liver, gall bladder or lipid metabolism diseases.
Stimming - Any kind of repetitive or stereotypic behavior.
Stomach - The function of the stomach is to begin digestion by physically breaking down food received from the esophagus. The stomach mucosa contains cells which secrete hydrochloric acid and this in turn activates the other gastric enzymes pepsin and rennin.
Sulfation - The process of adding sulphate to the body.
T Cells - Control the B cells. When a harmless substance enters the body, the T cells signal the B cells to suppress antibody production, yet when a dangerous substance enters and must be eliminated, the T cells allow antibody production at a controlled rate and only until no more are needed. T cells can be programmed through vaccination or immunization to allow antibody production to previously unfamiliar but harmful antigens such as smallpox or polio. Conversely, allergy shots or other immunostimulation techniques can program T cells to recognize harmless antigens and to suppress production of their antibodies. (act like soldiers on the front line of the body’s defense against disease.)
Teaching Interaction - 10-step procedure designed to help students learn appropriate social and school-related behaviors.
Testosterone - Main male sex hormone, a steroid which controls the growth and functioning of the male sex organs. Believed by some to reduce the effectiveness of chelation, a chemical intervention used to treat autism.
Therapeutic Listening Program - Training program which includes a form of auditory integration training
Therapy Dog - A dog that has been specially trained to act as a companion to the person with autism.
Thimerasol - A mercury-containing preservative. Widely used as a preservative in a number of biological and drug products, including many vaccines.
Tic - Condition in which a part of the body moves repeatedly, quickly, suddenly and uncontrollably. Tics can occur in any body part, such as the face, shoulders, hands or legs.
Toe Walking - Walking on toes, a common symptomatic problem in some children with autism
Tomatis Method - Auditory training method, similar to auditory integration training, in which a person with autism listens to a selection of music which has been modified.
Total Communicaton - Approach that makes use of a number of modes of communication such as signed, oral, auditory, written and visual aids, depending on the particular needs and abilities of the individual
Tourette’s Syndrome - Condition characterized by multiple tics characteristically involving the face and head.
Transfer Factor - Polypeptide secreted by lymphocytes that is capable of transferring immunity from one cell or individual to another
Trichuris Suis Ova (Pig Whipworm Larvae) - Sometimes used as a treatment for gastro-intestinal and immune problems.
Triglycerides - The main form of fat found in foods and the human body. Containing three fatty acids and one unit of glycerol, triglycerides are stored in adipose cells in the body, which, when broken down, release fatty acids into the blood. Triglycerides are fat storage molecules and are the major lipid component of the diet.
Tuberous Sclerosis - Rare genetic disease that causes benign tumors to grow on vital organs. It commonly affects the central nervous system.
Turner's Syndrome - Rare chromosomal condition affecting girls where the second X chromosome is absent or abnormal. More common in girls with autism.
Sources: Canadian Autism Intervention Research Network | <urn:uuid:d7fc8b0d-7bcd-4730-900a-866d2bd6f929> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthinducedautism.com/r---u.html | 2013-05-22T00:43:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920744 | 1,680 |
Some of us can recall the helpless feeling of being in a vehicle driven by someone who is intoxicated. If you're like me, you don't want to cause a scene unless the driving is really erratic. But there comes a moment when you need to say: Stop the car. You're going to hurt someone. Hand over the keys.
We have a political system that is the equivalent of a drunk driver. The primary culprits are the House Republicans. They are so intoxicated with their own ideology that they are ready to drive the nation's car off the road. I don't know if the sequestration that began Friday will produce a little crisis or a big one; the sad fact is that the Republicans don't know either, yet they're still willing to put the country at risk to make a political point.
I'm no fan of the way President Obama has handled the fiscal crisis. As I've written often, he needs to provide the presidential leadership that leads Congress and the country toward fiscal stability. In my analogy, he should take the steering wheel firmly in hand and drive the car toward the destination where most road maps show we need to be heading — namely, a balanced program of cuts in Social Security and Medicare and modest increases in revenue.
Instead, Obama has chosen to be co-dependent, as the psychologists say about those who foster the destructive behavior of others. He double-dared the reckless Republicans by proposing the sequester back in 2011. And rather than stepping up to leadership since his re-election, he has triple-dared the GOP hotheads with a partisan inaugural address and weeks of what the Republicans rightly have called a "road show" of blame-game politics. Doesn't he see that the GOP is addicted to this showdown at Thunder Road? This is all the power the GOP has these days, really — the ability to scare the heck out of everybody and run the car into the ditch.
Much as I would criticize Obama, it's wrong to say that both sides are equally to blame for what's about to hit us. This isn't a one-off case of the Republicans using Obama's sequestration legislation to force reckless budget cuts. It's a pattern of behavior: First the Republicans were prepared to shut down the government and damage the national credit rating with their showdown over the debt ceiling; then they were careening toward the "fiscal cliff." This isn't a legislative tactic anymore, it's an addiction.
Where did this recklessness come from? Only a few years ago, George W. Bush was the compassionate conservative and John McCain won the GOP nomination as the Republican who knew how to govern across party lines. What happened to that Republican Party? Today's Republicans seem to suffer from what's sometimes known as Obama Derangement Syndrome, in which their hatred of the president blinds them to the country's interests. To be honest, this malady is eerily similar to the Bush Derangement Syndrome that afflicted Democrats during the previous decade. The Democrats were so incensed back then they stopped caring if America succeeded or failed in Iraq; the Republicans are so angry now that they don't care if the economy goes to hell.
So how can we get these incapacitated drivers to stop before they do any more damage? If this were really a case of chronic drinkers, the answer would be an intervention to keep them off the road. In politics, the public gets to intervene through elections. We just had one, and the Republicans lost, big time. Yet it didn't seem to make much difference. The House Republicans are still grabbing for the wheel and the car is rumbling toward trouble.
Obama tries everything to gain control — except a clear, firm presidential statement that speaks to everyone onboard, those who voted for him and those who didn't — that could get the country where it needs to go.
The weird thing is that, politics aside, there is every reason to be optimistic about America's future. The country's financial markets are resilient; the housing slump finally seems to be ending; a new era of low-cost shale oil and gas is beginning and, as a result, the U.S. is becoming a competitive manufacturing economy again.
There's one ruinously dysfunctional part of the American story, and that's the breakdown of our political system. It's time for an intervention, to take the keys away. | <urn:uuid:732737a8-f461-4be0-9903-a4fe2af5715f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130303/OPINION/303030301/-1/opinion04 | 2013-05-22T00:23:28Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977743 | 887 |
Proposal Writer - Business Development Nexant
THIS JOB HAS EXPIRED Nexant is a provider of intelligent grid software and clean energy solutions-pioneering, developing, and advancing electric power grid and alternative energy technologies and services. Our exclusive focus on energy, combined with our well-respected and experienced professionals, proven technology, and proprietary industry information, has earned us distinctive brand recognition and a reputation as a top energy solutions company.
Nexant is an independent company formed on January 1, 2000 by a core group of energy consulting and advanced energy technology units of Bechtel Group, Inc. Since that date, we have added expertise through the strategic acquisition of eight energy technology companies and organically hiring only the best in our field. Our seasoned professionals have completed over 2,900 assignments in more than 100 countries. We have headquarters in San Francisco and Foster City, CA, with 30+ corporate, representative, and project offices in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. We have been profitable since day one with significant growth rates.
Our detailed understanding of the physical behavior and constraints of the power system is embedded in our grid and market operations software. We offer an integrated line of software solutions that addresses all facets of energy markets, from centralized wholesale markets to independent energy retailers and aggregators. Growing trends such as dynamic pricing and demand side management are emphasized. Our domain dominance within the energy value chain and integrated expertise in the market with proprietary technologies makes us a clear leader in our space.
We also provide advisory services for developing and commercializing advanced clean energy technologies as well as supplying technical, operational, and strategic consulting to oil, gas, and chemical majors, energy resource companies, technology owners, governments, and investors. In addition, Nexant is a national leader in the innovative design, implementation, and evaluation of many of the largest commercial, industrial, and residential energy efficiency incentive and demand side management programs in the United States.
Our current investors include TeleSoft Partners, Oak Investment Partners, The Beacon Group, Intel Capital, Nth Power, Morgan Stanley Global Energy Group, Frog and Peach, and Symphony Technology Group, as well as Nexant management and staff. We recently secured another round of funding of $50 million that will help us achieve the rapid growth potential of our company.
Are you interested in having a real impact and helping to change the world? Then join us!
About the Job
The Business Development Writer is responsible for writing, editing and preparing materials (e.g., online forms/questionnaires, client questions, resumes) in response to RFPs and RFQs. The Writer is also responsible for overall coordination and management of submittals for their assigned RFPs. Some editing and formatting of reports, presentations, and other materials is required. The primary focus is to consult with internal subject matter experts in understanding, developing, and clarifying proposal messaging and scope; this is achieved through an iterative writing and formatting process.
The successful candidate will work with a variety of people to manage proposal (or other development project) content and lifecycle, while continually tailoring messages for specific audiences and ensuring alignment between response and RFP requirements. The core responsibility for this position is proposal writing and development. Opportunities to contribute to presentations and other technical writing will evolve as team experience grows.
Duties and Responsibilities
Manage proposal and project development from concept to completion, including coordinating and collecting information from in-house subject matter experts.
Interview staff to develop customized proposal content; create schedule for integrating staff contributions.
Write, edit and format proposals, qualifications, resumes, project descriptions, and other written deliverables.
Review and comprehend RFP and its reference point for tailoring a unique proposal response.
Produce and edit documents using Word, including copy editing, rewriting, revising, and formatting.
Review materials after production to ensure quality and accuracy.
Efficiently provide accurate responses to requests for information (RFIs) and Requests for Proposals (RFPs) from prospects.
From a wide variety of disciplines or sources, interpret technical material, without changing meaning, to produce written communication pieces for a general audience.
Coordinate scheduling and production of deliverables by working with project managers, engineers, marketing, and administrative staff.
Ensure documents comply with required standards (such as page limit), use paragraph headings and numbering, reference illustrative and tabular matter, and apply bibliographic styles.
Ensure consistency in the application of technical abbreviations and acronyms, figure/ table callouts and captions, and boilerplate materials.
Contribute to the management of a systematic methodology for collecting, compiling, and creating proposal materials.
Four-year degree in Business Administration, English/Journalism, Communications or related field
3+ years of experience developing, writing, producing and managing materials in response to RFPs
Background in writing and communications for technical, service-oriented companies
Knowledge of energy engineering and efficiency programs a plus
The qualified candidate will also demonstrate the following:
Superior time management and organizational capabilities, including the ability to accurately benchmark project length and manage a high-volume workload
Outstanding written and verbal communication skills; can communicate effectively with all levels of the company and external business partners
The ability to work under pressure, manage workload, and meet concrete deadlines
Persistence in problem solving, self-motivation, and an ability to understand complex material and explain it clearly
Solid reading comprehension with ability to decipher technical descriptions into accessible language
Superior attention to detail
Expert level knowledge of Microsoft Office 2007 programs, specifically Microsoft Word
We provide competitive salaries, a comprehensive benefits package, a 401k retirement plan and three weeks of paid vacation per year.
Salary and Benefits (U.S.)
Nexant offers competitive salaries based on candidate's qualifications. Nexant also offers three weeks paid vacation per year, eleven paid holidays per year, a 401(k) plan with employee matching funds and an overall comprehensive benefits package.
Nexant, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and encourages workforce diversity. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates.
||Chicago, IL |
THIS JOB HAS EXPIRED | <urn:uuid:13d0d50b-5798-48ee-a91d-96b834287c31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.startuphire.com/job/proposal-writer-business-development-chicago-il-nexant-199017 | 2013-05-22T00:16:13Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921606 | 1,271 |
Tapestry combines a very simple tablet application with a set of online services to help seniors and their families stay connected.
Glad you asked! There are several different dimensions to the Tapestry platform. At the heart of Tapestry is the ability to connect with family members who might use a range of today's technologies (e-mail, Facebook, etc), all with a single Tapestry account. With Tapestry you can, for example, receive Facebook photos shared by your children, without needing a Facebook account.
On top of this sharing capability Tapestry adds a range of other features, including: simplified e-mail for those who want the convenience of e-mail in a package that's easy to use and simple; simplified web browsing; standard applications such as a clock and weather; and a simple configurable application launcher for those who are interested in exploring the world of apps available on an Android tablet device.
All Tapestry accounts get access to the Tapestry web app, which lets them manage their family connections and view and share photos from within any web browser. This means you can use a Tapestry account on pretty much any device you want, including a PC, Mac or an iPad
The best part of Tapestry, however, is the Tapestry tablet app, which runs on Android tablets and is designed to meet the needs of Tapestry Simplicity account holders. Tapestry supports a wide variety of Android tablet devices in order to give you the maximum choice possible.
No. They keep on using whatever they already use: laptop, mobile phone, PC, Mac, etc. Your Tapestry Simplicity account will let you communicate with anyone.
Family and friends need to register with us prior to sending emails to you via Tapestry.
We strive very hard to make Tapestry totally safe and secure. By asking family and friends to register with us we get to prove they are human, and not a spambot, scambot or anything malicious. It's a simple step that takes less than 20 seconds. We feel that this small inconvenience is well worthwhile if it means helping to keep our users safe.
Absolutely. Tapestry tablets are easy to carry around and will still show your photos even if you're away from home. We want you to be able to show it off!
Is there really anything simple about a PC? Virus protection, spam, passwords, software updates ... these are all things you don't need to worry about when you switch over to Tapestry.
At the moment Tapestry is invitation-only. If you're interested in being included in the program, please register your email address with us on the Tapestry home page.
We're big fans of the iPad, and for some seniors it's a great device. For many, however, it's not. The iPad is a general-purpose device designed for the widest possible range of users. This means that it has to provide the flexibility – and complexity – to support their needs. Need to support IMAP push for email? The iPad has a setting for that. Want to subscribe to your family's Facebook photos? Sure, but you'll need a separate app for it. Even worse, you'll need to hand the keys to your online privacy to Facebook. Do some of your family members use Google+ instead of Facebook? You'll need to sign up for a Google+ account as well.
With Tapestry you don't need to worry about any of these concerns. One account. All you need.
Absolutely. Tapestry provides a simplified interface for you to make everything easy, but it also lets you access the full features of the Android operating system very easily if you wish to. It's the best of both worlds: safety and simplicity along with flexibility and power when you need it.
At present printing photos from the tablet is not supported. If you'd like us to include this feature in the next version of Tapestry, please vote for it at our Support site.
At the moment the only supported language is English.
Absolutely! Tapestry is evaluating which languages we support next, and a big factor in this decision is the availability of good translating resources. If you'd be interested in helping us translate Tapestry into another language please contact us to let us know how you'd like to help.
You will need a wireless internet connection or a mobile 3G connection. If you’re not sure what this means, contact us and we can help. If you’re staying in a retirement village, ask your operations manager whether they have wireless internet – many of them provide this for free.
Tapestry will let you access existing email addresses using the standard email app on your Android tablet. The simplified Tapestry email client, however, only works with your Tapestry email address.
The Tapestry tablet application currently supports Android versions 3.1 and later.
The Tapestry web application runs in all modern browsers, including Chrome, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer (version 8 or above).
Please check out our Pricing page for all pricing details. User accounts on Tapestry are free, and Tapestry has a range of pricing plans based on the size of your family.
Simplicity accounts are for Tapestry users who want all of the simplicity that Tapestry can bring to their online life. Whether you want to access Tapestry on a tablet or via the web site, if you want to be able to receive photos from family members while retaining your privacy and security without needing to sign up for multiple social networks, or want the simplicity of a Tapestry email, then you need a Tapestry Simplicity account.
You bet! Just log in to your Tapestry account and change your plan under Account Settings.
All our plans offer annual billing, and the Standard and Advanced plans offer the option of monthly billing. You can pay by credit card online.
Tapestry will not deliver photos other messages to you unless the sender has already registered them with us and proved that they are human. Even then you need to allow them to communicate with you ... and the Tapestry system makes it very easy for you to manage who you know. We also do a bunch of things behind the scenes to ensure that you are never exposed to anyone you don't know.
No. Unlike a laptop or a PC, Tapestry is a safe, secure system. No more worrying about virus protection software, spyware, malware and other nasty stuff.
No. Tapestry takes all the hassle out of keeping your system up to date.
All Tapestry users have access to Tapestry Support, the place to go for all help, documentation, answers to technical questions and community support. We'll try our best to answer any question you have! | <urn:uuid:1a7ab9b8-aeef-40df-a32a-e5e9360dbe97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tapestry.net/faq | 2013-05-22T00:42:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946142 | 1,411 |
Lake Orion, Mich. – Part of defending champion Olin Browne’s preparation for the 2012 U.S. Senior Open will be competing in the U.S. Open at The Olympic Club. In addition to negotiating Olympic’s ubiquitous slopes and confounding doglegs, Browne hopes to be distracted by following the progress of his son, Olin Jr.
“O” – as Browne calls his son – is attempting to join his father at a U.S. Open sectional qualifier in Columbus, Ohio, on June 4. Several days before the qualifier, dad still didn’t know whether he would go watch.
“It’s a difficult position to be in,” said the elder Browne at Senior Open Media Day on May 30. “I don’t want to show up and put that kind of heat on him. On the one hand, it’s nice to support for your kid. Whether I’m there or not, he knows that, I love him and support him and I’m pulling for him to do the very best he can.”
If the younger Olin qualifies, the Brownes will be the first father-son duo to play together in the U.S. Open since Jay and Bill Haas achieved the rare feat in 2003 and 2004.
“It would be unbelievable,” said Browne Sr. “He’s thinking about it; he knows I’m thinking about it. He’s got probably a one in 10 chance of making it. So it’s up to him to prepare himself properly. It’s part of the learning process.”
If there is anyone who could impart good advice about sectional qualifying, it would be the elder Browne, who shot 59 at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md., to advance to the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina.
Qualifying presents one set of challenges; the championship itself offers others. Despite having the type of controlled game that would seem like a perfect fit for the U.S. Open, Browne’s performance in the championship – one top-10 finish in 11 starts – was less successful. He has fared much better since turning 50, and has yet to finish out of the top 10 in three U.S. Senior Opens, capped by last year’s victory.
This delayed success is fitting for the late bloomer, who didn’t pick up the game until he was 19. Browne didn’t play his first U.S. Open until he was 35, but has felt comfortable on golf’s biggest stage.
“Overall, the USGA setup is fairly consistent, in which every facet of the game is a component of good play” said Browne. “You have to drive the ball well, strike irons consistently, control ball flight, play smart and manage your game well. It’s more of a marathon.”
After getting a glimpse of Indianwood Golf & Country Club, the site of the 2012 U.S. Senior Open, Browne came away with a similar sense of comfort that he possessed last year at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.
“The course is sensational,” said Browne. “I love these kinds of greens that are open in the front.”
Last year, Browne withheld a charge from Mark O’Meara by playing the final 10 holes in one under. It was the culmination of a journey that began when he was just starting to learn the game at the driving range accompanied by his girlfriend – now wife – and they would daydream about winning the national championship.
“We’d talk about the U.S. Open,” Browne recalled. “We didn’t talk about the PGA or the Masters or the [British] Open Championship. It was always the last hole of the U.S. Open. That was my reference point.”
Now that dream has become reality, Browne is relishing his status and basking in the benefits his victory has borne, such as the rare opportunity to potentially share an indelible U.S. Open memory with his son.
“Here we are, 11 months later, and [the U.S. Senior Open win] still has legs,” said Browne. “It’s a source of great pride and it’s a privilege to be seen as a USGA champion.”
Hunki Yun is a USGA senior staff writer. E-mail him at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:a6a01339-b446-4316-940c-da310b176b81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usga.org/ChampEventArticle.aspx?id=21474847042 | 2013-05-22T00:14:59Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973679 | 973 |
|a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.|
|a fool or simpleton; ninny.|
|the science or occupation of cultivating land and rearing crops and livestock; farming; husbandryRelated: geoponic|
|[C17: from Latin agricultūra, from ager field, land + cultūra|
|agriculture (āg'rĭ-kŭl'chər) Pronunciation Key
The science of cultivating land, producing crops, and raising livestock.
Tilling the ground (Gen. 2:15; 4:2, 3, 12) and rearing cattle were the chief employments in ancient times. The Egyptians excelled in agriculture. And after the Israelites entered into the possession of the Promised Land, their circumstances favoured in the highest degree a remarkable development of this art. Agriculture became indeed the basis of the Mosaic commonwealth. The year in Palestine was divided into six agricultural periods:- I. SOWING TIME. Tisri, latter half (beginning about the autumnal equinox.) Marchesvan. Kisleu, former half. Early rain due = first showers of autumn. II. UNRIPE TIME. Kisleu, latter half. Tebet. Sebat, former half. III. COLD SEASON. Sebat, latter half. Adar. [Veadar.] Nisan, former half. Latter rain due (Deut. 11:14; Jer. 5:24; Hos. 6:3; Zech. 10:1; James 5:7; Job 29:23). IV. HARVEST TIME. Nisan, latter half. (Beginning about vernal equinox. Barley green. Passover.) Ijar. Sivan, former half., Wheat ripe. Pentecost. V. SUMMER (total absence of rain) Sivan, latter half. Tammuz. Ab, former half. VI. SULTRY SEASON Ab, latter half. Elul. Tisri, former half., Ingathering of fruits. The six months from the middle of Tisri to the middle of Nisan were occupied with the work of cultivation, and the rest of the year mainly with the gathering in of the fruits. The extensive and easily-arranged system of irrigation from the rills and streams from the mountains made the soil in every part of Palestine richly productive (Ps. 1:3; 65:10; Prov. 21:1; Isa. 30:25; 32:2, 20; Hos. 12:11), and the appliances of careful cultivation and of manure increased its fertility to such an extent that in the days of Solomon, when there was an abundant population, "20,000 measures of wheat year by year" were sent to Hiram in exchange for timber (1 Kings 5:11), and in large quantities also wheat was sent to the Tyrians for the merchandise in which they traded (Ezek. 27:17). The wheat sometimes produced an hundredfold (Gen. 26:12; Matt. 13:23). Figs and pomegranates were very plentiful (Num. 13:23), and the vine and the olive grew luxuriantly and produced abundant fruit (Deut. 33:24). Lest the productiveness of the soil should be exhausted, it was enjoined that the whole land should rest every seventh year, when all agricultural labour would entirely cease (Lev. 25:1-7; Deut. 15:1-10). It was forbidden to sow a field with divers seeds (Deut. 22:9). A passer-by was at liberty to eat any quantity of corn or grapes, but he was not permitted to carry away any (Deut. 23:24, 25; Matt. 12:1). The poor were permitted to claim the corners of the fields and the gleanings. A forgotten sheaf in the field was to be left also for the poor. (See Lev. 19:9, 10; Deut. 24:19.) Agricultural implements and operations. The sculptured monuments and painted tombs of Egypt and Assyria throw much light on this subject, and on the general operations of agriculture. Ploughs of a simple construction were known in the time of Moses (Deut. 22:10; comp. Job 1:14). They were very light, and required great attention to keep them in the ground (Luke 9:62). They were drawn by oxen (Job 1:14), cows (1 Sam. 6:7), and asses (Isa. 30:24); but an ox and an ass must not be yoked together in the same plough (Deut. 22:10). Men sometimes followed the plough with a hoe to break the clods (Isa. 28:24). The oxen were urged on by a "goad," or long staff pointed at the end, so that if occasion arose it could be used as a spear also (Judg. 3:31; 1 Sam. 13:21). When the soil was prepared, the seed was sown broadcast over the field (Matt. 13:3-8). The "harrow" mentioned in Job 39:10 was not used to cover the seeds, but to break the clods, being little more than a thick block of wood. In highly irrigated spots the seed was trampled in by cattle (Isa. 32:20); but doubtless there was some kind of harrow also for covering in the seed scattered in the furrows of the field. The reaping of the corn was performed either by pulling it up by the roots, or cutting it with a species of sickle, according to circumstances. The corn when cut was generally put up in sheaves (Gen. 37:7; Lev. 23:10-15; Ruth 2:7, 15; Job 24:10; Jer. 9:22; Micah 4:12), which were afterwards gathered to the threshing-floor or stored in barns (Matt. 6:26). The process of threshing was performed generally by spreading the sheaves on the threshing-floor and causing oxen and cattle to tread repeatedly over them (Deut. 25:4; Isa. 28:28). On occasions flails or sticks were used for this purpose (Ruth 2:17; Isa. 28:27). There was also a "threshing instrument" (Isa. 41:15; Amos 1:3) which was drawn over the corn. It was called by the Hebrews a moreg, a threshing roller or sledge (2 Sam. 24:22; 1 Chr. 21:23; Isa. 3:15). It was somewhat like the Roman tribulum, or threshing instrument. When the grain was threshed, it was winnowed by being thrown up against the wind (Jer. 4:11), and afterwards tossed with wooden scoops (Isa. 30:24). The shovel and the fan for winnowing are mentioned in Ps. 35:5, Job 21:18, Isa. 17:13. The refuse of straw and chaff was burned (Isa. 5:24). Freed from impurities, the grain was then laid up in granaries till used (Deut. 28:8; Prov. 3:10; Matt. 6:26; 13:30; Luke 12:18).
the active production of useful plants or animals in ecosystems that have been created by people. Agriculture has often been conceptualized narrowly, in terms of specific combinations of activities and organisms-wet-rice production in Asia, wheat farming in Europe, cattle ranching in the Americas, and the like-but a more holistic perspective holds that humans are environmental engineers who disrupt terrestrial habitats in specific ways. Anthropogenic disruptions such as clearing vegetation or tilling the soil cause a variety of localized changes; common effects include an increase in the amount of light reaching ground level and a reduction in the competition among organisms. As a result, an area may produce more of the plants or animals that people desire for food, technology, medicine, and other uses.
Learn more about agriculture with a free trial on Britannica.com. | <urn:uuid:43ee722f-53ca-43a4-97a1-f3062f107f75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/AGRICULTURE | 2013-05-24T08:44:06Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945873 | 1,721 |
You have to admit, trends are unavoidable. Some are so stealthy, maybe even ubiquitous, that it’s hard to tell if something is considered “classic” or if it’s actually trendy.
Sometimes one piece is a classic over the long term, but comes in and out of popularity throughout the years, taking it from something standard to something really trendy and eventually back again.
One of the more recent examples I can think of is the Sperry Top-Sider… a shoe which has resurged in popularity over the past several years, but was actually invented back in the 30s for the sole (pun intended, kinda) purpose of making it safe to run around on a boat deck.
According to some, Top-Siders first gained popularity as an everyday “fashionable” shoe choice in the 80s. Soo… trendy or classic?
Depends on who you ask, I guess. I say classic, considering its history… but if you ask a 14-year-old who first learns of boat shoes at Urban Outfitters, he might consider it trendy.
Could it be both?
Anyway, all of this just to say that it doesn’t really matter. Some things are trendy, some are classic, some are classic that become trendy and go back to being regular ol’ classics again.
Wear what you like
One thing I always tell people who are still figuring out their personal style: Wear what you like. Who cares what other people think, seriously. We’re not in 6th grade anymore. You should wear what you love and what makes you feel good.
At the same time, it’s smart to learn what actually makes you look awesome and shows that you’re an adult with good taste. You may love and feel good wearing garbage bags, but that’s not exactly striking the balance between feeling good / comfortable, and being perceived as a grown ass man with, you know, taste… and a job.
Before I go too far off on a tangent
… here are three ways you can embrace trends (and incorporate them daily) without completely victimizing yourself.
1.) One trendy thing at a time
Any more than that and you approach #menswear peacock status.
Let me be more specific. If it’s a significant piece of your wardrobe (i.e. Go-to-Hell pants), then tone it down on all the other trendy items on your bod that day.
If they’re more subtle, you can probably get away with two or three. So if we’re referring to this photo from GQ, wrist decor like a watch, bracelets, etc, bold socks, and a pocket square are all technically okay to wear at once. It’s when you include all 18 things on this list that you start to peacock the F out, and things just get weird.
2.) Mix your trends with classic styles
So the overall idea here is to be classic and understated, but with a few pops of “F you” and “Go To Hell” here and there.
The #menswear peacock in the image above is classic to a certain extent (traditional silhouettes with a modern slant, overall good taste) but then he takes it to a whole different level with the way he’s executing it: Loud colors, over-accessorizing, and including every imaginable up-to-the-moment trend.
Again, it’s cool rocking a few of these things (max) at a time, just keep it understated overall.
Think about when you buy a really awesome garment, and you discover a hidden detail the designer included that no one knows about but you. You want to treat your accessories and trends that way. Do it, but don’t be obnoxious about it. A peek of color here, a crazy brogue paired with a quiet outfit. You get what I’m saying?
3.) Do the complete opposite
Are fedoras and trilbies the “in” headgear at the moment? Rock your dad’s old baseball cap. I just whipped out this old Polo Sport cap from my closet back home—much to K’s dismay—and I’m rockin it all the time as if it’s 1996 again.
Everyone has 10+ bracelets on their wrists? Wear your best watch, and that’s it.
Go the opposite direction of wherever the trend is headed. Oftentimes trends balloon to excessive proportions before they’re dialed back down again, so forge your own path and do whatever everyone else ISN’T doing.
Just to clarify, I’m not saying put on your old JNCO wide leg jeans and cheap leather square-toed shoes… that’s a path no one should ever go back down.
You can and should adopt certain trends as long as you do it in moderation.
So let me open up the floor to you guys: what other ways can you embrace trends without looking like a complete #menswear peacock / fashion victim? If you have suggestions / ideas / questions, let’s hear em below in the comments.
ps — tomorrow’s the last day to pick up The Effortless Guide to Graduating Your Style (GYS) with the BONUS bonus, Does This Go With That? A Short Primer on Matching Color. Don’t miss out! Read more about it and pick up your copy before it’s too late. | <urn:uuid:1ba03ec0-997f-4ea4-af6e-8b60a32a8223> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://effortlessgent.com/how-to-embrace-trends-without-completely-victimizing-yourself/ | 2013-05-24T08:37:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931964 | 1,174 |
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|Calling all fair-skinned beauties!|
|26-07-2004, 04:10 PM||#1|
In the make up polls and the Faces threads I have noticed that there are a number of girls who also seem to linger down the Ivory end of the foundation spectrum. While I have my base routine perfected (or close enough to) I have a fear of using colour on my face that is any more daring than a rosy lipgloss or a smoky grey eyeshadow - I just have no idea what would suit my colouring
So I'd like anyone else with pale skin to fess up what is your cosmetic collection and how you wear it (like if you find certain products go together nicely). It'd be nice if you could include your hair/eye colour to so I can compare it to me - I'm a golden blonde with blue eyes and annoyingly white skin with pink cheeks ops:
|26-07-2004, 04:14 PM||#2|
I'm a dark brunette with very dark brown eyes and similarly annoying pale skin.
I wear whatever takes my fancy
I think cool tones suit me more... so I often play with green and blue eyeshadows, as well as more neutral shades.
My preferance is always for pink cheeks and pink lips though, with occasional dalliances with plummy reds for my lips
Fav green shadows are:
Stila Irma La Douce (warm golden olive)
Stila Jade (true green)
Laura Mercier Mermaid (very light soft green)
A variety of Shu greens for more vivid looks
Bloom Lagoon (wild peacock green)
Stila Blue Confections Palette
Dior Denim Palette
All mentioned in the thread about which lipglosses brunettes wear
Don't be afraid to try colours because you're pale... I think a lot of colours actually help to brighten up a pale face
|26-07-2004, 04:17 PM||#5|
I am very very pale Im the lightest foundation colour in all brands ive tried, and even they seem to dark on me!
I have blue eyes and dark brown hair. I have a few freckles, but they have faded alot. Unlike you tho, i have very white cheeks!
I think your lucky to have a natural rosy sheeks-as i wear heaps of blush to avoid the pasty look hehe. I like pink and rose colours on my lips aswell
I avoid bright coloured eyeshadows ans i think they are to bright against the fair skin(even though it looks stunning on some people)Im not talented ebough to use them
I also prefer the smokey eyes look, as it seems to soften the dark eyeliner rather then leaving a harsh line
Im sorry im not much help - I would also be very interested in everyones ideas for fair skin
|26-07-2004, 04:50 PM||#6|
I'm very boring with make-up I'm afraid. Most days (well every day actually!) I just wear brown/beigy colours on my eyes, if I'm making an effort for a night out or whatever I'll wear purpley shades, but very muted ones. Always pink lipsticks and rarely wear blush - in fact I don't think I even own one any more, like you I can have quite rosy cheeks and always feel like a clown if I wear blush!
My skin is pale with fading freckles, hazel eyes and dark brown hair.
Sorry, that's probably not much help!
|26-07-2004, 04:51 PM||#7|
Miss-k from your description I think I have very similar colouring to you.
I also don't use a lot of different colours in my makeup though I have found that warm brown, aqua/greeny blues, soft pinks and soft grey work quite well on the eyes. I'm also a fan of smokey eyes, I think its very reliable and tends to suit any outfit.
|26-07-2004, 04:58 PM||#8|
This is great so keep the ideas coming! Also feel free to name names if you have a fave star product..
|26-07-2004, 05:07 PM||#9|
We sound to have very similar colouring, miss-k! I too have golden blonde hair, blue eyes, naturally rosy cheeks and a few freckles. I'm a MAC C2 or NC20 as a guide. In most other brands I am the palest foundation they have.
Until about 2 years ago I was VERY scared of colour on my eyes so only wore taupes. Then I branched out with a lilac, got heaps of compliments when I wore it and since then I have gradually built up a collection of about every colour under the sun! Along with the lilac I personally like a pale grass-green on my eyelids as it looks fresh and brings out the blue in my eyes.
I'm cool-toned so tend towards those and they seem to suit me better. Some eye shadows that suit me that I reach for regularly are:
* Stila kitten - a champagne sort of shimmer
* Stila heather - a shimmery pale pink
* MAC vex - a pearly grey/green with pink reflect
* MAC paint in canton candy - a fairy floss pink
* MAC fiction - a forest green frost
* MAC shroom - pearlescent beige
* MAC aquadisiac - shimmery aqua
* Bloom moss - a velvety green
* Bloom lagoon - a blue/green
* Bloom olive - a velvet khaki/olive
* Isa Dora quad of silvers and greys (can't remember the name)
* Clinique storm cloud - a blue/grey
* Clinique south beach - a beige shimmer
* David Jones sonny & Cher duo - shimmery silver and lilac/grey
* Several Red Earth light greens and blues (hurry, as the stores leave Australia very soon - sorry, can't remember all the shade numbers)
* Rimmel saucy mint - a pale green
The lilac I first started out with was a Revlon duo but I'm at work and don't have it on me to check the name. I'm not even sure if it's still around but you'd be able to find something similar in other brands. I think Stila and MAC have similar (their ranges are quite large in terms of eye shadow and the quality is good too).
In summary for eyes I really like:
* Light greens
* Silvers/shimmery greys
* Shimmery nudes
* Pale pinks (but be careful of application so as not to look tired, sick or as if you've been crying)
As for lipsticks and glosses, I love mostly pinky shades because my lips aren't very pigmented naturally. Some of the ones I use the most often include:
* Bloom wand lipgloss in cutie pie
* Bloom wand lipgloss in tint
* MAC lipglass in lovechild
* MAC lipstick in plum dandy
* Chanel lipgloss in praline
* JT in fraise
* Revlon superlustrous lipgloss in plum pearl
* L'Oreal glam shine gloss in muse
* Bobbi Brown lipgloss in ruby sugar
* Clinique almost lipstick in black honey
* Clinique almost lipstick in bronze lilac
* Clinique lipstick in blushing nude
* Clinique lipstick in nude splash
* Dior addict ultra gloss lipstick in ultra mauve #680
* Maybelline wear n go lipstick in go spice
* Chanel lipstick in calypso
* Laura Mercier sheer lipstick in healthy lips
If you have naturally rosy cheeks then I'd suggest a sheer blush. My current fave for this is Chanel irrellee blush in be-bop. It's a really light blue-based pink shot with silver shimmer and is very subtle but it can be layered. I also like Clinique's mocha pink. It's less sheer but an almost universally flattering shade.
If you want to bronze up a bit in the summer, I'd suggest MAC bronzing powder in golden. I only bought it yesterday but so far so good. Most bronzers I've tried either go too orange or look like dirt on my face but this gives a healthy glow with only a hint of shimmer.
I would advise you go to a counter that you feel comfortable with and get the sales assistants to try things on you and see what you like. Buy a few things and enjoy experimenting. Then, if you are on a tight budget you can look for similar shades in Priceline but I would suggest getting a few staples that you can always rely on.
Hope this helps and hope you have fun discovering all the goodies that await you!
A smile increases your face value!
|26-07-2004, 05:14 PM||#10|
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Lord British was killed during an in-game appearance on Ultima Online’s beta test on August 8, 1997. A royal visit was conducted as a part of server population stress test. A player character known as Rainz cast a spell called “fire field” on Lord British that, surprisingly, killed him. According to Starr Long, the whole thing was just a human error: Lord British’s character, like others, had been made invulnerable, but by design the invulnerability did not persist over several game sessions. Shortly before the incident, the server had crashed, and Richard Garriott had forgotten to set his invulnerability flag on when logging on again. Shortly afterwards, Rainz’s account was banned from the beta test for previously exploiting bugs rather than reporting them (infamously used by his character Aquaman to kill many player characters, a purported griefing incident). According to Origin, he was not banned for the assassination but rather for previous complaints against his account that were brought to light as a result of this attention. The massive amount of lag, caused by the stress test, was a factor in Lord British’s death, as well as the guards being deactivated in the area, which allowed Rainz to steal, avoiding immediate death. 99% of the players were at Lord British’s castle. Only the few at Lord Blackthorn’s castle were the lucky witnesses to this historic event. Those known to have been present besides Lords British and Blackthorn were their jesters Chuckles and Heckles and the following players; Rainz, Dr.Pepper, Mental, DemonSoth, Haaaaaach, Helios, Phobos, Gildoreal, Wind Lord and Kylan.
3) The Epic Heist – EVE Online – November 2005″
This was published in September’s 2005 issue of PC Gamer UK. It is a detailed account of what has to be one of most beautifully executed in-game scams in a MMORPG ever pulled. It breaks all previous world records for ‘virtual crime’.
The game in question is Eve Online, where corporate espionage and political intrigue have become an integral part of the game.
The perpetrator of the heist was the Guiding Hand Social Club (GHSC) corporation (a corporation being similar to a clan in Eve); a freelance mercenary outfit that offers their services (which usually involves corp infiltration, theft and assassination) to the highest bidder. Over a year in planning, the GHSC infilitrated their target’s corp with their own members and gained their trust, as well as access to the corp hangers, with time. It all concluded in a perfectly timed climax, with a massive theft in multiple corp hangars synchronized with the in-game killing of the corporation’s CEO, the primary target of the contract.
What’s most interesting and impressive about this operation is that it was entirely ‘legal’ and within the game’s own rules, and the mastermind and his agents pulled it off together flawlessly, all the while staying in character. The estimated real-life value of the items stolen is, according to PC Gamer, $16,500 US. The in-game value of course is much, much higher as the things stolen would take years and years to aquire.
4) Plague Outbreak – World of Warcraft – September 2005
The Corrupted Blood plague incident was one of the first events to affect entire World of Warcraft servers. Patch 1.7 saw the opening of Zul’Gurub, the game’s first 20-player raid dungeon where players faced off against an ancient tribe of jungle trolls under the sway of the ancient Blood God, Hakkar the Soulflayer. Upon engaging Hakkar, players were stricken by a debuff (a spell that negatively affects a player) called “Corrupted Blood” which would periodically sap their life. The disease would also be passed on to other players who were simply standing in close proximity to an infected person. Originally this malady was confined within the Zul’Gurub instance but made its way into the outside world by way of hunter or warlock pets that contracted the disease.
Within hours Corrupted Blood had infected entire cities such as Ironforge and Orgrimmar because of their high player concentrations. Low-level players were killed in seconds by the high-damage disease. Eventually Blizzard fixed the issue so that the plague could not exist outside of Zul’Gurub.
5) Death of the Sleeper – EverQuest – November 15-17, 2003
The guild Blood of the Spider on The Rathe server was the first guild system-wide to kill Ventani (the fourth warder) on July 28, 2001, and therefore wake the sleeper. The event caused a stir on the server when Kerafyrm went into multiple zones, including Skyshrine, killing everyone and everything in his path.
On November 15, 2003, on the Rallos Zek PvP server, the three top guilds (Ascending Dawn, Wudan, and Magus Imperialis Magicus) assembled over 180 players with the intent to wake and kill The Sleeper. This was in response to an attempt to wake The Sleeper by an Iksar monk named Stynkfyst, who partnered with the largest random-pk guild of the time. Having been a former member of uber-guild Ascending Dawn, he had the knowledge the random pk guild needed to wake The Sleeper. The top guilds did not assemble their forces until word of Stynkfyst’s intentions had spread, and it became clear that he intended to wake The Sleeper, forever preventing future guilds from farming the old loot table. Until this point, waking The Sleeper had not been seriously considered by any guilds, as it was believed that waking The Sleeper would make the offending guild’s players kill-on-sight to the other guilds of the server. After 3 hours and 15 minutes, at 26% health, Kerafyrm disappeared (despawned). The players talked with the EverQuest Game Masters, and there was a general consensus that a bug had caused the problem, although some suggested (backed by statements from one GM) that higher-ups at SOE had purposely despawned Kerafyrm, because it was not intended to be part of the story.
The following day, the players logged in to find that Kerafyrm was back in his “sleeping” state, ready to be triggered again. There was also an apology on the official EverQuest forums from SOE, explaining that they had stopped the encounter because they feared the players were engaging the boss in an unintended manner. Although annoyed (the players pointed out that the reasons SOE gave could not have occurred, and felt lied to), they attempted to battle Kerafyrm once again.
On November 17, 2003, after a nearly 3-hour battle, Kerafyrm was defeated. He had between 100 million and 400 million hit points, likely around 250 million (most EverQuest bosses have 2 million at most), was immune to all spells except wizard’s manaburn spell and Shadow Knight’s Harm Touch, possessed two death touch abilities (abilities that automatically killed players), and attacked players for 6999 damage per swing. By using the cleric’s epic weapon and other resurrection spells, the players were able to bring their dead characters back into the battle faster than Kerafyrm could kill them all. | <urn:uuid:254fdcc9-84ad-4754-8abe-c3afb3c20a3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lorehound.com/tag/death-of-the-sleeper/ | 2013-05-24T08:42:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979398 | 1,564 |
November 4, 2009 at 9:31 PM
Thanks for saying what many of us are thinking. I think Chris Duerr should no longer be allowed on CCR1 Property. His boss is from Kahoka, and I don’t believe she would support him bashing us. He has made comments in the past and its time he report the news and keep his opinions to himself. Although rumor has it a coach has made a fool out of himself in front of the students complaing about this to Mr. Dooley. Not sure what kind of a role model a person like that makes anyway. So was Chris prompted to say this? Would be interesting to know more.
November 5, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Awesome! I mean Awesome! (My Turn) I am so glad that you wrote that for thepaper. Well written and well said. We are so lucky to have such a greatband director and talent kids. It’s a activity Field not a Athletic Field and we allpay for that. I have nothing against sports either.
Thanks again and for sticking up for us.
November 5, 2009 at 6:36 PM
Mike, HATS OFF TO YOU ON YOUR ARTICLE ABOUTCOMMENTS FROM CHRIS DUER. THIS ISN’T THE FIRST TIME HE HAS BEEN NASTY REGARDING cLARK cOUNTY. IF IT HAD BEEN PALMYRA, NOTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN SAID. HE IS VERY HIGH ON THEIR SCHOOL. ANYWAY, THANKS FOR THE ARTICLE AND I WILL BE SENDING IT TO MR. DUER. MARILYN MARTIN
November 5, 2009 at 8:39 PM
There’s more to life than sports…
November 6, 2009 at 7:18 PM
Way to speak out Mike! I am behind you all the way. All of the taxpayers pay for that field. Band parents pay admission to watch the band perform at the football games just like the football parents. How much money is generated from taxpayers and spectators that have no football player affiliation? We stand together as a community with all of our activities/teams, not as individual teams in competition with each other. We are proud of our football players, band students, coaches and band instructors.
November 9, 2009 at 7:23 AM
Don’t forget the 2001 Missouri State Bowling Championship a group of high school students–the Horsemen–brought to Kahoka.
November 12, 2009 at 6:25 PM
Read with interest the above column and below comments – everyone is up in the air because someone dare question the school.
Now, let’s consider the facts:
Unemployment is 15 percent in Clark County; businesses have closed; young people are leaving the county for employment; women in Afghanistan are setting themselves on fire due to abusive marriages; soldiers are murdered at Fort Hood.
One person expresses his opinion which is still allowed in this country – freedom of speech until the administration in Washington outlaws that.
So now what is important?
November 16, 2009 at 9:59 PM
Yes, there are more things important than football and a band contest…I agree. However, our town has the right to stand up for itself and not let an opinion of a SPORTS caster run us over. His opinions were over the line. We all would have a hard time changing the world..or the unemployment situations in Clark COunty, but as parents and supporters of BOTH Sports Boosters and Fine Arts Boosters, we do try to make a difference in the lives of our children.
November 18, 2009 at 4:05 PM
I agree with completely with the last letter writer. The parents and people of Clark County are well noted for giving and giving to their children.
And the children in turn are noted for their high standards and principles and giving back to the community that supports them.
February 26, 2010 at 4:18 AM
Thanks for calling us Tuba players a bunch of heavy footed Tuba. And people that live here they love this place. Its not a big city. It’s a town that everybody loves. We go to school to learn and to have fun while playing in band, football,..etc. If you don’t like it here then get over it. Dont make fun of our way of life. GET OVER IT. And there you go theres my Comment i hope you like it chris. Thanks for listening
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URANIUM, IN THE FAST-MOVING WORLD of commodities, is a wallflower, with prices publicly quoted just once a week. But interest in the radioactive substance, used in weapons and energy production, may soar, courtesy of China.
The Chinese have been on a buying spree thatisn't yet fully reflected in the price. Financial players, who helped uranium hit a record $136 a pound in June 2007, are returning to the spot market. And the launch of an exchange-traded fund for physical uranium, now tradable only through a tiny futures market, a uranium mining-company ETF and Uranium Participation Corp., a closed-end fund (ticker: U.Canada), seems inevitable.
"There are big structural changes going on," says Thomas Neff, a physicist affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for International Studies. In the early 1990s, he was a main architect of the "Megatons to Megawatts" program, under which thousands of Russian nuclear warheads have been dismantled, with the uranium sold to the U.S. for use in commercial reactors. In 2009, it satisfied about 24 million of the 174 million pounds of global demand, according to the World Nuclear Association. But it expires in 2013.
Neff views $70 a pound as "a reasonable price" over the next 12 to 18 months, if China keeps buying, but some bulls say $90 is more likely. Uranium, which bumped along in the low $40s in 2010's first half, while industrial metals like copper were on fire, recently hit a two-year high of $53.50.
"This is a commodity that, when it starts to move, it can get crazy," says Robert Mitchell, general partner of Portal Capital in Oregon, noting that spot prices never ticked down in the three years through 2007. He's the portfolio manager of Green Energy Metals, a hedge fund with 70% of its portfolio in physical metals—its largest stake is in uranium—and the rest in related equities, and Odysseus, a metals-stock fund. The two are up 16% and 20.5%, respectively, this year.
A mere eight mines account for more than 50% of global output, much of it in places like Kazakhstan, rife with political risk. Mitchell, who called the 2007 top in the market, closing a fund when the metal was around $133, says the current price isn't high enough to encourage new mine construction. It would have to reach the 60s or 70s for that to happen.
Utilities buy uranium largely through long-term contracts, cuurently paying about $10 a pound above the spot price. At about 20% of the overall market, the spot market is particularly volatile. In addition to U.S. dollar weakness, the recent runup has been helped by producers like Rio Tinto (RIO) and Cameco (CCJ), which have been buying in the spot market to meet commitments, and Kazakhstan, which says it won't hit its 2010 production target.
But China is the market's powerhouse. The Chinese now have about nine gigawatts of nuclear-generating capacity and, until last week, were expected to have 70 gigawatts by 2020. But Thursday, according to published reports, China boosted its goal for that year to 112 gigawatts. That would mean that the Chinese would need 64 million pounds by then, nearly 50% of the 132 million pounds that will be produced this year, based on methodology used by consulting firm McKinsey, which thinks that the real capacity goal is higher: 120 gigawatts.
China operates 11 reactors, and has 28 under construction; in the U.S., 104 are in operation. Through September, China had imported 22 million pounds, four to five times as much as it needs this year, says MIT's Neff. He thinks that in addition to stockpiling the metal, China might plan to enrich and sell fuel to others. He says weekly spot prices quoted by TradeTech and Ux Consulting mostly reflect Canadian producers and U.S. utilities, and don't include all the Chinese buying. Last week, a major Chinese utility reportedly inked a pact with France's Areva to buy 20,000 metric tons of uranium over 10 years at $75 a pound.
Several other countries plan to build new reactors, too. Fletcher Newton, an executive vice president of Canadian miner Uranium One (UUU.Canada), expects U.S. utilities to add about 10 gigawatts of capacity in the next few years.
Recently, Global X Uranium, an exchange-traded fund (URA) linked to the uranium mining industry, was launched, joining a couple of ETFs that track the producers as well as utilities and infrastructure.
As for stocks related to the metal, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton (BHP) hold uranium assets. But Cameco, with a stock-market value around $13 billion, is the only large-cap pure play. Though it is a low-cost producer, it has sold forward a huge amount of production," so its sensitivity to changes in the uranium price is reduced," says Adam Schatzker, an RBC Capital Markets analyst. While Cameco trades at 1.3 times net asset value, Uranium One, which Mitchell has in his portfolio, trades at net asset value, according to RBC. But Mitchell believes that because Uranium One hasn't sold any of its 2012 production, it has leverage to higher prices, and "should probably trade at a premium to Cameco."
Before year end, Russia plans to increase its holding in Uranium One to 51%, at which time it will pay shareholders a $1.06-a-share dividend. Mitchell thinks the shares, now at C$5.04, could fall by more than the special dividend after it is paid, which would be a good entry point. Another pure play: Australia's Paladin (PDN.Australia), although at A$4.48, it's 40% above net asset value, RBC says. Schatzker expects it to perform very well if uranium goes up and views it as a potential takeover target. So, it offers investors two ways of becoming enriched. | <urn:uuid:d94ed6b0-6603-4edc-bfc0-a4ef417258ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052970203427104575592633833085248.html | 2013-05-24T08:37:41Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965586 | 1,279 |
Gay-rights activists are celebrating in Puerto Rico after the Senate passed a sweeping bill that bans discrimination on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Puerto Rico Senate voted on May 16, 15-11, to pass Bill 238 just days after San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz issued two executive orders banning discrimination against the city’s LGBT municipal employees. Now, the bill moves on to the House and faces hurdles from a group of lawmakers in the lower chamber who have come out against it. The bill, though, has one famous supporter. Puerto Rican Ricky Martin released a statement in support of the law. “The rights of homosexual people are human rights and human rights are for everyone,” Martin said in the letter released by his representative in San Juan.
For the original report go to http://www.passportmagazine.com/blog/archives/28490-puerto-rico-senate-approves-anti-discrimination-bill-moves-on-to-house.html
The Indian Caribbean Museum, described as “a national treasure, a window to the past, and an opportunity to see history come alive”, has been cited by a National Geographic publication that showcases 500 of the world’s most powerful and spiritual places and guides travellers who wish to visit them, as Paras Ramoutar reports in this article for twocircles.com.
“This is a fitting recognition in just seven years of our existence, especially as we celebrate the 168th Indian Arrival Day May 30,” Sansbhan Jokhoo, the curator of the museum that serves as a link between indentured Indian labourers and the present, told IANS.
“The Indian Caribbean Museum has international prominence and recognition as the only one of its kind in the world. Not even India has one. And before the inauguration of the Kolkata memorial last year planners from India came to visit our facility,” Jokhoo said.
The Kolkata memorial, in the city’s Garden Reach area, remembers the indentured Indian labourers who left India during the 19th & early 20th centuries to work on plantations in the West Indies.
Between 1845 and 1917, approximately 148,000 Indians were brought to this country, principally from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and worked to rescue the decaying plantations following the abolition of slavery by the British government.
It is to keep alive their memory that Satnarayan Maharaj, secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) launched the museum, which features in “Sacred Places of a Lifetime – 500 of the World’s Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations”.
The collection includes items such as rare musical instruments, agricultural objects, cooking utensils, pieces of clothing, ancient photographs and historical books. Objects of historical and aesthetic value include a sapat (wooden slipper) jata (grinding stone) boli (gourd bowl) and hassawa (grass knife). There is also a huge copper basin that was used for boiling cane syrup in the sugar factories up to the 1930s, and a dekha (a wooden contraption used for grinding cocoa, coffee beans, corn and rice).
The museum, which has become a research centre with the country’s National Archives, also houses an art gallery, a reference library and a computerised genealogical database. A botanical garden is also in the making. The institution is a member of the Caribbean Museum Association, which comprises 20 institutions spread across the region.
“The Indian Caribbean Museum is a national treasure, a window to the past, and an opportunity to see history come alive. To many visitors, it evokes memories of the past, a link to the present, and a vision for the future. The museum serves as a foundation for collective memory, cultural continuity and national development,” Jokhoo said.
“It provides a common experience that families can share across generations and serve as a link between revered ancestors and living people. The museum provides information on the cultural heritage of Indians in the Caribbean to themselves and to people of all ethnic backgrounds,” he added.
“The Caribbean Indian Museum holds fundamental importance and relevance to the continued kinship and affinity with India, and within the entire Indian diaspora, as it has myriad symbolic, cultural, religious and transcendental interpretations and meanings for all. It remains a monument for posterity. It will remain ageless,” Jokhoo said.
Since its inception, in excess of 45,000 persons from all walks of life from the four corners of the globe have visited the museum, according to Ann Marie Ramhit, an assistant.
She said that Dennison Moore, who wrote the Canadian government’s policy on multiculturalism, recently donated 107 books reflecting different aspects of India and the diaspora to the library.
“This donation has augmented our educational stock for research, as well as for leisure reading,” Ramhit added.
Winston Dookeran, now the Trinidad and Tobago foreign minister, had in 2006 opened the museum, located in the west-central part of Trinidad.
For the original report go to http://twocircles.net/2013may23/indian_caribbean_museum_nat_geo_list_500_sacred_places.html
Scientists say three to six major hurricanes will hit US, some in areas far beyond those typically associated with extreme storms, as Suzanne Goldenberg reports in this article for London’s Guardian.
Americans were warned on Thursday to brace for an extremely active hurricane season – less than a year after the devastation of Sandy, which hit the east coast in October 2012 – with 13 to 20 named storms, including seven to 11 hurricanes.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, releasing its annual forecast, said 2013 would be prolific in raising storms out of the Atlantic and Caribbean. Of the predicted hurricanes, Noaa predicted that three to six could be major hurricanes, rated category three and packing winds of 111mph or higher.
Thursday’s forecast was well above the average of 12 named storms, eight hurricanes and three major hurricanes. Administration officials also warned that the impacts of those storms – as with Sandy and Irene in 2011 – could be felt in areas far beyond those typically associated with hurricanes and tropical storms.
Sandy killed scores as it made its way across the Caribbean to the north-east US. While it was only a category two storm when it made landfall near Atlantic City in New Jersey, Sandy caused more than $75bn in damage. Lower Manhattan was knocked off the electrical grid for days because of storm surges and coastal communities have yet to recover.
“As we saw first-hand with Sandy, it’s important to remember that tropical storm and hurricane impacts are not limited to the coastline. Strong winds, torrential rain, flooding, and tornadoes often threaten inland areas far from where the storm first makes landfall,” said Kathryn Sullivan, the acting Noaa administrator.
Noaa scientists said there were three main causes behind the forecast of an extremely active season. They included a continuation of an atmospheric climate pattern, which includes a strong west African monsoon, that has been contributing to high activity during Atlantic hurricane season since the 1990s. Warmer ocean temperatures in the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans, where many storms originate, are also making for stronger storms. Officials said temperatures were on average about 0.8 of one degree fahrenheit above average.
El Niño, which can inhibit storm systems, was not expected to develop during this year’s hurricane season. The season runs from 1 June to 1 November.
“There are no mitigating factors that we can see that will suppress the activity,” said Gerry Bell, Noaa’s lead Atlantic hurricane forecaster. “The computer models all point to an active, or very active, hurricane season.”
Thursday’s forecast was released at a time when Republicans in Congress are sharply scrutinising Noaa’s role in forecasting. Earlier in the day, a house committee held a hearing to discuss privatising some of the forecasting functions that are overseen by the premier scientific agency. There has also been criticism of Noaa’s messaging in advance of Hurricane Sandy, and whether its decision to officially downgrade the storm when it made landfall in New Jersey induced a false sense of security among some coastal communities.
Noaa officials, in unveiling their 2013 forecast, noted improvements to computer models that would allow better far-range prediction of storms. New Doppler radar data, to be introduced in July, will allow forecasters to better analyse rapidly changing storm conditions, officials said. However, the officials said it was impossible at this juncture to predict which coastal communities along the Atlantic coast are most likely to be hit this year.
It is also not yet clear when the storms will hit. As Sullivan noted, Sandy struck in the waning days of the hurricane season. “Hurricane Sandy was at the very end of the hurricane season and yet was one of the most devastating storms that we have ever seen,” she said.
But officials said repeatedly that residents the length of the coast – and beyond – needed to prepare in advance, in order to be able to ride out storms in their homes or, if needed, have an exit plan in place. Such preparations should include putting aside a 72-hour supply of food and water at home, or having an evacuation plan in case of storm damage or flooding.
“This is a very dangerous hurricane season,” said Joe Nimmich, who directs disaster response and recovery for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “If you are not prepared you may become one of the statistics we don’t care to have.”
For the original report go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/noaa-forecast-active-hurricane-season
The special issue, edited by Lorna Burns and Wendy Knepper, seeks to “sound new directions in Harris studies and attempt both to reinvigorate the current file and establish a new agenda for future scholarship.”
Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Vol. 49, No. 2, 01 May 2013 is now available on Taylor & Francis Online.
Special Issue: “-Scapes” of Globality in the Work of Wilson Harris
This new issue contains the following articles:
Articles Revisionary “-scapes” of globality in the work of Wilson Harris: introduction Lorna Burns & Wendy Knepper Pages: 127-132 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776361
The reality of trespass: Wilson Harris and an impossible poetics of the Americas Gemma Robinson Pages: 133-147 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776372
The “impossible quest for wholeness”: sugar, cassava, and the ecological aesthetic in The Guyana Quartet Michael Niblett Pages: 148-160 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776374
Cataclysmic life in Wilson Harris’s Jonestown Wendy Knepper Pages: 161-173 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776376
Philosophy of the imagination: time, immanence and the events that wound us in Wilson Harris’s Jonestown Lorna Burns Pages: 174-186 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776378
Legends of the Fall: on rereading Companions of the Day and Night Michael Mitchell Pages: 187-197 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776383
Kaieteur: place of the pharmakos and deconstruction Tim Cribb Pages: 198-208 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776386
Intrasubjectivity in the philosophy of Wilson Harris Paget Henry Pages: 209-221. DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.779093
As part of the International Colloquium “La diversidad cultural en el Caribe” [Cultural Diversity in the Caribbean] being held from May 20 to May 24, 2013, Casa de las Américas presents “Rostros del Carnaval” [Faces of the Carnival] a photographic exhibition by Mario Picayo and Mariano Hernández. The exhibition opens tonight, Thursday, May 23, at 7:00pm, at Galería Mariano. The gallery is located at #607 15th Street, between Avenues B and C in Vedado (Havana, Cuba).
For more information, see http://www.lapapeleta.cult.cu/actividad/detalles/1429-rostros-del-carnaval/
The 13th International Conference on Caribbean Literature (ICCL)—Panama in the Caribbean: The Caribbean in Panama—will be hosted by the University of Panama, the country’s largest and most renowned institution of higher learning, on November 13-16, 2013. The deadline for submissions is July 15, 2013.
Description: For this historic event, ICCL will assemble 150-200 scholars from a host of colleges and universities in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The hosts have arranged a unique program to interact with the Panamanian people as you explore important historical and cultural sites in Panama City, while you engage in lectures, discussions, readings, and performances by prominent Panamanian scholars, writers, and artists. Of course, you will be afforded the unforgettable experience of touring one of the world’s technological, commercial, and geographical wonders: the Panama Canal.
Although the organizers are particularly interested in Caribbean literature, presentatios may focus on any aspect of Caribbean culture. Papers and panels may be presented in Spanish, French, and English. Please send one-page abstracts as indicated below:
(French or Spanish presentations)Dr. Jorge Román-Lagunas Department of Modern Languages Purdue University Calumet 2200 169th Street Hammond, IN 46323-2094 Phone: 219-989-2379 Fax: 219-746-9372 Email: [email protected]
(English Presentations)Dr. Melvin B. Rahming Department of English Morehouse College 830 Westview Dr., S.W. Atlanta, GA 30314Phone: 404-572-3607 Fax: 404-614-8545 Email: [email protected]
For further conference details, visitwww.icclconference.org
Today (May 23, 2013), Campus Principal and Pro Vice Chancellor, Professor Clement Sankat, will host a public lecture and launch of Britain’s Black Debt: Reparation for Caribbean Slavery & Native Genocide, a book by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, at the Daaga Auditorium, University of the West Indies-St. Augustine at 5:30pm.
Description: Since the mid-nineteenth-century abolition of slavery, the call for reparations for the crime of African enslavement and native genocide has been growing. In the Caribbean, grassroots and official voices now constitute a regional reparations movement. It is a fractured, contentious and divisive call, but it generates considerable public interest.
Britain’s Black Debt is the first scholarly work that looks comprehensively at the reparations discussion in the Caribbean. Author Hilary McD. Beckles is a leading economic historian of the region and a seasoned activist in the wider movement for social justice and advocacy of historical truth, and as such, he is uniquely positioned to explore the origins and development of reparations as a regional and international process. Beckles weaves detailed historical data on Caribbean slavery and the transatlantic slave trade together with legal principles and the politics of postcolonialism, and sets out a solid academic analysis of the evidence. He concludes that Britain has a case of reparations to answer, which the Caribbean should litigate.
International law provides that chattel slavery as practised by Britain was a crime against humanity. Slavery was invested in by the royal family, the government, the established church, most elite families, and large public institutions in the private and public sector. Citing the legal principles of unjust and criminal enrichment, Beckles presents a compelling argument for Britain’s payment of its black debt, a debt that it continues to deny in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Britain’s Black Debt is at once an exciting narration of Britain’s dominance of the slave markets that enriched the economy and a seminal conceptual journey into the hidden politics and public posturing of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. No work of this kind has ever been attempted. No author has had the diversity of historical research skills, national and international political involvement, and personal engagement as an activist to present such a complex yet accessible work of scholarship.
Professor Sir Hilary McD. Beckles holds a Chair in Social and Economic History, University of the West Indies-Cave Hill, Barbados, where he is also Principal and Pro-Vice Chancellor. He is Vice-President of the International Scientific Committee for the UNESCO Slave Route Project, and member of the International Advisory Board of the Cultures and Globalization Series. A leading voice on reparations issues, he led the Barbados National Delegation and coordinated Caribbean actions at the UN Conference on Race in Durban, 2001. His many publications including Natural Rebels: A Social History of Enslaved Black Women in Barbados; Centering Woman: Gender Discourses in Caribbean Slave Society; and A History of Barbados: From Amerindian Settlement to Nation-State.
For more information, see http://sta.uwi.edu/news/ecalendar/event.asp?id=1925
For purchasing information, see http://www.amazon.com/Britains-Black-Debt-Reparations-Caribbean/dp/976640349X
In his column “Dowd on Drinks,” Bill Dowd (Times Union) writes about how the Bacardi Company is releasing a television commercial that capitalizes on the supposed historical origins of the “Cuba Libre” cocktail—rum and Coke. [Remember to watch the video of the ad in the link below!]
Through all sorts of societal changes and over several generations, the Cuba Libre has endured as a very popular cocktail. The recipe is a simple one: Light rum, Coca-Cola and a squeeze of lime. Where it came from is, as is the case with so many cocktail origins, a matter of opinion.
The most popular version matches that told in a soon-to-be-released Bacardi USA TV commercial — that it was created in Cuba in 1900 as Colonel Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders helped fight for the island’s independence from Spain — and takeover by the U.S. They toasted the victory with the cheer “Free Cuba!” or “Cuba Libre!” in Spanish. The spot, reports Advertising Age, is the first in a series of ads showing historical events that shaped the 151 year-old brand, which has links to the creation of other rum cocktails such as the Daiquiri and Mojito. However, Coca-Cola won’t be getting a free ride on the Bacardi advertising dollar. The ad will refer to the drink as “run [sic] and cola.”
The historic theme may well be in response to competitors’ rum ads featuring historic personalities. Diageo has recast its once silly Captain Morgan as real-life privateer Captain Henry Morgan of the 1600s. William Grant & Sons is pushing its Sailor Jerry rum by using Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins, a renowned American tattoo artist and Navy man of the mid-1900s. Last year, both brands gained market share on Bacardi, although it remains the top-selling U.S. rum with 35.4% share in 2012, according to Euromonitor International which measures volume of liters sold. Captain Morgan is No. 2 with 23.2%, and Sailor Jerry No. 7 at 2.6%.
Bacardi’s campaign is timed to coincide with Cuban Independence Day on Monday. Interesting, considering both Bacardi and Coca-Cola left the island nation after Fidel Castro came to power. Bacardi now is made in Puerto Rico; Coca-Cola in plants all over the world — except Cuba and North Korea where the product is not sold.
For original post, see http://blog.timesunion.com/dowdondrinks/new-ad-revives-the-history-of-the-cuba-libre/14685/
Xylem’s YSI Integrated Systems and Services (ISS) has been awarded a contract for five marine monitoring buoys by The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC). The buoys will collect high-quality data for researchers studying climate change in the Caribbean Sea, including the waters of Barbados, Belize, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. The customized YSI EMM 2000 buoys will measure, record and transmit real-time water quality and meteorological data as key components of a Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS). The entire system will be powered by solar panels.
“The Caribbean is a unique part of the world. Our waters are the ‘bread basket’ for the region, and we must be diligent in protecting and sustaining them,” says Dr. Kenrick Leslie, CCCCC executive director. “We are very excited to build our education and research infrastructure with the addition of this important technology project for addressing the impacts of climate change on the Caribbean ecosystem.” [. . .] Coral reefs play an extremely important role in the Caribbean economy for tourism as well as food production and food security. The regions’ unique reefs have been impacted by rising sea temperatures and pollution. Long-term monitoring of environmental conditions in the Caribbean will help researchers track the health of the reefs, among the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on the planet, and mirrors similar systems already installed at key reef sites in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Data will allow development of climate models and ecological forecasting in coral reef ecosystems.
[. . .] Caribbean researchers and scientists from national and regional universities, government coastal marine research departments and non-governmental organizations are expected to use and benefit from the data to be generated by the CREWS stations. The CREWS system will be expandable with additional sensors and parameters—such as CO2 and underwater photo-synthetically active radiation (PAR)—to accommodate visiting researchers who later join the collaborative project.
The CCCCC will work with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and YSI to install and operate this network, beginning in spring 2013. The CREWS project is funded by the European Union and the Global Climate Change Alliance in the amount of US $617,000 (€ 465,000) and is part of a wider climate change project – “The Global Climate Change Alliance Caribbean Support Project” being implemented by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre. | <urn:uuid:42abdd88-9d9d-494e-a412-aea27f4c5fe4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://repeatingislands.com/ | 2013-05-24T08:50:40Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934474 | 4,854 |
Buy Indian Spices, International Grocery Online, Shop Gourmet Foods, Gifts, Organic Spices Store, IndianFoodsCo.com
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Indianfoodsco.com has foods, spices, groceries for families looking to turn around their health and eating habits by cooking food at home and taking charge of their health and wellness. Food can help people to recover their health and avoid the doctor. Today we know that the current epidemic of adult cancers, heart disease and other diseases are closely linked to what we eat. Find nutrient-rich foods like brown rice, lentils, beans and spices in our shop and eat right to maintain a healthy mind and body. We carry many, many vegan and vegetarian and alkaline food options in our online store.
CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL RESPONSBILITY is also very imporatant at IndianFoodsCo.com - we compost, recyle and reuse. Our offerings also help to reduce health care costs and go easy on the environment, encourage a local economy as everything we do has to looked at from an environmental and universal health perspective. | <urn:uuid:69661a2c-2f41-4864-863d-7d4b68e6b779> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://store.indianfoodsco.com/?CFID=13864354&CFTOKEN=27009739 | 2013-05-24T08:36:54Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911813 | 1,694 |
- PhD Student
- (+61 8) 9480 3614
- (+61 8) 9480 3641
- Habitat selection
- Landscape ecology
- Pollination ecology
- Pollination restoration
- Conservation genetics
2000-2003 Bachelor of Science (BSc.) Marine Science Program, (Majors: Zoology and Marine Biology), University of Western Australia.
2006-2008 Master of Science in Ecology and Evolution, (MSc. Ecology and Evolution), University of Bern, Switzerland. Thesis title: ‘Ecological requirements of the threatened Ortolan bunting Emberiza hortulana in temperate Europe (Swiss Alps) and in the Mediterranean (Catalonia)’. Supervisor: Prof. Raphaël Arlettaz.
Title: Landscape ecology and conservation genetics of a rare, sexually deceptive orchid and its obligate pollinator
University: School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia
Supervisors: Prof. Kingsley Dixon, Prof. Rod Peakall (ANU), and Prof. Raphael Didham (UWA)
Project description: Conservation of complex ecosystems and threatened species requires a detailed understanding of their ecology. Since it is often difficult in highly endemic floras with large numbers of threatened species, such as the Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR), to research conservation of all threatened species, one approach is to concentrate effort on a model species. Here, we use Drakaea elastica, a nationally threatened, sexually deceptive orchid endemic to the Swan Coastal Plain, Western Australia. The aim of this project is to determine the multi-scale habitat requirements of D. elastica, along with that of its obligate thynnid wasp pollinator, Zaspilothynnus gilesi. This will be complimented by an investigation of population genetics of D. elastica. In addition, a mark-recapture study on Z. gilesi will yield information on movements and vital rates of the wasp, which in turn can affect gene-flow of D. elastica. This research will allow the compilation of a habitat suitability model to guide conservation, such as the designation of protected areas.
8. Menz MHM & Arlettaz R (2012) The precipitous decline of the ortolan bunting: time to build on scientific evidence to inform conservation management. Oryx 46:122-129.
7. Menz MHM, Phillips RD, Winfree R, Kremen C, Aizen MA, Johnson SD & Dixon KW (2011) Reconnecting plants and pollinators: challenges in the restoration of pollination mutualisms. Trends in Plant Science 16, 4-12.
6. Menz MHM, Brotons L & Arlettaz R (2009) Habitat selection by Ortolan Buntings Emberiza hortulana in post-fire succession in Catalonia: implications for the conservation of farmland populations. Ibis 151, 752-761.
5. Menz MHM, Mosimann-Kampe P & Arlettaz R (2009) Foraging habitat selection in the last Ortolan Bunting Emberiza hortulana population in Switzerland: final lessons before extinction. Ardea 97, 323-333.
4. Menz MHM (2009) New records of Hypolimnas bolina nerina (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) from the Pilbara region, Western Australia. Australian Entomologist 36, 49-50.
3. Reichlin TS, Schaub M, Menz MHM, Mermod M, Portner P, Arlettaz R & Jenni L (2009) Migration patterns of Hoopoe (Upupa epops) and Wryneck (Jynx torquilla): an analysis of European ring recoveries. Journal of Ornithology 150, 393-400.
2. Menz MHM & Barnett BC (2007) Lechenaultia divaricata (Goodeniaceae) from the Great Victoria Desert, a new species record for Western Australia. Western Australian Naturalist 25, 255-257.
1. Menz MHM & Cullen PP (2006) Occurrence of the Barking Gecko Underwoodisaurus milii (Bory 1825) (Gekkonidae) in the Pilbara Region, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 89, 89-90.
1. Menz M (2011) The importance of pollinators in ecological restoration: its about the birds and the bees. For People and Plants 75:24-25. | <urn:uuid:d39ff588-1f93-476b-8387-d77c5eb0976b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/science/students/myles-menz | 2013-05-24T08:56:24Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.779032 | 963 |
Deuteronomy - Chapter 5
2 'Yahweh our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.
4 On the mountain, from the heart of the fire, Yahweh spoke to you face to face,
7 ' "You will have no gods other than me.
8 ' "You must not make yourselves any image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth;
9 you must not bow down to these gods or serve them. For I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God and I punish the parents' fault in the children, the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren, among those who hate me;
14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your God. You must not do any work that day, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servants -- male or female -- nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your animals, nor the foreigner who has made his home with you;
15 so that your servants, male and female, may rest, as you do. Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt, and that Yahweh your God brought you out of there with mighty hand and outstretched arm; this is why Yahweh your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
21 ' "You must not set your heart on your neighbour's spouse, you must not set your heart on your neighbour's house, or field, or servant-man or woman -- or ox, or donkey or any of your neighbour's possessions."
22 'These were the words Yahweh spoke to you when you were all assembled on the mountain. Thunderously, he spoke to you from the heart of the fire, in cloud and thick darkness. He added nothing, but wrote them on two tablets of stone which he gave to me.
24 and said, "Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the heart of the fire. Today we have seen that God can speak with a human being and that person still live.
25 So why should we expose ourselves to death again? For this great fire might devour us if we go on listening to the voice of Yahweh our God, and then we should die.
26 For what creature of flesh could possibly live after hearing, as we have heard, the voice of the living God speaking from the heart of the fire?
29 If only their heart were always so, set on fearing me and on keeping my commandments, so that they and their children might prosper for ever!
31 But you yourself stay here with me, and I shall tell you all the commandments, the laws and the customs which you are to teach them and which they are to observe in the country which I am giving them as their possession."
32 'Keep them and put them into practice: such is Yahweh's command to you. Stray neither to right nor to left.
More on the Bible
The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.
Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.
Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.
Reading 1, Sirach 6:5-17: A kindly turn of speech attracts new friends, a courteous tongue invites many a friendly response. ... Psalm, Psalms 119:12, 16, 18, 27, 34, 35: Blessed are you, Yahweh, teach me your will! Gospel, Mark 10:1-12: After leaving there, he came into the territory of Judaea and Transjordan. And again crowds ... Read More | <urn:uuid:611be7ae-bc71-441d-a3f7-4a24f49ac59c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=5&bible_chapter=5 | 2013-05-24T09:03:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964431 | 925 |
MPAA Rating : R
Year of Release : 1998
Stars : Ryan Phillippe (Shane O'Shea), Mike Myers (Steve Rubell), Neve Campbell (Julie Black), Salma Hayek (Anita), Breckin Meyer (Greg), Sela Ward (Bianca Jagger), Heather Matarazzo (Grace), Jared Harris (Andy Warhol)
During the credits at the end of "54," half the screen is filled with photographs of actual people partying at the infamous Manhattan disco club Studio 54 during the late seventies. Pictures of Andy Warhol, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, and, of course, Steve Rubell, the owner of Studio 54 who wanted to throw a party that would last a lifetime. What's unfortunate and telling about these still photographs is the fact that they are more interesting and absorbing than the live-action movie that preceded them.
There's a great movie to be made about Studio 54, but this is not it. Writer/director Mark Christopher botches it from the get-go because he insists on using the club scene as a glorified backdrop to tell the story of a naive, twentysomething protagonist named Shane O'Shea. Shane is played by Ryan Phillipe ("I Know What You Did Last Summer"), and although he is a handsome actor with a hint of potential, he has nowhere near the weight and presence needed to hold the center of this film. His coming-of-age story amid the glitter, glamour, drugs, and chaos of the Studio 54 world is meant to be touching and worldly, but it's more hackneyed than anything else. Some of it has to do with Phillipe's lack of screen presence, but I think more of it has to do with Christopher's choice to sacrifice the reality for a mediocre-at-best fictional story.
Constantly gliding through the movie is comedian Mike Myers, who plays Rubell. This is Myer's first dramatic performance after numerous straight comedies like "Wayne's World" (1991) and "Austin Powers" (1997). Playing this role was a risky move, but it turns out that he is the best thing in the movie. Myers has made his living being a comedic chameleon--his humor emanates from his ability to disappear completely into his characters. He doesn't merely portray Austin Powers--he is Austin Powers. And here he does exactly the same thing, altering his physical appearance, speech, and mannerisms to appropriate Rubell's unforgettable persona.
So the question is, why did Christopher not make Rubell the center of the story? After all, he is a far more interesting character than the shallow, bare-chested Shane. For instance, how did Rubell, a short, balding nerd with an annoying laugh, become the king of celebrities? What was involved in his ironic rise to that pinnacle of power, where he would stand in the DJ booth above the dance floor and have world-famous celebrities like Mick Jagger, Truman Capote, and Princess Grace of Monacco hanging on his every word? Was it is his insecurity about his own meager appearance that drove him to stand by the door of Studio 54, only allowing in those people who he deemed physically attractive enough to gain entrance? How did he come to be so obsessed with style? This is, after all, a man who, when being dragged out of the club in handcuffs after being arrested by IRS for tax evasion, could only say, "This is so tacky."
"54" suffers not only because it chose the wrong material, but because it doesn't execute its chosen material well. It has no real drive or focus, and it certainly doesn't have a message. It would seem that this kind of tawdry subject matter is perfect for crafting a film with moral resonance, but there is none to be found; it's as if Christopher took "Boogie Nights" (1997) and stripped of its technical savvy and vast moral underpinnings. The point of "54" seems to be nothing deeper than the fact that there was this place where people partied and too bad the IRS shut it down.
The only time the movie comes close to dramatic power is when an old woman, a grandmother by day who drinks and drugs and dances like she's twenty by night, dies of an overdose on the dance floor during a New Year's Eve party. The music stops long enough for the body to be moved out of the way, and then, as Rubell puts it, "The show must go on." Although this is a perfect opportunity for Christopher to show that the recklessness of decadence is still reckless even when draped in glamour, he merely uses it as a plot point in Shane's maturation. Worst of all, everything then gets tied up in a pretty, "everything is okay after all" ending. Even though Shane finds that his dreams are not to be made in Studio 54, the movie tells us that there is no price to pay for his debauchery except a brief case of the clap.
Having to sit through Shane's ordeal of moving from busboy to bartender to disaffected youth just isn't that exciting. And his relationship with a soap opera star (Neve Campbell) is neither believable or necessary. The subplots, involving Greg (Breckin Meyer), Shane's best friend who's skimming money from the club to deal drugs, and his wife Anita (Salma Hayek), who is dying to become "the next Donna Summer," are charmless and predictable. Their main effect is to continually remind the viewer that "54" a fictional movie. Therefore, Christopher never gets what he really wants--a true recreation of the Studio 54 scene that feels real.
Sure, the production design by Kevin Thompson is good, and the costumes by Ellen Lutter are appropriately gaudy. The disco music pumps, the lights flash and twirl, giving lurid glimpses of gyrating bodies both on the dance floor and in the balcony, and the drugs and alcohol and money flow like water. But it's all for naught, because the movie has no dramatic tension or narrative drive to keep you involved, and it ends up feeling exactly like what it is: a simple recreation.
©1998 James Kendrick | <urn:uuid:2a1071e4-90a3-4890-bde4-d3de5ea75943> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.haitisun.com/index.php/nav/mreview/2451 | 2013-05-24T08:36:50Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9663 | 1,293 |
The pioneers of the rock ‘n’ roll era on both sides of the Atlantic have now largely faded from the show-business scene — which is hardly surprising, given that those still strutting their stuff are in their 70s and 80s, and even “The King” himself, Elvis Presley, who died in 1977, would be 77 today.
But in Japan, Mickey Curtis is still going strong as a musician five decades after he became a star of the nation’s homegrown rockabilly boom — while as an actor, he is currently starring in a new Shinobu Yaguchi comedy film titled “Robo-G.” Now 73, Curtis plays a lonely codger who finds a new purpose, as well as new troubles, impersonating a humanoid robot.
Born Michael Brian Kachisu on July 23, 1938, to a mother and father who were both of mixed British and Japanese ancestry, Curtis (a name he adapted from his similar-sounding birth name) spent the war years mainly in Shanghai with his parents. His musician father, however, performed a disappearing act with a Russian woman. After the war, his mother — together with a British man who was to become his stepfather — brought him and his sister back to Japan, where Curtis struggled to adapt to an unfamiliar country and culture.
Even as a young boy, Curtis was exposed to American pop by his music-loving parents, and in his teens he studied at the Nihon Jazz Gakko (Nihon Jazz School) founded by a Japanese-American musician named Tib Kamayatsu. At the age of 15, he began performing country music for U.S. servicemen at camps and clubs.
In 1958, not long after Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry had begun enthralling teenagers and enraging moral guardians in the United States and elsewhere, Curtis joined Masaaki Hirao and Keijiro Yamashita in “Western Carnival” rockabilly shows at a theater in Tokyo’s central Yurakucho district. The three became an immediate sensation with local teens, though their elders typically regarded the music as irritating noise and the shows as akin to scandalous riots.
Unlike fellow Japanese rockers who learned (or approximated) the lyrics of their cover songs phonetically or simply sang them in Japanese, Curtis was fluent in English. He also had a real rebel-rocker attitude nurtured on the tough streets of postwar Japan, where his non-Japanese looks had made him not only a standout but also a target.
In the 1960s, after the rockabilly fad faded, Curtis made a smooth transition to acting for films and singing and emceeing for television. In 1967, he formed a progressive-rock band called Mickey Curtis & His Samurais, which embarked on a long tour of Europe. Returning to Japan in 1970, he became a record producer, working with many top rock and folk-rock acts.
Then, in 1985, after a hiatus of nearly two decades, Curtis resumed his film acting career. Since then his roles have spanned a wide range from doctors to gangsters, and he has worked for such leading directors as Shunji Iwai (“Suwaroteiru [Swallowtail Butterfly]“; 1996), Shohei Imamura (“Akai Hashi no Shita no Nurui Mizu [Warm Water Under a Red Bridge]“; 2001) and Takashi Miike (“Izo”; 2004). In fact, his filmography now comprises more than 100 entries — a total that would soar far higher if his TV drama appearances were added. Abroad, however, Curtis is perhaps best known for his role as a starving soldier in Kon Ichikawa’s “Nobi (Fires on the Plain),” his stark 1959 portrayal of defeated Japanese soldiers in the Philippines in the closing days of the war.
Though he may not have the widest range as an actor, Curtis consistently delivers as the coolest old guy in the room — one who’s always been lean and wiry, is usually pony-tailed and stylishly turned out and is often inwardly amused at the goings-on around him.
When we met for this interview at the Tokyo headquarters of Toho, which is distributing “Robo-G,” Curtis was suffering from a cold, but nonetheless soldiered through our 50-minute exchange with his salty persona and wry sense of humor intact.
Did you have to audition for “Robo-G”?
Everybody in this film had an audition. That’s (Yaguchi’s) way. He auditioned more than 200 senior actors and actresses (for my role).
He’d been doing all these films like “Swing Girls” and “Waterboys,” auditioning young people. If they caught a little fever they’d still go to the audition because they wanted to be in the film. But there were so many old people who couldn’t come to the audition. They’d go “Oh, I caught a fever, I’ve got a bad back, I couldn’t get out of the house.”
So he figured if he’s hiring an actor who’s over 73 years old he’d have to find someone who can act and is slim and healthy, because otherwise during the filming he’ll blow the whole thing.
Did Yaguchi ask you to do anything different from what you normally do?
Well he wanted me to shave my beard off and cut my hair, so people don’t know who it is, right?
Did you have to wear the robot suit all the time?
Yeah all the time, 30 kg of it. It took an hour to put on and 45 minutes to take off, so once you’re wearing it you can’t go to the john, you can’t do sh*t. You can’t even move properly — it’s really hot.
We shot the film in February in Kyushu and I thought, “Great, it’ll be warm with the suit on,” but it was northern Kyushu, minus 2 degrees, and I just stood there in a T-shirt and the suit, and when the cold wind came it got colder and colder and colder. I couldn’t wear anything underneath because the suit fitted too close.
Could you not use heating pads?
No man, nothing! It was even hard to breathe in that suit.
You managed to express the character, though.
I’m a comedian as well, so I got into all kinds of comic stuff on the first day, but after that I’d just do what the director wanted me to. I tried to enter his head and see what he wanted.
Usually a director and actor will have a long talk about the character before shooting starts, and how they’re going to do it all. But this time, after we’d finished working on the design of the suit, I didn’t see Yaguchi until we were on the set. He didn’t want to talk much.
But he’s a funny guy, a very smart guy. It’s all in his head, so all I had to do was do what he said. And if he says “OK,” that’s his problem.
Do you mind if we go back to the beginning and walk through your career?
A new book of mine came out on Jan. 10 and it explains all that. I was a kid during World War II. I was in Shanghai for four years. I couldn’t live in Japan because I was “half,” and if you were bilingual in those days you were automatically a spy — so we couldn’t live in Japan. World War II ended in 1945, and at the end of that year I came back to Japan.
I guess there wasn’t much left here when you came back, was there?
Oh, nada — nothing. We were starving and often ate boiled weeds and flowers and corn powder for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
After the war we came back together, but my dad had changed during the war. My real dad eloped with a Russian girl and left me, my sister and my mother. She found someone else to act as my father — well, my stepfather.
I had a pretty rough time. I had to go to a Japanese public school in Shanghai and just my face set them off. They threw stones at me and shit like that.
Was your Japanese fluent at that time?
I spoke a little Japanese; a little Shanghai-dialect Chinese; a little English.
Had you learned English from your mother?
I think so. I never studied English. I played on a lot of military bases.
Did you also pick it up from listening to FEN (Far East Network, predecessor of today’s American Forces Network-Japan)?
FEN too, yeah, and WVTR (the predecessor of FEN that was also a radio service for U.S. military stationed in Japan).
When you returned to Japan after the war, of course American cultural influence was coming in at that time.
Yeah, so everyone called me “Shinchugun” (Occupation Army).
But at that time, you had never lived in the States.
That’s right. I have only lived in the States for about two years, from 1977 to 1980. I was in Hollywood.
I believe you got into music early.
Like I say in my book, the first American music I ever heard was in Shanghai. My mother was into Bing Crosby and so on, so I heard a lot of jazz music when I was a kid, and classical music, too.
Then we came back to Japan when I was about 10 years old and I wanted to be a pianist. I started learning piano, but it didn’t last long, about a year. I just didn’t have it. Then I heard (clarinetist and bandleader) Benny Goodman’s “Live at Carnegie Hall” album (from a concert of his in New York in 1938). I said “Wow this is it! That’s my music!”
Did you want to play clarinet?
No, I was just listening. Instead of listening to classical I started listening to jazz more. I was a very shy kid. I couldn’t communicate with people, so my mother bought me a ukulele to make me a little happier.
Then I got into guitar, and when I was about 15 I gave my first performance, I think at St. Luke’s Hospital (in Tokyo). All the injured people from the Korean War (1950-53) came to stay at St. Luke’s Hospital. Did you see 1970′s “M*A*S*H” movie by Robert Altman? You know how Donald Sutherland (playing U.S. Army doctor Capt. “Hawkeye” Pierce) comes to Japan with his black medical bag? Then, when he’s going, he sings (singing) “Goodbye Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh” — and the kids are crying. That’s St Luke’s Hospital.
Am I right in thinking that you started out performing country music?
A lot of country music. There were a lot of jobs for country bands, more than for jazz. A lot of the (U.S.) servicemen in Japan came from the West Coast, so they wanted a lot of country music. I think the East Coast people went to Germany with their jazz. Elvis went to Germany.
Did you see many of the American music acts that came over in the 1950s?
I saw and met Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and just about everybody who came to Japan. In those days there were very few Japanese who could speak English, so the promoters or record labels would call me up when they came to Japan. I had to go out to dinner with Yul Brynner. I was the Japanese part of the Rat Pack — Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. It was fun.
The “Western Carnival” in 1958 was a huge phenomenon. That was the start of the real rock boom in Japan.
Yes, we started that.
I’ve seen clips from that time. The shows were pretty crazy.
It was just rock and rolling, you know!
But wasn’t the adult world pretty much against it?
The PTAs were against it — the same as in the States in those days. Black music, they used to call it “race music.”
Some of the people in that scene disappeared and some stuck around.
That’s showbiz, man.
But you stuck around.
Right, I kept going. From the “Western Carnival” I went right into movies. I was with Toho Studio. I also had my own TV show.
Didn’t you have to change your music for that?
Not really. It wasn’t the music that people were against. They didn’t understand it anyway. I think it was because all the kids skipped school to come and see our “Western Carnival.” We had two live shows a day, so they just skipped school to come — and each one was packed.
Then you kept on playing live all through the ’60s, I believe.
After that your music changed in the ’60s. You had your own band, Mickey Curtis & His Samurais.
Yeah, those were the Vietnam War days, anti-war, flower-power, 1967. I came back in 1970. I was with the hippies in New York. We were on the streets, we slept in the park.
Back then weren’t you also touring in Europe?
Yeah, we were in Europe — sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. We toured Germany a lot. There’s a lot of towns in Germany (makes German-sounding noises) and we did all of them.
Were you mainly playing in small clubs?
We played the military-club circuit, plus we did the rock clubs. Then we went to England, and we started in the North, in Newcastle, and went all the way down to the South and to Wales. We worked ourselves through London.
Then, didn’t you come back to Japan and became a record producer for a while?
I worked with (Eikichi) Yazawa, Carol, Gedo. . . . I made a lot of hit records.
But you didn’t act in movies for a long time.
I hated a thing with the last movie I did. It was a management problem, like I had booked a few days off and had told the manager but the manager didn’t tell the movie company so they were ready at the set but I didn’t arrive. Plus all the stuff with people scratching each other’s backs — I got fed up with it; so screw it, no more movies.
Then I came back into movies, I don’t know what year. I have to read my book (laughs).
It was the mid-’80s.
Somewhere round there, yeah. I did a lot, three or four a year almost.
Did you start to like it better after you came back?
Oh, I love it. I love working, music, movies, television, rakugo (comic storytelling). I’m a rakugo master. I’m in Tatekawa Danshi’s stable.
Did you get into rakugo early?
I’d been listening to rakugo since I was maybe 8 years old. I went to a yose, which is a comedy store, every day when I was in junior high and high school.
Did you think of doing it more seriously then?
Well I went to listen. I never thought I was going to do it. Then I met Tatekawa Danshi about 20 years ago. I think I was 54 years old by then. He said “Why don’t you do it again? I saw what you used to do when you were young, you could do it again.” So I went back and did it from scratch.
How do you mix rakugo and movies?
Well, rakugo is acting — plus, in rakugo you have to act everybody, right? If there are five parts you to do five characters.
You’ve had a lot of interests, not just acting and singing. Weren’t you once into racing motorcycles.
Yeah, when I was young I was into racing. I did races in Suzuka and circuit races. I’m too old for that now, I don’t do that anymore. I had a bike accident and broke my leg and couldn’t ride for a while, so I went into customizing — I had a custom bike shop. I don’t ride anymore. (My wife) doesn’t want me to break my leg again. I still have five metal pieces in my leg.
Did anyone ever ask you to ride a bike in a movie?
Oh, I’ve done some stuff. I’ve done some stunts, too.
What are you doing now besides the acting and the music?
Now I’m promoting the hell out of this movie every day (laughs). Tomorrow, I have to go to Toyama and Ehime prefectures. I hope I don’t hit any earthquakes (laughs).
You’re also blogging and tweeting. You may be one of the few people of your generation doing that.
And I have an iPhone! I work with an iPhone. I have to change it to a 4S. I haven’t had time to go home to my computer. I’ve been traveling and traveling.
Do you have children?
Three. One from the first marriage and two from the second marriage.
Do they encourage you to do social networking?
No, they don’t come near me unless they need money (laughs). You know how boys are. . . . Everyone says never go into this business, but my oldest one is into video and my second one is a DJ and the third one plays bass in two bands — so they’re all in the business.
Was that your idea?
I don’t think so. DNA, maybe?
A lot of young actors with international backgrounds like yours are coming up quickly now. Do you envy them for having a relatively easy time of it?
No, man — I have nothing to complain about in my life. I had the best time that anybody could have. When I was young they used to put coal in furnaces in cars and burn it to run the engine. From that, I went to the Space Shuttle era. It’s been a tremendous leap. The first telephone I used was a crank phone. I went from a crank phone to an iPhone in one generation.
There’s a lot of nostalgia now for the so-called Showa 30s (the fourth decade of the reign of Emperor Hirohito, who is posthumously known as Emperor Showa). Many now look back and say those years from 1955-65 were the “good old days.” Is that a feeling you share?
I wouldn’t say so. Tomorrow is always better than yesterday. But at this moment, Japan has a big problem. I think this will last for a while. The radiation problem is really ridiculous, but the tsunami and those natural disasters, that’s something else you just can’t predict.
Japan is in a bad way now in terms of economic stagnation, natural disasters and its rapidly graying population. So your current movie, “Robo Ji,” is kind of timely.
I think so. It’s perfect, right? (He then sings a couple of lines from “Mr. Roboto” by Styx:) “Domo arigato Mr. Roboto . . . I’m just a man whose circumstances went beyond his control.” All the lyrics are there, right there.
Where were you when the March 11 earthquake hit last year?
I was home, holding up my DVD rack (laughs).
You’re still performing, right?
Yeah, I just did a five-day tour in Niigata Prefecture. I came back yesterday. I had to do another show last night. Actually, today was my only holiday but (my manager) booked me for this (laughs).
What are the audiences like now — are they only old fans?
Old and new. Old folks with their grandkids. Anybody can have fun with rock ‘n’ roll.
They said it was a fad, but it never went away.
Oldies-but-goodies stay. Some people still think Elvis is alive, right? (Laughs.)
So you’re going to keep doing it for a while?
Until I die. In our business, there’s no end ’cause there’s never a best performance. The next one has to be better than the last one — so you keep going up.
Mickey Curtis’ latest book, “Ore to Senso to Ongaku to” (“Me and the War and Music”), was published last month by Aki Shobo. “Robo Ji” is now showing in cinemas nationwide. | <urn:uuid:c7245e57-1263-4b0a-bb52-42ec0af0199b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2012/02/05/people/mickey-curtis-from-rocker-to-robo-g/ | 2013-05-24T08:46:27Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982962 | 4,627 |
What is services marketing?
A service is the action of doing something for someone or something. It is largely intangible (i.e. not material). You cannot touch it. You cannot see it. You cannot taste it. You cannot hear it. You cannot feel it. So a service context creates its own series of challenges for the marketing manager since he or she must communicate the benefits of a service by drawing parallels with imagery and ideas that are more tangible.
A product is tangible (i.e. material) since you can touch it or own it. A service tends to be an experience that is consumed at the point where it is purchased and cannot be owned since it quickly perishes. A person could go to a café one day and enjoy excellent service, and then return the next day and have a poor experience. Marketers talk about the nature of a service as being inseparable, intangible, perishable, homogenous and variable.
Inseparable - from the point where it is consumed, and from the provider of the service. For example, you cannot take a live theatre performance home to consume it (a DVD of the same performance would be a product, not a service). The consumer is actually involved in the production process that they are buying at the same time as it is being produced, for example an eye test or a makeover. One benefit would be that if you are unhappy with you makeover you can tell the beautician and that instant feedback means that the service quality is improved. You can't do that with a product. Another attribute is that services have to be close to the person consuming them i.e. goods can be made in a central factory location which has the benefits of mass production. This localization means that consumption is inseparable from production.
Intangible - cannot have a real, physical presence as does a product. For example, motor insurance may have a certificate, but the financial service itself cannot be touched i.e. it is intangible. This makes it tricky to evaluate the quality of service prior to consuming it since there are fewer attributes of quality in comparison to a product. One way is to consider quality in terms of search, experience and credence.
Search quality is the perception in the mind of the consumer of the quality of the product prior to purchase through making a series of searches. So this is simple in relation to a tangible product because you might look at size or colour for example. Therefore search quality relates more to products and services.
Experience quality is easier to assess. In terms of service you need to taste the food or experience the service level. Therefore your experiences allow you to evaluate the level and nature of the service. You remember a great vacation because of the food or service, but by the same token you remember an awful vacation because of the hopeless food or poor service.
Credence quality is based upon the credibility of the service that you undertake. This is down to the reputation of a dentist or of a decorator. Credence is used where you have little knowledge of the topic and where you rely upon the professionalism of the expert.
Perishable - in that once it has occurred it cannot be repeated in exactly the same way. For example, once a 100 meters Olympic final has been run, there will not be another for 4 more years, and even then it will be staged in a different place with many different finalists. You cannot put service in the warehouse, or store in your inventory. An interesting argument about perishability goes like this, once a flight has taken off you cannot sell that seat again, hence the airline makes no profit on that seat. Therefore the airline has no choice but to price at peak when it sells a seat at busy times in order to make a profit. That's why restaurants offer vouchers to compensate for quieter times, and it is the same for railway tickets and matinees in Broadway during the middle of the week.
Variability- since the human involvement in service provision means that no two services will be completely identical, they are variable. For example, returning to the same garage time and time again for a service on your car might see different levels of customer satisfaction, or speediness of work. If you watch your favourite/favorite music group on DVD the experience will be the same every time you play it, although if you go to see them on tour when they are live no two performances will be identical for a whole variety of reasons. Even with the greatly standardized McDonalds experience, there are slight changes in service, often through no fault of the business itself. Sometimes Saturday lunchtime will be extremely busy, on other days you may have to wait to go via the drive through. So services tend to vary from one user experience to another.
Homogeneity is where services are largely the same (the opposite of variability above). We considered McDonald's above which is a largely homogeneous service, so now let's look at KFC and Pizza Hut. Both of these businesses provide a homogeneous service experience whether you are in New York, or Alaska, or even Adelaide. Consumers expect the same level of service and would not anticipate any huge deviation in their experience. Outside of the main brands you might expect a less homogeneous experience. If you visit your doctor he or she might give one interpretation, whereas another doctor might offer a different view. Your regular hairdresser will deliver a style whereas a hairdresser in the next town could potentially style your hair differently. Therefore standardization is largely embodied by the large global brands which produce services.
Right of ownership is not taken to the service, since you merely experience it. For example, an engineer may service your air-conditioning, but you do not own the service, the engineer or his equipment. You cannot sell it on once it has been consumed, and do not take ownership of it.
Western economies have seen deterioration in their traditional manufacturing industries, and a growth in their service economies. Therefore the marketing mix has seen extended and adapted to create the services marketing mix, also known as the 7P's or the extended marketing mix - physical evidence, process and people. | <urn:uuid:6bcc9b2b-d47e-4ce7-bba8-36c32486e7b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-services-marketing.html | 2013-05-24T08:49:46Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960546 | 1,244 |
KALAMAZOO — Todd A. Sanford is managing partner of Sanford Financial Services, at 590 W. Centre Ave. in Portage, which provides financial planning services to individuals and businesses in Southwest Michigan. It also has clients throughout the United States. A registered financial planner, he is also the registered principal with Raymond James Financial Services Inc., working with partners Scott Williams and Brent Kerstetter.
Sanford spent brief periods with Investors Diversified Services and Baxter & Associates before joining the local employee benefit and financial service company Scott Doerschler Messner & Gauntlett (now called Rose Street Advisory). He was shareholder of SDM&G prior to establishing Sanford Financial Services in March of 2000.
Sanford, 49, is a native of Grosse Pointe and attended Western Michigan University, from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in finance in 1983. He received the Certified Financial Planner designation in July of 1991.
His community involvements include working as a board member for the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy and Junior Achievement of Southwest Michigan. He has worked with Southridge Reformed Church as a youth leader and a finance committee member. And he is a member of the Western Michigan University Finance & Commercial Law Advisory Board.
Book on his nightstand:
“‘Beyond Half Time’” by Bob Buford. This is a follow-up to ‘Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance.’ It is a wonderful book in a series of three about the post-career phase of life and how one can create a road map in their area of interest to make a difference in the lives of others less fortunate. Using their resources and business skills for the cause common good (however you define such). Not-for-profit purposes is how I hope to spend much of my retirement years.
Best piece of advice:
“My dad was one of 16 children raised on a farm in Newberry, Michigan — Upper Peninsula. Growing up poor, he had limited educational opportunities but still managed to own a highly successful welding supply business in downtown Detroit. His advice: ‘Out-work your competition, and hire bright people you trust like a member of your family and then take very good care of them.’”
Biggest professional success:
“I have two worth noting. In the early days of what we now call financial planning (beginning of the 1980s) I was hired by IDS (Investors Diversified Services) directly out of college with no industry experience. They told me that I was the first person in the history of the company to be given that opportunity. Second, I manage one of the largest Raymond James offices in the nation and am the eighth largest producer in the firm that has approximately 5,000 registered representatives.”
Something that would surprise people about
“In our team-oriented staff, administrative and professional, we have over 150 years of combined financial services industry experience. We have five certified financial planners and three registered principals (branch managers). We also have partners in three different decades of life: 30s, 40s and 50s.”
Biggest challenge to our organization:
“There is significant and steadily growing demand for our services given the top-of-mind awareness that financial planning now has for most Americans, as well as demographic shifts (10,000 new retirees daily in to the foreseeable future). The company has quadrupled in size during the past decade. Finding quality individuals with experience that are committed to our mantra of helping others obtain financial independence through comprehensive planning has been difficult at times.”
If you could have lunch with any famous person, who would it be:
“Errett Lobban Cord. He was a leader in the
United States transportation renaissance during the early- to
middle-20th century. Cord founded the Cord Corp. as a holding company
for over 150 companies he controlled, mostly in the field of
transportation, including the Auburn Automobile Co., Cord Automobile,
Lycoming Engines, Duesenberg Inc., New York Shipbuilding, Checker Cab,
Stinson Aircraft and American Airways (later American Airlines). He was
self-made like my father, a brilliant strategist and risk-taker who was
clearly a visionary in his field. I own a 1937 Cord Beverly and have
been a car buff my entire life.
Know someone who we should profile? Send suggestions and contact information to Business editor Al Jones at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:9927dcf7-3840-484b-9a1e-622d93c0644a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2011/04/catching_up_with_tood_a_sanfor.html | 2013-05-24T08:36:11Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962916 | 943 |
Saturday's NHL Playoff Capsules
Originally published April 22, 2012 at midnight, updated April 22, 2012 at 12:55 a.m.
NEW YORK (AP) — Craig Anderson stopped 41 shots to make Jason Spezza's first-period goal stand up, and the Ottawa Senators pushed the top-seeded New York Rangers to the brink of elimination with a 2-0 victory Saturday night in Game 5.
The Senators, the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, have won two straight and will have a chance to knock out the Rangers on Monday night in Ottawa. If New York can stay alive, the deciding Game 7 would be back at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.
Spezza added insurance by scoring an empty-net goal with 55.3 seconds remaining, and Anderson was perfect in earning his second career NHL playoff shutout. He stood tall in the third period when the Rangers pressed for the tying goal. Since New York took a 2-0 lead in the first period of its 3-2 overtime loss in Game 4, Anderson has gone 116 minutes, 32 seconds without allowing a goal.
Henrik Lundqvist was nearly as good in making 28 saves for New York.
CAPITALS 4, BRUINS 3
BOSTON (AP) — Troy Brouwer scored on a power play with 1:27 left, giving Washington the victory and moving defending champion Boston a loss away from elimination.
Brouwer gave the Capitals a 3-2 series lead with his second goal of the playoffs, beating Tim Thomas over the glove with a wrist shot with 37 seconds left on Benoit Pouliot's slashing penalty.
The Capitals can wrap up the best-of-seven series at home Sunday.
The Bruins have been in this predicament before. They trailed the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 last year in the Stanley Cup finals, then won the last two games on the road to capture their first title since 1972.
The Bruins, who trailed 2-0 and 3-2, tied it at 8:47 of the third period on Johnny Boychuk's goal.
Alexander Semin and Jay Beagle scored in the second period to give Washington a 2-0 lead, and Dennis Seidenberg and Brad Marchand tied it with goals in a 28-second span late in the period. Washington regained the lead 3:21 into the third period when Mike Knuble scored off a rebound.
BLACKHAWKS 2, COYOTES 1, OT
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Jonathan Toews scored 2:44 into overtime and Chicago Blackhawks staved off elimination with a 2-1 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday night.
The Blackhawks came up with a tying goal in the third period for the fourth time in the series, though this one came a little earlier than the others with Nick Leddy scoring at 9:15.
That led to the fifth straight overtime game — a first since 1951 — and Toews ended it, beating Mike Smith stick side to pull the Blackhawks to 3-2 in the series.
Chicago rallied from a 3-0 deficit to force Game 7 against Vancouver in the second round last season and will have a chance to even the series in Game 6 on Monday night in Chicago.
Gilbert Brule scored in the second period for Phoenix.
Corey Crawford made 18 saves for Chicago, and Smith stopped 36 shots.
BLUES 3, SHARKS 1
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jamie Langenbrunner and David Perron scored in a 45-second span in the third period, and St. Louis beat San Jose to wrap up the series in five games.
Joe Thornton scored in the final minute of the second period for San Jose, and the Sharks were seemingly in control before the flurry that ended their season.
Brian Elliott made 26 saves, and Andy McDonald ended all doubt with an empty-net goal in the final minute. St. Louis, the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, won a playoff series for the first time in a decade against a franchise that reached the conference finals the previous two years. Before this series, St. Louis hadn't won a playoff game in eight years.
PANTHERS 3, DEVILS 0
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Kris Versteeg scored a goal and set up another, Jose Theodore made 30 saves for his second playoff shutout, and Florida beat New Jersey to move a win away from its first series win in 16 years.
Scottie Upshall also scored for Florida, which leads the Eastern Conference first-round series 3-2. The Panthers' last series victory came in the 1996 East finals, and they'll have two chances to snap that drought.
Tomas Kopecky was credited with an empty-net goal with 34 seconds left, after Ilya Kovalchuk impeded his clear path to the net.
Martin Brodeur made 30 saves for New Jersey, which hosts a win-or-else Game 6 on Tuesday night. If necessary, Game 7 is at Florida on Thursday night. | <urn:uuid:4b9a743f-18a0-4485-9bf7-dda607d3ef38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newstribune.com/news/2012/apr/22/saturdays-nhl-playoff-capsules/ | 2013-05-24T08:59:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945566 | 1,050 |
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Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot: And Other Observationsby Al Franken
Synopses & Reviews
In the grand satirical tradition of Swift, Rabelais, and Twain comes...
Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, and Other Observations
...a scathing — but uncompromisingly fair — look at America's largest talk show host and the rest of the Republican right.
Penned by the Emmy award-winning Saturday Night Live writer whom John Podhoretz of the New York Post has called "the man responsible for some of the most brilliant political satire of our time," Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot tackles the issues — and the politicians — in ways few have dared...
Exploding Medicare Costs: "Why not shoot the elderly into space? Stay with me. Because I'm not just thinking about the budget here. I'm talking about science. Just think how many more manned space operations NASA could undertake if they didn't have to worry about getting the astronauts back."
Crime: "I have a radical gun-buyback idea that I guarantee would be a huge success. Here's how it works: hand in a gun, get a free vial of crack."
Newt Gingrich: "Many of us, like Newt, have acknowledged smoking dope and reading Toffler in the early 70s. But after reading his book, I think Newt's dirty little secret is that he smoked dope and watched The Jetsons."
Phil Gramm: "If you get beyond the fact the Gramm is ugly, mean, hypocritical, has a boob fetish, and drives his wife like a mule, he does have a certain folksy charm."
On the subject of Rush Limbaugh, Franken lets the facts speak for themselves. Listen to Rush, the "rugged individualist" and enemy of government handouts, explain how his second wife made him stop sitting around the house eating junk food and go file for unemployment insurance. And learn all of Rush's several explanations for how he avoided the draft.
Of course, when it comes to draft-dodging Republicans, Rush isn't alone. Reading Al's Vietnam short story, "Operation Chickenhawk," you'll savor the exploits of Privates Limbaugh, Gramm, Quayle, Buchanan, Gingrich, and George Will as Lieutenant Oliver North leads them kicking and screaming into combat.
And don't miss Al's informative discussion with the man who has "the easiest job in America": Rush Limbaugh's fact-checker. And much, much more.
"Franken...does to Limbaugh what the conservative talk-show host has been doing to Democratic politicians for years....A mean-spirited, albeit funny, diatribe that will delight liberals." Publishers Weekly
"Mr. Franken...is a surprisingly witty social commentator....He also trashes himself: a parody review of his book calls it 'vile' and 'mindless tripe'. Funny, angry, and intelligent is more like it." Susan Shapiro, The New York Times Book Review
"[T]here is nothing subtle about the humor here, but it is very well written and sure to be a big seller..." Library Journal
"[Franken is] responsible in part for some of the most brilliant political satire of our time." John Podhoretz, New York Post
"[Franken] attacks with a wonderful lack of civility....Franken's sarcasm is an assault weapon..." Kirkus Reviews
"Funny would probably be enough here, but Franken's book is more. He also offers plenty of solid information....Watch out, Republicans — Franken proves humor is the best revenge." Ilene Cooper, Booklist
Irreverent and hilarious, Al Franken doesn't just say that Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot in this book, he shares his thoughts on everything from health care to Gopac to the economy. The New York Times said it best in their review: This book is "funny, angry, and intelligent." With new material written especially for this trade paperback edition, and Washington constantly brewing with new scandals, Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot And Other Observations is as timely as ever.
Move over, P.J. O'Rourke! From Al Franken, America's premier liberal satirist, comes a hilarious homage to the wonderful and always absurd American political process that skewers a whole new crop of presidential hopefuls — just in time for the 1996 presidential election.
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Arts and Entertainment » Humor » General | <urn:uuid:fd4a6f3d-a430-4882-9ddd-fdb64b215de6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.powells.com/biblio/73-9780440508649-0 | 2013-05-24T09:07:39Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935857 | 995 |
The Opening Pitch: The college football regular season is the best in sports because every game matters. The regular season is, more than any other sport, a de facto playoff. Lose once, you're on notice, if not out; lose twice, and (with ultra-rare exception), your season is over.
Florida and Texas and Ohio State and Penn State and USC may earn our respect as some of the best teams in the country, but they earn no credibility the first week of the season for not challenging themselves when there is the most uncertainty.
Save that admiration for Boise State: The Broncos staked their claim to a BCS-bowl bid by absolutely stifling Oregon's offense. Boise may roll through the weak WAC undefeated, but they can always point back to this game. (Whether Oregon, in hindsight, was as good a team as their preseason record is another question -- based on their sorry offense, let's agree the Ducks were a wee bit overrated.)
Looking ahead to tomorrow: Credit Oklahoma for opening with BYU, one of the top five non-BCS programs. And Alabama for opening for the second consecutive year against a top-10 opponent. Do the same for Georgia and Oklahoma State, which could open up its 2009 season -- as hopeful of a BCS breakthrough as any season in recent OK St. history -- with huge momentum, knocking off a top-15 powerhouse from the SEC.
The point is that, at some point, would-be national contenders not only have to win -- but WHO they are beating matters.
LeGarrette Blount incident: Yikes, was THAT unfortunate. In a very hostile road environment, after the most frustrating offensive performance for Oregon in years, I appreciate that Blount was frustrated. But a player -- college, pro, whatever -- can never, NEVER engage fans in the way Blount did. That he showed sincere remorse almost immediately afterward should matter; he should still be suspended for a game or two.
South Carolina edges NC State in a truly ugly one that reflected the reality that we are so starved for college football that even this terrible football would be acceptable.
Tomorrow's Top CFB Story Lines Today:
• Routs expected: Who will look sluggish?
• Game of the Weekend: OK St.-Georgia
• Statement games: For Bama, OU, OK St
• What if: Notre Dame loses to Nevada?
• What if: Michigan loses to W. Michigan?
This week's Top 25 Picks: Presume ranked beats unranked in every game (or higher-ranked team wins -- ie, OK St. over UGA, Okla over BYU, Bama over VA Tech), EXCEPT: I'll take Nevada over Notre Dame. Charlie Weis starts the season right!
Stop laughing at Notre Dame's folly, Michigan fans: Your team is going to lose, too -- the home opener to Western Michigan. WMU senior QB Tim Hiller > UM freshman QB Tate Forcier. (Yes, WMU's defense is rebuilding; good thing they only have to deal with Michigan's offense.)
Mike Vick reinstated for Week 3: INT? Lost fumble? 4 sacks? Bah! He scored a TD, didn't he? Is Vick ready to be an NFL starting QB? No. Will he be ready by Week 3? No. (Well, it IS against the Chiefs. ...) Will he be able to contribute a red-zone TD per game? Why not?
No NFL salary cap in 2010? Does that mean every NFL owner cuts their payrolls down to the nub? Or that some profligate spender who wants to win now will convince a bunch of good free agents to take huge 1-year deals, perhaps playing on their fears of an unpaid lockout in 2011? Or is "uncapped year" just a technicality?
MLB Talking Points
• NL Game of the Night: Pedro out-pitches Lincecum!
• AL Game of the Night: Red Sox take series in Tampa.
• Hanley helps: Pinch-hit heroics vs. ATL.
• Irony: Oh, NOW the Mets start to win?
• Fantasy Stud: Carlos Torres (7 IP, 0 ER, 6 K, W).
NBA Offseason: Bruce Bowen retires. You may have found his game aggravating, but you can't deny the key role he played during the Duncan Dynasty.
Dirk's ex-g/f Cristal Taylor not pregnant: The NBA's most sensationalized summer scandal appears to reach some closure. (Unless, like me, you had already forgotten about Dirk's L'Affair Cristal.)
NBA Twitter policy: Let's hope the league recognizes that its players’ enthusiasm for Twitter has been a huge boon for the NBA's popularity in social media -- yes, even (perhaps especially) when Charlie V tweeted during halftime; a C-list NBA player became an A-lister in social media.
Schadenfreude: Jeff Jagodzinski fired as Bucs O.C. This after he was fired as BC head coach after he went fishing for an NFL coaching job. Boston College fans now believe in karma.
Dan Shanoff writes The Wake-Up Call every weekday morning for SportingNews.com and blogs daily at DanShanoff.com. Got any comments, questions or feedback? Email Dan at shanofftsn-[at]-gmail-[dot]-com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/danshanoff.
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives. | <urn:uuid:b3243add-38ba-4a2a-9504-f653eecc42e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sbnation.com/2009/9/4/1644589/shanoffs-wuc-boise-vick-pedro-nd | 2013-05-24T08:45:31Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955973 | 1,149 |
The Southern California Trojan, Vol. 14, No. 39, December 19, 1922
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ryywo £ On f/ie Lookout j | Ticket Prices Reduced Nittanny Lions Tough Customers Over-confidence Prevalent Henderson Working Hard Christmas Almost Here Holidays Art Holidays j PRICES TO THE NEW YEAR S j Vol. XIV game were cut in half for the U. S. C. t ■ students, thanks to Warren Bovard Gwynn Wilson snd the Tournament of Roses' officials themselves. Trojans get section of 2500 stats in the cctiter of the field for the rootir.g section ar.d students. Those ttckets are now on sale in the treasurer’s of t.ce. Pack the Rooting Section New Years .California Tickets For Game Go On Sale Today Los Angeles, California, Tuesday, December 19, 1922 No. 39 RECOGNIZE TROJAN IN FORENSICS DOPE POT BOILS AS PENN STATE SQUAD NEARS SCENE OF BATTLE .NITTANNY LlONS ARE a tough lo ;o conquer on the gridiron. They hav< Prologue to the Big Show now going or*. Fenn State booming over the cinders on the way to the Southland; all the camps ’round I about a-hum and a-buzz with prognostications, guesses, surmises, Plan Started to Organize Pacific j hoPes anent the on coming Main Event; the Trojans rounding into Berdine Jack THOUSAND GATHER AT U. FORMAL defeaied iwict> ope sheet slmw this season, but he dope sheet siwiw.s that they made more ground through their opponents' 1 iIi~ in two of those games than was mad*- through their lin<-. which is sav iii}' that the\ ought lo have won tv.«. ol tho:e games. Tie- Pi nn State line j ir* heavy; th»- driving force seems to i <«-nt<-r b**twe* n the two tackles. and ■ no leam this y*-ar has been able t<< | toji tin ir li:i<- plunging That in* ans that Henderson lias <<iti j siderable of a problem trying to figure I out a '-tron?' defense for the ground j gainers from the Quaker region. Tin i Trojan mentor, however, has such a j reputation for football that l.e mav , prove t<i be Daniel in th*1 I.ion's Den : weno’her year rolls around TROJAN STUDENTS HAVE a ter. dency to underrate the eastern team j Where they get the idea that U. S. C i will wm easily cannot be learned, for j Henderson’s pets have only met two really strong teams this season, while the Penn Staters have met six who are as strong as California. Out of these si* big games they lost three, two of those loses were freaks, the other one real. If th*' field is dry and fast on th* 1 first day of next year, the Trojans ma> turn out to he victors. Should ihe I field prove heavy, though, the Hast enters should he favored, for the; have the driving power and weight To carry them through the mud The |*asi Weeti's practice on the wet turf on Bovard Field may prove bene fioial to the Trojan huskies. CHRISTMAS IS COMING almost be fore students are prepared for it. Of ctfurse. students are always prepared for a vacation, hut the Trojan will wager that mom .tf them fiaven't made all the preparations for this Christmas that their former good resolutions had provided for. Many U. S. C. students will go home with a firm determination to write sev eral term papers and catch up with aTl their collateral during the holidays, but they will return on the second day of next year with just as firm a determination to work evenings until they have the work done. Holidays are holidays, no getting around that in the mind of the average student. Coast Inter-Collegiate Debating Conference S. C. INVITED TO JOIN Would Have Schedule Arranged to Determine Championship of C oast Tentative plans for the for mation of a Pacific Coast Inter-Collegiate Debating Conference were laid at a meeting of forensic representatives at Reed College. Washington, a short time ago. U. S. C. has been invited to join this conference. “This comes as a very signal honor,” said Professor Blanks in commenting on the invitation. “It i' i complimentary recognition of 1 S. C We ;:r-‘ inclined to look favorably on the proposal, although ii will have to be passed upon ti\ tlie Faculty Debating Committee mk! by ihe Delia Sigma Who debaling fraternity. Other universities lhal have been asked to join are tlie I'niver-siiv of California. Stanford I'ni-\ ersity. Oregon Agricultural College. fniversity of Oregon. Reed College. Fniversity of Washington, Washington State College, and Whitman 'ollege. Pinal negotiations await the sanction of the institutions concerned. It is planned to have the three institutions in each stall- meet in a tri-to determine the state battle form, on their mettle, anxious for the fray; snap, color, gusto! and a yell and a hush and tlie asbestes fairly burned with fiery, yelling blasts, rises on the “hors d'euvre” of the Football Show, the great Above are The Four Mentors of The I-Jitany Lions Who Are Traveling West to Meet The Trojan Squad at The Tournament of Roses Stadium New Years. From Left to Right The Coaches are: Hinkie Haines, Hugo Bezdek. Bill Martin and George Snell. angular dehat championship. The winning teams from each state will then meet in a triangular contest to decide the chain pionship of the coast. intersectional clash in the Rose Bowl. The Lion or the Trojan? Echo answers, “I think so. Will time honored tradition be ! upheld? Will the modern Daniel, 11 I ihe Trojan, lame the Lions, as of old ? Or will 1 he Lions, fed on ?Iu* modern ‘>|>iri1 of revolt, bite ... (through the Trojan armor as 1 he revitalization of debating ; . , , . . i , j though it were so much chocolate coatingKcho doesn t answer. DEFENSE A PUZZLE * What sort of offensive will Henderson use ! Who will he in the backfield to do all tin* scoring? Enough information has come forth to bank on it that Galloway, Baker and Dolley will comprise three-fourths (continfkd on pack -m through the choice of subjects of dynamic interest to the public at large was also discussed *^VsAAAAAAAAA/WWVAAAAAA/SAAAA , Hunt Succeeds; Ippy Kaks Eat Willie’s Snipes Dear Folks: I am a sick man tonight ma. I’ll tell you why. It was on account of those darned snipes we went hunting for. We didn't get any but will go again next time. And 1 have found out my frat bros aint perservering when tt comes to hunting for snipes. They give tip too easy. Well you see here was the way it is. We drove out in tin* country someplace by Pasadena and stopped on a hill side. As I was good at holding things, they let me hold the sack while they went out and did all the hard work of rounding the snipes up. 1 sat down and began to veil “Here snipie, here snipie," and they went after the snipes. Those frat bros. of mine will never make woodsmen. They lost the trail back to me and never did lind their way back. 1 thought it was a good joke on them as they weren't as good hunters as me. WILLIE’S SQUAWKING SNIPE Well after waiting for a loug time ami yelling “Here snipie." 1 heard a rustle by my side. It was a big dog and he began to lick my face and wanted to play and here 1 was hunting snipes I tried to make him go way but he wouldn't. I kept on saying ‘‘Here snipie" until pretty soon someone came up and says. “Get outa here. What are you doing in my garden So 1 left I went on down the road and pretty soon 1 heard some snipes They sounded just like chickens but I knew they must he snipes So 1 snuk up and grabbed one. He jquawked like a chicken but 1 put ?.im in the sack. Just then that darn tog barked. 1 shut him tip and started ,o get another snipe, when 1 t au into a wire fence and a whole lot of snipes began to squawk .lust then someone <OONT1NCED on last T'ACE) TROJAN IS NEW YEARS PROGRAMME Paper Will Have the “Name of !\ach and Every Player SOLD BY COLLEGE MEN No 'l oungsters to Pester Football I ans W’ith “Official Program SPANISH CLUBS IN JOINT MEET j The New Year’s Trojan will be the official publication at the annual New Year's Day Fast vs. West football classic to be played in the Pasadena stadium. Penn State and F. S. C. are both to be well represented. A four-page rotogravure section featuring ihe pictures, individual and group, of both teams will be of special interest and. also, help in identifying The players. Individual writeups, giving past history, achievements and characteristics of the coaches of the respective Teams will appear in a prominent place. Fniversity men. in U. S. C. rooting caps, are to be the official newsboys. They are to be posted along the dif-ferent roads leading into Pasadena, at the Pacific Electric station and in ihe stadium. The New Year's edition is to be an eleven page paper, costing fifteen cents a copy. Ten thousand copies are to be printed, but. considering the number who will attend the game, it is doubtful if everyone desiring it will be able to purchase his copy unless he does so early. As there is to be no separate program of the game on sale, the Trojan will contain the only reliable, firsthand information of both university and their teams. Next Thursday the Spanish clubs of F. S. C. and Southern Branch will hold a joint meeting at the home of Mrs. Lowther in San Gabriel. The fiesta will begin with a box lunch. Girls will bring a lunch for two. After the lunch, the guests will go over to the Mission church for a short Christmas service. I After the service the students will as- j sentble under the historic old grape | vine for the pinata. The program will follow, consisting of numbers given by each of the clubs. Machines will leave in front of the Administration building at 5:20 p. m. OXNAM TO GIVE RELIGIOUS WORK By an arrangement between Dr. Hill tnd G. Bromley Oxnam. the latter is taking over the classes in Religious Education for the remainder of the term. Dr. Hill has laid the foundation for the course and Oxnam will make practical application of the social teachings of Jesus. Holders of A. S. B. Hooks to Get Neir Years Tick ets Note Holders of the student body books will purchase their tickets to the New Year’s game today and tomorrow at window number 5 of the Treasurer’s office. Ticket number 9 will be torn out. Those students who are not possessors of A. S. B. books will get the second chance at the 2500 seats in the center section, at the price of $2.75, while the faculty will be eligible for the remaining chances, if there are any. One ticket only will be allowed to each student. This measure was taken, according to Gwynn Wilson, to insure students of U. S. C. getting the special rate which the Tournament of Roses have allowed to them. “The tickets were reprinted after the lowering of the price, and we will only have them on sale for two days.” he said. man Has Strong Praise for Corfimittee Work Before F esiivity PROGRAM PLEASES ALL Party Staged Under Auspices of Student Executive Body of u. S. c. One thousand U. S. C. students n gala attire, who assembled in he ballroom of the Hotel Alex;„n Iria last Saturdav evening, agreed n pronouncing the all-University formal the “best ever." Given under the auspices of thc executive committee cf the Asso ,iated Student Body, the affaii was the second' of the three hi*, dl l niversity events to he stayed luring the year. In ihe receiving line for the re cplion which preceded ihe dane« \ ere Dudley I hi Ves. A. S. B • rew, and Berdine Jackman, vice president, as well as president of the affiliated colleges and commit let chairmen. The program, which was brief and popular as had neen predicted, was in 'erspersed between the dances. "A Ballet of the Snowflakes," done by Egan's miniature dancers, five little tots just four years old, captivated the audience. Following the tiny ballet. Harold Allen gave one of his famous whistling solos. “The success of the party," said Miss Jackman, later commenting on the affair, "is due entirely to the splendid spirit of co-operation f-n the part of the committees. It is our desire to put on parties that will furnish a means of bringing together all the young people of the university, on and off the campus; and we endeavor to f I have the affairs so arranged as to be a source of pleasure and agreeable entertainment for all who attend." The third all-Fniversity event to be given by the Associated Student Body probably will he a formal at the Hotel Ambassador some time in tlie spring. COMMERCE MEN HEAR GRUMMERE Cinders Fly as Track Men Prepare For Stiff Season By BILL RICE With old King Football about to draw his last gasp over the defunct form of the Penn State Nittany Lions on New Year’s Day, the nights of the cinderpath are breaking out the old spiked shoes and umbering up their muscles in preparation for one of the stiffest Trojan track schedules in many moons. With Charley Paddock, world's champion, and sprintdcm’s ace cf aces, to top the bill, Couch Cromwell has an array of dash talent hat would cause an Egyptian’ .nummy tc shimmy and chortle FORTY-TWO U. S. C. Next to the one and only nnr\\ P(\ MADTU TA Charley as a headline attraction Iflfcli \|U nUillll IU tnd potential point getter comes rtn/l k D MrFTllir one Otto Anderson, already fa- ASILOMAR MEETING nous in I rojan athletic history a> a football star of no small mairni- ,, ,, _ .. ~.r .. __ , I , *• U. S. C. Men Describe Meetings Hue. ( H i o was 1 fie sensation ot . * i t i i .... at Annual Y. M. L. A. asi vestr s frosti s'inad as a hut it ii i - i i Convention Her anil broad jumper, atnl he gained a firm nileh for himself in uhletic pnnals of the West Itst Fefc-uary 2nd when on the opening day >f the Far We.-tern track and field hampioLship meet at Sacramento, t.e pppe»l three hrst places end ihe honor »f meet high poiru man. Oho took he high barriers in the fast time of *>;:!, and negotiated the low hnr lies in 24:2. Just to make ir a per ecf day tie carried oft first place in ihe broad jump with a i* ap of 22 feet .>4 inches. OLYMPIC STAR ON TEAM Alma Richards, former Olympic man and premier field star, is another >f Cromwell's bets this season. Alma is an all around performer in the field , pastimes, shining in the shot put. dis-':us. high jump and broad jump events. Another record breaker to grace Cromwell’s rolls is Oliver Cory, who holds the Southern California high ; jump record of feet 4-'?4 indie-,. Lynn Davis is aiso a high jumper of ability, having a win over California tt) his credit. Yale Martz. Aden Hughes and ico.NTiNfKP i >x Last HACKETT IS SINGER IN PROGRAMME One w» ek from today 42 enthusiastic Asilomar delegates will leave T.os An-gr-les for Monterey Bay. where they will spend Christmas vacation Final plans f«.r leaving will be form uktred this aft* rnoon at * o'clock at the • V ’ hut, and all delegates are re quested to he there. Assignment for <*tr-, will also be distributed. The day after Christmas is the day set lor departure anti Paso Robles will be reached by nightfall, after a stop at Santa Barbara for lunch, and Monterey Bay a few hours later. CAL. TO LEAD DELEGATES ( California ami Stanford still lead in attendance but the F. S. C.’s tlelepa lion comes close behind with Its 42 men. Of these 42 over half are men who have gone before and can not miss the opportunity to go again. This spirit is expressed by Lawrence TorUh ach»r. who said. “It is one of the big gest opportunities ;i college man has. for he is stimulated to think along the biggest problem of his life his Life Work. The wonderful scenery and \ surroundings are also things not to be ‘ missed." President von KleinSmid and Pro-| lessor Montgomery also praise the work of Asilomar highly. But Asilomar has another side be sides its serious one. Serge Kolesort iconti\i i:i> t >.\* »\u:f. SPANISH EXHIBIT * F. S. C. Department of Spanish is exhibiting its annual Nacimiento or Nativity on Wednesday. A cordial invitation is extended to all members of the student body who are inter e-tod in this unique exhibit of a Span ish custom to call and see the exhibit PAULINE ASSOCIATION << CINCH SUPS” OUT FOR XMAS COMPETITION SOON AMONG GLEE CLUBS Glee clubs of all the universities of California are to hold a contest at IT. S. C. this coming spring, according to an announcement made by Harry Har din. manager of the U. S. C. dee Club. The date of the contest has not been settled. Mrs. J. J. Carter, president of Hollywood Community Chorus, and well known patroness of music, has promised to act as sponsor for the affair. It will probably take place at the Phil haarmonic Auditorium. A corporation was formed December 1. of combined glee clubs with alumni representatives from Stanford, California. F. S. C„ and Pomona as directors. This organization is similar to Eastern glee clubs. Stanford took the initiative in this movement at the first meeting of glee club representatives held in September at that univrsity. Famous Tenor Is Heard Large Crowd Last Evening “Ethics of Modern Business" was the _ .subjec t of an address delivered before I FIRST NUMBER ON COURSE the College of Commerce assembly last ! - Thursday morning, by Mr. Charles t Noted Musicians to Appear On Grttmmere of the Cleveland Discount Fulure Programs—Few Company. * Tickets Left Announcement was made of the for [ .. ,. oil i • I Inaugurating the University ot mation ot the Commerce Scholarship! c • , i , I Southern California Women’s Club con- Society with twelve upper classmen 1 comprising the membership. ENGINEER’S MEET by TO BE FEATURED BY BIG SPEAKERS Christmas cards, familiarly known j as “cinches,” are out again, calling attention to the fact that certain liues of endeavor, as indicated on the cards, need more attention from the recipient. Cards are being put out before vaca-!4<in. that they may subtly suggest that ' of the year to take up Religious Educa SAM STAGG TO .SPEAK BEFORE VOLUNTEERS Sam Stagg, who is leaving the first All students preparing for the ministry are asked to hear Prof. Wm. C. Smith. Wednesday. December 2tt. at 12:ir> p. m.. room 106. It will be worth your time to be present. not all the ensuing days of freedom be spent in leisure. Fully eight hundred students will be asked to take heed "via the white cards." So far the demand for these warnings has been greater than the supply. Fully two-thirds of the anxious inquirers have been sent away conscience-free. . However, the registrar’s office advises that those cards not called for immediately will be mailed home. ATTENTION! GRADUATES! Graduate pictures for the El Rodeo are being taken Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, in the El Rodeo Office, Journalism Building. lion work in Manila, will speak at the Volunteer meeting. Wednesday, at 3:15. in Y Hut. USHERS ALL SECURED C One hundred men from F. S working under the Tournament of Roses' officials will usher at the New Year's game. According to reports from the "Y" the list>Js all signed up. GIRLS’ GLEE MEETS GRADUATES DINE AT U. CAFETERIA Forty graduate students, last Friday, attended the semi-monthly lnncheon in the Fniversity cafeteria. Mrs. Gnlick, a graduate of Cornell, gave an unusually interesting talk on the out standing features of that representa tive institution. Mr. Lacy, president of the graduate association, announces another luncheon, the second Friday after Christmas vacation. LIBRARY IS OPEN DURING VACATION A. A. E. Gathers Tonight in University Parlors for Important General Meeting Probably the most important anti interesting meeting of the year for the American Association of Engi neers will be held Tuesday evening at 7:30 in the university parlors. The meeting will be called to order in room 206 of the Administration building for a few minutes of discussion on v.<ri cert series, Charles Hackett, American tenor, appeared last night in the Bovard Auditorium before an enthusiastic audience which comfortably filled the large assembly hall. It was the largest audience which ever greet- oils business matters, after which the ed a concert artist at F. S how [ members will go to the university par The Library will be open during the Christmas vacation from 9 a. m. to 4 p. m. every day except Christmas day anil New Year’s day. and will be closed Saturday at 12:."»0. The administration has decided to keep the Library open evenings after January 2. from 7 to p. m. This is in response to a petition from the ex ecutive committee of the Student Body. There will be no change in the time collateral reading may bf taken .from the Library. PROF. POWER ON STAFF Busjness Woman’s Magazine, a new publication issued each month, includes on its staff of special writers Prof. R. L. Power of lT. S. C. The holiday issue will contain his analysis of business women in America and abroad, while future numbers will publish data on educational topics. ever, outsiders made up the greater part of the number who appeared. Fresh from the applause of London and Paris, Hackett was in good voice last night. Those who heard the art ist a few years ago when he appeared with Geraldine Farrar on a concert tour of the West and who heard him again last evening were surprised in no small degree. From a singer of ballads. Hackett has risen to the ranks of a Metropolitan dramatic opera star. Haekett’s voice has grown incredP- lors where Hubert C Fury, national director of the A ^ E . will preseDt the recently won wiving cup to tho student chapter. This meeting will be especially important. as the members of the Los Angeles City Chapter will be the in vited guests of the evening. All of ihe prominent engineers of Southern California are expected to be present and it is thought by Mr. R. E Rowley, president of the F. S. C. chapter, that this meeting will serve a splendid pur ably. His vocal range permits him to i I*°se *n placing before these men who sing ballads anil Wagner apparently ) a,v so capable of judgment, the spirit, with equal east today. To those who are of the opinion that only Europe An elaborate program has been planned, including au address by President von KleinSmid. a selection bv principles and controlling elements in the life of F. S. C." can produce the great singers of opera. Hackett presents a baffling problem. t He is an inspiring example for the American youth, for he shows that it is possible for an American, trained 1 in American institutions, to compete with the most eminent of Europe’s ; artists. Though the concert last night was 1 both an artistic and financial success, the directors of the concert series re- j gref that students have not availed j themselves of the opportunity of he:'i the engineer's jazz orchestra, which promises to make Max Fischer's bunch sound like tin pan alley, and much vociferation of the A. A. E. “male” quartet, introducing a number of new engineering songs. Eats will occupy a prominent part in the evening’s program as usual, in the form of something new and appetizing. Among those engineers of the city ing some of the greatest singers in the "ho are expected to be pres- world at prices within the reach of everyone. It is hoped that the remaining few seats will be disposed of to students before they are purchased by the outside public. The treasurer of last year’s Girls' Glee Club wishes to meet all girls POWER ON COUNCIL Professor R L Power is the Cali- NAVAL RESERVE MEETS All men interested in the Naval Re serve are asked to meet in the Exfen now in school who were iu the club j siou office Wednesday at 12 o’clock, to ! fornia member of the editorial council last year at 4 o'clock. Tuesday, in meet Mr. Ryerson. The meeting will | for the 1923 issue of the National Spe-Room 305. Bovard. only last about ten minutes. 1 cial Libraries Directory. ent anti speak are: H. 7. Osborne. Jr . chief engineer of public utilities; J. H. Clarke, Professor C. W. Lawrence, J. B. Lippincott, consulting engineer; W W Patch of the State Highway De-j nartment. and W. [) Armstrong. County Bridge engineer. The F s. C. chapter is expected to be out leu per cent to welcome the visitors and celebrate tht* winning of their handsome cup.
|Title||The Southern California Trojan, Vol. 14, No. 39, December 19, 1922|
|Description||The Southern California Trojan, Vol. 14, No. 39, December 19, 1922.|
ryywo £ On f/ie Lookout j Ticket Prices Reduced Nittanny Lions Tough Customers Over-confidence Prevalent Henderson Working Hard Christmas Almost Here Holidays Art Holidays j PRICES TO THE NEW YEAR S j Vol. XIV game were cut in half for the U. S. C. t ■ students, thanks to Warren Bovard Gwynn Wilson snd the Tournament of Roses' officials themselves. Trojans get section of 2500 stats in the cctiter of the field for the rootir.g section ar.d students. Those ttckets are now on sale in the treasurer’s of t.ce. Pack the Rooting Section New Years .California Tickets For Game Go On Sale Today Los Angeles, California, Tuesday, December 19, 1922 No. 39 RECOGNIZE TROJAN IN FORENSICS DOPE POT BOILS AS PENN STATE SQUAD NEARS SCENE OF BATTLE .NITTANNY LlONS ARE a tough lo ;o conquer on the gridiron. They hav< Prologue to the Big Show now going or*. Fenn State booming over the cinders on the way to the Southland; all the camps ’round I about a-hum and a-buzz with prognostications, guesses, surmises, Plan Started to Organize Pacific j hoPes anent the on coming Main Event; the Trojans rounding into Berdine Jack THOUSAND GATHER AT U. FORMAL defeaied iwict> ope sheet slmw this season, but he dope sheet siwiw.s that they made more ground through their opponents' 1 iIi~ in two of those games than was mad*- through their lin<-. which is sav iii}' that the\ ought lo have won tv.«. ol tho:e games. Tie- Pi nn State line j ir* heavy; th»- driving force seems to i <«-nt<-r b**twe* n the two tackles. and ■ no leam this y*-ar has been able t<< toji tin ir li:i<- plunging That in* ans that Henderson lias <| | <urn:uuid:b0044663-704d-41be-b4b2-cedb3d2bff5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll104/id/11579/rec/34 | 2013-06-18T23:00:13Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933559 | 6,459 |
it has been easy this month to pick my faves, cos I keep reaching for the same things quite often!
You might have seen or heard me using some of these products quite a lot this month, some I have reviewed and featured, so let's jump right into it!
Make up items: ** click the links within to check out the respective haul/ rave entry **
- Lancome Teint Miracle (click here for my review and half-face experiment) can truly say it is one of my fave foundations!
- NARS Blushes in Madly & Luster - both are very easy to wear, natural colors that gives you a nice pop of color on your cheeks, healthy flush! Luster has a gold sheen, compared to Madly which more shimmery. Both colors have been featured in almost all of my recent LOTDs... so check those out too.
- Chanel Extrait De Gloss in Genie - love everything about this gloss, non stickey, smells great, pretty color, cool name, and did I mention, it's Chanel? Worth every cent of the $44 price tag!
- Chanel Khaki Vert
- K-palette long lasting eyebrow marker 01 - I didn't think a marker pen would be able to define my brows, but this amazes me, each time I used it, it can define my cavewoman brows giving them a very natural and groomed look. And it is very lasting throughout the day without any fading. The only downside, the tip of the marker can be a little clumped by foundation residue when you use it after some time... and so the tip can sometimes feel a little 'dry' and no ink comes out, you know, that kind of feeling?
- MAC Superslick liner in Signature Blue
- Clarins Instant Light Brush on Perfector 00 - perfect for brightening under my eyes, and to cover light spots
A closer look at some of the products mentioned above:
And for non-makeup items, we have the following:
- NIVEA Men's whitening facial foam -- confession: I 'stunt-ed' this from the brother when I ran out of my cleanser and hasn't felt the need to purchase my own cleanser yet. It lathers well, smells clean and fresh, and it promises to lighten and even out your skin tone! Wow! I need to look into men's skin care.... maybe it would be a lot less complicated, and more no-nonsense, straight to the point effective?
- Clarins Hydra Quench Cooling Cream-Gel -- I received this a while back during a Clarins event, and only used it recently when I needed an additional face cream, and I am really impressed by its texture. Light but creamy, not oily, smells awesome. Doesn't make my face oily at all when I wake up the next morning. I use my Clarins face lifting serum, followed by this cream.
- Kiehl's Formula 133 - Read all about my rave here.
- Body Shop Olive Body shampoo - bought a load of these at the TBS sale, plus the matching shampoo. My fave scent and formulaton!
And products mentioned up close:
I am running out of some stuff, and also need to replenish a couple of base items in my routine:
- a loose setting powder: right now, my MUFE super matte loose powder is almost all gone, and I still my huge tub of La Mer but I want choices! So I am expecting a Laura Mercier one coming soon, I hope that would live up to its hype and work out for me. Otherwise, it's back to the MUFE super matte.
- a foundation primer: I still have my chifure, I bought a bunch of rmk ones from some sale earlier this year? not sure if they are expired, but either way, i haven't checked, and I am itching to try out something new.....any recommendations? Or else, I can always go back to my Sana pore putty, or the very first RMK creamy base. Is there anything from Dior, or Shiseido/ Maquillage, or Shu Uemura that works wonders? Hmmm.....
Here is the LOTD with Tzarine eyeshadow duo, and Douceur blush, and on my lips, I am wearing TOPSHOP Pinch cream blush.
* pardon the terribly messed tangled hair mess in this pic! *
That's all, and what are some products you are loving this month? If you have any questions about the products mentioned here, do leave in the comments below!
Thanks for looking! | <urn:uuid:a0b61b92-10d9-43be-95a0-458f657fd567> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://retailtherapy.onsugar.com/September-2010-Faves-Quick-NARS-Tzarine-LOTD-11216569 | 2013-06-18T22:31:23Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943462 | 973 |
Psalm CXXVI. 5492
1. …How man had come into captivity, let us ask the Apostle Paul.…For he saith: “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.” 5493 Behold whence we became captives; because we were sold under sin. Who sold us? We ourselves, who consented to the seducer. We could sell ourselves; we could not redeem ourselves. We sold ourselves by consent of sin, we are redeemed in the faith of righteousness. For innocent blood was given for us, that we might be redeemed. Whatsoever blood he shed in persecuting the righteous, what kind of blood did he shed? Righteous mens blood, indeed, he shed; they were Prophets, righteous men, our fathers, and Martyrs. Whose blood he shed, yet all coming of the offspring of sin. One blood he shed of Him who was not justified, 5494 but born righteous: by shedding that blood, he lost those whom he held. For they p. 604 for whom innocent blood was given were redeemed, and, turned back from their captivity, they sing this Psalm.
2. “When the Lord turned back the captivity of Sion, we became as those that are comforted” (Psa. 126.1). He meant by this to say, we became joyful. When? “When the Lord turned back the captivity of Sion.” What is Sion? Jerusalem, the same is also the eternal Sion. How is Sion eternal, how is Sion captive? In angels eternal, in men captive. For not all the citizens of that city are captives, but those who are away from thence, they are captives. Man was a citizen of Jerusalem, but sold under sin he became a pilgrim. Of his progeny was born the human race, and the captivity of Sion filled all lands. And how is this captivity of Sion a shadow of that Jerusalem? The shadow of that Sion, which was granted to the Jews, in an image, in a figure, was in captivity in Babylonia, and after seventy years that people turned back to its own city. 5495 …But when all time is past, then we return to our country, as after seventy years that people returned from the Babylonish captivity, for Babylon is this world; since Babylon is interpreted “confusion.”…So then this whole life of human affairs is confusion, which belongeth not unto God. In this confusion, in this Babylonish land, Sion is held captive. But “the Lord hath turned back the captivity of Sion.” “And we became,” he saith, “as those that are comforted.” That is, we rejoiced as receiving consolation. Consolation is not save for the unhappy, consolation is not save for them that groan, that mourn. Wherefore, “as those that are comforted,” except because we are still mourning? We mourn for our present lot, we are comforted in hope: when the present is passed by, of our mourning will come everlasting joy, when there will be no need of consolation, because we shall be wounded with no distress. But wherefore saith he “as” those that are comforted, and saith not comforted? This word “as,” is not always put for likeness: when we say “As,” it sometimes refers to the actual case, sometimes to likeness: here it is with reference to the actual case.…Walk therefore in Christ, and sing rejoicing, sing as one that is comforted; because He went before thee who hath commanded thee to follow Him.
3. “Then was our mouth filled with joy, and our tongue with exultation” (Psa. 126.2). That mouth, brethren, which we have in our body, how is it “filled with joy”? It useth not to be “filled,” save with meat, or drink, or some such thing put into the mouth. Sometimes our mouth is filled; and it is more that we say to your holiness, 5496 when we have our mouth full, we cannot speak. But we have a mouth within, that is, in the heart, whence whatsoever proceedeth, if it is evil, defileth us, if it is good, cleanseth us. For concerning this very mouth ye heard when the Gospel was read. For the Jews reproached the Lord, because His disciples ate with unwashen hands. 5497 They reproached who had cleanness without; and within were full of stains. They reproached, whose righteousness was only in the eyes of men. But the Lord sought our inward cleanness, which if we have, the outside must needs be clean also. “Cleanse,” He saith, “the inside,” and “the outside shall be clean also.” 5498 …
4. But let us return to what was just now read from the Gospel, relating to the verse before us, “Our mouth was filled with joy, and our tongue with delight:” for we are inquiring what mouth and what tongue. Listen, beloved brethren. The Lord was scoffed at, because His disciples ate with unwashed hands. The Lord answered them as was fitting, and said unto the crowds whom He had called unto Him, “Hear ye all, and understand: not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.” 5499 What is this? when He said, what goeth into the mouth, He meant only the mouth of the body. For meat goeth in, and meats defile not a man; because, “All things are clean to the clean;” and, “every creature of God is good, and none to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving.” 5500 …
5. Guard the mouth of thy heart from evil, and thou wilt be innocent: the tongue of thy body will be innocent, thy hands will be innocent; even thy feet will be innocent, thy eyes, thy ears, will be innocent; all thy members will serve under righteousness, because a righteous commander hath thy heart. “Then shall they say among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them.”
6. “Yea, the Lord hath done great things for us already, whereof we rejoice” (Psa. 126.3). Consider, my brethren, if Sion doth not at present say this among the heathen, throughout the whole world; consider if men are not running unto the Church. In the whole world our redemption is received; Amen is answered. The dwellers in Jerusalem, therefore, captive, destined to return, pilgrims, sighing for their country, speak thus among the heathen. What do they say? “The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we rejoice.” Have they done anything for themselves? They have done ill with themselves, for they have sold themselves under sin. The Redeemer came, and did the good things for them.
7. “Turn our captivity, O Lord, as the torrents in the south” (Psa. 126.4). Consider, my p. 605 brethren, what this meaneth.…As torrents are turned in the south, so turn our captivity. In a certain passage Scripture saith, in admonishing us concerning good works, “Thy sins also shall melt away, even as the ice in fair warm weather.” 5501 Our sins therefore bound us. How? As the cold bindeth the water that it run not. Bound with the frost of our sins, we have frozen. But the south wind is a warm wind: when the south wind blows, the ice melts, and the torrents are filled. Now winter streams are called torrents; for filled with sudden rains they run with great force. We had therefore become frozen in captivity; our sins bound us: the south wind the Holy Spirit hath blown: our sins are forgiven us, we are released from the frost of iniquity; as the ice in fair weather, our sins are melted. Let us run unto our country, as the torrents in the south.…
8. For the next words are, “They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy” (Psa. 126.5). In this life, which is full of tears, let us sow. What shall we sow? Good works. Works of mercy are our seeds: of which seeds the Apostle saith, “Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” 5502 Speaking therefore of almsgiving itself, what saith he? “This I say; he that soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly.” 5503 He therefore who soweth plentifully, shall reap plentifully: he who soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly: and he that soweth nothing, shall reap nothing. Why do ye long for ample estates, where ye may sow plentifully? There is not a wider field on which ye can sow than Christ, who hath willed that we should sow in Himself. Your soil is the Church; sow as much as ye can. But thou hast not enough to do this. Hast thou the will? 5504 As what thou hadst would be nothing, if thou hadst not a good will; so do not despond, because thou hast not, if thou hast a good will. For what dost thou sow? Mercy. And what wilt thou reap? Peace. Said the Angels, Peace on earth unto rich men? No, but, “Peace on earth unto men of a good will.” 5505 Zacchæus had a strong will, Zacchæus had great charity. 5506 …Did then that widow who cast her two farthings into the treasury, sow little? Nay, as much as Zacchæus. For she had narrower means, but an equal will. She gave her two mites 5507 with as good a will as Zacchæus gave the half of his patrimony. If thou consider what they gave, thou wilt find their gifts different; if thou look to the source, thou wilt find them equal; she gave whatever she had, and he gave what he had.…But if they are beggars whose profession is asking alms, in trouble they also have what to bestow upon one another. God hath not so forsaken them, but that they have wherein they may be tried by their bestowing of alms. This man cannot walk; he who can walk, lendeth his feet to the lame; he who seeth, lendeth his eyes to the blind; and he who is young and sound, lendeth his strength to the old or the infirm, carrieth him: the one is poor, the other is rich.
9. Sometimes also the rich man is found to be poor, and something is bestowed upon him by the poor. Somebody cometh to a river, so much the more delicate as he is more rich; he cannot pass over: if he were to pass over with bare limbs, he would catch cold, would be ill, would die: a poor man more active in body cometh up: he carries the rich man over; he giveth alms unto the rich. Think not therefore those only poor, who have not money.…Thus love ye, thus be ye affectioned unto one another. Attend not solely to yourselves: but to those who are in want around you. But because these things take place in this life with troubles and cares, faint not. Ye sow in tears, ye shall reap in joy.
10. How, my brethren? When the farmer goeth forth with the plough, carrying seed, is not the wind sometimes keen, and doth not the shower sometimes deter him? He looketh to the sky, seeth it lowering, shivers with cold, nevertheless goeth forth, and soweth. For he feareth lest while he is observing the foul weather, and awaiting sunshine, the time may pass away, and he may not find anything to reap. Put not off, my brethren; sow in wintry weather, sow good works, even while ye weep; for, “They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy.” They sow their seed, good will, and good works. “They went on their way and wept, casting their seed” (Psa. 126.6). Why did they weep? Because they were among the miserable, and were themselves miserable. It is better, my brethren, that no man should be miserable, than that thou shouldest do alms.…Nevertheless, as long as there are objects for its exercise, let us not fail amid those troubles to sow our seed. Although we sow in tears, yet shall we reap in joy. For in that resurrection of the dead, each man shall receive his own sheaves, that is, the produce of his seed, the crown of joys and of delight. Then will there be a joyous triumph, when we shall laugh at death, wherein we groaned before: then shall they say to death, “O death, where is thy strife? O death, where is thy sting?” 5508 But why do they now rejoice? Because “they bring their sheaves with them.”
11. In this Psalm we have chiefly exhorted you to do deeds of alms, because it is thence that we ascend; and ye see that he who ascendp. 606 eth, singeth the song of steps. Remember: do not love to descend, instead of to ascend, but reflect upon your ascent: because he who descended from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves. 5509 …The Samaritan as He passed by slighted us not: He healed us, He raised us upon His beast, upon His flesh; He led us to the inn, that is, the Church; He entrusted us to the host, that is, to the Apostle; He gave two pence, whereby we might be healed, 5510 the love of God, and the love of our neighbour. The Apostle spent more; for, though it was allowed unto all the Apostles to receive, as Christs soldiers, pay from Christs subjects, 5511 that Apostle, nevertheless, toiled with his own hands, and excused the subjects the maintenance owing to him. 5512 All this hath already happened: if we have descended, and have been wounded; let us ascend, let us sing, and make progress, in order that we may arrive.
Lat. CXXV. A song of degrees. A sermon to the people.603:5493
Rom. vii. 14.603:5494
Or, “made righteous.”604:5495
Jer. 25:11, Jer. 29:10.604:5496
[A bishop seems to have been present.—C.]604:5497
Matt. xv. 1, etc.604:5498
Matt. xxiii. 26.604:5499
Matt. 15:10, 11.604:5500
1 Tim. iv. 4.605:5501
Gal. vi. 9.605:5503
2 Cor. ix. 6.605:5504
Oxf. mss. “have a good will.”605:5505
Luke ii. 14.605:5506
Luke xix. 8.605:5507
Luke xxi. 1-4.605:5508
1 Cor. xv. 55.606:5509
Luke x. 30.606:5510
Luke 10:35, 37.606:5511
Provincialibus. 1 Cor. iv. 2.606:5512
1 Thess. 2:7, 9, 2 Thess. 3:8, 9. | <urn:uuid:2b505539-fa5b-46fc-97b5-35a7b844ce6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/108/1080159.htm | 2013-06-18T22:33:24Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962537 | 3,395 |
“What is the Superman we need for today?” The question haunts Paul Pope, and the comic book artist’s long-awaited opus Battling Boy, which publisher First Second Books will release on October 8. The graphic novel — the first of two volumes which combined will exceed 400 pages — represents the first major work from this leading light of independent comics since his mainstream breakthrough in 2006, the Eisner winning Batman: Year 100, a future-punk take on the dark knight rendered in his distinctive Kirby-strong storytelling that mixes kinetic Manga energy with expressive lines often associated with European comics. Battling Boy will arrive about three years behind schedule, and following a creative journey as epic as the saga itself, involving such larger-than-life characters as Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin, acclaimed novelist Michael Chabon, and superstar Brad Pitt. Says Pope: “It’s been a strange couple years.”
More about Pope’s adventure through the Hollywood looking-glass in a bit. First: The book. Battling Boy is set on an alternate Earth – there are countless within this Lovecraftian multiverse — that’s having of a crisis moment: Monsters from another realm are terrorizing the dystopian sprawl of Arcopolis. When the ghouls assassinate the city’s high flying protector, a stern and gadgety Batman-meets-Iron Man type named Haggard West (he has a jet pack; drives a “Westmobile”), the suffering masses receive a new hero from the interdimensional mystical mothership from which all heroes come from: A haughty yet naïve superboy, the scrapping son of a war god. (You’ll meet both father and son in our exclusive excerpt from the book, which begins on page three.)
Battling Boy isn’t the only next gen hero in Battling Boy. There’s also a great female character in Aurora, the daughter of Haggard West, a wannabe hero fueled by vengeance (and a clever riff on the motherless orphan-hero archetype made popular by Disney). The learning curve for both budding do-gooders won’t be easy. “They are young people with great potential who don’t know what to do,” says Pope, who aspired to spin a yarn that worked as a viscerally entertaining fantasy and sly genre commentary. Pope feels the likes of Batman and Iron Man – while interesting and entertaining – have been “grandfathered in,” and might even be a little… well, haggard, if you will, despite recent efforts to make them relevant. “It just doesn’t feel like anyone has dipped the cup into the well and drawn a new hero for the 21st century,” says Pope. “That was my goal.” Expect a story steeped in Jungian archetypes, Campbellian mythological story structure, and takes seriously many things that many superhero comics don’t – including the role of violence in the superhero approach to solving the timeless problem of evil. And as you can see from our preview, it’s also ripping fun.
Pope’s earliest inspiration for Battling Boy came when he was working on Batman: Year 100 and found himself mulling the ironic relationship new century young people must have a pop culture super-saturated with Uber-people narratives, not to mention an alarming surplus of bleaker, scarier, painfully real tales. “I had heard one too many stories about some little kid who got abducted or murdered,” says Pope, 42, a native of Bowling Green, Ohio who currently lives in New York City. “At the time I was working on Batman: Year 100, and it felt like such a challenge to work on these hero fantasies knowing that children read them, and knowing that children know that they’re really not all that safe.”
Such cognitive dissonance could have derailed his bread-and-butter work. Instead, Pope recognized that the ideas and themes within that drama that could feed a provocative comic book about fantastic heroes and our relationship to them. But it would take him awhile to actually sit down and make that comic book. In 2006, movie director Stephen Daldry (The Hours; Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) recruited to Pope to join the creative team that was developing an adaptation of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon’s celebrated 2000 novel about a pair of Jewish cousins wrestling with complex issues of identity – ethnic, immigrant, religious, artistic, cultural, sexual – as they participate in the heady and exploitative and volatile evolution of the American comic book industry. Pope contributed to various aspects of the production, including artwork that helped bring to visual life the history of comics. He recalls, with relish, the brainstorming sessions with Daldry, producer Scott Rudin, and especially Chabon, and how their big picture talk of superheroes, mythology, and storytelling inspired ideas that nourished the world of Battling Boy that was taking shape in his imagination. “I began thinking: What is the Superman we need for today?” says Pope. “ And I thought, ‘I think kids would love to see a kid who kills monsters.’”
NEXT: Enter Brad Pitt. | <urn:uuid:1f8345ce-186a-4cad-959a-b8ca7c68b7b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shelf-life.ew.com/2013/01/16/battling-boy-paul-popes-epic-creative-quest-to-create-a-new-generation-superhero-exclusive-excerpt/ | 2013-06-18T22:31:23Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957458 | 1,110 |
by Joe Shea
June 2, 2011
$1-BILLION PROJECT FOR FLORIDA'S PORT MANATEE REVEALED - ALONG WITH A WELL-KEPT SECRET
BRADENTON, Fla., June 2, 2011 -- For months now, two of the best-kept secrets in Manatee County government have been the secret site plans and planning staff reviews of code-named "Project Royal" and "Project Palm" in the county's new Port Manatee Encouragement Zone.
That's an area east of the South Florida Gulf Coast's Port of Manatee where port-related businesses are expected to locate as the port grows with the expansion of the Panama Canal.
On Thursday, with no fanfare at all and a simple PowerPoint presentation, a little bit about the mystery projects slipped out when Project Royal was forced by a commissioner's enthusiasm for the Palm project to reveal that Project Royal is the code name for a project by railroad giant CSX and shipper Green Express to build a rail hub in the Encouragement Zone; a press release said the plans a long-term, $1-billion investment it says will create 2,400 new, permanent jobs here over the next two decades.
Logisitics Port Manatee, or LPM, the developers, are also planning 400 hires in the short term, and 500 during onstruction, which is expected to cost about $15 million, they told the Land Use Committee of the Manatee County Board of Commissioners, sitting Thursday afternoon in the downtown Bradenton county government chambers.
The item was the very last on the committee's agenda, long after the crowd and reporters that heard a two-hour, contentious debate about a local bar's music issues went home. After Commission Chair Carol Whitmore recessed the session at noon, the project was the only remaining scheduled item on the agenda. When she resumed the meeting at 1:30, only one reporter of the three that covered the morning session was there.
Meanwhile, Project Palm, according to an attorney for the Port Royal project who spoke with The Bradenton Times after the meeting, is an entertainment industry-related project comparable "to Disney On Ice," and would be a second enormous job-creator here.
Just the same, commissioners and even the port's director say they have no idea what Project Palm is; none of the commissioners have been in on the negotiations, and the most any of them would say about Project Palm is that "it's a big company."
Shrouded by confidentiality provisions of Florida's open-government Sunshine Act, Project Royal was described to commissioners Thursday as a "major, major link" by rail to major "consumption zones" in New York and Chicago for fresh and flash-frozen foods from Florida and points sou th. The county is home to several of the largest tomato producers in the world.
Both projects are taking advantage of the present dredging of Port Manatee, which will dramatically improve its accessibility to container ships as it is becomes the closest deepwater port to the Panama Canal. The Canal Zone is undergoing a $700 million dredging and expansion of its own port to accommodate the huge ships.
Largely due to that proximity and the high cost of fuel, Port Manatee should soon become a major economic engine for the local and state economy. It is just one of Florida's 14 ports, but it has found favor with the state's otherwise tight-fisted governor as a new generator of tax revenues and jobs. Tens of millions of dollars were approved by Gov. Rick Scott for digging the deepwater channel at Port Manatee to a depth of 41 feet, enough for the beam of virtually any cargo ship steaming north from Panama.
"This is a major, major link," project Royal attorney Carol McGuire told commissioners.
From Commission Chair Carol Whitmore came a loud and clear, heartfelt "Thank you!"
Under the partnership between CSX and Green Express outlined by company resident VP for Florida Bob O'Malley, foods shipped from Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and points south or via the Panama Canal to the LPM hub would be carried by truck across US 41 to be stored briefly in a planned 66,600-sq.ft. refrigerated facility in the Encouragement Zone.
Green Express, via CSX, would provide Class 1 direct connectivity to a dedicated rail hub in Kingsbury, Ind., a southeast Chicago suburb that serves the "consumption zones" of Chicago and New York - some 41 million people are within 250 miles, LPM said in a press release.
Meanwhile, the Green Express will open new markets for Midwestern farmers who want to get fresh foods to the estimated 20.1 million residents of Florida.
"This is huge - huge - for Manatee County," said McGuire, representing developer Providence Logistics and Joe Mikes, owner of 733 acres of the proposed rail hub site. The eventual land acquisitions will total 2,300 acres, McGuire told the board.
Bob O'Malley, the resident vice president of CSX for Florida, accompanied by five project engineers, property owners and developers, told the Land Use Committee - which decides on all plans for development in the county, including the Port - that it will eventually build two miles of track and fill mile-long trains arriving at the Port or from inland Florida counties. and send it to Kingsbury. Truck fuel costs are eight times more expensive than his trains, he said.
After the meeting, O'Malley told The Bradenton Times the Encouragement Zone would need two miles of track to offload and refill the mile-long trains the facility will serve. The track will likely be in a loop, he said, rather than a straight line.
"That will be our investment," O'Malley said.
Ironically, the reason the project got revealed Thursday afternoon was that on May 24 the commissioners adopted a motion that told planners to look at various options for an access road across US 41, but not at South Dock Street, a major artery into the port, in order to accommodate the needs of the still-unknown Project Palm.
At a commission meeting May 24, the Project Palm attorney had made it known to the commissioners that their project would be "dead" if a crossing from South Dock St., probably at grade, across US 41 into the Encouragement Zone was permitted. As a result, Commissioner Larry Bustle's motion to study "all available options" was amended to read "except South Dock St. if it would impact Project Palm."
Thursday, after hearing of the CSX and Green Express plan from LPM, commissioners realized they had made a mistake by singling out the Project Palm project without considering the needs of other potential occupants of the Encouragement Zone.
Despite the Project Palm attorney's warning, commissioners took a chance. First they asked County Administrator Ed Hunzeker what to do; he told them that the best course would be to "create a level playing field" for all clients of the Port who need access to the Encouragement Zone. The commissioners' May 24 motion exempting South Dock St. created a bias toward Project Palm, he said.
Hunzeker recommended a fresh start on the issue, and the board quickly voted 7-0 to rescind the May 24 motion. Then they voted unanimously for the unamended original motion by Bustle "to look at all options" for an Encouragement Zone access road.
The Green Express had just arrived.
Joe Shea, editor of the American Reporter, is a county government writer for The Bradenton Times, an online daily newspaper covering Manatee County, Fla., where this story will appear in Friday's editions. It is used by permission. | <urn:uuid:1b318b5f-1b0b-4ab3-bb78-2bac05e11312> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.american-reporter.com/4,631/244.html | 2013-06-18T22:25:33Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957257 | 1,587 |
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There’s lots more to explore! Click on one of the following links to find out more… | <urn:uuid:6c31c19f-9a6e-4e2b-ac88-de9ae59aaa89> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.autoplay.org/features/impressive-multimedia/ | 2013-06-18T22:30:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.848309 | 1,037 |
On Oct. 3, Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds unveiled their blueprint for giving all Iowa children a world-class education. This fall, they will hold town hall meetings to seek Iowans’ feedback on how to improve the blueprint. They will issue final recommendations, with a price tag, before the 2012 Legislature convenes.
Below are some questions Iowans have asked about the blueprint. To read the entire blueprint, to comment on the proposal or to see the schedule of upcoming town hall meetings, please go to: https://governor.iowa.gov.
It’s worth noting that Iowans are not questioning the need to transform education. Iowans understand that our schools have slipped in national rankings in reading and math, and that our children must be able to compete in an increasingly demanding global economy. It will take Iowans working together to make the necessary changes.
Question: How much will the blueprint cost?
Answer: No price tag is attached yet. When Governor Branstad and Lt. Governor Reynolds release final recommendations before the start of the 2012 Legislature, the cost will be included. For now, they want to hear from Iowans about the right vision for our state.
Question: Master teachers would teach just 50 percent of the time and coach/evaluate/plan the other 50 percent. Why take the best teachers out of the classroom half the time?
Answer: By working outside their own classroom half-time, master teachers will improve the education of many more students. Master teachers will help other teachers improve instructional practices and pinpoint strategies for students struggling to learn. They likely will be co-teaching in other classrooms at various times.
It’s also important to realize master teachers will not be the only outstanding teachers in a school. Mentor teachers, many career teachers and some apprentice teachers also will be outstanding. Not all, however, will want to be master teachers – whose job description includes working a much longer school year, as well as setting achievement goals and collaborating on how to reach them.
Question: Is it fair that not all teachers can be master teachers?
Answer: About 5 percent of teachers would be master teachers, according to the blueprint. Approximately 15 to 20 percent would be mentor teachers, about 60 percent would be career teachers and about 20 percent would be apprentice teachers. This four-tiered system will build far greater support for teachers to do their jobs well. Teachers will work together more often to improve their practice rather than teaching largely in isolation.
All teachers can’t be master teachers, nor will that job appeal to everyone. Career teachers, however, would be able to earn additional income in numerous ways, including taking on additional academic responsibilities, teaching hard-to-fill subjects, such as math and science, or earning certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
Question: How much will teacher pay be raised in the four-tier system?
Answer: No specific salary levels are listed in the blueprint, but the intention is to substantially boost the state minimum beginning teacher salary beyond the current $28,000 a year to attract more top talent. Increases for career, mentor and master teachers would be a percentage of apprentice teacher pay. Each district will set apprentice pay locally. Districts also will decide annual cost-of-living adjustments.
All newly-minted teachers will be part of the four-tier system. Current teachers will choose whether to be paid under the four-tier system that rewards performance, or stay in the existing system, based on years of experience and education credentials.
Question: How do the four tiers differ from the current schedule for paying teachers, which is based on years of experience and education credentials? Answer: Besides providing more professional support for teachers and paying higher salaries in the early years of teaching, the four-tiered system sets higher expectations for teachers based on a more sophisticated definition of performance.
It does this by strengthening the evaluation system for teachers. Currently, most teachers receive satisfactory evaluations, though they are not equally good at their jobs.
The new approach will focus more on differentiating effective from ineffective teaching. It will focus on counting student academic progress, though how much has yet to be determined. Under the new system, evaluations will be based on multiple observations throughout the year by master teachers and principals. Now, teacher evaluations are sometimes infrequent and superficial.
Evaluations and professional development will be strengthened for all teachers, whether they are part of the four-tier system or the existing salary schedule. The difference will be how they are paid.
Question: How is it reasonable to rate teachers based on student academic progress at schools where attendance is poor?
Answer: It’s critical that all parents make sure their children understand the value of education and get them to school on time every day. Some schools have a bigger challenge with attendance than others, and that will have to be factored into how school progress is measured. At the same time, research shows some teachers routinely make more academic progress with students year after year than other teachers. This can’t be ignored.
Question: Isn’t retaining third-graders who can’t read mean-spirited?
Answer: In the early grades, students learn to read. But from fourth grade on, they read to learn. It is crucial that third-graders finish that school year reading at a basic level, or better, so they can do well in math, science and other subjects.
Iowa’s proposed third-grade literacy plan is based on Florida’s highly successful program. In 2002, when Florida launched the program, its fourth-graders scored 214 in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. In 2009, they scored 226, compared to the 221 that Iowa fourth-graders scored. Florida’s Hispanic fourth-graders scored 223, higher than fourth-graders in 31 states.
As Florida has done, Iowa would strengthen literacy instruction from early childhood on to avoid the need to hold children back at the end of third grade. If retention is necessary, however, children would have the opportunity to attend summer school after third grade, in an effort to start fourth grade on time. Children who still need to repeat third grade would receive a new, more intensive reading program from highly-qualified teachers. No one would be held back in third grade more than once.
It may seem mean-spirited to end social promotion if children aren’t reading, but not if you consider the repercussions of being illiterate for the rest of their lives.
It also will be critical to strengthen literacy instruction in upper elementary grades and in middle school so students continue to gain ground.
Question: Will Iowa’s school year be longer than the current 180 instructional days?
Answer: The blueprint does not establish a longer school year for all students. It does, however, ask teachers to work additional days: Five days each for apprentice and career teachers, 10 days for mentor teachers and 20 days for master teachers. Those days could be used to offer more instruction to students needing extra help to catch up, depending on local needs. Given the interest expressed so far in a longer school year for all students, we will take a look at that possibility.
Question: What about top students? Will the blueprint improve their education?
Answer: The blueprint calls for higher academic expectations for all students, including those who are the most advanced. This includes promoting competency-based learning. For example, if students can test out of geometry, they should be allowed to receive credit and move on to other math courses. That will make it possible to take college-level courses sooner while still in high school.
Question: How will the blueprint help students needing special-education services?
Answer: Getting a great teacher in every classroom and a great principal in every building will better serve all students, including children receiving special education services. Presently, Iowa has many first-rate teachers and school administrators, but we need all educators to fit that description.
Question: Why does the blueprint put so many new tests in place?
Answer: The blueprint adds only one new test, the Program for International Student Assessment. A representative sample of ninth graders would take that test every three years to see how Iowa stacks up against top school systems globally.
Otherwise, the proposed tests, for the most part, would replace tests already given.
A new kindergarten assessment would replace the kindergarten tests already used in some districts. Students in grades three through eight would still take an annual standardized test, but instead of paper and pencil, the goal is for the tests to be computer-based. Students who answer correctly then respond to progressively harder questions. These tests would reflect the Iowa Core/Common Core standards.
In addition to this annual standardized test, teachers need access to better information from tests given throughout the school year to pinpoint what students need help learning. These so-called formative tests would be aligned with the Iowa Core/Common Core standards.
All high school juniors would take a college entrance exam to measure college and career readiness and to give them one of the keys to four-year higher education. The state would pay for the exam. Sixty-one percent of Iowa students already take the ACT.
High school students would be required to pass end-of-course exams in certain subjects, such as English language arts, biology, algebra and U.S. history or government, in order to graduate. These measurements would set clear expectations for the solid foundation of knowledge and skills all students need to be successful.
High school teachers already typically require students to take exams, but the end-of-course tests would be the same in all high schools. That will assure more consistency statewide.
Students who fail end-of-course exams would receive intensive remedial help and would have multiple opportunities to retake the exams.
We’d like teachers to help set state policy on what constitutes proficiency on the end-of-course exams, which together would serve as a high school exit exam.
We will answer more frequently-asked questions as we move ahead through the fall to improve the blueprint. Thank you for your commitment to Iowa’s good schools and to ensuring our children receive the world-class education they deserve.
- Linda Fandel, special assistant for education in the Branstad-Reynolds Administration
- Jason Glass, Iowa Department of Education director | <urn:uuid:f63bcba8-f132-46dc-87df-a5a5f5c999d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.educateiowa.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2525&Itemid=4423 | 2013-06-18T22:58:47Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959652 | 2,138 |
A citizen activist forces New Mexico's dairies to clean up their act
by Stephanie Paige Ogburn
Jerry Nivens lives in a trailer in Caballo, N.M., 165 miles south of Albuquerque. A bulky Texas transplant who chain-smokes American Spirits, Nivens cares as deeply for his mesquite-speckled patch of ground as any rural New Mexican. He enjoys driving into the mountains, where he used to while away afternoons panning for gold. He goes fishing Lone Star-style -- in reservoirs, not rivers.
On the sunny May day I met him, he spilled out of his GMC Jimmy sporting a National Rifle Association ballcap and Magnum P.I.-style sunglasses. He wore brown corduroy pants hung from suspenders with a matching jacket over a plaid shirt. A giant Marlboro belt buckle completed the ensemble. As we drove around, Nivens marveled at artesian pools supporting desert wildlife, exclaimed as a squadron of baby quail crossed our path, and wondered over underground rivers that run to the nearby Rio Grande. Retired from the refrigeration business, he earns money from an invention of his used for water purification. He spends much of his time alone. "I'm kind of an old hermit," he says.
Which, in a way, was why I had come -- to learn how and why this loner became the driving force behind a movement that brought the state's mega-dairies to heel. The dairy industry is New Mexico's largest agricultural sector and an influential lobbying force. Although the state Environment Department has long worked with dairies to reduce pollution, change has been slow: Almost 60 percent of the state's dairies have polluted groundwater with manure runoff, yet not one has begun the required cleanup.
Now, thanks largely to the pressure brought to bear by Nivens, his allies, and an Environment Department employee named Bill Olson, New Mexico has passed some of the most progressive dairy-related water regulations in the West.
Citizens have campaigned against dairy pollution in Idaho, Washington and California. Yet despite grassroots support for tighter controls, industry has largely succeeded in slowing or even loosening regulations. New Mexico's new rules may inspire other states to take the responsibility for limiting factory-farm pollution into their own hands, activists say.
In early 2007, "there was a rumor in one of our local newspapers here about some dairy trying to come down close to Caballo," Nivens explains as we drive to a sandy wash called Percha Creek. At first, he paid little attention, but then curiosity finally sent him exploring a tangle of dirt roads until he found a sign announcing ParaSol dairy's intention to build a 2,000-cow facility. It was right next to the creek, which becomes a raging torrent when it rains. There were houses nearby, too, and the Rio Grande, a drinking water and irrigation source already polluted by E. coli, was just two miles downstream.
To Nivens, it looked like a disaster in the making: Flash floods could flush manure from the dairy into Percha Creek, polluting the shallow groundwater and eventually the Rio Grande, threatening the drinking water of nearby residents and possibly contaminating the lettuce, chiles and pecans growing downstream.
Nivens went first to a local diner to share his fears with neighbors, and then to a nearby chile-processing plant. A woman there asked if a petition might stop the dairy. " 'I don't know,' " he recalls saying, " 'but I'll go home and make some.'
"That's how it all started."
The modern Western dairy, more factory than farm, was invented in Los Angeles County, Calif., by Dutch dairymen after World War I. Newly arrived from a land-scarce country, they brought the idea of keeping cows in a small space and importing their feed from elsewhere. This made it possible to become a successful dairyman in the arid West, which generally lacks good pasture.
As L.A. County boomed, so did the dairies. But sprawl pushed them out, first into the Chino Valley and neighboring San Bernardino County, and later, in the 1980s and 1990s, north into the San Joaquin Valley or out of the state entirely. California is still the number-one milk-producing state in the country, but Idaho is now number three, Texas seventh, New Mexico ninth, and Washington tenth.
With each move, the dairies grew. They sold land at suburban development prices and bought other parcels at agricultural cut rates, using the extra cash to add more cows. Changes in U.S. milk-pricing policy propelled their growth. Beginning with the Reagan administration, the government began setting milk prices based on the price of cheese traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, so prices fluctuated more than before. Dairymen hedged against price drops by buying more cows and producing more milk. Their fixed costs stayed relatively constant, and they had more milk to sell as a cushion against low prices. When neighboring dairies went under, surviving ones bought up their cows. In 1970, there were almost 650,000 dairies in the United States. Today, there are only 62,500; almost 50 percent of U.S. milk now comes from dairies with more than 1,000 cows. New Mexico, whose dairies average 2,000 cows each, has the largest mean herd size in the nation.
As dairies added cows, the cows added manure. That manure -- 145 pounds of mixed solids and liquid per cow per day -- is usually flushed into a holding pond, or manure lagoon. Dairy owners often spray manure water onto cornfields as fertilizer and separate out the solids for compost. In theory, using waste to grow feed makes a dairy a closed-loop system.
In practice, the loop leaks. Farmers have more manure than crops to apply it to. Manure liquid can ooze from lagoons into groundwater, carrying nitrates, sulfate and chloride, along with remnant antibiotics and dangerous bacteria such as E. coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter.
"A lot of people still think of a dairy farm as black-and-white cows on a green hillside somewhere. And we still have that, but that's not (how) the majority of milk (is) produced anymore," says Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin's college of agriculture.
The pollutant most regulators focus on is nitrate. At high levels in drinking water, nitrate can cause methemoglobinemia, or blue baby syndrome, where nitrogen compounds interfere with the blood's ability to carry oxygen. Formula-fed infants are particularly susceptible. Possible effects of chronic high nitrate exposure on adults include cancer, reproductive problems and diabetes, although researchers say more study is needed.
Nitrate is not necessarily the most dangerous substance given off by Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. But it is one of the few manure pollutants the government has the authority to regulate. The federal Safe Drinking Water Act limits nitrate concentration to 10 parts per million. That law, which applies to all drinking water systems serving more than 25 people, and the Clean Water Act, which regulates water quality for pollutants like phosphorous, nitrates and E. coli in surface water, are the main tools regulators can use to curb pollution from factory farms; the majority of air and water contaminants produced by CAFOs are not federally limited.
States can go beyond federal law to curb CAFO pollution, however. New Mexico, for example, has a water-quality act that protects groundwater and stipulates that all facilities whose waste may end up in groundwater -- including dairies -- must get discharge permits.
Kathy Martin, an engineer from Oklahoma, has consulted for over 15 years on technical aspects of rulemaking in 20 states, including Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and New Mexico. She's watched residents protest against odor and flies; worry about CAFO-caused air pollution, a major health problem that is virtually unregulated; and fight to protect their drinking water. In her opinion, none of the states where she has worked has adequate rules to protect the health of dairy neighbors and the environment. "Industry almost invariably gets their way," she says. "Very rarely do the citizens get their way even on one or two points. We're just there to keep the dam from completely falling apart."
Because of New Mexico's water-quality act, the state has been monitoring pollution from dairies since about 1980, shortly after the first of several California dairies moved to a depopulated stretch of U.S. Route 80, now Interstate 10, between Las Cruces and the Texas border. Today, over a dozen dairies and tens of thousands of cows crush together along a 10-mile stretch of highway here that locals call Dairy Row.
In areas around Dairy Row, nitrate levels in drinking water exceed safety standards, and many people purchase bottled water. In 2007, the federal Environmental Protection Agency accused 11 local dairies of violating the Clean Water Act by not keeping proper records on waste management and disposal, and ordered them to comply immediately.
Martin sees better regulations as an issue of fairness, particularly for the rural and low-income areas where such facilities tend to locate. "If I find out that the mozzarella cheese in my pizza comes from a facility that has destroyed the groundwater for fifth- and sixth-generation Hispanics in New Mexico, it makes me sick to my stomach. ... I thinkat the end of the day, everyone would like to go to bed knowing that there isn't one person suffering, or child ill, because I had a Big Mac today."
Jerry Nivens already knew what keeping so many animals in one place could do. Years ago in Texas, he'd lived near giant beef feedlots in the Panhandle and around dairies near Waco, where he'd seen rivers polluted and towns filled with the stench of untreated manure. (In 2004, Waco sued 14 dairies for polluting the town's drinking water.) Thinking about ParaSol, he says, "I couldn't hardly sleep at night. Things like this are such a destruction to the surrounding area and the environment, you know, they create a sacrifice zone."
He called the state's Environment Department and learned that officials, who had never denied a permit before, did not plan to do so with ParaSol. In New Mexico, however, the environment secretary must sign off on all such permits. This gave Nivens, who had organized a group called Caballo Concerned Citizens and allied with the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club, a wedge. Members sent more than 400 letters to the agency and visited New Mexico Environment Secretary Ron Curry, a Bill Richardson appointee, in person, asking him to say no to ParaSol.
And in February 2008, Curry did.
Nivens was ecstatic. He had no way of knowing this was just the beginning of a nearly four-year fight.
ParaSol immediately hired Pete Domenici Jr., a powerful lawyer and son of a former U.S. senator from New Mexico, and appealed the decision. Dairy owners formed a lobbying organization called Dairy Industry Group for a Clean Environment, backed by the national Dairy Farmers of America. By early 2009, the group, whose lobbyists included former Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley, had pushed the Legislature to amend the state's water-quality act to require the Environment Department to create a new, standardized permit process. The dairy owners were betting it would work in their favor.
"The environment at that time was one of constant change (for dairy permits)," says New Mexico state Sen. Clinton Harden, R, who sponsored the legislation amending the act. That uncertainty made it hard for new dairies to start up and existing ones to expand, he says. During that time, at least three dairies -- important employers and economic engines in his eastern district -- had moved to Texas, which had "a known permit process."
But the dairymen hadn't counted on Bill Olson. Olson, a hydrologist and 25-year veteran of the Environment Department, was the chief of New Mexico's groundwater division. He exudes the patience and practicality of your ninth-grade chemistry teacher, but with a Western flair: The day I met him at a Santa Fe bakery, he was wearing cowboy boots, jeans, a pearl-button shirt and a bolo tie.
"Ninety percent of all our drinking water in the state comes from groundwater," he explained. Though he would retire almost as soon as the process was over, he viewed the rulemaking as a chance to "prevent pollution and protect the resource."
Olson's department drafted a preliminary rule with two key requirements. To get a permit, dairies would have to install monitoring wells upstream and downstream of their manure lagoons. They'd also have to install high-density polyethylene synthetic liners.
The latter are much more effective at containing pollutants than traditional clay liners. And the wells would let the Environment Department know if groundwater was becoming contaminated. Because wells would be located both above and below lagoons, they'd help regulators triangulate on the source of any contamination. Most states don't directly track dairy waste this way. Regulators may believe a dairy has contaminated groundwater, but without a way to pinpoint the source, blame -- and responsibility for cleanup -- often gets passed around.
Starting in May 2009, the New Mexico Environment Department held meetings to get public comment on the draft rule. Angry dairy owners boycotted. But Jerry Nivens had spent months creating an activist network, meeting with grandmothers from Dairy Row whose children couldn't play outdoors because of flies, and a mom from the faraway town of Hobbs who blamed her kids' illnesses on high levels of nitrates in her drinking water. Nivens organized these people and allies from his earlier efforts under the name New Mexicans for Dairy Reform and formed alliances with a local water protection nonprofit called Amigos Bravos, as well as the national consumer advocacy group Food and Water Watch. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit law firm specializing in environmental justice issues, represented the group during the rulemaking.
Nivens himself attended every stakeholder meeting and hearing for the next 18 months. "I went all over the state for that," he recalled. "My wife said, 'Why don't you quit that?' It's because I don't know how to quit it. It's such an urgent matter, our water, and what do you do when you mess it up?"
Months of public comment, expert testimony and re-drafting went by. Then, in April and June of 2010, the Environment Department held official hearings in front of the state's Water Quality Control Commission, which has the final say on the rules the department submits. This time, the dairy owners showed up. Each stood up, declared his patriotism and made nearly identical complaints.
"The New Mexico Environment Department's proposed rules will be the demise of the dairy industry in this state," said Alva Carter, a dairy owner from eastern New Mexico and chair of the dairy industry group, who served as a spokesperson, at the June hearing. "Many of the existing dairies will be forced to shut down, thereby depriving the state, local communities and their citizens of a valuable economic engine and associated jobs, not to mention the safest and most nutritional natural food product known to man." If the rules go through as is, he said, "We will go to Texas, or we will go to Oklahoma, or we will go to Colorado."
The monitoring wells and synthetic liners were too costly, Carter went on. Besides, he said, existing monitoring wells "have been the conduit to contaminate the groundwater." Clay liners work well in most circumstances, he said, and synthetic liners can rip and fail.
"It seems like we're low-balling everything to the point that it might not even be effective," Nivens responded. "Every time you get on an elevator ... you will remember that the low bid got it. And the low bid's not always best."
Olson calmly demolished Carter's arguments. "Clay liners seep," he said, pointing to widespread contamination from dairies that use them. "Synthetic liners are one million times less permeable than a clay liner. They are readily available, and there is a cost associated with them. We don't deny that, but in terms of preventing water pollution, this is the most effective way."
Besides, Olson noted, existing dairies that weren't polluting wouldn't need synthetic liners -- only new dairies or those already cited for pollution. As to Carter's claim that monitoring wells cause contamination, Olson's response was almost a sigh. "The department has been trying to address this issue with the industry for several years. We keep asking for any type of technical or scientific information to back up their case (but none is submitted)." The fact that lagoons filled with manure water leak and contaminate groundwater below them is "basic science," said Olson.
And though synthetic liners and monitoring wells -- which can approach $10,000 in areas with deep water tables -- aren't cheap, pollution cleanup is even more expensive.
"Once you get groundwater contamination, a lot of times you're looking at hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to work through an abatement where you could have prevented the whole thing for a fraction of that in up front costs," says Olson. "That's part of what we pushed in the dairy rule."
In December 2010, the department released its final rule. The activists didn't get the notification letters they'd requested for everyone within a mile of a proposed dairy, or the two- and three-mile setbacks from schools, residences, parks and water bodies. Instead, only a newspaper notice and sign was required along with setbacks of 200 to 1,000 feet. But Nivens was pleased. "It was keeping the light on in the lighthouse," he says. "And it was a real chore, but it finally worked out."
The rule became law in January. But hours after new Republican Gov. Susana Martinez took office, she issued an executive order to stop it, with coaching from dairy lawyers. New Mexicans for Dairy Reform took her to the state Supreme Court. "It didn't take them 15 minutes to say, 'You can't do this, Governor, you don't have the authority,' " says Nivens.
So the dairies appealed again, placing the rules in limbo. Finally, in mid-July, the Environment Department brokered a settlement. It lightens some reporting requirements, adds a new variance procedure and mediation for disputes over monitoring well placements, clarifies that dairies may keep unlined lagoons if there is no evidence of contamination, and allows operators to mix irrigation water with their wastewater. But it keeps the main protections -- synthetic liners, monitoring wells, and flow metering and nutrient management systems to limit and track where nitrates are going -- in place. The Water Quality Control Commission unanimously approved this final version of the rules Nov. 16. They are scheduled to go into effect Dec. 31.
Jon Block, the attorney who represented the citizen coalition, calls New Mexico's rules some of the strongest in the country. "While none of this is a magic wand, from the point of what we care about, these regulations are going to slowly change the face of dairy production in this state and bring it in line with higher and higher levels of best practices."
Nivens and his allies sometimes wonder why the dairies fought so hard; the four years of lawyering probably cost more than monitoring wells. But Michael Jensen of Amigos Bravos believes the dairies were worried that regulators in other states might adopt similar rules.
"It's not just about New Mexico dairies, it's about dairies in general," he says. "People were looking to see what New Mexico was going to do. Because the dairies are looking at places to, sort of, hide, because they don't like regulations."
But even if other states aren't influenced, New Mexico's overall attitude toward dairies seems to have changed. In December 2010, the Environment Department denied its second dairy permit, for the Ruch dairy in Hobbs, which had been discharging waste without a permit. Environment Secretary Ron Curry has left. His replacement, David Martin, recently highlighted the need for industry to be honest in permit applications, thanking local activists for outing a permittee whose application underestimated how industrial discharge would affect groundwater. "Regular citizens can make a difference in protecting the environment," Martin commented.
The dairymen's attitudes may also be shifting. Beverly Idsinga, whose group Dairy Producers of New Mexico represents most of the state's dairies, was pleased with the final rules. "I think (they are) going to be favorable to producers; it's going to be easier to follow than before," she says. The dairymen did, however, reserve the right to evaluate the rules after a year, and petition the Environment Department for changes if they are having "any problems," Idsinga adds.
As for ParaSol, owner John McCatharn eventually got his permit. But because of the dairy's sensitive location, it was loaded with so many requirements -- from double synthetic liners to extra flood barriers -- that McCatharn, who declined to comment on his plans for the dairy, appears to have abandoned the project. Today, the site looks much as it did when Nivens first saw it four and a half years ago -- a dirt lot by a dry creek in the midst of desert. One day this fall, though, the tattered notice for the dairy disappeared. In its place is a new sign. It reads: "Para Sol Subdivision. 116 Lot Type II Residential Subdivision. Subdivider: John McCatharn."
This story was funded by a grant from the McCune Charitable Foundation. It was produced in collaboration with the Food and Environment Reporting Network, an independent, nonprofit news organization producing investigative reporting on food, agriculture and environmental health.© High Country News | <urn:uuid:78dbf6eb-7188-47a4-b6da-fcefb2a3e354> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hcn.org/issues/43.20/a-citizen-activist-forces-new-mexicos-dairies-to-clean-up-their-act/print_view | 2013-06-18T22:58:08Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971711 | 4,617 |
Posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 by Hunter Stephenson
/Film will be recapping and discussing each episode of the third season of Breaking Bad. A spoiler warning applies after the jump for the recaps and for the comments section. Meth heads and readers’ thoughts welcome. For previous recaps, click here.
The third episode of the third season, “I.F.T.” continues the series’ slow burn this year and we have to admit, the percolating (and/or slightly tedious?) tension has us counting the days until death knocks on someone’s door. It was an ep highlighting connections and inevitable reveals. Until the final seconds, the meaning of the titular acronym rained a mystery—and when viewers figured it out, I’m pretty sure Walter White was considering a revision to his “honesty is good” policy. Or perhaps he simply reacted by storming out for a signature bender in his tighty-whities.
Other reveals dealt with the degrees of separation between the Cousins of Death and a pivotal character from the series’ past, and an unexpected flashback on Danny Trejo’s thug.
The Cousins of Death
The bald hombres still haven’t muttered a single word of dialogue. Do you think their tongues were cut out as kids—a Juarez bar mitzvah of sorts? After the Cousins steal an old plebe lady’s wheelchair-friendly van (and slay her?), they transport Tuco’s mute uncle inside of it–we’re given the uncle’s informal name: Don “Tio” Salamanca—to a business meeting with Gus at his spooky chicken coops.
In a small-confine meeting, the Cousins are identified to viewers as the vengeful cousins of Tuco and the nephews of his mean-faced, bell ringing uncle. Makes sense. We also discover in the opening minutes that they’re responsible for the death of Danny Trejo’s thug/DEA informant named Tortuga, under the employ of a Mexican cartel kingpin named Juan, who’s present at the poultry farm sit-down as well. (Note: I found the decapitation of Tortuga from a Cousin’s machete lacking in the oomph department. The force displayed in this act was reminiscent of a machete scene in the most recent season of Big Love, only this time it wasn’t supposed to be funny.
After so much foreboding emphasis on the Cousins’ badassery, would it not be grand if Walter White wiped them off the earth without breaking a sweat? I found myself in need of a big surprise after “I.F.T.”
On his home turf, Gus persuades the Mexico crew and Tio to refrain from murdering Walter. His request and vegetable platter, however polite, don’t go over well with this brooding party. “They are not…like you and I,” Juan casually warns Gus, in a one-to-one chat outside as the twins eyeball him through a window. Is this the start of a bigger turf war? And it might be me and I’m not suggesting anything tasteless: I do sense a bit of President Obama in the tidy look and dress, analytical tone, and cool demeanor of Gustavo.
In the past, Skyler has quietly displayed a righteous etiquette in her vices, and here she seems to use Walt’s refusal for divorce to fulfill sexual fantasies with her middle-aged boss and restless ex- Ted. The title doesn’t beat around the bush: ”I fucked Ted,” she tells Walt, who doesn’t shed a tear or loose his temper. At least, before the episode is over.
Nor has Skyler washed her hands of Ted’s dirty book keeping—is it secretly a guilty pleasure?—and she continues to smoke near her baby, Holly. It was eerie seeing mother and child locked in the bedroom as Skyler smoked, knowing the Cousins had sat on the bed with an ax days ago.
In confidence, we see Skyler inform her female divorce lawyer that Walter is a dealer of meth, a “cook,” and watch her shoot down the lawyer’s advice to turn him over to the cops and formally split asap. Leaving Walter Jr. with the baggage of an incarcerated father would do more harm than good she says.
Skyler is testing the waters here, and when she calls the cops to have Walter removed from their home, I wondered at that moment if the more prominent police officer made note of her hesitance to explain the reasons why, or about her decision not to press further. During her talk with the cop, Walter cheaply picks up Holly to solidify an empathetic bond with the cop’s partner. A nice touch by Cranston and the writers.
It’s all become a game to Mr. W. Headstrong yet calculated compared to the loss of control and blindness we’ve seen him display in the first two episodes, Walter finally shows Skyler his giant bag of money. She finds it on the living room floor and it reminded me of a dog that drags a dead catch indoors, seeking its owner’s approval. Walter tells his wife he didn’t steal the money. No, he earned it from doing… unspeakable things. Relief.
Walt proceeds to verbally lay out the money’s use in a Walt-less future: college tuition(s), graduations parties, health care, groceries, gas, the mortgage. Somehow he forgets to mention a funeral(s). Speaking of dogs, can Skyler use a few hundred dollars to buy and care for a family pet? As we see, even Aqua Teen Hunger Force does little to lighten the mood in the Whites’ casa. At the very least, these people need to purchase a few functional lamps.
Bummertown. The first two eps saw Jesse accepting his role as the bad guy and somehow finding a dark inner calm and peace. It was a facade. Tucked in a sleeping bag on the barren floor of his newly purchased slash former home, Jesse repeatedly calls Jane to hear her voice mail. Over and over and over. We guess Jane doesn’t have a lingering Facebook page or never made a sex tape for, or with, him before she OD’d.
Jesse’s first house guest is Saul Goodman, who lovingly brings a cactus (IMPORTANT: it’s a metaphor!) as a house warming gift, and then urges him to return to cooking like the Andrew W.K. of meth producton. Later, we see Jesse slip on a gas mask in the ol’ RV. Fresh batch, fresh start. Jesse could use a pet. How about a pug in a top hat?
The past comes back to circle and bite Hank in the form of a call about a promotion that would send him back to El Paso, where his panic attacks rocked his confidence and sanity last season. After “I.F.T.” I’m most interested to see where the next few eps take Hank. Instead of using drugs, or hell just smoking pot, to escape his problems or taking the advice of a shrink, Hank confronts his stress by going Roadhouse on two tall biker fuckers in a bar. His belly bulging, I’m not sure I buy the victory, but the musical aid of ZZ Top in a brawl should never be underestimated.
If Hank’s unprofessional, unprovoked use of force was an attempt to kibosh the promotion, the loyalty of his DEA partner, Steven, ironically keeps him up the ladder for now. Will Hank give in and taste meth before season’s end? A black cloud hangs over him. We’re interested to see if his working and personal relationship with Steven, who has thus far been underdeveloped and under-seen, is addressed.
Now that we think of it, we are dealing with a lot of troubled, bald men this season. More and more, Hank’s loneliness and Walt’s are sending these men down a chaotic, work-obsessed path.
- Mike the Cleaner seemingly places Gus‘s client standing above Saul‘s when he tells him Saul need not find out how close Walter came to death at the hands of the Cousins. Interesting.
- In the ep’s end credits there is a dedication to “a friend” named Shari Rhodes. She was the show’s casting director who passed away last year. Follow-up: I assumed a painting seen in the Whites’ kitchen in “I.F.T.” was a portrait of Rhodes in tribute, but the painting was present in season two.
Breaking Bad airs Sundays at 10 p.m. EST on AMC. For previous episode recaps, click here.
If you’re interested in the production design of season three, here is a brief feature about director of photography Michael Slovis and the production designer Mark S. Freeborn. The part where they discuss Jesse’s preference for the color red confirms a trend you may have noticed during the first episodes of the season.
Hunter Stephenson can be reached at h.attila/gmail and followed on Twitter. | <urn:uuid:35d64915-5123-49d5-8a2c-890e45c98463> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slashfilm.com/breaking-bad-recap-episode-3-ift-is-a-slow-burn-and-a-saucy-acronym/ | 2013-06-18T22:45:45Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953368 | 1,972 |
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Part One, Chapter 2
This second chapter begins three months later, told by the narrator through Biff Brannon's point of view. Biff is the proprietor of the New York Café, a local restaurant where many town residents go to eat, drink, and socialize. It is midnight as the chapter opens, and most of the patrons are drinking. John Singer is sitting by himself at one of the tables.
Biff goes upstairs to a room where his wife, Alice, is sleeping. He bumps into a suitcase on the floor. Alice wakes up and orders Biff to get rid of the "lunatic" who has been at the bar constantly for the past two weeks. She does not want Biff to return the crazy man's suitcase to him until he has paid for all the drinks Biff has served him. Alice warns Biff that the drunk had better not be down in the bar when she wakes up tomorrow.
Biff goes into the bathroom and remembers that Jake Blount, the drunk, first came into the bar on May 15th. Biff describes Blount as a short man with sagging shoulders and a fat lower lip. There is something oddly intriguing about Jake; he talks all the time, but in a variety of ways—some nights he sounds like a professor, others like a "linthead." Jake speaks about everything from politics to cathouses, and Biff is interested in watching him some more.
Biff takes Blount's suitcase downstairs and puts it behind the cash register, where he usually stands to keep an eye on everything. He has just started to read the paper when he looks up and sees Mick Kelly standing in the entrance—"a gangling, towheaded youngster, a girl of about twelve... dressed in khaki shorts, a blue shirt, and tennis shoes." Mick comes in and buys a pack of cigarettes. She accidentally spills some coins on the floor; Blount comes up to her, picks up the coins, and places them on the counter. Then Blount comments that he has been seeing John Singer in his dreams for the past few nights. Mick mentions before she leaves that Singer is rooming as a boarder in her family's house.
Blount goes over to where Singer is sitting and begins to talk to him. He tells Singer, "You're the only one in this town who catches what I mean." Blount keeps talking to Singer for about an hour, "as though a dam inside him had broken." Finally, Singer gets up and leaves, but Blount is so drunk he does not even notice. When he realizes that Singer has gone, he gets angry and leaves.
Biff dozes on the counter for a while and then is awakened by Willie, the young black boy who helps out in the kitchen. Willie tells Biff that Blount started butting his head against a brick wall in the alley and beating the wall with his fists as though he had lost his mind. Then Blount saw Singer and started yelling at him until Blount suddenly fell down. The police were called and are likely to arrive any minute.
After the police carry Blount back into the café, Singer writes on a piece of paper that Blount can come home with him, and that they should give him some soup and coffee first. Blount is sobbing and holding his hand over his mouth so that Biff and Singer will not see his lips trembling. Singer and Blount set off, and Biff goes upstairs and gets into bed.
The second chapter introduces us to Biff Brannon. He is obviously a person who thinks a great deal about many different things, and is especially intrigued by Jake Blount, simply because the man is so bizarre. Biff is also very interested in Mick Kelly; his feelings about her appear to oscillate between attraction and fatherly adoration. As the novel progresses, Blount, Mick, and Biff all become drawn to Singer; in this chapter, Blount first begins to talk to the mute. Blount feels that Singer "knows" something—something that Blount himself also knows but that almost everyone else fails to understand. Although what it is that Jake knows is not revealed until later, it is clear even now that Jake does not feel the slightest need to tell Singer, as he is so certain that the mute shares his knowledge. Indeed, Blount is so intent on talking to Singer that he fails to even notice, until his second or third encounter with Singer, that the man is mute.
Once Blount finds his confidant, he is upset when Singer leaves. He has a fit and hurts himself. This outburst demonstrates Blount's inner torment: even words fail to express the anger he feels inside him. However, because Blount feels that Singer understands all of the same things that he does, he is soothed by the knowledge that he is not alone. Just as Singer does not need reciprocation from Antonapoulos to be happy with the friendship with him, Jake does not need Singer to reply to feel that their conversations are meaningful.
Biff and Alice's marriage is obviously argumentative and unhappy; it is no wonder that Biff is searching for some sort of solace. However, throughout the novel we never once witness an encounter solely between Singer and Biff—even when Biff goes to visit Singer at the Kellys' later in the story, Singer reports that Biff never has much to say. Unlike all the other characters who seek out Singer, Biff is more interested in understanding than he is in being understood.
Some critics have called Singer a Christ figure through whom each of the other main characters searches for redemption. Indeed, although Singer is himself a victim of circumstances beyond his own personal control, he is also a redeemer of the four characters who come into contact with him. This contemporary hero- victim is reminiscent of Christ's role in the Bible. This concept of Christ in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is partly possible because of McCullers's rendition of love as something absolute and abstract that overrides all barriers of sex, age, time, and distance. This somewhat Platonic ideal of love is present in much of McCullers's fiction; however, in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, such love is never reciprocated or satisfying for the main characters. All attempts at redemption through such love in the novel are thwarted by other environmental factors that are beyond individual control.
Readers' Notes allow users to add their own analysis and insights to our SparkNotes—and to discuss those ideas with one another. Have a novel take or think we left something out? Add a Readers' Note! | <urn:uuid:853a419b-1551-418c-87c6-00161f513a7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/lonelyhunter/section2.rhtml | 2013-06-18T22:39:07Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980098 | 1,359 |
Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/09/iphone_roundup/
The iPhone: Everything you needed to know
The tears, the laughter, the previous coverage
It's just a few hours to go till Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse throw open their doors to anyone wanting to buy an iPhone.
While you're waiting, you might want to take a virtual walk down memory lane, so we've pulled together six months' worth of iPhone coverage in one easy link fest. You don't have to believe the hype, but you can't deny it's out there.
iPhone to solve UK unemployment
Not content with redefining the mobile phone and computer industries, the iPhone can now take credit for creating new jobs and saving the UK economy, apparently.
UK iPhone customers to get fairer usage
O2 has decided that iPhone users on its network won't be limited by their "fair usage" policy, and really will get "unlimited" access to the internet. But other customers signed up for "unlimited" contracts will have to wait and see if O2 decides all their usage is fair too.
How many $$$s does Apple make from an iPhone?
Lots from the phone, even more from the revenue sharing
Motorola: Apple will not open the iPhone
The senior director of entertainment products at Motorola questions whether Apple will truly "open up" the iPhone.
Operators say 'told you so' on iPhone security
Operator talking-shop the OMTP (Open Mobile Terminal Alliance) has published its white paper on handset security, saying something along the lines of Symbian Signed is a good idea, and that if Apple had listened to it the iPhone would never have been cracked.
Apple: 1.4m iPhones sold, 250,000 unlocked
More than a quarter of a million people have purchased Apple iPhones and unlocked them, the handset's manufacturer admitted last night.
Apple opens up iPhone to app developers
The iPhone and iTouch are to get a Software Developers Kit in February next year, allowing developers to create proper native applications for the platform and allowing it to properly compete with other smart phones, Steve Jobs announced on the company's website today.
Orange's Apple deal to bear unlocked iPhones
Orange will indeed offer Apple's iPhone on France, but the most interesting aspect of the two firms' partnership will be the availability, for the first time, of officially unlocked handsets.
Apple prepares iPhone WebApp catalogue
Apple is about to launch a consolidation portal hosting WebApps for its glorified slates, the iPhone and iTouch, whilst developing proper applications with Electronic Arts and others.
Hackers hit back at iPhone update
The war between Apple and the hackers is heating up, after a 'fix' for the recent iPhone update was posted online. Apple's recent update for the iPhone's firmware rendered unlocked iPhones - those that had been modified either through software or other means to work outside of AT&T's network - unusable, and the firm has so far refused to back down from its hardline stance.
Apple posts iPhone update, bricks unlocked handsets
Apple has posted the anticipated iPhone 1.1.1 update. The release, which adds support for the Wi-Fi connect iTunes Music Store, does indeed, as expected, returns unlocked handsets back to their AT&T-only status.
VoIP says hello to the iPhone
UK-based VoIP provider Truphone last night demonstrated its ability to place a VoIP call from an Apple iPhone, as well as some Facebook integration.
The iPhone arrives, but is O2 being taken for a ride?
Yesterday Apple announced that O2 would have the exclusive rights to their iPhone in the UK, with punters paying £279 for the phone and signing up to an 18-month contract.
Jobs hits London to announce O2 iPhone deal
Apple has finally confirmed that O2 has won the exclusive rights to carry the iPhone over its UK network from next month. Steve Jobs made the announcement at its flagship UK store in London this morning.
Apple restricts ringtone rights
Yes, it seems unjust that Apple can charge you twice for an iPhone ringtone. But that's the way the fair-use cookie crumbles.
iPod Touch: How the Jesus Phone was really John the Baptist
So was nine months of relentless iPhone hype and froth just a distraction? Not quite, but you could be forgiven for thinking so. I believe Apple's most important product of 2007 was actually announced this week, and its significance has been slow to sink in. It might be one of the cleverest moves Apple's ever made.
Apple lobs $100 credit at iPhone buyers
Much to our surprise, Apple mavens have revolted against Steve Jobs. And he's trying to appease them.
Apple slashes iPhone prices
No, Steve. We didn't miss that last bit.
This morning, after announcing a boatload of brand new iPod and iTunes gizmos , Steve Jobs had one final piece of news for all you Apple lovers out there: He was dropping the price of the iPhone. Little more than two months after it debuted at $599, the 8GB status symbol is now available for just $399.
US teen trades hacked iPhone for Nissan 350Z
A New Jersey teenager has cut a deal to trade a hacked iPhone for a new set of wheels and three further iPhones, Yahoo! reports.
iPhone unlock procedure posted
A utility claiming to be the world's first software tool for unlocking the Apple iPhone was launched yesterday, even as hardware hackers said they'd figured out how to get the same result by tweaking the gadget itself.
Apple puts refurbished iPhones on sale
Want a cheaper iPhone? Apple has begun offering refurbished handsets for $100 less than it charges for freshly made models.
iPhone thumb trim hoax gets online media buy-in
Claims that Thomas Martel, 28, of Bonnie Brae had his oversized thumbs "whittled" to make using his iPhone easier have turned out to be a marvellous hoax perpetrated by the North Denver News, though one that fooled many online news sources.
Jesus Phone needs an exorcist
Security researchers have discovered a security flaw in Apple's iPhone that could allow miscreants to wreak havoc on users of the highly-revered device, which has been dubbed the Jesus Phone by its more blindly faithful users.
What's al-Qaeda's take on the iPhone?
In a fortnight during which just about everyone on the planet, excluding naturally those in a coma or temporarily indisposed up some tributary of the Amazon, has offered their two bits' worth on the launch of Apple's iPhone, it comes as a bit of a surprise that al-Qaeda has dismally failed to contribute to the brouhaha.
Why the iPhone is a success
Two weeks after the iPhone virus started spreading, the verdict has to be that Steve Jobs has got it right.
Sick to death of the bloody iPhone? Click here
We have some absolutely splendid news today for those among you who are heartily sick and tired of the bloody iPhone - those very silly people down at Blendtec have done the decent thing and stuck the infernal device in the blender.
iPhone hackers disclose vulns and hunt for clues
The game is on for hackers trying to spot security vulnerabilities in Apple's iPhone and already they're scoring points. Less than 72 hours after the iPhone's introduction, researchers have reported at least one flaw that could allow an attacker some level of control over the device, while other hackers have uncovered passwords hiding in Apple software that could prove key in gaining root access, they said.
iPhone autopsies conducted
It hasn't taken long for many of the Apple iPhones acquired over the weekend to be taken home and taken to bits as hardware fans and chip analysts alike try to find out what kind of kit the "revolutionary" handset is packing.
Apple's first handheld: the Newton MessagePad
Some say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and when you consider the history of the PDA, that statement holds many truths.
iPhone contract charges unveiled
AT&T and Apple have announced what the iPhone will cost customers over the two-year contract they'll be obliged to sign - and it's pretty-much what AT&T charges customers already.
Ballmer: Apple's iPhone will be a niche player
So did Microsoft CEO Steve 'Monkey Boy ' Ballmer actually claim Apple's iPhone strategy is "flawed" or "bust", as a fair few bloggers picking up on his USA Today interview suggested? Not quite.
Why the Apple phone will fail, and fail badly
That's us, hoist by the petard of our excitable headline writers. But this remains a good run-through of the mobile phone market and Apple's place in it. We shall see, soon enough, if the novelty wears off® | <urn:uuid:50022c7f-1410-4d50-be9e-05411ec98289> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/09/iphone_roundup/print.html | 2013-06-18T22:28:08Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947614 | 1,871 |
Grand Central, A Cathedral For Commuters, Celebrates 100
Originally published on
Friday marks the day that 100 years ago, Grand Central Terminal opened its doors for business for the very first time. The largest railroad terminal in the world, the magnificent Beaux-Arts building is in the heart of New York City on 42nd St. And while it no longer serves long-distance trains, it's still a vibrant part of the city's eco-system.
The local from North White Plains has just pulled into Grand Central and Metro-North Railroad Conductor Daniel Seven, walks past the gate and into the vast expanse of the main concourse, looking up at the cerulean blue ceiling, with its depiction of the constellations.
"I see it on TV, in commercials and in the movies and that's my office, you know?" Seven says. "And I feel very fortunate, very privileged to, you know, be here every day. ... It's a beautiful building."
Seven is one of the 750,000 people who walk through Grand Central every day — to put it into perspective, that's more people than the entire population of the state of Alaska — a handy fact you can lear from Daniel Brucker, a very enthusiastic New Yorker who's managed Grand Central Tours for the past 25 years.
"To describe Grand Central Terminal, even to summarize it in once sentence, I would say that it's the kind of a temple, a monument to all that is great and fabulous in rail transportation, the type that God would've built, if he had the money!" Brucker says.
Fortunately, the Vanderbilt family, which owned the New York Central Railroad, had the money. And what they built was a 49-acre rail complex with more tracks and platforms than any other in the world. The buildings on Park Avenue, to the north, are built over it. And it's an almost unfathomably busy place — during the morning rush hour, a Metro-North commuter train arrives every 58 seconds.
"It's like a cathedral that's built for the people," Brucker says. "We're not going through somebody else's mansion, through somebody else's monument. It's ours. It's meant for the everyday commuter and it's a celebration of it."
There were other Grand Centrals on the site — Grand Central Depot, the terminal's immediate predecessor, had an enormous Victorian glass and iron train shed, to accommodate steam from the locomotives. But in 1902, there was a terrible crash in the Park Avenue tunnel, with 15 fatalities. It was caused, in part, by steam obscuring the signals. New York State decreed that all steam trains be banished from Manhattan by 1908 and so the very new technology of electricity became an essential part of the new plan for Grand Central. Construction began in 1906, while Grand Central Depot was still fully functioning.
"They had to build the world's largest train terminal while handling more train customers, passengers and trains than any other train terminal or station in the world," Brucker explains. "And they had to build it all around there. That, in itself, was a marvel, was an engineering feat."
And the final result was monumental, a space filled with light and architectural detail, says George Monasterio. He's chief architect for the Metro-North Railroad, which now owns and occupies Grand Central
"It is the largest interior ... public space in New York," Monasterio says. The windows on the east and the west side, those windows used to open, they used to draw air from the east side, through the terminal, over and out the west side."
And the original architects created an unerring sense of passenger flow, with ramps and elevators going from the streets to the platforms. Metro-North president Howard Permut commutes into Grand Central every day from the northern suburbs.
"All you have to do is walk in or stand on the balcony and watch people move and you'll recognize the genius of the people who built Grand Central," Permut says. "To see this phenomenal room and all these movements and almost no one ever bumps into anyone else. It's really amazing."
For much of its life, Grand Central accommodated long distance trains. Probably the most famous of them was the 20th Century Limited, to Chicago. It offered travelers not only fine dining and air-conditioned sleeping cars, but private secretaries, a barber shop and a beauty salon, says Brucker.
"It left on its own special platform on Track 34 — huge wide platform with no columns, where they could roll out the red carpet," Brucker says.
But, in the 1960s, the New York Central was bankrupt and there was a real possibility that Grand Central would be torn down and replaced by a skyscraper. There was a public outcry and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis joined the fight to save the building, explains Brucker. "With her wherewithal, that fight got enough traction to make its way up to the United States Supreme Court, which helped establish a landmarks conservancy act. Grand Central Terminal was the first building ever saved under that conservancy act."
The terminal was saved, but it was in terrible shape. Metro-North raised half a billion dollars in bonds to restore Grand Central to better than new conditions in the 1990s. They drained a quarry in Italy to get marble to match the original. They spent a year painstakingly cleaning the black tar off the ceiling. They added a food court, a fresh food market, and high-end stores. And now?
"[It's] one of the top 10 visited sites in the world!" Brucker says. "And the shopping alone — it's one of the most successful and vibrant shopping areas in the U.S. So, it is a testament to rebirth and to renewal and to reimagination."
And it will only become busier by the end of the decade, Brucker says. "As we are speaking, the Long Island Railroad, one of the nation's largest railroads — a sister railroad of Metro-North — is burying in the deepest tunnels on planet Earth for trains, burying into Grand Central Terminal to build a terminal under this terminal!"
A special ceremony will mark the centennial on Friday. | <urn:uuid:1e7f1d4e-4d58-4e31-b673-6c02778fec5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wyso.org/post/grand-central-cathedral-commuters-celebrates-100 | 2013-06-18T22:33:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965155 | 1,287 |
Category: Non-Fiction/Literary Criticism – Paperback: 608 pages – Publisher: Random House – Imprint: Anchor Books – Source: My own bookshelves
First Published: 2005
Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley has been on my shelves for about six years, ever since I first read it, and back in the summer, when I was shuffling my bookshelves, I pulled it forward for a re-read to decide whether to keep it or not as I didn’t remember much about it beyond the personal angle Smiley had added to her summaries of literary theory.
Back in 2001 she was writing her latest novel when she stalled and got bogged down in what she was writing and why. To get over the combination of angst and writer’s block she chose and read 100 novels (mostly classics) and then wrote this book.
The first half of the book is broken into thirteen chapters about novel reading, analysing and writing, the second is made up of 100 mini-essays on the novels Smiley read. The thirteen chapters that open up the book are:
2. What Is a Novel?
3. What Is a Novelist?
4. The Origins of the Novel
5. The Psychology of the Novel
6. Morality and the Novel
7. The Art of the Novel
8. The Novel and History
9. The Circle of the Novel
10. A Novel of Your Own (I)
11. A Novel of Your Own (II)
12. Good Faith: A Case History
13. Reading a Hundred Novels
As you might guess from some of the chapter titles this isn’t quite thirteen ways of looking at the novel. The Introduction is scene-setting and focuses mostly on her own experiences as a reader, author and creative writing teacher, it explains about the personal impact of September 11th 2001′s tragedy, her writer’s block while working on the novel Good Faith and what she hoped to achieve by diverting her energy into this book instead. Chapters 10 and 11 will only appeal to aspiring writers, Chapter 12 is solely about the experience of finishing Good Faith and it’s journey through publication and promoting it. It’s worth bearing in mind that this was written in 2005 and is so pre-ebook explosion. The final chapter is on her experience of reading a hundred novels in about three years as the title suggests but doesn’t really draw any conclusions or discuss the pros and cons of immersing yourself in this kind of reading etc, it’s just about her own experiences.
Re-reading this in December justified my blurry memories of originally reading it, it’s a solid 6/10 book – but it’s still worth keeping around.
On the plus side, Smiley has a talent for talking about how novels came about and what they’re for. When she gets going in Chapters 2-8 she’s very enjoyable:
‘A novelist is a compleat generalist – he depicts as much as her can of what is around him. If he were more of a specialist, he wouldn’t be a novelist, he would have a field of study (if he were more of a specialist of words, he would be a poet). If he were more of a generalist, he wouldn’t be a novelist, he would be a roving bore, spouting theories to anyone who couldn’t get away fast enough. A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing.’
She has also read those 100 novels featured at the back of the book and written a mini-essay on each which means that in those chapters about the history and development of the novel and its social impact she is able to quote and draw from all those texts and authors. It will definitely help you if you’ve read some of the more well-known titles but she’s pretty good at not spoiling plot twists and summarising things so you’ll never feel dumb or stumble over the points she’s trying to make.
On the down side, only Chapters 2-8 are about ways of looking at the novel rather than writing advice or Smiley’s writing experience so if you’ve no interest in writing a novel you can skip the Introduction, skim-read Chapter 9 and skip Chapters 10-12. Obviously if you’re a fan of Smiley or an aspiring writer these sections will no doubt make the book feel far richer and rounded than they did for me so this is very much personal taste.
It’s also worth pointing out that Smiley is determined to refer to the author as ‘he’ and the reader as ‘she’ throughout the book which grated for me after a while. It’s not something I’d normally notice but perhaps because she is frequently switching from contemplating the writer to considering the reader the gendering of this two roles was very obvious and old-fashioned.
‘A novelist is someone who has volunteered to be a representative of literature and to move it forward a generation. That is all.’
Overall, I enjoyed the bits about books by authors other than Smiley and it’s definitely worth a look if you are interested in ideas about what books are *for* and how authors fit into society. I disagree with some of Smiley’s ideas wholeheartedly (children’s books all feature socially awkward and broken protagonists because all children’s authors are socially awkward and broken – I am paraphrasing but not much) but she does offer some lovely imagery. Likewise, the 100 mini-essays at the end of the book are a mix of insight and well, not very insightful summary.
It’s a book that you need to sift through to get to the good stuff but I’m keeping hold of my copy because while many literary theory/criticism books exist this is a very different approach to the genre: quirkier, far more personal and it is interesting to see what she gains and loses by taking such an informal approach. While it is by no means flawless it manages to create something very new and different that sits halfway between something like James Woods’ How Fiction Works (review to come) and Scarlett Thomas’ Monkeys with Typewriters (link is to my review). It’s also a very interesting ancestor to the Year of Reading X Books titles that we’ve seen in the last two or three years.
Rating: 6/10 (Book Review Scale) | <urn:uuid:c7011b53-33e4-4865-a336-96a9205ecd7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alexinleeds.com/2013/01/16/review-thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-the-novel-by-jane-smiley/ | 2013-05-19T09:48:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966867 | 1,380 |
I was absolutely blown away by how stunning Blair looked, as usual. Her hair was a little straggly for my taste, but her makeup was flawless. Obviously she took some cues from her idols Grace and Audrey but there is nothing wrong with that. They had great taste and their beauty legacies endure for a reason.
As I decide on my own wedding look, the Gossip Girl wedding of the century could not have happened at a more perfect time. Now I know exactly what I want for my own wedding makeup – classic, simple, pretty.
Blair’s makeup is restrained and elegant, so the beauty of her features hits you and not a “look”. You want “Wow, you look so pretty,” not “Wow, great makeup.” Her sweeping eye brows, her full, pouty lips, and her skin, contrasted with her dark hair and then the light veil are just lovely, and so Blair.
I might use this as my inspiration photo because it details how lovely the soft pink eye makeup is. And goodness look at those eye brows. Lusting over here:
Truthfully, the simplest looks seem to always have 9 million steps which is why the term “Natural Beauty” is so ironic. We put a lot of effort into making it look effortless, to paraphrase a fabulous 1998 Allure article from years ago. Note the “we”. It takes a team people, so don’t hate yourself if you try this look out, but think you look like garbage + want to wear a bag over your head. Just try again. And maybe blend a little more.
Which brings me to my last and final point. The key to Blair’s look is that each step is flawlessly executed. Just about every aspect of this look is makeup 101, and we all know the key to mastering anything is practice. It’s the fundamentals: foundation + eye liner application + eye brow grooming. Master these and you can conquer the world. And re-visit my list of Tips & Tricks for basic guidelines.
Tip: I love practicing safe sun, but SPF can cause a white cast on your face in photos, especially when a flash is used, so skip it for photo-op days
3. Prime face and eyes
Pat on a feature-specific primer to entire face. Use an eye primer on lids, right to brow bone and a plain face primer on the rest of your face.
Try Makeup Forever, $32 and Smashbox ,$16 for face primers
Try Urban Decay, $20 for eye primer
4. Even-out skin tone
Use a foundation brush to apply the tiniest amount of liquid foundation to your forehead, nose, and chin. Blend out and repeat until you have enough coverage that skin tone looks even.
Tip: Go slowly! Let each thin layer dry completely before you add more..like painting.
5. Conceal blemishes and redness
Using a concealer brush, apply thin layers of concealer to any redness or breakouts. The thinner, the better. You can build coverage, but for staying power, you need to let each layer set/dry first. Patience. It’s like 20 seconds!
>I love Benefit’s Boi-ing, $19 in shades 1 and 2
Enhance your eyes
1. Fake lashes
False lashes aren’t easy which is why I would get these professionally done. I’m absolutely lusting after $200 eyelash extensions, but that is for another post/income bracket. If you want to try to do them yourself, take the lash strip and gently cut into it to make the lashes look less fake, then dip in lash glue and apply to the base of your lashes (not on the skin). Keep nudging them off your lid as you set them/initially place them. Once dry, apply a thick line of black liner to lids, starting a little outside your eye and extending out and up at the edge just a bit. Smooth the line out with a slant-liner brush dipped in matte black eye shadow.
2. Curl lashes
Powder them a bit to beef them up, then apply lengthening black mascara. Note: I do not ever do this in this order, but apparently the rest of the world does. Rake them out with an eyelash comb for separation, but only if you don’t go for false lashes. You don’t want to rip them all out.
Mascara Recs: Literally any formula will do. Honestly. Maybelline is fabulous.
3. Add some pink
- Eyes get 2 colors of matte pink eye shadow go all over lid, with the darker color right in the crease. Blend really well. You want it to look seamless.
- Cheeks get a warm pink/berry color on the apples. Blend to temples.
- Lips get defined (outlined) with neutral colored lip liner (that means it’s called “neutral” or “spice”. NOT NUDE), and then lightly colored in with the pencil. Apply a pinky lip gloss on top and dab a little shimmery silver shadow right above the “bow” of lips and a little into the center of your smaller lip to make it look a little fuller.
4. Set with a dusting of translucent power on forehead, nose and chin
I love Makeup Forever’s HD Microfinish Powder, $30
Simple. Hopefully you got all that! Leave a comment if anything isn’t clear.
And finally, since I have to know every detail of the Gossip Girl Royal Wedding, here is a fabulous video detailing the gorgeous Vera Wang wedding dresses and Serena’s drop dead Maid-of-Honor dress:
Hope you guys enjoy! xoxo | <urn:uuid:5748cb48-24dc-45a9-9ef0-d64b12ed38a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beautycheckblog.com/2012/01/31/steal-it-blairs-gossip-girl-wedding-makeup/ | 2013-05-19T09:54:09Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920251 | 1,238 |
BSA Supply No. 35859
In learning about astronomy, Scouts study how activities in space affect our own planet and bear witness to the wonders of the night sky: the nebulae, or giant clouds of gas and dust where new stars are born; old stars dying and exploding; meteor showers and shooting stars; the moon, planets, and a dazzling array of stars.
- Describe the proper clothing and other precautions for safely making observations at night and in cold weather. Tell how to safely observe the Sun, objects near the Sun, and the Moon. Explain first aid for injuries or illnesses such as heat and cold reactions, dehydration, bites and stings, and damage to your eyes that could occur during observation.
- Explain what light pollution is and how it and air pollution affect astronomy.
- With the aid of diagrams (or real telescopes if available), do each of the following:
Do the following:
- Explain why binoculars and telescopes are important astronomical tools. Demonstrate or explain how these tools are used.
- Describe the similarities and differences of several types of astronomical telescopes.
- Explain the purposes of at least three instruments used with astronomical telescopes.
Do the following:
- Identify in the sky at least 10 constellations, at least four of which are in the zodiac.
- Identify at least eight conspicuous stars, five of which are of magnitude 1 or brighter.
- Make two sketches of the Big Dipper. In one sketch, show the Big Dipper's orientation in the early evening sky. In another sketch, show its position several hours later. In both sketches, show the North Star and the horizon. Record the date and time each sketch was made.
- Explain what we see when we look at the Milky Way.
At approximately weekly intervals, sketch the position of Venus, Mars, or Jupiter in relation to the stars. Do this for at least four weeks and at the same time of night. On your sketch, record the date and time next to the planet's position. Use your sketch to explain how planets move.
Do the following:
- List the names of the five most visible planets. Explain which ones can appear in phases similar to lunar phases and which ones cannot, and explain why.
- Find out when each of the five most visible planets that you identified in requirement 5a will be observable in the evening sky during the next 12 months, then compile this information in the form of a chart or table. Update your chart monthly to show whether each planet will be visible during the early morning or in the evening sky.
Do the following:
- Sketch the face of the Moon and indicate at least five seas and five craters. Label these landmarks.
- Sketch the phase and the daily position of the Moon, at the same hour and place, for a week. Include landmarks on the horizon such as hills, trees, and buildings. Explain the changes you observe.
- List the factors that keep the Moon in orbit around Earth.
- With the aid of diagrams, explain the relative positions of the Sun, Earth, and the Moon at the times of lunar and solar eclipses, and at the times of new, first-quarter, full, and last-quarter phases of the Moon.
With your counselor's approval and guidance, do ONE of the following:
- Describe the composition of the Sun, its relationship to other stars, and some effects of its radiation on Earth's weather. Define sunspots and describe some of the effects they may have on solar radiation.
- Identify at least one red star, one blue star, and one yellow star (other than the Sun). Explain the meaning of these colors.
List at least three different career opportunities in astronomy. Pick the one in which you are most interested and explain how to prepare for such a career. Discuss with your counselor what courses might be useful for such a career.
- Visit a planetarium or astronomical observatory. Submit a written report, a scrapbook, or a video presentation afterward to your counselor that includes the following information:
- Activities occurring there
- Exhibits and displays you saw
- Telescopes and other instruments being used
- Celestial objects you observed
- Plan and participate in a three-hour observation session that includes using binoculars or a telescope. List the celestial objects you want to observe, and find each on a star chart or in a guidebook. Prepare an observing log or notebook. Show your plan, charts, and log or notebook to your counselor before making your observations. Review your log or notebook with your counselor afterward.
- Plan and host a star party for your Scout troop or other group such as your class at school. Use binoculars or a telescope to show and explain celestial objects to the group.
- Help an astronomy club in your community hold a star party that is open to the public.
- Personally take a series of photographs or digital images of the movement of the Moon, a planet, an asteroid or meteoroid, or a comet. In your visual display, label each image and include the date and time it was taken. Show all positions on a star chart or map. Show your display at school or at a troop meeting. Explain the changes you observed.
Atomic Energy, Chemistry, Computers, Geology, Photography, Radio, Space Exploration, and Weather merit badge pamphlets
- Bond, Peter. DK Guide to Space. DK Publishing, 1999.
- Brunier, Serge, and Akira Fujii. The Great Atlas of the Stars. Firefly Books, 2001.
- Covington, Michael A. Astrophotography for the Amateur, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
- Davis, Kenneth C. Don't Know Much About Space. HarperTrophy, 2001.
- --------. Don't Know Much About the Solar System. HarperCollins, 2001.
- Harrington, Philip, and Edward Pascuzzi. Astronomy for All Ages. Globe Pequot Press, 2000.
- Henbest, Nigel, and Heather Couper. DK Space Encyclopedia. DK Publishing, 1999.
- Lambert, David. The Kingfisher Young People's Book of the Universe. Kingfisher Books, 2001.
- Moore, Patrick, ed. Astronomy Encyclopedia. Oxford Children's Books, 2002.
- Price, Fred W. The Planet Observer's Handbook. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- Schaaf, Fred. 40 Nights to Knowing the Sky: A Night-by-Night Skywatching Primer. Owl Books, 1998.
- Stott, Carole. New Astronomer. Dorling Kindersley Limited, 1999.
- Trefil, James. Other Worlds: Images of the Cosmos from Earth and Space. National Geographic, 1999.
CDs, DVDs, and Videos
Amazing Universe III. Hopkins Technology, 1995, CD-ROM.
IMAX Cosmic Voyage. Warner Home Video, 1996, DVD.
Distant Suns: The Virtual Desktop Planetarium. Virtual Reality Laboratories, 1994, CD-ROM.
Savage Sun. Discovery Channel, 1999, videocassette.
The Solar Empire: A Star is Born. Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel, 1997, videocassette.
21027 Crossroads Circle
P.O. Box 1612
Waukesha, WI 53187-1612
Web site: http://www.astronomy.com
Sky and Telescope
49 Bay State Road
Cambridge, MA 02138-1200
Toll-free telephone: 800-253-0245
Web site: http://skyandtelescope.com
Organizations and Web Sites
9201 Ward Parkway, Suite 100
Kansas City, MO 64114
Web site: http://www.astroleague.org
Astronomy Watch: Tonight's Sky and Astro Events
Web site: http://www.astronomy-watch.com
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Headquarters Information Center
Washington, DC 20546-0001
Web site: http://www.nasa.gov
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
950 North Cherry Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85719
Web site: http://www.noao.edu
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
520 Edgemont Road
Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475
Web site: http://www.nrao.edu
The Planetary Society
65 North Catalina Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91106-2301
Web site: http://planetary.org
Web site: http://www.skymaps.com
Solar System Exploration: The Planets
Web site: http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/features/planets/planetsfeat.html
Space Telescope Science Institute
3700 San Martin Drive
Baltimore, MD 21218
Web site: http://hubblesite.org
Web site: http://www.spacewander.com
Web site: http://www.SpaceWeather.com | <urn:uuid:5305d5cb-3106-4582-9060-6ebda0d0b467> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://councils.scouting.org/sitecore/content/Home/BoysScouts/AdvancementandAwards/MeritBadges/mb-ASTR | 2013-05-19T10:17:34Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.80375 | 1,876 |
2008 Ambassador Speeches
Ambassador Scobey Speaks to 10th of Ramadan Investors Association
October 16, 2008
Thank you very much. I would like to thank his Excellency, the governor, so much for allowing me to come and to visit this huge governorate. I cannot wait to come back when I have more time to spend here. I thank Mr. Halal, Senator Basharas, and Mr. Mohammed Farid Khamis for inviting us to come and work with you today on a seminar designed to look at the practical aspects of enhancing U.S. and Egyptian trade.
I thought I would do two things: first a few general opening remarks, then I can tell you a little about what the United States is doing today in response to the financial disruptions that many of you have observed. We can talk a little, perhaps, about how we [The United States], from our perspective, intend to continue to go forward. Because, as Mr. Halal said, global trade is the life-blood of the planet. We are all interconnected, none of us stand alone. I can assure you that no matter what happens, either in our presidential elections or on the economic front, the pursuit of global trade will continue to be a key aspect of the United State’s view of the world. It is simply too important to all of us to neglect.
But I would just, again, like to thank you so much for inviting me. This group, itself, is really a symbol of what the free market can accomplish. I can only but imagine what 10th of Ramadan looked like thirty years ago, it was clearly a desert. The incredible investment and leadership and accommodation and encouragement, both from the government and the private sector, is clearly seen today in this enormous industrial development, where you have created jobs and wealth for tens of thousands – even hundreds of thousands – of Egyptians. So I congratulate you for this.
This association, again, has shown me such hospitality. This is the first time we are doing this seminar for promoting business with the U.S. and I think it is really fitting that we start off here in 10th of Ramadan city, because it really is a crucible of U.S. and Egyptian economic mutual activity. We hope to do this in many other cities and governorates around Egypt. This program demonstrates our commitment to a strong, vibrant, bilateral trade relationship and is really but one example of U.S. government initiatives to promote trade. Other examples are the Qualified Industrial Zones, US trade and development grants, and the bilateral investment treaty, which is concrete evidence of our commitment to a strong US and Egyptian economic relations and to a prosperous Egypt and, hopefully, to a prosperous America. I can only assure you that we will continue to look for new ways to enhance and promote this relationship. Nothing is every finished in the world of business, investment, and trade; you are always trying to do more.
Again, thanks to the enormous contribution and dedicated effort by institutions, such as the 10th of Ramadan Investors Association, our bilateral trade grows and we enjoy an unprecedented level of cooperation and partnership. Trade and economic relations have significantly diversified and expanded in recent years through the remarkable efforts of business people such as yourself. You have played a significant part in Egypt’s economic accomplishments of recent years, creating one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
In 2007, bilateral trade between Egypt and the United States was more than $7.7 billion, a 75% increase in just three years. So far in 2008 the growth has continued; the first quarter figures have shown an increase of 19% in bilateral trade. We understand the importance of trade and we will pursue a diplomacy that involves US business in Egypt and in the region. We anticipate that the pursuit of free trade will continue to be a hallmark of US policy because it is the right course to pursue. In Egypt we are firmly on the path from aid to trade and the achievements, so far, are staggering. The United States remains Egypt’s largest trading partner, buying 33% of everything Egypt exports to the world. In 2007, Egypt was the 62nd largest exporter to the US out of 233 countries. In the last ten years, Egypt’s exports to the US increased by 262%, while Egyptian textile exports, specifically, increased by 400% percent.
We hope that events like today will help to increase trade even more. We know that it is you, the private sector that is the real engine for the creation of jobs and sustained economic growth. Again, I would like to thank everyone for hosting this seminar today.
I wanted to turn briefly. I am not an economist, by profession or training. I am a diplomat. But I want to try to put the current economic situation into perspective, from a diplomatic point of view. I think I would be totally out of my league to try to predict what is going to happen to the world economy in the coming months and weeks. What I can tell you is the United State, working very closely with both the international monetary organizations of which your own finance minister is now a leading element of the financial committee, working with other industrialized partners have really come together to try to figure out what is best to do for the financial challenges that have emerged. This is what the United States has done today; and what we have done has been very consistent with the actions we have agreed upon with the G7 finance ministers and it is built on a program we put in place to bolster financial market stability. US financial authorities have announced, very recently in the last couple of days, additional, significant measures to reinforce the financial markets. First, the Treasury department is launching a voluntary capital purchase program to assist financial institutions to rebuild their capital base and increase the financing of business. We will be investing in a number of financial institutions across the country in order to provide a stable basis for the economy. Second, the US Federal Deposit Security will guarantee new issues of senior debt by banks and financial institutions for a period of up to three years. This should help to unlock the inter-bank market and help, also, to provide limited deposit insurance on non-interest bearing transaction accounts, which are often used by short-term operating expenses – such as payroll, through the end of 2009. Third, the Federal Reserve has been working with other central banks to assure that financial institutions have access to the dollar liquidity they need to unlock credit markets and get money flowing back to businesses and families. The Federal Reserve plans to buy commercial paper to ensure businesses have a financing backstop.
It’s important to note that these measures, and those taken in Europe, are an implementation of the G7 plan of action. We will need to continue to work together to address the current financial market difficulties.
This is, in a very short snapshot, a current events description of what the United States has done to address financial challenges and difficulties in the marketplace. I am certain, if you are following our election at all, both of the candidates have outlined additional measures that could be taken by the United States. The US Congress is looking at additional measures, as well. I cannot predict what the outcome of our elections is going to be, I cannot predict what our congress is going to do, but I can predict, as I said earlier, that we will continue to work closely with our financial partners around the world and we will continue to work and promote the free movement of goods and services across national boundaries. Because, as Mr. Halal pointed out, it is this global trade that has allowed all of our economies to grow; it has created jobs. As I said before, I am not an economic expert and I cannot predict the future. Mr. Halal outlined a number of, what I hope to be, worst case scenarios, but I don’t think there is any consensus right now on the duration of the difficulties that the market is facing. But I do know that, with confidence in each other and around the world, whatever problems there are we can shorten and ameliorate them by continuing to work on the fundamentals of building good business relationships.
Thank you very much. | <urn:uuid:018768d3-4a4b-4ad1-bf67-30f8126416f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://egypt.usembassy.gov/ambassador/tr101608.html | 2013-05-19T09:48:59Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971973 | 1,667 |
An article in today’s New York Times brings up an intriguing point about e-books—there’s no eye-catching book cover to inspire others to have a fling with whatever you’re reading. Cover design plays a big part in the book business, so what happens if readers start to favor e-books over “old-fashioned” hard copy? (Mary B., Reader’s Services)
Author Madison Smartt Bell writes about the “huge chunks of cultural heritage” at risk of being lost in the devastation caused by the massive earthquake in Haïti. Click here for information from the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) and the global library community.
Check out this “library most can only dream of” reported in the New York Times.
Susan R., Reader’s Services
Yesterday I happened to read the editor’s introduction to the latest issue of Orion magazine. Orion is generally considered to be a “nature” magazine, and is usually shelved with similar titles at most newsstands and bookstores. But as the editor points out, Orion never intended to be viewed as any particular genre or fill any specialized niche within the magazine market. From Orion’s point of view, any writing anywhere that anyone is doing is in a sense “nature” writing. Since we all live in the natural world, any writing about people or place is in a way, writing about nature. Continue reading
Ms. Rosalyn Bosch has created a new film on the Vichy government’s roundup of 76,000 Jews during World War II, called La Rafle. I don’t think it is available yet in the states, but keep an eye out- it sounds very compelling and may fill in a rather neglected area of history. Heard on NPR’s Talk of the Nation.
Shira S, Reader’s Services
Here’s a wonderful article by Booklist editor and publisher Bill Ott on the Stieg Larsson trilogy that’s taking American readers by storm.
Laura H., Reader’s Services
Click above for an NPR interview with David Rose, creator of the LRB's personal ads column.
Spring has officially arrived, and if you choose to believe the hype, love is in the air. Truth be told, however, the springtime air is also filled with pollen, mold, bees, and countless other love-inhibiting allergens and insects. So, if you’d rather not trust your love connection to a seasonal weather change, allow me to suggest a matchmaking option you may have missed: the London Review of Books.
Established in 1979, the London Review of Books is best known for its highly-regarded commentary on literature, film, art, and politics from such distinguished contributors as Martin Amis, John Ashbery, Julian Barnes, Christopher Hitchens, Hilary Mantel, and Susan Sontag. But make no mistake, the LRB isn’t all business. When advertising director David Rose joined the magazine in 1998, he spearheaded the creation of a personal ads column to help LRB readers with “similar literary and cultural tastes get together.” Rose envisioned “a sort of 84 Charing Cross Road endeavour, with readers providing their own versions of Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft finding love among the bookshelves.” The ads Rose received, however, were anything but expected.
As Evanstonians are acutely aware, times are tough for libraries. The current economic climate has resulted in cuts to library funding nationwide. Large cities and small towns alike have been feeling the crunch of tight budgets and funding cuts. But for those of us who love and support our local libraries, there are still ample opportunities to have our voices be heard. For those looking to share some library love, there are a couple of easy ways to do so right now at EPL:
1.) Woman’s Day magazine and the American Library Association are currently running an essay contest for women who love the library. They are looking for original essays (by women) of 700 words or less, telling why the library is important in your community. Up to four essays will appear in an upcoming issue of Woman’s Day and online at WomansDay.com. Submissions are being accepted through May 09, 2010. Additional information and the official rules for the contest are available here.
2.) The week of April 11th is National Library Week and we’d like for you to help us celebrate. We’re looking to collect brief, 1 or 2 sentence testimonials from our patrons about why they love the library. We’re planning to post your comments on our website for the week to celebrate our patrons, our library, and our community. If you’re interested in contributing a comment, please stop by either the 2nd Floor Reader’s Advisory Desk or the 3rd Floor Reference Desk and talk to a librarian anytime.
Margaret Atwood is many things: poet, novelist, political activist. She has published countless novels, essays and other non-fiction works, children’s books, and books of poetry. Among her numerous awards and honors, she has won the prestigious Booker Prize (and been nominated for it five times!). She is as highly regarded for her science fiction books like The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake (although she resists the term “science fiction”), as she is for her astute literary criticism. In addition to her literary endeavors, she has been an often outspoken environmentalist, encouraging politicians and citizens to take simple everyday actions to improve the environment. Among her myriad accomplishments, she has even been commissioned to write an opera, which will appear onstage in Vancouver later this year. But all of these things aside, Margaret Atwood is first and foremost, a Canadian. And as we all know, Canadians love hockey. But does Margaret Atwood, esteemed woman of letters, share in her country’s love of the game? You betcha! Not only will Atwood have a (singing!) cameo appearance in the upcoming Olivia Newton-John film Score: A Hockey Musical, but she recently appeared on the Canadian TV show Rick Mercer Report (often described as the Canadian Daily Show) to offer up her tips on hockey goaltending. Click on the clip below to watch. It is absolutely bizarre and completely hilarious. It will make you see the woman behind the words in a whole new light, and will hopefully make your day. As if you didn’t already know it, Margaret Atwood is awesome.
Chicago Tribune Cultural Critic Julia Keller writes another interesting article on when to abandon a book | <urn:uuid:d40726d7-3663-4b66-8f58-03d15a820ead> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://evanstonpubliclibrary.wordpress.com/2010/03/ | 2013-05-19T09:47:25Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944934 | 1,398 |
This week has felt like another seminal one in the phone hacking saga. Eight people have been charged – including Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, Rupert Murdoch has resigned from News International’s Board – another step in the process of Murdoch-ian withdrawal from UK newspapers, and the oral hearings of the Leveson Inquiry Part 1 concluded.
But reports of the end of the Leveson Inquiry are premature. There is still a long way to go, both the inquiry and its aftermath. For the Inquiry, the hard work of Part 1 does, as Lord Justice Leveson said this week, start here. The judge and his panel will disappear for the next three months to beaver away on a report and recommendations. This they will present – some time around late October – to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media Sport (yes, Jeremy Hunt if he is still there), and the Home Secretary (currently Theresa May), for consideration by the government.
If the report contains recommendations for the use of statutory mechanisms, then the government will need to decide if it wants to accept those recommendations and, if so, how to get legislation through the House. The most obvious vehicle would be the Communications Bill, a white paper for which is due early next year. Were the Leveson recommendations to be included in this white paper, they would then go out for consultation in 2013 with a view to being announced in the Queen’s Speech in May 2014. After which the Bill would be debated by Parliament.
Then there is Leveson Part 2. This appears to have been forgotten by many of those reporting on this week’s hearings. Yet Part 2 was – originally – the meat of the Inquiry. It was the who did what, when and to whom. The nitty gritty detail of wrongdoing and malpractice.
The terms of reference for Part 2 read:
3. To inquire into the extent of unlawful or improper conduct within News International, other newspaper organisations and, as appropriate, other organisations within the media, and by those responsible for holding personal data.
4. To inquire into the way in which any relevant police force investigated allegations or evidence of unlawful conduct by persons within or connected with News International, the review by the Metropolitan Police of their initial investigation, and the conduct of the prosecuting authorities.
5. To inquire into the extent to which the police received corrupt payments or other inducements, or were otherwise complicit in such misconduct or in suppressing its proper investigation, and how this was allowed to happen.
6. To inquire into the extent of corporate governance and management failures at News International and other newspaper organisations, and the role, if any, of politicians, public servants and others in relation to any failure to investigate wrongdoing at News International
7. In the light of these inquiries, to consider the implications for the relationships between newspaper organisations and the police, prosecuting authorities, and relevant regulatory bodies – and to recommend what actions, if any, should be taken. (emphasis added).
Part 2 necessarily had to be postponed so that it did not prejudice the prosecution of any of those alleged to have committed offences. Now eight people have been charged and those prosecutions are going ahead. These will be completed, at the earliest, by the beginning of 2013 – according a lawyer close to the proceedings. More likely, given the amount of information to go through and the complexity of the cases, they will continue until next summer or even the autumn.
Depending on the progress of those prosecutions and the extent to which they lead to disclosure of information about who did what when, then a decision will be made on whether to go ahead with Part 2. Although it should be noted that such a decision is not within the power of Lord Justice Leveson. It is for the government to decide. Right now, there is an obligation to go ahead.
Undoubtedly the news organisations involved will not be keen for Part 2 to happen. It is likely to be as – if not more – painful for them than Part 1. It will involve naming senior executives and journalists who commissioned phone hacking and other illegal methods of gathering personal information. It will mean looking in detail at the multiple failures of corporate governance at News Corporation and elsewhere. It will mean exposing the corrupt payment of officials across all areas of public life – as claimed by DAC Sue Akers at the Leveson Inquiry on 27th February. Nor, for this reason, will it be comfortable for the police or politicians.
Still, neither the press, nor the police, nor politicians, wanted there to be a public inquiry at all. They may not want Part 2, and may well rail against it, but right now it is happening, whether they like it or not. The Leveson Inquiry is far from over yet.
This post originally appeared on the Hacked Off blog and is reproduced with permission and thanks. | <urn:uuid:c1555e35-b7ee-42bb-affb-4ad5ada9ff9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inforrm.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/comment-the-leveson-inquiry-is-far-from-over-martin-moore/ | 2013-05-19T09:53:47Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965326 | 986 |
By ERIC FELTEN
"Anti-Americanism is really toxic in this country," novelist Martin Amis said from London in a recent interview in the New York Times. Tory politico Tim Montgomerie has launched a quixotic Internet campaign to convince his countrymen that "ours is a better world because of America." Best of luck, Tim! But it's worth noting that English anti-Americanism is nothing new.
3 oz oloroso sherry
¼ oz orange curaçao
1 lemon wedge
Squeeze the lemon wedge into a shaker with ice, and add the spent rind along with the sherry, curaçao, and orange slices. Shake vigorously and strain into a tumbler filled with finely crushed ice. Garnish with fresh orange slices, berries in season, pineapple, and whatever else you can find. Serve with long straws, the only way to achieve Chuzzlewitian Cobbler ecstasy.
Take Charles Dickens, who visited the States in 1842 full of idealistic anticipation and came away discouraged and disgusted by everything from spittoons to slavery. His withering account of the trip, "American Notes," was followed by one of the most scathing satires of American life ever penned, Dickens's novel "Martin Chuzzlewit."
Martin and his companion Mark Tapley find America to be a place of buffoonery and boorish self-satisfaction, where women, instead of enjoying themselves at balls and concerts, attend irony-free lectures on such topics as the "Philosophy of Vegetables." Mark sneers that the American eagle would be a more fitting national symbol were it drawn "like a Bat, for its short-sightedness; like a Bantam, for its bragging; like a Magpie, for its honesty; like a Peacock, for its vanity; like an Ostrich, for its putting its head in the mud and thinking nobody sees it."
But young Chuzzlewit does find one consolation, a refreshment that would soon capture the English imagination. After a particularly awful day, Martin is presented with "a very large tumbler, piled up to the brim with little blocks of clear transparent ice, through which one or two thin slices of lemon, and a golden liquid of delicious appearance, appealed from the still depths below." It was a Sherry Cobbler, a concoction made particularly exotic by its method of consumption -- a hollow reed plunged into the cup. "Martin took the glass, with an astonished look; applied his lips to the reed; and cast up his eyes once in ecstasy," Dickens writes. "He paused no more until the goblet was drained to the last drop."
Reading this passage, some students at Cambridge were intrigued. They sought out an American at the university, Charles Astor Bristed, and begged him to initiate them into the mysteries of the Sherry Cobbler. He obliged.
The drink quickly spread through learned circles. The 1847 edition of "Oxford Night Caps" proclaimed that the Sherry Cobbler "has become a great favourite among the Undergraduates." This, even though at first the only ice to be had in England came from fishmongers, whose frozen water was "taken from stagnant ponds and noisome ditches." It is a testament to just how good a Sherry Cobbler is that the cocktail flourished despite being made with fishy ice.
In Henry James's "An International Episode," a New York businessman recounts how a visitor from England "did nothing but drink sherry-cobblers." How many? Six "in about twenty minutes." The American was eager to ameliorate the British antipathy to the U.S., even then a problem: "It's a matter of national pride with me that all Englishmen should have a good time." Six Sherry Cobblers in 20 minutes should do the trick.
But the fad for Sherry Cobblers would itself produce anxiety about America's influence in England, where, as popular novelist James Payn put it, "any improvement in our affairs borrowed from the United States" was seen as threatening British culture. The most notable such improvements, according to Payn, were galoshes and the Cobbler.
Some ingenious Brits endeavored to make the cultural imperialism issue moot by arguing that the drink predated the American experiment. In 1883, The London Telegraph seized on the work of a German linguist, Prof. Schele de Vere, to argue that Sherry Cobblers "were drank in England long before the nearly forgotten beverage was revived in the United States." A British critic noted the scene in Xenophon's "Anabasis" where Polycrates and his men are given hollow reeds to suck down their goblets of barley wine. "What is this, pray, but Beer-Cobbler?"
But Sherry Cobbler is an example of Yankee ingenuity. Not only did it popularize the straw, but it was the first concoction whose recipe specified that it be shaken with ice. The earliest cocktail shakers were actually patented as Cobbler shakers. The shaking was meant to muddle up the fruit slices included in the shaking tins. Some authorities insisted that only the yellow part of a lemon peel could be included; other called for the juice of half a lemon, half an orange and some chunks of pineapple.
The traditional recipe calls for sugar to sweeten a fairly dry sherry. But use a medium-sweet oloroso sherry and you won't need any sugar. I squeeze a wedge of lemon into the shaker and toss it in with a couple of orange slices. The only sweetener I use is a taste of orange curaçao, a common addition in 19th-century Cobbler recipes. Dress the glass with orange slices, berries in season, pineapple, or anything else you like. Make one for the next anti-American you meet. After all, it's hard to badmouth the U.S. of A. while sucking on a straw.
Mr. Felten is the author of "How's Your Drink?: Cocktails, Culture and the Art of Drinking Well" (Agate Surrey). Email him at [email protected] in The Wall Street Journal, page W4 | <urn:uuid:065f38e4-0d98-4383-b678-8763d9244fdb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122005000365884759.html | 2013-05-19T09:57:28Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963356 | 1,304 |
Should we be thankful that Politico's Glenn Thrush didn't call this article "How Obama got his groove back"?
Even with the more modest title "How Obama reset his campaign," the piece is one of the greatest works of unintentional (and uncomfortable) comedy since David Brooks got hot and bothered over the crease in the future president's pants, Chris Matthews objectively felt a thrill up his leg at the 2008 Democratic candidate's silky tones, or The New York Times tried to give an inspirational glow to President Obama's tardy and clumsy sellout of longtime U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak.
Obama charged that Romney is a different man than the guy he faced Wednesday. But it was the president who seemed to be a totally different guy on Thursday. Gone was the distracted, deer-in-headlights mumbler. In his place, suddenly, was someone doing a pretty good impersonation of Obama ’08…
But it wasn’t the joke that struck a top Obama adviser watching from stage right, it was the way the boss was gripping the lectern — left hand grabbing the front, right hand in his pocket.
“Look,” the person said, “That’s what he does when he’s really into it.”[…]
If Thursday’s Obama performance was any indication, he’s more likely to compensate for his shortcomings outside the debate hall — at rallies that fire up a base that had been less than enthusiastic earlier in the year and more recently has been inclined to believe he will trounce Romney…
That night, after a brief, terse chat with his advisers backstage at the University of Denver arena — “He had real clarity about what had happened,” one of them told POLITICO with a chuckle — Obama hopped in his limo, “The Beast,” and sped off to a nearby DoubleTree with wife Michelle.
He had had enough of politics for the night.
I still expect (because I think an election is pretty much a mechanistic process on which the autumnal theater of polling, stumping and debating has little impact) that Obama will win. But am I the only one who gets a feeling of intense fremdschämen at this kind of inside-the-bunker credulity?
By the way, that "joke" Thrush refers to goes like this: “Thank God somebody is finally getting tough on Big Bird… We didn’t know that Big Bird was driving the federal deficit. … Elmo, too?” Even if it were funny, it came more than a day after the debate. It doesn't even qualify as Diderot's esprit d'escalier, the realization that you should have told your jerk store joke after it's too late.
The saddest thing is this description of how the president laid out his bold new game plan:
He huddled with his inner circle — David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Valerie Jarrett, Anita Dunn, Ron Klain and Jim Messina — and settled on the theme they hammered all of Thursday — a direct attack on Romney that accused him of out-and-out lying on his tax-cut claims and portrayed the former Massachusetts governor as a two-faced imposter willing to say anything to win.
First of all, hasn't Anita Dunn been gone from the Obama administration since, like, sometime during the Carter administration? That she's back is almost as ominous as the continued presence of Plouffe, Jarrett and the rest. Obama's problem is not stylistic. It's a disastrous presidency in which all of these knuckleheads are directly implicated. This is a reset?
If you're keeping score at home, here's how the reset is going:
Mitt Romney is now polling within two percent of the president.
Romney has raised $12 million in the last week.
Even Bill Maher said something funny, and it was at Obama's expense.
A potential donor scandal is brewing.
Much of this drama is standard issue for a campaign season, and I'd be surprised if Obama did not come on stronger in the next debate. But if this is his idea of a new look, the president is in worse shape than I realized. | <urn:uuid:fcabbf07-4c88-413c-88cc-3f8b32a503b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reason.com/blog/2012/10/06/politico-obama-is-risen-truly-he-is-rise | 2013-05-19T09:47:26Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97815 | 878 |
After much anticipation regarding health care reform, 1994 ended without passage of any national legislation. The debate will probably resurface in the new Congress, since the issues and concerns surrounding the U.S. health care system still exist. However, it is unlikely that the discussion will be framed with the same sense of urgency as in 1994. Furthermore, results of last November's elections suggest a considerably reduced probability that health care reform will entail a total overhaul of the system. Nevertheless, some action can be expected at the national and state levels on issues such as pre-existing conditions and the accessibility of health insurance. Although some form of universal coverage may continue to be viewed as a goal, the time span for its achievement will likely be lengthened.
Despite the absence of major health legislation at the national level, the delivery and financing of U.S. health care have undergone, and will continue to undergo, modifications. Similar to the pattern of recent years, much of the change will continue to be initiated at the state level. While quality of care remains a major element of the debate, cost has been the major driving force behind many of the changes.
The desire to control sharply rising costs appears to have steered the U.S. health care system in the direction of managed care. Recent trends suggest that enrollment in health maintenance organizations (HMOs) for 1994 is close to 50 million, with market penetration approaching 20% . Although surveys differ as to the estimated level of enrollment, they are consistent in pointing to significant growth in recent years. Existing and prospective competition have precipitated a consolidation within the various industries that encompass the health care system. Barring any dramatic shift in course, these market forces are expected to intensify during the remainder of the 1990s.
National Health Expenditures
Many of the cost issues and other concerns over health care in this country led to a focus on the level and growth of national health expenditures. The latest estimates from the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) put 1993 health care expenditures at $884.2 billion, representing an increase of 7.8% over spending in 1992 . This was the slowest growth rate recorded by national health expenditures since 1986. As shown in the Figure 1, total health care spending is projected to exceed $1 trillion in 1995. The annual growth rate for the 1990 to 1995 period is expected to average 8%, compared to 9.9% for the previous 5 years.
According to Health Care Financing Administration data, spending on personal health care totaled $782.5 billion in 1993, an increase of 7.2% over the prior year. Table 1 shows a breakdown by type of expenditure and source of payment. Hospital care and physicians' services combined accounted for more than three-fifths of personal health expenditures. In the past, the relatively low out-of-pocket share for these categories has been singled out as a main cause for the sharp increase in expenditures. Although this share remains low for both categories, especially hospital care, each showed relatively slow growth in 1993. Among the various categories, home health care continues to display the fastest growth, by far, while "other professional services" continues to record above-average growth.
Although the growth rate for health care spending has slowed in recent years, it remains above that of the overall economy. National health expenditures were equivalent to 13.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1993. Current estimates for 1995 put the ratio of national health expenditures to GDP at 14.3%. Just 5 years prior, spending on health care represented 12.6% of the goods and services produced in the United States, with the ratio 10 years ago at 10.8% .
The rising share of resources being channeled into US health care, as evidenced by this ratio, remains one of the focal points of the ongoing debate in the United States. The extent of the health care claim on resources is even more apparent when viewed in a context of marginal analysis, ie, looking at incremental changes . The $70 billion increase in national health expenditures projected for 1995 represents 18% of the expected dollar increase in Gross Domestic Product. Thus, despite a discernible slowing in spending on health care, still almost one-fifth of new economic resources in 1995 will be devoted to this category of spending.
International comparisons have also played a central role in the questions regarding resource utilization and health care in the United States. The latest data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show US health care spending at a significantly above-average percentage of gross domestic product. In addition to the current relatively high share of gross domestic product, the data show that during the 1985 to 1992 period, the United States exhibited a larger increase in the share compared to other major industrial countries. Interestingly, Canada, whose single-payer system has been touted as a possible model for the United States, came in second in terms of both relative share and growth since 1985.
Medical Care Inflation
Clearly, one of the most notable developments regarding health care costs has been the dramatic slowing in medical care inflation as measured in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures price changes for a specific "market basket" of consumer goods and services. The difference in importance among various items between the medical care CPI and health insurance plans explains, in large part, why cost experiences have shown gains substantially greater than the medical Consumer Price Index. Other factors include technology advances, higher utilization, and the rise in catastrophic cases.
Although disagreement over some of the technical aspects of the Consumer Price Index persist, the deceleration in the medical care component of the CPI has been too significant to be dismissed. As indicated in Table 2, the increase for 1994 is estimated at just 4.8%-the smallest increase since 1973. This result followed a gain of 5.9% in 1993, and was substantially below our forecast of a year ago .
Much of the difference from the projection was reflected in a sharp slowing among hospital and related services. The categories in this grouping, ie, rooms, inpatient services, and outpatient services, are displaying their slowest price increases since the mid-1980s-a period when prospective payment and diagnostic related groups were adopted into Medicare. Physicians' services also contributed to the lower-than-expected rise in the medical care component of the Consumer Price Index for 1994.
While some of the slowing in the medical care CPI can be attributed to a lower level of general inflation, a significant narrowing of the gap between the two suggests the presence of factors specific to medical care. Projections for 1995 show the gap narrowing further, despite a slight increase in medical care inflation.
Although the health care issue is viewed nationally, many of the developments regarding health care are transpiring at the regional level. State health expenditure data prepared by the Health Care Financing Administration reveal significant regional variations . According to the data supplied by the HCFA in 1993, New England has the highest spending relative to the country as a whole, with the Rocky Mountain states at the other end of the scale. The fastest growth for the period was recorded in the southeast, at 10.3% annually, followed by New England and the mid-eastern states. The far west, at 8.2%, exhibited the slowest growth. Not surprisingly, the high-cost, high-growth regions were the same as those with an above-average proportion of the population aged 65 and older. The Plains states were an exception. Although showing the largest proportion of older residents, their spending and growth were about average.
The factors that differentiate health care from other parts of the economy have been widely discussed: consumers do not pay directly for a large proportion of expenditures; suppliers are intricately involved in the demand decisions; technology advancements increase demand and, in many instances, do not improve productivity.
Despite these attributes, health care is not immune to market forces and the laws of economics. Although much of the industry remains on a nonprofit basis, cost pressures are significantly influencing behavior. Mergers and acquisitions have become commonplace, as firms jockey for position in the new environment.
Summary and Conclusions
The cry for health care reform has diminished somewhat. Nevertheless, more changes are forthcoming. For the foreseeable future, health care will demand a rising share of resources. Earlier estimates put the proportion of health expenditures to Gross Domestic Product at almost 17% by the year 2000.
Although there is no magic number regarding this proportion, its relative level in the United States strongly suggests that changes need to take place. It would appear that the population prefers that changes be instituted through the private sector, and not through extensive government involvement and regulation. | <urn:uuid:754dcd80-3cf0-4ddf-9673-55383c3544f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cancernetwork.com/display/article/10165/74898 | 2013-05-19T10:24:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957145 | 1,746 |
The Subway Diet
"I never expected any of this. I never expected to be well known. I never expected anyone to ever know what I did," says Jared.
Six years ago, as a junior at Indiana University, Jared weighed a staggering 425 pounds. But now, as Correspondent Richard Schlesinger reported last spring, he's a celebrity because he's lost weight.
Growing up in Indianapolis, Jared was the only one in his family with a weight problem.
"Food was a comfort to me. It replaced personal relationships. It replaced extra-curricular activities. It replaced everything in my life," says Jared.
How was he able to carry that weight around? "It's very difficult. It hurts. My shoulders would hurt. My knees would hurt. My wrists would hurt," says Jared. "And that was not even when I was in motion."
For years, his parents tried to get him to eat right. His father, who was also his doctor, knew that Jared would experience severe health problems if he didn't change.
But by the time he was 20, Jared was eating enough for five people - sometimes, 10,000 calories a day.
Consider what Jared was consuming. Every day for breakfast, he'd have two bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches, with a large order of hash browns, a large coffee with cream and 10 packets of sugar.
Lunch was an entire pizza -- extra meat, extra cheese, and of course dessert. Believe it or not, he would need a mid-afternoon snack, usually two large bean burritos with extra cheese. And dinner? That usually consisted of not one or two, but three trips to the Chinese buffet, and ice cream for dessert.
Then, he topped off each day with a late-night snack – not a warm glass of milk, but usually a hamburger, French fries and some kind of dessert. It's not easy consuming 10,000 calories every single day.
Before he started controlling his weight, he says his weight was controlling him: "Whereas most college students pick their classes on the teacher, or the class itself, or the time of day, for me it was, did they have adequate seating that could fit me in that particular classroom?"
It got so bad that just walking across campus became a daily struggle for Jared. "I would take steps, but then I'd have to, maybe every 20 steps or so, I'd have to catch my breath."
Jared knew the time had come to lose weight, but the first several attempts failed.
Finally, he stumbled upon an idea that had been right under his nose. It was the last place he would have looked for a solution: a fast-food chain. There was a Subway sandwich shop right near his apartment.
"The idea just came to me once I read through the nutritional brochure. And even then, I didn't know for sure if I could do it," says Jared, who developed his own diet.
He started skipping breakfast, and ate just two subs a day, a small turkey and a large veggie, along with some baked potato chips, and diet soda. Soon, he cut his daily consumption from 10,000 calories a day to just 2,000.
"This was a major change. I mean, not to make a pun, but I dieted cold turkey," says Jared.
Most people don't even weigh 245 pounds, much less lose that much. But in just one year, Jared dropped from 425 pounds to a relatively svelte 190 pounds -- a weight he has now maintained for five years.
"I just wanted to walk in a room and have no one know I'm even there. That's what I wanted," says Jared. "Now, it's sort of gone 360 degrees."
It never occurred to Jared to tell the folks at Subway about his most unusual diet, but not surprisingly, once word got out, they found him.
More than 20 commercials later, Jared is amazed that he is still so recognized. And while he still eats those sandwiches a couple of times a week, for the most part, he maintains a regular diet.
His new life includes a new wife and a new house in the suburbs of Indianapolis, but he doesn't see much of either. He's on the payroll and on the road for Subway about 200 days a year - telling his story across the nation.
Now, he's found a new cause and spends a lot of time speaking to kids about childhood obesity. The estimate is that 15 percent of children are obese in the United States.
"This is the age that they start to make their lifelong habits, in elementary school," says Jared. "And hopefully, if we can just get to them and continue to get to them at an early age, and reinforce how important nutrition is and exercise is, they won't go down the same path I went down."
Everywhere Jared goes, he carries a constant reminder of who he was, and what he used to be: his old pants with a 60-inch waist.
"These are probably the single best visual I could ever have, and ever have had," says Jared, who says the thought of gaining weight again frightens him. "It scares me. I know the weight possibly could come back on, and I want to do everything I can to avoid that."
By gaining weight, he would lose his claim to fame. And while he might not be the biggest star, Jared is enjoying his taste of celebrity.
"It's a really bizarre circumstance," says Jared. "I say only in America can this happen. I still reflect I'm almost in a fairy tale."
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- Power and Passion | <urn:uuid:92d55cd5-3924-495f-b0df-8c76cab6f862> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18559_162-603484.html | 2013-05-19T10:03:39Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98643 | 1,324 |
Roleplaying GamesThe all-purpose forum for general advice or system-independent (or multi-system) discussion. Come discuss adventure plots, gamemastering dilemmas, or player advice here. For ruleset-specific discussions, see the subforums.
The Pathfinder Beginner's Box got a lot of praise for its accessibility and informative introduction to Pathfinder (3.X variant).
D&D 4th Edition is overall a much easier system to learn than the other editions. The D&D Roleplaying Game Starter Set is 4th Edition's "Beginner Box" equivalent. It's out of print and very expensive now, though.
Make them a character that does a little bit of everything, ask them to roleplay (and make their own backstory, etc), then nudge them endlessly until they are equal parts RP and mechanics savvy.
It will be infuriating, but try to keep the annoyance on your side alone. D&D is rather complex so being annoyed AND not understanding things might convince them that they can't have fun so they just give up.
If necessary, get a shill to help boost their confidence and offer an enthusiastic partnership. The stooge can help play the new person up (so it seems they are 'winning' at their main focus) and take care of other things so you, as the DM, don't have to directly coddle them.
A pickle shifts uneasily under the bun. I give you a hamburger.
Are you introducing them to an already existing group?
In that case, I would advise running a separate session for them so they can learn the feel of the game. It can be very hard to work up the courage to roleplay if you have seasoned players around you.
Are you forming a new group with them?
I assume this is the case. Depending on what system you will play, it might be a good idea to skip combat the first session. Let them get a feel of their characters and roleplay a lot, and maybe have a simple combat that makes them feel like they're being awesome.
The first impression a player gets is often the most important.
(Forgive me for any typoos or the length of my post. I am writing this while working)
When doing so myself, I would grab the player's handbook, and make them a character to start with.
Ask them what archetype they want the character to fit-Warrior, Archer, Sneak, Mage, so on-then build a basic version of that. Put them through a fairly simple scenario, preferably one that draws on the character's out-of-combat skills, and generally ease them into what the character is capable of.
As a disclaimer, I haven't yet done a great job after 'build them a character', so take it with whatever amount of salt you find appropriate.
If you make them a character, I'd try filling out the sheet in front of them and explaining everything as you do, that way they don't start the first session not even knowing what saves and BAB are.
I'd also make a list of feats they would want and let them choose, that way they're not looking through the whole book at level 3 but do actually get input in making their characters. The main frustration of my first party was me spending hours trying to figure out what to take for my Sorcerer while our Ranger was annoyed about the co-GM having chosen bad lvl 1 feats. It's better to try to find a medium, because some people really need hand-holding at the start when others don't. If they have an idea of what playstyle they want to do, that's great, but make sure they know what they're picking. The Paladin should know about his Code, the Rogue should know that they need friends to flank, the Fighter should know he's there to do damage and support, not just one, and the Wizard should know how prepping spells works.
Jace & Zebes by Tinymushroom
Exaltatar by Lord Raziere
[Sorry, Boss, but now, as always, I get the last word.]
The Community episode about D&D is a very accessible introduction to the hobby. It provides a few good role-models and some bad ones, and really communicates the feel of the game to a beginner. I don't advocate their particular play style, but it serves as enough of an introduction to build off of. It's amazing how many unspoken assumptions are outlined in the episode which help later when the beginner sits down at the table.
As far as teaching the game, it's easy if the player wants to learn. There are many good guides for introducing players to the game though, and I'm tired, so I'll leave it at that. Good luck.
Perfectly sane, for a given definiton of sanity.
I'd also say, ask them "Who do you want to be?", and tell them they can name any character from movies, books, or shows. Try to refine what defines these characters, and you essentially already have a character, and a role-model for the new player, too.
Tell them to think like their example: what would Luke Skywalker do? How would Indiana Jones react?
I initiated a friend into D&D (and re-initiated another) basically by giving them pre-made characters and saying "just tell me what you want to do, and I'll tell you what roll/check you need to make."
I think that's an excellent idea.
Si non confectus, non reficiat.
if it were me ,i would first ask them about charactors in cinema, like Conan, merlin, excaliber, beast master, Xena, hercules, even charactors that are not specifically Fantasy but would be a good role to play like Richard decker from BladeRunner. show them how to flesh their charactor out as far as goals and dreams quirks. Mechanic will come Role Playing takes work. It is ok, not to have a "perfect charactor" flawed charactors is fun. Emmerse them into a charactor then play the mechanics.
It is easy to say roll a d20 or great axe is a d12. roleplaying is the hard part. Tell them to HAM it up and go alittle over board.
+1 on the Community D&D episode. Somebody associated with that show gets it... Much of the advice regarding character creation seems sound--I think having some pregens available is not a bad idea--if one of the new players is hitting a creative/understanding block, you have an out (how about one of these fine, archetypical characters?).
But whether or not you give them pregens or walk them through character creation, I think keep character creation to no more than 30 minutes. If this means limiting choices a little, remember that they do not yet know what they are missing. 3.5/4th/PF all are complex enough that a new player needs a taste of character creation, but then needs to start playing. Have a dramatic opening scene that ends with a question like "What do you do?" or "Roll initiative. | <urn:uuid:297054d0-ae86-4c43-87bd-a302e0463b78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=257697&goto=nextoldest | 2013-05-19T09:55:22Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96864 | 1,488 |
1 Wednesday, 15 December 2004
2 [Open session]
3 [The accused entered court]
4 --- Upon commencing at 2.53 p.m.
5 JUDGE ORIE: Madam Registrar, would you please call the case.
6 THE REGISTRAR: Case number IT-00-39-T, the Prosecutor versus
7 Momcilo Krajisnik.
8 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you, Madam Registrar.
9 We are here this afternoon to hear any submissions from the
10 parties in respect of a possible application of Rule 15 bis (D).
11 Last Friday, on the 10th of December, the two remaining Judges,
12 that is, the two Judges remaining after the withdrawal of Judge El Mahdi
13 from this case takes effect, the two remaining Judges invited the accused
14 to inform the Chamber of whether or not he would consent to the
15 continuation of this case to be heard with a substitute Judge in order to
16 include this information in the report to the President. I have sent my
17 report to the President. Meanwhile, I take it that it has been filed this
18 morning, so that it's accessible to the parties.
19 When informing the Chamber about the not giving consent, yesterday
20 in the afternoon the Defence has asked for a hearing on which submissions
21 could be made. The Defence -- as a matter of fact, both parties are
22 entitled to make whatever submissions they'd like to make in anticipation
23 of any decision to be taken by the remaining Judges.
24 I'm aware that the Defence asked for a hearing tomorrow morning.
25 The two Judges, the two remaining Judges would have agreed to that, but
1 there was no courtroom available and the Judges were not willing to
2 further postpone a hearing. Therefore, we have scheduled it this
4 When I emphasised that both parties can make their submission, it
5 is also in view of the Rule 15(D), where it says that if the two remaining
6 Judges would determine that it would be in the interest of justice, it
7 would serve the interests of justice to continue that both parties have a
8 right to appeal, and I'm telling the parties not anything new if I tell
9 them that for appeal proceedings, of course, it might be of some
10 importance to be able to rely on what you said prior to the decision being
11 taken by the two remaining Judges.
12 Is there any preference as to which party would like to make its
13 submissions first? Perhaps the Defence is the most interested party at
14 this moment, so therefore, Mr. Stewart, please proceed.
15 MR. STEWART: Well, Your Honour, I have absolutely no objection
16 whatever to going first. Your Honour, the -- what I'm going to do is --
17 we know, I apprehend the procedural background. I'm not going to run
18 through all that. Your Honour, the -- Mr. Krajisnik's position has now
19 been made clear. Your Honour, we did receive an e-mail from the Trial
20 Chamber saying that this decision was found surprising but understandable.
21 Of course, Your Honour, it's our submission it's understandable. We're
22 slightly surprised it's surprising, but it doesn't matter because by the
23 time we get to the end of these submissions we hope that Mr. Krajisnik's
24 position will be (a), understandable; and (b), not any longer surprising.
25 Your Honour, what I should also make clear about Mr. Krajisnik's
1 position is that he is not contending, through us, that, in the particular
2 circumstances there should be neither a new trial nor a continuation of
3 the old trial. That could be the position in the future if a similar
4 situation arose. But the future is the future, and at that point, one
5 could reach a situation where neither course was appropriate. But on this
6 occasion, Your Honour, we're not arguing that it's in the overall
7 interests of justice to have neither a new trial nor a continuance.
8 Nevertheless, Mr. Krajisnik's position is very clear. He has not -- the
9 way it's put in the Rules he has -- he does not consent to a continuation
10 of these proceedings, i.e., this trial, because he wishes to have the
11 alternative, a rehearing in terms of a new trial.
12 So, of course, they're mutually inconsistent; hence, since it is
13 his wish and our submission that there should be a new trial, of course
14 his consent necessarily had to be withheld under 15(C). Otherwise it is
15 not a consistent position.
16 So, Your Honour, the way that we phrase the question, and it's a
17 legitimate paraphrase of 15 bis (D), is in those circumstances, and that
18 being Mr. Krajisnik's position, which of a new trial or a continuation
19 better serves the interests of justice. Because 15 bis (D) is talking
20 specifically about the decision for the two of Your Honours whether a
21 continuation would serve the interests of justice. But since the only
22 rival contention, but it is the rival contention, the alternative, is a
23 new trial, effectively, it is which of them better serves the interests of
25 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Mr. Stewart, I think that's understood. If you
1 look at the French version of Rule 15 bis (D), you'll see that it
2 says "better serves."
3 MR. STEWART: That's even better, then, Your Honour.
4 JUDGE ORIE: Yes.
5 MR. STEWART: I hadn't -- I do occasionally look at the French,
6 Your Honour, when I see ambiguity and uncertainty in the English, but I
7 must confess a preference for English as my first port of cause. Yes,
8 Your Honour, I understand that means -- "meilleur," I suppose, is a --
9 JUDGE ORIE: It says "sert mieux."
10 MR. STEWART: I understand the grammar. Thank you, Your Honour.
11 Thank you so much for that. Well, in that case, there's clearly no issue
12 whatever. The English, as I've understood it and submitted it to mean
13 accords with the French.
14 The -- Your Honour, the technical position - again, to go very
15 quickly over this - is that our submission is and we believe that this is
16 also firmly understood by the jurisprudence, there's no presumption either
17 way that Your Honours simply decide which is the better course and do not
18 start with any legal presumption.
19 The structure of Article 15 -- of Rule 15 bis, after all, is that
20 there is no continuation at this point without consent, and then a special
21 provision to allow one effectively what we call compulsory continuation if
22 our submissions in this particular case are rejected.
23 So although there's not a presumption, it does require, of course,
24 a positive decision by Your Honours.
25 The basic foundation is, we submit, that unless there is some
1 sufficient reason to the contrary that a defendant, and especially a
2 defendant in Mr. Krajisnik's position, on such serious charges, and it
3 goes without saying, the charges are the most serious, because it's
4 genocide and then a whole series of other very serious crimes. So they
5 are the most serious. Mr. Krajisnik is a 60-year-old man. That's quite
6 recent. But he is now a 60-year-old man facing, without any concession at
7 all being made, but if he were convicted on all charges, he faces a clear
8 risk of life imprisonment. I say no more than that. But clearly, that
9 must be realistically a risk.
10 The starting point is that he should have the assurance, if at all
11 possible, when his trial starts, that all three Judges should hear, and
12 where appropriate, read all the evidence throughout and on equal terms.
13 That may sound like a rather fine distinction from a presumption, but
14 it's, we submit, a clearly correct statement of principle, that as far as
15 possible, and we operate in the real world, Mr. Krajisnik should have had,
16 ideally, and should have now, if at all possible, a trial with all Judges
17 present all the time.
18 And the importance of the presence of all Judges all the time is
19 recognised, endorsed, and inferred very clearly from other provisions in
20 Rule 15 bis which are not directly the issue here, but 15 bis (A), dealing
21 with short-term absence from the trial, and then 15 bis (F), which
22 authorises a Chamber to conduct routine matters, but only routine matters,
23 in the absence of one member of the Chamber.
24 So that's consistent with and endorses that essential principle.
25 There is also an important principle expressly enshrined in the
1 Rules, but it would be clear anyway, equality of Judges. The presiding
2 Judge, Your Honour Judge Orie in this particular instance, the Presiding
3 Judge naturally chairs, in effect, and directs the proceedings to a very
4 considerable, practical extent, but of course all three Judges are equal
5 in deciding Mr. Krajisnik's case. He is entitled to their equal say, and
6 if it comes to it, to their equal vote. And he could, in principle, one
7 among many permutations, he could as any defendant be acquitted by a 2:1
8 majority by the Trial Chamber. So it is absolutely vital that, so far as
9 possible - of course, we can only do the possible, not the impossible -
10 but so far as possible, no Judge should be in any sense less well equipped
11 than any other Judge. For example, by being put in a position of
12 deferring or feeling that there might be any circumstances in which he or
13 she might defer to a greater grasp or knowledge of the case. And there is
14 that practical element. All Judges of this Tribunal are, of course,
15 independent mind and disposition or they wouldn't be here, but that's a
16 very -- that's, all the same, a natural element and concern if one does
17 have any imbalance.
18 Of course, Your Honour, we note 15 bis inevitably involves a
19 compromise of this point in the particular circumstances with which it
20 deals. We're not operating in some remote, unreal world. So of course it
21 does. But that nevertheless, in our submission, leads to the accompanying
22 principle that such compromise should be kept to the absolute minimum.
23 And I come to that shortly in balancing. Because it is a balancing. It's
24 one of those balancing exercises, however near the borderline it comes,
25 between new trial and continuation.
1 The basic foundation, as I think I labelled it, of Mr. Krajisnik's
2 essential entitlement to have all Judges hear all the evidence throughout
3 and so on, as I summarised it, follows and is consistent with elementary
4 features of trial procedure that -- and trial procedure in many tribunals
5 but specifically before this Tribunal, that there should be an oral
6 hearing, with witnesses. 92 bis and 89(F) being restrictive exceptions
7 applied in accordance with the Rules and the jurisprudence in certain
8 defined if not in detail always specifically defined circumstances, and
9 particularly 92 bis having importance exceptions where it has no
10 application and can have no application at all, particularly in relation
11 to acts and conduct of the accused.
12 So oral hearing with witnesses. Opportunity for all Judges to see
13 and hear all witnesses live or all important -- all witnesses are
14 important, but or they wouldn't be in the case, about all important
15 witnesses by which I just mean as a shorthand, there are of course, among
16 the 92 bis witnesses, there are witnesses that neither party nor the Trial
17 Chamber consider it necessary to hear and see live. And there's not
18 always an issue about 92 bis witnesses, after all.
19 The -- and we note, I mentioned 15 bis (A), the short-term dealing
20 with matters. That's limited to five days absence of a Judge and is not
21 automatic anyway, of course. It's applied according -- only when the
22 circumstances justify. And so we have oral hearing, opportunity for all
23 Judges, and that's reinforced by several provisions of 15 bis. All Judges
24 to be there throughout. And with physical attendance of witnesses,
25 subject to -- oral witnesses, but subject to specific application for
1 videolink evidence and a specific order under Rule 71 bis. So videolink
2 is an exception. It's sensibly applied and it has been occasionally used
3 already in this case, but it's clearly not the basic procedure. The basic
4 procedure is that witnesses turn up and give their evidence in full view
5 of all the Judges and the accused, cross-examined in the same room as --
6 examined and cross-examined in the same room as counsel.
7 So that's the basic background.
8 The current state of this trial is, of course, relevant. It
9 cannot be -- it can hardly be irrelevant. In a nutshell there, we attempt
10 to summarise in a time to put together this information. Your Honour, if
11 an apology is needed for some of these figures perhaps not being a hundred
12 per cent accurate, although we believe most of them are, the degree of
13 inaccuracy we submit is not material. If we're out by one or two
14 somewhere in the count, we might be quickly corrected, but even if not
15 corrected, we don't -- we suggest it won't affect the substance.
16 We have heard, or Your Honours have heard so far 41 viva voce
17 witnesses in the sense that they were not under 92 bis at all. So they
18 were not partially 92 bis or whatever. They were simply viva voce
19 witnesses giving their evidence in chief and being cross-examined
20 viva voce. 41. One is and was an expert witness, Mr. Treanor. The rest
21 are and have been factual witnesses, witnesses of fact, of which -- and
22 here we're not a hundred per cent about this next figure, Your Honour, but
23 on our count, 17 of those, or very close to 17, involved some element of
24 89(F), to shorten the actual oral evidence in chief.
25 So that's -- but that's the category of viva voce witnesses.
1 Second category: We've had five witnesses whose evidence in
2 chief, or whose evidence has been admitted under Rule 92 bis but with
3 cross-examination, and they have attended and been cross-examined. That's
4 the second category.
5 The third category is we have had just over 40, but very close to
6 40, but our count is just over 40 Rule 92 bis witnesses admitted, or their
7 evidence admitted, without cross-examination.
8 Then -- so those are the three categories of witnesses in a sense
9 who have either already been heard or in the case of those Rule 92 bis
10 witnesses admitted without cross-examination, their evidence is in a sense
11 on the file. It's equivalent to their having been heard.
12 There then as a fourth but slightly different category, there are
13 several by which we believe it's only about three or four Rule 92 bis
14 witnesses who have already been admitted but with cross-examination -- but
15 with cross-examination, but that's still to come. So they haven't come
17 The -- so those are the witnesses. The total hearing is in fact
18 exactly, because it might otherwise sound like a round figure but in fact
19 we have had exactly a hundred days of hearing, according to our records on
20 the Defence side. So they've been spread and for reasons that Your
21 Honours are familiar with and we all know the timetable and the
22 circumstances in which the trial started, they've been spread over 11
23 months, but we have had a hundred days of hearing.
24 The -- so next question is then a new trial, which is what we're
25 contending for. What would it involve? And within the Rules and the
1 established procedures, there is a considerable degree of flexibility,
2 especially with sensible agreement of the parties. And straight away,
3 Your Honour, I should make it clear that the Defence submission and the
4 Defence request will not involve the trial simply starting again as if
5 nothing had happened, and apart from all the pre-trial briefs and the
6 indictment, for Heaven's sake, those things have happened, but not
7 starting again as if nothing had happened and no witnesses had ever given
8 evidence and no 92 bis rulings had ever been made, apart from those made
9 perhaps before the trial began. We're not suggesting that. It's not our
10 submission and not our proposal that it would be sensible to have a total
11 rerun of the trial in every respect. But it is, and we maintain that, it
12 is our position that there should be a new trial as opposed to a
14 So -- and I will, of course, need to explain and develop that a
15 little so Your Honours understand exactly what it is we're proposing and
16 how practical it is.
17 Your Honour, the Defence position would be this with a new trial:
18 We would not seek to reopen, or put it another way, to resist a renewed
19 application, if that's the way it were technically done, the question of
20 the 92 bis witnesses. So that all the 92 bis witnesses where Your Honours
21 have already ruled that their evidence should be admitted, we would accept
22 that. If it were necessary to go through a technical step of renewing the
23 application, we don't believe it is, because even if it's a new trial, it
24 talks in 15 bis about continuation of proceedings. But this is still the
25 case of the Prosecutor against Krajisnik.
1 The -- so we would accept the 92 bis rulings. We would also
2 accept and not seek to have recalled any of those 92 bis witnesses where
3 the evidence in chief was admitted at the Prosecution's request and we
4 were -- that was five of them - and we were able to cross-examine. We
5 would be content and would agree to the transcripts of their evidence
6 being treated as their evidence. So from that practical point of view,
7 that would be very much the equivalent of the position in relation to
8 those witnesses if the situation were the existing trial to continue.
9 The key points -- I hope I haven't omitted anything from these
10 categories, and our acceptance of 92 bis rulings would also apply to that
11 small category where they've been admitted with cross-examination still to
12 come. But then cross-examination is still to come, whatever happens in
13 relation to those witnesses. But we would not seek to reopen the
14 admission of their evidence under 92 bis. Your Honour knows there are
15 some tiny little bits of tidying up in relation to one or two witnesses
16 where there's a redaction issue but those are so minor that they really
17 have no bearing on the issue today.
18 The key to all this, and the nub of the practicalities of a new
19 trial as opposed to continuation of present trial, lies with a relatively
20 short list of important witnesses. I've already said all witnesses are
21 important, but some animals are more equal than others and some witnesses
22 are more important than others. And perhaps I could give Your Honour, and
23 I'll be careful here with these names, but perhaps I could give Your
24 Honour -- it's a dozen names, and I wonder if I may simply read them off
25 carefully, because, well, they will be familiar names to Your Honour, but
1 may I do that.
2 They are, and I -- no disrespect to the gentlemen concerned.
3 [Defence counsel confer]
4 MR. STEWART: Excuse me, Your Honour. My team were concerned that
5 I was going to read name of protected witnesses, but they -- on this
6 occasion, although they have justification for that concern, on this
7 occasion their concern was not necessary.
8 Your Honour, the witnesses concerned are Deronjic, Treanor,
9 Kirudja, Okun, a protected witness, another protected witness, Kljuic --
10 I'll come back to KRAJ numbers in a minute, Your Honour. Another
11 protected witness, Radic, Bjelobrk, Mandic, and Karabeg. And the
12 protected witnesses in question, Your Honour, are 625, 623, and 583. And
13 whether Your Honour probably carries those numbers in your head, but Your
14 Honour will be familiar with which three gentlemen we're talking about.
15 Your Honour, Mr. Deronjic, and may I indicate, Your Honour, what
16 we would propose on the Defence side in relation to those witnesses,
17 because this is really the heart of the matter. Mr. Deronjic gave
18 evidence for just under five days. And without elaborating the point,
19 Your Honour, the Defence would wish there to be a new trial and for
20 Mr. Deronjic to come and give his evidence in full as a witness before all
21 three Judges at the new trial.
22 Mr. Treanor gave evidence for ten days. We would not suggest that
23 it's practical or sensible for Mr. Treanor to need to come back and give
24 another ten days of evidence in addition to his voluminous report. What
25 we do suggest is that for a maximum of two days, Mr. Treanor should
1 return. There is, in the light of our rather better knowledge of the
2 case, since those relatively early days when Mr. Treanor was
3 cross-examined, there is further ground the Defence would wish to cover,
4 and it would be of value to the new Judge to see and hear Mr. Treanor for
5 that period. It would -- the difference in terms of assessing Mr.
6 Treanor, getting a feel for his evidence, the difference between two days
7 and ten days is hardly critical, but to have him back at all is
8 advantageous, we suggest.
9 So far as Mr. Kirudja is concerned, he gave evidence for just
10 under three days. Your Honour, with Mr. Kirudja - and this applies to a
11 number of witnesses - we would not suggest that his evidence is jettisoned
12 in any way. We would suggest that the evidence that he's given so far,
13 whether it is technically done, we suggest, under 92 bis. But the -- his
14 evidence should be treated as evidence in the new trial, but nevertheless,
15 he should come back, unless, Your Honour, the Defence on -- we haven't had
16 a long time to consider all these detailed matters. If we did consider it
17 was simply not necessary, then, Your Honour, we would conscientiously say
18 so, but at the moment we consider that that would be reasonable and we
19 would be likely to ask for that for -- but we consider for one day
21 Mr. Okun gave evidence for three and a half days. We would treat
22 him in the same category as Mr. Kirudja but suggest that a maximum of two
23 days would be needed for him.
24 Protected witness 625, like Mr. Deronjic, the Defence would wish
25 to come back and give evidence in full.
1 Protected witness 623 gave evidence for four days. The Defence
2 would like him to come back for a maximum of one day, cross-examination.
3 Your Honour, we should say, we don't -- when we say come back for
4 cross-examination, we're not excluding the possibility that the
5 Prosecution might say: We'd like some supplemental examination-in-chief.
6 And we're not saying in advance that if they were to make that request -
7 we don't know whether they would - we're not taking a position in advance
8 of resisting and objecting to that. We're saying the Defence's position.
9 So far as Mr. Kljuic is concerned, Your Honour, he's coming back
10 anyway. We would be content, as he is coming back anyway, we would be
11 content to have his evidence so far simply taken as his evidence, and he
12 is going to come back and the new Judge, whichever way, we accept this,
13 some of these are common features, whether it's the continuation of the
14 present trial or a new trial, Mr. Kljuic will come back. But what we're
15 suggesting is there should be no distinction; he should come back in the
16 same way either way, that continuation or new trial, his evidence should
17 be treated as his evidence, but he is coming back for further
18 cross-examination, and he has already supplied some material which was
19 under discussion when he gave his evidence before.
20 So far as Witness 583 is concerned, he gave evidence for three
21 days. The Defence there, Your Honour, would simply wish to reserve the
22 position in the way that it's, I believe expressly in his case, but
23 implicitly, it's reserved for any witness anyway to make an application to
24 have him come back for further cross-examination. But we have no active
25 application under way at the moment. We have not taken any decision,
1 although to be frank, we haven't had a lot of time to review his evidence
2 in detail anyway. But we simply reserve it.
3 So far as Mr. Radic is concerned, he gave evidence for just under
4 three days. The Defence would wish him to come back. As in every case,
5 this does enable the new Judge to see this witness, to get a feel of this
6 witness, to come back for one day. We're talking about a maximum of one
8 Mr. Bjelobrk, well, I can't say he's coming back, because I do
9 appreciate that Your Honours are reserving the position in relation to
10 Mr. Bjelobrk, but, Your Honour, the Defence's position remains that there
11 is -- we haven't resolved all matters between us and the Prosecution, but
12 the Defence position remains that there will be reason to bring
13 Mr. Bjelobrk back. On that footing, Your Honour, we would be content to
14 treat him in the same way as Mr. Kljuic, for example; take his evidence as
15 his evidence so far and have him come back. The Judge would get to see
17 So far as Mr. Mandic is concerned, while technically reserving our
18 position in relation to Mr. Mandic, as with all witnesses, we can't ever
19 rule out and wouldn't wish to positively rule out any application ever to
20 bring him back, whatever happened. We have no present intention of making
21 such an application now in relation to Mr. Mandic. We do not expect to
22 make an application. That's the highest I'll put it. We do not expect to
23 make an application to bring Mr. Mandic back. But there remains a great
24 deal of material in relation to Mr. Mandic, and I don't want to go all
25 over that painfully recent ground, Your Honour, but it's not impossible
1 that we would make such an application. We do reserve our position.
2 And then Mr. Karabec [phoen]. I think I mentioned him. I
3 certainly meant to. Mr. Karabec -- Karabeg, I'm sorry, gave evidence for
4 two days, spread over three, but it was a total of two days in fact.
5 There's a question. I'm not terribly familiar with the details of this,
6 Your Honour, but he has produced some diaries, or he is to produce some
7 diaries and there is a question of his being further cross-examined for
8 probably no more than a couple of hours.
9 So, Your Honour, those are -- those are the key witnesses for
10 today's purposes. The -- yes. Those are the key witnesses for today's
11 purposes. In many cases, of course, there was a slightly variable
12 approach. In some cases, we have reserved the position formally; it's
13 implicitly reserved anyway. In some cases we have, in a sense, more
14 firmly and expressly reserved the position with a strong indication that
15 we are likely to make an application to bring -- for the witness to be
16 brought back, and in one or two cases, Your Honour, it's already known
17 that we positively do wish for the witness to come back.
18 But the effect is, if our proposals -- they could be discussed in
19 -- they merit some discussion between the parties to refine, but in
20 principle, that's the Defence's approach, which is on the table there, and
21 it is not, so far as we've indicated, for example, in relation to 92 bis
22 witnesses, we're not withdrawing that. That is a firm position of the
24 The -- so far as the -- with Mr. Deronjic and another witness
25 being brought back in full and then the position in relation to those
1 other witnesses, as I've just summarised it, we estimate there's about an
2 extra 15 days of hearing on a rerun or a new trial, as opposed to
3 continuation of the present trial, where, in particular, two of those -- I
4 think it was two of those witnesses, but there are certainly two, in
5 particular, two would come back and give their evidence all over again,
6 truly as if it were a -- well, not as if it were, but truly on the basis
7 that it is a new trial. And that is the important distinction. It may
8 not seem very much, Your Honour, but when one strips away, not as
9 irrelevant but as in a different category, when one strips away what one
10 might call background witnesses, crime-base witnesses, all important, no
11 doubt, as elements of the case, but when one strips that away, on the
12 witnesses we've heard so far, it does come down to a smallish batch of, if
13 you like, critical witnesses. We'll argue in due course about how
14 critical some of them are. But it does come down to that. But there is
15 nevertheless a real distinction between new trial and continuation.
16 If we continue the present trial, of course the new Judge will
17 have the enormous task of reading in so that he or she is sufficiently
18 familiar to be on an even level with the other two Judges to contribute
19 equally and evenly. Of course, there will be no intellectual distinction
20 in principle among the Judges, but that Judge needs, as a human being, to
21 get up to speed with the other two Judges. That, Your Honour, of course,
22 we accept, is not greatly different from the task of a new Judge on a new
23 trial. There isn't a huge distinction there, particularly if, although
24 it's not technically -- it doesn't follow technically under the Rules, but
25 we rather expect and apprehend that Your Honours Judge Orie and Judge
1 Canivell are intended to continue to be the other two Judges. We -- it's
2 not -- doesn't follow as night follows day from the Rules, but we're
3 approaching it on that footing, Your Honour.
4 Your Honour Judge Orie indicated last Friday his view that it --
5 that the new Judge would require rather longer if there were a
6 continuation of the present trial than if there were a new trial. I
7 should say straight away, Your Honour, that although I could adopt this
8 for the purpose of the present argument, the Defence, with respect,
9 doesn't fully endorse that view. We would submit that there's unlikely to
10 be any serious distinction in terms of the work truly needed and the
11 timetable. But perhaps that's a bridge to be crossed a little bit at some
12 relatively near future point.
13 But if Your Honour is, and I don't mean any disrespect in saying
14 this, but if Your Honour is correct on that observation, then that 15-day
15 difference that we've estimated between a new trial and a continued trial,
16 a lot of that is eliminated anyway in terms of proceeding with the case,
17 because in fact Your Honour's indication was that you expected
18 continuation of a present trial to -- or to resume some two or three weeks
19 later than starting a new trial, which pretty much balances out that 15
20 days. So in terms of starting on that footing, which I have made it
21 clear, Your Honour, we don't fully accept, with respect, but on that
22 footing, there wouldn't be a really significant difference.
23 The -- certainly -- well, we've indicated which recall of some
24 witnesses would be desirable anyway, on the footing that the present trial
25 were to continue. We would still submit - but that would be a submission
1 perhaps in more detail for another day - we would still submit that
2 Mr. Treanor should come back for a couple of days, that Mr. Bjelobrk
3 should come back anyway, and we might very well make submissions in
4 relation to Deronjic and Witness 625, submissions that they should at
5 least come back for further cross-examination, which would be a different
6 thing from what we ask, and that is, after all, the prima facie procedure
7 in the context of a new trial, that they should come back and give their
8 evidence again.
9 Your Honour, we submit there's no useful, applicable precedent
10 here from the jurisprudence of this Tribunal or the sister Tribunal in
11 Arusha which casts -- which really tells us any more than an intelligent
12 reading of 15 bis. The options are clear under that Rule. In particular,
13 and Your Honour, it's pretty difficult to make submissions in this area
14 without mentioning the case against Mr. Milosevic, which does tend to be
15 in people's minds around here sometimes. In the Milosevic case, of
16 course, we know that in most unhappy circumstances, one of our Judges from
17 England and Wales left the case, which we all deeply regretted. But the
18 Milosevic case is and was -- there was a substitution then and we know
19 that one of the Scottish Judges has joined that Bench. But it is a very
20 special case. There was no view expressed by the accused consistently
21 with his overall attitude towards the Tribunal and the proceedings, he
22 wasn't likely, after all, to be drawn into expressing a view under a
23 provision of the rules, and he didn't. There was no submission by any
24 party or the amici there should be a new trial. The amici curiae said
25 that there should not be a new trial because of the known ill health of
1 Mr. Milosevic. But that's as far as they took it. And of course it had
2 by that time been a very long trial. There was no consideration expressed
3 by the Trial Chamber or the remaining Judges, for the purposes of 15(D),
4 of any argument for a new trial. So the issue simply is not argued and
5 appearing in any judgement.
6 They were further along in the trial. Your Honour, that's an
7 argument -- that's a point that might cut both ways, but rather than get
8 into a digression down that byway, we simply observe it's very different.
9 The situation is very different. Mr. Milosevic had been brought to
10 The Hague on the 29th of June, 2001. His trial had started on the 12th of
11 February, 2002. The Prosecution case had ended on the 27th of February,
12 2004. Shortly thereafter, Judge May announced his retirement and the Rule
13 15 bis hearing in the manner that I've summarised, took place on the 25th
14 of March, 2004. There was, according to our information and
15 calculations - well, it's information rather than calculation, Your
16 Honour - something between 290 and 300 -- there had been 290 to 300
17 hearing days in the Milosevic case at that point, and the Prosecution case
18 had spread over some -- well, it doesn't really matter about weeks. It
19 had been that number of days.
20 All we're saying, Your Honour, it's a very different case.
21 The -- Your Honour, among, and I'm getting fairly near to the
22 conclusion of my submissions, which we're grateful to have had the
23 opportunity of making. There is always a question of inconvenience to
24 witnesses. That's a factor. We don't submit it's irrelevant under the
25 heading of "interest of justice." There are lots and lots of factors
1 which are somewhere on the scale of relevance, and we don't suggest that's
2 not among them. However, and in principle, every witness who needs to be
3 brought back to The Hague is a factor to be given tautologously such
4 weight as it merits. But it's not a utilitarian analysis. You don't
5 aggregate together the relative lower interests of all the witnesses and
6 then balance them against Mr. Krajisnik's interests. One bears in mind,
7 we submit, that Mr. Krajisnik's interest as the man on trial are far
8 greater than any witness. And in any case, first of all, it follows from
9 what we've already said: Few witnesses would be adversely affected, even
10 in terms of inconvenience, by adoption of our submission for a new trial
11 as opposed to a continuation. This is a very small number of witnesses.
12 Within that category, there are -- we can identify at least one,
13 and Your Honour may be able to identify, in the category of witnesses who
14 are in custody anyway, in which case one might say - and I'm not being
15 flippant - that the inconvenience of coming to court to give evidence for
16 a witness who is already in custody might be regarded as rather slight.
17 The -- there are others who are expressed a positive wish to be
18 helpful in reaching the truth and don't have any apparent difficulties
19 beyond what I'll call the normal inconvenience. I'm not saying it's not a
20 nuisance to some people, though it's a pleasure to others to come to
21 The Hague for a few days, but it's not a major, major consideration for
22 witnesses who are inherently not reluctant and have expressed a wish to
23 help in this search for the truth.
24 And then as a back-up in some cases, videolink under 71 bis is
25 always available if the convenience is significant and can be
1 significantly mitigated in the case of appropriate witnesses by
3 So, Your Honour, all that is simply meant to say that
4 inconvenience of witnesses in principle is part of the exercise but is
5 really of no overall significant weight in making the balance that Your
6 Honours are making today.
7 The -- it does not appear also, Your Honour, we observe, there's
8 no indication that we have in this trial any insuperable witness
9 availability problems. I'm not talking about the witnesses that nobody
10 can persuade to come in the first place or nobody can contact in the first
11 place. That's a problem that lies behind all these procedures. But so
12 far as the witnesses who are identified are concerned, we have not seen
13 any significant problems, insuperable problems of witness availability.
14 And in any case, more to the point, a new trial in the terms that we've
15 suggested as opposed to a continuation doesn't create any obvious extra
16 difficulties in that context.
17 Your Honour, the question of timing, we've already submitted that
18 in fact there isn't in the overall context of this matter, there isn't an
19 enormous -- in fact, there's not really at all a significant likely
20 difference in the timing and the ultimate conclusion of this case anyway
21 as a result of adopting the Defence submission in this case. But so far
22 as there had been or so far as, in Your Honour's judgement, now looking at
23 the position overall, there is some difference, it's not, first of all, it
24 isn't on any footing a massive difference.
25 From Krajisnik's point of view - and we've had this point before,
1 really - he's in detention, of course, and in principle, from his point of
2 view, the sooner this trial is concluded, the better. But Mr. Krajisnik,
3 this being his position that he wishes a new trial with any consequential
4 timing implications accepted by him, is consciously and deliberately
5 accepting those consequences of his preserved course. So although the
6 Trial Chamber is, we trust, at all times astute to protect Mr. Krajisnik's
7 interests, the Trial Chamber does not need to go and should not go so far
8 as to impose concerns on Mr. Krajisnik in areas where he's willing to
9 accept the position himself.
10 So far as the wider public interest on time is concerned, again,
11 it follows, Your Honour, from our submissions that we say this is not a
12 significant factor. There is, on any footing, a limited effect on the end
13 date of this trial. And it may even be that the better focus which the
14 parties are now able to bring to bear on the matter will even more, in the
15 light of experience of this case, will even more shorten any possible
17 The -- any such difference in overall timetable between new trial
18 and continuation in any case needs to be very carefully balanced and not
19 given undue weight against the specific interests of an accused who has
20 already been in detention for four and a half years - a fraction more -
21 and faces an inevitable total time of around six years from arrest to
22 trial judgement. So the sort of timing implications that we're talking
23 about cannot be a significant factor weighing against the interests, and
24 indeed the preferences, of Mr. Krajisnik. He doesn't decide the issue,
25 but his preferences are, we suggest, important.
1 The -- I'm going to mention in a couple of sentences, Your Honour,
2 the completion strategy issue, where we were grateful to receive Your
3 Honour's confirmation, express confirmation in a short exchange a few
4 weeks ago, that it is only -- the completion strategy is only part of the
5 general framework, that the whole Tribunal is required to wind up its work
6 by a certain date, and we were grateful for Your Honour's express
7 confirmation that such matters were only part of the general framework and
8 did not drive judicial decisions in this case. And we appreciated that
9 confirmation. And putting it another way, the completion strategy and
10 related matters can, in principle, only be devised to accommodate the
11 appropriate the judicial decisions in the interests of justice, such as
12 the decision that Your Honours are faced with and not the other way
13 around. That would be, in a good old English phrase, the tail wagging the
15 The resources, again, Your Honour, we don't, as we didn't with
16 witnesses, we don't argue that resources are always irrelevant and that we
17 operate in some ideal world where everything can be done with no limit of
18 expenditure. Of course, if we operated in an ideal world, none of us
19 would be here anyway. The -- but we don't argue that, Your Honour, and of
20 course time often, not always, but time often costs money, though that's
21 not an unqualified phrase which should be taken out of context. But the
22 approach, we suggest, with respect, is, while not totally disregarding
23 resources, is of course to keep them in perspective. If one asks first of
24 all what would be more likely to achieve a just result in this case in as
25 fair a way as can be realistically be managed, then one looks to see
1 whether there are disproportionate resource implications which drive
2 towards a different conclusion. But it must in any case only be a
3 conclusion which doesn't in any way seriously imbalance and seriously
4 weaken the justice of the procedure.
5 Your Honour, the difficult, and I'm on my last couple of
6 observations here -- the difficult issue that we have faced throughout, of
7 time for preparation on the Defence side, that remains an issue which may
8 need to be taken up, well, will need, frankly, Your Honour, to be taken up
9 as and when at the appropriate time with the Trial Chamber, as and when
10 and in the context of whichever procedure is adopted; continuation of the
11 present trial or the new trial. But it is, we suggest, at least a
12 consideration that the Defence began this case under acknowledged enormous
13 pressure and that, as Your Honours know, we had not been able to complete
14 pre-trial preparation when the trial began on the 3rd of February, 2004,
15 and that was recognised.
16 We have examined important witnesses with, in our submission,
17 inadequate grasp. We've done our best not to make that too obvious,
18 perhaps, but with inadequate grasp of the some of the matters, and that is
19 a reason in favour -- it's one reason, but it is a reason, an additional
20 factor in favour of a new trial and bringing back the very limited number
21 of witnesses where we submit it is particularly important that there
22 should be some recognition and, if you like, compensation adjustment in
23 respect of that point.
24 And, Your Honour, I simply would say this, Your Honour; that if
25 some similar procedure existed for counsel to the procedure under which
1 the new Judge, if there is a continuation, has to certify that he has
2 familiarised himself with the record, if Defence counsel were required to,
3 in their professional judgement, sign some such certificate before
4 proceeding with a trial to defend Mr. Krajisnik, I doubt that I would sign
5 the certificate today, and I certainly would not have signed it over many,
6 many, many, many months of this trial, and I would certainly have to think
7 extremely hard if I were asked to sign it over the next few weeks.
8 The -- and I understand Ms. Loukas would have no more enthusiasm
9 for signing a corresponding certificate.
10 The -- my concluding submission, and it's part of the context, and
11 I hope Your Honours won't take it in any hostile spirit. The situation we
12 are faced with is remarkable, in effect, if one steps back a bit from it.
13 The fact that the procedures devised by the United Nations, the Security
14 Council, and this Tribunal have been devised in such a way that a Judge
15 starts a trial which is known to be going to continue beyond his term of
16 office, and then when he's not re-elected, which is, after all, a known
17 and serious risk because electorates of any sort are notoriously
18 unpredictable, or certainly should be, that no way can be found and has
19 been found to resolve the matter so that he could stay with the case, is,
20 Your Honour, we must submit, deeply unsatisfactory. If the consequences
21 of any course adopted in the interests of justice in this case might be
22 viewed, and we understand, in the light of observations made that this
23 would not be treated as relevant by Your Honours, but we simply say that
24 if the consequences are unsatisfactory when viewed by any planners or
25 budgeters in New York or The Hague or anywhere else, then that is simply
1 part of the cost of doing proper justice in the conditions created by the
2 United Nations, by the Security Council, and this institution under the
3 auspices of the United Nations. Because we are all of us, and Your
4 Honours included, faced with a very difficult and unsatisfactory situation
5 as a result. We respect Judge El Mahdi's retirement given the situation
6 that he faced in anticipation of where the matter would be next November.
7 But unsatisfactory it is. The Defence submission is that in a way the
8 lesser of two evils, because it would have been much better, Mr. Krajisnik
9 has certainly made clear his preference that we could have finished with
10 the Judges that we've started with. It's our submission that the more
11 satisfactory course, the better course in the interests of justice, is a
12 new trial, to which the Defence is prepared to attach and accept the
13 particular flexible adjustments and conditions that we have indicated.
14 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you, Mr. Stewart.
15 Mr. Harmon.
16 MR. HARMON: Good afternoon, Your Honours, counsel. My
17 submissions will be considerably briefer than Mr. Stewart's.
18 First of all, a plain reading of the Rule implies inherent in this
19 Rule is the fact that a substitute Judge can indeed familiarise himself or
20 herself with the trial record in this case and can put himself in a
21 position where the accused can be assured that a third substitute Judge
22 would have the ability to hear all of the evidence and read all of the
23 evidence that has been presented thus far in the hundred days of trial
24 that we have had.
25 There is a precedent -- in fact, there are two precedents that I'm
1 aware of where a substitute Judge has been inserted into a case. The
2 first, I won't belabour the point, of course, the Milosevic case.
3 Mr. Stewart has described that. The second case was the Blaskic case,
4 where Judge Fouad Riad became medically incapacitated and could not hear
5 the evidence well into the Prosecution's case and there was a substitute
6 judge, Judge Almiro Rodrigues, who familiarised himself with considerable
7 amounts of evidence in the case and sat with great distinction in hearing
8 that case, and all parties in that case were satisfied that Judge
9 Rodrigues had provided each of the parties with a full understanding of
10 the evidence and a full opportunity to listen to and deliberate on all of
11 the evidence that had been heard to date.
12 Now, to further expand on sub-part D, the Prosecution's position,
13 in very clear and unequivocal terms, is that it is in the interests of
14 justice to appoint a substitute Judge. A substitute Judge, Your Honours,
15 can put himself in the position, first of all, of knowing what the case
16 is, knowing what all of the issues are, by availing himself or herself to
17 the written record, all of the exhibits, and the video record of each of
18 the witnesses who have testified in this case. So if the Judge would like
19 to hear, for example, and see the demeanour of a witness, one of the
20 witnesses taken, for example, Mr. Kirudja, one of the witnesses who has
21 been cited by the Defence, then that video is available for the substitute
22 Judge to listen to, to observe. Furthermore, if the substitute Judge
23 wishes to have a question posed to one of those witnesses, the substitute
24 Judge is in a position to make a request to have the witness reappear.
25 At the end of the day, Your Honour, the Prosecution has enormous
1 faith in the integrity of a substitute Judge, who would certify that he or
2 she has familiarised himself or herself with the record, and having seen
3 two cases proceed, one to completion, I'm quite confident that all of the
4 interests of justice could be met by having a substitute Judge appointed
5 in this case.
6 Now, let me touch upon some other issues that have been raised by
7 Mr. Stewart. Mr. Stewart has presented to Your Honours a package that
8 seems to suggest that starting anew would cause fewer problems. While I
9 have great respect for Mr. Stewart and faith in his representations in
10 this case, certainly we have gone through in the process to date
11 significant written litigation dealing with a host of issues that could be
12 raised anew should we start over that process, which entails written
13 motions, responses, replies, and considerable effort by the Trial Chamber
14 to arrive at written decisions would commence anew, and there's no
15 assurance whatsoever that that would not happen. Frankly, I think those
16 issues should remain litigated and remain in the status that they are in
17 at the moment.
18 I think, furthermore, Your Honour, that when we discuss the
19 convenience or inconvenience of witnesses, while Mr. Stewart concedes that
20 that is a relevant factor, as I go through the list of witnesses that
21 Mr. Stewart wants to recall by virtue of the unfortunate circumstances of
22 Judge El Mahdi's withdrawal, what Mr. Stewart is essentially asking for is
23 a second opportunity to cross-examine these witnesses, when he has had an
24 opportunity, and a full opportunity, to cross-examine these witnesses.
25 I think Your Honours should consider, in the interests of justice,
1 whether it is convenient or inconvenient to call people back who have been
2 some subpoenaed, some witnesses diplomats, others who arrived with --
3 whose attendance was difficult to secure, at best. There is no assurance
4 that these witnesses would come back or could come back. I can point Your
5 Honours to a witness who is not identified on this list, and I'm not
6 asserting that that's one of the witnesses, obviously, that Mr. Stewart
7 had in mind, but we can remember the case of Mr. Biscevic, whose
8 cross-examination was bifurcated, and Mr. Biscevic, because of ill health,
9 could not re-attend the trial. We did, obviously, surmount that
10 difficulty with a videolink, at considerable expense to this Tribunal.
11 But there's no assurance that some of these witnesses could ever
12 reappear, and that is a risk that I think the Court must and should take
13 into consideration in this case when it assesses whether or not a
14 substitute Judge, listening to the trial record and analysing the trial
15 record, has available and at his disposal the ability to assess that
16 witness's evidence.
17 I have mentioned the precedent, the standards which I think fully
18 exist for a fair trial to continue. I'll touch briefly on the costs.
19 This is a case where tremendous consideration has been given to
20 Mr. Krajisnik for the considerable pre-trial period, and this Court and
21 the parties have bent over backwards to accommodate him. I believe in
22 this case, Your Honour, the interests of justice require - require - that
23 a substitute Judge be appointed and that we proceed with a proper
24 certification from that Judge that he is in a position to sit fully on
25 this case.
1 I should point out one other precedent, Your Honour. It's been
2 pointed out to me recently, just a minute, that there is another precedent
3 in this case. I'm informed that in the middle of the Stakic case, a Judge
4 was taken ill and was replaced as well. So there are three precedents,
5 all of which, I do believe, have been situations where the accused in each
6 of those cases has -- is continuing to or has received a full and fair
7 hearing in the face of an unfortunate circumstance where a Judge has been
9 Those are our submissions, Your Honour. Thank you very much.
10 MR. STEWART: Your Honours, I wonder if I might briefly, after the
11 Prosecution heard what we had to say before submitting, I'll be very
13 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Please do so.
14 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, first of all, in relation to the
15 precedents, the Stakic case mentioned, the case of Mr. Stakic, where he
16 consented. Your Honour, what we said, and we don't wish to elaborate, we
17 said there are not many useful precedents, that these cases are all
18 different. Of course we started by saying we accept this procedure is
19 available under this Rule. It says so in black and white. And we're
20 agreed about that. But we adhere to our submission that all other limited
21 number of cases are sufficiently different from this case that it's Your
22 Honour's independent judgement which is the key here, and those other
23 cases don't really tell Your Honours any more than we find in 15 bis,
24 which was our submission about half an hour ago.
25 The second point is that Mr. Harmon refers to written litigation
1 on a host of issues. We do suggest if that is to be a point, then a
2 little more specificity might have been required. We -- it's -- if that's
3 to be a point, then some indication as to exactly what that is and where
4 the difficulty lies would be appropriate.
5 Third point, very brief bullet points, in effect, Your Honour:
6 Mr. Harmon says we're asking for a second opportunity to
7 cross-examination. That's true, but it's not only that. In relation to
8 two of those witnesses, in particular Mr. Deronjic and Witness 625, it's
9 not just that we're seeking an opportunity to cross-examine. It's quite
10 specifically that we would wish the new Judge to hear their evidence in
11 full and have those witnesses, in the particular circumstances in which
12 they have found themselves, come and give all their evidence before this
13 Judge, and they are not insignificant witnesses.
14 And Your Honour, the jurisprudence of this Tribunal and the sister
15 Tribunal in Rwanda does consistently attach significance to Judges hearing
16 the witnesses when they give evidence, hearing them give evidence orally
17 when they give evidence, and not looking back over a record. It is a
18 second-best to familiarise oneself with a record, however much it is
19 accepted, as of course it's accepted as a principle enshrined in the
20 Rules, that a Judge before this Tribunal will be capable of meeting the
21 requirement under the Rules of familiarising himself with the record. But
22 it's inherent in that whole procedure that it is a second-best.
23 The example of Mr. Biscevic is just an example of how, where a
24 witness -- and Your Honour knows that the Defence didn't express its
25 enthusiasm about Mr. Biscevic's position anyway, but the Trial Chamber did
1 decide to deal with his evidence in a bifurcated way, which is less
2 satisfactory for the Defence than for the Prosecution. The Prosecution
3 wanted it dealt with in a bifurcated way, as it turns out, and we didn't.
4 But it was easily resolved, effect. It was. He did give his evidence by
5 videolink. It wasn't a problem. Despite the Defence not wishing that to
6 be the result, it was easily resolved.
7 Your Honour, those are our brief bullet-point observations, in
8 effect. Thank you for that opportunity.
9 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Thank you. Any need to respond, Mr. Harmon?
10 MR. HARMON: No.
11 [Trial Chamber confers]
12 JUDGE ORIE: Before -- I do understand that Mr. Krajisnik would
13 like to address the Chamber. Before giving him an opportunity to do so, I
14 don't know whether -- Judge Canivell has drawn my attention to it. We
15 have a few questions for the parties. Perhaps I'll put those questions
17 Mr. Stewart, you've drawn our attention to the consequences in
18 terms of time of either to continue or to restart the trial. When I gave
19 a rough estimate of what, in practical terms, it would mean either to
20 restart or to continue to hear the case, I had in mind that a new start
21 would be a real trial de novo, that is, to hear the case on from the
22 beginning, and that is what made me express my estimate. My question to
23 you is: Are you aware that that might be quite different if a
24 considerable part of the evidence - well, let's say the evidence - both 92
25 bis, but also the viva voce witnesses which you consider not to be the key
1 witnesses, that my estimate might have been quite different?
2 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, I can accept that readily, because, as
3 I made clear, I was only, in effect -- and I'm happy to accept Your
4 Honour's qualification and explanation of Your Honour's own remarks.
5 Because in adopting that, I made it clear that in effect I was only
6 adopting it from the point of view of what Your Honour expressed. Because
7 I will simply say, Your Honour, that the Defence submits that in practical
8 terms there should be and won't be any real distinction in the time needed
9 and the starting date whichever of these procedures is adopted. Because
10 if, as we apprehend, if it is to be Your Honour Judge Orie and His Honour
11 Judge Canivell to continue, then the only right and effective way to
12 proceed with this trial, whether it was a new trial with the two of Your
13 Honours and a new Judge - because he or she would be a new Judge anyway -
14 would be for that Judge to familiarise himself or herself with the case in
15 a way that would be broadly equivalent. It wouldn't be the technical
16 certification procedure if there were a new trial, but if the new Judge
17 were to be an equal-standing member of the Court with Your Honours, who
18 have lived with this case for such a long time, broadly equivalent amount
19 of time and preparation would be needed anyway. So our submission, Your
20 Honour, would be that in effect there isn't any real distinction as far as
21 starting date and time needed by the Judges concerned. But the corollary
22 of that is that I do accept Your Honour's observation just made.
23 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Then I've got a question to Mr. Harmon. When
24 referring to the case-law of this Tribunal, you mentioned three
25 precedents. There was a distinction between your presentation and the
1 presentation of Mr. Stewart as far as he included the ICTR case-law and
2 whether you would consider this the case-law of this institution or of a
3 sister institution or case-law created by the Appeals Chamber, which is
4 common to both institutions. Because we have the Butare case. No. Let
5 me just -- the president in the case of Karemera, where the Appeals
6 Chamber did not accept a decision of the two remaining Judges to continue
7 the case. Did you -- I don't know whether you wanted to make any
8 reference to that or that you would consider that not to be a useful
9 precedent or ...
10 MR. HARMON: Your Honour, I would have to read that case. I have
11 not read that case, so I'm not in a position to comment on it.
12 JUDGE ORIE: Then for the --
13 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, we did bring -- it's always -- it's
14 always a question whether to load the Court with too much stuff. We did
15 bring with us one particular -- or two cases. Perhaps -- should we give
16 Your Honours the references to them? One was Karemera. Was that the case
17 Your Honour --
18 JUDGE ORIE: And the other one is the Butare. The case is called
19 Butare although it's not the name of one of the accused.
20 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, actually, the case we had in mind,
21 maybe it's a different one, is Rutaganda, which was in the Appeals
22 Chamber. And actually, that was not -- it was a case -- it was slightly
23 different. That was a case in which the Appeals Chamber made observations
24 about the importance of Judges seeing and hearing the witnesses giving
25 evidence when they give evidence. But Your Honours, we --
1 JUDGE ORIE: It's fine if you have any -- what I have at least
2 with me at this moment is at least a decision of the Appeals Chamber of
3 the 24th of September, 2003, which is a case which is usually called the
4 Butare case, I think, which the name of -- it's case number -- well, there
5 are many accused, but the first one mentioned is Pauline Nyiramasuhuko
6 with a declaration of Judge Shahabuddeen attached to it and a dissenting
7 opinion attached by Judge Hunt.
8 MR. STEWART: Well, Your Honour, we haven't got to that. We've
9 actually been mildly hampered by the ICTR website having closed itself
10 down over the last few days for refurbishment. My apologies. We simply
11 -- I'm not familiar with that case.
12 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Mr. Harmon -- well, yes, my question -- your
13 answer was that you hadn't seen this case-law. I have one other question
14 for you, Mr. Harmon. You more or less expressed as a possibility that the
15 new Judge, if he would be appointed, if the case would be continued, could
16 request to hear or rehear a witness. Does it make any difference for you
17 if you consider that he of course could be overruled in such a request by
18 the two other Judges? I mean, do you have any specific views on the
19 position of a third Judge in that respect?
20 MR. HARMON: I assume that the Judges work quite collaboratively,
21 and if there was an important issue, obviously deference would be and
22 should be given to the new Judge. If he has an important point that
23 relates to a significant part of the witness's evidence, it would seem to
24 me that that Judge should be entitled to have that question answered
25 personally by the witness.
1 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Then, Mr. Stewart, of course you emphasised the
2 importance of getting an impression of the demeanour of the witness and
3 apart from just reading his testimony. You didn't express yourself, which
4 has been an issue in some of these cases that we just mentioned, that a
5 new Judge, as mentioned by Mr. Harmon, could observe the demeanour of the
6 witness through means of video recordings of the hearing.
7 MR. STEWART: Yes, Your Honour. We accept that point, and if in
8 relation to any witness of any significance, the new Judge will spend that
9 time, and it's what might be called in the jargon real time; you've got to
10 sit in front of the video for the time it takes. If the Judge would do
11 that for the equivalent of those days, that would go -- it would be
12 unrealistic to submit anything else - that would go at least a
13 considerable part of the way to meet the point. We understand that
14 something around 90 to 95 per cent of the evidence does appear on the
15 video, though not all of it, for some reason, not a hundred per cent of
16 the witness's evidence is directly recorded. He's on camera always
17 somewhere, but it can be somewhere from an angle in the court. But in
18 excess of 90 per cent is available. It's not the same, Your Honour.
19 After all, it's not the same for evidence to be given by videolink. It
20 often is, but in principle, the starting point for the Court is it is not
21 the same. A live trial with live witnesses is the starting point. A
22 specific application has to be made, for example, in relation to videolink
23 evidence and specifically granted and justified. So it's not the same,
24 Your Honour.
25 JUDGE ORIE: From what I understand, there's not one videotape of
1 these proceedings, but there are several ones, one of them being the
3 MR. STEWART: That's our understanding, Your Honour. What I told
4 Your Honour was the answer of -- I made specific inquiries because I did
5 particularly wish to know exactly how it worked. That's my best
6 information, Your Honour, but Your Honour has huge experience of this
8 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Then finally, I would just like to make a short
9 statement. Mr. Stewart, you have addressed two issues, the one issue
10 being the completion strategy issue, and immediately after that, you
11 addressed the matter of resources, which of course there is some link.
12 Just to -- perhaps to make clear to you that in the present situation, no
13 one has ever sought to advise me or has suggested to me how to resolve the
14 present issue, let alone that I was ever addressed in the context of the
15 completion strategy. Of course, I have not discussed with many people the
16 present situation, even for -- I would say for most of my fellow Judges it
17 came as a complete surprise last Friday. But of course the matter has
18 been discussed in the staff, which is quite normal. But I would not have
19 given anyone ever an opportunity either to advise or to suggest any
20 solutions, because the first thing I would tell that in the video is that
21 a decision will be taken once all arguments have been heard, once every
22 aspect of the case would have been on our -- would have been thought over
23 carefully. And therefore, it could be continuation or a trial de novo
24 that was completely an open question, as far as I was concerned. I hope
25 that this accommodates you. It addresses the issue of the completion
1 strategy. Of course, as you observed yourself, resources is not exactly
2 the same, although they are perhaps not totally unrelated.
3 Let me just confer with the registrar.
4 [Trial Chamber and registrar confer]
5 [Trial Chamber confers]
6 JUDGE ORIE: We noticed that perhaps not every one of us has seen
7 exactly the same material. I would like to give an opportunity for
8 another 40 minutes to the parties to exchange whatever material they have
9 and for the Chamber also to read any decision that we had not read yet.
10 And therefore, I would like to invite Mr. Stewart again to give the
11 details of that one case that he mentioned. And then to give an
12 opportunity to the parties to make any further observations after this 40
13 minutes. So we'll then restart at 5.00 and then have a short subsequent
15 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, if I were to hand up -- it's not the
16 entire case, which is quite long, but if I were to hand up the extract,
17 then it also gives Your Honours the reference on the front.
18 JUDGE ORIE: Yes.
19 MR. STEWART: May I do that.
20 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. I take it that the Prosecution would get a
22 MR. STEWART: Of course. I have enough copies for everybody, Your
24 JUDGE ORIE: Okay. And do you have a -- it's turned out that
25 Mr. Stewart was not familiar with the appeals case of -- I don't know
1 which one, but ...
2 MR. STEWART: Not familiar; I think I've never even heard of it,
3 Your Honour.
4 JUDGE ORIE: That's your interpretation, Mr. Stewart.
5 MR. STEWART: That's my position, Your Honour, so ...
6 JUDGE ORIE: Mr. Stewart, at least for the Appeals Chamber, I
7 think the Karemera case and the what is usually called the Butare case, as
8 I just mentioned, might be of some interest to spend time on during the
9 next --
10 MR. STEWART: I'm obliged, Your Honour. It was paragraph 21
11 particularly in the extract we've just handed up to Your Honour.
12 Paragraph 21 is the particular paragraph we wished to draw your attention
13 to. And in Karemera, paragraph 60 was on the similar point about
14 witnesses, demeanour of witnesses.
15 JUDGE ORIE: Yes.
16 MR. STEWART: But thank you, Your Honour, for that other
18 JUDGE ORIE: We'll adjourn until 5.00, and I expect then the
19 parties to be brief in any further submissions, so that we could conclude
20 not later than perhaps 20 minutes past 5.00. We adjourn until 5.00.
21 --- Recess taken at 4.22 p.m.
22 --- On resuming at 5.02 p.m.
23 JUDGE ORIE: Mr. Stewart, I noted that the Rutaganda case is not a
24 specific 15 bis case but gives in general terms in paragraph 21 some
25 observations on the --
1 MR. STEWART: Yes. That's entirely correct, Your Honour. Yes,
2 that was the point of that case, yes.
3 JUDGE ORIE: Mr. Stewart, would you like to make any additional
5 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, thank you. I'll just make brief
6 observations on that case. We're very grateful. We received a lot of
7 practical help from the Prosecution, and everybody, I think, in getting a
8 copy of that quickly, and within our own team. In the end, I was flooded
9 with copies.
10 The -- Your Honour, the -- it seems to be in about paragraphs 22
11 onwards and 24 onwards. Your Honours have a copy of that judgement, I
12 understand. So we -- this particular -- a lot of it is to do with issues
13 which don't arise on this particular hearing. And at page -- paragraph
14 25, it begins: "There is a preference for live testimony to be heard by
15 each and every Judge, but that does not represent an unbending
16 requirement." Well, we don't go that far, Your Honour. "The Rules and
17 cases show that exceptions can be made." And then just on this particular
18 exception that the Appeals Chamber mention, "The exceptions may relate
19 even to evidence involving an assessment of demeanour, various ways being
20 available to assist a new Judge to overcome any disadvantages."
21 And then it said: "The appellants have not attacked the procedure
22 prescribed by Rule 15(A) or 15(B). Under these provisions, a witness
23 could be heard by two Judges." It actually means 15 bis (A) and 15 bis
24 (B) there. That's the only way one can make sense of that. "Under these
25 provisions a witness could be heard by two Judges, that the procedure is
1 in effect available only over a short period of time is not relevant to
2 the principle involved."
3 The observation we make there is that, yes, it's correct, and we
4 recognise that, technically speaking, within 15 bis (A), if a Judge is
5 absent for a short time within the strict wording of the Rule, a witness
6 may be heard over that five-day period, and at its extreme, it could be an
7 absolutely critical witness. But, Your Honour, a point we mentioned
8 earlier is that 15 bis (A) is itself a discretionary matter, and it allows
9 it, and one would expect in the ordinary course, that a witness who was
10 critical and whose demeanour was critical would lead a Trial Chamber to
11 say, in respect of 15 bis (A), that it wasn't a suitable case to deal with
12 it in the absence of a Judge in the short term. So --
13 JUDGE ORIE: I made a note for myself, Mr. Stewart, saying that
14 your interpretation of Article 15 bis mainly focuses on the aspect of
15 confirming the importance of the three Judges rather than the aspect of
16 the exceptions contained therein.
17 MR. STEWART: That's absolutely right, Your Honour, and my
18 submission in relation to paragraph 25 -- this is, after all, what the
19 Appeals Chamber were saying in this particular case, so in a sense it's
20 part of their -- well, it is part of their reasoning here. But when one
21 focuses specifically on what they're saying here, we suggest that this --
22 the existence of that technically possible procedure under 15 bis (A)
23 doesn't really support the conclusion that there's -- or doesn't represent
24 any weakening of the basic preference for live testimony to be heard by
25 each and every Judge, and that's consistent with what very helpfully Your
1 Honour has entirely accurately quoted back to me as our submissions
3 The -- then at paragraph 30 -- we don't have any particular issue
4 with the next few paragraphs, which seem to be consistent with submissions
5 that we've made in relation to -- not on detailed reading, Your Honour,
6 but they appear to be consistent with the submissions we've made.
7 Paragraph 30, then, "The position being taken by the appellants is
8 that the ability to evaluate credibility on a point of demeanour is
9 essential to there being a fair trial, as mandated by the supreme
10 instrument, namely, the Statute." And this was a twist in this case. "In
11 the absence of video-recordings, it will not be possible for the
12 substitute Judge to make such an evaluation." And then subject to the
13 following, that submission is correct. But then the matter becomes
14 confused by the fact that there weren't video-recordings, but the point
15 had not been taken in the court below, and as we read paragraph 31, it was
16 therefore in effect not considered on appeal because it hadn't been taken.
17 So the absence of video-recordings to some extent dropped out of the
18 picture. But the Tribunal not entirely perhaps, but the point that we
19 would like to make an observation on, is then it does have a bearing on
20 what was discussed here this afternoon. Last few lines of paragraph 33:
21 "Failure to review video-recordings which because they are non-existent
22 do not form part of the record of the proceedings..." Well, impossible to
23 quarrel with that bit of logic: "... does not mean that the Judge has not
24 familiarised himself with the record of the proceedings as the record
25 stands. Therefore, does not disqualify him from joining the Bench. He
1 may decide to join the Bench with any questions of demeanour being left to
2 be resolved in the manner following." So, so far, no quarrel with that,
3 Your Honour. The recomposed Trial Chamber may recall witnesses so as to
4 enable the substitute Judge to assess their demeanour on particular
5 points. And then entirely correctly it's pointed out that any testimony,
6 including recalled testimony, the new Judge hears as a member of the
7 recomposed Trial Chamber and recall power lies within the competence of
8 the whole Trial Chamber. So it's not for the two Judges to authorise it
9 in effect in advance. It's, technically speaking, done by a majority, but
10 it's for the whole Trial Chamber.
11 But the -- they go on then in paragraph 35, last few lines: "The
12 recomposed Trial Chamber may on a motion by a party or proprio motu recall
13 a witness on a particular issue which in the view of the Trial Chamber
14 involves a matter of credibility which the substitute Judge may need to
15 assess in the light of the witness's demeanour."
16 Your Honour, our submission is that paragraph 34 is, in effect,
17 what we have been saying, that -- but with this qualification, perhaps:
18 That the Defence would ask for a new trial, among other things, because,
19 although if the new Judge says: "Well, I really would like to see this
20 witness," first of all, it would then be a discussion. This would be
21 entirely proper. There would then be a discussion among the three Judges,
22 and the two Judges who had been there all along would one expect naturally
23 to say: Well, we've seen this witness, and this, that, and the other and
24 so on and discuss it. The -- what we suggest is that in those cases,
25 although the Judges are the Judges and make their decisions as to what
1 witnesses they need to hear, that more significance should be attached to
2 a party, and in this case it's the Defence, but it could be the
3 Prosecution, who is saying: We regard this witness as an important
4 witness on which we, in this case the Defence, would wish all the Judges
5 to hear and see this witness.
6 The initiative, of course, can come from the Bench, and the
7 decision on recall of any witness is for the Bench. The difference, Your
8 Honour - and I face this squarely - the difference when we have a new
9 trial is that in effect the starting point is that a witness gets called,
10 and we have indicated a very large number of areas where we would accept,
11 whether it's a concession or what, but we would accept a modification of
12 that position and not ask for witnesses to be recalled. But in relation
13 to that very small number of witnesses, we would then be saying: No, it
14 shouldn't be left to the discretion of the Trial Chamber then as to
15 whether the new Judge wishes to hear the witness, to assess his demeanour,
16 or whether the Trial Chamber thinks he should be recalled. The prima
17 facie position, the starting point should apply in relation to those
18 witnesses and they should give evidence. And that is a feature of the new
20 The -- when -- paragraph 36 of this judgement, a slightly
21 different point: "The Appeals Chamber has considered whether a rehearing
22 as opposed to a continuation could be facilitated by recourse to Rule 92
23 bis (D), which provides for the admission of transcripts of evidence. It
24 notes, however, that the procedure does not apply in relation to the acts
25 and conducts of the accused and may not, therefore, be adequate. The
1 concern of the appellants with matters of demeanour strongly suggest that
2 some or all of the 23 witnesses who testified have done so in relation to
3 the acts and conduct of the accused."
4 Well, Your Honour, that's again entirely correct as a matter of
5 technical procedure, and we mentioned it in our submissions.
6 Nevertheless, we have also indicated that in -- because it is, after all,
7 it was open to the Defence then to waive that particular objection, and if
8 the Trial Chamber then considers it proper, and there would be no reason
9 in this case, if the Defence waived its objection, as we indicated that we
10 would do in relation to a number of witnesses, as in relation to that
11 restriction in 92 bis, that gets over that particular problem in relation
12 to those witnesses. In other words, a more extensive use could be made of
13 92 bis and transcripts of evidence of the proceedings which have taken
14 place so far. And I'd be going over the same ground again: We've
15 indicated to Your Honours quite specifically in relation to lists of
16 witnesses how we submit that that should work.
17 So the particular difficulty or obstacle, if you like, that is
18 mentioned in paragraph 36 of this judgement doesn't apply in terms, given
19 the more flexible approach to a new trial that we have indicated.
20 So, Your Honour, it -- this -- there's nothing in this decision
21 which contradicts any of the principles or any of the submissions put
22 forward by the Defence earlier. We accept the position, but subject to
23 our submissions, that live testimony by each and every Judge cannot be and
24 plainly is not under the Rules an unbending requirement, but it doesn't
25 mean, and that's entirely consistent with the whole tone of this Appeals
1 Chamber judgement that we're looking at now, it doesn't mean that it
2 doesn't remain very important.
3 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you, Mr. Stewart.
4 Mr. Harmon, any further submissions?
5 MR. HARMON: Yes, Your Honour. I don't intend to resubmit my
6 previous -- all of my previous submissions. In reviewing this case, Your
7 Honour, this case seems to be entirely consistent with the proposition
8 that is inherent in 15 bis (D); that is, the two issues that we confront
9 in this hearing are, one, whether it's in the interests of justice for a
10 third Judge to be substituted in at this point in time in this case. And
11 the second issue is whether a Judge is capable of familiarising himself or
12 herself with the record that we have in this case. And if, upon
13 certification, he can make that assertion, then he should be substituted
15 This case, the Butare case, had elements that do not exist in this
16 case. My reading of this case, there were no videotapes, and so the issue
17 of demeanour was more difficult and problematic from the point of view of
18 assessing demeanour. However, that was not dispositive of the Court
19 finding that the procedure used and the substitution was proper. What was
20 important in this decision is found in paragraph 33, that the failure to
21 review in this particular case video evidence wasn't fatal, that a judge
22 can familiarise himself with the trial record and can therefore assert and
23 certify that he's in a position to join the particular Trial Chamber.
24 Paragraph 34 supports our previous submission that the recomposed
25 Trial Chamber may recall witnesses. We had a discussion about that,
1 during my submissions we continued to make that submission to the Court.
2 Where, in paragraph 34, it says: "Where video-recordings are available,
3 an absent Judge who reviews such recording does so as a member of the
5 So in our particular case, this case, Your Honour, there are
6 video-recordings available. There is the record of the proceedings
7 itself. It's our submission to this Court that the interests of justice
8 do require that the case have a substitute Judge, that there are materials
9 that are available sufficient to enable that Judge to review them properly
10 and make the proper certification, and we would urge this Court to permit
11 a substitute Judge to sit in judgement of Mr. Krajisnik for the remaining
12 portion of the Prosecution's case and for the Defence case.
13 Thank you.
14 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you, Mr. Harmon.
15 Last Friday I said, Mr. Krajisnik, that if you read the wording of
16 Rule 15 bis, and if you compare that with many other Rules where often it
17 is said the Defence is entitled to, and there it specifically says
18 something about the accused, that I wanted to be sure that of course your
19 view and your non-consent, as we know now, has been brought to the
20 attention of the Chamber. If, however, there would be anything you'd like
21 to add at this moment, and I invite you not to start any debate with
22 counsel, because you had better have any debate outside of this courtroom,
23 and I also understood that you have had ample opportunity to discuss the
24 matter with counsel, but I would not refrain you from addressing the
25 Chamber if you'd like to do that at this moment. Where I said "the
1 Chamber," I should say the two remaining Judges.
2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honours. Good
3 afternoon to all. First of all, I wish to thank the Trial Chamber,
4 although there are only two Honourable Judges here, for allowing me to
5 address them.
6 If we use the terminology from economics, I would say that this is
7 a temporary calculation or a sum-up of the trial heretofore. I wish to
8 say only a brief -- a couple of words that would be useful for the
9 continuation or for the future of our trial.
10 You have heard out my counsel Stewart, and of course it is only
11 natural for me to consult with my counsel. I wish to say that I endorse
12 his submissions and I would just briefly like to explain something that
13 might clarify my decision to deny my consent.
14 Your Honours, I have spent a long time in prison here, and it
15 would be only normal for me to wish to end this proceedings as soon as
16 possible, because any further delay is contrary to my interests. But, as
17 Mr. Stewart has said here, I would of course wish to leave the prison
18 tomorrow. However, the proceedings have to take their course. The reason
19 why I opted for a rehearing is only one, but I wish to add to what
20 Mr. Stewart has said.
21 I have followed the proceedings from my perspective, and a great
22 many things have not been clarified here. Although many helpful witnesses
23 have been called here, in a rehearing, these witnesses would shed more
24 light to the events that had taken place in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the
25 war. For this reason, I believe it would be helpful for a retrial to take
1 place, because it could prove to be helpful for all sides; the Defence,
2 the OTP, and the Trial Chamber alike, because it would help expedite the
4 Because the start of the trial was rushed, the Defence was unable
5 to prepare sufficiently, and there have been quite a few flaws committed
6 on our part. The Defence would require a longer period of time, which
7 could be beneficial for it, and this could be done in a new trial, where
8 the two of you Honourable Judges would be present, along with a third
9 Judge, and before such trial would start, the Defence would have enough --
10 ample time to prepare itself.
11 I would turn to another issue that touches upon the fairness of
12 trial. I wish to go back to what Prosecutor Mr. Harmon said. At this
13 stage, the Prosecution would have to use the opportunity to amend the
14 indictment and withdraw a number of allegations that were deemed
15 corroborated before the proceedings reached this stage.
16 Another matter that I would like to mention here, Your Honours, is
17 the following: In the forthcoming period I wish to take an active part in
18 these proceedings, which I have not taken so far. I will abide by your
19 wish not to repeat some of the submissions stated here by my counsel, but
20 I do wish to reiterate my request to put certain questions to witnesses
21 during their testimony here and I would like you to allow me to address
22 this issue at a later stage.
23 JUDGE ORIE: Yes, Mr. Krajisnik. Because that's a matter which is
24 not to be addressed at this moment, because it's beyond the issue. You're
25 talking now about the modalities of the future conduct of the case,
1 whether that would be after restart or whether it would be after we would
2 have decided to continue that case. And that's something that should be
3 dealt with at that moment and not at this stage. Therefore, your active
4 part is not something to be discussed at this moment. I do understand
5 that --
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] If I may be allowed, Your Honour, to
7 say only a few words.
8 JUDGE ORIE: Not on the issue of your active involvement in the
9 case, because that's not a matter to be discussed at this moment. The
10 issue at this moment at stake is the -- whether it's in the interests of
11 justice, whether it would be served or would be better served by
12 continuing rather than to hear the case all over again. That's the limit
13 of what we can discuss at this moment.
14 But at least I do understand that you fully support the position
15 taken on your behalf by Mr. Stewart. Is there any other matter you'd like
16 to bring to our attention?
17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I will only address you with a few
18 more words. I did not wish to discuss here the different reasons why I
19 would like to take an active part in the proceedings. Rather, I wanted to
20 say that in a rehearing, I would have more opportunity to do so. However,
21 by way of conclusion, I would like to say the following:
22 In a new trial, I would have a better chance to prove a number of
23 events and facts that we were unable to prove so far. I am aware of the
24 fact that the final decision lies with the Trial Chamber and the Tribunal,
25 but I am convinced that whatever your decision will be, we will have a
1 fair trial. However, I appeal to you to have the understanding to
2 consider the reasons put forth by us behind our request for a retrial.
3 Furthermore, I would also appeal to you to set aside some time for
4 us to deal with some of the issues that have remained outstanding to this
5 day, like, for instance, the issue of a laptop and so on and so forth.
6 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. That's certainly something that will get proper
7 attention once a decision has been taken, once a final decision has been
8 reached as to whether the case -- the hearing of the case will be
9 continued or that we would rehear the case de novo, as it is said in
10 Latin. If there are no further submissions --
11 MR. STEWART: I'd only like to say this, that despite
12 Mr. Krajisnik saying that a rehearing would present a better opportunity
13 and take an active part, I nevertheless maintain that submission on his
14 behalf that that's the preferable course.
15 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. I do understand your position, Mr. Stewart.
16 We will adjourn, as again it's said in Latin, sine die, and the
17 two remaining Judges will consider whether or not it's appropriate to give
18 a decision as they could take under Rule 15 bis (D).
19 We stand adjourned.
20 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned sine die
21 at 5.29 p.m. | <urn:uuid:2d4c726a-d29b-4acb-9f48-acaba4c925cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.icty.org/x/cases/krajisnik/trans/en/041215IT.htm | 2013-05-19T10:34:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969046 | 20,733 |
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- At its essence, the presidential inaugural symbolizes American democracy's peaceful transition or extension of power.
Every four years, the winner of the preceding November election swears to defend the Constitution. Cannons boom and bands play. It all unfolds outside in public, usually before a massive throng that thunders its approval.
The simple practice and symbolism of inaugurating a president has remained consistent throughout American history -- 56 times before Sunday -- although the date, the pomp and the ceremony have changed since George Washington took the first oath 224 years ago.
Thirteen years after the Declaration of Independence and more than a year and a half after the Constitution was ratified, Washington was sworn in on April 20, 1789, at Federal Hall in New York. The capital city later named for Washington was just a swamp at the time.
He set the precedent of kissing the Bible after the oath.
Franklin Pierce broke the tradition of kissing the Bible. He placed his left hand on it instead in 1853.
Washington is also credited with creating other traditions. For instance, he started the inaugural parade when government officials, members of Congress, Army units, and prominent citizens escorted him to the ceremony.
The oath of office is specified in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. The oath for other federal officials, including the vice president, is not in the Constitution.
The oath of office reads, "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
The "(or affirm)" allows the president-elect to choose to affirm or to swear the oath of office. Only Pierce and Herbert Hoover chose to affirm rather than swear their oath.
The words "so help me God" do not appear in the Constitutional oath. That phrase was supposedly ad-libbed by Washington, setting a precedent for future presidents.
President Barack Obama has requested his oath include the phrase.
A personal aspect of the inauguration is the Bible.
John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic president -- his religious identity was a contentious issue in his run for office.
Only three presidents did not use a Bible: John Qunicy Adams opted for a volume of law; Theodore Roosevelt used no Bible or book at his first inauguration in 1901. Lyndon Johnson used John F. Kennedy's Roman Catholic Missal during his hastily arranged swearing-in aboard Air Force One en route to Washington following Kennedy's assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
Like fingerprints, no inaugural address is the same -- they come in all lengths, tones and with all kinds of different motives. Some aim to set the agenda for the president's term, others aim to define how the president will govern.
Washington delivered the shortest address at his second inauguration in Philadelphia. It totaled 135 words.
The longest was about 8,500 words and delivered by William Henry Harrison, who refused to wear coat on the cold March day in 1841. He caught a cold and died from pneumonia a month later.
Some memorable lines from inaugural addresses:
"With malice toward none, with charity for all." - Abraham Lincoln, March 1865.
"Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin
D. Roosevelt, March 1933.
"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you --- ask what you can do for your country." - John F. Kennedy, January 1961.
January 20 falls on a Sunday this year as it did in 1917, 1957 and 1985. As a result, Obama will take the official oath in a private ceremony that day at the White House. He will follow up with the public ceremony on Monday at the Capitol.
Obama will be the first president to have two oaths administered publicly and privately. In 2009, Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed the oath as he read it Obama during the public ceremony. They did it again the next day at the White House to leave no question
Thomas Jefferson was the first president inaugurated in Washington, March 1801.
The first inauguration on January 20 by decree of the 20th Amendment was in 1937.
Andrew Jackson was the first to take the oath on the East Front of the Capitol.
Ronald Reagan of California was the first to be inaugurated on the West Front of the Capitol in 1980.
Jimmy Carter, in 1976, was the first to walk from the Capitol to the White House.
The first inaugural streamed live on the Internet was Bill Clinton's second ceremony in 1997.
CNN's Connor Finnegan and Robert Yoon contributed to this report | <urn:uuid:7d3b3b7c-4407-446f-bf28-3a5c6a4075c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ketknbc.com/print/node/94264 | 2013-05-19T10:05:19Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953494 | 966 |
DON PESCI: The president and the archbishop
Thanks to James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal, we now have an account of the conversations between Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and President Barack Obama on the matter of the controversial contraception coverage mandate.
“I was deeply honored that he would call me and discuss these things with me,” the newly elevated Cardinal told Mr. Taranto.
“Mr. Obama knew that the mandate would pose difficulties for the Catholic Church, so he invited Archbishop Dolan to the Oval Office last November, shortly before the bishops’ General Assembly in Baltimore. At the end of their 45-minute discussion, the archbishop summed up what he understood as the president’s message:
“’I said, ‘I’ve heard you say, first of all, that you have immense regard for the work of the Catholic Church in the United States in health care, education and charity. . . . I have heard you say that you are not going to let the administration do anything to impede that work and . . . that you take the protection of the rights of conscience with the utmost seriousness. . . . Does that accurately sum up our conversation?’ [Mr. Obama] said, ‘You bet it does.’”
This was good news. The archbishop asked if he might relay the good tidings to the bishops in Baltimore.
An ebullient Mr. Obama responded, ““You don’t have my permission, you’ve got my request.”
The Archbishop relayed the president’s message, time passed, and at the end of January the Archbishop discovered to his dismay that the president had set his foot on a more politically firm path:
“So you can imagine the chagrin when he called me at the end of January to say that the mandates remain in place and that there would be no substantive change, and that the only thing that he could offer me was that we would have until August. . . . I said, ‘Mr. President, I appreciate the call. Are you saying now that we have until August to introduce to you continual concerns that might trigger a substantive mitigation in these mandates?’ He said, ‘No, the mandates remain. We’re more or less giving you this time to find out how you’re going to be able to comply.’ I said, ‘Well, sir, we don’t need the [extra time]. I can tell you now we’re unable to comply.’”
Here was the imperial Obama presidency in all its pomp and glory. When Napoleon’s ambitions met some resistance from the Pope of his day, the emperor threw down this defy: “How many battalions has the Pope?”
The Archbishop of New York had no battalions. Continued...
Following the announcement of the mandate – an interpretation of a provision in the Obamacare bill made by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius -- there was a public outcry, and the president felt called upon to make a phone call to Archbishop Dolan.
“He said, ‘You will be happy to hear religious institutions do not have to pay for this, that the burden will be on insurers.’”
Was the president seeking his input, Archbishop Dolan asked?
Not at all; input of any kind was quite unnecessary. The Archbishop was told the modified policy was a fait accompli. About three hours after the Cardinal had received the perfunctory call, the president publically announced his “purported accommodation,” which was, according to some First Amendment preservationists, singularly unaccommodating and likely the default position of the administration all along.
The accommodation was designed to satisfy only those who believe – an indispensable part of the credo of secularists and what Jacques Maritain used to call “practical atheists,” some of whom are politicians regarded as respected members of various religious groups – that the mission of Christian churches, Jewish synagogues and Muslim masjids end at the borders of houses of worship.
This credo, according to the Archbishop’s Wall Street interview, cedes to the state the authority to define the mission of religious institutions:
“We’ve grown hoarse saying this is not about contraception, this is about religious freedom,” he says. What rankles him the most is the government’s narrow definition of a religious institution. Your local Catholic parish, for instance, is exempt from the birth-control mandate. Not exempt are institutions such as hospitals, grade schools, universities and soup kitchens that employ or serve significant numbers of people from other faiths and whose main purpose is something other than proselytization.
“We find it completely unswallowable, both as Catholics and mostly as Americans, that a bureau of the American government would take it upon itself to define ‘ministry,’” Archbishop Dolan says. “We would find that to be—we’ve used the words ‘radical,’ ‘unprecedented’ and ‘dramatically intrusive.’”
Surrendering to the state such authority, quite common in totalitarian regimes, also violates what most American historians might regard as the American consensus on the proper relationship of church and state.
The excessively polite Archbishop scrupulously avoided in his interview with the Wall Street Journal using the term “un-American.” Continued...
Don Pesci is a writer who lives in Vernon. Email him at [email protected].
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The Connecticut State Politics blog covers all the news from the seat of Connecticut's government and the state's elected leaders with original reporting from Journal Register Connecticut staff, links to stories from other media and blogs, press releases, statements and more. | <urn:uuid:2cd702c6-e4f4-4fa0-8564-4bd07b69e7fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.middletownpress.com/articles/2012/04/11/opinion/doc4f84c1c243c95173641084.txt | 2013-05-19T10:35:13Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964538 | 1,372 |
Will county give low-income seniors the tax break OK'd by voters?
Published: Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 5:17 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 5:17 p.m.
Like many local residents Irvin Curtin was looking for a break — a tax break, to be specific.
Curtin recently approached the County Commission to request implementation of Amendment 11, a newly passed provision to the state Constitution that grants certain low-income senior citizens a reduction in their property tax rates.
"I've lived a long time. I've seen so many property tax increases, and other kinds of tax increases, that it just boggles the mind. And I think this is a worthwhile thing," the Belleview-area retiree told the board.
One commissioner agreed, and one didn't, clearly indicating his opposition.
Which means any hope of relief for Curtin and other senior citizens in his situation are pinned on all three remaining commissioners being convinced to open another loophole in an already well ventilated property tax system.
Amendment 11 authorizes cities and counties to enact a homestead exemption for people 65 and older who meet the following criteria: They must have a household income of less than $27,030; own a home whose market value is less than $250,000; and have lived in that home for at least 25 years.
Proponents say its passage would effectively eliminate property taxes for qualified homeowners.
In Marion County the reduction in revenue from enacting Amendment 11 would be miniscule. A county report estimates that qualified taxpayers collectively would save $162,234.
Critics of Amendment 11 maintain that local governments just could not afford another tax break as revenues keep declining.
According to an annual report Property Appraiser Villie Smith compiles about local land values, the state has authorized 38 tax breaks for property owners.
That includes exemptions for both land and for personal — or tangible — property.
The homestead exemption, which slashes up to $50,000 off the taxable value of residences, is the best known and most popular. It is claimed by about 93,000 homeowners in Marion County.
Other tax breaks contained in Smith's report cover nearly 5,000 parcels of publicly owned land, including schools; 1,008 parcels owned by churches and charitable organizations, including health care providers; 11,146 parcels owned by widows and widowers; 6,816 parcels owned by the partially or totally disabled and the blind, including military veterans; 42 parcels set aside for environmental conservation; and 10 parcels owned by deployed military personnel.
Across the county, those exemptions reduced the overall taxable value of property by $6.4 billion in 2012.
Those property tax breaks saved taxpayers across Marion County about $45.3 million last year. That's about $800,000 more than the $44.5 million the county budgeted for property tax revenues for 2013.
In his pro-Amendment 11 pitch to the County Commission, Curtin pointed out that he collects about $1,100 a month in Social Security, while his property taxes ran about $1,400 per year.
He added that he once used his federal income tax rebate to pay his property taxes, but could no longer do so after retiring.
Curtin had an advocate on the board, Commissioner Earl Arnett, who dropped Amendment 11 on his colleagues on Tuesday as his first big policy issue.
Arnett argued that the public had clearly voiced its preference by overwhelmingly supporting Amendment 11.
The amendment was one of just three proposed changes to the Florida Constitution to pass last November. The other two also were property tax-related, providing breaks for families of military veterans or first responders.
Amendment 11 received 61 percent of the vote statewide and 61 percent within Marion County.
"The voting public has told us, as commissioners, that they would like to see this exemption for our seniors," Arnett said.
"Most of our seniors that have owned a home for 25 years are responsible. They pay their taxes. They pay their mortgage. They just don't have the funds left for the nutrition that they need and for the prescriptions," Arnett said.
Yet Commissioner Stan McClain announced he would oppose Amendment 11 — as, he said, he has opposed other property tax exemptions.
Every new tax break, McClain said, requires other taxpayers "to pick up the slack" and creates a demand from other groups for even more tax exemptions.
"Pretty soon, there's going to be a small amount of people paying property tax," McClain said. "We end up in a circular firing squad when we do this."
"It's not fair to everyone else. We have to think of the greater good of the community."
It's unclear when the board might reconsider Arnett's proposal.
The Marion County Commission also has taken a pass on a previous property tax exemption for senior citizens: an additional $25,000 claim for homesteaded property that was passed in 1998.
The cities of Belleview and McIntosh are the only local governments in Marion to adopt that tax break.
Irvin, a 71-year-old retired life insurance salesman, said in an interview Thursday that he will be back at the next commission meeting to promote it again.
He said he could use the savings to help his wife purchase health insurance, which they cannot afford right now.
"I've been a taxpayer for 40 years, and I could use just a little help in my retirement," Irvin said. "One day they might need a little help themselves."
Contact Bill Thompson at 867-4117 or [email protected].
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:b71cd126-7c5d-4cb7-9c9d-a04ac48962db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ocala.com/article/20130207/ARTICLES/130209748/0/local | 2013-05-19T10:24:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972913 | 1,194 |
In the golden age of the worker, when worker’s rights were freshly won and the unions were widely respected as groups that helped tip the scales away from the bourgeois and towards the proletariat, one of the greatest threats to the newly rejuvenated working class was automation. “One day, the robots will come and destroy everything we’ve worked for in the name of profit,” they would say. Instead, the robots came and made things more efficient, safer and increased productivity greatly. Then, the politicians and the upper class came and destroyed everything they worked for in the name of profit.
In our time, it is a pretty safe bet to say it is no longer a golden age for the worker. It is, however, seemingly a golden age for independent games. Enter Vessel, the fluid based puzzler and first game from the liberated ex-EA employees over at Strange Loop Games. Vessel approaches the automation issue from a steampunk perspective, where liquid based lifeforms called fluros have been invented by the game’s protagonist, who looks a surprising amount like Bruce Campbell, M. Arkwright. These creatures have become prevalent in society, taking over the majority of factory and manual labor jobs in almost every industry. As the story progresses, you come to find out that these formerly mindless creatures have begun to evolve and pursue their own goals. In the process, they’ve stopped a multitude of important machines. Ever the scientist, Arkwright decides to investigate the fluros’ evolution, repair the machines and find a way to bridge the gap between humanity and the fluros.
This story, like many indie games, is told in a very minimalistic way. There is no dialog, really, with the protagonist’s thoughts conveyed through journal entries that offer a small bit of insight into the game’s world – although they mostly exist to give you a basic rundown of the various mechanics that come into play. This leaves the real story, and especially the fairly surreal ending, mostly up to your interpretation. There are times where that can be a cop out, but this is not one of those times. I always found that games, and really all forms of entertainment, that use an “up to interpretation” story only work when the content is strong enough to prop it up, and Vessel’s certainly is.
The gameplay here absolutely shines. Strange Loop created their own engine from the ground up in order to handle the fairly complex fluid physics present here, and the attention to detail shines. The engine’s ability to handle dynamic liquid simulation puts Vessel a sea apart from its competition. The multiple different liquids all flow, accumulate, evaporate and react in a completely logical manner. Containers can fill up, overflow and be emptied. Pretty much anything you can do with water, you need to do in Vessel to make your way through its large amount of varied, and progressively more difficult, puzzles.
I can’t put enough emphasis on how well designed those puzzles really are. Vessel is very well paced, and the way it introduces the game’s concepts steadily is novel. It doesn’t give you many clues as to what you should do with the knowledge it gives you, and there aren’t any big red arrows or signs saying “HIT THIS BUTTON” or “MAKE STEAM HERE” so you’ll have to do all the leg work yourself. Like the minimalism in the story, the minimalism in feedback given to the player works because of the way the game is made. Of course, a scientist wouldn’t need, or even want, everything spelled out to him easily. He would want to experiment, document and improve on his methods to solve these problems. Vessel, and its emphasis on the player figuring out the interactions between not just fluros and the environment, but fluros and other fluros, is as close to the scientific method as we are going to see in a puzzler.
These interactions between the various types of fluros, as well as the various types of material they can be made out of, comprise the bulk of the problem solving. Some levels will see you needing to open up a number of doors so you can place a fluro on a button, while others will need you to find ways for two fluros of differing materials to collide so that the gas or steam they create can open up a different area. It is quite a rewarding experience when you finally do get all your little water creatures and lava creatures and “You Can’t Do That on Television” slime creatures to do what you need them to do.
Even Vessel’s aesthetics are exceptional. I always felt that, despite my “gameplay before graphics” attitude, it was the experiments with art direction indie games tend to take that really drew me to them originally. I was always a retro gamer. Even as games got more and more advanced, I still clung to my love of the 16 bit era. When the AAA console games started moving towards realism and billions of polygons, I was quite happy to find people creating 2D games still. The advancements in tech, and even in artistic ability, within the gaming industry have been so large that these 2D platformers and puzzlers end up looking just gorgeous. Vessel – with its colorful backgrounds and great lighting – is as good a looking as any indie game has ever been. The music even shines, as it features a number of pieces from well-known composer Jon Hopkins, all arranged adaptively. The music adjusts to what you are doing and it ends up adding so much to the game’s feel.
While this all might sound entirely perfect, I have to burst the bubble a bit. There are some issues that show that Vessel is slightly wet behind the ears, with a handful of problems that break the fluidity of the game’s flow. Sorry, I’m way under my quota for liquid puns here. I have to catch up or else they revoke my membership to the Shitty Pun of the Month club.
While the puzzles are legitimately among the most well designed I’ve seen in quite a while, the platforming elements fall a bit short. The controls aren’t always as responsive as you would like, and jumping can be a bit iffy in some situations. Also, for people who aren’t really used to using the brain pathways that lead to being good at puzzle games, Vessel’s lack of hand holding might be a significant barrier to enjoyment. Most stages are intuitive enough that you’ll figure it out, but some take a significant amount of experimenting. There are even a few that suffer from design choices, like one type of fluros that will follow you around and hit switches but is frustratingly slow, or a puzzle where you know exactly what you have to do but simply can’t get the fluros to cooperate.
Compared to the rest of the game, these problems are barely spit in the ocean of awesomeness. Vessel is easily one of, if not the best, indie games of 2012 so far. It is well designed, gorgeous to look at, and incredibly entertaining. Strange Loops has created a game that is more coheisive than most, with absolutely everything – from the graphics to the music to the puzzles – combining to put emphasis on the setting and mood. It is even a good ‘bang for your buck’ purchase as it offers you around 10 to 12 hours of squirting entertainment, which would usually cost you way more if you were looking for squirting entertainment on the internet. Hell, I was so engrossed in it I pretty much sat down and played the whole thing in a single sitting.
I really have to pee.
Here’s the Rundown:
+ Well paced and intelligently designed puzzles with incredibly well done physics
+ Great to look at and listen to
+ Long for an indie game, and well worth the money
- Lack of hints or overt direction could turn off some gamers
- Occasional technical issues, including a save bug that is in need of a patch
- Some puzzles can become frustrating due to hiccups with the fluros
8 and 8.5 represent a game that is a good experience overall. While there may be some issues that prevent it from being fantastic, these scores are for games that you feel would easily be worth a purchase.
Vessel was developed by Strange Loop games and published by Indie Loop for the PC, and eventually for the XBLA and PSN . The game was released on March 1, 2012 with an MSRP of $14.99 on the PC. XBLA and PSN release dates have not been confirmed yet. The game was purchased by my main squeeze because she is a goth chick and thus immediately attracted to anything steampunk. It was played for around ten hours until completion. Specs of the PC used are as follows: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83ghz, Nvidia Geforce 570 GTX GPU, 8GB RAM, and Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. I would write more but all this sloshing water is really taxing on my bladder. | <urn:uuid:5e5fb2a3-8727-40ad-bd10-a65fa0618f75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ripten.com/2012/03/11/ripten-review-vessel-pc/ | 2013-05-19T09:48:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970383 | 1,906 |
Modern technology is like shaving in that it’s a double-edged sword I sometimes cut myself on. Well, not exactly, because, really, who shaves with a sword?
Hopefully you get my point.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no electronics-hating Luddite, nor am I a white-haired curmudgeon hellbent on staying on the wrong side of the digital divide (at least not yet). It’s just that keeping up with ever-changing high-tech gizmos and all that entails can be challenging.
You know those technologically savvy people who seem to have an intuitive understanding of how to expertly work computers and other assorted high-tech gadgets? I’m not one of them.
Using a computer, laptop or smartphone does not come naturally to me. On a fairly regular basis, I find myself using the “Help” feature on my computer at work, asking one of my coworkers how to perform a computer task with which I am unfamiliar, or — if I’m really desperate — calling the company IT guys.
However, there might be hope. After all, I finally broke down and got a smartphone in December after I went years without replacing the regular flip-style cell phone I used to have.
My coworker, intrepid photographer Lee Giles III — whose initials, LGIII, would make a good name for a smartphone — sarcastically welcomed me to 1991 when he learned of my status as a new smartphone owner. But the joke is on him, because the first such device didn’t come out until 2000, with the release of the first Symbian phone, the touchscreen Ericsson R380, the first device to be marketed as a “smartphone” because it combined a PDA with a mobile phone.
Thank you, Wikipedia!
Nevertheless, his overall point was correct, and truth be told, I felt compelled to get a smartphone. I had nightmares of being captured and put into a museum as a living, breathing anachronism: The man without a cell phone. I imagined parents bringing their children to see the exhibit that was me.
“What’s wrong with that man?” a little boy or girl would ask a parent, pointing and pitifully gazing upon me as the last of my kind — a creature that was about to go extinct. “Why doesn’t he have a cell phone?”
“I ... I ... I don’t know,” a parent would stammer in response.
I am proud to report that I have figured out most of the smartphone’s major functions without hurting myself. I will confess to having to consult the — and I swear I am not making this up — 476-page user’s manual on occasion.
OK, I’m exaggerating, because that includes the Spanish-language version as well, but the whole voluminous tome printed after I downloaded it to my computer, Spanish and all.
Ironically, I did throw my back out trying to lift the heavy user’s manual for the first time. I now don a weight belt and use the services of a spotter whenever I need to clean and jerk the smartphone instructions.
One of the cooler features of my smartphone is voice-recognition technology, which is something I would have considered sorcery just a few short years ago. I can talk into the phone, and it will print on screen the words that are coming out of my mouth, either when I’m texting or seeking a given subject on Google.
My smartphone does not talk to me, but then again, it could be in stealth mode, merely biding its time before SkyNet becomes self-aware.
Anyway, it’s my understanding — mostly from those Apple commercials that feature noted thespian Samuel L. Jackson — that the iPhone’s Siri software is an application that allows users to “talk” to their phone, and it “talks” back.
With Apple hard at work on the next generation of iPhones, I can only hope they aren’t involved in any sort of sinister experiments that combine Jackson and Siri, which would result in a talking smartphone that drops the F-bomb with alarming frequency.
Admittedly, the thing I’m most excited about is being able to get online via my smartphone, which means I can now spend more time updating my Facebook page than I already do. Being mobile also means I can get online pretty much any time I want to, even when — how can I put this delicately? — sitting on the porcelain throne.
(Those of you rolling your eyes, especially guys, you know you do it, too.)
But that’s a digital divide better not crossed in any detail.
Reporter Brett Davis can be reached at 253-358-4151 or by email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @gateway_brett. | <urn:uuid:8ad6b6ca-b96c-4cbc-8e70-1ae1dd91da40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/01/23/2445715/is-a-reporter-smarter-than-his.html | 2013-05-19T09:56:09Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955523 | 1,048 |
Much of the city's medieval architecture remains intact and is remarkably well preserved and restored. Its centre is the largest carfree area in Belgium. Interesting highlights are the Saint Bavo Cathedral with the Ghent Altarpiece, the belfry, the Gravensteen castle, and the splendid architecture along the old Graslei harbour. Ghent established a nice blend between comfort of living and history – it is not a city-museum. The city of Ghent houses also three béguinages and numerous churches, among which the Saint-Jacob's church, the Saint-Nicolas' church and the Saint Michael's church are the most beautiful examples.
In the nineteenth century Ghent's most famous architect, Louis Roelandt, built the university hall Aula, the opera house and the main courthouse. Highlights of modern architecture are the university buildings (the Boekentoren or Book Tower) by Henry Van de Velde. There are also a few theatres from diverse periods.
The beguinages, as well as the belfry and adjacent cloth hall, were recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites in 1998 and 1999.
Critiques | Translate
Nicou (97543) 2013-02-06 5:37
quel panorama de ce façade de maisons et ces tons ces couleur merveilleuse image quelle architecture et compo superbe.
Bravo et amitié
timecapturer (30226) 2013-02-06 5:39
iconic view of this beautiful city. Love the skyline shapes and the detailing, which despite the lack of sunlight take on a subtle and irresistible character. Excellent!
Have a great middle of the week - regards Brian.
Sergiom (39122) 2013-02-06 5:40
Le cadrage est très classique mais fait le travail. Par contre, le ciel gris est responsable du manque de contraste et de couleurs de la composition.
lousat (57542) 2013-02-06 5:59
Hi Daniel,great capture and beautiful solution to take these magnificent facades,i like the circular lens effect on the perspective,great crop and great quality despite the difficult light.Have a nice evening and thanks,Luciano
photographer_sg (194) 2013-02-06 10:12
Beautifully captured row of buildings. Each different and unique in shape. The details very well shown despite the (it seems to me) inadequate light.
Well done Sir!
Thanks for sharing.
cornejo (17988) 2013-02-06 10:44
Hello Daniel, very good and interesting picture of these beautiful facades in the charming town of Ghent. Lovely image very well composed and framed, with very good quality. Very good and nice job perfectly done, congratulations my friend. Thanks for sharing this interesting work.
Good night and happy week.
Warm greetings from southern Spain.
Silvio1953 (98001) 2013-02-06 11:05
Ciao Daniel, great parade of lovely facades, excellent clarity, splendid light and wonderful colors, very well done, my friend, ciao Silvio
boa (4313) 2013-02-06 11:41
no doubt, this is a must-see for me! The architecture here are fantastic and could keep me busy for hours. I like all the different facades and details. Well chosen spot for this picture, crisp and clear. The light could perhaps be better but that is not easy to do something about in a gloomy winter day. Tfs!
Have a nice evening.
Schnappilic (7919) 2013-02-06 12:00
Ce arhitectura au astia! Cum o fi sa locuiesti acolo?
O seara buna!
krzychu30 (8797) 2013-02-06 12:16
simple,central POV seems here to best option to present and to juxtapose variety and beauty of Ghent´s architecture.Also wide,panoramic format suits excellently to this scene.
And the architecture itself-I can only say wow-really stunning with so beautifully decorated facades.
ifege (9414) 2013-02-06 13:06
A good photo of a great city.
carlo62 (12492) 2013-02-06 14:10
una foto semplice e pulita, ben composta.
Molto belle le architetture che si affacciano sul canale.
adramad (27544) 2013-02-06 15:34
Very good selection of beautiful facades and different, this is overlooking the Graslei.
The day looks a little sad, but the beauty of the place makes up for it.
Have a nice day.
npecanhuk (53861) 2013-02-06 15:59
Very beautiful façades!
Sharpness, exposure, colors, horizontal format, chosen pov and composition truly pleased me!
TFS - congrats,
jjcordier (62280) 2013-02-06 22:37
Ces façades de Ghent sont très belles. Dommage que la lumière soit un peu fade.
serp2000 (29144) 2013-02-07 6:01
Another marvelous postcard from Ghent, Daniel. So lovely architecture, just the gingerbread houses. They bring me back to my latest vacation in Denmark. TFS!
ACL1978 (5729) 2013-02-07 19:30
Hello Daniel - a nice straight ahead look at the beautiful old architecture of this historic city. I like the placement of the boat at bottom and the distortion of the lens, which creates a nice sense of perspective here. Thanks!
maria-v1981 (10403) 2013-02-08 1:52
The photo got quality and impressive clarity and clearness. The vivid colours and the architecture detais are just fantastic. Also the light creates the idyllic atmposhere.
Have a nice day and weekend,
Cricri (86327) 2013-02-08 13:50
Belle et intéressante architecture différentes le long du canal, un ciel bien a la belge ;-)
abmdsudi (26215) 2013-02-09 6:23
A very imposing shot of a well known architectrue accompanied by a very interesting narrative. This old town conveys lots of its own charm and the unique character. Despite the overcast day you still managed to inject some cheery colors into the scene to bring it to life. Great work, Well done.
siudzi (23837) 2013-02-13 11:15
I'm sure that this beautiful city must be amazing during the winter months as well. Your post is a great proof of that. Very well seen and built horizontal composition. Thanks for sharing. | <urn:uuid:41008133-6da7-449b-9b42-6bdb4377703f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Belgium/Flanders/Oost-Vlaanderen/Ghent/photo1404682.htm | 2013-05-19T10:05:01Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.797194 | 1,485 |
May 19, 2013
A Declaration of Independence From Israel
Posted on Jul 2, 2007
By Chris Hedges
Israel, without the United States, would probably not exist. The country came perilously close to extinction during the October 1973 war when Egypt, trained and backed by the Soviet Union, crossed the Suez and the Syrians poured in over the Golan Heights. Huge American military transport planes came to the rescue. They began landing every half-hour to refit the battered Israeli army, which had lost most of its heavy armor. By the time the war was over, the United States had given Israel $2.2 billion in emergency military aid.
The intervention, which enraged the Arab world, triggered the OPEC oil embargo that for a time wreaked havoc on Western economies. This was perhaps the most dramatic example of the sustained life-support system the United States has provided to the Jewish state.
Israel was born at midnight May 14, 1948. The U.S. recognized the new state 11 minutes later. The two countries have been locked in a deadly embrace ever since.
Washington, at the beginning of the relationship, was able to be a moderating influence. An incensed President Eisenhower demanded and got Israel’s withdrawal after the Israelis occupied Gaza in 1956. During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israeli warplanes bombed the USS Liberty. The ship, flying the U.S. flag and stationed 15 miles off the Israeli coast, was intercepting tactical and strategic communications from both sides. The Israeli strikes killed 34 U.S. sailors and wounded 171. The deliberate attack froze, for a while, Washington’s enthusiasm for Israel. But ruptures like this one proved to be only bumps, soon smoothed out by an increasingly sophisticated and well-financed Israel lobby that set out to merge Israeli and American foreign policy in the Middle East.
Israel has reaped tremendous rewards from this alliance. It has been given more than $140 billion in U.S. direct economic and military assistance. It receives about $3 billion in direct assistance annually, roughly one-fifth of the U.S. foreign aid budget. Although most American foreign aid packages stipulate that related military purchases have to be made in the United States, Israel is allowed to use about 25 percent of the money to subsidize its own growing and profitable defense industry. It is exempt, unlike other nations, from accounting for how it spends the aid money. And funds are routinely siphoned off to build new Jewish settlements, bolster the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories and construct the security barrier, which costs an estimated $1 million a mile.
The U.S. has provided Israel with nearly $3 billion to develop weapons systems and given Israel access to some of the most sophisticated items in its own military arsenal, including Blackhawk attack helicopters and F-16 fighter jets. The United States also gives Israel access to intelligence it denies to its NATO allies. And when Israel refused to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, the United States stood by without a word of protest as the Israelis built the region’s first nuclear weapons program.
U.S. foreign policy, especially under the current Bush administration, has become little more than an extension of Israeli foreign policy. The United States since 1982 has vetoed 32 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel, more than the total number of vetoes cast by all the other Security Council members. It refuses to enforce the Security Council resolutions it claims to support. These resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
There is now volcanic anger and revulsion by Arabs at this blatant favoritism. Few in the Middle East see any distinction between Israeli and American policies, nor should they. And when the Islamic radicals speak of U.S. support of Israel as a prime reason for their hatred of the United States, we should listen. The consequences of this one-sided relationship are being played out in the disastrous war in Iraq, growing tension with Iran, and the humanitarian and political crisis in Gaza. It is being played out in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is gearing up for another war with Israel, one most Middle East analysts say is inevitable. The U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is unraveling. And it is doing so because of this special relationship. The eruption of a regional conflict would usher in a nightmare of catastrophic proportions.
There were many in the American foreign policy establishment and State Department who saw this situation coming. The decision to throw our lot in with Israel in the Middle East was not initially a popular one with an array of foreign policy experts, including President Harry Truman’s secretary of state, Gen. George Marshall. They warned there would be a backlash. They knew the cost the United States would pay in the oil-rich region for this decision, which they feared would be one of the greatest strategic blunders of the postwar era. And they were right. The decision has jeopardized American and Israeli security and created the kindling for a regional conflagration.
The alliance, which makes no sense in geopolitical terms, does makes sense when seen through the lens of domestic politics. The Israel lobby has become a potent force in the American political system. No major candidate, Democrat or Republican, dares to challenge it. The lobby successfully purged the State Department of Arab experts who challenged the notion that Israeli and American interests were identical. Backers of Israel have doled out hundreds of millions of dollars to support U.S. political candidates deemed favorable to Israel. They have brutally punished those who strayed, including the first President Bush, who they said was not vigorous enough in his defense of Israeli interests. This was a lesson the next Bush White House did not forget. George W. Bush did not want to be a one-term president like his father.
Israel advocated removing Saddam Hussein from power and currently advocates striking Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Direct Israeli involvement in American military operations in the Middle East is impossible. It would reignite a war between Arab states and Israel. The United States, which during the Cold War avoided direct military involvement in the region, now does the direct bidding of Israel while Israel watches from the sidelines. During the 1991 Gulf War, Israel was a spectator, just as it is in the war with Iraq.
President Bush, facing dwindling support for the war in Iraq, publicly holds Israel up as a model for what he would like Iraq to become. Imagine how this idea plays out on the Arab street, which views Israel as the Algerians viewed the French colonizers during the war of liberation.
“In Israel,” Bush said recently, “terrorists have taken innocent human life for years in suicide attacks. The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy and it’s not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities. And that’s a good indicator of success that we’re looking for in Iraq.”
Americans are increasingly isolated and reviled in the world. They remain blissfully ignorant of their own culpability for this isolation. U.S. “spin” paints the rest of the world as unreasonable, but Israel, Americans are assured, will always be on our side.
Israel is reaping economic as well as political rewards from its lock-down apartheid state. In the “gated community” market it has begun to sell systems and techniques that allow the nation to cope with terrorism. Israel, in 2006, exported $3.4 billion in defense products—well over a billion dollars more than it received in American military aid. Israel has grown into the fourth largest arms dealer in the world. Most of this growth has come in the so-called homeland security sector.
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GameSpot and Treyarch team up to bring you an exclusive Black Ops II multiplayer live stream from Gamescom 2012 on August 15-18; action starts at 9 a.m. PDT.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II makes its multiplayer reveal at Gamescom 2012 in Cologne, Germany, on August 15-18. The show will be hosted by Xbox Live's Major Nelson and AceyBongos, and the live gameplay from the show floor will be streamed starting Wednesday, August 15, at 6 p.m. CET (9 a.m. PDT). There will also be exclusive interviews with the developers of the game. On August 17, there will be a special tournament for Black Ops II featuring pro gamers at Optic Gaming, Prophecy, ESL, and it will be commentated by Hastr0.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II Multiplayer Live Stream Schedule
- Black Ops II Multiplayer reveal and in game action
- Treyarch developers talks about features in the game
Wednesday, August 15 6PM CET (9 AM PDT)
- Treyarch answers questions from the community
- More in game action
Thursday, August 16 6PM CET (9 AM PDT)
- Black Ops II Tournament with Pro Players and casted by Hastr0
Friday, August 17 6PM CET (9 AM PDT)
- A Best of Gamescom Video
Saturday, August 18 6PM CET (9 AM PDT)
GameSpot Black Ops II Gamescom Coverage
- Day 1 Live Stream of Call of Duty Black Ops IIs
- Chris chats with Black Ops II design director David Vonderhaar about multiplayer competitive features
- Chris catches up with Hastr0 on the power of "codcasting"
- Hellstorm - Call of Duty: Black Ops II Multiplayer Gameplay
- Aftermath - Call of Duty: Black Ops II Multiplayer Gameplay
- Chris and Guy talk about the new loadout system in Call of Duty: Black Ops II
looks like they cheapened the campaign to the game. Treyarch has always made better games than IW but it looks like this may be worse than MW3. They added cheap hit marker to dumb down the gunplay, the bloodspray and wounds in World at War and Black Ops worked just fine as hitmarkers. having X hitmarkers for MP is okay but not for SP.
Alot of great features with this, alot people say CoD is CaP (copy and paste), hell ive said it myself, but this is pretty awesome. League play is a good idea, it gives people with not alot of time to play a decent chance to do good in a match and not get thrown in with the hardcore guys.
like Joe explained I am impressed that a person able to earn $4348 in one month on the internet. did you look at this web site...bit.ly/Axjzj6 (Click "Home" on the menu bar)
wow treyarch is always trying to change the way we play COD and i respect that. I will actually be buying this one.
what is different about this game! its the same crap every year and people defend it like it isn't why?
@xCocoTheMonkeyx I disagree that the CoD games are the same every year, similar of course, but not the same . However even if everyone thought they were, people would still buy it because quite frankly, the game is fun, even if it does share a likeness with past games in the series.
@xCocoTheMonkeyx The marketing team is excellent. But to be honest, this game does seem quite different from past CoDs. At the very least the single player and local co op stuff seem quite good. Worth a purchase for that.
I hate when people complain. It does people no good and it shows that youre basically just a little girl.
@terminator127 Well you should know that when these companies make a few changes/improvements for 60 dollars every year. they get dried out, kind of like the C*CK's of the people who praise them. I would rather see EA make a sports game on the special Olympics but thats just me. Go thundering TallyWackers of Turkey!!!!!
@Punkerdoodle87 You have a good point, and that would be interesting and cool...a special olympics game. I was just saying that even though there are very few changes, people should not complain. I just think it helps nobody.
Quit complaining you trolls, Blops 2 will be epic. Can't you see the time that was put in this game? Don't you see all the new perks; scavenger, dead silence, ghost, flack jacket, and lightweight (you run faster.) This will easily be the best game since MW3 . Oh and did I mention the graphic improvements. Also COD casting is by far the best gameplay improvement to come out since ever. SO QUIT TROLLING.
@buffaloblitz85 That there is some quality trolling ha! Start with the anti-troll statement then bring out the serious sounding "new" feature list.
And it worked ;) can't believe people replied to this seriously.....
@buffaloblitz85 You hurt the argument for people who are for this more than the trolls who are complaining. Please refrain from saying such childish things if you want to be taken seriously...
What are you talking about? Is their anything childish with saying that this will be the best COD since MW3?
@buffaloblitz85 Time that was put into this game = 1 year?
It'll most probably be a fun game nonetheless.
@bjvill time that was put into this game = 2 years. Treyarch started developing it after the first blops.
@buffaloblitz85 graphic improvements? lol
What is the obsession with BOII on here? My god. Same games, different paint jobs. All this hype for crappy rehashed games makes me sick. | <urn:uuid:6b44661e-278e-4073-ab2e-be9fb15fead0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://asia.gamespot.com/features/call-of-duty-black-ops-ii-gamescom-2012-6391607/?tag=Topslot%3BBlackOps2LiveStreamDay2%3BWatchBlackOpsIiOnline | 2013-05-22T07:20:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954201 | 1,242 |
There’s been a lot written about the importance of customer adoption and success to the software as a service (SaaS) model – there’s even a manifesto and a Bill of Rights! Last month, Informatica Cloud received the Bronze Stevie Award for customer support. One of the drivers for this achievement was not only great front-line customer service from a world-class support organization (they even support trial accounts!), but also the establishment of a customer success team, which is run by Bryan Plaster. I sat down with Bryan to discuss his views on the importance of customer adoption to any cloud computing application, platform or infrastructure initiative, as well as some specifics on how Informatica Cloud approaches customer success.
Bryan, tell us about Informatica Cloud’s approach to customer success:
The goal of our customer success team is to not only ensure our customers adopt our cloud integration service and achieve benefits, but ideally for them to become evangelists for cloud integration. We take a 3 pronged approach to accomplishing this today:
- Onboarding new customers,
- A search and rescue program, and
- Extending customers through a lifelong relationship.
What’s the process for new Informatica Cloud customers?
Each new customer is assigned a customer success manager (CSM) with onboarding. The CSM may assist with enrolling some users in the right training classes if needed, introducing them to the Informatica Cloud Community, setting them up with our award-winning technical support group, and getting them started with professional services with turnkey solutions if necessary. Regardless of how easy a SaaS solution may be to implement and use, our experience is that engaging early with our customers is critical to ensuring real long-term value is achieved.
A few months into a new Informatica Cloud subscription we also take a look to see if an organization has a flat usage, or no usage, and trending items such as number of integrations, success % rate, number of support tickets opened, and other indicators to SEARCH for signs of potential issues. If we find them, we begin the RESCUE process, which generally means developing a joint plan for success with the customer, and may involve aspects of training, support, professional services, or some other expertise which lends itself well to the situation. Within a year of kicking off this program, we have found that the customers “rescued” usually end up being our strongest supporters and become what we call customers for life.
What about the Informatica Labs?
Extending customers through a lifelong relationship may mean different things to different people. We accomplish this through onboarding and Search and Rescue, but often they tie together through our Informatica Cloud Labs group, which is an extension of the CSM and product team. In many ways, this is a group of mavericks, who blaze the trail with the latest in technology, extending Informatica Cloud as a platform to provide the widest range of connectivity and templates to different cloud and on-premise applications. The Informatica Cloud Labs team publishes every solution they develop for consumption on the Informatica Marketplace – they are really democratizing cloud integration! Expect great things from Informatica Cloud Labs in 2012 as we utilize the new leading-edge technology that is constantly being built into the Informatica Cloud Platform.
Why is cloud adoption so important to you and your team?
If cloud applications aren’t “sticky” they won’t be renewed. For example, if someone buys Salesforce.com but doesn’t have their customers loaded into it, there’s a pretty good chance that Salesforce.com won’t be adopted at that company. Similarly, when it comes CRM and ERP integration, if the deal that your sales person closes can’t generate an order in your ERP system, or you can’t find the ERP order status in your CRM application, that will also cause people to not want to use the new system(s). With Informatica Cloud we are enabling these and many other processes in order to ensure our customers are successful with their specific use cases across multiple systems. There’s absolutely no reason not to adopt Informatica Cloud as long as they are gaining a better return on data from all of their cloud and on-premise applications.
Why are you so focused on making it easy to get started with cloud integration?
We believe that cloud integration should be easy. If someone owns a cloud application (or is planning to), they should also have the ability to get the data they need from it when and how they want it, in a well governed way. This means we need to make it easy for potential customers to get started right away with a free trial. We also have a vibrant community of self-paced training videos to answer the most demanding questions. Early on we got commitment from our customer support team to even provide support during the trial period if needed. Along with all of this enablement, as a prospective Informatica Cloud customer completes their integration in the trial, we have editions starting at under $100 a month in order to be able to meet just about any requirements – from the most basic to the most complex. Tenants of Cloud Computing are Self-service, the ability to try before you buy, and only paying for what you need in a low-cost model; our goal at Informatica Cloud is to bring these concepts to the data integration market, and the result is that our customers have helped us win the Best of AppExchange in this category of integration for four years in a row.
I hear you have a goal of turning skeptics into champions. Is that true?
Absolutely! This current generation of business, social, and even enterprise applications which are moving to the cloud brings a need for not only extracting, loading and synchronizing data, but it also means cross-application data integration and data quality that will move at internet speed. Integration is both the on-ramp and the interstate for the next generation of cloud business applications and platforms and our Customer Success team’s goal is to bring all of this together by finding champions of cloud integration and helping them share their story with the world. We’re always looking for non-adopters or perhaps even skeptics and we want to enable them to become Informatica Cloud champions. Check out our customer video website for some great examples of cloud integration customer success. | <urn:uuid:1ec9190e-c673-4263-b18b-a43ed4717929> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.informatica.com/perspectives/2012/03/27/informatica-cloud-customer-success/ | 2013-05-22T07:13:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950907 | 1,336 |
NEW: "The question is what do we do?" says State Department spokesman
About 500 soldiers defect and create an opposition brigade, an opposition leader says
Two journalists were killed by government shelling in Baba Amr
Syria says authorities killed and arrested "terrorists"
(CNN) -- Desperation and a rapidly growing death toll serve as a backdrop for a new effort dozens of countries are launching in hopes of finally stemming the brutal crackdown under way in Syria.
At a meeting Friday in Tunisia, world leaders will look to mount pressure against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The meeting of the "Friends of Syria" group is "part of our ongoing efforts with our friends, allies, and the Syrian opposition to crystallize next steps to halt the slaughter of the Syrian people and pursue a transition to democracy in Syria," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
More than 70 countries have been invited.
Russia, which recently vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at stopping the violence in Syria, is not taking part.
China, which also vetoed the resolution, has not announced a decision. "If, in fact, China chooses to accept the invitation, that will certainly be a positive sign of its willingness to work with the rest of us to try to end the violence," Nuland said.
The meeting's location is significant because it was in Tunisia last year that the uprisings that became known as the "Arab Spring" began.
"The failure to get a U.N. Security Council resolution, blame for that rests on two countries," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Wednesday. "So the international community is fairly united in trying to help the people of Syria. The question is, what do we do?
"We talked about humanitarian assistance and trying to work those avenues, cease-fires, we need to get the Syrian regime to stop the onslaught of Homs. These are immediate goals and immediate objectives as we head into Tunis."
The death toll in Syria is edging toward 9,000, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria (LCC).
Sixty people were killed Wednesday including two journalists -- one American, one French -- according to the LCC. The deaths included 20 in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, 13 in Hama, 22 in Idlib, one in Daraa, two in Aleppo, and two in Damascus suburbs.
About 500 soldiers defected from the Syrian army's 17th Regiment and joined the opposition Free Syrian Army, forming a brigade in Idlib, opposition leader Mohamad al-Sayed told CNN.
Some of the worst violence Wednesday was in the besieged city of Homs, where many residents have been unable to move and have been without critical supplies for weeks.
The LCC reported 106 deaths Tuesday.
U.N. officials have said updating a death toll is nearly impossible given current conditions.
"This level of brutality is something that I haven't ever seen in my life," activist Wissam Tarif told CNN Wednesday. He is in Beirut, in contact with many in Syria.
There is an urgent need for ambulances to be allowed into stricken areas, he said.
Particularly in Baba Amr, many wounded people were being denied access to medical care, he said.
The two Western journalists were killed in Homs amid heavy shelling from government forces, opposition activists said.
The Sunday Times of London said one of the journalists was reporter Marie Colvin, the only British newspaper journalist inside Baba Amr.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said journalist Remi Ochlik was killed in a bombing.
Syrian state TV showed a banner Wednesday saying the ministry of information had no knowledge of the presence of the journalists, and it requested that officials in Homs look for them.
The Syrian regime has severely limited access to the country by foreign journalists, making it impossible to verify many opposition or government reports. But some journalists have managed to get into Syria without the government's knowledge.
The night before, Colvin was on air with CNN describing the onslaught in Homs.
"The Syrian army is shelling the city of cold, starving civilians," she said.
Colvin, a veteran correspondent who also covered last year's Libyan civil war, said the Syrian crisis was the worst conflict she had covered, partly because of the volume of ammunition and shelling falling on Homs.
"There's a lot of snipers on the high buildings surrounding the Baba Amr neighborhood. You can sort of figure out where a sniper is, but you can't figure out where a shell is going to land," she said.
The deaths Wednesday followed that of New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid, who was reporting in eastern Syria when he died last week, apparently from an asthma attack, the newspaper said.
Syria routinely blames the violence on "armed terrorist groups." The state-run news agency SANA said Wednesday that "competent authorities" had killed three members of such a group Monday and arrested five in Idlib. Also, a group assassinated an engineer and wounded his 16-year-old son in Hama, the SANA report said.
Five members of the army and law enforcement were buried Wednesday, SANA said.
The vast majority of accounts from inside Syria indicate al-Assad's forces are slaughtering civilians in an attempt to wipe out opposition members, who are demanding his ouster and democratic reforms.
Colvin, interviewed hours before her death, described the heartbreak of watching a boy die after being struck in the chest by shrapnel -- one of the many children killed in the conflict.
She said it was important to share his story and images.
"That little baby is one of two children who died today," Colvin said. "That baby probably will move more people to think, what is going on, and why is no one stopping this murder in Homs that is happening every day?"
CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali, Arwa Damon, Holly Yan, Josh Levs, Joe Sterling, Yousuf Basil and Tom Cohen contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:1f5ecc62-5275-4a0f-b122-bf57aa4560a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://guilhermepaixaous.blogspot.com/2012/02/global-meeting-on-syria-faces-pressure.html | 2013-05-22T07:32:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974653 | 1,250 |
if am copying a folder in desk top that folder contains xl2007 sheets, in one of the sheet i was inserted some hyperlink for supporting folder.if am pasting this folder in desk top it may creating some problem means after opened the xls file am clicking the link that time file could not be found [...]
Answer Question | November 23, 2010 7:00 AM
Excel 2007, Excel 2007 functions, Excel error messages, Hyperlinks
How can I export from Notes to MS Access and have links function within Access taking you back to a Notes data page? Copying as Table from Notes creates the links and it works when pasted to Excel or Word…but not Access. Importing to Access from the working Excel file then breaks the hyperlink in [...]
Answer Question | January 26, 2011 5:06 PM
Access 2007 form creation, Data migration, Hyperlinks, Lotus Notes 8
Hi, How do I attach a Hyperlink into a signature logo in Entourage 2008? Right now it looks like this: Name Position Phone # LOGO I selected all of the signature txt i created in Word and Option + C to Option + V into Entourage and the link doesnt work. I figured out how [...]
Answer Question | July 7, 2010 6:26 PM
Entourage 2008, Hyperlinks
When I perform a Paste Append into the table, the field I need that is a hyperlink is being truncated, thus link fails. How can I get the link to pates exactly as is from Excel?
Answer Question | March 30, 2009 10:51 PM
Hyperlinks, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Access tables, Microsoft Excel
Hi, How do we read the content in a pdf file. I have some sample pdf where I have to edit already existing hyperlinks . Thanks in advance.
Answer Question | February 21, 2012 12:16 PM
Hyperlinks, PDF, PDF hyperlinks, VBA, Visual Basic, Visual Basic for Applications
I created a hyperlink in MS Excel to an E-mail address (I use Lotus Notes). When I follow, the email is created with the correct subjsct line however the text line is blank i.e., simply not there, even though it appears in the “text to appear” diologus box. Does anyone know why this is?
Answer Question | December 10, 2008 5:43 AM
Hyperlinks, Lotus Notes, Lotus Notes email, Microsoft Excel
My notes application generate text links like this: notes:///8525656D003361E0/0/2F5500FD29A3D91185257514006BB837 The links are send via email to notify user of the documents they need to see. When the users opens the email with outlook the link active (a hyperlink) but if we open the same message with outlook web access or any other mail client on [...]
Answer Question | December 10, 2008 10:47 AM
Browsers, Hyperlinks, Lotus development, Lotus Domino interoperability, Lotus Notes, Outlook, Outlook Web Access, OWA, Web browsers, Web development
I’ve put together a PDF fr a law-frim client that has a bunch of embedded weblinks to internal intranet/system pages — but links work on some machines and not others. I know many firms block website access — could this be causing problem? Are there known conflicts between webliks in PDFs and desktop/system settings (seems [...]
Answer Question | July 15, 2008 10:09 AM
Hyperlinks, PDF, PDF hyperlinks
My company just migrated from Outlook to Lotus Notes 6.5 and we are struggling on some basic issues. For instance, when someone opens a link to a PowerPoint (.ppt) document from a Lotus Notes e-mail, it opens with Internet Explorer. How do we get this file to open using PowerPoint instead of Internet Explorer?
Answer Question | June 6, 2008 5:06 PM
Hyperlinks, Lotus hotspot, Lotus Notes 6.x, Microsoft Office
I am trying to add a link to a SharePoint site that will launch a Lotus Notes database in the client. The link works fine when Lotus Notes is not already launched, but when the user tries to use the link and his client is already launched, the database does not automatically open. Is there [...]
Answer Question | April 24, 2008 5:32 PM
Hyperlinks, Lotus Notes client, Lotus Notes Database, SharePoint | <urn:uuid:7b9d348d-e495-4234-ae8e-90f2a132d016> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/tag/hyperlinks/ | 2013-05-22T07:13:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.869508 | 926 |
Barbara Ehrenreich – a Situationist
Posted by The Situationist Staff on October 14, 2009
From a related Time Magazine article here’s a brief sample of her writing on the topic of optimism.
* * *
If you’re craving a quick hit of optimism, reading a news magazine is probably not the best way to go about finding it. As the life coaches and motivational speakers have been trying to tell us for more than a decade now, a healthy, positive mental outlook requires strict abstinence from current events in all forms. Instead, you should patronize sites like Happynews.com, where the top international stories of the week include “Jobless Man Finds Buried Treasure” and “Adorable ‘Teacup Pigs’ Are Latest Hit with Brits.”
Or of course you can train yourself to be optimistic through sheer mental discipline. Ever since psychologist Martin Seligman crafted the phrase “learned optimism” in 1991 and started offering optimism training, there’s been a thriving industry in the kind of thought reform that supposedly overcomes negative thinking. You can buy any number of books and DVDs with titles like Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, in which you will learn mental exercises to reprogram your outlook from gray to the rosiest pink: “affirmations,” for example, in which you repeat upbeat predictions over and over to yourself; “visualizations” in which you post on your bathroom mirror pictures of that car or boat you want; “disputations” to refute any stray negative thoughts that may come along. If money is no object, you can undergo a three-month “happiness makeover” from a life coach or invest $3,575 for three days of “optimism training” on a Good Mood Safari on the coast of New South Wales. . . .
* * *
Americans have long prided themselves on being “positive” and optimistic — traits that reached a manic zenith in the early years of this millennium. Iraq would be a cakewalk! The Dow would reach 36,000! Housing prices could never decline! Optimism was not only patriotic, it was a Christian virtue, or so we learned from the proliferating preachers of the “prosperity gospel,” whose God wants to “prosper” you. In 2006, the runaway bestseller The Secret promised that you could have anything you wanted, anything at all, simply by using your mental powers to “attract” it. The poor listened to upbeat preachers like Joel Osteen and took out subprime mortgages. The rich paid for seminars led by motivational speakers like Tony Robbins and repackaged those mortgages into securities sold around the world. . . .
* * *
Below are some excerpts from the introduction of her new book explaining that, optimism notwithstanding, Americans are not necessarily better off.
* * *
Surprisingly, when psychologists undertake to measure the relative happiness of nations, they routinely find that Americans are not, even in prosperous times and despite our vaunted positivity, very happy at all. A recent meta-analysis of over a hundred studies of self-reported happiness worldwide found Americans ranking only twenty-third, surpassed by the Dutch, the Danes, the Malaysians, the Bahamians, the Austrians, and even the supposedly dour Finns. In another potential sign of relative distress, Americans account for two-thirds of the global market for antidepressants, which happen also to be the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. To my knowledge, no one knows how antidepressant use affects people’s responses to happiness surveys: do respondents report being happy because the drugs make them feel happy or do they report being unhappy because they know they are dependent on drugs to make them feel better? Without our heavy use of antidepressants, Americans would likely rank far lower in the happiness rankings than we currently do.
When economists attempt to rank nations more objectively in terms of “well-being,” taking into account such factors as health, environmental sustainability, and the possibility of upward mobility, the United States does even more poorly than it does when only the subjective state of “happiness” is measured. The Happy Planet Index, to give just one example, locates us at 150th among the world’s nations.
* * *
But of course it takes the effort of positive thinking to imagine that America is the “best” or the “greatest.” Militarily, yes, we are the mightiest nation on earth. But on many other fronts, the American score is dismal, and was dismal even before the economic downturn that began in 2007. Our children routinely turn out to be more ignorant of basic subjects like math and geography than their counterparts in other industrialized nations. They are also more likely to die in infancy or grow up in poverty. Almost everyone acknowledges that our health care system is “broken” and our physical infrastructure crumbling. We have lost so much of our edge in science and technology that American companies have even begun to outsource their research and development efforts. Worse, some of the measures by which we do lead the world should inspire embarrassment rather than pride: We have the highest percentage of our population incarcerated, and the greatest level of inequality in wealth and income. We are plagued by gun violence and racked by personal debt.
While positive thinking has reinforced and found reinforcement in American national pride, it has also entered into a kind of symbiotic relationship with American capitalism. There is no natural, innate affinity between capitalism and positive thinking. In fact, one of the classics of sociology, Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, makes a still impressive case for capitalism’s roots in the grim and punitive outlook of Calvinist Protestantism, which required people to defer gratification and resist all pleasurable temptations in favor of hard work and the accumulation of wealth.
But if early capitalism was inhospitable to positive thinking, “late” capitalism, or consumer capitalism, is far more congenial, depending as it does on the individual’s hunger for more and the firm’s imperative of growth. The consumer culture encourages individuals to want more — cars, larger homes, television sets, cell phones, gadgets of all kinds — and positive thinking is ready at hand to tell them they deserve more and can have it if they really want it and are willing to make the effort to get it. Meanwhile, in a competitive business world, the companies that manufacture these goods and provide the paychecks that purchase them have no alternative but to grow. If you don’t steadily increase market share and profits, you risk being driven out of business or swallowed by a larger enterprise. Perpetual growth, whether of a particular company or an entire economy, is of course an absurdity, but positive thinking makes it seem possible, if not ordained.
In addition, positive thinking has made itself useful as an apology for the crueler aspects of the market economy. If optimism is the key to material success, and if you can achieve an optimistic outlook through the discipline of positive thinking, then there is no excuse for failure. The flip side of positivity is thus a harsh insistence on personal responsibility: if your business fails or your job is eliminated, it must because you didn’t try hard enough, didn’t believe firmly enough in the inevitability of your success. As the economy has brought more layoffs and financial turbulence to the middle class, the promoters of positive thinking have increasingly emphasized this negative judgment: to be disappointed, resentful, or downcast is to be a “victim” and a “whiner.”
* * *
For a sample of related Situationist posts, see “Self-Serving Biases,” “The Motivated Situation of Inequality and Discrimination,” “Thanksgiving as “System Justification”?,” “Cheering for the Underdog,” “Ayn Rand’s Dispositionism: The Situation of Ideas,” “Deep Capture – Part X,” “Promoting Dispositionism through Entertainment – Part I, Part II, & Part III,” “The Unconscious Situation of our Consciousness – Part IV,” and “The (Unconscious) Situation of our Consciousness – Part III.” | <urn:uuid:7b746535-6e89-4641-9542-731a8b3bd10e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/barbara-ehrenreich-a-situationist/ | 2013-05-22T07:40:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945284 | 1,754 |
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10-07-2010 @ 2:25PM
Thank god you mentioned BadBoy! I can't tell you how much nicer Trade is having installed that some months ago. In fact, I recommend it in Trade so much, people have accused me of being the author (don't I wish!). It's definitely a great addon!Another I would recommend:NoDuelSimple and extraordinarily easy to use. It auto-declines duels, and sends a configurable message to the would-be dueller (assuming they're on your faction).
10-07-2010 @ 3:27PM
I'm apparently in the minority, but I don't use chat addons because I believe in helping to create consequences for the (body part) (link) people. I've been told that if someone gets Report Spammed in Trade enough times, a GM will look at their flagged messages and perhaps get around to tossing out a ban if they've been bad enough. If you use an addon to hide those messages, the problem people don't get flagged, and there's no chance for a ban. Besides, once you start flagging, you usually find it's only 5-12 people linking Thunderfury over and over and over again. That said, gold spammers are amazingly annoying. Pity the Picolo no longer works on the website-spelling ones. :-(
10-07-2010 @ 3:37PM
@ Shadowind - I totally still report gold spammers but there are litterally hundreds of level 1 or 2 alts that people jump on just to be jerks on trade chat. It's not even that they are spamming but they are being rude and/or just talking smack after a city raid. Anyone that uses the word "rape" in trade chat or a whisper gets ignored by me. It's not nec. spam but I have the right to not have to listen to them.I agree that we should still do what we can to get the worst of them banned though. :)
10-07-2010 @ 5:08PM
@Shadowwind:BadBoy automatically flags someone for spam, it doesn't just ignore it.
10-07-2010 @ 5:17PM
The piccolo doesn't work any more? Dang it, I just farmed one *just* to annoy the spammers. What did they do to it?
10-07-2010 @ 6:37PM
@Bruce: If you're talking about the gold spammers, they created a fix that they're no longer affected by it.
10-07-2010 @ 6:49PM
Obviously, they use a hack to do those designs with the toons, so they just had to write some code into the hack to ignore the piccolo.
10-07-2010 @ 7:51PM
Automaton is a great little addon that does a lot of stupid little things. One of the settings (wuss) autodeclines duels, another (loner) autodeclines guild invites (very useful for the "sign my charter!" crowd).It also sells grey items whenever you hit a vendor, and repairs whenever you hit a repair guy.Great little addon.
10-07-2010 @ 10:30PM
The addon I like to use for rejecting duels is called MiscHelper. You can set it to do a lot of great things like auto-accepting loot/bop items, auto-accept "this item will be disenchanted" messages, sell greys, auto repair, and a passing on the bronze drake. Some others that I don't use are auto-accepting group invites or ports, or automatically greeding/de-ing blues and greens (useful if you don't care in the WOTLK era of purples). Also, BadBoy is awesome, and I have to recommend the levels addition that blocks people up to a certain level. For me, I had to keep raising it because spammers would level a little so they could pst me. It also blocks new DKs. (Who doesn't want to do that anyway? ;)
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Anti-Jagged1 antibody (ab85763)
- Product nameAnti-Jagged1 antibodySee all Jagged1 primary antibodies ...
- DescriptionRabbit polyclonal to Jagged1
- Tested applicationsWB, ICC/IF more details
- Species reactivityReacts with: Human
Predicted to work with: Mouse, Rat, Xenopus laevis, Zebrafish
Synthetic peptide conjugated to KLH derived from within residues 1200 to the C-terminus of Human Jagged1.
- Positive controlThis antibody gave a positive signal in the following whole cell lysates: MEL-1; HeLa; HEK293
- Storage instructionsStore at +4°C short term (1-2 weeks). Aliquot and store at -20°C or -80°C. Avoid repeated freeze / thaw cycles.
- Storage bufferPreservative: 0.02% Sodium Azide
Constituents: 1% BSA, PBS, pH 7.4
- Concentration information loading...
- PurityImmunogen affinity purified
- Clonality Polyclonal
- Research Areas
Our Abpromise guarantee covers the use of ab85763 in the following tested applications.
The application notes include recommended starting dilutions; optimal dilutions/concentrations should be determined by the end user.
Not yet tested in other applications.
Optimal dilutions/concentrations should be determined by the end user.
- FunctionLigand for multiple Notch receptors and involved in the mediation of Notch signaling. May be involved in cell-fate decisions during hematopoiesis. Seems to be involved in early and late stages of mammalian cardiovascular development. Inhibits myoblast differentiation (By similarity). Enhances fibroblast growth factor-induced angiogenesis (in vitro).
- Tissue specificityWidely expressed in adult and fetal tissues. In cervix epithelium expressed in undifferentiated subcolumnar reserve cells and squamous metaplasia. Expression is up-regulated in cervical squamous cell carcinoma. Expressed in bone marrow cell line HS-27a which supports the long-term maintenance of immature progenitor cells.
- Involvement in diseaseDefects in JAG1 are the cause of Alagille syndrome type 1 (ALGS1) [MIM:118450]. Alagille syndrome is an autosomal dominant multisystem disorder defined clinically by hepatic bile duct paucity and cholestasis in association with cardiac, skeletal, and ophthalmologic manifestations. There are characteristic facial features and less frequent clinical involvement of the renal and vascular systems.
Defects in JAG1 are a cause of tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) [MIM:187500]. TOF is a congenital heart anomaly which consists of pulmonary stenosis, ventricular septal defect, dextroposition of the aorta (aorta is on the right side instead of the left) and hypertrophy of the right ventricle. This condition results in a blue baby at birth due to inadequate oxygenation. Surgical correction is emergent.
- Sequence similaritiesContains 1 DSL domain.
Contains 15 EGF-like domains.
- Developmental stageExpressed in 32-52 days embryos in the distal cardiac outflow tract and pulmonary artery, major arteries, portal vein, optic vesicle, otocyst, branchial arches, metanephros, pancreas, mesocardium, around the major bronchial branches, and in the neural tube.
- Cellular localizationMembrane.
- Entrez Gene: 182 Human
- Entrez Gene: 16449 Mouse
- Entrez Gene: 29146 Rat
- Entrez Gene: 140421 Zebrafish
- Omim: 601920 Human
- SwissProt: P78504 Human
- SwissProt: Q9QXX0 Mouse
- SwissProt: Q63722 Rat
- SwissProt: Q90Y57 Zebrafish
- Unigene: 224012 Human
- Unigene: 22398 Mouse
- Unigene: 88804 Rat
- Unigene: 83677 Zebrafish
- AGS antibodyAHD antibodyAWS antibody
- CD 339 antibodyCD339 antibodyCD339 antigen antibodyHeadturner antibodyHJ1 antibodyHtu antibodyJag 1 antibodyJag1 antibodyJAG1_HUMAN antibodyJagged 1 antibodyJagged1 (Alagille syndrome) antibodyJagged1 antibodyJAGL1 antibodyMGC104644 antibodyOTTHUMP00000030278 antibodyProtein jagged-1 antibodySer 1 antibodySer-1 antibodySer1 antibodySerrate 1 antibodySerrate-1 antibodySlalom antibody
Anti-Jagged1 antibody images
All lanes : Anti-Jagged1 antibody (ab85763) at 1 µg/ml
Lane 1 : MEL-1 (Human embryonic stem cell, male cell line) Whole Cell Lysate (ab27198)
Lane 2 : HeLa (Human epithelial carcinoma cell line) Whole Cell Lysate
Lane 3 : HEK293 (Human embryonic kidney cell line) Whole Cell Lysate
Lysates/proteins at 10 µg per lane.
Goat polyclonal to Rabbit IgG - H&L - Pre-Adsorbed (HRP) at 1/3000 dilution
developed using the ECL technique
Performed under reducing conditions.
Predicted band size : 134 kDa
Observed band size : 160 kDa (why is the actual band size different from the predicted?)
Additional bands at : 105 kDa,40 kDa. We are unsure as to the identity of these extra bands.
Exposure time : 20 minutes
ICC/IF image of ab85763 stained HeLa cells. The cells were 100% methanol fixed (5 min) and then incubated in 1%BSA / 10% normal goat serum / 0.3M glycine in 0.1% PBS-Tween for 1h to permeabilise the cells and block non-specific protein-protein interactions. The cells were then incubated with the antibody (ab85763, 5µg/ml) overnight at +4°C. The secondary antibody (green) was ab96899, DyLight® 488 goat anti-rabbit IgG (H+L) used at a 1/250 dilution for 1h. Alexa Fluor® 594 WGA was used to label plasma membranes (red) at a 1/200 dilution for 1h. DAPI was used to stain the cell nuclei (blue) at a concentration of 1.43µM. This antibody also gave a positive result in 100% methanol fixed (5 min) Hek293, HepG2 and MCF7 cells at 5µg/ml, and in 4% PFA fixed (10 min) HeLa, Hek293, HepG2 and MCF7 cells at 5µg/ml.
ICC/IF image of ab85763 stained HeLa cells. The cells were 4% formaldehyde fixed (10 min) and then incubated in 1%BSA / 10% normal goat serum / 0.3M glycine in 0.1% PBS-Tween for 1h to permeabilise the cells and block non-specific protein-protein interactions. The cells were then incubated with the antibody (ab85763, 5µg/ml) overnight at +4°C. The secondary antibody (green) was ab96899, DyLight® 488 goat anti-rabbit IgG (H+L) used at a 1/250 dilution for 1h. Alexa Fluor® 594 WGA was used to label plasma membranes (red) at a 1/200 dilution for 1h. DAPI was used to stain the cell nuclei (blue) at a concentration of 1.43µM.
References for Anti-Jagged1 antibody (ab85763)
ab85763 has not yet been referenced specifically in any publications. | <urn:uuid:7f4a0374-b9cf-4fcd-a09b-4fb009ea24bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abcam.com/Jagged1-antibody-ab85763.html | 2013-05-22T07:34:15Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.790845 | 1,735 |
|PINNACLE SPORTS EQUIPMENT INC. DBA / BamBooBat COMPANY
3801 Victory Blvd. Staten Island, NY 10314,
Tel: 718-698-0775; Fax: 718-494-1583; Email: [email protected]; www.BamBooBat.com
Send mail to [email protected] with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2008 Pinnacle Sports Equipment Inc.
|From BamBooBat store costumers review：
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Rating: Date: 6/16/2009 11:42:32 AM By: big wood
Model No: HBBW271R Black/White Adult (100 day warranty BamBooBat) (HBBW100D)
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HBBG243R30 Brown/Black Adult (30 day warranty BamBooBat)
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Youth BamBooBat ( click here for more)
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Pros: Great pop. Very well balanced. Solid construction. Great Finish. Just a little expensive...but it is
VERY well made.
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Model No: HBBB110R Black Adult
Pros:"I would buy this product again n again". "I have hit a few 380+ bombs with it this year! I would recommend this to a friend.
Rating: By long bomb from Albuquerque,NM on 5/11/2010
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overall he says he would give it a 9 out of 10 for a rating. I would recommend this to a friend
Rating: By cake Verified Buyer from Watertown NY on 2/9/2010
Pros: Great bat, recommend to all. Love bat, great feel, nice sweet spot. I would recommend this to a friend
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|I have been using a BamBooBat 37" fungo since 2004, when I was a coach with the Baltimore Orioles - I am now a minor league
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|PINNACLE SPORTS EQUIPMENT INC.
DBA / BamBooBat Company
3801 Victory Blvd. Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel: 718-698-0775; [email protected] | <urn:uuid:d22f097a-21ff-4e14-a36a-149df4befafd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bamboobats.net/new_Testimonials.html | 2013-05-22T07:40:30Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.858399 | 1,310 |
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By now, almost everyone who’s reading this has probably either seen Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and loved or hated it, or feels they don’t need to see it to reach a conclusion. It’s not the sort of film to inspire a mild response. Django Unchained is a blood-soaked and bullet-fueled Spaghetti Western love story that takes on the subject of American slavery by making room for black characters in popular genre films that have predominantly been the territory of whites. Making copious use of the N-word, striking a delicate balance between the use of racial stereotypes and their dismantling, and exploding with blood, humor, violence, and pulp, Tarantino’s latest provocation, a worthy successor to the alternate history of Inglorious Basterds, leaves audiences unsure what to make of it, even as they cheer for its black hero.
Shouldn’t they despise the film for being so irreverent about the subject of slavery, which Hollywood has usually treated with sanctimonious reverence? Or does the film’s cinematic violence (both literally and generically) explode racism and bring the horror of slavery into a new, more visceral cinematic experience of the brutality of America’s role in the slave trade? I’ve seen the movie three times since it was released in December, and I have to confess that I have definitely reached the latter conclusion. I have yet to become bored with the movie. Nor have I been convinced that it’s racist or reactionary as some critics have stated. Ultimately, I see Django Unchained as a triumph against cautious liberal cinema, the safe packaging of slavery into distancing tidy narratives, and the limits typically imposed on black roles in popular Hollywood cinema. Django Unchained gives the audience a black hero who rises not only out of the abomination of slavery but out of the constraints of cinema itself.
Tarantino’s film has no pretense of being a reverent piece of historical cinema or a classic slave emancipation tale. In fact, Tarantino’s tale of slave revenge and romantic love in America’s Antebellum South intentionally disrupts history, much like its predecessor Inglorious Basterds, and blows-up the Big House of cinematic reverence to allow a mass audience to confront slavery and the role of blacks in film, thereby shining much-needed light on a very dark side of American history.
With the gun-slinging Django riding through the landscape and taking down bad white guys (and they are BAD!) to save his love and avenge his abusers, the movie does on many levels play like a mash-up of the Blaxploitation film and Spaghetti Western. Certainly, the movie contains elements of both genres, but it is also so much more. The film could be called a “Spaghetti Southern” (as Tarantino refers to it in the January 2013 issue of American Cinematographer). It takes elements of the Spaghetti Western (which features an outsider in an alien, hostile environment) and relocates them to the American South. What could be more alien in the Antebellum South than a gun-toting free cowboy black man? And what could be more hostile to this improbable icon of liberty than the white men of the South? As in a classic Western narrative, a very clear line is drawn between the “good” (the avenging slave and the man who freed him) and “evil” (the plantation owners and slave overseers) forces at play in the film, and, despite what some of Django Unchained’s critics have said, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever about who we want to come out on top.
The black hero is Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave who is freed by a German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz in a performance as great as the one he delivers as the slick “Jew Hunter” in Inglorious Basterds). Once freed, Django learns the trade of bounty hunting as a student to Schultz and demonstrates his sharp-shooting abilities as he plucks off any number of bad white guys with clean precision, a skill set he will eventually employ to rescue his true love Broomhilda. Following a classic fairytale structure, Django and Schultz travel to the evil kingdom (a Southern Plantation known as Candie-Land) to rescue the damsel in distress (Django’s slave wife). Leonardo DiCaprio plays the evil king/plantation owner Calvin Candie who gets his rocks off pitting slaves against each other in a blood sport known as Mandigo fighting, in which black men literally fight to the death for the entertainment of whites. And Samuel L. Jackson tears up the screen with his over-the-top performance as Stephen – the Uncle Tom “House Nigger” who is glued to Calvin Candie’s side and proves to be one of the most diabolical characters ever put on screen.
Just summarizing the main actors in the film illustrates the big can of worms contained in Django Uncained. Besides the role of an Uncle Tom, the shocking display of Mandingo fighting and Tarantino’s use of pulp genres like the Western and the Romantic Fairytale to tell a tale of the most brutal institution in American history, we have to take into consideration the use of the N-word which flies as hard and fast as bullets in this movie. I’ve already used the word in referring to Stephen as the House Nigger, and that is only one of multitudes of times the word is fired during the three hours of the movie. Some critics (most notably Spike Lee) have taken issue with Tarantino’s use of the word. How can a white man use the word “nigger” in a film?
Well, if we want to talk about the historical record, a tale of slavery in the South and the racist and violent history of the American economy would be hard to tell without including the N-word, unless the screenplay were as whitewashed as the pristine monuments to white supremacy that Southern plantations were. But whitewashed is exactly what has largely been done to the subject of slavery in film, and it’s about time that someone pulls the white sheet off the face of the subject. Shockingly, because it’s played for laughs, Django Unchained even features a sequence in which members of a proto-Klu Klux Klan are forced to do just that — pull the white bags off their heads. Revealing the ugly and brutal truth of racism means disrupting reverent expectations of the subject by mixing it up with pulp cinema, and that means deploying the N-word in rapid fire as frequently as it was used in the time. To paraphrase renowned slavery scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. from an interview he conducted with Tarantino, to tell a tale of slavery and racism in America and not use the N-word would be to lie. So if we’re going to tell the truth about slavery and racism, the N-word must be spoken. Just to be absolutely clear, then, if I use the word in this essay, it is both because I am quoting the film and the historical treatment of blacks it refuses to whitewash.
Now that I’ve addressed the N-Word, let’s take a minute to think about what exactly Django Unchained is. The film opens in a dark Texas forest with a chain-gang of slaves. The black faces of the men merge with the dark forest, their white eyes glowing in the night. Two menacing white men on horses are leading the slaves to the market to be sold. This scene sets the stage for a traditional emancipation narrative. When Dr. Schultz arrives and frees Django, the camera closes in on Django’s bloody and brutalized ankle. Django’s entire foot and ankle fill the screen as Schultz removes the shackle and “unchains” Django. Django then shucks off his tattered blanket, bares his whip-scarred back and raises his arms in a gesture of freedom and vengeance (e.g. Black Power).
Certainly Django’s scarred and muscle-bound body could be seen as both a fetish object and a stereotype in this scene. This represents the traditional role of black men in film (when they’re not playing subservient emasculated “House Niggers” like Samuel Jackson’s Stephen). If Tarantino shows us this startling and unpleasant image, however, it is in order to set in motion a narrative that will undo racial stereotypes and cinematic expectations. He first creates the stereotypical scenario (the emancipated slave narrative), and then he dumps the black character into untraditional roles (the cowboy, the Western buddy, the chivalrous romantic hero).
Part of the reason Django Unchained succeeds in emancipating itself from the constraints of cautious liberal cinema and its safe historical distancing of the subject of slavery is by emancipating its main character from the trappings of traditional black roles in film. It undoes racial stereotypes by first exposing them and then either dismantling them by creating untraditional roles (Django) or blowing them up entirely (Stephen). Once Django shucks off that blanket and lifts his arms, he also shucks off the traditional emancipation story and everything that is expected from a “safe” film about slavery. Crucially, Django’s role isn’t so much to free the slaves as it is to free the image of the slave from the shackles of both the racism of classic Hollywood narratives and the political correctness of the post-Civil Rights Era.
Once Django Unchained leaves behind the traditional slave emancipation story, the story takes us through a variety of cinematic genres drenched with plenty of blood and humor as Django’s character develops and ultimately triumphs. Django Unchained uses popular pulp genres to take on the deadly serious subject of slavery and the bloody history of the American South. While some have criticized the film for turning the somber subject of slavery into pulp entertainment, the very fact that Django Unchained traffics in “low” stereotypes is what makes it effective. As we follow Django on his mission to save his wife through Tarantino’s network of pulp genres, not only do we grow to identify with Django, but we are able to share in his victory. Sure, guns are fired, walls are splattered with blood, jokes are made, and visceral violence plays before us, but through pulp, violence, and traditional popular narrative devices, Tarantino erases the cautious distance between the audience and his movie’s slave hero. We are able to feel, see and experience slavery without the desensitizing insulation of identity politics. This collapses the distance between the superficial safety of our times and the brutal reality of our history, making the horrors of the past more viscerally real than when they are neatly packaged in cautious historically accurate cinema.
To simply read Django Unchained as a slave revenge/blaxploitation/Western mash-up would short-change all the genre bending the film does to 1) effectively blow the fuck out of black roles in film and 2) make the audience identify with and cheer for the film’s black hero. When Django mounts one of his former captor’s horses and rides into a small Texas town with his emancipator Schultz, the film shifts gears, moving into the territory of the Spaghetti Western. We’ve seen this town before, its old wooden buildings and dirt-filled streets situated in the barren landscape between nowhere and nowhere else. White people walk out of buildings and stand on sidewalks shocked and outraged at the sight of Django riding on a horse alongside Schultz. One of the townspeople whispers, “Look! It’s a nigger on a horse!” When Schultz questions what their problem is, Django blatantly says, “They just ain’t used to seeing a nigger on a horse.”
The doubling of this line, first from the white woman and then from the black man is funny and the audience laughs, but it’s also damn true. Not only are the people in the town not used to seeing “a nigger on a horse,” but neither is the Hollywood audience. The Western is a white man’s genre, but Django rides his horse right through the genre when he rides into the town. This is partly how the film destabilizes white packaging of race in movies and in American history. When Schultz and Django force the town to accept the “nigger on the horse” because he is there as part of “legal business,” the audience also is being asked to accept him. And the audience does. All three times I saw the movie, everyone in the audience – black, white, old, young – cheered for this “nigger on a horse.”
It turns out that Schultz doesn’t just unshackle Django out of the goodness of his heart. Schultz purchases Django (and ultimately his freedom) because it is within his economic interest. Schultz is a bounty hunter, and he needs Django to identify three dirty, rotten overseers – the Brittle Brothers – for whom there is a large bounty on their heads. Django knows the Brittle brothers from his former plantation, because they are the men responsible for whipping him and his beloved wife Broomhilda. Schultz tells Django that he abhors the institution of slavery, but that even he will use it for his economic advantage. Since he “owns” Django, he insists that Django work for him to identify the men who have a large price tag on their heads. When Django asks what a bounty hunter does, Schultz explains that he’s “in the business of selling corpses.”
Coupling bounty hunting with slavery is brilliant. The pairing of these two businesses that trade in human lives underscores the business of violence in this country and the bloody legacy of the American economic landscape. Slavery was an atrocity, an abomination, a dehumanizing and brutal institution that was perceived as acceptable because it was good for “business.” It fueled one of the most successful economic enterprises in American history – cotton. Interestingly, Tarantino also shows how the race card can be thrown out the window, when it is within the economic interest of whites. Everything comes down to business. When Schultz realizes that Django is a perfect shot and that he would make an excellent business partner in the bounty hunting business, race becomes transparent between the two characters.
On the one hand, Schultz plays the role of teacher and liberator to Django, but on the other he treats Django with the equanimity that he would any other business partner. Schultz uses Django’s racial rage and taste for vengeance to his economic advantage. When Django learns what bounty hunting is and agrees to be Schultz’s partner, he says quite simply: “Killing white people for money? What’s not to like?” With Django’s help, the two hunt down the Brittle brothers, kill them, collect their bounty and formally enter a business partnership as well as a friendship.
It must be noted that “business” is at the bottom of much of the action in this movie, and with it the idea that race can become transparent when the money is good. Later in the film, even virulently racist plantation owners are forced to reluctantly accept Django – “the nigger on a horse” – because he is legitimized through the economic transactions in which Schultz includes him – slave trading, bounty hunting, etc. In a scene toward the end of the movie, Django is being transported to a mine where he is supposed to spend the rest of his life breaking down big rocks into little rocks. When Django offers his captors a way to earn $10,000 while he only requires $500 of it for himself, the men immediately free Django because it appears to be within their economic interest to so.
Underneath all this business, however, is the business of slavery, the abhorrent institution that was the backbone of the Antebellum Southern economy. While it may be in the economic interest of plantation owners to treat Django with respect, it is also in their economic interest to make sure that this treatment remains the exception to the rule of the color line. The veneer of civilized behavior that encompasses Django in his roles as bounty hunter and prospective Mandingo trader stands in blatant contrast to the brutal way in which the slaves all around him are dealt with (being fed to dogs or forced to fight to the death). Django’s safety depends on performing the role of exception without ever seeming to be upset by the treatment of his fellow blacks.
In one scene, as Django and Schultz are traveling to Candie’s plantation — which is known, in an example of the “black” humor that spatters the picture, as “Candie-Land” — under the guise of wanting to invest in the Mandingo trade, Schultz pulls Django aside and cautions him that he is playing his role of Slave Trader a little too exuberantly. Django reminds Schultz that their relationship is based on the bloody and violent business of bounty hunting in which Schultz had Django shoot a man and kill him in front of his son; that, in Schultz’s own words, they are in the “business of getting dirty.” This formulation provides Django his punch line, as well as an implicit response to those who accuse the film of being too violent: “So I’m getting dirty.”
Indeed, we are reminded time and again that American business is dirty and bloody. When Django shoots one of the Brittle brothers, his blood bursts across the screen spraying the fields of white cotton with red, literally showing the bloody business of the cotton industry and the slave trade that fueled it. In one of the most violent scenes in the movie, Candie sets his dogs on a slave and has him ripped apart in front of Django, Schultz, and the audience. Prior to killing the slave for refusing to participate in another Mandingo match (a fight to the death between black men in which white men gamble on the outcome, not unlike a cockfight), Candie berates the slave for being a bad business investment. He says, “I paid $500 for you, and I expect five fights for my $500. You only gave me three fights.” So Candie savagely disposes of his bad investment, while at the same time putting his economic investment in Schultz and Django to the test by observing how they react to the brutal slaying of the slave. When Candie notes that Schultz looks a little “green around the gills,” Django answers, “I’m just a little more used to America than he is.” In this sense Django literally embodies the violence of America.
Though Schultz and Django’s relationship starts first as slave and slave holder and then as business partners in the bloody business of bounty hunting, the racial divide between the characters soon evaporates, and the film shifts into a buddy movie. With Jim Croce singing “I Got A Name” in the background, the film moves to the mountains of Wyoming where Django and Schultz bond as buddies via the kind of montage familiar to fans of the Mountain Western. Images of the two of them riding their horses across the expansive Rocky Mountains, target-shooting on a snowman, and taking down their bounties as fountains of blood spurt in glorious red across the snowy background showcase a relationship as cinematically romanticized as Django and Hildy’s.
This segment of the film (the buddy film/mountain narrative) undoes traditional white narratives as much as the Spaghetti Western component, playing off another subgenre popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the mountain survival adventure. The friendship between Schultz and Django is really sealed after Django shoots his first bounty, and Schultz exclaims, “The kid’s a natural!” This clearly references Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the archetypal Western Buddy Romance of that era. But instead of giving us two rugged white male sex symbols, Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy) and Robert Redford (The Kid), Tarantino provides us with two figures who are clearly outsiders in this landscape, a foreigner and a black man. This deviation from tradition radically destabilizes the romantic view of the West held by so many American conservatives and liberals alike, in which both the otherness of excessively refined men the East Coast and the Old World and that of the “savage” Natives (and black men) are held at bay by heroic white men.
The Wyoming sequence also references another Robert Redford film, Jeremiah Johnson, in which a veteran of the Mexican-American war flees to the Rocky Mountains, adopts a family, finds his wife and son slain by Native Americans, seeks vengeance and then ultimately finds reconciliation. It’s the reverse tale of Django Unchained, in which Django is the “colored” person seeking vengeance against the white man. In Jeremiah Johnson, the white man seeks vengeance against “the colored” only to have to accept that the white man really is the “violating other.” Referencing these Robert Redford films through a black slave narrative ruptures the white romantic view of the West (of which Redford is the ultimate icon ) and also underscores the persistent violence of America (both movies are bloody, violent and tragic). Violence is nothing new in America, and keeping it safely tucked away in romanticized narratives of the West or historical reverence masks the fact that the entire country’s economic backbone is based on violence (see blood-splattered cotton for details).
During their trip through the snowy mountains, Schultz tells Django the classic German fairytale of Siegfried and Broomhilda (after whom Django’s slave wife was named) – a young woman who is captured by the evil king and saved by her beloved – and the movie shifts gears again. Now Schultz and Django are on a different mission in which the fairytale meets the horror story of America’s bloody past. They travel into the Dark Kingdom of the Deep South as they head to Mississippi to free Broomhilda from her evil captor Calvin Candie. Setting a Western in the South and mixing in classic fairytale elements, the movie further undoes the roles of blacks in cinema by referencing gothic romance films, melodrama, and a chivalrous love story, none of which have ever been the sources of traditional black feature films. Further, the film uses elements of these genres to explode traditional romantic ideals of the American South and expose the brutality and blood that made its opulence possible.
The American South was created and fed on lies and exploitation. It prided itself on a false romantic identity from instituting ludicrous codes of chivalry to considering itself a Feudal society in which plantation owners were akin to landholding kings entitled to trade and exploit slaves for their economic gain. When Schultz and Django are situated in the South (in an earlier scene at Big Daddy’s plantation and later on the Candie-Land plantation), the cinematography fluctuates between sweeping romantic visions of the South and intensely close-up and unsettling violence.
One of the biggest jokes in the film is the outfit that Django chooses to wear when he and Schultz hit their first plantation as business partners. When Schultz tells Django he can pick his “costume” to play his role of “valet,” Django dons a blue satin costume that mimics the attire of in the 18th-century Thomas Gainsborough painting “Blue Boy”. The outfit seems ridiculously funny, but Django wears it like a dare and a weapon, understanding on some level that the outfit is violating all kinds of racial codes (in the movies and in the South). It emblemizes the way in which this black character is disrupting traditional white narratives and dismantling the romantic view of the South. In a way, it’s also the perfect metaphor for Tarantino’s filmmaking strategy in Django Unchained, so wrong in breaking with every social convention that it’s deliciously right. Because the outfit is also blatantly anachronistic — the Gainsborough painting appears to depict someone playing “dress up” in a 17th-century outfit — it alerts us to the fact that Tarantino’s movie — though it doesn’t deviate from the historical record as obviously as Inglorious Basterds, with its climax in which Jewish American soldiers assassinate Hitler — is not striving for the sort of accuracy fetishized in reverential historical films like Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln.
In the first scene set in the Deep South, when Schultz and Django travel to Big Daddy’s Tennessee plantation in search of the Brittle Brothers, the landscape is shown through the hazy diffused glow of a romantic painting. Django rides onto the plantation in his ludicrous blue satin outfit, seemingly the butt of everyone’s joke. He’s still that “nigger on a horse” but is now inside a different painting in which he doesn’t belong. For precisely that reason, though, Django is a force who simply cannot be ignored. Earlier in the film, Django experienced a brutal flashback of Hildy being whipped by the Brittle brothers. Django is on the scene to take vengeance, and the seriousness of the crimes committed against him and the woman he loves and his drive for vengeance clearly overrides the “joke” of his out of place character. As he walks across the plantation to find the Brittle brothers (where they are preparing to whip a slave girl for breaking eggs), we see more of the plantation through this pastoral lens, with the luscious green of the plantation interspersed with slave girls on swings. But Django is having none of it.
When he finds the Brittle brothers tying the girl to a tree, all romance of the South is ripped away as Django’s rage is unleashed. He shoots one brother right through a page of the Bible pinned to his chest (the white man’s religious justification for brutalizing a black woman and a short effective shot at the connection between religion, racism and violence in America). Django then picks up the whip and with unfettered ferocity whips the living shit out of the other brother. Shot from a low camera angle, the audience looks up at Django asa his whip comes down on the white overseer, and we occupy the place of the white man being whipped and are therefore the recipients of Django’s rage. However, rather than feeling victimized by Django’s violent attack on the white man, the audience feels exuberant and elated, despite the savagery of the beating. We are made to “feel” the extent of Django’s rage and the injustices committed against him and all slaves by being on the receiving end of the whip. During all three screenings of the film, the audience around me was both horrified and invigorated by this scene. Everyone cheered for Django, while at the same time gasping at the magnitude of his rage. It is a brilliant scene that allows the audience to occupy simultaneously the place of the black and white man. This brings me back to my point about how Django Unchained undoes Hollywood’s tendency to produce reverent and therefore safe movies about slavery. Nothing about this scene is reverent or safe. But there’s also nothing in it that paints Django as a victim. By exploding the conventions of the cautious cinema which tends to portray oppressed people as victims, the scene unequivocally establishes Django as the hero of the film.
Later, when Django and Schultz travel to Mississipi, this same fluctuating technique is used to make the audience experience 1) the brutality of slavery; 2) the explosion of the romantic Southern ideal; and 3) the victory of Django over his oppressors. When Calvin Candie enters the picture, the movie employs lusciously orchestrated scenes shot like sprawling melodramas. (Significantly, Tarantino has stated that his main cinematic reference for the interior shots in Mississippi was that master of the lusciously rich melodrama Max Ophuls.) But then the action cuts through all of that opulence with bloodshed and tragedy.
First there is the Mandingo fight at the Cleopatra Club, where Candie and the original Django (in a cameo by Franco Nero from the 1966 Sergio Corbucci film) watch two slaves fight to the brutal death. The camera alternates between pulling back and panning the rich opulence of the club’s interior, and closing in on the absolutely brutal flesh-on-flesh fighting between the two slaves. Blood, gore, violence and brutality meet manners and the sham of civility as Candie eggs on the fighters to kill each other. One man rips the other’s eyes out and then takes a hammer and “finishes him off” by bashing in his skull. The scene is unsettling in its violent content alone, but it is particularly effective because its ugliness (the dehumanizing violence of the slave trade) is found within an outwardly elegant setting.
When the group finally makes it to Candie-Land, further romantic myths come crashing down even as the romance of Django triumphs. First, we see the romantic image of Hildy shattered by the reality of her literal body being abused by the institution of slavery. Up to this point, (except for the flashback of her being whipped by the Brittle brothers) we have only seen Hildy through the romantic filter of Django’s flashbacks and hallucinations. She’s been a picture of the romantic ideal – smiling naked in a steaming lake in the mountains, wearing a yellow gown and waving to Django as he passes her on his horse, sitting beautifully dressed at a sun filtered table pronouncing her name (“Broomhilda, but they call me Hildy.”) But when we actually meet the “real” Hildy at Candie-Land, she is a runaway slave who has been thrown into a “hot box,” a kind of coffin where she has been sentenced to stay for ten days. Candie has her naked body pulled from the box, hosed down, and carted off in a wheelbarrow. By juxtaposing the romantic cinematic image of her — Django has just had more hallucinations of her in the yellow dress upon entering the plantation’s grounds — with the brutality of her “real” circumstances, the dehumanizing forces of slavery are brought devastatingly home. The image of her naked body stuffed into a wheelbarrow and carted across the sprawling lawn of the plantation is heartbreaking as we witness the intersection of the tidy grounds of the plantation colliding with the bloody and violent practices of the institution they stand for.
It is at the Candie plantation where Tarantino takes on another taboo subject within the institution of slavery: social stratification within the institution of slavery itself (“house niggers” versus “field niggers”) and between slaves and free men. Note that Schultz gives Django the surname of Freeman. The way in which blacks were pitted against each other within the brutal environment of slavery and the abominations that resulted are delivered most effectively through the “Uncle Tom” character of Stephen, played with diabolical relish by Samuel L. Jackson. The creation and destruction of Stephen’s role — he serves as a kind of foreman for Candie, keeping the other slaves in line — is critical to the liberation of Django and what he represents for blacks in movies and in cultural representation in general.
Jackson’s Stephen is a despicable traitor, glued to the side of his master Candie. He’ll sell-out anyone for his own benefit and security in “The Big House.” He holds onto a position of power even as a slave while he pulls strings and sets the film’s violent conclusion in motion. It is Stephen who advocates keeping Hildy in the “hot box”, who attempts to treat Django like a lower species (even though he shares the same black skin as Stephen), and who ultimately sells out “his own” to try to hold onto the position he has created for himself as an autonomous man of power. The house slaves fear Stephen as much as, if not more than, their real “master” Candie.
Stephen is a “race traitor” to cover his own ass, while Django plays the fictional role of “slave trader” to emancipate his love and himself. With Stephen and Django, Tarantino give us showdown where the baddest black man in the south goes against the biggest black sell-out. For Django to be the real hero and victor, he needs to kill that Uncle Tom and everything he stands for. When Tarantino asked Jackson if he minded playing Stephen, Jackson answered: “Do I have any problem playing the most despicable black motherfucker in the history of the world? No, I ain’t got no problem with that. No, man, I’m already in it. I’m working with my makeup guy now about the hair, the skin tone. I want this man to be fresh off the boat.”
Jackson takes the role and runs with it. He literally has his face painted darker so he can play the role in “black face”, thereby reminding is of the virulent racism evident in so many classic Hollywood films. Stephen’s role as it plays against Django and other characters within the film open up even more taboo subjects within American history and, more specifically, the history of cinema by showing that it’s not all black and white and that contention and class stratification existed for African-Americans during the era of slavery. This is a subject rarely addressed in popular cinema, where everything plays in diametric opposites, good and evil, nor is it addressed in reverent historical cinema where clear lines between victim and abuser are tidily maintained.
The extended dinner scene inside Candie’s Big House is brilliant. Merging Ophul’s melodramas with an ode to Fassbinder’s Whity, Hong Kong action movies and the Western, the scene builds with operatic tension. When Stephen exposes Schultz and Django as frauds, the shit and the blood hit the fan in a complex play between characters. Even though Schultz and Django eventually get what they came for (Hildy) for a very steep price ($14,000), that proves to be insufficient. Schultz needs to pay his own form of vengeance. In a way, Schultz is the cautious observant liberal, sympathetic but on some level clueless when he is first confronted with the ugly and brutal reality of slavery. When his remaining illusions are shattered and he has to accept his role in the violence he has witnessed, such as the execution of Candie’s reluctant Mandingo, Schultz shoots Candie through the heart. In a way, this is an act of suicide as well as vengeance because 1) Schultz can’t live with the truth he has had to face and 2) he understands that he has to die and sacrifice himself so that Django (his “buddy”) can truly liberate himself.
In the story, Schultz has no human connection other than to Django. He has no back story, no wife, or family. All of Schultz’s emotions are reflected through Django, so when he sacrifices himself for Django, he sacrifices himself for “love,” yet another twist in the melodramatic narrative. This realization is brought to the fore when Stephen runs in slow motion screaming in horror and grief at the murder of his master Candie, who, while hardly his buddy, serves as his equivalent love interest. So the two white men have died, and the two black men are left to fight for control.
And Django does fight. In an amazing sequence of flying bullets and bloodshed (the Hong Kong action sequence in the film), Django kills man after man in a shootout that leaves the white walls of the Big House literally dripping with blood, a painting in viscera and gore that literalizes the blood-soaked history of the United States. You’d think the movie would end here, but it doesn’t. In an unsettling turn, Django surrenders to save Hildy’s life. The movie abruptly cuts from Django as gun-fighting victor taking down bad white guys to a scene where we witness him hung naked upside down like a piece of cattle ready to be slaughtered. Django’s face is in a metal cage as he swings across the screen, his naked body, genitals included, exposed for us to see. This is by far the most unsettling scene in the film because we have cheered Django through his triumphs. We’ve followed Django on his quest and rooted for him with each shot of his gun only to see his humanity and his power stripped away from him.
We’ve watched Django transform into a hero, only to witness him hung-up like so much meat. When Candie’s henchman starts to take a molten hot knife to Django’s balls, the emasculation of the black man by the abhorrent institution of slavery becomes painfully literal and tragic. This scene is as effective as the scene with the whip when we are asked to feel Django’s rage, because by this point we fully identify with Django as the hero of the film. When his humanity is so brutally stripped away and the ugly truth of slavery stares us in the face, we wince and feel the horror of slavery more than we ever would in a safely whitewashed historical drama.
Thankfully, Django’s nuts are rescued when Stephen steps into the picture. Ironically, the Uncle Tom figure proves to be Django’s savior because he wants his enemy to suffer a painful captivity rather than risk him bleeding to death from being castrated. Stephen encourages Candie’s sister Laura to send the rebel off to a mine where he is destined to spend the rest of his days reduced to being a number chiseling away at rocks. When Django receives his sentence from the treacherous Stephen, we remember that this fate is pretty much the sentence of all slaves in the country. They were numbers who worked until they died or were killed. But this is not Django’s fate, because Tarantino has made a romantic love story with a black hero who must prevail. Unlike, traditional Westerns, Django is not out only for himself. He finds a way to make it back to Candie-Land to save his love and to avenge his race by blowing the fuck out of the plantation, Stephen’s Uncle Tom character, and everything they stand for in American history and cinema.
The three times I watched the movie, the entire audience – black, white, old and young – cheered for its black hero when he victoriously saves his girl and blows up the white world of slavery. Django is unequivocally the hero of this movie. Much fuss has been made about the screenplay and how Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio supposedly steal the film and have all the dialogue while Jamie Foxx just hulks around scowling. I’m sorry, but if Jamie Foxx wasn’t doing an effective job acting, then we would not be cheering for him as he blows up a Southern plantation and rides off into the sunset with the love of his life. Django/Jamie Foxx is the catalyst of the film despite how many lines of dialogue the white actors have. We have to remember that he is playing a black man in the white dominated South, so it is a world where white people do most of the talking.
Schultz may have more lines, but he is not the hero of this film. It is Django who the audience cheers for. Every time Django puts his hand on his gun, absorbs his surroundings, acts according to the circumstances into which he is thrust, or takes down a bad guy, Jamie Foxx is acting and we are rooting for him. Acting isn’t just talking. Foxx creates a character who we care about through body language, eye movement, and dialogue. At the end of the movie, we would not have the same response of victory and elation if Schultz were the one to free Hildy. It has to be our hero Django, and Jamie Foxx makes us care about him.
Others have criticized the movie for being a “mainstream Hollywood” production. But I have to ask: don’t we want a mass audience to revisit slavery with a black hero rather than keeping the subject safely tucked away in reverent historical narratives that holds slaves captive in the role of victims? Reverence distances us from the subject; it has the potential to dehumanize its subjects and turn people into victims which then become a cause. By placing his story in the guise of a western romance and using pulp as the medium to deliver the story, Tarantino turns the victim into the victor. Put the history of slavery into a Western Romance story, load it up with guns and revenge, bring the camera in for close-ups on the violence and atrocities of slavery, give us a black hero who takes out a shitload of white oppressors and a movie can reach audiences across the racial divide. We can experience an abominable time in American history in a new light, one that exposes where we came from, acknowledging the blood-soaked history of a country that was built on the “business” of slaughter and human trade, but still leaves us with hope for the future.
Some have also argued that Django Unchained is irreverent cinema that disrespects the seriousness of slavery. After all, the film does explode with gunfire, blood, brutal violence and uproarious humor, all communicated through the sort of genre mash-up for which Tarantino is famous. But it is because Django Unchained disrupts reverent historical cinema that it is able to bring a new awareness of the brutality of slavery to the millions of people who are going to see it, black and white. In Django Unchained we’re laughing; we’re horrified; we’re disoriented; and we’re soaked with a lot of blood. But the whole while, the audience’s allegiance never fades. We want Django to win.
Yes, in Tarantino’s film, there are slaves in shackles, being whipped, wearing cruel devices, strung up by their ankles, chained and marching through mud, but as black slavery scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. notes, things were “Ten thousand times worse in real slavery.” If the film barters in stereotypes to fit this terrible legacy into a story that mass audiences will want to see, it is in order to deconstruct them in the way Americans know best: by blowing the living shit out of them.
Since Reconstruction, we have had plenty of somber stories of slavery where the subject is held at safe historical distance. Slavery was the brutal, ugly, inhuman, cruel, sadistic exploitation of black human beings for the economic benefit of American whites. There is not one thing about it that is pretty, tidy or easily packaged. Traditionally, this abomination of American history has been treated with reverence and neatly packaged in acceptable narratives. It has been approached with caution because it is such an abominable part or our history and is the source of many taboos. We have only been able to look at it through the safe lens of historical narratives or politically correct identity politics.
But walking the cautious line of politically correct films does not affect change. It only tells us the same story on a different day. Sure, Tarantino turns what has been perceived as the acceptable cinematic packaging of slavery on its head. Yes, he has created a film for mass audiences, one which is as entertaining as it is repulsive, but in the process he has raised more consciousness about the reality of American history than cautious liberal cinema ever could. In the end, Django Unchained is effective precisely because it is not safe. It places slavery within the broader context of culture, cinema and history, dismantling traditional roles of blacks and the cautious representations of slavery they sustain. Django Unchained packs a punch that is hard to take, yet impossible to resist, and in doing so delivers truly transgressive and effective cinema for the masses.
Kim Nicolini is an artist, poet and cultural critic living in Tucson, Arizona. Her writing has appeared in Bad Subjects, Punk Planet, Souciant, La Furia Umana, and The Berkeley Poetry Review. She recently published her first book, Mapping the Inside Out, in conjunction with a solo gallery show by the same name. She can be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:ab5df917-3179-46b2-bcb1-d092cef6d884> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/11/blowing-the-pulp-out-of-dixie/print | 2013-05-22T07:34:09Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959848 | 9,342 |
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By Elaine Hegwood Bowen
Moscow, Belgium is a quaint movie about Matty and her family: her art teacher husband Werner, (Johan Heldenbergh) with whom she’s been since high school, her daughters Vera and Fien, and a son named Peter.
Matty (Barbara Sarafian) works in the post office and probably thought her life had been made and that she’d live a nice, ripe old age laying in the arms of Werner. But at some point, Werner had a mid-life crisis and he left Matty and his children to go live with a younger woman named Gail. Matty figured her only problem was missing Werner, as well as raising her children and working in a boring job.
And then there was the car accident—wherein she meets Johnny (Jergen Delnaet), the truck driver who would literally and figuratively take Matty for a spin.
Matty is described as a woman whose soul is full of dents and bruises, and it takes her a while to respond to Johnny’s apparent interest in her. There wouldn’t be much wrong with Johnny, but Matty thinks the age gap, she’s 41 and he’s 30, is too much; plus deep down she’s pining for her husband to come to his senses and return to his family.
Immediately following the accident Matty and Johnny have harsh words for each other, and she’s thoroughly pissed that her car’s trunk is no longer operable. Johnny takes it upon himself to secure Matty’s address, and he just shows up to offer to repair her trunk. She reluctantly offers him a dinner of blood sausage to repay him, and thus begins the couple’s relationship.
Her daughter helps with her wardrobe for the first date, and Matty finds herself in the truck’s cab at the end of the evening having sex—an experience she vows that will never happen again. But if she and Johnny are to have sex again, it would have to be in the truck’s cab, because the truck is where he lives.
Matty is just embarrassed by the entire episode. But when she returns home, Vera reminds her in a sassy way that her t-shirt is on backwards, although Matty swears that it was an unmemorable date and that nothing happened.
Johnny is immediately smitten and he later wows Matty with a pair of red Versace pumps he buys during one of his runs to Italy. But it is not as simple as Matty liking Johnny, as she discovers that Vera doesn’t care for Johnny, and it’s also revealed that Johnny has a history of beating his ex-wife.
As the unlikely relationship between the two progresses, Johnny falls madly in love, even spending time at Matty’s house with the children, eating dinner and just hanging out with the children.
But in dialogue that’s made so simple and direct throughout most of the movie, Matty is emphatic when she tells Johnny that she’s waiting for her husband to return. She further tells Johnny that she thinks he’s a jerk and after a public scene when she and her children are out with Johnny and run into his ex-wife and her new lawyer husband, Matty is convinced that Johnny has violent tendencies when he drinks, and she calls the whole thing off.
In the interim, Matty receives that for what she wishes, her husband acknowledges that his “fling” with the younger woman won’t last forever and he finally makes up his mind to return home.
This causes bittersweet confusion for Matty, and in one scene the entire family, with husband and boyfriend, as well as Vera’s unexpected guest, shares a dinner.
Werner and Johnny began arguing, belittling each other’s professions, and Matty has had her fill of it all. She storms out of the room, saying she wanted all the men to please leave.
Afterward, Matty is forced to do a bit of soul searching. Werner is banking on the fact that Matty will want her family back, no matter that he left her for the younger woman. Vera is pretty much concerned that Matty won’t accept her new love—who turns out to be female; and Johnny resorts to a passionate version of Mona Lisa via Karaoke to win back Matty’s heart.
The conclusion of the movie holds surprises for everyone, but finally Matty appears to be free and ready to make the decision of a lifetime; one with which she can live, hopefully this time, for the rest of her life.
Moscow, Belgium will screen at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., Chicago beginning Friday, Jan. 9-15. For more info: visit www.musicboxtheatre.com.
Elaine Hegwood Bowen is a veteran public relations and journalism professional and former journalism professor. She’s publicist for her daughter, Hip-Hop artist Psalm One. A native Chicago South Sider, Elaine was a recent University of Maryland Bio Ethics, Health Disparities & Clinical Trials Fellow and winner of a Black Press Messenger Award.
Got a problem? E-mail us at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:dc052c1d-08b1-4907-a4a2-55437ac53f9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.filmmonthly.com/indie/moscow_belgium.html | 2013-05-22T07:40:22Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971152 | 1,154 |
LISBON, Mar 22 (IPS) - The huge impact of the economic crisis on male employment in Portugal has led to a sharp increase in the proportion of women who have become the main breadwinners in their families. But that has not translated into progress towards equality.
"Today there is more male unemployment than female, because the crisis has especially affected the civil construction industry," said Anália Torres, a professor at the Technical University of Lisbon's Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences.
"With less economic activity in that industry, which traditionally employs men, the male unemployment rate has climbed, while in sectors that generally employ women, unemployment grew much less," Torres said in an interview with IPS.
The European Commission expects unemployment in Portugal to reach 17.3 percent in 2013. But opposition parties and trade unions project a rate of 24 percent.
Professor Anália Torres at the Technical University of Lisbon's Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences. Credit: Mario Queiroz/IPS
The gap between the figures is explained by the thousands of people who have stopped registering at the government employment centres or have moved abroad, mainly to other European countries or to the former Portuguese colonies of Brazil, Angola, Mozambique or Macau.
Among those who only have a primary school education, "the woman always earns less than the man," Torres said. "And as the educational level increases, the difference between the incomes of men and women grows. A woman with a doctorate earns much less than a man (with the same degree)."
In areas like education and health, where women earn 20 percent less than men, it is men who are most often laid off "because they are more expensive."
Another factor that puts women in the position of bringing home the bacon "is that many remunerated activities carried out by women are in the informal economy, undeclared or unskilled work, such as cleaning or babysitting in the homes of the well-off," the academic said.
In Portugal, the 1961-1974 colonial war in the country's overseas territories in Africa – Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique – "led to large numbers of women replacing men (in the workplace)," Torres said.
Since then, "the idea of the working woman who helps support her family has remained in place," she added.
During the war, Portugal maintained a permanent force of 220,000 military troops – an enormous figure compared to a population at the time of 8.8 million (10.6 million today).
In the 1960s, one million people from Portugal moved abroad for economic reasons or to avoid being sent to war in Africa. Women, Torres said, "took on a central role in a country with very few men of working age."
Nevertheless, "the predominant sexism persisted, and men continue to make a show of unacceptable machismo today," she said.
"By refusing to help do things around the home on the argument that ‘I am a man, I don't do that kind of work', which also causes serious domestic violence problems, men show that the sexist culture is still in place."
Women are sometimes the target of violence, often with tragic results, because many men "base their masculinity on their wage-earning power, even though both men and women have been working and supporting the family for a long time now in Portugal," Torres added.
Between January and November 2012, 30 women were killed in Portugal by their partners or ex-partners, according to UMAR, one of the largest women's organisations in the country.
That makes Portugal the country with the largest number of femicides – gender-related murders – in the European Union, in proportion to the population.
But "working is also a kind of insurance against machismo, in the sense of women being aware that they are making a living and don't need men," Torres said.
Sociologist and researcher Sofia Aboim of the University of Lisbon's Institute of Social Sciences said that in the last eight years, the proportion of couples in which the woman is the main breadwinner has risen from two to 16.5 percent.
It is "obvious" that many men "have suffered a strong blow to their self-esteem, because their masculinity is traditionally associated closely with supporting the family," she wrote in the newspaper Público about the conclusions of a study on the subject.
Aboim said this situation was seen especially in couples with low levels of education and in older couples, especially between the ages of 51 and 65.
But Torres said discrimination against women is also deeply rooted among more educated segments of the population, even though "there are many women with excellent educations - teachers and professors, for instance."
In general, "the highest-level posts are filled by men, even though, for example in the academic world, studies show that there is no difference in the production of research or articles. But women are not heads of institutes and are not on the boards of universities, with very few exceptions," she said.
One big exception is the Centre for Judicial Studies, which provides training for future judges and prosecutors. Because the centre accepts lawyers on the basis of competitive examinations, "80 percent of those who have been accepted for training as magistrates in the last decade were women, because they scored higher than men."
The problems plaguing Portugal affect everyone, "but in the crisis, women face greater difficulties, aggravated in cases in which their husbands are unemployed, because they still have to take everything on their shoulders.
"The worst thing about this government (of conservative Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho) is its complete insensitivity and indifference towards the plight of the people," Torres said.
This is especially serious in Portugal and other countries where sexism is predominant, she said, because "if a woman has work and her partner does not, she continues to do the housework, unlike what occurs in other places, where men participate in the housework when they are unemployed."
© Inter Press Service (2013) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
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- Zimbabwe’s Ruling Party Militias Spread Fear of Voting Tuesday, May 21, 2013 | <urn:uuid:e46b7456-a101-498d-9ec0-20465d5c0352> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalissues.org/news/2013/03/22/16153 | 2013-05-22T07:12:50Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968182 | 1,466 |
ATLANTA — Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank will watch his team host an NFC championship game for the first time Sunday, and if he gets his way, he'll soon be sitting in the owner's box of a $1 billion retractable-roof stadium downtown.
But Blank isn't getting a lot of help from Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and other politicians. Deal supports using $300 million in revenue from an existing hotel tax to partner with Blank on a new complex to replace the 21-year-old Georgia Dome, but he says the owner must do the heavy lifting.
Jockeying between major sports franchises and governments over the financing of new stadiums is nothing new, but the chilly reception the Atlanta proposal has gotten from the public and many state lawmakers is surprising some in this business-friendly state. Though the team is red-hot, the Georgia Dome is in good shape and nearly two decades younger than Louisiana's Superdome. And the state is coming off several years of painful budget cuts.
Similar dynamics are playing out in Miami and Birmingham, Ala., as fans and taxpayers appear to be more circumspect about spending public money on stadiums used primarily by privately-owned teams.
Statewide polls in Georgia show that less than a third of residents support a new stadium, even if Blank covers most of the construction cost. So the politicians' message to Blank: If he wants it, he has to sell it.
"The Falcons have a strong case in favor of a new stadium, and I think it's incumbent on them to educate the public on all the facts," Deal said in a statement Friday.
In Miami, the NFL's Dolphins want local and state governments to help renovate Sun Life Stadium. But team officials are navigating public outrage at Major League Baseball's Marlins, which took public money for a new stadium, only to turn around and cut its player payroll by dumping fan favorites.
In Birmingham, the mayor is having trouble persuading city councilors to chip in more money for a new downtown stadium for the region's minor league baseball team, the Barons.
The outcry suggests public opinion is catching up with research that casts doubt on claims that the investments are a good deal for taxpayers because they create jobs and foster economic activity. Lack of statewide support also reflects urban-rural political divides: Voters far from city centers don't believe they benefit from the deals.
Public stadiums dotted the map for most of the 20th century, but the pace of public-private partnerships for new construction or renovation projects has accelerated over the past two decades. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones now controls a $1.15 billion stadium that Arlington, Texas, voters helped finance with increases in sales and hotel taxes. In the New York City area, residents are paying in various ways both for the new $1.6 billion NFL stadium that will host the 2014 Super Bowl and the demolished old stadium it replaced.
In Indianapolis, the state owns 4-year-old Lucas Oil Stadium, for which the state, city and surrounding counties covered most of the $720 million construction cost. Naming rights and a $100 million contribution from the Indianapolis Colts covered the rest. Minnesota officials and the NFL's Vikings last year struck a deal to essentially split the cost of a planned $975 million stadium in Minneapolis.
Blank — the Home Depot co-founder whose team already plays in a publicly financed, publicly owned facility — has spent years in closed-door negotiations with state and city leaders for a new stadium that would not only host Falcons and college football games but could compete for a Super Bowl.
The outline, unveiled in December, assumes about a $1 billion construction cost, with Blank responsible for 70 percent and the state covering the rest with bonds backed by existing hotel and motel taxes in Atlanta. But the plan requires that state legislators raise the state debt limit, and Blank could face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled legislature.
Deal said the Georgia Dome will eventually need a new roof and could become obsolete. He noted that the plan would simply extend existing hotel taxes that cover the original stadium's construction debt, which is nearly paid off. That would put the cost of a new nearby complex on people from "out of state," Deal argued.
"I think once people know there aren't state tax dollars involved here — that this won't compete with funding for schools or Medicaid or public safety — that we could see a change in public opinion on the issue," Deal concluded.
That's different from notable cases like Cincinnati, Ohio, where county authorities in 2010 had to cut public services to avoid defaulting on debt payments for two stadiums because the bonds were backed by sales tax revenues that tanked in the Great Recession.
In Minnesota, some officials are already worried that gambling revenues earmarked for new stadium debt won't be sufficient.
Georgia's top legislative leaders, both Deal allies, also have punted to Blank to sell his plan. "I don't think the case has been made," said House Speaker David Ralston of north Georgia. The Senate's top-ranking member, Atlanta Sen. David Shafer, said only, "I'm still considering the proposals."
Then there are outright opponents such as Sen. Vincent Fort, an Atlanta Democrat and Deal critic. He said a state that has furloughed teachers and "doesn't seem to have a problem with 650,000 uninsured residents" should have different priorities.
"A playground for a billionaire isn't a priority for me," he said.
A spokeswoman at the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, the state entity that would own the new stadium, declined to make agency executives available for an interview. She cited the sensitivity of negotiations.
Authority leaders have said they don't necessarily need a new stadium. Their fear is that Blank, with his $700 million commitment, could opt to build his own open-air stadium that would become a competitor.
Efforts to contact Falcons executives were not successful.
Judith Grant Long, an urban planning professor at Harvard University and an expert on sports complex financing warned in a recent book that it is difficult to measure the true cost of stadium investments.
There's infrastructure: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, a supporter of the stadium project, has suggested that as much as $200 million could be required.
There are operating costs, management duties and revenue sharing. Under the preliminary Georgia plan, Blank would cover most operations, but he'd also reap revenue from seat licenses, premium seats and concessions and could negotiate for corporate naming rights.
That kind of power in Minnesota has led to a public smack down from Gov. Mark Dayton, who blasted the team for even considering passing on its stadium costs to fans in the form of seat licenses.
In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal recently used naming rights as a carrot to phase out direct subsidies to the New Orleans Saints, the principal tenant of what is now called the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Louisiana taxpayers still own the stadium, but Mercedes is paying Saints owner Tom Benson.
The Falcons deal proposes a $2.5 million annual rent payment from Blank to the state.
Georgia's Congress Center Authority would maintain control over negotiating contracts with existing clients for events for the Southeastern Conference Championship football game, NCAA basketball tournaments and the Chick-fil-A preseason and postseason college football games. But Blank would be a player in making "citywide bids," like those for Super Bowls and college football's new championship game.
Deal's statement and his previous public interview on the Falcons have not delved into those details.
Long, the expert on stadium financing, also noted future maintenance and eventual demolition costs beyond initial tenant agreements: 30 years in the Falcons' case. "These are not static deals," she wrote, but "dynamic, living deals that should be assessed over their full duration." | <urn:uuid:a1b7c3b7-69f7-4ba8-91a3-17dbf0e5906d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independentmail.com/news/2013/jan/19/georgia-stadium-opposition-signals-public-shift/ | 2013-05-22T07:27:15Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967545 | 1,590 |
I'm back with my biggest friday giveaway yet! I have some super exciting changes for the Vortex Brush Collection that I designed for www.Sedonalace.com. On top of it, I'm having a huge giveaway! Stay tuned for more!
Check out the video!
Now you all know that I'm a perfectionist and the same thought went into this brush line. Along the way, I'm always thinking of improvements, upgrades and I'm listening to you comments and feedback as well!
Here are some of the new updates:
You'll notice that the brushes now look a little different. We've updated the Sedona Lace logo on the brushes from a regular screen print to an engraved and foil printed design. This not only looks nicer, but will ensure that the labels last on your brushes longer. On top of this, we have implemented a new naming/number system for brushes. You all mentioned that you wished that we had written names on the brushes. That way you can easily refer to them and know what you're using. Here's how we did it:
- Every eye brush begins with EB
- Every face brush begins with FB
- There is a 2 digit number system begin with 01, and going up in odd numbers from 03, 05, 07 etc...that way we have room to grow as we add more brushes to the line.
Everytime you purchase from www.Sedonalace.com, you'll know receive a complimentary Synthetic Blender/EB13 Brush. You'll get the full size version and i'm telling you, this brush will change your life. It's my favorite in the collection.
This brush is not only great for eyeshadow but concealer as well. Makeup artists have been using crease brushes for years to help blend out creamy product like concealer or eyeshadow base. This brush was formulated with synthetic bristles to apply the perfect amount of product. The bristles are also nice and dense to for easily blending out darker crease colors.
Tip: Use this as brush for contouring the nose. The shape and tapered bristles will help you blend out hard lines easily.
This brush retails for $8.95...yes that's right. You can now buy the brushes individually! They range from $8.95 to $14.95. You guys wanted the chance to buy individual brushes and we made it happen. I personally have some favorites in the collection and like to keep multiple on hand for my personal collection and the kit.
Here's another exciting update...One of the collection favorites the Flat Top Buffer or FB07 has also been upgraded. The bristles are now more densely packed to offer even better foundation application. It's really amazing!
The last update and my most exciting, is the development of a new brush belt with zipper! I've had this idea for a long time of having a brush belt that can zip close to protect brushes from dirt and basically falling out. It's exactly the same price as the original brush belt - $19.95. The only con is that you fit a few less brushes in this belt than the original since it needs to zip shut. If that's an issue for you, the original belt case is still up for sale.
Here's a description of the new zippered brush belt that I wrote for the website, it pretty much explains it all:
A brush belt is a great way to keep your brushes organized. However, during travel and storage, one common issue is that brushes can fall out of the belt if it’s tipped over. Also, unlike a brush roll, it doesn’t close shut to protect the brushes from dust and dirt. We have solved this problem by creating the first brush belt with a zipper. When you’re not using your brush belt, simply zip it shut. You’ll never have a problem with brushes falling out of your traincase or travel bag again.
Thank you guys again for your commentary and feedback. I'm always listening so feel free to send me and Sedona Lace your brush reviews! With that said, I'm going to give 4 lucky viewers a chance to win their own upgraded brush belt and set!
- Blog Winner: Follow my blog and leave a comment on this post telling me why you'd like to win!
- YouTube Winner: Subscribe to my YouTube channel, leave a comment on this video and tell me why you'd like to win!
- Facebook Winner: Follow me on FaceBook and "like" my page. Every like will be considered for the giveaway.
- Twitter Winner: Follow me and SedonaLace on twitter...we'll host another Friday Twitter giveaway trivia contest! First to correctly answer wins!
Also, Sedona Lace is having an amazing Black Friday Sale! 25% off all products including the Vortex Brush Set! The new zippered brush belt is only $8.95 and lip brushes are $1.95!
FTC Disclosure: I am affiliated with the company and paid to write this review. These are my honest thoughts and opinions.
Atlanta Makeup Artist | <urn:uuid:74feeb52-46a4-4432-b9af-9c587ef1a6f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.makeupbyrenren.com/2011/11/sedona-lace-vortex-brush-updates.html?showComment=1322256477869 | 2013-05-22T07:26:03Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958532 | 1,055 |
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - July 26, 2012) - Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd. ("Santacruz" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:SCZ) is pleased to announce that at its Annual General Meeting held July 24, 2012, Mr. Marc Prefontaine, M.Sc., P.Geo, was elected to the Company's Board of Directors joining Messrs. Arturo Prestamo Elizondo, Francisco Ramos, James Hutton and Craig Angus, who were all re-elected.
Mr. Prefontaine graduated with a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of Alberta and a M.Sc. in Mineral Exploration from Queen's University. He is a Professional Geologist with over 25 years experience.
Most recently Marc served as President and CEO of Grayd Resource Corporation. During his eight years as CEO of Grayd, Mr. Prefontaine assembled the land package in Mexico that ultimately became the La India Project. He and his geological team made two gold discoveries. During his tenure Grayd grew from a small exploration company with a market capitalization of $5 million to a successful development-stage company culminating with its 2011 acquisition by Agnico Eagle Mines for $275 million.
President Arturo Préstamo states, "We are very pleased to welcome Mr. Prefontaine to the Board and are confident his knowledge and experience in the Mexican mining industry will help us advance our projects going forward. Mr. Prefontaine will be a key contributor to the growth of Santacruz."
In connection with this appointment the Company has authorized the grant of 800,000 stock options to Mr. Prefontaine at a price of $0.90 per share. These options are exercisable for a five-year period.
About Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd.
Santacruz Silver is focused on three advanced stage silver projects in Mexico with a corporate objective to reach production by first quarter 2013. The Company aims to become a mid-tier silver producer in Mexico.
Arturo Prestamo Elizondo, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Certain statements contained in this news release, such as potential mineralization on the Company's properties, the Company's exploration and development plans and anticipated production dates on the Company's mineral properties, constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information is based on plans, expectations and estimates of management at the date the information is provided and is subject to certain factors and assumptions, including, that the Company's financial condition and development plans do not change as a result of unforeseen events, that the Company obtains regulatory approval, future metal prices and the demand and market outlook for metals. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause the forward-looking information in this news release to change or to be inaccurate include, but are not limited to, the risk that any of the assumptions referred to prove not to be valid or reliable, that occurrences such as those referred to above are realized and result in delays, or cessation in planned work, that the Company's financial condition and development plans change, delays in regulatory approval, risks associated with the interpretation of data, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits, the possibility that results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, as well as the other risks and uncertainties applicable to mineral exploration and development activities and to the Company as set forth in the Company's Filing Statement filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable law.
This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to sell any securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. | <urn:uuid:1c39f36d-13d0-45b5-ac45-77cb7f353ead> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/marc-prefontaine-joins-santacruz-board-of-directors-tsx-venture-scz-1684195.htm | 2013-05-22T07:42:18Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95327 | 933 |
The business of Monkey
No Monkey Business began life in the pages of a book. The idiosyncratic name is Fowler’s view of what the FSA was really trying to achieve with all its initiatives. “Imagine the FSA had decided to write a book, encompassing treating customers fairly, RDR and its other projects,” he says. “This is what they might have come up with.”
No Monkey Business, the book, provided the blueprint for No Monkey Business, the advisory business. Fowler’s background was in institutional fund management for blue-chip companies, managing public funds. He believes that this experience was instructive - it taught him to be in sync with the consultants who drove investing practice and most importantly of all, it educated Fowler in the importance of liability-based investing.
When he looked at the financial advice market, he saw that few people were having their investments matched to their personal liabilities.
Ultimately, he saw no reason why private clients should have a different planning process than institutions. Planning for household finances required the same discipline. He saw a lot of investment portfolios did not directly tie to financial plans - they were simply not customised enough. He also saw that the public was alienated from the whole process. Money was managed for the product rather than to a set of client outcomes.
Fowler believes that most of the regulatory initiatives that had attempted to shift this model had failed. “They are based on high-level principles but have failed to transform the advice model. The FSA had to get rid of commission completely for that to happen. To date, the advice model in the UK has not worked - it has not served the customer or the industry.”
When Fowler decided to put theory into practice and set up No Monkey Business, flat fees were key to the group’s premise. It was not just about avoiding commission but about avoiding portfolio-based fees altogether. He says “If you have portfolio-based fees, you can’t say that you will avoid all capital market risks. I don’t believe that you can charge 1 per cent for a portfolio of gilts. Flat fees are the only way to align our interests with those of the client. That way, we have no economic interest in the decisions they make.”
Fowler also believes that the investment process should be an asset-allocated passive strategy. In the 1990s, Fowler had been one of the first to commercialise this approach for the US pension market. He recognised the importance of asset allocation in terms of explaining outcomes and managing risk. He adds: “Whether you believe in efficient markets or not, it is clear that the costs structures for retail investors are not worth it and there is also a huge hassle factor. This creates a systematic negative portfolio bias. When designing a portfolio, it has to deliver planning outcomes. It has to be a dynamic, hands-on process.”
The group started with nothing except these ideals in 2004. Fowler had a few friends and contacts and has built incrementally from there. He has maintained a steady growth rate of around 30 per cent per year, with revenue and client growth showing a similar pattern. He admits that the steady growth path has its disadvantages - he has reached break-even point at a much slower rate, for example, and it would have been impossible without capital backing - but he believed this was a better route because he was less likely to make management errors in the execution of his strategy. He adds: “We have managed to do it all without making any serious mistakes or losing control.”
His client base is largely high-earning professionals rather than entrepreneurs or “old money” clients. He says: “This group recognise the format - it looks like what they are used to. They tend to be from magic circle law firms, headhunters or management consultants and this is the way they work.”
Internal engine builds and monitors portfolios
Fowler operates in the same niche as groups such as Sanderson House or Towry Law. This will often be clients who have not had anyone managing their money in the accumulation phase and recognise they need to change that in the decumulation phase.
Everything the group does for its clients starts with a clear financial plan. It has built a sophisticated internal “engine” that builds and monitors a client’s portfolio against that plan. Fowler has been resolutely and vocally anti active funds. He says passive funds make it easier to manage the process and much more cost-efficient. He adds: “It is also good for margins rather than emphasising prima donna managers.”
The group’s asset allocation modelling is stochastic. Fowler believes there is a huge difference between trying to solve nominal and real problems, so he aims to look at “real world” asset data. This would include things such as the inflationary environment.
He also makes extensive use of cashflow modelling although he believes that many systems currently in the market are inadequate. “I can’t see how anyone could do financial planning without cashflow modelling but much of the software that is currently being used suffers from the ’garbage in, garbage out problem’.
“Fowler believes that his approach to risk assessment marks him out from much of the wider market. The group has a band of possible outcomes that it uses to judge a client’s real attitude to risk. The adviser will explore a worse-case outcome to establish what clients can tolerate. In exploring this, he uses an internal model to find the optimum risk range for each client. This is an ongoing conversation. At any stage, Fowler can outline the worst-case scenario for a client and how that might be solved - whether that is putting more money in, bringing the risk down or gambling.
So far, his portfolio model has proved successful. He says: “We can’t market our performance because every portfolio is different but we are happy with performance. We have around £88m under management. Each client has a different risk tolerance and therefore a different portfolio make-up. But the uniqueness of the individual portfolios is a good test that we are really liability-driven. A lot of discretionary managers are simply shoehorning clients into a small number of portfolio types.”
The group currently has 36 clients with the resources to comfortably manage twice that number.
Fowler says: “Our approach is highly systemised, so we won’t need to add more people. I have no ambition to transform the mass-market experience. If someone wants to do that, I don’t have the answer. I don’t have an exit strategy in terms of selling out. I prefer to manage the group on the basis of a professional partnership.”
To date, the theory that was set out in the book No Monkey Business has worked in practice and, via the RDR, the financial advice industry is slowly coming round to Fowler’s way of thinking.
As Fowler himself sees the situation, it is simply a means to break the financial advice industry’s long-term habit of making monkeys of those it deals with and its willingness to make monkeys of itself in exchange for a quick buck.
- No Monkey Business
- Staff: Five
- Number of clients: 36
- AUM: £88m
- Launch: 2004
- Fowler’s vision is laid out in his book No Monkey Business, written in 2002
- His background in institutional asset management taught him the importance of liability driven investment
- The group uses an asset allocated passive strategy, believing this gives clients the best long-term value for money
- Everything the group does for a client starts with a clear financial plan
- The group only uses flat fees for clients, believing this is the only way to align its interests with those of its clients | <urn:uuid:e474c227-27e7-4c90-80f8-7fe2ba7ec68a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/channels/adviser-evolution/cover-interview/the-business-of-monkey/1021468.article | 2013-05-22T07:40:41Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971391 | 1,627 |
INDIANAPOLIS -- By the time the NFL's 32 teams arrive here for next week's NFL Scouting Combine, much of the work that goes into the draft will be done.
Every player invited to the combine has put a college career on tape, area scouts have made dozens of campus visits, draft meetings have been held, initial boards have been set and opinions have formed.
Can things change between now and April 26? Certainly. But the most important stuff -- the track record that counts -- is already in the books.
With that in mind, here are five of the most intriguing questions -- that still need to be answered -- going into next week's Indianapolis meat market ...
How big is Robert Griffin?
Since they do indeed have tape measures and scales in Waco, this may seem like a silly question to ask about the Baylor quarterback. But taking someone at that position at the juncture of the draft where Griffin's expected to go -- second overall -- is a mighty big decision for a franchise. And most of the decision-makers for franchises considering him will get their first chance to eyeball him in Indy.
"Is he 6-1 or 6-2? Is he 200 pounds or 220?" an AFC college scout said. "One of the biggest questions with him concerns his style of play vs. his body's ability to make it through 16 weeks. So you have to ask the question with the thing that makes him special, that off-the-charts athleticism. Is he going to be able to use that, and survive the grind in the pros? Remember, Sam Bradford had some of these questions, too, and he weighed in well above what people thought he would, and it really helped him."
With Griffin, it's the difference between Mike Vick, who sometimes struggles to stay on the field, and Ben Roethlisberger or Cam Newton, who are built to withstand the pounding. And of course, the interview process for Griffin will be important, too, and not just because he'll have to explain how he plans to transition from Baylor's spread offense.
"With a quarterback, you have to feel like you can see him in your uniform, playing under your coach, running your coordinator's offense," an AFC personnel director said. "That's a vital meeting with the coach and GM. When you're meeting with a defensive end or a tackle, you don't look at the player as a potential centerpiece. So the interview process is huge for Griffin. The workout is secondary."
Is Ryan Tannehill a winner?
Last year provides a perfect example of how quarterbacks get pushed up the board -- four went in the first dozen picks, despite the fact that the crop was seen as just so-so by folks around the league. This time around, we know Andrew Luck is a near-lock to go first. RG3's a good bet to go second. And Texas A&M's Ryan Tannehill is next in the pecking order, a candidate for the kind of meteoric rise that Christian Ponder had in 2010. One black mark he'll fight this week: a 7-6 record last year.
"What he needs to answer: Why couldn't you win a game?" a college scout said. "He's got all the throwing talent, the athletic ability, the strength. You can see everything, it's all there. But when it's nut-cutting time, you don't see it. A&M had a lot of close games, and something would always go wrong."
Tannehill's also rehabbing a broken foot, and the fact that he won't work out here will only amplify the interview, since he won't get back on the field until well into next month. One thing that will help is the good words of others, with Dolphins offensive coordinator Mike Sherman, his coach at A&M, having vouched for him in the past to clubs. "From that standpoint, I wouldn't consider Tannehill an 'edge' guy," an NFC personnel executive said, "because he's so highly recommended by the A&M group."
Because of his athleticism, Tannehill could wind up in the top 10, perhaps fitting a team like the Redskins. A little high? Well, some clubs have him as a better prospect now than they had Blaine Gabbert or Ponder last year, so it's not as far-fetched as it might seem.
How will the offensive line shake out?
We know that USC tackle Matt Kalil will be off the board quickly, even if he's not perfect. "You gotta look at body type with him," one AFC personnel executive said, "and growth potential, because he's not a power player."
After that, things get cloudier, with the idea being that there are a lot of good players available, but no real great ones. An average of 6.4 offensive linemen have gone in the first round over the last five years, and it's one of the most stable positions draft-to-draft in that regard. The question is whether guys like Stanford's Jonathan Martin and Iowa's Riley Reiff are closer to the top or bottom of the first round.
"I don't think there's a second or third tackle where you say, 'I gotta have this guy in the first round,' " the AFC personnel director said. "Martin might be comparable to someone you see in the second round, and there are differing opinions on the guards, particularly [Stanford's David] DeCastro. The kid from Midwestern State [Amini Silatolu] is more talented, but are you comfortable with a juco guy who wound up there? There are lots of questions like that."
These positions aren't the sexiest ones, but generally there are runs on linemen at spots in the draft, and part of the work in Indy for the evaluators will be figuring where those should happen in the first and second rounds.
Who's the second tailback?
You can mark this one down: Trent Richardson will be the first back off the board. And after that, it's anyone's guess. Virginia Tech's David Wilson, Miami's Lamar Miller and Oregon's LaMichael James headline the next tier, and one of those guys burning up the 40 -- like Chris Johnson did in 2008 -- could wind up being a tie-breaker.
"They're situational guys," the AFC personnel director said. "There isn't a lot of strength at the position, but I can see a team taking James because he runs well, and saying, 'OK, he's situational, but in our offense, he'll get enough snaps to justify taking him in the first round.' "
So even while the proliferation of the NFL passing game has deemphasized this position in a global sense, there are players with versatility and quick-strike skill, like James, that can wind up benefitting from the evolution of offenses.
Where are the pass-rushers?
The Giants' second Super Bowl triumph in five seasons will shine the spotlight on teams looking for explosive edge-rushers, something New York has by the bucketful. And that spotlight will show a pretty bare shelf when it comes to this draft class.
"It's disappointing," the AFC scout of the class said. "What will happen is you'll have someone with prototype measurables have a good workout there (at the combine), and he'll get taken higher. This is a rough year for pass rushers."
One name to keep an eye on in that regard is Illinois' Whitney Mercilus, an athletic freak who declared for the draft after a breakout junior year and could be the second edge player selected behind Alabama's Courtney Upshaw.
Where are the safeties?
This is a problem that's not specific to this draft. It's one, talking to folks around the league, that's becoming a real problem in general, with bigger safeties being converted to linebacker to combat spread offenses and corners lacking prototypical NFL size being moved safety to fill the void. Scouts and execs say it's increasingly difficult to find a traffic director back there, with defenses simplified to combat spread offenses, as well.
Alabama's Mark Barron stands alone atop the board, because he played in a NFL-style system with NFL-type responsibilities and NFL size. Safety-needy teams that don't get Barron may have to get creative, looking at bigger corners or smaller linebackers to convert to play on the back end of the defense.
Follow Albert Breer on Twitter @AlbertBreer | <urn:uuid:4ce4da5e-d1ee-4961-bde7-d8a8e7bdddeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8270649c/article/questions-abound-heading-into-nfl-scouting-combine | 2013-05-22T07:34:59Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973006 | 1,751 |
Many of you reading this are over the age of 27. Why is this important you ask, well of late Gaila and I have been trying hostels to save money. I think the average age is about 22 to 25 but who knows. Haven’t really asked, just observing. But safe to say I have definitely been one of the more “seasoned” guests at all the ones we have stayed at. You know what? Who cares! Truth is we have had very nice stays. Just like we have couchsurfing, camping and cheap hotels. I must admit, some of the hotel stays have been less than pleasant. Some down right disgusting to be perfectly honest. Part of The Bad, if you will.
While writing this I am curled up in a hammock on the Pacific Ocean hugging the Nicaraguan coast just west of Leon. We are doing a weekend stay here at Quartzal Playa Hostel http://playa.quetzaltrekkers.org/ after two awesome nights at Lazybones Hostel http://www.lazyboneshostelnicaragua.com/?lg=En in Leon. I really am liking the vibe. Not only do we have clean and functional rooms, but we are getting for well under $30 for private rooms. If you are willing to do the dorm thing, most are in the $7 to $15 dollars a night range. Best of all however are the locations and the facilities. In Leon it was all about location, patio and pool. Here it is the garden, hammocks and ocean waves. Yes, we change the age curve, but who cares! Most of you are young at heart too and can get a dose of youthful enthusiasm from the 20 something guests. We are.
We did a couple in the US and they were fine, but I think our expectations were wrong. Now that we are south of the border these relaxed accommodations seem to fit right in. Now, before you think everyone is wet behind the ears, that is simply not true. Last night we shared the Lazybones with a few German couples that were definitely in their late 50′s or 60′s. Even a family with a small 1 1/2 year old baby were there with us. They, like us were in the private rooms. Our motorcycle friends Mark from Idaho on KLR, Marco from Canada on F650GS single and Pedro from Redmond https://www.facebook.com/pages/Redmond-to-Rio/523014447726275 with his Vstrom DL1000 all elected to do the dorms and save even more money. Since you can’t sleep together those are not the best options for us.
Four things impress me about the hostel experience:
1. Better than expected rooms
2. Super friendly people excited to have interesting conversations (not to mention Gringos)
3. Cheap food and beverages
4. They are well connected with the locals and can set you up with good tours, adventures & etc.
OK, 5 things…just a general sense of happiness and well being. Yes it is true most are backpacking, but even the older folks we met in Honduras and here too all seem to have the same zest for life and inquisitive souls.
As such, my advice is this: If you are young hurry up and get out there as the world is waiting for you. If you are middle aged and strapped for cash at the moment and who isn’t, then just go this budget route you will be happy you did. Indeed, at the moment I am sitting between a 30 something couple from North Carolina, 20 somethings from Germany and some 50ish ladies from somewhere TBD. If you are perhaps retired, use this as a way to stretch your financial resources and get a shot of youthful enthusiasm at the same time. All of the hostel hosts have been super gracious and very helpful. Telling us about hidden gems like Canyon Somoto and others. Today is yet another day in paradise and I sure am looking forward to our tree house hostel near Granada. After that, we will be looking for our next deal on Isla de Ometepe (a two volcano island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua) then Costa Rica and Panama! Oooooops, almost forgot to mention hostel in Honduras which is sort of a hotel/hostel/brewery. Seriously, if you get a chance go to D&D Brewery. What a unique place and Bobbie the guy that owns and runs is really excellent.
Here are some that we have stayed at so far and can fully endorse & recommend:
Lastly, Lonely Planet is full of good suggestions that have been pretty spot on as far as we are concerned. Travel well, with or without lots of money. | <urn:uuid:6c1a2bf5-1a89-4ddb-9842-8c404a232527> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.overlandnow.com/hostels-rock/ | 2013-05-22T07:19:18Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965484 | 986 |
07:29 PM EDT 04/13/2013
Originally posted 03/13/2013 12:00PM
Terrilynn Monette, a 26-year-old elementary school teacher who helped her second-graders turn their academic performances around, has apparently vanished.
The California native, who moved to New Orleans as part of that city's initiative to improve teaching in impoverished zones, was last seen with friends on March 2 after visiting Parlay's, a bar in the town's Lakeview section, police tell CNN.
That night, Monette had been "cut off" by a bartender who said she had too much to drink, according to Parlay's manager Anna Boudousque. The teacher was celebrating her nomination as "Teacher of the Year" in her district.
Originally posted 02/11/2013 12:00PM
2013 is shaping up to be the year of Beyoncé.
After a powerful Super Bowl halftime show, the singer, 31, is embarking on the Mrs. Carter world tour – and just added a special performance.
Beyoncé will return to New Orleans's Superdome to headline one of three concerts during the 19th annual Essence Festival, the magazine confirms.
"We are incredibly excited to welcome Beyoncé back to the 2013 Essence Festival lineup. She is truly the ultimate Essence woman," Communications President Michelle Ebanks said in a statement.
Originally posted 02/04/2013 10:45AM
For Hollywood, Super Bowl weekend is one big party, and they don't disappoint.
On Saturday night, Lil Wayne performed at a GQ, Lacoste and Mercedes-Benz hosted party at the Elms Mansion in New Orleans. Among the fans on hand was model Kate Upton, who posed for photos in front of her GQ cover and stood on a couch to get a better view of Lil Wayne's show, an onlooker tells PEOPLE.
Even Paul McCartney and wife Nancy Shevell were spotted "rushing through the backstage area to catch the end of his performance," the source adds.
Originally posted 02/04/2013 06:00AM
While players for the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers geared up for the biggest day of their year on Sunday, Maria Menounos and a selection of other famous faces got pumped for the annual Celebrity Beach Bowl a day prior.
And Menounos, who speaks often about her competitive nature, already expected her team to have a victory in the bag.
Before they hit the New Orleans field, the Extra co-host "bantered with teammate Michael Strahan about their 'inevitable win,' " a source tells PEOPLE.
Originally posted 01/31/2013 03:45PM
That's what Beyoncé had to say to reporters gathered in New Orleans for her Super Bowl halftime show press conference after she took the stage, asked them to stand and belted out a flawless, live rendition of the National Anthem on Thursday.
The singer – who has remained silent since criticism and accusations of lip-synching erupted following her performance of the same song at President Barack Obama's inauguration – then told the world why she decided to sing along to a pre-recorded track on Jan. 21.
Originally posted 01/20/2013 11:00AM
When I dip, you dip, we dip!
With the most exciting football games of the season on the horizon, hosting friends and family can be intimidating. But thanks to New Orleans restaurateur Ralph Brennan, you can whip up a Creole crab dip that's sure to satisfy and impress.
So even if you're thousands of miles away from The Big Easy, your taste buds can still enjoy some jazz.
Originally posted 11/14/2012 03:40PM
While her husband Matthew is busy filming The Dallas Buyer's Club in New Orleans, Camila McConaughey is keeping very good company.
The mom-to-be spent time with McConaughey pal Sandra Bullock on Tuesday, taking their little ones – Louis and Vida, both 2½ – to watch the Warren Easton Charter High School's marching band and drill team perform.
"Camila seemed happy to attend the event with her kids. The kids all go along and seemed to have fun," a photographer tells PEOPLE. "It was a bit windy and all the kids wore their hoodies. They looked very cute. Sandra and Camila chatted and both looked happy."
Originally posted 07/31/2012 03:00PM
Show me the handcuffs.
Cuba Gooding Jr. is a wanted man: the New Orleans Police Department have issued a misdemeanor battery warrant after receiving a complaint that the 44-year-old actor pushed a female bartender at a Bourbon Street bar early Tuesday morning, TMZ reports.
According to reports, the Oscar-winner got into a heated argument with fellow bar patrons who were trying to take his photograph at The Old Absinthe House.
Originally posted 03/08/2012 11:10AM
Jacques be nimble, Jacques be quick!
Three of the Jolie-Pitt children took a field trip to the market in New Orleans on Wednesday, bringing along their English bulldog, Jacques, for the snack run.
On the walk, the kids – Maddox, 10, Zahara, 7, and Shiloh, 5 – each took a turn holding the leash, guiding Jacques as he sniffed around the Big Easy.
Originally posted 02/22/2012 11:10AM
Forget about Law & Order – stars like Mariska Hargitay and Hilary Swank got into the Mardi Gras spirit this week in New Orleans, participating in the festival's traditional Krewe of Orpheus parade on Monday.
Decked out in bright, sparkling attire atop a decorated float, the actresses tossed beads and doubloons to the crowd gathered along the parade route.
Singer Bret Michaels, donning a bandana and sunglasses, also rode in the procession and tossed out beads to the throng of spectators.
The Poison frontman posted pictures of himself with both actresses on his Twitter feed. – Liz Raftery
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Spring seemed a long way off last week as I took my lunchtime walk through the woods, the leaves on the trees were yet to unfurl, the ground was bare and covered in a mulch of last autumns dead leaves, and a light, cold wintry rain drizzled down.
And yet I realised that my mind had picked up on the subtle changes in the quality of light and drawing out of the days. I became aware of a slight tightness in my ears, an unconscious straining and heightened alertness to the bird song around me. And I thought that after more Springs as a birder than I care to remember, my brain was quietly and unobtrusively saying to my ears to be alert for couple of unremarkable notes of bird song one up followed repetitively by another down, up and down in short bursts, from a bird that takes its name from these two notes of song, the chiff chaff. (photo below).
Naming a bird after the sound it makes is known as onomatopoeia and two other species that occur in the UK the cuckoo and the kittiwake also take their names from their calls.
I will acknowledge here that chiff chaffs are not blessed with the most captivating of names or musical of songs. But for me they compensate for that with the charisma that comes from being the first of our returning migrants to fill our bare Spring woods with their song, perhaps a month before the other returning warblers have got back from a winter spent south of the Sahara.
Chiff chaffs like many of our other warblers, might at a glance appear a little drab and indistinct. In particular at first you might easily confuse a chiff chaff with its close relative the willow warbler. (photo below).
A rough guide to telling them apart is that a willow warblers legs are a light flesh colour whilst a chiff chaffs are black and a chiff chaffs has a more olive coloured plumage (being a birder you carry a veritable colour palette in your head to describe shades of green and brown feathers).
But the surest way to tell these cousins apart is to listen to them singing. Compared to the chiff chaffs repetitive two notes, willow warblers have a to my mind a much nicer song, a lovely tinkling sound that seems to gently descend a set of musical scales before being hauled by the bird back to the top only to descend down them once more.
Willow warblers arrive from their wintering grounds in Africa a little later in the spring than chiff chaffs which tend to spend the winter in the Mediterranean. So my brain wasn't tipping my ears off to listen out for a willow warbler practicing its scales, but for that starting gun of the season, a simple two note Chiff then Chaff song that would light up the woods and put a smile on my face, a sign of the end of winter and the beginning of natures headlong rush into spring.
I didn’t hear a chiff chaff last week but I’ll be out again for a lunchtime walk in the woods this week, listening carefully for those two notes. If you have some time to spare over the next week or so why don’t you go out and see if you can hear a chiff chaff and then tell us here.
Photos credit John Bridges (rspb-images.com)
Blogger: Kate Blincoe, Communications Manager
Look out of your window. The catkins are swaying in the spring breeze, the blue tit is hunting out caterpillars for its young family and an early bumblebee buzzes by. Nature is busy all around us.
What if pound signs were flashing over all these beautiful, natural events? If you look on these living things as paid workers for us then the catkins tree is capturing carbon, the blue tit is performing pest control on your garden and the bumblebee is a professional pollinator. All these creatures are in fact performing tiny actions that in sum, add up to a healthy environment and hence healthy economy. In simple terms, if they didn’t do it for free, we’d have to pay to find a technical replacement.
Let’s look at some of the massive ways in which we benefit financially from nature. Carefully managed wetlands reduce the risk of flooding to our homes and businesses. Salt marshes, such wonderful habitats, provide protection from sea level rise, acting like big sponges. Forests and peat bogs store carbon for us, helping in the battle against climate change.
The list doesn’t end there: It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees pollinating crops. Of course, beautiful places with charismatic wildlife also equal booming tourism and lots of visitor spend – especially in our stunning region.
What about you and me and a walk together in the bluebell woods? Does that have pound signs attached to it? Yes. It will reduce our stress levels, increase our heart rates and hence improve our health. It’s a proven fact that nature is good news for the NHS budgets. For children, time spent in nature can even improve their behaviour and performance at school.
As a bit of a nature loving ‘tree hugger’, a part of me screams at this reduction of wonder and marvel to pounds and pennies. Wildlife means so much more than that and has a basic, intrinsic right to exist. I believe that is the case, however, when so many political arguments are made in financial terms, it doesn’t do us any harm to be able to speak that language too.
In a troubled economy, the need for a new development or construction project is often justified by saying growth is critical for our financial future. However, if we trash our special habitats and lose incredible species then, even in crude monetary terms, we risk jeopardising so much more than we gain. We overlook the function that the environment plays in our economy at our peril.
The bottom line is this: We need nature more than it needs us.
Article in Eastern Daily Press on Saturday 10 March 2012.
Photo by Mark Sisson (rspb-images.com)
Blogger: Jane Warren, RSPB in the East Green Team
As we edge along towards spring in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s worth sparing a thought for the climate. Today is the beginning of Climate Change Week (12-18 March), and there are easy ways for us all to get involved. Many of us are already doing our bit, but it’s always good to be reminded! So here are three things to do this week:
Get cooking with Climate Week cuisine: Make food part of the solution to climate change by eating a low carbon meal during Climate Week. Just follow one or all of these three tips: eat less meat or dairy, eat local and seasonal ingredients, and eat leftovers.
Walk, cycle or use public transport: Use Climate Week as an opportunity to use more sustainable ways to get to where you are going. Take the train or bus instead of driving. Take advantage of the spring weather (!) and walk or cycle, getting some additional exercise!
Swap, recycle or upcycle old things: Eliminate waste by finding a second life for things that would otherwise be thrown away. Host an event to swap unwanted items, such as books, toys or clothes, with friends or colleagues. Recycle unusual things like batteries, or electrical goods such as old mobile phones.
You can even recycle through Ebay, by taking up the RSPB’s Ebay for charity challenge. Do you have something lurking in a loft, back room, garage or shed? Something that you know has some saleable value but you have never got around to selling? This could be your chance to do just that and step up for nature at the same time! Please do get in touch with suggestions of what you might have to sell, and we can check if it is worth us getting our fabulous Ebay volunteers to sell it on the auction site for us. Please do not send anything to us without checking first and please note that we can’t accept electrical goods! (It’s worth repeating that so that our collector Matt Howard isn’t locked in the cellar as punishment along with the potential deluge of books, CDs, DVDs, autographed Barry Manilow LPs etc.) Matt is looking forward to hearing from you at [email protected] Tel: 01603 697515.
Our thanks to Climate Week for ideas and tips. Check out their website at www.climateweek.com and get inspired to create a sustainable future!
Blogger: Gena Correale-Wardle, Community Fundraising Officer
Do you remember in January when I blogged about the great partnership the RSPB had with Dozen Artisan Bakery and Pulse Cafe Bar, two great independent eateries in Norwich? I bet you’ve been waiting with baited breath to see how we got on....
Well, today I went to see the lovely manager of Pulse, Helen, as she presented us with a great big cheque (literally – see the photo!) for £86.50. That equates to 173 starters, mains and desserts eaten in aid of the RSPB. Dozen Artisan Bakery sold their field loaves for nature too – another £91 and 91 satisfied tummies and smiles on faces! Wouldn’t it be nice if all fundraising could be that easy?!
The lovely people at both outlets also hosted pin badge boxes and gave out lots of leaflets to promote Big Garden Birdwatch, raising awareness of the project as well as raising even more money (over £40) through pin badge donations. A win-win all round!
We are really glad to work with such great local, independent businesses in the area and hope we can do more with them in future. We are always looking for ways to get businesses involved throughout the whole of the Eastern England region so if you have any links or want to promote your business and raise money for nature in the process, do get in touch!
The money raised will help the RSPB save and protect wildlife supporting schools and families through field teaching programmes and schools visits as well as directly managing habitats for wildlife at our amazing nature reserves.
Thank you to all of you who ate great food and saved nature at the same time. Here’s to more fab little initiatives like this in the future! Email me at [email protected] or call me on 01603 697521.
Blogger: Adam Murray, Communications Officer
Last June you may have remembered my Swift, Swallows & House martins - I am a bit clueless blog post, well just as think I have nailed some of my bird ID skills I recently went on my hols to Osea Island.
We went as a family with my brother and his gang and spent the time walking the island when the causeway (as seen on the Woman in Black movie) was covered by the tide. The island was a perfect tonic as there were no modern day distractions that seem to fill our free time usually. This meant that we had an excuse of not doing very much at all – just what I needed after the crazy hustle bustle of the RSPB Eastern Region office in Norwich.
Each day we would spend many hours in wellies walking the island. In the interior we spotted dancing flocks of skylarks, eyeing foxes in the distance and then the adventurers inside us would walk alongside the beaches and salt marshes to circumnavigate our little piece of Essex. If we were lucky enough to get the tides right we would see vast numbers of birds coming into feed or queuing up ready for the seafood frenzy. The rest of my family were happy to spot a “funny looking goose” or distinctive oyster catcher with their carrot beaks. I on the other hand, trained zoologist and bitten by the RSPB bug, realised that I wasn’t just seeing a few species of animals out there on the mud flats but dozens – all ever so slightly different. However, this is my question to you – how on earth are you supposed to tell the difference? I am now going to give it a go. The keen ones amongst you, feel free to correct me, I won’t take it personally ;)
Dunlin: Little fella, grey wings, white belly, slightly curved beak
Turnstone: Little, black wings, white belly, red legs
Common sandpiper: brown body, straight beak, black eye stripe
Curlew sandpiper: if you squidged the two sandpipers together
Green sandpiper: dark, white bellied sandpiper that is not green
Grey plover: a more speckly version of a turnstone
Curlew: This one I get, bendy beak and big as a chicken!
Redshank: Medium sized, red legs and red beak near face
Spotted redshank: red legs, black top beak, red lower beak
So, can you see why I was confused. It doesn't help that when I was reading the information on my RSPB i-phone app it told me that these are the winter plumages of these birds - so as new species come in for the summer I will have to learn this all over again. I did however figure out that the bird call I has associated with the wilds of southern Ireland ( a previous family holiday) was not the charismatic oyster catcher but the close neighbours the curlew.
I guess the beauty of this whole thing is now, once I get my eye in, I realise how many different species find the eerie and beautiful Essex coast a perfect tonic, just what they need. | <urn:uuid:8f4b98cc-b9b6-4f03-bdfe-20c3e3a71278> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/east/archive/2012/03.aspx?PageIndex=2 | 2013-05-22T07:37:03Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957171 | 2,921 |
Top Ten differences between White Terrorists and Others
1. White terrorists are called “gunmen.” What does that even mean? A person with a gun? Wouldn’t that be, like, everyone in the US? Other terrorists are called, like, “terrorists.”
2. White terrorists are “troubled loners.” Other terrorists are always suspected of being part of a global plot, even when they are obviously troubled loners.
3. Doing a study on the danger of white terrorists at the Department of Homeland Security will get you sidelined by angry white Congressmen.Doing studies on other kinds of terrorists is a guaranteed promotion.
4. The family of a white terrorist is interviewed, weeping as they wonder where he went wrong. The families of other terrorists are almost never interviewed.
5. White terrorists are part of a “fringe.” Other terrorists are apparently mainstream.
6. White terrorists are random events, like tornadoes. Other terrorists are long-running conspiracies.
7. White terrorists are never called “white.” But other terrorists are given ethnic affiliations.
8. Nobody thinks white terrorists are typical of white people. But other terrorists are considered paragons of their societies.
9. White terrorists are alcoholics, addicts or mentally ill. Other terrorists are apparently clean-living and perfectly sane.
10. There is nothing you can do about white terrorists. Gun control won’t stop them. No policy you could make, no government program, could possibly have an impact on them. But hundreds of billions of dollars must be spent on police and on the Department of Defense, and on TSA, which must virtually strip search 60 million people a year, to deal with other terrorists.
by Juan Cole from
Latina mother of 5 kids shot & murdered by Border Patrol in a residential neighborhood
Trigger warning: if you google her name, you will come across some hateful, racist, disgusting comments.
I got this via DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving):
Border Patrol Kills U.S. Citizen Mother of Five: Family and Advocates Speak Out
Family of Valeria Munique Tachiquin to make statement in press conference at 11 am and will hold a vigil at 6 pm
Ricardo Favela - ricardo (at) alliancesd.org
- Who: Family of Valeria Munique Tachiquin, Christian Ramirez (Southern Border Communities Coalition Director), Pedro Rios (Director of the San Diego Office of the American Friends Service Committee)
- When: Monday, October 1st, 2012 at 11:00 am
- Where: Alliance San Diego Office: 3750 30th St. San Diego, CA 92104
Candle Light Vigil
- When: Monday, October 1st, 2012 at 6:00 pm
- Where: Corner of Broadway and Moss St. in Chula Vista
San Diego, CA: Valeria Munique Tachiquin, a 32-year old mother of five and a U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by a plainclothes Border Patrol agent last Friday afternoon in the City of Chula Vista.
On Monday, October 1st, Valeria’s father, Valentin Tachiquin, will give a statement at a press conference with local human rights activists from the American Friends Service Committee and Alliance San Diego.
The fatal incident occurred in a residential area in Chula Vista on Moss Street near Broadway.
Neighbors and eyewitnesses were shocked and feared for their safety when they saw a man shooting multiple times into the vehicle driven by Munique. The shooter was later identified as a plainclothes Border Patrol agent who was apparently serving a warrant in a nearby residence. Authorities have withheld his name.
The family states that Munique, a U.S. Citzen, was not the person Border Patrol was seeking.
The Border Patrol agent involved in the shooting was treated in a hospital but the extents of his injuries are unknown. Neighbors say they saw the plainclothes agent walking immediately after the incident.
“I want to know ‘why’? What caused the Border Patrol agent to shoot my daughter multiple times? My family wants answers, and we are seeking justice,” stated Valentin Tachiquin.
“There is a troubling and growing pattern of abuse and excessive use-of-force committed by Border Patrol agents; our community demands to know what led to such a brutal act by that plainclothes agent,” said Pedro Ríos, director of the American Friends Service Committee US Mexico Border Program.
This latest incidents comes at a time in which Border Patrol has been under fire by law makers who are calling for, “ a top-to-bottom review of CBP practices”.
“The Border Patrol continues to be an out of control agency that operates above the law,” said Christian Ramirez. “We need to continue to put pressure on Customs and Border Protection to call for transparency, accountability and justice.”
A candle light vigil is being organized for Monday afternoon at 6 p.m. with the family of Valeria Munique Tachiquin on the corner of Broadway and Moss Street near the location where the shooting took place.
“Things I learned from watching Zero Dark Thirty 1. It's fine, really, to wear an Ann Taylor suit to your first torture session, but by the second you'll have caught on and wear jeans and an ochre sweater. Much more comfortable. 2. People in Pakistan speak Arabic. (Urdu must be a rumor.) 3. Most terrorists speak English. This makes intelligence gathering much easier! (I knew there was a reason for all those "Friends" reruns on TV all over the world.) 4. Spies with beards look a lot like Williamsburg hipsters. 5. The coach from Friday Night Lights, who plays the CIA station chief, has no forehead, only hair. 6. Anyone who tells you this movie is not pro-torture is, well, wrong. 7. Zero Dark Thirty is not a very good movie. Not at all a good movie. Things I didn't learn from watching Zero Dark Thirty 1. Why it's called "Zero Dark Thirty" 2. Context. ”—Moustafa Bayoumi, Professor at Brooklyn College CUNY
My Racist Encounter at the White House Correspondents' Dinner
Seema Jilani [huffingtonpost]
The faux red carpet had been laid out for the famous and the wannabe-famous. Politicians and journalists arrived at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, bedazzled in the hopes of basking in a few fleeting moments of fame, even if only by osmosis from proximity to celebrities. New to the Washington scene, I was to experience the spectacle with my husband, a journalist, and enjoy an evening out. Or at least an hour out. You see, as a spouse I was not allowed into the actual dinner. Those of us who are not participating in the hideous schmooze-fest that is this evening are relegated to attending the cocktail hour only, if that. Our guest was the extraordinarily brilliant Oscar-nominated director of Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin. Mr. Zeitlin’s unassuming demeanor was a refreshing taste of humility in a sea of pretentious politicians reeking of narcissism.
As I left the hotel and my husband went to the ballroom for the dinner, I realized he still had my keys. I approached the escalators that led down to the ballroom and asked the externally contracted security representatives if I could go down. They abruptly responded, “You can’t go down without a ticket.” I explained my situation and that I just wanted my keys from my husband in the foyer and that I wouldn’t need to enter in the ballroom. They refused to let me through. For the next half hour, they watched as I frantically called my husband but was unable to reach him.
Then something remarkable happened. I watched as they let countless other women through — all Caucasian — without even asking to see their tickets. I asked why they were allowing them to go freely when they had just told me that I needed a ticket. Their response? “Well, now we are checking tickets.” He rolled his eyes and let another woman through, this time actually checking her ticket. His smug tone, enveloped in condescension, taunted, “See? That’s what a ticket looks like.”
When I asked “Why did you lie to me, sir?” they threatened to have the Secret Service throw me out of the building — me, a 4’11” young woman who weighs 100 pounds soaking wet, who was all prettied up in elegant formal dress, who was simply trying to reach her husband. The only thing on me that could possibly inflict harm were my dainty silver stilettos, and they were too busy inflicting pain on my feet at the moment. My suspicion was confirmed when I saw the men ask a blonde woman for her ticket and she replied, “I lost it.” The snickering tough-guy responded, “I’d be happy to personally escort you down the escalators ma’am.”
Like a malignancy, it had crept in when I least expected it — this repugnant, infectious bigotry we have become so accustomed to. “White privilege” was on display, palpable to passersby who consoled me. I’ve come to expect this repulsive racism in many aspects of my life, but when I find it entrenched in these smaller encounters is when salt is sprinkled deep into the wounds. In these crystallizing moments it is clear that while I might see myself as just another all-American gal who has great affection for this country, others see me as something less than human, more now than ever before.
When I asked why the security representatives offered to personally escort white women without tickets downstairs while they watched me flounder, why they threatened to call the Secret Service on me, I was told, “We have to be extra careful with you all after the Boston bombings.”
I explained that I am a physician, that my husband is a noted journalist for a major American newspaper, and that our guest was an esteemed, Oscar-nominated director. They did not believe me. Never mind that the American flag flew proudly outside of our home for years, with my father taking it inside whenever it rained to protect it from damage. Never mind that I won “Most Patriotic” almost every July 4th growing up. Never mind that I have provided health care to some of America’s most underprivileged, even when they have refused to shake my hand because of my ethnicity.
I looked at him, struggling to bury my tears beneath whatever shred of dignity that remained. They finally saturated my lashes and flood onto my face. Shaking with rage, I said, “We are all human beings and I only ask that you give me the same respect you give others. All I am asking is to be treating with a dignity and humanity. What you did is wrong.” They stared straight ahead, arms crossed, and refused to even look at me. Up came the cruel, xenophobic, soundproof wall that I had seen in the eyes of so many after 9/11. Their eyes, flecked with disdain and hatred, looked through me.
The next affront came quickly thereafter. “You were here last year, weren’t you? You caused trouble here last year too. I know you,” they claimed, accusing me of being a party-crasher. Completely confused, I explained that this was my first time here and that I had no idea what he was referencing. Clearly, he had assumed all brown people look the same and had confused me for someone else.
I wonder what their reaction would have been to a well-dressed white woman trying to reach her husband. Would she have struggled for over an hour while they watched and offered to escort others in? Would they not have extended an offer to help, bended over backwards to offer assistance, just as they did with the woman who “lost her ticket”? Would the Boston bombings even be mentioned to a white woman?
Let’s stop this facade that we are a beacon of tolerance. I don’t need you to “tolerate” me. I don’t want you to merely put up with my presence. All I ask, all I have ever asked, is to be treated as a human being, that bigoted jingoism is not injected into every minute facet my life, that there remains at least the illusion of decency.
Despite being a native English speaker who was born in New Orleans and a physician who trained at a prestigious institution, all people see is the color of my skin. After this incident, I will no longer apologize, either for my faith or my complexion. It is not my job to convince you to distinguish me from the violent sociopaths that claim to be Muslims, whose terrorism I neither support, nor condone. It is your job. Just like when a disturbed young white man shoots up a movie theatre or a school, it is my job, as someone with a conscience, to distinguish them from others. It’s not my job to plead with you to shake my hand without cringing, nor am I going to applaud you when you treat me with common decency; it’s not an accomplishment. It’s simply the right thing to do. Honestly, it’s not that hard.
This year, Quvenzhané Wallis took the world by storm with her staggering performance in Beasts of the Southern Wild. At several award ceremonies, reporters refused to the learn the accurate pronunciation of her name, and one reporter allegedly told Wallis, “I’m gonna call you Annie,” because her name was too difficult to pronounce. If reporters can learn to pronounce Gerard Depardieu and Monique Lhuillier then surely they can take the time to learn how to pronounce Quvenzhané. It’s not hard; it’s just not deemed worthy of your energy because she is someone of color.
A school child recently threatened my 12-year-old niece claiming, “I’m going to kill you Miss Bin Laden.” Again, it is not my job to teach your children manners and social justice, to remove the disgusting threads of racism that you have woven into their hearts with your insecurities. Last week, a 39-year-old Muslim American cab driver who served in the Iraq war was attacked and had his jaw broken in a hate crime. The assailant, an executive from an aviation company, told the veteran “I will slice your fucking throat right now.” I suppose the “support the troops” rhetoric by the right only applies to white veterans.
It wasn’t enough that I have had to prove my “American-ness” at every step of my career, but now the next generation is suffering as well. It wasn’t enough that I was asked whether my father taught me how to make bombs, or that I was told that I was doomed to the seventh circle of hell during my medical school interviews. I was also asked whether I would wear a burqa or if my parents would arrange my marriage during interviews. It is outrageous that I have to actually prove to the world how horrified I am that an 8-year-old boy was brutally murdered by a terrorist bombing. Any normal human being feels this agonizing grief with the rest of the country. I do not have to prove to you that, I, too, find it morally reprehensible. Of course I do. I have a heart. I am human.
So, I no longer want a seat at your restaurant, where you serve me begrudgingly, where I am belittled for asking for food without pork, where I endure your dirty looks at my hijabi friend. I want my pride intact, I want this struggle of mine to be recognized, for you to look me in the eye and acknowledge that yes, this tumor called bigotry is indeed rivering through your veins, polluting your mind, and is so malignant that it compels you to squash my dignity.
It’s the little indignities that slowly devastate your soul. The ones where your guard is down, and you just expect to dress up, look pretty, and enjoy an evening as a newlywed, or at the Oscars, but instead end up humiliated and snubbed. The ubiquitous racist slap in the face is thinly veiled just beneath the carefully crafted façade. This filthy, highly infectious plague is transforming our nation into one of unwarranted suspicion and anguish inflicted on disenfranchised, voiceless people of color. And now, it is no longer my job to enlighten you. To quote what you so often tell ethnic communities, “It’s time for you to step up to the plate, take responsibility, and stop taking what I have earned,” my integrity, my dignity. | <urn:uuid:3ccf7b21-a84d-4512-9b6f-51f1a11a3594> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/xenophobia?language=ja_JP | 2013-05-22T07:15:31Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97033 | 3,599 |
The Georgia High School Association will place schools in regions for the 2010-14 academic years on Dec. 2. Each day this week, the GHSF Daily staff is going to look at a different classification and tell you how we’d do the regions, starting with Class AAAAA.
These are not projections. We’d have more luck predicting the exact scores of every game this week than how the GHSA will divide up the regions. Our goal is simply to bring to light some of the questions and challenges that define the GHSA’s task next week.
Here’s how we’d do Class AAAAA:
1-AAAAA (6 teams)
Camden County (moved from 3-AAAAA)
Valdosta (playing up)
Going down: Houston County, Northside, Warner Robins
Notes: Four current 1-AAAAA schools were assigned to Class AAAA because of declining enrollment. Schools may choose to play in higher classes than the ones they’ve been assigned. We expect Valdosta to play up while the Houston County schools (Warner Robins, Northside, Houston County) play in AAAA. Do we think the GHSA is going to put Camden County in this region? We’ll believe it when we see it. But here’s the logic: The average road trip for Camden County in the new Region 1-AAAAA would be 121 miles. The average trip in Region 3-AAAAA would be 107 miles. But in 1-AAAAA, there are only five opponents. Let’s do the math: Five road trips times 121 miles is 606. Seven road trips times 107 miles is 749. In other words, Camden will travel less in a six-team Region 1-AAAAA than an eight-team Region 3-AAAAA. We realize that Camden pays many Savannah schools to give up their home football games and come to Camden, but that’s irrelevant because the travel for the region overall is the same whether Savannah comes to Camden County or vice-versa. GHSF Daily asked Camden County football coach and athletics director Jeff Herron about his school moving to Region 1. His answer: “I still don’t see how we could with the consideration we must give to the other sports. It would force all of our other sports to play all of their games on the weekends [because of long travel on week days]. But, with that few of schools [in Region 1], the region schedule might be easier to pull off. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.”
Redan (playing up)
Shiloh (moved from 8-AAAAA)
South Gwinnett (moved from 8-AAAAA)
Stephenson (playing up)
Going down: Douglass, Greenbrier, Union Grove
Notes: Five of the eight current Region 2 schools have been dropped to AAAA, leaving Luella, M.L. King and Newton as the only legitimate AAAAA schools. We suspect Stephenson and Redan will play up and remain with M.L. King, their DeKalb County neighbor. We see Douglass, Greenbrier and Union Grove taking the plunge, although Union Grove might want to stay with fellow Henry County school Luella. Regardless, the big question is how to fill out this depleted region. There are two ways to do it: One is to merge what’s left of Region 2 with what’s left of Region 4, as both regions lost significant membership. That would form a catch-all southside metro Atlanta region that stretches 67 miles from Newnan to Covington. The alternative? Force some Gwinnett County schools to join. Those Gwinnett schools that border DeKalb (in order of the likelihood of joining Region 4) are South Gwinnett, Shiloh, Parkview, Meadowcreek and Norcross. It’s only 42 miles from Luella to South Gwinnett. Also don’t rule out Brookwood and Grayson, though neither borders DeKalb.
Beach (playing up)
Bradwell Institute (playing up)
Groves (playing up)
Jenkins (playing up)
Johnson, Savannah (playing up)
Savannah (playing up)
Windsor Forest (playing up)
Moved: Camden County (to 1-AAAAA)
Notes: It’s expected that the seven Savannah-area schools will play up again, leaving this region intact except for the possible move of Camden County to Region 1. One source in Savannah told us that even Richmond Hill from Class AAA and Benedictine from AA are considering AAAAA. If that happens, the GHSA will have even more reason to put Camden County – which is isolated in the southeast corner of the state – in Region 1.
Campbell (from 6-AAAAA)
Langston Hughes (new to AAAAA)
Marietta (from 5-AAAAA)
South Cobb (from 5-AAAAA)
Going down: Chapel Hill, Lovejoy, Morrow, Mundy’s Mill, Riverdale
Notes: Region 4 picked up Langston Hughes from South Fulton but lost four Clayton County schools, plus Chapel Hill, so it needs rebuilding. Unless this region merges with Region 2 (as discussed above), there’s no alternative but to draw from Cobb County schools. Note that Pebblebrook, a school in south Cobb, already competes in Region 2. South Cobb is the most eligible candidate. After that, we picked Marietta and Campbell, but McEachern and Hillgrove are suspects, too.
Hillgrove (new to AAAAA)
Going down: East Paulding
Moved: Marietta, South Cobb (to 4-AAAAA)
Notes: Region 5 would love for the GHSA to let Hillgrove (promoted) replace East Paulding (demoted) and let that be that. But holes in regions 4 and 2 make this complicated. Southern Cobb County schools such as South Cobb, McEachern and Marietta are nervous that they will be moved to Region 4. Meanwhile, the Cherokee County schools (Cherokee, Etowah, Woodstock) might hope those Cobb schools remain in Region 5, freeing them up to play in a region with Forsyth County and North Fulton schools.
Chattahoochee (playing up)
Going down: Kell, Pope
Moved: Campbell (to 4-AAAAA)
Notes: Kell and Pope are now AAAA material, and they might be content to play in the smaller class because East Marietta neighbor Sprayberry already is there. But they also have strong rivalries with Walton and Lassiter in all sports and might choose to remain in AAAAA. Campbell, a Cobb school that’s the geographical odd ball in the current 6-AAAAA, could end up in Region 5 or even Region 4. Also pay attention to Chattahochee, a North Fulton team that was demoted to AAAA. The largest school not assigned to AAAAA, Chattahoochee has reason to play up and compete with most of the other North Fulton schools (Alpharetta, Centennial, Chattahoochee, Northview and Roswell).
Mountain View (new to AAAAA)
West Forsyth (new to AAAAA)
Going down: Chattahoochee, South Forsyth
Notes: This might be a simple trade of Chattahoochee and South Forsyth for Mountain View and West Forsyth. But if Region 8 loses a couple of southern Gwinnett teams, those most subject to moving from 7 to 8 are (in order) Norcross, Duluth, Peachtree Ridge, Collins Hill and Mountain View. Meanwhile, North Forsyth and West Forsyth would prefer to play with North Fulton and Cherokee schools, so there could be a shift in that direction. Current region member Chattahoochee was dropped to AAAA but could play up, but we’re putting the ‘Hooch in 6-AAAAA for now.
Archer (playing up)
Moved: Shiloh, South Gwinnett (to 2-AAAAA)
Notes: Archer, which opened this year in Gwinnett County, is the second-largest school assigned to AAAAA and might opt to play in this Gwinnett-dominated region rather than AAAA. Gwinnett would love to have two regions of nine Gwinnett schools each. Lanier High will open as Gwinnett’s 18th school next year and would project to go in Region 7. But the trouble is the void in Region 2 with DeKalb and Newton county schools. See Region 2 notes for that explanation. South Gwinnett and Shiloh are anxious. Also keep an eye on Stephenson and Redan. If those DeKalb schools choose to leave AAAAA, then Region 8 could simply absorb M.L. King, Luella and Newton but at the expense of sending a few of its current members over to 7-AAAAA, setting off a domino effect that could open the door for a Forsyth-Cherokee-North Fulton region.
Georgia High School Football Daily is a free email newsletter. CLICK to join the mailing list | <urn:uuid:58872f1b-4deb-4717-9733-e9d45f2e250e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-high-school-sports/2009/11/23/georgia-high-school-football-daily-spotlight-reclassification-in-class-aaaaa-will-camden-move-to-region-1/ | 2013-05-24T15:50:25Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940348 | 1,946 |
I love to cook. I like to bake. I’m pretty good at both. Pie crusts on the other hand are my downfall. My mom always made (and still makes) fantastic pies – maybe this is why I always seem to fail when it comes to the crust. They aren’t as flaky, no matter how cold the ingredients are. The sides fall down. I could go on and on with my low pie moments.
So against all things homemade, I broke down and finally used a store-bought, refrigerated pie crust. No fail this time!
Besides the store-bought pie crust, I tend to free-form my fillings – very unlike my mom’s pies which followed a recipe to the T most times. Hence the term renegade – I feel like a rebel when I throw caution to the wind and flip the bird to traditional recipes. How do I accomplish these rebellious acts you might ask? I use brown sugar (most fruit pies use white sugar), rarely ever use the same fruit combos or amounts twice, and switch up my flavorings (though I went standard with vanilla this time). I’m really living on the edge here, in my head perhaps. Sorry for projecting. The pie is delicious though.
You can change-up the type of fruit depending on what you like or what you need to use up. You just need enough fruit to fill up the pie dish. If you are more skilled than I, definitely make your own pie crust. Store-bought crust is good, but I must admit homemade still tastes better (unless I’m the one making it).
Mixed Berry Pie
- 13 oz to 1 lb strawberries sliced
- 1/2 lb to 12 oz blueberries picked over to remove stems
- 1 plum peeled and cubed
- 1/2 c brown sugar, plus extra for dusting the crust
- 3 tbsp corn starch
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, lemon or orange juice/zest, almond extract, cinnamon, liqueurs, etc
- 1 package (2 crusts – one for the top and one for the bottom) refrigerated pie crust at room temperature
- 1 tbsp butter, sliced into thin pats
- 3 tbsp milk
Preheat over to 400f.
Toss all the ingredients, except for the crust, butter, and milk in a bowl. Mix so that the sugar and cornstarch are mixed with the fruit juices and vanilla. Set aside.
Unroll one pie crust and line a pie plate with the crust. Make sure it is down into the corner edge at the bottom of the plate. Trim excess from the edges if you are feeling frisky (leaving enough for crimping), or leave it if you lazy like me.
Dump you fruit mixture into the pie plate. Dot with the pats of butter.
Unroll the second crust and lay across the top of the pie. If you are feeling frisky again, trim off any excess crust from the edges or leave it as is.
Crimp your edges to seal your pie. Make them look pretty, or if you are like me again, make half the crimps ugly and hit your pretty crimping stride when you have already massacred half the crust. You just want to make sure the pie crusts’ edges are sealed together.
Make some slits in the top of the pie to let out steam. Brush the top of the pie with the milk and sprinkle with extra brown sugar.
Pop it in the over for 10 minutes at 400. You can place a baking sheet lined with tin foil under the pie plate to catch any filling that bubbles over. I was a rebel (with an oven already in need of a cleaning) and didn’t put any protection down under the pie.
When the crust begins to brown a bit, it is time to turn the oven temperature down to 350/375f. At this point you want to wrap the edge of your crust in tin foil (make a narrow collar type contraption) to prevent it from burning.
Cook for another 20-40 minutes depending on your oven and fruit. The pie is done when the filling in bubbling and the crust is golden brown. If the filling doesn’t bubble up then it will not thicken and you will have a runny, corn starchy filling – yuck.
Let the pie cool a bit before serving. This allows time for the filling to set. Slice and serve with a scoop of ice cream or some fresh whipped cream. | <urn:uuid:3c5cb7a4-8ad9-4acb-8b99-d257ea54c09b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://craftyglutton.wordpress.com/tag/pie/ | 2013-05-24T15:49:03Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913592 | 945 |
Havre Daily News Sports Editor
The scores may not indicate it, but Tuesday was a pretty good day for the Havre High track teams. The Pony boys and girls were both soundly defeated by Class AA CMR in dual action at Great Falls' Memorial Stadium.
The CMR boys defeated Havre 92-52, while the Rustler girls crushed the Ponies 107-37. However, with forecast of cold weather for the coming days, a day of competition was better than a day of practice.
"I'd much rather have a Tuesday meet than a Tuesday practice," HHS head coach Mark West. "It's good to go out and compete instead of working out in the cold."
The Ponies not only got to compete, but got the chance to compete against a very good Rustler team.
In the boys, CMR won 11 events, led by double winners John Michelson in the 1,600 and 3,200, Philip Churchill in both hurdles events, Chris Vuckovich in the triple jump and javelin and Jeff Hansen in the shot put and discus. The Rustlers also got wins from Jacob Pearson in the 800, Kellan Carter in the high jump and Alex Smith in the 100.
Havre's Scott Robinson was solid, leading the Ponies to a sweep in the 200 as Derek Verploegen finished second and Kyle Finneman was third. Robinson also added easy wins in the 400 and long jump.
"Scott was pretty solid," West said. "He really looked good in the 400 and it was nice to sweep the 200."
Cody McLean continued to perform well in the pole vault, tying for first with CMR's Josh Anderson and Eric Hubner with vaults of 12-6.
"Cody has been very consistent in the pole vault," West said. "His heights keep going up."
Also scoring points for Havre were Ted Wells in the 100, Tom Knudson in both hurdles events, Marcus Campbell in the 1,600 and 3,200, Ricky Houim in the shot put and discus, Robert Brooks in the 800 and Ryan Horne in the long jump.
"Ricky had a nice day," West said. "He had couple nice throws in the shot and placed in the discus. It's been a long time that we've had a guy score points in the shot and discus consistently for us. I was a little disappointed with our performance in the 100. I felt like that it was a race we should win and place a few kids in."
While West would have loved to score more points, he was happy for his boys to compete on the Memorial Stadium track.
"State is being held there so it was big for our runners and throwers to get used to the surroundings," he said. "The girls got to compete there last week, but we wanted to make sure the boys ran there before state."
It was last weekend at the Optimist Invitational in Great Falls where West knew his girls would be in trouble against a powerhouse CMR squad.
"They are just so strong in so many events," West said. "When I saw them last week, I knew they were going to be almost impossible to beat."
The CMR girls racked up a whopping 107 points, thanks to wins in all but four events. Standout Shantell Marquis won the 200 and 400, while finish second in the 100 hurdles, teammate Brianna Perry took home both hurdles events and the high jump and Sydney Best won the 100 and 800.
"Marquis is an unbelievable athlete," West said. "We miss not having Mandi Nystrom and Casea Pollington. They would have scored us some points, but CMR just has so much more depth than us in every event."
Havre got the bulk of its points from the usual suspects - Carmen Neuens and Lena Suek. The sophomores each won two events to pace the Ponies.
Neuens continued to perform well in the long jump, winning for the third time in three tries with a leap of 16-2. Neuens also won the triple jump, narrowly missed out on winning the 100, recording a personal best of 13.03. She also placed third in the high jump.
"Carmen had a nice day," West said. "She ran a great time in the 100 and was solid in the jumps. She probably should have won the high jump, but she is just a little off in that event."
Suek took home wins in her best events in the discus and javelin, while finishing third in the shot put. Suek won the javelin easily with a toss of 127-11, while she edged CMR standout Kelsey Hopkins in the discus with a throw of 110-9.
"Lena had another nice day," West said. "She is throwing so well right now."
Havre's other points came from second-place finishes from Kelsey West in the 200, Darci Briere in the 1,600, Kelsey Malsam in the 3,200 and Amanda Reinke in the pole vault. The Ponies got third-place finishes from Kim Jestrab in the 400 and Larissa Hand in the triple jump.
"We had a lot of PR's from our girls," West said. "Kelsey (West) had a personal best in the 200 and Kelsey (Malsam) had a good time in the 3,200."
Regardless of scores, West was happy with his teams' performances, and looks at it as another chance to improve.
"We're starting to come around," he said. "Our kids competed hard which is what you want to see. I really think we are peaking at the right time, and all that hard work is starting to pay off."
The Ponies will be in Whitefish on Saturday for a meet featuring several Class A opponents.
"Depending on the weather, I really think it should be a good meet for us," West said.
CMR 92, Havre 52
100 - 1. Alex Smith, CMR 11.49; 2. Ted Wells, HAV 11.52; 3. Luke McKinley, CMR 11.55
200 - 1. Scott Robinson, HAV 23.64; 2. Derek Verploegen, HAV 23.82; 3. Kyle Finneman, HAV 24.14
400 - 1. Scott Robinson, HAV 53.53; 2. Alex Smith, CMR 55.95; 3. Parker Jones, CMR 57.30
800 -1. Jacob Pearson, CMR 2:10.70; 2. Tyler Dolan, CMR 2:14.56; 3. Robert Brooks
1,600 - 1. John Michelson, CMR 5:03.05; 2. Marcus Campbell, HAV 5:06.3; 3. Robert Brooks, HAV 5:08.4;
3,200 - 1. John Michelson, CMR 11:01.3; 2. Marcus Campbell, HAV 11:07.1;
100 Hurdles - 1. Philip Churchill, CMR 15.76; 2. Tom Knudson, HAV 16.55; 3. Calvin Fry, HAV CMR 22.29
300 Hurdles - 1. Philip Churchill, CMR 44.44; 2. Tom Knudson, HAV 45.36; 3. Calvin Fry, CMR 45.80
400 Relay - 1. Havre 45.15
1,600 Relay - 1. CMR 3:40.56
Pole Vault - 1. (tie) Cody McLean, HAV 12-6; Josh Anderson CMR 12-6; Eric Hubner, CMR 12-6
Long Jump - 1. Scott Robinson, HAV 19-1; 2. Tyson Wald, CMR 18-8; 3. Ryan Horne, HAV 17-2
High Jump - 1. Kellan Carter, CMR 6-6; 2. (tie) Drew Savage, CMR 5-10; Cody Vukasin, CMR 5-10
Triple Jump - 1. Chris Vuckovich, CMR 37-8; 2. Luke McKinley, CMR 35-10
Shot Put - 1. Jeff Hansen, CMR 52-10; 2. Ricky Houim, HAV 49-3; 3. Justin Clark, CMR 40-8
Discus - 1. Jeff Hansen, CMR 164-2; 2. Andrew Voorhees, CMR 133-1; 3. Ricky Houim, HAV 128-3
Javelin - 1. Chris Vuckovich, CMR 151-10; 2. Zach Garrity, CMR 151-08; 3. Tyson Wald, CMR 137-11
CMR 107, Havre 37
100 - 1. Sydney Best, CMR 13.01; 2. Carmen Neuens, HAV 13.03; 3. Kelsey Hopkins, CMR 13.15
200 - 1. Shantell Marquis, CMR 27.11; 2. Kelsey West, HAV 27.93; 3. Holly Heffley, CMR 28.05
400 - 1. Shantell Marquis, CMR 1:00.65; 2. Amanda Berringer, CMR 1:07.09; 3. Kim Jestrab, HAV 1:09.1
800 - 1. Sydney Best, CMR 2:31.16; 2. Marilee Woyth, CMR 2:34.5; 3. Kasha Kiddrick, CMR 2:40.16
1,600 - 1. Marilee Woyth, CMR 5:38.7; 2. Darci Briere, HAV 5:49.9; 3. Kasha Kiddrick, CMR 5:55.2
3,200 - 1. Kirsten Jensen, CMR 12:44.3; 2. Kelsey Malsam, HAV 13:09; 3. Kasandra Maloney, CMR 13:39.46
100 Hurdles - 1. Brianna Perry, CMR 16.4; 2. Shantell Marquis, CMR 17.47; 3. Melissa Fry, CMR 18.36
300 Hurdles - 1. Brianna Perry, CMR 50.42; 2. Melissa Fry, CMR 51.37
400 Relay - 1. CMR 52.68
1,600 Relay - 1. CMR 4:28.67; 2. Havre 4:37.60
Pole Vault - 1. (tie) Adrianna Aafeldt, CMR 8-0; Alexa From, CMR 8-0; 2. Amanda Reinke, HAV 7-0
Long Jump - 1. Carmen Neuens, HAV 16-2; 2. Brianna Perry, CMR 14-5; 3. Kasey Aafeldt, 13-4
High Jump - 1. Brianna Perry, CMR 4-10; 2. Kelsey Hopkins, CMR 4-8; 3. Carmen Neuens, HAV 4-8
Triple Jump - 1. Carmen Neuens, HAV 31-4; 2. Kelsey Aafeldt, CMR 30-5; 3. Larissa Hand, HAV 29-1
Shot Put - 1. Kelsey Hopkins, CMR 35-3; 2. Nikki Oleson, CMR 33-5; 3. Lena Suek, HAV 32-9
Discus - 1. Lena Suek, HAV 110-9; 2. Kelsey Hopkins, CMR 108-5; 3. Nikki Oleson, CMR 102-4
Javelin - 1. Lena Suek, HAV 127-11; 2. Kristen Tuttle, CMR 117-5; 3. Nikki Oleson, CMR 89-3 | <urn:uuid:4b46f336-14e4-424d-996b-18d76c6b9015> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://havredailynews.com/cms/news/story-131867.html | 2013-05-24T15:43:25Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935797 | 2,528 |
Jewish World Review August 30, 2002 / 22 Elul, 5762
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | If you haven't seen enough footage of the Twin Towers coming down, if you haven't heard enough back-stories of the people who were killed, if you haven't watched enough rock and roll singers and movie stars paying their respects, if you haven't cried enough tears, then stay tuned ... this coming September 11th is for you.
There will be memorials...lots of memorials. Every radio and television channel will be honoring those who died last year. The networks will be doing 9-11 shows all day and all night. The cable channels will be going around the clock too. Every single station will be doing something, the Food Network, Court TV, MTV, Turner Classic Movies -- when I say every channel, I mean every channel.
Every American city (and most major foreign cities) will be holding some sort of commemoration. There'll be marches, parades, testimonials, candlelight precessions, and moments of silence. There'll be fireworks and stirring patriotic songs. Drivers are being asked to turn on their headlights on the anniversary of that fateful morning. Politicians from the President to township councilmen will be all over the place giving speeches and unveiling memorials.
When I typed "September 11 Anniversary" on the Google Internet search, it listed no less than 1,050,000 web sites! You have no idea the scope of 9-11 celebratory events. Every agency in the federal government has something going, not to mention all state and local governments. There are church memorials planed, Jewish memorials, Islamic memorials, even atheist memorials. Homosexual, lesbian and transgenered activities will be held to honor those homosexual, lesbian and transgenered victims of 9-11.
Celebrities will be doing more specials to honor the victims and the victims' families. Music videos, symphony orchestras, poetry readings and sing-a-longs. There will be even more money collected for the families of the victims (when will there be enough, already?). We will see photos of the victims again. Hear their tragic stories again. We will remember the heroes and honor them again. People will cry again. We are in danger, actually, of drowning in our own tears. Remember September 11th? Has anyone in the world ever stopped remembering? It's good to remember, but maybe it's time to stop crying.
We have just had a massive media blitz in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley's "death day." This is a relatively new phenomenon. Yes, we have remembered Pearl Harbor on December 7th for decades, but we never embraced it to the extent that we embrace anniversaries of "death days" now. Thanks in part to television, we have become a society that wallows in it's tragedies. Even good intentions can be overdone.
Meanwhile, we get closer to expanding our war on the Islamic terrorists that attacked us one year ago. Vice President Cheney has made it clear that the administration is preparing to liberate Iraq and take out Saddam Hussein. It's about time. In order to destroy terrorist networks like al Qaeda we need to overthrow the regimes that support them. As long as there are terrorist states like Iraq, Iran and Syria -- governments that harbor, train, and encourage terrorists -- we can never expect to completely succeed in our war against terror. The terrorists need to live somewhere -- we must do what is necessary to severely limit their housing options.
If we really want to honor the memory of those who were incinerated last year we need to do something truly spectacular -- something that not only shows proper respect for their lives, but also sends a message to the world that all of America has taken their deaths extremely personally. Yes, we need to do something spectacular.
Do we sing patriotic songs? Do we shoot off fireworks? Do we wave millions of American flags? Do we light 3,000 candles? Do we release 3,000 doves? Do we walk outside and hold hands with our neighbors? Do we weep collectively along with the victims' families? No -- none of the above.
We've sung a year's worth of patriotic songs -- we finally know most of them by heart now. We've flown our flags from our homes, our cars, and our businesses until they became tattered and frayed -- then we bought more. We've worn our flag pins on our lapels and our hearts on our sleeves. We've heard the stories of horror and heroism. We've praised the firemen, the police, the military. We've given money to help the victims. We've gotten mad at the terrorists. We've cried and cried and cried. We've cried enough now.
So how best to commemorate the first anniversary of the attack on September 11, 2001? How about with a triple-header -- simultaneous bombings of Baghdad, Damascus, and Teheran on September 11, 2002?
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JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. A freelance writer in Southern California, you may contact him by clicking here. | <urn:uuid:b6b14f61-3fd7-4800-8949-869b424294b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/crosby083002.asp | 2013-05-24T15:29:22Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954381 | 1,107 |
NEW!!! The expense of failure
As the sun comes up on the horizon, its bright warming fingers reach out over Korea. Across the nation, the sound of cars, lorries and buses that restricted the natural silence and stillness of the previous night prevails into morning. The punters from the evening line the streets, piling into taxis to ferry them home or straight to work. Other droopy-eyed proletarians wipe sleep from their eyes as they drag themselves into their workplace. The elderly, alert and active, converge and power-walk together in circles. It’s the birth of a new day and the death of another.
Koreans take great pride in their country, their history, their ‘pure’ Korean blood, their culture, the patriarchal society, and – what is most admired by westerners – their industrial and economic growth.
What unhappily intrudes upon this rosy picture is that in South Korea suicide rates have risen dramatically and over the past two decades have tripled. The most recent study from the OECD (published in 2009) confirms that South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. The data shows that there were 31 suicides per 100,000 people. With a population of around 50 million in 2009 that works out to be
about 42 people taking their own life every day.
In that same year the former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun took his own life after his reputation or gibun had been tarnished amidst a bribery scandal. Sadly, this is not the only case where a high profile person has chosen to take their own life because of ‘loss of face’ in the eyes of society. Some celebrities over the past year have committed suicide in seemingly minor scandals that apparently were unbearable for them.
Unfortunately, when celebrities commit suicide their actions don’t stop with the harm they do to themselves. As role models to many Koreans, they appear to endorse suicide and the negative message that they unwittingly communicate to their followers can bring about copycat behaviour.
But for those who are not celebrities what makes them reach the decision that they can’t take any more? For many it’s when their body or mind has reached a point where neither science nor sympathy is of help. And could it be that in South Korea new technology, new industries and values don’t mix easily with the ideology of Confucianism?
Confucius (551-479BC) wrote that death is acceptable if individuals do not follow the fundamental core rules; ‘see nothing improper, hear nothing improper, say nothing improper, do nothing improper.’ He believed that these qualities are inherent within everyone and wrote that it is inconceivable that someone should seek to stay alive at the expense of forsaking these qualities. Thus it may happen that they have
to accept death in order to accomplish this desired perfection.
In many instances it would appear that Koreans are striving constantly for perfection. From their overwhelming dedication to education to their exceptionally long working days, this can be seen as a striving to achieve success at a cost that would be unacceptable to most westerners (see Scramble for Success). Is it too far out to suggest that this newly evolved striving is linked to the 2009 OECD statistical revelation, that in South Korea the biggest killer above heart disease and cancer for
the 20-40 year old was suicide?
The South Korean government is not unaware of the human toll of this transition from the old to the new. Steps have been taken to counter the unwelcome downside of success. Support is now available on the internet and over the phone. In fact, the government has even placed phones on certain ‘hotspot’ bridges in an attempt to offer potential victims the opportunity to call somebody who will listen. The number
of people who have been moved away from their original intentions by this support is not known.
An unusual route some specialist schools have taken is to offer people the chance to study and ‘experience death’. This is done in a controlled environment, where the ‘students’ are encouraged to reflect on their life and describe how they would wish to be remembered. Following this session, comes the writing of the last will and testament and then the ‘student’ is given the opportunity to lie in a closed coffin for up to ten dark, lonely minutes. All of this starting from just £15 ($25USD).
Many have embraced this idea of shock education and some companies – hoping to instil the importance of life — have made it compulsory for their staff to attend. Others have been more critical of this type of enlightenment – describing it as a way of glorifying death.
It will come as no surprise that education and a few phones won’t be enough to bring about a different way for the individual to deal with life’s challenges. Though it may be difficult to accept, there is (most probably) no quick-fix and South Korean society cannot be expected to change overnight. New statistical data is currently being compiled by the OECD and It is be hoped that when published will show some
decrease in the suicide rate.
The transition from a rural England to that of an industrial one has taken over two centuries. And it has had a profound influence on the English. So for Korea to absorb and adapt to a similar transition within a couple of decades is, perhaps, asking a little too much.
In the meantime, all we can do is wait.
© John Brownlie 2011 | <urn:uuid:5b843d2c-d8d9-41f3-be9f-6198f04d5f85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://koreabridge.net/post/new-expense-failure-elbear1 | 2013-05-24T15:28:17Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964525 | 1,125 |
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July 19, 2011
Rivals.com basketball recruiting analysts Jerry Meyer and Eric Bossi weigh in on four current topics.
What's been the No. 1 surprise for you from the first half of the July evaluation period?
Bossi: I don't know if I have a No. 1 surprise. As expected, the Peach Jam was the most talent-laden and competitive event, and NIKE's structure is still the best in grassroots basketball. Looking at players, finding a guy such as Rysheed Jordan, a 2013 point guard from Philly, was a nice surprise. So was 2014 New York native Chris McCullough. Maybe he doesn't fit into the true category of a "surprise" but I was blown away by the improved play of Nerlens Noel at the Peach Jam. The 2013 big man has always been considered an elite prospect, but he's really taken his game to a new level and might have put together the single most dominating defensive event I've seen in 11 years in the business. All of the sudden, he looks like a young Alonzo Mourning out there.
Meyer: I'm surprised at how many quality post players are in the 2012 class. Basketball seems to be more of a perimeter game where speed is more important than length. The 2012 class, however, is bucking that trend. The top of the rankings are loaded with post players. The four-star range has a bunch of good big men. And players such as Adam Woodbury, Joel James and Robert Upshaw have emerged here lately as high quality prospects.
What's the biggest mistake that a prospect can make in the spotlight this month?
Bossi: It's of the utmost importance to show a good attitude during the month of July. The fact is there are a few elite players that could afford to just about do anything or say anything and their talent would override their actions and allow them to find a spot. But, for the average kid, the one fighting for a scholarship, a great attitude is key. Coaches are trying to cut down the list of guys they are looking at and kids with poor body language, who don't give consistent effort and who bicker with teammates, coaches and refs are the first to get dismissed as prospects by college coaches. It's pretty simple, kids just need to play hard, play clean and act right on the floor and whatever is meant to happen from there will take care of itself.
Meyer: The biggest mistake is not competing. July is a great opportunity to go up against some of the top competition you can find. So not playing on the circuit, isn't a good sign. Even worse is if a prospect is on the court and isn't giving his best effort to help his team win. Laziness and selfishness will kill a prospect's value in the eyes of the coaches.
Who are you most looking forward to seeing in the second half of the period?
Bossi: It isn't necessarily any one player that I'm looking forward to seeing, but I'm definitely going to be targeting kids who play for adidas teams and teams from the West Coast while I'm in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. I've not seen most of the adidas teams as in-depth as I would like and it will be important to catch up with them. Also, I always feel as if I never see as many West Coast kids as I would like, so I really want to focus on them as much as possible. After that, I really want to find time to watch the 16 and 15U divisions as much as possible.
Meyer: I've been very impressed with the top prospects in the 2013 class. One of those prospects, Kuran Iverson, hasn't had a lot of exposure this travel season. He is definitely at the top of my list of prospects I'm looking forward to scouting.
Is there a specific tournament in Las Vegas that stands above the rest?
Bossi: I don't know that any one stands above the rest. I've been to Vegas for so many summers now and seen so many tournaments that they all kind of blend together and I don't even view them as separate events at this stage. To me, it's just one giant "Vegas" event and I lump them all together, and just try to figure out the most effective way to make use of my time and minimize losing evaluation time traveling from one gym to another.
Meyer: I don't know that one is necessarily better than the other. Vegas has traditionally been the location for me to tie up loose ends and make sure I get the look at prospects that I need heading into the post summer rankings. So usually I'm bouncing around from tournament to tournament making sure I see the right prospects. | <urn:uuid:52f1e456-311a-4e0a-a359-9568bb52ae08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://miami.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1241808 | 2013-05-24T15:50:46Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982038 | 1,006 |
The Top Five Tricks of Religious Writers
The Top Five Tricks of Religious Writers: the five tricks, tropes and memes that pervade religious news, religious media, and religious writing.
Do you think that the media presents the religion/politics/science position they want us to have, or are they just responding to what we want?
Read more: The Top Five Tricks of Religious Writers
The Science of Fox News: Why Its Viewers are the Most Misinformed
Political Propaganda: Six Ways the Media Has Misreported Syria
‘As in the case of Libya, from NY Times to Fox News, from Guardian to National Post and from Le Monde to Le Figaro, the Western mainstream media’s coverage of the Syrian conflict has been mostly simplistic and black & white with a Hollywoodian good (opposition) and evil (Syrian government) story.’
Read more: Political Propaganda: Six Ways the Media Has Misreported Syria
Noam Chomsky: Are We About to Get Embroiled in a Nightmare War With Iran?
‘Europeans regard Israel as the greatest threat to world peace. In the Arab world, Iran is disliked but seen as a threat only by a very small minority. Rather, Israel and the U.S. are regarded as the pre-eminent threat. A majority think that the region would be more secure if Iran had nuclear weapons: In Egypt on the eve of the Arab Spring, 90 percent held this opinion, according to Brookings Institution/Zogby International polls.’
Read more: Noam Chomsky: Are We About to Get Embroiled in a Nightmare War With Iran?
The Hacks of War: The Media and Iran
‘The law itself is crystal clear. Under the UN Charter it is the ultimate war crime for a nation to initiate an aggressive war against another country that has not attacked it or that does not pose an “imminent threat” of attack. And given that even Israeli and US intelligence officials concede that Iran is not at this time making a bomb, and thus cannot hope to have a working one even a year from now were they to begin a crash program, there is simply no imminent threat.’
Read more: The Hacks of War: The Media and Iran
Media Wars & Big Bluffs: Israel’s Huff and Puff Game
‘The air is full of dire warnings of an impending Israeli attack on Iran. Prophets of doom declare themselves full of forebodings and point fearfully to the meeting in the White House between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as crucial in making the decisions that will lead to peace or war.’
Read more: Media Wars & Big Bluffs: Israel’s Huff and Puff Game
The Original Sin: Assassinating Iranian Scientists
‘To avoid restating the obvious, or repeating what others have already established, I take these facts as givens: that the main perpetrator of the assassination of Iranian scientists has been the Israeli spy agency Mossad, assisted by various covert operations agencies of the United States and its allies; that the claim of Iran’s possessing or pursuing a nuclear arms program is false; and that, therefore, the assertion that Iran poses an “existential” threat to Israel is, likewise, a fiction designed to justify plans of war and regime change in that country.’
Read more: The Original Sin: Assassinating Iranian Scientists
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous vows ‘crusade’ against Israel
’Online collective Anonymous has pledged a “crusade” against Israel. Claiming the country is committing “crimes against humanity” and gearing for “nuclear holocaust”, the group promised a campaign against the Israeli government.
In their statement issued early on Friday, Anonymous accused Israeli leaders of creating false democracy, serving the interests of a “select few” while “trampling the liberties of the masses.” The group said that Israel manipulates public opinion with a combination of “media deception” and “political bribery”.
Addressing the Israeli leaders, Anonymous stated that their “Zionist bigotry” is to blame for killings and displacements, adding that “as the world weeps” they are planning their “next attack”. The group pledged not to allow the attack to happen.’
Read more: Hacktivist Collective Anonymous vows ‘crusade’ against Israel
A Few Words On The Infuriating ‘Liberal Media’ Argument
‘If you tune into Fox News or Conservative talk radio, you’re not likely to have to wait a long time before they mention the Liberal Media. They talk about it as if it’s a monolithic, cohesive organization whose aim is to brainwash the American public so they can install a Tsar atop a new world order that forces people to gay marry and use energy efficient lightbulbs. In addition, Conservative politicians never miss a chance to dismiss a story as coming from the Liberal Media if it happens to cast them in any kind of negative light. Here are a couple of things that are infuriating about this.’
Read more: A Few Words On The Infuriating ‘Liberal Media’ Argument | <urn:uuid:56d2a379-d221-42e1-af90-6ec10afe066c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mysticpolitics.tumblr.com/tagged/Bad-Journalism | 2013-05-24T16:04:08Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927206 | 1,101 |
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Buzz words of the 90s and early 2000s
“Excessive remuneration packages for executives can be corrosive" Guardian headline 30 Aug 2001. Do they mean divisive? Damaging? In text, “Uncontrolled excessive pay can be socially corrosive and undermine morale...” Makes more sense, but still not clear on what’s going to be corroded and why this is a bad thing.
"The hounding of politicians by a cynical and corrosive media is a disaster for democracy” Guardian 10/28/2002
“A single item was on the agenda: how to deal with the corrosive allegations arising from the collapse of the Paul Burrell trial...” Independent Nov 16 02 Damaging?
“It is four years of corrosive Bush Middle East policies, coming on top of decades of US incompetence and missed opportunities.” Arab News May 6 2004 Nasty?
“The systematic spread of political correctness has a corrosive effect on our society.” Michael Howard Aug 2004
"Much of modern television is not only bad but socially corrosive, coarsening and brutalising viewers through its obsessions with sex, aggression and voyeurism, John Humphrys, the broadcaster, has declared." Telegraph website August 28, 2004 Perhaps he thinks it means “corrupting".
“Isn’t it lazy or corrosive to slam a person or a thing just because they happen to have a public dimension?” Times June 4, 2005
The importation of New World gold into Spain coincided with a corrosive inflation that has come to be known as the "price revolution." snopes.com
"As yet there are no political parties, raising fears that voting blocs will form along corrosive tribal lines." Guardian Dec 19 2005 Divisive?
"The fact that the sea is presided over by lunatics who believe there should be commercial fishing in 100% of the sea breeds a culture that is corrosive." Charles Clover, 2006 So civilisation as we know it is going to be destroyed by commercial fishing... it's so obvious!
faux for fake
engagement/engage (engaging with issues - went by 2001)
disengagement (went by 2001)
overarching (Whatever happened to umbrella? Whatever happened to overarching?)
ratchet up (eg ratchet up standards when you just mean "raise standards" (or, ridiculously, "ratchet down")
shape (meaning influence)
1999 uber as prefix
wrestling with (inner) demons (His demons returned to haunt him.)
pushing the envelope
blanking He blanks me. “I’m blanking the wheel.” Margaret Forster Evening Standard 2 Feb 00
cascade (gone by 2002)
shadowy has come to mean "having sinister unseen forces/motives/organisations/people behind it"
2000 minded Judges, politicians “were minded” to do something (and Ken Livingstone still is January 11, 2007 and March 2007)
visitor attraction for tourist trap
levels The "situation" of the 90s/00s. (Still with us in 2003. Sigh. Going out, 2004? Still around 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012...)
disorder American habit of adding ‘disorder’ to states of mind. Stress disorder, panic disorder, narcissistic personality disorder. A bit like "situation" but making sure you don’t assume stress is a good thing, or narcissism is normal, or something.
People have stopped talking about "values".
calcified French society is “calcifying”, letter to Evening Standard August 9 2005 (What happened to “ossified”?)
red-top (for tabloid newspaper)
wrap (Erykah Badu wears a head-wrap not a turban, there’s a kind of sandwich called a wrap, lines on screen suffer from word-wrap) When did wrapping paper become wrap? Oz gladwrap for clingfilm has been around since 70s.
diversity multi-ethnic became multi-cultural and now we have diversity (probably short for cultural diversity)
creep (mission creep, function creep) (like movement of glacier? expansion of asphalt?)
prongs (for horns of dilemma, multipronged approach)
junket (for free hospitality surrounding film launches etc)
buildout (like rollout)
More here (90s, 2000, 2001).
2002 and 2003 here.
Buzz Words of 2011 here and here.
Complete Buzz Words of 2010 here.
Buzz Words of 2009 here.
Buzz Words of 2009 Part Two here. | <urn:uuid:13b8dd5d-310b-4706-95d9-e62e1a178338> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wordcount-richmonde.blogspot.com/2012/02/buzz-words-of-90s-and-early-2000s.html | 2013-05-24T15:28:32Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915828 | 982 |
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What's Wrong With Xenotransplantation?
Merriam-Webster: Xenotransplantation is the transplantation of an organ, tissue, or cells between two different species
From Campaign for Responsible Transplantation (CRT)
Why CRT is Opposed to Xenotransplantation
The alleged chronic shortage of human organs has led some researchers and federal health officials in the US and elsewhere to consider using organs from animals such as pigs and nonhuman primates. Xenotransplantation, attempted since 1905, is marred by a history of failures and intense human and animal suffering. But the prospect of commercializing the technology has created huge financial incentives for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies who have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in xenotransplantation. The desire to gain a return on such large investments has led many companies to make exaggerated claims about the alleged merits of the technology. CRT believes that these claims are baseless and that, in fact, the technology is dangerous, expensive, inhumane, and unnecessary, and should therefore be banned.
- Transplanting living animal organs into humans circumvents the natural barriers (such as skin and gastrointestinal tract) that prevent infection, thereby facilitating the transmission of infectious diseases from animals to humans.
- Many animal viruses have the ability to jump species barriers and kill humans. Viruses that are harmless to their animal hosts, can be deadly when transmitted to humans. For example, Macaque herpes is harmless to Macaque monkeys, but lethal to humans.
- Many viruses, as innocuous as the common cold or as lethal as Ebola, can be transmitted via a mere cough or sneeze. An animal virus residing in a xenograft recipient could become airborne, infecting scores of people, and causing a potentially deadly viral epidemic of global proportions akin to HIV or worse.
- Pigs, genetically altered to carry human genes, are being considered as the source animals of choice for xenotransplants, despite the existence of over 25 diseases in pigs that can infect humans. The influenza virus of 1918, which resembled a common swine flu, killed more people in modern history than any other epidemic including AIDS and the Black Plague. New mutations of swine influenza are being seen around the globe, and novel pig viruses keep surfacing. In October 1997, medical journals reported that Porcine Endogenous Retroviruses (PERVs), present throughout the pig genome, infected human cells in test tubes. That same year, the Australian "paramyxovirus" infected piggery workers with flu-like symptoms. And, most recently, the "Nipah" virus, discovered in Malaysia in late 1998, spread from pigs to hundreds of humans, killing 100+ and leading to the mass slaughter of some one million pigs, as well as several dogs and horses.
- There is no way to screen for viruses that are not yet known. Proceeding with xenotransplantation could expose patients and non-patients to a host of new animal viruses which could remain dormant for months or years before being detected. Xenotransplantation could thus be viewed as a form of involuntary human experimentation which violates US laws and United Nations charters.
- Xenotransplant proponents claim that they will breed "germ-free" animals, thereby diminishing the risk of viral transmission. But it is impossible to breed "germ-free" animals since no animal can remain completely free of parasites or endogenous viruses. In fact, genetically engineered animals are more susceptible to a host of diseases because of weaker immune systems.
- CRT believes that HHS violated the Public Health Service Act by ignoring the scientific evidence showing that xenotransplantation is dangerous and ineffective. HHS failed to adequately consider the legal, social, ethical, and economical implications of xenotransplantation. HHS issued voluntary draft guidelines on xenotransplantation, September 23, 1996, despite scientific evidence demonstrating that the xenograft recipient will suffer significant harm. Scientists have criticized the voluntary guidelines for being weak, ineffectual, and unlikely to protect the public. HHS did not adequately consider how to protect the public from contracting novel animal viruses, how to deal with the issue of informed consent, or the large costs associated with xenotransplantation. HHS issued voluntary guidelines to regulate the technology. It is highly probable that HHS will be unable to protect the xenograft recipient or the public from being infected by an animal virus. As a result, HHS should have considered how the government would handle an infectious epidemic before the guidelines for xenotransplantation were issued.
- HHS has not addressed how infected individuals will be identified and how those infected will be prevented from spreading diseases. HHS has also failed to address who will pay for treatment and care for those infected. Treating and caring for individuals infected with animal viruses will most likely cost the U.S. billions of dollars. So far, HHS has not stated whether it would compensate victims who inadvertently come into contact with a lethal animal virus. However, this should be a consideration because the government has already had to respond to compensation claims filed by Persian Gulf War veterans, victims of Agent Orange, hemophiliacs infected by HIV-tainted blood, and parents of vaccine-damaged children. Although HHS identifies procedures for obtaining informed consent in the xenotransplantation guidelines, the agency failed to consider several important issues. An Institute of Medicine 1996 report on xenotransplantation indicates that "more research needs to be done on the psychological, religious, and social interpretations of xenotransplants for patients and their families." HHS should have considered that xenograft patients will most likely be very ill when they decide to take part in xenograft procedures. These patients, many in desperate situations, must understand highly complex issues, including the experimental nature of xenotransplantation and the health risks not only to themselves, but also their close personal contacts. It is unlikely that patients would fully understand the consequences of their participation in such experiments.
- Health authorities were unable to prevent the worldwide spread of HIV infection. Similarly, they were unable to prevent Ebola outbreaks in Sudan, Zaire (1976, 1979, 1995) and the US (1989, 1996). Furthermore, there is evidence that humans have become ill after consuming or being injected with animal materials. There is a reported link between the smallpox vaccine (derived from animal cells) and AIDS, a recently acknowledged link between human lung, brain and bone cancer and the SV (simian virus) 40 (found in old batches of the Salk polio vaccine), and the threat of emerging infectious diseases, including human Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) from the consumption of "mad cows" in Europe, the Netherlands, and the US. It would be a tragedy if federal health authorities failed to respect the precautionary principle and facilitated the introduction and spread of a new viral epidemic. Responsible health authorities would steer clear of xenotransplantation in the interest of human health.
- In September 1996, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a set of draft voluntary guidelines on xenotransplantation. Currently, xenotransplantation is "regulated" by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Over the last several years, FDA has approved limited clinical trials with animal tissues, cells, and organs, typically pig livers, used outside the body as temporary "bridges" to "filter" the blood of patients awaiting human liver transplants. Xenotransplant products that utilize both a device and a biologic (such as the "liver-assist device") would be considered a combination product and regulated both by the FDA's Center for Biologic Evaluation and Research (CBER) and the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Animal organs used in xenotransplantation would be considered biologics and covered by CBER. Ironically, CBER scientists have acknowledged that xenotransplantation presents a risk of introducing novel pathogens into the human population.
- The FDA's active support for xenotransplant research is inconsistent with positions the agency has taken in the past. In 1991, the FDA ordered a recall of a disinfectant, Sporicidin, used by dentists and doctors to sterilize equipment, claiming that it did not adequately protect patients from infectious microorganisms. FDA commissisoner at the time, David Kessler, said FDA would "not tolerate products that would permit the transmission of disease from one patient to another."
- Proposed regulatory oversight of xenotransplantation procedures is weak and would likely be highly flawed. Although xenotransplants subject patients and non-patients to significant health risks, HHS chose a lenient method for monitoring the health effects from the procedures by constructing voluntary guidelines on xenotransplantation. As it stands, the guidelines are to be "enforced" at the local level by institutional review boards (IRBs). Virologist Jonathan Allan has stated that, "in choosing voluntary guidelines to be enforced at a local level [via IRBs],…the FDA/CDC committee has chosen the least stringent and possibly least successful method of policing these transplant procedures."
- In a draft 1998 report, the HHS's own Inspector General June Gibbs Brown said that institutional review boards, whose members are unpaid, and who are charged with monitoring the treatment of participants in clinical trials, "face crushing workloads, inadequate training and potential conflicts of interest."
- Even if FDA were to assume the responsibility for monitoring all clinical xenotransplant trials, that would not necessarily be an improvement. FDA has already failed to successfully provide oversight for human tissue banks; the agency has also been criticized by scientists and consumer groups for approving the use of a controversial genetically engineered bovine growth hormone despite the existence of several studies questioning its safety.
- In the federal guidelines, HHS recommends a strict monitoring regimen for patients and their close contacts. The rigorous and potentially "life-long surveillance" program, would require complete physical exams and sampling regimens. But HHS fails to discuss the issue of noncompliance with the monitoring program. What would happen if individuals choose to sporadically participate or entirely withdraw from the program and HHS is not able to detect an infectious disease? A disease could spread before HHS recognizes its existence.
- In all areas of human activity, particularly when money is involved, the potential for fraud, error, and negligence exists. In the past, such behavior has placed human health at considerable risk. Witness the HIV-contaminated blood scandals in France, China, Japan and the US, for example, in which employees and/or medical authorities knowingly allowed HIV-contaminated blood to be used for transfusions and blood-clotting treatments for hemophiliacs.
- Given the enormous amount of data, paperwork, and filing xenotransplant procedures would generate, it would be naive (given human nature) to assume that data will be properly recorded, stored, reviewed, and updated. Regulatory mechanisms often fail to prevent or correct these errors and/or behaviors, the consequences of which could be disastrous in the face of a xenogeneic infection.
- Xenotransplantation is not a cost effective technology. It is riskier and promises to be even more expensive than human-to-human transplantation (roughly $300,000 per operation, not including the hidden costs of breeding, housing, feeding, medicating, testing, transporting, rendering, and disposing of the waste and remains of herds of transgenic animals).
- The FDA wants to establish a registry to archive xenograft patient and source animal tissue samples. This archive is to be funded by taxpayers. FDA officials estimate the cost of the registry at $250,000 to $300,000 a year, and the cost for the archive at $1 million a year.
- Xenotransplant researchers acknowledge that 'rearing pigs under germ-free conditions, is extremely expensive and time-consuming and the production of germ-free pigs would greatly add to the cost of providing donor organs.' Currently it costs from $25,000 to $100,000 to test just one pig for the presence of known bacteria and viruses. The biotechnology company Nextran explains that one of its pig organs will eventually cost the same as a human organ.
- Based upon this estimate, xenotransplantation is not cost effective.
- The current transplant costs for human organs range from $116,000 for a kidney to more than $300,000 for a liver. Factoring in years of follow-up care and immunosuppressive drugs, the cost rises to about $400,000 for a liver transplant and over $300,000 each for heart and lung transplants. A 1996 Institute of Medicine report predicts that xenotransplantation will push annual transplant cost from $3 billion to $20.3 billion. These costs are beyond the means of a majority of Americans and an already overburdened health care system.
- It is predicted that, by the year 2000, 48 million Americans will lack basic healthcare. Another 30+ million will be underinsured. The uninsured (largely minorities, 18 to 24-year-olds, and the working poor) who are chronically ill are least likely to receive proper care, with the result that untreated conditions can lead to serious health consequences. Can we justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on operations that, if they ever succeed, would at best benefit a small minority of patients, while dramatically driving up health care costs for all?
Animal Welfare Concerns
- Biotechnology companies are breeding pigs with human genes in the hopes of fooling the human immune system into accepting a foreign organ from another species. This disturbing genetic reconstruction of life (the creation of animals that are, in essence, part animal and part human) is advancing on a commercial scale with almost no informed public discussion or effective oversight.
- Scientific studies have demonstrated that pigs are highly intelligent and sensitive animals. Pigs used in studies at the University of Pennsylvania manipulated joysticks with their mouths to solve mazes and play games on a computer. Pigs used in biomedical research can be subjected to painful biological and surgical manipulations at experimenters' discretion, causing great pain and suffering before death. Policy-makers in the U.S. and elsewhere have decided that it is "ethical" to use pigs in xenotransplants because pigs are killed for food. But two wrongs do not make a right. Ironically, it is precisely because people eat too many pigs, and have unhealthy lifestyles, that pig organ transplants are being considered. A large majority of heart, liver, and kidney transplants could be prevented if people reduced their meat, (and alcohol and tobacco consumption). We should ask whether it is acceptable to make pigs and other nonhuman animals scapegoats for our species' self-destructive behaviors. Transgenic technology is very imprecise. Previous transgenic pig research programs have produced animals with various painful physical abnormalities including arthritis, stomach ulcers, muscular weakness, defective vision, and weakened immunity. Transgenic animals are destined to spend their lives confined in unnatural, sterile environments, unable to fulfill their basic behavioral needs, until death. In her book, Genetic Engineering: Dream or Nightmare (1998), British biologist Mae-Wan Ho wrote that, "the creation of transgenic animals for xenotransplantation . . .[is] scientifically flawed and morally unjustifiable. [It carries] inherent hazards in facilitating cross-species exchange and recombination of viral pathogens. These projects ought not to be allowed to continue without full public review."
- In CRT's opinion, HHS failed to consider the environmental consequences of xenotransplantation as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). HHS issued guidelines for xenotransplantation without complying with any of NEPA's requirements. NEPA requires that agencies "take a 'hard look' at the environmental consequences before taking a major action." HHS failed to take the required "hard look" at the environmental and health consequences of its actions because no Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was performed. By completely ignoring the entire EIS requirements, HHS has violated NEPA.
- CRT believes that xenotransplantation is a "significant" action because it is highly controversial and poses unique and unknown health effects to the xenograft recipient and the general public. Furthermore, xenotransplantation affects "the quality of the human environment." Federal regulations define "the quality of the human environment" to include "the natural and physical environment and the relationship of people with that environment." In this case, the relationship of people to their environment is affected by the HHS's action because xenotransplantation may create deadly new animal viruses. Due to this significant public health concern, HHS should have prepared an EIS.
- Xenotransplantation also poses significant threats to the environment. The animals needed for xenotransplantation will increase the environmental problems caused by animal-based agriculture. U.S. farms already generate about 1.4 billion tons of animal manure a year, 130 times the quantity of U.S. human sewage, according to a 1997 report by the Senate Agriculture Committee entitled, Animal Waste Pollution in America: An Emerging National Problem. This untreated and largely unregulated manure, contaminated with bacteria, parasites, chemicals and heavy metals, is washed off farmland by rain and discharged into streams and rivers, killing fish, and making people who eventually drink it, bathe in it, and wash their clothes with it, sick.
- In March 1999, a community in Sarpy County, Nebraska denied a permit to a xenotransplantation pig breeding/research facility because of environmental concerns alone.
- Surveys find animal waste is degrading 1,785 bodies of water in 39 states. Pesticides, insecticides and antibiotics which are commonly used in agriculture may also contribute to soil and ground water contamination and consequently, harm human health. Pollution from factory farms impairs more miles of U.S. rivers than all other industry sources and municipal sewers combined. During the past two decades, the number of coastal waters that host major and recurring attacks by harmful microbes has doubled. Pigs and pig waste pose a particular danger because they contract and transmit many human diseases including meningitis, salmonella, chlamydia, giardia, cryptosporidiosis, brucella, worms and influenza. The hazards from hogs increases when they are packed closely together.
- Hog farms pollute the air. In Minnesota, tests showed eight of 32 air samples taken near manure lagoons exceeded air quality standards for hydrogen sulfide. A study done at Duke University Medical Center revealed that those who lived downwind from hog factory farms suffered from a variety of illnesses including increased tension, depression, flu-like symptoms, fatigue, dizziness, blackouts, loss of appetite, and sleep disturbances.
- HHS also failed to address the environmental and health impacts caused by the disposal of numerous remains of genetically modified animals. Conventional agricultural operations continuously wrestle with the problems of how to dispose of millions of tons of perishable animal tissue each year. Incineration, burial, and composting are all expensive, unhygienic, and environmentally problematic. In fact, in 1997, the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against a hog farm, citing 50 violations of federal environmental laws, including the farm's illegal pits for disposing dead pigs. Disposing of transgenic pigs is a significant environmental and health concern, because if the bodies of source animals are disposed of improperly, their DNA could replicate, spread, and recombine, picking up genes from viruses in other species, and consequently, create new pathogens. Thus, disposing of genetically modified animals is an issue that should have been addressed in an EIS.
- Can we justify raising more pigs for human use at a time when the Environmental Protection Agency is placing new restrictions on livestock pollution? Breeding animals for xenotransplantation would create a host of environmental problems, described above. Conventional farming and rendering operations have yet to solve these problems which continue to threaten public health across the US (see www.hogwatch.org).
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Valentine's Day Roundup
By: Anne Vickman
While we may be single and indifferent to Valentine’s Day this year (okay, and every other year, whether we’re dating or not), mostly as a way to “stick it” to the behemoths at Hallmark, we understand that some people actually feel a genuine desire to shower their significant other with tokens of affection. But don’t forget, Bostonistas: Parents, siblings, friends, and yourself are all worthy recipients of V-Day love, too. So consider this our gift to you: a round-up of this year’s local Valentine’s Day offerings.
Chocolate Facial and Massage, Equinox
There’s no real chocolate involved in this treatment, but it’s still pretty sweet . A trained aesthetician analyzes your skin type, then proceeds to cleanse, exfoliate, and moisturize your skin (including a chocolate-scented mask, natch), and tops it all off with a sleep-inducing décolletage massage. Whether you invest in this for yourself or for someone else, make sure the lucky recipient takes full advantage by making a mental list of any skincare-related questions beforehand. The expert advice is an added bonus that’s too good to pass up — we were told we had dry skin and needed to switch cleansers.
$155, Equinox, 131 Dartmouth St., 617-578-8918; 225 Franklin St., 617-426-2140, equinox.com.
Snow Shoveling Massage, Spa at Rhowes Wharf
On the fun scale, snow removal might be right up there with a trip to the dentist. For a root canal. Fortunately, though, the Spa at Rhowes Wharf is offering a 50- or 80-minute deep tissue massage that’s the perfect antidote to heavy lifting. As described by one of our insiders — who just happened to shovel a foot or two of snow before hitting up the spa — “I haven’t been this relaxed ever.”
$125–$185, Spa at Rhowes Wharf, 70 Rowes Wharf, Boston, 617-439-3914, bhh.com.
Love is in the Hair, Leon & Co.
On Tuesdays and Wednesdays through March 2, Belmont’s three-time Best of Boston award-winning salon Leon & Co. is offering up a package deal with Italian restaurant il Casale (another Best of Boston winner). Leon & Co., owned by Leon de Magistris, will treat you to a deep condition, haircut, and style. Afterward, head down the block to il Casale (owned by Leon’s son, Dante de Magistris) for a three-course meal. The best part? The whole shebang is a steal at $100.
$100, Leon & Co. , 84 Leonard St., Belmont, 617-484-4777, leonandco.com; il Casale, 50 Leonard St., Belmont, 617) 209-4942, ilcasalebelmont.com. To book this deal, call Leon & Co. at 617-484-4777 and mention “Love is in the Hair.”
Sale at Dorfman’s
If good old-fashioned bling is your thing, hit up the pre-V-Day sale at Dorfman’s jewelry store. Almost everything in the store (excluding only Patek Philippe and Van Cleef & Arpels) will be discounted 50 to 80 percent — including both precious sparklies (think diamonds, pearls, and sapphires) and sterling silver. The sale begins Monday, February 7 and runs through Saturday, February 12.
Dorfman, 24 Newbury St., Boston, 617-536-2022, dorfmanjewelers.com.
Forty Winks Lingerie Party
Need some sexpot skivvies before a romantic date… or just because? This Harvard Square boutique is hosting an in-store party on Thursday, February 10 between 5 and 8 p.m. You can score 20 percent off underthings by Elle Macpherson, Chantelle, Huit, and more, and get some free champagne and snacks to boot.
Forty Winks, 56 JFK St., Cambridge, 617-492-9100, shopfortywinks.com.
Source URL: http://www.bostonmagazine.com/fashion-style/blog/2011/02/07/valentines-day-roundup/ | <urn:uuid:9be59df4-3a89-4c5c-9d8c-efaa16130720> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bostonmagazine.com/fashion-style/blog/2011/02/07/valentines-day-roundup/print/ | 2013-05-24T15:30:06Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.877962 | 1,040 |
Bollig, Walls named first team all-state
Tribune Sports Editor
Chanute High School seniors Matt Bollig and T.J. Walls have been awarded the highest honor a high school football player can receive.
Both were named First Team All-State by the Kansas Football Coaches Association. Bollig was named first team all-state at quarterback, while Walls was named first team all-state at wide receiver.
“I’m real proud of them both,” Chanute Coach Don Simmons said.
Simmons explained ...
St. Paul splits at Welch tourney
Tribune staff The St. Paul girls defeated Welch 59-30. The Indians led 14-5 after the first quarter and cruised to victory. Morgan Westhoff scored 20 points and Jessica Tuck added 15 for the Indians, now 2-0. St. Paul’s boys fell to Welch 61-35. The hosts led 19-4 after one quarter of play. St. Paul girls 59, Welch 30 SP 14 12 17 16 — 59 WE 5 12 9 4 — 30 St. Paul: Jessica Tuck 2 11-14 15, Bethany Paulie 0 2-4 2, Erin Tuck 2 0-...
Jets drop two, Devils split at Wildcat Winter Classic
Tribune staff YATES CENTER—The Yates Center Wildcat Winter Classic tipped off on Monday. Erie and Altoona-Midway both competed. Girls roundup Erie’s girls dropped a close one to West Elk, falling 39-34. “We played extremely hard,” Erie Coach Briana Volmer said. “Our defense looked much better, we started closing gaps and closing back to our person. We made a run at the end, but just fell short. I’m very proud of our intensity level. We ne...
CCA girls second at Manhattan tourney
Tribune staff MANHATTAN—The Chanute Christian Academy girls basketball team finished in second place in the Shea Tournament over the weekend, in Manhattan. CCA opened up with the Reno Sabres on Thursday and won 35-31. “Going almost two weeks without playing a game really showed,” Coach Mark Childers said. CCA was down by two at the half, 18-16. “We came out after halftime and played better defense and starting making shots,” Childers sa...
Blue Comets host Titans in home-opener
The Chanute High School basketball teams will host Columbus tonight in the home-opener of the 2009-10 season. The girls play at 6 p.m. with the boys to follow.
Chanute’s girls are coming off a 54-46 loss to the Independence Bulldogs.
Columbus lost its season-opener as well, falling to Girard 68-43. Girard led 25-4 in the first quarter.
As far as the boys, Independence defeated Chanute 58-51 in overtime.
The Comets shot just 5-of-...
Blue Comets gain valuable experience
Tribune staff VALLEY CENTER—The Chanute High School wrestling team took seventh place at the Valley Center Dual Tournament on Saturday. The tournament features some of the top teams in Kansas. Derby won the tourney and Valley Center was second. Emporia was third, with Clay Center fourth. For Chanute, junior Tim Wrestler went undefeated on the day at 119 pounds, going 5-0. Sophomore Sam Son, junior Troy Clark and junior Felix Santillano all...
NCCC women win fourth-straight
Jason Peake Tribune Sports Editor CHANUTE—The Neosho County Community College women’s basketball team overcame a nine-point deficit and raced past Highland 84-80 on Saturday afternoon at the Panthers Gymnasium. With the win, Neosho County improved to 2-0 in the Jayhawk East and 4-6 overall. It was the fourth-straight win for the Panthers, as well. Kristin Aldridge scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Panthers. Bjonee Reaves...
Panthers shut down Scotties
Jason Peake Tribune Sports Editor CHANUTE—Defense was once again the difference for the Neosho County Community College men’s basketball team. Neosho County handled Highland 92-75 on Saturday afternoon at the Panthers Gym. With a trapping, full-court press, the Panthers held the Scotties to just 28 points in the first half in building a comfortable lead they would never relinquish. “I think our guys are buying into playing defense,” Neos...
Royster girls second at Burlington tourney
BURLINGTON—The Royster Middle School eighth grade girls basketball team took second place at the Burlington Tournament on Saturday.
In the championship game, Burlington edged Royster 30-29 in double overtime.
Burlington came into the game undefeated and the Rockets gave them a battle.
Royster Coach Steve Slane said the title game was one he’ll always remember.
“The championship game was one of the most enjoyable games I’ve been i...
Area hoops roundup
Tribune staff NEODESHA — A young Humboldt club got its feet wet on the road Friday with a 47-29 victory over Neodesha. Three freshman were in the seven-man rotation and 6-4 frosh Noah Thornbrugh was the top rebounder with 13 and second-leading scorer with 14. Tevin Strack, 6-1 senior, led the Cubs with 19 points. The defense was stingy as Humboldt led 23-10 at the half. Neody outscored the Cubs 12-7 in the third quarter before Humboldt clos...
Blue Comets let one slip away
Jason Peake Tribune Sports Editor INDY—It’s safe to say the Chanute Blue Comets may be shooting a lot of free throws over the next few days. The Blue Comets missed eight free throws late in the game and the Independence Bulldogs took full advantage. With those extra opportunities, Independence pulled off a 58-51 come from behind win over Chanute in overtime on Friday night at Independence Middle School’s Losey Gym in the 2009-10 season ope...
Bulldogs hold off Blue Comets
Jason Peake Tribune Sports Editor INDY—A buzzer-beater at the end of the first quarter gave the Independence Bulldogs all of the momentum—and they never gave it up. Led by Kelby McGrath’s 31 points, Independence defeated Chanute 54-46 on Friday night at Independence Middle School’s Losey Gym in the first game of the 2009-10 season. The game was tied at nine when McGrath hit a 30-footer at the first quarter buzzer. The shot seemed to defla...
Panthers earn 'emotional' win over 'Hounds
Jason Peake Tribune Sports Editor FORT SCOTT—The storylines were numerous. A former coach was taking on the current coach, while a former player was going up against her former team. In the end, the Neosho County Community College women’s basketball team pulled out a 91-84 come-from-behind win over the Fort Scott Greyhounds on Wednesday night at Arnold Arena. The Panthers simply made the plays down the stretch to pull out the win, offensi...
Defense leads Panthers to victory
Jason Peake Tribune Sports Editor FORT SCOTT — Using defense to create offense, the Neosho County Community College men’s basketball team raced past Fort Scott 80-63 on Wednesday night at Arnold Arena. The Panthers forced 22 turnovers, grabbed 12 steals and converted many of those miscues into easy hoops in transition. “For us, it always starts with defense,” Neosho County Coach Jeremy Coombs said. “As the year goes on, I think our press i...
CHS wrestling: tough tourney awaits
Jason Peake Tribune Sports Editor Some of the top wrestling teams in the state will be competing at the Valley Center Dual Tournament this weekend. The Chanute Blue Comets will be among them. The Comets will compete at the always-tough tourney on Saturday. Host Valley Center is currently the top ranked team in Class 4A. Other tops teams competing at the tourney are Emporia, the defending 5A champ; Derby, ranked first in 6A; Clay Center,...
Season begins on Friday for CHS hoops
Tribune Sports Editor
The quest for a league title begins on Friday night for the Chanute High School girls basketball team.
The Blue Comets will hit the road to take on the Independence Bulldogs in the 2009-10 season-opener.
The girls game starts at 6 p.m. at the old Independence Middle School gym.
Chanute Coach Megan Reid feels her team is just about ready to go.
“The attitudes and work ethic have been great in practice,” Reid sa...
Royster girls knock off Pittsburg
Tribune staff The Royster Middle School eighth grade girls A basketball team defeated Pittsburg 33-20 on Tuesday night. “They beat us earlier in the year and we did some good things,” RMS Coach Steve Slane said. “We played more under control and we will have to continue doing that with the opponents we have coming up. As you can see, the scoring was balanced and we did a good job of playing around some people getting in foul trouble. Overall...
Comets too much for Yellowjackets
Jason Peake Tribune Sports Editor CHANUTE—Andy Albright admitted he was extremely nervous as his Chanute High School wrestling team stepped on to the mat for the first time this season. He didn’t need to be. The Blue Comets earned win after win against Fredonia on Tuesday night at the CHS Gymnasium. When the night ended, Chanute had earned a 48-21 win. The Class 3A Yellowjackets were overmatched in a few matches, but for the most part, g...
Erie boys have high expectations
Anthony Cook Parsons Sun Mike Casteel, head coach of the Erie High School basketball team, knows that the high expectations for his team mean nothing at this point. The Red Devils were recently predicted to finish third in the CNC League in its preseason poll. However, the pollsters haven’t done a good job of evaluating the school’s basketball team in the past. “We know it means absolutely nothing right now,” said Casteel. The eighth-year ...
New coach set to lead Erie girls
The hardwood is a familiar place for Erie High School girls basketball first-year head coach Briana Volmer.
Volmer, a graduate and standout center for the Labette County High School Grizzlies, most recently played college basketball at Missouri Southern State University. Her first head coaching experience in basketball will come Friday evening when the Red Devils take on Baxter Springs.
The team is previously coming of... | <urn:uuid:2ff59308-db7b-4fde-a761-9c07cf5ae664> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chanute.com/pages/sports/push?class=prev_page&per_page=20&rel=prev&x_page=6&k_group=2 | 2013-05-24T15:32:21Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951512 | 2,289 |
Baldwin Hardware SALE!
New Lower Prices on Baldwin Hardware! No Coupon Necessary!
Offer Ends 5/31/2013
Compare Our Prices
|Backset||2-3/4", 2-3/8", Adjustable 2-3/8" or 2-3/4"|
|Latch Type||Square Corner|
Configure your Keyed Entry Egg Knob
Free Keying Option more info ▼
Choose "Keyed Alike" to use the same key on multiple locks or "Keyed Different" to ensure that your locks will have different key codes.
Please contact customer service for quotes on master keying or to key multiple manufacturers alike.
Two keys provided per key code.
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Egg Knob. Keyed Entry. Both knobs locked or unlocked by key outside and turnbutton inside. Non-egress
Additional Baldwin Links
Our SKU: 5228.ENTR
This product is listed under the following manufacturer number(s):
Lifetime Polished Brass
Lifetime Polished Nickel
Lifetime Satin Nickel
Oil Rubbed Bronze
Satin Brass and Black
*Denotes a finish or option that has been discontinued
2 Questions from the Community
What door width can the 5228.ENTR with out emergency egress be used?
What door thickness is required for this keyed entry to work? Is it adjustable?
Lifetime LIMITED WARRANTY: Each Baldwin product has been thoroughly inspected to determine that it is in accordance with Baldwin’s high quality standards. Baldwin warrants to each of its applicable direct customers that subject to the contents of the headings of these Conditions of Sale, RETURNED GOODS and STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE, each Baldwin product shall be free from mechanical defects (and each product with The Lifetime™ Finish from Baldwin® shall be free from tarnishing, flaking, pitting, and discoloration) at time of delivery to the applicable direct customer and for the lifetime of the applicable product or for as long as the direct customer owns the product. As Baldwin’s direct customer’s exclusive remedy, Baldwin will, at its option, repair or replace any Baldwin product which is mechanically defective. If a Baldwin product which is the same as the Baldwin product covered by this warranty has been discontinued at the time of repair or replacement or if Baldwin determines, in its sole discretion, that such repair or replacement is inappropriate, Baldwin reserves the right to refund the original purchase price of the defective Baldwin product. This warranty is not intended to be a consumer warranty, is exclusively for the benefit of Baldwin’s applicable direct customer and shall not be transferable.
Except as expressly provided in this warranty to the contrary, (a) BALDWIN MAKES NO, AND DISCLAIMS ALL, WARRANTIES, REPRESENTATIONS AND GUARANTEES (WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY), INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND(b) BALDWIN SHALL NOT BE OBLIGATED OR LIABLE FOR LABOR OR OTHER COSTS RELATED TO INSTALLATION, REPAIR OR REPLACEMENT OR FOR LOSS OF, OR DAMAGE TO, ANY MATERIAL WHICH IS NOT SOLD BY BALDWIN. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE DURATION OF ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE BE LONGER THAN the lifetime of the applicable product or for as long as the original purchaser owns the product. This warranty is the only express warranty provided by Baldwin. No employee, representative or agent nor any other person has authority to assume or incur on behalf of Baldwin any obligation or liability in place of or in addition to this warranty.
Each of Baldwin’s direct customers shall receive any claims and take delivery of any allegedly defective Baldwin products from the consumers and shall communicate and otherwise cooperate in a reasonable manner with Baldwin concerning the administration, processing and remedying of such claims, including, but not limited to, delivering repaired or replacement Baldwin products or, in the appropriate case, purchase price refunds to consumers. Please Note: The limited warranty on all locks or latches is void if used in combination with knobs, levers or trim of other than those manufactured by Baldwin and designated for use with the applicable locks or latches. | <urn:uuid:2ee84073-7606-41d6-8787-9f34b3fb8d4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.faucet.com/baldwin-5228190entr-satin-black-keyed-entry-egg-knob/f970718 | 2013-05-24T15:50:47Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.866375 | 938 |
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