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Here’s a question I’ve been pondering for a while: would you rather be the only straight male on a planet of nothing but gay dudes or the only straight male on a planet of nothing but lesbians. Now, keep in mind that this is a mental exercise, not some kind of dorky game where you attempt to beat the system, so that means that NO, none of the women will EVER find you attractive or kiss you or fuck you or become curious about being with a man. That’s not happening, and NO you won’t suddenly figure out that you just love cock. It’s this simple: You’re trapped on one of these planets, you’re never getting the kind of sex you want while you’re on it and you’re never getting off of it, but otherwise you’ve got a pretty normal life, the stipulation being you’re stuck on a highly specialized gay planet of your choice.
(Okay, to digress here for a moment, I find these fantasy-duality questions to be fascinating. The decision making that goes into figuring out the lesser of two evils and the speed [or reluctance] with which someone comes up with an answer says a lot about them as a person. The one thing that drives me so fucking nuts, however, is when someone tries to ‘beat’ the question. When I ask if they’d rather, for example, cook and eat their dog or fuck their sister, they say something like, “I’d rather cook and eat my HOT dog” or “Oh, fuck my sister. I’d fuck her out of like, five bucks! Ha! You weren’t specific!!!!” Ooooh! Good one. You found a [pretty questionable] semantic loophole in a question designed to pass the time and be an interesting and fun theoretical exercise and rendered it useless by being a dirty diapered pansy that thinks [falsely] that you’re some kind of mental Houdini. That’s lamer than cheating at solitaire. It’s not clever, it’s pointless and all it does is paint you as some lame ass spoil sport that doesn’t even have the balls and uh…dignity, I guess to say something like “Hey, you know what? Fuck your dumb questions. I don’t like ‘em,” which, let’s be honest, is also a move for total dilduses, but at least it’s not couching relentless babydom in the guise of being somehow mentally dexterous [all while sounding like a complete jackoff]. Know what I’m saying?)
So, now that my ranting aside is out of the way, back to the question: Let’s answer the big ticket item first: what about straight women? How come they don’t get to play? Well, if you recapitulate this question for straight women, you’d be the only straight woman on a planet of gay dudes or the only straight woman on a planet of lesbians, and frankly, neither of those is all that terrible. SURE, you wouldn’t be able to have the kind of regular sex you want to have, but you’d have (on either planet) tons of really good potential friends. I mean, on the gay planet, you’d be the ultimate fag hag (if you’ll pardon the vulgarity). Literally the only woman out there to rap about how (for example) “jim is hot, but just too strung out these days, right? Right. BUT, his living room is so well put together!” Shit like that. You’d get a lot of good attention and be very popular, as the gay dude-straight woman alliance is very strong. AND you’d be surrounded by people that weren’t gonna rape you or generally creep you out. That’s already a step up from this planet.
On the lesbian planet, things would be weird, but it’s a planet of women, so it’d be peaceful and full of crafts and dreamcatchers and shit like that and your boundaries would generally probably be respected and you’d get to have all that sort of sisterhood of the pants bullshit that seems to be popular with women but is completely lame to men. You get the idea. It’s not that good of a question to pose to straight women (it’s okay…but not great). Now, for straight men, whole other story (oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that there’s a total equivalent for gay women and men…but we’re living on that planet now, and most queer identified people have already lived a long moment or two where they feel trapped on a planet where they’re the only person like them, so yeah).
Anyway, here’s the general situation: as a lone straight dude on a planet full of lesbians, you’ve got a few things to contend with: 1) you’re kind of a zoo animal, in that you’re visibly different and casually interesting, but really not much else. You serve no real purpose other than maybe being kind of a quirky companion, not unlike being a pet flamingo or birthday clown or something. 2) Your desire to fuck these women would eventually top out at maximum insanity and you’d probably wind up either cutting your dick off, jumping off a cliff or assaulting someone, depending on what kind of person/monster you are. 3) You’d be stuck on a planet full of women. You know when you’re out and you’re trying to fuck someone and you end up hanging out with just them and their female friends? It’s maybe casually fun the one time. Maybe even twice…hell, maybe you become legit friends with the whole squad of girls and you’re the dude that they refer to as “one of the girls” and you even LOVE that…it’s still not hanging out with guys. You know? It’s not the same. It’s not worse, but there’s just something about being the only one of a gender in a room that’s weird after a while, and after a while of being on some planet where you’re the only dude in every room, you’d get a little bummed if for no other reason than you’d be completely marginalized all the time.
Also, the only sports would be women’s basketball and women’s tennis and women’s hockey and women’s football and softball and gymnastics and shit, and since you’re already walking around on like defcon 10 for horniness, you’re probably not watching gymnastics or tennis, which leaves you with really crappy choices (sorry ladies). Yeah. That’s the main set of problems as I see it with the lesbian planet.
Plusses on the lesbian planet include peace, personal safety, kindness, pretty girls everywhere, and you probably don’t have to tip very much.
Now, the gay planet would be a depraved party the likes of which I don’t really dare imagine. You’d be marginally interesting as a straight guy, but you could probably just blend in and pretend to be a gay guy as so not to get uh…raped, which is what men do to people (don’t believe me? Look at prisons. Look at police blotters. Men are the rapists, pretty much in the vicinity of all the time. On a planet of nothing but men, gay or straight or some third thing, there’s gonna be rapists, and if you’re the only dude of your kind, be you the only gay guy on a straight planet, or the only straight guy on a gay planet, some asshole’s gonna decide it would be rad to stick his dick in you regardless of how you feel about it. It’s an ugly truth. Sorry). Now, you’d think that would be the deal breaker right there, eh? But let’s just keep going for the fuck of it.
The dude planet is probably full of all sorts of monuments to depravity, like glory holes and octagons and places that want to get you falling down drunk and it’s probably a violent mess of a place (to reiterate: this is NOT because it’s gay dudes, it’s because it’s men in general. Men are depraved. That’s just how it is.) There would be no women, which would suck, and urine and blood would be all over the place.
That said, the sports would be good, you’d have a lot of dudes to hang around with, there’d be glory holes for when the loneliness got the best of you and uh…well, I think you see where I’m going here. I’m picking the gay planet.
Yeah, it’s scary and messy and it stinks like piss and all that, but you know what? I’m a man. I’m scary and messy and I stink like piss (not really, ladies) and since I’m definitely not getting laid on the women’s planet…let’s say that I’m not having ideal sex on either planet just to keep it simple…since either way I’m not having anything even remotely close to my ideal sexual experience, I’d rather hang out with the dudes. I guess that’s all there is to it.
Sorry lesbians, I love you too…but you know how it goes. I’m a guy. And, probably you don’t really want me on your planet anyway…Eh, I guess maybe I could play you music. I mean, on the gay planet they’ve got Elton John and Crudos and all sorts of rad stuff. What do you guys have? Indigo girls? KD Lang? Tracy Chapman? Hey…as much as I love “fast car” I think I’m sticking with the planet with the Scissor Sisters and the Alkaline Trio. | <urn:uuid:28c9b6db-c41c-4bcd-ae6f-242ffc20115f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://badsandwichchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/01/query-for-dogs-of-war.html?showComment=1294291384175 | 2013-05-20T11:46:19Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944277 | 2,188 |
300 U.S. 617
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Reargued March 1, 1937.
Decided April 5, 1937.[ District of Columbia v. Clawans
300 U.S. 617 (1937) ]
[300 U.S. 617 , 619] Messrs. Raymond Sparks and Vernon E. West, both of Washington, D.C., for petitioner.
[300 U.S. 617 , 620] Mr. Seth W. Richardson, of Washington, D.C., for respondent.
Mr. Justice STONE delivered the opinion of the Court.
Respondent was convicted in the District of Columbia police court of engaging, without a license, in the business of a dealer in secondhand personal property, to wit, the unused portions of railway excursion tickets, in violation of section 7, par. 39, of the Act of Congress, approved July 1, 1902, 32 Stat. 622, 627, c. 1352, as amended by the Act of July 1, 1932, 47 Stat. 550, 558, c. 366. On arraignment she demanded a jury trial, which was denied, and on conviction she was sentenced to pay a fine of $300 or to be confined in jail for sixty days. The case was brought to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by writ of error to review the denial of the respondent's request for a jury, and other rulings of the trial court which, it was claimed, had deprived her of a fair trial. The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment, holding that a jury trial was guaranteed to petitioner by the Constitution, but that the trial had been fair in other respects. 66 App.D.C. 11, 84 F.(2d) 265. We granted certiorari, 299 U.S. 524 .
The statute under which petitioner was convicted provides that the offense may be prosecuted in the District of Columbia police court and is punishable by a fine of not more than $300 or imprisonment for not more than ninety days. The Code of the District of Columbia [300 U.S. 617 , 624] (1929) Tit. 18, 165, provides that prosecutions in the police court shall be on information and that the trial shall be by jury in all cases 'in which, according to the Constitution of the United States, the accused would be entitled to a jury trial,' and that, 'in all cases where the accused would not by force of the Constitution of the United States be entitled to a trial by jury, the trial shall be by the court without a jury, unless in * * * cases wherein the fine or penalty may be more than $ 300, or imprisonment as punishment for the offense may be more than ninety days, the accused shall demand a trial by jury, in which case the trial shall be by jury.' Article 3, section 2, clause 3, of the Constitution, provides that 'the Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury.' The Sixth Amendment declares that 'in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.'
It is settled by the decisions of this Court, which need not now be discussed in detail, that the right of trial by jury, thus secured, does not extend to every criminal proceeding. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution there were numerous offenses, commonly described as 'petty,' which were tried summarily without a jury, by justices of the peace in England, and by police magistrates or corresponding judicial officers in the Colonies, and punished by commitment to jail, a workhouse, or a house of correction. 1 We think, as the Court of Appeals held and [300 U.S. 617 , 625] respondent concedes, that, apart from the prescribed penalty, the offense of which petitioner was convicted is, by its nature, of this class, and that were it not for the severity of the punishment, the offender could not, under our decisions, claim a trial by jury as of right. Schick v. United States, 195 U.S. 65, 1 Ann.Cas. 585; and see Callan v. Wilson, 127 U.S. 540, 552 , 555; Natal v. Louisiana, 139 U.S. 621, 624 ; District of Columbia v. Colts, 282 U.S. 63, 72 , 73, 53.
Engaging in the business of selling secondhand property without a license was not indictable at common law. Today it is at most but an infringement of local police regulations, and its moral quality is relatively inoffensive. But this Court has refused to foreclose consideration of the severity of the penalty as an element to be considered in determining whether a statutory offense, in other respects trivial and not a crime at common law, must be deemed so serious as to be comparable with common-law crimes, and thus to entitle the accused to the benefit of a jury trial prescribed by the Constitution. See Schick v. United States, supra, 195 U.S. 65, 67 , 68, 1 Ann.Cas. 585.
We are thus brought to the question whether the penalty, which may be imposed for the present offense, of ninety days in a common jail, is sufficient to bring it within the class of major offenses, for the trial of which a jury may be demanded. The court below thought, as we do, that the question is not free from doubt, but concluded, in view of the fact that the statute allows no appeal as of right from the conviction for the offense, and in view of its own estimate of the severity of the penalty, that three months' imprisonment is a punishment sufficiently rigorous to place respondent's delinquency in the category of major offenses.
If we look to the standard which prevalid at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, we find that confinement for a period of ninety days or more was not an un [300 U.S. 617 , 626] usual punishment for petty offenses, tried without a jury. Laying aside those for which the punishment was of a type no longer commonly employed, such as whipping, confinement in stocks, and the like, and others, punished by commitment for an indefinite period, we know that there were petty offenses, triable summarily under English statutes, which carried possible sentences of imprisonment for periods from three to twelve months. 2 At least sixteen statutes, passed prior to the time of the American Revolution by the Colonies, or shortly after by the newlycreated states, authorized the summary punishment of petty offenses by imprisonment for three months or more. 3 And at least eight others were punishable by imprisonment for six months. 4
In the face of this history, we find it impossible to say that a ninety-day penalty for a petty offense, meted out [300 U.S. 617 , 627] upon a trial without a jury, does not conform to standards which prevailed when the Constitution was adopted, or was not then contemplated as appropriate notwithstanding the constitutional guarantee of a jury trial. This conclusion is unaffected by the fact that respondent is not entitled to an appeal as of right. Code of the District of Columbia (1929) Tit. 18 , 28. The safeguards of an appeal are different in nature and purpose from those of a jury trial. At common law there was no review of criminal cases as of right. Due process does not comprehend the right of appeal. McKane v. Durston, 153 U.S. 684, 687 . The early statutes providing for summary trial often did not allow it. And in any case it cannot be assumed that the authority to allow an appeal, given to the justices of the Court of Appeals by the District laws, will not be exercised in a proper case.
We are aware that those standards of action and of policy which find expression in the common and statute law may vary from generation to generation. Such change has led to the abandonment of the lash and the stocks, and we may assume, for present purposes, that commonly accepted views of the severity of punishment by imprisonment may become so modified that a penalty once thought to be mild may come to be regarded as so harsh as to call for the jury trial, which the Constitution prescribes, in some cases which were triable without a jury when the Constitution was adopted. See Schick v. United States, supra, 195 U.S. 65, 67 , 68, 1 Ann.Cas. 585; compare Weems v. United States, 217 U.S. 349, 373 , 19 Ann.Cas. 705; District of Columbia v. Colts, supra, 282 U.S. 63, 74 , 53; Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 71 -73, 65, 84 A.L.R. 527; United States v. Wood, 299 U.S. 123, 141 et seq., 183. But we may doubt whether summary trial with punishment of more than six months' imprisonment, prescribed by some pre-Revolutionary statutes,5 is admissible, without concluding [300 U.S. 617 , 628] that a penalty of ninety days is too much. Doubts must be resolved, not subjectively by recourse of the judge to his own sympathy and emotions, but by objective standards such as may be observed in the laws and practices of the community taken as a gauge of its social and ethical judgments.
Congress itself, by measuring the punishment in this case in conformity to the commonly accepted standard when the Constitution was adopted, and declaring that it should be applied today unless found to transgress constitutional limitations, has expressed its deliberate judgment that the punishment is not too great to be summarily administered. A number of states have continued in force statutes providing for trial, without a jury, of violations of municipal ordinances, and sundry petty statutory offenses, punishable by commitment for three months or more. 6 Convictions under such legislation have been up [300 U.S. 617 , 629] held many times in the state courts, despite objections to the denial of a jury trial. 7 In England many acts of Parliament now in force, authorizing ninety day punishments, call for summary trials. 8
This record of statute and judicial decision is persuasive that there has been no such change in the generally accepted standards of punishment as would overcome the presumption that a summary punishment of ninety days' imprisonment, permissible when the Constitution was adopted, is permissible now. Respondent points to no [300 U.S. 617 , 630] contrary evidence. We cannot say that this penalty, when attached to the offense of selling secondhand goods without a license, gives it the character of a common-law crime or of a major offense, or that it so offends the public sense of propriety and fairness as to bring it within the sweep of a constitutional protection which it did not previously enjoy.
Although we conclude that respondent's demand for a jury trial was rightly denied, there must be a new trial because of the prejudicial restriction, by the trial judge, of cross-examination by respondent. The testimony of five prosecution witnesses was the sole evidence of the acts of respondent relied on to establish the doing of business without a license. These acts were the sale by her, on each of three occasions, to one or another of the witnesses, of the unused portion of a round trip railway passenger ticket from New York to Washington. Three of the five, a man and his wife and another, were employed by the Railroad Inspection Company as investigators. The other two were company police of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. All were private police or detectives, apparently acting in the course of their private employment. Common experience teaches us that the testimony of such witnesses, especially when uncorroborated, is open to the [300 U.S. 617 , 631] suspicion of bias, see Gassenheimer v. United States, 26 App.D.C. 432, 446; Moller v. Moller, 115 N.Y. 466, 468, 22 N.E. 169; People v. Loris, 131 App. Div. 127, 130, 115 N.Y.S. 236; Sopwith v. Sopwith, 4 Swab. & T. 243, 246, 247; Wigmore, Evidence (2d Ed.1923) 949, 969, 2062, and that their cross-examination should not be curtailed summarily, see State v. Diedtman, 58 Mont. 13, 24, 190 P. 117, especially when it has a direct bearing on the substantial issues of the case.
The defense was a suggested mistaken identity of respondent and an alibi, that at the times mentioned she was confined to her bed by illness, at her home in Newark, N.J. A number of questions on cross-examination by respondent were aimed at showing mistaken identity and at testing credibility. She asked one witness whether respondent had been pointed out to him. She asked another whether he had any trouble in 'knowing' the respondent at the trial, and whether he had seen her before the date of the alleged sale of tickets to which he testified. All these questions were excluded, as were others which were proper, since they might have established contradiction in the testimony of the witnesses for the prosecution.
Other questions, which were relevant to the issue and obviously proper tests of credibility, were excluded. The woman witness had testified that one of the sales took place in the presence of her husband, and of the two railroad police witnesses. On cross-examination she could not remember whether any one beside her husband was present. Yet respondent was not permitted to ask the husband whether the railroad police witnesses were [300 U.S. 617 , 632] known to him or to ask one of the latter whether he knew the husband and wife before the date of the alleged sale. The court instructed one of the police officers not to answer the question whether the husband had come to Washington by prearrangement. Like questions addressed to the husband and his wife were excluded. The respondent was similarly prevented from making inquiries as to corroborative detail, such as the time of day when the witnesses arrived in Washington on the dates of the alleged sales, and the place of residence of a witness, see Alford v. United States, 282 U.S. 687 . In the circumstances of the case, these questions may have had an important bearing on the accuracy and truthfulness of the testimony of the prosecuting witnesses. We do not stop to give other examples of the summary curtailment of all inquiry as to matters which are the appropriate subject of cross-examination.
The extent of cross-examination rests in the sound discretion of the trial judge. Reasonable restriction of undue cross-examination, and the more rigorous exclusion of questions irrelevant to the substantial issues of the case, and of slight bearing on the bias and credibility of the witnesses, are not reversible errors. But the prevention, throughout the trial of a criminal case, of all inquiry in fields where cross-examination is appropriate, and particularly in circumstances where the excluded questions have a bearing on credibility and on the commission by the accused of the acts relied upon for conviction, passes the proper limits of discretion and is prejudicial error. See Alford v. United States, supra.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals will be affirmed, that of the police court reversed, and the case will be [300 U.S. 617 , 633] remanded with instructions for a new trial without a jury.
Separate opinion of Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS and Mr. Justice BUTLER.
Mr. Justice BUTLER and I approve the conclusion of the Court of Appeals concerning respondent's right to trial by jury; also we accept the supporting opinion announced there as entirely adequate.
The Sixth Amendment-In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy, and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
The Seventh Amendment-In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed $20, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law.
We cannot agree that when a citizen is put on trial for an offense punishable by 90 days in jail or a fine of $300, the prosecution is not criminal within the Sixth Amendment. In a suit at common law to recover above $20, a jury trial is assured. And to us, it seems improbable that while providing for this protection in such a trifling matter the framers of the Constitution intended [300 U.S. 617 , 634] that it might be denied where imprisonment for a considerable time or liability for fifteen times $20 confronts the accused.
In view of the opinion just announced, it seems permissible to inquire what will become of the other solemn declarations of the Amendment. Constitutional guarantees ought not to be subordinated to convenience, nor denied upon questionable precedents or uncertain reasoning. See Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 635 ; In re Debs et al., 158 U.S. 564, 594 .
We concur in the conclusion of the Court concerning unfairness of the trial and the necessity for a new one.
This cause shows the grave danger to liberty when one accused must submit to the uncertain judgment of a single magistrate.
[ Footnote 1 ] 4 Blackstone, Commentaries, 280, 281; McNamara's Paley on Summary Convictions (4th Ed.1856) 10Ÿ12; Dillon, Municipal Corporations, 433 ( 5th Ed.1911, 750). A comprehensive collection of the statutes, English and American, will be found in Petty Federal Offenses and the Constitutional Guaranty of Trial by Jury, 39 Harv.L.Rev. 917, 922Ÿ965, 983Ÿ 1019.
[ Footnote 2 ] Three months: 5 Anne, c. 14, IV; 1 Geo. I, c. 48, II. Six months: 17 Geo. II, c. 5, IX. One year: 5 Eliz., c. 4, XXI; 5 Eliz., c. 15, II; 7 Jac. I, c. 4, VII; 8 Geo. I, c. 2, XXXVI; 15 Geo. II, c. 33, VI.
[ Footnote 3 ] Georgia: 18 Colonial Records (Candler) 588 (1764). Maryland: Laws 1768 (Kilty) c. 29, 16. Massachusetts: Province Laws 1764Ÿ1765, c. 30, 2, 5, 4 Acts and Resolves of Mass. Province p. 763. New Hampshire: Laws 1696 (8 Wm. III) c. 1, 1. New Jersey: Paterson's Laws of New Jersey, at page 410, 3 (Act of June 10, 1799). New York: 3 Colonial Laws p. 318 ( 1743); 3 Id. p. 855 (1751); 4 Id. p. 304 (1758); 4 Id. p. 349 (1759); 4 Id. p. 748 (1763); 4 Id. p. 925 (1766). North Carolina: Laws 1778, c. 2, 24 State Records 157Ÿ159. Pennsylvania: 7 Stat. at Large Pa. from 1682 to 1801, c. 534, 12 (1766): 8 Id., c. 623, 2 (1771). Virginia: 29 Geo. II, c. 4, 4 (1756), 7 Henning's St. at Large, p. 37; Laws 1787, c. 48, 13 ( 12 Henning's St. at Large, p. 573). See, also, Connecticut, 1786 Stat. 36 ( four months).
[ Footnote 4 ] Maryland: Laws 1715 (Kilty) c. 44, 34. Massachusetts: Province Laws 1752Ÿ53, c. 16, 1, 3 Acts and Resolves of Mass. Province p. 645. New Hampshire: 3 Laws of New Hampshire (Metcalf) c. 6, p. 72 (1754); 4 Id. c. 4, p. 75 (1777). New Jersey: 27 & 28 Geo. II, c. 261, 11, Acts of Province of New Jersey (Allinson) 198, 201 (1754). New York: 3 Colonial Laws, p. 1096 (1755); Laws 1785, c. 40, 3; Laws 1785, c. 47, 2.
[ Footnote 5 ] See footnote 2, supra.
[ Footnote 6 ] (A) Statutes embracing violations of municipal ordinances generally. E.g.: Ariz.Rev.Code (Struckmeyer, 1928) 382, 442 (three months); Neb. Comp.Stat. (1929) 18-201, 18-205 (three months); New Mex.Stats. ( Courtright, 1929) 90-402(66), 90-901, 90-910, 79-322 (three months); Nev.Comp.Laws (Hillyer, 1929) 1128(1), 1167 (six months); Wyo.Rev.Stat. ( Courtright, 1931) 22-402, 22-409 (three months).
(B) Statutes commanding summary trial for specified offenses. E.g.: N. J.Comp.Laws (1924 Supp.), 135Ÿ63(3), 135Ÿ76 (operating motor vehicle under influence of liquor; six months; see Klinges v. Court of Common Pleas, 130 A. 601, 3 N.J.Misc. 1084, 4 N.J.Misc. 7); N.J.Comp.Laws (1930 Supp.) 160Ÿ222, 3 (disorderly persons act; three months penalty, see N.J. Laws 1898, p. 954, increased to one year by Laws 1910, p. 37 (2 Comp.St. 1910, p. 1937, 40)); 18 Pa.Stat.Ann.(Purdon) 2033 (vagrancy; six months); section 2832 (frequenting of public places by thieves, for unlawful purpose; three months).
The most extensive elimination of the jury prevails in New York. The three-judge Court of Special Sessions, sitting without a jury, has jurisdiction to try all misdemeanors (i.e., offenses punishable with one year's imprisonment, N.Y. Penal Law 1937) committed in New York City. Inferior Criminal Courts Act of the city of New York, N.Y.Laws 1910, c. 659, 31(1), (4). A city magistrate sitting alone may try certain misdemeanors, including violations of N.Y.Penal Law 1566, proscribing the sale of street railroad transfer tickets, Inferior Criminal Courts Act , 43(d), added by Laws 1915, c. 531. Other legislation, statewide in application, provides for summary trial and conviction of persons guilty of disorderly conduct (six months), N.Y.Penal Law 723, 724; of persons frequenting a public place for purposes of crime (100 days), N.Y.Code Crim. Proc. 898-a; of 'vargrants' (one year in jail; three years in correctional institution), N.Y.Code Crim.Proc. 891, 891-a.
[ Footnote 7 ] In Wilmarth v. King (1908) 74 N.H. 512, 69 A. 889, 18 L.R.A.(N.S.) 398, the court approved a statute authorizing six months' imprisonment as not exceeding in magnitude the pre-Revolutionary punishments. In the following cases convictions under statutes authorizing commitiment for three months or more were upheld and the right to jury trial held properly denied. Bray v. State (1904) 140 Ala. 172, 37 So. 250; State v. Parker ( 1924) 87 Fla. 181, 100 So. 260; State v. Glenn (1880) 54 Md. 572; State v. Broms (1918) 139 Minn. 402, 166 N.W. 771; State v. Anderson (1925) 165 Minn. 150, 206 N.W. 51; Bell v. State (1920) 104 Neb. 203, 176 N.W. 544; State v. Kacin (1932) 123 Neb. 64, 241 N.W. 785; People ex rel. St. Clair v. Davis (1911) 143 App.Div. 579, 127 N.Y.S. 1072; People v. Harding (1921) 115 Misc. 298, 189 N.Y.S. 657; Byers v. Commonwealth (1862) 42 Pa. 89.
[ Footnote 8 ] Thirty-seven offenses are listed in Stone's Justices' Manual (66th Ed. 1934), Appendix of Table of Punishments for Offences Cognizable Under the Summary Jurisdiction, pp. 1904Ÿ1945. E.g., Frauds by Workmen Act, 1777, 17 Geo. III, c. 56, 1; Merchandise Marks Act, 1887, 50 & 51 Vict., c. 28 , 2; Agricultural Marketing Act, 1933, 23 & 24 Geo. V, c. 31, 6(5).
Several of the statutes specify larger penalties, but by section 17 of the Summary Judicature Act, 1879, 42Ÿ43 Vict., c. 49, except in cases of assault, sentences exceeding three months cannot be administered unless the accused has been offered the choice of trial by jury. | <urn:uuid:595ee651-1308-4ca8-8142-d4f547debd23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?navby=volpage&court=us&vol=300&page=625 | 2013-05-20T12:10:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94262 | 5,434 |
By Andrew Schwartz, Special to CNN
Editor’s note: Tuba player Andrew Schwartz holds a bachelor’s of music from the University of Hartford. He did graduate work at The Manhattan School of Music and is working on an MBA at Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business, where he is president-elect of the Graduate Business Association. He is an intern at Atlanta-based music startup Tunefruit. Schwartz's story first appeared on CNN iReport.
(CNN) - It’s no secret that education in America is broken. We can’t define a good school, let alone figure out a way to measure success. Yet when money is tight, as it is right now because of the forced budget cuts, the first thing to be cut is always the arts. And that’s a tragedy.
I spent six years in music school before making a switch to business school. I was convinced that I was going to be a musician. I loved music. I was good at it, and I was willing to do anything to get to the top. But then I realized that, even at the top of the music game, the job security isn’t there. So I dropped out of grad school and am now earning an MBA.
But through that transition, I’ve realized why music needs to be a cornerstone of education. Music is an art and a science, and it's one of the best ways kids can learn creativity and those mythical critical thinking skills. The focus of the curriculum isn’t forcing everyone to learn about Bach or Mozart. It’s about learning how to think, rather than what to think.
That “how” is the holy grail of education. It’s exactly what makes a good scientist, a good entrepreneur or a productive member of society. I don’t play the tuba anymore, but I think the lessons I learned from it are actually more ingrained into me now that I have some distance from the actual medium I learned them in. Here is just a portion of the many life lessons I learned through music:
Work hard and it pays off
This one came early on in my short-lived musical career. I wasn’t a very good musician when I first started out. It was obvious why: I only practiced an hour a day. But Katie down the street practiced four hours a day. My solution was to kick it up to six hours a day until I was just as good as she was. I had to make up for lost time, and I soon overtook her.
Make it happen
An amazing musician once said to me: “Make it happen."
There will always be obstacles in your way. My junior year in college, my quartet was making a recording for an international tuba competition. (Seriously.) It seemed almost impossible for us to get together to record, but we found one time: 10:00 p.m. on a Thursday. We had all been in class since about 8 a.m., and I had a serious sinus infection. It might have been the coffee and more meds than a doctor would recommend, but I’m convinced that these simple words cleared my head and allowed me to power through the pain and exhaustion. We made the semifinals.
By LZ Granderson, CNN contributor
Editor's note: LZ Granderson, who writes a weekly column for CNN.com, was named journalist of the year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and is a 2011 Online Journalism Award finalist for commentary. He is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter: @locs_n_laughs.
(CNN) - It seems everyone knows a college degree is important but few have a plan to keep it affordable.Just this past academic year, tuition went up twice as fast as inflation and the cost of textbooks rose faster than tuition. Meanwhile, The New York Times recently reported that "wages have fallen to a record low as a share of America's gross domestic product."As a result, the average 2011 graduate left school with $26,600 in student loan debt, helping to push the country's total student loan debt past $1 trillion.
Combine that with an unemployment rate for recent college graduates of 8.9%, and you see the impetus behind the First World question du jour - "Is college really worth it?" That's a question that is easily answered by the 23% unemployment rate for folks without a bachelor's.
In an ironic showing of big government, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, both conservatives, decided to introduce plans in which state institutions charge less for STEM degrees (science, technology, engineering and math) than liberal arts degrees.
"We're spending a lot of money on education, and when you look at the results, it's not great," Scott told a crowd in Tallahassee in 2011. "Do you want to use your tax money to educate more people who can't get jobs in anthropology? I don't."
That's a pretty good zinger but it doesn't pass the smell test.
First of all - to borrow language from the GOP script - I don't think the government should be picking winners and losers. And state officials massaging tuition costs to lure students away from fields they don't approve of does just that.
There is a difference between an education and training. Just because the vocational outcome between the two might be different doesn't mean it's government's role to assign its value to society.
Not to mention the initial outcomes are not always black and white.
By Peter Smagorinsky, Special to CNN
Editor’s note: Peter Smagorinsky is a Distinguished Research Professor of English Education in the University of Georgia College of Education’s Department of Language and Literacy Education.
(CNN) - “Do you want to use your tax dollars to educate more people who can’t get jobs in anthropology? I don’t.”
– Florida Gov. Rick Scott , October 2011
Scott, in this statement, articulates a belief held by many: that education is an entirely pragmatic experience. If a course of study does not produce a useful trade or skill, then it is of little value. What, after all, has anthropology ever done to improve the human condition, except to help us understand our past, perhaps so that we won’t repeat its errors?
Here’s an error you can dig into (if you’re an anthropologist, or perhaps a structural engineer): Dating back to at least the ancient era, when I was a schoolboy in Alexandria, Virginia, people have believed that school-based arts and music programs are frivolous extras that should be the first items on the financial chopping block when budgets are tight. Who actually becomes an artist or musician? Why support a curriculum that doesn’t directly lead to employment?
In Florida, this idea is now realized in a plan to charge engineering majors less for their tuition than English majors, because the technological revolution requires graduates in science, technology, engineering and math, not people who can read poems and write papers about them. I have not yet seen what the Florida plan provides for music majors, but I suspect that soon they’ll be paying a lot more for their courses than even those effete English majors. (Full disclosure: I was an English major at Kenyon College and got a master’s and doctorate in English education at the University of Chicago.)
Education in Rick Scott’s sense is entirely utilitarian. The arts has traditionally been defended on aesthetic grounds because of their contribution to truth, beauty, goodness, and the human spirit, as people like Howard Gardner of Harvard University have long asserted. The aesthetic argument has rarely successfully challenged the pragmatic argument because the premises follow from such different assumptions, and because utilitarian premises are impervious to appeals to beauty. If you don’t believe me, go to Moscow and gaze upon the Soviet-era architecture, which is all business and no pleasure. And it’s plug-ugly.
I contend, though, that music’s inclusion in the curriculum can be defended entirely on utilitarian grounds. Music has often provided the social updraft that gives young people a worthwhile activity through which they can find a way to succeed in mainstream life. School music programs in this sense are cost-effective and of great long-term value to society, rather than serving as a wasteful distraction to the real business of education, which is to produce today’s workforce. Or so Gov. Scott would have us believe.
By Michael Bérubé, Special to CNN
Editor’s note: Michael Bérubé is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor and director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at Pennsylvania State University, and the 2012 president of the Modern Language Association.
(CNN) - Almost every college student who considers majoring in English - or French, or philosophy, or art history - inevitably hears the question: "What in the world are you going to do with that?" The question can come from worried parents, perplexed relatives, or derisive, incredulous peers, but it always implies that degrees in the humanities are “boutique” degrees, nice ornaments that serve no practical purpose in the real world. After all, who needs another 50-page honors project on the poetry of Charles Baudelaire?
Well, strange as it may sound, if you’re an employer who needs smart, creative workers, a 50-page honors project on a 19th century French poet might be just the thing you want to see from one of your job applicants. Not because you’re going to ask him or her to interpret any poetry on the job, but because you may be asking him or her, at some point, to deal with complex material that requires intense concentration - and to write a persuasive account of what it all means. And you may find that the humanities major with extensive college experience in dealing with complex material handles the challenge better - more comprehensively, more imaginatively - than the business or finance major who assumed that her degree was all she needed to earn a place in your company. | <urn:uuid:f05af3b2-bc7c-4c42-b1dc-e49fff91ab73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/category/school-subjects/humanities/ | 2013-05-20T11:46:45Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964467 | 2,122 |
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Formerly : Arahmas Resort & Spa
Naiyang / Naithon
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Recent customer reviews
February 27, 2010
A very nice and quiet resort~
- a peaceful getaway
- nice pool and view of Nai Yang beach
- spacious rooms and good service
Both me and my bf enjoyed this resort a lot as we like quiet getaways. It is very close to the airport but far from city centre(transportation cost a bit more). The rooms are very nice and spacious. Next time we'll definitely get a pool access room as it's more convenient.
February 25, 2010
-Price (booking through Agoda in advance gave an excellent rate)
- Pool (amazing)
- Breakfast (varied and fantastic)
We had an excellent time at Adamas. The resort was everything we wanted- quiet, luxurious and comfortable.
The pool in particular was excellent. There were plenty of sunbeds and it is so big that you never feel cramped or stifled.
The breakfast was excellent- a good variety of western and asian cuisine. The restaurant menus were fairly limited, and although expensive compared to the restaurants in the Nai Yang beach area (10 minutes walk down the beach) it was not prohibitvely so by western standards (under £10GBP for most main courses).
One word of advice- take a decent handheld torch. It will prove invaluable for the late-night walks back from the restaurants down the beach!
Hotel Feature Tip:
Bring a torch for those night time walks down the beach.
United States of America,
February 24, 2010
A Boutique Gem
Excellent food, hotel design and landscaping is very appealing
Needed a place to stay close to the airport (15 mins drive). This hotel is truly a unique gem located in the middle of nowhere - however, its 100 meters from the beach with a beautiful view. If you want quiet relaxation, this place fits the bill. The employees are all very attentive to your needs but lack in the area of the English language (nothing that wouldn't bring me back however). The infiniti pool is really lovely and faces the beach view as well as the cafe. The lobby is completely open air - no walls which lends to a very 'spa' atmosphere. The breakfast restaurant is quite nice. The food is so delicious - the chefs in the kitchen really cook up fantastic food - ALL of it is sooo good! Didn't use the spa but I would bet it's fantastic because everything else was!!
February 18, 2010
4 night stay
Lovely quiet resort. Excellent pools. Easy beach walk to all the local restaurants and shops.
Great resort for a relaxing holiday. Breakfast buffet was excellent. We got an very good deal on our 4 night stay through Agoda. Even though the resort was full, we hardly saw any guests and it was lovely and quiet. After staying at Karon beach, a bit of peace and quiet was just what we needed.
Walk up the beach to enjoy the many local restaurants.
Families with young children
February 17, 2010
- close to the airport
- the pool is nice and connects the entire resort
- Staff is very nice
If you are looking for a resort to relax at the pool - that's it.
The water at the beach is only about 20-30cm high and you have to walk for 10 min. (!!!) till you reach deeper water.
Food is good but expansive.
Families with young children
February 17, 2010
5 star hotel but not really
Rooms with direct pool access.Close to the airport
We've stayed at the Adamas for five nights during mid-February. We had the direct pool access rooms which were wonderful as it felt like having your own private pool.
We've liked the fact that Adamas was extremely close to the airport since we were travelling with babies.
If you are looking for some peace and quiet then Adamas is your place as it is quite remote from everything.
We didn't find the reception staff very friendly as they ignore our requests via email. Then when you arrive to the reception, they all look very busy so they don't have to help you. When they don't want to accommodate you then pretend they don't speak English which is quite rude.
However, the housekeeping and waiting staff are very nice. They made sure we had everything in order especially Yan who was always friendly to us. He even played with our baby.
I would rate the food a 2 out of 5. It's always a hit and miss. We were running out of choices by the third night. One more thing, avoid ordering any desserts. The ice cream tasted more like a lollipop as it was made of sweetener of something artificial. The tiramisu was horrible. We've learned to avoid any desserts by the third night.
Towards the end of our stay, we would get lunch on the beach area rather than staying in for a meal.
The spa had inflated prices so we ended up getting a massage by the beach. Which was good and cheap!
The beach was very shallow and not very clean water. I wouldn't recommend it for people who are there for a beach holiday. This is definitely a place where you would just stay within the resort and nothing else.
Overall, we've survived but wouldn't go back to Adamas again.
United States of America,
February 15, 2010
Adamas is worth your stay
Quiet, secluded, relaxing, privacy, a place to get a good tan + good customer service. GORGEOUS pool, private beach
I was VERY pleasantly surprised by how clean, luxurious and inviting the hotel looked, for only being about a 10-15min taxi ride from Phuket Airport. DEFINITELY a place worth staying, esp if you get rooms on discount.
- They offered a free upgrade immediately
- Customer service is wonderful
- THE ROOMS: big, clean, beds are spacious, with the pool access are AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i loved jumping right into the pool from our back door. DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER!!!
- Pool is clean daily
- Breakfast buffet is a good mixture of Asian and Western.
Take a METERED taxi from the airport. We paid $190 Baht include $100 Airport surcharge. Hotel taxi service is more expensive, so if you want to save $, walk down the road and hire through locals.
February 13, 2010
Our stay at Adamas resort was the second part of our trip - so comparing it to three other resorts this one was the worst by far. It looks great however the service and facilities were a little stale. The pool access from the rooms is not that inviting - the highlight is walking along the beach into nai yang which is beautiful.
Mamma mia's restaurant and Kobi's Bar
February 11, 2010
Hotel stay at Adamas
Great scenerio; lovely food at the restaurant
February 10, 2010
Fantastic stay - great value
Great facilities, Big Pool, Free Games Room, Nice Accommodation, Great Food, Very Clean
Adamas was a fantastic stay for us, one that exceeded our expectations. The facilities were very nice, very clean and easy to use. The service at reception, the restaurants and the pool were excellent, towels are provided at the pool which makes it easy. The pool is also very big. Very relaxed atmosphere with live music. Nai Yang Beach is very nice if you walk a little way up - quite quiet, very relaxing.
The food served at Adamas is very nice but also very expensive (comparatively). If you want to pay less than half price, just walk 10 minutes up the beach and eat at one of many restaurants that are literally on the beach - a great experience.
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Customer Reviews - The Imperial Adamas Beach Resort, Phuket
- A Place of Luxury and Relaxation - The Admas Hotel had everything we wanted in a getaway retrea
- A very nice and quiet resort~ - Both me and my bf enjoyed this resort a lot as we like quiet
- Adamas Resort & Spa, Phuket, Thailand - Despite booking six months early via Agoda our room had been
- Adamas Resort & Spa -
- Beautiful resort with friendly and helpful staff. - when my daughter became very ill with sun poisoning, the sta
- Beautiful secluded property - Everyone was very helpful, even as we arrived at 1:00 a.m.
- close to airport with amazing pool - we only stayed here one night (group of 7 young adults) as o
- Don't waste your time or money - I was really looking forward to a nights stay in this 'luxur
- Excellent choice - quality and value - Adamas Resort is gorgeous - lovely grounds and big BIG swimm
- Excellent -
- Great holiday - The hotel is high class and really nice place to stay, but I
- great hotel. i liked. - i request some adaptor to connect my computer, hotel no prov
- Great Location for a very relax place - the place is very close to the airport so it's very convenie
- Great place somewhat isolated. - We had a very relaxing stay. Staff was extremely nice and he
- Great pool access and beautiful location - Stayed 2 nights, we could make ourselves really relaxed. Roo
- Great service and pool access was really nice - This hotel is perfect for couples with small children. It's
- Great staff, Large Resort and Queit - Unfortunately the beach was not the best. At all times the t
- Impressive, beautiful hotel, great breakfast - From walking into the main reception area, this hotel is imp
- Loved the hotel, loved the staff - We booked the first night at Andaman Legacy with a group of
- miles form anywere not that nice for the money - miles from anywere very small room had small baby they put m
- nice hotel, but far from anything! - very quiet. more suited to older couples. drinks and dinner
- Nice pool access room - After travelling 19 hours we chose this resort as it is clos
- Our peaceful holiday - We were pleasantly suprised when we were upgraded to our own
- Overall good - A huge swimming pool and you can access to pool in your room
- Perfect Get Away! - the resort is in a very remote location not so far from the
- Pleasant, peaceful, nice atmosphere.. -
- Plesant stay - we stayed for four days. As soon as we got there we got upg
- Poor hotel in a poor location - this was a poor hotel. the immediate beachfront was just san
- Pretty Resort - Reasonable Price - My husband and I stay in this resort for 3 nights. We booke
- Quiet hotel, for couple or family - quiet hotel, 45 minutes from patong beach, low season and on
- Quiet, peaceful hotel, wonderful friendly staff - My boyfriend was injured during a boat island tour, so we we
- Really nice hotel - the hotel was very nice. it was the last hotel of our trip a
- Relaxing heaven - The resort has very good interior design. Good sea view and
- Super Duper isolated - Rooms - A lot of mosquitoes and the room amenities were not
- This was a fantastic stay . - We had great stay as were upgraded to Pool villa with own po
- Tranquil surrounding with large room - annual retreat to this resort has become habitual. it is a n
- Very nice - Our room was awesome, food sucked, and was way over priced b
- Very nice - Very good hotel. Good service. Beautiful beach. The staff we
- Very quiet, but got an upgrade! - A rather bizarre experience really not that it was at all ba
- Very Romantic Setting - The resort was perfect if your looking to be far away from e
- wanderful seaview, very quiet - It's super nice a hotel and we went during the low season so
- We basically had the place to ourselves! - We were coming back from Krabi late afternoon and had to fin
- Well made hotel with well trained staffs. - first i got there in lobby, i was very welcomed by staffs wh
- Wonderful Hotel - Beautiful big rooms that are decorated nicely. Large clean b | <urn:uuid:c42a4de5-54e3-4037-80cc-e776f14384a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agoda.com/asia/thailand/phuket/the_imperial_adamas_beach_resort/reviews-page-35.html | 2013-05-20T12:10:27Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970232 | 2,827 |
Buying a new MF camera
I'd like to photograph in medium format. So I'm looking to buy my first MF camera.
With 35mm I mostly like the smaller camera's. Like an Olympus XA for example. Since I take it far more easily with me.
But I guess Medium Format is for the more controlled photographs. It's not the camera you take with you every time.
Camera's that got my interest:
Mamiya 6 (Expensive) + slow lenses for low light photography
Fuji Ga645 (Sound?) + slow lens for low light photography
Fuji Gs645w (Zone Focus=Portrait :( ) + slow lens for low light photography
Mamiya Universal (Slower lenses/Fragile?) + mostly very slow lenses for low light photography
Pentax 67 with grip (Camera porn)
I think I'd love the mamiya 6. Only problem is it's fairly expensive. I'm able to buy the body near where I live reasonably priced, around 300 euro. But than I have to search a lens which isn't too expensive which seems to be impossible.
The Fuji Ga 645 seems to stand up well against the mamiya 6. Things that scares me are the focus, it's AF. And is it really laggy? Or am I just worried too much? I'm not really a sports photographer nor a birds photographer but I don't like to have to press the button 4 times to get the picture. Also the sound it makes is it okay? Or more than okay?
The Fuji Ga 645 has certainly my interest since it's priced around 300 - 400 euro. (Things to watch out for when buying one? I heard of the Lcd?)
The Gs645S or W downside seems to be zone focus? Good thing about zone focusing is that it's fast. Downside is the accuracy. Or am I wrong?
Mamiya Universal has most of the time very slow lenses. At first I loved how it looked, but the more I'm exploring the net the more I find myself attracted to the other camera's.
Pentax 67 with the grip of course! It's very sexy. Professional looking. It has wide range of lens choices. Some are pretty fast for MF.
It's bulkier than the Mamiya 6 and the Fuji's which will make me think twice before taking the camera with me though. I certainly want one in the future, but maybe now is not the time? As a first camera?. Also when they are reasonably priced in or near my country they come and go very quickly. (Too quick)
You probably will advise me a Mamiya 645 system or the Rb67 but I don't like those. I don't know why, they seem so ultra bulky not practical.
Mael you forgot the texas leicas meaning the bigger Fuji Rangefinders with fixed lens but with a good rangefinder and that fixed lens is very good. They are not as lightweight as the 6 and the GA though. Another choice would be the Bronica RF645 it usually costs less than the six and the lenses aren't bad either. The GA645 is a good camera the AF is not the most precise in the world but is still decent. The GA is also a lot more affordable than the Mamiya six. The P67 is heavy and not really a walk around camera. A good compromise between speed portability and interchangeable lenses is the mamiya c330 it's a TLR with interchangeable lenses and shows the parallax error/correction in the finder the drawback it is heavier than the six and lacks metering. The advantage is the price of the lenses, the body and its close focussing ability. Zone focussing is a bit hit and miss furthermore wide cameras are not the best choices for portraits.
My Advice would be to get either the GA645 or the Mamiya C330 both great cameras for little money.
Thanks for the fast reply.
I know I didn't add the texas leica's aka Fuji Gw690. But I haven't seen those a lot in my country. And their pricing comes close to a Mamiya 6 with lens.
The Bronica RF645 is also pretty rare I think?
TLR's and Foldables (old ones) are indeed less expensive. But no metering, slower, and more fragile. I'd like to have something not too fragile.
Is the Fuji Ga645 60mm f4 good for portraits too? I'm having an option for around 300 Eur.
I don't shoot a ton of portraits, just sometimes. I'm more all-round Portrait-Archetecture-Objects-Rooms-Spaces-Landscapes-Street-...
Fuji Ga645 60mm f4 or Ga645 Zi Zoom?
TLRs are much less fragile than RF since the Rangefinder can't get out of alignment something that does happen even on the Mamiya six. Furthermore most TLR are made completely out of metal the newer RFs are more fragile than any Mamiya or Rollei TLR. The 60mm lens should work for portraits just don't get to close to the subject or you will get some distortion. Wideangles are better suited to environmental portraits were the photographers wants to show the subjects surroundings. Some TLR like the later Rolleiflexes do have metering btw but are expensive. If you can get the GA for 300Euros get it it's a great camera.
Originally Posted by MaŽl
MaŽl, you seem to suggest that both the Fuji GS645S and GS645W are zoned-focussed. That's not true; the GS645S is rangefinder focussed.
I actually traded in my Texas Leica, a Fujica GW690, for the GS645S. While the GW690 was sturdier, and produced a stunning 6x9 negative, the GS645S has the following advantages:
- smaller and lighter, which means easier to carry and less imposing to your subjects
- includes a light meter
The lens on the 645S is a nice "normal-wide" which can work for portraits. I ruled out the 645W because of zone focussing and the wide lens being less useful for portraits.
Ow, that is good news!
Than indeed I'm interested in the Gs645S!
Fuji Ga645 (60mm f4) vs Gs645S
You might consider the Mamiya RB67. While it is big and heavy(I use a tripod) it is not that expensive.
I see that you're unhappy with all of them due to slow lenses for low light. MF will always have slower lenses than 35mm and LF will have even slower lenses that's a given. Even if you can get fast lenses I don't think it would help much in term of low light shooting. If you have to do low light hand held and/or subjects move then I don't find any film camera works well for that. But if the subject doesn't move then it's not a problem with slow lenses. Besides, I don't know about you but I can't shoot wide open even with 35mm and doing so with MF I would have much shallower depth of field. I know a lot of people love to take picture with an f/1.2/ f1.4 lens wide open but I never find an image that I can successfully make with such a shallow depth of field.
Buying a new MF camera
Mael, Have you considered a Pentax 645? They are great cameras with some very sharp lenses and the first 645, the manual focus cameras, are fairly inexpensive. I have used one for the past 10 years and have been very satisfied with the reliability as well as the quality of the images and 15 shots to the roll of 120 film is a good thing. I used a Pentax 67 for many years before my 645 and was very pleased with the image quality, but it is considerably heavier than the 645. The 645's meter is center weighted almost a spot and was very accurate as well. Check it out.
On the low light, that is true. It's just a point a made, but maybe a useless point. Sorry for that.
Maybe me learning to use a flash could do wonders :)
About the Pentax 645 is not my taste, it's very bulky unpractical looking. I'd take a Pentax 67 any time over the 645.
I think the pentax 67 is for a future purchase.
Right now it's between the Fuji Ga645 (60mm f4) and the Fuji Gs645s. The Bronica Rf645 is nice too! But seems to be more expensive like the Mamiya 6. | <urn:uuid:649dba7f-0b35-4f46-8986-037ff26dbfbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apug.org/forums/medium-format-cameras-accessories/print-114291-buying-new-mf-camera.html | 2013-05-20T11:30:26Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969903 | 1,824 |
FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions from the ASGE Coding Questions Center
Q. The coding department of the hospital where we perform our procedures has contacted our office challenging our ICD-9 coding for procedures that were originally scheduled as screening colonoscopies, but were coded with 211.3 (benign neoplasm of colon) when a polyp was identified and removed. It is the opinion of the hospital coders, based on information they received from the American Hospital Association's (AHA) Coding Clinic that, for diagnostic procedures, the primary diagnosis should always be the screening (V76.51) even when a polyp is identified and removed. It is our understanding that the primary diagnosis should be the polyp, not the screening. Who is right?
A. We have received numerous communications regarding this issue. The conflict stems from Medicare's [original] instructions for diagnostic tests which states "Diagnostic tests ordered in the absence of signs and/or symptoms (e.g., screening tests)…the testing facility or the physician interpreting the diagnostic test should report the screening code as the primary diagnosis code. Any condition discovered during the screening should be reported as a secondary diagnosis." The Coding Clinic referenced this statement to instruct their subscribers to use the screening ICD-9 code as primary for colonoscopies.
However, the AHA left off the last part of the Medicare instructions which states "This instruction does not supersede statutory payment guidelines (i.e., Medicare's screening colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy reporting guidelines). If, during the course of a screening colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy a lesion or growth is detected, the lesion or growth should be reported as the primary diagnosis, not the reason for the test." By this logic, the primary ICD-9 code should be the lesion not the screening for both the hospital and the physician.
CMS eventually clarified their intent and gave more explicit instructions, in a MedLearn article that we cite below. The problem became more complex when Congress instructed CMS not to charge a deductible for colonoscopy when the result was screening and not therapeutic; but to charge the deductible when the procedure becomes therapeutic! Attempts to alter this unwise policy require further legislation and is a subject of ASGE advocacy.
In the MedLearn article instruction, the KEY GUIDANCE is:
TAKE HOME MESSAGE:
When a diagnostic colonoscopy for screening (G0121 or G0105) becomes therapeutic because of a finding, use the CPT code reflecting the procedure performed—e.g. 45385 (line 24 of the 1500 claim form); list V76.51 or similar ICD-9 indicating SCREENING intention of the procedure as the FIRST DIAGNOSIS; list the finding e.g. 211.3 polyp as the second diagnosis; BUT, in line 24E where the CPT code “points to” the diagnosis pertinent which is in box 21, reference the SECOND diagnosis! (the polyp or finding)
Why? Because the V code reflects the primary intention; but most payers will reject the therapeutic code like 45385 if the V code is the only or first diagnosis pointed to.
IF your particular payer still rejects the claim because V76.51 is listed first, then reverse the sequence. It still tells the payer that screening was the original intent. Many private payers have coverage policy that allows benefits for the screening, yet will deny the claim if billed as therapeutic WITHOUT the screening V code!
Coding for Polypectomy Performed During Screening Colonoscopy or Flexible Sigmoidoscopy
MLN Matters Number: SE0746
CMS has become aware of confusion regarding billing for colorectal screening arising because of wording in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Final Rule for 2007 (Federal Register, Vol. 71, No. 231, page 69665, December 1, 2006).
See the MPFS Final Rule on the CMS website
The relevant section of the 2007 MPFS states, regarding screening colonoscopies, that:
“If during the course of such screening colonoscopy, a lesion or growth is detected which results in a biopsy or removal of the lesion or growth, payment under this part shall not be made for the screening colonoscopy but shall be made for the procedure classified as a colonoscopy with such biopsy or removal.''
Based on this statutory language, in such instances the test or procedure is no longer classified as a "screening test." Thus, the deductible would not be waived in such situations.
The above scenario can be restated as follows:
- A patient presents for a screening colonoscopy (or flexible sigmoidoscopy), and the patient has no gastrointestinal symptoms.
- During the subsequent screening colonoscopy (or flexible sigmoidoscopy), an abnormality is identified (such as a polyp, etc.), and it is biopsied or removed.
CMS advises that, whether or not an abnormality is found, if a service to a Medicare beneficiary starts out as a screening examination (colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy), then the primary diagnosis should be indicated on the form CMS-1500 (or its electronic equivalent) using the ICD-9 code for the screening examination.
As an example, the above scenario should be billed as follows using claim form CMS-1500 (or its electronic equivalent):
- Item 21 (Diagnosis or Nature of Illness or Injury)
- Indicate the Primary Diagnosis using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, (ICD-9-CM) code for the screening examination (colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy), and
- Indicate the Secondary Diagnosis using the ICD-9-CM code for the abnormal finding (polyp, etc.).
- For example, V76.51 (Special screening for malignant neoplasms, Colon) would be used as the first listed code, while the secondary code might be 211.3 (Benign neoplasm of other parts of digestive system, Colon).
- Item 24D (Procedures, Services, or Supplies)
- Indicate the procedure performed using the CMS Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System/Common Procedure Terminology (HCPCS/CPT) code for the procedure (biopsy or polypectomy), and
- Item 24E (Diagnosis Pointer)
- Enter only "2" (to link the procedure (polypectomy or biopsy) with the abnormal finding (polyp, etc.)
A Medicare beneficiary undergoing a screening colonoscopy (no symptoms and no abnormal findings prior to the procedure) will be responsible for the deductible if a polyp is identified and either biopsied or removed.
When there is no need for a therapeutic procedure, the appropriate HCPCS G-code is reported with the ICD-9-CM code reflecting the indication. Effective January 1, 2007, CMS began waiving the annual Medicare Part B deductible for colorectal cancer screening tests billed with the HCPCS G-codes.
We also cite an explanation from a few years ago from CMS official Terrence Kay: “The correct way to bill for the procedure is to list the V code as the first diagnosis and the polyp as the second in Box 21 of the CMS 1500 claim form. Coders should enter a "2" in Box 24E next to the procedure for the polypectomy or biopsy, linking the second diagnosis with the procedure.”
As per Mr. Kay, "the current (CMS) 1500 instructions indicate, for item 21: 'Enter up to four codes in priority order (primary, secondary condition).' For 24 E, the instructions state: 'Enter the diagnosis code reference number as shown in item 21 to relate the date of service and the procedures performed to the primary diagnosis. Enter only one reference number per line item. When multiple services are performed, enter the primary reference number for each service, either a 1, or a 2, or a 3, or a 4. This is a required field.' It does NOT say you have to list the 'primary' diagnosis from box 21 on each box 24E line item. It goes so far as to say you can choose among the four dx codes listed."
Q. If the physician does a colonoscopy with snare excision of polyps and a cautery polypectomy of another, can we charge for two polyps??
A. Maybe! If the snare tip was used to fulgurate a tiny polyp without biopsy, no separate code would be appropriate. If a hot biopsy forcep was utilized to remove tissue and fulgurate the remaining polyp, the coding would be 45385 for the snare excision, and 45384-59 (Medicare) or 45384-51 +/or –59 for the commercial payor, depending on how they cover and value the 2nd procedures during the same setting.
Q. The physician did a colonoscopy with removal of multiple polyps. Can we charge for all of them??
A. No. In this case, if snare removal (hot or cold) was the method for removal of all polyps, you can only charge the code once as it states "polyp(s)" in the CPT description. If multiple polypectomy was performed which required several different techniques that are not represented by the same code, then the physician could charge for the various techniques used, reporting the secondary lesser valued code(s) with –59 modifier, indicating “distinct procedural services.”
Q. What code do we use for removal of a polyp with cold forceps??
A. A biopsy can mean that either part or that an entire specimen is removed; so the correct code during colonoscopy is 45380 and during EGD, 43239.
Q. How do we bill for EGD with Botox injection?
A. Choices are 43202, esophagoscopy with directed submucosal injection(s), any substance; or the EGD counterpart 43236. The former would be sensible if a prior diagnostic endoscopy was done which established the diagnosis, and there is no new medical necessity to reexamine stomach and duodenum. The latter might be done, for example, if a patient with prior Botox treatment required a follow-up exam after a long interval and it was medically sensible/necessary to re-examine stomach, duodenum. Separate reporting of the Botox drug is allowed.
(For more information on this subject, see Chapter 4 in Coding Primer: A Guide for Gastroenterologists, 2009)
Q. When we are billing two procedures for example, colonoscopy and EGD performed on the same day/same setting, we are being denied the second procedure. What should we do?
A. Assuming you billed the colonoscopy code first (being higher valued), and second procedure with either modifier 51 to indicate multiple procedures, or without modifier (since most payers don’t require modifier 51 to pay a second procedure), the question is what was the reason on the remittance notice for the denial?
CMS and most payers will reimburse 50 percent of the usual allowance for the second procedure, which is why the higher valued procedure is billed first, regardless of the order in which they were performed. The best recourse is to contact the payer if you can’t tell why the second procedure was denied; or appeal if there appears to be an inappropriate reason for denial. If you can find another remittance from the same payer where the same code pair (or something close, a colon code and an upper code) were both paid, enclose a copy to show the payer they are being inconsistent. If they still refuse to pay and it appears to contradict any existing contract, the patient may well remain responsible for your usual fee and have to appeal directly to the payer, or complain to the state regulatory agency with jurisdiction. Most of the largest national payers have settled class action suits brought by state medical societies in which they have agreed to abide by recognized CPT coding and CMS payment conventions. Let ASGE know when you’ve encountered payers who don’t appear to be playing by the rules we expect so we can investigate and advocate for change!
(For more information on this subject, see Chapters 2-3 in Coding Primer: A Guide for Gastroenterologists, 2009)
Q. The physician performs an EGD in the morning and a colonoscopy in the afternoon, because the physician could not identify the bleeder with the EGD. Would I use modifier -50 in this situation??
A. No. The -50 modifier indicates that a procedure was performed bilaterally. That means that the exact same procedure was performed on both sides of the anatomically identical parts of the body—this modifier is never applicable in GI endoscopic work, even for right and left biliary ductal work! In this situation, no modifier is needed, since there are two procedures via different orifices/different families of codes. You could add –51 to the EGD code and list it second, as the lesser valued service. Medicare and other payors should reimburse at 50% of the usual allowance.
Q. What is the appropriate code to use for EGD with decompression??
A. Since there is no code that accurately describes EGD with decompression, an unlisted UGI endoscopy code (43999) would be most appropriate, enclosing a procedure report which should make clear what time was required and what the relative work was by comparing it to an existing valued EGD code.
Q. Can we charge for two physicians doing a PEG placement? One was a surgeon and the other a gastroenterologist.?
A. Yes. Code 43246 should be used with either modifier 62 or modifier 80. Check with the other physician to ensure both offices bill the same code with modifier 62 or to determine which physician is to bill as the assistant if that approach is used. Medicare recognizes 62 in this situation and reimburses both physicians at ½ of 125 percent of the usual allowance. Modifier 80 surgical assistant approach (recognized by some payers but not by Medicare for 43246) would typically pay the primary proceduralist 100 percent of the usual allowance and the assistant 16-20%; but there are few payers which would allow for an assistant in this procedure. Note that Medicare does NOT recognize two gastroenterologists reporting 43246-62 — only two different specialists. ASGE has appealed this policy.
(For more information on this subject, see Chapter 11 in Coding Primer: A Guide for Gastroenterologists, 2009)
Q. What code do we use to convert a PEG tube to a J tube??
A. Code 44373 would be the appropriate code to use to report this service. See Primer for detailed discussion of tubes that might be applicable. Radiologists utilize different codes to report the procedure using fluoroscopy. There is a code which sounds related, 43761, with descriptor “Repositioning of the gastric feeding tube, through the duodenum for enteric nutrition”, but presently it is a code without clarity as to how this would be used, and it is not valued as an endoscopic service; in theory it could be reported with an older 76000 fluoroscopy code if the gastroenterologist did the fluoro service and included a separate report for it.
However, there is a newer code that describes tube repositioning using fluoroscopy, typically reported by radiologists:
49446 - Conversion of gastrostomy tube to gastro-jejunostomy tube, percutaneous, under fluoroscopic guidance including contrast injection(s), image documentation and report.
Q. When we do fluoroscopy to guide a complex endoscopic dilation, we have always been paid, but recently I got a denial saying that someone else had already billed for this (the radiologist). Can we still bill for fluoroscopy with a modifier -26 or is this something new with Medicare??
A. In this case, the billing department of the hospital most likely billed the 76000 for the radiologist's services. This would preclude your office from using modifier -26. If the radiologist was not involved during the procedure, then the hospital’s billing for this is erroneous, and if they communicated their error to the payor, you could then bill 76000-26, assuming you prepared a report describing the work and findings. Radiologists are not supposed to bill Medicare for “over-reads” which are primarily for quality purposes, but if they assist you at fluoroscopy and provide a report of their service, they and not you can bill for the service.
Q. What code do I use for insertion of a feeding tube??
A. A bedside placement by the physician of an NG feeding tube has no specific CPT code and would be reported with an E&M service to include whatever other E&M services were provided the same day. A tube placement requiring physician skill but requiring fluoroscopy can be reported as of 2008 as:
43752 - Naso- or oro-gastric tube placement, requiring physician's skill and fluoroscopic guidance (includes fluoroscopy, image documentation and report).
Code 91105 is not appropriate for feeding tube placement; it describes:
91105 - Gastric intubation, and aspiration or lavage for treatment (e.g., for ingested poison). Endoscopic gastrostomy placement is reported 43246.
Q. What code do I use for removal of a G-tube?
A. If the tube is not being replaced, there is no specific procedure code and it is reported during an E&M face-to-face visit. If NO E&M service is provided at all and the physician placed the G tube himself, no service would be reported. However, if the G-tube was removed and replaced, code 43760 has a redefined meaning as of 2008:
43760 - Change of gastrostomy tube, percutaneous, without imaging or endoscopic guidance.
For endoscopic placement of gastrostomy tube, use 43246.
Q. Can we charge for removal of a gastrostomy tube in the office??
A. Not specifically under a drainage tube removal code. The drain tube removal is reported using an appropriate E&M service code.
Q. The doctor performed an EGD with a Maloney dilator and a balloon dilator. Can I code for both?
A. Although an unusual combination, the answer is that yes, both procedures could be billed, but bundling edit software might lead to a denial of the 2nd code, and an appeal would be required, which depending on the payer and circumstances may or may not work. Code the endoscopy with dilation code first; whether 43249 (EGD) or 43220 (esophagoscopy, balloon dilation (less than 30 mm)) as appropriate (see Primer Chapter 4 for further details); the second code would be 43450, for bougie dilation, coded once regardless of number of dilators passed. Most typically, one endoscopic dilation code for wire-guided dilation would be used since the typical Savary type dilators are equivalent to the Maloney bougie (code choices then 43226 for esophagoscopy code; 43248 for EGD code). Another uncommon combination that might be billed is EGD with wire-guided dilation and a separate procedure with balloon dilator; for example using a balloon to do initial dilation of a tight asymmetric stricture, within a longer smoother stricture, then perhaps using the Savary type dilator over a guidewire to dilate the entire segment.
For Medicare, the NCCI edits indicate that code pair 43248/43450 could be billed if both procedures were medically necessary; yet 43249/43450 could not be billed together, the 43450 will not pass the edit even with modifier 59 added.
(For more information on this subject, see Chapter 12 in Coding Primer: A Guide for Gastroenterologists, 2009)
Q. How do I bill for ERCP with sphincterotomy after which I did a balloon dilation of biliary duct?
A. Code 43271 should be used to report the ERCP with the balloon dilation, and code 43262 should be used to report the sphincterotomy. These codes are not bundled, but they are part of the same endoscopic family, so some payers reject the second code. However, CPT language specifically says to report the sphincterotomy with 43262; and iCCI (NCCI?) edits do not require a 59 modifier (“distinct procedural service”) on the 2nd code. Some private payers may recognize the second service without need to appeal if modifier 59 is attached, so get to know the individual larger payers you deal with. Medicare contractors would pay the full amount on 43271 and for 43262 would pay the difference between 43262 usual allowance and the allowance for the base diagnostic ERCP code 43260. For private payers, you should be able to use modifier 51 and may receive the multiple surgery reduction of 50 percent on the second code; or the payer may follow Medicare convention. If they deny the 2nd code billed with –51 as if you were unbundling, resubmit with appeal letter and indicate that –59 modifier applied, enclose a report that shows you did both procedures and shows medical necessity and separate resource consumption for both.
(For more information on this subject, see Chapter 7 in Coding Primer: A Guide for Gastroenterologists, 2009)
Q. If the physician does an ERCP with stent placement, what code should I use??
A. Use code 43268, ERCP with endoscopic retrograde insertion of stent into bile or pancreatic duct. However, if a sphincterotomy was required and was performed the same day in order to place the stent, 43262 should be billed as the 2nd (lesser valued) procedure, with –59 for Medicare and either –51 or –59 or both for commercial payors.
Q. The physician did a new consult and procedure on the same day. Do we use the -57 modifier on the E/M code??
A. A consultation can be provided for a new patient or an individual previously seen, if the service meets the requirements for consultation, so “new” isn’t a key concept here; however, CPT recognizes only one consultation per admission in the inpatient setting, other services being subsequent hospital care. If the consultation assessment led to the conclusion that an endoscopic procedure was needed same day, the procedure would be billed without modifier, and the E&M visit with the –25 modifier indicating “separately identifiable E&M service.” Some non-Medicare payers still do not recognize the E&M service, which should be appealed; and still can be charged to the patient. .Most of the largest national payers have settled class action suits brought by state medical societies in which they have agreed to abide by recognized CPT coding and CMS payment conventions. Let ASGE know when you’ve encountered payers who don’t appear to be playing by the rules we expect so we can investigate and advocate for change!
Rules are different for non-GI 10 and 90 global day services.
Note that if the procedure was planned and the evaluation was just to assess stability for the procedure or provide the administratively required H&P for a facility, no separately identifiable E&M service has been provided, since procedures have an element of E&M work also.
(For more information on this subject, see Chapter 14 in Coding Primer: A Guide for Gastroenterologists, 2009)
Q. What is a consult vs. new patient??
A. A consult is done when a physician “or other appropriate source” (defined in CPT consultation instructions) asks another doctor for his or her advice or opinion, and a report is sent back by the physician providing the evaluation. This doesn’t preclude ordering diagnostic tests or performing therapeutic procedures the same day as the evaluation, the procedures being separately reportable. In this situation commonly the –25 modifier is required on the consultation code so the E&M service isn’t regarded as incidental to or bundled with the therapeutic procedure.
If a physician refers a patient to you but has no intent to seek advice or opinion—and you have no medical need (apart perhaps from courtesy) to send a complete note in return, then the service is a new patient evaluation (e.g. 99201-99205 in the outpatient setting). Similarly, if the patient is self-referred or referred by family, the service is not a consultation, even if you send a letter to the patient’s primary physician.
Q. With regard to code 82270, how many times can that be billed for the number of cards given to and received from a Medicare patient??
A. Medicare rules and CPT language allow you to bill for 1 unit of service, regardless of the number of specimens tested in house or the number of cards given to the patient for home specimen collection. 82270 refers to the guaiac method on “consecutive collected specimens with single determination” and specifies it is for colorectal neoplasm screening, also specifically indicating that a set of 3 cards is involved. Thus this code would NOT be used for a fecal occult blood test performed during digital rectal exam. Instead, 82272 was amended in 2008 to describe 1-3 determinations for “other than colorectal neoplasm screening,” and is not specific about a method of cards—thus would be the code to report a diagnostic test from a digital rectal exam. Note also there is a separate code, 82274, for the fecal hemoglobin immunoassay determination, but this also applies to “1-3 simultaneous determinations.”
Q. How do I code for endoscopy to mark the intestine with India dye in preparation for surgery??
A. During colonoscopy, the code 43281 describes “directed submucosal injection(s), any substance” and would be the applicable code for India ink marking; but also for saline lift during polypectomy.
The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has made reasonable efforts to confirm the accuracy of the information provided but this advice is intended only to provide a broad overview of coding and coverage. The information is not intended to serve as specific advice about how to utilize, code, bill or charge for any medical product or services. Clinical scenarios, non-clinical circumstances, individual payer policies and numerous other factors may impact a particular situation. ASGE makes no representation or warranty regarding the completeness or accuracy of the information. | <urn:uuid:1ef7cf4d-725a-4a38-acac-6d21d2bb36a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asge.org/members/members.aspx?id=148 | 2013-05-20T12:08:11Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93125 | 5,665 |
rbldnsd is a small DNS-protocol daemon which is designed to handle queries to DNS-based IP-listing or NAME-listing services. Such services are a simple way to share/publish a list of IP addresses or (domain) names which are "listed" for for some reason, for example in order to be able to refuse a service to a client which is "listed" in some blocklist.
rbldnsd is not a general-purpose nameserver. It will answer to A and TXT (and SOA and NS if such RRs are specified) queries, and has limited ability to answer to some other types of queries.
rbldnsd tries to handle data from two different perspectives: given a set (or several) of "listed entries" (e.g. IP address ranges or domain names), it builds and serves a DNS zone. Note the two are not the same: list of spammer's IPs is NOT a DNS zone, but may be represented and used as such, provided that some additional information necessary to build complete DNS zone (e.g. NS and SOA records, maybe A records necessary for http to work) is available. In this context, rbldnsd is very different from other general-purpose nameservers such as BIND or NSD: rbldnsd operates with datasets (sets of entries - IP addresses or domain names, logically grouped together), while other general-purpose nameservers operates with zones. The way how rbldnsd operates may be somewhat confusing to BIND experts.
For rbldnsd, a building block is a dataset: e.g., set of insecure/abuseable hosts (IP addresses), set of network ranges that belongs to various spam operations (IP ranges), domain names that belong to spammers (RHSBL) and so on. Usually, different kind of information is placed into separate file, for easy maintenance. From a number of such datasets, rbldnsd constructs a number of DNS zones as specified on command line. A single dataset may be used for several zones, and a single zone may be constructed from several datasets.
rbldnsd will answer queries to DNS zones specified on the command line as a set of zone specifications. Each zone specification consists of zone basename, dataset type and a comma-separated list of files that forms a given dataset: zone:type:file,file,...
Several zones may be specified in command line, so that rbldnsd will answer queries to any of them. Also, a single zone may be specified several times with different datasets, so it is possible to form a zone from a combination of several different dataset. The same dataset may be reused for several zones too (and in this case, it will be read into memory only once).
There are several dataset formats available, each is suitable and optimized (in terms of memory, speed and ease of use) for a specific task. Available dataset types may be grouped into the following categories:
The following options may be specified:
timestamp zone:qtot:qok:qnxd:bin:bout zone:...where timestamp is unix time (secounds since epoch), zone is the name of the base zone, qtot is the total number of queries received, qok - number of positive replies, qnxd - number of NXDOMAIN replies, bin is the total number of bytes read from network (excluding IP/UDP overhead and dropped packets), bout is the total number of bytes written to network. Ther are as many such tuples as there are zones, and one extra, total typle at the end, with zone being "*", like:
1234 bl1.ex:10:5:4:311:432 bl2.ex:24:13:7:248:375 *:98:35:12:820:987Note the total values may be larger than the sum of per-zone values, due to queries made against unlisted zones, or bad/broken packets.
Rbldnsd will write bare timestamp to statsfile when it is starting up, shutting down or when statistic counters are being reset after receiving SIGUSR2 signal (see below), to indicate the points where the counters are starting back from zero.
By default, rbldnsd writes absolute counter values into statsfile (number of packets (bytes) since startup or last reset). statsfile may be prefixed with plus sign (+), in which case rbldnsd will write delta values, that is, number of packets or bytes since last write, or number of packets (bytes) per unit of time ("incremental" mode, hence the "+" sign).
Dataset files are text files which are interpreted depending on type specified in command line. Empty lines and lines starting with hash character (#) or semicolon (;) are ignored, except for a special case outlined below in section titled "Special Entries".
A (comma-separated) list of files in dataset specification (in type:file,file,...) is interpreted as if all files where logically combined into one single file.
When compiled with zlib support, rbldnsd is able to read gzip-compressed data files. So, every file in dataset specification can be compressed with gzip(1), and rbldnsd will read such a file decompressing it on-the-fly. This feature may be turned off by specifying -C option.
rbldnsd is designed to service a DNSBL, where each entry have single A record and optional TXT record assotiated with it. rbldnsd allows to specify A value and TXT template either for each entry individually, or to use default A value and TXT template pair for a group of entries. See section "Resulting A values and TXT templates" below for a way to specify them.
If a line starts with a dollar sign ($), hash character and a dollar sign (#$), semicolon and dollar sign (;#) or colon and a dollar sign (:$), it is interpreted in a special way, regardless of dataset type (this is one exception where a line starting with hash character is not ignored - to be able to use zone files for both rbldnsd and for DJB's rbldns). The following keywords, following a dollar sign, are recognized:
$MAXRANGE4 /24 $MAXRANGE4 256This constraint is active for a dataset it is specified in, and can be owerwritten (by subsequent $MAXRANGE statement) by a smaller value, but can not be increased.
A set of IP addresses or CIDR address ranges, together with A and TXT resulting values. IP addresses are specified one per line, by an IP address prefix (initial octets), complete IP address, CIDR range, or IP prefix range (two IP prefixes or complete addresses delimited by a dash, inclusive). Examples, to specify 127.0.0.0/24:
127.0.0.0/24 127.0.0 127/24 127-127.0.0 127.0.0.0-127.0.0.255 127.0.0.1-255to specify 127.16.0.0-127.31.255.255:
127.16.0.0-127.31.255.255 127.16.0-127.31.255 127.16-127.31 127.16-31 127.16.0.0/12 127.16.0/12 127.16/12Note that in prefix range, last boundary is completed with all-ones (255), not all-zeros line with first boundary and a prefix alone. In prefix ranges, if last boundary is only one octet (127.16-31), it is treated as "suffix", as value of last specified octet of the first boundary prefix (127.16.0-31 is treated as 127.16.0.0-127.16.31.255, i.e. 127.16.0.0/19).
After an IP address range, A and TXT values for a given entry may be specified. If none given, default values in current scope (see below) applies. If a value starts with a colon, it is interpreted as a pair of A record and TXT template, delimited by colon (:127.0.0.2:This entry is listed). If a value does not start with a colon, it is interpreted as TXT template only, with A record defaulting to the default A value in current scope.
IP address range may be followed by a comment char (either hash character (#) or semicolon (;)), e.g.:
127/8 ; loopback networkIn this case all characters up to the end of line are ignored, and default A and TXT values will be used for this IP range.
Every IP address that fits within any of specified ranges is "listed", and rbldnsd will respond to reverse queries against it within specified zone with positive results. In contrast, if an entry starts with an exclamation sign (!), this is an exclusion entry, i.e. corresponding address range is excluded from being listed (and any value for this record is ignored). This may be used to specify large range except some individual addresses, in a compact form.
If a line starts with a colon (:), this line specifies the default A value and TXT template to return (see below) for all subsequent entries up to end of current file. If no default entry specified, and no value specified for a given record, rbldnsd will return 127.0.0.2 for matching A queries and no record for matching TXT queries. If TXT record template is specified and contains occurences of of dollar sign ($), every such occurence is replaced with an IP address in question, so singe TXT template may be used to e.g. refer to a webpage for an additional information for a specific IP address.
Set of IP4 CIDR ranges with corresponding (A, TXT) values. Similar to ip4set, but uses different internal representation (implemented as a patricia trie), accepts CIDR ranges only (not a.b.c.d-e.f.g.h), allows to specify only one value per CIDR range, and returns only one, most close matching, entry on queries. Exclusions are supported too. This dataset is not memory-efficient to store many single IP addresses, but it is ok to use it to store many possible wide CIDR ranges.
"trivial" ip4set: a set of single IP addresses (one per line), with the same A+TXT template. This dataset type is more efficient than ip4set (in both memory usage and access times), but have obvious limitation. It is intended for DNSBLs like DSBL.org, ORDB.org and similar, where each entry uses the same default A+TXT template. This dataset uses only half a memory for the same list of IP addresses compared to ip4set.
Set of (possible wildcarded) domain names with associated A and TXT values. Similar to ip4set, but instead of IP addresses, data consists of domain names (not in reverse form). One domain name per line, possible starting with wildcard (either with star-dot (*.) or just a dot). Entry starting with exclamation sign is exclusion. Default value for all subsequent lines may be specified by a line starting with a colon.
Wildcards are interpreted as follows:
This dataset type may be used instead of ip4set, provided all CIDR ranges are expanded and reversed (but in this case, TXT template will be expanded differently).
Generic type, simplified bind-style format. Every record should be on one line (line continuations are not supported), and should be specified completely (i.e. all domain names in values should be fully-qualified, entry name may not be omitted). No wildcards are accepted. Only A, TXT, and MX records are recognized. TTL value may be specified before record type. Examples:
# bl.ex.com # specify some values for current zone $NS 0 ns1.ex.com ns2.ex.com # record with TTL www 3000 A 127.0.0.1 about TXT "ex.com combined blocklist"
This is a special dataset that stores no data by itself but acts like a container for several other datasets of any type except of combined type itself. The data file contains an optional common section, where various specials are recognized like $NS, $SOA, $TTL (see above), and a series of sections, each of which defines one (nested) dataset and several subzones of the base zone, for which this dataset should be consulted. New (nested) dataset starts with a line
$DATASET type[:name] subzone subzone...and all subsequent lines up to the end of current file or to next $DATASET line are interpreted as a part of dataset of type type, with optional name (name is used for logging purposes only, and the whole ":name" (without quotes or square brackets) part is optional). Note that combined datasets cannot be nested. Every subzone will always be relative to the base zone name specified on command line. If subzone specified as single character "@", dataset will be connected to the base zone itself.
This dataset type aims to simplify subzone maintenance, in order to be able to include several subzones in one file for easy data transfer, atomic operations and to be able to modify list of subzones on remote secondary nameservers.
Example of a complete dataset that contains subzone `proxies' with a list of open proxies, subzone `relays' with a list of open relays, subzone `multihop' with output IPs of multihop open relays, and the base zone itself includes proxies and relays but not multihops:
# common section $NS 1w ns1.ex.com ns2.ex.com $SOA 1w ns1.ex.com admin.ex.com 0 2h 2h 1w 1h # list of open proxies, # in `proxies' subzone and in base zone $DATASET ip4set:proxy proxies @ :2:Open proxy, see http://bl.ex.com/proxy/$ 127.0.0.2 127.0.0.10 # list of open relays, # in `relays' subzone and in base zone $DATASET ip4set:relay relays @ :3:Open relay, see http://bl.ex.com/relay/$ 127.0.0.2 127.0.2.10 # list of optputs of multistage relays, # in `multihop' subzone only $DATASET ip4set:multihop-relay multihop :4:Multihop open relay, see http://bl.ex.com/relay/$ 127.0.0.2 127.0.9.12 # for the base zone and all subzones, # include several additional records $DATASET generic:common proxies relays multihop @ @ A 127.0.0.8 www A 127.0.0.8 @ MX 10 mx.ex.com # the above results in having the following records # (provided that the base zone specified is bl.ex.com): # proxies.bl.ex.com A 127.0.0.8 # www.proxies.bl.ex.com 127.0.0.8 # relays.bl.ex.com A 127.0.0.8 # www.relays.bl.ex.com 127.0.0.8 # multihop.bl.ex.com A 127.0.0.8 # www.multihop.bl.ex.com 127.0.0.8 # bl.ex.com A 127.0.0.8 # www.bl.ex.com 127.0.0.8
Note that $NS and $SOA values applies to the base zone only, regardless of the placement in the file. Unlike the $TTL values and $n substitutions, which may be both global and local for a given (sub-)dataset.
In all zone file types except generic, A values and TXT templates are specified as following:
:127.0.0.2:Blacklisted: http://example.com/bl?$If a line starts with a colon, it specifies default A and TXT for all subsequent entries in this dataset. Similar format is used to specify values for individual records, with the A value (enclosed by colons) being optional:
127.0.0.2 :127.0.0.2:Blacklisted: http://example.com/bl?$or, without specific A value:
127.0.0.2 Blacklisted: http://example.com/bl?$
Two parts of a line, delimited by second colon, specifies A and TXT record values. Both are optional. By default (either if no default line specified, or no IP address within that line), rbldnsd will return 127.0.0.2 as A record. 127.0.0 prefix for A value may be omitted, so the above example may be simplified to:
:2:Blacklisted: http://example.com/bl?$There is no default TXT value, so rbldnsd will not return anything for TXT queries it TXT isn't specified.
When A value is specified for a given entry, but TXT template is omitted, there may be two cases interpreted differently, namely, whenever there's a second semicolon (:) after the A value. If there's no second semicolon, default TXT value for this scope will be used. In contrast, when second semicolon is present, no TXT template will be generated at all. All possible cases are outlined in the following example:
# default A value and TXT template :127.0.0.2:IP address $ is listed # 127.0.0.4 will use default A and TXT 127.0.0.4 # 127.0.0.5 will use specific A and default TXT 127.0.0.5 :5 # 127.0.0.6 will use specific a and no TXT 127.0.0.6 :6: # 127.0.0.7 will use default A and specific TXT 127.0.0.7 IP address $ running an open relay
In a TXT template, references to substitution variables are replaced with values of that variables. In particular, single dollar sign ($) is replaced by a listed entry (an IP address in question for IP-based datasets and the domain name for domain-based datasets). $n-style constructs, where n is a single digit, are replaced by a substitution variable $n defined for this dataset in current scope (see section "Special Entries" above). To specify a dollar sign as-is, use $$.
For example, the following lines:
$1 See http://www.example.com/bl $2 for details 127.0.0.2 $1/spammer/$ $2 127.0.0.3 $1/relay/$ $2 127.0.0.4 This spammer wants some $$$$. $1/$will result in the following text to be generated:
See http://www.example.com/bl/spammer/127.0.0.2 for details See http://www.example.com/bl/relay/127.0.0.3 for details This spammer wants some $$. See http://www.example.com/bl/127.0.0.4
If the "base template" ($= variable) is defined, this template is used for expansion, instead of the one specified for an entry being queried. Inside the base template, $= construct is substituted with the text given for individual entries. In order to stop usage of base template $= for a single record, start it with = (which will be omitted from the resulting TXT value). For example,
$0 See http://www.example.com/bl?$= ($) for details 127.0.0.2 r123 127.0.0.3 127.0.0.4 =See other blocklists for details about $produces the following TXT records:
See http://www.example.com/bl?r123 (127.0.0.2) for details See http://www.example.com/bl?127.0.0.3 (127.0.0.3) for details See other blocklists for details about 127.0.0.4
This is not a real dataset, while the syntax and usage is the same as with other datasets. Instead of defining which records exists in a given zone and which does not, acl dataset specifies which client hosts (peers) are allowed to query the given zone. The dataset specifies a set of IPv4 address ranges (currently, IPv6 addresses are not supported) in a form of CIDRs (with the syntax exactly the same as understood by ip4trie dataset), together with action specifiers. When a query is made from an IP address listed (not for the IP address), specified action changes rules used to construct the reply. Possible actions and their meanings are:
Only one ACL dataset can be specified for a given zone, and each zone
must have at least one non-acl dataset. It is also possible to specify
one global ACL dataset, by specifying empty zone name (which is not allowed
for other dataset types), like
rbldnsd ... :acl:filename...
For this dataset type, only a few $-style specials are recognized. In particular, $SOA and $NS keywords are not allowed. When rbldnsd performs $ substitution in the TXT template returned from ACL dataset, it will use client IP address to substitute for a single $ character, instead of the IP address or domain name found in the original query.
Rbldnsd handles the following signals:
Some unsorted usage notes follows.
When creating a data file for rbldnsd (and for anything else, it is a general advise), it is a good idea to create the data in temporary file and rename the temp file when all is done. Never try to write to the main file directly, it is possible that at the same time, rbldnsd will try to read it and will get incomplete data as the result. The same applies to copying data using cp(1) utility and similar (including scp(1)), that performs copying over existing data. Even if you're sure noone is reading the data while you're copying or generating it, imagine what will happen if you will not be able to complete the process for whatever reason (interrupt, filesystem full, endless number of other reasons...). In most cases is better to keep older but correct data instead of leaving incomplete/corrupt data in place.
scp remote:data target.tmp && mv target.tmp targetWrong:
scp remote:data targetRight:
./generate.pl > target.tmp && mv target.tmp targetWrong:
./generate.pl > target
From this point of view, rsync(1) command seems to be safe, as it always creates temporary file and renames it to the destination only when all is ok (but note the --partial option, which is good for downloading something but may be wrong to transfer data files -- usually you don't want partial files to be loaded). In contrast, scp(1) command is not safe, as it performs direct copying. You may still use scp(1) in a safe manner, as shown in the example above.
Also try to eliminate a case when two (or more) processes performs data copying/generation at the same time to the same destination. When your data is generated by a cron job, use file locking (create separate lock file (which should never be removed) and flock/fcntl it in exclusive mode without waiting, exiting if lock fails) before attempting to do other file manipulation.
All keys specified in dataset files are always relative to the zone base DN. In contrast, all the values (NS and SOA records, MX records in generic dataset) are absolute. This is different from BIND behaviour, where trailing dot indicates whenever this is an absolute or relative DN. Trailing dots in domain names are ignored by rbldnsd.
Several zones may be served by rbldnsd, every zone may consist of several datasets. There are numerous ways to combine several data files into several zones. For example, suppose you have a list of dialup ranges in file named `dialups', and a list of spammer's ip addresses in file named `spammers', and want to serve 3 zones with rbldnsd: dialups.bl.ex.com, spam.bl.ex.com and bl.ex.com which is a combination of the two. There are two ways to do this:
rbldnsd options... \ dialups.bl.ex.com:ip4set:dialups \ spam.bl.ex.com:ip4set:spammers \ bl.ex.com:ip4set:dialups,spammers
rbldnsd options... \ dialups.bl.ex.com:ip4set:dialups \ spam.bl.ex.com:ip4set:spammers \ bl.ex.com:ip4set:dialups \ bl.ex.com:ip4set:spammers
(note you should specify combined bl.ex.com zone after all its subzones in a command line, or else subzones will not be consulted at all).
In the first form, there will be 3 independent data sets, and every record will be stored 2 times in memory, but only one search in internal data structures will be needed to resolve queries for aggregate bl.ex.com. In second form, there will be only 2 data sets, every record will be stored only once (both datasets will be reused), but 2 searches will be performed by rbldnsd to answer queries against aggregate zone (but difference in speed is almost unnoticeable). Note that when aggregating several data files into one dataset, an exclusion entry in one file becomes exclusion entry in the whole dataset (which may be a problem when aggregating dialups, where exclusions are common, with open relays/proxies, where exclusions are rare if at all used).
Similar effect may be achieved by using combined dataset type, sometimes more easily. combined dataset results in every nested dataset to be used independantly, like in second form above.
combined dataset requires rbldnsd to be the authoritative nameserver for the whole base zone. Most important, one may specify SOA and NS records for the base zone only. So, some DNSBLs which does not use a common subzone for the data, cannot use this dataset. An example being DSBL.org DNSBL, where each of list.dsbl.org, multihop.dsbl.org and unconfirmed.dsbl.org zones are separate, independant zones with different set of nameservers. But for DSBL.org, where each dataset is really independant and used only once (there's no (sub)zone that is as a combinations of other zones), combined dataset isn't necessary. In contrast, SORBS.net zones, where several subzones used and main zone is a combination of several subzones, combined dataset is a way to go.
When you have several nameservers for your zone, set them all in a similar way. Namely, if one is set up using combined dataset, all the rest should be too, or else DNS meta-data will be broken. This is because metadata (SOA and NS) records returned by nameservers using combined and other datasets will have different origin. With combined dataset, rbldnsd return NS and SOA records for the base zone, not for any subzone defined inside the dataset. Given the above example with dialups.bl.ex.com, spammers.bl.ex.com and aggregate bl.ex.com zones, and two nameservers, first is set up in any ways described above (using individual datasets for every of the 3 zones), and second is set up for the whole bl.ex.com zone using combined dataset. In this case, for queries against dialups.bl.ex.com, first nameserver will return NS records like
dialups.bl.ex.com. IN NS a.ns.ex.com.while second will always use base zone, and NS records will look like
bl.ex.com. IN NS a.ns.ex.com.All authoritative nameservers for a zone must have consistent metadata records. The only way to achieve this is to use similar configuration (combined or not) on all nameservers. Have this in mind when using other software for a nameserver.
generic dataset type is very rudimentary. It's purpose is to complement all the other type to form complete nameserver that may answer to A, TXT and MX queries. This is useful mostly to define A records for HTTP access (relays.bl.example.com A, www.bl.example.com A just in case), and maybe descriptive texts as a TXT record.
Since rbldnsd only searches one, most closely matching (sub)zone for every request, one cannot specify a single e.g. generic dataset in form
proxies TXT list of open proxies www.proxies A 127.0.0.8 relays TXT list of open relays www.relays A 127.0.0.9for several (sub)zones, each of which are represented as a zone too (either in command line or as combined dataset). Instead, several generic datasets should be specified, separate one for every (sub)zone. If the data for every subzone is the same, the same, single dataset may be used, but it should be specified for every zone it should apply to (see combined dataset usage example above).
Most of the bugs outlined in this section aren't really bugs, but present due to non-standartized and thus unknown expected behaviour of a nameserver that serves a DNSBL zone. rbldnsd matches BIND runtime behaviour where appropriate, but not always.
rbldnsd lowercases some domain names (the ones that are lookup keys, e.g. in `generic' and `dnset' datasets) when loading, to speed up lookup operations. This isn't a problem in most cases.
There is no TCP mode. If a resource record does not fit in UDP packet (512 bytes), it will be silently ignored. For most usages, this isn't a problem, because there should be only a few RRs in an answer, and because one record is usually sufficient to decide whenever a given entry is "listed" or not. rbldnsd isn't a full-featured nameserver, after all.
rbldnsd will not always return a list of nameserver records in the AUTHORITY section of every positive answer: NS records will be provided (if given) only if there's a room for them in single UDP packet. If records does not fit, AUTHORITY section will be empty.
rbldnsd does not allow AXFR operations. For DNSBLs, AXFR is the stupidiest yet common thing to do - use rsync for zone transfers instead. This isn't a bug in rbldnsd itself, but in common practice of using AXFR and the like to transfer huge zones in a format which isn't suitable for such a task. Perhaps in the future, if there will be some real demand, I'll implement AXFR "server" support (so that rbldnsd will be able to act as master for BIND nameservers, but not as secondary), but the note remains: use rsync.
rbldnsd truncates all TXT records to be at most 255 bytes. DNS specs allows longer TXTs, but long TXTs is something that should be avoided as much as possible - TXT record is used as SMTP rejection string. Note that DNS UDP packet is limited to 512 bytes. rbldnsd will log a warning when such truncation occurs.
This manpage corresponds to rbldnsd version 0.996a.
The rbldnsd daemon written by Michael Tokarev <[email protected]>, based on ideas by Dan Bernstein and his djbdns package. | <urn:uuid:3e8c8dd7-15a2-4d75-b11e-b22682a5ad7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.makelinux.net/man/8/R/rbldnsd | 2013-05-20T11:55:06Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.86685 | 7,003 |
Now, after more than 20 years as a regular "Today" viewer, Wurtzel tunes to CBS most mornings.
Multiply such defections and you have the chief reason for television's changing fortunes in morning news, where ABC's "Good Morning America" has ended NBC's epic 17-year winning streak on "Today." ABC is growing—"GMA" has 110,000 more viewers each day this year than last—but not as much as NBC is slipping (437,000 viewers a day since last year).
Wurtzel, 57, left last spring because of "Today" co-host Ann Curry.
"Ann's interview style was like chalk on a board to me," she said. "She leaned toward her interviewee and whispered her questions like someone had died. The more serious the interview, the quieter she got. When she replaced Meredith (Vieira), I tried to adjust and accept, but she just didn't work for me. Katie (Couric) and Meredith were relatable, empathetic and funny. Ann just seemed out of place."
Executives at NBC were quietly reaching the same conclusion and moved to replace Curry with Savannah Guthrie.
Then came June 28, 2012, Curry's last day as co-host. She cried in bewilderment at her perceived failure at losing the job she had sought for years, as her uncomfortable
Suddenly, a problem for NBC became a BIG problem. Even people who didn't particularly like Curry loathed the way she was dispatched. Except for two weeks during the Olympics, "Today" hasn't sniffed first place in the ratings since. During the first six months of 2012, "Today" averaged just under 5.2 million viewers each weekday. Since July 2, the audience has dropped to 4.59 million, according to Nielsen, the company that measures TV audiences. Without the two weeks of the London Olympics, the average is 4.3 million. That's a stunning drop, even accounting for typical lower viewership in the summer.
An informal survey of three dozen viewers who have left or are considering leaving "Today" turned up various explanations, including a feeling that the show had leaned too far in the direction of lighter, pop culture fare. The Curry dismissal was clearly a tipping point, however.
William Runge, a manager at an educational cable network who lives in suburban Winston-Salem, N.C., likened the treatment of Curry to "a public flogging."
"The PR machine at NBC spent an enormous amount of time and effort convincing me that the 'Today' show team was actually part of my family, 'America's First Family," said Runge, 46, citing the show's advertising slogan. "Guess what? They were right. These did feel like family members. So this is how you are going to treat a member of your family?
"You can debate for hours whether Ms. Curry was right for the role," he said. "That's not the point. She was doing her job and was barely 11 months into it when they canned her in the most humiliating way possible."
The move was "heart-wrenching," said Isabelle Langelier, a 40-year-old manager at a drug company from Montreal. "It made me feel sick for her. And it made me turn the channel, probably permanently."
"While I thought Ann Curry's interviews were a little hokey at times, she is clearly the most genuine person in TV news," said Sarah Rosenthal, 53, a graduate student and mother of three from West Chester, Pa. "After her unceremonious dumping, I turned it off. I have nothing against Savannah, and adore Natalie Morales, but there is just a different tone to the show."
Even worse for NBC, a significant number of viewers appear to blame co-host Matt Lauer for the move. The network has consistently denied tabloid reports that Lauer was unhappy with Curry. "Today" Executive Producer Jim Bell said late last month that Lauer was being treated unfairly. Firing Curry was Bell's decision, he said.
Some awkward public moments haven't helped. When Curry reappeared on "Today" during the London Olympics to introduce a story she had done, Lauer twice remarked that it was good to see her again. Curry didn't return the sentiment to the man she worked with for 15 years.
Two years ago, Lauer's positive "Q" score was 23—meaning 23 percent of people who knew him considered Lauer one of their favorite broadcasters, according to Marketing Evaluations Inc., a company that measures public sentiment toward well-known personalities. Now his positive score is 14. At the same time, "Good Morning America" co-host Robin Roberts' positive "Q" score jumped from 20 to 27.
Langelier felt there was a perception that Lauer was "king" and others on the show aren't equal to him. Lyle Nelson, 40, a salesman from Avondale, Ariz., said Lauer was "not someone I'd like to have a beer with."
"There is something about Matt Lauer, whether or not he was the reason for Curry's firing, that has changed and I do not like watching the show anymore," said John Friia, a 20-year-old aspiring journalist from Malverne, N.Y.
Fortunately for NBC, viewers don't seem to be taking out their unhappiness on Guthrie.
Producers often say that viewing decisions for morning television can be intensely personal, since people are essentially inviting these personalities into their homes at an intimate time of day when they were getting ready for work. Feeling a part of the TV "family" they see on air is part of it, and sometimes the reasoning seems strange. Nelson said, for example, that he didn't like the couch on "Today" because it looked uncomfortable.
"In today's doom and gloom news programs, the 'Today' show gave me a lift to get my day started," said Taren Robin, 48, from Paris, Ky. "I don't get that lift anymore, and I am in mourning over the fact. I haven't found anything I like better to take its place."
At least one-third of people who responded to a Twitter request to discuss the show cited its content for their discontent.
"I used to be a regular 'Today' show viewer but got tired of their formula," said Dan Laufer, 35, a sports marketer from Washington, D.C. "Five minutes of hard news followed by an animal rescue story, the Kardashians and then pop culture or fashion. It's OK with me—in moderation."
Joan Pierce is a 64-year-old retired nurse from Oklahoma City, Okla., who watched "Today" for 40 years. Now she says: "I don't care what Lindsay Lohan does."
"I was fed up with the lack of actual news reporting, and more intense focus on silly, irrelevant things like women's fashion or the newest celebrity's recipe for a dinner I could never find the time or money to cook," said Zach Beale, a 23-year-old college student in Savannah, Ga.
Biting as they may be, at least those complaints offer "Today" the seeds of potential recovery. "Good Morning America," particularly in its second hour, has an even greater pop culture emphasis. Bell said his show will try to draw a greater contrast with its ABC rival in coming months. A recent ad with Lauer touts the "informative" nature of the show. Curry, who has kept her job with NBC as a hard news reporter, appeared on "Today" during the past month interviewing Libyan President Mohammed Magarief and reporting from Syria.
CBS has already tried to position itself as a newsier alternative in the morning. Because "Today" has a richer history and often twice as many viewers, it would be in better position to reach people who want this.
NBC announced this week that Willie Geist, an engaging and popular member of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" team, will join "Today" as a co-host of the 9 a.m. hour and occasionally appear earlier.
"What I loved about the show were the hosts, reporters and the stories," said Miriam Sajecki, a marketer from Staten Island, N.Y. who has watched "Today" for more than 20 years. "It was always delivered in a friendly, engaging and informative manner. Some of that has changed in that I miss the chemistry that was displayed with the prior hosts ... and some of the stories 'Today' was known for. It has evolved into forgettable reports without giving me the important news and educational stories."
Still, Sajecki is a loyalist. "I will continue to watch the 'Today' show and wake up to it every weekday," she said.
NBC needs devoted fans like Sajecki to turn things around.
It will take some time. | <urn:uuid:e918bf02-bf08-4338-9e8f-0130d7a19e50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.montereyherald.com/leisure/ci_21748216/where-have-today-show-viewers-gone | 2013-05-20T11:54:28Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985176 | 1,855 |
Equal opportunity in employment means opportunity not just for some but for all. NASA provides equal opportunity in Federal employment regardless of race, color, gender, national origin, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, or status as a parent.
EEO covers all human capital and employment programs, management practices, and decisions including, but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, merit promotion, transfer, reassignments, training and career development, benefits, and separation. NASA supports employee exercise of rights under EEO law. Reprisal against individuals who engage in protected activity will not be tolerated. NASA supports the rights of employees to exercise all available rights under the civil rights statutes. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codee/policy.html
To ensure the effective implementation of the NASA and JSC equal opportunity policy, which is to provide equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment, regardless of their race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, or status as a parent; to help reduce and to ensure against discrimination; and to promote the full realization of equal opportunity through a continuing affirmative employment program and diversity management
The Federal laws prohibiting job discrimination enforced by EEOC are:
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin;
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which protects men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination;
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older;
Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which prohibit employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in the private sector, and in state and local governments.
Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 , which prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities who work in the federal government; and
The Civil Rights Act of 1991, which, among other things, provides monetary damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.
In addition to the above laws which are enforced by the EEOC the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978(CSRA) prohibits discrimination and reprisal against federal employees. The CSRA contains a number of prohibitions, known as prohibited personnel practices, which are designed to promote overall fairness in federal personnel actions. The CSRA prohibits any employee who has authority to take certain personnel actions from discriminating for or against employees or applicants for employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age or disability. It also provides that certain personnel actions cannot be based on attributes or conduct that do not adversely affect employee performance, such as marital status and political affiliation.
The CSRA also prohibits reprisal against federal employees or applicants for whistle-blowing, or for exercising an appeal, complaint, or grievance right. The CSRA is enforced by both the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).
How are whistleblowers protected?
In addition to the discrimination prohibitions covered by the above laws, Executive Order (EO) 11478 as amended by EO 13087 and 13152 states that it is the policy of the Government of the United States to prohibit discrimination in employment because of sexual orientation, or status as a parent.
Assuring that all employees or applicants for employment are provided the needed resources (within reason) to perform the task of the job.
Yes, we can handle the complaint through the informal process towards resolution but the complaint will not continue through the formal process. The EEO counselor will discuss other grievance avenues such as Merit Systems Protection Board, Union, and Office of Special Counsel.
Anyone who feels they have been discriminated against because of their age, race, gender, color, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or status as a parent, should contact OEOD as soon as possible. Employees are encouraged to review the, complaint process , prior to contacting OEOD.
Contractor employees can file a discrimination complaint with JSC if certain criteria are met. They may also file with their company or directly with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). To determine if you meet the criteria to file a complaint with JSC, please contact OEOD at 281-483-0607.
Generally you have 45 days to contact OEOD from the day of the incident. The EEO counselor can provide additional information.
It is filed against the current Agency Administrator.
After the incident is reported to OEOD, you will be assigned a counselor who will explain the entire complaints process and your rights and responsibilities.
The processing of an EEO discrimination complaint dealing with the employment practices of a federal government organization begins with what is called the informal complaint process (also called the pre-complaint process). During the informal process, an EEO counselor will meet with you to discuss your concerns and will provide you with information concerning your rights and responsibilities with regard to the EEO discrimination complaint process. During the informal process there will be opportunities to explore and possibly achieve resolution to the EEO issue(s) through either counseling or possibly “ADR.” There are time constraints placed on the length of the informal process. If no resolution of your issue(s) is achieved during the informal process, you will be advised of your right to file a formal EEO discrimination complaint with the Agency.
The formal complaint process begins once you send your complaint to the Agency at NASA Headquarters Complaints Division. You will first receive notification that the Agency received your complaint, then the Agency will perform a jurisdictional* review of your complaint and inform you if your complaint is accepted or dismissed by the Agency. If your complaint is accepted, an investigation will begin and you may be offered “ADR” in an effort to resolve your issue(s). You will receive a copy of the investigation report once it is completed. At that point you may request a hearing before an EEOC administrative judge or request a final decision from the Agency. In either case, you should receive some type of final action notification from the Agency. If you disagree with the final agency action you may file an appeal to the EEOC or file a civil action. There are time restrictions associated with different parts of the formal process, and both you and the Agency have appeal rights along the way. A flow chart of the EEO discrimination complaint process may be found at this link
* Jurisdictional – within the timeframes dictated by EEOC guidelines.
Yes, in most cases you have the right to remain anonymous during the initial phase of the discrimination complaints process. In certain cases, such as harassment where prompt and effective action is required by the Center, your anonymity will be protected to the extent possible and information will be shared only on a need to know basis. The EEO counselor can provide more information on this subject.
Also, if the complaint is not resolved at the informal phase, it can proceed to the formal phase if you choose to file a formal complaint. If it proceeds to the final phase, you will send your complaint to the NASA Headquarters Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, where your identity can no longer be kept confidential.
Yes, in most cases (see question above for exceptions) complaints brought to the OEOD will be kept confidential between you, the EEO counselor, EO Director and if you elect ADR counseling, the ADR Program Manager.
ADR refers to a variety of approaches used to resolve conflict outside of some formal administrative or legal forum. Many of these approaches involve the use of a neutral individual such as a mediator who can assist disputing parties in resolving their disagreements. The techniques or methods used in ADR include approaches such as arbitration (binding or non-binding), conciliation, cooperative problem-solving, dispute panels, facilitation, fact-finding, mediated arbitration, mediation, mini-trials, Ombuds, peer review, and settlement conferences. ADR increases the disputing parties' opportunities to resolve their issues prior to or during some formal administrative procedure or litigation (which can be very costly and time-consuming). In the EEO complaints arena at NASA, the term ADR is normally used to mean mediation. Mediation is a process entered into voluntarily by each of the parties to a dispute. This process involves the disputing parties and an impartial and neutral “third party” (the mediator) who is acceptable to each of the disputing parties. The objective of mediation is to assist the parties in voluntarily reaching an acceptable resolution to the issues in dispute.
Yes, any time during the formal process NASA headquarters can offer ADR again and will arrange for ADR. If you decide to elect ADR during the formal stage, the formal investigation will continue unless a resolution is reached.
Yes, you have appeal rights during the formal stage. Initially after your complaint and the counselor’s report are reviewed, Headquarters will notify you in regards to whether your complaint was accepted or rejected. If accepted, the formal investigation process will begin. If the complaint is rejected, Headquarters will send a letter explaining the reasons the complaint was denied and will inform you of your appeal rights should you decide to do so.
Disparate, unfair treatment as a result of filing an EEO complaint, or participating in protected activity.
Yes, you may withdraw a complaint at any stage of the process. | <urn:uuid:99a0682d-75bc-4f1d-8323-69a5dc5910bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oeod/did_you_know/did_you_know.html | 2013-05-20T12:02:02Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940942 | 1,945 |
Huffington Post released an article today that looks at the impact of sewage overflow from Superstorm Sandy in New York and New Jersey. The article points out how storm surge will result in overflow events and how rising sea levels will only exacerbate these events resulting in more severe discharges.
The 11 billion gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage spilled due to storm surge in New York and New Jersey must be seen as a warning for all coastal cities. We must consider this warning as we rebuild Miami-Dade’s sewage system. As sea levels rise storm surges will increase in intensity and frequency. Miami-Dade’s facilities must be built to withstand these storm surges to avoid the kind of spills seen in the northeast.
“Princeton, N.J.-based Climate Central said that future sewage leaks are a major risk because rising sea levels can make coastal flooding more severe…The collective overflows – almost all in New York and New Jersey and due to storm surges – would be enough to cover New York City’s Central Park with a pile of sewage 41 feet high, Climate Central said.”
Read More Here:
Sandy Sewage Report: 11 Billion Gallons Of Untreated or Partially Treated Waste Was Released. www.huffingtonpost.org
On April 9, 2013 Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper, along with 131 other organizations, undersigned a letter to the United States Senate urging them to oppose advancing the Water Resources Development Act of 2013 (S. 601). This letter, put together by the Water Protection Network, points out significant problems in this bill:
“Particularly troubling are the streamlining provisions (Sections 2033 and 2032) which will force agency staff to make uninformed decisions, to rubber stamp unacceptable projects, and prioritize deadline compliance over effective review. They do this by:
Requiring the Corps of Engineers to carry out the shortest review possible; Establishing arbitrary and unreasonably short deadlines for the public and resource agencies to comment;
Establishing arbitrary deadlines for resource agency decisions and recommendations;
Allowing the Corps to elevate multiple technical and substantive disagreements all the way to the President; and
Directing the Corps to impose multiple and ongoing fines on resource agencies that miss deadlines or disagree with the Corps on issues fully within the expertise of the resource agencies.
These provisions also could give the Corps control over reviews that are clearly outside of its jurisdiction, including consultation under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, review under the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, and reviews under laws governing activities in coastal areas and public lands.
Additionally, the bill threatens to exacerbate our nation’s fiscal deficits by rolling back long- established cost-sharing rules and expanding federal responsibilities into areas that have been the financial responsibility of non-federal project sponsors. If enacted as reported, the bill will result in overspending, overcapacity, and substantial and unnecessary damage to the nation’s major estuaries and harbors. Title VIII of the bill would immediately more than double spending on harbor maintenance without assurance of the cost-effectiveness or true need for the dredging. In addition, the Title eliminates the current 50 percent non-federal cost share for maintaining deep draft harbors from 45 to 50 feet of depth, making these costs 100 percent federal responsibility. The provision also makes dredging and maintenance of all approach channels to berths along federal navigation channels and all upland confined disposal of contaminated dredged sediments a 100 percent federal responsibility, rather than the current 100 percent non-federal responsibility. No one has ever even estimated the costs of such an expansion. This would likely cause increases in dredging of contaminated areas that otherwise never would have been contemplated, increasing toxic releases into the nation’s bays and estuaries. We strongly urge rejection of this title as representing a major setback for the nation’s water policy that will be both environmentally-damaging and represents an improper shift of spending and water project responsibility to the taxpayers.”
For more information on the 2013 WRDA see: http://www.waterprotectionnetwork.org/sitepages/downloads/WRDA_2013_NWF_Memo_EPW_Committee_3-18-13_Final.pdf
It is difficult to consider ourselves surrounded by nature in Miami, FL. In the city, on the interstate, or in the supermarket it is easy to think of ourselves removed from the nature of Muir’s Yosemite or Thoreau’s Walden pond. An essay called “Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature” by Jenny Price, suggests that we reconsider how we think about nature in our city. She writes about nature in L.A., but her message applies to all cities.
Miami is confronted with a decrepit sewage system and the problems that this system is causing for the health of our environment. Our connection to nature is real whether we recognize it or not. We must consider difficult questions like “how are we connected to the nature around us?”, “how do we affect the health of the nature around us?”, and “how do we depend on the nature around us?”. As we move into a future full of challenges like Climate Change these questions are going to become more and more important.
I would encourage everyone to read this article by Jenny Price:
As Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper reflects on a successful clean-up this past week-end, it seems appropriate to consider another clean-up that happened two weeks ago.
On Sunday, March 3rd, Sean Bignami, was jogging on Virginia Key and came across an enormous pile of trash left over from the 9 mile music festival the night before.
Sean spoke with staff who where standing around the festival site who said they could not pick up the trash because the wind was blowing it around. Sean took pictures and videos of the scene with his phone and posted them online along with a request that people join him the next day to help clean up the area.
Four graduate students joined Sean the following morning and picked up enough trash to fill 25 garbage bags!
Sean was unable to get a satisfactory response from the festival supervisor or the Miami parks department regarding accountability for this trash or penalties for the negligence on the part of the festival organizers.
The systems in place that are designed to prevent the festival from leaving piles of trash failed, and it is unclear if the festival will be held accountable. Regardless of this failure, the immediate response from concerned residents must be seen as a message to institutions who ignore the sanctity of our Bay. Biscayne Bay is home to concerned stewards, like Sean Bignami, who will not stand quietly while polluters leave trash on our shores.
Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper wishes to celebrate the stewardship shown in this story. Thank you Sean, and all who came out to help clean up after the 9 mile festival left their trash to be blown into the Bay!
See the article Miami Newtimes blog posted about this story here:
On Sunday, March 17, 2013, Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper and Sierra Club put on a clean-up at Peacock Park in the Grove. Volunteers paddled nearby waters and gathered a huge amount of trash. Thank you to the stewards of Biscayne Bay who volunteered their time to put a dent in the amount of trash in our waters.
Thank you for a successful clean-up!
There is plenty of trash to pick up in Biscayne Bay.
Join Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper and the Sierra Club this Sunday, March 17th, for a paddle clean up at Peacock Park in the Grove (2820 Mcfarland Road, Miami, FL 33133). The clean up will start at 9 am and end at 2 pm. We will launch next to the boardwalk. Please bring your own gloves and trash bags. The Sierra club has a limited number of canoes, so we are encouraging attendees to bring their own kayaks, canoes, or paddle boards. If you do not have a boat, please contact Mark at Sierra Club to reserve a canoe. (contact Mark with any questions: [email protected]/ 305 632 7514)
(Miami, February 28, 2013) - Samples of beach water collected at Dog Beach on Virginia Key did not meet the recreational water quality standard for enterococci. By state regulation, the Florida Department of Health is required to issue an advisory to inform the public in a specific area when this standard is not met.
An advisory for Dog Beach on Virginia Key has been issued because two consecutive samples collected at the beach exceeded the federal and State recommended standard for enterococci (greater than 104 colony forming units per 100ml for a single sample).
Additional beach water samples at the Dog Beach on Virginia Key have been collected and further results are pending.
The advisory issued recommends not swimming at this location at this time. The results of the sampling indicate that water contact may pose an increased risk of illness, particularly for susceptible individuals.
The Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County has been conducting marine beach water quality monitoring at 17 sites, including Dog Beach on Virginia Key, weekly since August 2002, through the Florida Healthy Beaches Program. The sampling sites are selected based on the frequency and intensity of recreational water use and the proximity to pollution sources. The water samples are being analyzed for enteric bacteria enterococci that normally inhabit the intestinal track of humans and animals, and which may cause human disease, infections, or illness. The prevalence of enteric bacteria is an indicator of fecal pollution, which may come from storm water run-off, wildlife, pets and human sewage. The purpose of the Florida Healthy Beaches program is to determine whether Florida has significant beach water quality concerns.
For more information please visit the Florida Healthy Beaches Program Website: http://www.doh.state.fl.us and Select “Beach Water Quality”, from the A-Z Topics List.
We just posted the second edition of the Paddle Out Guide. We are excited to be able to provide you with this updated material. Keep this guide close to your kayak or canoe as an aid in your exploration of our beautiful Biscayne Bay. We have posted the guide below for your convenience, but you can always find the Paddle Out Guide at bbwk.org/paddle-out. Go out and enjoy our Bay!
Thank you Julie for speaking at the Grassroots festival on behalf of BBWK
Thank you to everyone who came out to see Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper (BBWK) speak at the Sustainability Fair this weekend at the Grassroots festival!
Julie Dick, a BBWK representative, spoke about our current projects and initiatives, helping connect the festival to some of the issues that face the Bay that surrounded the event.
BBWK was invited to speak alongside the Center for Biological Diversity, Surfrider Miami, and the United States Green Building Council Florida Chapter. We are honored to have shared the stage with such great organizations.
Thousands of people attended the festival, many of whom camped along the water. We are happy such a festive event took place amidst the beauty of our Bay.
Virginia Key and Key Biscayne are barrier islands which are, by their nature, exposed to the elements.
On February 15, 2013 the Village of Key Biscayne sent Carlos Gimenez, Mayor of Miami, a letter asking Miami-Dade County to take another look at the plans to improve the central wastewater treatment plant located on Virginia Key. Key Biscayne is concerned that the plans do not adequately consider the impacts of climate change, such as increased sea levels and stronger storm surges, and do not include funding for flood mitigation. Considering Virginia Key is a barrier island, and therefor more vulnerable to weather and flooding, makes these oversights in planning for a wastewater treatment plant on this Key particularly alarming.
Key Biscayne supports the County’s immediate plans to address Clean Water Act outflow violations, deteriorated conditions at the Virginia Key facility, and of sewer lines identified as being at risk of rupturing, including the 54 inch under-bay line from Miami Beach to Fisher Island to Virginia Key. At the same time, the Village of Key Biscayne, situated just south of Virginia Key, is relying on the County to protect their natural environment. As long as infrastructure improvement plans do not address these long-term issues the residents of the adjacent island community of Key Biscayne will be understandably concerned for their quality of life. Key Biscayne is already plagued by foul odors from the central wastewater facility and occasional sewage spills.
Community voices like key Biscayne, calling for better sewage infrastructure, are the impetus for Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper’s legal initiatives for this issue. If the County will not address the concerns of local residential and business communities, or the needs of our fragile natural resources, then legal action may be the only way we can ensure that the County properly address these issues. | <urn:uuid:2cb3abbd-7305-4de9-8d53-6b9b8e8641a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bbwk.org/ | 2013-05-23T04:54:10Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935963 | 2,697 |
UEFA Euro 2012
|Mistrzostwa Europy w Piłce Nożnej 2012
Чемпіонат Європи з футболу 2012
UEFA Euro 2012 official logo
|Dates||8 June – 1 July|
|Venue(s)||8 (in 8 host cities)|
|Champions||Spain (3rd title)|
|Goals scored||76 (2.45 per match)|
|Attendance||1,440,896 (46,481 per match)|
|Top scorer(s)|| Mario Mandžukić
(3 goals each)
|Best player||Andrés Iniesta|
The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament was hosted for the first time by Poland and Ukraine, between 8 June and 1 July 2012, after their bid was chosen by UEFA's Executive Committee in 2007. Euro 2012 set the record for both the highest aggregate attendance (1,440,896) and the highest average attendance per game (46,481) under the 16-team format (since 1996).
The final tournament featured 16 nations, the last European Championship to do so; from Euro 2016 onward, there will be 24 finalists. Qualification was contested by 51 nations between August 2010 and November 2011 to determine the remaining 14 finalists. The tournament was played across eight venues, four in each host country, five of which were newly built for the tournament. Aside from venues, the host nations have also invested heavily in improving infrastructure, such as railways and roads, at UEFA's request.
The tournament opened with a 1–1 draw between Poland and Greece at the National Stadium in Warsaw on 8 June 2012. The final match took place 23 days later on 1 July 2012 at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, where Spain defended their title with a 4–0 win over Italy. Spain became the first team to win two consecutive European Championships, and the first international team to win three straight major tournament titles (Euro 2008, 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012). Since Spain had already gained entry to the 2013 Confederations Cup by winning the 2010 World Cup, the runners-up Italy qualified.
Euro 2012 was the second consecutive European Championship (after Euro 2008 held in Austria and Switzerland) in which neither of the hosts emerged from the group stage,[a] as both Poland and Ukraine were eliminated.
Bid process
The hosting of the event was initially contested by five bids representing seven countries: Croatia–Hungary, Greece, Italy, Poland–Ukraine, and Turkey. After an initial consideration of the bid data in 2005 by UEFA both the Greek and Turkish bids were eliminated from the process to leave three candidates. This was followed by a second round of the selection process which among other included visits by UEFA to all candidates. On 18 April 2007, the Poland–Ukraine bid was chosen by a vote of the UEFA Executive Committee at a meeting in Cardiff.
Poland–Ukraine became the third successful joint bid for the European Championship, after those of Belgium–Netherlands (2000) and Austria–Switzerland (2008). Their bid received an absolute majority of votes, and was therefore announced the winner, without requiring a second round. Italy, which received the remaining votes, had been considered favourites to win the hosting, but incidents of fan violence and a match fixing scandal were widely cited as factors behind their failure.
There were some later alterations from the initial bid plan, regarding the venues, before UEFA confirmed the eight host cities in 2009. During the preparation process in Poland and Ukraine, UEFA repeatedly expressed concern about their preparation to host the event, with different candidates reported as being alternative hosts if they did not improve; however, in the end, UEFA affirmed their selection.
The draw for the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying competition took place in Warsaw on 7 February 2010. Fifty-one teams entered to compete for the fourteen remaining places in the finals, alongside co-hosts Poland and Ukraine. The teams were divided into nine groups, with the draw using the new UEFA national team coefficient for the first time in order to determine the seedings. As defending champions, Spain was automatically top seeded. The qualifying process began in August 2010 and concluded in November 2011. At the conclusion of the qualifying group stage in October 2011, the nine group winners qualified automatically, along with the highest ranked second placed team. The remaining eight second placed teams contested two-legged play-offs, and the four winners qualified for the finals.
Twelve of the sixteen finalists participated at the previous tournament in 2008. England and Denmark made their return to the Euro, having last participated in 2004, while Republic of Ireland returned after a twenty-four year absence to make their second appearance at a European Championship. One of the co-hosts, Ukraine, made their debut as an independent nation (before 1992 Ukraine participated as part of the Soviet Union). With the exception of Serbia – according to UEFA's ranking at the end of the qualifying stage – Europe's sixteen highest-ranked teams all qualified for the tournament.
Qualified teams
The following sixteen teams qualified for the finals:
|Country||Qualified as||Date qualification was secured||Previous appearances in tournament1|
|Poland||Co-hosts||18 April 2007||1 (2008)|
|Ukraine||Co-hosts||18 April 2007||0 (debut)|
|Germany2||Group A winner||2 September 2011||1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008)10 (|
|Russia3||Group B winner||11 October 2011||9 (1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2008)|
|Italy||Group C winner||6 September 2011||7 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008)|
|France||Group D winner||11 October 2011||71960, 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008)(|
|Netherlands||Group E winner||6 September 2011||8 (1976, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008)|
|Greece||Group F winner||11 October 2011||3 (1980, 2004, 2008)|
|England||Group G winner||7 October 2011||71968, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)(|
|Denmark||Group H winner||11 October 2011||71964, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)(|
|Spain||Group I winner||6 September 2011||81964, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008)(|
|Sweden||Best runner-up||11 October 2011||4 (1992, 2000, 2004, 2008)|
|Croatia||Play-off winner||15 November 2011||31996, 2004, 2008)(|
|Czech Republic4||Play-off winner||15 November 2011||71960, 1976, 1980, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008)(|
|Portugal||Play-off winner||15 November 2011||51984, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008)(|
|Republic of Ireland||Play-off winner||15 November 2011||11988)(|
1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italics indicate (co-)host.
Final draw
The draw for the final tournament took place on 2 December 2011 at the Ukraine Palace of Arts in Kiev, Ukraine. The hour-long ceremony was hosted by Olga Freimut and Piotr Sobczyński, television presenters from the two host countries.
As was the case for the 2004 and 2008 finals, the sixteen finalists were divided into four seeding pots, using the UEFA national team coefficient ranking. The pot allocations were based on the UEFA national team coefficient rankings of the sixteen finalists at the end of the qualifying competition in November 2011. Each nation's coefficient was generated by calculating:
- 40% of the average ranking points per game earned in the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying stage.
- 40% of the average ranking points per game earned in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying stage and final tournament.
- 20% of the average ranking points per game earned in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying stage and final tournament.
Aside from the coefficient, three teams were automatically placed in Pot 1. Ukraine and Poland were both assigned to Pot 1 as the two host nations, despite the fact that their rankings were the two lowest in the tournament; this also occurred in 2008 when the co-hosts Switzerland and Austria were also ranked below all other qualified teams. As defending champions, Spain were also automatically assigned to Pot 1, though their UEFA ranking at the time of the draw was coincidentally also the best.
In the draw procedure, one team from each pot was drawn into each of the four groups. The draw also determined which place in the group teams in pots 2–4 would take (e.g. A2, A3 or A4) to create the match schedule. With Poland were automatically assigned in advance to A1, and Ukraine to D1, Pot 1 only had two teams as Spain and the Netherlands were to be drawn into position one in either group B or C. The balls were drawn by four former players who had each been part of European Championship winning teams: Horst Hrubesch, Marco van Basten, Peter Schmeichel and Zinedine Zidane.
1 Co-hosts Poland (coefficient 23,806, rank 28) and Ukraine (coefficient 28,029, rank 15) were automatically assigned to A1 and D1, and therefore were not in the draw.
2 Defending champions were automatically assigned to Pot 1.
Eight cities were selected by UEFA as host venues. In a return to the format used at Euro 1992, Euro 1996 and Euro 2008, each of the four groups' matches were played in two stadiums. Host cities Warsaw, Gdańsk, Wrocław, Poznań, Kiev, and Lviv are all popular tourist destinations, unlike Donetsk and Kharkiv, the latter of which replaced Dnipropetrovsk as a host city in 2009.
In order to meet UEFA's requirement for football infrastructure improvements, five new stadiums were built and opened in advance of the tournament. The remaining three stadiums (in Kiev, Poznań and Kharkiv) underwent major renovations in order to meet UEFA's infrastructure standards. Three of the stadiums are categorised as UEFA's highest category stadiums. The transport infrastructure in Poland and Ukraine was also extensively modified on the request of UEFA to cope with the large influx of football fans.
UEFA organised fan zones in the eight host cities. They were located in the centre of each city, with all 31 matches shown live on a total of 24 giant screens. The zones enabled supporters to come together in a secure and controlled environment. The Warsaw Fan Zone occupied 120,000 square meters and accommodated 100,000 visitors. In all, the fans zones had a 20% increase in capacity compared to Euro 2008.
A total of 31 matches were played during Euro 2012, with Ukraine hosting 16 of them and Poland 15.
Built for tournament
Built for tournament
Built for tournament
|3 matches in Group A
(incl. opening match),
1 quarter-final and
|3 matches in Group C and
|3 matches in Group A||3 matches in Group C|
Built for tournament
Built for tournament
|3 matches in Group D,
1 quarter-final and
|3 matches in Group D,
1 quarter-final and
|3 matches in Group B||3 matches in Group B|
Tickets for the venues were sold directly by UEFA via its website, or distributed by the football associations of the 16 finalists. Applications had to be made during March 2011 for the 1.4 million tickets available for the 31 tournament matches. Over 20,000 were forecast to cross the Poland–Ukraine border each day during the tournament. Over 12 million applications were received, which represented a 17% increase on the 2008 finals, and an all-time record for the UEFA European Championship. Owing to this over-subscription for the matches, lotteries were carried out to allocate tickets. Prices varied from €30 (£25) (for a seat behind the goals at a group match) to €600 (£513) (for a seat in the main stand at the final). In addition to individual match tickets, fans could buy packages to see either all matches played by one team, or all matches at one specific venue.
According to UEFA requirements, TP ensured approximately 2х70 Gbit/sec data communication speed from Polish stadiums and 2х140 Gbit/sec between Poland and Ukraine. This was required due to the fact that the matches were broadcast in HD quality. The multilateral production utilised 31 cameras to cover the action on and around the pitch at every match, with additional cameras following activities around the game, such as team arrivals at the stadiums, interviews, and media conferences. The official Euro 2012 broadcasting centre was located at the Expo XXI International Centre in Warsaw. The tournament was broadcast live by around 100 TV channels covering the whole world. 150,000,000 people were expected to watch the matches each day.
Match ball
The Adidas Tango 12 was the official match ball of UEFA Euro 2012. The ball is named after the original Adidas Tango family of footballs; however, the Tango 12 and its variations have a completely new design. Variations of the ball have been used in other contemporary competitions including the Africa Cup of Nations and the Summer Olympics. It is designed to be easier to dribble and control than the reportedly unpredictable Adidas Jabulani used at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Team base camps
Each team had a "team base camp" for its stay between the matches. From an initial list of thirty-eight potential locations (twenty-one in Poland, seventeen in Ukraine), the national associations chose their locations in 2011. The teams trained and resided in these locations throughout the tournament, travelling to games staged away from their bases. Thirteen teams stayed in Poland and three in Ukraine.
|Team||Arrival||Last Match||Base camp||Group stage venues||QF venues||SF venues||Final venue|
|Croatia||5 June||18 June||Warka
|Gdańsk and Poznań|
|Czech Republic||3 June||21 June||Wrocław||Wrocław||Warsaw|
|Denmark||4 June||17 June||Kołobrzeg||Kharkiv and Lviv|
|England||6 June||24 June||Kraków||Kiev and Donetsk||Kiev|
|France||6 June||23 June||Donetsk||Kiev and Donetsk||Donetsk|
|Germany||3 June||28 June||Gdańsk||Kharkiv and Lviv||Gdańsk||Warsaw|
|Greece||3 June||22 June||Jachranka
|Warsaw and Wrocław||Gdańsk|
|Republic of Ireland||5 June||18 June||Sopot
|Gdańsk and Poznań|
|Italy||5 June||1 July||Kraków||Gdańsk and Poznań||Kiev||Warsaw||Kiev|
|Netherlands||4 June||17 June||Kraków||Kharkiv|
|Poland||28 May||16 June||Warsaw||Warsaw and Wrocław|
|Portugal||4 June||27 June||Opalenica
|Kharkiv and Lviv||Warsaw||Donetsk|
|Russia||3 June||16 June||Warsaw||Warsaw and Wrocław|
|Spain||5 June||1 July||Gniewino
|Sweden||6 June||19 June||Kiev||Kiev|
|Ukraine||6 June||19 June||Kiev||Kiev and Donetsk|
For the list of all squads that played in the tournament, see UEFA Euro 2012 squads.
Match officials
On 20 December 2011, UEFA named twelve referees and four fourth officials for Euro 2012. On 27 March 2012, UEFA issued the full list of 80 referees to be used in Euro 2012, including the assistant referees, the additional assistant referees, and the four reserve assistant referees. Each refereeing team consisted of five match officials from the same country: one main referee, two assistant referees, and two additional assistant referees. All of the main referees, additional assistant referees, and fourth officials were FIFA referees, and the assistant referees (including the four reserve assistant referees) were FIFA assistant referees. For each refereeing team, a third assistant referee from each country was named to remain on standby until the start of the tournament to take the place of a colleague if required. In two cases, for the French and Slovenian refereeing teams, the standby assistant referees took the place of one of the assistant referees before the start of the tournament. Continuing the experiments carried out in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, the two additional assistant referees were used on the goal line for the first time in European Championship history with approval from the International Football Association Board.
- Final referee; only referee assigned to four matches.
UEFA announced the schedule for the 31 matches of the final tournament in October 2010, with the final confirmation of kick-offs times being affirmed following the tournament draw in December 2011.
Group stage
The teams finishing in the top two positions in each of the four groups (highlighted in tables) progressed to the quarter-finals, while the bottom two teams were eliminated from the tournament.
- Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
- Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;
- Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;[c]
- Superior goal difference in all group matches;
- Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
- If two teams tie alone (according to 1–5) after having met in the last round of the group stage their ranking is determined by penalty shoot-out.
- Position in the UEFA national team coefficient ranking system;
- Fair play conduct of the teams (final tournament);
- Drawing of lots.
Group A
Greece were placed above Russia based on their head-to-head record (1–0).
The Czech Republic became the first team to win a European Championship group with a negative goal difference
Group B
Group C
Group D
Ukraine were placed above Sweden based on their head-to-head record (2–1).
Knockout stage
The UEFA Technical Team was charged with naming a squad composed of the 23 best players over the course of the tournament. The group of eleven analysts watched every game at the tournament before making their decision after the final. Ten players from the winning Spanish team were selected in the team of the tournament, while Zlatan Ibrahimović was the only player to be included whose team was knocked out in the group stage.
A total of €196 million was given to the 16 teams competing in this tournament, an increase from the €184 million in the previous tournament. Each team received an initial €8 million and then received additional money, based on their performances. Spain, the winners of Euro 2012, were awarded a total prize of €23 million for their performance. The maximum prize achievable (for winning all group matches and winning the final) was €23.5 million. Complete list:
Extra payment based on teams performances:
Besides money, commemorative plaques were given to all participants together with special plaques for semi-final losers and finalists. Gold and silver medals were awarded to the winners and runners-up, respectively, whereas both semi-final losers were awarded bronze medals. The trophy given to the winners remains in the ownership of UEFA; however, the winning nation, Spain, received a full-size replica.
In the final tournament, a player was suspended for the subsequent match in the competition for either getting red card or accumulating two yellow cards in two different matches. UEFA's Control and Disciplinary body has the ability to increase the automatic one match ban for a red card (e.g. for violent conduct). Single yellow card cautions were erased at the conclusion of the quarter-finals, and were not carried over to the semi-finals (so that a player could only be suspended for the final by getting a red card in the semi-final). Single yellow cards and suspensions for yellow card accumulations do not carry over to the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament matches. The following players were suspended during the final tournament – for one or more games – as a result of red cards or yellow card accumulations:
Apart from discipline measures for yellow and red cards, UEFA fined the football associations of Croatia, England, Germany, Portugal, Russia and Spain a total of €417,000 for spectators incidents.[e] Furthermore, the Portuguese association was fined €5,000 for delaying the start of the second half of the game against Germany. In addition to these, Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner was fined €100,000 and given a one match ban (to be applied in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament) for revealing his sponsored underpants, violating UEFA regulations, during the celebration of his second goal in the match against Portugal.[f]
Penalty kicks
Not counting penalty shoot-outs, four penalties were awarded during the tournament. Giorgos Karagounis was the only player who failed to convert his penalty, which occurred in the match against Poland.
Trophy tour
The Henri Delaunay Trophy began a journey through the host cities seven weeks before the start of the tournament. A hundred days before the first match a 35.5-metre-high (116 ft) hot air balloon in the shape of the trophy was flown in Nyon, Switzerland and visited 14 cities throughout the host countries, reminding spectators of the impending tournament. On 20 April 2012, the trophy tour started and visited the Polish cities of Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Poznań, Kraków, Katowice and Łódź. After the Polish cities, the trophy visited seven Ukrainian cities: Kiev, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, and Odesa.
Logo, slogan and theme songs
The competition slogan, Creating History Together (Polish: Razem tworzymy przyszłość, literally, "Together we are creating the future", Ukrainian: Творимо історію разом, Tvorymo istoriyu razom), was announced along with the logo. The official logo for the tournament was unveiled at a special event at Mykhailivska Square, Kiev, on 14 December 2009. Designed by Portuguese group Brandia Central. It takes its visual identity from Wycinanki or Vytynanky, traditional form of paper cutting practised in rural areas of Poland and Ukraine. The art form symbolises the nature of the rural areas of both countries. As part of the event, landmark buildings in the eight host cities were illuminated with the tournament logo.
The official Euro 2012 song is "Endless Summer" by the German singer Oceana. In addition, UEFA has retained the melody that was composed by Rollo Armstrong of Faithless on its behalf for the 2008 tournament. The Republic of Ireland has also produced an official song: "The Rocky Road to Poland" recorded by a collaboration of Irish performers has already reached number 1 in Ireland. In Spain, the broadcasting company Mediaset España commissioned the song "No hay 2 sin 3", performed by David Bisbal and Cali & El Dandee and produced by RedOne.
The tournament has also been associated with the song "Heart of Courage" by Two Steps From Hell, which has been played in the stadiums during the entrance of the players (before the national anthems); but also "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes, in this case after every goal.
Merchandise and mascots
UEFA signed a worldwide licensing agreement with Warner Brothers Consumer Products to help promote the tournament. The agreement involved licensing to third parties for a variety of other merchandising items.
Also designed by Warner Bros. were the official tournament mascots, "Slavek and Slavko", twins that wore the national colours of the two host nations. The mascots were unveiled in December 2010, and named following an online poll.
UEFA announced ten global sponsors and, for both Poland and Ukraine, three national sponsors as shown below. These sponsorships together with the broadcasting revenues were estimated to earn UEFA at least US$1.6 billion.
Concerns and controversies
After Poland and Ukraine were chosen by a vote of the UEFA Executive Committee as host countries for Euro 2012, several issues arose, which jeopardised the Polish/Ukrainian host status.
In Ukraine there were financial difficulties related to stadium and infrastructure renovation related to the economic crisis. In Poland, issues arose related to corruption within the Polish Football Association. In April 2009 however, the president of UEFA, Michel Platini announced that all was on track and that he saw no major problems. After a UEFA delegation visited Ukraine in September 2011, he stated the country was "virtually ready for Euro 2012".
Especially in the UK, there were allegations of racism in football in both host countries. The main cause of discussion was the BBC current affairs programme Panorama, entitled Euro 2012: Stadiums of Hate, which included recent footage of supporters chanting various antisemitic slogans and displays of white power symbols and banners in Poland, plus Nazi salutes and the beating of South Asians in Ukraine. The documentary was first echoed in much of the British press, but was then attacked for being one-sided and unethical: critics included other British media outlets; anti-racism campaigners, black and Jewish community leaders in Poland; Polish and Ukrainian politicians and journalists; England fans visiting the host nations and Gary Lineker.
In response to Yulia Tymoshenko’s hunger strike and her mistreatment in a Ukrainian prison some European politicians and governments announced that they would boycott the matches in Ukraine.
Ukraine came under criticism from animal welfare organisations for killing stray cats and dogs in order to prepare for Euro 2012. Ukrainian Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and Minister Of The Environment promised to take action to prevent killing animals but it still remains unclear how these measures will be enforced. The ministry's comments also suggested this would only be a temporary measure, drawing further criticism.
Other minor important issues were associated with FEMEN’s group protests against prostitution and sex tourism in Ukraine, and enormous increases in hotel prices by many hoteliers in the country.
See also | <urn:uuid:0a7ef879-0b58-400b-be23-a6b28361ea76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_2012 | 2013-05-23T04:58:32Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95641 | 5,664 |
Synopsis: Hot topic!! Jones interviews Dr. Rebecca Carley about recent Baxter Pharmaceutical bird flu “accident” Many medical references in this transcript. Dr. Carley expands this information to programs using Rabies, Lyme, and other pathogens and expands upon current use of soft kill biological weaponry particularly through vaccines.
//transcript begins approximately 3:25 into the 3/5/2009 broadcast// - mp3
AJ: Dr. Rebecca Carley is a degreed medical doctor, a surgeon. Her only child was damaged by vaccines. She began to investigate it. And we just got her on the line. She was pointing out something I wasn’t even aware of. The London Telegraph reporting on a bunch of people dying in Poland from a bird flu vaccine test. And we’re…you guys did pull that up, right? You said you did pull it up. Throw that up on screen for folks so they can see it. There’s a lot to cover in the time we have left. And I also want to go to calls for folks that are holding on this subject. Ah, but Dr. Carley, we’d like to have you back next week for 2 hours if you can do it, to really, to tell all this and go through your knowledge. Now, on one side, bird flu itself can kill people but it’s very hard to catch. The point is they’re mixing it with vaccines and then not even irradiating it. That’s no accident. Just absolutely amazing. And regular flu vaccine inoculations. And thank God some subcontractors tested it and it killed the ferrets. They were testing it just to see if the regular flu vaccine had been irradiated because if the ferret gets sick, they know that it hadn’t been irradiated properly. But said the ferrets died. This is mainstream news. This is deadly bird flu they were trying to mutate. But let’s just go ahead and go to Dr. Rebecca Carley. Tell us what’s happening.
RC: Basically, they’re trying to cause the pandemic. They have already stockpiled at least 250 million doses of the bird flu vaccine. The shelf life of that vaccine has a certain amount of time by which they’ll have to throw it in the garbage. So they have to start the pandemic so that they can give the vaccines, which will then cause the bird flu pandemic. I encourage all of your listeners to go to my website, drcarley dot com. //spells it out// Go to the bottom of my site and you will actually see posted an article entitled “US controls bird flu vaccines over bioweapon fears”. In fact, this is an associated press article that says that our government is reluctant to give bird flu vaccine to some of the rogue nations for fear they will use the vaccine as biological warfare. So when you actually look at what’s out there, folks, it becomes crystal clear. This is genocide. This is population reduction. And it’s happening right now.
AJ: Alright. Let me stop you right there. You just brought a huge piece of the puzzle that I wasn’t even aware of. We googled it. It’s true. I have the AP article about them admitting bird flu vaccine can be used as a bioweapon. Now this company in the US ships it, doesn’t tell the companies they’re subcontracting that make regular flu vaccine that they’re mixing it. By God’s grace, they did a test and it killed the animals. They looked at it and said, “This is H5N1, the deadly stuff that would then become airborne by being mixed with the other flu vaccine.” And here it is. “Homeless People Die After Bird Flu Vaccine Trial In Poland”. The London Telegraph, July 2008. It says, “Three Polish doctors and six nurses are facing criminal prosecution for a number of homeless people died following medical trials of a vaccine to the H5N1 bird flu virus.” This is…and they keep telling you you’re a kook if you don’t want to take vaccines, doctor.
RC: Right. Well, let me also state that this is very intentional because the H5N1 bird flu virus is not actually able to be picked up by humans in a regular scenario. So by putting it with a regular human flu, they’re intentionally causing it to create a hybrid virus. And this is how they’re going to make the bird flu virus be contracted by the people because it’s very virulent. And basically, the scenario that it creates is very disturbing. You actually bleed out into your lungs and suffocate on your own blood.
AJ: Please continue.
RC: OK. And I wanna just make it clear. I encourage the listeners once again to go to my website, drcarley dot com, and read the article I now have posted, “Science of Vaccine Damage”. We have a number of non-pharma funded veterinarian researchers that have documented what I’ve been saying for 12 years that it’s not just the diseases themselves the vaccines cause. When you inject live viruses into the bloodstream, you bypass a critical part of the immune system. And vaccines, in fact, cause all autoimmune diseases, nontraumatic seizures, cancer, and genetic problems in people and in pets. So this is the greatest epidemic the world has ever known. Vaccines use diseases. I’ve developed a protocol to reverse these things. But we have to stop this holocaust on humanity. Not only on humanity, our pets and our food sources.
AJ: Well doctor, I wanted to back you up. All these big veterinary university studies, as you know, have now come out showing thousands of percentile increases in the area where dogs and cats are injected. Everybody I know injects their cats and dogs and they almost die. They have seizures that causes…other medical doctors have told us…autoimmune responses where the brain swells. That’s causing actually most of the autism. The mercury is a side issue. And here they are trying to send out bird flu mutated with regular flu for deadly airborne flu that kills over 60 percent of people that come in contact with it. And then, meanwhile, they’re running billboards and ads everywhere that say, “Vaccines are good. Take more. HPV is killing a lot of the girls that take it. It’s OK. Dying is good. It keeps you safe. Dying keeps you safe.” It’s mass insanity. We’re gonna come back and talk about how this kills you and how you think they’re gonna release it.
AJ: There is so much evidence if this. It’s right out in the open. They give it to homeless people and it kills them. Another company ships it to all these labs, doesn’t tell them what it is. Tells them, “Oh, here’s the mixes.” Mislabels it. Has them mix it with all these different strains of regular flu. They admit that it will mutate inside the growing process and mutate inside the human body. Airborne superflu that kills you. And we just lost Dr. Carley. I just heard her disconnect. So John, we get her back on or is she still there? Oh, the ISDN dropped. OK. Alright, well we’re here. It doesn’t matter. OK, let’s get the guys in there and get reconnected. Doctor, break this down for folks. How it kills you, what’s going on, and the larger picture with all the documentation you’ve got. And she neurotically goes through all, even mainstream documents, mainstream news. And by the grace of God, a subcontractor tested the flu shots…because they’ve had so many people get killed in Europe from them…on ferrets. And it killed ‘em deader than a hammer. So they tested it and freaked out, saying, “What on earth is this?” This is incredible. Dr. Carley. //pause// Yeah, we’re having some phone systems go up and down. Get her back on for me. OK? I don’t think it’s the government doing it. Though they admit they’ve done sabotage on the people. This always happens when “And now, Jesse Ventura.” Happens like once a month. But it’s always “And now Willie Nelson” //static sound effect// “And now, Jesse Ventura.” //static sound effect// “And now we will expose the bird flu plan.” //static sound effect// We’ve got like three back ups in there. So hopefully, that’ll get it fixed. So we will get her back up and on the line. OK Dr. Carlee, did you hear my questions?
RC: Strange things happen when I do shows like this. I just wanna mention a couple of very important things that people have to realize. First of all, there’s been almost a billion dollars, with a “B”, 954 million has been put aside in the stimulus package for further inoculations. And, if people are listening to our corrupt Congress in the district of criminals talking about mandated health insurance, you have to realize that, just like they’re doing in Massachusetts now, they’re gonna tell you what you need to do in terms of your health “coverage”. It’s actually death coverage. And so this is what’s going on. This is a population reduction agenda. One other quick thing I just wanted to mention is that there’s at least nine biowarfare weapons labs in every state at this point. And the way they ship their viruses from lab to lab is by Federal Express. So as they’re trying to tell us that we have all these rogue nations to fear with their biological attacks, in fact the FEDEX truck that’s delivering packages to your house could very well have H5N1 on it as well.
AJ: And doctor, remember the wreck 4 years ago with the FEDEX truck? And then ask, “Why is there weaponized super bird flu on board?” Remember that?
RC: Yes, I do. That’s how I found out about this.
AJ: Alright. Well, as a medical doctor, as a surgeon, as somebody whose been researching this in depth for years, tell us what the bird flu will do if it goes airborne or if people would have take the shots that killed the ferrets. How this kills you. I see different news reports that it kills 60-90 percent of people that come in contact with it.
RC: Well, what people have to realize is that they’ve intentionally weaponized this by going up to Alaska and digging up dead bodies that died…people that died from the 1918 Spanish flu which was not a Spanish flu at all. It was actually caused by inoculations given to soldiers in World War One. And since it was such a killer, these minions from the Department of Army Pathology in Washington went there and dug up those dead bodies and brought those lung tissues back and did the DNA deconstruction on it. And they have combined that with the bird flu in order to make a pathogen, which is going to kill young people. That is the very serious aspect of this. This is not gonna just kill the young and the old, as usually happens with different pathogens. This is gonna specifically target young people in the ages of say 20-60. And this is going to basically cause you to, as I said, bleed out into your own lungs. You’re gonna suffocate on your own blood. And the aerosolization aspect of it is not just with chemtrails and things of that nature. If people in your neighborhood are stupid enough to get injected with this insane vaccine, they’re gonna be coughing and sneezing on you. And so, that’s part of the aerosolization thing. They’re going to be able to make this pandemic happen very quickly once they introduce this into the United Stated population.
AJ: Absolutely. I wanna show the viewers out there the headline. “Flu pandemic could kill one billion people around the world”. This is in the Journal of Nature and a bunch of other publications a few years ago where they’re out there fear mongering, trying to get everybody scared. And then meanwhile, I have the mainstream news…and I see these all the time, you pointed one out. “Homeless people die after bird flu vaccine trial in Poland – London Telegraph” And then I bring this up to listeners or people on the street or talk show hosts make fun of us saying, “No. We can trust bug pharma” when Bayer admittedly shipped out over a million ampoules of factor eight filled with HIV and hepatitis and didn’t even get in trouble for it. And it came out in court they knowingly did it on purpose because it’s about population reduction.
RC: Yes. If anyone puts “Henry Kissinger” and “memo 200” into any search engine, you can read about how he testified in front of Congress that population reduction is a national security issue.
AJ: State Department memorandum 200 and the classified version, written in ’73, declassified in ’92 states that is the overall agenda of the entire new world order is to kill people. Go ahead.
RC: Yes. They have to decrease the population because of the fact that since they’re suppressing all natural energy technologies such as Tesla’s technologies and things of that nature, they only have a certain amount of products that they can allow to be used on the planet by the people. So rather than allow the natural solutions out there, they’re going to just kill off a large percentage of people so that they can continue to make money in whatever endeavors they have available to them.
AJ: And doctor, you’re a medical doctor. And I’ve had all these other medical doctors on about this and they’ve caught them adding hormones to tetanus shots to sterilize women.
RC: Yes. I have documentation of that. Let me just say. I’m writing a book about this. Going to the genocide level. I have a book actually published by NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, entitled “Immunological Evidence of Vaccines” where they actually admit in that book that they are putting the hormone hCG, human chorionic gonadotrophin into tetanus and diphtheria vaccines and giving it to women. That is the hormone produced by women when they become pregnant. So if you inject it into somebody, they become allergic to that antibody. They produce antibodies against it. And then they abort their own children when they become pregnant.
AJ: Let’s be clear. And they call it a soft kill weapon in their documents as you know. Because they could just sterilize the women but that’s not enough. They want the women to keep getting pregnant and have violent miscarriages triggered when the hormone is released in the second trimester because they get as much as a 10 percent death rate with the women. So it’s even better. They get to kill the baby and kill the women. And then they also…it’s come out in the mainstream news…in Thailand, the UN comes in, forcibly injects the women three times with tetanus shots…everybody knows it’s just one…while the baby’s in them. And I’ve seen the interviews with the women on Thailand TV in English. And they say, “And then I feel the baby stop dancing.” In a few days the baby dies. This is the savage murder. And the police, the military…you’re all being injected. Folks, I premiered Endgame almost 2 years ago at the Alamo Drafthouse. And I’d seen this guy on TV. He was the Press Secretary for…and the Scheduler for Governor Perry. And Governor Perry’s in the film. And he shows up. And he says, “Hey, I’m Governor Perry. Work for him.” And he said, “I just want you to know we’re not all bad at the Governor’s office.” And I said, “Why are you here?” And he said, “Well, here’s my card.” I lost it. But the point is…I get piles of these…He said, “I want you to know 12 years ago at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio…I’m a medic. And they sent us these 8 guys from Fort Bragg. And they injected them. And they all died in 3 days. And then we had to go in in decontamination suits, spray the whole room down with bleach, pull everything out, and decontaminate it.” And I said, “Well, what are you gonna do about that?” And he said, “I don’t know. But I just know you’re telling the truth.” And then we have all the declassified examples where they kill their own troops. The globalists are criminal. Go ahead.
RC: Well I just wanna state that’s the reason that we have this big debate about whether or not they should be allowed to photograph the soldier’s coffins coming back. Because the news media may say, “OK. What did that soldier die from or what did that soldier die from?” And then it would come out that more soldiers are dying from their inoculations than are even dying from gunfire.
AJ: And I’ve seen those numbers. Everything you’re saying I’ve seen documented. And it’s all mainstream. It’s just a piece here, a piece there. “Oh, it’s killing the homeless. Oh, they accidentally put it…” Here’s the key about the manufacture of this vaccine. I specifically looked it up with this particular one. They’re supposed to radiate the flu viruses. So they accidentally mix bird flu in it. Then they don’t radiate it to keep it alive. Another accident, doctor. Right?
RC: Yeah, right. Well first of all, radiation could cause mutation. So radiation does not necessarily kill the viruses. This whole thing is a scam. People have to start asking themselves, “If something is a dangerous pathogen, why am I going to inject it into my body?” If you have somebody cough on you or sneeze on you, at least your immune system can work in a natural fashion, as the Creator gave us, to create antibodies and give you life long immunity. And not to mention the fact of all the other additives that are in vaccines.. I was so glad to hear you mention, Alex, that as far as autism, mercury’s a side issue. Mercury is a toxic poison. It causes Alzheimer’s along with aluminum. But you see, all of these different things…Autism is an autoimmune disease, actually it’s subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. They changed the name to hide the fact it was caused by vaccines. But all of these injections are causing you harm. And the more that you get, the more depressed your immune system is going go be. In my paper, on my website, “Inoculations the true weapons of mass destruction”, I describe exactly what the pathology is in the immune system that causes all of these autoimmune diseases //crosstalk//
AJ: Well, I’m not a medical doctor but you are. And I’ve interviewed many others. And it’s simple. The mucous membrane, the skin, that’s where mostly, that’s where the T- lymphocyte programmer cells for the rest of the white blood cells are. They identify the enemy. They go up and sniff it, kill one, scan its DNA…it’s literally little nanobots God made…eats it, scans it, and then goes out and starts programming the defense. So it’s like sentries. Alright. We got an enemy. We killed one. This is what their uniform looks like. Here’s how you take ‘em down. And then it transmits the info through the lymph nodes to the lymphatic system, total body defense system. Now they’re ready. But instead, when they inject it, it all just bypasses the forces. Doesn’t it?
RC: Yes. Well also secretory IgA which is a very important antibody that’s in the upper respiratory and GI tract is very important in this natural induced mechanism as well. But see, that’s what people have to start asking their white coats. And I encourage everybody like I said. Print out that article “Science of Vaccine Damage” as the veterinarians have proven what the vaccines are doing to the immune system. And bring that to your veterinarian, to your pediatrician, to your elderly parent’s nursing home. You see, this is another very important thing that they’re doing, Alex. They’re actually mandating that all elderly people in nursing homes get the flu vaccine and the pneumococcal vaccine every year. And this is another way they’re taking out the elderly. The Medicare trust fund was stolen long ago. That’s what Ross Perot brought forth when he ran for President.
AJ: And they’ve got to get rid of the old folks. The UN openly says that. So it’s a soft kill weapon to get them out of the way. Now, in the time we’ve got left…I know I said we’d go to calls but this info is so important. In the time we have left, Dr. Carley, you were going into the NATO documents. You even listed the book where they admit they’re doing all of this. And still the public listening…or listeners tell their friends and family. Hopefully they’ll pass around this video. We’re also live at prisonplanet dot tv. People watching, listen, you can’t laugh at us anymore. You can’t say it isn’t happening. The HPV is killing the women that take it. That is admitted. Listen, this isn’t a joke. People quit laughing after their kids die or they die or they get sick. Please, these are eugenicists. Dr. Carley, explain to people what you think was happening with them trying to put the deadly bird flu in with regular vaccines. And how do you think they got caught? Did somebody inside blow the whistle?
RC: Well, obviously somebody inside blew the whistle. You see, the dark forces have their agenda. And then the good guys occasionally win one for the good guys. And this is obviously what’s happened in this situation. As I said, putting the bird flu virus in with the regular flu is actually what’s going to make the mutation happen to create the hybrid that’s going to allow the bird flu to infect a human. And this is self-evident. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that all these viruses mutate. They admit openly that the reason they have to change the flu vaccine every year is because the vaccines are always mutating.
AJ: And by the way, doctor, that’s not your opinion. Up on infowars dot com and prisonplanet dot com we have all the mainstream news articles admitting that they put this bird flu virus in with the regular viruses. And that it was being done…and that it would mutate…and that there’s no way that that is an accident. This is admitted that this was happening. And that the way they told the companies to do it was the exact way to create the mutation.
RC: Exactly. And I wanna just quickly bring it to the next level. I also have another book published by the NATO Life Sciences Division entitled “The Biology of Aggression”. And that’s all about the rabies virus. They are now also putting rabies virus into many human vaccines. There’s many movies out now that actually illustrate this. “Quarantine” is the best because in “Quarantine”, they actually admit that the rabies virus is what’s making these people become ghouls. This is gonna get even worse, folks. And this is being done intentionally.
AJ: That’s right. The media always throws this in our face. Like the government creates a cancer shot cure and the inventor of it is…it’s “I am Legend”…and then 99 percent die but 1 percent turn into these raving lunatics. Take the movie “Serenity” where the government puts this stuff into the atmosphere that kills everybody. But then a small percent turn into these raving maniacs. And you’re right. The Pentagon, Wired Magazine, their head futurist, Mr. Marshall, brags that they’re also creating compounds to make the troops psychopathic killers. Then they give them an amnesiac. They’re already doing this in Afghanistan as a test. And then now mainstream news came out and said, “We’re gonna have everybody take these amnesiacs where we don’t feel bad about who we are anymore.”
RC: Yes. As a matter of fact I was amazed that the mainstream media…I was listening to NPR one day. And they were talking about a study done in Switzerland where they used the blood pressure drug propranolol to reverse posttraumatic stress disorder. People that have been traumatized by something take this blood pressure drug. That’s what people have to realize. Every single drug has a mental side effect. And now they’re actually admitting that the can remove these traumatic memories with propranolol. So as your loved ones are being killed and maimed by the mainstream medical mafia, you can take this blood pressure medication and just say, “Oh, that’s fine. I don’t have a problem with that.”
AJ: Well it literally is like a lobotomy. And they’re saying they wanna put statins in this drug and others in the water. They’re now admitting they’re gonna medicate the water. Doctor, the //crosstalk//
RC: They’re doing it with fluoride. They’re already doing it with fluoride. And they’re also admitting that, as we’re flushing more and more drugs down the toilet and down the sink, these are all being released into the water supplies. Isn’t it amazing, Alex, that nobody seems to be rising up to protest that. What of…as far as the ecology and nature are concerned. Why don’t they have a problem with all these things? We //crosstalk//
AJ: Because they’ve destroyed with drugs admittedly our normal human spirit of just burning, being alive, being intelligent. They’re just drugged out. Oh my gosh. Dr. Carley, stay there. We’re gonna come back and get more into this. Ladies and gentlemen, they were putting live bird flu in with regular flu so it could go airborne.
AJ: I’m gonna get Dr. Blalock on about this next week. I’m gonna get Dr. Carley back on. We’ve got a bunch of medical doctors on so you can hear the same thing from different medical doctors with all the documents, all the articles. We’re gonna do a whole show on FEMA camps next week as well. Just where I go through all the documents, all the videos. We cover a piece here, a piece there as it comes out in the news. We’re gonna be doing some big special reports. We’re gonna put a lot of work into these next week.//product plugs edited// Dr. Carley, in closing, I think we’ve averted major disaster here. Even mainstream Canadian, British, Czechoslovakian news is saying was this…this is in mainstream news. When I first read it, the news was saying, “Was this done on purpose?” Because this company’s also developed a bird flu vaccine but people keep dying in the test. With other companies that are testing theirs, we just covered the London Telegraph on that with the people dying. This is miraculous that this did leak out and got stopped.
RC: Right. But of course it’s not in the US mainstream media. Thank God for shows like yours. It’s bringing it out to the people of America. But I wanna make it very clear. It’s not just the bird flu. This is with all of these biological weapons including Lyme’s disease and West Nile encephalitis. I have a book in front of me entitled Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government’s Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory by Michael Christopher Carroll where he quotes David Huxoll, who was the Plum Island’s Director in June 2000. And this is what he said, Alex, and I quote, “The plant that will produce biological agents for weapon’s purposes may not look too much different from the plant that produces biological agents for vaccines.” This is all one and the same. Vaccines are biological weapons. Period. That’s what people have to wrap their head around.
AJ: Well, cancer is exploding. Fifty years ago 1 in 33 died of it. Now it’s 1 in 3, about to be 1 in 2. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation…his dad runs Planned Parenthood, the eugenics group, is openly involved in all of this. My film Endgame covers it. Dr. Carley, we’re gonna have you back up in the very, very near future. In fact, let me have my producer call you, or one of the producers call you right now and get you back on. But we will talk to you in the near future. We’re gonna link to your detailed reports at infowars dot com to drcarley dot com. And the key reports you’ve got up there posted like “US controls bird flu vaccines over bioweapon fears” and others and we’ll talk to you next week. Take care.
RC: Thank you so much. God bless you. Keep up the good work.
AJ: Can you do 2 hours sometime next week?
RC: Oh, you bet’cha.
AJ: OK. We’ll set you up for 2 hours so I can actually let you roll and go through all your incredible knowledge. ‘Cause I’ve been going over it and it’s just amazing. Thank you so much. | <urn:uuid:ce3cac14-446b-4ad6-8146-8a5d4ff3cc3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=91662.msg626346 | 2013-05-23T05:01:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956202 | 6,661 |
Gender: Male Age: 18 Location: Not-Where-I-Want-To-Be, U.S.A.
|Introduction: This is my first lesbian story. I actually wrote it for a friend that requested a story like this. For those that are waiting for Tommy and Jade Chapter, just know, it's on its way : ) I'll take any constructive criticisms. Have fun rubbing or wanking.|
Chapter 1 – A Pleasant Morning
‘I’m awake. ‘
‘Where am I? ‘
‘What happened last night? ‘
‘Why do I smell like sex and alcohol?’
‘Oh, no. Did I go home with someone last night? ‘
This room doesn’t look familiar. I’d never have drapes like that and this bed feels way too expensive for a college student like me to have. So, it must be someone rich. Ah, damnit Tanya! Think girl, think. Okay, what was the last thing that I remember from last night. Okay, Suzie… Who’s Suzi- oh, my roommate, that’s right. Okay, Suzi, she took me to…to a club….and we…damnit, I just don’t remember a fucking thing after that. Maybe if I just go back to sleep for a little bit, I’ll remember when I wake up.
‘Okay, here we go. Count the sheep down.’
‘Wha? What’s going on?’
I open my eyes again, still the same room. It just looks a little brighter outside. There’s nobody else in the roo-
Suddenly, I feel something rub on my pussy. Now I’m concerned. What’s going on?
I look down at my feet and don’t see anything. That’s weird I could have sworn that I-
“Mmmm! Oh what the hell was that?”
I sit up quickly and look down at my waist. There’s a small bulge where my pussy would be. I rest my hand on the bulge and suddenly feel a sudden jolt of pleasure.
“Ohhh-what the hell?”
I look under the covers to see someone’s head down next to where all my mysterious feelings of arousal are coming from. The head looks like there’s a pony tail attached, and I have a pang of regret. Did I seriously go home with one of those pretentious hipsters from the club last night?
But as soon as the person raises their head, one fear vanishes, only to be replaced by another. At first all I see are eyes. Very deep brown eyes that are almost completely dark. The face slowly comes out of the dark and comes into the light. The nose is wide (but not too wide), with a small upturn at the tip. Their lips look moist and almost completely pink. Their hair is long and dark, but pulled back. It looks damp from perspiration. Once I can see their face completely I noticed-
“You’re a girl?”
Wiping her mouth with her index finger and then sucking my juices off of her finger, she gave me a quizzical look, then reached down with her hand between her legs. Hey eyes flutter briefly as she lets out a light moan.
“Mm, last time I checked I am,” she smiles at me, making me feel nervous.
“Bu-but, I mean, I’m not a- a- a- les-,” I try to stutter out a response to this sudden turn of events.
She just smiles again as I’m trying to explain myself and reaches her hand between her legs again, but this time, only for a moment, then put her finger up to my lips to shush me. I smell an intoxicating aroma of her sex. She pushes her finger against my lips harder, until her finger is inside my mouth. I can’t help but lick it.
A quick lick of her finger suddenly turns to a sucking, desperate for more and more. I now need that taste. She notices me sucking on her finger instantly and starts to pull it out of my mouth, much to my dismay and pouting.
“Don’t worry honey,” she whispers at me. “You’ll get your turn soon enough.”
She pulls the covers over her head and disappears. Where did she go? Who was that? Why is she-
“Oh. Mm, yes, more. More of that.”
I felt her tongue drag down from my collar bone and lead down and then her lips attached themselves to my very sensitive right nipple, sucking gently.
Listening to my commands, she continues to suck on my breast, but also adds the use of her tongue, driving me absolutely wild. The mysterious dark haired woman takes it to the next step and lightly bites at my perky and completely erected nipple.
“Ohhh. MMmmm. Just like that.”
“Mm, you like that then,” her soft voice radiates from under the covers.
I hesitate to answer, but ultimately just whisper, “…yes.”
As an immediate response, she starts to attack my left breast, nibbling and sucking and licking, leaving no inch of my skin untasted.
I start to pant loudly, enjoying what this woman is doing to me, what she’s turning me into. I let a loud moan escape my lips signifying my extreme pleasure as to the job she’s doing. As soon as I do so, suddenly, she stops.
“Wha- what,” I question, wondering if I did something wrong. “Why did you stop? Was it something I said?”
Still, no response. My mind suddenly started to sink from it’s sexual high, and I start thinking about what’s going on. This is a beautiful woman (who obviously knows how to please another woman) and she took me home for the night. What did we do last night? What did I do?
I start to think out loud, half talking to her, half talking to myself. “I- I- I’m not a lesbian. I’m not even bisexual. I’m just a normal girl, who likes guys. I just made the simple mistake of going home with a girl last night. Nobody has to know.”
“Are you calling this-“ suddenly I feel a couple of long fingers push their way into my tight pussy. “-a mistake?”
“MMmm-noooo! It feels sooo good!”
Her fingers work their way inside further into my cunt, lubricated and eased in by my own juices. They start to slowly work all the way within me, up to where her hand meets the first joint of her index and middle finger. As soon as they go in as far as they can, they start to pull out. Instinctively, my insides contract, and I try to hold her digits inside of me. It’s been so long since anyone has pleasured me and I don’t want it to end right now.
I reach my own hand down to prevent her from pulling her out of me, but she deflects my attempt by capturing my hand with her idle hand, and places my index finger into her mouth. I never knew how sensitive my fingers were, but her mouth was working pure magic on them. Her tongue was winding it’s way around my finger, coating it with her own saliva, and sucking on it, making my pussy clench even harder on her still extracting fingers.
“Oh,” she said, releasing my finger from her mouth, only to have the offending finger shoot up to my own mouth so I could continue sucking on it. “Sexy bunny likes that then, does she?”
“MMmm-“ I start my response only to have her fingers completely escape my dripping pussy to suddenly shove their way all the way back inside of me. “-HHmmmmm!”
“Haha, I thought you might. Let’s see how you like this then.”
Before I could ask what exactly “this” was, she started to twist her hand as if she was trying to start a car, and then turned her hand to where her fingers were pointing up. Without warning, she started to drag her fingers along my g-spot, adding pressure as she would drag them along.
“OHHH MYYY GOD! YES!” I couldn’t help my screams of ecstasy as she did this. Few guys would ever go down on me or finger me, and usually their dicks were way too small to even find my g-spot. But in a matter of minutes, this woman found it, and was now milking it for all it was worth.
I feel my body going into over load. My hands are now shaking and my toes are curling and uncurling rapidly. I feel perspiration creep along my forehead and chest. As she pulls her fingers out once again, I start to clench as hard as possible. It’s going to take heaven and hell both freezing over to get me to release this little nympho’s hand from my now contracting cunt.
I close my eyes just to prolong the incoming continuous waves of pleasure that were bound to hit any instant now. The fingers start to pull back in, and I’m all too willing to allow them back inside of me. I open my eyes again only to find the beautiful and mysterious face looking down on me with eyes half closed with a cocked smile filled with smugness.
She leans her face down to mine to the point where our noses almost meet and she starts to whisper, “Has any man ever pleasured you like this before?”
I whimper out a pathetic, “No.”
Once again, she questions me again. “Have you ever made yourself feel this good before?”
This time, with her fingers working overtime, I couldn’t even move my lips to give her a vocal answer, so I just shook my head ‘no’ once again.
“Have you ever been kissed like this before?”
Without waiting for an answer, she begins kissing me full on the mouth. Her lips part to let her tongue dance with mine and I open my mouth to let it in. They start to dance with each other, taste each other, and explore the other one’s mouth.
She finishes off the kiss and just looks down at me. “How’s that compared to a man?”
I try to sit up a bit to give her another kiss, but she uses her idle hand to press me back down onto the bed. With the same hand, she locks my legs behind her and places her pelvis against her fingers still inside of me and rubbing on my delicate g-spot. She starts to push her pelvis onto her own hand, digging her skilled fingers even deeper within me. She pulls her hips and fingers back, and does it again, just a fraction harder than last time. And again. And again.
Now she’s full on humping her own hand into me and I am loving this. It just feels too good. I feel a pressure is starting to build inside of me again.
“Cumming? Haha, yeah, I could tell. You’ve been trying to hold it in for quite some time now. It’s about time you came.”
I’m puzzled now. “Ho- how could you-“
I’m not allowed to finish because of the obstruction of her mouth, lips, and tongue, which are now all mingling with my own in another kiss. Every time she thrusts her hips against my pussy, I let out a small moan into her mouth.
After it seems like all too short of time, I begin to feel the pressure inside of me start to boil over. The combination of not knowing who this expert lover is and her kissing and her finger fucking me, I just couldn’t take it any more.
She pulls away and looks down at me with those beautiful big brown eyes again. “Yeah,” she says. “Yeah, cum for me baby. Cum all over my hand. Let yourself go and just enjoy it.”
I do as she says and finally allow myself to release. At first, I just feel nothing. Then I get hit with wave after wave of pure adrenaline, hormones, pleasure, and feelings that short circuit my mind and drive me into a frenzy.
“OOOOOOH GOD! YES! I’M CUMMING NOW! I’M CUMMING ALL OVER! I-I CAN’T STOP, IT JUST FEELS SO GOOD.”
“Mm, that’s right baby, enjoy it,” as she’s saying this, she unlocks my legs and pushes herself back down to place her face right at my pussy, now contracting and releasing and dripping with my juices. Right away, she puts her face into me and laps it up, drinking every bit of me that’s spilling out. This throws me into a secondary tizzy, making my mind high on sex once again.
It’s feeling so good, I just can’t take it any more. I feel like I’m going to die from having too much. I push her head away from my pussy in an effort to stop and breathe for just a moment. I feel her head and face give way, only to pop up once again right up next to my face.
Her lips are completely soaked with my sex and I can’t help it. I want- no, I need to taste myself on her. I grab the back of her head and pull her into me forcefully, sloppily kissing her and licking at her face. I can’t exactly put a finger on what I taste like, but it’s even better being mixed with this gorgeous, mysterious, and very skilled dark haired woman’s saliva.
Coming off of my much needed orgasm, my body continues to spasm and act on it's own. My hips gently thrust upwards. My pussy, thinking for itself, grinds up into my mystery lover's, sending a few aftershocks of pleasure through my body. She rubs herself against me, just enough to let me ride my orgasm out to its fullest.
Sighing, I settle myself down and lie completely still on the bed. My lady lover lets out an exasperated breath and settle's herself on her side, looking at me, head propped on her hand, with her other arm draped across my chest, idly rubbing and playing with my right nipple.
“So,” she starts, “What did you think of that?”
For the first time in a very long time, I am completely speechless.
“I....I really liked that. But I'm kinda confused....” I left off, hoping that she'd continue on for me.
Maneuvering her face closer to my ear, she asks in a lowered tone, “What about?”
“Well, about last night. I- don't really remember all that much. I just remember that I was going to the club with my roommate, and she and I were gonna live it up for the night. And then it just kinda gets hazy.” I look straight up, closing my eyes, trying not to think about the sensations tingling through my breast as she keeps playing with it, and instead concentrate on what occurred last night.
Chuckling, she moves to the other breast, and starts gently dragging her finger around my areola. “I might be able to help you figure out where the rest of your evening went. But first, I need you to take care of a little something for me.” With her last word, she punctuates it with the slightest pinch to my nipple, making me jump slightly.
I raise my eye brow and begin to lick my lips, “How could I do that?”
Grasping my hand, she leads it down with her own, between her own perky breasts, down her flat stomach, and to her own pubic mound. I let my finger stick out and begin to rub her own moistened clit.
She closes her eyes and lets out a very slow, low, moan. “I think we can arrange something.”
End of Chapter 1
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SOURCE Academy of Country Music
TELECAST TO AIR LIVE FROM MGM GRAND GARDEN ARENA IN LAS VEGAS
Sunday, April 7, 2013 at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on the CBS Television Network
CHEAT TWEET: Performers added to the @ACMawards April 7th on CBS! #ACMs
ENCINO, Calif., March 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Academy of Country Music and dick clark productions announced today that Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum and Little Big Town are scheduled to perform as part of the 48th ANNUAL ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS. This is the second round of artists announced as performers on this year's broadcast. The ceremony, which will be co-hosted by Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, honors country music's top talent, as well as the industry's hottest emerging artists. It is produced for television by dick clark productions and will be broadcast LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday, April 7, 2013 at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on the CBS Television Network.
These artists join previously announced performers Luke Bryan, Kelly Clarkson, Hunter Hayes, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, George Strait and The Band Perry, as well as the 3rd Annual ACM Fan Jam, headlined by Brad Paisley along with special guests Dierks Bentley, Hunter Hayes, and New Artist of the Year Presented by Kohl's nominees Brantley Gilbert, Jana Kramer and Florida Georgia Line. LL Cool J has also been tapped to make a special appearance during this year's ACM Fan Jam, emcee'd by Storme Warren.
Jason Aldean is nominated this year for three Academy of Country Music awards, including his third consecutive nod for Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year, as well as Vocal Event of the Year for "The Only Way I Know" with Luke Bryan and Eric Church. Aldean recently played his first-ever Madison Square Garden show, which sold out in just seven minutes, when his "2013 NIGHT TRAIN TOUR" rolled into New York City for one of its many sold-out stops. Aldean has solidified his stadium headliner status with upcoming sold-out shows at the University of Georgia's Sanford Stadium, two nights at Boston's Fenway Park and Chicago's Wrigley Field.
Kenny Chesney has won eleven Academy of Country Music Awards, including four Entertainer of the Year Awards and the Crystal Milestone Award, an award that has only been given to five acts in the Academy's history. He is nominated this year for Vocal Event of the Year for "Feel Like a Rock Star" with Tim McGraw. Chesney's current single, "Pirate Flag" is burning up country radio - becoming his 8th Top 25 debut and being named USA Today's Song of the Week. The song is the first single off of his upcoming Blue Chair/Columbia Nashville Records album Life on a Rock, set to be released on April 30. He has just kicked off his "No Shoes Nation Tour" on March 16 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL.
Eric Church leads with seven ACM award nominations, including Male Vocalist of the Year and his second consecutive nod for Album of the Year and Video of the Year. He is twice nominated for Song of the Year for "Springsteen," as both artist and composer. Church also earned nominations for Single of the Year for "Springsteen" and for Vocal Event of the Year for "The Only Way I Know" with Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan. His third album, "CHIEF," reached Platinum and received several end-of-the-year "top album" accolades from NPR, Rolling Stone, SPIN, iTunes and the Los Angeles Times. Church is a three-time GRAMMY nominee including a nod for Best Country Album, and his second and third single releases, "Drink In My Hand" and "Springsteen," reached #1 on the country radio charts. Church's forthcoming live album release, "Caught In the Act: Live," is currently available for pre-sale and will be released on April 9.
In his record-shattering career, Tim McGraw is a fifteen-time ACM award winner, and has sold more than 40 million albums as well as dominated the charts with 33 #1 singles. Since the release of his debut album in 1993, he has also won three GRAMMYs, twelve Country Music Association Awards, and ten American Music Awards, while simultaneously maintaining a parallel career as a successful actor in such films as "The Blind Side," "Country Strong," and "Friday Night Lights"-as well as hosting "Saturday Night Live," a rare honor for a singer in any genre. McGraw is also spotlighting the hottest music of the summer and calling on his friends to help kick off the 2013 touring season for ACM PRESENTS: TIM McGRAW's SUPERSTAR SUMMER NIGHT. The CBS-broadcasted special will feature high-octane performances and musical collaborations from Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Ne-Yo, Pitbull, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum and more to be announced, for a two-hour, star-studded concert event benefitting ACM Lifting Lives, the philanthropic arm of the Academy of Country Music dedicated to improving lives through the power of music.
Reigning Entertainer of the Year, and seven-time GRAMMY winner, Taylor Swift, received five ACM nominations, including her fourth consecutive nod for Entertainer of the Year. If Swift wins Entertainer of the Year, this will be her third consecutive win in that category. Swift is nominated for the sixth time for Female Vocalist of the Year and for the fourth time for Video of the Year for "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." She also received a double nomination for Album of the Year for Red as artist and producer. Swift is the first artist since the Beatles (and the only female artist in history) to log six or more weeks at #1 with three consecutive studio albums, and she is the only female artist in music history (and the fourth artist ever) to twice have an album hit the one million first-week sales figure. Swift recently scored her fourth consecutive #1 single from her RED album, and just kicked off her highly-anticipated "The RED Tour," playing to capacity crowds at 66 stops (including 13 stadiums) through North America until September 21.
Carrie Underwood is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year, marking her eighth consecutive nomination for this category – she has won three times. She is also nominated for Album of the Year for Blown Away. Having won a total of ten ACM Awards, Underwood is also a two-time Entertainer of the Year winner. In 2010, she was honored with the ACM Triple Crown, an award presented to an elite group of country music artists who boast wins for New Artist, Male/Female Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year. Underwood is currently on her critically-acclaimed international "Blown Away Tour," which began at London's historic Royal Albert Hall and is now making its way through North America.
Lady Antebellum is an ACM award-winning trio comprised of Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood. The band recently received their fifth ACM Award nomination for Vocal Group of the Year, an award they have won for three consecutive years. The seven-time GRAMMY-winning trio's current single, "Downtown" is the lead single off of their upcoming fourth Capitol Nashville release Golden, scheduled to come out May 7. The track hit big out of the gate, becoming the trio's highest-charting debut on the Country radio charts.
Little Big Town leads ACM award group nominations with four nods, including their seventh nomination for Vocal Group of the Year. They are also nominated for Album of the Year, Single Record of the Year for "Pontoon" and Video of the Year for "Tornado." The Grammy-winning country group, consisting of members Karen Fairchild, Phillip Sweet, Kimberly Schlapman, and Jimi Westbrook, first entered the music scene over thirteen years ago, and their fifth studio album, Tornado, debuted at the top of the Billboard Country Chart where it stayed in the #1 position for five consecutive weeks. The album produced by Jay Joyce, includes two-time platinum-selling #1 hit single "Pontoon," and follow-up single and title-track "Tornado," which also peaked at the #1 position. The foursome has played in front of over 4 million people to-date and is currently headlining their Tornado Tour across the US and Canada. They will join Keith Urban on tour later this summer.
About the Academy of Country Music Awards
The 48th Academy of Country Music Awards is dedicated to honoring and showcasing the biggest names and emerging talent in the country music industry. The show is produced for television by dick clark productions and will be broadcast LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday, April 7, 2013 at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on the CBS Television Network. Allen Shapiro, Orly Adelson and R.A. Clark are executive producers. Barry Adelman is producer, and Bob Bardo is the executive in charge of production. Bob Romeo is executive producer for the Academy of Country Music.
©2012 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:799deea7-9544-4ff5-b6ff-6e980229c70f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cw15kxvo.com/story/21670867/jason-aldean-kenny-chesney-eric-church-tim-mcgraw-carrie-underwood-taylor-swift-lady-antebellum-and-little-big-town-to-perform-at-the-48th-annual | 2013-05-23T04:41:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965835 | 2,049 |
Remember my adventures from getting the iPhone 4 and the new iPad? I made it my quest to make it even HARDER for the iPhone 5 – tune in to find out how that worked out for me. Andy Dolph send in a great recording explaining the differences between different audio compression methods. In Chit Chat Across the Pond, after eating a LOT of security vegetables Bart and I talk about ways to really get the most out of using the Finder.
Hi this is Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast Mac Podcast, hosted at Podfeet.com, a technology geek podcast with an EVER so slight Macintosh bias. Today is Sunday September 23, 2012 and this is show number 385. On today’s show, Bart and I had too much fun, so since Chit Chat Across the Pond ran pretty long, I’m going to have a relatively shorter front section of the show. Let’s face it, you all tune in to hear Bart anyway, so you’re probably relieved! Don’t worry though, I moved some of the other things I was going to say to next week. I do want to tell you my story of adventure of getting the new iPhone five and Andy Dolph is going to join us to discuss audio compression and the different options you have available to you. this is his first recording for the Nosillacast and I think I’m going have to invite him back because he’s great.
iPhone 4 – wanted to be FIRST!
- preordered for pickup in the Apple store because delivery at my house/work is problematic
- fancy neighborhood pickup
- 6:30 am – 10 hours in line
- breakfast croissants & red velvet cupcakes
- family – Steve the Dentist, woman student
New iPad – wanted to be FIRST!
- preordered for delivery at home
- worked from home to wait for my and Diane’s iPads
- Watched delivery all day, saw Ron’s delivered 1.5 miles away around 1
- At 4pm FedEx changed delivery status as “delivery cancelled by requestor”
- Of course they were freely available at the same Apple Store above
iPhone 5 – wanted to be FIRST!
- Got up at 5am to order…4 hours too late
- preordered through Apple anyway – delivery on 9/28, one week later
- Apple moved my delivery date to 10/5 – when I’m at the Mac Computer Expo!
- Where to go? Cerritos Apple Store where there have always been devices freely available in the afternoon. How about Carlsbad on the way to San Diego to see mom? no hipsters, only hippies? My friend Henry and I made plans to be in constant communication throughout the day testing our strategies!
- Then I realized small AT&T store not near big money
- Read Andy Ihnatko’s Chicago Sun Times article: Your best chances for getting an iPhone 5 this weekend backed up the idea of going to AT&T
- But how to get my upgrade AND keep my unlimited plan?
- Wrestled for 2 days, didn’t sleep Thursday night. Cancel preorder? don’t let that bird in the hand go? I got a lot of advice but…
- Figured worst case I could get Lindsay HER phone since I hadn’t been able to order her upgrade online at all
- Got in line at 6am – only 20 people in front of me!
- Around 7 they brought us coffee and Crispy Crèmes so that was nice
- Diane shows up – explains I should TAKE Lindsay’s upgrade and let her have mine when it arrives – BRILLIANCE!
- 7:30 the manager came out with a stack of cards and wrote down what models people wanted…stopping 5 in front of me and announcing that those people were guaranteed, behind them you might not have choices. Oh – and no one can buy more than one.
- Then they got our requests – and I was rewarded with a guarantee card!
- 8am they start letting people in
- At 8:11 I was right at the door – and the manager, Minesh, apologizes for the long wait! I’m in heaven now.
- Inside Manesh takes me to Kim and I explain my “special needs”
- Kim starts working the deal, and thinks she can get my upgrade back – till they find out I did it through Apple, not AT&T.
- On to taking Lindsay’s upgrade – will work but…she’ll lose her phone until I bring her a new sim card. I have NO idea why.
- I explain that Lindsay is in San Diego! I wait till their faces drop…then point out that I JUST happened to have planned to go to San Diego to see the Podmom that day!
- One more weird thing – Kim said that because I was touching Lindsay’s plan, she would no longer be allowed to have 2GB for $25, have to have 3GB for $30. Figure I’ll pay the delta since Lindsay’s letting me steal her upgrade AND have no phone for 4 hours. Weird though – only bad mark on AT&T.
- Funny – Kim kept trying to upsell me – do I need a battery pack like maybe an i.Sound? How about a Tablet? Oh, do I have the NEW iPad?
- end? Got the iPhone 5 on day one, drove to Lindsay, popped in the sim card and she was back in business – and she gets the iPhone on October 5th!
- Before Kim even activated my phone number, I attached it to iCloud over wifi and boom, my email was there, my contacts were there and I could get to my purchased apps! very cool…
- Oh yeah, and the iPhone 5 is cool and I had a blast with my mom – took her out to lunch and got her liquored up.
Andy Dolph on mp2 or wav storage
Andy Dolph was listening to last week’s show when Tim Verpoorten happened to mention something about compressing audio. Andy wanted to elaborate on audio compression and I think you’ll enjoy learning from him, I certainly did.
Hi Allison, I was listening to your latest show and in the section with Tim, he talked about converting audio files (which is a common enough thing)but he commented on converting mp3 to mp2 or wav – which is a really bad idea. As an audio engineer these things drive me nuts.
I won’t go into all the details here, here’s a little segment I recorded for you simplifying the different kind of audio codecs we use, and when/why certain conversions are a good idea or a bad idea…
You can find Andy’s podcast at Holistic Money Radio at loveandmoneyrevolution.com/radio
My son Kyle had a terrific internship this summer at British Petroleum as a chemical engineering student. The internship was great because of how much cool work they gave him. He got to do three major projects, one of which required him to learn VBA in order to script Excel to make sense out of giant wads of data being created in the refinery. Of course since he’s Steve and my son he was brilliant at all of this, and two days before his last day he had a final out briefing on his projects. That left him two days with nothing to do.
Most people would goof around on Facebook or Twitter or maybe even read a book, but Kyle had a better idea. He decided to download ScreenSteps and start documenting his work. When you have kids, you pretty much assume that they don’t listen to a word you said, but somewhere along the line you realize they HAVE been listening. I couldn’t have been happier when Kyle called me asking some questions about exactly how to do a particular screenshot. I couldn’t have been more proud!
Even better he taught me something. When you take a screenshot in ScreenSteps, you get a bunch of choices, one of which is to use the same area where you took a shot before. This is super handy when you’re filling out a form and you want to take shots along the way, or different states of the same window. So you tell ScreenSteps to take the shot, and then hit R for the previous capture area. What I didn’t know was that if you hit R again you get the shot area before that. You can keep hitting R going back in time to previous shot areas. Pretty cool that he figured out something I didn’t even know.
I should mention that Kyle was running Windows at the time. You can actually get a license for ScreenSteps that works on both Windows and Mac! It’s not cross platform software but they want to keep you working as a slider so they make it easy for you to use both platforms with no pain. The other nice thing is that they have a free 14 day trial so you can actually get the feel of the software and how it works before you plunk down your hard earned cash. Check out ScreenSteps at BlueMangoLearning.com and be sure to tell them Allison sent you!
Chit Chat Across the Pond
Where I was trying to get to when I got lost last time:
It’s a place called “The Wonderful Barn” and is an architecturally very unique and special building, yet, it’s not even signposted, let alone developed for tourism. It was built in 1743, and was built as a strange mix of the practical and the frivolous. The reason it looks so unusual, is that it served as a focal point at the end of one of the vistas in Casteltown Estate (a near-by Palladian manor), so it’s what we know in Ireland as a folly. But unlike most follies, it served a practical purpose too, being a granary.
Also quick plug to anyone in the Maynooth area in the next few weeks – the Russel Library in St. Patrick’s College has an exhibition on the architect August Pugin, who designed the grandest of the buildings in the college. In Ireland his work in SPCM is probably his most famous work, but globally he’s probably best known as the designer of the interiors of the houses of parliament in London. I spent a very pleasant afternoon there today-http://library.nuim.ie/russell
- Microsoft have rushed out an emergency patch to protect IE users from a nasty zero-day that was being actively exploited in the wild – if (despite all the security advice to the contrary) you insist on using IE, patch yourself NOW! – technet.microsoft.com/security/bulletin/ms12-063
- Early indications were that this vulnerability only affected IE 6 & 7, but it soon became clear IE 8 & 9 were also affected, so everyone from XP up to and including Windows 7 was affected by this. The only silver lining being that IE 10 on Windows 8 was not affected.
- The German government went so far as to issue a warning instructing Germans to stop using IE – bsi.bund.de
- My advice remains the same, don’t use IE – it is inherently less secure by the mere existence of Active X, one of the stupidest ideas anyone ever had in the history of IT IMO. My current advice to non-nerds is to use Chrome which has a good security architecture – silent updates that can’t be ignored, and built-in and sandboxed Flash & PDF players/readers that are also silently updated. Nerds who share my plugin fetish will probably still feel more at home on FireFox (I use FireFox, Chrome and Fluid daily).
- Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkitsupport.microsoft.com/kb/2458544
- OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion updated to 10.8.2 – support.apple.com/kb/HT5460
- OS X 10.7 Lion updated to 10.7.5 – support.apple.com/kb/DL1583
- iOS 6 – support.apple.com/kb/HT5503(there are no fixes to these problems in iOS 5, so this obsoletes the original iPad)
- OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard gets unexpected security updates – support.apple.com/kb/HT5501& support.apple.com/kb/HT5473 – this is a real lease of life for older Intel Macs which can’t run Lion.
Important Security News Stories:
- Unexpectedly, we discover the true source of the UDID leak – it was an iOS software development company, not the FBI – intrepidusgroup.com/insight/2012/09/tracking-udid-src/
- DNT News:
- Apache foundation react angrily to MS’s IE10 DNT defaults – patch submitted to Apache web server to ignore all DNT cookies received from IE on the server side since IE appears not to be compliant with the agreed standard – nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/09/08/apache-foundation-creates-firestorm-over-user-privacy-choices
- Google Chrome finally adopts DNT – nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/09/17/finally-google-chrome-will-support-do-not-track
- A Dutch team used a zero-day in Webkit to take over an iPhone by the simple act of visiting a web page.
- They explained that they targeted the iPhone because it is the most secure mobile device, and hence the hardest target.
- Interestingly they also say that Android is now more secure than Blackberry
- Interestingly it was an NFC hack, but the authors say it could be adapted to work through the browser or through email
Main Topic – Getting the Most out of the Finder
Since our recent discussion of proxy icons was so popular, I thought it might be worth going through some of the ‘power features’ of the Finder, and to share some of my tips for making the most out of the Finder.
- You can customise both the side-bar of all Finder windows. At a basic level you can customise what headings and content are shown or not by going to Finder Preferences –> Sidebar and checking and un-checking the things you do and don’t want to see. I recommend removing the things you don’t care about to make room for things you do care about
- Bonus tip – if you use a lot of network shares, be they SMB or AFP, it can be very helpful to add your Mac itself into the devices list – this is un-checked by default. When you have shares mounted, if you co there you can get to them all, not by the server they are on like in the side bar normally, but by the actual mounted share.
- Customise the Favourites section of the sidebar. You can drag and drop files and folders in here, and pull them out and let go to get rid of them (they do the poof thing when they cursor changes to a cloud and you let go). I have a folder called CurrentWork where I have sub-folders by task (with names pre-fixed by date in reverse YYYYMMDD-TaskName), so this is a folder I use a lot, so I have it in my favourites. I also have a folder called Temp where I do big things that I don’t want TimeMachine backing up, and I use that a lot too, so that’s in my favourites as well.
- As well as customising the Side Bar you can also customise the Toolbar at the top of all Finder Windows. Firstly, you can right-click it and select “Customise…” to re-arrange what is there, remove buttons you don’t use, and add in ones you do (I always add one to delete files, and at work I always add one to connect to network shares). But, you can do more, you can drag and drop apps into that toolbar too, you just have to hover for a few seconds, then let go when it’s in the right place. I use this for apps that I launch by dragging and dropping files onto them. E.g. NameMangler (which we reviewed recently), Photomatix Pro (my preferred HDR software), and Xee, a great tool for quickly browsing a folder full of images, just drag and drop the folder onto the Xee icon and you’re off!
- You can change the default folder which will open when you create a new Finder window by going to Finder Preferences –> General and changing the drop down labeled “New Finder windows show:”. I have mind set to my Documents folder.
- The Finder remembers you display settings for each folder, so you can have it do different things everywhere, but, you can also set the default that will be used on all folders where you haven’t changed the display settings. To do this go to any folder, set things up just as you like (for me that’s list view with a whole load of extra metadata columns showing including Spotlight Comments), then go to View→Show View Options and then click the button labeled ‘Make Default’.
- The Desktop is also notionally part of the Finder, so it’s worth noting that you can change what does and does not get automatically added to your desktop by going to Finder Preferences –> General and checking and un-checking checkboxes there.
- The Dock is also related to the Finder (sort of), so it’s also worth mentioning that you can drag and drop files and folders into the Dock as well as apps – you just have to remember that things that are no apps to to the right of (or underneath if you use a vertical dock) the dividing line between apps and other things. That dividing line looks like a zebra crossing, and the Trash is on the right side of the divider (or below it), while you apps are on the left (or above). I find it very handy to keep documents I need every day right there in my dock. With all my health problems I have to keep a daily spreadsheet with loads of info like AM and PM peak-flow measurements, blood pressure, amount of each of my inhalers needed, amount of exercise done, weight, and more, I keep that Numbers spreadsheet in my dock below the zebra crossing.
- While we’re talking about the dock, a pet peeve of mine is Apple’s silly decision (IMO) to default the dock to the bottom of the screen. On a wide-screen display vertical space is at a premium, while horizontal space is in plentiful supply – why have the dock taking up your most precious space, when it could just as easily be housed along the side. I keep mine on the left, with my IM and Twitter windows hugging the right side and set to show in all spaces. This gives me a work-area in the middle the has my space-specific apps in it, and my dock and IM/Twitter stuff flanking each side.
- One final dock tip – as well as adding apps, files, and folders, you can also add Network shares to the Dock, and in future, clicking on the icon will re-connect to the share. You can use the Proxy icon when viewing the share, or, since Mountain Lion (and perhaps Lion though I’m not sure) right-click on the icon for the share when viewing your system in the Finder and close add to Dock from there. The only down-side is that after a reboot the icon will be a ? until you click it to re-connect, then it will return to the icon for network shares.
- Finally – I would highly recommend people familiarise themselves with at least the most important keyboard shortcuts in the Finder. Ones I use very often are:
- space – open the selected file in quick look
- ⌘n – opens a new window
- ⌘~- switch between open Finder windows (works in all apps with multiple windows)
- ↑ &↓-move your selection up and down
- ←&→- expand and close folders in the list view (when not in list view the arrows move left and right)
- ⌘o- opens the currently selected file(s) or folder(s)
- ↲- renames the selected file (this one really confuses Windows sliders because in Windows this is how you open a file)
- ⇪←or⇪→- select a contiguous range of files
- hold down ⌘while clicking on files to select multiple non-contiguous files
- ⌘c - copy a file to the clipboard
- ⌘v – paste a copy of the file
- ⌘⇪v – move the file in the clipboard here
- ⌘i – show the file info inspector (I use this a lot because I use spotlight comments extensively, as well as colour tags)
- ⌘⇪g – brings up a text box into which you can type (or paste) a path to navigate to – handy for getting into hidden folders e.g. ~/.ssh for getting at your SSH key pair, and ~/Library for getting to your now hidden Library folder with the keyboard only
- ⌘k – brings up the connect to server dialogue box (I use this a lot in work, but not at home, you can add bookmarks in this dialogue too which is very handy)
I haven’t forgotten that I promised to talk about Linux on old Macs, I’m still experimenting away and will report back soon. I’ve managed to acquire a G4 iMac, a PowerMac G5 and a 32bit Intel MBP to test with.
After Bart and I stopped recording, it was still bugging us why I couldn’t use the right arrows to open a folder in the list view. We got the idea to test it on Steve’s machine to make sure it wasn’t some goofy utility I’d installed. And of course it did work on Steve’s Mac, but then I noticed something else – his folders had little disclosure triangles on them, but mine didn’t. Then I tried a few more folders and some of them DID have disclosure triangles. What the heck is going on here? I whipped open my trusty Clarify, took a couple of screenshots, annotated them and combined them into one shot using Pixelmator. Then I took a screenshot of THAT with Skitch (I have to use ALL my tools, right?) and shared it to Twitter.
In a few minutes, Pramit Nairi (@pramitnairi) had the answer. Turns out how you have the folder set in View Options changes whether you get your disclosure triangles. If you set that to anything BUT “none”, you lose them. Now how’s that for an obscure detail to know? Gotta love Twitter though for quick answers, and Pramit for knowing the answer! Plus Bart and I can sleep at night now.
That’s going to wind this up for this week, many thanks to our sponsor for helping to pay the bills, Blue Mango Learning at bluemangolearning.com makers of ScreenSteps and Clarify. Don’t forget to send in your Dumb Questions, comments and suggestions by emailing me at [email protected], follow me on twitter at @podfeet. I contribute a fair amount over on Google Plus nowadays so just search for me by name if you want to circle me up. If you want to join in the fun of the live show, head on over to podfeet.com/live on Sunday nights at 5pm Pacific Time and join the friendly and enthusiastic NosillaCastaways. Thanks for listening, and stay subscribed. | <urn:uuid:07490a83-7751-4c1c-b488-c3e133a9aace> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.podfeet.com/blog/2012/09/385-iphone-5-adventures-audio-compression-getting-the-most-out-of-finder/ | 2013-05-23T04:56:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950421 | 5,070 |
In order to understand the degeneration of the Socialist (Second) International, Karl Korsch in 1920 applied an historical materialist analysis to Marxism. He related Marxist praxis to the level and nature of class struggle. He posited three periods of Marxist activity. The first period ended about 1850, involved the revolutions of 1848 and the Chartist Movement. This revolutionary period gave rise to the “original” and revolutionary Marxism of Marx and Engels. The second period lasted until the 1917 Russian Revolution, and was characterized by the defeat of the Paris Commune and a partial absorption of the working class into simple trade unionism. Marxism, in its turn, became reformist during this period. The Third Period began with the Russian Revolution and revolutionary Marxism was restored with revolutionary thinkers like Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg.
This is not the place to debate the merits of Korsch's three stages, but only to consider applying historical materialist analysis to the anarchist movement in an attempt to understand its ideological Odyssey. Can the anarchist movement be placed in periods related to the level of class struggle in those countries where it had some prominence?
Like Marxism, anarchism developed just prior to and during the Revolution of 1848. This early anarchism was based mainly on the writings of Pierre Proudhon. But unlike Marxism, “Proudhonism” was not a fully developed revolutionary anarchism. In many aspects it was gradualist and reduced class struggle to the formation of worker mutualist societies. (Proudhon was opposed to strikes) Most workers at this time were artisans and mutualism was natural to them. Anarchism's First Period would be roughly 1840 until the late 1860's. During this time, Proudhon influenced the nascent workers movement in France, Southern Europe and part of Latin America.
By the late 1860's, however, a growing class struggle in those countries where Proudhon's thought had influence, began to move anarchism in a more militant direction. (1) Bakunin is the chief anarchist theoretician of this period which lasts until the defeat of the Paris Commune and the crushing of the Spanish and Italian revolts. Thus anarchism's Second Period lasts from about 1868 to 1874.
Post-1874 sees a period of reaction, as well as the “Long Depression” which effects many of the advanced economies up until the mid-1890's. Class struggle wanes, or is severally repressed in the countries where anarchism has any presence. But rather than heading in a reformist direction, an important section of the movement goes the opposite way, into ultra leftism. Two crucial aspects of revolutionary anarchism are ignored, seemingly pushed aside as irrelevant, these are the need to be directly involved in the people's struggles and the need for organization, rejected for “propaganda of the deed” and small autonomous action groups. This Third Period lasts until the late 1890's.
Propaganda of the deed proves an abject failure. Anarchists are marginalized and the social democratic parties get the upper hand, except for Southern Europe and Latin America. At the same time, the 1880's and 90's see a process of industrialization occurring, almost world-wide. Former peasants and artisans are converted into wage workers and the class struggle heats up. Anarchists return to the working class and involve themselves in the formation of revolutionary labour unions, (syndicalism). We can date anarchism's Fourth Period from the late 1890's. Syndicalism develops into a mass movement comprising millions of workers. Anarcho-syndicalists are involved in the Mexican and Russian revolutions, as well as risings in other countries such as Argentina and Brazil.
But Fourth Period anarchism had a flaw. While involved in the people's struggles and the creation of mass organizations, most syndicalists fell into a kind of economic determinism and also underestimated the need for a distinct revolutionary organization. For most Third Period syndicalists, revolution meant the workers occupying and running the work places and the need to deal politically with the state was ignored. The defeat of the Spanish Revolution in 1938 brings the Third Period to a close. At the same time, with few exceptions, workers become integrated into communist, social democratic or even worse, business unions and the parties supported by these tendencies. Autonomous class struggle, which found its theoretical and practical expression in syndicalism, for all intents and purposes, ends at this time, With the defeat of syndicalism, anarchism once more becomes separated from the working class. Essentially, the end of autonomous struggle is the end of anarchism as a proletarian movement.
The Fifth Period begins in 1939 and goes until 1968. This time, unlike the propaganda of the deed period, anarchists do two things – they immerse themselves in theory and attempt to develop a reformist anarchism, a “practical” anarchism that can be applied in a time when mass working class revolt, let alone revolution seems a hopeless fantasy. A major concern is why the working class failed to bring about the libertarian socialist revolution. Sexuality, child rearing practices, pedagogy, and culture are all examined and it is shown how these have an effect upon the workers consciousness and practice. A Gramcian struggle for hegemony ensues as anarchists strive to bring liberatory practice into daily life and overcome those factors which create a subservient population. (The one area where anarchism does have some input into the working class is the promotion of workers control and these ideas begin to resurface in the mid-1960s.) The Post 1939 “movement” allows anarchism to survive. Its ideas have an influence far beyond the small numbers of adherents. Liberatory practices begin to permeate society and the most obvious example of this is the formation of early New Left and the counter-cultures of the 1960s.
1968 signals that anarchism has entered a new phase, the Sixth Period. Autonomous class struggle is back again. Non-syndicalist unions start talking about workers control. Syndicalist unions begin recruiting again, though they remain very much a minority tendency within anarchism. Anarchism at this time is overwhelmingly counter-cultural, except for countries where it has deep roots like France, Italy and Spain. Permanent anarchist organization begins in countries that had not seen such in 40 years. The far-left is largely Marxist Leninist during this period, but anarchism is now a contender, something it wasn't in the Fourth Period.
The Seventh Period begins in 1980 and sees the complete defeat/capitulation of the orthodox left everywhere. The working class, at first combative, is beaten down and defeated. Anarchism suffers as well. While not eliminated, numbers are down and some organizations fragment. But the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, and the re-establishment of “democracy” in Latin America leads to a proliferation of anarchist groups. Anarchists are now found almost everywhere, but the movement is “a mile wide and an inch deep” and is still largely counter-cultural. (Counter-culture seems to be the way that anarchism enters new areas and attracts youth.)
The Eighth (and present) Period is signaled by the Battle of Seattle in 1999 and the Argentine Revolt of 2000. Seattle makes vast numbers of people aware of anarchism. The rebirth of class struggle in France, Spain and Mexico 1994-5 gave rise to the invigorated syndicalism of the French CNT, the Spanish CGT and the libertarian communalism of the Zapatistas, and laid the base for this period. The far left is now basically “the anarchists,” . More than a decade into the Sixth Period, the growing, if not dominant tendency in anarchism is working class oriented, and organizational. Furthermore, the influence of anarchist ideas goes far beyond the actual number of anarchists. Today, it is a rare socialist who is not in favor of worker-management, worker coops and popular power exercised through neighborhood councils. Even if, as some cynical anarchists claim, these socialists are not sincere, it still shows the influence of these ideas that they have to raise them in the first place.
Looking at anarchism in relation to the actual level of class struggle and how this struggle is reflected in anarchist praxis enables us to have a deeper understanding and appreciation of our movement. Western society has an underlying notion of free will and thus we have a culture of finger-pointing and blame. (You freely chose to do this, you vile creature!) Unconsciously, the left shares this culture. People who deviate from what is considered correct in terms of theory and practice are deemed to have done so for negative motives. While “selling-out”, ignorance and stupidity are factors, they don't explain everything. By examining anarchist praxis in the manner above, we realize that most of what happens, including those aspects we disagree with, are the natural responses to a given set of conditions rather than malfeasance and stupidity. The worst we can say about our past errors is that they were short-sighted.
Realizing the almost cyclic nature of the movement and the different periods that it can be divided into, can help us overcome any future errors made as a short-sighted reaction to changed conditions. For example, no period of reaction is so all-encompassing that we have to resort to propaganda of the deed to keep anarchism alive. While anarchism lost its proletarian base in the 1950's, this did not mean this was permanent and that militant, class struggle anarchism was gone forever.
At the same time, aside from the disastrous propaganda of the deed, much has been gained from anarchism's various phases, in spite of the errors committed. An incredible amount was learned from the Fourth or syndicalist phase. Indeed, this period really put anarchism on the map as a serious tendency in the workers movement. The Fifth Period developed anarchist understanding of society to a remarkable degree, making much of the earlier anarchism seem crude by comparison. Without the counter-culturalism of the Sixth and Seventh Periods, it is unlikely that so many youth would have become attracted to anarchism.
1. Many of these Proudhonist associations began to take on a more militant stance. | <urn:uuid:22366a7d-f575-424c-a6ab-2cd2ca043c46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://porkupineblog.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html | 2013-05-25T13:07:25Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956601 | 2,068 |
|Madhya-lila||Chapter 9: Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's Travels to the Holy Places|
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Sri Caitanya Caritamrita
CC Madhya 9 Summary
CC Madhya 9.1: Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu converted the inhabitants of South India. These people were as strong as elephants, but they were in the clutches of the crocodiles of various philosophies, such as the Buddhist, Jain and Mayavada philosophies. With His disc of mercy the Lord delivered them all by converting them into Vaishnavas, devotees of the Lord.
CC Madhya 9.2: All glories to Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu! All glories to Lord Nityananda Prabhu! All glories to Sri Advaita Prabhu! And all glories to all the devotees of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu!
CC Madhya 9.3: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's tour of South India was certainly very extraordinary because He visited many thousands of places of pilgrimage there.
CC Madhya 9.4: On the plea of visiting all those holy places, the Lord converted many thousands of residents and thus delivered them. Simply by touching the holy places, He made them into great places of pilgrimage.
CC Madhya 9.5: I cannot chronologically record all the places of pilgrimage visited by Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I can only summarize everything by saying that the Lord visited all holy places right and left, coming and going.
CC Madhya 9.6: Because it is impossible for me to record all these places in chronological order, I will simply make a token gesture of recording them.
CC Madhya 9.8: As previously stated, all the residents of the villages visited by Lord Caitanya became Vaishnavas and began to chant Hari and Krishna. In this way, in all the villages visited by the Lord, everyone became a Vaishnava, a devotee.
CC Madhya 9.9: In South India there were many types of people. Some were philosophical speculators, and some were fruitive workers, but in any case there were innumerable nondevotees.
CC Madhya 9.10: By the influence of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, all these people abandoned their own opinions and became Vaishnavas, devotees of Krishna.
CC Madhya 9.11: At the time, all the South Indian Vaishnavas were worshipers of Lord Ramacandra. Some were Tattvavadis, and some were followers of Ramanujacarya.
CC Madhya 9.12: After meeting Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, all those different Vaishnavas became devotees of Krishna and began chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.
CC Madhya 9.13: "'O Lord Ramacandra, descendant of Maharaja Raghu, kindly protect me! O Lord Krishna, killer of the Kesi demon, kindly protect me!'"
CC Madhya 9.14: While walking on the road, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to chant this Rama Raghava mantra. Chanting in this way, He arrived at the banks of the Gautami-ganga and took His bath there.
CC Madhya 9.15: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then went to Mallikarjuna-tirtha and saw the deity of Lord Siva there. He also induced all the people to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.
CC Madhya 9.16: There he saw Lord Mahadeva [Siva], the servant of Lord Rama. He then went to Ahovala-nrisimha.
CC Madhya 9.17: Upon seeing the Ahovala-nrisimha Deity, Caitanya Mahaprabhu offered many prayers unto the Lord. He then went to Siddhavata, where He saw the Deity of Ramacandra, the Lord of Sitadevi.
CC Madhya 9.18: Upon seeing the Deity of Lord Ramacandra, the descendant of King Raghu, the Lord offered His prayers and obeisances. Then a brahmana invited the Lord to take lunch.
CC Madhya 9.19: That brahmana constantly chanted the holy name of Ramacandra. Indeed, but for chanting Lord Ramacandra's holy name, that brahmana did not speak a word.
CC Madhya 9.20: That day, Lord Caitanya remained there and accepted prasadam at his house. After bestowing mercy upon him in this way, the Lord proceeded ahead.
CC Madhya 9.21: At the holy place known as Skanda-kshetra, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited the temple of Skanda. From there He went to Trimatha, where He saw the Vishnu Deity Trivikrama.
CC Madhya 9.22: After visiting the temple of Trivikrama, the Lord returned to Siddhavata, where He again visited the house of the brahmana, who was now constantly chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.
CC Madhya 9.23: After finishing His lunch there, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked the brahmana, "My dear friend, kindly tell Me what your position is now.
CC Madhya 9.24: "Formerly you were constantly chanting the holy name of Lord Rama. Why are you now constantly chanting the holy name of Krishna?"
CC Madhya 9.25: The brahmana replied, "This is all due to Your influence, Sir. After seeing You, I have lost my lifelong practice.
CC Madhya 9.26: "From my childhood I have been chanting the holy name of Lord Ramacandra, but upon seeing You I chanted the holy name of Lord Krishna just once.
CC Madhya 9.27: "Since then, the holy name of Krishna has been tightly fixed upon my tongue. Indeed, since I have been chanting the holy name of Krishna, the holy name of Lord Ramacandra has gone far away.
CC Madhya 9.28: "From my childhood I have been collecting the glories of the holy name from revealed scriptures.
CC Madhya 9.29: "'The Supreme Absolute Truth is called Rama because the transcendentalists take pleasure in the unlimited true pleasure of spiritual existence.'
CC Madhya 9.30: "'The word "krish" is the attractive feature of the Lord's existence, and "na" means spiritual pleasure. When the verb "krish" is added to the affix "na," it becomes "Krishna," which indicates the Absolute Truth.'
CC Madhya 9.31: "As far as the holy names of Rama and Krishna are concerned, they are on an equal level, but for further advancement we receive some specific information from the revealed scriptures.
CC Madhya 9.32: "[Lord Siva addressed his wife, Durga:] 'O Varanana, 'I chant the holy name of Rama, Rama, Rama and thus enjoy this beautiful sound. This holy name of Ramacandra is equal to one thousand holy names of Lord Vishnu.'
CC Madhya 9.33: "'The pious results derived from chanting the thousand holy names of Vishnu three times can be attained by only one utterance of the holy name of Krishna.'
CC Madhya 9.34: "According to this statement of the sastras, the glories of the holy name of Krishna are unlimited. Still I could not chant His holy name. Please hear the reason for this.
CC Madhya 9.35: "My worshipable Lord has been Lord Ramacandra, and by chanting His holy name I received happiness. Because I received such happiness, I chanted the holy name of Lord Rama day and night.
CC Madhya 9.36: "By Your appearance, Lord Krishna's holy name also appeared, and at that time the glories of Krishna's name awoke in my heart.
CC Madhya 9.37: "Sir, You are that Lord Krishna Himself. This is my conclusion." Saying this, the brahmana fell down at the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
CC Madhya 9.38: After showing mercy to the brahmana, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu left the next day and arrived at Vriddhakasi, where He visited the temple of Lord Siva.
CC Madhya 9.39: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then left Vriddhakasi and proceeded further. In one village He saw that most of the residents were brahmanas, and He took His rest there.
CC Madhya 9.40: Due to the influence of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, many millions of men came just to see Him. Indeed, the assembly being unlimited, its members could not be counted.
CC Madhya 9.41: The Lord's bodily features were very beautiful, and in addition He was always in the ecstasy of love of Godhead. Simply by seeing Him, everyone began chanting the holy name of Krishna, and thus everyone became a Vaishnava devotee.
CC Madhya 9.42: There are many kinds of philosophers. Some are logicians who follow Gautama or Kanada. Some follow the Mimamsa philosophy of Jaimini. Some follow the Mayavada philosophy of Sankaracarya, and others follow Kapila's Sankhya philosophy or the mystic yoga system of Patanjali. Some follow the smriti-sastra composed of twenty religious scriptures, and others follow the Puranas and the tantra-sastra. In this way there are many different types of philosophers.
CC Madhya 9.43: All of these adherents of various scriptures were ready to present the conclusions of their respective scriptures, but Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu broke all their opinions to pieces and established His own cult of bhakti based on the Vedas, Vedanta, the Brahma-sutra and the philosophy of acintya-bhedabheda-tattva.
CC Madhya 9.44: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu established the devotional cult everywhere. No one could defeat Him.
CC Madhya 9.45: Being thus defeated by Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, all these philosophers and their followers entered into His cult. In this way Lord Caitanya made South India into a country of Vaishnavas.
CC Madhya 9.46: When the nonbelievers heard of the erudition of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, they came to Him with great pride, bringing their disciples with them.
CC Madhya 9.47: One of them was a leader of the Buddhist cult and was a very learned scholar. To establish the nine philosophical conclusions of Buddhism, he came before the Lord and began to speak.
CC Madhya 9.48: Although the Buddhists are unfit for discussion and should not be seen by Vaishnavas, Caitanya Mahaprabhu spoke to them just to decrease their false pride.
CC Madhya 9.49: The scriptures of the Buddhist cult are chiefly based on argument and logic, and they contain nine chief principles. Because Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu defeated the Buddhists in their argument, they could not establish their cult.
CC Madhya 9.50: The teacher of the Buddhist cult set forth the nine principles, but Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu broke them to pieces with His strong logic.
CC Madhya 9.51: All mental speculators and learned scholars were defeated by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and when the people began to laugh, the Buddhist philosophers felt both shame and fear.
CC Madhya 9.52: The Buddhists could understand that Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was a Vaishnava, and they returned home very unhappy. Later, however, they began to plot against the Lord.
CC Madhya 9.53: Having made their plot, the Buddhists brought a plate of untouchable food before Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and called it maha-prasadam.
CC Madhya 9.54: When the contaminated food was offered to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, a very large bird appeared on the spot, picked up the plate in its beak and flew away.
CC Madhya 9.55: Indeed, the untouchable food fell upon the Buddhists, and the large bird dropped the plate on the head of the chief Buddhist teacher. When it fell on his head, it made a big sound.
CC Madhya 9.56: The plate was made of metal, and when its edge hit the head of the teacher, it cut him, and the teacher immediately fell to the ground unconscious.
CC Madhya 9.57: When the teacher fell unconscious, his Buddhist disciples cried aloud and ran to the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu for shelter.
CC Madhya 9.58: They all prayed to Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, addressing Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself and saying, "Sir, please excuse our offense. Please have mercy upon us and bring our spiritual master back to life."
CC Madhya 9.59: The Lord then replied to the Buddhist disciples, "You should all chant the names of Krishna and Hari very loudly near the ear of your spiritual master.
CC Madhya 9.60: "By this method your spiritual master will regain his consciousness." Following Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's advice, all the Buddhist disciples began to chant the holy name of Krishna congregationally.
CC Madhya 9.61: When all the disciples chanted the holy names Krishna, Rama and Hari, the Buddhist teacher regained consciousness and immediately began to chant the holy name of Lord Hari.
CC Madhya 9.62: When the spiritual master of the Buddhists began to chant the holy name of Krishna and submitted to Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, all the people who were gathered there were astonished.
CC Madhya 9.63: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the son of Sacidevi, then suddenly and playfully disappeared from everyone's sight, and it was impossible for anyone to find Him.
CC Madhya 9.64: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu next arrived at Tirupati and Tirumala, where He saw a four-handed Deity. Then He proceeded toward Venkata Hill.
CC Madhya 9.65: After arriving at Tirupati, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited the temple of Lord Ramacandra. He offered His prayers and obeisances before Ramacandra, the descendant of King Raghu.
CC Madhya 9.66: Everywhere Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu went, His influence astonished everyone. He next arrived at the temple of Pana-nrisimha. The Lord is so merciful.
CC Madhya 9.67: In great ecstatic love, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu offered obeisances and prayers unto Lord Nrisimha. The people were astonished to see Lord Caitanya's influence.
CC Madhya 9.68: Arriving at Siva-kanci, Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited the deity of Lord Siva. By His influence, He converted all the devotees of Lord Siva into Vaishnavas.
CC Madhya 9.69: The Lord then visited a holy place known as Vishnu-kanci. There He saw Lakshmi-Narayana Deities, and He offered His respects and many prayers to please Them.
CC Madhya 9.70: When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu stayed at Vishnu-kanci for two days, He danced and performed kirtana in ecstasy. When all the people saw Him, they were converted into devotees of Lord Krishna.
CC Madhya 9.71: After visiting Trimalaya, Caitanya Mahaprabhu went to see Trikala-hasti. There He saw Lord Siva and offered him all respects and obeisances.
CC Madhya 9.72: At Pakshi-tirtha, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited the temple of Lord Siva. Then He went to the Vriddhakola place of pilgrimage.
CC Madhya 9.73: At Vriddhakola, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited the temple of Sveta-varaha, the white boar incarnation. After offering Him respects, the Lord visited the temple of Lord Siva, wherein the deity is dressed with yellow garments.
CC Madhya 9.74: After visiting the temple of Siyali-bhairavi [a form of the goddess Durga], Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the son of mother Saci, went to the bank of the river Kaveri.
CC Madhya 9.75: The Lord then visited a place known as Go-samaja, where He saw Lord Siva's temple. He then arrived at Vedavana, where He saw another deity of Lord Siva and offered him prayers.
CC Madhya 9.76: Seeing the Siva deity named Amrita-linga, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu offered His obeisances. Thus He visited all the temples of Lord Siva and converted the devotees of Lord Siva into Vaishnavas.
CC Madhya 9.77: At Devasthana, Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited the temple of Lord Vishnu, and there He talked with the Vaishnavas in the disciplic succession of Ramanujacarya. These Vaishnavas are known as Sri Vaishnavas.
CC Madhya 9.78: At Kumbhakarna-kapala, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu saw a great lake and then the holy place named Siva-kshetra, where a temple of Lord Siva is located.
CC Madhya 9.79: After visiting the holy place named Siva-kshetra, Caitanya Mahaprabhu arrived at Papanasana and there saw the temple of Lord Vishnu. Then He finally reached Sri Ranga-kshetra.
CC Madhya 9.80: After bathing in the river Kaveri, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu saw the temple of Ranganatha and offered His ardent prayers and obeisances. Thus He felt Himself successful.
CC Madhya 9.81: In the temple of Ranganatha, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu chanted and danced in ecstatic love of Godhead. Seeing His performance, everyone was struck with wonder.
CC Madhya 9.82: A Vaishnava known as Venkata Bhatta then invited Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to his home with great respect.
CC Madhya 9.83: Sri Venkata Bhatta took Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to his home. After he washed the Lord's feet, all the members of his family drank the water.
CC Madhya 9.84: After offering lunch to the Lord, Venkata Bhatta submitted that the period of Caturmasya had already arrived.
CC Madhya 9.85: Venkata Bhatta said, "Please be merciful to me and stay at my house during Caturmasya. Speak about Lord Krishna's pastimes and kindly deliver me by Your mercy."
CC Madhya 9.86: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu remained at the house of Venkata Bhatta for four continuous months. The Lord passed His days in great happiness, enjoying the transcendental mellow of discussing Lord Krishna's pastimes.
CC Madhya 9.87: While there, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took His bath in the river Kaveri and visited the temple of Sri Ranga. Every day the Lord also danced in ecstasy.
CC Madhya 9.88: The beauty of Lord Caitanya's body and His ecstatic love of God were witnessed by everyone. Many people used to come see Him, and as soon as they saw Him, all their unhappiness and distress vanished.
CC Madhya 9.89: Many hundreds of thousands of people from various countries came to see the Lord, and after seeing Him they all chanted the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.
CC Madhya 9.90: Indeed, they did not chant anything but the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, and all of them became Lord Krishna's devotees. Thus the general populace was astonished.
CC Madhya 9.91: All the Vaishnava brahmanas residing in Sri Ranga-kshetra invited the Lord to their homes. Indeed, He had an invitation every day.
CC Madhya 9.92: Each day the Lord was invited by a different brahmana, but some of the brahmanas did not get the opportunity to offer Him lunch because the period of Caturmasya came to an end.
CC Madhya 9.93: In the holy place of Sri Ranga-kshetra, a brahmana Vaishnava used to visit the temple daily and recite the entire text of the Bhagavad-gita.
CC Madhya 9.94: The brahmana regularly read the eighteen chapters of the Bhagavad-gita in great transcendental ecstasy, but because he could not pronounce the words correctly, people used to joke about him.
CC Madhya 9.95: Due to his incorrect pronunciation, people sometimes criticized him and laughed at him, but he did not care. He was full of ecstasy due to reading the Bhagavad-gita and was personally very happy.
CC Madhya 9.96: While reading the book, the brahmana experienced transcendental bodily transformations. The hairs on his body stood on end, tears welled up in his eyes, and his body trembled and perspired as he read. Seeing this, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu became very happy.
CC Madhya 9.97: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked the brahmana, "My dear sir, why are you in such ecstatic love? Which portion of the Bhagavad-gita gives you such transcendental pleasure?"
CC Madhya 9.98: The brahmana replied, "I am illiterate and therefore do not know the meaning of the words. Sometimes I read the Bhagavad-gita correctly and sometimes incorrectly, but in any case I am doing this in compliance with the orders of my spiritual master."
CC Madhya 9.99: The brahmana continued, "Actually I only see Lord Krishna sitting on a chariot as Arjuna's charioteer. Taking the reins in His hands, He appears very beautiful and blackish.
CC Madhya 9.100: "While seeing Lord Krishna sitting in a chariot and instructing Arjuna, I am filled with ecstatic happiness.
CC Madhya 9.101: "As long as I read the Bhagavad-gita, I simply see the Lord's beautiful features. It is for this reason that I am reading the Bhagavad-gita, and my mind cannot be distracted from this."
CC Madhya 9.102: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu told the brahmana, "Indeed, you are an authority in the reading of the Bhagavad-gita. Whatever you know constitutes the real purport of the Bhagavad-gita."
CC Madhya 9.103: After saying this, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu embraced the brahmana, and the brahmana, catching the lotus feet of the Lord, began to cry.
CC Madhya 9.104: The brahmana said, "Upon seeing You, my happiness is doubled. I take it that You are the same Lord Krishna."
CC Madhya 9.105: The mind of the brahmana was purified by the revelation of Lord Krishna, and therefore he could understand the truth of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in all details.
CC Madhya 9.106: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then taught the brahmana very thoroughly and requested him not to disclose the fact that He was Lord Krishna Himself.
CC Madhya 9.107: That brahmana became a great devotee of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and for four continuous months he did not give up the Lord's company.
CC Madhya 9.108: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu remained at the house of Venkata Bhatta and constantly talked with him about Lord Krishna. In this way He was very happy.
CC Madhya 9.109: Being a Vaishnava in the Ramanuja-sampradaya, Venkata Bhatta worshiped the Deities of Lakshmi and Narayana. Seeing his pure devotion, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was very satisfied.
CC Madhya 9.110: Constantly associating with each other, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Venkata Bhatta gradually developed a friendly relationship. Indeed, sometimes they laughed and joked together.
CC Madhya 9.111: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu told the Bhattacarya, "Your worshipable goddess of fortune, Lakshmi, always remains on the chest of Narayana, and she is certainly the most chaste woman in the creation.
CC Madhya 9.112: "However, my Lord is Lord Sri Krishna, a cowherd boy who is engaged in tending cows. Why is it that Lakshmi, being such a chaste wife, wants to associate with My Lord?
CC Madhya 9.113: "Just to associate with Krishna, Lakshmi abandoned all transcendental happiness in Vaikuntha and for a long time accepted vows and regulative principles and performed unlimited austerities."
CC Madhya 9.114: Caitanya Mahaprabhu then said, "'O Lord, we do not know how the serpent Kaliya attained such an opportunity to be touched by the dust of Your lotus feet. Even the goddess of fortune, for this end, performed austerities for centuries, giving up all other desires and observing austere vows. Indeed, we do not know how the serpent Kaliya got such an opportunity.'"
CC Madhya 9.115: Venkata Bhatta then said, "Lord Krishna and Lord Narayana are one and the same, but the pastimes of Krishna are more relishable due to their sportive nature.
CC Madhya 9.116: "Since Krishna and Narayana are the same personality, Lakshmi's association with Krishna does not break her vow of chastity. Rather, it was in great fun that the goddess of fortune wanted to associate with Lord Krishna."
CC Madhya 9.117: Venkata Bhatta continued, "'According to transcendental realization, there is no difference between the forms of Narayana and Krishna. Yet in Krishna there is a special transcendental attraction due to the conjugal mellow, and consequently He surpasses Narayana. This is the conclusion of transcendental mellows.'
CC Madhya 9.118: "The goddess of fortune considered that her vow of chastity would not be damaged by her relationship with Krishna. Rather, by associating with Krishna she could enjoy the benefit of the rasa dance."
CC Madhya 9.119: Venkata Bhatta further explained, "Mother Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, is also an enjoyer of transcendental bliss; therefore if she wanted to enjoy herself with Krishna, what fault is there? Why are You joking so about this?"
CC Madhya 9.120: Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied, "I know that there is no fault on the part of the goddess of fortune, but still she could not enter into the rasa dance. We hear this from the revealed scriptures.
CC Madhya 9.121: "'When Lord Sri Krishna was dancing with the gopis in the rasa-lila, the gopis were embraced around the neck by the Lord's arms. This transcendental favor was never bestowed upon the goddess of fortune or the other consorts in the spiritual world. Nor was such a thing ever imagined by the most beautiful girls in the heavenly planets, girls whose bodily luster and aroma exactly resemble the beauty and fragrance of lotus flowers. And what to speak of worldly women, who may be very, very beautiful according to material estimation?'
CC Madhya 9.122: "But can you tell Me why the goddess of fortune, Lakshmi, could not enter the rasa dance? The authorities of Vedic knowledge could enter the dance and associate with Krishna.
CC Madhya 9.123: "'Great sages conquer the mind and senses by practicing the mystic yoga system and controlling the breath. Thus engaging in mystic yoga, they see the Supersoul within their hearts and ultimately enter into impersonal Brahman. But even the enemies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead attain that position simply by thinking of the Supreme Lord. However, the damsels of Vraja, the gopis, being attracted by the beauty of Krishna, simply wanted to embrace Him and His arms, which are like serpents. Thus the gopis ultimately tasted the nectar of the lotus feet of the Lord. Similarly, we Upanishads can also taste the nectar of His lotus feet by following in the footsteps of the gopis.'"
CC Madhya 9.124: Having been asked by Caitanya Mahaprabhu why the goddess of fortune could not enter into the rasa dance whereas the authorities on Vedic knowledge could, Venkata Bhatta replied, "I cannot enter into the mysteries of this behavior."
CC Madhya 9.125: Venkata Bhatta then said, "I am an ordinary human being. Since my intelligence is very limited and I am easily agitated, my mind cannot enter within the deep ocean of the pastimes of the Lord.
CC Madhya 9.126: "You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna Himself. You know the purpose of Your activities, and the person whom You enlighten can also understand Your pastimes."
CC Madhya 9.127: The Lord replied, "Lord Krishna has a special characteristic: He attracts everyone's heart by the mellow of His personal conjugal love.
CC Madhya 9.128: "By following in the footsteps of the inhabitants of the planet known as Vrajaloka or Goloka Vrindavana, one can attain the shelter of the lotus feet of Sri Krishna. However, in that planet the inhabitants do not know that Lord Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
CC Madhya 9.129: "There someone may accept Him as a son and sometimes bind Him to a grinding mortar. Someone else may accept Him as an intimate friend and, attaining victory over Him, playfully mount His shoulders.
CC Madhya 9.130: "The inhabitants of Vrajabhumi know Krishna as the son of Maharaja Nanda, the King of Vrajabhumi, and they consider that they can have no relationship with the Lord in the rasa of opulence.
CC Madhya 9.131: "One who worships the Lord by following in the footsteps of the inhabitants of Vrajabhumi attains Him in the transcendental planet of Vraja, where He is known as the son of Maharaja Nanda."
CC Madhya 9.132: Caitanya Mahaprabhu then quoted, "'The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, the son of mother Yasoda, is accessible to those devotees engaged in spontaneous loving service, but He is not as easily accessible to mental speculators, to those striving for self-realization by severe austerities and penances, or to those who consider the body the same as the self.'
CC Madhya 9.133: "The authorities in the Vedic literature who are known as the sruti-ganas worshiped Lord Krishna in the ecstasy of the gopis and followed in their footsteps.
CC Madhya 9.134: "The personified authorities on the Vedic hymns acquired bodies like those of the gopis and took birth in Vrajabhumi. In those bodies they were allowed to enter into the Lord's rasa-lila dance.
CC Madhya 9.135: "Lord Krishna belongs to the cowherd community, and the gopis are the dearmost lovers of Krishna. Although the wives of the denizens of the heavenly planets are most opulent within the material world, neither they nor any other women in the material universe can acquire Krishna's association.
CC Madhya 9.136: "The goddess of fortune, Lakshmi, wanted to enjoy Krishna and at the same time retain her spiritual body in the form of Lakshmi. However, she did not follow in the footsteps of the gopis in her worship of Krishna.
CC Madhya 9.137: "Vyasadeva, the supreme authority on Vedic literature, composed the verse beginning 'nayam sukhapo bhagavan' because no one can enter into the rasa-lila dance in any body other than that of a gopi."
CC Madhya 9.138: Before this explanation was given by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Venkata Bhatta thought that Sri Narayana was the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
CC Madhya 9.139: Thinking in this way, Venkata Bhatta believed that worship of Narayana was the supreme form of worship, superior to all other processes of devotional service, for it was followed by the Sri Vaishnava disciples of Ramanujacarya.
CC Madhya 9.140: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu had understood this misconception of Venkata Bhatta's, and to correct it the Lord talked so much in a joking way.
CC Madhya 9.141: The Lord then continued, "My dear Venkata Bhatta, please do not continue doubting. Lord Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and this is the conclusion of the Vedic literatures.
CC Madhya 9.142: "Lord Narayana, the opulent form of Krishna, attracts the minds of the goddess of fortune and her followers.
CC Madhya 9.143: "'All these incarnations of Godhead are either plenary portions or parts of the plenary portions of the purusha-avataras. But Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. In every age He protects the world through His different features when the world is disturbed by the enemies of Indra.'
CC Madhya 9.144: "Because Krishna has four extraordinary qualities not possessed by Lord Narayana, the goddess of fortune, Lakshmi, always desires His company.
CC Madhya 9.145: "You have recited the sloka beginning with 'siddhantatas tv abhede 'pi.' That very verse is evidence that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
CC Madhya 9.146: "'According to transcendental realization, there is no difference between the forms of Krishna and Narayana. Yet in Krishna there is a special transcendental attraction due to the conjugal mellow, and consequently He surpasses Narayana. This is the conclusion of transcendental mellows.'
CC Madhya 9.147: "The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, attracts the mind of the goddess of fortune, but Lord Narayana cannot attract the minds of the gopis. This proves the superexcellence of Krishna.
CC Madhya 9.148: "To say nothing of Lord Narayana personally, Lord Krishna Himself appeared as Narayana just to play a joke on the gopis.
CC Madhya 9.149: "Although Krishna assumed the four-armed form of Narayana, He could not attract the serious attention of the gopis in ecstatic love.
CC Madhya 9.150: "'Once Lord Sri Krishna playfully manifested Himself as Narayana, with four victorious hands and a very beautiful form. When the gopis saw this exalted form, however, their ecstatic feelings were crippled. A learned scholar, therefore, cannot understand the gopis' ecstatic feelings, which are firmly fixed upon the original form of Lord Krishna as the son of Nanda Maharaja. The wonderful feelings of the gopis in ecstatic parama-rasa with Krishna constitute the greatest mystery in spiritual life.'"
CC Madhya 9.151: In this way Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu deflated the pride of Venkata Bhatta, but just to make him happy again, He spoke as follows.
CC Madhya 9.152: The Lord pacified Venkata Bhatta by saying, "Actually whatever I have said is by way of jest. Now you can hear from Me the conclusion of the sastras, in which every Vaishnava devotee has firm faith.
CC Madhya 9.153: "There is no difference between Lord Krishna and Lord Narayana, for They are of the same form. Similarly, there is no difference between the gopis and the goddess of fortune, for they also are of the same form.
CC Madhya 9.154: "The goddess of fortune enjoys the association of Krishna through the gopis. One should not differentiate between the forms of the Lord, for such a conception is offensive.
CC Madhya 9.155: "There is no difference between the transcendental forms of the Lord. Different forms are manifested due to different attachments of different devotees. Actually the Lord is one, but He appears in different forms just to satisfy His devotees.
CC Madhya 9.156: "'When the jewel known as vaidurya touches various other materials, it appears to be separated into different colors, and consequently its forms also appear different. Similarly, according to the meditational ecstasy of the devotee, the Lord, who is known as Acyuta ["the infallible one"], appears in different forms, although He is essentially one.'"
CC Madhya 9.157: Venkata Bhatta then said, "I am an ordinary fallen living entity, but You are Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.
CC Madhya 9.158: "The transcendental pastimes of the Lord are unfathomable, and I do not know anything about them. Whatever You say I accept as the truth.
CC Madhya 9.159: "I have been engaged in the service of Lakshmi-Narayana, and it is due to Their mercy that I have been able to see Your lotus feet.
CC Madhya 9.160: "Out of Your causeless mercy You have told me of the glories of Lord Krishna. No one can reach the end of the opulence, qualities and forms of the Lord.
CC Madhya 9.161: "I can now understand that devotional service unto Lord Krishna is the supreme form of worship. Out of Your causeless mercy You have made my life successful simply by explaining the facts."
CC Madhya 9.162: After saying this, Venkata Bhatta fell down before the lotus feet of the Lord, and the Lord, out of His causeless mercy, embraced him.
CC Madhya 9.163: When the period of Caturmasya was completed, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took permission to leave from Venkata Bhatta, and after visiting Sri Ranga, He proceeded further toward southern India.
CC Madhya 9.164: Venkata Bhatta did not want to return home but also wanted to go with the Lord. It was with great endeavor that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu bade him farewell.
CC Madhya 9.165: When He did so, Venkata Bhatta fell down unconscious. Such are the pastimes of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the son of mother Saci, at Sri Ranga-kshetra.
CC Madhya 9.166: When the Lord arrived at Rishabha Hill, He saw the temple of Lord Narayana and offered obeisances and various prayers.
CC Madhya 9.167: Paramananda Puri had stayed at Rishabha Hill during the four months of the rainy season, and when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu heard this, He immediately went to see him.
CC Madhya 9.168: Upon meeting Paramananda Puri, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu offered him all respects, touching his lotus feet, and Paramananda Puri embraced the Lord in ecstasy.
CC Madhya 9.169: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu stayed with Paramananda Puri in the brahmana's house where he was residing. The two of them passed three days there discussing topics of Krishna.
CC Madhya 9.170: Paramananda Puri informed Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu that he was going to see Purushottama at Jagannatha Puri. After seeing Lord Jagannatha there, he would go to Bengal to bathe in the Ganges.
CC Madhya 9.171: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then told him, "Please return to Jagannatha Puri, for I will return there very soon from Ramesvara [Setubandha].
CC Madhya 9.172: "It is My desire to stay with you, and therefore if you would return to Jagannatha Puri, you would show great mercy to Me."
CC Madhya 9.173: After talking in this way with Paramananda Puri, the Lord took his permission to leave and, very pleased, departed for southern India.
CC Madhya 9.174: Thus Paramananda Puri started for Jagannatha Puri, and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu began walking toward Sri Saila.
CC Madhya 9.175: In Sri Saila Lord Siva and his wife Durga lived in the dress of brahmanas, and when they saw Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, they became very pleased.
CC Madhya 9.176: Lord Siva, dressed like a brahmana, gave alms to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and invited Him to spend three days in a solitary place. Sitting there together, they talked very confidentially.
CC Madhya 9.177: After talking with Lord Siva, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took his permission to leave and went to Kamakoshthi-puri.
CC Madhya 9.178: When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu arrived at southern Mathura from Kamakoshthi, He met a brahmana.
CC Madhya 9.179: The brahmana who met Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu invited the Lord to his home. This brahmana was a great devotee and an authority on Lord Sri Ramacandra. He was always detached from material activities.
CC Madhya 9.180: After bathing in the river Kritamala, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu went to the brahmana's house to take lunch, but He saw that the food was unprepared because the brahmana had not cooked it.
CC Madhya 9.181: Seeing this, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, "My dear sir, please tell Me why you have not cooked. It is already noon."
CC Madhya 9.182: The brahmana replied, "My dear Lord, we are living in the forest. For the time being we cannot get all the ingredients for cooking.
CC Madhya 9.183: "When Lakshmana brings all the vegetables, fruits and roots from the forest, Sita will do the necessary cooking."
CC Madhya 9.184: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was very satisfied to hear about the brahmana's method of worship. Finally the brahmana hastily made arrangements for cooking.
CC Madhya 9.185: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took His lunch at about three o'clock, but the brahmana, being very sorrowful, fasted.
CC Madhya 9.186: While the brahmana was fasting, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked him, "Why are you fasting? Why are you so unhappy? Why are you so worried?"
CC Madhya 9.187: The brahmana replied, "I have no reason to live. I shall give up my life by entering either fire or water.
CC Madhya 9.188: "My dear Sir, mother Sita is the mother of the universe and the supreme goddess of fortune. She has been touched by the demon Ravana, and I am troubled upon hearing this news.
CC Madhya 9.189: "Sir, due to my unhappiness I cannot continue living. Although my body is burning, my life is not leaving."
CC Madhya 9.190: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied, "Please do not think this way any longer. You are a learned pandita. Why don't you consider the case?"
CC Madhya 9.191: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu continued, "Sitadevi, the dearmost wife of the Supreme Lord Ramacandra, certainly has a spiritual form full of bliss. No one can see her with material eyes, for no materialist has such power.
CC Madhya 9.192: "To say nothing of touching mother Sita, a person with material senses cannot even see her. When Ravana kidnapped her, he kidnapped only her material, illusory form.
CC Madhya 9.193: "As soon as Ravana arrived before Sita, she disappeared. Then just to cheat Ravana she sent an illusory, material form.
CC Madhya 9.194: "Spiritual substance is never within the jurisdiction of the material conception. This is always the verdict of the Vedas and Puranas."
CC Madhya 9.195: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then assured the brahmana, "Have faith in My words and do not burden your mind any longer with this misconception."
CC Madhya 9.196: Although the brahmana was fasting, he had faith in the words of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and accepted food. In this way his life was saved.
CC Madhya 9.197: After thus assuring the brahmana, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu proceeded further into southern India and finally arrived at Durvasana, where He bathed in the river Kritamala.
CC Madhya 9.198: At Durvasana Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited the temple of Lord Ramacandra, and on the hill known as Mahendra-saila He saw Lord Parasurama.
CC Madhya 9.199: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then went to Setubandha [Ramesvara], where He took His bath at the place called Dhanus-tirtha. From there He visited the Ramesvara temple and then took rest.
CC Madhya 9.200: There, among the brahmanas, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu listened to the Kurma Purana, wherein is mentioned the chaste woman's narration.
CC Madhya 9.201: Srimati Sitadevi is the mother of the three worlds and the wife of Lord Ramacandra. Among chaste women she is supreme, and she is the daughter of King Janaka.
CC Madhya 9.202: When Ravana came to kidnap mother Sita and she saw him, she took shelter of the fire-god, Agni. The fire-god covered the body of mother Sita, and in this way she was protected from the hands of Ravana.
CC Madhya 9.203: Upon hearing from the Kurma Purana how Ravana had kidnapped a false form of mother Sita, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu became very satisfied.
CC Madhya 9.204: The fire-god, Agni, took away the real Sita and brought her to the place of Parvati, goddess Durga. An illusory form of mother Sita was then delivered to Ravana, and in this way Ravana was cheated.
CC Madhya 9.205: After Ravana was killed by Lord Ramacandra, Sitadevi was brought before the fire and tested.
CC Madhya 9.206: When the illusory Sita was brought before the fire by Lord Ramacandra, the fire-god made the illusory form disappear and delivered the real Sita to Lord Ramacandra.
CC Madhya 9.207: When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu heard this story, He was very pleased, and He remembered the words of Ramadasa Vipra.
CC Madhya 9.208: Indeed, when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu heard these conclusive statements from the Kurma Purana, He felt great happiness. After asking the brahmanas' permission, He took possession of the manuscript leaves of the Kurma Purana.
CC Madhya 9.209: Since the Kurma Purana was very old, the manuscript was also very old. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took possession of the original leaves in order to have direct evidence. The text was copied onto new leaves in order that the Purana be replaced.
CC Madhya 9.210: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu returned to southern Mathura [Madurai] and delivered the original manuscript of the Kurma Purana to Ramadasa Vipra.
CC Madhya 9.211-212: "When he was petitioned by mother Sita, the fire-god, Agni, brought forth an illusory form of Sita, and Ravana, who had ten heads, kidnapped the false Sita. The original Sita then went to the abode of the fire-god. When Lord Ramacandra tested the body of Sita, it was the false, illusory Sita that entered the fire. At that time the fire-god brought the original Sita from his abode and delivered her to Lord Ramacandra."
CC Madhya 9.213: Ramadasa Vipra was very pleased to receive the original leaf manuscript of the Kurma Purana, and he immediately fell down before the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and began to cry.
CC Madhya 9.214: After receiving the manuscript, the brahmana, being very pleased, said, "Sir, You are Lord Ramacandra Himself and have come in the dress of a sannyasi to give me audience.
CC Madhya 9.215: "My dear Sir, You have delivered me from a very unhappy condition. I request that You take Your lunch at my place. Please accept this invitation.
CC Madhya 9.216: "Due to my mental distress I could not give You a very nice lunch the other day. Now, by good fortune, You have come again to my home."
CC Madhya 9.217: Saying this, the brahmana very happily cooked food, and a first-class dinner was offered to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
CC Madhya 9.218: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu passed that night in the house of the brahmana. Then, after showing him mercy, the Lord started toward the Tamraparni River in Pandya-desa.
CC Madhya 9.219: There were nine temples of Lord Vishnu at Naya-tripati, on the bank of the river Tamraparni, and after bathing in the river, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu saw the Deities with great curiosity and wandered on.
CC Madhya 9.220: After this, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu went to a holy place known as Ciyadatala, where He saw the Deities of the two brothers Lord Ramacandra and Lakshmana. He then proceeded to Tila-kanci, where He saw the temple of Lord Siva.
CC Madhya 9.221: Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then visited the holy place named Gajendra-mokshana, where He went to a temple of Lord Vishnu. He then came to Panagadi, a holy place where He saw the Deities of Lord Ramacandra and Sita.
CC Madhya 9.222: Later the Lord went to Camtapura, where He saw the Deities of Lord Ramacandra and Lakshmana. He then went to Sri Vaikuntha and saw the temple of Lord Vishnu there.
CC Madhya 9.223: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then went to Malaya-parvata and offered prayers to Agastya Muni. He then visited Kanya-kumari [Cape Comorin].
CC Madhya 9.224: After visiting Kanya-kumari, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to Amlitala, where He saw the Deity of Sri Ramacandra. Thereafter He went to a place known as Mallara-desa, where a community of Bhattatharis lived.
CC Madhya 9.225: After visiting Mallara-desa, Caitanya Mahaprabhu went to Tamala-kartika and then to Vetapani. There He saw the temple of Raghunatha, Lord Ramacandra, and passed the night.
CC Madhya 9.226: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was accompanied by His servant, Krishnadasa. He was a brahmana, but he met with the Bhattatharis there.
CC Madhya 9.227: With women the Bhattatharis allured the brahmana Krishnadasa, who was simple and gentle. By virtue of their bad association, they polluted his intelligence.
CC Madhya 9.228: Allured by the Bhattatharis, Krishnadasa went to their place early in the morning. The Lord also went there very quickly just to find him.
CC Madhya 9.229: Upon reaching their community, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked the Bhattatharis, "Why are you keeping My brahmana assistant?
CC Madhya 9.230: "I am in the renounced order of life, and so are you. Yet you are purposefully giving Me pain, and I do not see any good logic in this."
CC Madhya 9.231: Upon hearing Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, all the Bhattatharis came running from all sides with weapons in their hands, desiring to hurt the Lord.
CC Madhya 9.232: However, their weapons fell from their hands and struck their own bodies. When some of the Bhattatharis were thus cut to pieces, the others ran away in the four directions.
CC Madhya 9.233: While there was much roaring and crying at the Bhattathari community, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu grabbed Krishnadasa by the hair and took him away.
CC Madhya 9.234: That very night, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His assistant Krishnadasa arrived at the bank of the Payasvini River. They took their bath and then went to see the temple of Adi-kesava.
CC Madhya 9.235: When the Lord saw the Adi-kesava temple, He was immediately overwhelmed with ecstasy. Offering various obeisances and prayers, He chanted and danced.
CC Madhya 9.236: All the people there were greatly astonished to see the ecstatic pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. They all received the Lord very well.
CC Madhya 9.237: In the temple of Adi-kesava, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu discussed spiritual matters among highly advanced devotees. While there, He found a chapter of the Brahma-samhita.
CC Madhya 9.238: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was greatly happy to find a chapter of that scripture, and symptoms of ecstatic transformation -- trembling, tears, perspiration, trance and jubilation -- were manifest in His body.
CC Madhya 9.239-240: There is no scripture equal to the Brahma-samhita as far as the final spiritual conclusion is concerned. Indeed, that scripture is the supreme revelation of the glories of Lord Govinda, for it reveals the topmost knowledge about Him. Since all conclusions are briefly presented in the Brahma-samhita, it is essential among all the Vaishnava literatures.
CC Madhya 9.241: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu copied the Brahma-samhita, and then with great pleasure He went to a place known as Ananta Padmanabha.
CC Madhya 9.242: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu remained for two or three days at Ananta Padmanabha and visited the temple there. Then, in great ecstasy He went to see the temple of Sri Janardana.
CC Madhya 9.243: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu chanted and danced at Sri Janardana for two days. He then went to the bank of the Payasvini River and visited the temple of Sankara-narayana.
CC Madhya 9.244: Then He saw the monastery known as Sringeri-matha, the abode of Acarya Sankara. He then visited Matsya-tirtha, a place of pilgrimage, and took a bath in the river Tungabhadra.
CC Madhya 9.245: Caitanya Mahaprabhu next arrived at Udupi, the place of Madhvacarya, where the philosophers known as Tattvavadis resided. There He saw the Deity of Lord Krishna and became mad with ecstasy.
CC Madhya 9.246: While at the Udupi monastery, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu saw "dancing Gopala," a most beautiful Deity. This Deity appeared to Madhvacarya in a dream.
CC Madhya 9.247: Madhvacarya had somehow or other acquired the Deity of Krishna from a heap of gopi-candana that had been transported in a boat.
CC Madhya 9.248: Madhvacarya brought this dancing Gopala Deity to Udupi and installed Him in the temple. To date, the followers of Madhvacarya, known as Tattvavadis, worship this Deity.
CC Madhya 9.249: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu received great pleasure in seeing this beautiful form of Gopala. For a long time He danced and chanted in ecstatic love.
CC Madhya 9.250: When the Tattvavadi Vaishnavas first saw Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, they considered Him a Mayavadi sannyasi. Therefore they did not talk to Him.
CC Madhya 9.251: Later, after seeing Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in ecstatic love, they were struck with wonder. Then, considering Him a Vaishnava, they gave Him a nice reception.
CC Madhya 9.252: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu could understand that the Tattvavadis were very proud of their Vaishnavism. He therefore smiled and began to speak to them.
CC Madhya 9.253: Considering them very proud, Caitanya Mahaprabhu began His discussion.
CC Madhya 9.254: The chief acarya of the Tattvavada community was very learned in the revealed scriptures. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu humbly questioned him.
CC Madhya 9.255: Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, "I do not know very well the aim of life and how to achieve it. Please tell Me of the best ideal for humanity and how to attain it."
CC Madhya 9.256: The acarya replied, "When the activities of the four castes and the four asramas are dedicated to Krishna, they constitute the best means whereby one can attain the highest goal of life.
CC Madhya 9.257: "When one dedicates the duties of varnasrama-dharma to Krishna, he is eligible for five kinds of liberation. Thus he is transferred to the spiritual world in Vaikuntha. This is the highest goal of life and the verdict of all revealed scriptures."
CC Madhya 9.258: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, "According to the verdict of the sastras, the process of hearing and chanting is the best means to attain loving service to Krishna.
CC Madhya 9.259-260: "'This process entails hearing, chanting and remembering the holy name, form, pastimes, qualities and entourage of the Lord, offering service according to the time, place and performer, worshiping the Deity, offering prayers, always considering oneself the eternal servant of Krishna, making friends with Him and dedicating everything unto Him. These nine items of devotional service, when directly offered to Krishna, constitute the highest attainment of life. This is the verdict of the revealed scriptures.'
CC Madhya 9.261: "When one comes to the platform of loving service to Lord Krishna by executing these nine processes, beginning with hearing and chanting, he has attained the fifth platform of success and the limit of life's goals.
CC Madhya 9.262: "'When a person is actually advanced and takes pleasure in chanting the holy name of the Lord, who is very dear to him, he is agitated and loudly chants the holy name. He also laughs, cries, becomes agitated and chants just like a madman, not caring for outsiders.'
CC Madhya 9.263: "In every revealed scripture there is condemnation of fruitive activities. It is advised everywhere to give up engagement in fruitive activities, for no one can attain the highest goal of life, love of Godhead, by executing them.
CC Madhya 9.264: "'Occupational duties are described in the religious scriptures. If one analyzes them, he can fully understand their qualities and faults and then give them up completely to render service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A person who does so is considered a first-class man.'
CC Madhya 9.265: "'Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear. [Bg. 18.66]'
CC Madhya 9.266: "'As long as one is not satiated by fruitive activity and has not awakened his taste for devotional service by sravanam kirtanam vishnoh [SB 7.5.23], one has to act according to the regulative principles of the Vedic injunctions.'
CC Madhya 9.267: "Pure devotees reject the five kinds of liberation; indeed, for them liberation is very insignificant because they see it as hellish.
CC Madhya 9.268: "'Pure devotees always reject the five kinds of liberation, which include living in the spiritual Vaikuntha planets, possessing the same opulences as those possessed by the Supreme Lord, having the same bodily features as the Lord's, associating with the Lord and merging into the body of the Lord. The pure devotees do not accept these benedictions without the service of the Lord.'
CC Madhya 9.269: "'It is very difficult to give up material opulence, land, children, society, friends, riches, wife or the blessings of the goddess of fortune, which are desired even by great demigods. But King Bharata did not desire such things, and this was quite befitting his position, because for a pure devotee whose mind is always engaged in the service of the Lord, even liberation, or merging into the existence of the Lord, is insignificant. And what to speak of material opportunities?'
CC Madhya 9.270: "'A person who is a devotee of Lord Narayana is not afraid of a hellish condition, because he considers it the same as elevation to the heavenly planets or liberation. The devotees of Lord Narayana are accustomed to seeing all these things on the same level.'
CC Madhya 9.271: "Both liberation and fruitive activity are rejected by devotees. You are trying to establish these things as life's goal and the process for attaining it."
CC Madhya 9.272: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu continued speaking to the Tattvavadi acarya: "Seeing that I am a mendicant in the renounced order of life, you have been playing with Me in a duplicitous way. You have not actually described the process and ultimate objective."
CC Madhya 9.273: After hearing Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the acarya of the Tattvavada sampradaya became very much ashamed. Upon observing Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's rigid faith in Vaishnavism, he was struck with wonder.
CC Madhya 9.274: The Tattvavadi acarya replied, "What You have said is certainly factual. It is the conclusion of all the revealed scriptures of the Vaishnavas.
CC Madhya 9.275: "Still, whatever Madhvacarya has established as the formula for our party we practice as a party policy."
CC Madhya 9.276: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, "Both the fruitive worker and the speculative philosopher are considered nondevotees. We see both elements present in your sampradaya.
CC Madhya 9.277: "The only qualification that I see in your sampradaya is that you accept the form of the Lord as truth."
CC Madhya 9.278: Thus Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu broke the pride of the Tattvavadis to pieces. He then went to the holy place known as Phalgu-tirtha.
CC Madhya 9.279: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the son of mother Saci, next went to Tritakupa, and after seeing the Visala Deity there, He went to the holy place known as Pancapsara-tirtha.
CC Madhya 9.280: After seeing Pancapsara, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu went to Gokarna. While there, He visited the temple of Lord Siva, and then He went to Dvaipayani. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the crown jewel of all sannyasis, then went to Surparaka-tirtha.
CC Madhya 9.281: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then visited the town of Kolapura, where He saw the goddess of fortune in the temple of Kshira-bhagavati and saw Langa-ganesa in another temple, known as Cora-parvati.
CC Madhya 9.282: From there Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu went to Pandarapura, where He happily saw the temple of Viththala Thakura.
CC Madhya 9.283: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu chanted and danced in various ways as usual. A brahmana, seeing Him in ecstatic love, was very pleased and invited the Lord to his home for lunch.
CC Madhya 9.284: The brahmana offered Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu food with great respect and love. After finishing His lunch, the Lord received auspicious news.
CC Madhya 9.285: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu received word that Sri Ranga Puri, one of the disciples of Sri Madhavendra Puri, was present in that village at the home of a brahmana.
CC Madhya 9.286: Hearing this news, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu immediately went to see Sri Ranga Puri at the brahmana's home. Upon entering, the Lord saw him sitting there.
CC Madhya 9.287: As soon as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu saw Sri Ranga Puri, He immediately offered him obeisances in ecstatic love, falling flat on the ground. The symptoms of transcendental transformation were visible -- namely, tears, jubilation, trembling and perspiration.
CC Madhya 9.288: Upon seeing Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in such an ecstatic mood, Sri Ranga Puri said, "Your Holiness, please get up.
CC Madhya 9.289: "Your Holiness is certainly related to Sri Madhavendra Puri, without whom there is no fragrance of ecstatic love."
CC Madhya 9.290: After saying this, Sri Ranga Puri lifted Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu up and embraced Him. As they embraced shoulder to shoulder, they both began to cry in ecstasy.
CC Madhya 9.291: After some moments, they came to their senses and became patient. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then informed Sri Ranga Puri about His relationship with Isvara Puri.
CC Madhya 9.292: They were both inundated by the wonderful ecstasy of love that was aroused in them. Finally they sat down and respectfully began to converse.
CC Madhya 9.293: In this way they discussed topics about Lord Krishna continually for five to seven days.
CC Madhya 9.294: Out of curiosity, Sri Ranga Puri asked Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu about His birthplace, and the Lord informed him that it was Navadvipa-dhama.
CC Madhya 9.295: Sri Ranga Puri had formerly gone to Navadvipa with Sri Madhavendra Puri, and he therefore remembered the incidents that had taken place there.
CC Madhya 9.296: As soon as Sri Ranga Puri recalled Navadvipa, he also recalled accompanying Sri Madhavendra Puri to the house of Jagannatha Misra, where Ranga Puri had taken lunch. He even remembered the taste of an unprecedented curry made of banana flowers.
CC Madhya 9.297: Sri Ranga Puri also remembered the wife of Jagannatha Misra. She was very devoted and chaste. As for her affection, she was exactly like the mother of the universe.
CC Madhya 9.298: He also remembered how Sri Jagannatha Misra's wife, Sacimata, was expert in cooking. He recalled that she was very affectionate toward the sannyasis and fed them exactly like her own sons.
CC Madhya 9.299: Sri Ranga Puri also remembered that one of her deserving sons had accepted the renounced order at a very young age. His name was Sankararanya.
CC Madhya 9.300: Sri Ranga Puri informed Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu that the sannyasi named Sankararanya had attained perfection in that holy place, Pandarapura.
CC Madhya 9.301: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, "In My previous asrama, Sankararanya was My brother and Jagannatha Misra was My father."
CC Madhya 9.302: After finishing his talks with Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Ranga Puri started for Dvaraka-dhama.
CC Madhya 9.303: After Sri Ranga Puri departed for Dvaraka, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu remained with the brahmana at Pandarapura for four more days. He took His bath in the Bhima River and visited the temple of Viththala.
CC Madhya 9.304: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu next went to the bank of the Krishna-venva River, where He visited many holy places and the temples of various gods.
CC Madhya 9.305: The brahmana community there was composed of pure devotees. They regularly studied a book entitled Krishna-karnamrita, which was composed by Bilvamangala Thakura.
CC Madhya 9.306: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was very pleased to hear the book Krishna-karnamrita, and with great eagerness He had it copied and took it with Him.
CC Madhya 9.307: There is no comparison to the Krishna-karnamrita within the three worlds. By studying this book, one is elevated to the knowledge of pure devotional service to Krishna.
CC Madhya 9.308: One who constantly reads the Krishna-karnamrita can fully understand the beauty and melodious taste of the pastimes of Lord Krishna.
CC Madhya 9.309: The Brahma-samhita and Krishna-karnamrita were two books that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu considered to be most valuable jewels. Therefore He took them with Him on His return trip.
CC Madhya 9.310: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu next arrived at the banks of the river Tapi. After bathing there, He went to Mahishmati-pura. While there, He saw many holy places on the banks of the river Narmada.
CC Madhya 9.311: The Lord next arrived at Dhanus-tirtha, where He took His bath in the river Nirvindhya. He then arrived at Rishyamuka Mountain and then went to Dandakaranya.
CC Madhya 9.312: Within the Dandakaranya forest Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then visited a place called Saptatala. The seven palm trees there were very old, very bulky and very high.
CC Madhya 9.313: Upon seeing the seven palm trees, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu embraced them. As a result, they all returned to Vaikunthaloka, the spiritual world.
CC Madhya 9.314: After the seven palm trees had departed for Vaikuntha, everyone was astonished to see that they were gone. The people then began to say, "This sannyasi called Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu must be an incarnation of Lord Ramacandra.
CC Madhya 9.315: "Only Lord Ramacandra has the power to send seven palm trees to the spiritual Vaikuntha planets."
CC Madhya 9.316: Eventually Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu arrived at a lake known as Pampa, where He took His bath. He then went to a place called Pancavati, where He rested.
CC Madhya 9.317: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then visited Nasika, where He saw the deity of Tryambaka [Lord Siva]. He then went to Brahma-giri and then to Kusavarta, the source of the river Godavari.
CC Madhya 9.318: After visiting many other holy places, the Lord went to Sapta-godavari. At last He returned to Vidyanagara.
CC Madhya 9.319: When Ramananda Raya heard of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's arrival, he was very pleased, and he immediately went to see Him.
CC Madhya 9.320: When Ramananda Raya fell flat, touching the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Lord immediately raised him to his feet and embraced him.
CC Madhya 9.321: In great ecstatic love they both began to cry, and thus their minds were slackened.
CC Madhya 9.322: After some time they regained their senses and sat together to discuss various subjects.
CC Madhya 9.323: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave Ramananda Raya a vivid description of His travels to the holy places and told him how He had acquired the two books named Krishna-karnamrita and Brahma-samhita. The Lord delivered the books to Ramananda Raya.
CC Madhya 9.324: The Lord said, "Whatever you have told Me about devotional service is all supported by these two books."
CC Madhya 9.325: Ramananda Raya was very happy to receive these books. He tasted their contents along with the Lord and made a copy of each.
CC Madhya 9.326: News spread in the village of Vidyanagara about the arrival of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and everyone came to see Him once again.
CC Madhya 9.327: After seeing the people who gathered there, Sri Ramananda Raya returned to his own home. At noon, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu got up to take His lunch.
CC Madhya 9.328: Sri Ramananda Raya returned at night, and he and the Lord discussed topics concerning Krishna. Thus they passed the night.
CC Madhya 9.329: Ramananda Raya and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu discussed Krishna day and night, and thus they passed from five to seven days in great happiness.
CC Madhya 9.330: Ramananda Raya said, "My dear Lord, with Your permission I have already written a letter to the King with great humility.
CC Madhya 9.331: "The King has already given me an order to return to Jagannatha Puri, and I am making arrangements to do this."
CC Madhya 9.332: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then said, "It is for this purpose alone that I have returned. I want to take you with Me to Jagannatha Puri."
CC Madhya 9.333: Ramananda Raya said, "My dear Lord, it is better that You proceed to Jagannatha Puri alone because with me there will be many horses, elephants and soldiers, all roaring tumultuously.
CC Madhya 9.334: "I shall make arrangements within ten days. Following You, I shall go to Nilacala without delay."
CC Madhya 9.335: Giving orders to Ramananda Raya to come to Nilacala, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu departed for Jagannatha Puri with great pleasure.
CC Madhya 9.336: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu returned by the same road He had formerly taken to Vidyanagara, and all the Vaishnavas along the way saw Him again.
CC Madhya 9.337: Wherever Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu went, the holy name of Sri Hari was vibrated. Seeing this, the Lord became very happy.
CC Madhya 9.338: When the Lord reached Alalanatha, He sent His assistant Krishnadasa ahead to call for Nityananda Prabhu and other personal associates.
CC Madhya 9.339: As soon as Nityananda Prabhu received news of the arrival of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He immediately got up and started out to see Him. Indeed, He was very impatient in His great ecstasy.
CC Madhya 9.340: Sri Nityananda Raya, Jagadananda, Damodara Pandita and Mukunda all became ecstatic in their happiness, and dancing along the way, they went to meet the Lord.
CC Madhya 9.341: Gopinatha Acarya also went in a very happy mood. They all went to meet the Lord, and they finally contacted Him on the way.
CC Madhya 9.342: The Lord was also filled with ecstatic love, and He embraced them all. Out of their love, they began to cry with pleasure.
CC Madhya 9.343: Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya also went to see the Lord with great pleasure, and he met Him on the beach by the sea.
CC Madhya 9.344: Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya fell down at the lotus feet of the Lord, and the Lord pulled him up and embraced him.
CC Madhya 9.345: Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya cried in great ecstatic love. Then the Lord, accompanied by them all, went to the temple of Jagannatha.
CC Madhya 9.346: Due to ecstatic love experienced upon visiting Lord Jagannatha, inundations of trembling, perspiration, tears and jubilation swept the body of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
CC Madhya 9.347: In ecstatic love Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu danced and chanted. At that time all the attendants and priests came to offer Him a garland and the remnants of Lord Jagannatha's food.
CC Madhya 9.348: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu became patient after receiving the garland and prasadam of Lord Jagannatha. All the servants of Lord Jagannatha met Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu with great pleasure.
CC Madhya 9.349: Afterward, Kasi Misra came and fell down at the lotus feet of the Lord, and the Lord respectfully embraced him.
CC Madhya 9.350: Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya then took the Lord with him to his home, saying, "Today's luncheon will be at my home." In this way he invited the Lord.
CC Madhya 9.351: Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya brought various types of food remnants that had been left by Lord Jagannatha. He brought all kinds of cakes and condensed-milk preparations.
CC Madhya 9.352: Accompanied by all His associates, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu went to Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya's house and took His noon lunch there.
CC Madhya 9.353: After offering food to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya made Him lie down to rest, and he personally began to massage the legs of the Lord.
CC Madhya 9.354: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then sent Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya to take his lunch, and the Lord remained that night in his home just to please him.
CC Madhya 9.355: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His personal associates remained with Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya. They all stayed awake the entire night as the Lord spoke of His pilgrimage.
CC Madhya 9.356: The Lord told Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, "I have traveled to many holy places, but I could not find a Vaishnava as good as you anywhere."
CC Madhya 9.357: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu continued, "I received much pleasure from the talks of Ramananda Raya."The Bhattacarya replied, "For this reason I requested that You meet him."
CC Madhya 9.358: Thus I have ended my narration about Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's pilgrimage, describing it in brief. It cannot be described very broadly.
CC Madhya 9.359: The pastimes of Lord Caitanya are unlimited. No one can properly describe His activities, yet I make the attempt out of greed. This but reveals my shamelessness.
CC Madhya 9.360: Whoever hears of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's pilgrimage to various holy places attains the riches of very deep ecstatic love.
CC Madhya 9.361: Please hear the transcendental pastimes of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu with faith and devotion. Giving up envy of the Lord, everyone chant the Lord's holy name, Hari.
CC Madhya 9.362: In this Age of Kali there are no genuine religious principles other than those established by Vaishnava devotees and the Vaishnava scriptures. This is the sum and substance of everything.
CC Madhya 9.363: The pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu are just like an unfathomable ocean. It is not possible for me to enter into it. Simply standing on the shore, I am but touching the water.
CC Madhya 9.364: The more one hears the pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu with faith, analytically studying them, the more one attains the ecstatic riches of love of Godhead.
CC Madhya 9.365: Praying at the lotus feet of Sri Rupa and Sri Raghunatha, always desiring their mercy, I, Krishnadasa, narrate Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, following in their footsteps.
Copyright (c) The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness | <urn:uuid:db4d810c-2e43-497a-8938-4c0f2d1dad07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vedabase.net/cc/madhya/9/en1 | 2013-05-25T13:10:17Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955258 | 17,905 |
PAYNE v. TENNESSEE
CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF TENNESSEE
Argued April 24, 1991
Decided June 27, 1991
Petitioner Payne was convicted by a Tennessee jury of the first-degree murders of Charisse Christopher and her 2-year-old daughter, and of first-degree assault upon, with intent to murder, Charisse's 3-year-old son Nicholas. The brutal crimes were committed in the victims' apartment after Charisse resisted Payne's sexual advances. During the sentencing phase of the trial, Payne called his parents, his girlfriend, and a clinical psychologist, each of whom testified as to various mitigating aspects of his background and character. The State called Nicholas' grandmother, who testified that the child missed his mother and baby sister. In arguing for the death penalty, the prosecutor commented on the continuing effects on Nicholas of his experience and on the effects of the crimes upon the victims' family. The jury sentenced Payne to death on each of the murder counts. The State Supreme Court affirmed, rejecting his contention that the admission of the grandmother's testimony and the State's closing argument violated his Eighth Amendment rights under Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496 , and South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805 , which held that evidence and argument relating to the victim and the impact of the victim's death on the victim's family are per se inadmissible at a capital sentencing hearing.
The Eighth Amendment erects no per se bar prohibiting a capital sentencing jury from considering "victim impact" evidence relating to the victim's personal characteristics and the emotional impact of the murder on the victim's family, or precluding a prosecutor from arguing such evidence at a capital sentencing hearing. To the extent that this Court held to the contrary in Booth and Gathers, those cases are overruled. Pp. 817-830.
REHNQUIST, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which WHITE, O'CONNOR, SCALIA, KENNEDY, and SOUTER, JJ., joined. O'CONNOR, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which WHITE and KENNEDY, JJ., joined, post, p. 830. SCALIA, J., filed a concurring opinion, in Part II of which O'CONNOR and KENNEDY, JJ., joined, post, p. 833. SOUTER, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which KENNEDY, J., joined, post, p. 835. MARSHALL, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BLACKMUN, J., joined, post, p. 844. STEVENS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BLACKMUN, J., joined, post, p. 856.
J. Brooke Lathram argued the cause and filed briefs for petitioner.
Charles W. Burson, Attorney General of Tennessee, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was Kathy M. Principe, Assistant Attorney General.
Attorney General Thornburgh argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae urging affirmance. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Starr, Assistant Attorney General Mueller, Deputy Solicitor General Bryson, and Stephen L. Nightingale. *
[ Footnote * ] Stephen B. Bright and J. L. Chestnut filed a brief for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as amicus curiae urging reversal.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation by Kent S. Scheidegger; for the Washington Legal Foundation et al. by Richard K. Willard, Daniel J. Popeo, Paul D. Kamenar, and Richard Samp; and for Congressman Thomas J. Bliley, Jr., et al. by Michael J. Lockerby and Frank G. Carrington.
Briefs of amici curiae were filed for the State of Alabama et al. by Daniel E. Lungren, Attorney General of California, George Williamson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Harley D. Mayfield, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Frederick R. Millar, Jr., Supervising Deputy Attorney General, and Louis R. Hanoian, Deputy Attorney General, James H. Evans, Attorney General of Alabama, Grant Woods, Attorney General of Arizona Gale A. Norton, Attorney General of Colorado, John J. Kelly, Chief State's Attorney of Connecticut, Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General [501 U.S. 808, 811] of Florida, Linley E. Pearson, Attorney General of Indiana, Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General of Kentucky, J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General of Maryland, Mike Moore, Attorney General of Mississippi, William L. Webster, Attorney General of Missouri, Marc Racicot, Attorney General of Montana, Don Stenberg, Attorney General of Nebraska, Frankie Sue Del Papa, Attorney General of Nevada, Robert J. Del Tufo, Attorney General of New Jersey, Lacy H. Thornburg, Attorney General of North Carolina, Lee Fisher, Attorney General of Ohio, Dave Frohnmayer, Attorney General of Oregon, Ernest D. Preate, Jr., Attorney General of Pennsylvania, T. Travis Medlock, Attorney General of South Carolina, Mark W. Barnett, Attorney General of South Dakota, and Kenneth O. Eikenberry, Attorney General of Washington; for the Appellate Committee of the California District Attorneys Association by Ira Reiner, Harry B. Sondheim, and Martha E. Bellinger; for the Justice for All Political Committee et al. by Mario Thomas Gaboury and Sally S. King; and for the National Organization for Victim Assistance et al. by Judith Rowland. [501 U.S. 808, 811]
CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST delivered the opinion of the Court.
In this case we reconsider our holdings in Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496 (1987), and South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805 (1989), that the Eighth Amendment bars the admission of victim impact evidence during the penalty phase of a capital trial.
Petitioner, Pervis Tyrone Payne, was convicted by a jury on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of assault with intent to commit murder in the first degree. He was sentenced to death for each of the murders and to 30 years in prison for the assault.
The victims of Payne's offenses were 28-year-old Charisse Christopher, her 2-year-old daughter Lacie, and her 3-year-old son Nicholas. The three lived together in an apartment in Millington, Tennessee, across the hall from Payne's girlfriend, Bobbie Thomas. On Saturday, June 27, 1987, Payne visited Thomas' apartment several times in expectation of her return from her mother's house in Arkansas, but found no one at home. On one visit, he left his overnight bag, [501 U.S. 808, 812] containing clothes and other items for his weekend stay, in the hallway outside Thomas' apartment. With the bag were three cans of malt liquor.
Payne passed the morning and early afternoon injecting cocaine and drinking beer. Later, he drove around the town with a friend in the friend's car, each of them taking turns reading a pornographic magazine. Sometime around 3 p.m., Payne returned to the apartment complex, entered the Christophers' apartment, and began making sexual advances towards Charisse. Charisse resisted and Payne became violent. A neighbor who resided in the apartment directly beneath the Christophers heard Charisse screaming, "`Get out, get out,' as if she were telling the children to leave." Brief for Respondent 3. The noise briefly subsided and then began, "`horribly loud.'" Ibid. The neighbor called the police after she heard a "blood curdling scream" from the Christophers' apartment. Ibid.
When the first police officer arrived at the scene, he immediately encountered Payne, who was leaving the apartment building, so covered with blood that he appeared to be "`sweating blood.'" The officer confronted Payne, who responded, "`I'm the complainant.'" Id., at 3-4. When the officer asked, "`What's going on up there?'" Payne struck the officer with the overnight bag, dropped his tennis shoes, and fled. 791 S.W.2d 10, 12 (Tenn. 1990).
Inside the apartment, the police encountered a horrifying scene. Blood covered the walls and floor throughout the unit. Charisse and her children were lying on the floor in the kitchen. Nicholas, despite several wounds inflicted by a butcher knife that completely penetrated through his body from front to back, was still breathing. Miraculously, he survived, but not until after undergoing seven hours of surgery and a transfusion of 1,700 cc's of blood - 400 to 500 cc's more than his estimated normal blood volume. Charisse and Lacie were dead. [501 U.S. 808, 813]
Charisse's body was found on the kitchen floor on her back, her legs fully extended. She had sustained 42 direct knife wounds and 42 defensive wounds on her arms and hands. The wounds were caused by 41 separate thrusts of a butcher knife. None of the 84 wounds inflicted by Payne were individually fatal; rather, the cause of death was most likely bleeding from all of the wounds.
Lacie's body was on the kitchen floor near her mother. She had suffered stab wounds to the chest, abdomen, back, and head. The murder weapon, a butcher knife, was found at her feet. Payne's baseball cap was snapped on her arm near her elbow. Three cans of malt liquor bearing Payne's fingerprints were found on a table near her body, and a fourth empty one was on the landing outside the apartment door.
Payne was apprehended later that day hiding in the attic of the home of a former girlfriend. As he descended the stairs of the attic, he stated to the arresting officers, "`Man, I ain't killed no woman.'" Id., at 13. According to one of the officers, Payne had "`a wild look about him. His pupils were contracted. He was foaming at the mouth, saliva. He appeared to be very nervous. He was breathing real rapid.'" Ibid. He had blood on his body and clothes and several scratches across his chest. It was later determined that the blood stains matched the victims' blood types. A search of his pockets revealed a packet containing cocaine residue, a hypodermic syringe wrapper, and a cap from a hypodermic syringe. His overnight bag, containing a bloody white shirt, was found in a nearby dumpster.
At trial, Payne took the stand and, despite the overwhelming and relatively uncontroverted evidence against him, testified that he had not harmed any of the Christophers. Rather, he asserted that another man had raced by him as he was walking up the stairs to the floor where the Christophers lived. He stated that he had gotten blood on himself when, after hearing moans from the Christophers' apartment, he [501 U.S. 808, 814] had tried to help the victims. According to his testimony, he panicked and fled when he heard police sirens and noticed the blood on his clothes. The jury returned guilty verdicts against Payne on all counts.
During the sentencing phase of the trial, Payne presented the testimony of four witnesses: his mother and father, Bobbie Thomas, and Dr. John T. Hutson, a clinical psychologist specializing in criminal court evaluation work. Bobbie Thomas testified that she met Payne at church, during a time when she was being abused by her husband. She stated that Payne was a very caring person, and that he devoted much time and attention to her three children, who were being affected by her marital difficulties. She said that the children had come to love him very much and would miss him, and that he "behaved just like a father that loved his kids." She asserted that he did not drink, nor did he use drugs, and that it was generally inconsistent with Payne's character to have committed these crimes.
Dr. Hutson testified that based on Payne's low score on an IQ test, Payne was "mentally handicapped." Hutson also said that Payne was neither psychotic nor schizophrenic, and that Payne was the most polite prisoner he had ever met. Payne's parents testified that their son had no prior criminal record and had never been arrested. They also stated that Payne had no history of alcohol or drug abuse, he worked with his father as a painter, he was good with children, and he was a good son.
The State presented the testimony of Charisse's mother, Mary Zvolanek. When asked how Nicholas had been affected by the murders of his mother and sister, she responded:
The Supreme Court of Tennessee affirmed the conviction and sentence. 791 S.W.2d 10 (1990). The court rejected Payne's contention that the admission of the grandmother's testimony and the State's closing argument constituted prejudicial violations of his rights under the Eighth Amendment as applied in Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496 (1987), and South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805 (1989). The court characterized the grandmother's testimony as "technically [501 U.S. 808, 817] irrelevant," but concluded that it "did not create a constitutionally unacceptable risk of an arbitrary imposition of the death penalty and was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt." 791 S.W.2d, at 18.
The court determined that the prosecutor's comments during closing argument were "relevant to [Payne's] personal responsibility and moral guilt." Id., at 19. The court explained that "[w]hen a person deliberately picks a butcher knife out of a kitchen drawer and proceeds to stab to death a twenty-eight-year-old mother, her two and one-half year old daughter and her three and one-half year old son, in the same room, the physical and mental condition of the boy he left for dead is surely relevant in determining his `blameworthiness.'" The court concluded that any violation of Payne's rights under Booth and Gathers "was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt." Ibid.
We granted certiorari, 498 U.S. 1080 (1991), to reconsider our holdings in Booth and Gathers that the Eighth Amendment prohibits a capital sentencing jury from considering "victim impact" evidence relating to the personal characteristics of the victim and the emotional impact of the crimes on the victim's family.
In Booth, the defendant robbed and murdered an elderly couple. As required by a state statute, a victim impact statement was prepared based on interviews with the victims' son, daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. The statement, which described the personal characteristics of the victims, the emotional impact of the crimes on the family, and set forth the family members' opinions and characterizations of the crimes and the defendant, was submitted to the jury at sentencing. The jury imposed the death penalty. The conviction and sentence were affirmed on appeal by the State's highest court.
This Court held by a 5-to-4 vote that the Eighth Amendment prohibits a jury from considering a victim impact statement at the sentencing phase of a capital trial. The Court [501 U.S. 808, 818] made clear that the admissibility of victim impact evidence was not to be determined on a case-by-case basis, but that such evidence was per se inadmissible in the sentencing phase of a capital case except to the extent that it "relate[d] directly to the circumstances of the crime." 482 U.S., at 507 , n. 10. In Gathers, decided two years later, the Court extended the rule announced in Booth to statements made by a prosecutor to the sentencing jury regarding the personal qualities of the victim.
The Booth Court began its analysis with the observation that the capital defendant must be treated as a "`uniquely individual human bein[g],'" 482 U.S., at 504 (quoting Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280, 304 (1976)), and therefore the Constitution requires the jury to make an individualized determination as to whether the defendant should be executed based on the "`character of the individual and the circumstances of the crime.'" 482 U.S., at 502 (quoting Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. 862, 879 (1983)). The Court concluded that while no prior decision of this Court had mandated that only the defendant's character and immediate characteristics of the crime may constitutionally be considered, other factors are irrelevant to the capital sentencing decision unless they have "some bearing on the defendant's `personal responsibility and moral guilt.'" 482 U.S., at 502 (quoting Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 801 (1982)). To the extent that victim impact evidence presents "factors about which the defendant was unaware, and that were irrelevant to the decision to kill," the Court concluded, it has nothing to do with the "blameworthiness of a particular defendant." 482 U.S., at 504 , 505. Evidence of the victim's character, the Court observed,"could well distract the sentencing jury from its constitutionally required task [of] determining whether the death penalty is appropriate in light of the background and record of the accused and the particular circumstances of the crime." The Court concluded that, except to the extent that victim impact evidence relates [501 U.S. 808, 819] "directly to the circumstances of the crime," id., at 507, and n. 10, the prosecution may not introduce such evidence at a capital sentencing hearing because "it creates an impermissible risk that the capital sentencing decision will be made in an arbitrary manner," id., at 505.
Booth and Gathers were based on two premises: that evidence relating to a particular victim or to the harm that a capital defendant causes a victim's family do not in general reflect on the defendant's "blameworthiness," and that only evidence relating to "blameworthiness" is relevant to the capital sentencing decision. However, the assessment of harm caused by the defendant as a result of the crime charged has understandably been an important concern of the criminal law, both in determining the elements of the offense and in determining the appropriate punishment. Thus, two equally blameworthy criminal defendants may be guilty of different offenses solely because their acts cause differing amounts of harm. "If a bank robber aims his gun at a guard, pulls the trigger, and kills his target, he may be put to death. If the gun unexpectedly misfires, he may not. His moral guilt in both cases is identical, but his responsibility in the former is greater." Booth, 482 U.S., at 519 (SCALIA, J., dissenting). The same is true with respect to two defendants, each of whom participates in a robbery, and each of whom acts with reckless disregard for human life; if the robbery in which the first defendant participated results in the death of a victim, he may be subjected to the death penalty, but if the robbery in which the second defendant participates does not result in the death of a victim, the death penalty may not be imposed. Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137, 148 (1987).
The principles which have guided criminal sentencing - as opposed to criminal liability - have varied with the times. The book of Exodus prescribes the Lex talionis, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Exodus 21: 22-23. In England and on the continent of Europe, as recently as the 18th century, crimes which would be regarded as quite minor today [501 U.S. 808, 820] were capital offenses. Writing in the 18th century, the Italian criminologist Cesare Beccaria advocated the idea that "the punishment should fit the crime." He said that "[w]e have seen that the true measure of crimes is the injury done to society." J. Farrer, Crimes and Punishments 199 (1880).
Gradually the list of crimes punishable by death diminished, and legislatures began grading the severity of crimes in accordance with the harm done by the criminal. The sentence for a given offense, rather than being precisely fixed by the legislature, was prescribed in terms of a minimum and a maximum, with the actual sentence to be decided by the judge. With the increasing importance of probation, as opposed to imprisonment, as a part of the penological process, some States such as California developed the "indeterminate sentence," where the time of incarceration was left almost entirely to the penological authorities rather than to the courts. But more recently the pendulum has swung back. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which went into effect in 1987, provided for very precise calibration of sentences, depending upon a number of factors. These factors relate both to the subjective guilt of the defendant and to the harm caused by his acts.
Wherever judges in recent years have had discretion to impose sentence, the consideration of the harm caused by the crime has been an important factor in the exercise of that discretion:
We have held that a State cannot preclude the sentence from considering "any relevant mitigating evidence" that the defendant proffers in support of a sentence less than death. Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 114 (1982). See also Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U.S. 1 (1986). Thus we have, as the Court observed in Booth, required that the capital defendant be treated as a "`uniquely individual human bein[g],'" 482 U.S., at 504 (quoting Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S., at 304 ). But it was never held or even suggested in any of our cases preceding Booth that the defendant, entitled as he was to individualized consideration, was to receive that consideration wholly apart from the crime which he had committed. The language quoted from Woodson in the Booth opinion was not intended to describe a class of evidence that could not be received, but a class of evidence which must be received. Any doubt on the matter is dispelled by comparing the language in Woodson with the language from Gregg v. Georgia, quoted above, which was handed down the same day as Woodson. This misreading of precedent in Booth has, we think, unfairly weighted the scales in a capital trial; while virtually no limits are placed on the relevant mitigating evidence a capital defendant may introduce concerning his own circumstances, the State is barred from either offering "a quick glimpse of the life" which a defendant "chose to extinguish," Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. 367, 397 (1988) (REHNQUIST, C.J., dissenting), or demonstrating the loss to the victim's family and to society which has resulted from the defendant's homicide. [501 U.S. 808, 823]
The Booth Court reasoned that victim impact evidence must be excluded because it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the defendant to rebut such evidence without shifting the focus of the sentencing hearing away from the defendant, thus creating a "`mini-trial' on the victim's character." Booth, supra, at 506-507. In many cases the evidence relating to the victim is already before the jury at least in part because of its relevance at the guilt phase of the trial. But even as to additional evidence admitted at the sentencing phase, the mere fact that for tactical reasons it might not be prudent for the defense to rebut victim impact evidence makes the case no different than others in which a party is faced with this sort of a dilemma. As we explained in rejecting the contention that expert testimony on future dangerousness should be excluded from capital trials, "the rules of evidence generally extant at the federal and state levels anticipate that relevant, unprivileged evidence should be admitted and its weight left to the factfinder, who would have the benefit of cross-examination and contrary evidence by the opposing party." Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U.S. 880, 898 (1983).
Payne echoes the concern voiced in Booth's case that the admission of victim impact evidence permits a jury to find that defendants whose victims were assets to their community are more deserving of punishment than those whose victims are perceived to be less worthy. Booth, supra, at 506, n. 8. As a general matter, however, victim impact evidence is not offered to encourage comparative judgments of this kind - for instance, that the killer of a hardworking, devoted parent deserves the death penalty, but that the murderer of a reprobate does not. It is designed to show instead each victim's "uniqueness as an individual human being," whatever the jury might think the loss to the community resulting from his death might be. The facts of Gathers are an excellent illustration of this: The evidence showed that the victim was an out of work, mentally handicapped individual, [501 U.S. 808, 824] perhaps not, in the eyes of most, a significant contributor to society, but nonetheless a murdered human being.
Under our constitutional system, the primary responsibility for defining crimes against state law, fixing punishments for the commission of these crimes, and establishing procedures for criminal trials rests with the States. The state laws respecting crimes, punishments, and criminal procedure are, of course, subject to the overriding provisions of the United States Constitution. Where the State imposes the death penalty for a particular crime, we have held that the Eighth Amendment imposes special limitations upon that process.
Within the constitutional limitations defined by our cases, the States enjoy their traditional latitude to prescribe the method by which those who commit murder shall be punished." Blystone v. Pennsylvania, 494 U.S. 299, 309 (1990). The States remain free, in capital cases, as well as others, to [501 U.S. 808, 825] devise new procedures and new remedies to meet felt needs. Victim impact evidence is simply another form or method of informing the sentencing authority about the specific harm caused by the crime in question, evidence of a general type long considered by sentencing authorities. We think the Booth Court was wrong in stating that this kind of evidence leads to the arbitrary imposition of the death penalty. In the majority of cases, and in this case, victim impact evidence serves entirely legitimate purposes. In the event that evidence is introduced that is so unduly prejudicial that it renders the trial fundamentally unfair, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides a mechanism for relief. See Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168, 179 -183 (1986). Courts have always taken into consideration the harm done by the defendant in imposing sentence, and the evidence adduced in this case was illustrative of the harm caused by Payne's double murder.
We are now of the view that a State may properly conclude that for the jury to assess meaningfully the defendant's moral culpability and blameworthiness, it should have before it at the sentencing phase evidence of the specific harm caused by the defendant. "[T]he State has a legitimate interest in counteracting the mitigating evidence which the defendant is entitled to put in, by reminding the sentencer that just as the murderer should be considered as an individual, so too the victim is an individual whose death represents a unique loss to society and in particular to his family." Booth, 482 U.S., at 517 (WHITE, J., dissenting) (citation omitted). By turning the victim into a "faceless stranger at the penalty phase of a capital trial," Gathers, 490 U.S., at 821 (O'CONNOR, J., dissenting), Booth deprives the State of the full moral force of its evidence and may prevent the jury from having before it all the information necessary to determine the proper punishment for a first-degree murder.
The present case is an example of the potential for such unfairness. The capital sentencing jury heard testimony from [501 U.S. 808, 826] Payne's girlfriend that they met at church; that he was affectionate, caring, and kind to her children; that he was not an abuser of drugs or alcohol; and that it was inconsistent with his character to have committed the murders. Payne's parents testified that he was a good son, and a clinical psychologist testified that Payne was an extremely polite prisoner and suffered from a low IQ. None of this testimony was related to the circumstances of Payne's brutal crimes. In contrast, the only evidence of the impact of Payne's offenses during the sentencing phase was Nicholas' grandmother's description - in response to a single question - that the child misses his mother and baby sister. Payne argues that the Eighth Amendment commands that the jury's death sentence must be set aside because the jury heard this testimony. But the testimony illustrated quite poignantly some of the harm that Payne's killing had caused; there is nothing unfair about allowing the jury to bear in mind that harm at the same time as it considers the mitigating evidence introduced by the defendant. The Supreme Court of Tennessee in this case obviously felt the unfairness of the rule pronounced by Booth when it said: "It is an affront to the civilized members of the human race to say that at sentencing in a capital case, a parade of witnesses may praise the background, character and good deeds of Defendant (as was done in this case), without limitation as to relevancy, but nothing may be said that bears upon the character of, or the harm imposed, upon the victims." 791 S.W.2d, at 19.
In Gathers, as indicated above, we extended the holding of Booth barring victim impact evidence to the prosecutor's argument to the jury. Human nature being what it is, capable lawyers trying cases to juries try to convey to the jurors that the people involved in the underlying events are, or were, living human beings, with something to be gained or lost from the jury's verdict. Under the aegis of the Eighth Amendment, we have given the broadest latitude to the defendant to introduce relevant mitigating evidence reflecting [501 U.S. 808, 827] on his individual personality, and the defendant's attorney may argue that evidence to the jury. Petitioner's attorney in this case did just that. For the reasons discussed above, we now reject the view - expressed in Gathers - that a State may not permit the prosecutor to similarly argue to the jury the human cost of the crime of which the defendant stands convicted. We reaffirm the view expressed by Justice Cardozo in Snyder v. Massachusetts, 291 U.S. 97, 122 (1934): "[J]ustice, though due to the accused, is due to the accuser also. The concept of fairness must not be strained till it is narrowed to a filament. We are to keep the balance true."
We thus hold that if the State chooses to permit the admission of victim impact evidence and prosecutorial argument on that subject, the Eighth Amendment erects no per se bar. A State may legitimately conclude that evidence about the victim and about the impact of the murder on the victim's family is relevant to the jury's decision as to whether or not the death penalty should be imposed. There is no reason to treat such evidence differently than other relevant evidence is treated.
Payne and his amicus argue that despite these numerous infirmities in the rule created by Booth and Gathers, we should adhere to the doctrine of stare decisis and stop short of overruling those cases. Stare decisis is the preferred course because it promotes the evenhanded, predictable, and consistent development of legal principles, fosters reliance on judicial decisions, and contributes to the actual and perceived integrity of the judicial process. See Vasquez v. Hillery, 474 U.S. 254, 265 -266 (1986). Adhering to precedent "is usually the wise policy, because in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than it be settled right." Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co., 285 U.S. 393, 406 (1932) (Brandeis, J., dissenting). Nevertheless, when governing decisions are unworkable or are badly reasoned, "this Court has never felt constrained to follow precedent." Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649, 665 (1944). [501 U.S. 808, 828] Stare decisis is not an inexorable command; rather, it "is a principle of policy and not a mechanical formula of adherence to the latest decision." Helvering v. Hallock, 309 U.S. 106, 119 (1940). This is particularly true in constitutional cases, because in such cases "correction through legislative action is practically impossible." Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co., supra, at 407 (Brandeis, J., dissenting). Considerations in favor of stare decisis are at their acme in cases involving property and contract rights, where reliance interests are involved, see Swift & Co. v. Wickham, 382 U.S. 111, 116 (1965); Oregon ex rel. State Land Bd. v. Corvallis Sand & Gravel Co., 429 U.S. 363 (1977); Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co., supra, at 405-411 (Brandeis, J., dissenting); United States v. Title Ins. & Trust Co., 265 U.S. 472 (1924); The Genesee Chief v. Fitzhugh, 12 HOW. 443, 458 (1852); the opposite is true in cases such as the present one involving procedural and evidentiary rules.
Applying these general principles, the Court has during the past 20 Terms overruled in whole or in part 33 of its previous constitutional decisions. 1 Booth and Gathers were [501 U.S. 808, 829] decided by the narrowest of margins, over spirited dissents challenging the basic underpinnings of those decisions. They have been questioned by Members of the Court in later [501 U.S. 808, 830] decisions and have defied consistent application by the lower courts. See Gathers, 490 U.S., at 813 (O'CONNOR, J., dissenting); Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S., at 395 -396 (REHNQUIST, C.J., dissenting). See also State v. Huertas, 51 Ohio St. 3d 22, 33, 553 N.E.2d 1058, 1070 (1990) ("The fact that the majority and two dissenters in this case all interpret the opinions and footnotes in Booth and Gathers differently demonstrates the uncertainty of the law in this area") (Moyer, C.J., concurring). Reconsidering these decisions now, we conclude, for the reasons heretofore stated, that they were wrongly decided and should be, and now are, overruled. 2 We accordingly affirm the judgment of the Supreme Court of Tennessee.
[ Footnote 2 ] Our holding today is limited to the holdings of Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496 (1987), and South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805 (1989), that evidence and argument relating to the victim and the impact of the victim's death on the victim's family are inadmissible at a capital sentencing hearing. Booth also held that the admission of a victim's family members' characterizations and opinions about the crime, the defendant, and the appropriate sentence violates the Eighth Amendment. No evidence of the latter sort was presented at the trial in this case.
JUSTICE O'CONNOR, with whom JUSTICE WHITE and JUSTICE KENNEDY join, concurring.
In my view, a State may legitimately determine that victim impact evidence is relevant to a capital sentencing proceeding. A State may decide that the jury, before determining whether a convicted murderer should receive the death penalty, should know the full extent of the harm caused by the crime, including its impact on the victim's family and community. A State may decide also that the jury should see "a quick glimpse of the life petitioner chose to extinguish," Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. 367, 397 (1988) [501 U.S. 808, 831] (REHNQUIST, C.J., dissenting), to remind the jury that the person whose life was taken was a unique human being.
Given that victim impact evidence is potentially relevant, nothing in the Eighth Amendment commands that States treat it differently than other kinds of relevant evidence. "The Eighth Amendment stands as a shield against those practices and punishments which are either inherently cruel or which so offend the moral consensus of this society as to be deemed `cruel and unusual.'" South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805, 821 (1989) (O'CONNOR, J., dissenting). Certainly there is no strong societal consensus that a jury may not take into account the loss suffered by a victim's family or that a murder victim must remain a faceless stranger at the penalty phase of a capital trial. Just the opposite is true. Most States have enacted legislation enabling judges and juries to consider victim impact evidence. Ante, at 821. The possibility that this evidence may in some cases be unduly inflammatory does not justify a prophylactic, constitutionally based rule that this evidence may never be admitted. Trial courts routinely exclude evidence that is unduly inflammatory; where inflammatory evidence is improperly admitted, appellate courts carefully review the record to determine whether the error was prejudicial.
We do not hold today that victim impact evidence must be admitted, or even that it should be admitted. We hold merely that if a State decides to permit consideration of this evidence, "the Eighth Amendment erects no per se bar." Ante, at 827. If, in a particular case, a witness' testimony or a prosecutor's remark so infects the sentencing proceeding as to render it fundamentally unfair, the defendant may seek appropriate relief under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
That line was not crossed in this case. The State called as a witness Mary Zvolanek, Nicholas' grandmother. Her testimony was brief. She explained that Nicholas cried for his mother and baby sister and could not understand why they [501 U.S. 808, 832] did not come home. I do not doubt that the jurors were moved by this testimony - who would not have been? But surely this brief statement did not inflame their passions more than did the facts of the crime: Charisse Christopher was stabbed 41 times with a butcher knife and bled to death; her 2-year-old daughter Lacie was killed by repeated thrusts of that same knife; and 3-year-old Nicholas, despite stab wounds that penetrated completely through his body from front to back, survived - only to witness the brutal murders of his mother and baby sister. In light of the jury's unavoidable familiarity with the facts of Payne's vicious attack, I cannot conclude that the additional information provided by Mary Zvolanek's testimony deprived petitioner of due process.
Nor did the prosecutor's comments about Charisse and Lacie in the closing argument violate the Constitution. The jury had earlier seen a videotape of the murder scene that included the slashed and bloody corpses of Charisse and Lacie. In arguing that Payne deserved the death penalty, the prosecutor sought to remind the jury that Charisse and Lacie were more than just lifeless bodies on a videotape, that they were unique human beings. The prosecutor remarked that Charisse would never again sing a lullaby to her son and that Lacie would never attend a high school prom. In my view, these statements were permissible. "Murder is the ultimate act of depersonalization." Brief for Justice For All Political Committee et al. as Amici Curiae 3. It transforms a living person with hopes, dreams, and fears into a corpse, thereby taking away all that is special and unique about the person. The Constitution does not preclude a State from deciding to give some of that back.
I agree with the Court that Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496 (1987), and Gathers, supra, were wrongly decided. The Eighth Amendment does not prohibit a State from choosing to admit evidence concerning a murder victim's personal characteristics or the impact of the crime on the victim's [501 U.S. 808, 833] family and community. Booth also addressed another kind of victim impact evidence - opinions of the victim's family about the crime, the defendant, and the appropriate sentence. As the Court notes in today's decision, we do not reach this issue as no evidence of this kind was introduced at petitioner's trial. Ante, at 830, n. 2. Nor do we express an opinion as to other aspects of the prosecutor's conduct. As to the victim impact evidence that was introduced, its admission did not violate the Constitution. Accordingly, I join the Court's opinion.
JUSTICE SCALIA, with whom JUSTICE O'CONNOR and JUSTICE KENNEDY join as to Part II, concurring.
Today, however, JUSTICE MARSHALL demands of us some "special justification" - beyond the mere conviction that the rule of Booth significantly harms our criminal justice system and is egregiously wrong - before we can be absolved of exercising "[p]ower, not reason." Post, at 844. I do not think that is fair. In fact, quite to the contrary, what would enshrine power as the governing principle of this Court is the notion that an important constitutional decision with plainly inadequate rational support must be left in place for the sole reason that it once attracted five votes.
It seems to me difficult for those who were in the majority in Booth to hold themselves forth as ardent apostles of stare decisis. That doctrine, to the extent it rests upon anything more than administrative convenience, is merely the application [501 U.S. 808, 835] to judicial precedents of a more general principle that the settled practices and expectations of a democratic society should generally not be disturbed by the courts. It is hard to have a genuine regard for stare decisis without honoring that more general principle as well. A decision of this Court which, while not overruling a prior holding, nonetheless announces a novel rule, contrary to long and unchallenged practice, and pronounces it to be the Law of the Land - such a decision, no less than an explicit overruling, should be approached with great caution. It was, I suggest, Booth, and not today's decision, that compromised the fundamental values underlying the doctrine of stare decises.
JUSTICE SOUTER, with whom JUSTICE KENNEDY joins, concurring.
I join the Court's opinion addressing two categories of facts excluded from consideration at capital sentencing proceedings by Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496 (1987), and South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805 (1989): information revealing the individuality of the victim and the impact of the crime on the victim's survivors. 1 As to these two categories, I believe Booth and Gathers were wrongly decided.
To my knowledge, our legal tradition has never included a general rule that evidence of a crime's effects on the victim and others is, standing alone, irrelevant to a sentencing determination of the defendant's culpability. Indeed, as the Court's opinion today, see ante, at 819-821, and dissents in Booth, supra, at 519-520 (opinion of SCALIA, J.) and Gathers, supra, at 817-820 (opinion of O'CONNOR, J.), make clear, criminal conduct has traditionally been categorized and penalized differently according to consequences not specifically [501 U.S. 808, 836] intended, but determined in part by conditions unknown to a defendant when he acted. The majority opinion in Booth, supra, at 502-503, nonetheless characterized the consideration in a capital sentencing proceeding of a victim's individuality and the consequences of his death on his survivors as "irrelevant" and productive of "arbitrary and capricious" results, insofar as that would allow the sentencing authority to take account of information not specifically contemplated by the defendant prior to his ultimate criminal decision. This condemnation comprehends two quite separate elements. As to one such element, the condemnation is merited but insufficient to justify the rule in Booth, and as to the other it is mistaken.
Evidence about the victim and survivors, and any jury argument predicated on it, can of course be so inflammatory as to risk a verdict impermissibly based on passion, not deliberation. Cf. Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U.S. 302, 319 -328 (1989) (capital sentence should be imposed as a "`reasoned moral response'") (quoting California v. Brown, 479 U.S. 538, 545 (1987) (O'CONNOR, J., concurring)); Gholson v. Estelle, 675 F.2d 734, 738 (CA5 1982) ("If a person is to be executed, it should be as a result of a decision based on reason and reliable evidence"). But this is just as true when the defendant knew of the specific facts as when he was ignorant of their details, and in each case there is a traditional guard against the inflammatory risk, in the trial judge's authority and responsibility to control the proceedings consistently with due process, on which ground defendants may object and, if necessary, appeal. See Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168, 178 -183 (1986) (due process standard of fundamental fairness governs argument of prosecutor at sentencing); United States v. Serhant, 740 F.2d 548, 551-552 (CA7 1984) (applying due process to purportedly "inflammatory" victim impact statements); see also Lesko v. Lehman, 925 F.2d 1527, 1545-1547 (CA3 1991); Coleman v. Saffle, 869 F.2d 1377, 1394-1396 (CA10 1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1090 [501 U.S. 808, 837] (1990); Rushing v. Butler, 868 F.2d 800, 806-807 (CA5 1989). With the command of due process before us, this Court and the other courts of the state and federal systems will perform the "duty to search for constitutional error with painstaking care," an obligation "never more exacting than it is in a capital case." Burger v. Kemp, 483 U.S. 776, 785 (1987).
Booth, supra, 2 nonetheless goes further and imposes a blanket prohibition on consideration of evidence of the victim's individuality and the consequential harm to survivors as irrelevant to the choice between imprisonment and execution, except when such evidence goes to the "circumstances of the crime," id., at 502, and probably then only when the facts in question were known to the defendant and relevant to his decision to kill, id., at 505. This prohibition rests on the belief that consideration of such details about the victim and survivors as may have been outside the defendant's knowledge is inconsistent with the sentencing jury's Eighth Amendment duty "in the unique circumstance of a capital sentencing hearing . . . to focus on the defendant as a `uniquely individual human bein[g].'" Id., at 504 (quoting Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280, 304 (1976) (plurality opinion of Stewart, Powell, and STEVENS, JJ.)). The assumption made is that the obligation to consider the defendant's uniqueness limits the data about a crime's impact, on which a defendant's moral guilt may be calculated, to the facts he specifically knew and presumably considered. His uniqueness, in other words, is defined by the specifics of his knowledge and the reasoning that is thought to follow from it.
To hold, however, that in setting the appropriate sentence a defendant must be considered in his uniqueness is not to require that only unique qualities be considered. While a defendant's anticipation of specific consequences to the victims of his intended act is relevant to sentencing, such detailed [501 U.S. 808, 838] foreknowledge does not exhaust the category of morally relevant fact. One such fact that is known to all murderers and relevant to the blameworthiness of each one was identified by the Booth majority itself when it barred the sentencing authority in capital cases from considering "the full range of foreseeable consequences of a defendant's actions." 482 U.S., at 504 . Murder has foreseeable consequences. When it happens, it is always to distinct individuals, and, after it happens, other victims are left behind. Every defendant knows, if endowed with the mental competence for criminal responsibility, that the life he will take by his homicidal behavior is that of a unique person, like himself, and that the person to be killed probably has close associates, "survivors," who will suffer harms and deprivations from the victim's death. Just as defendants know that they are not faceless human ciphers, they know that their victims are not valueless fungibles; and just as defendants appreciate the web of relationships and dependencies in which they live, they know that their victims are not human islands, but individuals with parents or children, spouses or friends or dependents. Thus, when a defendant chooses to kill, or to raise the risk of a victim's death, this choice necessarily relates to a whole human being and threatens an association of others, who may be distinctly hurt. The fact that the defendant may not know the details of a victim's life and characteristics, or the exact identities and needs of those who may survive, should not in any way obscure the further facts that death is always to a "unique" individual, and harm to some group of survivors is a consequence of a successful homicidal act so foreseeable as to be virtually inevitable.
That foreseeability of the killing's consequences imbues them with direct moral relevance, cf. Penry v. Lynaugh, supra, at 328 (death penalty should be "`reasoned moral response'"), and evidence of the specific harm caused when a homicidal risk is realized is nothing more than evidence of the risk that the defendant originally chose to run despite the [501 U.S. 808, 839] kinds of consequences that were obviously foreseeable. It is morally both defensible and appropriate to consider such evidence when penalizing a murderer, like other criminals, in light of common knowledge and the moral responsibility that such knowledge entails. Any failure to take account of a victim's individuality and the effects of his death upon close survivors would thus more appropriately be called an act of lenity than their consideration an invitation to arbitrary sentencing. Indeed, given a defendant's option to introduce relevant evidence in mitigation, see, e. g., Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 113 -114 (1982); Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 604 (1978), sentencing without such evidence of victim impact may be seen as a significantly imbalanced process. See Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. 367, 397 (1988) (REHNQUIST, C.J., dissenting).
I so view the relevance of the two categories of victim impact evidence at issue here, and I fully agree with the majority's conclusion, and the opinions expressed by the dissenters in Booth and Gathers, that nothing in the Eighth Amendment's condemnation of cruel and unusual punishment would require that evidence to be excluded. See ante, at 827 ("[I]f the State chooses to permit the admission of victim impact evidence and prosecutorial argument on that subject, the Eighth Amendment erects no per se bar"); Booth, supra, at 515-516 (WHITE, J., dissenting) (nothing "`cruel or unusual' or otherwise unconstitutional about the legislature's decision to use victim impact statements in capital sentencing hearings"); Gathers, 490 U.S., at 816 -821 (O'CONNOR, J., dissenting); id., at 823-825 (SCALIA, J., dissenting).
I do not, however, rest my decision to overrule wholly on the constitutional error that I see in the cases in question. I must rely as well on my further view that Booth sets an unworkable standard of constitutional relevance that threatens, on its own terms, to produce such arbitrary consequences and uncertainty of application as virtually to guarantee a result far diminished from the case's promise of appropriately [501 U.S. 808, 840] individualized sentencing for capital defendants. 482 U.S., at 502 . These conclusions will be seen to result from the interaction of three facts. First, although Booth was prompted by the introduction of a systematically prepared "victim impact statement" at the sentencing phase of the trial, Booth's restriction of relevant facts to what the defendant knew and considered in deciding to kill applies to any evidence, however derived or presented. Second, details of which the defendant was unaware, about the victim and survivors, will customarily be disclosed by the evidence introduced at the guilt phase of the trial. Third, the jury that determines guilt will usually determine, or make recommendations about, the imposition of capital punishment.
A hypothetical case will illustrate these facts and raise what I view as the serious practical problems with application of the Booth standard. Assume that a minister, unidentified as such and wearing no clerical collar, walks down a street to his church office on a brief errand, while his wife and adolescent daughter wait for him in a parked car. He is robbed and killed by a stranger, and his survivors witness his death. What are the circumstances of the crime that can be considered at the sentencing phase under Booth? The defendant did not know his victim was a minister, or that he had a wife and child, let alone that they were watching. Under Booth, these facts were irrelevant to his decision to kill, and they should be barred from consideration at sentencing. Yet evidence of them will surely be admitted at the guilt phase of the trial. The widow will testify to what she saw, and, in so doing, she will not be asked to pretend that she was a mere bystander. She could not succeed at that if she tried. The daughter may well testify too. The jury will not be kept from knowing that the victim was a minister, with a wife and child, on an errand to his church. This is so not only because the widow will not try to deceive the jury about her relationship, but also because the usual standards of trial relevance afford factfinders enough information about [501 U.S. 808, 841] surrounding circumstances to let them make sense of the narrowly material facts of the crime itself. No one claims that jurors in a capital case should be deprived of such common contextual evidence, even though the defendant knew nothing about the errand, the victim's occupation, or his family. And yet, if these facts are not kept from the jury at the guilt stage, they will be in the jurors' minds at the sentencing stage.
Booth thus raises a dilemma with very practical consequences. If we were to require the rules of guilt-phase evidence to be changed to guarantee the full effect of Booth's promise to exclude consideration of specific facts unknown to the defendant and thus supposedly without significance in morally evaluating his decision to kill, we would seriously reduce the comprehensibility of most trials by depriving jurors of those details of context that allow them to understand what is being described. If, on the other hand, we are to leave the rules of trial evidence alone, Booth's objective will not be attained without requiring a separate sentencing jury to be empaneled. This would be a major imposition on the States, however, and I suppose that no one would seriously consider adding such a further requirement.
But, even if Booth were extended one way or the other to exclude completely from the sentencing proceeding all facts about the crime's victims not known by the defendant, the case would be vulnerable to the further charge that it would lead to arbitrary sentencing results. In the preceding hypothetical, Booth would require that all evidence about the victim's family, including its very existence, be excluded from sentencing consideration because the defendant did not know of it when he killed the victim. Yet, if the victim's daughter had screamed "Daddy, look out," as the defendant approached the victim with drawn gun, then the evidence of at least the daughter's survivorship would be admissible even under a strict reading of Booth, because the defendant, prior to killing, had been made aware of the daughter's existence, [501 U.S. 808, 842] which therefore became relevant in evaluating the defendant's decision to kill. Resting a decision about the admission of impact evidence on such a fortuity is arbitrary.
Thus, the status quo is unsatisfactory, and the question is whether the case that has produced it should be overruled. In this instance, as in any other, overruling a precedent of this Court is a matter of no small import, for "the doctrine of stare decisis is of fundamental importance to the rule of law." Welch v. Texas Dept. of Highways and Public Transportation, 483 U.S. 468, 494 (1987). To be sure, stare decisis is not an "inexorable command," Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co., 285 U.S. 393, 405 (1932) (Brandeis, J., dissenting); and our "considered practice [has] not [been] to apply stare decisis as rigidly in constitutional [cases] as in nonconstitutional cases," Glidden Co. v. Zdanok, 370 U.S. 530, 543 (1962). See Burnet, supra, at 405-407; Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 491 U.S. 164, 172 -173 (1989). But, even in constitutional cases, the doctrine carries such persuasive force that we have always required a departure from precedent to be supported by some "special justification." Arizona v. Rumsey, 467 U.S. 203, 212 (1984).
The Court has a special justification in this case. Booth promises more than it can deliver, given the unresolved tension between common evidentiary standards at the guilt phase and Booth's promise of a sentencing determination free from the consideration of facts unknown to the defendant and irrelevant to his decision to kill. An extension of the case to guarantee a sentencing authority free from the influence of information extraneous under Booth would be either an unworkable or a costly extension of an erroneous principle and would itself create a risk of arbitrary results. There is only one other course open to us. We can recede from the erroneous holding that created the tension and extended the false promise, and there is precedent in our stare decisis jurisprudence for doing just this. In prior cases, when this Court has confronted a wrongly decided, unworkable [501 U.S. 808, 843] precedent calling for some further action by the Court, we have chosen not to compound the original error, but to overrule the precedent. See Swift & Co. v. Wickham, 382 U.S. 111 (1965); 3 Continental T.V., Inc. v. GTE Sylvania Inc., 433 U.S. 36 (1977); 4 see also Patterson v. McLean Credit [501 U.S. 808, 844] Union, supra, at 173. Following this course here has itself the support not only of precedent but of practical sense as well. Therefore, I join the Court in its partial overruling of Booth and Gathers.
[ Footnote 1 ] This case presents no challenge to the Court's holding in Booth v. Maryland that a sentencing authority should not receive a third category of information concerning a victim's family members' characterization of and opinions about the crime, the defendant, and the appropriate sentence See ante, at 830, n. 2.
[ Footnote 2 ] Because this discussion goes only to the underlying substantive rule in question, for brevity I will confine most references to Booth alone.
[ Footnote 3 ] In Swift & Co. v. Wickham, the Court overruled Kesler v. Department of Public Safety of Utah, 369 U.S. 153 (1962). The issue presented in both Swift and Kesler concerned the application of the three-judge district court statute, 28 U.S.C. 2281 (1970 ed.), in cases of alleged state statutory pre-emption by federal law. The Court had held in Kesler that " 2281 comes into play only when the Supremacy Clause of the Federal Constitution is immediately drawn in question, but not when issues of federal or state statutory construction must first be decided even though the Supremacy Clause may ultimately be implicated." 382 U.S., at 115 .
Three years later in Swift & Co. v. Wickham, a majority of the Court disagreed with the Kesler analysis of the question, finding it inconsistent with the statute and earlier precedents of this Court. 382 U.S., at 122 ("The upshot of these decisions seems abundantly clear: Supremacy Clause cases are not within the purview of 2281"). The Court concluded that there were
[ Footnote 4 ] In Continental T.V., Inc. v. GTE Sylvania Inc., the Court overruled United States v. Arnold, Schwinn & Co., 388 U.S. 365 (1967), which had held that "[u]nder the Sherman Act, it is [per se] unreasonable . . . for a manufacturer to seek to restrict and confine areas or persons with whom an article may be traded after the manufacturer has parted with dominion over it." Id., at 379. The decision distinguished between restrictions on retailers based on whether the underlying transaction was a sale, in which case the Court applied a per se ban, or not a sale, in which case the arrangement would be subject to a "rule of reason" analysis. In Continental T.V., Inc., the Court reconsidered this per se rule in light of our traditional reliance on a "rule of reason" analysis for 1 claims under the Sherman Act and the "continuing controversy and confusion, both in the [501 U.S. 808, 844] scholarly journals and in the federal courts" caused by the sale/nonsale distinction drawn by the Court in Shwinn. 433 U.S., at 47 -56. The Court proceeded to reexamination and concluded "that the distinction drawn in Schwinn between sale and nonsale transactions is not sufficient to justify the application of a per se rule in one situation and a rule of reason in the other. The question remains whether the per se rule stated in Schwinn should be expanded to include nonsale transactions or abandoned in favor of a return to the rule of reason." Id., at 57. The Court found "no persuasive support for expanding the per se rule," and Schwinn was overruled. 433 U.S., at 57 .
JUSTICE MARSHALL, with whom JUSTICE BLACKMUN joins, dissenting.
Power, not reason, is the new currency of this Court's decisionmaking. Four Terms ago, a five-Justice majority of this Court held that "victim impact" evidence of the type at issue in this case could not constitutionally be introduced during the penalty phase of a capital trial. Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496 (1987). By another 5-4 vote, a majority of this Court rebuffed an attack upon this ruling just two Terms ago. South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805 (1989). Nevertheless, having expressly invited respondent to renew the attack, 498 U.S. 1076 (1991), today's majority overrules Booth and Gathers and credits the dissenting views expressed in those cases. Neither the law nor the facts supporting Booth and Gathers underwent any change in the last four years. Only the personnel of this Court did.
In dispatching Booth and Gathers to their graves, today's majority ominously suggests that an even more extensive upheaval of this Court's precedents may be in store. Renouncing this Court's historical commitment to a conception of "the judiciary as a source of impersonal and reasoned judgments," Moragne v. States Marine Lines, 398 U.S. 375, 403 (1970), [501 U.S. 808, 845] the majority declares itself free to discard any principle of constitutional liberty which was recognized or reaffirmed over the dissenting votes of four Justices and with which five or more Justices now disagree. The implications of this radical new exception to the doctrine of stare decisis are staggering. The majority today sends a clear signal that scores of established constitutional liberties are now ripe for reconsideration, thereby inviting the very type of open defiance of our precedents that the majority rewards in this case. Because I believe that this Court owes more to its constitutional precedents in general and to Booth and Gathers in particular, I dissent.
There is nothing new in the majority's discussion of the supposed deficiencies in Booth and Gathers. Every one of the arguments made by the majority can be found in the dissenting opinions filed in those two cases, and, as I show in the margin, each argument was convincingly answered by Justice Powell and Justice Brennan. 1 [501 U.S. 808, 847]
But contrary to the impression that one might receive from reading the majority's lengthy rehearsing of the issues addressed in Booth and Gathers, the outcome of this case does [501 U.S. 808, 848] not turn simply on who - the Booth and Gathers majorities or the Booth and Gathers dissenters - had the better of the argument. Justice Powell and Justice Brennan's position carried the day in those cases and became the law of the land. The real question, then, is whether today's majority has come forward with the type of extraordinary showing that this Court has historically demanded before overruling one of its precedents. In my view, the majority clearly has not made any such showing. Indeed, the striking feature of the majority's opinion is its radical assertion that it need not even try.
Consequently, this Court has never departed from precedent without "special justification." Arizona v. Rumsey, 467 U.S. 203, 212 (1984). Such justifications include the advent of "subsequent changes or development in the law" that undermine a decision's rationale, Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, supra, at 173; the need "to bring [a decision] into agreement with experience and with facts newly ascertained," Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co., supra, at 412 (Brandeis, J., dissenting); and a showing that a particular precedent has become a "detriment to coherence and consistency in the law," Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, supra, at 173.
The majority cannot seriously claim that any of these traditional bases for overruling a precedent applies to Booth or Gathers. The majority does not suggest that the legal rationale of these decisions has been undercut by changes or developments in doctrine during the last two years. Nor does the majority claim that experience over that period of time has discredited the principle that "any decision to impose the death sentence be, and appear to be, based on reason rather than caprice or emotion," Gardner v. Florida, 430 U.S. 349, 358 (1977) (plurality opinion), the larger postulate of political morality on which Booth and Gathers rest.
The majority does assert that Booth and Gathers "have defied consistent application by the lower courts," ante, at 830, [501 U.S. 808, 850] but the evidence that the majority proffers is so feeble that the majority cannot sincerely expect anyone to believe this claim. To support its contention, the majority points to JUSTICE O'CONNOR'S dissent in Gathers, which noted a division among lower courts over whether Booth prohibited prosecutorial arguments relating to the victim's personal characteristics. See 490 U.S., at 813 . That, of course, was the issue expressly considered and resolved in Gathers. The majority also cites THE CHIEF JUSTICE'S dissent in Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. 367, 395 -398 (1988). That opinion does not contain a single word about any supposed "[in]consistent application" of Booth in the lower courts. Finally, the majority refers to a divided Ohio Supreme Court decision disposing of an issue concerning victim-impact evidence. See State v. Huertas, 51 Ohio St. 3d 22, 553 N.E.2d 1058 (1990), cert. dism'd as improvidently granted, 498 U.S. 336 (1991). Obviously, if a division among the members of a single lower court in a single case were sufficient to demonstrate that a particular precedent was a "detriment to coherence and consistency in the law," Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, supra, at 173, there would hardly be a decision in United States Reports that we would not be obliged to reconsider.
It takes little real detective work to discern just what has changed since this Court decided Booth and Gathers: this Court's own personnel. Indeed, the majority candidly explains why this particular contingency, which until now has been almost universally understood not to be sufficient to warrant overruling a precedent, see, e. g., Florida Dept. of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Florida Nursing Home Assn., 450 U.S. 147, 153 (1981) (STEVENS, J., concurring); Mitchell v. W. T. Grant Co., 416 U.S. 600, 636 (1974) (Stewart, J., dissenting); Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 677 (1961) (Harlan, J., dissenting); but see South Carolina v. Gathers, supra, at 824 (SCALIA, J., dissenting), is sufficient to justify overruling Booth and Gathers. "Considerations in favor of stare decisis are at their acme," the majority explains, "in [501 U.S. 808, 851] cases involving property and contract rights, where reliance interests are involved[;] the opposite is true in cases such as the present one involving procedural and evidentiary rules." Ante, at 828 (citations omitted). In addition, the majority points out, "Booth and Gathers were decided by the narrowest of margins, over spirited dissents" and thereafter were "questioned by Members of the Court." Ante, at 828-829. Taken together, these considerations make it legitimate, in the majority's view, to elevate the position of the Booth and Gathers dissenters into the law of the land.
This truncation of the Court's duty to stand by its own precedents is astonishing. By limiting full protection of the doctrine of stare decisis to "cases involving property and contract rights," ante, at 828, the majority sends a clear signal that essentially all decisions implementing the personal liberties protected by the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment are open to reexamination. Taking into account the majority's additional criterion for overruling - that a case either was decided or reaffirmed by a 5-4 margin "over spirited dissen[t]," ante, at 829 - the continued vitality of literally scores of decisions must be understood to depend on nothing more than the proclivities of the individuals who now comprise a majority of this Court. See, e. g., Metro Broadcasting v. FCC, 497 U.S. 547 (1990) (authority of Federal government to set aside broadcast licenses for minority applicants); Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508 (1990) (right under Double Jeopardy Clause not to be subjected twice to prosecution for same criminal conduct); Mills v. Maryland, supra (Eighth Amendment right to jury instructions that do not preclude consideration of nonunanimous mitigating factors in capital sentencing); United States v. Paradise, 480 U.S. 149 (1987) (right to promotions as remedy for racial discrimination in government hiring); Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986) (Eighth Amendment right not to be executed if insane); Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 476 U.S. 747 (1986) (reaffirming [501 U.S. 808, 852] right to abortion recognized in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)); Aguilar v. Felton, 473 U.S. 402 (1985) (Establishment Clause bar on governmental financial assistance to parochial schools). 2
In my view, this impoverished conception of stare decisis cannot possibly be reconciled with the values that inform the proper judicial function. Contrary to what the majority suggests, stare decisis is important not merely because individuals rely on precedent to structure their commercial activity but because fidelity to precedent is part and parcel of a conception of "the judiciary as a source of impersonal and reasoned judgments." Moragne v. States Marine Lines, 398 U.S., at 403 . Indeed, this function of stare decisis is in many respects even more critical in adjudication involving constitutional liberties than in adjudication involving [501 U.S. 808, 853] commercial entitlements. Because enforcement of the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment frequently requires this Court to rein in the forces of democratic politics, this Court can legitimately lay claim to compliance with its directives only if the public understands the Court to be implementing "principles . . . founded in the law rather than in the proclivities of individuals." Vasquez v. Hillery, 474 U.S. 254, 265 (1986). 3 Thus, as JUSTICE STEVENS has explained, the "stron[g] presumption of validity" to which "recently decided cases" are entitled "is an essential thread in the mantle of protection that the law affords the individual. . . . It is the unpopular or beleaguered individual - not the man in power - who has the greatest stake in the integrity of the law." Florida Dept. of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Florida Nursing Home Assn., 450 U.S., at 153 -154 (concurring opinion).
Carried to its logical conclusion, the majority's debilitated conception of stare decisis would destroy the Court's very capacity to resolve authoritatively the abiding conflicts between those with power and those without. If this Court shows so little respect for its own precedents, it can hardly expect them to be treated more respectfully by the state actors whom these decisions are supposed to bind. See [501 U.S. 808, 854] Mitchell v. W. T. Grant Co., 416 U.S., at 634 (Stewart, J., dissenting). By signaling its willingness to give fresh consideration to any constitutional liberty recognized by a 5-4 vote "over spirited dissen[t]," ante, at 829, the majority invites state actors to renew the very policies deemed unconstitutional in the hope that this Court may now reverse course, even if it has only recently reaffirmed the constitutional liberty in question.
Indeed, the majority's disposition of this case nicely illustrates the rewards of such a strategy of defiance. The Tennessee Supreme Court did nothing in this case to disguise its contempt for this Court's decisions in Booth and Gathers. Summing up its reaction to those cases, it concluded:
Far from condemning this blatant disregard for the rule of law, the majority applauds it. In the Tennessee Supreme Court's denigration of Booth and Gathers as "`an affront to the civilized members of the human race,'" the majority finds only confirmation of "the unfairness of the rule pronounced by" the majorities in those cases. Ante, at 826. It is hard to imagine a more complete abdication of this Court's historic commitment to defending the supremacy of its own pronouncements on issues of constitutional liberty. See Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1 (1958); see also Hutto v. Davis, 454 U.S. 370, 375 (1982) (per curiam) ("[U]nless we wish anarchy to prevail within the federal judicial system, a precedent of this Court must be followed by the lower federal courts no matter how misguided the judges of those courts may think it to be"). In light of the cost that such abdication exacts on the authoritativeness of all of this Court's pronouncements, it is also hard to imagine a more short-sighted strategy for effecting change in our constitutional order. [501 U.S. 808, 856]
[ Footnote 1 ] The majority's primary argument is that punishment in criminal law is frequently based on an "assessment of [the] harm caused by the defendant as a result of the crime charged." Ante, at 819. See also Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496, 516 (1987) (WHITE, J., dissenting); id., at 519-520 (SCALIA, J., dissenting); South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805, 818 -819 (1989) (O'CONNOR, J., dissenting). Nothing in Booth or Gathers, however, conflicts with this unremarkable observation. These cases stand merely for the proposition that the State may not put on evidence of one particular species of harm - namely, that associated with the victim's personal characteristics independent of the circumstances of the offense - in the course of a capital murder proceeding. See Booth v. Maryland, supra, at 507, n. 10 (emphasizing that decision does not bar reliance on victim-impact evidence in capital sentencing so long as such evidence "relate[s] directly to the circumstances of the crime"); id., at 509, n. 12 (emphasizing that decision does not bar reliance on victim-impact evidence [501 U.S. 808, 847] in sentencing for noncapital crimes). It may be the case that such a rule departs from the latitude of sentencers in criminal law generally to "tak[e] into consideration the harm done by the defendant." Ante, at 825. But as the Booth Court pointed out, because this Court's capital-sentencing jurisprudence is founded on the premise that "death is a `punishment different from all other sanctions,'" it is completely unavailing to attempt to infer from sentencing considerations in noncapital settings the proper treatment of any particular sentencing issue in a capital case. 482 U.S., at 509 , n. 12, quoting Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280, 303 -304, 305 (1976) (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and STEVENS, JJ.).
The majority also discounts Justice Powell's concern with the inherently prejudicial quality of victim-impact evidence. "[T]he mere fact that for tactical reasons it might not be prudent for the defense to rebut victim impact evidence," the majority protests, "makes the case no different than others in which a party is faced with this sort of a dilemma." Ante, at 823. See also Booth v. Maryland, supra, at 518 (WHITE, J., dissenting). Unsurprisingly, this tautology is completely unresponsive to Justice Powell's argument. The Booth Court established a rule excluding introduction of victim-impact evidence not merely because it is difficult to rebut - a feature of victim-impact evidence that may be "no different" from that of many varieties of relevant, legitimate evidence - but because the effect of this evidence in the sentencing proceeding is unfairly prejudicial: "The prospect of a `mini-trial' on the victim's character is more than simply unappealing; it could well distract the sentencing jury from its constitutionally required task - determining whether the death penalty is appropriate in light of the background and record of the accused and the particular circumstances of the crime." 482 U.S., at 507 . The law is replete with per se prohibitions of types of evidence the probative effect of which is generally outweighed by its unfair prejudice. See, e. g., Fed. Rules Evid. 404, 407-412. There is nothing anomalous in the notion that the Eighth Amendment would similarly exclude evidence that has an undue capacity to undermine the regime of individualized sentencing that our capital jurisprudence demands.
Finally, the majority contends that the exclusion of victim-impact evidence "deprives the State of the full moral force of its evidence and may prevent the jury from having before it all the information necessary to determine the proper punishment for a first-degree murder." Ante, at 825. The majorities recycled contention, see Booth, supra, at 517 (WHITE, J., [501 U.S. 808, 848] dissenting); id., at 520 (SCALIA, J., dissenting); Gathers, supra, at 817-818 (O'CONNOR, J., dissenting), begs the question. Before it is possible to conclude that the exclusion of victim-impact evidence prevents the State from making its case or the jury from considering relevant evidence, it is necessary to determine whether victim-impact evidence is consistent with the substantive standards that define the scope of permissible sentencing determinations under the Eighth Amendment. The majority offers no persuasive answer to Justice Powell and Justice Brennan's conclusion that victim-impact evidence is frequently irrelevant to any permissible sentencing consideration and that such evidence risks exerting illegitimate "moral force" by directing the jury's attention on illicit considerations such as the victim's standing in the community.
[ Footnote 2 ] Based on the majority's new criteria for overruling, these decisions, too, must be included on the "endangered precedents" list: Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois, 497 U.S. 62 (1990) (First Amendment right not to be denied public employment on the basis of party affiliation); Peel v. Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Comm'n of Ill., 496 U.S. 91 (1990) (First Amendment right to advertise legal specialization); Zinermon v. Burch, 494 U.S. 113 (1990) (due process right to procedural safeguards aimed at assuring voluntariness of decision to commit oneself to mental hospital); James v. Illinois, 493 U.S. 307 (1990) (Fourth Amendment right to exclusion of illegally obtained evidence introduced for impeachment of defense witness); Rankin v. McPherson, 483 U.S. 378 (1987) (First Amendment right of public employee to express views on matter of public importance); Rock v. Arkansas, 483 U.S. 44 (1987) (Fifth Amendment and Sixth Amendment right of criminal defendant to provide hypnotically refreshed testimony on his own behalf); Gray v. Mississippi, 481 U.S. 648 (1987) (rejecting applicability of harmless error analysis to Eighth Amendment right not to be sentenced to death by "death qualified" jury); Maine v. Moulton, 474 U.S. 159 (1985) (Sixth Amendment right to counsel violated by introduction of statements made to government informant codefendant in course of preparing defense strategy); Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 469 U.S. 528 (1985) (rejecting theory that Tenth Amendment provides immunity to States from federal regulation); Pulliam v. Allen, 466 U.S. 522 (1984) (right to obtain injunctive relief from constitutional violations committed by judicial officials).
[ Footnote 3 ] It does not answer this concern to suggest that Justices owe fidelity to the text of the Constitution rather than to the case law of this Court interpreting the Constitution. See, e. g., South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S., at 825 (SCALIA, J., dissenting). The text of the Constitution is rarely so plain as to be self-executing; invariably, this Court must develop mediating principles and doctrines in order to bring the text of constitutional provisions to bear on particular facts. Thus, to rebut the charge of personal lawmaking, Justices who would discard the mediating principles embodied in precedent must do more than state that they are following the "text" of the Constitution; they must explain why they are entitled to substitute their mediating principles for those that are already settled in the law. And such an explanation will be sufficient to legitimize the departure from precedent only if it measures up to the extraordinary standard necessary to justify overruling one of this Court's precedents. See generally Note, 103 Harv. L. Rev. 1344, 1351-1354 (1990).
[ Footnote 4 ] Equally unsatisfactory is the Tennessee Supreme Court's purported finding that any error associated with the victim-impact evidence in this case was harmless. See 791 S.W.2d, at 19. This finding was based on the court's conclusion that "the death penalty was the only rational punishment available" in light of the "inhuman brutality" evident in the circumstances of the murder. Ibid. It is well established that a State cannot make the death penalty mandatory for any class of aggravated murder; no matter how "brutal" the circumstances of the offense, the State must permit the sentencer discretion to impose a sentence of less than death. See [501 U.S. 808, 855] Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 325 (1976); Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280 (1976). It follows that an appellate court cannot deem error to be automatically harmless based solely on the aggravated character of a murder without assessing the impact of the error on the sentencer's discretion. Cf. Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U.S. 738, 751 -752 (1990).
To sentence petitioner to death, the jury was required to find that the mitigating circumstances shown by petitioner did not outweigh the aggravating circumstances. See App. 21-22. In what it tried to pass off as harmless error analysis, the Tennessee Supreme Court failed to address how the victim-impact evidence introduced during the sentencing proceedings in this case likely affected the jury's determination that the balance of aggravating and mitigating circumstances dictated a death sentence. Outside of a videotape of the crime scene, the State introduced no additional substantive evidence in the penalty phase other than the testimony of Mary Zvolanek, mother and grandmother of the murder victims. See 791 S.W.2d, at 17. Under these circumstances, it is simply impossible to conclude that this victim-impact testimony, combined with the prosecutor's extrapolation from it in his closing argument, was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
JUSTICE STEVENS, with whom JUSTICE BLACKMUN joins, dissenting.
The novel rule that the Court announces today represents a dramatic departure from the principles that have governed our capital sentencing jurisprudence for decades. JUSTICE MARSHALL is properly concerned about the majority's trivialization of the doctrine of stare decisis. But even if Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496 (1987), and South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805 (1989), had not been decided, today's decision would represent a sharp break with past decisions. Our cases provide no support whatsoever for the majority's conclusion that the prosecutor may introduce evidence that sheds no light on the defendant's guilt or moral culpability, and thus serves no purpose other than to encourage jurors to decide in favor of death rather than life on the basis of their emotions rather than their reason.
Until today our capital punishment jurisprudence has required that any decision to impose the death penalty be based solely on evidence that tends to inform the jury about the character of the offense and the character of the defendant. evidence that serves no purpose other than to appeal to the [501 U.S. 808, 857] sympathies or emotions of the jurors has never been considered admissible. Thus, if a defendant, who had murdered a convenience store clerk in cold blood in the course of an armed robbery, offered evidence unknown to him at the time of the crime about the immoral character of his victim, all would recognize immediately that the evidence was irrelevant and inadmissible. Evenhanded justice requires that the same constraint be imposed on the advocate of the death penalty.
Almost 30 years after our decision in Williams, the Court reviewed the scope of evidence relevant in capital sentencing. See Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586 (1978). In his plurality opinion, Chief Justice Burger concluded that in a capital case, the sentencer must not be prevented "from considering, as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death." Id., at 604 (emphasis deleted). As in Williams, the character of the offense and the character of the offender constituted [501 U.S. 808, 858] the entire category of relevant evidence. "Victim impact" evidence was still unheard of when Lockett was decided.
As the Court acknowledges today, the use of victim impact evidence "is of recent origin," ante, at 821. Insofar as the Court's jurisprudence is concerned, this type of evidence made its first appearance in 1987 in Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496 . In his opinion for the Court, Justice Powell noted that our prior cases had stated that the question whether an individual defendant should be executed is to be determined on the basis of "`the character of the individual and the circumstances of the crime,'" id., at 502 (quoting Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. 862, 879 (1983)). See also Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 112 (1982). Relying on those cases and on Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 801 (1982), the Court concluded that unless evidence has some bearing on the defendant's personal responsibility and moral guilt, its admission would create a risk that a death sentence might be based on considerations that are constitutionally impermissible or totally irrelevant to the sentencing process. 482 U.S., at 502 . Evidence that served no purpose except to describe the personal characteristics of the victim and the emotional impact of the crime on the victim's family was therefore constitutionally irrelevant.
Our decision in Booth was entirely consistent with the practices that had been followed "both before and since the American colonies became a nation," Williams, 337 U.S., at 246 . Our holding was mandated by our capital punishment jurisprudence, which requires any decision to impose the death penalty to be based on reason rather than caprice or emotion. See Gardner v. Florida, 430 U.S. 349, 362 (1977) (opinion of STEVENS, J.). The dissenting opinions in Booth and in Gathers can be searched in vain for any judicial precedent sanctioning the use of evidence unrelated to the character of the offense or the character of the offender in the sentencing process. Today, however, relying on nothing more than those dissenting opinions, the Court abandons [501 U.S. 808, 859] rules of relevance that are older than the Nation itself and ventures into uncharted seas of irrelevance.
Even if introduction of evidence about the victim could be equated with introduction of evidence about the defendant, the argument would remain flawed in both its premise and its conclusion. The conclusion that exclusion of victim impact evidence results in a significantly imbalanced sentencing procedure is simply inaccurate. Just as the defendant is entitled to introduce any relevant mitigating evidence, so the State may rebut that evidence and may designate any relevant conduct to be an aggravating factor provided that the factor is sufficiently well defined and consistently applied to cabin the sentencer's discretion.
The premise that a criminal prosecution requires an even-handed balance between the State and the defendant is also incorrect. The Constitution grants certain rights to the criminal defendant and imposes special limitations on the State designed to protect the individual from overreaching by the disproportionately powerful State. Thus, the State must prove a defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. See In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358 (1970). Rules of evidence are also weighted in the defendant's favor. For example, the prosecution generally cannot introduce evidence of the defendant's character to prove his propensity to commit a crime, but the defendant can introduce such reputation evidence to show his law-abiding nature. See, e. g., Fed. Rule Evid. 404(a). Even if balance were required or desirable, today's decision, by permitting both the defendant and the State to introduce irrelevant evidence for the sentencer's consideration without any guidance, surely does nothing to enhance parity in the sentencing process.
Second, the quantity and quality of victim impact evidence sufficient to turn a verdict of life in prison into a verdict of death is not defined until after the crime has been committed and therefore cannot possibly be applied consistently in different cases. The sentencer's unguided consideration of victim impact evidence thus conflicts with the principle central to our capital punishment jurisprudence that, "where discretion is afforded a sentencing body on a matter so grave as the determination of whether a human life should be taken or spared, that discretion must be suitably directed and limited so as to minimize the risk of wholly arbitrary and capricious action." Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 189 (1976) (joint opinion of Stewart, Powell, and STEVENS, JJ.). Open-ended reliance by a capital sentencer on victim impact evidence simply does not provide a "principled way to distinguish [cases], in which the death penalty [i]s imposed, from the many cases in which it [i]s not." Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 433 (1980) (opinion of Stewart, J.).
The majority attempts to justify the admission of victim impact evidence by arguing that "consideration of the harm caused by the crime has been an important factor in the exercise of [sentencing] discretion." Ante, at 820. This statement is misleading and inaccurate. It is misleading because it is not limited to harm that is foreseeable. It is inaccurate because it fails to differentiate between legislative determinations and judicial sentencing. It is true that an evaluation of [501 U.S. 808, 862] the harm caused by different kinds of wrongful conduct is a critical aspect in legislative definitions of offenses and determinations concerning sentencing guidelines. There is a rational correlation between moral culpability and the foreseeable harm caused by criminal conduct. Moreover, in the capital sentencing area, legislative identification of the special aggravating factors that may justify the imposition of the death penalty is entirely appropriate. 2 But the majority cites no authority for the suggestion that unforeseeable and indirect harms to a victim's family are properly considered as aggravating evidence on a case-by-case basis.
The dissents in Booth and Gathers and the majority today offer only the recent decision in Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137 (1987), and two legislative examples to support their contention that harm to the victim has traditionally influenced sentencing discretion. Tison held that the death penalty may be imposed on a felon who acts with reckless disregard for human life if a death occurs in the course of the felony, even though capital punishment cannot be imposed if no one dies as a result of the crime. The first legislative example is that attempted murder and murder are classified as two different offenses subject to different punishments. Ante, at 819. The second legislative example is that a person who drives while intoxicated is guilty of vehicular homicide if his actions result in a death but is not guilty of this offense if he has the good fortune to make it home without killing anyone. See Booth, 482 U.S., at 516 (WHITE, J., dissenting). [501 U.S. 808, 863]
These three scenarios, however, are fully consistent with the Eighth Amendment jurisprudence reflected in Booth and Gathers and do not demonstrate that harm to the victim may be considered by a capital sentencer in the ad hoc and post hoc manner authorized by today's majority. The majority's examples demonstrate only that harm to the victim may justify enhanced punishment if the harm is both foreseeable to the defendant and clearly identified in advance of the crime by the legislature as a class of harm that should in every case result in more severe punishment.
In each scenario, the defendants could reasonably foresee that their acts might result in loss of human life. In addition, in each, the decision that the defendants should be treated differently was made prior to the crime by the legislature, the decision of which is subject to scrutiny for basic rationality. Finally, in each scenario, every defendant who causes the well-defined harm of destroying a human life will be subject to the determination that his conduct should be punished more severely. The majority's scenarios therefore provide no support for its holding, which permits a jury to sentence a defendant to death because of harm to the victim and his family that the defendant could not foresee, which was not even identified until after the crime had been committed, and which may be deemed by the jury, without any rational explanation, to justify a death sentence in one case but not in another. Unlike the rule elucidated by the scenarios on which the majority relies, the majority's holding offends the Eighth Amendment because it permits the sentencer to rely on irrelevant evidence in an arbitrary and capricious manner.
The majority's argument that "the sentencing authority has always been free to consider a wide range of relevant material," ante, at 820-821 (emphasis added), thus cannot justify consideration of victim impact evidence that is irrelevant because it details harms that the defendant could not have foreseen. Nor does the majority's citation of Gregg v. Georgia [501 U.S. 808, 864] concerning the "wide scope of evidence and argument allowed at presentence hearings," 428 U.S., at 203 (joint opinion of Stewart, Powell, and STEVENS, JJ.), support today's holding. See ante, at 821. The Gregg joint opinion endorsed the sentencer's consideration of a wide range of evidence "[s]o long as the evidence introduced and the arguments made at the presentence hearing do not prejudice a defendant." 428 U.S., at 203 -204. Irrelevant victim impact evidence that distracts the sentencer from the proper focus of sentencing and encourages reliance on emotion and other arbitrary factors necessarily prejudices the defendant.
The majority's apparent inability to understand this fact is highlighted by its misunderstanding of Justice Powell's argument in Booth that admission of victim impact evidence is undesirable because it risks shifting the focus of the sentencing hearing away from the defendant and the circumstances of the crime and creating a "`mini-trial' on the victim's character." 482 U.S., at 507 . Booth found this risk insupportable not, as today's majority suggests, because it creates a "tactical" "dilemma" for the defendant, see ante, at 823, but because it allows the possibility that the jury will be so distracted by prejudicial and irrelevant considerations that it will base its life-or-death decision on whim or caprice. See 482 U.S., at 506 -507.
Arguing in the alternative, JUSTICE SOUTER correctly points out that victim impact evidence will sometimes come to the attention of the jury during the guilt phase of the trial. Ante, at 840. He reasons that the ideal of basing sentencing determinations entirely on the moral culpability of the defendant is therefore unattainable unless a different jury is empaneled for the sentencing hearing. Ante, at 841. Thus, to justify overruling Booth, he assumes that the decision must otherwise be extended far beyond its actual holding.
JUSTICE SOUTER'S assumption is entirely unwarranted. For as long as the contours of relevance at sentencing hearings have been limited to evidence concerning the character of the offense and the character of the offender, the law has also recognized that evidence that is admissible for a proper purpose may not be excluded because it is inadmissible for other purposes and may indirectly prejudice the jury. See 1 J. Wigmore, Evidence 13 (P. Tillers rev. 1983). In the case before us today, much of what might be characterized as victim impact evidence was properly admitted during the guilt phase of the trial and, given the horrible character of this crime, may have been sufficient to justify the Tennessee Supreme Court's conclusion that the error was harmless because the jury would necessarily have imposed the death sentence even absent the error. The fact that a good deal of [501 U.S. 808, 866] such evidence is routinely and properly brought to the attention of the jury merely indicates that the rule of Booth may not affect the outcome of many cases.
In reaching our decision today, however, we should not be concerned with the cases in which victim impact evidence will not make a difference. We should be concerned instead with the cases in which it will make a difference. In those cases, defendants will be sentenced arbitrarily to death on the basis of evidence that would not otherwise be admissible because it is irrelevant to the defendants' moral culpability. The Constitution's proscription against the arbitrary imposition of the death penalty must necessarily proscribe the admission of evidence that serves no purpose other than to result in such arbitrary sentences.
Given the current popularity of capital punishment in a crime-ridden society, the political appeal of arguments that assume that increasing the severity of sentences is the best cure for the cancer of crime, and the political strength of the "victims' rights" movement, I recognize that today's decision will be greeted with enthusiasm by a large number of concerned and thoughtful citizens. The great tragedy of the decision, however, is the danger that the "hydraulic pressure" of public opinion that Justice Holmes once described 3 - and that properly influences the deliberations of democratic legislatures - has played a role not only in the Court's decision to hear this case, 4 and in its decision to reach the constitutional question without pausing to consider affirming on the basis of the Tennessee Supreme Court's rationale, 5 but even in its resolution of the constitutional issue involved. Today is a sad day for a great institution.
[ Footnote 2 ] Thus, it is entirely consistent with the Eighth Amendment principles underlying Booth and South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805 (1989), to authorize the death sentence for the assassination of the President or Vice President, see 18 U.S.C. 1751, 1111, a Congressman, Cabinet official, Supreme Court Justice, or the head of an executive department, 351, or the murder of a policeman on active duty, see Md. Ann. Code, Art. 27, 413(d)(1) (1987). Such statutory provisions give the potential offender notice of the special consequences of his crime and ensure that the legislatively determined punishment will be applied consistently to all defendants. | <urn:uuid:94b2155d-0695-4890-b461-99b8e6805633> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=us&vol=501&invol=808 | 2013-06-20T02:16:52Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951056 | 21,519 |
How do medieval-themed restaurants get it wrong?
By Mark Schatzker
Posted Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004, at 5:01 AM PT
For some people, renting Camelot on DVD just isn't enough. Neither is a trip to the museum, nor sitting down to read A Short History of the Middle Ages. These people want something closer to the real thing. So they visit a medieval-themed banquet to experience the food of that bygone era.
Since 1983, when its first "castle" opened in Kissimmee, Fla., Medieval Times Entertainment Inc. has served over 20 million diners. Today, the company operates eight restaurants across North America; the newest castle, in Hanover, Md., opened last year. Not to be outdone, Las Vegas' Excalibur Hotel & Casino serves about 10,000 rogues and wenches a week.
But there's one problem. Medieval-themed feasts aren't medieval. The vegetable soup (dragon tail soup), bland roast chicken (baby dragon), baked potato (dragon egg), and doughy desserts certainly seem pre-modern, not to mention pre-food-processor. It's like the food is the culinary equivalent of the classic stereotype that casts medieval people as belching, rugged simpletons. But throngs of bachelor partiers, group tourists, and amateur historians are being deceived about what it was like to chow down en masse during that long, dark period of history between the fall of the Roman Empire (fifth century) and the Renaissance (15th century).
Here's how they get it wrong:
Myth No. 1: Medieval food was bland.
Medieval chefs used spices as enthusiastically as the boy bands of today use hair products. Yes, medieval chefs did serve plain roasted meats, but they also served many meat dishes that featured thick, gooey sauces very heavily flavored with ingredients like ginger, sugar, vinegar, wine, raisins, mace, cloves, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, pepper, and honey. "Mawmenny," a typical dish, consisted of ground beef, pork, or mutton boiled in wine, which was then served in a wine-based sauce thickened with pounded chicken and almonds, then flavored with cloves, sugar, and more almonds (this time fried), and then festively colored with an indigo or red dye. Medieval food, in fact, was not unlike Indian food of today: sweet and acidic flavors combined, spices used by the handful. If anything, the concentrated, bold flavors would overwhelm the modern palate.
Myth No. 2: Medieval chefs were lousy when it came to presentation.
In the days of courageous knights and fair maidens, presentation went way beyond the present habit of dribbling some raspberry coulis or balsamic reduction around a central, tiered heap. Medieval feasts were all about display. Peacocks were cooked, then returned to their skin to be ceremoniously presented in their original plumage. Animals were stuffed inside other animals like culinary matrioshka dolls—a pig stuffed with a rooster, which would itself be stuffed with roasted pine nuts and sugar. A recipe called "glazed pilgrim" consisted of a pike boiled at the head, fried in the middle, and roasted at the tail; this was then served alongside a roast eel. Food coloring was used liberally: red (sandalwood), yellow (saffron), green (mint or parsley juice), black (burnt bread crumbs).
Myth No. 3: Medieval feasts were merely big.
While a Medieval Times castle seats anywhere from 900 to 1,500 people a night, and the Excalibur's Tournament of Kings about 2,000 (a thousand at each seating), no present-day medieval feast comes even close to approaching the enormity of some of the Middle Ages' heavy-hitters. We don't know exactly how many people attended the marriage feast of Henry III's daughter in 1251, but we do know that they gorged on 1,300 deer; 7,000 hens; 170 boars; 60,000 herring; and 68,500 loaves of bread. Feasters at the enthronement party for England's Archbishop of Neville in 1465 consumed 1,000 sheep; 2,000 pigs; 2,000 geese; 4,000 rabbits; and 12 porpoises and seals. No less than 11,000 eggs were eaten at a 1387 feast for Richard III. By comparison, the Excalibur goes through a paltry 2,000 Cornish game hens each night.
Myth No. 4: Medieval feasters ate off pewter plates.
Actually, they ate off rectangular pieces of stale bread called "trenchers" (which were fed to dogs or peasants once the meal was finished).
Myth No. 5: Medieval feasters had atrocious manners.
True, the tined fork was still centuries away from making it into the cutlery drawer, and even kings ate with their hands. Nonetheless, etiquette was alive and well in the Middle Ages. A medieval dinner guest avoided boorish behavior such as blowing on his soup (he might have foul breath), scratching his head (a dislodged louse might find itself drowning in the gravy), wiping his hands on the tablecloth, licking the serving dishes, picking his nose, or drinking out of a shared cup with a full mouth (backwash is an age-old problem). And if the lords and ladies of the era had possessed cell phones, it's safe to say they would have turned them off.
Myth No. 6: Medieval feasters ate in set courses.
The idea of eating one main dish during every course, which is called service à la russe, didn't become popular in Europe until the 19th century. Before that, grand meals were eaten much the way North Americans eat Chinese food today, with many dishes served simultaneously. At the coronation of Richard III in 1483, for example, there were three courses, each of which included at least 15 different dishes. The third course, which was never eaten because the feast ran late, included three meat, two fish, five bird, and two fruit dishes. Courses would often end with a "sotelty" (subtely); similar to an amuse-bouche, a "sotelty" was an ornamental offering, usually made from dough or marzipan, which showed off the chef's skill. Often, they resonated with the political theme of the occasion. All the sotelties (there were three, one for each course) served at the coronation banquet for Henry VI cited his politically hopeless claim to the throne of France—the second sotelty, for example, depicted Henry in between his father and the Sigismund, the holy Roman emperor who supported his claim.
Myth No. 7: Medieval people ate food they couldn't possibly have eaten.
A tomato might seem medieval when used as the foundation for the Excalibur's "dragon's blood soup" (not to be confused with Medieval Times' "dragon tail soup"), but medieval people simply could not have eaten food that wasn't present in their world. Tomatoes didn't make it to Europe until Spanish conquistadors brought them back from South America in the 1500s. The same goes for potatoes (dragon's eggs). Similarly, the Excalibur's roast Cornish game hen is a recent chicken breed that was popularized by a 1960s poultry mogul.
Medieval food was many things—garish, over the top, unsubtle. But it wasn't crude. And neither were medieval people. So, the real question is: Where does the familiar medieval stereotype come from? As with all questions of intellectual decline, Hollywood deserves some blame. (The studios had a thing for bringing the Middle Ages to the big screen in the '50s: Knights of the Round Table, Prince Valiant, The Black Shield of Falworth, The Black Knight.) Yet historical stereotyping, wherever you find it, is symptomatic of a deeper societal ill. Gustave Flaubert famously wrote, "Our ignorance of history makes us slander our own times." When it comes to slander caused by ignorance, history is sometimes on the receiving end, too.
Those still craving their history fix can take solace, however. After all, medieval people must have attended the odd crappy feast, too. During an evening of inappropriate food, some of them surely wondered: What is the king thinking? My own such moment came during a medieval-themed feast near the Tower of London, which was hosted by "Henry VIII." Not only did it feature a historically inaccurate king—Henry VIII was a Reformation king—and historically inaccurate food, it culminated with a historically inaccurate conga line. Indeed, since the dawn of dinner parties, people have found themselves asking: Am I the only one who thinks this dinner is lame? So, while the medieval feast of today may not be historically authentic, it gets you to that bygone era just the same.
Mark Schatzker is a Toronto-based journalist and a writer at large for Toro magazine. | <urn:uuid:a1bda0a8-c6be-45e5-9d04-a5ea9a6b2faa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?47380-The-SolAARium-Discuss-the-craft-of-writing-Alphabetical-Index-in-the-1st-Post&p=3225876&viewfull=1 | 2013-06-20T01:58:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97172 | 1,892 |
Quotes of the day
posted at 10:31 pm on January 30, 2013 by Allahpundit
Sen. Marco Rubio is having a moment. He’s a charismatic senator from a battleground state whose Cuban heritage and support for immigration reform are helping his party begin a new courtship with Hispanic voters. This much we know. But Rubio is exploiting an opportunity that goes beyond simply good timing and the right last name. He is getting the chance to be first at bat in a larger effort: the post-election audition for GOP leadership. Of all the would-be Republican stars—and the list is long and likely to grow—Rubio is getting a chance to show exactly what it looks like to move the party in a new direction…
The most important political skill is midwifery. The leader who moves the Republican Party into a new era, where it is more attractive to middle-class voters, minorities, and younger voters, will need to communicate a vision as well as communicate back to the base how he is not selling out the party’s core principles. In this effort, Rubio will get a crack at showing key presidential governing skills—the ability to nurse complex legislation by identifying common interests with Democrats while working with Republicans friends through a mixture of cajoling, flattery, and strong-arming.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, an unlikely ally of Obama’s on this issue, appeared on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show on Tuesday and recognized the Right’s discomfort with easing immigration laws. Like Obama, his defense of immigration reform seemed to be yoked to American exceptionalism.
“It doesn’t feel right in some instances to allow people who have come here undocumented to be able to stay. I know some people are uncomfortable with that notion,” said Rubio, a son of immigrants. “But I would just say this to you: If this country goes downhill, there’s nowhere else in the world. There’s nothing else. There’s no replacement for it. There’s no alternative for America. It’s either us or no one.”
And so perhaps now Republicans in Congress have two reasons to cast a risky vote in favor of conditional amnesty. The first, of course, is the fact that 70 percent of Hispanic and Asian voters supported Obama in the 2012 election, a reflection of a demographic tsunami threatening to destroy the GOP. The second is that, setting aside blind prejudice and “us-versus-them” mentalities, immigration reform is essentially conservative.
It seems the conservatives who are most skeptical of immigration reform don’t oppose the merits of Rubio’s framework, so much as they simply refuse to believe it would ever be enacted or enforced.
In other words, they simply don’t trust that the law will be obeyed. They believe Democrats can do whatever they want, and the best conservatives can hope for is to slow them down and not give them any ideas.
This is very destructive for democracy. I wish I could say the cynicism and paranoia was entirely unfounded.
Rubio’s bill is nothing but amnesty. It isn’t even “amnesty thinly disguised as border enforcement.” This is a wolf in wolf’s clothing…
The only thing the newly legalized illegal immigrants won’t get immediately is citizenship. Rubio claims that under his plan, they won’t be able to vote or go on welfare. But in practice, they’ll have to wait only until the ACLU finds a judge to say otherwise…
With Hispanics on track to become the largest ethnic group in California this year, the state that gave us Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan is incapable of electing any Republican statewide anymore. Taxes keep going up, and there’s no one left to pay the bill.
That will be our entire country if Republicans fall for Rubio’s phony “Enforcement First!” plan. Perplexingly, some Republicans seem determined to turn the whole nation into California, in the foolish hope of winning one last election.
“There are Republicans who will tear up their Republican voting cards over this,” said Dan Stein, the president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes the bill.
Rubio is widely considered to be among the party’s top-tier contenders in 2016, but this wasn’t necessarily a fight he needed to be involved in. Not only does the effort contain the chance of angering hardcore primary voters, but Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles, would be able to get Hispanic voters and those pushing for a more moderating voice on immigration within the party merely by his presence.
“Rubio has tried to neutralize [the anger on the right] because of the credibility he has with Tea Party folks, but once real measures are put down in black and white you are going to see the bloggers and talk-show hosts on the right become less and less polite,” said Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which is devoted to limited immigration. “Rubio’s stock among conservatives is going to start going down over the next six months, and I think he has pretty much doomed his chances for 2016.”
At least two 2012 polls provided some evidence that support for large-scale immigration alienates white voters.
Fifty-seven percent of “white working-class Americans … agree that illegal immigrants taking jobs that would otherwise be filled by American citizens are responsible for our current economic problems,” said an August survey of 2,501 Americans by the Public Religion Research Institute…
That poll was echoed by a Quinnipiac University poll whose results are a mirror of the Latino Decisions survey.
Quinnipiac’s poll showed that 27 percent of voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania said Obama’s de facto amnesty policy made them less likely to vote for the president’s re-election. Only 11.5 percent of voters in the two states said the policy made them more supportive of Obama, said the survey.
Public attitudes about immigration: Immigration policy is not a top priority for the U.S. general public or for Hispanics. According to a recent survey of U.S. adults, 39% said that dealing with the issue of illegal immigration should be a top priority for the president and the Congress, placing 17th on a list of policy priorities (Pew Research Center, 2013). For Hispanics, one-third said the issue of immigration was extremely important to them personally, behind issues like the economy and jobs, education and health care (Lopez and Gonzalez-Barrera, 2012).
Attitudes about immigration policy priorities: Among U.S. adults, 28% say the priority for dealing with illegal immigration should be given to tighter restrictions on illegal immigration while 27% say creating a path to citizenship should be the priority. A plurality (42%) says both tactics should be given equal priority. (Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 2012). Latinos are more likely than the general public (42% versus 27%) to say the priority should be a path to citizenship for immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. Just 10% of Latinos say priority should be given to better border security and enforcement. Latinos (46%) and the general public (42%) are about equally likely to say priority should be given to enforcement and legalization (Lopez, Gonzalez-Barrera and Motel, 2011).
Yes, there will be fewer whites and more minorities in the future, and Republicans will have to adjust. But the situation is more complicated than that.
Start with the obvious: If demographics were determinative, then Republicans shouldn’t have gained 63 seats in the House of Representatives in 2010—the largest midterm shift since 1938—while also taking 30 governorships…
The major impediment is the harsh rhetoric of some Republicans regarding immigration. The solution is less about policy than about respect for the Hispanic community. If federal immigration law is reformed with substantial Republican support—including for a long and demanding but achievable process of earning legal status—the GOP can consistently earn 35%-40% among Hispanics. Having Sen. Marco Rubio as the GOP spokesman on immigration issues will hasten the GOP recovery.
Demography isn’t destiny because nothing is permanent in politics—and Democrats’ insistence to the contrary will likely lead them to overreach, ignoring issues such as jobs, anemic growth and deficits in order to tackle gun control and climate change.
McCain said he hoped to get at least 80 votes for any bill that eventually comes to the floor, although he conceded that there would be naysayers…
If the issue isn’t resolved, McCain said that some states, like his own — which have large Hispanic populations — “will go from Republican to Democratic over time.”
“I think it’s a danger,” McCain said of Republicans permanently forfeiting the Hispanic vote.
Breaking on Hot Air | <urn:uuid:27fa5132-4ddd-41b0-9ab1-a2f7434c15a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hotair.com/archives/2013/01/30/quotes-of-the-day-1276/comment-page-8/ | 2013-06-20T02:23:09Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955661 | 1,865 |
Free the Trucks
By Bill Gerdes
From the Shrimp Pimp to Bacon Mania to Border Grill, the food truck phenomenon is the culinary zeitgeist of the moment. Contestants on Top Chef have competed in food trucks, there’s the Great Food Truck Race on the Food Network and Food Truck Revolution on the Cooking Channel. Mobile cooking is the new molecular gastronomy with chefs scurrying to throw away their beakers and fire up the trailer in their backyard. In Southern California we’re lucky to live in the Mecca of mobile cooking and one can find a solitary food truck or a whole slew of them at various locales, with many trucks operating seven days a week. Chef Roy Choi’s Kogi trucks are the breakout stars of the movement, often drawing lines of up to an hour for the fusion-filled Korean-Mexican tacos. Choi’s success has helped spearhead a culinary movement that has redefined how we enjoy food in the area—unless one lives in the IE.
“A Nation Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand”
That’s due to the fact that Riverside and San Bernardino counties are the only two in the state with a ban on most food trucks. We’re the only citizens in the state unable to enjoy trucks with such names as Fishlips Sushi, the Buttermilk Truck and Chomp Chomp Nation. We’re the only people deprived of Dogzilla Hot Dogs and the Flying Pig truck. Lincoln famously said that a nation divided against itself cannot stand. Is it fair that most of the state gets to enjoy some of the most creative cooking going today while those of us in the Inland Empire content ourselves with the occasional food truck festival, currently the only way most of us in the area get to sample what the rest of SoCal takes for granted?
The festivals themselves are great, and there are an increasing number around the area. There’s the I.E. Food Truck Fest happening Oct. 8 at the Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, another at the Fairplex in Pomona Sept. 11; there were a couple of huge ones in June and another in downtown Riverside, the belly of the beast where the trucks got banned in the first place. While the festivals are unique, and one gets to sample a slew of varied grub, having to wait for a festival to try a truck taco becomes a tad irksome. If I loved the Grilled Cheese Truck do I really have to wait for the next festival? Or drive an hour to Los Angeles? The real question here is whether this explosion of festivals is a sign that San Bernardino and Riverside counties may soon be legalizing the trucks? That we’ll get a taste of what L.A and the O.C. have been blessed with during the truck binge? This food writer sure as Hell hopes so—how many mediocre burger shacks can one guy endure?
Roach Coach vs. Gourmet Eatery
Riverside County officially banned most food trucks in 1980. At the time the ban may have made sense. The popular image of the “Roach Coach,” a dilapidated and skanky trailer that serves up gamy egg-salad sandwiches was already popularly ingrained in the American psyche. And the Board of Supervisors at the time was no doubt acting to insure that food borne pathogens kept their literally filthy claws off the good voters in the county. Despite having wretched air quality, horrible commutes for many of its denizens, potholes the size of Buicks and a lower life expectancy than Orange or L.A. counties, Riverside officials are quite safety conscious—witness the ban on firework sales. Or food trucks for that matter.
Hence the 31-year blockade on mobile eateries. The money shot in Ordinance No. 580 reads, “It is the purpose and intent of this ordinance to prohibit the operation of certain types of mobile food facilities . . . in order to safeguard life, limb, property, and the general welfare of the public.” Lynne Wilder, Program Chief for the health department in Riverside County, agrees that the ban came about through legitimate health concerns. One concern she expressed is that water tanks often run dry and then employees are no longer able to clean up or wash their hands. Wilder also suggested that too much food in a small space without sufficient refrigeration could become a problem.
The Truth and the Myths
Jethro Naude, who owns and runs the Slapfish truck along with Chef Andrew Gruel, sees these health concerns as outdated and based on old stereotypes. As he puts it, “Food trucks are misunderstood and leagues above the old roach coaches.” They also, he points out, offer up some of the freshest and healthiest cooking around, the occasional truck focusing on the deepest of fried notwithstanding. While we’re talking, Jethro lets me sample a “Lobsticle,” basically half a lobster tail on a skewer, along with possibly the best shrimp burrito I’ve ever eaten. My only health concern at the moment is that I’m eating too much, and I leave the shade of the Slapfish truck happy, full, and convinced that Jethro Naude is right about the healthy quality cooking going on inside these admittedly small areas.
Edward de la Cruz and his brother Joseph Ramirez run Los Hermanos Lonchera Sin Fronteras, a Riverside-based former food truck company. The brothers now operate a catering company that uses mobile grills when they cater at various functions, including parties. De la Cruz maintains that having to drive to Irvine every day to run the food truck eventually became to stressful and caused them to take a different direction with the business. He’s also no fan of the truck ban saying that he “never understood it,” and that it was “unfair.” De la Cruz also mentioned a few rumors he had heard regarding the origins of the ban, the first being that Riverside and Norco were more agricultural back then and feared the trucks would be inundated with flies. Another more macabre tale concerned a possible former food truck employee who had mysteriously burned to death in a hot oil fire started in a food truck. The Weekly couldn’t confirm either rumor, but both possibilities are far more prosaic than fears of E. coli or local restaurants fretting about competition.
The Middle of the Road
That fear, one of food trucks parking outside stationary restaurants and poaching potential customers, hovers slightly below the radar in any food truck conversation ban. Wilder mentioned this as a possible reason for the original ban saying it may have been a worry that they would take business away from stationary restaurants. Certainly Jeff Mineo, who works for Farmer Boys Inc., thinks so. At the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors meeting to determine if the truck ban would be lifted Mineo mentioned unfair competition since the trucks are mobile. Yes, although unfair competition for Farmer Boys might not be such a terrible idea.
The San Bernardino City Council wound up adopting a “middle of the road” compromise according to Supervisor Janice Rutherford’s communications director Scott Van Horne. Supervisor Rutherford who, along with Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, has been an early proponent of opening up San Bernardino County to trucks, saw her efforts to truly free them up somewhat curtailed. Instead the board will allow the trucks at festivals and some special events but only with the approval of the particular city involved. While stressing that middle-of-the-road option was not her first choice Supervisor Rutherford went on to say, “It will—at least—open the door for more food trucks and food truck-related businesses here in our county.” Rutherford also gave an All-American rationale for her support of lifting the ban in the first place saying, “I supported lifting the ban on food trucks because I support free enterprise.” Free enterprise, innovative cooking and healthy food—who could really be against such wholesomeness? Well, I mean besides Riverside and San Bernardino counties of course.
Full and Happy
On a recent Saturday I slunk out of Riverside intent on committing what in the IE might be considered a crime, aiding and abetting a mobile kitchen facility. Yes, I was going to actually eat at some food trucks. I drove west on the 91, through Corona, steely and determined not to make eye-contact with anyone lest they grasp my nefarious plan to eat food cooked in a trailer. In Yorba Linda, I was almost out of the woods; still a brief moment of paranoia as a highway patrol officer came up on my right, but then I was in Anaheim. I had made it. I was free.
Well, free to attend a food truck gathering at Servite High School, a gathering that may or may not have been a fundraiser for the football team—I was too busy eating to find out. As I walked across the track field there were trucks of all colors and cuisines. The blue Bacon Mania truck, the graffiti inspired Brats Berlin and the ultra-chic Barcelona on the Go. I sampled yummy savory crepes from Crepes Bonaparte, bacon-wrapped dates from the Barcelona truck and a roast pork taco from Dos Chinos. I didn’t get sick, just full and happy.
And I suppose that’s the point really—the bans in the Inland Empire would make sense if people were getting ill or worse from eating at these trucks. But the most people could come up with about sickness was a rumor about someone being burned alive with cooking oil. Even Wilder failed to come up with any concrete stories of anyone in other counties getting ill from eating at a truck. And people get sick from eating at regular restaurants. Living in the IE can be rough enough at times with scorching temperatures, jokes about “Rivertucky” and Ken Calvert. It’s time to free the trucks and let the good times roll. | <urn:uuid:d29f7bfa-4b74-4e17-932e-e5b8de2daf9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ieweekly.com/2011/08/feature-stories/free-the-trucks-2/ | 2013-06-20T02:09:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961567 | 2,074 |
Inc. Magazine Unveils 28th Annual List of
America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies - Inc. 500
Spectraforce Technologies Inc. Ranks No. 182 on the 2009 Inc. 500
with Three-Year Sales Growth of over 1000%
NEW YORK, August 12, 2009 -- Inc. magazine today ranked SPECTRAFORCE
TECHNOLOGIES INC. NO.182 on its 28th Annual Inc. 500, an exclusive ranking of the
nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive
look at the most important segment of the economy-America's independent-minded
entrepreneurs. Companies such as Microsoft, Zappos, Intuit, GoDaddy, Under Armour,
Jamba Juice, American Apparel, Oracle, and hundreds of other powerhouses gained early
exposure as members of the Inc. 500.
"If you want to know which companies are going to change the world, look at the Inc. 500,"
said Inc. editor Jane Berentson. "These are the most dynamic, fast-growth companies in
the nation, the ones finding innovative solutions to problems, creating smart systems, and
inventing products we soon discover we can't live without. The Inc. 500 list is Inc.
magazine's tribute to American business ingenuity and ambition."
The 2009 Inc. 500, unveiled in the September issue of Inc. magazine (available on
newsstands August 17 to November 15) and on Inc.com, reported aggregate revenue of
$18.4 billion-up significantly from last year's $13.7 billion-and a median three-year
growth rate of 880.5 percent. The companies on this year's list are also responsible for
creating more than 55,000 jobs since their founding; making the Inc. 500 perhaps the best
example of the impact private, fast-growing companies can have on the overall U.S.
economy. The largest company on the list, flat-panel-TV maker Vizio, broke the $2 billion
revenue mark. Complete results of the Inc. 500, including company profiles and an
interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be
found on Inc.com.
Despite the ongoing recession, the 2009 Inc. 500 offers a glimpse of the future of the U.S.
economy. In the health sector, which saw aggregate revenue of $1.1 billion and a 917
percent median growth rate, businesses are moving forward on cancer and stem-cell
research, clinical trials, and medication management. More than 25 percent of companies
in the energy sector ($2.5 billion aggregate revenue; 942 percent median growth rate)
focus on solar and other alternative sources. Fewer than a third of retailers ($356 million
aggregate revenue; 914 percent median growth rate) have even a single brick-and-mortar
store. And the number of companies providing technical services to the various branches
of the federal government continues to rise.
The Hottest Regions for Fast-Growing Companies
Once again, California tops the Inc. 500 with the most companies of any state, 84, up six
from last year. The Golden State is followed by Texas (45), Virginia (35), New York (35),
and Florida (27).
The Washington, D.C., metropolitan area boasts 42 Inc. 500 companies, making it the top
metro area for the seventh consecutive year (up three from last year). New York City and
Los Angeles are close seconds with 36 each (up five and 10 from last year, respectively),
followed by Chicago with 23 (down four from last year) and San Francisco with 20.
The Inc. 500 at a Glance
Insurance was by far the fastest-growing industry on this year's Inc. 500, with an average
growth rate of 6,195 percent. Other strong performers include Logistics & Transportation
(2,487 percent) and Food & Beverage (2,153 percent).
In total, the companies on the Inc. 500 have created more than 55,000 jobs. Government
Services is the top employer with 6,895 jobs, followed by Telecommunications (6,338),
Health (5,803), IT Services (5,179), and Energy (4,559).
IT Services boasted the most companies on this year's list with 57, followed by
Government Services (50), Advertising & Marketing (48), Consumer Products & Services
(44), and Health (43).
Topping this year's list is Northern Capital Insurance, a Miami-based firm that is helping to
revolutionize Florida's ailing insurance industry. The company boasted $95 million in
revenue in 2008 and an impressive three-year growth rate of 19,812 percent.
The top woman-owned company is P3S (No. 17 overall), a San Antonio-based firm that
provides IT network security and physical security services, mostly to the Defense
Department. P3S, owned by Mary Ellen Trevino, recorded revenue of $13.5 million in
2008 and a three-year growth rate of 5,898 percent. The top minority-owned company is
Harley Stanfield (No. 3 overall), a Washington, D.C.-based real estate investment firm
that buys existing properties, makes them energy efficient, and then resells them as
investment properties. Harley Stanfield, founded by Cedric Franklin, posted revenue of
$38.4 million in 2008 and a three-year growth rate of 13,350 percent.
The Inc. 500 posted aggregate revenue of $18.4 billion, up more than 34 percent from last
year, even in a down economy. The top five industries by total revenue include Consumer
Products & Services ($3.1 billion), Energy ($2.5 billion), Government Services ($1.9
billion), Advertising & Marketing ($1.3 billion), and Real Estate ($1.2 billion).
The 2009 Inc. 500 measures revenue growth from 2005 through 2008. To qualify,
companies must have been founded and generating revenue by the first week of 2005,
and therefore able to show four full calendar years of sales. Additionally, they had to be
U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent-not subsidiaries or divisions of
other companies-as of December 31, 2008. (Since then, a number of companies on the
list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2005 is
$200,000; the minimum for 2008 is $2 million.
About Inc. Magazine
Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures LLC, Inc. (www.inc.com) is
the only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of
growing private companies that delivers real solutions for today's innovative company
builders. With a total paid circulation of 712,961, Inc. provides hands-on tools and market tested
strategies for managing people, finances, sales, marketing, and technology. Visit us
online at Inc.com.
About the Inc. 500|5000 Conference
Each year, Inc. and Inc.com celebrate the remarkable achievements of today's
entrepreneurial superstars-the privately held small businesses that drive our economy.
The Inc. 500|5000 Conference & Awards Ceremony brings together members of the Inc.
5000 community, both a new class of Inc. 5000 honorees and the list's alumni, for three
days of powerful networking, inspired learning, and momentous celebration. Please join us
September 23-25, 2009, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in
National Harbor, Maryland. For more information about the 2009 Inc. 500|5000
Conference & Awards Ceremony, and to register, visit www.Inc5000event.com. Stay
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Hazard Summary-Created in April 1992; Revised in January 2000, March 2009
Motor vehicle exhaust is a constant source of 1,3-butadiene. Although
1,3-butadiene breaks down quickly in the atmosphere, it is usually found
in ambient air at low levels in urban and suburban areas. Acute
(short-term) exposure to 1,3-butadiene by inhalation in humans results
in irritation of the eyes, nasal passages, throat, and lungs.
Epidemiological studies have reported a possible association between 1,3-butadiene
exposure and cardiovascular diseases. Epidemiological studies of
workers in rubber plants have shown an association between 1,3-butadiene
exposure and increased incidence of leukemia. Animal studies have
reported tumors at various sites from 1,3-butadiene exposure. EPA
has classified 1,3-butadiene as carcinogenic to humans by inhalation.
Please Note: The main sources of information for this fact sheet are EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), which contains information on the health effects of 1,3-butadiene including the reference concentration and unit cancer risk for inhalation exposure, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's (ATSDR's) Toxicological Profile for 1,3-Butadiene.
- 1,3-Butadiene is used in the production of rubber and plastics. It is also used in copolymers including acrylics. (1)
Sources and Potential Exposure
- Sources of 1,3-butadiene released into the air include motor vehicle exhaust, manufacturing and processing facilities, forest fires or other combustion, and cigarette smoke. (1)
- 1,3-Butadiene was detected in ambient air of cities and suburban areas from 1970 to 1982 at an average level of 0.3 parts per billion (ppb). (1)
- Higher levels of 1,3-butadiene may be found in highly industrialized cities or near oil refineries, chemical manufacturing plants, and plastic and rubber factories. (1)
- 1,3-Butadiene has been found in drinking water and in plastic or rubber food containers, but not in food samples. (1)
- Occupational exposure to 1,3-butadiene may occur in the rubber, plastics, and resins industries. (1)
Assessing Personal Exposure
- There is no reliable medical test available at this time to assess personal exposure to 1,3-butadiene. (1)
Health Hazard InformationAcute Effects:
- Acute exposure to 1,3-butadiene by inhalation in humans results in irritation of the eyes, nasal passages, throat, and lungs. Neurological effects, such as blurred vision, fatigue, headache, and vertigo, have also been reported at very high exposure levels. (1,3)
- Dermal exposure of humans to 1,3-butadiene causes a sensation of cold, followed by a burning sensation, which may lead to frostbite. (1)
- Tests involving acute exposure of animals in rats and mice have shown 1,3-butadiene to have low acute toxicity. (1,4)
- One epidemiological study reported that chronic (long-term) exposure to 1,3-butadiene via inhalation resulted in an increase in cardiovascular diseases, such as rheumatic and arteriosclerotic heart diseases, while other human studies have reported effects on the blood. (1)
- Animal studies have reported effects on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, blood, and liver from chronic, inhalation exposure to 1,3-butadiene. (1)
- EPA has established a Reference Concentration ((RfC))a chronic reference level of 0.002 milligrams per cubic meter (mg/m3) for 1,3-butadiene based on reproductive effects in mice. The RfC is an exposure concentration at or below which adverse health effects are not likely to occur. It is not a direct estimator of risk, but rather a reference point to gauge the potential for effects. At lifetime exposures increasingly greater than the reference exposure level, the potential for adverse health effects increases. (5)
- No information is available on reproductive or developmental effects of 1,3-butadiene in humans. (1)
- Animal studies using mice have reported developmental effects, such as skeletal abnormalities and decreased fetal weights, and reproductive effects, including an increased incidence of ovarian atrophy and testicular atrophy from inhalation exposure to 1,3-butadiene. (1)
- A large epidemiological study of synthetic rubber industry workers demonstrated a consistent association between 1,3-butadiene exposure and occurrence of leukemia (10, 11).
- Several epidemiological studies of workers in styrene-butadiene rubber factories have shown an increased incidence of respiratory, bladder, stomach, and lymphato-hematopoietic cancers. However, these studies are not sufficient to determine a causal association between 1,3-butadiene exposure and cancer due to possible exposure to other chemicals and other confounding factors. (1,5,6)
- Animal studies have reported tumors at a variety of sites from inhalation exposure to 1,3-butadiene. (1,5,6)
- 1,3-Butadiene is metabolized into genotoxic metabolites by experimental animals and humans. (1)
- EPA has classified 1,3-butadiene as carcinogenic in human by inhalation.(5)
- EPA uses mathematical models, based on animal studies, to estimate the probability of a person developing cancer from continuously breathing air containing a specified concentration of a chemical. EPA has calculated an inhalation unit risk estimate of 3 × 10-5 (µg/m3)-1 .(5)
- 1,3-Butadiene is a colorless gas with a mild gasoline-like odor. (1)
- The odor threshold for 1,3-butadiene is 1.6 parts per million (ppm). (7)
- The chemical formula for 1,3-butadiene is C4H6, and the molecular weight is 54.09 g/mol. (1)
- The vapor pressure for 1,3-butadiene is 2100 mm Hg at 25 °C, and it has an octanol/water partition coefficient (log Kow) of 1.99. (1)
Conversion Factors (only for the gaseous form):
To convert concentrations in air (at 25°C) from ppm to mg/m3: mg/m3 = (ppm) × (molecular weight of the compound)/(24.45). For 1,3-butadiene: 1 ppm = 2.21 mg/m3. To convert concentrations in air from µg/m3 to mg/m3: mg/m3 = (µg/m3) × (1 mg/1,000 µg).
Health Data from Inhalation Exposure
AIHA ERPG--American Industrial Hygiene Association's emergency response planning guidelines. ERPG 1 is the maximum airborne concentration below which it is believed nearly all individuals could be exposed up to one hour without experiencing other than mild transient adverse health effects or perceiving a clearly defined objectionable odor; ERPG 2 is the maximum airborne concentration below which it is believed nearly all individuals could be exposed up to one hour without experiencing or developing irreversible or other serious health effects that could impair their abilities to take protective action.
LC50 (Lethal Concentration50)--A calculated concentration of a chemical in air to which exposure for a specific length of time is expected to cause death in 50% of a defined experimental animal population.
NIOSH IDLH-- National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health's immediately dangerous to life or health concentration; NIOSH recommended exposure limit to ensure that a worker can escape from an exposure condition that is likely to cause death or immediate or delayed permanent adverse health effects or prevent escape from the environment.
OSHA PEL--Occupational Safety and Health Administration's permissible exposure limit expressed as a time-weighted average; the concentration of a substance to which most workers can be exposed without adverse effect averaged over a normal 8-h workday or a 40-h workweek.
OSHA STEL--OSHA's short-term exposure limit.
The health and regulatory values cited in this factsheet were obtained
in March 2009.
aHealth numbers are toxicological numbers from animal testing or risk assessment values developed by EPA.
bRegulatory numbers are values that have been incorporated in Government regulations, while advisory numbers are nonregulatory values provided by the Government or other groups as advice. OSHA numbers are regulatory, whereas NIOSH, ACGIH, and AIHA numbers are advisory.
cThe LOAEL is from the critical study used as the basis for the EPA RfC.
- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Toxicological Profile for 1,3-Butadiene. Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, GA. 1992.
- E.J. Calabrese and E.M. Kenyon. Air Toxics and Risk Assessment. Lewis Publishers. 1991.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB, online database). National Toxicology Information Program, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD. 1993.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS, online database). National Toxicology Information Program, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD. 1993.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) on 1,3-Butadiene. National Center for Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development, Washington, DC. 2009.
- California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA). Technical Support Document for the Determination of Noncancer Chronic Reference Exposure Levels. Draft for Public Comment. Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Berkeley, CA. 1997.
- J.E. Amoore and E. Hautala. Odor as an aid to chemical safety: Odor thresholds compared with threshold limit values and volatilities for 214 industrial chemicals in air and water dilution. Journal of Applied Toxicology, 3(6):272-290. 1983.
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Occupational Safety and Health Standards, Toxic and Hazardous Substances. Code of Federal Regulations. 29 CFR 1910.1000. 1998.
- American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH). 1999 TLVs and BEIs. Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances and Physical Agents. Biological Exposure Indices. Cincinnati, OH. 1999.
- Delzell E, Sathiakumar N, Hovinga M, et al. A follow-up study of synthetic rubber workers. Toxicology 113:182-9. 1996.
- Macaluso M, Larson R, Delzell E, et al. Leukemia and cumulative exposure to butadiene, styrene and benzene among workers in the synthetic rubber industry. Toxicology 113:190-202. 1996.
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cincinnati, OH. 1997.
- American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA). The AIHA 1998 Emergency Response Planning Guidelines and Workplace Environmental Exposure Level Guides Handbook. 1998. | <urn:uuid:2819f3bc-defd-4f63-98d2-7fb67e7671f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epa.gov/ttnatw01/hlthef/butadien.html | 2013-06-20T02:22:45Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.866645 | 2,440 |
I love how friggin dependable MEGADETH is. 2011 was yet another crushing year for the band culminating with the release of their latest album TH1RT3EN and the announcement that they’d be kicking off the new year with a new and improved GIGANTOUR (also featuring plenty of other acts like fellow legends Motorhead). This year’s GIGANTOUR kicks off Jan.26 in New Jersey running all across North America promising all the same Megafun you’ve grown to expect since Dave and Co. debuted it in 2005. The new album is getting all the accolades Dave and company have continuously received since the landmark RUST IN PEACE album but with an added bonus, the return of longtime bassist David Ellefson. The band has been on an absolute tear on these last 3 studio albums since drummer Shawn Drover joined the band and appears poised to continue doing more than simply living up to their massive legacy. I talked to Shawn about the significance of Ellefson reuniting with Dave Mustaine, the new tour, his trial by fire entry into the band and much more. Read on….
Legendary Rock Interviews: Thanks for calling Shawn. Your performances with the band seem to have really added a new fire to MEGADETH and I love the story of how you joined the band. Do you still recall those feelings of being thrown into the fire and joining the band? You had a gig FIVE days after joining (laughs).
Shawn Drover: Oh hell yeah I remember. It was 2004 and my brother Glen was in the band as their guitar player. They were in rehearsals for their tour and I was in contact with him every day and checking on him and stuff and seeing how things were going. The situation just came up where they didn’t want Nick (Menza, former drummer) in the band anymore so I came home and my brother got ahold of me and said “You better sit down” and I was like “Why? What’s going on” and Glen was like “Well, they want you on the next plane to come out here” (laughs). This was SIX days before the first day of the tour so to be honest with you that was quite a shock you know and I was just like “Jesus, man” because I was well aware of when the tour was starting. So I called my wife and filled her in real quick and I was on a plane bound for Arizona a few hours later to rehearse with the band. We rehearsed for four days, travelled the fifth day and the sixth day was the first show of the tour. It was quite a daunting task but looking back now I probably wouldn’t want to do it any other way. It was pretty cool and I really didn’t have TIME to freak out or be nervous or anything like that. I was SO focused on learning the songs that I didn’t know yet, they had just put out THE SYSTEM HAS FAILED and I hadn’t heard a note of it at all because it was just released. I tried to learn and cram as much material as I could in those four days of rehearsal. The first show was in front of thousands of kids and was off the hook, it was a great show. It’s funny because for some reason the barricades weren’t up at that venue and the kids were jumping all over the stage and going crazy. I guess nobody remembered to or whatever so it turned into an old school Megadeth thrash show with kids stagediving and the whole bit so I thought that was how it was going to be all the time which was fine by me you know because I am definitely from that era (laughs). Come to find out someone messed up and everyone was like “What happened to the barricade?” and I was like “Oh, ok….” (laughs). It was pretty funny and I have a lot of fond memories of that time. It was nerve-wracking of course but it was so exciting and I was just so focused on learning that it kind of all worked out.
LRI: The band then established its own festival show in 2005 that you are getting set to go out on again, the GIGANTOUR. Was that a pretty big responsibility for the band to try to undertake?
SD: Oh yeah man. Something like that is always a daunting task. You’re starting up a new festival from scratch and it takes a while for public awareness to build up and for people to take note of something like the fact that we were even HAVING a festival. Instead of seeing a banner or press release that says “MEGADETH” is says “GIGANTOUR” and at first it’s like “Well, what the hell is that?” Having said that, the first tour WAS successful and we had a lot of great bands on it so it did do well but in some certain circumstances there were some circles of fans that weren’t even aware MEGADETH was doing it. After the second and third ones came around we were able to generate more awareness about it , by the time the third GIGANTOUR came around it was the most successful one we did. We kind of scaled back the bands a little bit so things seemed to work a little better. We found that if it was four or five bands it was scaled down enough so that people weren’t too tired or too drunk or too hot or whatever by the time we were onstage. It’s kind of a trial by fire learning experience but it is ALWAYS fun and we’re looking forward to this new one for sure.
LRI: I love the UNITED ABOMINATIONS record and I know it kind of launched you guys back on the charts and was a return to form in a lot of people’s opinion. You recorded that album with your brother which I’m sure made that even more fun. Was the making of that album something that will always be special to you?
SD: Yes. It’s funny because we actually did all the drum tracks and bass tracks in this 16th Century mansion in the middle of nowhere in England which story had it was apparently haunted. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd used to live there with his family and I guess his wife had an exorcism performed on the house because she swore up and down there were spirits. I guess the exorcism didn’t take or whatever because they still saw more spirits or occurrences and they hightailed it outta there (laughs). It was then owned by Trevor Horn who was in the Buggles who did “Video Killed the Radio Star” and he turned it into this great studio and was there when we did the drum tracks. We were there for like seventeen days and cut all the drum tracks there and I had a great time. It was amazing doing a record with my brother and I will always have a lot of great memories of those days.
LRI: These last few albums going back to “The System Has Failed” have kind of reaffirmed my faith in the band and you’ve been a part of it since the new deal with ROADRUNNER. One of the misconceptions about the new album, TH1RT3EN seems to come from this idea that the band is simply mining a lot of old ideas and there’s some song credits that go a ways back. Is there any truth to the fact that it consists of a lot of stockpiled riffs from over the years and there’s a lot of old ideas on Thirteen?
SD: No, not really. You can’t go and write “So Far So Good 2″ or write “Peace Sells in 3D” or any of that in my opinion because it just comes off forced and disingenuous to me. When they wrote those classics that was where they were at and to go back and try to recreate that consciously in the studio this time around would be fooling ourselves. We just went in with a bunch of new tunes and new riffs and tried to make the best record we could which is what we’ve always done since I have been in this band. I’m sure that was the case before I joined as well. I think if you like a lot of the old stuff you will definitely find some stuff here on the album that you can relate to or enjoy, some people call it old school and that’s fine if that’s what you take from it. Between David coming back and the fact that Dave Mustaine does have tons of tracks and riffs saved on files on his laptop I can’t say 100% that some of the ideas didn’t come from some of his old riffs but I can tell you the majority of TH1RT3EN is new stuff we’d either written on the road or in rehearsals. It’s been called a modern sounding record but to me that’s a dangerous word because it implies different things to different people. To me, TH1RT3EN is just a great sounding record, whether you wanna call it modern or you wanna call it old-school is just a matter of opinion and word choice. The production, is to me what gives it that edge, I think it is the best sounding record SONICALLY that we have ever done which is saying something because they’re all pretty good (laughs).
LRI: I am so happy that you guys got back with Ellefson. As an old school fan I am always in favor of retaining as much of that chemistry as possible. Mustaine has said that TH1RT3EN probably has the best overall collection of developed songs that he’s ever put on a record. Do you think that reuniting with David and bringing some of that vibe back in helped as far as the overall QUALITY of the songwriting?
SD: I don’t know. That’s a really good question actually. We would just really go with whatever caught our ear, again, I can’t overemphasize we had SO many friggin ideas going into this record. Hundreds and hundreds of guitar riffs and ideas, new stuff, old stuff was all fair game and we would listen to the stuff and try to build from there. If something happened during rehearsals with us and it kind of caught our attention we would be like “Hey, THAT’S cool, let’s work on that or put that with this”. A lot of the stuff we heard was half completed songs, other things were just 10 second riffs so it really depended, one time we heard a practically completed song so there were just a LOT of different examples and ways that went into the songwriting for TH1RT3EN. We would often get into a room, three or four of us and be like “Okay, today let’s just listen to some riffs” and we would spend all day listening to stuff because we would have SO much stuff. That’s just how we went about things with this album because we had no shortage of great ideas. To us, it really didn’t matter if I wrote the whole song or David did or Chris or Dave did, the only thing that mattered was that it was a good song because we had so much to work with this time around.
LRI: Is it true that you were sort of the middle man or at least involved with Ellefson coming back into the Megadeth camp?
SD: Oh yeah, I was the catalyst for that to be honest. Once I found out that we were going to replace our bass player it was obvious and in my mind that it HAD to be Ellefson because James Lomenzo had been in the band for so long that a lot of fans had become attached to him as well so to make a change again and get someone nobody knew would have been bad. I think the fans REALLY would’ve screamed foul on that and yeah I DID contact David and say “Man, if you were ever even considering coming back now is the time and now not meaning next week but now meaning NOW.” So I was the one who made the phone call initially to him and then I had to kind of convince Mustaine of that too to gauge if he was open to that as well. I kind of spearheaded that whole thing and it wasn’t an easy thing to pull off let me tell you (laughs). The same thing really happened with Chris (Broderick, Guitarist) when I found out my brother Glen was quitting it was like “Ok, now what? Who would be a suitable replacement?” and we came up with a short list and submitted it to Dave and management and within a day of Glen quitting they were already talking to Chris about being in the band so I basically spearheaded that as well. I’m the talent scout for Megadeth (laughs).
LRI: Well, you certainly seem to at least have excellent interpersonal communication skills. Give me your amateur psychologist opinion….How do you view the chemistry between the two Daves and how things are going after all these years?
SD: I think they get along great. They certainly have grown up and obviously are more mature than they were 20 and doing the things that they were doing back then (laughs). That was a lifetime ago and people evolve and change, whatever issues they had in the past have been worked out and things are going great. It was all worked out pretty quickly and I think they realized the bigger picture of how great it IS to have the two Daves together. They’re the CORE of Megadeth, it’s always been like that, despite the various lineup changes over the years Dave and David have always been an integral part of the band. I realized the importance of that when we knew there was going to be a change. It was obviously clear that it would be the best for the organization to have David back in the band.
LRI: You have been a part of so many tours and live albums/DVDs with the band. My favorite was the RUST IN PEACE live album mostly because I was at those original Clash of the Titans shows for that album and your performance just kills. Do you have a favorite of any of the MEGADETH live releases?
SD: Yeah, I agree with you about the RUST IN PEACE-LIVE album, that anniversary DVD/CD was just a lot of fun to be involved in and again, to do that record in its entirety is not an easy thing to pull off or emulate. There are a lot of nuances on that album that if you don’t perform them right just messes it all up and makes it not sound right. That was a difficult thing to do but it was SUCH a big payoff when we executed that on a nightly basis. To me that album provides a lot of personal highlights and memories. Also, the “THAT ONE NIGHT” Live thing in Argentina was a lot of fun to do. Every one of our gigs and live albums are fun for me but if I have to pick I would say those two really stand out to me.
LRI: Over the years the band has kind of taken the bull by the horns as far as technology goes. Dave Mustaine may have railed against some of the demons of the techno world in the lyrics over the years but I think that it’s awesome the band makes use of new technology. Dave has a new app called “GUITAR PRODIGY” for the Ipad, David Ellefson has his own app “ROCK SHOP” and you guys have always been right there to contribute to the making of a lot of these video games for various platforms. It really helps expose the band to a whole different audience other than just the guys like me pushing forty. Has it been exciting to be a part of?
SD: We’ve always embraced technology but we don’t rely on it and we don’t hide behind it. When something like that comes along and it can aid our promotion or help our project we’re all in for it but we are aware that there’s the potential to abuse that stuff or take it too far as well. Now, technology is a beast stronger than all and some of it isn’t for the best artistic purposes, things like AUTOTUNE or all these dumb tricks in the studio to make the “perfect record” and then a band goes out on the road and can’t pull it off which kind of defeats the point right?
LRI: I think it’s really cool when I see a 14-year-old kid wearing a MEGADETH shirt it’s like something that I could never imagine since I was wearing a Megadeth shirt when I was fourteen (laughs). It’s pretty cool.
SD: It is absolutely cool and vital to the band. That’s another thing, like you said, where being able to BE a part of those video games and apps and all that helps. It exposes us to that demographic, there’s a lot of us adults that play those games too but it really exposes us to a much younger audience which is all good. If some of those kids see or hear that and it ultimately leads to them coming to our show or buying a record it leads to them being a MEGADETH fan which is fantastic. We’re always trying to find a way to reach new fans and that stuff is totally a good avenue to be doing just that.
LRI: What did it feel like to be a part of history when Kerry King joined you guys on guitar for the first time since he was in the band in the early eighties or to be a part of that Mustaine/Metallica scene in Sofia, Bulgaria that was captured for the BIG 4 DVD?
SD: To me it was just a BUNCH of fun. Having Kerry come up when we played the Gibson Ampitheatre show in L.A. was fun because that was literally the first time he had played onstage with Megadeth since he was IN Megadeth which was of course like 1983 or whatever. It was a LONG TIME coming but as the passage of time occurs we can finally have things like that happen. The Sofia, Bulgaria show was beyond cool, the jam with METALLICA and all that stuff just felt like one big party to me. I wasn’t there like Dave and David of course who were originally with the band for those initial moments of thrash metal but I was CERTAINLY there as a fan so it was awesome from that perspective. To see all that stuff finally happen after all these years is pretty special and I can see it from a different point of view than they can. There’s definitely a part of me in those moments viewing it from a fan perspective like “Wow, I’m up here on the drums with the best seat in the house!” It’s a great feeling and it’s a great thing to be a part of. All of those BIG 4 shows, every SINGLE show was really special and of course Yankee Stadium, I mean we were the first metal bands to ever play Yankee Stadium so that was historic in of itself.
LRI: The new album has a shitload of good songs on it. I know if I make it out to a show I wanna hear “Whose Life Is It Anyways” and “Wrecker” but obviously with the vast catalog at your disposal you can’t play them all every night. Is it a pain in the ass figuring out the setlist at this point?
SD: That’s the real problem isn’t it man? (laughs). The setlist is a real bitch at this point because we have so many records now and so many good songs including so many songs that people want to or expect to hear. Someone’s not going to be happy because one of the songs they wanna hear isn’t in there. Right now when we did these last few South American shows we were only doing three songs off the new album, we have to do those 7 or 8 songs like “Peace Sells”, “Holy Wars”, “Symphony of Destruction”, “Wake Up Dead” and all those songs that we’ll have to play forever because all those songs are just songs that the fans always wanna hear. We have to play those songs because they’re signature MEGADETH so long story short that doesn’t leave a lot of room for other material. We would love to play all of the new record of course because we’re promoting it but it’s just not realistic. We can only hope to keep playing and incorporating more of it into the show, like for instance we just started playing “Guns, Drugs and Money” which is a fun song to play and the fans really seem to dig it.
LRI: I am continuously amazed at not just the heaviness of the new material but also the melodic elements and the catchiness of some of the hooks. I know that might not be popular to say in a MEGADETH interview but it’s the truth. If you go back and watch some of the acoustic shows on the dvd ARSENAL OF MEGADETH it really stands out that there’s more than meets the eye with the compositions.
SD: It’s okay to have melodic components within metal. It can coexist. This band has proven that many times, not every song has to be ultra heavy or even ultra serious all the time and I am more than cool with that. Megadeth has always had that going back to COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION and even before that with “In my Darkest Hour”. I’m all for diversity as far as music goes and Megadeth is really one of those bands who can really do a lot of things within the parameters of metal and still not offend a ton of people, we’re very fortunate for that. | <urn:uuid:dbdc255d-8493-46d7-a22f-78b1d9ed61bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.legendaryrockinterviews.com/2012/01/23/legendary-rock-interview-with-shawn-drover-of-megadeth/ | 2013-06-20T01:45:19Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985768 | 4,668 |
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America guarding her skies.
This film's release was in 1963, the calm just before the storm of social unrest and political upheaval. My father was a Master Sergeant in SAC, a thirty year man. As a kid, my sister and I moved around a lot and we always thought we were pretty well off. The Base Housing (at least to me) seemed pretty nice and we always had good food and clothing. We were never allowed on the flight line, but during an ORI, I did get to see a squadron of B-52G's scramble and take off at 15 Second intervals. That was really cool. Many of the Air Force wives didn't like it because of all the smoke and JP-4 fuel fumes stinking-up the air. The Farmers and surrounding townspeople didn't think too much of it either. Everybody hated an ORI! But until I saw A GATHERING OF EAGLES, I never knew exactly what was involved in those things. On the base everything was practically on (what they call now) lockdown. My dad came home after 7 day alerts and nobody in our house was too happy about that! He never talked too much about his work. I really liked the way this movie was cast and directed. It has a cast where every actor seemed like they were born to play their role. I had seen Rock Hudson and Rod Taylor, together in GIANT, back in 1956 and thought they played well off each other. I wish the movie had been originally filmed in Panavision instead of being converted to the widescreen version later. One thing that was wrong in the movie was that the Titan 2 missile silos were not on base, they were 40 miles away in the countryside. And with the climate that the fictional Carmody Air Base was located, the officers and airman would be wearing the Service Dress "Silver-Tans" Uniforms, not the Air Force Blue Shade 84 color that was in effect until 1965. Having been brought-up on television shows like STEVE CANYON, I became an expert (of sorts) on aviation films. I have waited for over 15 years for this movie to be released on DVD. I hope its released on Blue-ray too!
I am in the movie
- Wilmer Jones
I was the Pad Chief (Pad Dad) for Missile Launch # 1 at the Lincoln 4A complex with the rank of Staff Sargent. This Titan I missile was shown underground and in the above ground scene with the B-52G flying by. My friend Monty Welch (Pad Dad of #2 Titan) and I are shown running down a tunnel at the start of the ORI sequence. We spent 3 weeks helping the film crew get the footage they wanted. As a ground crew member on the B-52G before moving to the Titan I, I can honestly say this movie depicts the real thing. When an alert or ORI came, we had to have those 10 alert B-52s and 10 KC-135 tankers off the ground in 15 minutes. That launch was awesome to watch! Being a member of SAC was a very demanding job from the lowest airman to the men at the top of the chain of command. This film did a great job of showing the pressure we were under at all times to make sure we could defend our country during the cold war.
Partly filmed at Castle AFB in Atwater, CA
- Judy Cash
I was in high school when they filmed part of this movie at Castle AFB in Atwater, Calif. and the base commander's daughter had a bit part in the movie.
WE KEPT WORLD PEACE
- YGNACIO PEREZ, MSgt RET.
THIS MOVIE IS SO CLOSE TO THE REAL THING THAT IT MAKES ME REMEMBER HOW HARD WE WORKED TO SUPPORT SAC's MIS- SION. NOT MANY AMERICANS CAN IDENTIFY WITH THOSE SERVICEMEN WHO SERVERED DURING THE COLD WAR. I AM HERE TO SAY THAT OUR JOB WAS AS IMPORTANT AS IF WE HAD BEEN AT WAR.
Ilove this movie.
- darryl calhoun
A sac kid from 1963 from carswell AFB FT WORTH TEXAS.
- Robert Davis
I was station in SAC twice. Once 90 SRW at Forbes AFB, Kansas in 1957. Second time with the 2 Bomb Wing at Hunter AFB Ga. I hope this movie is shown on TCM soon.
A GREAT WATCH FOR ANYONE EVER ASSOCIATED WITH SAC
As a former B-52 Crewmember (I sat in the back as an EWO) I became a big fan of any movie that involved the plane I spent 1500 hours in. After seeing the "completely guessed" interior of the B-58 in "FAIL SAFE" and even the made-up interior of the B-52 in "DR STRANGELOVE" (sorry folks there is no such thing as a CRM-114 discriminator), this movie stands out as very well researched with the obvious cooperation of the USAF. Once scene worthy of note is where the fuel coupling leaks during air refueling - That is indeed where the coupling is, what it looks like, even the little plexiglas sighting window is there. Also the minimum interval takeoff (MITO) was indeed 15 seconds, and the planes did indeed swing out to their "fan" headings, just as in real procedures. I love the camera placement behind the main bogies during takeoff - neat shot. And the no-flaps landing is a real, no-shit no flaps landing. I put this in the same league as "STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND" for technical accuracy
Excellent Cold War Movie!
I was a member of the 92 Air Refueling Squadron (92 ARS) at Fairchild AFB from 1957 to 1960. As a KC-135 & B-52 mechanic, this movie is a testament to those who not only served, but fondly remember.
Altus A.F.B. Okla.
- Kenneth W. Lawson
I was in SAC from 1962-1966 at Altus A.F.B. I was a crew chief on a KC-135 this movie was the most realistic air force movie i've ever seen. I would like it to be shown on TCM sometime
A "Must See" Rock Hudson/Rod Taylor Movie
As a daughter whose father served in the air force growing up, I could appreciate the story content. The acting is superb and one of Rock Hudson's better "serious" roles. Rod Taylor complemented him very well as the supporting actor. It has a well-thoughtout story line and very reflective of the air force's M.O.. I would highly recommend this film. BRING IT BACK ON DVD. . .please!!!!!!!!!
- scott D
Pretty accruate representation of SAC in the day. The most bizzare error is the ground crews working on a B--52 engine with there hats on. The hat would get sucked up in the engine. You never wear a hat on the flight line. Scott
Training for SAC
- 2Lt Lindsay
I saw this movie three time and completed Air Force ROTC prior to being assigned the the 5th Bomb Wing (heavy), SAC at Travis AFB, Cal for 4 years. Pretty real movie (too many bird colonels in Lt Col slots-but why else call it a gathering of eagles?)
I served in SAC 1958-1967
- Thomas E Brown
I served in SAC at Clinton-Sherman AFB. OK; Goose Bay, Labrador and Francis E. Warren, Wyo. When this movie came out I was home on leave from Goose Bay. I took my girlfriend with me and she was impressed--never knew that much about SAC--it is an excellent , realistic movies about the greatest,strongest military organization in the world and accurately portrays life on a SAC base at that time.
Nine Years in SAC
- Robert H. Goss
Having spent two tours in SAC (55SRW - Forbes AFB, KS, 100 BW, Pease AFB, NH, and 72 BW, Ramey AFB, PR) I found "A Gathering of Eagles" to be a fair and true representation of what life in SAC really was all about.
I was there
- Bob West
I was stationed at Beale when this movie was made. As the real life crew chief of the T-33 (s/n 993) aircraft that was used as the chase plane "flown" by Rod Taylor in the aerial fuel leak scenes I got to work with Rod. There is one glaring error that I must point out. When the B-52 lands and the fire fighters go in with hoses to "cool" the red hot brakes? That would never happen Spraying red hot brakes would cause them to explode. And the bloopers that happened during the heated exchange of words in that scene was hilarious. Working with Hollywood was fun
- Max Lieberman
I was stationed at Lincoln Air Force Base, in the 551st Strategic Missile Squadron, in 1964. The movie was by and large accurate and realistic, except I don't believe that the Titan I silos would have been located so close to the end of the runway as shown in the picture. At Lincoln, the closed Atlas F silo was at Eagle, about 45 miles (if my memory is unimpaired) away.
- Steve Hodachok
This film portrays life in SAC very accurately, except for the higher ranking NCOs with tools in their hands. The ORI (operational readiness inspection), alert exercises, alert duty, MITO (Minimum Interval Take Off) of B-52's and most things were as I remember as a long time SAC member.
Gathering of Eagles
- David Stone
In 1963 my father was a SAC bomber pilot. His entire squadron was required to attend a viewing of this movie. It is an accurate account of life of members of the Strategic Air Command and the demands on those in leadership then, at the height of the cold war. This is an excellent movie and worth watching, especially for anyone connected to the Air Force in those days. | <urn:uuid:40c1b885-c78e-4290-b57f-4410a7f6d95f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/76028/A-Gathering-of-Eagles/user-reviews.html | 2013-06-20T02:17:08Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974395 | 2,200 |
Well has anyone ever wondered what it would be like being at the right place at the right time? Curious that’s all because those moments are few and far between………Until Now………..
Global One – Ultimate Power Profits, began a pre-launch for a new system called Ultimate Power Profits in July of this year 2012, Founders positions were taken and since closed. This revolutionary compensation plan will see new members getting paid within 3 days of joining, this is unheard of. Global One – Ultimate Power Profits is set to explode and I mean explode across the internet on launch in approximately 3 weeks time.
Global One Ultimate Power Profits website found itself in the top 2000 most visited sites in the world extremely fast. Thousands of people flooded the site to sign up as a Founding Member or Affiliate so they could get paid up to 26 times a month.
Yep that’s 26 times without building a down-line, however wait till you see what happens if you do!
Go Global with Ultimate Power Profits – What’s it all about?
Thanks to penny auction sites like Zeekler.com and Bidify.com, we now better understand how penny auction sites can provide massive income potential. With Ultimate Power Profits, you sign up so you can earn a return on your investment by placing ads or giving away “Bid Tokens” which are redeemed at the company sponsored penny auction site…
You can and will earn without selling OR recruiting.
As an active member, you can earn up to 50% or more each month on purchases. By letting these commissions automatically compound…the commissions can DOUBLE or TRIPLE your money within 60-90 days. That’s without promoting, recruiting or sponsoring anyone.
Who doesn’t love having a residual income that grows practically on it’s own?!
WAIT – Lock in you global One Ultimate Power Profits – NOW!!
There will be nil cost to you and you have from now until launch to build and promote Global One – Ultimate Power Profits with nil cost to your downline as well. There will rarely be a chance like this to jump on an opportunity at the top.
Global One Ultimate Power Profits, Go Global – A Similar Idea BUT
The basic idea is similar to Bidify and ZeekRewards BUT without having to advertise or meet daily bid requirements. Global One Companies isn’t reinventing the wheel; just improving it to work more efficiently and profitably. I’m not surprised that the Global One Ultimate Power Profits system and IGoBidWin has become a huge deal in so little time.
SO - Is it worth it?
Well, Global One Ultimate Power Profits, promises that 100% of all active members will earn money every 30-day period.
Ultimate Power Profits, developed by Global One™, and the Global One system consist of three models –
- IGoBidWin – Penny Auction Income
- IGoBidWin – Affiliate Program
- MyTurnOnTopWealth – Profit-Sharing Pool
Global One will be advertising this program as a Paradigm Shifting business platform. The comp plan, developed by Scotty Evans and GO, is called Spinfinity, which is a Social Profits Pool System.
Ultimate Power Profits and Global One – Comp Plan Details and Payment Schedule
There’s tons of info to get through so hang tight because it’s always important to understand what’s going on and how the company handles business… Global One Comapanies, LLC, has 4 options for those people who are participating in MyTurnOnTop and they are Copper, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
What’s the product? This is a concern for a lot of people because businesses that don’t have a product or service are scams but that’s NOT the case with Global One. The product is the Bid Tokens sold which are to used to place bids on the penny auction site for items like jewelry, .999 pure silver or gold bars, electronics and much more.
The commissions that are earned are distributed in 2 ways.
1. Half as a cash commission.
2. The other half as Bid Tokens.
Cash commissions are automatically deposited into your eWallet account, which is like Paypal and is accepted in 170 countries. Bid Tokens are to be redeemed at the IGoBidWin Penny Auction site. *The Bid Tokens that are redeemed will also increase your profit-sharing commissions. As for the payment schedule:
Every 72 hours, 3 days, there are commission payouts. These commission payouts will occur on the 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 19th, 22nd, 25th, and 28th of each month.
Global One Ultimate Power Profits – Profit Pool
Of the company’s net profits, 50% will be shared through the My Turn On Top Wealth profit-sharing pool every 3 days. Every Global One member who’s active will receive a share of these profits; depending on the members participation level. *This is how you earn commissions regardless of not selling, promoting, recruiting or sponsoring a single person. To earn a larger share on the profit-pool, affiliates can promote and sign-up new affiliates by sell Bid Tokens.
““GO Bid Win” members earn ONE Wealth Building Profit Pool point for each bid token they buy and each bid made on their website. GO Bid Win VIP Customers earn 1 point for every GO Bid Win they buy. So if you promote the program – you earn additional profit-share pool points every time one of your new team members or customers uses their bid tokens on the “I Go Bid Win” penny auction site.”
This means that if you do promote the program, you’ll earn more profit-share pool points each time one of your new team members or customers uses their Bid Tokens on the “I Go Bid Win” penny auction site.
Okay, moving on… I want to make sure all of the important info gets included.
Global One Ultimate Power Profits – Go Global, MyTurnOnTop
The Automatic Passive Income
The My Turn on Top program, powered by the Spinfinity power profits system is a new and patent pending comp plan that is designed to pay you a significant residual income on a monthly basis. Spinfinity provides all members who are active to earn significant commissions even if you chose not to promote the program AND there are NO minimum referral qualifications required. Basically, you earn commissions from both Spinfinity Power Profits and the 50% GO Wealth Building Profit Sharing Pool even if you don’t sign up new team members or retail customers. Of course, if you do choose to promote this you can seriously increase the income potential so I’m sure you’d be thrilled to promote Global One and the Ultimate Power Profits!
Go Global, the Ultimate Power Profits – The 4 Membership Options
Here’s the official compensation and explanation of the 4 membership options:
Global One Ultimate Power Profits – IgoBidWin Affiliate Program:
COPPER MEMBERS – $25 Monthly
- You get 25 bid tokens to redeem at IGoBidWin penny auction platform
- You automatically participate in Spinfinity Powerprofits system for passive income
- You earn 20% of your all “My turn On Top” commissions (more passive income)
Note: You receive 10 profit-sharing points for all every bid you used on your site – by you, customers and affiliates tagged to you.
SILVER MEMBERS – $50 Monthly
- You get 60 bid tokens to redeem at “I Go Bid Win”
- You get all Copper membership benefits
- You earn 50% of all “MyTurnOnTop” commissions (passive income)
- You get a 20% MATCHING BONUS on commissions earned by your personally referred level one affiliates
Example: If you refer 5 members, you receive a 20% MATCHING BONUS of all of their paid commissions in the “My Turn On Top” payout cycle every three days!
GOLD MEMBERS – $75 Monthly
- You get 120 penny auction tokens for “IGoBidWin”
- You get all Silver membership benefits
- You earn 75% of all “My Turn On Top” commissions (passive income)
- You get a 20% MATCHING BONUS on commissions earned by your personally referred Level One and Level Two affiliates
Example: If you refer 5 members and they each referred 5 members, you receive a 20%
MATCHING BONUS of all 25 of their paid commissions in the “My Turn On Top” payout cycle every three days!
PLATINUM MEMBERS – $100 Monthly
- You get 180 penny auction tokens for “IGoBidWin”
- You get all Gold membership benefits
- You earn 100% of all MyTurnOnTop commissions
- You get a 20% MATCHING BONUS on commissions earned by your personally referred Level One, Two and Three affiliates
Example: If you refer 5 members and they each refer 5 members – who each refer 5, you receive a 20% MATCHING BONUS on 150 active level one, two and three members in the payout cycle every three days!
Global One Ultimate Power Profits Report of the Leadership Bonus Pool
By stepping up and becoming a leader you are rewarded even more for building teams as a Platinum Member and helping other people do the same.
Here’s how to become a crowned Jeweled Platinum Member and all of the official details about how to qualify and the 2 steps required to reach it.
- Personally refer a minimum of 10 active Platinum members. When you do you will automatically receive an additional 20% MATCHING BONUS on all level four affiliates.
- Help your personally referred Platinum members refer 10 Platinum members. This now qualifies you to get paid even more through the LEADERSHIP PROFIT POOL.
Global One Leadership Bonus Pool, the REALLY Ultimate Power Profits
Once qualified, you will now earn additional monies depending on the leadership level reached – Ruby, Emerald or Diamond – every three days!
Ruby Leadership Level
- Qualification – all qualified JEWEL PLATINUM MEMBERS
- BONUS POOL – 20% of leadership bonus pool profits is split between all qualified Ruby members.
Example: If the Leadership Bonus Pool is $100,000 for the 3 day Spin period, each qualified active Ruby will share $20,000 (20% of total pool). If there are 20 active Ruby Members, each would receive $1,000! That’s an extra $10,000 each and every month!
Emerald Leadership Level
- Qualification – Ruby members who have referred a minimum of 10 Ruby members
- BONUS POOL – 20% of leadership bonus pool profits is split between all qualified Emerald members.
Example: As a qualified Emerald you will receive a 20% profit-share split between all qualified Emeralds IN ADDITION to the Ruby bonus pool profits already earned.
Diamond Leadership Level
- Qualification – Emerald Members, who have referred a minimum of 20 current Ruby Members
- BONUS POOL – A Diamond Bonus Pool will be split equally with all Diamond Members, which equals 20% of the Leadership Bonus Pool.
Example: As a qualified DIAMOND you will receive a 20% profit-share split between all qualified Diamond members IN ADDITION to the Ruby and Emerald profits already earned.
Oh, by the way,a crowned Jewel Platinum member can expect to be paid an average of 50,000 times per 30 day cycle.
Global One Ultimate Power Profits: Whew, that was a lot of typing!! But what does it really mean for you?
It’s a win/win. You can let the system work for you to create a passive and residual income that’s impressive on it’s own.
You can dive in, be the leader you know you can be and create massive potential for massive wealth.
With all the Buzz on the internet surrounding the Zeek Rewards Exposure – understand that this does not effect Global One Ultimate Power Profits at all…..Webinar Recorded This Week!!!! Awesome stuff worth a watch.
I’m not going to sit here and say there aren’t any risks. Of course there are risks with any company you choose to go with and Global One, Ultimate Power Profits is no different. However, being given the chance to get in on the ground floor of a company has MAJOR rewards, aka huge cash potential!
So, if you’re new to marketing this is an easy way to get in and start creating an income WHILE you’re learning how to be a better marketer. If you’ve been in the industry for a while then you know how important it is to have multiple streams of income…it’s just smart biz.
Global One, Ultimate Power Profits can take you where your dreams guide you so DO NOT miss this change to create a better life for you and your family!
HERE IS THE FACT!!
It does NOT matter what compensation plan, company or product, it is extremely important that you learn how to generate leads. Leads, more appropriately known as people, are the life-blood of any business. If you lack the understanding of how to generate leads, you’re business will cost you dearly and ultimately fail becoming a waste of your time, hard earned money and even a smack to your self-esteem.
So how do we learn how to generate leads for your Global One – Ultimate Power Profits business?
Click Here to Gain Instant Access to a Free Presentation on the Exact Lead Generation Blueprint I use to get sales and signups on complete autopilot and how you can too in your ZeekRewards business.
Drew signing off!!
See you at the Top,
Tel: 0011 61 433 126 810
Okay, Your turn – Leave some love – like it – share it – +1 it – retweet it and click the button to give me a gleaming review…….. cheekily grinning. | <urn:uuid:2970065b-bd45-4b5f-8a1f-5ae3194ecd78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://andrewtwelftree.com/global-one-ultimate-power-profits | 2013-05-20T22:12:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926129 | 2,989 |
|— Municipality —|
|• Mayor (2011)||Lasse Haughom (FrP)|
|• Total||600.48 km2 (231.85 sq mi)|
|• Land||585.45 km2 (226.04 sq mi)|
|• Water||15.03 km2 (5.80 sq mi)|
|Area rank||183 in Norway|
|• Total||2,122 ( from last year)|
|• Rank||326 in Norway|
|• Density||3.6/km2 (9/sq mi)|
|• Change (10 years)||−17.9 %|
|Time zone||CET (UTC+1)|
|• Summer (DST)||CEST (UTC+2)|
|ISO 3166 code||NO-2002|
|Official language form||Bokmål|
Vardø (help·info) (also Finnish: Vuoreija or Vuorea, Northern Sami: Várggát) is a municipality in Finnmark county in the extreme northeastern part of Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Vardø. The other main settlement in Vardø is the village of Kiberg.
General information
The town of Vardø and the rural district around it was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The law required that all towns should be separated from their rural districts, but because of a low population and very few voters, this was impossible to carry out for Vardø in 1838. (See also Hammerfest and Vadsø.) The rural district of Vardø (Vardø landdistrikt–renamed Båtsfjord in 1957) was officially separated from the town of Vardø in 1868. Then on 1 January 1964, the eastern part of Båtsfjord was merged with the town of Vardø to create today's Vardø Municipality.
The Old Norse form of the name was Vargøy. The first element is vargr which means "wolf" and the last element is øy which means "island". The first element was later replaced (around 1500) with varða which means "cairn". Historically, the name was spelled Vardöe.
The coat-of-arms date back to 1898. Its borders are drawn using the national colours: red, white, and blue. The border frames the shield, and the centre field shows a complex scene incorporating a sunrise with rays, two fishing boats with crews, the sea with waves, and a large cod. In the chief we find the year of the town's foundation, 1789, together with the words "Vardöensis Insignia Urbis", meaning "the seal of the town of Vardø". In the lower part of the arms, we find the town motto: "Cedant Tenebræ Soli", meaning "Darkness shall give way to the sun." See also: Coat of arms – high resolution version
|Parish (Sokn)||Church Name||Location of the Church||Year Built|
Vardø is the easternmost town in Norway and the Nordic countries, located at 31°E, which is east of Saint Petersburg, Kiev and Istanbul. The eastern part of Finnmark is in the same time zone as the rest of the country, even if it is more than an hour at odds with daylight hours. The town itself is on the island of Vardøya, but the municipality includes significant area on the mainland of the Varanger Peninsula, including part of the Varangerhalvøya National Park in the southwest.
The mountain Domen lies on the shore of the Varanger Peninsula. South of that mountain lies the small Kibergneset peninsula where the village of Kiberg is located. The town lies on the island of Vardøya, which is surrounded by a few smaller islands. Hornøya is one of those islands. It lies to the northeast of Vardøya and it is the site of Vardø Lighthouse. The mouth of the Varangerfjorden lies along the eastern coast of the municipality.
The port of Vardø, on the Barents Sea, remains ice-free all year round thanks to the effect of the warm North Atlantic drift. Vardø has a Continental Subarctic climate (Köppen: Dfc) which comes close to being classified as a Subpolar Oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfc). The January average is just cold enough for this at −4.5 °C (24 °F). In July, the 24-hr average temperature is 10.5 °C (51 °F), which prevents the climate from being polar (Köppen: ET).
|Climate data for Vardø|
|Average high °C (°F)||−2.7
|Daily mean °C (°F)||−5.1
|Average low °C (°F)||−7.7
|Precipitation mm (inches)||55
|Avg. precipitation days (≥ 1 mm)||14.7||11.6||10.5||9.1||7.9||8.3||8.7||10.4||11.9||14.0||12.9||13.7||133.7|
|Source: Norwegian Meteorological Institute|
The municipality of Vardø with its seabird colonies of Hornøya and Reinøya are amongst the most interesting on this part of the coast. There is a small breeding population of Brunnich’s Guillemot as well as larger numbers of Razorbill and Common Guillemot.
The island is connected to the mainland via the undersea Vardø Tunnel (Norway's first such structure). The town's airport, Vardø Airport, Svartnes, and the settlement of Svartnes are located on the mainland opposite the tunnel entrance. Vardø is a port of call on Norway's Hurtigruten ferry service. The town is the northern termination of European route E75, which starts in Sitia, Crete.
Economy and tourism
Vardø's tourist attractions include the Vardøhus Festning, a fortress dating back to the late 13th century (although the present structure dates from 1734); several sea bird colonies; two museums: one about the Pomor trade and the other about local history and birdlife; and remnants of German fortifications from World War II. The Yukigassen competition in Vardø is unique in Norway.
Vardøhus Festning is home to two rowan trees which are diligently nurtured and warmed in winter since these trees cannot normally survive in Vardø's cold climate, north of the Arctic tree line. Originally, seven trees were planted in 1960; the one that survived managed to blossom twice, in 1974 and 1981. The tree finally succumbed to cold weather in 2002, but two new saplings have been planted in its place.
In the summer of 2012, Vardø hosted the urban art event Komafest, where 12 international artists painted tens of the town's abandoned houses in a three-week period.
Globus II Radar
Since 1998, the town has housed a radar installation called Globus II. Its official purpose is the tracking of space junk; however, due to the site's proximity to Russia, and an alleged connection between the Globus II system and US anti-missile systems, the site has been the basis for heated controversy in diplomatic and intelligence circles.
Sister cities
- "Personnemningar til stadnamn i Noreg" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet.
- Jukvam, Dag (1999). "Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen" (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå.
- Store norske leksikon. "Vardø" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- Rygh, Oluf (1924). Norske gaardnavne: Finmarkens amt (in Norwegian) (18 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 301.
- "Kommunevåpen". Flags of the World. 28 June 2002. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
- "Klima en Vardo". Retrieved 2008-12-13. (German)
- "eKlima Web Portal". Norwegian Meteorological Institute.
- "Antimissile Front In The Northern Norway".
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vardø|
- Vardø travel guide from Wikivoyage
- Birding in the Vardø area
- Varanger.com: tourist information about Varanger area
- Vardø – Finnmark's millennium town includes pictures | <urn:uuid:848f545a-36cd-4b36-82c8-5dd4c2a94f91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vard%c3%b8 | 2013-05-20T22:25:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.834491 | 1,923 |
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
With 2008 about to close, Road to 2010 turns its eyes to goal.com and African correspondent Samm Audu who lists the Top 10 African footballers of 2008 ... what do you think?
Click above for the entire list ... here's the abridged version, along with some commentary ...
10. Jon Obi Mikel - With Michael Essien injured, he's stepped up his game at Chelsea. Considering his performance at this season's African Cup of Nations, where he took a step backwards, he's done well for himself.
9. Mohamed Zidan - Broke out at this year's Cup of Nations and excelling at club team Borussia Dortmund.
8. Frederic Kanoute - So so year in my opinion.
7. Sulley Muntari - Back in Italy with Inter Milan and doing a magnificent job.
6. Didier Drogba - He's on this list purely on reputation. Had a decent beginning of the year, but collapsed in the Champions league final, where he was red carded. After that, has battled injury much of the year.
5. Michael Essien - Injured much of the current season, but was the inspirational leader of Chelsea on their way to their first Champions League final.
4. Amr Zaki - Scored twice in the African Nations Cup semi-finals, leading Egypt to their 2nd straight title. Has capitalized on his time at England's Wigan, where he lead the Premier League in scoring for a short bit.
3. Emmanuel Adebayor - Filled Thierry Henry's boots quite nicely, scoring 30 times in all competitions.
2. Samuel Eto'o - On Barcelona's scrap heap this summer, but has been wonderful in the Catalan club's resurgence this season under new coach Pep Guardiola.
1. Mohamed Aboutrika - Egypt and Africa's best player. Scored the goal that won Egypt their second straight African championship and guided club side Al Ahly to an African Champions League title. The best the continent has to offer ...
That's it for 2008. Enjoy the New Year and come back next year on the Road to 2010, where we'll step up our efforts to get to South Africa and the World Cup final!
Cross your fingers. I'll need all the luck I can get ...
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
Friday, December 19, 2008
You have to feel for Arsenal defender Emmanuel Eboue.
The Ivorian right back has been mercilessly booed the past few weeks by Arsenal supporters for poor play. His confidence has obviously been shot, as evidenced by his demeanor after being substituted against Wigan a few weeks back.
Now, Eboue wants everyone to know he'll be back stronger than ever ...
"At the moment I am not at my best performances, but I try to give more and do my best when the boss puts me on the pitch. If I continue to work hard in training, then I am confident I can get to my best," the Ivory Coast international said.
He told Arsenal TV Online ahead of Sunday's home game against Liverpool: "I do not know why the fans did not back me, but that is football and you cannot do anything about it.
"They pay money to watch Arsenal to win. Then when we do not play well, not give our best performances on the pitch, they are very angry.
"I do not blame them, and I hope they will all come out to support us on Sunday, when we will try to do our best and try to win the game for them.
"I try to forget that now. I was disappointed, but I am happy now.
"After the game, my friends gave me a ring and helped me a lot. The next day in training, I saw the boss and he gave me confidence.
"Now I am feeling very well. I am going to try to give my best every time in training and to get confidence, then if I play in the next game, I will give my best."
Arsenal's traveling fans backed Eboue in the subsequent Champions League clash in Porto, which lifted the Ivory Coast international.
He added: "Before the Porto match, I said to myself I was going to do that for the fans because they know me, they know I can give more for the team."When we went there, I was very happy because the fans were singing my name - that made me really happy and gave me more power on the pitch."
MY POV: Poor Eboue! You have to feel for the lad, who'd been injured for a bit before the booing episode. I'm confident Emmanuel will lift his spirits in the coming weeks and be back stronger than ever.
But what's up with Arsenal's fans? Talk about giving the word 'supporter' a new definition ... not too much support for their player in that video eh?
Oh, that was disappointing ...
Egypt's Al Ahly finished sixth at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan on Thursday after suffering a 1-0 defeat against Adelaide United of Australia.
Brazilian Cristiano scored a 25-yard screamer in the 7th minute to ensure that the African champions finish last at this year's tournament.
After stripping an Ahly defender of the ball, Cristiano rifled a right-footed blast from the top of the area past goalkeeper Amir Abdelhamid.
Mohamed Barakat had the best scoring chance for the Egyptians in the 83rd minute when he fired from 25 yards out only to have Adelaide goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic make a brilliant diving save.
The six-time African champions were ragged and couldn't keep possession, but they woke up after influential Adelaide star Diego was forced off after 24 minutes with a knee injury.
His departure sparked the Egyptians into life and they had a series of chances to draw level, with Angola's Flavio getting another fine opportunity as the Egyptians pressed hard for the equalizer.Ahly kicked off the second period with a new determination and dominated the opening 20 minutes but, as in the first half, their finishing was suspect and they failed to convert numerous chances.
Adelaide grimly hung on with goalkeeper and captain Galekovic rescuing them with a fine reflex save from Barakat as the clock ticked down.
The Egyptians came to Japan full of lofty ambitions, hoping to do at least as well as they had done at this tournament in 2006, when they finished third. Two years on, and the dream has turned into a nightmare.
"In Egypt, people think that Al Ahly are the best team in the world. We need to show some humility," said Ahly coach Manuel Jose after his team's second defeat. "Expectations are far too high, we need to be more realistic."
"Throughout the match, we didn't have enough scoring opportunities," said Jose.
"We were nervous and couldn't keep up with Adelaide."
"My players gave their all," added coach Jose. "They (Adelaide) played pretty well too, so the result was a little unfair. We could probably have played a little better, but the pressure was too great and my players just couldn't handle it."
Ahly star Gomaa felt his team owed the club's supporters an improved display should they qualify for the event once more: "It's a real disappointment for our fans, so I hope for their sake that we'll be back and that we'll do better next time."
Adelaide lost 1-0 to Japan's Gamba Osaka in the quarter-finals while Al Alhy lost 4-2 to Mexico's Pachuca.
European champion Manchester United defeated Gamba Osaka 5-3 in a semi-final later on Thursday.The Red Devils advanced to face Ecuador's Liga de Quito in Sunday's final.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Disappointment reigns for Egypt's Al Ahly this morning as the African Champions crashed out of the FIFA Club World Cup, losing 4-2 to Mexico's Pachuca.
Ahly took the lead through a Fausto Pinto own goal in the 28th minute.
Flavio then made it 2-0 with a goal on the counter-attack just before half-time, but Pachuca came storming back after the interval.
Luis Montes reduced their deficit on 47 minutes and Christian Gimenez curled home a free-kick after 73 minutes to send the game to extra time.
The Mexican team moved 3-2 ahead thanks to Damian Alvarez's smart finish in the 98th minute and Gimenez drilled home his second to secure victory.
Pachuca go on to face South American champions Liga de Quito of Ecuador in the semi finals.
The next match in the tournament sees Adelaide United facing Gamba Osaka on Sunday, with the winners playing Manchester United.
Afterwards, Ahly coach Manuel Jose said inexperience and the weight of expectation back home in Egypt was behind his team's defeat.
"We couldn't play our normal game. My players were under heavy pressure in our country and I think they felt heavy responsibility. My players are still not mature enough," Jose said after Saturday's defeat.
"They have not grown up enough as players. They lack experience in international competitions. I'm responsible," he added.
"We couldn't play our best in the first half and still we ended 2-0 at half time. But I can't accept the fact that a team like us loses a goal in only two minutes (into the second half)," said Jose.
"After that goal, Pachuca gathered momentum and started to fight back thinking they would be able to win. It caused us to lose another goal," lamented Jose.
Skipper Shady Mohamed said: "We could have won if the game was 45 minutes. We must think over why we couldn't keep the lead."
MY POV: Tough break for the Egyptians, who came in thinking they could do some damage in this year's tournament. Better luck next time.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Tomorrow sees the return of the world's biggest club football match: Real Madrid-Barcelona.
There's nothing quite like it in the world of professional football.
Pageantry. A true despise and hatred for each other. A frenetic atmosphere. An idealogical clash between 'good and evil.'
It has a little bit of everything ... and then some.
I can not wait for this match!
Real Madrid are undergoing massive change these days, letting coach Bernd Schuster go in favor of former Sevilla and Tottenham skipper Juande Ramos.
Meanwhile, Barcelona are coasting. After destroying Valencia (my beloved club) 4-0 last weekend, Barca look unstoppable. Samuel Eto'o is the league's leading scorer, new coach Pep Guardiola has instilled a fresh philosophy to the club and they have some guy named Lionel Messi who just happens to be very good ...
This match has it all ... as Sky Sports journalist Guillem Balague says in his preview of the match:
What else is there left to say? This is Barca-Real after all. As (Barca president Joan) Laporta said in our interview this week, there is no other sporting spectacle like it in the world. More clichés? Why not. This is more than a game. This is the ultimate grudge match. This is history. A clash of the Titans. For everyone in Spain it represents a variety of conflicting symbols: two nations; two great sporting institutions; two worldviews; two philosophies or even just two football teams. Wherever you come from, it means something different, but wherever you are, it matters.Very, very true ... it is the Game of Games. The Big Show. The irresistible force vs. the immovable object ... shall I go on?
Here, a smorgasbord of highlights from previous Classico's ...
First off, remember the day Ronaldhino was cheered at Madrid's Bernabeau?
Remember Luis Figo's first time at the Nou Camp wearing the white shirt of Real Madrid? I'm sure he'll never forget ...
What's it like in the Nou Camp before the match?
How have the last 10 Classico's gone? Check out this review, in Spanish ...
For a preview of the match, make sure to click here. And here.
What does Spain's prime minister think of the match? 5-1? No me digas!
What do the fans think ahead of the big one?
Al Ahly are in Japan for the FIFA Club World Cup and while they hold allusions of winning the tournament this time around, their anxiety is beginning to show.
Yesterday, Ahly coach Manuel Jose accused their first-round opponents, Mexico's Pachuca, of sending spies to their training camp.
"Three spies from Pachuca came to inspect our practice today," he said.
"It's not fair. We didn't watch their practice. It's not fair."
Jose stressed the importance of his team achieving a good result in their opening game.
"[Saturday's] game is the same as the final for Al Ahly and Pachuca," he said.
"The losers will go to a playoff for fifth and sixth places. It's a very important game."Jose also stressed how difficult it is for teams outside of Europe and South America to advance in the tournament.
Days ago, he claimed his side were only aiming for third place in the competition.
"For the European and South American clubs, they just go to a third-place play-off even if they lose. They can reach the final by winning only one game. Anyway, we just go into the match thinking it's the final," he said.
Talking about their Mexican opponents, the Portuguese-based coach said, "Pachuca change their tactics quite often and they also want to have a better result than they did last year, but I think we are more comfortable, because we know each other very well and we have the same 3-5-2 formation."
Pachuca have not yet responded to Jose's spying accusations, focusing instead on gaining "revenge" after losing to Etoile last year.
"We believe in revenge," Pachuca's Argentine striker Bruno Marioni said.
"We are thinking about playing in a final against Manchester United. For now, we will fight this match in front of us as if it was a final." Honestly, we feel we lost for no reasons last year," Pachuca coach Enrique Meza added.
"We aim to take the first match this year, as a matter of course, and go still higher - up to the top spot."
The winners face South American champions Liga de Quito (LDU) of Ecuador in the semi-finals on Wednesday, with the victors in that match progressing to likely meet Manchester United in the final.
MY POV: Breathe in, breath out Mr. Jose! No need to get too crazy about this match!
It's evident that Jose and Ahly are taking this tournament very seriously. While that's understandable, the team needs to focus on the game and not on conspiracy theories.
Ahly is more than capable of making it to the final - provided they lay off the caffeine and RELAX!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Put those thoughts of the 2010 World Cup in the USA, England or Germany out of your mind ...
"Plan B is dead," Danny Jordaan, head of the World Cup local organizing committee told reporters in Johannesburg in a year-end review of preparations for the tournament.
Jordaan was referring to speculation earlier this year that FIFA, soccer's world governing body could yank the World Cup from South Africa if the country was deemed ill-prepared to become the first African host of the tournament.
FIFA president Joseph Blatter's admission in June that FIFA had a 'Plan B' when it came to the host nation made for sensational headlines.
By now, the skeptics, mostly Europeans, have been proved wrong, according to Jordaan.
All 10 World Cup stadiums - five new, five upgraded - will be ready on time, he said.
Having said this, the cost will be higher than forecast due in part to a weaker rand.
"All of the stadiums will be complete and there is no doubt about that," Jordaan told a news conference.
"Some of the (construction) materials will be procured outside the country. As the rand weakens, there will be some cost overruns," he said, noting that the price of oil added another layer of unpredictability to the process.
Rising prices for imported cement, steel and other key building materials and higher labor costs have wreaked havoc on the stadium construction budget, leading to a 3.2 billion rand ($314 million) shortfall.
Local organizers are concerned about keeping the budget from spinning out of control and finding the funds to meet the shortfall, which the South African government has already pledged 1.4 billion rand towards.
South Africa expects 480,000 visitors for the World Cup, which starts on June 11, 2010, and hopes the month-long finals will spur tourism and investment in Africa's richest economy.
MY POV: Good for South Africa. About time they showered good news on the non-believers around the world.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Egypt's Al Ahly are now in Asia, ready to face the world's best clubs in the FIFA Club World Cup, the FIFA-sanctioned club world championship played every year in Japan.
Although England's Manchester United are favored, the reigning African champions have a ton of confidence.
*They recently won their record sixth African championship, beating Cameroon's Coton Sport 4-2 on aggregate.
*They're reigning Egyptian champions, winning the title the past 4 years and 33 times overall. *They're 35-time champions of the Egyptian Cup.
*And in 2000, they were named the African Club of the Century by the Confederation of African Football.
They're doing quite all right, I'd say.
This week, Ahly hopes to show the world what they're made of. Ahly have qualified for the Club World Cup three times and this time, they hope to advance and win the championship.
At a press conference in Egypt before their departure, the team brimmed with confidence.
Ahly club chairman Hassan Hamdi said, "These are the glory years of Al Ahly, whose name is now carved within the world's best teams. The staff have done a brilliant job. We are now eager for more. The club officials and fans are confident the team can show more progress this time."
Portuguese coach Manuel Jose says the team is highly ambitious.
"This year there is huge responsibility because everyone expects us to go further than the third place we achieved in 2006, which was also an improvement from the previous year in 2005, when we lost our two games and came last. We dream of winning the cup, and we are working on making the dream a reality."
"The players shouldn't be under pressure. They should just concentrate on the ball and on achieving their goal. It is not going to be easy and we will have to fight. We will display our best because we want to show the world that Al Ahly is a world-class team, a team capable of competing against the world's elite clubs and for the title as well."
(Having said that, take a look at this quote from England's The Daily Telegraph attributed to Jose: "For an African club to finish third in this competition resembles winning the title," Portugal-born Ahly coach Manuel Jose said.
"We will do our best to represent Africa and Egypt well, but our supporters must be aware there is a big gap between football in South America and Europe and football in Africa. Winning the Club World Cup is an impossible task for now. We need more time to achieve that goal."
Hmm ... )
Ahly captain Shady Mohamed admitted the players are determined to make an impression. "This team have achieved many unprecedented achievements, like winning the African Champions League six times and qualifying for Japan three times," he explained.
"So we need to prove to the world that we deserve to be among the elite, and that we are the best representatives for African football. We want to reach the final and hope we can return home with the title. We need to focus more on our first game. Winning our opener will give us more confidence to progress in the competition until we win it."
The hopes of the Cairo giants rest at the mercurial feet of Mohamed Aboutrika, who thrilled audiences at the 2006 edition of the Cup. However, the 30-year-old insisted his side's chances hinge of the players' collective performances. "Football is a team sport, no one can play alone," he said.
"I'm not the star of the team - the team is the star, that's what Mr. Jose tells us. I don't care about individual achievements because only team achievements remain in the memory of the fans, and I'm part of the team."Ahly's path to the final looks kind of easy.
Should Ahly see off the challenge of Mexico’s Pachuca in the first round, they will play the beatable Ecuadorian side Liga Deportiva Universitaria (LDU) de Quito in the semifinals, just one step away from a likely meeting with Manchester United, Europe's reigning champions.
The tournament runs from December 11th to December 21st. The Cup's contested between the champion clubs from all six continental confederations, although, since 2007, the champions of Oceania must play a qualifying play-off against the champion club of the host country.
Ahly's been in the tournament three times.
The first trip in 2005 proved a major disappointment as they lost 1-0 in the quarterfinals to Saudi Arabian side Al Ittihad, before succumbing 2-1 in the fifth-place play-off to Sydney FC. The following year they did much better, finishing the competition in third place.
They beat New Zealanders Auckland City 2-0 in the quarterfinals, before losing out 2-1 to the eventual winners, Brazilian club Internacional. They ensured the competition would be deemed a success, however, when they clinched third thanks to an excellent 2-1 win over Club América of Mexico.Besides Ahly, this year's Cup features Manchester United; Mexican club Pachuca, who have won the last two editions of the CONCACAF Champions League and Ecuadorian side Liga Deportiva Universitaria (LDU) de Quito, champions of South America.
Japan's Gamba Osaka, winners of the 2008 AFC Champions League will represent the J-League, while the losing finalists, Australia's Adelaide United, will also be there to represent Asia.
The line-up is completed by the OFC Champions League winners Waitakere United of New Zealand. Matches are played at three venues in Tokyo, Toyota City and Yokohama.
For a break-down of the match-ups, please click here.
What does ESPN's Soccernet.com think of Ahly's chances?
Al Ahly (Egypt; Africa/CAF)Good luck Ahly! We here at Road to 2010 are pulling for you!!!
Who are they? Africa's most successful club, the Egyptian side dominated last year winning the league and African Champions League double. Portuguese coach Manuel Jose has now led the club to four of their six Champions League successes and the club boast a number of players who have starred for Egypt in their back-to-back African Nations Cup wins. They are also nicknamed 'The Red Devils' and came third at the tournament two years ago.
Captain? Shady Mohamed. The sudden departure of goalkeeper and former skipper Essam El Hadary to FC Sion shocked the club, but Mohamed has the experience and toughness to succeed in the position. A quick central defender with outstanding fitness, he will have to be at his best to get Al Ahly into the finals.
Player to watch? Mohamed Aboutrika. The outstanding performer of the 2008 African Nations Cup, Aboutrika runs the midfield with his creativity and skill on the ball. Providing a potent goalscoring threat from behind the strikers, if "The Smiling Assassin" is on top form then his club could go far.
Monday, December 8, 2008
As if Real Madrid's luck isn't bad enough these days, word out of the Berbabeu today doesn't help things.
Mali midfielder Mahamadou Diarra will be sidelined for six to nine months after undergoing knee surgery, the club announced today.
Not good news ahead of this weekend's clash with arch-rivals FC Barcelona, who just whopped my favorite club's behind 4-0.
Diarra sustained the injury to his right knee while playing for Mali against Chad in October.
He was initially out of action for two weeks before returning for Real.
A month later, however, he aggravated the injury in a league game and an X-ray last week confirmed he would need arthroscopic surgery.
Diarra will be missed by the Spanish champions and also by Mali, as he will be absent for the opening matches of their final round of qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup and African Cup of Nations, which begin in March.
MY POV: Having Diarra on the squad probably wouldn't help Madrid all that much against the FC Barca juggernaut, who look unstoppable at this point in the season. Still, major blow for the Spanish capital's team and for Mali, who will miss the midfielder greatly ...
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
As we close in on the time to select an African Player of the Year, how about Egypt's Mohamed Aboutrika?
Aboutrika sports an excellent resume: he's won 2 African Cup of Nations with Egypt, won 3 African Champions Leagues with Egyptian club team Al Ahly and conquered 4 league titles with the Egyptian powerhouse.
On top of that, he's heralded as 'the Egyptian Zinedine Zidane for his technical skill and excellent vision of the field.' Nice comparisons, eh?
As Aboutrika's Wikipedia entry says, 'Aboutrika's contribution came not only in finding the net but also in creating from his playmaking role behind the strikers. His offensive skills were best demonstrated in his timing, as he often chose the right moment to come forward for shots on goal. He has recently been dubbed "The Smiling Assassin" by foreign media because of his two main trademarks: goalscoring and smiling. He is renowned in Egypt for his modest personality and kind heart. His trade mark celebration after a goal is to prostrate on the ground in submission and praise of Allah.'
So why is the man not on the short list for FIFA World Player of the Year?
Good question and one I can't answer ... it seems Aboutrika fills all the requirements, winning titles and excelling in his role.
The Guardian's Paul Doyle questions this and France Football's awarding of the Ballon d'Or, their annual award for best player of the year (won by Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo this season) in an article this week ... It's a great read and makes the case for Mohamed Aboutrika ...
Something to keep in mind when voting for your BBC African Player of the Year? Hmm ...
But for the strongest claim of all we should look to an inspirational player who is the creative fulcrum of both his club and his country, with whom he this season achieved everything he possibly could. He won his domestic championship and the African champions league with his club while taking the continental crown with his country, even scoring the winner in the final, his fourth goal of a tremendous tournament. Scandalously, the France Football editorial team who selected the 30 players for whom their worldwide panel of journalists are allowed to vote overlooked the Al Ahly and Egypt playmaker Mohamed Aboutrika.
Fifa won't compensate for this offensive anomaly. Their shortlist doesn't include Aboutrika either. Nor anyone else from Egypt's recent vintage. Hardly surprising given that Fifa doesn't even rank Egypt, winners of the last two African Cups of Nations, as the best team in Africa. Not enough Europe-based players, perhaps.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
First off, the dive in the Columbian league game, perpetrated by Atletico Juniors' Emerson Acuna.
Are you kiddin' me?? The guy's miles from the defender! And the referee called a penalty?!?
Next up, a compendium of the worst dives of the 2006 World Cup, as narrated by the folks of ESPN's Sportscenter.
Pay particular attention to Cristiano Ronaldo's flop job, Asamoah Gyan's dramatics and Cristian Zacccardo's awful acting job against Australia ...
Finally, some of the worst dives in football history ... who can forget Gilardino's efforts for AC Milan in the first excerpt of the clip, Rivaldo's Oscar-winning performance in the 2002 World Cup and Brazilian 'keeper Duda's spectacular skills against a Celtic supporter ... great stuff ...
Monday, December 1, 2008
It's that time of year again, dear readers.
Time to vote for the 2008 BBC African Player of the Year!
This year's candidates are ...
Mohamed Aboutrika (Egypt, Al Ahly)
Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo, Arsenal)
Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast, Chelsea)
Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon, Barcelona)
Amr Zaki (Egypt, Wigan)
The BBC canvassed football experts across Africa to compile the shortlist.
Last year's winner was Emmanuel Adebayor of Arsenal and Togo, who used the award to launch his so-called 'Tour of Hope' back to his home country.
Previous BBC African Footballers of the Year include Michael Essien, Jay-Jay Okocha and El-Hadji Diouf.
The award is decided by the fans, so get yourself to the link and get voting!
You can vote for your choice until January 9 and the winner will be announced a week later.
MY POV: For my money, Aboutrika is the player of the year. 4 goals in the 2008 Cup of Nations coupled with an African Champions League trophy with club team Al Ahly wraps up the award for him ... let's see what the fans think! | <urn:uuid:a9f79cd6-c158-4faa-b86a-5da8d827e404> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.roadto2010final.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html | 2013-05-20T22:32:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966084 | 6,330 |
Preston Bissett Nurseries and Country Shop
I feel I must mention rhubarb as I was born the the very famous Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle.
Its the idea time to get going with rhubarb. The Crowns are just starting to shoot. Mulch around them (not over the crown) to warm and protect them ideally with farm yard manure but some like to use other mulching products like straw, leaves or composts and if you want an early crop pop a rhubarb forcer on top and mulch around the outside of the pot. The crown don't want to be over wet or they will rot and the usual fungal problems will occur.A good mulch around the pot will keep the rhubarb warm and it will leach goodness into the roots.
Rhubarb Forcers block out the light and encourage long shoots more quickly than when growing conventionally.
Don't try and force the same crown each year. Have a few and alternate. They get tired.
Old plants do need lifting and splitting every few years. If there is a really long old rhizome tap root in your crown its best cropped off just replant the younger shoots and roots.
Other varieties also available from Preston Bissett Nurseries
One more tip. Rhubarb is sometime planted with brassicas successfully never with legumes. Strawberries and rhubarb will grow also happily together and I think make a good combination and use of space.
Why have a hedge?
Without doubt there are huge benefits in having a hedge for a boundary rather than a fence or a wall.
·They act as wind and sound breaks. Sheltering the garden from winds, filtering us from noise.
·Hedges support many species of wild life.
·They are economical as their durability to the elements and life span exceeds fences and wall.
·They can be beautiful, reflecting the seasons and providing a canvas to enhance other plants
How to choose the right hedge for your garden.
Do you want the hedge to be purely ornamental
All one variety or mixture of species.
Formal or informal
Dwarf or Tall
Is it to be a strong boundary to hold live stock at bay.
Is the site exposed? Consider the growing conditions.
These are the sort of considerations which will help you determine which variety or varieties of hedge to plant.
The choice of suitable hedge species is vast and the appearance equally varied. Here are some suggested native varieties :
CrataegusHawthorn (Hedge Thorn, Quick Thorn, May Tree) This is the most common form of hedge in the UK. It grows quickly. Its tough and it produces red berries(Haws). The prickles make it a strong barrier. This is deciduous hedge that mixes well with other species.
Prunus spinoseaBlackthorn It is slower growing than Hawthorn but it benefits from being extremely strong and impenetrable. The stems traditionally make perfect walking sticks. A deciduous thorny plant, related to the plum. Black sloes are excellent for making Gin.
Corylus avellana Hazel This is deciduous. It grows very dense. Strong flexible stems make it idea wood for building hurdles.It is noted for lovely catkins and cobs(hazel nuts)
Fagus sylvatica Common Beach A golden brown hedge. Easy to maintain as a formal boundary with regular clipping. The leaves persist quite well through the autumn and into the winter. Slow to establish and does not establish well in wet heavy ground but it is great in all other situations. It certainly makes one of the beast hedges around.
Carpinus Hornbeam. This can create a good robust screen. Ideal where a fairly wide hedge is required. It copes well in clay or chalk soils. Autumn leaves usually remain attached until spring. Catkins appear in late spring followed by clusters of winged nutlets.
Acer Campestre Maple Hardy and attractive. The wood is has tough ribbed bark often used for carving. The foliage is a rich golden colour in the Autumn. Small yellowy green flowers open with the leaves in late spring later producing winged fruits we call helicopters! It grows well in limestone areas.
Viburnum opulus sterile (Guelda Rose,Snow ball tree) This makes a strong hedge. Plants producing globular white flowers in June, followed by bunches of red berries(which the birds absolutely love.) Rich Autumn leaf colour.
Euonymus europa Spindle A quick growing deciduous variety. White flowers are produced in summer. This has very attractive Autumn foliage and rather dainty unusual red pink fruits with orange seeds. It will thrive in most soils.
Rosa canina Dog Rose A wild rose. This is very fast growing native plant. Very hardy with a strong growing habit .It has a single pink or white flowers, followed by hips in the Autumn.
Cornus Dog wood A deciduous shrub that has very attractive red, yellow or lime green stems to admire in winter. Leaves can be green, silver and variegated some turning red in Autumn..
A Saxon Hedge In recent year we have seen a revival in the original Saxon hedge. This is a mixture of native plants which in the right blend provide a good balance between a strong boundary and an attractive wild life habitat. Ideally it should contain 50% Hawthorn,20% Blackthorn,10% Field Maple, 5 % Hazel, 5% Dog Rose (Rosa Canina) 5% Viburnum Opulus (Guelda Rose) and 5% Spindle( Euonymus europa) Recommended planting instructions4 plants per meter (3.25ft), in a double row at staggered spacing of 45cm apart (1.5ft) This rule applies to most bare rooted hedging. Encourage root growth and establishment by planting with fish blood and bone meal and where the structure needs improving enhance it with soil conditioner.
Lonicera nitidia Chinese honeysuckleA very popular hedge. It has small glossy dark green leaves. Establishing quickly. The growth is soft, making this an easy hedge to penetrate if you push against it for this reason it is often grown in front of a fence. It makes a good screen rather than strong boundary.
Aucuba japonica This has large laurel like spotted yellow leaves or green leaves. Both male and female plants to get berries but the female plants tends to produce most fruit. It grows very successfully in sun and dense shade and in any soil. Plant every.9m (3ft) It grows to 2.5m (8ft)
Ceanothus Californian Lilac Beautiful blue flower and small rich glossy green leaves. Most varieties flower in May and June. Suits a more sheltered position. Plant every 9m (3ft) Eventual height is 3m (9ft).
Escalonia Dense glossy green Leaves work well as a wind break. This flowers very freely in the summer with pink red or white flowers. It thrives in any soil. Plant every.9m (3ft) grows to 2.5m (8ft).Ilex aquifolium Holly This is a slow growing but makes an impenetrable evergreen hedge. Usually the female plants bear the berries. It can produce good garden interest in dark green variegated, silver and yellow varieties. Plant every .8m (2.5ft)
Elaegnus Medium to large foliage shrubs available in evergreen and deciduous varieties. Silver, yellow and variegated foliage varieties. Grows to 3m (9ft) planted at.9m (3ft) spacing
Photinias Noted for there rich red new growth. Leathery shiny leaves similar to a Rhododendron.A tough large growing shrub. Very attractive red new leaves in spring. Grows 3m(9ft) at 9m(3ft) spacing.
Prunus LustaniciaPortuguese Laurel .
These frequently make good tall thick foliage hedges. Excellent for privacy. Upright in habit with small dark green leaves and red stems.They will grow to 3m(9ft)at 9m(3ft)spacing.
Laurocerasus Common Laurel. Glossy oval pointed leaves producing white flowers in spring. Very bushy and hardy and will grow in all soils except waterlogged sites.They will grow to 4m(13ft) planted at 9m(3ft)
Marbled White. A very pretty variety with white markings on the leaves.Bushy and tough .Growing to 2.5m(8ft) planted at 8m(2.5ft)spacing.
Viburnum Tinus A reliable old favourite found in most Church yards. Medium sized dark green leaves. White or pink blossom in early spring. It’s grows around .45m(1.5ft) a year. Grows in sunny or part shade conditions and likes moist soil. Plant 80cm 2.5 ft apart.
Ligustrum ovafoluim Privet Semi evergreen ,deep green leaves ideal formal hedge. Suits almost all soils. Golden Privet is a good alternative with its bright foliage. Plant every 45m(1.5ft) apart. It grows to 2.5m(8ft).
Taxus Baccata (common yew) The English yews commonly seen in churchyards make one of the best long-lived dividing hedge. It provides a dark background for flower beds and borders.Plant 75cm (2.5 ft0
Cotoneaster. A large family of deciduous and evergreen varieties grown for their remarkable display of berries in the autumn. Small white flowers in June. Plant every 9m(3ft).
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Leah A. BILYEU, Plaintiff-counter-defendant Appellant, v. MORGAN STANLEY LONG TERM DISABILITY PLAN; Morgan Stanley Long Term Disability Plan Administrator, Defendants–Appellees, First Unum Life Insurance Company, Defendant-counter-claimant Appellee.
Argued and Submitted Aug. 29, 2011. -- June 20, 2012
Randolph G. Bachrach, Chandler, AZ; Kevin Koelbel (argued), Chandler, AZ, for the appellant.Ann Martha Andrews, Kristina N. Holmstrom and Lawrence Kasten (argued), Lewis and Roca LLP, Phoenix, AZ, for the appellee.
Leah A. Bilyeu appeals the district court's dismissal of her claim challenging the termination of her long-term disability benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. § 1132. Bilyeu also challenges the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of First Unum Life Insurance Company (Unum) on Unum's counterclaim for restitution of overpaid benefits. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we vacate and remand.
We vacate the judgment in favor of Unum on Bilyeu's claim for denial of benefits. We hold that the district court abused its discretion by dismissing this claim for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. The exhaustion requirement should have been excused because Bilyeu acted reasonably in light of Unum's ambiguous communications and failure to engage in a meaningful dialogue.
We also vacate the judgment in favor of Unum on Unum's counterclaim for reimbursement of overpaid long-term disability benefits. Unum has not shown that it is seeking equitable relief because it has not satisfied the elements for an equitable lien by agreement, which is the only form of equitable relief Unum has asserted. These elements are not satisfied because the particular fund subject to the lien, having been dissipated, is no longer in Bilyeu's possession. Unum thus seeks only the imposition of personal liability against Bilyeu, to be paid out of her general assets. That is quintessentially legal, rather than equitable, relief.
Bilyeu was employed by Discover Financial Services from 1987 through April 2004. Compl. ¶ 8. Morgan Stanley Long–Term Disability Plan (the Plan) provides benefits for long-term disabilities to Discover employees. Id. ¶¶ 4–5. Unum is the Plan's claim administrator, and also the insurer and payor of Plan benefits. Id. ¶¶ 6–7.
Alleging she suffered from several medical conditions that prevented her from materially performing the duties of any occupation, Bilyeu filed a long-term disability (LTD) claim with Unum in April 2004. Id. ¶¶ 9–10. These conditions included Behçet's disease, fatigue and anxiety. Id. ¶¶ 12–18; Clerk's Record 13–2 at 3. Unum approved the claim in October 2004. Compl. ¶ 11. Under the Plan, benefits for disabilities arising from mental illness are limited to 24 months. Id. ¶ 19. Unum concluded that Bilyeu's disability was subject to the mental illness limitation. Id. Bilyeu disputed that conclusion. Id. ¶¶ 12–20.
Nearing the 24–month deadline, Dr. Sharon Hogan, a medical consultant for Unum, called Bilyeu's treating physician, Dr. Kenneth Proefrock, to discuss her medical condition. Clerk's Record 15.1 at 5–7. On December 6, 2006, Dr. Hogan sent a summary of the conversation to Dr. Proefrock, asking him to respond within 10 business days if he believed the letter inaccurately summarized their conversation. Id. at 6. The letter reflected disagreement between Dr. Hogan and Dr. Proefrock regarding the nature of Bilyeu's limitations. Dr. Hogan believed “Bilyeu's fatigue in large part arises from her anxiety and depression, since her Behçet's is not very active.” Id. at 6. It was Dr. Proefrock's opinion, however, “that her fatigue is mainly physical.” Id. Dr. Hogan also believed that Bilyeu “should have full-time sedentary work capacity,” an assessment with which Dr. Proefrock disagreed. Id. at 5; Clerk's Record 13–2 at 3.
On December 27, 2006, Unum sent Bilyeu a termination of benefits letter. Clerk's Record 13–2. Unum terminated benefits under the Plan provision limiting disability benefits due to mental illness to 24 months. Id. at 3. The letter reported that, although “fatigue can result from Behcet's, ․ your anxiety and depression are the more likely causes of your fatigue.” Id. It said, “because your claim is subject to a 24 month mental [illness] limitation and we have now provided 24 months of benefits, we will stop paying benefits on your claim as of December 03, 2006 and your claim will be closed at this time.” Id. at 4. The letter also recorded Unum's conclusion that “you have full time sedentary work capacity” and thus “no longer meet the definition of disability from a physical perspective.” Id. The letter noted Dr. Proefrock's contrary determination that Bilyeu was unable to return to work. Id. at 3.
The letter then advised Bilyeu:
If you have additional information to support your request for disability benefits, it must be sent to my attention for further review at the address noted on this letterhead, within 180 days of the date you receive this letter.
However, if you disagree with our determination and want to appeal this claim decision, you must submit a written appeal. This appeal must be received by us within 180 days of the date you receive this letter.
Id. at 4. The “address noted on this letterhead” was:
First Unum Life Insurance Company
The Benefits Center
PO Box 100158
Columbia, SC 29202–3158
Id. at 1.
After receiving Unum's termination of benefits letter, Bilyeu asked Dr. Proefrock to respond to the letter. Compl. ¶ 22. Dr. Proefrock did so, writing a letter to Unum on April 19, 2007. Id. ¶ 23. Dr. Proefrock's letter was addressed “To Whom It May Concern” and, it appears, faxed to 1–800–447–2498—the number listed in the letterhead of Unum's December 27, 2006 termination of benefits letter as the place to send “additional information to support your request for disability benefits.” Clerk's Record 15–1 at 2–4.
Unum construed Dr. Proefrock's letter as “new information,” but concluded that it did not “change[the] prior decision” to terminate benefits. Id. at 9. Unum, however, never communicated this conclusion to Bilyeu or, for that matter, contacted Bilyeu or Dr. Proefrock at all in response to the letter. Compl. ¶ 27.
In November 2008, Bilyeu filed a complaint against Unum, alleging that Unum wrongfully terminated benefits under the 24–month mental illness limitation because “[t]he substantial weight of the medical opinion contained in the claim file reasonably supports a finding that [her] disability is not due to ‘mental illness,’ rather, it is due to an autoimmune condition which was exacerbated by anxiety and mental/emotional stressors in [her] life.” Id. ¶ 20. The complaint sought a reinstatement of benefits under 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B). Id. at ¶ 44.
Unum filed an answer and a counterclaim. In its counterclaim, Unum sought reimbursement of overpaid long-term disability benefits. Unum alleged that it had paid Bilyeu LTD benefits subject to her promise to reimburse Unum for any overpayment arising from her receipt of disability benefits from any other source, including social security disability benefits. Answer and Counterclaim ¶¶ 5–10. Bilyeu subsequently received an award of social security benefits, resulting in an overpayment of LTD benefits in the amount of $36,597.82. Id. ¶¶ 11–12. Unum's counterclaim sought to recover the overpayment from Bilyeu. Specifically, Unum asserted a claim for equitable relief under ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(3), as well as a claim for breach of contract. Id. at 7–8.
Unum then moved to dismiss Bilyeu's denial-of-benefits claim for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. Clerk's Record 13. In that motion, Unum contended that the December 2006 termination of benefits letter required Bilyeu to file a written appeal within 180 days, which she failed to do. Id. Unum thus sought dismissal of Bilyeu's claim. The district court granted the motion, concluding that Bilyeu failed to exhaust administrative remedies and dismissing Bilyeu's claim with prejudice. Clerk's Record 21 at 7.
Unum then filed a motion for summary judgment on its counterclaim for reimbursement of overpaid benefits. Clerk's Record 28. Unum argued that it was entitled to relief under ERISA because it “has an equitable lien by agreement over the long-term disability benefits that it overpaid to Bilyeu.” Id. at 1. Bilyeu opposed the motion, arguing that Unum could not satisfy the requirements for an equitable lien by agreement because it could not establish that the overpaid LTD benefits remained in her possession. Clerk's Record 30 at 2. The parties stipulated that, by the time Bilyeu was awarded social security benefits, “she had dissipated at least a portion of her LTD benefits.” Joint Statement of Facts¶ 15. The district court granted Unum's motion, and it directed the clerk of court “to enter judgment in the amount of $36,597.82 in favor of [Unum].” Clerk's Record 32 at 6.
The court entered judgment and Bilyeu timely appealed. Clerk's Record 33, 35.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
The district court dismissed Bilyeu's denial-of-benefits claim under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Both parties, however, have relied on matters outside the pleadings. Consistent with circuit practice addressing exhaustion, we construe Unum's motion as an unenumerated motion to dismiss. In addressing that motion, a court may look beyond the pleadings and decide disputed issues of fact. See Payne v. Peninsula Sch. Dist., 653 F.3d 863, 881 (9th Cir.2011) (en banc); Wyatt v. Terhune, 315 F .3d 1108, 1119–20 (9th Cir.2003). We review for an abuse of discretion a district court's refusal to grant an exception to ERISA's exhaustion requirement. See Barboza v. Cal. Ass'n of Prof'l Firefighters, 651 F.3d 1073, 1076 (9th Cir.2011). We review de novo the grant or denial of summary judgment. See Russell Country Sportsmen v. U.S. Forest Serv., 668 F.3d 1037, 1041 (9th Cir.2011).
III. BILYEU'S DENIAL–OF–BENEFITS CLAIM: EXHAUSTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDIES
We hold that the district court abused its discretion by dismissing Bilyeu's denial-of-benefits claim for a failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
“ERISA itself does not require a participant or beneficiary to exhaust administrative remedies in order to bring an action under § 502 of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1132.” Vaught v. Scottsdale Healthcare Corp. Health Plan, 546 F.3d 620, 626 (9th Cir.2008). We have, however, adopted a “prudential exhaustion requirement.” Id. Thus, “[a]s a general rule, an ERISA claimant must exhaust available administrative remedies before bringing a claim in federal court.” Barboza, 651 F.3d at 1076. “However, when an employee benefits plan fails to establish or follow ‘reasonable claims procedures' consistent with the requirements of ERISA, a claimant need not exhaust because his claims will be deemed exhausted.” Id. (quoting 29 C.F.R. § 2560.503–1(l )). ERISA, moreover, requires “a meaningful dialogue between ERISA plan administrators and their beneficiaries.” Booton v. Lockheed Med. Benefit Plan, 110 F.3d 1461, 1463 (9th Cir.1997).
Here, Unum's December 27, 2006 termination of benefits letter advised Bilyeu of two courses of action, either of which she was required to undertake within 180 days: (a) providing “additional information to support your request for disability benefits” or (b) “if you disagree with our determination and want to appeal this claim decision, you must submit a written appeal.” After receiving Unum's letter, Bilyeu asked her treating physician, Dr. Proefrock, to respond, and he did so, writing a letter to Unum on April 19, 2007—well within the 180–day window required in Unum's letter. Dr. Proefrock addressed his letter “To Whom It May Concern” and faxed it to 1–800–447–2498—the number listed in the letterhead of Unum's December 27, 2006 termination of benefits letter as the place to send “additional information to support your request for disability benefits.”
Unum construed Dr. Proefrock's letter as “new information,” but concluded that it did not “change[the] prior decision” to terminate benefits. Unum, however, never communicated this conclusion to Bilyeu or, for that matter, contacted Bilyeu or Dr. Proefrock at all in response to the letter. Meanwhile, according to Unum, Bilyeu's deadline to appeal expired sometime after June 25, 2007, 180 days after the termination of benefits letter.
Under the circumstances of this case, exhaustion must be excused. Bilyeu contends that she read the termination of benefits letter as presenting two options—she could either (a) submit additional information or (b) file a written appeal. The letter was ambiguous, so Bilyeu's reading was not unreasonable. On the contrary, given that it would have made no sense to appeal the adverse benefits decision while simultaneously submitting additional medical information from her physician, as she was invited to do by Unum, her reading of the letter was entirely appropriate.
We recognize that the letter is also susceptible to the reading proffered by Unum—that Bilyeu was required to file an appeal within 180 days even if she submitted additional medical information. But the letter could have been, and should have been, much clearer on this point. Bilyeu was not represented by counsel and, we presume, had no legal training. She should not be saddled with a loss of her legal rights because she misconstrued a confusingly worded communication from her plan's claims administrator. Cf. Saffon v. Wells Fargo & Co. Long Term Disability Plan, 522 F.3d 863, 870 (9th Cir.2008) (“[The insurer's] communications with[the insured] and her doctors are hardly a model of clarity; they certainly do not explain ‘in a manner calculated to be understood by the claimant’ what [she] must do to perfect her claim.”); White v. Jacobs Eng'g Grp. Long Term Disability Benefit Plan, 896 F.2d 344, 350 (9th Cir.1990) (“When a benefits termination notice fails to explain the proper steps for appeal, the plan's time bar is not triggered.”). A communication from a claims administrator to a plan participant should clearly apprise her of her rights and obligations under the plan. Unum's letter did not do so. Nor did Bilyeu receive timely notice that Unum considered her reading of the letter to be wrong, because Unum never responded to Dr. Proefrock's timely letter.1
We hold that the district court abused its discretion by barring Bilyeu's claim.
IV. UNUM'S COUNTERCLAIM
A. Bilyeu Waived Her Argument That Unum Lacks Statutory Standing as a Fiduciary
Bilyeu argues for the first time on appeal that Unum lacks standing to seek equitable restitution under ERISA because Unum is not a plan “fiduciary.” This is a challenge to Unum's statutory standing. Cf. Leeson v. Transamerica Disability Income Plan, 671 F.3d 969, 971 (9th Cir.2012) (“Whether [the plaintiff] is a participant for purposes of ERISA is a substantive element of his claim, not a prerequisite for subject matter jurisdiction.”); Harris v. Amgen, Inc., 573 F.3d 728, 732 n. 3 (9th Cir.2009) (same); Vaughn v. Bay Envtl. Mgmt., Inc., 567 F.3d 1021, 1024 (9th Cir.2009) (same); Parker v. Bain, 68 F.3d 1131, 1138 (9th Cir.1995) (treating a plaintiff's status as a “fiduciary” under ERISA as a question of statutory standing).
Unlike constitutional standing, which is jurisdictional, we presume that statutory standing may be waived. See Leeson, 671 F.3d at 975 n. 12; cf. Pershing Park Villas Homeowners Ass'n v. United Pac. Ins. Co., 219 F.3d 895, 899 (9th Cir.2000) (distinguishing constitutional standing from prudential standing, and holding that “a party waives objections to non-constitutional standing not properly raised before the district court”); Sycuan Band of Mission Indians v. Roache, 54 F.3d 535, 538 (9th Cir.1995) (same). By failing to raise this argument before the district court, Bilyeu thus waived her challenge to Unum's standing as a fiduciary under ERISA.
B. The District Court Improperly Awarded Legal Relief
Unum paid Bilyeu long-term disability benefits pursuant to Bilyeu's agreement to reimburse Unum “any overpayment resulting from my receipt of benefits from other sources.” Joint Statement of Facts ¶ 12. The agreement stated in pertinent part:
Please pay me the disability benefit with no reduction for amounts received by other sources until a final determination of my eligibility to receive those benefits is made. I understand that this may result in an overpayment by the Insurer. I agree to notify the Insurer within 48 hours of receiving notice of any and all decisions, to supply the Insurer with a copy of the final decision, and to repay any overpayment incurred as a result of receiving any other benefits from those sources specified in the policy․
By selecting [this] Option ․, I understand that the Insurer has agreed to pay me an unreduced benefit based upon my written promise herein to pay the Insurer any overpayment resulting from my receipt of benefits from other sources, as outlined in my policy. I agree to reimburse the Insurer any such over-payment within thirty (30) days of my receipt of such funds.
If I fail to pay the Insurer the overpayment within the thirty (30) day period specified above, I understand that the Insurer may reduce future payments under the policy in order to recover the overpaid benefits.
I also understand that I shall be liable to the Insurer for the full amount of any such overpayment, plus applicable statutory interest, and for all reasonable costs (including attorney's fees) of collection of the overpaid benefits.
Id. Bilyeu subsequently received social security disability benefits, but did not reimburse Unum. Id.¶¶ 16–19. Unum filed a counterclaim for reimbursement of the overpaid benefits.
Ordinarily, a contracting party in Unum's position would file a claim for breach of contract and seek relief in the form of a judgment for money damages.2 Under ERISA, however, a plan fiduciary such as Unum can seek only “equitable relief” from a plan participant such as Bilyeu. 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(3)(B). Section 1132(a) provides:
A civil action may be brought ․ (3) by a participant, beneficiary, or fiduciary (A) to enjoin any act or practice which violates any provision of this subchapter or the terms of the plan, or (B) to obtain other appropriate equitable relief (i) to redress such violations or (ii) to enforce any provisions of this subchapter or the terms of the plan.
29 U.S.C. § 1132(a) (emphasis added). Unum therefore cannot sue for damages under ERISA; it must show that it is seeking equitable relief.
Unum contends it has made this showing because it is seeking an equitable lien by agreement. Clerk's Record 28 at 1, 6–7; Answering Brief at 36. The Supreme Court has recognized an equitable lien by agreement as a form of “equitable relief” authorized by § 1132(a)(3)(B). See Sereboff v. Mid Atl. Med. Servs., Inc., 547 U.S. 356, 364–65 (2006).3 The only question, therefore, is whether Unum has satisfied the requirements for an equitable lien by agreement in this case. We begin by summarizing Sereboff.
The Sereboffs were beneficiaries of a health insurance plan governed by ERISA and administered by Mid Atlantic. See id. at 359. The plan provided for payment of covered medical expenses, subject to an “Acts of Third Parties” provision requiring a beneficiary to reimburse Mid Atlantic in the event of recovery from a third-party tortfeasor. See id. This provision applied when a beneficiary was sick or injured as a result of the act or omission of another person or party, and required a beneficiary who received benefits under the plan for such injuries to reimburse Mid Atlantic for those benefits from all recoveries from a third party, whether by lawsuit, settlement or otherwise. See id. After the Sereboffs were injured in an automobile accident and the plan paid their medical expenses, the Sereboffs recovered a tort settlement from third parties. See id. at 360. Mid Atlantic filed suit under ERISA seeking to recover their medical payments from the Sereboffs' tort recovery. See id. The Sereboffs agreed to set aside from the tort recovery a sum equal to the amount Mid Atlantic claimed, and to preserve that sum in a segregated investment account pending the outcome of the suit. See id.
The Supreme Court held that Mid Atlantic could enforce the terms of the Acts of Third Parties provision through an equitable lien by agreement—“the familiar rul[e] of equity that a contract to convey a specific object even before it is acquired will make the contractor a trustee as soon as he gets a title to the thing.” Id. at 363–64 (alteration in original) (quoting Barnes v. Alexander, 232 U.S. 117, 121 (1914)) (internal quotation marks omitted). Sereboff's promise to reimburse Mid Atlantic from any recovery from a third party created a lien upon that recovery as soon as it was created. See id. at 364. Mid Atlantic was allowed to follow a portion of the tort recovery into the Sereboffs' hands, and to impose upon that portion an equitable lien. See id.
The Court also made clear that, to satisfy the requirements for an equitable lien by agreement, Mid Atlantic was not required to trace the funds in the Sereboffs' tort recovery back to Mid Atlantic's own possession. See id. at 364–65. The Sereboffs had argued that “strict tracing rules” applied to a claim for equitable restitution. See Reply Brief for Petitioners at 8–11, Sereboff v. Mid Atl. Med. Servs., Inc., 547 U.S. 356 (2006) (No. 05–260), 2006 WL 717048 at *8–11. They maintained that Mid Atlantic could not satisfy those tracing rules because its “claim is not for return of particular money that the Plan paid to the Sereboffs,” but rather was a claim to “recover new money paid out by third parties.” Id. at 9.
The Court declined to say whether a rule requiring the plaintiff to trace the fund or property back to the plaintiff's own possession would apply to a claim for equitable restitution. That question was beside the point, because Mid Atlantic was seeking an equitable lien by agreement, not equitable restitution. With regard to an equitable lien by agreement, the Court held that “no tracing requirement of the sort asserted by the Sereboffs applies.” Sereboff, 547 U .S. at 365 (emphasis added). The Court's decision in Barnes confirmed that this was the case: “The plaintiffs in Barnes could not identify an asset they originally possessed, which was improperly acquired and converted into property the defendant held, yet that did not preclude them from securing an equitable lien” over a specifically identified fund. Id. The Court did not purport to do away with the long established principle that an equitable lien by agreement applies only to “particular funds or property in the defendant's possession.” CIGNA Corp. v. Amara, 131 S.Ct. 1866, 1879 (2011) (second emphasis added) (quoting Great–West Life & Annuity Ins. Co. v. Knudson, 534 U.S. 204, 213 (2002)) (internal quotation marks omitted).
As relevant here, we read Sereboff as establishing at least three criteria for securing an equitable lien by agreement in an ERISA action. First, there must be a promise by the beneficiary to reimburse the fiduciary for benefits paid under the plan in the event of a recovery from a third party. Second, the reimbursement agreement must “specifically identif[y] a particular fund, distinct from the [beneficiary's] general assets,” from which the fiduciary will be reimbursed. Id. at 364. Third, the funds specifically identified by the fiduciary must be “within the possession and control of the [beneficiary].” Id. at 363.
1. Here, the first criterion is clearly satisfied. Bilyeu does not dispute that she promised to reimburse Unum for an overpayment of long-term disability benefits arising from her receipt of benefits from other sources, including social security disability benefits.
2. It is less clear whether the second criterion is satisfied. Unum contends that the reimbursement agreement specifically identified the overpaid long-term disability benefits as the particular fund, distinct from Bilyeu's general assets, from which it is to be reimbursed. In Unum's view, once Bilyeu received her social security disability benefits, the specifically identified fund-the overpaid long-term disability benefits—came into existence, and Unum was allowed to impose a lien against that fund. This argument is plausible, but problematic. Unlike the third party tort recovery in Sereboff and the contingency fee in Barnes, the overpaid disability benefits are not a particular fund, but a specific amount of money encompassed within a particular fund—the long-term disability benefits Unum paid to Bilyeu. As an amount of money, the overpayment is specific. As property or as a fund, however, the overpayment is lacking in specificity because it is an undifferentiated component of a larger fund. The overpayment has never existed as a distinct object or fund. See 53 C.J.S. Liens § 19 (2012) (“In order that an equitable lien may arise by contract, the agreement of the parties must deal with some specific property, and it is also essential that the property or fund intended to be appropriated or charged should be identified or described with a reasonable degree of certainty.” (emphasis added) (footnote omitted)); 4 John Norton Pomeroy, A Treatise on Equity § 1235, p. 696 (5th ed.1941) (explaining that an equitable lien applies to “some particular property, real or personal, or fund, therein described or identified” (emphasis added)); Sereboff, 547 U.S. at 364 (holding that the requirements for an equitable lien by agreement were satisfied because the “plan specifically identified a particular fund ” (emphasis added)); Barnes, 232 U.S. at 121 (holding that “a contract to convey a specific object even before it is acquired will make the contractor a trustee as soon as he gets a title to the thing” (emphasis added)).
Unum's reimbursement agreement would have avoided these problems if, consistent with Sereboff, it had identified the third party recovery—here, Bilyeu's social security disability benefits—as the particular fund enlisted to serve as security for the overpayment of benefits. Of course, that would not have worked in this case: Under the Social Security Act, Bilyeu could not assign her social security benefits, and Unum could not attach them. See 42 U.S.C. § 407(a).4 “The purpose of the exemption created by Congress in 42 U.S.C. § 407 is to protect social security beneficiaries from creditors' claims.” Dionne v. Bouley, 757 F.2d 1344, 1355 (1st Cir.1985). By identifying the overpaid benefits as the particular fund, rather than the social security benefits, Unum attempts to circumvent the congressional prohibition on assignment and attachment of social security benefits.
3. Even assuming that Unum could satisfy the second criterion, Unum has not satisfied the third criterion—the requirement that the specifically identified fund be within Bilyeu's “possession and control.” Sereboff, 547 U.S. at 363. In Sereboff, Mid Atlantic sought to recover specifically identified funds that were “within the possession and control of the Sereboffs, ․ set aside and preserved in the Sereboffs' investment accounts.” Id. (alteration and internal quotation marks omitted). That the funds were extant, and in the Sereboffs' possession, was essential to the Court's holding that Mid Atlantic was seeking equitable, rather than legal, relief. See id. at 362–63.
Here, by contrast, Bilyeu asserts, and Unum has not refuted, that Bilyeu has spent the overpaid benefits.5 Unum, therefore, is not seeking to recover a specified fund that is preserved and in Bilyeu's possession. Instead, Unum is seeking a judgment requiring Bilyeu to pay money out of her general assets. In Sereboff's words, Unum is seeking “the imposition of personal liability,” rather than enforcement of an “equitable lien on particular property.” Id. at 362 (quoting Knudson, 534 U.S. at 214) (internal quotation marks omitted). This is quintessentially legal, rather than equitable, relief. See Mertens v. Hewitt Assocs., 508 U.S. 248, 255 (1993) ( “Money damages are, of course, the classic form of legal relief.”).
We recognize that a number of circuits have interpreted Sereboff's discussion of tracing rules as a signal that a fiduciary can assert an equitable lien–––presumably against a beneficiary's general assets—even if the beneficiary no longer possesses the specifically identified funds. See Funk v. CIGNA Grp. Ins., 648 F.3d 182, 194 n. 14 (3d Cir.2011) (opining that Sereboff “strongly implies that ․ the defendant need not possess the property at the time relief is sought in order for the relief to be equitable—any post-agreement possession will suffice”); Cusson v. Liberty Life Assurance Co. of Boston, 592 F.3d 215, 231 (1st Cir.2010) (holding that the insurer's claim was for equitable relief under § 1132(a)(3), even though the insurer “has not identified a specific account in which the funds are kept or proven that they are still in [the participant's] possession,” because “the contract between [the participant] and [the insurer] put [the participant] on notice that she would be required to reimburse [the insurer] for an amount equal to what she might get from Social Security”); Longaberger Co. v. Kolt, 586 F.3d 459, 466 (6th Cir.2009) (under ERISA, “an equitable lien by agreement does not require tracing or maintenance of a fund in order for equity to allow repayment”); Gutta v. Standard Select Trust Ins. Plans, 530 F.3d 614, 621 (7th Cir.2008) (allowing a claim under “29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(3) even if the benefits it paid [the beneficiary] are not specifically traceable to[the beneficiary's] current assets because of commingling or dissipation”); Gilchrest v. Unum Life Ins. Co. of Am., 255 F. App'x 38, 44–45 (6th Cir.2007) (unpublished) (holding that the participant's “undisputed averment that the overpayments had been dissipated would seem to be of no avail,” because Sereboff “clarified that to establish an equitable lien by agreement, strict tracing of funds is not required”). But see Epolito v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 737 F.Supp.2d 1364, 1380 (M.D.Fla.2010) (“[T]his Court is not convinced that Sereboff's holding eliminates the requirement that the insurer identify an intact, identifiable res, in the possession of the insured, on which it seeks to impose the equitable lien.”); cf. Amschwand v. Spherion Corp., 505 F.3d 342, 346 (5th Cir.2007) (“[T]he sine qua non of restitutionary recovery available under § 502(a)(3) is a defendant's possession of the disputed res.”); id. at 347 (“[P]ossession is the key to awarding equitable restitution in the form of a constructive trust or equitable lien.”).
We are unpersuaded by the view of those other circuits. The tracing issue in Sereboff was whether Mid Atlantic could obtain an equitable lien against specifically identified funds when Mid Atlantic had never possessed those funds itself—an issue that has no relevance here. See Sereboff, 547 U.S. at 364–65. Nothing in Sereboff suggests that a fiduciary can enforce an equitable lien against a beneficiary's general assets when specifically identified funds are no longer in a beneficiary's possession.
This conclusion—that the fiduciary must recover from specifically identified funds in the beneficiary's possession, rather than from general assets—is consistent not only with Sereboff but also with the Supreme Court's decisions in Knudson and CIGNA Corp. v. Amara, 131 S.Ct. 1866 (2011).
In Knudson, the Court said, “where the property sought to be recovered or its proceeds have been dissipated so that no product remains, the plaintiff's claim is only that of a general creditor, and the plaintiff cannot enforce a constructive trust of or an equitable lien upon other property of the defendant.” 534 U.S. at 213–14 (alterations and internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Restatement (First) of Restitution § 215 cmt. a, p. 867 (1936)). In Amara, decided just last Term, the Court once again underscored that, “traditionally speaking, relief that sought a lien or a constructive trust was legal relief, not equitable relief, unless the funds in question were ‘particular funds or property in the defendant's possession.’ “ 131 S.Ct. at 1879 (second emphasis added) (quoting Knudson, 534 U.S. at 213). Here, Unum has arguably identified a particular fund—the overpaid benefits—but that fund is no longer in Bilyeu's possession.
Unum's argument that an equitable lien can be enforced against general assets when the specifically identified property has been dissipated finds no support in the traditional doctrine governing equitable liens by agreement. See 4 Pomeroy, A Treatise on Equity § 1235, p. 696 (5th ed.1941) (explaining that an equitable lien may be enforced when the specifically identified property is in the hands of the contractor—or in the hands of a subsequent possessor with notice of the lien, a qualification not relevant to Bilyeu's case). If the property or fund subject to the lien (or proceeds to which the property or fund can be traced), are no longer in the defendant's possession, then there is no res against which the equitable lien can be enforced. See 53 C.J.S. Liens § 46 (2012) (“[A] lien that is not satisfied voluntarily may be enforced by an action to foreclose, in which a court may order the property securing the debt or obligation to be sold and its proceeds applied on the demand of the creditor in whose favor the lien exists.” (footnote omitted)); Restatement (First) of Restitution § 161 cmt. e (1937) (“An equitable lien can be established and enforced only if there is some property which is subject to the lien. Where property is subject to an equitable lien and the owner of the property disposes of it and acquires other property in exchange, he holds the property so acquired subject to the lien․ So also, where the property which is subject to the lien is mingled with other property in one indistinguishable mass, the lien can be enforced against the mingled mass ․ Where, however, the property subject to the equitable lien can no longer be traced, the equitable lien cannot be enforced ․“ (emphasis added)); id. § 215(1) (“[W]here a person wrongfully disposes of the property of another but the property cannot be traced into any product, the other has merely a personal claim against the wrongdoer and cannot enforce a constructive trust or lien upon any part of the wrongdoer's property.”); id. § 215 cmt. a (“[I]f it is shown that the property or its proceeds have been dissipated so that no product remains, ․ the claimant cannot enforce ․ an equitable lien upon other property of the wrongdoer, and has only a personal claim against the wrongdoer.”); Restatement (Third) of Restitution § 58 cmt. c (2011) (“To obtain a property interest in something other than the original asset, and not merely restitution of its value in money, the claimant must normally show that the property claimed is the traceable product of the original asset.”); id. § 60(3) (“A claimant who is entitled to restitution but who is unable to identify specific property from which restitution is available has a remedy via money judgment that ranks equally with the claims of general creditors.”).
In sum, although the district court's decision may have produced an equitable result, the court erred because Unum has not shown that it is seeking equitable relief. We remand, affording Unum the opportunity to establish that it has identified a particular fund (the second criterion) and that the overpaid long-term disability benefits, or assets to which the overpaid benefits can be traced, remain in Bilyeu's possession (the third criterion). See 53 C.J .S. Liens § 24 (2012) (“An equitable lien for advances may exist where advancements of money or funds are made on the faith of certain property, real or personal, under an agreement or circumstances showing that it was the intention of the parties to pledge such property as security for the advancements, provided the specific property or its proceeds on which the advancements were invested can be traced or identified.” (emphasis added) (footnote omitted)); 2 Dan B. Dobbs, Law of Remedies § 6.1(4) (2d ed.1993) (discussing enforcement of an equitable lien in the case of commingled funds).6
There is much to be said for maintaining uniformity among the federal circuits, and we should strive to do so when we can. See Am. Vantage Cos. v. Table Mountain Rancheria, 292 F.3d 1091, 1098 (9th Cir.2002). ERISA, however, provides only for “equitable relief,” 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(3)(B), and Unum has not shown that the relief granted here—“judgment in the amount of $36,597.82 in favor of First Unum Life Insurance Company,” to be paid out of Bilyeu's general assets—falls into that category. The district court did not identify a particular fund and impose upon it an equitable lien. Instead, the district court's order reads like a money judgment, which is what it is. As we explained in Bonneville Power Administration v. Washington Public Power Supply System, 956 F.2d 1497 (9th Cir.1992),
“An equitable lien can be established and enforced only if there is some property which is subject to the lien.” In this case there is no “identifiable res” on which a lien can be imposed, because the allegedly misallocated funds have been disbursed. Therefore the court erred in granting ․ a lien on funds.
Id. at 1507 (citation omitted) (quoting Restatement (First) of Restitution § 161 cmt. e (1937)).7 We are bound to adhere to that principle today.
The district court abused its discretion by dismissing Bilyeu's denial-of-benefits claim for a failure to exhaust administrative remedies. The court also erred when it concluded that Unum had satisfied the requirements for an equitable lien by agreement. The judgment of the district court is therefore vacated and the case is remanded for further proceedings.
VACATED AND REMANDED. Costs of appeal are awarded to Bilyeu.
I agree with the majority that Plaintiff Leah Bilyeu (Bilyeu) waived her argument that Unum Life Insurance Company (Unum) lacks statutory standing. I respectfully disagree on all other issues.
Bilyeu argues on appeal, as she did before the district court, that a fax sent by her physician Dr. Proefrock to Dr. Hogan, the physician for Unum, satisfied the exhaustion requirement under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). However, the letter denying Bilyeu's claim explicitly directed her that if she disagreed with the determination denying disability benefits, she was required to submit an appeal in writing to: First Unum Life Insurance Company at PO Box 100158, Columbia, SC 29202–3158, Fax: 1–800–447–2498 www.unumprovident.com.
Rather than submitting an appeal as directed, Bilyeu elected to provide additional information pursuant to a different paragraph of the denial letter. This information was sent to Unum's physician advisor rather than to the benefits center as directed in the denial letter from Unum.
The district court found that because the letter from Bilyeu's physician to Unum's physician did not comply with the appeal procedure, Bilyeu did not exhaust the administrative remedies available under the ERISA Plan. We review this determination for an abuse of discretion. See Diaz v. United Agricultural Employee Welfare Benefit Plan and Trust, 50 F.3d 1478, 1483 (9th Cir.1995).
A district court abuses it discretion only if the district court applied an incorrect legal rule in view of the relief requested or made a factual finding that was “illogical, implausible, or without support in inferences that may be drawn from the record.” United States v. Hinkson, 585 F.3d 1247, 1263 (9th Cir.2009) (footnote reference omitted).
The district court explained its ruling by observing that the letter from Bilyeu's physician did not indicate that Bilyeu desired to appeal the Plan's decision. See District Court Opinion, p. 6. The district court also noted that the letter from Bilyeu's physician was faxed to Unum's physician advisor rather than to Unum, as instructed in the communication from Unum to Bilyeu. See id. Because the letter from Bilyeu's physician did not comply with the appeal procedure and did not seek administrative review, the district court found that Bilyeu failed to exhaust the available administrative remedies. See id. The district court specifically ruled that Bilyeu's submission of additional medical information was no substitute for filing an appeal as directed.
The district court correctly identified and applied governing precedent. As noted in Diaz, 50 F.3d at 1483, “[e]arly in ERISA's history,” we established the general rule requiring exhaustion of administrative remedies. See also Mack v. Kuckenmeister, 619 F.3d 1010, 1020 (9th Cir.2010). We concluded that exhaustion of administrative remedies is warranted because exhaustion is consistent with the legislative structure of ERISA. We also reasoned that the exhaustion requirement advances “important policy considerations, including the reduction of frivolous litigation, the promotion of consistent treatment of claims, the provision of a nonadversarial method of claims settlement, the minimization of costs of claim settlement and a proper reliance on administrative expertise․” Id., citing Amato v. Bernard, 618 F.2d 559, 566–68 (9th Cir.1980).
The district court faithfully adhered to this precedent when it precluded Bilyeu's claim due to her failure to submit an appeal to Unum, the benefits administrator. See Diaz, 50 F.3d at 1483 (“By not submitting a written appeal to the Benefits Administrator, [the Plaintiff] failed to comply with the Plan's internal review procedures and hence did not exhaust the available administrative remedies ․”); see also Sarraf v. Standard Insurance Co., 102 F.3d 991, 993 (9th Cir.1996) (“Under Diaz, [Plaintiff's] failure to request in writing review of the Administrator's adverse decision precludes the instant claims under the ERISA plan.”), citing Diaz, 50 F.3d at 1483.
Because the district court followed well-established precedent in requiring exhaustion of the prescribed administrative remedy, the majority understandably refrains from holding that the district court abused its discretion by applying an incorrect legal rule. Rather, the majority excuses Bilyeu's lack of exhaustion by attributing to Unum a purported failure “to establish or follow reasonable claims procedures.” Majority Opinion, p. 7254. The majority cites to Barboza v. Cal. Ass'n of Prof'l Firefighters, 651 F.3d 1073 (9th Cir.2011) as support for its holding. However, that case bears little resemblance to this case and is not controlling or compelling. In Barboza, the ERISA beneficiary did not receive a timely determination of the Plan's decision. See Barboza, 651 F.3d at 1078. No similar allegation was made in this case. In Barboza, the issue was whether the Plan provisions complied with ERISA regulations. See id. at 1077. No similar issue exists in this case. In Barboza we deferred to the interpretation of the Secretary of Labor regarding the proper resolution of “conflicting interpretations” of an ERISA regulation. Id. at 1079. No interpretation of an ERISA regulation was involved in this case. Rather, the district court in this case was called upon to decide whether Bilyeu perfected her appeal by sending additional information to the Plan's physician rather than challenging the denial of benefits by directing an appeal to Unum at the address provided.
The majority concedes that the provisions of the denial letter sent to Bilyeu were susceptible to the reading argued by Unum as well as the reading urged by Bilyeu. See Majority Opinion, p. 7255. That concession guts the majority's analysis, because a decisionmaker's choice between two viable interpretations of the facts cannot constitute abuse of discretion as a matter of law. See Hinkson, 585 F.3d at 1260 (“Where there are two permissible views of the evidence, the factfinder's choice between them cannot be clearly erroneous.”) (citation omitted). The district court acted within its discretion when it concluded that Bilyeu failed to exhaust the administrative remedies available under the ERISA plan administered by Unum. No legal or factual basis exists for reversing the district court's ruling. Quite simply, as we stated in Diaz, “[b]y not submitting a written appeal to the Benefits Administrator, [Bilyeu] failed to comply with the Plan's internal review procedures and hence did not exhaust the available administrative remedies․” Diaz, 50 F.3d at 1483 (emphasis added).
I also part company with the majority in its analysis of the district court's ruling on the merits of Unum's counterclaim.
Like the majority opinion, I start my analysis with the United States Supreme Court's decision in Sereboff v. Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Inc., 547 U.S. 356, 362–63 (2006). In that case, the Supreme Court addressed the circumstances under which an ERISA fiduciary may sue an ERISA beneficiary for reimbursement when the beneficiary recovers from a third party. See id. at 359. The Supreme Court relied on the equitable rule that an obligation to convey specific proceeds imposes a constructive trust on those proceeds. See id. at 362–64.
Applying the precepts of Sereboff to the facts of this case, I reach the same conclusion as the majority opinion regarding the existence of an equitable trust. The ERISA Plan provided that Bilyeu could receive full long-term disability benefits premised upon her agreement to reimburse Unum for any overpayment due to receipt of benefits from any other sources. Thus, any overpayment due to receipt of benefits from other sources would constitute the particular fund to which a constructive lien in favor of Unum applied.
Although all parties agree that Bilyeu was obligated to reimburse Unum, the majority opinion lets Bilyeu off the hook, accepting her argument that she has already spent the money paid to her by Unum and, therefore, those specific proceeds can never be recovered. In doing so, the majority opinion creates an unwarranted circuit split and completely disregards the concept of fairness, the paramount principle of equity. See Things Remembered, Inc. v. Petrarca, 516 U.S. 124, 133 (1995).
In Cusson v. Liberty Life Insurance Co. of Boston, 592 F.3d 215, 231–32 (1st Cir.2010), the First Circuit considered a case also involving overpayment of long-term disability benefits due to the receipt of social security benefits by the claimant.
The claimant argued that the ERISA fiduciary advanced a legal claim rather than an equitable claim, and therefore, the claim was barred. See id. at 230. The First Circuit rejected this argument, concluding that it was inconsistent with the Supreme Court's reasoning in Sereboff. See id. at 231. The First Circuit concluded that the rule of equity imposes a constructive trust on the proceeds as soon as they are acquired by the recipient of those proceeds. See id. The First Circuit reasoned that because the contract between the ERISA fiduciary and the ERISA beneficiary put the ERISA beneficiary on notice that reimbursement would be required if the ERISA beneficiary was overpaid, enforcement of the resulting constructive trust constituted equitable relief. See id. Because the circumstances in Cusson are virtually identical to the facts in this case, there is no principled basis upon which Cusson can be distinguished.
Similarly applying Sereboff, the Third Circuit in Funk v. Cigna Grp. Ins., 648 F.3d 182, 194 (3d Cir.2011) held that “there is no tracing requirement for an equitable lien by agreement. Property to which the lien attached may be converted into other property without affecting the efficacy of the lien.” (citations and footnote reference omitted).
In Gilchrest v. Unum Life Insurance Co. of America, 255 F. App'x 38 (6th Cir.2007) (unpublished), the Sixth Circuit interpreted Sereboff in a similar fashion, ruling that the enforcement of a constructive trust does not require “strict tracing of funds.” Id. at 45. Rather, the ERISA fiduciary must merely identify a specific fund distinct from the general assets of the ERISA beneficiary for satisfaction of the ERISA fiduciary's equitable claim. This requirement was met by identifying the proceeds of recoveries from any third party. See id. This holding was reiterated in Longaberger Co. v. Kolt, 586 F.3d 459, 466 (6th Cir.2009), with the Sixth Circuit declaring in a published opinion that “an equitable lien by agreement does not require tracing or maintenance of a fund in order for equity to allow repayment,” and citing Gilchrest with approval.
The Seventh Circuit reached the same result in Gutta v. Standard Select Trust Ins. Plans, 530 F.3d 614 (7th Cir.2008). Applying Sereboff, the Seventh Circuit recognized a distinction between the “equitable lien by agreement” created by the reimbursement provision in the ERISA plan document and “an equitable lien sought as a matter of restitution.” Specifically, for the former, “strict tracing of the funds to be recovered was not required [under Sereboff ]”. Id. at 620 (quoting Sereboff, 126 S.Ct. at 1875). This distinction is persuasive in view of the express agreement by the beneficiary to reimburse the ERISA plan for any overpayment, without any limitation regarding the funding source of the repayment.
In Dillard's Inc. v. Liberty Life Assurance Co., 456 F.3d 894 (8th Cir.2006), the Eighth Circuit followed the approach taken by the First, Sixth and Seventh Circuits. The Eighth Circuit determined that the Supreme Court's ruling in Sereboff precluded the argument that the ERISA fiduciary's reimbursement claim sought legal damages. See id. at 901. The Eighth Circuit explained that enforcement of an equitable lien by agreement was an equitable remedy rather than a legal one. See id.
In an effort to distinguish the rulings of five of our sister circuit courts, the majority relies on an out-of-circuit district court decision, Epolito v. Prudential Ins. Co. of America, 737 F.Supp.2d 1364 (M.D.Fla.2010). See Majority Opinion, p. 7265. The district court in Florida acknowledged the Supreme Court's holding in Sereboff that “strict tracing rules do not apply to equitable liens by agreement․” Id. at 1380 (quoting Sereboff, 547 U.S. at 364). However, the district court stated that it would “not read Sereboff's holding with respect to tracing as broadly” as the circuit courts. Id. I am not persuaded by the reasoning of the Florida district court. Indeed, it appears that the Eleventh Circuit does not agree with the reasoning in Epolito. See Popowski v. Parrott, 461 F.3d 1367, 1374 n. 8 (11th Cir.2006) (“[W]e observe that the Supreme Court in Sereboff ․ clarified that the strict tracing requirements that apply to equitable liens ․ do not apply to equitable liens by agreement ․”) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). The Florida district court acknowledged this language in the Eleventh Circuit's decision, but dismissed it as dicta. See Epolito, 737 F.Supp.2d at 1381 n. 8.
The Florida district court also gave extremely short shrift to the Eleventh Circuit decision in Admin. Comm. for the WalMart Stores, Inc. Assocs.' Health & Welfare Plan v. Horton, 513 F.3d 1223, 1227 & n. 4 (11th Cir.2008) (concluding that the ERISA Plan's action to recover overpayment from a third-party was equitable in nature).
The majority opinion seeks to bolster the district court's ruling in Epolito by reference to Great–West Life & Annuity Ins. Co. v. Knudson, 534 U.S. 204 (2002). See Majority Opinion, pp. 7265–66. However, the First Circuit convincingly distinguished Knudson, noting that in Knudson, the funds in question were never actually in the possession of the ERISA beneficiaries. See Cusson, 592 F.3d at 230; see also Sereboff, 547 U.S. at 365–66 (distinguishing Knudson ). The First Circuit persuasively explained that Sereboff is the governing precedent when the funds in question are controlled by the ERISA beneficiary. See id .
The majority's reliance on general language in Amschwand v. Spherion Corp., 505 F.3d 342, 346 (5th Cir.2007) regarding the general principles of equity does not in any way dilute the force of the five circuit courts that have interpreted Sereboff as not imposing a tracing requirement on funds being sought pursuant to an equitable agreement. This tracing discussion from Sereboff was totally ignored by the Fifth Circuit. The main problem with the majority's reliance on CIGNA Corp. v. Amara, 131 S.Ct. 1866 (2011), a recent case from the United States Supreme Court, is that the cited language is part of the preliminary discussion from the Court prior to its analysis of the actual issues presented. See id. at 1879 (“[T]raditionally speaking, relief that sought a lien or a constructive trust was legal relief, not equitable relief, unless the funds in question were particular funds or property in the defendant's possession.”) (citation omitted) (emphasis in the original). The Court then went on to discuss the imposition of an injunction against the ERISA Plan Administrator, with no mention of the tracing issue. See id. at 1879–80.
Another problem with the majority's reliance on Amara is that the quoted language is entirely consistent with the analysis in Sereboff. See 547 U.S. at 364–65 (noting that the common law requirement of tracing property to “some particular funds or assets” applied to an equitable lien by restitution but not to an equitable lien by agreement) (citation omitted).
The final problem with the majority's reliance on Amara is that it never mentions, let alone purports to overrule, the analysis in Sereboff. Indeed, because Sereboff specifically addresses the issue presented to us, it is the more applicable Supreme Court precedent.
The majority opinion also quotes at length from various treatises. See Majority Opinion, pp. 7266–67. However, it is well-established that treatises are a compilation of general principles of law, rather than concrete application of principles of law to a defined set of facts. See Hart v. Massanari, 266 F.3d 1155, 1169–70, 1171–73 (9th Cir.2001) (explaining that persuasive authority, including treatises, cannot overcome the force of Supreme Court precedent).
I am also not persuaded by the majority's citation to Bonneville Power Admin. v. Wash. Pub. Power Supply Sys., 956 F.2d 1497, 1507 (9th Cir.1992). See Majority Opinion, p. 7268–69. That case predates Sereboff by almost fifteen years and is inconsistent with the Supreme Court's reasoning. Rather than creating an indefensible circuit split, I would adhere to the reasoning of the Supreme Court in Sereboff as interpreted by our sister circuits, and conclude that strict tracing of the overpaid funds is not required to enforce an equitable lien by agreement. If the ERISA fiduciary were seeking reimbursement in the absence of an agreement to reimburse any overpayment, I would agree with the majority opinion that application of the holding in Knudson would be appropriate. However, where the ERISA beneficiary expressly agrees to reimburse the Plan for any benefit overpayment, as in this case, enforcement of the resulting equitable lien by agreement constitutes an equitable remedy rather than a legal one, and Sereboff controls. See Sereboff, 547 U.S. at 368 (recognizing the distinction between an equitable lien premised on restitution principles and an equitable lien premised on an agreement). The district court's decision in this case properly applied Sereboff and its judgment should be affirmed in its entirety.
1. We disagree with the dissent's conclusion that the outcome of this case is controlled by Diaz v. United Agricultural Employee Welfare BenefitPlan & Trust, 50 F.3d 1478, 1481–83 (9th Cir.1995). In Diaz, the employee failed to follow the plan's unambiguous instructions to file an appeal within 60 days after a decision denying benefits. Diaz involved neither ambiguous communications nor a failure to engage in a meaningful dialogue.
2. Unum has, in fact, asserted a state-law claim for breach of contract. Clerk's Record 5 at 7–8 (Answer and Counterclaim); Clerk's Record 28 at 8 (motion for summary judgment). Bilyeu contends Unum has abandoned that claim and that, in any event, the claim is preempted by ERISA. Clerk's Record 30 at 9. Unum's contract claim has not been adjudicated, and we express no opinion as to its merits.
3. An equitable lien by agreement is a traditional form of equitable relief. According to Pomeroy's Treatise on Equity,The doctrine may be stated in its most general form, that every express executory agreement in writing, whereby the contracting party sufficiently indicates an intention to make some particular property, real or personal, or fund, therein described or identified, a security for a debt or other obligation, or whereby the party promises to convey or assign or transfer the property as security, creates an equitable lien upon the property so indicated, which is enforceable against the property in the hands not only of the original contractor, but of his heirs, administrators, executors, voluntary assignees, and purchasers or encumbrancers with notice. Under like circumstances, a merely verbal agreement may create a similar lien upon personal property.4 John Norton Pomeroy, A Treatise on Equity § 1235, p. 696 (5th ed.1941); see also Restatement (Third) of Restitution § 56 cmt. d (2011) (“[T]he failure to transfer a promised share of an identifiable fund may justify specific relief to the claimant, frequently accomplished via equitable lien.”).
4. Section 407 states:The right of any person to any future payment under this subchapter shall not be transferable or assignable, at law or in equity, and none of the moneys paid or payable or rights existing under this subchapter shall be subject to execution, levy, attachment, garnishment, or other legal process, or to the operation of any bankruptcy or insolvency law.42 U.S.C. § 407(a).
5. The burden to show that the overpaid benefits remain in Bilyeu's possession presumably falls on Unum. See Restatement (First) of Restitution § 215 cmt. b (1937) (“A person whose property is wrongfully taken by another is not entitled to priority over other creditors unless he proves that the wrongdoer not only once had the property or its proceeds, but still has the property or its proceeds or property in which the claimant's property or its proceeds have been mingled indistinguishably.”); accord Epolito v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 737 F.Supp.2d 1364, 1382 (M.D.Fla.2010).
6. The kind of tracing we discuss here is distinct from the theory of tracing rejected in Sereboff. The issue in Sereboff was whether a plaintiff is required to trace the specific property or particular fund back to the plaintiff's own possession. Sereboff makes clear that that sort of tracing is not required for an equitable lien by agreement. See Sereboff, 547 U.S. at 364–65. The kind of tracing we refer to here simply allows a plaintiff to trace the specific property or a particular fund when the defendant has either commingled it with the defendant's other assets or exchanged it for other property See 53 C.J.S. Liens § 29 (2012) (“[W]here the owner of property subject to a lien commingles it with other property alike in quality and value, the lien is not extinguished so long as there is on hand sufficient property alike in quality and value to satisfy the lien.”); id. § 49 (“If the property on which an equitable lien is held has been sold before foreclosure, the court can trace the funds from the sale and impress a lien upon any property acquired with the proceeds.”); Restatement (Third) of Restitution §§ 58–59 (2011) (describing tracing principles as applied to equitable liens and constructive trusts).
7. We recognize that “the fact that ․ relief takes the form of a money payment does not [necessarily] remove it from the category of traditionally equitable relief.” Amara, 131 S.Ct. at 1880. Here, however, Unum has not advanced a specific theory under which the money judgment against Bilyeu falls within a traditional form of equitable relief. Whether some form of equitable relief might be available here, as well as whether Unum could reformulate its reimbursement agreement to resolve the problems presented here, are thus questions beyond the scope of this appeal.
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PAKISTAN (a Lapis special issue) - $50
96 pages, 12 x 8 x 0.5 inches
Weight: 2 pounds - postage is $6 within the US
This book-sized offshoot from the journal Lapis was years in the making and features novel interviews and anecdotes from dealers who led the development of the Pakistani and Afghani gem fields, most notably Herb Obodda. It provides, as well, the best single source I have yet seen for locality and species information on the minerals of this part of the world. It is an AMAZING, ENTERTAINING, INFORMATIVE read that i could not put down. The book is not only lavishly illustrated but is done so with incredible pieces most of us might never see otherwise, interspersed with firsthand pictures of the places from whence they come. To my mind, this is a bargain at 25 bucks.
SWEET HOME MINE/RHODOCHROSITE DVD - $25
80 minutes length
postage is $5 within the US
This 80-minute DVD is a first in the mineral world , to my knowledge, because it is so professionally and winningly made and narrated that it could double as a NOVA or NATURE show on PBS. It is an entertaining tale starting in the 1800's with the origins of the Sweet Home as a post-civil-war silver mine and continuing through the modern day specimen recovery efforts. The crew spent 18 months making this documentary and it lavishly shows the mining of the specimens (including some shots taken IN the mine DURING blasts!), in addition to simply documenting the wonderful treasures that came out. It features interesting interviews with many of the principal figures behind the reopening of the mine, including owner Bryan Lees (who to my mind has helped open up a new era of specimen recovery at such old mining sites).
F. JOHN BARLOW MINERAL COLLECTION - $225
408 pages, 12 x 9 x 1 inches
Weight: 5 pounds - postage is $10 within the US
An amazing book illustrating not just one man's collection, but perhaps more importantly his METHOD of collecting; and cautionary and educational tales related thereto. As a collector and as a dealer, I found the stories of acquisitions as interesting as the pieces themselves. It is a beautiful book, with hundreds of color photos of intriguing specimens. I particularly enjoy some of the major locality suites such as South Dakota or Tsumeb and the species suites of the Silvers and Golds - informative for the sheer breadth on display. THIS BOOK IS A MUST FOR ANY SERIOUS COLLECTOR! It is relatively cheap for the content and size, due to the fact that Barlow subsidized and self-published it.
The Mineral Collection of the Houston Museum of Natural Science
BOOK REVIEW HERE: click the photo below for text
$75 plus shipping
BEAUTY IN NATURAL CRYSTALS:
Highlights from the Mineral Collection of
Steve and Clara Smale
Steve and Clara are my next-door neighbors at the Westward Look show in Tucson, and I have had the privilege to get to know them better and sell them some specimens as well, in the last few years; and to see their collection at the home on occasion. It is a special treat, let me tell you (!), that now is shared through the publication of this incredibly high-quality, large-format, coffee-table book featuring photos by Steve and by Jeff Scovil of approximately 10% of the collection's highlights. You can see from the samples that there ar emany interesting acquisition stories to be told, here. Their collecting philosophy is to get BEAUTIFUL minerals of all size and price ranges: species both "ugly" and pretty, "common" and rare. This theme comes across quite clearly in the book despite the huge variety of specimens shown.
At shows, the Smales are very low-key and modest. In the real world, Stephen Smale is a world-famous mathematican and winner of the 1966 Fields Medal, mathematics' highest award (Which apparently comes with a universal parking permit he efficiently uses to get to park anywhere he wants on the Berkeley campus when we go to lunch). Steve would be absolutely mortified if I went on and on about how brilliant and interesting he is, so I will refrain. Instead, I merely highlight a link to a biography written about him by a fellow mathemetician, which can be found on Amazon.com:
Stephen Smale: The Mathematician Who Broke the Dimension Barrier, by Steve Batterson
MINERALS DEACCESSED FROM THE SMALE COLLECTION ARE FOR SALE ON MY SITE
ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES:
MINERALS of CORNWALL and DEVON - $40
154 pages, 11 x 9 x 0.5 inches
Weight: 3 pounds - postage is $8 within the US
A truly enjoyable book that reads like a soptry, telling tales of both specimens and collectors, not to mention some rather infamous dealers, going back hundreds of years. This is an invaluable book for anybody interested in UK minerals because of the depth of information and the clearcut, yet entertaining manner of presentation. It is also lavishly illustrated not just with specimens but with historical photos to set them in context. Though divided into chapters on the location, the mines, and the people involved, the book consistently ties the three together. It is one of my personal favorite books in the hobby for this reason. THIS BOOK IS A MUST FOR ANY SERIOUS COLLECTOR! Note that the book is long out of print. I obtained a crate of old copies which have been stored in teh heat of Tucson for too many years - the books are in fine condition internally and are unread (in fact, still encased in protective plastic shrinkwrap), but the jackets show slight creasing and age.
MINERALOGY of MICHIGAN by E.W. Heinrich - $40
updated and revised by George W. Robinson,
Curator A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum (Houghton, MI)
247 pages, 11.5 x 8 inches
Weight: 2 pounds - postage is $7 within the US
This important reference book, now updated and revised with lavish photography as well, is an important and relatively inexpensive addition to any mineralogical library! I bought a large number of copies from the first printing.
COMPLETE SETS OF MINERALOGICAL RECORDS!
THIS IS AN INVALUABLE, PERHAPS THE MOST VALUABLE, RESOURCE FOR LEARNING THE CONTEXT AND HISTORY OF OUR COLLECTIBLES HOBBY; AND FOR TRACKING CHANGES OVER TIME AND WHAT THE PEOPLE IN THE KNOW HAVE BEEN DOING AND TALKING ABOUT. THIS MAKES YOUR SENSE TO KNOW, GIVEN YOUR OWN INVESTMENT , AND I CANNOT RECOMMEND HIGHLY ENOUGH!
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE JOURNAL WEBSITE, AND SEE SAMPLES OF BACK ISSUES: ARCHIVE OF BACK ISSUES
Sets are priced at $2500-3000 for runs from 1970 through 2003-6, depending on the set
SWEET HOME MINE/RHODOCHROSITE ISSUE OF THE MINERALOGICAL RECORD - $75
postage is $8 within the US
SUPERB SPECIAL ISSUE FEATURING IN DEPTH ANALYSIS OF HOW AND WHY THIS PROJECT WAS A SUCCESS FOR THE HOBBY, AND SHOWING HOW THE FINDS CHANGED OVER TIME
SET OF ARIZONA ISSUES #1-5
$295 for the set - and that is a bargain considering how hard it is to get the first few issues in particular!
Mineralogical Record's History of Mineral Collecting 1530-1799 (263 pages, 2 pounds weight )
offered at $35 + $6 postal
The History of Mineral Collecting is more than just a book about who owned what - it is an eye-opening story that traces the beginnings of mineral collecting back to the mining industry and the nobility of the 1500's and illustrates how amateur collecting combined with scientific discovery to produce the science of mineralogy that we know today. Multiple color plates show what collections of the 1600's, 1700's, and 1800's consisted of...with extinct localities described in living detail through the original letters of some of the collectors. There are biographies on major collectors, including many kings and emporers, as well as scientists. The book ends with a summation of early American collectors during the Colonial Era.SATISFACTION GUARANTEED or your money refunded
Rene Hauy (the French abbot regarded as one of the inventors of crystallography) and James Sowerby (prominent English author and collector)
Illustrations of major collectors/authors of the time are shown quite frequently, along with pictures of specimens from their collections (some are pictures of the actual specimen, dating to as far back as the 1500's!).
Collecting in Russia
The prelude to this chapter describes the collections and interests of Peter the Great, among others. It tells how he helped to contribute to the origin and growth of Russia's museums...many of which are still around today!
There is a lot of interesting information about what collections were bought and sold, when they sold, and to whom...quite interesting considering today's ravenous mineral market!
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All Content and Design ©1996-2012 The Arkenstone
Powered by http://mineralwebsites.comMineral Specimens by species; or by specimen id. | <urn:uuid:e3e46d42-f055-4697-922b-fe46cc9d82f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://irocks.com/lit.html | 2013-05-23T11:48:08Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930099 | 2,038 |
What is a veterinary dermatologist?
Dermatological diseases are very commonplace accounting for many
of the cases a small animal practitioner examines each day.
Unfortunately, many of these dermatological disorders can look very
similar if not identical to each other. With the ever expanding
awareness of animal diseases, the American Veterinary Medical
Association recognized the American College of Veterinary
Dermatology (ACVD) as the body
with expertise in diagnosing and managing dermatologic problems.
The ACVD is comprised of board-certified dermatologists that have
undergone intensive training in the field of animal skin, ear, and
allergic diseases. Primary care veterinarians and pet
owners/guardians can now rely on these specialists for consultation
when more extensive dermatologic training is required to help a
How do I schedule an appointment?
Since A&M is a referral institution, you and your primary
care veterinarian need to determine that a dermatology referral is
necessary for your pet. Once a collaborative decision has been
made, you can call for an appointment at 979-845-2351 (small
animal) or 979-845-3541 (equine). For small animal patients, your
veterinarian needs to complete our referral form and send it to the
Dermatology Department along with your pet's pertinent medical
record (including doctor's notes, blood work, skin or ear culture,
and/or skin biopsy reports). The Dermatology Department acts as a
consulting service (not a primary care service) for the Large
Animal Clinic. Horses are to be admitted through the Large Animal
Clinic with the appropriate service (Equine) after which a
dermatology consultation will be requested.
When are you open?
We accept appointments Monday through Friday when the
dermatologist in on-duty. Generally, mornings are limited to
initial appointments with afternoons and Fridays reserved for
rechecks. If your pet is an existing dermatology patient with a
current flare of problems and has not been seen for more than 4
months, then a morning appointment should be scheduled. Please be
courteous and arrive on time for your pet's appointment. If you are
running late, please call with your estimated time of arrival.
Clients arriving one (1) hour past their pet's scheduled
appointment time will be asked to reschedule. Also, late fees may
be applied. Emergency care is provided 24/7 around the clock
through the A&M ER. Appointments for horses are on a case by
case basis limited to when the Equine service and Dermatology
Department can schedule a consultation.
How soon can I get an appointment?
Usually a small animal appointment can be scheduled within a few
days to weeks, but it can vary with the season and the
dermatologist's on-duty clinic time. Appointments for horses are on
scheduled on every other Tuesday morning. Horses presenting for
allergy skin testing are stalled overnight in the Veterinary
Medical Teaching Hospital, so please make any travelling
arrangements/accommodations before arriving to Texas A&M.
When should I arrive to a scheduled appointment and what do I
We look forward to your visit. Preparation on your part will
help us take care of your pet's needs during the appointment.
- Please have your pet's small animal medical record faxed to
A&M (attention: Dermatology) 1-2 business days before the
scheduled appointment. Equine records should be sent to the Equine
Service within the Large Animal Clinic.
- Please have your referring primary care small animal
veterinarian complete and fax our Referral Form (attention:
Dermatology) along with the medical record. The Small Animal
Dermatology Referral Form can be downloaded under the Forms &
- Please download, complete, and bring our Dermatology History
Form (small animal or equine) and the Hospital's Patient
Information Worksheet (small animals) with you to the appointment.
If you chose to complete this paperwork at A&M, then plan to
arrive 20 minutes prior to the appointment. Appointment times for
horses can vary and may not be a specific time of day.
Additionally, horses may be required to be stalled overnight
depending on the condition being examined.
- Please bring any and all treatments (e.g., oral medication,
shampoo, sprays, wipes, ear medication, ear flush) your pet is
Can my pet eat the day of the appointment?
Food should be withheld from small animals after 11:00 PM the
night before the appointment. For appointments scheduled after 2:00
PM a small amount of food (no more than 1-2 measured tablespoons
for a medium-sized dog) may be given before 8:00 AM the day of the
appointment. Water should not be withheld. Please discuss this with
your primary care veterinarian to make sure your pet does not have
any pre-existing medical conditions (e.g., diabetes, feline
obesity) hindering this practice. Continue standard feed practices
for your horse when traveling.
What medications can I continue to give my pet prior to the
Antibiotics, antifungals, flea prevention, heartworm prevention,
insulin, thyroid supplementation, heart medication, anti-seizure
medication, and ophthalmic cyclosporine/tacrolimus for dry eye can
be continued prior to any appointment or skin testing procedure.
Cool water baths with a veterinarian-recommended shampoo can be
used to help soothe the skin and relieve itch up to 3 days before
the appointment. Ears may be flushed with a
veterinarian-recommended flushing agent up to 3 days before the
visit. Please discuss what medications you should continue
administering prior to the appointment with your primary care
What happens during the appointment? Will a student take care
of my pet?
The A&M Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital is in fact a
teaching hospital with a mission to train the next generation of
veterinarians. Consequently, your visit with us will likely take
longer than visits to your primary care veterinarian. Furthermore,
horses may be stalled overnight. A senior student will greet you
and your pet before the dermatologist. It is the student's
responsibility to obtain the initial history of your pet and
perform the first physical exam. Once completed, the student will
discuss his/her findings with the dermatologist before the team
returns to the exam room (small animal) or stocks (horses) for the
dermatologist to examine the patient. Once the examination is
complete, a prioritized list of likely diagnoses will be discussed
with you. Please note that for horses, discussion may be relayed
through the A&M attending equine clinician. More often than
not, simple routine dermatological tests such as skin scraping and
cytology will be used to sample the skin/ears to exclude
complicating factors such as infections which add to the pet's
discomfort. It is important for you to know that students, under
the supervision and guidance of the dermatologist (and attending
equine clinician for horse cases) and technician(s), will be
performing these diagnostic procedures on your pet. Additional
testing procedures will be recommended as necessary with
implementation based on your approval. Ultimately, recommendations
and patient-care is based on the experience of the board-certified
specialist in dermatology. Please be patient with our students as
they are learning the verbal and technical skills needed to be a
How long does the appointment usually last?
Since this is a teaching hospital, your visit will likely take
longer than visits to your primary care veterinarian. However, we
strive to be courteous of your time and it is our intent to get
your pet back to you in the timeliest manner as possible. We
recommend you plan to allow us to care for your pet most of the
appointment day, especially for brand new dermatology patients. As
soon as your pet is cleared for discharge we will contact you
immediately. Since the Dermatology Department is predominantly an
outpatient service, we hope to discharge morning small animal
patients by mid to late afternoon. Horses may require overnight
stay depending on the condition being examined; they will be
discharged through the admitting service. Please keep in mind that
all personnel of the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital have
dedicated their professional life into the care and well-being of
animals. Therefore, your pet will receive the utmost attention and
TLC while in our hands.
What should I do if I get skin sores?
You should contact your personal physician.
What forms of payment do you accept?
- Check ($30.00 service fee will be charged on any returned
- American Express
- Master Card
Do you bill or have a payment plan?
We at Texas A&M University Veterinary Medicine Teaching
Hospital endeavor to render each patient the best possible medical
treatment at the lowest possible cost. However, funds needed to
support personnel, medication, feed, supplies, equipment, and
utilities are generated from hospital income. Therefore, payment is
due upon patient discharge. Unpaid balances in excess of 30 days
will be subject to a service charge of 1 ½ % per month (18% Annual
Percentage Rate) on the outstanding balance. If the patient is to
receive more extensive testing/procedures or must be hospitalized,
a minimum deposit of 50% the initial estimated charges will be | <urn:uuid:43bf1eaa-ddfe-491f-b3a7-1b6a2553f4a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vetmed.tamu.edu/large-animal-hospital/dermatology/client-faq | 2013-05-23T11:35:28Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909462 | 2,044 |
Pobst All the Way in Monterey Pirelli World Challenge; Cunningham, Lamb Take Class Wins
May 11, 2012 - MONTEREY, Calif. - Randy Pobst, of Gainesville, Ga., led all the way to win the Pirelli World Challenge Cadillac Sports Car Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, piloting his Volvo S60 to the GT class win. Peter Cunningham, of Milwaukee, Wis., captured the GTS win, while Todd Lamb, of Atlanta, Ga., won in Touring Car.
Randy Pobst leads the field into Turn Two at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (Weber Image)
Starting from the pole with his No. 6 K-PAX Racing Volvo S60, Pobst got the holeshot on the standing start, built a 3.5-second lead over teammate Alex Figge, of Denver, Colo., by lap three and was never seriously challenged to win at the undulating 11-turn, 2.358-mile circuit for the third time, and first since 2006. It was Pobst’s first series win of the 2012 season, the 27th of his career.
“This is the combination of so much hard work by the K-PAX Volvo racing team and this track and the Volvo working well together,” Pobst said after the race. “The car’s better than ever. We had some trouble keeping it running last year. I think they’ve got it sorted out, though. We’re going to have some good races with these guys for the rest of the year. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is just right for the Volvo with its all-wheel drive, especially coming out of Turn 11. It just rocks off that corner!”
Pobst set a new lap record during the race, with a 1:27.491 (92.087 mph).
Figge started third in his No. 9 K-PAX Racing Volvo S60, but launched into second at the start around the No. 8 Cadillac Racing Cadillac CTS-V of Andy Pilgrim. From there, he maintained second for the duration of the 28-lap, 62.664-mile contest, closing twice under caution, but never forcing the issue with his teammate.
“A great day for the team and for Volvo,” Figge said. “Andy Pilgrim was really a gentleman, as he always is, driving clean and his own race. That made it a lot more fun for me as well as we had a little dice on the restart. Other than that, it was just about putting laps in and making sure we had a one-two for the guys.
“The restarts were the only places to maybe try something, but the cars don’t run really well in traffic, even behind a similar car. Yesterday, in qualifying, it was Randy’s day and he had the pace today. It wasn’t going to be some easy move to go by Randy, so I think it was better to run a clean race, take the points and the one-two.”
Pilgrim was happy with his third-place run, and had to hold off a charging Lawson Aschenbach at the finish, who started from the rear of the field in his No. 1 TruSpeed/Privacy Star/EnTrust Porsche 911 GT3 after missing qualifying.
“Manufacturers points is all we care about,” Pilgrim said. “Of course, I was going to try and get to Alex Figge, because I wanted him to be a cushion between us and the Porsche. It just really kept me focused. Lawson raced me fair and really close. The brakes on our car made it for us. He didn’t make anything on us on brakes.
“It was a really good run. It was an elastic-band effect with Volvo. They were slow going into the corners and rockets coming out. I had the best shot on restarts, to try and get Alex. He was very clean, we were bumping, but it was clean. He gave me room and I gave him room. But once I got to the end of the corner, they took off. I tried, really, because I wanted to put him between me and Lawson. Having Lawson behind me, holy smoke…I had to just be perfect for those four or five laps at the end. Luckily, we were.”
For his efforts, moving from 15th on the grid to finish fourth, Aschenbach earned the Optima Batteries Best Standing Start award (advancing five positions on the opening lap) as well as the Cadillac CTS-V Move of the Race.
Steve Ott, who started sixth but moved to fourth on the opening lap, running closely behind Figge and Pilgrim for the first 10 laps, finished fifth in the No. 85 Racing For Our Heros/Loctite Porsche 911 GT3 to equal his career-best.
Mike Skeen (Chevrolet Corvette), Johnny O’Connell (Cadillac CTS-V), Justin Marks (Porsche 911 GT3), Tomy Drissi (Porsche 911 GT3) and Bret Curtis (Porsche 911 GT3) completed the top 10 in GT.
Cadillac drivers sit one-two in the Championship point standings, with O’Connell on top, with 573, followed by Pilgrim, with 559. Pobst moved to third, with 502, followed by Aschenbach (427) and Sofronas (409), who retired with a mechanical problem on the front straight to bring out the race’s first caution on lap 15.
Cadillac also maintained the Manufacturers Championship lead over Porsche 37 to 33, with Volvo closing the gap, with 25, followed by Chevrolet, with eight.
Cunningham started from his fourth-consecutive GTS class pole position in the No. 42 Acura/HPD/RealTime Racing Acura TSX, but saw Jack Baldwin’s No. 68 Voodoo Ride-Invoice Prep/Hot Wheels Porsche Cayman S get the jump from the second starting spot. It wasn’t long, though before Cunningham made the Invisible Glass Clean Pass of the Race to put his Acura back up front, a position he held from lap two until the finish to capture the first win of the new V-6 powered Acura in Pirelli World Challenge GTS competition.
“I was pleased we had such good speed at the start,” Cunningham said. “We were able to get a good run out of six. We went side-by-side up the hill and we touched a little, but we ended up in the lead there. From there, it was a controlled pace for a while. I could do my laps and still be nice to the tires. Then those two yellows, of course, we’ve been there before so we know what can happen. The first restart was great, and I had a good advantage after the first lap. Of course, then the yellow came out again. After the second restart, Jack was coming and he was doing a great job and pressuring pretty hard and I managed to just stay ahead of him to the checker.”
With the win, and coupled with the retirement of pre-race point leader Justin Bell, Cunningham took over the Championship point lead, with 602 to Baldwin’s 552. Bell was running in the top five in his No. 50 eBay Motors Ford Mustang Boss 302S but was involved in a heavy incident coming out of the last corner with Touring Car polesitter Tristan Herbert’s No. 33 HPA/RennGruppe/Brimtek/SG Racing Volkswagen Jetta GLI, which brought out the race’s final caution on lap 21. Neither driver was injured.
“When I came around and saw Justin in the wall, that was awful,” Cunningham said. “Justin is a good friend, and you don’t want to get points because the friend was in the wall so that’s a bummer for that team. We’ve had our days, too, so it was a good day points wise for RealTime and Acura and for the drivers points. We’re proud to get these points and carry on now to Detroit.”
Cunningham also set a new track record for GTS during the race, with a fastest time of 1:34.137 (85.585 mph).
Aaron Povoledo, of Toronto, Canada, finished third in the No. 26 CapaldiRacing.com Ford Mustang Boss 302S, passing the No. 34 Acura/HPD/RealTime Racing Acura TSX of Nick Esayian on the final lap of the race. Andy Lee brought the No. 20 Best IT Chevrolet Camaro home fifth.
Lee now sits fourth in GTS points with 502, 24 behind Bell. Michael Galati finished sixth in his Kia Optima and sits fifth in points, with 391.
Acura took over the Manufacturers Championship lead, with 32 points to Ford’s 31, Chevrolet’s 20 and Kia’s 13.
Touring Car had the biggest shakeup in its race, both from the starting grid and related to the Championship.
Herbert started from the pole, but was jumped by the Honda Civics of Compass360 teammates Todd Lamb (No. 71 National Karting News/HPD) and Ryan Winchester (No. 72 Ligon Industries/HPD) at the start. Point leader Michael Cooper, who started fifth in his No. 03 Mazdaspeed Motorsports MAZDASPEED3 had contact off the start and immediately had a flat tire, necessitating a trip to the pit lane, dropping him to last.
Lamb led the entire way, but had to deal with a charging Jeff Altenburg, of Ellicott City, Md., in his No. 43 HPA/RennGruppe Brimtek/SG Racing Volkswagen Jetta GLI in the race’s closing laps. Their battle was broken off in the end by a slower GTS car that separated the two and allowed Lamb to open up more of a gap to the checkered flag.
“Toward the end, we got a couple of yellows and bunched up the field a little bit,” Lamb said. “I tried to conserve the car for the first part of the race knowing that, toward the end, we’d definitely be getting a yellow and there would be a battle. We’ve struggled against the turbos all season, so we knew they were probably going to conserve tires and come on strong at the end. It was a shame to see Tristan get taken out there, but at the same time we’re here to get some points. I had a pretty good battle with Altenburg there at the end, we raced nice and clean but I definitely had to be defensive and hold him off. It was tough.”
It was Lamb’s second Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car win of his rookie season, and the former SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup Champion took the point lead over that series’ defending Champion Cooper, 771 to 755.
“It was a great points day,” Lamb added. “It’s nice to win races, but we’re here to win the Championship for Honda. A huge step in the right direction today, so we should be close to leading the points.”
Altenburg scored his best finish of the year at a track that he has twice won previously.
Winchester finished third, his fourth-consecutive podium result, but his car failed post-qualifying technical inspection, promoting Patrick Seguin and his No. 80 Theberge Homes/capsparts.com Volkswagen GTI to third, followed by Shea Holbrook’s No. 67 TrueCar.com Honda Civic Si. Cooper salvaged a fifth-place finish after his pit stop. Seguin was also the Sunoco Hard Charger for most postitions improved throughout the race.
Herbert now sits third in points, with 515, followed by Gustavo Michelsen (476) and Winchester (463).
Honda leads the Touring Car Manufacturers’ Championship, with 48 points, to Mazda’s 35. Volkswagen is third, with 26.
Today’s race will be broadcast Sunday, May 27 at 11 p.m. (EDT) on NBC Sports Network.
The series next travels to Detroit for the Cadillac V-Series Challenge at Belle Isle, part of the IZOD IndyCar weekend, June 1-3.
Full results and points are available at www.world-challenge.com.
Follow World Challenge on Twitter @WCRacing. Follow World Challenge on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/pirelliworldchallenge/. | <urn:uuid:c734559a-ff76-47e1-935d-61474c7b0ae4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sccaproracing.com/story.php?ID=2528 | 2013-05-23T11:34:28Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973128 | 2,736 |
April 1, 2010
In his weekly column, President Barry Mills explains his views on how best to prepare students to succeed in a global economy.
Last week, I traveled to Memphis to participate in an education symposium at St. George’s Independent School on the occasion of the school’s 50th anniversary. St. George’s president, William Taylor, and his wife, Jennifer, are Bowdoin parents (their son, Wilson is a junior at the College). Bill asked me to join a group of other college presidents—including the presidents of the universities of Richmond, Mississippi, and Memphis, and Rhodes College—on a panel moderated by John McCardell, the former president of Middlebury who is now leading Sewanee: The University of the South. Our topic: “Preparing the Next Generation of Leaders.”
My remarks at St. George’s centered on the importance of global and international education as preparation for future citizens of this country. It is an important topic, so I thought I’d share the essence of what I had to say.
It is a truism—thanks to the likes of Thomas Friedman—that the world is flat. The concept of American exceptionalism is open for debate and interpretation, as evidenced by bestsellers written by Fareed Zakaria and Mitt Romney, and by the both nuanced and aggressive approach of our country’s relations with the world promoted by President Obama. The fact that there are precious few in our country who speak Arabic—or who understand the religion and culture of Islam—has had clear implications for our society. One doesn’t need to be a college president to understand that the future for our students requires a competency and a subtlety of mind that informs them about the world and their place in it.
American colleges and universities tend to offer instruction in traditional subjects like international relations, law, history, and culture, with courses on contemporary issues. But for our students and their parents, the focus is often squarely on current interests like national security and economics, and colleges and universities respond to those interests and to that economic/business reality. In the late 80s, it was all about the Soviet Union. During the early 90s, it was all about Japan. In the late 90s we took a break to focus on “dot.coms,” and in the current decade it’s about the Middle East, China, India, and, probably soon, Brazil.
The interesting question for colleges, universities, and schools is how do we define our role in preparing students for international and global issues? How do we think about preparing our young people to be leaders and participants in this global community? The debate about whether any of this is important has been settled. The more difficult question for each institution is how will they define their role and what they will actually do.
How do we go about creating global education? At small liberal arts colleges, many students study away in foreign countries for all or part of their junior year. These students often—but not always—gain valuable experience in foreign lands that supports their area of study—fields like history, archeology, or economics. If they are able to spend time with the locals and not with other Americans, they learn about the country they visit. At some colleges, the number of students taking advantage of study away is as high as 50%.
Goucher College in Maryland requires students to study away. At the Ivies and other research universities, there is less emphasis on study away during the academic year—but greater emphasis on summer internships and so-called “gap years.” Harvard promotes the value of summer internships in different lands, while Princeton has a formal program for certain admitted students that provides a foreign experience during a “gap year.”
Middlebury College has a world-renowned language program and recently incorporated the Monterey Institute into its offerings, emphasizing the importance of liberal arts education and international perspective.
And at Bowdoin, we have incorporated service learning, community service, and environmental activism into our international initiatives.
These institutions and many others in America are committed to admitting international students to create opportunity on their campuses and to allow traditional students to interact with these international students. In my view, this nation of immigrants must remain mindful of the opportunities we miss for our country if we fail to open or minds and our institutions to these students from away.
The efforts that colleges, universities, and schools are putting into global education are serious and intentional. Yet, when people have these conversations about global education, there is often the sense that we aren’t doing all that we should, and that maybe there is a lack of genuine conviction or a failure to find “the formula.” I would like to suggest that perhaps the reason for the discomfort is that there isn’t such a formula. There isn’t a perfect solution.
I realize that that’s not exactly what parents want to hear. Our sons and daughter will attend only one undergraduate college or university (hopefully), and parents want to know how best to think about this issue.
So let me put down a couple of markers for people to think about. First, the best colleges, universities, and schools all desire to be exceptional—to demonstrate that they have the answer. I would suggest a bit of humility is in order for all of these places.
What are we trying to accomplish here? Clearly, we want our students to be able citizens in a global community. But college is only a beginning. There is a life after college during which we continue to learn. Our goal should be to start these young people on a path where they can acquire the life skills and the knowledge to be able global citizens, and to make sure—to the extent possible—that they do not reach adulthood without the intellectual and emotional capacity to engage effectively in a global society. To suggest that colleges are somehow required or able to complete this task is both unrealistic and insufficiently humble.
I believe there are two prerequisites for this lifelong journey: mastery of a foreign language and grounding in the liberal arts. It is my experience that people who are able to speak the language of another country with proficiency are often those with the cultural and social sophistication necessary to become global citizens. So, if I could start with a blank slate, I would encourage and even require all of our students to gain language proficiency at some point during their education. But since I can’t require it, I would hope that all students would aspire to learn a foreign language and realize that potential. Then I would remind all of our organizations to think about what is required to become a global citizen.
George Mitchell came to Bowdoin College for the first time in 1950 by hitchhiking some fifty miles from his home in the mill town of Waterville, Maine. He was 16 years old and had never been away from home. He studied, played some basketball, and took advantage of the opportunities that a liberal arts education provides. George Mitchell would go on to lead the United States Senate and to negotiate peace in Northern Ireland. Today he serves as President Obama’s envoy for peace in the Middle East. At Bowdoin in those days, we did teach some foreign languages, but there was no concentrated study in international affairs and no “study away.”
Another Bowdoin graduate, Tom Pickering of the Class of 1953, has served as U.S. Ambassador to Jordan, Nigeria, El Salvador, Israel, India, and Russia. As U.S. Representative to the United Nations, Tom was largely responsible for forging the international coalition that responded to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. When Tom was at Bowdoin, there was no international connection whatsoever. Today, Tom Pickering is fluent in French, Spanish, and Swahili, and has a working knowledge of Russian, Hebrew, and Arabic. He is a career diplomat who Time magazine once called the “five star general of the diplomatic corps.”
And then there’s Chris Hill, a member of the Bowdoin Class of 1974. He had no undergraduate training in international relations. Today he is U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, having served previously as ambassador to Poland and as the U.S. negotiator dealing with Milosovic and Kim Jung Il. Same undergraduate story, yet today, Chris is a respected citizen of the world.
George Mitchell, Tom Pickering, and Chris Hill were all educated at a liberal arts college grounded in critical inquiry and a commitment to the common good. They can—and often do—talk about what they learned at Bowdoin (and there are similar stories at other liberal arts colleges). They learned how to think, read, communicate, analyze, and make good judgments—skills that have served them well in the international arena. These liberal arts graduates—and many like them—are able citizens of the world who began their journey on our campuses and gained the skills necessary to continue their growth on the world stage. What they learned at college was to be fearless learners and listeners with a subtlety of mind and a sense of the common good that allow them to make good judgments.
Now, I understand the world is flatter today, more economically interconnected, with Internet connections at warp speed. But I still believe that the very best education for global citizenry is grounded fundamentally in the capacity for lifelong learning and principled leadership that we already teach. It is grounded in educating students who are not insular in perspective or experience. If we continue to do our jobs as educators, our students will be well prepared to embark on lives and careers as global citizens. | <urn:uuid:deb87d30-85f5-4580-91bc-1378f8e74407> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bowdoin.edu/president/columns/2010/preparing-students-global-economy.shtml | 2013-05-25T20:09:35Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972032 | 1,985 |
Every Tuesday, FADER deputy editor Eric Ducker gets on instant messenger and “discusses” a subject that’s been on his mind with another member of our staff or a special guest. After the jump, read his condensed (and emoticon-free) conversation about the current state of the remix with old friend/former FADER editor Nick Catchdubs, whose Fool’s Gold label just released a remix compilation and wrapped up a tour in support of it.
Eric Ducker: There is a deluge of remixes out there: officially released remixes, officially commissioned but rejected remixes, unauthorized remixes, “demo reel” remixes. At this stage, what is the purpose of remixes? Is it to benefit the song or to benefit the remixer?
Nick Catchdubs: It’s always been a symbiotic relationship, and I think the degree of who benefits more depends on the individual track. What’s interesting now is that there’s a definite “remix economy,” both on the official side with a constant stream of commissioned remixes from labels looking to get in on sounds/scenes that are bubbling and managers hustling to get work for their producers, as well as the unofficial tracks from producers looking to make a name for themselves by bombarding the internet. What I always think about in regards to remixes is, “Does this need to exist?” To me the best remixes become new songs that are greater than the sum of its individual parts.
ED: But couldn’t the unofficial, bombarding DJs say, “This does need to exist, because people need to hear what I have to offer”?
NC: Of course, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with unofficial remixes in principle, but the majority of stuff I hear lately has been pretty half-baked. Right now you have aspiring producers rushing to put out a mix before the real song has even got out there like that. It’s a constant one-upsmanship that becomes less and less about, “Did I make this better? What am I adding to the musical conversation?” Just because you can put bad keyboards under “Love Lockdown” doesn’t mean you should.
ED: So taking the self-promotion/economic benefits that remixing can have for producers out of the equation, let’s talk specifically about songs. What do you think has recently benefited from being remixed?
NC: On a macro level, you have this whole generation of “dance rock” bands where remixes were an essential part of their releases from the very beginning. That led into the more recent production style of guys like Switch and Fake Blood, where the original tracks are chopped up to the point that they’re almost completely unrecognizable, just a snippet of vocals going EK EK EK EK EK EK EK EK…FAKE BLOOD. Those guys are awesome at it, but it leads to a swarm of imitators. My favorite remixes have been relatively faithful to the original song. I think the Laidback Luke remix of Chromeo’s “Fancy Footwork” is great, it keeps the vocal intact with these huuuuuge accapella drops followed by thumping house breakdowns, the backing keyboard lines were turned into solo leads. The Crookers remix of Kid Cudi’s “Day ‘N’ Nite” was arguably the biggest remix of the year, and structurally it just supercharges the original song in a clever way. But most importantly they both translate to a mass audience. You don’t have to be a dance DJ or a blog geek to appreciate them. You can listen to it and hear what’s great about Chromeo AND Laidback Luke, what is dope about Kid Cudi as a songwriter AND why the Crookers have such a knack for these gigantic bass remixes.
ED: Rap remixes are in such a bad state right now.
NC: The thing that fucked up the rap remix game was trying to get ten artists on your shit at once.
ED: Puffy took a lot of shit for calling that collection We Invented the Remix, but it was kind of true after the “Flavor In Your Ear” remix. I guess, We Re-Invented the Remix (possibly for the worse) would have been more accurate.
NC: The good rap remix used to be one of two things: new beat (a la Pete Rock’s take on Public Enemy’s “Shut Em Down”) or the “Flavor In Your Ear” Socratic ideal. But the thing about the Craig Mack model (LOL) is that it makes sense for Biggie, LL, Busta and even fucking RAMPAGE to be on that song together. They are friends and peers and all doing their thing in 1994 NYC.
ED: So on one side you have dance music remixes that are all about promoting the producers with little regard to the song and on the other you have rap remixes that are all about promoting the rapper. And in the end, I’d rather listen to the original version of a MGMT song, even if they get top names like Justice and Soulwax to remix it. That being said, I probably download five remixes a day.
NC: What’s to say Soulwax isn’t the Busta to MGMT’s Craig Mack? The producers are more prominent on the dance side because if you’re paying 5000 euros for DJ XYZ to remix your shit, obviously you want to promote it and get the most out of it. Ultimately it’s all about context. I really enjoy MGMT’s “Kids” on its own, but the Soulwax mix DESTROYS in big room clubs and especially at the gigantic festival shows where it was designed to be played. It’s weird though, because if you’re not going out to see these guys, most people hear songs first on laptop speakers
ED: The primary method of dissemination (the internet) removes that context. I’m not saying they should only release remixes on non-rippable 12-inch vinyl (that would be stupid and unpossible), but it makes it harder to appreciate them for what they really are. All this being said, I still really like remixes as a way to track both producers and rappers in terms of their style and development.
NC: Definitely. A lot of times, remixes are the first place I hear different artists, then I go and research their other stuff. Beatport is great for that. Even with so much good shit, there’s still an over saturation though. On the Hype Machines of the world, it’s so much easier to find a remix than the actual song, and I think that’s where a balance needs to be struck.
ED: I just want to hear more one drop remixes of R&B songs, and less lazers.
NC: There’s an awesome two-steppy house remix of SWV’s “Rain” that came out recently. There’s still hope! On the rap/R&B side there’s not as much incentive to do a new beat for something unless it’s commissioned, whereas dance guys will do it just to have something cool for their sets, regardless of whether or not a label will eventually buy it.
ED: Are most dance remixes done on spec?
NC: Not if you’re an established producer. Top tier guys have an agreed upon fee, if it’s rejected they still get half. Sometimes if it’s producer to producer, they’ll just trade.
ED: Let’s say the label has the new Spank Rock or Thom Yorke single. How many remixes will be done with a guaranteed fee and how many will be done on spec?
NC: Probably two or three commissioned ones, and then another four to five on spec, with the best getting used. Aside from budget, the biggest factor is whether or not people can get it done on time (or if they are interested in remixing the artist to begin with). Just think about how much stuff Justice must have turned down over the past two years!
ED: Who usually decides whether to reject a remix, the artist or the label?
NC: I’d say it’s 50/50, but I see it happening more on the artist side lately. The commissioning A&R gets it, but the band is like, “Where’s my vocal?”
ED: If remixing is primarily a marketing tool at this stage, do most artists see it on the same level as approving/disapproving album art or MySpace page layouts?
NC: I think it’s a little more personal because you’re dealing with the actual music. I can totally understand a band not wanting to use a remix. I may disagree from an aesthetic and a pragmatic standpoint, but it’s still one hundred percent valid for them to make that decision. I wouldn’t even go as far to say it’s primarily a marketing tool. I mean, it IS a marketing tool, but in the right hands a remix is an opportunity to make new music that’s genuinely cool and worthwhile.
ED: I’m just putting it out there…De La Soul’s “Buddy” remix might be the best remix ever.
NC: Hahahahahaha. Well played.
ED: How can the rap remix be saved? What’s your five point plan
NC: 1. There needs to be a moratorium on buffet-style rap remixes. 2. Guests for the right reasons. 3. Guys should be in the studio together, and if it has to be a remix via email, artists shouldn’t be afraid to ask dudes for a second take if the verse is wack. 4. I want to see remixes on new beats. 5. In the dance world, it’s so ill when artists reach back to veteran producers and unexpected names instead of just the trendy guys. One of my favorite curveballs of late was when Simian Mobile Disco had Luke Vibert do “It’s the Beat.”
ED: In dance there’s less of the idea that old dudes are out of touch as there is with rap. That being said, a lot of older dudes in rap are out of touch
NC: Yes and yes, but could you imagine the buzz if Pete Rock did a beat for one of these young dude mega-remixes? It doesn’t even need to be an old head. Alchemist remix! The Nah Right server would eat itself. People need to use the resources at their fingertips and not be afraid to make unconventional decisions.
ED: Where does Busta Rhymes fit into the quest to save rap remixes? Dude gets a bad rep for jumping on anything that is or could be hot, but really, I’m interested in how Busta Rhymes sounds over most beats
NC: Me too. One thing we didn’t really touch on (probably because its a whole nother conversation) is the total ubiquity of the remix mixtape post-50 Cent. I don’t mean blends, I mean artists taking other artists’ beats for their own unofficial mixtapes. It’s now the standard, but guys don’t add enough. 50 would get over De La Soul’s “Baby Phat” and sing about fat bitches. It was awesome, but now everyone just gets over everyone else’s beats and it adds to this overall feeling of disposability. I didn’t really give Charles Hamilton a chance until I saw him at The Fader Fort while I was DJing, because he would drop a new mixtape EVERY WEEK. There was nothing special about it. You can probably extrapolate that to the world of homemade dance remixes, guys just throwing extra 130 BPM kick drums underneath Gnarls Barkley and shit. I think there just needs to be a context. I make a lot of my own unofficial remixes, I don’t feel the need to shout them from the top of every blog rooftop in America. It’s just some cool shit to DJ out. It doesn’t make me Armand Van Helden.
ED: Also, it would take you a year to grow a goatee.
NC: And get more Jordans. And work on my abs. For me the consensus is: remixes are such an amazing blank slate, a chance to do something awesome, whether it’s presenting something already good in a new light, or finding the hidden beauty in something else. It’s frustrating when people chose to be generic instead of embrace the shit out of that opportunity. On the dance side and the rap side, guys should be amped to make more interesting decisions, cause at the end of the day it’s NOT THE SAME SONG. It can be whatever they want it to be. | <urn:uuid:207473e8-fe49-4cb4-b2d1-74443edf70f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefader.com/2008/11/11/a-rational-conversation-between-two-reasonable-adults-the-state-of-the-remix/ | 2013-05-25T19:56:06Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948781 | 2,804 |
Disease surveillance and control of vector to protect climate
The Daily Star
climate change is caused by the accumulation of "green-house" gases in
the lower atmosphere. The concentration of these gases is increasing
mainly due to conversion of fossil fuel and deforestation. For example,
individuals are responsible for about 40 percent of emissions in the
UK, with energy use in homes, driving and air travel the biggest
The temperature of the earth is escalating
dangerously. As a result, the ice-caps and glaciers in the polar
regions are melting, submerging low-lying coastal lands, including that
of Bangladesh. The viruses and microbes that were inactive and buried
under freezing ice, are now starting to wake up as optimum temperature
for their activities is coming back. They are invading human and animal
bodies. Human settlers are occupying and destroying forests, disturbing
the flora and fauna including the vectors, viruses and microbes.
Reciprocally, the viruses are also finding new hosts in humans and
animals, causing illness.
Occurrence of drought in erstwhile
rainy areas is causing water crisis. Man and crops are facing disaster
for this. The Human Development Report 2007/2008 of UNDP shows that
climate change is not just a future scenario. Increased exposure to
droughts, floods and storms is already destroying opportunity and
Climate-related increases in sea surface
temperature and sea level can lead to higher incidence of water-borne
infectious and toxin-related illnesses. Climate stress on agriculture
causes malnutrition. Increased flux of ultraviolet radiation will cause
alterations in the human immune system, thus increasing vulnerability
Climate change may increase the risk of some
infectious diseases, particularly those that appear in warm areas and
are spread by mosquitoes and other insects, like malaria, dengue fever,
yellow fever and encephalitis. Disease transmission is directly
affected by climate change by removing the vector's habitat, increasing
reproductive and biting rates, and shortening the disease incubation
Vector-borne diseases are very sensitive to
temperature, humidity and rainfall. Climate change may alter the
distribution of important vectors species, and that may increase the
outbreak of diseases into new areas.
Disease surveillance facilities in Bangladesh The
Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control & Research (IEDCR) is an
important public health institute of Bangladesh. The main activities of
IEDCR include disease surveillance as well as entomological
surveillance, and disease outbreak investigation.
climate change, the pattern of distribution and duration of existing
disease may be changed. On the other hand, new types of illnesses might
emerge. An effective surveillance system is needed to monitor all these
At present, nine types of disease surveillance systems
are in operation. IEDCR conducts 7 of them: Priority Communicable
Disease Surveillance, Outbreak Related Emergency Surveillance,
Institutional Disease Surveillance, Sentinel Surveillance, Nipah
Surveillance, Acute Meningo-Encephalitis Surveillance and
Hospital-based Influenza Surveillance.
Two other types are
conducted by other institutions. Expanded Program for Immunisation
(EPI) conducts surveillance for EPI diseases, Medical Information
System (MIS) conducts routine disease surveillance for disease profile.
Besides these formal surveillance activities, the Directorate
General of Health Services (DGHS) and Director (Disease Control)
receive reports of illness having public health importance from all
over the country. Data are also received from existing programs, e.g.,
Malaria Eradication Program, Kala-azar Control Program, Tuberculosis
Control Program, HIV/AIDS Surveillance Program, Filariasis Control
Recently, IEDCR has taken an initiative to build
a coordinated mechanism for all the surveillance activities and data
collection, and analysis and reporting of illnesses of public health
Impact of climatic change on vector-borne disease Malaria:
Over the last 10 to 15 years, the prevalence and geographic
distribution of malaria worldwide has increased slowly but steadily.
Its recent worldwide increase is due mainly to mosquito resistance to
insecticide, breakdown of control efforts, migration of vectors and
However, its spread is also related to
environment. Agriculture extension and road building have created
better habitats for vector mosquitoes. With gradual increase in global
temperature since the last ice age (8-9.5° C) transmission of malaria
has migrated from Africa to Southern Europe.
Specific experiment has been conducted on the effect of temperature on
the ability of Aedes aegypti to transmit DEN-2 virus. The pattern of
temperature and vector efficiency parallels the climatic pattern of
Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) outbreak in Bangkok, Thailand where the
case rate rise in hot season (80°-30° C) and decrease during the cool
season (25°-28° C).
Vector-borne disease control strategies in changed climatic condition Both
disease and vector surveillance, and treatment and control of vectors
should be part of a comprehensive public health policy that promotes
co-operation among researchers, medical clinicians and government staff
at local, regional and international level.
policy makers should consider modern technology as a means for
collecting information about vector-borne diseases, developing
effective control strategies and setting appropriate priorities. Four
types of surveillance should be conducted to track vector-borne
-Recording human cases
-Determining the distribution and infectivity of vectors
-Monitoring a broad range of non-human vertebrates reservoir species
the weather patterns to help predict vector distribution. Monitoring
climatic parameters provide sufficient information to forecast the
population of key vector
Basic research both in the field and
laboratory should be taken to examine the disease agent's ability to
adapt to changing climatic condition to allow prediction of which
pathogen might migrate and their potential destination. Information
about the parameters limiting vectors are equally important.
measures can be targeted at several different aspects of the life cycle
of vector. Vaccination for animals and humans are aimed at preventing
the proliferation of pathogens and pesticides, and breeding place
management will reduce or eliminate the vectors. Immigration policies
and custom inspections may limit pathogen and vector entrance. Drug
treatment may limit future transmission of diseases.
Looking forward Satellite-based
remote sensing of ecologic conditions, geographic information system
(GIS) analytic techniques, inexpensive computational power, and
molecular techniques to track the geographic distribution and transport
of specific pathogens are some of the rapid advances in science which
are used in developed countries for disease epidemiology and
surveillance. They enable the public health scientists to analyse the
evolution and distribution of microbes, and their relationship to
different environments. It may contribute to quantify the disease
impacts of climatic and environmental changes.
disease control mostly relies on surveillance, followed by a rapid
response. Climate forecasts and environmental observations could be
used to identify high-risk locations for disease outbreaks. Operational
early warning systems are not yet possible for our limited knowledge of
climate-disease relation and limited climate forecasting capabilities.
But establishing this goal will help to develop analytic,
observational, and computational capacities.
should be co-ordinated with meteorologic, ecologic, and epidemiologic
surveillance systems. Together, this information could be used to
identify risky locations and could be a wake-up call as surveillance
data confirm earlier projections. Early warning systems of disease
should also include vulnerability and risk analysis, response plans,
and effective risk communication.
The lack of high-quality
epidemiologic data for most diseases is a serious obstacle to improve
our understanding of climate and disease linkages. These data are
necessary to establish a baseline against which one can detect unusual
changes, and develop and validate models. A concerted effort should be
made to collect long-term, area specific disease surveillance data,
along with the appropriate set of meteorologic and ecologic
Centralised, electronic databases should be
developed to facilitate rapid, standardised reporting and sharing of
epidemiologic data among researchers. If an effective, modern and
co-ordinated surveillance system could be built, then it will be
possible to rapidly identify any outbreak of existing or emerging
disease, known or unknown disease in any locality. Then it will be
possible to take appropriate measures for prevention and control of
those illnesses of public health importance.
Prof. Mahmudur Rahman, PhD is Director, Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR). Dr. M. Mushtuq Husain PhD is Senior Scientific Officer, Dept of Medical Social Science, IEDCR. Nuzhat Naseen Bano is Scientific Officer, Dept of Medical Entomology, IEDCR. | <urn:uuid:0ea0d204-4497-4afb-8dec-e032b3f5d9bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/news/asiapacific/title,9281,en.html | 2013-06-20T09:03:33Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.895849 | 1,857 |
The City of Rockville has announced that Capital Bikeshare is coming to Rockville in early fall with 13 bike stations through a partnership with Montgomery County. Capital Bikeshare is a network of bicycle-sharing stations that provides access to bikes and offers an alternative to driving. Check out a bike for your trip to work, run errands, go shopping, explore a neighborhood, head to a park, or visit friends and family.
Through bikesharing, cyclists can rent a bike from a designated station and drop it off at any other station within the Capital Bikeshare network. The program currently has more than 1,800 bikes at over 200 stations in circulation across Washington, D.C. and Virginia. It’s been incredibly popular in Washington, DC with both residents and tourists, and I’m happy to see it come into Rockville.
The bike stations in Rockville will be some of the first locations for Capital Bikeshare in Maryland. Proposed locations in Rockville include:
- Campus Drive and Mannakee Street
- Piccard Drive and West Gude Drive
- Rockville Metro – East
- Rockville Metro – West
- Courthouse Square and East Montgomery Avenue
- Fallsgrove Drive and West Montgomery Avenue
- Fleet Street and Ritchie Parkway
- King Farm Boulevard and Piccard Drive
- King Farm Boulevard and Pleasant Drive
- Monroe Street and Monroe Place
- Spring Avenue and Lenmore Avenue
- Taft Street and East Gude Drive
- Fallsgrove Boulevard and Fallsgrove Drive
I’ve plotted these locations (plus Shady Grove Metro, which is outside of Rockville but will be part of the BikeShare network) on a bike-route-version of Google Maps to better understand the impact on and benefit to Rockville. Google Maps can identify bike routes, with a Continue reading →
A weekday farmers market sponsored by The JBG Companies will open in Twinbrook May 7, bringing an array of new fresh food choices to the community and to the many daytime employees that work in the busy area.
First offerings in the market will feature farm fresh fruits and vegetables from Twin Springs Fruit Farm, handmade artisan breads from Upper Crust Bakery and traditionally cured meats from MeatCrafters. More farm vendors are expected, along with artists and their wares. The arrival of the farmers market will complement the growing presence of mobile food trucks, which are also adding new food options on weekdays in Twinbrook. Both initiatives result from the desire of Twinbrook residents and area workers for a variety of attractions as new offices and residential options arrive.
“Twinbrook is fortunate to have the bones of strong neighborhoods, good transit, roads and workforce,” said Rod Lawrence of The JBG Companies, a major real estate investment and development firm based in Montgomery County. “If we can contribute to the daily working and living experience here with new food options, that’s an extra dimension that makes Twinbrook an even better community.”
The new farmers market will be open from 9:30 to 1:30 every Tuesday, May through November in the courtyard between 5625 and 5635 Fishers Lane, just east of the Twinbrook Metro station.
JBG recently hosted a Saturday clean-up of Rock Creek Park at its Twinbrook edge, removing more than 5,000 pounds of debris from the stream bed and hillsides. The company has also scheduled a pit stop on Bike-to-Work Day on May 17, at the east end of Fishers Lane. More than 60 people have already signed up for that event and more are welcome by registering at www.twinbrookurbanbynature.com.
The JBG Companies, who are currently building a large complex of offices, residences, and stores around the Twinbrook Metro station, are also working on a portion of downtown Rockville that’s slated as phase two of the Town Center. The 2008 economic downturn slowed development considerably but is now picking up, as evidenced by the construction of the corporate headquarters of Choice Hotels. JBG owns the former Giant Grocery store at 275 North Washington Street (across from the Beall’s Grant Apartments) and has been exploring various uses for this vacant building and adjoining parking lot. Today, they shared the following plans:
New shopping, apartments and offices are slated for an overlooked city block in Rockville’s downtown, offering the opportunity to energize a long-vacant Giant grocery store site and adjoining tracts. The JBG Companies is proposing to demolish the grocery store and build new offices and shopping as a complement to busy Rockville Town Square next door. JBG has shared its plans with multiple audiences including neighbors, city officials, community groups and civic users.
“We are fortunate to have strong support from neighbors and businesses alike who have long been asking for renewed vigor in this part of downtown Rockville,” said Anthony Greenberg, a JBG official. “Redeveloping this property is an excellent opportunity to Continue reading →
This morning’s Peerless Rockville tour of the Alaire not only provided an intimate behind-the-scenes tour with representative of JBG of this award-winning combination of residences and stores, but also discussed the plans and timing for several projects in the Twinbrook Metro area. About a dozen people joined the conversation to see the lobby, common rooms, and a one-bedroom apartment of the Alaire, then went out onto the street to discuss the current and upcoming development for the region. Among the items that caught my ears:
1. WMATA owns the land and has leased it to JBG for 99 years. That means that projects need to be approved both by the City of Rockville and WMATA.
2. WMATA wants to maintain the 1100 parking spaces currently available at the Twinbrook Metro station, so before any existing surface lots can be developed, sufficient parking has to be provided elsewhere. The parking structure currently under construction at Halpine and Chapman will allow development of the next phase of Twinbrook Commons.
3. The next phase of Twinbrook Station will occur on the west side of Fishers Lane, across from the Alaire. Called the Toronto, it will consist of a combination of residences, stores, and a parking structure and will be intentionally designed by another architectural firm to avoid a monotonous appearance for the development. Groundbreaking is expected to happen Continue reading →
This Saturday, April 21, from 10 am to 12 noon, join Peerless Rockville for a tour of The Alaire at Twinbrook Station, the beginning of a significant, New Urbanist community called Twinbrook Station being developed by the JBG Companies and WMATA. It’s the first Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) plan in the Washington metropolitan area, has been designated a Smart Growth project by the Washington Smart Growth Alliance, and received the International Charter Award for Excellence from the Congress for the New Urbanism. So if you want to know what all the fuss is about, staff from JBG will discuss their approach to development around a transit station, view an apartment, and find out more about their future plans and on-going projects, both at Twinbrook Station and on adjacent properties. Tour starts at 10 am at 1101 Higgins Place (the entrance to the Alaire apartments) and costs $7. Space is limited and reservations are recommended. Two-hour free parking in the Alaire garage (and the adjacent Metro lot is free on weekends). For more information, please visit PeerlessRockville.org or call 301-762-0096.
And just in case you didn’t catch my previous tweets, it appears that the nearby Walmart project at the Rockville Pike and Bou Avenue has been temporarily postponed: Bagel City recently signed a two-and-a-half year lease. A few doors down, the Office Depot is closing but it’s unrelated to future developments of the site (btw, everything is on sale at 10-30% off but is non-returnable).
In other related news, a couple of Rockville’s communities will enjoy national attention in May when I co-lead a tour of New Mark Commons and King Farm for the annual convention of the American Institute of Architects. We’ll be looking at cutting-edge planned communities in Montgomery County, starting with 1930s Greenbelt and ending with the 21st century King Farm. Lunch will be in Town Square, which has turned up as the poster child for the Congress for the New Urbanism. If you thought Rockville was just a little sleepy suburb, it’s time to change your mind.
At the April 5 meeting of the Rockville Community Coalition, Andrea Jolly shared that the Chamber of Commerce is becoming more active in local advocacy and that the Chamber cares as much about the community as it does business. She’s the executive director of the Rockville Chamber of Commerce, an organization that now claims 185 members, a dramatic turnaround from its nearly lifeless condition just a few years ago. As examples of their reinvigorated stature, she noted the public stand they’ve taken on behalf of Pumphrey’s; the support for environmental causes that affect the community as a whole (such as the bag tax and storm water management fees); and the sponsorship of the Rockville Economic Summit. She expressed her concerns that the community seems to be artificially divided between businesses and residents and while the Council claims to be business-friendly, their actions have indicated otherwise. Most members of the Chamber are small businesses that are locally owned and operated and rely heavily on local residents as both customers and employees. She also voiced a desire that there be good relationships throughout the community rather than irreconcilable differences–we may disagree at times, but we should always be willing to work together to solve shared issues.
During the discussion:
- she clarified the relationship with the Rockville Economic Development, Inc. (they attract and retain businesses but cannot advocate; Chamber provides ongoing services to its members and the current business community, can advocate for a business-friendly atmosphere). She also mentioned that REDI may have a new executive director in place in May.
- she was unaware that the City didn’t collect Continue reading →
About two dozen people gathered in the Red Brick Courthouse last night to hear Tony Greenberg of JBG Companies of Chevy Chase discuss conceptual plans for a three-acre lot in downtown Rockville, the site of the former Giant grocery store on Washington Street near Beall Avenue. The Town Center Action Team hosted the meeting and among those attending were councilmember Bridget Newton and chief of planning Jim Wasilak. JBG is one of the region’s major developers and is currently building the Alaire and rehabilitating the million-square-foot Health and Human Services Building in Twinbrook. Greenberg noted that JBG Rosenfeld is an affiliated but separate company that specializes in managing retail properties (such as the Twinbrook Shopping Center). JBG’s focus is primarily planning and construction of offices, hotels, and mixed use projects (i.e., retail AND residential, such as the North Bethesda Market which combines a Whole Foods Market and 400 apartments).
The Old Giant site has been vacant for years and is receiving very little revenue (mostly leases for parking). It’s part of the next phase of development for the Town Center (aka Town Center 2) and although currently sited mid-block along Washington Avenue, the City’s plans include streets bordering two other sides of the three-acre lot (an extension of Maryland Avenue from Town Center and a new Dawson Street linking Washington and Hungerford). JBG’s current conceptual plans include those streets as planned (although adjustments have been discussed to avoid awkward leftover parcels) and how their project might relate to the adjacent properties as Town Center 2 is developed. Greenberg noted that adjacent properties are separate parcels owned by others, such as the Maxim supermarket and the fire station, some of whom are not interested in selling because they want to develop the property themselves. Plans for relocating the fire station have died down, development of the Bank of America parcel have been scrapped due to the economy, but a Walgreen’s drug store is underway along Hungerford.
JBG considered various possible uses, including office, condo, and hotel, but in the current economic climate, the only ones that made sense were Continue reading → | <urn:uuid:e4a3c164-7b57-48c2-8863-0b1468d0edb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://maxforrockville.com/tag/jbg-companies/ | 2013-06-20T08:37:26Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954309 | 2,558 |
TSX slumps as Fed mulls stimulus exit
2013-06-19 20:58:15 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
TORONTO: Canada's main stock index slipped on Wednesday after comments by the US Federal Reserve that it could begin rolling back its stimulus program this year weighed on investor sentiment and caused declines across most sectors.Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the US central bank expects to slow the pace of its bond purchases later this year and bring them to a halt around mid-2014.Financial ...
Australia shares close at a 2 week high, Whitehaven jumps
2013-06-19 09:07:51 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
SYDNEY: Australian shares rose 1 percent to close at a two-week high on Wednesday, helped by expectations that the US Federal Reserve will not move quickly to scale back its monetary stimulus and as a weaker Australian dollar lifted stocks with large exposure to overseas markets.Whitehaven Coal Ltd surged 4 percent after embattled tycoon Nathan Tinkler has handed his stake in to lenders to pay off...
Australian shares rise 0.5pc at open; Whitehaven surges
2013-06-19 00:27:26 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
SYDNEY: Australian shares bounced 0.5 percent early on Wednesday, after Wall Street rose for a second straight day as investors bet the Federal Reserve will maintain its stimulus support.A weaker Australian dollar also benefited stocks with overseas exposure including global miners BHP Billiton Ltd and Rio Tinto Ltd, which climbed 0.9 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.Shares in coal miner White...
Fed optimism, Tim Hortons lift TSX to 1-week high
2013-06-18 21:23:29 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
TORONTO: Canada's main stock index climbed to a one-week high on Tuesday as positive economic data and hopes that the US Federal Reserve will stick to its supportive monetary policy drove gains in almost every major sector.Coffee chain Tim Hortons Inc also boosted Canada's main stock index rising 4 percent on news that it now faces pressure from US hedge fund Scout Capital Management to ma...
Fed hopes buoy TSX as bank, energy shares climb
2013-06-17 22:59:34 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
TORONTO: Canada's main stock index jumped on Monday as hopes that this week's Federal Reserve meeting would reaffirm support for the US central bank's easy monetary policy spurred sharp gains in shares of financial and energy companies.The rise helped the market recover from its 1.5 percent loss last week, but the index remained in negative territory for the year.As with global equity ...
Australia shares post biggest one-day gain in 18 months
2013-06-14 06:33:40 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
SYDNEY: Australian shares rebounded 2.1 percent on Friday, their biggest one-day gain in 18 months, as high-yielding stocks led by blue chip financials underpinned the local market after Wall Street rallied overnight.Financials were led by National Australia Bank soaring 3.6 percent while Australia's fourth largest bank, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group climbed 3 percent.The S&P/ASX...
TSX rallies on news of Safeway deal
2013-06-13 22:52:23 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
TORONTO: Canada's main stock index rebounded on Thursday after days of weakness as worries about central bank stimulus were offset by a jump in Empire Co Ltd , which is buying Safeway Inc's Canadian assets for $5.7 billion.The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index ended the day up 167.24 points, or 1.38 percent, at 12,277.13, recovering from a seven-week low early in the...
Safeway deal helps TSX bounce strongly from 7-wk low
2013-06-13 22:50:10 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
TORONTO: Canada's main stock index rebounded on Thursday following two sessions of steep losses, helped by a jump in Empire Co Ltd after the company said it will buy Safeway Inc's Canadian assets for $5.7 billion.Shares of Empire, the operator of grocery chain Sobeys, jumped nearly 10.6 percent after investors and analysts cheered the move, which will nearly double the company's reach ...
Australia shares fall 0.7pc to 5 month low as banks drag
2013-06-12 07:02:50 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
SYDNEY: Australian shares fell 0.7 percent on Wednesday, closing at a five-month low, as a global fall for equities and disappointment that the Bank of Japan did not take new easing steps the previous day hurt appetites.Financials led losses as overseas investors sold off index-heavy banks on the back of the weaker Australian dollar and higher bond yields, analysts said.The S&P/ASX 200 index d...
Indian shares fall over one percent
2013-06-11 11:51:35 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
MUMBAI: India's benchmark index fell more than 1 percent on Tuesday to its lowest close in more than 1-1/2 months, as the rupee tumbled to a record low, continuing to hit lenders such as ICICI Bank on dashed rate cut hopes.While suspected central bank intervention hauled the rupee off a record low struck on Tuesday afternoon, its continued weakness is seen clouding rate cut expectations, and s...
TSX at 1-month low on weaker golds
2013-06-07 20:37:59 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
TORONTO: Canada's main stock index slipped to a one-month low on Friday as a slump in gold miners, which followed a tumbling bullion price, offset strength in several other sectors after a positive US jobs report.The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index unofficially closed down 36.03 points, or 0.29 percent, at 12,373.30. Seven of the 10 main sectors on the index were highe...
Australia shares may edge up at open, on track for weekly loss
2013-06-06 23:57:45 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
SYDNEY: Australian shares may edge up at the open on Friday following a stronger close on Wall Street ahead of the US jobs report, but the market is set to post a fourth straight weekly fall.* Local share price index futures added 0.1 percent to 4,786.0, a 4.8 point premium to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close. On Thursday, the benchmark fell 1.1 percent to a 4-1/2-month low to be down ne...
TSX falls to 1-month low as US jobs data eyed
2013-06-06 23:42:34 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
TORONTO: Canada's main stock index slipped on Thursday to its lowest in a month, led by a decline in financial shares, as investors nervously awaited Friday's jobs report out of the United States.The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index unofficially closed down 34.32 points, or 0.28 percent, at 12,409.33. Seven of the 10 main sectors on the index were in the red.Copyrig...
Australia shares seen extending losses on Fed stimulus worries
2013-06-05 23:44:42 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
SYDNEY: Australian shares are set to open lower on Thursday, extending losses after touching a 4-1/2-month low and tracking a decline on Wall Street on renewed worries the Federal Reserve may begin to scale back its bond-buying stimulus.Local share price index futures fell 1 percent to 4,784.0, a 51.2-point premium/discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close.The local benchmark slumped ...
TSX drops to near 1-month low on US growth, Fed fears
2013-06-05 23:12:26 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
TORONTO: Canada's main stock index recorded one of its steepest one-day percentage falls of the year on Wednesday due to concerns about US economic growth, sluggish hiring, and renewed fears of a stimulus pullback.The declines took the market to a one-month low, with weakness in almost all key sectors, and helped erase almost all the gains the index has made this year.The lone bright spot was ...
Australia shares seen opening lower ahead of GDP data
2013-06-04 23:38:32 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
SYDNEY: Australian shares are expected to open weaker after losses on Wall Street and on concerns about Chinese demand for metals, with GDP data expected to show a slowdown in mining investment kept growth below potential at the start of the year.
Local share price index futures fell 0.4 percent to 4,879, a 21.8-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close. The benchmark rose 0....
Data pulls TSX lower as energy shares, banks slip
2013-06-04 00:04:27 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
TORONTO: Canada's main stock index slipped to its lowest in more than two weeks on Monday after sluggish data raised concerns about half of the global economic recovery and caused declines in the energy and financial sectors.Weakness in Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, following a downgrade of the stock by Goldman Sachs, also weighed on the market.US manufacturing activity contracted in May for...
Australia shares seen lower; eyes on China, local data
2013-06-02 23:02:31 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
SYDNEY: Australian shares are set to open lower on Monday after a sharp fall on Wall Street and weaker metals prices, with eyes on Chinese data and a slew of local economic figures.Local share price index futures fell 1.7 percent to 4,876.0, a 50.6-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close. The benchmark slipped 0.1 percent on Friday.New Zealand's stocks market is closed for...
Australia shares edge up on yield play; Cabcharge, Pharmaxis tumble
2013-05-28 07:40:29 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
SYDNEY: Australian shares ended 0.2 percent higher on Tuesday, snapping a five-day losing streak, as investors returned to pick up high-yield stocks such as banks following last week's downturn.The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index added 10.8 points to 4,970.7, according to the latest data. It fell 0.5 percent on Monday.Analysts said the 4,900-point mark was a key support milestone to watch, wit...
Australian shares post 5th straight decline, miners sag
2013-05-27 08:56:26 GMT : (Markets - Equity/Australia)
SYDNEY: Australian shares fell 0.5 percent on Monday, extending last week's sharp declines to a five-week low as sentiment was hit by volatility in the Japanese market and concerns the US Federal Reserve may scale back its stimulus measures.Japan's Nikkei share index slid more than three percent on Monday, in a continuation of last week's turbulance and causing investors to worry that ... | <urn:uuid:ec401e7c-107e-491d-823d-9ac9ec50b06e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brecorder.com/archive/category/121 | 2013-06-20T09:14:56Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911257 | 2,434 |
by Clifford Bond and Robert Hand, Helsinki Commission Staff
In early December 2008, Helsinki Commission staff visited Kosovo to review the changing mandates of a wide range of international actors in Kosovo. The visit coincided with the European Union’s deployment of a Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, known as EULEX, which took place successfully but revealed the potential for regional instability.
The Commission staff delegation met with a variety of international and local actors in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital. It traveled to the Visoki Decani, a monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church where it met with church representatives, and to the nearby town of Peja/Pec where it met with field representatives of the International Civilian Office (ICO) and the OSCE. The delegation also visited both sides of the divided northern city of Mitrovica where it visited displacement camps and the rebuilt neighborhood for the city’s Romani population in addition to other meetings.
The International Community
Kosovo asserted its independent statehood in February 2008, in the context of the plan put forward by former Finnish President, UN official and Nobel laureate Martti Ahtisaari. In so doing, Kosovo’s leadership pledged to implement the plan in full, which means accepting international supervision and providing decentralized authority and numerous rights and privileges to the Serb and, to a lesser extent, other minority communities. The Ahtisaari plan, however, assumes agreement by all parties, but Serbia, backed by Russia at the United Nations, refuses to accept the loss of what it considers still to be its province. The United States and most European countries have recognized Kosovo’s independence, but a few European Union members remain either reluctant or strongly against doing so, either due to ties with Serbia or fear of separatist movements within their own borders. Spain was frequently singled out as the one country that not only opposes Kosovo’s independence but seems intent on undermining its recognition by others. Combined with the widespread need for consensus decision-making, most of the international community’s field missions must, to one degree or another, act neutrally on questions of status, to the detriment of their effectiveness and the enormous frustration of Kosovar Albanians who desire that Kosovo’s independence be respected.
The EULEX deployment brought these differing perspectives to the fore. In order to obtain an EU-wide agreement, a UN blessing and the acquiescence of Belgrade and local Serbs under Belgrade’s control, a compromise effort known as the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s “6-point plan” was put forward that prompted angry protest among the Kosovar Albanian majority and an official rejection from Pristina. Posters throughout the city proclaimed EULEX to be “Made in Serbia”. After several delays and despite continued ambiguity regarding which government was the actual host, the Mission deployed on December 9 throughout Kosovo, not just in areas under Pristina’s control. That the deployment proceeded smoothly and peacefully was viewed as a success, although ambiguities purposefully placed in its mandate to allow both Albanians and Serbs to maintain their positions, as well as the lack of political oversight and coordination among EULEX’s three areas of responsibility (police, courts and customs), likely mean that EULEX will face additional tests of its resolve in the future. For now, the most noteworthy result of the deployment is the anticipated end of inefficient UNMiK operations, which have come to symbolize the holding pattern in which Kosovo has found itself since 1999.
The deployment could also signal a more cooperative tone among Kosovo’s Serbs. In northern Mitrovica and contiguous areas bordering Serbia, there are signs that Belgrade may no longer support more militant and corrupt Kosovo Serb leaders. In the enclaves to the south, where the majority of Kosovo Serbs live, there may also be more room for local accommodation and inter-ethnic cooperation, with questions of status put to the side. Following Serbian elections in May that strengthened pro-democratic and pro-European forces in society, Belgrade seems to want at least more transparency and accountability in the “parallel institutions” it has so far financed, and it may try to reduce its subsidies. It also seems to want to avoid violence, especially any violence that could be blamed on the Serb side. It is unclear how far it will push to assert control and responsibility in light of UNMiK’s dwindling role, or whether it will allow EULEX and eventually the ICO to fill the void. Unfortunately, divisions within the European Union almost invite continued Serbian intransigence. Without being given a clear choice between trying to hold onto Kosovo and achieving European integration, the Serbian Government still plays the “Kosovo card,” which garners popular support at home without any apparent repercussions.
The situation on the Kosovar Albanian side is a bit clearer. Despite internal political posturing, there is really little difference within this community when it comes to defending Kosovo’s independence. The deliberations that led the EULEX deployment pushed the Kosovo government about as far as it could go. While the achievement of independence has so far made the Ahtisaari plan worth embracing, many of its provisions relating to Serb communities have been no easy sell, especially in the many localities where nationalism and intolerance continue to prevail. When governments of European countries which have recognized Kosovo’s independence nevertheless treat it as something less than an independent and sovereign state, the Kosovars are naturally outraged and increasingly distrustful. This could be countered somewhat by the establishment of embassies in the capitals of those countries who have thus far recognized Kosovo, particularly in Europe, staffed by competent diplomats in order to ensure that the Kosovo point-of-view is made clear to policy-makers. The United States should also counter European diplomatic tendencies to placate traditional regional powers and treat the new states of Europe as second-class states.
In the meantime, as those in government may try to adhere to their Ahtisaari commitments, those in opposition have also been able to capitalize on the situation. This poses a challenge to Kosovo’s shaky democratic institutions, which are still very much in transition. Some have expressed concern that the further development of democratic capacities could be thwarted by the need to meet unpopular international demands.
While EULEX moves forward and UNMiK winds down, other international players need to find their role. As one analyst commented, the international community has lost the coherence of its structure and has become a confusing maze to local parties.
The International Civilian Office is perhaps the most important, yet vulnerable, of the current players. A creation of the Ahtisaari plan, it is by definition not status neutral, and has a relatively strong mandate to supervise post-status Kosovo. Serb opposition to cooperation with the ICO makes this difficult, but the hesitancy of the status-neutral players to cooperate, coordinate and support the ICO will severely weaken its effectiveness to Kosovo’s long-term detriment.
The OSCE Mission in Kosovo, the organization’s largest, is facing even more difficult times. Once known for its solid monitoring of events throughout Kosovo and for developing democratic capacity, the early threat of Belgrade and Moscow to close the Mission cast a shadow over its future and a considerable portion of its personnel have moved to the ICO or otherwise left the OSCE in Kosovo. Mission leadership has also been controversial; while this may have stabilized with a new Head of Mission, the OSCE lost some serious ground. Most interlocutors felt that the Mission is a bit oversized, and needs to focus on core areas such as promoting free media, human rights and inter-ethnic dialogue, where the OSCE has genuine expertise and credibility.
KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping force, seems to be the one constant of the international presence that garners unquestioned respect and seems prepared to handle whatever instability may lie ahead. It is the acknowledged last resort for providing security, but its presence helps ensure a security baseline that will deter provocations and enhance confidence at the local level. KFOR representatives seem confident that lessons were learned from the violence of 2004 and that greater flexibility across lines of operations, more consistent rules for engagement and an unwillingness to let the particulars of status from getting in its way will be effective in keeping the peace in Kosovo.
A Need for Dialogue
Many of the problems which exist among both the Kosovar Albanian majority and the Kosovo Serb minority could be resolved through greater dialogue, both within Kosovo and between Belgrade and Pristina. There is some effort to achieve this through civic organizations and religious institutions, as well as business contacts. There is also some interaction in technical areas such as regarding missing persons from the 1998-99 conflict, or in the reconstruction of churches and other religious sites damaged or destroyed in the March 2004 riots. Unfortunately, a suitable venue for direct contact between Belgrade and Pristina needs to be found. Pristina is ready, at least in principle, but Belgrade is not.
One area where the Kosovo authorities could act more swiftly, without precondition, and likely to their own long-term benefit, is the resolution of outstanding property claims. The resolution of property claims is a major hindrance to the return of displaced persons, and it holds up legal usage of property even when a return is unlikely. In some cases at least, displaced Serbs and others may only wish to get their property back so they can sell it. While there may be solid reasons for wanting to encourage displaced persons to return to Kosovo -- and some efforts to do this were underway in December – ultimately each individual needs only the opportunity to make a free choice. To do this, those with outstanding property claims need to have their cases resolved. The issue of property claims came up repeatedly in meetings, and seems a greater issue than security and freedom of movement at present. Some hope the EULEX deployment could provide a second chance for property restitutions and returns.
Both sides, but especially some Kosovo leaders who formerly fought with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), could probably also help facilitate the resolution of more missing persons cases, of which just under 2,000 remain. While there has been success in bringing government representatives and surviving family members together under international auspices, local efforts to help locate grave sites appear to be half-hearted, at best. It is unlikely that progress in this area will enhance community reconciliation efforts in any major way, but a positive signal to do more could lead to a broadening of dialogue on other issues. Ultimately, this remains a humanitarian issue that deserves additional effort no matter what.
At present, Kosovo authorities seem committed to implementing the Ahtsaari plan in its entirety. Relevant laws have been passed, and those involved in developing local self-government seem committed to implementation. The real test, of course, will come when the Kosovo Serbs decide to respond and engage and are able to do so without worry of retribution from Belgrade. One local analyst noted that developing the necessary trust between the two sides will be a process, and should be taken one step at a time rather than pushed.
The Plight of Roma in the North
A continual concern to the Helsinki Commission has been the plight of displaced Roma in northern Mitrovica, most of whom fled their original neighborhood, or mahalla, which was destroyed in 1999. Growing criticism of the conditions in the camps, particularly the health hazards caused by lead contamination, finally convinced the international community in 2005 first to establish a temporary relocation facility that was safer and to make a concentrated effort to rebuild housing where the original mahalla in the south was located. Romani families resisted the move, due to warranted lack of trust in the international community and a lack of awareness of how severe the health threat really was. Local Serbian leaders as well as Romani community leaders living elsewhere in Europe, however, originally also did much to discourage the move, both benefiting from a situation in which successful returns did not take place.
Commission staff visited the last of the original camps, Cesmin Lug, as well as the new camp adjacent to it, a former KFOR base known as Osterode. They also visited the original mahalla, which had additional apartment buildings and some private houses constructed since the last Commission visit in May 2007. Despite the availability of housing, residents of the camps continue to resist moving, despite continued concerns about health conditions. Local Serbian leaders, who now want the land where Osterode is located, seem no longer to be discouraging the move, and Roma living abroad likewise seem to have less influence on the situation. Security for Roma in the south, once a concern, seems less so now. Those who remain in the camps seem primarily motivated by a continued distrust of the international community as well as lingering hopes for a better offer. The inability of the local economy to provide income, particularly in the south, also plays a significant role, as does the desire to keep children in Serb-run schools, despite being segregated into separate classes. Meanwhile, there is increasing pressure from foreign governments to prioritize the resettling of Kosovo Roma they intend to deport, rather than those displaced in Kosovo and living in camps. It is clear that, while there has been some progress on this issue, a limited set of additional options will need to be considered to resolve the situation, including the possibility of permanent resettlement in the north. | <urn:uuid:696101b0-dbfa-4378-802f-e3348f6a30f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContentRecords.ViewDetail&ContentRecord_id=457&ContentType=G&ContentRecordType=G&UserGroup_id=68®ion_id=68&year=0&month=0&Subaction=ByDate&CFID=9458679&CFTOKEN=26969327 | 2013-06-20T08:39:46Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964343 | 2,748 |
by Simon Tatham, professional and free-software programmer
You can find the original / latest version of this article here
NOTE: Simon Tatham is not a Firebird Project member! We reproduced his article about Bug reports here because it's excellent, and it would be pointless to try write better one.Introduction
Anybody who has written software for public use will probably have received at least one bad bug report. Reports that say nothing ("It doesn't work!"); reports that make no sense; reports that don't give enough information; reports that give wrong information. Reports of problems that turn out to be user error; reports of problems that turn out to be the fault of somebody else's program; reports of problems that turn out to be network failures.
There's a reason why technical support is seen as a horrible job to be in, and that reason is bad bug reports. However, not all bug reports are unpleasant: I maintain free software, when I'm not earning my living, and sometimes I receive wonderfully clear, helpful, informative bug reports.
In this essay I'll try to state clearly what makes a good bug report. Ideally, I would like everybody in the world to read this essay before reporting any bugs to anybody. Certainly I would like everybody who reports bugs to me to have read it.
In a nutshell, the aim of a bug report is to enable the programmer to see the program failing in front of him. You can either show him in person, or give him careful and detailed instructions on how to make it fail. If he can make it fail, he will try to gather extra information until he knows the cause. If he can't make it fail, he will have to ask you to gather that information for him.
In bug reports, try to make very clear what are actual facts ("I was at the computer and this happened") and what are speculations ("I think the problem might be this"). Leave out speculations if you want to, but don't leave out facts.
When you report a bug, you are doing so because you want the bug fixed. There is no point in swearing at the programmer or being deliberately unhelpful. It may be his fault and your problem, and you might be right to be angry with him, but the bug will get fixed faster if you help by supplying all the information he needs. Remember also that if the program is free, the author is providing it out of kindness, so if too many people are rude to him, he may stop feeling kind.It doesn't work
Give the programmer some credit for basic intelligence. If the program really didn't work at all, he would probably have noticed. Since he hasn't noticed, it must be working for him. Therefore, either you are doing something differently, or your environment is different from his. He needs information; providing this information is the purpose of a bug report. More information is almost always better than less.
Many programs, particularly free ones, publish their list of known bugs. If you can find a list of known bugs, it's worth reading it to see if the bug you've just found is already known or not. If it's already known, it probably isn't worth reporting again, but if you think you have more information than the report in the bug list, you might want to contact the programmer anyway. He might be able to fix the bug more easily if you can give him information he didn't already have.
This essay is full of guidelines. None of them is an absolute rule. Particular programmers have particular ways they like bugs to be reported. If the program comes with its own set of bug-reporting guidelines, read them. If the guidelines that come with the program contradict the guidelines in this essay, follow the ones that come with the program!
If you are not reporting a bug but just asking for help using the program, you should state where you have already looked for the answer to your question. ("I looked in chapter 4 and section 5.2 but couldn't find anything that told me if this is possible.") This will let the programmer know where people will expect to find the answer, so they can make the documentation easier to use.Show me
One of the very best ways you can report a bug is by showing it to the programmer. Stand him in front of your computer, fire up his software, and demonstrate the thing that goes wrong. Let him watch you start the machine, watch you run the software, watch how you interact with the software, and watch what the software does in response to your inputs.
He knows that software like the back of his hand. He knows which parts he trusts, and he knows which parts are likely to have faults. He knows intuitively what to watch for. By the time the software does something obviously wrong, he may well have already noticed something subtly wrong earlier which might give him a clue. He can observe everything the computer does during the test run, and he can pick out the important bits for himself.
This may not be enough. He may decide he needs more information, and ask you to show him the same thing again. He may ask you to talk him through the procedure, so that he can reproduce the bug for himself as many times as he wants. He might try varying the procedure a few times, to see whether the problem occurs in only one case or in a family of related cases. If you're unlucky, he may need to sit down for a couple of hours with a set of development tools and really start investigating. But the most important thing is to have the programmer looking at the computer when it goes wrong. Once he can see the problem happening, he can usually take it from there and start trying to fix it.Show me how to show myself
This is the era of the Internet. This is the era of worldwide communication. This is the era in which I can send my software to somebody in Russia at the touch of a button, and he can send me comments about it just as easily. But if he has a problem with my program, he can't have me standing in front of it while it fails. "Show me" is good when you can, but often you can't.
If you have to report a bug to a programmer who can't be present in person, the aim of the exercise is to enable him to reproduce the problem. You want the programmer to run his own copy of the program, do the same things to it, and make it fail in the same way. When he can see the problem happening in front of his eyes, then he can deal with it.
So tell him exactly what you did. If it's a graphical program, tell him which buttons you pressed and in what order you pressed them. If it's a program you run by typing a command, show him precisely what command you typed. Wherever possible, you should provide a verbatim transcript of the session, showing what commands you typed and what the computer output in response.
Give the programmer all the input you can think of. If the program reads from a file, you will probably need to send a copy of the file. If the program talks to another computer over a network, you probably can't send a copy of that computer, but you can at least say what kind of computer it is, and (if you can) what software is running on it.Works for me. So what goes wrong?
If you give the programmer a long list of inputs and actions, and he fires up his own copy of the program and nothing goes wrong, then you haven't given him enough information. Possibly the fault doesn't show up on every computer; your system and his may differ in some way. Possibly you have misunderstood what the program is supposed to do, and you are both looking at exactly the same display but you think it's wrong and he knows it's right.
So also describe what happened. Tell him exactly what you saw. Tell him why you think what you saw is wrong; better still, tell him exactly what you expected to see. If you say "and then it went wrong", you have left out some very important information.
If you saw error messages, tell the programmer, carefully and precisely, what they were. They are important! At this stage, the programmer is not trying to fix the problem; he's just trying to find it. He needs to know what has gone wrong, and those error messages are the computer's best effort to tell you that. Write the errors down if you have no other easy way to remember them, but it's not worth reporting that the program generated an error unless you can also report what the error message was.
In particular, if the error message has numbers in it, do let the programmer have those numbers. Just because you can't see any meaning in them doesn't mean there isn't any. Numbers contain all kinds of information that can be read by programmers, and they are likely to contain vital clues. Numbers in error messages are there because the computer is too confused to report the error in words, but is doing the best it can to get the important information to you somehow.
At this stage, the programmer is effectively doing detective work. He doesn't know what happened, and he can't get close enough to watch it happening for himself, so he's searching for clues that might give it away. Error messages, incomprehensible strings of numbers, and even unexplained delays are all just as important as fingerprints at the scene of a crime. Keep them!
If you are using Unix, the program may have produced a core dump. Core dumps are a particularly good source of clues, so don't throw them away. On the other hand, most programmers don't like to receive huge core files by e-mail without warning, so ask before mailing one to anybody. Also, be aware that the core file contains a record of the complete state of the program: any "secrets" involved (maybe the program was handling a personal message, or dealing with confidential data) may be contained in the core file.So then I tried...
There are a lot of things you might do when an error or bug comes up. Many of them make the problem worse. A friend of mine at school deleted all her Word documents by mistake, and before calling in any expert help, she tried reinstalling Word, and then she tried running Defrag. Neither of these helped recover her files, and between them they scrambled her disk to the extent that no Undelete program in the world would have been able to recover anything. If she'd only left it alone, she might have had a chance.
Users like this are like a mongoose backed into a corner: with its back to the wall and seeing certain death staring it in the face, it attacks frantically, because doing something has to be better than doing nothing. This is not well adapted to the type of problems computers produce.
Instead of being a mongoose, be an antelope. When an antelope is confronted with something unexpected or frightening, it freezes. It stays absolutely still and tries not to attract any attention, while it stops and thinks and works out the best thing to do. (If antelopes had a technical support line, it would be telephoning it at this point.) Then, once it has decided what the safest thing to do is, it does it.
When something goes wrong, immediately stop doing anything. Don't touch any buttons at all. Look at the screen and notice everything out of the ordinary, and remember it or write it down. Then perhaps start cautiously pressing "OK" or "Cancel", whichever seems safest. Try to develop a reflex reaction — if a computer does anything unexpected, freeze.
If you manage to get out of the problem, whether by closing down the affected program or by rebooting the computer, a good thing to do is to try to make it happen again. Programmers like problems that they can reproduce more than once. Happy programmers fix bugs faster and more efficiently.I think the tachyon modulation must be wrongly polarised
It isn't only non-programmers who produce bad bug reports. Some of the worst bug reports I've ever seen come from programmers, and even from good programmers.
I worked with another programmer once who kept finding bugs in his own code and trying to fix them. Every so often he'd hit a bug he couldn't solve, and he'd call me over to help. "What's gone wrong?" I'd ask. He would reply by telling me his current opinion of what had caused the problem.
This worked fine when his current opinion was right. It meant he'd already done half the work and we were able to finish the job together. It was efficient and useful.
But quite often he was wrong. We would work for some time trying to figure out why some particular part of the program was producing incorrect data, and eventually we would discover that it wasn't, that we'd been investigating a perfectly good piece of code for half an hour, and that the actual problem was somewhere else.
I'm sure he wouldn't do that to a doctor. "Doctor, I think I've got Perkin's disease." People know not to say that to a doctor: you describe the symptoms, the actual discomforts and aches and pains and rashes and fevers, and you let the doctor do the diagnosis of what caused the problem. Otherwise, the doctor dismisses you as a hypochondriac or crackpot, and quite rightly so.
It's the same with programmers. Providing your own diagnosis might be helpful sometimes, but always state the symptoms. The diagnosis is an optional extra, and not an alternative to giving the symptoms. Equally, sending a modification to the code to fix the problem is a useful addition to a bug report but not an adequate substitute for one.
If a programmer asks you for extra information, don't make it up! Somebody reported a bug to me once, and I asked him to try a command that I knew wouldn't work. The reason I asked him to try it was that I wanted to know which of two different error messages it would give. Knowing which error message came back would give a vital clue. But he didn't actually try it; he just mailed me back and said "No, that won't work". It took me some time to persuade him to try it for real.
Using your intelligence to help the programmer is fine. Even if your deductions are wrong, the programmer should be grateful that you at least tried to make his life easier. But report the symptoms as well, or you may well make his life much more difficult instead.That's funny, it did it a moment ago
Say "intermittent fault" to any programmer and watch his face fall. The easy problems are the ones in which failure is caused by a simple sequence of actions. The programmer can then repeat those actions under closely observed test conditions and watch what happens in great detail. Too many problems simply don't work that way: there will be programs that fail once a week, or fail once in a blue moon, or never fail when you try them in front of the programmer but always fail when you have a deadline coming up.
Most intermittent faults are not truly intermittent. Most of them have some logic somewhere. Some might occur when the machine is running out of memory, some might occur when another program tries to modify a critical file at the wrong moment, and some might occur only in the first half of every hour! (I've actually seen one of these.)
Also, if you can reproduce the bug but the programmer can't, it could very well be that his computer and your computer are different in some way and this difference is causing the problem. I had a program once whose window curled up into a little ball in the top left corner of the screen, and sat there and sulked. But it only did it on 800x600 screens; it was fine on my 1024x768 monitor.
The programmer will want to know anything you can find out about the problem. Try it on another machine, perhaps. Try it twice or three times and see how often it fails. If it goes wrong when you're doing serious work but not when you're trying to demonstrate it, it might be long running times or large files that make it fall over. Try to remember as much detail as you can about what you were doing to it when it did fall over, and if you see any patterns, mention them. Anything you can provide has to be some help. Even if it's only probabilistic (such as "it tends to crash more often when Emacs is running"), it might not provide direct clues to the cause of the problem, but it might help the programmer reproduce it.
Most importantly, the programmer will want to be sure of whether he's dealing with a true intermittent fault or a machine-specific fault. He will want to know lots of details about your computer, so he can work out how it differs from his. A lot of these details will depend on the particular program, but one thing you should definitely be ready to provide is version numbers. The version number of the program itself, and the version number of the operating system, and probably the version numbers of any other programs that are involved in the problem.So I loaded the disk on to my Windows...
Writing clearly is essential in a bug report. If the programmer can't tell what you meant, you might as well have not said anything.
I get bug reports from all around the world. Many of them are from non-native English speakers, and a lot of those apologize for their poor English. In general, the bug reports with apologies for their poor English are actually very clear and useful. All the most unclear reports come from native English speakers who assume that I will understand them even if they don't make any effort to be clear or precise.
- Be specific. If you can do the same thing two different ways, state which one you used. "I selected Load" might mean "I clicked on Load" or "I pressed Alt-L". Say which you did. Sometimes it matters.
- Be verbose. Give more information rather than less. If you say too much, the programmer can ignore some of it. If you say too little, they have to come back and ask more questions. One bug report I received was a single sentence; every time I asked for more information, the reporter would reply with another single sentence. It took me several weeks to get a useful amount of information, because it turned up one short sentence at a time.
- Be careful of pronouns. Don't use words like "it", or references like "the window", when it's unclear what they mean. Consider this: "I started FooApp. It put up a warning window. I tried to close it and it crashed." It isn't clear what the user tried to close. Did they try to close the warning window, or the whole of FooApp? It makes a difference. Instead, you could say "I started FooApp, which put up a warning window. I tried to close the warning window, and FooApp crashed." This is longer and more repetitive, but also clearer and less easy to misunderstand.
- Read what you wrote. Read the report back to yourself, and see if you think it's clear. If you have listed a sequence of actions which should produce the failure, try following them yourself, to see if you missed a step.
Disclaimer: I've never actually seen a mongoose or an antelope. My zoology may be inaccurate.
- The first aim of a bug report is to let the programmer see the failure with his own eyes. If you can't be with him to make it fail in front of him, give him detailed instructions so that he can make it fail for himself.
- In case the first aim doesn't succeed, and the programmer can't see it failing himself, the second aim of a bug report is to describe what went wrong. Describe everything in detail. State what you saw, and also state what you expected to see. Write down the error messages, especially if they have numbers in them.
- When your computer does something unexpected, freeze. Do nothing until you're calm, and don't do anything that you think might be dangerous.
- By all means, try to diagnose the fault yourself if you think you can, but if you do, you should still report the symptoms as well.
- Be ready to provide extra information if the programmer needs it. If he didn't need it, he wouldn't be asking for it. He isn't being deliberately awkward. Have version numbers at your fingertips, because they will probably be needed.
- Write clearly. Say what you mean, and make sure it can't be misinterpreted.
- Above all, be precise. Programmers like precision.
Copyright © 1999 Simon Tatham.
This document is OpenContent
You may copy and use the text under the terms of the OpenContent Licence
Please send comments and criticism on this article to [email protected]
Do not send bug reports for products from Firebird Project to the above address. Instead, follow this link | <urn:uuid:3383d576-ea29-49f9-909b-3c3afcf5affe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.firebirdsql.org/en/how-to-report-bugs/ | 2013-06-20T08:51:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975053 | 4,362 |
Free agent right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma signed an incentive-laced, one-year contract with the Seattle Mariners on Thursday, a year after his attempted move to the majors through the posting system ended in failure.
According to a source with knowledge of the negotiations, the 30-year-old Iwakuma will receive a base salary of $1.5 million plus performance bonuses that will make the deal worth well over $3.9 million, or 300 million yen -- the amount he made with the Rakuten Eagles last season.
Iwakuma, who won the Pacific League MVP and the Sawamura Award after winning 21 games in 2008, was put up for bidding last offseason. The Oakland Athletics won his negotiating rights but the two parties could not come to terms during the exclusive 30-day talking period.
''I'll do whatever it takes to get results over the next year,'' Iwakuma said during a conference call. ''I accept what they offered, and I'll work for everything.''
''I felt the Mariners were the team that wanted me most. I went to Seattle, and it seems like a nice place to live.''
Iwakuma, who was instrumental in Japan winning the 2009 World Baseball Classic, has a career ERA of 3.25 with a 107-60 record in 11 seasons with Rakuten and the Kintetsu Buffaloes.
Last year, he went 6-7 and was limited to 119 innings in 17 starts because of an injury to his throwing shoulder, but still sported a solid 2.42 ERA.
Iwakuma will join a rotation anchored by Felix Hernandez, Michael Pineda and Jason Vargas, with several young arms competing for a fourth and fifth slot.
Iwakuma is the sixth Japanese player the Mariners have signed following Ichiro Suzuki, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Mac Suzuki and Kenji Johjima.
NEW YORK (AP)\The New York Yankees made a major push to bolster their starting rotation Friday night, agreeing to terms with right-hander Hiroki Kuroda on a $10 million, one-year contract shortly after acquiring young righty Michael Pineda from the Seattle Mariners.
A person familiar with Kurodafs signing told The Associated Press the deal is contingent on the 36-year-old former Los Angeles Dodgers starter passing a physical. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because there has not yet been an announcement. Kurodafs deal also includes performance bonuses, according to the person.
Kuroda was 13-16 with a 3.07 ERA for the Dodgers this year and 41-46 with a 3.45 ERA in four seasons in Los Angeles after a long career in Japan.
"So - who's pitching today?
No, I'm not pitching. Who is?
No, Who's on first.
I don't know who's on first, I just want to know the pitcher's name.
No, he's on second.
Who's on second?
Who's on first.
I don't care who's on first, what's the pitcher's name?
I keep telling you - Yu. Don't you understand anything I'm saying?
I don't know.
He's on third."
Free agent Japanese right-hander Hiroki Kuroda has agreed to a one-year contract with the New York Yankees, the club said Thursday.
Kuroda will receive a salary of $10 million with performance incentives that kick in for pitching 200 innings, which could raise his earnings to $11 million, according to a source familiar with the deal.
In his fourth season with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2011, Kuroda established major league career highs in wins, earned run average, innings pitched and strikeouts, going 13-16 with a 3.07 ERA in 202 innings with 161 strikeouts over 32 starts.
''I feel happy to be a part of such a storied franchise, which is always in contention for a World Series,'' Kuroda said in a statement via the Yankees issued in English.
The Yankee front office was apparently also impressed with the fact that Kuroda has averaged just 2.10 walks per nine innings pitched in his four years, the third lowest mark by a National League pitcher with at least 500 innings pitched over the span.
Kuroda, who turns 37 on Feb. 10, has gone 41-46 with a 3.45 ERA in 115 career appearances (114 starts) over four years with the Dodgers from 2008-11.
LOS ANGELES (AP)\NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers avoided a salary arbitration hearing next week, agreeing to a $19 million, two-year contract.
Tuesdayfs deal for the 23-year-old left-hander calls for a $500,000 signing bonus and salaries of $7.5 million this year and $11 million in 2013. It covers all but his final year of arbitration eligibility.
NEW YORK (AP) \ Gary Carter was nicknamed "Kid" for good reason.
His smile, bubbly personality and eagerness to excel on a ballfield made him a joy to watch at the plate and behind it.
Even his Hall of Fame bronze plaque at Cooperstown shows him with a toothy grin \ the Kid forever.
The star catcher, whose single for the New York Mets in the 1986 World Series touched off one of the most improbable rallies in baseball, died Thursday. He was 57.
Carter was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor last May, two weeks after finishing his second season as coach at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz said Carter died at a hospice in the West Palm Beach, Fla., area.
Carter was an 11-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner. His bottom-of-the-10th single in Game 6 of the 1986 Series helped the Mets mount a charge against the Boston Red Sox and eventually beat them.
With curly, blond locks flaring out from beneath his helmet, and a rigid, upright batting stance, Carter was immediately recognizable.
"His nickname 'The Kid' captured how Gary approached life," the Mets said in a statement. "He did everything with enthusiasm and with gusto on and off the field. His smile was infectious. ... He was a Hall of Famer in everything he did."
Carter played nearly two decades with the Mets, Montreal, San Francisco and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He led the Expos to their only playoff berth and was the first player enshrined in Cooperstown wearing an Expos cap.
Here's how the Nihonjin are doing at the start of spring training:
First Yu Darvish:
SURPRISE, Arizona, Feb. 21 (16:54) Kyodo
Texas Rangers rookie Yu Darvish arrived at spring training on Tuesday morning, mingled with his new teammates, and even threw a bullpen session two days before the official reporting date for pitchers and catchers.
The 25-year-old Japanese ace did not talk to the media, barely acknowledging about two dozen Japanese reporters waiting for him behind a restraining rope, as he walked into the clubhouse.
He suited up and went out for his workout in the Rangers' camp and immediately hit it off with left-hander Derek Holland, a 16-game winner for Texas in 2011.
''He wants to learn English,'' Holland was quoted as saying on the MLB website. ''He doesn't know much, but he wants to learn. He's not stand-offish. He was right there with us. He wants to fit in. It won't be hard for him.''
Darvish played catch with Holland and threw 30 pitches to catcher Luis Martinez, who was acquired by the Rangers from the San Diego Padres in the offseason, in the bullpen.
''He threw 30 pitches and threw about 10 different pitches,'' said Martinez. ''His sinker and cut fastball had good movement and downward action. His splitter was pretty good, too. There's nobody like him. He's unique.''
Taking in all the excitement can be overwhelming, but Holland said it is important that Darvish not apologize for missing his spots -- something he kept doing during the practice -- but just relax.
''That's one thing he has to learn is he doesn't have to apologize like that. There's no need for that. You're not always going to hit your spots,'' Holland said.
Dice-K on the comback trail:
In Ft. Myers, Florida, Boston Red Sox right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka, who is on the road to recovery from ligament-transplant surgery on his right elbow last June, took part in practice drills on his first day of spring training.
''I feel both excitement and nervousness,'' said Matsuzaka. ''There is a limit to what I can do right now in terms of pitching. I will clear the hurdles in front of me. Keeping that in mind is essential.''
Ichiro hitting third:
PEORIA, Arizona, Feb. 22 (19:36) Kyodo
Seattle Mariners manager Eric Wedge said Tuesday he has decided to move Ichiro Suzuki from his traditional leadoff spot to third in the lineup.
''Ichiro Suzuki will be hitting third for us this year,'' Wedge said. ''I sat down and explained to him the whys and wherefores, and it wasn't out of left field because we had this discussions before.
''I think he was more than prepared for it and he came in here knowing that would be a serious option, and a part of him maybe expected it. But he is on board. I was very clear with him. He is very clear with me. He is ready to go.''
The Mariners scored the fewest runs in the American League the last three seasons.
''I knew from a long time ago this lineup change could happen, so I've been ready mentally,'' Suzuki said. ''I don't think you have to be this way or that way depending on where you're in the lineup. To me, it's the same between batting leadoff and third.''
And Hideki Matsui, Will DH for food:
TOKYO, Feb. 22 (18:02) Kyodo
Free agent outfielder Hideki Matsui, still unsigned for the upcoming season, left Japan for the United States on Wednesday.
Matsui will continue to wait for offers from major league clubs while training in the United States.
Not only Matsui but also other free agents such as Vladimir Guerrero and Johnny Damon remain unsigned this offseason.
Matsui hit a career-low .251 last season for the Oakland Athletics with 12 home runs and 72 RBIs.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum | <urn:uuid:e04d228e-ef3b-4668-9914-35ed6af22272> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jdorama.com/viewtopic.5618.4700.htm | 2013-06-20T08:44:58Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974718 | 2,261 |
For a comprehensive look at the Barcelona Principles and what they mean to the industry, Perspectives solicited the opinions of five PR and measurement experts, including individuals who participated in the 2nd European Summit on Measurement and helped craft the Barcelona Principles into their final form. We asked them four questions:
Perspectives: Why do you believe the Barcelona Principles are important – why are they needed?
Richard Houghton: The Barcelona Principles are really a stake in the ground. They are a starting point for the development of consistent, practical and effective measurement criteria that can be used across the practice of public relations. It’s in the interests of both client and consultancy to work toward an accepted form of evaluation that can be used to demonstrate the value of PR activity and budgets, and also provide insights and data that can be used to refine and improve future activities. For the more mature PR markets, the Barcelona Principles may seem to be a little trite at this stage but they are an important starting point for development.
Gary McCormick: The public relations industry, by its own admission, has been slow to adopt standard measurement techniques, something that advertising, direct mail and other marketing and communications disciplines have been using to their advantage for years. Measurement and evaluation techniques that are widely understood, accepted and implemented are critical to the acceptance and growth of public relations.
Mazen Nahawi: Nearly everything in life has some form of measurement or accountability, whether it is personal (weight or height) or business-related (stock prices, balance sheets). Public relations and communications should be no exception to this rule, and the Barcelona Principles help enshrine a commonly accepted standard of credible research and proper accountability across the industry.
John Paluszek: PR is an alloy of art and science. The art portion is very difficult to measure, but clients have always been tuned in to the science part, particularly when it comes to measurement of their other communications activities. It’s very important that we work on making PR more tangible to clients. That’s what the Barcelona Principles set out to do: provide the tools that connect with clients and help us balance the science with the art.
Brendan Swale: I was fortunate to be one of the 200 delegates at the 2010 2nd AMEC European Summit on Measurement, which formulated the Barcelona Principles. I believe the principles are extremely important for the public relations and media measurement industry because they establish a level of standardization – not a standardized metric that is a false hope, but a standardized and agreed-upon approach to what is important when measuring the effectiveness of communication.
The most encouraging aspect of the Principles is what was determined as important: defined objectives and real measures that support an organization’s goals, such as market share, sales leads, earnings per share or reduced employee turnover rates. We in the industry need to be aware that the value of measurement is not measurement itself, but actionable insights that drive improved performance. The Barcelona Principles enunciated that concept very effectively
Houghton: ICCO has 1,500 agency members across 28 countries, and we are focused on helping to improve the quality and consistency of PR consultancy across all these markets. The Barcelona Principles have the potential to play an important part in achieving our objectives. As current ICCO president, I was only too happy to get involved in their development.
McCormick: As part of its industry advocacy campaign, “The Business Case for Public Relations,” PRSA embarked last year on an effort to identify standard approaches for measuring the impact of public relations. As part of that effort, we convened a Measurement Task Force composed of the current and past chairs of the Institute for Public Relations’ Commission on Public Relations Measurement and Evaluation.
The Measurement Task Force issued a broad set of recommended measurement standards for a variety of public relations tactics and outcomes. We see the Barcelona Principles as building on these recommendations, leading to the development of tangible metrics and approaches for public relations measurement and the achievement of broad industry consensus on them.
Paluszek: The Global Alliance represents the PR industry in 70 countries and has a broad mandate to help move the industry forward on an international basis. Addressing the issue of measurement makes sense for us because it is a common denominator need in all countries. We were eager to participate in the AMEC Summit, work in development of the Barcelona Principles, and then help spread the word by playing it back globally.
Just before the AMEC summit in June, the Global Alliance held our annual meeting in conjunction with the World Public Relations Forum 2010 in Stockholm. One of our outcomes from the meeting was the “Stockholm Accord,” which is an articulation of the enhanced role and potential effectiveness of public relations in organizational and institutional success. It is a comprehensive restatement of the contemporary public relations profession — PR for the PR industry, in effect — and the Barcelona Principles sync perfectly with the Stockholm Accord because they both help enhance the understanding of PR and the effectiveness of its messages.
Houghton: Once fully developed, with clear criteria for implementation, the Barcelona Principles will provide clients with the ability to compare the impact of individual campaigns. This will be invaluable in developing budgets, planning future activity and, I hope, arguing the case for PR internally.
For agencies, many of which consider their evaluation techniques a competitive advantage, the advantages will be that the strength of strategy and creative ideas will stand out and their success will be reviewed objectively. Additionally, the evaluation of multi-country campaigns will be easier and more accurate. All of this will give agencies the ammunition to argue their case for budget and resources.
McCormick: Organizations and professionals who understand and believe in the benefits of public relations evaluation are able to validate the results of their efforts; link the results to business outcomes that further the achievement of organizational goals; credibly merchandise the impact of those results to those who fund public relations programs; set smarter objectives, develop better strategies and employ more compelling and engaging tactics; make midcourse program adjustments and corrections; and adapt their measurement approaches over time in light of changing objectives, new competitors and emerging best practices.
Nahawi: I will be forming the AMEC Middle East Chapter in 2011. A major part of that initiative will be to carry the mantle of the Barcelona Principles and make sure we promote their importance to the young communications industry in the Middle East and North Africa. I am confident that we will do so successfully and continue to help the region avoid many of the less effective research practices, such as poor campaign planning and AVEs, and make sure the work we do for our stakeholders is grounded in best practices across our industry for years to come.
Thus, the main impact will be to make a strong statement to a young and emerging market on how to do things right from the beginning. We will emphasize real-life examples, while clearly identifying the less effective practices and stressing that the entire industry is united in calling for them to no longer be used.
Paluszek: There are shared benefits for clients, agencies and the industry overall, because the Barcelona Principles are better for all parties. What data gets measured, and how it gets measured, are important issues throughout the ranks of client management and the C-suite. PR has been at a disadvantage to our advertising colleagues in that they have traditionally presented clear criteria and hard numbers. PR has struggled in that area, and been only partially successful. Clean, common PR metrics are beneficial to the industry because they place us all in a better position to get greater attention, time and budget from client management. The Barcelona Principles are an excellent start, and will get even stronger as more specifics are added.
Swale: The impact of the Barcelona Principles in my region, Asia Pacific, is currently limited, but the potential is significant. AMEC has a limited footprint in the APAC region; therefore, the principles haven’t yet entered the industry mindset as coherently as they have in the U.K., Europe and the U.S. It is my challenge, and that of my measurement colleagues in the region, to improve upon this situation. Despite this reality, I have been at industry events in Australia where the Barcelona Principles have been quoted to me, which is encouraging!
The great opportunity we have as an industry in Asia Pacific is to use the Barcelona Principles as an accepted international standard to initiate and frame the debate and, hopefully, accelerate their acceptance.
McCormick: The Principles will help public relations professionals understand the qualitative results of their activities and express them in ways that are meaningful to business executives. This will lead to more accurate and better-informed perceptions of the value and role of public relations within the diverse organizations it serves.
Paluszek: Development of the Barcelona Principles is an illustration of how PR is evolving as a management science and provides another important piece of evidence to both clients and the general public about our credibility. The public has often misunderstood PR, and these principles help the industry prove we are a serious profession. They cut through the fluff and can demonstrate how PR has a significant role in business and every institution in society. Particularly in today’s digital world, all institutions realize the dialogue of PR is vital to their success.
Swale: The profound impact of the Barcelona Principles will be when the concepts contained within them are accepted universally by our clients, and because of the focus on business outcomes and results, they will see their own individual reputations grow along with that of their organization. I have attended many PR conferences where the key topic has been “How does PR get into the boardroom?” The obvious answer is that it will happen when PR professionals can confidently relate their activities to business improvement. To do that, we have to measure. And to measure effectively, the industry must embrace the Barcelona Principles. | <urn:uuid:d921c55f-88e8-41fb-a038-cc7f0389d2db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ketchumperspectives.com/archives/2010_i4/Barcelona_Principles_Public_Relations_Measurement/Roundtable/ | 2013-06-20T09:03:21Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948882 | 2,001 |
Publication Bias in Retina
Publication Bias in Retina
HOWARD F. FINE, MD, MHSC • JONATHAN L. PRENNER, MD • DANIEL B. ROTH, MD • SARAH J. DRISCOLL, BA • DAVID A. SALZ, BS
Selective publication is a problem whereby only a portion of initiated clinical trials are published. This issue has been well documented in other fields, such as oncology and cardiology, but has not yet been well studied in the ophthalmology field. Data from clinical trials, whether positive or negative, directly impact clinical practice and also shape future re search efforts. While the majority of clinical trials are now registered before initiation, requirements to provide summary results following completion of those trials are lacking.
HUMAN SUBJECTS: LUCKY DUCKS OR GUINEA PIGS?
Human subjects who participate in clinical trials provide an incredibly important service to society. Experimental trials pose inherent risks, and only a fraction of investigational treatments are ultimately proven safe and effective. Patients may feel in some ways that they play the role of a “guinea pig.” Conversely, though, enrolling in clinical trials can afford patients access to the latest treatments for their disease — if effective, they are truly “lucky ducks.” Most pa tients are motivated, at least in part, by an altruistic goal not just to treat their own condition, but also to advance scientific knowledge and thereby help others with the same af fliction. Many ethicists argue that there exists an inherent social contract in clinical trials: patients agree to be subjects with the caveat that the results will be used to help science and humanity. Clinical investigators and sponsors of trials therefore bear a great responsibility to disseminate the knowledge obtained from the sacrifices made by their human subjects, whether those results are positive or negative.
THE JOURNAL OF NEGATIVE RESULTS
For obvious reasons, there is no “Journal of Negative Results.” Investigators may not wish to invest the effort to publish studies that did not reach the desired conclusion. Industry sponsors may be wary of publishing results for fear of revealing their progress (or lack of progress) to competitors. Ye t failure to publish trials that do not reach their clinical endpoint or exhibit adverse outcomes can harm patients and adversely affect the standard of care. First, clinical care decisions are based on the body of published evidence. Evidence-based medicine cannot proceed if physicians only have access to a portion of the evidence. Second, if harmful effects of treatment are not publicized, there can be a deleterious effect on patient care. Horrific examples in recent history abound.
For example, the news media widely reported a lawsuit by the New York State attorney general against Glaxo-SmithKline for allegedly concealing the results of four studies that cast doubt on the effectiveness of the antidepressant paroxetine for treating adolescents and children, and that the drug might increase suicidal behavior. After legal wrangling to divulge the results of the allegedly suppressed studies, the drug now carries a “black box warning,” the FDA's most grave notification, regarding suicidal ideation and behavior.1
Delay in publication can also have negative consequences.2 In another example, an anti-arrhythmic drug trial that showed an unexpectedly high mortality rate was completed in 1980 but not published until 1993.3 Estimates suggest that up to 75,000 people died each intervening year in the US from the inappropriate use of this anti-arrhythmic for secondary prevention of heart attack.4 Investigators and sponsors have an obligation not only to release trial results to the public, but also to do so in a prompt fashion.
Registration of clinical trials has been a major step forward in minimizing the effects of selective publication.5 The NIH and FDA established ClinicalTrials.gov, an online database, in 2000 following the FDA Modernization Act of 1997. Registration of a trial with ClinicalTrials.gov is required prior to initiation by many major medical journals. While ClinicalTrials.gov does provide researchers with the ability to link to trial results, such information is not mandated, nor is there any enforcement provision within the FDA Modernization Act.1
In 2004, the American Medical Association petitioned the Department of Health and Human Services to “establish a comprehensive registry for all clinical trials conducted in the United States; every clinical trial should have a unique identifier; and all results from registered clinical trials should be made publicly available through either publication or an electronic data-repository.”1 Unfortunately, the AMA's exhortation has not yet been fully realized.
Section 801 of the FDA Amendments Act was passed by Congress in 2007 and requires certain outcome measures to be reported on ClinicalTrials.gov. These requirements are limited rather than comprehensive, exempting Phase 1 device and surgical trials as well as medications that have not yet received FDA approval,1 but provides another step forward toward transparency in clinical research.
HOW DOES RETINA FARE?
A recent presentation at the American Society of Retina specialists by Prenner and colleagues investigated the issue of selective publication for the field of retina. A comprehensive search of all trials on ClinicalTrials.gov concerning age-related macular degeneration was performed. Interventional trials concerning AMD completed by January 1, 2007 (to allow time for publication) were included; of 386 candidate trials, 64 met inclusion/exclusion criteria. The overall publication rate was 54%. Industry sponsored trials were published at a slightly lower rate (52%) than were non-industry sponsored trials (58%). Early phase 1 or 2 trials were published at a rate of 42% (n=36), slightly lower than the 71% rate (n=28) of Phase 3 and 4 trials, p=0.02. Whether trials were foreign or domestic did not statistically significantly influence publication rate.
As in other fields of medicine, selective publication is an important but often overlooked issue in retina, with roughly only half of registered trials reaching publication according to the recent study discussed. With the explosion of therapeutic trials for a number of retinal conditions, publication bias will only increase in importance in the future. Trial registration on ClinicalTrials.gov has been an important step forward. Yet registration is only part of the solution; more transparency is needed in the conduct and reporting of clinical trials for science and for our patients. RP
|Drs. Fine, Prenner, and Roth are clinical associate professors of ophthalmology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Sarah Driscoll and David Salz are medical students at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Fine reports equity, consulting and patent interests in Auris Surgical Robotics, and consulting relationships with Genentech, Allergan and Eyetech. Dr. Prenner reports equity interests in Neovista, Ophthotech and Opko, and consulting relationships with Alcon (RAC II), Allergan and Eyetech. Dr. Fine can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].
- Steinbrook R. Public registration of clinical trials. N Engl J Med. 2004:22;351(4):315-7.
- Stern JM, Simes RJ. Publication bias: evidence of delayed publication in a cohort study of clinical research projects. BMJ. 1997:13;315(7109):640-5.
- Cowley AJ, Skene A, Stainer K, Hampton JR. The effect of lorcainide on arrhythmias and survival in patients with acute myocardial infarction: an example of publication bias. Int J Cardiol. 1993 Jul 1;40(2):161-6.
- Dickersin K, Rennie D. Registering clinical trials. JAMA. 2003 Jul 23;290(4):516-23.
- De Angelis C, Drazen JM, Frizelle FA, Haug C, Hoey J, Horton R, Kotzin S, Laine C, Marusic A, Overbeke AJ, Schroeder TV, Sox HC, Van Der Weyden MB; International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Clinical trial registration: a statement from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. N Engl J Med. 2004:16;351(12):1250-1.
Retinal Physician, Issue: March 2010 | <urn:uuid:06809ce5-3945-4abf-bd49-113935bba4dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.retinalphysician.com/printarticle.aspx?articleID=104013 | 2013-06-20T08:37:01Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929428 | 1,733 |
'Watergate' Revisited: Inside The Criminal Minds
During the summer of 1972, five men were arrested in the middle of the night for breaking into the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C.
The breach went to the very top. Watergate toppled the Nixon administration and became an iconic (and exhaustively studied) American political scandal. In his new novel, Watergate, Thomas Mallon gives the story a fresh twist, retelling it from the perspectives of the involved parties — from seven different points of view.
In his rendering, Watergate becomes a "series of private dramas," Mallon tells NPR's Scott Simon.
And while he recognizes the importance of accuracy, Mallon plays with the "always sliding scale of historical fiction," where there's room for imagination.
"You really have to make these decisions book-by-book and almost scene-by-scene," he explains. "I don't violate any of the big historical moments, dates."
Rather than create an "alternate history," Mallon deploys careful conjecture. "There's still plenty of room for a novelist to imagine what might have happened not instead of the real events, but in addition to the real events," he says, "and how people might actually have felt about them in a way that's somewhat different from what they put onto the record."
The story of Watergate is already rich with native drama. There is the central question of why Nixon would order the break-in given that he was at the height of his powers.
"He was cruising toward re-election," says Mallon. "And the sheer unnecessariness of the Watergate break-in is something that must have tormented him and his allies in all of the years that followed."
The cast of vivid supporting characters — including Martha Mitchell and G. Gordon Liddy — made the episode into a spectacle. There was the curious case of Rose Mary Woods, Nixon's longtime secretary, who accidentally (she claimed) erased 18 and a half minutes of recorded tape.
"She'd been Richard Nixon's secretary from the time he was in the Senate in 1950," says Mallon. "She was very private; her loyalties to him were extraordinary."
A photograph of Woods — a dignified woman making an undignified stretch, presumably to erase the tape — became well known.
"I think that that must have been tormenting to her," Mallon notes. "And I tried to imagine what it must have been to feel the personal isolation that she must've been — because she was a single person essentially by herself."
For Mallon, Nixon is a fascinating — but complicated — figure. The author recalls becoming distraught at the news of Nixon's death. "I started sobbing not in the way you sob for somebody that you had simple, uniform affection for, but sobbing for somebody you had a lot of admiration for as well as some horrified feelings about," Mallon says. "He let down all the people like my father who were his fervent supporters."
It doesn't seem possible to come to easy conclusions about this most enigmatic of public figures. "Bill Clinton, in his eulogy [for Nixon], said that the time had passed to judge Richard Nixon on anything but the complete record of his life," says Mallon. "And it's a wildly, wildly mixed record."
Mallon asserts that his "enormously conflicted feelings" are what keep him mesmerized with the larger-than-life president. "The number of nights that I fell asleep with Richard Nixon's being the last voice I heard ... There must be some appeal other than morbid interest that kept me coming back to him."
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
Almost any scandal in the world these days is described as a something-gate. The phrase dates back to the summer of 1972, when five men were arrested in the middle of the night during a break-in at Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
The subsequent scandal brought down Richard Nixon's administration, made him one of the most notorious men in American history. Anytime someone observes: what did they know, and when did they know it; it's not the crime, it's the cover-up; follow the money, or third-rate burglary, it's a Watergate reference - whether they know it or not.
The Watergate crime and scandal have been exhaustively documented. But now, a great historical novelist has run it through his imagination. Thomas Mallon's new book is called "Watergate: A Novel." Tom Mallon joins us in our studios.
Thanks for being with us.
THOMAS MALLON: Thanks for having me.
SIMON: With so much on the record, what's left to be imagined by a novelist?
MALLON: Mostly how it felt, I think. I thought if you were going to do this as a novel, you had to get inside the people who were there. And so, I tried to tell the story from essentially seven different points of view and see what it felt like. And I avoid most of the big events that people - they certainly occur. But I don't tell the story the way you would tell it in nonfiction. I tell it more as a series of private dramas and try to give certain intimacy.
SIMON: As you will learn on tour, there are Watergate buffs...
MALLON: Oh, yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SIMON: ...like there are Civil War buffs and jazz buffs who will catch you on the smallest bit of misinformation, or imagined information. How important was historical accuracy to you?
MALLON: I refer in the acknowledgements of the book to the always sliding scale of historical fiction. And I think you really have to make these decisions book-by-book and almost scene-by-scene. I don't violate any of the big historical moments, dates. You know, Richard Nixon still resigns at the end of this book.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MALLON: It's not what in the historical fiction biz we call alternate history where, you know, the South wins the Civil War and things like that happen. But within those events, I think there's still plenty of room for a novelist to imagine what might have happened not instead of the real events, but in addition to the real events, and how people might actually have felt about them in a way that's somewhat different from what they put onto the record.
SIMON: Your novel reminds us when the men were arrested and the scandal began, Richard Nixon was at the height of his powers.
MALLON: Absolutely. He was cruising toward re-election. He had a very weak opponent in George McGovern. McGovern wasn't nominated yet but things were certainly trending his way. Nixon had been to China. He had been to Russia doing arms negotiation. And so, he was on his way toward what happened in November, which was an electoral win with 49 states.
And the sheer unnecessariness of the Watergate break-in is something that must have tormented him and his allies in all of the years that followed.
SIMON: Watergate scandal, we think we know something about vivid characters like Martha Mitchell and G. Gordon Liddy. But let me get you to talk about Rose Mary Woods, a longtime secretary.
MALLON: She'd been Richard Nixon's secretary from the time he was in the Senate in 1950. So, she'd been with them nearly a quarter of a century by the time of the resignation. She never married. She did not give interviews. She was very private. Her loyalties to him were extraordinary. She is most famously associated with the erasure of 18 and a half minutes on one of the tapes that was subpoenaed.
SIMON: Why, the picture of her, a dignified woman making an undignified stretch, became well-known.
MALLON: And I think that that must have been tormenting to her. And I've talked to a couple of people who knew her and they remark on her charm, her wit. She was a terrific dancer. I talked to somebody who used to escort her around town, and he said don't finish the book without giving her a chance to dance.
And I tried to imagine what it must have been to feel the personal isolation that she must've been - because she was a single person, essentially by herself, but to be at the red-hot center of this catastrophe that was dragging down somebody that she admired unquestionably.
SIMON: Yeah. So, how fascinating is Richard Nixon to a great novelist?
MALLON: To me, endlessly. I've actually been trying to write an essay about him; an actual nonfiction essay now that this book is done grappling with him, and sort of the way he loomed in my life for really, so many years. He was, I'd say, the central public figure in my life. I went to fourth grade in the fall of 1960 wearing a Nixon Lost button.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MALLON: And he was the president who presided through my college years, which were very tumultuous from Kent State, and then all through things like the China trip. And I had enormously conflicted feelings about him the way people do about Lyndon Johnson.
MALLON: And I remember the night he died in 1994. I was living in New York in those days and the news came over the television that he had died in New York Hospital. And I remember I started sobbing. And I started sobbing not in the way you sob for somebody that you had simple uniform affection for, but sobbing for somebody that you had a lot of admiration for, as well as some horrified feelings about.
And, you know, Nixon was always worried about letting people down and he did let people down, and he let down all the people like my father, who were his fervent supporters. But he was a complicated figure.
Bill Clinton, in his eulogy, said that the time had passed to judge Richard Nixon on anything but the complete record of his life. And it's a wildly, wildly mixed record.
SIMON: After spending so much time with him, on the whole, can you like him?
MALLON: I - that's - boy, it's - I want to weasel out of it and say you can't give a yes or no answer to it. But I would have to say that unless there was part of him that appealed to me, I couldn't have spent the time with him. And, you know, most of the tapes, no, not most of them, but an awful lot of the famous ones - the crucial ones - you can listen to them on YouTube now. And the number of nights that I fell asleep with Richard Nixon's being the last voice I heard - 'cause I often write late at night - there must be some appeal other than morbid interest that kept me coming back to him.
SIMON: Thomas Mallon, his new novel, "Watergate." Thanks so much.
MALLON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | <urn:uuid:38503a28-fe27-4490-ba7e-19f10ab43dd9> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://northernpublicradio.org/post/watergate-revisited-inside-criminal-minds | 2015-03-26T19:32:00Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131292567.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172132-00000-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986604 | 2,349 |
Thule Brings its SMARTs to the RV Market
The company’s SMART RV Anchor Pods lets users attach a variety of products, including  the kitchen sink, to the outside of an RV.
An RV industry newcomer is betting on a palm-sized widget and its company name to make a big splash in an
economy that’s seen better days. For Thule, an international company known in the U.S. primarily for vehicle rack systems, its ingenious idea promises to bring more than just innovation to a struggling market; it also promises to bring new customers.
“We’ve played in a smaller box of leisure, you might say, with outdoor activities such as paddlesports, cycling, skiing, tent camping, and we’ve grown up with a consumer who’s been involved in all of those activities for the last 25 to 30 years,” says Chris Dannewitz, vice president of business development for Thule North America, the domestic unit of Swedish conglomerate Thule Group. “We’re at the beginning phases of a migration from tent to trailer.”
As Thule’s customers sought shelter in something more substantial than coated polyester, Dannewitz says RV manufacturers have been making inroads to his customers; witness the Outdoor Retailer Show debuts of the Airstream BaseCamp and the Dutchmen Topo lightweight travel trailers. The fact those products first appeared in an atypical RV setting – in other words, not Louisville – provided a starting point for Thule’s U.S.-developed SMART (Space Management And Recreational Travel) RV product campaign.
“We were part of the BaseCamp launch in 2005. We provided a rack system that went on the inside of it,” says Dannewitz, an outdoor product development veteran. “Airstream not only worked with Thule on developing some of the accessories for the vehicle, but it started to reach out to other companies in the outdoor industry. If you look at the back of the BaseCamp, there’s a tent structure that’s part of it that gives you more outdoor living space; Airstream partnered with Kelty, another leading brand in the outdoor channel. It made a lot of sense to launch it at the Outdoor Retailer Show.”
A few years later, during which Thule also teamed with Dutchmen to work on the Topo trailer, the time seemed right to introduce its space management solution to the RV aftermarket.
Pods Keep Attachments Firmly on RVs
“The heart of SMART RV are these little Anchor Pods that attach to the side of the vehicle,” he says. “We have a system called a Tracker, which mounts to a track on an SUV’s roof. It clicks on and off so you can easily take the rack system off when you’re not using it. Well, that rack system goes down the road with an 18-foot canoe mounted on top, for example, held securely. We use that same technology for SMART RV; we just modified it for the side of a vehicle instead of the roof of an SUV.”
Like the company’s market-leading rack products, the Pods are quite simple in appearance. Made of fiberglass-reinforced white nylon, a Pod has two bolt holes to attach it to an RV sidewall and a stainless-steel pin that allow a growing list of accessories to hook onto it. The system operates much like a large-scale Velcro fastener.
“That’s how we click on tables, countertops, TVs, sinks, you name it. All of these things click on, click off – easy for man, woman, child, young, old. It’s intuitive, it’s ergonomically correct, and it does all these things the consumer wants and the vehicle’s providing a lot of the value,” Dannewitz says. “What we’ve done is create a system of products that actually utilize the RV and take the benefits of the RV, a fixed structure that’s level and secure and then attaching to it and from it.”
For example, take Thule’s table. While a weatherproof surface and durable aren’t noteworthy today, the SMART RV version certainly is, as it’s firmly anchored at one end to an RV. “I’ve got the only anti-tip, kid-friendly table on the entire market,” says Dannewitz, a father of three. “It catches at two points; it cannot and will not tip over. As a parent, that’s important.” Combined with adjustable legs and a folding top, Thule’s table seems just about perfect for RVers.
Yet Dannewitz is quick to note the company’s great ideas weren’t invented in a lab; instead, Thule did what it has always done when it comes to product development: it talked to, and watched, its potential customers in action.
“When we were in the process of developing this program, we wanted to go out and capture the voice of the consumer and one of the voices that really came out loud and clear was Mom. Mom had a lot to say about the RV experience,” he says. “What she would describe is that most of the pre-packing falls on her. She told us once she gets to the campsite, she’d much rather just spend a little extra time doing some pre-packing and use things that would make it easier once she got to camp so she spent less time setting camp up.”
When Mom told Thule about endless trips between the indoors and out to set the table, company engineers created a convenient solution to eliminate the footwork.
“There’s a little soft-goods organizer called the Table Caddy that actually attaches to the arms that go up and anchor onto the Pods themselves for the table,” Dannewitz says. “There’s pocket for plates, knives, forks, and spoons. Mom asked if there was a way to keep bugs and moisture out if she left it outdoors overnight, so it’s got a zipper closure to do that.”
Noting that little things mean a lot to consumers, Dannewitz says Thule solved the nagging problem of where to put paper towel rolls that have a habit of rolling under a trailer or being out of a child’s reach during an outdoor meal.
“There’s two extremely simple little shock cords that connect to our countertop organizer and those go right down the tube of paper towel roll. Now it’s right down at kid level, provides easy access, doesn’t come off,” he says. “If you’re going to have a countertop, the organizer itself creates a real functional station, so now you’ve got a place for different things.”
Another clever Pod attachment is the SMART RV Trash Bin. Its design was a result of seeing campers tie garbage bags to awning arms, Dannewitz says.
“If you tie a garbage bag closed, a kid’s not going to use it. If you leave it open, you’ve got stuff all over camp,” he says. “It mounts to our Anchor Pod and it takes a standard kitchen garbage bag that mounts on the inside, but you don’t see it. It’s concealed inside of this nice, technical outdoor fabric. It’s got a hard plastic lid, so bugs stay out and smells stay in, but you flip the lid up, and it’s open for business.”
Customers are buying two of them, according to Dannewitz, then placing one outside for trash, and using the other inside, as Pods can be placed almost anywhere, for dirty clothes.
Thule’s focus has always been on helping its customers enjoy their outdoor activities, he says, and it’s obvious the company has succeeded; it owns a stunning 60-percent share of the vehicle rack market, while second-place competitor Yakima Products, Dannewitz’s former employer, has only 20 percent. Thule has been making rack systems since the 1960s; it entered North America in 1980.
“We’re different,” Dannewitz says. “Yes, we’re here to sell products, we all are. That’s what makes everything go around. However, what we’re really here to do is enhance the experience and help our customers, both the OEMs and our aftermarket partners, to provide elegantly simple products.”
Thor Opens the Door for Thule
Thule owes much of its RV market entry to Thor Industries. That’s the company that lent Dannewitz an ear when he came calling with the SMART RV concept three years ago.
“I made a phone call to Dicky Riegel, chief operating officer at Thor Industries, whom I knew through other people. I introduced myself and said, ‘I’ve got some technology for the RV channel that I think you’d be very interested in and if you’d give me an hour of your time, I will meet you anywhere in the country tomorrow,’” Dannewitz says. “He said he wouldn’t pass up that offer and told me to be there at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning at his office in New York City.”
Dannewitz recalls Riegel being so excited about the SMART RV system, he called in Wade Thompson, Thor’s chairman, to sit in on the presentation. Not long after Dannewitz began again, Riegel enthusiastically took over the meeting partway through to show Thule’s concepts to Thompson.
“He said, ‘This is exactly what we’ve been talking about, getting some fresh ideas from people on the outside and this is the perfect fit; it’s new technology, it’s innovation and it’s coupled with a very strong brand,’” Dannewitz says. “Next thing I know, Dicky’s back behind his desk and he’s banging out some e-mails to the presidents of each and every one of the Thor Industries companies.”
That resulted into a chance to speak with the management of each Thor subsidiary about rolling the SMART RV system into a product.
“Literally, within three days, I was in Indiana, doing presentations to top-level managers of all these organizations,” he says. “From the first meeting, the team at Dutchmen had the same response as Dicky. They got it. These guys were already innovators. They weren’t just looking for innovation, they had already been innovating.”
That meeting, of course, led to Thule’s inclusion in the development of Dutchmen’s Topo, a radically styled, lightweight towable that Dannewitz believes will appeal to buyers with smaller tow vehicles. Still, Thule faces an uphill road to success in the market, even when the economy improves.
“The biggest challenge for the RV channel, and it’s a big challenge right now given the economy and the state of the market, is that the industry is more comfortable selling relatively entry-level products and they don’t know how to sell premium technology,” he says.
To help parts departments improve their ability to sell a premium line, Thule has been working closely with distributors.
“The area of focus that still needs to be further developed by Thule is more of the in-store merchandising,” Dannewitz says. “What’s great is we’ve got some very strong partners in Stag-Parkway, NTP and Coast. All of them are in agreement that the technology is an extremely strong fit and very relevant to the market and the consumer.”
For Thule, point-of-purchase is a specialty, Dannewitz says. For proof, just walk into an REI store or other major outdoor retailer; Thule products are fairly easy to find.
“When you look at a footprint of your average RV parts department and showroom, it’s a little bit different than what we’re accustomed to working with, and so it’s really causing us to rethink the way that we use space,” he says. “We realize RV dealers don’t have as much space, but it also comes down to the dealer starting to make choices about how they’ve been using their space.”
Thule Expands Reach in Towing Market
Thule Group may not be widely known in the U.S. RV accessories market today, but make no mistake, the private Swedish parent of Thule North America has set it sights on becoming a bigger player in the near future. Over the last few years, it’s been quietly growing both domestically and abroad in preparation for bigger things.
In 2006, Thule purchased Valley Industries, a popular maker of towing products in the U.S., as well as Brink Towbars, a similar company that serves the European market. That same year, Nordic Capital-owned Thule also purchased SportRack, the No. 3 vehicle rack maker in America.
“We definitely are full believers that leisure is just part of the lifestyle Americans enjoy and that’s never going to fully go away,” says Chris Dannewitz, vice president of business development for Thule North America. “This industry is probably the most perfect match for Thule based on our vision and our brand statement. We’ve actually been in the RV channel for quite some time, we’ve just been on the tow vehicle.”
Thule has been creating vehicle racks for bicycles, canoes, skis, and other equipment in the U.S. since the 1980s and now leads the market by a considerable margin. It’s also tops in European RV accessories, through its Omnistor unit, which was purchased in 2005. Founded in 1977, Omnistor will be re-branded under the Thule name soon, and Dannewitz says many of the technologies used in that market will make the trip to the States next year.
In addition, Thule last year bought two other domestic manufacturers: Case Logic, well-known here for its vehicle interior organization products, and UWS, which offers truck boxes and accessories for the professional market.
Finally, Thule is a large cargo and utility trailer maker under its Thule Trailers and Brenderup lines. While its products also were sold in North America, Dannewitz says the company has temporarily exited the market. Still, if its recent activities are any indication, Thule will become a player in that segment, too.
– Mike Harbour
Thule Unveils Solar Awning Concept
During its short time in the RV industry, Thule has established itself as an innovator. The most recent example is the company’s announcement that it will partner with Dickson Textiles to develop a box awning with a solar panel integrated into the fabric. The product is not yet on the market.
According to Thule, this new technology can change the way electricity is generated for the RV, substantially increasing independence from generators and external power supplies while decreasing the impact on the environment. With electricity produced by solar cells, consumers reduce their impact on the environment, while improving their autonomy and enjoyment of the outdoor experience.
Roadtrek Motorhomes, which will exclusively offer Thule box awnings on its motorhomes, showcased the solar-powered awning concept on one of its RVs at the recent National RV Trade Show in Louisville, Ky. | <urn:uuid:6669d83f-8d94-4183-92fc-d56df28f799e> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://rv-pro.com/article/thule-brings-its-smarts-rv-market | 2015-03-26T19:07:34Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131292567.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172132-00000-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957219 | 3,391 |
Anna Karenina (2012)
Anna Karenina SynopsisThe third collaboration of Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley with director Joe Wright, following the award-winning box office successes Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, is the epic love story Anna Karenina, adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel by Academy Award winner Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love). The story unfolds in its original late-19th-century Russia high-society setting and powerfully explores the capacity for love that surges through the human heart, from the passion between adulterers to the bond between a mother and her children. As Anna (Ms. Knightley) questions her happiness, change comes to her family, friends, and community.
Anna Karenina Release Date
In Theaters November 16, 2012
Anna Karenina Credits
Starring: Keira Knightley, Aaron Johnson, Jude Law, Matthew Macfadyen, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Kelly Macdonald, Ruth Wilson, Olivia Williams, and Emily Watson
Written by: Tom Stoppard
Directed by: Joe Wright
Produced by: Tim Bevan, Alexander Dostal, Alexandra Ferguson
MPAA Rating: [ R ]
Distributor: Focus Features
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This Week In Home Entertainment: Argo & Anna Karenina, Plus Things Get Sinister
There’s a lot of imagination in this week’s best releases. From a ghastly creature haunting old visual mediums to reenvisioned historical moments, and world and their wars built entirely for the small screen, this week in home entertainment offers a little something for everyone, even if that something is watching scantily dressed teens try to find a younger sibling in a haunted house.
by Jessica Rawden February 19, 2013 comments
Skyfall, Lincoln And More Nominated By The American Society Of Cinematographers
Skyfall may be seen by some as just another silly blockbuster action movie, but the truth is that it really was one of the most beautiful films to be released in 2012, the Shanghai sequence alone deserving tons of recognition. But do you think that he deserves the top prize from the ASC?
by Eric Eisenberg January 9, 2013 comments
The Top 10 Movies Of 2012: Kristy's List
Creating this list has filled me with a dizzying amount of joy and dread. Really, 2012 was a year that offered so many examples of daring and thrilling cinema that it was difficult to even determine what the criteria should be for a list of my personal ten favorites. In the end, I went with my gut, selecting those films that not only hit me hard in the theater, but also lingered with me for days, weeks, or months afterwards, and which I can still vividly recall.
by Kristy Puchko December 19, 2012 comments
The Top 10 Movies Of 2012: Katey's List
2012 was a really, really hard year to sum up in list form, and a top 20 would really be more appropriate to reflect the astonishing variety of blockbusters, out-of-nowhere successes and totally tiny arthouse stuff that grabbed me this year. A lot of these movies snuck up on me, only revealing their brilliance long after I'd written a review or thought I'd forgotten about it. Plenty of those not on this list did the opposite, making an amazing first impression and fading so quickly
by Katey Rich December 17, 2012 comments
Joe Wright And Keira Knightley Talk Collaboration In Anna Karenina Featurette
With the cast and crew gushing so profusely about how terrific Knightley's performance is and how deep her devotion to the role was, it seems this featurette is meant as a kind of "For Your Consideration" ad. It's a relief to see Focus Features making such a push, since—despite all its grace, grandeur and great performances—this film appears to be getting lost in the shuffle with so many hotly anticipated titles nearing release.
by Kristy Puchko December 3, 2012 comments
Domnhall Gleeson Goes From Holding A Wand In The Background Of Harry Potter To Anna Karenina's Romantic Lead
For a while Domhnall Gleeson didn't think he'd become an actor. As the son of famed Irish actor Brendan Gleeson, he had every young person's urge to separate himself from his parents-- even as it became clear to him that acting was what he wanted to do anyway.
by Katey Rich November 21, 2012 comments
Jude Law On The Difference Between The Theater And The World Of Anna Karenina
It’s never easy playing the third wheel in a love triangle, particularly when it’s your wife who wants to leave you for another man. Couple this with the fact that Karenin (Jude Law) is a well-respected and very public figure in Russia’s aristocracy – and his crumbling marriage is being played out on a national stage – and you can understand why Anna Karenina is such a challenge
by Sean O'Connell November 19, 2012 comments
5 Oscar Hopefuls You Should Catch Up With Over The Holiday
This time of year you're probably overwhelmed figuring out your holiday plans and making a list of everyone you need to give presents, but there's another list you probably have in mind as a movie buff: the Oscar nominations. No, the nominees won't be announced until January 10, but now is the time to start catching up on the names that will probably be read that day
by CB Staff November 19, 2012 comments
Keira Knightley Explains Why You Shouldn't Be Intimidated By Anna Karenina
The conversation, according to Keira Knightley, started on the set of
by Sean O'Connell November 19, 2012 comments
Aaron Taylor Johnson Talks Anna Karenina's Heightened Style
If Anna Karenina was a by-the-numbers, Garry Marshall-directed romantic comedy, we’d actively root for Anna (Keira Knightley) to buck the odds and be with her true love, Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). But this isn’t Hollywood fluff. It’s classic Russian literature – Tolstoy, to be specific. Anna is a married Russian socialite, and Vronsky her forbidden fruit
by Sean O'Connell November 16, 2012 comments
Operation Kino 89: Swooning For Anna Karenina, And The New Short The Sleepover
This week on Operation Kino, we're embarking on a pretty ill-fated affair, as we review Joe Wright's gorgeous new movie Anna Karenina. From there we bring you the newest installment of OpKino Indie, in which Da7e chats with Chris Cullari, Jennifer Raite and Carolyn Jania, the team behind the new short film "The Sleepover,"
by Operation Kino November 16, 2012 comments
Director Joe Wright On Regaining His Confidence To Make A Bold Anna Karenina
Now we have Anna Karenina, which might be the umpteenth adaptation of the Tolstoy classic but which stands very much on its own, partly because of Wright's bold decision to set most of the film inside a dilapidated theater, where bedrooms are tucked in among the rafters and horses can trot among the audience seats
by Katey Rich November 13, 2012 comments
Oscar Eye: Lincoln Holds Strong, Jennifer Lawrence Moves Up, And More Developments
Between Election Day and a nasty fever that suddenly took over my life, I didn't have it in me last Tuesday-- and I got the feeling you guys had other things on your mind as well. Plus, what we're talking about this week is the same thing we would have been talking about last week: Lincoln and Skyfall, and the handful of mysteries still waiting for us down the line
by Katey Rich November 13, 2012 comments
Now Streaming: Netflix Instant Alternatives To Lincoln, Anna Karenina & Breaking Dawn - Part 2
This week, inspired by Lincoln, Anna Karenina, and Breaking Dawn – Part 2, for inspiration, we offer a selection of historical dramas, steamy costume dramas, and supernatural romances.
by Kristy Puchko November 11, 2012 comments
Joe Wright Considering A Harry Houdini Biopic
As for Houdini, his biopic almost landed in the hands of The Hunger Games director Gary Ross. And his life story is informing a Broadway musical backed by Aaron Sorkin and Hugh Jackman. But the escape artist really deserves his own movie, and in my opinion, Wright would be a tremendous choice to take over the project.
by Sean O'Connell October 12, 2012 comments
Oscar Eye: Argo Prepares To Emerge As A Frontrunner, While Lincoln Surprises New York
This week marks the wide release of one of the very big Best Picture contenders, Ben Affleck's Argo, but through sheer chance I've managed to catch up with four major Oscar movies in the last week. Argo is among them, so we'll start there, but there's plenty else to go over, even if the rest of these movies won't emerge in theaters for a few weeks yet. Exciting times to be a moviegoer!
by Katey Rich October 9, 2012 comments
Anna Karenina Posters Put Different Forms Of Love On Display
This is such a smart campaign, because audiences need to be informed that Karenina -- despite being based on centuries-old Russian literature – is a passionate piece of filmmaking that crackles with creative energies, lustful performances, emotional heat and palpable tragedy. Don’t mistake this for another dry costume drama.
by Sean O'Connell October 8, 2012 comments
Toronto Film Festival Wrap-Up: The Good, The Bad, And The Best Oscar Bets
The Toronto Film Festival technically doesn't wrap up until Sunday, when award winners will be announced (including the usually important Audience Award) and the crowds will recede from downtown Toronto for another year. But Team Cinema Blend has already left the premises, with dozens of movies and a handful interviews under our belts
by Katey Rich and Sean O'Connell September 14, 2012 comments
Anna Karenina: The Best Film Of TIFF 2012 So Far
The heavy hitters emerged at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, as audiences got their first look at films that would make any cinema junkie drool. Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina, Ben Affleck’s Argo and Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha all played north of the border to packed houses … and we were there for as much of it as we could absorb.
by Sean O'Connell September 8, 2012 comments
Keira Knightley, Jude Law In Anna Karenina Character Posters
Russian literature might not float your boat, but we remain excited for Karenina because of Wright’s previous collaborations with lithe, beautiful leading lady Keira Knightley. They reinvented Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, then found heat in a steamy pre-war affair on the wrenching Atonement.
by Sean O'Connell September 3, 2012 comments
Anna Karenina Featurette Shows Off More Theatricality And Glitz
It's still hard to know exactly how it will work out, but today we get another glimpse at the film and, once again, it's cramming with arresting visuals and some intriguing looking performance. The clip also has a lot of Keira Knightley and Wright talking about the idea behind the film's melodramatic style. Take a look below
by Katey Rich July 30, 2012 comments
Joe Wright's Anna Karenina Shows Breathtaking Ambition In Six-Minute Clip
Wright has become cheered for his incredible and complicated long takes, like the beach scene in Atonement and the underground fight scene in Hanna. But now his love of this elegant but hard-earned fluidity has informed the entire construction of his Anna Karenina, an epic breathtaking in its ambition.
by Kristy Puchko July 23, 2012 comments
Anna Karenina Steals Great Gatsby's Thunder With Glamorous Poster And Trailer
Between Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby and Joe Wright's Anna Karenina, moviegoers will be spoiled for choice this winter, when it comes to luxurious adaptations of novels that explore ill-fated love in high society. Focus Features has previously unveiled a striking string of first look images for Anna that revealed an almost unrecognizable Jude Law, a stunningly regal Keira Knightley, and a mustachioed—yet dapper—Aaron Johnson.
by Kristy Puchko June 20, 2012 comments
Robocop Sets August 2013 Release, Anna Karenina Coming This Oscar Season
It's hard to think of anything that really connects the upcoming Robocop remake and the upcoming Anna Karenina adaptation, so let's just get down to facts. Recent schedule updates at Box Office Mojo have finally assigned release dates for both films;
by Katey Rich March 13, 2012 comments
Keira Knightley Dances In First Look At Joe Wright's Anna Karenina
In 2007 director Joe Wright made a huge splash when he directed Atonement, a period drama starring Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan and James McAvoy. The film was a huge hit, both with audiences and critics, and it ended up earning seven Academy Award nominations (and it won for Best Original Score). Wright's last two films, The Soloist and Hanna, were both a step away from what we have typically seen from the director
by Eric Eisenberg February 24, 2012 comments
Exclusive: James McAvoy Still Unsure On Anna Karenina, Talks Welcome To The Punch
Wright has been very vocal about wanting McAvoy for the film, but it's been unclear if McAvoy's schedule would cooperate; based on what he told me it seems that's still very much up in the air.
by Katey Rich April 13, 2011 comments
Benedict Cumberbatch And Kelly Macdonald Join Joe Wright's Stunning Anna Karenina Cast
Cumberbatch actually makes this even more of an Atonement reunion, having played the actual rapist who goes off scot free when Ronan's character Briony accuses McAvoy instead. The British actor has been working steadily for years in all kinds of films you might recognize him in
by Katey Rich April 7, 2011 comments
James McAvoy And Saoirse Ronan May Also Join Joe Wright's Anna Karenina
Though Hanna, a modern-day action thriller with strong fairy tale elements, is a bit of a departure from the polished period world of Atonement, Anna Karenina gets Wright back to what he established early as his wheelhouse. It's a classic story that's building a phenomenal cast
by Katey Rich April 2, 2011 comments
Jude Law Might Join Knightley, Johnson In Anna Karenina
It's still a little unclear which role he might potentially be attached to in the eight part novel. There's Anna husband, twenty years her senior, which might work considering Law is thirteen years older than Knightley
by Mack Rawden March 19, 2011 comments
Kick-Ass Aaron Johnson Considering Tolstoy And New Oliver Stone Flick
If he chooses both of these projects, studios should start getting a pretty fair handle on Aaron Johnson’s bankability. All the acting talent in the world doesn’t make you a leading man
by Mack Rawden March 17, 2011 comments
Joe Wright Hints That Keira Knightley Will Still Star In His Anna Karenina
Though Wright says he's "not sure yet" who the star will be, he also admits "it's fairly obvious" and "I'm loyal to my actors," and is only holding back because "she hasn't signed on the dotted line."
by Katey Rich March 2, 2011 comments
Around The Web | <urn:uuid:ca4fe079-f2c1-40e4-8373-bed97bd2aa4c> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.cinemablend.com/Anna-Karenina-5742.html | 2015-03-26T19:16:18Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131292567.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172132-00000-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932387 | 3,314 |
These four releases are "two-fers" – two discs for the price of a single mid-priced disc. Additional releases in this series have been devoted to Thomas Hampson, Beverly Sills, Mirella Freni, and other singers who have recorded extensively for EMI Classics.
Canadian tenor Jon Vickers began his operatic career in 1952, and retired in 1988. Early on, he sang lighter roles such as the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto) and Ferrando (Così fan tutte), but as his career progressed, he moved into the heavier and more dramatic roles for which he is remembered today. (Some of these, such as Peter Grimes, Radamès, and Aeneas from Les Troyens are not represented here, because he recorded them for a different label.) He was an excellent actor, and an intelligent singer. His voice, while not beautiful per se, was immediately recognizable for its masculinity, and for the canny way in which head tones (which some find croony) and chest tones were intermixed.
As with many of the other "Very Best of" releases, the Vickers collection is heavily dependent on complete recordings. In the 1960s and 70s, Vickers recorded Samson with Georges Prêtre, Carmen with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, and Otello, Fidelio and Tristan with Herbert von Karajan, and generous excerpts from those five more or less recommendable sets have been included here. As a result, there is a certain amount of fading in and out of excerpts, so if that bothers you, consider yourself advised. Karajan is a galvanizing conductor, and soprano Helga Dernesch adds excitement to both Tristan and Fidelio. At the time of its release, the Carmen (with Grace Bumbry in the title role, and Freni as Micaëla) was considered rather ho-hum, but these excerpts are exciting, and Vickers's head tones at the end of the "Flower Song" are unearthly in their beauty. (Nevertheless, he was anything but a wimpy Don José .) The Ingemisco from Verdi's Requiem comes from Barbirolli's complete recording (another undervalued pleasure) and four songs from Winterreise come from a fine recording that Vickers, near the end of his career, made with pianist Geoffrey Parsons. It is shame to excerpt Winterreise, though. (This is the only digital recording in this compilation.) Most of the original recordings still give pleasure, although the Samson excerpts suffer from distortion.
Boris Christoff also possessed a voice of such resonant blackness that you could mistake it for no one else's. Because he performed so much Russian music, it often was assumed that he was Russian. In truth, he was Bulgarian. His studies with Riccardo Stracciari prepared him for Italian roles such as King Philip II (Don Carlos) and Attila, but it is his portrayal of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov for which he is best remembered today. (That, and his interpretation of Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust.) Sadly, he never appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, although he was heard in San Francisco, and also in Chicago over the course of several seasons. He was a larger than life actor, and his flamboyant interpretations (even on record) did not please everyone.
Christoff recorded Boris twice for EMI – once in mono, and again in stereo; eight excerpts from the latter recording are offered here. Critics were outraged that he sang not only the title role, but also Pimen and Varlaam on both recordings. Christoff seemed unwilling to relinquish any of the juicy music, as long as it was in his range. The same happened in Prince Igor (two excerpts here) where Christoff sang both Prince Galitsky and Khan Konchak. Even the complainers agreed that Christoff's unique abilities allowed him to differentiate multiple roles in the same opera, even when he was, in effect, singing to himself (as happens near the end of Boris)! As Faust provides no roles suitable for the bass other than Méphistophélès, Christoff had to content himself with singing of the most mustache-twisting malevolence. Here, EMI offers three excerpts, including the complete Church Scene, in which Christoff mercilessly (and unforgettably!) torments Victoria de los Angeles's Marguerite. Another highlight of this compilation is Mussorgsky's complete song cycle The Nursery, in which the basso convincingly transforms himself into a little boy!
Again, some of the operatic excerpts are bleeding chunks, but fade-ins and fade-outs have been managed well. About one-third of the selections are monaural, recorded as they were in the 1950s. (Tchaikovsky's None but the lonely heart is in stereo, however, EMI's annotations notwithstanding.) Mono or stereo, the sound is excellent throughout, with none of the distortion that mars Vickers's Samson excerpts.
Like Christoff, Alfredo Kraus remained an EMI Classics artist throughout most of his career. It is for that reason that this compilation extends from the early 1960s (two arias from Così, as conducted by Karl Böhm) up to a live recording from December 1987 ("Una furtiva lagrima" from L'Elisir d'amore and "Salut! demeure chaste et pure" from Faust). Kraus, who was born on September 24, 1927 in the Canary Islands, was 60 at the time, and hardly less of fresh of voice than he was in the Così recording. Kraus was a lyric tenor who never sounded juvenile. In lighter bel canto roles such as Ernesto (Don Pasquale) a more youthful vocal persona would have been more appropriate, perhaps, but in the heavier ones, such as Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) and Arturo (I puritani), Kraus's power, maturity, and masculinity were welcomed – no tenorino here. His bright, trumpeting voice and exciting high notes were tempered by a sunny suavity. On the other hand, he could be a rather bland interpreter. Given his excellence in the French repertoire, in particular, it is tempting to go as far back as Georges Thill when looking for comparisons. Kraus died in 1999.
Most of these selections are taken from Kraus's complete recordings; the exceptions are the two indicated above from 1987, which were recorded at this Paris Opéra. (Frankly, it is a shame that Kraus left commercial recordings of neither L'Elisir nor Faust.) This means that Kraus is joined by excellent singers, including Montserrat Caballé in I Puritani, Renata Scotto in La bohème and La traviata, and Beverly Sills in Rigoletto and Don Pasquale. The selections have been chosen well, although, as with the other releases, there are some untidy fade-in and fade-outs. With the exception of Così, the engineering remains bright and shiny. This is an excellent compilation, and for those who are less familiar with Kraus than with the "Three Tenors," this might whet their appetite for more.
With Barbara Hendricks, EMI Classics had the interesting challenge of a singer who has recorded relatively little of her (not particularly large) operatic repertoire for the label. Furthermore, the roles that she has recorded for EMI (Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, the Sandman in Hänsel und Gretel, etc.) generally don't lend themselves well to excerpting – but could they at least have included some of Leila's music from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers? Instead, five of the six operatic arias are taken from a recital album – apparently now out of print – that Hendricks made with conductor Paavo Järvi and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France. There are six excerpts from an album of "Sacred Songs" which she recorded in Sweden, four spirituals from her relatively early album with pianist Dmitri Alexeev, and, on the second disc, a nice selection of Lieder, mélodies, and other songs, including an interesting orchestral version of the famous Vocalise-Étude en forme de Habanera, and Delibes's Les Filles de Cadix – a favorite of mine – which simmers sultrily, where it is more conventional to scintillate. Hendricks is never anything less than lovely and insightful.
Hendricks, who was born in Arkansas in 1948, is widely regarded for the angelic purity of her voice. She is anything but a twitterer, though – it is the warmth of the voice that makes it truly heavenly. After completing an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Math, she went to the Juilliard School of Music, where she studied with Jennie Tourel. Her European debut came in 1974 at Glyndebourne. In 1978, Herbert von Karajan asked her to be the Voice from Heaven in his production of Don Carlo (also recorded by EMI Classics), and, for good or ill, that appellation has stuck with her ever since.
Although it is perforce quite light on the operatic excerpts, this is a sensible compilation from EMI Classics. It is here that the absence of sung texts and translations is mostly keenly felt, however. (None of the "Very Best of" releases include anything but an essay in English, German, and French about the singer.) All of the Hendricks recordings are from digital originals, and are in very fine sound.
Copyright © 2005, Raymond Tuttle | <urn:uuid:131c1166-b97f-435a-ac28-bb6f3495a72d> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/e/emi86335a.php | 2015-03-26T19:10:23Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131292567.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172132-00000-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973417 | 2,051 |
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others to link their sites to the Site. However, if You wish to
establish a link to the Site or any of its Content, we require that
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Services and Products
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12.1.1. In parts of the Site You may be enabled to interact
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184.108.40.206. be capable of infringing the Intellectual Property
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time). You must follow Our instructions and adhere to Our
procedures as given on the Site when using any the National Trust
Group web-based service.
12.11. You must ensure that any material and / or
information downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of the
Site is at Your own discretion and that You will be responsible for
any damage to Your Equipment or loss of data that results from the
download of such material and / or data.
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Site is free from infection by viruses or anything else with
contaminating or destructive properties. We recommend that You
'virus check' all information sent to You by Us. We shall not be
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corrupt information You send to Us.
13.1. If You have a complaint about the Site please contact
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14.1. Us to You
14.1.1. We shall not be liable to You for any loss or damage
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(irrespective of whether it arises due to Our failure, error or
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22.214.171.124. Our having acted upon Your instruction or
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Website terms and conditions:
15.1 The 16 statements which ask about children's connection
to nature come from recent work undertaken by the RSPB and the
University of Essex, funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
Further information can be found at www.rspb.org.uk/connectionmeasure. The data
gathered from these questions will help to evaluate 50 Things by
the National Trust, and may also be anonymised and shared with
external researchers undertaking further investigations into
connection to nature.
15.2 Participation in the survey is deemed as accepting the
overall 50 things to do before you're 11 ¾ terms and
Visitor feedback postcard prize draw terms and
The winner of each prize will be the first pulled from the prize
draw. 1st prize consists of 1 x Garmin eTrex 10 Geocaching Bundle
worth £119.99. 2nd and 3rd prize consist of a 50 things 'adventure'
pack worth £50.00. The prize draw is not open to employees of the
National Trust or their families. The judge's decision is final and
no correspondence will be entered into. Entries are only valid on
completion of full name and address details. There is no cash
alternative. Winners will be notified by post within 28 days of the
closing date (29/11/13). A list of winners can be obtained by
The visitor feedback postcard can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/50things2013
16. Wild-time challenge Promotion Terms &
16.1 You can enter the promotion if you are aged 16 years or
under and live in the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland, Wales,
Scotland and England). Please ask your parents or guardians before
you enter this promotion or give your contact details. You cannot
enter if your parents or guardians or any other member of your
family work at the National Trust.
16.2 To enter the Wild-time challenge you need
a. Sign up to the '50 things to do before you're 11¾'
b. Complete 25 of the '50 things' adventures and log these
on the website before the closing date of midnight 1 September
c. Your parent account will then be sent an email asking you
to enter the prize draw with the promotion code provided for a
chance to direct and star in your own nature-inspired film and to
claim your free National Trust family visit pass which you can use
at over 200 of our special places (pass terms and conditions
d. You can then enter the code on the microsite to enter the
prize draw for the chance to direct and star in your very own
16.3 The winner of the prize to produce their own
nature-inspired film will be the first entry randomly pulled from
the prize draw and independently verified. The draw will be from
all the complete and valid entries received by the closing date (1
September 2013). We will get in touch with the winner within 28
days of the closing date to the email address that they gave
16.4 If the winner does not reply to claim their prize
within 3 weeks of their being contacted, the National Trust
reserves the right to withdraw prize entitlement and then another
winner will be pulled from the prize draw in accordance with these
terms and conditions.
16.5 There is only one prize to star in your very own nature
film up for grabs. This prize comprises:
- 1 flip camera worth over £100
- 1 day planning your nature film with a director at your local
National Trust property
- 1 day filming with the National Trust film team at your local
National Trust property. This day will create an approximate 10-15
minute film (depending on film footage collected)
- A DVD of your film
- Travel and lunch expenses on the days of planning and filming
for the winner and one parent or guardian up to the value of
- All other costs and expenses in taking up the prize,
including any accommodation, as required, all other meals and
drinks and spending money are the winner's own.
16.6 The place where you will do the planning and filming
days will be one National Trust property local to you. The place
will be agreed after you accept the prize.
16.7 If you do win the opportunity to direct and star in
your very own nature film, you need to do your planning and filming
days before Sunday 8 December 2013.
16.8 You may only enter the prize draw once per
16.9 There is no cash or other prize alternative in whole or
in part and you cannot give the prize to another person. In the
event of circumstances outside the reasonable control of the
National Trust, we reserve the right to substitute the prize for a
suitable alternative of equal or greater value.
16.10 The National Trust will not be liable for any
circumstances beyond its reasonable control that prevents the prize
from being delivered to the winner
16.11 If you want to find out the name and county of the
winner, call 01793 818 540 or email [email protected]
up to 90 days after the prize draw winner is drawn.
16.12 The winner may be required for reasonable post-event
publicity with no further recompense.
16.13 The Promoter is: The National Trust, Heelis, Kemble
Drive, Swindon, Wiltshire SN2 2NA. Registered Charity No.
17. Wild-time challenge Family Visit Pass Terms and
17.1 Information on how to enter and claim your one National
Trust family visit pass are above.
17.2 One pass is available for each person completing the
17.3 You can use the National Trust family visit pass at
over 200 of our places. Properties excluded from the National Trust
family visit pass are:
Aberdeunant, Antony Woodland Garden, Ascott, Bath Assembly Rooms,
The Beatles Childhood Homes (20 Forthlin Rd & Mendips),
Birmingham Back to Backs, Boarstall Tower, Braithwaite Hall,
Brownsea Island Ferry Charge, Buscot Park, Buscot Old Parsonage,
Chastleton House, Clevedon Court, Cilgerran Castle, Clumber Park,
Cobham Mausoleum, Cwmmau Farmhouse, Dorneywood Garden, Dunster
Working Water Mill, Dunstanburgh Castle, Eastbury Manor House,
Farnborough Hall, Farne Island, Gawthorpe Hall, Gondola, Grantham
House, Great Chalfield Manor, Hadrians Wall & Housesteads Fort,
Hailes Abbey, The Homewood, Kedleston Hall, King's Head, King
John's Hunting Lodge, Lamb House, Leighton House Museum, Lundy,
Maister House, Middle Littleton Tithe Barn, Morville Hall, Moulton
Hall, Mount Grace Priory, Murlough NNR, Nether Alderley Mill,
Oakhurst Cottage, Old Soar Manor, The Old Manor, Orford Ness,
Owletts, Philipps House, Pitstone Windmill, Portstewart Strand,
Priest's House, Princes Risborough Manor House, Priory Cottages,
Red House, Rosedene, Shalford Mill, Shugborough, Sprivers Garden,
Stoneacre, St. John's Jerusalem, St.Michael's Mount, Tatton Park,
Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Town Walls Tower, Treasurer's House
(Martock), Ty Mawr Wybrnant, Wakehurst Place, West Green House
Garden, Westwood Manor, West Wycombe Park, White Mill, Woolbeding
Gardens, and all properties managed by Historic Houses Hotels Ltd,
English Heritage, CADW and local authorities.
17.4 The pass must be handed in when you use it to visit
your chosen National Trust property and you cannot use it against
the cost of membership.
17.5 Photocopies of the pass will not be accepted.
17.6 There is no cash alternative and the prize is
17.7 This pass cannot be used at the same time as another
17.8 You can use your family visit pass at participating
properties during the published opening times only. Please check
individual opening times before you visit.
17.9 You are not able to use it at National Trust events
where a separate charge is made.
17.10 You are not able to use it on Bank Holidays or Bank
17.11 The pass can be used to admit 4 people, either 2
adults and 2 children or 1 adult and 3 children. | <urn:uuid:1f5014f3-989b-4a81-973a-b4f2dba9eb63> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | https://www.50things.org.uk/terms-and-conditions.aspx | 2015-03-26T19:07:07Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131292567.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172132-00000-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.880958 | 6,484 |
When it comes to having a Linux server hosted in a data center or it is not behind any kind of Firewall or NAT device there are a number of security requirements that need to be addressed. Linux servers generally come with no protection configured by default and depending on the hosting company or distro can come preconfigured with many services installed that are not required, including Web Servers, FTP Servers, Mail Servers and SSH Remote Access.
The following is a compilation of various settings and techniques you can employ to harden the security of your vulnerable Linux systems. While I have tried to put them in order of the most important features first I would recommend all of these options be used on your critical production servers.
Always create long passwords that contain upper and lower case letters, numbers and non alpha-numeric characters. Enforce password ageing so users need to change their passwords regularly. Lock user accounts after a certain number of failed login attempts.
Make use of Public/Private SSH keys for login of remote users instead of passwords, this provides the benefit of turning off password authentication in SSH so that your server can’t be Brute-Force cracked. However this does introduce a new problem whereby a malicious person could compromise a user’s computer or steal their laptop and then have access to the server. This can be overcome by using a password on the client certificate which must be entered before connecting, a kind of two factor authentication.
Disable the Root user from being able to login either via the console or remote SSH connections. Instead have users use Sudo to run programs that require root privileges, or use sudo su to change to the Root user once logged in. This provides an audit path to show which user installed a piece of software or ran a program.
Always use the encrypted equivalent protocol when transferring critical and sensitive data such as passwords and confidential material. Remove RSH and always use SSH for remote access. Instead of using FTP for file transfer, consider using SFTP or FTP/S (FTP over SSL) or RSYNC. Instead of having remote access open to the internet i.e. SSH or VNC setup an OpenVPN SSL VPN Server to connect to first.
Consider implementing either a LDAP or Kerebos server to perform password authentication. This allows for a central database to maintain user’s passwords between multiple servers for easy management. This prevents user account and password data from becoming inconsistent and out of date, and prevents user accounts that should have been deleted on all servers being left behind on one server.
Implementing a secure IPTABLES firewall will limit your exposure to network threats such as DOS and Port Scanning attacks. You can lock down any ports that don’t require access from external networks. For instance you can use the following command to only allow SSH access to the server from the local network.
# iptables –A INPUT –s 192.168.0.0/24 –p tcp –dport 22 –j ACCEPT
You can install a TCP Wrapper named libwrap which will give information like who connected, when and from where and even which services they connected to. It can also be used for locking down access to ports and services for certain hosts or IP’s.
Consider installing both a Network IDS (NIDS) and a Host Based IDS (HIDS). NIDS’s are used to protect against malicious threats such as DOS and Port Scan Attacks. HIDS’s such as AIDE are used to monitor file system changes such as an intruder replacing core system files like ls or ps with malicious ones that hide their Trojan from file or process lists. It will produce a report that tells you what files have been modified so you can repair or replace them.
Disable Shell access to users that don’t need it (ftp, mail users etc) by changing to /bin/noshell in the /etc/passwd file. Setup a group for standard users and remove permissions to tools that can be used to download malicious software like wget, lynx, ftp etc. Consider chrooting users to their home directories to stop them from modifying critical system files.
Only install software that is actually needed, some systems come preconfigured with many software packages that you may never need or use. When installing always choose the Minimal Installation or Manual Installation option if they exist. Then simply install the software that you actually need.
Always try to keep your software packages up to date, such as ensuring the latest version of Apache, MySQL and PHP on a standard LAMP setup will protect you against any vulnerabilities that have been discovered in previous versions.
Your servers will most likely have many background services (Daemons) running which are not required and some may be configured to run on start-up. The following command (Red Hat, Cent OS only) can be used to show all services that will start on boot.
# chkconfig --list | grep : on
Or just use the following command to view services which are turned on only for Run Level 3.
# chkconfig --list | grep 3:on
You would then use a command like this to remove the service from start-up.
# chkconfig --del ‘service-name’
Consider completely removing X Windows from the system and just using the command line for management. There isn’t anything that you can do in the GUI that you can’t do using the command line and removing it will not only enhance security but also performance because no system resources are wasted displaying the GUI.
You can secure your Linux Kernel by modifying the /etc/sysctl.conf file, this file is read by the Kernel at boot time and can be edited with the following settings to add extra security.
# Turn on execshield
kernel.exec-shield = 1
kernel.randomize_va_space = 1
# Don't reply to broadcasts. Prevents joining a smurf attack
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1
# Enable protection for bad icmp error messages
net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses = 1
# Enable syncookies for SYN flood attack protection
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1
# Enable IP spoofing protection
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1
# Log spoofed, source routed, and redirect packets
net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.log_martians = 1
# Don't allow source routed packets
net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0
# Don't allow outsiders to alter the routing tables
net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.all.secure_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.secure_redirects = 0
# Don't pass traffic between networks or act as a router
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0
net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.send_redirects = 0
You should have a written security policy for handling Linux Kernel Patches, which should include which Linux security notices have been received, which updates have been tested to ensure problems don’t arise and which patches have been installed on the system. Always ensure Production servers are updated regularly to avoid any potential known vulnerability from being exploited on your system.
You should create separate partitions for user modifiable directories and block write and execute access to unneeded partitions. You should consider placing the following file systems on different partitions.
/var and /var/tmp
Then you can edit the /etc/fstab file to prevent execution of binary files, disable block devices on the partition and prevent the SUID/SGID from being set on files. Here is a common fstab file entry to limit user access to the ftpdata directory.
/dev/sda5 /ftpdata ext3 defaults,noexec,nodev,nosuid 1 2
Make use of software like SELinux, AppArmor or GRSecurity to provide additional hardening to your Linux Kernel. These products provide additional policies to restrict processes and services based on Access Control Lists.
Consider setting up different physical or virtual servers for different roles, i.e. separate your Mail server and your Webserver, or your Database server and your Application server. This ensures that if one particular service is compromised it is contained to just one server.
You can secure your server as much as possible from remote attacks, but if you don’t do anything to protect the physical hardware it is pointless. If someone has access to your physical server they can remove your hard drive and read your confidential data or boot from a CD and access your data. Consider creating a BIOS password and disabling booting from CD or USB. Also you should password protect your boot loader (GRUB, LILO, etc) to prevent users from accessing Single User Mode or Recovery Environments where passwords are not required.
Having an accurate system clock is important for reviewing log files and determining when an event occurred. Often system clocks can become out of sync or be reset to an older date and this can cause havoc with tracking of errors. Consider creating a Cron job rather than running ntpd (See Tip #12) to update the time daily or hourly with a common source for all servers.
Setup logging and auditing software to track errors and changes to your servers, such as Auditd and Logwatch/Logcheck. Consider configuring a remote logging server that is updated regularly to protect against an intruder compromising your log files without your knowledge.
IPv6 is very rarely needed at this stage as most traffic only utilizes IPv4 and having IPV6 enabled is just another network you need to monitor and protect. Disabling IPv6 is the easiest option but if for some reason you do require it then you should configure an IPv6 Firewall.
After you have setup and configured your system and software you should run the following commands to search for all file and folders with either the SUID, SGID bit set or world writeable folders.
To find all SUID files:
# find / -xdev -type f -perm +u=s –print
To find all SGID files:
# find / -xdev -type f -perm +g=s -print
To find all World Writeable Dirs:
# find / -xdev -perm +o=w ! \( -type d -perm +o=t \) ! -type l -print
You should then inspect each file and folder to determine if they have the correct settings and if not use the chmod command to make changes to them.
Your data is usually stored on a hard drive in an unencrypted format so any user that has access to the server can remove the hard drive and install it in another system and read all your data. You should consider configuring Linux disk or folder encryption on either your home directories or your sensitive folders (i.e. Database Files, Emails, etc). While you could encrypt your entire drive this is a lot of work and may not be worth the hassle.
It is great to have a highly secure Linux server but your system is only secure as the software you run on it. You should always install the latest versions of software and ensure they stay up to date. Also most programs have ways to make them more secure by editing their configuration files and disabling unnecessary parts of the software. The following is an example for hardening your OpenSSH Server settings, simply add the following to your OpenSSH config file.
# Use only SSH Protocol Ver 2
# Only allow the following users SSH Access
AllowUsers User1 User2 etc
# Deny access to the following users
DenyUsers admin etc
# Set the timeout period for idle sessions (in seconds)
# Disable .rhosts files
# Disable Host-Based Authentication
# Remove ability to login as Root
# Change the default SSH Port (Not essential but can help uncomment if you want)
# Consider CHRooting users to their own directories.
# Subsystem sftp internal-sftp
#Match group sftponly
# ChrootDirectory /home/%u
# X11Forwarding no
# AllowTcpForwarding no
# ForceCommand internal-sftp
# Disable empty passwords from login
# Set your required Log Level (Either INFO or DEBUG)
# Turn on privilege separation
# Prevent the use of insecure home directory and key file permissions
# Turn on reverse name checking
# Do you need port forwarding?
# Specifies whether password authentication is allowed. The default is yes.
Monitis is an all-in-one hosted monitoring platform for small and medium-sized businesses. 70,000+ IT pros use Monitis products to monitor health and performance of over 300,000 sites. | <urn:uuid:6d3563b5-6b96-4ab8-a49a-f8c4b53b1bd4> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://blog.monitis.com/2011/06/22/25-linux-server-hardening-tips/ | 2015-03-28T18:43:53Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297689.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00116-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.874476 | 2,792 |
Skip to comments.Sunday Morning Talk Show Thread 10 February 2013
Posted on 02/10/2013 5:19:39 AM PST by Alas Babylon!
The Talk Shows
February 10th, 2013
Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:
FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Mayor Kasim Reed of Atlanta.
FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.
THIS WEEK (ABC): Reps. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Keith Ellison, D-Minn.
STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): ens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Angus King, I-Maine; former Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.; former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
I appreciate the sympathy, but actually I have machines that do all the bullwork, my job is fixing them after I break them...(usually during a storm) so I'll apply it to that.
Ohhh, sparks flying between RINO Chrystal and RAT Whaaan over defense "cuts" and the responsibility of the alleged president.
Sorry I should have looked it over before posting. When I get upset, which seems to be all the time now, I type too fast.
I’m convinced now what he is doing to those of us in the military now is on purpose. There is no other rational explanation.
Repeal of DADT...allowing women into the infantry and armor branches and now allowing the “spouses” of gay couples to have ID cards and benefits.
Combine that with the looming 500 billion in cuts making us a hollow force reminiscent of the Carter years decreases in our benefits and a paltry 1% pay raise proposed for FY 2014.
This is...in my personal opinion...a purposeful attempt to break the morale and will of our armed forces.
This Administration and 99.9% of the Libtards today see the military as the execution tool of all the evil that America has spread around the world since we were founded. So just as America has to be taken down a notch...so too must her military. By whatever means necessary.
There is no other way to explain it.
And in the mean time all of our enemies are gearing up and improving their militaries. Why? Because they know we have been put in a position where we can’t oppose them.
Not that this administration actually wants to stop them...
She found that the rain was only very slightly acidic, while the rivers and streams were quite neutral. A little research led to the observation that the acidity was likely due to carbonic acid (from the now dreaded CO2) and that it was quickly neutralized by the soil. Since this finding was quite opposed to the propaganda being taught, I thought her results were quite significant.
I had recently acquired a brand new PC-XT with a full 10 meg hard drive with one 5-1/4 inch 360K floppy drive, and a pen plotter. We plotted her results on the plotter. She also made some plots for a friend who had looked up some information in an encyclopedia, for her "science project".
My daughter received a red ribbon - the lowest prize given, with no comments by the judges. Her friend got a blue ribbon, with comments about her great graphics. My daughter's problem, obviously, was that her data defied the propaganda being spewed by the school system. The last thing they needed was some stupid student presenting facts that disputed that.
what a coincidence.Time to validate “we didn’t have anyone near in BenghaZi” when the sh_t hit the fan. Never ends with these idiots.Can’t help if you are not there.
One question I have in that regard was prompted by what Dempsey said in the hearing--and I have yet to hear anyone in the MSM or elsewhere raise it.
Dempsey said that the Pentagon was looking at plenty of other problems that day--9/11--including in Cairo, as mobs rioted in front of our Embassy. When you look at the timeline of day's events, you see that Benghazi happened around 9 pm that evening well after the events in Cairo had occurred. So what was DOD doing in response to the events in Cairo before Benghazi? Did they move any of our forces closer to the region? Were they put on alert? After 9/11 there were demonstrations worldwide against the US, e.g, Tunisia, Yemen, Karachi, etc. but Dempsey tried to conflate those with the events of 9/11.
We don’t get dnc Dave until 10 Eastern.
Exactly a different world.
To ask is to know the answer.
So if we had gotten McCain in 2008 instead of Obama, we would be leading from the middle, not from behind.
Thanks! (I think)
Right back at-cha.
Waahn was wacking hard defending “that guy” on Bengazi.
Excellent. I’m so happy to know you have machines!
You might enjoy an old BBC comedic series from Netflix called “Yes, Minister”. It was made in the early ‘80’s and will tickle the funny bone of any government cynic.
I remember you saying your Sunday Show’s schedule got all rearranged!
I’m just now going to watch FNS.
I want to see Rand Paul on CNN. Not sure of the time it starts here, but I’m checking now.
That’s good, Bernard. And I’ll take it, leading from the middle better than from behind which is going to get a whole lot of us killed.
And also, we would have Sarah. However, the LSM would not give a free pass to anything she said, no matter how brillant, as they do Ole’ Uncle Joe.
Its what they do. And what we have not learned to do. Political expertise, they have it we don't.
The bent axel,plouffe et. all, set up a scenario where the left got no budget cuts or sequestration.They never ever cut anything. Why would they? We are too easy a mark.
Under sequestration the commies have a list of six or eight key liberal causes where all the old people, children, or whomever will all die or suffer terribly if any of their funding is cut. Budget cuts(actually reductions in the increases) are miraculously always dire.They are never able to be worked out,never four day weeks instead of five. Just for grins they throw in military cuts as dire as well knowing our side hates cuts in the military.
The fact that huge budget deficits threatening the future of our kids or buying our own debt is never under consideration because once again we let them set the agenda...again.....is even more depressing.
You gotta wonder if we will ever learn.
Tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
They are all pontificating pissants.
Thank you so much, for taking the time to provide the link!
The Weather Channel is almost useless! Too many commercials.
I always get the feeling they’re hoping for a tragedy to report.
We wouldn't have seen him since. (except on FOX)
Its called communists in office leveling the playing field.
LOL Wallace has to stop Piglousy from talking before he even asks the question.
“We don’t have a spending problem,” she says. Where have we heard that before?
Sequestration was Obama's idea, but the Reps signed on to it. IMO neither party wants to make real spending cuts. They keep coming up with ideas to kick the can down the road. Both parties are holding DOD hostage, which was always the objective.
What I see coming out of this are some accounting gimmicks to forestall any real cuts and an agreement by the Reps playing the good cop to increase revenue by "closing loopholes" to protect DOD cuts. It will be portrayed as a matter of national security so that the Reps get a pass on agreeing to more taxes.
The sequestration bill excluded the entitlement programs and means tested welfare programs from any cuts meaning that any cuts to non-DOD discretionary funding would fall on all the agencies of government. Just as the military has done, we will have the Dems painting a doom and gloom picture of the impact of such cuts on children, the poor, health, etc. And the MSM is already awash with stories of how the implementation of sequestration will plunge us back into a recession.
So the spending will go on, taxes will continue to be increased whether thru tax rates, closing loopholes, the implementation of Obamacare etc. and so will the deficits. Projections are that we will raise more revenue in 2013--$2.7 trillion--than in any time in our history. And we will still run a $900 billion deficit.
Americans want all the benefits of the welfare state, but they don't want to pay for it. Eventually taxes will be raised on everyone in order to fund the welfare state. The Dems are setting the stage for it and after they regain the House in 2014, it will be a much different ball game. When Willie Sutton, the famed bank robber was asked why he robbed banks, he responded, "That's where the money is." Well, the middle class is the biggest bank of all and the Dems will tap it to keep the welfare state treading water. It will eventually fail, but not before defense is eviscerated (Guns versus Butter) and the government seizes most of the economy.
Well...it's the 'future'. We all know about 'Nemo'. Can anyone name 'A' thru 'L' from earlier this winter season? No peeking. How about the current 'O' "ravaging" the upper Midwest?
We understand that, the problem is Darwinists have used it to disprove God and promote communism. We are saying it is time to accept evolution is a fraud. Some great people came onto this thread to counter evolution:
Hope things are improving.
Prayers for you Alas
That's sort of a confession, as it really means: "We have no problem spending every nickel you have."
She, also, said that it is the 1st amendment that gives us the right to bare arms.
Exactly. Scare the sheeple, watch the Republicans fold like a cheap suit. Pitiful.
We are being treated to a good cop, bad cop routine. The Reps want to fold. Protecting our national security is a good excuse to keep the spending going.
It does, if going sleeveless is a form of expression.
The Second Amendment lays out our right to bear arms.
YOU are the one who gets the BlueRibbon!
What a wonderful way to raise a daughter! Taking on “science’ ( girls aren’t supposed to be good at that.ha).
And learning the lesson that you don’t just accept whatever they “teach”you. And learning that character and hard work and honesty is WAAAAAY more important than phony ribbons.
What a great lesson for her!
Oh, I see, that’s where Moochell gets it from. And she has mighty fine ones too.
At one juncture he tried to portray Benghazi like a police op,a robbery at a 7-11 that was thousands of miles away (supposedly)and they simply could not respond to every 7-11 that gets knocked off. Especially, when they had no idea what was going on.(so many lies there you don't know where to begin)
When asked who was in charge of the op Panetta replied, "the forces on the ground." In other words Woods,Doherty and Smith who had all been told to stand down were actually in charge of the op but didn't know that no help was ever coming.Bizarre at best.
Supposedly, no one in dc was even engaged or even there watching events happen,no one calling into see if he needed a cappuccino or a bagel,or a back rub by Lindsay Graham,just Panetta. Once again stretching believability here.
Panetta also claimed that it would have taken 8 hours to respond instead of calling in F-16's in theater that could have been there in under two hours.
Panetta lied his ass off and then twisted the rest to make it sound somewhat feasible but told just enough truth to let us know that zero was MIA once again and he actually had no one to turn to and was obviously told to stand down.
Should anyone dare to get to the bottom of the Benghazi fiasco they will undoubtedly hear that it was a CIA op and they are not allowed to talk about it--the ultimate plausible deny-ability.
My thinking was either one of two scenarios could have happened:
1. Benghazi was a hit on Stevens by CIA or others since he had been gun smuggling all over the Mid- East and knew too much and had become:
a political liability.
2. A hostage taking so they could eventually trade Stevens for the blind sheik once again:
a political situation.
Let's hope we can keep Benghazi and the death of four warriors alive since the DBM are still trying to find Ben Ghazi's house on a map...
The commercials, given the junk science (they really, really like GlobullWarming) TWC's been serving up by the cubic mile for the past ten years or so, may just be the high point of their broadcasting.
You'd get better weather guessing out of Farmer's Almanac, or just cut to the chase and use http://forecast.weather.gov
(You can dial that deal in to within fifty feet of your front door, if you don't worry too much about somebody selling the coordinates.)
I am watching Stephy and they are REALLY getting DESPERATE! HA.
when they played the clip of Eric Cantor and then followed with a Republican commenting at length....THE SOUND WENT OUT!!!( yeah, I checked the other channels, just during that segment, just on Stephy)..
Now Stephy says “ oh, yes, there’s been a lot of DISCOMFORT on the ground with the drone Strikes. Discomfort???ha.
Its very possible we may never get any traction there. These guys are just too politically astute to be beaten. They will have to self destruct and that's is taking longer than I ever dreamed.
We haven’t got the idea that we are the Party of Opposition!
In Britain you see them screaming at each other in Parliament...and the Party of opposition in other countries can get aggressive.
MTP Gregory interviewing Dick Durbin
on drones- asks Dick should we change the CIC’s ability to kill at will with drones. DIck says obama made it clear he would eliminate torture (lololol - kill em, don’t grill em). He won’t answer Gregory’s questioning about changing the policy. compliments obama for being “engaged” in providing the legal basis for drone attacks.
Menendez - should he retain his chairmanship? Mendendez has given Dick his assurance that he wasn’t involved with that stuff, other than that he can’t comment on it.
LOL. You’re absolutely right!
Yes, and the political statement that Moochelle's "bared arms" are screaming is:
"In a shouting match, I could simply beat you to death...and I just might."
You are lucky we get FNS at 2:00pm Eastern.
How is the fund raising going!!
Is FR guys almost there for the quarter?
Remember a dollar a day is hard to miss but slowly adds up for FR!!
When you have a voter base of village idiots...what do you expect them to elect?Its the un-elected you have to watch out for.
Not necessarily, what if they just keep buying our own debt until a dollar won't buy a banana.
MTP Round Table
Gersen, WaPo, rightly points out what obama is proposing to Republicans - “Give up spending cuts for tax increaes.” No Republican is going to go for that.
Mike McCurry (? I think) If obama would be willing to deal with entitlement reform, Republicans would deal with him on everything else and ignore the rest of us, Brings up that obama is ruining the immigration deal when he gets involved. Refers to Rubio and Jeb Bush as “heroes” in the immigration debate. (lolol - yep, my kind of heroes)
Who is the black dude on MTP - using phrases like Republicans showed him the back of their hand. That guys is an idiot. Says obama has shown Boeher he is willing to deal with them (???) He has a huge chip on his shoulder.
True, maybe both and they were "thinking" it would be a win/win situation regardless of the outcome.
[I woke up with a small headache, then I endured her undiluted RATaganda, now I have a full-blown ears-ringing, pounding skull-crusher.]
There is a simple solution to your dilemma, take an aspirin for your small headache and avoid anything that compounds your misery. | <urn:uuid:6fb13ed3-0459-452f-9ed2-3c99b91a5a2d> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/2987058/posts?page=60 | 2015-03-28T18:53:52Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297689.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00116-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966645 | 3,731 |
Here is a new book which seems to have a large portion devoted to the Church of the East. I am dying to get hold of it, but will wait until I can pick it up secondhand.
The Lost History of Christianity
The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia--and How It Died
by Philip Jenkins
In the summer of 2002, I traveled in southeastern Turkey to meet with members of the two-millennia-old Syriac church, of whom only a few thousand are left in their homelands. Their language, Syriac-Aramaic, is as close as any living language to the one that Jesus spoke, yet they are forbidden by the Turkish government to teach it to their schoolchildren. We came to deserted villages such as Kafro, whose inhabitants had been driven out by the attacks of Turkish Hezbollah, and which were now sealed off by the military. We visited the monastery of Tur Abdin, a major center of Eastern Christianity, now dwindling under suffocating government restrictions. We met the only two monks remaining in the monastery of the village of Sare.
In Nisibis (now Nusaybin in southeast Turkey), where a famous Christian community dates back to the second century, and which nurtured Ephrem, the greatest of the Syrian theologians, there is a church dating from 439. It was locked and abandoned after World War I when the inhabitants, fleeing massacre, escaped into Syria. For 60 years there had been no Christians there, but now the diocese had sent a Christian family from a local village, who live in a small apartment in the church and try to keep it from falling apart.
We went into the crypt to see the tomb of Jacob of Nisibis, from whom the term "Jacobite" church is named, and while we studied his sarcophagus, our driver, unprompted, began to sing an ancient hymn. His strong voice filled the tomb. We asked him what the words meant, and he told us that the lyrics came from Ephrem himself:
Listen, my chicks have flown,
left their nest, alarmed
By the eagle. Look,
where they hide in dread!
Bring them back in peace!
Philip Jenkins's marvelous new book, The Lost History of Christianity, tells the largely forgotten story of Nisibis, and thousands of sites like it, which stretch from Morocco to Kenya to India to China, and which were, deep into the second millennium, the heart of the church. While Christians will be particularly concerned with this story, it will be of interest to, and significant for, far more than they.
After an already distinguished career as a historian, Jenkins has, during the last six years, produced a series of books designed to inform modern readers of the religious shape of the world we inhabit, a shape radically different from that of the popular, or even not-so-popular, mind. While much of what he has written will be of little surprise to specialists, he has a gift for clearly and cogently synthesizing and summarizing copious research. The Next Christendom (2002) described how Christianity's demographic center of gravity, in the 20th century, moved to the Third World. The New Faces of Christianity (2006) argued that, since their culture is closer to the Bible, Africans and Asians understand the book very differently from Europeans and North Americans, and find in it a great liberatory force. God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis (2007) found in Europe much more than fading Christianity and growing Islam.
The story usually told of Christianity is that, while it certainly also spread elsewhere, its major influence and home was in Europe. The church developed early, Europe became in some sense Christianized, and subsequently it set the pattern for the faith. With the discovery of America and the European voyages of exploration, as well as colonialism, Christianity then spread to the rest of the world largely as a Western export.
Jenkins demonstrates that this story is flat wrong--or as he more charitably puts it, "much of what we know is inaccurate."
For most of its history, Christianity was a tricontinental religion, with powerful representation in Europe, Africa and Asia, and this was true into the 14th century. Christianity became predominantly European not because this continent had any obvious affinity for that faith, but by default: Europe was the continent where it was not destroyed.
As late as the 11th century Asia was home to about a third of the world's Christians, Africa another 10 percent, and the faith in these continents had deeper roots in the culture than it did in Europe, where in many places it was newly arrived or still arriving.
About the time of Charlemagne's investiture in 800, the patriarch, or catholicos, of the Church of the East, often called Nestorian, was Timothy, based in Seleucia, in Mesopotamia. In prestige and authority, Timothy was "arguably the most significant Christian spiritual leader of his day," much more influential than the Western pope and on par with the Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople. Perhaps a quarter of the world's Christians looked to him as their spiritual and political head. His duties included appointing bishops in Yemen, Arabia, Iran, Turkestan, Afghanistan, Tibet, India, Sri Lanka, and China. A Christian cemetery in Kyrgyzstan contains inscriptions in Syrian and Turkish commemorating "Terim the Chinese, Sazik the Indian, Banus the Uygur, Kiamata of Kashgar, and Tatt the Mongol." The Church of the East may even have reached to Burma, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, and Korea.
The Asian church was also more intellectually accomplished: Its operating languages were Syriac, Persian, Turkish, Soghdian, and Chinese. Timothy himself translated Aristotle's Topics from Syriac into Arabic. Much of the "Arab" scholarship of the time, such as translations of Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, and others into Arabic, or the adoption of the Indian numbering system, was in fact done by Syriac, Persian, and Coptic (Egyptian and Nubian) Christians, often in the high employ of the Caliph.
It was also a church immersed in cultures very different from the Roman and Hellenic environments of the West. Timothy engaged in a famous dialogue with the caliph al-Mahdi, which still survives. The church's milieu was not only Jewish and Muslim but also, perhaps more so, Buddhist, Manichaean, Zoroastrian, and Confucian. This made for relations that defy many of our usual assumptions about history. Jenkins recounts how "in 782, the Indian Buddhist missionary Prajna arrived in the Chinese imperial capital of Chang'an, but was unable to translate the Sanskrit sutras he had brought" into Chinese or other useful local languages.
Hence, Prajna did the obvious thing and consulted with Bishop Adam, head of the Chinese church, who was deeply interested in understanding Buddhism. As a result, "Buddhist and Nestorian scholars worked amiably together for some years to translate seven copious volumes of Buddhist wisdom." These same volumes were taken back home by Japanese monks who had been in Chang'an, and became the founding volumes of Shingon and Tendai, the two great schools of Japanese Buddhism.
The Chinese also influenced the West. Around 1275, two Chinese monks began a pilgrimage to the Holy land. One, Markos, was probably a Uygur and the other, Bar Sauma, may have been an Onggud. In 1281, Markos was elected patriarch. He protested that he was not up to it, not least because his knowledge of Syriac was rudimentary. But the church fathers argued that the "kings who held the steering poles of the government of the whole world were the [Mongols], and there was no man except [him] who was acquainted with their manners and customs." Markos established his seat near Tabriz, then the capital of the Mongol Ilkhan dynasty.
Bar Sauma had an equally interesting life. In 1287 the Ilkhan overlord sent him on a diplomatic mission to Europe to enlist aid for a proposed joint assault on Mamluk Egypt: Kublai Khan in Beijing would also be a supporter. The Europeans were amazed to discover both that the church stretched to the shores of the Pacific and that the emissary from the fearsome Mongols was a Christian bishop, one from whom the king of England subsequently took communion.
Jenkins places the ending of this world, "the decisive collapse of Christianity in the Middle East, across Asia, and in much of Africa," not with the initial rise of Islam but in the 14th century. One trigger was the Mongol invasions, which threatened Arab Islam as never before. (The Crusades were a minor sideshow.) The Mongols sought alliances with Christians, and there were Christians among them, hence local believers were treated as a potential fifth column and often massacred.
Later, the Mongols themselves embraced Islam and turned on the Christians. Timur's subsequent invasions, among the most brutal in history, furthered the process, as did Seljuk and Ottoman advances and, further east, rising anti-Mongol Chinese nationalism. Between 1200 and 1500 the proportion of Christians outside Europe fell from over a third to about 6 percent. By 1500 the European church had become dominant "by dint of being, so to speak, the last men standing" of the Christian world.
The eastern communities were savaged again in a second great wave of persecution beginning in the 19th century, with the slaughter of the Armenians, and also the Syriacs, Nestorians, and Maronites. When the British took over Mesopotamia after the First World War, they judged the Assyrians' situation so desperate that they considered moving them to Canada. In 1930 there were proposals to transfer them to South America. Following massacres by Arabs in 1933, the British flew the patriarch to Cyprus for safety while the League of Nations debated moving them to Brazil or Niger. We may currently be in another such wave as Christians flee the Palestinian areas, Lebanon, Turkey, and Egypt. In 2003 in Iraq, Christians were some 4 percent of the population, but they have since comprised 40 percent of the refugees.
As Jenkins says, "We have forgotten a world." The "new" globalized Christianity "is better seen as a resumption of an ancient reality." He explores the pervasive influence of Christianity on Islam, and it is always good to see the woolly writings of Karen Armstrong and Elaine Pagels taken apart, albeit gently.
This book has few weaknesses. It would have been good to explore the major cultural effects of the different role of language in Christian and Islamic missions: the former seeking to bring the Word into the locals' languages, the latter seeking to bring the locals the Word in Arabic.
In the late 10th century a Nestorian monk from Arabia visiting China reported his horror at discovering that Christianity had, after centuries, by then become "extinct." But Christianity is now in its fourth phase of expansion in China: More people there go to church than do in Europe. Perhaps Ephrem's hymn and prayer will be answered: "Bring them back in peace."
Paul Marshall is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom and the editor of Blind Spot: When Journalists Don't Get Religion. | <urn:uuid:5d07cf0b-cd07-4c1d-812e-9e81f3410695> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php?topic=20533.0 | 2015-03-28T19:05:05Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297689.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00116-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976216 | 2,374 |
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Peanut butter, graham cracker and chocolate tucked into light and flaky puffed pastry & topped with marshmallow. How-to photographs included. | <urn:uuid:72579a68-09bd-45d4-a739-cf024c6fef02> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/oliviarochelle/likes | 2015-03-28T18:58:35Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297689.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00116-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.877784 | 2,747 |
Do you love these salty-sweet specimens or recoil from them in horror? One long-time oyster avoider gives them a try
Few foods prompt a stronger reaction. Offer round a plate of plump, creamy oysters, nestling in their half shells, bathed in their own salty juices, and people will literally recoil as you approach. You might as well be offering sprouts to six-year-olds.
I know this because I was a longtime recoiler. Just the thought of that quivering meat, the gnarly packaging, the rawness – in fact, let’s be honest, the aliveness – of the oyster, was enough to make my face scrunch into the oyster-hater’s “Eugh” of horror. Give me a freshly boiled crab and a mallet: fine. A pile of steaming mussels: no problem. A pot of prawns, briefly barbecued, their beady eyes and whiskers still attached: delicious. Vibrant sashimi: gorgeous. But oysters? No thanks.
Then, earlier this year, I reconsidered. Who writes off foods they’ve never tasted? (Apart from six-year-olds faced with sprouts.) I was going to eat an oyster – the only question was where.
Source: TheGuardian Read and see more
I love scallops.
I was reading earlier about the Queen scallops from the Isle on Man, Manx scallops; and I found this, literally my mouth began to water.
So simple. So yummy.
There are a zillion recipes out there for pan-fried scallops. This is one of mine.
The fresher my ingredients are, the less I usually fuss with my food. This recipe combines a few simple ingredients that complement each other—and still let the individual flavors shine through.
For this recipe, fresh sea scallops are seared in a thyme-infused butter, then drenched in white wine. They simmer for just a few minutes, and the sauce cooks down into a brine-y, buttery, herb-laced reduction.
It’s fresh, fast, easy, and oh-so-delicious.
The how to with photos can be found on The Hungry Mouse. Image credit there too.
Reposted from – DNamto.
Just come to know about this dish, thought to share with you all
This is a dish called Odori-Don. It has a dead squid on top that “dances” when Soy Sauce is poured on it, activating it’s neurons.
This fried, spicy dish is a staple favourite at most Chinese restaurants. But how should you do the batter? And is it better to deep or shallow fry?
I still remember the thrill of my very first Chinese meal, in a restaurant in exotic St Albans back in the late eighties. There were banana fritters and hilarious chopstick lessons, pancakes you could eat with your hands and carrots carved to look like flowers; in short, it was an eight-year-old’s dream meal ticket.
My tastes have changed slightly since then – I’m likely to be the one pushing for the pock-marked Mother Chen’s bean curd, or the chilli tripe (while secretly hoping someone else will insist on the crispy duck), but one thing I’m unable to resist, if it’s on the menu, is salt and pepper squid. And it usually is, because whatever part of China they’re from, restaurateurs are canny operators, and Cantonese spicy, salty fried food is always a winner.
The problem is, Chinese meals are all about sharing, and even people who claim to be scared of tentacles usually end up polishing off more of the portion than I’m strictly comfortable with. Time to make squid the main attraction at home, away from prying chopsticks.
The cephalopod itself
British squid is easy to come by in fishmongers – recipes vary as to the preparation method, with chef Ching-He Huang and Mitch Tonks recommending they are cut into rings, and most others suggesting triangles. I find these larger pieces hold the batter better, as does scoring one side in a diamond pattern, as suggested by Bill Granger and Rick Stein. (This is also supposed to stop them curling up quite so much during cooking, although it doesn’t make a huge amount of difference when deep frying.) Baby squid are preferable if you like to crunch the tentacles as well (many people are squeamish; I think they’re the best bit).
Not everyone is keen on a bit of batter: Rick Stein stir-fries his squid naked, but, pleasant as it is, it’s missing the crunchy element that makes salt and pepper squid such pure joy to eat. The other recipes I try are more traditional. Sydney chef Ying Tam makes a batter from self-raising flour, vegetable oil and water, which wins the crunch competition, while Huang’s egg and potato flour coating in her book China Modern is the lightest, and gives the best coverage. Of the also-rans, Bill Granger uses cornflour and soda water, which makes it crunchy, but relatively heavy, and Tonks’s milk and cornflour coating, from his book Fish Easy, disappears into the fryer, never to be seen again. Potato flour and egg seems to be the wise choice here – almost tempura light, it comes closest to the real thing.
Batter’s only a convenient vehicle for spice, however – and, for a dish with such a self-explanatory name, there’s a remarkable diversity of opinion here. Huang and Granger are the only ones who really adhere to the description, although she uses white pepper and he goes for black. Stein and Tonks are faithful in a slightly fancier way, using a mixture of black and tingly, numbing Sichuan peppercorns, dry roasted until fragrant, which I love – the combination gives the batter a more assertive, complex peppery flavour. Tonks also chucks in some dried Sichuan chillies, but I decide to reserve this heat for the topping (of which more below). I like his idea of reserving some of the seasoning mixture to sprinkle over the cooked squid just before serving, however, so the dish packs a little extra punch. Tam, meanwhile, goes completely off piste with a homemade “five-spice mix” of ground ginger, celery powder, salt, five-spice and chicken stock powder, which, according to my culinarily sophisticated boyfriend “makes it taste like Pot Noodle”. Whether or not that’s true (of course, I wouldn’t know), it certainly overwhelms the flavour of the poor squid.
Actually, for salt and pepper squid, this is more than a mere garnish: the little crunchy morsels of fried chilli and onion that can be chased around the plate with chopsticks long after the last tentacle has been devoured are crucial, and nice as it is to have a spritz of lime juice and a sprig of coriander for freshness, I think Tonks is missing a trick by leaving them out. Sprinkling them on fresh, as Huang does, is also unsatisfactory – they should be cooked briefly, just to slightly caramelise them. That said, I find it well-nigh impossible, not to mention hazardous, to fish tiny pieces of chilli out of a pan of sizzling oil, as Tam suggests, so I’m going to cook them in a separate pan, and combine the two just before serving. He adds garlic, which I really like, but it has a tendency to burn, so keep it in slices, rather than chopping it finely. His final spritz of rice wine adds a pleasant zing to the dish, cutting through the fat, but I prefer the fresher flavour of the lime used by Tonks and Grainger, especially at this time of year, when you might even fancy yourself sitting outside on the waterfront in Stanley, Shanghai or Sydney as you dine in the garden.
Sadly, this is a dish whose deliciousness largely relies on deep frying. OK, Stein shallow fries his, but then, as we’ve discussed, that isn’t quite the real deal. You can be all authentic, and do it in a wok, as most recipes suggest, but a deep pan will do just as well – or, of course, be like a real Chinese restaurant and use a deep-fat fryer. Serve with a salad, to slightly mitigate the guilt.
Perfect salt and pepper squid
350g small squid, cleaned
1/2tsp black peppercorns
1/2tsp Sichuan peppercorns
1tsp sea salt flakes
5tbsp potato flour
1 egg, beaten
Groundnut or vegetable oil, to fry
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
2 spring onions, sliced
1 garlic clove, sliced
Fresh coriander and lime wedges, to serve
Separate the bodies of the squid from the tentacles, and cut them into triangles. Score the inside with a diamond pattern, making sure not to cut right the way through the flesh. Add to the tentacles, pat dry and set aside.
Heat a dry frying pan and add both varieties of peppercorn. Toast for a minute or so until fragrant, then tip into a pestle and mortar, along with the salt, and crush to a powder. Mix two-thirds of this with the potato flour in a shallow bowl and set the rest aside. Put the beaten egg into a second bowl.
Half fill a large pan or wok with oil, or use a deep fat fryer, and heat it to 180C, or until a small piece of bread browns in 15 seconds.
Meanwhile, dip the squid pieces in the egg, then in seasoned flour until well coated. Fry – in batches if necessary – until pale golden, stirring once to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom.
As they’re cooking, heat a further tablespoon of oil in a frying pan over a high heat. Use a slotted spoon to lift the cooked squid on to kitchen towel and tip the chilli, spring onion and garlic into the frying pan. Fry very briefly until it all starts to caramelise, then add the squid to the pan and toss together.
Tip on to a serving plate, sprinkle with a little more seasoning and serve with a little coriander and some wedges of lime.
Is salt and pepper squid your favourite Chinese takeaway treat, or would you make a case for prawn toast, wontons, or some more exotic fare? And, while we’re talking squid, what else do you like to do with them and their tentacled relatives, the cuttlefish and the octopus?
Hagfish or Myxine glutinosa, they are fish, not eels.
Koreans and Korean markets and restaurants in New York City have been buying, selling, cooking, and eating hagfish for the last 30 years.
Hagfish are usually not eaten owing to their repugnant looks, as well as their viscosity and unpleasant habits. However, a particular species, the inshore hagfish, found in the Northwest Pacific, is valued as food in the Korean Peninsula.
Doesn’t matter what you call it, it’s a great shellfish.
Great shell too…
Found a great post on: grapefriend all about abalone, the fish, the preparation, cooking and wine pairing.
This cuttlefish is best known for squid rings; apart from them, I have never given it further thought.
Squid is also known as calamari.
ungainly looking ugly beast, and most would immediately discard the idea of eating one.
However, squid rings, battered or crumbed have proved acceptable, if a little rubbery, for most.
How to clean squid – A good post on Mama’s Tavern
But here’s a recipe for you:
Nigel Slater’s squid romesco recipe
Tuck into some flavoursome seafood
Make the sauce first. Into the bowl of a food processor, put 450g drained weight of canned or bottled red peppers, 5 anchovy fillets, 20g of fresh white bread, 3 tbsp of sherry vinegar, 5 tbsp of olive oil and 2 tsp of smoked paprika. Blitz to a smooth, brick-red sauce. Then prepare the squid. Score the body sacks of 4 medium to smallish squid, which have been cleaned and trimmed, cutting lightly into the flesh in a lattice pattern. Warm a little olive oil in a nonstick pan then add two cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced. Once the garlic has softened, add the squid and cook quickly. Transfer the squid to a plate, put the romesco sauce into the pan, stir briefly to heat, then spoon around the squid. Serves 2.
If possible look for Cornish, responsibly caught squid. Avoid any whose provenance is unclear, or fish that are too small. Cook the squid for seconds rather than minutes. Once it is opaque and starts to curl in the pan, it is cooked. You can grill, peel and purée your own peppers, but the difference in flavour is negligible.
Use prawns instead of squid. Grill the squid on a hot griddle pan or over a barbecue instead of frying it. Make a spicy romesco by adding a fresh red chilli to the sauce as you blitz it.
Stuffed squid – recipe
BBQ squid – no recipe
Calamari Stewed with Tomatoes – Recipe
Sauteed Squid and Kimchi – Recipe
It can be served with pasta, in a salad, on rice, even on a pizza or simply pan-fried. Entirely up to one’s imagination.
Or sashimi or makimonos… | <urn:uuid:02f52923-3bc4-4980-960b-00101f4d9496> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | https://thingsthatfizz.wordpress.com/category/seafood-2/ | 2015-03-28T18:46:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297689.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00116-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944228 | 2,967 |
INSURANCE LAW REVISION COMMISSION
Agency History #3182
CREATION On March 11, 1981, the Utah State Legislature created the Insurance Law Revision Commission (ILRC) to rewrite Utah's insurance laws in an effort to encourage the growth of the state's insurance industry (Laws of Utah, 1981, Ch. 141). The ILRC completed a revised code, which was passed by the Legislature on February 25, 1985 as S.B. 232. The effective date for the new insurance code was delayed until July 1, 1986, however, to accommodate an additional eight month review. For this purpose the Legislature created the Insurance Code Task Force (also February 25, 1985), to effectively continue the public comment, review activities of the ILRC, and propose amendments. The Legislature adopted proposed amendments as S.B. 91 on February 26, 1986 (Laws of Utah, 1985, Ch. 242).
FUNCTIONS At its creation the ILRC was charged with consolidating and recodifying Utah's insurance laws in accordance with eleven stated objectives. These objectives embodied the Legislature's intention to create a "dynamic and responsive regulatory environment in Utah to attract and promote the growth of insurance companies within the state within the constraints of adequate protection of the public …" (Laws of Utah, 1981, Ch. 141). A two-year extension of the ILRC which passed as H.B. 64, 1983, merely restated the objectives outlined in the previous bill (H.B. 157, 1981) while allowing for an additional two year revision period. Similarly, the creation of the ICTF in 1985 charged that body to continue the public comment and review process for an additional eight months and submit final recommendations to an interim committee for consideration by the 1986 Legislature.
In a "Declaration of policy" statement included as Section 2 of S.B.141 (1981), the Legislature outlined its reasoning for the proposed revisions. First, they recognized "fair and reliable insurance markets" as essential to the "social and personal security of Utah citizens" and the "existence and growth of commerce in the state." To ensure the existence of such markets, the Legislature sought to promote "the essential factors influencing competition and market efficiency within each line of insurance." In accordance with public policy, the Legislature recognized "free competition as the primary self-regulatory force in insurance markets" but reaffirmed the state's role as the "appropriate governmental entity for regulating the insurance industry." "The foundation for such regulation," they concluded, "is a body of unified and integrally complete insurance statutes which outline the public policy objectives and provide adequate guidance for executive implementation of these policies."
To this end, the Legislature sought to recodify the state's insurance law and created an "insurance law revision commission" for that purpose. They drew up eleven objectives to direct the commission through the recodification process. The commission was charged: "a) To ensure the financial and business soundness of all insurers doing business in this state; b) To ensure that policyholders, claimants, and insurers are treated fairly and equitably; c) To ensure that the state has an adequate and healthy insurance industry, characterized by competition and the exercise of private initiative; d) To provide for a department that is competent in the field of insurance, and capable of enforcing the state's insurance law; e) To encourage full cooperation of the department with other regulatory bodies, both of this state, and the federal government; f) To improve the effectiveness and fairness of the state's regulation of insurance; g) To maintain freedom of contracts and freedom of enterprise consistent with the other stated objectives of the commission's tasks; h) To encourage self-regulation of the insurance industry; i) To encourage loss prevention as an important aspect of the operation of the insurance industry; j) To keep the public informed on insurance matters; k) To achieve all other objectives as the commission deems proper" (Laws of Utah, 1981, Ch. 141).
The ILRC first met July 15, 1981 in the Governor's Board Room, Utah State Capitol. Operating under a two-year mandate, the ILRC completed its first full revision of the insurance code on March 25, 1983. This initial revision failed to satisfy the interests of all concerned parties, however. In anticipation of this situation, the Legislature extended the life of the ILRC for two additional years (to May 11, 1985) by passing H.B. 64 on January 24, 1983 (Laws of Utah, 1983, Ch. 143). This additional drafting period culminated in a second full revision completed October 12, 1984, which was adopted by the Legislature as S.B. 232 in March 1985.
Concerned that additional criticism would force further amendments to the revised code the following year, the Legislature delayed the effective date of the newly adopted code and created the ICTF to conduct an additional sweeping review of the proposed revisions. Dane Leavitt, former head staff of the commission, noted verbally to Archive's staff in the Fall of 2002 that SB232 was in trouble late in the process because dentists and allied medical providers did not agree with specific sections. The creation of the task force was, in part, an attempt to involve all of the detractors of SB232 in an additional review process before the bill became law. Operating under an eight month mandate, the ICTF concluded its review January, 1986 and presented its revisions to the 1986 Legislature as S.B. 91. The primary functions of the task force included: "1. - to provide a[n additional - eight month] forum for the public airing of suggestions concerning the new Insurance Code; 2. - study the [sixteen contentious] issues described under subsection 8; 3. - give periodic reports and recommendations to the Business, Labor and Economic Development [BLED] Interim Committee (of Utah Legislature); 4. - submit final recommended amendments to the BLED interim committee for consideration by the 1986 Legislature" (Laws of Utah, 1985, Ch. 242).
In sum, the entire insurance recodification process spanned three distinct drafting periods. Between August 1981 and March 1983, the ILRC (through its executive director) conducted an initial review of the individual code chapters and prepared the first comprehensive recodification draft. In June 1983, the ILRC began a detailed review of this draft, resulting in a considerably revised draft recodification which they presented to the Legislature as S.B. 232, February 1985. The ICTF conducted the third and final review between June 1985 and January 1986, with its amendments passed as S.B. 91 during that session.
ADMINISTRATION The ILRC was composed of not more than twenty members appointed to two year terms. Eight members representing companies from the life, health, title, and property and casualty insurance industries were appointed by the governor, as were five members from the public at large. Two senators were appointed by the president of the Senate and two members of the House of Representatives by the speaker of the House. Additional members included the commissioner of insurance, the attorney general, and an executive director. The ICTF was composed of thirteen members appointed for the full eight-month term. The governor appointed twelve of the members including one member of the Senate and one of the House of Representatives. The insurance commissioner was an ex officio member. The governor was to appoint all replacements.
The commission contracted with a qualified individual to act as executive director who was solely responsible for managing the actual recodification process. The director, Spencer L. Kimball, professor of law at the University of Chicago, enjoyed complete autonomy from the commission, conducting the recodification his own way, with his own staff, but was obligated to accept the commission's council and direction. The commission elected one of its members to serve as chairman, who was responsible for calling and conducting all meetings (John F. Peircey served as chairman for the commission's entire history). The Legislature directed the commission to make periodic reports of its progress and actions to the appropriate legislative interim and standing committees and submit an annual progress report to the legislative management committee (Laws of Utah, 1981, Ch. 141). The task force was chaired by the Senate appointee, Fred W. Finlinson, who was responsible for calling and conducting all meetings (Laws of Utah, 1985, Ch. 242).
By March 1983, the commission's executive director, Spencer L. Kimball, had completed an initial draft of the code; from that point on he was no longer directly involved in the recodification process. The estrangement of the director from the commission's activities was brought about by an inability of the director and several commission members to settle sharp differences of opinion over certain code revisions. Though still legally a member of the commission, after March 1983, Prof. Kimball only occasionally offered comments on the commission's subsequent drafts.
ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY The organizational history of the ILRC and ICTF follows the three distinct review and drafting periods which made up the entire recodification process. During the initial drafting period (7/81-3/83), the 20 member commission directly delegated section-by-section reviews, and regular commission business, to individual subcommittees and employed a private consultant (the executive director) to conduct the actual drafting with his own staff. The commission circulated copies of proposed drafts to a 200-300 member informal "Advisory Committee" for further comment. The commission reorganized in May, 1983 (5/83-12/84), creating a "Steering Committee" to manage the actual recodification process, hired their own staff (in conjunction with the Office of Legislative Research General Counsel, or OLRGC) rather than work through a director, and created numerous small "Topical Advisory Committees" to review and comment on proposed drafts. In 1985, the senate bill creating the ICTF (S.B. 232) called for the OLRGC to act as the task force's staff and authorized it to "contract with qualified persons not employed by that office" for additional assistance. The ICTF created three subcommittees to conduct reviews on controversial issues, and manage administrative affairs.
The ILRC maintained numerous subcommittees over its four year history as a means of delegating responsibility for actions considered pertinent to its mission. Subcommittees were appointed by the chairman from the commission membership and assigned specific research tasks to be reported back to the entire body. The Commission also assigned various code sections to individual subcommittees for revision, which they completed with the help of numerous assistants (both staff and volunteers). The Commission circulated the revised code drafts to an Advisory Committee for comment section-by-section as it was completed. Approximately fourteen days following receipt of these materials by the committee, a public hearing was held at which the committee staff collected Advisory Committee members' comments for review by the Commission.
The Advisory Committee was strictly a public input body which never met formally. Its function was to provide an "outside" evaluation of code drafts (to be submitted to the Commission) in a manner that reflected each member's personal interests, or the interests of an organization, trade association, or commercial industry which they represented. Committee members were selected based on their inherent or expressed interest in the recodification process. On the recommendation of the subcommittee directing the creation of the Advisory Committee, the Commission maintained that "any group testifying or otherwise expressing concern about the recodification should be made a member of the [committee]"; membership totaled 200-300 persons. The Commission chair appointed a chairman and vice-chairman to the Advisory Committee (Michael O. Leavitt and Marilee Latta respectively).
By October 1982, the Commission realized that its initial goal for submitting a final draft to the 1983 Legislature was unrealistic. Numerous complaints that insufficient time had been allocated for public input challenged the legitimacy of the entire review process and significant disagreements over code revisions continued to exist between interested parties. Faced with these obstacles, the Commission decided to defer the submission of a final draft to the legislature until after the 1983 general session and establish a Steering Committee to resolve "troublesome issues" by "working with representatives of the industry and the public." As noted earlier, this reorganization was, in part, the result of an insurmountable conflict between several commission members and the executive director, Spencer Kimball, over specific code revisions which led ultimately to his estrangement by March 1983.
As a subcommittee of the ILRC, the Steering Committee was charged to resolve disagreements over code revisions and complete a "workable draft" of the code to submit to the commission. The committee originally consisted of seven members from the commission; in September 1983 an eighth member was added to accommodate other members' frequent absences. A majority of members constituted a quorum, and a majority vote was required to reject or adopt any proposed change or amendment. The committee meetings were open to all interested parties, but the agenda could be modified only by a majority vote from the committee. A list of thirty "controversial issues" requiring the committee's special attention defined the committee's approach to code revisions during this second review period, and led to the creation of a new advisory committee process.
On June 27, 1983, the commission agreed on the creation of numerous smaller public review committees (called Topical Advisory Committees, or TACs) to replace the former, single Advisory Committee. The committees were to assist the Steering Committee with formulating solutions to persistent disagreements over certain sections of the code. The Commission selected TAC members by individual invitation only; some were chosen from those former Advisory Committee groups which felt marginalized by the previous public input process. The letter of invitation indicated that "the [topical] advisory committee will work under the direction of the Steering Committee of the Insurance Law Revision Commission, and will be asked to provide both commentary and specific language proposals for the Steering Committee's review." The Commission's creation of topical advisory committees reflects two important changes in the recodification process. First, by adopting the smaller, more exclusive TACs, the commission was attempting to streamline the public input process formerly conducted through the larger, more costly (in terms of time and money) Advisory Committee, and thus expedite the completion of an acceptable final draft which they had failed to do by the 1983 general session. Second, adoption of the TACs reflected a topical approach to future code revisions in accordance with certain controversial issues, rather than the section-by-section approach which guided the commission's initial review process.
Due to the Commission's limited budget and time constraints, volunteers played a necessary role in the revision and review process. Ostensibly, those volunteers serving on the various Topical Advisory Committees were invited because they represented a specific interest or view point which would contribute significantly to a debate on Utah's insurance industry and the state's regulation of it. This dependence on industry-sponsored volunteers, however, led many to question the potential for improper influence by special interests. Many perceived the involvement of special interests as a violation of the laws' purported objectivity. In response, the commission adopted procedures to potentially ensure that volunteers given specific drafting or research assignments would not "obtain an unfair influence on the commission's product through their assistance."
The passing of S.B. 232 on 25 February 1985, the initial adoption of the 1985 draft of the insurance code, inaugurated the third and final revision period with the creation of the ICTF. That bill charged the Office of Legislative Research and General Council to provide the necessary staff assistance for the task force, and authorized it to contract with qualified persons not employed with that office to that end. The task force created three subcommittees (Administration, Property and Casualty, and Life and Health) to review and make recommendations on issues of particular difficulty. As chair of the task force, Senate appointee, Fred W. Finlinson, appointed all subcommittee members (Laws of Utah, 1985. Ch. 242).
|INSURANCE LAW REVISION COMMISSION|
|John F. Peircey, Chairman|
|Roger C. Day, Insurance Commissioner|
|Senator Fred Finlinson|
|Senator Lowell Peterson|
|Representative Kirk Rector|
|Representative Boyd Jeppson|
|Tim D. Dunn|
|William G. Gibbs|
|Carman E. Kipp|
|Michael O. Leavitt|
|Douglas H. Smith|
|Samuel D. Thurman|
|Spencer L. Kimball, Executive Director|
|INSURANCE CODE TASK FORCE|
|Senator Fred W. Finlinson, Chairman|
|Representative Ted D. Lewis, Vice-Chairman|
|Representative Kay Browning|
|Roger C. Day|
|Harold Yancey||(succeeded Roger Day as Insurance Commissioner and ex officio member 8/17/85)|
|Arthur O. Dummer|
|Lorin C. Miles|
|John F. Peircey|
|J. Leon Sorenson|
COMPILED BY: Michael A. Church, , August 2003
Insurance Code Task Force. Minutes and administrative records, 1985-1986, Series 25138.
Insurance Law Revision Commission. Administrative records, 1981-1985, Series 25135.
Insurance Law Revision Commission. Minutes, 1981-1985, Series 25136.
Legislature. Laws of Utah, Chapter 141, 1981, Insurance Regulatory Reform Act.
Legislature. Laws of Utah, Chapter 143, 1983, Insurance Law Revision Commission Extension.
Legislature. Laws of Utah, Chapter 242, 1985, Insurance Law Recodification.
Legislature. Laws of Utah, Chapter 204, 1986, Insurance Recodification Amendments. | <urn:uuid:d86f36b0-782e-49b8-ae82-de7ca5325470> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://archives.utah.gov/research/agencyhistories/3182.html | 2015-03-30T10:37:26Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299261.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00232-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955161 | 3,653 |
Kimberley, Northern Cape
City centre seen over the Big Hole
|• Total||164.3 km2 (63.4 sq mi)|
|Elevation||1,184 m (3,885 ft)|
|• Density||1,400/km2 (3,500/sq mi)|
|Racial makeup (2011)|
|• Black African||63.1%|
|First languages (2011)|
|Postal code (street)||8301|
Kimberley is the capital of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Boer War. Notable personalities such as Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes here, and the roots of the De Beers company can also be traced to the early days of the mining town.
- 1 History
- 2 Economy: Kimberley’s changing commercial fortunes
- 3 Climate and Geography
- 4 Government, local and provincial
- 5 Education
- 6 Society and culture
- 6.1 Religion
- 6.2 Art, music, film and literature
- 6.3 Museums, monuments and memorials
- 6.4 Architecture
- 6.5 Media
- 6.6 Sport
- 6.7 Quotations
- 6.8 Kimberley Miscellany
- 7 See also
- 8 References
- 9 External links
Discovery of Diamonds
In 1866, Erasmus Jacobs found a small brilliant pebble on the banks of the Orange River, on the farm De Kalk leased from local Griquas, near Hopetown, which was his father's farm. He showed the pebble to his father who sold it. The pebble was purchased from Jacobs by Schalk van Niekerk, who later sold it. It proved to be a 21.25 carats (4.3 g) diamond, and became known as the Eureka. Three years later, in 1869, an 83.5 carat diamond, which became known as the Star of South Africa, was found nearby ( ). This diamond was sold by van Niekerk for £11,200 and later resold in the London market for £25,000.
Henry Richard Giddy recounted how Esau Damoense (or Damon), the cook for prospector Fleetwood Rawstone's "Red Cap Party", found diamonds in 1871 on Colesberg Kopje after he was sent there to dig as punishment. Rawstorne took the news to the nearby diggings of the De Beer brothers — his arrival there sparking off the famous "New Rush" which, as historian Brian Roberts puts it, was practically a stampede. Within a month 800 claims were cut into the hillock which were worked frenetically by two to three thousand men. As the land was lowered so the hillock became a mine – in time, the world renowned Kimberley Mine.
The Cape Colony, Transvaal, Orange Free State and the Griqua leader Nikolaas Waterboer all laid claim to the diamond fields. The Free State Boers in particular wanted the area as it lay inside the natural borders created by Orange and Vaal Rivers. Following the mediation that was overseen by the governor of Natal, the Keate Award went in favour of Waterboer, who placed himself under British protection. Consequently, the territory known as Griqualand West was proclaimed on 27 October 1871.
Naming the place: from Vooruitzigt to New Rush to Kimberley
Colonial Commissioners arrived in New Rush on 17 November 1871 to exercise authority over the territory on behalf of the Cape Governor. Digger objections and minor riots led to Governor Barkly's visit to New Rush in September the following year, when he revealed a plan instead to have Griqualand West proclaimed a Crown Colony. Richard Southey would arrive as Lieutenant-Governor of the intended Crown Colony in January 1873. Months passed however without any sign of the proclamation or of the promised new constitution and provision for representative government. The delay was in London where Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Kimberley, insisted that before electoral divisions could be defined, the places had to receive "decent and intelligible names. His Lordship declined to be in any way connected with such a vulgarism as New Rush and as for the Dutch name, Vooruitzigt … he could neither spell nor pronounce it." The matter was passed to Southey who gave it to his Colonial Secretary J.B. Currey. Roberts writes that "when it came to renaming New Rush, [Currey] proved himself a worthy diplomat. He made quite sure that Lord Kimberley would be able both to spell and pronounce the name of the main electoral division by, as he says, calling it 'after His Lordship'." New Rush became Kimberley, by Proclamation dated 5 July 1873. Digger sentiment was expressed in an editorial in the Diamond Field newspaper when it stated "we went to sleep in New Rush and waked up in Kimberley, and so our dream was gone."
Following agreement by the British government on compensation to the Orange Free State for its competing land claims, Griqualand West was annexed to the Cape Colony in 1877. The Cape Prime Minister John Molteno initially had serious doubts about annexing the heavily indebted region, but, after striking a deal with the Home Government and receiving assurances that the local population would be consulted in the process, he passed the Griqualand West Annexation Act on 27 July 1877.
The Big Hole and other mines
As miners arrived in their thousands the Hill disappeared and subsequently became known as the Big Hole or, more formally, Kimberley Mine. From mid-July 1871 to 1914, 50,000 miners dug the hole with picks and shovels, yielding 2,722 kg of diamonds. The Big Hole has a surface of 17 hectares (42 acres) and is 463 metres wide. It was excavated to a depth of 240 m, but then partially infilled with debris reducing its depth to about 215 m; since then it has accumulated water to a depth of 40 m leaving 175 m visible. Beneath the surface, the Kimberley Mine underneath the Big Hole was mined to a depth of 1097 metres. A popular local myth claims that it is the largest hand-dug hole on the world, however Jagersfontein Mine appears to hold that record. The Big Hole is the principal feature of a May 2004 submission which placed "Kimberley Mines and associated early industries" on UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative Lists.
By 1873 Kimberley was the second largest town in South Africa, having an approximate population of 40,000.
Role and influence of De Beers
The various smaller mining companies were amalgamated by Cecil Rhodes and Charles Rudd into De Beers, and The Kimberley under Barney Barnato. In 1888, the two companies merged to form De Beers Consolidated Mines, which once had a monopoly over the world's diamond market.
Very quickly, Kimberley became the largest city in the area, partly due to a massive African migration to the area from all over the continent. The immigrants were accepted with open arms, because the De Beers company was in search of cheap labour to help run the mines. Another group drawn to the city for money was prostitutes, from a wide variety of ethnicities who could be found in bars and saloons. It was praised as a city of limitless opportunity.
Five big holes were dug into the earth following the kimberlite pipes, which are named after the town. Kimberlite is a diamond-bearing blue ground that sits below a yellow colored soil. The largest, The Kimberley mine or "Big Hole" covering 170,000 square metres (42 acres), reached a depth of 240 metres (790 ft) and yielded three tons of diamonds. The mine was closed in 1914, while three of the holes – Dutoitspan, Wesselton and Bultfontein – closed down in 2005.
Second Boer War
On 14 October 1899, Kimberley was besieged at the beginning of the Second Boer War. The British forces trying to relieve the siege suffered heavy losses. The siege was only lifted on 15 February 1900, but the war continued until May 1902. By that time, the British had built a concentration camp at Kimberley to house Boer women and children.
City of Kimberley
The hitherto separately administered Boroughs of Kimberley and Beaconsfield amalgamated as the City of Kimberley in 1912.
Kimberley under Apartheid
Although a considerable degree of urban segregation already existed, one of the most significant impacts of Apartheid on the city of Kimberley was the implementation of the Group Areas Act. Communities were divided according to legislated racial categories, namely European (White), Native (Black), Coloured and Indian – now legally separated by the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act. Individual families could be split up to three ways (based on such notorious measures as the 'pencil test') and mixed communities were either completely relocated (as in Malay Camp – although those clearances began before Apartheid as such) or were selectively cleared (as in Greenpoint which became a ‘Coloured’ Group Area, its erstwhile African and other residents being removed to other parts of town). Residential segregation was thus enforced in a process which saw the creation of new townships at the northern and north-eastern edges of the expanding city. Institutions that were hard hit by the Group Areas Act, Bantu Education and other Acts included churches (such as the Bean Street Methodist Church) and schools (some, such as William Pescod and Perseverance School, moved while the Gore Browne (Native) Training School was closed down). Other legislation restricted the movement of Africans and some public places became ‘Europeans Only’ preserves in terms of the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act. The Native Laws Amendment Act sought to cleave church communities along racial lines – a law rejected on behalf of all Anglicans in South Africa by Archbishop Clayton in 1957 (in terms of which this aspect of apartheid was never completely implemented in churches such as Kimberley’s St Cyprian’s Cathedral).
Resistance to apartheid in Kimberley was mounted as early as mid-1952 as part of the Defiance Campaign. Dr Arthur Letele put together a group of volunteers to defy the segregation laws by occupying 'Europeans Only’ benches at Kimberley Railway Station – which led to arrest and imprisonment. Later in the year, the Mayibuye Uprising in Kimberley, on 8 November 1952, revolved around the poor quality of beer served in the Beer Hall. The fracas resulted in shootings and a subsequent mass funeral on 12 November 1952 at Kimberley’s West End Cemetery. Detained following the massacre were alleged ‘ring-leaders’ Dr Letele, Sam Phakedi, Pepys Madibane, Olehile Sehume, Alexander Nkoane, Daniel Chabalala and David Mpiwa. Archdeacon Wade of St Matthew’s Church, as a witness at the subsequent inquiry, placed the blame squarely on the policy of apartheid – including poor housing, lighting and public transport, together with "unfulfilled promises" – which he said "brought about the conditions which led to the riots."
Other prominent figures of the struggle against apartheid who had Kimberley connections include Robert Sobukwe, founder of the Pan Africanist Congress, who was banished (placed under house arrest) in Kimberley after his release from Robben Island in 1969. He died in the city in 1978.
Benny Alexander (1955–2010), who later changed his name to Khoisan X, and was General Secretary of the Pan Africanist Congress and of the Pan-Africanist Movement from 1989, was born and grew up in Kimberley. Another leading figure in Coloured politics in the apartheid era was Sonny Leon.
The Northern Cape Province became a political fact in 1994, with Kimberley as its capital. Some quasi provincial infrastructure was in place from the 1940s, but in the post-1994 period Kimberley underwent considerable development as administrative departments were set up and housed for the governance of the new province. A Northern Cape Legislature was designed and situated to bridge the formerly divided city. The Kimberley City Council of the renamed Sol Plaatje Local Municipality (see below) was enlarged. A new Coat of Arms and Motto for the city were ushered in.
With the abolition of apartheid previously ‘whites only’ institutions such as schools became accessible to all, as did suburbs previously segregated by the Group Areas Act. In practice this process has been one of upward mobility by those who could afford the more costly options, while by far the majority of Black people remain in the townships where poverty levels are high.
Major township residential developments, with 'RDP housing', were implemented – not without criticism concerning quality. There has been an increase in Kimberley’s population, urbanization being spurred on in part by the abolition of the Influx Control Act.
Also added to the city is the settlement of Platfontein created when the !Xun and Khwe community formerly of Schmidtsdrift and originally from Angola/Namibia acquired the land in 1996. Most of the community had moved to the new township by the end of 2003.
In 1998 the Kimberley Comprehensive Urban Plan estimated that Kimberley had 210,800 people representing 46,207 households living in the city.
By 2008 estimates were in the region of 250,000 inhabitants.
The shifts from frontier farm names to digger camp names to the established names of the towns of Kimberley and Beaconsfield – which duly amalgamated in 1912 – are outlined above. The only traces of any precolonial settlement within the city's boundaries are scatters of Stone Age artefacts and there is no record of what the place/s might have been called before the first nineteenth century frontier overlay of farm names. It lay beyond the areas occupied by Tswana people in the precolonial period. Sites such as the nearby Wildebeest Kuil testify to a Khoe–San history dating up into the nineteenth century.
In the post-1994 era the Kimberley City Council was renamed the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality after the area it served was expanded to include surrounding towns and villages, most notably Ritchie. Sol Plaatje, the prominent writer and activist, lived for much of his life in Kimberley. Similarly the erstwhile Diamantveld District Council became the Frances Baard District Municipality, with reference to the trade unionist, Frances Baard, who was born in Greenpoint, Kimberley.
Economy: Kimberley’s changing commercial fortunes
Kimberley was the initial hub of industrialisation in South Africa in the late nineteenth century, which transformed the country’s agrarian economy into one more dependent on its mineral wealth. A key feature of the new economic arrangement was migrant labour, with the demand for African labour in the mines of Kimberley (and later on the Gold Fields) drawing workers in growing numbers from throughout the subcontinent. The labour compound system developed in Kimberley from the 1880s was later replicated on the gold mines and elsewhere.
The rising importance of Kimberley led to one of the earliest South African and International Exhibitions to be staged in Kimberley in 1892. It was opened by Sir Henry Loch, the then Governor of the Cape of Good Hope on 8 September. It presented exhibits of art, an exhibition of paintings from the royal collection of Queen Victoria and mining machinery and implements amongst other items. The exhibition aroused considerable interest at international level, which resulted in a competition for display space.
South Africa's first school of mines was opened here in 1896 and later relocated to Johannesburg, becoming the core of the University of the Witwatersrand. A Pretoria campus later became the University of Pretoria. In fact the first two years were attended at colleges elsewhere, in Cape Town, Grahamstown or Stellenbosch, the third year in Kimberley and the fourth year in Johannesburg. Buildings were constructed against a total cost of 9,000 pounds with De Beers contributing on a pound for pound basis.
Aviation, Kimberley Airport and air transport
South Africa's first school of aviation, to train pilots for the proposed South African Aviation Corps (SAAC), was established in Kimberley in 1913. Known as Paterson's Aviation Syndicate School of Flying, it is commemorated in the Pioneers of Aviation Museum (and replica of the first Compton Patterson Biplane preserved there), situated near to Kimberley airport. In the 1930s Kimberley boasted the best night-landing facilities on the continent of Africa. A major air rally was hosted there in 1934. In the war years Kimberley Airport was commandeered by the Union Defence Force and run by the 21 Flying School for the training of fighter pilots.
Work on connecting Kimberley by rail to the cities along the Cape Colony's coastline began in 1872, under the management of the Cape Government Railways. The railway line from Cape Town to Kimberley was completed in 1885, accelerating the transport of both passengers and goods. The railway connected Kimberley with cheaper sources of grain and other products, as well as supplies of coal, so that one of its local impacts was to undercut (mainly African) trade in fresh produce and firewood in Kimberley’s hinterland. Another footnote to railway history is its role in the initial rapid spread of the Spanish Influenza epidemic in 1918.
The railway reticulation eventually would link Kimberley with Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg, Durban and Bloemfontein. The major junction at De Aar in the Karoo linked early twentieth century lines to Upington (later to Namibia) and to Calvinia. From the 1990s there was a decline in the use of the railways.
- Today passenger train services to and from Kimberley are provided by Spoornet's Shosholoza Meyl, with connections south to Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and north to Johannesburg. Luxury railway experiences are provided on the main north-south line by the Blue Train and Rovos Rail.
Wagon and coach routes were developed rapidly as the rush for the Diamond Fields gathered momentum. Two of the major routes were from the Cape and from Port Elizabeth, the nearest maritime port at the time. Contemporary accounts of the 1870s describe the appalling condition of some of the roads and decry the absence of bridges. From the mid-1880s the route through Kimberley and Mafeking (now Mahikeng) became the main axis of British colonial penetration and it was from Kimberley, along that route, that the Pioneer Column for the settlement of Rhodesia set forth in 1890. Today, however, the central arterial route to the north, the N1 from the Cape to Johannesburg, goes via Bloemfontein, not Kimberley.
Today, Kimberley is the seat of the Provincial Legislature for the Northern Cape and the Provincial Administration. It services the mining and agricultural sectors of the region.
The city projects itself as a significant tourist destination, the ‘City that Sparkles’, boasting a diversity of museums and visitor attractions. It is also a gateway to other Northern Cape destinations including the Mokala National Park, nature reserves and numerous game farms or hunting lodges, as well as historic sites of the region.
Kimberley has hosted significant meetings and conferences, developing a major venue, the Mittah Seperepere Convention Centre, and other conference hosting facilities. Recent gatherings have included the founding meeting of the Kimberley Process (2000) and a follow-up meeting of this organisation in 2013, and the International Indigenous Peoples Summit on Sustainable Development (2002).
Becoming a university city
Climate and Geography
|Climate data for Kimberley|
|Record high °C (°F)||40.4
|Average high °C (°F)||32.8
|Daily mean °C (°F)||25.1
|Average low °C (°F)||17.9
|Record low °C (°F)||7.1
|Precipitation mm (inches)||57
|Avg. precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm)||7||7||7||6||2||1||1||1||2||4||5||6||49|
|Average humidity (%)||45||53||57||59||54||53||48||41||36||40||42||42||47|
|Mean monthly sunshine hours||307.1||260.7||265.7||262.0||281.2||264.2||286.7||299.3||288.3||305.1||310.6||331.0||3,461.9|
|Source #1: NOAA|
|Source #2: South African Weather Service|
|Climate chart (explanation)|
Kimberley’s water is pumped from the Vaal River at Riverton, some 15 km north of the city.
- Carters Glen
- De Beers
- Diamant Park
- Du Toit's Pan
- El Torro Park
- Galeshewe incl "Old No 2"
- Hadison Park
- Hill Crest
- Kimberley North
- Malay Camp
- Minerva Gardens
- Mint Village
- Moghul Park
- Monument Heights
- New Park
- Squarehill Park
- Verwoerd Park
- West End
According to the 2011 census, the population of Kimberley "proper" was 96,977, while the townships Galeshewe and Roodepan had populations of 107,920 and 20,263 respectively. This gives the urban area a total population of 225,160. Of this population, 63.1% identified themselves as "Black African", 26.8% as "Coloured", 8.0% as "White" and 1.2% as "Indian or Asian". 43.2% of the population spoke Afrikaans as their first language, 35.8% spoke Setswana, 8.7% spoke English, 6.0% spoke isiXhosa and 2.7% spoke Sesotho.
Landscapes, urban and rural
Kimberley is set in a relatively flat landscape with no prominent topographic features within the urban limits. The only "hills" are debris dumps generated by more than a century of diamond mining. From the 1990s these were being recycled and poured back into De Beers Mine (by 2010 it was filled to within a few tens of metres of the surface). Certain of the mine dumps, in the vicinity of the Big Hole, have been proclaimed as heritage features and are to be preserved as part of the historic industrial landscape of Kimberley.
The surrounding rural landscape, not more than a few minutes’ drive from any part of the city, consists of relatively flat plains dotted with hills, mainly outcropping basement rock (andesite) to the north and north west, or Karoo age dolerite to the south and east. Shallow pans formed in the plains.
One of Kimberley’s famous features is Kamfers Dam, a large pan north of the city, which is an important wetland supporting a breeding colony of Lesser Flamingos. Conservation initiatives in the area aim to bring people from the city in touch with its wildlife. In 2012 rising water levels flooded the artificial island built to enhance flamingo breeding, while in December 2013 a local outbreak of avian botulism bacteria resulted in the deaths of hundreds of birds. The island has since re-emerged.
Government, local and provincial
The administration of the Crown Colony of Griqualand West (from 1873) was conducted from Government Buildings in Kimberley up until the annexation of the Colony to the Cape in 1880. At the level of local government, separate Borough Councils operated in Kimberley and Beaconsfield up to the time of their amalgamation as the City of Kimberley in 1912. Thereafter a single City Council regulated the affairs of the city, while a Divisional Council administered the surrounding rural district. In the 1980s, in the last days of apartheid, a separate political entity referred to as Galeshewe (with Mankurwane) was brought into existence with its own council.
Post-1994 the Kimberley City Council became the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality while the successor to what had become the Diamandveld Regional Services Council was the Frances Baard District Municipality.
The idea of establishing the Northern Cape as a distinct geographic entity dates from the 1940s but it became a political and administrative fact only in 1994, with Kimberley formally becoming the new province’s legislative capital. The provincial legislature initially occupied the old Cape Provincial Administration building at the Civic Centre before moving into a purpose-built Legislature deliberately situated between one of the townships and erstwhile white suburbs. Kimberley is also the seat of the Northern Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa, which exercises jurisdiction over the province.
Education is a major sector in Kimberley's social and economic life.
Sol Plaatje University
The Sol Plaatje University opened in Kimberley in 2014, accommodating a modest initial intake of 135 students. Announcing the name for the university, President Jacob Zuma mentioned the development of academic niche areas that did not exist elsewhere, or were under-represented, in South Africa. "Given the rich heritage of Kimberley and the Northern Cape in general," Zuma said, "it is envisaged that Sol Plaatje will specialise in heritage studies, including interconnected academic fields such as museum management, archaeology, indigenous languages, and restoration architecture."
Defunct tertiary institutions
Tertiary education institutions no longer in existence (or absorbed into the above organisational configurations):
Society and culture
Kimberley, from its earliest days, attracted people of diverse faiths which are still reflected by practising faith communities in the city. Pre-eminently these are various denominations of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, as well as other faiths. Traditional African beliefs continue as an element in the Zionist Christian Church (ZCC). Kimberley is the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman and also of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley – previously the Apostolic Vicariate of Kimberley in Orange. Other denominations having churches in the city are the Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Congregational Church, the Dutch Reformed Church (Afrikaans: Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk), the Baptist Church, the Afrikaans Baptist Church (Afrikaans: Afrikaanse Baptiste Kerk), the Apostolics, Pentecostalists. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa was first established in Kimberley.
Art, music, film and literature
Writers from the city or with strong Kimberley links include Diane Awerbuck, Benjamin Bennett, Lawrence Green, Dorian Haarhoff, Dan Jacobson, Z.K. Matthews, Sarah Gertrude Millin, Sol Plaatje, Olive Schreiner, A.H.M. Scholtz.
Museums, monuments and memorials
- The Big Hole, previously known as the Kimberley Mine Museum, is a recreated townscape and museum, with Big Hole viewing platform and other features, situated next to the Kimberley Mine ("Big Hole"). It houses a rich collection of artefacts and information from the early days of the city.
- The McGregor Museum, which celebrated its centennial in 2007, curates and studies major research collections and information about the history and ecology of the Northern Cape, which are reflected in displays at the museum's headquarters at the Sanatorium in Belgravia and nine branch museums.
- Dunluce and Rudd House Museums.
- Pioneers of Aviation Museum: In 1913, South Africa's first flying school opened at Kimberley and started training the pilots of the South African Aviation Corps, later to become the South African Air Force. The museum is located on the site of that flying school and houses a replica of a Compton Paterson biplane, one of the first aircraft to be used for flight training. The first female on the African continent to receive her pilot's license, Ann Maria Bocciarelli, was trained at this facility.
- Robert Sobukwe's Law Office
- Transport Spoornet Museum
- Clyde N. Terry Hall of Militaria
- Freddie Tate Museum
- On the outskirts of Kimberley, on the Barkly West Road, the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre, as well as Nooitgedacht Glacial Pavements. To the south of the city, the Magersfontein Battlefield Museum (see Battle of Magersfontein), while blockhouses can be seen at Modder River.
- The Miners' Memorial, also known as the Diggers' Fountain, located in the Oppenheimer Gardens and designed by Herman Wald. It was built in honour of all the miners of Kimberley. The memorial consists of five life-sized diggers lifting a diamond sieve.
- The Honoured Dead Memorial commemorates those who died defending the city during the Siege of Kimberley in the Anglo-Boer War.
- The Cenotaph erected originally to commemorate the fallen of World War I, with plaques added in memory of fallen Kimberley volunteers in World War II. There is a memorial dedicated to the Kimberley Cape Coloured Corps who died in the Battle of Square Hill during World War I. Consisting of a gun captured at the battle, it originally stood in Victoria Crescent, Malay Camp, but, post-1994, was moved to the Cenotaph.
- The Concentration Camp Memorial remembers those who were interned in the Kimberley concentration camp during the Second Boer War, and is located in front of the Dutch Reformed Mother Church.
- The Henrietta Stockdale statue, by Jack Penn, commemorates the Anglican nun, Sister Henrietta CSM&AA (her reinterred remains are buried alongside), who petitioned the Cape Parliament to pass a law recognizing nursing as a profession and requiring compulsory state registration of nurses - a first in the world.
- The Sol Plaatje Statue was unveiled by South African President Jacob Zuma on 9 January 2010, the 98th anniversary of the founding of the African National Congress. Sculpted by Johan Moolman, it is at the Civic Centre, formerly the Malay Camp, and situated approximately where Plaatje had his printing press in 1910-13.
- Burger Monument near Magersfontein Battlefield
- Mayibuye Memorial
- Rhodes equestrian statue
- Malay Camp Memorial
- Alexander McGregor Memorial Museum (1907)
- De Beers Head Office
- Dunluce (Late Victorian)
- Harry Oppenheimer House (mid-1970s)
- Honoured Dead Memorial
- Kimberley Africana Library
- Kimberley City Hall (Neo-classical)
- Kimberley Club
- Kimberley Regiment Drill Hall (1892)
- Kimberley Sanatorium (McGregor Museum) (1897)
- Kimberley Undenominational Schools
- Masonic Temple
- Northern Cape Provincial Legislature
- Old School of Mines (Late Victorian)
- Rudd House (The Bungalow)
- The Lodge (Duggan-Cronin Gallery)
Notable religious buildings
- Dutch Reformed Mother Church Newton is a good example of Stucco architecture in Kimberley. It was declared a National Monument in 1976, now a Provincial Heritage Site.
- Kimberley's older Mosques were replaced by newer ones as a result of the Group Areas Act and the forced resettlement of the city's Muslim communities.
- Kimberley Seventh-day Adventist Church is a small L shaped corrugated-iron building and is considered the mother church of Seventh-day Adventists in South Africa. It was declared a National Monument in 1967, now a Provincial Heritage Site.
- St Cyprian's Anglican Cathedral was designed by Arthur Lindley of the firm of Greatbatch, the building of the nave being completed in 1908. The remainder of the cathedral was completed in stages, partly under guidance of William M. Timlin (also of the firm of Greatbatch). In 1926 the Chancel was dedicated (and as a World War I memorial); in 1936 the Lady Chapel, Vestry & new organ were added; and in 1961, the tower (a World War II memorial). The cathedral contains notable stained glass windows including works by the Pretoria artist Leo Theron.
- St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral.
- Synagogue in the Byzantine style designed by D.W. Greatbatch, and based on the synagogue in Florence, Italy.
The city is served by both print media and community radio stations.
The earliest newspaper here was the Diamond Field, published initially at Pniel on 15 October 1870. Other early papers with the Diamond News and the Independent. The Diamond Fields Advertiser is Kimberley's current daily newspaper, published since 23 March 1878. The Volksblad, with a free local supplement called Noordkaap, is read by Afrikaans-speaking readers.
Two community radio stations were founded in the 1990s:
- Radio Teemaneng
- XKfm which is based in the !Xun and Khwe settlement of Platfontein outside Kimberley and broadcasts in the two KhoeSan languages spoken at Platfontein (!Xun and Khwedam)
Kimberley has contributed to much of cricket's history having supplied several international players. There was Nipper Nickelson, Xenophon Balaskas born in Kimberley to Greek parents and Ken Viljoen, Ronnie Draper and in more recent times Pat Symcox and the Proteas coach Micky Arthur.
Frank Dobbin known as Uncle Dobbin was a member of Paul Roos' original Springboks in the tour to the British Isles in 1906/1907. His memory lives in his old colonial-style home in Roper street, bearing a simple brass plaque with the name 'Dobbin'. Later Springboks to wear green and gold included Ian Kirkpatrick, Tommy Bedford and Gawie Visagie, brother of Ammosal-based Springbok flyhalf Piet Visagie. Kimberley is home to the GWK Griquas rugby team.
Richard Henyekane, South African footballer, comes from Kimberley.
Jimmy Tau is from Kimberley, born and grew up in the dusty streets of No. 5 in Makapane Street, Vergenoeg.
Karen Muir, born in Kimberley, became in 1965 the youngest person to break a world record in any sport. This age group record stands to this day. She set it in August 1965 at the junior world champions in Blackpool, England in the 110 metres (360 ft) backstroke at the age of 12. She went on to break many more world records but was denied a role in world swimming when she lost the opportunity to represent her country at the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico City as a result of South Africa being excluded due to its racial apartheid policies. Kimberley also saw a world record broken in the municipal pool which now bears Karen Muir's name. It was Johannesburg's Anne Fairlie who beat Karen Muir and Frances Kikki Caron in world record breaking time.
Bevil Rudd, Olympic medallist.
Brian Davis, son of civic leader Edgar Davis, was part of the 4x400 metres relay which won a gold medal at the Rome Olympics.
The first Maloof Money Cup World Skateboarding Championships were held in Kimberley in September 2011 and again in 2012. In 2013 a new event is taking over where the Maloof family left off called Kimberley Diamond Cup.
"Kimberley has had a profound effect on the course of history in Southern Africa. The discovery of diamonds there, more than a century ago, proved to be the first step in the transformation of South Africa from an agricultural into an industrial country. When gold and other minerals were later discovered to the north, there were already Kimberley men of vision and enterprise with the capital and technology to develop the new resources." - H.F. Oppenheimer, 1976. Foreword to Brian Roberts’ book, Kimberley, turbulent city.
Anthony Trollope visited Kimberley in 1877 and was notoriously put off by the heat, enervating and hideous, while the dust and the flies of the early mining town almost drove him mad: "I sometimes thought that the people of Kimberley were proud of their flies and their dust." Of the townscape, largely built of sun-dried brick, and of plank and canvas and corrugated iron sheets brought up by ox-wagon from the coast, he remarked: "In Kimberley there are two buildings with a storey above the ground, and one of these is in the square: this is its only magnificence. There is no pavement. The roadway is all dust and holes. There is a market place in the midst which certainly is not magnificent. Around are the corrugated iron shops of the ordinary dealers in provisions. An uglier place I do not know how to imagine."
A.H.J. Bourne, a former headmaster of Kimberley Boys' High School, returned to the city in 1937, observing that: "The history of Kimberley would appear remarkable to any stranger who could not fail to think that some supermind was behind its destinies. In so short a time it has grown from bare veld."
In the early 1990s writer Dan Jacobson returned to Kimberley, where he had grown up in the 1930s, giving a sense of how things had changed: "The people I had known had vanished; so had their language. That contributed to my ghostlike state. In my earliest years the whites of Kimberley spoke English only; Afrikaans was the tongue of the Cape Coloured people ... Now I was addressed in Afrikaans everywhere I went, by white, black, and Coloured alike".
Kimberley dull? – asked virtualtourist reviewer Catherine Reichardt: "Happily, the answer is a resounding 'No', provided that you have a passion for history - in which case Kimberley has it in spades, and you'll probably need to overnight to fully appreciate its attractions and charms. In many ways, exploring Kimberley and its heritage is like experiencing South African history in microcosm."
- The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is an initiative for preventing trade in "conflict diamonds" used to finance the undermining of legitimate governments. It was founded in 2003, following a May 2000 meeting of Southern African diamond-producing states in Kimberley. A tenth anniversary meeting of the Kimberley Process was held at the Mittah Seperepere Convention Centre, Kimberley, on 4--7 June 2013, bringing together representatives of Governments, the diamond industry and civil society. A commemorative event was held at the Kimberley Tabernacle, the venue for the original meeting of the KPCS, where 23 individuals present at the very first meeting were honoured for their involvement. South African Minister of Mineral Resources, Susan Shabangu, addressed the closing session, noting the role of the KPCS in minimising "blood diamond" trade, as well as its "significant developmental impact in improving the lives of people dependent on the trade in diamonds."
- The Kimberley Declaration is a statement, inter alia on respect, promotion and protection of traditional knowledge systems, published by the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism, on behalf of the International Indigenous Peoples Summit on Sustainable Development, Khoi-San Territory, Kimberley, South Africa, 20–23 August 2002
- Sum of the Main Places Roodepan, Galeshewe and Kimberley from Census 2011.
- Martin Meredith (2007). Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa. New York: Public affairs. p. 16. ISBN 1-58648-473-7.
- Roberts, Brian (1972). The Diamond Magnates. London: Hamilton. p. 5. ISBN 0241021774.
- Wilson, A.N. (1982). Diamonds : from birth to eternity. Santa Monica, Calfornia: Gemological Institute of America. p. 135. ISBN 0873110102.
- Chilvers, Henry (1939). The Story of De Beers. Cassell. pp. 23–24.
- Roberts, Brian. 1976. Kimberley, turbulent city. Cape Town: David Philip pp 45-49
- Ralph, Julia (1900). Towards Pretoria; a record of the war between Briton and Boer, to the relief of Kimberley. Frederick A. Stokes company.
- Roberts, Brian. 1976. Kimberley, turbulent city. Cape Town: David Philip, p 115
- Roberts, Brian. 1976. Kimberley, turbulent city. Cape Town: David Philip, p 116
- Select Constitutional Documents Illustrating South African History 1795-1910. Routledge and Sons. 1918. p. 66.
- Roberts, Brian. 1976. Kimberley, turbulent city. Cape Town: David Philip, p. 155.
- Hannatjie van der Merwe (20 May 2005). "Big Hole loses claim to fame". News24. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
- Bid to plug Big Hole worldwide, News24
- UNESCO World Heritage Tentative Lists: Kimberley Mines and Associated Early Industries
- Martin Meredith, Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa, (New York, Public Affairs, 2007):34
- "Anglo American: De Beers investor presentation". Anglo American. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
- John Hays Hammond (1974). The Autobiography of John Hays Hammond. Ayer Publishing. p. 205. ISBN 0-405-05913-2.
- Meredith, 36.
- Martin Meredith, Diamonds, Gold, and War, (New York, Public Affairs, 2007): 34
- Sessional Papers By Great Britain Parliament. House of Commons. 1902.
- Roberts, Brian. 1976. Kimberley, turbulent city. Cape Town: David Philip
- Apartheid and the archbishop: the life and times of Geoffrey Clayton, Archbishop of Cape Town Paton, A: New York, Scribner 1974 ISBN 0-684-13713-5
- Review of Paton's Apartheid and the Archbishop by Edgar Brookes
- Mayibuye Uprising of 8 November 1952 by Johlene May
- Indian Opinion 23 Jan 1953 – Apartheid policy responsible for riots
- e.g. Shillington, K. 1985. The colonisation of the Southern Tswana. Johannesburg: Ravan Press
- Brian Roberts (1976). Kimberley. D. Philip, Historical Society of Kimberley and the Northern Cape. ISBN 0-949968-62-5.
- Michael Morris & John Linnegar (2004). Every Step of the Way. Human Sciences Research Council. ISBN 0-7969-2061-3.
- Becker, Dave (1991). On Wings of Eagles: South Africa's Military Aviation History (1 ed.). Durban: Walker-Ramus Trading Co. p. 9. ISBN 0-947478-47-7.
- Burman, Jose (1984). Early Railways at the Cape. Cape Town. Human & Rousseau, p.95. ISBN 0-7981-1760-5
- Worger, W.H. 1987. South Africa’s City of Diamonds. Mine Workers and Monopoly Capitalism in Kimberley, 1867–1895. London: Yale University Press
- e.g. Holub, Emil (1881). Seven Years in South Africa: Travels, Researches and Hunting Adventures, Between the Diamond-Fields and the Zambesi (1872–79)
- "Home | New Universities | DHET New Universities Project Management Team". New Universities. Retrieved 2013-05-26.
- "Kimberley Climate Normals 1961−1990". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
- "Climate data for Kimberley". South African Weather Service. Archived from the original on 4 March 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
- "Main Place Kimberley". Census 2011.
- "Main Place Galeshewe". Census 2011.
- "Main Place Roodepan". Census 2011.
- Wildenboer, N. 2013. Expert confirms Kamfers Dam birds' cause of death. Diamond Fields Advertiser 13 Dec 2013 p 11
- Address by the President of South Africa during the announcement of new Interim Councils and names of the New Universities
- Government Notice 1031 gazetted on 7 Dec 2012, as amended by Government Notice 1073, gazetted on 14 Dec 2012
- Northern Cape’s first university to open in 2014, Timeslive 21 Mar 2013
- New Universities Project Management Team: Academic Planning
- Dr Victor: biography Accessed 9 June 2013
- The Big Hole Kimberley - Diamonds and Destiny
- William Humphreys Art Gallery
- Tidy, Major D.P. "They Mounted up as Eagles (A brief tribute to the South African Air Force)" 5 (6). The South African Military History Society.[dead link]
- "The History of Aviation in South Africa". South African Power Flying Association. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
- Plaatje Statue unveiled, Diamond Fields Advertiser, 11 Jan 2010, p 6. (Reports in the Sunday Argus and Independent On Line [10 January 2010 at 12:42PM] incorrectly state that the unveiling of this statue took place in Cape Town)
- "Dutch Reformed Mother Church Newton". South African Heritage Resources Agency. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
- "First Seventh Day Adventist Church Blacking Street Kimberley". South African Heritage Resources Agency. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
- Brian Roberts. 1976. Kimberley, turbulent city, p 173
- Swimming in South Africa. Last accessed 2008-04-12
- Charl Bouwer swem SA se negende Paralimpiese medalja los: 2 Sep 2012
- cited by Roberts, Brian. 1976. Kimberley, turbulent city, p 159-160
- cited in L. Moult. 1987. KHStory, p 126
- Dan Jacobson, The Electronic Elephant: A Southern African Journey, London: Penguin, 1994, p 73
- Catherine Reichardt on A cracking day out in Kimberley.
- Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) Intersessional Meeting ends with review on processes and functions Accessed 7 June 2013.
- Kimberley Declaration Accessed on 7 June 2013
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kimberley (South Africa).|
- The Kimberley City Portal - An on-line directory for tourists, travellers and residents of Kimberley. Detailed listings of business, attractions, activities and events with photos, contact information and geo-locations.
- Kimberley, turbulent city by Brian Roberts (1976, published by David Phillip & Historical Society of Kimberley and the Northern Cape)
- "Diamond Mines of South Africa" by Gardner Williams (General manager De Beers), Chapter 15 (25 page history + images). | <urn:uuid:6d6965b9-e86b-47a7-9262-d93b4abd2b74> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley,_Northern_Cape | 2015-03-30T11:35:07Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299261.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00232-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934032 | 9,987 |
I have to quickly vent about a topic that Michael Salfino broached in last week's Breakfast Table column. First, let me say that when it comes to statistical analysis of our fantasy game, Salfino is a first-round draft pick. But he made the mistake of taking a shot at Marshawn Lynch last week, and as an unapologetic Seattle homer, I certainly wasn't going to take it lying down. Here's the Salfino quote I took issue with:
"… while Lynch is better than Shonn Greene, no doubt, he similarly runs straight into contact. Despite his reputation for being a tough runner, the numbers do not support it. He's average at best in yards after contact per rush. (Last year he was tied for 32nd, this year he's good, seventh, but the sample is small so I'm weighting 2011 much more, obviously)."
The problem I had is that I watch Lynch closely, week in and week out, and I simply can't fathom that he's anything less than a "tough" runner. So, are my eyes deceiving me? If not, then I have to conclude that YAC isn't really a good factor for determining "toughness." If it is, then according to ProFootballFocus, the "toughest" runner this season would be C.J. Spiller. And last year's "toughest" runners would be Fred Jackson and Darren Sproles, with Ryan Mathews clocking in No. 4. Obviously, those aren't classic tough guys. Elusive? Electric? Sure, I'm willing to concede that. But a bigger indictment of YAC other than it does not appear to be a good "toughness" evaluator, is that it really has no correlation to actual fantasy value.
Over the past two seasons, Arian Foster has led fantasy RBs in points per game yet hasn't finished inside the top 30 in YAC. Last season, he was tied for 32nd in YAC along with Lynch … and LeSean McCoy … and Ray Rice — that's four of the top five running backs in fantasy last season. In 2009, when Chris Johnson rushed for over 2,000 yards, obliterating the RB competition in fantasy, he finished ninth in YAC. If you look at the top 10 PPG fantasy scorers at the RB position over the last three years and the top 10 YAC running backs, there's simply no strong parallels that can be drawn — they are two disparate lists.
Now, if you want to look at Missed Tackles (defined by PFF as tackles either broken or avoided), you start to see some correlation. Last year's top five in that category were Michael Turner, Lynch, McCoy, MoJo and Forte. All five were among the top 12 point-per-game scorers at the RB position, and Adrian Peterson wasn't far behind this group, either. Looking back over recent seasons, I'd much rather populate my fantasy roster with the guys on the Missed Tackles list over the YAC leaders.
I'll conclude with two points here. 1.) YAC is wack. Disregard it as it relates to fantasy football, just as you would LineDrive% (where Mike Trout currently ranks No. 37 and Ryan Braun ranks No. 132) in fantasy baseball. They are mostly meaningless to the virtual game. And, by the way, Salfino is hardly alone in throwing out this stat when it seemed convenient to an argument being made. I've seen many others use it, as well. And, to be honest, I'm sure I've used it to praise or disparage a player on occasion. But, upon further review, that's a mistake I no longer plan to make. And, finally, 2.) Marshawn Lynch, currently No. 1 in missed tackles this season (five ahead of No. 2 Alfred Morris), is ridiculously tough. You might even say he's a "Beast" …
Alright, now I'm ready to talk about Week 5. Let's do it:
Total Week 5 green-light plays by position: 10 QB; 13 RB; 20 WR; 10 TE; 10 DST
Note: Numbers in parentheses next to a player's name indicate where he ranks at his position in per game fantasy scoring
Most FPPG allowed (QB): CLE; WAS; NE; NO; BUF
Least FPPG allowed (QB): SEA; DAL; HOU; PHI; DET
• Cam Newton has had a tough year on the reality side of the gridiron, but those sweet rushing totals still have him among the QB elite in fantasy (17 rush TDs in 20 career games, including a TD in three straight). Seattle is the toughest defense in fantasy against opposing QBs, but Cam's legs should keep him in the top 10 money at the position.
• Even if you have another strong QB in tow, I'm not sure how anyone can consider sitting Robert Griffin III at this point. His rushing numbers are easily the best at the QB position and, when he gets in that 10-yard range of the end zone, his ability to launch himself like a rocket towards pay dirt is unbelievable. It's almost unfair to attach that kind of running skill to someone that also possesses elite ability in the passing game — he currently sits at No. 4 in QB Rating (103.2). If you have Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees, the two QBs I ranked ahead of RGIII this week, you have a few days still to swing a deal.
• Hat tip to Jay Cutler, who looked better than expected on Monday night at Dallas. But Jacksonville has been decent against the pass this season, while struggling in run defense (4th-most FPPG to RBs). I expect Chicago to feast on Blaine Gabbert and co. and turn to a conservative ground approach on offense while playing with the lead. And for that reason, I'm flying Cutler under the caution flag this week.
• Christian Ponder faces a Tennessee defense that has allowed a league-high 118.3 QB Rating. It's a nice matchup on paper, but the Vikings have kept Ponder on a fairly short leash, as he ranks just 25th in pass attempts per game. Like Cutler, there's concern here that the Vikings can win this game with a heavy dose of Adrian Peterson and defense — Matt Hasselbeck threw two Pick-6's, lost a fumble and was sacked three times in relief of Jake Locker last week. Jerome Simpson does give Ponder a deep element that was missing with this attack but, he may not need to lean on that much this week. I like Ponder, but don't overrate the matchup too much.
• Andrew Luck has attempted 45-plus passes in two of his first three games, both losing efforts. Expect him to be a high-volume passer this week, too, against Green Bay, given the likelihood that the Colts will be chasing the scoreboard yet again. He's No. 14 on my board at the position, but I can see easy top 10 upside.
• A couple more stats to chew on: St. Louis has allowed the lowest QB Rating in the league (64.2); the NY Giants allow the highest yards per pass attempt (9.0); San Francisco and Houston have allowed the fewest YPA (6.0); Cincinnati has a league-high 17 QB sacks; Jacksonville has the fewest QB sacks (2); Chicago has a league-high 11 INTs; Washington has allowed a league-high 6 receptions of 40-plus yards; Atlanta, Chicago, Houston and Dallas are the only teams that have yet to allow a 40-yard pass play.
Most FPPG allowed (RB): NO; CAR; TEN; JAX; NYJ
Least FPPG allowed (RB): SF; MIN; CHI; SEA; DET
• Only Arian Foster and Marshawn Lynch have more carries than Alfred Morris, who has registered between 78 and 113 rushing yards in all four games. We know that a Mike Shanahan ground attack can be potent when things are clicking, and giving the opposition a nightmare to think about like RGIII only helps the click rate. There's nothing extra special about Morris. But he's yet to fumble, he doesn't go down easily (2nd in missed/broken tackles behind Lynch) and his style fits Shanahan's one-cut-and-go system. He's quickly become one of the safest RB plays on the board and this week he opposes an Atlanta defense that has allowed the 2nd-highest yards per carry rate in the league (5.2).
• The only team that has allowed more YPC than Atlanta is Cincinnati (5.4). Reggie Bush faces the Bengals this week and he was able to post a respectable 3.9 YPC in Week 4 against an Arizona defense allowing just 3.6 YPC for the season, and he did it despite dealing with a sore knee all week. Look for the versatile Bush to get back into the RB top 10 this week against a Cincy defense that not only gives up big chunks of yardage on the ground but also has allowed the second-most receiving yards to RBs.
• I'm not sure what you do with Buffalo RBs Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller this week. Playing together for the first time since Week 1, neither player did much of fantasy note against New England in Week 4. And now they face the toughest run defense in fantasy in the San Francisco 49ers. Both players claim to be in good health after dealing with injuries the past few weeks but, unless head coach Chan Gailey comes out and specifically says that one back is going to have a much larger role than the other, I think you have to exercise extreme caution with both players this week.
• The expectation this week is that Ryan Mathews, after being sent a ball security message last week via a diminished role, will be back in a more featured capacity against New Orleans. His owners certainly hope that's the case as no team has allowed more fantasy production to RBs than the Saints. But even if Mathews returns as the clear leader in backfield touches for the Chargers this week, Jackie Battle has earned a prominent role, likely to stick as that key short yardage, goal line guy that profited Mike Tolbert so much in recent seasons. And Battle showed some versatility with 4 catches for 42 yards last week. God help Mathews and his owners if he fumbles this week in a key situation.
• I'd be leery about "Law Firm" representation this week. BenJarvus Green-Ellis, averaging just 3.5 YPC, has the unenviable task of facing Miami this week. The Dolphins have allowed the lowest YPC in the league (2.4), and it's not even close — the 2nd-lowest YPC is Seattle at 3.0. And let's keep in mind that Miami counts Arian Foster and Darren McFadden among those it has faced this season.
• My hunch play of the week is Donald Brown. He has done very little so far this season, but he does have 22 carries for 99 yards and one catch for 39 yards on touches when the Colts have played from behind. With Andrew Luck likely to air it out often to try to keep pace with Green Bay, I think that should open up plenty of room for Brown, be it on draw plays, screens, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if he found his way to 100-plus yards for the second consecutive game.
• I'm sure not many Chris Johnson owners started him at Houston last week. That looked like a brutal matchup for someone that was lapping the early competition for fantasy Bust of the Year. So what to do now that CJ broke loose for 141 against a good Texans run defense? Well, it's worth noting that Johnson did pick up nine carries and 63 rushing yards in the fourth quarter with the Titans down 28-7, not exactly a situation where the Texans really cared about giving up 7.0 YPC on the ground. But, that said, Johnson still managed a healthy 4.9 YPC (16 for 78) in his first three quarters of work, so he certainly deserves plenty of credit for his outing. This week's opponent, Minnesota, has allowed just 3.3 YPC and the 2nd-fewest fantasy points per game to RBs. No RB has hit the double digit mark in fantasy points against the Vikes, including Maurice Jones-Drew, Frank Gore, Mikel Leshoure and Donald Brown. Like Brown, I think Johnson has 100 YFS upside, but that's his ceiling. He's no better than borderline top 20 RB play, in my book.
Most FPPG allowed (WR): WAS; CLE; TB; NO; BUF
Least FPPG allowed (WR): HOU; DAL; STL; SF; ATL
• Ryan Tannehill and Brian Hartline obviously have a thing going on the past few weeks, twice hooking up for at least nine receptions, including a nation-wide 12 receptions and 253 yards last week against Arizona. Hartline has been the definition of pedestrian in his three prior seasons in Miami, but you have to now consider that that might have had more to do with system and quarterback play than Hartline. Tannehill obviously has a lack of experience, but he's more athletic and throws a better ball than anyone else Hartline has been saddled with in Miami. And new head coach Joe Philbin, former Packers offensive coordinator, has let Tannehill throw 143 passes in his first four games in the NFL, which is just four less than Matt Ryan. Against a Cincy defense that has allowed the 6th-highest QB Rating, don't be surprised if Hartline, Philbin's poor man's Jordy Nelson, delivers another solid fantasy line, which would really only have to be about one-third the production he had against the Cards in Week 4.
• James Jones is a fantastic dice roll this week if Greg Jennings (groin) sits, as he's indicated he might. Maligned for concentration lapses in the past, Jones has maintained his focus this season, catching 73 percent of the passes thrown his way, 8th-best among WRs that have played at least 60 percent of their team's snaps. Jones' role would be enhanced with Jennings out and, no matter how you slice it, Indy has been a bad pass defense this season.
• Over the past three weeks, rookie Kendall Wright has been targeted 27 times, ranking 17th among all receivers. His production in that span (111 yards and 2 TDs) is only good for a No. 38 placement in fantasy points at the position, but you have to like Wright's opportunities. And, with Kenny Britt (ankle) still no sure thing to play in Week 5, Wright could continue to be heavily targeted at Minnesota on Sunday. In PPR leagues, bump Wright up into WR3 territory if Britt doesn't play, as Minnesota has allowed the 8th-most receptions to WRs.
• As mentioned in the QB section above, the Giants have allowed a league-high 9.0 YPA. Admittedly, Cleveland is not the best team to take advantage of that situation but it at least makes Greg Little, who had 10 targets, four catches and 77 yards in Week 4 at Baltimore, a bit more interesting. Consider him a reasonable flex option this week.
• I have Jeremy Maclin as a low-end chartreuse option this week, but that might be a little too generous. Returning from a sore hip with a 1-catch, 7-yard effort against the Giants in Week 4 (he was on the field for nearly all of Philly's offensive snaps), and set to face a Pittsburgh defense in Week 5 that's expected to have Troy Polamalu and James Harrison back, I'm not sure I'd be that comfortable slotting him in an active roster spot this week.
• Yes, if Hakeem Nicks (foot) sits again on Sunday, backups Domenik Hixon and Ramses Barden need to be bumped up. But the biggest winner will continue to be Victor Cruz, who is tied with Dwayne Bowe among receivers in total targets (49). Against Cleveland's 2nd-most generous fantasy pass defense, Cruz could very well pace the position in fantasy points in Week 5.
• Pierre Garcon (foot) has played just 60 snaps this season, but has 129 receiving yards and two TDs, one coming via a recovery of an RGIII fumble in the end zone last week. By comparison, Dez Bryant has played four times as much as Garcon (245 snaps), and in leagues where Garcon is credited for a fumble recovery TD, he's scored just two fewer total fantasy points than Bryant. As a heavily invested Garcon owner, I am champing at the bit for Garcon's full-duty return. In the short time that he's had with RGIII, the pair has looked dynamic together. Even against a tough Atlanta opponent, I'll have Garcon as a WR2 if he gets good health reports this week
Most FPPG allowed (TE): TEN; NE; DET; WAS; OAK
Least FPPG allowed (TE): NO; IND; PHI; CLE; SEA
• According to FantasyPros, the leading aggregator of weekly industry expert rankings, Fred Davis is only the consensus No. 12 TE in early Week 5 rankings. Sure, he hasn't scored a TD yet, but how can you not like the 80-yard average over his past two weeks? And he's facing an Atlanta defense in Week 5 that was just burned by Carolina TE Greg Olsen for 6 catches, 89 yards and a TD last week. I like Davis comfortably inside the top 10 among TEs.
• Tennessee has allowed twice as many fantasy points per game to the tight end position than 22 teams in the league. They allow more than a TD (6.3 FPPG) more fantasy points per game than any other team in the league. The best week for the Titans this season is when they held Brandon Pettigrew to 61 yards on 8 catches in Week 3. If you were looking for validation of Kyle Rudolph as a top TE play this week, here it is.
• Antonio Gates had his moments in the first half against KC last week, but he ultimately finished with less than 6 fantasy points for the third time in as many games this season. For the most part, Gates has looked a bit slower, both in foot speed and reaction time, this season, and ProFootballFocus currently ranks his body of work as a receiver this season as just the 37th-best at the TE position — in the past three seasons, he's finished no worse than 5th. This week he'll face the toughest fantasy defense vs. TEs, on paper, in the Saints. New Orleans hasn't allowed a TE score and has limited Fred Davis, Jermichael Finley and Greg Olsen to less than 6 fantasy points each. I have generously listed Gates at No. 6 this week, but I get it if you prefer any, or all, of the next half-dozen TEs on my list over Gates.
• It's worth a reminder since he's coming off bye, that Heath Miller rates as the No. 1 TE in FPPG. Despite already observing his bye, Miller is tied with Julio Jones and Martellus Bennett with an NFL-high 8 red zone targets. Ben Roethlisberger stated before the season that his goal was to get Miller to the Pro Bowl. So far, so good. His Week 5 opponent, Philly, has netted out well against TEs, thus far, but it played two TE non-factor squads in Cleveland and Arizona. In other words, don't shy away from Miller if you need him.
Most FPPG allowed (DST): DET; KC; PHI; DAL; TEN
Least FPPG allowed (DST): HOU; OAK; NE; WAS; ATL
WEEK 5 GAME PREDICTIONS
- American Football
- Sports & Recreation
- Marshawn Lynch
- Marshawn Lynch
- Ryan Mathews
- Christian Ponder | <urn:uuid:a26699fe-5684-4ebd-98d4-8e7c97831bdd> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/fantasy-roto-arcade/nfl-skinny-week-5-preview-010154232--fantasy.html | 2015-03-30T11:19:09Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299261.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00232-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975914 | 4,181 |
Press Release: Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation announces 2013 ‘A’ Award Recipients, provides grants to young scientists to jump-start careers in pediatric oncology research
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Philadelphia, PA (January 6, 2014) – Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a nonprofit dedicated to finding cures for all kids with cancer, has just announced the awarding of five ‘A’ Awards to promising young researchers across the country, totaling $1.875 million in new grants. The grants, which will extend to researchers at Georgia Health Sciences University Institute (Augusta, GA), Huntsman Cancer Institute (Salt Lake City, UT), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY), University of Maryland (College Park, MD) & Washington University (St. Louis, MO), are designed for young scientists who want to establish their career in pediatric oncology. Recipients will each receive $375,000 over the course of three years.
The ‘A’ Award joined a prestigious line of medical and nursing grants from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation in 2009 to encourage the best and brightest young researchers to build lifelong careers in the field. Operating under the belief that engaging researchers early in their career leads to long term commitments to find a cure, ALSF works to find and support exceptional early-career researchers.
The 2013 ‘A’ Award recipients are: Theodore Johnson, MD/PhD of Georgia Health Sciences University Research Institute for his research into brain tumors; Kevin Jones, MD of the Huntsman Cancer Institute for alveolar soft part sarcoma research; Alex Kentsis, MD/PhD of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for leukemia/acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) research; Christopher Jewell, PhD of the University of Maryland – College Park for his examination of neuroblastoma; and Jeffrey Bednarski, MD/PhD of Washington University for his study of leukemia/lymphoma. Full lay summaries of the young scientists’ research are included on the following page.
Along with the funds provided to ‘A’ Award recipients ($125,000 per year for 3 years), the award will also include the opportunity to speak and attend Foundation events, reference books to enhance the researcher’s personal pediatric oncology library, equipment to aid in their research (up to $10,000 value) and funding to attend one educational course or event.
“Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation has always had a mission of supporting the very best research available, contributing to our ultimate goal of finding a cure for all kids with cancer,” said Jay Scott, Co-Executive Director of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. “The ‘A’ Awards play an integral role in doing just that, bringing the fresh perspectives of young scientists to the forefront of the field, and keeping them there.”
For more information on the ‘A’ Award, or Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation’s various grant categories and successes, visit: www.ALSFgrants.org.
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation 2013 ‘A’ Award Grant Recipients
Theodore Johnson, MD/PhD, Georgia Health Sciences University, Augusta, GA
IDO-based Immunotherapy for Pediatric Brain Tumors
This proposal will address a fundamental gap in understanding the specialized immune biology of the brain tumor micro environment. The applicant is a pediatric oncologist with PhD training in basic molecular immunology who studies the indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) pathway of immune tolerance. IDO is often co-opted by tumors to escape immune attack. Immunologic therapy of cancer is now a cutting-edge new form of cancer treatment for adults, but has not yet brought benefit to children with cancer. The long-term goal is for the applicant to establish a pediatric immunotherapy program to translate pediatric-focused laboratory research into Phase I and Phase II immunotherapy trials in children. The objective of the current proposal is to elucidate the mechanisms by which blocking IDO synergizes with standard chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The proposed research plan builds on the applicant's preliminary data that intense inflammation plays a key role in tumor destruction when IDO-blockade is combined with chemo-radiation therapy in a mouse brain tumor model. The central hypothesis is that IDO is a previously unrecognized vascular quiescence factor in tumor biology and that blocking IDO during chemo-radiation therapy leads to rapid immune-mediated vasculitis and tumor destruction; this widespread innate inflammation then serves as a potent stimulant to drive specific and lasting anti-tumor immunity. The rationale for this research is that understanding the mechanisms by which IDO shields tumors from the underlying immune-activating effects of our standard chemo/radiation therapies will allow us to develop new strategies to combine these standard treatments with immunologic therapy.
Kevin Jones, MD, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT
Targeting Metabolism in Alveolar Soft Part Sarcomagenesis
Every cell generates and consumes energy to perform its functions. This is termed metabolism. One intermediate step in sugar metabolism is a molecule called lactate. Traditionally, lactate was considered only a by-product of metabolism in tissues with low oxygen levels. This view was overturned when scientists learned that some cells with normal oxygen levels intentionally produce lactate and others consume it as a preferred fuel. Cancer cell metabolism is a growing field of study. The traditional view of cancer cell metabolism emphasized the inefficient consumption of sugar and the production of excess lactate. This view is now challenged by data showing that some cancer cells instead use lactate as a fuel. Further, we now know that lactate also functions as a signal, driving vessel in growth into tumors. What is needed is a model system in which we can test lactate metabolism in a living tumor. Alveolar soft part sarcoma is a deadly cancer that typically arises in the limbs of adolescents or young adults. It is deadly because it spreads to distant sites of the body and is then resistant to all available treatments. The young victims of this disease need better treatment options. Alveolar soft part sarcoma demonstrates signs of dependence on lactate metabolism. With a new model of this disease, we hope to investigate its metabolism as a means of finding novel treatment approaches. If our hypothesis is correct, an entire new avenue of treatment options opens not only for this particular tumor, but for cancer more generally.
Alex Kentsis, MD/PhD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Rational Combination Therapy of AML
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the blood that affects about 500 children every year in the United States. Current treatment of AML with chemotherapy is toxic, and new therapies are direly needed for children whose disease is resistant to intensive chemotherapy. Our research into molecular signaling pathways that drive leukemia cell survival has revealed a new set of therapeutic targets. The support of Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation will enable us to determine the precise molecular mechanisms responsible for signaling that sustains AML cell growth. We will then use this knowledge to rationally devise combination treatments to block AML signaling and effect cure.
Christopher Jewell, PhD, University of Maryland – College Park, College Park, MD
Engineering the Lymph Node Environment with Therapeutic Vaccine Depots to Combat Neuroblastoma
Neuroblastoma is one of the most common cancers in young children, and current treatments for moderate and high risks patients are often ineffective. When tumors are cleared, drug therapy often leaves patients with lasting side effects or relapse occurs. However, therapeutic vaccines have recently demonstrated potential for combating neuroblastoma or other cancers. To effectively combat tumors, therapeutic vaccines must generate potent tumor-specific immune responses that are functional in the immunosuppressive tumor environment, and that are able to resist tumor regrowth during relapse. An increasingly important challenge for the vaccine field is design of vaccines that generate immune responses with characteristics optimized to combat target diseases such as neuroblastoma. In contrast to broadly-acting drugs or chemotherapy, these designer vaccines could offer highly-specific, immune-based treatments. Establishing strong immunological memory cells specific for tumors has recently been described as a potential route to improve cancer vaccines. These cells exhibit high anti-tumor activity and can combat relapse that occurs after initial tumors are cleared. Unfortunately generating these cells is challenging. In this proposal we will combine direct lymph node delivery with engineered biomaterial vaccines loaded with signals to induce these immune memory cells. Lymph nodes are the tissues that coordinate immune response and controlled delivery of cancer vaccine components in lymph nodes could contribute to new cancer vaccines that efficiently generate large populations of tumor-specific memory cells that control and cure pediatric cancers such as neuroblastoma.
Jeffrey Bednarski, MD/PhD, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
DNA Damage Responses Coordinate Survival and Cell Death Switching In Lymphocytes
During their development, immune cells must intentionally generate and repair breaks in their DNA in order to assemble the genes necessary for a diverse immune response. Multiple signals in early immune cells cooperate to ensure that these DNA breaks are properly repaired. Errors in these processes can derail normal development and trigger transformation into leukemia. Our research studies how immune cells respond to the DNA breaks in order to support correct repair and minimize the chances of deleterious events that could generate malignancies. Recent work has demonstrated that the DNA breaks themselves activate distinct pathways to first support cell survival and then subsequently trigger cell death mechanisms. This temporal sequence of survival and cell death allows time for DNA break repair but triggers elimination of cells with persistent DNA damage, which are at risk for errors that could initiate leukemia formation. How cells coordinate this balanced signaling is unknown. Interestingly, though, these signals are unique to physiologic DNA breaks, those encountered in normal development, as DNA damage from radiation or chemotherapy agents activate alternative pathways that trigger cell death rather than survival. The goal of this project is to understand how survival and cell death signaling is controlled in response to DNA breaks. Ultimately, these studies will identify new mechanisms in immune cells that ensure normal maturation and inhibit cancerous transformation. Understanding these processes will provide insights into the development and treatment of leukemia and lymphoma.
About Childhood Cancer
Childhood cancer is a general term used to describe cancer in children occurring regularly, randomly and sparing no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region. Childhood cancer extends to over a dozen types of cancers and a countless amount of subtypes. Just a few of these cancer types include: Ewing’s sarcoma, glioma, leukemia, lymphoma, medulloblastoma, neuroblastoma, osteosarcoma, retinoblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma and Wilm’s tumor. In the United States, childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 15. Every day, approximately 250 kids around the world die from cancer, accounting for 91,250 losing their lives to the disease every year.
About Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation
Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of cancer patient Alexandra “Alex” Scott (1996-2004). In 2000, 4-year-old Alex announced that she wanted to hold a lemonade stand to raise money to help find a cure for all children with cancer. Since Alex held that first stand, the Foundation bearing her name has evolved into a national fundraising movement, complete with thousands of supporters across the country carrying on her legacy of hope. To date, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a registered 501(c)3 charity, has raised more than $65 million toward fulfilling Alex’s dream of finding a cure, funding over 375 pediatric cancer research projects nationally. For more information on Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, visit AlexsLemonade.org. | <urn:uuid:2e9549cf-5de4-4f05-a7b9-32a79ee59da4> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.alexslemonade.org/newsroom/news/press-release-alex%E2%80%99s-lemonade-stand-foundation-announces-2013-%E2%80%98a%E2%80%99-award-recipients | 2015-03-30T10:36:18Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299261.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00232-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925507 | 2,509 |
The lady downstairs hears moaning. Why she’s not embarrassed to tell anyone this is anyone’s guess. She hears thumps. She hears clacking like scattering jacks on a parquet floor. Or rapping on the door with one knuckle. She writes letters to the apartment’s management company. They came and inspected the floors. Two men, while we were drinking coffee, looked at our furniture, at the little tab of carpet someone tucked beneath the short leg of one of the chairs to mute it. No telling what seismic event registers below, from a shifting of weight before a pork roast or plate of spaghetti above. They look around and make sure there are no how-to videos on clogging, no evidence of any dark rites of flamenco.
The only thing she’s listening to is me reading. The only clattering around here comes from the keyboard.
This makes me wonder what she’s doing down there. What realm of monastic silence is she sequestered in? She must not crack a window to let in the incessant blasts of the trolley horns. The throb of the rooftop dance party at the Hard Rock Hotel across the street doesn't penetrate her walls, I guess. This woman must not watch any program more torrid than San Diego City Beat. Her pulse must be thready.
I’ve thought on many occasions of inviting her up. Our landlady told us the previous tenant moved on account of this woman. And he was a manager at a fancy restaurant, accustomed to needy clientele. Of course I think our downstairs neighbor’s old, though I don’t know why I should. Like you, I bet she wears her eyeglass on a leash. She would say she was staunchly against rock music and gender-bending haircuts if a man-on-the-street-type reporter happened by. Then I want to think she’s one of those women whose hair color is unidentifiable, between blond and gray, who favors cardigans, and who answers the preachers on the television as if directly addressed. The kind of woman you imagine drowning children in the bathtub with a tight-lipped smile-- Tidy. Then, I imagine someone whose apartment is about to be seized, or a mother fresh from hosting her first child for only a few weeks, (SIDS, her OB tells her, as if the acronym imparted something more specific than “died.”) And this phantom noise, from somewhere, is a fresh invasion--impatient fingers worming into dry holes in the body, a livid pink fissure admitting germs into a scab.
If only that sound would stop. What on earth could they be doing up there? Do they have to do it now? Have they no thought for anyone but themselves? If I saw them, I’d strike them in the head, maybe. I'll kill them. That’s what this person’s telling themselves. Barely hanging on, comes to mind, and I'm inclined to think more charitably.
I want to invite a crack team with seismographs, and shotgun microphones, and devices a jillion times more sensitive than the ear drum’s tympani. The kind of scientists who hunt ghosts on television, with doctoral degrees which remind me of conferring the rank of police chief on my friend with the plastic gladiator sword in the woods behind my house growing up, or of Huck Finn’s dauphin. The kind you want desperately to be studying something rather than just listening to the dark. They’d be green in the night-vision camera, their pupils white as mothballs, their mouths agape. They’d hear the ten-finger typing I’m unreasonably proud of, my honest-to-god laughs at Michael Chabon’s indulgent jokes. That’s it. The refrigerator may hum again when all along I’d forgotten it was silent. There are times when I run the dishwasher.
Then we’d have something to show the woman: scientific proof; quantifiable data even. Then we could get somewhere. Because how can I argue with what this woman hears? How can I prove all the noise I’m not making?
Our landlady’s going to stand trial for our sound crimes, for disturbing the peace in our home. I think there will be testimony. We don’t know whether to offer ourselves as witnesses for the defense. I’ve already thought of what I would say, and it sounds lame, guilty. Worse, it’s more shameful than kicking up a racket:
“I’m a writer.”
“I barely watch television.”
“As to the moaning,” I’d say. “That’s none of your damned business.”
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Observations from a Chuck Palahniuk reading, from the Rant tour 2007:
I feel lousy for Chuck Palahniuk. Everything else aside, he just wants us to have a nice time. Fun. For this to be the opposite of every other boring reading where the author is nervous, where his voice carries the inflection of a thousand readings, like some high school kid in a play who has practiced his lines in front of the bathroom mirror for weeks. Chuck hands out plastic hamburger dog toys. At the end, he scatters rubber dismembered limbs into the slavering crowd, who is hungry, really-and-no-fooling hungry, for actual flesh.
I feel sorry for him because he’s straining at his soft-shoe to keep us entertained. These people that love him? Well, they also sort of hate him. These strangers, they know Chuck and they want to be his friend. And so do I. But I try and remember the difference. And these strangers, they’re half-right. We do know Chuck a little. In all the tales of the real molestation of fake rubber child dolls, homicidal chefs and sexual misadventure by pool filter, some of Chuck comes through. And he’s nice. He’s sad and he’s funny and he loves people in all their varied and grandiose humiliation. So it’s hard not to think each of us can make a connection with him in a two-minute meeting at a book-signing. But we can’t. He can’t know all of us. That’s assuming that Mr. Palahniuk would even care to know any of us. He doesn’t have the same relationship with us we have with him. This viewing glass is one-way. But he tries to like us all in our clamoring ungratefulness. He has trivia contests and takes questions. For a while, the social contract holds. People who shout out answers are rewarded properly and the losers cede to the winners. But then the crowd gets impatient, greedy:
Why won’t he call on me? I want to ask the most incisive question, so he knows I get him and what he’s doing.
Why won’t he love us more effectively?
Sometimes, Chuck, we swear we don’t know where this relationship is going.
The truth is, Chuck probably wishes he were anywhere else. The truth is, Chuck is finding it harder and harder to keep smiling. The truth is, we are more than a little bit the kind of people Chuck writes about, only we think we aren’t. Sure, it's all right for us to be the brave outcasts, the dissident about which he writes, but never the stupid, the mean, those dumb bastards given to the thoughtless, obsessive repetition of behavior.
Not us, Chuck. We get it.
So, as you probably guess, the crowd begins to devour Chuck. We get away from him. The thing he started, well, it kinda turns on him. And people are shouting and hooting while he talks and reads. This guy that we love so much and who we made a bunch of mundane sacrifices to see and hear, like driving up from Rhode Island, like finding someone to substitute-barista for us, like standing in line for two and a half hours with nothing to do but lean against a brick wall, this is the guy we shout down. This is the guy we can’t wait to top with our quips. This soft-spoken man who writes about violence, this paragon of maleness who is perhaps homosexual, this man who writes about the worst in us so we can see the best, all of a sudden, we are wiser than he. After a while, now that we’re comfortable, this man we adore, he’s not so grand.
What, does he think he’s better than us?
The Nielsen rating system sent me a survey in the mail once. As incentive, they included a crisp, waxy green dollar bill that had never seen a fold. I took the dollar out and ran my index and middle finger down the slit in the envelope. “Oh,” I said. “Only one dollar?” My sister’s boyfriend snorted and doubled over to keep down the beer he had been swallowing. “That,” he said when he regained his composure, “That right there is human nature.” | <urn:uuid:132f5097-adee-4bbd-9ab2-862ecd0d2a69> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.killcrazyrampage.blogspot.com/ | 2015-03-30T10:35:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299261.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00232-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95669 | 1,998 |
Entertainers: Book a gig at fair, get free tickets
I started thinking about my younger years this past week ... I sound so old when I say that, don’t I?
Every year, I looked forward to going to the Franklin County Fair. I’d meet my friends there, and we’d spend the night stuffing ourselves with fried dough and riding all of the more exciting rides.
I was going to take grandson Justin last year, but he was still a little too young to really enjoy it, so I will take him this year and we’ll do it up right.
By this time, I imagine you are wondering why I’m talking about the fair, especially since it’s still almost six months away.
Well, Steven DeJoy, chairman of the Franklin County Fair Attractions Committee, said the committee is looking for musicians, bands, singers, dance groups, magicians, jugglers, and other types of performance artists who would like to perform at this year’s fair in exchange for admission tickets. I wanted to give you plenty of time to contact Steve.
He said he would love to be able to pay performers, but there “just isn’t enough money to go around.”
But think about the exposure you will get by performing in front of the thousands who attend our local fair each year. Not to mention the wonderful feeling it will give you to perform for your neighbors and those who have traveled from outside Franklin County to see quality acts.
“I love to see the smiles on children’s and adults’ faces while they watch performers,” Steve says.
He told me he has about 25 slots that need to be filled over three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). He said performances typically start around 11 a.m. and finish as late as 10 p.m. Each act lasts between a half-hour and an hour, depending on each of their needs.
Steve also wanted me to remind you that his committee, as well as the Agricultural Society, is always looking for volunteers to help before, during and after the fair.
If you are interested, please call him at 413-225-3030 or email him at: [email protected].
By the way, you are probably looking out your window at snow, and maybe sleet, right now. Not to worry! Temperatures are supposed to warm up soon, and this stuff, which we think is so beautiful at the beginning of the winter, will be gone in no time.
Have a great week, and happy spring on Wednesday.
THE GREENFIELD GARDEN CLUB is hosting Tom Sullivan on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Masonic building at 339 Main St. Tom will cover the key elements of native bee habitat design and attendees will learn the basic tools for increasing pollinator resources in their gardens and neighborhoods. The event is free and open to the public.
The LGBTIQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, questioning and allies) will welcome spring at Great Falls Discovery Center on Thursday with its breakfast social for elders and allies from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The breakfast will be catered by 2nd Street Baking Co. There will be gluten-free items included. RSVPs would be welcome, but are not required. Sponsors are Baystate Franklin Medical Center and Elite Home Health Agency Inc.
For more information or to respond, contact Anna Viadero at 413-522-2231 or: [email protected]. Also visit: www.greatfallsma.org.
THE SHELBURNE GRANGE, along with the Farm Bureau, Northeast Big Bucks Club, the National Wild Turkey Federation, and Virtual Archery, will present an “Outdoor Night” on Friday at 7 p.m. in Fellowship Hall, Little Mohawk Road in Shelburne Center.
“The Cougar Returns to the East,” a presentation by natural history and tracking expert Susan Morse, is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
Susan is the founder of Keeping Track, a nonprofit devoted to providing technical training to professional biologists, citizen scientist volunteers, land trust officials, and conservation planners.
COMEDIAN, AUTHOR AND SONGWRITER DON WHITE will perform his own brand of thoughtful humor and song on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Temple Israel, 27 Pierce St. in Greenfield to benefit temple programs. A working-class family man from Lynn, Don has performed at the temple each year for the past 13 years. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased in advance at World Eye Bookshop. They may also be purchased at the door the night of the concert. Doors, on Myrtle Street, will open at 7:30 p.m. Refreshments will be sold. For more information, call Marsha at 413-773-0201 or 617-538-7478.
DICKINSON MEMORIAL LIBRARY IN NORTHFIELD is displaying the watercolors of Deborah Putnam now through the end of April.
Deborah told me that her one-woman art show, “A Sampling,” features local landscapes and flowers. She said the space where her paintings hang was donated by Doug and Marty Jones.
The library, which is at 115 Main St. in Northfield, is open Tuesday 1 to 8 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday 1 to 6 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
TRINITY CHURCH IN SHELBURNE FALLS will hold its annual Easter Bake Sale on March 30 from 9 a.m. to noon in front of Keystone Market on Bridge Street. The Women of Trinity Church are sponsoring the sale. Proceeds will benefit Trinity Church and its community outreach projects.
“Let us help you do your Easter baking,” say organizers.
OUR NEIGHBORS LAURIE AND CHERYL GRIFFIN have joined others in a quest to raise money for children with cancer.
Laurie and Cheryl will be raising money for the “Kids’ Cancer Buzz-Off” this year. The money they, and everyone else, raises will go to kids’ cancer programs at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Laurie and Cheryl will travel to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro on June 9 to have their heads shaved, but before that can happen, they must each raise $300 to be a part of the event. That’s where all of you come in.
Laurie and Cheryl are asking for your help by donating, in their names, to the cause.
Laurie, who worked for Greenfield Farmers Cooperative Exchange for many years, said businesses and individuals may donate. The exchange was Laurie’s first sponsor.
“Cheryl, who is disabled, saw the event advertised on television and said, ‘Let’s do it,’” Laurie told me. “We want to make a difference.”
For more information, call the sisters, who live in Greenfield, at 617-901-8864.
If you would like to donate, you can send a check to: One Mission, P.O. Box 600157, Newtonville, MA 02460. Please put one of the sister’s names on the “memo” line of the check.
You can also donate online at: www.buzzforkids.org. Don’t forget to make your donation in care of Laurie or Cheryl Griffin’s team.
RELAY FOR LIFE TEAM III , “You’ll Never Walk Alone:” the Dwight family and friends, will hold a corn fritter and pancake breakfast Sunday from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at the United Church of Bernardston to benefit Relay for Life. Pancakes, corn fritters, sausage, juice, coffee, tea and milk will be served at the church at 58 Church Street in Bernardston.
The cost is $7 for adults, $3 for children ages 4 to 13, and children under 3 are free. Tickets may be purchased at the door.
There will also be a bake sale and 50-50 raffle drawing.
For more information, contact Jean Dwight at 413-773-8278 or email her at: [email protected].
THE POLISH AMERICAN CITIZENS CLUB in South Deerfield will be honoring Deerfield veterans by hanging plaques along the walls of the club.
John Cycz said male and female veterans will have a spot on the wall; they just need to be members (in good standing) of the club and have served in the military.
John, who is a trustee of the club, told me he never served in the military, but his father and his two sons are veterans. John has been actively involved with veterans’ issues for many years — he has served on the Memorial Day Committee in Deerfield and was involved in the town’s Veterans Street Sign Project.
“I have a great interest in the military and believe it is very important to honor our vets,” he said.
For more information, call the Polish American Citizens Club at 413-665-8735.
To contact Anita Fritz, a staff reporter at The Recorder, send an email to: [email protected] or call 413-772-0261, ext. 280 or call her cell at 413-388-6950. You can also reach Anita on Facebook at Anita’s Neighbors. Information to be included in Neighbors may also be sent to: [email protected] up to noon on the day before you want it to run. | <urn:uuid:b8070aac-f0dd-42f5-a92b-89cb02dd1c0f> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.recorder.com/opinion/letters/5144447-95/laurie-club-fair-neighbors | 2015-03-30T10:55:58Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299261.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00232-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954454 | 2,074 |
Be flattered if you catch the general manager of BLT Steak in downtown Washington flashing a quick, sideways peace sign as he seats your party. Adam Sanders isn’t revealing his politics; he’s simply making a “V” — and alerting his staff to the presence of a VIP.
Guests at CityZen in the Mandarin Oriental hotel who have enjoyed drinks in the lounge won’t be asked whether they want cocktails again in the dining room if the restaurant director gently touches the side of the gas candle on their table. The coded gesture by Michael Chesser signals his team not to repeat the question.
Celebrants at the Inn at Little Washington are no doubt thrilled to be personally congratulated by Patrick O’Connell in his stage set of a kitchen after dinner. The star of the show knows it’s my anniversary or birthday! More likely, the chef has been tipped off by his underlings. As one of the inn’s tour guides ushers patrons into the gleaming kitchen — a treat extended to every diner — he motions toward his ring finger to announce a guest’s anniversary or points to his belly button to indicate a birthday.
“There’s nothing more terrible than greeting the wrong guest with the wrong occasion,” O’Connell says. Hence the well-rehearsed silent drill at his four-star dining destination in Washington, Va., in which guests staying at the inn are made known to the chef by a staff member arranging his fingers to form a peaked “roof,” and patrons with no known special occasion are tagged when servers cross their hands together.
Writing orders on paper and tracking customers’ preferences on a computer are well-known ways for restaurants to deliver smooth service. Some establishments go a step further and teach their workers to use discreet hand, eye and other signals to communicate with their colleagues — all without a sound.
“You can’t yell across the dining room, ‘Hey, I need help delivering food!’” says Alex Susskind, an associate professor of food and beverage at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Although he doesn’t teach restaurant pantomime “overtly” to his students, Susskind preaches its value. “The service experience is perishable. It begins and ends quickly,” the instructor says. “What happens at the table can make or break” a diner’s perception of a place.
It’s hard to say when wordless restaurant commands originated. A 1944 photo spread in Life magazine revealed how the owner of the legendary Stork Club in New York let his staff know, without saying, that he wanted to pick up someone’s check — or get away from a customer: Sherman Billingsley played with his tie knot or tugged his ear, respectively. Some industry veterans say they first noticed hand signals when designer waters gushed onto the scene in the 1990s.
Created to make things convenient for restaurants, wordless routines prove reliable in the noisiest of venues. They also save considerable time. Instead of walking across a busy dining room and possibly slowing down colleagues, servers using body language can get a message across in a single movement. “If one person is doing everything, it takes twice as long,” says Chesser, the ringleader at CityZen. Economy of steps equals savings in time: Sanders of BLT Steak figures dining room shorthand trims off 45 seconds or so per table; on any given shift, that’s “20 minutes of attention I can give back to guests.”
Silent touches enhance the guest experience by offering a sense of seamlessness and the impression that things happen automatically; O’Connell calls them “tiny little magic acts.” Indeed, some wizardry is called for in a working kitchen such as his, with upwards of 18 cooks and as many as 60 parties a night eager to view it. (Another benefit of wordless communication: “You look brilliant” for acknowledging not just the guest of honor, but the cause for celebration, the chef says with a laugh.)
Hand signals aren’t restricted to upscale places. “Our service is hybrid,” says Sanders, whose clientele is heavy with politicians, media bigwigs and Secret Service agents protecting The Restaurant Isn’t Saying. “There’s the expectation of fine dining, but the energy is high.”
“Most communication is non-verbal,” says William Washington, general manager of Le Diplomate in Logan Circle, where a forward palm from a supervisor triggers a server to refresh an empty bread basket. “Everybody does it to a certain extent” in the restaurant trade. To work for everyone, however, the signals must be subtle. “I don’t want people to be aware we’re doing it,” says Washington, echoing the sentiments of his peers.
One of the most-used set of codes evolved from consumers’ thirst for designer water. In a typical scenario, a preference for still water is designated with an extended flat or swiping hand, while sparkling water involves fluttering fingers. Tap water is denoted by a fist, sometimes with a digit sticking out, like a spout.
Among the more elaborate wordless service systems in the industry is the one employed at Eleven Madison Park in New York, which maintains an arsenal of more than half a dozen gestures to assure top-shelf attention to detail. The sight of a manager brushing his shoulder, gesturing toward a chair or gripping his hands at waist level is the crew’s cue to clean a table, clear a diner’s plate or hold off because a table is not ready to be seated, respectively. Inspiration for the rituals comes from old-school New York restaurants, foremost the Stork Club, says Will Guidara, co-owner of the restaurant, which has won five awards from the James Beard Foundation, including one for Outstanding Service (2004). Executed properly, Guidara says, silent signals add value and “make the dining room feel less frenzied.”
The popularity of open kitchens mean cooks occasionally get in on the action. A line cook at the cafe at Chez Panisse in Berkeley in the early 1980s, Evan Goldstein recalls how the staff learned that the kitchen was out of a dish (or “86’ed” as they say in the trade): Someone would pull a hand across their neck, in a quick slash, says the master sommelier and author of a book on service. When Eric Ziebold, the chef at CityZen, has an order ready for a waiter whom he sees engaged too long in conversation, he might make the universal sign for “wrap it up:” a wave of the hand in small circles. “When you’re talking to a table,” explains the chef, “guests aren’t eating.”
Signals can work both ways. Diners from Minneapolis to Moscow know that scribbling in the air is likely to get them their check, and swirling an empty water glass typically begets a refill. Washington public affairs expert Jim Courtovich, who eats out as if he were a restaurant reviewer — an average of 10 meals a week, though frequently at the same places — raises a single finger to the side of his face to make his requests known at BLT Steak, Cashion’s Eat Place and Marcel’s. The simple gesture, says the founder of Sphere Consulting, can be translated a number of ways, depending on what’s not on his table or the amount of time he wants to devote to lunch or dinner: Where’s the food? Where’s the wine? Where’s the check?
“I don’t want to wave my hand” to address an issue, says Courtovich.
Are more servers exercising their digits? “I’m sure it happens,” says frequent diner Tim Zagat, founder of the popular Zagat Survey. “As a customer, I’m not supposed to witness it.” To be effective, he says, silent exchanges also need to be discreet. “If I knew someone was signaling behind my back, I think that would be irritating.”
Even restaurants that don’t formalize gestures have non-verbal means of achieving their goals. Consider Passion Food Hospitality, a collection of seven restaurants including DC Coast and Acadiana in the District and Fuego Cocina y Tequileria in Arlington. While nothing is codified at the group’s establishments, says partner Gus DiMillo, “if a manager needs something, he directs his eyes and a server takes care of the problem. We encourage everyone, when they train with us, not to wear blinders. Even if they’re talking to guests, they should see what’s going on around them.”
If a server needs help, instead of calling for it or sprouting popeyes — behavior that might attract attention from diners — the simple act of placing a hand over a lapel brings a rescue squad at places including CityZen and BLT Steak.
Missed signals are an occasional occupational hazard. Sanders, the general manager of BLT Steak, is one of the few supervisors at the meat market who doesn’t sport a tie clip, which means he’s frequently adjusting the neckwear on his chest. “What do you need?” his teammates ask when they spot him fussing near his lapel.
And not all secret codes are meant for public consumption. As it turns out, veterans of the Inn at Little Washington sometimes need to help O’Connell know which patron coming into one of those popular kitchen tours is celebrating a special occasion, so they’ll use playful R-rated gestures to distinguish between a man and a woman.
“Efficiency is wonderful,” says O’Connell, the master of ceremonies. “If you can make it fun at the same time, wonderful.” | <urn:uuid:a5ecc1e0-150b-4e37-b229-5cdda4551a53> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/2013/12/20/bb61c6f0-590b-11e3-ba82-16ed03681809_story.html | 2015-03-30T11:05:25Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299261.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00232-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953632 | 2,136 |
|This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2011)|
|Born||June 8, 1972
|Died||October 17, 1998(aged 26)|
|Education||Technical University of Berlin|
|Alma mater||Technical University of Applied Sciences of Berlin|
|Known for||hacking, the "Cryptophon"|
Boris Floricic, better known by his pseudonym Tron (8 June 1972 – 17-22 October 1998), was a German hacker and phreaker whose death in unclear circumstances has led to various conspiracy theories. He is also known for his Diplom thesis presenting one of the first public implementations of a telephone with built-in voice encryption, the "Cryptophon".
Floricic's pseudonym was a reference to the eponymous character in the 1982 Disney film Tron. Floricic was interested in defeating computer security mechanisms; amongst other hacks, he broke the security of the German phonecard and produced working clones. He was subsequently sentenced to 15 months in jail for the physical theft of a public phone (for reverse engineering purposes) but the sentence was suspended on probation.
From December 2005 to January 2006, media attention was drawn to Floricic when his parents and Andy Müller-Maguhn brought legal action in Germany against the Wikimedia Foundation and its German chapter Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. The first preliminary injunction tried to stop Wikipedia from publishing Floricic's full name, and a second one followed, temporarily preventing the use of the German Internet domain wikipedia.de as a redirect address to the German Wikipedia.
Early life and education
Floricic grew up in Gropiusstadt, a suburb in southern Berlin (West Berlin at the time). His interests in school focused on technical subjects. He left school after ten years and completed a three-year Vocational education (Berufsausbildung) offered by the Technical University of Berlin and graduated as a specialist in communication electronics with a major in information technology (Kommunikationselektroniker, Fachrichtung Informationstechnik). He subsequently earned the Abitur and began studies in computer science at the Technical University of Applied Sciences of Berlin.
During his studies, Floricic attended an internship with a company developing electronic security systems. In the winter term 1997/1998, Floricic successfully finished his studies and published his diploma thesis, in which he developed and described the "Cryptophon", an ISDN telephone with built-in voice encryption. Since parts of this work, which were to be provided by another student, were missing, he could not finish his work on the Cryptophon. His thesis, however, was rated as exceptional by the evaluating university professor. After graduation, Floricic applied for work, but was unsuccessful. In his spare time he continued, among other activities, his work on the Cryptophon.
Floricic was highly interested in electronics and security systems of all kinds. He engaged in, amongst other things, attacks against the German phonecard and Pay TV systems. As part of his research he exchanged ideas and proposals with other hackers and scientists. On the mailing list "tv-crypt", operated by a closed group of Pay TV hackers, Floricic reported about himself in 1995 that his interests were microprocessors, programming languages, electronics of all kinds, digital radio data transmission and especially breaking the security of systems perceived as secure. He claimed to have created working clones of a chipcard used for British Pay TV and would continue his work to defeat the security of the Nagravision/Syster scrambling system which was then used by the German Pay TV provider "PREMIERE".
Later, American scientists outlined a theoretical attack against SIM cards used for GSM mobile phones. Together with hackers from the Chaos Computer Club, Floricic successfully created a working clone of such a SIM card, thus showing the practicability of the attack. He also engaged in cloning the German phonecard and succeeded. While Floricic only wanted to demonstrate the insecurity of the system, the proven insecurity was also abused by criminals which led to the attention of law enforcement agencies and the German national phone operator Deutsche Telekom. After Deutsche Telekom changed the system, Floricic tried to remove a complete public card phone from a booth by force (using a sledgehammer) on 3 March 1995 in order to, as he told, adapt his phonecard simulators to the latest changes. He and a friend were, however, caught by the police upon this attempt. Floricic was later sentenced to a prison term of 15 months which was suspended on probation.
"Cryptophon" (or "Cryptofon") was the name Floricic chose for his prototype of an ISDN telephone with integrated voice encryption. It was created in the winter term 1997–1998 as part of his diploma thesis, titled "Realisierung einer Verschlüsselungstechnik für Daten im ISDN B-Kanal" (German, meaning, "Implementation of Cryptography for Data contained in the ISDN Bearer channel"), at the Technische Fachhochschule Berlin. Floricic focused on making the Cryptophon cheap and easy to build for hobbyists. The phone encrypts telephone calls using the symmetric encryption algorithm IDEA. As IDEA is patented, the cipher was implemented on a replaceable daughter module which would have allowed the user to exchange IDEA for another (probably patent-unencumbered) algorithm. In addition, the system was about to be supplemented with a key exchange protocol based on the asymmetric algorithm RSA in order to achieve security against compromised remote stations.
The Cryptophon is built on the foundation of an 8051 compatible microprocessor which controls the whole system and peripherals (e.g. ISDN controller, keypad and display). For the cryptography, Floricic used cheap DSPs from Texas Instruments which he scrapped out of old computer modems, but which could also be bought at affordable prices. As this type of DSP is not powerful enough for the cryptography algorithm chosen, Floricic used two of them for the Cryptophon – one for sending and one for receiving. He planned to extend the phone so it would also be possible to encrypt data-connections. Floricic developed both the operating software of the phone as well as the cryptography implementation in the DSPs. He found a new way to implement IDEA to save significant processing time.
Floricic disappeared on 17 October 1998 and was found dead in a local park in Britz in the Neukölln district of Berlin on 22 October after being hanged from a waistbelt wrapped around his neck. The cause of death was officially recorded as suicide. Some of his peers in the Chaos Computer Club, as well as his family members and some outside critics, have been vocal in their assertions that Floricic may have been murdered. It is argued that his activities in the areas of Pay TV cracking and voice scrambling might have disturbed the affairs of an intelligence agency or organized crime enough to provide a motive.
The German journalist Burkhard Schröder published a book about the death titled "Tron - Tod eines Hackers" ("Tron - Death of a Hacker") in 1999 in which he presents the facts about the case known at the time. Because he concludes that Floricic took his own life, the author was harshly criticized by both members of the Chaos Computer Club and Floricic's parents.
|Wikinews has related news: Berlin court issues provisional order against the Wikimedia Foundation|
As Floricic's family did not wish his full name (Boris Floricic) to be used, many German newspapers referred to him as "Boris F." On 14 December 2005, his parents obtained a temporary restraining order in a Berlin court against Wikimedia Foundation Inc. because its freely editable online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, mentioned the full name in its German language version. The order prohibited the Foundation from mentioning the full name on any website under the domain "wikipedia.org". It furthermore required the Foundation to name a representative in Germany within two weeks following the decision.
This was widely reported in the Dutch and German press. The initial order was mistakenly addressed to Saint Petersburg, Russia rather than to St. Petersburg, Florida, United States; this was corrected five days later.
On 17 January 2006, a second preliminary injunction from a court in Berlin prohibited the Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. local chapter from linking to the German Wikipedia, resulting in the change of the wikipedia.de address from a link to German Wikipedia to a page explaining the situation, although the page did not mention Tron. Despite media reports to the contrary, the German Wikipedia itself was never closed or became inaccessible in Germany. Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. confirmed to the Internet news site golem.de that the new injunction was related to the prior case against the Wikimedia Foundation and was issued on behalf of the same plaintiffs. Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. was reported as intending to fight the injunction, arguing that no valid case was presented and the freedom of the press must be defended.
As Müller-Maguhn, one of the spokespersons of the Chaos Computer Club, was deeply involved in the case on the side of the plaintiffs, some media reported this as a case of Chaos Computer Club against Wikipedia. The Chaos Computer Club had issued a public statement that this was a case between a few of its members and Wikipedia, and that the CCC itself did not take any position in the matter.
The Austrian online magazine Futurezone interviewed Andy Müller-Maguhn on 19 January 2006 about the case and its background. Maguhn admitted that the true reason behind the incident was a fictitious work recently published by a German author in which the main character had the same (civil) name as Floricic. The parents sent a protest to the publisher but were turned down with the argument that the German Wikipedia was using the name as well. Müller-Maguhn then asked the German Wikipedia to remove the name, but was turned down for a number of reasons, including failure to present proof that he was entitled to speak and act on behalf of the parents.
- zdnet.co.uk: "High-stakes hacking, Euro-style", by Bob Sullivan, 25 October 2000
- Wired News: "Out of Chaos Comes Order", by David Hudson, 28 December 1998
- Telepolis: "Hacker leben nicht gefährlich", by Burkhard Schröder, January 10, 2006 (in German)
- Spiegel Online: "Streit um Tron: Darf man einen Hacker beim Namen nennen?", by Holger Dambeck, January 10, 2006 (in German)
- Heise Newsticker: "Domain Wikipedia.de ist zurzeit außer Betrieb", by Andreas Wilkens, January 19, 2006 (in German)
- golem.de: "Wikipedia.de derzeit abgeschaltet", by Andreas Donath, January 19, 2006. (in German)
- CCC: "Klarstellung zu Wikipedia vs. Tron", by Frank Rieger, January 13, 2006. (in German)
- futurezone: "'Einstweilige Verfügung' gegen Wikipedia.de", by unnamed author, 19 January 2006 (in German)
- Heise Online: "Court overturns temporary restraining order against Wikimedia Deutschland, by Torsten Kleinz, 9 February 2006.
- Burkhard Schröder: Tron: Tod eines Hackers ("Tron: Death of a hacker"). rororo, 1999, ISBN 3-499-60857-X
- Spiegel Online: "How a Dead Hacker Shut Down Wikipedia Germany", 20 January 2006
- Wired.com: "Out of Chaos Comes Order", by David Hudson, 28 December 1998 (about the suicide)
- Possenspiel um Wikipedia (Die Zeit online edition)
- tronland.org (Site dedicated to Tron's memory) | <urn:uuid:a5481688-ff82-40af-97b1-cc6cc6c6f317> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron_(hacker) | 2015-04-01T06:00:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131303502.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172143-00056-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955614 | 2,501 |
It’s a common refrain among local cyclists: Want to kill someone and get away with it? Run them over while they’re on a bicycle.
Within Boston’s growing cycling community, a perceived lack of criminal prosecution of motorists involved in fatal bike crashes has been a regular source of outrage in recent years. That ire came to a fever pitch last week, when a grand jury investigation of a Wellesley bike crash with seemingly copious evidence — video footage, witnesses defending the deceased bicyclist, a truck driver who had fled the scene and had an extensive history of driving infractions — came back with no charges.
The grand jury’s decision, bicyclists contend, is evidence of a wider problem: Most people do not respect the rights of bike riders.
“The message that we got from this particular case,” said David Watson, executive director of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, “is that, clearly, members of the general public still don’t care enough about bicyclists’ safety.”
Historically, prosecutors have been seen as reluctant to seek charges in crashes between bikes and cars. Civil cases have long been the realm of justice for families. But cyclists say they want better, and they had hoped to get it in the case against truck driver Dana E.A. McCoomb, accused of striking and killing cyclist Alexander Motsenigos, 41, on Weston Road in Wellesley.
Police and prosecutors were seeking to charge McCoomb with vehicular homicide, as well as unsafe overtaking of a bicyclist.
The accident was particularly grisly. Video footage, captured by a traffic camera, showed McCoomb’s truck attempting to overtake Motsenigos, striking him from the side, and driving off without stopping. A woman who was one of several witnesses, defended the cyclist at the scene, shouting: “It wasn’t his fault! He didn’t do anything wrong! He was just coming down the hill, and the truck hit him! The truck was going way too fast!”
‘It’s really an example of how people have it in their heads that bikers are reckless. ’
An accident reconstruction confirmed police officers’ belief that charges against the driver were in order.
McCoomb’s lawyer, Scott Tucker, could not be reached Thursday. After no charges were returned against his client, he declined to comment on the grand jury’s decision, stating only that he was happy that McCoomb was not indicted on criminal charges.
Hearing that the driver would not be charged criminally shocked and angered members of the cycling community, many of whom were still reeling with sadness and anger at other recent bicycle fatalities, including the death of 23-year-old Boston University student Christopher Weigl, killed in December on Commonwealth Avenue in Allston. Suffolk prosecutors are awaiting a final report from the Boston police collision reconstruction team before they decide if charges will be filed in that case.
Josh Zisson, a lawyer specializing in bicycle-related cases, said many cyclists view juries in criminal cases as a litmus test of how they are embraced and protected by the communities in which they live. Stereotypes about careless or foolhardy bicyclists, he said, leak into the criminal process.
“It’s really an example of how people have it in their heads that bikers are reckless to ride in the street,” Zisson said.
Motsenigos’s family has filed a lawsuit against the truck driver, and Zisson said he hopes that they are able to get some justice from that civil case. But civil damages, he said, just are not the same.
“It’s definitely the sort of thing where people who ride bikes want to see jail time or to see some sort of criminal charges that stick,” Zisson said. “When people don’t see that, a lot of people get the sense that the government doesn’t really care.”
Of course, not all bike collisions can be expected to go to court, just as not all car crashes, or instances of cars striking pedestrians, result in criminal charges. But, they said, it appears that police and prosecutors have begun to take a more aggressive stance in bike-related cases.
The Suffolk district attorney’s office does not keep records on the number of bike-related cases it has prosecuted in recent years, spokesman Jake Wark said. But, he said, there are cases in progress: Prosecutors have indicted one driver, Michael Ahern, in the death of a cyclist in Dorchester last September. Another man, Vinodkumar Patel, is set to appear soon in Boston Municipal Court for striking, but not seriously injuring, a cyclist in July 2011, Wark said.
Bike advocates said they have seen a trend in recent years toward police departments taking bike crashes more seriously.
“There’s more of an understanding that bicyclists aren’t just some fringe element out on the roads,” Watson said. “They are people trying to get from one place to another, just like everybody else.”
The problem, bike advocates say, is that most people, and most jurors, just don’t like bikes.
Jurors are much more likely to empathize with motorists than with bicyclists, said Andrew Fischer, a Boston-based bicycle attorney, especially as the percentage of Massachusetts residents who regularly ride bikes still flutters in the single digits.
“This [Wellesley case] just reveals the prejudice there is in the general population against bicyclists,” Fischer said. “I’ve seen it in jury pools. It’s very difficult for a bicyclist who’s been in an accident with a motorist to get a fair jury.”
According to Chief Terrence Cunningham of the Wellesley Police Department, Fischer is probably right.
Cunningham said that he initially felt confident the charges against the truck driver would stick, but that he grew concerned when he heard that a member of the grand jury had asked a question of a Wellesley detective that suggested the juror did not understand the truck’s obligation to yield to the bicycle.
“Personally, I don’t feel they followed the law,” Cunningham said. “But that’s the process.”
Cunningham said he often sees negative attitudes toward bicyclists among jurors, as well as in the general public — and every time a cyclist runs a red light, fails to signal in front of traffic, or rides four- or five-abreast, preventing a car from passing, the act confirms motorists’ belief that bicyclists should not be in the road, he said.
Cunningham said he was disappointed by the outcome of the Wellesley case, especially because he had worked so hard to convince Motsenigos’s family, along with the cycling community, that he was passionate about bringing the driver to justice. His officers spent months investigating, interviewing witnesses, and conducting forensic testing.
He said he had received a slew of e-mails from bicyclists — including “some e-mails that were less than affectionate,” he recalled — that conveyed fears the police would brush aside the case.
“I think a lot of them are just frustrated, and they believe that too many of these instances don’t get thoroughly investigated,” Cunningham said. “I’ve gone over the case over and over again, and I can’t think of anything we could have done different or better.”
Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey said his office was aware that he faced “two competing principles” in the grand jury investigation: Which would jurors dislike more, trucks or bicycles?
He warned against speculating on the grand jury’s decision. Still, he said, he cannot help but share in the cyclists’ frustrations.
“I think this is an interesting problem insofar as I think there is a little bit of a bias against bicycle riders,” said Morrissey, an occasional cyclist himself. “Whether their own bias took over here, we’ll never know.”
Pete Stidman, director of the Boston Cyclists Union, said he hoped that the Wellesley case would bring more attention to bike safety and the need for drivers to be careful around bikes, even if no criminal charges came out of the grand jury investigation.
“I’m hopeful that our elected officials, our transportation officials, our courts and police, and the whole system are going to start paying attention to these kinds of crashes,” said Stidman. “As we get more people riding on the road . . . it’s going to get harder and harder to ignore these crashes as our constituency grows.”
The case, Watson said, demonstrates the importance of community-wide campaigns to raise awareness of bike safety and show cyclists can safely share roads with other vehicles.
“It’s part of a larger culture change that needs to happen,” Watson said. “Until then, we’re still going to see a reluctance in the minds of many average citizens to hold people criminally accountable in incidents like this.”
Fischer, the bike lawyer, said he was encouraged that the police went so far in attempting to prosecute the driver. Perhaps that is the sign of a turning point, he said.
“Now there’s a prosecutor who’s willing to make the effort, and I’m pleased to see that,” Fischer said. “Maybe it’s not enough of a step, but it’s a step forward when a prosecutor doesn’t have to be convinced or persuaded or pressured by the bicycle community to do something.”
“For what it’s worth,” he continued, “that’s progress.”Martine Powers can be reached at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter | <urn:uuid:1099e1a0-3f96-427c-aca3-2ee7abad567c> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/02/15/cyclists-react-with-anger-after-grand-jury-returns-indictment-wellesley-bike-crash-case/JDTtJSawtj34hxAAP5Y0RI/story.html | 2015-04-01T06:09:17Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131303502.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172143-00056-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975041 | 2,114 |
Feb. 25, 2013
Around the Nation
By Sean Ryan & Phil Stanton
pitchers often are ahead of the hitters early in the season.
Four staffs that entered the season as diverse as
the other – Cal State Fullerton, Louisville, Vanderbilt and
Virginia – have been nothing short of brilliant the first two
weeks of the season.
At Fullerton, coach Rick Vanderhook (right) said
a few days before the season opener, “I can’t remember a
freshman starting Opening Night.” That freshman, Thomas Eshelman,
has started his career 2-0 with wins over USC and TCU, working
11.1 innings with no runs, no walks and 14 strikeouts (opponents
are hitting .163). Fellow frosh Justin Garza also is 2-0 with a
0.68 ERA, 13.1 innings, one walk and 11 strikeouts. In all, the
Titans (8-0) boast a 1.62 ERA and have 69 strikeouts and nine
walks in 72 innings – they allowed four runs in a weekend sweep
Vanderhook is not surprised by the success of his
rookie pair. “We wouldn’t have pitched them Friday and Saturday
if we didn’t think they were good. They both are semi-polished
“Eshelman went up to the West Coast League and
pitched in a collegiate league in the summer and threw 30
innings up there, kind of got his feet wet. He’s doing the same
thing right now that he did in the summertime. He’s what I would
call a prototypical Cal State Fullerton pitcher. He throws
strikes, he competes and he’s really intelligent on the mound.
Nothing really bothers him. Through the last 15 years a lot of
freshmen have come into college baseball and pitched really well
in big programs and I’m hoping he can be one of those guys.
Right now he’s doing it.
“Garza was really touted coming out of high
school and has done about everything he was supposed to do. He’s
focused on the mound, hasn’t had anything really bother him.
“They haven’t had anything happen yet to bother
them. It’s going to happen to them sooner or later. I tell them
every day, somebody’s going to whack you around. It’s not about
them whacking you, it’s about how you respond the next time you
go out after they whack you.”
At Louisville, junior Jeff Thompson leads an
experienced staff that is off to a fantastic start – a 1.43 ERA,
72 strikeouts and 17 walks in 63 innings for the 6-1 Cardinals.
Thompson is 2-0 with a zero ERA and 17 strikeouts and four walks
in 11 innings, and Dace Kime, Chad Green and Jared Ruxer have
combined for 23 strikeouts and five walks. Reliever Anthony
Kidston has been lights out, picking up two wins and striking
out 10 in 5.1 innings – he’s yet to allow a hit or run.
At Virginia, the Cavaliers are a mix of new and
old. Freshman Brandon Waddell (1-0, 0.84, 10.2 IP, 3 BB, 20 K)
is joined by reliever-turned-starter Nick Howard (1-0, 0.00, 10
IP) and senior Scott Silverstein (1-0, 1.59, 11.1 IP). The
Cavaliers boast a team ERA of 2.14 after allowing three runs in
a three-game weekend sweep of Toledo.
Coach Brian O’Connor said you’re a little
apprehensive going into the season anytime you have a young and
inexperienced staff, but his pitchers have responded.
“I’m not surprised because I think we have quite
a bit of talent both on the mound and position-wise,” O’Connor
said, adding that the Cavaliers still are in the process of
figuring out the different roles for their pitchers.
And at Vanderbilt, the promise of junior Kevin
Ziomek and sophomore Tyler Beede may be becoming realized.
Ziomek (2-0, 1.38, 13 IP, 3 BB, 18 K) and Beede (2-0, 1.50, 12
IP, 6 BB, 12 K), along with sophomore Philip Pfeifer (2-0, 0.64,
14 IP, 4 BB, 17 K), led a Commodores staff that shut down
Monmouth over the weekend to the tune of three runs.
Hawks coach Dean Ehehalt texted before boarding a
flight Sunday night that Vandy has the best pitching staff he’s
faced in his 20 years with Monmouth. “From a velocity
standpoint, no doubt the best,” he said.
And then there’s Oregon State, which improved to
8-0 on Sunday, completing a four-game sweep at San Diego State
for the best start in 51 years.
The Beavers have allowed just 13 runs (nine
earned) in eight games, good for a 1.12 ERA. Although the
Beavers haven’t been striking guys out like the staffs above (47
in 72 innings), they’ve practically been unhittable, yielding a
.179 batting average. Amazingly, the bullpen – Max Engelbrekt,
Scott Schultz, Tyler Painton, Brandon Jackson, Tony Bryant, Zack
Reser and Cole Brocker – has yet to allow an earned run in 30
innings, with Engelbrekt (1-0, 1 SV, 7.2 IP) and Schultz (2 SV,
6.2 IP) leading the way.
Including Oregon State, there are 13 undefeated
teams among those who have begun their seasons. Mississippi
State and Oklahoma are both 9-0, while Cal State Fullerton joins
the Beavers at 8-0. The 7-0 squads include Cal Poly, Florida
State, Miami (Fla.), Ole Miss, South Alabama and Virginia. North
Carolina is 6-0, VCU is 5-0 and Creighton sits at 3-0 after
being forced to cancel its weekend trip to Lamar.
Teams beginning their seasons this week include
CCSU, Fairleigh Dickinson, Massachusetts, NYIT, Omaha,
Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart and UMBC, as well as seven of the eight
schools in the Ivy League. Yale opens play on March 9.
Florida Gulf Coast entered the weekend 1-6
against Florida. After Sean Dwyer’s three-run homer in the 11th
inning on Sunday, the Eagles (5-1) had pulled off a sweep of the
Gators in Gainesville.
Good things came in threes for FGCU, as in
homers. In the opener, Brooks Beisner blasted a three-run homer
in the sixth inning for a 3-1 lead, and ace Ricky Knapp tossed a
complete game to improve to 2-0. On Saturday, Michael Suchy hit
a three-run homer in the sixth inning to break from a 2-1 game.
And on Sunday, it was Dwyer’s turn. He may never have had the
chance if not for junior Harrison Cooney, who tossed five
scoreless innings of relief. In the 10th inning, Cooney loaded
the bases, only to get a fly out to center, a fielder’s choice
at the plate and another fly out to give the Eagles a shot in
By now, you’ve likely heard about the
benches-clearing brawl during
UC Riverside’s game at Sacramento State on Friday, when
Sacramento State’s Andrew Ayers tagged out Riverside’s Eddie
Young, who retaliated with a pair of punches after Ayers shoved
him away. According to the Sacramento Bee, both players, and
Highlanders catcher Drake Zarate, were suspended four games per
NC State sophomore ace Carlos Rodon rebounded
from the first loss since his junior year in grand fashion – he
tossed the first seven innings of a no-hitter, with Karl
Keglovits working the final two innings against La Salle. The
combined no-no was the first for the Wolfpack since 2005.
Akron coach Rick Rembielak is one of those
coaches who believes that to be the best, you have to play the
He’s backing that up with an early-season
gauntlet for his Zips.
Last week, Akron dropped three games at No. 17
Georgia Tech, including a 5-3 defeat last Sunday. Over the
weekend, the Zips fell three times to No. 18 Louisville,
including a 2-1 setback yesterday. Up next? A three-game set at
No. 9 Kentucky.
“[We] want to build this program by our players
understanding how precise you need to play to compete at the
highest level,” Rembielak texted on the bus ride back to Akron.
“Early schedule is designed to expose them to the highest
caliber of play in preparation of [the] MAC season. [The] goal
is to win MAC tournament and be prepared to play the same
competition we faced at the start of the season.”
East Tennessee State is off to a 6-1 start after
a sweep of Seton Hall that included walk-off wins on Saturday
and Sunday. The Bucs have had plenty of heroes, but none bigger
than Clinton Freeman, who’s meant as much to his team as any
player in the country.
Freeman, a junior outfielder/pitcher, has gone 12
for 24 with nine extra-base hits – six homers, two doubles and a
triple – and 11 RBI. On the mound, the lefty has gone 2-0 with
two saves in 5.1 innings of relief.
ETSU coach Tony Skole said that Freeman pretty
much put the Bucs on his shoulders and carried them over the
first five games.
“It’s just an amazing start, he was squaring up
everything he saw…he just hasn’t been missing the center of the
ball,” Skole said.
And on the mound, Freeman, whose fastball reaches
the upper 80s, hasn’t allowed a run.
“He’s just throwing strikes, three pitches for
strikes,” Skole said. “The thing that makes him so good on the
mound is that he’s a competitor.”
Air Force reached a milestone on Saturday,
defeating Navy 8-7 in the Freedom Classic at Grainger Stadium in
Kinston, N.C. It was the 1,000th win in program history. The
Falcons began play in 1957. LSU head coach Paul Mainieri
accounted for 152 of those victories. He led the Air Force
program from 1989-94 before becoming head coach at Notre Dame.
Another example of pitching being ahead of
hitting early in the season is the number of no-hitters so far.
TJ Renda of Alabama State no-hit Chicago State on Opening Night.
This past Saturday, Carlos Rodon and Karl Keglovits of NC State
combined on a no-hitter against visiting La Salle. On Sunday,
Colby Holmes, Forrest Koumas and Josh Knab of South Carolina
worked together to no-hit Albany. Bryce Biggerstaff also
accomplished the feat on Sunday, not allowing a hit to Jackson
State. In the near-miss category, Ohio State was one out away
from a combined no-hitter against Mount St. Mary’s on Saturday.
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About Lone Star College
Nationally recognized, globally connected, locally focused
Lone Star College is the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area and one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the nation. Not only great in size, LSC is a key driver and growing contributor to the local and regional economy with an annual economic impact of $3.1 billion.
Students rely on Lone Star College for Associate Degrees, certifications for work in high-demand industries, and credits that enable them to transfer anywhere. In fact, LSC provides more than 180 programs of study close to home. No wonder 95,000 students choose Lone Star College!
LSC understands the balance between work, family and completing an education — that’s why it offers the most affordable, high-quality higher education option in the region, close to home, at a fraction of the cost of a four year university.
Attending LSC is more affordable than other state institutions. Attending LSC saves students, and their families, thousands per semester.
source: Net Cost Calculator Resident Tuition and Fees, based on 12 hours/semester
Choice of more students
LSC is the choice of area high school graduates – 5,848 high school graduates attended LSC in fall 2013, 10 times the number of students choosing the University of Houston; six times as many who attended Texas A&M University.
Committed to Student Success
A national leader in conferring degrees and dedicated to student success and credential completion, Lone Star College is:
- Recognized nationally as a Top 10 Associate Degree Producer
- Leading the Texas Reverse Transfer Initiative, in collaboration with The University of Texas, a key strategy in Texas' goal of increasing higher education degree attainment
- Leading the Texas Completes effort statewide to dramatically increase college completion rates
Proven Financial Management
LSC is fiscally responsible and maintains a AAA Bond Rating from Standard & Poor’s Rating Services – enabling LSC to borrow money at lower interest rates. LSC's credit rating was increased eight times in the last 10 years. In addition:
- LSC maintains administrative operating expenses under 12%, which is one of the lowest in Texas. (Source: Texas Association of Community Colleges)
- The LSC tax rate is lower than it was 15 years ago. And the Board of Trustees has lowered the tax rate 6 of the last 10 years. (11.74 cents/thousand (2000) vs. 11.6 cents/thousand (2015)).
- LSC has received a Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting recognition each year since 2004.
- LSC maintains a tax freeze for residents age 65+ and/or disabled which means the actual dollar amount owed will never increase, even if the property value increases.
At a Glance
Chancellor: Stephen C. Head, Ph.D.
Student Enrollment: 95,000
University Centers: 2
Additional Centers: 7
2013-2014 Operating Budget: $317,790,000
view more facts about Lone Star College
We're Close To Home
Lone Star College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award Associate of Arts, Associate of Arts in Teaching, Associate of Science and Associate of Applied Science Degrees.
Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Lone Star College, to file a third-party comment at the time of the ten-year review, and to file a complaint against the institution for alleged non-compliance with a standard or requirement. Normal inquiries about Lone Star College such as admissions requirement, financial aid, educational programs, etc. should be addressed directly to Lone Star College and not to the Commission's office.
Accredited since 1976, Lone Star's accreditation was reaffirmed in 2012.
Board of Trustees
Position 1: David Holsey, D.D.S.
Position 2: Kyle A. Scott, Ph. D.
District 3: Alton Smith, Ed.D.
District 4: Art Murillo
Position 5: David A. Vogt
Position 6: Bob Wolfe, JD, CPA
Position 7: Linda S. Good, JD
Position 8: Ron Trowbridge, Ph. D.
District 9: Ken E. Lloyd
Stephen C. Head, Ph.D.
Austin Lane, Ph.D., Ed.D.
Executive Vice Chancellor
Chief of Staff, Board Liaison
Rand W. Key
CEO, Lone Star College-System Office at University Park
Keri Rogers, Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs
Melissa Gonzalez, Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor, Workforce & Economic Development
Vice Chancellor, External Affairs
Vice Chancellor, Administration & Finance/CFO
Vice Chancellor, College Services
Dr. Audre Levy
President, Lone Star College-CyFair
Dr. Katherine Persson
President, Lone Star College-Kingwood
Dr. Rebecca L. Riley
Interim President, Lone Star College-Montgomery
Interim President, Lone Star College-North Harris
Dr. Lee Ann Nutt
President, Lone Star College-Tomball
President, Lone Star College-University Park
We Make a Difference
Our graduates help keep our community safe
- We graduate 84% of all emergency first responders (fire, police, EMS)
- We train 60% of all health care workers
Lone Star College is the college of choice
- 1 in 4, or 25%, of May graduates from area high schools attend LSC in the fall
- 8,000+ high school students take dual credit courses, earning simultaneous high school and college credit, to accelerate their college completion
- Associate Degree graduates earn, on average, 25% more than high school graduates
- 78% of Texas bachelor’s degrees are awarded to students who attended a community college like LSC
We provide the education and training to meet area employers needs
- By 2018, 63% of all jobs will require postsecondary training. A strong workforce equals a strong community.
We provide educational programs for all ages
- Academy for Lifelong Learning for residents 50+
- Discovery College summer programs for youths
Lone Star College serves an area of more than 1,400 square miles with a population of 2.1 million including some of the fastest growing communities in the state. In the past four years alone, the LSC service area has grown by 176,000 people, more people than 39 U.S. states added during the same time period. An additional 242,000 people are expected to increase the region’s population to 2.55 million by 2019.
The workforce in the LSC area has grown by 9% in the past five years. From fall 2007 – fall 2013 LSC added more than 28,000 credit students — a 57% increase.
Community College Advantage
- We're close to home.
- We're affordable.
- We want you to succeed.
Careers. Not just jobs.
LSCS offers a wide variety of degree programs designed to prepare you for employment in a specific career. See the Programs We Offer
Start here. Transfer anywhere.
LSC Advisors can assist you in applying for admission, choosing courses that will transfer to your desired university, and assist you with the registration process. We're here for you! Learn How to Transfer to a University
1/5 the cost of UT Austin.
Consider this: Many students leave four-year universities with a diploma but empty pockets and the burden of school loans for years to come. With higher education costs on the rise, Lone Star College is one of the most affordable options today to earn a college degree, certificate or continuing education hours. See our Tuition & Fees
Budget 2014-2015 - $331,930,000
Funding Sources 2014-2015
Property Tax - $116,230,000
State Funds - $72,510,000
Other - $6,200,000
Auxiliary - $15,000,000
Tuition & Fees - $110,680,000
Property Tax Rates
Maintenance and Operations - $0.0765
Interest and Sinking - $0.0316
Tax Rate Total - $0.1081
BOND RATING - STANDARD & POOR'S AAA
Tradition of Excellence
Lone Star College has been opening doors to a better community for more than 40 years. With its beginnings in 1973, LSCS remains steadfast in its commitment to student success and credential completion.
In 1972, residents in the Aldine, Humble and Spring Independent School Districts elected to create a junior college district, which became known as North Harris County College. The college opens its doors in the fall of 1973 and the 16-member staff welcomed 613 students to the first classes held at Aldine High School.
Fast forward 40 years and Lone Star College has grown to six colleges, multiple centers and two University Centers with 83,000 credit students and a total of more than 95,000 students.
LSC is now the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area and is one of the fastest-growing community college systems in the nation.
In 2008, Lone Star College became the new name for the North Harris Montgomery Community College District after months of deliberation and a polling process that included input from more than 5,000 participants from the community. The board of trustees voted unanimously to change the name to Lone Star College, which was the overwhelmingly favorite choice among those who participated.
The original three school districts have been joined by eight others: New Caney in 1981, Tomball in 1982, Conroe in 1991, Willis and Splendora in 1996, Klein in 1998, and Cypress-Fairbanks and Magnolia in 2000.
The Lone Star College System offices were relocated to their current location in The Woodlands in 2003. The Training and Development Center was added to serve as the home of the district's monthly board meetings as well as create an ideal learning facility for the college system and the community.
|Report Card to the Community|
|2012-2015 Strategic Goals|
|Economic Impact Report|
|What We Believe About Student Success|
|Completion Task Force Recommendations|
The SilverStar Newsletter is distributed to residents age 65+ in the Lone Star College service area. For more information, visit our Media Relations page.
Lone Star College System provides comprehensive educational opportunities and programs to enrich lives.
Lone Star College System is recognized globally as the premier community college for student success, innovation and partnerships. | <urn:uuid:68857b50-40f1-47b4-96a5-c2d26f09b608> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.lonestar.edu/about-lsc.htm | 2015-04-01T05:50:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131303502.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172143-00056-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916178 | 2,212 |
Splotchy hipped me to a Metafilter article about the pipes Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Don Sahlin and Jerry Juhl decorated while waiting to appear on The Jack Paar Program.
I'd read about the pipes in, I believe, Jim Henson: The Works several years ago. I'm touched to see that NBC has finally decided to preserve the pipes and make them a part of the 30 Rock tour. (The building, not the show.) And I have a little more respect for Jimmy Fallon, since he's apparently the one who urged NBC to preserve them.
There are some great video links on the Metafilter article. You should really click on them.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Splotchy hipped me to a Metafilter article about the pipes Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Don Sahlin and Jerry Juhl decorated while waiting to appear on The Jack Paar Program.
Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of the great men of my lifetime. I used to watch a lot of Jacques Cousteau's programs when I was a kid; I really credit my mother with exposing me to people like Cousteau and Carl Sagan when I was young and impressionable, and developing my concept of a larger world outside of our suburb.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
A review of the films I've seen this past week.
THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (2009)
I think the original is one of the great horror films. This one... well, it's a competent action thriller that's pretty well-made, but it doesn't have much to say beyond being an action thriller. Does that make it a bad movie? No, not at all. But I still don't think there's a reason to remake it if you don't have the same kind of points to make about society as the original did. This one just does what most thrillers do, and manipulates you into thinking that revenge-driven vigilante justice is a good thing. They couldn't even make the point that society's response to brutality is brutality? Either way, it's not a bad flick. *** stars.
ME AND ORSON WELLES (2009)
Zac Efron stars as a high school student who wants to be an actor and, in 1937, gets himself cast in Orson Welles' production of Julius Caesar. I'm a real sucker for movies like this--reminds me a lot of myself in high school, with similar dreams (and a similar worship of Orson Welles) but less ambition and less opportunity. And I really enjoyed it, even though I knew most of the time where it was going. Welles (Christian McKay in one of the best portrayals of Welles I've seen) takes the boy under his wing and teaches him all about the theater, radio--and really all about bluffing your way into a reputation as a genius. Efron also has a romance with one of the girls at the theater, Claire Danes (whom I always like), and finds himself briefly a romantic rival of Orson Welles. I loved it. And congratulations, Zac, you're a real actor after all. **** stars.
Weird, complex drama about a married couple (Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore) who may be at a crossroads created by routine and familiarity. Moore thinks Neeson is cheating on her, and hires a prostitute, Chloe, to approach Neeson and see what he does. What follows is several layers of psychological. It's too bad it ends on somewhat of a predictable note, but as a drama based on our layers of identity--sexual, nuptial, familial--it's very interesting throughout. Not a total success, but certainly not dismissible, I think. As Chloe, Amanda Seyfried is excellent. She's capable of so much more than the soppy sentiment porn she loves to make. *** stars.
DEAR JOHN (2010)
Soppy sentiment porn starring Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum. It could have been 22 minutes and been the exact same terrible movie, but instead we get nearly two hours of predictable tragedy and overwrought romance novel. Thanks, but I know how to feel without the insultingly obvious manipulations. * star, probably because of Richard Jenkins, whom I always like.
HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS & ALIENATE PEOPLE (2008)
Simon Pegg is wasted in another movie, this one about an irreverent British writer who comes to New York to work for a publisher (Jeff Bridges) he once worshiped. And there's a romance with Kirsten Dunst and Megan Fox as a vapid starlet and Danny Huston proving once again he's very good at playing pricks. It has its moments, but it's just such a pointless waste of a movie.. *1/2 stars.
SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE (2010)
Surprisingly sweet and somewhat emotionally genuine romantic comedy about an average-looking guy (Jay Baruchel, whom I always like, but I wish he'd make eye contact a little more; he's always doing some kind of James Dean thing) who starts dating a really beautiful girl. Predictable, right down to the run through the airport, but there's a quality about it that I really appreciated. The characters are a little more than the usual pawns of the romantic comedy plot. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it for that. Also, I love Krysten Ritter. *** stars.
THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO (2009)
Everything you've heard is true: it's silly, juvenile, dumb, childish, sophomoric, etc. But I also thought it was really funny. Too long, maybe, but very stupid and funny. **1/2 stars.
SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL (1959)
Don Murray stars as an American medical student who gets drawn into the IRA by his professor (James Cagney). It's interesting because it doesn't dispute the IRA's cause (freedom from British rule) but is very critical of their methods, warning against the way war corrupts everyone it touches. Cagney is excellent as an ideologue who is so wrapped up in his hatred for the English that it blinds him to his basic humanity. Michael Anderson's direction is dynamic, and the cast also includes Dana Wynter, Glynis Johns, Michael Redgrave, Richard Harris, and in a small role, William Hartnell. A superb film. **** stars.
THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. (1940)
Bette Davis stars as a socialite about to marry radio personality Jack Carson against the wishes of her rich father (Eugene Pallette from The Adventures of Robin Hood). James Cagney, a pilot, makes a deal with the father to stop the wedding and deliver the bride (charged by weight, as freight) back home. And things go wrong, and they hate each other, and then... well, you know where this is going. It's a plot as old as the movies, but Cagney and Davis are just so much fun that I didn't care. I enjoyed it. The supporting cast also includes William Frawley and Harry Davenport. Good stuff. ***1/2 stars.
It's just that no one so far seems like they're serious about food. And that's the one thing that always bugs me about this show: there are never enough people who are really serious about food, who really want this with every fiber of their being and are willing to fight for it.
Instead we get Andrew, who just walked right out because he couldn't handle the pace or the criticism. I hate when people get so offended. Jean-Philippe told Andrew that Gordon was just testing him, and he was right. And if Andrew really wanted it, really gave a damn about his performance as a chef, he'd have gone back to the kitchen and finished the service. Instead, he chose to take his bruised ego and walk off.
I also don't like Jason's attitude so far. Was he the worst of the night on the Blue Team? No--Gordon made the right choice by eliminating Mikey, whose inability to cook risotto to Hell's Kitchen standards slowed service by an hour or more--so I understand why Jason is pissed. But seriously, the best thing to do is just suck it up and try harder. Show that you have the talent and that you're a team player; don't get caught up in your hurt feelings and try to drag the others down, because that shows spite, and spite isn't leadership. This competition isn't about winning. It's about emerging.
Two more oil leaks in the Gulf of Mexico. BP says they aren't as bad as the other one, but that's like saying that getting stabbed a couple more times when you're already dying from a gut shot makes no difference. They've still destroyed the Gulf, and this problem will be with us for a long, long time. And the ecological and economic destruction it's causing will be with us for even longer.
Maybe it's long past time to get off the damn oil and find alternative fuels in this country, eh? Where's that initiative? Do you think that ever seriously crosses Obama's mind when he's standing on the beach and staring at one of the worst disasters in recorded history?
Besides, you want to create jobs? How about a jobs initiative to try and clean up some of the poison our ecosystem has just been infected with? Seriously, there are a lot of people out of work. Is it so hard to get a frigging works program together? Bad enough our endless oil wars have completely ravaged the economy and all of the money we have left is going to bail out rich people.
:: Also: OSHA says that cleanup workers at the oil disaster don't need breathing protection. OSHA is proving over and over again that they're another organization that's lazy about doing its job. Remember when they said that the workers at Ground Zero didn't need breathing protection? They've turned out to be disastrously wrong on that score, so there's really no need to listen to them on this one. Please, if you know anyone working on the cleanup, tell them to take precautions.
:: Helen Thomas is harried into retirement because she said something critical of Israel? Wow, I didn't know we had a responsibility to do that as a society. You know who else says things I don't like in public? Um, everyone, especially journalists and pundits. Can we get them all to retire? Oh, wait, we have free speech in this country. Except when it comes to Israel, the only nation that can raid a humanitarian ship and murder people on board and not be reprimanded by the US government for it.
:: Elton John played at anti-gay marriage Rush Limbaugh's fourth wedding? So, there goes my last lingering bit of respect for Elton John. I mean, I knew he was a whore, but holy shit, that's just selling himself out on a scale that's insulting.
:: One more thing on the oil disaster.
I just read a screed by someone else that we shouldn't be donating to Save Our Gulf or anyone else to help with the cleanup effort, because this whole mess is BP's fault and BP should be the ones to pay for it.
And you know what? I agree. Partially. This mess is BP's fault. And they should be paying for it. They should be driven into total bankruptcy paying for it.
But this is no longer just BP's mess to clean up. It's bigger than that. This is something that's going to take the concerted effort of many organizations and many people to make better. We don't have to argue about whose fault this is--we know whose fault this is--but to say that no one should be donating and no one should be helping is just the most selfish stupidity. It's a petty thing to say about a situation that calls for resolve. If anything, BP has proven that they can't clean it all up by themselves, and I feel like most of what they're doing is just superficial shadow puppetry to buy their stock prices more time.
This is not the time to be spiteful. This is our ocean. This is about people who have already died because of this and economies that will be ruined. This is about the ecosystem. This is a disaster. And time is of the essence here. Blaming BP for everything does nothing to mitigate the peril, so why be petty about it now. Donating five dollars to help save some animals--some species of which may face actual, irrevocable extinction from this disaster--is LITERALLY THE LEAST YOU CAN DO. It's idiotically small-minded to begrudge those animals and the people whose livelihoods have been ruined just because you're mad at corporations. It's too late for that.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Monday, June 07, 2010
Sunday, June 06, 2010
I love this song, I love this album, I love Genesis. We played this album forever, and this was always my favorite part of it. I was 10 when this came out, so this really could have been my introduction to something more progressive, something different in structure than the pop music or classic rock I had been growing up with.
This definitely takes the prize as my favorite episode from this season of Doctor Who. I think that's in no small part because the script is by Richard Curtis, and Richard Curtis tends to be wonderful. Without giving too much away, there's a sweetness and sentimentality to this episode, especially its last 10 minutes, that seemed very Curtis to me but like something they've not yet done on Doctor Who, and it really swept me along with it.
I won't get into any spoilers from the last few episodes, but I wanted to say again how pleased I am with this season, with Matt Smith, with Karen Gillan, and with Steve Moffatt. I think Moff has done a great job extricating the show from Russell T. Davies' angst and from the overhead, as it were, of so many supporting characters and dangling plot threads. And I've noticed the female characters are generally better-treated than they were under Davies. Just an observation there, but it seems palpable to me.
Only three episodes left, darn it all.
Jaquandor did commentary on this list, and I am nothing if not a follower in matters of pop culture.
Jaq mentions a few times that he didn't look up Entertainment Weekly's criteria, but I went and took a look at it, because some of these choices were totally mystifying to me. I think EW wanted to make a list of 100 Pop Culture Touchstones of the Last 20 Years and didn't know how to word it. They've got a lot of characters on this list who are much older than 20 years, for example, but whose recent interpretations (such as Heath Ledger's Joker) seem to redefine the characters as we know them now. So, I get that, but I would still reject that reasoning for a list of 100 Greatest Characters.
I also reject some of the choices on this list--such as Jane Lynch's character from Glee--due to the fact that EW states as part of their criteria that the character has to have had a lasting impact on pop culture as we know it. And sure, Glee is inexplicably popular right now, but it's been on for, what, a year, year and a half? That long, even? That seems more like a fad choice, which is pretty much what EW is usually about.
So, anyway, my own meager commentary.
1. Homer Simpson. The Tracey Ullman Show started in the 80s, so he's ineligible. Great character, deserves to be number one, but ineligible.
2. Harry Potter. Absolutely. I was just talking about this on Tumblr yesterday; that Harry Potter is a great character, and that those books will be popular for decades to come because they're about characters first and foremost.
3. Buffy Summers. Meh. I hate Buffy. Everything she did Xena did first, anyway. After Joss Whedon was called groundbreaking for doing a musical episode a year after Xena had done it, a friend of mine joked that one of the ways to get more viewers for Xena should've been to advertise it as "See everything Buffy's going to do next season here first!"
4. Tony Soprano. Don't care. Tried to watch it, but it seemed like a lot of retread to me.
5. The Joker (The Dark Knight). Great performance. Excellent performance. Of a character that first appeared in 1940, I believe. So I would say that's ineligible, no matter how great Heath Ledger's performance was.
6. Rachel Green (Friends). I fucking hate Friends. And if you were going to single out one character, why this one? She's a terrible character!
7. Edward Scissorhands. That's... awfully high. Is there still so much residual love for this performance? I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a great movie, but this seem high to say this is one of the greatest characters of the last two decades. EW just can't get Tim Burton's or Johnny Depp's dicks out of their collective mouth.
8. Hannibal Lecter. Technically, the books pre-date 1990. And I still feel Hopkins is hammy and overwrought as Lecter. Brian Cox did it better 24 years ago.
9. Carrie Bradshaw (Sex and the City). Not for me personally. Besides, I hate characters who are constantly bending over backwards to find new ways to be unfulfilled. Get a life, Carrie.
10. Spongebob Squarepants. Irritating.
11. Cosmo Kramer. I really don't like Seinfeld. But if you're going to choose a character from that show for this list, it should really be George Costanza and not Kramer.
12. Fox Mulder & Dana Scully (The X-Files). Meh. Not an X-Files fan.
13. Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean). Captain Jack Sparrow. And though I might quibble over the placement, there's an example of a great character of the last 20 years. As much as I despise these movies, I agree with this choice.
14. Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski (The Big Lebowski). Yes, absolutely.
15. Shrek. Christ, no. First, there's the eligibility issue--I don't know what year William Steig's original book was published--but more importantly, it's just little more than Mike Myers' tired Scottish accent spouting off the same bad routines he always goes to and inane, quickly-dated pop culture references. They captured lightning in a bottle with the first, somewhat sincere, very satirical Shrek. They should've stopped there.
16. Bridget Jones. My question: does this count? Or is she simply a new incarnation of Elizabeth Bennett, since Bridget Jones' Diary is an updating of Pride and Prejudice?
17. Lara Croft. No. A virtual game piece is not a character.
18. Sue Sylvester (Glee). Again, this is far too recent a character to have had some lasting impact on pop culture. Also, what does Jane Lynch do on this show that she doesn't do in everything else she's in? I know lots of people think she's hilarious, but when I see she's in something I know exactly what I'm getting.
19. Morpheus (The Matrix). Meh. Overrated.
20. Ally McBeal. Inane.
21. Rosanne Conner (Roseanne). Doesn't count; this show started in 1988. Plus, Roseanne is exceptionally irritating. If any character deserves to be here from this show--and I'm not sure they do--it's Dan Conner. And really, Dan's biggest failure is not walking home one day with a loaded pistol...
22. Eric Cartman (South Park). Definitely.
23. Austin Powers. Maybe if they'd stopped at one movie. I get so endlessly tired of Mike Myers' repetition of the same tics and gags over and over. (This time, with a BRITISH accent!)
24. Felicity Porter. Get JJ Abrams' dick out of your mouth, EW.
25. Woody (Toy Story). Yes, absolutely.
26. Kavalier & Clay (from Michael Chabon's novel). I still haven't read this book. I need to remedy that.
27. Frasier Crane. Umm... I guess you could argue that his spin-off really strengthened the character into something different, but he first started appearing on Cheers in, what, 1984?
28. Madea. Not for me, no.
29. Vincent Vega & Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction). Tarantino's written better characters, but they did make an impact on pop culture.
30. Stephen Colbert (in the persona he portrays on his show). Not my thing, but it is nice to see EW acknowledge that The Colbert Report is not a news show.
31. Forrest Gump. A book from the 80s. Also... I don't know, he's just a right wing mouthpiece with his rhetoric softened to make it more palatable. And even cute.
32. Beavis and Butt-Head. Sucks. Where's Daria? Daria's a way better character.
33. Sarah Connor (Terminator 2). First appeared in 1984. Doesn't count.
34. Cher (Clueless). Again, this is an update of Jane Austen's Emma, so... does that count? Great character, great performance, but does it count?
35. Dexter Morgan (Dexter). I've never had the urge to watch it, so I don't know.
36. Gollum (Lord of the Rings). From a novel from 1954-1956.
37. Kyser Söze (The Usual Suspects). He's just a plot device, not a character. And I agree with Jaquandor, it's a crap movie, anyway.
38. Elmo (Sesame Street). Elmo's been around too long. To anyone who worked retail in the 90s, he's been around too long. The only reason I don't despise Elmo anymore is because I despise Baby Bear and Abby Cadabby more.
39. GOB Bluth (Arrested Development). GOB is funny and distinctive, but Michael's a better character.
40. Ron Burgundy (Anchorman). Yes, I would agree with this for the same reasons I agree with Captain Jack Sparrow.
41. Harold and Kumar. Funny, but I wouldn't put them on this list.
42. Sydney Bristow (Alias). Abrams again. I've never seen this show, so I have no idea.
43. Cal Stephanides (the novel Middlesex). Another book I need to read. I thought The Virgin Suicides was an excellent novel, but I've yet to read Middlesex.
44. Jack Bauer – 24. I've never watched this show. I can stream it from Netflix and was thinking of checking it out.
45. Stewie Griffin (Family Guy). You mean Brain, from Pinky and the Brain? No, absolutely not; just a rip-off of far too many other cartoon characters (like everything Seth MacFarlane does).
46. Jerry Maguire. Maybe. Seems like a stretch to me, but maybe.
47. Corky St. Clair (Waiting for Guffman). I'm not generally a fan of Christopher Guest's parade of This Is Spinal Tap remakes.
48. Red (The Shawshank Redemption). From a 1982 story. Great performance, though I get sick of seeing Morgan Freeman repeat it over and over again.
49. Vivian Ward (Pretty Woman). Who cares? Julia Roberts has never played a great character.
50. Pearl the Landlord. Funny video, but it's just the one gag of a swearing toddler.
51. Omar Little (The Wire). Never seen The Wire.
52. Annie Wilkes (Misery). Ineligible; the novel is from 1987.
53. Edward Cullen. Edward Cullen is a terrible character. Just awful.
54. Juno (Juno). No.
55. Tracy Jordan (30 Rock). No. More a collection of tics than a character. Liz and Jack are better characters.
56. Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother). Yeah, okay.
57. Clayton Bigsby. Huh?
58. Thelma & Louise. No.
59. Master Chief (Halo). Again, it's a virtual game piece. You might as well say the shoe from Monopoly is a great character.
60. Mary Jones (Precious). Too recent; a great performance, sure, but too recent to call.
61. Vic Mackey (The Shield). Never saw it; I've never seen a show on FX that I've really liked.
62. Jimmy Corrigan (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth). I agree, although it's hard not to read this as EW's token comics character from a comic that hasn't been made into a movie yet. I mean, Spider Jerusalem is a great character, but you're not going to see him on here, are you?
63. John Locke (Lost). I would've put him higher.
64. Maximus (Gladiator). No.
65. Lorelai & Rory Gilmore (Gilmore Girls). If the show had only had four seasons, than I'd agree.
66. Allie & Noah (The Notebook). I haven't seen or read The Notebook.
67. Borat. I'd say yes, although Borat seems like a comedy device more than an actual character. Is a shtick persona a character?
68. Effie White (Dreamgirls). Jennifer Hudson was excellent in the movie. However, it's based on a musical from 1982, so it doesn't count.
69. Miranda Priestly (The Devil Wears Prada). Yes.
70. Mary Katherine Gallagher (SNL). Fucking no.
71. Det. Alonzo Harris (Training Day). Terrible; it's not even worth an Oscar, let alone a place on this list.
72. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Battlestar Galactica). I've never seen the remake, but I have seen the original, so I would say that since Starbuck is a character from 1978, she's ineligible.
73. Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct). No.
74. Don Draper (Mad Men). What I've seen of the show has bored me greatly.
75. David Brent (The Office - original from the UK). Definitely.
76. Tyler Durden (Fight Club). Terrible movie, excellent novel. If we're talking novel, then I'd say absolutely.
77. Mimi Marquez (Rent). Rent blows. And it's just La Boheme.
78. Patty Hewes (Damages). Again, the FX thing. I tend to avoid shows on FX.
79. Elphaba (Wicked). But she's a reinterpretation of a character from a book published in 1901. Plus, I fucking hate Wicked.
80. Gorillaz, the world’s greatest virtual band. They're more of a gimmick than characters.
81. Amanda Woodward (Melrose Place). Please.
82. Tracy Flick (Election). Good performance, but this seems like a stretch.
83. Jen Yu (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Doesn't count; fantastic, but based on a novel from 1938-1942.
84. House (House). I've never seen what's so special about House.
85. Daniel Plainview (There Will Be Blood). Excellent performance, though I'm not sure how closely (if at all) the film hews to the 1927 novel it's loosely based on.
86. Karen Walker & Jack McFarland (Will & Grace). Will & Grace is the worst show in the history of television, and these two shrill assholes a big part of the reason why.
87. Tony Stark (Iron Man). Iron Man first appeared in 1963; I don't care how popular the movie was, it doesn't count. Plus, it's been two years, where's the long-lasting impact on pop culture as we know it? I mean, Spider-Man had arguably more of an impact, but he's ineligible for the same reason.
88. Napoleon Dynamite. No. A collection of annoying tics, but not a character.
89. Wilkus van de Merwe (District 9). I don't know... maybe.
90. Marge Gunderson (Fargo). Yes.
91. Hancock (Hancock). Have I mentioned yet that Entertainment Weekly is owned by Time Warner, a division of Warner Bros? Just felt like mentioning it somehow. And I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who feels like Hancock made a big impact on pop culture, which EW listed as their main criterion.
92. Christopher Boone (The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time). Haven't read it, but I am getting sick of hearing about it.
93. “Game Boys”: Nathan Drake – Uncharted, Kratos – God of War, Niko Bellic – Grand Theft Auto IV. Also, the queen's knight in chess. Please.
94. Truman (The Truman Show). Excellent movie, but no.
95. Wilhelmina Slater (Ugly Betty). Okay, yes.
96. Bernie Mac (The Bernie Mac Show). No.
97. Violet Weston (August: Osage County). I don't know what this means.
98. Lisbeth Salander (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). This seems like another fad choice to me.
99. The Bride (Kill Bill). Yes, I would agree here. One of Tarantino's best characters, especially as the second movie fills out the revenge drama of the first.
100. Tim Riggins (Friday Night Lights). I have no interest in it.
And there you are. | <urn:uuid:28777769-844b-4e3b-821b-ce89674c09f4> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://samuraifrog.blogspot.com/2010_06_06_archive.html | 2015-03-26T23:44:52Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131293283.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172133-00124-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965158 | 6,389 |
In August of 1924, hundreds of people gathered on the shores of New Bedford Harbor to see the last wooden whaling ship – the Wanderer – depart on what all knew to be its final voyage. It didn’t last long. Two days out to sea, the Wanderer was caught in a storm, and the last living vestige of American whaling was wrecked on the shores of Cuttyhunk Island.
In earlier and better times, New Bedford had been the undisputed whaling capital of the world. In its heyday in the 1840s the New Bedford fleet comprised over 60% of the world’s whaling vessels. The oil from leviathans hunted in all oceans of the world was used principally for lamps and candles. Globally renowned, New Bedford was one of the wealthier cities in the United States, known as ‘The City that Lit the World.’
But technology changed. In 1859, ‘Colonel’ Edwin Drake drilled his successful oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The discovery of cheap and widely available oil quickly led to the widespread use of kerosene in lamps, displacing the whale oil that had built New Bedford, and gradually bringing death to the whaling industry.
Now, nearly a century later, a new energy technology is being developed, and New Bedford seeks to claim its rightful place in this new energy era. In a strange evolution, those abundant winds upon which the whalers sailed have themselves now become the source of energy. And unlike the whales – hunted into nearly irreversible decline – the offshore wind resources are inexhaustible. So the Commonwealth of Massachusetts plans to harness the wind to meet today’s demand for electricity. With the help of the Port of New Bedford, the Commonwealth intends to build a Marine Commerce Terminal – costing as much as $100 million – to support a budding offshore wind industry that will be worth tens of billions of dollars for equipment manufacturers like General Electric, Siemens and American Superconductor, when mature.
It will not be an easy task. Yesterday’s wooden ships and whaleboats will give way to towers soaring hundreds of feet into the sky, carbon fiber blades the length of football fields, and turbines the size of small trucks. The turbines and blades being considered for the job will probably be in the neighborhood of 6-10 MW each (this compares with the turbines in offshore Europe which typically range between 3-6 MW today, and averaged 4 MW last year). These new windmills will be leviathans themselves – current wind turbine blades are maxed out at 75 meters, but the technology will soon be pushing 100 meters. Put another way, when three blades are combined with a tower, they will eclipse the Washington Monument in height by 50%.
These turbines have to be large. Since offshore costs are 2 to 3 times those on land, one needs to put in the biggest turbines possible to take advantage of the constant winds offshore. Both blades and turbines will have to get bigger, better, and stronger in order to harvest the maximum amount of energy at the lowest cost. For example, increasing the rotor diameter from 150 m (today’s largest blades) to 200 m (currently in development by at least one competitor) the blades will increase in length by 33%, but the swept area, which captures the wind energy, will increase by 78% (πR2). The move towards bigger turbines is clearly accelerating. In 2012, 31 companies announced plans for 38 turbine models. Of these, 76% were for turbines larger than 5 MW, and a few were as large as 10 MW or greater.
With these types of improvements, the DOE’s National Offshore Wind Strategy looks to lower costs to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2020, with a long-term goal of 7 cents by 2030. Significant technological developments will clearly need to happen for this to occur. Each windmill will cost in the tens of millions of dollars. However, the energy extracted from thin air by these wind farms could well be worth billions, and create thousands of new jobs in the Commonwealth.
It’s an alluring story. And so, on a cold day this past January, I visited the Port of New Bedford at the invitation of Richard K. Sullivan, Jr., Massachusetts Secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, to learn more about the Commonwealth’s ambitious plans for the Marine Commerce Terminal and the offshore wind industry as a whole. As we strolled the pier with his staff and clambered down onto the beach, a seal swam just offshore between us and the silk curtains deployed to prevent winter flounder from spawning near the construction site.
Walking the shoreline, Secretary Sullivan and his team explained the aims of the Commonwealth and the specific details of the project. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has articulated a goal of developing 2,000 megawatts of wind energy by 2020, with most of it offshore. The offshore wind resource is considerable: A recent US Department of Energy survey indicates there is enough offshore wind to equal four times current US electric consumption, with 25% of that off the Northeastern US. In an effort to streamline the permitting process, the Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has identified two formal wind energy areas off the Massachusetts coast covering nearly 1,000 square miles, with leases to be offered for sale by competitive auction in 2013. Secretary Sullivan explained that these two areas alone contain the potential for 9,000 MW of wind energy. To put that number in context, New England’s highest peak demand for electricity tops out at just over 28,000 MW.
Turning that wind into energy will require the development of multiple wind farms and hundreds – if not thousands – of turbines. And if the European experience is anything to go by, it requires a significant investment in onshore infrastructure and supporting industries to make it happen. Massachusetts intends to position itself at the crux of this development, and is therefore moving ahead with the infrastructure to make this happen. The Commonwealth has already developed the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s Wind Technology Testing Center in Charlestown, MA, just outside of Boston, where they are testing the enormous blade technologies necessary for offshore. The next step is to develop the requisite port facilities.
To that end, the Commonwealth recently issued a tender for construction of a 28-acre terminal, as well as dredging 47 acres of the harbor to the necessary depth. The actual terminal will be multi-duty, able to handle both the highly specialized needs of the offshore wind industry, as well as more generalized merchant shipping. Three bidders responded in time to meet the February 15th deadline, and selection of the contractor will occur shortly. The 1,000 foot extension to the existing South Terminal bulkhead will be the only one of its kind on the East Coast, reinforced with specialized steel, and built to withstand a pressure of 4,000 lbs per square foot. The affiliated crane will also be specialized as well to handle heavy and cumbersome loads.
The planners are not merely building for the needs of today’s industry, but rather for the requirements of the offshore wind industry in the decades to come. Everything is being supersized in anticipation of technology which may be on the drawing board but which does not exist today. They are also building with an eye to our possible climate future – in anticipation of projected sea level rise, the bulkheads will be 11’ (rather than 9’ of the surrounding piers) above sea level.
In order to allow passage for the required vessels (which are likely to cost up to $100 million each – base on the experience of offshore wind in Europe), the adjoining channel will be dredged to a depth of 30 feet. The avoidance of surprise is critical here: to ensure they know the level of work involved, and whether blasting would be required (probably not), over 60 borings have already been taken to ascertain both the strength of the bedrock upon which the bulkhead will be constructed as well as the material to be removed from the harbor. The bulkhead will be long enough to accommodate two ships plus two jack-up barges.
In the immediate future, it is probable that the ships arriving will be from European companies, carrying blades, towers and nacelles for the projects. The Europeans have been working offshore for years, and are currently the only ones with the expertise and know-how at this point. At the end of 2012, they have installed 1,662 turbines in 55 offshore wind farms, totaling 4,995 MW. Last year alone, 293 turbines were installed, totaling 1,166 MW, and representing investments estimated to be in the range of $4.5 to $6 bn. Many of these turbines have been installed in the unforgiving and harsh environment of the North Sea.
All of this equipment will be offloaded at the terminal. The value-added work taking place on shore will largely involve the electrical integration of the pieces. Once ready for assembly, the towers, blades, and nacelles housing the generators will be carried to sea on jack-up barges. These vessels are technological marvels themselves, involving a combination of buoyant hulls and movable legs that allow them to ascend to a desired height (as high as 150 feet above sea level). They are also expensive – the biggest of them go for nearly $100 million. Jack-up barges create the stable platforms necessary to drive the pilings for the towers 80 feet or more into the seabed, and secure the wind turbines.
Longer-term, if and when the industry gets a secure foothold, it is expected that the offshore wind companies will bring investments to the local area. Secretary Sullivan expressed optimism: “We think, from experience in Europe, that the tipping point is 2,000 MW in the pipeline. After that, the imported components will start to decrease and more manufacturing would take place here.” The result would be to establish the New Bedford and neighboring Fall River area as a core area for production of the various necessary inputs. Everybody from local shipbuilders to machine shops could benefit from the economic ripple effects.
Bob Mitchell, CEO of the Atlantic Wind Connection, a company looking to build out the transmission backbone linking the windfarms off the coast of New Jersey, feels that this on-shoring of the manufacturing capability is critical in the long run. “We need to get manufacturing on US soil. The range of cost saving, if that were to happen, is somewhere between 18 and 25%. That’s pretty dramatic.”
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Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
AIDS dementia complex (ADC; also known as HIV dementia, HIV encephalopathy and HIV-associated dementia) has become a common neurological disorder associated with HIV infection and AIDS. It is is a metabolic encephalopathy induced by HIV infection and fueled by immune activation of brain macrophages and microglia. These cells are actively infected with HIV and secrete neurotoxins of both host and viral origin. The essential features of ADC are disabling cognitive impairment accompanied by motor dysfunction, speech problems and behavioural change. Cognitive impairment is characterised by mental slowness, trouble with memory and poor concentration. Motor symptoms include a loss of fine motor control leading to clumsiness, poor balance and tremors. Behavioural changes may include apathy, lethargy and diminished emotional responses and spontaneity. Histopathologically, it is identified by the infiltration of monocytes and macrophages into the central nervous system (CNS), gliosis, pallor of myelin sheaths, abnormalities of dendritic processes and neuronal apoptosis.
ADC typically occurs after years of HIV infection and is associated with low CD4+ T cell levels and high plasma viral loads. It is sometimes seen as the first sign of the onset of AIDS. Prevalence is between 10-20% in Western countries and has only been seen in 1-2% of India based infections. With the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), the frequency of ADC has declined in developed countries. HAART may not only prevent or delay the onset of ADC in people with HIV infection, it can also improve mental function in people who already have ADC.
Dementia only exists when neurocognitive impairment in the patient is severe enough to interfere markedly with day-to-day function. That is, the patient is typically unable to work and may not be able to take care of him or herself. Before this, the patient is said to have a mild neurocognitive disorder.
- Marked acquired impairment of at least two ability domains of cognitive function (e.g. memory, attention): typically, the impairment is in multiple domains, especially in learning, information processing and concentration/attention. The cognitive impairment is ascertained by medical history, mental status examination or neuropsychological testing.
- Cognitive impairments identified in 1. interfere markedly with day-to-day functioning.
- Cognitive impairments identified in 1. are present for at least one month.
- Cognitive impairments identified in 1. do not meet the criteria for delirium, or if delirium is present, dementia was diagnosed when delirium was not present.
- No evidence of another, pre-existing aetiology that could explain the dementia (e.g. another CNS infection, CNS neoplasm, cerebrovascular disease, pre-existing neurological disease, severe substance abuse compatible with CNS disorder.
While the progression of dysfunction is variable, it is regarded as a serious complication and, untreated, can progress to a fatal outcome. Diagnosis is made by neurologists who carefully rule out alternative diagnoses. This routinely requires a careful neurological examination, brain scans (MRI or CT scan) and a lumbar puncture to evaluate the cerebrospinal fluid. No single test is available to confirm the diagnosis, but the constellation of history, laboratory findings, and examination can reliably establish the diagnosis when performed by experienced clinicians. The amount of virus in the brain does not correlate well with the degree of dementia, suggesting that secondary mechanisms are also important in the manifestation of ADC.
AIDS Dementia Complex (ADC) is not a true opportunistic infection. It is one of the few conditions caused directly by HIV itself. But it is not quite as simple as that because the central nervous system can be damaged by a number of other causes:
- opportunistic infections - there are many
- Primary cerebral lymphoma or metastasis of other AIDS-related cancers
- direct effects of HIV in the brain
- toxic effects of drug treatments
Many researchers believe that HIV damages the vital brain cells, neurons, indirectly. According to one theory, HIV either infects or activates cells that nurture and maintain the brain, known as macrophages and microglia. These cells then produce toxins that can set off a series of reactions that instruct neurons to kill themselves. The infected macrophages and microglia also appear to produce additional factors chemokines and cytokines - that can affect neurons as well as other brain cells known as astrocytes. The affected astrocytes, which normally nurture and protect neurons, also may now end up harming neurons. Researchers hope that new drugs under investigation will interfere with the detrimental cycle and prevent neuron death.
ADC stage characteristicsEdit
- Stage 0 (Normal) Normal Mental and Motor Function
- Stage 0.5 (Subclinical) Minimal symptoms of cognitive or motor dysfunction characteristic of ADC, or mild signs (snout response, slowed extremity movements), but without impairment of work or capacity to perform activities of daily living (ADL). Gait and strength are normal.
- Stage 1 (Mild) Evidence of functional intellectual or motor impairment characteristic of ADC, but able to perform all but the more demanding aspects of work or ADL. Can walk without assistance.
- Stage 2 (Moderate) Cannot work or maintain the more demanding aspects of daily life, but able to perform basic activities of self care. Ambulatory, but may require a single prop.
- Stage 3 (Severe) Major intellectual incapacity - cannot follow news or personal events, cannot sustain complex conversation, considerable slowing of all output. And/or motor disability - cannot walk unassisted, requiring walker or personal support, usually with slowing and clumsiness of arms as well.
- Stage 4 (End Stage) Nearly vegetative. Intellectual and social comprehension and responses are at a rudimentary level. Nearly or absolutely mute. Paraparetic or paraplegic with double incontinence.
References and notesEdit
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Gray, F., Adle-Biassette, H., Chrétien, F., Lorin de la Grandmaison, G., Force, G., Keohane, C. (2001). Neuropathology and neurodegeneration in human immunodeficiency virus infection. Pathogenesis of HIV-induced lesions of the brain, correlations with HIV-associated disorders and modifications according to treatments. Clin. Neuropathol. 20 (4): 146-155. PMID 11495003.
- ↑ Adle-Biassette, H., Lévy, Y., Colombel, M., Poron, F., Natchev, S., Keohane, C. and Gray, F. (1995). Neuronal apoptosis in HIV infection in adults. Neuropathol. Appl. Neurobiol. 21 (3): 218-227. PMID 7477730.
- ↑ Grant, I., Sacktor, H., and McArthur, J. (2005). "HIV neurocognitive disorders" H. E. Gendelman, I. Grant, I. Everall, S. A. Lipton, and S. Swindells. (ed.) The Neurology of AIDS, 2nd, 357-373, London, U.K.: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-852610-5.
- ↑ Satishchandra, P., Nalini, A., Gourie-Devi, M., Khanna, N., Santosh, V., Ravi, V., Desai, A., Chandramuki, A., Jayakumar, P. N., and Shankar, S. K. (2000). Profile of neurologic disorders associated with HIV/AIDS from Bangalore, south India (1989-96). Indian J. Med. Res. 11: 14-23. PMID 10793489.
- ↑ Wadia, R. S., Pujari, S. N., Kothari, S., Udhar, M., Kulkarni, S., Bhagat, S., and Nanivadekar, A. (2001). Neurological manifestations of HIV disease. J. Assoc. Physicians India 49: 343-348. PMID 11291974.
- ↑ Grant, I., Atkinson, J. (1995). "Psychiatric aspects of acquired immune deficiency syndrome." Kaplan, H.I. and Sadock, B.J. (ed.) Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry, VI, (Vol.2, Sect. 29.2) 1644-1669, Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins. ISBN 0-683-04532-6.
- Price, R.W. (1998). AIDS Dementia Complex. University of California San Francisco. URL accessed on 2006-04-06.
HIV/AIDS related topics
HIV · AIDS · HIV structure and genome · HIV test · CDC Classification System for HIV Infection · HIV disease progression rates · HIV vaccine · WHO Disease Staging System for HIV Infection and Disease · AIDS dementia complex · Antiretroviral drug · Tuberculosis (coinfection)
International AIDS Conference · International AIDS Society · World AIDS Day · Treatment Action Campaign · UNAIDS · PEPFAR · NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt · HIV and AIDS misconceptions · List of HIV-positive people · People With AIDS Self-Empowerment Movement · HIV–positive fictional characters
|AIDS pandemic in||
Sub-Saharan Africa (in South Africa • Uganda) · Asia (in China • India • Myanmar • Pakistan • Taiwan • Japan) · in Latin America (in Brazil) · Caribbean · Eastern Europe and Central Asia (in Russia) · Western Europe · United States · List of countries by HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate
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Breakfast Sweet and savory breakfast selections including the classic French Croissant Doughnut, a meat and cheese platter with baguette, and vegetable quiche. Also includes assorted pastries served table-side. Lunch Tuna Nicoise salad; Croque Monsieur; carved turkey sandwich; roast beef sandwich; braised pork with bacon-mashed potatoes; veggie quiche; quinoa salad. Kids meals include carved turkey sandwich, pulled pork, a tasty meatloaf, or pasta with marinara sauce.
Dinner: Pan-seared salmon on leek fondue; New York strip.
Breakfast $19.99 (children's $11.99). Lunch $9–$13.50 (child $6.99–$8.50), dinner $16–$30 (child $8.59–$10.59).
For all meals, you'll want to make reservations 180 days in advance. You'll need to use a credit card to guarantee your reservation, and there's a $10 per person no-show fee if you don't show up or cancel within 24 hours. (Note that this is the only quick-service meal at Walt Disney World that accepts reservations.)
Breakfast and Lunch
Even for breakfast and lunch, reservations are required to dine at Be Our Guest.
For the counter service breakfast and lunch, touch-screen, automated terminals (like you can find at Contempo Cafe) are available for guests to customize their orders. To skip this step at lunch, guests with reservations may instead order their food up to 30 days in advance via the My Disney Experience app or website. For special dietary requests and cash orders, cashiers are available.
After placing your order, you’ll sit down, and your order will be delivered to you on real tableware — no paper and plastic around here. Guests who have eaten at Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney will understand the process here. You retrieve your own silverware and fill your own beverage cups.
Popularity does not wane come evening. If you can't get a dinner reservation, check in person when the park opens for any same-day cancellations, though you may need a certain party size to fill a vacant table.
Dinner is a table service meal and requires a credit card guarantee. While not a character meal, per se, Beast visits the dining room and is available for photos.
Walk-Through Video of Be Our Guest
Setting and Atmosphere
Be Our Guest is one of the best restaurants in the Magic Kingdom. In fact, Be Our Guest is one of our top recommendations for lunch in any Disney theme park, and worth a special trip to the Magic Kingdom just for the experience. We also recommend Be Our Guest as a less-expensive, easier-to-reserve alternative to Cinderella's Royal Table. If we were in Cinderella's slippers, we'd be considering a call for help to those "restaurant renovation" reality shows.
Inside Be Our Guest are three separate dining areas, themed after the ballroom, Rose Gallery, and West Wing from Disney's animated film Beauty and the Beast.
Located along the back border of Fantasyland, the restaurant is set deep inside a faux rock wall which serves as the base of Beast's castle. In fact, the restaurant is so far back inside the Magic Kingdom that there are no windows to the outside world in any of the three dining rooms, because the view from them would be of the park's otherwise hidden infrastructure. The lack of windows makes the dining rooms dark, especially the West Wing room. As in the movie, Beast's enchanted rose appears in the West Wing, not in the dining room named "Rose Gallery."
For dinner, try the pan-seared salmon on leek fondue, or the New York strip.
Our favorite lunch selections are the seared tuna Niçoise salad and the Croque Monsieur sandwich. The tuna is peppered slightly and set on a bed of greens with chilled green beans, potatoes, olives, peppers, and tomatoes, and topped with a hard poached egg. The Croque Monsieur sandwich is a grown-up version of grilled ham and cheese, with carved ham, Gruyere cheese, béchamel and pommes frites (french fries).
The lunch menu also includes a carved turkey sandwich on warm baguette with Dijon mayonnaise; and a roast beef sandwich with horseradish spread. These are also served with fries. A braised pork dish, with bacon and vegetable mashed potatoes, rounds out the carnivore section of the menu. Vegetarians will enjoy a loaded vegetable quiche. We found it a little too "eggy" for our tastes; others liked it for that reason. The other options is a quinoa, shallot, and chive salad, which is vegan, and is the best non-meat choice on the menu.
For the kids at lunch, look for a carved turkey sandwich, roasted pulled pork, Mickey meatloaf, seared mahi mahi, or whole-grain macaroni topped with marinara and mozzarella. Of these, the Mickey meatloaf is the best, while the mahi seems dry every time we've tried it. Also note that the portions on the kids' meals are large enough to satisfy many adults.
Table Service Dinner
The big surprise at dinner is that you can order wine and beer with your meal, because Be Our Guest is the first Magic Kingdom restaurant to serve alcohol. The wines are from France and California, and can be ordered by the glass or bottle. If you're feeling festive, champagne is available too (by the bottle only). Beers are from Belgium and France.
Appetizers include a charcuterie plate with cured meats and sausages; mussels steamed in white wine; French onion or potato leek soup, and a salad with champagne vinaigrette. Vegetarians and vegans will enjoy the salad trio with roasted beet, raisins, and orange; green beans, tomatoes, and roasted shallots; and watermelon, radish, and mint. Our favorite is the potato leek soup.
Main course options include a thyme-scented pork rack chop with au gratin pasta; rotisserie rock hen with roasted fingerling potatoes; pan-seared salmon in leek fondue; grilled strip steak with pommes frites; sautéed shrimp and scallops with veggies in puff pastry with creamy lobster sauce; and an oven-baked, vegetarian ratatouille.
Of these, the shrimp and scallops in puff pastry gets the most positive comments from diners. The pork rack chop is also a hit, though not quite as good as the pork chop at the Studios' Hollywood Brown Derby.
The strip steak is hit or miss, depending on the quality of the beef. Some nights it's chewier than you'd expect from a $30 cut of meat, other times it's fine. The ratatouille incorporates the quinoa salad from lunch, and, according to our staff vegans, could use more vegetables.
For dessert at lunch or dinner, enjoy strawberry cream cheese, lemon meringue, or triple chocolate cupcakes, a chocolate cream puff, or a passion fruit cream puff. Our favorites are the strawberry cream cheese cupcake and the lemon meringue cupcake. Vegans can request sorbet.
For kids at dinner, it’s grilled steak, grilled fish of the day, whole-grain macaroni, or grilled chicken breast.
Related blogs: SATURDAY SIX: Six Reasons We Love Be Our Guest
- Adult Breakfast
- Kids Breakfast
- Lunch Menu (has snacks)
- Dinner Menu
- Kid's Dinner Menu (has snacks)
- Kids' Lunch Menu
Requires Credit Card to Reserve:
Requires Pre-payment in Full: No
|Type||Discount||Valid Weekdays||Valid Meals|
|Tables in Wonderland||20%||All||Dinner only|
Disney Dining Plan
Requires 1 credit
|When to go||Breakfast, lunch or dinner|
|Parking||Magic Kingdom lot|
|Bar||Wine and beer only.|
|Wine||Solid wine list that’s mostly French to match the restaurant’s theming—from sparkling starters to a sweet Sauternes. A handful of popular California vintages are on the list.|
|Lunch Hours||10:30am to 2:30pm (Counter Service)|
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Egypt's President Morsi Is Ousted From Power By Military
A huge celebration has begun in Egypt's Tahrir Square, after army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi proclaimed that Mohammed Morsi is out as president and the country's constitution has been suspended. The new plan calls for Egypt's chief justice to lead an interim government and set a date for early presidential elections.
The military announced the transition in a TV broadcast in which al-Sisi was accompanied by Mohamed ElBaradei, the leader of the liberal opposition to Morsi, as well as the imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque and the pope of the Coptic Church. Members of the youth group that led the charge against Morsi also attended.
Mass protests that have persisted since Sunday prompted Egypt's military to replace Morsi, who was democratically elected last year. The military had set a deadline of today for Morsi to come to a compromise agreement with his opponents. Instead, he remained defiant, insisting he would not resign.
As NPR's Parallels blog explains, "Egypt's military has played a dominant role in the country since a 1952 coup."
The coup led the U.S. State Department to warn U.S. citizens today "to defer travel to Egypt and U.S. citizens living in Egypt to depart at this time because of the continuing political and social unrest."
We're continuing to follow developments in the story.
Morsi and his supporters said earlier that they saw the army's demand as a de facto threat of a coup. On Morning Edition, NPR's Cairo bureau chief Leila Fadel said Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood supporters had vowed to "face a coup with martyrdom."
The anti-Morsi protesters who flooded Egyptian cities' streets in recent days said they wouldn't stop until the president resigned, Leila reported. Among the things fueling the protesters' discontent: the country's deep economic problems.
The military, meanwhile, has said it will "sacrifice even our blood for Egypt and its people, to defend them against any terrorist, radical or fool."
Gehad el-Haddad, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood party, said Morsi was under house arrest at a Presidential Guard facility where he had been residing, and 12 presidential aides also were under house arrest, according to The Associated Press.
News outlets that are live blogging include:
-- The Guardian
-- BBC News
A related post on the Parallels blog: "Who's Who In The Egyptian Crisis."
All Things Considered also talked with NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson and Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Abdul Mawgoud Rageh Dardery about some of the questions surrounding Wednesday's coup.
Egypt's military must preserve the rights and safety of its citizens, President Obama says, in a statement issued Wednesday in which he called the situation in Egypt "very fluid."
"The voices of all those who have protested peacefully must be heard — including those who welcomed today's developments, and those who have supported President Morsy," Obama said. "In the interim, I urge all sides to avoid violence and come together to ensure the lasting restoration of Egypt's democracy."
The president also said he has order a review of the ouster's "implications under U.S. law for our assistance to the Government of Egypt."
We've put the president's full statement in another post.
Update at 6:30 p.m. ET: Travel Warning Issued For Egypt
The State Department this afternoon warned U.S. citizens "to defer travel to Egypt and U.S. citizens living in Egypt to depart at this time because of the continuing political and social unrest."
Announcing the Travel Warning, the State Department added that it has ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families to leave Egypt.
Update at 5:30 p.m. ET: No U.S. Aid After Coup, Leahy Says
The question of how the U.S. might adjust its political and financial dealings with Egypt could be a difficult one.
While acknowledging that Morsi's government "has been a great disappointment to the people of Egypt," Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Budget Committee for the State Department and Foreign Assistance, stated today that U.S. funds cannot continue after a coup.
In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Leahy says he hopes the military keeps its promise to allow civilians to govern the country. But he also said that "our law is clear: U.S. aid is cut off when a democratically elected government is deposed by military coup or decree."
While saying his committee would wait to see how things develop in Egypt, Leahy added, "As the world's oldest democracy, this is a time to reaffirm our commitment to the principle that transfers of power should be by the ballot, not by force of arms."
When the State Department outlined U.S. policy after a coup took place in Fiji in 2006, it said that while providing military and peacekeeping aid was forbidden, some aid could continue, "such as programs that deal with environmental issues, health issues such as HIV/AIDS and avian flu, counterproliferation, supporting refugees and support to non governmental organizations (NGOs)."
Update at 4:05 p.m. ET: Calling It A 'Coup'
Morsi's ouster may present a prickly situation to the U.S. government, reports NPR's Michele Kelemen, who notes that U.S. officials might hesitate to call the incident a coup.
"The U.S. would have to cut off aid to Egypt's military if it does determine this was a coup," Michele reports. She cites today's daily briefing at the State Department:
"Spokesperson Jen Psaki was asked to spell out the department's definition of a coup. She would only say, 'I'm happy to get you that, but I wouldn't ascribe, you know, specific words. Each scenario is different. And if you need our specific, formal, government definition, we'll get that around to everybody.' "
As for reaction elsewhere in Washington, the White House says Obama "is being updated by the National Security Staff" on the situation in Egypt, NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
Update at 3:45 p.m. ET: Morsi Rejects Coup, Urges Peace
Mohammed Morsi is using his official presidential Twitter account to respond to his removal from power by Egypt's military, which he says "represent a full coup categorically rejected by all the free men of our nation."
Morsi says the move "turns Egypt backwards."
But Morsi also"urges everyone to adhere to peacefulness and avoid shedding blood of fellow countrymen," according a tweet posted just before 3:40 p.m. ET.
Update at 3:15 p.m. ET: Morsi Is Out, Military Says
Military chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi says Morsi is out as president and that the country's constitution has been suspended. Egypt's chief justice will hold power during the transitional period and set a date for early presidential elections.
As the news spread, massive crowds gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square erupted in celebration.
Update at 2:35 p.m. ET: Egypt's New 'Roadmap' To Be Announced:
A new political "roadmap" for Egypt's shift from President Mohammed Morsi's rule to an interim government will be announced shortly, reports the Middle East News Agency, the official state agency. As of now, there has been no public reaction from Morsi and his party, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Egyptian state radio said that the transition plan is expected to be announced within an hour by Mohamed ElBaradei, the leader of the liberal opposition to Morsi, along with two clerics: the imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque and the pope of the Coptic Church. Members of the military and of the youth group that has led the charge against Morsi are also expected to attend.
Reuters reports that the plan, backed by Egypt's military, calls for new presidential and parliamentary elections, after an interim rule. Citing the army's Facebook page, Reuters says the army chief met with political and religious leaders Wednesday evening.
Update at 2 p.m. ET: U.S. Sides With The People, State Dept. Says
Insisting that the U.S. will not take sides in Egypt's conflict, U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki says, "We're on the side of the Egyptian people."
Psaki told reporters at today's daily news briefing that all sides of the clashes in Egypt need to listen to one another, and to the Egyptian public. She also said the U.S. is monitoring events closely, saying officials are "very concerned."
On Tuesday, Psaki said, "The reports that we have been urging early elections are inaccurate."
Following up on the reports that Morsi has been banned from traveling, Egyptian State TV is saying that all charter flights have been grounded — which would effectively bar travel by any officials.
Meanwhile, troops and equipment have been seen moving toward places in Cairo where Morsi's supporters have gathered and Reuters says "barbed wire [and] barriers" have been put around the "barracks where President Morsi [is] working. The wire service adds that the army says it is "securing the area only."
"A senior adviser to the president says an ultimatum was given to Morsi" by the military, NPR's Leila Fadel reports from Cairo. He was reportedly told: "resign or else." That adviser also tells Leila that Morsi refused. Note: The army has not commented on such reports and it's worth noting that the account is coming from the Morsi camp, which has an incentive to try to shape the story's narrative.
Meanwhile, The Associated Press is now reporting — as The New York Times' David Kirkpatrick did earlier — that the military has banned Morsi from traveling.
"For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let's call what is happening by its real name: Military coup," writes Essam al-Haddad, Morsi's assistant for foreign relations and international cooperation, on his Facebook page.
Those may be among "the last lines I get to post on this page," he also says.
From Cairo, NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson sends us an English translation of the statement from Morsi.
In a statement on his official website, Morsi "remains defiant," The Guardian writes, but also suggests there could be a transition plan "based on constitutional legitimacy" (according to Al-Jazeera's translation).
"Egypt's military leadership has confirmed it has held talks with opposition figures and senior clerics, and that it will make a statement after the meeting," The Guardian writes.
Al-Jazeera is among several news outlets streaming live reports.
The Egyptian president believes it would be better to defend Egypt's democracy and die "standing like a tree" than to step aside, spokesman Ayman Ali has told Reuters.
According to Reuters, "Egyptian liberal opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei met army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday, two political sources said, hours before an army deadline for Islamist President Mohamed Mursi to yield to mass protests or quit. ... 'In the meeting, ElBaradei will urge the armed forces to intervene to stop the bloodshed,' one opposition source said."
ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. | <urn:uuid:d8bccc27-3dfc-4fca-9a18-978c13162eca> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://wesa.fm/post/showdown-egypt-wednesdays-developments | 2015-03-29T00:37:23Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131298015.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172138-00240-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968017 | 2,393 |
A Blaze of Crimson Ch. 03byTripwire©
She clenched the card hard in her tiny fist. Valerie staggered, wobbled just a bit. Looking down, she noticed her shoes were on her feet. A tiny giggle surfaced that threatened to turn into laughing crying fit. "When did I put those back on?" She must have been on auto-pilot, like road hypnosis. Again a tiny little laugh. Valerie leaned back, resting for a moment against a brick wall. Like standing on the edge of a cliff, what did he do to her? Yuri had said he had taken everything from her. Right now, she believed him. Like a dried up piece of fruit, despite or perhaps because of this she wanted to shriek out in laughter, so loud that it would shatter the world around her. The card clenched between her fingers brought her back from the edge.
"Valerie, right?" She looked up from the plastic black card in her hand. Tom was there leaning against a black Bentley. "Want to know about that?" Tom glanced meaningfully down at the card in her hand. She nodded. "Get in and I will drive you home." Valerie shook her head.
"Just tell me about this," she stared down at the ground.
"I will, get in the car. I don't feel like dealing with the dregs tonight." Valerie turned to walk away. "Get in the car," a pause, "please." A small victory, a smile crept across her lips, and then vanished before turning to face him. Tom opened the Bentley's passenger side door, the smell of oranges and almonds drifted out of the sedan. She got in, the leather seat seemed to envelope her, and for a split second she imagined she heard a woman's voice laughing from behind her. Tom closed the door, the smell of almonds and oranges vanished with the door closing as did the laughter. Valerie watched, as Tom slowly walked around the Bentley once, and picked up something off of the hood. The briefest of smiles broke across his face, as he tossed the cigarette butt into the street.
He climbed into the car and started the engine and started to pull away from the curb. Valerie glanced down at the thin black and silver plastic card in her hand.
"What does it mean?" The card had a shield emblem embossed with a wolf's head and a broom, an old one made of tied straw.
"It means you are Yuri's bitch." Valerie glared up at him. He held up a similar card to hers in his hand. However, Tom's had a small green emerald mounted on his. "He likes to call us his Oprichniki. We are under his protection, and do what we are told." Tom's voice was tinted with sadness, as he spoke his eyes occasionally glancing over at her. Valerie imagined she could hear his heart beat once filling the Bentley, with a heavy thud. Valerie stifled a yawn. She was tired, worn out. Again the thump, like a drum beat the vibrations seemed to pour out of Tom like energy caressing her. Tom's voice seemed to be a thousand miles away. "So besides being his toy, what else does Yuri see in you?"
"I don't know," Her lips pulled back in a sleepy smile, her eyes drifted close another heart beat seemed to rock her gently back and forth.
"Valerie? Valerie?" Tom was shaking her awake.
"Hmms?" She resisted the urge to smile up at him. She could see through bleary eyes her apartment building through the front windshield. She unlocked her apartment door. Vague thoughts, snippets of conversation floated up to the surface of her mind. Tom had asked her a lot of questions, on the drive home, and she had answered them? A small smile broke on her lips, but she had answered them all like a good girl. "Where the hell did that come from?" She muttered and kicked off her shoes. "Why can't I remember what Tom had asked me?" A flush came to her cheeks, as the memories of what happened a few hours ago came rushing back. A little moan floated up and out between barley parted lips. Her legs were weak, and Valerie half fell and sat down on her little brown couch. Leaning back, sinking deeper into the cushions. Her fingertips tugging at the hem of her skirt, Yuri's dark eyes floated in her thoughts. The smell of grass in her nose. Her skirt rose higher, the material rough against her thighs. Valerie tilted her head back, her dark hair pooling around her head a shadowy halo. She closed her eyes to better see Yuri's black ones, shining black swallowing her up. Her fingers pulled her white panties to one side. He was there in the room with her now, at this moment she was back in the restaurant on her knees, back under the stars Yuri on top, his teeth at her throat. Pausing in playing with her wet clit to reach up and pinch her throat hard making his bite mark tingle, making it pulse in time with her up and down strokes. Slick, wet, faster her fingers flicked caressed. Her head tilting further back, legs spreading open, her pussy open, like her mouth was silently screaming. What had Yuri done to her? The thought flickered through her mind just before the orgasm caused her thighs to slam shut trapping her hand. Like a burning out light bulb her mind flashed, then slowly faded to black, her consciousness fading out with it.
The smell of bacon woke her. Valerie started up, her head ached, and she was on her couch covered with a quilt. The clinking of metal pans and the sound of something frying in the kitchen. Her eyes widened, who the hell was here? The moment of panic replaced with one of embarrassment, whom ever was here must have seen her passed out on the couch.
"Who's there?" A blonde haired woman stuck her head out from the kitchen.
"Tom sent me over." Valerie pushed the hair out of her eyes. "Your, Kathy?" The blonde raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, " she glanced away and slipped back into the kitchen. "I hope you like bacon and eggs; there wasn't much in your refrig to work with." The sound of a spatula on a metal pan and more frying.
"That's fine, umm this morning when you came in umm" Valerie struggled trying to ask what condition she was in.
"Don't worry; I didn't see anything just covered you up with a quilt off your bed." An amused tone twinkled in her voice. "What did you think about the Teal Station?" Valerie breathed a bit easier, Kathy might have been lying, no she was lying, but being polite and changing the subject.
"It was like an English tea garden, but indoors." Valerie wrapped the quilt around herself. She could smell toast, her stomach grumbled.
"That's what Stephanie...the owner wanted." Kathy came out of the kitchen carrying a plate covered in scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. She placed it on the table. "But that was another life now." She quickly returned with a glass of juice and milk. "You better hurry up eat and get ready, Tom will be over to pick us up in about half an hour or so." Kathy leaned against the kitchen door jam. Valerie half walked and staggered to the table. The eggs were delicious and soon gone followed by the bacon and toast.
"Was, Stephanie a.." Valerie hesitantly asked not sure how Kathy would react to her bringing up the subject.
"Yes, she was." Kathy seemed to suddenly become very interested in staring at the floor. Valerie dropped the subject. Tom scared her, and if this was a forbidden topic, she didn't want Tom mad. Or even worse, Valerie shuddered; Yuri might think she wasn't worth his time. She glanced over at Kathy; her green eyes were on her appraising her.
"Valerie you don't want to know what they can do to you when they are angry." She forced a smile to her lips. "Right now," Kathy continued to speak her voice small meek her eyes now staring at the table top. "You are wondering why you are thinking first about pleasing them. Why does their wants and needs even matter?" Kathy seemed to be talking to herself. "Then the bite tingles or burns and their eyes." Kathy's voice grew wistful. She shook her head breaking the reverie. "But that is another life; none of them will even look at me now."
"Others?" Valerie felt her throat tighten. Tom had said they were all just Yuri's bitches. That they were under his protection. A loud knock on door shook her up and out of her thoughts. Kathy jumped and suddenly looked small and weak.
"Tom is here." She walked to open the door. Tom scared Kathy.
"Hell, he scares me too." Valerie heard the little voice in her head speak up. Something clicked in her head. Kathy opened the door, Tom stepped in, and glanced around for a second surveying the room.
"Change, and don't forget your card. Kathy?" The blonde girl shuddered.
"I am sorry, Tom." She refused to look him in the face. The scary Tom was here the one she saw last night casually talking about whether or not to kill Kathy with Yuri. With a voice almost grey from lack of emotion.
"Yuri gave you to me last night." Valerie saw a tear run down Kathy's cheek. "You can live. As long as you are still useful to me. " Kathy nodded. " I want you to go to the library and talk with Rich." Kathy picked up her purse and left without another word. After she was gone, Tom turned to look at her. Valerie for a split second she thought she heard a woman laughter, the smell of oranges and almonds again this time filling her apartment. "We have things to do." | <urn:uuid:781a5cb8-7162-428a-99e3-3e5e32bfa9f7> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.literotica.com/s/a-blaze-of-crimson-ch-03 | 2015-03-29T00:14:37Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131298015.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172138-00240-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986827 | 2,091 |
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February 6, 2013
Bulldogs sign 20 prospects
Mississippi State added 20 members to its 2013 football team this spring, with 16 student-athletes signing Letters of Intent on Wednesday, the first day of the football signing period.
The Bulldogs added the Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year, Ashton Shumpert of Itawamba AHS, the state's top recruit, Chris Jones of Houston High School, and Parade All-American Fred Ross of Tyler Texas. Head coach Dan Mullen and staff added four players at the start of the spring semester and closed out with a signing class ranked nationally by every recruiting publication.
"We're excited about this class of young men set to join our program," Mullen said. "Give credit to our assistants and staff for putting together this collection of talent that will join us in our goal of winning championships at Mississippi State. Our program is built on retention and development and this group will join a dedicated bunch that has already been hard at work building toward the 2013 season."
Mississippi State has now signed a Parade All-American in each of Mullen's five recruiting classes and has signed the Gatorade Player of the Year three of five years and the Jackson Clarion-Ledger's "Most Wanted" recruit three times. The Bulldogs signed four of the state's "10 Most Wanted" according to the Jackson newspaper and three of the top five recruits in the state according to Scout.com.
The Bulldogs are set to begin spring practice on March 21, and will open the 2013 season in in the Texas Kick Off Classic at Reliant Stadium in Houston against Oklahoma State on August 31.
2013 MISSISSIPPI STATE FOOTBALL SIGNEES
Jeremey Chappelle, WR, 6-2, 212, Tyler, TX (Tyler JC)
JUNIOR COLLEGE: Led Coach Danny Parker and the Apaches, as well as the Southwest Junior College Football Conference, with 60 receptions for 801 yards and 10 touchdowns despite missing action in two game due to injury Named first-team all-conference in the SWJCFC Played his freshman year for Stephen F. Austin State University hauling in 17 passes for 175 yards Enrolled at MSU in January 2013 Rated a four-star recruit by ESPN.com and awarded three stars by Scout.com, 247Sports.com and Rivals.com Chose Mississippi State in December 2012 over offers from Houston, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, West Virginia and others.
HIGH SCHOOL: Decorated high school player in the rich Texas football ranks Named the 2009 TAPPS 2-III Co-MVP Led Brook Hill High School to the TAPPS Division III state championship game, pulling in seven balls for 65 yards Led the team to the state title game with a five catch 143-yard ball game in the semifinals, pulling in two touchdowns one for 99 yards.
Shelby Christy, WR, 6-3, 190, Geismar, La. (Dutchtown)
HIGH SCHOOL: Rated a three-star recruit by ESPN.com, Scout.com, 247Sports.com and Rivals.com A consensus top-100 wide receiver in the country ... Two-time state champion in track and field ... Won the 5A triple jump with a leap of more than 49 feet ... Also took the 2012 indoor state title with a 45 feet bound ... Considered the 17th best player, regardless of position in Louisiana by 247Sports.com Louisiana's #24-ranked prospect overall in the New Orleans Times-Picayune's postseason Nifty Fifty list ... Helped coach Benny Saia and the Griffins to a 9-4 mark his senior season and a trip to the third round of the 2012 playoffs Caught 39 passes for 663 yards and five touchdowns Earned All-District 5-5A honors as a senior ... As a junior he caught 25 passes for seven touchdowns and 400 yards ... Committed to the Bulldogs in August 2012 over offers from Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, Houston, Louisiana, Ole Miss, Nebraska, Southern Miss and a host of others.
Jamaal Clayborn, OL, 6-4, 315, Jackson, Miss. (Jackson Academy)
HIGH SCHOOL: The leading offensive line prospect in Mississippi's private school ranks ... Ranked among the first 25 overall Mississippi college prospects in the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion Ledger Top 40 postseason list ... Rated a three-star prospect by ESPN.com, Scout.com and 247Sports.com Named first-team all-state in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools by a vote of the coaches Named second team all-state among all classifications in both public and private schools by the Clarion Ledger ... Scout.com ranks him the #17 overall prospect in Mississippi, and the sixth-best offensive lineman ... Helped the Raiders to an unprecedented 48-4 record in four years with three consecutive state championships from his freshman year to his junior year Missed the chance of tying the record of four-straight state championships this season when the Raiders fell in the championship game to Jackson Prep Won the 2012 Mississippi Class 3A state championship with a shot put toss of 49 feet, seven inches ... Committed to Mississippi State in August of 2012.
Tolando Cleveland, DB, 6-0, 170, Powder Springs, Ga. (Hillgrove)
HIGH SCHOOL: Rated a three-star prospect by EPSN, Rivals and 247Sports ... Named to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's "Super 75" prospects list ... Helped head coach Phillip Ironside's Hillgrove Hawks to a 6-5 record in 2012 with a first-round loss in the state playoffs ... Credited with 81 total tackles and four interceptions as a junior ... Helped lead Hawks to a 11-1 record as a junior and advanced to the second round of the state 5A playoffs ... Committed to Mississippi State in late January after being heavily recruited by Georgia Tech ... Also had offers from Air Force, Navy, East Carolina, Ball State and Rice among others.
Kivon Coman, DB, 6-1, 195, Sheffield, AL (Hargrave Military Academy)
HIGH SCHOOL: Tabbed as the top post-grad safety in the country by 247Sports while being the 29th rated prep player, regardless of position, in the country Spent past season at prestigious Hargrave Military Academy in post-graduate school after graduating from Florence High School in Florence, Ala During post-graduate season, recorded 57 total tackles, a tackle for loss, a forced and recovered fumble and tied for the team lead with three interceptions First signed with the Bulldogs on February 1, 2012 Recorded 62 tackles, six pass deflections, six forced fumbles, four interceptions and three fumble recoveries during his senior season at Florence Selected to the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Classic as one of the top players in the state of Alabama, and started at cornerback Was tabbed as a top recruit in the state of Alabama in the Alabama Sports Writers Association's Elite 18 football prospects Named Second-Team All-State by Scout.com.
Justin Cox, S, 6-3, 190, West Point, MS (East Mississippi CC)
JUNIOR COLLEGE: Speedy defensive back that can help the Bulldogs at either cornerback or safety at the next level Rated a four-star recruit by ESPN.com, Scout.com and 247Sports.com Considered the second-best safety prospect in the country by 247Sports.com, while earning the 33rd spot regardless of position in the country Played last two seasons for EMCC and head coach Buddy Stephens Compiled 11 interceptions in his two season as a Lion with 19 pass breakups Was second on the team in tackles with 119 adding seven tackles behind the line of scrimmage Along with a 2011 national championship ring, Cox also garnered several individual honors Named to the 2012 NJCAA Region 23 First-Team as a defensive back Enrolled in MSU in January 2013 Committed to Mississippi State in December 2012 over offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Nebraska, Tennessee and a host of others.
HIGH SCHOOL: Signed with Mississippi State with only three other FBS offers Rated a three-star recruit by Scout.com and the 95th-best cornerback in the country by the same publication Named First-Team All-State by the Clarion Ledger Named Class 5A, First-Team All-State by the Mississippi Association of Coaches Named All-Area by the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal Won two-straight state championships for the West Point Green Wave, playing both offense and defense while also standing out on special teams Rushed for 1,136 yards and 19 touchdowns during his senior season Chosen to play in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Classic and Mobile where he started the ballgame at corner Was named one of three finalists for Mississippi's Mr. Football.
Kent Flowers, OL, 6-5, 300, Hollandale, Miss. (Simmons)
HIGH SCHOOL: Projected as an offensive tackle at the collegiate level ... Top rated offensive line prospect in the state of Mississippi and the No. 5 prospect overall ... Rated among the top 40 prospects in the state of Mississippi by the Jackson Clarion-Ledger ... Ranked the No. 8 prospect in the state by 247Sports ... Considered the No. 16 prospect regardless of position by Rivals ... Named to MaxPreps 2012 All-State team ... One of the more coveted offensive lineman in the state, was named to the Clarion Ledger's Dandy Dozen prior to his senior season ... Selected to Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Classic following a strong senior season, and started for his state at tackle ... Earned Class 2A first-team all-state honors from the Mississippi Association of Coaches ... Played for head coach Antoine Kimble at Simmons ... Committed to Mississippi State in June of 2012 over offers from Ole Miss and others.
Donald Gray Jr., WR, 5-11, 180, Memphis, Tenn. (White Station)
HIGH SCHOOL: Rated the No. 10 prospect in the state of Tennessee by ESPN ... A top-100 national wide receiver prospect by Scout.com, and a two-way standout for Coach Devin Rutherford at White Station ... The Tennessee Sports Writers Association named him first team all-state offense in Class 6A, one of two wide receivers on the first unit ... Paced the Memphis high school ranks as a senior in both receiving yardage and touchdown catches ... Was a finalist on offense for the Memphis Best of Preps by the Commercial Appeal ... As a senior, caught 48 passes for 1,023 yards, an average of 21 yards each time he touched the ball ... Finished the year with 15 touchdown receptions ... In his final prep game he scored seven touchdowns against Memphis Central; five on receptions, one rushing, and another on a 48-yard punt return ... Concluded his high school career playing in the Liberty Bowl All-Star Classic where he caught a 70-yard touchdown pass ... Was named first team all-state 6A as a defensive back prior to his senior season by Tennessee High School Football Magazine ... As a junior, helped WSHS go 8-5 and advance to the third round of the state playoffs ... Was named to the Commercial Appeal Best of Preps 5A-6A Team ... Also a track standout for White Station with a personal best clocking of 11.26 for 100 meters, a 22.13 time for 200 meters, and 48.96 in the 400 meters ... Chose Mississippi State over offers from Ole Miss, Arkansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, USC and others.
B.J. Hammond, WR, 6-4, 215, Gadsden, Ala. (Gadsden City)
HIGH SCHOOL: Tall wide receiver from the talent-rich Alabama prep ranks ... Rated the No. 13 prospect in the state of Alabama regardless of position by ESPN ... Also named a top-50 wide receiver from ESPN.com ... Hauled in 15 catches for 306 yards and a three touchdowns for Gadsden City High School team as a senior ... Named of Alabama's top 30 prospects by Rivals ... Played for head coach Joe Billingsley's Titans ... Caught 39 passes for 639 yards and six touchdowns as a junior ... Rated a four star prospect by ESPN ... Committed to Mississippi State in June of 2012 over offers from Ole Miss, Auburn, LSU and others.
Dezmond Harris, LB, 6-4, 220, McCalla, Ala. (McAdory)
HIGH SCHOOL: A high school quarterback projected to play defense at the collegiate level ... Rated a three-star prospect by ESPN.com, Scout.com and 247Sports.com ... Tabbed as the No. 38 prospect in the state of Alabama by ESPN.com ... Named the No. 97 outside linebacker in the country by Scout.com ... Projected as the 35th best athlete in the country and the 38th best player, regardless of position, in the state of Alabama by 247Sports.com ... Had an injury-shortened senior season after suffering a torn ACL ... Committed to the Bulldogs in July of 2012.
Chris Jones, DL, 6-5, 250, Houston, Miss. (Houston)
HIGH SCHOOL: Considered the nation's No. 2 overall prospect in the country by 247Sports.com while earning the distinction of being the top-rated player in the state of Mississippi by nearly every publication ... No. 1 on the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion Ledger's Top 10 Most Wanted list ... Rated the No. 2 defensive end in the country by 247Sports and Scout.com ... Named to the ESPN.com top-150 recruits coming in at No. 46 ... ESPN.com rated him the No. 6 defensive end in the country, the No. 25 best player in the southeast and the No. 2 ranked player in the state ... Helped lead coach William Cook and the Houston Hilltoppers to their first-ever playoff win and a 11-3 record in 2012 ... Led the team in tackles as a defensive end with 160 ... Also recorded 14.0 sacks, 10 pass deflections, two fumble recoveries and a 74-yard interception return for a touchdown in the second-round playoff matchup with Louisville High School ... Recoded 75 tackles and 5.0 sacks during his junior season as a first-year football player at Houston ... Selected to the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Classic to start at defensive end ... Recorded eight tackles, a sack and three tackles for loss in the game earning Mississippi's MVP honors ... Also selected to the Under Armor All-American game ... Scout.com named him top-performer in the first day of practices leading up to the ball game ... Also was invited to but did not participate in the Semper Fidelis All-American game ... As a junior, he recorded 75 total tackles with 32 solos, five quarterback sacks ... Played just four games as a sophomore, when he had 25 tackles as a backup, 16 of them solo stops ... Also worked as an offensive lineman in 2010 ... Five-year letterman for the Houston basketball varsity, and averaged 14.8 points as a junior ... Named to the Mississippi North/South All-Star Basketball Game for 2011 ... Committed to the Bulldogs in June 2012 over Alabama, Florida, Auburn, Ole Miss and a host of others.
Gabe Myles, ATH, 6-0, 180, Starkville, Miss. (Starkville)
HIGH SCHOOL: Talented two-way player from nearby Starkville High ... Projected to play in the defensive backfield at MSU ... Rated a three-star prospect by ESPN.com, Scout.com, 247Sports.com and Rivals.com ... Named the No. 42 best cornerback in the country by 247Sports.com while earning the distinction of being the 7th best player in the state regardless of position ... Considered the No. 10 Most Wanted prospect in Mississippi by the Jackson Clarion-Ledger ... Led coach Jamie Mitchell and the Starkville Yellow Jackets to a 12-3 record and the 5A state championship ... Played on both sides of the ball at quarterback and defensive back ... Threw for 1,153 yards and 12 touchdowns while running for 554 yards and nine touchdowns ... Made a splash during his junior season leading Starkville to the state championship game and throwing for 1,837 yards and 19 touchdowns while rushing for a team-leading 849 yards and seven scores ... Mississippi Association of Coaches named him the Class 5A Offensive MVP and first-team all-state following his junior season ... Named the Starkville Daily News player of the year for 2011 ... Started his career playing wide receiver and running back during his sophomore season ... Started his senior year on the Clarion Ledger's Dandy Dozen list ... Named first-team all-state by the Clarion Ledger following his senior season ... Made the MAC's list for 5A Player of the year and first-team all-state honors ... Earned a spot in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Classic starting at cornerback but also receiving snaps at quarterback ... Committed to the Bulldogs in June 2012 over Ole Miss.
Fred Ross, WR, 6-2, 185, Tyler, Texas (John Tyler)
HIGH SCHOOL: Named first team Parade All-American after a standout career at John Tyler ... Finished his senior campaign for the Lions with 86 catches for 1,594 yards and 21 touchdowns ... Helped Coach Ricklan Holmes and the Lions advance to the Texas 4A state semifinals ... Caught 10 passes for 132 yards and a score in the 57-53 loss to Guyer as Tyler finished with a 13-2 record ... As a junior, hauled in 99 passes for 1,335 yards and 15 touchdowns ... Caught 23 passes for 313 yards and five scores as a sophomore ... Rated as a four-star prospect by Rivals, Scout, 247Sports and ESPN ... Named to the ESPN 300 and rated the No. 22 prospect in the talent-rich Texas prep ranks ... Chose Mississippi State over Oklahoma State, Baylor, Missouri, Texas Tech and others.
Artimus Samuel, TE, 6-2, 227, Columbus, GA (Hargrave Military Academy)
JUNIOR COLLEGE: Rated a three-star recruit by ESPN.com, Scout.com and Rivals.com Tabbed as the No. 51 rated prep star in the country by 247Sports.com, while earning a No. 29 ranking in the state of Virginia regardless of position and the third ranked tight end in the country Spent 2012 season with prestigious Hargrave Military Academy following a solid high school career at Carver High School in Georgia Caught eight passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns in his one year for Hargrave and coach Troy Davis Helped lead Carver High School to a 12-2 record and a trip to the Class 2A Semifinals during his senior year Accumulated 356 yards receiving and 11 touchdowns during his junior campaign Committed to the Bulldogs, for a second time, in August 2012 and enrolled in classes in January 2013.
Cord Sandberg, QB, 6-3, 215, Bradenton, Fla. (Manatee)
HIGH SCHOOL: Regarded as one of the nation's top dual-threat quarterbacks ... Standout in both football and baseball at Manatee High School, and one of the nation's top baseball prospects ... Rated a four-star recruit by ESPN.com, Scout.com and Rivals.com ... Member of the ESPN 300, and considered the 9th best dual-threat quarterback in the country and the 45th best player, regardless of position, in the state of Florida ... Named to the Rivals 250 list and 24th best player in the state ... Led coach Joe Kinnan and the Hurricanes to a near-perfect 13-1 season ... Twice nominated for Florida Mr. Football and Class 7A Player of the Year ... During his three years as starting quarterback, the Hurricanes were 39-4 playing in the highest classifications in one of the best football states in America ... Recorded three-consecutive 2,000-plus yard seasons with 78 touchdowns and only 11 interceptions ... As a senior, Threw for 2,674 yards on 186 of 265 passing with a 34-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio Also rushed for 611 yards on 99 carries and 10 touchdowns ... Opened the season in front of a national televised audience on ESPN vs. Miramar High School ... Helped lead his team to a state championship during his junior year, throwing for 2,187 yards and 19 touchdowns while rushing for 813 yards and 10 touchdowns ... Named first-team all-State by the Associated Press in Class 7A and Offensive Player of the Year ... Became starting quarterback during his sophomore year throwing for 2,855 yards with a 75 percent completion percentage and 25 touchdowns to only six interceptions ... Rushed for 10 touchdowns and 579 yards ... Named Class 7A player of the year following both his junior and senior seasons ... Named HTPreps.com Area's Most Valuable Offensive Player three years in-a-row ... On the diamond, he is a fourth-year starter in centerfield and left-handed hitter for the three-time district champions ... Played in the 2012 Perfect Game All-American Classic in San Diego, and has been rated the 46th-leading professional prospect of 2013 by Baseball America ... His father, Chuck, was an All-American baseball player at Florida ... Committed to the Bulldogs in June 2012 over offers from Auburn, Florida, LSU, Ole Miss, Missouri and Vanderbilt among others.
Ashton Shumpert, ATH, 6-2, 215, Fulton, Miss. (Itawamba AHS)
HIGH SCHOOL: Widely considered one of the state's top players, could play offense or defense at the collegiate level ... Named the 2012 Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of Mississippi ... Named the Offensive Player of the Year by the Tupelo Daily Journal ... Rated a four-star prospect by ESPN.com, Scout.com and 247Sports.com ... Listed as No. 3 on the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger Most Wanted List ... The No. 20 back in the country by Scout.com ... Rivals.com considers him the No. 30 athlete in the country and fourth best prospect in the state ... Burst onto the scene his senior year at Itawamba following a four week absence due to sickness, helping the Indians to a 12-0 start before losing to eventual 4A state champion Noxubee County ... Rushed 153 times for 1,796, an average of 11.7 yards-per-carry, and 25 touchdowns ... Caught 15 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns while also helping the defensive side with 64 tackles and two interceptions ... Spent his sophomore and junior seasons at Tupelo High School where he rushed for over 2,000 yards and 23 touchdowns ... Was named Class 6A first-team all-state following his sophomore year ... Began his high school career with Itawamba AHS ... Was a pre-season member of the Clarion Ledger's Dandy Dozen ... Chosen to team Mississippi in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Classic getting the start at running back ... Committed to the Bulldogs in January 2013 over Ole Miss, Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt and a host of others.
Jake Thomas, OL, 6-5, 300, Columbus, Miss. (Columbus)
HIGH SCHOOL: Universally regarded as one of the best offensive line prospects in the state of Mississippi ... Rated a four-star prospect by Scout.com and 247Sports.com ... Named the state's No. 7 prospect in the Clarion Ledger's 10 Most Wanted ... Was the No. 26 offensive tackle in the country by Scout.com ... 247Sports.com considers him the No. 20 offensive tackle in the country and the No. 5 player, regardless of position, in the state of Mississippi ... Four-year starter for the Columbus Falcons, becoming a mainstay on the offensive line and quickly rising as one of the state's top offensive lineman ... Helped lead the Falcons to their first playoff berth since 2005 during his senior year ... Invited to the U.S. Army All-American underclassmen combine in San Antonio following his junior season ... Made the Under-19 Team USA roster following his senior year ... Nominated for the U.S. Army All-American game ... A member of the Clarion Ledger's Dandy Dozen prior to his senior season ... Named Class 6A First-Team All-State following his senior year ... Selected as a starter for Team Mississippi in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Classic ... Committed to the Bulldogs in August 2012 over Stanford, Ole Miss, Southern Miss and others.
Brandon Wells, ATH, 6-2, 180, Bogue Chitto, Miss. (Bogue Chitto)
HIGH SCHOOL: One of the most versatile athletes in the Southeast, recruited for both offense and defense ... He is a national top-100 safety by Scout.com ... Rated the No. 8 overall player in the state of Mississippi, regardless of position, by ESPN ... The Clarion-Ledger ranked him in their first 25 prospects on the postseason Top 40 list, and second team all-state defense from all classifications ... Chosen by the MHSAA to play in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Game as a safety, and the Mississippi Association of Coaches named him first team all-state Class 1A as an athlete ... For his senior season he led Coach Gareth Sartin's Bobcats to a 13-1 record Region 4-1A title, reaching the third round of the state championship playoffs... Rushed for 1,333 yards and ten touchdowns, averaging 10.2 yards each attempt, and caught 13 passes for 190 yards and two more scores ... Was 6-of-12 passing for 70 yards and a touchdown ... Took over for an injured starter to quarterback BCHS to a comeback victory over Stringer, running 70 yards for one touchdown ... Recorded 35 total tackles with one interception and three passes broken up ... As a junior rushed for 1,212 yards and eleven touchdowns, gaining nine yards per carry to earn the second of his three all-state honors ... He caught three passes for 61 yards, while compiling 31 total tackles on defense with three interceptions, two more deflections, and a fumble forced ... As an all-state sophomore he rushed for six touchdowns and 432 yards, with another touchdown receiving ... Had 55 tackles in 2010 with an interception and 58-yard return ... Chose Mississippi State over Ole Miss and others.
Damian Williams, QB, 6-1, 215, Metairie, La. (Archbishop Rummel)
HIGH SCHOOL: Highly regarded dual-threat quarterback from the New Orleans area ... 17th-ranked prospect in Louisiana, from all positions, in the Times-Picayune Nifty Fifty postseason ratings ... Was the play-making quarterback with his arm and legs for an unbeaten Archbishop Rummell team that posted a perfect 14-0 season and earned its first-ever state football championship ... Was named first-team all-state in Class 5A by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association ... Also chosen all-district 9-5A as a senior, and was a New Orleans Area Player of the Week as both a senior and junior ... For his varsity career he threw for 2,748 yards and 26 touchdowns, completing 195 of 324 passes ... Also rushed for 23 touchdowns and 932 yards ... Playing for Coach Jay Roth, in the state championship game victory over Barbe HS he was 11-of-13 passing for 193 yards and two touchdowns, and rushed for 52 yards to be named championship game Most Valuable Player ... At the Elite 11 summer camp in Georgia he was one of five finalists from 89 quarterbacks for camp MVP ... As a junior he earned all-state honorable mention by the LSWA and was Most Valuable Player of District 9-5A, after leading the Raiders to a 10-2 season and the state playoff quarterfinals ... Played in the last game with a high ankle sprain but still threw for 300 yards ... Earned the starting quarterback job as a freshman and led Rummell to the 2009 state championship game ... Committed to Mississippi State in January over offers from Nebraska, Kansas State, Southern Miss and others.
De'Runnya Wilson, WR, 6-5, 215, Birmingham, Ala. (Wenonah)
HIGH SCHOOL: A fast-rising prospect after returning to the football field in 2012 following a two-year absence ... Legitimate two-sport recruit by several Division I programs ... Emerged in his single varsity football season as one of Alabama's leading high school receivers ... The state's 16th-ranked overall prospect and the #81 national wide receiver by Scout.com ... He led Coach Ronald Cheatham's team to a 10-2 record and second round of the Class 5A state playoffs ... The Dragons were 6-1 and runners-up in Region 5-5A ... As a senior he caught 31 passes for 682 yards ... Led his squad in touchdowns with seven receiving scores and averaged 21 yards each time he touched the football ... Also had five tackles in limited defensive snaps with two for sacks ... A dominating power forward on the hardwood for the top-ranked Class 5A WHS team which is playing for a third-straight state championship this season ... He was averaging a double/double as a senior and held Division I basketball scholarship offers from Auburn, UAB, Murray State, and other schools ... Played in the summer 2012 Alabama North-South All-Star Game where he was named Most Valuable Player ... Was named Most Valuable Player of the Peach State Classic with 20 points, 17 rebounds and seven steals in one game ... Averaged 13.7 points and 10.9 rebounds as a junior with 67 steals for Coach Cedric Lane as the Dragons went 29-7 en route to a state title ... Signed with Mississippi State over offers from Auburn, Kentucky, Tennessee and Louisville among others.
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||April 21, 2004
GSA Release No. 04-14
May/June Media Highlights:
The Geological Society of America Bulletin
Boulder, Colo. – The May/June issue of the GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA BULLETIN includes a number of potentially newsworthy items. Topics include: analysis of thrust faulting on Mars and implications for near-surface volatiles such as water and ice; a new look at the great Cascadia earthquake of 1700; and earthquakes and gigantic landslides in the Summer Lake basin (south-central Oregon). Two articles focus on the Dead Sea, describing its 4000-year lake level history and the impact of storms on its western escarpment.
Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary copies of articles by contacting Ann Cairns. Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to GSA BULLETIN in stories published. Contact Ann Cairns for additional information or assistance.
Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service.
- Controls on caldera structure: Results from analogue sandbox modeling
Ben Kennedy, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, et al. Pages 515-524.
- Keywords: caldera, modeling, structure, faults, collapse, subsidence.
- The paper presents a series of scaled sandbox experiments designed to represent caldera formation. The results show that the structures grew incrementally outward by a series of outward dipping faults followed by the development of a peripheral zone of extension and sagging. In contrast to previous experiments, a wide variety of complex structures were produced. The structures were dependant on the depth and orientation of the experimental chamber, and include, (1) trapdoor collapse along curved faults, (2) trapdoor collapse along linear faults, (3) piston collapse along polygonal faults, (4) incremental collapse along linear faults, and (5) complex collapse. Calderas in nature exhibit all of these styles and we suggest that magma chamber depth and orientation may have influenced their development.
- Late Holocene lake levels of the Dead Sea
R. Bookman (Ken-Tor), Institute of Earth Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem, et al. Pages 555-571.
- Keywords: lake level, paleoclimate, Dead Sea, Holocene, depositional environments, lacustrine deposits.
- This work presents the lake-level record of the Dead Sea during the past four thousand years. The Dead Sea is a terminal lake located at the Israel-Jordan border, and its level fluctuations reflect the past paleoclimate variations in its drainage basin and probably in the entire Levant.
- The level fluctuations are described from outcrops exposed along the Dead Sea shores, which are comprised of different sediments deposited in various water depths. The past Dead Sea shores are visible in the outcrops as pebble ridges, wave-sorted sands, and evaporitic crusts that indicate in the modern Dead Sea the exact elevation of its level. The level fluctuations are dated by radiocarbon ages of organic remains collected from the sediments.
- The results show that the Dead Sea level fluctuated within the range of 390-415 m below sea level (mbsl) during historic times. High stands occurred in the first and second century B.C. and the fourth century A.D., during the Roman and Byzantine periods, in the eleventh through twelfth century A.D., during the crusader period, and at the end of the nineteenth century A.D. The rises mark a significant change in the annual rainfall in the region, which likely exceeded the instrumentally measured modern average.
- The curve also indicates drastic drops that exposed the sediments to erosion. The oldest and probably deepest drop in the lake level culminated during the fifteenth to fourteenth century B.C. after a retreat from a higher lake stand. The longest low stand occurred after the Byzantine period and continued until the ninth century A.D. This arid period coincides with the invasion of Moslem-Arab tribes into the area during the seventh century A.D. These level drops represent extreme arid conditions that occurred over the past several thousand years.
- Mechanical stratigraphy in the western equatorial region of Mars based on thrust fault-related fold topography and implications for near-surface volatile reservoirs
Chris H. Okubo and Richard A. Schultz, Geomechanics-Rock Fracture Group, Department of Geological Sciences, Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557-0138, USA. Pages 594-605.
- Keywords: thrust fault, wrinkle ridge, topography, mechanical stratigraphy, fluid flow, Mars tectonics.
- Variations in lithology and pore volatile pressure influence the distribution of layer and interface strength (mechanical stratigraphy) within the crust. We show how mechanical stratigraphy can be inferred from fault dip directions and relative fault lengths, which are derived from the topography of thrust fault-related folds. Applying this method on Mars, we find that thrust fault-related folds that have shorter secondary backthrust faults are spatially correlated with a general lithologic sequence of lava flows overlying older impact ejecta and young lobate ejecta craters on the lava flow surface — evidence of near surface volatiles, such as water ice. We demonstrate that secondary backthrusts within fault-related folds in the western equatorial region of Mars formed due to volatile-enhanced mechanical stratification of lava flow-ejecta lithologic sequences.
- Geomorphic response to seasonal variations in rainfall in the Southwest United States
Devin Etheredge, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA, et al. Pages 606-618.
- Keywords: monsoons, precipitation, Southwest United States, seasonal variations, hydrology, landscape evolution.
- Etheredge et al. compare streamflow and channel geometry characteristics in watersheds from two mountain ranges in Arizona. The geologic settings in the two ranges are chosen to be very similar in every respect except the seasonal cycle of precipitation: The northwest Arizona locale receives most of its precipitation in the winter from frontal systems (hence, widespread long-lived storms), whereas the southeast Arizona locale is monsoonal, receiving precipitation mostly from short but sharp summer thunderstorms. This climatic difference in precipitation delivery is clearly expressed in the geomorphic comparison of the two locales. The seasonal character of stream discharge in the monsoonal locale exhibits a pronounced dependence on basin size: Small basins respond quickly to summer storms, but larger basins yield largest discharges in response to winter precipitation. The dependence of stream flow seasonality on basin size is attributed to the small spatial scale of summer rainfall events.
- Structural and geochronological constraints of early Ross orogenic deformation in the Pensacola Mountains, Antarctica
Michael L. Curtis, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK, et al. Pages 619-636.
- Keywords: Transantarctic Mountains, transpression, polyphase deformation, granite, Antarctica.
- Studies of mountain-building events along the former continental margin of East Antarctica ~500 million years ago provide insight into potential tectonic effects of subducting oceanic sea floor features, such as submarine ocean plateaus, on continental tectonics. The application of high precision dating techniques with geological rock relationships and regional deformation characteristics constrains the tectonic history of the Pensacola Mountains sector of the East Antarctic margin to have been dominated by geologically rapid switches between crustal shortening and extension. It is proposed that this style of continental margin deformation is likely to be the product of the subduction of thermally buoyant ocean floor features beneath the East Antarctic continent. Such models may explain the complex tectonic histories along convergent continental margins such as the Andes, where ocean floor is consumed beneath continental crust.
- Coseismic subsidence in the 1700 great Cascadia earthquake: Coastal estimates versus elastic dislocation models
Lucinda J. Leonard, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3P6, Canada, and Geological Survey of Canada, Pacific Geoscience Centre, Sidney, British Columbia V8L 4B2, Canada, et al. Pages 656-670.
- Keywords: Cascadia subduction zone, earthquakes, modeling, Holocene, estuaries, paleoseismology.
- The last earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone megathrust occurred in 1700, as evidenced by subsided marshes along the coastal margin and by Japanese tsunami records indicating a magnitude 9 event. Coastal subsidence in the 1700 event, as estimated from changes in marsh sediment, is compared with the subsidence predicted by computer models of elastic strain buildup and release. These models, on which seismic hazard assessments are largely based, are constrained by high precision geodetic data. Models that simulate the release of strain built up over ~550-800 years of plate convergence best agree with the marsh data. A further model/marsh data comparison shows that slip on the fault was consistent with a magnitude 9 earthquake.
- Gigantic seismogenic landslides of Summer Lake basin, south-central Oregon
Thomas C. Badger, Washington State Department of Transportation, Olympia, Washington 98504-7365, USA, and Robert J. Watters, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557, USA. Pages 687-697.
- Keywords: landslides, neotectonics, Basin and Range, Lake County (Oregon), geotechnical studies.
- Within the last several hundred thousand years, gigantic landslides have occurred along Winter Ridge, which bounds Summer Lake basin on the west. These landslides are typically a mile in width and more than a thousand feet thick. The landslides failed catastrophically, very rapidly running out more than a mile onto the basin floor. Recent engineering study has found that large earthquakes triggered these gigantic landslides. The source of the earthquakes is the active Slide Mountain-Winter Ridge fault that runs along the base of Winter Ridge. The fault is capable of producing magnitude 7 earthquakes. The last documented ground-rupturing earthquake on the fault occurred between 2,000 and 10,000 years ago.
- Geochemical, age, and isotopic constraints on the location of the Sino-Korean/Yangtze Suture and evolution of the Northern Dabie Complex, east central China
Derek L. Bryant, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA, et al. Pages 698-717.
- Keywords: metamorphism, monazite, zircon, geochronology, Dabie Mountains, ion probe dating.
- The Northern Dabie Complex (NDC), which lies north of the famous central Dabie ultrahigh-pressure terrane in East Central China, has a controversial history. Detailed studies of gneisses and granites show that they have compositions and histories similar to rocks in the ultrahigh-pressure terrane and therefore that they are also part of the Yangtze craton and not of the Sino-Korean craton to the north. However, although the NDC was present at the time the two cratons collided in the Triassic, and it lies very close or adjacent to the suture, the studied rocks show no evidence of ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism such as found in the central Dabie.
- Modern extreme storms and the rainfall thresholds for initiating debris flows on the hyperarid western escarpment of the Dead Sea, Israel Hagit
Ben David-Novak, Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel, et al. Pages 718-728.
- Keywords: debris flows, Dead Sea, escarpment, extreme storms, arid environment, floods.
- Debris flows deliver very large quantities of sediment in all mountainous environments of the world and cause heavy damage to life and infrastructure. Because of sparse observation, arid regions lack information on the rainfall that can cause such an extreme event; therefore, real-time hazard predictions are limited. In this research, we documented for the first time intensities and durations of rainfall that caused debris flows in the arid environment of the Dead Sea near the Ein Gedi Oasis, just north of the Massada historical site. Luckily, the storm occurred just over a dense net of rain gauges also covered by meteorological radar recording at relatively high temporal scale. Rarely occurring rainfall intensities exceeding 30 mm/hr for a duration of one hour (i.e., in 1 hour, over 60% of the mean annual rainfall in the area, which is ~50 mm) were required to initiate debris flows in this area. Therefore, we also concluded that the up to three of the debris flows that occurred in many of the very small basins that drain the Dead Sea escarpment during the last 3000 years were the results of extreme, very rare (low frequency) rain storms.
- Glacial Lake Agassiz: A 5000 yr history of change and its relationship to the d18O record of Greenland
James T. Teller, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2, Canada, and David W. Leverington, Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560-0315, USA. Pages 729-742.
- Keywords: Lake Agassiz, history, outbursts, Greenland isotopic record.
- As glaciers retreated from North America at the end of the last ice age, Lake Agassiz formed and expanded northward along the margin of this drainage barrier. This giant lake was the largest body of water on the continent, extending over a total area of 1.5 million km² before catastrophically draining into the ocean about 8400 years ago. During its 5000-year history, the size and volume of Lake Agassiz changed abruptly on many occasions, periodically releasing floods of water into the oceans as glaciers melted and uncovered lower spillways from the lake. Some of the largest outbursts from Lake Agassiz occurred near the beginning of episodes of abrupt climate cooling that punctuated global warming at the end of the last ice age. These cool events are recorded in the isotopic record of the Greenland ice sheet and in the geological record over much of the Northern Hemisphere.
- Extensive microbial modification of formation water geochemistry: Case study from a Midcontinent sedimentary basin, United States
Jennifer C. McIntosh, Lynn M. Walter, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA, and Anna M. Martini, Department of Geology, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts 01002, USA. Pages 743-759.
- Keywords: Michigan Basin, hydrogeochemistry, brines, black shale, coal-bed methane, calcite, formation water.
- The Late Devonian Antrim Shale in the Michigan Basin is an economically significant source of microbially produced methane, along the basin margins. Stable isotope chemistry of shale formation waters shows that freshwaters, recharged from Pleistocene continental ice sheets and modern precipitation, suppressed basinal brine salinity to great depths and enhanced methanogenesis. Cl-Br-Na relations reveal that salinity is controlled not only by mixing between variable amounts of basinal brine and freshwater, but also by halite (NaCl) dissolution where fluids recharged through underlying Devonian carbonate aquifers with localized evaporite deposits. Ca, Mg, HCO3, and carbon isotopes of dissolved inorganic carbon have been systematically and profoundly altered by microbial methanogenesis. Large decreases in Ca/Mg and Ca/Sr ratios accompany increasing carbonate alkalinity values in areas with high rates of microbial gas production. These changes are consistent with calcite precipitation during progressive methanogenesis. Similar variations in fluid chemistry are evident in other sedimentary basins containing black shales and coal bed deposits associated with microbial gas.
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US 5396417 A
A data collection device and method, particularly for point-of-sale systems used in the sales and rental of merchandise including video records, and more particularly for a revenue-sharing video record rental system. In such a revenue-sharing system, both revenue-sharing records and ordinary merchandise can be sold using the same point-of-sale entry system. Data relating to the sales of rental of records is separated from the other data generated at the point-of-sale terminals by a data capture device, and the separated data is transmitted to a central computer where it is further processed to separate revenue-sharing record data from other record data, compute the shares due the store proprietor and the distributor of the revenue-sharing records, and for the performance of other functions. The data capture device is usable with a very wide variety of current point-of-sale computers and software so that the store owner can participate in the revenue-sharing system without the expense of buying new software compatible with the central computer. A relatively inexpensive, small-footprint data input terminal is provided.
1. A point-of-sale system comprising, in combination, data entry means for entering data concerning the sale and/or rental of merchandise, means for developing display signals corresponding to said data, display means responsive to said display signals for displaying said data in visual form, and data collection means for receiving said display signals and selecting from said signals those representing predetermined data, and sending said predetermined data to a remote location for processing.
2. A system as in claim 1 in which said data collections means is responsive to signals in ASCII code form.
3. A system as in claim 1 in which said merchandise includes video records, and said predetermined data includes data regarding rental transactions for video records.
4. A system as in claim 3 in which said remote location is a computer processing location in a revenue-sharing system for computing and sorting shares of rental revenues.
5. A system as in claim 1 in which said display means is a member of the group consisting of a character display screen and a printer.
6. A system as in claim 5 in which said display screen, printer and data collection means all are responsive to ASCII code.
7. A system as in claim 1 in which said data collection means includes data template means for selecting said signals based on the position of the images produced by said signals in said display means.
8. A system as in claim 1 including a master computer and LAN adapter means connecting said data entry means together with said master computer in a local area network.
9. A system as in claim 8 in which said data entry means includes a small-footprint point of sale terminal for entering sales and rentals of merchandise, including sales and rentals of video records, said terminal comprising, in combination, a housing, a small display in said housing for displaying at least one line of character images, a keypad in said housing, said keyboard having numerical entry keys, programmable function keys, and substantially less than a full complement of alphabetic character entry keys, connector means for connecting said terminal to said master computer in said local area network, and dedicated key input means for operation to identify to said master computer a video record rental transaction.
10. A system as in claim 8 in which said remote location is a computer processing location in a revenue-sharing system for computing and sorting shares of rental revenues and recipients thereof, said master computer of said local area network being programmed with software operable with that of the computer at said remote location to upload data to the remote computer and receive downloaded data from said remote computer.
11. A system as in claim 8 in which said remote location is a computer processing location in a revenue-sharing system for computing and sorting shares of rental revenues, said master computer of said local area network being programmed with software operable with that of the computer at said remote location, said data collection means being connected to said data entry means and operating to deliver said predetermined data to said remote location in compatible form, without altering the programming of said master computer.
12. A data collection device for selecting predetermined output data signals from output data signal streams created by diverse types of miniature computers, said data collection device comprising data collection means for selecting said predetermined data signals from said data signal streams in response to output data signals for delivery to a visual display device in a form common to said diverse types of miniature computers, and means for transmitting the selected predetermined data signals to a utilization location separate from the destination of said data signal streams.
13. A device as in claim 12 in which the data in said streams is in ASCII display code.
14. A device as in claim 12 in which each of said miniature computers is a part of a point-of-sale system including display and printer means connected to receive said output data streams and adapted for rental of video records.
15. A device as in claim 12 in which said data collection means includes data template means for selecting said predetermined data signals based on the position of images produced by said output data signals in said visual display device.
16. A device as in claim 12 including means, programmed to form movable variable areas on said visual display device to permit positions on said visual display device from which signals are selected to be changed either by local operation of one of said miniature computers, or remotely from a remote computer at said utilization location.
17. A revenue-sharing video record data collection system for collecting data from a plurality of remote video record marketing locations and for transmitting selected portions of said data to a revenue-sharing computer at a computing location, said system comprising, in combination, a point of sale system at each of a plurality of marketing locations, each of said point of sale systems comprising, in combination, data entry means for entering data concerning the sale and/or rental of merchandise, means for developing display signals corresponding to said data, means responsive to said display signals for displaying said data in visual form, and data collection means for receiving said display signals and selecting from said signals those representing predetermined data, and sending predetermined data to said revenue-sharing computer.
18. A data collection system as set forth in claim 17, in which said predetermined data is that relating to video record rentals, and said revenue-sharing computer is adapted to compute the shares of record rentals due the participants in said system.
19. A data collection system as set forth in claim 17, in which said point of sale system includes means for storing the data selected, and dial-up modem means for periodically sending the stored data to said revenue-sharing computer through public communications channels.
20. A method of selecting predetermined output data signals from output data signal streams created by diverse types of miniature computers, said method comprising the steps of analyzing the display signals for displaying images using the display means of any one of a plurality of said diverse types of miniature computers, utilizing a circuit device, responsive to data in a single display code used by all of said display signals, for selecting predetermined data from said output data signal streams, and transmitting the selected predetermined data to a utilization location separate from the destination of said data signal streams.
21. A method as in claim 20 including the step of displaying images corresponding to said display signals on a display device selected from the group consisting of an electronic display panel and a printer.
22. A method as in claim 20 including the step of formatting said signals for display in a predetermined format, and in which said analyzing step comprises determining the position of said data in said display.
23. A method as in claim 22 including the step of utilizing a locally-stored computer program to make the selection based on outlines on said display, said outlines being adjustable as to size and position either locally or from a remote computer.
24. A method as in claim 20 including point-of-sale merchandise sale or rental steps, including the steps of recording sales or rentals of video records, in which said analyzing step comprises selecting the signals representing sales or rentals of video records from those representing the sale or rental of other merchandise.
25. A method as in claim 24 including the steps of discriminating the data for sales and rentals of revenue-sharing records from the sales or rentals of all other merchandise, and computing revenue shares due the participants in a revenue-sharing program.
26. A method of incorporating local computerized POS systems into a centralized data processing network utilizing a central computer at a data processing station, the programming of said local POS systems being incompatible with the programming of said computer at said data processing station, said method comprising the steps of connecting data tap means into each POS system to analyze display data signals, said data tap means being adapted to segregate predetermined data signals from the others, and transmitting said predetermined data signals to said central computer.
27. A method as in claim 26 in which said centralized data processing network is for the sharing of revenue from the merchandising of selected products through said POS systems, and said predetermined data signals represent the merchandising of said selected products.
28. A method as in claim 27 in which the selected products are video records merchandised by a method selected from the group consisting of selling the records, renting them, and charging for their use on a per-play basis.
29. A method as in claim 26 in which said display signals are in ASCII form, and each of said data tap means is responsive to ASCII code and is of essentially the same construction regardless of the programming of the POS system it is connected into.
30. A method as in claim 26 in which said display signals are formatted to cause visible representations thereof appear in predetermined locations in a visible display, and said analyzing step comprises determining the location of said data in said display.
31. A method as in claim 26 including the step of programming each data tap means, either locally or remotely, to adapt it to the format of data displayed in each individual POS system, thereby accommodating analysis in a wide variety of formats in different POS systems.
32. A method as in claim 26 including the step of installing original POS equipment at additional merchandising locations in said network, said original POS equipment including software compatible with said central computer and said data tap means for performing the analyzing step, and including means for performing said transmitting step.
33. A method as in claim 32 in which said original POS equipment includes a master computer, a LAN adapter, and at least one data entry terminal comprising a small-footprint point-of-sale terminal for entering sales and rentals of merchandise, including sales and rentals of video records, said terminal comprising, in combination, a housing, a small display in said housing for displaying at least one line of alpha numeric characters, a keypad in said housing, said keypad having numerical entry keys, programmable function keys, and substantially less than a full complement of alphabetic character keys, connector means for connecting said terminal to a master computer in a local area network, and dedicated key input means for operation to identify to said master computer a video record rental transaction.
This invention relates to systems and methods for the selective collection and processing of data, particularly in point-of sales systems, and especially in the distribution of video records. In particular, this invention relates to a method and system for collecting and transmitting video record rental data to a processing device at a remote location for revenue-sharing purposes.
In the business of renting video tape records of movies, distributors such as motion picture studios normally sell the tape cassettes at relatively high prices to the rental stores. As a result, the rental store owners are required to make a relatively large capital investment in order to buy enough tapes to meet their customers' needs. Often the owner can not afford to purchase the quantity of video tapes required to satisfy the demand. The result is that both the distributors and the rental stores lose revenues, and some members of the public do not get the opportunity to rent the movie of their choice.
In response to these problems, video tape revenue-sharing rental methods have been proposed and developed. In one such method, a video tape store owner may obtain a video tape from a studio or other distributor for a relatively small initial cost. Thereafter, each time the video tape is rented, the distributor receives a certain percentage of the rental income. After a video tape has been rented a certain number of times, or after a predetermined time period has passed since the video tape was first offered for rent, the video tape may be offered for sale to the public and the proceeds divided between the store owner and the distributor.
All parties benefit from such an arrangement. The public has more copies of a movie available to rent, the store owner can reduce the amount of capital tied up in the tapes, and both the store owners and the distributors earn more revenues from the added rentals. This may induce the motion picture studios to release movies on video tape much sooner, or even simultaneously with the movies' release to theaters, so that a greater portion of the public can enjoy the movies sooner and at a lower cost.
The above-described rental method preferably is carried out by a computer system such as that shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,029,034, issued Jul. 2, 1991, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,031, issued Sep. 17, 1991. Both of those patents are assigned to the assignee of the present patent application.
The system shown in those patents is highly advantageous; it enables the transmission of rental data from many different retail rental store terminals to a central computer or processor. This system computes the shares of video rentals earned by the retailers and distributors, prepares reports regarding rental transactions, and otherwise handles the accounting for the transactions electronically, as it is described in greater detail in those patents.
The system shown in those patents has the advantage that the speed and cost of collecting rental data is greatly improved. If desired, "counting cassettes" also can be used to count the number of plays of a video record by the customer, and the rental charge can be based on the number of plays.
In one known commercial system using one embodiment of the invention shown in those patents, all of the transaction data including rental and sale information of each store is transmitted to the central computer from each rental terminal. A problem with that arrangement is that many stores sell other products such as sweatshirts, candy, etc. in addition to renting or selling video records. Therefore, the video record business forms only a portion of the business of many rental stores. This is particularly true where the store is one which primarily sells other merchandise, such as supermarkets, department stores, etc. Therefore, there is a substantial amount of data which must be sorted out from the record rental information. This sorting should be done in the stores before the transmission of data to the central computer to prevent overloading the central computer equipment, thus increasing its cost, and also increasing the cost of data transmission and processing. For this reason, special features presently are required in the software used in the rental store to sort the extraneous data out before transmission to the central computer. Without such features, the software is incompatible with that of central computer.
Another problem is caused by the diversity of different point-of-sale computers and software which are used by video record retailers. Only a relatively few of the software packages have been modified to make them compatible with the central computer. Therefore, in order for retailers to participate in the revenue-sharing program, they often are required to buy relatively expensive compatible software to replace that which they already have. Also, they are required to re-train their employees to use the new software.
Another problem exists even with rental stores which have compatible software in that they may not have a compatible local area network operating software.
Another problem is that some rental stores do not have any computerized point-of-sale equipment at all. Therefore, even the smallest rental store is forced to acquire relatively sophisticated and expensive computer equipment in order to be able to participate in the revenue-sharing plan.
In either of the foregoing circumstances, the relatively high cost of acquiring new computer hardware and/or software is a significant deterrent to participation in the revenue-sharing plan.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide equipment and methods for merchandise distribution data processing which overcomes or substantially alleviates the foregoing problems.
More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide equipment and methods for use in video record revenue-sharing which significantly reduce the cost of entry into the revenue-sharing plan.
Another object of the invention is to provide a data collection system and method which can be used with a wide variety of computers and software without significant modifications.
It also is an object of the invention to provide a relatively low-cost and compact point-of-sale input terminal.
The foregoing objects are met by the provision of a data collection means and method, operating on signals used to display data in the local computers, to collect data for transmitting to a central computer. In a specific embodiment of the invention, the data is video record rental and sale data from retail distribution locations.
If desired, the rental data is segregated from that relating to the sale of other merchandise, and the data for revenue-sharing rentals is identified so that it can be further segregated by the central computer. Alternatively, if desired, the revenue-sharing data can be segregated locally so that only it will be sent to the central computer. Optionally, the revenue-sharing data can include pay-per-play data developed by the use of play-counting cassettes.
The invention is capable of segragating rental transaction data from sales transaction data. Additionally, revenue-sharing rental transaction data can be segregated from non-revenue sharing data. Further, if desired, sending of transaction data to the central computer can be controlled on a product or title ID basis.
Selecting data from that used by display devices in the local point-of-sale ("POS") systems has the advantage that the data collection equipment used can be largely standardized and need not be customized to be compatible with each of the multitude of hardware and software systems now used as point-of-sale equipment. The data sent to the display device (display screen or printer, e.g.) almost always is in ASCII code. Therefore, a device responsive to that code will be useable with almost all such equipment.
The invention includes a method for integrating into a data processing network, POS equipment which has incompatible software. A display data analyzing device is connected to the POS equipment to separate out and transmit to the central computer the data desired. Since the original POS equipment and software need not be changed, the cost of entry into the revenue-sharing plan is reduced significantly.
Display data sent to the display screen and/or printer of the usual POS system is formatted by the system software so that predetermined data usually appears in a predetermined location on the screen and/or printed invoice, or receipt or other business form. In the present invention, advantage is taken of this fact to provide a relatively fast, inexpensive means for selecting data.
The data is selected on the basis of its location on the display. Preferably, this is done by forming movable outlines of variable size on the display and capturing any data which falls within the outlines. In addition, recognition marks are placed on the display to identify that display as one which contains data to be captured; for example, data pertaining to the rental or sale of video records.
Advantageously, the recognition marks and the location and size of the windows can be varied individually in each POS system, either locally by relatively simple manipulations of the POS system controls, or by a command downloaded from the central computer. Thus, each data collection device may be customized to accommodate the individual needs of the POS system. Moreover, this can be done by an ordinary installer who need not be a computer programmer.
Changes made in the data collection system or POS system after installation similarly can be accommodated easily. For example, if the retailer decides to start renting play-counting tape cassettes such as those described in the above-identified patents, and therefore must capture data indicating the number of plays, the changes in the data capture procedures can be made relatively quickly and inexpensively.
A novel small-footprint data entry terminal is provided to reduce the cost and size of the POS equipment used by the retailer.
The small-footprint terminal has a keyboard with substantially less than a full complement of alphabetic character entry keys. Preferably, the keyboard has no such keys; rather, it has numerical keys and dedicated but programmable keys for entering specific data relating to video record transactions. This saves the cost and space required for a full keyboard, and makes the recording of a transaction faster and simpler.
Preferably, the small footprint terminal has a relatively small display using segmented elements, for example, dot matrix elements, to form the characters. A two-line, forty-character, LCD display is preferred. This small display provides all the display capacity needed, while saving the space and cost of a large video display.
The small-footprint terminal is operated as a slave from an ordinary personal computer used as a master in a local area network.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in or apparent from the following detailed description and drawings. In the drawings:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video record rental revenue-sharing system constructed in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic, partially perspective drawing of one embodiment of the point-of-sale system of the invention;
FIG. 3 is a schematic, partially perspective view of another embodiment of the point-of-sale system of the invention;
FIGS. 4A, 4B, 4C-1, 4C-2, 4D-1 and 4D-2 comprise flow charts for computer programs utilized in the invention;
FIGS. 4E, 4F, 4G, 4H, 4I and 4J represent respective screens which may appear on a CRT display;
FIGS. 5 and 6 are schematic, partially perspective views of further embodiments of the point-of-sale system of the invention;
FIG. 7 is a schematic circuit diagram of a "data tap" or collection device constructed in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the circuitry of a small footprint data entry terminal ("SFT") constructed in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 9 is a schematic circuit diagram of a LAN adapter constructed in accordance with the invention; and
FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the small-footprint data entry terminal ("SFT") whose circuitry is shown in FIG. 8.
FIG. 1 shows a video tape record revenue-sharing distribution system 10 constructed in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 1 is schematic and shows only a small part of an actual system which typically would be used commercially.
The system 10 includes a central computer or processor 12 which communicates with a point-of-sale ("POS") system in each of a large number of individual video record retail stores. Only three such stores, Stores No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 are shown in FIG. 1, by way of example.
The POS equipment in Store No. 1 is conventional prior art equipment. It comprises a local area network which includes a personal computer 14 used as a server. The server 14 uses programming compatible with that of the central computer. Also included are two slave terminals T1 and T2. The server or PC 14 is connected to a dial-up modem 13. The server 14 through the use of the modem 13 periodically calls up the central computer 12 and transmits accumulated rental transaction data for the store to the central computer over telephone lines 31, which if it is a long distance call would preferably be through one of the long distance systems such as "Tymnet", "Sprint", "MCI" or "AT&T". Alternately, the central computer 12 may periodically call up the modem and cause it to transmit the accumulated rental transaction data for the store to the central computer over the telephone lines.
The central computer or processor 12 processes the data it receives by first separating the data regarding revenue-sharing cassettes from all of the other data it receives. Then, it computes the shares of the revenues due to the cassette owners or distributors and to the retailers. Reports and funds are sent to the respective participants in the revenue-sharing program according to a formula previously agreed upon. If desired, reports can be transmitted through a modem 30 and telephone lines to computers such as S1 -S4 at the places of business of the cassette owners. Alternatively, reports can be sent by ordinary mail or telecopier, etc.
Payments from the retailers can be made by conventional means, or by means of electronic fund transfer banks B1, B2, B3, etc., as it is more fully described in the above-identified patents. Payments can be made to the entity owning and operating the system 10, which then pays the cassette owners and retains its share of the revenues.
As it is indicated in FIG. 1, many other stores in the revenue-sharing system communicate over other telephone lines 34 with the central computer 12. Each of those other stores can have point-of-sale equipment and software such as that shown in one of Stores No. 1, 2 and 3, or other combinations shown herein, or in any other desired combination.
The point-of-sale ("POS") system in Store No. 1 includes, in addition to the modem 13, server 14 and terminals T1 and T2, a cash drawer 15 or 17 for each terminal T1 or T2, and a printer 16 which is connected to one of the terminals T1 and T2 to print receipts and other matter in the normal transaction of retail video store business.
Each terminal has a bar-code reading wand 18 or 19 to read bar-coded product identification numbers and other product data into the terminal. A credit-card reader (not shown in Store No. 1) often is used with each terminal.
The server 14 also can be used as a sales terminal, and can have its own cash drawer, bar-code reader, credit card reader and printer, if desired.
The server can have local area network ("LAN") adapter equipment, file servers, and other equipment used in a local area network. Each terminal T1, T2 usually has a video display screen, a keyboard, hard disc and/or soft or floppy disc drives, etc., as in conventional personal computers.
Of course, if only one sales terminal is needed, the PC 14 can be used, together with a printer, wand, cash drawer, etc., as the only input terminal.
If needed, further terminals can be added, as indicated by the dashed line 20.
As it has been stated above, point-of-sale systems like the one in Store No. 1 are in widespread use in video stores throughout the United States and elsewhere in the world. However, in order for such systems to operate with the central computer 12, the software they use must be compatible with that used in the central computer. Specifically, the software should segregate the video record transactions from the others into separate files which may be then transmitted to the central computer in pre-defined data record formats. Further, video record titles which are used in the store are matched to the standard titles as defined by the central computer.
Only a few of the software packages designed for video rental store use have been modified to be compatible with the central computer software in the known revenue-sharing system in the U.S.A., the one which is operated by Rentrak Corporation. Therefore, the owners of many stores having point-of-sale computer equipment are forced to buy expensive compatible software and re-train their employees to use the new software in order for the retailer to participate in the revenue-sharing program. This is daunting and creates a substantial impediment to the growth of revenue sharing and its benefits.
Store No. 2 has exactly the same point-of-sale equipment as store No. 1 except that its software is not compatible with that of the central computer 12. However, it has been adapted, in accordance with the present invention, to be operable with the central computer 12 without replacing the incompatible software already in use.
In accordance with the present invention, three novel devices called "data taps" 22 are used together with a LAN adapter card 21, a master PC 25 and software stored in the server 14, terminals T1 and T2 and in the master PC 25. Each data tap 22, as will be described in greater detail below, separates the information regarding video record rentals from the data which is sent to the printer or the display screen of the terminals T1 or T2 or the server 14, and sends the information to the master PC 25 which stores the information until it is transmitted through the modem 13 to the central computer 12.
The three data taps 22 are connected together in series in a "daisy chain" sequence. There is one data tap for each terminal T1, T2, etc. and for the server 14 in the POS system.
FIG. 3 is a partially perspective schematic view of an adapted POS system 60 which is the same as that used in Store No. 2 of FIG. 1, except that the terminal T2 and the server 14 are not shown, and only one data-tap 22 is used.
The server 14 and each terminal T1, T2, etc. is a separate personal computer whose software is not compatible with that of the central computer. The LAN adapter card 21 and modem 13 shown in Store No. 2 of FIG. 1 are inside the master unit 25 and are not visible in FIG. 3.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, each respective data tap 22 is connected to the terminals T1, T2 and the server 14, and is further coupled through the LAN adapter 21 to the master computer 25. One of the data taps, for example, the data tap connected to terminal T1 is also connected to the printer 16. The data tap 22 is adapted to receive and temporarily store all data displayed on the display screen of the terminals T1, T2, and data to be printed on the printer 16. The captured data is thereafter supplied through the LAN adapter to the master computer.
A "TSR" program disc 52 is shown in FIG. 3. As it will be described in greater detail below, the TSR program is used in each terminal T1, T2, etc. to facilitate data selection and processing in accordance with the invention.
Applicants have taken advantage of the fact that, regardless of the brand of the computer, data which is sent to the display screen or display device such as the printer 16 consistently is in ASCII code. Therefore, the hardware of the data tap can be standardized so that one type of device can be used with a wide variety of computer hardware and software.
This is highly advantageous. It minimizes hardware and software costs and facilitates modification of existing POS systems to lower the cost of entry into the revenue-sharing plan. Also, the store employees need not be re-trained to use new software, because they can simply continue to use the software with which they are familiar. This minimizes any business interruption which might be caused by entry into the revenue-sharing plan.
Store No. 3 of FIG. 1 is an example of a store that has no computer equipment to start with. Since such a system has no incompatible software, compatible software can be used from the very start. However, since it might be a major expense to the store owner to purchase a prior point-of-sale system simply for the purpose of enrolling in the revenue-sharing plan, applicants have provided hardware with minimum cost and size so that the store owner's investment is kept to a minimum.
In particular, the system in Store No. 3 includes a master PC 25, a LAN adapter 27, a printer 16 and cash drawers 15 and 17. Also included are optional credit card readers 28 and 29, as well as bar code reader wands 18 and 19.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, the POS system also includes two simple, low-cost data input "Small Footprint Terminals" ("SFT's") 23 and 24. The small footprint terminals will be described in greater detail below.
With the use of the small footprint terminals, if needed, and the advantageous software of the present invention, the store owner of Store No. 3 can install a system which will keep track of inventory, and all sales transactions, and also will automatically separate out the data for video record transactions and transmit it through a modem over a telephone line 32 to the central computer, all at a relatively modest cost.
FIG. 2 is a partially perspective view showing an integrated POS system 40 like that used in Store No. 3 of FIG. 1, except that only one SFT terminal 23 is used instead of two.
The master computer 25 is a conventional personal computer such as one made by IBM, or an IBM compatible personal computer. It has a full keyboard 42, a video display screen 44, an internal hard-disc drive (not shown), and a floppy-disc drive whose input port is shown at 46.
The master computer 25 is programmed to be compatible with the central computer 12. It also is programmed to perform the data capture functions similar to those previously described with reference to the data tap 22.
In addition, certain other features are provided by the software, as it will be described below.
The printer 16 is a standard dot-matrix, ink-jet, laser or other printer connected to the printer port of the computer 25.
The cash drawer 15 is conventional, as is the credit card reader 28 and the bar-code reader 18.
The modem 26 and the LAN adapter card 27 of FIG. 1 are physically located inside the housing of computer 25 and are not visible in FIG. 2.
The small footprint terminal ("SFT") 23 is a compact, relatively inexpensive data entry terminal with a keypad 50 and a two line LCD display 148, each line having 40 characters. The SFT 23 will be described in greater detail below, and is shown enlarged and in its preferred form in FIG. 10.
Each of the master computer 25 and the SFT can be used at a separate check-out counter or station in the store. Another SFT can be added for each other station in the store.
Actually, the cash drawer 15, bar-code reader 18, card reader 28, the LAN adapter card, and the SFT 23 are not absolutely necessary to enable a store without a computer to participate in the revenue-sharing plan. The store only needs to acquire a master computer 25 with the compatible software described herein, and a modem and a printer.
As it is explained in the above-identified patents, most video tape cassettes bear information which is in both human-readable and bar-code form identifying the title of the work, a serial number for the cassette, etc. The bar-code reader 18 can be used to read this information into the computer 25 quickly. However, the store clerk can input the same information by means of the keyboard 42. Other products sold in the store also have similar identification information which is entered into the master computer 25. If one or more SFT terminals is included in the system, each such terminal can be used to enter the same information into the computer 25.
The computer 25 preferably is programmed to provide functions other than simply entering sales and rental data. For example, it can be used to order video tapes from an on-line revenue sharing catalog which may be periodically downloaded from the central computer 12. Additionally, the computer 25 provides information useful in operating the video tape rental store, including lists of video tape rentals by title, over-due video tapes, current video tape inventory, purchase order status, etc.
Other functions which can be performed by the master computer 25 are described in the above-identified patents.
The SFT 23 communicates with the master computer 25 by way of a local area network (LAN) which is implemented using the LAN adapter card 27 (FIG. 1). By way of this communication, the SFT 23 is able to receive price or other information from data bases stored in memory in the computer 25. Upon completion of each business transaction, the SFT 23 transmits the information relating to the transaction to the computer 25, which processes the information, and may cause the printer 16 to print an appropriate record of the transaction, such as an invoice.
The master computer 25 separates the data regarding rentals or sales of video records from other information, stores the video record data, and, at a predetermined time, transmits it to the central computer 12. The cassette identification numbers for revenue-sharing cassettes are known and can be identified by the central computer 12 to compute revenue shares. If preferred, only the revenue-sharing cassette rental information is collected, stored and transmitted to the central computer.
The computer 25 through the use of the modem 26 periodically calls up the central computer 12 and transmits accumulated transaction data for the store to the central computer over telephone lines 32, which may be one of the long distance systems previously described with reference to telephone lines 32. Alternately, the central computer may sequentially dial the telephone numbers assigned to each of the master computers in the separate stores in the system 10 at respective predetermined times, and cause the stored revenue-sharing data to be transmitted from each computer through its modem. Previously-stored orders placed by the store for revenue-sharing tapes also are transmitted to the central computer by this means.
The central computer 12 also transmits data to each master computer 25 in the system while it is connected to it. By this means, the central computer transmits updates to the catalog of available revenue-sharing properties, and other communications to each store. It also can transmit re-programming instructions to each local POS system.
Although the cash drawer, barcode reader, printer and credit card reader are connected by cables to the master computer 25, the SFT 23 also has receptacles in the rear panel (not shown) into which those devices could be connected, if it is more convenient to do so.
Each SFT terminal 23 is specially adapted for use as a POS terminal. Therefore, extraneous features needed in a general-purpose computer are not included. By this means, the cost of each SFT is minimized. This reduces the cost of the POS system in a store requiring more than one sale terminal.
FIGS. 5 and 6 show other examples of adapted POS systems; that is, existing POS systems which are not compatible with the central computer 12 but have been adapted to be compatible without replacing the existing software.
FIG. 5 shows an existing POS system which includes a personal computer 202 used as a file server, work stations 208 and 210, and printers 212 and 213. Work stations 208 and 210 communicate with the server 202 by way of a conventional local area network package such as that sold under the trademark "NOVELL" by Novell, Inc, or "LANTASTIC", by Artisoft, Inc. Each package includes software and LAN adapter hardware. To adapt such a POS system to be compatible with the central computer 12, there is added a master computer 25, software programs, data taps 204, 205 and 206, the LAN adapter hardware and a modem (not shown) in the master computer.
As it is shown in FIG. 7, as well as FIG. 5, each of the data taps has a serial input port 230, a serial output port 232, and parallel ports 240 and 242 to allow the data tap to be connected to other equipment through either serial or parallel ports, as the equipment might require.
Each data tap also includes a LAN input connector 236 and a LAN output connector 238.
The master computer 25 is connected through cable 220 to the data tap 204 through LAN input terminal 236. Data tap 204 is connected through port 238 and cable 223 to the next data tap 205, which is connected to data tap 206 through cable 225. The three data taps thus are connected together in "daisy chain" fashion. This facilitates adding further data taps and workstations at the end of the "daisy chain", as the store and the POS system grow.
The server 202 is connected to the data tap 204 through the cable 221 and the parallel input port 240. Similarly, the printer 212 is connected to the data tap 204 through parallel port 242.
Each of the workstations 208 and 210 and the server 202 may be a full personal computer with a video display 246, a full keyboard 248, and may have a hard disc drive and/or a floppy disc drive 250. Each of these units 202, 208 and 210 has both serial and parallel ports and can be connected to the data tap through its serial input port 230. As an example, workstation 210 is connected to parallel port 240 of data tap 206 through cable 226.
Printer 213 is connected to parallel port 242 of data tap 206 through a cable 227.
The printer 212 is connected to serve both the server 202 and the first workstation 208. Printer 213 serves the second workstation 210. If desired, a separate printer can be provided for each data entry station.
It should be understood that the LAN adapter 21, modem 13, cash drawer, bar code readers, etc. shown in store No. 2 of FIG. 1 have been omitted from FIG. 5 for the sake of clarity. However, the POS system will include the adapter and modem, and usually will include the other items as well.
A program disc 214 is shown above each of the server 202 and the two workstations in FIG. 5 to indicate that a TSR program is stored in the unit and is used in the manner to be described below.
The POS system shown in FIG. 5 continues to use the software already used in the pre-existing LAN, and thus avoids the need to purchase new software and re-train employees to use the new software. The master computer 25 and data taps 204-206 operate independently, with compatible software, to gather and transmit the data needed for participation in the revenue-sharing plan.
A POS system utilizing a UNIX operating system as illustrated in FIG. 6. The existing POS system includes a UNIX server 302, slave data entry terminals 304 and 306, and printers 308 and 310. To adapt such a POS system for use with the revenue-sharing system shown in FIG. 1, a master computer 25 and three data taps 312, 314 and 316 are utilized. The master computer 25 is connected to the data taps via cables 320, 325 and 327 in a "daisy chain" sequence like that shown in FIG. 5.
The connection of the terminals 304 and 306 to the server 302 is similar to that described above and shown in FIG. 5, except that, in the UNIX POS system, a separate cable 323 or 324 connects each slave terminal 304, 306 to the server. Accordingly, each data tap is connected between the server and one of the terminals, through cable 326 or 330.
When a printer is connected to a server or terminal, additional parallel connections are used. For example, printers 308 and 310 are respectively connected to the parallel ports of the data taps by cables 322 and 330 and from there to the server 302 and terminal 306 by way of the cables 321 and 329.
A program disc 303, which bears a program which is substantially similar to the TSR program 214 of FIG. 5, is loaded into the UNIX server 302 so as to enable the server to capture data displayed on the display screen of the server and/or sent to the printers and to supply such data to the respective data taps.
Each of the terminals 304 and 306 is a so-called "dumb" terminal; that is, it is a terminal having limited processing capabilities, and which depends on the server to process the data input at the terminal and define the display on the screen of the terminal.
The master computer 25 communicates with the data taps 312, 314, and 316 in a manner substantially identical to that previously described with reference to FIG. 5.
The computer programs used for data selection and storage are highly advantageous.
In general, a "teacher" program is used to create stored "templates" and "trapper" routines in each POS system.
The "templates" are routines for recognizing data appearing in predetermined locations on either a display screen or a printed invoice. The locations are set to match the specific formats used for invoices and/or screen displays in each store.
In an integrated system which has no data taps, the template(s) is or are stored in the master computer 25, (which also may be the only computer, in the smallest POS system).
In POS systems using data taps, the templates can be stored in the data taps, to save computer storage capacity, or in the master computer 25, or in the smart terminals of a system such as that shown in FIG. 5 or in the servers such as those shown in FIGS. 5 and 6.
The "trapper" routines which are created by use of the "teacher" program use the template(s) to separate and identify data to be stored and sent to the central computer 12. The "trapper" routines are stored in the master computer 25, and also may be stored in smart terminals or servers.
In the trapper routines, a unique combination of characters called "landmarks" is used to distinguish each type of display from the others. When a display is identified as one containing desired data, that data is selected by use of a template, stored in the master computer, and eventually uploaded to the central computer.
The "teacher" program is a program which is stored in the master computer, smart terminals and servers. It can be used by authorized personnel, such as an installer, to create the templates and trapper routines in a given POS system.
The templates for use with display screen data are created, in the manner to be discussed in detail below, by forming outlines or windows around specific areas of the screen, and enabling the detection of data when it appears in the windows.
If the data is selected from that which is transmitted to the printer to print business forms such as invoices, and if the data appears on the display screen on the computer 25, etc., in the same format as on the printed form, then the same technique can be used in establishing the template(s) as when screen data is used.
However, if the format of the data displayed on the screen does not match that of the printed data, a different technique is needed. For example, the invoice can be placed on a digitizer tablet, and the areas of the invoice from which data is selected can be outlined by the use of a digitizing pen.
Preferably, however, the data tap is programmed to have a "pass-through" mode in which data, for example, invoice data, is simply passed through to the master computer and stored on disc. Then the data for a typical invoice is put in the location required by the invoice, and pased through to the master computer, recalled, and displayed on a terminal screen. The data capture areas then are set to cover the areas occupied by the displayed data.
In either case, regardless of whether screen data or printer data is analyzed, the trapper program works in substantially the same way to detect and select data to send to the central computer 12.
The trapper and teacher routines are "terminate and stay resident" (TSR) routines; that is, routines which are able to run in a computer at the same time another portion of the main program is being executed.
The trapper and teacher programs will now be more fully described with reference to FIGS. 4A, 4B, 4C-1, 4C-2, 4D-1 and 4D-2. In this description, as an example, it is assumed that the programs are used in the terminal T1 of store no. 2 of FIG. 1.
The trapper program is initiated at step S10 of FIG. 4A.
Processing then proceeds to step S20 in which a determination is made as to whether the trapper program has already been loaded. This determination prevents multiple copies of the trapper program from being executed. That is, if the trapper program has already been loaded, as indicated by a "Yes" at step S20, an indication representing that the trapper program has already been loaded is displayed and further processing is terminated, as indicated by steps S21 and S22, respectively.
If, on the other hand, the trapper program has not already been loaded, as indicated by a No at step S20, processing proceeds to step S30. At step S30, processing associated with the existing or "old" clock subroutine is redirected so as to include processing of an additional or "new" clock subroutine. This new clock subroutine is initiated by a clock interrupt signal which typically occurs at a rate of 18 times per second, and will be more fully described later. Processing then proceeds to step S35.
At step S35, the template file for the trapper program is read. The template file resides on disc in the terminal and contains a template which previously was created by use of the teacher program, as it will be described below.
At step S40, the status of the trapping process is set. At this time, data is not being trapped. Flags may be utilized for indicating the trapping status. For example, a "0" flag may be set at step S40 to indicate a "trapping nothing" status. Processing then proceeds to step S50.
At step S50, an indication that the trapper program has been properly loaded is supplied to the display screen of the terminal T1 so as to notify the operator. Thereafter, the trapper program is placed in a "terminate and stay resident" (TSR) mode as indicated in step S60.
Upon the occurrence of a clock interrupt signal, processing of the new clock subroutine is initiated in step S70 and then proceeds to step S80. At step S80, a determination is made as to whether the new clock or old clock subroutine is currently being executed. If the determination at step S80 is affirmative, processing proceeds to step S110. At step S110, the processing returns to the old clock subroutine, so that the normal processing of the application software is continued.
If, on the other hand, the new clock subroutine is not currently being executed, as indicated by a "No" at step S80, then processing proceeds to step S90. At step S90, the "trapper" subroutine is executed. The trapper subroutine of step S90 is shown in detail in FIG. 4B.
Referring now to FIG. 4B, the trapper subroutine starts at 125 and proceeds to step S130, in which a flag is detected, if it is present, indicating that video cassette rental data was being selected or "trapped" during the previous interrupt cycle. If the determination in step S130 is affirmative, processing proceeds to a series of steps S131-S134 for determining when the data on the terminal screen has changed, and for saving cassette rental data.
At step S131, a determination is made as to whether the previously selected "landmarks" have changed. "Landmarks" are selected certain portions of the data displayed on the terminal screen during the processing of video cassette rentals. They are unique in terms of their content and/or their location on the screen. Any screen having these marks is identified as a screen containing video cassette rental data.
If the recognition marks have changed, as indicated by a Yes at step S131, processing proceeds to step S132. At step S132, a "trapping nothing" flag is set for the next interrupt cycle. This indicates that the display has changed and that the next display must be tested to see if it has cassette rental or return data.
When the landmarks have changed, this indicates that the screen being displayed has changed, and the next screen must be tested to determine whether or not it is one which has rental or return data. After step S132, processing proceeds to step S133, in which the data saved from the areas of the display selected by the template is sent to an output buffer. Thereafter, processing proceeds to step S170, wherein processing exits the trapper subroutine and returns to step S100 in FIG. 4A, where one packet of data is sent to the output port of the data tap or computer in which the program is operating.
If, however, the landmarks have not changed, as indicated by a No at step S131, processing proceeds to step S134. At step S134, the rental information which has been trapped is saved, updated during subsequent interrupt cycles, and ultimately sent to the output buffer at the end of the display. Thereafter, processing returns to step S100 to wait for the next interrupt cycle.
If the determination in step S130 is negative, processing proceeds to step S140. At step S140, a determination is made as to whether the selected information pertains to the return of video cassettes to the store after a rental. If the determination in step S140 is affirmative, processing proceeds to steps S141-S144, which are the same as steps S131-S134 except that they are performed for return data rather than rental data.
If the determination in step S140 is negative, meaning that neither a "trapping returns" or "trapping rentals" flag has been set, processing proceeds to step S150. At step S150, a determination is made as to whether landmarks have been detected which match. This comprises the first identification of the display as one having video cassette rental data. If there is such a match, as indicated by a Yes at step S150, then rental data is trapped and stored in the memory at step S151. Thereafter, at step S152, a "trapping rentals" flag is set to indicate that video cassette rental data is being trapped, and the process returns to step S100 in FIG. 4A to await the next interrupt cycle.
If, on the other hand, there is not a match of video cassette rental landmarks, as indicated by a No at step S150, then processing proceeds to step S160. At step S160, a determination is made as to whether cassette return landmarks have been detected. If there is such a match, as indicated by a Yes at step S160, then processing proceeds to steps S161 and S162, whereupon processing identical to that of steps S151 and S152, respectively, is performed, except that a "trapping returns" flag is set up and return data is saved.
If there is not a match of video cassette return landmarks, as indicated by a No at step S160, then processing returns to step S100 in FIG. 4A.
The trapper routines are repeated once for every clock interrupt signal, which has a frequency of 18 interrupt cycles per second.
When each new display is created, it has neither a "trapping rentals" flag nor a "trapping returns" flag. The display is first identified as one containing data to be saved in step S150 or S160. Thereafter, during each subsequent interrupt, since the status flag has been set at step S152 or S162, the determination of step S130 or S140 is affirmative. As a result, processing proceeds to step S131 or S141 so as to determine if the landmarks have changed. If the landmarks have not changed, thereby indicating that the same screen is still being displayed, video cassette rental information continues to be trapped and saved.
The next time in which the trapper subroutine is executed, since the status flag set in step S152 or S162 has not changed, the determination at step S130 or S141 is again affirmative. Processing then proceeds to step S131 or S141. At this point, assume that the display screen has changed. The determination at step S131 or S141 is then affirmative. Since the screen has changed, video cassette rental information is no longer being trapped and, as such, the status flag is set accordingly at step S132 or S142. All of the trapped video cassette transaction information, which had been saved at steps S151, S161, S144 and S134, is supplied to the output data buffer of the terminal at step S133. Processing then proceeds to step S170.
Referring again to FIG. 4A, the data stored in the output data buffer at steps S133 and S143 at the termination of a screen is supplied by way of the output parallel printer port of the terminal T1 to the data tap 22, or are sent directly to storage in the master computer 25, in a system having no data tap. Since only a certain limited amount of data can be transmitted during each interrupt cycle, one packet of data is transmitted during each cycle until all of the data has been transmitted. By transmitting the data in this manner, a slowdown of the POS processing is not noticeable. The data waiting to be transmitted is stored in memory, for example, the RAM, of terminal T1.
Prior to transmitting this data, a unique character or characters are added at the beginning and the end of the data stream. These characters provide a means for the data tap 22 to distinguish between data which is trapped as a result of the trapper program from data to be printed by the printer 16. That is, upon detecting these unique characters, the data tap is alerted that the data identified by the unique characters is trapped data to be sent to the master computer, and is not to be printed.
After step S100, processing proceeds to steps S110 and S120 as previously described.
Referring now to FIGS. 4C-1 and 4C-2, the "Teacher" program is initiated at step S210. Thereafter, processing proceeds to the determination step S220. The processing performed in steps S220, S230 and S240 is substantially similar to that of steps S20, S21 and S22, respectively, and therefore will not be further described.
If the teacher program has not already been loaded, as indicated by a No at step S220, processing proceeds to step S250 in which the signals produced by pressing the keys on the keyboard of the terminal T1 are modified or "redirected" in a "new keyboard" routine.
Subsequently, in step S260 a template file is loaded from disc into memory. This template file may be a default file as, for example, represented by the windows located on the right side of screen No. 4. Alternatively, the template file may be one that had been previously modified, and may be similar to that represented by the windows shown in screen No. 6.
After step S260, in step S270, an indication that the teacher program has been loaded successfully is displayed. Thereafter, the program is placed in a terminate and stay resident mode (TSR) at step S280.
Step S290 is initiated to bring the target application onto the screen. Because teacher is not active, the new keyboard, as in the step S300 routine, executes the old keyboard function. In step S310, the application responds in a normal manner to a key press. In step S320, a determination is made as to whether the key pressed terminates the application. If not, the loop formed of steps S300, S310 and S320 are repeated as the application responds to each key press. Once the desired screen is brought to the display, so-called "Hot Keys" are pressed and the teacher is activated.
The "new keyboard" portion of the teacher program utilized for creating the trapper template will now be described.
Referring now to FIG. 4C-2, the new keyboard routine is initiated by a key press. As previously mentioned, while the teacher is not active and prior to a hot key press, the old keyboard routine is executed in step S350 and processing then proceeds through steps S360 and S370 to step S450, which completes the routine. Once the hot key is pressed, while the teacher is inactive, step S350 executes the old keyboard routine. Processing then proceeds through step S360 to step S370, whereupon the hot key press is detected.
At step S380, a status indication or flag is set indicating that the teacher program is active. Thereafter, processing proceeds to step S390, in which an initial status indication or flag is set indicating that neither landmarks nor data areas are currently being set or learned. Processing then proceeds to step S400, in which the currently displayed application screen is saved in a memory of the terminal T1. Thereafter, processing proceeds to the teacher subroutine of step S410.
The teacher subroutine of step 410 is expanded as shown in FIG. 4D.
Referring now to FIGS. 4D-1 and 4D-2, the processing of the teacher subroutine starts at step S460 and proceeds to step S470. At step S470, the installer may select a key from the displayed main menu. As an example, in the preferred embodiment, selecting the "Alt" and "1" keys initiates processing of the trapper template for the video cassette rental landmarks and data, whereas selecting the "Alt" and "2" keys initiates processing of the trapper template for the video cassette return landmarks and information data. After selection of the key or keys in step S470, processing proceeds to step S480.
At step S480, a determination is made as to whether the escape key has been pressed by the installer. If the escape key has been pressed, as indicated by a Yes at step S480, processing proceeds to step S482.
At step S482, a determination is made as to whether areas for either rental or return landmarks and data are being set or learned. If the determination in step S482 is affirmative, processing proceeds to step S484. At step S484, the status indication or flag is set to indicate that neither rental or return information is being learned. Thereafter, processing returns to step S470. If, however, the determination at step S482 is negative, processing proceeds to step S486, whereupon the teacher subroutine is exited and processing is returned to step S420. Thus, after the learning processing has been initiated as described later, the escape key needs to be pressed twice in order to exit the teacher subroutine.
If, on the other hand, the escape key has not been pressed, as indicated by a No at the Step S480, processing proceeds to step S490. At step S490, a determination is made as to whether the key(s) selected in step S470 initiates learning of the video cassette rental landmarks and data information. That is, in the preferred embodiment, were the "Alt" and "1" keys selected in step S470.
As an example, assume that the "Alt" and "1" keys were selected in step S470. As a result, the determination in step S490 is affirmative. Processing then proceeds to step S492 in which areas to be used for landmarks and data information are displayed as well as functional information used for identifying the landmarks and data information. Processing then proceeds to step S494, in which the status indication or flag is set to indicate that rental landmark or data information areas are being set. Thereafter, processing returns to step S470, for selection of key from those identified in the sub-menu.
Processing then proceeds through steps S470 and S480 to step S490. At step S490, since a key from the sub-menu was selected in step S470 and not the learning rental or "ALT" and "1" keys, processing proceeds to step S500. Similarly, processing proceeds through step S500 to step S530.
At step S530, a determination is made as to whether the learning of rental landmark and data information areas is currently being performed. If the determination in step S530 is affirmative, processing proceeds to step S540. In this situation, since the flag was set in step S494 indicating that rental learning is being performed, processing proceeds to step S540. At step S540, the landmark and data areas are selected. These areas may be selected by using, for example, cursor locating or arrow keys (↑, ←, ↓, →) to move shaded areas to the desired positions, thereby forming a rental template. After completing this rental template, processing returns to step S470.
Since the rental template is completed, processing proceeds from step S470 to step S480, whereupon the escape key is selected. Thereafter, processing proceeds to step S482. Since the flag set in step S494 still indicates that rental landmark and data information areas are being learned, processing proceeds to step S484.
At step S484, the flag is reset to indicate that rental learning is no longer being performed. Thereafter, processing returns through step S470 to step S480. Upon pressing the escape key again, processing now proceeds through step S482 to step S486, thereby exiting the teacher subroutine.
If landmark and data information areas pertaining to video cassette returns had been desired, the "Alt" and "2" keys would have been selected initially at step S470. In this situation, the processing of steps S500, S510, S520, S550 and S560 would have been performed. Since the processing performed in these steps is substantially the same as that performed in steps S490, S492, S494, S530 and S540, respectively, they will not be described further.
Referring again to FIG. 4C-2, after the teacher subroutine ends, as indicated at S420, the landmark and data information areas are saved in a file entitled the "template file" in memory. Then, as indicated at S430, the application screen saved at step S400 is displayed.
Processing then proceeds to step S440 where the flag initially set in step S380 is changed to indicate that the subroutine is no longer active. Processing is then returned to the application software at step S450.
If the new keyboard is called while the teacher is active, processing proceeds through steps S340, S350 and S360 to completion at step S450.
The following description illustrates the operation of the teacher program. Sample display screens are reproduced for use in the description. The screens were produced using a data format produced by an existing POS program. This illustrates how the invention easily can be used with a variety of existing video retail store software packages.
In the interest of brevity, the following description will be limited to the use of the teacher program to set landmark and data capture areas for video record rentals only, with the understanding that the teacher program also can be used for video record returns and sales, etc. Similarly, the teacher program may also be used in the rentals, returns and sales of non-video record items.
Upon loading the teacher program into the memory of the terminal T1 or other computer, display shown in Screen 1 illustrated in FIG. 4E appears on the CRT display.
Next, a display for use in renting video records is selected, and screen 2 illustrated in FIG. 4F appears.
The information appearing on screen No. 2 illustrated in FIG. 4F will now be described, beginning at the top of the screen and proceeding to the bottom.
The top line of Screen No. 2 includes an invoice number for the rental transaction, the time and date, and the term "CAP". The invoice number displayed in this example is No. 1. The time and date represent the time and date of transaction. The "CAP" term indicates the lock function of the keyboard.
The second line from the top of Screen 2 includes identification of the cashier/drawer, the customer file number and "items out."
The cashier/drawer entry identifies the cashier operating the terminal or workstation or the cash/drawer being used with the terminal or workstation.
The customer file number allows tracking of customers between different stores of the same chain.
The term "items out" indicates the current number of video cassettes and video players which this customer has not as yet returned.
The third line from the top of Screen 2 includes a sales person identification number, customer identification, and total rentals.
The sales person identification is entered into the terminal or workstation by the sales person and stored in memory prior to initiating any business transactions. The customer identification may be in the form of a number, and the customer's name and/or phone number. In this situation, the customer identification is "1 J. Smith".
The total rentals (TOT RENTS) indicates the number of rentals which this customer has rented over a predetermined time period. In this situation, this customer has previously rented one video cassette during the last week.
The fourth line of Screen 2 includes the term "DAYS OUT", "MEMBERSHIP FEE" and "CREDITS DUE".
"DAYS OUT" refers to the rental period and is typically set by the store owner. In this particular example, the store owner has set the standard time period for the rental of a video cassette to be one day.
The "MEMBERSHIP FEE" term indicates the total expenditure paid by the customer for his or her membership in the video store club. In this example, since the customer is not a member (as indicated by the pricing type "O") the customer has not paid anything towards a membership fee.
The "CREDITS DUE" term refers to a credit in terms of a number of free rentals which may be owed to the customer. In the example shown, the customer is not owed anything.
The fifth line from the top of Screen 2 includes the terms "DAYS CHARGE", "MEMB PRICING TYPE" and "ITEM NUMBER".
The "DAYS CHARGED" term refers to the number of days charged to the customer for the video cassette rental. As with the previously described "DAYS OUT" term, the charge is set by the video store owner. In this example, since the video cassette is rented for one day, the number of days charged for also is 1. If, however, the customer were to rent a video cassette on a Saturday evening and the store were to be closed on the next day, a Sunday, the "days out" term would indicate 2, but the "days charge" term would still be 1.
The "MEMB PRICING TYPE" term stands for "membership pricing type". This indicates one of four pricing classifications in which the customer has been placed. As an example, the store owner may provide discount memberships to senior citizens or full-time students, and so forth.
The ITEM NUMBER term is the actual identification number of the item being rented or purchased. As previously described, this item may be entered by use of the bar code wand 18 to read it off of the tape cassette being rented, or by use of the keyboard of the terminal or workstation. While the item number is being entered, the number appears on the line to the right of the colon (:). Upon entering a valid item number, the number to the right of the colon is omitted and the number is placed in parenthesis as shown to the left of the colon.
The sixth line from the top of Screen 2 includes the headings "NO.", "DESCRIPTION", "RSCF", "DAY O", "DAY C", "CHARGE", "DUE DATE", "DUE TM" and "A/P".
"NO" is a number assigned to the item which is being sold or rented, and corresponds to the above-described item number. More specifically, upon entering the item number from the fifth line, the number corresponding to this item number, which is stored in the database of the master computer, is recalled and displayed. In this example, the number in the master computer's database corresponding to the entered item number of the fifth line is 1001.
The "Description" column provides a description of the item being rented or sold. In this situation the item is a movie, as indicated by the term "MOV", and is entitled Gone With The Wind.
The RSCF column refers to the type of the transaction. That is, "R" indicates a rental, "S" indicates a sale, "C" indicates a credit and "F" indicates a free transaction, such as for a free replacement.
The "Day O" column indicates the number of days which this movie is rented for, which, in this example is one day.
The "Day C" column indicates the number of days for which the customer is to be charged for this rental which in this situation is one day.
The "Charge" column indicates the cost of the rental.
The "Due Date", "Due Time" (TM) and A/P columns indicate the day and time in which the video cassette is to be returned. In this example, the cassette is to be returned no later than 4:00 pm on Sep. 24, 1991.
The eighth line of Screen 2 includes membership pricing type (MEM TYP) and account balance (ACT BAL).
The membership pricing type is identical to that displayed on the fifth line and is merely redisplayed at this location.
The account balance indicates the outstanding balance which the customer owes. In the example shown, the balance is 0.
The ninth line of Screen 2 includes total rentals ("TOTAL RENT"), membership fee ("MEMB FEE") and sub-total.
The total rentals is the amount charged for all video cassette rentals for the current transaction, which in this example is $7.00.
The membership fee indicates the amount towards a membership which the customer is currently paying. In this situation, the customer is not paying anything towards his or her membership fee.
The sub-total indicates the amount of total rentals, sales and miscellaneous charges prior to any applicable sales tax.
The ninth line from the top of Screen 2 includes "TOTAL SALE," "SALES TAX" and "NOT-RESERVED".
The "TOTAL SALE" indicates the total amount of video cassette sales, and thus lists sales separately from rentals. The sales tax entry is self-explanatory.
The "NOT RESERVED" message appears indicating that the cassette being rented was not previously reserved by the customer. If the cassette is rented at the same time as it was reserved for, and if the customer renting the cassette is the one who reserved it, a "MATCH" message will appear. If the same customer reserved it for a different time, a "SEMI-MATCH" message appears.
The eleventh line of Screen 2 lists miscellaneous charges ("MISC CHRGS"), "TOTAL" and [Esc]=END.
The miscellaneous charges indicate the non-video cassette items such as candy, cigarettes, etc. which have been purchased.
"TOTAL" is the grand total of the current transaction, including tax.
The [Esc]=END prompt reminds the operator that upon completing the transaction the "ESC" key is to be pressed to end the transaction.
The last two lines on Screen 2 list the function keys F1 through F10 and their respective functions.
F1 and F2 move the cursor to be moved in an upwardly or downwardly direction, respectively, inside the area of the screen dedicated to the transaction information. That is, these keys, in combination with the keyboard, allow the operator to edit a line.
Function keys F3 and F4 may be used by the operator to enter a Days Out and a Days Charge which may be different from that set by the store owner.
Key F5 informs the terminal or workstation that a check-in or video cassette return is to be entered. By pressing function key F5, the screen is changed to a screen for handling the returns of video cassettes.
The customer key F6 is used to modify the customer number/name or phone number of the third line.
The total key F7 is used to calculate a re-total. The miscellaneous or function key F8 is used to enter price information for miscellaneous items, such as popcorn, etc.
Pressing function key F9 allows the cursor to move to the portion of the screen containing the No., description, RSCF, Day O, etc., terms.
Upon pressing the function key F10 the transaction currently displayed on the screen is aborted.
In accordance with the present invention, upon pressing the "hot keys" on the keyboard, that is, the "Alt" and the left "shift" keys, the main menu of the teacher program is displayed in the shaded area at the bottom of the display as shown in Screen 3 illustrated in FIG. 4G. The main menu allows the installer to select processing for either "rentals" or "returns".
By pressing the "Alt" and "1" keys, the operator displays the sub-menu of the teacher program for rentals in the shaded area at the bottom of the display as shown in Screen 4 illustrated in FIG. 4H.
The sub-menu in Screen 4 includes ten terms which are used for identifying the landmarks and the data capture areas.
Terms LM1, LM2 and LM3 are used for identifying three landmarks. Similarly, the next seven terms are used to identify rental transaction data, that is, the invoice No. ("Inv"), customer ("Cust"), type of transaction ("Type"), the number of days desired to rent the video cassette ("Qty"), volume identification or the number of the volume ("Vo Id") of the item being rented or sold, title of the video cassette ("Title") and the price or charge for the rental or sale ("Price").
Also displayed on the right side of the screen is a row of 10 rectangular shaded areas, each of which corresponds to one of the 10 terms displayed in the sub-menu. The top-most shaded area is reserved for landmark No. 1, the next shaded area below is for landmark No. 2, and so forth, down to the bottom shaded area which is for the price data. The operator can move the shaded areas and change their sizes to cover the desired landmark and information areas as described below with reference to Screens 5 and 6.
Any of the terms in the submenu in Screen 4 can be selected by pressing "ALT" plus one of the keys 0 to 9 on the keyboard. When this is done, Screen 5 illustrated in FIG. 4I appears.
Each of the shaded areas on the right side of the screen can be moved to a desired location to cover the area where certain data appears. The shaded areas can be moved by using the cursor or arrow keys (↑, ←, ↓, →). The size of each area can be modified by using the "Shift" key together with the desired arrow key.
The technology for creating, moving and enlarging these areas is well known in the art and will not be described here. For example, such technology is utilized in a number of word processing programs which are commercially available.
As shown in Screen 5, the areas containing the "INVOICE NUMBER", "CASHR/DRAWER" and "NO. DESCRIPTION" have been selected as the three landmark areas. This has been done by moving the three uppermost shaded areas in Screen 4 to the left, as shown in Screen 5.
These three areas were selected because collectively they contain data which is unique to the rental screen in terms of content and location. Therefore, later, during use of the "trapper program", if each of the terms "INVOICE NUMBER", "CASHR/DRAWER" and "NO. DESCRIPTION" is detected in these landmark areas, then the screen being displayed is identified as a rental screen from which data is to be saved for transmission to the central computer 12.
Screen 6 illustrated in FIG. 4J is the same as Screen 5, except that the data capture areas have been fully defined.
The manipulative steps involved are illustrated by the following example.
The operator presses the "Alt" and the "4" keys to activate the fourth shaded area from the top in the right portion of Screen 4. Then, this capture area is moved by use of the arrow keys so as to cover the "1" following the "INVOICE NUMBER" term on the top line of the screen. This area then is reduced in size, by using the "SHIFT" and the arrow keys, as it has been described above, so as to cover only the area reserved for the invoice numbers.
Similarly, the other data capture areas are moved and re-shaped to cover the customer number, the type or RSCF column, the quantity or days out column, the volume identification No. column (i.e., the column entitled "NO."), and the title and the price or charge column.
Later, during operation of the "trapper" program, the data in these seven data captures areas is saved for later transmission to the central computer 12.
The pattern of data capture areas shown in Screen 6 is referred to in this patent application as a "template".
Upon completing the template for the video cassette rentals, the operator presses the ESCAPE key. As a result, the teacher program exits from the sub-menu and returns to the main menu display shown in Screen 3 above.
Upon pressing the ESCAPE key a second time, the operator restores the rental screen normally displayed by the application software, Screen 2 which is shown above.
The teacher program can be used in the same manner to set or adjust the landmark and data capture areas for other screens, such as for returns, etc.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the data tap 22. The data tap includes a microcontroller 102, a memory segmentation and selection circuit 104, a programmable serial I/O circuit 112, a parallel I/O circuit 116, a local area network (LAN) I/O circuit 120 and a data, address and control bus 110.
The data tap 22 is connected to the master computer 25 by way of the LAN I/O circuit 120 and a cable as shown above in FIG. 5 or FIG. 6, etc. (not shown in FIG. 7). This allows communication between the master computer and the data tap. In a preferred embodiment, both transmitted and received communications are differentially driven by utilizing RS-422 or RS-485 interfaces. The use of these interfaces allows effective communications over relatively large distances. That is, an RS-422 or RS-485 interface allows effective communication up to a length of approximately 5,000 feet, whereas a standard RS-232 interface typically restricts the effective length of a communication path to only about 50 feet. The LAN I/O circuit 120 is preferably configured so as to allow "daisy chain" connections between multiple terminals or work stations, as described above, and as it will be described in greater detail below.
The parallel I/O circuit 116 includes two parallel ports 240, 242 in which one of the ports 242 is adapted to function in a bi-directional manner as either an input or an output port. This bi-directional port 242 is connected to the printer, 212 as shown in FIG. 5. The other port 240 may be connected to a terminal, a server computer or a workstation, also as shown in FIG. 5.
The programmable serial I/O circuit 112 contains a dual universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (Dual UART) integrated circuit. This I/O circuit has two serial interface ports 230, 232, in which one of the ports 232 is connected to a POS terminal and the other port 230 is connected to its server computer, for example, a Unix server, as shown in FIG. 6.
The microcontroller 102 is adapted to control the data processing functions performed by the data tap. As an example, the microcontroller may be an 8-bit microcontroller such as model no. MC68HC11A1 manufactured by the Motorola Corporation. This microcontroller is limited to controlling 64 k-bytes of data, which is entirely adequate for the task.
The memory segmentation and selection circuit 104 includes a EPROM 106 and a RAM 108. This circuit is adapted to apportion areas of the EPROM and RAM as required. Since the preferred microcontroller is limited to controlling 64 k-bytes of data, the total available memory in the EPROM and RAM is also limited to 64 k-bytes, As a result, in a preferred embodiment, the EPROM has 32 k-bytes of memory capacity in which 8 k-bytes are available and the RAM has 64 k-bytes of memory capacity in which 56 k-bytes are available. The RAM is adapted to receive an operating program from the master computer 25 and to store the same within its 56 k-bytes of available memory. A boot code program is stored within the 8 k-bytes of available memory in the EPROM. Predetermined subroutines may also be stored in the EPROM.
A power supply 122 receives power from an external power source, for example, a 115 V., 60 Hz outlet, and transforms the 115 V. power to 5 Vdc which is used to power the data tap 22. Alternatively, the power supply may be configured so as to receive other input power which, for example, may be 230 V., 50 Hz, or other power available in other countries.
A unique serial number circuit 114 is provided. It includes an integrated circuit and is adapted to generate a unique 48-bit number. This unique number is supplied via the bus 110 and the LAN I/O circuit 120 to the master computer 25. The master computer supplies this 48 bit number to the central computer 12. Alternatively, this number is replaced with a smaller unique number, for example, an 8-bit number, which may be supplied to the central computer. This number provides a means for identifying the data tap and the corresponding POS station.
As an example, the central computer can identify a malfunctioning POS station to the store owner through use of the unique identification number. Further, in the event that a POS station is disconnected, either intentionally or unintentionally, the central computer can identify the disconnected POS station by use of the identification number.
The data, address and control bus 110 provides a means for a controlled data transfer between the microcontroller 102, memory segmentation and selection circuit 104, programmable serial I/O circuit 112, unique serial number circuit 114, parallel I/O circuit 116, LEDS 118 and 119 and LAN I/O circuit 120.
When power is applied to the data tap 22 from the power supply 122, the boot code program stored in the EPROM 106 is executed by the microcontroller circuit 102. As a result, the main operating program is downloaded from the master computer 25 into the RAM 108. The microcontroller then executes the program which was recently stored in the RAM. The subroutines stored in the EPROM may be addressed during execution of the main program.
As previously described, the data tap 22 is connected between a printer and a data entry terminal by way of the parallel I/O circuit 116. Further, the data tap is coupled to the master computer 25 by way of the LAN I/O circuit 120.
As it has been indicated above, a data template can be used to capture data either from the data displayed on the screen of the input terminal, or from the data sent to the printer to prepare a printed record of the transaction.
Assuming that printer data is to be captured, printer data is sent from the input terminal to the data tap, where the data is temporarily stored in the RAM 108. While the data to be printed is temporarily stored in the RAM, the data tap executes the trapper routine so as to determine if the data to be printed contains relevant video record transaction information. As an example, if this determination indicates that the document to be printed is an invoice, then data appearing at specific locations, will be captured. That data typically includes the invoice number, the video title, etc. The data captured is temporarily stored in the RAM and later is transmitted to the master computer for storage until it is uploaded to the central computer.
The stored data also is supplied through the parallel I/O circuit 116 to the printer in a regulated manner. Therefore, the data tap also functions as a data buffer for the printer.
If it is screen data which is being captured, and if the POS system uses a data tap, the captured or trapped data is sent to the data tap where it is temporarily stored. By detecting the unique character or characters which are placed at the beginning and the end of the trapped data by the trapper program, the data tap is able to distinguish trapped data from data which is to be printed. This prevents the trapped data from being mistakenly supplied to the printer and then printed. The data temporarily stored in the data tap is subsequently supplied to the master computer 25.
The master computer repeatedly polls all of the data taps in a POS system in sequence to determine if they have data to be transmitted to the master computer. If a data tap has any such data, the master computer signals the data tap to transmit it. The data is transmitted in separate data packets, one for each polling cycle, as it is commonly done in computer networks.
Still referring to FIG. 7, light-emitting diodes ("LED's") 118 and 119 are used for providing information relevant to the operation of the data tap 22 to the operator. The activation of the green LED 119 indicate that the master computer is attempting to communicate with the data tap. The activation of the red LED 118 indicates that the data tap is properly communicating with the master computer.
Additionally, the LED's 118 and 119 are utilized for fault isolation or error detection by causing the LED to blink.
FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the small footprint terminal ("SFT") 23, and FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the circuitry of the SFT. The SFT 23 also is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
The SFT, as shown in FIG. 10, includes a housing 500 with an upper surface 501. A display 148 and a keypad 50 are located on the upper surface 50.
The SFT circuit shown in FIG. 8 includes a microcontroller 140, a memory segmentation and selection circuit 142, the display 148, a keypad controller 150, the keypad 50, a data, address and control bus 154, a programmable serial I/O circuit 156, a parallel I/O circuit 162 and a LAN I/O circuit 164.
The memory segmentation and selection circuit 142 includes an EPROM 144 and a RAM 146. Circuit 142 controls the configuration of the EPROM 144 and RAM 146. In a preferred embodiment, EPROM 144 contains 64 k-bytes of which 8 k-bytes are available and RAM 146 contains 64 k-bytes of which 56 k-bytes are available. A boot-up program is stored within the EPROM 144.
Preferably, the microcontroller, EPROM, RAM, I/O circuits, power supply and memory control circuits are the same as in the data tap 22 so as to take advantage of standardization as much as possible.
The display 148 is adapted to display operator requested data. The display also may provide the operator with other useful information. For example, in the event that network communications with any of the master computer 25, the printer 16, the bar code reader 18, the credit card reader 28 or the cash drawer 15 are interrupted, an error message will be displayed. To aid during the installation of the system, installation messages may be displayed. Further, if the printer runs out of paper or if input data is in an incorrect format (e.g., the data does not contain the required number of numerals), an error message will be displayed. Furthermore, prompts to assist in the use of the credit card reader and the cash drawer also may be displayed.
Referring now to FIG. 10, as well as FIG. 8, the display preferably is a two-line by 40 character wide reflective dot matrix liquid crystal display ("LCD"). Alternatively, the display can be a two-line by 24 character wide LED or vacuum fluorescent display, or one of a number of known, relatively inexpensive and compact displays.
The keypad 50 has keys of the type having a tactile feel, with graphic overlay.
The keypad 50 has numeric keys 534 which include ten keys for the numbers 0 through 9, and a decimal point key 523. These keys allow entry by the operator of rental, sale and customer identification numbers, quantity, discount information and price changes, and other numerical information.
The keyboard has five edit keys which include a Clear All key 502; a Clear Item key 504; a Scroll Up key 508; a Scroll Down key 510; and a Back Space key 524.
Pressing the Clear All key 502 clears all items or entries in the current transaction, and returns the display 148 to a ready state. Any data which was displayed on the display 148 is not forwarded to the master computer 25.
The Clear Item key 504 clears the customer identification, item identification and/or the price of the item currently being displayed. This allows a revised customer identification, item identification and/or price of the current item to be entered and displayed.
The Scroll Up and Scroll Down keys 508 and 510 change the lines which are displayed. As a result, when a customer has changed his or her mind about a transaction, or when an error has occurred, the operator is able to go back to a line which had been previously entered so that the operator may revise the line as desired. The backspace key 524 moves the operating display cursor (not shown) one space to the left each time this key is depressed. In so doing, the character occupying this space is deleted.
The keypad has programmable function keys which include a Tape Return key 506; a No Tax Total key 512; a Print key 514; a Sell key 516; a Quantity key 518; a Discount key 520; a New Price key 522; a Customer key 526; a Rental key 528; a Total key 530; and an Amount Tendered key 532. The functions of these keys will be explained below.
The small footprint terminal 23 is surprisingly versatile for a unit so small and inexpensive. It can be used to enter video record transactions and the sales of widely varying merchandise which also might be offered in the same store. It can be used to enter the sales of goods and beverages; clothing; hardware, and many other items as well as the sale, rental or return of video records.
This versatility facilitates the installation of video record rental counters or departments in retail food stores, grocery stores, hardware stores, and many other types of stores which often do not rent video records, thus increasing the income of the stores, and expanding the distribution outlets for the video records.
When the terminal is used as a part of a revenue-sharing video record rental it also facilitates the participation of the user in the revenue-sharing plan.
The use of the SFT to enter such a wide variety of transactions now will be described.
When power is first applied to the POS system including the SFT, the microcontroller 140 (FIG. 8) provides an operator message or "prompt" display via bus 154 to the display 148. The "prompt" is shown in Display 1 below. ##STR1##
Display 1 instructs the operator to enter the customer number, or the Item identification number, or the price. If the transaction is a video record rental, the customer number is entered. The item I.D. or price is entered for other transactions.
All of this information can be input by use of the keypad 50. The Item identification can be entered by use of the bar-code reader to read the number off of the product, or by use of the keypad. In the situation in which the price is to be entered, as later described, the price will be input by means of the keypad.
Following is an example of the use of the SFT to record a rental transaction in which two video cassettes are rented to one customer.
In response to Display 1, the operator enters the customer's identification number, which is 1234567. Then, Display 2 appears, instructing the operator to press the appropriate function key, ##STR2##
The proper function key is the Customer key 526 (FIG. 10) which is pressed to indicate that the number is a customer number. Then, the SFT displays the customer's name and any late fees which the customer owes, as shown below in Display 3. In this example, the late fee owed is zero. ##STR3##
Next, the identification number of the first video cassette of the two to be rented is entered, by means of the keypad or bar-code reader. Upon entering this number, the operator is instructed to press the appropriate function key, as shown below in Display 4. ##STR4##
Since this video cassette is being rented, rather than sold, the Rental key 528 (FIG. 10) is pressed. As shown below, in Display 5, pressing the Rental key causes the title, rental return date and price of renting that cassette to be retrieved from memory in the master computer and displayed on the SFT display 148. ##STR5##
Next, information relating to the rental of the second video cassette ("Title 2") is entered and displayed using the same steps as those described above for the rental of the first video cassette. These steps are shown by displays 6 and 7 below. ##STR6##
Next, the Total key 530 is pressed. As shown below, in Display 8, pressing this key causes the total amount, including tax, to be calculated and displayed. Further, individual subtotals of the rental charge; charges for any sales included in the transaction; and tax amounts also are displayed. ##STR7##
Assume, at this point, that the customer gives the operator $5.00 in payment for the rentals. The operator enters "5.", and is instructed to press the appropriate function key, as shown below in Display 9. ##STR8##
The operator presses the Amount Tendered key 532, which causes the amount of change owed the customer to be computed and displayed, as shown below in Display 10. ##STR9##
Next, signals are supplied to the drivers 157 and 158 (FIG. 8) so as to open the cash drawer and activate the buzzer 159. The buzzer warns the operator that the cash drawer is open.
If the POS system is configured to automatically print a customer invoice, a data signal containing certain portions of the information relating to the transaction is supplied from the microcontroller 140 via the bus 154 and the parallel I/O circuit 162 to the printer. Upon receipt of this signal, the printer prints a customer invoice. If the POS system is not so configured, an invoice can be printed by pressing the Print key 514.
If the transaction is the return of a rented tape cassette, the operator again inputs the customer's identification number in response to Display 1. Alternatively, in this situation, the customer identification number need not be entered.
Now, the operator presses the Customer key 526, and then the Tape Return key 506. In response, the program of the SFT causes the display of the title of the rental cassette; the due date for its return; and any late fees due for late return of the rental cassette.
The Total key 530 and the Amount Tendered key 532 can be used in the manner described above to complete the transaction, and the Print button can be used to print an invoice for the further fees.
If a video record is being sold, rather than rented, the operator enters the cassette identification number in response to Display 1, and presses the Sell key 516 this identifies the transaction as a sale rather than a rental. Preferably, the data regarding this transaction, as well as the record rental data is captured, saved and eventually uploaded to the central computer.
The sales transaction is concluded in the same manner as the other transactions described above.
Sales of merchandise other than video records can be handled in the same way as for record sales, where the product has an identification code.
Sales of merchandise which has no product code, or sales where the store does not use product codes for merchandise other than records, can be handled in another fashion. When Display 1 appears, the operator simply enters the price of the item together with a decimal point (e.g. "10."), and the program recognizes this as a sale, and the price and the words "DIRECT SALE" are displayed.
The sales transaction then is completed in the same way as other transactions.
In sorting the data concerning video record rentals or sales from other transactions, the identification numbers on the cassettes are used to identify the product as a video record. This causes the data for the transaction to be arranged in a predetermined format. A template is used, in the manner described above, to identify the display, and to data capture selected parts of the data, and to save and upload the data to the central computer.
Various other function keys are provided to assist in recording rental and sales transactions.
The No Tax Total key 512 is used to calculate a subtotal without including sales tax. Upon depressing this key, "NO TAX TOTAL" and the corresponding cost is displayed on the display 148.
The Quantity key 518 can be used to enter quantity of the item being sold or rented, where more than one such item is being sold or rented. The resultant cost (i.e., quantity x unit price of the item) is displayed.
If the item is being rented, the Quantity key 518 is used to input the number of rental periods, for example, the number of days, for which the customer desires; to keep the record. In this situation, the due date and the price are displayed.
The Discount key 520 can be pressed after either an item has been entered, or the Total key 530 has been pressed. In the former situation, the discount entered is applied to the associated item to reduce its price. In the latter situation, the discount entered is applied to the total cost of the transaction.
In either situation, the discount value is interpreted by the SFT 23 as an actual discount amount, if the decimal point key 523 is used. However, if the decimal key is not used, then the discount is interpreted as a percentage.
The Change Price key 522 is used to override the stored price and manually enter a new price of an item. This allows incorrect or outdated rental or sales prices stored in the data base of the master computer 25 to be corrected. This key may also be used to modify a late fee. However, this key can not be used to change either the total amount of the transaction or the applicable tax.
As it is shown in FIG. 10, the keys on the keypad 50 have been arranged optimally. For example, the four most frequently used function keys (that is, the Customer, Rental, Total and Amount keys) are arranged in an array located on the right hand portion of the keypad and in a sequence which is anticipated to be that most often used in a rental transaction.
The numeric keys 534 are arranged in a pattern substantially similar to that of most calculator keypads. Further, the more frequently used keys such as the Customer, Tape Return, etc. keys are wider or higher than the other keys and also are identified with distinctive colors.
This arrangement makes the keypad 50 very user friendly. As a result, daily operations are relatively easy to perform. Further, training time for new operators is minimized.
The SFT achieves its compact size and low cost in part by the elimination of the 26 letter keys of the usual keyboard. It also uses a display of greatly reduced size and cost to achieve those results.
Despite the lower cost and smaller size, the terminal is versatile and reliable. More over it is not "dumb"; it has its own "intelligence" and storage capacity, and programming which helps it achieve versatility.
Referring again to FIG. 8, the keypad controller 150 preferably is a microprocessor, such as the model number 16C54 microprocessor manufactured by the MicroChip Corporation. The chip 150 contains a ROM. Stored in this ROM is a program used for controlling the keypad operation. The keypad controller is adapted to "debounce" the keypad in a conventional manner, and to transmit data corresponding to the operator-selected keys to the microcontroller 140.
Circuits 156, 157 and 162 provide tke respective interfaces for the bar code wand 18, the cash drawer 17 and the printer 16.
The programmable serial I/O circuit 156 contains a universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART) integrated circuit device and is adapted to provide a serial interface for the bar code wand. As a result, data received from the bar code wand is supplied to the microcontroller 140.
The driver circuit 157, in response to a predetermined signal from the microcontroller 140, supplies an enabling signal to the cash drawer 15 which causes the cash drawer to open. An additional predetermined signal is supplied from the microcontroller 140 through a driver circuit 158 to a buzzer 159. The buzzer 159 is activated to inform the operator of the opening of the cash drawer.
The parallel I/O circuit 162 is adapted to enable data transfer between the SFT 23 and the printer 16. Circuit 162 includes a parallel port which may function in a bi-directional manner, that is, as either an input or an output port.
The buzzer 159 is also actuated if one of the previously-described error messages is displayed, or when a function is completed which has taken longer than a predetermined time, for example, a few seconds, to complete. In this latter situation, the use of the buzzer helps to reduce operator fatigue, by allowing the operator to direct his or her attention away from the SFT 23 during relatively long processing time periods.
The buzzer also is activated if a key is pressed out of the correct sequence. In this situation, the display 148 will display an "INVALID KEY" message for a predetermined time period which, for example, may be approximately one second.
The data, address and control bus 154 is connected to the circuits of the SFT 23 as shown in FIG. 8. This bus provides a controlled path by which data may be transferred between the circuits of the SFT.
The unique serial number circuit 160, LAN I/O circuit 164 and the power supply circuit 166 are substantially similar to the unique serial number circuit 114, LAN I/O circuit 120 and power supply circuit 122, previously explained with reference to FIG. 7 and, as such, will not be further described.
Upon applying power to the SFT 23 through the power supply circuit 166, the boot-up program stored in the EPROM 144 is executed by the microcontroller 140. This causes an operating program from the master computer 42 to be downloaded into the RAM 146. Thereafter, the microcontroller 140 executes the operating program stored in the RAM 146.
As with the EPROM 106 of FIG. 7, the EPROM 144 may contain predetermined subroutines which may be referenced in the operating program. When this occurs, such subroutines will be read from the EPROM 144 and executed during the execution of the operating program by the microcontroller 140.
The SFT 23 is enabled to receive incoming data from the master computer 25 via the LAN I/O circuit 164. The SFT may also receive incoming data from the bar code reader 18 or the credit card reader 28 via the programmable serial I/O circuit 156.
The SFT also receives operator-input data from the keypad 50. The SFT, through use of the microcontroller 140, provides data to the printer 16 and the display 148, and provides enabling signals to the cash drawer 15. The SFT also supplies data relating to completed transactions via the LAN I/O circuit 164 to the master computer 25.
Cable connectors (not shown) are provided at the rear of the SFT 23 for cable connections to each of the bar code wand; the credit card reader; the printer; the cash drawer; and the LAN.
The small footprint terminal provides a relatively simple, compact and inexpensive sales terminal for POS systems in general, and particularly for video record rental and sales activity. By recognizing that the full keyboard, video screen and other features of a full-feature input computer are not necessary, applicants have lowered the cost and space requirement for entry into the efficient computerized business operations, and revenue-sharing video record rentals.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the LAN adapter 27. The LAN adapter enables data communications between the master computer and all units which are connected to the LAN adapter, including, for example, SFT's and data taps. The LAN adapter circuitry preferably is configured to be mounted on a single printed circuit board which may be inserted into an expansion slot of the master computer. Upon being inserted into the expansion slot, the LAN adapter card is connected to the master computer's bus. This enables power to be supplied to the LAN adapter and enables data transfer.
The LAN adapter includes a microprocessor 180, a memory segmentation and selection circuit 182, a programmable serial I/O circuit 188, a LAN I/O circuit 190, a dual port arbitration circuit 192 and a dual port RAM 196.
The microprocessor, I/O circuits, and memory circuits preferably are the same as corresponding components in the data tap and SFT, to obtain the benefits of standardization.
The memory segmentation and selection circuit 182 includes an EPROM 184 having 32 k-bytes of memory capacity and a RAM 186 having 64 k-bytes of memory capacity. The circuit 182 is adapted to function in a manner similar to that of the previously described memory segmentation and selection circuits 104 and 142. That is, the EPROM 184 is adapted to store a boot code program. This stored boot program is executed by the microprocessor 180 when power is applied to the LAN adapter or when the microprocessor is reset.
As a result of executing this program, a main operating program is downloaded from the master computer into the RAM. The main program is then executed by the microprocessor. This program enables the LAN adapter to perform a rapidly repeating polling of the units connected to the LAN adapter. The results of this polling are supplied to the master computer, and the master computer responds accordingly. For example, as previously described, data taps are periodically polled to determine if they have data for the master computer. If they do, then the master computer may request such data be transmitted to the master computer by way of the LAN adapter.
The dual port RAM 196, which in a preferred embodiment is an 8 k-byte dual port RAM, enables the LAN adapter to communicated with the master computer in an asynchronous manner. Utilizing such a dual port RAM increases the amount of data transfer between the adapter and the master computer by eliminating the need for hardware interrupts. However, only one of the LAN adapter and the master computer may access the dual port RAM at a given time. Controlling which of these devices has access to the dual port RAM is performed by the dual port arbitration circuit 192.
The dual port arbitration circuit 132 generates a control signal which indicates when the dual port RAM is activated. This control signal is supplied from the dual port arbitration circuit to the master computer. In response to this control signal, neither the LAN adapter nor the master computer will attempt to access the dual port RAM while the dual port RAM is in use. That is, whichever first accesses the dual port RAM asserts an arbitration/bit flag so as to deny the other access until the bit is reset.
The dual port arbitration circuit all. so sets the address range of the dual port RAM. Since in the preferred embodiment the dual port RAM contains 8 k-bytes of memory capacity, the dual port RAM only requires an 8-k address range. However, the master computer is typically adapted to address a memory from within a 24-bit address range and the LAN adapter is adapted to address a memory from within a 16-bit address range. To accommodate this difference in address ranges, an 8-bit memory offset address switch 194 is utilized. That is, this offset address switch shifts the 8-k address range of the dual port RAM within the 24 bit address range of the master computer as required.
The LAN I/O circuit 190 is adapted to transmit and receive data to and from the devices connected to the LAN adapter such as a data tap and a SFT. Communications between these devices and the LAN I/O circuit are differentially driven by using, for example, RS-422 and RS-485 interfaces. This LAN I/O circuit operates substantially similar to the previously described LAN I/O circuits 120 and 164 and, as such, will not be further described.
The programmable serial I/O circuit 188 is adapted to transform data between serial and parallel format. In a preferred embodiment, the programmable serial I/O circuit contains a universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART).
A LED 191 is coupled to the LAN I/O circuit 190 and is adapted to provide an indication of the current operating status of the LAN adapter. For example, a lit LED indicates that the LAN adapter is being addressed.
As shown in FIG. 9, the data, address and control bus 198 enables controlled communications between the microprocessor 180, memory segmentation and selection circuit 182, programmable serial I/O circuit 188 and the dual port arbitration circuit 192. Communication between the programmable serial I/O circuit 188 and the LAN I/O circuit 190 is by way of a bus 199. Likewise, communication between the dual port arbitration circuit 192 and the dual port RAM 196 is by way of a communication bus 197.
Thus, the LAN adapter performs polling of the attached slave units and processes commands received from the master computer for transmission to the respective slave units.
By performing the polling function in the LAN adapter, instead of the master computer, the demand on processing cycles is reduced in the master computer. As a result, a master computer having slower processing speed may be utilized, thus reducing the costs. Alternatively, the master computer may use the processing cycles saved in performing additional functions.
By utilizing the RS-422 or RS-485 interfaces, data communication over a relatively long path can be accommodated.
If only one POS station in a store is needed, without SFT's or data taps, the LAN adapter is not required. However, if additional check-out stations are added and one or more SFTs or data taps is added, the LAN adapter can be installed easily in an expansion slot of the master computer.
In some personal computer operating environments, such as those supporting a graphical user's interface (GUI), for example, WINDOWS® from the Microsoft Corp. and OS/2® from the Microsoft or the IBM corporations, screen displays may be controlled on a bit-by-bit basis. In these circumstances, the TEACHER and TRAPPER programs may be modified so as to be used therein. These modified versions may be responsive to ASCII or other standard coding methods. However, the ASCII representations are not typically written directly to the display controller, but would be otherwise communicated within the operating environment in a way that is easily accessible by the TEACHER or TRAPPER.
Although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail herein, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to those precise embodiments, and that many modifications and variations may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. | <urn:uuid:2aa7e7c1-ac58-4f59-8da0-a134a36356c8> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.google.com.au/patents/US5396417 | 2015-03-30T17:34:53Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299515.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00064-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926598 | 23,995 |
Terms and Conditions
7 August 2013
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Sights & Sounds – July 17Published Jul 17, 2013 at 7:20 am (Updated Jul 12, 2013 at 4:53 pm)
Whiskey Rebellion event
Woodville Plantation, Bridgeville, will hold a special weekend event July 20 and 21 to commemorate the anniversary of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794.
Events will take place 3-6 p.m. July 20 and noon-5 p.m. July 21 at the living history museum.
On Saturday, Woodville and The Scott Conservancy will present the Fourth Annual Encampment and History Walk on Bower Hill, the site of the beginning of the Whiskey Rebellion. Interpreters will discuss and re-create the fateful events, and activities will include an encampment along the Tom the Tinker Trail, cooking demonstrations, musket firings and tactical demonstrations. At 3 p.m., a history walk will begin at the PA State Historical Marker on Bower Hill (near Kane Regional Center) and end at the Whiskey Point Trailhead. The walk covers approximately one mile. Topics covered include the Battle of Bower Hill, the participants of the battle and the Whiskey Rebellion. The walk is free and reservations are not required.
Sunday is Whiskey Rebellion Day, with interpreters portraying the troops as they make camp at Woodville to defended John Neville’s property. Learn what camp life was like and participate with the soldiers as they march and drill. Activities include battle reenactments, musket firing, music demonstrations, marching and ceremonial drills. Learn 18th century cooking techniques as Woodville’s cooks prepare dinner for the encamped troops. Visit with rebels encamped at the site and discuss the other side of the insurrection. Special admission price is $5 per person, and children under age 6 are free.
For more information, visit call 412-221-0348 or visit www.woodvilleplantation.org.
The Old Schoolhouse Players will present “Annie” July 19-28 at the Mt. Pleasant Twp. Community Center. Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. July 19, 20, 26, 27 and 3 p.m. July 21 and 28. For tickets, call 724-344-7467.
Solar Concert Series
The Sixth Annual Solar Concert Series – a project of SLB Radio Productions, Inc., the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and the New Hazlett Theater – will feature live music performances powered by a solar-energy sound system at Buhl Community Park at Allegheny Square, in front of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. Open to all ages, concerts take place from 12:15-1 p.m. Wednesdays in July and August.
Pittsburgh’s first green concert series will feature a diverse lineup of acoustic-based performances by emerging and established local musicians, including: The Squirrel Hillbillies (acoustic country and folk), July 24; Mark Dignam (original contemporary Irish and folk), July 31; The Josh & Gab Show (anti-bullying kid rock), Aug. 7; Members of Timbeleza (Brazilian batacuda drumming), Aug. 14; The Flow Band (reggae), Aug. 21; Crusic Percussion (percussion ensemble), Aug. 28.
For more information, visit: www.solarconcertseries.org.
The Meadows Racetrack & Casino announce its entertainment line-up for July with a mix of national and local performers. All shows are free admission.
• Silks Lounge – shows begin at 8 p.m.: Tony Janflone Jr. (variety/blues), July 19; No Bad JuJu (dance/variety), July 20; Smoke n Guns (Nashville chicks), July 26-27.
• Pacers Lounge: AJ Fresh and a country artist battle it out, 9 p.m. Fridays in July; AJ Fresh and his Fresh Girl-Club Music, 9 p.m. Saturdays in July.
For more information, visit www.meadowsgaming.com.
3rd Street Gallery, Carnegie, presents Frank Cunimondo & Patricia Skala in concert at 3 p.m. July 21. The concert will combine jazz, salsa and Brazilian-style music. Cost is $15.
Johnstonbaugh’s Music Centers, Bridgeville, will hold its Second Annual Ensemble Camp Concert at 7 p.m. July 27 at the Bridgeville Public Library.
The concert will feature the Woodwind Chamber Ensemble under the direction of Suzanne Levinson, and the Brass Ensemble under the direction of Ryan Wolf.
More than 40 elementary, middle and high school musicians from Chartiers Valley, South Fayette, Mt. Lebanon, Canon-McMillan, Carlynton, Upper St. Clair, West Allegheny, Keystone Oaks, West Jefferson Hills and St. Thomas More will perform.
The Woodwind Chamber Ensemble, consisting of two flutes and an oboe, will perform an eclectic mix of classical and modern popular music.
The Brass Ensemble will present Brass Camp: Los Bronces Latinos. Selections include music from “The Mask of Zorro,” hits by Carlos Santana, Latin tunes from Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” and Chick Correa’s jazz fusion piece, “La Fiesta.”
The concert is free and open to the public.
The Hollywood Theater’s July schedule, includes the return of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight on July 27. This is a special 35 mm screening and will include the Junior Chamber of Commerce Players, Pittsburgh’s official Rocky Horror floorshow cast. Get tickets at www.showclix.com/event/rockyhorrorjuly2013. Other events include:
• “Informant,” 7:30 p.m. July 18. Documentary.
• Breakfast and a Movie – “Rebel Without a Cause (1955),” 11 a.m. July 21. The light breakfast begins at 11 and the movie starts at 11:30. Tickets are $15 at the theater during regular operating hours and at www.showclix.com/event/breakfastandamoviejuly2013. Breakfast tickets must be purchased by July 18, or purchase movie tickets only for $7 at the door. “Rebel Without a Cause” screens again at 4 p.m. July 21, and it will be the Hollywood’s July Senior Movie Matinee showing at 2 p.m. July 25. Tickets for the senior matinee are $5 for all.
• “Broken,” 10 p.m. July 19; 9 p.m. July 29; 7 p.m. July 21. A brutal attack happens on a quiet avenue with a devastating impact on three families. The Sunday viewing is free to Hollywood Theater members.
• 48 Hour Film Project, 1 p.m. July 20 and 7 p.m. July 28. Both are $8 general admission, $6 students/kids/seniors.
• “The Artist and the Model,” 7:30 p.m. July 24. This new French-language Spanish drama takes place during the summer of 1943 in an occupied France.
Sign up at gathr.us/series/dormont-previews for a membership that costs $19 for a month or $49 for three months, for a savings off of the regular box office price, or pay the regular price of $7 at the door for any movie.
Call 412-563-0368 or check the Hollywood’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/HollywoodTheaterDormont) and website (www.thehollywooddormont.org) for updates.
Pittsburgh CLO will hold auditions for the staged reading of the new musical “Judge Jack Justice, The Trails of Love,” directed by Van Kaplan. Principal actors must be available Sept. 30-Oct. 5.
Needed are five actors who can sing well.
Auditioners can meet by appointment, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. July 27 at the CLO Academy. Callbacks will be made by July 28. Call or email to schedule an audition time. Auditioners should prepare two songs of their best material; one up-tempo and one ballad. Bring legible sheet music in the correct key. Applications can be downloaded from www.pittsburghclo.org or picked up at the audition. Requests for an audition appointment should be emailed to [email protected].
If email is not available, call 412-281-3973 ext. 234.
‘Fiddler on the Roof’
Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) South Campus Theatre presents the Tony award-winning musical “Fiddler on the Roof” at 8 p.m. Aug. 1-3 and 9-10. The production also includes a 2 p.m. matinee performance on Aug. 11.
Set in Tsarist Russia in the early 20th century, “Fiddler on the Roof” follows the compelling personal journey of a Jewish patriarch as he struggles to maintain his family ties and cultural and religious traditions amid an atmosphere of social upheaval and religious persecution.
Tickets are $10 and are available at the door or by calling 412-469-6219. The CCAC–South Campus Theatre is located at 1750 Clairton Road in West Mifflin.
The Heritage Players will hold auditions for the musical “Oliver!” at 7 p.m. Aug. 3 and 4 at the Schoolhouse Arts Center, Bethel Park. Seeking ages 10 and up. Must do cold readings from the script. Prepare a song of your choice. Performances will take place Oct. 11-13 and 18-20 at the Seton Center, Brookline.
The Heritage Players will present its annual “Summer Broadway Revue” at 7 p.m. Aug. 14 and 15 at the Castle Shannon Municipal Center. Admission is $5. Box office opens one half hour before curtain. For more information, call 412-254-4633 or visit www.heritageplayers.org.
Relay’s Got Talent
Relay For Life of Peters Township will host Relay’s Got Talent from 3-5 p.m. Aug. 3 at Peters Township High School. Categories are vocal music, instrumental music and dance. There are three age groups: grades four-eight in the 2012-2013 school year, high school students and adults.
Judging will be by a panel of local celebrities and prizes will be awarded following the competition. Entry fee is $5, a donation to Relay For Life.
Deadline to enter is July 19 and any music tracks needed must be submitted by July 28. The theme is Carnival for Relay for Life of Peters Township and activities begin at noon Aug. 3 at the high school with an opening ceremony. There will be live music, carnival-style family-friendly games and festival foods.
The luminaria ceremony, which honors survivors and those who lost their battle with cancer, begins at 9 p.m. Luminaria may be purchased at the luminaria tent the day of the relay for $10. Pinwheels that can hold up to six names honoring or remembering someone affected by cancer are available in advance at the luminaria tent for $20.
For more information about the pinwheels or luminaria, contact Rita Reo at 724-263-9329. For those interested in forming a team for the relay, supporting a team, or who need more information about the teams or the talent show, call Margie Smith at 724-222-6911 or visit www.relayforlife.org/papeterstwp.
Mt. Lebanon Recreation Department will offer a trip to “Noah the Musical” at the Sight & Sound Theater in Lancaster on Oct. 12 for those 18 years of age and older.
Cost of $139 per person includes dinner, show and transportation.
Register by Aug. 26. Call 412-343-3409 for information. | <urn:uuid:4fbc774d-e8ba-48c7-8608-01baed1983cf> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.thealmanac.net/article/20130717/LIFESTYLES04/130719955/0/SPORTS0601 | 2015-03-30T17:59:53Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299515.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00064-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904837 | 2,559 |
Being Mrs. Bella Black
Bella Black is married to a hunky, beautiful man named Jacob. What happens when mysterious things start to threaten their marriage?
Rating 0/5 Word Count 2094 Review this Chapter
It was midnight, and I awoke to Jacob getting up.
"Jake? Do you have to go to work?" I asked.
"Ya, sorry to wake you. I love you. Well, I have to go," He said, kissing my forehead. I feel back asleep, wishing that he hadn't become a firefighter, leaving in the middle of the night, or staying at the station, and not even coming home. It's going to be hard, with the baby coming in a matter of weeks. When I woke up around 8, the next morning, I made myself some coffee and turned on the t.v. I was watching the local news, which surprisingly did really well in the small town of Forks, when I saw something alarming.
"Local firefighter dies in fire at the Braksee Inn this morning around 7:30 a.m. Body yet to be identified." the t.v. announcer said. I was in shock, what if it was Jake? I called the station's family number.
"Hello, Jared speaking." Jared answered, he sounded sad.
"Jared, umm, is Jake okay?" I asked.
"Yes, he's just a little torn up now, one of the guys ya know, well, ya… do you wanna talk to him?" Jared asked.
"Yes… thanks." I said, feeling relief.
"Bells?" Jacob said.
"Jake, I'm so glad your okay. I was so scared. How are you feeling?" I asked.
"I'm fine, sweetheart, I'm on my way home. I miss you." He said.
"Okay. I miss you too. Love you." I said.
"Bye," He said.
"bye." I said, hanging up the phone. I waited for Jake to get home. When he finally did, I ran to his car, and right to his arms.
"Hi." I said, kissing his nose.
"Hey," He said, squeezing me in a tight hug.
"I missed you." I said.
"I missed you too, do you want to go do something today?" He asked.
"If you want to, sure." I said.
"Okay, let me quick change." He said, as we walked to the house. We walked upstairs, and we both got ready to go out. We walked to the car, and Jake pulled out of our driveway.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Somewhere." He said, smiling.
"Seriously, you aren't gonna tell me?" I laughed.
"Nope. He said.
We drove to a small building on Jake's home reservation, La Push.
"What are we doing here?" I asked.
"You'll see." He took my hand, as we walked in. Inside, we walked down a dark hallway, into a room, Inside the room was all Jacob's friends.
"Bella, I have some news, and you need to hear it." Jacob said.
"Oh." I said, becoming worried. I sat down, across from Sam Uley, with Jacob next to me, holding my hand.
"Bella, all of the men here, are, well, we have a special family gene, and well, we're werewolves." Sam said.
"Werewolves? Really?" I said, getting a little bit mad, at the lack of seriousness.
"Bella, it's true." Jacob said. Surprisingly, I believed him.
"How?" I asked.
"Vampires triggered the genes to activate." Jacob said.
"Vampires? Like blood drinking, and coffins, and that kind of stuff?" I asked.
"Blood drinking, yes, coffin's no. But Bella, you can't tell anyone. And we have to protect everyone." Jacob said.
"From vampires? Isn't that dangerous?" I asked him.
"For human's it is… not for us. We're made to do the job." Jacob said. I cringed, this could not be good.
"Okay. So do you like, morph with the moon?" I asked.
"No, that's a myth. We choose when to phase" Jacob laughed.
"Oh." I said, feeling faint, and I knew my face went pale.
"Bella. Lets go home." Jacob said. He could see that this was unsettling in my stomach.
"Okay," I said, still feeling faint. I fell into a deep sleep. When I awoke, it took me a while to realize that I had been dreaming. I awoke, with Jacob gone, and a note on his pillow. It said,
"Bell's, had to work… sorry. Be back soon. You already know this though, you woke up in the middle of the night, when I left, you looked pretty out of it. -Jacob."
I was relieved, it was all just a dream. Jacob wasn't a werewolf, or anything foolish like that. After all, I'd always been a crazy dreamer. Later that day, I went to the local hospital, because it was the time of the month that I gave blood. The nurse, Nancy, greeted me,
"Hello, Bella. We hired on a new doctor, you'll be seeing him today." Nancy said.
"Oh, all right." I said. I suppose Dr. Solberg was getting rather old now, and needed some help. When it was my turn to go in, I was surprised to see an angelic looking man, ready to take my blood.
"Hello. I'm Dr. Cullen." He said.
"Hi, I'm Bella." I said. He smiled.
"Have you given blood before?" He asked.
"Yes, but I wear this nose plug," I said, holding my plug up, "because the smell of blood makes me nauseous."
"Humans cannot smell blood." He said.
"I can. It smells like metal, rusty metal." I said.
"Hmmm. That's rather interesting." Dr. Cullen said.
I felt like an idiot.
"Okay, on the count of 10... 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10." He said, sticking the needle in my arm. I cringed. Finally, it was over.
"Thank you, Bella. You may go now." He said, smiling.
"Bye." I said. I waved to Nancy on my way out, and she said,
"He's a cutie, aint ee?" she said.
"Sure is…" I said, leaving. When I was in the car, my cell phone rang. I answered it, "Hello?" I asked.
"Hey, it's me… just checking in…" Jacob said.
"Oh, hi… want to meet for lunch?" I asked.
"I can't, sorry. I already took lunch break." He said.
"Oh, okay. See you tonight then?" I asked.
"Definitely." He said, as an alarm rang in the backround, "Oh, I have to go, see you at home honey. Love you, bye." He hung up.
I drove to the local mall. I need a shopping trip. I hated to shop before I was pregnant, but now, I shopped for stuff all the time. I went into the mall, and saw a store that I had never been in. Classical Records. I went in. I was looking at some records and tapes of Bach, when I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen. I cried out. One of the customers ran to me… He looked angelic, just like Dr. Cullen. But even more. He was gorgeous.
"When's your due date, mam?" He asked.
"Next week, Tuesday." I said.
"I'll take you to the hospital. My father works their." He said. "Just breath in and out." I did exactly what he said. At the hospital, I was having very bad contractions. I was very well taken care of, by Dr. Cullen, and his son, Edward, who was not really his son, but his adopted son, who still lived with him. Edward was studying to be a doctor, so he was allowed to help. I begged Edward to call Jacob. And he did. Jacob appeared, in a matter of minutes, in my hospital room.
"Bella, how are you honey?" Jacob asked.
"I'm fine…" I said. 30 minutes later, it was time for the baby to come out. I was over taken with pain, so I was put to sleep for the birth. When I woke up, Everything was quiet. I looked to see Jacob, in a chair next to me, looking impatient.
"Jacob?" I asked.
"Bella, they said that they had something important to tell us, together. I'll go get them." He said.
"Okay" I said. Jacob went, and returned with Dr. Cullen. No Edward.
"Bella, Jacob, I am sorry to tell you this, but your baby, passed away, right after her birth." Dr. Cullen said. I was in shock. I started bawling. Jacob held me, as I cried. "Doctor, how did she die? I mean, why?" I asked.
"She wasn't breathing, and her lungs weren't working correctly." He said.
"Was it my fault? What did I do wrong during my pregnancy?" I asked.
"Bella, it wasn't your fault. This could happen to any baby." Dr. Cullen said. When I was finally released, Jacob and I went to his car, and sat in the parking lot.
"I'm so sorry Bella." He said.
"Me too." I said, starting to cry again.
"Lets go home." He said.
We drove home, and he held my hand the hole way. A few weeks passed, and I had not left the house. I was very sad, all the time. While Jacob was at work one day, the phone rang.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Hello, Mrs. Black, this is Edward Cullen, Dr. Cullen's son." He said.
"Oh, of course. Hello." I said.
"Hi, I was wondering if you were okay? My father told me what happened." He said.
"Oh… yes, I suppose I'm alright. Thank you." I said.
"Would you like to meet me for lunch?" Edward asked.
"Uh, sure. Where?" I asked.
"The Golden Buffet sound good?" He asked.
"Yes, what time?" I asked.
"1 okay?" He asked.
"Sounds great. See you there?" I said.
"Yes, good bye." He said.
"Bye." I said, hanging up.
I glanced at my watch. 12:45. Better get going. I drove to the Golden Buffet. Inside, I saw Edward waiting for me.
"Hello." I said.
"Hello. Please, sit." He said, gesturing towards the table.
"Thanks." I said.
The waitress came over, and directed us to the buffet tables.
"Thank you." I told her. I grabbed some salad, and sat back down. Edward returned back empty handed.
"You're not going to eat?" I asked.
"I'm allergic to… uh, peanut oil." He said.
"Oh, we should have gone somewhere else… I'm sorry. Do you want to go?" I asked.
"No, no… I'm not very hungry anyways." He replied.
"Oh." I said. I ate my salad, and then got ready to leave.
"I really should be going." I said.
"Really? Would you have time for me to show you something?" He asked.
"Uh, sure. I have to make dinner for Jacob tonight." I said.
"It won't take that long." He said.
"All right." I said. I walked to the counter to pay for my meal, but Edward wouldn't let me pay. He insisted on paying for it himself. We got out to the parking lot, and Edward had me come in his car with him. We drove a few minutes in silence then,
" What I am going to show you, may alarm you." He said.
"What? Alarm me? How? Where are you taking me?" I asked.
"You'll see." He smiled. We pulled off to the side of the road, and Edward got out. He opened my door, and took my hand.
"Get on my back." He said.
"What?" I said. "Why?"
"Please just do it." He said.
With a sigh, I climbed on to his back. What was I thinking, coming here, with Edward. I barely even knew him, and now I was climbing on his back, about to go into the forest.
"Hold on tight." He said, and ran, at what seemed like light speed.
He ran up the side of the mountain, that we were next too. How could he do that? It seemed impossible. He stopped a few seconds later, and we were at the top of the mountain.
"How is this possible?" I gasped.
"That's why I took you here, to explain it to you." He said.
"Why? You don't even know me. Why me?" I asked.
"Because you're my singer." He said.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Bella, I'm a vampire. My family and I, we only feed on animal blood. We aren't like regular vampires. A singer is someone who's blood appeals to a vampire in extreme senses. True love." Edward said.
"I'm married." I said.
"I know, we can figure this out soon." He said, carrying me back down the mountain. He took me back to the buffet. I drove back home, and cooked dinner. I called my best friend, Jasmine.
"Jasmine speaking?" she answered her phone.
"Jasmine, it's Bella. How are you?" I asked.
"Good, how are YOU? You've gone through so much lately." She said.
"I'm fine. Do you want to come down for a visit. I could use a distraction." I asked.
"Of course! I can't wait… I can be down tomorrow!" She squealed.
"Thanks! See you then…" I said.
"Bye Bella." Jasmine said.
"Bye," I said to the already dead line. | <urn:uuid:4f222c9f-e5ad-4509-abd5-3c0a4355b969> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.twilightarchives.com/read/9704 | 2015-03-30T17:35:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299515.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00064-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98637 | 3,185 |
If you're a maths student and feel like enthusing the next generation with your favourite bit of maths, then why not take part in the Further Mathematics Support Programme (FMSP) and Rolls–Royce plc third national poster competition.
Undergraduate or PGCE mathematics students are invited to design a poster, individually or as a group, which conveys the essence of a mathematical topic that has been covered at university by the designer(s). The poster should be targeted at school and college students studying AS or A level mathematics. Two winners will be chosen and receive £100 each, and their designs will be printed and
sent out to over 2000 schools and colleges. The closing date is the 31st of March 2010. See the FMSP website for previous winners.
If this sounds interesting, then here are the rules. The poster should be mathematically accurate, attractively laid out, capable of enriching a course in AS or A level mathematics, and likely to attract school/college students to take mathematics (or mathematics-related subjects) at university. You can design your poster in any readily available software. Ideally, the page layout should be
set to 59.4cm × 42.0cm, using either landscape or portrait format. The university's logo should appear in the top left corner and there should be a space 7cm high x 5cm wide in the top right corner for the FMSP logo. The bottom 2cm of the poster should be left blank. All images should be at least 300dpi.
Entries, as well as any questions about the competition, should be emailed to Richard Browne at [email protected]. The email must include the name(s) and full contact details of the designer(s). The poster design should be attached to the e-mail, in the form of an editable file. The FMSP reserves the right to edit the winning designs before printing.
Michael Green replaces Stephen Hawking in Lucasian chair
Congratulations to Michael Green who has been elected the 18th holder of the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, one of the most prestigious academic positions in the mathematical sciences.
Isaac Newton was the second person to hold it in the 17th century, and he has been succeeded by mathematical giants including Charles Babbage, father of computer science, the theoretical physicist Paul Dirac, and of course Stephen Hawking, who has been holding the chair since 1979. Hawking stepped down from the professorship in the year of his 67th birthday, as university statutes require.
Michael Green is one of the founders of string theory, which he pioneered from the early seventies onwards. Apart from original research in the area, his contributions include the a textbook co-authored with Edward Witten and John Schwarz, which for many years remained the only string theory text book around.
Peter Haynes, Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge, said: "Michael Green has played a leading role in theoretical physics research in the department since 1993. He is internationally known as a pioneer in string theory which over the last 20 years has become one of the most important and active areas of the
field. In the department he continues to make important advances in this topic and at the same time to support and inspire young researchers. His appointment as Lucasian Professor continues the very distinguished tradition of that post."
The idea that economics is all about the markets has been challenged by this year's award of the Nobel Prize in Economics. One half of the prize has gone to the political scientist Elinor Ostrom for showing that natural resources, like fish stocks or woodlands, can be commonly owned and still managed successfully. The other half of the prize has been awarded to the economist Oliver E.
Williamson for demonstrating that the internal structures of firms and companies can be better at resolving conflicts than the open market. The award of the prize shows that economic theory can shed light not just on hard business transactions, but also on other forms of social organisation.
A leading polar researcher has warned that the Arctic may be ice-free during the summer in 20 years' time, with most of the thinning of the ice taking place over the next 10 years. Professor Peter Wadhams of the Polar Ocean Physics Group at the University of Cambridge was speaking at a meeting which announced the results of the Catlin Arctic Survey, an expedition to the Arctic which took place earlier this year with the aim of measuring ice thickness. The polar explorers, led by Pen Hadow, found that ice floes were on average only 1.8m thick. Once the ridges between ice floes are included, the average thickness rises to 4.8m, but the results are still worrying.
"The Catlin Arctic Survey data supports the new consensus view - based on seasonal variation of ice extent and thickness, changes in temperatures, winds and especially ice composition - that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within about 20 years, and that much of the decrease will be happening within 10 years," Wadhams told the BBC. The exact impact of an ice-free Arctic on the global
climate system is unknown, but scientists know that the lack of ice may accelerate global warming, as less sunlight is reflected back into space, slow down the gulf stream, which is responsible for the relatively mild climate in North-Western Europe, and dramatically change the marine eco-system.
Earlier this year Plus collaborated with Arctic Survey Education to produce a set of teaching resources exploring the science behind the survey. The resources look at climate and sea ice models, GPS and cartography, how to predict future climate trends, and how to present statistical evidence. To find out more about maths and the Arctic, read
the Plus article Maths and climate change: The melting Arctic, which is based on an interview with Peter Wadhams. You can find out more about Wadhams's latest announcement on the BBC website.
This year's Nobel Prize in Physics has gone to three scientists for developing the technology that makes Plus possible. Charles K. Kao has received one half of the prize for developing the optical fibres that transmit information throughout the world. The other half of the prize is shared by Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith for developing the digital camera's electronic eye, known
as the CCD sensor.
Information is transmitted over the internet using light. A flashing laser beam is directed through optical fibres, with the flashes encoding the 0s and 1s that make up digital information. This process works because when the light beam hits the glass walls of the fibre, it bounces off and is moved forward. Optical fibres had been used even before the invention of the laser, for example by
doctors to look into people's stomachs, but they were only capable of transmitting information over very short distances, as the light quickly leaked away when travelling through the fibre. When Charles Kao started working in the field in the 1960s, his aim was to improve the technology so that all of 1% of light would arrive at the end of a 1km long cable. Today, due to Kao's work and the
generation of scientists he inspired, this number has increased to 95%! As a result, the network of optical glass fibres that spans the Earth today is over 1 billion km long. If you wrapped that length around the Earth, you would span it more than 25 000 times.
Light also plays an important role in the work of the other two prize recipients. Boyle and Smith were trying to develop larger memory capacity for computers, when they realised that Albert Einstein's photoelectric effect could be put to good use. According to this effect, electrons can be "knocked about" using light. Boyle and Smith realised that by knocking electrons out of light
sensitive cells sitting in a silicone plate, they could transform an optical image into electric signals, which in turn could be turned into digital information. By 1975 Boyle and Smith had used their invention to construct a digital video camera which was good enough to manage TV broadcasts. In 1995, the first ever fully functioning digital camera was produced, and the rest is history. And
although the CCD sensor has recently been challenged by another piece of technology, the complementary metal oxide semiconductor, bets are still on as to which of the two will rule the future.
Buses may be safer than babies, at least when it comes to swine flu. Preliminary results from an online flu survey suggest that contact with children poses one of the greatest swine flu risk factors, while the use of public transport seems surprisingly safe.
Plus will soon bring you a package of articles on the maths behind swine flu. But first we would like to know what you think has been the best source of information about swine flu? Did the media do well reporting on the virus? What about government information? Or did you go and see your GP to find out what to do about swine flu? Please let us know by voting in this quick poll, or tell
us in more detail what information you found useful, or a nuisance, by leaving a comment on this blog. | <urn:uuid:869c8b9b-80c8-47a2-b042-f70ab4601401> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | https://plus.maths.org/content/Blog/%20http:/7z?page=69 | 2015-03-30T17:55:28Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299515.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00064-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962499 | 1,868 |
Places I’d Like to Go
Places I’d Like to Go
- 33 Pins
Breckenridge HAS to be the prettiest place in Colorado in the winter! The village is so quaint and lovely to see!!
Ski Resorts, Breckenridge Colorado, Mountain, Favorite Places, Beautiful Places, Winter Wonderland, Christmas, Winter Night, Travel
Winter’s Night, Breckenridge, Colorado | The Best Travel Photos....One year for Christmas would love to be in the MOUNTAINS
Winter’s Night, Breckenridge, Colorado. This is a fairytale. truly a winter wonderland here! wow!
Winter Night, Breckenridge, Colorado one of my favorite places
Breckenridge, Colorado ski resort nearby?
Winter’s Night, Breckenridge, Colorado #Beautiful #Places #Photography
Road trips on a budget, with or without kids! Tips for saving money on food, drinks, lodging, gas, and more!
On A Budget, Adventure, Senior Year, Saving Money, Road Trips, Travel Bugs, Roads Trips, Be Awesome, Roads Trippin
Road trips on a budget, with or without kids! Tips for saving money on food, drinks, lodging, gas, and more! Road trip to California my senior year!
How to be Awesome at Everything: How to Be Awesome at Road Trips on a Budget
Tons of things to do in KC that most don't even know about!
169 Things, Kansas City, Kansas Cities, Awesome Things, Things To Do, Finding Kansas
169 things to do in KC
Finding Kansas City
169 Things to Do in Kansas City That are better than Netflix
12 Waterfalls in the Midwest - KC Going Places - Spring-Summer 2014 - Kansas City, KS
Summer 2014, Hiking Kansas City, Midwest Weekend, Summer Trips, Spring Summe 2014, Summertime Travel, Kansas Cities, Summer Fun, Mom Travel
12 Waterfalls in the Midwest - KC Going Places - Summer 2014 - Kansas City, KS
All-inclusive honeymoon packages under $2,000: Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa in Riviera Maya, Mexico
All Inclusive, Caracole Eco, Eco Resorts, Playa Del Carmen, Carmen Dell'Orefic, Spas, Sandos Caracole, Honeymoons, Riviera Maya
All-Inclusive Honeymoons for Under 2,000 | Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa - Riviera Maya, Mexico | LFF Designs | www.facebook.com/LFFdesigns
Image of Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa All Inclusive, Playa del Carmen
Travel Travel of DL Weekly Special! Enjoy the Riviera Maya, April 2-9, '14, Pkg includes rt air from MSP, rt airport transfers, 7 nts All Inclusive lodging at Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa for $1475 pp (based on dbl occ./space availability) Call Travel Travel of DL 218-847-9231/800-542-5000!
All-Inclusive Honeymoons for Under 2,000
12 Totally Unique Kinds Of Beaches You Probably Never Knew Existed
Pink Beach, Sands Beach, Pink Sands, Dead Coral, Travel, Ellafonisi Beach, Places, Crete Greece, Coral Reefs
Perfect pink sand #beach. So beautiful! #travel #wanderlust #coastal
PINK SAND BEACHES... YES, PLEASE !!Pink sand on Ellafonisi Beach, Crete, Greece. Pink sand is formed of tiny red organisms that grow on dead coral reefs and pieces of shells which fall to the ocean floor and are washed onto shore. Photo credit: Jan-Erik
Pink beach, Pink beach photo, pink sand, pink sand photo, pink beach around the world, amazing nature phenomenon: pink beach around the world, amazing natural phenomenon: pink beaches around the world, earth oddity: pink beach, earth strange things: pink beach, where can i find pink beaches in the world, what is the location of pink beach around the world, where are pink beaches around the world?, amazing nature oddity: pink beach around the world, Pink beach and sand on Elafonissi beach in Crete (Greece). Photo by Jan-Erik Larsson
Pink sand on Ellafonisi Beach, Crete, Greece. A place to take a vial of sand from!
Warm weather getaways are even better when they're budget-friendly—and we've named the best #affordable beaches around the world.
Islands Hammocks, Beach Resorts, Affordable Travel Destinations, Beach Philippines, Places I D, Beach Destinations, Philippines Beach, Beach In Philippines, Secret Beach
Affordable Beach Destinations
Best Affordable Beach Resorts
So terrifying. But so amazing!
Heart Attack, Amazingness Pictures, Reasons 100, Norway Someday, Proper Respect, Gravity Level
Not showing the proper respect for gravity level: expert
Norway: pretty sure actually standing on this would give me a heart attack, but it certainly is beautiful.
Reason 100 to go to Norway
Aurora Borealis over Alaska
Buckets Lists, Nature, Northernlights, Beautiful, Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis, Finland, Mosquitoes Nets, Places
The Northern Lights over Finland #northernlights #crystalvibrations
Aurora borealis, Finland "They wonder why minority females just talk down on White males as if they ain't shit? Beauty lists." -Asha *what is my issue? I don't want to live here. I want to live in an isolated community in Africa where people resemble me. I am tired of being looked down upon and placed in public rejections. These men just watch me fail everytime. And perhaps this is entertaining for them, but I will not deal with Whites; especially when it comes to mating and sex.
Aurora borealis, Finland. Someday I will see the Northern lights. It's basically the only thing on my bucket list!
Awesome Nature: Wow! Stunning Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) in Finland
101 Things Every St. Louisan Must Do - St. Louis Magazine - May 2008 - St. Louis, Missouri
St Louis, St. Louis Summer, Buckets Lists, Cities, Saint Louis Missouri, Places, 101 Things, College Grad, Summer Time
101 Things Every St. Louisan Must Do - St. Louis Magazine - May 2008 - St. Louis, Missouri - What a bucket list!
101 Things Every St. Louisan Should Do... for all the days we have no clue. Unique list I haven't seen before. I've done about 38 of these! Lol, perfect for the summer time!
101 Things Every St. Louisan Should Do... for all the days you don't know what to do... I LOVE ST LOUIS! My favorite city. If you haven't been, you need to go
St Louis rates as one of the 10 best cities cities for cheapskates! I am living in the right place!
The Happiest Cities For Job-Seeking College Grads
Emerald pool at Subway, Zion National Park, Utah.
Buckets Lists, Zion National Parks, Nature, Beautifulplaces, Emeralds Pools, Beautiful Places, National Parks Utah, Travel, National Park Utah
Emerald pool at Subway, Zion National Park, Utah (photography, photo, picture, image, beautiful, amazing, travel, world, places, nature, landscape)
Emerald Pool At Subway #wow #beautifulplaces #world
Emerald Pool at Subway – Zion National Park, Utah. Shared by #boris_stratievsky #destination #travel #vacation #beautiful #places
Emerald pool at Subway, Zion National Park, Utah. Adding to the bucket list.
Sweets Home, Spaces Needle, Seattle Skyline, Emeralds Cities, Grey Anatomy, The Cities, Travel, Places, Seattle Washington
every time i see the Space Needle.. i think Greys Anatomy!!
Seattle, Washington- home sweet home
Seattle, WA. #Places #Landscape #Photography #Travel
Seattle...lived here 2 1/2 years in early 90's. Had dinner w hubby in the Space Needle restaurant. It was a beautiful night and we had an Amazing view of the city!!
Vintage Space Needle and Seattle skyline
Seattle, the emerald city...
Night under the stars. Use a blow up kiddie pool and fill with pillows and blankets.
Ideas, Itchy Grass, Under The Stars, Pools Filling, Date Nights, Dates Night, Movie Nights, Blankets No Itchy, Kiddie Pools
Night under the stars. Use a blow up kiddie pool and fill with pillows and blankets. No itchy grass, no ants crawling on food! Great idea not just for a date night, but for an outdoor movie night!
Date Night: under the stars. Stay comfy in a blow up kiddie pool filled with pillows and blankets. No itchy grass!
Term di Saturnia, Italy
Minerals Bath, Di Saturnia, Buckets Lists, Dreams, Beautiful, Terms Di, Places I D, Tuscany Italy, Travel
Mineral Baths, Terme di Saturnia , Tuscany, Italy #travel #dream
Mineral Baths, Saturnia Tuscany Italy Terme di Saturnia are a group of lush geothermal springs located in the municipality of Manciano, just a few kilometres from the village of Saturnia, Italy. The thermal waters of Saturnia have a series of cascades at 37°, where nature forms dozens of beautiful pools at different levels. #travel
This is on my bucket list!!!! Mineral Baths, Saturnia Tuscany Italy Terme di Saturnia are a group of lush geothermal springs located in the municipality of Manciano, just a few kilometres from the village of Saturnia, Italy. The thermal waters of Saturnia have a series of cascades at 37°, where nature forms dozens of beautiful pools at different levels.
Dublin, Ireland... Castle house Island! I need to go here!
Dreams, Castles House, House Islands, Dublin Ireland, James Bond, Ireland Castles, No Way, Places, Rocks
Places / Dublin, Ireland... Castle house Island NO WAY! That cant be real!
This is not in Ireland, Dublin. Actually it doesn't exist as one. The rock is in Thailand and the castle is only a portion of Lichtenstein Castle (which is in Germany). There is a claim on the Internet along with the claim that "Castle House Island" is a real place in Dublin, Ireland. It's actually "James Bond Island" in Khao Phing Kan, Thailand. The castle was placed on the photo using Photoshop. So moral of the day, don't believe everything you see on the internet ;)
Castle House Island Dublin, Ireland. This doesn't even look real. This is a place of dreams.
Westin Maui Resort- Hawaii
Resorts Spa, Buckets Lists, Beautiful Places, Spas, Maui Resorts, Travel, Water Sliding, Maui Hawaii, Westin Maui
The Westin Maui Resort Spa in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. Beautiful! #Hawaii #Maui #travel
The Westin Maui Resort & Spa in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii......... BUCKET LIST..... want to do this slide !!
Westin Maui Resort Spa Hawaii - 101 Most Beautiful Places You Must Visit Before You Die! – part 2
The Westin Maui Resort Spa- This is like the ultimate Family vacation spot! #Hawaii AND a water slide?! #travel
Le Meridien in Bora Bora
Bungalows, Buckets Lists, Dreams Vacations, Best Quality, Glasses Floors, Travel, Places, Borabora, Le Meridien
Overwater Bungalow - Le Meridien Bora Bora #travel #location #borabora
Overwater Bungalow @ Le Meridien Bora Bora- Dream Vacation!!
On my bucket list ... a glass floored bungalow on the water in Bora Bora for a week or more!
Glass floor in the overwater Bungalow at Le Meridien Bora Bora
Overwater Bungalow @ Le Meridien Bora Bora. A Place I'd Like To Visit.
The Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.
Fairies Pools, Buckets Lists, Fairy Pools, Nature, Purple, Skye Scotland, Beautiful Places, Travel, Isle Of Skye
Fairy Pools on Isle of Skye, Scotland #purple #flowers #nature #travel
Travel Destination - Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. This is on my bucket list of places to see with Pat
Fairy Pools: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Oh what the hell, why cant i travel to beautiful places?!
The Transparent Canoe Kayak
Ideas, Buckets Lists, Awesome, The Ocean, Boats, Hammacher Schlemmer, Places, Transparent Canoes, Transparent Kayaks
a transparent boat is an awesome idea
A transparent kayak would love to be in this boat in the ocean
so cool. be in the ocean in a see-through boat is definitely on my bucket list.
I had no idea this was available! Awesome! The Transparent Canoe Kayak - Hammacher Schlemmer
transparent kayak - awesome idea for exploring tropical places
Oak Alley Plantation, Georgia. Gorgeous wedding location! COLUMNS!
Georgia Wedding, Southern Plantations, Oak Alley Plantations, Dreams Home, Dreams Wedding, Dreams House, Southern Wedding, Wedding Venues, Plantations Wedding
My dream home and dream wedding venue!
Oak Alley Plantation - Southern Wedding
Oak Alley Plantation, Georgia. Dream wedding venue
Southern plantation wedding. Oak Alley Plantation, Georgia Holy beautiful.
plantation wedding = my dream wedding DREAM HOUSE
Oak Alley Plantation, Georgia... Wedding venue
One Day, Destinations, Favorite Places, Cities, Rome Italy, Rome, Families Vacations, Italy Travel, Italy
Rome, Italy | #Italia #Roma #Rome #Italy
* Rome, Italy #travel
Roma, i'll get there one day!
Roma, probably one of my favorite places on earth.
Rome, Italy. Having rare family vacation in the summer :)
Begin with Rome...The Heart of the Empire! One of the most ancient city of all the world. One of the most visited city, and maybe the first for all the history behind...and UNDERGROUND! #Italy #rome #roma #italia
Cherry Blossom Avenue, Bonn, Germany
Cherries Blossoms, Beautiful, Pink, Blossoms Trees, Tree Tunnel, Places, Bonne Germany, Flower, Cherry Blossoms
Cherry blossom avenue in Bonn, Germany. Photography by Marcel Bednarz. #bonn #germany #marcel_bednarz #pink #trees #flowers #light #cars #streets #roads
Bonn, Germany- The Cherry Blossom trees are so beautiful!
Cherry Blossom Avenue - Bonn, Germany. Pink, Pink, Pink. It's on my bucket list to visit this place
Cherry blossom tree tunnel in Bonn, Germany
The Northern Lights in Alaska | <urn:uuid:ff3f5f1d-aa02-41a6-a701-b32bb334ddd0> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | https://www.pinterest.com/courtcourt22/places-id-like-to-go/ | 2015-03-30T18:12:41Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299515.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00064-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.825602 | 3,302 |
Home Decor ideas
Home Decor ideas
- 306 Pins
Love the bathroom!!
Glass Showers, Wall Colors, Dreams Bathroom, Tile Floors, Wood Tile Floor, Master Bathrooms, Double Shower, Master Baths, Free Stands
Free standing tub, wood tile floor, huge double shower | master bathroom by sandyadler I love this large glass shower enclosure.
Free standing tub, wood tile floor, huge double shower | master bathroom l love the dark floor and wall color
Dream bathroom ! Free standing tub, wood tile floor, huge double shower | master bathroom
Free standing tub, wood tile floor, huge double shower | master bathroom This is my dream master bath!!
master bathroom by sandyadler | Romance Home
2 undercounter refrigerators...beer, wine and water!
Wet Bar, Ideas, Refrigerators, S'Mores Bar, Custom Home, Kitchens Appliances, Wine Fridge, Kitchen Appliances, Kitchens Products
Shane would love this idea! Major Kitchen Appliances #Kitchen Appliances Design Trends www.OakvilleRealEstateOnline.com
Cool idea for a custom home design/kitchen remodel: 2 undercounter refrigerators... alcohol and sodas etc
Kitchen Products - page 4
Wet bar ideas
wine fridge - a must!
Bar Design, Basement Bars, S'More Bar, S'Mores Bar, Basements Design, Basements Bar, Wine Bar, Wet Bars, Basements Ideas
basement bar kitchen | Custom Wet Bar - traditional - basement - st louis - by Fulford Home ...
Basement Ideas for Small Basements | Contemporary basement featuring an elegant kitchenette equipped with ...
Wine bar in the basement. Basement design, page 5, houzz.com
Basement Bar Design, Pictures, Remodel, Decor and Ideas
Great Bar - Zillow Digs
Dream Beach Cottage with Neutral Coastal Decor - Home Bunch - An Interior Design & Luxury Homes Blog
Livingroomdecor, Livingroom Layout Ideas, Home Decoration Livingroom, Family Room, Cozy Living Room Decor Ideas, Fireplace, Dream Living Room, Cozy White Living Room, Livingroom Furniture Layout
Laundry Room Ideas...love this one!
Cabinets, Laundryrooms, Dreams Laundry Room, Automatic Washer, Wash Machine, Laundry Room Design, Room Ideas, Dream Laundry Rooms, Farmhouse Sinks
Urban Grace Interiors - laundry/mud rooms - laundry room, laundry room design, laundry room ideas, cottage laundry room, amazing laundry room, dream laundry rooms, farmhouse sink, laundry room with farmhouse sink, laundry room farmhouse sink, farmhouse sink in laundry room, white carrera marble, white carrera marble countertops, laundry room cabinets, laundry room shelving,
Laundry room. Laundry room Ideas. Laundry room with sink and white cabinets and a great light fixture! #LaundryRoom #LaundryRoomIdeas #laundryroomdesign
Laundry Room Ideas... I like this sink. however i would have to have a top loading washing machine. Could put cabinets and counter space on the opposite wall.
14 Inspiring Laundry Rooms | Lovelyish
Gray & White with coral and navy - colors for family room
Color Schemes, Guest Bedrooms, Coral Bedrooms, Navy Coral, Colors Schemes, Master Bedrooms, Guest Rooms, Bedrooms Ideas, Gray Wall
Navy coral bedroom decor for your Alexan CityView master bedroom!
navy + coral bedroom. Potential guest room or sitting room color scheme.
navy + coral bedroom. great guest bedroom color scheme.
navy, coral & white with gray walls for the guest bedroom.
King guest bedroom idea. Navy, coral, and gray
navy, coral, and gray color scheme
Navy + Coral Bedroom - Centsational Girl
Love the color of the floors. But I don't think I'll ever be rich enough to have that much room in my bedroom. Haha
Wall Colors, Beds, Bedrooms Colors, Bedrooms Design, Colors Schemes, Master Bedrooms, Painting Colors, Bedrooms Decor, Bedrooms Ideas
Master Bedroom Ideas - Rockport gray wall color with dark furniture and white accents. Love the rug!
Master Bedroom color scheme.. black trunk at end of bed
Master Bedroom color scheme. I have same exact bedspread and pillows. Now to find rug. I love the wall color.
Master Bedroom color scheme love the paint color
4 ideas for a romantic bedroom
Outlet Cover With Nightlight! Genius! And you wouldn't lose an outlet to have a nightlight plugged in all the time! Where can I find one ;)
Decor, Ideas, Nightlight, Genius, Stuff, Night Lights, House, Bathroom, Outlets Covers
Outlet Cover With Nightlight. Love this idea for hallways & even the bathroom
Outlet Cover With Nightlight. I want these. I'm obsessed w night lights
Outlet Cover With Nightlight. It'll be great for our big house!
This outlet cover is also a nightlight. Genius!
Outlet Cover With Nightlight
curtains to the ceiling not the window
Interior Decorating, Decor Ideas, Home Decoration, Living Rooms, Coral Living Room, Decorating Ideas, Coral Room, Sheet, Interiors Decor
Love these colors! Sheets for drapes! Pop of coral. living room. home decor and interior decorating ideas.
Darling Daly Design: Alabama Living Room Tour
Neutral colors - these are the exact colors I'm going for.
Color Palettes, Agreeable Gray, Color Schemes, Living Room, Colors Palettes, Master Bedrooms, Colors Schemes, Painting Colors, Copen Blue
Paint Colors and Accents - Sherwin-Williams paint. Warm Stone - Fireplace Calico - Master Bedroom and Lower kitchen cabinets Mindful Gray- Upper kitchen cabinets Copen Blue- Great room walls, Hallway, Laundry room walls Toque White- all trim
Love this color scheme for master bedroom
Living room color scheme
Agreeable gray, copen blue kitchen??
Paint Color Scheme - I would add some coral in there
Existing color palette of master bedroom, inspiration for more
Neutral Paint Palette | Bev and Cuisine
peaceful grey and blues // Nob Hill Pied-à-Terre by Leverone Design
Decor, Living Rooms, Artworks, Chairs, Livingroom, Interiors Design, Colors Palettes, Colors Schemes, Grey
Love the sofa #livingroom interior design, sofas, flooring, ceiling, lighting, rugs, coffee tables, art in the living room #decorating loft wallpaper
Love the chairs Modern living room with artwork. Blues, Greys.
Living Room -- color scheme, giant painting, velvet laid-back arm chairs, 3-sided coffee table, grey tufted chaise.
green and gray living room, tufted sofa, large abstract art, green velvet club chair, large windows, branches, interior design, decor
Modern Living Room Interior Design Ideas - i would like everything in this photo, please: giant painting, velvet laid-back arm chairs, 3-sided coffee table, grey tufted chaise.
Modern living room with artwork. Blues, Greys. -perfect color palette
Nob Hill Pied-à-Terre by Leverone Design | Home Adore
Beds Refreshing, Reverse Comforters, Comforter Sets, 7 Piece Reverse, Grey Ella, Ella Pinch, Zulily Today, Comforters Sets, Pinch Reverse
Look at this Grey Ella Pinch Reversible Comforter Set on #zulily today!
Take a look at the Bedding Refresh: Sheets & Comforters on #zulily today!
@Overstock - Ella 7-piece Reversible Comforter Set - The Ella 7 piece reversible comforter set will work in any bedroom with its natural and soft look made up of beautiful pintucks. This set is made up of polyester and is conveniently machine washable. http://www.overstock.com/Bedding-Bath/Ella-7-piece-Reversible-Comforter-Set/9495357/product.html?CID=214117 $71.99
Grey Ella Pinch Reversible Comforter Set | zulily
Barn wood and white | interiors-designed.com- love this! This is the floor!!!!
Wood Flooring, Dreams Kitchens, Grey Floors, Wood Floors, Grey Wood Floor, White Cabinets, Dream Kitchens, Barns Wood, Barn Wood
Love the grey floor & white cabinets!
I love the barn wood floors. Dream kitchen too!
Barn Wood Floors & White Cabinets.
NOW this is a kitchen! With Grey wood flooring - this is my dream Kitchen! 😍
Grey wood flooring | Relax Home Decor
Use a small shelf to have things accessible but off the kitchen counter
Cabinets Colors, Decor Ideas, Cabinet Colors, Small Shelves, Things Accessible, Subway Tile, Kitchen Counters, Kitchens Counter, Small Shelf
Use a small shelf to have things accessible but off the kitchen counter (NOT the cabinet color)
Use a small shelf to have things accessible but off the kitchen counter, like subway tile too
Use small shelves to have things accessible but off the kitchen counter.
Smoke Gray glass subway tile, white shaker cabinets, pull down faucet - gorgeous contemporary kitchen
Grey Kitchen Tile, White Subway Tile Kitchen, Glass Subway Tile, Gray And White Bathroom Tile, Gray Glasses, Gray Subway Tile, Glasses Subway, Subway Tiles, White Shaker Cabinet
Gray subway tile, white shaker cabinets, pull down faucet Lindsay Redd Design
Bathroom flooring - light tile in herringbone pattern
Floors Tile, Herringbone Tile, Herringbone Pattern, Gray Herringbone, Bathroom Floors, Master Bath, Tile Bathroom, Herringbone Floor, Laundry Room
Bathroom Floor - Herringbone pattern
gray herringbone tile; love it for a bathroom or laundry room.
Gray herringbone tile for master bath!
Herringbone Floor Tile | Herringbone tile floor
gray herringbone tile, bathroom floor
Good Life of Design: What's On Your Radar?
What a great idea! two robe hooks make an easy way to hang an ironing board for home organizing
Coats Hooks, Ideas, The Doors, Ironing Boards, Boards Storage, Iron Boards, Coat Hooks, Laundry Rooms, Robe Hooks
Sneaky Ironing Board Storage One of those things that makes you wonder why in world you’ve never though of it! I too, have the same problem with my ironing board that many of you do — the stupid thing gets in the way! I honestly only use it a couple of times a year (stop judging). I like the idea of storing it behind a laundry room or master walk-in closet door where you’ll rarely see it but still have easy access to it. The secret: robe hooks!
Use 2 coat hooks to hang an ironing board behind the door. Great idea for laundry room.
15 Smarter Ways To Live Your Life
Letter hooks with each kid's initial for their bathroom. GENIUS. @Kelly Teske Goldsworthy Teske Goldsworthy Orozco
Monograms Wall, Hanging Towels, Kids Initials, Letters Hooks, Kid Bathroom, Kids Bathroom, Childrens Bathroom, Bathroom Ideas Kids, Mud Room
Monogram Wall Hook. Letter hooks for kids to hang towels in bathroom or jackets, backpacks, etc. in mud room or bedroom.
letter hooks! Perfect for hanging towels in the kids bathroom, or for a mud room
Letter hooks with each kid's initial for kids bathroom or in mud room room
When I Was Your Age | monogram hooks
Mermaid Kisses and Starfish Wishes on Etsy, $30.00
Mermaid Bedroom Ideas, Starfish Kisses, Mermaid Baby Room, Anchor Bedroom Ideas, Mermaid Room Ideas, Anchor Bathroom Ideas, Mermaid Bathroom Kids Ideas, Mermaid Kisses, 30 00
Beach House, Beach Cottages, Cottages Bedrooms, Beach Bedrooms, Theme Bedrooms, Bedroom Decorating Ideas, Bedrooms Decor Ideas, Bedrooms Ideas, Coastal Bedrooms
beach cottage bedroom decorating ideas
beach house bedroom decorating ideas | beach bedroom decorating ideas Coastal themed bedrooms
coastal bedroom decorating ideas | beach bedroom decorating ideas Coastal themed bedrooms
Nautical Blue and White Coastal Bedroom Idea Using a White Metal Bed Frame
Can paint any picture, just split between canvases. Cute idea for kids bathroom
Bathroom Wall Painting Ideas, For Kids, Kids Bathroom Wall Decor, Cute Ideas, Baby Bathroom Ideas, Bathroom Decor, Canvas Painting Diy Bathroom, Bathroom Ideas For Boys, Kid Bathrooms
Grilled Fig Toast « The Culinary Couple
Gray and peacock I'm in love with this color combo. Utilizing my favorite colors!!
Colors Combos, Living Rooms, Color Combos, Color Schemes, Grey Wall, Colors Schemes, Jewels Tone, Bright Colors, Gray Wall
Like the color scheme. Dark gray walls with the jewel toned pillows
I love this color scheme for some reason...just enough pops of bright color to offset the gray hues...LOVE it!! :) I feel the need to redecorate now ROFL!
Gray, Purple & Blue- I really like this color combo. My living room walls are grey, maybe I should change the color scheme
Color scheme for living room. Grey walls pop of color with curtains and rug
She made the sign from hobby lobby - weekend project!
Wall Decor, Mrmrs, Cute Ideas, Colors Schemes, Master Bedrooms, Beds Frames, Bedrooms Furniture, Bedrooms Decor, Bedrooms Ideas
Absolutely love this. Love the color scheme, the sconces/lamps, the high ceiling with the crown molding, the bed frame dealio, the Mr&Mrs decal etc.
| I love this | MrMrs | Bedroom decors |
Simply The Simmons: Blog Mr. and Mrs. sign above bed in master bedroom. Bedroom Decor. I really like the bed frame too
Master Bedroom idea - Want the wall Decor
Simply The Simmons: Blog Mr. and Mrs. sign above bed in master bedroom. Bedroom Décor carpet with dark bedroom furniture
Simply The Simmons: Mr & Mrs
Island with serving pieces and utensils - such a good use of space! | <urn:uuid:bfb88591-cef4-474e-beb3-450b48abe833> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | https://www.pinterest.com/missdeea/home-decor-ideas/ | 2015-03-30T18:26:17Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299515.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00064-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.769508 | 3,176 |
Summary: An outsider.
A mysterious boy.
The risk of losing it all.
Corby Winchcombe is a fourteen year old Muggle girl obsessed with convincing her family and friends that magic exists. When Corby goes to Kings Cross to catch the train that will take her to her average boarding school, she catches wind of the Hogwarts Express, hops aboard, and gets her first glance of the most magnificent place she's ever seen...
But Corby soon realizes that she doesn't belong at Hogwarts. While Dumbledore assures her that he won't send her home for being a Muggle, many students seem to want her out. And it doesn't seem like anything will stop them. And to make matters worst, a strange boy seems to keep popping up everywhere Corby goes. How will she ever manage to survive the school year?
Summary: This is a fic based off my Girl Who Lived and Unspeakable Power stories. It is made up of one-shots which provide insights into the lives of our heros after they left school. All the gang are here once again!!
Summary: Minerva McGonagall is cleaning out Dumbledores office when she stumbles upon a box full of secrets. And what she discovers in the box will change the future of the Wizarding world forever…
Just on another note, most of the warnings above are for a purely just in case situation, and most of the above possible scenarios are not graphic in nature.
Summary: The war has been over for just over a year and the Wizarding world has become complacent in its new-found freedom, yet only three know the truth.
With Daniella at Oxford and Severus and Dumbledore at Hogwarts, they work to keep the Wizarding world safe, but no one must know.
This is the third installment of "Creating a Ghost" and "Life in the Interim".
Neville stared down at the smouldering scrap of parchment. There, in neat handwriting that was not his own, was printed the name NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM.
When Neville's name emerges from the Goblet of Fire, the Boy-Who-Lived is thrust into his most dangerous challenge yet. For how can a boy with such limited magical ability possibly hope to survive one of the most gruelling and violent competitions in the Wizarding world?
The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher takes Neville under his wing, but evil is growing nearer and not everyone is as they seem. Meanwhile new complications arise in Neville's life. How will he cope with these challenges, and what awaits him at the year's end? In Year Four, everything changes...
Summary: Three years post-Hogwarts. The final battle has started on the night of Harry's twenty-first birthday and he and Voldemort finally face off -- but Voldemort still has to play his last card to get rid of Harry -- by sending him and three of his 'friends' into the past exactly twenty-one years. The four of them now have to struggle to be accepted, keep their identities from certain persons and find a way home.
This story will contain some romance -- if you don't accept certain couples or just desperately want to know who's going to pair up, just e-mail me, and I'll tell you.
Summary: Our lives are not our own. Fate is set, choice is meaningless and the mark of the chosen never truly fades. When Harry finds a way to change his destiny, will the result be better than the path already chosen for him?
Summary: In Rowling's books, we see most Sortings yield five boys to each House, and yet there were only four Marauders. What happened to the other one?
This story was submitted for the "You Sorted WHERE?" One-Shot challenge.
Summary: Lily and James Potter knew that their unborn son was marked by a dangerous prophecy. They thought they had prepared for everything. But when their unborn son turns out to be a girl, their world suddenly spins back into their control. Follow along as the Potter's daughter Haven goes off to Hogwarts without the burden of a prophecy.
Summary: What could have been the final battle ends in Harry's death. Is it really the end, though? Something just doesn't seem quite right to Hermione, and a desperate search leads to a dark discovery about Harry Potter.
Summary: Love's not a bed of roses...
there's also pain, betrayal and heart-break.
A lonely and neglected girl. A stubborn young Order member. A sarcastic Healer. Hermione's been trusted with a secret. But with knowledge comes danger...
Againster a backround of prejudice, family ties and surpression, two powerful love stories are playing themselves out. But the clock is ticking against them...
Summary: An alternate take on the seventh year of the Harry Potter Series. Harry leaves Privet Drive for the last time, of age and pursued by Death Eaters and dark words. As he struggles with Dumbledore's final task, he encounters a new potions mistress, ancient magic, and new depths of Hogwarts and the Department of Mysteries. But before he can challenge his greatest enemy, he must learn about the "magic that Voldemort knows not" from thousands of others.
JK Rowling's universe is all hers, but it's too fun not to play in.
Summary: This is an alternate version of Book Seven. Harry reluctantly returns to Hogwarts to train with a new DADA teacher, one appointed in specifically for Harry in Dumbledore's will. As the rest of the Wizard World reacts to Dumbledore's defeat, Harry develops the skills he needs to fulfill the Prophecy--including mastery of the Kedavra curse.
Mysteries are explored along the way, particularly the "missing 24 hours" from 1981--the span of time between Hagrid taking Baby Harry from the ruins of Godric's Hollow on Halloween Night, and his arrival to hand off Baby Harry on Privet Drive the following night. The Veil Room in the Department of Mysteries is also revisited. A traitor is uncovered, and Dumbledore's wisdom comes into question. And even when all goes as planned, things are not all they seem.
Summary: Voldemort, ever worried for his soul and immortality needs to find another way to secure his life...
Summary: What a ridiculous way to die. If there is one thing about my predicament that is making it even more laughable, it is the fact that I am still alive.
Summary: After being stripped of most of your magic, one would think that you would shrink away from the magical world and live life as a Muggle. But with the help of her grandmother, Gabrielle, Clarisse Arnolds, a half-blood, saunters into Slytherin house as though she owns it. A star student, a brilliant athlete, and a descendant of two of the most ancient wizarding families of earth, Clarisse puts Draco Malfoy in his place! But when it comes time to choose her path in life, what is she to do? Will she join the Order of the Pheonix and bring an end to the Dark Lord's reign of terror? Or will she join the other Slytherins and pledge her allegiance to the Dark Lord, thus becoming the most trusted and faithful of all his servants? Follow her on her life's story and find out.
Summary: After the downfall of Voldemort, Hermione decides to take a break and return to the Muggle world. Deciding to go on a Muggle cruise, Hermione realizes that it was the biggest mistake of her life. Now, she's stuck on a boat with her worst enemy. Fights and bickering continue to take place between them and maybe a little something else too...
Hermione makes new friends and meets up with an old friend, Jessie: an arrogant girl who treats Hermione like dirt and desperately tries to seek Draco's attention. (Slightly AU)
Thanks to some of my awesome readers, this story has been translated into Chinese and Vietnamese. For information on how you can see the translated version, please check my profile!
Status: Working on chapter 26. In the meantime, you can have a look at my new one-shot, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang!
Please note that the date of my last update is incorrect. Apparently there are some glitches in the system regarding to this. Chapter 25 was updated on the 7/09/09!
Nominated for a Quicksilver Quill award in the Non-Canon Romance category
Please leave a review before you leave! It means a lot! You can check out the banner of this story on my author's page!
Summary: In a world where Harry Potter failed to vanquish the Dark Lord, Muggle-born Clare Morgan must honor her binding contract as a servant to the Ashwood family. Abuse and struggle were expected when she arrived at the manor, but falling in love with her master’s son was not. A story of love, hardship, and the promise that hope brings.
Summary: When Draco Malfoy moved to France to carry out orders from the Dark Lord, he never expected to make friends, lest of all this kind of friends. Lies, deceit, murder, and death carve a perilous path through Draco's life as he tries to survive the biggest war his world has ever faced.
Summary: An old woman sits down on a lonely bench one night waiting for the bus. She is joined by a young woman, who brings with her strange memories of the past, and the reminder that time changes everything. | <urn:uuid:e46c8305-9c3e-4339-865c-e62cfa891fa4> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://fanfiction.mugglenet.com/browse.php?type=categories&catid=43&offset=100 | 2015-03-27T05:22:17Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131295084.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172135-00248-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963197 | 1,958 |
Skip to comments.America’s malls seek a life beyond retail
Posted on 02/09/2013 7:54:56 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The winter sunlight barely touches the depths of the abandoned store, where wires dangle from the ceiling, wood shavings scatter the floor, a King Lear shelf marker lies on the stairs, and a Led Zeppelin poster hangs spurned in a rack.
The standalone building in Danbury, Connecticut, still bears the name of the Borders book chain that collapsed in 2011, and strewn on its cash register are fire-sale price lists for its fixtures and fittings. But nobody wanted them either.
Instead its 8ft book cases stand bare and upright in the gloom, like the ruins of a bygone age. In a country that built its towns around consumerism, it is an eerie preview of the future for acres of retail property that Americans no longer need.
The ranks of bricks-and-mortar shoppers have thinned since the financial crisis as a weak economy and the rise of ecommerce have made the dated interiors and badly chosen locations of many stores even less attractive.
The reality is were over-built, says Gerry Mason, executive managing director at property group Savills, who predicts that about 15 per cent of the USs 1,300 biggest enclosed malls will go out of business over the next five years.
Real estate agents say that even properties with a future cannot build it on retail alone: services such as dry cleaners, nail salons and sports clubs are likely to occupy many former shops as the face of Americas built environment is redrawn...
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
Roving bands of yutes tend to dampen shoppers feelings.
A local retailer who is going out of business told me her conservative shoppers all cut back after the ‘08 election. She said however, the EBT crowd was spending like there’s no tomorrow. Bottom line, the smart people are holding their money close, preparing for a rainy day. The parasites think the gravy train will last forever. Rude awakening coming.........
In Annapolis, we have 3 malls within 20 minutes of each other. It is rather crazy. I predict one will close in the next ten years and most likely that will be Marley Station which is old and dumpy. I know that Arundel Mall with new casino and Annapolis Mall (for the rich and affluent) will stay open.
The life after retail is called the village.
Why drive / park when you can walk from your home to your cafe-barber-gallery-cleaner-hotel-convenience store etc.
Save the car for bulk purchases at Walmart-Sams-Costco-Lowes.
Most everything else can be had on-line.
Welcome to the 21st Century.
Arundel Mills Mall is usually very hectic with activity. Even in the depths of the 2008 recession, that area, home to many federal workers, was immune to the downturn. It’s kind of a weird place, set in an affluent suburb, where the gilded Mandarins of the middle bureaucracy mix with the occasional pack of feral youth from nearby Baltimore.
I am sure some bad things happen there from time to time, but I have survived several outings there without a scratch. CCW would be very useful in those environs, but the Kingdom of Maryland does not allow its subjects to have the means to protect themselves.
Since you are in Maryland, you may recall how Landover Mall went downhill and was eventually torn down. The politically incorrect, unspoken version of what happened, is that packs of feral youth scared off shoppers. The politically correct version is that the Lerner Company did not maintain adequate security, or work hard enough to keep upscale stores in the mall.
I am not currently in Maryland...thank God. I live in the great state of Texas. However, I have been on trips to the Kingdom of Maryland on a couple of occasions.
Yes, I remember that Landover Mall was like the badlands of post-apocalyse. So, I assiduously avoided passing by that contaminated landfill.
The same thing could eventually happen to Arundel Mills Mall, but they do have a small army of mall cops and frequent drive-bys by county law
enforcement keeping it mostly safe.
Maybe they could make a whole bunch of Blues Brothers sequels.
You MIGHT live.
anybody with two or more working
brain cells knows the mall scene
has been overbuilt since 1980 or so.
The only place I would ever go to now in Bal’more would be the regular tourist areas and I would make a hasty retreat before the vampires come out for dinner.
In my miss-spent youth, I was known to head-bang, imbibe copious amounts of spirits, and try to meet the Rock and Roll gal of my dreams at Hammerjacks. However, I survived that scandalous part of my youth with the greater part of my brain cells intact. :-D
Oh, I have never been there. However, the wikipedia entry about the mall suggests that it is just a lovely place.
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we wouldn’t be overblt if we had a pro-business administration, that was also pro-american.
Wow, I haven’t double posted in ages.
Sorry ‘bout that.
In Annapolis, we have 3 malls within 20 minutes of each other. It is rather crazy.
If you do an economic analysis, in the present retail environment, it would tell you not to build a mall. However, the analysis results change when you take into account tax incentives, development incentives and other lucrative deals made by politicians at all levels. Thats how we end up so over-built. Rest assured the developer gets his profit. Its the retailer who gets stuck. Then, you add into the equation kill-the-retail political correctness. A mall in Tampa, next to the stadium, wanted to close when teams from historically black colleges played. This is because of flash mobs and riots that occurred EVERY time these teams played. The ALCU took them to court and they were ordered to stay open. The stores all abandoned their leases and the mall is now a parking lot.
Id imagine that Obamacare will further hit the retail industry as most stores are marginal at best. A sudden mandated increase in labor costs will cause them to go into the red and the will be forced to close.
There used to be a dwarf headbanger that was a minor celebrity, because she was there all the time.
I remember it had the most expensive beer in town, something like 3 dollars for a can of Budweiser. In 1985.
“Roving bands of yutes tend to dampen shoppers feelings.”
I remember visiting the actual Borders store that is the subject of the article, back when it was open.
There were no “yutes” there.
It’s not even in a “mall”, per se.
It was a Borders bookstore mated to a Circuit City in one large building. Not connected to a mall.
The Circuit CIty closed too, and is now occupied by a P.C. Richard electronics store.
There’s a casino in Maryland? I like Annapolis Mall, it’s a nice place to shop.
I loved Landover Mall when I was a kid. Yes, it was eventually overrun. Very sad. But then the Capital Centre was re-imagined as a mall/amusement atmosphere and I have not had a desire to visit it. Has anybody here visited that place?
LOL. Hammerjacks! Just seeing the ads in the Baltimore alternative weekly and hearing the ads on DC101 made me think, “I’ll just stay in town and go to a movie or to the 9:30 Club.”
It seems as though Maryland has become one giant John Waters movie. But I enjoyed growing up there and wouldn’t have traded those experiences for anything else. ‘HFS and Kemp Mill Records made it all worthwhile.
It was glorious, my FRiend, just glorius!
None of that auto-tuned, Euro-weenie dance music that followed me home from my last deployment and is now so prevalent on music stations catering to today’s yutes.
We were metal, we were proud, and we ruled suburbia with a with knuckles open glove and a iron fist. lulz...
To be fair, Wikipedia included this bit “After the Baltimore riot of 1968 produced white flight, the mall revenues declined and Sears left.”
I may have seen this dwarf you are referring to, but I saw a lot of things back then that I can’t remember. I do remember smoke filled rooms, blaring metal music, amateur pole-dancing, glitter covered Patty Smyth vixens, and magical unicorns floating through the air but that was probably just the Jim Beam talking.
It was something like this:
That's another thing. Our demographics are collapsing. Want to see the future of our country? Just take a look at Japan. They're 20 years ahead of us.
LOL! True. I guess I was happy enough to listen to the cassettes in my truck as I waited in endless Beltway traffic to get somewhere! “Oooooh-ooooh, growing up.”
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There is much to appreciate in Wilber's model. His greatest contribution is not original conceptions, but an original effort to unite various strands of human knowledge into a comprehensive view of the evolution of consciousness in the universe.
His four quadrant model (subjective-individual, objective-individual, subjective-collective, objective-collective) is a useful way of examining parallel developments in the fields of subjective consciousness and social change. The four quadrants closely correspond with Sri Aurobindo's use of subjective, objective, individual and collective and his fundamental distinction between Consciousness and Form the two subjective quadrants represent consciousness; the two objective ones represent external forms.1
Although he calls his approach an 'integral' theory, it appears more like a summation or a best a synthesis, rather than a true integration. He stresses that true knowledge of any holon involves knowledge in all four quadrants. He points out that developmental stages in each quadrant correspond with parallel developments in the other three. Therefore, he argues we cannot understand consciousness by exclusive focus on any one of the four. Nor can we adequately interpret phenomenon from any of the four quadrants solely as expressions of developments in that quadrant. This approach has the appeal of placing different approaches to consciousness in a wider perspective and curbing attempts to explain everything by one set of narrow concepts, which is especially characteristic of the positivist-empiricist approach. For example, on this basis he is able to strongly reject the view of biological scientists that consciousness can be wholly explained in terms of brain development.
Wilber adopts a hierarchical, evolutionary model of consciousness based on Sri Aurobindo's ascending planes of consciousness from matter to satchitananda.2 He also accepts the common view of many Eastern spiritual traditions that each of these planes, including even matter, possesses inherent consciousness.
Wilber describes consciousness as a summation of changes in all four fields and suggests that its evolution is dependent on all four fields. But this model, just like those he criticizes, does not actually define what consciousness is. Nor does it explain the fundamental (essential) relationship between the four quadrants, i.e. By what process do they evolve? At what level and in what manner are they integrated? How is evolution in each quadrant related to the others? What is the power that governs this evolution? What is the design or intention that determines its direction? He says they are all based on and manifestations of Spirit, but says nothing about the manner or degree to which Spirit determines their evolution or manifests through them.
According to Sri Aurobindo, Consciousness exists outside the four quadrants and manifests or expresses in them. It cannot be adequately explained as the sum of the parts. In Sri Aurobindo's terms, the four quadrants are merely the fields created by consciousness for its self-expression. Consciousness is not limited by the four. Consciousness is not forced to depend for its development on any of the four. It manifests in all four, equally or unequally according to its own choice, because it manifests in everything. The four evolve in parallel because they are all external expressions of the evolution of the same underlying movement, the emergence of consciousness in matter.
Wilber charts the discernible stages of evolution but omits reference to the process that drives that evolution. His list of 20 tenets are characteristic patterns that do not reveal cause or process. Wilber sees the result, not the process that leads to the result. According to Sri Aurobindo, by a process of involution the one Consciousness creates many forms of force with individual centers of apparent existence in which that consciousness is involved. The interaction and contact between these forms of force releases progressively more of the consciousness inherent in them and brings that potential to the surface. In fact he says it is a 'conscious will' acting even in apparently inconscient and subconscious forces that brings about the right combination of contacts for the evolution to take place.3 The emergence of consciousness leads to the development of higher order forms capable of manifesting more of the latent potential concealed within each form.
Wilber's construct provides a useful way to think about the individual and the world, but what does it tell us about action and reaction in the world? To Sri Aurobindo, the life around us is an integral part of us. Oneness is not just a mathematical conception or a reality to be experienced on the spiritual heights. It expresses at every moment. Everything that comes to us from life is an expression of that oneness and is precisely determined by what we are inside. To Sri Aurobindo, the involution and the evolution is not just a logical necessity to explain facts. They are a miracle unfolding every moment. Each necessary stage of our evolutionary progress has been anticipated and provided for by the prior involution. When we are confronted by a stupid man (involved consciousness) or a perverse hostile society (involved force), it is precisely the external pressure needed to awaken consciousness or release force in us. Involution and evolution are living processes of One living being.
Wilber perceptively emphasized the emergence of wider, more inclusive perspectives (holons, holarchies, worldviews) as a natural evolutionary process. Truth evolves by becoming more inclusive. This perspective is the antithesis of reductionism that tries to break down all wholes into their smallest constituent parts, thereby assigning greatest truth value to the part and minimizing the reality of the whole.
Holons and holarchy are wonderful and very pleasing concepts. They so obviously fit the nature of the material world and social organizations that it is very tempting to accept without too much scrutiny that they accurately describe the subjective worlds of individuals and collectives as well. But it is not clear that they do. The evolution of material and biological forms from atom to molecule to cell to organism is neat and irrefutable. Each is a whole in itself. Each forms a distinct part of all the larger holons of which it is a part. In each case it retains its original character but contributes to the emergence of new characteristics that are not apparent at the lower level.
But when we look at the holons listed in the subjective individual quadrant, the relationship seems slightly different. It is true that in the emergence of life there is a progressive emergence of sensations, impulses, emotions, sense-based thoughts, abstract concepts, etc. It is also true that to an extent the lower holons form a base or 'cause' for the emergence of the higher. Physical sensations feed impulses and give rise to sense thoughts. But is there any real sense in which we can say that sensations are parts of thoughts or thoughts are larger wholes that include or (in Wilber's term) 'enfold' sensations and impulses? This is as reductionist as a biological description of consciousness as nervous impulses in the brain. The emergence of thought may be stimulated by sense data, but it can also arise internally, independent of sense data-- in fact, that is Sri Aurobindo's description of pure thought. Thought does not consist of sensation, impulse and emotion as its constituent parts. Yes, there is a progressive hierarchy of subjective elements of consciousness, but the part-whole analogy seems to break down. Holons are a nice way of looking at things, a typical mental way of dividing and aggregating reality. But as such they are not reality and it is dangerous to try to fit all reality into that mold.
But Wilber's model is even more precise about the role of subjective holons. He says that a person's consciousness can be characterized as consisting of three levels of subjective individual consciousness and even provides a normal distribution curve for the distribution of consciousness! a predominant holon (50%), and the holons directly above and below it (25% each). Does he actually mean that the person who lives in the thought mind ceases to have sensations, impulses, and feelings or that a brilliant thinker or even a realized sage cannot have uncontrollable vital urges?
Sri Aurobindo's view is that these are separate, distinct and relatively independent centers of consciousness in humanity. It is true that one or several centers may be more developed and dominant than the others. That is the basis for our typology of nine or 16 levels. But all the centers exist in everyone and the move to higher centers does not necessarily diminish the role of the lower except in the measure it sublimates or transforms it.
The important point is that Wilber's model is replete with implicit assumptions and worldviews like those he condemns. Each of these assumptions deserves to be made explicit and examined rather than just taken for granted as obvious or self-evidently valid.
Wilber's model can be a useful way to depict the interactions between the individual and collective in social development theory. Our thesis is that all social development depends on the subconscious preparedness and will of the collective (subjective-collective) which expresses as aspiration and creative thinking (subjective-individual) and fresh external initiative (objective-individual) by pioneering individuals. The behavior of the pioneer is imitated by others in his social context, accepted, supported, organized and institutionalized by society (objective-collective). Eventually the new behavior becomes incorporated in the cultural values of the society (subjective collective) and is internalized in the value system of individual members of the society (subjective-individual). Wilber's quadrants makes it possible to express this process quite clearly, though I have not read any similar use of it in his writings.
Wilber condemns the tendency to collapse reality into a single quadrant. But he then procedes to categorize collapse? major theories and theorists into specific quadrants they focus on, lending the impression that he is the first to look at all four quadrants are parts of a single reality. For instance, he places Sri Aurobindo as a theorist in the subjective-individual quadrant, ignoring the fact that Sri Aurobindo thought and wrote extensively about the interaction between evolution of subjective consciousness (interior individual) and the transformation of material substance (exterior individual), the subjective existence of society (interior collective) and objective (exterior collective) social and political evolution of humanity. It is likely that some other theorists have been similarly collapsed.
This raises the more fundamental issue of the equality of the quadrants. Wilber treats them all as equals. This may be an advance from most theoretical perspectives and it is fully in keeping with our postmodern romance with equality. Inequality, like hierarchy, has become a dirty word. But what precisely is the rationale for regarding the quadrants as equals? Even if we accept that all four quadrants represent aspects of reality, it does not follow that they are equal aspects or that some are not subordinate to others. This is precisely the type of thinking that Wilber condemns in the positivists. Would he equally condemn it in the subjectivists? If so, how does he justify his objections other than by the fact that inequality is not balanced, fair or sufficiently open-minded? But whoever said reality has to justify itself to the mind's quest for neat mental models.
Sri Aurobindo's view is that the objective is real. It is a projection and manifestation of the subjective. But the subjective is the true determinant, not the objective. Would Wilber condemn this view? If so, what rationale basis has he presented for doing so?
Does a four quadrant model really integrate objective and subjective, individual and collective perspectives of reality? Wilber's approach appears more additive than integrative. He does not explain the precise relationship between the quadrants or the process by which they mutually interact and develop in parallel with one another. For example, in discussing the rise of modernity he does not specifically correlate it with an evolutionary stage in individual consciousness or biology. He indicates correlations at some points, but not causal relationships.
In Sri Aurobindo's view, the inner drives the development of the outer. The evolution of biological forms (exterior individual quadrant) is only a result and expression of the inner evolution of consciousness (interior individual quadrant) within the form that presses for development of more complex organizations capable of reflecting and giving expression to it, i.e. the inner drives the outer. Wilber might argue that the physical form limits the development of subjective consciousness and therefore it is an equal partner in evolution of higher consciousness. But Sri Aurobindo would disagree. He would say that if the inner consciousness chooses to evolve, it will evolve the necessary changes in external biology required for that manifestation, as Mother describes in the Agenda. Actually, the development of inner consciousness is not limited by the external development of the form in its ascent to higher planes of consciousness at all. It is only when we want to transform the human consciousness, rather than rise out of it, that the structure of the current biological form needs to change.
Similarly, Sri Aurobindo says that the subjective development of the collective drives and determines its objective development. They too are not equal partners. The subconscious collective preparedness determines the emergence of consciousness in the individual which in turn leads to the evolution of social forms. Modernity, which is marked by the Renaissance, Reformation, industrial and democratic revolutions, is the result of a transition from the vital to mental phase in the human collective. Mind has existed as an individual possession for millennium, but the emergence of mind as a collective endowment is relative recent and is still in an early stage of development. The progress associated with modernity is an external manifestation of the emergence and large-scale application of mental consciousness to address problems of life. Wilber associates modernity with rationality. But actually science and modernity are much more the expression of the physical mind (level 3 of 9) than the pure rational thinking mind (level 1).
But the greatest limitation of Wilber's four quadrants is the danger that we may mistake them for something real! The reality he is categorizing and pigeonholing into four quadrants is a single, indivisible whole. Mind's attempt to capture it in clear abstract terms gives us a sense of security and satisfaction, but not real knowledge. Thought and language require the use of divided concepts and opposites for their self-expression. But whereas Sri Aurobindo constantly reminds us that any such division of reality is only perceptual (being is indivisible), Wilber seems to really believe in the separate existence of these four. That seems a step backward from what even science has discovered since Einstein – that even such apparent divisions as matter, energy, space and time are inseparable manifestations of a single reality.
Wilber postulates that all four quadrants share three common tests for knowledge, which he terms injunction, apprehension and confirmation (i.e. method of taking evidence, observation of results, and validation of results). His distinction between narrow or superficial science (sensory) and broad or deep science (sensory, mental and spiritual) and his insistence that all three can be approached by the same common tests is helpful because it broadens the field of phenomenon that can be studied scientifically. This view acknowledges that subjective experience is a valid field for science but that it can only be fully studied by resort to appropriate subjective methods, which he states may require in some instances a change in the consciousness of the observer. This is precisely Sri Aurobindo's view that spiritual experience can be systematically repeated and scientifically validated, but only by subjective rather than objective methods.
Wilber also insists that standards for judgment vary from quadrant to quadrant. He terms those standards truth (exterior individual), truthfulness (interior individual), justness or cultural meaning (interior collective) and functional fit (exterior collective). This formulation avoids inappropriate application of standards from one quadrant to another, which is his purpose. But it also seems to mis-state or oversimplify the nature of knowledge.
Wilber identifies 'truth' with scientific proof, which in fact is often just an observation of external phenomenon or experimentally validated concepts. But in what sense can we say that scientific fact is true? He identifies truthfulness or sincerity with subjective individual experience, implying that it is motive and intention rather than substantial reality that is being judged. He implies that subjective reality is only relative. Our experience of it may be relative to our level of consciousness or perspective, but that is also true of the external quadrants. The truth of individual consciousness is not just a function of intention or sincerity. It is a function of the height, plane or level of consciousness from which it is experienced.
The same problem occurs in the collective quadrants. The criterion of functional fit seems to suit the social quadrant. The criteria for the cultural quadrant of justness, cultural meaning, mutual understanding and rightness do not seem as adequate. Is this the only basis for the subjective collective existence? What about common universal values? Sri Aurobindo argues that nations have souls just as individuals do. If soul is the fundamental reality of the collective, it cannot be limited to any ethical standards or to mere symbolic understanding. Sri Aurobindo even describes the rise of nationalism in Germany during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries as a bold advance of the subconscious social collective from materialistic individualism to true subjectivism, an advance that went terribly awry due to the assertion of the nation's ego rather than its soul, but which points the way for more positive expressions in the future.
In sum, Wilber's effort to define distinct criteria for judging reality in the four quadrants is admirable but not fully satisfying.
Wilber explains psychological development as an evolution of consciousness from greater to less levels of egocentricity physiocentric (inability to differentiated subject and object), biocentric (inability to differentiate one's subjective emotions from those of others), egocentric (emergence of one's own identity distinct from others), ethnocentric (capacity to accept roles and identities valid for your group), world centric (capacity to accept validity of different roles and identities for each individual).
This progression up the subjective individual holorachy is a useful way of describing one aspect of conscious development related to the formation and eventual dissolution of ego. The approach treats development of consciousness as a cognitive process. The individual has to change his understanding, self-conception and self-identity. But when taken as a comprehensive description of human personality and its development, the approach is naive and simplistic. It shares the character of most Western psychology that fails to perceive the depths and complexity of human personality.
Sri Aurobindo would agree with a general cognitive progression from egocentric to non-egocentric awareness as one aspect of human development, but his view of human psychology is much more complex.
Wilber accepts the existence of vital energy or prana, but asserts that it cannot be validly separated from the body-mind experience in which it occurs, i.e. it does not have any independent existence. In other words, vital energy is energy of body-mind. Probably he would maintain the same is true of mind (i.e. it cannot be adequately explained in terms of the brain, but it cannot exist independent of the brain). Sri Aurobindo states on the contrary that the vital and mental planes of consciousness exist prior to the evolution of body and mind in animals and man. They are created as universal planes of consciousness during the involution from satchitananda through supermind to matter. They also exist independent of body-mind and interact with it. All truths discoverable by science already exist as knowledge in the universal mental planes. The forces that move life exist in the universal life planes.
According to Sru Aurobindo, what we call vital energy in man is only an expression of the universal force of life which manifests as physical energy in matter (electricity, gravitation, nuclear force, etc.) and nervous and emotional energy in all living beings. According to him, there is only one life force that creates and sustains countless forms. Accepting Wilber's definition, science would never discover the existence of life as a universal rather than an individual force. It would always see the individual life as an aspect of the individual form, of the ego. Wilber believes in non-ego experience, but only at levels above mind where the consciousness rises above the development of the body-mind. This would probably also exclude the possibility of transforming mind and vital and physical, since they must first be universalized by the disillusion of ego before they can be transformed.
Of more immediate practical importance, the existence of a universal life plane is the source of all phenomenon that fall under the heading "life response". By restricting vital energy to the body and the ego, Wilber must reject the possibility (which all great literature and spirituality affirms) that our inner consciousness corresponds to and evokes responses from the wider life around us. That would only be possible if our inner life is a portion of and one with the universal life.
Wilber does not reject but seems to downplay the significance of extrasensory experiences (psi). But if proven, telepathy, clairvoyance and the like would prove that consciousness is not only hierarchical as Wilber says (e.g. existing on many different planes) but also that it is essentially independent of forms such as the brain in the upper right quadrant of his model. The brain functions like a radio receiver to pick up signals from the universal mind planes. The radio waves (i.e. the ideas, thoughts, truths, beauty perceived by great thinkers and artists) exist independent of the receiver.
Wilber is skeptical about quantum approaches to consciousness which are based on the thesis that consciousness is capable of interacting with and altering the 'real world' at the subatomic or intracellular level. Yet Mother's cellular experiences reported in Agenda confirm that consciousness can and does act at least at the level of the individual cell. According to Sri Aurobindo even the atom has ego. All force, even the superstring vibration, is an expression of involved consciousness. More importantly, Wilber's objection to quantum approaches points out a basic dichotomy in his thinking between 'real' or external world and subjective experience. Whereas Sri Aurobindo rejects this schizophrenic view and unifies the subjective and objective, the individual and the collective, as various expressions of one Self-Conscious Being.
Self-transcendence is a basic tenet of Wilber's approach. Each holon transcends and includes or enfolds those that came before it. In this sense each holon is 'built' of subcomponent parts which are lower holons on the holarchy. For Sri Aurobindo this is a decidedly mentalized view of reality, mentalized because mind sees by division and aggregation. While he would agree that higher states of consciousness emerge out of lower ones, it is not by an additive effect, a quantitative building process that forms a greater whole. The emergence of higher holons may be true, but what creates the higher planes is the emergence of higher levels of consciousness, which are not in any true sense combinations or additions of smaller component parts, although their external forms may be so constituted.
Transcendence is the key operative concept of traditional other-worldly spirituality. He introduces the concepts of ascent and descent, but descent for him is only to accept the world as a manifestation of Spirit in a spirit of Compassion, not to transform it. Wilber equates Descent with the materialist's affirmation of the physical world.
For Sri Aurobindo the key operative is transformation, i.e. the emergence of higher planes of consciousness descending to transform the nature of the lower planes to enable them to embody and manifest the higher consciousness. Although Wilber frequently uses the word 'transform', he does not elude to a real process of changing the lower. His preoccupation is with replacing the lower with the higher. In Sri Aurobindo's view, that which is replaced or brushed aside remains exactly what it was before, even if the center of consciousness has risen above and no longer takes note of it. Wilber adopts the Buddhist view that great souls stand on the borderline of existence working until all souls have made the great escape. That may liberate the individual soul from ignorance but it will never change the world.
More profoundly, Wilber conceives that the liberation of consciousness comes from rising above and that the world naturally changes when one has done this. Since all is Spirit, there is nothing really to change. But for Sri Aurobindo, it is not just human consciousness that should rise above and discover its spirituality, it is the animal and material consciousness in man, in his lower being, that should also be transformed to experience itself as Spirit. That ultimately requires a transformation of Matter itself, not just of human beings and human consciousness.
Wilber's description of the evolution of social consciousness from the biological stage (marked by physical domination of the strongest, e.g. the male) to ethnocentric stage (marked by domination of myths and belief systems and of religious groups and races over each other) to world-centric stage (marked by the shift to reason and world-centric standards of fairness and justice) corresponds closely to the progression we have described in social development theory from physical to vital to mental phases. The main difference is our emphasis on the vitally dynamic and expansive nature of society during the middle phase.
Wilber's view that science, morals and consciousness (the Big Three) each has its own truth and a valid contribution to make is similar to Sri Aurobindo's statement on the rightful role of science, philosophy, spirituality in the pursuit of knowledge. But Sri Aurobindo argued that the competition between the three branches has existed for millennium and the tendency of one, now science, to try to eclipse and usurp the role of the other two is not new. In ancient Greece, philosophy dominated. In the Middle Ages, religion. Now science.
In summary, Wilber has done an impressive job of mentally synthesizing many different strands of current thought within a coherent intellectual framework. He places different perspectives in a wider context in which each assumes its rightful place and significance as a valid perspective of a greater whole. His model is clear and logical.
Where Wilber particularly disappoints is in his effort to apply the same mental formulas to subjective life and spiritual phenomenon that he applies to matter and social systems. Here dualisms, dialectics, quadrants and tenets are inadequate to describe the complexity, subtlety and creativity of the processes and their results.
Although he incorporates higher spiritual planes in his model and seems to make Spirit the real basis, the model itself is strictly a mental formulation. He points out the limitation of worldviews that seek to describe reality by dividing it into parts, which is a characteristic action of mind. To counter it, he tries to aggregate disparate worldviews into a single larger framework, which is another characteristic action of mind. Mind knows by division and aggregation. But neither one nor the other nor a combination of the two can truly create an integrated whole.
What is lacking in Wilber's approach is not clarity or rationality. It is life, power and spirituality. His mental model fails as all mental models must in providing insights into the vital creativity and miraculous workings of life. Life becomes a flat, two dimensional force like electromagnetism. His view does not recognize life is a conscious universal power with a character and personality of its own that is constantly interacting with every individual at every moment to effect results that lie beyond the vision and imagination of mind and ego. The evolution of consciousness he refers to is not a mechanical or even a dialectic process it is the Becoming of a living universal Being taking delight in the complexity, apparent struggle and progressive unfolding of its creative manifestation.
So too, Wilber's discussion of spirituality is pure mental abstraction colorless, odorless and lifeless as flat and hollow as the flatland he seeks to escape. It is conceptual not spiritual. His idea of an Emptiness from which everything emerges, of which everything is made and to which everything returns reveals nothing of the Conscious Being and Intention that supports and becomes manifestation. He portrays a ladder from original Emptiness to ultimate Emptiness which signifies nothing except continuity. He advocates transcendence of ego but gives no indication of what exists beyond ego other than a vast impersonality.
Wilber has artfully exposed the limitations of empirical science as a means of knowledge. Yet he seeks to substitute mental philosophy and cosmology in its place. The act of naming Spirit and enumerating spiritual planes is as much an attempt to collapse higher reality into a mental framework as the biologists effort to explain mind in terms of brain.
The limitations of a neat, linear progressive mental approach can be illustrated by contrasting mental logic with spiritual reality, with what Sri Aurobindo terms the logic of the Infinite.
The limitations of Wilber's approach will be evident not just for those seeking a roadmap for spiritual experience, but even more so for those seeking guidance for the understanding and resolution of life problems. Though he may describe and explain historical trends such as the role of women, the model provides little insight applicable to issues facing humanity abolition of war and poverty, stagnation in Japan, chaos in Russia, barbarism in Yugoslavia, the future of science, challenges facing business, potentials for Indian development, etc. It fails equally when applied to the life of the individual in family or in work. It fails because it is not a real representation of life or reality but only a mental model. | <urn:uuid:6090b28c-553d-43d2-8ab6-dca56197e722> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/i_es/i_es_jacob_response.htm | 2015-03-27T05:11:15Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131295084.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172135-00248-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945741 | 6,051 |
The following story is fiction about high school youths. The story contains scenes of spanking, strapping, shaving and gay sex. If these subjects are offensive, uninteresting or if you are a minor (i.e., child) please leave now.
This work is copyright by the author and commercial use is prohibited without permission. Personal/private copies are permitted only if complete including the copyright notice.
The author would appreciate your comments – pro and con, including constructive criticism, and suggestions. Please take a moment to e-mail
How I Got My School Letter
I was the team manager. I was only a junior and just sixteen but I had managed the JV team the year before and the guys were happy with the results. Mr. Engeldow, the school's coach, took care of the training, of course. I made sure that the cleanup was taken care of by a couple of towel boys so I wouldn't have to do that shit job. They were just freshmen (freshboys!) but they drooled like groupies hungry for rock band idols. Actually, it was good because it prevented a lot of grab-ass horseplay in the locker room. There was not any need to do that when there were a couple of eager boys about who would happily bend over, and not just to pick up something from the floor, anxious to please the gods, er, the team members. With ten randy HS seniors, I limited the actions in the showers to protect the laddies. That gave me an additional, although pleasant, task – saying who was to get what (whom) after practice and after the games. I used Jeffery and Timmy, the towel boys, as a reward for extra effort. They were great incentives.
I ran a tight ship, as the saying goes, and I used both carrots and sticks. The main carrots were the two boys as I already mentioned while the main stick was a stick. Well, not literally but a strap which I would use to roast the tail of any slackers. You may wonder why the guys would accept discipline from a dude at least a year younger, smaller and weaker then themselves. It was simple – they wanted to win. To do that they had to work together as well as working hard. They could accept stuff from me better than from any adult because they were adolescents constantly fighting with their dads and teachers for dominance. I wasn't threatening so they listen to me.
The coach pretended not to know what was going on. He wanted to be the coach of the winning team and was happy to skirt the regulations. School policy forbade the use of CP by the faculty but consensual stuff was a different matter. He was quite happy to concentrate on what he loved – training the guys hard to be winners (so he could bask in their glory). It was a win-win situation for all. Even for the towel boys were happy for they got, er, quality time with the senior hunks they drooled over. They, too, were subject to the strap and even boyish OTK spanking when appropriate.
The towel boys learnt the importance of keeping to their commitments the very first week. Jeffery was late twice and Timmy was spending far too much time staring at his personal gods in the shower. I had to take prompt action to get them back on course and to make sure that the team members knew that I was totally purposeful and that they should keep on their toes. With the team watching, I gave both of them a lecture and told them that they would be spanked. Since their duties required them to be in the shower area, they were both naked as, incidentally, were the team members and myself. It was a practice that I encouraged as it helped bonding and thus team performance.
Jeffery accepted his fate stoically even though he was the younger of the two and had barely started puberty. He did not resist as I lowered him over my lap and got a firm grip on his waist. He took hold of a leg of the bench and placed his other hand on the floor and then without prompting said: "Ready for my spanking, Sir." I hoped that he did not notice that my cock twitched at that but I was absolutely delighted at the great example he was showing his total acceptance of the team's discipline. I gave him a couple of love pats and then started to spank him for real. I gave him ten hard spanks on each cheek which turned his butt a nice rosy red. Several of the team members were sporting full hard ons by them and none of the others were limp. When I let him up he thanked me for the spanking and promised to be on time. He only took a few steps when one of the team members, Jack, grabbed him and held him close. I'm sure that he could feel the dude's hard cock pressing at him and was happily anticipating what Jack planned.
Timmy was different. He objected to being spanked like a little boy OTK and I had to remind him that he was the "Towel Boy". That did not convince him to cooperate and then he protested that he already had pubes and should be strapped like a young man. I asked the team: "Do boys get strapped?" and they said no. After that he yielded to me and went over my lap like Jeffery had. Timmy tried to be stoic but he wasn't and after a few spanks was complaining. By the time I stood him up with his hot-red bottom glowing, he was sobbing.
I asked a few question of the team. "Do young men cry?"
"No!" and "Never!" were the responses.
I queried again: "Do boys have pubes?" and again they said no.
"OK, Timmy, the team has spoken. You are not entitled to have pubes." He was horrified. "Ask someone to shave you – here and now or I'll do it." It was not necessary to tell him that if he refused, he would be replaced so he made a selection. I guess if something unpleasant is going to happen, having it done by one's favorite god would less unpleasant.
Everyone went into the shower and Matt turned one on and got Timmy's crotch wet. He used the regular soap on it and then the safety razor I handed him.. There was not much to shave away and it went fast. He was rinsed off in front as Matt soaped up his crack and bent him over for his own pleasure. Timmy was very docile as he yielded to the big team member he had chosen. He also enjoyed being fucked based on the joyful sounds he made.
During the shaving, Jeffery was also happily sucking Jack's hard shaft and then he also bent over and got properly fucked. Both towel boys had now been introduced to their primary duties of keeping the team happy. I had eight more horny team members who want to get off and I selected four to get bj's as a reward for extra effort on the field during the day's practice.. My rules limited each towel boy to one fucking and two bj's per day. Rationing made the rewards more valuable to the recipients.
* * * * * * * * * *
Things were going smoothly and the team worked well together. The towel boys provided that extra incentive to put out (sorry, pun not intended) for the good of all. The two boys were also very happy for they got a lot of hard, hot cock from their heros. There was a little joking that I should have had gotten a towel girl also, but that quickly became a stale joke. The het dudes really did not want to share their chicks, like they did with the boys, with the other team members.
Occasionally, I had to deal with a team member for some failing. The naughty one was certainly not thrilled with this happening but owning up and getting one's due helped to cement to team cohesiveness. When Chad messed up, he was a wonderful example. He accepted his lecture well and then apologized to his team mates. He even went back to his locker and got his own belt which was heaver than mine to show how he accepted his guilt and had a high level of penitence. He presented his butt for the strap with as much dignity as if he was getting a medal. I got into position and with his folded belt started to strap him. Even before the red stripe was noticeable, Chad said: "One. Thank you Sir." He did this for each cut and when his butt was red-hot at the end, again apologized to his fellow team members.
It was a perfect example of the solidarity I had been striving for and he was truly forgiven by his team mates.
It would be nice to report that every time a team member got strapped he acted that well but that really was not the case especially near the beginning. What I'm most pleased to report is that we were doing very well and had a record of eight wins in nine tries.
* * * * * * * * * *
After that ninth game the team was depressed because before it they had their sights on a perfect ten-for-ten season. The tenth game was scheduled against a weak team so the ninth was the last real game that was a tight contest. What made it extra depressing was that we lost it because the coach messed up. There are lots of rules in the league and the coach managed to break one. The referee called a technical foul on the team and awarded the ball to the opposition and they regrettably scored. Engeldow had managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. As long as we won the last game, we would still be the champs, although not having a perfect record was depressing.
After the game the Coach came to the locker room and apologized to the team for his great blunder. I don't know who yelled it out but some did. "If one of us had done that, his butt would be strapped – hard." The mood instantly became even grimmer and everyone was silent waiting to see what the Coach would say. We must have waited three minutes with everyone silently glaring at the Coach before he spoke.
Engeldow did not prevaricate and just said it like a man should. "Strap me." He pulled his belt off and handed it to me.
"Drop 'em and bend over that bench." I said. Then I got into position and gave him a good set of five which left his big fat ass bright red. He took it very well without much more than a grunt or two. "Everyone gets two cuts." I announced handing the belt to a team member.
They each gave two hard cuts to the Coach and it was clear that they were angry but this was definitely lightening up the mood. I could see how hard it was for the Coach for his knuckles were white from gripping the bench so tightly. When all ten had delivered their two cuts, I was given the belt back. I beckoned to the two towel boys and they also gave him two cuts each. I finished up the strapping with another two cuts and told the Coach to get up.
"That hurt." he said. He got a round of applause.
"It supposed to." I said. "Showers everyone." The team stripped down and went to shower while the Coach retired to his office.
We won our last game and were the champs. Everyone was happy and we all got school letters.
© Copyright A.I.L. March 7, 2010
Your comments are appreciated. [email protected]
See more of my stories at: Nifty's Prolific Net Authors
and on my web site: http://www.asstr.org/~YLeeCoyote/ | <urn:uuid:bcec4c86-c5ea-4a37-9190-4fbd565b5642> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/highschool/how-i-got-my-school-letter.html | 2015-03-27T05:25:01Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131295084.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172135-00248-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.995095 | 2,436 |
Adobe Director multimedia authoring software, which gained popularity during the CD-ROM era of the 90s, has released its first upgrade since Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005.
The last significant upgrade for Director was in 2001, with the 8.5 version. Many developers began using Director at that time, as an introduction to 3D applications. While quite a few other 3D tools have hit the scene, many still find that Director is the most useful to them.
Naresh Gupta, Senior Vice President, Print and Publishing at Adobe noted, "With the new Director 11, users can unleash their creative capabilities and broaden their market reach with less effort, producing more engaging multimedia applications in less time. This milestone release provides a strong and flexible authoring environment that perfectly complements Adobe’s broad suite of authoring products, extending our customers’ creative reach to interactive 3D animations and games."
Historically, the Director application was utilized in the creation of the vast majority of educational CDROMs, due to its ease of use and extensive range of features, with both Apple and Microsoft operating systems.
The latest release was designed to include a flexible and easy-to-use authoring environment, thus enabling multimedia designers, animators and developers to create more comprehensive interactive applications, games, e-learning and other simulation based products.
Rick Jones, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Director, explained at PC Magazine’s New York offices , "t’s not just for developers. It’s about 40 percent developers and 60 percent entry-level multimedia authoring."
Updated Feature Hightlights
1. Director 11 and Shockwave support Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac PPC, Mac OS 10.4, and Mac OS 10.5.
2. QuickTime 7, Windows Media and RealPlayer, support for Adobe’s own Flash CS3 and Unicode is designed to make the development of multi-lingual applications more straightforward.
3. Either alone or with the Adobe Shockwave Player, Director 11 can be used for authoring once and publishing content for the web, CDs/DVDs and the desktop simultaneously. The environment is said to complement Adobe’s ecosystem of products, allowing for Adobe Flash SWF files to be used for Director projects, played in Director and Shockwave, and then edited with Adobe Flash CS3 Professional.
Director may be used for multimedia applications, such as virtual architectural walkthroughs and product demonstrations; however, the new version can also create hardware-accelerated 3D games.
These added bonuses are designed to simplify adding characteristics, such as shadowing and glow, to text or images. An enhanced script browser is included, for breaking out the code and snippets, with drag and drop capability – slated to be a programming time saver.
Gene Endrody, CEO and Founder of web-based community multiplayer game developer, MaidMarian.com, "No other technology can deliver hardware-accelerated 3D entertainment on a web page to as many people worldwide as Director and Shockwave. Director 11 enhances the ability to develop fast action 3D interactive games and virtual products, with cost efficiency, cross-platform compatibility and browser plug-in penetration superior to other authoring environments on the market."
As an example, PCMag’s Michael Muchmore, reported that Dr. Allen Partridge, the Technology Evangelist for Adobe Director and owner of Insight Interactive Games, demonstrated a realistic, fast-action motorcycle game, noting that Director is poised to provide much faster game development (months vs. years), for both casual and serious gaming.
An estimated half billion computers have the Shockwave plug-in required to view Director content in a web browser. Games creator Caspian Learning, uses Director for its simulation games designed to solve learning issues, due to its web capability, ease of development, and stability.
Case in point: Outside the Box Software’s Chris Evans, an independent game developer based in Oceanside, California, who spent two years developing the SocioTown MMO game, using Director 11. Mr. Evans explained, “Anytime you release an MMO game, it is going to be compared to EverQuest and other online games, but I wanted to do something that hasn’t been done before."
Mr. Evans built SocioTown as an interactive social network, for casual players that play around 20-30 minutes a day. The game includes tools to help track friends, and interactions with players and non-players, as well as having the ability to map the social network. Past interactions are recorded into memory, to enable discretionary actions later. Other features of the game include Street Boxing, which allows players to compete against one another; game play for characters, such as checkers; and shopping. Missions in process include a laser tag event and the ability to catch bugs.
Director 11 was chosen to create SocioTown by Mr. Evans, because it was familiar software, having used it since 2001 to complete some Web3D games. The ability to stream media files on the fly, support for importing multiple file types, solid install, and cross-platform markets for Win, Mac and Web, were all selling points for using Director 11 – in addition to cost considerations.
Mr. Evans has also worked on multiplayer online golf game, Pow Pow’s Mini Golf, BlockHeads Clash, a four-player smashing arcade-style game; CityScape Battle, and Pow Pow’s Puzzle Attack (GameDev.net).
Training and e-learning continue to be a focus for Director. The London Observatory has used it for an interactive galaxy display, and it seems to work well in developing training applications such as those used for fast food employee types of business environments.
Director’s extended 3D capabilities make it a good choice for game prototyping and learning materials that make use of native 3D rendering.
1. Market penetration. Adobe is the biggest multimedia company in the world. Shockwave still appears to have at least 40-50% market penetration, which is less than Flash Player. However, market penetration for Unity, Virtools, Quest3D, and others is negligible. Shockwave still seems to be a favorite, for cross platform tools.
2. Integration capabilities. Director has the ability to work with other media such as flash, as well as various video formats, in unique ways. Director still generally allows for a very flexible authoring environment.
3. Cross platform capabilities. Unity3D is a much better tool, however, remains Mac exclusive. While Virtools is considered one of the best, it is cost-prohibitive with unreasonable licensing parameters. Therefore, Director is the better choice for online 3d authoring.
Version 11 extends Director MX 2004’s ability to create deliverables for both Mac and PC from either platform, to include Intel-based Macs and full Vista compatibility. However, in order to view Director content online, an audience needs the 4.5MB Shockwave plug-in: a significant issue, given that Shockwave 8.5 or later is installed on less than 50% of European PCs.
While improvements in the browse feature of the script editor are noted, the function remains somewhat antiquated, in comparison to many other programming interfaces. The list of errors and bugs found at web sites such as Director at Night, demonstrate that for some, Director 11 may not be the best option at this time.
Where Shockwave still seems to be a cross platform tool favorite, Flash is likely to be the better choice in the vast majority of situations, such as CDROM delivery. Flash and Matchware’s Mediator 9 are much easier to use for creating e-learning and similar products.
Marketing position of the product overlaps that of Flash to such a degree that there are very few situations in which Director would be the preferred choice. In a broad sense, Flash is a natural choice for the Internet. However, Director’s only real advantage over Flash is its native support for 3D, making it an ideal choice for 3D games, most of which are online.
Overall, the consensus seems to be that Director 11 is the latest in a long line of minor updates, which will benefit existing users much more than any new customers. Adobe’s own Flash CS3 may ultimately be a better choice, for those who do not already own Director. It looks like any developers who have already switched to Flash CS3, will need much more to justify returning to Developer, even with the new advances in version 11.
Finally, the cost, while not exorbitant, may still present issues for some, as upgrades will cost $299. New purchases are priced at $999 (down from $1,199). The student version is only $99. However, there is a free trial available, so that people can try it before committing to becoming a proud owner of Adobe’s Director 11. | <urn:uuid:efff4b73-912f-4d12-bbe6-97d6737e2134> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.thegamereviews.com/article-625-Adobe-Director-11-Review.html | 2015-03-27T05:17:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131295084.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172135-00248-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947109 | 1,840 |
Talk:Problems with SATA and Linux
- 1 I did everything and system drive still does not respond to hdparm -i or hdparm -d1
- 2 updated libata_passthru.patch
- 3 ATA_ENABLE_PATA PCI IDs
- 4 DVD DMA with ide/sata as module
- 5 occasional hang upon resume with various kernels
- 6 Suspend to RAM on X41 not working with Debian-packaged 2.6.16
- 7 Problem with 2.6.16
- 8 Patch against SATA-resume problem with T60
- 9 removal of cd/dvd problems rambling?
- 10 libata.atapi_enabled didn't work, #define ATA_ENABLE_PATA worked!
I'm running gentoo on my T43; I had problems with X11 (opensource radeon driver) and a SATA-patched kernel (I tried both 2.6.14 and 2.6.15-gentoo). Suspend to RAM worked nicely, but starting X freezed the machine after a short time. I tried removing radeonfb from the kernel; with vesafb, everything seems to work.
-- Stefan, 10 Jan 2006
That's strange - with the libata passthrough (IDE driver not in kernel) as set up in the text, my t43p DVD drive also will not record as hinted in the wikipage... DMA works fine, so DVD playing / ripping is smooth and quick. CD record functions also are absent. I have PATA enabled, and the suspend + SMART patches applied over 22.214.171.124.
I can confirm this with 126.96.36.199, however with 2.6.15/15.1 with sata_pm patch it works.
-- Rasto, 24 Jan 2006
regarding the "BIOS error 2010 on user-installed hard disk": the text says that corruption occurs if you use a harddisk without the specific ibm bios. would be interesting if it is possible to fix this problem in the kernel so that you can use any disk and the kernel doesn't use specific ATA commands which are known to cause problems.
in the tabook i didn't find any specification of the SATA bridge. it would be interesting: 1) what type it is 2) if it is fixed on the mainboard or if it is possible to solder in a new one
Another interesting question is whether these ThinkPads can be hacked to accept a real SATA system disk, by bypassing the SATA-to-PATA bridge (this would probably involve some soldering and cutting). If the BIOS can also handle that then it may come in handy, since some new high-capacity 2.5" disks have only SATA versions. --Thinker 02:56, 8 Oct 2005 (CEST)
Since the Z series uses a SATA controller and disk, without the bridge, would it be possible to make SATA ATAPI support as a module that you could load only when using the optical drive? Then, for everyday use, the experimental options of PATA and ATAPI with ata_piix would not be needed, moving you one step further in the direction of stability.
I have an R52 with Ubuntu Breezy and no problems with SATA (I personally asked the developers to include the needed patches).
However, I'd like to know wheter there are any advantages with this configuration. Future proof? Power saving? Speed?
Anybody cares to comment?
Straight SATA, like in the Z60m/t, will provide better upgrade options in the long run (the hard disk industry is slowly but surely moving to SATA), and maybe a small performance increase if your drive, controller and OS support command queueing (they probably don't). However, with the hybrid ThinkPad models that use a SATA-to-PATA bridge, like your R52, you get all the drawbacks and none of the benefits; plus there's the horrible issue with drive compatibility. My impression is that Lenovo did this just as a convenient (for them!) transition path, in order to use new chipsets without comitting to (temporarily) scarcer and more expensive drives. In any case, they didn't even have the decency to make the UltraBay Slim accept SATA drives.
--Thinker 18:10, 3 Nov 2005 (CET)
There is a UltraBay Slim SATA HDD Adapter, but only compatible with the Z series (at least for the moment).
--Tonko 03:12, 4 Nov 2005 (CET)
Is it possible to enable AHCI on the Z60m? There doesn't seem to be an option for it in the BIOS, even after updating to the latest BIOS version (1.19). I don't think it's enabled by default since the "ata_piix" driver finds my controller and the "ahci" driver doesn't.
--Wyzard 06:06, 12 August 2006 (CEST)
Ok, I got it working with compatibility instead of AHCI (X60s) but I would like to know whats the difference between those two? Anybody with a quick explanation?
@Wyzard: AFAIK you have to switch it within BIOS and if you can't then you can't use ata_piix.
--elm 16:46, 12 August 2006 (CEST)
I did everything and system drive still does not respond to hdparm -i or hdparm -d1
T43 with debian edge and 2.6.18 kernel and ata_piix module loaded (just tried KNOPPIX5.1 with 2.6.19 kernel with ata_piix builtin, same result). BIOS version 1.29 (1YET65WW). Symptoms:
# cat /proc/version Linux version 2.6.18-6-686 (Debian 2.6.18.dfsg.1-23) ([email protected]) (gcc version 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)) #1 SMP Mon Oct 13 16:13:09 UTC 2008 # dmesg | grep sda Kernel command line: root=/dev/sda1 ro SCSI device sda: 78140160 512-byte hdwr sectors (40008 MB) sda: Write Protect is off sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back SCSI device sda: 78140160 512-byte hdwr sectors (40008 MB) sda: Write Protect is off sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda EXT3 FS on sda1, internal journal # hdparm -i /dev/sda /dev/sda: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device # hdparm -d1 /dev/sda /dev/sda: setting using_dma to 1 (on) HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device #
any ideas? does that happen to anybody else? thanks! --Mf77f1 13:22, 25 October 2008 (CEST)
FYI: when using the Suspend-to-RAM patch from http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/9/23/97 against 2.6.14 the libata_passthru.patch from the article doesn't apply any more, so I've put up an updated version at http://linux.spiney.org/system/files?file=02_libata_passthru.fixed.patch
I give no warranties whatsoever whether it works or kills your hardware, but since I just removed duplicate parts already in the Suspend-to-RAM patch it should be ok.
--spiney 19:04, 4 Nov 2005 (CET)
Running 2.6.16-rc4 and I'm running into scsci errors and Input/output errrors when resuming from suspend to ram. The suspend patch is supposed to be in 2.6.16-rc1 and I'm booting with
title= 2.6.16-rc4 root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.16-rc4 root=/dev/sda3 ro combined_mode=libata libata.atapi_enabled=1 acpi_sleep=s3_bios processor.max_cstate=2 elevator=cfq ide1=noprobe
Don't know about -rc4, but -rc3 worked without problems, could you try that one instead? Maybe there was some bug introduced between these two versions. What's combined_mode=libata BTW?
--spiney 08:28, 23 February 2006 (CET)
ATA_ENABLE_PATA PCI IDs
Spiney, could you extend the article to explain what and why are the PCI IDs in the footnote about ATA_ENABLE_PATA?
--Thinker 21:59, 4 Nov 2005 (CET)
Ok, done, feel free to fix the table because I'm a bit struggling with Wiki-style editing. ;) As for the why, those PCI IDs are the only ones affected by the ATA_ENABLE_PATA, as seen in drivers/scsi/ata_piix.c in the kernel source.
--spiney 11:19, 5 Nov 2005 (CET)
Will other cards work without ATA_ENABLE_PATA, or just fail? In the former case your instructions are right, but in the latter case we should tell the user to check the list of IDs in his current kernel and, if there's no match, to give up in the first place instead of following the rest of the instructions.
--Thinker 12:48, 5 Nov 2005 (CET)
AFAICT if the chipset is supported by libata it will work, regardless of what low-level driver is used. Of course if there is no low-level driver for the chipset then even using the harddisk via libata will fail, but that's a different story. At least ATA_ENABLE_PATA will then make no difference since it's Intel PIIX (and compatible) only.
--spiney 13:24, 5 Nov 2005 (CET)
Not sure I got you. Is there any case where the instructions will work without ATA_ENABLE_PATA, given that all ThinkPad optical drives are PATA?
--Thinker 13:41, 5 Nov 2005 (CET)
The instructions will work without ATA_ENABLE_PATA unless the Thinkpad uses one of the three chipsets listed in the article, as long as libata works at all, i.e. the system drive shows up as /dev/sda. The #define doesn't change the behaviour of libata for any other chipset, it's ata_piix only.
Since I don't have a machine with one of the three chipsets (anyone?), I can't tell whether those work at all with libata, but I guess there's a reason why they're not enabled by default. It's just that defining ATA_ENABLE_PATA is only making sense for these three chipsets.
Any clearer now? If not, just run
grep -r ATA_ENABLE_PATA /path/to/kernelsource and see how seldom and where the #define is used.
--spiney 14:55, 5 Nov 2005 (CET)
All clear now. I thought it will work only if you have these chipsets and ATA_ENABLE_PATA=1. Thanks for the explanation!
--Thinker 15:12, 5 Nov 2005 (CET)
Does any of the relevant ThinkPad models (listed in the article) use these chips? They look too old to be found on the SATA models.
--Thinker 23:35, 9 Nov 2005 (CET)
I don't think so, I was about to add "in the unlikely event that you own one of these chipsets" or something.
--spiney 07:56, 10 Nov 2005 (CET)
DVD DMA with ide/sata as module
Did anyone get DVD DMA to work with either the IDE or SATA drivers compiled as modules? If so, please fill in the missing details in that section. I have it working only with both IDE and SATA built-in.
--Thinker 17:58, 16 Nov 2005 (CET)
Basically using a Live-CD with a recent kernel (is there one with 2.6.14 already?) would be sufficient, since they usually use an initrd or something similar, don't they? I'll give the Debian distribution kernel a try when I get around to it (bit busy atm), after all there's 2.6.14 in sid.
But for people using their own kernel compiled from source I see no point in doing the module+initrd thing anyway, unless you want LVM for the root filesystem or other funky stuff.
--spiney 19:22, 16 Nov 2005 (CET)
Can anyone tell me how those modules are called?
Thomas --thomas 19:48, 23 Jan 2006 (CET)
Where the hell do I find the libata module?
--squashball 09:09, 11 June 2006 (CET)
The relevant driver is called ata_piix. The ata_piix driver uses a chunk of shared kernel code called libata.
--Thinker 09:33, 11 June 2006 (CEST)
Ok, Thanks. Nevertheless I am not able to get my drive working. It's a T60...
--squashball 12:29, 12 June 2006 (CET)
Your T60 uses AHCI by default. You have to change the BIOS settings to "compatibility mode" to use the HDD and DVD drive with ata_piix. Then, you're also able to hotswap your ultrabay. But for this, a patch for ibm_acpi is needed.
--Whoopie 14:57, 12 June 2006 (CEST)
Yeah, thanks, it's working now! Where was I supposed to find this info? EDIT: But DMA is still off and can't be enabled.
--squashball 07:58, 13 June 2006 (CET)
DMA is enabled by default with libata. Do a "dmesg |grep DMA" and you'll see. You can't use hdparm to see the settings for your hdd. BTW, if you have more questions, you could join IRC ##ibmthinkpad.
--Whoopie 11:04, 13 June 2006 (CEST)
This does work with *dual layer dvd*! Just install libdvdcss. Thinkpad T43, 1871-F1G, Fedora 5:
$ sudo dd if=/dev/scd0 of=/dev/null bs=2048 Password: 23929+0 records in 23928+0 records out 49004544 bytes (49 MB) copied, 24.3696 seconds, 2.0 MB/s
it works faster with standard (4.7GB) dvd:
# sudo dd if=/dev/scd0 of=/dev/null bs=2048 15929+0 records in 15928+0 records out 32620544 bytes (33 MB) copied, 7.02276 seconds, 4.6 MB/s ctrl^c
--Vlad s. 01:54, 26 December 2006 (CET)
occasional hang upon resume with various kernels
I keep having trouble with resume after suspend to ram. Occasionally, it takes longer to wake up and then is in a semi-hanged state, i.e. nothing having to do with actual reading from the disk works. (what was running, as aterm is still running, ls works, when the listing is buffered, but hangs if it is not). Kernel is 2.6.15 with sata-pm patch. Later 2.6.15 kernels hang always and it's the same with 2.6.16. Could perhaps somebody, for whom it works without problems post his .config somewhere? I'm out of ideas.
--Rasto 14:46, 20 March 2006 (CET)
I have the same problem with my x41 and 2.6.16 or 2.6.16-r1 running on Gentoo. Sometimes resume is ok and sometimes the disk doesn't resume. I can't see any log because the disk is unwritable after resume. The logs on F12 is full of io error. I tested many different kernel configs, unloading modules before suspend, stopping services... Like Rasto, I'm out of ideas...
--Pplr 19:21, 8 April 2006 (CEST)
You could try http://rtr.ca/dell_i9300/kernel/kernel-2.6.16/02_libata_resume_fix.patch This patch worked for me.
--Whoopie 21:21, 8 April 2006 (CEST)
Hello, according to the first lines of the article, resume does not work prior to kernel 2.6.16, i.e. the computer hangs up just a second after it comes back. I just switched from 2.6.15 to 2.6.16 but the problem still remains. I have a Z60M thinkpad. So this has obviously the same problem as the T60.
-- Björn 14:37, 10 April 2006 (CEST)
Increasing the timeouts seems to do the trick. I applied it about two weeks ago, and it works since.
-- Rasto 09:59, 11 April 2006 (CEST)
Ubuntu Dapper with 2.6.15-23 is also exhibiting this problem even though the sata_pm patch is applied. Bjorn, which timeout are you referring to?
-- nmuntz 09:08, 13 June 2006 (MDT)
The link above seems dead. I think the patch may be something along the lines of this one mentioned in the main article: http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/11/15/385 . I had the problem on my T43 with Debian Etch-n-half (Linux 2.6.24) of the system occasionally failing to restart after suspend-to-RAM. The screen would flash a few times, then remain black, and after a couple of seconds I could hear the hard drive unload. It seemed to occur more readily if the computer had been active (e.g. playing a video clip or whatever) prior to suspending. The patch I just mentioned worked for me; however, I changed it as per Andrew Morton's suggestion in the link so that the timeout in include/linux/libata.h:ata_wait_idle() was changed from 100 to 10000 as it seemed to make more sense. (Never tried the original patch). I can also confirm that the patch has not been included in 2.6.24 (although I can't be sure if there has been any other attempt to deal with the underlying problem.
-- rw 11:47, 19 January 2010 (CET)
Suspend to RAM on X41 not working with Debian-packaged 2.6.16
I just tried the Debian package of the Linux 2.6.16 kernel on my X41 to see if suspend-to-RAM would work. Unfortunately, it didn't. The laptop suspends just fine, but when it's turned back on, the backlight remains off, there is a lot of disk activity for a while, and then the computer just shuts off. When turned on again, it boots normally. Suspend-to-disk works fine, just like before.
On a different note, CPU throttling broke on my system with the new kernel. I can no longer modprobe acpi-cpufreq. Ehn 04:28, 22 March 2006 (CET)
- The latter issue was solved by using speedstep-centrino instead of acpi-cpufreq. Ehn 23:25, 9 April 2006 (CEST)
Neither problem is related to this article, so it's unlikely to be answered here.
--Thinker 17:37, 22 March 2006 (CET)
Hm. It seems to be a problem with sata power management for me, so I guess this could be one of the places.
Rasto 17:45, 22 March 2006 (CET) ---
Ehn, by "disk activity" do you mean a constantly on HDD LED and no disk movement noises, or real disk activity with the LED flashing and disk noise? The former is likely to be the SATA problem, the latter rules out the SATA problem.
--Thinker 18:44, 22 March 2006 (CET)
- The latter. There is real disk activity, indicated by LED flashing and disk movement noise, for about 30 seconds, before the machine gives up and shuts down. If this is not SATA-related, what might it be? Ehn 23:23, 9 April 2006 (CEST)
Sorry, I didn't realize Ehn has two problems, and I considered your post as aimed at my and Ehn's. Never mind then.
Rasto 10:47, 23 March 2006 (CET)
Problem with 2.6.16
ok, seems like we have a new problem: After upgrading from 2.6.15 to 2.6.16 my DVD device is not recognised anymore by libsata. The only way to get working is by using the ide layer - without DMA of course. Can anyone confirm this?
--Erik 17:49, 23 Mar 2006 (CET)
Try the kernel parameter combined_mode=libata, does this help? Also, have you enabled libata's ATAPI support as described in the article?
--Thinker 20:31, 23 March 2006 (CET)
Yes, I'm using the command line parameter libata.atapi_enable=1 - up to 2.6.15 it works fine. About the combined_mode parameter: Also tried it, though the Author of this patch mentioned that the default behavior did not changed. I will continue hungting this problem when I find some time.
--Erik 7:12, 24 Mar 2006 (CET)
I can confirm Eriks problem. After updating to 2.6.16 I have it, too. libata.atapi_enable=1 is still on kernel command line. With some help of Michael Ott I figured out that this only happens if you have the current suspend2 patches applied. Using a vanilla 2.6.16 works as expected.
--mobst 14:30, 24 Mar 2006 (CET)
Ahh thanks. Finding the problem in the suspend2 patch should be an easy task. I just hope for some free time this weekend!
--Erik 18:31, 24 Mar 2006 (CET)
Uhm, looks like ZolnOtt was faster, he added the note to http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problems_with_SATA_and_Linux#No_DMA_on_DVD_drive
--Erik 20:02, 24 Mar 2006 (CET)
Patch against SATA-resume problem with T60
I only have a Fujitsu-Siemens C1320, but I had the same problem with resuming from suspend with a SATA disk and kernel 2.6.16 as mentioned for the T60. I solved the problem for me by merging several patches (patches.fixes/libata-increase-timeout-for-resume, patches.fixes/ahci-suspend, patches.fixes/ahci-atapi-sense-request, patches.drivers/libata-acpi-suspend, patches.fixes/libata-resume-drive_port-mode, patches.fixes/ahci-init-on-resume, patches.drivers/libata-device-spindown) from the OpenSuSE kernel 2.6.16-12 to vanilla 188.8.131.52. You'll find my patch at http://www.spinnaker.de/linux/c1320/sata-resume-184.108.40.206.patch. I expect this to solve the T60 problem, so I provide the patch here, as this wiki helped me so much with my laptop.
--Rrosenfeld 23:12, 16 April 2006 (CEST)
I just want to let you know that I managed to get Suspend-to-RAM working on the T60. I'm using Gentoo's suspend2-sources-2.6.16-r2 as base and applied the above patches from Rrosenfeld (thanks!) and additionally this one (here the corresponding bug).
--sts 22:52, 17 April 2006 (CEST)
same here. applied both patches to gentoo suspend-sources-2.6.16-r5 --- working. sweet.
--dr who 21:51, 3 May 2006 (CEST)
however: powersave (powersaved) is a spoiler: it will cause the resume operation to get stuck at "reading back caches" and eventually result in a kernel panic. stopping powersaved before hibernating does not prevent it: it seems that running powersaved just once will screw things up. interesting and nasty. but not a show stopper (IMHO).
--dr who 17:14, 10 May 2006 (CEST)
that's not powersaved's fault. kernel panics are always kernel (or hardware) bugs. i experienced this kind of lockups when using different cpufreq governors at once (that's probaly something one shoudln't do?). i'm now using only cpufreq_userspace and don't have any problems.
--sts 15:11, 11 May 2006 (CEST)
Having exactly the same SATA wakeup problem on my Z60t, using FC5. Can the patch from rosenfeld be applied also to the FC5 kernelsource?
--szenti 21:29, 11 May 2006 (CEST)
Latest fedora (FC5) 2.6.17-1.2139_FC5smp kernel solved the problem on my T60p. I have successfully resumed a number of times now.
--Guil 20:38, 27 June 2006 (CEST)
Vanilla 220.127.116.11 lets me suspend and resume on a T60p. But I had to set the SATA mode to Compatibility (ata-piix) in the BIOS. The other catch is that if you suspend from a console rather than X, you get a black screen. Fn-F7 back to X gets your display back. Of course, if you don't have X up, you're kind of stuck and the safest thing to do is to tell the machine to reboot. The keyboard still works, so you have to type blind.
--jlquinn 17 Aug 2006 (signature button didn't work properly)
jlquinn: see How to recover from corrupted textmode.
--Thinker 17:20, 17 August 2006 (CEST)
By giving the kernel the option acpi_sleep=s3_bios I've managed to get suspend to work from the console mode - though I still have the SATA-problem. I'm running the gentoo kernel 2.6.17-r8, and will now try the tips from jlquinn...
--Tobixen 14:15, 10 October 2006 (CEST)
removal of cd/dvd problems rambling?
Should we remove the ramblings that are now the last section of the page? That's just generic information on how to properly use cdrecord (and it is incomplete and incorrect to add insult to injury...). If you use libata with ATAPI enabled and a new kernel, it *just works*, as the drive will look like a 100% SCSI device to cdrecord...
--hmh 06:12, 4 October 2006 (CEST)
Agreed. --Thinker 14:01, 4 October 2006 (CEST)
libata.atapi_enabled didn't work, #define ATA_ENABLE_PATA worked!
Hi there, I own a Thinkpad Z61m (fairly new), using a kernel which doesnt include IDE support (18.104.22.168). The libata.atapi_enabled=1 option didn't work, which means only the Hard Disk, and not the DVD-drive got recognized. However, adding ATA_ENABLE_PATA did work, now I don't need any option at all to modprobe.conf/bootloader config! lspci says: "IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)" PCIID: 8086:27df
May be useful for somebody :) Bye! --Theclaw 18:42, 11 November 2006 (CET) | <urn:uuid:b44a2eff-d226-4cd6-a665-8376550a2519> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Talk:Problems_with_SATA_and_Linux | 2015-03-27T05:13:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131295084.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172135-00248-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.890314 | 6,271 |
check it out over here…I’m writting again…
I’m hoping to find some time in the next few days to explain this in detail….but for now, I’ll ask you to check out the following link:
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this site…so long, in fact, that the back end of wordpress looks completely different. I’m so confused. While I have little time to write these days,I wanted to at least wish anyone who still checks here occasionally or receives a feed of this blog a very happy happy holidays!!!
The following is my annual holiday letter that goes out with my annual holiday cards. It should catch you up a bit..
Dear Family and Friends,
As most of you already know, after living in South America for the past 5 years, we have returned to the United States and now call Hillsborough, North Carolina home. Needless to say it has been an interesting and often difficult transition back to life in the States but we are settling in, and while we miss our friends from abroad, we are happy to be closer to our families and friends back in the U.S.
I wish I had adventurous stories to share about our travels in distant lands, but alas, I do not. Aside from exploring a bit of North Carolina, which is a beautiful State, we’ve been rather stationary these days.
I wrote at the end of last year’s letter how we were planning to take a trip to Florida and NJ in early 2008. Well, we did take that trip and even celebrated Abbey’s 5th birthday in Disney World. But, we also had to add an extra week on to that vacation for non-vacation related matters. And this is when 2008 got really interesting…
T o make a long story somewhat short, late in 2007, Owen’s preschool teachers in Argentina expressed some concern with his development (the Argentine school year ends in December) and requested that he be evaluated for delays. This didn’t really come as a surprise to us as we too had our own concerns. As a result, the State Department set up a week long comprehensive evaluation of Owen at a children’s developmental center in Miami.
Owen underwent a battery of psycho-educational testing and in the end the doctors mentioned things like Aspergers and autism and sent us home to wait for the final report and diagnosis.
March came and went and I wish I could tell you that something exciting happened, but I don’t remember. Everything between Owen’s evaluation and the final report is a blur. Owen didn’t return to the same school but instead attended a small English-only expat run preschool. He began to talk more, stringing together 3 to 4 words one week and then 5 to 6 the next. We stopped counting one day after he spontaneously said, “look mommy. there. a bus. a red bus.” The first time he asked me for something to eat instead of screaming at me and pushing me towards the cupboard, I cried. As we focused all our efforts on learning about what he might have and how best to deal with it, his ability to communicate with us, which was key, improved 10 fold. That made life easier.
Then April arrived and life got turned upside down. First we learned that aside from all our efforts to stay out overseas for one more assignment, we were more than likely US bound. Returning back to the States definitely was NOT in our plans. THEN, we spoke with Owen’s doctor. She told us, very matter-of-factly that we have a very special child who is at the same time extremely smart but socially and behaviorally challenged with some serious communication deficits. Owen was officially diagnosed with PDD-NOS, an autism spectrum disorder.
With this information in hand we, and everyone else with whom we consulted, thought it best that we return to the States where we could get Owen the best treatments and therapies. Arran was assigned to Diplomatic Security’s Greensboro, North Carolina Field Office.
With this news, and the understanding that early and intense intervention for a child diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder is critical, we curtailed our assignment by a few months and came home. By the end of April we were gone. Our three years in Buenos Aires were magical and leaving was one of the most difficult things that either Arran or I have ever had to do. We left behind many good friends and a life that we had grown to love for so many reasons. Oh how we miss it still.
Since April our lives have been consumed with transitions for the family and finding therapists and treatments for Owen, none of which have been easy. Poor Abbey seems to have gotten the short end of the stick this year.
Let’s see…what have we been doing since we got back? We were lucky to have family in the NC area that we were looking at moving to and therefore were able to crash with my brother Michael and sister-in-law Aimee for a few weeks. It was definitely much nicer then hotel living and we are SO grateful that they opened their home to us. While we were at Mike and Aimee’s we spent a lot of time house hunting. AND after looking at way too many houses and a few failed bids, we finally found a great place that we now call home.
Sometime between having our offer accepted on the house and closing we headed out of town for a family road trip to the mountains. It was fun to go someplace new in our own country for a change.
We thought that after finding a house things would start to fall in place and we would be able to get settled in. But things didn’t quite work out that way. The day that we were to receive our storage lot that we had left over 5 years ago we found out that most of the stuff was covered in mold – black mold. Nothing is ever easy, is it? But it did give me an excuse to go shopping…so it wasn’t all bad.
Over the summer we got settled best we could into our new house, Abbey spent her days at camp and Owen had a lot of home visits from teachers and therapists that we had found to help him out.
At the end of August, Abbey starting Kindergarten!!! And then in September, Owen started preschool. This year alone, Abbey has taken tennis lessons, participated in a soccer skills course, tried gymnastics for a few months and continues with her dance classes – we’ve added Hip Hop to the repertoire. Soon she will become part of a new Girl Scout troop that is forming in the area. Owen has been busy with social skills play groups, occupational therapy and speech therapy. I’ve been busy keeping up with them!
Arran seems to have gotten back into the swing of things and is knee deep investigative work. He’s also taken a few trips for training and for protection details.
To be completely honest, transitioning back to the United States has been a lot more difficult for me than I was prepared for. It didn’t help that at every turn, we hit road blocks with the school system with regards to Owen, and everything seemed to be a struggle. I found myself obsessing on everyone else to my own detriment. So I did the only thing I could do to keep my sanity. I went back to work. I currently work 30 hours a week for two Centers housed at the Sanford Institute for Public Policy at Duke University. It’s been almost 2 months now and I’m enjoying the work, I’m enjoying having something to do for myself, and enjoying having something that has nothing to do with either my kids or the school district that we are fighting with.
These days, we keep ourselves very busy between work, family and the kid’s schedules. As for Owen, he is a completely different child then 9 months ago. His behaviors are much more manageable, his sensory issues under control and his language skills more developed. We have been very fortunate for all the support we have received from both family and friends. We truly feel blessed. I used to spend a lot of time and energy being angry and upset at the cards we had been dealt, I asked a lot of why questions – Why me? Why him? Why now? – And I cried a lot.
These days, I appreciate the small things in life a lot more and the self pity has been replaced by the amazement of the strength of my husband, the resilience of my daughter and the incredible progress of my son.
With that, I, along with Arran, Abbey and Owen, wish you all a very happy and healthy holidays and a wonderful new year.
Until next year,
When your child is diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder and you start to read and do research about what s/he needs, one of the first things you learn is just how very important early intervention is to the management/treatment of autism. And not just early intervention, but intense early intervention.
For someone like Owen this means speech therapy, occupational therapy, behavioral therapy and preschool.
When we left the psychologists office in Miami back in February we still did not know what her final diagnosis was going to be, we had an idea that he would be on the autism spectrum, but not 100% certain at the time. One of the last things she said to us, and much of what she said is a complete blur, but this i remember, was that we shouldn’t worry too much because there “are lots of people like Owen at MIT.” I think what she was trying to tell us was that Owen will be successful in life but all I heard was that he was going to be a super bright quirky genius type boy who had no friends and stayed by himself all the time in a lab doing nothing but school work (not that I think for even one minutes that all people who attend MIT are like this…I was much more focused on the autism than the MIT part of it).
Owen is smart. We knew that before we even had him tested. IQ testing told us just how smart he is — very very smart. It’s kinda odd when you find out at the same time that your child is both disabled and gifted. While I don’t like to give too much weight to IQ tests, what it does tell us is that Owen has an amazing capacity to learn; that he can be taught that which his autism robs him of — like how to socially interact with peers, how to read faces and understand emotions, how to empathize, how to regulate his behaviors and how to manage his heightened senses. In the past 6 months, we have found, in order to do this, to teach him, he needs to be constantly challenged by his environment, pushed and tested and forced to deal with things head on. And only after big huge battles, big blow outs, he “gets it” and changes.
Owen is a quick learner. For instance, Owen doesn’t like to wear underwear — we think it’s sensory issue, like how he needs to have all the tags cut out of his clothing before he will wear them. Until this morning, I had to fight with him to put underwear on. Sometimes he complies, other times I’ll conclude that it isn’t a battle worth fighting. We always remind him that everyone else wears underwear — mommy, and daddy, abbey and all the other boys and girls in his class. He’s been going to preschool now for 2 weeks. I’m not sure, but I’d say that the kids probably go to the potty in groups. He has apparently seen that all the other boys and girls wear underwear. I’m not sure if the teachers have said anything to him or if what we had been telling him finally made sense, but this morning he informed me that “boys wear underwear and girls wear underwear and owen wears underwear too.” (Now, if I can only get him to stop referring to himself in the 3rd person…ugh!) So that was that. Then I told him that it was time to brush his teeth. He wasn’t having anything to do with that this morning. One battle at a time. Underwear was on, teeth would have to wait.
It’s little things like this (and bigger issues as well) that parents of children with autism have to go through all day long. When I’m around other mothers of children with Mild Autism or High Functioning Autism (HFA) like Owen we share our crazy stories and laugh. “No one would ever believe the crap that we have to deal with on a daily basis” someone inevitably says. At a playgroup that Owen attends, one mother has to go into the building before her son to make sure the bathroom door down the hallway is closed before he comes into the building, another mother shares how her son has to have two blue crayons every morning at his desk at school even if the color of the day is “red.” I share how when Owen goes to the bathroom to poop he has to remove all of his clothes, even if we are in a public restroom. Another mother shares how her son does this to pee and poop — we laugh together at the simple insanity of our lives. The things we allow because we have to, because it’s just how it is, how life is these days.
When we left Argentina we did so because we couldn’t get Owen the early intervention services that everyone was telling us were so important for him. We returned to the US because, we, like every other parent of a special needs child, thought that those services would be available. They are available, at an exorbitant cost. And while we were naive to think that the State of North Carolina would provide most of the services, that the federal government under the IDEA act, had provided children like Owen the right to an education. We were wrong.
The short of our story (which is not a unique story by any means) is that while Owen was found eligible for services under his diagnosis of autism and and IEP was written, he was only offered 3 hours of services a week — a far cry from the intense early intervention that researchers, doctors and educators say he needs. We are positive that Owen will be able to enter a typical kindergarten class with his peers when the time comes but in order to get him ready he needs intervention. He’s getting what he needs, of course, because we have no choice but to provide it to him privately. What else are we supposed to do?
I’ve heard of stories where parents are bankrupted by their child’s autism. We aren’t there yet, but I understand how this can happen.
I’m angry with the situation. I’m very very angry with how unfair this all is.
When people find out that we’ve consulted with a lawyer to see what are rights are they think we are crazy. It’s not a fight we can win, I’m told. It’s not a system that can be easily changed, I hear people say. I listen, and I nod, I tell them that I know, I understand, I get it, I do. But, what else am I supposed to do? What else can I do but fight. I fight for my son, for his rights. Isn’t that my job? This is not an easy battle, but neither is the fight against autism. It’s just unfair that you have to do both at the same time.
in one of my earliest posts I mentioned that how when I’m depressed or anxious I can’t write. But how when I’m happy and content with the state of things I have no problems spilling my inner most thoughts onto the page. You’d think that this would be the opposite. I do. But it’s not.
I was able to keep this blog up while we were in Argentina in part becayse I LOVED my life and was totally happy. A review of photos and videos from the past three years confirms this fact. How I so long to have that again.
Since we’ve moved back things have been hectic and there have been a lot of stress in my life. It’s not surprising that I’m pretty down. It was to be expected. Even my rock of a husband has had his moments over the past few months.
But, there is something a bit different these days. It’s that my moods are so unpredictable and so intense, particularly how irritable and angry I can become. For no apparent reason, or at least not a good enough reason. My medication doesn’t seem to be working to control my anxiety and I have to take additional medication to manage the minor panic attacks I seem to be having. I can handle the depression, I can manage that. What I can’t deal with, what I have never been able to deal with is the anxiety.
A says that he can tell my moods based on how I walk around the house. The heavier my heals hit the hardwoods the more anxious I am. I breath differently he tells me. He knows its coming even before I do, or at least before I admit it. Then I pick fights with him, get insanely angry with the kids for doing the silliest of things, and feel like I’m going to explode. I know what I’m doing, I know that I shouldn’t get so angry and that I should try to control it but I can’t, before I know it, I’ve exploded both inside and out. Deep breaths don’t seem to be working. Xanax does. Then I feel awful, guilty, sad. I say things like, “I hate my life”, like “my kids would be better off without me”, like “I’m leaving” and “I want a divorce.” I don’t mean any of them. I still say them. I can’t help myself. I feel awful when I’ve finally calmed down and have to face what I’ve done and said.
Together, A and I decided that it was probably best that I talk to a professional about this. In the 9 years that we’ve been together even he hasn’t seen this type of intense behavior. I’ve seen many mental health professionals during my 31 years. I’ve been diagnosed with a whole number of things. Personality disorder, general anxiety disorder, depression, anxiety, self injury, etc. None of them ever seemed to explain it all, to make complete sense to me. It was always like the doctors didn’t really know what was wrong with me but felt the need to put a label on whatever I was going through. I longed for a diagnosis so that I could be treated and it would go away (wishful thinking).
And then yesterday I had a conversation that actually made some sense:
“Has anyone ever mentioned bipolar to you?” the doctor asked. “Sure,” I said, “Doctors have always used the the words manic depression and hypomania to describe certain times in my life, but it was always ruled out as a diagnosis for some reason or another.” “Well,” he went on, “sometimes in patients that present with depression and anxiety in their teens will later be diagnosed with what is considered low grade bipolar disorder in their 30s-40s. It may explain your irritability and intense anger.”
I left the office without any decision to change my medication or knowing what are the next steps were. Just that I have another appointment in 2 weeks. I oddly felt better when I left. It just made sense. It really did. Maybe I always thought that this was the “problem” but was waiting for someone to confirm it.
And then again, maybe it’s not the answer. For now though, I’ll hold on to my feeling of relief and go with it.
Every now and again I feel the need to send out these mass emails updating our friends and family of our ongoings. This started when we had left for Peru 5 years ago and has continued all along. We have friends all over the world and family all over the United States. Email has always allowed us to feel somewhat connected to everyone. Since I have little time these days to update this blog, I figured i’d let you all in on what’s going on with us by posting the most recent email i sent out (or actually, am in the process of sending). It’s nothing exciting…but at least will catch you up to speed on our ongoings.
Oh boy does time fly! We’ve been back in the United States for 4.5 months now, and in our new house in North Carolina for a little over 2 months. This email is long overdue, I know. Some days it feels like we’ve been here forever and others like we’ve just arrived. Things are going well. We are adjusting to life back in the States — it’s not as easy as it would seem. The kids are making friends and have busy schedules. Abbey started kindergarten last Monday and Owen heads to 1/2 day preschool tommorrow (though it will take a few weeks until he is going the full 1/2 day and 5 days a week). The kids are both taking gymnastics class, Abbey is also enrolled in 2 dance classes and Owen in a social skills playgroup for kids with high functioning autism. Arran has settled into his job and works part time from his car (driving around the State) and the other time from the office in Greensboro. He makes good use of the home office we set
up and I try to keep the kids from bothering him too much (when they are home) — but they think it’s really cool when Dad is home to have lunch or an afternoon snack. I think it’s pretty darn cool as well. As for me, things are busy. I struggle with my status of being a stay-at-home-mom and not going back to work, a situation I didn’t really plan on and one that I’m not completely comfortable with yet. But, with Owen only in 1/2 program, having to take him to speech therapy, occupational therapy, and having teachers come to the house to work on behavioral therapy, and juggling all the after-school activities, it doesn’t make much sense. I hope that some day in the not too distant future I’ll head back into the working world. I did recently decide to bite the bullet (and swallow my pride) and head back into a dance studio and take some classes — something i haven’t done for a very long time, but something I used to do A LOT a long
time ago. Hopefully I will be able to start running again when the weather gets a bit cooler and Owen is settled in preschool. For now, though, life seems to be on hold until everyone else gets settled — the life of a mother, i guess? Still, we are all happy to be back in the US (though we dearly miss our friends from Argentina) and to be near our friends and family, including the newest addition — Abbey and Owen have a first cousin!!! Hayden Capri Ferrandino. We are looking forward to having our first “real” Fall in 5 years, trick-or-treating with the kids and their friends in our new neighborhood, celebrating Thanksgiving in our new home and heading to NY in December for the holidays. AND hopefully, catching up with as many of you as possible!!!
I hope this finds you well. Keep in touch and I’ll try to do the same. :)
…but easy wouldn’t be much fun, would it?
for anyone still checking on me from time to time, no i haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, i’m still around. just a little busy. after 5 years living overseas as a stay-at-home-mother with full-time help around the house, a gardener that came every week and a maintenance team that would respond within a few days of any house issue, this living in the United States with NO help has been quite an adjustment. Not to mention the the snags and snafoos that have come up since we’ve gotten back. The latest of which you can see if you check out the flickr photos on the right of this page. ( oh how black mold covered books and water damaged furniture was SO NOT planned for!) But all is part of this crazy life we have.
As far as the family goes. Abbey is a happy little camper – literally. She’s attending a great summer camp and loves it! She’s excited to be starting Kindergarten next month too. The only disappointing thing is that she refuses to speak spanish these days but we are hoping that it will pass and she will re-embrace the language again. We can’t force her. We can only keep asking and trying. Owen is keeping me busy as I accompany him to many different therapies and focus on getting him into a preschool and making sure he has the right services. The good news on that front is that while we were originally led to believe that the school district we are in was going to deny him eligibility for services (which meant that I would have to continue spending the oodles of money that I currently bleed out on a monthly basis in order to get him what he needs) they did a complete 180 during our first official IEP meeting last week and he is elegible. I think I’m still in shock. Next week we hash out what that means exactly and get the ball rolling for the fall. I have submitted a bunch of job applications and have had one interview so far. After the kids get settled in school i will focus my attention on jobs…for now, i just keep applying and seeing who bites. After being off for 2 months, A has gotten back to work and is readjusting. Lucky him, he gets to speak spanish on a daily basis. I’m jealous.
Work on the house is never ending as we find ourselves painting, hanging pictures, repairing screened doors, weeding the garden and cleaning up the flower beds. Still, we are settling in and it’s beginning to feel like home.
My biggest issue is that I’ve been AWFUL at keeping in touch with old friends (for any of you reading this…i am SO sorry). Some days I have such great things to share but most of the time it’s just complaints and depressing comments. I have my good days and bad ones. The bad ones were more frequent than the good but that seems to be turning around. I’m just trying to figure it all out. one day at a time. one step at a time.
i’m hoping to continue writing — either here or on another site — in the near future. when things settle down a bit and the work seems less daunting. until then, i’ll update when i can and hope that you check back from time to time.
until next time. | <urn:uuid:5b18f58b-365a-4038-a762-1b839a3c4435> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | https://journeytothirty.wordpress.com/ | 2015-03-27T05:11:13Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131295084.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172135-00248-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982965 | 5,755 |
Abstract: Representative Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley recently released Part I of a three-part report titled Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation. The report contains a compelling narrative regarding this botched law enforcement operation. In particular, it exposes the lack of supervision of some terrible on-the-ground decisions—choices that had deadly consequences. Yet horrendous decision-making is only part of the story. Following the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, the implicated individuals decided to circle the wagons and, to prevent the disclosure of embarrassing and possibly criminal information, seemingly began a cover-up that persists to this day. The American public and the victims of Operation Fast and Furious deserve better.
Part I of a three-part report titled Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation, recently released by Representative Darrell Issa (R–CA) and Senator Charles Grassley (R–IA), contains a compelling narrative regarding this botched law enforcement operation, especially the lack of serious supervision of some terrible on-the-ground decisions that had deadly consequences. The report is relevant to:
- The ongoing congressional investigation regarding Operation Fast and Furious,
- The growing dispute with the Administration over its refusal to comply with congressional subpoenas,
- The subsequent House vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, and
- The court action to override President Barack Obama’s invocation of executive privilege to shield key material from the public and Congress.
In addition, the report contains critical information that the American public needs in order to untangle the mess that is Operation Fast and Furious.
Since early 2011, Senator Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Representative Issa, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, have been leading the investigation into the Fast and Furious operation and its aftermath. Part I of the report chronicles the operation from the perspective of the United States Attorney’s Office in Phoenix and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Were the consequences not so tragic, the report might have the makings of a good Keystone Cops script. Despite being hamstrung by a lack of cooperation by the Department of Justice (DOJ), however, it does an admirable job of laying out the chronology, supported by copious and detailed documentation, of what happened, what went wrong, and how it went wrong.
An Agency with an Inferiority Complex
Operation Fast and Furious was a botched law enforcement initiative in which over 2,000 high-powered weapons were allowed to “walk” into Mexico in an ill-conceived attempt to develop criminal firearms cases against higher-ups within the vicious Sinaloa drug cartel. While many of these guns remain unrecovered, two of them were linked to the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010, and others were used to kill or wound approximately 300 Mexicans.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has a checkered history, as evidenced by the fiascos at Ruby Ridge and Waco. While agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) command respect within the law enforcement community, ATF agents often do not. The DEA and the FBI are charged with going after the leaders of drug cartels and other drug trafficking organizations, while ATF is supposed to keep guns out of the hands of bad guys.
At its heart, Operation Fast and Furious appears to have been an attempt by certain individuals within ATF, supported by senior DOJ officials, to play with the “big boys” by targeting kingpins within the Sinaloa drug cartel. In doing so, however, ATF abandoned its most basic mission.
Indeed, far from keeping guns from the bad guys, and in the interests of developing a case that would attract tremendous national media attention, ATF allowed a small group of individuals to buy a massive arsenal of over 2,000 high-powered weapons (despite the reticence of cooperating firearms dealers to sell them) that ended up in the hands of ruthless Mexican drug thugs with predictable results: mayhem and death.
Compounding this colossal exercise of terrible judgment was the fact that supervisors within DOJ and ATF—all the way up the chain of command to the ATF Director and the Deputy Attorney General’s Office—seemed not to understand that it was their job to supervise (and stop) those conducting this out-of-control investigation.
As outlined in Part I of the report, amid a sea of red flags that provided ample notice of what was going on, high-level DOJ and ATF officials talked about an “exit strategy” but ultimately did nothing to implement one. In short, they permitted this reckless and feckless operation to continue for months on end. Then, when things went horribly wrong and U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed—the scores of Mexicans who had already been killed or wounded with Fast and Furious guns did not seem to arouse sufficient concern—the implicated individuals decided to circle the wagons and, to prevent the disclosure of embarrassing and possibly criminal information, seemingly began a cover-up that persists to this day.
How the Operation Was Conceived and Executed
In October 2009, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, the second-highest-ranking official at the Department of Justice, issued a “Strategy for Combating the Mexican Cartels” in which federal law enforcement agents were advised that the previous strategy of “merely seizing firearms” purchased by “straw buyers” (individuals who may legally purchase firearms for themselves but are instead purchasing them illegally for someone else) would be replaced with a new strategy of gathering information in hopes of dismantling entire firearms trafficking networks. Pursuant to this plan, ATF agents in Phoenix persuaded local gun dealers to cooperate by supplying ATF with real-time information on the straw purchases, even though the agents knew that the guns were being transported into Mexico, destined for the Sinaloa drug cartel.
Shortly after Operation Fast and Furious began, ATF applied to DOJ to have the case designated as an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case, and the request was approved by senior DOJ officials. This designation meant that, in addition to ATF, other federal agents from the FBI and the DEA, as well as agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the principal investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, were assigned to the investigation.
Early in the investigation, ATF had identified Manuel Celis-Acosta as the head of the straw purchasing ring, as well as many of the individuals working for him who were buying the guns. The DEA and the FBI already had a considerable amount of incriminating information about Celis-Acosta and other suspects that the agencies had obtained pursuant to a state wiretap in a separate drug investigation named Operation Flaco Feo, including conversations in which Celis-Acosta admitted receiving money to purchase weapons in Phoenix that were destined for Juarez, Mexico, via El Paso, Texas. This information was provided to ATF officials, who either chose not to act on it or failed to understand the significance of the connections among these individuals until a year later. During that year, the suspects continued to acquire weapons under ATF supervision and to transport these guns into Mexico, where they were turning up at an alarming number of crime scenes.
As part of its strategy of going after the “big fish,” it was ATF’s goal to identify the individuals to whom Celis-Acosta was providing weapons. Shockingly, while ATF used federal wiretap intercepts—a resource-intensive and time-consuming investigative tool rarely used in firearms investigations—to accomplish this goal, the DEA and the FBI already knew who some of these individuals were, having obtained this information through another investigation they were conducting that was code named Operation Head Shot. It is clear that ATF was informed that some of the targets of Operation Head Shot had purchased weapons from Celis-Acosta; however, it is unclear whether the ATF agents understood that some of the individuals they were targeting in Fast and Furious were the same people that were being targeted in Head Shot.
Subsequently, two of the targets of both Operation Head Shot and Operation Fast and Furious—Jesus Audel Miramontes-Varela, a noted drug kingpin with a long history of violence, and his brother—became FBI confidential informants, a critical piece of information that was not shared with ATF. The report states that the “Committees have received further information on Operation Head Shot that cannot be made public due to its sensitive nature. Many questions still remain.”
Lack of Adult Supervision
An early proponent of the new strategy was Bill Newell, Special Agent in Charge of ATF’s Phoenix Field Division. Newell had a history of using risky and reckless “gunwalking” tactics during prior investigations.
In the ATF organizational hierarchy, Newell reported to Deputy Assistant Director William McMahon, who served as the main link between the Phoenix Field Division and ATF Headquarters. Although McMahon knew that no safeguards had been put in place to prevent the guns from being transported into Mexico, he made no effort to shut down the operation, believing that it was not his job to interfere with Newell’s investigation. McMahon has admitted that he rubber-stamped critical documents that came across his desk without even bothering to read them.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office endorsed and actively supported Newell’s strategy. For example, on January 5, 2010, ATF agents met with Assistant United States Attorney Emory Hurley to discuss the “Manuel Celis Acosta [sic] Trafficking Investigation.” In his memorandum of the meeting, Hurley acknowledged that ATF had already reviewed a number of “dirty” calls from Celis-Acosta through “a state wire case being run out of the DEA wire room.”
However, rather than arresting Celis-Acosta and his cohorts based on this information, ATF wanted to obtain its own federal wiretap. Although Hurley noted that, “In the past, ATF agents have investigated cases similar to this by confronting the straw purchasers and hoping for an admission that might lead to charges,” he preferred to pursue a broader and far riskier strategy. After noting that straw purchasers are replaceable, he wrote:
ATF believes that there may be pressure from ATF headquarters to immediately contact identifiable straw purchasers just to see if this develops any indictable cases and to stem the flow of guns. Local ATF favors pursuing a wire and surveillance to build a case against the leader of the organization…. I concur with local ATF’s decision to pursue a longer term investigation to target the leader of the conspiracy.
After reviewing this memorandum, Hurley’s boss, U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, tersely responded, “Hold out for bigger.”
Even before this meeting, beginning in late 2009 and continuing into 2010, several of the cooperating gun dealers began to express discomfort with making repeated sales to individuals whom they suspected or knew were involved in criminal activity. Such concerns were met with false assurances from ATF agents and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office that the weapons were being tracked and posed no danger to the public.
These gun dealers, however, were not the only ones who were concerned. Senior ATF officials (whom Newell dismissed as “hand wringers”) were also concerned about the large number of weapons being purchased by straw buyers. ATF Deputy Director William Hoover, who had reprimanded Newell in the past for employing risky tactics, requested an exit strategy as early as March 2010, but it was never implemented.
On several occasions, ATF went so far as to ask ICE agents who wanted to contact and interview some of the straw buyers to “stand down.” Then, on May 29, 2010, Celis-Acosta was stopped attempting to cross the border from Lukeville, Arizona, into Mexico with ammunition in the vehicle. Celis-Acosta admitted that he was headed to Mexico to start up a drug trafficking business and also provided detailed information about his relationship with Claudio Jamie “Chendi” Badilla, a large-scale trafficker alleged to be the right-hand man for Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, head of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Celis-Acosta was allowed to continue his trip to Mexico after promising to cooperate and pledging to call the lead Fast and Furious case agent later. He never honored this pledge but, along with other straw buyers who were working for him, was nevertheless allowed to continue buying more firepower for the cartel, even though a plethora of evidence existed to warrant indicting these individuals. The report also states that Celis-Acosta was detained on two other occasions: on April 2, 2010, for drug possession and on October 9, 2010, for discharging a firearm within the limits of a municipality. Again, he was released without being charged with any offense.
It Takes a U.S. Agent’s Death to Stop the Operation
It was not until after Agent Terry’s murder that Operation Fast and Furious finally came to an end. Thus far, the only people charged have been the straw purchasers, most of whom were known to ATF at the beginning of the case. No charges against drug kingpins have been filed related to Operation Fast and Furious, and it is hard to understand how they might have been, given this operation’s design and the loose controls that surrounded it.
It should be noted that the congressional report is based on incomplete information because the Department of Justice has withheld tens of thousands of pages of documents (some of which are being withheld pursuant to an invocation of executive privilege by President Obama) and has denied access to several key individuals in Operation Fast and Furious, including Hope MacAllister and Tonya English, two of the case agents, and Assistant United States Attorney Emory Hurley, the lead prosecutor. Another key player, Patrick Cunningham, Criminal Division Chief in the Phoenix U.S. Attorney’s Office, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to answer any questions. Nonetheless, the evidence recounted in the report is damning enough.
The report further notes that “[t]he full extent of the responsibility of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona in directing Operation Fast and Furious has yet to be discovered because the Department of Justice has stonewalled the congressional investigation” and makes it clear that the culpability of DOJ officials will be addressed in Part II.
Although there was plenty of blame to go around, Part I singles out five individuals within ATF. In addition to Newell, McMahon, and Hoover, the report blames the fiasco on Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson, who, despite cooperating with Congress under difficult circumstances, failed to ensure that ATF headquarters personnel adequately supervised the Phoenix Field Division, and Assistant Director Mark Chait, who reported to Hoover, for failing to put a stop to the operation despite having had many opportunities to do so.
Senator Grassley and Chairman Issa state that Part II of this report, which will be released shortly, “will look at the devastating failure of supervision and leadership by officials at Justice Department headquarters, principally within the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, and within the Criminal Division,” although some of the evidence likely to be cited in Part II is referenced in Part I.
Part III supposedly “will address the unprecedented obstruction of the investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department, including the Attorney General himself,” but will be prepared only “after the Justice Department fulfills its obligations to cooperate with the Congress and produce documents.” In that regard, the House Oversight Committee has commenced legal proceedings to challenge the President’s claim of executive privilege and to enforce the subpoenas that it issued.
Plenty of Explanations but Not Much Candor
On December 17, 2010, two days after Agent Terry’s death, a Texas ATF supervisor wrote to another ATF agent: “Maybe Phoenix should start preparing their explanation for the way that they conducted their straw purchases there. They should probably hire a media expert anyway to assist them in explaining the 2000 firearms and the possible connection in the murder of a Border Patrol Agent.” Since then, there have been plenty of explanations, but there has not been much candor. The American public and the victims of Operation Fast and Furious deserve better.
—John G. Malcolm is a Senior Legal Fellow in the Center for Legal & Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. | <urn:uuid:98c4a211-0d89-48bc-bb09-10e6a974d313> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/08/congressional-report-on-operation-fast-and-furious-the-buck-stops-somewhere-else?rel=Homeland%20Security | 2015-03-29T06:11:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131298228.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172138-00072-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970763 | 3,426 |
YA COLFER, E.
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll.
YA WOOD, M.
On a bike trip in Ireland trying to recover from a broken heart, sixteen-year-old Morgan is transformed, not only by the others on the tour, but by her visits to the past, where she is believed to be the legendary half-goddess Morganne, sent to help end a faery curse.
YA FALLON, L.
Instantly drawn to a mysterious, alluring boy in her class, teenaged Megan, an American living in Ireland, discovers that they are linked by a supernatural destiny that gives them powers Megan never knew she possessed.
YA THOMPSON, K.
Bobby lives a reckless life smoking, drinking, and stealing cars in Dublin. So his mother moves the family to the country. But Bobby suspects their cottage might not be as quaint as it seems. And spooky details of the history of their little cottage gradually turn Bobby into a detective of night creatures real and imagined.
YA DOWD, S.
Coolbar, Ireland, is a village of secrets and Shell, caretaker to her younger brother and sister after the death of their mother and with the absence of their father, is not about to reveal hers until suspicion falls on the wrong person.
YA THOMPSON, K.
Irish teenager JJ Liddy discovers that time is leaking from his world into Tir na nOg, the land of the fairies, and when he attempts to stop the leak he finds out a lot about his family history, the music that he loves, and a crime his great-grandfather may or may not have committed.
YA FOLEY, J.
It’s 1993, and Generation X pulses to the beat of Kurt Cobain and the grunge movement. Sixteen-year-old Maggie Lynch is uprooted from big-city Chicago to a windswept town on the Irish Sea. Surviving on care packages of Spin magazine and Twizzlers from her rocker uncle Kevin, she wonders if she’ll ever find her place in this new world. When first love and sudden death simultaneously strike, a naive but determined Maggie embarks on a forbidden pilgrimage that will take her to a seedy part of Dublin and on to a life-altering night in Rome to fulfill a dying wish. Through it all, Maggie discovers an untapped inner strength to do the most difficult but rewarding thing of all– live.
YA LENNON, T.
Neil Byrne, a teenager in Dublin, Ireland, in the 1990s, comes to terms with the fact that he is gay and seeks acceptance from his friends and family.
YA MELLING, O.
Two teenage cousins, one Irish, the other from the United States, set out to find a magic doorway to the Faraway Country, where humans must bow to the little people.
YA SF MCKINTY, A.
Thirteen-year-old Jamie is overjoyed when a bequest sends him and his mother to live on an Irish island, where he and his newfound friend Ramsay travel back in time to help a young girl save her people from certain death.
YA DOYLE, R.
Mary O’Hara is a sharp and cheeky twelve-year-old Dublin schoolgirl who is bravely facing the fact that her beloved Gran is dying. But Gran can’t let go of life, and when a mysterious young woman turns up in Mary’s street with a message for her Gran, Mary gets pulled into an unlikely adventure.
YA NAPOLI, D.
Fifteen-year-old Melkorka, an Irish princess, is kidnapped by Russian slave traders and not only learns how to survive but to challenge some of the brutality of her captors, who are fascinated by her apparent muteness and the possibility that she is enchanted.
YA KIERNAN, C.
After their nan accidentally burns their home down, twin brothers Pat and Dom must move with their parents and baby sister to the seaside cottage they’ve summered in, now made desolate by the winter wind. Itʹs there that the ghost appears, a strange boy who cries black tears and fears a bad man, a soldier, who is chasing him. Soon Dom has become not Dom, and Pat can sense that his brother is going to die while their overwhelmed parents can’t even see whatʹs happening. Isolated and terrified, Pat needs to keep his brother’s cover while figuring out how to save him, drawing clues from his own dreams and Nan’s long ago memories, confronting a mystery that lies between this world and the next, within the Grey.
Chloe: If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Katie: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
Movies and TV
Reese: Duck Dynasty
Chloe: Earth to Echo
Matt: Black Ops (XBOX 360)
Will: Oblivion (XBOX 360)
Reese: The Escapists (PC game)
Pick up one of this action-packed novels to get your heart racing again!
YA MARSDEN, J.
When Ellie and her friends go camping, they have no idea they’re leaving their old lives behind forever. Despite a less-than-tragic food shortage and a secret crush or two, everything goes as planned. But a week later, they return home to find their houses empty and their pets starving. Something has gone wrong–horribly wrong. Before long, they realize the country has been invaded, and the entire town has been captured–including their families and all their friends. Ellie and the other survivors face an impossible decision: They can flee for the mountains or surrender. Or they can fight.
YA GEBHART, R.
Thirteen-year-old Tyson sneaks off with his roughneck, but ill, grandpa to go on his first elk hunt, amid reports of a stalking man-eating grizzly.
YA STIEFVATER, M.
Nineteen-year-old returning champion Sean Kendrick competes against Puck Connolly, the first girl ever to ride in the annual Scorpio Races, both trying to keep hold of their dangerous water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.
YA LAYBOURNE, E.
Trapped inside a chain superstore by an apocalyptic sequence of natural and human disasters, six high school kids from various popular and unpopular social groups struggle for survival while protecting a group of younger children.
YA COLFER, E.
In Victorian London, Albert Garrick, an assassin-for-hire, and his reluctant young apprentice, Riley, are transported via wormhole to modern London, where Riley teams up with a young FBI agent to stop Garrick from returning to his own time and using his newly acquired scientific knowledge and power to change the world forever.
YA MY LANE, A.
In 1868, with his army officer father suddenly posted to India, and his mother mysteriously “unwell,” fourteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes is sent to stay with his eccentric uncle and aunt in their vast house in Hampshire, where he uncovers his first murder and a diabolical villain.
YA SMITH, R.
A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest.
YA SF LORE, P.
In rural Ohio, friendships and a beautiful girl prove distracting to a fifteen-year-old who has hidden on Earth for ten years waiting to develop the Legacies, or powers, he will need to rejoin the other six surviving Garde members and fight the Mogadorians who destroyed their planet, Lorien.
YA PATTERSON, J.
After the mutant Erasers abduct the youngest member of their group, the “bird kids,” who are the result of genetic experimentation, take off in pursuit and find themselves struggling to understand their own origins and purpose.
YA HOROWITZ, A.
After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle’s dangerous work for Britain’s intelligence agency, MI6.
YA DEUKER, C.
Living with his alcoholic father on a broken-down sailboat on Puget Sound has been hard on seventeen-year-old Chance Taylor, but when his love of running leads to a high-paying job, he quickly learns that the money is not worth the risk.
YA CARTER, A.
A group of teenagers uses their combined talents to re-steal several priceless paintings and save fifteen-year-old Kat Bishop’s father, himself an international art thief, from a vengeful collector.
YA SF MULLIN, M
After the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano destroys his city and its surroundings, fifteen-year-old Alex must journey from Cedar Falls, Iowa, to Illinois to find his parents and sister, trying to survive in a transformed landscape and a new society in which all the old rules of living have vanished.
YA CLINE, E.
In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the Oasis. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines – puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win – and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.
YA MY RITTER, W.
Newly arrived in 1892 New England, Abigail Rook becomes assistant to R.F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained with the ability to see supernatural beings, and she helps him delve into a case of serial murder which, Jackaby is convinced, is due to a nonhuman creature.
YA SF MORGAN, K.
When 100 juvenile delinquents are sent on a mission to recolonize Earth, they get a second chance at freedom, friendship, and love, as they fight to survive in a dangerous new world.
YA CARRIGER, G.
In an alternate England of 1851, spirited fourteen-year-old Sophronia is enrolled in a finishing school where, she is surprised to learn, lessons include not only the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also diversion, deceit, and espionage.
YA SF SANDERSON, B.
At age eight, David watched as his father was killed by an Epic, a human with superhuman powers, and now, ten years later, he joins the Reckoners–the only people who are trying to kill the Epics and end their tyranny.
YA SF YANCEY, R.
Cassie Sullivan, the survivor of an alien invasion, must rescue her young brother from the enemy with help from a boy who may be one of them.
YA SF CHARBONNEAU, J.
Sixteen-year-old Malencia (Cia) Vale is chosen to participate in The Testing to attend the University; however, Cia is fearful when she figures out her friends who do not pass The Testing are disappearing.
YA SF GRANT, M.
In the near future, the conjoined Armstrong twins, under the guise of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, plot to create their own version of utopia using nanobots, while a guerilla group known as BZRK develops a DNA-based biot that can stop bots, but at risk of the host’s brain.
Yesterday morning the Youth Media Awards were held at the American Library’s Association’s Midwinter Conference. These awards are held annually and recognize some of the best books written for the year for kids and teens. Check out the recording of the awards ceremony and then take a look at the winning Teen books below!
Given for excellence in literature written for young adults.
Four Printz Honor Books also were named:
This One Summer also was named a Caldecott Honor Book: the Randolph Caldecott Medal is for the most distinguished American picture book for children.
Given for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens.
Four other books were finalists for the award:
Four other books were finalists for the award:
The Family Romanov was also named a Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor Book, for most distinguished informational book for children and teens:
These books, recommended for ages 12-18, meet the criteria of both quality literature and appeal to teens, while comprising a wide range of genres, styles and subjects. Click here to find the full list!
Top Ten list from the final selections:
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley
Vango by Timothee de Fombelle
The Story of Owen Dragonslayer of Trondheim by E.K. Johnston
The Gospel of Winter by Brendan Kiely
We Were Liars by e. lockhart
The Young Elites by Marie Lu
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Jackaby by William Ritter
Noggin by John Corey Whaley
Coretta Scott King Honor Book: The Coretta Scott Kind Book Award recognizes an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults:
John Steptoe New Talent Author Award: The John Steptoe New Talent Award recognizes new talent and is determined by the Coretta Scott King Task Force:
Schneider Family Book Award’s Teen Selection: for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience:
Stonewall Honor Books: given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience:
Check out the books, movies, TV shows, and music that come highly recommended by our Teen Advisory Board Members!
Will: 1984 by George Orwell
Veronika: Empty by Suzanne Weyn
Ashley: Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Movies & TV
Will: Once Upon a Time
Julia: Law & Order
Chloe: If I Stay
Barbara: FourFiveSeconds by Rhianna, Kanye, and Paul McCartney; I Need You by M83
Kelsey: Symphony Soldier by The Cab, Pirates of the Caribbean film scores by Hans Zimmer
Julia: The Big Bang by Rock Mafia
Katie: The Heart Wants What it Wants and My Dilemma 2.0 by Selena Gomez; Sledgehammer by Fifth Harmony; Cry Me a River by Justin Timberlake; Something Big by Shawn Mendes | <urn:uuid:145d4f6c-c5ca-4308-ae63-412dc06c8077> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://mppl.org/teenblog/category/fantasy/ | 2015-03-30T23:04:40Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131300031.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172140-00188-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949652 | 3,170 |
Gabe Powers' 2006 DVD Awards
Gabe thought it was a pretty good year, and shares some of his favourites...
2006 saw the release of the next generation formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD. Some gadget nuts have jumped aboard the blue laser bandwagon, and already started rebuilding those mountainous film collections, while others (like myself) have decided to wait this battle out, and only begin reconstruction after a victor has been crowned. Personally I don't see a need to own more than half my collection in an HD format, though I suppose my collection has quite a few more B-Grade titles than most. Regardless, the introduction of the new media has made studios and consumers hesitant.
Then there's the new standard of the DVD double dip. These days buying a new DVD the week it's released is pretty much the same thing as renting it 10 years ago. With most major releases, and releases destined to cult status, you can pretty much bet that there will be a superior version on the shelves within the year. In the VHS days we had to wait on new releases, as there was almost always a sizeable schism between rental and purchase times (some countries still practice this). Though rental companies may be losing money on the new deal, the studios are making out like bandits, effectively selling the same movie to the same customer at least two times, sometimes more.
All these factor into the general dip in the 'quality' of DVD extras this year (it could also have something to do with the fact that almost every major motion picture has seen a DVD release by now), but none more than the fact that the DVD generation is jaded. Speaking for myself, I just don't care about the extra features the way I used to, and have a habit of sticking the disc on the shelf only after watching the film itself. I've even found myself buying extra free versions of films. I still revisit the great features of past releases, but fast-forwarding through the quantity over quality releases I've purchased this year is a sad sign of changing times indeed. There's something missing. Perhaps it's heart, as special edition releases like The Alien Quadrilogy (still not a word), Dawn of the Dead: Ultimate Edition, and of course The Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition were all hand crafted by the filmmakers or their fans. These days we get a little too much raw footage plopped onto the plastic by some uncaring studio machine.
Regardless the reason, or if this drop even really exists, 2006 was a year I found myself concerned with the movies far more than their DVDs. There are a few releases on my awards list below that do represent superior extra content, but for the most part these choices are devoted to the title, not the disc. For that I apologise to DVD fans everywhere, and please, no angry comments at the bottom of the page on this subject. Also, if I haven't included it, I probably haven't seen it, or maybe I just didn't like it.
On with the "Awards".
Best Reason to Own a DVD Player in 2006: Cartoons (R1)
I confessed in my review of Batman Beyond this year that if I'm watching TV, I'm most likely watching cartoons. I love cartoons, and thank God that there's oh so very many on the market right now. Thanks to full season DVD releases I can watch the same episodes over, and over, and over again.
Cartoon Network's late night Adult Swim line-up has always been hit or miss. Aqua Teen Hunger Force and early episodes of Sea Lab are always good for a laugh, but it was Home Movies that made the channel worth its salt in the ye olde days (about 5 years ago). This year marked the release of the last episodes of Home Movies, season four, and it was with an utter sense of the bittersweet that I watched them. I still say it's the best sitcom, animated or not, since Fawlty Towers. Only Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's Spaced comes close to equalling it. Season 4 is a slight step down from Seasons 2 and 3, so perhaps it was best to end the series before it became the mediocre mess The Simpsons has become. The show's semi follow-up, Metalacolypse, is a fun time too, especially for all us recovering metal-heads.
Recent years have seen in increase in the number of original shows on Adult Swim, but the overall quality is still very inconsistent. For every Aqua Teen and Harvey Birdman there's a Tom Goes to Mayor and 12 Oz Mouse. Two shows that put themselves way ahead of the pack last year were The Boondocks and The Venture Bros.. Both series' complete first seasons were released on DVD in 2006.
The Boondocks is a politically motivated show, concerning the adventures of two black kids moved from a poor neighbourhood to a rich one by their well-to-do Grandfather. It's based on creator Aaron McGruder's morning paper comic strip, but is decidedly more adult in nature. Think of it as the Peanuts for the 2ist Century with a short fuse and violent mean streak. The abrasive social commentary within will rub some viewers the wrong way, but sometimes the truth can hurt. The duelling comedic and melancholy tones may also turn some viewers off, but it's what ultimately makes the series’ lasting impression.
Venture Bros. is a show apparently made specifically for me, and is a kind of a spoof of Johnny Quest. Every reference, joke, and character is spot on for a pop-culture geek of my specific mindset. Where else could I find a David Bowie reference bookended by a Star Wars reference and a Clarissa Explains it All reference? Fabulous voice acting and beautiful animated style don't hurt either. Season 2 was even better than season 1, and a new DVD release can't come soon enough.
In the realms of less adult animated entertainment, 2006 saw the DVD release of both my favourite television drama, and my latest television obsession, Justice League and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Justice League is purely and simply a great show, coming from the creators of the Batman, Superman, and Batman Beyond animated series. Previously unavailable in entire season collections, I've now got all but the final season on my shelf, and I've watched them each more than once. The quality of the video transfers got better with each release, from full frame, to widescreen, to finally getting an anamorphic image on the latest release. I could do with a few more commentaries next time.
Avatar was a thrilling surprise when it was first aired last year–an American, Anime styled cartoon (never a good thing), released on the Nickelodeon network for kids, that mixes equal parts Miyazaki, Tolkien, Tsui Hark, and Kurusawa. It's a recipe for disaster, but some how it works. The show is at all times touching, funny, thrilling, and obscenely engaging. The DVD collection had a pretty sorry transfer, and little in the way of features, but was still worth the purchase. Anything to ensure the series has the money to finish up next year.
Best Film Hitchcock Never Made Staring Minors: Tie, Hard Candy (R1) and Brick (R1)
What if Alfred Hitchcock was still alive? Might he work for the Disney Channel? I'd like to think so, especially if the Disney Channel was into producing thoroughly 'R' rated thrillers like these. If you hadn't guessed by that weak introduction, this section of my awards has been concocted simply to bring attention to two of the finest films of 2006, neither of which has an impressive enough DVD release to make this list any other way.
Brick is a Dashiell Hammett/Raymond Chandler styled film Noir, with classically stylized dialogue and motivations. The only catch is that the story takes place at an American High School, and the characters are age appropriate. This absurd set-up works because the film's makers and actors take the story and method deathly serious about 90% of the time. Only when it serves the film, when humour or levity is absolutely necessary does anyone let on how silly the concept is. A good examples is a dialogue between the protagonist and a teenage drug lord who converse in the drug lord's kitchen as his mommy pours juice for everyone.
If meant to be taken seriously, Brick couldn't had it not been for the amazing efforts of its young actors. It is all stylized dialogue to be sure, hard-boiled, razor tongued, and unnatural, but I haven't seen any other film this year more deserving of the best ensemble-acting award.
The DVD is rather lacklustre, with a collection of deleted scenes and some screen tests, and I hope that a cult reputation leads to a more elaborate double-dip sometime in the near future. The transfer is gorgeous, every over saturated colour and light is beautifully rendered, and darker scenes are relatively free of noise. The Dolby Digital Surround track is the disc's finest feature, and is extremely aggressive at ideal points. Brick has a smashing soundtrack and some very imaginative sound design, both of which take it far beyond its rather meagre budget. The commentary track gives insight, but not quite enough.
Hard Candy was a film I looked forward to, but missed during its theatrical run. Negative reviews made me a bit hesitant, but when I finally got around to tossing the disc in my player I was instantly enthralled. The twisty-turny tale of a dame and a dude locked in an apartment, both of which are revealed to be a lot more than they seem on the surface would, I'd like to think, make Hitchcock proud. Like Brick, the hook here is the fact that the dame is a headstrong, under-age girl, and that she's the aggressor.
Some scenes in Hard Candy are so utterly uncomfortable that I felt nauseous by film's end, but it was the hard earned kind of nausea that comes with effective storytelling and imagination peeking, not the kind that comes with gross-out special effects. The film is one of the more beautiful of the year, and though it consists mainly of two people and one stage, it's constantly visually engaging, no small feet. The use of colour is brilliant.
I'm sure the one thing even the film's detractors will agree on is the performance of the under-age dame herself, Ellen Page. Page's performance is entirely menacing, especially considering her stature, but never did I lose my sense of sympathy for the little vigilante. Page's performance is so good, in fact, that I dislike X-Men 3 just a little bit more for hiring her as Kitty Pride, and then not utilising her to full potential. Props are also in order for antagonist (or protagonist, depending on your point of view) Patrick Wilson, who is also pretty damn sympathetic for a paedophile.
The DVD has a rather brief, but ultimately successful making of documentary, that most of all gets the viewer into the mind of the writer and the director. The actual filming process is lacking in the doc, but the post release stories are priceless. Not a great DVD (there are some minor noise issues with the video), but worth a look.
Biggest Surprise: Monster House (R1)
With the general quality of non-Pixar, computer animated features peaking somewhere between "worthless" and "painful", who'd have thought that this mo-cap horror flick for kids would mop the proverbial floor with Pixar's 2006 release, Cars? I didn't bother seeing Monster House in theatres, even though the 3-D possibilities were tempting, and assumed I wouldn't see it on DVD either - considering my general dislike of the film's trailer and concept. Monster House was also made by a bunch of nobodies, with executive producer credits that smacked of name recognition over quality. I was so very freaking wrong.
Monster House is easily the best mainstream animated films of 2006, and probably one of the top 10 films of any category released this year. The key here isn't the wondrous world of motion captured computer animation, but a solid story, a great script, and some of the best children's performances I've seen since The Sixth Sense. Without pandering to its audience, the film manages to settle itself well within the realms of children's entertainment, but also manages enough funny exchanges and one-liners to make the grown-ups in the audience laugh out loud.
"Are you guys like mentally challenged? Because if you are, I'm certified to teach you softball."
The DVD leaves a bit to be desired, as it's generally lacking in extra features, but the A/V quality of the direct to digital transfer is perfect. I can't even imagine how amazing the HD version must look. The behind the scenes featurette is informative and interesting enough, but I could see a larger set being released sometime in the near future. There's too much to this process to be covered in 30 minutes.
Best Reason to Double Dip*: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Ultimate Edition (R1)
Sometimes we double dip because a previous version of a DVD are lacking in special features. Sometimes a previous release isn't anamorphically enhanced, or all that well digitally mastered. Some of us even freak out about new surround sound or packaging. This year's re-release of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was a worthy purchase for all these reason. I wrote a rather lengthy review here, and included some screen caps from the previous R1 and R2 special editions for reader comparison, check it out here.
Though R1 folks will be more excited about extra features than R2 folks (who already had most of the extras available to them on an earlier release), everyone can get excited about the new transfer, which is nothing short of amazing. There's something to be said for dirt and grain when it comes to such a raw film, but proper framing, anamorphic enhancement, and colour brightening are all most welcome additions. This set is a must own for all horror film fans.
*not including my top three
Best Per-Capita Extras: Clerks II (R1)
Kevin Smith's Clerks follow up was a contender for my 'Biggest Surprise' award, but Monster House was the better movie, and thus the bigger surprise. That said, I was still pleasantly surprised by Smith's latest offering, especially considering the declining quality, and my declining interest, in his more recent work. The film is worth a watch for old fans, but it is the DVD that makes my list.
Though Clerks II doesn't have the sheer amount of extra material some of the larger sets this year had, it makes up for this in quality. Pretty much every one of the two disc set's features (save a redundant commentary track or two) is pretty close to a gold standard. At the very least these extras entertain, and reveal a very personal director and crew willing to admit they've made mistakes.
See my full review here for more.
The Better Luck Next Time Award: Cemetery Man (R1)
One of my personal favourites, Michele Soavi's Cemetery Man was finally released on R1 by genre do-righters Anchor Bay Entertainment. The disc wasn't barebones, and there wasn't any overt issue with the transfer or sound, but all in all, the disc was lacking. Why Anchor Bay had taken so very long to release this disc, especially after a press release stating 'loads of extras' is a mystery when one is presented with the DVD.
The behind the scenes featurette offered a smidgen of insight, mostly into director Soavi's career, but the Cemetery Man himself, Rupert Everet is nowhere to be found. The guy can't be that busy, can he? A quick trip to any Internet fan site is honestly just as insightful. Considering the fact that Anchor Bay studios has released something like three different versions of The Evil Dead, five versions of Dawn of the Dead, and God only knows how many versions of Army of Darkness, I find the general lack of extras pretty suspect. Stay tuned, as I'm sure within a year or two I'll be singing a different tune.
Fortunately for all of us, the disc is very affordably priced (only $6.99 during Halloween this year in some places), so double-dipping won't be a complete tragedy. See my full write-up right here.
Honourable Mention: Lady Vengeance (R1)
Like Anchor Bay, Tartan USA can't be trusted to not double-dip a possible money maker. Why, just this year they re-released Old Boy in a deluxe 3-disc set. Being the thematic sequel to Old Boy, and a rather sought after release at that, one might want to assume that a better edition isn't too far off. The current release has a nice A/V presentation (though I unfortunately did not catch the fact that it was an interlaced transfer rather than a progressive one when I reviewed the disc), but basically no meaty extras, save a commentary track or two. Considering the monster amount of behind the scenes material made available for Old Boy, I for one find it hard to believe that director Park Chan-Wook doesn't have a similar amount of footage hanging around somewhere for the follow up.
See the whole story here.
Royal Screwed Award: The Woods (All Regions)
There are pah-lenty of films released every year that so sadly end up in this category. This year's choice is a particularly sad little tale.
Lucky McKee, writer/director of the critically acclaimed sophomore horror effort May announced the production of his follow up, The Woods, way back in 2003. The title and timing even forced heavyweight director M. Night Shyamalayn to change the title of his latest release (at the time), The Village. The Village came and went, as did another two years before it finally looked like eager fans would get a look at McKee's film.
In the mean time Sony acquires MGM, who was producing the film, and the little horror flick is lost in the shuffle. It finally sees a limited release three years after filming. And what happens next? Nobody seems to like it, not even the horror fans that get an early glimpse at a genre film festival. Sony dumps the film on DVD for the Halloween holiday, and the disc is entirely barebones.
The saddest part of this story is that it's not a bad film. I have no idea what anyone was expecting out of it, but it was exactly the film I wanted it to be, only with better performances. Basically the story boils down to Dario Argento's Suspiria with a plot. The only real difference is that this time it's a boarding school rather than a dance school, and the outside threat is a little less tangible. Suspiria is an acquired taste itself, but the beauty of The Woods is that McKee has actually crafted a fantasy with believable dialogue, and allows the drama and comedy overplay the terror. It's a pretty scary movie, but it really comes down to the look and the performances, which include Bruce Campbell at his most reserved. Give it a chance.
Best DVD Nobody Got to See: Munich: Collector's Edition (R1)
My pick for best film of 2005 was released in two versions in 2006 – a standard, movie only edition, and a two-disc collector's edition. I was lucky enough to get the collector's edition in the mail for my review, but apparently no one else in the entire world got their hands on this superior version. Apparently the "Limited Edition" tag wasn't just a marketing ploy. For my thoughts on the film I direct you to my review, and warn you that it's about a trillion words long.
The second disc of features isn't exactly to die for, but it still has some grand insight into master Steven Spielberg and company's process. Basically the whole disc is one long documentary cut into several smaller pieces, much like the DVD releases of Spielberg’s Minority Report, A.I., and War of the Worlds (all available in barebones and 2 disc editions). Unfortunately for me, my special features disc came separate from my DVD, so I missed out on the classy box art, not to mention the fact that I have to see 'Property of Universal' burned into every frame of the doc. I do recall some kind of life lesson about not complaining about the teeth of free livestock though.
DVD of the Year: Seven Samurai: Criterion Collection (R1)
Seven Samurai could easily be considered one of the top ten films of all time. Some might even quite fairly place it as number one. I'm not sure if I think it's the best film ever made, but it's very, very high on my personal list. If you haven't seen it, you're missing out. It's probably the only 3 and 3/4 hour long, 50 year old motion picture even the most uncultured cineaste will ever sit through without squirming. Without Seven Samurai, modern epics and action films would be nothing. It's great, and that's that.
But here in the U.S. we've never had any juicy special features with our Seven Samurai DVDs. Special editions never seemed to have subtitles, and the available Criterion version was bare as fish-less sushi. After years and years of waiting, fans have finally received the integral English language DVD of this integral film. Criterion has pulled out all the stops by not only remastering the aged film to a previously unseen glory, but by spreading hours of extra features, documentaries, and a commentary across the set's three discs. It's like a mini film school in a box. There's even a pretty little booklet for light bedside reading. The price is rather steep, but worth the expenditure.
Runner Up: Tie, OldBoy: Collector’s Edition (R1) and King Kong: Extended Edition (All Regions)
Tartan went all out for their Collector’s Edition release of Oldboy. The new set contains almost every ounce of information, behind the scenes footage, and commentaries, not to mention a sturdy tin box that also houses the first issue of the original Oldboy comic and a film still. The film is a classic, I've said it time and again, but not every viewers taste. I don't recommend this massive collection to passing fans and the merely curious. Heck, I adore the film, and even I was overwhelmed. At times I'd even say I was bored.
Check out my full review here.
Peter Jackson's King Kong, released last Christmas, was a bloated, self-indulgent mess, but it still had several moments of genuine beauty, terror, and awe. If I had the scissors I'd have cut out about 30 minutes, especially that sub plot featuring Billy Elliot and Token Black Guy. Overall I loved the film, but recognized that it had its problems, especially in the runtime. So who'd have thought an extended version would be a good idea? Well, when the majority of the extended scenes feature computer generated prehistoric monsters, you really can't go wrong. Best of all the film now spans two discs, and we can skip the over-long boat trip all together without even going to the chapter selection menu.
As far as extras, I never got around to seeing the production diary releases, or the extras on the original release, but the all new stuff included here is up to Wingnut Film's usual standards. It's not quite LOTR level stuff, but I really enjoyed myself, and ended up watching everything in only two sittings. There's something about the way these people talk about their work that makes me love listening to them, a gift shared by only a few other film makers, like John Carpenter and Terry Gilliam. The deleted scenes that weren't reincorporated back into the film are pretty skipable, but the behind the scenes documentary, and Easter Egg production diary featurette are fabulous.
Check out Peter Martin's R2 review right here.
Other Honourable Mentions:
Slither (R1): A great little B-Movie throwback that didn't quite live up to my astronomical expectations, Slither is very rewatchable, and the disc makes up for its lack of time consuming extra features with some high quality short subjects. Also a great menu design.
Superman Returns: Special Edition (R1): It wasn't the movie fans wanted, but Bryan Singer's melancholy take on the Man of Steel was still a heartfelt and pretty motion picture. The slightly lacking extras, and sequel in the works points to a better release in the near future. My review.
Matador (R1): An utter surprise to me, Matador is a touching and colourful character study, featuring what may be a career best performance from Pierce Brosnan. It has a solid sense of quirk without ever coming off as trying too hard. My review.
The Long Good Friday (R1): Anchor Bay's release of The Long Good Friday has solid on the A/V, and features a great hour long documentary. This was the first time I was able to see the classic film, and am happy to have it in my collection. My review
Wolf Creek (R1): Horror films will always rub a lot of people the wrong way, but I thought this was one of the best throwbacks to the '70s era survival thrillers we've had during the recent resurgence. The R2 disc had some solid extras, and the filmed-in-HD video was amazing. My review.
Night Watch (R1): The R2 disc apparently has the better extras, but I'm happy enough just having the international release of the film, with its cool subtitles and extra bits. My Russian DVD was severely lacking. My R5 review.
A History of Violence (R1): David Cronenberg's latest masterwork is not a winner in the rewatchable category, but was one of the best theatrical releases of last year. Viggo Morteson was absolutely robbed of a deserving Oscar nomination. Featuring another grand commentary track from the always insightful Canadian director, and a decent behind the scenes doc, I can overlook the slight censorship between this and the international versions. Casimir Harlow's R2 review.
Uno Bianca (R1): What? You never heard of this one? Well neither had I until an impromptu trip to the store. Directed by Cemetery Man mastermind Michelle Soavi, Uno Bianca is a taught, two part cop thriller originally made for Italian TV that overcomes its tired plotline with sheer energy and visual style.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: Extended Edition (R1): I'm still not very fond of the film, even in its extended version, but the fourth disc of this half double-dip set is great. It features the film set to visual commentary, behind the scenes footage, interviews, original art, and special effects comparison shots. Worth at least a rent to even non-fans. My full review here.
Dog Day Afternoon: Special Edition (R1): One of my top five favourite films finally got a special edition release. Unfortunately, the A/V quality really wasn't that much better, and the documentary wasn't quite as in depth as I may've liked, but it was still worth my double dip.
In 2007 I'll be looking forward to the DVD and theatrical release of Children of Men, The Fountain, Pan's Labyrinth, Venture Bros. and Justice League Unlimited Season Two, The Uncut release of From Beyond, 300, Grindhouse, a Special Edition release of Bladerunner, I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK, and of course, Spider-Man 3 (which will hopefully usher in that extended edition of Spider-Man 2). My hopes and wishes lie with an official Western World release of Night Watch's superior sequel Day Watch, my Russian DVD is very much lacking in extras. It would also be nice to get an official release of Dario Argento's third feature film, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, and the MTV animated series The Head and The Maxx. I wish for those every year, and still haven't given up.
I've still got a lot of catching up to do this year. There are plenty of solid releases I haven't had a chance to see, including United 93, Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut, Match Point, Thank You For Smoking, The Road To Guantanamo, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, This Film is Not Yet Rated, An Inconvenient Truth, and I still haven't finished Deadwood Season Two or The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.. The list goes on and on. We'll talk more next year.
Editorial by Gabriel Powers
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Lipman suggests City Council play more active role on county jail front; priority should be placed on meeting all state & federal standards
LACONIA — City Councilor Henry Lipman (Ward 3), who chairs the Finance Committee, this week suggested that the City Council take an initiative to loosen the logjam that has stalled discussion of the future of the county jail by calculating what the city can afford to contribute to the project.
In 2013, the city, which budgets within the bounds of a property tax cap, bore 18.9-percent of county tax commitment and would bear the same share of annual debt service carried by the county to fund the cost of a new or renovated jail. When Ricci-Greene Associates presented a proposal for a facility of 184 beds and a community corrections component with an estimated cost of $42.5 million to the Jail Planning Committee, the City Council wrote to the Belknap County Commission expressing concern at the cost.
"We've got to make some progress," Lipman said, "and we've got to get something done." He indicated that the highest priority is to ensure that the facility complies with all state and federal standards by providing a structure that is "safe for both jail inmates and corrections officers."
Addressing his fellow councilors on Monday, Lipman said he considered rehabilitative programming, which requires additional space and personnel, as "step two."
Lipman said that by by reviewing the city's outstanding debt and annual debt service, the council could determine an amount or a range of amounts of additional principal and interest payments the city could carry. "We can say this is what we can afford," he said. "The number would not be an absolute post in the ground, but I think it would help move the ball."
So far discussion about the jail has been largely confined to the Belknap County Commission and its Jail Planning Committee, on the one hand, and the Belknap County Convention, on the other, and has reached a stalemate. Lipman ventured that an initiative by the City Council might change the course of the dialogue.
Last Updated on Thursday, 17 July 2014 12:42
GILFORD — A transient 18-year-old broke into a woman's house on Breton Road at 3:30 a.m. yesterday morning, startling her as she was asleep in her bedroom.
The victim said she woke and found a young man she identified as Isaiah Hughes in her bedroom. She said the two briefly struggled and the assailant was able to get away from her. Police said the victim got a small cut on her hand but was able to tear intruder's shirt sleeve.
Police said yesterday that Hughes and the victim are known to one another but declined to elaborate. The victim told police who they were seeking.
Affidavits obtained from the 4th Circuit Court, Laconia Division said the victim contacted her mother who told her that Hughes was on her porch at an address on Old Lake Shore Road.
Two police officers went to the house on Old Lake Shore Road and made contact with Hughes, who they said had blood on his hand and was shoeless. They told him he was being detained but he ran from them.
The two officers struggled with Hughes who they said was actively trying to get away from them. After a short struggle he was taken into custody.
Police verified his identification by conducting a K-9 track from the victim's house to where he was found.
Police allegedly found Hughes's shoes, two backpacks and a coin jar and food that they believe he allegedly stole from the victim's home.
Hughes was already out of bail after being charge with theft by unauthorized taking on June 2 for allegedly stealing from Walmart, and for unlawful possession of alcohol — a bail violation — from June 21.
Hughes faces one new count of burglary, resisting arrest, and breach of bail.
While he has no criminal record, Gilford Police asked Judge Jim Carroll to hold Hughes on $10,000 cash-only bail because his recent behavior indicates he is unwilling or unable to obey the law and that he is a dangerous threat to the general public.
Judge Carroll ordered him held on $1,000 cash bail for the burglary and $5,000 personal recognizance bail for the misdemeanors.
He is order to stay away Breton Road and Walmart.
Last Updated on Thursday, 17 July 2014 12:36
LACONIA — City officials yesterday shuttered a four-unit apartment building at 145-147 Union Avenue, displacing five adults and eleven children, where Fire Chief Ken Erickson, who serves as the city's health officer, said they found numerous violations of the fire code and sanitary conditions he described as "deplorable."
Erickson, who spent several hours in the building with Code Enforcement Officer Steve McClusker, said that smoke detectors were not working, while corridors and doorways were obstructed, in some cases by clothes dryers that were installed in hallways. He said that garbage and debris was strewn about the four units and common spaces, which were "infested with flies."
Erickson said that officials were drawn to the building by complaint from the mother of a male tenant who lived there with his father. The building was immediately evacuated, its power disconnected and posted as "uninhabitable," Erickson said.
Residents of two of the four units received rental assistance from the Laconia Housing Authority (LHA) under the federal government's so-called Section 8 program. Erickson said that Dick Weaver, executive director of the LHA, "was shocked to see what his agency was paying for" after walking through the building.
Although the city welfare officer was on hand to arrange shelter for the residents, Erickson said that some chose to stay with friends or relatives and two went to the Carey House, the nearby shelter operated by the Salvation Army, but none sought assistance from the city.
Erickson said that repeated attempts to contact the owner of the building "came to no avail."
According to city records the building has been owned by Walter and Janet Hutchinson doing business as WJK Realty Corporation, with the address of a post office box at Winnisquam, New Hampshire, since June, 2004.
WJK Realty also owns a property at 322 Union Avenue and a building with commercial space and residential units at 322 South Main Street. Walter Hutchinson is listed as the owner of a single-family home at 34 Doloff Street and Janet Hutchinson as the owner of a three-unit residential building at 46 Winter Street.
"We're forming a task force to go after the irresponsible landlords aggressively," Erickson said. He noted that city officials will work closely with the LHA, which intends to withhold rent assistance for housing units that fail to pass inspection by the city. "We're going to make sure they clean up or have no tenants."
Noting that that there are many conscientious and responsible landlords in the city, Erickson said "if you're going to be a property owner in the city of Laconia, "you're going to have to do it the right way.
Last Updated on Thursday, 17 July 2014 12:29
by Thomas P. Caldwell
ALEXANDRIA — Well in excess of 100 sign-carrying opponents of wind power from five local towns lined the road in protest when the project developer and attorney for EDP Renewables arrived July 15 at the Alexandria Town Hall to seek a building permit for a meteorological tower.
Jennifer Tuthill of Alexandria, wife of Selectman George Tuthill, said she and the other protesters were there "to show this multinational company that we want no part of it".
Residents had voted against allowing wind farms in the town in 2013 and, this year, they passed a "rights based ordinance" or RBO that claimed the authority to regulate what happens in the town, specifically banning "unsustainable energy systems".
EDP Attorney Mark Beliveau told the Board of Selectmen, "We don't believe the rights based ordinance is enforceable ... but even if it is, it addresses a wind farm, not a meteorological tower, which is a passive collection structure." He went on to note that the RBO refers to projects controlled by state and federal authorities, while the 80-meter tower EDP is proposing does not fall under those jurisdictions.
"We applied for a building permit," he reminded the town fathers.
Later in the meeting, resident Bob Piehler, a strong opponent of wind power, contradicted the attorney, saying they also had applied for a permit from the Federal Aviation Authority, proving there is federal oversight.
"This is Trojan horse," Piehler said. "Once this is in, they will have control of the road, and they're looking to take out local control."
Beliveau's argument centered on the conditional approval the selectmen had given a year ago, subject to five conditions. The company had met four of the conditions prior to Tuesday's meeting and the final condition — the posting of a $34,000 decommissioning bond — was what brought the company to town this week.
"Now that you have the bond, we believe that satisfies all five conditions," Beliveau said.
When Selectman Tuthill said it troubled him to say so but he agreed that the company had met its obligations, Beliveau commented, "I understand the opposition to the wind farm, but this is a small, passive, data collection structure, and I suggest you review it for what it is: a meteorological tower. The decision is really administrative, and personal opinions should not play a part."
Selectman Michael Broome, who came on board this year, said that, in light of the citizens' opposition and the RBO, he would not sign the permit. When Tuthill made a motion calling upon the selectmen to affirm that the five conditions had been met, he did not receive a second, and the hall erupted in applause.
Beliveau responded with a remark indicating that the decision would be challenged on the basis of members' bias.
The meteorological tower had been proposed to determine the viability of a wind project on the private property for which EDP had entered into a seven-year lease agreement last year. Known as the Spruce Ridge Project, the proposal would cover land in Alexandria, Groton, Hebron, and Orange and involve 15 to 25 turbines at a proposed cost of $140 million, producing 60 megawatts of power.
Project Manager Derek Rieman said all talk of a wind farm is premature, as they first need to determine the project's viability; but when challenged on why they would pursue the matter in the face of so much local opposition, Rieman said, "We're pursuing a clean energy project here."
Sue Cheney of Alexandria commented, "You say the met tower is passive, but it's here for one purpose, and that's not passive."
Carl and Paul Spring of Groton, who live on Groton Hollow Road which has become the access road for the Groton Wind Farm, already in place, said before the meeting that wind energy is not clean at all.
"We saw that project from Day 1," Carl Spring said. "Our quiet, country road is now as busy as the Hooksett toll booth, almost. Every day, there are trucks going by, doing everyday business, troubleshooting the problems the wind farm has had, and there are garbage, linen, and FedX trucks going by four to five times a day. It has opened up the mountain to logging. I'm a logger myself, but they're going clear into the wilderness area. There goes our forest canopy. And the water in the streams is black, or like chocolate milk. They say, 'It wasn't us,' but those of us who have lived there for a while never saw that kind of sediment in the streams before."
The Springs also spoke of the noise of the turbines. "They say it's low-decible, and it is, but so is a mosquito, and they can keep you awake. We can't sit in the front yard without hearing the whoosh or the jet engine noise. You hear it continually, and it's never going to go away."
Jim Lawrence, a former representative to the N.H. House from Hudson, who is running for U.S. Congress, took the public comment period as an opportunity to state his continued opposition to wind farms. "If I'm elected," he said, "I will continue to fight this every step of the way."
Last Updated on Thursday, 17 July 2014 12:22
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A lecture by Nick Beams
The World Economic Crisis: A Marxist Analysis—Part 4
23 December 2008
The following is Part 4 of a lecture delivered by Nick Beams, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) and a member of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site, to audiences in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney in November and December, 2008. Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 were published on December 19, 20 and 22, respectively. The final part will be published tomorrow, December 24.
The collapse of the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1971 marked the end of the dollar's role as a stable anchor of the world monetary system. More than that, it signified that no national currency could take on that role.
Many here will never have experienced fixed exchange rates. But when I was a boy, my grandfather would send me one British pound every year for Christmas, and I could exchange that pound, each year, for exactly 25 Australian shillings. The rate never changed. The same was true of every currency. But in 1971 this certainty came to an end.
In the early 1970s, in the absence of a firm foundation for the international monetary system, new mechanisms were developed to cover the risks arising from the new currency movements. Consider an Australian importer of a piece of machinery. A deal that would have seemed very good, and potentially highly profitable, when the machine was ordered from, say, the United States, could result in a major loss if the Australian dollar had lost ground against the US dollar by the time full payment became due, on delivery, six months later.
It is from this period that we can trace the rise of financial derivatives.
A derivative is defined as a financial contract or financial instrument, the value of which is derived from the value of something else.
Derivatives have existed for a long time. The most well known are futures contracts, in which a contract is made to deliver a certain quantity of a commodity at a certain price at a certain time. These contracts were developed in the markets for agricultural products to try to eliminate the effect of movements in price between the time when a crop was sown and when it was brought to market. If the price at which the crops were to be sold could be fixed in a futures contract, then some degree of certainty could be brought into the production process.
Financial derivatives mark a new development. No longer do contracts relate to physical commodities, but to money and other financial assets. In 1972, the year after the demise of the Bretton Woods Agreement, a market in currency futures was launched on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. This market enabled importers and exporters, as well as financial institutions, to hedge against currency fluctuations, under conditions where currency movements could effectively wipe out profits from business deals overnight.
The currency futures contract was only one of many new financial derivatives that were to develop in the next period.
In 1973 a major development occurred when two academics, Fischer Black and Myron Scholes, developed a formula for pricing options. While a futures contract locks in participants to buying or selling, an option is a kind of insurance. In return for the payment of a premium, it gives the buyer the right to buy or sell an asset at a certain price within a specified period. If prices do not move in the way that was anticipated, then the option has no value and the buyer loses only the premium. In 1973 the Chicago Options Exchange was established for trading, and in 1975 the Chicago Board of Trade introduced the first interest rates futures contract.
Options provided the means for making big profits, as we can see from the following numerical example. A purchaser buys an option to buy a share for $50 in six months time. The cost of the option is $5. The outlay for an option on 100 shares will therefore be $500. Suppose that after six months the price of the share has risen to $60. The purchaser then exercises the option and makes a profit of $5 on each share: $60 minus $50 minus the $5 per option. This brings a total profit of $500 on an outlay of $500, that is, a profit rate of 100 percent.
Consider what would have happened if the purchaser instead simply bought 100 shares for $50 each and held them for six months. The profit in that case would be $1,000 (the $10 increase in the share price multiplied by 100) on an outlay of $5,000, that is, at a rate of 20 percent. The use of the option has yielded a much higher rate of profit.
By the same token, if the shares had fallen to say $49, rather than risen to $60, then the option purchaser would have lost $500, a capital loss of 100 percent, whereas the share purchaser who held the shares for six months would have only lost $100 or 2 percent of his or her original investment of $5,000. Options offer greater rewards and also greater risks.
With increased trading in options after 1973, other types of derivatives were developed, including the currency swap, in which buyers could swap bonds issued in one currency with bonds in another, depending on their assessment of currency movements. Then came the interest rate swap, in which fixed interest rate payments could be swapped with variable rate payments and vice versa. In the last decade, the credit default swap has emerged, in which the holder can insure against the issuer of a bond defaulting on payment. These contracts can be made through an exchange, or, as has increasingly been the case, in arrangements between two parties in so-called over the counter (OTC) agreements.
While their origins lie in the attempt to protect against risk, derivatives become a source of speculation, in which vast profits can be made from correctly judging the movements of financial variables. Myriad statistics indicate the explosive growth of these financial instruments over the past three decades.
Foreign exchange transactions in the world economy increased from $15 billion per day in 1973 to $80 billion per day in 1980 and $1.26 trillion by 1995. In 1973 world trade in goods and services constituted 15 percent of these transactions. In 1995 it constituted just 2 percent. This explosion in foreign currency dealings has been mainly the result of financial, not trade, transactions.
The growth of derivatives has been even more spectacular. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the notional amount—the value of the underlying asset on which the derivative is based—for OTC contracts was $683.7 trillion at the end of June 2008. This is an amount equivalent to more than ten times world output. Thirty-five years ago, in 1973, financial derivatives were virtually non-existent.
The daily turnover of global currency markets has increased 50-fold since 1980, and now stands at about $1.9 trillion per day. Of this, two thirds is transacted in derivatives markets and three quarters of this derivative trade, that is, half the overall market, is foreign exchange swaps.
The financialisation of the American economy
As we have seen, one impetus for the rise of derivatives came from the uncertainty generated by the collapse of the Bretton Woods system and the increased risk posed by currency fluctuations.
There is another, even more powerful force at work. This arose from changes in the mode of accumulation over the past three decades, above all in the United States.
When Nixon removed the gold backing from the US dollar in 1971 his intention was to maintain the financial dominance of American capitalism. But by the end of the 1970s, that was far from assured. The value of the dollar fell sharply, profits were declining, the stock market was down and the US economy was in the grip of stagflation.
In October 1979 Paul Volcker—who has recently been selected by President-elect Obama to be one of his key economic advisers—was appointed to the position of chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board. Volcker embarked on a program of interest rate hikes under the banner of anti-inflation.
The "Volcker shock," as it became known, sent interest rates to record highs and led to the deepest recession since the 1930s. It was accompanied by an offensive against the working class, starting with the Chrysler bailout in 1979 and the smashing of the air traffic controllers strike in 1981 and continuing right through the 1980s. Millions of jobs were destroyed and whole sections of industry wiped out.
The result was a transformation in the structure of American capitalism. From the end of the Civil War in 1865, American capitalism's rise to power had been based on its industrial prowess. American methods of production had proven to be the most efficient and the most profitable in the world.
That was no longer the case. Thus the essence of the Volcker measures was to put in place a new regime of accumulation based on the expansion of finance capital.
The road to this new mode of accumulation was by no means smooth. The recession of 1981-82 was followed by a slow recovery, and while the stock market started to rise from 1982 onwards, it crashed in October 1987. The decade finished with a crisis of the savings and loans banks, requiring a bailout of between $150 and $200 billion, and the onset of another recession.
The liquidation of the Soviet Union in 1991-92 and the decision by the Chinese Stalinist regime to open the way for the integration of the Chinese economy, and above all the multi-millioned Chinese working class, into the circuit of global capital, marked a major turning point. It was these events that made possible a mode of accumulation based on finance capital.
The opening up of China, with labour costs one thirtieth of those in the US and other major capitalist countries, provided the basis for an expansion in the mass of surplus value extracted by capital from the working class. In a recent speech hailing the virtues of globalisation, European Commissioner Peter Mandelson noted that a Chinese manufacturing firm producing an iPod receives only $4 for a device that retails for $290 in the US.
Mandelson was pointing to a process in which surplus value extracted in China is then distributed to other sections of capital in the form of license fees, rents on shopping centres, and interest to banks and financial institutions.
This relationship with China formed a kind of virtuous economic circle. Cheap manufactured goods kept down the rate of inflation, allowing the Fed to lower interest rates in the US without worrying about inflation.
Cheaper credit fueled various asset bubbles—the share market bubble, the dot.com bubble and the housing bubble—that financed the debt, while helping to sustain US consumption levels in the absence of real wage increases. At the same time, Chinese authorities invested their trade surpluses in US financial assets, in order to keep down the value of the yuan against the dollar and ensure the maintenance of export markets. This also helped keep US interest rates low and sustain the supply of cheap credit, which, in turn, sustained the asset bubbles.
In 1982 the profits of finance companies amounted to 5 percent of total corporate profits after tax. By 2007 their share had risen to 41 percent. This transformation—the financialisation of the American economy—has had vast implications for the process of capital accumulation and the growth of debt in the US economy.
In previous periods, debt was incurred by industry in order to finance its expansion. But with the growing importance of the finance sector, debt has been increasingly incurred to finance further financial activity.
The buying and selling of securities based on assets became the new road to wealth accumulation. In 1995 the dollar value of asset-backed securities stood at $108 billion. By the year 2000, at the height of the share market bubble, it was $1.07 trillion. It reached $1.1 trillion in 2005 and $1.23 trillion in 2006. In other words, in the space of a decade, the value of these securities had increased ten-fold.
In other words, the financialisation of the economy, that is, the appropriation of surplus value rather than its extraction in the production process, became the other key factor in the explosive growth of derivatives.
In their valuable study Capitalism and Derivatives, the authors, Dick Bryan and Michael Rafferty from the University of Sydney, point to two essential functions performed by derivatives.
First, there is what they call a "binding" function, in which a derivative links assets in the present to assets in the future. The rise of these derivatives was bound up with the increased uncertainty and risk generated by the demise of the fixed currency regime. Under Bretton Woods, the national state kept its currency fixed, providing stability for capital involved in international financial transactions. When that was no longer the case, new mechanisms had to be developed to provide certainty and overcome risks.
Derivatives also have what these authors call a "blending" function. That is, they make possible the commensuration of different types of financial assets. For example, a contract may involve the swapping of shares for a company bond, or vice versa. This may or may not be exercised, depending on the relative movement of interest rates in the bond market and of the dividend paid in shares. Shares and debt both represent claims on future earnings, but interest and dividends may move in different directions and, depending on that movement, the holder of one or other asset may be disadvantaged. That risk can be countered by using derivatives.
The blending function of derivatives enables the holder of a financial asset to hedge against adverse movements in one or another financial variable, or to take advantage of such movements. The risk to finance capital is that once money is invested in a particular form of financial asset, any adverse movement in financial markets can see this asset receive a lesser rate of return than other financial assets, or even suffer a loss.
The use of derivatives has the effect of giving one asset the characteristics of another. In other words, finance capital is not tied to any particular form, but can develop a more universal character. And this becomes vitally important in conditions where the appropriation of profit—the basis for the accumulation of capital—is increasingly dependent on financial market operations.
Our examination of the rise of derivatives should dispel the notion that they were somehow developed purely as a vehicle for speculation, and that if only they were done away with, or somehow curbed, then economic and financial stability could be restored.
Of course, like every other financial asset, derivatives have certainly become a vehicle for speculation, with disastrous consequences. But simply to focus on this is to ignore the fact that they arose as a means to try to overcome objective contradictions in the capitalist economy, caused by the breakdown of the previous system of regulation—to which the would-be reformers of the capitalist system would now like to return.
The history of derivatives recalls comments made by Marx on the growth of credit, which likewise arose as an attempt to overcome objective contradictions within the capitalist economy, but whose development served to impart to these contradictions an even more explosive form.
"In its first stages," Marx wrote, "this system [credit] furtively creeps in as the humble assistant of accumulation ... but it soon becomes a new and terrible weapon in the battle of competition and is finally transformed into an enormous social mechanism for the centralisation of capitals" [Marx, Capital Volume I pp. 777-778].
If we were to adapt Marx's comments to the present day, we could say that derivatives first entered the scene as the humble servant of finance capital, offering to protect it against risk, but ended up creating the risk of the greatest financial disaster in history.
A turning point in the curve of capitalist development
There is another process we must examine to round out our review of financialisation. That is the phenomenon of securitisation, which has played such a crucial role in the mortgage crisis.
In the days of national regulation, US banks operated according to the so-called "3-6-3 model". Money borrowed at 3 percent was lent out at 6 percent, whereupon the bank manager could go to the golf course at 3 o'clock.
This model broke down under the impact of the rapid interest rate hikes at the beginning of the 1980s and the financialisation of the economy that followed. Banks now had to compete with other financial institutions for funds. But that was not possible on the basis of the old model, where loans were originated and then held by the bank, which then recouped the interest payments. The originate-and-hold model meant that large amounts of capital were tied up for long periods of time. Banks and other financial institutions could increase their profits and remain competitive only to the extent that they could turn over their capital at a faster rate.
The way forward lay in transforming the financial assets they held into bonds, and selling them off. This, though, presented another problem because, unlike the bonds issued by a company such as IBM or General Motors, the underlying asset, in this case mortgages, are not uniform. How then could the bank convert a pool of differentiated mortgages into a security that could be traded like a bond, so that investors would only have to examine the interest rate and the maturity date, without being concerned with the security of the underlying asset?
The solution was to create a pool of mortgages and then issue a series of bonds on which interest was paid out of the money coming in from mortgage repayments. The pool was divided up in a series of tranches, with interest rates paid according to the level of risk of each tranche, the least secure paying the highest rates. Credit rating agencies supplied the risk assessment. These agencies developed various models of risk, on which they based the ratings. In many cases the investment banks issuing the bonds worked closely with the agencies to ensure that the bonds were structured in such a way as to receive the best rating. And investment banks like Lehman Brothers could, and did, sell these bonds around the world to German banks, British banks, or to Australian local councils seeking to boost their funds.
The process of securitisation replaced the "originate-and-hold" model with "originate-and-distribute". The originators had no need to undertake a risk assessment, because as soon as the mortgage was finalised it would be sold off as part of a securitised package. The bank would receive income in fees from the sale, enabling it to finance new mortgages and repeat the process. Capital could be turned over many times faster than before, with a resultant rise in profits.
Mortgages were increasingly financed without regard to capacity to pay, because the general assumption was that house prices would continue to rise—not since the 1930s had there been a uniform fall in home prices across the United States—so that mortgages could always be refinanced or, failing that, the house could be sold for a profit.
We have now examined the various components of this crisis. What then are its historical implications? The first point is that it is not merely a product of massive losses. That would be one thing. But here we have the collapse of a whole regime of accumulation, a regime that developed in response to the last crisis of accumulation in the 1970s.
The banks and financial institutions can no longer continue on the basis of the originate-and-distribute model. Nor can they return to the previous model.
We have arrived at a turning point in what Leon Trotsky called the "curve of capitalist development". Following the crisis of the 1970s and the downswing of the 1980s, a new upswing began in the 1990s, based on the integration of ultra-cheap labour into the global circuits of capital. This facilitated a new mode of accumulation—highly unstable as the financial crises of the past 20 years reveal—but an upswing, nonetheless. It has now come to a shattering end.
To be continued | <urn:uuid:c33cfcad-39ba-442c-9c68-8ae114771aa0> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2008/12/nbe4-d23.html | 2015-04-01T17:52:58Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131305143.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172145-00012-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968298 | 4,050 |
The query optimizer is one of the most complex pieces of code in the SQL Server database engine. The optimizer's job is to generate a query plan, which is a set of steps that SQL Server will take to carry out a user query. The optimizer makes decisions such as which indexes to use for each table, which join method to use and in which order to process the joined tables, whether to build an internal worktable to hold intermediate results, whether to perform an internal sort, and whether to run the query on multiple processors.
In the next few months, I'll tell you about many of the changes to SQL Server's query optimizer that Microsoft introduced in the last two releases. This month, I look at the optimizer's background and describe ways the optimizer has changed. In upcoming articles, I'll show you examples of queries that are optimized differently in SQL Server 2000 and 7.0 than in previous releases and that perform better because of the changes.
The Old Days
Before SQL Server 7.0, the optimizer had very few choices to make. It evaluated each possibly useful index and either chose one of them or chose to perform a table scan. SQL Server could process a JOIN operation in only one way, so the optimizer needed to decide only the order in which to join the tables. SQL Server could process GROUP BY and DISTINCT queries in only one way, and a query couldn't run on multiple processors.
The optimizer in SQL Server 6.5 and earlier releases was so straightforward that once you understood the way it worked and the way SQL Server could use indexes, you could predict fairly accurately what the query plan would (or should) be, even before running the query. If the optimizer didn't produce the plan you thought it should, you could enable a couple of trace flags to see the steps that the optimizer took to determine the plan and all the potential plans the optimizer considered. In addition, the optimizer had so few choices to make that if it didn't make the best choice, Microsoft considered it a bug. In effect, you had an implied guarantee that the optimizer's query plan was always the best plan.
For SQL Server 7.0, Microsoft completely rewrote the optimizer and added many query-processing techniques. The updated optimizer was completely modular so that as Microsoft developers added new processing techniques to the product, they could easily amend the optimizer to consider each new technique in any query plan.
The query optimizer in SQL Server 7.0 and later releases is orders of magnitude more complex than its predecessors. SQL Server can use so many different processing strategies that, for many queries, it's almost impossible to predict which plan the optimizer will choose. These releases also have no equivalent to the trace flags that showed you the plans the optimizer was considering, probably because the optimizer goes through hundreds of thousands of steps to choose each plan, so the output of such trace flags would be too complex to use.
As I mentioned, before SQL Server 7.0, you had a kind of guarantee that the optimizer would find the best plan to process your query as long as the optimizer had all the information it needed. If you, as a programmer, could use a query hint and make the query perform better, it meant that the optimizer hadn't come up with the best plan, and Microsoft usually considered this to be a bug. SQL Server 2000 and 7.0 carry no such guarantee, either implicit or explicit. In these releases, the optimizer's goal is to find a "good-enough" plan. In most cases, this plan will be the best—but not always.
You can think of the current optimizer's processes for coming up with a query plan as cyclical, with each iteration of the cycle trying a more complex plan. For example, the first iteration might evaluate the cost of using only each table's clustered index and a simple nested-loop join. If that approach doesn't produce a good plan, the optimizer might evaluate nonclustered indexes, then different join methods, then try using multiple indexes.
As the optimizer evaluates increasingly complex plans, it calculates the cost-benefit ratio of continuing to search for a better plan than any it has found so far. For example, suppose the optimizer spends 1ms finding a plan that it estimates will take 30ms to execute, then determines that it might find a plan that would run in 25ms—but finding it would take 2 more seconds. SQL Server will usually decide that the cost of continued searching isn't worth the benefit. So, it uses the plan that takes 30ms, which the optimizer decided was good enough.
If you think that plan isn't good enough, you could try modifying your query with hints. You might find that by using hints to force SQL Server to use particular indexes and join methods, you can reduce the execution time to 25ms. The fact that you can find a faster plan is no longer considered an optimizer bug; it's a choice. It was SQL Server's choice to stop the optimizer from continuing to search for a better plan. And you have a choice, too—whether to use the hint in your code for that 5ms performance gain.
Can You Take a Hint?
I don't intend to fully explain all the query hints you can use when writing SQL Server queries. Not all hints affect the plan that the query optimizer chooses; quite a few query hints control the locking mechanisms that SQL Server uses when executing a query, so they're irrelevant to this discussion. However, I want to make sure you understand a couple of important details about hints.
First, a hint isn't really a hint as we know it. In English, a hint is a gentle suggestion, but in SQL Server terms, a hint is more like an order. Unless the order is physically or logically impossible, SQL Server will obey any hint you give it.
Also, bear in mind that a hint that improves your query performance today might make it worse tomorrow. Once you use a hint to tell SQL Server how to process your query, you lose all benefit of the incredibly sophisticated query optimizer. A change in your data distribution because of updates or batch loads might mean that the hinted query plan is no longer optimal, but the optimizer can't decide to disregard the hint and come up with a better plan.
Running the Numbers
One of the most important things the query optimizer needs for decision-making is accurate, up-to-date statistical information about your data values and their distribution. Although the way that SQL Server tracks statistics has changed over the years, the idea is still the same. Statistics give the optimizer a way to make an educated guess about an index's usefulness.
For example, you're probably familiar with the basic structure of a nonclustered index, in which the leaf level has a pointer (also called a bookmark) for every data row in the table. Suppose you have a nonclustered index on a field called lastname. Every lastname value in the table, including duplicates, is in the leaf level of the index, and a pointer indicates where to find that row in the table. The last names in the index's leaf level are in order, so all the names that start with Mc are near each other. However, the corresponding table rows might be on separate data pages, possibly spread out over dozens of pages. A query to find all those surnames might look like this:
SELECT lastname, firstname, address, phone FROM PeopleTable WHERE lastname LIKE 'Mc%'
In general, a nonclustered index is useful only if you need to access a very few rows through the index. If you need to access a lot of rows, scanning the whole table might be more efficient because SQL Server wouldn't have to follow all the bookmark pointers. How many rows are "a lot" depends on many factors, including the size of the table, the percentage of rows to be accessed, and the number of rows that fit on a page. I've found that if a query needs to access less than 1 percent of a table's rows, SQL Server can effectively use a nonclustered index that helps locate those rows. Of course, that's just a ballpark figure; every query and index will have their own cutoff point. (For more details about the use of indexes, see my July 2001 column, "Are You in Tune?" InstantDoc ID 21038.)
How can SQL Server know, before your query has executed, whether the table contains a lot of names that start with Mc or only a few? The answer is that it can get an estimate by examining the index statistics. As I mentioned, the format of statistics changed completely in SQL Server 7.0 and again in SQL Server 2000. For details about how SQL Server 2000 stores statistics, see the Microsoft white paper "Statistics Used by the Query Optimizer in Microsoft SQL Server 2000" at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library /default.asp?url=/library/techart/statquery .htm. My October 2001 column, "Statistically Speaking," InstantDoc ID 22075, contains additional information about how SQL Server uses index statistics.
For DBAs, one of the most welcome additions that Microsoft made in SQL Server 7.0 was automatic statistics updates. Before SQL Server 7.0, a DBA had to remember to update the statistics on indexes every time data volumes and distribution changed. For example, if last week you had half a dozen customers in Arkansas and you ran a query looking for customers in that state, a nonclustered index on state might have been useful. This week, you acquired two Arkansas-based companies whose customer lists contain thousands of names. Now, using the index that was appropriate last week might give horrible performance. The optimizer in SQL Server 6.5 wouldn't know about the new Arkansas customers unless you manually updated the statistics. Worse, you had no way to update all the statistics in a database. You could use the UPDATE STATISTICS command on only one table at a time, and you'd have to write your own procedure to access every table in the database if you wanted to update all database statistics as part of regular maintenance.
SQL Server 2000 and 7.0 have a database setting called auto update statistics that's set to TRUE by default. Every time an internally defined percentage of values in an index changes, the optimizer updates statistics before trying to determine the optimal plan. In addition, SQL Server 2000 and 7.0 have a stored procedure called sp_updatestats that updates the statistics on every index in the current database.
A related feature Microsoft added in SQL Server 7.0 lets you exclude individual indexes from automatic statistics updates. You can use the WITH NORECOMPUTE option with the UPDATE STATISTICS command to override the database setting of auto update statistics for individual indexes. These options give you almost total control over index-statistics updates.
Put the Optimizer to Work
The optimizer is now so modular and so easy to enhance that Microsoft frequently adds query-processing techniques in service packs without mentioning them in the README file. For most people, that's not a problem. If SQL Server starts performing better after an update to a new service pack, most people won't complain. However, for someone like me who writes and speaks about the optimizer and the various query-processing techniques, it means a recheck of all my demos and sample files after every service-pack upgrade to make sure that my query plans are what I expect them to be. I don't always remember to do this, and I've been taken by surprise in front of an audience more than once. Next month, I'll tell you about some optimizer changes that have caused me embarrassment. And I'll show you some examples of queries that take advantage of these and other improvements in SQL Server. | <urn:uuid:83beb584-5fd4-4717-bec9-4ac6875e049a> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://sqlmag.com/print/t-sql/inside-optimization | 2015-03-27T12:23:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131296383.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172136-00080-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937722 | 2,444 |
Spring Flowering Bulbs: Daffodils
Division of Plant Sciences
Few garden plants give as much pleasure with as little effort as daffodils. They are one of the most vigorous and colorful flowers of spring. With good drainage they thrive in most soils, although they prefer a medium-heavy loam.
Planting of naturalized daffodils.
Daffodil, narcissus or jonquil?
Much confusion has existed over the proper name for these plants. Actually, both daffodil and narcissus are correct. Narcissus is the generic botanical name given these plants in 1753. In England, however, the plants commonly were known as daffodils. This term was carried to other countries by English-speaking people. Jonquil refers to a specific kind of narcissus, and is not correct for the group in general. True jonquils have a reedlike leaf and sweet-smelling flowers. Narcissus, then, is the correct botanical name for the genus; daffodil is the correct common name for all members of the genus; and jonquil correctly refers to one particular division of the genus.
Parts of the daffodil flower.
Parts of the flower
The daffodil flower is distinctive in form and consists of a central whorl of tepals (the corona) surrounded by a ring of petals (Figure 1). Daffodils may be separated into 13 major divisions based on several distinctive forms of the flower (Figure 2).
Corona, trumpet or cup
The center part of the flower, which may range from a long, tubular part to a short, flattened disc. If the corona is longer than the petals, it is commonly referred to as a trumpet; if it is shorter, it is known as a cup.
The circle of three petals and three sepals surrounding the central cup or trumpet.
Length of perianth segment
Refers to the petal length from its junction with the corona to its tip.
Length of the corona
Measured from its junction with the petal to the end of its furthest extension when flattened out.
Perhaps the most exacting need of daffodils is good drainage. Bulbs planted in poorly drained locations become weakened, fail to flower and often develop bulb rots. Bulbs in locations that remain moist during summer when soils are very warm develop rots easily. If drainage cannot be improved, raised beds should be built for the daffodils
Daffodils must have sunlight to continue to develop and flower year after year. Since much of their growth is completed before trees fully leaf out, they may be grown beneath trees. In such locations, they may need additional water and fertilizer to compete with tree roots. Plant them where they get at least a half day of sunlight. Avoid north sides of buildings and tall, dense trees such as evergreens.
Because of their need for well-drained conditions, they grow poorly in tight soils that have poor internal drainage even though a location with good surface drainage has been chosen. The natural soil type should not deter anyone from growing daffodils, however, as soils may be improved.
Since the base of the bulbs should be set 5 to 6 inches below the soil surface, and since root feeding is below that level, soil should be worked deeply — about 10 to 12 inches. Light soils generally will not need many amendments, but in heavy clay soils add liberal quantities of coarse sand and some organic material such as peat moss or leaf mold. Animal manures tend to encourage the development of basal rot. In tight soil, as much as six bushels of organic material per 100 square feet of bed area may be added.
Daffodils do not require heavy fertilization. When preparing the beds, use 2 to 3 pounds of a complete garden fertilizer such as a 6-24-24 or other fertilizer with a 1:4:4 or 1:3:3 N-P-K ratio. Incorporate this fertilizer into 100 square feet of soil along with the sand and organic material. Packaged bulb food is convenient to use. When planting bulbs in clumps rather than beds, about a handful of fertilizer per 12 bulbs will be adequate. Be sure to mix the fertilizer thoroughly with the soil. Never place it directly in the bottom of the hole. A high fertilizer concentration can kill newly emerging roots and promote bulb rots.
Where to plant
Daffodils are suitable for the shrub border, perennial beds and among groundcovers. They should be planted in groups of three to a dozen bulbs of one variety for the best effect. They are especially suitable for planting in front of evergreens that provide background and wind protection. Those planted near the house foundation in a southern exposure or those on a southern slope generally flower earlier than the same variety in another location.
Time to plant
Daffodils must have time to develop a good root system before cold weather sets in and the soil freezes. For this reason, planting before mid-October is generally best. In areas where cold weather arrives late, planting as late as Thanksgiving may still give good results. Select large, firm, healthy bulbs to get the most from your planting.
Daffodils should be spaced 6 to 12 inches apart. For a quick display, the closer spacing should be used. Close spacing will require digging the bulbs about every three to five years. If you prefer to leave bulbs in one location longer, the wider spacing should be used.
Depth of planting
Daffodils should be planted so the base of the bulb is about 6 inches below the soil surface. In light soils, bulbs may be planted about 8 inches deep.
Mulching daffodils helps keep soil temperature uniform, keeps down weeds and prevents mud spatter on the flowers during heavy spring rains. Pine needles, wood chips, shredded bark and aged sawdust are all good mulching materials. Peat moss tends to shed water and it splashes blooms badly during hard rains.
Daffodils must have good moisture to flower well. If rainfall is deficient, be sure to water bulbs well after planting and during the fall so that they can develop good roots. If the autumn or winter is dry or if the daffodils are planted under trees, be sure to give additional moisture.
Daffodils need little care during the early spring. Established bulbs should be fertilized lightly each spring just as the leaves begin to come through the soil. Scatter a handful of a garden or bulb fertilizer lightly around each clump. Be careful not to get it on the new leaves or they may be burned. If any gets on the foliage, wash it off promptly. In naturalized areas, spread the fertilizer uniformly over the surface and water it in.
Both during and after flowering, daffodils need plenty of moisture to make active growth. During the summer, when the bulbs are dormant, they should remain fairly dry. Therefore, unless they are removed, daffodils should not be planted in beds that are heavily watered in summer.
The leaves manufacture the food that is stored in the bulb and helps produce flowers the following year. Foliage should be allowed to remain on the plant undisturbed for eight weeks after bloom. After that period, it can be removed by hand-picking. The use of a knife or scissors to remove foliage encourages the spread of virus diseases and should be avoided. Tying the leaves together cuts down the amount of light they receive and reduces food production. When planted in borders, mix daffodils with daylilies, ferns or other plants that partially hide the foliage but still allow it to manufacture food for the bulb. Flower heads should be promptly removed to prevent seed production.
If bulbs have not been planted too close together, daffodils need digging only about every five to 10 years. Usually, when flowering is reduced or flower size becomes smaller, the time for digging and dividing has come.
Dig the bulbs while the foliage is dying and can still be seen so bulbs can be located. A spading fork is best to prevent bruising while digging.
Do not let bulbs lie in the hot sun after they have been dug. Remove loose soil and allow bulbs to dry in shallow trays, onion sacks or old nylon stockings.
Never pile up bulbs while drying or those on the inner part of the pile will be ruined. Allow bulbs to dry in a cool, well-ventilated place for several weeks. Discard any that rot.
After bulbs are dry, the offsets may be removed from the mother bulb, provided they can be separated easily (Figure 3). Remove old, dried skins and roots. After division, place them in a cool, dry location in shallow trays or porous sacks until planting time in the fall. Burlap sacks do not give enough ventilation. Some of the poeticus narcissi have a short dormant period and should be planted immediately after drying.
Offsets may be removed when the bulb is dry.
Insects and diseases
Daffodils have few insect and disease pests. Healthy bulbs planted in good location will have few problems once established.
Bulb rots are perhaps the most frequent cause of disappointment. Plants that have been attacked may not emerge or may have weak or blighted leaves. Bulbs usually begin to rot at the base.
To control the problem, plant high-quality bulbs, well cured and free of cuts or bruises. Well-drained soil is essential to keep the problem from developing. Avoid over-fertilization, especially with nitrogen or manure. Diseased plants should be immediately destroyed so the problem does not spread.
Forcing daffodils for indoors
Daffodils are not difficult to force in the home. Begin the forcing process about Oct. 1. Large bulbs will force best. Soaking the bulbs in a rooting hormone for 24 hours before planting helps develop good root growth. Use a 6- to 8-inch pot with drainage. Use a well-drained soil and fill the pot to 2 inches from the top. Add the bulbs close together and fill the pot with soil. About 5 bulbs may be planted in a 6-inch pot. The noses of the bulbs should be exposed. Water plants thoroughly. Fertilizer will not be needed.
Place the pots in a trench outdoors and cover with soil or soil and leaf mold or peat moss so the pots are covered about 6 inches. The pots may be taken indoors for forcing when they show good top growth and flower buds are clearly visible. This usually takes 10 to 12 weeks. When the pots are first taken indoors, they should be kept in a cool room where temperatures are about 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit for about two weeks. During the next two weeks, they should have temperatures about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. By this time flowers should begin to open and plants may be moved where desired. Keep the plants well watered. Not all varieties force well. In general, the earliest bloom for plants forced in this way is Valentine's Day. Some cultivars that force well are Abba, Avalanche, Beryl, Bridal Crown, Cantitrice, Carbineer, Carlton, Cragford, February Gold, Fortune, Geranium, King Alfred, Peeping Tom, Printal, Saint Keverne and Silver Chimes.
Selecting varieties for outdoors
Many daffodil cultivars are available in a wide range of types and prices. Most can be grown with some success in our area. Others show more vigor and durability. We cannot begin to name all suitable cultivars. Gardeners are urged to access the American Daffodil Society website, www.daffodilusa.org, for a complete list of cultivars. If a desired cultivar is not available locally, it generally can be obtained from bulb and daffodil specialists commonly listed in popular garden magazines. | <urn:uuid:32614db0-e288-40e2-a828-a05475f4faab> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.extension.missouri.edu/p/G6610 | 2015-03-27T11:57:57Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131296383.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172136-00080-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939709 | 2,474 |
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|T O P I C R E V I E W
||Posted - 04 mars 2008 : 19:49:34
UPDATED BY GPSPASSION 20110616 : The Q2/2011 edition is now available via Navigon Fresh, that would normally translate to Navteq Q4/2010 maps.
UPDATED BY GPSPASSION 20110419 : The Q1/2011 edition is now available via Navigon Fresh, that would normally translate to Navteq Q3/2010 maps.
UPDATED BY GPSPASSION 20110110 : The Q4/2010 edition is now available via Navigon Fresh, that would normally translate to Navteq Q2/2010 maps.
UPDATED BY GPSPASSION 20101025 : The Q3/2010 edition is now available via Navigon Fresh, that would normally translate to Navteq Q1/2010 maps.
UPDATED BY GPSPASSION 20100726 : The Q2/2010 edition is now available via Navigon Fresh, that would normally translate to Navteq Q4/2009 maps.
UPDATED BY GPSPASSION 20100427 : The Q1/2010 edition is now available via Navigon Fresh, that would normally translate to Navteq Q3/2009 maps.
MAC version of the Fresh software (OS X, v10.5 and above) also available.
UPDATED BY GPSPASSION 20091207 : The Q3/2009 edition is now available via Navigon Fresh, that would normally translate to Navteq Q1/2008 maps.
UPDATED BY GPSPASSION 20090520 : Q2/2009 edition available, that would normally translate to Navteq Q4/2008 maps.
UPDATED BY GPSPASSION 20090128 - New Q1/2009 Freshmaps available, details in this topic.
UPDATED BY GPSPASSION 20081105 - As expected the new Navigon Q4/2008 Maps (Navteq Q2/2008) maps are now available via the FreshMaps program as well as a free MN|7 update for the 2100max and 2120max models. A good surprise since software upgrades are far and between on GPS systems. Not such a good surprise is TMC Traffic information that has stopped working properly with the Q4/2008 maps as discussed in this topic in detail.
As a side-note, if you don't have your Navigon Fresh subscrition yet, you can get it here for a low $25 vs the $79 MSRP.
UPDATED BY GPSPASSION 20080801 - The Navigon FreshMaps program has now launched in the US, just in time to meet the July 31st deadline for the release of Q3/2008 FreshMaps that are in fact Navteq Q1/2008 maps. Still these are the most up to date maps available on a GPS system at this point, Garmin's "2009 maps" being Navteq 2007 based, and represents a little revolution in the world of GPS where getting map updates has always been problematic. The fact that Navigon are only asking $79 (street price : $59) for 3 years and 12 map updates makes it a deal that's difficult to pass on. Forum member aljacket has downloaded the maps and has started sharing his thoughts on page 3.
Navigon is going to a subscription model for map updates. It actually looks like one heck of a deal to me.
Basically you pay $79 and you get 12 map downloads over a 3 year period. They say they will release a map update whenever navteq does an update. That's less then $7 per map update if you download them all.
"NAVIGON Unveils Fresh Approach to Map Updates - NAVIGON's FreshMaps provides users with three years of quality map updates
CHICAGO, March 4, 2008 – NAVIGON, the fastest growing brand in GPS navigation in North America, today announced a bold solution to a conundrum that is as old as the consumer GPS category itself: how to provide consumers regular, easy access to quality map updates.
NAVIGON's convincing response to the dilemma is FreshMaps, a new service that ensures NAVIGON GPS devices stay accurate and viable over the long haul by allowing users to download up to 12 map updates in three years. NAVIGON FreshMaps is available for all NAVIGON 7100, 5100, and 2100/2120 series devices and can be purchased online and at major North American retail outlets for $79.99 (MSRP)... continues here on the Navigon site.
They have also announced a new 2100 model called the 2100 max, see this topic (ed)
|15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
||Posted - 05 nov. 2012 : 14:45:12
Maybe, but I still downloaded the latest maps from Fresh a couple months ago, and can still log into the Navigon site, but the Navigon site no longer lists my devices with Fresh subscriptions, which is why I cannot do a zip download.
||Posted - 05 nov. 2012 : 10:26:31
I thought they stop stop supporting Navigon this past summer?
||Posted - 05 nov. 2012 : 05:32:40
I am using the older version, specifically 1.4.7.
||Posted - 05 nov. 2012 : 02:31:41
Well there is a problem, unless I am just missing something. I am able to launch fresh and login, but when I try to select my device, I get a message that indicates something to the effect that my software is not currently supported.
Are you using the older version of fresh, or a newer version where you must create a new account with garmin?
||Posted - 04 nov. 2012 : 20:52:27
I still cannot get the updates from the website, but Fresh works, and I save the zip that is temporarily downloaded as a backup.
If you have fresh, try using the website as that should include all the software along with the maps which you will need if you wiped your flash.
||Posted - 03 nov. 2012 : 16:50:59
elkinm, were you ever able to find a zip file of the last update you were able to download?
I have a 8100T that kept locking up on me this past week. So I thought I would try refreshing the card, but find I did not keep the last file I downloaded.
I would appreciate any help you might be able to provide.
||Posted - 06 juin 2012 : 01:27:33
Big waste of time, it is no deal unless you send your old unit back and pay the postage
||Posted - 04 juin 2012 : 01:14:21
Thanks for that info... I'll try calling them to see what they will do for a 5100 exchange.
||Posted - 04 juin 2012 : 01:06:15
They sent me a E-Mail
Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I will be happy to help
you with this. Over the past year, Navigon has been acquired by Garmin
International. Because of this, there is no way to correct or update
your device. Garmin will be happy to exchange your Navigon 2100 max for
a Nuvi 2455LT unit for $99. This will be a new device, however it will
only have a 90 day warranty. If you would like to find out more
information on this device, please click on the following link.
If you would like to do this, please contact the Garmin/Navigon phone
number, 866-273-4271, as we cannot take payment via email. Our phone
hours are Mon-Thur, 8-6 Central, and Fri, 8-5. If you have any other
questions, please reply to this email. Thank you.
||Posted - 03 juin 2012 : 02:05:36
Hmmm.. I have an old Navigon 5100. I wonder what they would charge me for an uypgrade of some sort for that unit ?
How did you learn of the upgrade possibility from Garmin ?
||Posted - 03 juin 2012 : 01:56:14
Anyone get the E-Mail from Garmin?
Over the past year, Navigon has been acquired by Garmin
International. Because of this, there is no way to correct or update
your device. Garmin will be happy to exchange your Navigon 2100 max for a Nuvi 2455LT unit for $99.
||Posted - 07 avr. 2012 : 07:25:59
Navigon Freshmaps Q1/2012 is out.
||Posted - 05 avr. 2012 : 16:37:33
Anyone tried to active a new Freshmap recently? Mine is going to end very soon.
||Posted - 19 févr. 2012 : 09:10:33
Just downloaded the Q4-2011 maps form FreshMaps. I still cannot get the standalone zip from the site so I did it with the app.
This map seems to induce all of North America as the previous had only the 48 states.
Also, this map changed how street names are displayed. Capital first letter then lower case. This also has a script which converts the routes and favorites to the new name format.
It was interesting to see the difference. Will see if I like it more on the road.
||Posted - 30 déc. 2011 : 03:47:14
free navigon 5100 max USA maps
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If you own a boat and feel proud of taking it out into the ocean or river every weekend, then you should also know how to take care of its various parts when the time comes. Suppose you are in the middle of the ocean and your boat breaks down, and ... read more then you will be the only one ready to repair the boat quickly. You can call people for help, but they may take a long time to arrive. One of the most important parts of a boat that every boat owner should know about is the boat fuel system lines and connectors. The fuel line assembly is a special fuel line with a primer bulb in the center that connects the fuel tank with the boat engine.
The fuel line assembly can get old after some years of use, may deteriorate, get cracked and can start leaking the fuel. One of the symptoms of leaky fuel line is that the engine does not start as soon and may stop in the middle. Also, you may smell the gas leaking from such a cracked fuel line. If the crack is not so prominent and visible, you can inspect it by holding the fuel line in your hands, and if your hands get stained by fuel, then you know there is some leak.
What Tools and Parts do I Need for Repairing Marine Fuel Systems? In the case of fuel leakage, it becomes crucial to change the fuel line assembly for your boat as soon as possible. For this, you will need some basic tools such as an ike 5/8” wrench, new fuel line assembly (with a primer bulb fitted in), Teflon tape and fuel tank fittings. You can use either the Teflon tape or liquid Teflon – both are good sealants. In general, there are two types of fuel line assemblies – one for overboard use and another one for using in the boats with enclosed engine room. The fuel line assembly and fuel tank fittings vary for different boats, so you should ask your local boat repair shop for the parts that are suitable for your boat.
Change the Fuel Tank Fitting First of all, you will have to replace the fuel tank fitting. You can use the 5/8” wrench to unscrew the old fitting out quickly. If the fitting is jammed, then you should not use excessive force on it, but instead drop some mineral alcohol on the fitting threads, wait some time and then try again. Once your old fitting is out, you can wrap a little Teflon tape on the threads of the new fuel tank fitting before screwing it back. Make sure you tighten the fitting using the 5/8” wrench, but not too much as it may crack the plastic fuel tank portion.
Change the Fuel Line The first thing you should check on the new fuel line is the arrow on the primer bulb. The arrow on the bulb should always point towards the boat motor (engine). This is because when you use the bulb to pump the fuel, it goes into the direction of the arrow. Take the fuel tank end of the fuel line and firmly plug it into the fuel tank fitting. Similarly, you have to take the motor end of the fuel line and then plug it into the motor fitting securely.
Dispose off the Old Fuel Line and Fittings Now that you have installed new boat fuel system lines and connectors in your boat, make sure that you dispose of the old fuel line responsibly. Do not fling it into the ocean or river or dump it into your waste bin as it can be hazardous to small children and other animals. The fuel line still has oil in it, and it is inflammable. You should wrap it inside a plastic bag and then take it to a particular bin called hazardous material bin to dump it there.
You should always wear protective eye, hand and foot gear for safety reasons. Because you are working with the fuel tank and fuel lines, you should also keep a fire extinguisher with you for emergencies. It is also advisable that you work in a well-ventilated area as the fumes from the fuel can make you drowsy pretty quick. read less
Vacuum testing your boat fuel system, presented by Bill Grannis of Marine Technician Today Magazine. ... read more By Bill Grannis (Marine Technician Today Magazine; Fall 2013)
An adequate supply of gasoline in liquid form is essential for the health and performance of a marine engine. Symptoms of fuel irregularities include vapor lock, surging, or power loss frequently resulting in engine damage. Often a powerhead failure is blamed on the motor manufacturer when the real culprit is detonation from running too lean – not enough fuel delivery. Multiple engine failures are almost always fuel related.
Anything hindering the flow of gasoline overworks the fuel pump and increases fuel-line vacuum as power output increases. Plugged pickup screens, faulty anti-siphon valves, kinked hoses, plugged filters, or selector valve problems are common offenders. The reduced fuel flow makes an engine run lean at high power settings, contributing to detonation and powerhead damage. In addition, elevated vacuum causes gasoline to vapor lock (boil) at lower temperatures.
High vacuum in a fuel line lowers the boiling point of gasoline whose vapor expands many times its liquid volume. The temperature at which this occurs varies with the amount of vacuum and the volatility of the gasoline. On a hot summer day with alcohol enhanced fuels (E-10) combined with some type of fuel restriction, an engine may surge, stall or fail to start as vapor lock occurs.
Inches of mercury (Hg) is the accepted measurement of vacuum. Manufacturers recommend maximum readings for their motors. Johnson-Evinrude specifications say not to exceed 4” Hg at any speed. Yamaha states no more than 4.5” Hg for smaller than 200 hp and 6” Hg for those above. Mercury specifies 2.5” Hg. A healthy fuel system normally indicates about 2.5” to 3.5” Hg at full flow. The anti-siphon valve accounts for about 1.8” Hg and a spin-on fuel filter adds about 0.5” Hg. Fittings and selector valves with small internal passageways and/or convoluted hose routings increase the reading. Every 12” of lift to the motor adds about 0.6” Hg.
Improper clamps, rusty filters and loose fittings may allow air to leak into the fuel system while underway. Fuel pumps mix the air bubbles and fuel into a froth similar to a “head” of beer. Instead of moving a specific volume of liquid gasoline, the pump feeds this aerated fuel to the engine. The foamy concoction causes lean mixtures, rapidly increasing combustion temperatures and the possibility of detonation.
To evaluate the fuel system, obtain a vacuum gauge, fittings, a pipe-T and clear line. A decent vacuum gauge costs around $10–$20 and is available from hardware stores, industrial-supply companies, or online. Inexpensive automotive pressure/vacuum gauges are not recommended and name-brand professional gauges are preferred if you do not want to make your own.
Precise results cannot be achieved if the motor is run on a “flusher”. Warm up the motor first and attach the test assembly to the fuel-pump input fitting. Do not squeeze the primer bulb as the resulting pressure may damage the vacuum gauge. Have a qualified driver operate the boat in a safe and calm area. Run at all speeds allowing the fuel flow to stabilize first as you monitor the gauge and watch for air bubbles.
Occasional bubbles may be from fuel sloshing but a steady stream is cause for concern. Long sausage-shaped bubbles may indicate a restriction or the onset of vapor-lock. Tighten hose clamps, check threaded fittings, and secure the spin-on fuel filter element. As a fuel-line ages, it loses pliability and may allow air leakage under clamps. Do not overlook primer bulbs, engine-mounted filters, cracked gas-tank pickup tubes, or quick-release fuel-connectors as problem areas.
High vacuum readings are relatively easy to find and correct. A visual inspection of the fuel system may reveal a kinked hose or a fuel-selector valve not fully open. If a filter has not been changed recently, it should be replaced. A defective anti-siphon valve is common and do not overlook the possibility of debris in the pickup tube elbow or screen. Fittings and fuel-selector valves that have small passageways restrict the flow at high rpms. Any internal passageway size should be 1/4” minimum. Use a drillbit shank to check the inner diameter.
To narrow down a problem, unhook the gauge from the motor and connect it to the fuel-tank pickup. This quickly determines if the tank or the plumbing is at fault. Fasten the tester to each connection in turn to discover which component is suspect. Should the tank be questionable, remove the pickup inspect for cracks or trash, and test the anti-siphon valve. A plugged fuel-tank vent (or kinked vent hose) causes a steadily increasing vacuum as the motor is operated. Loosen the gas-cap to see if the vacuum returns to normal.
Sometimes the fuel has to be at a specific level or the boat at a certain trim angle before a problem manifests itself. A label or foil cap-seal often floats around and occasionally blocks the fuel pickup tube. For drivability issues such as surging or stalling, also fasten a pressure gauge on the fuel-pump outlet to determine if the pressure is within spec. read less
NAME: Fuel Vents & Fuel System Accessories
Servicing your fuel system, presented by Bill Grannis of Marine Technician Today Magazine. ... read more
Tips and Tricks for Servicing Gas Systems By Bill Grannis (Marine Technician Today Magazine; Winter 2014)
Gas problems are probably the most common causes of engine issues with today’s motors, both inboard and outboard. Ethanol laced gasoline (E 10) deteriorates quickly forming deposits plus absorbs moisture which then settles in the bottom of the gas tank and other gas components. This moisture and alcohol mixture (phase separation) is more corrosive than ethanol by itself and that is what causes the damage to the rubber hoses and the metal parts.
First of all safety is paramount. Always work in a well-ventilated place with no open flames or smoking materials in the vicinity. Use common sense around gasoline or other flammable products and wear eye protection as you never know what may happen. To do the job correctly, always refer to the proper service manual and to latest service literature.
Due to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) emission regulations, many 2-storke outboardswith carburetors or fuel-injection are discontinued. However carbureted outboards outnumber all others by a wide margin and keeping these motors running requires an adequate flow of gasoline and lubricant. Fuel injection is common on 4-strokes which require more involved cleaning if the system becomes contaminated with deposits or debris. The injectors are easily restricted by stale gas, particles from electric gas pumps or corroding metals or damaged gas lines. The old saying “Cleanliness is next to Godliness,” applies to gas components as well as to human beings.
Outboard manufacturers and aftermarket suppliers promote additives that claim to magically clean fuel systems. Most contain alcohols to absorb water in the gas and their cleansing ingredients are not often successful in removing stale gas residue. They are not effective against plugged jets or varnish deposits; that requires disassembly and individual cleaning to do the job properly. Just removing the jets and spraying them with a solvent is not a recommended practice. The internal passageways, emulsion tubes, and calibration orifices need to be free and clear also.
Some shops use the automotive dip bucket and others have good luck with ultra-sonic cleaners with various solutions. In extreme cases you may need both items for hard to clean parts. 4-stroke carburetors may have very small passageways that are next to impossible to clean out if seriously varnished up. Aluminum parts corroded from phase-separated ethanol mixtures need replacement due to pitting and the loss of the protective anodizing.
It is best to have commonly needed parts on hand such as ty-raps, gaskets, and o-rings as those items should always be replaced. Use quality tools in good condition and of course, the proper ones for the job at hand. For example, the 60° Johnson and Evinrude V-4 and V-6 carburetors use special Pozidriv (often misspelled Pozidrive) screws that are easily mistaken for common Phillips screws.
Any screwdrivers with worn, chipped, or rounded blades should be demoted to opening paint cans. For carburetor work a cabinet screwdriver is invaluable. It has about the same blade width as the diameter of its shank and fits into blind holes for jet or screw removal because a traditional slotted screwdriver is much wider behind the tip.
Everyone has had at least one of those “ Oh $#!& “ moments when a tiny fastener or carb part rolls off the bench and disappears in the floor. To minimize any aggravating occurrences common kitchen items may be of assistance. Use a cookie sheet pan with raised sides to contain any small parts and to catch liquids that could spill from a carburetor or a vapor separator tank (VST) during disassembly.
Putting things back together is no fun if you do not have the parts organized at hand meaning that you waste time trying to figure out which item goes where. An ordinary muffin tin with its dozen holes makes for a great organizational device. Each cavity holds different items so they are kept together for quick access such as screws, carb jets, pump diaphragms, check balls, etc. Scope out the thrift stores and yard sales for muffin tins and cookie sheets. Your wife discovering that her kitchen utensils are stained with gasoline and grease will decrease any likelihood of marital bliss!
By incorporating these hints into your servicing procedures, system repairs become less time consuming with a greater chance of being done correctly the first time. read less | <urn:uuid:438c0568-aa46-44b3-8f2d-bb9724057292> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.iboats.com/Boat-Fuel-Systems-Lines-Connectors-3-8-Hose-Below-Deck/dm/attr_id.2412%3E2343--view_id.238169 | 2015-03-27T12:43:22Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131296383.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172136-00080-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933312 | 2,974 |
Police Internal Investigations Auditing Committee
November 12, 1999
(Approved December 9, 1999)
Citizen Advisors Present: Charles Ford, Presiding; Ric Alexander; Gene
Bales; Leora Mahoney; Jose Martinez; Dapo Sobomehin; Denise Stone; Robert Wells;
Citizen Advisors Absent: Les Frank (on leave of absence until January
City Staff Present: Capt. Bret Smith, IAD; Sgt. Jerry Jones, IAD; Sgt.
Jay Drum, IAD; Lynne Borden (IAD); Dr. Michael Hess, PIIAC Examiner
Media Present: Dan Handelman (Portland Copwatch)
Mr. Ford opened the meeting at approximately 5:30 p.m. The PIIAC Citizen
Advisors and the City Staff introduced themselves. Mr. Ford welcomed two new
PIIAC advisors, Mr. Martinez and Mr. Alexander.
PIIAC #99-21 (IAD #99-164)
Advisor Stone presented this case, offering a summary of the case and her
recommendations. The Appellant was present.
The complaint arose from a June 8, 1999, incident at the home of the
Appellant’s mother, where the Appellant was living. Her brother and her
brother’s two children were at the scene. The appellant’s brother called for
police intervention because the Appellant questioned the validity of a
restraining order against her. Officers responded to the brother’s call and,
after reviewing the restraining order, advised the Appellant that she had twenty
minutes to leave the premises.
Subsequently, after interviewing the Appellant’s mother and brother, Officer
A decided to place the Appellant in custody on mental hold and transport her to
a local mental health facility.
The Appellant filed the following complaints to IAD:
1. That officers violated the Appellant’s civil liberties by not allowing her
the twenty minutes specified in the restraining order to leave the premises;
2. That officers searched Appellant's belongings without her permission;
3. That officers violated General Orders by entering a private residence and
placing the Appellant on mental hold;
4. That officers considered evidence that was not found at the scene;
5. That officers failed to cite the specific law when making the arrest;
6. That officers were negligent in the performance of their duties;
7. That officers acted out of retaliation from a previous police
Advisor Stone then addressed each of the above complaints:
1. The conditions stated in the restraining order were superseded by the
officers' determination that the Appellant should be placed on mental hold.
2. Officers are required to search a person's belongings when placing the
person in custody for a mental hold.
3. Officers were invited into the residence to attest to the authenticity of
the restraining order.
4. Officers did not consider evidence that was not found on the scene.
(referring to a pitchfork that was not considered as evidence regarding the
5. Officers fully followed general orders regarding mental holds
6. Officers fully documented their decisions and actions in their reports.
7. There is no evidence to support the allegation of retaliation.
Advisor Stone recommended affirmation of the declination of an IAD
investigation as determined Capt. Smith.
Mr. Ford invited the Appellant to express her comments. The Appellant stated
The ORS (Oregon Revised Statutes) state that to be placed on mental hold a
person must be "suicidal or homicidal," so she should not have been placed on
mental hold. The residence was her residence also, not just that of her mother,
and that the officers were not invited in. The fact that four police officers
and a commanding officer entered the premises was an act of intimidation and
harassment. There was no reason for her to be placed in custody, since she was
intending to leave the residence as ordered by the restraining order.
The Appellant then passed around a copy of the restraining order.
Dr. Hess clarified that the ORS statute on officer mental hold does not
include the words suicidal or homicidal, but states rather that an officer "may
take into custody a person who the officer has probable cause to believe is
dangerous to self or any other person and
is in need of immediate care, custody, or treatment for mental illness."
(Quotation taken from Peace Officer's Pocket Guide to Oregon Revised
Advisor Wells asked the Appellant for further explanation of why she felt
intimidated by the police officers, and she reiterated that having four police
officers responding to a restraining order was in itself very intimidating.
Capt. Smith added that the officer who did the mental hold had been trained in
the CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) program to effectively communicate with
persons with mental health problems and that the person was subsequently
evaluated by a doctor.
Mr. Ford asked the appellant what her expectations were in coming before
PIIAC. The Appellant stated that in her opinion IAD fell very short of
evaluating what happened, so she wanted to take it to the next step.
Mr. Ford asked Ms. Stone to repeat her recommendation, which she then stated
in the form of a motion. Advisor Martinez seconded the motion. The motion
carried unanimously [Y-8].
PIIAC #99-18 (IAD #99-009)
Appellant was present. Advisor Wells presented this case as follows:
This was a very convoluted case concerning a series of incidents involving
the Appellant, Sergeant A, Captain A, an investigating Captain about Captain A,
and two staff members of IAD.
The Appellant alleges that Captain A' s conduct towards her on the telephone
was inappropriate and that this captain tried to get the Appellant to cease IAD
complaints against Sergeant A, whom the Appellant had contacted regarding a
photo-radar manual. IAD has bifurcated (split) the complaint against Captain A
and Sergeant A, and we are only dealing with the complaint against Captain A
tonight. The Appellant also alleges that Captain A deliberately lied to her
about obtaining public records.
The following background was given: the Appellant was caught by a photo radar
speed device. Although not issued a citation, she asked to view the photo-radar
manual. Since this manual is a manufacturer's proprietary document, Sergeant A
explained to the Appellant that in order for her to view it, there would have to
be a Portland Police
member present, and that according to City Ordinance a fee had to be charged
based on the hourly pay of the person supervising the reading of the document.
In her interview the Appellant expresses her feeling that the rates of
viewing the manual did not reflect the actual cost. The complaint regarding
conduct and procedure involving Captain A was somehow increased to that of
lying. The investigating officer did not allow the Appellant to rebut the lying
by Captain A, and the Appellant questioned the truthfulness of another IAD
investigator as well.
In the Appellant's written PIIAC complaint, the Appellant cites two criminal
statutes and feels that the investigating officer was wrong in not determining
criminal charges of Coercion, a Class C felony punishable by possible
penitentiary time, and Official Misconduct, a Class A Misdemeanor with possible
county jail time, against Captain A. The Appellant thus increased the severity
of her initial complaints of conduct and procedure to criminal allegations.
The record shows that Captain A advised the Appellant in writing that if she
was willing to wait until the photo-radar manual was transferred to Records, she
could then view the manual at less cost.
Advisor Wells then directed the following question to the Appellant. Does the
entire sequence of events, including Captain A and the IAD investigation, rise
to the level of felony and misdemeanor, which involve possible jail time or
The Appellant responded that she had come across the given ORS statutes and
she considered that Captain A's conduct in trying to get her to drop her
complaint against Sergeant A was so egregious that it warranted Capt.
Bennington's consideration of whether it met the criteria of a criminal act. She
wanted confirmation from Capt. Bennington that he had consulted with the City
Attorney's Office or with the D.A. about a possible coercion charge.
Mr. Ford asked Mr. Wells to continue his presentation. Mr. Wells asked why
Capt. A would lie to to the Appellant and make this into more than it is when he
corresponded with her and explained what she needed to do to have access to the
manual. He said that Capt. A's questions to the Appellant (What can I do to make
you happy? What can I do to make this go away?) were not in reference to the
Appellant's complaint about Sergeant A but rather reflected an effort on his
part to help the Appellant to understand the requirements of the public records
Mr. Ford then asked Mr. Wells to summarize his comments so that the committee
could move forward towards a decision based on the facts of this case. Mr. Wells
stated that all remained were his recommendations to the committee.
The Appellant stated that Captain A did not explain to her the public laws
regarding records. She said that the confusion arose from the fact that at that
time there was not a fee schedule or a mechanism for a member of the public to
review documents in the sole custody of the Traffic Division.
The Appellant then summarized her view of what was wrong with the
investigation of her complaint. She related her consternation at having her
picture taken by photo-radar and her frustration in calling the Traffic Division
and being told by a sergeant that she would be charged a substantial hourly fee
to read the photo-radar manual. She then filed an IAD complaint against the
sergeant based on her perception that his statements were meant as a threat to
impede her access to public records.
Mr. Ford asked the Appellant to summarize her complaint and to express her
expectations in appealing to PIIAC. The Appellant asked for an opportunity to
outline the lack of thoroughness and integrity of the IAD investigation, as
- That in the initial intake process the allegations of whether a criminal
action occurred were not looked into;
- That she was not fully interviewed;
- That pertinent details were omitted;
- That her statements were not accurately represented in the interview
- That tapes of some of her conversations with IAD intake personnel were not
in the file
- That the IAD investigator failed to consider a potential conflict of
interest in that a captain against whom the Appellant had a complaint
continued to conduct the investigation regarding Sergeant A.
Mr. Ford asked the Appellant at this point to allow the advisors to hear the
recommendations of the advisor who examined this case.
Advisor Wells proposed the following recommendations:
1. That the IAD inquiry regarding Captain A go no further and that the
inquiry of Captain A be noted as complete, objective, and fair.
2. That the original complaint against Sergeant A be treated as a completely
3. That the Monitoring Subcommittee look at IAD timeliness issues.
Ms. Mahoney seconded the motion.
After further discussion the advisors voted in favor of the motion. [Y -7]
Advisor Martinez abstained.
Mr. Ford thanked the Appellant and assured her that certain elements of her
complaint (e.g., fee schedules and access to public records) would be addressed
by PIIAC's Monitoring Subcommittee.
The Appellant then asked about the implications of Senate Bill 975 and
whether she would have access to the IAD files regarding her complaint against
Sergeant A. Capt. Smith explained that Senate Bill 975 has to do with the
release of personnel files when there is an unsustained finding. PIIAC
examinations are an exception. In the past, files regarding unsustained findings
were accessible to the appellant, but the Senate bill changed that.
Dr. Hess advised the Appellant to submit a written request within 30 days if
she desires to take her appeal before City Council.
The minutes of the October PIIAC meeting were approved. Mr. Ford announced
that there will be an election of officers at the December 9 meeting. Meeting
will be in the City Hall, since a meeting place in the community has not yet
A community member expressed her understanding that what the latter Appellant
was challenging was the ethics of the investigation. She pointed out that it is
a cause for concern whenever a citizen perceives that a public officer has been
Mr. Handelman from Portland Copwatch expressed grave concern about the
comments regarding Senate Bill 975. He said that PIIAC was created to provide
the public a window to Internal Affairs.
Capt. Smith reiterated that Senate Bill 975 does not affect PIIAC's access to
IAD files, but that individual appellants will no longer be able to get
unsustained files as they have in the past unless they meet certain criteria
established by law that is similar to sustained files. The Bureau is now looking
at the policies in regard to this. Mr. Handelman said that he hopes this will be
an issue that PIIAC follows up on.
Regarding procedural matters, Mr. Handelman suggested that instead of using
designations such as "Officer A," "Sergeant A," "Captain A," etc., it would be
less confusing if the examiner used different letters of the alphabet to
designate different persons. He also expressed his concerns about street police
officers who have not had full CIT training making decisions regarding mental
hold. Capt. Smith responded that all Portland Police officers have received
sufficient training to make these decisions and that the ORS does not require
police officers to have the full CIT training to make these decisions. Mr.
Handelman suggested again that there should be a flow chart available at PIIAC
meetings so that appellants will better understand PIIAC procedure.
The second appellant stated that she did feel that she was given sufficient
time to present her case because she had to use most of her time to answer the
questions of the advisors. Mr. Ford disagreed, stating that she was given ample
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by
Michael H. Hess, D.D.S. | <urn:uuid:6935ee01-8ec8-45ec-a807-1867b62be5d2> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?a=8370&c=27387 | 2015-03-27T12:05:58Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131296383.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172136-00080-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965528 | 3,129 |
OPINION / FIKRAD : Successful recovery from two decades of conflict and social strife is not an easy task.Somalia’s civil war has caused much physical destruction and human suffering both of which can be overcome irrespective of the magnitude. Unfortunately, the Long term casualties are the loss of trust between communities (social enmity), the loss of national vision and the erosion of moral values. These are specifically the ones that require a comprehensive planning process which includes all the tools of social rehabilitation and reconciliation twinned with extensive social education programs.
The long term effects can also be extenuated by the quality of governance and public administration which represent the catalysts to overcoming conflicts and sustaining the recovery process. Their proper reconstitution is central to overcoming the conflict as they underpin all other recovery programs and if insufficiently attended to will cause the underperformance of all other efforts including those of reconciliation of the society.
Because of the compelling evidence from so many examples in our country that a corrupt government and administration only add fuel to an already burning fire of moral decadence and corruption, our cherished desire to install a quality government that brings back sovereignty is exceedingly becoming hopeless. The tug of war between outside forces and the long term casualties of the civil war require that the administrative branches of the government be anchored by individuals with strong leadership and courage to restore moral values and national vision. At the end of the day, the quality of government is the president’s responsibility. The qualities required of the president, as the leader of such government, deserves special scrutiny.
“In a caravan, the lead camel sets the pace and quality of the journey”.
Probably the most important aspect of the transition inSomaliais the qualities of the lead “camel” – the president that is. To end two decades of civil war, almost everyone has an expectation of what kind of a person our homeland needs as president. The desirable qualities and character must fit the difficult journey ahead of the nation.
Competence, which includes knowledge, efficiency and effectiveness, will rank high in the list of perquisites. The future president must be someone of great character and, as dictated by the testing times, this particular trait may in the long run be more important then all other characters. The future president will also posses modesty, and courage in abundance. Arrogance and the lack of capacity or willingness to listen to others are diagonally opposed to the social traits of an egalitarian society like ours. More than two decades of trial and tribulations makes the people desirous for a leader that empathizes with their inner sentiments and feelings, someone that listens to their wants and wishes.
Any president must realize that tribalism, the most hated thing inSomaliais at the same time the most trusted and used tool simply because it is the one and only thing that that society can comprehend. It might be effective to exploit it for the benefit of peace-making and reconciliation without succumbing to its demands and becoming hostage to its sinister machinations. Nor should the president use tribalism and its dogmas to run the institutions of the country. In order to end the transition, the country needs a doer not a dreamer; a president capable of uniting the divergent opinions and ideas; a president who can create something that the people can rally around – an object of cohesion. But above all, the president must not be someone who doused his hands with the blood of the Somali people.
The future president must be morally and technically a good leader, meaning that he must be above par as far as morality is concerned with equally strong technical competency. He ought to be a person with the right balance of ethics and effectiveness. A president who can, rightly or wrongly, be criticized for decisions made in the course of fulfilling his responsibility; a president that recognizes the cultural transition taking place in the Somali society. We need a president that does not succumb to the biblical Bethsheba Syndrome, the reason being that a morally weak president will surely abuse power in ways unimaginable. Weak morality has been known to bring down powerful individuals and presidents.
The president is a team leader and so must understand that, although the final decisions might be in his hand, the ideas of the rest of the team forms the basis of presidential decisions. He must learn to rely on people to fulfill the mandate of his regime.
As part and parcel of the leadership, the cabinet must share the qualities of the president. They must also have knowledge of their specific portfolios for which they must possess full powers to plan and implement with proper oversight by the prime minister and the president. Though charged with the responsibility of their portfolios, they must, together, be aware of the interconnectedness of all government departments. Although they may be selected on the basis of the abject and ineluctable 4.5, they should be fully aware of the breadth and depth of the sacred national obligations on their shoulders.
Institutions and Standards
“Progress is nothing but institutions aiming for higher and higher standards”
After all is said and done, the caliber of institutions determines the success or failure of a nation. As the engine that drives the nation, a great deal of attention must be afforded to the reasons for establishing an institution – the laws governing its inner processes and procedures, the quality of staff charged with the responsibility of implementing its mandate and how such mandate is related to the rest of the national institutions.
Institutions represent the lifeline of the nation. They are the medium through which the government accomplishes its services to the citizens and the grand vision of the nation, protect the citizens and build the nation. Every sphere of the government has an institution responsible for its function.
Institutions aiming for higher standards bring about change in a society. They become pioneers, not only of innovation, technology but also of social well being and development. Nation building is basically institution-building. The requisite for a successful institution-building involves around the provision of concrete plans for each institution that includes a progressive yearly growth. Stagnancy is not an option.
Institutions invigorate change and transformation. A transformation, in this case, entails a complete overhaul of how it does its service, a change in the quality of its service. The institution of education is one of them. Without panoptic changes to the way we educate our future leaders, we will constantly fall very short of our potential. The future education system must be based on the experience of our people; how and why we came to be at the bottom of the human hierarchy and the lessons learned. The basic tenets of our future education system must first be local with an international component. Unless we know who we are, and our particular idiosyncrasies and nagging problems, learning about the ways of others will not help us solve our problems. Our institution of education and the learning that it imparts must be grounded on our values – the Somali values. Furthermore, it must encourage students in problem solving, questioning and developing a thoughtful reflection where the teacher is the guide and a partner in forming the foundations of ideas, ideologies and solutions that will become the core of who we are as a nation and not as tribes.
The present private and community institutions, especially higher education, can confer nominal degrees but cannot bring about the desired change. Most of these new institutions, fromAmoudUniversity, which was the first, to the last one announced a few months ago, are the monopoly of cynic individuals who do not have the goodwill of the society at heart. They often confound the public with trivialities without following any of the proper rigorous of higher education. Very few are run by individuals with some conscience and accountability. Most, especially the likes of Amoud, have neither academic nor financial accountability. They have become a bottleneck of problems and regression rather than the transformative universities that we require.
The future transformation of education must also include how our faith is taught, who can teach it and who can preach it. Without this component, our future social transformation will be dominated by cult controversies and fringe organizations who pry on the unsuspecting society. As is common today and for the past twelve centuries, the study of Islam was largely limited to study circles at mosques. This system became vulnerable to the proliferation of alien ideas and the birth of sects, mostly with political orientations, spearheaded by an inordinately large numbers of unqualified proponents with meritless religious titles.
A mosque study circle is informal learning. There is no curriculum or analytically progressive and interconnected study involved. The students are not tested on what they have learned and there is no sanctioned legal authority that can testify to the veracity of the teachings or to the knowledge of the graduates. Let us suppose that I have learned and memorize a thousand books on medicine; can I become a medical doctor? Can I lecture at a university? Can I open a practice and prescribe medications? Does the fact that I have memorized a thousand books and I am able to regurgitate the content say anything about my capacity to understand, to reason, or about my intellectual depth or ability to relate one book to the other, one idea to the next and so on? Think about it, Islam is much more profound, deeper and wider than medicine. Why is it, then, that we trust our faith and our national and individual destiny to unqualified “imams”?
“No nation is sovereign unless it can pay it bills”
To improve the economy, the future Somali government has to reverse the economic policies of the pre-civil war era and adopt an open market policy whereby the private sector is the driving force of the nation’s economy. Barring from attention external factors which contribute to economic development, our future government’s policies will have profound effects on economic growth. A country like ours, transitioning to peace, will need to maintain a constant economic growth for many, many years before it can reverse the trend of poverty. With the private sector taking a leadership role and government institutions providing incentives for work, investment in technology and physical and human capital, we may have a chance to emerge out of poverty and human suffering.
Aside from regional and international markets, another factor that helps economic growth is the impact of cultural outlook. A society that consumes more imports, especially food products ends up discouraging its own farmers. Moreover such society becomes victims to foreign market fluctuations, unless their government cushions (subsidies) the wild price variations, in which case, local inflation becomes a real risk. Because Somalis consume rice, pasta and other imports as stable diets, we feel the pressure of price fluctuations more than other nations whose stable diets are locally produced. The government must develop programs that subtly influence the consumption habits and attitudes utilizing a combination of social education and incentives to encourage trust in local products and taxes.
Social development, reconciliation and rehabilitation
“On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow”- Heraclitus, Greek philosopher
The Greek philosopher is using the metaphor of a river to talk of change. The terrain over which the water flows the same but the water is not the same. That constantly changing water in a fixed terrain is the river. Like a river a society is constantly changing. The ideas of change are the water and the society itself is the terrain. Change can be good or bad. This is where the government comes in. Social change can be affected through a slow, gradual and planned process such as education or by sudden and often harsh process such as civil wars. Harsh social changes, although capable of good change, do not bring about permanent social stability (or at least it takes a long time). The current developments inSomalia, though still in the embryonic stage, can be nudged towards stability to give society a chance to avail itself of two decades of social strife. In order to deepen the roots of stability, it must be intentionally planned. One of the ways to do that is through education – both formal and social education.
A number of factors associated with social development have to be proliferated in order to gain a change in the way of life. Among the most important of this are human dignity and social justice. There is nothing worse than being undignified and unjustly treated in your own country at the hands of your own authorities. This and this alone, has been one of the root causes ofSomalia’s civil war.
Communities demand equity in the delivery of services. It is common for African nations to pour proportionally higher amount of resources into the capital region and, thus, create a one-city-state. The future policy makers, meeting the challenge of a more efficient and strategic allocation of public resources, must invest in all regions of the country.
The Tribal States
During the run of the TFG, we witnessed a drastic increase in the formation of “Tribal states”. Galmudug State, Mareeg State, Ceelbuur State, Ximin & Xeeb, Azania, Jubbaland, Maakhir State, Awdal State, Bay State, Khatumo State, Banaadir State, Somaliland, Puntland, Western Puntland and Udubland are examples. Are there any reasons behind the formation of the tribal states?
In a tribal society, when the viability of the national government is precariously unstable and its ability to govern and enforce compliance to laws are severely jeopardised she tries to accommodate tribes in varying degrees. States likeSomalilandand Puntland have formed out of the political astuteness of the two dominant tribes who realized the rush way before anyone else.
The TFG gave the nod to a number of these tribal states and, in turn, others formed because other tribes were weary of being left out of the political process and thus a piece of the pie. A closer scrutiny reveals that the overwhelming majority of these states are monopolized by one tribe despite the undeniable fact that there is no region inSomaliawhich is exclusively settled by a single tribe. Sadly, the tribe exercising the monopoly of the politics of the tribal state is one that also has had a heavy hand in the prolongation of the Somali civil war.
The only exception is Udubland, a region, overlapping parts ofAzania, with a diverse array of tribes all of whom have borne the brunt of the civil war and still continue to suffer under the merciless foot of Alshabab. Udubland is the breadbasket of the county which onto itself is reason enough for alien (non-indigenous to the region) tribes to scramble for its subjugation. As a result, Udubland has been formed to leverage political muscle from the national and international bodies to highlight the suffering of the peaceful agrarian peoples of these regions.
For a while, the TFG and the tribal states existed in symbiosis to defeat Alshabab but that relationship is waning as the power of Alshabab waned. Lately, the TFG has been hinting that she will not recognize any of these multitudes of states.
The politics of the tribal states involves bothEthiopiaandKenya, with the later devising to create a buffer zone between her and Alshabab yet unable or unwilling to choose sides between the armed Raaskamboni and the proponents ofAzania.Ethiopia, though, is apprehensive of Raaskamboni taking over the area and exporting the armed struggle toEthiopia. In the Central regions, the unabating struggle between Galmudug, Mareeg, Ximin & Heeb and the religious organization, Ahl-Sunna – a splinter of the same tribes in the area and dominated by the same tribe that dominates Galmudug, created a zone ripe for Ethiopian meddling and armed infiltration. Discounting for Ethiopian incursions and influence, the shear friction between a religious and secular political organization will tear the region apart.
Transformation of tribe into a state has severe consequences for other tribes within the confines of the tribal state boundaries who have not declared their own state within the state. As usurpation of power by one tribe usually ends up in escalation of hostilities because of the inherent unfairness in inter-tribal politics where the tribe holding the monopoly also holds monopoly of state power and resources, the result is a disastrous cycle of social chaos. In a tribal society, there is always an element of tribe in the national state and an element of state in the tribe. How many times have we heard “dawladayada – our government” or “annagaa dalka ka talina – we rule the country”. ‘We’ means the tribal “we”. The situation precipitously goes downhill when the powers of tribal monopoly are certified by the national government, a neighbouring country or even the UN.
It will be the unfortunate job of the future government and its president to navigate these infested waters of tribal political rivalry and pertinacious foreign manipulations traveling on the backs Somali marauders who believe that politics is the best profession for seeking undeserved power, fame and control of the gateway to material satisfaction by squandering public resources. The role of tribes and their leaders as actors and influencers of the policies of the state will have profound ripple effects on the administration of the futureSomalia.
The tribal state discussion will not be complete without touching on the role of Somaliland and Puntland, the first two tribal states, on the future ofSomalia. Even though they share all the traits of tribal statehood, Somaliland seems to be keen on secession whereas Puntland has always called itself ‘an autonomous state ofSomalia’ despite her relentless search to gain unconventional power and political concessions at the expense of the rest of the country. With the Siiraanyo regime in power,Somalilandhas been sending mixed signals on the unity issue that give some credence to the theory that secession was a bargaining chip. Both states are plagued by dissention from other tribes who are in the boundary of their respective territorial claims. There is also a land dispute between them withSomalilandholding on to the colonial boundary, an issue integral to recognition as perceived by Somalilanders, and Puntland claiming tribal blood lines to the disputed area. IfSomalilandcomes back to the fold of unity, their land dispute will automatically become a mute point, however, if she persists in her current course, the stability of that part of the country is in real peril.
The essence of sovereignty is the ability to guarantee security
There is no doubt that AMISOM was crucial in the war against Alshabab and creating enclaves of peace in and around the capital city. With its help, the poorly armed, underpaid Somali forces continue to expand the area under the influence of the TFG.
Notwithstanding there positive contribution and sacrifices, AMISOM’s presence inSomaliais imbued with controversy. In the eyes of a large number of Somalis, they represent an occupying army that gives Meles, Museveni and Mahiga the clout to lord over the Somalis and their affairs, political, social or economical. A corollary branching off from this thought is that AMISOM is a project perpetrated at the expense of the Somali people. It is argued that the money paid by the international donor community (of which only a fraction reaches the soldiers at the front lines, the rest being channeled into the coffers of their countries) could have been better spent by building a Somalia National Army. There are no plans, unfortunately, on the part of the international community, represented by a galaxy of organizations to build or even improve the quality of the ragtag Somali Army.
In addition, a few operations on key towns, that came about on the eve of some international events onSomaliagive more and more credence to a “ProjectSomalia”. Baidoa and Hudur were liberated on the eve of the London Conference. Beledwayne was liberated on the eve of the Istanbul Conference. These so-called liberated cities gave unexpected momentum to the events they coincided (or made to coincide with) but once the euphoria died down, the liberation did not bring any fruitful development of sorts. And yet, other African nations keep joining AMISOM so that they also receive a pie of the loot that isSomalia. The latest isKenya.
Kenya’s incursion intoSomaliatakes two steps forwards and two back. It has not produced any tangible military gains apart from the liberation of Afmadow, coincidentally also on the eve of the Istanbul Conference.Kenyais being pulled apart by Raskamboni militia and the so-calledAzaniamanagement who both lobby for control of the area.
The heaviest acrimony towards the AU peacekeepers has gained momentum for the three years from 2007 to 2010. During this period, the rise in civilian casualties as a result of AMISOM’s harum-scarum bombardment of heavily populated civilian areas, especially markets, catalyzed negative sentiments towards the peace keepers. Their indifference was highlighted by one of the famous remarks claiming that they had “No choice but to respond to the mortar attacks from Alshabab who are hiding behind civilians”. One would expect AMISOM, an intertional organization, to have higher moral standards than Alshabab, the militia, but when Alshabab fires mortars from inside markets and AMISOM happily and indiscriminately strikes back at the same market knowing that it is a civilian centre of commerce, any claim of higher moral standards by AMISOM simply fades into thin air. For three long years, AMISOM and Alshabab exchanged indiscriminate attacks on civilians andMogadishubled unforgivably and unforgettably.
Once the country is in their hands, the future government will deal with AMISOM quickly, decisively and wisely. The AU troops have helped the nation yet, in order to solidify our own sovereignty they must return home to their own countries. Their continued presence reflects a a diminished authority of the national government itself. On the other hand, their role in the death of thousands who died in their hands as a result of care-free bombardments will remain in the social memory forever and can and will surface from time to time.
These are all issues that the future government has to sort out. The tight lines that she is going to walk, the compromises required on her part, the opposing ideologies and interests it has to balance and, provided that it is a government loyal to the Somali cause, the hard choices it has to make are the reasons that compel us to require a government lead by people of outstanding character.
Nur Bahal | Toronto,ON | Canada | [email protected]
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Remember That Night…….
“I remember that night, the first time I met him.” The older lady said. The younger woman sitting alongside cocked her head to one side, and listened intently.
“I had taken a sabbatical from my university studies, and gone travelling.” She continued “Unheard of at the time, but the idea of a ‘gap year’ is quite common, now, of course.”
The young woman nodded in encouragement, but did not speak, she simply continued to listen.
“I’d wound up on Skiathos, in the Mediterranean Sea” the old woman went on “A tiny little Greek island. Unknown at the time, well off the beaten track, but it’s quite famous now. They made a film there a few years ago. Beautiful place. There was even a beach where it was ok to remove your swimsuit! Scandalous at the time – one simply did not do such a thing!”
The older woman winced slightly as she leaned forward, but she managed a conspiratorial wink towards the younger one. “But I did!” She chuckled, and the pretty young girl joined her in a little giggle. “I’ve always hated strap-lines, so I went to that beach almost every day. My hair was long and blonde, then, and it bleached to the colour of straw in the sun. Along with the tan I had, I must’ve looked every inch the Classical Greek Goddess, even if I do say so myself.” She said, smiling. Helen grinned to herself as she recalled the memories, and brushed her greying hair back from her forehead.
She was nineteen years old back then, and having the time of her life. The world was changing, and she’d relished the new-found freedoms. The doldrums after the War were becoming a thing of the past. Rationing of food had ended, rock and roll had arrived from America, and it was a good time to be young. She’d decided, much to her parents’ chagrin, to head off around The Med for a while, and then resume her course when she returned. Art & Technology was a relatively new field at her university anyway, and the subject was one she could pick up again upon her return.
She fondly recalled the four months she’d been travelling during that long, hot summer. She’d supplemented her allowance by getting a few random jobs here and there, washing up in restaurants, cleaning hotel bedrooms and the like. She’d enjoyed the attentions of a number of young Greek men, but their intentions were always just one thing. Helen had enjoyed flirting with them, dancing the night away at little Tavernas to the sounds of the exciting music on those new jukeboxes, and even kissing and cuddling, but no more than that. She wasn’t going to let just anybody be the first, and besides, it was risky – she had no wish to go home with more than memories from her trip. A disease, or even a baby, was definitely not on the agenda.
That had all changed when she met Jonathan. Fate must have conspired to bring them both to that obscure Greek Island at the same time. She just drifting, experiencing life, but he, he was there for inspiration, seeking a muse.
They’d met that night, down by the harbour. The moon had shone down, illuminating the white-painted buildings that nestled there. Helen had been sitting on the steps, idly sketching a pencil drawing of the scene, with the moon in the background, and little pencil strokes marking the outlines of the last of the sea-birds heading off to wherever sea-birds go to at night.
She’d become aware of someone standing behind her, a couple of steps above, peering over her shoulder at the picture that was forming on the page of her sketch-book in front of her.
Embarrassed, she’d tried to quickly turn the page, ashamed of her idle doodlings. He’d spoken gently to her, his deep English accent telling her not to be so protective. It seemed that he actually thought her sketch was good, and had asked to see any others. He introduced himself, and it turned out that he was actually from Oxfordshire, not more than forty miles from her own home.
Jonathan, it transpired, was an artist, and having recently sold a few paintings he was now travelling around to seek inspiration for further works.
Ten years older than Helen, he seemed so sophisticated, so worldly. On reflection, Helen recalled, she fell in love with him there and then, right at that precise moment. Timidly she handed the sketch-book over to him. He flicked through the drawings there, and smiled, nodding approval at many of them, and making encouraging remarks here, and giving a little advice about picture composition there. Helen blushed slightly at the praise her work was receiving from a ‘professional’.
At his suggestion, they went for a walk along the long road that led down onto the causeway. Helen noted that he carefully rolled up her sketch-book and, like a true gentleman, tucked it under his arm so as to carry it for her. She’d tucked her arm in his, and off they’d gone.
As they walked, the night had cooled. Helen had been slightly embarrassed when she’d realised that her nipples had become visible through the light blouse she was wearing. She’d washed all her clothes earlier, and was only wearing a flowing white gypsy skirt, and a thin white blouse, with no underwear – all the rest of her things were currently hanging on a line at the back of the little digs she was renting in town. A pair of high wedge-heeled sandals completed the look of as much sophistication as a young woman on a budget could be.
She’d hoped that Jonathan wouldn’t notice the fact that she was blushing, and that the darkness would hide the crimson hue that she knew her cheeks were getting. She wasn’t sure whether she was embarrassed by the fact that her nipples were visible, or whether it was the fact that she didn’t want Jonathan to notice her blushes.
They’d walked, arm in arm, for what seemed like hours, talking about art, travelling, life, their pasts, what they wanted for their lives, all sorts. She’d explained that she wanted to be a photographer, and was going back home at the end of the summer to complete her course, he’d told her he specialised in painting the human body, and the female form in particular.
When Jonathan had suggested that they go to his studio to see some of his paintings, Helen was astonished to hear herself readily agree.
She had been nervous as she’d climbed the stairs into the loft apartment that Jonathan was renting, overlooking the harbour, but her trepidations were replaced by awe and wonder at the sights that greeted her as he switched on the single bare light bulb that hung from the ceiling.
Several large canvasses stood around the large, uncarpeted loft, all on easels with half-finished paintings upon them. A small unmade bed was against one wall, and a small table with two chairs had stood next to it. A single wardrobe and a kitchenette with one small sink, a tiny cooker and a small gas-powered fridge in the corner of the room completed the meagre furnishings.
As her eyes had adjusted to the light, Helen had seen that the canvasses were of reclining bodies, but all were unfinished, just outlines, part-painted snatches of forms, with some backgrounds. Sketches were scattered across the floor, in hap-hazard piles.
Jonathan offered her a drink, some Retsina, the local wine. She’d accepted, and had been amused to see that he’d had to pour it into two cracked china tea-cups, as he didn’t actually possess any glasses in his apartment. They talked, for hours it seemed, and Jonathan explained that he was having trouble with his work. He seemed unable to find inspiration to complete his pictures.
Perhaps it was the wine, perhaps it was his quiet charm, his charisma, or perhaps it was simply the mystique of the fact that he was obviously such an accomplished artist, Helen still to this day did not know, but she found herself there and then offering to model for Jonathan, if he wished.
He had readily agreed, and so she found herself sitting on a blanket in the middle of the uncarpeted floor of the loft studio, supporting her upright upper body with one arm while her legs were together, and stretched out beside her, mimicking the pose she had seen in one of the partly finished paintings. She smoothed down her skirt, and straightened the collar of her blouse, and kicked off the sandals she had been wearing.
Jonathan had begun to paint, chatting to her all the time as he did so, his head popping up above the easel, or sometimes to either side. Once he ducked down and peered at her from underneath – making her giggle.
He’d topped up her cup of wine on several occasions and, unused to drinking, Helen had got gigglier and gigglier, as Jonathan joked with her.
All these years later, Helen still did not know why she had done what she did next, but whilst Jonathan was obscured behind the large canvass, she’d hastily undone the buttons on her blouse, and slipped it off, laying it carefully behind her.
She looked down nervously at the erect nipples standing up on her pert, tanned breasts in the cool night air, then proudly raised her head and stared straight at the back of the canvass. When Jonathan’s head had bobbed around the canvass she had had to fight to retain her composure, but proud of her body she straightened up, pushing her shoulder blades together so that her breasts pointed towards him. She tried not to smirk as she saw the look of at first astonishment, then delight, as his eyes travelled across her nude torso.
There’d been a long pause while he’d stared at her, then, grinning, he’d resumed painting, quicker now, and looking around the canvass more often. She’d been flattered just by his gaze, and was even more impressed by the compliments that flowed from his mouth.
She’d been a little hesitant when he had suggested that she remove her skirt too, but when she’d got up and walked around to have a quick preview of the painting, she had been so impressed by the spectacle of what she’d seen that, giggling, she’d agreed.
It was certainly impressive, and very flattering, to see her face painted large upon the canvass in front of her, and the way he had painted the image of her breasts made her very proud indeed.
Laughing, she’d made him turn around and promise to close his eyes while she’d unbuttoned the skirt, and slipped it down her long brown legs. She’d quietly walked back over to the blanket upon which she had been posing, and had folded the skirt neatly on top of her blouse, then resumed the position in which she had been sitting for most of the past few hours.
When she’d given him permission to turn around, she’d been more than impressed by his reaction – the obvious delight on his face was mirrored by the bulge at the front of his trousers.
Up to that point Helen had never really seen an erect penis, although occasionally she had taken a sly peek at the front of the swimsuits of men at the beach, and on the nudist beach - she had seen them half hard, but nothing like the look of the thing straining against the material of Jonathan’s denim pants.
As he continued to paint, Helen had become more and more aware of the aching between her legs.
She’d experienced this before, when kissing and ‘making out’ with boys, when they’d cuddled and snogged after nights in the Taverna, but the fact that it was happening without any form of physical stimulation was a novel experience.
Almost without thinking, her hand had strayed ‘down there’ and she was amazed to discover that the lips there were glistening with moisture. Idly, she slipped a finger between them, and stroked lightly, astounded by how wet it had become.
Involuntarily a light moan escaped from her mouth, as a new sensation rippled through her.
She hastily removed her hand as she saw that Jonathan had looked around the canvass at the sound she had made. Flushed with embarrassment at being caught out ‘playing’, she stuttered and apologised, and stammered that she must leave, it was late.
She hastily turned round and picked up her clothes, tears beginning to fill her eyes. Not knowing, in her haste, which to put on first, her hands shook as she tried to pull her blouse on, when Jonathan had gently slipped his arms around her, and whispered quietly in her ear.
She’d frozen as he’d told her how beautiful she was, and that she was a gorgeous, young, sexy, woman who should be proud of herself, and proud of her sexuality.
She’d let the blouse and skirt fall from her hands into an untidy pile by her feet, and she’d allowed him to turn her around and hold her close as he kissed her.
She felt her body, rigid with fear, melt into his arms, as his passionate masculinity overcame her trepidation. She’d kissed him back, and felt a warmth spread over her whole body.
His tongue had gently slipped between her lips and begun to explore her mouth as his hands softly caressed her back, long slow strokes with his fingertips making her shiver with pleasure. She’d responded, kissing him back, and pulling him closer to her naked body by wrapping her arms around him. She was amazed to feel the hard bulge in his trousers pressing against her abdomen, scarily large, but she was certain of one thing – she wanted this man. He was the one. And now was the time.
Helen had offered no resistance as Jonathan had scooped her up, carried her over and lain her gently on to the single bed. She’d nodded when he’d whispered was it her first time, and he had promised he would be gentle.
Helen had been amazed when Jonathan had begun to plant little kisses on her neck, and the top of her breasts. She knew the mechanics of ‘sex’ and she had simply expected him to get on top of her and insert his penis into her vagina, but it was fantastic what he was doing to her.
His lips had closed over her nipple, causing her to moan out loud as he sucked and kissed, rolling his tongue around the hard tip. His hands strayed across her soft skin, each touch sending strange new pleasures through her. She shivered as his lips planted kisses down across her flat belly and his hands gently prised her thighs apart, but then she was shocked to find that he had extended his tongue, and run the tip of it down, through her pubic hair and across the lips of her vagina!
She sat upright, horrified by what this strange man was doing, and for a split second she wanted to push him away, what was the filthy beast thinking of?
Then a whole new sensation opened up inside her – as his tongue reached her clitoris it began to flick the engorged flesh it found there. A wave rumbled up through Helen’s body, and her eyes opened wide as her orgasm hit her. She flopped back onto the bed, and her back arched as the pleasure hit her. It was like being struck by a train, she lost all control of her body, her thoughts, her reality. She had been astonished when a long, loud moan had escaped her lips.
She was in a different world from the one she had previously inhabited.
Jonathan continued to lick away at her for a while longer, and then raised himself up, removing his shirt, and then slipping down his trousers and underwear in one swift movement.
He was above her now, and she shivered in fear and anticipation as she felt a little fluid dribble from his penis onto her belly.
She had recoiled briefly as he had stooped down to kiss her as she had realised that the wetness on his face was her own love-juices, but she had been unable to stop him kissing her, and she had been surprised and delighted to find that it actually tasted sweet, and strangely sexy.
He had kissed her passionately as his cock had begun to penetrate her, any remaining fears slipped away as she had felt herself being overcome by her sudden love for this man. It was amazing to feel him inside her, their bodies joined, as one.
There was a moment’s pain, and a muffled cry slipped from her mouth as he had pushed himself into her in one steady movement, but then he had pulled back a little and held steady. After a brief pause Helen had begun to thrust her hips back and fro, naturally assuming a comfortable rhythm. Jonathan eventually began to thrust with her rhythm, gently at first, then harder and faster. She gasped as he rode her, ever faster.
She’d screamed at the top of her voice as another orgasm overtook her, the feel of this man deep inside her making her feel proud of herself, her femininity assured, and the closeness of their intimate physical contact making her feel closer to this man than any other person in the world.
She sighed with disappointment as he pulled himself out of her; she’d raised her head and had given him a questioning ‘awwww?’
He’d quietly told her that it was too risky to ejaculate inside her, and she had been amazed when he had brought the glistening, throbbing member towards her face.
She hadn’t realised what he was about to do, and she was sure (on reflection) that she would have tried to stop him doing what he did next had she known.
But it was too late; suddenly he had placed his hands firmly around the sides of her head, and had slipped the penis into her mouth.
Helen remembered attempting to protest initially, but the muffled sounds she made were of no consequence.
Almost immediately though, she had realised that not only did it taste good, it felt good too – she glanced up and saw the pleasure on Jonathan’s face and his eyes closed in delight. Almost instinctively she began to suck on it, bobbing her head gently back and forth whilst rubbing her tongue around the veins she could feel on it.
When, a few seconds later, his ejaculate exploded into her mouth she was amazed at how much of it there was, and the peculiar salty tang, but she heard his loud shout of triumph, and she obediently sucked and swallowed as his cum filled her mouth. A feeling of great pride and satisfaction swept through her, knowing how much she had pleasured her man.
She’d spent the rest of the night there, they’d cuddled up close, bodies pressed tightly together in the single bed. They’d made love again, two more times before finally spooning into each other and drifting off into an exhausted sleep.
They’d woken just before dawn, and at Jonathan’s suggestion they’d made their way down to the beach. As they walked through the empty streets of the town a dawn mist floated through the air. They walked past the harbour and down to the beach.
Removing their clothes, they’d played and frolicked about, laughing as they ran up and down the beach, she charged off, daring him to chase her, running into the cool surf as the waves broke on the shore.
Finally, laughing, she’d allowed him to catch up with her, and their bodies had entwined, as they slid onto the sand and made love once again.
This time he had pulled out from her at just the right moment, and had shot his load across her, the cum splattering across her breasts and sticking to the sand that had also gathered there as they’d rolled around on the golden grains of the beach.
They’d gone back into the water and washed off the sand from their bodies and, still joking and laughing, had gone back into town for some breakfast.
“Well, as you can imagine, I fell totally in love with this lovely man.” Helen continued.
The young woman shifted uneasily in her chair, and brushed an imaginary speck of dust from her crisply starched white jacket. She was a good listener, and the length of the story didn’t bother her at all, but it was a little…embarrassing….to hear such an old woman talk about sex so explicitly.
Noticing her companion’s unease, Helen smiled “I’m sorry if any of that makes you uncomfortable, but you youngsters didn’t invent s-e-x you know” she said with a titter. “Thank you for listening, though. It is very kind of you to spend this time with an old dear like me – no don’t act so shocked, I’m well aware of what I am young lady!” Helen continued, as she noted the expression on the young woman’s face. “I’m glad I have you to talk to though, dear. I deliberately didn’t have my pills this morning so that my head would be a bit clearer, in order that I might speak to you without those damned drugs clouding my mind.” Helen winced again as she shifted position in her bed “It does mean that I feel a bit of pain at the moment though. Well worth it today, as it’s nice to be able to recall so much of my life. They were happy times. The grass was greener, the light was brighter.”
Helen continued to relate the story of her life to the pretty young woman beside her. She told her how she’d moved into the studio loft soon after, and that summer Jonathan had painted picture after picture of her during the days and the nights had been spent consummating their passions. The nights of wonder, Helen described them as.
One of their favourite paintings had been one of her, naked, on a rusty swing. She’d sat for that several times, they used to rise early, hurry to the local play park, and she’d slip out of her clothes and sit there whilst he’d paint away. They’d managed a few sessions, and then after that he’d just used his imagination. That and the fact that she remained naked most of the time in their loft during that long hot summer, so he didn’t need to tax his memory or his imagination too heavily.
When the time came for Helen to return to England to complete her studies, Jonathan had eventually followed her, packing up his paintings and shipping them back home.
They’d set up home together, scandalising Helen’s mother, as ‘living in sin’ was regarded as horrific.
A London gallery which had previously sold some of Jonathan’s pictures expressed an interest, and displayed some of his work. She’d gone down there to see it, and it was most strange to be standing there in front of a large image of one’s self, naked, on display in front of a load of strangers. Helen’s mother was further shocked when she discovered this, a fact that amused Helen even more.
One of the first pictures to sell was the painting of Helen on the swing, and a good price it fetched too. A few more pictures began to sell, and some money began to come in. Helen completed her studies, and eventually they married.
Helen forewent her original plans for a career, and became a full-time housewife, whist still continuing to pose as Jonathan’s model.
“And that was that, for a few years” Helen continued “But it all changed when I had the children. I was a little miffed that Jonathan refused to paint me while I was pregnant. He said it was too personal, too private, and I suppose at the time he was right. It’s all changed now, nowadays you see young actresses heavily pregnant on the cover of magazines with nothing on, but back then you covered up.”
The young woman gave her a sympathetic look. A wave of pain passed across Helen’s face, not because of her lack of painkillers this time, but due to the sad memories that came back, unbidden, to her.
“He got himself another couple of models, pretty girls, a year or two younger than me and, obviously, slimmer than me, I was all fat and frumpy and Mumsy at the time of course.” Helen said, testily. “I had no reason to suspect anything was amiss, Jonathan was the perfect husband, and it was just his job, painting these pictures of women, but nevertheless I got jealous. I felt trapped, unattractive, and bored. Motherhood wasn’t really for me. Nowadays there’s all sorts of help for what they call Post-Natal Depression, but back then it was just assumed that you were a poor mother.”
Helen continued: “I was so glad when my Mother offered to look after both the children for a while, to give me a break.” The young woman held Helen’s hand lightly, as she began to tremble as the painful memories returned. “I seized my chance. Like a fool, I just packed my bags and went one day, telling no-one where I was going. I thought that Jonathan would be fine with his little young girlies, let him stew with them - and I went off, out into the world. The life of a housewife was not for me.”
“I moved down to London, got myself a little flat and a day job running errands for a photographic agency. To supplement my income I used to work at a little club, where I’d sit in a room and take my clothes off while men put money into slot machines in booths outside the room, so that they could see in through little peep-holes. Sounds quaint now, but then it was quite seedy. It paid, however. Even then, a flat in London was expensive, and my little job didn’t pay me much.
Because I was so used to posing naked, and to being on display, I guess I had the confidence and poise, and I became popular at the club.
I used to put a real show on for the men, and I soon realised that I’d get more hours if the takings increased while I was on duty. I used to play with myself for them, and spend all afternoon at the weekends, or all evening during the week, frantically fingering myself. The bosses noticed, and I did quite well out of it, enough to buy myself some decent cameras and other photographic gear.”
The young woman shifted uneasily in her chair again – Helen’s frankness was disarming, and it was difficult to know what to say. She looked up at the ceiling, and at the opposite wall, but found herself unable to look Helen right in the eye. Noticing this, Helen whispered cheekily “Have you ever done anything like that, young lady? You’re blushing a little!”
The young woman turned crimson, and nodded as she explained that she’d done a little dancing on a pole at a local club to support herself through university. Helen cackled loudly, and then winced again, the laughter racking through her body causing the aches to flare up again. Both women giggled though – Helen winked at her and re-assured her that it was nothing to be ashamed of. She explained how she had, with her newly bought camera equipment, to be able to actually become one of the freelance photographers at the agency.
“It was a great time to be alive,” she continued “Swinging London, in the 60’s, it was the cultural centre of the Earth at the time, or so it seemed. The pill was available, and for the first time you could have as much sex as you liked without the fear of getting pregnant. Our agency got a load of work from newspapers and record companies – I travelled to America for the first time in 1964 to cover The Beatles first US Tour, I was at Wembley Stadium a couple of years later when the England football team won the World Cup, and back out to America a few years later, supposedly to cover a big rock festival – you might have heard of it, but I got a little too much into the hippy culture. I turned on, tuned in and dropped out!”
Helen tittered again “I spent the whole weekend naked, smoking reefers and having sex with, well basically, with anyone and everyone. I just went from tent to tent, smoking and making love. I didn’t even know the names of many of the guys. I guess there must have been about twenty of them over the four days I was there. And a couple of women too. One time, in broad daylight, I sat down with this hippy chick who was wearing nothing but beads and flowers in her hair. We sat and cuddled each other, then we began to stroke and caress each other’s bodies.”
Helen retold the story of how she and the hippy girl had laid out together on the grass, and explored each other’s bodies, hands softly roaming over each other. It had been Helen’s first experience with a member of the same sex, and she had been determined to enjoy it.
They had gotten each other turned on by their gentle ministrations upon each other, and a few people had gathered around them, watching the two women with interest. Helen told how the woman had begun to kiss and lick her bare breasts, and had worked her way down her body – the tingling sensations had reminded her of that first time with Jonathan on the Greek island over a decade earlier. When the girl had begun to lick Helen’s clit, the same thing had happened too, her back arched involuntarily as an orgasm bucked through her, lost in her own little world.
She’d then gotten on top of the girl, and had plunged her own mouth towards the girl’s pussy, enveloping her in a lesbian 69. She’d pleasured the girl, who continued to lick and finger Helen’s pussy, and as she came, her juices filling Helen’s mouth, Helen came yet again, the thought of this girl’s orgasm setting her off once more. A few people applauded and Helen was suddenly reminded of where she was. She glanced around and saw that a crowd of people had now gathered around them
The pleasuring wasn’t over, though. As she held herself, panting, above the girl’s inverted body, she felt a pair of hands grasp her hips firmly, and a cock slid into her pussy from behind. She looked around and saw that a long-haired man had come up behind her, and had begun to fuck her. She let her head hang down and looked back, through the arch of her dangling tits, to see the hippy chick, still beneath her, reach up and begin to lick both Helen’s pussy lips, and the base of the cock of the man fucking Helen.
Helen watched, fascinated, as the girl’s tongue flicked around the balls of the man, until another pair of hands softly grasped her face and pulled her gently away from that fantastic sight. Helen looked up as yet another long-haired stranger kneeled before her, and held his erect cock in front of her face. Helen didn’t hesitate; she plunged her head forward, over this new cock, and sucked for all she was worth. She ran her tongue around the throbbing shaft, her head bobbing back and forth with the rhythm of the man fucking her from the rear.
She felt the man behind her cum, the warm spunk shooting deep into her. When he withdrew she continued to move her head up and down on the cock in her mouth, thrusting her face forward ever faster. She struggled to control herself as she felt the hippy girl beneath her begin to lick at her pussy once more, and she knew that the girl was lapping the cum from her.
Finally it all became too much for her – as the man ejaculated into Helen’s mouth, his cum filling her up and shooting down her throat, she gave a long muffled moan of ecstasy as another orgasm shuddered through her body. The feeling of having pleasured these complete strangers heightened the experience, and she felt herself squirt. She knew that the girl beneath her would be getting a faceful of cum, and now her own pussy juice.
“And that was Woodstock,” Helen continued “After that I stayed out in the States for a couple of years. I’d lost touch with Jonathan almost immediately after I’d left him – he went round to my Mother’s regularly to visit the children apparently, but we’d never met since. I carried on with my career, jetting here there and everywhere.
The children grew up, a fine healthy pair they were too, but they weren’t ever too fond of me. No more than I deserved I suppose, after all I did abandon them while they were babies.
In the meantime I flew all over the world – I covered the Vietnam War, one of the few female photographers out there, then back to London in 1976. I spiked my hair up, and became a bit of a familiar figure around all the happening places, photographing the Sex Pistols, and The Clash – have you heard of them, dear? A little before your time, I suspect.” The young woman looked blankly at her, but motioned with her hand for Helen to continue.
Helen went on to explain how she continued to lead a glamorous lifestyle, but never settled down with anyone, content with her globetrotting.
Eventually her Father had passed away during the early 1990’s and her Mother a few years later. The house had been left in her Mother’s will equally to Helen and the two children. Helen was, at the time, looking for somewhere to retire to, and her old home in rural England sounded like too good an opportunity to pass up. She reached an agreement with the children that she would pay them a nominal rent in lieu of buying their shares out, and that the total ownership of the house would pass to the two of them upon her death.
“For the first time in my life, it seemed, I was alone.” Helen said “I was unused to not having things going on in my life. I was beginning to get restless, and even considered coming out of retirement, to alleviate the boredom and loneliness. That’s when I found the lumps.”
Helen went on: “The Doctors were very good – I was lucky enough to be able to afford private care, and they performed the mastectomy within a month. It was while I was convalescing at home that he knocked on my door one bright summer’s afternoon.”
The younger woman cocked her head quizzically at this.
Helen’s hands shook slightly as she took a sip of the small glass of water on the table by her bedside, and then spoke once more: “Jonathan. The children had told him that I had been ill, and he had finally decided to come round and visit.”
The young woman smiled as Helen continued “He’d never re-married, you know. I was a bit suspicious at first. I knew he’d done well with his paintings and so I knew he wasn’t after my money, but I was worried that he’d be bitter after all that time – it had been nearly forty years, after all.”
Helen told the young woman how Jonathan still lived not too far away, and he had spent more and more time with her as she recovered from her operation. They had slowly grown to be great friends once more.
She told how one day he turned up carrying a large, flat package, wrapped in brown paper.
He’d struggled to carry it in, and had set it upright on the sofa in her lounge.
‘Well, what is it?’ Helen had asked him. He’d simply smiled, and told her to look for herself. Bemused, she’d begun to tear the paper off. As the wrapping came away in her hand she saw what it was.
The painting of her on the rusty swing from forty years earlier.
He’d tracked it down, and had bought it from its current owner just so that he could return it to its subject, after all these years.
Helen told how she’d wept at the gesture, seeing herself as she was when she had been a young woman had sparked off a wave of nostalgia in her. It was particularly poignant a reminder, seeing herself there as a voluptuous young woman, with both her breasts complete had brought the tears forth. Jonathan had misunderstood, and had apologised and made to remove the painting. Helen told how she had put her hand on his arm to stop him, explaining that they were tears of joy, not sadness.
They’d fallen into each other’s arms, and had embraced each other and kissed, for the first time in forty years.
Helen reached out to the young woman at her bedside and, grasping lightly on the sleeve of her white jacket pulled her towards herself. She whispered in a mock-conspiratorial tone “And then we went upstairs…and did it!” she said with a wink.
The young woman tried hard to remain professional, and suppress a laugh. She failed. You couldn’t help but like this old lady. What a character she was. It must have been really something to have lived her life.
“It’s surprising how good prosthetics are nowadays,” Helen went on “I kept my bra on, I was too embarrassed to show him where my tit used to be, but we did it. A bit slower than we used to, I must admit, but nevertheless that’s not such a bad thing.”
Both women laughed, the younger girl putting her hand over her mouth as she realised that she was failing to show any of the professional detachment she had been trained to do. The words ‘Old Rascal’ could have been coined specially for this grey-haired, innocent looking old woman in the bed alongside her. She felt sad as she saw Helen wince once again, and she knew that the pains were worsening for her, the longer she went without her medication.
Helen explained how Jonathan had ended up living full time with her. He kept his old house on, but never spent the night there. Their old sense of fun had returned, and they had laughed and joked constantly. She had thrown her ‘falsie’ at him one time, as they were getting ready in the morning. Not knowing what it was, he’d caught the large squashy blob before he realised what she had done. Helen had roared with laughter at his bemused expression as she’d told him that he must feel a right tit at the moment.
Life had been fun for a few years, she had been given the all-clear following her cancer treatment, and they set about making up for lost time. They went on holidays; they spent time on cold nights in front of a roaring open fire, cuddling together on their sofa, while the swing painting took pride of place on the wall above them.
Life had been fine for the pair of them until Helen had started to feel aches and pains throughout her body. At first she’d dismissed it as simply old age, but eventually she sought the advice of a Doctor, who told her that she was suffering from Cancer once more. Scans had revealed that she had left it too late to seek treatment, and that it was, in all likelihood, incurable.
Jonathan was her rock, he cared for her during the difficult weeks that followed, despite his own advanced years he jollied her along, never once allowing her to become maudlin. Helen regretted the years they had missed – she had lived a dozen lifetimes in her years on this Earth, but she would have gladly swapped all the good times just to be able to go back and correct the wrongs she done to the lovely man who had been her first lover, and who now would be her last.
Helen had been comforted by Jonathan’s love and devotion, and he had made it seem worth going on, until the morning when she woke up in the bed they had shared for the past few years to discover that he was laid next to her un-moving. She had felt for his hand, but it had been cold and lifeless.
She had screamed and sobbed hysterically on the phone to the emergency services, demanding an ambulance, but she knew in her heart that he was gone forever.
He was eighty years old, and had gone peacefully in his sleep.
At the funeral the children had physically supported her, as she had been unable to stand for very long unaided and after the service was over she had decided what she was going to do. She had explained all the details to them, and a few weeks later her lawyer had completed all the paperwork, so that the children would have no problem with the inheritance of both Jonathan’s house, and her own home in the event of her passing.
“Well, that’s about it. The story of my life!” Helen managed a smile as she spoke to the young woman at her bedside. “Thank you again for listening, you’ve been very kind, dear.”
There was a tear in the young woman’s eye as she said “No trouble at all, it’s been a pleasure.”
Helen winced once more, as another sharp pang of agony stabbed her body. She drew a breath, and quietly said “Ok, it’s time.”
The young nurse struggled to hold her voice steady as she said “You don’t have to go through with this, Mrs Moore. You can still change your mind should you wish to do so.”
“No dear, thank you, but the pain will only get worse, and I have nothing more to look forward to, and no-one to share my life with. I will go with dignity, which is why I have come here. Please, go ahead. Farewell.” Helen said, with a steely determination.
The nurse nodded to the Doctor who stood alongside the small machine at the bedside, with its pipes connected to Helen’s arm. He pressed the buttons on its control panel, and a couple of lights came on. It emitted a quiet hum as it began to pump the drugs into Helen’s arm which would end her pain forever.
Tears ran down the young nurse’s face now, as Helen laid her head back on the pillow and smiled as she closed her eyes for the last time…… | <urn:uuid:bcf173dd-55bf-4ca5-95a8-438cdb42fb77> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.sexstories.com/story/24190/Remember+That+Night | 2015-03-27T12:48:59Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131296383.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172136-00080-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991596 | 9,300 |
Quickly, before we get rolling, an overview, because I can't figure out how - or whether - to detail any of the basic story arc later in my post. In the fictional country of Bahrestan, a beloved sultan (Shammi Kapoor) has finally had a son (yes, it's annoying that it's a male child that causes the whole country to break out in song. Moving on), and a magician from the friendly land of Hind (Saeed Jaffrey, whose character is named Amir Khan, hee) comes with congratulations and a gift from his maharaja. Meanwhile an evil vizier (Amrish Puri) and his henchmen (led by Dalip Tahil) are trying to seize the throne. They succeed, driving out the royal family and running the good people of Bahrestan into poverty and misery. The royal baby, his parents gone, is raised by a dolphin and a friendly blacksmith and grows up to be Ali (Amitabh Bachchan), who is secretly the super hero/protector of the people/masked avenger Ajooba (pictured above). As he smites the baddies, he says "No ills can evil-doers perpetrate. All that happens is willed by the Lord," which makes me wonder if he's saying that god wants all the people of Bahrestan to suffer at the hands of a devil-worshiping usurper, because the ills in fact have been perpetrated - it's not a preventative statement. I seriously do not understand his catchphrase. Anyway. Ali has a friend Hassan (Rishi Kapoor), and they also have love interests, the magician's daughter Rukhsana (Dimple Kapadia) and the vizier's daughter Henna (Sonam). They have lots of adventures involving a few other significant side characters as they try to defeat the vizier and tie up all the other loose ends that the first 45 minutes set up.
Here's the thing: Ajooba really isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I thought I was in for three hours of bad effects, stupid monsters, and ridiculous costumes. Yes, yes, it has all those things, in abundance.
Teeny tiny flying carpet!
Rishi's got the jadoo.
Even the horse has to wear this get-up.
However, what no one had told me is that Ajooba is basically a solid masala romp - with requisite lost family members, mistaken identities, romances, friendships, and patriotism (okay, so it's love of a fake country, but still) - dressed up in a legendary and fantastic setting. R(ecommended) M(asala) A(llowance) is met, no doubt about it. Why Shashi wanted to make a 70s-style masala movie in 1990-91 with Soviet partners and fancy it up in historical fantasy garb eludes me, even after looking in The Kapoors: The First Family of Indian Cinema, but apparently he did, and you know what? It's
totally enjoyable batsh*t insanely hilarious mostly satsifactory with a few fringe benefits.
Putting aside the fantastic elements - monsters, magic, and the ability to decipher extended complex messages from animal noises - it doesn't have any notable flaws that you couldn't also find in many other masala stories. It doesn't make a ton of sense. Its coincidences are über convenient. People are lost and found in eye-roll-inducing ways.
But on the positive side, it has a lot of the good, enjoyable, entertaining, heart-warming features you can find in many other masala movies. At its core, Ajooba solidly covers the standard elements. The transgressors of certain social norms are punished. (It's important to note that in the world of Ajooba, the characters seem to find many very un-normal activities to be perfectly unremarkable, like having jewelry that lets you see what people are doing hundreds of miles away, the very proactive involvement of the animal kingdom in human affairs, discovering and testing out magic potions, shrinking to 6" high, etc. Nobody bats an eye at that stuff. It's the social order and civil norms that Ajooba is worried about protecting, not, you know, science or rational thought or anything.) The bonds between parents and children are strengthened. Sacrifices are made. Romances bloom.
Awww. That's a sure sign of luuurve!
People-wise, its greatest strengths are Amitabh and Rishi - and the Rishitabh, if you will. They're totally entertaining on their own, and they're pretty cute together, too. Amitabh in particular is fun to watch, hamming it up in classic masala style.
Love the curly-toed shoes.
Somehow other characters actually believed Rishi was a woman. Talk about suspending disbelief.
Regular readers know that I am not a consistent follower of the cult of the Big B, but he's the best thing in this movie, no doubt, and I wanted to run out and give him a big hug for agreeing to be in it at all - I know his career wasn't going great guns in 1990, but being in this movie must have been risky, and I can't help but assume he must have really loved his friend Shashi in order to sign on. Dimple is feisty and fun as the script allows. Sonam's role is surprisingly saucy; she's sexually forward (and amazingly isn't punished for it, thanks writers!) and independent at times, though at others she's reduced to the head-tilting wide-eyed blinking of many a heroine.
Soviet actress Ariadna Shengalaya plays the sultana with enough emotion that we know she's a filmi maa, but I don't think she ever gets in a proper "Nahiiin!" or knuckle bite, which is fine by me.
Laxmikant-Pyarelal's songs and their picturizaitons are a toe-tappin' good time. My favorite was "Are Tujub Hai," in which Rishi teases Amitabh about something or other (my DVD had no subtitles on songs) and they frolic around the city streets, joyfully buddy-buddy. There is some absolutely gorgeous music and dancing in a scene of Dimple's little village in Hind (looking a lot like Rajasthan, it seems to me).
I also really liked most of the sets, particularly the locations and other outdoor scenes. If anyone knows where in India this was filmed, I'd love to hear (I've read parts of it were shot in Kyrgyzstan as well).
The bad neighborhoods in Bahrestan are a little bit creepy, no?
This is a small point, but I have to make it: there is a really creative fight scene towards the end of the film in which masked hero Ajooba busts heads by swinging from temple bells. It's really quite cool.
As an even further aside, I was confused by the fight coordinator's decision to have Ajooba jump from chain to chain by lunging with both hands at once, rather than holding on to the current chain with one hand and reaching for the next chain with the other, the way everybody else in movies does that vine-like maneuver. Seems pretty risky to just jump with nothing to fall back on if you miss. Plus you'd fall smack on your butt - not very heroic-looking.
(That might be the perfect analogy for the whole movie, now that I think about it. I think a lot of people would say this movie fell smack on its butt - and even I would agree that most of it is not very heroic or iconic.)
In his one project behind the camera, Shashi tried to give us a different spin on a classic formula, and in theory that's a really nice, generous idea. I do honestly believe that he tried really hard - there is a lot going on in story and visuals.* But please note that I am not saying that it has all the strengths of a really well done masala film - I can't imagine I'll watch this anywhere near as often as Parvarish or Kaala Patthar, for example - and I'd argue that Ajooba does not measure and bake its RMA ingredients properly or to maximum effect, and it yields inconsistent results. And here's where the surface coating of Bahrestanian wackadoodle is most problematic. Since the basic movie wasn't thoroughly great to begin with, the added geegaws of magicians and satanic viziers and flying carpets put extra pressure on the flaws.
Here are what I think are the basic problems with Ajooba. Some of the acting is really, really bad, mostly in the first hour or so, making the movie challenge to get into. Shammi overplays his royal paternal/defender doofus role. He's just too much. Maybe this is why you shouldn't mix business and family? How do you tell your older brother he needs to crank the dial down from 11 to about 4? Fortunately he's not in the movie much after he tries to fight off Amrish Puri and Dalip Tahil in mid-air in an extremely funny-looking flying carpet/flaming boat/stormy seas battle.
His costumes do him no favors; I think someone must have wanted to make him look like a Mughal beach ball. Saeed Jaffrey was probably slumming it here, but he's too much as well.
Amrish does his standard eye-bugging, but I thought it got old faster than usual, perhaps because his mega-bad baddie has little setup and mostly stomps around being conspicuously bad (but of course even though at least two people catch on that he's up to no good, no one does anything about it on time).
Actually, most of the characters aren't developed. Bahrestan needs a hero? Presto! Fully grown hero arrives on the scene with no back story.
It breaks my heart to say this, but Ajooba seems to indicate that Shashi inherited a touch of his eldest brother's dirty-old-man director tendencies. This is Dimple's first appearance:
At best, that move belongs in a shampoo commercial. He spends more time than strictly necessary on belly dancers writhing like snakes.
Oh look, she's writhing with a snake. Classic.
Rishi and Sonam smooch, Rishi drums along to the song on her butt, and when Rishi is shrunk (don't ask), Sonam hides him in the front her blouse, thereby creating a reason to gawk.
Mini Rishi is at about 11 o'clock here, hiding under the gauzy overlay. He wriggles around. Classy.
There's even a flash of actual naked breast in a crowd scene. To be fair, a few men are objectified too.
Thanks for the naked, shiny, muscley guys, Shashi-ji! Oh wait, I don't actually go for that.
But enough of the base-level problems. I know you're reading this because you want to see why almost everyone seems to think Ajooba is a cracktastic hot mess. Here you go!
The costumes are more silly and gaudy than bad, actually, and I admire the commitment to the sartorial traditions of a historical, fake-pretend Stan.
Papier-maché sea monster!
Does this remind anyone else of Balinese masks? I'd be ten kinds of impressed if the effects designer admitted inspiration from a barong ket.
More flying carpet, because one picture is really not enough. There are three sequences with the carpet, and they're all a good time.
Blood and guts are done to usual standards.
The magic is...um...how to put this...not very magical. Here's a sequence of a magical elephant given to the royal baby, transforming from miniature charm to full-sized (and decorated) creature:
I'm crushing your
Here's another magic sequence. An evil magician is sent by the evil vizier to turn Ajooba into a donkey. Because this guy is one of the movie's components of comic relief, the plan backfires, and he suffers the wrong end of his potion. He goes from man, to man with neon donkey-shaped outline,
to donkey with neon donkey-shaped outline,
to regular donkey, unilluminated. Later on, we get two bestiality jokes out of this. Yes.
Amrish drinks blood.
Dishoomin' you in the face!
When Ajooba shows up in a flying gondola (what, the carpet was in the shop?), the assembled crowd does actually say "Ajooba is here! He is flying a gondola!"
Sorry the picture is so blurry - those things move fast!
This is one of the funniest image/dialogue pairings I have ever seen. Throughout the whole movie, no one has remarked on any of the magic or evil or miracles, but somehow a flying gondola strikes them as noteworthy. Maybe it's the Bahrestanian equivalent of a Lamborghini?
One more of the sea monster? I thought so.
Amitabh fights a guy with a metal claw hand
and later a stuffed tiger - mind it! - interspersed with footage of an actual tiger.
I can't fairly lump this next one under the category of "WTF," but it made me giggle anyway: the first scene of our happy dolphin friend
brought to mind Abhishek's entrance in Dhoom 2.
I can't emphasize enough that you should just watch Ajooba for yourself. I'm ready to accept that most people, especially those not schooled in masala, will have a hard time not dismissing it as crazy. Give it a chance, though; you might be pleasantly surprised. And at the very least, you'll get to see this:
Blog round-up: Ajooba is in the air. Unser Freund The Horror?! just wrote it up, and keep an eye on Doc Bollywood for his take sometime soon. Rumor has it that Teleport City will also be taking a crack at it, nicely contextualized with other Russian fantasty films. ("Other?" I asked, when he told me this. You learn something every day!) Aside: are there any other women writing about this movie? My hopes are pinned on you, Indie Quill!
* When I started writing this post, I wanted to say something about the larger context of Ajooba - other Hindi films released in 1991 - to see how it fit in with what else was going on. But then I realized that out of imdb's list of Hindi films released that year, I had heard of a grand total of five of them (and seen only one, Ek Ghar, a Deepti Naval/Naseeruddin Shah NFDC film). Then I went to Wikipedia to see what the top grossers were; of their top ten, I had heard of two and seen none. (No doubt there are better sources for this type of information - it seems odd that there would be only 130 Hindi films, doesn't it? - but I don't know what they are.) I won't pretend to have encyclopedia knowlege of Hindi cinema or claim that the movies I've seen are a representative sample of all eras, styles, directors, etc. But these numbers suggest some evidence of the impression I've gotten from various writers and fans, that the late 80s and early 90s were a bleak era and were populated mostly by the types of movies I don't tend to seek out and that have not been recommended to me. What I mean to say is, I don't know anything about the movies that came out the same time as Ajooba, either through first-hand experience or research or word of mouth, and I would be grateful to anyone who wanted to weigh in on its contemporary context and whether they think that colors/should color how we think of it today. | <urn:uuid:9868c2d5-0da4-4e58-b7f8-e64bd91529d6> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://bethlovesbollywood.blogspot.com/2008/08/ajooba-not-quite-as-crazy-as-its.html?showComment=1217969820000 | 2015-03-29T10:36:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131298464.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172138-00196-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972633 | 3,379 |
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