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- Year Published: 1866
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: Russia
- Source: Dostoyevsky, F. (1866). Crime and Punishment. Moscow, Russia: The Russian Messenger.
- Flesch–Kincaid Level: 7.2
- Word Count: 7,803
Dostoyevsky, F. (1866). Part 3, Chapter 5. Crime and Punishment (Lit2Go Edition). Retrieved May 18, 2013, from
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. "Part 3, Chapter 5." Crime and Punishment. Lit2Go Edition. 1866. Web. <>. May 18, 2013.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "Part 3, Chapter 5," Crime and Punishment, Lit2Go Edition, (1866), accessed May 18, 2013,.
Raskolnikov was already entering the room. He came in looking as though he had the utmost difficulty not to burst out laughing again. Behind him Razumihin strode in gawky and awkward, shamefaced and red as a peony, with an utterly crestfallen and ferocious expression. His face and whole figure really were ridiculous at that moment and amply justified Raskolnikov’s laughter. Raskolnikov, not waiting for an introduction, bowed to Porfiry Petrovitch, who stood in the middle of the room looking inquiringly at them. He held out his hand and shook hands, still apparently making desperate efforts to subdue his mirth and utter a few words to introduce himself. But he had no sooner succeeded in assuming a serious air and muttering something when he suddenly glanced again as though accidentally at Razumihin, and could no longer control himself: his stifled laughter broke out the more irresistibly the more he tried to restrain it. The extraordinary ferocity with which Razumihin received this “spontaneous” mirth gave the whole scene the appearance of most genuine fun and naturalness. Razumihin strengthened this impression as though on purpose.
“Fool! You fiend,” he roared, waving his arm which at once struck a little round table with an empty tea-glass on it. Everything was sent flying and crashing.
“But why break chairs, gentlemen? You know it’s a loss to the Crown,” Porfiry Petrovitch quoted gaily.
Raskolnikov was still laughing, with his hand in Porfiry Petrovitch’s, but anxious not to overdo it, awaited the right moment to put a natural end to it. Razumihin, completely put to confusion by upsetting the table and smashing the glass, gazed gloomily at the fragments, cursed and turned sharply to the window where he stood looking out with his back to the company with a fiercely scowling countenance, seeing nothing. Porfiry Petrovitch laughed and was ready to go on laughing, but obviously looked for explanations. Zametov had been sitting in the corner, but he rose at the visitors’ entrance and was standing in expectation with a smile on his lips, though he looked with surprise and even it seemed incredulity at the whole scene and at Raskolnikov with a certain embarrassment. Zametov’s unexpected presence struck Raskolnikov unpleasantly.
“I’ve got to think of that,” he thought. “Excuse me, please,” he began, affecting extreme embarrassment. “Raskolnikov.”
“Not at all, very pleasant to see you… and how pleasantly you’ve come in…. Why, won’t he even say good-morning?” Porfiry Petrovitch nodded at Razumihin.
“Upon my honour I don’t know why he is in such a rage with me. I only told him as we came along that he was like Romeo… and proved it. And that was all, I think!”
“Pig!” ejaculated Razumihin, without turning round.
“There must have been very grave grounds for it, if he is so furious at the word,” Porfiry laughed.
“Oh, you sharp lawyer!... Damn you all!” snapped Razumihin, and suddenly bursting out laughing himself, he went up to Porfiry with a more cheerful face as though nothing had happened. “That’ll do! We are all fools. To come to business. This is my friend Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov; in the first place he has heard of you and wants to make your acquaintance, and secondly, he has a little matter of business with you. Bah! Zametov, what brought you here? Have you met before? Have you known each other long?”
“What does this mean?” thought Raskolnikov uneasily.
Zametov seemed taken aback, but not very much so.
“Why, it was at your rooms we met yesterday,” he said easily.
“Then I have been spared the trouble. All last week he was begging me to introduce him to you. Porfiry and you have sniffed each other out without me. Where is your tobacco?”
Porfiry Petrovitch was wearing a dressing-gown, very clean linen, and trodden-down slippers. He was a man of about five and thirty, short, stout even to corpulence, and clean shaven. He wore his hair cut short and had a large round head, particularly prominent at the back. His soft, round, rather snub-nosed face was of a sickly yellowish colour, but had a vigorous and rather ironical expression. It would have been good-natured except for a look in the eyes, which shone with a watery, mawkish light under almost white, blinking eyelashes. The expression of those eyes was strangely out of keeping with his somewhat womanish figure, and gave it something far more serious than could be guessed at first sight.
As soon as Porfiry Petrovitch heard that his visitor had a little matter of business with him, he begged him to sit down on the sofa and sat down himself on the other end, waiting for him to explain his business, with that careful and over-serious attention which is at once oppressive and embarrassing, especially to a stranger, and especially if what you are discussing is in your opinion of far too little importance for such exceptional solemnity. But in brief and coherent phrases Raskolnikov explained his business clearly and exactly, and was so well satisfied with himself that he even succeeded in taking a good look at Porfiry. Porfiry Petrovitch did not once take his eyes off him. Razumihin, sitting opposite at the same table, listened warmly and impatiently, looking from one to the other every moment with rather excessive interest.
“Fool,” Raskolnikov swore to himself.
“You have to give information to the police,” Porfiry replied, with a most businesslike air, “that having learnt of this incident, that is of the murder, you beg to inform the lawyer in charge of the case that such and such things belong to you, and that you desire to redeem them… or… but they will write to you.”
“That’s just the point, that at the present moment,” Raskolnikov tried his utmost to feign embarrassment, “I am not quite in funds… and even this trifling sum is beyond me… I only wanted, you see, for the present to declare that the things are mine, and that when I have money….”
“That’s no matter,” answered Porfiry Petrovitch, receiving his explanation of his pecuniary position coldly, “but you can, if you prefer, write straight to me, to say, that having been informed of the matter, and claiming such and such as your property, you beg…”
“On an ordinary sheet of paper?” Raskolnikov interrupted eagerly, again interested in the financial side of the question.
“Oh, the most ordinary,” and suddenly Porfiry Petrovitch looked with obvious irony at him, screwing up his eyes and, as it were, winking at him. But perhaps it was Raskolnikov’s fancy, for it all lasted but a moment. There was certainly something of the sort, Raskolnikov could have sworn he winked at him, goodness knows why.
“He knows,” flashed through his mind like lightning.
“Forgive my troubling you about such trifles,” he went on, a little disconcerted, “the things are only worth five roubles, but I prize them particularly for the sake of those from whom they came to me, and I must confess that I was alarmed when I heard…”
“That’s why you were so much struck when I mentioned to Zossimov that Porfiry was inquiring for everyone who had pledges!” Razumihin put in with obvious intention.
This was really unbearable. Raskolnikov could not help glancing at him with a flash of vindictive anger in his black eyes, but immediately recollected himself.
“You seem to be jeering at me, brother?” he said to him, with a well-feigned irritability. “I dare say I do seem to you absurdly anxious about such trash; but you mustn’t think me selfish or grasping for that, and these two things may be anything but trash in my eyes. I told you just now that the silver watch, though it’s not worth a cent, is the only thing left us of my father’s. You may laugh at me, but my mother is here,” he turned suddenly to Porfiry, “and if she knew,” he turned again hurriedly to Razumihin, carefully making his voice tremble, “that the watch was lost, she would be in despair! You know what women are!”
“Not a bit of it! I didn’t mean that at all! Quite the contrary!” shouted Razumihin distressed.
“Was it right? Was it natural? Did I overdo it?” Raskolnikov asked himself in a tremor. “Why did I say that about women?”
“Oh, your mother is with you?” Porfiry Petrovitch inquired.
“When did she come?”
Porfiry paused as though reflecting.
“Your things would not in any case be lost,” he went on calmly and coldly. “I have been expecting you here for some time.”
And as though that was a matter of no importance, he carefully offered the ash-tray to Razumihin, who was ruthlessly scattering cigarette ash over the carpet. Raskolnikov shuddered, but Porfiry did not seem to be looking at him, and was still concerned with Razumihin’s cigarette.
“What? Expecting him? Why, did you know that he had pledges there?” cried Razumihin.
Porfiry Petrovitch addressed himself to Raskolnikov.
“Your things, the ring and the watch, were wrapped up together, and on the paper your name was legibly written in pencil, together with the date on which you left them with her…”
“How observant you are!” Raskolnikov smiled awkwardly, doing his very utmost to look him straight in the face, but he failed, and suddenly added:
“I say that because I suppose there were a great many pledges… that it must be difficult to remember them all…. But you remember them all so clearly, and… and…”
“Stupid! Feeble!” he thought. “Why did I add that?”
“But we know all who had pledges, and you are the only one who hasn’t come forward,” Porfiry answered with hardly perceptible irony.
“I haven’t been quite well.”
“I heard that too. I heard, indeed, that you were in great distress about something. You look pale still.”
“I am not pale at all…. No, I am quite well,” Raskolnikov snapped out rudely and angrily, completely changing his tone. His anger was mounting, he could not repress it. “And in my anger I shall betray myself,” flashed through his mind again. “Why are they torturing me?”
“Not quite well!” Razumihin caught him up. “What next! He was unconscious and delirious all yesterday. Would you believe, Porfiry, as soon as our backs were turned, he dressed, though he could hardly stand, and gave us the slip and went off on a spree somewhere till midnight, delirious all the time! Would you believe it! Extraordinary!”
“Really delirious? You don’t say so!” Porfiry shook his head in a womanish way.
“Nonsense! Don’t you believe it! But you don’t believe it anyway,” Raskolnikov let slip in his anger. But Porfiry Petrovitch did not seem to catch those strange words.
“But how could you have gone out if you hadn’t been delirious?” Razumihin got hot suddenly. “What did you go out for? What was the object of it? And why on the sly? Were you in your senses when you did it? Now that all danger is over I can speak plainly.”
“I was awfully sick of them yesterday.” Raskolnikov addressed Porfiry suddenly with a smile of insolent defiance, “I ran away from them to take lodgings where they wouldn’t find me, and took a lot of money with me. Mr. Zametov there saw it. I say, Mr. Zametov, was I sensible or delirious yesterday; settle our dispute.”
He could have strangled Zametov at that moment, so hateful were his expression and his silence to him.
“In my opinion you talked sensibly and even artfully, but you were extremely irritable,” Zametov pronounced dryly.
“And Nikodim Fomitch was telling me to-day,” put in Porfiry Petrovitch, “that he met you very late last night in the lodging of a man who had been run over.”
“And there,” said Razumihin, “weren’t you mad then? You gave your last penny to the widow for the funeral. If you wanted to help, give fifteen or twenty even, but keep three roubles for yourself at least, but he flung away all the twenty-five at once!”
“Maybe I found a treasure somewhere and you know nothing of it? So that’s why I was liberal yesterday…. Mr. Zametov knows I’ve found a treasure! Excuse us, please, for disturbing you for half an hour with such trivialities,” he said, turning to Porfiry Petrovitch, with trembling lips. “We are boring you, aren’t we?”
“Oh no, quite the contrary, quite the contrary! If only you knew how you interest me! It’s interesting to look on and listen… and I am really glad you have come forward at last.”
“But you might give us some tea! My throat’s dry,” cried Razumihin.
“Capital idea! Perhaps we will all keep you company. Wouldn’t you like… something more essential before tea?”
“Get along with you!”
Porfiry Petrovitch went out to order tea.
Raskolnikov’s thoughts were in a whirl. He was in terrible exasperation.
“The worst of it is they don’t disguise it; they don’t care to stand on ceremony! And how if you didn’t know me at all, did you come to talk to Nikodim Fomitch about me? So they don’t care to hide that they are tracking me like a pack of dogs. They simply spit in my face.” He was shaking with rage. “Come, strike me openly, don’t play with me like a cat with a mouse. It’s hardly civil, Porfiry Petrovitch, but perhaps I won’t allow it! I shall get up and throw the whole truth in your ugly faces, and you’ll see how I despise you.” He could hardly breathe. “And what if it’s only my fancy? What if I am mistaken, and through inexperience I get angry and don’t keep up my nasty part? Perhaps it’s all unintentional. All their phrases are the usual ones, but there is something about them…. It all might be said, but there is something. Why did he say bluntly, ‘With her’? Why did Zametov add that I spoke artfully? Why do they speak in that tone? Yes, the tone…. Razumihin is sitting here, why does he see nothing? That innocent blockhead never does see anything! Feverish again! Did Porfiry wink at me just now? Of course it’s nonsense! What could he wink for? Are they trying to upset my nerves or are they teasing me? Either it’s ill fancy or they know! Even Zametov is rude…. Is Zametov rude? Zametov has changed his mind. I foresaw he would change his mind! He is at home here, while it’s my first visit. Porfiry does not consider him a visitor; sits with his back to him. They’re as thick as thieves, no doubt, over me! Not a doubt they were talking about me before we came. Do they know about the flat? If only they’d make haste! When I said that I ran away to take a flat he let it pass…. I put that in cleverly about a flat, it may be of use afterwards…. Delirious, indeed… ha-ha-ha! He knows all about last night! He didn’t know of my mother’s arrival! The hag had written the date on in pencil! You are wrong, you won’t catch me! There are no facts… it’s all supposition! You produce facts! The flat even isn’t a fact but delirium. I know what to say to them…. Do they know about the flat? I won’t go without finding out. What did I come for? But my being angry now, maybe is a fact! Fool, how irritable I am! Perhaps that’s right; to play the invalid…. He is feeling me. He will try to catch me. Why did I come?”
All this flashed like lightning through his mind.
Porfiry Petrovitch returned quickly. He became suddenly more jovial.
“Your party yesterday, brother, has left my head rather…. And I am out of sorts altogether,” he began in quite a different tone, laughing to Razumihin.
“Was it interesting? I left you yesterday at the most interesting point. Who got the best of it?”
“Oh, no one, of course. They got on to everlasting questions, floated off into space.”
“Only fancy, Rodya, what we got on to yesterday. Whether there is such a thing as crime. I told you that we talked our heads off.”
“What is there strange? It’s an everyday social question,” Raskolnikov answered casually.
“The question wasn’t put quite like that,” observed Porfiry.
“Not quite, that’s true,” Razumihin agreed at once, getting warm and hurried as usual. “Listen, Rodion, and tell us your opinion, I want to hear it. I was fighting tooth and nail with them and wanted you to help me. I told them you were coming…. It began with the socialist doctrine. You know their doctrine; crime is a protest against the abnormality of the social organisation and nothing more, and nothing more; no other causes admitted!...”
“You are wrong there,” cried Porfiry Petrovitch; he was noticeably animated and kept laughing as he looked at Razumihin, which made him more excited than ever.
“Nothing is admitted,” Razumihin interrupted with heat.
“I am not wrong. I’ll show you their pamphlets. Everything with them is ‘the influence of environment,’ and nothing else. Their favourite phrase! From which it follows that, if society is normally organised, all crime will cease at once, since there will be nothing to protest against and all men will become righteous in one instant. Human nature is not taken into account, it is excluded, it’s not supposed to exist! They don’t recognise that humanity, developing by a historical living process, will become at last a normal society, but they believe that a social system that has come out of some mathematical brain is going to organise all humanity at once and make it just and sinless in an instant, quicker than any living process! That’s why they instinctively dislike history, ‘nothing but ugliness and stupidity in it,’ and they explain it all as stupidity! That’s why they so dislike the living process of life; they don’t want a living soul! The living soul demands life, the soul won’t obey the rules of mechanics, the soul is an object of suspicion, the soul is retrograde! But what they want though it smells of death and can be made of India-rubber, at least is not alive, has no will, is servile and won’t revolt! And it comes in the end to their reducing everything to the building of walls and the planning of rooms and passages in a phalanstery! The phalanstery is ready, indeed, but your human nature is not ready for the phalanstery—it wants life, it hasn’t completed its vital process, it’s too soon for the graveyard! You can’t skip over nature by logic. Logic presupposes three possibilities, but there are millions! Cut away a million, and reduce it all to the question of comfort! That’s the easiest solution of the problem! It’s seductively clear and you musn’t think about it. That’s the great thing, you mustn’t think! The whole secret of life in two pages of print!”
“Now he is off, beating the drum! Catch hold of him, do!” laughed Porfiry. “Can you imagine,” he turned to Raskolnikov, “six people holding forth like that last night, in one room, with punch as a preliminary! No, brother, you are wrong, environment accounts for a great deal in crime; I can assure you of that.”
“Oh, I know it does, but just tell me: a man of forty violates a child of ten; was it environment drove him to it?”
“Well, strictly speaking, it did,” Porfiry observed with noteworthy gravity; “a crime of that nature may be very well ascribed to the influence of environment.”
Razumihin was almost in a frenzy. “Oh, if you like,” he roared. “I’ll prove to you that your white eyelashes may very well be ascribed to the Church of Ivan the Great’s being two hundred and fifty feet high, and I will prove it clearly, exactly, progressively, and even with a Liberal tendency! I undertake to! Will you bet on it?”
“Done! Let’s hear, please, how he will prove it!”
“He is always humbugging, confound him,” cried Razumihin, jumping up and gesticulating. “What’s the use of talking to you? He does all that on purpose; you don’t know him, Rodion! He took their side yesterday, simply to make fools of them. And the things he said yesterday! And they were delighted! He can keep it up for a fortnight together. Last year he persuaded us that he was going into a monastery: he stuck to it for two months. Not long ago he took it into his head to declare he was going to get married, that he had everything ready for the wedding. He ordered new clothes indeed. We all began to congratulate him. There was no bride, nothing, all pure fantasy!”
“Ah, you are wrong! I got the clothes before. It was the new clothes in fact that made me think of taking you in.”
“Are you such a good dissembler?” Raskolnikov asked carelessly.
“You wouldn’t have supposed it, eh? Wait a bit, I shall take you in, too. Ha-ha-ha! No, I’ll tell you the truth. All these questions about crime, environment, children, recall to my mind an article of yours which interested me at the time. ‘On Crime’... or something of the sort, I forget the title, I read it with pleasure two months ago in the Periodical Review.”
“My article? In the Periodical Review?” Raskolnikov asked in astonishment. “I certainly did write an article upon a book six months ago when I left the university, but I sent it to the Weekly Review.”
“But it came out in the Periodical.”
“And the Weekly Review ceased to exist, so that’s why it wasn’t printed at the time.”
“That’s true; but when it ceased to exist, the Weekly Review was amalgamated with the Periodical, and so your article appeared two months ago in the latter. Didn’t you know?”
Raskolnikov had not known.
“Why, you might get some money out of them for the article! What a strange person you are! You lead such a solitary life that you know nothing of matters that concern you directly. It’s a fact, I assure you.”
“Bravo, Rodya! I knew nothing about it either!” cried Razumihin. “I’ll run to-day to the reading-room and ask for the number. Two months ago? What was the date? It doesn’t matter though, I will find it. Think of not telling us!”
“How did you find out that the article was mine? It’s only signed with an initial.”
“I only learnt it by chance, the other day. Through the editor; I know him…. I was very much interested.”
“I analysed, if I remember, the psychology of a criminal before and after the crime.”
“Yes, and you maintained that the perpetration of a crime is always accompanied by illness. Very, very original, but… it was not that part of your article that interested me so much, but an idea at the end of the article which I regret to say you merely suggested without working it out clearly. There is, if you recollect, a suggestion that there are certain persons who can… that is, not precisely are able to, but have a perfect right to commit breaches of morality and crimes, and that the law is not for them.”
Raskolnikov smiled at the exaggerated and intentional distortion of his idea.
“What? What do you mean? A right to crime? But not because of the influence of environment?” Razumihin inquired with some alarm even.
“No, not exactly because of it,” answered Porfiry. “In his article all men are divided into ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary.’ Ordinary men have to live in submission, have no right to transgress the law, because, don’t you see, they are ordinary. But extraordinary men have a right to commit any crime and to transgress the law in any way, just because they are extraordinary. That was your idea, if I am not mistaken?”
“What do you mean? That can’t be right?” Razumihin muttered in bewilderment.
Raskolnikov smiled again. He saw the point at once, and knew where they wanted to drive him. He decided to take up the challenge.
“That wasn’t quite my contention,” he began simply and modestly. “Yet I admit that you have stated it almost correctly; perhaps, if you like, perfectly so.” (It almost gave him pleasure to admit this.) “The only difference is that I don’t contend that extraordinary people are always bound to commit breaches of morals, as you call it. In fact, I doubt whether such an argument could be published. I simply hinted that an ‘extraordinary’ man has the right… that is not an official right, but an inner right to decide in his own conscience to overstep… certain obstacles, and only in case it is essential for the practical fulfilment of his idea (sometimes, perhaps, of benefit to the whole of humanity). You say that my article isn’t definite; I am ready to make it as clear as I can. Perhaps I am right in thinking you want me to; very well. I maintain that if the discoveries of Kepler and Newton could not have been made known except by sacrificing the lives of one, a dozen, a hundred, or more men, Newton would have had the right, would indeed have been in duty bound… to eliminate the dozen or the hundred men for the sake of making his discoveries known to the whole of humanity. But it does not follow from that that Newton had a right to murder people right and left and to steal every day in the market. Then, I remember, I maintain in my article that all… well, legislators and leaders of men, such as Lycurgus, Solon, Mahomet, Napoleon, and so on, were all without exception criminals, from the very fact that, making a new law, they transgressed the ancient one, handed down from their ancestors and held sacred by the people, and they did not stop short at bloodshed either, if that bloodshed—often of innocent persons fighting bravely in defence of ancient law—were of use to their cause. It’s remarkable, in fact, that the majority, indeed, of these benefactors and leaders of humanity were guilty of terrible carnage. In short, I maintain that all great men or even men a little out of the common, that is to say capable of giving some new word, must from their very nature be criminals—more or less, of course. Otherwise it’s hard for them to get out of the common rut; and to remain in the common rut is what they can’t submit to, from their very nature again, and to my mind they ought not, indeed, to submit to it. You see that there is nothing particularly new in all that. The same thing has been printed and read a thousand times before. As for my division of people into ordinary and extraordinary, I acknowledge that it’s somewhat arbitrary, but I don’t insist upon exact numbers. I only believe in my leading idea that men are in general divided by a law of nature into two categories, inferior (ordinary), that is, so to say, material that serves only to reproduce its kind, and men who have the gift or the talent to utter a new word. There are, of course, innumerable sub-divisions, but the distinguishing features of both categories are fairly well marked. The first category, generally speaking, are men conservative in temperament and law-abiding; they live under control and love to be controlled. To my thinking it is their duty to be controlled, because that’s their vocation, and there is nothing humiliating in it for them. The second category all transgress the law; they are destroyers or disposed to destruction according to their capacities. The crimes of these men are of course relative and varied; for the most part they seek in very varied ways the destruction of the present for the sake of the better. But if such a one is forced for the sake of his idea to step over a corpse or wade through blood, he can, I maintain, find within himself, in his conscience, a sanction for wading through blood—that depends on the idea and its dimensions, note that. It’s only in that sense I speak of their right to crime in my article (you remember it began with the legal question). There’s no need for such anxiety, however; the masses will scarcely ever admit this right, they punish them or hang them (more or less), and in doing so fulfil quite justly their conservative vocation. But the same masses set these criminals on a pedestal in the next generation and worship them (more or less). The first category is always the man of the present, the second the man of the future. The first preserve the world and people it, the second move the world and lead it to its goal. Each class has an equal right to exist. In fact, all have equal rights with me—and _vive la guerre éternelle_—till the New Jerusalem, of course!”
“Then you believe in the New Jerusalem, do you?”
“I do,” Raskolnikov answered firmly; as he said these words and during the whole preceding tirade he kept his eyes on one spot on the carpet.
“And… and do you believe in God? Excuse my curiosity.”
“I do,” repeated Raskolnikov, raising his eyes to Porfiry.
“And… do you believe in Lazarus’ rising from the dead?”
“I… I do. Why do you ask all this?”
“You believe it literally?”
“You don’t say so…. I asked from curiosity. Excuse me. But let us go back to the question; they are not always executed. Some, on the contrary…”
“Triumph in their lifetime? Oh, yes, some attain their ends in this life, and then…”
“They begin executing other people?”
“If it’s necessary; indeed, for the most part they do. Your remark is very witty.”
“Thank you. But tell me this: how do you distinguish those extraordinary people from the ordinary ones? Are there signs at their birth? I feel there ought to be more exactitude, more external definition. Excuse the natural anxiety of a practical law-abiding citizen, but couldn’t they adopt a special uniform, for instance, couldn’t they wear something, be branded in some way? For you know if confusion arises and a member of one category imagines that he belongs to the other, begins to ‘eliminate obstacles’ as you so happily expressed it, then…”
“Oh, that very often happens! That remark is wittier than the other.”
“No reason to; but take note that the mistake can only arise in the first category, that is among the ordinary people (as I perhaps unfortunately called them). In spite of their predisposition to obedience very many of them, through a playfulness of nature, sometimes vouchsafed even to the cow, like to imagine themselves advanced people, ‘destroyers,’ and to push themselves into the ‘new movement,’ and this quite sincerely. Meanwhile the really new people are very often unobserved by them, or even despised as reactionaries of grovelling tendencies. But I don’t think there is any considerable danger here, and you really need not be uneasy for they never go very far. Of course, they might have a thrashing sometimes for letting their fancy run away with them and to teach them their place, but no more; in fact, even this isn’t necessary as they castigate themselves, for they are very conscientious: some perform this service for one another and others chastise themselves with their own hands…. They will impose various public acts of penitence upon themselves with a beautiful and edifying effect; in fact you’ve nothing to be uneasy about…. It’s a law of nature.”
“Well, you have certainly set my mind more at rest on that score; but there’s another thing worries me. Tell me, please, are there many people who have the right to kill others, these extraordinary people? I am ready to bow down to them, of course, but you must admit it’s alarming if there are a great many of them, eh?”
“Oh, you needn’t worry about that either,” Raskolnikov went on in the same tone. “People with new ideas, people with the faintest capacity for saying something new, are extremely few in number, extraordinarily so in fact. One thing only is clear, that the appearance of all these grades and sub-divisions of men must follow with unfailing regularity some law of nature. That law, of course, is unknown at present, but I am convinced that it exists, and one day may become known. The vast mass of mankind is mere material, and only exists in order by some great effort, by some mysterious process, by means of some crossing of races and stocks, to bring into the world at last perhaps one man out of a thousand with a spark of independence. One in ten thousand perhaps—I speak roughly, approximately—is born with some independence, and with still greater independence one in a hundred thousand. The man of genius is one of millions, and the great geniuses, the crown of humanity, appear on earth perhaps one in many thousand millions. In fact I have not peeped into the retort in which all this takes place. But there certainly is and must be a definite law, it cannot be a matter of chance.”
“Why, are you both joking?” Razumihin cried at last. “There you sit, making fun of one another. Are you serious, Rodya?”
Raskolnikov raised his pale and almost mournful face and made no reply. And the unconcealed, persistent, nervous, and discourteous sarcasm of Porfiry seemed strange to Razumihin beside that quiet and mournful face.
“Well, brother, if you are really serious… You are right, of course, in saying that it’s not new, that it’s like what we’ve read and heard a thousand times already; but what is really original in all this, and is exclusively your own, to my horror, is that you sanction bloodshed in the name of conscience, and, excuse my saying so, with such fanaticism…. That, I take it, is the point of your article. But that sanction of bloodshed by conscience is to my mind… more terrible than the official, legal sanction of bloodshed….”
“You are quite right, it is more terrible,” Porfiry agreed.
“Yes, you must have exaggerated! There is some mistake, I shall read it. You can’t think that! I shall read it.”
“All that is not in the article, there’s only a hint of it,” said Raskolnikov.
“Yes, yes.” Porfiry couldn’t sit still. “Your attitude to crime is pretty clear to me now, but… excuse me for my impertinence (I am really ashamed to be worrying you like this), you see, you’ve removed my anxiety as to the two grades getting mixed, but… there are various practical possibilities that make me uneasy! What if some man or youth imagines that he is a Lycurgus or Mahomet—a future one of course—and suppose he begins to remove all obstacles…. He has some great enterprise before him and needs money for it… and tries to get it… do you see?”
Zametov gave a sudden guffaw in his corner. Raskolnikov did not even raise his eyes to him.
“I must admit,” he went on calmly, “that such cases certainly must arise. The vain and foolish are particularly apt to fall into that snare; young people especially.”
“Yes, you see. Well then?”
“What then?” Raskolnikov smiled in reply; “that’s not my fault. So it is and so it always will be. He said just now (he nodded at Razumihin) that I sanction bloodshed. Society is too well protected by prisons, banishment, criminal investigators, penal servitude. There’s no need to be uneasy. You have but to catch the thief.”
“And what if we do catch him?”
“Then he gets what he deserves.”
“You are certainly logical. But what of his conscience?”
“Why do you care about that?”
“Simply from humanity.”
“If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be his punishment—as well as the prison.”
“But the real geniuses,” asked Razumihin frowning, “those who have the right to murder? Oughtn’t they to suffer at all even for the blood they’ve shed?”
“Why the word ought? It’s not a matter of permission or prohibition. He will suffer if he is sorry for his victim. Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth,” he added dreamily, not in the tone of the conversation.
He raised his eyes, looked earnestly at them all, smiled, and took his cap. He was too quiet by comparison with his manner at his entrance, and he felt this. Everyone got up.
“Well, you may abuse me, be angry with me if you like,” Porfiry Petrovitch began again, “but I can’t resist. Allow me one little question (I know I am troubling you). There is just one little notion I want to express, simply that I may not forget it.”
“Very good, tell me your little notion,” Raskolnikov stood waiting, pale and grave before him.
“Well, you see… I really don’t know how to express it properly…. It’s a playful, psychological idea…. When you were writing your article, surely you couldn’t have helped, he-he! fancying yourself… just a little, an ‘extraordinary’ man, uttering a new word in your sense…. That’s so, isn’t it?”
“Quite possibly,” Raskolnikov answered contemptuously.
Razumihin made a movement.
“And, if so, could you bring yourself in case of worldly difficulties and hardship or for some service to humanity—to overstep obstacles?... For instance, to rob and murder?”
And again he winked with his left eye, and laughed noiselessly just as before.
“If I did I certainly should not tell you,” Raskolnikov answered with defiant and haughty contempt.
“No, I was only interested on account of your article, from a literary point of view…”
“Foo! how obvious and insolent that is!” Raskolnikov thought with repulsion.
“Allow me to observe,” he answered dryly, “that I don’t consider myself a Mahomet or a Napoleon, nor any personage of that kind, and not being one of them I cannot tell you how I should act.”
“Oh, come, don’t we all think ourselves Napoleons now in Russia?” Porfiry Petrovitch said with alarming familiarity.
Something peculiar betrayed itself in the very intonation of his voice.
“Perhaps it was one of these future Napoleons who did for Alyona Ivanovna last week?” Zametov blurted out from the corner.
Raskolnikov did not speak, but looked firmly and intently at Porfiry. Razumihin was scowling gloomily. He seemed before this to be noticing something. He looked angrily around. There was a minute of gloomy silence. Raskolnikov turned to go.
“Are you going already?” Porfiry said amiably, holding out his hand with excessive politeness. “Very, very glad of your acquaintance. As for your request, have no uneasiness, write just as I told you, or, better still, come to me there yourself in a day or two… to-morrow, indeed. I shall be there at eleven o’clock for certain. We’ll arrange it all; we’ll have a talk. As one of the last to be there, you might perhaps be able to tell us something,” he added with a most good-natured expression.
“You want to cross-examine me officially in due form?” Raskolnikov asked sharply.
“Oh, why? That’s not necessary for the present. You misunderstand me. I lose no opportunity, you see, and… I’ve talked with all who had pledges…. I obtained evidence from some of them, and you are the last…. Yes, by the way,” he cried, seemingly suddenly delighted, “I just remember, what was I thinking of?” he turned to Razumihin, “you were talking my ears off about that Nikolay… of course, I know, I know very well,” he turned to Raskolnikov, “that the fellow is innocent, but what is one to do? We had to trouble Dmitri too…. This is the point, this is all: when you went up the stairs it was past seven, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” answered Raskolnikov, with an unpleasant sensation at the very moment he spoke that he need not have said it.
“Then when you went upstairs between seven and eight, didn’t you see in a flat that stood open on a second storey, do you remember? two workmen or at least one of them? They were painting there, didn’t you notice them? It’s very, very important for them.”
“Painters? No, I didn’t see them,” Raskolnikov answered slowly, as though ransacking his memory, while at the same instant he was racking every nerve, almost swooning with anxiety to conjecture as quickly as possible where the trap lay and not to overlook anything. “No, I didn’t see them, and I don’t think I noticed a flat like that open…. But on the fourth storey” (he had mastered the trap now and was triumphant) “I remember now that someone was moving out of the flat opposite Alyona Ivanovna’s…. I remember… I remember it clearly. Some porters were carrying out a sofa and they squeezed me against the wall. But painters… no, I don’t remember that there were any painters, and I don’t think that there was a flat open anywhere, no, there wasn’t.”
“What do you mean?” Razumihin shouted suddenly, as though he had reflected and realised. “Why, it was on the day of the murder the painters were at work, and he was there three days before? What are you asking?”
“Foo! I have muddled it!” Porfiry slapped himself on the forehead. “Deuce take it! This business is turning my brain!” he addressed Raskolnikov somewhat apologetically. “It would be such a great thing for us to find out whether anyone had seen them between seven and eight at the flat, so I fancied you could perhaps have told us something…. I quite muddled it.”
“Then you should be more careful,” Razumihin observed grimly.
The last words were uttered in the passage. Porfiry Petrovitch saw them to the door with excessive politeness.
They went out into the street gloomy and sullen, and for some steps they did not say a word. Raskolnikov drew a deep breath. | <urn:uuid:842792ff-9ed5-4959-9a6a-526b7eed61ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/182/crime-and-punishment/3410/part-3-chapter-5/ | 2013-05-18T06:34:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975755 | 10,724 |
THE JOCKEY CLUB’S TERMS AND
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1 TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE
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April 6th, 2011
Four thousand people attended the largest annual conference of left and progressive intellectuals in the world over the weekend of March 18-20, 2011. It was the 7th annual Left Forum, at Pace University in lower Manhattan. A thousand speakers, 300 workshops, panels and dialogues on international politics, class war, social justice issues, corporate abuse of power and the ravages of financial deregulation attracted academics, anti-capitalists, socialists, artists, journalists, activists and anarchists to forge bonds of solidarity for social change. They had their choice of up to 45 panel discussions per seven program periods, plus two stellar plenary presentations covering the conference theme “Towards a Politics of Solidarity”.
Internationally known presenters such as Richard Wolff, Stanley Aronowitz, Cornel West, Laura Flanders, Barbara Ehrenreich, Francis Fox Piven, Benjamin Barber, John Nichols and The Yes Men, keen-sighted and eloquent in their analyses and reportage of problems, activists working for change, graced the conference mainstage.
So why were only a few presentations really strong on inspiration and insight for how to foster growing unity among progressives, how to build consensus on outlook and method to bring unity of action to fruition?
For the most part, I heard the need for solidarity answered with a call for solidarity, a need for a new paradigm with a call for a new paradigm. In the face of mounting world catastrophes and collapses, this is just a little like singing, “100 bottles of beer on the wall” together.
I suspect even right-wing spies who no doubt sat among us were underwhelmed by such tautologies. What could they report back that the leftists were planning to do? Top secret: They say they’re going to get together and take down power systems, make demands for multiracial, multicultural harmonious living, end top-down ersatz democracy, rid societies of oppression and exploitation, create equal opportunity and abundance for all . . . .
But there we all were, “together” at the conference, and if there were any coherent plans for how this vast harmonious concert of united humanity is to subsume current power structures and create a better world, I didn’t catch wind of them. Maybe I just went to the wrong rooms.
Because, in fact, I witnessed several quite bristly moments of disharmony, one among panelists on stage and one among audience members, the latter threatened physical aggression, with me shouting “stop!”
And throughout the weekend, there was more accord on explicating societal ills and defining authoritarian power structures than on fresh orientations or practical strategies for building a just and fair society.
Also, to my chagrin, I did not hear discussed what is actually the most significant divide among progressives, the rift between secular atheists and spiritually-oriented progressives. The latter were tellingly under-represented in the Left Forum programming. It appears the two groups do not break bread together, nor smoke the peace pipe around the same campfires.
And, of course, there are those progressives who wouldn't be caught dead or alive at either the Left Forum or at a gathering of, say, the Institute of Noetic Scientists, whose conference attracts the “conscious evolutionary” progressives.
And so the palpable spiritual desertification of our culture, if we could even be said to have a culture at all here in the US, was not considered a key part of the discussion of political, economic or social problems at either of the two Left Forums I’ve attended (2010 and 2011).
But I wonder if spiritual poverty and spiritual heartbreak is of central and essential relevance to our movement and to the urgent global problems so eloquently elucidated and enumerated at the Left Forum.
There were only a couple of classroom panels focusing on spiritual topics. One featured three Christian ministers speaking to a relatively small audience about the radical nature of their congregational work. Another panel, which I did not attend, featured Gary Null, et. al., who may have approached some of the issues I am pointing to here.
The very fact that the spiritual left and the academic left do not, for the most part, speak to each other in public (and that this fact was not deliberately brought forth in the widely attended plenary talks at this year’s Left Forum) speaks volumes about just how intractable a problem achieving solidarity really is among progressives.
How can we speak about solidarity or lack thereof without coming to grips with this glaring dissonance? Not only was this, our biggest rift, left unaddressed as a central topic in any panels I attended, I heard no direct conversation about any of the perennial divisions among progressives—all the little fractures and slices of worldview from Marxists to progressive democrats, to Green Anarchists—and so, where could be the insightful analyses of what human needs give rise to strong ideological identifications and encampments or how such divisions might be transcended? And without such understanding, how are we to begin to approach a more global vision for connecting with those who are not the least bit progressive at this time?
Instead, the need for solidarity was addressed through kudos for Egyptian and Wisconsin demonstrators, through applauding these truly heroic examples and models of solidarity for social justice and regime change, but at a time when neither of these groups have lasting victory to show for their efforts, the kind of social progress that can deal with human greed, aggression, power, supremacy . . . .
There were accolades and strong applause for the solidarity represented by pizza orders called in to feed Madison, WI demonstrators, from unknown ideological comrades watching Madison protests via internet and TV around the US and the world.
Yes! hot pizza pies are significant and meaningful gestures of solidarity, and yet eerily disappointed was I that radicals at the Left Forum did not dig up and chew on the roots of what lasting solidarity really is, the metaphysical elements of brotherhood and sisterhood and what gives rise to them beyond the common enemy, those intangibles that provide persistent courage and energy to power through and prevail in the face of destructive forces that oppose the best in us.
In my experience of the conference only Cornel West went there and so it thrilled me when he said, in speaking of the people of Iraq and Afghanistan: “We actually love those brothers and sisters. And isn’t it something that to believe that is to be radical.” That’s it; that’s right! He actually used the L-word, the seemingly forbidden word that represents a force that knows no bounds or divisions and no obstacles, a force more powerful than all the evils in our way. Bravo, Cornel West! The audience exploded with applause for him.
Why not speak of this in depth and more often? Why the separation of intellect and soul? Can't we get over this?
Is it because this is what gets you good and killed if you start talking about it as an unmediated birthright (Lennon, MLK, Jesus . . .) and start speaking of its lack as the root cause of social injustice?
Other than West’s statements, the general disengagement from the L-word and its meaning as the clarifying, fundamental aspect of life that we must exercise, strengthen and engage in ourselves and each other to full capacity, is the daunting fact that left me bereft, because only by addressing the lack of love amongst progressives and others will we be set to balance and transform our stagnation and galvanize a metaphysics of solidarity. This is how to arrive at a resolute set of actions, with strong and flexible bonds of brotherhood, with loving care and tenderness as our foundation; this is what's necessary for us to overcome rampant toxicity at every level—all of this was crystalized for me by what was lacking at the conference, an understanding of just why progressives are in their perennial underdog position in the struggle for justice.
Are we embarrassed or afraid to love big, bold and colorful? Are we ashamed to speak of abiding love as the energy of our bonds? Are we all just too depressed, anxious and desiccated inside? Can we wholeheartedly live up to taking care of ourselves and each other? Are we too heartbroken by life experience to let love flow and overspill, to beam love in the direction of the future where we will pioneer into 21st Century and excite all those around us to do the same? Are we paralyzed by the evil we have witnessed and continue to witness every day around us? All I can say is that if love is flowing in our hearts and nervous systems, let it not be confined, disguised, or kept too private now; we need it now more than ever.
I am listening for it, looking for it (the L), and yet I hear rampant cynicism, depression and despair. Love is lively, confident and bright. I appreciated the moment when Joel Kovel said in his presentation that “you need faith if you’re going to transform the world.” This is correct. But what is faith?
Faith is not religion, emotion or belief. Faith is a basic trust in life and the forces of existence, a trust in one’s organic sense of what is real and correct, and a trust in the underlying forces and processes of a universe of implicate law and intelligence, exceeding our feeble comprehension. We have to reawaken our capacities to listen, intuit and trust in life's true essentials.
Investigative journalism, accurate assessments and indictments, as well as multiple forms of resistance are surely needed, but we also need more time to be quiet, to be outdoors in wild places, to welcome our own changes, to be creative and make mistakes, to refresh ourselves and to get over our pasts, so that we’re not projecting personal rage from offenses of long ago onto current outrageous situations. Because all that makes for is conflagration, not skillful, creative and radical means that can show the way to the unwise.
The super-communicators of this year’s Forum were Cornel West and John Nichols. The old adage that “it’s not what you say, it’s the way you say it,” reasserted itself fully in the delivery of these orators. They activated bonding forces of solidarity, speaking emphatically with grace, rousing emotion, tempered to below the boiling point.
And yetl, did we not still long for gifts of real imagination at this conference? The cutting-edge is dull, getting perennially stuck at a horizon all too familiar, with too many conflicting views and goals, too much in-fighting. What will cut through to a higher order, to overcome dysfunction in our world.
Lip service is often given to the role of artists and creatives, but were there any artists on the Left Forum plenary panels? No!
At the scale of global society, with nearly seven billion people on the planet now, and with enormous challenges and forces in play, why are all these brilliant thinkers not entirely engaged with just how human beings will function, seven billion strong, as the current imperialist and plutocratic structures are disabled and dismantled, as we would like them to be?
The most clearly desirable practical ideas mentioned were worker cooperatives and relocalization, breaking up of multinational conglomerate financial systems, such as the IMF and the World Bank, reregulating investment banks, decentralizing governments into smaller regional entities and a global redistribution of wealth and power.
These are all ideas in common currency on the left. For those of us not invited to the table at progressive think tanks, it would be galvanizing to us to get feasible pictures of how the society we ideologically want would actually work, how things would be different in our daily lives and how those differences would make dangers we now face shrink back and resolve, how the redistribution of wealth and power would actually be achieved.
And if the answer is that nobody really has such things worked out, even in in their own minds, then how smart is it, really, to convene at this time, to have all these people burning all this fossil fuel to come together just to criticize the yellow brick road and the men behind the curtain? Shouldn’t we all be working locally and personally to open up our visionary capacities so we can see the way forward and then get together to share views and arrive at plans?
The word revolution was certainly in the air at the Forum, but it takes a whole lot more than a word to convince significant numbers of people to revolt. Combat revolutions require sacrifices of lives and materials; and history has shown that even successful people's revolutions can be followed on by regression to old ways.
This is exactly why “the spiritual left” calls for inner revolution, for psychological change, for freedom from addiction, for personal authority and integrity, so that social progress springs from authentic habits of holistic thinking and living, from the resolution of inner conflicts, and freedom from the irritation, discontent and wanting of the immature human spirit.
Everywhere on the Left we are inundated with daunting facts rather than energizing tactics. Facts about the toxicity of what we breathe, drink and eat, stats on the alarming rate of wealth being sucked up the ladder, rallying calls for the redistribution of wealth – So where is the unified, coordinated redistribution-of-wealth strategy? "Tax the rich"? Is this it?
Did anyone at the Left Forum say international general strike? I didn’t hear it. How much personal and moral authority would it take for, say, 25% of people around the world to shut down the global economy and governments and take charge of every aspect of their own lives, as a group, in solidarity? We could do this, just as soon as we are actually ready to handle it.
But how do unemployed people living on government checks strike? Are they going to refuse to pick up their government checks? Are they really interested in bringing down the government that is the teat they’re attached to for food and drink?
And what about employed people or entrepreneurs, up to their eyeballs in debt, kids, cars . . . what would get them to step out of line to bring down the system and build a new world? What do you think? That going to happen if we have no solidarity or plan that encourages these people to drop out of this way of life and stand together?
In which rooms at the conference were they talking about all this?
There were many details given about corporate abuses of power and how Citizens United will effect elections and bring even more corporate power to lawmaking and military authority, more evidence that we are being strangled and poisoned notch by notch, that while we hem, haw, dilly and dally, Fascism is taking hold and tightening its grip.
We were also privy to many specifics and particulars of the escalating environmental devastation of our biosphere and the denial of corporate/governmental power to recognize the urgency and respond. To be environmentally responsible means abandoning a legacy of exploitation and greed with biblical underpinnings, as well as high-stakes investments in growth and expansion of businesses based on extraction, domination and exploitation of natural ecosystems. To be truly environmentally responsible would mean that predatory capitalist system would be finished and the elite standards of living that everyone in the Left Forum audience is used to would be cut way, way back. Ready to rally for that? Just how many people would be put out of work in that scenario? Even if workers were to take over those businesses as coops, how would they run such businesses if they weren’t going to exploit land or other people?
We want to end the wars, close nuclear power plants, stop hydrofracking and tar sands operations, stop offshore drilling. Are you ready to live without fossil fuels? Ever gone hiking and camping? Ever live like a monk or a nun? No? Do these things now and then let's have a radical conversation.
We were told that Fox News is the most watched television news program and that the Wall Street Journal is the most read newspaper; that the messengers on the Right are ever-so-disciplined, consistent and pervasive in their backward messaging.
But isn’t it also true that Republicans are divided on many issues? We were told that half of Republicans identify as Tea Party supporters and the other half poll more like Democrats on the subject of social programs. So, the truth is that they don’t know what to do either and they don’t agree with each other or stand together on a lot of issues. There are pro-choice, pro gay marriage, fiscal Republicans, for example.
So why were there not concentrated analyses of just what our central messages are and why we are so unclear, undisciplined, inconsistent and ineffectual? Why were we not looking judiciously at ways to create lasting solidarity across platforms, across aisles, across all the blurred and shifting lines of the masses of suffering humanity? Why can’t we think bigger and more holistically than we do?
Artists, spiritual elders, and futurists are the visionary systems thinkers with big-picture capacity, long-range vision, and inner resources of satisfaction, but there were no artists or futurists on the plenary stage. Why not?!
Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, prodigious minds of erudition and passion, where was the much-needed attention to remedying ideological territorialism, which so afflicts the movement for justice and for sanity? Are we to remain defined primarily by what we are not, by what we oppose, by our anti-corporate and anti-capitalist rage, slogans and declarations?
Must it be our destiny to be in the role of yelping underdogs, fighting with our softie-hearted kid gloves in a class war that is totally rigged, where nothing can be done without capital and where we are perennially undercapitalized and forced to fight a losing battle, when in fact we are lovers not fighters? Why was there not more talk along these lines?
I say we've got to change the game in our own lives and who wants to hear that?! Let us no longer recognize the value of paper currency! Let us be defined by our creative vision and leadership, making obsolete, in both word and deed, the shackles of unwholesome societal projects! Disengage! Pull out! Disobey! Divest yourself of everything you've got sunk into the toxic, unreal world. Occupy the land. Leave the cities and get with the land to learn from and work with those who know how to live in harmony with the land.
Laura Flanders said something very important at the conference. She said, “Reality is what we need to grapple with.” This is truly of the essence. And it’s the same reality for progressives, as it is for those on the right. Dissociation from reality is the most pervasive human problem we are called to overcome now, in every social class, at every age, and in every culture and country on Earth.
Our true unity is actually found in our ignorance and weaknesses, in the pain of our confusion, ineptitude, psychological immaturity and disengagement from the Earth, in our not knowing what to do. The energetic network for mass solidarity is actually the shared experience of modernity and industrial civilization and its discontents, its craziness, its falsities, and our shared struggles of being neither here nor there.
Meanwhile everyone is pretending to know more than they do know and to be stubbornly right in that! We are together in our hidden existential pain. We will be strong when we can present a viable structuring of society that gives everyone the time and resources to address their dissociation from reality, to deal with hurt and the possibility of deep healing for future generations, to approach reality afresh, as ones who have learned a great deal since the start of the industrial era, with only perhaps a few elements of it worth keeping. Let us be eclectic about what we have learned; let's keep gems of wisdom and abolish all our many errors of ways and means.
No one can do this while they are on a rat-wheel “workin’ for the man,” when they are caught up in competition, envy and fear. And “the man” can’t do it either, not when he’s in domination mode, waging war, exploiting underlings, setting policies that don’t serve the universal needs of people, scarring the land and pillaging seas for profit. These are people sadly out of touch.
All too few of us can approach and stay engaged with reality if we are living within today’s world structures, which are so very damaging to the spirit. This is why monks and nuns are given protection to be reclusive; they are doing the work of inner alignment with reality. More and more of us could disengage from academia and all forms of institutional and establish work and turn inward to contact reality, living very simply and without fanfare. As we do, we need less and less of what the techno-monopoly world has to offer, seeing it as a sorrowful waste of the gift of life. All people might be touched by reality and therein find rest, peace.
Are we willing to lay down our careers, positions and possessions if that’s what needs to be done to reach our most cherished goals?
Imagine if 85% of the world’s population were highly educated and psychospiritually mature. Anarchy might work. It would not be such a chaotic situation. But if 85% of the world’s population is ignorant, dependent and immature, anarchy is completely untenable, because people cannot self-manage and they will not be trustworthy to look after each other and other forms of life.
A favorite slogan of the Situationists during the European social upheavals in 1968 was "Be Realistic. Demand the impossible.”
Reality itself is demanding that we transcend, create, surpass former limits and that is the natural way of the universe anyway, with or without us. What seems “impossible,” out of reach, is so because our psychospiritual development and its conditions are too undeveloped to live up the moral sense or the creative potential that is ours, but which is very intimate. This demand for alignment with intimate reality is knocking inside all of us but the most severely crippled souls, those very people who so often find their way into positions of power. When are we going to answer to the intimate truth instead of to the magnetic psychopaths who dominate and manipulate through ignorance and lies?
The growth humanity needs now has nothing to do with the growth of an economy or the provision of “creature comforts,” nor with rallies and the fall of governments. It is about deepening and strengthening of our capacity to meet reality and be wholeheartedly aligned with it, to be realized people, working with natural law as our law.
Can we imagine that the basis of our entire global culture is to achieve what is generally considered “the state of enlightenment,” but which is simply alignment with reality?
Will the academic left get with this? If so, you might just be out of a job, professors. How would you like to build a cob house with a bunch of us and put in some gardens and greenhouses?
And, will “the spiritual left” please leave off with the UFOs and aliens, crystals and runes, drug trips, crop circles, reptilian humans, astrology, mystery cults, power of attraction workbooks, drum circles, fortune tellers, pagan rites . . . and meet with intellectuals and just folks around the campfire for some practical architecture?
Now, will the evangelists and the rednecks, addicts, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, gangsters, secret agents and casino owners turn away from false doctrines, false flags, guns and poisons? What? No? Will you be ransacking our brand new mud and straw villages? Really?
Don’t you want to admit that the native peoples were the advanced minds, the wisdom figures, and that the Europeans were the neurotic, puerile savages?
Can we get a wee bit smarter and more radical now?
Making our demand Life’s demand, taking this upon ourselves as a species, across all borders, boundaries and divisions, is deeply political in nature and also deeply spiritual: these go together. Once you’re fully involved in reality, you won’t have time anymore for consumer business or celebrities, nor will you harbor a shred of interest in the circus of electoral politics.
Bio-psycho-social-spiritual integration and development, dynamic growth, holistic health and clear mind-sight into and through the old and the present has the potential to bring not only the fractured left together, but humanity as a whole.
The imperative for reality changes the human project entirely. We simply cannot go back to sing Jack and Jill, play musical chairs and Ring around the Rosy now. We simply cannot sing anthems, run marathon rat races or have the fruits of our love and work go to war and waste.
The whole stage-set will be dismantled when we are over the silly stories of this theater! All of us, together, over it, over it now! Dull, ditzy, dusty old stories!
Victor Hugo famously said "Greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come." And the time as come, fellow human beings, to acknowledge that when enough of the human race grows up and perceives reality, the seemingly endless cycles of invasion, exploitation and domination of peoples and planet will be obsolete.
There are not enough jails, money or uniformed men to contain, hold back and push down an idea whose time has come.
It is the whole construct of reality that is crumbling and dying around us. Goodbye. Good night. Good luck. Awaken.
©2011 Jari Chevalier
March 11th, 2008
The question, where is your money invested? is experienced by many as a violation, a pointed finger jabbing at them. Well, this gets our backs up precisely because this is where we have compromised our hearts, where we really don’t want to look and listen, where the worm of hypocrisy squirms. It’s what we really don’t want to feel, talk about, and possibly be moved to address. Why?
Because it is still, generally speaking, more financially profitable (higher returns, less risk) in the short term to put money into the coffers of established companies and profiteers, engaged as they may be in disregard of land, people, health and wisdom, and every creature of the Earth.
And so we think we have our money working for us?! We give over our money, which, along with our work, is our most powerful instrument, voice and vote, to this portfolio of doom and Armageddon. And, the game is set up so that the players rationalize and justify detrimental business practices on the basis of having to satisfy their stockholders with high returns. This is a game where profit is the highest value in consideration. So, there you have it.
I was at the Whitney Biennial contemporary art show on preview day and it was a spiritual wasteland, very disappointing. The show mirrors a society that is imbalanced, disgusting, disordered, epically ugly, mad, stupid, broken, mean-spirited and sick. On the audio tour, Ellen Harvey, one of the artists whose work stood out to me, said: “You can’t win, so let’s just start off by failing as extravagantly as possible,” in speaking of her art process. A fitting line for our times. There was hardly a hint of transcendence or visionary attitude in that entire show; instead, despair and hurt and self-indulgence. Is this the best we can do? One wonders about the selection of this uninspired psychic display and what the mindset is there, the agenda.
The proverb “money is the root of all evil” in these materialistically driven times might just as well be “money is the root of all good”. Our money is what we get for the life energy we have expended and both our energy and our money can be put to good, evil or neutral work in the world.
Our money actually does invest us in that which we have invested, even though we are not always willing to look at it that way or to do the real math from a holistic perspective. So then, are we living behind our own backs? Are we content to be strangers to ourselves and each other? Are we actually saying: yes, here, do more of this with our world, kill it, destroy and decimate it, kill it all, just give me another cushion, don’t take away my addictions, and throw in the health insurance.
We have the power, if we have the will, to reform our civilization very quickly, and we can do it with our energy and our money, much more effectively than with our political votes.
If you haven't seen the movie Zeitgeist yet, you can get to it through these links. It's screening at non-mainstream theaters across the country this Saturday. The second link displays those theaters. Part three of this movie gives a historical view of the financial world that you might want to have a look at. I invite your comments on this.
Streaming Zeitgeist movie
Big Screenings on March 15th
Article by Javier Sierra, Sierra Club, "How to Tell Greenwashing from Real Corporate Responsibility"
©Jari Chevalier, 2008 | <urn:uuid:44647ad1-9013-423c-927a-b63150aa908d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jari.podbean.com/category/economy/ | 2013-05-21T10:13:56Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956277 | 6,154 |
Seanad Éireann - Volume 21 - 21 July, 1938
Extension of Vocational Organisation.
Debate resumed on the following motion:
That, in the opinion of the Seanad, a small commission should be appointed by the Government to examine and report on the possibility of extending vocational organisation by legislative or administrative action.—Senators MacDermot and Tierney.
The Taoiseach Eamon de Valera
The Taoiseach: I was very sorry I was not able to be here to listen to the speeches delivered by the proposer and seconder of the motion, and if other Senators wish to speak on the motion I should prefer to wait and hear what they have to say.
Mr. Douglas Mr. Douglas
Mr. Douglas: The difficulty is that we understood that the Taoiseach would have an opportunity now, so as not to take up his time, and those of us who intended to take part in the debate were reckoning on its taking place after the Bills on the Order Paper had been disposed of.
The Taoiseach Eamon de Valera
The Taoiseach: So far as I am concerned, it is simply a question of saying that I am in favour of the motion, because, whatever view may be taken of it, I cannot see that any harm can be done in having a commission set up to examine the question. It does not commit anyone in advance to any particular viewpoint or to any of the findings, because we have no idea what they may be. The resolution, as it stands here, is “That, in the opinion of the Seanad, a small commission should be appointed by the Government to examine and report on the possibility of extending vocational organisation by legislative or administrative action.” The only question is whether it should not be somewhat wider in its terms of reference than it is—whether there might not be some other methods of encouragement. I am sure, however, that whatever methods of encouragement might be adopted by the Government could be included in the two terms “legislative” or “administrative.” Personally, I have no objection, and no member of the Government, so far as I am aware, has any objection to such a commission being set up. It would be of great importance that this matter should be examined home to see how far the fundamental ideas are capable of being applied in our country and in what direction they might be best applied. If it is simply a question of our view, we have no reason at all to object to this motion being passed, and, if it is passed, we will implement it.
Mr. Hayes Mr. Hayes
Mr. Hayes: Could the Taoiseach give us any idea as to what type of commission he thinks would be suitable? I think that only one of the speakers on the motion made any suggestion on the matter. In the absence of any statement to the contrary, it seems to me that what is contemplated is that the Government should appoint a commission. I take it that is what the Taoiseach understands from it and I wonder what kind of a commission either the movers or the Taoiseach have in mind.
Sir John Keane Sir John Keane
Sir John Keane: My difficulty about the motion is that the mover, and probably to some degree the seconder, hung this on to the question of a better Seanad. I do not think that is implicit in the motion itself. It was suggested— I may be wrong—that it is due to the defects of our vocational organisation that the Seanad is not of the character some people would like to see it. I do not agree with that. I think, so far as vocational organisation is concerned, that there is no serious fault to be found in its approach to a Seanad. It is the method of election that has been at fault. The vocational organisations put on the panel quite a lot of what I personally considered satisfactory candidates, but in many cases they could not survive the process of election.
On the general question of vocational organisation, that is another matter and it opens up a very big question indeed which will require a lot of thought and, I suggest, a very big change in public opinion before it can take practical form. If I might suggest it, the best example we have of the full operation of vocational organisation is that in the Church of Ireland. There is no doubt that the peculiar conditions there lend themselves to cohesion. But, in that body, you have certain powers of legislation very much in the sense of a self-governing vocational body. I see great difficulties in extending that to the agricultural industry, but so far as the approach can be made, it is along those lines I think that you should try to work, to build up a vocational organisation of such a form that a large number of questions within the sphere of agriculture could be referred to what you might call an agricultural Parliament, no doubt with overriding powers and veto by the Dáil. The same with industry. Of course, as we all know, that is very remote. We can only work to that in a very slow and tentative manner, but that would be the ideal at which we should aim. So far as a commission could help in thinking out all that, it would be all to the good.
Mr. Douglas Mr. Douglas
Mr. Douglas: One reason I did not wish to speak until we had some indication of the view of the Government was that, if they were not prepared to accept the general idea of a commission, alternative suggestions might be made. I am glad that the Taoiseach indicated that, at any rate, the idea would be favourably considered. It seems to me that Senator Tierney was quite right when he said that the two questions, the question of extending vocational organisation in the country, and the question of a Seanad which might be elected more or less on vocational lines were two distinct questions. I would not like to see them mixed up in the reference to any commission. I read very carefully the two speeches made and was particularly impressed by the line taken by Senator Tierney. I, at any rate, did not get his ideas as clearly from listening to him as from reading carefully his speech, which I think is worthy of study whether you agree with it or not.
There are considerable practical difficulties, almost insurmountable difficulties, but if a suitable commission was prepared to give time to study the problem, apart from the question of a vocational Seanad, I think it might be of considerable value. At any rate, having regard to the general ideals which were accepted fairly well by all sides in this country some 15, 16, 17, 18 years ago, it seems to me that there is a duty upon us to consider the problems put forward in this resolution, and more particularly in the speeches on the resolution. I would hope that, so far as possible, persons like most of us here who have taken an active part in politics, if not excluded from the commission, would be very definitely in a minority, because I think it is a matter on which we would have to get entirely away from politics as we have known them in the last 15 years. We have a number of divisions which seem to be largely unnatural.
I should like to see those of us who may happen to be here after the next election appointing a committee of our own to consider amendments or improvements in the method of election, which was referred to by Senator Sir John Keane. I think that that would be a thing apart, and that it would not be necessary to wait in respect of it until you had a detailed report from a commission of this kind. That is one of the reasons why I should like to see the two things kept distinct. An expansion of vocationalism would have to be brought about by a policy carried over a considerable number of years. There would be a lot of difficulties to be surmounted, and I do not think you should necessarily wait until that is achieved before making an attempt to rectify the things which have not worked very well in connection with the election of the Seanad. I am glad that the Government is prepared to accept the principle of this resolution, and I think that the Seanad should approve of it without a division.
Mr. O'Callaghan Mr. O'Callaghan
Mr. O'Callaghan: The extension of vocational organisation is very desirable. It may, or may not, give us a better Seanad. It may, or may not, give us a better Dáil. If carried to its logical conclusion, it may deprive this House of the services of the proposer and seconder of this motion. That, of course, would be a step in the wrong direction. What I propose to say, I want to direct to two vocational organisations in connection with agriculture —the Dairy Shorthorn Breeders' Society and the Beetgrowers' Association. I shall first deal with a small portion of the work carried on by the Dairy Shorthorn Breeders' Society. Anybody going through the City of Dublin will see the tramcars and buses decorated with “drink more milk” slogans.
That was brought about by representations made to the Minister for Agriculture by the Dairy Shorthorn Breeders' Society. The drink-more-milk campaign will have a very great effect on the health of the nation. It will do away with patent medicines and doctors' bills. People will have more money to spend and they will be more cheerful. It may even bring about the setting up of a milk bar in Leinster House where, under the influence of milk cocktails, Party bitterness will entirely disappear and a new spirit will supplant the old. I am just relating this small section of the work of the Dairy Shorthorn Breeders' Society to illustrate the good that an association of that kind might do for the State and for the people.
There is, then, the Beet Growers' Association, which some people seem to overlook. It has a membership of 30,000 beet growers and speaks for some thousands of grain growers. Most of the beet growers in the West of Ireland are small farmers. The average acreage is about one and a half per grower. It is a little more in other areas. I tell you that to illustrate the fact that the labour used is family labour; not paid labour. In the other areas, the acreage is a little bit greater but not much. Seventy-five per cent of the beet grown in this country is grown by family help. The difficulty with the beet growers is the question of price and not the setting up to guilds or organisations of any kind. The Beet Growers' Association have had considerable difficulty in getting a price to which they would be agreeable. Some experts seem to have advised the Government that sufficient acreage would be got at the price which is being offered. That advice was wrong and it has done considerable harm to the industry. There is a shrinkage of 12,000 acres in this year's beet crop and, unless the crop is a very bountiful one this season, it will be very difficult to get beet for 1939.
I am glad that the Taoiseach is here because we have not had an opportunity of telling him what the position is. The powers that be say that the man who lends his money is entitled to his due reward. They say that the factory worker is entitled to get what he gets. They say that the cost of sugar must not be increased to the public and that the State cannot give any further help. They say that, after full provision is made for depreciation and reserves, the beet grower can get the rest. The position is an anxious one for the beet grower who is anxious to get the industry going. He finds himself at the wrong end of the stick. We have been discussing the formation of guilds and several ways and means of getting a price that will induce the farmer to grow beet. We have in the current issue of the Beet Growers' Journal an article from a very distinguished churchman on the formation of guilds in connection with the Beet Growers' Association. That journal was sent to 30,000 or 35,000 growers and was read by them and their families. In that way, we have done a lot to educate public opinion about the formation of vocational bodies. A motion will be discussed at the annual meeting in connection with this matter and any member of this House who cares to go and listen to it will be provided with a seat in the distinguished strangers' gallery. Three factors, in my view, govern the sugar industry. One is the man who lends his money—in other words, the capitalist. I do not call him a capitalist because plenty of small men lent small sums for the setting up of the industry. Then, there is the factory worker and, then, the beet grower. A vocational body composed of these three factors would seem to be a desirable way of controlling the industry but the difficulty the beet grower has is that he will be coming in as the underdog. He regards the other people as being well away and he does not regard himself as being on the same plane. The only difficulty we have in connection with the setting up of that guild to control the sugar industry is the question of price. I hold that the beet grower is the backbone of the industry and that he should not play second fiddle to any of the other component parts.
The setting up of a commission may not be the right means of developing vocational organisation. I know the way the Dairy Shorthorn Breeders' Society was set up. It was got going by half a dozen people who put their backs into the work. If we had sufficient civic spirit, and if we had a little more national pride, there might not be any need of a commission to deal with vocational organisation. Vocational organisation is very desirable, but whether or not the setting up of a commission is the proper means of approaching it, I leave the House to judge.
Mr. Quirke Mr. Quirke
Mr. Quirke: I find myself largely in agreement with Senator Sir John Keane, so far as this motion is concerned, in so far as he says that too much stress was laid on the system of electing the Seanad. This question of a system of election for this House was under discussion for several months. During that time, very little in the way of suggestion that was of any use came from any quarter. As always happens, the best hurlers are on the ditch. If anybody can suggest a better method than the method which has been in operation up to now, I am sure the Government will be quite pleased. The present system is far from perfect, but I believe that it is the best system that could be found under existing conditions. I am not against the setting up of a commission, for the reason that I believe that the discussion of this motion will create a better atmosphere so far as the development of vocational organisation is concerned. With all due respect to the proposer and seconder, I think that the motion is not properly worded. I do not believe that vocational organisation can be developed by legislative means. I believe that it will have to be a natural growth. The atmosphere at present is more favourable to this purpose than it has ever been for the simple reason that vocational organisation should be the natural outcome of the activities of a native Government. As a result of this commission and as a result of the activities of some of the Senators who have been sent here by vocational bodies, that atmosphere will spread and, even within the next year or two years, even if we did nothing further about the matter, we should have considerable development in that direction.
I think that there was very little of value in the speeches made by the proposer and seconder of the motion. They rambled from the subject. I believe that a commission can do very little of itself to achieve our purpose, but that the setting up of a commission, combined with the discussion we have had, will induce people to talk about the matter. They will find that useful work has been done by some of the Senators sent here by various bodies and they will realise that it is up to them to organise themselves into groups and send men here who will look after their interests. At the same time, some of the men sent here would be well advised to keep away from politics. Political speeches in this House by men sent here by vocational bodies will have a tendency to prevent development of opinion in the direction which we seek.
Mr. Condon Mr. Condon
Mr. Condon: I consider this a most fascinating subject, particularly as we can all talk with extraordinary wisdom about it, seeing that few people know very much concerning it. So far, the speeches have been good. There was, certainly, a shock for all of us in the proposing of the motion. We are used to shocks in this House after the major shock of the dissolution of the Dáil, which meant that we, as a body, were about to be dissolved before we were familiar with the upholstery of the place. After that, we can get over any shocks. The seconder of the motion ought to have got a shock when he heard all that was said by the proposer as to what he considered the gravamen of the resolution. It seemed to me as if Senator MacDermot wanted the mountain to go into labour to produce a mouse—a new mouse. He was much distressed about the character of this House. Evidently, sensitive people, with high vocational qualifications, could not bring themselves to do the ordinary, vulgar things that have to be done to become members of this House. They could not be expected to go out in public and canvass or do anything like that.
If I am a member of the electoral college, I can see, and so can Senator MacDermot, circulars on my table every morning from some of these vocational experts, these people who were so busy and so remote from the people, so removed from the ordinary vulgarities of life. Anyone who receives these circulars will note how these very remote people can speak of their own exceptional qualifications and hold forth on the benefit it would be to the nation to have them elected to this Seanad. If Senator MacDermot had read some of these circulars he might, perhaps, change his mind. I tell the Senator that these people are not at all so remote from the ordinary vulgarities of life as has been suggested. I know they are very valuable people, but there is no doubt that if there is any possibility of their getting here by any means then they will get here. But these are the men that the Senator had in mind when he was speaking of a vocational Seanad. That is really what it means, the mountain in labour and it produced a very trifling thing.
Senator MacDermot's speech was very discursive. I think in that speech he dealt with all subjects. Indeed he omitted very few things. He did not touch on bimetallism nor on the breeds of poultry but he dealt with nearly every other subject one could think of. He touched on the Pope, and I was afraid for a time that he was going to take serious action with regard to His Holiness. However, in the end he was very nice to the Pope, and I am sure His Holiness will be very glad when he hears about it. We have been told that the Pope's Encyclicals have been very widely read, but that they had been misunderstood. Anyone who had not read these circulars and was not acquainted with what was in them would begin to think that they were such mysterious things that the ordinary man could not possibly understand them. Now the fact is that the Pope's Encyclicals were entirely inspired by concern for the people. They were written in such a way that even the common people could understand them —they were so immensely clear. In these Encyclicals the Pope said really necessary things, and he said them in a plain way. I have read them and I am familiar with them. There is nothing in them that an ordinary person could not understand.
When the first Encyclical was published over 40 years ago it received as much attention that time as if it had been written by me. Then the world had not broken the skin of the Dead Sea fruit. The world had not known the Great War. The world had not understood how wretched the organisation of society was and what terrible possibilities for evil lay in society as it then existed. As I say at that time the world had not broken the skin of the Dead Sea fruit, and this great Encyclical was almost wholly ignored. It required a further Encyclical from the present Pope, Pius XI, to draw further attention to it. He suggested that the vocational organisation of society might be remedied. He drew attention to some of the dreadful things that were about us. If one turns from the fashion parades in Grafton Street or George's Street, examines the position in the slums and inquires into the life that obtains there, he will understand something about the Pope's Encyclicals. The conditions are bad in our slums but they are a thousand times worse and more infamous in countries that are very much richer than ours. In some of those very rich countries people are born into conditions that are certain to ensure that they will be maimed in mind, body and morals for the rest of their lives. Hundreds and thousands and even millions are born into such conditions as these all the time while we have been preaching Christianity.
Senator MacDermot's concern seemed to be with getting ideal electors. I do not know where these ideal electors are to be got except down in the Kildare Street Club. But when we get these ideal electors the Labour Party will not exist any longer. That appears to me the big thing that he sees in this motion. The Labour Party and the Farmers' Party will disappear. I think that in itself would be a disaster. No matter what vocational conditions obtain human nature will not change. There will always be greed and avarice in the world. Once we had the Guild system. The Guilds became vicious, so that greed and avarice and other abuses grew up in them, and they needed correction. It may be just the same with this vocational organism that we hope to see established in the future.
I think it is absolutely necessary that society should organise itself on absolutely different lines from the present. Most of the people to-day are simply living under serf conditions or in slave conditions. The people who are depending on casual labour are in a slave condition. Let us consider the position of these people, and if we do we will find their position is really worse than that which existed under the old slave conditions. I remember it was a shock to us all when we read long ago that John Mitchel had taken the part of the Confederates in the American Civil War. In that Civil War John Mitchel was on the side of the South. He wanted to maintain the slavery system. Now, Mitchel was an enlightened man and a great lover of freedom, but he gave his reasons for the stand he took up on the American Civil War. He said:—
“Here you have a mass of black labour which at present represents so much chattels to the men who own it. These new people in the North who discovered that slavery is such a dreadful thing want the slave owner to free his slaves in order that they are to be thrown into an already over-crowded labour market where the slave will have no value except that when he is worn out he will be replaced by another man.”
John Mitchel's reasoning on that occasion was borne out subsequently by John Ruskin. In that matter John Mitchel showed himself a man of extraordinary vision.
To-day you have in the world much worse conditions than the slave conditions of the American negroes. Now, in this State of ours we have a wholly undeveloped country. In anything that we have to decide to do in the future it would be well that we should remember that the normal development of Ireland had been obstructed for centuries. As G.K. Chesterton described it, the whole trouble was that we had no government here. It was not a case of having a bad Government or a good Government. What we suffered from was really the determination of another people to annihilate and wipe out our people. That was their policy for centuries and that policy had had its reactions. In a hundred years our population had been reduced by something like 50 per cent. We have counties like Meath that I represent with a population of half what it was 50 years ago. Now that country is wholly undeveloped.
Every month one can read in one of the most useful publications published here in Ireland a series of articles showing the difference between the use we make of our land and the use that Belgium is making of its land. Belgium has something like 7,000,000 acres of land. It has over 1,000,000 holdings. We have 17,000,000 acres of land, that is 10,000,000 acres more than Belgium, and we have 230,000 holdings. We have one-quarter of the number of holdings and 10,000,000 acres more land. What is really happening in the country is that extremely little use is being made of our natural wealth. But we need not turn in an emergency way to vocationalism or anything else to remedy that. We have, I know, big leeway to make up. As I say we have prime land practically undeveloped. We are producing only one-quarter of the wheat which we require for our people. Yet we have something like 100,000 people unemployed and the people from the rural parts are crowding into the towns. We were told yesterday that the country workers are crowding into the towns. There is for that a very good reason and that is that the people who hold the land have no intention of employing labour on it. Their whole purpose seems to be something on the principle that obtained in the consolidation of farms, 80 or 100 years ago when village after village was wiped out and the land laid out in such a way that cattle could be turned on to it and need not be seen more than three times in the course of a year. That is the use that is being made of our land.
The first thing I would ask the National Government to deal with is to see that the whole land of Ireland be put to the service of the people; that the people should be put back on it and should be given a chance of living a normal life in the country places. We have no normal life in the country places. Take the education of our young people. Most of the young people go to the elementary schools until they are 14 years of age. Just then when they are in a position to learn something, when they are just trained in the technique of learning they are taken away from the schools. From that until the very end of their careers there is not a soul to bother about them. That is true of 99 per cent. of them. There is a shameful wastage of the best of material. This sort of thing is, in a large measure, the cause of the wrongness of mind of so many of these people. These unfortunate people develop on entirely wrong and wretched lines. They have wretched sources for their development. There are so many injurious papers and then there is the wireless business that is utterly unhelpful to these people. They are abandoned at the age of 14 to become ignorant slaves and certainly not getting much of an opportunity to live virtuous lives. That is a problem on which this nation should concentrate.
We have heard a lot about vocational education or technical education, Senator Tierney was alarmed for fear we should take his resolution as meaning technical education. Technical education was one of the things that were introduced into this country many years ago. Ninety per cent. of the people associated with it were shams. Such things as lace-making and sprigging were taught and things that were utterly wasteful. That was really of no service to the country and it touched only a very slight fraction of our people. It did not touch at all the people who leave our elementary schools at the age when they should be taken up by a Government and made into useful citizens. These young people were really abandoned; there is no doubt about that. I am interested in this proposal in one respect. We are said to be in need of a different Seanad from the one we have got. Now the one we have is an admirable one but I am sure it will be changed in a few weeks' time.
What we really want are correctives to the present organisation of society under which a big number of our people are simply committed or condemned to lives of shame, misery and suffering. There is no doubt about that. That is the horror the Pope foresaw when he suggested that correctives be applied 40 years ago. If the world had listened to him then things might have been different. Instead he was treated with contempt. Then the full horror came along; the masses of the people revolted and we have these terrible scenes which we hear of nowadays, these terrible conditions that obtain in Spain and Russia, which were brought about by popular revolt but which the originators of the revolt never foresaw. They started out with the idea of securing freedom for the people who had been ground to the dust. These horrors may possibly be in store for us in Ireland if we ignore our trust and our duty.
I certainly think that this subject should be examined in the fullest possible way, examined in every possible detail, to see if it is at all possible to spare our country from the horrors which other countries have suffered. We must remember that the masses of the people were ignored as dirt. There was absolutely no concern for them. In recent years some little concern has been shown. We have got down to the matter of the minimum wage for agricultural labourers but still we have people quarrelling about it. We have got down to the question of looking after widows and orphans and there are people quarrelling about that, describing it as an unspeakable burden. We have shown a little bit of humanity in our government but we have heaps of protests. Well, we have an example of the unspeakable horrors which have been brought about in other countries by the fact that the sufferings of the people were ignored. The fact that this reorganisation of society has been recommended by His Holiness should give us a lead, for His Holiness has centuries of wisdom, a tradition of wisdom, behind him in these matters, and his lightest word is worthy of consideration. I do not want to enter into the various considerations so singularly ably put forward by Professor Tierney but I think it will be generally agreed that we should have an exhaustive enquiry into the possibilities of the reorganisation of society along some other than the present system, under which the masses of the people are simply being exploited to the advantage of a few.
Professor Johnston Professor Johnston
Professor Johnston: I agree with the proposer of this resolution that the question of promoting vocational organisation in this country is quite separate from the question of the best method of constituting this Seanad. At the same time, I cannot help feeling that if the existing vocational bodies were given the right to elect, as well as the right to nominate to this House, nothing would contribute more effectively to the growth of vocational organisation in the country. I remember as an example of that, in connection with the recent elections to the Seanad, I heard for the first time of the existence of a body known as the Limerick Cottiers' Association. It was brought into existence not because it was given the right to elect, but because it was given the right to nominate to this body. I think on that analogy that when a smaller right than the right to elect, the right to nominate, produced such an effective result, the right to elect would produce even more effective results in inducing professional and other bodies to attempt vocational organisation. I think that a vocational body, if it had the right to elect, would be likely to use that right in a somewhat less partisan manner than is inevitable when the right to elect is given to an electoral college in which the elements of Party organisation are necessarily present. Mind you, I am not deprecating in any way the existence of Party organisation because I think Party action is a necessary adjunct to the machinery of democratic government. When you have a democratically-elected machine functioning you are bound to have Party organisation and a Party spirit and it is so necessary to the working of democratic government that I would not regard it as an evil. But everything reacts in accordance with its nature. There is an Irish proverb which says: “What can you expect from a pig but a grunt?” What can you expect from a democratic popular assembly, given the right to form an important part of the electoral college, but that when they come to elect Senators, they are bound to be influenced by Party considerations, and that they are not likely to choose precisely the same people as the vocational body itself would choose?
I think most people outside of this House would agree that it is desirable that the element of Party spirit, which is necessarily strong in the other House, should be kept as far as possible out of this House. In a democratic assembly the various sections of the community there represented engage in a struggle in which the interests commanding a majority, generally speaking, get their own way. If it so be that the interests which triumph are also the interest of the nation as a whole, it is well, but it is quite conceivable that the interests which triumph in that democratic assembly may not be exactly coincident with the interests of the nation as a whole. It is, therefore, desirable that there should be a corrective to that spirit, and I think no better idea for correcting that partisan spirit has been arrived at than the idea of developing the vocational spirit which, as I say, is quite separate and distinct from the partisan spirit.
The object of vocational representation is not that the people represented should further their special interests or should attempt to get away with anything which is in their sectional interest and is not in the interests of the nation as a whole. The object is that they should contribute their specialised knowledge to the deliberations of the Seanad; that they should seek, as far as possible, to enlighten public opinion and the Oireachtas as a whole, as regards the lines along which national interests must be pursued as against interests which are clearly partisan. I have nothing but admiration for the personal relationships which exist between us in this part of the House and you on the other sides of the House, but, at the same time, I cannot help wishing that the Party spirit was rather less evident. Occasionally it breaks out, although we may strive to restrain it. If the Party spirit were rather less evident, and the vocational spirit rather more evident, then the general tone of this assembly would be improved. Sir, I do not want to appear to be reading a lecture, but I do want to urge that we should consider the question of attempting vocational organisation, and, at the same time, not lose sight of the possibility of improving the general lines along which this House is at present constituted.
Mr. Hughes Mr. Hughes
Mr. Hughes: I am not inclined to oppose the setting up of this commission, but I must say that I am not of opinion that there is any practical solution for this great problem of vocational organisation. Senator Douglas, to my mind, got very near to the kernel of the situation when he said that it was not possible to get away from political questions in public life. References have been made to trade unions and to their place in vocational organisation. Trade unionism was founded for a certain purpose, and it did achieve a large amount of good. It has, as some people are inclined to put it, taken the workers up off their knees, but is it not strange to find that, as it developed and as time went on, quite a small number of people could use the organisation, formed for the purpose for which it was, for purely political purposes? I am saying that because I believe that it is absolutely true. Other organisations formed for other purposes will undoubtedly be used in the same way under present circumstances in this country, because we cannot at this stage get away from political matters. Perhaps, in some years to come, in ten or 20 years' time, we shall have reached a stage when a practical solution can be found. As I say, I am not opposing the setting up of a commission, but I believe that such a commission would find itself up against difficulties and snags, and that it will have to realise the difficulty of developing vocational organisations here to any great purpose.
If, in this country, the people as a whole, had a similar attitude to national questions as the people in other countries, England, for example, if we had the whole people here giving unswerving loyalty to their own country, that loyalty which supersedes every other consideration, then I would say that it would be quite an easy matter to find a solution of this problem and to have vocational organisation in a real, practical way but I say that you have not the whole of our people giving that unswerving loyalty and devotion to their country which is necessary for that purpose. Senator Johnston mentioned that there was a possibility that vocational bodies might be less partisan. I should like to think that that were possible but I am afraid for the reason that I have stated that it is not possible. When we reach the stage where loyalty to the country will be the first consideration, then we will be nearer to the period when the people who are interested in this subject will realise their ambitions. I do not wish to oppose the motion. I should be glad to see this commission working although I have not very great hopes for success in that direction at the present time.
Mrs. MacWhinney Mrs. MacWhinney
Mrs. MacWhinney: This motion I feel is not happily worded. I think it would be more acceptable if it suggested that the Act as it now exists might be examined with the object of including amongst the nominating bodies vocational bodies which have not the right to nominate now. I am thinking of one or two vocational bodies that have been in existence for a very long time. For example, there is the nursing council which was established in 1919. It is a statutory body, and I think that it is, without exception, the best organised vocational body in Ireland to-day. Yet, for some reason it has not the right to nominate. It has a membership of 16,000. From the moment that a nurse starts her training to the day she leaves it, she is under the supervision of that vocational body. Her examinations, her registration and everything is looked after. We have a body like that with no right to nominate. Against that you have a veterinary vocational body with the right to nominate. It seems strange to me, at any rate, that the people who look after the animals of the country are regarded as being more important than the people who look after human beings.
You have other bodies, in which I am interested that have not the right to nominate. You have the Amalgamated Society of Social Services. This society of women is representative of quite a big number of social service bodies. They have not the right to nominate. Against that you have the Mount Street Club which has the right to nominate.
Listening to all the speeches that were made on this motion my only regret is that some of them were not broadcast so that we could have them discussed afterwards. If the speakers had written out their speeches and issued them in advance, I think I would have enjoyed them more than I did listening to them. If the commission which it is suggested should be appointed were given power to include in the scope of its inquiries the vocational bodies that should have the right to nominate, then I think we might get a Seanad more representative of the vocational bodies of the country than the one we have at the moment.
Cathaoirleach: Senator MacDermot to conclude.
Mr. MacDermot Mr. MacDermot
Mr. MacDermot: I should like first to express my gratification that the Taoiseach is prepared to accept this motion and to consider the appointment of a commission. Senator Hayes inquired what kind of a commission was contemplated. As far as I am concerned, I have already said that I would like to see the commission a small one, and to see it very largely composed of enthusiasts for the vocational idea. As the Taoiseach said, nothing that such a commission suggests commits us in any way, but the people who have gone most deeply into the subject are the people, I think, on whom the burden should be in the main laid to suggest a practical application of their ideas. I think there are several distinguished men in this country, several of them clerics, such as Father Coyne, the well-known Jesuit, who have written on the matter with great ability and thought on it very deeply. I would put such men on the commission. I would appoint with them a good lawyer and a good practical business man, and a man or woman familiar with labour conditions and perhaps someone else who is more of a general politician. Thus you would have four men who are not experts on this particular subject who would address their minds to it from a practical point of view, and with them you would have perhaps six or seven men who have thought on it very deeply, who are enthusiasts about it and wish to see their ideas applied. This is going to give them the opportunity of putting their ideas into practice.
Senator Condon has accused me of having rambled over too wide a field in the speech in which I introduced the motion. Looking back over it, I find that it is not a very long speech though it may have seemed so to the unhappy Senators listening to me. I occupied less than half an hour in speaking, and I personally cannot find one single irrelevant word in the speech. Of course, it may be considered that I devoted too large a proportion of it to the effect of this vocational idea on the Seanad. That is a matter on which we can afford to differ, but, as I have said, I cannot find anything irrelevant in it. I had to listen to Senator Condon discuss negro slavery in America, the blighting effect of British rule in this country, our present land system and the need for a drastic reform of it, and finally, the necessity for completely changing our educational system. Listening to him, I began to wonder what exactly is the standard of relevance that Senator Condon is in the habit of applying.
The same Senator took me to task for having suggested that Papal Encyclicals receive a good deal more praise in this country than they do serious consideration, and for having ventured the opinion that rather more might have been done than has been done to give them practical effect. I am unable to see how anybody can seriously contest a word advanced on that subject. There has been immense praise for the ideas in these encyclicals, and abuse of other countries—France, England and Europe in general—for not having taken sufficient notice of them. I ask what notice have we taken of them here in Ireland except to praise them, and even to-day I find Senators, a good many of them, lukewarm about the mere proposition to set up a commission to examine the possibility of giving them any practical effect. Surely that is the very least we ought to do if we mean a word of our praise of Papal Encyclicals or of our condemnation of the world as a whole for not paying sufficient notice to them. Perhaps some Senators take the view that there is nothing in these matters that can be done by Government action; that these vocational bodies must grow up spontaneously from the soil or not come into being at all. I can see no reason for taking that view. I certainly do not think that the Government can force them on the country like a straight jacket, but I do think that the Government can do something perhaps by legislation, perhaps by administrative action, or perhaps by encouragement and propaganda.
As I pointed out, in our original Constitution 16 years ago, we went to the trouble of putting in a provision saying that the Oireachtas may set up vocational councils representing branches of the social and economic life of the nation, and that possibly some powers of the Parliament might be delegated to such councils. Again, we went to the trouble in our present Constitution of repeating that almost verbatim. If there is any sense at all in putting such things into our Constitution surely it is time that we gave them some sort of sequel such as is now suggested by Senator Tierney and myself by setting up this commission to examine the subject. Surely there is nothing extravagent or visionary in such a proposal. It is not a proposal that should have been listened to with the scepticism, if not hostility, with which it apparently has been listened to by some Senators.
As regards the bearing of this Motion on the question of the Seanad, I quite agree that the composition of the Seanad is, in a sense, a separate subject, and that the composition of the Seanad, if it needs to be dealt with by legislation, could be dealt with without any such Commission as this being set up; and possibly it may be so dealt with even during the course of this Commission's sitting. I venture to draw attention once again to Article 19 of our new Constitution, that Article that many Senators seem to overlook. It says:—
Provision may be made by law for the direct election by any functional or vocational group or association or council of so many members of Seanad Eireann as may be fixed by such law in substitution for an equal number of the members to be elected from the corresponding panels of candidates constituted under Article 18 of this Constitution.
Now, that is in our Constitution, and what is the sense of suggesting that it is some sort of a plot emanating from the Kildare Street Club, as I think Senator Condon indicated, to propose that something should be done about that? Some of the Fianna Fáil Senator do not seem to be familiar at all with the policy of their own Party. They do not seem to realise that the Minority Report of the Second Chamber Commission, which recommended the adoption of this idea, was accepted in principle by the Fianna Fail Government. I have no desire to do more than to contribute what I can to the making of the Fianna Fail policy a reality, and to bring it more perfectly into effect in these matters than it has yet been brought into effect. Obviously, if a Commission is set up to consider the question of extending the Vocational Organisations, that will have a bearing on the Article in the Constitution which says that in the future such Vocational Organisations may be given the right or direct representation.
I said frankly enough that perhaps may principal interest in this motion was to lay a firm foundation for a vocational Seanad. I also agreed that it had wider aspects, and apparently I said more about those wider aspects than some Senators seem to like; but to those who are enthusiastic about those wider aspects, and who rather deprecate any talk of the bearing of this motion on the constitution of the Seanad, I would say that surely they ought to think it a great help for one to go even a little way on the right road with them and to show a desire to tread that road. There is room for difference of opinion as to how far it will turn out practicable here in democratic Ireland for Parliament to delegate powers of more or less legisative character to Vocational bodies. There is room for great difference of opinion about that, and I personally have an open mind about it. I do not know whether we can succeed in making this complete re-organisation of society that Senator Tierney, for instance, has in mind.
But, whatever view we take about that, whether we are optimistic or pessimistic about it, at any rate it ought to be regarded as helpful to go a little way along the road and it will not take any very extraordinary or enormous development of the vocational idea to provide a firm foundation for a vocational Seanad. If we get as far as that, then we can consider going still further and giving larger powers to vocational bodies. As Senator Johnson said, the mere fact of giving direct representation to such bodies would certainly have a tendency to encourage them to come into being and would also, I think, have a tendency to get rid of some of the undesirable duplication that exists in certain departments of our life, because, as I said the other day, while there are branches of the national life where no vocational bodies exist, there are some others where too many exist and where the difficulty would be to reconcile their conflicting claims to send representatives here to the Seanad.
I do not want to go into the question of how far the present system of electing the Seanad is satisfactory or not. I said a certain amount on it the other day but I would like to stress the point that I did not use the word “vulgarity” in connection with that as I think Senator Conway rather implied that I had. I did say that some men of the vocational type were not suited to electoral campaigns, and I do not think anybody can deny that that stands not only for electoral campaigns on public platforms but for electoral campaigns in the corridors of Leinster House. I do not think that the present Seanad Electoral Act is a good Act; I had not an opportunity of taking part in the discussions on it because I did not happen to be a member of the Legislature when it was under consideration; but I do not think it is a good Act and I think that there are dangers inherent in it which might become in the future very formidable.
I think that anyone who reflects for a little bit on what could take place will say that it opens the door to corruption. It would be quite possible for unscrupulous men to get themselves elected by bribery when it is only a question, say, of needing to purchase half-a-dozen votes to enter the House. I am, however, far from saying that such a thing would be conceivable at the present moment, but I do think that we ought not to rest content with a system that makes corruption easy and that is one of the objections to the present system. I will say no more about the Seanad.
I submit that the ideas which are referred to in this motion are of such fundamental and world-wide importance that we have been guilty of neglect of duty in not having done more about them. The excuse can be offered that we have been occupied with other matters very vital to this country, and that one has not got time to think of everything and do everything; but now that some of the burning topics have been put out of the way, and that, pacé Senator Hughes, we are, throughout the country united in our loyalty to the State, I feel that the time has come when we ought to turn our hands to seeing what can be done to carry out these ideas or put them, at any rate, to the test.
Question put and agreed to.
Seanad Éireann 21 Extension of Vocational Organisation. | <urn:uuid:0d958ea8-52ae-47fb-b240-f42ff19da80b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/S/0021/S.0021.193807210003.html | 2013-05-21T10:29:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983451 | 10,539 |
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BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - GENERAL
Cameron explains things and begins to bond with River.
CATEGORY: FICTION TIMES READ: 972 RATING: 9 SERIES: FIREFLY
Fan fiction. Done for fun, not profit.
The Plot Bunnies are beating on me again. After watching the final episode of Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, I had a weird idea for a Firefly/Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles crossover fic. No Rayne this time either. Set shortly after the BDM. Ignores the upcoming movie and travels in a wholly new direction with many continuity errors from the movies and TV Show. I am not as knowledgeable of the T:TSCC universe as I am with the Firefly/Serenity 'Verse. Please don't throw things.
AN: I'll be taking Cameron in new directions. With her hanging out with River, she will develop more of her human side. Although skewed slightly due to River's condition. I also see her becoming an integral part of the crew in later chapters. Also some fun will ensue as well due to her being essentially River's twin.
Jayne groaned and picked himself back up off the deck. Seeing the 'thing' that looked like Moonbrain overrode his caution and with a roar, he charged.
And struck the deck half a second later, out cold.
“Thanks, Albatross,” the Captain muttered, still keeping an eye on whatever it was standing in the middle of his cargo bay.
With infinite grace, River walked around the Terminator, examining her from every angle. Cameron showed similar curiosity.
Mal cleared his throat, “Kaylee... Why don't you go scoot to River's bunk and fetch one o' her dresses for our... guest.”
With a quick nod, Kaylee sprinted from the room. Zoë still kept her weapon pointed at the thing that had called itself Cameron.
Simon took a step forward to get a better look at the bullet hole in Cameron's chest. She eyed him carefully.
“You mind repeating that go-se about saving mankind?” Mal asked.
Mal gulped as Cameron's gaze locked with his own. After a moment she spoke, “I was tasked to make sure that after humanity left Earth. Machines like myself were not to be allowed to rule over mankind. Humans fought too hard to destroy Skynet for that to happen again.”
“Hold on now... humans left Earth because of overpopulation and environmental damage,” Mal stated.
“It didn't happen that way,” Cameron said simply.
River stepped in front of the Captain and pushed his pistol down, “She could have killed us in moments if she meant us any harm.”
“She? Thing said it was a machine.”
“Fully self aware. A person. Born from technology but conceived in love. A sister once. Will be again.”
“River...” Mal said as the teen stepped closer to Cameron. River ignored him and wrapped her arms around Cameron, “Always wanted a sister.”
Kaylee returned and squeaked as she saw River embracing the... whatever it was. She was astonished when Cameron returned the hug.
Simon was still in shock. His sister had reached out and hugged whatever this girl... machine was. And it had hugged her back.
Zoë slowly lowered her mares leg, “So that bullet didn't hurt... you?” She asked Cameron.
“I don't feel pain as you do. The round did not damage any internal systems. My epidermal outer covering will heal within forty eight hours on it's own. With sutures, in less than twelve.”
Simon's jaw dropped, “Heal?”
“My covering is synthetically produced, artificial living tissue. I am by definition, A Cyborg. Part machine and part organism.”
“No one has technology like that...” Simon whispered, “Even the love bots like Mr. Universe's were not this... realistic.”
“Back to my question,” Mal growled, “I ain't never heard of a machine like you before. No way in hell there are machines running the 'Verse.”
“Tell me this,” Cameron began, a slight smile on her lips that made Mal uncomfortable, “If you saw me walking down the street, rather than emerging from a stasis crate, would you know I wasn't a real person?”
Mal opened his mouth to speak and then suddenly closed it again.
“I think that just answered my question,” Cameron smirked.
Kaylee stepped forward, “I got this for you to wear,” the mechanic said hesitantly.
Cameron smiled, “Thank you.”
Zoë was amazed as she watched Cameron slip the dress over her head. The... cyborgs musculature moved perfectly. There was no way a person could tell this Cameron from River. Other than the machine looked a little older. Maybe twenty two instead of River's eighteen.
Simon was looking intently at Cameron, “The resemblance is uncanny,” the doctor muttered.
“If I may ask. What is your family name, River?” Cameron asked.
Cameron smiled, “That may explain the resemblance.”
“I don't understand,” said Simon.
“The woman I was constructed to resemble was named Allison Young. She became the wife of John Connor. The leader of the resistance against the machines. They had a daughter named Sarah. Before I was given my tasking, John explained that he planned to not join the exodus himself. He gave his daughter to one of his assistants, Gabriel Tam so he could raise her as his own during the journey.”
Simon's jaw dropped, “Gabriel is River and I's father's name.”
“Family tradition. Carried through the generations of the Tam family,” River stated.
“So... the woman you were... patterned after,” Inara began, “Was one of Simon and River's ancestors?”
“It is possible,” Cameron replied.
Inara studied this young woman. There was life in her movements. Even her eyes looked alive. As Simon said, it was uncanny. A groan from the floor brought Jayne's returning consciousness to the forefront. Simon knelt down next to the big man.
“How do you feel Jayne?”
“Like yer gorram sister kicked me in the head,” Jayne mumbled as he moved to a sitting position.
“That's because she did,” Simon smirked.
Jayne growled and tried to get to his feet. As his vision cleared, he couldn't tell at first which was the machine and which one was River. He blinked a couple of times and his vision cleared. He took a step towards River, “Moonbrain...” he threatened.
River giggled and stepped behind Cameron, who looked amused.
“Stand down, Jayne,” Mal ordered.
“She kicked me, Mal,” The merc whined.
“And if she hadn't a done it on her own I would have told her to, so shut it.”
Jayne closed his mouth but didn't look happy.
“Sir... perhaps we can move this to the galley?”
“Good idea, Zoë,” The Captain replied.
River took Cameron's hand and began to lead her up the stairs. Sharing looks, the rest of the crew followed.
“Time travel?” Simon asked incredulously.
“The physics of time travel are allowed by Einstein in certain circumstances,” River said, still looking at her twin.
“Mighty wild tale, I admit,” Mal stated. “How many times have you... time traveled?”
“In this body... never,” Cameron replied, “My previous body did twice. Once to 1999 and then forward with Sarah and John Conner to 2007.”
“Who is Sarah Connor?” Inara asked, “Alison's Daughter?”
“Not exactly. John named his and Alison's daughter after his mother. In the future time I came from, I was programed by John to act as his protector in the past when he was a teenager. After finding him, I then used a hidden time displacement unit built by someone who had also traveled into the past to transport John and his mother to the near future.”
“This is all really confusing,” Jayne mumbled.
Mal rubbed his eyes, “Not wrong there Jayne.”
“You said, not in this body...” Zoë trailed off.
“A new AI program using a terminator body called John Henry took my chip and traveled forward in time. Leaving my first body in the past. Caroline Weaver, another Terminator and John traveled forward as well. This altered the time line from the established 'norm'. After Skynet was defeated, and after Allison's death, John had me constructed. John Henry downloaded my previous memories into a new chip and gave it to John. Resulting in my... rebirth.”
“I'm getting a headache I think,” Kaylee muttered.
“Getting late,” Mal observed, “That brings me back to you...Cameron. We need some rest. Do you... sleep?”
“And If I lock you in a room, I reckon you could break out anyway... right?”
“That is correct.”
“I still say we space it,” Jayne rumbled.
“Jayne!” Kaylee exclaimed.
“Hard vacuum would not 'kill' me. It would only severely damage my skin.”
“She can stay with me,” River stated.
“River...” Simon began.
Cameron smiled, “I would like that.”
“Now hold on,” Mal sputtered, “We need to think about this first.”
“I will not harm River. My processors have finished their analysis of her DNA. She is a descendant of John Connor. The primary instructions in my programming are to protect anyone in John Connor's family.”
Simon's jaw dropped, “You analyzed her DNA? How?”
“I obtained her DNA when she hugged me,” Cameron stated, “All terminators have this ability. It assures that we have the proper target.
“And you are all my friends and family,” River grinned, “Cameron will protect us.”
Simon shook his head in wonder, “What else can you do?”
“My ocular sensors allow me to see in the visible, infrared and ultraviolet spectrums. My other sensors allow me to compute what a humans emotional state may be. I can tell if someone is lying or their general emotional state from things like pulse rate, respiration and bio-electrical signals.”
“Wuo-de-ma,” Mal muttered.
“My physical strength is approximately ten times greater than even someone like him,” Cameron said as she indicated Jayne, “I am proficient with all firearms and as a computer myself, I can hack almost any computer system. And as you have already seen, mere firearms cannot really harm me.”
Kaylee spoke up, “What makes you run?”
“I have a compact nuclear power source in my chest. I will continue to function for several decades. In that time I should be able to fabricate a new power supply from current day technology.”
Kaylee grinned. It was almost like she had a new toy to play with, “I think she's shiny!”
Mal groaned. Between River's insistence that Cameron stay with her in her room and Kaylee suddenly realizing Cameron was something to tinker with. He knew he was in trouble. Even Zoë and Inara were warming to the idea.
“Gotta admit, Sir. Having someone around with those kind of abilities would be mighty handy,” Zoë observed.
“It's kinda like having a... super River,” Kaylee grinned.
“How we gonna tell em' apart?” Jayne asked. “Next to each other I's can tell but just the one beyond a few yards and it will be damn hard.”
“We can figure that out later Jayne.”
“So, we're keeping her?” Kaylee asked, hopefully.
“For the moment, Lil' Kaylee,” Mal sighed.
Cameron tilted her head in a very River like way, “I don not know what you mean by shiny.”
“It's slang term for good, fine or excellent,” River explained.
“Thank you for explaining,” Cameron replied.
River led Cameron down the ladder into her bunk. Since she was now the ship's pilot, She had convinced Mal to let her have the unused crew bunk, closest to the bridge. Upon reaching the bottom of the ladder, Cameron looked around. “This is your room?”
“It is,” River replied.
“I have much to learn about this century,” Cameron noted.
“You can use Simon's portable encyclopedia in the morning,” River said with a smile.
“That would be welcome.”
River sat on the edge of her bed, gazing at her twin, “Did Simon do a good job on the sutures?”
“He is a skilled physician,” Cameron observed.
“He's a good brother even if he is a boob.”
Cameron actually snickered, “Isn't that a brother's job?”
River grinned, “He does it very well.”
“Do you need any underwear? I have extra and yours looked a bit tattered earlier,” River inquired.
River went to her small dresser and removed a pair of panties and a bra then paused.
Is there something wrong?” Cameron asked.
“The bra wont fit. You're... bigger than I am.”
“You are seven kilograms under weight,” Cameron said, “Once you gain that weight, it will be difficult to tell us apart.”
River grinned, “Are you saying I am too skinny?”
“Yes,” Cameron smiled back.
Cameron easily dodged the pillow thrown at her. With a giggle, River quickly undressed for bed, dropping a nightgown over her head. Sitting back on the bed she patted the mattress next to her. Cameron sat down. River noted how much the mattress compressed under her twin.
“What do you mass?” River asked.
Cameron looked at River and smiled, “It's not nice to ask a girl how much she weighs...”
River smirked back, “So says someone who said I was skinny,”
“I mass approximately one hundred twenty seven kilos.”
“More than Jayne,” River giggled.
“This is so qu-ti. It is like I am speaking to myself,” River said.
“Qu-ti?” Cameron asked, with perfect enunciation.
“Mandarin for strange.”
“Thank you for explaining. Is Mandarin a common language now?”
“It is,” River replied, “Will that be a problem?”
“I will need to see language texts to learn. I speak Spanish, French, Russian and Japanese in addition to English.”
“So do I,” River grinned.
You do?” Cameron asked, surprised.
“I am a genius,” River stated.
“My IQ is over two hundred. The official term is, profoundly gifted. And then of course, I'm not quite right either.”
“Not quite right?”
“It's a good thing you don't sleep and I'm not tired yet. This will be a long story.”
Stifling a yawn, Mal walked into the galley, as usual, finding Zoë awake and already sipping her coffee, “Mornin, Zoë”
“Morning, Sir,” She replied, still staring at her coffee cup.
Grabbing a cup himself, Mal sat at the table, “Something bothering you?”
“Our cargo, Sir.”
“What part? The part that is stuff from Earth that was or the part that's walkin and talkin?”
“I'm right uncomfortable with having something like that on board my ship. Not rightly sure what could be done if this... Cameron took it in it's head to turn on us.”
“Ain't quite what's botherin me, Sir. I'm reckonin that Haymer is expectin to find somethin in that crate when we deliver it.”
“That does present a problem.”
“No it doesn't,” River chirped as she entered the galley, followed closely by Cameron.
Mal did a double take. River had dressed Cameron in her own clothes. Both wore flowy dresses and combat boots. River had even brushed her hair to be like Cameron's. Both took seats near the Captain and first mate. Each having the same pleasant smile on their faces. It was damn hard to tell who was who.
“You have some insight on how we are gonna fix this little problem, Albatross? I mean part o' our cargo is now walkin all over the ship and dressin like you...”
“We need to make a stop first.” River said.
“Where, little one?” Zoë asked.
River's face fell, “Mr. Universe's moon.”
Zoë's face grew hard and Mal nearly spit out his coffee. It hadn't been even a year yet and River wanted to go back?
“Why?” Zoë asked tersely.
“Len... you mean Universe's love bot?”
River nodded. All the while, Cameron watched the interplay between them quietly.
“What the hell do you need with that?”
“To take Cameron's place in the crate.”
“Haymer is gonna know a late model love bot from... whatever Cameron is.”
“This is true,” Cameron said, breaking her silence, “But from what I have gathered from River... This Mr. Haymer does not know exactly what is in all of the cargo. For all he knows, the crate is empty.”
River continued, “Haymer knows of our situation. A love bot is very expensive. He would not believe we would have the resources to lay our hands on one. Therefore, he will assume that someone else took his... cargo.”
“What about her... it... whatever,” Mal sputtered.
Cameron cracked a grin, unnerving the Captain, “I will assume the role of River's twin sister. No one will be the wiser.”
“You don't know a thing about our time...” Mal trailed off as River gave him her most venomous 'boob' look.
“I am adaptable and learn very fast. A few hours with Simon's encyclopedia and I will be able to fit in. That is my primary function. To infiltrate.”
“She's got a point, Sir,” Zoë observed.
“Gotta call her something. The term 'it' kinda stands out. And since she at least looks female...”
“I get it, “ Mal said as he rubbed his eyes. After a moment's consideration he looked at his pilot, “How long?”
“Stopping at Mr. Universe's will delay us less than a day.”
“Fine... set course. It'll just be me Jayne and River goin in to get... Lenore.”
“Cameron too,” River insisted.
“Fine... Cameron too.”
“Thank you Captain.”
“Now that we got that settled, who's turn is it to make breakfast?”
“Simon's...” River giggled.
Zoë lifted an eyebrow and Mal sighed, “Albatross... you mind?”
“Yes I will cook. Ge-ge's culinary skills violate his Hippocratic oath.”
“That's for sure,” Zoë chuckled.
“Come, shuang bao tai. You can help,” River said as she got to her feet and headed for the kitchen.
Cameron rose with equal grace, “I would be glad to.”
Mal looked over at Zoë who watched the pair begin pulling out pots and pans. Suddenly Zoë grinned.
“What is it, Zoë?”
“Just had a thought. If the Academy ever comes back after River, I say we give em' Cameron then stand back n' watch the fireworks.”
Mal chuckled, “Might be a bit humorous at that.”
Translations: shuang bao tai is the closest I could come to twin sister.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:04 AM
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 12:52 PM
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Clarity Ventures (April 26. 2013) - Google AdWords Copywriting - Every Word is Important
Search Engine Journal (April 25, 2013) - The Importance of Quality Score in 2013
MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog (April 22, 2013) - The Poorly Run AdWords Account: An eBay Case Study
Portent (April 9, 2013) - Better Quality Score = Better Results?
TheDrum (April 4, 2013) - As six EU countries target Google over its data policy - should Google be nervous?
Marketing Magazine UK (March 26, 2013) - eBay Paid Search Fails to Hit the Mark
Social Media Today (March 26, 2013) - How Does Google Make Money From Mobile
SEOmoz (March 26, 2013) - 5 Mobile SEO Tips from the Google AdWords Team
eCommerce Times (March 25, 2013) - Marin Software Rocks Wall St.
MediaPost (March 25, 2013) - Combining Real-Life Events With Search Marketing Without Ruining Quality Scores
Rimm-Kaufman Group (March 22, 2013) - What eBay’s Test Results Teach Us
Quartz (March 20, 2013) - Are search ads a waste of money? Why eBay’s controversial study doesn’t matter that much
Koozai (March 20, 2013) - Over 100 Game Changing PPC Strategies From 12 Experts
Small Biz Trends (March 19, 2013) - 5 Lessons You Can Learn from eBay’s AdWords Disaster
Seer Interactive (March 18, 2013) - Looking for a Good Response to eBay’s Paid Search Opinions?
Search Engine Journal (March 16, 2013) - Grading Google’s Top 20 Mobile Products
Search Engine Journal (March 15, 2013) - How Not to Run a PPC Campaign, Inspired by eBay’s AdWords #Fail
ECommerce Bytes (March 15, 2013) - Google Defends Ad Program in Response to eBay Report
AdExchanger (March 15, 2013) - AdBlock Blocked; More Mozilla Cookies
Search Engine Roundtable (March 14, 2013) - Clearly eBay Needs New AdWords Specialists
Search Engine Land (March 14, 2013) - AdWords “Ineffective” Says eBay, Google “Meta-Pause Analysis” Contradicts Findings
Adotas (March 13, 2013) - Google Shopping Goes Mobile
Bloomberg (March 11, 2013) - Google Benefits as Priceline Outspends Expedia on Web Ads: Tech
The Big Picture (March 11, 2013) - Google's Mobile Business
Web Analytics World (March 11, 2013) - How does mobile make Google money?
Small Biz Trends (March 12, 2013) - Time For Small Businesses to Take Mobile Seriously
State of Search (March 12, 2013) - How Google Makes its Mobile Money
Marketing Profs (March 9, 2013) - Google's Top 20 Mobile Products (and How It Monetizes Them)
PPC Hero (March 8, 2013) - Infographic: How Google Makes Money From Mobile
ValueWalk (March 8, 2013) - How Google Inc. (GOOG) Monetizes Mobile
Business Insider (March 8, 2013) - iOS Dominates Android Among Airline Passengers
Search Marketing Standard (March 8, 2013) - Five For Friday
B&T (March 7, 2013) - Google Gets Serious About Mobile
Search Engine Land (March 7, 2013) - Google’s Mobile World, From Ads To Apps To Android
Inc. Magazine (March 6, 2013) - Google's 10 Best Mobile Apps
MemeBurn (March 6, 2013) - Check Out How Google Makes Money From Mobile
The Inquisitr (March 6, 2013) - Google Mobile And The Money Machine: How Search And Platform Development Earns Billions
MediaPost (March 6, 2013) - Mapping Google's Apps, How They Make Money
Kelsey Group (March 6, 2013) - Unpacking Google's Mobile Ad Options
Adotas (March 6, 2013) - How Google Makes Money from Mobile
VentureBeat (March 6, 2013) - The 20 Ways Google Makes Money from Mobile
IntoMobile (March 6, 2013) - Infographic: How Google Monetizes off of Mobile
TheDrum (March 6, 2013) - Google’s mobile profit streams charted
Everything PR (March 6, 2012) - How Google “Won’t” Be Killed Off by Mobile Search
Marketing Pilgrim (March 6, 2012) - Infographic Gives Google’s Mobile Push High Marks
Search Engine Land (March 4, 2013) - How Adwords Enhanced Campaigns Can Be Used To Promote Your Mobile App
WebProNews (March 1, 2012) - Google Launches New Mobile App Download Ad Format
MediaPost (Mar. 1, 2012) - Google's Motorola Hires Former Apple Exec Kawasaki
Search Engine Journal (Mar. 1, 2012) - Are Search Engine Marketers Warming Up to Enhanced Campaigns
Search Engine Land (Feb. 28, 2012) - The Real Reason Why Google Is Dropping The Tablet vs. Desktop Distinction
Small Biz Trends (Feb. 28, 2012) - 5 Surprising Mobile Search Statistics and Facts
Online Marketing Institute (Feb 26, 2012) - How to Use the New Google Offer Extensions in AdWords
Small Biz Trends (Feb, 25, 2012) - Are Google AdWords Offer Extensions Right for Small Businesses?
Web Pro News (Feb. 22, 2013) - The Latest In Google’s Plot Against Groupon
MediaPost (Feb. 22, 2013) - AdWords Enhances Campaigns: Teams Coupons, Search Ads
Search Engine Watch (Feb. 22, 2013) - 3 Essential Mobile Ad Extensions to Get More Clicks from Mobile Devices
Memeburn (Feb. 22, 2013) - Adwords Offer Extensions Google’s plan to kill Groupon
TheDrum (Feb. 22, 2013) - Google integrates Daily Deal offer into AdWords in bid to kill Groupon
Business Insider (Feb. 22, 2013) - Google Is Making Moves To Seriously Disrupt Groupon
Search Engine Land (Feb. 22, 2013): Google Quietly Rolls Out New Offer Extensions in AdWords
Dow Jones Newswire (Feb. 21, 2013) - Google Showing More Deal Offers Inside Search Ads
VentureBeat (Feb. 21, 2013) - Google’s Offer Extensions rolling out within a week, integrating deals with search
Portent (Feb. 20, 2013) - AdWords Enhanced Campaigns – PPC Hangout
Inc Magazine (Feb. 15, 2013) - Reality Check: 5 Entrepreneurial Myths Busted
PPC Hero (Feb. 14, 2012): Are Enhanced Campaigns Going to Ruin Your PPC Accounts?
Performance Marketing Insider (Feb. 13, 2013) - Google Finds a Fix for Mobile CPC Dilemma with Enhanced Campaigns
Forbes (Feb 12, 2013) - Google: How They Just Fixed Their Mobile CPC Problem
aimClear Blog (Feb 11, 2013) - 25 SRSLY Clutch Google AdWords Enhanced Campaign #PPC Blog Posts
Search Engine Land (Feb. 11, 2013) - Making The Case In Favor Of Enhanced Campaigns
Boston Globe (Feb. 11, 2013) - 5 steps to paid search marketing success
Rethink Wireless (Feb. 11, 2013) - Google upgrades AdWords for mobile
BusinessInsider (Feb. 8, 2013) - Here's The Real Reason Google Changed Its Mobile Search Rules
VentureBeat (Feb. 8, 2013) - Google announces ‘biggest change to AdWords in 5 years:’ mobile is now baked in
ClickZ (Feb. 8, 2013) - PPC Pro - You're Being Replaced
Wired Magazine (Feb. 8, 2013) - Google Upgrade Is a Tidal Wave for Advertisers
PC World (Feb. 8, 2013) - Google rolling out AdWords management for multiple devices
Search Engine Watch (Feb. 8, 2013) - AdWords Enhanced Mobile Campaigns: 5 Things PPC Marketers Need to Know
InformationWeek (Feb. 8, 2013) - Google Updates AdWords For Mobile Era
WebProNews (Feb. 8, 2013) - What Google’s Enhanced Campaigns Mean For Small Businesses
TGDaily (Feb. 8, 2013) - Google courts mobile campaigns with AdWords changes
ComputerWorld (Feb. 8, 2013) - Google rolls out AdWords management for multiple devices
International Business Times (Feb. 8, 2013) - Google Devises New Mobile Click Ad Concept For Itself As Well As Yahoo
InsiderMonkey (Feb. 8, 2013) - A Google Inc (GOOG) Change that is Going Unnoticed
Ecommerce Times (Feb. 8, 2013) - Yahoo, Google Buddy Up for Display-Ad Deal
ITWorld (Feb. 8, 2013) - Google plans to upgrade all AdWords campaigns in mid-2013
Search Engine Journal (Feb. 7, 2013) - Google Announces Big Changes to Mobile Campaign Management
Forbes (Feb. 7, 2013) - In Big Shift, Google Aims To Boost Mobile Ad Campaigns - And Its Own Revenues
Small Biz Trends (Feb. 7, 2013) - New AdWords Enhanced Campaigns: 5 Things Small Businesses Need to Know
Business Insider (Feb. 7, 2013) - Google Just Blasted Away The Wall Between Desktop And Mobile Ads
Search Engine Land (Feb. 7, 2013) - The Big AdWords Update: Enhanced Campaigns Puts The Focus On Mobile
Marketing Profs (Feb. 7, 2013) - Mobile Search Advertising Just Got Way Easier: AdWords Enhanced Campaigns
Washington Post (Feb. 7, 2013) - Google’s changes to mobile advertising could fix company’s major problem
Wall St. Journal (Feb. 7, 2013) - Google Acts to Raise Mobile-Ad Prices
MediaPost (Feb. 7, 2013) - New Google Tool Combines Desktop, Mobile Ads
Adotas (Feb. 7, 2013) - Today’s Burning Question: Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns
GoMoNews (Feb. 7, 2013) - WordStream comments on Google’s new Enhanced Campaigns
Smart Company (Feb. 7, 2013) - Changes to Google AdWords "a big win" for small business
Screenwerk (Feb. 7, 2013) - Google Responds to Rise of Multiscreenwelt with AdWords Campaign Enhancements
Search Engine Land (Feb. 5, 2013) - Live @SMX West: Forget What You Know About Paid Search
Marketing Profs (Feb 1, 2013) - Four Seasonal Keyword Research Tips
Search Engine Journal (Feb 1, 2013) - Buffalo Chicken Dip Wins the Search Engine Super Bowl by a Landslide!
Business Software (Jan 28, 2013) - WordStream Helps You Breathe New Life into Your Search Marketing
MediaPost (Jan. 28, 2013) - BlackRock Sinks $80 Million Into Twitter
Bank of America Small Business (Jan 24, 2013) - E-commerce Best Practices: How to Maximize Online Sales
Business Insider (Jan 23, 2013) - 5 Ad Execs Tell Us What They Really Think Of Facebook's Graph Search
eCommerce Times (Jan. 23, 2013) - Google Posts Gangbuster Growth in Q4
TheDrum (Jan 23, 2013) - Despite first $50bn year, Google sees ad revenue growth slow during Q4
MemeBurn (Jan 23, 2013) - Google Q4 results completely crush analyst expectations
MediaPost (Jan. 18, 2013) - Online Landscape: Marketers Should Watch Google, Macro Trends
USA Today (Jan. 16, 2013) - Facebook's Graph Search is in search of ads
Fox Business (Jan 16, 2013) - Will Graph Search Actually Help Facebook?
The Guardian (Jan. 16, 2013) - Facebook Graph Search: how the industry rates it
The Drum (Jan 16, 2013) - Reaction to Facebook's Graph Search announcement - what does it mean for Facebook?
Marketing Charts (Jan 16, 2013) - 1% of US Google Advertisers Generate 80% of Clicks; Study Methodology Questioned
Adotas (Jan. 16, 2013) - Reaction to Facebook’s New Search Feature
CiteWorld (Jan. 15, 2013) - How Facebook's new search tool could also help businesses
WebProNews (Jan 15, 2013) - No New Ads With Facebook Graph Search, But Sponsored Results Aren’t Going Away
Boston Business Journal (Jan. 8, 2013) - Fast-growing WordStream aims to make SMBs shine on Google ads
Search Engine Watch (Dec. 31, 2012) - 10 Reasons Why Public Relations is a ‘Must-do’ for SEO in 2013
MediaPost (Dec. 28, 2012) - 2013 Predictions From Online Ad, Marketing Experts
Search Engine Watch (Dec. 17, 2012) - Estimating the Impact of iOS 6 Organic Search Data Loss & Relabeling
TopRank Blog (Dec. 12, 2012) - B2B Lead Gen & Social Media Marketing Wins with Sequenced Content
Daily Titan (Dec. 5, 2012) - Bieber Lost Top Spot to Psy
American Banker (Dec. 1, 2012) - Pouring Money Into Google Ads
Search Engine Journal (Nov. 30, 2012) - Top 10 SEO Blockbusters on Twitter this November
PPC Hero (Nov. 29, 2012) - The 8 Metrics That Matter For PPC
AdAge (Nov. 28, 2012) - 'Gangnam' Close to Billion Views; China Takes Down Artist Ai Weiwei's Version
Social Media Today (Nov. 28, 2012) - The Top 22 Viral Marketing Tactics You Need in 2013
Horse Talk (Nov. 26, 2012) - Psy’s horse dance video days away from 1 billion mark
Fast Company (Nov. 26, 2012) - Oppa! South Korean Rapper Psy's Gangnam Style Ousts Justin Bieber's Baby
PopCrush (Nov. 26, 2012) - Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ Video Breaks Justin Bieber’s YouTube Record
TechSpot (Nov 26, 2012) - Psy's 'Gangnam Style' video sets multiple records on YouTube
Zap2It (Nov. 25, 2012) - 'Gangnam Style': Psy breaks Justin Bieber's record for most watched YouTube video in history
CNET (Nov. 24, 2012) - 'Gangnam Style' slays Bieber, becomes most-watched vid
memeburn (Nov 24, 2012) - Gangnam Style overtakes Bieber, is most watched video in YouTube history
Business Insider (Nov. 24, 2012) - Should Advertisers Be Angry When Facebook Sells Their Fans To The Competition?
Search Engine Journal (Nov. 24, 2012) - Social Magic: How Psy’s Gangnam Style Beat Justin Bieber on YouTube
Forbes (Nov. 24, 2012) - PSY's Gangam Style Tops Bieber's Baby To Become Most Viewed YouTube Video Ever
Film Industry Network (Nov. 24, 2012) - World record: PSY Gangnam style is the biggest music video ever
memeburn (Nov. 15, 2012) - How Google Made Their Ad Money
MediaPost (Nov. 14, 2012) - A View of Clicks and Conversions
Top Rank Blog (Nov. 9, 2012) - Online Marketing News: The Google Economy, Google Moving Search Options
Inc. Magazine (Nov 7, 2012) - How Google's Page Redesign Could Affect Your Business
WebProNews (Nov 8, 2012) - Google Changes Up The Search Results Page
Internet Retailer (Nov. 7, 2012) - Google redesigns its search engine results pages
MediaPost (Nov 7, 2012) - Analyzing Google's Search Results Page Changes
Washington Post (Nov 6, 2012) - Can search results, online advertising, likes and follows predict an election?
Search Engine Watch (Nov 6, 2012) - Google, Bing & Yahoo Tracking the 2012 Presidential Election Results
Search Engine Land (Nov. 6, 2012) - Can Search Queries And Social Data Predict The Presidential Election Outcome?
The Guardian UK (Nov. 5, 2012) - Does Google really need news media content?
MediaPost (Nov 5, 2012) - Will Search, Online Sentiment Predict Obama's Reelection?
Marketing Profs (Nov. 2, 2012) - The Google AdWords Economy: CPCs, CTRs, Ad Impressions, Conversion Rates
State of Search (Nov. 2, 2012) - Where Does Google’s 100 Million $ Per Day Come From?
Hotel Marketing (Nov. 2, 2012) - Google AdWords in Travel: High CTR but Lower Conversions
Search Engine Land (Nov. 1, 2012) - Data: Only 5 Percent Of Search Advertisers Follow Mobile Best Practices|
Unbounce (Nov 1, 2012) - 24 Hours in the Google Economy – 2012 Stats
Hubspot (Nov. 1, 2012) - An Industry Breakdown of Google's $100 Million Per Day Advertising Revenue
SEOmoz (Nov 1, 2012) - 5 Killer SEO Insights from Analyzing a Billion Dollars in AdWords Spend
Travel News (Nov. 1, 2012) - Google AdWords gets stronger, but travel keywords struggle with conversion
CMSWire (Nov. 1, 2012) - Google's AdWords Bringing in $100 Million Per Day
ValueWalk (Nov. 1, 2012) - Silver Lining In Google’s “Disappointing” Q3 Earnings Numbers
Mashable (Oct. 31, 2012) - University of Phoenix, Ask.com Are Google’s Biggest Advertisers [STUDY]
Huffington Post (Oct. 31, 2012) - University Of Phoenix Is Google's Biggest Advertiser [Report]
Smart Company (Oct. 31, 2012) - Businesses Paying Less for Search Marketing
MediaPost (Oct 30, 2012) - How To Determine A 'Good' Google Conversion Rate
Business Insider (Oct. 30, 2012) - These Are Google's Biggest Advertisers, Ranked By Dollars Spent Daily
Daily Mail UK (Oct. 30, 2012) - Revealed: Google's biggest advertiser is the University of Phoenix
Beyond PR - Official PR Newswire Blog (Oct. 29, 2012) - Content Marketing Case Study: It Sure Looks Like PR to Me
Search Engine Watch (Oct. 26, 2012) - How Google Rakes In Over $100 Million in Search Advertising Daily [Infographic]
Bryan Eisenberg Blog (Oct. 26, 2012) - Google Adwords Conversion Rates by Industry
Wired Magazine (Oct 25, 2012) - How Google Still Makes Billions From Tiny Text Ads
VentureBeat (Oct 25, 2012) - How Google makes $100 million a day
VentureBeat (Oct. 25, 2012) - 30 billion times a day, Google runs an ad (13 million times, it works)
Search Engine Land (Oct. 25, 2012) - Google Bringing In More Than $100 Million Per Day Via AdWords
Web Pro News (Oct 25, 2012) - Google Ads Earning Over $100 Million Per Day
Web Analytics World (Oct. 26, 2012) - Reducing Adwords Costs
Biz Report (Oct. 26, 2012) - Google's disappointing Q3 Earnings Good News for Advertisers
Advertisement Journal (Oct. 26, 2012) - Google Runs Ads 30 Billion Times Per Day
SEOmoz (Oct 22, 2012) - How I Got a Link from the Wall St. Journal
Forbes (Oct. 15, 2012) - 100 Founders Share Their Top "Aha" Moments
AdWeek (Aug 6, 2012) - Beyond Words - Public Relations Embraces Visual Storytelling
Wow Internet Blog (Sept. 26. 2012) - Improving Your Keyword Analysis With WordStream
SEOmoz (Sept 26, 2012) - Using AdWords Data for SEO: Unlocking the Ultimate Keyword Research Treasure Trove (Arrrgh!!)
CIO (Sept. 11, 2012) - 15 LinkedIn Tips to Improve Your Job Search
100k Blueprint (Aug. 26, 2012) - The Death of SEO
Shopatron (Aug. 23, 2012) - What You Can Expect from Google’s New Shopping Changes
PPC Hero (Aug. 23, 2012) - Two Tips to Make the Most of Google’s Latest Results Page Change
Interactivity Marketing (Aug. 21, 2012) - Google Decreases 1st Page Organic Results
Social Marketing Forum (Aug. 18, 2012) - Display Advertising on Facebook versus Google: Who Wins?
MediaPost (Aug. 16, 2012) - SEOmoz Acquires Twitter Tool, Confirms Social-Search Alliance
Koozai Blog (Aug. 15, 2012) - PPC Click Rate Study – How Click Rate Deteriorates Depending on Ranking
The Small Business Authority (Aug. 14, 2012) - An Adwords Performance Grader for Small Business
Forbes (Aug. 14, 2012) - How to Improve Your Online Advertising Campaign
Online Marketing Institute (Aug 13, 2012) - The Future of Search: 10 Questions with Larry Kim of Wordstream
SEO Theory (Aug. 13, 2012) - How Realistic and Successful is Low Maintenance, Long-term SEO?
TechWyse Inernet Marketing Blog (Aug. 10, 2012) - Which Content Network is Better, Google or Bing?
American Express Open Forum (Aug. 6. 2012) - 5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Online Advertising
Rocky Mountain Search Academy (Aug. 6, 2012) - The War Between Organic and Paid Search
Business Insider (Aug. 6, 2012) - Facebook vs. Google Ad Platform Battle
SalesChase Blog (Aug. 5, 2012) - Why Pay-Per-Click Ads Make Marketing Sense for High Commercial Intent Keywords
SEOmoz (Aug. 3, 2012) - Does SEO Even Work for Small Businesses?
Ghost Blog Writers (Aug. 2, 2012) - Paid Clicks Top Free Clicks for Commercial Keywords
Kairay Media Adwars (Aug. 2, 2012) - Google vs. Facebook!
PPC Associates Blog (Aug. 1, 2012) - is Google Your Biggest Competitor?
Inc. Magazine (Aug 1, 2012) - Can God Call You to Start a Business?
iStudio (Aug. 1, 2012) - Is there a War on Free Clicks?
Bristol SEO - (July 31, 2012) - WordStream Interview; Larry Kim Shares Highlights
Unbounce (July 30, 2012) - Paid Google Ads Punch Organic Search in the Face
TrendHunter (July 27, 2012) - The 'War On Free Clicks' Reveals Hidden Secrets to Traffic
GetBusy Media (July 26, 2012) - Organic vs Paid Traffic Explored
KISSmetrics (July 26, 2012) - The Inexpensive Marketing Plan
ProBlogger (July 26, 2012) - Facebook Ads or Google AdWords: Which One’s for You?
Marketing Tech Blog (July 24, 2012) - Is Paid Search Overtaking Organic Search?
Marketing Profs (July 20, 2012) - Paid vs. Organic Search: Are PPC Ads Winning the Google Click Wars?
Small Business Trends (July 20, 2012) - Google Ads May Be More Valuable Than You Thought
TheDrum (July 19, 2012) - How pay-per-click ads are taking over Google results
ValueWalk (July 19, 2012) - Click Through Rates Could Be Deciding Factor In Google’s Q2 Report
Brafton (July 19, 2012) - Paid search and SEO thrive when paired together
Search Engine Land (July 17, 2012) - Study: Clicks On Google Ads Are Double Organic Clicks For Commercial Searches
VentureBeat (July 17, 2012) - Google and sponsored search results: is there a “war on free clicks?”
Search Engine Journal (July 17, 2012) - How Google Is Killing Organic Search
Business Insider (July 17, 2012) - How Up To 85% Of Google Search Results Are Actually Paid Ads
TheNextWeb (July 17, 2012) - Google ad clicks outnumber ‘normal’ search results by 2:1 for some commercial keywords
PPC Hero (July 21, 2012) - Are PPC Ads Beating Organic Listings for Clicks?
Boy Genious Report (July 17, 2012) - Google declares war on free clicks
Yahoo News (July 17, 2012) - Trend Shifting Toward PPC in the U.S.
Fox Business (July 2, 2012) - Should Your Small Business Advertise on Facebook?
Boston Product Management Association (June 21, 2012) - How to Get your Software Product to Market
Official Microsoft Bing Ads Blog (June 21, 2012) - Yahoo! Bing Network Help Online Farm-Equipment Directory Hit Target
Dowicher Designs Blog (June 21, 2012) - In an Advertising Battle Between Facebook and Google, Who Wins?
KooZai Blog (June 20, 2012) - Facebook vs Google Display Network
Motley Fool (June 20, 2012) - Google: A Growth Company Masquerading as a Value Stock
Content Marketing Institute (June 14, 2012) - How to Build a Content Marketing Tool Set
Search Engine Watch (June 13, 2012) - Paid & Subscription-Based Keyword Research Tools
Hausman Marketing Letter (June 11, 2012) - Google Adwords: How Adwords Creates Online Success|
The Entrepreneur Blog (June 10, 2012) - Get a Free AdWords Campaign Evaluation!
Site Trail (June 6, 2012) - Google Ads Are Clicked 10 Times More Often Than Those On Facebook
Aer Icon (June 5, 2012) - The 5 Core Principles of Revenue Performance Management
Distilled (June 5, 2012) - Get Better At The Internet: 17 Pro Tips For Every Industry
Motley Fool (June 3, 2012) - Facebook: To Buy or Not To Buy?
Software Magazine (June 1, 2012) - 5 Tips for Taking Your Software Product from Prototype to Production Quality
ClickZ (June 1, 2012) - Online Advertising in the Age of Agility
Top Rank Blog (June 1, 2012) - Online Marketing News: Facebook vs. Google Ads
Motley Fool (May 30, 2012) - Where's the Beef, Facebook?
SEOmoz (May 29, 2012) - Oops, I ruined the Facebook IPO!
Marketing Land (May 29, 2012) - Facebook Should Keep Ignoring (Some) Advertisers
Ecommerce Times (May 26, 2012) - Beyond the Blame Game: Can Facebook Be Fixed?
CMS Wire (May 24, 2012) - Facebook vs Google Display Network Online Ad Smackdown: Who Comes Out On Top?
Yahoo Finance News (May 23, 2012) - How does Facebook make money?
Revenue Performance (May 23, 2012) - Facebook Ads: Not Cheap, Not Effective
Reuters (May 22, 2012) - China diversified dot-coms avoid Facebook pitfalls
Adsolut Blog Italy (May 22, 2012) - Pubblicità su Google o Facebook?
ValueWalk (May 22, 2012) - Facebook vs. Google: The War of Ads
T3N Germany (May 22, 2012) - Facebook vs. Google: Duell der Ad-Giganten
NewsTex (May 21, 2012) - Facebook Advertising vs. Google Display Network
Website Magazine (May 21, 2012) - Report Puts Facebook, Google Ad Values on Display
Technology Spectator (May 21, 2012) - The Facebook-Google Ad War
Website Magazine (May 21, 2012) Report Puts Facebook, Google Ad Values on Display
Lonely Brand Blog (May 21, 2012) - Wall Street LOLs at Facebook IPO
Internet Marketing News Watch (May 21, 2012) - Report Puts Facebook, Google Ad Values on Display
Information Week (May 21, 2012) - 4 Ways Facebook Can Woo SMBs
MediaPost (May 21, 2012) - The Search Expert Who Bought And Sold Facebook Stock
Celt Digital (May 21, 2012) - After last week’s IPO, Facebook advertising – does it work?
c:rae-tive (May 21, 2012) - Are Facebook Ads Effective? One Would Second Guess
Trend Hunter (May 20, 2012) - The 'Facebook IPO: Can it Beat Google?'
CBC - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (May 18, 2012) - Facebook closes just above $38 IPO price
CNN (May 18, 2012) - Google y Facebook pelean por anunciantes. El producto eres tú
Bulldog Reporter (May 18, 2012) - Does Facebook Advertising Actually Work? WordStream Shows Google Offers More
MSN (May 18, 2012) - Facebook goes public at $42
Vator News (May 18, 2012) - Facebook closes debut day just pennies above IPO price
Wall St. Cheat Sheet (May 18, 2012) - Facebook, What Happened?
Wall St. Cheat Sheet (May 18, 2012) - Why GM Opted Out of Facebook - Should You?
Billboard (May 18, 2012) - 5 Reasons Why Facebook Won't Spend its IPO Money on the Music Business
The Register (May 18, 2012) - WordStream: Facebook Ads are Very Boring and not Very Imaginative
Wealth Daily (May 18, 2012) - Facebook IPO Hype: Buy When the Sky is Falling
Information Week (May 18, 2012) - Facebook's History: From Dorm To IPO Darling
Financial Times (May 18, 2012) - Facebook IPO in numbers
Huffington Post (May 18, 2012) - Facebook goes public any minute
Motley Fool (May 18, 2012) - Psst! What if Facebook shares are actually cheap?
Metro Newspaper (May 18, 2012) - GM pulls facebook advertising (South Africa)
PC World (May 18, 2012) - General Motors dejará de pagar por publicidad en Facebook (Mexico)
Xinhua - Official News Agency of China (May 17, 2012) - Facebook身未動價已漲 股東賺瘋 -
ABC News (May 17, 2012) - Facebook prices its IPO at $38, could raise $16 billion
Jalopnik (May 17. 2012) - GM Will Remove $10 Million Worth Of Ads From Facebook
Branding & Marketing (May 17, 2012) - When Should You Advertise on Facebook Over Google?
Being Your Brand (May 17, 2012) - Who Has the Better Ad Network? Facebook Vs. Google
TechJournal (May 17, 2012) - Why did GM drop its Facebook advertising?
The Star Tribune (May 17, 2012) - Google Totally Blows Facebook Away
Examiner (May 17, 2012) - Was GM's Facebook ad failure GM's or Facebook's fault?
Huffington Post (May 17, 2012) - Facebook Ads: Can They Beat Google?
Reuters (May 17, 2012) - GM Pulled Ads From Facebook After Social Network's Failed Pitch: Report
State of Search (May 17, 2012) - Facebook IPO: Can It Beat Google?
WebProNews (May 17, 2012) - More Arguments That Facebook Ads Are Shoddy
The Takeaway (May 17, 2012) - Facebook vs. Google: The Ad Model Cage Match
More About Advertising (May 17, 2012) - Wordstream research reveals why GM pulled $10m adspend from Facebook
WebRazzi (May 17, 2012) - Borsa arefesindeki Facebook’un reklam performansı ne durumda? (Turkey)
StayWyse (May 17, 2012) - Facebook Advertising VS Google Advertising
Business Spectator (May 17, 2012) - GM ad withdrawal casts shadow over Facebook IPO
Vator News (May 17, 2012) - Analysts still find Facebook doesn't match up with Google's Ad Network, Spells Trouble
Washington Post (May 17, 2012) - Is Facebook really a good business?
TheDrum (May 16, 2012) - Facebook Research illustrates advertising underperformance
Computing.co.uk (May 16, 2012) - Facebook advertising failing to click with users, According to new Study
CIO Magazine (May 16, 2012) - Why Facebook Marketing Doesn't Work
Les Affaires (May 16, 2012) - GM porte un dur coup à Facebook (France)
ABC News (May 16, 2012) - Facebook's IPO, From an Adman's Perspective
French Web (May 16, 2012) - Publicité Online : Facebook vs Google, le Match! (France)
Lupa: (May 16, 2012) - GM přestal inzerovat na Facebooku (Czech Republic)
VentureBeat (May 16, 2012) - Are Facebook Ads Really that Bad?
Adverblog (May 16, 2012) - Google Beats Facebook Media
IDG News Service (May 16, 2012) - GM Will Stop Paying for Ads on Facebook - Because They Don't Work
Radio Taiwan International (May 16. 2012) - 臉書IPO在即 驚傳通用擬撤廣告
Performance Marketing Insider (May 16, 2012) - Facebook vs Google Ads
Financial Times Deutschland (May 16, 2012) - Facebook verliert großen Werbekunden
In Auto News (May 16, 2012 ) - GM ad Withdrawal puts Facebook in Dilemma
Forbes (May 16, 2012) - Facebook: Facing the Facts
Fox Business (May 16, 2012) - Time for Facebook to Grow Up
Minyanville (May 16, 2012) - Should Investors Be Concerned If More Advertisers Abandon Social Networks?
PC World (May 16, 2012) - GM Will Stop Paying for Ads on Facebook - Because They Don't Work
USA Today (May 16, 2012) - Facebook must change after IPO
The Week UK (May 16, 2012) - Facebook worth $105bn? Not if you Believe Advertisers
The Economist (May 16, 2012) - Facebook's Flotation The final Countdown
New Zealand Herald (May 16, 2012) - GM to pull ads from Facebook - Report
PC Advisor UK (May 16, 2012) - Do Facebook ads work? Apparently, not Really
PC Magazine (May 16, 2012) - After GM Loss, Can Facebook Compete in the Ad Game?
Search Engine Journal (May 16, 2012) - Why Did GM Drop Facebook Advertising?
Silicon Republic (May 16, 2012) - Facebook can’t beat Google at the Advertising Game
PC World (May 16, 2012) - Why Facebook Marketing Doesn't Work for GM
Washington Post (May 16, 2012) - Why Facebook ads are Different
Network World (May 16, 2012) - Facebook Ads Don't Work
ComputerWorld (May 16, 2012) - OOPS! GM drops Facebook ads: They don't work
ABC News (May 16, 2012) - Facebook's IPO Means What For You?
News24 (May 16, 2012) - GM pulls ads from Facebook
Web Analytics World (May 16, 2012) - Targeting Marketing
The Register UK (May 16, 2012) - Why GM slammed the brakes on its $10m Facebook ads
The Guardian UK (May 16, 2012) - Five reasons not to buy Facebook shares
Marketing Land (May 15, 2012) - Ahead Of IPO, GM Drops Facebook Ads; Forrester Warns Other Companies May Follow
Mashable (May 15, 2012) - Can Facebook Ads Ever Beat Google?
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2009 OSCE MEDITERRANEAN CONFERENCE IN CAIRO IS A SUCCESS: HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF REVISITING ANNUAL CONFERENCE ADMINISTRATION
By Alex Johnson, Policy Advisor and Marlene Kaufmann, General Counsel
In December 2009, Commission staff attended the 2009 OSCE Mediterranean Conference on “The Mediterranean Partners and the OSCE: Cooperation Toward Enhanced Security and Stability” in Cairo, Egypt. This conference brought together 33 of the 56 OSCE participating States, four of the Asian Partners for Cooperation (Australia, South Korea, Japan, and Thailand), and representation from all of the Mediterranean Partners for Cooperation. The Palestinian National Authority attended at the invitation of the host government. The conference featured three sessions focusing on the politico-military aspects of security in the OSCE area, implications of the current financial crisis on migration, and prospects for OSCE Mediterranean Cooperation. These sessions featured presentations from Mediterranean Partner OSCE delegations, academics, international organizations, and relevant ministry representatives.
Participation in this conference was at a high level with the majority of the participating States and all of the Mediterranean Partners for Cooperation represented by their Ambassadors to the OSCE. Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE in attendance included a Vice-President and officers of two of the Assembly’s General Committees. Discussion in all of the sessions was lively with active participation by the Ambassadors, particularly those representing the Mediterranean Partners, as well as other public and private sector participants. A number of themes emerged across the sessions including agreement that the partnership between the OSCE participating States and their Mediterranean Partners has strengthened. The establishment of the Partnership Fund and the Athens’ Ministerial invitation to the Partners to contribute to the Corfu Process are largely attributed with bolstering the strength of the Partnership. Findings included a future activity emphasis on specific areas of cooperation by setting both short and long-term goals and providing a mechanism to assess effectiveness. In addition, the OSCE Mediterranean Partnership should undertake its work in coordination with other regional organizations and institutions, through which the possibility of expanding the Partnership could be considered.
Session 1: Politico-military aspects of security in the OSCE area and the Mediterranean
The session’s moderators were Ambassador Ian Cliff, Head of the delegation of the United Kingdom to the OSCE and Ambassador Taous Feroukhi, Permanent Representative of Algeria to the OSCE. Panelists included Mr. Pascal Heyman, Deputy Director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Center, Ambassador Gyorgy Molnar, Head of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Hungary to the OSCE, and Dr. Mostafa Elwy Saif, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Political Science, Cairo University and Member of the Shura Council.
Ambassador Cliff opened the discussion by pointing out that the OSCE had developed expertise on crisis prevention and conflict resolution, particularly regarding protracted conflicts. He believes there has recently been some incremental progress.
Pascal Heyman emphasized that the OSCE has developed a unique conflict prevention and resolution expertise through constant political dialogue, dedicated crisis management mechanisms such as fact-finding missions, the Conflict Prevention Center, confidence and security building measures and the establishment of field operations. While these are effective tools, Heyman maintained that workable and lasting conflict resolution depends ultimately on the political will of the participating States and the parties in a conflict.
Ambassador Molnar spoke to the destabilizing consequences of transnational or multi-dimensional threats to security in the OSCE space. He noted that participating States are attempting to address these threats through the Maastricht Strategy and decisions adopted at both the Madrid and Athens Ministerials regarding transnational threats, combating terrorism, and promoting effective law enforcement and police training programs.
Dr. Saif presented a detailed review of Egypt’s political and military security concerns and concluded that the primary challenges to his country’s security stem from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran’s regional and nuclear ambitions, water shortages, the political situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.
Ambassador Feroukhi said that the absence of a dedicated institutional forum in the Mediterranean region hampered the development of effective security mechanisms but felt that the development of confidence-building measures – particularly involving civil society and academic communities – should be encouraged as a first step. She also agreed that a just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and better protection of the environment were vital for the stability and security of the Mediterranean region.
All delegations who participated in the discussion welcomed the Athens Ministerial decision to invite input from the Partners for Cooperation on furthering the Corfu Process. A number of delegations raised the possibility of enlarging the Mediterranean Partnership to include the Palestinian National Authority, while others pointed out the difficulties of doing so, due to the fact that the OSCE is a state-based organization. The Partnership Fund was hailed as an effective tool to enhance the Mediterranean Partnership and it should continue to be used to sustain a culture of cooperation, including the possible creation of a clearing house on water issues within the OSCE. It was also stressed that the OSCE should coordinate its activities with relevant international and regional organizations.
The moderators stated the following conclusions emanating from the discussion: The confidence and security building measures as well as early warning mechanisms developed in the framework of the OSCE could serve as a model and help to foster cooperation and confidence in the Mediterranean region; the participation of the Partners in the Corfu process should enhance the Mediterranean Partnership; and, the Partnership should move forward based on concrete, achievable objectives with possible long-term goals of establishing a Mediterranean conflict prevention center and developing regional codes of conduct to enhance dialogue and cooperation.
Session 2: Implications of the current economic and financial crisis on migration
The second session was moderated by Mr. Daman Bergant, Head of the OSCE Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, and panelists included Ambassador Omar Zniber, Head of the Delegation of the Kingdom of Morocco to the OSCE, and Ms. Rebecca Bardach, Director of the Center for International Migration and Integration of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Mr. Bergant began the session by explaining that the global economic and financial crisis has an impact on migration and development. He outlined several topics to guide the discussion including the development of cooperative migration policies between the OSCE and the Mediterranean Partners; dialogue on how to prevent and combat illegal migration; international and regional cooperation on preventing trafficking in human beings, including trafficking for forced labor; protecting the human rights of migrants, including through combating hate crimes; and, the role of migrants in promoting tolerance and non-discrimination.
Ambassador Zniber spoke to the impact of the current economic crisis on both migrants and development. He pointed out that the impact of the crisis makes migrants even more vulnerable and they face increased discrimination and further marginalization in society. Decreasing remittances, said the Ambassador – 10 to 15% in 2009 according to the World Bank – are a destabilizing factor, impacting countries of origin like Morocco which are particularly dependent on revenues from abroad.
The Ambassador welcomed the Athens Ministerial Council Decision on migration management and urged that the OSCE continue its work in this area, in particular, by facilitating dialogue, exchanging best practices and fighting discrimination against migrants. Specifically, he recommended that the OSCE and its Mediterranean Partners establish a working group on migration management and related security aspects; develop a multi-dimensional and long-term approach on migration management; promote regional cooperation and partnerships between all responsible parties including countries of origin, transit and destination, civil society and the private sector; create reintegration and training programs; and, protect the human rights of migrants and their families.
Ms. Bardach gave a comprehensive review of migration issues impacting Israel. She explained that only in the last two decades has Israel seen a significant increase in migration flows across its borders. This is presenting challenges to the government in managing migration and dealing with large numbers of refugees, asylum seekers, and labor migrants, in addition to human smuggling and trafficking. While Israeli efforts to combat trafficking for sexual exploitation have resulted in marked progress, she said, efforts to combat labor trafficking are still in their infancy. Based on this experience, Ms. Bardach suggested that the OSCE should develop policies to address irregular recruitment practices and raise awareness about such practices; develop cooperation on both the regional and bilateral level to increase information sharing, strengthen border controls and address the humanitarian needs of migrants; develop culturally sensitive tools for law enforcement officials; and, improve the reception and registration of refugees, including assisted voluntary return.
During the discussion following the panel presentations, a number of delegations echoed the view that the OSCE and its Mediterranean Partners should serve as a broad regional platform for a coordinated dialogue on migration, and should develop a comprehensive strategy to prevent cross-border trafficking that includes the private sector.
The contributors in this session demonstrated the need for better data collection and sharing regarding migration in the Euro-Mediterranean context. This goal was identified as a potential priority for the Partnership Fund. Proposals distributed by the Moroccan and Egyptian delegations have both cited the importance of developing research institutions, which could serve to further the goal of better data collection and expertise sharing.
Session 3: Prospects for OSCE Mediterranean Cooperation
The third session Chaired by Ambassador Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Head of the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the OSCE and Chair of the OSCE Permanent Council, focused on a review of achievements to date in improving dialogue and cooperation between the participating States and the Mediterranean Partners, and developing effective follow-up on recommendations of previous seminars and ministerial declarations referencing the Partners. Featured speakers were Ambassador Makram Queisi, Permanent Representative of Jordan to the OSCE, and Mr. Agustin Nunez, Deputy Head of Mission of the Permanent Mission of Spain to the OSCE.
Ambassador Queisi presented four areas in which he felt cooperation could improve the relationship between the OSCE and the Mediterranean region – environmental aspects of security such as soil erosion, desertification and water management including the possible creation of an environmental data collection center in the region; enhanced border security to combat terrorism and trafficking including cooperation with the Regional Counter Terrorism Training Center in Jordan; combating discrimination against Muslims; and, developing nuclear non-proliferation strategies for the region. The Ambassador also stated his view that Partner status should be granted to the Palestinian National Authority as a confidence building measure.
Mr. Nunez reviewed the development of the participating State’s cooperation with their Mediterranean Partners including increased participation by Mediterranean Partners in OSCE activities and recent examples of concrete cooperation on issues such as countering terrorism, promoting tolerance and freedom of the media, and enhancing border management. He emphasized the importance of having a strategic vision for the Partnership and commended the proposal by the Kazakh Chair of the Mediterranean Contact Group that three priority areas should be identified for developing projects to be financed by the Partnership Fund. Mr. Nunez concurred with Ambassador Queisi’s view that the Partnership should be enlarged to include the Palestinian National Authority and noted that Spain had circulated two food-for-thought papers on this topic in 2008.
Following the presentations, active debate among the delegations ensued and focused primarily on the current status of the Partnership and its achievements to date, proposals for additional areas of cooperation, procedural improvements and the issue of possible enlargement of the Partnership.
Enhanced cooperation in the areas of promoting tolerance and non-discrimination, freedom of the media, gender, combating trafficking in human beings, energy security, security aspects of climate change, water management and fighting corruption, drug trafficking and terrorism was discussed. It was suggested that working groups should be established to examine these issues and make recommendations for action. Participants also called for the establishment of a system for effective follow-up on recommendations and agreed proposals, as well as enhanced coordination with other regional institutions and organizations.
The participants actively discussed the question of enlarging the Mediterranean Partnership with some participants supporting the granting of Partner status to the Palestinian National Authority as a confidence building measure conducive to dialogue and peace in the region. Debate over this particular consideration illuminated the need for an expeditious response to the request of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to become an OSCE Mediterranean Partner for Cooperation. It is apparent that a number of participating States and partners recognize the value of their participation in Mediterranean Dimension activities. Yet, disagreement arises when considering the implications of recognizing a territory as a full-fledged partner. Some participating States see the case of the PNA as unique in that there is already international agreement on the existence of a future Palestinian State. Other participating States believe that affording a territory official status sets a precedent for other territories seeking recognition in the OSCE region. A number of these leaders believe that a future Palestinian State should be granted partner status after formal international recognition. Thus, it will be unlikely that consensus on partnership with the PNA will be reached at this time and the OSCE Chair-in-Office should issue a formal response acknowledging this. The question of PNA participation will continue to mire productive dialogue on other opportunities for cooperation until a decisive response is issued by the OSCE Chair-in-Office. Alternatives for their participation should however be explored. Some possibilities include establishment of an alternative status of “observer” or other title within the framework of the Partners for Cooperation to allow for a transitional process of full recognition as a Partner. In addition, some sort of agreement should be established on recommended countries outside of the Mediterranean Partnership for invitations to OSCE Mediterranean Dimension activities.
Conclusion: Future Considerations for Annual Conference Administration
A tremendous success of the 2009 Mediterranean Conference was the engagement of the Ambassadors from the Mediterranean Partners in the agenda. Each panel featured a Mediterranean Partner Ambassador, which helped balance the contributions during the discussion. Previous conferences did not adequately balance the opportunities for contributions between the Mediterranean Partners and the OSCE participating States. In the most grievous of incidences, panelists and participating States at the 2008 Mediterranean Conference in Amman, Jordan took so much time during the discussion that contributions from representatives of the Partners were significantly curtailed. It only makes sense that the contributions of the Partners be prioritized when the purpose of the conference is enhancing cooperation with their respective countries. Meaningful participation by the Partners remains the only way to sustain the future of the OSCE Mediterranean Dimension.
A recurring challenge of the annual Mediterranean conference is a lack of willingness to host the event among the Mediterranean Partners. The venue question remains an issue that paralyzes cooperation among the Mediterranean Partners and has the potential to diminish the productivity of the conference each year. The venue question stems from a number of factors. Not only is the conference capital-intensive for the hosting State, political considerations regarding the participants in the OSCE Mediterranean Dimension keep Partners like Algeria and Tunisia from taking a leadership role in hosting the event. Thus, active Partners like Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Israel bear the burden of hosting the conference most frequently. Ownership of the OSCE Mediterranean Dimension through hosting the conference and originating initiatives remains an ideal that the partnership should aspire to. However, it is not unprecedented that participating States would host the conference. Previous Mediterranean seminars were hosted by Greece (2002), Croatia (2001), Slovenia (2000), and Malta (1998), prior to the elevation of the event to a “conference” by the Greek chairmanship of the OSCE in 2008. Participating States have offered to host the upcoming 2010 conference. Proceeding with an established venue earlier in the year may provide for more time for substantive topic development. Such a deviation from Mediterranean Partner ownership of the event should be seen as an exception until a more appropriate mechanism for rotating the responsibility of hosting the conference is devised.
The 2009 Mediterranean Conference was well executed by the Egyptian government, especially considering the short time between their final commitment to do so and the date of the event. However, NGO participation was notably missing. The 2008 OSCE Mediterranean Conference in Amman featured a session for NGOs from throughout the Mediterranean region on the day prior to the conference and subsequently included a robust NGO presence during the conference proceedings. OSCE Participating States led by the United States made extra-budgetary contributions to the OSCE Partnership Fund to help facilitate a robust NGO presence. International organization representatives that were invited to present on the session panels in the 2009 Cairo conference were among the few non-governmental participants present. It is true that participating States lack the wherewithal to contribute annually to facilitate an NGO presence especially given global fiscal challenges. However, exploring partnerships with appropriate foundations, endowments, and institutions involved in Euro-Mediterranean engagement may result in a consistent and strong NGO presence at events within the OSCE Mediterranean Dimension.
Republic of Korea
Confidence and Security Building Measures
Equality of Opportunity for Men and Women
Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
Military Aspects of Security
Rule of Law/Independence of Judiciary
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The high profile cases Bilski v. Kappos and Association for Molecular Pathology v. United States Patent and Trademark Office have renewed public debate about the proper scope of patentable subject matter. The subject matter inquiry has traditionally been treated as a threshold inquiry in patent law, serving a gate-keeping function by defining the types of inventions that are eligible for patent protection. The Patent Office and courts have approached the subject matter inquiry both by determining whether an invention falls into a statutory category-processes, machines, manufactures, or compositions of matter-as well as by determining whether an invention falls into a category excluded from subject matter eligibility-often described in recent decades as laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas.
The exclusions from patentable subject matter developed in the courts and have never been codified in the Patent Act. Although some commentators have argued that the exclusions are Constitutionally mandated, the Supreme Court and lower courts have consistently regarded them as judicial interpretation of statutory subject matter requirements. Courts and commentators have rationalized the exclusions as protecting the "basic tools" of scientific and technological research necessary for innovation. Because of the role of the subject matter inquiry in conditioning patent eligibility-a role perceived as critical to encouraging innovation-landmark subject matter cases have often arisen during times of technological change and economic upheaval.
The patents at issue in Association for Molecular Pathology cover isolated and purified forms of the human BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes responsible for heightened risk of breast and ovarian cancer, as well as methods for determining whether the sequence is present in clinical samples submitted by patients for testing. Like many other important subject matter cases, Association for Molecular Pathology raises the policy question of whether the patents at issue and other similar patents "cause more harm than good to society and technological development." The plaintiffs prevailed in the district court. If the decision is affirmed by the Federal Circuit, although gene patents would not be broadly invalidated, a new avenue would be opened for challenging patent validity.
The litigation is noteworthy not only for the legal and policy questions it raises, but also because two public interest groups, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), are serving as plaintiffs' counsel. Association for Molecular Pathology is a rare instance of impact litigation in patent law, which has remained relatively untouched by conventional cause lawyering until recent years. The public policies championed by ACLU and PUBPAT are undoubtedly compelling. They include the salutary goals of making genetic testing more widely and inexpensively available, and encouraging scientific research. We question, however, whether judicial interpretation alone of 35 U.S.C. § 101, the eligible subject matter provision of the Patent Act, can provide the legal framework necessary to properly effectuate these policies.
In this Essay, we suggest that by focusing solely on shaping judicial interpretation of the exclusions from patentable subject matter, proponents of an expanded public domain fail to consider the possibility that states will expand what we term "interstitial exclusivities"-state-based legal rules, such as trade secret law and unfair competition law, that grant certain market exclusivities in inventions and that are not subject to federal constitutional limits on their duration. We argue that the expansion of existing interstitial exclusivities and the creation of new ones would alter existing incentive structures of intellectual property law, potentially provoking serious negative unintended consequences such as increased uncertainty surrounding patent validity, increased business costs, and increased secrecy in scientific research. We suggest instead that the creation of a public domain envisioned by ACLU and PUBPAT may be best achieved through concurrent efforts to enact legislative change, which would explicitly dedicate such inventions to a public domain.
I. Interstitial Exclusivities
The problematic but incomplete overlap of federal and state intellectual property law has allowed for the creation of state-law exclusivities in inventions. We refer to these laws as "interstitial exclusivities" because they arise in the gaps where courts have concluded that federal patent law does not preempt state law.
The relationship between state and federal intellectual property protections-particularly with respect to the role of patent protection-is complicated. The federal and state regimes overlap and are similar in some respects, but differ significantly in others. Congress's patent and copyright authority derives from the Progress Clause of the Constitution, which enumerates the power to legislate along with a concurrent restriction requiring the exclusive rights to be granted by the federal government only for "limited times." However, trademark, unfair competition, and trade secret law are free from these durational limitations. Therefore, tensions have arisen where trademark, unfair competition, and trade secret protections partially overlap with patent or copyright rights, effectively extending elements of patent-like or copyright-like coverage for unlimited times.
Under existing application of preemption principles, states may craft intellectual property laws conveying exclusivities in inventions without running afoul of the Patent Act. When state-based intellectual property laws are challenged because of perceived conflict with the Patent Act, courts review these statutes using implied conflict preemption principles-the Patent Act contains no express preemption provisions, and courts have not applied field preemption principles to intellectual property law. Conflict preemption is a notoriously muddled area of law, and courts have struggled to apply these principles consistently to state intellectual property laws. Beginning in 1973, the Supreme Court affirmed states' rights to legislate in the intellectual property field absent direct conflict, despite dicta in earlier cases suggesting broad federal preemption of state intellectual property laws. Similarly, it is unlikely that courts will find that state intellectual property protections impermissibly burden interstate commerce in all but the most extreme circumstances. Accordingly, when a litigant raises a preemption argument, courts will generally engage in a very limited conflict analysis by looking to the stated purpose and legal elements of the state-based protection. State lawmakers are left with room to create exclusivities in inventions.
Naturally, business firms game the legal overlap and interplay to gain valuable market exclusivities in their products. The correspondence between state trade secret and unfair competition laws and federal patent law is not one-to-one, nor could it be under existing law. For example, the exclusivity conveyed by trade secret law does not generally protect against independent development or reverse engineering, and secrecy requirements in some jurisdictions can be relatively difficult and onerous to maintain. Likewise, unfair competition laws in some jurisdictions require elements such as proof of intent to establish violations. Neither trade secret nor unfair competition laws are perfect substitutes for patent protection, but they still convey valuable elements of market exclusivity, often through liability rather than property rules. Recognizing this, businesses have adopted sophisticated exclusivity strategies that consciously engage federal, state, and private law to maximize market exclusivity.
Against this backdrop, we suggest that ACLU, PUBPAT, and their supporters consider the possibility that state lawmakers could extend additional or strengthened state-law protections over inventions excluded from federal protection because of narrowed subject matter eligibility. States have continued to make and develop intellectual property law. For example, some jurisdictions have recently revived the once disfavored "inevitable disclosure" doctrine in trade secret law, a legal fiction that assumes an employee who has certain knowledge will disclose it to a new employer. Similarly, a recent Seventh Circuit case upheld an exclusive license of trade secrets between companies, explaining that trade secrets may be bought, sold, and licensed regardless of the fact that to do so requires their disclosure. And in an emerging area of intellectual property law, Utah recently passed the Utah Bioprospecting Act, which allows for regulation of bioprospecting activities, including the removal from state lands of naturally occurring microorganisms, plants, or fungi or information about the same for a commercial or research purpose. The legislation also mandates a royalty to the state resulting from commercialization of the results of bioprospecting and criminal penalties for noncompliance.
Although increased state activity in this area is not a certainty, it is a distinct possibility in light of the potential value of the inventions at issue. Simply put, there is nothing to stop state lawmakers from drawing even closer to patent law while still avoiding federal preemption, and very little reason to believe that state lawmakers would hesitate to do so.
II. The Law of Unintended Consequences
If the district court decision is upheld on appeal, it will be a Pyrrhic victory for proponents of an expanded public domain. Inventions that have already been disclosed to the public as part of the patent bargain-which requires disclosure in exchange for the strong exclusivity protections conferred by patent law-would begin to create an expanded public domain. For example, the inventions at issue in Association for Molecular Pathology would become a part of the public domain because they were disclosed in the patents. But inventors and their assignees could keep future inventions out of that public domain by strategically gaming the protections of federal, state, and private law. A judicial narrowing of patentable subject matter through a broadened interpretation of the exclusions would radically alter the incentives provided by the web of state and federal intellectual property protections. Businesses may increasingly opt for secrecy-based protections for certain gene and biotech inventions if patent protection, along with its strict disclosure requirements, is no longer available. This could have far-reaching unintended consequences on commercial and inventive activity, including increased secrecy, increased litigation, and increased uncertainty throughout the system, which is already complicated by non-uniformity of state trade secret and unfair competition laws.
Perhaps more importantly, narrowing the scope of patentable subject matter through interpretation of the exclusions could dramatically affect the way research and development are practiced. In addition to harming those who have developed and invested in gene patents in reliance on settled law, a narrowing of patentable subject matter may also chill the openness that patent protection fosters regardless of additional state action in the area if businesses tend toward secrecy-based intellectual property protections over the disclosure-based federal patent system. It could easily limit industry-university relations such as industry sponsored research, important biological material transfers between industry and universities, clinical trials, and other collaborations. Such collaborations are necessary for university researchers to have access to compounds, animals, and other research resources in cutting edge areas of science where industrial research and development is ongoing. Moreover, it may deter scientists from publishing and cause businesses to further limit publication by their scientists. It almost certainly would limit out-licensing opportunities for universities because of the strong culture of publication within universities. It would likely cause businesses to seek restrictive covenants with their employees more frequently, and to enforce such covenants more aggressively. Finally, it may greatly inhibit the movement of scientists and specialists between academia and industry and between competing companies.
As one of us has argued elsewhere, alteration of the patentable subject matter inquiry is best left to Congress because of the importance of subject matter eligibility to public policy goals, and because of Congress' institutional competency in addressing complex public policy concerns. With Association for Molecular Pathology, the process has already started in the courts, but it should not end there. Litigation alone has been widely recognized as, at best, an incomplete tool in achieving public policy goals. Impact litigation can be an effective means of placing pressure on the other branches of government and of publicizing policy issues, but courts are not as effective as the other branches of government at crafting and implementing long-term solutions that adequately account for costs and second order consequences. Those who seek to secure public rights in gene patents and other technologies should learn from past examples of litigation aimed at enacting social change, which benefited greatly from concurrent political efforts to enact legislative solutions.
Given the gaps that already exist in intellectual property law and the state-based exclusivities that can and do fill them, proponents of a narrow subject matter inquiry should concurrently seek legislative change. The legislative process is riddled with inefficiencies and interest group influence, but we think legislative reform is achievable. ACLU and PUBPAT have successfully leveraged impact litigation in the areas where it is most effective-bringing the debate to the public sphere and placing pressure on the other branches of government. Even a cursory review of the media coverage of the case demonstrates ACLU and PUBPAT's success at bringing the issues to the public's attention. Other related efforts are also receiving media attention, such as the recent empirical study by Duke University researchers suggesting that gene patents stifle innovation, as well as executive branch review of the issue. Additionally, the likely appeal of this case to the Federal Circuit may pressure the executive and legislative branches to act prior to a precedential appellate decision. ACLU and PUBPAT's challenge now is to channel the successes of impact litigation into effective legislative reform to lower costs and increase access to gene patents and other important technologies.
Unfortunately, the legislative solutions proposed thus far would not solve the problems created by existing and potentially expanded interstitial exclusivities. The NIH committee charged with evaluating gene patents recently proposed to create two exemptions from infringement liability-for gene patents used in patient care and for gene patents used in academic research. Even without the added complication of the pending litigation, the exemptions advocated by NIH would alter the incentive structure of intellectual property law, creating incentives for businesses to take advantage of existing interstitial exclusivities such as state trade secret law rather than seeking patent protection, and for states to expand or create new ones.
We believe the legislative solution that would come closest to creating the public domain ACLU and PUBPAT envision would preempt states from acting in these areas by including express language both defining the exclusions from patentable subject matter and committing them to the public domain. In order for a public domain to be created to cover the exclusions, it must keep them within the purview of the federal patent system while simultaneously shielding them from state-based exclusivities that lack durational limitations and allow or require the secrecy of inventions.
We recognize that such legislation would need to be carefully crafted. Notably, partial preemption of state-based intellectual property protections could cause jurisdictional uncertainty concerning whether and under what circumstances federal courts would have subject matter jurisdiction over state-based claims implicating the exclusions. However, Congress is the governmental body best suited to weigh options intended to reduce cost and improve access to technologies-whether it be through amendment of the Patent Act or through other legislative reforms such as the creation of health care subsidies.
Proponents of a narrowed patentable subject matter portray themselves as champions of a public domain. Yet the public domain they seek to create through impact litigation is at best elusive and at worst unreachable through litigation alone. The patentable subject matter inquiry is a complex issue requiring careful consideration by Congress to craft nuanced legal solutions that properly mind the gaps of federal intellectual property protection.
Mary Mitchell is a law clerk to the Hon. Anthony J. Scirica, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Dana A. Remus is a Professor of Law at the University of New Hampshire Law School.
Suggested citation: Mary Mitchell & Dana A. Remus, Commentary, Interstitial Exclusivities After Association for Molecular Pathology, 109 Mich. L. Rev. First Impressions 34 (2010), http://www.michiganlawreview.org/assets/fi/109/mitchellremus.pdf.
. See Bilski v. Kappos, 130 S. Ct. 3218 (2010).
. No. 09 Civ. 4515, 2010 WL 1233416 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 29, 2010).
. See Memorandum of Law in Further Support of Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment at 3, Ass'n for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent & Trademark Off., No. 09 Civ. 4515, 2010 WL 1233416 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 20, 2010).
. U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 8.
. Federal trademark and unfair competition law is promulgated under the Commerce Clause. Trade secret law is state-based excepting two federal statutes, promulgated under the Commerce Clause-the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, which criminalizes trade secret misappropriation, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1831-1839, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030, which criminalizes the misappropriation of certain information contained on computers. We leave aside debates over whether trademark, trade secret, and unfair competition law are properly considered under the rubric of intellectual property.
. IP overlap has been treated extensively in scholarly literature as well as case-law. See, e.g., Bonito Boats, Inc. v Thunder Craft Boats, Inc., 489 U.S. 141 (1989); Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Samara Bros., Inc., 529 U.S. 205 (2000); Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., 539 U.S. 23 (2003); Viva R. Moffat, Mutant Copyrights and Backdoor Patents: The Problem of Overlapping Intellectual Property Protection, 19 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 1473 (2004). We leave for another day issues of problematic overlap among federal intellectual property rights.
. Compare Wyeth v. Levine, 129 S. Ct. 1187 (2009) with Geier v. American Honda Motor Co., 529 U.S. 861 (2000); see Wyeth, 129 S. Ct. at 1227 (Alito, J., dissenting) (explaining that the majority's conclusion "requires turning yesterday's dissent into today's majority opinion").
. See Arthur Miller, Common Law Protection for Products of the Mind: An "Idea" Whose Time Has Come, 119 Harv. L. Rev. 705, 745-46 (2006).
. Compare Goldstein v. California, 412 U.S. 470 (1973) (upholding a California criminal piracy law concerning sound recordings), and Kewanee Oil Co. v. Bicron Corp., 416 U.S. 470 (1974) (upholding state-based trade secret laws), and Bonito Boats, 489 U.S. 165, with Sears Roebuck & Co. v. Stiffel Co., 376 U.S. 225 (1964) (invalidating a state unfair competition law that prohibited copying), and Compco Corp. v. Day Bright Lighting, Inc., 376 U.S. 234 (1964) (same).
. See Goldstein, 412 U.S. at 558-59; see also Miller, supra note 8, at 750.
. See, e.g., Bonito Boats, 489 U.S. at 165-67 (examining the intent behind and legal structure of state trade secret and trademark protections and explaining they do not conflict with federal intellectual property law); Kohler Co. v. Moen Inc., 12 F.3d 632, 642-43 (7th Cir. 1993) (using this analytical structure and declining to find conflict between federal trademark and design patent protection).
. Int'l Bus. Machines Corp. v. Papermaster, No. 08-CV-09078, 2008 WL 4974508 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 21, 2008).
. Am. Family Mut. Ins. Co. v. Roth, 485 F.3d 930 (7th Cir. 2007).
. Utah Code Ann. § 2:65A-14-102.
. See Bonito Boats, 489 U.S. at 156-57. In Bonito Boats, as in Association for Molecular Pathology, the invention at issue had already been disclosed to the public. The Court explained:
A state law that substantially interferes with the enjoyment of an unpatented utilitarian or design conception which has been freely disclosed by its author to the public at large impermissibly contravenes the ultimate goal of public disclosure and use which is the centerpiece of federal patent policy.
. ACLU has actually stated that it seeks to encourage more litigation over patent validity. See Stephen Albaini-Jenei, Bulletproof: Interview with ACLU Attorney Chris Hansen Over Gene Patents, Patent Baristas Blog, Nov. 12, 2009, available at http://www.patentbaristas.com/archives/2009/11/12/.
. See David S. Almeling, Four Reasons to Enact a Federal Trade Secrets Act, 19 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. 769, 776-77, 781 (2009) (noting investigation and litigation costs associated with nonuniformity of state law and noting choice of law and jurisdictional complications). Although forty-six states adopted the Uniform Trade Secret Act, interpretation varies widely, and states have often amended its provisions.
. See Dana Remus Irwin, Paradise Lost in the Patent Law? Changing Visions of Technology in the Subject Matter Inquiry, 60 Fla. L. Rev. 775 (2008).
. See Donald L. Horowitz, The Courts and Social Policy 262 (1977).
. See Robert Cook-Deegan & Christopher Heaney, Patently Complicated: Case Studies on the Impact of Patenting and Licensing on Clinical Access to Genetic Testing in the United States, Genetics in Med., Apr. 2010 Supp. at 4.
. For example, the Office of Biotech Activities within the Office of Science Policy of the National Institutes of Health recently issued a white paper on gene patents advocating legislative reform. See Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health, and Society, Revised Draft Report on Gene Patents and Licensing Practices and Their Impact on Patient Access to Genetic Tests, available at, http://oba.od.nih.gov/SACGHS/sacghs_documents.html#GHSDOC_011 [hereinafter SACGHS Whitepaper]. Similarly, the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Economic Council recently issued a call for information on how to improve university commercialization of technology. See Commercialization of University Research: Request for Information, 75 Fed. Reg. 57 (Mar. 25, 2010).
. See SACGHS Whitepaper, supra note 21, at 90-91.
. See Christianson v. Colt Indus., 486 U.S. 800 (1988) (holding that when patent law is not a required element of a properly pleaded complaint, federal subject matter jurisdiction is limited to cases where the relief sought requires adjudication of a patent issue); cf. Holmes Group, Inc. v. Vornado Air Circulation Sys., Inc., 535 U.S. 826 (2002) (holding Federal Circuit jurisdiction does not extend over cases where a patent-based cause of action is asserted in a counterclaim). | <urn:uuid:b1d8528b-c0de-4560-8d78-bd3796d218f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.michiganlawreview.org/articles/insterstitial-exclusivities-after-em-association-for-molecular-pathology-em | 2013-05-18T17:48:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919635 | 4,667 |
Looking Back: The Top 10 DVDs of 2005
Benjamin Willcock takes a look at his top-ten DVD picks for 2005 and beyond
10. 24: Season 4 (R2)
The first DVD on the list, and perhaps an obvious choice, is the awesome fourth season of 24. I don’t think there is a person alive who hasn’t heard of this show, and its fourth outing was brilliant from end to end. Suspense was as edgy as ever, and Jack Bauer’s character went though so much emotional turmoil that he’ll be lucky to make it though another one of these traumatic days. The DVD presentation was also truly spectacular. From its vast array of special features to fantastic video and audio qualities, this box set was an easy choice for the top-ten list and a must-have for anyone who considers themselves a fan.
9. Lost: The Complete First Season (R1)
Ah, Lost – possibly the greatest new television show on the air right now, and a show that has almost single-handedly revived the genre in which it is based. My confession is that I never actually saw this show when it first aired, but it was though this DVD that I have become a huge fan. Now in its second season, and enjoying the kind of ratings that most would kill for, Lost looks certain to dominate for at least the next couple of years – if its concept can hold up that is. The DVD also blew me away, with its crystal clear video and surprisingly robust audio and plentiful special features. The show is cinematic, so too is the DVD – what more could you ask for?
8. Batman Begins: Special Edition (R2)
Chris Nolan’s name was propelled into the short list of truly great directors this summer, when his re-invention of the infamous Batman franchise became not just the best Batman flick, but one of the definitive summer blockbusters of all time. Batman Begins was the film that pushed all the right buttons, turned in all the right directions and finally ridded the horrid stench a certain Joel Schumacher left after his heinous efforts. But what makes Batman Begins so great is its starting back at square one. It was made as if all other Batman films had never been made, and it is this fresh approach that really gives way for a torrent of possibilities for the film and its certain sequels. Gone are the overly gothic set pieces of Tim Burton’s Batman, gone is the soap-opera-like tedium and neon-lit Gotham of Schumacher’s take, and in their place rests an unexpected realism that becomes the backbone of Nolan’s Batman. But despite the intense grounding of his film, Nolan has ensured that none of the on-screen magic and elegance has been lost in the translation. In short, Batman Begins was an action film done right. The DVD wasn’t too shabby either.
7. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (R2)
Will this be the last ever Star Wars release? Absolutely not! In fact it wouldn’t at all surprise me if Lucas goes back to re-treat the prequel trilogy in the same manner as his original films. The good news this time is that he couldn’t exactly make these prequels any worse could he? Still, whatever your feelings towards Mr. Lucas’s constant modifying and adjustments, Revenge of the Sith was a more or less solid and entertaining flick that acts as a nice bridge between the prequels and the much older, much better originals. This DVD was also one of the highlights of the year in terms of audio and video quality. The image was almost flawless, and the sound – while sadly missing Ben Burtt’s awesome Seismic Charge sound effect from Episode II – was equally as stunning. In fact, of all the DVDs released in 2005, this is easily the best all-around demo disc. You’re going to want to show off you’re A/V system’s capabilities to your rather envious friends with this one, but just remember that sound-proofing does not come cheap.
6. King Kong: Collector’s Edition (1933) (R1)
With Peter Jackson’s epic masterpiece of the same name currently lording it over the box office, this magnificent original has been given the treatment it deserves for the digital platform. Though I prefer Jackson’s retelling of the story more than even this classic monochrome original, you still can’t beat the nostalgia and age-old charm this film has. Who can forget those brilliant special effects – still excellent for their age – and the haunting moment Kong snatches Ms. Darrow from her bindings. King Kong is a true American cinema classic and one of the greatest films of its kind ever. This DVD preserves the film in all its glory, offering an amazing transfer (complete with enough grain to last you a lifetime) and hours of extra features, including Peter Jackson’s recreation of the Spider Pit – a very cool homage indeed.
5. The Incredibles (R2)
Pixar are now six for six in their filmic undertakings. They have scored six major blockbusters, all of which have become equally critically acclaimed and successful. The Incredibles is their latest, and perhaps greatest – no easy feat, but it might just be true. Some have even said that this film could be the greatest animated film of all time, or at the very least, one of the top three. I find myself having to agree with this statement. For me, The Incredibles is a true masterpiece and cinematic classic. It has a great, well-told and thoroughly witty story; it has a superb cast of characters, and is fit for both adults and kids. Oh, and this was the biggest selling DVD of the year according to recent analyst reports. The disc was partly responsible for this popularity, offering fans numerous features and an ultra-wide anamorphic transfer that looks great on any setup. If you don’t own a copy of this film, what are you waiting for? This is one of the must own DVDs of all time, not just of this year.
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete DVD Collection (R2)
Like it or loathe it, Buffy is one of those TV shows that will stick around for a long, long time. I became a fan only a few years ago (roughly around the fourth or fifth season), but since then I have lapped up just about everything Joss Whedon put into this phenomenally great show. It had it all; drama, comedy, horror, action – the works; and this seven season box set contains every episode ever aired in one very stylish collector’s set. Expensive, but worth every penny if you are even half the fan I am. You can buy each season individually, but having them all in one huge set just looks so much better.
3. Friends: The One with All 10 Seasons on DVD (R2)
The second greatest sitcom ever – after Frasier of course – Friends was one of the highlights of TV viewing in its day, and managed to capture the hearts of millions globally. It is quite fitting therefore to have every single episode ever produced in one complete box – something every fan ought to have. Just like the Buffy set above, this is an expensive buy, but once you see it amongst your DVD collection you won’t really care. It looks great as a box set, but it is naturally what is inside that makes it special. As DVDs they might not be brilliant, but the sheer quality of the episodic content will steal over you. I have based this top-ten list on quality of DVDs in their entirety, not just for A/V presentation. These DVDs are the weakest on the list for A/V, but possibly the best in terms of entertainment and quality of product. And one thing Friends can do in droves is entertain.
2. Frank Miller's Sin City: The Recut & Extended Edition (R1)
You knew it had to be on here somewhere, and I cannot express enough how close it came to filling the top spot, but one other release this year apparently ousted it – but only just. Sin City is one of my favourite films ever, and its first DVD release (which I reviewed a while back) was lacking only one thing to make it a truly perfect disc – extra features. And on this huge double disc release, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez have delivered all the goods and then some. Having a huge bundle of great features (including a recut and extended edition of the film on the second disc) was all we really wanted, but to come with the full graphic novel The Hard Goodbye was even better. Put it this way, the film is pure genius, and I am pleased to say that the DVD is equally as poignant. If you don’t own this disc, you really need to – DVDs just don’t come any better than this.
1. Titanic: Deluxe Collector’s Edition (R2)
And so, James Cameron must accept yet another accolade for his monstrously successful romantic drama about a famous ship that sinks somewhere in the freezing Atlantic Ocean. This four-disc collector’s edition sails away with a brilliant image transfer and an epic, sweeping audio soundtrack available in both Dolby Digital and DTS. On top of this, torrents of extra features over all four discs (including one of the greatest ever commentaries by James Cameron) cements that this is indeed the best DVD of 2005 – at least in the opinion of this critic.
Rounding out just ten DVDs for inclusion in the above list was not an easy task. I felt that there was a great many DVDs that almost made the final cut, but alas, they had to be dropped in favour of the above. So, let us now take a look at some other discs that are also worthy of your time and money.
Fans of Matt Lucas and David Walliams’ Little Britain got something of a treat this November when the series one and two box set was released. Containing all fourteen episodes from those series, as well as a nice helping of special features and a great Union Jack themed cover, this is not only a must own, but a truly monumental release from the BBC.
Another BBC release also worthy of your hard earned is Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s award winning new series, Extras. For me, this new show was even better (and funnier) than Little Britain, managing to capture in droves the painfully sardonic humour of Gervais’ other comedy behemoth, The Office. Buy it, watch it, and never look back. Oh, and it has some very funny extras (the DVD variety) too. And if the wait for the second series is too much to bear, Ricky and Stephen have a brilliant weekly Podcast available over on iTunes for you to feast on until then.
Brit horror The Descent also deserves a shout-out. The DVD was an all around great package, but the film is the true highlight here; scary as hell, dark (all too literally) and a refreshingly original tale that isn’t entirely dependant on glamorous young Hollywood actors and actresses and cheap thrills to get it to the end credits. The Descent can be found in stores and online for a reasonable price, so what are you waiting for?
Tim Burton scored another major blockbuster earlier on this summer with his remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It is a film worth seeing, even if you are not a huge fan of the more musical 1971 version, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Sweet, affectionate and made with love, Burton’s take on the Roald Dahl classic acts as a nice compliment to the 1971 version, and is also truer to the source material for those purists out there.
War of the Worlds, while boasting a rather hideous image transfer that, in my opinion, ruins the original theatrical presentation, still had plentiful special features and a great-sounding audio score. This is a film I really enjoyed watching at the cinema this summer, and not at all akin to the usual garbage that occupies the summer slot. It might not be Spielberg’s finest hour, but it is still highly enjoyable, well made and offers plenty of entertainment.
The best comedy of the year, The 40 Year Old Virgin, has a respectable DVD, and is a must for your collection. This film, unlike so many adult comedies out there, was not only believable, but was incredibly open and honest about its subject matter. It wasn’t pure gross-out sex jokes from end to end like the later American Pie flicks, but heartfelt and often quite delicate. On top of that, it also punched out some of the most memorable comic scenes I have seen in a film in quite some time. One thing is for sure: The 40 Year Old Virgin will be around for a long time, thanks to its many scenes being endlessly quoted and referenced.
If you are looking for more comedy, you might try some of the Frasier box sets that got released at various points around 2005. I love Frasier, I cannot explain to you how much, because I am not quite sure there is a word fitting enough to capture my feelings in this instance. Though the extra features are still not up to par on these Paramount releases, the episodic content is damn near flawless.
The Simpsons has had another great year on DVD too, with a few releases – most notably season six – taking the crowds by storm. Yimou Zhang’s colourful masterpiece House of Flying Daggers also gets a shout-out as one of the DVDs to own. So too does his other more popular flick, the Jet Li staring Hero. If you are into a bit of the old foreign cinema, these two films are not just brilliant examples of Eastern filmmaking, but two exceptionally breathtaking action films that demand to be seen. You owe it to yourselves to see these, and both can be bought for almost next to nothing at most stores.
Plenty of other discs also caught my eye this year, including a surprisingly good re-release of Toy Story to celebrate its tenth anniversary. So too did another classic, The Wizard of Oz. Both of these DVDs can be obtained from the USA and are worthy of your time and money – even if you bought earlier releases of them. Also of recommendation is the first season of Desperate Housewives, and the complete collection of Sex and the City, available in a modestly-sized box. I must also mention that the King Kong Production Diaries is a great buy, especially if you’ve already seen Peter Jackson’s amazing remake.
One DVD that you can not buy traditionally, but is still hands-down one of the best released in 2005, comes bundled as a mere extra with the Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith soundtrack. I reviewed this disc a few months back, and noted then that this mere bonus disc was utterly mind-blowing. I am of course talking about the Star Wars: A Musical Journey DVD. Acting like an hour-long trailer to the entire Star Wars saga, this bonus DVD narrated by Ian McDiarmid manages to capture the spirit of the universe that George Lucas created, and shows it in a way that hasn’t been seen since Return of the Jedi. And, dare I say it, it even makes Episode I look good.
Another DVD I feel I must shed some light on, but not exclusively video-based, is the complete recordings of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring from composer Howard Shore. In this huge four-disc (three CDs, one DVD) package, you have the option of listening to the entire works for the first in the trilogy on either CD, or on the included DVD complete with a powerful Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack option. It is a must for fans, and yet another example of how the DVD platform can be used to further an already great product.
There are quite a few DVDs I can’t wait to get my grubby little hands on in the new year. One in particular that I am itching to get hold of is the most recent Harry Potter flick, The Goblet of Fire. Here Mike Newell created a genuinely great Potter film for both fans and casual viewers alike, and a film that truly does stand head and shoulders above most other blockbusters. The DVD should be one of the biggest selling of 2006, but a director’s commentary is still doubtful.
Another fantasy film I must obtain is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Having never read the C.S. Lewis books (shame on me) I was pleasantly surprised to see that those great trailers did not disappoint. I found the film to be a great fantasy adventure, with plenty of heart and wonderful special effects to keep you watching until the very end. One of the top grossing films of 2005, Narnia should go on to sell millions of DVDs and will hopefully be one of the year’s highlights.
There are plenty of other films I want besides that of the bigger budgeted fantasies. I am specifically hoping to see more cinematic classics making their way to DVD during the course of the year, as well as some special edition re-releases of current barebones discs – Kill Bill anybody? I am also a recent convert to South Park, so I am eager to get my hands on all seasons of that, too. And as for the one DVD I am most anticipating in 2006? Let’s just say it is yet another Peter Jackson epic, this time starring a particularly hairy and oversized ape that goes by the name of Kong…
You’ll notice an abundance of TV shows on my top-ten list this year, and for a very good reason – this year I have seen more TV shows on DVD than ever before. What with Friends, Buffy, Lost and 24 making their timely appearance, it has been a very busy (and time-consuming) couple of months getting through them all. I think this is an increasing trend we are seeing just recently; TV shows are, in some cases, out-selling regular film releases, but when those shows are offering superior entertainment and even value for money (the 24 features in particular are brilliant) who can blame the consumer?
Pixar’s The Incredibles was an easy choice from the beginning; it was never a question of if it would make the top-ten, but in which position would it wind up. Also making the list is the original 1933 King Kong in what is easily one of the best special edition releases ever, and George Lucas’s final Star Wars episode fits comfortably into the fold. I don’t like the film quite as much as I did at the cinema, but the DVD is a nearly flawless example of digital perfection. You’ll also notice Chris Nolan’s triumphant Batman Begins up there, as well as Frank Miller’s out-and-out classic, Sin City.
But the top DVD for me this year is James Cameron’s blockbuster champion times one-hundred, Titanic. Call me sloppy, call me mushy, this DVD is worthy of the top spot, if not for the film then certainly for the audio/video presentation and extra features spread across all four discs. It might not be up to the same standards of Peter Jackson’s little-known fantasy extended editions of the last few years, but then again, which other DVDs ever will be?
Editorial by Benjamin Willcock
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Radiosity In English - The Basics
by (20 May 1999)
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I've found many people shy away from radiosity simply because of the mystique
surrounding it. I’ll admit that I was a bit intimidated by the topic when I
decided to tackle it. But the truth be known, it boils down to some pretty
simple techniques, most of which are very common. As a matter of fact, if
you’ve got access to a rendering architecture that supports z-buffering, you’ve
got 90% of a basic radiosity processor that can produce some excellent results.|
I understand that "Aggravated Nosebleed" (the source of this Q&A entry) has some basic knowledge of radiosity, but I’d like to take this opportunity to cover the basics from the very beginning. Hopefully he/she as well as some other readers will gain enough of a fundamental understanding to help ease the learning curve from some of the more notable references (which I will list later.)
In The Beginning
The introduction of Radiosity came in 1984 from Cornell University in a paper
titled "Modelling the Interaction of Light Between Diffuse Surfaces" written by
Goral, Torrance & Greenberg. The idea was to simulate energy (light)
transference from diffuse surfaces. Diffuse surfaces are surfaces that reflect
light equally in all directions - the opposite of a shiny surface.|
This result was considered "view independent." This simply meant that the illumination on a surface looked the same no matter what angle you were viewing it from. For the sake of clarity, an example of the opposite ("view dependent") would be a reflective surface. Reflective surfaces are view dependent because the specular highlights would appear at a different position on the surface based on the angle at which the surface was viewed.
This view independence was nice, especially considering the cost (in processor power & running time) of radiosity processing. The illumination could be calculated once and the scene could then be rendered very quickly from any angle. This translates directly into many of today’s modern "first-person shooter" games.
The First Approach
Consider a simple room with only four walls, a ceiling and a floor. Can you see
it in your mind’s eye? You better not be able to; I haven’t specified a light
source yet. :-) In radiosity, light sources aren’t your typical point or spot
light sources. In radiosity, light is emitted from surfaces. So, rather than
adding a surface for a light source, lets just make the entire ceiling an "area
light source." In the real world, this would translate to a cubic room where
the ceiling was a huge panel of fluorescent lights behind a huge diffuse
reflector (those smoked-glass looking things that spread light out.)|
This example is a simple one since every surface can see every other surface. In other words, there’s nothing to block the light from reaching any surface (i.e. no shadows.)
Each surface has two values associated with it. An amount of how brightly it is illuminated (its illumination) and how much of a surplus of energy it has (its radiative energy.) To start with, only the ceiling will have any radiative energy and all other surfaces will have no radiative energy or illumination.
What we need to do now is calculate the interaction of energy from every surface to every other surface. This is an n^2 problem since we need to calculate this interaction from each surface to every other surface in the scene. This can be calculated based on their geometrical relationships (distance between surfaces, relative orientation, relative area, etc.) The math that calculates this relationship results in a single value. This value is called a "form factor."
The attentive readers (the one’s that are still awake) might have already guessed that there are only (n^2)/2 individual form factors since the relationship between surfaces 5&6 is the same as the relationship between 6&5. However, this is not true since relative area is taken into consideration.
We can calculate all the form factors in a scene and store them in a grid that is n elements wide by n elements tall. This grid is referred to as the "radiosity matrix" and it works just like a 2-dimensional table. Each element in this matrix contains a form factor for the interaction from the surface indexed by the column and the surface indexed by the row.
Remember how I said that there are n^2 interactions and not (n^2)/2? This is because each form factor is like a diode in that it only handles energy going in one direction: from a "source surface" to a "destination surface." In this case, we’ll say that the source surfaces are index by columns and destination surfaces are indexed by rows. Source surfaces will emit their energy to the destination surfaces.
Now lets solve the matrix. To do this, we simply visit each column (source) in the matrix and emit energy to each row (destination) in that column. When we do this, we’ll be placing some of that radiated energy (from the source) in the illumination value for the destination. But these surfaces are reflectors, which means they’re going to reflect SOME energy back into the scene. Based on the surface’s reflectivity, we’ll add a little bit of energy to the destination’s radiative energy. This radiative energy will eventually make its way back into the scene (i.e. to the other surfaces) as we progress through the matrix.
If the destination is a perfect reflector (i.e. it reflects every single bit of energy it receives - a mirror) then there will be no energy stored in the destination’s illumination, it would all go to its radiative energy. The inverse is also true: a perfectly black surface might not reflect any energy back into the scene, absorbing it all, so every bit of energy it receives is stored in its illumination value. If you’re starting to think that we’re making a black surface white, we’re not. Remember, we’re dealing with light, so the color of a surface is ultimately multiplied by its illumination. In the case of the perfectly black surface, the surface remains visually black.
Once we’ve gone through the matrix once, we do it all over again. This is necessary because we we’re storing some energy as illumination, and some as radiative energy. Now it’s time to go through the matrix again and start distributing that reflected radiative energy.
We’ll go through this matrix over and over again until the total amount of radiative energy for all surfaces is relatively small.
The Next Step
If you made it this far without getting lost, you’re in the home stretch.
There’s still a lot we haven’t covered yet, so let’s move on. I’ll start with a
few shortcomings of the basic radiosity matrix as I’ve described it thus far and
common solutions to these issues.|
Our surfaces have only one illumination value for the entire surface, so there is no change in illumination across a single surface. To solve this problem, we can simply subdivide each surface into a series smaller polygons called "patches." If you do this, you simply treat each patch as its own surface as a replacement for the original surface. Your matrix will grow to the number of patches in the scene squared.
This brings us to our next issue: the matrix can be quite large (especially if you subdivide into a number of patches) If the scene is very simple (say, a meager 1,000 polygons) then our illustrious matrix will be pretty big (1,000,000 elements.) If you've subdivided each of those surfaces to a meager 8x8 grid of patches per surface, then we're talking about 4,096,000,000 total elements in our matrix (8*8 = 64 patches per surface, 64*1000 = 64000 patches per scene, 64000*64000 is = 4,096,000,000 total matrix elements.) This is pretty tough for any computer to swallow.
Before I discuss the solutions to this ever-increasing matrix, let’s talk about a related issue: a matrix of this magnitude would take a long time to solve. Especially considering the fact that we’ll have to solve it multiple times. If a mistake was made in the modeled scene, wouldn’t it be nice to know this sooner rather than later?
In 1988, Cohen, Chen, Wallace & Greenberg published a paper called "A
Progressive Refinement Approach to Fast Radiosity Image Generation." This paper
described a new way of solving radiosity. It was quite clever in that it
reordered the way things were done.|
In the matrix method, illumination was gathered by each destination element from its source element. Ironically, this is called "gathering." The progressive refinement approach reversed this and defined (the other incredibly ironic term) "shooting."
The basic idea behind progressive refinement starts by finding the surface with the most energy to contribute to the scene (i.e. has the highest amount of radiative energy.) This surface would then iterate through all other surfaces, distributing its energy along the way. After this process was completed, the image was then rendered for the user, and the process began again, finding the surface with the most energy to contribute to the scene. Each pass would cause another render of the scene, allowing the user to progressively evaluate the progress. If the progress showed a problem along the way (an illumination surface was in the wrong place or the wrong color) they could stop the process and make the needed adjustments.
During this process, the user would see a completely dark scene progress to a fully lit scene. To accommodate this sharp contrast in visual difference from beginning to end, the progressive refinement technique added something called the "ambient term".
Before I continue, I want to point something out that is pretty important in radiosity. There is no such thing as ambient light in real life. Ambient light is something that was invented to accommodate the need for what appears to be a "global light" in real life. But in reality, ambient light doesn’t exist. Rather, light is always being reflected from surface to surface, which is how it finds its way into all the nooks and crannies of real-world detail. Before the advent of radiosity, ambient light was the best thing available to the typical rendering architectures. It is safe to think of radiosity is a more accurate solution to ambient (global) light. This is why radiosity is considered a technique for "global illumination."
The ambient term starts off as a "differential area sum" of the radiative energy for the entire scene. What this means is that it’s a number that represents the average amount of light that each surface will receive throughout the processing of the entire radiosity solution. We can calculate that average without doing all the work simply because it’s an average amount of energy, not a specific amount of energy for a single surface.
As each progressive pass emits the radiative energy for a surface, the ambient term is slowly decreased. As the total radiative energy of the scene approaches zero, so does the ambient term (though, at different rates, of course.) A nice advantage here is that you can use the ambient term to figure out when you’ve distributed enough energy as to make only a negligible difference. At this point, you can stop processing.
So, the progressive approach has solved the massive memory requirements for the radiosity matrix by simply not storing it, and it partially solves the processing time issue by speeding things up, and further improving this by allowing users to preview their works in progress.
A Note on Patches
Before I continue, I want to cover the topic of patch subdivision just a little.
I only touched on it lightly so as not to confuse the reader. It’s time we dive
just a little bit deeper in to these ever useful things.|
First, let’s be perfectly clear on something. If you use subdivision in your radiosity code, then you will not be using "surfaces" since the patches are a higher resolution representation of the original surface geometry. It will be the patches that shoot and gather energy amongst themselves, not the surfaces. If you use patch subdivision, you can probably discard your original surfaces since they have been replaced by a higher resolution representation, their patches.
Patches are how we simulate area light sources. Rather than actually treating the surface like an area light source, we simply split it up into lots of smaller light sources across the entire area of the original surface. If the surface is subdivided enough, then the results can be quite pleasing.
Patch subdivision can be done blindly or intelligently. An example of blind subdivision might be to subdivide every surface into a set of patches that are one square foot each. This can be quite a waste, since we only really need the subdivision in high-contrast areas (i.e. an area of a surface that has a dramatic change in energy across a relatively small area - like a shadow boundary.)
There is a multitude of intelligent subdivision techniques. One of the most common is to subdivide progressively by adding another step to the process. Once a surface has fully emitted its energy, each patch in the existing data-set is visited and a decision is made if two adjoining patches have too much of a difference in their illumination values. If they do, there will be a sharp contrast between these two patches so you should subdivide each of them. You can pick any threshold you wish to contain your subdivisions to a minimum. You can also set a maximum subdivision level to prevent from subdividing too much.
Patches, however, are just the first step to subdivision. Patches themselves can be subdivided into "elements". The usefulness of elemental subdivision is for performance reasons as well as aesthetic reasons. Patch subdivision can be pre-set to a specific resolution. In this case, the entire scene is subdivided evenly into patches of a specific size. This sounds like a waste, but let’s not get hasty. The subdivision resolution can be quite low in this case. As the radiosity solution progresses, the patches are intelligently subdivided into elements based on high contrast areas (or whatever intelligent subdivision technique you decide to use.)
You can think of elements as a higher resolution representation of their "parent" patches. But unlike patch subdivision where the surfaces are discarded and replaced by patches, patch subdivision does not discard the patches. The advantage here, is that the patches are maintained for shooting, while the elements are used for gathering.
Let’s look at that a little more closely. A patch is subdivided into a grid of 8x8 elements. During the distribution process, the patch with the highest amount of radiative energy is chosen for energy distribution. Energy is distributed from that patch to all of the ELEMENTS in the scene. The elements retain their illumination value (for beauty’s sake) and the radiative energy that would be reflected from all the elements is then sent up to their parent patch. Later, the patch will do the shooting, rather than each individual element. This allows us to have a high resolution of surface geometry with a lower resolution distribution. This can save quite a lot of processing time, especially if the average patch is subdivided into 8x8 elements.
For the sake of this example, I’ll just assume we’re not at the elemental subdivision stage yet, and work from patches.
Did somebody say shadows? I didn’t. Not yet, at least. :-)|
To obtain shadows, we need to have some visibility information, so we’ll know how much of a patch is visible from another patch. One of the most common ways of doing this in today’s world is to use a z-buffer. And radiosity is no different. To do this, however, we’ll need a way to generate a z-buffer from a patch. This is where the hemicube comes in handy.
A hemicube is exactly what it sounds like. It’s exactly one half of a cube, split orthogonally along one axis. This gives us one whole face, and four half-faces.
What’s it for? Try to picture this: place a pin-hole camera at the base of the hemicube (i.e. the center of the cube prior to cutting it in half) and point the camera at the center of the top face. Now set your camera to a 90-degree frustum.
You can consider the top face of the hemicube now, to be the rendering surface of the camera. This surface has a pixel resolution (which I’ll discuss shortly.) If you render the scene from this perspective, you’ll "see" what the patch "sees".
Remember when I said that we need to take the relative distance and relative orientation of two patches into account to calculate their form factors? Well, in this case, we no longer need to do that. The hemicube takes care of that for us. As patches are rendered onto the surface of the hemicube, they’ll occupy "hemicube pixels". The farther away the surface is, the fewer pixels it will occupy. This is also true for patches at greater angles of relative orientation. The greater the angle, the fewer pixels it will occupy. Using a z-buffer we can let some patches partially (or fully) occlude other patches, causing them to occupy even fewer pixels (or none at all) which gives us shadows.
For this to work, we need to translate these renders into energy transmission. Let’s talk about that for a bit.
A standard z-buffer renderer will render color values to a frame buffer and store depth information into a z-buffer. A hemicube implementation is very similar. It keeps the z-buffer just like normal. But rather than storing color values into a frame buffer, it stores patch IDs into a frame buffer. When the render is complete, you have partial form factor information for how much energy gets transmitted from one patch to another. I say "partial form factor information" because we’re missing one piece.
This information is lacking some of the relative angle information between two patches. The relative angles are used to decrease the amount of energy shot from one patch to another. The greater the angle, the less energy is transmitted. Our hemicube gives us part of this information by only telling us (in an indirect way) how much of an angle the destination patch is relative to us. But we also need to take the shooter’s relative angle into account as well. It’s much like Lambert shading. As the surface turns away from the light, the surface receives less light. We’ve got this information (indirectly) in the hemicube frame buffer. But our light source is also an area, which means it can turn, too. So we’ll need to take its angle into consideration before we shoot any energy to anybody.
The hemicube has a wonderful mechanism for this. It’s called the "delta form factor." This is simply a table of values. It is the same resolution as the surface of the hemicube and it contains values that are used to scale the amount of energy that each hemicube pixel can transmit. The values in this table associated with the center pixels of the top face have the highest value, and the values fall off as they get near the edges of the hemicube face. The reason for this is simple. The values associated with the center of the hemicube face have the highest value since anything rendered to this area of the "screen" will be directly in front of the hemicube (i.e. the least incident angle.) The values in the table associated with the edges of the hemicube face are at a 45-degree angle, so they are considerably less than those found near the center.
There is a very specific calculation for the "delta form factor" table which can be found in most radiosity references.
To finish up our hemicube explanation, we need to pull it all together.
Rather than shooting light from the source patch to the destination patches, we do this through each pixel in the hemicube’s frame buffer (remember, we’ve stored patch IDs in there so we can reference them later, and THIS is later :-). Visiting each hemicube pixel, we simply scale the amount of the shooter’s total radiative energy by the delta form factor associated with that pixel. This means that each patch will receive a little bit of energy for each pixel it resides in, in the hemicube’s frame buffer. Each of these partial energy transmissions to an individual destination patch will all add up to the proper amount of total transmitted energy, just like magic.
How do we know that we’ve transmitted all the energy from the shooter? Well, if you add up all the delta form factors for the hemicube, you’ll find they add up to 1.0. This is a good test, by the way, to make sure your hemicube delta form factor table is correct. Remember to account for error, so the value might not equal exactly 1.0, rather something very close.
A typical hemicube resolution might be 128x128. However, you may decide to go with a higher resolution. Either way, remember this: each pixel in the hemicube’s delta form factor table contains a very small fractional value. You should consider using doubles to store these values as they can get VERY small.
To save confusion, I purposely neglected to mention a few things. Each hemicube has five sides. I only described the process for rendering the top face. The remaining half-faces also require rendering, but the process is identical to that of the top face. Don’t worry, your radiosity references will cover how to calculate the delta form factors for ALL faces of the hemicube. And don’t forget that when you run your little test that adds up all the delta form factors to a result of 1.0, you’ll need to include ALL of the delta form factors, not just those for the top face.
In closing, I should mention that there are issues with hemicubes (like aliasing artifacts under certain circumstances.) There are some solutions to these issues as well as totally different techniques. But hemicubes are a great place to start your radiosity adventures.
"Advanced Animation & Rendering Techniques" by Watt & Watt|
"Computer Graphics Principles & Practice" by Foley, vanDam, Feiner & Hughes
"Radiosity: A Programmer's Perspective" by Ashdown
"Radiosity and Realistic Image Synthesis" by Cohen & Wallace
"Radiosity and Global Illumination" by Sillion & Puech
Personally, I originally learned the concepts & fundamentals of radiosity from "Advanced Animation & Rendering Techniques." I learned enough to get my first radiosity processor up and running. Since this book has such a wealth of other information, I highly recommend it for first-timers on the subject. From there, you can graduate to any of the other references listed. If you make it to the more advanced stuff, you’re welcome to visit my site and grab some research papers on the subject.
- Paul Nettle | <urn:uuid:d804860f-0731-4f81-9028-027f53b66241> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://flipcode.com/archives/Radiosity_In_English-The_Basics.shtml | 2013-05-26T09:35:35Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935236 | 4,968 |
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III PANEL DISCUSSION
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PANEL DISCOSSION DR. WATERLOW: I would like to react to what Dr. Chafkin said about emergencies or disasters. I was not trying to say the obvious, that a strategy is needed for I had in mind the more serious disasters and famines. ~ cases throughout the world, the most seriously deprived families, which are at greatest risk of severe malnu- trition, the disaster families. The reasons for the problems of these families are different in different areas. In Jamaica, for example, it is usually some kind of family disruption, such as abandoned mothers. In one group I read about in Kenya, it was most often because the mother was unmarried--an unacceptable situation in Kenya, as opposed to the Caribbean. In Nepal, the key factor is lack of land. Although the conditions vary, everywhere one finds the 10% that are in a very bad state. That is what I was referring to in discussing an emergency strategy; I am not thinking simply of the famine situation in the Sahara. DR. MAHLER: People have been emphasizing the devel- opmental ideology--whether we are playing development by proxy or not. Most of us who came into development work some 35 years ago began as missionaries. The first director general of WHO told me in Delhi in 1951: "The trouble with you, Mahler, is that you have too much sympathy for those poor Indians. What you need to de- velop is empathy with their predicament. Then, perhaps, you can start seeing what kinds of problems they can tackle themselves." This is a very important thing in nutrition, too. I was nearly fired from WHO because in 1956 I said, "It is not a question of amino acids; it is a question of calories," and the nutrition adviser was not there. The emphasis should be on developing the capacities of nations to solve their own problems and on develop- ing the self-reliance to try to tackle these problems through research. There is a lot of impatience in the donor community. We provide countries in need with preconceived development packages neatly contained in envelopes--conventional envelopes. Development in my language means getting out of envelopes; that is the etymologic sense of the word "development." The devel- opment technocrats are anxious to provide new kinds of envelopes, so that they can bask in the sunshine. A 97
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98 lot of our demoralization has been with those envelopes, and we will gradually have to give others the capacity, rather than looking for our own catharsis. If we let the nationals be themselves in dealing with their problems, we have every reason to believe that it can be done. I am grateful that somebody mentioned the Tropical- Disease Research Program, the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Programs, organizations that have shown that one does not have to play it by proxy, but that the first objective can be developing local capacities. The second objective is developing, as fast as possible, new solutions to old problems. difficult, but an absolute sine qua non in the global food and nutrition situation. There is no reason to become disillusioned, cynical, or skeptical. The rich man always has a tendency to say that the poor man should be very rational; however, coming from a poor family, I can say that it is difficult to be rational when you are poor; and this is true for a poor country, too. It is remarkably difficult to make rational decisions when you cannot afford to take any risks, because, lacking the money to learn through doing, you cannot learn. ~ DR. MELLOW I will go on directly from Dr. Mahler's point, with which I agree. are fighting against is an orthodox view generated in the developed countries that systematically plays down the human element. If one wants to raise money, it is not respectable to talk about supporting food subsidies. I am pleased to say that the World Bank has just released or is about to release a document that disproves that oversimplification. A country which is economically squeezed cannot afford just any food subsidy. But well- targeted food subsidies in the urban areas, as Dr. Lunven has been stressing, are an essential component of poli- cies that lead to high agricultural prices as a way of stimulating agricultural production in rural areas. It is a rational combination--one that was brought out earlier here. Virtually every industrial country prac- tices this policy in one way or another. At the moment. the dominant international economic orthodoxy still focuses on how to cope with debt, how to get a country back on the right track so that it can seek financial assistance. But the international good-financial- housekeeping seal of approval is obtained by abandoning In economic matters, what we
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99 these things. The international community has an obligation to affirm that the human dimension is not just a byproduct of the economy. It is both an end and a means for reaching the very economic solutions that people want. It is a parallel action to offset the misleading view, particularly in the last 5 years, of what good economic policy is. Leaders understand in a very basic way that you cannot starve your people to pay your debts. DR. SAI: I would like to comment on the issue of training. A question was asked earlier about training, and I think the question was slightly off focus. It appeared that the questioner was trying to say that training could be done better in the more industrialized countries. There are technical advances for which the training needs to be done externally; however, linkages have to be made to ensure that training facilities in Africa have access to some of the technologies or the scientific expertise needed for more comprehensive training. With respect to training, the international community has refused to listen to us for about 10 years. We have been trying to make people recognize that the training issue is going to return to haunt us when money is available for doing something; and if we do not obtain funds rapidly, we are not likely to succeed, regardless of how much money we start pouring into the field. We are trying to develop African expertise in Africa for African work. I do not think getting a lot of international experts to concentrate on Africa will do the job. In fact, it often creates an unhealthy com- petition that leads to the demise of African programs. When we talk about training, the time is now. Richard Jolly has mentioned that in Ghana and elsewhere the core of trained nutritional scientists and others on which to build another training approach seems to be disappear- ing. If we do not move quickly, it will disappear. Re-establishing the situation could be difficult. Finally, let me plead that it is not necessary to say that people should train practically. Doctorates and master's degrees are needed. The idea that people have to train in the subject, but not necessarily have degrees, should be buried for a while. People should -
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100 have degrees that are relevant in the specialties they are choosing. In addition to the facility that has been mentioned, we need to begin another facility immediately to start re-establishing what should be included in training for the food and nutrition problems of Africa. DR. MELLOR: We have a series of studies at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on the question of improvement over time, particularly in India. The extent of improvement is striking in the lowest-income people, and we can document i t Nazi ~, larly in agricultural production. a, rem It is important not to stop where Lincoln Chen did, saying that we can show that there are still some problems somewhere in India, and leave the impression that the green revolution has not been so great. One must spread it to other areas; I think that Dr. Chen would agree that there is a need to extend it to the marginal areas. As a matter of fact, much of Bihar and West Bengal do not have poor resources. They have rich resources, but are being held back by inappropriate agricultural policies. In the central plateau, where the resources are poor, yields per acre have grown considerably in 20 years. Incomes of the poorest people were lower than they were in Africa 15 years ago and have increased considerably. Although it has not done as well in these areas as in southern India, it has spread, and we need to extend it farther. DR. CHEN: If we had this meeting in India, I think there would be a very strong polarization within the Indian community. Although there has been progress, particularly in the green revolution in the Punjab and in southern India, there are deplorable areas in Bihar, in West Bengal, in Orissa, in Madhya Pradesh and in large cities. The particular question I was-addressing was whether agricultural modernization in itself leads to the reduction of poverty and improvement in nutrition. In other words, the technological transformation, as John Mellor himself has said, needs to be accompanied by employment, wages, and access to productive assets, rather than only by redistribution of programs. I believe our office supported some of the IFPRI studies in southern India. I agree with some of the findings that
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101 you have reported from Tamil Nadu, but I was pointing out that the Indian policy-makers themselves would not agree that everything is all right and that food self-suffi- ciency has been achieved. On the contrary, there are very serious worries that 30 million tons of food are deteriorating in storage and that the income and consumption levels of 150-300 million people are below those required for adequate diets. We are talking about the question of balanced growth. DR. HORWITZ: Dr. Chen, will you elaborate on two of your proposals for action--the Nutrition Project Develop- ment Facility and activities to improve information dissemination and documentation? DR. CHEN: I was hoping that the members of the panel representing international agencies and people in the audience would carry these ideas further. I have not thought in detail about their implementation. I would note that you suggested the Nutrition Project Development Facility in an early paper. DR. HORWITZ: The Subcommittee on Nutrition is exploring this possibility now, and we will see what comes out of that; but I agree with you. My impression is that for governments, even those which Dr. Mahler wants to be free to be themselves, the moment eventually comes when they need to present their proposals for funding. Funds are not easy to find today in the international community. Some of us have felt that it would help just to invest available resources better at the national level, let alone to seek international assistance. . . ~.. ... .. . . ... DR. MAHLER: I want to make it clear that I did not say "g vex ~rnments"; I said "people," and there is a big difference. The United Nations system was set up for people, not for ephemeral governments. They are more or less representative of a lot of people, but it is important to remember that they were set up for the sake of people. Therefore, we have to manipulate the system whenever it is necessary, particularly if governments are not permitting us to get to where the action should be in mobilizing people themselves, in examining their needs. That is what I meant.
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102 DR. GWATKIN: I was interested that the question of whether we are doing better or worse came only from the next-to-last commentator in our conversation. I thought that this would be fundamental in a discussion of nutri- tion issues for the rest of the 1980s and the l990s. This unresolved question of whether nutritional status is better or worse is a very persuasive argument in favor of the kind of documentation facility-Dr. Chen was suggesting, and I know that there have been conver- sations about this within the nutrition community as well. I second his suggestion that this be given serious consideration. The need for it is brought home by a striking example. A top-priority item should be simply tracking nutritional trends--what we are doing best, what we are doing worst, what we are improving in. This would be comparable with what has traditionally been done for birth rates and death rates. It is particularly important if there is some possibility, as you suggest, that the two might start moving in different directions. I have long assumed that the two would move in similar directions. ~rat -~ 2 ~' ''' N~ltr'tion is important In Keen morCallcy low. If death rates are falling, we need not be too concerned about independent nutritional measures, because we can assume that nutrition is improving. I am not prepared to abandon that assumption yet, but there is an argument that it is going the other way; that is an important reason to start collecting independent information. That is in part because of the mortality information; but, even more important, for the reason that Richard Jolly implied, this kind of information is needed if we are going to have economic progress with a human face. I would suggest that this is something that the Food and Nutrition Board might look into. DR. MERTZ: Some 10 or 20 years ago, birth control would have been a prominent topic in a conference like this. Although most speakers have mentioned birth control or child spacing here, it was only in passing. I wonder why that is so. Have we given up on the concept? DR. MAHLER: Dr. Mertz, I agree that perhaps it was pushed aside in the discussion, although I wanted to bring some emphasis when I spoke of maternal and child welfare, including family planning, because I speak from the health angle.
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103 I believe that "God does not speak to an empty stomach," as Gandhi said. The food and nutrition issue ~ concerns of families, their home economics, future vision, and hopes. A broad- based food and nutrition program gives a much better opportunity to address family planning and make people feel the need for child spacing and education. Food and nutrition must be used as much as possible as one of the vital points of entry to reach families in need in addressing family planning. is a powerful instrument to address DR. CHEN: You are raising a very important point. In our push in health and nutrition technologies in some regions and societies, careful attention needs to be paid to the balance of technologies made available. The rapid population growth in Africa is a very serious concern. I also expressed concern about the introduction of single isolated health interventions and technologies without adequate attention to such problems as birth spacing. It is of deep concern, although in other countries it might not be as important. In some regions, I believe that it is incumbent on the scientific community to Generate the knowledge and the support for a balanced technological approach. DR. SAI: Unhappily, we are beginning to feel that the population issue is a nonissue, or at any rate an issue not subject to critical intervention in the same way as other issues. That might not be serving the cause of development. I agree with what Dr. Chen has just said, that any approach to the needs of people, especially women and children, should consider their roles in society, their educational and employment needs, and population planning. If we look at this question from the point of view of maternal and child health, anyone working in maternal and child health in Africa who omits family planning for child spacing is omitting one of the most powerful preventive medicine tools that is available today. DR. ROGERS: Dr. Galbraith has suggested that we were trying to impose characteristics of development that were perceived from the perspective of developed countries. If I recall correctly, in the days when the United States
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104 was a developing country and had an agricultural base, large families' were very desirable. I expect, although I do not know it for a fact, that that was true in other agrarian societies as well.: If we go back to the comments made earlier about the development process, we should lookout it from the perspective of those countries end' acknowledge that it is only with the certainty of alternative employment, and with it the certainty of a full stomach and good health, that we can even start to talk about substantial changes in fertility. All of us are aware that rapid population growth underlies many of the problems we have been discussing here, but I viewed the absence of discussion about family planning as healthy. We want to address nutrition, maternal and child health care, and the role of women as the most basic issues. When we do that effectively, population control will come along quite well. DR. LUNVEN: Dr. Mertz is right in saying that there is a decline in emphasis on family planning, and there are various reasons. There are doubts about its efficiency, and some governments, such as in Mexico, have been considering that increased population is desirable. The goal that the Mexican government has set is for 100 million people by the year 2000. Conditions have changed in 10 years, and man-made and natural disasters have changed the picture. The view- points of governments have also changed. On the basis of the World Bank report, the African countries that met in the original conference last year produced the Harrari Declaration. In it, they agree with the World Bank's statement that, whatever~the amount of external assist- ance provided for agricultural development in Africa, the race for economic development cannot be won if the popu- lation problem is not taken care of. It was a voluntary declaration that they would adopt population policies to limit population growth. DR. JEFROM: I would like to address my question to either Dr. Mellor or Dr. Lunven; both spoke of urbani- zation or labor movement as affecting agricultural pro- duction. Having lived in both developing and developed countries, I assumed that the impact of urbanization was not as disastrous in developed countries as in developing
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105 countries. Some planners have suggested that decen- tralization should be promoted in developing countri What are the tradeoffs? DR. MELLOR: I think the issue probably should be seen less as a matter of urban vs. rural than as a matter of the pattern of urbanization. What we have had is a megalopolis--one city that dominates the country and becomes extremely large. There has been a pattern of capital-intensive import displacement and export-led strategies of growth that has driven this pattern of urbanization. The alternative is a much more diffuse pattern of urbanization in which market towns are developed throughout the rural regions with different towns of different sizes. This took place in much of western Europe and North America during their growth from an original agrarian base. This pattern of urbanization produces more employment than the alternative pattern, which has lower per capita costs for central services in the urban area. I think no country would want to remain primarily rural, because that would mean that the production pattern and the consumption pattern are both mostly agricultural, and there is not much variety in that. There is almost no margin for error; if bad weather strikes, food consumption has to be cut. Presumably everyone wants to diversify consumption and production, and that calls for urbanization. However, there could be a much healthier pattern of urbanization. Investment patterns, rates of return of various programs, and so on would be different if the bulk of the urban population were in towns of 10,000 to 100,000, rather than cities of 10 million. When we start examining the mix between health and nutrition, we must think in terms of the nature of the development strategy and its effect on the pattern of urbanization. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: For about a decade, there has been a division between people whose objective is to reduce the misery of mankind and those who look for strategies for growth and simply have not produced any food or any employment. What was not achieved by the disaffection with the growth strategies of the 1950s and the early 1960s is a
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106 reorientation of growth in a way that creates employment, values people's health, and leads to productive lives. I am not saying that the objective is necessarily growth per se. However, if a family cannot do anything to improve its economic well-being, improving its health and nutritional status will not solve its problems. It leads to continuous dependence on handouts from UNICEF or some other organization. We need to show humanitarian audi- ences that there is something more than improving the physical well-being of people. People need to have some other objective and some way in which they are integrated into the society and its larger economic activities. Even given the humanitarian concern, the choices in development should be considered, and choices should be made that are related not only to the objectives, but to the instruments used to move toward the objectives. DR. MAHLER: To prevent our darkness of today from becoming our doubt of tomorrow, we need to increase our information on food and nutrition. I claim a knowledge about some things in India, and I disagree violently with some of the statements that have been made about India. We recently returned after 25 years to 100 villages chosen at random in southern India, and there had been dramatic changes for the better. So, let us not just say blankly, "Well, nothing has been happening in India." Modernization can be shown in this random sample of 3 million in southern India. It is important to chal- lenge ourselves to look at our information base. We need better information so that we are able to say things with greater relevance.
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Visible Minorities under the Canadian Employment Equity Act, 1987-1999
Harish C. Jain
MGD School of Business,
John J. Lawler
Institute of Labour and Industrial Relations,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
This study focuses on the effectiveness of the federal Employment Equity Act (EEA). We assess the EEA with regard to visible minority (VM) employees using quantitative data from employer reports published under the provisions of the EEA and the Canadian Census. Data in this study cover the period 1987 to 1999. We find that large companies, and larger employment groups within companies, have higher levels of employment equity attainment. There are also considerable variations in employment equity attainment across industrial sectors, across provinces and across occupations. Overall, there has been general improvement in employment equity (EE) attainment over time. However, visible minorities continue to be disadvantaged in management, sales and service and technical positions. Several policy implications are drawn from these findings.
Les minorités visibles sous la législation canadienne de l’équité en emploi, 1987-1999
Cette étude s’intéresse à l’efficacité de la législation sur l’équité en emploi. Nous évaluons cette loi visant les travailleurs de la minorité visible en faisant appel à des données quantitatives qu’on retrouve dans les rapports des employeurs publiés en application des dispositions de la législation et à celles tirées du recensement canadien. Ces données couvrent la période 1987-1999.
Notre étude porte sur la relation entre le degré d’atteinte de l’équité en emploi eu égard aux minorités visibles sous la législation et une gamme de facteurs contextuels. On y présente des conclusions importantes et nombreuses.
En premier lieu, tel que prévu, les plus grandes entreprises et les groupes occupationnels les plus importants présentent des niveaux plus élevés d’atteinte de l’équité en emploi. On peut attribuer ce fait à la taille en relation avec la visibilité des organisations et à la disponibilité de ressources plus abondantes pour rencontrer des objectifs d’équité.
En deuxième lieu, il y a beaucoup de variation entre les secteurs industriels en termes d’atteinte de l’équité; le secteur bancaire présentant des niveaux les plus élevés, ce que nous avions anticipé. Encore là, on peut attribuer cela à la visibilité des banques et au fait que le secteur bancaire ne présente pas les mêmes pressions concurrentielles qu’on observe dans les secteurs des communications et des transports. Alors les banques ont plutôt des ressources en surplus qu’elles peuvent allouer au support des efforts exigés par la loi et peut-être qu’elles sont, à cause de leur taille, plus sensibles à la surveillance des organismes de régulation.
En troisième lieu, on observe également une variation importante d’une province à une autre en termes de degré d’atteinte de l’équité, avec des niveaux, à notre grande surprise, remarquablement faibles dans les provinces où on retrouve les plus fortes concentrations de minorités visibles (par exemple, l’Ontario et la Colombie-Britannique). Il s’agit là d’un résultat que nous n’avions pas anticipé. Peut-être cela est-il dû au grand nombre d’immigrants résidant dans ces provinces au cours des dernières années, de sorte qu’on a pu constater la présence d’un nombre disproportionné de personnes ayant des aptitudes limitées au plan du langage et au plan de la création de liens avec la communauté plus large. Des groupes de minorités visibles dans les autres provinces ont pu s’intégrer à des communautés mieux établies et ainsi obtenir un accès plus grand aux entreprises en vertu d’une assimilation plus prononcée. De plus, le nombre de minorités visibles de ces provinces est tout à fait minime, de sorte que les entreprises n’ont eu qu’à faire des efforts limités pour atteindre des niveaux respectables d’équité.
En quatrième lieu, nos données indiquent une amélioration générale avec le temps au plan de l’atteinte des objectifs de la législation, qui serait concordante avec l’efficacité de cette même législation.
En cinquième lieu, il n’y a pas d’indication claire à l’effet que les minorités visibles sont surreprésentées dans le marché du travail secondaire. Enfin, nous avons constaté que le degré de réalisation des objectifs de la loi varie considérablement d’une occupation à une autre. Les minorités visibles sont particulièrement désavantagées dans les positions de gérance, de professionnels et de représentants commerciaux, tout comme dans les emplois manuels spécialisés.
Plusieurs implications tant d’ordre politique que pratique découlent de ces observations, ce qui inclut une intervention accrue de la part de la Commission canadienne des droits de la personne, une plus grande préoccupation à l’égard des iniquités occupationnelles et des disparités sectorielles, de la taille des entreprises et du groupe d’emploi :
Les employés appartenant à des minorités visibles dans les entreprises assujetties à la Loi sur l’équité en emploi sont toujours sous représentés de façon significative. Il existe un nombre relativement imposant de cas où la représentation des minorités visibles est extrêmement faible, voire même inexistante. C’est pourquoi il apparaît évident qu’une application intensifiée et sévère de la loi en faveur du groupe des minorités visibles est nécessaire de la part de la Commission canadienne des droits de la personne.
Il existe également des disparités flagrantes au plan des occasions d’emploi pour les employés appartenant à des minorités visibles au sein de nombreuses occupations. Plus précisément, il semble qu’une sorte de « plafond de verre » existe et se traduit pour les employés des minorités visibles en termes d’accès aux positions de gérance intermédiaire aussi bien qu’une sous représentation dans les occupations de service et de vente. Les emplois dans ces secteurs, particulièrement celui des services, sont en croissance et, par conséquent, ils deviennent importants pour le bien-être des minorités visibles (plus précisément, dans les occupations reliées à la vente et aux services).
Dans les secteurs des transports et des communications, les employés des minorités visibles demeurent remarquablement sous représentés. Il devient important pour les entreprises d’adopter des politiques proactives en matière de recrutement et de promotion, de fixer des objectifs significatifs et des agendas de réalisation en vue d’améliorer la représentation des minorités.
Les employés des minorités visibles apparaissent aussi sous représentés dans les plus petites entreprises. La Commission des droits de la personne doit accorder plus d’attention à la mise en oeuvre et au contrôle de l’équité en emploi dans ces entreprises. C’est d’autant plus critique lorsqu’on constate que ces petites et moyennes entreprises font appel à une proportion croissante et importante de la main-d’oeuvre.
Las minorías visibles conforme al Acta de equidad del empleo, 1987-1999
Este estudio se concentra sobre la eficacia del Acta de Equidad en el Empleo (AEE) de nivel federal. Nosotros evaluamos el AEE respecto a los empleados del grupo de minorías visibles (MV) utilizando los datos cuantitativos de los informes de empleados publicados según las disposiciones del AEE y el Censo Canadiense. Los datos de este estudio cubren el periodo 1987-1999. Nuestros resultados indican que las grandes compañías, y los grupos mas grandes de empleo al interior de las compañías, han alcanzado altos niveles de equidad. Hay también variaciones considerables en la realización de la equidad de empleo a través los sectores industriales, a través las provincias y a través las ocupaciones. En el conjunto, ha habido una mejora general en la realización de la equidad del empleo en este periodo. Sin embargo, las minorías visibles siguen siendo desfavorecidos en los puestos de gestion, de ventas y servicos y en las ocupaciones tecnicas. Varias implicaciones políticas son diseñadas a partir de estos resultados.
The Canadian federal Employment Equity Act (EEA), first passed in 1986 and then significantly amended in 1995, requires efforts by employers in covered sectors (i.e. communications, transportation, and banking) to reduce disparities in employment and workforce representation between designated groups (i.e., women, visible minorities, aboriginal peoples, and the disabled) and the general workforce, regardless of whether or not this is the consequence of deliberate discrimination. In this study, we focus on EEA effectiveness with regard to visible minority (VM) employees using quantitative data from employer reports published under the provisions of the EEA. Data in our study cover the period 1987 to 1999.
Visible minorities constitute a moving target in terms of representation. Unlike the disabled or aboriginal population, the VM population is growing and varies a great deal across provinces. Thus, matching a target now does not necessarily mean that the target will remain at the same level five years hence. Our work explores employment equity for VM employees over an extended period, to discern whether there is movement toward reasonable equity levels. This is the first study that examines the longitudinal effect (1987-1999) of the federal EE legislation on VMs. This is also the first time that VM data are being analyzed by each province and for detailed occupational categories.
There are a variety of reasons as to why attainment of employment equity may be elusive for visible minorities in Canada. VMs can encounter accreditation challenges that the other designated groups do not. Several studies (Cumming 1989; Jain 1982a, 1982b; Dodge 1972) indicate that overseas degrees are often not recognized by Canadian employers. Since most recent immigrants are VMs, they face a particular hardship in finding jobs consistent with their qualifications. This is because immigration is a federal responsibility and employment, education, and health come under provincial jurisdiction. Most professional organizations are licensed by provincial governments and are often alleged to keep recent immigrants, especially VMs, out of these professions. Some newspaper reports suggest that recent immigrants with doctorates and other professional degrees are often doing low-level jobs (Harding 2003; Jain 2003; Rajpal 2002).
Research by the Canadian Council on Social Development (2000) used both 1996 Census data and panel data on post-secondary graduates from the National Graduate Survey that studied the same individuals two and five years after graduation. Among its key findings:
VMs generally have higher education levels than non-VMs, yet VMs with university education are less likely to hold managerial/professional jobs than non-VMs with similar levels of education
Foreign-born VMs experience greater education-occupation discrepancies compared to other groups; less than half such individuals with a university education have high skill level jobs.
Most VMs with managerial jobs are self-employed.
Foreign-born VMs are over-represented in the lowest income quintile and under-represented in the highest income quintile.
Even Canadian-born VMs are still less likely than foreign-born and Canadian-born non-VMs to be in the top 20% of the income distribution (also see Zuriek (1983) on this point).
There is then a clear pattern of apparent disadvantage in the labour market for VM workers that is reflected both in patterns of employment and in earnings. These findings concern VMs generally, not just those covered under the EEA, so it offers little insight into the impact of the law specifically. However, it establishes that there are pervasive, continuing differences in employment conditions between VMs and non-VMs throughout the Canadian economy, and indicates a need to examine whether or not the EEA has had any impact within the sectors that it covers. One cannot conclude merely from such descriptive data that differences in labour market outcomes for VMs and non-VMs derive from racial discrimination by employers. There may be cultural and related social factors which cause VMs to pursue different career paths than non-VMs, thus resulting in the observed differences between the two groups. Other research, however, indicates that bias and discriminatory intent can be very much at work here.
An early study on the general topic of discrimination (Henry 1978) found that, in a sample of white individuals in Toronto, over 50% of those studied expressed attitudes that could be described to some degree as racist. The report of the Commission of Equality in Employment (Abella 1984) found that non-whites all across Canada complained of facing both overt and indirect discrimination. The report concluded that racial discrimination in employment is a real concern and strong legislative measures were necessary to reverse or inhibit the degree to which members of visible minority groups are unjustifiably excluded from the opportunity to compete as equals. Henry and Ginzberg (1985) used a sample of classified ads in the major newspapers in Toronto to assess employer responses to white versus VM applicants. The authors used direct in-person applications with matched pairs (based on similarity in work experience, skills, and physical characteristics) of black and white applicants. Offers to whites outweighed offers to blacks by a ratio of three to one. In another sample of jobs that were tested by phone inquiries, the percentages of times that white Canadian, white immigrant, West Indian black, and Indo-Pakistani callers were told jobs were open for them were, respectively, 85.2%, 65%, 51.9%, and 47.3%. Furthermore, when employers discriminated among callers by differentially screening them, white Canadians were never screened for their experience or qualifications, while applicants from the other three racial minority groups were frequently screened on these criteria (also see Holzer and Newmark 2000a, 2000b for audit studies; Heckman 1998).
More recent studies demonstrate continuing patterns of employment discrimination against racial minorities. Work on the status of racial minorities in the public services has shown a persistence of discriminatory practices against visible minorities (Samuel 1997; Perinbam 2000). Among other studies in the Canadian context that provide empirical evidence on the representation gap between whites and racial minorities, without directly relating this gap to racial discrimination, are Jain, Singh and Agcos (2000), and Ornstein (2000). Jain, Singh and Agcos (2000) found significant under-representation of racial minorities in selected police services across Canada and indicated that selection and promotion policies that disadvantage minorities may be responsible for this under-representation. Ornstein (2000) found a generally pervasive disparity between members of racial minorities and whites in the City of Toronto in pay, employment rates, and other socio-economic indicators. A longitudinal study by Jain and Al-Waqfi (2001) found widespread employment discrimination against VMs. Reitz and Verma (1999) found that VMs are also substantially underrepresented in unionized jobs. Other things equal, we might expect that jobs covered by collective bargaining agreements would provide generally better working conditions and wages than equivalent non-union jobs. That VMs have less opportunity to obtain these jobs suggests yet another reason as to why they are disadvantaged in the labour market.
In addition to research dealing with employment opportunities for VMs, there are also several studies that deal with earnings outcomes. In light of what is known about employment discrimination, it is not surprising that these studies generally show VM employees have lower wages and earnings than non-minorities, even after controlling the standard human capital variables (Howland and Sakellariou 1993; Baker and Benjamin 1997; Pendakur and Pendakur 1995; Gorrie 2002).
The overall evidence from previous studies thus indicates that racial discrimination is responsible for at least part of the disparity in achievements between various racial minorities and whites in the Canadian labour market. The more important and compelling issue now is not whether racial discrimination exists, but rather how can the situation be rectified. Employment equity laws and regulations, such as the EEA, are intended to provide an institutional tool to lessen the adverse impact of discrimination on designated groups. Given that the EEA has been on the books since 1986, sufficient data are now available to assess its effectiveness in enhancing employment opportunities for visible minorities.
Although provincial and some municipal governments have implemented employment equity programs (Antecol 1998), and at the federal level there is, in addition to the EEA, the federal Contract Compliance Program (Equity Program, July 15, 2001), the EEA is generally seen to be stronger and more comprehensive than these other government-mandated programs (Jain, Sloane and Horwitz 2003; Jain 2001, 1993; Gunderson, Hyatt and Slinn 2002; Taggar, Jain and Gunderson 1997). Gunderson, Meng and Smith (1996) found that the average wage premiums of designated group members was 7.2% higher in companies covered by the EEA relative to companies not covered by the EEA. Earlier studies indicated that women have been the main beneficiaries of the EEA (Blackley and Harvey 1988; Sloane and Jain 1990). Jain and Hacket (1992) also confirmed that the EEA has had a significant effect on increasing the representation of women in organizations covered by the EEA relative to organizations not covered by the law. Several studies have concluded that effects of the EEA differ for white women and women that are also visible minorities, aboriginals or have a disability (Leck and Saunders 1992) and that the wage gap had actually increased for the female members of these designated groups (Leck, Onge and Lalancette 1995).
Our objective is to assess the effectiveness of the EEA in improving quantitative measures of employment equity outcomes. To do this, we use data drawn from a sample of annual reports filed by companies covered under the EEA for the period 1987-1999. Our unit of analysis consists of provincial-wide occupational groups from each of these companies in each year for which data were reported. For example, one observation might consist of data on professionals employed by Air Canada in British Columbia in 1997, while another might be based on administrative and senior clerical personnel employed by the Royal Bank of Canada in Ontario in 1998 or skilled, sales and service personnel employed in Nova Scotia in 1999 by Bell Canada. For simplicity we will refer to a particular unit of observation as an employment group.
Our dependent variable represents the degree to which VM workers within a particular employment group have secured parity in relation to the relevant external labour market. Internal employment equity is defined as the ratio of VM employment in a given employment group to total employment within the same employment group. VM labour market representation is based on census data for the province and is defined as the ratio of VM employment in the corresponding occupational category and province relative to total employment for that occupational category and province. We had census data for two years (1991 and 1996). In order to establish the provincial measure of VM labour force representation for each occupational group in each of the years between 1987 and 1999, we utilized extrapolation and interpolation as described below.
The composite employment equity measure is defined as the difference of the internal equity measure and labour market representation; this is termed VM employment equity (Equation (1)). The value of this measure can be interpreted as the percentage adjustment that would have to be made in the employment group’s relative headcount in order to achieve equity in comparison to the relevant external labour market for the year in question. A value of zero indicates that the firm has achieved, at least in a technical sense, employment equity for VM employees for that particular group. Positive values indicate the firm exceeds objectives defined by the Census data for the employment group in question and negative values indicate VM employees are underrepresented in the firm for the occupation and province in question.
(1) VM_EEc,p,i,t = (VMc,p,i,t /Nc,i,p,t) – (VMc,p,t /Nc,p,t)
VM_EEc,p,i,t = measure of VM employment equity in occupational category c in province p for company i at time t;
VM = number of VM employees in category defined by subscripts;
N = number of all employees in category defined by subscripts.
As mentioned, values for VMc,p,t and Nc,p,t had to be estimated for census off-years. We used the following formula to interpolate values for the period 1991-1996 for year t (Nc,p,t is used in these equations, though the same procedures were used for VMc,p,t):
(2) Nc,p,t = Nc,p,91 + (t-1991) × (Nc,p,96 – Nc,p,91)/5
Nc,p,91 = 1991 Census report of employment occupational category c in province p;
Nc,p,96 = 1996 Census report of employment occupational category c in province p;
We extrapolated the employment values for 1997 to 1999 as:
(3) Nc,p,t = Nc,p,91 + (t – 1996) × (Nc,p,96 – Nc,p,91)/5
The values for the years prior to 1991 were likewise extrapolated:
(4) Nc,p,t = Nc,p,91 - (1991 - t) x (Nc,p,96 - Nc,p,91)/5
One major limitation in this work is that we only have data on organizations covered by the EEA and thus are required to have active employment equity programs in place. Similar research conducted in the U.S. on affirmative action (i.e., employment equity) programs (Leonard 1983, 1984; Holzer and Newmark 2000b) benefited from the fact that not all companies studied were required to have affirmative action (i.e., employment equity) programs in place, so it was possible to contrast companies with affirmative action programs to those without such programs within the same economic sectors. Therefore, in this study we are not able to observe directly the impact of the presence of a legally mandated program on the achievement of employment equity objectives. However, we can observe the impact of several context variables on employment equity outcomes to discern, within the set of covered firms, those conditions under which the EEA has been more versus less effective.
Our explanatory variables include time, occupational categories, geographical location (i.e., province), employment type (full-time, part-time, or temporary), organizational size, employment group size, and industrial sector. Time is measured by the difference of the year of the observation from the year of EEA implementation (1986). EEA reports are filed annually, so there are separate observations for a given employment group for each year in which the firm has had to provide data relevant to the group. The temporal measure is very important as it assesses changes in employment equity over time. An upward trend in employment equity suggests that the EEA may have the desired consequences. It certainly is a necessary condition to establish the effectiveness of the law, but since we are not able to make direct comparisons to similar companies without employment equity provisions, we cannot rule out such changes as to be rooted in broader social change in Canada. However, if the trend is negative, or only weakly positive, then we could conclude that the EEA is having no substantive effect on employment equity. In other words, progress over time with regard to employment equity is a necessary condition to establish EEA effectiveness, though is not sufficient alone to warrant such a conclusion.
The total size of the employer within Canada and the size of the employment group are also included in our analysis as explanatory variables. Prior research on the effectiveness of affirmative action in the U.S. (Leonard 1983, 1984) has shown associations between organizational size and various indicators of affirmative action effectiveness. Overall organizational size might be expected to impact employment equity in a couple of ways. Large companies are more visible to both the public and government regulators. Thus they may be inclined to pursue more aggressive employment equity efforts to avoid adverse publicity and excessive attention from the government. Also, larger organizations typically have more slack resources and thus may be better able to absorb the costs of making employment adjustments. We would anticipate that firm size is positively related to employment equity attainment. We also see the size of the employment group as highly relevant. Larger units will attract more attention and changes in larger units will also have a larger effect on overall firm employment equity. Larger units will normally have more turnover, allowing the firm to make employment adjustments more easily by responding to attrition. Finally, there may be social constraints imposed on change by close-knit groups in smaller units. We would anticipate that employment group size is positively related to employment equity attainment.
Available evidence, as discussed above, suggests something of a “glass ceiling” for VMs in certain occupations. In particular, VMs seem to have quite limited opportunities in managerial occupations. However, in contrast, relatively educated VMs do seem to have considerable access to professional positions. Thus, we would anticipate relatively low employment equity attainment for managerial occupations, but relatively high attainment in professional occupations (Perinbam 2000; National Capital Alliance 1997; Samuel 1997).
The EEA covers three industrial sectors: banking, transportation, and communications. We would anticipate substantial differences in EE attainment across these industries. Banks are generally highly visible organizations as there is a limited number nationally. Moreover, these organizations are typically quite profitable, so have the necessary resources to implement effective EE programs. In contrast, the transportation sector consists of generally less visible organizations and there are far larger numbers of companies in this sector. Thus, the chances of being a target for governmental action are more limited. This sector is also highly competitive and profit margins are more limited than in the banking sector. The same would apply in the case of the communications industry. Thus, we anticipate that banking will have higher levels of employment equity attainment than either communications or transportation. However, we have no strong prior expectations regarding differences between communications and transportation.
Although there would not seem to be previous research on this issue, we include measures of the type of employment, differentiating among full-time, part-time, and temporary employment. Part-time and temporary jobs are generally viewed as part of the secondary labour market (especially temporary jobs). Discrimination would be expected to shunt VM’s into secondary jobs. In addition, recent immigrants might have much greater luck with secondary labour market jobs. If so, we would expect to see higher levels of VMs, even significant over-representation of this group, inpart-time or temporary jobs.
A final variable in our analysis is the province in which the employment group is situated. There is reason to believe that the province will impact employment equity attainment based on the variations across provinces in terms of culture, social relationships, and concentrations of visible minorities. For example, both British Columbia and Ontario have relatively large VM populations and we might assume that translates into social pressure supportive of EE. Thus employment equity attainment might be expected to be relatively high in those provinces. Despite lower concentrations of VMs, Saskatchewan has a liberal political tradition that might be anticipated to promote higher employment equity attainment. In contrast, conservative provinces, such as Alberta, and those with quite low VM concentrations, such as Quebec and the Maritime Provinces, would be anticipated to have lower social pressure supporting equality, thus generating lower levels of employment equity attainment. But the converse could also hold. Provinces with very high VM concentrations (especially Ontario and British Columbia) might have much greater difficulty in employment equity attainment because of the size of the task and there might be more substantial resistance from non-VM employees to EE initiatives as these workers could feel more threatened.
Our sample consists of the 116 companies that filed EEA reports in each year from 1987 either through 1999, or the last year the company was an independent entity (for companies that went out of business, were acquired, or otherwise changed organizational identity). The unit of observation is the employment group (defined above), not the company as a whole. So, although there are 116 companies in this sample, each company consists of a large number of employment groups. Thus the actual sample size depends on the number of employment groups in each company and on the number of years the company is represented in the sample.
The dependent variable (VM employment equity) has been defined above. All of the predictor variables (also discussed above) were obtained from the HRDC database. The predictor variables include:
A set of dummy variables representing the major occupational categories contained in the dataset. As the occupational categories have changed somewhat over the period 1987-1999, we have had to reconcile these changes to assure comparability (see below).
A set of dummy variables representing all provinces. Only provincial data are analyzed here, as the number of cases and units sizes for territorial data are quite small.
A set of dummy variables used to indicate the year of the EEA report. This variable allows us to assess variations in VM employment equity.
Organizational size. This is measured both by the total size of the company’s Canadian operations and by the size of the specific employment group. As both measures have quite skewed distributions, we use the logarithm of the total number of Canadian employees in the company in the year of observation (overall company size) and the logarithm of the total number of employees in the employment group (e.g., sales workers in British Columbia) for the year in question (group size).
Dummy variables indicating industrial sector. The EEA applies to three industrial sectors: communications, banking, and transportation. Dummy variables are included to discern sectoral variations in EEA goal attainment.
Dummy variables indicating employment type. We also investigated differences between full-time employees and those who are either employed on a temporary or part-time basis. Dummy variables differentiate among these three categories of employment.
The regression analysis used sets of dummy variables to parameterize the categorical independent variables, including occupation, industrial sector, province, year of observation, and company. A deviational scoring method was used in all cases. As is normally the case with dummy variables in regression analysis, there is one less dummy variable than the number of categories for a given variable. As an example, in the case of provincial categories, there are nine dummy variables corresponding to the ten provinces. The tenth province (in this case Prince Edward Island) serves as a reference group. Prince Edward Island was chosen as it is small, thus allowing the deviations of the larger and more significant provinces to be discerned from the parameter estimates more readily, as explained below. The dummy variables are coded in the following manner. Each of the nine non-reference group provinces has a corresponding dummy variable. This is coded as a one if the observation occurred in that province and zero if it occurred in any of the other eight non-reference group provinces. If the observation occurred in the reference group province (i.e., Prince Edward Island), then all of the provincial dummy variables are coded as negative one. Deviational scoring with dummy variables is somewhat different from the standard approach, in which dummy variables represent the difference in a given category relative to a reference category (i.e., Ontario vs. Prince Edward Island). However, in this study, where there are multiple categories for most of the independent variables, the deviational approach greatly simplifies the presentation and interpretation of the results. If we had used standard dummy variable coding, then we would have needed to do multiple pairwise comparisons among the various provinces (or relevant categories for the other categorical independent variables), as the significance levels and differences for each category dummy would only be relative to the reference (omitted) category. In contrast, the deviational approach provides comparisons of the average value of the dependent variable within each province to the overall average of the dependent variable, holding constant the other independent variables. So the coefficient for the Ontario dummy variable represents the deviation of Ontario cases relative to the overall average after adjusting for occupation, industry, unit size, etc. The deviation from this average for Prince Edward Island, the reference group province, is equivalent to minus the sum of the coefficients for all of the other provincial dummy variables and can thus also be calculated. The same approach is used to code the other categorical variables. Reference groups for occupation, year, industrial sector and employment type are, respectively, semi-skilled manual workers 1987, transportation, and full-time employment.
For the period 1987 through 1996, employers were required to use the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system in reporting employment. This system was changed in 1997 to the National Occupational Classification (NOC) system. Unfortunately, the occupational categories are not the same in these two systems, although it is possible to compare the two systems and find occupational categories that are roughly equivalent. This is important, as otherwise we would not be able to examine employment equity outcomes across the entire time period for which data were available. We would have had the problem of comparing “apples and oranges” in considering the results for the earlier time period and the latter time period. However, occupational categories are very important in this study and cannot be ignored. So we had to develop an alternative set of occupational categories that would be roughly equivalent across the entire 1987-1999 time period.
Fortunately, supplementary information supplied by Canadian governmental agencies allowed us to develop a set of composite occupational categories that, while not completely eliminating the problem of inconsistency in occupational categories over time, did at least provide reasonably comparable categories for the 1987-99 period. There were some instances in which broad occupational titles were identical in the NOC and SOC systems. However, that did not always mean the classifications were identical, as there were situations in which there had to be some shifting of the components of these categories. For example, the “skilled crafts and trades workers” category has the same meaning in the NOC and SOC systems, so no adjustment was needed in this case. “Semi-skilled manual workers” was a category likewise common to the NOC and SOC systems and comparable in meaning in both cases. On the other hand, although the categories “professionals” and “semi-professionals and technicians” are both NOC and SOC categories, there are variations in meaning (e.g., some SOC “semi-professional” occupations were shifted to the “professional” category in the NOC). Thus, it is only possible to compare the sums of professional and semi-professional employment across the two systems. In yet other cases, titles and category meanings are quite dissimilar between the NOC and SOC (e.g., “clerical workers” vs. “clerical personnel” and “administrative and senior clerical personnel”).
To resolve this problem, we created composite occupational codes to cover the entire period of this study. For cases in which NOC and SOC categories were identical in meaning, we maintain those groupings. In other instances, it was necessary to combine certain SOC categories related NOC categories into a new, more general category which would be equivalent in sum across this period. Some categories lacked ready means of comparison, even in aggregate, between the NOC and SOC systems. Consequently, those categories had to be dropped completely from the analysis. Table 1 shows the relationship of the seven composite occupational categories we were able to generate by matching SOC and NOC categories. For example, we created a category of “supervisor” that, for the period in which NOC system was in effect (after 1996), is defined as the sum of the number of individuals in the NOC categories of “Supervisors: crafts and trades” and “Supervisors”. For the SOC period (1996 and earlier), it is set equivalent to the number of individuals in the single SOC category of “Foremen/women”). The other composite categories are similarly defined in Table 1. Finally, some categories could not be matched between the NOC and SOC systems and, as noted, are excluded from our analysis.
Before examining the results of regression analysis, it is useful to consider the overall VM employment equity measure for our sample. Table 2 reports the averages for VM employment equity for the 1987-1999 period, broken down by provincial and occupational categories. The first column under each occupation contains the internal equity measure (proportion of VMs in EEA covered employment groups (italicized)) and the second contains the VM employment equity measure that is used as the dependent variable in this study (difference between internal and external equity (underlined)). Group averages are also presented.
Relationship of Composite Occupational Categories Used in 1987-1999 Data Analysis to NOC and SOC Categories
When considered in total, average internal equity was 2.9 (lower right-hand corner of Table 2). However, over time, this has been substantially less than VM representation in the labour market, as the composite VM employment equity measure on average was –2.2%, indicating that relative VM employment within EEA-covered employment groups was more than two percentage points below VM representation in the broader labour market. Some provinces have relatively average internal equity levels, with Ontario and British Columbia far higher than any other province. Of course, this reflects the much larger VM concentrations in these provinces, fueled in particular by large numbers of Asian immigrants. However, in both instances, VM employment equity is strongly negative (–5.3% in British Columbia and –4.7% in Ontario), indicating that VMs are substantially underrepresented in EEA-covered companies in these provinces. Some other provinces had relatively high VM equity levels (e.g., New Brunswick, Newfoundland), yet have very small numbers of VM workers overall. So, ironically, provinces with the highest concentration of VM employees and the greatest also have had the greatest level of workplace inequity. These averages are , of course for the entire period of the study. In fact, if we only look at the most recent year in our sample (1999), VM equity has improved in both Ontario and British Columbia, but is still rather high (–4% in Ontario and -5.3% in British Columbia). Occupation data also suggest differences in employment equity across groups. Positions such as managers and professional and semiprofessionals, clearly highly desirable jobs, have relatively low employment equity levels, though the lowest average levels were for sales and service workers and also semi-skilled manual workers. VMs achieved highest levels of employment equity generally in first-line supervisory positions and clerical positions.
VM employment equity for the period 1987-1999 was regressed against (a) occupational categories, (b) year of observation, (c) province, (d) industrial sector, (e) employment type, (f) overall company size and (g) unit size. We did preliminary analysis to check outliers and found a small but meaningful number of cases several standard deviations above the mean. We restricted the sample to ±3 standard deviations of the mean (and found this substantially improved model fit). Given the positive values of the outliers, these would have been cases where VMs had done exceptionally well. However, their inclusion would have greatly distorted the results. Residual plots indicated normality. Finally, residual plots also suggested the possibility of heteroskedastic residuals. Assuming residual variance to be related to unit size, we considered different weighted least squares estimates based on unit size as the weighting factor. This analysis suggested weighting did not significantly improve fit, so here we report ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates.
All of the independent variables, except for company and unit sizes, were parameterized as sets of dummy variables using deviational coding (as described in above). Thus, we have a fixed effects model controlling for all of the dimensions across which the sample varies (i.e., time, location, company, and occupation). Descriptive statistics for the independent variables used in this analysis are presented in Table 3. The sample used here consisted of a total of 28571 observations. Overall, the model explains about 18% of the variance in VM employment equity (i.e., adjusted R2), with an F-ratio that is significant at the .001 level; regression results appear in Table 4.
Average Internal Equity and VM Employment Equity by Occupational Category and Province, 1987-1999 a (N = 28572)
a Values for internal employment equity are displayed in italics; values for VM employment equity are underlined.
Descriptive Statistics for Independent Variables Used in Regression Analysis of the VM Employment Equity Measure, 1987-1999
Results of Regression Analysis of the VM Employment Equity Measure, 1987-1999 (N = 28572)
Adjusted R-Square = .18 F33,28538 191.65 (p < .001)
(r) indicates reference group; the coefficient for this category has been imputed, as discussed in the text. In most instances, the standard error is not readily computable and is not reported.
The appropriate approach to assessing the impact of the different sets of categorical variables is a partial F-ratio. That is, we estimate a constrained model, where all of the parameters for a given set of categorical dummy variables are set to zero, while all other parameters are free to vary. We use the difference in R2 between the constrained and the full model (i.e., unconstrained model) to compute an F-ratio that can be used to test the significance of this set of variables.
There are statistically significant variations in VM employment equity across provinces (F9, 28538 = 139.34, p < .001). The parameters represent the average deviation in VM employment equity from the Canadian-wide average after controlling for all of the other explanatory variables. The most negative value is in the case of British Columbia. We could interpret this as indicating that, other things equal, the VM employment equity measure for British Columbia was nearly three percentage points lower than we would have expected it to be, given the other characteristics of these employment units. Another way of thinking about this is that covered employment units in British Columbia would have, on average, had to have made around a three percent adjustment in total employment in order to achieve employment equity equivalent to similar types of units in other parts of Canada. So it is the case here that the more negative this number, the more out of alignment a province is with the overall expected level of VM employment equity.
In terms of the statistically significant effects for individual provinces, employment units in Ontario, Alberta, and Manitoba, as well as British Columbia, had generally under-performed relative to expectation. In contrast, employment units in the Maritimes (especially Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick) did generally better than would be expected. We need to recall, however, that these numbers are all relative to local labour market standards. This does not mean that, for example, employment units in Ontario have lower levels of VM employment than units in Newfoundland; rather, they are lower relative to the local labour market standard than firms in Newfoundland. Some of these results are contrary to expectation; possible explanations are discussed below.
Since this analysis is for the 1987-1999 period in its entirety, we have had to use the more limited set of occupational categories described above that are a composite of NOC and SOC categories. These results suggest considerable variation across the composite occupational categories regarding then achievement of VM employment equity (F6, 28571 = 350.88, p < .001). VM employees did best in supervisor, clerical, and craft and trades positions, where VM employment equity exceeded its expected level after controlling for the other explanatory variables. However, these are generally lower wage positions compared to certain occupational categories where VM workers are substantially under represented (manual workers, sales workers, professionals, and managers).
The coefficient in the regression equation associated with overall company size (i.e., log of Canadian-wide employment) is positive and statistically significant at the .001 level. Thus, larger organizations do a better job of providing equity in employment for VMs than do smaller firms. Given the manner in which the size variable is measured, the statistical estimate indicates that a ten-fold increase in total employment in a firm resulted in roughly a 0.23 percent increase in the VM employment equity measure. Perhaps larger organizations have more in the way of spare resources to focus on achievement of employment equity or perhaps they are more visible than smaller firms, thus more sensitive to the need to comply to EEA requirements. The size of the employment unit had strong and positive impact (significant at .01 level). Where there are larger concentrations of employees of a particular occupational category, VM employment equity is higher. A ten-fold increase in unit size resulted in about a 1.6 percentage point shift in VM employment equity.
The EEA covers three industrial sectors: communications, transportation, and finance. Our analysis indicates a significant impact of industrial sector on VM employment equity levels (F2, 28571 = 185.02, p < .001), with equity levels much higher in the finance sector than either the communications or transportation sectors. In the finance sector, this measure is 1.6 percentage points above the average after controlling for the other explanatory variables. In contrast, the transportation and communications sectors are each below average, with transportation having by far the lowest VM employment equity level.
The overall effect of employment type was statistically significant (F2, 28571 = 5.9, p < .01). However, the VM equity measure was not significantly different from the mean in the case of temporary workers, though was significantly less for part-time employees. These findings suggest that it is not the case, as we speculated it could be, that VMs were over-represented in the secondary labour market (as would have been the case had the coefficients for temporary or part-time workers been strongly positive).
The time indicators (year of observation) had, in net, a statistically significant impact on VM employment equity after controlling for the other explanatory variables (F12, 28571 = 4.82, p < .001). There is a generally upward sloping relationship (i.e., the coefficients for the year dummy variables range form strongly negative in the 1980s and early 1990s, to strongly positive in the late 1990s), suggesting continual improvement in VM employment equity from the implementation of the EEA through 1999.
Our study analyzed the relationship between employment equity attainment for visible minorities under the provisions of the EEA and a variety of contextual factors. There are several major findings. First, as anticipated, larger companies, and also larger employment groups within companies, had higher levels of employment equity attainment. This could have resulted from size being related both to organizational visibility and the availability of greater resources to address EE objectives. Second, there was considerable variation across industrial sectors in terms of EE attainment, with the banking sector having the highest levels, which we also expected to be the case. This may be related to the visibility of banks and the fact the banking sector does not have the strong competitive pressures experienced in the communications and transportation sectors. Thus banks are more apt to have slack resources available to support EE efforts and perhaps are more sensitive, due to size, to the attention of regulators. Third, there was considerable variation across provinces in terms of EE attainment, with the levels of attainment surprisingly low in the two provinces with the highest concentrations of VMs (i.e., Ontario and British Columbia), a finding that was not expected. Perhaps this is because of large numbers of immigrants situating in these provinces in recent years, there may also be a disproportionate number of individuals whose foreign credentials and experience are not recognized by employers in Canada. These individuals may have limited language skills and connections to the broader community. VM groups in other provinces may have been part of better established communities and thus had greater entrée to companies by virtue of greater assimilation. Moreover, the numbers of VMs in some of these provinces was quite small, so companies perhaps needed to engage limited efforts to achieve reasonable EE levels. Fourth, our data indicated a general improvement in EE attainment over time, which would be consistent with EEA effectiveness. Fifth, there was no evidence to suggest that VMs were over-represented in secondary labour market settings. Finally, we observed that EE attainment varied substantially across occupations. VMs are particularly disadvantaged in management, professional, and sales positions, as well as skilled manual jobs.
Clearly this study looks at only selected issues by focusing on contextual data provided in the EEA annual reports. To be sure, these are important dimensions that are presumed to be related to an organization’s propensity to meet employment equity goals. However, future research might focus on more specific organizational characteristics, such as measures of organizational performance, the broader social context, and whether or not the firm is Canadian-owned or foreign. More detailed work of this sort will, however, likely come at the expense of such a large and varied a sample we had for this study.
We believe that these findings have important practical implications, especially with regard to EEA enforcement:
Increased Enforcement: It is clear from our analysis that VM employees in the companies covered by the EEA continue to be substantially under-represented. VM staffing levels as a proportion of total employment in the cases we studied are only about three-quarters of what would be necessary to achieve parity with VM representation in the Census. It is also true that there are a relatively large number of cases in which VM representation is extremely low or non-existent. It is therefore clear that increased and vigorous enforcement of the EEA for the VM group is necessary by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
More Focus on Occupational Inequities: There are significant disparities in employment opportunities for VM employees across several occupations. In particular, there seems to be a kind of “glass ceiling” operating for VM employees in terms of access to middle and senior management positions. Therefore, companies need to create a climate of acceptance and tolerance for VM employees at these levels by sensitizing top management to the need to eliminate these job barriers. This is also true for sales and service employees, where VM employees are also substantially under-represented. This is relevant as jobs in these occupations may be an important avenue for advancement to higher-level jobs. Economic transition means that jobs in these areas, particularly the service sector, are growing and thus important to the welfare of visible minorities.
More Focus on Sectoral Differences: In the communication and transportation sectors, VM employees remain substantially under-represented. It is important that organizations undertake pro-active recruitment and promotion policies and establish significant goals and timetables to improve VM representation.
More Focus on Company and Employment Group Size: VM employees tend to be under-represented in smaller firms. The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) needs to pay more attention to monitoring and enforcing employment equity in these types of firms. This is especially critical as smaller and medium enterprises employ a significant and growing proportion of the labour force. Regardless of firm size, visible minorities are even more significantly under-represented in smaller employment units (i.e., a given occupation for a particular company in a particular province). Thus the CHRC cannot afford to minimize monitoring and enforcement in the smaller and perhaps less divisible units of even larger companies. In aggregate, VM under-representation in these units has a substantial adverse impact on achievement of parity with VM representation in the Census.
This study was partially supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). We also wish to acknowledge the assistance of Heritage Canada and Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC).
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|Auteurs :||Harish C. Jain et John J. Lawler|
|Titre :||Visible Minorities under the Canadian Employment Equity Act, 1987-1999|
|Revue :||, Volume 59, numéro 3, été 2004, p. 585-611|
Tous droits réservés © Département des relations industrielles de l'Université Laval, 2004 | <urn:uuid:0c0110e7-e91b-4dcb-a02e-dd0842b28e88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.erudit.org/revue/RI/2004/v59/n3/010926ar.html | 2013-05-19T02:38:45Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.862525 | 13,615 |
[Ronald Hutton, History of Pagan Witchcraft, in
Witchcraft and magic in Europe: The twentieth century
ed. Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark, p. 54]
1."Witchcraft doesn’t pay for broken windows."
Indeed, Gardner's witches did multiply, and soon Doreen Valiente had formed a new, sister Coven, in 1957. A number of factors contributed to this growth, among them being the publication in 1954 of Gardner's book Witchcraft Today, combined with Gardner's eagerness and talent for courting of public attention.
However, a great deal of the resulting attention paid to Gardner and his Witches was decidedly negative. According to Hutton (continuing on in his essay on The History of Pagan Witchcraft already quoted above), starting in 1955 the popular press began to "run features attacking witchcraft as Satanism .... In 1957 and 1959 the original London coven was denounced sensationally and unscrupulously, putting a considerable strain on its members and fracturing relations between Valiente's group and Gerald Gardner." In response, Gardner came out with (in 1959) The Meaning of Witchcraft: "answering the press attacks and attempting to establish the historical credentials of his religion more firmly by relating it to a string of ancient religious texts and images, and later magical groups." [p. 55]
(It should be noted, at least parenthetically, that, Hutton's crude misdirection notwithstanding, the connections drawn by Gardner, in The Meaning of Witchcraft, between 20th century Wicca and "ancient religious texts and images, and later magical groups," constitutes a seamless continuation of the way Gardner had presented the history and roots of Wicca previously in Witchcraft Today. In fact, Gardner had included in the Foward of that earlier book a prominent reference to the Mystery cult of Isis and the writings of Platonic philosopher Apuleius, who was an initiate in the cults of Isis, Asclepius, and Hermes, and possibly that of other deities as well. Gardner also devoted an entire chapter of Witchcraft Today to "The Witches and the Mysteries", as well as another chapter titled "Out of the Land of Egypt", which is also primarily focused on the Mystery Religions of the ancient world. And there are in addition significant references to the Mysteries in the chapters on "Witch Beliefs" and "Witch Practices".)
The following two passages from the first chapter of The Meaning of Witchcraft give some indication of the kind of hostility that Gardner and "his Witches" were up against:
"I am a member of the Society for Psychical Research, and on the Committee of the Folklore Society; so I wanted to tell of my discovery. But I was met with a determined refusal. 'The Age of Persecution is not over,' they told me; 'give anyone half a chance and the fires will blaze up again.' When I said to one of them, 'Why do you keep all these things so secret still? There’s no persecution nowadays!' I was told, 'Oh, isn’t there? If people knew what I was, every time a child in the village was ill, or somebody’s chickens died, I should get the blame for it. Witchcraft doesn’t pay for broken windows.'
"I can remember as a boy reading in the papers of a woman being burned alive in Southern Ireland as a witch; but I could not believe that there could be any persecution nowadays in England. So, against their better judgment, they agreed to let me write a little about the cult in the form of fictions, an historical novel where a witch says a little of what they believe and of how they were persecuted. This was published in 1949 under the title of High Magic’s Aid.
"In 1951 a very important event occurred. The Government of the day passed the Fraudulent Mediums Act, which repealed and replaced the last remaining Witchcraft Act, under which spiritualists used to be prosecuted in modern times. This Act is, I believe, unique in legally recognising the existence of genuine mediumship and psychic powers.
"I thought that at last common sense and religious freedom had prevailed; but even so, the passage of this Act was highly obnoxious to certain religious bodies which had been preaching against Spiritualism for years and trying to outlaw it as 'the work of Satan,' together with any other societies to which they objected, including Freemasonry and, of course, witchcraft.
"About a year previously, this Museum had been opened, and I had flattered myself that showing what witchcraft really is, an ancient religion, would arouse no hostility in any quarter. I was to find out in due course how wrong I was!
"Any attempt to show witchcraft in anything even remotely resembling a favourable light, or to challenge the old representation of it as something uniformly evil and devilish, or even to present it as a legitimate object of study, can still arouse the most surprising reactions. The virtues of humanism, which Charles Saltman defined as 'sensitivity, intelligence and erudition, together with integrity, curiosity and tolerance,' have still quite a long way to go in their struggle against the mentality which produced the Malleus Maleficarum."
[The Meaning of Witchcraft, pp. 11-12]
"The Old Horned God of the witches is not the Satan of Christianity, and no amount of theological argument will make him so. He is, in fact, the oldest deity known to man, and is depicted in the oldest representation of a divinity which has yet been found, namely the Stone Age painting in the innermost recess of the Caverne des Trois Freres at Ariege. He is the old phallic god of fertility who has come forth from the morning of the world, and who was already of immeasurable antiquity before Egypt and Babylon, let alone before the Christian era. Nor did he perish at the cry that Great Pan was dead. Secretly through the centuries, hidden deeper and deeper as time went on, his worship and that of the naked Moon Goddess, his bride, the Lady of Mystery and Magic and the forbidden joys, continued sometimes among the great ones of the land, sometimes in humble cottages, or on lonely heaths and in the depths of darkling woods, on summer nights when the moon rode high. It does so still.
"From time to time the public have been treated to various highly-coloured and highly unconvincing 'revelations' in the popular Press and elsewhere upon the subject of 'Black Magic', 'Satanism', and similar matters, and occasionally these have been linked with witchcraft. Let me state right away that I personally maintain an attitude of thorough-going scepticism towards these things, and that even if they do exist I do not consider them to have any relation to the survival of the witch cult. Alleged 'confessions', especially where witchcraft is mentioned, bear ample internal evidence of their own meretriciousness, in that they are obviously modelled upon sensational thrillers and reveal no knowledge whatever of genuine witch practices."
[The Meaning of Witchcraft, pp. 21-22]
"That there is no positive evil."
Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique is an Oxford educated anthropologist who is chair of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at l'Université d'Etat d'Haïti. She is also a highly respected Priestess (Mambo) in the Haitian Vodou religion. In September of 2009 (fully 55 years after Gerald Gardner wrote Witchcraft Today), Beauvoir-Dominique was interviewed in conjunction with an exhibit on Vodou at the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg, Sweden (too see the interview, go here).
The first question asked of Professor Beauvoir-Dominique was "what is Vodou?" A perfectly reasonable question, to which the Mambo gives a very informative answer. However, it does not take long for the other shoe to drop. The second question was "Are there any evil forces in Vodou?" To which Professor Beauvoir-Dominique again gives a very educational answer, part of which is:
"Vodou ... is part of Haitian culture, and in this culture we don't see that there is Evil. We think that the word Evil is constructed, it comes from other places, and is really not ours. The "good" and the "bad" are very Christian notions, very Manichean. We think more in terms of grays, of black becoming white, of white becoming black. Of Yin and Yang. As in the figure of Yin and Yang -- there is a perpetual movement of things. And for us there is no Evil. Things become evil when they are seen through evil eyes."
This chapter on "The Black Mass" is, in fact, the section of The Meaning of Witchcraft in which Gardner introduces Sallustius' Peri Theon kai Kosmou and pronounces it to be "a general statement" of the beliefs of Wiccans (as discussed in Part One of this series). The first portion of Sallustius' Pagan Manifesto that Gardner quotes is the entirety of Section XII: "The origin of evil things; and that there is no positive evil."
"The Gods being good and making all things, how do evils exist in the world? Or perhaps it is better first to state the fact that, the Gods being good and making all things, there is no positive evil, it only comes by absence of good; just as darkness itself does not exist, but only comes about by absence of light.
"If evil exists it must exist either in Gods or minds or souls or bodies. It does not exist in any God, for all god is good. If anyone speaks of a 'bad mind' he means a mind without mind. If of a bad soul, he will make the soul inferior to body, for no body in itself is evil. If he says that evil is made up of soul and body together, it is absurd that separately they should not be evil, but joined should create evil.
"Suppose it is said that there are evil spirits: - if they have their power from the Gods, they cannot be evil; if from elsewhere, the Gods do not make all things. If they do not make all things, then either they wish to or cannot, or they can and do not wish; neither of which is consistent with the idea of god. We may see, therefore, from these arguments, that there is no positive evil in the world.
"It is in the activities of men that the evils appear, and that not of all men nor always. And as to these, if men sinned for the sake of evil, nature itself would be evil. But if the adulterer thinks his adultery bad but his pleasure good, and the murderer thinks the murder bad but the money he gets by it good, and the man who does evil to an enemy thinks that to do evil is bad but to punish his enemy good, and if the soul commits all its sins in that way, then the evils are done for the sake of goodness. (In the same way, because in a given place light does not exist, there comes darkness, which has no positive existence.) The soul sins therefore because, while aiming at good, it makes mistakes about the good, because it is not primary essence. And we see many things done by the Gods to prevent it from making mistakes and to heal it when it has made them. Arts and sciences, curses and prayers, sacrifices and initiations, laws and constitutions, judgments and punishments, all came into existence for the sake of preventing souls from sinning; and when they are gone forth from the body, Gods and spirits of purification cleanse them of their sins."
[On the Gods and the Cosmsos, Sallustius, Section XII: "The origin of evil things; and that there is no positive evil."]
"The inner meaning of religious rituals."
The section of Sallustius that Gardner turned to first requires little or no explanation. It is, in fact, one of the clearest explications of a Pagan answer to the so-called "Problem of Evil". Less clear, perhaps, are Gardner's reasons for his next selection from Sallustius, which deals with, as Gardner styles it, "the inner meaning of religious rituals."
"It is impious to suppose that the divine is affected for good or ill by human things. The Gods are always good and always do good and never harm, being always in the same state and like themselves. The truth simply is that, when we are good, we are joined to the Gods by our likeness; when bad, we are separated from them by our unlikeness. And when we live according to virture we cling to the Gods, and when we become evil we make the Gods our enemies -- not because they are angered against us, but because our sins prevent the light of the Gods from shining upon us, and put us in communion with spirits of punishment. And if by prayers and sacrifices we find forgiveness of sins, we do not appease or change the Gods, but by what we do and by our turning toward the Divine we heal our own badness and so enjoy again the goodness of the Gods. To say that the Gods turn away from evil is like saying that the sun hides himself from the blind.
"This solves the question about sacrifices and other rites performed to the Gods. The divine itself is without needs, and the worship is paid for our own benefit. The providence of the Gods reaches everywhere and needs only some congruity for its reception. All congruity comes about by representation and likeness; for which reason the temples are made in representation of heaven, the altar of earth, the images of life (that is why they are made like living things), the prayers of the element of though, the mystic letters of the unspeakable celestial forces, the herbs and stones of matter, and the sacrificial animals of the irrational life in us.
"From all these things the Gods gain nothing; what gain could there be to God? It is we who gain some communion with them."
[On the Gods and the Cosmsos, Sallustius, Section XIV (partial): "In what sense, though the Gods never change, they are said to be made angry and appeased." And also Section XV: "Why we give worship to the Gods when they need nothing."]
The issue here is not merely the accusation that Pagans do evil things, but rather that we worship Evil Things. This accusation goes back to the earliest days of Christianity. Among its clearest expressions is that found in the writings of Augustine, and his City of God, Against the Pagans in particular. Somewhat ironically, Augustine wrote that work largely as a defense of Christianity against the accusation, from Pagans, that the Christian prohibitions against the worship of the old Gods had led to the downfall of Rome (some of the historical background to this is discussed in Reflections on Vergil and Augustine.)
In Book VIII of his Against the Pagans, Augustine asserts that the traditional Gods worshipped at Pagan festivals and in the urban Pagan temples are "rather malign demons than gods." Furthermore, Augustine employs a favorite Christian trope that is still popular today with Ronald Hutton and his fanbase, in which it is claimed that the religion of ancient philosophers is somehow different from and unrelated to that of the Pagan masses generally. (By this logic the "philosophy" of Augustine is equally unrelated the lowbrow Christianity of the ignorant, unwashed masses who make up the vast bulk of the Army of Christ, thus making Augustine no Christian at all. But any such appeal to consistency is lost on the likes of Hutton.)
And so Augustine now focuses not on "the fabulous, that is, the theatrical" theology of the plebs, nor on the more staid "civil, that is, the urban" theology of the aristocratic priests and priestesses serving the deities of the polis. Instead, Augustine explains that he wishes to address himself "not to ordinary men, but to philosophers ... concerning the theology which they call natural." In particular, Augustine, and here he shows that he knows what he is about, directly attacks the magical and erotic theology set forth by Socrates in Plato's dialogues.
In his famous speech in the Symposium, Socrates had revealed what the Witch (for surely she fits Gardner's profile for ancient Witches) Diotima had revealed to him as a young man concerning the nature of Eros. She had instructed Socrates that Eros is not really a God, per se, but rather a Daemon: "A great Daemon, Socrates; for the whole realm of the Daemons is intermediary between the Gods and mortals." At this point Socrates had inquired about the "powers" possessed by these Daemons. And here is Diotima's answer:
"Interpreting and conveying things from men to Gods, and things from Gods to men, prayers and sacrifices from one, commands and requitals in exchange for sacrifices from the other, since, being in between both, the Daemons fill the region between both so that the All is bound together with itself.
"Through this Daemonic realm moves all prophetic art and the art of priests having to do with sacrifices and rituals and spells, and all powers of prophecy and enchantment. The Gods do not mingle with mortals, but all intercourse and conversation of the Gods with humans, waking and sleeping, are through this intermediary realm. Those who are wise about such things are truly divine, but those who are wise about any other arts or crafts are mere technicians and mechanics. The Daemons, then, are many and manifold, and one of them is Eros."
[202d-203a, taken from R.E. Allen's translation, with some liberties]
Almost two thousand years later, Marsilio Ficino wondered why Diotima, in addition to describing the great Daemon Eros as clever, philosophical and a sophist, had also imputed magical powers to Eros:
"But why do we think that Eros is a magician? Because the whole power of magic consists in Eros. The work of magic is the attraction of one thing by another because of a certain affinity of nature. But the parts of this world, like the parts of a single animal, all deriving from a single author, are joined to each other by the communion of a single nature. Therefore just as the brain, lungs, heart, liver and the rest of the parts draw something from each other, and help each other, and sympathize with any one of them when it suffers, so the parts of this great animal [the cosmos as a single living being], that is, the bodies of the world, similarly joined together, borrow and lend natures to and from each other. From this common relationship is born a common love; from love, a common attraction. And this is true magic .... [T]he works of magic are works of nature, but art is its handmaiden .... The ancients attributed this art to Daemons, because the Daemons understand what is the inter-relation of natural things, what is appropriate to each, and how the harmony of things, if lacking anywhere, can be restored .... They [the ancients, such as Socrates, Zoroaster, Apollonius of Tyana, and Porphyry] seem to have become magicians through friendship of the Daemons, just as the Daemons are magicians through understanding the friendship of things themselves. And all nature, because of mutual love, is called a magician."
[De Amore, Marsilio Ficino. This is specificaly from Speech VI, using the translation by Sears Jane, p. 127 of the 1985 Spring Publications edition]
The take home message from Augustine's polemics against Plato, Apuleius, and Hermes is that the whole Daemonic realm is, in reality, Demonic in the sense of being purely Evil. In other words, what Plato portrayed as the liminal realm of the Cosmos, situated above the human realm, whose purpose is to connect us with the Gods, and which is responsible for the efficacy of both religious practices and magic arts; that this is in fact an infernal realm populated with demons that are "arrogant" and "deceiving" who prey on those who seek "divine refuge" by "feigning divinity". These demons are everywhere "lying in wait for the deception of man!"
The Christian view, then, is that (1) Pagan religiosity is generally evil, (2) more specifically, the spiritual Powers upon which Pagans call are evil beings, and (3) the whole spiritual realm (outside of the Holy Ghost and "angels") is filled with and characterized by malignant Evil. It is in order to counter these dark (and as perversely self-serving as they are self-revealing) Christian fantasies, which they sometimes try to hide behind the philosophical niceties of the so-called "Problem of Evil", that Gardner invokes the words of Sallustius on the subject of the "the inner meaning of religious ritual." In essence, Gardner wishes to categorically disprove any idea that the magical/religious practices of Wiccans amount to calling upon evil forces. However, Gardner chooses not to explicitly defend the liminal/Daemonic aspects of Platonic theology but to explicate Pagan rituals in such terms as (1) being "joined to the Gods", (2) having "the light of the Gods ... shining upon us", and (3) "by turning toward the Gods we heal our own badness and so enjoy again the goodness of the Gods." All this and more comes about because "The providence of the Gods reaches everywhere and needs only some congruity for its reception."
The fact is that Sallustius provides no opportunity to more directly defend the intermediary spiritual realm, for, true to the title of the work, he sticks to "the Gods" and "the Cosmos". And it is unlikely, anyway, that Gardner would have thought there could be anything to be gained by trying to convince the general public that Wicca relies on daemons, but not on demons. And then there was also Gardner's choice to (dishonestly, as is now generally accepted) deny the very real connections between his Wicca and Ceremonial Magic (where explicit references to Daemons are easy to find).
But (even though he avoids direct references to Daemons) it is quite clear that Gerald Gardner in 1959, just like practitioners of Vodou today, had to defend himself against the mindset that all spiritual powers outside Christianity are by definition infernal, evil and Satanic. And Gardner turns to the Platonic Paganism of Sallustius to assert both that (1) in terms of belief, "Wicca positively denies the existence of a Power of Evil" (using Gardner's words), and (2) in terms of practice, the Gods of Wicca "are always good and always do good and never harm" and "worship [of the Gods] is paid for our own benefit," with the end in mind that by such worship we might "live according to virture" and be "joined to the Gods by our likeness to them" (using Sallustius' words as cited by Gardner).
Modern Paganism and the Ancient Mysteries:
- Part One: Sallustius, Gardner & Wicca: "A general statement of their creed."
- Part Two: Gerald Gardner, Sallustius, and the Problem of Evil
- Part Three: Gerald Gardner, Sallustius, and Reincarnation
- Part Four: "Divested of their garments" | <urn:uuid:7a87a1c6-1f46-4355-8ff0-d8b55ca5cd19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://egregores.blogspot.com/2011_02_06_archive.html | 2013-05-22T00:28:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962954 | 4,944 |
Gay-rights activists are celebrating in Puerto Rico after the Senate passed a sweeping bill that bans discrimination on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Puerto Rico Senate voted on May 16, 15-11, to pass Bill 238 just days after San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz issued two executive orders banning discrimination against the city’s LGBT municipal employees. Now, the bill moves on to the House and faces hurdles from a group of lawmakers in the lower chamber who have come out against it. The bill, though, has one famous supporter. Puerto Rican Ricky Martin released a statement in support of the law. “The rights of homosexual people are human rights and human rights are for everyone,” Martin said in the letter released by his representative in San Juan.
For the original report go to http://www.passportmagazine.com/blog/archives/28490-puerto-rico-senate-approves-anti-discrimination-bill-moves-on-to-house.html
The Indian Caribbean Museum, described as “a national treasure, a window to the past, and an opportunity to see history come alive”, has been cited by a National Geographic publication that showcases 500 of the world’s most powerful and spiritual places and guides travellers who wish to visit them, as Paras Ramoutar reports in this article for twocircles.com.
“This is a fitting recognition in just seven years of our existence, especially as we celebrate the 168th Indian Arrival Day May 30,” Sansbhan Jokhoo, the curator of the museum that serves as a link between indentured Indian labourers and the present, told IANS.
“The Indian Caribbean Museum has international prominence and recognition as the only one of its kind in the world. Not even India has one. And before the inauguration of the Kolkata memorial last year planners from India came to visit our facility,” Jokhoo said.
The Kolkata memorial, in the city’s Garden Reach area, remembers the indentured Indian labourers who left India during the 19th & early 20th centuries to work on plantations in the West Indies.
Between 1845 and 1917, approximately 148,000 Indians were brought to this country, principally from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and worked to rescue the decaying plantations following the abolition of slavery by the British government.
It is to keep alive their memory that Satnarayan Maharaj, secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) launched the museum, which features in “Sacred Places of a Lifetime – 500 of the World’s Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations”.
The collection includes items such as rare musical instruments, agricultural objects, cooking utensils, pieces of clothing, ancient photographs and historical books. Objects of historical and aesthetic value include a sapat (wooden slipper) jata (grinding stone) boli (gourd bowl) and hassawa (grass knife). There is also a huge copper basin that was used for boiling cane syrup in the sugar factories up to the 1930s, and a dekha (a wooden contraption used for grinding cocoa, coffee beans, corn and rice).
The museum, which has become a research centre with the country’s National Archives, also houses an art gallery, a reference library and a computerised genealogical database. A botanical garden is also in the making. The institution is a member of the Caribbean Museum Association, which comprises 20 institutions spread across the region.
“The Indian Caribbean Museum is a national treasure, a window to the past, and an opportunity to see history come alive. To many visitors, it evokes memories of the past, a link to the present, and a vision for the future. The museum serves as a foundation for collective memory, cultural continuity and national development,” Jokhoo said.
“It provides a common experience that families can share across generations and serve as a link between revered ancestors and living people. The museum provides information on the cultural heritage of Indians in the Caribbean to themselves and to people of all ethnic backgrounds,” he added.
“The Caribbean Indian Museum holds fundamental importance and relevance to the continued kinship and affinity with India, and within the entire Indian diaspora, as it has myriad symbolic, cultural, religious and transcendental interpretations and meanings for all. It remains a monument for posterity. It will remain ageless,” Jokhoo said.
Since its inception, in excess of 45,000 persons from all walks of life from the four corners of the globe have visited the museum, according to Ann Marie Ramhit, an assistant.
She said that Dennison Moore, who wrote the Canadian government’s policy on multiculturalism, recently donated 107 books reflecting different aspects of India and the diaspora to the library.
“This donation has augmented our educational stock for research, as well as for leisure reading,” Ramhit added.
Winston Dookeran, now the Trinidad and Tobago foreign minister, had in 2006 opened the museum, located in the west-central part of Trinidad.
For the original report go to http://twocircles.net/2013may23/indian_caribbean_museum_nat_geo_list_500_sacred_places.html
Scientists say three to six major hurricanes will hit US, some in areas far beyond those typically associated with extreme storms, as Suzanne Goldenberg reports in this article for London’s Guardian.
Americans were warned on Thursday to brace for an extremely active hurricane season – less than a year after the devastation of Sandy, which hit the east coast in October 2012 – with 13 to 20 named storms, including seven to 11 hurricanes.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, releasing its annual forecast, said 2013 would be prolific in raising storms out of the Atlantic and Caribbean. Of the predicted hurricanes, Noaa predicted that three to six could be major hurricanes, rated category three and packing winds of 111mph or higher.
Thursday’s forecast was well above the average of 12 named storms, eight hurricanes and three major hurricanes. Administration officials also warned that the impacts of those storms – as with Sandy and Irene in 2011 – could be felt in areas far beyond those typically associated with hurricanes and tropical storms.
Sandy killed scores as it made its way across the Caribbean to the north-east US. While it was only a category two storm when it made landfall near Atlantic City in New Jersey, Sandy caused more than $75bn in damage. Lower Manhattan was knocked off the electrical grid for days because of storm surges and coastal communities have yet to recover.
“As we saw first-hand with Sandy, it’s important to remember that tropical storm and hurricane impacts are not limited to the coastline. Strong winds, torrential rain, flooding, and tornadoes often threaten inland areas far from where the storm first makes landfall,” said Kathryn Sullivan, the acting Noaa administrator.
Noaa scientists said there were three main causes behind the forecast of an extremely active season. They included a continuation of an atmospheric climate pattern, which includes a strong west African monsoon, that has been contributing to high activity during Atlantic hurricane season since the 1990s. Warmer ocean temperatures in the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans, where many storms originate, are also making for stronger storms. Officials said temperatures were on average about 0.8 of one degree fahrenheit above average.
El Niño, which can inhibit storm systems, was not expected to develop during this year’s hurricane season. The season runs from 1 June to 1 November.
“There are no mitigating factors that we can see that will suppress the activity,” said Gerry Bell, Noaa’s lead Atlantic hurricane forecaster. “The computer models all point to an active, or very active, hurricane season.”
Thursday’s forecast was released at a time when Republicans in Congress are sharply scrutinising Noaa’s role in forecasting. Earlier in the day, a house committee held a hearing to discuss privatising some of the forecasting functions that are overseen by the premier scientific agency. There has also been criticism of Noaa’s messaging in advance of Hurricane Sandy, and whether its decision to officially downgrade the storm when it made landfall in New Jersey induced a false sense of security among some coastal communities.
Noaa officials, in unveiling their 2013 forecast, noted improvements to computer models that would allow better far-range prediction of storms. New Doppler radar data, to be introduced in July, will allow forecasters to better analyse rapidly changing storm conditions, officials said. However, the officials said it was impossible at this juncture to predict which coastal communities along the Atlantic coast are most likely to be hit this year.
It is also not yet clear when the storms will hit. As Sullivan noted, Sandy struck in the waning days of the hurricane season. “Hurricane Sandy was at the very end of the hurricane season and yet was one of the most devastating storms that we have ever seen,” she said.
But officials said repeatedly that residents the length of the coast – and beyond – needed to prepare in advance, in order to be able to ride out storms in their homes or, if needed, have an exit plan in place. Such preparations should include putting aside a 72-hour supply of food and water at home, or having an evacuation plan in case of storm damage or flooding.
“This is a very dangerous hurricane season,” said Joe Nimmich, who directs disaster response and recovery for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “If you are not prepared you may become one of the statistics we don’t care to have.”
For the original report go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/noaa-forecast-active-hurricane-season
The special issue, edited by Lorna Burns and Wendy Knepper, seeks to “sound new directions in Harris studies and attempt both to reinvigorate the current file and establish a new agenda for future scholarship.”
Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Vol. 49, No. 2, 01 May 2013 is now available on Taylor & Francis Online.
Special Issue: “-Scapes” of Globality in the Work of Wilson Harris
This new issue contains the following articles:
Articles Revisionary “-scapes” of globality in the work of Wilson Harris: introduction Lorna Burns & Wendy Knepper Pages: 127-132 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776361
The reality of trespass: Wilson Harris and an impossible poetics of the Americas Gemma Robinson Pages: 133-147 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776372
The “impossible quest for wholeness”: sugar, cassava, and the ecological aesthetic in The Guyana Quartet Michael Niblett Pages: 148-160 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776374
Cataclysmic life in Wilson Harris’s Jonestown Wendy Knepper Pages: 161-173 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776376
Philosophy of the imagination: time, immanence and the events that wound us in Wilson Harris’s Jonestown Lorna Burns Pages: 174-186 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776378
Legends of the Fall: on rereading Companions of the Day and Night Michael Mitchell Pages: 187-197 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776383
Kaieteur: place of the pharmakos and deconstruction Tim Cribb Pages: 198-208 DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.776386
Intrasubjectivity in the philosophy of Wilson Harris Paget Henry Pages: 209-221. DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2013.779093
As part of the International Colloquium “La diversidad cultural en el Caribe” [Cultural Diversity in the Caribbean] being held from May 20 to May 24, 2013, Casa de las Américas presents “Rostros del Carnaval” [Faces of the Carnival] a photographic exhibition by Mario Picayo and Mariano Hernández. The exhibition opens tonight, Thursday, May 23, at 7:00pm, at Galería Mariano. The gallery is located at #607 15th Street, between Avenues B and C in Vedado (Havana, Cuba).
For more information, see http://www.lapapeleta.cult.cu/actividad/detalles/1429-rostros-del-carnaval/
The 13th International Conference on Caribbean Literature (ICCL)—Panama in the Caribbean: The Caribbean in Panama—will be hosted by the University of Panama, the country’s largest and most renowned institution of higher learning, on November 13-16, 2013. The deadline for submissions is July 15, 2013.
Description: For this historic event, ICCL will assemble 150-200 scholars from a host of colleges and universities in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The hosts have arranged a unique program to interact with the Panamanian people as you explore important historical and cultural sites in Panama City, while you engage in lectures, discussions, readings, and performances by prominent Panamanian scholars, writers, and artists. Of course, you will be afforded the unforgettable experience of touring one of the world’s technological, commercial, and geographical wonders: the Panama Canal.
Although the organizers are particularly interested in Caribbean literature, presentatios may focus on any aspect of Caribbean culture. Papers and panels may be presented in Spanish, French, and English. Please send one-page abstracts as indicated below:
(French or Spanish presentations)Dr. Jorge Román-Lagunas Department of Modern Languages Purdue University Calumet 2200 169th Street Hammond, IN 46323-2094 Phone: 219-989-2379 Fax: 219-746-9372 Email: [email protected]
(English Presentations)Dr. Melvin B. Rahming Department of English Morehouse College 830 Westview Dr., S.W. Atlanta, GA 30314Phone: 404-572-3607 Fax: 404-614-8545 Email: [email protected]
For further conference details, visitwww.icclconference.org
Today (May 23, 2013), Campus Principal and Pro Vice Chancellor, Professor Clement Sankat, will host a public lecture and launch of Britain’s Black Debt: Reparation for Caribbean Slavery & Native Genocide, a book by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, at the Daaga Auditorium, University of the West Indies-St. Augustine at 5:30pm.
Description: Since the mid-nineteenth-century abolition of slavery, the call for reparations for the crime of African enslavement and native genocide has been growing. In the Caribbean, grassroots and official voices now constitute a regional reparations movement. It is a fractured, contentious and divisive call, but it generates considerable public interest.
Britain’s Black Debt is the first scholarly work that looks comprehensively at the reparations discussion in the Caribbean. Author Hilary McD. Beckles is a leading economic historian of the region and a seasoned activist in the wider movement for social justice and advocacy of historical truth, and as such, he is uniquely positioned to explore the origins and development of reparations as a regional and international process. Beckles weaves detailed historical data on Caribbean slavery and the transatlantic slave trade together with legal principles and the politics of postcolonialism, and sets out a solid academic analysis of the evidence. He concludes that Britain has a case of reparations to answer, which the Caribbean should litigate.
International law provides that chattel slavery as practised by Britain was a crime against humanity. Slavery was invested in by the royal family, the government, the established church, most elite families, and large public institutions in the private and public sector. Citing the legal principles of unjust and criminal enrichment, Beckles presents a compelling argument for Britain’s payment of its black debt, a debt that it continues to deny in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Britain’s Black Debt is at once an exciting narration of Britain’s dominance of the slave markets that enriched the economy and a seminal conceptual journey into the hidden politics and public posturing of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. No work of this kind has ever been attempted. No author has had the diversity of historical research skills, national and international political involvement, and personal engagement as an activist to present such a complex yet accessible work of scholarship.
Professor Sir Hilary McD. Beckles holds a Chair in Social and Economic History, University of the West Indies-Cave Hill, Barbados, where he is also Principal and Pro-Vice Chancellor. He is Vice-President of the International Scientific Committee for the UNESCO Slave Route Project, and member of the International Advisory Board of the Cultures and Globalization Series. A leading voice on reparations issues, he led the Barbados National Delegation and coordinated Caribbean actions at the UN Conference on Race in Durban, 2001. His many publications including Natural Rebels: A Social History of Enslaved Black Women in Barbados; Centering Woman: Gender Discourses in Caribbean Slave Society; and A History of Barbados: From Amerindian Settlement to Nation-State.
For more information, see http://sta.uwi.edu/news/ecalendar/event.asp?id=1925
For purchasing information, see http://www.amazon.com/Britains-Black-Debt-Reparations-Caribbean/dp/976640349X
In his column “Dowd on Drinks,” Bill Dowd (Times Union) writes about how the Bacardi Company is releasing a television commercial that capitalizes on the supposed historical origins of the “Cuba Libre” cocktail—rum and Coke. [Remember to watch the video of the ad in the link below!]
Through all sorts of societal changes and over several generations, the Cuba Libre has endured as a very popular cocktail. The recipe is a simple one: Light rum, Coca-Cola and a squeeze of lime. Where it came from is, as is the case with so many cocktail origins, a matter of opinion.
The most popular version matches that told in a soon-to-be-released Bacardi USA TV commercial — that it was created in Cuba in 1900 as Colonel Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders helped fight for the island’s independence from Spain — and takeover by the U.S. They toasted the victory with the cheer “Free Cuba!” or “Cuba Libre!” in Spanish. The spot, reports Advertising Age, is the first in a series of ads showing historical events that shaped the 151 year-old brand, which has links to the creation of other rum cocktails such as the Daiquiri and Mojito. However, Coca-Cola won’t be getting a free ride on the Bacardi advertising dollar. The ad will refer to the drink as “run [sic] and cola.”
The historic theme may well be in response to competitors’ rum ads featuring historic personalities. Diageo has recast its once silly Captain Morgan as real-life privateer Captain Henry Morgan of the 1600s. William Grant & Sons is pushing its Sailor Jerry rum by using Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins, a renowned American tattoo artist and Navy man of the mid-1900s. Last year, both brands gained market share on Bacardi, although it remains the top-selling U.S. rum with 35.4% share in 2012, according to Euromonitor International which measures volume of liters sold. Captain Morgan is No. 2 with 23.2%, and Sailor Jerry No. 7 at 2.6%.
Bacardi’s campaign is timed to coincide with Cuban Independence Day on Monday. Interesting, considering both Bacardi and Coca-Cola left the island nation after Fidel Castro came to power. Bacardi now is made in Puerto Rico; Coca-Cola in plants all over the world — except Cuba and North Korea where the product is not sold.
For original post, see http://blog.timesunion.com/dowdondrinks/new-ad-revives-the-history-of-the-cuba-libre/14685/
Xylem’s YSI Integrated Systems and Services (ISS) has been awarded a contract for five marine monitoring buoys by The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC). The buoys will collect high-quality data for researchers studying climate change in the Caribbean Sea, including the waters of Barbados, Belize, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. The customized YSI EMM 2000 buoys will measure, record and transmit real-time water quality and meteorological data as key components of a Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS). The entire system will be powered by solar panels.
“The Caribbean is a unique part of the world. Our waters are the ‘bread basket’ for the region, and we must be diligent in protecting and sustaining them,” says Dr. Kenrick Leslie, CCCCC executive director. “We are very excited to build our education and research infrastructure with the addition of this important technology project for addressing the impacts of climate change on the Caribbean ecosystem.” [. . .] Coral reefs play an extremely important role in the Caribbean economy for tourism as well as food production and food security. The regions’ unique reefs have been impacted by rising sea temperatures and pollution. Long-term monitoring of environmental conditions in the Caribbean will help researchers track the health of the reefs, among the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on the planet, and mirrors similar systems already installed at key reef sites in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Data will allow development of climate models and ecological forecasting in coral reef ecosystems.
[. . .] Caribbean researchers and scientists from national and regional universities, government coastal marine research departments and non-governmental organizations are expected to use and benefit from the data to be generated by the CREWS stations. The CREWS system will be expandable with additional sensors and parameters—such as CO2 and underwater photo-synthetically active radiation (PAR)—to accommodate visiting researchers who later join the collaborative project.
The CCCCC will work with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and YSI to install and operate this network, beginning in spring 2013. The CREWS project is funded by the European Union and the Global Climate Change Alliance in the amount of US $617,000 (€ 465,000) and is part of a wider climate change project – “The Global Climate Change Alliance Caribbean Support Project” being implemented by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre. | <urn:uuid:42abdd88-9d9d-494e-a412-aea27f4c5fe4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://repeatingislands.com/ | 2013-05-24T08:50:40Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934474 | 4,854 |
The pioneers of the rock ‘n’ roll era on both sides of the Atlantic have now largely faded from the show-business scene — which is hardly surprising, given that those still strutting their stuff are in their 70s and 80s, and even “The King” himself, Elvis Presley, who died in 1977, would be 77 today.
But in Japan, Mickey Curtis is still going strong as a musician five decades after he became a star of the nation’s homegrown rockabilly boom — while as an actor, he is currently starring in a new Shinobu Yaguchi comedy film titled “Robo-G.” Now 73, Curtis plays a lonely codger who finds a new purpose, as well as new troubles, impersonating a humanoid robot.
Born Michael Brian Kachisu on July 23, 1938, to a mother and father who were both of mixed British and Japanese ancestry, Curtis (a name he adapted from his similar-sounding birth name) spent the war years mainly in Shanghai with his parents. His musician father, however, performed a disappearing act with a Russian woman. After the war, his mother — together with a British man who was to become his stepfather — brought him and his sister back to Japan, where Curtis struggled to adapt to an unfamiliar country and culture.
Even as a young boy, Curtis was exposed to American pop by his music-loving parents, and in his teens he studied at the Nihon Jazz Gakko (Nihon Jazz School) founded by a Japanese-American musician named Tib Kamayatsu. At the age of 15, he began performing country music for U.S. servicemen at camps and clubs.
In 1958, not long after Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry had begun enthralling teenagers and enraging moral guardians in the United States and elsewhere, Curtis joined Masaaki Hirao and Keijiro Yamashita in “Western Carnival” rockabilly shows at a theater in Tokyo’s central Yurakucho district. The three became an immediate sensation with local teens, though their elders typically regarded the music as irritating noise and the shows as akin to scandalous riots.
Unlike fellow Japanese rockers who learned (or approximated) the lyrics of their cover songs phonetically or simply sang them in Japanese, Curtis was fluent in English. He also had a real rebel-rocker attitude nurtured on the tough streets of postwar Japan, where his non-Japanese looks had made him not only a standout but also a target.
In the 1960s, after the rockabilly fad faded, Curtis made a smooth transition to acting for films and singing and emceeing for television. In 1967, he formed a progressive-rock band called Mickey Curtis & His Samurais, which embarked on a long tour of Europe. Returning to Japan in 1970, he became a record producer, working with many top rock and folk-rock acts.
Then, in 1985, after a hiatus of nearly two decades, Curtis resumed his film acting career. Since then his roles have spanned a wide range from doctors to gangsters, and he has worked for such leading directors as Shunji Iwai (“Suwaroteiru [Swallowtail Butterfly]“; 1996), Shohei Imamura (“Akai Hashi no Shita no Nurui Mizu [Warm Water Under a Red Bridge]“; 2001) and Takashi Miike (“Izo”; 2004). In fact, his filmography now comprises more than 100 entries — a total that would soar far higher if his TV drama appearances were added. Abroad, however, Curtis is perhaps best known for his role as a starving soldier in Kon Ichikawa’s “Nobi (Fires on the Plain),” his stark 1959 portrayal of defeated Japanese soldiers in the Philippines in the closing days of the war.
Though he may not have the widest range as an actor, Curtis consistently delivers as the coolest old guy in the room — one who’s always been lean and wiry, is usually pony-tailed and stylishly turned out and is often inwardly amused at the goings-on around him.
When we met for this interview at the Tokyo headquarters of Toho, which is distributing “Robo-G,” Curtis was suffering from a cold, but nonetheless soldiered through our 50-minute exchange with his salty persona and wry sense of humor intact.
Did you have to audition for “Robo-G”?
Everybody in this film had an audition. That’s (Yaguchi’s) way. He auditioned more than 200 senior actors and actresses (for my role).
He’d been doing all these films like “Swing Girls” and “Waterboys,” auditioning young people. If they caught a little fever they’d still go to the audition because they wanted to be in the film. But there were so many old people who couldn’t come to the audition. They’d go “Oh, I caught a fever, I’ve got a bad back, I couldn’t get out of the house.”
So he figured if he’s hiring an actor who’s over 73 years old he’d have to find someone who can act and is slim and healthy, because otherwise during the filming he’ll blow the whole thing.
Did Yaguchi ask you to do anything different from what you normally do?
Well he wanted me to shave my beard off and cut my hair, so people don’t know who it is, right?
Did you have to wear the robot suit all the time?
Yeah all the time, 30 kg of it. It took an hour to put on and 45 minutes to take off, so once you’re wearing it you can’t go to the john, you can’t do sh*t. You can’t even move properly — it’s really hot.
We shot the film in February in Kyushu and I thought, “Great, it’ll be warm with the suit on,” but it was northern Kyushu, minus 2 degrees, and I just stood there in a T-shirt and the suit, and when the cold wind came it got colder and colder and colder. I couldn’t wear anything underneath because the suit fitted too close.
Could you not use heating pads?
No man, nothing! It was even hard to breathe in that suit.
You managed to express the character, though.
I’m a comedian as well, so I got into all kinds of comic stuff on the first day, but after that I’d just do what the director wanted me to. I tried to enter his head and see what he wanted.
Usually a director and actor will have a long talk about the character before shooting starts, and how they’re going to do it all. But this time, after we’d finished working on the design of the suit, I didn’t see Yaguchi until we were on the set. He didn’t want to talk much.
But he’s a funny guy, a very smart guy. It’s all in his head, so all I had to do was do what he said. And if he says “OK,” that’s his problem.
Do you mind if we go back to the beginning and walk through your career?
A new book of mine came out on Jan. 10 and it explains all that. I was a kid during World War II. I was in Shanghai for four years. I couldn’t live in Japan because I was “half,” and if you were bilingual in those days you were automatically a spy — so we couldn’t live in Japan. World War II ended in 1945, and at the end of that year I came back to Japan.
I guess there wasn’t much left here when you came back, was there?
Oh, nada — nothing. We were starving and often ate boiled weeds and flowers and corn powder for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
After the war we came back together, but my dad had changed during the war. My real dad eloped with a Russian girl and left me, my sister and my mother. She found someone else to act as my father — well, my stepfather.
I had a pretty rough time. I had to go to a Japanese public school in Shanghai and just my face set them off. They threw stones at me and shit like that.
Was your Japanese fluent at that time?
I spoke a little Japanese; a little Shanghai-dialect Chinese; a little English.
Had you learned English from your mother?
I think so. I never studied English. I played on a lot of military bases.
Did you also pick it up from listening to FEN (Far East Network, predecessor of today’s American Forces Network-Japan)?
FEN too, yeah, and WVTR (the predecessor of FEN that was also a radio service for U.S. military stationed in Japan).
When you returned to Japan after the war, of course American cultural influence was coming in at that time.
Yeah, so everyone called me “Shinchugun” (Occupation Army).
But at that time, you had never lived in the States.
That’s right. I have only lived in the States for about two years, from 1977 to 1980. I was in Hollywood.
I believe you got into music early.
Like I say in my book, the first American music I ever heard was in Shanghai. My mother was into Bing Crosby and so on, so I heard a lot of jazz music when I was a kid, and classical music, too.
Then we came back to Japan when I was about 10 years old and I wanted to be a pianist. I started learning piano, but it didn’t last long, about a year. I just didn’t have it. Then I heard (clarinetist and bandleader) Benny Goodman’s “Live at Carnegie Hall” album (from a concert of his in New York in 1938). I said “Wow this is it! That’s my music!”
Did you want to play clarinet?
No, I was just listening. Instead of listening to classical I started listening to jazz more. I was a very shy kid. I couldn’t communicate with people, so my mother bought me a ukulele to make me a little happier.
Then I got into guitar, and when I was about 15 I gave my first performance, I think at St. Luke’s Hospital (in Tokyo). All the injured people from the Korean War (1950-53) came to stay at St. Luke’s Hospital. Did you see 1970′s “M*A*S*H” movie by Robert Altman? You know how Donald Sutherland (playing U.S. Army doctor Capt. “Hawkeye” Pierce) comes to Japan with his black medical bag? Then, when he’s going, he sings (singing) “Goodbye Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh” — and the kids are crying. That’s St Luke’s Hospital.
Am I right in thinking that you started out performing country music?
A lot of country music. There were a lot of jobs for country bands, more than for jazz. A lot of the (U.S.) servicemen in Japan came from the West Coast, so they wanted a lot of country music. I think the East Coast people went to Germany with their jazz. Elvis went to Germany.
Did you see many of the American music acts that came over in the 1950s?
I saw and met Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and just about everybody who came to Japan. In those days there were very few Japanese who could speak English, so the promoters or record labels would call me up when they came to Japan. I had to go out to dinner with Yul Brynner. I was the Japanese part of the Rat Pack — Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. It was fun.
The “Western Carnival” in 1958 was a huge phenomenon. That was the start of the real rock boom in Japan.
Yes, we started that.
I’ve seen clips from that time. The shows were pretty crazy.
It was just rock and rolling, you know!
But wasn’t the adult world pretty much against it?
The PTAs were against it — the same as in the States in those days. Black music, they used to call it “race music.”
Some of the people in that scene disappeared and some stuck around.
That’s showbiz, man.
But you stuck around.
Right, I kept going. From the “Western Carnival” I went right into movies. I was with Toho Studio. I also had my own TV show.
Didn’t you have to change your music for that?
Not really. It wasn’t the music that people were against. They didn’t understand it anyway. I think it was because all the kids skipped school to come and see our “Western Carnival.” We had two live shows a day, so they just skipped school to come — and each one was packed.
Then you kept on playing live all through the ’60s, I believe.
After that your music changed in the ’60s. You had your own band, Mickey Curtis & His Samurais.
Yeah, those were the Vietnam War days, anti-war, flower-power, 1967. I came back in 1970. I was with the hippies in New York. We were on the streets, we slept in the park.
Back then weren’t you also touring in Europe?
Yeah, we were in Europe — sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. We toured Germany a lot. There’s a lot of towns in Germany (makes German-sounding noises) and we did all of them.
Were you mainly playing in small clubs?
We played the military-club circuit, plus we did the rock clubs. Then we went to England, and we started in the North, in Newcastle, and went all the way down to the South and to Wales. We worked ourselves through London.
Then, didn’t you come back to Japan and became a record producer for a while?
I worked with (Eikichi) Yazawa, Carol, Gedo. . . . I made a lot of hit records.
But you didn’t act in movies for a long time.
I hated a thing with the last movie I did. It was a management problem, like I had booked a few days off and had told the manager but the manager didn’t tell the movie company so they were ready at the set but I didn’t arrive. Plus all the stuff with people scratching each other’s backs — I got fed up with it; so screw it, no more movies.
Then I came back into movies, I don’t know what year. I have to read my book (laughs).
It was the mid-’80s.
Somewhere round there, yeah. I did a lot, three or four a year almost.
Did you start to like it better after you came back?
Oh, I love it. I love working, music, movies, television, rakugo (comic storytelling). I’m a rakugo master. I’m in Tatekawa Danshi’s stable.
Did you get into rakugo early?
I’d been listening to rakugo since I was maybe 8 years old. I went to a yose, which is a comedy store, every day when I was in junior high and high school.
Did you think of doing it more seriously then?
Well I went to listen. I never thought I was going to do it. Then I met Tatekawa Danshi about 20 years ago. I think I was 54 years old by then. He said “Why don’t you do it again? I saw what you used to do when you were young, you could do it again.” So I went back and did it from scratch.
How do you mix rakugo and movies?
Well, rakugo is acting — plus, in rakugo you have to act everybody, right? If there are five parts you to do five characters.
You’ve had a lot of interests, not just acting and singing. Weren’t you once into racing motorcycles.
Yeah, when I was young I was into racing. I did races in Suzuka and circuit races. I’m too old for that now, I don’t do that anymore. I had a bike accident and broke my leg and couldn’t ride for a while, so I went into customizing — I had a custom bike shop. I don’t ride anymore. (My wife) doesn’t want me to break my leg again. I still have five metal pieces in my leg.
Did anyone ever ask you to ride a bike in a movie?
Oh, I’ve done some stuff. I’ve done some stunts, too.
What are you doing now besides the acting and the music?
Now I’m promoting the hell out of this movie every day (laughs). Tomorrow, I have to go to Toyama and Ehime prefectures. I hope I don’t hit any earthquakes (laughs).
You’re also blogging and tweeting. You may be one of the few people of your generation doing that.
And I have an iPhone! I work with an iPhone. I have to change it to a 4S. I haven’t had time to go home to my computer. I’ve been traveling and traveling.
Do you have children?
Three. One from the first marriage and two from the second marriage.
Do they encourage you to do social networking?
No, they don’t come near me unless they need money (laughs). You know how boys are. . . . Everyone says never go into this business, but my oldest one is into video and my second one is a DJ and the third one plays bass in two bands — so they’re all in the business.
Was that your idea?
I don’t think so. DNA, maybe?
A lot of young actors with international backgrounds like yours are coming up quickly now. Do you envy them for having a relatively easy time of it?
No, man — I have nothing to complain about in my life. I had the best time that anybody could have. When I was young they used to put coal in furnaces in cars and burn it to run the engine. From that, I went to the Space Shuttle era. It’s been a tremendous leap. The first telephone I used was a crank phone. I went from a crank phone to an iPhone in one generation.
There’s a lot of nostalgia now for the so-called Showa 30s (the fourth decade of the reign of Emperor Hirohito, who is posthumously known as Emperor Showa). Many now look back and say those years from 1955-65 were the “good old days.” Is that a feeling you share?
I wouldn’t say so. Tomorrow is always better than yesterday. But at this moment, Japan has a big problem. I think this will last for a while. The radiation problem is really ridiculous, but the tsunami and those natural disasters, that’s something else you just can’t predict.
Japan is in a bad way now in terms of economic stagnation, natural disasters and its rapidly graying population. So your current movie, “Robo Ji,” is kind of timely.
I think so. It’s perfect, right? (He then sings a couple of lines from “Mr. Roboto” by Styx:) “Domo arigato Mr. Roboto . . . I’m just a man whose circumstances went beyond his control.” All the lyrics are there, right there.
Where were you when the March 11 earthquake hit last year?
I was home, holding up my DVD rack (laughs).
You’re still performing, right?
Yeah, I just did a five-day tour in Niigata Prefecture. I came back yesterday. I had to do another show last night. Actually, today was my only holiday but (my manager) booked me for this (laughs).
What are the audiences like now — are they only old fans?
Old and new. Old folks with their grandkids. Anybody can have fun with rock ‘n’ roll.
They said it was a fad, but it never went away.
Oldies-but-goodies stay. Some people still think Elvis is alive, right? (Laughs.)
So you’re going to keep doing it for a while?
Until I die. In our business, there’s no end ’cause there’s never a best performance. The next one has to be better than the last one — so you keep going up.
Mickey Curtis’ latest book, “Ore to Senso to Ongaku to” (“Me and the War and Music”), was published last month by Aki Shobo. “Robo Ji” is now showing in cinemas nationwide. | <urn:uuid:c7245e57-1263-4b0a-bb52-42ec0af0199b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2012/02/05/people/mickey-curtis-from-rocker-to-robo-g/ | 2013-05-24T08:46:27Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982962 | 4,627 |
The Southern California Trojan, Vol. 14, No. 39, December 19, 1922
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ryywo £ On f/ie Lookout j | Ticket Prices Reduced Nittanny Lions Tough Customers Over-confidence Prevalent Henderson Working Hard Christmas Almost Here Holidays Art Holidays j PRICES TO THE NEW YEAR S j Vol. XIV game were cut in half for the U. S. C. t ■ students, thanks to Warren Bovard Gwynn Wilson snd the Tournament of Roses' officials themselves. Trojans get section of 2500 stats in the cctiter of the field for the rootir.g section ar.d students. Those ttckets are now on sale in the treasurer’s of t.ce. Pack the Rooting Section New Years .California Tickets For Game Go On Sale Today Los Angeles, California, Tuesday, December 19, 1922 No. 39 RECOGNIZE TROJAN IN FORENSICS DOPE POT BOILS AS PENN STATE SQUAD NEARS SCENE OF BATTLE .NITTANNY LlONS ARE a tough lo ;o conquer on the gridiron. They hav< Prologue to the Big Show now going or*. Fenn State booming over the cinders on the way to the Southland; all the camps ’round I about a-hum and a-buzz with prognostications, guesses, surmises, Plan Started to Organize Pacific j hoPes anent the on coming Main Event; the Trojans rounding into Berdine Jack THOUSAND GATHER AT U. FORMAL defeaied iwict> ope sheet slmw this season, but he dope sheet siwiw.s that they made more ground through their opponents' 1 iIi~ in two of those games than was mad*- through their lin<-. which is sav iii}' that the\ ought lo have won tv.«. ol tho:e games. Tie- Pi nn State line j ir* heavy; th»- driving force seems to i <«-nt<-r b**twe* n the two tackles. and ■ no leam this y*-ar has been able t<< | toji tin ir li:i<- plunging That in* ans that Henderson lias <<iti j siderable of a problem trying to figure I out a '-tron?' defense for the ground j gainers from the Quaker region. Tin i Trojan mentor, however, has such a j reputation for football that l.e mav , prove t<i be Daniel in th*1 I.ion's Den : weno’her year rolls around TROJAN STUDENTS HAVE a ter. dency to underrate the eastern team j Where they get the idea that U. S. C i will wm easily cannot be learned, for j Henderson’s pets have only met two really strong teams this season, while the Penn Staters have met six who are as strong as California. Out of these si* big games they lost three, two of those loses were freaks, the other one real. If th*' field is dry and fast on th* 1 first day of next year, the Trojans ma> turn out to he victors. Should ihe I field prove heavy, though, the Hast enters should he favored, for the; have the driving power and weight To carry them through the mud The |*asi Weeti's practice on the wet turf on Bovard Field may prove bene fioial to the Trojan huskies. CHRISTMAS IS COMING almost be fore students are prepared for it. Of ctfurse. students are always prepared for a vacation, hut the Trojan will wager that mom .tf them fiaven't made all the preparations for this Christmas that their former good resolutions had provided for. Many U. S. C. students will go home with a firm determination to write sev eral term papers and catch up with aTl their collateral during the holidays, but they will return on the second day of next year with just as firm a determination to work evenings until they have the work done. Holidays are holidays, no getting around that in the mind of the average student. Coast Inter-Collegiate Debating Conference S. C. INVITED TO JOIN Would Have Schedule Arranged to Determine Championship of C oast Tentative plans for the for mation of a Pacific Coast Inter-Collegiate Debating Conference were laid at a meeting of forensic representatives at Reed College. Washington, a short time ago. U. S. C. has been invited to join this conference. “This comes as a very signal honor,” said Professor Blanks in commenting on the invitation. “It i' i complimentary recognition of 1 S. C We ;:r-‘ inclined to look favorably on the proposal, although ii will have to be passed upon ti\ tlie Faculty Debating Committee mk! by ihe Delia Sigma Who debaling fraternity. Other universities lhal have been asked to join are tlie I'niver-siiv of California. Stanford I'ni-\ ersity. Oregon Agricultural College. fniversity of Oregon. Reed College. Fniversity of Washington, Washington State College, and Whitman 'ollege. Pinal negotiations await the sanction of the institutions concerned. It is planned to have the three institutions in each stall- meet in a tri-to determine the state battle form, on their mettle, anxious for the fray; snap, color, gusto! and a yell and a hush and tlie asbestes fairly burned with fiery, yelling blasts, rises on the “hors d'euvre” of the Football Show, the great Above are The Four Mentors of The I-Jitany Lions Who Are Traveling West to Meet The Trojan Squad at The Tournament of Roses Stadium New Years. From Left to Right The Coaches are: Hinkie Haines, Hugo Bezdek. Bill Martin and George Snell. angular dehat championship. The winning teams from each state will then meet in a triangular contest to decide the chain pionship of the coast. intersectional clash in the Rose Bowl. The Lion or the Trojan? Echo answers, “I think so. Will time honored tradition be ! upheld? Will the modern Daniel, 11 I ihe Trojan, lame the Lions, as of old ? Or will 1 he Lions, fed on ?Iu* modern ‘>|>iri1 of revolt, bite ... (through the Trojan armor as 1 he revitalization of debating ; . , , . . i , j though it were so much chocolate coatingKcho doesn t answer. DEFENSE A PUZZLE * What sort of offensive will Henderson use ! Who will he in the backfield to do all tin* scoring? Enough information has come forth to bank on it that Galloway, Baker and Dolley will comprise three-fourths (continfkd on pack -m through the choice of subjects of dynamic interest to the public at large was also discussed *^VsAAAAAAAAA/WWVAAAAAA/SAAAA , Hunt Succeeds; Ippy Kaks Eat Willie’s Snipes Dear Folks: I am a sick man tonight ma. I’ll tell you why. It was on account of those darned snipes we went hunting for. We didn't get any but will go again next time. And 1 have found out my frat bros aint perservering when tt comes to hunting for snipes. They give tip too easy. Well you see here was the way it is. We drove out in tin* country someplace by Pasadena and stopped on a hill side. As I was good at holding things, they let me hold the sack while they went out and did all the hard work of rounding the snipes up. 1 sat down and began to veil “Here snipie, here snipie," and they went after the snipes. Those frat bros. of mine will never make woodsmen. They lost the trail back to me and never did lind their way back. 1 thought it was a good joke on them as they weren't as good hunters as me. WILLIE’S SQUAWKING SNIPE Well after waiting for a loug time ami yelling “Here snipie." 1 heard a rustle by my side. It was a big dog and he began to lick my face and wanted to play and here 1 was hunting snipes I tried to make him go way but he wouldn't. I kept on saying ‘‘Here snipie" until pretty soon someone came up and says. “Get outa here. What are you doing in my garden So 1 left I went on down the road and pretty soon 1 heard some snipes They sounded just like chickens but I knew they must he snipes So 1 snuk up and grabbed one. He jquawked like a chicken but 1 put ?.im in the sack. Just then that darn tog barked. 1 shut him tip and started ,o get another snipe, when 1 t au into a wire fence and a whole lot of snipes began to squawk .lust then someone <OONT1NCED on last T'ACE) TROJAN IS NEW YEARS PROGRAMME Paper Will Have the “Name of !\ach and Every Player SOLD BY COLLEGE MEN No 'l oungsters to Pester Football I ans W’ith “Official Program SPANISH CLUBS IN JOINT MEET j The New Year’s Trojan will be the official publication at the annual New Year's Day Fast vs. West football classic to be played in the Pasadena stadium. Penn State and F. S. C. are both to be well represented. A four-page rotogravure section featuring ihe pictures, individual and group, of both teams will be of special interest and. also, help in identifying The players. Individual writeups, giving past history, achievements and characteristics of the coaches of the respective Teams will appear in a prominent place. Fniversity men. in U. S. C. rooting caps, are to be the official newsboys. They are to be posted along the dif-ferent roads leading into Pasadena, at the Pacific Electric station and in ihe stadium. The New Year's edition is to be an eleven page paper, costing fifteen cents a copy. Ten thousand copies are to be printed, but. considering the number who will attend the game, it is doubtful if everyone desiring it will be able to purchase his copy unless he does so early. As there is to be no separate program of the game on sale, the Trojan will contain the only reliable, firsthand information of both university and their teams. Next Thursday the Spanish clubs of F. S. C. and Southern Branch will hold a joint meeting at the home of Mrs. Lowther in San Gabriel. The fiesta will begin with a box lunch. Girls will bring a lunch for two. After the lunch, the guests will go over to the Mission church for a short Christmas service. I After the service the students will as- j sentble under the historic old grape | vine for the pinata. The program will follow, consisting of numbers given by each of the clubs. Machines will leave in front of the Administration building at 5:20 p. m. OXNAM TO GIVE RELIGIOUS WORK By an arrangement between Dr. Hill tnd G. Bromley Oxnam. the latter is taking over the classes in Religious Education for the remainder of the term. Dr. Hill has laid the foundation for the course and Oxnam will make practical application of the social teachings of Jesus. Holders of A. S. B. Hooks to Get Neir Years Tick ets Note Holders of the student body books will purchase their tickets to the New Year’s game today and tomorrow at window number 5 of the Treasurer’s office. Ticket number 9 will be torn out. Those students who are not possessors of A. S. B. books will get the second chance at the 2500 seats in the center section, at the price of $2.75, while the faculty will be eligible for the remaining chances, if there are any. One ticket only will be allowed to each student. This measure was taken, according to Gwynn Wilson, to insure students of U. S. C. getting the special rate which the Tournament of Roses have allowed to them. “The tickets were reprinted after the lowering of the price, and we will only have them on sale for two days.” he said. man Has Strong Praise for Corfimittee Work Before F esiivity PROGRAM PLEASES ALL Party Staged Under Auspices of Student Executive Body of u. S. c. One thousand U. S. C. students n gala attire, who assembled in he ballroom of the Hotel Alex;„n Iria last Saturdav evening, agreed n pronouncing the all-University formal the “best ever." Given under the auspices of thc executive committee cf the Asso ,iated Student Body, the affaii was the second' of the three hi*, dl l niversity events to he stayed luring the year. In ihe receiving line for the re cplion which preceded ihe dane« \ ere Dudley I hi Ves. A. S. B • rew, and Berdine Jackman, vice president, as well as president of the affiliated colleges and commit let chairmen. The program, which was brief and popular as had neen predicted, was in 'erspersed between the dances. "A Ballet of the Snowflakes," done by Egan's miniature dancers, five little tots just four years old, captivated the audience. Following the tiny ballet. Harold Allen gave one of his famous whistling solos. “The success of the party," said Miss Jackman, later commenting on the affair, "is due entirely to the splendid spirit of co-operation f-n the part of the committees. It is our desire to put on parties that will furnish a means of bringing together all the young people of the university, on and off the campus; and we endeavor to f I have the affairs so arranged as to be a source of pleasure and agreeable entertainment for all who attend." The third all-Fniversity event to be given by the Associated Student Body probably will he a formal at the Hotel Ambassador some time in tlie spring. COMMERCE MEN HEAR GRUMMERE Cinders Fly as Track Men Prepare For Stiff Season By BILL RICE With old King Football about to draw his last gasp over the defunct form of the Penn State Nittany Lions on New Year’s Day, the nights of the cinderpath are breaking out the old spiked shoes and umbering up their muscles in preparation for one of the stiffest Trojan track schedules in many moons. With Charley Paddock, world's champion, and sprintdcm’s ace cf aces, to top the bill, Couch Cromwell has an array of dash talent hat would cause an Egyptian’ .nummy tc shimmy and chortle FORTY-TWO U. S. C. Next to the one and only nnr\\ P(\ MADTU TA Charley as a headline attraction Iflfcli \|U nUillll IU tnd potential point getter comes rtn/l k D MrFTllir one Otto Anderson, already fa- ASILOMAR MEETING nous in I rojan athletic history a> a football star of no small mairni- ,, ,, _ .. ~.r .. __ , I , *• U. S. C. Men Describe Meetings Hue. ( H i o was 1 fie sensation ot . * i t i i .... at Annual Y. M. L. A. asi vestr s frosti s'inad as a hut it ii i - i i Convention Her anil broad jumper, atnl he gained a firm nileh for himself in uhletic pnnals of the West Itst Fefc-uary 2nd when on the opening day >f the Far We.-tern track and field hampioLship meet at Sacramento, t.e pppe»l three hrst places end ihe honor »f meet high poiru man. Oho took he high barriers in the fast time of *>;:!, and negotiated the low hnr lies in 24:2. Just to make ir a per ecf day tie carried oft first place in ihe broad jump with a i* ap of 22 feet .>4 inches. OLYMPIC STAR ON TEAM Alma Richards, former Olympic man and premier field star, is another >f Cromwell's bets this season. Alma is an all around performer in the field , pastimes, shining in the shot put. dis-':us. high jump and broad jump events. Another record breaker to grace Cromwell’s rolls is Oliver Cory, who holds the Southern California high ; jump record of feet 4-'?4 indie-,. Lynn Davis is aiso a high jumper of ability, having a win over California tt) his credit. Yale Martz. Aden Hughes and ico.NTiNfKP i >x Last HACKETT IS SINGER IN PROGRAMME One w» ek from today 42 enthusiastic Asilomar delegates will leave T.os An-gr-les for Monterey Bay. where they will spend Christmas vacation Final plans f«.r leaving will be form uktred this aft* rnoon at * o'clock at the • V ’ hut, and all delegates are re quested to he there. Assignment for <*tr-, will also be distributed. The day after Christmas is the day set lor departure anti Paso Robles will be reached by nightfall, after a stop at Santa Barbara for lunch, and Monterey Bay a few hours later. CAL. TO LEAD DELEGATES ( California ami Stanford still lead in attendance but the F. S. C.’s tlelepa lion comes close behind with Its 42 men. Of these 42 over half are men who have gone before and can not miss the opportunity to go again. This spirit is expressed by Lawrence TorUh ach»r. who said. “It is one of the big gest opportunities ;i college man has. for he is stimulated to think along the biggest problem of his life his Life Work. The wonderful scenery and \ surroundings are also things not to be ‘ missed." President von KleinSmid and Pro-| lessor Montgomery also praise the work of Asilomar highly. But Asilomar has another side be sides its serious one. Serge Kolesort iconti\i i:i> t >.\* »\u:f. SPANISH EXHIBIT * F. S. C. Department of Spanish is exhibiting its annual Nacimiento or Nativity on Wednesday. A cordial invitation is extended to all members of the student body who are inter e-tod in this unique exhibit of a Span ish custom to call and see the exhibit PAULINE ASSOCIATION << CINCH SUPS” OUT FOR XMAS COMPETITION SOON AMONG GLEE CLUBS Glee clubs of all the universities of California are to hold a contest at IT. S. C. this coming spring, according to an announcement made by Harry Har din. manager of the U. S. C. dee Club. The date of the contest has not been settled. Mrs. J. J. Carter, president of Hollywood Community Chorus, and well known patroness of music, has promised to act as sponsor for the affair. It will probably take place at the Phil haarmonic Auditorium. A corporation was formed December 1. of combined glee clubs with alumni representatives from Stanford, California. F. S. C„ and Pomona as directors. This organization is similar to Eastern glee clubs. Stanford took the initiative in this movement at the first meeting of glee club representatives held in September at that univrsity. Famous Tenor Is Heard Large Crowd Last Evening “Ethics of Modern Business" was the _ .subjec t of an address delivered before I FIRST NUMBER ON COURSE the College of Commerce assembly last ! - Thursday morning, by Mr. Charles t Noted Musicians to Appear On Grttmmere of the Cleveland Discount Fulure Programs—Few Company. * Tickets Left Announcement was made of the for [ .. ,. oil i • I Inaugurating the University ot mation ot the Commerce Scholarship! c • , i , I Southern California Women’s Club con- Society with twelve upper classmen 1 comprising the membership. ENGINEER’S MEET by TO BE FEATURED BY BIG SPEAKERS Christmas cards, familiarly known j as “cinches,” are out again, calling attention to the fact that certain liues of endeavor, as indicated on the cards, need more attention from the recipient. Cards are being put out before vaca-!4<in. that they may subtly suggest that ' of the year to take up Religious Educa SAM STAGG TO .SPEAK BEFORE VOLUNTEERS Sam Stagg, who is leaving the first All students preparing for the ministry are asked to hear Prof. Wm. C. Smith. Wednesday. December 2tt. at 12:ir> p. m.. room 106. It will be worth your time to be present. not all the ensuing days of freedom be spent in leisure. Fully eight hundred students will be asked to take heed "via the white cards." So far the demand for these warnings has been greater than the supply. Fully two-thirds of the anxious inquirers have been sent away conscience-free. . However, the registrar’s office advises that those cards not called for immediately will be mailed home. ATTENTION! GRADUATES! Graduate pictures for the El Rodeo are being taken Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, in the El Rodeo Office, Journalism Building. lion work in Manila, will speak at the Volunteer meeting. Wednesday, at 3:15. in Y Hut. USHERS ALL SECURED C One hundred men from F. S working under the Tournament of Roses' officials will usher at the New Year's game. According to reports from the "Y" the list>Js all signed up. GIRLS’ GLEE MEETS GRADUATES DINE AT U. CAFETERIA Forty graduate students, last Friday, attended the semi-monthly lnncheon in the Fniversity cafeteria. Mrs. Gnlick, a graduate of Cornell, gave an unusually interesting talk on the out standing features of that representa tive institution. Mr. Lacy, president of the graduate association, announces another luncheon, the second Friday after Christmas vacation. LIBRARY IS OPEN DURING VACATION A. A. E. Gathers Tonight in University Parlors for Important General Meeting Probably the most important anti interesting meeting of the year for the American Association of Engi neers will be held Tuesday evening at 7:30 in the university parlors. The meeting will be called to order in room 206 of the Administration building for a few minutes of discussion on v.<ri cert series, Charles Hackett, American tenor, appeared last night in the Bovard Auditorium before an enthusiastic audience which comfortably filled the large assembly hall. It was the largest audience which ever greet- oils business matters, after which the ed a concert artist at F. S how [ members will go to the university par The Library will be open during the Christmas vacation from 9 a. m. to 4 p. m. every day except Christmas day anil New Year’s day. and will be closed Saturday at 12:."»0. The administration has decided to keep the Library open evenings after January 2. from 7 to p. m. This is in response to a petition from the ex ecutive committee of the Student Body. There will be no change in the time collateral reading may bf taken .from the Library. PROF. POWER ON STAFF Busjness Woman’s Magazine, a new publication issued each month, includes on its staff of special writers Prof. R. L. Power of lT. S. C. The holiday issue will contain his analysis of business women in America and abroad, while future numbers will publish data on educational topics. ever, outsiders made up the greater part of the number who appeared. Fresh from the applause of London and Paris, Hackett was in good voice last night. Those who heard the art ist a few years ago when he appeared with Geraldine Farrar on a concert tour of the West and who heard him again last evening were surprised in no small degree. From a singer of ballads. Hackett has risen to the ranks of a Metropolitan dramatic opera star. Haekett’s voice has grown incredP- lors where Hubert C Fury, national director of the A ^ E . will preseDt the recently won wiving cup to tho student chapter. This meeting will be especially important. as the members of the Los Angeles City Chapter will be the in vited guests of the evening. All of ihe prominent engineers of Southern California are expected to be present and it is thought by Mr. R. E Rowley, president of the F. S. C. chapter, that this meeting will serve a splendid pur ably. His vocal range permits him to i I*°se *n placing before these men who sing ballads anil Wagner apparently ) a,v so capable of judgment, the spirit, with equal east today. To those who are of the opinion that only Europe An elaborate program has been planned, including au address by President von KleinSmid. a selection bv principles and controlling elements in the life of F. S. C." can produce the great singers of opera. Hackett presents a baffling problem. t He is an inspiring example for the American youth, for he shows that it is possible for an American, trained 1 in American institutions, to compete with the most eminent of Europe’s ; artists. Though the concert last night was 1 both an artistic and financial success, the directors of the concert series re- j gref that students have not availed j themselves of the opportunity of he:'i the engineer's jazz orchestra, which promises to make Max Fischer's bunch sound like tin pan alley, and much vociferation of the A. A. E. “male” quartet, introducing a number of new engineering songs. Eats will occupy a prominent part in the evening’s program as usual, in the form of something new and appetizing. Among those engineers of the city ing some of the greatest singers in the "ho are expected to be pres- world at prices within the reach of everyone. It is hoped that the remaining few seats will be disposed of to students before they are purchased by the outside public. The treasurer of last year’s Girls' Glee Club wishes to meet all girls POWER ON COUNCIL Professor R L Power is the Cali- NAVAL RESERVE MEETS All men interested in the Naval Re serve are asked to meet in the Exfen now in school who were iu the club j siou office Wednesday at 12 o’clock, to ! fornia member of the editorial council last year at 4 o'clock. Tuesday, in meet Mr. Ryerson. The meeting will | for the 1923 issue of the National Spe-Room 305. Bovard. only last about ten minutes. 1 cial Libraries Directory. ent anti speak are: H. 7. Osborne. Jr . chief engineer of public utilities; J. H. Clarke, Professor C. W. Lawrence, J. B. Lippincott, consulting engineer; W W Patch of the State Highway De-j nartment. and W. [) Armstrong. County Bridge engineer. The F s. C. chapter is expected to be out leu per cent to welcome the visitors and celebrate tht* winning of their handsome cup.
|Title||The Southern California Trojan, Vol. 14, No. 39, December 19, 1922|
|Description||The Southern California Trojan, Vol. 14, No. 39, December 19, 1922.|
ryywo £ On f/ie Lookout j Ticket Prices Reduced Nittanny Lions Tough Customers Over-confidence Prevalent Henderson Working Hard Christmas Almost Here Holidays Art Holidays j PRICES TO THE NEW YEAR S j Vol. XIV game were cut in half for the U. S. C. t ■ students, thanks to Warren Bovard Gwynn Wilson snd the Tournament of Roses' officials themselves. Trojans get section of 2500 stats in the cctiter of the field for the rootir.g section ar.d students. Those ttckets are now on sale in the treasurer’s of t.ce. Pack the Rooting Section New Years .California Tickets For Game Go On Sale Today Los Angeles, California, Tuesday, December 19, 1922 No. 39 RECOGNIZE TROJAN IN FORENSICS DOPE POT BOILS AS PENN STATE SQUAD NEARS SCENE OF BATTLE .NITTANNY LlONS ARE a tough lo ;o conquer on the gridiron. They hav< Prologue to the Big Show now going or*. Fenn State booming over the cinders on the way to the Southland; all the camps ’round I about a-hum and a-buzz with prognostications, guesses, surmises, Plan Started to Organize Pacific j hoPes anent the on coming Main Event; the Trojans rounding into Berdine Jack THOUSAND GATHER AT U. FORMAL defeaied iwict> ope sheet slmw this season, but he dope sheet siwiw.s that they made more ground through their opponents' 1 iIi~ in two of those games than was mad*- through their lin<-. which is sav iii}' that the\ ought lo have won tv.«. ol tho:e games. Tie- Pi nn State line j ir* heavy; th»- driving force seems to i <«-nt<-r b**twe* n the two tackles. and ■ no leam this y*-ar has been able t<< toji tin ir li:i<- plunging That in* ans that Henderson lias <| | <urn:uuid:b0044663-704d-41be-b4b2-cedb3d2bff5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll104/id/11579/rec/34 | 2013-06-18T23:00:13Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933559 | 6,459 |
A citizen activist forces New Mexico's dairies to clean up their act
by Stephanie Paige Ogburn
Jerry Nivens lives in a trailer in Caballo, N.M., 165 miles south of Albuquerque. A bulky Texas transplant who chain-smokes American Spirits, Nivens cares as deeply for his mesquite-speckled patch of ground as any rural New Mexican. He enjoys driving into the mountains, where he used to while away afternoons panning for gold. He goes fishing Lone Star-style -- in reservoirs, not rivers.
On the sunny May day I met him, he spilled out of his GMC Jimmy sporting a National Rifle Association ballcap and Magnum P.I.-style sunglasses. He wore brown corduroy pants hung from suspenders with a matching jacket over a plaid shirt. A giant Marlboro belt buckle completed the ensemble. As we drove around, Nivens marveled at artesian pools supporting desert wildlife, exclaimed as a squadron of baby quail crossed our path, and wondered over underground rivers that run to the nearby Rio Grande. Retired from the refrigeration business, he earns money from an invention of his used for water purification. He spends much of his time alone. "I'm kind of an old hermit," he says.
Which, in a way, was why I had come -- to learn how and why this loner became the driving force behind a movement that brought the state's mega-dairies to heel. The dairy industry is New Mexico's largest agricultural sector and an influential lobbying force. Although the state Environment Department has long worked with dairies to reduce pollution, change has been slow: Almost 60 percent of the state's dairies have polluted groundwater with manure runoff, yet not one has begun the required cleanup.
Now, thanks largely to the pressure brought to bear by Nivens, his allies, and an Environment Department employee named Bill Olson, New Mexico has passed some of the most progressive dairy-related water regulations in the West.
Citizens have campaigned against dairy pollution in Idaho, Washington and California. Yet despite grassroots support for tighter controls, industry has largely succeeded in slowing or even loosening regulations. New Mexico's new rules may inspire other states to take the responsibility for limiting factory-farm pollution into their own hands, activists say.
In early 2007, "there was a rumor in one of our local newspapers here about some dairy trying to come down close to Caballo," Nivens explains as we drive to a sandy wash called Percha Creek. At first, he paid little attention, but then curiosity finally sent him exploring a tangle of dirt roads until he found a sign announcing ParaSol dairy's intention to build a 2,000-cow facility. It was right next to the creek, which becomes a raging torrent when it rains. There were houses nearby, too, and the Rio Grande, a drinking water and irrigation source already polluted by E. coli, was just two miles downstream.
To Nivens, it looked like a disaster in the making: Flash floods could flush manure from the dairy into Percha Creek, polluting the shallow groundwater and eventually the Rio Grande, threatening the drinking water of nearby residents and possibly contaminating the lettuce, chiles and pecans growing downstream.
Nivens went first to a local diner to share his fears with neighbors, and then to a nearby chile-processing plant. A woman there asked if a petition might stop the dairy. " 'I don't know,' " he recalls saying, " 'but I'll go home and make some.'
"That's how it all started."
The modern Western dairy, more factory than farm, was invented in Los Angeles County, Calif., by Dutch dairymen after World War I. Newly arrived from a land-scarce country, they brought the idea of keeping cows in a small space and importing their feed from elsewhere. This made it possible to become a successful dairyman in the arid West, which generally lacks good pasture.
As L.A. County boomed, so did the dairies. But sprawl pushed them out, first into the Chino Valley and neighboring San Bernardino County, and later, in the 1980s and 1990s, north into the San Joaquin Valley or out of the state entirely. California is still the number-one milk-producing state in the country, but Idaho is now number three, Texas seventh, New Mexico ninth, and Washington tenth.
With each move, the dairies grew. They sold land at suburban development prices and bought other parcels at agricultural cut rates, using the extra cash to add more cows. Changes in U.S. milk-pricing policy propelled their growth. Beginning with the Reagan administration, the government began setting milk prices based on the price of cheese traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, so prices fluctuated more than before. Dairymen hedged against price drops by buying more cows and producing more milk. Their fixed costs stayed relatively constant, and they had more milk to sell as a cushion against low prices. When neighboring dairies went under, surviving ones bought up their cows. In 1970, there were almost 650,000 dairies in the United States. Today, there are only 62,500; almost 50 percent of U.S. milk now comes from dairies with more than 1,000 cows. New Mexico, whose dairies average 2,000 cows each, has the largest mean herd size in the nation.
As dairies added cows, the cows added manure. That manure -- 145 pounds of mixed solids and liquid per cow per day -- is usually flushed into a holding pond, or manure lagoon. Dairy owners often spray manure water onto cornfields as fertilizer and separate out the solids for compost. In theory, using waste to grow feed makes a dairy a closed-loop system.
In practice, the loop leaks. Farmers have more manure than crops to apply it to. Manure liquid can ooze from lagoons into groundwater, carrying nitrates, sulfate and chloride, along with remnant antibiotics and dangerous bacteria such as E. coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter.
"A lot of people still think of a dairy farm as black-and-white cows on a green hillside somewhere. And we still have that, but that's not (how) the majority of milk (is) produced anymore," says Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin's college of agriculture.
The pollutant most regulators focus on is nitrate. At high levels in drinking water, nitrate can cause methemoglobinemia, or blue baby syndrome, where nitrogen compounds interfere with the blood's ability to carry oxygen. Formula-fed infants are particularly susceptible. Possible effects of chronic high nitrate exposure on adults include cancer, reproductive problems and diabetes, although researchers say more study is needed.
Nitrate is not necessarily the most dangerous substance given off by Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. But it is one of the few manure pollutants the government has the authority to regulate. The federal Safe Drinking Water Act limits nitrate concentration to 10 parts per million. That law, which applies to all drinking water systems serving more than 25 people, and the Clean Water Act, which regulates water quality for pollutants like phosphorous, nitrates and E. coli in surface water, are the main tools regulators can use to curb pollution from factory farms; the majority of air and water contaminants produced by CAFOs are not federally limited.
States can go beyond federal law to curb CAFO pollution, however. New Mexico, for example, has a water-quality act that protects groundwater and stipulates that all facilities whose waste may end up in groundwater -- including dairies -- must get discharge permits.
Kathy Martin, an engineer from Oklahoma, has consulted for over 15 years on technical aspects of rulemaking in 20 states, including Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and New Mexico. She's watched residents protest against odor and flies; worry about CAFO-caused air pollution, a major health problem that is virtually unregulated; and fight to protect their drinking water. In her opinion, none of the states where she has worked has adequate rules to protect the health of dairy neighbors and the environment. "Industry almost invariably gets their way," she says. "Very rarely do the citizens get their way even on one or two points. We're just there to keep the dam from completely falling apart."
Because of New Mexico's water-quality act, the state has been monitoring pollution from dairies since about 1980, shortly after the first of several California dairies moved to a depopulated stretch of U.S. Route 80, now Interstate 10, between Las Cruces and the Texas border. Today, over a dozen dairies and tens of thousands of cows crush together along a 10-mile stretch of highway here that locals call Dairy Row.
In areas around Dairy Row, nitrate levels in drinking water exceed safety standards, and many people purchase bottled water. In 2007, the federal Environmental Protection Agency accused 11 local dairies of violating the Clean Water Act by not keeping proper records on waste management and disposal, and ordered them to comply immediately.
Martin sees better regulations as an issue of fairness, particularly for the rural and low-income areas where such facilities tend to locate. "If I find out that the mozzarella cheese in my pizza comes from a facility that has destroyed the groundwater for fifth- and sixth-generation Hispanics in New Mexico, it makes me sick to my stomach. ... I thinkat the end of the day, everyone would like to go to bed knowing that there isn't one person suffering, or child ill, because I had a Big Mac today."
Jerry Nivens already knew what keeping so many animals in one place could do. Years ago in Texas, he'd lived near giant beef feedlots in the Panhandle and around dairies near Waco, where he'd seen rivers polluted and towns filled with the stench of untreated manure. (In 2004, Waco sued 14 dairies for polluting the town's drinking water.) Thinking about ParaSol, he says, "I couldn't hardly sleep at night. Things like this are such a destruction to the surrounding area and the environment, you know, they create a sacrifice zone."
He called the state's Environment Department and learned that officials, who had never denied a permit before, did not plan to do so with ParaSol. In New Mexico, however, the environment secretary must sign off on all such permits. This gave Nivens, who had organized a group called Caballo Concerned Citizens and allied with the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club, a wedge. Members sent more than 400 letters to the agency and visited New Mexico Environment Secretary Ron Curry, a Bill Richardson appointee, in person, asking him to say no to ParaSol.
And in February 2008, Curry did.
Nivens was ecstatic. He had no way of knowing this was just the beginning of a nearly four-year fight.
ParaSol immediately hired Pete Domenici Jr., a powerful lawyer and son of a former U.S. senator from New Mexico, and appealed the decision. Dairy owners formed a lobbying organization called Dairy Industry Group for a Clean Environment, backed by the national Dairy Farmers of America. By early 2009, the group, whose lobbyists included former Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley, had pushed the Legislature to amend the state's water-quality act to require the Environment Department to create a new, standardized permit process. The dairy owners were betting it would work in their favor.
"The environment at that time was one of constant change (for dairy permits)," says New Mexico state Sen. Clinton Harden, R, who sponsored the legislation amending the act. That uncertainty made it hard for new dairies to start up and existing ones to expand, he says. During that time, at least three dairies -- important employers and economic engines in his eastern district -- had moved to Texas, which had "a known permit process."
But the dairymen hadn't counted on Bill Olson. Olson, a hydrologist and 25-year veteran of the Environment Department, was the chief of New Mexico's groundwater division. He exudes the patience and practicality of your ninth-grade chemistry teacher, but with a Western flair: The day I met him at a Santa Fe bakery, he was wearing cowboy boots, jeans, a pearl-button shirt and a bolo tie.
"Ninety percent of all our drinking water in the state comes from groundwater," he explained. Though he would retire almost as soon as the process was over, he viewed the rulemaking as a chance to "prevent pollution and protect the resource."
Olson's department drafted a preliminary rule with two key requirements. To get a permit, dairies would have to install monitoring wells upstream and downstream of their manure lagoons. They'd also have to install high-density polyethylene synthetic liners.
The latter are much more effective at containing pollutants than traditional clay liners. And the wells would let the Environment Department know if groundwater was becoming contaminated. Because wells would be located both above and below lagoons, they'd help regulators triangulate on the source of any contamination. Most states don't directly track dairy waste this way. Regulators may believe a dairy has contaminated groundwater, but without a way to pinpoint the source, blame -- and responsibility for cleanup -- often gets passed around.
Starting in May 2009, the New Mexico Environment Department held meetings to get public comment on the draft rule. Angry dairy owners boycotted. But Jerry Nivens had spent months creating an activist network, meeting with grandmothers from Dairy Row whose children couldn't play outdoors because of flies, and a mom from the faraway town of Hobbs who blamed her kids' illnesses on high levels of nitrates in her drinking water. Nivens organized these people and allies from his earlier efforts under the name New Mexicans for Dairy Reform and formed alliances with a local water protection nonprofit called Amigos Bravos, as well as the national consumer advocacy group Food and Water Watch. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit law firm specializing in environmental justice issues, represented the group during the rulemaking.
Nivens himself attended every stakeholder meeting and hearing for the next 18 months. "I went all over the state for that," he recalled. "My wife said, 'Why don't you quit that?' It's because I don't know how to quit it. It's such an urgent matter, our water, and what do you do when you mess it up?"
Months of public comment, expert testimony and re-drafting went by. Then, in April and June of 2010, the Environment Department held official hearings in front of the state's Water Quality Control Commission, which has the final say on the rules the department submits. This time, the dairy owners showed up. Each stood up, declared his patriotism and made nearly identical complaints.
"The New Mexico Environment Department's proposed rules will be the demise of the dairy industry in this state," said Alva Carter, a dairy owner from eastern New Mexico and chair of the dairy industry group, who served as a spokesperson, at the June hearing. "Many of the existing dairies will be forced to shut down, thereby depriving the state, local communities and their citizens of a valuable economic engine and associated jobs, not to mention the safest and most nutritional natural food product known to man." If the rules go through as is, he said, "We will go to Texas, or we will go to Oklahoma, or we will go to Colorado."
The monitoring wells and synthetic liners were too costly, Carter went on. Besides, he said, existing monitoring wells "have been the conduit to contaminate the groundwater." Clay liners work well in most circumstances, he said, and synthetic liners can rip and fail.
"It seems like we're low-balling everything to the point that it might not even be effective," Nivens responded. "Every time you get on an elevator ... you will remember that the low bid got it. And the low bid's not always best."
Olson calmly demolished Carter's arguments. "Clay liners seep," he said, pointing to widespread contamination from dairies that use them. "Synthetic liners are one million times less permeable than a clay liner. They are readily available, and there is a cost associated with them. We don't deny that, but in terms of preventing water pollution, this is the most effective way."
Besides, Olson noted, existing dairies that weren't polluting wouldn't need synthetic liners -- only new dairies or those already cited for pollution. As to Carter's claim that monitoring wells cause contamination, Olson's response was almost a sigh. "The department has been trying to address this issue with the industry for several years. We keep asking for any type of technical or scientific information to back up their case (but none is submitted)." The fact that lagoons filled with manure water leak and contaminate groundwater below them is "basic science," said Olson.
And though synthetic liners and monitoring wells -- which can approach $10,000 in areas with deep water tables -- aren't cheap, pollution cleanup is even more expensive.
"Once you get groundwater contamination, a lot of times you're looking at hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to work through an abatement where you could have prevented the whole thing for a fraction of that in up front costs," says Olson. "That's part of what we pushed in the dairy rule."
In December 2010, the department released its final rule. The activists didn't get the notification letters they'd requested for everyone within a mile of a proposed dairy, or the two- and three-mile setbacks from schools, residences, parks and water bodies. Instead, only a newspaper notice and sign was required along with setbacks of 200 to 1,000 feet. But Nivens was pleased. "It was keeping the light on in the lighthouse," he says. "And it was a real chore, but it finally worked out."
The rule became law in January. But hours after new Republican Gov. Susana Martinez took office, she issued an executive order to stop it, with coaching from dairy lawyers. New Mexicans for Dairy Reform took her to the state Supreme Court. "It didn't take them 15 minutes to say, 'You can't do this, Governor, you don't have the authority,' " says Nivens.
So the dairies appealed again, placing the rules in limbo. Finally, in mid-July, the Environment Department brokered a settlement. It lightens some reporting requirements, adds a new variance procedure and mediation for disputes over monitoring well placements, clarifies that dairies may keep unlined lagoons if there is no evidence of contamination, and allows operators to mix irrigation water with their wastewater. But it keeps the main protections -- synthetic liners, monitoring wells, and flow metering and nutrient management systems to limit and track where nitrates are going -- in place. The Water Quality Control Commission unanimously approved this final version of the rules Nov. 16. They are scheduled to go into effect Dec. 31.
Jon Block, the attorney who represented the citizen coalition, calls New Mexico's rules some of the strongest in the country. "While none of this is a magic wand, from the point of what we care about, these regulations are going to slowly change the face of dairy production in this state and bring it in line with higher and higher levels of best practices."
Nivens and his allies sometimes wonder why the dairies fought so hard; the four years of lawyering probably cost more than monitoring wells. But Michael Jensen of Amigos Bravos believes the dairies were worried that regulators in other states might adopt similar rules.
"It's not just about New Mexico dairies, it's about dairies in general," he says. "People were looking to see what New Mexico was going to do. Because the dairies are looking at places to, sort of, hide, because they don't like regulations."
But even if other states aren't influenced, New Mexico's overall attitude toward dairies seems to have changed. In December 2010, the Environment Department denied its second dairy permit, for the Ruch dairy in Hobbs, which had been discharging waste without a permit. Environment Secretary Ron Curry has left. His replacement, David Martin, recently highlighted the need for industry to be honest in permit applications, thanking local activists for outing a permittee whose application underestimated how industrial discharge would affect groundwater. "Regular citizens can make a difference in protecting the environment," Martin commented.
The dairymen's attitudes may also be shifting. Beverly Idsinga, whose group Dairy Producers of New Mexico represents most of the state's dairies, was pleased with the final rules. "I think (they are) going to be favorable to producers; it's going to be easier to follow than before," she says. The dairymen did, however, reserve the right to evaluate the rules after a year, and petition the Environment Department for changes if they are having "any problems," Idsinga adds.
As for ParaSol, owner John McCatharn eventually got his permit. But because of the dairy's sensitive location, it was loaded with so many requirements -- from double synthetic liners to extra flood barriers -- that McCatharn, who declined to comment on his plans for the dairy, appears to have abandoned the project. Today, the site looks much as it did when Nivens first saw it four and a half years ago -- a dirt lot by a dry creek in the midst of desert. One day this fall, though, the tattered notice for the dairy disappeared. In its place is a new sign. It reads: "Para Sol Subdivision. 116 Lot Type II Residential Subdivision. Subdivider: John McCatharn."
This story was funded by a grant from the McCune Charitable Foundation. It was produced in collaboration with the Food and Environment Reporting Network, an independent, nonprofit news organization producing investigative reporting on food, agriculture and environmental health.© High Country News | <urn:uuid:78dbf6eb-7188-47a4-b6da-fcefb2a3e354> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hcn.org/issues/43.20/a-citizen-activist-forces-new-mexicos-dairies-to-clean-up-their-act/print_view | 2013-06-18T22:58:08Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971711 | 4,617 |
1 Wednesday, 15 December 2004
2 [Open session]
3 [The accused entered court]
4 --- Upon commencing at 2.53 p.m.
5 JUDGE ORIE: Madam Registrar, would you please call the case.
6 THE REGISTRAR: Case number IT-00-39-T, the Prosecutor versus
7 Momcilo Krajisnik.
8 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you, Madam Registrar.
9 We are here this afternoon to hear any submissions from the
10 parties in respect of a possible application of Rule 15 bis (D).
11 Last Friday, on the 10th of December, the two remaining Judges,
12 that is, the two Judges remaining after the withdrawal of Judge El Mahdi
13 from this case takes effect, the two remaining Judges invited the accused
14 to inform the Chamber of whether or not he would consent to the
15 continuation of this case to be heard with a substitute Judge in order to
16 include this information in the report to the President. I have sent my
17 report to the President. Meanwhile, I take it that it has been filed this
18 morning, so that it's accessible to the parties.
19 When informing the Chamber about the not giving consent, yesterday
20 in the afternoon the Defence has asked for a hearing on which submissions
21 could be made. The Defence -- as a matter of fact, both parties are
22 entitled to make whatever submissions they'd like to make in anticipation
23 of any decision to be taken by the remaining Judges.
24 I'm aware that the Defence asked for a hearing tomorrow morning.
25 The two Judges, the two remaining Judges would have agreed to that, but
1 there was no courtroom available and the Judges were not willing to
2 further postpone a hearing. Therefore, we have scheduled it this
4 When I emphasised that both parties can make their submission, it
5 is also in view of the Rule 15(D), where it says that if the two remaining
6 Judges would determine that it would be in the interest of justice, it
7 would serve the interests of justice to continue that both parties have a
8 right to appeal, and I'm telling the parties not anything new if I tell
9 them that for appeal proceedings, of course, it might be of some
10 importance to be able to rely on what you said prior to the decision being
11 taken by the two remaining Judges.
12 Is there any preference as to which party would like to make its
13 submissions first? Perhaps the Defence is the most interested party at
14 this moment, so therefore, Mr. Stewart, please proceed.
15 MR. STEWART: Well, Your Honour, I have absolutely no objection
16 whatever to going first. Your Honour, the -- what I'm going to do is --
17 we know, I apprehend the procedural background. I'm not going to run
18 through all that. Your Honour, the -- Mr. Krajisnik's position has now
19 been made clear. Your Honour, we did receive an e-mail from the Trial
20 Chamber saying that this decision was found surprising but understandable.
21 Of course, Your Honour, it's our submission it's understandable. We're
22 slightly surprised it's surprising, but it doesn't matter because by the
23 time we get to the end of these submissions we hope that Mr. Krajisnik's
24 position will be (a), understandable; and (b), not any longer surprising.
25 Your Honour, what I should also make clear about Mr. Krajisnik's
1 position is that he is not contending, through us, that, in the particular
2 circumstances there should be neither a new trial nor a continuation of
3 the old trial. That could be the position in the future if a similar
4 situation arose. But the future is the future, and at that point, one
5 could reach a situation where neither course was appropriate. But on this
6 occasion, Your Honour, we're not arguing that it's in the overall
7 interests of justice to have neither a new trial nor a continuance.
8 Nevertheless, Mr. Krajisnik's position is very clear. He has not -- the
9 way it's put in the Rules he has -- he does not consent to a continuation
10 of these proceedings, i.e., this trial, because he wishes to have the
11 alternative, a rehearing in terms of a new trial.
12 So, of course, they're mutually inconsistent; hence, since it is
13 his wish and our submission that there should be a new trial, of course
14 his consent necessarily had to be withheld under 15(C). Otherwise it is
15 not a consistent position.
16 So, Your Honour, the way that we phrase the question, and it's a
17 legitimate paraphrase of 15 bis (D), is in those circumstances, and that
18 being Mr. Krajisnik's position, which of a new trial or a continuation
19 better serves the interests of justice. Because 15 bis (D) is talking
20 specifically about the decision for the two of Your Honours whether a
21 continuation would serve the interests of justice. But since the only
22 rival contention, but it is the rival contention, the alternative, is a
23 new trial, effectively, it is which of them better serves the interests of
25 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Mr. Stewart, I think that's understood. If you
1 look at the French version of Rule 15 bis (D), you'll see that it
2 says "better serves."
3 MR. STEWART: That's even better, then, Your Honour.
4 JUDGE ORIE: Yes.
5 MR. STEWART: I hadn't -- I do occasionally look at the French,
6 Your Honour, when I see ambiguity and uncertainty in the English, but I
7 must confess a preference for English as my first port of cause. Yes,
8 Your Honour, I understand that means -- "meilleur," I suppose, is a --
9 JUDGE ORIE: It says "sert mieux."
10 MR. STEWART: I understand the grammar. Thank you, Your Honour.
11 Thank you so much for that. Well, in that case, there's clearly no issue
12 whatever. The English, as I've understood it and submitted it to mean
13 accords with the French.
14 The -- Your Honour, the technical position - again, to go very
15 quickly over this - is that our submission is and we believe that this is
16 also firmly understood by the jurisprudence, there's no presumption either
17 way that Your Honours simply decide which is the better course and do not
18 start with any legal presumption.
19 The structure of Article 15 -- of Rule 15 bis, after all, is that
20 there is no continuation at this point without consent, and then a special
21 provision to allow one effectively what we call compulsory continuation if
22 our submissions in this particular case are rejected.
23 So although there's not a presumption, it does require, of course,
24 a positive decision by Your Honours.
25 The basic foundation is, we submit, that unless there is some
1 sufficient reason to the contrary that a defendant, and especially a
2 defendant in Mr. Krajisnik's position, on such serious charges, and it
3 goes without saying, the charges are the most serious, because it's
4 genocide and then a whole series of other very serious crimes. So they
5 are the most serious. Mr. Krajisnik is a 60-year-old man. That's quite
6 recent. But he is now a 60-year-old man facing, without any concession at
7 all being made, but if he were convicted on all charges, he faces a clear
8 risk of life imprisonment. I say no more than that. But clearly, that
9 must be realistically a risk.
10 The starting point is that he should have the assurance, if at all
11 possible, when his trial starts, that all three Judges should hear, and
12 where appropriate, read all the evidence throughout and on equal terms.
13 That may sound like a rather fine distinction from a presumption, but
14 it's, we submit, a clearly correct statement of principle, that as far as
15 possible, and we operate in the real world, Mr. Krajisnik should have had,
16 ideally, and should have now, if at all possible, a trial with all Judges
17 present all the time.
18 And the importance of the presence of all Judges all the time is
19 recognised, endorsed, and inferred very clearly from other provisions in
20 Rule 15 bis which are not directly the issue here, but 15 bis (A), dealing
21 with short-term absence from the trial, and then 15 bis (F), which
22 authorises a Chamber to conduct routine matters, but only routine matters,
23 in the absence of one member of the Chamber.
24 So that's consistent with and endorses that essential principle.
25 There is also an important principle expressly enshrined in the
1 Rules, but it would be clear anyway, equality of Judges. The presiding
2 Judge, Your Honour Judge Orie in this particular instance, the Presiding
3 Judge naturally chairs, in effect, and directs the proceedings to a very
4 considerable, practical extent, but of course all three Judges are equal
5 in deciding Mr. Krajisnik's case. He is entitled to their equal say, and
6 if it comes to it, to their equal vote. And he could, in principle, one
7 among many permutations, he could as any defendant be acquitted by a 2:1
8 majority by the Trial Chamber. So it is absolutely vital that, so far as
9 possible - of course, we can only do the possible, not the impossible -
10 but so far as possible, no Judge should be in any sense less well equipped
11 than any other Judge. For example, by being put in a position of
12 deferring or feeling that there might be any circumstances in which he or
13 she might defer to a greater grasp or knowledge of the case. And there is
14 that practical element. All Judges of this Tribunal are, of course,
15 independent mind and disposition or they wouldn't be here, but that's a
16 very -- that's, all the same, a natural element and concern if one does
17 have any imbalance.
18 Of course, Your Honour, we note 15 bis inevitably involves a
19 compromise of this point in the particular circumstances with which it
20 deals. We're not operating in some remote, unreal world. So of course it
21 does. But that nevertheless, in our submission, leads to the accompanying
22 principle that such compromise should be kept to the absolute minimum.
23 And I come to that shortly in balancing. Because it is a balancing. It's
24 one of those balancing exercises, however near the borderline it comes,
25 between new trial and continuation.
1 The basic foundation, as I think I labelled it, of Mr. Krajisnik's
2 essential entitlement to have all Judges hear all the evidence throughout
3 and so on, as I summarised it, follows and is consistent with elementary
4 features of trial procedure that -- and trial procedure in many tribunals
5 but specifically before this Tribunal, that there should be an oral
6 hearing, with witnesses. 92 bis and 89(F) being restrictive exceptions
7 applied in accordance with the Rules and the jurisprudence in certain
8 defined if not in detail always specifically defined circumstances, and
9 particularly 92 bis having importance exceptions where it has no
10 application and can have no application at all, particularly in relation
11 to acts and conduct of the accused.
12 So oral hearing with witnesses. Opportunity for all Judges to see
13 and hear all witnesses live or all important -- all witnesses are
14 important, but or they wouldn't be in the case, about all important
15 witnesses by which I just mean as a shorthand, there are of course, among
16 the 92 bis witnesses, there are witnesses that neither party nor the Trial
17 Chamber consider it necessary to hear and see live. And there's not
18 always an issue about 92 bis witnesses, after all.
19 The -- and we note, I mentioned 15 bis (A), the short-term dealing
20 with matters. That's limited to five days absence of a Judge and is not
21 automatic anyway, of course. It's applied according -- only when the
22 circumstances justify. And so we have oral hearing, opportunity for all
23 Judges, and that's reinforced by several provisions of 15 bis. All Judges
24 to be there throughout. And with physical attendance of witnesses,
25 subject to -- oral witnesses, but subject to specific application for
1 videolink evidence and a specific order under Rule 71 bis. So videolink
2 is an exception. It's sensibly applied and it has been occasionally used
3 already in this case, but it's clearly not the basic procedure. The basic
4 procedure is that witnesses turn up and give their evidence in full view
5 of all the Judges and the accused, cross-examined in the same room as --
6 examined and cross-examined in the same room as counsel.
7 So that's the basic background.
8 The current state of this trial is, of course, relevant. It
9 cannot be -- it can hardly be irrelevant. In a nutshell there, we attempt
10 to summarise in a time to put together this information. Your Honour, if
11 an apology is needed for some of these figures perhaps not being a hundred
12 per cent accurate, although we believe most of them are, the degree of
13 inaccuracy we submit is not material. If we're out by one or two
14 somewhere in the count, we might be quickly corrected, but even if not
15 corrected, we don't -- we suggest it won't affect the substance.
16 We have heard, or Your Honours have heard so far 41 viva voce
17 witnesses in the sense that they were not under 92 bis at all. So they
18 were not partially 92 bis or whatever. They were simply viva voce
19 witnesses giving their evidence in chief and being cross-examined
20 viva voce. 41. One is and was an expert witness, Mr. Treanor. The rest
21 are and have been factual witnesses, witnesses of fact, of which -- and
22 here we're not a hundred per cent about this next figure, Your Honour, but
23 on our count, 17 of those, or very close to 17, involved some element of
24 89(F), to shorten the actual oral evidence in chief.
25 So that's -- but that's the category of viva voce witnesses.
1 Second category: We've had five witnesses whose evidence in
2 chief, or whose evidence has been admitted under Rule 92 bis but with
3 cross-examination, and they have attended and been cross-examined. That's
4 the second category.
5 The third category is we have had just over 40, but very close to
6 40, but our count is just over 40 Rule 92 bis witnesses admitted, or their
7 evidence admitted, without cross-examination.
8 Then -- so those are the three categories of witnesses in a sense
9 who have either already been heard or in the case of those Rule 92 bis
10 witnesses admitted without cross-examination, their evidence is in a sense
11 on the file. It's equivalent to their having been heard.
12 There then as a fourth but slightly different category, there are
13 several by which we believe it's only about three or four Rule 92 bis
14 witnesses who have already been admitted but with cross-examination -- but
15 with cross-examination, but that's still to come. So they haven't come
17 The -- so those are the witnesses. The total hearing is in fact
18 exactly, because it might otherwise sound like a round figure but in fact
19 we have had exactly a hundred days of hearing, according to our records on
20 the Defence side. So they've been spread and for reasons that Your
21 Honours are familiar with and we all know the timetable and the
22 circumstances in which the trial started, they've been spread over 11
23 months, but we have had a hundred days of hearing.
24 The -- so next question is then a new trial, which is what we're
25 contending for. What would it involve? And within the Rules and the
1 established procedures, there is a considerable degree of flexibility,
2 especially with sensible agreement of the parties. And straight away,
3 Your Honour, I should make it clear that the Defence submission and the
4 Defence request will not involve the trial simply starting again as if
5 nothing had happened, and apart from all the pre-trial briefs and the
6 indictment, for Heaven's sake, those things have happened, but not
7 starting again as if nothing had happened and no witnesses had ever given
8 evidence and no 92 bis rulings had ever been made, apart from those made
9 perhaps before the trial began. We're not suggesting that. It's not our
10 submission and not our proposal that it would be sensible to have a total
11 rerun of the trial in every respect. But it is, and we maintain that, it
12 is our position that there should be a new trial as opposed to a
14 So -- and I will, of course, need to explain and develop that a
15 little so Your Honours understand exactly what it is we're proposing and
16 how practical it is.
17 Your Honour, the Defence position would be this with a new trial:
18 We would not seek to reopen, or put it another way, to resist a renewed
19 application, if that's the way it were technically done, the question of
20 the 92 bis witnesses. So that all the 92 bis witnesses where Your Honours
21 have already ruled that their evidence should be admitted, we would accept
22 that. If it were necessary to go through a technical step of renewing the
23 application, we don't believe it is, because even if it's a new trial, it
24 talks in 15 bis about continuation of proceedings. But this is still the
25 case of the Prosecutor against Krajisnik.
1 The -- so we would accept the 92 bis rulings. We would also
2 accept and not seek to have recalled any of those 92 bis witnesses where
3 the evidence in chief was admitted at the Prosecution's request and we
4 were -- that was five of them - and we were able to cross-examine. We
5 would be content and would agree to the transcripts of their evidence
6 being treated as their evidence. So from that practical point of view,
7 that would be very much the equivalent of the position in relation to
8 those witnesses if the situation were the existing trial to continue.
9 The key points -- I hope I haven't omitted anything from these
10 categories, and our acceptance of 92 bis rulings would also apply to that
11 small category where they've been admitted with cross-examination still to
12 come. But then cross-examination is still to come, whatever happens in
13 relation to those witnesses. But we would not seek to reopen the
14 admission of their evidence under 92 bis. Your Honour knows there are
15 some tiny little bits of tidying up in relation to one or two witnesses
16 where there's a redaction issue but those are so minor that they really
17 have no bearing on the issue today.
18 The key to all this, and the nub of the practicalities of a new
19 trial as opposed to continuation of present trial, lies with a relatively
20 short list of important witnesses. I've already said all witnesses are
21 important, but some animals are more equal than others and some witnesses
22 are more important than others. And perhaps I could give Your Honour, and
23 I'll be careful here with these names, but perhaps I could give Your
24 Honour -- it's a dozen names, and I wonder if I may simply read them off
25 carefully, because, well, they will be familiar names to Your Honour, but
1 may I do that.
2 They are, and I -- no disrespect to the gentlemen concerned.
3 [Defence counsel confer]
4 MR. STEWART: Excuse me, Your Honour. My team were concerned that
5 I was going to read name of protected witnesses, but they -- on this
6 occasion, although they have justification for that concern, on this
7 occasion their concern was not necessary.
8 Your Honour, the witnesses concerned are Deronjic, Treanor,
9 Kirudja, Okun, a protected witness, another protected witness, Kljuic --
10 I'll come back to KRAJ numbers in a minute, Your Honour. Another
11 protected witness, Radic, Bjelobrk, Mandic, and Karabeg. And the
12 protected witnesses in question, Your Honour, are 625, 623, and 583. And
13 whether Your Honour probably carries those numbers in your head, but Your
14 Honour will be familiar with which three gentlemen we're talking about.
15 Your Honour, Mr. Deronjic, and may I indicate, Your Honour, what
16 we would propose on the Defence side in relation to those witnesses,
17 because this is really the heart of the matter. Mr. Deronjic gave
18 evidence for just under five days. And without elaborating the point,
19 Your Honour, the Defence would wish there to be a new trial and for
20 Mr. Deronjic to come and give his evidence in full as a witness before all
21 three Judges at the new trial.
22 Mr. Treanor gave evidence for ten days. We would not suggest that
23 it's practical or sensible for Mr. Treanor to need to come back and give
24 another ten days of evidence in addition to his voluminous report. What
25 we do suggest is that for a maximum of two days, Mr. Treanor should
1 return. There is, in the light of our rather better knowledge of the
2 case, since those relatively early days when Mr. Treanor was
3 cross-examined, there is further ground the Defence would wish to cover,
4 and it would be of value to the new Judge to see and hear Mr. Treanor for
5 that period. It would -- the difference in terms of assessing Mr.
6 Treanor, getting a feel for his evidence, the difference between two days
7 and ten days is hardly critical, but to have him back at all is
8 advantageous, we suggest.
9 So far as Mr. Kirudja is concerned, he gave evidence for just
10 under three days. Your Honour, with Mr. Kirudja - and this applies to a
11 number of witnesses - we would not suggest that his evidence is jettisoned
12 in any way. We would suggest that the evidence that he's given so far,
13 whether it is technically done, we suggest, under 92 bis. But the -- his
14 evidence should be treated as evidence in the new trial, but nevertheless,
15 he should come back, unless, Your Honour, the Defence on -- we haven't had
16 a long time to consider all these detailed matters. If we did consider it
17 was simply not necessary, then, Your Honour, we would conscientiously say
18 so, but at the moment we consider that that would be reasonable and we
19 would be likely to ask for that for -- but we consider for one day
21 Mr. Okun gave evidence for three and a half days. We would treat
22 him in the same category as Mr. Kirudja but suggest that a maximum of two
23 days would be needed for him.
24 Protected witness 625, like Mr. Deronjic, the Defence would wish
25 to come back and give evidence in full.
1 Protected witness 623 gave evidence for four days. The Defence
2 would like him to come back for a maximum of one day, cross-examination.
3 Your Honour, we should say, we don't -- when we say come back for
4 cross-examination, we're not excluding the possibility that the
5 Prosecution might say: We'd like some supplemental examination-in-chief.
6 And we're not saying in advance that if they were to make that request -
7 we don't know whether they would - we're not taking a position in advance
8 of resisting and objecting to that. We're saying the Defence's position.
9 So far as Mr. Kljuic is concerned, Your Honour, he's coming back
10 anyway. We would be content, as he is coming back anyway, we would be
11 content to have his evidence so far simply taken as his evidence, and he
12 is going to come back and the new Judge, whichever way, we accept this,
13 some of these are common features, whether it's the continuation of the
14 present trial or a new trial, Mr. Kljuic will come back. But what we're
15 suggesting is there should be no distinction; he should come back in the
16 same way either way, that continuation or new trial, his evidence should
17 be treated as his evidence, but he is coming back for further
18 cross-examination, and he has already supplied some material which was
19 under discussion when he gave his evidence before.
20 So far as Witness 583 is concerned, he gave evidence for three
21 days. The Defence there, Your Honour, would simply wish to reserve the
22 position in the way that it's, I believe expressly in his case, but
23 implicitly, it's reserved for any witness anyway to make an application to
24 have him come back for further cross-examination. But we have no active
25 application under way at the moment. We have not taken any decision,
1 although to be frank, we haven't had a lot of time to review his evidence
2 in detail anyway. But we simply reserve it.
3 So far as Mr. Radic is concerned, he gave evidence for just under
4 three days. The Defence would wish him to come back. As in every case,
5 this does enable the new Judge to see this witness, to get a feel of this
6 witness, to come back for one day. We're talking about a maximum of one
8 Mr. Bjelobrk, well, I can't say he's coming back, because I do
9 appreciate that Your Honours are reserving the position in relation to
10 Mr. Bjelobrk, but, Your Honour, the Defence's position remains that there
11 is -- we haven't resolved all matters between us and the Prosecution, but
12 the Defence position remains that there will be reason to bring
13 Mr. Bjelobrk back. On that footing, Your Honour, we would be content to
14 treat him in the same way as Mr. Kljuic, for example; take his evidence as
15 his evidence so far and have him come back. The Judge would get to see
17 So far as Mr. Mandic is concerned, while technically reserving our
18 position in relation to Mr. Mandic, as with all witnesses, we can't ever
19 rule out and wouldn't wish to positively rule out any application ever to
20 bring him back, whatever happened. We have no present intention of making
21 such an application now in relation to Mr. Mandic. We do not expect to
22 make an application. That's the highest I'll put it. We do not expect to
23 make an application to bring Mr. Mandic back. But there remains a great
24 deal of material in relation to Mr. Mandic, and I don't want to go all
25 over that painfully recent ground, Your Honour, but it's not impossible
1 that we would make such an application. We do reserve our position.
2 And then Mr. Karabec [phoen]. I think I mentioned him. I
3 certainly meant to. Mr. Karabec -- Karabeg, I'm sorry, gave evidence for
4 two days, spread over three, but it was a total of two days in fact.
5 There's a question. I'm not terribly familiar with the details of this,
6 Your Honour, but he has produced some diaries, or he is to produce some
7 diaries and there is a question of his being further cross-examined for
8 probably no more than a couple of hours.
9 So, Your Honour, those are -- those are the key witnesses for
10 today's purposes. The -- yes. Those are the key witnesses for today's
11 purposes. In many cases, of course, there was a slightly variable
12 approach. In some cases, we have reserved the position formally; it's
13 implicitly reserved anyway. In some cases we have, in a sense, more
14 firmly and expressly reserved the position with a strong indication that
15 we are likely to make an application to bring -- for the witness to be
16 brought back, and in one or two cases, Your Honour, it's already known
17 that we positively do wish for the witness to come back.
18 But the effect is, if our proposals -- they could be discussed in
19 -- they merit some discussion between the parties to refine, but in
20 principle, that's the Defence's approach, which is on the table there, and
21 it is not, so far as we've indicated, for example, in relation to 92 bis
22 witnesses, we're not withdrawing that. That is a firm position of the
24 The -- so far as the -- with Mr. Deronjic and another witness
25 being brought back in full and then the position in relation to those
1 other witnesses, as I've just summarised it, we estimate there's about an
2 extra 15 days of hearing on a rerun or a new trial, as opposed to
3 continuation of the present trial, where, in particular, two of those -- I
4 think it was two of those witnesses, but there are certainly two, in
5 particular, two would come back and give their evidence all over again,
6 truly as if it were a -- well, not as if it were, but truly on the basis
7 that it is a new trial. And that is the important distinction. It may
8 not seem very much, Your Honour, but when one strips away, not as
9 irrelevant but as in a different category, when one strips away what one
10 might call background witnesses, crime-base witnesses, all important, no
11 doubt, as elements of the case, but when one strips that away, on the
12 witnesses we've heard so far, it does come down to a smallish batch of, if
13 you like, critical witnesses. We'll argue in due course about how
14 critical some of them are. But it does come down to that. But there is
15 nevertheless a real distinction between new trial and continuation.
16 If we continue the present trial, of course the new Judge will
17 have the enormous task of reading in so that he or she is sufficiently
18 familiar to be on an even level with the other two Judges to contribute
19 equally and evenly. Of course, there will be no intellectual distinction
20 in principle among the Judges, but that Judge needs, as a human being, to
21 get up to speed with the other two Judges. That, Your Honour, of course,
22 we accept, is not greatly different from the task of a new Judge on a new
23 trial. There isn't a huge distinction there, particularly if, although
24 it's not technically -- it doesn't follow technically under the Rules, but
25 we rather expect and apprehend that Your Honours Judge Orie and Judge
1 Canivell are intended to continue to be the other two Judges. We -- it's
2 not -- doesn't follow as night follows day from the Rules, but we're
3 approaching it on that footing, Your Honour.
4 Your Honour Judge Orie indicated last Friday his view that it --
5 that the new Judge would require rather longer if there were a
6 continuation of the present trial than if there were a new trial. I
7 should say straight away, Your Honour, that although I could adopt this
8 for the purpose of the present argument, the Defence, with respect,
9 doesn't fully endorse that view. We would submit that there's unlikely to
10 be any serious distinction in terms of the work truly needed and the
11 timetable. But perhaps that's a bridge to be crossed a little bit at some
12 relatively near future point.
13 But if Your Honour is, and I don't mean any disrespect in saying
14 this, but if Your Honour is correct on that observation, then that 15-day
15 difference that we've estimated between a new trial and a continued trial,
16 a lot of that is eliminated anyway in terms of proceeding with the case,
17 because in fact Your Honour's indication was that you expected
18 continuation of a present trial to -- or to resume some two or three weeks
19 later than starting a new trial, which pretty much balances out that 15
20 days. So in terms of starting on that footing, which I have made it
21 clear, Your Honour, we don't fully accept, with respect, but on that
22 footing, there wouldn't be a really significant difference.
23 The -- certainly -- well, we've indicated which recall of some
24 witnesses would be desirable anyway, on the footing that the present trial
25 were to continue. We would still submit - but that would be a submission
1 perhaps in more detail for another day - we would still submit that
2 Mr. Treanor should come back for a couple of days, that Mr. Bjelobrk
3 should come back anyway, and we might very well make submissions in
4 relation to Deronjic and Witness 625, submissions that they should at
5 least come back for further cross-examination, which would be a different
6 thing from what we ask, and that is, after all, the prima facie procedure
7 in the context of a new trial, that they should come back and give their
8 evidence again.
9 Your Honour, we submit there's no useful, applicable precedent
10 here from the jurisprudence of this Tribunal or the sister Tribunal in
11 Arusha which casts -- which really tells us any more than an intelligent
12 reading of 15 bis. The options are clear under that Rule. In particular,
13 and Your Honour, it's pretty difficult to make submissions in this area
14 without mentioning the case against Mr. Milosevic, which does tend to be
15 in people's minds around here sometimes. In the Milosevic case, of
16 course, we know that in most unhappy circumstances, one of our Judges from
17 England and Wales left the case, which we all deeply regretted. But the
18 Milosevic case is and was -- there was a substitution then and we know
19 that one of the Scottish Judges has joined that Bench. But it is a very
20 special case. There was no view expressed by the accused consistently
21 with his overall attitude towards the Tribunal and the proceedings, he
22 wasn't likely, after all, to be drawn into expressing a view under a
23 provision of the rules, and he didn't. There was no submission by any
24 party or the amici there should be a new trial. The amici curiae said
25 that there should not be a new trial because of the known ill health of
1 Mr. Milosevic. But that's as far as they took it. And of course it had
2 by that time been a very long trial. There was no consideration expressed
3 by the Trial Chamber or the remaining Judges, for the purposes of 15(D),
4 of any argument for a new trial. So the issue simply is not argued and
5 appearing in any judgement.
6 They were further along in the trial. Your Honour, that's an
7 argument -- that's a point that might cut both ways, but rather than get
8 into a digression down that byway, we simply observe it's very different.
9 The situation is very different. Mr. Milosevic had been brought to
10 The Hague on the 29th of June, 2001. His trial had started on the 12th of
11 February, 2002. The Prosecution case had ended on the 27th of February,
12 2004. Shortly thereafter, Judge May announced his retirement and the Rule
13 15 bis hearing in the manner that I've summarised, took place on the 25th
14 of March, 2004. There was, according to our information and
15 calculations - well, it's information rather than calculation, Your
16 Honour - something between 290 and 300 -- there had been 290 to 300
17 hearing days in the Milosevic case at that point, and the Prosecution case
18 had spread over some -- well, it doesn't really matter about weeks. It
19 had been that number of days.
20 All we're saying, Your Honour, it's a very different case.
21 The -- Your Honour, among, and I'm getting fairly near to the
22 conclusion of my submissions, which we're grateful to have had the
23 opportunity of making. There is always a question of inconvenience to
24 witnesses. That's a factor. We don't submit it's irrelevant under the
25 heading of "interest of justice." There are lots and lots of factors
1 which are somewhere on the scale of relevance, and we don't suggest that's
2 not among them. However, and in principle, every witness who needs to be
3 brought back to The Hague is a factor to be given tautologously such
4 weight as it merits. But it's not a utilitarian analysis. You don't
5 aggregate together the relative lower interests of all the witnesses and
6 then balance them against Mr. Krajisnik's interests. One bears in mind,
7 we submit, that Mr. Krajisnik's interest as the man on trial are far
8 greater than any witness. And in any case, first of all, it follows from
9 what we've already said: Few witnesses would be adversely affected, even
10 in terms of inconvenience, by adoption of our submission for a new trial
11 as opposed to a continuation. This is a very small number of witnesses.
12 Within that category, there are -- we can identify at least one,
13 and Your Honour may be able to identify, in the category of witnesses who
14 are in custody anyway, in which case one might say - and I'm not being
15 flippant - that the inconvenience of coming to court to give evidence for
16 a witness who is already in custody might be regarded as rather slight.
17 The -- there are others who are expressed a positive wish to be
18 helpful in reaching the truth and don't have any apparent difficulties
19 beyond what I'll call the normal inconvenience. I'm not saying it's not a
20 nuisance to some people, though it's a pleasure to others to come to
21 The Hague for a few days, but it's not a major, major consideration for
22 witnesses who are inherently not reluctant and have expressed a wish to
23 help in this search for the truth.
24 And then as a back-up in some cases, videolink under 71 bis is
25 always available if the convenience is significant and can be
1 significantly mitigated in the case of appropriate witnesses by
3 So, Your Honour, all that is simply meant to say that
4 inconvenience of witnesses in principle is part of the exercise but is
5 really of no overall significant weight in making the balance that Your
6 Honours are making today.
7 The -- it does not appear also, Your Honour, we observe, there's
8 no indication that we have in this trial any insuperable witness
9 availability problems. I'm not talking about the witnesses that nobody
10 can persuade to come in the first place or nobody can contact in the first
11 place. That's a problem that lies behind all these procedures. But so
12 far as the witnesses who are identified are concerned, we have not seen
13 any significant problems, insuperable problems of witness availability.
14 And in any case, more to the point, a new trial in the terms that we've
15 suggested as opposed to a continuation doesn't create any obvious extra
16 difficulties in that context.
17 Your Honour, the question of timing, we've already submitted that
18 in fact there isn't in the overall context of this matter, there isn't an
19 enormous -- in fact, there's not really at all a significant likely
20 difference in the timing and the ultimate conclusion of this case anyway
21 as a result of adopting the Defence submission in this case. But so far
22 as there had been or so far as, in Your Honour's judgement, now looking at
23 the position overall, there is some difference, it's not, first of all, it
24 isn't on any footing a massive difference.
25 From Krajisnik's point of view - and we've had this point before,
1 really - he's in detention, of course, and in principle, from his point of
2 view, the sooner this trial is concluded, the better. But Mr. Krajisnik,
3 this being his position that he wishes a new trial with any consequential
4 timing implications accepted by him, is consciously and deliberately
5 accepting those consequences of his preserved course. So although the
6 Trial Chamber is, we trust, at all times astute to protect Mr. Krajisnik's
7 interests, the Trial Chamber does not need to go and should not go so far
8 as to impose concerns on Mr. Krajisnik in areas where he's willing to
9 accept the position himself.
10 So far as the wider public interest on time is concerned, again,
11 it follows, Your Honour, from our submissions that we say this is not a
12 significant factor. There is, on any footing, a limited effect on the end
13 date of this trial. And it may even be that the better focus which the
14 parties are now able to bring to bear on the matter will even more, in the
15 light of experience of this case, will even more shorten any possible
17 The -- any such difference in overall timetable between new trial
18 and continuation in any case needs to be very carefully balanced and not
19 given undue weight against the specific interests of an accused who has
20 already been in detention for four and a half years - a fraction more -
21 and faces an inevitable total time of around six years from arrest to
22 trial judgement. So the sort of timing implications that we're talking
23 about cannot be a significant factor weighing against the interests, and
24 indeed the preferences, of Mr. Krajisnik. He doesn't decide the issue,
25 but his preferences are, we suggest, important.
1 The -- I'm going to mention in a couple of sentences, Your Honour,
2 the completion strategy issue, where we were grateful to receive Your
3 Honour's confirmation, express confirmation in a short exchange a few
4 weeks ago, that it is only -- the completion strategy is only part of the
5 general framework, that the whole Tribunal is required to wind up its work
6 by a certain date, and we were grateful for Your Honour's express
7 confirmation that such matters were only part of the general framework and
8 did not drive judicial decisions in this case. And we appreciated that
9 confirmation. And putting it another way, the completion strategy and
10 related matters can, in principle, only be devised to accommodate the
11 appropriate the judicial decisions in the interests of justice, such as
12 the decision that Your Honours are faced with and not the other way
13 around. That would be, in a good old English phrase, the tail wagging the
15 The resources, again, Your Honour, we don't, as we didn't with
16 witnesses, we don't argue that resources are always irrelevant and that we
17 operate in some ideal world where everything can be done with no limit of
18 expenditure. Of course, if we operated in an ideal world, none of us
19 would be here anyway. The -- but we don't argue that, Your Honour, and of
20 course time often, not always, but time often costs money, though that's
21 not an unqualified phrase which should be taken out of context. But the
22 approach, we suggest, with respect, is, while not totally disregarding
23 resources, is of course to keep them in perspective. If one asks first of
24 all what would be more likely to achieve a just result in this case in as
25 fair a way as can be realistically be managed, then one looks to see
1 whether there are disproportionate resource implications which drive
2 towards a different conclusion. But it must in any case only be a
3 conclusion which doesn't in any way seriously imbalance and seriously
4 weaken the justice of the procedure.
5 Your Honour, the difficult, and I'm on my last couple of
6 observations here -- the difficult issue that we have faced throughout, of
7 time for preparation on the Defence side, that remains an issue which may
8 need to be taken up, well, will need, frankly, Your Honour, to be taken up
9 as and when at the appropriate time with the Trial Chamber, as and when
10 and in the context of whichever procedure is adopted; continuation of the
11 present trial or the new trial. But it is, we suggest, at least a
12 consideration that the Defence began this case under acknowledged enormous
13 pressure and that, as Your Honours know, we had not been able to complete
14 pre-trial preparation when the trial began on the 3rd of February, 2004,
15 and that was recognised.
16 We have examined important witnesses with, in our submission,
17 inadequate grasp. We've done our best not to make that too obvious,
18 perhaps, but with inadequate grasp of the some of the matters, and that is
19 a reason in favour -- it's one reason, but it is a reason, an additional
20 factor in favour of a new trial and bringing back the very limited number
21 of witnesses where we submit it is particularly important that there
22 should be some recognition and, if you like, compensation adjustment in
23 respect of that point.
24 And, Your Honour, I simply would say this, Your Honour; that if
25 some similar procedure existed for counsel to the procedure under which
1 the new Judge, if there is a continuation, has to certify that he has
2 familiarised himself with the record, if Defence counsel were required to,
3 in their professional judgement, sign some such certificate before
4 proceeding with a trial to defend Mr. Krajisnik, I doubt that I would sign
5 the certificate today, and I certainly would not have signed it over many,
6 many, many, many months of this trial, and I would certainly have to think
7 extremely hard if I were asked to sign it over the next few weeks.
8 The -- and I understand Ms. Loukas would have no more enthusiasm
9 for signing a corresponding certificate.
10 The -- my concluding submission, and it's part of the context, and
11 I hope Your Honours won't take it in any hostile spirit. The situation we
12 are faced with is remarkable, in effect, if one steps back a bit from it.
13 The fact that the procedures devised by the United Nations, the Security
14 Council, and this Tribunal have been devised in such a way that a Judge
15 starts a trial which is known to be going to continue beyond his term of
16 office, and then when he's not re-elected, which is, after all, a known
17 and serious risk because electorates of any sort are notoriously
18 unpredictable, or certainly should be, that no way can be found and has
19 been found to resolve the matter so that he could stay with the case, is,
20 Your Honour, we must submit, deeply unsatisfactory. If the consequences
21 of any course adopted in the interests of justice in this case might be
22 viewed, and we understand, in the light of observations made that this
23 would not be treated as relevant by Your Honours, but we simply say that
24 if the consequences are unsatisfactory when viewed by any planners or
25 budgeters in New York or The Hague or anywhere else, then that is simply
1 part of the cost of doing proper justice in the conditions created by the
2 United Nations, by the Security Council, and this institution under the
3 auspices of the United Nations. Because we are all of us, and Your
4 Honours included, faced with a very difficult and unsatisfactory situation
5 as a result. We respect Judge El Mahdi's retirement given the situation
6 that he faced in anticipation of where the matter would be next November.
7 But unsatisfactory it is. The Defence submission is that in a way the
8 lesser of two evils, because it would have been much better, Mr. Krajisnik
9 has certainly made clear his preference that we could have finished with
10 the Judges that we've started with. It's our submission that the more
11 satisfactory course, the better course in the interests of justice, is a
12 new trial, to which the Defence is prepared to attach and accept the
13 particular flexible adjustments and conditions that we have indicated.
14 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you, Mr. Stewart.
15 Mr. Harmon.
16 MR. HARMON: Good afternoon, Your Honours, counsel. My
17 submissions will be considerably briefer than Mr. Stewart's.
18 First of all, a plain reading of the Rule implies inherent in this
19 Rule is the fact that a substitute Judge can indeed familiarise himself or
20 herself with the trial record in this case and can put himself in a
21 position where the accused can be assured that a third substitute Judge
22 would have the ability to hear all of the evidence and read all of the
23 evidence that has been presented thus far in the hundred days of trial
24 that we have had.
25 There is a precedent -- in fact, there are two precedents that I'm
1 aware of where a substitute Judge has been inserted into a case. The
2 first, I won't belabour the point, of course, the Milosevic case.
3 Mr. Stewart has described that. The second case was the Blaskic case,
4 where Judge Fouad Riad became medically incapacitated and could not hear
5 the evidence well into the Prosecution's case and there was a substitute
6 judge, Judge Almiro Rodrigues, who familiarised himself with considerable
7 amounts of evidence in the case and sat with great distinction in hearing
8 that case, and all parties in that case were satisfied that Judge
9 Rodrigues had provided each of the parties with a full understanding of
10 the evidence and a full opportunity to listen to and deliberate on all of
11 the evidence that had been heard to date.
12 Now, to further expand on sub-part D, the Prosecution's position,
13 in very clear and unequivocal terms, is that it is in the interests of
14 justice to appoint a substitute Judge. A substitute Judge, Your Honours,
15 can put himself in the position, first of all, of knowing what the case
16 is, knowing what all of the issues are, by availing himself or herself to
17 the written record, all of the exhibits, and the video record of each of
18 the witnesses who have testified in this case. So if the Judge would like
19 to hear, for example, and see the demeanour of a witness, one of the
20 witnesses taken, for example, Mr. Kirudja, one of the witnesses who has
21 been cited by the Defence, then that video is available for the substitute
22 Judge to listen to, to observe. Furthermore, if the substitute Judge
23 wishes to have a question posed to one of those witnesses, the substitute
24 Judge is in a position to make a request to have the witness reappear.
25 At the end of the day, Your Honour, the Prosecution has enormous
1 faith in the integrity of a substitute Judge, who would certify that he or
2 she has familiarised himself or herself with the record, and having seen
3 two cases proceed, one to completion, I'm quite confident that all of the
4 interests of justice could be met by having a substitute Judge appointed
5 in this case.
6 Now, let me touch upon some other issues that have been raised by
7 Mr. Stewart. Mr. Stewart has presented to Your Honours a package that
8 seems to suggest that starting anew would cause fewer problems. While I
9 have great respect for Mr. Stewart and faith in his representations in
10 this case, certainly we have gone through in the process to date
11 significant written litigation dealing with a host of issues that could be
12 raised anew should we start over that process, which entails written
13 motions, responses, replies, and considerable effort by the Trial Chamber
14 to arrive at written decisions would commence anew, and there's no
15 assurance whatsoever that that would not happen. Frankly, I think those
16 issues should remain litigated and remain in the status that they are in
17 at the moment.
18 I think, furthermore, Your Honour, that when we discuss the
19 convenience or inconvenience of witnesses, while Mr. Stewart concedes that
20 that is a relevant factor, as I go through the list of witnesses that
21 Mr. Stewart wants to recall by virtue of the unfortunate circumstances of
22 Judge El Mahdi's withdrawal, what Mr. Stewart is essentially asking for is
23 a second opportunity to cross-examine these witnesses, when he has had an
24 opportunity, and a full opportunity, to cross-examine these witnesses.
25 I think Your Honours should consider, in the interests of justice,
1 whether it is convenient or inconvenient to call people back who have been
2 some subpoenaed, some witnesses diplomats, others who arrived with --
3 whose attendance was difficult to secure, at best. There is no assurance
4 that these witnesses would come back or could come back. I can point Your
5 Honours to a witness who is not identified on this list, and I'm not
6 asserting that that's one of the witnesses, obviously, that Mr. Stewart
7 had in mind, but we can remember the case of Mr. Biscevic, whose
8 cross-examination was bifurcated, and Mr. Biscevic, because of ill health,
9 could not re-attend the trial. We did, obviously, surmount that
10 difficulty with a videolink, at considerable expense to this Tribunal.
11 But there's no assurance that some of these witnesses could ever
12 reappear, and that is a risk that I think the Court must and should take
13 into consideration in this case when it assesses whether or not a
14 substitute Judge, listening to the trial record and analysing the trial
15 record, has available and at his disposal the ability to assess that
16 witness's evidence.
17 I have mentioned the precedent, the standards which I think fully
18 exist for a fair trial to continue. I'll touch briefly on the costs.
19 This is a case where tremendous consideration has been given to
20 Mr. Krajisnik for the considerable pre-trial period, and this Court and
21 the parties have bent over backwards to accommodate him. I believe in
22 this case, Your Honour, the interests of justice require - require - that
23 a substitute Judge be appointed and that we proceed with a proper
24 certification from that Judge that he is in a position to sit fully on
25 this case.
1 I should point out one other precedent, Your Honour. It's been
2 pointed out to me recently, just a minute, that there is another precedent
3 in this case. I'm informed that in the middle of the Stakic case, a Judge
4 was taken ill and was replaced as well. So there are three precedents,
5 all of which, I do believe, have been situations where the accused in each
6 of those cases has -- is continuing to or has received a full and fair
7 hearing in the face of an unfortunate circumstance where a Judge has been
9 Those are our submissions, Your Honour. Thank you very much.
10 MR. STEWART: Your Honours, I wonder if I might briefly, after the
11 Prosecution heard what we had to say before submitting, I'll be very
13 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Please do so.
14 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, first of all, in relation to the
15 precedents, the Stakic case mentioned, the case of Mr. Stakic, where he
16 consented. Your Honour, what we said, and we don't wish to elaborate, we
17 said there are not many useful precedents, that these cases are all
18 different. Of course we started by saying we accept this procedure is
19 available under this Rule. It says so in black and white. And we're
20 agreed about that. But we adhere to our submission that all other limited
21 number of cases are sufficiently different from this case that it's Your
22 Honour's independent judgement which is the key here, and those other
23 cases don't really tell Your Honours any more than we find in 15 bis,
24 which was our submission about half an hour ago.
25 The second point is that Mr. Harmon refers to written litigation
1 on a host of issues. We do suggest if that is to be a point, then a
2 little more specificity might have been required. We -- it's -- if that's
3 to be a point, then some indication as to exactly what that is and where
4 the difficulty lies would be appropriate.
5 Third point, very brief bullet points, in effect, Your Honour:
6 Mr. Harmon says we're asking for a second opportunity to
7 cross-examination. That's true, but it's not only that. In relation to
8 two of those witnesses, in particular Mr. Deronjic and Witness 625, it's
9 not just that we're seeking an opportunity to cross-examine. It's quite
10 specifically that we would wish the new Judge to hear their evidence in
11 full and have those witnesses, in the particular circumstances in which
12 they have found themselves, come and give all their evidence before this
13 Judge, and they are not insignificant witnesses.
14 And Your Honour, the jurisprudence of this Tribunal and the sister
15 Tribunal in Rwanda does consistently attach significance to Judges hearing
16 the witnesses when they give evidence, hearing them give evidence orally
17 when they give evidence, and not looking back over a record. It is a
18 second-best to familiarise oneself with a record, however much it is
19 accepted, as of course it's accepted as a principle enshrined in the
20 Rules, that a Judge before this Tribunal will be capable of meeting the
21 requirement under the Rules of familiarising himself with the record. But
22 it's inherent in that whole procedure that it is a second-best.
23 The example of Mr. Biscevic is just an example of how, where a
24 witness -- and Your Honour knows that the Defence didn't express its
25 enthusiasm about Mr. Biscevic's position anyway, but the Trial Chamber did
1 decide to deal with his evidence in a bifurcated way, which is less
2 satisfactory for the Defence than for the Prosecution. The Prosecution
3 wanted it dealt with in a bifurcated way, as it turns out, and we didn't.
4 But it was easily resolved, effect. It was. He did give his evidence by
5 videolink. It wasn't a problem. Despite the Defence not wishing that to
6 be the result, it was easily resolved.
7 Your Honour, those are our brief bullet-point observations, in
8 effect. Thank you for that opportunity.
9 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Thank you. Any need to respond, Mr. Harmon?
10 MR. HARMON: No.
11 [Trial Chamber confers]
12 JUDGE ORIE: Before -- I do understand that Mr. Krajisnik would
13 like to address the Chamber. Before giving him an opportunity to do so, I
14 don't know whether -- Judge Canivell has drawn my attention to it. We
15 have a few questions for the parties. Perhaps I'll put those questions
17 Mr. Stewart, you've drawn our attention to the consequences in
18 terms of time of either to continue or to restart the trial. When I gave
19 a rough estimate of what, in practical terms, it would mean either to
20 restart or to continue to hear the case, I had in mind that a new start
21 would be a real trial de novo, that is, to hear the case on from the
22 beginning, and that is what made me express my estimate. My question to
23 you is: Are you aware that that might be quite different if a
24 considerable part of the evidence - well, let's say the evidence - both 92
25 bis, but also the viva voce witnesses which you consider not to be the key
1 witnesses, that my estimate might have been quite different?
2 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, I can accept that readily, because, as
3 I made clear, I was only, in effect -- and I'm happy to accept Your
4 Honour's qualification and explanation of Your Honour's own remarks.
5 Because in adopting that, I made it clear that in effect I was only
6 adopting it from the point of view of what Your Honour expressed. Because
7 I will simply say, Your Honour, that the Defence submits that in practical
8 terms there should be and won't be any real distinction in the time needed
9 and the starting date whichever of these procedures is adopted. Because
10 if, as we apprehend, if it is to be Your Honour Judge Orie and His Honour
11 Judge Canivell to continue, then the only right and effective way to
12 proceed with this trial, whether it was a new trial with the two of Your
13 Honours and a new Judge - because he or she would be a new Judge anyway -
14 would be for that Judge to familiarise himself or herself with the case in
15 a way that would be broadly equivalent. It wouldn't be the technical
16 certification procedure if there were a new trial, but if the new Judge
17 were to be an equal-standing member of the Court with Your Honours, who
18 have lived with this case for such a long time, broadly equivalent amount
19 of time and preparation would be needed anyway. So our submission, Your
20 Honour, would be that in effect there isn't any real distinction as far as
21 starting date and time needed by the Judges concerned. But the corollary
22 of that is that I do accept Your Honour's observation just made.
23 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Then I've got a question to Mr. Harmon. When
24 referring to the case-law of this Tribunal, you mentioned three
25 precedents. There was a distinction between your presentation and the
1 presentation of Mr. Stewart as far as he included the ICTR case-law and
2 whether you would consider this the case-law of this institution or of a
3 sister institution or case-law created by the Appeals Chamber, which is
4 common to both institutions. Because we have the Butare case. No. Let
5 me just -- the president in the case of Karemera, where the Appeals
6 Chamber did not accept a decision of the two remaining Judges to continue
7 the case. Did you -- I don't know whether you wanted to make any
8 reference to that or that you would consider that not to be a useful
9 precedent or ...
10 MR. HARMON: Your Honour, I would have to read that case. I have
11 not read that case, so I'm not in a position to comment on it.
12 JUDGE ORIE: Then for the --
13 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, we did bring -- it's always -- it's
14 always a question whether to load the Court with too much stuff. We did
15 bring with us one particular -- or two cases. Perhaps -- should we give
16 Your Honours the references to them? One was Karemera. Was that the case
17 Your Honour --
18 JUDGE ORIE: And the other one is the Butare. The case is called
19 Butare although it's not the name of one of the accused.
20 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, actually, the case we had in mind,
21 maybe it's a different one, is Rutaganda, which was in the Appeals
22 Chamber. And actually, that was not -- it was a case -- it was slightly
23 different. That was a case in which the Appeals Chamber made observations
24 about the importance of Judges seeing and hearing the witnesses giving
25 evidence when they give evidence. But Your Honours, we --
1 JUDGE ORIE: It's fine if you have any -- what I have at least
2 with me at this moment is at least a decision of the Appeals Chamber of
3 the 24th of September, 2003, which is a case which is usually called the
4 Butare case, I think, which the name of -- it's case number -- well, there
5 are many accused, but the first one mentioned is Pauline Nyiramasuhuko
6 with a declaration of Judge Shahabuddeen attached to it and a dissenting
7 opinion attached by Judge Hunt.
8 MR. STEWART: Well, Your Honour, we haven't got to that. We've
9 actually been mildly hampered by the ICTR website having closed itself
10 down over the last few days for refurbishment. My apologies. We simply
11 -- I'm not familiar with that case.
12 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Mr. Harmon -- well, yes, my question -- your
13 answer was that you hadn't seen this case-law. I have one other question
14 for you, Mr. Harmon. You more or less expressed as a possibility that the
15 new Judge, if he would be appointed, if the case would be continued, could
16 request to hear or rehear a witness. Does it make any difference for you
17 if you consider that he of course could be overruled in such a request by
18 the two other Judges? I mean, do you have any specific views on the
19 position of a third Judge in that respect?
20 MR. HARMON: I assume that the Judges work quite collaboratively,
21 and if there was an important issue, obviously deference would be and
22 should be given to the new Judge. If he has an important point that
23 relates to a significant part of the witness's evidence, it would seem to
24 me that that Judge should be entitled to have that question answered
25 personally by the witness.
1 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Then, Mr. Stewart, of course you emphasised the
2 importance of getting an impression of the demeanour of the witness and
3 apart from just reading his testimony. You didn't express yourself, which
4 has been an issue in some of these cases that we just mentioned, that a
5 new Judge, as mentioned by Mr. Harmon, could observe the demeanour of the
6 witness through means of video recordings of the hearing.
7 MR. STEWART: Yes, Your Honour. We accept that point, and if in
8 relation to any witness of any significance, the new Judge will spend that
9 time, and it's what might be called in the jargon real time; you've got to
10 sit in front of the video for the time it takes. If the Judge would do
11 that for the equivalent of those days, that would go -- it would be
12 unrealistic to submit anything else - that would go at least a
13 considerable part of the way to meet the point. We understand that
14 something around 90 to 95 per cent of the evidence does appear on the
15 video, though not all of it, for some reason, not a hundred per cent of
16 the witness's evidence is directly recorded. He's on camera always
17 somewhere, but it can be somewhere from an angle in the court. But in
18 excess of 90 per cent is available. It's not the same, Your Honour.
19 After all, it's not the same for evidence to be given by videolink. It
20 often is, but in principle, the starting point for the Court is it is not
21 the same. A live trial with live witnesses is the starting point. A
22 specific application has to be made, for example, in relation to videolink
23 evidence and specifically granted and justified. So it's not the same,
24 Your Honour.
25 JUDGE ORIE: From what I understand, there's not one videotape of
1 these proceedings, but there are several ones, one of them being the
3 MR. STEWART: That's our understanding, Your Honour. What I told
4 Your Honour was the answer of -- I made specific inquiries because I did
5 particularly wish to know exactly how it worked. That's my best
6 information, Your Honour, but Your Honour has huge experience of this
8 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. Then finally, I would just like to make a short
9 statement. Mr. Stewart, you have addressed two issues, the one issue
10 being the completion strategy issue, and immediately after that, you
11 addressed the matter of resources, which of course there is some link.
12 Just to -- perhaps to make clear to you that in the present situation, no
13 one has ever sought to advise me or has suggested to me how to resolve the
14 present issue, let alone that I was ever addressed in the context of the
15 completion strategy. Of course, I have not discussed with many people the
16 present situation, even for -- I would say for most of my fellow Judges it
17 came as a complete surprise last Friday. But of course the matter has
18 been discussed in the staff, which is quite normal. But I would not have
19 given anyone ever an opportunity either to advise or to suggest any
20 solutions, because the first thing I would tell that in the video is that
21 a decision will be taken once all arguments have been heard, once every
22 aspect of the case would have been on our -- would have been thought over
23 carefully. And therefore, it could be continuation or a trial de novo
24 that was completely an open question, as far as I was concerned. I hope
25 that this accommodates you. It addresses the issue of the completion
1 strategy. Of course, as you observed yourself, resources is not exactly
2 the same, although they are perhaps not totally unrelated.
3 Let me just confer with the registrar.
4 [Trial Chamber and registrar confer]
5 [Trial Chamber confers]
6 JUDGE ORIE: We noticed that perhaps not every one of us has seen
7 exactly the same material. I would like to give an opportunity for
8 another 40 minutes to the parties to exchange whatever material they have
9 and for the Chamber also to read any decision that we had not read yet.
10 And therefore, I would like to invite Mr. Stewart again to give the
11 details of that one case that he mentioned. And then to give an
12 opportunity to the parties to make any further observations after this 40
13 minutes. So we'll then restart at 5.00 and then have a short subsequent
15 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, if I were to hand up -- it's not the
16 entire case, which is quite long, but if I were to hand up the extract,
17 then it also gives Your Honours the reference on the front.
18 JUDGE ORIE: Yes.
19 MR. STEWART: May I do that.
20 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. I take it that the Prosecution would get a
22 MR. STEWART: Of course. I have enough copies for everybody, Your
24 JUDGE ORIE: Okay. And do you have a -- it's turned out that
25 Mr. Stewart was not familiar with the appeals case of -- I don't know
1 which one, but ...
2 MR. STEWART: Not familiar; I think I've never even heard of it,
3 Your Honour.
4 JUDGE ORIE: That's your interpretation, Mr. Stewart.
5 MR. STEWART: That's my position, Your Honour, so ...
6 JUDGE ORIE: Mr. Stewart, at least for the Appeals Chamber, I
7 think the Karemera case and the what is usually called the Butare case, as
8 I just mentioned, might be of some interest to spend time on during the
9 next --
10 MR. STEWART: I'm obliged, Your Honour. It was paragraph 21
11 particularly in the extract we've just handed up to Your Honour.
12 Paragraph 21 is the particular paragraph we wished to draw your attention
13 to. And in Karemera, paragraph 60 was on the similar point about
14 witnesses, demeanour of witnesses.
15 JUDGE ORIE: Yes.
16 MR. STEWART: But thank you, Your Honour, for that other
18 JUDGE ORIE: We'll adjourn until 5.00, and I expect then the
19 parties to be brief in any further submissions, so that we could conclude
20 not later than perhaps 20 minutes past 5.00. We adjourn until 5.00.
21 --- Recess taken at 4.22 p.m.
22 --- On resuming at 5.02 p.m.
23 JUDGE ORIE: Mr. Stewart, I noted that the Rutaganda case is not a
24 specific 15 bis case but gives in general terms in paragraph 21 some
25 observations on the --
1 MR. STEWART: Yes. That's entirely correct, Your Honour. Yes,
2 that was the point of that case, yes.
3 JUDGE ORIE: Mr. Stewart, would you like to make any additional
5 MR. STEWART: Your Honour, thank you. I'll just make brief
6 observations on that case. We're very grateful. We received a lot of
7 practical help from the Prosecution, and everybody, I think, in getting a
8 copy of that quickly, and within our own team. In the end, I was flooded
9 with copies.
10 The -- Your Honour, the -- it seems to be in about paragraphs 22
11 onwards and 24 onwards. Your Honours have a copy of that judgement, I
12 understand. So we -- this particular -- a lot of it is to do with issues
13 which don't arise on this particular hearing. And at page -- paragraph
14 25, it begins: "There is a preference for live testimony to be heard by
15 each and every Judge, but that does not represent an unbending
16 requirement." Well, we don't go that far, Your Honour. "The Rules and
17 cases show that exceptions can be made." And then just on this particular
18 exception that the Appeals Chamber mention, "The exceptions may relate
19 even to evidence involving an assessment of demeanour, various ways being
20 available to assist a new Judge to overcome any disadvantages."
21 And then it said: "The appellants have not attacked the procedure
22 prescribed by Rule 15(A) or 15(B). Under these provisions, a witness
23 could be heard by two Judges." It actually means 15 bis (A) and 15 bis
24 (B) there. That's the only way one can make sense of that. "Under these
25 provisions a witness could be heard by two Judges, that the procedure is
1 in effect available only over a short period of time is not relevant to
2 the principle involved."
3 The observation we make there is that, yes, it's correct, and we
4 recognise that, technically speaking, within 15 bis (A), if a Judge is
5 absent for a short time within the strict wording of the Rule, a witness
6 may be heard over that five-day period, and at its extreme, it could be an
7 absolutely critical witness. But, Your Honour, a point we mentioned
8 earlier is that 15 bis (A) is itself a discretionary matter, and it allows
9 it, and one would expect in the ordinary course, that a witness who was
10 critical and whose demeanour was critical would lead a Trial Chamber to
11 say, in respect of 15 bis (A), that it wasn't a suitable case to deal with
12 it in the absence of a Judge in the short term. So --
13 JUDGE ORIE: I made a note for myself, Mr. Stewart, saying that
14 your interpretation of Article 15 bis mainly focuses on the aspect of
15 confirming the importance of the three Judges rather than the aspect of
16 the exceptions contained therein.
17 MR. STEWART: That's absolutely right, Your Honour, and my
18 submission in relation to paragraph 25 -- this is, after all, what the
19 Appeals Chamber were saying in this particular case, so in a sense it's
20 part of their -- well, it is part of their reasoning here. But when one
21 focuses specifically on what they're saying here, we suggest that this --
22 the existence of that technically possible procedure under 15 bis (A)
23 doesn't really support the conclusion that there's -- or doesn't represent
24 any weakening of the basic preference for live testimony to be heard by
25 each and every Judge, and that's consistent with what very helpfully Your
1 Honour has entirely accurately quoted back to me as our submissions
3 The -- then at paragraph 30 -- we don't have any particular issue
4 with the next few paragraphs, which seem to be consistent with submissions
5 that we've made in relation to -- not on detailed reading, Your Honour,
6 but they appear to be consistent with the submissions we've made.
7 Paragraph 30, then, "The position being taken by the appellants is
8 that the ability to evaluate credibility on a point of demeanour is
9 essential to there being a fair trial, as mandated by the supreme
10 instrument, namely, the Statute." And this was a twist in this case. "In
11 the absence of video-recordings, it will not be possible for the
12 substitute Judge to make such an evaluation." And then subject to the
13 following, that submission is correct. But then the matter becomes
14 confused by the fact that there weren't video-recordings, but the point
15 had not been taken in the court below, and as we read paragraph 31, it was
16 therefore in effect not considered on appeal because it hadn't been taken.
17 So the absence of video-recordings to some extent dropped out of the
18 picture. But the Tribunal not entirely perhaps, but the point that we
19 would like to make an observation on, is then it does have a bearing on
20 what was discussed here this afternoon. Last few lines of paragraph 33:
21 "Failure to review video-recordings which because they are non-existent
22 do not form part of the record of the proceedings..." Well, impossible to
23 quarrel with that bit of logic: "... does not mean that the Judge has not
24 familiarised himself with the record of the proceedings as the record
25 stands. Therefore, does not disqualify him from joining the Bench. He
1 may decide to join the Bench with any questions of demeanour being left to
2 be resolved in the manner following." So, so far, no quarrel with that,
3 Your Honour. The recomposed Trial Chamber may recall witnesses so as to
4 enable the substitute Judge to assess their demeanour on particular
5 points. And then entirely correctly it's pointed out that any testimony,
6 including recalled testimony, the new Judge hears as a member of the
7 recomposed Trial Chamber and recall power lies within the competence of
8 the whole Trial Chamber. So it's not for the two Judges to authorise it
9 in effect in advance. It's, technically speaking, done by a majority, but
10 it's for the whole Trial Chamber.
11 But the -- they go on then in paragraph 35, last few lines: "The
12 recomposed Trial Chamber may on a motion by a party or proprio motu recall
13 a witness on a particular issue which in the view of the Trial Chamber
14 involves a matter of credibility which the substitute Judge may need to
15 assess in the light of the witness's demeanour."
16 Your Honour, our submission is that paragraph 34 is, in effect,
17 what we have been saying, that -- but with this qualification, perhaps:
18 That the Defence would ask for a new trial, among other things, because,
19 although if the new Judge says: "Well, I really would like to see this
20 witness," first of all, it would then be a discussion. This would be
21 entirely proper. There would then be a discussion among the three Judges,
22 and the two Judges who had been there all along would one expect naturally
23 to say: Well, we've seen this witness, and this, that, and the other and
24 so on and discuss it. The -- what we suggest is that in those cases,
25 although the Judges are the Judges and make their decisions as to what
1 witnesses they need to hear, that more significance should be attached to
2 a party, and in this case it's the Defence, but it could be the
3 Prosecution, who is saying: We regard this witness as an important
4 witness on which we, in this case the Defence, would wish all the Judges
5 to hear and see this witness.
6 The initiative, of course, can come from the Bench, and the
7 decision on recall of any witness is for the Bench. The difference, Your
8 Honour - and I face this squarely - the difference when we have a new
9 trial is that in effect the starting point is that a witness gets called,
10 and we have indicated a very large number of areas where we would accept,
11 whether it's a concession or what, but we would accept a modification of
12 that position and not ask for witnesses to be recalled. But in relation
13 to that very small number of witnesses, we would then be saying: No, it
14 shouldn't be left to the discretion of the Trial Chamber then as to
15 whether the new Judge wishes to hear the witness, to assess his demeanour,
16 or whether the Trial Chamber thinks he should be recalled. The prima
17 facie position, the starting point should apply in relation to those
18 witnesses and they should give evidence. And that is a feature of the new
20 The -- when -- paragraph 36 of this judgement, a slightly
21 different point: "The Appeals Chamber has considered whether a rehearing
22 as opposed to a continuation could be facilitated by recourse to Rule 92
23 bis (D), which provides for the admission of transcripts of evidence. It
24 notes, however, that the procedure does not apply in relation to the acts
25 and conducts of the accused and may not, therefore, be adequate. The
1 concern of the appellants with matters of demeanour strongly suggest that
2 some or all of the 23 witnesses who testified have done so in relation to
3 the acts and conduct of the accused."
4 Well, Your Honour, that's again entirely correct as a matter of
5 technical procedure, and we mentioned it in our submissions.
6 Nevertheless, we have also indicated that in -- because it is, after all,
7 it was open to the Defence then to waive that particular objection, and if
8 the Trial Chamber then considers it proper, and there would be no reason
9 in this case, if the Defence waived its objection, as we indicated that we
10 would do in relation to a number of witnesses, as in relation to that
11 restriction in 92 bis, that gets over that particular problem in relation
12 to those witnesses. In other words, a more extensive use could be made of
13 92 bis and transcripts of evidence of the proceedings which have taken
14 place so far. And I'd be going over the same ground again: We've
15 indicated to Your Honours quite specifically in relation to lists of
16 witnesses how we submit that that should work.
17 So the particular difficulty or obstacle, if you like, that is
18 mentioned in paragraph 36 of this judgement doesn't apply in terms, given
19 the more flexible approach to a new trial that we have indicated.
20 So, Your Honour, it -- this -- there's nothing in this decision
21 which contradicts any of the principles or any of the submissions put
22 forward by the Defence earlier. We accept the position, but subject to
23 our submissions, that live testimony by each and every Judge cannot be and
24 plainly is not under the Rules an unbending requirement, but it doesn't
25 mean, and that's entirely consistent with the whole tone of this Appeals
1 Chamber judgement that we're looking at now, it doesn't mean that it
2 doesn't remain very important.
3 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you, Mr. Stewart.
4 Mr. Harmon, any further submissions?
5 MR. HARMON: Yes, Your Honour. I don't intend to resubmit my
6 previous -- all of my previous submissions. In reviewing this case, Your
7 Honour, this case seems to be entirely consistent with the proposition
8 that is inherent in 15 bis (D); that is, the two issues that we confront
9 in this hearing are, one, whether it's in the interests of justice for a
10 third Judge to be substituted in at this point in time in this case. And
11 the second issue is whether a Judge is capable of familiarising himself or
12 herself with the record that we have in this case. And if, upon
13 certification, he can make that assertion, then he should be substituted
15 This case, the Butare case, had elements that do not exist in this
16 case. My reading of this case, there were no videotapes, and so the issue
17 of demeanour was more difficult and problematic from the point of view of
18 assessing demeanour. However, that was not dispositive of the Court
19 finding that the procedure used and the substitution was proper. What was
20 important in this decision is found in paragraph 33, that the failure to
21 review in this particular case video evidence wasn't fatal, that a judge
22 can familiarise himself with the trial record and can therefore assert and
23 certify that he's in a position to join the particular Trial Chamber.
24 Paragraph 34 supports our previous submission that the recomposed
25 Trial Chamber may recall witnesses. We had a discussion about that,
1 during my submissions we continued to make that submission to the Court.
2 Where, in paragraph 34, it says: "Where video-recordings are available,
3 an absent Judge who reviews such recording does so as a member of the
5 So in our particular case, this case, Your Honour, there are
6 video-recordings available. There is the record of the proceedings
7 itself. It's our submission to this Court that the interests of justice
8 do require that the case have a substitute Judge, that there are materials
9 that are available sufficient to enable that Judge to review them properly
10 and make the proper certification, and we would urge this Court to permit
11 a substitute Judge to sit in judgement of Mr. Krajisnik for the remaining
12 portion of the Prosecution's case and for the Defence case.
13 Thank you.
14 JUDGE ORIE: Thank you, Mr. Harmon.
15 Last Friday I said, Mr. Krajisnik, that if you read the wording of
16 Rule 15 bis, and if you compare that with many other Rules where often it
17 is said the Defence is entitled to, and there it specifically says
18 something about the accused, that I wanted to be sure that of course your
19 view and your non-consent, as we know now, has been brought to the
20 attention of the Chamber. If, however, there would be anything you'd like
21 to add at this moment, and I invite you not to start any debate with
22 counsel, because you had better have any debate outside of this courtroom,
23 and I also understood that you have had ample opportunity to discuss the
24 matter with counsel, but I would not refrain you from addressing the
25 Chamber if you'd like to do that at this moment. Where I said "the
1 Chamber," I should say the two remaining Judges.
2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honours. Good
3 afternoon to all. First of all, I wish to thank the Trial Chamber,
4 although there are only two Honourable Judges here, for allowing me to
5 address them.
6 If we use the terminology from economics, I would say that this is
7 a temporary calculation or a sum-up of the trial heretofore. I wish to
8 say only a brief -- a couple of words that would be useful for the
9 continuation or for the future of our trial.
10 You have heard out my counsel Stewart, and of course it is only
11 natural for me to consult with my counsel. I wish to say that I endorse
12 his submissions and I would just briefly like to explain something that
13 might clarify my decision to deny my consent.
14 Your Honours, I have spent a long time in prison here, and it
15 would be only normal for me to wish to end this proceedings as soon as
16 possible, because any further delay is contrary to my interests. But, as
17 Mr. Stewart has said here, I would of course wish to leave the prison
18 tomorrow. However, the proceedings have to take their course. The reason
19 why I opted for a rehearing is only one, but I wish to add to what
20 Mr. Stewart has said.
21 I have followed the proceedings from my perspective, and a great
22 many things have not been clarified here. Although many helpful witnesses
23 have been called here, in a rehearing, these witnesses would shed more
24 light to the events that had taken place in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the
25 war. For this reason, I believe it would be helpful for a retrial to take
1 place, because it could prove to be helpful for all sides; the Defence,
2 the OTP, and the Trial Chamber alike, because it would help expedite the
4 Because the start of the trial was rushed, the Defence was unable
5 to prepare sufficiently, and there have been quite a few flaws committed
6 on our part. The Defence would require a longer period of time, which
7 could be beneficial for it, and this could be done in a new trial, where
8 the two of you Honourable Judges would be present, along with a third
9 Judge, and before such trial would start, the Defence would have enough --
10 ample time to prepare itself.
11 I would turn to another issue that touches upon the fairness of
12 trial. I wish to go back to what Prosecutor Mr. Harmon said. At this
13 stage, the Prosecution would have to use the opportunity to amend the
14 indictment and withdraw a number of allegations that were deemed
15 corroborated before the proceedings reached this stage.
16 Another matter that I would like to mention here, Your Honours, is
17 the following: In the forthcoming period I wish to take an active part in
18 these proceedings, which I have not taken so far. I will abide by your
19 wish not to repeat some of the submissions stated here by my counsel, but
20 I do wish to reiterate my request to put certain questions to witnesses
21 during their testimony here and I would like you to allow me to address
22 this issue at a later stage.
23 JUDGE ORIE: Yes, Mr. Krajisnik. Because that's a matter which is
24 not to be addressed at this moment, because it's beyond the issue. You're
25 talking now about the modalities of the future conduct of the case,
1 whether that would be after restart or whether it would be after we would
2 have decided to continue that case. And that's something that should be
3 dealt with at that moment and not at this stage. Therefore, your active
4 part is not something to be discussed at this moment. I do understand
5 that --
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] If I may be allowed, Your Honour, to
7 say only a few words.
8 JUDGE ORIE: Not on the issue of your active involvement in the
9 case, because that's not a matter to be discussed at this moment. The
10 issue at this moment at stake is the -- whether it's in the interests of
11 justice, whether it would be served or would be better served by
12 continuing rather than to hear the case all over again. That's the limit
13 of what we can discuss at this moment.
14 But at least I do understand that you fully support the position
15 taken on your behalf by Mr. Stewart. Is there any other matter you'd like
16 to bring to our attention?
17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I will only address you with a few
18 more words. I did not wish to discuss here the different reasons why I
19 would like to take an active part in the proceedings. Rather, I wanted to
20 say that in a rehearing, I would have more opportunity to do so. However,
21 by way of conclusion, I would like to say the following:
22 In a new trial, I would have a better chance to prove a number of
23 events and facts that we were unable to prove so far. I am aware of the
24 fact that the final decision lies with the Trial Chamber and the Tribunal,
25 but I am convinced that whatever your decision will be, we will have a
1 fair trial. However, I appeal to you to have the understanding to
2 consider the reasons put forth by us behind our request for a retrial.
3 Furthermore, I would also appeal to you to set aside some time for
4 us to deal with some of the issues that have remained outstanding to this
5 day, like, for instance, the issue of a laptop and so on and so forth.
6 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. That's certainly something that will get proper
7 attention once a decision has been taken, once a final decision has been
8 reached as to whether the case -- the hearing of the case will be
9 continued or that we would rehear the case de novo, as it is said in
10 Latin. If there are no further submissions --
11 MR. STEWART: I'd only like to say this, that despite
12 Mr. Krajisnik saying that a rehearing would present a better opportunity
13 and take an active part, I nevertheless maintain that submission on his
14 behalf that that's the preferable course.
15 JUDGE ORIE: Yes. I do understand your position, Mr. Stewart.
16 We will adjourn, as again it's said in Latin, sine die, and the
17 two remaining Judges will consider whether or not it's appropriate to give
18 a decision as they could take under Rule 15 bis (D).
19 We stand adjourned.
20 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned sine die
21 at 5.29 p.m. | <urn:uuid:2d4c726a-d29b-4acb-9f48-acaba4c925cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.icty.org/x/cases/krajisnik/trans/en/041215IT.htm | 2013-05-19T10:34:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969046 | 20,733 |
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By now, almost everyone who’s reading this has probably either seen Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and loved or hated it, or feels they don’t need to see it to reach a conclusion. It’s not the sort of film to inspire a mild response. Django Unchained is a blood-soaked and bullet-fueled Spaghetti Western love story that takes on the subject of American slavery by making room for black characters in popular genre films that have predominantly been the territory of whites. Making copious use of the N-word, striking a delicate balance between the use of racial stereotypes and their dismantling, and exploding with blood, humor, violence, and pulp, Tarantino’s latest provocation, a worthy successor to the alternate history of Inglorious Basterds, leaves audiences unsure what to make of it, even as they cheer for its black hero.
Shouldn’t they despise the film for being so irreverent about the subject of slavery, which Hollywood has usually treated with sanctimonious reverence? Or does the film’s cinematic violence (both literally and generically) explode racism and bring the horror of slavery into a new, more visceral cinematic experience of the brutality of America’s role in the slave trade? I’ve seen the movie three times since it was released in December, and I have to confess that I have definitely reached the latter conclusion. I have yet to become bored with the movie. Nor have I been convinced that it’s racist or reactionary as some critics have stated. Ultimately, I see Django Unchained as a triumph against cautious liberal cinema, the safe packaging of slavery into distancing tidy narratives, and the limits typically imposed on black roles in popular Hollywood cinema. Django Unchained gives the audience a black hero who rises not only out of the abomination of slavery but out of the constraints of cinema itself.
Tarantino’s film has no pretense of being a reverent piece of historical cinema or a classic slave emancipation tale. In fact, Tarantino’s tale of slave revenge and romantic love in America’s Antebellum South intentionally disrupts history, much like its predecessor Inglorious Basterds, and blows-up the Big House of cinematic reverence to allow a mass audience to confront slavery and the role of blacks in film, thereby shining much-needed light on a very dark side of American history.
With the gun-slinging Django riding through the landscape and taking down bad white guys (and they are BAD!) to save his love and avenge his abusers, the movie does on many levels play like a mash-up of the Blaxploitation film and Spaghetti Western. Certainly, the movie contains elements of both genres, but it is also so much more. The film could be called a “Spaghetti Southern” (as Tarantino refers to it in the January 2013 issue of American Cinematographer). It takes elements of the Spaghetti Western (which features an outsider in an alien, hostile environment) and relocates them to the American South. What could be more alien in the Antebellum South than a gun-toting free cowboy black man? And what could be more hostile to this improbable icon of liberty than the white men of the South? As in a classic Western narrative, a very clear line is drawn between the “good” (the avenging slave and the man who freed him) and “evil” (the plantation owners and slave overseers) forces at play in the film, and, despite what some of Django Unchained’s critics have said, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever about who we want to come out on top.
The black hero is Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave who is freed by a German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz in a performance as great as the one he delivers as the slick “Jew Hunter” in Inglorious Basterds). Once freed, Django learns the trade of bounty hunting as a student to Schultz and demonstrates his sharp-shooting abilities as he plucks off any number of bad white guys with clean precision, a skill set he will eventually employ to rescue his true love Broomhilda. Following a classic fairytale structure, Django and Schultz travel to the evil kingdom (a Southern Plantation known as Candie-Land) to rescue the damsel in distress (Django’s slave wife). Leonardo DiCaprio plays the evil king/plantation owner Calvin Candie who gets his rocks off pitting slaves against each other in a blood sport known as Mandigo fighting, in which black men literally fight to the death for the entertainment of whites. And Samuel L. Jackson tears up the screen with his over-the-top performance as Stephen – the Uncle Tom “House Nigger” who is glued to Calvin Candie’s side and proves to be one of the most diabolical characters ever put on screen.
Just summarizing the main actors in the film illustrates the big can of worms contained in Django Uncained. Besides the role of an Uncle Tom, the shocking display of Mandingo fighting and Tarantino’s use of pulp genres like the Western and the Romantic Fairytale to tell a tale of the most brutal institution in American history, we have to take into consideration the use of the N-word which flies as hard and fast as bullets in this movie. I’ve already used the word in referring to Stephen as the House Nigger, and that is only one of multitudes of times the word is fired during the three hours of the movie. Some critics (most notably Spike Lee) have taken issue with Tarantino’s use of the word. How can a white man use the word “nigger” in a film?
Well, if we want to talk about the historical record, a tale of slavery in the South and the racist and violent history of the American economy would be hard to tell without including the N-word, unless the screenplay were as whitewashed as the pristine monuments to white supremacy that Southern plantations were. But whitewashed is exactly what has largely been done to the subject of slavery in film, and it’s about time that someone pulls the white sheet off the face of the subject. Shockingly, because it’s played for laughs, Django Unchained even features a sequence in which members of a proto-Klu Klux Klan are forced to do just that — pull the white bags off their heads. Revealing the ugly and brutal truth of racism means disrupting reverent expectations of the subject by mixing it up with pulp cinema, and that means deploying the N-word in rapid fire as frequently as it was used in the time. To paraphrase renowned slavery scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. from an interview he conducted with Tarantino, to tell a tale of slavery and racism in America and not use the N-word would be to lie. So if we’re going to tell the truth about slavery and racism, the N-word must be spoken. Just to be absolutely clear, then, if I use the word in this essay, it is both because I am quoting the film and the historical treatment of blacks it refuses to whitewash.
Now that I’ve addressed the N-Word, let’s take a minute to think about what exactly Django Unchained is. The film opens in a dark Texas forest with a chain-gang of slaves. The black faces of the men merge with the dark forest, their white eyes glowing in the night. Two menacing white men on horses are leading the slaves to the market to be sold. This scene sets the stage for a traditional emancipation narrative. When Dr. Schultz arrives and frees Django, the camera closes in on Django’s bloody and brutalized ankle. Django’s entire foot and ankle fill the screen as Schultz removes the shackle and “unchains” Django. Django then shucks off his tattered blanket, bares his whip-scarred back and raises his arms in a gesture of freedom and vengeance (e.g. Black Power).
Certainly Django’s scarred and muscle-bound body could be seen as both a fetish object and a stereotype in this scene. This represents the traditional role of black men in film (when they’re not playing subservient emasculated “House Niggers” like Samuel Jackson’s Stephen). If Tarantino shows us this startling and unpleasant image, however, it is in order to set in motion a narrative that will undo racial stereotypes and cinematic expectations. He first creates the stereotypical scenario (the emancipated slave narrative), and then he dumps the black character into untraditional roles (the cowboy, the Western buddy, the chivalrous romantic hero).
Part of the reason Django Unchained succeeds in emancipating itself from the constraints of cautious liberal cinema and its safe historical distancing of the subject of slavery is by emancipating its main character from the trappings of traditional black roles in film. It undoes racial stereotypes by first exposing them and then either dismantling them by creating untraditional roles (Django) or blowing them up entirely (Stephen). Once Django shucks off that blanket and lifts his arms, he also shucks off the traditional emancipation story and everything that is expected from a “safe” film about slavery. Crucially, Django’s role isn’t so much to free the slaves as it is to free the image of the slave from the shackles of both the racism of classic Hollywood narratives and the political correctness of the post-Civil Rights Era.
Once Django Unchained leaves behind the traditional slave emancipation story, the story takes us through a variety of cinematic genres drenched with plenty of blood and humor as Django’s character develops and ultimately triumphs. Django Unchained uses popular pulp genres to take on the deadly serious subject of slavery and the bloody history of the American South. While some have criticized the film for turning the somber subject of slavery into pulp entertainment, the very fact that Django Unchained traffics in “low” stereotypes is what makes it effective. As we follow Django on his mission to save his wife through Tarantino’s network of pulp genres, not only do we grow to identify with Django, but we are able to share in his victory. Sure, guns are fired, walls are splattered with blood, jokes are made, and visceral violence plays before us, but through pulp, violence, and traditional popular narrative devices, Tarantino erases the cautious distance between the audience and his movie’s slave hero. We are able to feel, see and experience slavery without the desensitizing insulation of identity politics. This collapses the distance between the superficial safety of our times and the brutal reality of our history, making the horrors of the past more viscerally real than when they are neatly packaged in cautious historically accurate cinema.
To simply read Django Unchained as a slave revenge/blaxploitation/Western mash-up would short-change all the genre bending the film does to 1) effectively blow the fuck out of black roles in film and 2) make the audience identify with and cheer for the film’s black hero. When Django mounts one of his former captor’s horses and rides into a small Texas town with his emancipator Schultz, the film shifts gears, moving into the territory of the Spaghetti Western. We’ve seen this town before, its old wooden buildings and dirt-filled streets situated in the barren landscape between nowhere and nowhere else. White people walk out of buildings and stand on sidewalks shocked and outraged at the sight of Django riding on a horse alongside Schultz. One of the townspeople whispers, “Look! It’s a nigger on a horse!” When Schultz questions what their problem is, Django blatantly says, “They just ain’t used to seeing a nigger on a horse.”
The doubling of this line, first from the white woman and then from the black man is funny and the audience laughs, but it’s also damn true. Not only are the people in the town not used to seeing “a nigger on a horse,” but neither is the Hollywood audience. The Western is a white man’s genre, but Django rides his horse right through the genre when he rides into the town. This is partly how the film destabilizes white packaging of race in movies and in American history. When Schultz and Django force the town to accept the “nigger on the horse” because he is there as part of “legal business,” the audience also is being asked to accept him. And the audience does. All three times I saw the movie, everyone in the audience – black, white, old, young – cheered for this “nigger on a horse.”
It turns out that Schultz doesn’t just unshackle Django out of the goodness of his heart. Schultz purchases Django (and ultimately his freedom) because it is within his economic interest. Schultz is a bounty hunter, and he needs Django to identify three dirty, rotten overseers – the Brittle Brothers – for whom there is a large bounty on their heads. Django knows the Brittle brothers from his former plantation, because they are the men responsible for whipping him and his beloved wife Broomhilda. Schultz tells Django that he abhors the institution of slavery, but that even he will use it for his economic advantage. Since he “owns” Django, he insists that Django work for him to identify the men who have a large price tag on their heads. When Django asks what a bounty hunter does, Schultz explains that he’s “in the business of selling corpses.”
Coupling bounty hunting with slavery is brilliant. The pairing of these two businesses that trade in human lives underscores the business of violence in this country and the bloody legacy of the American economic landscape. Slavery was an atrocity, an abomination, a dehumanizing and brutal institution that was perceived as acceptable because it was good for “business.” It fueled one of the most successful economic enterprises in American history – cotton. Interestingly, Tarantino also shows how the race card can be thrown out the window, when it is within the economic interest of whites. Everything comes down to business. When Schultz realizes that Django is a perfect shot and that he would make an excellent business partner in the bounty hunting business, race becomes transparent between the two characters.
On the one hand, Schultz plays the role of teacher and liberator to Django, but on the other he treats Django with the equanimity that he would any other business partner. Schultz uses Django’s racial rage and taste for vengeance to his economic advantage. When Django learns what bounty hunting is and agrees to be Schultz’s partner, he says quite simply: “Killing white people for money? What’s not to like?” With Django’s help, the two hunt down the Brittle brothers, kill them, collect their bounty and formally enter a business partnership as well as a friendship.
It must be noted that “business” is at the bottom of much of the action in this movie, and with it the idea that race can become transparent when the money is good. Later in the film, even virulently racist plantation owners are forced to reluctantly accept Django – “the nigger on a horse” – because he is legitimized through the economic transactions in which Schultz includes him – slave trading, bounty hunting, etc. In a scene toward the end of the movie, Django is being transported to a mine where he is supposed to spend the rest of his life breaking down big rocks into little rocks. When Django offers his captors a way to earn $10,000 while he only requires $500 of it for himself, the men immediately free Django because it appears to be within their economic interest to so.
Underneath all this business, however, is the business of slavery, the abhorrent institution that was the backbone of the Antebellum Southern economy. While it may be in the economic interest of plantation owners to treat Django with respect, it is also in their economic interest to make sure that this treatment remains the exception to the rule of the color line. The veneer of civilized behavior that encompasses Django in his roles as bounty hunter and prospective Mandingo trader stands in blatant contrast to the brutal way in which the slaves all around him are dealt with (being fed to dogs or forced to fight to the death). Django’s safety depends on performing the role of exception without ever seeming to be upset by the treatment of his fellow blacks.
In one scene, as Django and Schultz are traveling to Candie’s plantation — which is known, in an example of the “black” humor that spatters the picture, as “Candie-Land” — under the guise of wanting to invest in the Mandingo trade, Schultz pulls Django aside and cautions him that he is playing his role of Slave Trader a little too exuberantly. Django reminds Schultz that their relationship is based on the bloody and violent business of bounty hunting in which Schultz had Django shoot a man and kill him in front of his son; that, in Schultz’s own words, they are in the “business of getting dirty.” This formulation provides Django his punch line, as well as an implicit response to those who accuse the film of being too violent: “So I’m getting dirty.”
Indeed, we are reminded time and again that American business is dirty and bloody. When Django shoots one of the Brittle brothers, his blood bursts across the screen spraying the fields of white cotton with red, literally showing the bloody business of the cotton industry and the slave trade that fueled it. In one of the most violent scenes in the movie, Candie sets his dogs on a slave and has him ripped apart in front of Django, Schultz, and the audience. Prior to killing the slave for refusing to participate in another Mandingo match (a fight to the death between black men in which white men gamble on the outcome, not unlike a cockfight), Candie berates the slave for being a bad business investment. He says, “I paid $500 for you, and I expect five fights for my $500. You only gave me three fights.” So Candie savagely disposes of his bad investment, while at the same time putting his economic investment in Schultz and Django to the test by observing how they react to the brutal slaying of the slave. When Candie notes that Schultz looks a little “green around the gills,” Django answers, “I’m just a little more used to America than he is.” In this sense Django literally embodies the violence of America.
Though Schultz and Django’s relationship starts first as slave and slave holder and then as business partners in the bloody business of bounty hunting, the racial divide between the characters soon evaporates, and the film shifts into a buddy movie. With Jim Croce singing “I Got A Name” in the background, the film moves to the mountains of Wyoming where Django and Schultz bond as buddies via the kind of montage familiar to fans of the Mountain Western. Images of the two of them riding their horses across the expansive Rocky Mountains, target-shooting on a snowman, and taking down their bounties as fountains of blood spurt in glorious red across the snowy background showcase a relationship as cinematically romanticized as Django and Hildy’s.
This segment of the film (the buddy film/mountain narrative) undoes traditional white narratives as much as the Spaghetti Western component, playing off another subgenre popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the mountain survival adventure. The friendship between Schultz and Django is really sealed after Django shoots his first bounty, and Schultz exclaims, “The kid’s a natural!” This clearly references Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the archetypal Western Buddy Romance of that era. But instead of giving us two rugged white male sex symbols, Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy) and Robert Redford (The Kid), Tarantino provides us with two figures who are clearly outsiders in this landscape, a foreigner and a black man. This deviation from tradition radically destabilizes the romantic view of the West held by so many American conservatives and liberals alike, in which both the otherness of excessively refined men the East Coast and the Old World and that of the “savage” Natives (and black men) are held at bay by heroic white men.
The Wyoming sequence also references another Robert Redford film, Jeremiah Johnson, in which a veteran of the Mexican-American war flees to the Rocky Mountains, adopts a family, finds his wife and son slain by Native Americans, seeks vengeance and then ultimately finds reconciliation. It’s the reverse tale of Django Unchained, in which Django is the “colored” person seeking vengeance against the white man. In Jeremiah Johnson, the white man seeks vengeance against “the colored” only to have to accept that the white man really is the “violating other.” Referencing these Robert Redford films through a black slave narrative ruptures the white romantic view of the West (of which Redford is the ultimate icon ) and also underscores the persistent violence of America (both movies are bloody, violent and tragic). Violence is nothing new in America, and keeping it safely tucked away in romanticized narratives of the West or historical reverence masks the fact that the entire country’s economic backbone is based on violence (see blood-splattered cotton for details).
During their trip through the snowy mountains, Schultz tells Django the classic German fairytale of Siegfried and Broomhilda (after whom Django’s slave wife was named) – a young woman who is captured by the evil king and saved by her beloved – and the movie shifts gears again. Now Schultz and Django are on a different mission in which the fairytale meets the horror story of America’s bloody past. They travel into the Dark Kingdom of the Deep South as they head to Mississippi to free Broomhilda from her evil captor Calvin Candie. Setting a Western in the South and mixing in classic fairytale elements, the movie further undoes the roles of blacks in cinema by referencing gothic romance films, melodrama, and a chivalrous love story, none of which have ever been the sources of traditional black feature films. Further, the film uses elements of these genres to explode traditional romantic ideals of the American South and expose the brutality and blood that made its opulence possible.
The American South was created and fed on lies and exploitation. It prided itself on a false romantic identity from instituting ludicrous codes of chivalry to considering itself a Feudal society in which plantation owners were akin to landholding kings entitled to trade and exploit slaves for their economic gain. When Schultz and Django are situated in the South (in an earlier scene at Big Daddy’s plantation and later on the Candie-Land plantation), the cinematography fluctuates between sweeping romantic visions of the South and intensely close-up and unsettling violence.
One of the biggest jokes in the film is the outfit that Django chooses to wear when he and Schultz hit their first plantation as business partners. When Schultz tells Django he can pick his “costume” to play his role of “valet,” Django dons a blue satin costume that mimics the attire of in the 18th-century Thomas Gainsborough painting “Blue Boy”. The outfit seems ridiculously funny, but Django wears it like a dare and a weapon, understanding on some level that the outfit is violating all kinds of racial codes (in the movies and in the South). It emblemizes the way in which this black character is disrupting traditional white narratives and dismantling the romantic view of the South. In a way, it’s also the perfect metaphor for Tarantino’s filmmaking strategy in Django Unchained, so wrong in breaking with every social convention that it’s deliciously right. Because the outfit is also blatantly anachronistic — the Gainsborough painting appears to depict someone playing “dress up” in a 17th-century outfit — it alerts us to the fact that Tarantino’s movie — though it doesn’t deviate from the historical record as obviously as Inglorious Basterds, with its climax in which Jewish American soldiers assassinate Hitler — is not striving for the sort of accuracy fetishized in reverential historical films like Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln.
In the first scene set in the Deep South, when Schultz and Django travel to Big Daddy’s Tennessee plantation in search of the Brittle Brothers, the landscape is shown through the hazy diffused glow of a romantic painting. Django rides onto the plantation in his ludicrous blue satin outfit, seemingly the butt of everyone’s joke. He’s still that “nigger on a horse” but is now inside a different painting in which he doesn’t belong. For precisely that reason, though, Django is a force who simply cannot be ignored. Earlier in the film, Django experienced a brutal flashback of Hildy being whipped by the Brittle brothers. Django is on the scene to take vengeance, and the seriousness of the crimes committed against him and the woman he loves and his drive for vengeance clearly overrides the “joke” of his out of place character. As he walks across the plantation to find the Brittle brothers (where they are preparing to whip a slave girl for breaking eggs), we see more of the plantation through this pastoral lens, with the luscious green of the plantation interspersed with slave girls on swings. But Django is having none of it.
When he finds the Brittle brothers tying the girl to a tree, all romance of the South is ripped away as Django’s rage is unleashed. He shoots one brother right through a page of the Bible pinned to his chest (the white man’s religious justification for brutalizing a black woman and a short effective shot at the connection between religion, racism and violence in America). Django then picks up the whip and with unfettered ferocity whips the living shit out of the other brother. Shot from a low camera angle, the audience looks up at Django asa his whip comes down on the white overseer, and we occupy the place of the white man being whipped and are therefore the recipients of Django’s rage. However, rather than feeling victimized by Django’s violent attack on the white man, the audience feels exuberant and elated, despite the savagery of the beating. We are made to “feel” the extent of Django’s rage and the injustices committed against him and all slaves by being on the receiving end of the whip. During all three screenings of the film, the audience around me was both horrified and invigorated by this scene. Everyone cheered for Django, while at the same time gasping at the magnitude of his rage. It is a brilliant scene that allows the audience to occupy simultaneously the place of the black and white man. This brings me back to my point about how Django Unchained undoes Hollywood’s tendency to produce reverent and therefore safe movies about slavery. Nothing about this scene is reverent or safe. But there’s also nothing in it that paints Django as a victim. By exploding the conventions of the cautious cinema which tends to portray oppressed people as victims, the scene unequivocally establishes Django as the hero of the film.
Later, when Django and Schultz travel to Mississipi, this same fluctuating technique is used to make the audience experience 1) the brutality of slavery; 2) the explosion of the romantic Southern ideal; and 3) the victory of Django over his oppressors. When Calvin Candie enters the picture, the movie employs lusciously orchestrated scenes shot like sprawling melodramas. (Significantly, Tarantino has stated that his main cinematic reference for the interior shots in Mississippi was that master of the lusciously rich melodrama Max Ophuls.) But then the action cuts through all of that opulence with bloodshed and tragedy.
First there is the Mandingo fight at the Cleopatra Club, where Candie and the original Django (in a cameo by Franco Nero from the 1966 Sergio Corbucci film) watch two slaves fight to the brutal death. The camera alternates between pulling back and panning the rich opulence of the club’s interior, and closing in on the absolutely brutal flesh-on-flesh fighting between the two slaves. Blood, gore, violence and brutality meet manners and the sham of civility as Candie eggs on the fighters to kill each other. One man rips the other’s eyes out and then takes a hammer and “finishes him off” by bashing in his skull. The scene is unsettling in its violent content alone, but it is particularly effective because its ugliness (the dehumanizing violence of the slave trade) is found within an outwardly elegant setting.
When the group finally makes it to Candie-Land, further romantic myths come crashing down even as the romance of Django triumphs. First, we see the romantic image of Hildy shattered by the reality of her literal body being abused by the institution of slavery. Up to this point, (except for the flashback of her being whipped by the Brittle brothers) we have only seen Hildy through the romantic filter of Django’s flashbacks and hallucinations. She’s been a picture of the romantic ideal – smiling naked in a steaming lake in the mountains, wearing a yellow gown and waving to Django as he passes her on his horse, sitting beautifully dressed at a sun filtered table pronouncing her name (“Broomhilda, but they call me Hildy.”) But when we actually meet the “real” Hildy at Candie-Land, she is a runaway slave who has been thrown into a “hot box,” a kind of coffin where she has been sentenced to stay for ten days. Candie has her naked body pulled from the box, hosed down, and carted off in a wheelbarrow. By juxtaposing the romantic cinematic image of her — Django has just had more hallucinations of her in the yellow dress upon entering the plantation’s grounds — with the brutality of her “real” circumstances, the dehumanizing forces of slavery are brought devastatingly home. The image of her naked body stuffed into a wheelbarrow and carted across the sprawling lawn of the plantation is heartbreaking as we witness the intersection of the tidy grounds of the plantation colliding with the bloody and violent practices of the institution they stand for.
It is at the Candie plantation where Tarantino takes on another taboo subject within the institution of slavery: social stratification within the institution of slavery itself (“house niggers” versus “field niggers”) and between slaves and free men. Note that Schultz gives Django the surname of Freeman. The way in which blacks were pitted against each other within the brutal environment of slavery and the abominations that resulted are delivered most effectively through the “Uncle Tom” character of Stephen, played with diabolical relish by Samuel L. Jackson. The creation and destruction of Stephen’s role — he serves as a kind of foreman for Candie, keeping the other slaves in line — is critical to the liberation of Django and what he represents for blacks in movies and in cultural representation in general.
Jackson’s Stephen is a despicable traitor, glued to the side of his master Candie. He’ll sell-out anyone for his own benefit and security in “The Big House.” He holds onto a position of power even as a slave while he pulls strings and sets the film’s violent conclusion in motion. It is Stephen who advocates keeping Hildy in the “hot box”, who attempts to treat Django like a lower species (even though he shares the same black skin as Stephen), and who ultimately sells out “his own” to try to hold onto the position he has created for himself as an autonomous man of power. The house slaves fear Stephen as much as, if not more than, their real “master” Candie.
Stephen is a “race traitor” to cover his own ass, while Django plays the fictional role of “slave trader” to emancipate his love and himself. With Stephen and Django, Tarantino give us showdown where the baddest black man in the south goes against the biggest black sell-out. For Django to be the real hero and victor, he needs to kill that Uncle Tom and everything he stands for. When Tarantino asked Jackson if he minded playing Stephen, Jackson answered: “Do I have any problem playing the most despicable black motherfucker in the history of the world? No, I ain’t got no problem with that. No, man, I’m already in it. I’m working with my makeup guy now about the hair, the skin tone. I want this man to be fresh off the boat.”
Jackson takes the role and runs with it. He literally has his face painted darker so he can play the role in “black face”, thereby reminding is of the virulent racism evident in so many classic Hollywood films. Stephen’s role as it plays against Django and other characters within the film open up even more taboo subjects within American history and, more specifically, the history of cinema by showing that it’s not all black and white and that contention and class stratification existed for African-Americans during the era of slavery. This is a subject rarely addressed in popular cinema, where everything plays in diametric opposites, good and evil, nor is it addressed in reverent historical cinema where clear lines between victim and abuser are tidily maintained.
The extended dinner scene inside Candie’s Big House is brilliant. Merging Ophul’s melodramas with an ode to Fassbinder’s Whity, Hong Kong action movies and the Western, the scene builds with operatic tension. When Stephen exposes Schultz and Django as frauds, the shit and the blood hit the fan in a complex play between characters. Even though Schultz and Django eventually get what they came for (Hildy) for a very steep price ($14,000), that proves to be insufficient. Schultz needs to pay his own form of vengeance. In a way, Schultz is the cautious observant liberal, sympathetic but on some level clueless when he is first confronted with the ugly and brutal reality of slavery. When his remaining illusions are shattered and he has to accept his role in the violence he has witnessed, such as the execution of Candie’s reluctant Mandingo, Schultz shoots Candie through the heart. In a way, this is an act of suicide as well as vengeance because 1) Schultz can’t live with the truth he has had to face and 2) he understands that he has to die and sacrifice himself so that Django (his “buddy”) can truly liberate himself.
In the story, Schultz has no human connection other than to Django. He has no back story, no wife, or family. All of Schultz’s emotions are reflected through Django, so when he sacrifices himself for Django, he sacrifices himself for “love,” yet another twist in the melodramatic narrative. This realization is brought to the fore when Stephen runs in slow motion screaming in horror and grief at the murder of his master Candie, who, while hardly his buddy, serves as his equivalent love interest. So the two white men have died, and the two black men are left to fight for control.
And Django does fight. In an amazing sequence of flying bullets and bloodshed (the Hong Kong action sequence in the film), Django kills man after man in a shootout that leaves the white walls of the Big House literally dripping with blood, a painting in viscera and gore that literalizes the blood-soaked history of the United States. You’d think the movie would end here, but it doesn’t. In an unsettling turn, Django surrenders to save Hildy’s life. The movie abruptly cuts from Django as gun-fighting victor taking down bad white guys to a scene where we witness him hung naked upside down like a piece of cattle ready to be slaughtered. Django’s face is in a metal cage as he swings across the screen, his naked body, genitals included, exposed for us to see. This is by far the most unsettling scene in the film because we have cheered Django through his triumphs. We’ve followed Django on his quest and rooted for him with each shot of his gun only to see his humanity and his power stripped away from him.
We’ve watched Django transform into a hero, only to witness him hung-up like so much meat. When Candie’s henchman starts to take a molten hot knife to Django’s balls, the emasculation of the black man by the abhorrent institution of slavery becomes painfully literal and tragic. This scene is as effective as the scene with the whip when we are asked to feel Django’s rage, because by this point we fully identify with Django as the hero of the film. When his humanity is so brutally stripped away and the ugly truth of slavery stares us in the face, we wince and feel the horror of slavery more than we ever would in a safely whitewashed historical drama.
Thankfully, Django’s nuts are rescued when Stephen steps into the picture. Ironically, the Uncle Tom figure proves to be Django’s savior because he wants his enemy to suffer a painful captivity rather than risk him bleeding to death from being castrated. Stephen encourages Candie’s sister Laura to send the rebel off to a mine where he is destined to spend the rest of his days reduced to being a number chiseling away at rocks. When Django receives his sentence from the treacherous Stephen, we remember that this fate is pretty much the sentence of all slaves in the country. They were numbers who worked until they died or were killed. But this is not Django’s fate, because Tarantino has made a romantic love story with a black hero who must prevail. Unlike, traditional Westerns, Django is not out only for himself. He finds a way to make it back to Candie-Land to save his love and to avenge his race by blowing the fuck out of the plantation, Stephen’s Uncle Tom character, and everything they stand for in American history and cinema.
The three times I watched the movie, the entire audience – black, white, old and young – cheered for its black hero when he victoriously saves his girl and blows up the white world of slavery. Django is unequivocally the hero of this movie. Much fuss has been made about the screenplay and how Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio supposedly steal the film and have all the dialogue while Jamie Foxx just hulks around scowling. I’m sorry, but if Jamie Foxx wasn’t doing an effective job acting, then we would not be cheering for him as he blows up a Southern plantation and rides off into the sunset with the love of his life. Django/Jamie Foxx is the catalyst of the film despite how many lines of dialogue the white actors have. We have to remember that he is playing a black man in the white dominated South, so it is a world where white people do most of the talking.
Schultz may have more lines, but he is not the hero of this film. It is Django who the audience cheers for. Every time Django puts his hand on his gun, absorbs his surroundings, acts according to the circumstances into which he is thrust, or takes down a bad guy, Jamie Foxx is acting and we are rooting for him. Acting isn’t just talking. Foxx creates a character who we care about through body language, eye movement, and dialogue. At the end of the movie, we would not have the same response of victory and elation if Schultz were the one to free Hildy. It has to be our hero Django, and Jamie Foxx makes us care about him.
Others have criticized the movie for being a “mainstream Hollywood” production. But I have to ask: don’t we want a mass audience to revisit slavery with a black hero rather than keeping the subject safely tucked away in reverent historical narratives that holds slaves captive in the role of victims? Reverence distances us from the subject; it has the potential to dehumanize its subjects and turn people into victims which then become a cause. By placing his story in the guise of a western romance and using pulp as the medium to deliver the story, Tarantino turns the victim into the victor. Put the history of slavery into a Western Romance story, load it up with guns and revenge, bring the camera in for close-ups on the violence and atrocities of slavery, give us a black hero who takes out a shitload of white oppressors and a movie can reach audiences across the racial divide. We can experience an abominable time in American history in a new light, one that exposes where we came from, acknowledging the blood-soaked history of a country that was built on the “business” of slaughter and human trade, but still leaves us with hope for the future.
Some have also argued that Django Unchained is irreverent cinema that disrespects the seriousness of slavery. After all, the film does explode with gunfire, blood, brutal violence and uproarious humor, all communicated through the sort of genre mash-up for which Tarantino is famous. But it is because Django Unchained disrupts reverent historical cinema that it is able to bring a new awareness of the brutality of slavery to the millions of people who are going to see it, black and white. In Django Unchained we’re laughing; we’re horrified; we’re disoriented; and we’re soaked with a lot of blood. But the whole while, the audience’s allegiance never fades. We want Django to win.
Yes, in Tarantino’s film, there are slaves in shackles, being whipped, wearing cruel devices, strung up by their ankles, chained and marching through mud, but as black slavery scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. notes, things were “Ten thousand times worse in real slavery.” If the film barters in stereotypes to fit this terrible legacy into a story that mass audiences will want to see, it is in order to deconstruct them in the way Americans know best: by blowing the living shit out of them.
Since Reconstruction, we have had plenty of somber stories of slavery where the subject is held at safe historical distance. Slavery was the brutal, ugly, inhuman, cruel, sadistic exploitation of black human beings for the economic benefit of American whites. There is not one thing about it that is pretty, tidy or easily packaged. Traditionally, this abomination of American history has been treated with reverence and neatly packaged in acceptable narratives. It has been approached with caution because it is such an abominable part or our history and is the source of many taboos. We have only been able to look at it through the safe lens of historical narratives or politically correct identity politics.
But walking the cautious line of politically correct films does not affect change. It only tells us the same story on a different day. Sure, Tarantino turns what has been perceived as the acceptable cinematic packaging of slavery on its head. Yes, he has created a film for mass audiences, one which is as entertaining as it is repulsive, but in the process he has raised more consciousness about the reality of American history than cautious liberal cinema ever could. In the end, Django Unchained is effective precisely because it is not safe. It places slavery within the broader context of culture, cinema and history, dismantling traditional roles of blacks and the cautious representations of slavery they sustain. Django Unchained packs a punch that is hard to take, yet impossible to resist, and in doing so delivers truly transgressive and effective cinema for the masses.
Kim Nicolini is an artist, poet and cultural critic living in Tucson, Arizona. Her writing has appeared in Bad Subjects, Punk Planet, Souciant, La Furia Umana, and The Berkeley Poetry Review. She recently published her first book, Mapping the Inside Out, in conjunction with a solo gallery show by the same name. She can be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:ab5df917-3179-46b2-bcb1-d092cef6d884> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/11/blowing-the-pulp-out-of-dixie/print | 2013-05-22T07:34:09Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959848 | 9,342 |
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What's Wrong With Xenotransplantation?
Merriam-Webster: Xenotransplantation is the transplantation of an organ, tissue, or cells between two different species
From Campaign for Responsible Transplantation (CRT)
Why CRT is Opposed to Xenotransplantation
The alleged chronic shortage of human organs has led some researchers and federal health officials in the US and elsewhere to consider using organs from animals such as pigs and nonhuman primates. Xenotransplantation, attempted since 1905, is marred by a history of failures and intense human and animal suffering. But the prospect of commercializing the technology has created huge financial incentives for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies who have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in xenotransplantation. The desire to gain a return on such large investments has led many companies to make exaggerated claims about the alleged merits of the technology. CRT believes that these claims are baseless and that, in fact, the technology is dangerous, expensive, inhumane, and unnecessary, and should therefore be banned.
- Transplanting living animal organs into humans circumvents the natural barriers (such as skin and gastrointestinal tract) that prevent infection, thereby facilitating the transmission of infectious diseases from animals to humans.
- Many animal viruses have the ability to jump species barriers and kill humans. Viruses that are harmless to their animal hosts, can be deadly when transmitted to humans. For example, Macaque herpes is harmless to Macaque monkeys, but lethal to humans.
- Many viruses, as innocuous as the common cold or as lethal as Ebola, can be transmitted via a mere cough or sneeze. An animal virus residing in a xenograft recipient could become airborne, infecting scores of people, and causing a potentially deadly viral epidemic of global proportions akin to HIV or worse.
- Pigs, genetically altered to carry human genes, are being considered as the source animals of choice for xenotransplants, despite the existence of over 25 diseases in pigs that can infect humans. The influenza virus of 1918, which resembled a common swine flu, killed more people in modern history than any other epidemic including AIDS and the Black Plague. New mutations of swine influenza are being seen around the globe, and novel pig viruses keep surfacing. In October 1997, medical journals reported that Porcine Endogenous Retroviruses (PERVs), present throughout the pig genome, infected human cells in test tubes. That same year, the Australian "paramyxovirus" infected piggery workers with flu-like symptoms. And, most recently, the "Nipah" virus, discovered in Malaysia in late 1998, spread from pigs to hundreds of humans, killing 100+ and leading to the mass slaughter of some one million pigs, as well as several dogs and horses.
- There is no way to screen for viruses that are not yet known. Proceeding with xenotransplantation could expose patients and non-patients to a host of new animal viruses which could remain dormant for months or years before being detected. Xenotransplantation could thus be viewed as a form of involuntary human experimentation which violates US laws and United Nations charters.
- Xenotransplant proponents claim that they will breed "germ-free" animals, thereby diminishing the risk of viral transmission. But it is impossible to breed "germ-free" animals since no animal can remain completely free of parasites or endogenous viruses. In fact, genetically engineered animals are more susceptible to a host of diseases because of weaker immune systems.
- CRT believes that HHS violated the Public Health Service Act by ignoring the scientific evidence showing that xenotransplantation is dangerous and ineffective. HHS failed to adequately consider the legal, social, ethical, and economical implications of xenotransplantation. HHS issued voluntary draft guidelines on xenotransplantation, September 23, 1996, despite scientific evidence demonstrating that the xenograft recipient will suffer significant harm. Scientists have criticized the voluntary guidelines for being weak, ineffectual, and unlikely to protect the public. HHS did not adequately consider how to protect the public from contracting novel animal viruses, how to deal with the issue of informed consent, or the large costs associated with xenotransplantation. HHS issued voluntary guidelines to regulate the technology. It is highly probable that HHS will be unable to protect the xenograft recipient or the public from being infected by an animal virus. As a result, HHS should have considered how the government would handle an infectious epidemic before the guidelines for xenotransplantation were issued.
- HHS has not addressed how infected individuals will be identified and how those infected will be prevented from spreading diseases. HHS has also failed to address who will pay for treatment and care for those infected. Treating and caring for individuals infected with animal viruses will most likely cost the U.S. billions of dollars. So far, HHS has not stated whether it would compensate victims who inadvertently come into contact with a lethal animal virus. However, this should be a consideration because the government has already had to respond to compensation claims filed by Persian Gulf War veterans, victims of Agent Orange, hemophiliacs infected by HIV-tainted blood, and parents of vaccine-damaged children. Although HHS identifies procedures for obtaining informed consent in the xenotransplantation guidelines, the agency failed to consider several important issues. An Institute of Medicine 1996 report on xenotransplantation indicates that "more research needs to be done on the psychological, religious, and social interpretations of xenotransplants for patients and their families." HHS should have considered that xenograft patients will most likely be very ill when they decide to take part in xenograft procedures. These patients, many in desperate situations, must understand highly complex issues, including the experimental nature of xenotransplantation and the health risks not only to themselves, but also their close personal contacts. It is unlikely that patients would fully understand the consequences of their participation in such experiments.
- Health authorities were unable to prevent the worldwide spread of HIV infection. Similarly, they were unable to prevent Ebola outbreaks in Sudan, Zaire (1976, 1979, 1995) and the US (1989, 1996). Furthermore, there is evidence that humans have become ill after consuming or being injected with animal materials. There is a reported link between the smallpox vaccine (derived from animal cells) and AIDS, a recently acknowledged link between human lung, brain and bone cancer and the SV (simian virus) 40 (found in old batches of the Salk polio vaccine), and the threat of emerging infectious diseases, including human Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) from the consumption of "mad cows" in Europe, the Netherlands, and the US. It would be a tragedy if federal health authorities failed to respect the precautionary principle and facilitated the introduction and spread of a new viral epidemic. Responsible health authorities would steer clear of xenotransplantation in the interest of human health.
- In September 1996, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a set of draft voluntary guidelines on xenotransplantation. Currently, xenotransplantation is "regulated" by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Over the last several years, FDA has approved limited clinical trials with animal tissues, cells, and organs, typically pig livers, used outside the body as temporary "bridges" to "filter" the blood of patients awaiting human liver transplants. Xenotransplant products that utilize both a device and a biologic (such as the "liver-assist device") would be considered a combination product and regulated both by the FDA's Center for Biologic Evaluation and Research (CBER) and the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Animal organs used in xenotransplantation would be considered biologics and covered by CBER. Ironically, CBER scientists have acknowledged that xenotransplantation presents a risk of introducing novel pathogens into the human population.
- The FDA's active support for xenotransplant research is inconsistent with positions the agency has taken in the past. In 1991, the FDA ordered a recall of a disinfectant, Sporicidin, used by dentists and doctors to sterilize equipment, claiming that it did not adequately protect patients from infectious microorganisms. FDA commissisoner at the time, David Kessler, said FDA would "not tolerate products that would permit the transmission of disease from one patient to another."
- Proposed regulatory oversight of xenotransplantation procedures is weak and would likely be highly flawed. Although xenotransplants subject patients and non-patients to significant health risks, HHS chose a lenient method for monitoring the health effects from the procedures by constructing voluntary guidelines on xenotransplantation. As it stands, the guidelines are to be "enforced" at the local level by institutional review boards (IRBs). Virologist Jonathan Allan has stated that, "in choosing voluntary guidelines to be enforced at a local level [via IRBs],…the FDA/CDC committee has chosen the least stringent and possibly least successful method of policing these transplant procedures."
- In a draft 1998 report, the HHS's own Inspector General June Gibbs Brown said that institutional review boards, whose members are unpaid, and who are charged with monitoring the treatment of participants in clinical trials, "face crushing workloads, inadequate training and potential conflicts of interest."
- Even if FDA were to assume the responsibility for monitoring all clinical xenotransplant trials, that would not necessarily be an improvement. FDA has already failed to successfully provide oversight for human tissue banks; the agency has also been criticized by scientists and consumer groups for approving the use of a controversial genetically engineered bovine growth hormone despite the existence of several studies questioning its safety.
- In the federal guidelines, HHS recommends a strict monitoring regimen for patients and their close contacts. The rigorous and potentially "life-long surveillance" program, would require complete physical exams and sampling regimens. But HHS fails to discuss the issue of noncompliance with the monitoring program. What would happen if individuals choose to sporadically participate or entirely withdraw from the program and HHS is not able to detect an infectious disease? A disease could spread before HHS recognizes its existence.
- In all areas of human activity, particularly when money is involved, the potential for fraud, error, and negligence exists. In the past, such behavior has placed human health at considerable risk. Witness the HIV-contaminated blood scandals in France, China, Japan and the US, for example, in which employees and/or medical authorities knowingly allowed HIV-contaminated blood to be used for transfusions and blood-clotting treatments for hemophiliacs.
- Given the enormous amount of data, paperwork, and filing xenotransplant procedures would generate, it would be naive (given human nature) to assume that data will be properly recorded, stored, reviewed, and updated. Regulatory mechanisms often fail to prevent or correct these errors and/or behaviors, the consequences of which could be disastrous in the face of a xenogeneic infection.
- Xenotransplantation is not a cost effective technology. It is riskier and promises to be even more expensive than human-to-human transplantation (roughly $300,000 per operation, not including the hidden costs of breeding, housing, feeding, medicating, testing, transporting, rendering, and disposing of the waste and remains of herds of transgenic animals).
- The FDA wants to establish a registry to archive xenograft patient and source animal tissue samples. This archive is to be funded by taxpayers. FDA officials estimate the cost of the registry at $250,000 to $300,000 a year, and the cost for the archive at $1 million a year.
- Xenotransplant researchers acknowledge that 'rearing pigs under germ-free conditions, is extremely expensive and time-consuming and the production of germ-free pigs would greatly add to the cost of providing donor organs.' Currently it costs from $25,000 to $100,000 to test just one pig for the presence of known bacteria and viruses. The biotechnology company Nextran explains that one of its pig organs will eventually cost the same as a human organ.
- Based upon this estimate, xenotransplantation is not cost effective.
- The current transplant costs for human organs range from $116,000 for a kidney to more than $300,000 for a liver. Factoring in years of follow-up care and immunosuppressive drugs, the cost rises to about $400,000 for a liver transplant and over $300,000 each for heart and lung transplants. A 1996 Institute of Medicine report predicts that xenotransplantation will push annual transplant cost from $3 billion to $20.3 billion. These costs are beyond the means of a majority of Americans and an already overburdened health care system.
- It is predicted that, by the year 2000, 48 million Americans will lack basic healthcare. Another 30+ million will be underinsured. The uninsured (largely minorities, 18 to 24-year-olds, and the working poor) who are chronically ill are least likely to receive proper care, with the result that untreated conditions can lead to serious health consequences. Can we justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on operations that, if they ever succeed, would at best benefit a small minority of patients, while dramatically driving up health care costs for all?
Animal Welfare Concerns
- Biotechnology companies are breeding pigs with human genes in the hopes of fooling the human immune system into accepting a foreign organ from another species. This disturbing genetic reconstruction of life (the creation of animals that are, in essence, part animal and part human) is advancing on a commercial scale with almost no informed public discussion or effective oversight.
- Scientific studies have demonstrated that pigs are highly intelligent and sensitive animals. Pigs used in studies at the University of Pennsylvania manipulated joysticks with their mouths to solve mazes and play games on a computer. Pigs used in biomedical research can be subjected to painful biological and surgical manipulations at experimenters' discretion, causing great pain and suffering before death. Policy-makers in the U.S. and elsewhere have decided that it is "ethical" to use pigs in xenotransplants because pigs are killed for food. But two wrongs do not make a right. Ironically, it is precisely because people eat too many pigs, and have unhealthy lifestyles, that pig organ transplants are being considered. A large majority of heart, liver, and kidney transplants could be prevented if people reduced their meat, (and alcohol and tobacco consumption). We should ask whether it is acceptable to make pigs and other nonhuman animals scapegoats for our species' self-destructive behaviors. Transgenic technology is very imprecise. Previous transgenic pig research programs have produced animals with various painful physical abnormalities including arthritis, stomach ulcers, muscular weakness, defective vision, and weakened immunity. Transgenic animals are destined to spend their lives confined in unnatural, sterile environments, unable to fulfill their basic behavioral needs, until death. In her book, Genetic Engineering: Dream or Nightmare (1998), British biologist Mae-Wan Ho wrote that, "the creation of transgenic animals for xenotransplantation . . .[is] scientifically flawed and morally unjustifiable. [It carries] inherent hazards in facilitating cross-species exchange and recombination of viral pathogens. These projects ought not to be allowed to continue without full public review."
- In CRT's opinion, HHS failed to consider the environmental consequences of xenotransplantation as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). HHS issued guidelines for xenotransplantation without complying with any of NEPA's requirements. NEPA requires that agencies "take a 'hard look' at the environmental consequences before taking a major action." HHS failed to take the required "hard look" at the environmental and health consequences of its actions because no Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was performed. By completely ignoring the entire EIS requirements, HHS has violated NEPA.
- CRT believes that xenotransplantation is a "significant" action because it is highly controversial and poses unique and unknown health effects to the xenograft recipient and the general public. Furthermore, xenotransplantation affects "the quality of the human environment." Federal regulations define "the quality of the human environment" to include "the natural and physical environment and the relationship of people with that environment." In this case, the relationship of people to their environment is affected by the HHS's action because xenotransplantation may create deadly new animal viruses. Due to this significant public health concern, HHS should have prepared an EIS.
- Xenotransplantation also poses significant threats to the environment. The animals needed for xenotransplantation will increase the environmental problems caused by animal-based agriculture. U.S. farms already generate about 1.4 billion tons of animal manure a year, 130 times the quantity of U.S. human sewage, according to a 1997 report by the Senate Agriculture Committee entitled, Animal Waste Pollution in America: An Emerging National Problem. This untreated and largely unregulated manure, contaminated with bacteria, parasites, chemicals and heavy metals, is washed off farmland by rain and discharged into streams and rivers, killing fish, and making people who eventually drink it, bathe in it, and wash their clothes with it, sick.
- In March 1999, a community in Sarpy County, Nebraska denied a permit to a xenotransplantation pig breeding/research facility because of environmental concerns alone.
- Surveys find animal waste is degrading 1,785 bodies of water in 39 states. Pesticides, insecticides and antibiotics which are commonly used in agriculture may also contribute to soil and ground water contamination and consequently, harm human health. Pollution from factory farms impairs more miles of U.S. rivers than all other industry sources and municipal sewers combined. During the past two decades, the number of coastal waters that host major and recurring attacks by harmful microbes has doubled. Pigs and pig waste pose a particular danger because they contract and transmit many human diseases including meningitis, salmonella, chlamydia, giardia, cryptosporidiosis, brucella, worms and influenza. The hazards from hogs increases when they are packed closely together.
- Hog farms pollute the air. In Minnesota, tests showed eight of 32 air samples taken near manure lagoons exceeded air quality standards for hydrogen sulfide. A study done at Duke University Medical Center revealed that those who lived downwind from hog factory farms suffered from a variety of illnesses including increased tension, depression, flu-like symptoms, fatigue, dizziness, blackouts, loss of appetite, and sleep disturbances.
- HHS also failed to address the environmental and health impacts caused by the disposal of numerous remains of genetically modified animals. Conventional agricultural operations continuously wrestle with the problems of how to dispose of millions of tons of perishable animal tissue each year. Incineration, burial, and composting are all expensive, unhygienic, and environmentally problematic. In fact, in 1997, the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against a hog farm, citing 50 violations of federal environmental laws, including the farm's illegal pits for disposing dead pigs. Disposing of transgenic pigs is a significant environmental and health concern, because if the bodies of source animals are disposed of improperly, their DNA could replicate, spread, and recombine, picking up genes from viruses in other species, and consequently, create new pathogens. Thus, disposing of genetically modified animals is an issue that should have been addressed in an EIS.
- Can we justify raising more pigs for human use at a time when the Environmental Protection Agency is placing new restrictions on livestock pollution? Breeding animals for xenotransplantation would create a host of environmental problems, described above. Conventional farming and rendering operations have yet to solve these problems which continue to threaten public health across the US (see www.hogwatch.org).
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Weekend Plans With WNBA Sky's Michael Alter Ratner Confident In Isles Playing In Nassau Anticipation High For Griner's WNBA Debut ABC Looking For Indy 500 Ratings Uptick EA Used Tebow Name In NCAA Game Classified Advertisements Executive Transactions Mohegan Sun Not Getting NCAA Tourney Games Roc Nation Sports A "Legitimate Threat" Wild Raise Season-Ticket Prices
SBD/October 22, 2012/FranchisesPrint All
The Mariners for '13 have implemented a price restructuring plan in which season-ticket plans "will rise as much as 6.9 percent in some sections, while 40-game weekend packages are up 3.7 to 10.6 percent in the more desirable main-level locations," according to Geoff Baker of the SEATTLE TIMES. The major changes "involve turning eight Safeco Field seating areas into four new ones called Main Level, Terrace Club Level, View Level and Bleachers -- with varying prices for sections and seat rows within those areas." As a result, "just about every section of the ballpark and season-ticket plan -- full-season, half-season, weekend, business and 16-game packages -- had some cost increase, though a small number remain nearly unchanged and some second-deck Club Level seats down the right- and left-field lines will actually decline up to 3 percent." Mariners Senior VP/Communications Randy Adamack said that the team "has had two across-the-board ticket hikes the past 11 seasons and none since 2008." He added that the team's studies show "its lower-level seats are among the top third of baseball for affordability ... while season-ticket holders saved between 27 percent and 44 percent off the cost of single-game tickets in 2012." The Mariners sent out a mass e-mail renewal letter to all of their season-ticket holders, but the "linked information is mainly invoices for 2013, a seating and price map and payment deadlines, with no comparative information about 2012 prices or explanations of the changes." The "biggest price hikes are in more-desired areas of the ballpark, closest to the field or home plate." But bleacher seats also were "hit hard, climbing 3.6 percent for full-time plans, 7 percent for weekend, 15 percent for business and 10 and 11 percent for each of two half-season plans." Adamack said that the changes "are an offshoot of the team's 'dynamic pricing' model introduced last season and used by roughly one-third of major-league teams" (SEATTLE TIMES, 10/21).
With Red Sox GM Ben Cherington leading the way, there is “no confusion about who selected” Blue Jays manager John Farrell to replace Bobby Valentine, according to Gordon Edes of ESPN BOSTON. There are “no chain of command issues, no puppet strings being pulled,” as Farrell is "Cherington's man. Period." Edes: "Accepted and endorsed by Boston Red Sox ownership? Of course.” Red Sox Owner John Henry “was the one who got compensation talks started with Toronto CEO Paul Beeston.” But the ownership also “came away highly impressed with the other candidates interviewed for the managerial job, most notably” Padres Special Assistant Brad Ausmus. In Valentine, Cherington had “no answer for a manager who alienated his players and appalled at least some of his coaches with his lack of preparation and disregard for their input.” But with Farrell, Cherington has “a man the GM told ownership he was more comfortable with than any of the other candidates, one he was confident spoke the same language, and would work hand in hand with him in fumigating the clubhouse and making it a place where confidence and trust could be cultivated again” (ESPNBOSTON.com, 10/21). SPORTING NEWS’ Stan McNeal wrote the "perception that Cherington didn’t choose Valentine created an obstacle in their relationship that they never overcame.” That “won’t be the case this time," as Cherington has “hired a guy who already is on his side” (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 10/21).
BEANTOWN BOOST: In Boston, Dan Shaughnessy writes of the trade of IF Mike Aviles for Farrell, “This is a good move by the Sox.” Cherington “finally has acted decisively” and Red Sox President & CEO Larry Lucchino’s “ego didn’t get in the way when it came time to part with" Aviles. The "only fair criticism of this move is the dog-and-pony show of bringing Tim Wallach, Brad Ausmus, Tony Pena, and DeMarlo Hale to town when the Sox knew they wanted Farrell all along” (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/22). CBSSPORTS.com’s Jon Heyman wrote, “Farrell is clearly the guy Cherington and the front office wanted all along, and he's a smart man with a Boston background the ownership triumvirate of John Henry, Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino can all agree on.” Hiring a manager for the Red Sox is "almost as hard as managing the Red Sox." The job "requires more of its holder than just about any other in baseball," as the Sox' manager "has to deal with one of the more involved ownership groups, many voices in the hierarchy, one smarter than the next, plus the most rabid fans and most persistent media" (CBSSPORTS.com, 10/21).
ON THE SAME PAGE: SPORTS ON EARTH’s Jorge Arangure writes, “In the days after Bobby Valentine’s hiring, Boston general manager Ben Cherington was put in the role of the patsy: a front man for a team that would be led by a manager he did not want, and ultimately had not selected.” The hiring of Farrell is “an immense victory for the general manager, and it restores the decision-making in Boston to where it belongs: the front office.” Arangure: "We have no idea how good Cherington really is as a general manager. We’re about to find out." Saying Cherington has “won a power struggle may be overstating it, since there are no signs of real discord -- just a difference of opinion in which Cherington was overruled.” But “make no mistake, Cherington has won a fight" (SPORTSONEARTH.com, 10/22).
PROBLEMS LINGER: In Boston, Ron Borges wrote, “Simply put, it’s the players, stupid.” As the Red Sox “ponder wasting a top prospect or frontline player in exchange for John Farrell arriving from Toronto, they miss the point.” The Red Sox “are not 76-113 in their last 189 games and absent the playoffs for three years because they hired a nitwit to replace a manager whose voice the players no longer heard.” Farrell "is not going to turn that attitude around nor is he going to get performance simply by his presence." Red Sox players "have to do that themselves or be replaced.” Hiring Farrell "was a mistake.” The Red Sox could have “opted for real change.” They could have “turned the page and tried the only guy on their short list who actually has done something as a major league manager.” Yankees bench coach Tony Pena, the ‘03 AL Manager of the Year “in of all places Kansas City, was there for the taking” (BOSTON HERALD, 10/21).
FEELING BLUE: In Toronto Steve Simmons writes, “This is big business and the Blue Jays come off as small-timers here in this ugly mess of a transaction." Simmons: "This is major league sports and the small market Jays show themselves as little more than farm team for the large market Red Sox” (TORONTO SUN, 10/22).
The Yankees "have priced themselves into a corner" in trying to remain competitive, "running up such a huge tab over the years and writing checks" for a $200M payroll, according to David Lennon of NEWSDAY. While Managing General Partner & co-Chair Hal Steinbrenner "has every intention of maintaining his dad’s championship legacy, he may be coming to the realization that such a thing isn’t possible on a tighter budget, not with the organization’s current state." Steinbrenner "raised eyebrows in March with his mandate of getting the Yankees’ payroll below the new luxury-tax threshold of $189 million, which takes effect for the 2014 season." There is a "tremendous fiscal incentive to cut payroll." But now that a "third consecutive season has ended without a World Series appearance, and with a top-heavy roster in flux, the Yankees are at a crossroads." The team will either "become more budget-conscious this winter -- and stomach the transitional phase -- or acquire the necessary pieces, with less emphasis on what it costs." Late Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner "always chose the latter, and the Yankees apparently are reconsidering Hal’s hard-line stance from spring training." A source on Friday said that budget concerns "will have to take a back seat if the choice is between getting below the tax threshold by 2014 and building a championship-caliber roster every year" (NEWSDAY, 10/20).
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS: In N.Y., Mike Lupica wrote at one time "the bottom line for Steinbrenner the Elder was winning it all, or else." For his "heirs, it seems the bottom line is more about profit and loss, and that sure doesn’t mean the kind of loss the Yankees just suffered" in a four-game ALCS sweep (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/21). An AL GM said, "I just see [Yankees GM] Brian Cashman trying to get this team younger while still competing. That’s what I think will happen." In Boston, Nick Cafardo wrote the Yankees' "strategy of bringing older, established players off the bench worked to a great degree." The problem the Yankees have "is that they don’t have young positional players ready to take over just yet" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/21).
INDESTRUCTIBLE? In N.Y., Bob Raissman wrote the Tigers' sweep of the Yankees "put a major dent in the once-impenetrable Yankees brand." Raissman: "Whether Brian Cashman, on the baseball side, or Randy Levine, on the business side, can repair the damage is a story with many possible endings." The Yankees’ TV ratings on the YES Network "are a better indicator of fan dissatisfaction." The team "averaged a 3.92 rating, down 8.3% from 2011 and YES’ lowest Yankees household rating since 2003." The nine-year low "came during a season in which the Yankees battled Baltimore down to the wire to win the AL East, which should have driven the ratings to an all-time high" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/21). Also in N.Y., Joel Sherman writes the stands at Yankee Stadium "were quiet -- and pretty empty -- at the outset of home playoff games and hardly sustained much life even during rallies." The "high pricing has led to an older, more restrained clientele closest to the field: A Dockers-and-loafers crew that isn’t likely to unsettle the opponent." Solving the "Stub Hub matter or lowering prices isn’t going to solve this." Sherman: "As counterintuitive as it sounds, the Yankees probably have to miss the playoffs for a few years to make this experience feel fresh for their fans again" (N.Y. POST, 10/22).
MONEY FOR NOTHING: In DC, Thomas Boswell wrote, "In 2012 money bought you next to nothing. Is it a one-year fluke? Whatever it is, it’s shocking." In '12, the "15 highest payroll teams ($124 million average) won 81.4 games on average." The 15 "lowest budget teams ($72 million average) won 80.6 games" (WASHINGTON POST, 10/19).
The Trail Blazers yesterday introduced their '12-13 marketing campaign, "New Team, New Dream," which focuses "on the team's overhauled personnel including of players, coach and general manager," according to Allan Brettman of the Portland OREGONIAN. The "digital-rich campaign features long-form video interviews of Blazers players available" on the team's website. The team will be "spending much of its advertising money on the web and less on traditional platforms such as TV, radio, print and billboards over the course of the season." The regular season "will get underway with a data-heavy mobile application that will give iPhone-wielding Blazers fans updates throughout games." Portland-based Limbo Films "produced the player interviews." Sockeye Creative of Portland "worked on the overall marketing plan," and Portland-based Character marketing agency "assisted." Desja Logic of Portland, "a Blazers partner since 2006, is developing the team's free app using technologies" from S.F.-based Xamarin. It will initially be available only "on Apple iPhones, with later plans for Android." No date "has been set for the app's release, though it is expected in the following weeks." Meanwhile, Blazers COO Sarah Mensah said that season-ticket renewals are "just 2 to 3 percentage points lower than last season at this point." Mensah said that it is possible "the team's streak of consecutive sellouts will come to an end." That regular season and playoff games streak "now stands at 192 games -- though, admittedly, plenty of games were termed 'sellouts' while many empty seats were visible in the arena" (Portland OREGONIAN, 10/20).
START SPREADING THE NEWS: SportsNet N.Y.'s Brian Custer noted the Knicks "have released a new TV and radio ad campaign and they're taking swipes at the Nets." In the spots, Knicks Fs Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire "both talk about how the Garden is the real home for New York basketball and how the Knicks are the only team with New York history." SportsNet N.Y.'s Marc Malusis said the Knicks "should be worried about the Nets" because it is "not like the Knicks have lit this city on fire, winning NBA title after NBA title." The Nets are "coming to town, they have a good team and they're battling for the basketball fan of this city. They should feel threatened." SportsNet N.Y.'s Eamon McAnaney said, "If you're selling tickets and you're looking at the bottom line, yes you should be concerned. But the Knicks are still the Knicks. This isn't going to happen overnight where the Nets are going to take over the town because I still think that the Knicks are a better team. Yes, it'll hurt TV ratings and merchandise sales but I still think that the Knicks are the team in this town, this area" ("The Wheelhouse," SportsNet N.Y., 10/17).
In Detroit, Bob Wojnowski wrote a World Series title has become Tigers Owner Mike Ilitch's “last grail, and after nearly achieving it in 2006, when the Tigers lost to the Cardinals, the quest has grown more urgent.” Wojnowski: “Nobody has invested more in the Tigers, in every way.” Ilitch went “all in to land [1B] Prince Fielder with a $214 million contract,” and he signed P Justin Verlander and 3B Miguel Cabrera “for huge sums and long terms.” Half the Tigers “tremendous starting rotation” is still on the team because Ilitch “wasn't interested in waiting for prospects.” Tigers President, CEO & GM Dave Dombrowski said, "He's told me all along, if there's one thing he'd really love to have, it would be that World Series ring" (DETROIT NEWS, 10/21).
PARADE OF THE PALACE: Palace Sports & Entertainment President & CEO Dennis Mannion and Exec VP and Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Charlie Metzger said that Pistons Owner Tom Gores is “investing more than $25 million over three years on capital improvements, ranging from a clean blue-and-silver color scheme to renovation of 40 corporate suites” at the Palace of Auburn Hills. In Detroit, Tom Walsh noted advertising around the building “will be cleaner, less busy.” Mannion said that the “head count of 255 full-time employees at the Palace is unchanged since his arrival 13 months ago.” The revenue-producing sales and marketing and staffs “have been beefed up, while administration and operations were shrunk.” Advance ticket sales are “running ahead of last year.” But Metzger said that it is an “apples-to-oranges comparison because of the delayed start of the 2011-12 NBA season because of a labor lockout” (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 10/21).
WELCOME ABOARD: Baseball writer Murray Chass noted the Dodgers named Gerry Hunsicker Senior Adviser/Baseball Operations and the team is “unlikely to make a more significant off-season move.” Hunsicker at this point “could probably have any general manager’s job that was available,” but he "chose not to jump back into the pressure-cooker world of general managers.” Dodgers President & CEO Stan Kasten said, “He’s here to give us his expertise. I thought with his experience he will be very helpful to us.” The Dodgers “especially want Hunsicker to enhance the discovery and development of players in Latin countries, an assignment in which he flourished with the Astros and the Rays” (MURRAYCHASS.com, 10/21). | <urn:uuid:176cf471-0566-433c-bee5-8f8058ab3f82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2012/10/22/Franchises.aspx | 2013-05-24T15:36:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953928 | 3,846 |
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Posted Jan. 31, 2013 9:03 a.m. by michael
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
A few weeks ago I reviewed Mike Rohde's The Sketchnote Handbook. This week Tuesday, as Jon and I were sitting inside Greenville's Peace Center, eagerly anticipating the start of Brains on Fire's 2013 F.I.R.E. Sessions, I picked up the blank Moleskine sketchbook (compliments of the Brains on Fire folks) that sat on the table in front of me and said to Jon, "I think I'm going to sketchnote this."
What followed was an amazing day full of insights. From the author Jackie Huba we got a sneek peek into the world of Monster Loyalty. Then Brains on Fire's own Geno Church delivered a compelling talk on creating authentic community interaction. Then we walked down Greenville's sunny Main Street to a delicious shrimp and grits lunch at Devereaux's. We returned for the afternoon session, kicked off by author Jonah Berger's presentation on how things become contagious. Closing the day was Love146's Rob Morris, a living, breathing definition of the word 'passionate'. The common thread throughout F.I.R.E. Sessions was one thing: people. This event served as a clear underscoring of what Brains on Fire is all about, and we were honored to be there to share in the conversation. My personal take-away is this: put people at the center of your business, always.
For an even more in-depth re-cap of the event, check out John Moore's blog post. To all of you at Brains on Fire: thank you!
Check out my sketchnotes from the two morning sessions below, but please withhold your criticisms—I will confess I'm an amateur. Be sure to keep an eye on the Brains on Fire folks in 2013. Since we're book people and you probably are too, I'll simply say that there is a new book on the way and it's going to be good. If you can't wait for the new one, make sure you've taken some time with the original Brains on Fire.
Posted April 8, 2011 6:50 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
➻ Emma Jacobs wrote about Exposés of life on the breadline in The Financial Times this week. The article looks at "a subgenre of books in which writers document their experience of low-paid employment," the most recent of which is Caitlin Kelly's Malled: My Unintentional Career in Retail, being released next week by Portfolio. The article raises the following question:
Are writers right to put themselves at the heart of the story? Or should they stick to what they know—and interview those who are actually living the life?
Jacobs gets compelling answers from a few authors, including Kelly, but my favorite response is from Alain de Botton about his terrific book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work:
“To have become an undercover reporter in 10 industries would have taken maybe 10 years,” he says. While he concedes that experience and research are important, “I’d wager that actually doing the job is arguably not an indispensable part of writing about work”. Just, he points out, “as committing a murder is not an indispensable part of writing a good crime thriller.”
Regardless of how you feel about the question, it is a genre that is filled with excellent writing. Other than the two books listed above, there is:
- Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do by Studs Terkel
- What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson
- Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
- A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember by Iain Levison
- Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
- Don't Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit edited by Sonny Brewer
And the list goes on and on. I'm sure you can think of a few to add. (Hat tip to Tiffany Liao at Portfolio Javelin.)
➻ The folks over at Brains On Fire, the wonderful "identity" company that gave us the great book of the same name, brought to our attention an example of how those who work in what we would usually consider workaday jobs can do truly remarkable things to inspire love for the companies that employ them. In this case it is Todd, whose truck full of soda is really Just a Love Machine.
Day in and day out he stops at various locations around the city, quietly letting himself in and out of office buildings, schools, churches, malls and lobbies. After refilling theemptied racks inside glowing red machines, Todd returns to his truck and heads down the road to the next destination on his list.
Sounds kind of unremarkable, doesn’t it?
Here is what you may not know: Todd is a silent super hero. A secret agent of surprise and smiles. A wielder of happiness. Todd comes and goes—usually without being noticed—but what he leaves behind is felt and shared by many.
That might sound ridiculous. I don't even like Coca-Cola so it certainly did to me, but just watch the video below.
Head over to Amy Taylor's original post to view another, possibly even more remarkable video and read the rest of the story.
➻ And, speaking of superheroes, you may want to check out Round Table Companies new partnership with Smarter Comics. Why? Well, because as Susan Adams reported in Forbes last month, Now You Can Read Business Books as Comics.
For those of you just too busy to slog through Larry Winget’s 229-page business bestseller, Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life, here’s an easier way: Starting mid-April you can pick up the 51-page comic book version. It’s one of four business titles coming out in graphic novel form, the brainstorm of Corey Michael Blake, who runs a tiny Chicago book-packaging and marketing outfit called Round Table Companies. “We’re taking the PowerPoint version of these books and illustrating them out,” explains Blake, 36.
And not only is their treatments of the books interesting, so is their publishing model. All of the authors involved agreed to give them the rights to do this for $100 each in exchange for 20% of what they bring in. For a full list of titles, head on over to the Round Table Companies website.
➻ Tom Greco, author of The End of Money and Future of Civilization, wrote about another interesting business model on the Chelsea Green blog this week. In the post, he explores mutual credit clearing, which he believes allows small and medium sized businesses to Stop Chasing the Buck and Change [Their] Luck.
Most small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) these days are having a hard time financially–sales are down, costs are up, and bank credit is unavailable, all of which is symptomatic of the stagflation that besets the American economy.
Our present predicament is no accident of nature, nor is it a temporary condition; it is the expected result of a flawed system of money, banking and finance. We have allowed the banks to control our credit and charge us interest for the “privilege” of accessing some of it as bank “loans.” [...]
But we need not be victims of a system that is so obviously failing us. We can learn to play a different game. It is possible to organize an entirely new structure of money, banking, and finance, one that is interest-free, decentralized, and controlled, not by banks or central governments, but by businesses and individuals that associate and organize themselves into cashless trading networks. This is a way to reclaim “the credit commons” from monopoly control and create healthy community economies that can enhance the quality of life for all.
The article discusses WIR Bank of Switzerland, running since 1934, and the newly developed Green America Exchange. Greco believes that "Like Facebook, Twitter, My Space and other networks that are purely social, cashless trading networks will eventually grow exponentially—and that will mark a revolutionary shift in political as well as economic empowerment." If you're interested in learning more, head over Greco's original post on the Chelsea Green Blog.
➻ And finally, because I haven't linked to anything baseball related since the season began, I'd like to point you to An Interview With UZR done by Joe Posnanksi. Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), if you're unfamiliar with it, is a defensive metric. Here is what she had to say about why she is better at judging defense that the human eye:
UZR: I’m saying that the human mind is better for writing poetry. The closest thing I’ve ever come to poetry is this: “Hat … Pat … Sat.” I’m still thinking a name for it. The human mind is better for literature, for music, for art, for comedy. The human mind is better in billions of different ways that I could never conceive. The human mind is especially better at narrative.
But by being better at narrative, the human mind can and will shift things to make them fit. The human mind will find trends in randomness, and stories in fog, and that’s one of the beautiful parts. I can count better than you can. I don’t mean that in a bragging way. I just can. I can count better, and I can ignore unnecessary data better, and I cannot be influenced by beauty or awkwardness. If you have one day to determine if a guy can play defense, or a week, or a month, you are better off to use your eyes because I need more than three days. If we have five years of data, I’m pretty sure I’ll beat your analysis every time.
She also gets in a rather funny dig at Runs Batted In (RBI).
➻ I asked her at the Pabst Theater.
Posted Oct. 8, 2010 10:47 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
➻ One of the finest books of the year was released this week, Steven Johnson's Where Good Idea Come From. The author has rounded up some of The First Reviews over on his blog. We will have our own review for you this coming Thursday.
➻ Spike Jones, one of the coauthors of the brilliant Brains On Fire, has had two very interesting posts recently that may prompt you to rethink how much time you're putting into online efforts. The first is about Why you care about Twitter too much, and features beautiful infographics from Information is Beautiful. Spike sums it up:
Over 70% of users (which, let me remind you, is still a very small sliver of the population) aren’t active users. And, on average, only 8% of content on Twitter is considered “good.” (And yes, I know that’s subjective.)
My point? That Twitter is a drop in the bucket of word-of-mouth. That you don’t need a Twitter strategy first. You need a STRATEGY first.
The second post pulls it back even further, noting that 93% of Word-of-Mouth happens offline. That is, entirely offline.
➻ strategy + business magazine interviewed Raghunath Mashelkar about A Gandhian Approach to R&D. As Mashelkar explains:
It’s a term I coined for getting more from less for more people, a new way of expressing one of Gandhi’s teachings: “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” In other words, Gandhian engineering is inclusive innovation: developing products and services that improve life for everyone, innovation that doesn’t leave out the poor.
Check out the interview for real-world examples of this philosophy in practice and the breakthroughs on the horizon.
When Tennessee Ernie Ford gave the full weight of his bass-baritone to "Sixteen Tons" and boomed that he owed his soul to the company store, the phrase evoked images of stooped miners living in tar-paper shacks under what Hardy Green calls the "super-exploitative conditions of life in a coal-mining company town." But Mr. Green shows, in "The Company Town," that such communities have also been social experiments, alternative forms of capitalist enterprise that encompassed everything from prophet-blaring to profit-sharing.
He continues later in the review:
... Mr. Green's survey is a useful one, though the early utopian ventures he profiles are far more interesting than his pallid examples from the postwar era. Classic company towns could not withstand automobiles and suburbanization. No one owes his soul to an industrial park or a corporate campus.
➻ If you're looking for a way to spruce up that next job application, why not take a lesson from Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request. Applying to the Vancouer Sun in 1958, he wrote to then editor Jack Scott:
By the time you get this letter, I'll have gotten hold of some of the recent issues of The Sun. Unless it looks totally worthless, I'll let my offer stand. And don't think that my arrogance is unintentional: it's just that I'd rather offend you now than after I started working for you.
I didn't make myself clear to the last man I worked for until after I took the job. It was as if the Marquis de Sade had suddenly found himself working for Billy Graham. The man despised me, of course, and I had nothing but contempt for him and everything he stood for. If you asked him, he'd tell you that I'm "not very likable, (that I) hate people, (that I) just want to be left alone, and (that I) feel too superior to mingle with the average person." (That's a direct quote from a memo he sent to the publisher.)
Nothing beats having good references.
Tip of the hat to Boing Boing for the story.
➻ Tattered Cover posted a video about literary tattoos from the authors of The Word Made Flesh. I wonder if the trend will ever become popular among business book readers. I long to see folks walking around with Peter Drucker quotes on their necks
Posted Sept. 3, 2010 11:10 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
➻ Chris Guillabeau's The Art of Non-Conformity will be released on Tuesday—a book I hope everyone reading this blog will pick up. On his blog yesterday, he briefly discussed Seth Godin's departure from traditional publishing before laying out the Strategy, Tactics, and the Plan for the Next 97 Days he has devised for entering the publishing arena that Seth is leaving. And his plan is the only plan that has ever succeeded: think big; work hard. Responding to the notion that “The only authors who sell books anymore are those who have popular blogs,” he writes:
Where does a popular blog come from—does the blog fairy descend from the sky with a passionate group of readers, all eager to support a new writer?
It's a valid question, and we are glad this dedicated, unconventional (indeed, dedicatedly unconventional) individual has taken a step into traditional publishing, and we wish him the best on his Unconventional Book Tour.
If you'd like to learn more before picking up a copy of his book for yourself, you can read the interview Callie Oettinger did with him over at Steven Pressfield Online, or dig into some of his online offerings.
@ssiewert: How can young pros/Gen Y apply their years of personal experience online to achieve business objectives?
@unmarketing: You have the advantage, since you’re already online. Be yourself, have an opinion but also be humble. You don’t know everything yet.
➻ The Bullish on Books blog had a great guest post from our dear friend Erika Andersen today, entitled You’ve Been Laid Off – Now What? She used the space to discuss how, once you declare an intention, or "put up your sail to catch the wind you’re looking for—it makes you available to other winds, as well." And Erika knows. She is one of the best advisers in country and the author of two outstanding books, Growing Great Employees and Being Strategic, the latter of which was recently made into a PBS special (Check your local PBS listings for the airtime, or purchase the DVD at shopPBS.org).
Many would-be innovators deal with the trade-off between efficiency and innovation by rejecting traditional management entirely. They repeat mantras about “breaking all the rules” and “asking for forgiveness rather than permission”. They set up skunk works (small, autonomous units with a remit to innovate) and mock the boring corporate types who write their pay-cheques. But again this is counter-productive. Mocking the corporate establishment only encourages it to starve you of resources.
They also touch on Warren Bennis's Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership briefly, and thought it looks like a great book, I think they did so only to have an excuse to introduce the topic of innovation by writing "Today there is no hotter topic in management theory than 'sperm in the air.'"
➻ Mitch Joel, author of Six Pixels of Separation, writes a twice-monthly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun. His most recent post discussed the 10 Best Books For Back To School Business Reading, and his list is very solid:
- Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements by Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church and Spike Jones, John Wiley & Sons
- Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers and Challengers by Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur & Tim Clark, John Wiley & Sons
- Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell, Pantheon
- The Future Arrived Yesterday: The Rise of the Protean Corporation and What it Means for You by Michael Malone, Crown Business
- Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World by Don Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams, Portfolio
- Marketing Lessons From the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn From the Most Iconic Band in History by David Meerman Scott & Brian Halligan, John Wiley & Sons
- MicroMarketing: Get Big Results by Thinking and Acting Small by Greg Verdino, McGraw-Hill
- Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead by Charlene Li, Jossey-Bass
- The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself by John Jantsch, Portfolio
- The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home by Dan Ariely, HarperCollins
I personally think that if you have read all of these books, just go ahead and forgo going back to school and get on out there and start conquering the world.
➻ "In addition to being a bullfighter and magician, he's a lazy river, a slow moving train, a future hall-of-famer playing through the pain, he's a grizzly bear." And his son is a book reviewer.
Jack Covert Selects - Brains on Fire
Posted Aug. 12, 2010 10:45 a.m. by dylan
Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements by Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church & Spike Jones, Wiley, 224 pages, $24.95, Hardcover, August 2010, ISBN 9780470614181
“Brains on Fire is not really a business book. It’s a love story …”
Those are the opening lines to an incredible collection of stories and insights that is, in fact, both business book and love story. Brains on Fire is also the name of a great company of people in Greenville, South Carolina from which the stories and insights originate. But, more than all that, it is what happens when you ignite movements that stir passion in people.
The online marketing environment is changing so rapidly that it can feel as if you’re tumbling down the rapids, sometimes above water and sometimes not, but never seeing very clearly what’s ahead. The authors know what’s happening to those conversations online, and have tips on how to join them, but they have a deeper knowledge of the fact that, eventually, that river empties into the ocean.
The authors know that what’s truly powerful in business (indeed, in society as a whole) is the creation of movements. And they know that “90 percent of word-of-mouth interactions happen off-line. Yes, you read that right. Nine. Zero. Percent. The good folks at the Keller Fay Group have done the homework, and it’s no joke.” They continue:
Look, social media is great. The Internet allows ideas to travel at the speed of light, and it connects us to both information and other like-minded people. But as great as all the Twitters and Facebooks and MySpaces and blogs and message boards and digital doodads are, they will never, ever replace the power of shaking someone’s hand, looking them in the eye, getting kindred spirits in the room (or better yet, at your brand’s Mecca), and laughing together, getting a drink, sitting at the dinner table—whatever.
The book clearly defines the distinction between campaigns and movements. And while making no call for the death of the campaign, the authors reveal how to ignite sustainable movements that build on and spread the passion that people already have for your idea, product or company. Those people are out there; you just have to get out and find them. Because “All it takes is one person to start a movement. … One. Passionate. Person.” | <urn:uuid:f44da9c6-055b-4fd2-827a-65069634061c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://800ceoread.com/book/blog/9780470614181-Brains_on_Fire | 2013-06-19T06:01:52Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950068 | 4,792 |
- Our Story
- In Memory
CAF's Dr. Tanzi on the latest on Alzheimer's Disease Genes
The Four Known Alzheimer’s Genes
Over the past several decades, it has become increasingly clear that inheritance plays a major role in Alzheimer’s disease. The roughly 25,000 genes in the human genome are comprised of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) packaged into 24 different chromosomes, 1-22, X and Y. A gene’s job is to either make proteins or control the activity of other genes. Over many generations, the DNA of a gene can mutate to create a “variant”. A very rare DNA variant is called a “mutation”, while a variant that is common in the population is called a “polymorphism”. DNA variants allow for all of us to be a little different from each other. There are about 3 million variants that differ between any two individuals. Variants in certain genes can directly cause a disease like Alzheimer’s, can increase susceptibility to disease, or can even confer protection against disease. One’s risk for most age-related diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and Alzheimer’s is strongly influenced by our genes. For all of these age-related diseases, we know of mutations that guarantee onset of these diseases with no need for input from any other genes or environmental factors. And, we know of polymorphisms that can increase (or decrease) one’s susceptibility to the disease, but without guaranteeing onset of the disease. In this latter case, other genes and environmental factors usually conspire together to determine when and whether one will get disease. Any gene which can contain a variant(s) that significantly influence one’s susceptibility to Alzheimer’s, whether it be to guarantee the disease or serve to increase (or decrease) risk, is called an “Alzheimer’s gene”. It is important to remember that all genes are “good”; it is only the variants in the DNA of these genes that can influence one’s lifetime risk for a disorder such as Alzheimer’s disease.
In the 1980’s and 90’s, my laboratory co-discovered the three known genes that can carry mutations causing early-onset (<60 yrs) familial Alzheimer’s disease. These three genes, known as APP, PSEN1 and PSEN2, can harbor any of over 200 different gene mutations that guarantee onset of Alzheimer’s at a relatively early age with no need for additional input from other genes or environmental factors. These mutations are rare, accounting for only 1-2% of Alzheimer’s cases. Inheritance of one of these mutations from just one parent virtually guarantees onset of Alzheimer’s, usually by 60 years old. If a parent carries such a mutation, each child has a 50% chance of inheriting the same mutation and getting early-onset Alzheimer’s disease with virtual certainty before 60 years old. Genetic testing is available for the early-onset Alzheimer’s gene mutations, but is usually reserved for those who have a family history of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
The fourth known Alzheimer’s gene is APOE. In the early 1990’s, investigators at Duke University found that a common gene variant (polymorphism) of APOE, called epsilon 4, can increase risk for late-onset (>60 yrs) Alzheimer’s disease. This variant is present in about 20% of the general population but this increases to >50% in Alzheimer’s patients. Unlike the early-onset AD gene mutations, this variant does not guarantee Alzheimer’s, but only serves to increase risk. Inheriting one copy of the variant (from one parent) increases risk by 4-fold (versus the general population) and two copies (from both parents), >10-fold. Importantly, a person can inherit the APOE epsilon 4 gene variant from one or both parents and never get Alzheimer’s in the span of a normal lifetime.
With regard to genetic testing for the common late-onset form of Alzheimer’s, we are not yet able to do so reliably. This is because the APOE epsilon 4 gene variant is not sufficient on it’s own to predict one’s risk for Alzheimer’s reliably. Other genes and environmental factors need to combine with the APOE epsilon 4 gene variant to cause Alzheimer’s. Some gene variants can exacerbate while others mitigate the risk for Alzheimer’s conferred by the APOE epsilon 4 gene variant. And, we do not yet know the full set of gene variants that can increase or decrease risk for Alzheimer’s when inherited together with the APOE epsilon 4 gene variant. Thus, APOE gene testing is not recommended as a sole means for predicting Alzheimer’s risk. The other late-onset Alzheimer’s genes must first be identified in order to reliably test for risk for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
So how many other Alzheimer’s genes are there? We know that the four known Alzheimer’s genes, APP, PSEN1, PSEN2, and APOE account for roughly 30% of the inheritance of Alzheimer’s. Thus, 70% of the genetics of Alzheimer’s remains undefined. We as well as others have been engaged in comprehensive projects to find the other Alzheimer’s genes. Once we have all of the Alzheimer’s genes in hand, we will be able to more reliably predict one’s lifetime risk for the common late-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease. However, one might ask, “Why bother to test if there is nothing we can currently do to prevent, stop, or reverse it?” This is certainly a fair question since we still do not have drugs that stop the disease process in Alzheimer’s. We only have drugs like Aricept and Namenda that modestly and temporarily alleviate the symptoms of cognitive decline, but without affecting the progress of the disease.
We need to do better more effective therapies for Alzheimer’s, but how do we get there? First we need to identify all of the genes and variants involved in influencing risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Studies of the known Alzheimer’s disease genes (the four previously mentioned) have provided the vast majority of information being used to guide novel drug discovery aimed at preventing, stopping and maybe even reversing Alzheimer’s disease. Every new Alzheimer’s gene defect we find provides new clues regarding the cause of the disease what we need to do to stop the disease. Thus far, all four genes have pointed to a small protein called “Abeta” as the cause. Abeta is normally made in the brain, but is found in excessive amounts in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, e.g. in senile plaques that litter the Alzheimer’s brain around nerve cells. Small clumps of Abeta can gum up the connections between nerve cells known as synapses. Billions of nerve cells in the brain form trillions of synapses making up our neural network. The neural network, in all its complexity, is needed for all brain function, including memory and learning. Excessive Abeta disrupts synaptic communication between nerve cells leading to loss of memory and learning and eventually dementia. Dementia is defined as global and catastrophic cognitive failure; Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia in the elderly.
Beyond the Original Four Alzheimer’s Genes
Most drug discovery for Alzheimer’s today is based on studies of the four original Alzheimer’s genes. But, we know that there are many more Alzheimer’s genes yet to be identified. Since 2005, the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund has supported a project called the Alzheimer’s Genome Project (AGP), carried out in my laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. The goal of this project is to study 5000 families with multiple members who are affected with the common late-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease in an effort to identify all of the other Alzheimer’s genes. In addition to the Alzheimer’s Genome Project, the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project (IGAP a consortium of dozens of research institutions in Europe and the U.S., in which we are members), uses tens of thousands of individual Alzheimer’s cases from the general population in the U.S. and Europe, to find common DNA variants that influence risk for Alzheimer’s. The family-based method of our Alzheimer’s Genome Project and the population-based method of IGAP have identified some of the same Alzheimer’s genes, but also find different ones with different effects on risk.
In the family-based studies of the Alzheimer’s Genome Project, we are able to find not only common DNA variants that influence one’s risk for Alzheimer’s, but also rare mutations that profoundly affect risk or for the disease or directly cause it. The Alzheimer’s Genome Project places a high priority on finding these rare but very potent gene mutations because historically, amongst the four known Alzheimer’s genes, it has been the rare early-onset familial Alzheimer’s gene mutations that have been most effectively guiding drug discovery efforts. This is mainly because hard-hitting mutations have clear-cut adverse effects on biological systems, which can be elegantly recapitulated in animal models. This then allows for more effective drug discovery and development.
Along these lines, one of the first new Alzheimer’s genes to be identified in the Alzheimer’s Genome Project was ADAM10. This gene was specifically chosen for testing as a potential Alzheimer’s gene because like the four original Alzheimer’s genes, it affects the production of Abeta in the brain. We identified two rare mutations in this gene that strongly predispose carriers to Alzheimer’s disease at around 70 years old. These two mutations were found in only 7 (of 1000 AD families tested). Thus, they are very rare. We have recently demonstrated these two mutations dramatically impair the activity of ADAM10. ADAM10 normally blocks the production of Abeta. Accordingly, we have found that these two rare mutations greatly enhance Alzheimer’s amyloid pathology in animal-based models of the disease. With the validation of these mutations to be “pathogenic”, or disease causing, the Alzheimer’s Genome Project considers ADAM10 to be the fifth Alzheimer’s gene. We published the original findings showing ADAM10 to carry rare mutations causing Alzheimer’s disease in 2008 in the prestigious scientific journal, Human Molecular Genetics. The publication of the validation data from transgenic mouse models is planned for the coming year in 2011.
Also beginning in 2005, with Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support, as part of the Alzheimer’s Genome Project, we carried out the first family-based “genome-wide association study” for new Alzheimer’s genes. This entailed a screen of the entire human genome in patients and their relatives in thousands of Alzheimer’s families. The first phase of this study was completed in 2008 and led to the identification of over 100 new Alzheimer’s candidate genes. We reported the top four Alzheimer’s candidate genes from this study in 2008; it was named by TIME/CNN to be one of the Ten Top Medical Research Breakthroughs of 2008.
The Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Alzheimer’s Genome Project was the first large-scale study of the human genome performed in the world on the world’s largest collection of families affected by Alzheimer’s disease. It was also the first genome-wide study for Alzheimer’s in the world to discover novel Alzheimer’s gene candidates with statistically significant results and confirmation in thousands of subject from families with a high incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. The four new Alzheimer’s genes reported by the Alzheimer’s Genome Project in 2008 in the American Journal of Human Genetics included: ATXN1, CD33, GWA14Q34, and DLGAP1. ATXN1 is known to carry mutations that cause another neurodegenerative disease called spinal cerebellar ataxia, a movement disorder. We found that when this gene is inactive, Abeta levels increase dramatically leading to cognitive decline in mouse models. Another gene, CD33, is perhaps the most interesting since it controls the brain’s innate immune system and inflammation in the brain. In a related study funded by the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, Abeta was found to play a role in the brain’s innate immunity system. CD33 regulates the brain’s immune system and concurrently, levels of Abeta. We are now developing CD33 as a drug target for Alzheimer’s based on the genetic findings of the Alzheimer’s Genome Project. It should be emphasized that without the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Alzheimer’s Genome Project we would probably have never guessed that genes like ATXN1 and CD33 might be involved with Alzheimer’s.
As part of the current activities of the Alzheimer’s Genome Project, we are now testing these as well as over one hundred other new Alzheimer’s candidate genes, coming out of our genome screen, to identify all of the DNA variants and mutations that influence risk for Alzheimer’s in the five thousand Alzheimer’s families under study in the Alzheimer’s Genome Project. We are specifically searching for DNA mutations and variants in these genes that very strongly affect risk for onset of Alzheimer’s. As new defects are found in these genes, we will not only increase our ability to reliably predict risk for Alzheimer’s, but more importantly, garner new clues regarding the causes of Alzheimer’s, and in doing so, gather new ideas and biological targets for novel drug discovery aimed at preventing, stopping and reversing Alzheimer’s disease.
In the parallel screen for new Alzheimer’s genes conducted by the IGAP, the DNA from tens of thousands of individual Alzheimer’s patients was compared to the DNA of elderly subjects without Alzheimer’s to find common variants that influence risk for Alzheimer’s. In 2009, this led to the identification of four new Alzheimer’s gene candidates called PICALM, CLU, CR1, and BIN1. More recently in April 2011, IGAP found four more Alzheimer’s genes called CD2AP, MS4A, EPHA1, and ABCA7. In addition, they found Alzheimer’s risk to be influenced by the gene CD33, which was first reported by our Alzheimer’s Genome Project in 2008.
It should be noted for the sake of clarity that the IGAP had stated in their reports and press releases that they had increased the number of known late-onset genes from “five to ten”. However, these numbers only pertained to studies of individual Alzheimer’s patients in the general population screened in IGAP, and not the family-based Alzheimer’s genes reported by the Alzheimer’s Genome Project. The IGAP considered the original five late-onset Alzheimer’s genes to be APOE (discovered as mentioned earlier at Duke U. in the early 1990’s), PICALM, CLU, CR1, and BIN1. They then considered the next five to be CD2AP, MS4A, EPHA1, ABCA7, and CD33. However, as mentioned above, CD33 had been already identified earlier in our Alzheimer’s Genome Project in 2008, which was reported in the major scientific journal, The American Journal of Human Genetics. In the IGAP announcement, they also overlooked the other three late onset genes, which had been discovered three years earlier in our Alzheimer’s Genome Project. So, in fact, with the 8 new genes reported by IGAP and the 5 new genes reported by the AGP, there have been 13 new late onset Alzheimer’s genes discovered in the last 5 years, which, when added to the discovery of APOE yields 14 total late onset genes now reported in the scientific literature. To that total would be added the 3 early onset genes co-discovered by Dr. Tanzi and colleagues to reach a total of Alzheimer’s genes discovered of 17. In addition, Dr. Tanzi and AGP have also identified over 100 unpublished Alzheimer’s candidate genes that are currently being confirmed and validated for publication over the coming year.
With regard to effects on risk, all of the new Alzheimer’s gene candidates reported by the IGAP carry common DNA variants that confer only tiny effects on risk. Specifically, according to IGAP, the new genes contain common DNA variants that are present in a large proportion (30-70%) of the general population, but only increase or decrease risk for a given individual by a mere 10-20%. In contrast, the epsilon 4 variant in APOE, which is present in 20% of the population, increases risk by 400 – 1200 %! And the ADAM gene just discovered by the AGP increases risk for the individuals who have it by about 500%
With regard to the CD33 gene, which was identified as an Alzheimer’s gene in both our Alzheimer’s Genome Project in 2008 and the IGAP in 2011, each project actually discovered different Alzheimer’s-associated DNA variants in this gene. In our family-based Alzheimer’s gene study, we originally reported a relatively uncommon variant in CD33 that increases risk for Alzheimer’s in a subset (<100) of the 5000 Alzheimer’s families we studied. In contrast, the IGAP discovered a very common variant in CD33, present in about 50% of the population that conferred only marginal protection against Alzheimer’s (decreasing risk by only 11%). The fact that we now know of two different Alzheimer’s-associated DNA variants in the CD33 gene from multiple Alzheimer’s samples increases the odds that CD33, is a bona fide Alzheimer’s gene.
As with all of the new genes found in the genome-wide association screens of the Alzheimer’s Genome Project and IGAP, the next critical step is to identify all of the DNA variants and mutations in these genes that increase or decrease risk for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The Cure Alzheimer’s Fund continues to support these efforts. We are currently screening over a 100 new Alzheimer’s candidate genes found in the Alzheimer’s Genome Project along with those found in the IGAP, to identify the all of DNA variants and mutations in these genes that influence risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Elucidating the full deck of Alzheimer’s-associated gene variants and mutations and understanding the interrelationships among them is is necessary to fully understand all of the biological processes that are affected in Alzheimer’s disease. This will give us the best odds of reliably predicting the disease early in life (with appropriate counseling and legal protection). But, most importantly, the full set of Alzheimer’s genes and the knowledge of how they biologically influence risk for disease will continue to provide the most critical information needed to guide the development of new and effective therapies aimed at preventing, stopping or reversing Alzheimer’s disease.
Finally, it should be noted that whether a DNA mutation in an Alzheimer’s gene is rare and restricted to a small subset of families or more broadly observed in the general population, most believe that new drugs or therapies for Alzheimer’s based on what is learned from that mutation will be useful in preventing and treating all cases of Alzheimer’s. As noted above, in the Alzheimer’s Genome Project, we place a high priority on family-based gene studies of Alzheimer’s since there we have the highest odds of finding DNA mutations with very strong effects on risk for Alzheimer’s, akin to those of the early-onset familial Alzheimer’s disease gene mutations discussed above. These mutations are most useful for driving successful drug discovery since their biological effects on the disease process are of much greater impact and more clear-cut in terms of mechanism by which they cause disease. They also lend themselves to more useful animal models for drug testing. Ultimately, the full list of Alzheimer’s genes emerging from the family-based genetic studies of the Alzheimer’s Genome Project and the population-based studies of IGAP getting us closer and closer to someday being able to eradicate Alzheimer’s disease using a strategy of early prediction and early intervention.
Alzheimer’s Genes Identified To Date (Total of 17):
Early-onset familial Alzheimer’s disease genes (onset < age 60):
Late onset genes (onset > age 60):
ADAM 10 (2008)**
* Co-discovered in Tanzi laboratory
** Discovered by the Cure Alzheimer’ Fund Alzheimer’s Genome Project in Alzheimer’s families-these genes are expected to contain DNA variants that significantly increase risk for Alzheimer’s.
*** Discovered by the IGAP-these genes are expected to contain DNA variants that are common in the general population but which have only tiny effects on risk for Alzheimer’s.
N.B. The Alzheimer’s Genome Project has also discovered over 100 additional Alzheimer’s candidate genes that are in the process of being confirmed and validated. In addition, the Cure Alzheimer’ Fund supports a website called AlzGene Http://alzgene.org, in which we are tracking all of the Alzheimer’s candidate genes reported in the scientific literature, including their ongoing testing for confirmation as bona fide Alzheimer’s disease genes.
With regard to functional effects, the above list of 17 Alzheimer’s genes can be divided into four major categories based on their known or predicted biological effects on Alzheimer’s risk:
1. The production and clearance of Abeta, the major protein in beta-amyloid deposits in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients (APP, PSEN1, PSEN2, APOE, ADAM10, ATXN1, CD33, CLU)
2. Cholesterol metabolism (APOE, CLU, ABCA7)
3. The innate immune system and inflammation (APOE, CD33, CLU, CR1)
4. Cell signaling and protein trafficking (PICALM, BIN1, EPHA1, CD2AP) | <urn:uuid:7b22e49d-8df6-49fe-95a0-2442199f13ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://curealz.org/2011/04/cafs-dr-tanzi-latest-alzheimers-disease-genes?page=7 | 2013-06-19T06:03:18Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918723 | 4,736 |
“Don’t you think you’re taking this a little too far?” I asked Maggie as I studied my reflection in the mirror.
She snorted. “You’re trying to use a guy for sex to get him out of your system, and you think I’m going to extremes?”
I ignored her attempt to justify the get-up in which she’d dressed me. “I mean, the ‘Get Esme Laid Mix Tape’ was one thing—that was kind of funny.”
“It was fucking hilarious, and you know it.”
“Maybe. But…” I gestured to my breasts which seemed as if they would tumble out of the borrowed bustier if I so much as sneezed. “I don’t think I can go out in public like this.”
Maggie looked at me as if I were insane. “I do it all the time.”
“I know, and that’s kind of the problem. I’m not sure I want to him to think I’m a sure thing.”
She giggled. “Except you kind of are a sure thing…”
A knock on the door prevented Maggie from elaborating.
“Shit. He’s here, and I’m not even dressed yet. Can you let him in and keep him occupied for a few minutes?”
Maggie rolled her eyes as she left my room. I closed the door behind her and turned to my closet. There had to be a better alternative then going out looking like one of the hookers on Admiral Wilson Boulevard. I went for my old standby—a black sheath dress of unknown vintage I’d bought at a thrift store on South Street. I would probably be overdressed, but after what I wore last night, it was probably just as well. Though I wasn’t sure why I cared, I didn’t want Cullen to think I had no taste whatsoever. Plus, the dress was empowering. If the plan was to fuck him out of my system, I needed a dress that made me feel like I could call the shots.
I replaced Maggie’s bustier with a black bra and listened to what was being said in the next room. The worst thing about living in such a cheap apartment was that the walls were so thin that there was no such thing as a private conversation. Tonight, it was also the best thing.
“Hello, Carlisle.” Maggie’s voice was disgustingly sweet. “Wow, you brought flowers.”
What the hell? How cliché could he get?
“Pulling out all the stops, huh?” Esme will be ready in just a few minutes. You’re welcome to have a seat while you wait for her, but unfortunately I’ll be unable to entertain you while you wait. I’m already late for a concert. See you around.”
Shit. With Maggie gone, there was no one around to help me with my zipper—well, no one except Cullen. Considering the entire point of this evening was to fuck him so I could forget him, I decided to seize the opportunity. My inner bad girl cheered as I stepped into my dress; I’d just have to ask Cullen to help me with it. I straightened my shoulders and fluffed my hair, before walking out of my room completely unzipped. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw Cullen leaning against the kitchen counter in jeans and a white button-down shirt holding a bouquet of stargazer lilies. He wasn’t a med student; he was a motherfucking Gap ad.
He straightened his posture and offered me the lilies. “A somewhat unorthodox choice, I know, but I thought of you when I saw them.”
Stargazer lilies had been favorite flowers ever since I was little, largely because they were freckled like me. Cullen showing up with them had to be nothing more than a coincidence.
“May I ask why?”
“Why did I bring you flowers?”
“I know why you brought me flowers. I’m guessing it’s part of your standard operating bullshit. I meant why did you think of me when you saw these?”
Shrugging, he flashed me his trademark smile. “They’re unconventionally beautiful.”
It took every ounce of restraint I had not to laugh in his face; could his lines get any more obvious? Despite the fact I was onto his game, my mother raised me better than to be rude when presented with a gift.
“It was very thoughtful of you.” I took the flowers out of his hands and put them in a plastic pitcher filled with water, before turning back to him. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“My shoes are by the door,” I said, assuming he was referring to my bare feet.
“Turn around, Esme.”
His voice was commandingly sexy, and though I wasn’t sure if I should trust him behind me, I did as he asked. Seconds later, I felt my dress tighten across my chest as he dragged the zipper pull slowly up my back. He stopped when he reached my bra strap, gathering my hair into his hands and laying it against my shoulder.
“Wouldn’t want it to get caught in the zipper,” he explained, his breath hot against my neck.
As he closed my dress, his hands never lingered any longer than was necessary. I wasn’t sure if I was more surprised by the fact he hadn’t tried to cop a feel or my ensuing disappointment.
When I turned to face him, I expected him to look smug that he’d managed to make me forget my dress was unzipped. Instead, he appeared almost confused.
“What?” I asked. “Never help a girl get into her dress before?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“I meant, no, that wasn’t what I was thinking.”
“Are you going to tell me what you were thinking?”
“No,” he said, smiling.
“It’s just as well.” I walked to the door and stepped into my shoes. “It would probably only lower my opinion of you.”
He laughed. “Is that even possible?”
“Probably not,” I lied.
In actuality, it was possible—now. Twenty-four hours ago was a different matter entirely. Of course, I wasn’t about to let him know that my passionate hatred of him had begun to wane. I’d then lose what little power I had over him, and I couldn’t live with that. The only way I was okay with being number seven would be if I beat him at his own game. Specifically, if I threw his ass out before he even had a chance to take off his rubber.
He followed me out into the hallway, staying at my side as I locked my apartment. When I turned to go down the steps, he grabbed my hand and held me in place.
“We’re not going that way.”
There was only one way out of the building; the steps on the other side of the hallway only led the fifth floor…and to his apartment. That sneaky motherfucker.
I pulled my hand out of his. “Why did you bother zipping my dress if you were only going to try to get me out of it four minutes later?”
“What makes you think that?”
“I live here, too. I know we can’t get out of the building that way. We can, however, get upstairs to your place.”
He burst into laughter. “Because despite the fact I just had you alone and partially disrobed—nice panties, by the way—I’d bring you to my apartment to seduce you.”
I was too fascinated by the sight of his laughter to speak. The sound seemed to come from deep in his chest. Full and real, it was the laugh of someone who unashamedly loved life and knew how to live. Had it not come at my expense, it would have been beautiful.
I folded my arms across my chest and leaned against the wall, staring at him. He must have read my body language as annoyance, because with what appeared to be great effort, he stopped laughing.
“Come with me. You’ll like this, I promise.” He extended his hand to me, and against my better judgment, I took it. He led me past his apartment and through the door that led to the roof, where he’d laid out a picnic blanket and a cooler. “I may have interpreted the phrase ‘out to dinner’ somewhat loosely, but we are technically outside. Have a seat.”
I sat on the blanket as gracefully as I could manage in my narrow skirt. He poured each of us a glass of wine before retrieving a cheese board from the cooler and placing it in front me.
“I have no idea what you like, so I got a little of everything,” he explained as he arranged various meats and cheeses on the board.
“Where did you get all this? I mean, the selection here goes way beyond what they sell at the corner grocery.”
“The Italian Market. Have you ever been there?”
I nodded dumbly.
“I’d never been to South Philly before, but one of the guys I live with insisted it was worth the hike.” He spread one of the softer cheeses onto a piece of crusty bread before offering it to me. “You’ll have to let me know if he was right.”
When I reached for the bread, he pulled his hand away.
“I never would have pegged you for a tease, Cullen.”
When he raised the slice of bread to my mouth, I realized he wanted to feed me. I ate out of his hand, but called him on it the second I swallowed.
“What was your major at Princeton? The art of seduction?”
“You’re actually close,” he said. “It was art history.”
“And you got accepted into med school with that?”
“I took all the recommended biology coursework. Until my junior year, I still wasn’t sure which discipline I wanted to pursue.”
“Medicine or art history? That’s sort of a strange combination.”
“They’re more linked than you would think. My senior thesis was on the role of the artist in the early study of anatomy.”
I sipped my wine and tried not to stare at his lips.
“If anything, I think it made my med school application stand out,” he continued. “I mean, just about everyone applying to med school majors in a hard science.”
I wondered if he realized he’d just implied I was common.
“I majored in biology,” I muttered.
“There you go. Have you always wanted to be a doctor?”
“More or less. I mean, I briefly toyed with the idea of becoming a concert pianist. Then I realized I’d never have a pot to piss in because I hate to perform.”
“A concertless pianist?” he asked, clearly amused.
“Don’t make fun of me. I knew it wouldn’t pan out, so I decided to pursue medicine. Besides, to be successful in music you have to be the best of the best, and I’m not even the best musician in my immediate family. Maggie is a piano major at Curtis; she puts me to shame.”
“Is she your only sibling?”
“Yep. We’ve done everything together for as long as I can remember. I was lucky; I got to grow up under the same roof as my best friend. What about you? Do you have any siblings?”
“I have an eighteen-year-old brother, but we’re not very close.”
He continued to feed me as we had the standard getting-to-know each other conversation. He was polite and respectful, and I wondered at what point it would turn into the standard getting-to-blow each other conversation. Meanwhile, his fingers against my lips coupled with the effects of the wine created a strange sensation that I was certain would remain at the forefront of my mind until I fucked him out of my system. The problem was that I was enjoying his company so much, my wham-bam-thank-you-man idea was quickly losing merit.
I refused to allow myself to deviate from the plan—regardless of the way he made me feel. After all, he was just acting a part, and I was determined to act mine. I inched more closely to him on the blanket, pretending I wasn’t aware of the way my skirt bunched up around the middle of my thighs.
As predicted, Cullen’s eyes went right to my newly exposed skin. When he realized I knew he was staring, he picked up a slice of cheese, pretending that had been the focus of his gaze. He raised it to my lips, and after I nibbled, I took his thumb and forefinger into my mouth. He let out a quiet gasp when without taking my eyes off his, I began to suck.
“You’re not making this easy for me,” he said.
I took his fingers from my mouth and put my arms around his neck.
“Oh, I think I’m making it very easy for you.”
I pressed my body against his and kissed him. Though he wrapped his arms around me tightly, he kept his mouth closed. Maybe Cullen wasn’t into foreplay. Though disappointing, it wasn’t necessarily a deal breaker. After all, the entire point was to get him out of my system—him being bad in bed could only help that. Besides, it wasn’t like I’d never been with a guy who was bad in bed. I wasn’t altogether sure I’d ever been with a guy who was good in bed. I did know that I’d never find out which category Cullen fell into as long as we remained on the roof of my apartment building.
“We should go inside. I’m getting a little chilly,” I lied. I may have been shivering, but it had nothing whatsoever to do with the cool evening breeze.
“Okay. Just give me a minute to pack up.” He rose to his feet and offered me his hand. After helping me up, he put the leftover food in the cooler and tucked the blanket under his arm. A few minutes later, we were outside of my apartment. He lingered in the hallway after I unlocked the door.
I pointed to the back of my dress. “If I needed help getting into it, it’s safe to assume I’ll need help getting out of it.”
He followed me inside, putting the cooler and blanket down right by the door. I pulled my hair up and turned my back to him.
“Do you know what you need?” he asked.
I knew exactly what I needed—a hot beef injection pronto—but I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell him that.
He leaned in closely and dragged his fingertips across the front of my neck. “Pearls.”
“Pearls?” I asked in disbelief. Here I was expecting him to tell me I needed a good fuck. Then again, he could just be saying he wanted to jizz on my neck.
“You know, the kind that stops here.” He touched the hollow of my throat. “They’re classic, like your dress.”
“While you’re criticizing my lack of jewelry, are there any other modifications you’d make to my attire?”
He rubbed my shoulders as he spoke. “Do you honestly want to know?”
“I’d love to see you in heels.”
“I don’t wear heels.”
“Any particular reason why?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m five-foot-ten.”
“I have noticed. What’s your point?”
“I tower over most men as it is. In my experience, guys hate it.”
“Maybe the insecure ones. Personally, I love it.”
“You would. For the record, your interest in my accessories is more than a little weird. If I didn’t know for a fact you’ve fucked six of the girls in our class, I’d think you were gay.”
“You know this for a fact?”
“Are you denying it?”
He slowly lowered the zipper of my dress, before dragging his calloused fingers up the bare skin of my back. When he reached my neck, he pushed the strap of my dress off my shoulder, replacing it with his lips. His other hand rested on my hip, holding me in place as he kissed a path to my ear.
“You were saying?” he whispered.
As if I could remember what I asked him. At that moment, I doubted I knew my own name.
“I have no idea,” I admitted.
He turned me to face him and pressed his mouth against mine. His hands found my hair as his tongue entered my mouth. It was just a kiss—he wasn’t even touching me below the neck—but I felt it everywhere from my nipples to the soles of my feet. I didn’t know how to describe the sensation, only that I never wanted it to end. Instinctively, I put my hands on his ass and pulled him against me. My hips encountered his erection for all of a second before he pulled away.
“I’m trying to be a gentleman.”
“And I’m trying to seduce you.” I pulled his shirt out of his jeans and started unbuttoning it. “It’s a lot of unnecessary effort, don’t you think? I mean, if we stopped trying to be something we’re not, we both could get what we want.”
I opened his shirt and pushed it off his shoulders and surveyed his chest. I doubted I’d ever seen a more perfect male specimen. My fingers followed the trail of golden hair to where it disappeared into his jeans. Unwilling to wait any longer, I went to work on his belt buckle.
“What is it that you think I want?” he asked.
I opened his fly and stuck my hand inside his jeans, stroking his sizable hard-on through his boxers.
“This,” I said, giving it a squeeze. “In me.”
He closed his eyes and moaned.
“Come on.” Keeping my hand on his cock, I led him to my room. Once we were in front of the bed, I let go of him just long enough to step out of my dress, at which point he tucked himself back in his jeans and closed his fly.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
“Esme, do you even like me?”
I saw no need to lie. “Not particularly. At least, I don’t think I do. You don’t have to worry about me getting all clingy, if that’s your concern. I’m not trying to make this a regular thing. For reasons I don’t entirely understand myself, I find the idea of having angry hate sex with you incredibly appealing. You have to admit, it’s win/win. Twenty minutes from now, you can count me among your conquests and begin planning number eight. Meanwhile, I’ll have gotten over my bizarre fascination with you.”
He looked appalled. “Twenty minutes?”
“Well, twenty tops,” I qualified. “Realistically, it would probably be closer to fifteen.”
“Do you really think that of me?” He seemed more surprised than offended.
“Based on my experience–”
“No, I meant do you think that’s all I want?”
He shook his head and cupped my face in his hands. “I want you.”
“You can have me.”
“I meant, I want all of you. I want to know you, to understand you. And when the time comes, I want to make love to you. But tonight, I’d just like to talk to you until you can no longer keep your eyes open then hold you while you sleep.”
He was a decent conversationalist, and he wasn’t bad to look at. It sure as hell beat sleeping alone.
“On one condition,” I said.
“Your shirt stays off.”
He rolled his eyes. “And you accuse me of objectifying the opposite sex.”
“It’s non-negotiable, Cullen.”
I went into the bathroom to change into a T-shirt to sleep in. When I came back to my room, he was in bed waiting for me. I lay down beside him, and he pulled me into his arms.
“Tell me about your family,” I said, resting my face against his chest.
He tensed beneath me. “There’s not much to tell. I had a bit of a falling out with my father a few months ago, and we’re estranged at the moment.”
“Then tell me about Princeton.”
“What would you like to know?”
“Your craziest antics, I guess. I lived at home all four years of undergrad; college stories still amuse me.”
In the end, he got exactly what he wanted—we talked until I could no longer keep my eyes open, then he held me while I slept. | <urn:uuid:05effb98-d283-4411-b018-bc3c3d752f15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sleepyvalentina.com/masen-sisters-guide/plan | 2013-06-19T06:02:47Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987437 | 4,945 |
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redirect6|Pianoforte|earlier versions of the instrument|Fortepiano|other uses of "Piano"|Piano (disambiguation)
The piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive, the piano's versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the world's most familiar musical instruments.
Pressing a key on the piano's keyboard causes a felt covered hammer to strike steel strings. The hammers rebound, allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a sounding board that couples the acoustic energy to the air so that it can be heard as sound. When the key is released, a damper stops the string's vibration. Pianos are sometimes classified as both percussion and stringed instruments. According to the Hornbostel-Sachs method of music classification, they are grouped with chordophones.
The word ''piano'' is a shortened form of the word ''pianoforte'', which is seldom used except in formal language and derived from the original Italian name for the instrument, ''clavicembalo ''[or ''gravicembalo'']'' col piano e forte'' (literally ''harpsichord with soft and loud''). This refers to the instrument's responsiveness to keyboard touch, which allows the pianist to produce notes at different dynamic levels by controlling the speed with which the hammers hit the strings.
The piano is founded on earlier technological innovations. The first string instruments with struck strings were the hammered dulcimers originating from the Persian traditional musical instrument santur. During the Middle Ages, there were several attempts at creating stringed keyboard instruments with struck strings, the earliest being the hurdy gurdy which has uncertain origins.
By the 17th century, the mechanisms of keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and the harpsichord were well known. In a clavichord the strings are struck by tangents, while in a harpsichord they are plucked by quills. Centuries of work on the mechanism of the harpsichord in particular had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, soundboard, bridge, and keyboard.
The invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731) of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Prince Ferdinand de Medici as the Keeper of the Instruments. He was an expert harpsichord maker and was well acquainted with the previous body of knowledge on stringed keyboard instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s.
Cristofori's great success was in solving, without any prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: the hammer must strike the string, but not remain in contact with it (as a tangent remains in contact with a clavichord string) because this would damp the sound. Moreover, the hammer must return to its rest position without bouncing violently, and it must be possible to repeat a note rapidly. Cristofori's piano action served as a model for the many different approaches to piano actions that followed. While Cristofori's early instruments were made with thin strings and were much quieter than the modern piano, compared to the clavichord (the only previous keyboard instrument capable of minutely controlled dynamic nuance through the keyboard) they were considerably louder and had more sustaining power.
Cristofori's new instrument remained relatively unknown until an Italian writer, Scipione Maffei, wrote an enthusiastic article about it (1711), including a diagram of the mechanism. This article was widely distributed, and most of the next generation of piano builders started their work because of reading it. One of these builders was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. Silbermann's pianos were virtually direct copies of Cristofori's, with one important addition: Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern damper pedal, which lifts all the dampers from the strings at once.
Silbermann showed Johann Sebastian Bach one of his early instruments in the 1730s, but Bach did not like it at that time, claiming that the higher notes were too soft to allow a full dynamic range. Although this earned him some animosity from Silbermann, the criticism was apparently heeded. Bach did approve of a later instrument he saw in 1747, and even served as an agent in selling Silbermann's pianos.
Piano making flourished during the late 18th century in the Viennese school, which included Johann Andreas Stein (who worked in Augsburg, Germany) and the Viennese makers Nannette Streicher (daughter of Stein) and Anton Walter. Viennese-style pianos were built with wood frames, two strings per note, and had leather-covered hammers. Some of these Viennese pianos had the opposite coloring of modern-day pianos; the natural keys were black and the accidental keys white.
[ ] It was for such instruments that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his concertos and sonatas, and replicas of them are built today for use in authentic-instrument performance of his music. The pianos of Mozart's day had a softer, clearer tone than today's pianos or English pianos, with less sustaining power. The term ''fortepiano'' is nowadays often used to distinguish the 18th-century instrument from later pianos.
The modern piano (the pianoforte) was developed from the harpsichord around 1720, by Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy. His new instrument had a delicate pianissimo (very soft sound), a strong fortissimo (a very loud, forceful sound), and every level in between.
The first upright piano was made around 1780 by Johann Schmidt of Salzburg, Austria. Thomas Loud of London developed an upright piano whose strings ran diagonally (in 1802), saving even more space.
Development of the modern piano
In the period lasting from about 1790 to 1860, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes that led to the modern form of the instrument. This revolution was in response to a consistent preference by composers and pianists for a more powerful, sustained piano sound, and made possible by the ongoing Industrial Revolution with technological resources such as high-quality steel, called piano wire, for strings, and precision casting for the production of iron frames. Over time, the tonal range of the piano was also increased from the five octaves of Mozart's day to the 7ÂĽ or more octaves found on modern pianos.
Early technological progress owed much to the firm of Broadwood. John Broadwood joined with another Scot, Robert Stodart, and a Dutchman, Americus Backers, to design a piano in the harpsichord case – the origin of the "grand". They achieved this in about 1777. They quickly gained a reputation for the splendour and powerful tone of their instruments, with Broadwood constructing ones that were progressively larger, louder, and more robustly constructed. They sent pianos to both Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, and were the first firm to build pianos with a range of more than five octaves: five octaves and a fifth during the 1790s, six octaves by 1810 (Beethoven used the extra notes in his later works), and seven octaves by 1820. The Viennese makers similarly followed these trends, however the two schools used different piano actions: Broadwoods were more robust, Viennese instruments were more sensitive.
By the 1820s, the center of innovation had shifted to Paris, where the Pleyel firm manufactured pianos used by Frédéric Chopin and the Érard firm manufactured those used by Franz Liszt. In 1821, Sébastien Érard invented the double escapement action, which permitted a note to be repeated even if the key had not yet risen to its maximum vertical position. This facilitated rapid playing of repeated notes, and this musical device was pioneered by Liszt. When the invention became public, as revised by Henri Herz, the double escapement action gradually became standard in grand pianos, and is still incorporated into all grand pianos currently produced.
One of the major technical innovations that helped to create the sound of the modern piano was the use of a strong iron frame. Also called the "plate", the iron frame sits atop the soundboard, and serves as the primary bulwark against the force of string tension. The increased structural integrity of the iron frame allowed the use of thicker, tenser, and more numerous strings. In a modern grand the total string tension can exceed 20 tons. The single piece cast iron frame was patented in 1825 in Boston by Alpheus Babcock, combining the metal hitch pin plate (1821, claimed by Broadwood on behalf of Samuel Hervé) and resisting bars (Thom and Allen, 1820, but also claimed by Broadwood and Érard). Babcock later worked for the Chickering & Mackays firm who patented the first full iron frame for grand pianos in 1843. Composite forged metal frames were preferred by many European makers until the American system was fully adopted by the early 20th century.
Other innovations for the mechanism included the use of felt hammer coverings instead of layered leather hammers. Felt hammers, which were first introduced by Henri Pape in 1826, were a more consistent material, permitting wider dynamic ranges as hammer weights and string tension increased. The sostenuto pedal (see below), invented in 1844 by Jean Louis Boisselot and improved by the Steinway firm in 1874, allowed a wider range of effects.
Other important technical innovations of this era included changes to the way the piano was strung, such as the use of a "choir" of three strings rather than two for all but the lower notes, and the use of different stringing methods. With the over strung scale, also called "cross-stringing", the strings are placed in a vertically overlapping slanted arrangement, with two heights of bridges on the soundboard instead of just one. This permits larger, but not necessarily longer, strings to fit within the case of the piano. Over stringing was invented by Jean-Henri Pape during the 1820s, and first patented for use in grand pianos in the United States by Henry Steinway Jr. in 1859.
With duplexes or aliquot scales, which was patented in 1872 by Theodore Steinway, the different components of string vibrations are controlled by tuning their secondary parts in octave relationships with the sounding lengths. Similar systems developed by BlĂĽthner (1872), as well as [http://mediatheque.cite-musique.fr/ClientBookLineCIMU/recherche/NoticeDetailleByID.asp?ID=0162147 Taskin] (1788), and Collard (1821) used more distinctly ringing undamped vibrations to modify tone.
Some early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use. The square piano had horizontal strings arranged diagonally across the rectangular case above the hammers and with the keyboard set in the long side. This design is attributed to Gottfried Silbermann or Christian Ernst Friderici on the continent, and Johannes Zumpe or Harman Vietor in England and it was improved by changes first introduced by Guillaume-Lebrecht Petzold in France and Alpheus Babcock in the United States. Square pianos were built in great numbers through the 1840s in Europe and the 1890s in America, and saw the most visible changes of any type of piano: the celebrated iron framed over strung squares manufactured by Steinway & Sons were more than two and a half times the size of Zumpe's wood framed instruments from a century before. Their overwhelming popularity was due to inexpensive construction and price, although their performance and tone were often limited by simple actions and closely spaced strings.
The tall, vertically strung upright grand was arranged like a grand set on end, with the soundboard and bridges above the keys, and tuning pins below them. The term was later revived by many manufacturers for advertising purposes. Giraffe, pyramid and lyre pianos were arranged in a somewhat similar fashion in evocatively shaped cases.
The very tall cabinet piano was introduced about 1805 and was built through the 1840s. It had strings arranged vertically on a continuous frame with bridges extended nearly to the floor, behind the keyboard and very large ''sticker action''. The short cottage upright or pianino with vertical stringing, made popular by Robert Wornum around 1815, was built into the 20th century. They are informally called ''birdcage pianos'' because of their prominent damper mechanism. Pianinos were distinguished from the oblique, or diagonally strung upright made popular in France by Roller & Blanchet during the late 1820s. The tiny spinet upright was manufactured from the mid-1930s until recent times. The low position of the hammers required the use of a "drop action" to preserve a reasonable keyboard height.
Modern upright and grand pianos attained their present forms by the end of the 19th century. Improvements have been made in manufacturing processes, and many individual details of the instrument continue to receive attention.
History and musical performance
Much of the most widely admired piano repertoire, for example, that of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, was composed for a type of instrument that is rather different from the modern instruments on which this music is normally performed today. Even the music of the Romantics, including Liszt, Chopin, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms, was written for pianos substantially different from ours.
Modern pianos come in two basic configurations (with subcategories): the grand piano and the upright piano.
In grand pianos, the frame and strings are horizontal, with the strings extending away from the keyboard. There are several sizes of grand piano. A rough generalization distinguishes the "concert grand" (between about and long) from the "parlor grand" or "boudoir grand" (about to ) and the smaller "baby grand".
All else being equal, longer pianos with longer strings have larger, richer sound and lower inharmonicity of the strings. Inharmonicity is the degree to which the frequencies of overtones (known as partials, partial tones, or harmonics) depart from whole multiples of the fundamental frequency. Pianos with shorter, thicker, and stiffer strings (e.g., baby grands) have more inharmonicity. The longer strings on a concert grand can vibrate more freely than the shorter, thicker strings on a baby grand, which means that a concert grand's strings will have truer overtones. This allows the strings to be tuned closer to equal temperament in relation to the standard pitch with less "stretching" in the piano tuning. Full-size grands are usually used for public concerts, whereas smaller grands, introduced by Sohmer & Co. in 1884, are often chosen for domestic use where space and cost are considerations.
A grand piano action has a repetition lever for each key. If the key is pressed repeatedly and fairly quickly this repetition lever catches the hammer close to the strings, which assists the speed and control of repeated notes and trills.
Upright pianos, also called vertical pianos, are more compact because the frame and strings are vertical. The hammers move horizontally, and are returned to their resting position by springs which are prone to wear and tear.
Upright pianos with unusually tall frames and long strings are sometimes called "upright grand" pianos.
Some authors classify modern pianos according to their height and, to modifications of the action that are necessary to accommodate the height.
* Studio pianos are around 42 to 45 inches tall. This is the shortest cabinet that can accommodate a 'full-sized' action located above the keyboard.
* Console pianos have a compact action (shorter hammers), and are a few inches shorter than studio models.
* The top of a Spinet model barely rises above the keyboard. The action is located below, operated by vertical wires that are attached to the backs of the keys.
* Anything taller than a studio piano is called an upright.
Toy pianos began to be manufactured in the 19th century.
In 1863, Henri Fourneaux invented the player piano, which "plays itself" from a piano roll without the need for a pianist. A performance is "recorded" onto rolls of paper with perforations, and the player piano replays the performance using pneumatic devices. Modern equivalents of the player piano include the Bösendorfer CEUS and the Yamaha Disklavier, using solenoids and MIDI rather than pneumatics and rolls.
A silent piano is an acoustic piano having an option to silence the strings by means of an interposing hammer bar. They are designed for private silent practice.
The transposing piano was invented in 1801 by Edward Ryley. It has a lever under the keyboard used to move the keyboard relative to the strings so that a pianist can play in a familiar key while the music sounds in a different key.
The prepared piano, encountered in some contemporary art music, is a grand piano which has objects placed inside it to alter its sound, or which has had its mechanism changed in some other way. The scores for music for prepared piano specify the modifications, for example instructing the pianist to insert pieces of rubber, or paper, or metal screws or washers, in between the strings. These either mute the strings or alter their timbre.
Available since the 1980s, digital pianos use digital sampling technology to reproduce the sound of each piano note. Digital pianos can be sophisticated, with features including working pedals, weighted keys, multiple voices, and MIDI interfaces. However, when the damper pedal (see below) is depressed on such an instrument, there are no strings to vibrate sympathetically. Physical models of sympathetic vibration are incorporated into the synthesis software of some higher end digital pianos, such as the Yamaha Clavinova series, or the KAWAI MP8 series.
With the advent of powerful desktop computers, highly realistic pianos have become available as affordable software modules. Some of these modules, such as Synthogy's Ivory released in 2004, use multi-gigabyte piano sample sets with as many as 90 recordings, each lasting many seconds, for each of the 88 (some have 81) keys under different conditions, augmented by additional samples to emulate sympathetic resonance, key release, the drop of the dampers, and simulations of piano techniques like re-pedaling. Some other software modules, such as Modartt's Pianoteq released in 2006, use no samples whatsoever and are a pure synthesis of all aspects of the physicalities which go into the creation of a real piano's sound.
In recent times, piano manufactures have superseded the old fashioned pianola or player piano with new innovative pianos which play themselves via a CD or MP3 Player. Similar in concept to a player piano, the PianoDisc or iQ systems installed in select pianos will 'play themselves' when prompted by a certain file format designed to be interpreted by software installed and connected to the piano. Such additions are quite expensive, often doubling the cost of a piano and are available in both upright and grand pianos.
Almost every modern piano has 36 black keys and 52 white keys for a total of 88 keys (seven octaves plus a minor third, from A0 to C8). Many older pianos only have 85 keys (seven octaves from A0 to A7), while some manufacturers extend the range further in one or both directions.
Some Bösendorfer pianos extend the normal range downwards to F0, with one other model going as far as a bottom C0, making a full eight octave range. These extra keys are sometimes hidden under a small hinged lid that can be flipped down to cover the keys in order to avoid visual disorientation in a pianist unfamiliar with the extended keyboard. On others, the colors of the extra white keys are reversed (black instead of white).
The extra keys are added primarily for increased resonance from the associated strings; that is, they vibrate sympathetically with other strings whenever the damper pedal is depressed and thus give a fuller tone. Only a very small number of works composed for piano actually use these notes. More recently, the Stuart and Sons company has also manufactured extended-range pianos, with the first 102 key piano. On their instruments, the frequency range extends from C0 to F8 which is the widest practical range for the acoustic piano. The extra keys are the same as the other keys in appearance.
Small studio upright acoustical pianos with only 65 keys have been manufactured for use by roving pianists. Known as "gig" pianos and still containing a cast iron harp, these are comparatively lightweight and can be easily transported to and from engagements by only two people. As their harp is longer than that of a spinet or console piano, they have a stronger bass sound that to some pianists is well worth the trade-off in range that a reduced key-set offers.
The Toy piano manufacturer Schoenhut started manufacturing both grands and uprights with only 44 or 49 keys, and shorter distance between the keyboard and the pedals. These pianos are true pianos with action and strings. The pianos were introduced to their product line in response to numerous requests in favor of it.
Pianos have had pedals, or some close equivalent, since the earliest days. (In the 18th century, some pianos used levers pressed upward by the player's knee instead of pedals.) Most grand pianos have three pedals: the soft pedal (una corda), sostenuto, and sustain pedal (from left to right, respectively). Most modern upright pianos also have three pedals: soft pedal, practice pedal and sustain pedal, though older or cheaper models may lack the practice pedal.
The sustain pedal (or, damper pedal) is often simply called "the pedal", since it is the most frequently used. It is placed as the rightmost pedal in the group. It lifts the dampers from all keys, sustaining all played notes. In addition, it alters the overall tone by allowing all strings, even the ones not directly played, to reverberate.
The soft pedal or ''una corda'' pedal is placed leftmost in the row of pedals. In grand pianos, it shifts the entire action, including the keyboard, to the right, so that the hammers hit only one of the three strings for each note (hence the name ''una corda'', or 'one string'). The effect is to soften the note as well as to change the tone. In uprights, this action is not possible, and so the pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings, allowing the hammers to hit the strings with less kinetic energy to produce a softer sound, but with no change in timbre.
On grand pianos, the middle pedal is a sostenuto pedal. This pedal keeps raised any damper that was already raised at the moment the pedal is depressed. This makes it possible to sustain some notes (by depressing the sostenuto pedal before notes to be sustained are released) while the player's hands are free to play other notes. This can be useful for musical passages with pedal points and other otherwise tricky or impossible situations.
On many upright pianos, there is a middle pedal called the 'practice' or ''celeste'' pedal. This drops a piece of felt between the hammers and strings, greatly muting the sounds.
There are also non-standard variants. On some pianos (grands and verticals), the middle pedal can be a bass sustain pedal: that is, when it is depressed, the dampers lift off the strings only in the bass section. This pedal would be used only when a pianist needs to sustain a single bass note or chord over many measures, while playing the melody in the treble section. On the Stuart and Sons piano as well as the largest Fazioli piano, there is a fourth pedal to the left of the principal three. This fourth pedal works in the same way as the soft pedal of an upright piano, moving the hammers closer to the strings.
The rare transposing piano, of which Irving Berlin possessed an example, had a middle pedal that functioned as a clutch which disengages the keyboard from the mechanism, enabling the keyboard to be moved to the left or right with a lever. The entire action of the piano is thus shifted to allow the pianist to play music written in one key so that it sounds in a different key. The ''pedalier'' piano, or pedal piano, is a rare type of piano that includes a pedalboard, enabling bass register notes to be played with the feet, as is standard on the organ. There are two types of pedal piano: the pedal board may be an integral part of the instrument, using the same strings and mechanism as the manual keyboard, or, less frequently, it may consist of two independent pianos (each with its separate mechanics and strings) which are placed one above the other, a regular piano played by the hands and a bass-register piano played by the feet.
Many parts of a piano are made of materials selected for sturdiness. In quality pianos, the outer rim of the piano is made of a hardwood, normally maple or beech. According to [http://www.speech.kth.se/music/5_lectures/conklin/thepianocase.html Harold A. Conklin], the purpose of a sturdy rim is so that "the vibrational energy will stay as much as possible in the soundboard instead of dissipating uselessly in the case parts, which are inefficient radiators of sound."
The rim is normally made by laminating flexible strips of hardwood to the desired shape, a system that was developed by Theodore Steinway in 1880. The thick wooden braces at the bottom (grands) or back (uprights) of the piano are not as acoustically important as the rim, and are often made of a softwood, even in top-quality pianos, in order to save weight. The requirement of structural strength, fulfilled with stout hardwood and thick metal, makes a piano heavy; even a small upright can weigh 136 kg (300 lb), and the Steinway concert grand (Model D) weighs 480 kg (990 lb). The largest piano built, the Fazioli F308, weighs 691 kg (1520 lb).
The pinblock, which holds the tuning pins in place, is another area of the piano where toughness is important. It is made of hardwood, (often maple) and generally is laminated (built of multiple layers) for additional strength and gripping power. Piano strings (also called piano wire), which must endure years of extreme tension and hard blows, are made of high quality steel. They are manufactured to vary as little as possible in diameter, since all deviations from uniformity introduce tonal distortion. The bass strings of a piano are made of a steel core wrapped with copper wire, to increase their mass whilst retaining flexibility.
The plate, or metal frame, of a piano is usually made of cast iron. It is advantageous for the plate to be quite massive. Since the strings are attached to the plate at one end, any vibrations transmitted to the plate will result in loss of energy to the desired (efficient) channel of sound transmission, namely the bridge and the soundboard. Some manufacturers now use cast steel in their plates, for greater strength. The casting of the plate is a delicate art, since the dimensions are crucial and the iron shrinks by about one percent during cooling.
The inclusion in a piano of an extremely large piece of metal is potentially an aesthetic handicap, which piano makers overcome by polishing, painting and decorating the plate. Plates often include the manufacturer's ornamental medallion and can be strikingly attractive. In an effort to make pianos lighter, Alcoa worked with Winter and Company piano manufacturers to make pianos using an aluminum plate during the 1940s. The use of aluminum for piano plates, however, did not become widely accepted and was discontinued.
The numerous grand parts and upright parts of a piano action are generally hardwood (e.g. maple, beech. hornbeam). However, since World War II, plastics have become available. Early plastics were incorporated into some pianos in the late 1940s and 1950s, but proved disastrous because they crystallized and lost their strength after only a few decades of use. The Steinway firm once incorporated Teflon, a synthetic material developed by DuPont, for some grand action parts in place of cloth, but ultimately abandoned the experiment due to an inherent "clicking" which invariably developed over time. (Also Teflon is "humidity stable" whereas the wood adjacent to the Teflon will swell and shrink with humidity changes, causing problems.) More recently, the Kawai firm has built pianos with action parts made of more modern and effective plastics such as carbon fiber; these parts have held up better and have generally received the respect of piano technicians.
The part of the piano where materials probably matter more than anywhere else is the soundboard. In quality pianos, this is made of solid spruce (that is, spruce boards glued together at their edges). Spruce is chosen for its high ratio of strength to weight. The best piano makers use close-grained, quarter-sawn, defect-free spruce, and make sure that it has been carefully dried over a long period of time before making it into soundboards. In cheap pianos, the soundboard is often made of plywood.
Piano keys are generally made of spruce or basswood, for lightness. Spruce is normally used in high-quality pianos. Traditionally, the black keys were made from ebony and the white keys were covered with strips of ivory, but since ivory-yielding species are now endangered and protected by treaty, plastics are now almost exclusively used. Also, ivory tends to chip more easily than plastic. Legal ivory can still be obtained in limited quantities. The Yamaha firm invented a plastic called "Ivorine" or "Ivorite" that mimics the look and feel of ivory; it has since been imitated by other makers.
Care and maintenance
Pianos need regular tuning to keep them up to pitch, which is usually the internationally recognized standard concert pitch of A4 = 440 Hz. The hammers of pianos are voiced to compensate for gradual hardening, and other parts also need periodic regulation. Aged and worn pianos can be rebuilt or reconditioned. Often, by replacing a great number of their parts, they can be made to perform as well as new pianos. Older pianos are often more settled and produce a warmer tone.
Piano moving should be done by trained piano movers using adequate manpower and the correct equipment for any particular piano's size and weight. Pianos are heavy yet delicate instruments. Over the years, professional piano movers have developed special techniques for transporting both grands and uprights which prevent damage to the case and to the piano's mechanics.
The piano is a crucial instrument in Western classical music, jazz, film, television, and most other complex western musical genres. Since a large number of composers are proficient pianists – and because the piano keyboard offers an easy means of complex melodic and harmonic interplay – the piano is often used as a tool for composition.
Pianos were, and still are, popular instruments for private household ownership. Hence, pianos have gained a place in the popular consciousness, and are sometimes referred to by nicknames including: "the ivories", "the joanna", "the eighty-eight", and "the black(s) and white(s)", "the little joe(s)". Playing the piano is sometimes referred to as "tickling the ivories". | <urn:uuid:e61a74fe-c7c3-4448-a1c1-923aadd6fc62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tinywiki.org/piano.html | 2013-06-19T14:37:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960579 | 6,881 |
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On Contest Landing Page (http://www.popsugar.com/27883281)
1. Enter First and Last Name and Email Address
2. Submit a response to the statement "Tell us why you're Tina's biggest fan.”
3. Submit a response to the question: “What is the one question you're dying to ask her?”
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The Semifinalists and potential Grand Prize Winner will be notified by email. However, Sponsor reserves the right to determine any alternative method of notification. Semi-finalists must respond to notifications and requests for Skype interviews within twelve (12) hours after the date of notification. A Semifinalist and potential Grand Prize Winner’s failure to respond to the notification emails within the specified twelve (12) hours will be considered such Contest winner's forfeiture of the potential prize and an alternate Semifinalist or potential Grand Prize Winner may be selected from the pool of eligible entries. If an entrant is found to be ineligible, an alternate winner may also be selected from the pool of eligible entries. Sponsor reserves the right to ship prizes directly to the email and/or mailing address provided by winners during their entry to the Contest. Each entry submitted in response to the Contest and in accordance with the rules will constitute an official entry. One (1) entry per person. Duplicate entries will be void. All entrants agree to abide by these Official Contest Rules. All entries become the property of the Sponsor.
The potential Grand Prize Winner (“Winner”) will be notified on or about February 28, 2013, no later than 11:59 PM PDT via email or phone and must accept the Grand Prize within six (6) hours from the date of notification. Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to determine any alternative method of notification. One (1) Grand Prize is available.
The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. The Contest will be conducted under the supervision of the Sponsor. The decisions of the Sponsor are final and binding in all matters relating to this Contest. All entrants agree to abide by these Official Rules.
PRIZES: The Grand Prize consists of a trip for two (2) to New York City, New York and includes: (a) round-trip, economy-class air transportation for two (2) from the major airport with regularly scheduled flights closest to the winner’s permanent residence to New York City (or ground transportation at Sponsor’s discretion if winner resides within a 200-mile radius of New York City); (b) two (2) nights standard hotel accommodations (one double occupancy room and room tax only) in New York City (trip currently to be scheduled for on or around March 4, 2013) and (c) the opportunity for the Grand Prize Winner ONLY to possibly interview Tina Fey, subject to availability and other considerations. Approximate retail value of the travel portion of the Grand Prize only is two thousand Dollars ($2,000). There is NO monetary value whatsoever associated with the possibility of interviewing Tina Fey. The actual value of the Grand Prize may vary depending on date and times of travel, airfare fluctuations and hotel charges at the time of travel. Therefore, the actual value of the Grand Prize awarded may be lower or higher at the time it is fulfilled. Any difference between actual value and stated approximate retail value will not be awarded. Prizes issued in connection with this Contest, including the Grand Prize, are not redeemable for cash or transferable; and no substitution allowed except, at Sponsor’s sole discretion, for a prize of equal or greater value. Decisions of the Sponsor are final and binding with respect to all matters related to the Contest. In no event shall the Sponsor be obligated to award more prizes than the number of prizes stated in these Official Contest Rules. Winner and any guest of Winner must be the age of majority in their respective state as of the date of entry. Winner and any guest of Winner must travel on the same itinerary, on dates to be designated by Sponsor, and must have valid identification and any other documents necessary for travel.
Travel is subject to the restrictions and conditions set forth below. Any costs associated with the receipt of and/or use of the Grand Prize that are not expressly stated above are not included in the Grand Prize and are the responsibility solely of the Grand Prize Winner and his/her guest. Such costs may include, without limitation, any ground transportation, any unspecified state or local taxes or government surcharges or fees, service charges, facility fees, security fees, passenger tariffs or duties, trip and travel insurance and premiums, meals, drinks, incidentals, gratuities, telephone calls, charges for changing dates or other personal costs and expenses not specified herein and are the sole responsibility of the Grand Prize Winner and/or his or her guest. All Grand Prize-related travel arrangements will be administered by Sponsor. The Grand Prize Winner elects to travel or partake in Grand Prize trip with no guest, no additional compensation will be awarded to the Grand Prize Winner. Air transportation and hotel accommodations must be taken together and cannot be taken separately. No changes will be made to travel details once any element(s) of the travel arrangements have been booked, except at Sponsor’s sole discretion. All airline tickets issued in conjunction with Grand Prize are not eligible for upgrades, frequent flyer miles or any other promotional benefit. Sponsor will not replace any lost or stolen tickets, travel vouchers or certificates or similar items once they are in the Grand Prize Winner’s possession (or if the Grand Prize Winner is a minor, in his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s possession), or in the possession of the Grand Prize Winner’s guest. Grand Prize travel is subject to capacity controls, availability, blackout dates and certain other restrictions, which may include a Saturday night stay, all of which are subject to change. Travel must be roundtrip. Sponsor will determine airline and flight itinerary in its sole discretion. No stopovers are permitted on tickets issued as the Grand Prize; if a stopover occurs, the Grand Prize will terminate and full fare will be charged from the stopover point for the remaining trip segment(s), including the return. Once hotel and flight arrangements have been confirmed, no changes will be allowed except by Sponsor in its sole discretion. Any unclaimed and/or unused Grand Prize travel package or element thereof will be forfeited by Grand Prize Winner and his/her guest and will remain the property of Sponsor. No refund or compensation will be made in the event of the cancellation or delay of any flight. Travel is subject to the terms and conditions set forth in these Official Rules and those set forth by Sponsor’s air travel prize supplier, as detailed in the passenger ticket contract issued by such supplier. The exact travel dates will depend upon the date of the interview (currently dates of travel are scheduled to take place on or about March 4, 2013, but is subject to change). Winner shall be responsible and liable for all federal, state and local taxes on the value of the prize and for all costs and expenses related to the Grand Prize that are not specifically mentioned herein, including, but not limited to: additional ground transportation, room service, parking fees, food, alcoholic beverages, tips, and gratuities. The time, date, and location of the styling shall be determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion and is subject to the approval of Tina Fey and Focus Features. In the event that the possible interview opportunity listed in the prize description does not or cannot take place as scheduled or at all, for reasons including but not limited to scheduling conflicts, cancellations, postponement, an event of force majeure, or for any other reason in Sponsor’s sole discretion, the remaining components of the Grand Prize shall constitute full satisfaction of Sponsor’s prize obligation to the Grand Prize Winner, and no other or additional compensation will be awarded. In the event a winner and his or her guest engages in behavior that, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion, is obnoxious or threatening, disruptive, inappropriate, illegal or that is intended to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person (or if the Grand Prize Winner and his or her guest has in the past engaged in such behavior and that subsequently becomes known to Sponsor), Sponsor reserves the right to send the Grand Prize Winner home with no further compensation. To receive a copy of any legally required winner’s list, or a copy of the Official Rules, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Prize Fulfillment, POPSUGAR Inc., 111 Sutter Street, Suite 850, San Francisco, CA 94104. Specify winner's list or rules on your request.
WINNER HEREBY AGREES AND ACKNOWLEDGES ON BEHALF OF WINNER AND GUEST THAT ANY PHOTOS OR RECORDINGS OF TINA FEY, CREW OR FILMMAKERS FROM THE TAKEN BY WINNER AND/OR GUEST OR RECEIVED BY WINNER AND/OR GUEST MAY NOT BE USED IN ANY COMMERCIAL MANNER OR FOR ANY COMMERCIAL PURPOSE WHATSOEVER.
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GENERAL CONDITIONS AND RELEASES: An entrant, Semifinalist, or potential Grand Prize Winner may be disqualified from the Contest if he or she fails to comply with each provision of these Official Contest Rules, as determined in the sole discretion of the Sponsor. As a condition of redeeming the Grand Prize, the Grand Prize Winner hereby grants the Contest Entities the right to photograph and/or record his or her interview and other participation and performance at the interview and use such recording, and the Grand Prize Winner’s name, likeness, image, voice, statements, biographical data and performance in perpetuity, in any media or manner now existing or hereinafter devised in connection with the promotion or advertising of the series “I’m a Huge Fan” (working title) without further compensation or the necessity for further consent. Participation in the Contest is at entrant’s own risk. 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Any person attempting to defraud or in any way tamper with this Contest will be ineligible for prizes and may be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Sponsor reserves the right to modify these Official Contest Rules in any way or at any time. Sponsor reserves the right, in their sole discretion, to cancel or suspend this Contest should viruses, bugs or other causes beyond their control corrupt the administration, security or proper play of the Contest. In the event of cancellation or suspension, Sugar shall promptly post a notice on the Contest entry page to such effect. This Contest shall be governed by California law. By participating in this Contest, entrants agree that California courts shall have jurisdiction over any dispute or litigation arising from or relating to this Contest and that venue shall be only in San Francisco, California.
This Contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook. | <urn:uuid:fa3a2a13-feb6-4aac-aca3-ca8dc5ea7d0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.popsugar.com/Enter-Chance-Meet-Tina-Fey-Official-Contest-Rules-27891522 | 2013-06-19T06:11:26Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902575 | 5,195 |
|1 ||A disgrace.|
|Posted on Saturday May 11, 2013, 17:03 by Sir N.Paul Hills|
|Er... a curious absence of Malle, Pasolini, Straub-Huillet, Carne, Rohmer, Rivette, Fassbinder, Hou, Kiarostami, Tarr...
the list goes on. I could place forth an infinite continuam of fine film makers more worthy of incluson than those listed in this gut-churningly mainstreamed abomination of a list. Just one Godard? Please. I suppose you really can't expect much more from the inexperienced young studs most likely hired as writers, no professional cinema critic could seriously consider "Oldboy" as the 18th greatest foreign film of all time, and worse; CITY OF GOD as 8th.
Abhorrent Read More|
|Posted on Tuesday April 23, 2013, 10:09 by Rozrox|
|I would love to take on the task of viewing each of the 100 Best Films of World Cinema. Is there a foreign film DVD retail outlet in cyberspace, the cloud or Amazon? I'd be a consumer. Thanks for an excellent compilation.
Southern Peach Read More|
|3 ||What about Spring. Summer. Fall. Winter...Spring?|
|Posted on Thursday April 11, 2013, 10:48 by ellergy|
|What about Spring. Summer. Fall. Winter...Spring?
Perhaps I overlooked it, but this Korean film should have been on the list! Read More|
|4 ||Obsession with Asian cinema !|
|Posted on Friday March 8, 2013, 01:34 by poznan56|
|Is it about 100 best non-English films ever made or about best non-English films made between 1980 and 2010 ?
Where is Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky (Eisenstein)? Read More|
|5 ||Great film !!!|
|Posted on Friday March 8, 2013, 01:21 by poznan56|
|Should be in first 20 ! Read More|
|6 ||Wrong !|
|Posted on Friday March 8, 2013, 01:04 by poznan56|
|It's not German occupation of Poland ! It's German occupation of Czechoslovakia ! Read More|
|7 ||Strange !|
|Posted on Friday March 8, 2013, 00:53 by poznan56|
|How about Loves of a Blonde ??? Who were design this list evidently loves Asian cinema and horrors ! Read More|
|Posted on Monday March 4, 2013, 12:49 by SurrealistClark|
|I feel disgusted looking at this list. You vastly overlooked three directors and some of their films.
Jacques Tati: The man is a genius on so many fronts. Probably the greatest comic director of all time. His composition was untouchable by anyone, and had great influence.
Luis Bunuel: My favourite director ever. Revolutionized what many believed in, created films in a vast array of genres. Un Chien Andalou is probably the most known short film of all time, and one of the greatest DEBUTS of all time.
Guddard: Le Mepris. Nuff said.
|Posted on Friday March 1, 2013, 07:17 by compie87|
|I haven't seen a lot of these, but of the ones I've seen I agree that they're all great films.
I thought it was interesting that Pan's Labyrinth was so high given that one of the lower-ranked movies (one that I haven't seen) said that Pan's Labyrinth drew a lot of it's ideas of escaping fascism with fantasy. I thought PL was great, but given that there is some other movie out there that it drew great influence from, I'm surprised it's regarded as such a high classic.
What about Jodorowsky though???
Holy Mountain. El Topo. Even Santa Sangre. I haven't seen anyone who makes movies like his.
Also great movies that didn't make the cut: Machuca, Tambien la lluvia (which plays on a similar political/fiction juxtapositon), and Castaway to the Moon (better than the American Castaway in my opinion) Read More|
|Posted on Friday March 1, 2013, 03:07 by jhsz|
|What abour the golem, the cabinet of doctor caligari, los olvidados, the life of others and trainspoitting (obviously they don't speak english) Read More|
|11 ||amelie is a terrible film|
|Posted on Wednesday February 13, 2013, 19:03 by lechacal|
|amelie is a shit film i saw it in grade 10 fr class and was disgusted by its stupidity and perversion, goes to show that french media has no taste in film and neither does empire, la haine should have been at # 2 instead of stupid amelie, fuck you empire and fuck fr ppl for having no taste in good film Read More|
|12 ||Unbelievable List|
|Posted on Tuesday February 12, 2013, 22:19 by ght805|
|Whilst admitting that I am not familiar with many of the films on the list, I am baffled by the absence of "Les Enfants du Paradis" - probably one of the 5 best films ever made and, arguably, the greatest. In addition, how can "Rififi" be on the list when the far more accomplished "Touchez Pas Au Grisbi" is not. Max Ophuls' brilliant "Madame de ....", described by Andrew Sarris as the most perfect film ever made is absent, as is the wonderful "Casque d'Or". Read More|
|Posted on Tuesday January 29, 2013, 20:51 by phewd|
|The Passion of Joan of Arc?
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari? Read More|
|14 ||Forgotten something?|
|Posted on Sunday December 9, 2012, 17:25 by marcus_widberg|
|What happened to ¨män som hatar kvinnor¨? Everybody agreed that noomi rapace was perfect as lisbeth salander. Shouldn't it be on here? Read More|
|Posted on Monday November 26, 2012, 10:17 by mihai|
|Lawrence of arabia, Night of the Generals, How to steal a million...
Peter O'Toole should be on the list, i think. Read More|
|16 || RE:|
|Posted on Friday November 9, 2012, 13:52 by SeanNessman|
| Stupid. Please read the title please. The films listed are not supposed to be in English. Read More|
|17 ||What about Flåklypa Grand Prix?!|
|Posted on Monday November 5, 2012, 13:32 by hegilla|
|Even though I might be a bit partial in this matter, being Norwegian and all, but Flåklypa Grand Prix should be on this list. You haven't seen it you say, well then you have something to look forward to!! If you like animation this is a real gem of a movie that deserves to be recognized. Read More|
|18 ||The Children of Heaven|
|Posted on Sunday October 14, 2012, 08:15 by mrmohitmishra|
|The movies like The Children of Heaven and LIfe is beautiful or the Secret in their eyes were not enlisted. Votes to each entry must have been disclosed Read More|
|19 || Oldboy deserves a spot in the top 10!!!|
|Posted on Monday October 8, 2012, 09:55 by TheLazyFilmBuff|
| I think Oldboy is one of the greatest films ever made! It's a shame not to even see it in the top 10 of this greatest world cinema list. Please more people be aware of this and then give it a higher voting. As this film is a hidden gem, I'm sure once the remake is made it will get a lot of recognition however I don't think nothing will be able to come close to the perfection of Oldboy!
Here is a review:
Edit - site rules don't allow advertising personal blogs/sites/youtube accounts in posts to direct users off=site. If you wish you may add a link to your sig though Read More|
|20 ||Some films that surely should have made this list!|
|Posted on Monday October 8, 2012, 09:51 by TheLazyFilmBuff|
|When I think of World cinema a lot of great films come in to my head however I was very surprised films like 'The Lives of Others', 'Swades', 'Departures', 'Confessions', 'Sanjuro', 'Intouchables' and Yojimbo is not on this list. Please is there way of users voting so we can get these films on there? I'm sure other users will not be disappointed with the films that I've mentioned. Read More|
|21 ||Movie # 26|
|Posted on Saturday September 29, 2012, 20:35 by chelath2000|
|As a young girl, movie #26 on your list, Belle et la Bete was my favorite movie. I was probably about six the first time I watched it. My father had it on VHS, and as soon as it'd finish I'd go get my father to rewind it so I could watch it again. I absolutely adore this movie. Read More|
|22 ||Not Much of a List|
|Posted on Wednesday July 11, 2012, 20:03 by bloomy333|
|Cant say I agree with the over-all representation here.
These are major figures. This is a list of the most popular films in world cinema, not the best.
Even in the case of Godard, his best films are not picked (Contempt, Pierrot le fou, My life to live).
What a shame. Read More|
|23 ||...just a few missing|
|Posted on Saturday April 21, 2012, 06:06 by taenial.romero|
|wheres Train of Life? Love´s a Bitch? Simpathy for Lady Vengeance? ...and what the hell is doing Amelie in the 2nd place? Read More|
|24 ||My Number 1....|
|Posted on Sunday March 25, 2012, 18:33 by Miss_Sushi|
|...would be Cinema Paradiso, just beautiful and it made me sob. Missing was Malena, City of the Lost Children, Brotherhood of the Wolf and La Reine Margot. Read More|
|25 ||MISSING TITLES:|
|Posted on Monday March 12, 2012, 13:22 by Johannez|
|-Abre los Ojos
-Lucia y el sexo
-C'est arrive pres de chez vous
-Monty Python & The holy Grail
+ Life of Brian (its in brittish language..;)
-Eagle vs Shark (australian language..)
..and lots and lots of really great documentaries!
|Posted on Monday March 5, 2012, 00:30 by rm310|
|The Lives of Others.... Amores Perros? Read More|
|Posted on Saturday March 3, 2012, 14:12 by AnindyaB|
|Am in agreement with Hashir Kareem's list to include Guru Dutt & other contemporary names e.g. Shyam Benegal.
For its incredible film structure, Bunuel's 'Phantom of Liberty' is a personal favourite! Read More|
|Posted on Saturday March 3, 2012, 14:06 by AnindyaB|
|Why should i see a list that fails Charles Chaplin ? And Billy Wilder? And Alfred Hitchcock? And Alain Rainey? And David Lean? And Antonioni? And Fernando Solanas? And Ilmaz Guney? Honestly, here there seems to be a disturbing bias towards violent Asian films; against Iranian films; and yes, against, believe me, British films (Lean/ Lindsay Anderson/ John Boorman/ Ridley Scott/ Danny Boyle etc)! This critic must acquaint himself/ herself with films made before 80s... in terms of craftsmanship and pathbreaking ideas they were unparalleled! Notable absentees are (in my opinion): Citizen Kane (did i miss it in the list... BTW, pressing d button 100 times means sore fingers, could you do something about it?), Dr Zhivago, Life is Beautiful, The Journey (Solanas), Last Year at Marienbad (or Hiroshima mon Amour), North by NorthWest (or Vertigo)...
Speaking of Indian films, the choices are apalling. Including the Ray trilogy is expectedly OK, but in the same breath as Devdas (that too, thRead More|
|29 ||A bit too heavy on Asian horror...|
|Posted on Saturday February 18, 2012, 18:31 by FrannyBlue|
|What about The Lives of Others or Troubled Water? Read More|
|Posted on Sunday January 1, 2012, 20:39 by Arek.Zacharski|
|The list missing "The Saragossa Manuscript" and "Stalker", both should be at very top of this list., "Promised Land" by Wajda could make it into first 50 as well. Also Tarkovsky movies (Solaris, Andrei Rublev) should be placed higher. Read More|
|31 ||Good list|
|Posted on Thursday December 15, 2011, 18:31 by MrPinkBatman|
|That's a great list, I'm only surprised that Leningrad Cowboys was the only finnish movie on the list. The Unknown Soldier could've had been here. After seeing this list I'm going to buy Infernal Affairs, The Seventh Seal, Downfall and maybe Let The Right One In and Battle Royale. Read More|
|Posted on Monday December 5, 2011, 10:00 by rachelparker|
|no La vita è bella or Banlieue 13? Read More|
|33 ||Unforgivable omissions|
|Posted on Saturday November 19, 2011, 07:06 by benwoulds|
|1. Grand Illusion - wow, arguably #1, just ask Orson Welles
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc
3. La Strada
6. Fanny and Alexander
7. Le Million
9. Elevator to the Gallows
10. Viridiana Read More|
|34 ||Great list but no Iranian films???|
|Posted on Monday November 14, 2011, 20:24 by MaryGet89|
|After going through this list I got a little bit puzzled because I haven't seen Iranian films in it. What about the films by acclaimed Iranian filmmakers like Kiarostami, Makhmalbaf, Mehrjui. To my mind this list does not represent the films from Islamic coutries at all - what about their perspective? It's terrific that you put "Persepolis" here but it's not quite Iranian production, is it? Read More|
|35 ||An Interesting List but missing quite a few|
|Posted on Monday October 24, 2011, 11:30 by MrRenegadePhoenix|
|Pan's Labyrinth, City of God, The Seventh Seal, Battleship Potemkin, Seven Samurai, Spirited Away - definately worthy of top 10 placement but where my two favourite films: Grave of the Fireflies & The Lives of Others? They are such great films and deserved placement in the top 50 without a doubt. Read More|
|36 ||Could ve been better|
|Posted on Friday September 16, 2011, 09:39 by hashirkareem|
|its impossible to make a top 100 list to satisfy all.. a real greatest movie list should have no number limit .. having said that,i think this list is quite strange !
Amelie is without doubt a very good film..but the 2nd best film of all time ?? you've got to be kidding !! that too when 81/2 is somewhere in the 60s !! Godard, Fellini etc should be much higher on any list !
There is hardly any representation of Iranian Cinema which has produced some of the best of world cinema in the last 3 or 4 decades !
At least one Emir Kusturica movie should've been on the list..there are many that it could've replaced.
The Indian choices have veered towards blockbusters rather than good cinema.. Including Devdas is like having "the Titanic" on the list of greatest movies .. its a blockbuster, no doubt, but is completely out of place on this list.. same goes for Lagaan or Mother India (though both are good films they are, by no means, ground breaking cinema) .. Films by Ghatak (coRead More|
|37 ||It Could be More International|
|Posted on Thursday June 30, 2011, 19:43 by bernpire|
|I don't disagree with the selection of films, but I do disagree with the lack of films from countries with an important film industry, such as Argentina, South Africa or Egypt. Well, Nigeria's Nollywood is indeed important, but I haven't seen yet a Nollywood film which I would argue for. I do think that Argentina's Carlos Sorin, has directed more than one film which should be here. Read More|
|38 || Pathetic|
|Posted on Tuesday June 28, 2011, 23:43 by Elishebaall|
| This list is outrageous.No Bresson films, no Bunuel films(except Un chien andalou), directors such as Godard and Tarkovskij are extremely low-ranked, while Amelie is considered to be a number 2.
At number 37, on "Rome Open City", you wrote "Magnagni as a pregnant Communist sympathizer and Fabrizzi as a noble priest", managing to spell incorrectly the names of both actors, Magnani and Fabrizi.
As part of the non-english speaking world I thank you for taking the non-english film world in such attentive consideration.
|Posted on Wednesday June 1, 2011, 00:31 by Rati23|
|Where the F..K is The Lives of Others, Princess Mononoke, Grave of Fireflies? Read More|
|Posted on Wednesday May 18, 2011, 06:52 by Ferociousaurus|
|I also feel like La Vita e Bella is a pretty big snub. Other than that, good list. Read More|
|41 || Great Hungarian films|
|Posted on Friday April 15, 2011, 12:43 by Bipbip|
| gri csillagok (1968, Stars of Eger) - historical war drama. ---- on IMDB fekete varos (1971 TV-series, The Black Town): ---- on IMDBonfoglalas (1996, The Conquest): ------ on IMDB]
|42 ||Bad selection|
|Posted on Sunday April 10, 2011, 18:33 by Von Goom|
|Irreversible, La femme Nikita, Khadak, Taste of Cherry, La Vita e Bella are out
Any of those titles is better than one or two dozen of your selection Read More|
|43 || RE: What?!|
|Posted on Monday November 22, 2010, 16:09 by sharkboy|
1. a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insuffici Read More|
|44 || RE: Great list, but..|
|Posted on Tuesday July 6, 2010, 07:56 by bizarro|
| My only real gripe with the list is how low Ikiru is. Read More|
|45 || RE: Pffft amend the list already|
|Posted on Sunday June 27, 2010, 21:26 by LastSamurai|
| After reading some posts i've watched a few of the films that weren't on the Top 100 list. Just finiished watchin Irreversible and WOW , great film. Gritty, real, and dark. Nicely acted and the "memento style" chronological way the film plays worked very well. Starts off a little slow but really gets going after 15 mins or so. If you've not seen this id personally recommend it. Defo a top 20 for me now.
|46 || RE: RE:|
|Posted on Sunday June 27, 2010, 12:03 by eldiabolik|
| I didn't see any Robert Bresson on that list, which in turn makes any such list worthless. A joke in fact. Read More|
|47 || RE:|
|Posted on Saturday June 26, 2010, 22:15 by fernetcontonica|
| I also think is worthy but being foreign myself and most films to my eyes too I find it rather odd myself and a list of myself would not be like this at all but that's a cultural perception issue. There's a set of films that hoarde the attention and some truly awesome stuff is not even left off on purpose because they don't even get any presence. Sometimes films that arrived here quickly take even a couple of years to hit the UK. It's not Empire's fault at all but I'd like to see them venturing deeper into the films the world offers.
|48 || RE: What is the "world" anyway?|
|Posted on Friday June 25, 2010, 16:32 by rawlinson|
| L: Julmis
I'm sure I'm not the first person to comment on the vaguely patronising tone of this whole thing, effectively setting a separate kids table for films made in other languages.
Or maybe it's a magazine trying to expand the viewing of their core fanbase by recommending 100 non-English language films? The list might not be perfect, these kind of lists never are, but it's a worthy aim. Talking about it as a kid's table is just seeing what you want to see instead of what's actually there.
films are then selected from those known in this country, leaving in the wilderness hundreds of possibly great or greater films which have not had the luck or funding to come to the attention of the English-speaking world. p;
And maybe the more that publications like Empire encourage an interest in foreign language films the more likely it is that a fanbase will grow and people will find themselves searching out more obscure films. Read More|
|49 || RE: What is the "world" anyway?|
|Posted on Friday June 25, 2010, 16:20 by elab49|
| World Cinema would be a standard recognised category in this country used by all sites and DVD outlets. It is clearly from really one point of view - but it is a British magazine, so World being defined as non-English language isn't patronising. It just 'is'. Read More|
|50 || RE: RE:|
|Posted on Monday June 21, 2010, 23:55 by TimBurtonVoodooGirl|
| I think Pan's Labyrinth should of been higher, it's one of the best films ever made!!
And I agree with Popcorn Required, where is Amores Perros?? And also films like Life Is Beautiful, Talk To Her, Volver. You said that Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown wasn't as scrubbed up as Volver, so why didn't you include volver in your list?? >.> Apart from that, some pretty good films, not sure how much I agree with the rankings though :-/ Un Chien Andalou should of been a bit higher I think, though. 80 years and it still manages to shock and disturb it's audiences, that is impressive. Read More|
|51 || RE: RE:|
|Posted on Monday June 21, 2010, 16:13 by spamandham|
| Oh and this list inspired me to finally get round to watching Let the right one in.
So well done.
|52 || RE:|
|Posted on Monday June 21, 2010, 16:11 by spamandham|
| The 'what not to say' on the Polanski entry made me lol Read More|
|53 || RE: This list sucks|
|Posted on Sunday June 20, 2010, 22:43 by Miles Messervy 007|
oh you make me laugh
|54 || RE: nice list, but...|
|Posted on Sunday June 20, 2010, 19:13 by Ultimo Lee|
| L: nunojordao
ame 852th........which is way too high
|55 || RE: RE:|
|Posted on Sunday June 20, 2010, 02:07 by Perros|
| Absolutely terrible list. Good movies, terrible rankings. Also, no way in hell should Spirited Away be that high in the list. I've seen this movie twice and it's not as good as you all make it out to be. Read More|
|56 || RE:|
|Posted on Saturday June 19, 2010, 23:45 by hiptobesquare_x|
| It isn't an appalling list but when you consider the fact that it is composed of every film not from the UK or the USA then 100 is a ridiculously small number to narrow it down to. I think it's as good a place as any to start for someone who wants to get in to World Cinema (eurgh how naff that sounds...). You get the picture. Read More|
|57 || RE: This list sucks|
|Posted on Saturday June 19, 2010, 23:01 by swordsandsandals|
oh Empire, you make me laugh
hy? Because they don't have exactly the same film taste as you? Read More|
|58 || RE: Another interesting addition to the list...|
|Posted on Saturday June 19, 2010, 17:09 by Miles Messervy 007|
| L: elab49
It'd certainly be interesting definition wise if posters like Dantes and Fernetcontonica took part ote]Eh-khm.
The list is an odd mix, but I had suitably low expectations and a horrible film at number 2 is sort of redeemed by some of the more interesting choices. Read More|
|59 || RE: Top 100|
|Posted on Saturday June 19, 2010, 01:38 by LastSamurai|
| Hmmm... Ichi the Killer? Plus im enjoying hearing everyones opinions on other films they think should be on the list. The several that a few people have mentioned that weren't i'm gonna try and watch. Perhaps if people could write a little about each film that was missed off people can just look em up and draw there own conclusions. Then we could perhaps do our own Top 100 with a more "educated" audience.
|60 || RE:|
|Posted on Thursday June 17, 2010, 14:46 by Qwerty Norris|
| A good list there Empire, admittedly there's a lot I haven't seen but looking at what's on it I'm intrigued to see a number of stuff there.
Still, I'm pretty disappointed you couldn't find a spot for the likes of Fitzcarraldo, the Lives of Others, the Diving Bell & the Butterfly, Au Revoir Les Enfants & the Return- and yet find room for the likes of Infernal Affairs to be so high on the list.
Each to their own though I guess.....
|61 || RE: The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema|
|Posted on Tuesday June 15, 2010, 19:28 by demoncleaner|
| Just to point out a wee bijou error-ette (for my own near-sexual gratification than for editorial concern) but the Rashomon remake that credits Kurosawa as co-writer is ragebsp; lawsp;
*lights cigarette* Read More|
|62 || RE: Another interesting addition to the list...|
|Posted on Tuesday June 15, 2010, 00:18 by benskelly|
| L: rawlinson
Films not in the English Language then?
With the obvious rule that Na'vi doesn't count as a language.
Or Klingon. Read More|
|63 || RE: Another interesting addition to the list...|
|Posted on Tuesday June 15, 2010, 00:17 by rawlinson|
| L: swordsandsandals
Films not in the English Language then?
With the obvious rule that Na'vi doesn't count as a language. Read More|
|64 || RE: Mesrine!!!??|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 22:03 by Piles|
| L: Bobby TwoTimes
Possibly one of the greatest gangster movies ever made, certainly Vincent Cassel's masterpiece and the best French films since Irreversible (another one missing!).
Not a great list Empire, it must be said.
here's not a single Rohmer film in this list and you are complaining about Mesrine?
|65 || RE: Another interesting addition to the list...|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 21:59 by Piles|
| Also, Amelie at number two? Highest Godard at number 75? And that's 'Breathless'? Your list is rubbish. Read More|
|66 || RE: Another interesting addition to the list...|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 21:58 by benskelly|
So true, Piles.
You gotta' admit though - sure gets us clicking like monkeys with a cocaine button. Read More|
|67 || RE: Another interesting addition to the list...|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 21:55 by Piles|
| Dear Empire,
Please in future can you make it so I don't have to press next a hundred times before I can be outraged by one of your lists. I would much rather be outraged in the space of a simple scroll down a texted list.
|68 || RE: Another interesting addition to the list...|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 21:53 by swordsandsandals|
| Films not in the English Language then? Read More|
|69 || RE: Another interesting addition to the list...|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 21:35 by elab49|
| It'd certainly be interesting definition wise if posters like Dantes and Fernetcontonica took part Read More|
|70 || RE: Another interesting addition to the list...|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 21:24 by swordsandsandals|
| Top 100 World Cinema films - that could be an interesting one for us lot at Lists, Elab. Read More|
|71 || RE: Another interesting addition to the list...|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 20:07 by elab49|
| 'course posters could list their personal top 100 World Cinema films, and also confirm they've seen each and every one of the Empire 100.
Just for context. Read More|
|72 || RE: Another interesting addition to the list...|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 19:39 by rawlinson|
| L: swordsandsandals
How many more people are just going to list films they like but aren't in? They couldn't include every film, and chances are they don't like the one you keep harping on about as much as you do. Simple as that.
Have you never read one of these threads before? Read More|
|73 || RE: Another interesting addition to the list...|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 18:29 by swordsandsandals|
| How many more people are just going to list films they like but aren't in? They couldn't include every film, and chances are they don't like the one you keep harping on about as much as you do. Simple as that.
On another note, where was Once? I get it was in English, but it should be in every list ever. Read More|
|74 || RE: Very Bad Empire.|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 17:54 by SYMONDS|
| That what I said, using some what dubious grammer. Read More|
|75 || RE:|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 13:28 by Kendra71|
| Please tell me I'm not the only person who saw and loved Avalon ? Wondered about the awesome Belleville Triplets, but couldn't think whether it was foreign language or in fact silent except for the song. Happy to see Pan's Labyrinth so high. I wish I could speak spanish so I could watch the film instead of the subtitles, but its still fantastic. Battle Royle should have been higher as its a riot. Interesting list all in all. Reminded me to put Metropolis on my Amazon wish list. Read More|
|76 || RE: Very Bad Empire.|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 12:25 by dankeane|
| Eh... Das Boot was made in 1981. What are you talking about? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082096/ Read More|
|77 || RE:|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 07:46 by benskelly|
| L: KillerKane
Maybe for Most Disturbing Use Of A Fire Extinguisher, otherwise...nope. Read More|
|78 || RE: Oldboy is good enough to be that high in the list.|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 07:37 by benskelly|
| Wow, a lot of posters on here have terrible taste...
BATTLE ROYALE is utter crap. It is one of the stupidest films I've ever seen.
SUSPIRIA is the second biggest piece of crap.
CROUCHING TIGER has it's moments, but is incredibly overrated.
FLYING DAGGERS, on the other hand, is a giddy fucking masterpiece and visual feast - so for those of you saying "what???"...you're wrong. Just FYI.
Now could we stop mentioning THE LIVES OF OTHERS over and over again? It was a very good film, maybe great, and should have been in the lower half of the list.
I criticized the list, but jokingly. It's a fine list. There's no pleasing everyone. And I love all these people who want to fill the Top Ten only with films from the last five years. Gimme' a break. Watch an old movie once in a while, you snotnosed brats. Otherwise you really have no idea what you're talking about. AndRead More|
|79 || RE:|
|Posted on Monday June 14, 2010, 01:28 by Ultimo Lee|
| Why when there's a list is there so many first time posters?
Not bad managed to have seen 53 of them, my top 10 in no particular order would be
City of God
Jean de Florette / Manon des Sources
|80 || RE:|
|Posted on Sunday June 13, 2010, 18:12 by Deviation|
| Yes there are some strange omissions but still a great 100 List nontheless. Read More|
|81 || RE: Missing in favor of violence?|
|Posted on Saturday June 12, 2010, 23:18 by swordsandsandals|
| I'm going to focus on the positives.
The Seven Samurai, Ikiru, My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, Aguirre, City of God, Pan's Labyrinth and others are all masterpieces. I'm only in the Top 50 at the moment as well. Read More|
|82 || RE: Missing in favor of violence?|
|Posted on Saturday June 12, 2010, 20:29 by benskelly|
| Okay, I have my gripes as well...
First of all, not including PELLE THE CONQUERER is a sin of the highest order. Secondly, HOUSE OF THE FLYING DAGGERS should be much higher up, and I'd dump CROUCHING TIGER...
Then you need to open up your eyes to Jacques Becker's French crime masterpieces: LE TROU (THE HOLE), TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI, and CASQUE D'OR.
And the Japanese samurai classic HARA KIRI.
And where's BETTY BLUE? Or, for that matter, LA FEMME NIKITA??
|83 || RE: RE:|
|Posted on Saturday June 12, 2010, 16:07 by evildave69|
| Reader's Poll eh? Do you not remember 'The 50 Worst Films Ever' list. If anything it proves that readers as a collective, whether Empire or not, no a truck load of fuck-all. Read More|
|84 || RE:|
|Posted on Saturday June 12, 2010, 15:42 by JapStrangler|
| L: mcclane3011
Just the 1 bruce lee movie? Hardboiled needs to be much higher! and what about the killer...where the hell was that??!! Also what about jackie Chan's project A. At the risk of pissing a lot of people off seven samurai is much over rated and needs to be much lower. Korean war epic brotherhood should be on the list.Perhaps next time this kind of list is done it should be a list compiled by readers.
ally, why can't we have a reader's poll?
|85 || RE:|
|Posted on Saturday June 12, 2010, 10:09 by itzibitzius|
| They mixed up the descriptions of Touki Bouki and Xala... Get it sorted Empire! Read More|
|86 || RE: Did I miss BETTY BLUE in there? wtf|
|Posted on Friday June 11, 2010, 21:58 by Megalo-who?|
and how about STALKER hmmm.
ther than Andrei Rublev and Solaris, Empire never mentions Tarkovsky. But yes, Mirror, Stalker, Notalgia and The Sacrifice should all be on there. Oh yeah and The Lives Of Others, a glaring omission considering the populist nature of the list and the fact that it towers above. Read More|
|87 || Devdas and Lagaan, seriously?|
|Posted on Friday June 11, 2010, 20:16 by SultanAmeer|
| I won't argue about great movies like Rashomon and Nosferatu are lower in the list than less-great movie like Let The Right One In, City of God and Pan's Labyrinth because this won't change the mind of the person(s) who compiled that list but what about two not so great Bollywood movies in the list. Devdas and Lagaan both upper in the list than Mother India, seriously? Even most Bollywood critics won't agree with that. What about real great Bollywood movies like Pyaasa, Devdas (1955), Do Bigha Zamin, these movies are way better than Devdas and Lagaan and they are not even in that list. They should've research more before compiling that list.
What's the issue with this quote "Shahrukh Khan isn't the Tom Cruise of Bollywood. Tom Cruise is the Shahrukh Khan of Hollywood!" They certainly didn't watch Shahrukh Khan's other performances or they just don't like Tom Cruise.
Doesn't Das Boot released in 1981? Read More|
|88 || RE:|
|Posted on Friday June 11, 2010, 19:31 by The Waco Kid|
| what about Man bites dog ( i thought it was bloody funny)
or two films i think beat jean de florette/manon des source they being
la gloire de mon pere
le chateau de ma mere
|89 || RE:|
|Posted on Friday June 11, 2010, 18:42 by Boyden|
| What is the reasoning to leaving out The Lives of others, Irreversible, Funny Games and Alexander Nevsky? Read More|
|90 || RE: Honestly, how could you miss|
|Posted on Friday June 11, 2010, 16:12 by livila|
Au revoir, les enfants?????
ve that film too. Read More|
|91 || RE: Great list|
|Posted on Friday June 11, 2010, 16:08 by livila|
| L: edwardon
Great list, but I'd also like to have seen included Letters from Iwo Jima, The Lives of Others, La Mala Educacion, Eat Drink Man Woman, The Orphanage and e Margotote]
Yes, definately La Reine Margot. I think with a proper dvd release rather than the cut US version, this film would be remembered again. Full version is available in Germany but not France.
Other than that, great list. Personally I'd have After the Wedding, Volver and Twin Sisters in there. Read More|
|92 || RE: COME AND SEE'S A BIG PILE OF SHIT!|
|Posted on Friday June 11, 2010, 16:04 by Mrs.Doyle|
| Ki-duk Kim's 2003 , Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring"eoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom) anyone?? Amazing Korean film that had us enthralled when shown on TV a few years back./align]Also nd Jim]Cinema Paradiso Top Ten! Read More|
|93 || RE: Missing?|
|Posted on Friday June 11, 2010, 14:24 by tftrman|
| Some of the suggestions people are making just wouldn't get near a top 100 list -
City Of Lost Children - It's good but uneven in tone and the ending is badly written.
Sympathy For Mr Vengeance - Not even the best of Chan-wook's vengeance trilogy
Irreversible - That's a tough one, it's a really powerful film but there's no re-watch appeal for me so wouldn't make the list either.
|94 || RE: Missing?|
|Posted on Friday June 11, 2010, 13:58 by Helen OHara|
| Just to address a few of the points raised, we make no apologies whatsoever for the films on the list or their placement. This list was derived from a MUCH longer long list which included most of those y'all have suggested (except A Very Long Engagement - it ain't all that) and we narrowed it down to something that felt fair and representative to us.
On a couple of the smaller mistakes, we're fixing those now. The classification of Persepolis and Un Chien Andalou as non-French was partly because of the directors and partly (if I'm honest) trying not to make it such a home run for the darn Frenchies, who have a nasty habit of making consistently brilliant films.
|95 || RE: I'll be the first to bitch...|
|Posted on Friday June 11, 2010, 11:14 by Funkyrae|
THE ORPHANAGE? IRREVERSIBLE? actually, 'The greatest films not in the English language'? o where were PASSION OF THE CHRIST and APOCALYPTO?at about Snake-Eyes' Favourite - LE PACTE DES LOUPS?!
opefully in the bin where they belong! Read More| | <urn:uuid:b9f41035-a870-417e-8877-1a5341dfa03b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.empireonline.com/features/100-greatest-world-cinema-films/default.asp?film=100 | 2013-05-19T18:53:00Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939377 | 9,287 |
Well; now that the bailout appears to have flamed out we see the stock market dropping faster than Larry Craig's boxers in airport men's room (what? hey, it's just an analogy!).
In conversations over the weekend ( I was travelling to visit some friends) I was told by a number of people that the credit crunch was the fault of the consumer. There's no doubt in my mind that a lot of folks, who really did know better than to believe that the loan and real estate markets were sound, borrowed much more money than they could hope to repay if anything interrupted their income stream or devalued their equity stake in their property. There were also, of course, many thousands of businesses, both large and small, that went on spending sprees for new equipment, expansion and acquisitons and are now scrambling in a tightening market to service the debt they generated.
However, the major culprits in this situation are the current administration, the financial behemoths that control retail lending and the superbly trained, groomed and accoutred thieves who ran them.
I've been through a bankruptcy. It destroyed my credit for 8 years. As a result of proving that I wasn't very good at controlling my spending I was penalized by being refused any credit at less than confiscatory rates (at least I used to think 24% interest was confiscatory--now that seems like a bargain compared to some of the rates I see). I learned a lesson. I don't owe anyone any money at the moment and I hope to keep it that way. I also don't have any money to speak of, when I finish what I'm doing at the house I will be flat broke, most likely. I know that I can't spend money I don't have and expect someone to bail ME out--with no strings attached. I don't think consumers who borrowed money to purchase McMansions (knowing they couldn't really afford them) should be afforded the same degree of relief as people who were lied to and convinced by the bunco artist lenders that their ARM's were "no problem" and they would just be able to re-fi them at any time.
Once the "customers" have had their 'taste' of ashes and sackcloth I think it would be both just and proper that we deal with their enablers.
I have heard that some bigshot execs have lost their jobs, that they share our pain. Horseshit. The majority of the corporate thugs who were the architects of this house of cards have made piles of money, much of which has been "re purposed" into various stock portfolios, real estate and other assets. I would suggest (fat lot of good it will do) that we set aside some funds and set up a an investigative body to comb through the financial records of the failed institutions and their officers. Where those investigations reveal mis or malfeasance, appropriate penalties--including prison sentences and restitution--should be levied.
Mr. Paulson said, last week, that we needed to offer the people that allowed or caused this current fiasco, some incentives to get them to sign on. I think a couple of hundred U.S. Marshalls and T-men with warrants, green eyeshades and calculators would work wonders.
I actually put this on someone else's comments, but it strikes me that people keep conflating "experience" with training (including the Obama campaign).
The comment that was made, essentially, sais that Palin's lack of foreign policy experience is no more troubling than was Bill Clinton's when he ran for the presidency or Obama's is now. I beg to differ.
Assuming this information on Obama:
Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at Occidental College for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. Obama graduated with a B.A. from Columbia in 1983, then worked for a year at the Business International Corporation and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.
After four years in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago to work as a community organizer for three years from June 1985 to May 1988 as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale) on Chicago's far South Side. During his three years as the DCP's director, its staff grew from one to thirteen and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000, with accomplishments including helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens. Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute. In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his Kenyan relatives for the first time.
Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988. At the end of his first year, he was selected, based on his grades and a writing competition, as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. In February 1990, in his second year, he was elected president of the Law Review,(wikipedia)"
and Bill Clinton;
"With the aid of scholarships, Clinton attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (B.S.F.S.) degree in 1968. He spent the summer of 1967, the summer before his senior year, working as an intern for Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. While in college he became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. ...
Upon graduation he won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford where he studied Government. ...
After Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and obtained a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1973.(wikipedia)"
to be factual,
I would say that either Obama's or Clinton's resume is little better than Sarah Palin's. Sarah Palin has a degree in sports journalism. NO FOREIGN POLICY EDUCATION OR EXPERIENCE.
It is silly for anyone to think that any candidate for the presidency has a great deal of foreign policy "experience" as even the U.S. congress really only recommends what path the president and secretary of state should follow in that regard. But if a concentration in sports metaphors isn't trumped by a law degree and a B.S. in foreign policy--well, shucks.
Also, it needs to be remembered that JohnnyPOW McCain's campaign touted Sarah Palin's experience in this area. Now they REALLY don't want her to talk about it, outside of totally scripted and managed "interviews". Poor Sarah, the pitbull may wear lipstick but she also wears a muzzle.
Obviously there is no "truth in advertising" law that applies to political campaigns--mores the pity.
Well, we had a deal, but it appears that the GOPimps in the house are now saying that the guy they sent up to the hill had his fingers crossed...
"But a House leadership aide said that there had been no bipartisan negotiations with House Republicans. The aide said Rep. Spencer Bachus, who had been meeting with Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, head of the Senate Banking Committee, had no authority to speak for them.
In a statement before the meeting, Bachus said that he had made it clear in the meeting that "I was not authorized by my colleagues to make any agreement on behalf of House Republicans."
So, now it would appear that we don't have a deal. Our economy is tanking (has been for quite some time, actually) and the reptilicans are going to use this crisis as another chance to fuck the rest of us and at the same time make political points with the morons that support McCain/Palin or Bushco V1.1, if you will.
They say that the Chinese have an ideogram for "crisis" that combines "danger" with "opportunity". I think the GOP has one that combines "cynicism" with "talking points".
Here's a great MPalincCain ad.
I watched a fair amount of Olbermann's show from last evening on a podcast and about eight minutes of Letterman, all having to do, oddly enough with the McPalincain presidential campaign.
I'm not sure what's stranger; the surreal aspect of both Palin and McCain's obvious disconnect with what they say when they know they're on camera and what they've said in the past or say now, when they think they're off the record--or the fact that most of the media is STILL blissfully pumping out whatever passes for the truth from CampaignMcStain.
Don't take my word for it, google Olbermann, google Letterman (Jay Leno's got to be seething that McCain didn't "diss" him). Check out Mudflats blog.
I don't think we're seeing that the emperor's naked, I think we're seeing that his spleen is enlarged, he's got fibroid entanglements in his brain and he's suffering from Madrunningmate's disease.
That's okay, Reverend Muthee, the witchdoctordoctor will save the senator and his team from that evil sorcerer O Bam A.
And a bright "good morning" to all!
I have been puzzling over the claim by Bushco apparatchik Henry Paulson that not making a quick, uninformed decision about the $750,000,000,000 welfare program for the downtrodden CEO's of Wall Street.
See, I don't got me no degree in economics or finance or nuttin, so I can't begin to see how badly we're really being fucked if this thing goes through. What I can do is google and I'm half decent with numbers, so....
$1M in "Benjamins" = the following:
Total area: 103.389471 square meters
Total weight: According to the U.S. Treasury, "In $100 bills, the weight
of $1million is about 22 pounds." [that's 10 kg.]
Total height: Stacked singly, 48.82 inches high.
Total length: Laid end to end, 5083.333... feet long.
So, here are the figures for Bushco's Golden Airborne Division bailout.
Total area: 77,542,103.25 square meters or 29.939173442746206 square miles
(for purposes of comparison, Manhattan's total land area is
22.96 sq mi.)
Total weight: 7,500 metric tons or, 8267.334... Tons-short
Total height: Stacked singly, 577.888... miles high.
Total length: Laid end to end, 722,064.346... miles long
More fun facts: If we go for this Ponzi scheme, and take out a
"home impoverishment loan" we can look at the following
Loan amount: $ 750,000,000,000.00
Loan term : 30 Years
Interest rate: 5.750% (We ARE well qualified buyers)
Monthly Payment: $ 4,376,796,423.33 a month
Totals--Principal: $ 750,000,000,000.00
Interest: $ 825,646,712,398.80
Grand Total: $ 1,575,646,712,398.80 (you can forget
about the .80; just round it down.)
Dividing this figure by 150,000,000 taxpayers (an arbitrary number; I just plucked it out of the air, unlike Mr. Paulson) I come up with a per capita number of, let's see $ 10,504.31 or about $29.18 per month. Why, it's just like a "Christmas Club savings account. The CEO's get to open their gifts for the next 30 years, we get the bill! And this will secure my future? how?
The good news for me is that there's little or no chance I'll be paying for the whole term of the note--I'm 58.
I don't know about you folks, but I don't want to get asked over for dinner and then get stuck with paying for the house.
I went out this evening to get a few beers and some chicken wings. When I was getting ready to leave the bar I ran into a guy I know and another guy that I met once before. We talked for a few minutes and the fellow I knew told the other guy that I was renovating my house and he mentioned the sidewalk. At this point the other said that I should have had the city do my sidewalk. I told him the city wasn't about to take care of my sidewalk. He then informed me that you just have to "know the right people". It went downhill from there. I told him that people who are connected get things done, at the expense of the rest of us, he didn't like hearing it. People like him never like hearing that they are, in fact, gaming the system--just like all those welfare cheats they always talk about.
I know the other guy is a staunch republican and try to avoid discussing politics with him. But the whole thing got going with both of them reciting the GOP's talking points about Obama. One of them went so far as to to say that it's not okay for the MSM to call Obama a black guy, but it's okay to make fun of Sarah Palin and ask if she's done her laundry today (something I've not heard on ANY news outlet). When I asked him if he felt like Obama was the "black guy", he tried to act as if it wasn't what he said.
I was quite pissed and had to leave. It's not that I can't accept people having convictions about their candidates. It's that I can't abide people who are being willfully blind to the truth.
One of they guys said that Bush had given everybody $600 and, now, Obama was "bribing" people to vote for him by promising them $1K. The other guy said Obama has done nothing, gotten no bills passed, during his 4 years in the U.S. Senate. Neither of them had any opinion, apparently, on Sarah Palin's absolute lack of knowledge or meaningful experience in dealing with issues affecting significant populations. Nor did they have anything to say about Bushco's $700B bailout plan for WS, which they either think is a good idea or they have no thoughts about at all.
When I encounter that sort of mindset, willful blindness is as charitable a description as I can muster for that sort of attitude. Selfishness, cowardice and cynicism are, I think, a good deal closer to the mark.
I almost forgot to mention that they will both be voting for McCain.
Deregulation is good, according to the folks who have to deal with all of those burdensome regulations.
If it wasn't for the courage of the deregulators we would have horrific pollution, unsafe food and an economy in a shambles. Thank GOD we have some brave men--one of whom is an EX-POW, my friends--who will not let themselves be steamrolled by the nattering nabobs of regulativity. The market will, left alone, correct itself. If this isn't obvious to those of my readers who have watched the developments in the financial markets this week, then they must be socialistically blind. The market got into trouble because of FDR's failed social programs and if they hadn't pulled themselves up, by Mr. Paulson's bootstraps, their shareholders would be left holding the bag. As it is, they used their own gumption and resources to have their lobbyists go talk to the same lawmakers who let them get where they are today to extend a little credit. It's not their fault that the credible boobs they've loaned money too can't manage THEIR financial affairs.
I think it's worth noting here that the Chinese who were often praised, and rightfully so, for doing such a bangup job of choreographing 8,000 dancers in the opening ceremony of "Leni II--Triumph Of The Will, Beijing" were not afraid to devote the resources necessary to achieve that feat. Hopefully, now that the olympics are over they will be able to send a few of the dancers back to their "day jobs" as builders and baby formula inspectors (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/world/asia/16milk.html?ref=worldbusiness).
Regulation is the last refuge of the scaredypants. If you insist on regulation then the terrorists have won.
I was going to write something about the wonderfully crisp early autumn air, but...
I was chatting with a couple of folks last night and they were taken a bit aback by my characterization of John McCain as a lying piece of shit who would sell his soul if ever had one.
They are not and were not going to vote for him in any case, but they thought I was a bit harsh in my assessment of McCain's charachter. They were, also, largely ingnorant of his various acts of self-aggrandizement and malfeasance over his nearly 30 years in public life--never mind his personal lapses of ethics and morals. But, they were shocked, shocked I tell you, at the level of my vituperativeness. One of them actually said that I was not going to be able to convince people on the merits of my candidates qualifications if I was so obvious about my dislike for McCain and his campaign consort, Sarah Palin. Ummm, okay, I don't care.
The GOP has made fear the centerpiece of their campaigns for at least the last 50 years. Fear of the commies, fear of racial mixing, fear of tax and spend liberals, fear of Islam, fear of a liberal education, fear of government regulation and, now, the fear of eternal damnation.
The GOP has cynically and deliberately made this presidential election a referendum on the will of GOD. Sarah Palin was chosen, as is becoming increasingly apparent, solely for her attractiveness to a group of voters, the "social conservatives" (who, in actuality, are sociopathic reactionaries) of the GOP's "Base". Her lack of expertise in most areas of governance and her all too obvious certitude that GOD has her back would be hilarious, if it were just a spoof by Tina Fey. But, it's not. Once again the GOP has cranked up the machineries of hate and has ginned up the cross and robe constituency that will vote for whichever candidate they are told to by their ministers and the rightwing smearosphere.
So, the GOP has their politics of fear. Well, I got my politics too, the politics of outrage. I am outraged that the same cabal of bastards who have done their utmost to further enrich the wealthiest, remove the safeguards put in place to protect the rest of us from those same people's depradations and plunge us into a war that is as apparently unwinnable as it is interminable dare to ask for another chance to right the ship of state--a ship that they themselves ran aground.
I don't know what informs the Obama campaigns rhetoric in the face of a blizzard of lies and bullshit from the right. I do know what informs mine. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to make nice, anymore.
Steve Earle's 2005 Album, "The Revolution Starts Now" has the following chorus in his song, "Fuck the FCC"
"So fuck the FCC
Fuck the FBI
Fuck the CIA"
I'm livin’ in the motherfuckin’ USA"
Profane? yup; nasty, ditto. Add the GOP, the AFA and every other lying group of fear mongering bastards that are the "special needs" children of Lee Atwater, may he rot in his troubled sleep.
Let's not allow the "Liars for GOD" to interpret our silence as fear.
I got something in my head that's slipping gears at the moment, I'll get to it, after bit.
I'm putting another poem on here. The way to make me stop is to beg for them until I run out (there's only a couple of hundred left). Then I will have to go into seclusion (which means a bar with cheap draft and a bunch of other garrulous old geezers like myself) to write some more.
This one's for my pop (note: The price of gas is, obviously, from those dark days when that criminal Clinton's treacherous perfidy was still hobbling the profitability of the energy sector).
"Want to go for a ride?" he'd ask.
My father liked company on his drives to the store or the post office.
I really think any of his kids would do.
But he especially seemed to enjoy the rides we took together,
It was like sanctuary on four wheels.
The place we did not fight.
The place where we could, briefly, almost, be equal.
My dad drove a lot, it was a part of his job, the part he loved.
He grew up in a little town; Del Rapids, South Dakota.
Limitless skies, countless pheasants, good black earth.
He traded it for city living,
but you cannot take the farm out of the boy.
He spent 10, maybe 15 years, criss-crossing Nebraska and parts of South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas.
Selling was the excuse to get behind the wheel and point the car at the horizon.
He flew when he had to, drove when he could.
400, 500, 600 miles in a day-- 1,500 in a week.
A tankful of .19/ Gal gasoline, 2 packs of Philip Morris Regulars and a thermos of strong coffee.
He favored Olds Delta 88's; massive, powerful, sleek and comfy.
He loved to put his hand over the speedometer and with a voice full of mischief say, "let me know when you think we're going 75."
I would wait then, knowing I was wrong, I'd give the signal.
He'd take his hand off the speedometer and I would be watching the needle flicker at 100, 105, a bit more.
The car rode like it was on rails
His car was a refuge,
the one place where, even though it was always in motion, he felt grounded.
We had very little in common, so few areas in which we agreed.
Two things we shared were a 7-3/8 hat size and our love for the road.
I drive a compact truck, gave up smoking and drink de-caf:
I love to get in the car and point it at the horizon.
Gas is about $2.00/ Gal and there are very few places you can just put the hammer down.
But the car is a refuge, a movable sanctuary.
An altar to the idolatry of mobility, perhaps.
I pull on my 7-3/8 fitted baseball cap and shove an Orbison tape into the deck;
I look in the rearview mirror,
Dad smiles back.
FWIW, this took off into the ether, as soon as I finished typing the title. That's about how much I can listen to the experts without screaming and throwing shit at the radio.
Mr. Cokie Roberts is on the Diane Rheem Show this a.m., talking with three of those "experts" about the wholly unforeseen, unpredictable and unprecedented nosedive of Wall Street (which is sucking everyone else's economies into the maelstrom--see, we ARE still important!!).
All of those overeducated, underobservant assholes are paid millions to run the companies that are tanking left and right. They are paid that money because they, supposedly, know how to do so. It appears that a lot of them have no fucking idea what they're doing--aside from how to draw and spend those huge, undeserved "compensation packages".
I'd like to say its schadenfreude on my part to enjoy their suffering--except it appears that a lot of them aren't suffering. They're walking away with enormous wads of cash (although, in truth, $10-30M or so doesn't buy what it used to!) as a result of deals worked out with the boards. Of course the fact that a lot of the CEO's of various companies sit on each others' boards; that wouldn't in any way affect their judgement on such matters, would it? Nah.
Well, that's enough of that, for now.
I was listening to a John Gorka tape last night--I am a technoluddite and damned proud of it--! Anyway, I go the Salvation Army thrift store and buy tapes for .99 apiece, great music at the right price. So; I'm litening to the tape and the last song on it is "Brown Shirts". If you haven't heard it, or heard of it, you might want to check it out. It was written in 1992, but it could have been written tomorrow.
I know that the Dixie Chicks have been one of the most visible groups or artists to put their careers on the line by voicing their disapproval with and disgust of the "values" of the GOP. There are others, however; hundreds (thousands?) of musicians, comedians, actors and other public figures who use their popular appeal and celebrity to do the right thing and speak truth to power.
thus endeth the rant.
After listening to the news of the collapse of Lehman Bros., the assimilation of Merrill Lynch and the dire forecasts re: AIG, I listened to several "experts" whose hindsight is unbelievably postscient. They can all explain how clear it was that this would happen, but none offer explanations as to why they didn't sound the alarm before or while it happened.
I have heard, many times, in the past several days that the structural failures which led to the ruin of the U.S. and world economies in the the Great Depression were the impetus behind much legislation that erected firewalls between speculative investment and traditional banking institutions; and, that because of those firewalls it was much less likely that the sort of things that brought about the run on banks and subsequent. It appears, however, that the U.S. congress has, in the past several decades, undermined or simply removed those firewalls so that they are no longer effective or no longer exist.
It occurs to me (not) for the first time that the difference between investing on Wall Street and shooting craps in Vegas is that at least in Vegas they comp the drinks for the marks.
The new "conventional wisdom" is that the "housing bubble" and it's reliance on sub-prime mortgages are to blame for the demise of numerous financial institutions. The people who are saying this are, in many cases, the same folks who had been telling us, until fairly recently, that it was the housing market that would draw us out of the recession. It seems that the financial experts and the economists were not blowing hard enough on the dice before they threw them.
Much of the blame for the sub-prime mess, of course, can be laid at the feet of people who bought homes during a period of "irrational exuberance". I have heard that many people just wanted to have a home of their own. Count me in that number. I have a lovely little hovel which I bought for $25K because it was pretty much gutted and it sits on a small, crowded lot, in a city, in the upper end of NY; a city whose economy has been in the shitter since about 1975. Purchasing the house took about 1/2 of what was in my small 401K. Then I took a lump sum check for my retirement in order to finance the renovations. So, now I have about 30K in an IRA and this house (which needs about 1000 hours work and $15K in materials to make it livable) what I don't have, at the moment, is any debt--of course I don't have an income either.
Now, then; I'm going to be 59 in a few weeks and I'm probably never going to have anything like a good paying job again (I blame a lack of talent and ambition--I am so unfair to my life!). There are lots of people my age who have nice homes, decent amounts of savings, nice cars, kids in college and all of the other accoutrements of the middle class. They also have boatloads of debt. A large portion of their indebtedness stems from reliance on traditional financial instruments, mortgages in the main, to finance homes. However much of the indebtedness is the result of high interest borrowings on credit cards, to finance those things which they were told they needed to be seen as successful. They were convinced, by the lenders that debt was good, regardless that the cost of servicing the debt was usurious. Debt is good, especially if you're not the debtor--AND if, when your position as the debt collector becomes unprofitable, you can ask the government to spare you from the repercussions of the "free market" that you created!
Here's the thing that really bothers me about all of this: that dream of constant acquisition, each successive generation having more of everything than its predecessor, is rooted in Ponzinomics. There is a finite amount (and it's quite large, I won't deny that) of wealth that is available at any single point in time. When there is not enough to go around, debt is created--wealth anti-matter, so to speak--some of which is fine. But, when debt becomes the driving force of the economy, it becomes an 800 pound gorilla. Debt dictates how we spend and save. Too much debt means that, first--we can no longer save, and second--that we can't buy more stuff. If it's only for a week or two, no biggie. Otoh, if it's for a few quarters the party in power calls it a period of stagnation (the party out of power calls it what it is--a recession).
Ya know what? This is all just my opinion, cuz I never finished college, never mind the Wharton School or Chicago U. But I don't think the homeless (and those who are going to be joining them in the next few years) need degrees in economics to know that they're screwed.
Tommorow, class, we will look at how the necessity to be part of Mr. Bush's "ownership society" left us all holding one thing--the bag.
As the title suggests, the MSM looks down on bloggers (including, I suspect, most of their in-house bloggers) as non-professionals who lack the training, experience, discipline and integrity of the so-called, "legacy media". I must admit I don't have my stylebook handy; can someone tell me if they're full of "horse shit" or "horseshit"?
It's impossible to know what would have happened without blogs prodding the major news organization, embarassing them by scooping them time and again, but I'm guessing that a lot of the current, genuine reporting being done on the McCain Campaign would not be happening. Most of the news that I'm seeing in the mainstream media about Sarah Palin, for instance, is based on the public record of her time as mayor of Wasilla and governor of Alaska. I honestly believe that the MSM would have been perfectly happy to not investigate her if they hadn't been shamed into it by the "little people".
The same goes for the Cindy McCain drug use (and its coverup) story. This information is not new. I read about it back in the day, but it wasn't judged important by MSM, apparently, because it died, just like Cheney's hunting accident, W's Maine DWI & Laura Bush's "accident" which killed someone.
I guess I should give credit where it's due. The MSM has been relentless in exposing the dangerous ties between Barack Obama and various unsavory individuals; his former minister, a former black panther and a criminal (who actually went to jail, unlike say SCOOTER LIBBY, for committing crimes). Well, I guess they were just too busy or had allocated too many resources to chasing down every lead about Obama to do anything in the way of "investigative journalism" (aka, reading the old newspapers) to determine that it might be prudent to see if JohnnyPOW and company might not be the wholesome american patriots that they purport themselves to be.
Six fucking weeks, people, six fucking weeks.
Please pass this one around:
"Women Against Palin are asking to be notified of any rallies, peaceful protests etc that get planned so they can pass the info along. Here is their link:
The news that Lehman Brothers is probably not going to survive (and there's evidence that AIG and Merrill Lynch are not in great shape either) along with the rest of what's been going on in the financial communities would scare the bejesus out of me if I had any money in the markets. The fact that health care and health care insurance are both unaffordable for quite a large number of Americans does scare me (I'm uninsured at the moment). Mr. Bush's failed and unnecessary war on Iraq is sucking billions more out of this nation's economy, billions that might have been spent replacing faulty infrastructure and financing education and healthcare for ALL americans.
Now, with all that going on, one would think that the average person who has not been in a coma for the last eight years would realize that it's time to shitcan the CEO, the board and most of the upper management at USA.
But, it appears that that the current management team has a better idea. They want to replace the inept, ideologically blinded, fiscally profligate and religiously biased group with a "new and improved" version of the same thing.
All they need is your help.
A word of advice, "Just say NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
As threatened, a poem.
This was originally written for Deer Leader, but I think it fits the McHuntress just as well.
With apologies to Joyce Kilmer, a sissy poet, who did actually serve his country (he was killed at the second battle of the Marne) during WWI.
Neo-contata (After George W. Bush)
I think that I will never see
a poem as pretty as a Christmas tree.
A rough thing from nature trimmed up fine.
Covered with tinsel, lights ashine.
Kinda puts me in mind of another type of Christmas tree,
A thing that keeps our nation free.
The one that goes on top of a well after it’s been capped;
Only kind of vein me and my friends ever tapped.
An oil derrick, big old, clankin’, belchin’ sumbitch of a rig
Hooverin’ up the oil, from the earth’s deep bowels, you dig?
A tree whose branches all are twined together as is manly,
not splayed out, supplicatin’ like, and gangly.
It’s proud erection strainin’ against the fabric of the earth
While it spurts life givin’ fluids for our capitalist rebirth.
I didn’t mean to make this piece short or curt,
But poetic thinkin’ makes my head hurt.
Excerped from "Towards Self-love, By A Twisted Path--New Work 2001--?"
Poor, poor, pitiful Sarah:
is running this story:
‘Alaska Women Reject Palin’ Rally is HUGE!
which I urge people to forward to the MSM.
It is fairly obvious that Sarah Palin's management style approximates that of the current Idiot-in-Chief's.
She rewards her supporters and highschool classmates (many of them co-religionists) with public sector jobs for which they appear to have few, if any, qualifications. She attacks those who disagree with her and her agenda. This woman is a danger to Alaska as its governor. She will be a danger to the American people if she achieves the vice-presidency. While she may not be as machiavellian as the DorkLordCheney, she is certainly as devious, spiteful and monomanical as his puppet.
I wonder; Has McStain tumbled yet, to the fact that he is the lesser of the two on the ticket, in the eyes of the reichwing KKKristianists? Talk about the Pitbull's tail wagging the dog.
Our friend Richard made a comment on yesterday's post, that said in part:
"...The Old Shitbag, appearing tonight at that "Service Forum" at Columbia Univ responded to a question about his brand of gutter politics by saying that campaigns are "rough" and that things would have been different had Obama agreed to his proposal for ten joint town-hall meetings "like Jack Kennedy and Barry Goldwater had agreed to do".
It's a lie.
Kennedy never made such an agreement with Goldwater"
Truth and honor, are not, it seems, in these people. This is why I have despised John McCain for as long as I've known of him. It appears that his "soulmate" Sarah Palin IS truly his soulmate in that regard.
Were he competent (his naval "career" is illustrative in that regard) McCain would have been made, given his status as a POW/War Hero (not to mention his "legacy" status, being the son/grandson of full Admirals)--the
War Hero label undeserved as it may be--an Admiral long before the end of his career. When pressed to release his naval service record, McCain's campaign made available approximately 5% of the record, what does he have to hide?
It is obvious to those who can read, and take the time to do so, that McCain's record on aligning himself with Bushco in a majority of his senate votes (as high as 90% of them) makes his claim of being a "maverick" an utter, and deliberate, falsehood.
His hiring of the very person who orchestrated the ads that destroyed his chances for a presidential bid in 2000 demonstrate how willing he is to trade his honor and dignity for a chance to be the C-in-C.
His marital infidelities and his divorce of a supportive first wife so that he might remarry a younger, prettier, richer woman show us the "real" John McCain, a self-centered opportunist.
McCain's ill-temper, which is well documented is covered, barely, with a thin veneer of false bon homie, the "lipstick on the pig", if you will.
Sarah Palin. Well, gosh, what can I say? Given her vast (lack of) experience Sarah has, nonetheless, become as accomplished as McCain in lying to the American people, even when her lies are clumsy and obvious.
McCain and Palin (or their surrogates) attack Obama and his campaign with distortions, mischaracterizations and outright lies while trumpeting their own (non-existent) christian morality. If the GOD I don't believe in is out there, I hope he is taking note of these two.
The difference between us (honest, decent, caring humans) and "them" (reichwing KKKristians) is that even though many of us are not christians--or, in fact, have no faith in a god of any sort--we are moral and reasonable folks.
This latest wrinkle in the GOP's pandering to the GODibanic fundamentalists is merely a logical extension of their continual drift to the extreme right. While it appears that Sarah Palin has little or no experience in any area that would be crucial to her governance in the (all too) likely event that she would inherit John McCain's job when he strokes out or dies of melanoma, it does not, in the minds of her rabid followers disqualify her from having that job.
To that end, the RNC and the McCain campaign have used their dollars to attack the Obama candidacy with innuendo and outright lies, while attempting to deflect legitimate criticism of both McCain and Palin. Sarah Palin's handlers are, in fact, only making her available to media personalities (calling them journalists would be an insult to those who are) who will treat her favorably.
I have read numerous posts and comments urging Senator Obama and his campaign to fight fire with fire. Would that they could. I think there is something about having character, a conscience and a gag reflex that, unfortunately preclude that sort of swinish behavior.
For that reason I am announcing, here, that I will be available for that duty. I have virtually no scruples re: doing or saying whatever it takes to wake people the fuck up. Send me you tired accusations, your poorly researched indictments and your wretched truthiness, yearning to be spewed. I will do what I can to disseminate it. Oh, send me some truth, too, it helps to confuse the issue.
Not "The Gods Must Be Crazy"; that was a delightful film about South Africa and some of its denizens.
No, this is about the KKKristan GOD and his jihadherents.
There is just something about a GOD whose followers are so convinced of their righteousness and everyone else's wrongteousness. The admonition to "Love one's brother as one's self" apparently means just that to them--it's the determination of just who is one's brother that seems to create problems for the KKKristians. Those benighted people of the Mid-east could be their brothers, if they would just eschew their insane, fantasy based religion that excuses their wanton killing and demonization of those who are not them. The same is true of Cath-O-Licks, Jews, Buddhists and all faiths that are not the FAITH of the KKKristians.
I have to admit that I was once a Cath-O-Lick and believed in the more dire aspects of God ( I never saw any real evidence for a God of mercy and compassion). But, now, thanks to the fundigelical taliban of AmeriKKKa, I'm an atheist. Where other arguments, mere words, could not convince me, their actions have. If their GOD, the being that they so passionately believe in, is responsible for their existence, then they must be his idea of our hell on earth. | <urn:uuid:da88dccd-faaa-4295-80ce-d0d9beab0b5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.polrant.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html | 2013-05-22T14:32:39Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978247 | 9,015 |
@ Your Library
Recent library events, news and more.
Graham Parsons & the Go-Rounds (Andy Catlin, Grant Littler, Tod Kloosterman, Adam Danis) brought their own special breed of magic to the Van Deusen Room Wednesday night, for the 52nd installment of KPL’s concert series. Together since November 2009, the homegrown five-piece combines Parsons’ powerful voice and introspective lyrics with a layered yet balanced instrumental mix… some serious roots rock with the looseness of a jam band with just enough ambient texture and sonic psychedelia to keep things interesting. Here’s proof…
Need more? Next Wednesday, August 24th, Graham Parsons hosts a singer/songwriter showcase with Michael Beauchamp at The Strutt during the Boogie Records Revival. Graham and the Go-Rounds are back at The Strutt on September 22nd. Check The Strutt website for details.
Go Rounds “To Go”
And speaking of The Strutt… if seeing the band play live isn’t enough, you’ll find recordings by Graham Parsons (with and without the Go-Rounds) and lots of other great local artists on the venue’s own record label—not surprising since Go-Round Andy Catlin manages the Strutt Records studio in the basement of the café. You’ll find Graham’s peaceful “Migration” on The Strutt’s “350” compilation, plus a full length release on Strutt Records entitled “Farmhand.” Graham and the Go Rounds’ have released a “Triple A-Side” single and a self-titled live album.
Concerts @ KPL
As for KPL’s concert series, the fun continues in August when The Verve Pipe puts on a special family friendly concert in Bronson Park in support of their aptly titled new Family Album. Then back to Central Library for Joe Wang and the Test Pilots in September, Gifts or Creatures in October, and Midnight Cattle Callers in November. Stay tuned.
Graham Parsons & the Go-Rounds
Recently at the Alma Powell Branch we did a teen program called Pizza and Pages. We read and discussed the book Sweet, Hereafter by Angela Johnson and I bet everyone knows what we did with the pizza part of Pizza and Pages. The book was a great pick for our first book discussion. It was a 117 page easy read. It was thought provoking and infectious. Once we started reading it was hard to put down. What really surprised me, though, was that it was a time warp; it could’ve been any generation or any war era. Angela Johnson achieved what all great artists try to achieve. She filled our minds with questions. Who was Alice? Was Sweet a girl or a boy? Which war time was it? And lots more!
Everyone is looking forward to Powell’s next Pizza and Pages!
On July 6, the Kalamazoo Public Library was honored to host the World Premiere of author Bonnie Jo Campbell’s newest novel Once Upon A River. The novel that has been listed by NPR, CNN, Newsweek and The Daily Beast as being a “must read” and essential summer novel. These accolades should not lead you to believe it is a beach read because it has been earning critical praise from publications such as Entertainment Weekly, Detroit Free Press, and the Wall Street Journal. Recently the Washington Post critic Ron Charles wrote, “The wonder of Once Upon a River is how fresh and weathered it seems at the same time. Ardently turning these pages, I felt as though I’d been waiting for this book and yet somehow already knew it. After her critically acclaimed collection of short stories, American Salvage, Bonnie Jo Campbell has built her new novel like a modern-day craftsman from the old timbers of our national myths about loners living off the land, rugged tales as perilous as they are alluring. Without sacrificing any of its originality, this story comes bearing the saw marks of classic American literature, the rough-hewn sister of The Leatherstocking Tales, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Walden.”
After Bonnie acknowledged many of the people in the audience who contributed to the book in some way or another, the evening started with a reading of the first chapter which introduced the main protagonist of the novel, Margo. She is a character who possesses a tremendous amount of spirit and adventure that can only be found in the citizens of southwest Michigan. The reading was followed up with an informative and entertaining Q&A. Bonnie answered a variety of questions about the writing process as well as inspiration for the book. The over 160 in the crowd were treated to an education!
Most in the crowd agree that Once Upon A River deserves similar, if not more accolades than her previous book the National Book Award Finalist, American Salvage. If this novel is not on multiple “Best of 2011” lists I will be shocked! I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of Once Upon A River in the mail a few months ago. After reading the first 50 pages, I turned to my wife and stated that it was the best books I had read in years. I then proceeded to neglect my family and friends until I finished the book. Check out a copy or place one on hold, but be sure to prepare your family for your absence because you will be floating down the river lost in an amazing book.
Bonnie Jo Campbell @ KPL
The Binder Park Zoomobile visited the Eastwood Branch Library on June 17th and delivered an animal program not once, but twice, back-to-back, which together attracted over 240 audience members. Alex, the Zoomobile Animal Specialist and educator, brought along five amazing animal friends, informing the audience of their special abilities and characteristics, as well as sharing a few fun folktales focusing on two of the creatures.
Highlighted was Adelaide the kookaburra, an exotic bird specimen from Australia. Considering that this was this feathered vocalist’s first presentation outside zoo confines, she did wonderfully well, and everyone was appropriately impressed by her plumage and exceptionally calm demeanor. No stage fright here!
Also featured was a red-kneed tarantula from Central America, which evoked many “Ooh’s” and “Aah’s,” as well as an occasional shriek, coming noticeably from a few of the younger attendees.
A Central African pancake tortoise named Flap Jack, as well as Scooter, a cute African pygmy hedgehog came next on the roster of Binder Park offerings.
And finally to wrap up the show, there was a special appearance by a striped boa constrictor which also hails from Central Africa. Program listeners were allowed to touch this one, and more than a few actually dared do so!
To sum up, this was a great program that was educational, entertaining and pleasing to both young and old.
P.S. Many more animal programs are scheduled at the Eastwood Branch Library this coming July and August for the entire family to enjoy. Please check them out on the online calendar. They’re fun, free and make the library the happening summer place it’s meant to be. See you there!
Alex from the Binder Park Zoo
Accolades from the music press are always nice, but when Corky Siegel calls someone his favorite harmonica player, people tend to pay attention. Once a student of Big Walter Horton, Peter Madcat Ruth has been blowin’ harp around these parts for more than four decades and has performed with some of the best.
In 1990, Madcat joined guitarist and singer Shari Kane, “the most dangerous fingerstyle blues guitarist north of the Yazoo,” to form Madcat & Kane. Since then, the Ann Arbor-based couple has toured extensively, playing at some of the most prestigious blues venues in the country. Then add two of Michigan’s most versatile musicians to the mix, Mark Schrock and Mike Shimmin, and you have Madcat, Kane & Maxwell Street, an acoustic quartet of considerable power and finesse.
To be able to witness talent like this in our own fair city is a treat in and of itself, but to see them at the library—free of charge nonetheless—made last Friday an Art Hop to remember. The fast-paced set opened with a Charley Patton standard from the 1930s, “Moon Goin’ Down,” and rolled on through more than ninety minutes of Delta blues standards, trains songs and “Mississippi party music” by the likes of Furry Lewis, Walter Davis, Blind Boy Fuller, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and others. “We like to dig deep, deep down,” Ruth noted, “and find some of those old acoustic blues things that kinda’ got lost and no one’s doing them anymore… keep ‘em goin’.”
You can find lots of what they played at KPL on the quartet’s latest CD, Madcat, Kane & Maxwell Street Live at the Creole Gallery, and you can download a podcast of the Art Hop show in the KPL Concert Archives.
“This is a gorgeous library,” Shari adds. “I love Ann Arbor, but it was such a treat to come here… it’s such a jewel of a city that you have here.” Thanks, Shari, we think so, too—please come back and see us any time!
Madcat, Kane & Maxwell Street
Kalamazoo Public Library was very pleased to host illustrator Kim Shaw in an Anti Bullying Art Workshop. Kim presented her newest book, The Juice Box Bully, and then led a lively discussion on bullies and friendship. It was clear from the response of the school aged and adult audience that the topic is more timely than ever.
Kim then led an interactive drawing workshop wherein everyone had the opportunity to learn and practice some great drawing skills. Kids especially enjoyed this part - essentially a a small intro to drawing class for nearly fifty! Lots of nice drawings emerged from the Van Deusen room.
Kim created the art for The Juice Box Bully based on Kalamazoo's Woodward School for Technology and Research. Listen to Kim discuss how that real-life school influenced her illustrations.
Anti Bully Art Workshop
An Dro likes to call itself Celtic-based, globally infused world-beat music—a fairly accurate description, it seems. And its members, none of whom are strangers to Kalamazoo audiences, come from an equally diverse mixture of backgrounds and musical experiences. Michele Venegas, once a member of Fonn Mór, is an accomplished fiddler who can certainly stand with the best. Fred Wilson, once a member of the Irish music group Amadaun, brings influences from his years of teaching at home and abroad to his articulate guitar and mandolin work. Jim Spalink, also a member of Amadaun who later went on to form Puck Faire, adds texture to the An Dro sound with a blend of Celtic harp, hurdy-gurdy, bouzouki, lute and recorder. Percussionist extraordinaire Carolyn Koebel, also a member of Fonn Mór, is well known and loved around these parts for her work with Blue Dahlia, Dunuya Drum and Dance, and a host of others.
For those of us who relish the instrumental side of Celtic-world fusion, this show was indeed a real treat. The four members seamlessly wove traditional Irish reels, an dro dance tunes (an dro is a traditional form of folk dance from Brittany), floating European and Middle Eastern influenced melodies and inspired originals into a dozen pieces to fill a gorgeous 90 minute set. The crowd of more than a hundred rewarded the group with a well-deserved standing ovation at the end. If you missed the show (shame on you) or you would like to relive part or all, you’ll find audio, video, and photo souvenirs on our Concert Archives page.
Over the summer, you’ll find An Dro performing at the Buttermilk Jamboree near Yankee Springs on June 12, and elsewhere throughout West Michigan. Check the band’s calendar for details.
Coming up at KPL, don’t miss a special Art Hop Concert on June 3 with special guests Madcat, Kane & Maxwell Street, and on June 15, be sure to catch the amazing Brian Michael Fischer and the BMF band. And Summer @ kpl is just getting started…
If you’ve visited the Kids & Parents section of the KPL website lately, you might have noticed the small live webcast located in the lower right-hand corner of the page. A quick click of the play icon and you’ll see a direct live video feed from the Raptor Resource Project (RRP) that lets you keep tabs 24/7 on a family of nesting bald eagles high above a fish hatchery in extreme northeast Iowa.
The Raptor Resource Project (a 501(c)(3) non-profit) directly manages more than thirty falcon, owl and eagle nesting sites across the US, while advocating preservation and research through lectures, education programs and its own website.
Perched some eighty feet above the ground on private property near the fish hatchery in Decorah, Iowa, the nest itself is massive; nearly six feet across, four feet deep, and weighing roughly half-a-ton. This same nest was featured in American Eagle, a 2008 PBS documentary by Emmy-winning cinematographer Neil Rettig, the first-ever HD feature about bald eagles.
Last October, a team of experts installed two treetop cameras overlooking the nest. The main camera is mounted about five feet above the nest and streams live 24/7, while the other has pan-tilt-zoom capability and is operated remotely whenever there is significant activity. Infrared night vision (invisible to the eagles) allows for nighttime viewing. The live stream has been surprisingly captivating to watch—I occasionally keep it open in a small window on my desktop. (The accompanying live audio stream even makes a great natural soundscape!)
In late February, their work began to pay off as a nesting female laid her first egg, while the male dutifully kept the nest supplied with food. The second egg came along three days later on February 26, and a third on March 2.
The pair took turns tending to the eggs while the other left the nest, only to return a short time later with something fresh to eat—usually a fish or small animal. At times, the birds battled seemingly insurmountable odds; heavy show, bitter winds and torrential rain.
The first egg hatched on April 2, the second and third followed just days later. Three tiny bundles of helpless fuzz that within a few short weeks, have since grown to become clumbsy yet capable young eaglets, now able to stand, stretch, and move freely around the nest. When the adults are absent, the youngsters often sit near the edge of the nest and peer over, perhaps wondering when and from where lunchtime will arrive. By the end of June (after roughly 11-12 weeks), the young birds will learn to fly and leave the nest on their own. The cycle then begins again.
So next time you’re on the Kids & Parents page, drop in on our new friends. And you won’t be alone. Since it began, the Decorah Eagles website has received a whopping 98.3+ million views, with several tens of thousands of viewers watching at any given time!
A warm spring breeze, a little much-needed sunshine, and some outstanding roots music all combined to make for an unforgettable Saturday afternoon at the Oshtemo Branch Library. Earth Day was Friday, April 22, but somehow KPL managed to stretch the celebration into a two day affair with a truly unique set of performances by a close-knit group of musicians from the Earthwork Music Collective.
While the younger members of the audience danced in the sunshine and adorned the parking lot with artistic sidewalk chalk creations, a crowd of more than 300 filled the tent and library garden area to enjoy an afternoon’s worth of music from some of the finest singers, songwriters and musicians Michigan has to offer. Yes, these folks are really that good.
Seth Bernard acted as MC for the afternoon and welcomed to the stage an amazing lineup of friends and family for a variety of captivating original tunes and timely “Earth-friendly” covers. Seth joined his longtime performing companion May Erlewine, the extended “Davis Family” (Rachael Davis with Joshua Davis and Dominic John Davis of Steppin’ In It and honorary Davis-for-a-day, Michael Shimmin “Davis”), Sam Corbin & Jen Sygit, Brandon and Bethany Foote (known collectively as Gifts or Creatures), Laurel Premo and Michael Beauchamp (known collectively as Red Tail Ring), and Josh Keller of Who Hit John? fame for some truly inspirational music in honor of the big blue ball. And there were several surprises along the way—from a glimpse of an upcoming Josh Davis solo project to an inspired sing-along of a timeless Woody Guthrie classic. KPL’s Kevin King kept the youngsters occupied with a reading of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss during intermission. You’ll find audio, video, photos and more from this event and others in KPL’s Concert Archives.
This was 46th show in KPL’s ongoing series of free live concerts, and (thankfully) there’s no end in sight. Upcoming shows include a May 18th appearance by An Dro, A special June 3rd Art Hop with Madcat, Kane & Maxwell Street, high octane blues from the BMF Band on June 15, and to celebrate our 50th show, a special July return performance by Steppin’ In It, the very group that started the live music series back in June 2008! And that’s just a start. Watch for more details coming soon!
The Western Dance Project, the touring ensemble from Western Michigan University's Department of Dance, came to the Central Library to perform in the Rotunda over Spring Break. The program began with a dance choreographed to a movement from composer John Adams's trancelike Shaker Loops. The program also included a piece called "Little Blue Worm", a crowd favorite, about kids playing on the playground. After many other entertaining and beautiful dances, the program closed with an amazing hip hop peice by WMU Department of Dance alum Chopper Platt featuring eight different tracks of music in sequence.
Western Dance Project director and dance professor David Curwen told us about how dance works and even taught us some moves in between the dances. We're glad Western Dance Project made a stop at the library and we look forward to having the Western Dance Project back again!
Western Dance Project | <urn:uuid:29349c61-82e8-4c41-b4f7-3ee423d5221e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kpl.gov/news/blog/default.aspx?category=News&start=10 | 2013-05-24T22:49:16Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948963 | 3,991 |
Integrating Reporting Services into Your Application
SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
Summary: This paper summarizes the different ways that developers can integrate SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services capabilities in their applications. (13 printed pages)
You can download the Microsoft Word version of this article.
Integrating Reporting Services into Your Application
Embedding Reports with the Report Viewer Controls
Embedding Reports in SharePoint
Managing Reports with the SOAP API
Generating Reports Programmatically
Integrating Ad Hoc Report Authoring
Extending the Report Server
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is a complete platform for creating, managing, and delivering reports from a variety of data sources.
Reporting Services offers comprehensive functionality for processing, formatting, and rendering data in a variety of traditional and interactive reporting formats. Applications can take advantage of Reporting Services functionality in many ways, from accessing an existing report within an application or portal page, to embedding report processing and design capabilities within a stand-alone application.
SQL Server Reporting Services is designed to be programmable and extensible. Report definitions use a published, extensible XML-format called Report Definition Language (RDL), and Reporting Services offers a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Web service for managing and accessing reports.
With SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft has extended the ways in which developers can integrate and access Reporting Services functionality. This paper provides a summary of the many different integration points with SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services.
About This Document
This document is designed to help application developers identify and understand different methods for accessing Reporting Services functionality from their applications. It is not intended to document how to use the different programmatic interfaces. These interfaces are described in other sources.
- This white paper is not intended to be an exhaustive source of information about Reporting Services. For detailed information about the product, see the product documentation and also the resources available online.
- In addition to Reporting Services, this document assumes that the reader is already familiar with the following topics:
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Internet Information Services (IIS)
- Microsoft .NET Framework
- Microsoft Visual Studio
Information about these topics is available on MSDN Online.
Reporting Services is a comprehensive platform for creating, managing, and delivering traditional, paper-oriented reports and also interactive, Web-based reports.
Reporting Services was designed from the start to be extensible, with open interface and programmatic access to support a wide range of environments and applications. Application developers can access this functionality in a number of ways, including accessing existing reports, generating custom reports and report controls, embedding reports locally within applications, and executing reports remotely.
By taking advantage of the functionality and open interfaces of Reporting Services, you can easily provide robust reporting capabilities while focusing on your application’s unique functionality.
This paper discusses the integration points that are available with SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services.
You can create reports for your application by using a variety of tools. These include the Report Designer tool integrated with Visual Studio 2005, or the new Report Builder ad hoc tool, and then deploy them as part of your application installation. Your users can also use these tools to extend the set of reports that you provide with your application.
Perhaps the most common application integration requirement is the ability to embed reports or the ability to access reports from within an application. The first version of Reporting Services provided two methods for accessing reports that resided on a Report Server. These were URL access and an XML Web service, the Reporting Services SOAP API. SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services expands the options for embedding reports. These include a set of Report Viewer controls for Windows Forms and ASP.NET applications, and also Web parts that make it simple to navigate, select, and view reports in Microsoft SharePoint portal pages.
Reporting Services offers a full-featured management interface using the Reporting Services Management Web service (a SOAP API). The Management Web service can display reports and manage rendering, subscriptions, and other aspects of the report server, programmatically from an application.
Generating Reports Programmatically
While many applications provide predefined reports, it is also possible for an application to generate report definitions automatically by writing to the published XML schema for Reporting Services reports. After a program has created the report definitions, the Reporting Services Execution Web service provides a programmatic interface to the report execution and rendering capabilities of a Report Server.
Integrating Ad Hoc Report Generation
The Report Builder tool lets end users and business analysts create and design reports by accessing a data model that presents the underlying data sources in a business perspective. Third-party applications can access the Report Builder. Reporting Services provides a model design tool for creating the Report Builder data models.
Extending Reporting Services
The modular architecture of Reporting Services is designed for extensibility. A managed code API is available so that you can easily develop extensions consumed by many Reporting Services components. By using the Microsoft .NET Framework, you can create custom assemblies, custom report items, and also new Reporting Services security, delivery, rendering, and data processing functionality to meet your evolving business needs.
The remainder of this paper describes these methods in detail.
Report design is available within a Report Server project that is included in SQL Server 2005 and also integrated with Visual Studio 2005 language projects. The report design process is a graphical surface that is modeled after the Windows Forms editor.
Reports may be tabular, matrix, or freeform, and may contain rich charts. You simply drag and drop a field from the Data Sources window onto the design surface and then set the desired style properties. The Report Designer, shown in Figure 1, lets you access the full capabilities of Reporting Services reports, including the grouping, sorting, filtering, and conditional formatting features.
Figure 1. Visual Studio Report Designer
When you create reports, you can choose to either publish them on a Report Server or embed or access them locally from the application. Both of these options are described in the following subsections.
SQL Server 2005 includes a Report Server Project in the SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Development Studio for designing reports that will be hosted on a Report Server. Some of the benefits of deploying hosted reports include security, caching, scheduling, and delivery.
Hosted reports use the standard report definition format (RDL). This format contains information about how to connect to the data source and extract appropriate data.
Visual Studio 2005 includes the ability to design reports and embed them directly in any language project, including Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual J#, or Managed C++.
The embedded Report Designer has the same functionality as the Report Server Designer included in SQL Server 2005, but uses the Visual Studio data source functionality to access data for the report. Reports can access traditional data sources or object collections.
Embedded reports use a report definition version (RDLC) that includes metadata about the data sources, but does not contain connection or query information. This is described in detail in the next section.
For more information about designing reports, see SQL Server Reporting Services Books Online.
Visual Studio 2005 comes with freely redistributable Report Viewer controls for embedding Reporting Services functionality into custom applications. These controls require that Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 is installed on the target machine.
There are two versions of the Report Viewer control: one for Windows clients and one for Web-based (ASP.NET) applications. The Visual Studio toolbox automatically provides the right control, based on the type of project you are creating.
The Report Viewer controls access reports on a Report Server or process and renders reports locally in the following ways:
- In local mode, the application provides the report definition and datasets and triggers report processing. No SQL Server license is required and the necessary processing functionality is included within the Report Viewer control.
- In Report Server mode, the Report Viewer control accesses a report hosted on the Report Server. The control is used to navigate and display the report. Report Server mode requires a SQL Server 2005 Report Server.
These distinctions are explained in detail in the following subsections.
Local Mode vs. Report Server Mode
The first important decision you have to make is whether to use the local or Report Server mode for the Report Viewer control. Your decision will probably depend on how your application will be deployed.
In local mode, as shown in Figure 2, the local application processes the reports from the report definitions that are either embedded in the application or loaded from disk. The application makes no connections to a Report Server. In fact, this approach does not require a SQL Server license or Report Server.
Figure 2. Local Mode Report Processing
In Report Server mode, shown in Figure 3, the application accesses a report published on a Report Server. The Report Server performs all data retrieval, processing, and rendering, and the control displays the results.
Figure 3. Report Server Mode
The Report Server offers a managed reporting environment that includes security, subscriptions, snapshot management, and report history. These services may be essential for enterprise-scale reporting environments.
There are other, more subtle distinctions you should be aware of when deciding which mode to use. These are summarized in Table 1.
|Category||Local Mode||Report Server Mode|
|Data Sources||Visual Studio data sources, including ADO.NET DataTables or application objects. The application must connect to the source for data.||Any data sources accessible from the Report Server. This includes a wide range of supported sources.|
|Report Definition||Embedded locally or loaded from disk or stream.||Published to Report Server.|
|Parameters||The application must implement the user interface for specifying parameters or queries.||Report Viewer control can prompt for query or report parameters.|
|Security||The application must manage security. Code embedded in a report cannot access the file system or network without explicit permission.||Report Viewer control prompts for credentials.|
|Export Formats||Microsoft Excel and PDF only.||All rendering formats supported by Reporting Services, including Excel, PDF, and MHTML.|
|SQL Server Licenses||None required.||One required for Report Server.|
The report processing should be identical between the Report Server and local modes, because the Report Viewer control uses the same reporting engine as the Report Server. Both reports support interactivity, such as expanding and collapsing sections, drill-through, and interactive sorting, and a wide range of data layouts such as tables, lists, and charts.
Local mode does not support Custom Report items.
Changing from Local to Report Server Mode
The decision to choose local mode over Report Server mode is not irreversible. You can migrate reports from the local RDLC format to the hosted RDL format.
If the report uses a data source type directly supported by the Report Server, such as SQL Server, you can supply the missing information and then publish the report on the Report Server. If the report retrieves data from data sources not directly supported by the Report Server, you may have to provide data processing extensions in order for the Report Server to retrieve the data.
After the report is published to the Report Server, you only have to update the Report Viewer control with the report path and Report Server information needed to access the report.
Generally, if your report uses application data that is not stored in a database or is not accessible by using a Web service or other remote API, migrating from local to server mode will not be possible without building a data processing extension. This is described later in this paper.
Integrating Reports in a Windows Forms Application
To integrate a report by using the Report Viewer control in local mode (creating and generating the report locally), you can use the following steps.
To create the data sources
- Launch the Data Source Configuration Wizard to create data sources from databases, Web services, objects, or local files.
The wizard creates a DataSet that contains the DataTables you have specified. Alternatively, you can use the TableAdapter Configuration Wizard. This allows you to use a query to create a DataSet.
To design the report
- Use the Report Designer that is integrated with Visual Studio to define the report.
You can drag and drop fields from the Data Sources window onto the report items. Report Designer automatically puts the appropriate data source information into the report definition (RDLC) file for the local report.
To add the Report Viewer control to the Windows Forms application
- Drag the Report Viewer icon from the toolbox to the Windows Forms design service. The SmartTags panel is automatically displayed.
- Select the report to bind to the Report Viewer control.
Note that the order of these steps is flexible. For example, you can add the Report Viewer control to the application and then launch Report Designer to design the report.
To add a remotely hosted report to a Windows Forms application, you simply add the Report Viewer control to the application and, from the SmartTags panel, select the Report Server URL and the path for the report.
Integrating Reports in an ASP.NET Application
The process for integrating a report into an ASP.NET application is similar to that for a Windows Forms application. Following is the general process for embedding a local report.
To create the shared data sources
- The data sources can be created as either DataComponents, by using the TableAdapter Configuration Wizards, or by using custom classes.
To design the report
- Report Designer displays the shared data sources in the Data source window. Drag and drop data and report components to design the report.
To add the Report Viewer control to the Web page
- Drag and drop the Report Viewer icon onto the WebForm design surface. The SmartTags panel for the control is automatically displayed.
- Select the report you have designed and then select the data sources for the report.
If you are embedding access to a report hosted on a Report Server, all you have to do is add the Report Viewer control and, from the SmartTags panel, enter the URL and path for the report on the Report Server.
Reporting Services provides two Web components for embedding reports in Windows SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or Windows SharePoint Services environments. These include Report Explorer and Report Viewer:
- Report Explorer navigates the Report Server to find available reports and manage report subscriptions.
- Report Viewer lets users view and work with reports.
Separately or together, these two Web components let you easily leverage the capabilities of Reporting Services. For example, you can use these to do the following:
- Automatically display a specific report on a portal page.
- Give the portal user access to browse, select, and display available reports on the Report Server.
- Give the portal user the ability to subscribe to a report on the Report Server.
Report Explorer Web Component
The Report Explorer Web component is essentially a scaled-down version of the Report Manager that is included with Reporting Services. The Report Explorer Web component provides the capability to do the following:
- Browse available reports on the Report Server
- Select a report to view
- Subscribe to reports
The Explorer Web component can be used in conjunction with the Report Viewer Web component. When run in connected mode, the two Web components pass data to each other. In stand-alone mode, they do not.
If you run Explorer and Viewer in connected mode and select a report to view, this will automatically display the report in the Viewer Web component. If you run Explorer in stand-alone mode and select a report, this opens a new browser window to display the report. You will have to decide which approach is best for your application.
Report Viewer Web Component
The Report Viewer Web component displays the report. Users can view and navigate multi-page reports, print the report, or export the report to supported formats. The administrator can decide whether the report viewer toolbar is displayed with a minimal set of controls or none at all.
SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services includes a Reporting Services Management Web service for programmatically managing the Report Server. The Web service offers a single-entry point to the full report management functionality of the Report Server and can be used to perform a wide variety of tasks. This includes the following:
- Browsing server contents
- Publishing and removing reports
- Managing snapshots and report history
- Managing subscriptions
Reporting Services also offers a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) provider. This is a programmatic interface that you can use to build custom Report Server administration tools.
Distributing Reports with an Application
As part of your application installation or configuration, you may want to deploy a set of standard reports that your users can use. You can use the management Web service to deploy these to the Report Server.
In addition to deploying the reports, you will want to change the data sources for the report so that it points to the local installation. The simplest way to do this is to define the report by using shared data sources. Your deployment utility that publishes the reports to the server can also set the appropriate connection strings for the data sources.
Reporting Services offers several methods for generating reports interactively. It also supports programmatic report creation and execution, with a documented, extensible XML-based report format (RDL) and with SOAP interfaces for report execution.
Writing Report Definition Files with RDL
Reporting Services uses a published, extensible XML schema called Report Definition Language (RDL). The RDL format covers all aspects of the reports, including data retrieval, expressions, and layout.
You can use the expression capabilities of RDL to support dynamic content within reports, designing conditional formatting and drill-down links. However, there are a few applications that have to generate an entire report dynamically by writing the RDL. There are specific ways to generate RDL programmatically.
One way to generate RDL from an application is to use the Microsoft .NET Framework classes of the System.Xml namespace. The XmlTextWriter class can write RDL according to the specification. However, you can generate a complete report definition in any Microsoft .NET application.
Because RDL is an open schema, you can extend RDL with additional attributes and elements. You can even include custom report controls and elements that are not included with RDL and embed code inside the report definition.
For example, you can create and use maps, barcodes, and media clips within reports, and add the custom report controls to the Microsoft Visual Studio Toolbox. Custom report controls have their own properties and dialog boxes and use the expression evaluation, grouping, sorting, and filtering features of the Report Processor.
For information about the Report Definition Language Specification, see the Reporting Services Web site.
Dynamic Report Execution
Typically, to execute a report from the Report Server, you publish the report to the server and have the server execute and render the report. The report then resides in the Report Server report catalog.
SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services offers a Reporting Services Execution Web Service for programmatic control over report processing and rendering on the Report Server. By using the classes and methods of this Web service, you can direct the Report Server to do the following:
- Process and render a report from a report definition file
- Render a report from a history snapshot
- Execute server-based reports
The classes and methods are encapsulated in the ReportExecutionService class.
SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services includes a new ad hoc, report-authoring tool called Report Builder. In using Report Builder, business users and analysts can create reports by dragging and dropping data items onto a report layout. Because Report Builder uses predefined Report Models to access data sources, you will want to provide your end users with already built Report Models to enable ad hoc authoring.
Building Report Models
To provide ad hoc report design for application users, you have to define and publish the report models used by Report Builder. These models provide a business-level description of the underlying database. As a result, Report Builder users do not have to understand the source data structure in order to create meaningful reports.
Microsoft provides a Report Model Designer tool to define, edit, and publish report models for Report Builder. You can use this tool to design the model interactively by using the data source. Models can also be generated automatically for Microsoft SQL Server or Analysis Services databases.
You can override the default experience when users drill from one entity to another by using drill-through reports. These provide a customized experience and generally make your out-of-the-box applications function better.
For more information about creating report models, see SQL Server 2005 Books Online.
Launching the Report Builder Client
Report Builder is a ClickOnce Windows Forms application that is accessible from the Report Server. You can access or launch Report Builder through a URL to provide integrated, ad hoc reporting.
The uniquely extensible architecture of Reporting Services enables developers to extend specific features of the product and its components.
The types of extensions that are supported in SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services are shown in Table 2.
|Extension||Report Server Mode|
|Data Processing Extension||Data processing extensions enable developers to build additional data source types into Reporting Services. These data processing extensions add functionality to both the Report Server and Report Designer.|
|Delivery Extension||Delivery extensions allow the use of a wide variety of mechanisms when sending report notifications to users. You can extend the Report Server to provide custom delivery to users and you can extend the subscription management pages of Report Manager to enable subscriptions that use custom delivery extensions.|
|Rendering Extension||Rendering extensions transform report data and layout information into a device-specific format. You can create additional rendering extensions to generate reports in other formats that are not supported.|
|Security Extension||Security extensions enable the authentication and authorization of users in Reporting Services. By default, Reporting Services uses a Windows-based security extension to authenticate the identities of users on the system. You may have to replace the default security to accommodate custom security in your enterprise.|
|Custom Report Items||Custom report items allow developers to define additional item types that can be used within their reports. Custom report items include an interface that allows a design-time control to be hosted in the Visual Studio report design tool. Custom report items also include a run-time interface that the custom report item uses to convert report data and properties into an image to display in the rendered output.|
|Custom Code Assemblies||Custom code assemblies are referenced from within your report definition files and contain specialized functions that you can use in the expressions in your reports. The server calls the functions in your custom assemblies when a report is run.|
More information about extensions, including their programmatic interfaces, is included in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.
SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services offers a wide range of integration points and makes it easy for developers to take advantage of the product’s comprehensive report generation, processing, rendering, and distribution capabilities.
For detailed information about these programmatic interfaces to SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, see the SQL Server 2005 Books Online. | <urn:uuid:7c901271-f547-435a-9d30-870753af35e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/aa964126(v=sql.90) | 2013-05-24T22:51:32Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.864541 | 4,718 |
Santiago has run off, taking the lantern with him, leaving Nan in the darkness of the third floor hall, just outside the Sunset Room.
The heavy, ragged breathing and shuffling footsteps have gone quiet. All that remains is silence, and the placeless echo of Nan's vision of the TERRA COTTA COURTYARD.
Feel around for the wall so you can reorientate yourself in case you need to run.
FLAIL, FIND A WALL, FOLLOW IT, RUN LIKE HELL.
Preferably with the flailing oh god there are monsters everywhere run run what are you waiting for oh god damnit run goat run
This is going to be asked in a second anyway, so check your pockets/inventory
Oh my goodness yes.
Find a wall, TAKE A MOMENT TO ORIENT YOURSELF. No point running away from where we want to go. Move quickly to the elevator door and SLAM THAT CALL BUTTON AS HARD AS YOU CAN JESUS.
Try to find a wall, then follow it.
Try not to make too much noise, lest you alert the Beast.
Nan stands up and begins feeling along the wall. She rechecks her inventory, to find:
PHILLIPS HEAD SCREWDRIVER
And a CHECK for services rendered at the Fun Family Arcade.
It appears her CROSS PENDANT is still missing.
Im thinking you should ready the screwdriver, since its the closest thing you have to a weapon.
Continue walking along the wall.
EQUIP SCREWDRIVER in case of hostiles.
Nan continues along the wall, and finds something that feels like a button.
Don't push button yet. Feel AROUND the button. Is there a rectangular plate around it, like an elevator button? Metal? Plastic?
Check to see what kind of button it is. THEN recieve scary. :D
Nan presses the button.
The elevator doors open.
Kim screams, then sighs in relief, lowering her taser.
It's just Nan, after all.
Hug them both in relief.
Fist bump Anderson
Tell them about Anne
Tell them what happened after you fell asleep.
Wait, we might want to make sure it's actually them before we go clinging on to them. You never know in this place.
Head in elevator
Tell everyone Anna got mauled
Hugs all around! Then ask what the hell happened. Where they went, if they know Anna's dead, so on.
You know what, take that rug on the floor. You'll never know when you'll need something with which to beat a fire out with, throw over a barbed wire fence, or to distract a monster with.
Nan steps into the elevator and delivers the grim news about Anna's fate. Evidently Anderson and Kim were not aware, and Kim gasps in tragic realization.
Anderson seems angry. He says this is why they slept in shifts. Who was Anna staying up with?
Oh, no. It was Pablo. Have you guys seen him?
God damn it Pablo...
Ask them what went on with them since you last saw them. Did they wake up together or did they have to find each other? And grab that rug. It's yours by blood right.
Pablo. Pablo had the shift with Anna.
After they woke up Anna and Pablo for their shift, they took a short nap, then headed out to look for Santiago.
Kim groans. That means Pablo could be dead too.
Anderson says that's definitely one possibility.
So the two of them left the safehouse together and this is the first they've heard that things have gone wrong? How long has it been, for them?
Also take the rug.
Ask what the hell is going on. How did we suddenly wind up somewhere else? Is this whole place in some kind of space-time fractal?
I love talking about space-time shenanigans as much as anyone else, but unless we're professional physicists in that area, we should focus on surviving the weird space-time hotel of horror then understanding it.
Close the fucking doors and let's get to another floor.
suddenly I'm a lot less sure about pabalo...
Nan asks if anyone understands what's going on, and how she suddenly wound up somewhere else.
Kim asks where exactly it was she wound up.
The lights come back on with a quiet hum.
What's is place look like?
WE'RE ASKING THE QUESTIONS HERE.
I don't think we should mention Santiago.
I still think we should take the rug.
Dangit Nan get off that rug. Take the ruuuug.
We had a weird nightmare. Pablo was in it. We woke up, then say the Pilgrim, then met Santiago. Now we're here. Ask what THEY did in the intervening time.
Hang on, why exactly did they go out to look for Santiago? Methinks it's time everyone had a bit of a sitdown to discuss exactly what's been going on since our little side trip.
Vaguely describe your dream. Both of them, why not.
Get the dickens back in the elevator and back to the saferoom already. Stop standing around yammering in places where the lights crap out randomly and the Things go.
Let's see if we can at least fine Anna's body again. I'm not actually sure if it's worse if we can or not.
I get the feeling that if we go looking for the dead, we won't like what we end up finding. Anyway, Anna didn't have anything important on her, so no reason to wander around without purpose.
Nan explains her dreams, which brought her to a strange place where she saw Pablo, then to the TERRA COTTA COURTYARD.
Kim's face seems to darken at the discussion of Pablo's behavior, but comforts Nan. It was just a dream, after all.
Anderson says nothing.
Nan explains her ordeal after waking up, how she was chased and led around. Kim asks what part of that constitutes a "space-time" oddity, if she just moved around.
Finally, Nan suggests they take the elevator back to the safe room. Anderson replies that the safe room is on the third floor. Where they already are.
He studies Nan quietly, then asks if she's sure she's all right.
We're alright, Anderson. Just more than a little unsettled. Ask where Henry is. Let's just get back to the safe room and take a deep breath, okay?
Don't let yourselves get lulled into a false sense of security just because the lights are on. Those things can go out at any time. Warn them about the Pilgrim.
Also, ask Anderson if in his time there was any trace of a former spanish monastery around the Hotel. Maybe it was only torn completely down right before construction on the hotel began.
Admit you have little knowledge of where you are or what's been going on. You've been asleep, after all. Did they FIND anything during their search for Santiago?
Be advised, I think Anderson doesn't trust us.
I think he thinks we're getting a tad hysterical. He's from around the early 20th century, he probably think all dames melt in the face of danger.
HNNNNNGH NANQUEST UPDATE YES...
Ask Anderson what happened to Henry and why they decided to leave poor Nan alone in the saferoom ;_;
yay nanquest, dont give up weaver =3
is there any indicative you really are on the 3rd floor? door number maybe?
well, we should head to saferoom anyway.
Apologize and say you weren't aware because you were too busy being blindly running away from the Pilgrim and other various monsters.
>Santiago has run off, taking the lantern with him, leaving Nan in the darkness of the third floor hall, just outside the Sunset Room.
...yeah, we didn't really move around due to the 'dreams' this time did we? Did you tell them about getting sent into the burning room?
Nan considers her situation. Perhaps she's a little confused. She was being chased by the Pilgrim, she must have just gotten turned around.
Anna was here, she's sure of it.
But now the hallway's empty.
Nan asks if there used to be a Spanish Mission here. Anderson says there was. When he was a boy, its ruins were here. Burnt to the ground some time ago. Cleared out years later, in preparation for the hotel.
We'd better not stand around here too long. Let's head back to the saferoom.
Ask why it got burnt down, on the way to the room.
nothin we dont already know, besides the burning down bit. Time to either head back to saferoom or check the floor for our friends.
Return to the safehouse.
Ask Kim if anything cool or notable has happened since 2009 for possible minor small talk.
Point out where Anna died. Lament that you didn't grab her hat for evidence.
Also: Survival requires understanding. Lets research the FUCK out of this place.
Become obsessively possessive about your possessions.
Write your name on all the tags.
The door to 311 is slightly aja-*shot*
When stating the area where Anna died note aloud the fact that there is no blood on the walls.
Nan asks why it was burnt down. Anderson says he doesn't know. It happened before he was born.
Nan returns to the SAFE ROOM.
If I had to guess, I'd say Pablo's been obsessing a bit.
What's with the lines on the wall? Those weren't there before, were they?
Move the bed, see what's behind it.
Okay, so now Pablo is a Prime Suspect.
We STILL need to find a way out of this dang hotel, though.
In the meanwhile, examine the wording.
Possible credence to Anna's idea?
Quick, check the tub! Hopefully Pablo isn't in there (maybe he saw what happened?)
Check for unwanted visitors.
Thank you, mysterious failure. Your words mean so much when people are dying and going missing.
Nan: Go to the mirror. See if your mirror self is there. If she is, then drag her out and beat her until answers come out.
Other than that, ask if anybody has ideas on what to do next.
If not, then go to the front door and try to open it but do NOT step through. We need to see what the others see when it's open. If you encounter yourself or one of the others, grab them and take them with you. If it's Anna, then kiss her and make her promise not to die on you again.
Just as an aside, ask Anderson when he was born. It might ne nice to just know how old we all are (of course, if you want to leave it ambiguous then by all means ignore the shit out this. I've already contributed to a Weaver-quest today, and in doing so, my life is a tiny bit more complete)
Ask when the note showed up. No hugging
Study the markings on the wall. Are those scratches clawmarks?
There doesn't appear to be any more to the note. The markings on the room haven't changed from the last time -- faint ashy trails leading up the walls.
Nan checks the bathroom, but it's empty. No one else is here.
LOOK BEHIND YOU
Check the mirror!
Failing any strange activity, Return to Kim and Anderson and ask what they have been doing and what is their next move.
Make sure bedroom door is closed and locked. I assume so, but it wasn't mentioned.
Okay, let's inventory our situation. We're missing Pablo, Anna's dead, Santiago's batshit crazy. Where's Henry again?
Henry's been missing ever since Nan woke up to Anna being mutilated by Pilgrim.
Should we go find him? It's not like there's anything better to do.
On one hand, I think that we can't afford to lose anyone else. On the other hand, our rescue missions haven't exactly gone swimmingly so far. But I'm not sure what else we can do at this point. And there's clearly a connection between Nan and Henry, since they've been sharing dreams and have similar (the same?) pendant.
Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I think we need to do a Pablo/Henry rescue mission. Mostly a Henry rescue mission, because based on the scrawled message and Nan's dream(?) of Pablo's whole "I'm sorry baby I won't kill you this time" episode, I've got a bad feeling about Pablo.
Check mirror, if nothing happens then organize a search party of some kind. Make sure that the search party consists of everyone too, the last thing we need is to split up and have more people to find later.
Oh crap... you're right. These rooms don't have phones, do they? We need to find a way to communicate with people in some manner.
... then again, didn't we first meet him on the 1st floor? Maybe when everyone got separated, he wandered back there. It'd at least be familiar.
check mirror, assuming we dont get warped to some parallel version of ourselves in the process; consult anderson on plan of action.
If we're going to stage a rescue, we're going to need a few things:
1) A plan. This not only includes where we're going to look for Henry (and maybe Pablo), but also what we will do if we're split up and proper procedure for sticking together when the lights die.
2) Weapons. Nan lost the Rebar sword already. Looks like Kim has a taser, Anderson has his gun, but Nan's defenseless currently. The broken glass from the mirror could possibly be cobbled into a makeshift spear if we take down the shower rod or break some wood off the bed, if we can find some tape or something to bind them together.
3) Contingency plan on what to do if Santiago shows up acting psycho. Frankly, I'm inclined to say that Santiago is going to be more of a liability than he's worth. I know Nan isn't the "kill in cold blood" type, but this burgeoning attempt at a friendship at him seems like a poor idea. He can't be trusted, and I sincerely doubt he can be redeemed. No more handing him our limbs without having a backup plan for self-defense.
I'd like us to readdress this point, too. Why were the two of them out looking for Santiago?
One more alternate option and then I'll stop spamming the thread: there's still the "4:66" mystery. My immediate instinct is that's a room number. I know the hotel only has three floors, but I think the number's there for a reason. Is there a way onto the roof?
>>300964 has a point. Try to remove the curtain-rod-thingie. It's probably hollow and light, but it's better than a screwdriver.
Them return to the room and move the bed to see where the ash trails stem from.
And don't look in the mirror, seriously. The last thing we need is another paranormal event that takes us on yet another flashback/dream.
Please try to leave comments only concerning our current situation. 4:66 theories go to the discussion thread.
It seems so far whenever we encounter a paranormal event, it is nan's insofar violent response to these events which trigger a flashback/dream/timetravel experience. So long as we dont do anything rash and Nan applies herself passively to such events, we should be fine.
Up the walls? Look at the ceiling.
To clarify, I wasn't just bringing up the whole "4:66" thing simply for theoretical purposes. I bring it up now, specifically, because we're currently at a "what general goal should we pursue" point. As an alternative to a rescue mission, we could attempt to find a 4th floor (hey, this place isn't exactly full of Euclidean geometry) or roof and try to figure out if that's where we're supposed to be going. So it wasn't meant to be a "let's bring up every haywire theory" mention of 4:66, but rather a "Hey, instead of a rescue mission, here's another idea" mention.
That said, I still think finding Henry is probably the better priority. My guess is we'll run into Pablo and be unhappy with what we find.
Check inside the toilet tank. Maybe someone hid something useful in there.
What's wrong with a screwdriver as a weapon? Hobos and crackheads and the like use them all the time.
Using the screwdriver would require getting uncomfortably close to things. It'd work as a backup, but I doubt we'd last long with it as our primary weapon of choice.
Where'd the totem go? Guess it disappeared when we did our sleep-traveling. Nan needs to start duct-taping her equipment to herself or something.
Take down the SHOWER CURTAIN and use it as a makeshift CLUB.
Seconding taking the SHOWER CURTAIN ROD. Even if it can't be used as a club, I'm sure it'll have some use.
If you can't remove it, ask Anderson to help.
One: take the curtain rod. You could use it as a weapon or combine it with a shard of mirror.
Two: take a shard of mirror. Be careful when holding it!
three: Take the rings on the curtain rod. Maybe you could wear them as bracelets.
four: Look behing you and wave at your reflection.
then we'd just be arming our evil mirror self with weapons
Tie some kind of cloth around one of your eyes. Then when it goes dark you can switch the cloth over to your other eye for INSTANT NIGHT-VISION.
Step 5: cannibalize all wooden furniture in the room then combine wood to form ARMOR OF ARMOIRE. This thing can stop a missle!
Seconding Termina's suggestion. I [his?] order.
Sorry to double post but I didn't mean to use red text like that. I'm kinda new to the posting thing, and didn't know it by default said suggestion at the top. Feel free to delete this if you wish but please don't ban me or anything.
I'm a girl.
And don't worry about the red text.
ask anderson for his watch, change the time to 6 minute past 5 (4:66), see if that does anything
He probably won't agree to that, and the whole 4:66 thing is probably just a "spooky Weaver effect".
Floor 4. Hall 6. Room 6.
Are we already on the top floor?
Nan looks at herself in the mirror.
Become overwhelmed with inexplicable urge to smash the rest of the mirror
There is someone behind you. GO FOR THE LEGS.
Okay, maybe get a drink from the faucet, calm your nerves?
Iiiiit's... probably just the broken mirror making things look all weird but uhhh, look behind you.
Return to the main room. Ask Kim and Anderson if they've found any leads on a way to escape yet.
Nan turns around, but no one is behind her.
TURN AROUND THERE IS SOMEONE BEHIND YOU AGAIN
Step away, turn around to face mirror.
Oh that was just the shattered mirror shards giving a weird reflection, everything is completely fine.
Let's get moving, and try looking in some other rooms maybe.
Turn back around, reach into the mirror, pull that damn mirror-clone out, and beat it until answers leak out.
Nan touches her head. There is a dull pain there.
MIRRORS DON'T WORK LIKE THAT!
Throw something at that mirror! Again!
Find the shards of the mirror and put them back in.
WAIT NO DON'T THROW ANYTHING AT IT.
GET OUTTA THERE!
Get away from the mirror.
It is not safe. The bathroom is not a safe place.
IT KEEPS HAPPENING
Reality is breaking down again. Get back to the others!
Nan decides to exit the SAFEHOUSE BATHROOM.
Nan re-enters the THIRD FLOOR SAFEHOUSE.
Check if the dull pain is still there when the mirror is out of sight.
Tell Kim and Anderson to avoid the bathroom, seeing as the mirror is a portal to Hell and can warp your very being.
Well, so much for the SAFE HOUSE.
In any case there's nobody here. And since the building appears to be well-lit again, you should go look elsewhere.
Announce to the group to never fuck with mirrors ever again.
Well... where can we go now? We could check out the rooms on the first floor that people used to be in. Or we could ask if either of them have any keys to any other rooms.
Nan warns the others to be careful around the mirrors. She still feels a dull pain in her forehead.
Anderson asks if they all plan on just sitting here until they die. Kim says they have enough food and water here to last them for a while, and the room seems safe so far, so it might be best to just wait for rescue.
Given that Anderson has been waiting her since the turn of the century I somehow doubt that's a plan likely to pay off.
That obviously isn't happening.
What we need to do is try to get to the roof. Perhaps from there we can find a way down, or maybe encounter more impossible reality-bending shit.
Tell Kim the room is not safe and that looking for a better safe room would be prudent.
Good thinking. Ask them about keys to get options. it might also be wise to check the front entrance once more, since weird items tend to pop up there. Could be useful.
Suggest that because of the supernatural nature of this hotel, rescue may be impossible. You ultimately will need to find a way to quell the evil that is holding you captive in order to escape.
I think rescue is ever going to COME.
I mean how do we know anyone else can even get IN? What if the Hotel is as good at keeping things out as it is at keeping them in?
And who's to say that if someone came, THEY wouldn't be trapped too?
No. We have to find a way out.
We WILL find a way out.
But first we have to figure out what in the fuck is going ON.
Rescue ain't comin' if nobody notices you're gone missing in a hotel that defies all laws of time and space.
Point out that rescue is something like 120 years late by the time Kim arrived, and even if anybody had a clue that anybody was trapped in this building they sure as heck wouldn't be equipped to get you out of here.
Suggest that everybody march down to the front desk and demand to see the manager.
Also, next time you see Pilgrim ask him what happened to him, and to this place.
Ask Anderson if he has an idea. Anything at all, we don't really have any direction beyond basically exploring the hotel. We could look for the others I suppose but then what?
Nan says rescue is not coming. Nothing here seems certain, but that's about as sure as she can be about anything.
Nan asks if anyone has keys. Most of the rooms appear locked or barred.
Kim says she has a key to something called the Anasazi Lounge. She found it in her room, when she first got here. Nan can have it -- Kim doesn't even know where the Lounge is.
It's exploring time! Grab some potentially useful objects and run off for adventure!
Welp, off to find the Anasazi Lounge I guess.
Should we drag the others along for this?
I think it would be best to have Anderson and Kim find a safe place.
Nan can take care of herself.
So yes, let's go find the Anasazi Lounge!
Check the assorted bottles.
Oh yay adventure.
Rip mirror-Nan out of the mirror and beat her until she starts bleeding answers.
I think we need to stop splitting up. It seems to lead to "bad things".
Also, wasn't there a lounge or some kind of dining room where we fought and the room was on fire before we met ourselves?
Make sure Mirror Nan isn't following you, then get the gang together and head to the Lounge, we might find another key or a survivor there.
Nan takes the ANASAZI LOUNGE KEY from Kim.
Kim says Nan can go, but she's staying here where she's been safe for the past several days. Besides, she still has no idea where the lounge is.
Anderson says he doesn't want to leave either of them alone, but clearly he'll have to choose who to stay with.
He should stick with Kim, since they need to make sure the safe room stays safe.
Also, go grab mirror-Nan and beat answers out of her. This is the most rational course of action.
Tell Kim that this place was only safe because it had people here. If a monster barges in here she'd be cornered.
If Kim's not going to budge, have Anderson stay here. Then it'll qualify for being slightly safe. But advise that no place is really safe, probably better to be on the move with just three people.
Leave Anderson with Kim, they both have weapons to defend themselves in case the Safe Room turns out to be...well, not so safe.
Also, check the mirror. We need to make sure our mirror self doesn't come out and kill them after we leave them.
Anderson, stay with Kim.
Nan, grab a light source and advance.
Make out with mirror Nan.
Leave the mirror be. It being cracked isn't safe for us. If we find a whole one, maybe we can mess with it.
Tell him he can stay here.
I still think we should advice them to find a new safe room. Maybe one which has a less dangerous bathroom mirror.
And then we end up all alone again. Yay!
Obtain new weapon.
Appeal to Kim's knowledge of horror movies.
Don't split up the team.
( CARLSON AND PETERS! )
Nan decides to head out on her own, as Kim seems set on staying here. Anderson offers her a LEAD PIPE as a weapon.
Scrounging through the drawers, she recovers a FLASHLIGHT.
Alright, that'll do nicely. Thank him, and let's move.
Take the pipe and flashlight.
Turn on the flashlight and head on out.
Then let's set off!
I guess the most logical place for a lounge to be is the first floor.
>>Éí 'Aaníígóó 'Áhoot'é
If no help is coming, they should all head out and try to find an exit together. Watch each others' backs, and above all leave no one behind. No one should be alone in this place.
Nan takes the items and steps out into the THIRD FLOOR HALLWAY.
Let's run this shit into the ground (floor).
might as well head to the ground floor reception desk, see if any new loot popped up or any notes from the 'management'
What's with that cross on the door?
Have we visited the second floor yet? Or the third? Well, whichever one we aren't on currently, and isn't the ground floor, we should go check out. Also perhaps... check if there's a basement button on the elevator.
Remember what Santy said? The hotel goes dark when they start to get angry. When you go against the hotel's wishes. It will do what it can to stop you.
... I guess we keep going until the lights go off.
And then, whatever we were doing then... we keep doing it.
Also, can you craft the screwdriver and lead pipe together to form the IMPROVISED WARHAMMER?
Nan heads for the Elevator.
Perhaps the ANASAZI LOUNGE is on the second floor.
Head to the elevator. Also, if she does go to the elevator, she should use her REPAIR SKILLS to know that most elevator door's close door buttons are actually placebos, and test it to see if it does anything. If it is indeed a placebo button,look for the stairs(if there are any/are assessable). It is too dangerous to take the elevator if she can't close it quickly in an emergency.
I disagree with the second floor, I say we check out the ground floor first.
Also, do we have any idea where stairs are? I'm not sure about trusting the elevator.
The lights at the end of the hall have gone out.
NAN. TURN AROUND. FLASHLIGHT OUT. WE HAVE PADRE SIGN.
Down the stairs.
Check to make sure this Padre is legit, THEN haul ass downstairs if he is.
Actually, yes, this is better. Run downstairs ASAP.
Oh, hi Padre. Stand there for a moment. Ask him what he wants. If he moves to attack then RUN down the stairs. Fuck the elevator, it'll take too long if we're being chased.
Check room 312
The probably-locked room that is closer to the darkness-shrouded figure? That... seems like a bad idea.
If the stairs aren't right there, scramble into the elevator hit the second floor button then the close door button. Then pray it not a placebo button.
Point the flashlight at the darkness. Look at the Padre and see what he is doing. Is he doing anything, Nan? If he makes a move for you, run for the stairs.
If it starts making a move, call out to Anderson and Kim to black the door as you run.
How the hell did I mess up that much? a is nowhere near o.
Nan shines her FLASHLIGHT.
The result is not entirely as expected.
Go touch it. ouo
No, do not touch the darkness creeping from its very being and RUN DOWN THE STAIRS NOW GO GO GO GO GO GOGOGOGO.
oh my gooooood, RUN.
Ohhshit nvm. oAo For a sec I thought someone propped a dummy up in the hall, but yeah HAUL ASS FROM THE TOO REAL PADRE.
We are not properly armed to fight padre, but if he just stands there then say hi. If not, RUN! RUN LIKE THE WIND!
Search the cabinet under the bathroom sink, the drawers in the main room, and underneath the bed. You never know where useful items might be hidden--there could even be all-powerful DUCT TAPE for combining items with the SHOWER CURTAIN ROD to increase their effective length.
If he's not moving then say hello.
Otherwise run like hell.
Read the Lead Pipe
I mean run. Run down the stairs do it now.
Say hello. AS LONG AS HE STAYS IN THE DARKNESS. Also, turn your flashlight off, you don't want to irritate him.
Turn it off.
Also repeating that we should call to Kim and Anderson to barricade the door, while we run..
Try to speak to him. If he advances towards us or seems as though he is going to hurt us, walk away slowly.
Nan hesitates, and attempts to greet the Padre.
FOR FUCK'S SAKE RUN YOU LITTLE GOAT AAAAAAAUGH
NOW can we RUN LIKE HELL?
Menacingly strike wall with lead pipe in the same fashion that it did
Okay yeah fuck this.
To the elevator!
Run away shouting whatever catholic prayers you can remember. That should get us a dramatic scene where somebody (Maybe Anna's animate corpse?) is like 'He can't help you here' or something.
Nan's modes of exit are quickly narrowed.
Something appears to be blocking the stairs.
Dual wield your pipe and screwdriver.
Time to throw down with the Padre.
We have no choice- run to the elevator.
Time to throw down indeed. Two hands on the bar if you want even a chance at parrying his attacks. Remember, hitting him is not as important as DON'T GET HIT.
Time to resort to the old standby...
Freak out at the gravity of the situation.
Then get to the elevator
The elevator is your only choice. Run.
Darkness covers the hall as the lights go out one by one.
Nan glances to the elevator, considering her options.
One light is left on.
Better get to that light.
Go towards the light, Nan! Go towards the light!!
You. Light. Now.
I think it's time to say hi to our buddy Santiago again! Go to that light. Lights are pretty cool.
Don't panic. The hotel responds to fear and panic. Treat Padre like a predator, keep your eyes on him and back slowly towards the light. Don't run.
B T dubs, wikip says that "the word Anasází is Navajo for "Ancient Ones" or "Ancient Enemy"."
Thought that might be worth considering.
To the light! Go!
To the elevator. The hotel is trying to guide us to the light, so lets not listen.
I agree, don't panic. Running will only incite him to run. WALK backwards into the light.
Last time we did something the hotel didn't like (breaking the mirror/clock) everything just got fucked up
It's probably best to head for the light now, ask questions later
I'm pretty sure the light is coming from the elevator. Go to it, but calmly (though still quickly) and keep your eyes on Padre. Santiago may be on to something about not being afraid. Treat your enemy with respect but do not give him your fear.
I like the idea of repeating a Catholic prayer, as well, if you know one. Most people at least have "Our Father Who Art in Heaven" ingrained if nothing else. I'd suggest you do it in Spanish or the original Latin, but I'm guessing you don't know it.
SECOND FLOOR SECOND FLOOR SECODN FLOOR SCEONF DLOOR!
stand tall and stand firm. demand to know how to get out of here.
Nan backs away slowly.
The Padre begins to run.
Go on then and run.
FFFFFFFFFFFF go faster.
Rush to the elevator and hit the ground floor button, then ready your pipe. If he gets there in time to stop the elevator from leaving then your goal is going to be getting that poker away from him as otherwise your chances against him are dicey at best.
Sprint into the light!
On second thought, sprint to the elevator.
Welp, balls up boys
Hug the Padre! Appeal to his inner humanity! This is obviously the correct option, and will result in love and puppies for all.
Nan flees to the elevator.
Damn these elevator doors! CLOSE!
Nan slams the button for the GROUND FLOOR.
Wave hello at the Centre of Time and Space.
Wonderful. First the Padre, now we're trapped in a moving elevator with THIS FUCKER.
Try to communicate carefully, I suppose. By waving, yes.
Oh hai there anomaly/demon/cool something. Amigo o enemigo?
Poke the Spacial Anomaly with your Lead Pipe.
This hole, it was made for you. Dare you enter? Or will you continue to fear the unknown?
On the wall of the elevator is a figure vaguely resembling a person.
It is marked directly on the surface, and its texture is worn, aged, unevenly speckled.
Whether it's been painted or otherwise imprinted is not clear.
Touch it with your lead pipe.
Is the elevator moving?
If so, refrain from touching this thing.
Poke the hell out of it with your pipe.
Yes, test it with the lead pipe. If the lead pipe goes through... I advise you enter. The Lounge may have come to us.
Poke it with your pipe.
The elevator begins to move, descending slowly.
Nan pokes the strange mark with her LEAD PIPE, but it's just like poking the wall.
The elevator stalls for a second, then continues downward.
Ask it a name.
It would appear this... is the elevator -- or perhaps its attendant.
... let's leave it alone for now. smashing it would probably result in EMERGENCY STOP
How odd. The hotel corridors are probably completely dark by now. No sense in leaving the elevator like that.
So I guess we can kill time with this thing...
And also find out if it's going to kill us.
Does the shape resemble anyone Nan knows?
Say 'hi' to ANNA
Or what's left of her.
Touch it with your hand.
Dont touch it at all.
If it's not bothering you, then don't touch it. If it STARTS getting violent or something, well, that's what the pipe is for.
Whistle some showtunes awkwardly.
Best not to mess with it, just wait until we reach our destination and get ready in case the imprint decides to attack.
"... Anna? Is that you?"
Nan says hello, but there is no response of any kind.
She says Anna's name, but still, there is no response.
The elevator passes the SECOND FLOOR without incident, and chimes once.
So, all for leaving creepy wall painting alone and going to greet the bright and cheery world oh Hotel Hell?
Hit the ground floor button again.
Don't turn your back on it. Keep looking at it. The moment you give it a chance, it's going to grow arms and reach for you.
Use SCREWDRIVER to attempt to scrape off a sample of the... thing.
Failing that, examine it closely with the MAGNIFYING GLASS.
Don't fuck with it until we're at the ground floor, at least. Looking at it with the magnifying glass would be cool tho!
Nan waits until the elevator reaches the ground floor. It chimes once.
The doors open.
The lights appear to be on out in the hall.
The marking is dark, its texture aged and mottled.
On closer inspection, it almost seems to be a mottled burn mark.
Don't go in the hole. That hole could be made for you or another resident and we all know what happens at the end of The Enigma of Amigara Fault.
there aren't many things in this place that are GOOD for us, so i really think we should just leave this thing alone, cataloging it in the 'things we don't know enough about' file.
CAREFULLY leave the elevator, maybe just take a look around first before just stepping out into god knows what
Try to break off a hunk of it and put it in your pocket.
Touching anything in this place with malicious intent is gonna fuck something up most likely
We could TRY to put a finger to the marking thingy though...
Nah, you're just being paranoid.
Peel off some of the wall and add it to the inventory.
>Nan: Hump the burn mark. What could happen? You've been sexually repressed for possibly days.
TOUCH IT, you know you want to
Remember the last time we ran into silhouettes?
Yeah, they came off the wall and tried to eat us.
So no leave it alone.
Nan reaches forward and tries to chip off a piece of the dark mark on the wall.
Something doesn't feel quite right.
Again, exeunt elevator.
Okay Nan you've fiddled with the mark, now leave it alone before something worse happens
We're at the top of the elevator shaft?
Ask Anna what she's doing.
Anna! You're not dead! ... unless this is one of those weird, post-mortum soul things. Are you dead? Are you going to warn us about something?! It's going to be really vague, isn't it?
Something is happening. Don't interfere. Watch.
Shout out to her.
Below is a dirty, old elevator shaft. The elevator car sits at the bottom. But given the proportions, it doesn't feel like the same elevator.
Nan walks over and asks Anna what she's doing, but Anna is too busy with her work to respond.
A voice comes from below, distant and echoing. The source cannot be seen. The voice asks Anna if she's done yet.
Anna replies that she is almost done. She calls the voice "Mr. Bowerman".
...She's doing something to the elevator. STOP HER.
Anna drops her SCREWDRIVER, and it tumbles down the elevator shaft below. She curses quietly, reaching out for it in vain. After a moment she sighs, rummaging through her toolbox.
Unable to find whatever she was looking for, Anna mutters that should be fine anyway.
Give Anna your screwdriver.
Let's see where this goes.
Offer her your screwdriver.
Put your screwdriver where she can see it.
While you do this, try to warn her.
I have a feeling we're about to find out why Anna was brought to the hotel.
Give her your screwdriver, of course. Not much else to do.
I agree with this guy here. Obviously she can't directly see us so offering her ours won't do much, but maybe if we put the screwdriver down in front of her she'll notice it on her own
Grab her arm firmly.
Put the screwdriver in her hand.
Make sure she doesn't drop it while finishing her work.
Hug her when she is finished.
Nan offers Anna the SCREWDRIVER. But as it does not seem to catch her attention, she places it in Anna's TOOLBOX.
Anna rummages past it, then picks it up, commenting that it appears she did have a spare, after all.
She goes back to work.
Whisper "I miss you" in her ear.
Cause, you know, I kinda do.
As [most] everyone else said, put the screwdriver down right in front of her.
Anna finishes her work a minute later, muttering that's as tight as it's going to get.
She packs up her tools and goes to the ladder, descending carefully.
She calls out that she's coming back down now.
Affecting her environment seems to work. Nan's like a ghost right now, apparently.
Okay, is there some way you can scratch or smudge a message onto something in her line of sight?
Also take a closer look at that pipe there.
Dammit! Weaver ninja'd me!
Descend ladder after Anna.
Try to follow her, unless we're constricted to this little area
Pick your screwdriver back up before going after her. Cause you might need it.
Nan follows after Anna, heading towards the ladder.
Nan is suddenly
Nan is back in the HOTEL ELEVATOR.
Alrighty, exit elevator.
Well, fuck. Looks like we'll have to see the rest later.
Okay, peek out the elevator, then carefully step out.
See if you still have your screwdriver. Also shed a single tear while thinking fond thoughts of Anna, being glad you could do her one last favor and hoping she's in a better place now.
What Z said.
OK! Our mission is now COLLECTING STUFF so we can do that to everybody that dies.
Go check the cubbyholes for more things to steal vital tools and clues.
Make a note to ask people what horrible event has them feeling terrible.
Are we getting all Cryostatis up in here?
I think checking the cubbyholes and then seeing if we can get into room 114 is a good plan.
Exit elevator. Hopefully we can find someone to interact with that won't try to kill us. I for one am wondering what Santiago is up to right now.
...I wonder how many of the 'residents' here fixed something in the hotel? I wonder how many used a screwdriver? It may be that Nan is carrying something very important.
In b4 we save a cow's life to get through a frozen refrigerator
Do a hearty jig for having helped out Anna.
INFORMATION ACQUIRED: How to fix elevator.
Now let's look for that Lounge.
Which reminds me. We were called to fix the wiring. I still think we should do that. What was wrong the last time, was the door busted or something?
Anyway, since we're on the ground floor, the wiring should be nearby. But first to the cubbyholes.
Nan exits the elevator and steps onto the MAIN LANDING at the ground floor.
The lights are still on, for now.
Check out the janitor's closet, maybe we can get a similar thing to happen with Pablo like it did with Anna and the elevator.
open janitor's closet.
Somebody forced the Janitor's door open and damaged the frame in the process. You're going to want to check that out, but for now check the cubbyholes and the front door.
Try to open the janitor's closet door without standing directly in front of it.
Take a closer look at that painting before we check the Lobby. It's making me uncomfortable.
Bash in the janitor's door with your pipe.
ALL DOORS MUST PERISH.
Considering the door appears to have been broken open already,and despite the fact that I LOVE smashing things ,no good has come braking anything so far. So let's just open the door.
Also, I am almost positive that the Padre pryed the door open. The most effective way to do so would be with his fire poker. Now look at the mark on the wall. It is likely from curved part at the pointed end. If you don't follow yet, just bare with me and visuals him (it?) forcing the pointy end in between the door and frame with curved part closer to the frame. Now he prys the door open by pushing the curved end tword the wall. This would scrape at the wall with the curved part.
poke your pipe through the hole if you can. looks like something's peeking.
Examine the painting/picture on the wall, then unless its interesting, open the door to the closet.
Someone else has been in the janitors closet. Note the door-frame is broken around the lock.
Inspect the door to the Janitor's Closet and the picture.
Also FUCK YEAH NanQuest!
Careful if you ARE planning on storming the closet. We might end up finding a less than sane Pablo hiding in there, or worse, end up pissing off the hotel again.
Open CLOSET and disregard high chance of MONSTERS.
Nan examines the SEASIDE PAINTING.
It depicts some sort of very primitive looking building made of stone, or perhaps clay, standing on a cliff by the seaside. A strange tower, perhaps some kind of lighthouse, stands beside it with a great bonfire burning atop it.
The majority of the painting is dominated by a very bleak and very gray sea.
... I wonder if there's a roof access somewhere in the hotel?
Nan opens the janitor's closet door.
It appears to be more than just a closet.
It opens to a steep, narrow stairway. Somewhere at the other end of the darkness below is a faint, shimmering light.
Determine if darkness is normal
we'll come back to that. let's keep going where we were going before.
Check the cubbyholes first.
Get down there.
Down ye go.
Nan descends into the dim stairwell.
Nan has entered the JANITOR'S CLOSET.
Shine your flashlight at the ceiling, that's where the wire leads.
I'm in favor of checking out the cubbyholes before doing anything else - doubly so since this has the whole "YOU ARE DOING THE THING WE COMPLAIN ABOUT PEOPLE IN HORROR MOVIES DOING" thing going on - but since I seem to be in the minority:
Is there anything you could take?
Can you safely open the furnace to look inside?
Is all of that ash? Maybe cover your mouth with a hand or your overalls if you can stretch them up to avoid breathing it. Get your flashlight out and go inspect the furnace or whatever that is that is giving off light.
No. 2 rule in horror films: ALWAYS LOOK UP
Check out that stuff on the ground a bit more than halfway to the furnace.
Return to the ground floor and examine the cubbyholes.
Nan squints against the hazy darkness and shines her flashlight up into the thick smoke that lingers overhead. The weak beam of light barely fights back the choking black fog, but it's enough to see past the soot-caked water tanks and into the mess of criss-crossed pipes up above. Nan's eyes follow the electrical wire from the chandelier outside. It strings across the wall, high up, and comes down on the opposite wall, entering an electrical box near the furnace.
Check the furnace.
Inspect those cans on the ground in front of the second water tank.
Look inside the furnace.
Still do this.
No way. Check the electrical box. Light is god here, we need to see if there's something we can do to prevent the hotel from screwing with the electricity.
Investigate objects infront of the tank closest to the furnace.
After, look in the furnace. See if there's a way to open it.
I have a bad feeling about going near the FURNACE.
You know, cuz the hotel controls the things in here...
So check ELECTRICAL BOX.
Is there something behind that second tank? It looks like there might be movement there.
Oh god, you're right. Shine the flashlight behind the second tank, it looks like there's a growing shadow there.
Use FLASHLIGHT on SUSPICIOUS SHADOW.:V
Open the electrical box, chacking behind you ever so often, and practice caution when opening the box or anything that's closed
Nan inspects the laid out supplies.
Several tins of CANNED FOOD and some BOTTLED WATER are here. Looks like someone's stash.
Also present are a few CIGARETTES.
Quick! There's a shadow behind the tank!
Use your flashlight on it!
Pop a clean cigarette in your mouth.
You don't have to smoke it, just put it there to look more badass.
"Hello? Anyone there? Mind if I borrow some of your canned goods?"
Don't take the stash! Someone might need that to survive. Chivalry, yo.
I mean, unless you're hard up for sustenance. You're not, are you, Nan?
if Metal Gear Solid 3 has tought us anything, it's that cigarettes make small but moderately effective lights. take everything, light up, recieve light, deal with shadow.
Nan shines her flashlight behind the tanks, and a familiar voice calls out in return as Henry steps into the light.
"Oh thank god, it IS you!" he says with a sigh of relief.
Henry wipes his brow, covered in sweat. He has a few minor injuries.
He says he can't believe Nan's still all right. He says was worried it was that skeleton-faced thing coming back.
punch him in the dick for being one
Coming... back? Pilgrim lives here?!
Quick find where the wires go! We have to fix it and get the hell out of here!
Ask him how he ended up here. Suggest that an unlocked basement is probably not the safest place to hide. Take cigarettes and food supplies.
What'd Henry do the first time it came around?
1. Ask about pilgrim
2. Arm Henry
3. Activate repair powers
Do not hug Henry. Shit is too weird to trust anyone, especially people hiding in the shadows of the spooky basement.
Nan decides to hold off on Henry, even if she is relieved to see him. Now is not the time or place.
Nan recovers some food and water from the supply stash, and also takes some unopened packs of CIGARETTES.
Henry explains what's been going on:
He says when he woke up in the room, Pablo and Anna were already gone. He heard screams out in the hall, so he tried to wake Nan, but she was having some kind of nightmare. She tossed and turned, muttering something, and he couldn't wake her up, so he ran out to see for himself. Out in the hall, he found Anna, freshly killed, and tried to approach, when the skeleton-faced creature attacked him. He ran down the stairs to escape and came here, where the others had said there was food and water, to try and take hide here and wait out the danger. It was locked, so he smashed the door open with his CHAIR LEG CLUB and took shelter.
He hid when he heard someone coming in, thinking it might be that skull-faced thing, and now here we are.
Ask Henry what the heck he's doing down here, then ask how long ago the Pilgrim left.
Shit, nvm. Late. xux
How long ago was that?
Are there any secret places/rooms around here?
Oh good, so this isn't Pilgrim's home. Ask him how he managed to get to this floor via the stairs- they're blocked off. And there's a painting of a lighthouse where they used to be.
Also seriously let's find where the wires lead.
Inform Henry of your situation and the recent horrifying encounter with The Padre.
Nan asks how long ago this was. Henry says he's not sure, less than an hour probably?
Nan asks how Henry took the stairs, if there are no stairs on the first floor. Henry says of course there are.
Henry says he has no idea if there are any hidden passages or secrets around here.
Any way we can get this furnace going again?
we should repair some things, light up a smoke for +12 to all badassness rolls, eat/drink for +6 to sustenance, and then consult consult Henry for his wise guidance
Let's go back up and check the front desk, this place is creepy, dark, and likely unhygienic.
Take a look at the electrical box.
Shine your flashlight to trace the wire again.
Did we tell Henry about our encounter?
If so, then lets light a cig, grab a bite, and get to fixing the electricity
Lets get out hands deep in some electric wiring.
Seconded, but be quick about it. Hanging around so much smoke in such a small room can't be a good idea.
Are we going to check inside the furnace? Or are people against that?
Inform Henry that time and space do not work normally here, then tell him everything that's happened since you last saw him.
Ask HENRY about the ANASAZI LOUNGE.
Ask if HENRY has seen any OTHER PEOPLE since he left the SAFE ROOM.
Ask Henry to hold flashlight as you work on electrical box.
Mention to Henry that there is some TIME FUCKERY going on. It seems to act strangely when we separate. Because we've been gone WAY longer than an hour.
Anyway, check out the electrical box, and the furnace. Maybe there's a way we can keep the lights going or... something? We might as well look.
Ask Henry to watch your behind while you check out the electrical box.
Confer with Henry about CROSS NECKLACE
Use your woman powers and start cleaning that room. Jesus Christ, what kind of janitor calls a place that dirty his own? He ought to be ashamed of himself.
Maybe Nan and Henry should get the hell out of there. This place seems like it's just begging for bad shit to go down.
This might just be a graphical quirk on Weaver's end, but shine the flashlight on the rest of the ceiling. The black smoke hasn't shifted back since we turned off the flashlight.
It's never "just" a graphic's quirk.
I agree. Shine what light you can on that shit.
Nan should check for any potential entrances/exits aside from the doorway she came in through. Is that a vent on the right side, next to the furnace?
If there aren't any other ways out, we should be quick here (or at least keep an eye out for more hiding places). Last thing we need is to be cornered in a creepy basement.
Okay, it's time to search the place for hidden buttons. Take ten minutes to do this.
Have Henry hold the flashlight while we check out the electric stuff. Suggest that he scan the ceiling (if we don't need him keeping the light on the electrical box).
Ask Henry where the stairs he used are. It may also be a good idea to ask more about Henry himself. We know he's a businessman, but what did he do before coming here? Where was his designation before all this happen? Look in more about him. In fact, ask the others the same questions as well. I bet knowing the answers to these questions and knowing more about your allies can help us figure out more about this place.
I dun' goofed. I meant "destination".
Well then, let's keep an eye out for secret passages.
Ask him if he's seen Pablo or knows where the lounge is.
(is it that one we first met padre in that was on fire? Padre was on fire as well, and we ran into the elevator to escape him and met Anna. Does this explain the burn mark?:/
And OHGOD. Anna's MY name D:)
... Why DID we try to reason with him?? He was obviously PISSED AS HELL that we set him on fire.
If this is a religious thing, couldn't we use the events in a bible as a cheat sheet? There was a Spanish mission here, afterall, and so far the story reminds me of that one 'BURNING bush,(bonfire, oil lamps, the mission was burned down, Padre, beast in the courtyard...) the FATHER and son sacrifice a GOAT that god himself provides' story. I don't remember how it went though; just be wary of fire I guess.:/
Also, have Henry keep a lookout as you scour the room and examine the furnace.
Smoke that has not moved at all seems a bit strange, shine the light up to check it. Also ask Henry if he knows about the lounge, and if he still has his weapon.
Agreed. Check on the strangely immobile smoke. And be prepared to flee.
Might also be good to check out the fusebox and see if you can do anything to help with the lights. If they can be fixed and you have what is needed than do it, but if you don't than just note that it could be fixed and go to it later. Anything to help stop the hotel from screwing us when we least need it.
Does he know what's happened to anyone else, and if there's any way to rendevous with them?
Better idea- start telling Henry stuff about the future and things he should do once they get out of there.
Also ask if he has any idea who this Father figure Santiago mentioned is.
Shine that light over the whole ceiling. Something freaky's happening with that smoke.
Examine everything! That always works!
Also GTFO and drag Henry with you.
I assume this delay means that a long cutscene is coming up. Personally, I love those, so whatever.
Also, I don't think there's anything up with the smoke; it'd be a pain to redraw it every panel so it looks like the smoke is moving, and Weaver didn't want to waste time on that.
On the other hand, there may be something up with the smoke now, since everyone's been OMG WHAT'S WITH THE SMOKE. It's a cheap source of ideas, and the audience gets to feel clever...
It looks more like soot covering the walls than smoke, as if the furnace had flared up sometime in the past. Do look at the electric box though. If there's anything you know, it's that faulty wiring makes faulty lighting. With luck, faulty magic wiring makes faulty magic lighting, and can accordingly fixing the wiring will fix the lighting, spooky action or not.
Anna is dead. Kill yourself. It's over.
What would happen if weaver died? we'd never know... we'd just sit here waiting for them to update... forever. Commenting away year after year... sitting at our computers in desperate hope that weaver would return, never knowing what became of them because of the anonymousness of the internet.
Check the ceiling with the light =D wanna see if that causes more smoke to dissapear
(Not actually suggesting that weaver is dead but it's a creepy thought. Also Anonymousness is a word? I thought I just had bad grammar)
AINT NEVA GONNA UPDATE. Anonymousness is a word according to my spellchecker, it is just silly.
dude relax he's probably busy with other things/drawing ponies so just be patient and he'll get back to it whenever.
and this belongs in discussion if anything.
Weaver is taking a break for a while. After a bit, he'll start updating again. He has said as much.
Weaver likes ponies?
Have a romantic dinner by the light of the furnace.
Also, you make me sick, Weaver. Sick with
Weaver, Weaver fever, OOOOOH~,
Weaver, Weaver fever, NOOOOO~,
Weaver, Weaver fever, OOOOH~,
We thought you'd update on time, time~
(DEAR GOD I'll stop now.)
But seriously, are either of them hungry? Have a snack, if Padre doesn't bust in or anything. They have to be finding you somehow...
It just hit me ,assuming Kim's 'we're already dead thing', maybe what we witnessed in >>302702 was Anna just before she 'first' died.
Oh and get out of the with any supplies you can carry. Fashioning as makeshift bag would be nice too.
Yes, I agree. Ask Henry to be a gentleman and let us borrow his shirt to use as a knapsack.
Also, on the note that Weaver likes ponies, is Weaver a girl? All of the heroines (Ruby, Nan) are female afterall.
Keep it to the discussion thread you dolts.
Touch the burn marks like you did in the elevator
Shoop-da-woop the ceiling with your flashlight. You are making many discoveries. But watch out - the hotel may get ANGRY!!!
Lick the walls.
Is this dead?
Inspect the area with your flashflight (this includes all ceiling areas). What seems to be of interest around here? Check around for any secret passages.
Now, scour the area for any objects that may be of use later in our quest. Any BLUDGEONY CANESHOVELs around here?
Finally, ask Henry for any interesting finds in this place. Ask him if he has anything of use.
In other words, check Henry's inventory.
By taking his clothes off.
You know we could just carry on, on our own. Make an alternate path or what not. Then, when weaver gets back, chalk it all up to hallucinogens.
just realized she described tgchan
It seems very likely that this hotel is somehow sentient and out to get you. Therefore, get back at it by SMASHING AND BURNING EVERYTHING.
Shining the flashlight on the ceiling seems to be the only way to change anything or get information. Try that!
Ooh, I have another great idea. Later down the road if we see a mirror we should shine the flashlight on it and see if the light reflects or if the other side of the mirror gets the light.
Check furnace then go to lobby and check hat-rack.
There's already a chunk of the hotel busy being on fire. It doesn't seem too deterred by the whole thing.
>Somewhere at the other end of the darkness below is a faint, shimmering light.
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night...
>Exit the room with Henry. There's nothing more to see here.
>Nan Quest is on the front page
>Just some fuckers messing around
lol i trold
OH god someone's trapped in the furnace!
HOLY FUCK, YESSSSS!
Holy fuck, investigate!
Investigate the voice.
Welp, let's check it out. cautiously.
recognize the voice at all?
I wish to see a quest based on this.
Try to look for the source of the voice. Preferably from a safe distance.
go ahead. help the source of the voice which just so happens to come from a dark and markedly evil hole in the hotel full of horrorterrors from beyond. I'm sure nothing will go wrong.
Is it in that boiler thingy? Have Henry look first!
>"Help. Help me!"
Nan investigates the voice coming from the smoldering furnace.
>"Help me! Nan, get me out! I'm still alive! For the love of god, get me out!"
Kim is in the furnace.
Well, pull her out. Is it locked or something?
OH GOD, GET HER OUT
ENLIST HELP FROM THE FELLOW WITH YOU
MAYBE YOU CAN PULL OFF THE CRATE IF YOU WORK TOGETHER AND SHE PUSHES
oh, it's just her. that's kinda disappointing.
welp. help her, I guess.
I MEANT GRATE
Any way to wedge the bars open?
I'm pretty sure those grates are removable, but you might need a screwdriver.
Kim is badly burned.
Nan quickly kneels down, trying to pull off the rusty grate covering the immense furnace.
Nan turns to look at Henry. Henry stands frozen.
He swears he didn't put her in there.
Put your back and legs into it, Nan. It can't be that stuck!
Or... look for a latch or something.
Tell him it doesn't FUCKING matter how she got in there. All that matters now is GETTING HER OUT.
Ask her how in the hell did she even GET down there? She were three floors upstairs just moments ago with Anderson, refusing to leave the safety of the safe room!
That is, if she can speak.
Then call Henry dumb because you know he didn't put her down there. He couldn't have possibly done that. Stop being redundant Henry.
Ask Kim how long she's been in there and tell Henry to stop freaking out long enough to help you get her out.
This is a boiler room, is there something down here or in your pants you can use as a lever? Yell at him to help you pull and that you don't care that he didn't put her down here!
Nan demands Henry help her. He does not move.
Nan pulls the grate open.
Within the walls of the room, something loud and metallic rattles. There is a strange noise.
Nan asks Kim how she got in there.
She says HE put her in there. She begs for help.
Kim struggles. She screams that her leg is still stuck.
DEMAND THAT IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER HOW SHE GOT IN THERE, JUST THAT WE GET HER OUT AND HELP HER WITH THE WOUNDS. CAREFULLY INSPECT SAID LEG.
Grab her and pull! Ask her to wiggle her leg free!
Lean in and shine the flashlight around to see how her leg is stuck. Maybe you can help!
The entire room shudders as the furnace kicks on.
Something seems..."off" here. Keep in mind that not everything is as it seems in this quest.
...maybe we shouldn't help her?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO KIM WHY
Get away from the furnace!
Make a mildly concerned face at Henry.
Back the fuck off. Do we have a fire extinguisher in our inventory?
Wait... Jump into the furnace!
Kim screams in agony.
She claws at the furnace fixture, trying to drag herself out of the fire.
>"DON'T LET ME DIE HERE! HELP ME! GET ME OUT! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!"
Grab her arm and drag her the fuck out already. What's wrong with you?
Grab her hands, pull her out! We can still save her.
Either something bizarre will happen, or it won't. If it doesn't, we'll at least have a slim (and, possibly, suicidal) chance to still save Kim (depends on exactly how hot the fire is, I guess).
Oh yeah that's right people take time to burn. Her hand isn't on fire, pull on that. If we're lucky either whatever had her foot stuck is burnt up or her foot is burnt up and she can get out more easily. She's probably lighter.
teehee, I see what you did there.
Nan and Kim grab each other by the wrist and pull.
They pull harder.
Well, keep pulling. If we get an arm we get an arm but we can't just leave her!
HENRY HELP NAN NOW
Order Henry to help you. Brace yourself against the frame of the furnace to pull with your whole body's strength.
Saving her at this point is probably just going to make her take longer to die of burn infections, and even if she doesn't she'll be some hideous ghoul for the rest of her life.
Uh. Really the best thing you can do is let go.
LEAVE HER! YANK THE WIRES OUT OF THE ELECTRICAL BOX!
Say, didn't Kim already have burn marks on her? Maybe this fire hurts, but won't kill people...
...kinda like hellfire. What was Kim's theory about the hotel again? That it was hell?
puke all over the place due to the revolting smell of burning flesh and hair.
>"What's going on? I heard screaming!"
FUCKING TIME SHENANGANS
"You're on fire." point to the furnace.
Well now you're going to look like a crazy person holding someone's hand as they burn in the furnace.
You crazy person.
But greet Kim with happiness and relief! A hug may be in order!
Tell her to pull the wires from the electrical box. Now, pretty please.
"KIM! HELP ME GET YOU OUT OF THE FURNACE!"
Tell Kim to help you pull this person out of the furnace.
Do we still have... otherkim's hand? Keep pulling and see if we can find out what is going on. Tell Kim that the hotel's being weird again and that she needs to help pull herself out of the fire.
IF EVERYBODY TINKLES INTO THE FURNACE SIMULTANEOUSLY MAYBE YOU'LL PUT THE FIRE OUT
Is the mostly-severed hand you're holding still stuck? Pull, woman.
Pull out whatever is left!
Pull it out!
The hand is still pulling.
"IT'S PULLING ME IN IT'S PULLING ME IN GUYS UH HELP HELP HELP HELP"
Let go. It's trying to pull you in.
Wait a minute. If Henry really didn't put Kim in there then what DID he put in there? Because he sounded like he had put SOMETHING in and was surprised to see Kim in there instead. This was a bad idea ask possibly real Kim to help pull YOU out instead.
you're stronger than some four-eyed nerdette who is being roasted alive. pull, dammit.
Quickly blurt out a synopsis of what's going on ("KIM YOU'RE IN THE FURNACE HELP") and then all three of you try to pull otherkim loose. If we can't get her out, consider going in after her (remember, things are topsy-turvy here). Afterwards we can discuss this bizarre event with Kim, with or without her doppleganger.
(I think it's a fair bet, though, that this means Henry or someone else will later toss Kim in the furnace. Unless we can use our foreknowledge to think of a way to free her beforehand, anyway.)
Nan continues to pull, but the counter-pull is stronger.
Something is wrong.
Ask the other two to help pull you out!
Jump into the fire! It's the only way!
"Pull me out pull me out PULL ME OUT"
Tell Henry that you believe him now and that he needs to help save you. Kim too.
consider asking for help. but do it only if you have to. you don't wanna seem weak to your compatriots.
Scream. Tell them to break the electrical box.
IT'S A TRICK!
Something's been trying to trick you into the fire! Either do this:
Or, better, see if someone can slice off those extra arms! We could try to see who they belonged too later on.
Hey...waitaminute...wasn't this quest originally intended to play on the fact that suggesters always try to save everyone?
WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T SAVE KIM!
And LET GO.
Dive dive! The delicious flames beckon! Your friends are all in there!
OK you're just insulting the artist now.
Nan calls for help. Henry and Kim grab her by the shoulders and drag her away.
The grip on her arm is broken.
The furnace shuts off.
NOW tinkle in the furnace. y'know, to show your displeasure.
alternatively, ask Henry what the fuck he did.
alternatively alternatively, get the fuck out of there.
>Well no use staying in the place where you were almost murdered by ghost hands, Get outta there!
Thank them and ask Henry why he made such a specific denial of putting Kim in there.
First things first--try to get everyone to a safe place pronto. This place obviously isn't safe. Afterward the three of you can try to figure out what all this means.
Well, otherKim did blame him for putting her there. But then again, she did it after he denied it:
Noooooo all is lost.
> Look into furnace. That definitely wasn't just her; there were multiple arms.
The furnace dies, leaving nothing. Not even ashes.
The boiler room grows dark and cold.
Turn on your flashlight!
traverse the darkness and get out of here stalker.
Turn your flashlight on! Then everyone huddle together and try to leave without separating. Something's going on and we need to get to safety.
Turn flashlight on, and tell Kim what you saw in the furnace. She might have a theory.
Also, since it's been a while, can everyone check their inventories?
DON'T turn your flashlight on. Let your eyes adjust to the darkness.
Kim and Henry: DON'T LET GO OF NAN'S SHOULDERS
Stay in physical contact. Flashlight NOW.
Return to lobby posthaste
Is this just the hotel? That is Kim, yes?
Ask Now Kim if she saw anything happen with the furnace (or herself in it, for that matter).
Also, turn on your FLASHLIGHT. I have a feeling about this place....
Turn on flashlight. Prepare to see Pilgrim and Padre holding your hands instead of your buddies.
How about whip out that FLASHLIGHT and get the fuck out first. Then can we talk business!...
still grabbing the two, press against the nearest wall and, taking the month long resident's advice, stay in the darkness and make no sounds while trying to make out whats going on.
wtf just happened? D:
Oh yeah... I second your plan instead.
Changing my vote to
as well. Forgot about Santiago's advice.
exactly why I said 'traverse the darkness'.
Oh crap, forgot all about that stuff!
THIS. Carefully move about and let yourselves adjust to the darkness. And adjust in the direction of not here.
Nam check if you still have your screwdriver
GET YOUR FLASHLIGHT ON RIGHT NOW
I don't think we should get the flashlight, wait for your eyes to adjust while keeping in contact with Henry and Kim. I think Santiago my have been on to something.
Yeah, voting for darkness. We messed up with Santiago last time. He may be crazy, but he's got experience here.
Nan leaves the flashlight off.
After staring at the fire, it takes a moment for her vision to readjust to the dim boiler room.
Whisper. You need to move, to get back to a safe area- no lights, no noise. Careful, quiet.
I don't believe we've been to the good old LOBBY in a while, why not check there for anything out of place?
Nan leaves the boiler room with Kim and Henry.
Well I guess we're glad Nan's out of there.
>shadowy thing: drop down
Looks like Padre to me... We'd best get outta there and ask the others what the hell they just saw.
>>ready flashlight, watch back, grill henry on what actually happened
whisper to the others to keep quiet unless absolutely necessary and stay together. and cautiously keep an eye out for danger.
Remember the boiler room went dark, so that means there's likely a monster around that this place took favor in.
>Head to the hotel lobby, it seems like good a place as any to regroup.
Boiler room: collapse now that your support pillar has become a guy.
holy shit weaver, it's been 9 months, what the hell man, you had a baby or something!? still, good to have you back
all 3 of you keep contact with eachother and a wall at all times.
Calmly get the fuck out of there as fast and carefully as possible, while keep in contact with Kim and Henry.I'd say returning to the lobby is probably best too.
Nan, Henry, and Kim arrive at the first-floor landing.
Anderson is here, keeping watch. He is armed.
Nan asks Henry if he saw what she did. He replies that he thought he saw Kim in the furnace, but now it's clear that's impossible.
On the other hand, he says plenty of what they've seen already should be impossible.
Onwards to the lobby then- request the other two stick with us- strength in numbers and all, the big evil stalking monster NEVER attacks when the group is all together unless there is an opportunity to split them up!
What does Kim think about what happened? Also, if we haven't already, ask Henry about the cross pendant. While we're down here we might want to check out Henry and Pablo's old rooms, too.
The lobby sounds like as good a place to go next as any.
I think nan should come clean to Kim about this whole burned alive thing; remembering the time she saw her future self. Also The lobby seems like a good place to move now.
Ask Anderson and Kim what they've been doing.
Weird idea here, but maybe we should 'mark' eachother with something so we can tell the difference between the real us and the horrors the hotel is using to bait us. Probably pointless since the hotel might just copy the marks too but you never know.
Is the lobby the best choice? One (conceivable) entry/exit might not be wise when something could be following close behind. Would a shot from Anderson's revolver faze one of those creatures? Let alone the Padre or Pilgrim? For that matter, are we even sure that gun is loaded or is Anderson keeping it intimidation purposes?
Oh god so many questions, I love you Weaver
Where? On the face? I mean, that seems to be the most open space we have and it is most notable- unless like they are turned the other way and you approach them and they turn dramatically and they don't have a mark but SHARP POINTY TEETH AND GLOWY EYES.
A mark doesn't necessarily mean use markers or ink or anything, maybe tear up a sheet and make nifty little wristbands or something. Like I said though the hotel could probably just copy those too so they might be pointless.
I like the idea of using some kind of marking or identifier.
How about a passcode? Or perhaps an item they could produce? Nan's flashlight, Anderson's gun, Kim could take off her glasses?
What we should do is use a marking system where we add one each day. Example: if we were to use markers, we could do tallies and add a tally mark each day.
That way if we are dealing with future selves, they will have more marks when we see them. Although, if furnace Kim is the future of the current Kim next to us then that means that we won't have done that, because furnace Kim had no marks. Fuck, I don't know.
Haha, yeah destroy Kim's glasses, then there's no way she'll ever be FutureKim stuck in the furnace!
Nan tells Kim what she witnessed in the boiler room.
Kim is quiet for a moment, then asks what made Nan think it was her, and not the hotel itself.
She's right here. And it seems whatever was in that furnace wasn't trying to get out.
It was trying to pull her in.
Kim says it doesn't sound like an omen.
It sounds like a trap.
Ask Kim if she thinks that Ruby should not try to save 'her' in that kind of situation.
You really don't know why you thought it was her. You just wanted to help and stop people from dying. You'd be damned if someone died because of your inaction. You like being lazy and slow to the draw, but that's when it's work.
Should we have pass phrases for future traps? Could those work or could these illusions learn those from our heads?
You call "Microwave Pizza"
Tell Kim to remember it anyway... it could come in handy in the FUTURE.
Go to the lobby. It's where everything started, after all. It will be good to see how it's changed.
Point out that it sounded and looked just like her and that the hotel's obviously all about the whole "horribly killing everyone" thing, so it seemed perfectly plausible. You're glad she's okay, but you think it's important that we try to help eachother as much as possible.
Trying to save what, as far as you could tell, was her was the right thing to do.
Mention that it looked just like her, before the furnace started... Ask her if "For the love of god" means anything to her. It kept saying that.
YOU MEAN OPAL
*Whisper* to her that she should be careful around Henry in the future... the fact that he denied putting her in there was a little too pointed.
This might cause unrest in the group, but Henry's hesitation to help does lead one to suspect something.
Also, to test a theory of mine (don't we all have one?), ask Henry if he's ever had a girlfriend. I wonder if what Nan experienced when waking up next to him wasn't a glimpse into the past, like the time she met Pablo crying and he thought she was someone else.
Same poster. Also consider outright asking Henry about his specific denial.
>>385192 Pass phrase is a good idea. It'll also let us know that any instances of people we run into are at least from this point in time and onwards.
Hey, I've got some advice. Lighten up while you still can. Don't even try to understand, just find a place to make your stand.
And take it easy.
Do ask Henry directly about his suspiciously specific denial. It'd be a shame to stir up unrest in what really needs to be a unified group due to a misunderstanding.
some things are best not dwelled upon.
Sorry, got nothing...
Nan! Now is not the time to talk about how you saw yourself from the future earlier.
Because in that case, you lived what you saw later. And then Kim may think she'll eventually be in the boiler.
So don't mention that.
Threaten to beat Henry with a rusty spatula if he ever even thinks of throwing Kim in the boiler.
Ask if anybody's seen Pablo.
>Ask if anyone has thought of a plan of action on how to escape the hotel.
I guess we should check the second floor now and look for the Anazasi Lounge.
I don't think we would find anything useful in the Henry/Pablo old rooms,they are likely barred.
And let's use the stairs this time
quit confusing your precious gems, this is Opal, not Jade!
Seriously though, seconding idea of pass prase(s). Just keep in mind the person knowing it doesn't mean much, but if the person DOESN'T know it we MIGHT be onto something.
I still want to know why Henry insisted he didn't put Kim in the furnace, and don't really see any harm in asking him. Just treat it like an honest question and not an accusation - I don't think it's good to be too suspicious just because of an odd sentence, but if he knows/experienced something important it'd be nice to know it.
What if the "Kim" in the boiler wasn't referring to Henry, but to the Padre? After all...he WAS in the room with them.
If we go with Passcodes, don't let Henry hear it for now. He's too suspicious.
I'm not sure I agree.
If we go with passcodes, everyone in the group should know them. We can't be splitting up or ostracising someone now, not when our survival depends on us all working together.
I say if we do pass codes we should go with 'The Magic Words Are Squeamish Ossifrage' or just 'Squeamish Ossifrage'. Kudos if if you get the reference but that's not why I chose this. I reason that if if someone/something's eavesdropping, if/when they/it pull a stunt like that again(specificly feighning danger), they say the whole phrase, while if they're real (or really in danger) they're more likely to forget under duress parts of the phrase. Also they/it are almost certainly going to find out the pass sooner or later (or now if eavesdropping) so I reason that if someone when asked for it under duress get angry or says something like 'Seriously?! Now of all times?!' or 'Just help me already!' they're more likely real. Only someone actually under duress would act like that. Don't bring up the reasoning in conversation. That would defeat the purpose.
Interesting idea. I might get behind it, though I was kinda leaning towards something a few syllables long. That is, something short enough to be uttered in a single breath, in case we have to use it in emergencies. Your idea might be better, though, considering the hotel appears sentient and capable of actively mimicking us.
Oh! By the way! If we haven't already, we should ask Anderson what happened to the old Spanish Mission, in case he knows. As in, why was it reduced to ruins by his time?
Nan should tell Kim about meeting her future(and past) self
I am agree with this. Explain too kim that she needs to be very careful, but try not to get kim worked up either.
Well, honestly, I can't blame Henry. He was hidden alone in that room, mentioning that he was alone, when suddenly someone appears to be shoved into a furnace, with you being the only person there.
Ask Anderson and Kim how long ago (from their perspective) Nan left them in 313 to find the Lounge. Even IF time didn't do freaky shit in this hotel, Nan still couldn't be completely sure how long had passed during her "spirit vision" of helping Anna with the elevator.
Also, maybe its time to mention your interactions with Santiago with everyone? If you think that's a bad idea then nevermind.
How about a password that monsters would be really annoyed at saying? Like "The time is 4:33" or something.
How about 466 as a password? It seems to show up when weird shit goes down anyways.
Nan leads the group into the hotel lobby.
Nan asks Henry about his specific denial.
He shakes his head and says that there's already enough suspicion going around. He was the only other person in the room, so he thought it was natural Nan would suspect him.
Nan explains her encounter with 'herself' earlier as a point of comparison, but Kim doesn't seem worried. She says omens are one thing, but as long as they're alive they have free will. She seems intent on believing it was the hotel trying to get Nan, and that it only looked like her as a means to an end.
In light of whatever just happened, Nan suggests passcodes. But she's not far into explaining her idea when Anderson interrupts.
He asks Nan if she hasn't been paying attention all along.
This place knows who we are, where we are.
It's watching right now.
You want to talk trust, he's got a better plan.
Trust no one.
Aha! You need to go down to the boiler room and tease the monsters in there to turn on the boiler. This will activate the electrical wire coming out of the boiler room and light the chandeleir. And then... uh...
That's... actually a pretty good plan.
Right. Nothing seems new here (or is the opened mail slot different?) so... maybe we can check more of the doors on this floor. There was one that's all chained up, maybe we can work on getting that open again?
This place is trying to make us distrust each other. It sees us as a threat - and it definitely doesn't want us to co-operate with each other. We need to work together to get to the bottom of this so we can get out.
also check the mail slot.
Inspect the light-devouring cubbyhole.
Inspect dat mail slot.
Yes, lets extend our stay in this LIGHT-FILLED ROOM
Oh, and uh, check your inventory. It's been a while...
Examine the room. What is that on the counter? Bell? Registry? Telephone? What's in the cubby hole? Do any of those little doors open?
Also, tell Anderson that you're sorry but you're just trying to survive and keep as many of the people here alive as possible.
try the door. it's not like you'd be spending a lot of effort.
what is he suggesting? next time we see kim in trouble, not to help them?
fuck that. fuck that idea along with the hotel that necessitated it's conception.
Have Nan tell Anderson not to jump to conclusions, we're all friends here. Let's build bridges, not walls.
That's it! Brilliant! Build a bridge out of the hotel!
We should take the hotel and push it somewhere else!
Remember that the hotel becomes particularly aggressive either when Nan tries to leave, or breaks something. Breaking something seems to be an instant pass to dark hotel.
On another note, the painting in the hallway has disappeared and so have the flowers, and the stairs are back. So apparently the stairs can appear and disappear randomly. Could we get another perspective of the hallway(i.e. visible exits and turns, what is at the end of it, door or window),or even the entry hall for that matter, unless the unseen wall is completely featureless?
Tell Anderson that if you hadn't trusted An and gotten in the elevator you probably wouldn't be having this conversation to begin with.
ask if anyone has seen pablo.
If attempting to leave makes the hotel angry, perhaps it wants us to go further inside? For that matter, being grouped up and/or static seems to anger it too. Doesn't matter if we have friends present, it just pulls teleportation schenanigans to get us from them. All signs point to the hotel wanting us to explore, to find something here. And our continued 'freedom' hinges on not pissing off the silent hill hotel.
I guess this is the current thread? I just finished Ruby Quest a little while ago...
Suggestion: Try to find an original floor plan for this hotel. There had to have been one hanging around before everything went to hell and this turned into the Dolphin Hotel.
Nan retrieves the decorative totem from its slot in the mailbox of room 117.
It seems like lost items have a habit of finding their way here.
>Show the totem to everyone else, maybe they'll know what it is? Probably not, but its worth a shot.
Carefully inspect totem for writing, symbols, etc.
>Check inventory for something that you could possibly replace the totem with. Also, ask cohorts about this totem.
Seems like this could be a plausible idea. *shruuug*
Lost and found maybe?
Still, probably have to put that on some sort of ancient Hopi shrine or something... place like this was probably build on ancient Indian temple/burial grounds.
Speaking of lost things showing up, where did that green necklace of ours go off to?
Ask the others if anything has gone missing and showed up elsewhere.
Think Pablo has it, last time we had it was when we wrecked the clock I think.
Think we should ask them if they misplaced or lost something, then ask what everyone found in the slots. And what they found in general, some items others picked up might be connected to others (our necklace and henrys for example)
Room 117's mailbox, eh? If memory serves, that's the only specific mailbox that ever gets mentioned, and it's been brought up at least twice (all the other times we've found things in the mailboxes we were never told which mailboxes the items were in). Might be metagaming a bit here, but I suspect the author is trying to throw us a bone. Maybe room 117 is important? I think we ought to at least give it another quick examination and see if anything in it has changed (while watching out for the mirror, of course).
Same poster here. Just occurred to me that, to give us another reason to go there, Pablo might have returned to 117 after vanishing. It's where we originally found him, after all, and he seemed to feel safe there. Not to mention he was able to survive there for quite a while. It makes sense that returning there would be his backup-plan in case something went wrong.
Before we leave, check the room. What's on the desk?
Is this the same totem that was right beside the Safe Room? If 117 is a bust/trap then maybe we should see if the hall outside of the Safe Room has changed or if the totem was replaced with something else.
Definitely ask around about the totem. If no other better ideas, maybe rm 117 is worth a revisit.
Can you try and take the totem apart? Can it be disassembled at all?
Don't think the totem has any real value... save that it's lead us to find that the hotel brings things that are lost to the front desk
Let's check rooms 114 and 117 while we're down here.
Seconded. Let's finish examining the front desk room first though.
Check for Pablo in Room 117.
No. Breaking things makes bad things happen. We break a vase accidentally, lights go out. We break the clock intentionally, we get sent to mindfuckville.
Wait, we still have that magnifying glass from last time we were in the lobby!
EXAMINE TOTEM with MAGNIFYING GLASS.
it sure sounds like your typical run-off-the-mill Overlook Hotel Syndrome when you put it like that.
>Tell KIM to examine the TOTEM using her THIRD EYE.
Henry is wearing the cross necklace.
As for the totem, no one appears to recognize it.
Turning it over, Nan finds something scratched into the base.
Nan uses the magnifying glass.
Pablo! We must locate and question him on the totem.
The totem belongs to Pablo?
Is there anything inside it?
Let's bring it back to where we last saw the thing. The "safe" room.
Anderson tells Nan that he and Kim are heading back to the third floor safe room. They only came out because Nan had been gone for a while and they wanted to make sure she was all right.
If she wants to come back she's welcome to, but he's going to stay with Kim to make sure she gets back all right. If Nan wants to keep exploring, that's her business.
Henry offers to stay with Nan.
Nan decides on a long-overdue check of her inventory.
She is carrying:
Check from Fun Family Arcade
Key to Anasazi Lounge
All right, to 117
Just tell Anderson to keep a real good eye on her and warn Kim again, that if she does end up in the future-past in that furnace, to not get her foot caught. Then tell future-past Nan this totally happened before. Even if she did think it was just a trap.
Also for Anderson to not lose his humanity completely to cynicism.
Gotta be real careful. Can't be too much so in this place.
Keep ahold of that check. It might just be your ticket out of here. I don't know how this hotel treats external third party financial obligations.
Let's get to the "safe" room.
I don't suppose Henry knows where the Lounge is, does he?
Arm Henry with the LEAD PIPE and take him with you to check out 117, Pablo's room.
Don't forget to see if Henry knows anything about the CROSS PENDANT.
Look for the Anasazi Lounge
Ask henry if he knows where the lounge is, and if he doesn't then head down to 117 to look for something that might let you know more about the totem.
Let's just check out each room on this floor, then the next, etc... for as long as the lights stay on.
Henry gives Kim and Anderson most of the supplies he gathered from the boiler room, and they head back to the safe room.
Nan and Henry head to Room 117.
Nan asks Henry if he knows where the Anasazi Lounge is, and he says it might be on the second floor, since he hasn't seen any entrances like that on the first and third.
Henry asks Nan what it is she's looking for in Room 117.
Pablo. Traces of Pablo.
Tell him it's where she first met Pablo, so he might have gone there when he got separated from the group. Also, the hotel took her away from there when she broke the clock, and she's wondering if there's a reason for that.
Tell him we're trying to find Pablo and figure this whole business with him out.
Also, ask Henry if he'll hold your hand. You know. For safety.
on the way, accidentally drop your overalls.
Let's answer his question with our own, for I had a sudden thought: we're all from different time periods, right? So does the hotel look the same to everyone ... does it seem to "fit" when they were "outside"?
Because if so, then it means we see a different hotel.
Huh... I don't expect it does, but it's definitely worth asking.
It probably exists on it's own timeline. Santiago got here a month ago, but is from the 60s, Anderson was here a week, but is from the 20s. Time here and time in reality seem completely unrelated.
Explain to him that backtracking when you don't know what to do is a staple of adventure games.
(and we're to scared to go to the 2nd floor)
Is the door handle of room 114 moving?
>Tell him you don't know.
Could this be a warning to turn back, guys?
tell him you're looking for those beans. It's been a while since you've eaten.
We're looking for two things:
I see no advantage in withholding either reason from Henry.
You might also want to mention that we're searching for clues in 117 because of potential leads we've picked up, however weak they might be.
Mmm, how about Nan go back there for that one mouse? Seems to be extra friendly, maybe it's a particularly important mouse?
Walk in room. Find Pablo dead/sleeping.
Go in. Say hi to mirror Henry while you're at it.
We should be careful and cover the mirrors. Cover them, mind you, not destroy them! As earlier suggesters have noted, breaking things seems to tick off the hotel. Then again, covering mirrors might, too, if that foils the hotel's plans.
am i missing something? what is this arcade we're carrying?
It's the check we got as payment for fixing the arcade. Way back at the beginning before we entered the hotel.
Nan says she needs to find Pablo.
Even some trace of him.
Nan and Henry open the door to Room 117.
grab the thin under the vase if it's anything before going in.
Honestly, blood at this point is pretty meh
At least unless it grows eyes or something
Trace officially find. Grope for the light switch. Shine the flashlight on your hand while you do.
Welp, time to get licking.
You want to know if it's some trace of him, don't you?
Jesus christ, it's just like your dream.
Is that the bed? I think we should investigate the hole.
look at the roof, the lights are broken.
That is a very valid point. I don't suppose the maintenance closet has replacements either. Well, go in and drag whatever that is out into the hallway. Stay in the light from the hallway.
No sign of Pablo. But Nan's seen this before.
A tall, flat canvas streaked red.
The light switch doesn't work. The lights are broken.
Get in the hole you goat.
No hole. Bring it out into the hallway.
Take a gander at the back of the canvas. Check out that hole on the wall too.
Get Henry to check hole and bathroom for scaries while you check the backside of this canvas.
have henry hold your hand, next time we inevitably get teleported to some other version of the hotel, at least we'll have a friend.
What's behind the canvas?
enter hole. have Henry ready to pull you out if anything happens
Seconding checking out the hole. Use the flashlight.
THERE WAS A HOLE HERE. IT'S GONE NOW.
My suggestion goes to checking behind the canvas before exploring some strange dark hole
make a mental note to compliment Pablo on his visionary sense of interior decoration when you see him.
Fifty says there's a person behind that canvas.
I'm also going to have to encourage the checking out of the hole with Henry ready to pull you out in an emergency.
i'm pretty sure pablo is hiding somewhere within this room.
check the hole, the bathroom, and the canvas.
Nan, please examine the canvas thing from the OTHER side. You know, away from the mirror/ bathroom where things could easily jump out from.
Turn the canvas around, then have Henry check the bathroom while you examine it.
While Henry checks the bathroom, Nan pulls the large canvas out a little, checking behind it. But there's nothing but a blank wall and the wood-braced back of the canvas.
Henry says the bathroom is empty.
Did you just get bloodRED PAINT all over your hand?
What is the LARGE BLACK SPLOTCH?
Aw Nan, you got stuff all over your hand. Go wash it in the sink and ask Pablo to check the rathole.
Either 1. touch something else to the canvas to see if it gets stained, too or 2. peek in that hole with the aid of a flashlight.
If you actually go in the hole, make sure you and Henry go together and stick close. You can't risk getting separated. Being alone in this hotel is a recipe for disaster.
Guys... that means it's fresh... :( Pablo is a splatter artist.
>Nan: From a safe distance, turn your flashlight on into the giant hole. Peer into the hole to determine your future.
Guys, don't you remember what happened LAST time we tried to crawl into a space? SCISSORS
Wasn't there a theory the hotel doesn't like lightening parts up without questioning?
Not that we have much choice, but shining into the hole may lead to another black scene.
But hey, be optimistic! Pablo just found a bucket of red paint and likes to express his feelings like this... the hole got bigger because the helpful mouse grew... big... and Pablo is currently helping it to bring a really big can of beans here...
But you have to admit that nothing hurt us back there
The tacky, red substance on the canvas comes off on Nan's hand.
Yay, so now only pablo has to come through the hole with his 2m-mice-friend and give a bean-party!
>scene around not shown
Equip lead pipe and spin around to examine the room. Be ready to parry something and make a break for it.
In the painting dream, Pablo said something about making Nan live forever. Maybe he's just an artsy type, but maybe these painting actually have more going for them.
Try cutting the canvas, stay on alert for reality-changing shenanigans.
Pablo being an artist is an interesting theory. We should definitely ask him about that the next time we see him.
But don't cut the canvas. Remember, damaging hotel property tends to tick the hotel off.
Next step should be to examine the hole.
Nan shines the flashlight into the hole - from a safe distance.
It's a short tunnel, perhaps six feet deep, and narrows a bit near the end. It's unobstructed.
There appears to be a room on the far side. Nan can't make out much from here, save what could be wooden furniture. A bench, perhaps.
Fit through hole with GIRLISH FIGURE. Wait... No that sounds right.
henry: DO IT FAGGOT
Both of you--carefully--crawl through the hole and into the other room.
Make sure whoever's in back always keeps a hand on the person in front when you're crawling through the hole. You'll be vulnerable while crawling, but hopefully this'll at least make you harder to separate.
I wouldn't be surprised if it leads into the bar-room with the nan-nan-encounter and we are starting the fire because of padre...
although that would be the other end of the hotel.
Nan crouches down and crawls through the narrow tunnel.
Henry follows close behind, keeping one hand on Nan's ankle to maintain physical contact.
Nan has entered the CHAPEL.
nan: use THIRD EYE to examine GLOBE.
... what's on the podium?
Well, no monsters, but also no Pablo or beans...
Mind take a look through the windows of the doors?
Maybe from the distance first.
If it wasn't obvious before it is now: There's major religious theme in this quest. Specifically a Catholic theme. Gives me some ideas for experiments if we ever run into the big three again (hopefully not anytime soon, of course).
I imagine this is a remnant of the old Spanish mission. That looks like a Bible on the podium, or perhaps some other liturgical book. Examine it to confirm. Also take a look at the plate/band/whatever it is on the bottom of the cross.
Oh, and is that sphere above the cross a window or something else?
Examine cabinet on the left.
have nan look back down the hole to see if henry is still there. if so, report back to him.
I think that's a confessional.
Oh! Forgot about Henry! He should be right behind us. Let's enter the room and help him out of the hole.
Nan peeks through the tunnel behind her. Henry is still following, waiting for Nan to go through. Nan relays what she sees, which includes a podium, single pew, cross, and stained glass window.
Though there is clearly something wrong with the window.
Henry confirms, and suggests it's almost to be expected by now.
Rule one of Strange Religious Locations:
DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING BUT THE FLOOR
There's a book on that podium. Is it a pretty normal looking bible or is it something weird?
Wait, are we stuck? They did say that the tunnel tapered near the end...
>Enter chapel. Examine the book on the podium. If it's the Bible, what book are they reading? See if verse 4:66 is there. Blink twice if you understand.
...Is Nan religious?
Certainly not in her duties as an electrician. ZING!
Good question. Makes me wonder if any of the other characters are religious.
Maybe that has something to do with why they're here?
I think we should definitely keep that in mind. We can ask Henry now and the others later.
>Ride crucifix like mechanical bull.
Nan enters the Chapel to examine the book on the podium.
No time to Santiago. Lift that chest off of Henry's arm!
santiago! take me with you!
His arm's probably not broken if that's an empty armoir. Maybe just a bruised bone. But it hurt like a bitch.
It looks empty, with some struggling and if the arm doesn't hurt too much, Henry could wiggle it back into the hole himself.
Tell him that that was mean, and lift the thing off of Henry's hand.
Son of a...
I hope he didn't break Henry's arm! :<
So, do we go for diplomacy or violence? Santiago doesn't look willing to talk, but I'm not sure we could handle him in a straight-up fight...
lift thing. if san starts being a dick about it tell him to fuck off.
Same poster here.
On second thought, that armoir looked like it was aimed at Nan. We just happened to crawl out of the way in time.
Time to fight?
I say we offer a greeting and gauge his reaction from there.
One hand covertly on the lead pipe, but don't draw it out quite yet.
Listen to me, you little bitch
Obviously you didn't take the hint last time
So let me spell it out for you
You are ruining things here
The hotel can abide a guest or two, but if you attack it, as you have been doing, it will defend itself with violence
It will fight back
And it will win
And anyone can be caught in the crossfire
You can't fight this
You can't help anyone
Point the flashlight at his face. Should be pretty irritating at least, having bright lights aimed at your eyes sucks. Ask him why he looks so pissed.
What have we done to attack the hotel?
He's clearly already angry. Why do something just to piss him off more?
Politely ask about the injury on Santiago's forehead.
I think he made it pretty obvious why he's pissed. This place is his Paradise. If he thinks we're a threat to it, then he'll do whatever he can to stop us.
Then again, he might be worried that we'll get ourselves hurt. Depends on how you read his statements.
Does Santiago have a soft-spot for us? Or is he just defending his precious hotel?
Yeah, so far you seem to have just been trying to prevent everyone from getting killed. Ask him exactly what you're doing that's angering the hotel so you can stop.
Written before latest post. I suffer from chronic late post syndrome :(
Hmmm, don't see how to talk our way out of this, we were just checking on Pablo. Ask him what he means by attacking, playing somewhat stupid seems like the best idea. We are still pretty damn new after all.
Ach! I shouldn't be making another post, but I have to point out that Santiago's line:
"The hotel can abide a guest or two"
Seems to imply that we aren't supposed to be here or, at least, that we aren't here by the hotel's wishes. Conversly, it implies that some of the characters are supposed to be here. Did something else bring us here? Are we here for a purpose? Maybe we just got caught up in this accidentally?
At any rate, this shows that the hotel isn't the all-controlling entity we may have believed it to be.
Explain to him that you are not a guest. You are simply here to fix the wiring.
If you insist on bringing light to the darkness, realize you won't always like what you find
Some things are better left in the dark, Nan
Some things should never be brought to light
If you continue to work against the hotel, it will retaliate in kind
And you will put us all in the line of fire
If I have to kill you myself to stop this war, I will
Don't think I will hesitate
For even one second
Actually, I really like this idea. Perhaps Santiago wight have something to say about this.
>>Tell Mr. Saint James that you're here to fix the wiring. You were sent to help the hotel. ALso, what war?
>Tell Mr. Saint James that you're here to fix the wiring. You were sent to help the hotel. Also, what war?
then we will take the monsters out with us.
SANTY! YOU'RE ALIVE! I'M SO HAPPY
I MEAN YOU'RE KINDOF SCARY RIGHT NOW AND THIS HURTS A LITTLE BUT STILL
THIS IS AWESOME
Goddamnit we don't want to fight the hotel! We want to flee.
We're not trying to force you to do anything we're just kindof blundering around here trying not to die.
And the hotel keeps yelling at us and throwing visions and sometimes it's like it's trying to tell us something and other times it's just crazy crazy crazy all the time
But the last while or so since we woke up that's seemed pretty normal I guess I mean except for the furnace thing but the lights haven't gone out or anything
And we've just kindof been wandering around exploring even though we don't really know what the hell we're doing
Oh god Santy we have no idea what we're doing
So, we aren't to look around and we can't leave. What does that leave us to do Santiago, sit in a room and wait for something to kill me?
Say fine though your getting confused about what IS an Attack and what isn't
Can you be friends with the hotel? Tell him you will be proud to shake it's metaphorical hand and have a fucking tea party with it. Santiago is free to join.
You have to take the path that will get us out of this place alive though. Don't tell Nan it's impossible. Everything is possible. If this place can exist in the world, a certain set of actions can get us back in the world. We just need to figure out what before we all die. No one knows for sure about outcomes, at minimum, there is a very near zero chance of escape. But there's still a chance. You can understand having no hope when there's near zero chance but you have to take it, because, as lazy as you are, you don't give up on living. Because you have to survive. We have to survive as living creatures, that is what we do. We survive until we die, and we all fight to survive the longest and delay death. The word fight in that sentence is debatable and replaceable with other verbs as well.
Your going to die on a deathbed next to your grandchildren and no fucking padre or pilgrim or SANTIAGO is going to change that.
Ask what it is that we are doing to upset the hotel. You know, so we don't do it again.
Boop Santiago on the nose.
Waitaminute, war? There's a war going on?
Between light and darkness, perhaps? Or something related? Makes me wonder... I mean, we know who the agents of the dark-force-thing are (i.e. the big three and the "uninvited"), but who are the agents of the light-force? Or...is Nan its agent?
And if the light-force has a thing for Catholicism...is it the Catholic God? Is Nan a Paladin? :V
Clearly it is our divine mission to cleanse the hotel of evil and save the souls within! Deus Vult! :I
Serously, though, there appears to be a war between light and darkness, and Nan may well be the agent of the light-force. Maybe it's responsible for bringing her here?
He's saying the problem is light, I assume both literally and as in 'to bring to light'.
You say this place is freedom Santiago, then turn around and say we can't do things, that you or the hotel won't let us. So what is this place Santiago, the prison you said it isn't, or freedom? Because I think I am free here, and I am going to use it to leave regardless of if you or the hotel tries to stop me!
This (or a variation of it) must be said!
Nan says she has not intentionally attacked the hotel in any way she was aware of. But she has fought, and she will continue to fight for her survival.
If this place is truly freedom, she says, she should have the freedom not to go quietly into the darkness.
Santiago growls, then roars. He spins around, throwing Nan at the pulpit.
Damnit, much as I don't want to, we may have to fight Santiago. Ask him : "So is this a fight or what?"
pull pipe, attack.
Throw the Bible at Santiago, see if it burns his flesh or not.
BIBLE BEATING FUCK YEH
GRAB THE BOOK OFF THE PULPIT AND SMACK HIM IN THE EYE
WE WILL EITHER,
A) Enrage the hotel at our misuse of a sacred object and cast everything into darkness, forcing Santy to flee,
B) Something metaphorical about holy books and light blinding the darkness in Santy,
C) Hit Santy in the eye with a fucking book.
But I wanted to see what verse it was open to. Unless it's a black bible.
Pipeon, apply directly to the forehead. Pipeon, apply directly to the forehead.
Nan goes for her lead pipe, but he overpowers her. Grabs her wrist.
Santiago bares his teeth.
Bad little girl
If you won't do as your told then you'll have to be punished
Kick him in the nuts!
OH GOD! HE'S GONNA RAPE NAN!
headbutt him quick!
Headbutt him. Ya got horns for a reason.
Yell to him that he's not your father
You barely know him
He does not get to talk to you that way
Yeah STOMP 'EM IN NUTS, STOMP HIM IN THE NUTS BITCH
Call out for Henry and hope he's freed himself by now.
Also, I know our species isn't supposed to matter, but now would be the perfect time for a goat headbutt.
If all else fails, try breaking something to get the hotel involved.Then again, since it's sentient, it might just help Santiago.
make suggestive faces at santiago.
Don't goats have to charge from a distance to headbutt someone?
Oh also, read the book while you're up there Nan! Read the book!
'So, you don't believe in freedom, only in indulging yourself.'
Kick to the nads, hard to perform when your jewels get smashed.
Guys, have you noticed that Santiago has gotten a lot beefier since we last saw him? And the whole "YOU CAN'T HELP ANYONE, NAN" Has been stated by both him and the Pilgrim. There's something fishy there.
Anyway, attempt to kick him back or force yourself away, if his intentions are violently sexual a ick to the groin would be good.
HEADBUTT HIM IN THE GROIN
Not a charging headbutt, a close-combat headbutt. Head forward into soft fleshy bits of the nose or horns forwards towards his eyes.
ADRENALINE POWERS ACTIVATE, HEADBUTT TO THE HEAD. If this succeeds in getting you free, run through door. If not, keep resiting until you can run through door. If suddenly, a wild Padre appears to demonstrate Santiago's point about the hotel reacting, get chest off Henry's leg and crawl the fuck outta thar whilst it fights Santa.
Santiago bites Nan's arm.
Nan tries to headbutt Santiago, but he's too close for it to be very effective.
Nan reacts quickly, slamming her knee into Santiago's groin.
He barely reacts.
So, while this is all happening I bet you could use some good reading material. Like that book over there. You should read the book.
Call for Henry! NOW! Say a quick prayer if you have to! ANYTHING!
I like this idea, but I'm afraid saying that might piss him off even more and make him do something worse if he doesn't go into a rant.
Go with a close-contact headbutt and shake him off without hurting him so he won't hate Nan even more later, if possible. If you can incapacitate him, take the chance to get the furniture off Henry.
Drop to the floor! He'll lose his balance.
Oh, so he's just insane. That...that doesn't really make things better.
He's crying. Tell him something like "You don't want to do this"?
Santiago has no balls
that was a cunt punt or he's castrated himself before. Probably the latter seeing as he still matches a masculine build
That or Nan didn't get a good kick in.
Stomp on his feet, kick his knee, grab absolutely any sturdy object out of your pockets and hit him with it.
Ah, thats what I was thinking of. Provided Nan can pull off some CQC, we could use his lust against him. Feign acceptance, move in closer to him. Put a hand on his back and behind his head, and draw one leg behind his knee. Pull with the leg, drawing his leg forward, pivot, and slam his head in the wall.
This hotel is not arm safe. Poke him in his big eyes and try to get your other arm free from his mouth. If that works then try to duck down so you're below him so we can >>386483.
Quick, Nan! Knee to the groin! Santiago's hostile and unpredictable, so we may be forced to kill in self defence.
Also, it looks like he might be trying to infect you with darkness or something. I'm not sure how to resist, thought. We're vulnerable. All I can think of is prayer. Maybe call out to the Padre? This is a holy place, dammit! Surely enough of the Padre's former self remains that he'd be furious about Santiago's actions.
Well, those look like tears. That's a reaction.
SANTY WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU
I MEAN, I REALLY LIKE YOU AND ALL
BUT YOU'RE MAKING THIS REALLY DIFFICULT
Santy, I honestly do like you. And I don't want you to die.
I really honestly don't.
But if it comes to a choice between us dying or you. I will not fucking hesitate either.
Please stop, Santy. I don't want you to get hurt.
ALSO SHIT I DON'T KNOW PUNCH HIM IN THE EYE
KEEP KNEEING HIM IN THE GROIN
YELL FOR LORENZO
I DON'T KNOW
Nan stomps her heel down hard on top of Santiago's foot, and he howls in pain.
Rather than releasing her, his grip grows tighter. His ragged, unkempt fingernails dig into her skin.
Nan claws back, kicks him in the knee.
Santiago cries out.
Does anyone else see the darkness spreading?
If he doesn't react to a knee to the groin I don't think Nan can fight her way out of this one. She's not a trained combatant, so advanced techniques are out of the question and he's not responding to pain because he's a lunatic. Check the book for something.
Tell him that he doesn't want to do this. Who knows, he's crazy, maybe he'll listen to us. Plus, he's crying. Let's talk him down while we still can.
If you have a free arm Nan, get him in his Adam's apple. Even a headbutt will do just close his fucking throat in.
Also, I think Santiago is giving us a hint: "if you attack it, as you have been doing, it will defend itself with violence"
I could be wrong, but I don't think violence is the solution here -- it will only make things worse. That darkness IS spreading.
Yes, but it could just be thematic. Or its not. Still less imortant than RIPPING AND TEARING Santiago's guts and nearly being raped.
Jab one of his eyes. Fight dirty.
His mouth is open and her arm is free. Get the lead(pipe) out and ram it down his throat! If his mouth has closed by the time you get the pipe go for his knees or eyes!
This is probably a shitty idea, but if using more force doesn't end up working, try a hug. Sometimes crazies need that and they turn into a pool of tears and mush.
Get down below his arms so it's harder for him to grab you.
Santiago suddenly lets go of Nan.
Henry says that if he ever touches her again, he'll break his neck.
He's only really got a grip on your shirt. Drop out of it.
Yay! Henry to the rescue!
I think that's the shadow cast from the window.
Maybe hug him? I don't know.
Really throw all your weight into it while he's distracted with pain. Knock him to the ground and hug him with all your might.
Sortof a combination "stop attacking me you psycho" and a "please let me help you."
Knock it off Santy! We're heavier than you! I think!?
> ragged, unkempt fingernails
... how long have you even been here, Santy?
Nan slap him for nearly raping you and ask WHAT THE FUCK this was all about
You know, why fucking wait, man.
Now might be a good moment to fix our clothing. Then tell Henry we owe him 2 favors now.
SUDDENLY, A WILD HENRY APPEARS
Get some breathing room, Nan. Equip Pipe.
Alright, pull your clothes back on, and give Santiago a good slap across the face.
Then ask him what you were doing that he considers fighting the hotel. It'd be nice to know what we're doing right/wrong.
Time to get info. Got any questions?
Don't forget to ask about the mirrors! And the Pilgrim!
Tell him that all you want is to go home and keep your friends safe, you don't want to hurt the hotel.
Start off by forgiving him. Not his fault he is so unstable, being in the hotel for a month will do that to anyone. If he wants, we can try to get him out of here with us to meet some nice men in white coats with delicous Lithium candy for him. If not, we are leaving with or without his help, but we will be gone quicker with help and knowlege, something he has.
Well never mind I guess you don't have to read the book. Probably nothing important in it anyway.
Patience. We'll get to it in time. The quest is directed by the combined will of the suggesters and the author, and at present that collective will seems to think Santy is the more pressing matter. We'll get around to the book. | <urn:uuid:d29e20c2-44a6-4f6e-bcc1-9f88d73818ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questarch/res/300694.html | 2013-06-19T12:26:03Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961027 | 27,774 |
Have you seen this? Archive
April 1, 2013
Check out the new website of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society–your resource for information on gardening, greening, and learning! Along with optimal navigability, it’s now easier to connect on social media with the PHS Social Stream, you can also ask questions about gardening and horticulture with Ask PHS, visit the PHS McLean Library, and get to know the PHS Blog.
Now more than 185 years old, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society continues in its mission to “motivate people to improve the quality of life and create a sense of community through horticulture.”
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society is also on Facebook.
March 11, 2013
For over a year, metaLAB has been working with the scientific and curatorial staff of Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum to explore new digital lives for the institution—not only a much loved public park, but a collection of rare plants, a research site, and an evolving landscape—that will connect it to new audiences locally and globally.
One of the most exciting projects they’ve shared so far recently wrapped up at NuVu Studio, a “magnet innovation center for young minds” headquartered in Central Square. Founded by Saeed Arida, a 2010 PhD in the Design and Computation Program at MIT, NuVu offers a bracing vision of the power of STEAM: enlivening the left-brain work of making and investigating science, technology, engineering, and math with the expressive energy of the arts.
February 4, 2013
Come and see the new blog Arbotopia, observations of fauna and other things natural in the Emerald Necklace, created by Arnold Arboretum docent and birding expert Bob Mayer.
Seasonal highlights and wondrous sights abound throughout the Emerald Necklace, but not everyone can witness them simultaneously. But the experience can be shared! Head over to Arbotopia for a narrative and pictorial account of the best and beautiful sights in Boston’s open park spaces, with a particular emphasis on The Arnold Arboretum.
And don’t forget to read about the Owls at the Arnold Arboretum!
Arbotopia is also on Facebook.
December 10, 2012
Looking for something truly unique to do this holiday season?
The Lloyd Library and Museum in Cincinatti, Ohio presents “What Makes the Reindeer Fly?,” a special exhibit on hallucinogenic mushrooms, with a special focus on Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria Lam.), a mushroom that figures prominently in the development of the legend of Santa’s flying reindeer. This is the same mushroom that is often depicted in children’s literature, shows up as a theme in children’s toys, and in many other places.
Fly Agaric isn’t the only mushroom that has a role in cultural development. Many other psychedelic mushrooms play their part in many other cultures, as do non-psychedelic fungi. This exhibit features some of the earliest art texts about mushrooms, beginning in 1601 and working up through the twentieth century. Find out the scientific facts and the cultural significance associated with mushrooms and learn all the things you never knew you didn’t know…
November 12, 2012
Come celebrate Geography Awareness Week with us and view these late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century maps and plans of the Arnold Arboretum held by the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at Boston Public Library.
Geography Awareness Week, sponsored by National Geographic Education, is observed each year in the third week of November and highlights the importance of geo-literacy and geo-education. A free workshop on Wednesday, November 14 and Saturday, November 17 will focus on the Geographic Information System (GIS) at the Arnold Arboretum, including an introduction to our Mobile Interactive Map application.
The Arnold Arboretum Horticultural Library holds over 650 full-size archival maps documenting historical views of our grounds, collections, hardiness zones, and more. We encourage you to contact us for more information, and to visit the library in person and online.
October 22, 2012
American Society of Botanical Artists, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting public awareness of contemporary botanical art, honoring its traditions, and furthering its development.
October 1, 2012
A historical guided tour of Kew Gardens
A tour around the historic gardens at Kew using images dating from the 1860s to 1930s
This virtual tour is one of many opportunities to view past and present together on Google partner Historypin.
Historypin helps people come together from across generations, cultures, and places to share small glimpses of the past and to build the story of human history.
September 19, 2012
Go Botany is a rich educational resource offered by the New England Wild Flower Society and funded by the National Science Foundation to encourage informal, self-directed education in botany for science students and beginning and amateur botanists. Professors, teachers, and environmental educators can share curricula and teaching ideas.
August 13, 2012
The New England Landscape Design and History Association (NELDHA) offers online materials for self-guided walking tours of Boston’s parks, gardens, and green spaces. Maps, narratives, and additional resources unique to each neighborhood provide immersion and guidance for visitors of all ages.
NELDHA’s mission is to further the education of landscape professionals, to promote their professions, and communicate NELDHA’s commitment to landscape design, history, conservation, preservation, and stewardship of the land.
July 2, 2012
Metasequoia — Student Artwork
After a few weeks of researching various seed cones though drawings and painted studies, students in Paul Olson’s Junior Illustration class at MassArt were asked to make an illustration for a poster or a book based on an open Metasequoia seed cone and the plant’s reputation as a “living fossil.” Students also completed a final project of their own design, a piece inspired by their visit to the Arboretum’s Horticultural Library, the Herbarium, and the Living Collections of the Arnold Arboretum.
June 4, 2012
The Forest Of The Future
Singapore—known worldwide as the “Garden City” because it has more than 300 parks—is poised to become the “City in a Garden.”
An ambitious project is converting 250 acres of waterfront property into a horticultural recreation area. The project includes a forest of “supertrees,” some fitted with solar panels to store energy for lighting them at night.
Read the article in Smithsonian magazine.
May 16, 2012
Jadav Payeng has been instrumental in converting a sand bar in the middle of the river Brahmaputra in Assam, India, into a huge forest. His work over the past 30 years is receiving recognition around the world by tourists and film makers.
Read the full article.
April 30, 2012
View: Ways of Seeing
May 5 – August 3, 2012
The Lloyd Library and Museum is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Japan’s gift of cherry trees to our nation’s capital with a look at Cincinnati’s own connections to Japan, cherry trees, and the Lloyds.
Contemporary artists Alysia Fischer, Setsuko H. LeCroix, and Charles Woodman investigate nature through sculpture, painting and video, all in celebration of the famed cherry tree.
April 9, 2012
Frederick Law Olmsted Papers Project
April, 2012 marks the 190th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), the celebrated landscape architect who designed the Arnold Arboretum as the second-largest link in Boston’s Emerald Necklace.
National Association for Olmsted Parks (NAOP) has created a website to coincide with the ongoing Frederick Law Olmsted Papers Project. Since its inception in 1972, this project presents the most significant of Olmsted’s extensive writings from 1840–1882 in a twelve-volume series of books. The next volume, Plans and Photographs of Public Parks, Recreation Grounds, Parkways, Park Systems and Scenic Reservations (Supplementary Series Volume 2), will be published this year, and additional volumes are also in development.
Arnold Arboretum Horticultural Library holds each volume of the series published thus far.
March 19, 2012
What makes a Wonder Tree?
Willows are a blend of beauty, diversity, adaptability, and utility which marks them aside from many other temperate trees.
Wonder Tree can help you grow your own willows for use and ornament. You can watch these trees mature to full size within your own life time, or you can use their shoots as raw material for other products and activities.
The collection of the Arnold Arboretum Horticultural Library includes a folio with beautiful color illustrations of willows (Salix spp.): Salictum woburnense or, A catalogue of willows, indigenous and foreign, in the collection of the Duke of Bedford at Woburn abbey; systematically arranged by James Forbes (the Duke’s gardener).
Read more about Salictum woburnense and John Russell, the 6th Duke of Bedford of Woburn Abbey.
March 5, 2012
Botany Blueprint is a collection of botanical photography and a study of plant design, specifically regarding the form and function of seed pods.
Individually, each photograph is a portrait of a unique specimen; as a series, the photographs become an inquiry into the evolution and diversity of plant design.
Laurent’s photographs are published in her column at Print magazine, where she writes about the form and function of seed pods.
Intended to advance botanical literacy and make plants relevant to a broad audience, the project will be compiled in a forthcoming book.
February 15, 2012
Lacock Abbey was originally built as a nunnery in southwest England in 1232. When William Henry Fox Talbot came to live there in 1827, he grew his own botanical garden and photographed the plants using the negative-positive process of his own invention, providing the basic method for almost all 19th and 20th century photography.
Photographer Mary Kocol also traces the development of modern photography and its botanical beginnings with Talbot in The Garden in Early Art Photography. Her website also contains beautiful color photographs taken with a toy camera at the Arnold Arboretum.
February 1, 2012
From the exhibition catalog of her work:
“Davies has intervened in areas of the forest landscape
to create images that express her relationship to the
forest. And though each body of work stands
alone as a distinct series, together they
trace the trajectory of Davies’
ongoing exploration of the forest
as a cultural landscape.”
January 3, 2012
In the late 19th century, Boston merchant Edwin F. Atkins was a dominant force in the U.S.-Cuban sugar market. His firm, E. Atkins & Co., established sugarcane plantations along the southern coast of Cuba near the cities of Cienfuegos and Trinidad. From the 1840s through the 1920s, the Atkins family successfully operated their sugar business on the island, safely seeing it through the abolition of slavery, Cuba’s fight for independence from Spain, and the changing agricultural and industrial practices of sugar production.
The photographs in this online exhibition are a sample of 419 photographs at the Massachusetts Historical Society that were taken and collected by members of the Atkins family in Cuba between 1884 and 1958. This collection, the Atkins Family Photographs, is a unique visual record of life and work on sugar plantations in Cuba during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In addition, these photographs also capture the changing face of Cuba before and after the Spanish-American War. The finding aid for Atkins Family Photographs is available here.
The Massachusetts Historical Society also holds the Atkins Family Papers, an extensive collection of records and papers that detail the activities of the Atkins family and the E. Atkins & Co. sugar interest in Cuba from 1854-1950. The finding aid for Atkins Family Papers is available here.
The Atkins family also had an affiliation with the Arnold Arboretum, which administered the Atkins Institution in Cuba from 1932 to 1946. The Harvard Garden in Cuba-A Brief History by Marion D. Cahan published in Arnoldia describes how the Atkins Garden became a model for the development of many later tropical botanical gardens. You can read even more about the history of this garden, now the Cienfuegos Botanical Garden, Cuba online.
December 12, 2011
Dried botanicals are imported for varied uses including potpourri, decorative plant arrangements, and handicraft items. They consist of whole or sectioned fungi, fruits, seeds, leaves, and almost anything that is botanical, has abundant air spaces (“physical fixatives” for the synthetic oils), has structural interest, and/or is inexpensive (e.g. lawn sweepings and waste products of other industries). These botanicals may include potentially toxic species, invasives, or even plant diseases.
Dr. Arthur O. Tucker of Claude E. Phillips Herbarium at Delaware State University contributed to the development this tool to help identify ingredients of imported potpourri. Interactive galleries, descriptions, fact sheets, and glossaries are provided.
November 28, 2011
The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, America’s oldest natural history museum is kicking off their bicentennial celebration in 2012 with a countdown made up of “200 Years. 200 Stories” where you can meet some of their “quirkier personalities” and discover the secret stories behind many of their most well-known exhibits and scientific breakthroughs.
November 14, 2011
Ever wonder what the name of that tree is growing on your street, or how old or how tall it is? If you live in San Francisco providing these answers is now a challenge for the whole community.
Both “experts and non-experts” alike have been invited to participate in an urban forest research project, the San Francisco Urban Forest Map. You can jump right into the map itself and see how the Map creators’ goal “to work toward building a complete, dynamic picture of the urban forest” works.
Not only will you find the tree’s number, scientific and common names, diameter, height, and nearby address, but also the tree’s amounts of stormwater intercepted, energy conserved, air pollution removed, carbon dioxide reduced and total Co2 it has stored to date.
October 31, 2011
What do you get when you cross misanthropic black metal, hammered dulcimer, and obsession with plants? Just listen:
According to Botanist:
The songs of Botanist are told from the perspective of The Botanist, a crazed man of science who lives in self-imposed exile, as far away from Humanity and its crimes against Nature as possible. In his sanctuary of fantasy and wonder, which he calls the Verdant Realm, he surrounds himself with plants and flowers, finding solace in the company of the Natural world, and envisioning the destruction of man. There, seated upon his throne of Veltheimia, The Botanist awaits the day when humans will either die or kill each other off, which will allow plants to make the Earth green once again.
Botanist’s double-CD “The Suicide Tree / A Rose From the Dead” can be purchased here.
October 17, 2011
80 Years of History and Archives at the Montréal Botanical Garden
To mark its 80th birthday, the Montréal Botanical Garden, a Space for Life, invites everyone to visit the all-new virtual exhibition on its website, 80 Years of History and Archives at the Montréal Botanical Garden.
For Gilles Vincent, Director of the Botanical Garden, the exhibition “takes us back in time to discover the soul of the Botanical Garden and meet the people who created it, in particular Brother Marie-Victorin and landscape architect Henry Teuscher.”
The virtual exhibition is organized into three sections. The History of the Botanical Garden section takes visitors on a 24-stop historical path, through more than 300 archival images and documents.
October 3, 2011
The Magic and Myth of Alchemy
However one regards it as a science and philosophy, Alchemy provided the beginnings of chemistry, and certainly helped to develop the apparati of chemistry. It is part of the history of science, which is the history of human interaction with nature, and humanity’s attempts to harness the power of nature for very human needs and wants.
This exhibit at Cincinatti’s Lloyd Library and Museum traces the history, development, and personalities behind the “magic.” This seemingly esoteric study in fact formed the basis for modern medicine, and chemistry itself. Take a peek into a history that pre-dates even the Middle Ages.
September 19, 2011
Or rather, Have You Heard, “On Willows and Birches,” written by John Williams, Boston Pops Laureate Conductor for former BSO Principal Harpist Ann Hobson Pilot. “The atmospheric “On Willows” movement is prefaced by the Biblical quote “We hanged our harps upon the willows…” from Psalm 137. The lively, rhythmically vibrant “On Birches” notes a line from Robert Frost’s poem “Birches” — “One could do no worse than be a swinger of birches.”
September 5, 2011
The Archangel Ancient Tree Archive is an organization which is collecting genetic material from very large and old trees for preservation and to clone new trees for reforestation. Since 2008 they have collected 55 separate genotypes of old growth Coast Redwoods alone, as well as a variety of other samples from significant trees, from which they are propagating new trees.
Their website has videos explaining the work they are doing and their blog has up to the minute progress reports.
August 22, 2011
The works of Charles Darwin (1809-1882) may have helped form the basis of modern science, but he remains a controversial figure. His views on gender are no less provocative than his theory of evolution. University of Cambridge scholar Philippa Hardman helped launch the Darwin Correspondence Project to reveal his less-known writings about gender which paradoxically reflect the Victorian Era during which he worked.
The Darwin Correspondence Project provides access to at least 15,000 letters, written between 1821 and 1882, and “Darwin & Gender” is the newest feature to reveal his accomplishments and complexities.
Harvard Professor Sarah Richardson’s course Gender, Sex and Evolution also provides content to the site.
August 8, 2011
Images of Nature
Home to the largest natural history collection in the world, The Natural History Museum, London, has just opened a new exhibit of over 110 images of natural phenomena. Images of Nature spans 350 years, including modern images created by scientists, imagining specialists, photographers, and micro-CT scanners depicted alongside historic watercolors and paintings from artists such as bird illustrator John Gerrard Keulemans and botanical artist Georg Ehret.
To learn how techniques for visually recording the natural world have developed since the seventeenth century, check out the Museum’s Art, Nature, and Imaging exhibit.
July 25, 2011
Central Park Entire,
The Definitive Illustrated Map
Edward S. Barnard, author of New York City Trees, teamed up with artist and art director Ken Chaya to create Central Park Entire, The Definitive Illustrated Map, a wonderful tree and trail map of Central Park.
The project website includes six videos that document the two-year process of making the map. Each video focuses on specific aspects of the Park and the challenges faced in mapping them. The map shows precise locations for each of the Park’s 19,600 trees, with a special icon denoting all 172 species represented.
July 11, 2011
The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management has created a great resource for tips, tricks, and information on coastal landscaping. The site is prepared to assist with any obstacles that arise in landscaping on the coast including, wind, salt spray, storm waves, and shifting, parched, and sandy soils. The site also includes a list of plants best suited for the coastal conditions in Massachusetts, as well as suggestions as to where to buy them.
June 27, 2011
What are the plants, animals, fungi, and microbes that make up a forest? How do they interact? How do forests respond to climate, introduced species, land development, and other environmental change? Harvard Museum of Natural History’s exhibit, New England Forests answers all of these questions and more. Visitors will be able to explore three distinct New England forest landscapes, complete with flora and fauna. The goals of the exhibition are to enhance public understanding of the dynamic and varied nature of our forests and initiate public conversation about their use, conservation, and management.
Additionally, in fall 2011, the museum will host a series of public lectures, workshops, and symposia featuring Harvard faculty and other experts.
June 13, 2011
Charles Darwin’s Twitter
Now you can follow Charles Darwin’s every move on the Beagle via Twitter! The account, which is now nearly 2000 tweets strong, posts one liners from Darwin’s diary kept on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle. The tweets are posted on the corresponding day that Darwin wrote the words in his diary, 176 years ago. Geotagging has been enabled for tweets that include a location, so you can see exactly where Darwin was at that particular moment.
The account is maintained by an avid Darwin fan with the intent of exposing a new audience to “the humour, insight and imagination of the young Darwin as he begins to think about the marvellous, curious, and unexplained world he is circumnavigating.”
Greenscapes are beautiful landscapes that protect our water. Greenscapes Massachusetts is a multi-partner outreach effort that promotes water conservation and protection. Approximately half of the program is funded by the 40 municipalities that are served by the program. Every other spring, members of the Greenscapes Coalition produce a 20-page Resource Guide with information ranging from how to build Rain Gardens, to a beautiful way to clean and recycle stormwater, to Pesticide Alternatives that help prevent your lawn from becoming dependent on chemicals. The Guide’s full content is available on Greenscapes Massachusetts, or you can download a copy of the Guide itself from their website.
April 25, 2011
Friends of the Urban Forest
This year Friends of the Urban Forest, (FUF) celebrates 30 years of helping individuals and neighborhood groups plant and care for street trees and sidewalk gardens in San Francisco. Each year FUF provides financial, technical, and practical assistance and works with community members to plant more than 1,000 trees. In San Francisco, in most cases, property owners are responsible, by law, for care of adjoining street trees. FUF’s Tree Care program helps these trees survive and thrive.
FUF’s online photo gallery documents people working together to create a larger, healthier urban forest.
April 11, 2011
Richard Conniff, author of The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth is assembling a commemorative list of naturalists who have died while engaged in their scientific endeavors. This Wall of the Dead includes such recent tragedies as the murder of Leonardo Co (1953-2010) the Filipino botanist who, along with two assistants, was shot down while collecting seedlings of endangered trees in what the military claimed was a gun battle with rebel forces and California Academy of Sciences herpetologist Joseph Slowinski (1962–2001) who died by snakebite during the Academy’s biological expedition to northern Myanmar. Harvard’s David Boufford was one of the team members on this multidisciplinary expedition. The cause of some deaths, like John Lawson’s (1674-1711) Surveyor General of North Carolina and author of A New Voyage to Carolina who was executed on September 20, 1711 by the Tuskarora Indians are well documented, while other far more recent ones such as Frank Meyer’s (1875–1918) plant explorer for the USDA and Arnold Arboretum remain a mystery.
Corrections, additions, and comments to the list are welcome by the author on his blog and you can also link to the list on Twitter or elsewhere.
March 28, 2011
The People’s Garden Initiative, established in 2009 by the USDA challenges its employees to create gardens that are sustainable, benefit their communities, and are made through collaborative efforts. A partnership between USDA and Keep America Beautiful has resulted in over 1,230 People’s Gardens throughout the country teaching others how to nurture, maintain, and protect a healthy landscape.
Find a People’s Garden near you!
March 14, 2011
Working in collaboration with The University of Tennessee Libraries, the Arnold Arboretum Horticultural Library contributed to the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project by providing access to album of historic images held in the Archives. The images in Views in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park are by the Thompson Brothers. The album’s provenance maybe surmised by its dedication.
Thompson Photo Products, a fourth-generation family-owned business, founded in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1902 offers reproductions of the archival photographs of James E. Thompson (1880-1976) son of the founder, and one of the brothers, who used his photographs of the Smoky Mountains to advocate for the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
You can see the original album in the Arnold Arboretum’s Archives: Views in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park
February 28, 2011
America’s Great Outdoors
In April 2010, President Obama established the America’s Great Outdoor Initiative to develop a conservation and recreation agenda worthy of the 21st century. The President directed the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality to lead this effort. During 2010, “Listening Sessions” were held coast to coast to listen and learn from people all over the country. You can also Watch the America’s Great Outdoors video. To date, over 100,000 comments and ideas have been submitted and you too can Submit Your Ideas & Join the Conversation, Share Your Story, or discover a list of resources to inspire you to Get Outdoors.
February 15, 2011
The Chocolate Connection
For a very special treat we invite you to immerse yourself in an online delight where Anna Heran, curator of the exhibit at the Lloyd Library and Museum, has created a banquet for chocolate lovers by bringing together Sloane’s medicinal interest in Theobroma cacao after being introduced to it as a drink in Jamaica, and the cultural and economic history chocolate has played both in the Americas and Europe.
January 30, 2011
New York City Parks
New York City has more than 1,700 parks, playgrounds and recreational facilities and The Daily Plant, a newsletter produced each business day details parks events, programs, and accomplishments. You can Explore Your Park, or see its monuments before you go. Learn about and see park history . or you if you want to know about the city’s landscape architect visit to European parks you can read Samuel Parson’s ( 1844-1923) nine page 1906 Report to the New York City Park Board online or to just learn about New York City Trees check out this book.
January 15, 2011
Since its inception in 1983, the goal of The American Chestnut Foundation has been restore the American chestnut tree to its native range within the eastern United States. Ongoing research to breed blight resistance is based in Virginia. The Foundation has also partnered with the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative to plant American chestnuts on reclaimed surface mines. Volunteers are needed to help locate, pollinate, and harvest nuts from native American chestnut trees. Learn more in their Field Guide, in the Journal of the American Chestnut Foundation, or in Mighty Giants: An American Chestnut Anthology, a history of The American Chestnut Foundation.
The Norman B. Leventhal Map Collection (NBLMC) at Boston Public Library was founded in 2004 as a public/private partnership to bring the BPL’s extensive map collection to the public through education, preservation of materials and digitization. The digitized maps available on their website include many maps of the Boston area and even some of the Arnold Arboretum, as well as maps old and new from around the world.
Mapping Boston, edited by Alex Krieger and David Cobb, is another great resource on Boston’s history, illustrated by many of its earliest maps.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault
1,300 kilometers from North Pole
Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which opened in 2007 and is located in the northernmost part of Norway, stores duplicates of seeds from gene banks around the world. If seeds are ever lost, they may be reestablished from the collection at Svalbard. The vault is an almost entirely underground facility, blasted out of the permafrost, and designed to store up to 2.25 billion seeds. The facility is designed to have an almost “endless” lifetime.
A Horticultural History Tour
Massachusetts Horticultural Society
Saturday, November 13 2010, 9:00am–4:00pm
MassHort is proud to announce a day-long series of lectures focused on the history of horticulture and landscape design in New England and beyond. The symposium will be hosted by John Furlong, FALA; emeritus director, Landscape Institute, Arnold Arboretum; faculty member, Boston Architectural College; distinguished instructor, Radcliffe Institute; and Gold Medal recipient and emeritus trustee, Massachusetts Horticultural Society.
Gerry Wright (as Frederick Law Olmsted), Allyson Hayward, David Barnett, PhD., Elizabeth S. Eustis, and Meg Muckenhoupt.
i-Tree is a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the USDA Forest Service that provides urban forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. The i-Tree Tools help communities of all sizes to strengthen their urban forest management and advocacy efforts by quantifying the structure of community trees and the environmental services that trees provide. Numerous communities, non-profit organizations, consultants, volunteers and students have used i-Tree to report on individual trees, parcels, neighborhoods, cities, and even entire states. By understanding the local, tangible ecosystem services that trees provide, i-Tree users can link urban forest management activities with environmental quality and community livability.
i-Tree Tools are in the public domain and are freely accessible. We invite you to explore this site to learn more about how i-Tree can make a difference in your community. | <urn:uuid:cc037e4b-721b-4aea-890d-2f0739b34558> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arboretum.harvard.edu/library/have-you-seen-this/have-you-seen-this-archive/?wpmp_switcher=desktop | 2013-05-22T21:24:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928607 | 6,539 |
You're planning to give Mother Nature a helping hand. Feet. Head.
Has your Chancellor been able to claim any of the Counties that border your personal demesne? Is Humphrey still alive? He's the true heir to Oultrejordan, isn't he?
You're planning to give Mother Nature a helping hand. Feet. Head.
Has your Chancellor been able to claim any of the Counties that border your personal demesne? Is Humphrey still alive? He's the true heir to Oultrejordan, isn't he?
Chief Ragusa: Maybe. The Chancellor will be given a new assignment in the next update. Humphrey de Toron is still alive and cooking. He's the heir to Oultrejordain and the current Lord of Safed.
You have a way with words and know history enough to keep me interested. Who doesn't love the story about the Kingdom of Heaven?
Congrats winning the AAR contest. Looks like you're holding it all together for now. High time Raymond kicks the bucket though.
Holy.Death: Thank you, that's very kind of you to say. Welcome to the AAR, I hope you continue to enjoy it.
Qorten: Thanks very much. I can assure you that Raymond's days are numbered, but then, he's an older man as it is.
To everyone, I hope to have the next update done soon, if not tonight then tomorrow. (I hope.)
eagerly awaiting the next update
The_Archduke: I'm pleased to hear it, my friend. Looks like it'll be finished some time tomorrow. I hope not to disappoint.
I'm really enjoying this read.
If it was up to me I'd prefer not having the story mixed up with gameplay comments. I do like the gameplay part aswell but would like it more if it was kept seperate from the main narrative.
But, wellwell. It's your story so write it the way you like. I'm still reading =)
Very nice read - I have only a minor grammatical gripe 'Krak de Lion' sounds very odd to my french ears - Krak du Lion would be better, at least in modern french.
'de' is usually translated as 'of', while 'du (contraction of 'de le' is translated as 'of the'
BraidsMAmma: Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'm sorry you don't like the mixture of gameplay and history-book, though there is very little I can do short of eliminating one or the other. IMHO separating the two would damage the narrative flow, and be more like writing two separate AARs. I'm really more a narrative authAAR anyway, so I'm sort of exploring new territory here.
manunancy: Thanks for commenting. It's been several years since I took French, and since it was an attempt on my part to pick up a third language I doubt much of it has stuck with me. The only two medieval examples of the usage of "Krak" that were readily available to me were unfortunately both plural: the Hospitallers' Krak des Chevaliers and Reynald's Kerak des Moabites. So I was just sort of blundering around in the dark when it came to the grammar. But what you say sounds correct. It would be "le ch‚teau du roi" after all, wouldn't it? So why not le Krak du Lion?
To all, the new update is nearly finished and I hope to have it posted within the hour.
I personally would like you to keep current style - it strikes good balance between gameplay, history and narration.
No one had seen it coming. When Tiberias’ well-armed host arrived at their gates, the Knights Hospitaller had been caught totally unawares. Although they were an organization entirely devoted to the military defense of the Holy Land, the Hospitallers were ill-prepared to defend Baalbek against a prolonged siege, especially by those who ought to have been their friends. The Knights of St. John were now compelled to do battle with their fellow Christians, despite their stringent rules to the contrary.
It is said that when their elderly Grand Master Roger de Moulins heard the news that he immediately fell dead from a heart attack.
Actually I had seen this attack coming. In my first playthrough before the patch, Raymond stormed Baalbek right out of the gate in 1180. Madness. After the patch, I thought the AI must have been mended because Raymond took out his frustrations in a long, fruitless war with the Hashishin. I should have guessed that after he had concluded a permanent peace in Masyaf that he would turn right back like a dog to his vomit and attack the neighboring Hospitallers.
What was Raymond thinking? Was he just trying to exploit his de jure claim to the province? Never mind that the Hospitallers were quite literally the only thing standing between him and hordes of screaming Muslim jihadists. Never mind that they had aided him in his war with the Hashishin. So foolish.
In fact, this move was so stupid that it really should not have even been possible. There ought to be some sort of proscription against fellow Catholics attacking the holdings of the holy orders, or at the very least there needs to be a huge penalty for so doing. In my first playthrough, Raymond did receive the epithet “the Wicked,” but he otherwise got off scot-free after schooling one of the most important holy orders in all of Christendom.
But really, this was just so absurd. The garrison at Baalbek may have been weak and ill-prepared, but surely Raymond remembered the thousands of heavy cavalry and infantry that the Hospitallers could deploy on command. He had fought alongside them on numerous occasions. I had high hopes that the powerful Knights of St. John would be able to give Raymond of Tiberias a suitably bloody nose.
Then at this point I learned about another mechanism of CK2: in-game, the political entity of the Knights Hospitaller seemed to be totally unable to muster the piety to hire the recruitable Hospitaller holy order. Never mind that they should have free and automatic access to those troops on demand. They're supposed to be one and the same, for goodness' sake!
The Knights Templar were no help either. While a successful attack on the Hospitallers would damage the prestige of all the holy orders, the Templars were still the Hospitallers' main rivals in the Holy Land, and they were content to watch them be humbled.
Worst of all, Sibylla and Richard were not able to do anything about it. If the game had allowed me to roleplay King Richard the way I wanted to at that moment, he would have marched north and rampaged through Raymond’s lands like a maniac, setting fire to everything in sight until that fool Raymond was forced to stand down. But because Jerusalem’s crown authority was too low, vassals could still fight each other without any royal repercussions whatsoever.
The Crown of Jerusalem was under their constant protection... so why were the Knights of St. John not to be afforded the protection of the Crown in return?
Madness I say, utter madness.
I think Jerusalem definitely needs to have their crown authority set a little bit higher at the start. My complete inability to intervene in this rampant internecine warfare made me feel as if I was playing one of the petty kingdoms in Ireland or something, not a fully-established crusader state. Instead, the only way for the king and queen to be able to intercede would be if they had a direct claim to any of Raymond’s lands (and thus a casus belli).
Well to heck with that. Attacking the Knights Hospitaller should be a casus belli in and of itself. Period.
This is one example of how unbalanced de jure claims can be. They are a wonderful, innovative game feature, but they definitely require a lot of tweaking. So, rather than tinkering endlessly with save-game files to remedy this situation, I thought I’d try to find a way around things with the in-game mechanics. There was no way I was going to allow Raymond to get away with this.
Sibylla immediately sent the Chancellor to work on developing a claim to Baalbek. That way Richard could have his war of vengeance.
The Spymaster was sent to Tripoli in the vain attempt to establish some spy networks there in preparation for an attempt to “unofficially” eliminate Raymond, but that proved to be a dead end. The man just wouldn’t take to being murdered.
Meanwhile, the Chaplain was dispatched forthwith to seek an audience with the Holy Father. His mission was to attempt to persuade the Pope of the true piety of the King and Queen of Jerusalem and the injustice of Tiberias’ cause. Hopefully the Chaplain could curry enough papal favor to launch a church-sanctioned military intervention against Tiberias, or at least a formal papal censure, maybe an excommunication?
The Chaplain returned from the Holy See a few months later with mixed news. He had enjoyed several long audiences with Pope Clement and had convinced him to support Jerusalem’s cause. Unfortunately, the old pope had then almost immediately died, being succeeded by some twit who anachronistically named himself Pope John Paul. This new pope possessed a great deal of contempt for all temporal sovereigns and had refused even to give the envoy an audience.
So now His Holiness was a nutjob who wouldn’t even intervene to save the embattled Knights Hospitaller. Come on.
By now Krak des Chevaliers itself was under siege. Raymond had taken and occupied all the holdings in Baalbek and was pushing to defeat the last major Hospitaller stronghold, formidable though it was. Ridiculous.
My meager efforts to intercede had proved to be too little, too late. Raymond didn’t have a direct claim on the Krak itself, but once it was taken he could force the Hospitallers to surrender their other lands to his control. The siege of the Krak was lengthy, but Raymond was patient, and he soon obtained both the peace treaty and the lands that he had so greedily sought.
Baalbek was lost. The proud Order of Hospitallers had been shamed.
I was frustrated to no end. There had been next to nothing I could do, but I was determined not to let this pass.
Sibylla was absolutely beside herself and Richard was seeing red. At some point in the future, the Chancellor was bound to forge a proper claim to Baalbek, and then the royal retinue would march north to bring the pain to Raymond and give the Hospitallers back their lands. Or maybe that twit-faced dunce of a Pope could be convinced to hit Raymond with some kind of sanction. I was bound and determined to do something.
For now however, there was little that could be done besides waiting for the councillors to fulfill their missions.
It was time to move on. There were other pressing matters to attend to.
Prince Godfrey had turned six years old, and as such it was now time to provide him with an education. Some stuffy old bishop requested the privilege of being the boy’s tutor, but Richard quickly sent him packing. No anemic clerical education would do for a son of Richard Cœur de Lion! No, the boy would learn the finer points of knighthood from his dear old dad himself. If you’ve got a solid King and Queen, having them personally educate their heirs is really the only way to go, because that way you have so much more influence on what traits they receive.
It was also about time to ensure that Godfrey was betrothed, because finding a bride with the requisite degree of both rank and personal ability can be ever so difficult. With Godfrey’s nuptials secure, Queen Sibylla could then rest easy for the next decade while the children matured, without having to rush to find an appropriate match for the Prince.
The first stop on the royal agenda was the Byzantine Empire to see if they had any princesses of the right age for Godfrey. The Byzantine alliance had been very useful for Sibylla’s father King Amalric, and it would be good to renew it to help maintain control of the Christian lands in the Near East. Regrettably, the Basileos didn’t see things the same way. When Jerusalem’s royal envoy formally requested the hand of a Byzantine princess for Prince Godfrey, the Emperor laughed in his face and said that Jerusalem already had a living Byzantine princess. He mockingly inquired what had been done with her for the kingdom to be seeking another.
Obviously Queen Sibylla’s stepmother Maria Komnena was not an option. She was already married to Balian of Ibelin and was pushing forty anyway. Moreover she had been a perpetual thorn in Sibylla’s side for years.
Come to think of it, maybe I didn’t want a Byzantine princess after all.
After a few weeks of wasted time in Constantinople, Queen Sibylla’s envoy headed farther west to the Holy Roman Empire to inquire about obtaining a betrothal between young Prince Godfrey and a German princess. After all, if negotiations with one claimant to the Throne of Caesars doesn’t work out, why not try the other?
A month later, word arrived from the illustrious Kaiser himself, one Friedrich von Hohenstaufen.
The illustrious Frederick Barbarossa sent Sibylla and Richard his warmest greetings, but also his regrets. He informed Jerusalem’s royal sovereigns that alas, contrary to popular belief, German princesses do not grow on trees. Barbarossa’s own children were all long since fully-grown and married off. The wife of his eldest son Heinrich had in fact recently given birth, but to a boy – named Frederick after his grandfather. The King and Queen of Jerusalem were more than welcome, he continued, to wait and pray that one of his many children produced a daughter, but unless they were prepared to make Godfrey wait a very long time for his bride to come to maturity, Richard and Sibylla ought not to hold their breath.
Barbarossa closed his epistle with more words of mingled candor and courtesy, pledging a polite desire to one day fulfill an old vow he had made to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he would thus greet their royal personages in person. Given the fact that Barbarossa was now pushing seventy years of age, his making the long trek to Jerusalem by this point seemed to be completely out of the question, but it was nonetheless a courteous thing to say.
The royal envoys had failed once again. There were no girls of the Hohenstaufen bloodline available, and certainly no weak-willed Welf or Wettin would do, not for the son and heir of the legendary King Richard and the exquisite Queen Sibylla.
Therefore it appeared there would be no fine and fetching Fršulein for Prince Godfrey either. A shame.
But then something completely unrelated drew the Queen’s eye.
The garb of Barbarossa’s messenger seemed familiar and particularly noteworthy: a white surcoat bearing a black cross. Some of the Templars’ men-at-arms recognized the man. When pressed, the imperial envoy confirmed that he belonged to a small holy order of knights: the Brothers of the German House of St. Mary. Until recently, they had been based at Acre, but because of the prolonged peacetime in Jerusalem, he and many of his brethren had decided their work in the Levant was done and had returned home to the Empire.
Once back home in the Fatherland, they had obtained the official sponsorship of the Kaiser himself. Barbarossa readily expanded and reequipped their order, and sent them forth to fight the pagans on his eastern border. The Kings of Denmark and Poland were also quite eager to employ their services and they rewarded the new Order’s success with some of their newly conquered lands.
So the Teutonic Knights had been established, and they had already impacted Europe in a big way.
I was excited when I got the message that the Teutonic Order was now available to recruit, assuming that they would prove a big help in bolstering my armies. After all, one can’t complain about another 7,000 heavily-armed elite soldiers. Unfortunately, I discovered to my chagrin that the Deutsche Ritter cost about five times as much piety to recruit as their Templar and Hospitaller brethren. I assumed this was because the other two orders were my direct vassals, while their Teutonic counterparts were either independent or directly sponsored by the Holy Roman Empire. What was more, they were perpetually in service to just about every major power in central and eastern Europe, so even if I had enough piety stored up I wouldn’t be able to bring them on board.
Then yet another missive arrived at the royal court, this one bearing ill tidings from the east.
The Abbasid Caliph al-Nasir had pronounced a Jihad to retake the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
It seemed as though Jerusalem would be needing the services of those holy orders fairly soon after all.
A silly situation indeed. Things like that should really be blocked, as you say, or punishable by a pan-Christendom beatdown on the perpetrator and performable only by a seriously irrationalised ("The voices told me to invade! AHHAHAHAHAhAHAhahahAA!") AI ruler. Still, it makes for an interesting story, and I hope Sybilla and Richard can rectify the mess in short order. Any other candidates for betrothal to Godfrey?
Also, poor Hospitaller dude looks so sad on that picture. Makes me want to wrap my arm around his big manly shoulders and comfort him. Don't worry, Hospitaller Dude. It's just a temporary setback!
The SalopAARds - A CKII AAR A tale of hijinks and lowlifes in Norman Sicily.
Other people's AARs you should read:
*Valour of the North Star: Chronicles of the Hvide Clan*The Golden Nation: A California AAR*Ambition: A Stateless General's AAR*Subcontinental Subtleties: An experimental comic AAR*The Heart of Africa: A Visitor's Guide To Modern Ethiopia*Glory for Ulm: A Flagland AAR*Life in the Trenches 1936: Xibei San Ma*The Great Men of Korchev: What Became of the Unfortunate Branch of Rurikids*The Chronicles of the Golden Cross Redux*Els Ducs de Barcelona*
I have to disagree a bit about declaring war on the holy order - while no one in the Jerusalem in his right mind should even think about it, conspiring and destroying knights of Christ did happen in the history. King Philip IV the Fair of France was fighting both the Pope and the Knights Templar. Of course, attacking the holy orders should require more power (like control over the Pope or good standings with him), but nevertheless it should still be possible. I am not sure if excommunication and fighting your own vassal is possible. Other than that you should be able to request your vassal to stop wars (similar to End Plot request) or meet the King's wraith as enemy of the Crown and traitor to the Realm.
The Almighty does test his beloved Kingdom greatly.
Last edited by Holy.Death; 06-03-2012 at 00:28.
Well the royal pair doesn't have the authority to do anything. Their vassals and leaders of men will only shake their heads upon the suggestion that they go out and stop Raymond. This is not what a King is for, they say. A King leads us against the heathen, but it is beyond his rights to meddle in the affairs of the lords of the realm! And who knows what injuries and insults the order has committed against Raymond? Isn't it his right to teach them a lesson? He is the lord of those lands after all! Even the Pope refuses to help the Hospitalliers, and isn't he always right? The knights, they have lost their way and are now punished!
Morsky: I concur. Re: Godfrey's potential brides, let's just say there'll be a fun surprise in a few years. And I got a nice laugh when I read what you thought about that poor Hospitaller. Too funny. "It's going to be okay, big guy."
Holy.Death: Thanks, I'm glad you enjoy the AAR's unique style. As for your comments re: attacking the holy orders, I don't disagree that pulling a Philip the Fair should be possible. However, the key thing to remember (as you pointed out) is that Philip was only able to disenfranchise and slay the Templars once he had intervened in the papal succession, appointed a French pope and ensured that the Papacy was moved to Avignon. With the Holy Father as his pawn, it would have been much easier for Philip to attack an important Christian establishment like the Templars. For the likes of Raymond of Tiberias to be able to successfully attack the Knights Hospitallers while the whole Kingdom was surrounded by angry Muslims... it just wouldn't happen. I agree, there needs to be an "end war or else" request that lieges can drop on unruly vassals.
Subcomandante: No kidding. I'm sure my vassals were rationalizing the situation with exactly the sort of rhetoric you posed. But it doesn't mean I have to like it.
Jerusalem is supposed to have weak central authority. Raymond may die in the war against hte Caliph. How long before the truce with Saladin runs out? Can the Kingdom hire everone , defeat the Caliph and still hire everyone again for Saladin?
It's a bit rich a country that has no border declares war and will march across Saladin's lands without so much as a protest. Does Raymond have a daughter? Here's a quick war, a decisvie battle, the capture of lots of enemy nobles including the Caliph, lots of money by way of peace and lots and lots of prestige to apply to raising crown authority and title to various counties.
Chief Ragusa: Eh... I'd say Jerusalem should have weaker authority at the start, not weakest. Baldwin IV had minimum kingdom authority when I started in 1180. Sibylla has since upgraded it to low. Unfortunately, only one such change may be made during a monarch's lifetime, so any further strengthening of crown authority will have to wait until Godfrey succeeds. In my first playthrough, Baldwin managed to upgrade his authority before his deposition, so that Sibylla was then able to move it up further to medium, but in my more recent playthrough Baldwin was deposed before he could muster up enough support for the reform. Granted Jerusalem should not have super-strong crown authority (it's no Angevin England after all), but under minimum crown authority, the realm is basically in chaos. It's like Ireland-type chaos. You can't even appoint army generals under minimum authority. You can't prevent internecine warfare until medium. And given that Richard is king-consort, I would expect him to make some serious efforts to strengthen his authority.
I have discovered the way to go for the Holy Kingdom!
*sung in the style of an old pub song*
The Green Isles of Ireland,
So broken and so true,
Jerusalem shall take it's band,
And we'll invade youuuu!
Over the Mediterranian,
Through the straits of hell,
We shall take the golden cross,
And ring your sodding bell!
Dear all you young lasses,
For all you fine lads,
It's off t' Ireland we go,
T'e make 'em sodding mad!
Co-GM and Tywin Lannister in Plank of Wood's Forum Game "Seven Kingdoms, Five Kings - ASoIaF Game"
Role Player of the Month - 02/05/13
Arseny Grigoryevich Zverev - Secretary to the People's Commissar for Finance, in Avindian's Tukhachevsky's Army and the Politburo (Interactive TFH 4.02)
Minister of War Andrei Ivonaescu Popa, Master of Hyperbole. Formerly President Codrinaru, the President that was Needed but not Wanted. "Federation of Equals"
Louis Theriault "Le Grand Chef" Etienne Pouvoir, Nawlin's Representative Extraordinaire - Bakery's All Men Created Equal
King Vittorio Emanuele II of the Kingdom of Italy in Fry's WiR 1861
Lieutenant-Commander Sebastien Heinberg Guttson von Jurring of the 2nd Roman Regiment - in RNN "Saint Peter's Throne"
can see your frustration with the game mechannics but its making for a great roller coaster ride. Raymond really is a pain in the ... and proving unwilling to get himself killed. And now the whole kingdom is back under threat | <urn:uuid:9a9e9ba3-d41e-47e7-8562-4a237f09cf52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?587668-The-Chronicles-of-the-Golden-Cross-Redux&p=13540949&viewfull=1 | 2013-05-22T21:45:17Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973798 | 5,383 |
A/N: AHHH!!! it's finally done! this monster of a chapter is FINALLY done! i am so so sorry that it took so long. i won't even list the excuses i could give. i'm tired of typing. 12,710 freaking words. i didn't think that was even possible. but now it is finished. thank goodness for that! i know that in my A/N of last chapter i promised that i wouldn't take 6 months again. i didn't break it! only 5 months this time!
thank you SO SO SO SO SO SO SO much to Addison aka Molly Raesly. she practically wrote a whole scene in this chapter because i was too flustered to do it (i'll let you know which scene in the last A/N as to not spoil it). she was a real trooper in keeping up with my insanity, even fooling me into super duper writing mode, with the help of the queue closing. i love her so much.
and thank YOU for coming back to read this next chapter of Jenyse Syl Baccari's life...
Chapter 7: “Trouble in paradise?”
I stared at the morning beast in the mirror, taking in its every feature. Its dark brown hair was way messier and tousled than mine from the constant tossing and turning that occurred during the night. Its eyebrows were drawn together. Its tired green eyes were puffy with huge bags beneath them. Its nose had a pinker tinge than mine. Its lips…
All of yesterday’s events – or what I could remember of them – flooded back to me. It wasn’t really much. I remembered going to Hogsmeade and having a great time with Travis. I remembered practically falling asleep on top of the Astronomy Tower. I remembered Travis dragging me back to the common room. I remembered…
Common room? Travis? Lips?
I leaned in closer towards the mirror to inspect the inside and outside of my mouth. My lips were a little chapped. My tongue was a little dry. My teeth needed cleaning. It wasn’t any different from any other morning. Mouths get dirty after a night’s sleep. That was a known fact. So why did mine feel like it just ate its way through a dump?
Grabbing my toothbrush and squeezing some toothpaste onto it, I was greeted with more snapshots of last night.
Lips? Someone else’s lips? Travis? Alec? Ian?
I stopped midway from putting down the toothpaste tube on the counter, to open it back up and squeeze even more of its contents onto my toothbrush. Shoving the cleaning utensil back into my mouth, I began to scrub like I’d never scrubbed before.
Last night. That couldn’t have happened. I wasn’t even completely sure of what exactly occurred. It was all quite fuzzy, thanks to the fact that I was barely conscious. All I remembered was feeling lips, pulling back, seeing Travis’s face centimeters away from mine and Ian behind him, and running up to my dorm and into my bed, where it only took a minute or two to cry myself to sleep.
That couldn’t be right. Why would Travis kiss me? Why would I kiss him back? Why would Ian be in Gryffindor Tower?
Biting down, I turned my toothbrush to such an angle so that it would reach my back teeth, and brushed, brushed, brushed.
No. What was I thinking? Ian couldn’t get into the Gryffindor Tower. He was a Ravenclaw. And both Travis and I were dead tired. He probably tripped and landed on my face.
After spitting out, I proceeded to furiously scrub at my tongue.
Maybe Travis was just giving me a goodnight kiss on the cheek, but accidentally got really, really close to my lips. People do that all the time. It’s just one of those awkward things in life.
I spat out again and moved onto brushing the back sides of my teeth.
And maybe I was so tired last night that I started hallucinating, thinking I was seeing Alec. I did miss him a lot. It was no secret that my mind was insane. It liked to trick me a lot. That’s right. It was just a mind trick. Well, I forgive you, mind. No harm done.
Except maybe to my tongue and gums, which were even bleeding a little from the force at which I was going back and forward on them with my toothbrush.
Finally feeling as though my mouth was at least a little bit cleaner, I rinsed my mouth out with water, four or five times, before I undressed and stepped into the shower. I realized a little too late that showering was pointless, since I had a Quidditch Match in a couple of hours. I didn’t mind the cleansing, though. My face and neck felt pretty dirty too.
Before heading down to breakfast, trying to expel all thoughts of yesterday, and particularly last night, I brushed my teeth and scrubbed my tongue once more. It sort of worked, since I avoided seeing Travis or Ian at all as I walked down the aisle next to the Gryffindor table. I spotted Sirius immediately and stared at the muffin he had in his hand, my whole walk towards him. Shaking off any remaining thoughts, I put a smile on and approached him. He was always good as a distraction.
“Hey! No! Jenyse!”
“Mmm…blueberry. My favorite,” I said as I sank my teeth into the blueberry muffin I had just snatched from Sirius. I plopped down next to him, by the rest of our Quidditch team, and made a taunting face of delight, which was ruined by laughter when I saw his appalled expression.
“First off,” Sirius started with irritation, “that was my muffin! Second, your favorite is cinnamon crunch, not blueberry. Third, blueberry is my favorite. Fourth, you know that I need to eat a blueberry muffin before every Quidditch match. And fifth? ...That was my muffin!”
Before I could respond, Adam, Sirius’s fellow Beater, cut in to say, “Sirius, calm down. There’s another one right here.” He pulled a muffin out of the basket of muffins on the table and held it up to Sirius’s face.
Without skipping a beat, Sirius greedily grabbed the spotted muffin from Adam. He was a centimeter away from biting into it when he froze. The rest of the team and I watched in confusion and awe as Sirius sniffed the muffin like the dog he sometimes was.
“Liar! This isn’t blueberry. This is definitely boysenberry,” he groaned disgustedly. “You and I?” Sirius motioned between Adam and himself. “We’re done.” He emphasized his point by throwing the offending muffin straight at Adam’s face. Unfortunately, we were all deprived of the extra amusement by James’s quick Chaser reflexes, which were heightened by his anticipation of the coming match.
I laughed loudly while Adam rolled his eyes and went back to his own food. “Sucks, love,” I said, mockingly pitying, as I took another bite of my blueberry muffin.
Sirius grabbed all of the baskets of muffins that he could reach and searched through them all. When his search failed, he turned back to me. “Please, Sylly. Just one bite. Do you want to lose today? Come on. I love you, you know that? I love you so much. And I will be your slave for the rest of my life,” he bribed. “I will do anything for you. Even if it means killing Remus so that he’ll stop stealing your chocolate.”
I laughed at Remus, who was sitting kind of on the outskirts of the team with Peter, then turned my focus back onto the desperate boy in front of me. I raised a brow in contemplation. “And you’ll come to my house for Easter break and cuddle with me every night, despite the chance Jarron comes in and finds us?”
Sirius visibly gulped, and I smirked at the sight of it. Using Jarron as a threat was my favorite. Just seeing the transition to dread on his face was enough to make me give in and give him the rest of the muffin.
The members of the team who didn’t know my brother and the intensity of his protectiveness over me appeared confused by my condition, yet amused by Sirius’s torn expression.
“Fine!” Sirius finally exclaimed. “Just give me the damn muffin!”
James, Remus, and Peter gave looks of pity to their beloved friend, knowing that he had just made a deal with a demon. They knew that an angry Jarron was the equivalent of a hellhound.
“Yes!” Someone to cuddle with all week! Not to mention the best cuddler of all time! “This is going to be the best break ever!” I declared, throwing my arms around him, the muffin moving along with my hand to his back. “Don’t you worry. I’ll protect you from Jarron. He’s got nothin’ on me.” I pulled back briefly to smile toothily at him and then held him close once more.
Just as I was about to finally release Sirius, I caught the eye of Travis sitting alone at the end of the Gryffindor table. The look he was giving me was strange. It was a mix of delight from – unfortunately – catching my attention, jealousy and disgust from my position with Sirius, confusion – probably from last night’s events –, and eagerness for our next conversation – which I didn’t need a wacked up crystal ball to predict would be excruciatingly awkward. His expression confirmed my most dreaded thoughts.
Alright, so maybe Travis did kiss me. That didn’t mean it actually meant something. He must have been really tired. I sure was. Don’t get me wrong. I loved Travis. But that didn’t mean I wanted his tongue down my throat. I suddenly felt the pressing urge to brush my teeth again.
But if the…kiss…really did happen, then Ian must’ve really been in Gryffindor Tower. Realizing that I had had – ACCIDENTAL – tonsil Beaters’ practice with Travis was bad enough. Of course Ian Hayes had to have witnessed it. What could be more devastating than the amnesiac, corporeal form of the guy that I loved catching me – ACCIDENTALLY – snog a guy that I had described to him as practically my brother?
Why did he have to kiss me? Everything would have been normal and I would be focusing on Quidditch, rather than my incest-ful one-sided lack-of-love life. Not that Travis actually loved me. We were tired. It was a mistake. Yes. A mistake.
I averted my glance quickly after assessing Travis’s expression and his excited wave, and let go of Sirius.
The muffin was caught by his mouth, rather than his phalanges.
I didn’t laugh along with my teammates. I needed to focus on Quidditch. Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch. Come on, Nees. Focus. We needed this win if we wanted to win the Quidditch Cup, in the end.
“Jenyse? Do you have to go to the bathroom?”
I glanced up at Sirius.
“You look constipated.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and resumed my chant of “Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch,” trying to focus, focus, focus on the coming match.
This proved to be impossible when my fellow Chaser Colleen asked, “Hey, Jenyse, why is Travis Decker staring at you like that?” Ever the observant one, dearest Colleen.
All at once, our whole section of the table, except me, turned to see Travis who I assumed either took the chance to glower at the Marauders or look away bashfully.
“Freak,” Sirius said.
I didn’t bother defending Travis. It was no use against the Marauders, and I didn’t want thoughts – even if they were the vaguest of vague – of last night reentering my brain. Now was not the time to ponder over Travis and last night’s events.
The group quickly fell into conversation about either how much they hated Travis – Sirius, Remus, and Peter – or how rude Sirius was for insulting my friend right in front of me – the rest of the team. James didn’t join any conversations, other than forcing those of us who got pre-Quidditch jitters to eat their food.
Right. Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch.
“Alright, alright,” said James, indirectly saving me, while trying to get the team’s attention, “let’s all focus on the match that starts in thirty minutes. Meaning you guys need to either scarf down the rest of your food or take it out to the locker room. Let’s go. Chop, chop. Pip, pip.” He clapped his hands impatiently to hurry us up.
Remus and Peter wished us good luck while stayed behind. As we all grunted and stood up from the Gryffindor table all laden with food that we weren’t permitted to eat – well, that we weren’t given the choice to eat –, the rest of the Gryffindors applauded us.
Walking between our table and the Ravenclaw table, I tried not to look in Travis’s direction and, though I tried to fight it, I searched the Ravenclaw table for a certain Ian Hayes instead. I was highly relieved when I didn’t see him. I let out a mysterious breath of air. I supposed our sixth-year Seeker Benjy heard, because he reached around me and gave me a comforting squeeze. If only what I was really worried about was our Quidditch match against Slytherin.
The seven of us walked out of the Great Hall, through the Entrance Hall, and out into the sunny grounds. The sunlight made the thin sheet of snow across the grounds shine. We followed the shoveled path down to the Quidditch Pitch, sharing light conversation, in attempt to put off the unwanted pre-Quidditch nerves and focus.
The chatting died down gradually, the closer we got to the locker room. James held the door open for all of us, giving us each high-fives as we passed through. I headed to the other side – the “girls’” side – of the line of lockers, along with Colleen, to change.
Opening my locker seemed to finally allow me to focus on the task at hand: Quidditch. I reached in and grabbed my uniform and pads, as Colleen started speaking to me.
“D’you think we can do this?”
I glanced at her to see her anxious face before pulling my jersey over my head. “Definitely. We’ve just got to…focus.” Focus, focus, focus.
“Yeah,” Colleen agreed, my confidence seeping into her. “What was it that James said? Just thirty points, right? That’s all we need to be ahead by to kick Slytherin out of the cup. That’s not so bad.” She shrugged and then continued to tie her boot.
I could tell that she was still feeling completely edgy, but was trying to psyche herself out of that mindset. “You alright there? Maybe you should’ve taken a bite of Sirius’s lucky blueberry muffin,” I joked, attempting to lighten the mood.
“Heh, yeah. Maybe…”
I stopped tying my own boot to look over at her.
Half-straddling the bench, with her arms around her propped up leg, Colleen was staring off into space with unease in her eyes. Her other leg was shaking with anticipation to get the match over with.
I sighed and walked over to her. “Hey. You’ll be fine,” I told her, to which she replied with a doubtful look. “You’re an awesome Chaser. You fly incredibly and your passing is no worse than James’s or mine. You’ll be fine.” I offered her a fist to bump, and she didn’t disappoint, even adding a small smile into the mix.
“Hey, you guys decent?” a voice from the end of the lockers asked us.
I checked to see that we were both dressed enough to let him enter before accusing, “Does it really matter to you, James?” making Colleen blush.
“Ha-ha. Very funny, Jenyse. I’m a taken man. And that’s Captain James to you,” James said, as he walked around the lockers, towards us. “Just wanted to go over strategies alone with the Chasers. How are you guys holding up?”
“We had a little anxiety problem, but I think that’s taken care of,” I answered, looking to Colleen for confirmation.
“Yup. It’s all good.”
“All the time,” I added, knocking my shoulder lightly into her.
James flashed a smile, assuring us that that was what he liked to hear, before getting down to business. The three of us went over a few of our Chaser plays and strategies, like we did before every game. Before every match, James liked to go over plays with each individual player or group of players, according to their position, making him a great captain.
Once our brains had been refreshed and we were all completely dressed and padded up, the two of us went back with James around the line of lockers, into the main area. The team sat along the benches, facing the chalkboard and James, awaiting a speech.
With a deep breath, James started. “Alright, team. This is it. If we nail this, it’ll be a breeze to the Cup. Thirty points. That’s all we need to put Slytherin out of the running. Three goals,” he stressed, directing his gaze at Colleen and me. “On the other hand, Slytherin needs a load of points to knock us out of the competition. It should sound simple, but that just gives them all the more reason to do whatever it takes for them to beat us.
“So, this is my warning to you: they will be aggressive – maybe more aggressive than we’ve ever seen them. That means stupid taunts, nasty body hits, wild Bludgers…. Anything to break us down. Just keep in mind that all that just makes them no better–”
Scandalized, everybody’s heads turned to the door, where the source of the sound that made James pause mid-speech came from. Nobody interrupted the captain.
My reaction to the sound was a little delayed, because I was so focused on James’s speech. The intensity of which he spoke was always so captivating. When I finally realized that he had stopped speaking, I confusedly turned my head, as a new voice started speaking.
“Hey, so, the sky’s looking alright. The sun’s a-shinin’, but there are some friendly looking clouds to block the shine, at some points during the match. It’s a little windy, but not too bad. Just hope you get the left hoops. The wind is blowing that way and will really help with goals. The ground is nice and tough; good for kickoff. It’s a bit nippy out, but you guys have trained in colder. I’d say it’s perfect weather for kicking Slytherin arse.”
Focus my ARSE.
My eyes followed him as he moved from the locker room door to the seat in the front right corner, next to the chalkboard. If James wanted me to be completely focused on the match ahead, he needed to get Ian Hayes out of there, right at that moment.
“What the hell is he doing in here?” I asked quietly to whoever could hear, while James thanked Ian for his report.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sirius look at me with a raised brow. “James asked him to check out the weather conditions and report back before the match. Why?”
“No reason,” I replied curtly, not taking my eyes off of Ian.
It took another second for Sirius’s assessing eyes to turn away from me. He was still suspicious about Ian and me. Lately, I was able to downplay the weirdness between us, but today, it would be incredibly difficult to throw Sirius off my scent.
“No problemo, Cap’n,” Ian replied to James’s thanks, leaning back in his chair. His eyes wandered away from James to look at the team. When they landed on me, his expression turned blank before it morphed into cold, causing me to look away.
I tried to fight the guilt rising in me, but it was hard when I could feel his gaze on me. Doing my best to ignore him and the guilt, I set my attention back on James.
“Alright, so, where was I?” James asked, momentarily distracted.
“Slytherin sucks and are too weak to play fair,” Benjy provided.
Everyone laughed at the sixth-year Seeker, but James, Ian, and me.
“Right,” James said, focused once again. “Which means that Sirius and Adam?” he looked at the two Beaters. “You guys need to be on a lookout for anything fishy going on. You two should be the only ones controlling those Bludgers. Don’t let those gits touch them.”
“Ay ay, Captain!”
The fourth-year Keeper looked up from his wringing hands in his lap.
“Let’s be generous and only give them – ehh – one goal, yeah?”
Seth smirked. “Alright,” he agreed, while giving James a fist bump.
“Colls and Jenyse. Pass, pass, steal, pass, dodge, pass, goal. Shouldn’t be hard for the two of you,” James said, giving us a wink. “Remember: three goals ahead.”
“You got it.”
James frowned briefly at my lackluster response.
I averted my gaze from him, surely guaranteeing myself a one-on-one with the captain.
“Uhh, yeah. And Benjy, my man,” James addressed, laying his hand on Benjy’s shoulder. “I have no doubt in my mind that you will catch the snitch. Just wait for my cue. Use those dives of yours to fool Dole and keep him away from the Snitch. Remember, remember, remember: thirty points ahead.”
“Yyyup. Wait, what’s the cue again?”
“Uhh….‘Go, Benjy, go?’” James suggested.
Benjy nodded. “Got it.”
“We believe in you, too, James!” Sirius called out, to which the rest of us voiced in agreement.
James smiled, and then returned to addressing the team as a whole again, as he finished off his speech. “Alright, team. This is it. Do or die. We must win this match. For Gryffindor, legacy, pride, respect, family honor, integrity, loyalty. To prove to Lily that I am someone.”
A few people chuckled at that.
“We won it last year like it was nothing. With the training we’ve had all year this year, today should be a piece of cake. Let’s make this a nine-year run for Gryffindor, yeah?”
“Yeah!” Sirius whooped loudly.
“Ian, here, will be in the Gryffindor stands. He’ll be on the lookout for anything we need. If he tells you to do something, you do it. He knows the game as well as we do. I trust him, and so should you.” He paused, looking at as all with great fondness and pride. “So…let’s do this.”
The team erupted in cheers and whoops. James having finished his speech, everyone went back to either talking amongst themselves or making themselves stay focused.
I could tell that Sirius wanted to talk to me, but was preoccupied by Adam, who was going over Beater tactics with him again.
“Hey, Hayes, do me a favor? Check if everyone’s in the pitch already? Thanks.”
I saw Ian’s legs pass the spot on the wall I was staring at before I heard the door open and close. Not long after, I saw another pair of legs walk in front of the same spot, but walking towards me, instead of the door. I followed the legs up to the owner’s face and saw that it was James. Sigh. Here goes.
James straddled the bench on my right and stared at me. It was a while until he spoke, but speak he did. “Jenyse.”
“Look at me.”
Taking a deep breath, I complied. He had that half-brotherly-concerned, half-captainly-stern look on his face that made me want to crumble up and hide. This was so not the time to have a heart-to-heart with James.
James’s hand reached over to settle comfortingly on my back. “Something’s up with you. I know you don’t want to talk about it – you have that look – and I respect that. I’m sorry that whatever you’re going through is happening during or happened right before a Quidditch match, but I need you to focus for me. Just let whatever’s on your mind go and think solely about Quidditch. Can you do that for me?” His hazel eyes bore into mine, the concern in them showing more and more.
“Yeah. Sorry. It’s nothing. Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch. We’ve got a match to win.” I flashed him a forced smile.
He nodded, though still not convinced. “That’s right. And I meant what I said earlier about listening to Hayes. That goes for you, too, Jenyse. Got it?”
I bit back a retort and, instead, replied, “Mmhmm.”
James’s hand on my back moved to my side as he pulled me in for a hug. “That’s my girl,” he said, before kissing the top of my head.
We released each other when we heard the clearing of somebody’s throat, but James’s hand remained on my back.
Hello, again, guilt. I missed you, the two seconds that you were gone. Merlin’s freaking phalanges.
Without giving me one glance, Ian told James, “It looks like everyone’s in the stands. We should be starting in a few minutes.”
“Alright. Sounds good. Thanks.”
“No problem. I’m gonna head to the stands now. Good luck.”
For some reason, I knew that he had looked at me when he had said those last two words. I could feel his gaze. Once again, I heard the locker room door swing shut, and Ian was out of the building. I received a reassuring pat on my back from James before he stood up to address the team.
“Alright, team! Let’s go out there and play some Quidditch! Hands in!”
Everyone put their fists up, in the middle of the circle that we made.
“Gryffindor on three! One, two, three–!”
The team filed out, one by one, receiving high-fives from James, again, as we exited the locker room, brooms in hand.
Walking to our entrance of the pitch, Sirius walked next to me. “You good?”
“I’m good.” I hoped.
We stood in line, James in front and me behind him, waiting to be called into the pitch by the animated commentator, a seventh-year Hufflepuff, Kent Deering.
“Helloooo, Hogwarts!” Kent’s voice echoed through the air. “Today is the day. An odd day, though, isn’t it? Quidditch on a Sunday? That’s just bizarre! But it is a splendid day, despite it all! Now, who’s ready for some Quidditch?!”
The whole pitch was filled with a roar of cheers, applause, and other various noises, in response.
“Alright! Today, we have two teams – enemies, if you will – fighting for their chance at the Quidditch Cup. In the red and gold, we have the Gryffindor team, led by – ladies, sorry, but he’s a taken man – the brilliant Captain James Potter!”
James, wishing us luck one last time, flew into the pitch, leaving me at the front of the line. I watched as he circled around the pitch, above the crowd, pumping his fist in the air. I rolled my eyes when he blew Lily a kiss.
“His marvelous team consists of his fellow Chasers, Baccari and Cale; Beaters, Black and Murphy; Keeper, Miller; and Seeker, Fenwick!”
With me leading the way, we all took off, in the order that we were called, filing in behind James, who was still circling around the pitch. I put on my game face and forced myself not to look at the Gryffindor stands. I did my best to relax my body and just fly.
When the cheering died down, we went to land on our side of the central circle to await the entering of our opponents.
“Going against the reigning champions of eight years is the Slytherin team in silver and green! Captained by Keeper, Robert Gordon, we have Chasers, Sealey, Fallon, and O’Toole; Beaters, Mitchell and Styger; and Seeker, Dole!”
One by one, green figures zoomed into the pitch and flew above the crowd, just as we had done. They landed in formation, across from us, as Madam Hooch joined us in the middle of the field with the chest of Quidditch balls.
“Captains, shake hands!” she ordered.
James offered his hand to Gordon, who took it and squeezed it as hard as he could, rather than shaking it. From what I could see, James seemed to return the same amount of pressure to Gordon’s hand before they let it go and returned to their positions.
“I want a clean match from all of you! I will not hesitate to give penalties!” she said sternly and loudly, so that all of us could hear. “Mount your brooms!”
“It looks like it’s going to be a good fight! I mean, match! They’ve mounted their brooms. The balls have been released, and they’re off! Gryffindor gets possession. Potter with the Quaffle. He passes it to Cale, who gets past O’Toole to pass it back to Potter. Potter dodges a Bludger with ease, hit by Mitchell. Potter passes it to Baccari.”
All of Kent’s commentary stopped entering my ears when I caught the Quaffle. I faked to the right to get Sealey out of my way, and then headed straight for the goals. I made a show of attempting a throw at the right goal post – which caused Gordon to zoom in that direction – but threw it to the left, where Colleen caught it and tossed it into the left goal.
“Brilliant play by Baccari and Cale! That’s 10 to zero, to Gryffindor.”
I made a loop around, so that I could give Colleen a quick high-five before heading back down to the other side of the pitch for defense. James gave us a thumbs-up before setting his attention back on Sealey, who had possession of the Quaffle and was flying our way.
“Sealey tosses it to Fallon. He throws it overhead to O’Toole, who’s all the way in the other corner. Bad move, Fallon. This is no Muggle basketball game! These guys have got brooms! And Baccari intercepts the pass!”
I tucked it underneath my arm and made my way to the other posts. I took a peek over my shoulder to see if anyone was tailing me.
I wasn’t able to see the Bludger coming right at me until the last couple of seconds before it could hit me. I narrowly dodged it, throwing all of my body weight to my left and swinging myself back on top of my broom.
“That was a close one, Baccari! And Black whacks the Bludger back at Styger.”
“Pay attention, Jenyse!” Sirius yelled at me.
I ignored him and passed the Quaffle to James, so I could look and see who yelled my name out in warning.
“What are you doing, Jenyse?! Get down there!” Ian shouted to me from the front of the Gryffindor stands.
Though I wanted to rebel and not follow his directions, I knew I had to do it. I shot down to the other end, but was too late to participate. James had already scored.
“20 to nothing, Gryffindor!”
“Ugh!” I groaned, while heading back to where I had just come from. I turned my broom straight at O’Toole, going full speed.
Unfortunately, she saw me coming, and was able to make a short dive before I hit her and keep possession of the Quaffle.
“Bad luck, Baccari. O’Toole passes it to Fallon who just scores past Miller, making it 20 to 10, Gryffindor!”
Seth cursed before grabbing the Quaffle and throwing it to me.
“The score is now 90 to 20, in favor of Slytherin. And there’s a time-out – our first of the match – called by Gryffindor captain, James Potter.”
Frustrated beyond all belief – even more so, after seeing Ian motion to James to call a time-out in five minutes –, I landed by the rest of the team, by the tunnel we had entered the pitch through.
James put on a level-headed façade, but I could tell that he was furious. He looked about ready to throw his broom at the nearest thing with a heartbeat. He didn’t speak until Ian, out of breath, appeared in the tunnel, looking all flustered.
“What the hell is going on, guys? All they need is two more goals before Dole will be able to go after the Snitch, if they want to kick us out of the championships!” James exclaimed.
“James is right,” Ian – much to my dislike – voiced his agreement. “You guys need to shape up if you want to win this match. You’re facing things we went over thousands of times during practice. Why aren’t you executing what we practiced?”
I forced myself to stay mute, not looking at him. I knew I was playing horribly. I just didn’t know why. Or maybe I did…
“Sirius and Adam, keep doing what you’re doing. Seth, I need you to step it up, buddy. They’re faking you out like crazy,” James said. “Colls, keep it up with the passes. Don’t be afraid to go for some of those steals. Benjy, you’re doing great, keeping Dole away from the Snitch. Let’s get back in there and play like we’re capable of playing. Come on!”
I was shocked and somewhat disappointed when James didn’t direct any advice to me. I knew he knew that I knew how bad I was playing, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want a scolding to get me back in shape. Then again, telling everyone but me what they were doing right and wrong was probably enough to send me on the guilt trip.
I stopped when I felt a hand grab hold of my arm and turned back to face Ian. We both paused as I shot a glance at his hand on my arm, after which he withdrew with lightning speed.
“You need to get your head in the game, Jenyse. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, today. If you want to win this match, you’ve got to stop thinking about whatever or whoever it is you’re thinking about, and start thinking about Quidditch,” he ordered in a quiet, assertive voice.
I looked in his eyes for a brief moment as I registered what he had just said. ‘Whatever or whoever’? You’ve got to be kidding me. I didn’t even bother to respond before I stormed off, catching up with the others. Who did he think he was, talking to me like that? He wasn’t my captain. He wasn’t even a Gryffindor, for Merlin’s sake! I’d show him.
“And we’re back in it! It looks like the Gryffindor team took some got whooped into shape during that much-needed time-out. Look at them go! Great goal by Baccari, making it 90 to 30, Slytherin! I see a comeback on the way!”
That’s right, Kent. Here’s the comeback of the season.
“Slytherin has possession. Nicely directed Bludger by Murphy! Sealey drops the Quaffle. Potter catches it and SCORES! That’s two goals, already, by Gryffindor, before Slytherin even made it onto their half of the pitch! 90 to 40, Slytherin!”
A bunch of penalties, exceptional saves by Seth, mind-blowing hits and blocks by Sirius and Adam, and incredible steals, passes, dodges, and goals by Colleen, James, and me later, the score was 90 to 80, with Slytherin still in the lead.
“Potter is saved from a blow to the head by a Bludger by Black, who knocks it towards O’Toole, causing her to lose the Quaffle. That is some great teamwork right there! There are Cale and Fallon, racing to get the falling Quaffle! And Cale gets it! Passes it to Baccari, and SCORE! We’re all tied up at 90 points to 90!”
I punched my fist through the air, pumped by the goal I had just made and the energy I was getting from the cheers of the crowd. I flew over to the Gryffindor stands, just for kicks, as well as to rub it in Ian’s face.
He denied me the chance to boast when he yelled, “Get back on defense!” at me, pointing at the other goal posts.
Appalled, I didn’t budge. “Why the hell are you being such an arse?! I just scored three goals in the last twenty minutes and tied up the game! What else do you want?! Get off my back!”
About to fly away, he stopped me, yelling over the noise of the crowd, “If I recall correctly, I wasn’t the one with my hands all over your back last night!”
Unable to move, I just floated there, staring at him. I could hear nothing but yelling and screaming of the students watching the Quidditch match they came to see. It took me a while to finally react to what he had said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I yelled back.
I turned to see James throwing the Quaffle at me. I caught it and quickly passed it to Colleen who was wide open, down the pitch, and then turned back to Ian.
“Like hell, you don’t! It was great to see you last night!” he shouted, so I could hear over all the other noises around us, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Really! It was a great present, seeing you and him, just as the clock struck twelve, marking the start of my birthday!”
I felt my eyes grow as wide as they could go as that fact dawned on me. His birthday. March 1st. Of course this whole thing would have to happen on this particular day. I chanced a glance up the stands and locked eyes with Travis for the first time since breakfast. I ignored his what-are-you-doing look, and looked back at Ian’s livid face. Shaking my head in disbelief – of what part of the whole interaction, I didn’t know –, I backed away and flew back to defense.
“Gryffindor lead 100 to 90! What a comeback! Gryffindor only need two more goals and the Snitch to kick Slytherin out of the running for the Cup!”
Taking all of my fury and applying it to the game, I managed to help James and Colleen get our team another ten points ahead.
“One more goal! Just one more goal!” James yelled excitedly to Colleen and me.
I managed to get possession of the Quaffle again after stealing it from O’Toole by bumping my shoulder roughly into her side and catching the falling Quaffle beneath her. As I was flying to the goal posts, I was knocked into, unexpectedly, by Sealey. The first hit wasn’t that bad and I easily stayed on my broom and held onto the Quaffle, but I had to try harder to stay intact, after the second hit. Before I knew it, I was sandwiched between Sealey and Fallon, both nudging me back and forth. I tried to accelerate to lose them, but they kept up with me. With one last shove from the both of them, the Quaffle slipped from my grip and they got possession.
“Dammit!” I yelled as I tried to regain my balance on my broom.
“It looks like Baccari’s alright, but Slytherin gets past Potter and Cale, and Sealey scores, making it 110 to 100, to Gryffindor!”
For the next twenty-five minutes or so, the match followed as such. We would be twenty points up, just one goal away from a catch from Benjy, and then Slytherin would score. Back and forth, the score would toggle from our team being twenty to ten points ahead.
“And Gryffindor is back to being twenty points ahead, at 170 to 150! This is getting to be the longest and most exciting match of the year, mates!”
“Come on, guys! We’ve got this! One more!” James encouraged us.
The higher the score went, the more frustrated I got. I was sick and tired of this match. I just wanted it all to stop, and get out of the yelling presence of Ian Hayes. This match needed to end.
“Slytherin has possession. O’Toole is heading down the pitch. She passes to Fallon. He passes to Sealey. It goes back to O’Too– No, wait! The Quaffle is intercepted by Baccari! Where did she even come from?! She heads down the pitch at lightning speed! She passes to Potter! And SCORE! 180 to 150, Gryffindor!”
“GO, BENJY, GO!” James roared to the Seeker.
I watched as Benjy made a sharp turn from where he was fake-leading Dole to, to head the other direction, toward the real direction of the Snitch.
“Fenwick’s been given the go for the Snitch! Slytherin’s got possession of the Quaffle! Sealey is flying super speed towards his goal posts!”
I stopped watching Benjy when I heard Kent’s commentary. I looked over and saw James tailing Sealey.
“Sealey passes to Fallon! It’s– INTERCEPTED BY POTTER! Potter, about to throw to Cale, who is– NO! She’s knocked off her broom by O’Toole! Hang on, Colleen!”
Terrified, I turned to see if Colleen was alright. She was hanging onto her broom with one hand, and her other hand was holding what I assumed to be a bleeding nose. I was about to go help her when I saw Adam flying towards her. Deciding she was about to be in good hands, I turned back to find James.
“Potter’s still got the Quaffle. Look at Fenwick and Dole go! I’ve never– Oh, MERLIN! James Potter gets a hit to the shoulder by a Bludger sent by Styger!”
“JAMES, NO!” I screamed, shooting towards him.
“Fallon’s got the Quaffle! He just scores past Miller! We’re back to a twenty point lead for Gryffindor, at 180 to 160!”
“Jenyse! Get back and play!”
“What?! Are you kidding?! You’re hurt! You need help!”
“Jenyse! Get back and play!” a new voice demanded.
I looked up at Sirius who was giving me a reassuring look with belief in his eyes. After a bit of internal fighting, I nodded and flew off.
I caught the Quaffle from Seth, midway down our half of the pitch, and swiveled around to face the other end of the pitch. Before I had the chance to react, my path was blocked by Fallon, who knocked me off my broom and stole the Quaffle. The adrenaline rushing through me allowed me to pull myself back onto my broom quickly. Determinedly, I sped as fast as I could to catch up to Fallon. Making my mind instantly, I did the only thing that came to mind.
Once I was right next to Fallon, I tightened my grip as much as I could and flipped my left leg over my broom. Miraculously, my broom kept its momentum forward, keeping up with Fallon’s speed. I swung my weight forward, kicking up my foot, so that it hit right through the hole that his arm made, that wasn’t covering the Quaffle. As I intended, the Quaffle shot out of Fallon’s arm and into the air. I swung my leg, again, and kicked the Quaffle up. Letting one hand off of my broom, I reached out to catch the ball. Just as I caught it, Fallon’s foot kicked me in the stomach, knocking the air out of me. I was a split second from letting go, before I quickly tightened my grip. I managed to stop my broom, abruptly – causing Fallon to zoom past me –, so that I could re-mount my broom. I swung my leg over the handle, and – by the grace of Merlin – managed to get back onto it.
Immediately, I sharply turned towards our goal posts and flew as fast as magically possible, while dodging anything coming my way. As I was approaching the distance where I would be close enough to score, I took a split second to think about how I was going to nail this goal. My lips grew into a smirk.
“Fenwick has gone into a dive with Dole close behind!”
Without thinking about the specific maneuver, I performed my original “favorite move” taught to me by my brother.
“Was that a goal? That was a goal! That was a kickarse move and goal by Jenyse Baccari of Gryffindor, making the score 190 to 160, to–! BENJY FENWICK HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH!”
Breathing heavily from the incredible amount of energy I had just exerted, I swiveled around to see Benjy flying around in circles, holding up his fist that was enclosed around the Golden Snitch.
“GRYFFINDOR WINS, 340 POINTS TO 160!”
“YESSS!” I shrieked in pure bliss. It was finally over. We had won.
I took a dive, to reach the ground as fast as possible. I didn’t even wait until both of my feet were on the ground before I jumped off of my broom to run to the rest of my team. As soon as I was close enough, I jumped up and into Sirius’s arms, which caught me easily. “WE WON!”
“Jenyse, you did it!” he exclaimed, just as excitedly. After hugging me tighter and making a few twirls, he set me on my feet. “You insane son of a motherless goat! What’s wrong with you?!” He hit me forcefully on the arm as his expression grew from elated to enraged.
“What?!” I asked, rubbing the probably bruised spot on my arm.
“That idiotic move you made to steal the Quaffle from Fallon! You could have died! That was amazing!” He proved to be bipolar when he pulled me in for another hug and a kiss on the forehead.
I couldn’t help but grin.
“James!” I let go of Sirius and made my way to James. “Are you alright?”
His shoulder looked eerily deformed. “Of course I am. I think it’s just dislocated. But never mind that. Besides the fact that you could’ve killed yourself, you were brilliant!” he praised as he pulled me in for a one-armed hug. He kissed my head repeatedly for a good minute.
“Thanks, James,” I said with a laugh. “Now, go get that shoulder fixed!”
“Good call. Oi! Sirius!”
I chuckled as he moved away from me. It wasn’t long before I was attacked again, this time by Colleen and Adam.
“Jenyse! Are you okay?!”
“Jenyse, you were ridiculous!”
I smiled, gratefully. “Thanks, Adam. And I’m fine. How about you, Colls?”
“I’m good. The bleeding’s stopped. I just have a killer headache.”
“I bet. I would’ve helped you out, up there, but I figured you were in good hands.” I shot her a smirk, noticing that Adam’s arm was around her.
She blushed and shrank into Adam’s side.
“See you at the party?” Adam asked.
Oh, Merlin. I hadn’t even thought about a victory party. “Uhh, yeah. I’ll be there.”
“Awesome,” he said, before steering them both away to congratulate other teammates.
Before I could find Benjy to give him a big hug, I felt a body collide into mine, from behind.
I turned in Travis’s arms to hug him back as the adrenaline and elation from the match still pumped through my veins. “Trav!” I exclaimed happily. “We won!”
“I know! But more importantly, you’re alive!” he proclaimed thankfully, as he brought his hands to cradle my face and tilted it towards his.
At first I thought that he was about to give me a kiss on the forehead, like James and Sirius had done minutes before, but as soon as I saw him close his eyes and lower his target, I understood what he meant to do and freed myself from his gasp. “What are you doing?”
A confused expression on his face, Travis slowly opened his eyes. He stared at me for a second before smiling knowingly. “It's okay, Jenyse. It’s a celebration. No one’s going to care about a little PDA. Look.”
I turned my head to see where he was gesturing to. Lily and James were snogging each other fiercely, in the middle of all the insanity surrounding us. I quickly averted my eyes.
“See?” Travis pointed out as he tried to kiss me again.
I pushed him away, halting him with my hands on his chest. “Trav, what are you doing?”
His happy smile started to falter. “Jenyse,” he said.
I stared back at him, hoping he would understand.
“Oh,” he said finally. “I thought,” he sputtered. “But, before…I thought…”
I fidgeted uneasily, looking down at my hands. I wasn’t ready for this. I didn’t want that embrace we shared to be our last hug ever. I didn’t want to lose his friendship, but I knew I had to do it. I couldn’t keep leading him on. It would just build up and blow up in my face eventually. Breaking his heart would be saving his heart. I took a deep breath, paused, and then bravely looked him in the eye.
All traces of his smile were gone.
Not feeling so brave anymore, I quickly glanced around at all the cheering people around us. Colleen waved at me cheerfully before jumping into Seth’s arms. I kept my eyes focused on them because it was easier than looking into Travis’s eyes. “Trav, maybe we should go take a walk.” I reached out to grab his hand, but he slapped my hand away.
“No,” he said firmly. “No thank you. Anything you have to say to me you can say right here. What's going on with you?”
I looked down at my muddy shoes. “I don't know.”
He tenderly lifted my chin and caressed my cheek with his thumb. “Not that I’m that experienced, but I’m thinking that it’s okay to be a little scared. I’m a bit petrified myself, but it’s a good scared, you know? Like my legs have turned to jelly and my heart beats like crazy every time I'm near you.” He grinned. “This is new territory for us. Not that I'm complaining,” he added enthusiastically.
I winced and removed his hand from my face. To soften the blow, I kept hold of his hand. “Trav,” I breathed sadly.
He took his hand back and brought it to his side with a huff. “Jenyse, I don't understand. We kissed last night. I kissed you, and you kissed me back for a rather long time, I'll add. I thought, well, you seemed like you enjoyed it. Didn't you?”
I brought myself to look up at his vulnerable and expecting brown eyes, and I opened my mouth to answer him. My voice cracked. “Travis.”
He looked away. “I think we should take a walk.”
He held out his hand, as though he was going to grab mine, but he must of thought better of it, because he hastily stuffed it into the pocket of his trousers.
We meandered through the cheering Gryffindors, parting through the sea of red. Only, I didn’t exactly feel like Moses at the time.
Finally, near the edge of the pitch, we found an uncrowded place where only a few Ravenclaw girls were standing.
He stopped firmly and looked at me.
I waited for him to say something, but he was silent. I took a shaky breath. “Trav, I didn't mean to give you the wrong impression,” I started.
He balked. “The wrong impression?” he echoed angrily. “We kissed! You kissed me back. Believe me. I was there. How was that supposed to be taken?”
“I was confused.”
“So you thought moving your lips against mine would help clear things up? Merlin, Jenyse.” He looked away, again, angrily, throwing his hands in the air.
I frowned. “I wasn’t sure what was going on,” I defended lamely but honestly.
“Bloody hell!” he cursed venomously. “Jenyse, I’ve spent five years being in love with you. I asked you on a date. You said yes. I kissed you. What else was supposed to be going on?”
My heart faltered painfully as one word stabbed into it. “You love me?” I croaked.
Softening, he turned back to me. He moved closer to me and brushed my sweaty hair back. “I love you,” he told me. “Always have.”
I closed my eyes as tears began to well up, ready to taunt me by running down my face. I felt him lean in again, but I took a step backwards. “Travis, I can’t.”
He groaned. “Why not?” he asked. “Is there somebody else that I don’t know about?”
I laughed humorlessly. “There’s nobody out there. Trust me.”
“Then why? We get along. We enjoy spending time together. We already know everything there is to know about each other. We could be happy together.”
I smiled sadly. “No, we wouldn’t,” I said truthfully, almost breaking my own heart. “I couldn’t make you happy.”
Travis laughed. “Jenyse, yesterday was the best day of my life, up until you ran off, leaving me confused. You’re the person I want to be with. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I replied.
He smiled again, preparing for another attempt at a kiss.
“I’m just not in love with you,” I corrected.
“Well, try,” he pleaded. “Maybe if we just date for a little while, things will change, and–”
“Travis,” I cut him off pathetically. “That’s not the problem. I know what it is that you want from me, but I just can’t give it to you. And I can’t lie to you, either.”
“I can change,” he insisted as tears threatened to fall from his eyes. “I can be less demanding, less aggressive. Rewind. We can just take things one step at a time.”
I sniffed. “You don't want that. You deserve better than that. You deserve better than what I could give you.”
“Oh, don’t give me that,” he said sharply. “It’s you that I want, Jenyse.”
I took a deep breath and took a step away from him. A tear slid down my cheek. “We can still be frie–”
He held up his hand to silence me before I could finish the word. “Don’t say it,” he said in a trembling voice. “I don't want to be just your friend anymore, Jenyse. I can’t bear being around you all the time, watching you smile or brush back your hair, and knowing that I’ll always want more. I want to be more than a friend.”
Another tear fell. I tried to speak, but my mouth quivered as I sucked in my tears.
“But you don’t, do you?” he asked in bitter rhetoric. “To you, I’ll always just be ‘Trav Trav the asexual lad,’” he spat before briskly pivoting to walk away.
“Travis!” I called out to him, my voice cracking loudly.
His body froze immediately, but he did not turn around.
“I am so sorry,” I said desperately, in between deep breaths to rid of the sobs overtaking me.
He sighed, and I saw his heavy shoulders sag. “I know you are,” he said quietly over his shoulder where I could not clearly see his face, “but it doesn’t make this any easier. I’m going to need some time alone to figure myself out and calm myself down before I destroy something.”
“How much time?” I asked desperately.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Just…if you do care about me at all, leave me alone.” He walked away, leaving me in my pathetic state.
“Travis!” I called hoarsely, the sobs coming uncontrollably now.
This time he did not stop but just continued walking until he disappeared into the mass of scarlet.
Wanting nothing but to get away from all of the happy vibes that were coming off of everyone on the field that were solely present to mock me, I “Accio”-ed my broom and stumbled my way back to the locker rooms. Approaching the tunnel, I heard footsteps following me and a voice call out.
Wincing, I covered my mouth in attempt to quiet my sobs, so that they wouldn’t echo off of the walls of the tunnel, and walked on. Now was not the time, Ian Hayes. I quickened my pace, ignoring his frustrated calls. When I got through the locker room door, I ran to the shower room, slammed the room’s door shut, and locked it quickly, just before Ian banged his fists against it.
“Jenyse, open up!”
I let my broom fall to the floor, before I leaned my back against the door and slid down it until my bottom reached the floor, not caring about the bathroom germs. With my arms around my legs and head against my knees, I rocked back and forth as the tears flowed freely.
The force from his rapping on the door hit my back. “Jenyse, you can’t hide in there forever!”
“Hey, what’s going on?” I heard James ask.
“Jenyse is in there.”
“Jenyse? It’s James. Are you alright in there?” he asked, concerned, through the door.
“I just want to be alone,” I said, hoping my voice wouldn’t be a giveaway of my crying state. “Please.”
There was a short pause, and then James said, “Okay. We’ll see you in the common room.”
“You go. I’ll stay and wait.”
I cringed, praying that he wouldn’t.
“No. You heard her. Let’s go.”
There was another moment of silence before the sound of angry footsteps began and faded. I thanked Merlin for James Potter.
“Take your time, Jenyse,” James told me before following Ian out of the locker room.
Once I heard the outside door swing shut, I let myself go and allowed myself to get taken over by my sobs.
It was done. My friendship with Travis was over. After five years of having him as a best friend, I had managed to go and ruin it in one single conversation. I could hardly believe it. “I’m going to need some time,” he said. How was I to know whether it would be a day or forever, before he forgave me? I couldn’t just give him up just like that. Then again, it was all my fault for turning him away in the first place.
I wiped some of the snot that was running out of my nose on my already dirty uniform sleeve.
I never should have gone to Hogsmeade with him. But that’s thing. I’d gone to Hogsmeade with him loads of times. I’d invited him over my house and gone over his house numerous times. What made that time so different? Why hadn’t I seen a flashing light saying, “DATE! DATE! DATE!” anywhere?
Suddenly, anger at myself shot through me. What was I doing, making excuses for myself? There were no excuses for what I had done. It was all my fault. I was the one who had missed the signs. I was the one who resultantly let his feelings grow as time passed on. I was the one who – though unintentionally – led him on. I was the one to blame. Travis didn’t choose to fall in love with me.
Just like I hadn’t chosen to fall in love with Alec.
I couldn’t help but wonder whether things between Travis and me would’ve been different if I had never met or fallen in love with Alec, or if Ian had never woken up and come back to Hogwarts.
Who was I kidding? It had been no secret that I didn’t like him in that way. Travis was adorable and all, but, me and him? It would have never worked out. For one, he absolutely despised my other best friends. Two, if I wasn’t collected or strong enough to move on from Alec and just accept Ian for himself, how could I have moved on to someone completely different? And three…I’d known him for too long. Any feelings of that kind would’ve never come; I was sure of it.
And there’s another thing. How could I not have figured out that he had feelings for me, after all this time? Was I that blind? That naive? Merlin, I was an idiot.
Mentally berating myself, I willed the tears to stop falling. By no means did it work. Another wave of sadness hit me, full force. It wasn’t until after another twenty more minutes bawling my eyes out, did I calm down enough to pick my pathetic self off of the bathroom floor. Soft sobs still going through me at irregular intervals, I decided to clean myself off.
I unlocked the shower room door, opened it slowly, and entered the locker room to get my shower stuff. By the time I was cleaned, three times over, it had become well past an hour since I’d entered, and I had come to a decision.
I would obey Travis’s request and give him as much space as he needed. There would be no chance in him ever forgiving me if I kept bugging him, constantly asking him to accept my apology. I needed to respect his wishes if I wanted to get my friend back.
Finally feeling somewhat collected, I turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around my body. I took my time, getting dressed and fixing my wet, out-of-control hair. Taking one last look at my face in the mirror, I prepared myself for the victory party I was about to attend. I practiced my façade in front of the mirror for a little bit, and then made my way to the castle, broom in hand.
I walked slowly, and when I finally reached my destination and provided the password to the Fat Lady, I took a deep, calming breath before I went through the portrait hole.
I was only granted a few seconds to take in the view before I was surrounded by my teammates, but from what I could tell, the party had been going pretty well without my presence.
“And here she finally is! Jenyse Baccari: the hero of the day!”
My lips twitched slightly as I pulled Benjy down from the chair he was standing on, embarrassed from all the applause I was getting. “What are you talking about, Benjy? You’re the one that won the game, you brilliant Seeker, you.”
“If it wasn’t for that ridiculous steal and awesome score you made last second – which I can’t tell you that I saw, since I was on a Snitch chase –, we wouldn’t have kicked those lousy gits out of the running for the Cup,” he corrected, laying his arm around my shoulders. “Then again, I suppose we could share the glory.” He winked down at me, and then pulled me in for a big hug. He kissed my cheek before releasing me to grab me a Butterbeer.
Not a minute passed before I was attacked by another teammate.
Seth hugged me briefly but excitedly, exclaiming, “You were amazing, Jenyse! That last goal was crazy! Gordon was nowhere near blocking that Quaffle!”
I smiled. “You did great, too, Seth!”
He blushed. “Nahh, I was lousy. I let them score 160 points.”
I gave him a look. “Did James tell you that you were lousy?”
“Well, no, but…”
“Then you weren’t lousy. Case closed.” I shot him another smile and ruffled up his hair.
Seth thanked me bashfully.
Not long after, Benjy came back with my Butterbeer, but didn’t stay to talk, so I was left to wander the common room, looking for James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. I found them, along with Lily, by the food table – figures – and was engulfed in a group hug the moment I was spotted.
Laughing was a bad idea, for it left me with no breath, as my lungs were being crushed by the four boys. “Oxygen!” I dramatically croaked out.
Everyone but Sirius let go.
“Uhh, Sirius? Still…can’t breathe…”
“Right!” he said, finally releasing me. “I’m just glad that you’re alive and unscathed, is all. You prat!” He hit my arm again, just like he did right after the match, on the field.
“Ow! Stop it with the abuse! I won’t be unscathed any longer if you keep hitting me like that.”
“She’s right, Padfoot. We need that incredible arm of hers,” James said with a smile.
Remus pulled me in for another hug, saying, “Thank Merlin you’re alright. You ever try something like that again, I’ll kill you myself if it doesn’t kill you first.”
I chuckled at his concern. “I don’t know what you guys are talking about. That move was completely safe.”
“My arse, it was!” Peter disagreed.
The group of us laughed.
“But, seriously,” Lily cut in, “you’re lucky you pulled that off, Jenyse. That could’ve been a nasty fall.”
“Yeah, I know.” I was getting tired of hearing how dangerous that stunt I pulled was. “Sorry. I had to do it. Benjy was doing his thing and nobody told him to stop. We needed that goal,” I defended.
“Yeah,” James agreed. “I’m just glad you were able to do it without losing me a Chaser.”
I hit James in the chest with the back of my hand. “Thanks for your concern, Captain,” I said sarcastically.
James laughed, obviously still elated, and lifted me up in a hug. “You’re the greatest, Jenyse! And I am honestly very glad to have you here, alive and kicking.”
“You must be starving, Jenyse. You should go get something to eat before these guys eat all of the food,” Lily advised, just as my stomach growled.
It wasn’t until then that I realized that it was well past lunch. I agreed to grab some food, and all of them, but Remus, dispersed to different areas of the room – James and Lily to snog in a corner, and Sirius to entertain a crowd with different play-by-plays of today’s match with the assistance of Peter. Since no one had asked where I was the past hour, I figured James had told them. Sometimes, I really, really loved James.
As I grabbed a plate, I asked Remus jokingly, “How’s your heart? Still beating?”
“Thankfully, yes. You sure gave me a fright. I mean, imagine,” he said theatrically, “a world without Jenyse Baccari.”
“‘Twould be a dull place.”
“Indeed it would.” Remus gave me one last one-armed hug, saying, “I’ve got to go monitor Sirius’s number of Firewhiskeys. See you around?”
“Yep. Go take care of our boy.”
Finally left alone, I filled my plate up with the various sweets – the only type of food there. When I was done, I took my plate and Butterbeer and walked over to the only open seat: the window sill. On my way, I received many congratulations from various people. Thankfully, though, nobody stopped to chat. Reaching my semi-secluded spot, I set down my bottle on the left side of the sill and sat on the right side, sideways, instead of facing out to the room.
Looking around, I could tell that this party was just beginning, even though it had technically started an hour ago. Gryffindors partied hard.
As I was putting my last bit of peach cobbler in my mouth, I saw a head of blonde, curly hair.
Travis was sitting in a chair, alone, not far away from me, near the fireplace, with his chin in his hands, staring into the fire. He looked so distraught. It was almost enough to make me go see if he was okay, but I knew that wouldn’t accomplish anything. I watched as he sighed deeply and changed his position to lean back and slouch in his chair. His one hand moved to massage his temple, while the other rubbed one of his eyes.
Feeling worse and worse, I looked away from him and out the window.
“Trouble in paradise?”
I jumped and momentarily thanked Merlin for the glass preventing me from falling out of the seven story window. Turning to look at the culprit, my glare fell short. “What are you doing in here?”
“It’s a party. I was invited,” Ian replied cheekily from his leaning position against the wall behind me. “Let’s skip the small talk, shall we?” He pushed himself off of the wall to stand in front of me. His face grew serious as he crossed his arms across his chest. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Offended, I replied, “What’s wrong with me?”
“What did you think you were doing, pulling a stunt like that? You could have gotten yourself killed!”
I glowered at him. He would come over to yell at me for that. “I just wanted to get the match over with. I saw an opportunity, so I took it. And what’s it to you if I got myself hurt? It’d be me who would have to deal with the pain,” I spat.
“What, so I’m the bad guy for caring about your safety?”
“Oh, whatever! You’re just mad that I won the game by making my signature move, without the help from you.”
“And what if I am? What were you thinking? You made that stupid, ridiculous stunt to get the Quaffle, almost throwing yourself off of your broom, just to attempt a goal, using a trick that didn’t absolutely guarantee a score?” he fumed.
“It went in, didn’t it?”
He stared at me in furious disbelief. “I can’t believe you.”
“I can’t believe you!” I returned. “Who do you think you are, talking to me like that during the match? You don’t even know what you’re talking about!” Instead of whisper-yelling like we had been doing, I turned in my seat on the window sill to flat-out yell heatedly in his face. Yelling didn’t make a difference when it came to keeping our conversation private, because the volume of the music and several voices throughout the room drowned out our voices.
“So, that was what that whole stunt was about? You went and risked your life because you couldn’t handle the blow of reality? How do you think it felt for me to see you and him, snogging each other’s faces off, the moment I turned twenty years old? Oh, and by the way, incest much, Baccari?”
Shocked by every question he spat out, especially the last, I couldn’t do anything but stare blankly at him. Finally overcoming my senses, I slid down from the window sill to stand right in front of him. I glared up at him for a moment before I spoke. “For your information, the only reason why that kiss happened was because I was caught off guard. Why do you think I ran off the moment I saw you? That kiss meant nothing to me.”
Not being able to take much more and not wanting Ian to see the tear threatening to fall from my eye, I brushed past him. I didn’t get very far before I stopped, catching Travis’s hurt-filled eyes.
Shit. He heard.
“Jenyse?” I vaguely heard from Ian behind me.
Taking to a run, I fled the scene, ignoring Ian’s calls of, “Jenyse, wait!” and James’s drunken calls of, “Hey, Jenyse! You’re alive! Thanks for winning the match! Love you!”
In the comfort of my bed, I fell asleep after letting out a few fresh sobs.
When I woke up, I was shocked to hear the base of the music still playing in the common room. Rubbing the sleep and dried tears out of my eyes, I looked at the clock next to my bed. 11:48 PM. Dammit. It wasn’t even tomorrow yet.
I peered around the room and counted three bodies. Lily’s bed was vacant, so I figured she was still downstairs with James.
Unable to go back to sleep, I daringly decided to check out what was going on downstairs. Pulling my hood up, but not bothering to put my sock-clad feet into shoes, I trudged down the girls’ staircase.
The sight that greeted me shouldn’t have surprised me. The whole floor was a sea of scarlet, covered with sleeping drunken bodies. Taking the last step, onto the floor, my foot accidentally landed on the side of one of the bodies.
“Oughhr,” the boy groaned.
I hastily took my weight off of him by jumping off and landing next to him. “I’m so sorry!”
He groggily ran his hand down his face, revealing the face of Ian Hayes.
I wanted to run back upstairs, but concern won out. I crouched down next to him to see if he was okay.
“Jenyse?” he said sleepily.
“Ian, what are you still doing here?” I asked gently.
“Ugh,” he grunted as he pulled himself up to a sitting position, using the bottom stair. This proved to be a bad idea when the stairs transformed into a flat ramp, causing him to slip back down onto the floor. “Dammit!”
“Here.” I hesitantly took his hands and stood up, pulling him up with me. “Ian, what are you doing here? You should go back to Ravenclaw Tower.”
“No,” he grumbled. “I was waiting for you.” His hand moved to run over his face again to wipe the sleep away. “I tried to ask James and them how to get up the stairs, but they were too drunk to answer.”
I looked in the direction he pointed and found James sprawled on the floor with Lily cuddled up to his side.
“I needed– need to talk to you.”
I let out a quiet laugh. “You could’ve just waited until tomorrow during class…which I hope they all know they have in eight hours,” I said, motioning to all of the sleeping Gryffindors.
“No.” He shook his head. “Now. I need to talk to you now.”
I peered up at him wearily, about to deny him the chance, but changed my mind when I saw the determination in his eyes. I looked around the room and was able to spot all six of the seventh-year boys, including poor Travis, still in his chair by the fire. “Alright, come on,” I said, leading him up the boys’ staircase and into the seventh-year dormitory. I sank onto Sirius’s bed and Ian followed suit, facing me. I waited for him to start.
“Jenyse, I’m sorry for everything I said today.”
“Ian, you don’t have to apologize,” I told him quietly. “You have the right to your own opinions.”
“No. You were right. I didn’t know what I was talking about,” he admitted, looking down. “I don’t know what came over me. I was a real git today. I didn’t have the right to judge you or accuse you of anything. What you do and who you see is none of my business.”
“It’s okay,” I forgave him. Though I knew I should still be mad at him for the things he said to me today, I didn’t have the power to hold the grudge. Hearing him apologize was enough for me to accept his apology.
His eyes snapped up to mine in surprise. “No, really, Jenyse. I’m seriously really sorry. Go date Decker. It’s fine – well, not fine, per se – but, you know…” he stammered.
“Oh, so I need your permission, now, do I?” I joked in a mock-serious voice.
“What? No! I just mean that, if you were to want t-to date Decker, by all means, go ahead.”
I smiled. I liked Ian all flustered, I decided. It was a nice change from the tough-guy front. It reminded me of Alec. “Ian, I’m not dating Travis.”
He stared at me for a moment and then said, “If you and him not being together is in any way because of me, I am sorry. It’s his loss, really.”
The corners of my lips twitched upwards. “I was the one who told him ‘no.’”
Ian just looked confused. “But, last night. You were kissing him.”
I averted my gaze, remembering the scene. “I wasn’t thinking. I was tired. Like I said earlier; he caught me off guard.”
“Hmm,” was all he said.
I returned my gaze to him, tilting my head in wonder. “Why do you care so much, anyway?” The moment the interrogative escaped my mouth, I regretted it and dreaded the answer.
Ian’s hazel-green eyes bore into my plain green. There was something in them that I couldn’t quite place, but for some reason made me think of Alec.
“How could I not, Jenyse?” he whispered, tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear.
My heart beating fast, I turned away again, like the coward that I was. After a moment, I cleared my throat before saying, “It’s late. You should get back to your dorm.”
Letting out a breath, Ian nodded. “You’re right.”
In a comfortable silence, we made our way down the stairs and back into the common room. I walked over to the girls’ staircase, ready to go back up to my bed, but was stopped on the second step, by Ian’s voice.
I turned around to see him standing right in front of me, in the same spot I found him sleeping in, with his hands on the walls of either side of the stairs.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s 11:59, and I think there’s a few seconds left of my birthday. Care to give me that birthday kiss I’ve been waiting for?” He had a smile displayed on his lips and a touch of hope in his eyes.
After a momentary internal struggle, I slowly stepped down to the bottom step, making myself level with him. I saw the excitement flash in his eyes as I placed my right hand on his shoulder. Slowly, I leaned forward until my lips brushed his cheek. Just as the big castle clock which could be heard all over the castle struck twelve, I pulled back.
There was a pleasant mix of pure delight and slight disappointment on his face as I retreated slowly backwards up the stairs with a small smile.
A/N: hey there! so there it was. the scene that Molly Raesly practically wrote was the whole Neesy/Trav scene. thank goodness for her. let me tell you, it is a PAIN to write Quidditch. never again, i say, never again (wink to Adds). i'm actually quite pleased with how this monster came out. sorry for the ridiculous length. i hope it was worth the wait! please leave me a review with critiques, comments, suggestions, and favorite parts! you should know me by now.
thanks so much for reading! see you at the next chapter!
Write a Review A Spectral Memory Untouched: "Trouble in paradise?" | <urn:uuid:27a576ef-77a6-46cc-869e-00fb9b85a892> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?chapterid=407717 | 2013-05-25T05:45:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979722 | 19,247 |
Information for Researchers
Scope and Content
Title: Ella Sterling Mighels papers
Date (inclusive): 1870-1934
Collection Number: MS 1470
Mighels, Ella Sterling, 1853-1934
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in English.
(6.5 linear feet)
Collection located onsite.
Correspondence; diaries (1900-1927), called "soulbooks"; literary manuscripts; four scrapbooks; and miscellaneous papers.
The bulk of the collection consists of typescripts and manuscripts of Mighels' writings and stories. Correspondence includes
letters to and from her second husband, Philip V. Mighels, an author, mainly about personal matters, including finances, real
estate purchases, and literary sales. Many of the letters are from Mrs. Mighels to friends and fellow writers, often identified
by first name or nickname only. Includes papers of Ark-adian Brothers and Sisters of California, a cultural and educational
group for neighborhood children, established by Mighels in her home; and papers of the California Literature Society, of which
Mighels was secretary. Correspondents include Ina Coolbrith, Ann Clark Hart, Clarence M. Hunt, Rockwell D. Hunt, David Starr
Jordan, Carleton Kendall, James D. Phelan, Richard E. White, and League of American Pen Women. Also includes a small amount
of genealogical material. Diaries include two by Mighel's daughter, Genevieve (Viva) Cummins Doan, chronicling a trip to England
(1900-1901). One of the scrapbooks is organized by Mighels' first husband, Adley Cummins (1873) and contains clippings and
information about his mother's death.
Information for Researchers
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the California Historical Society. All requests for permission to publish or quote from
manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the California Historical Society as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], Ella Sterling Mighels Collection, MS 1470. California Historical Society, Manuscript Collection.
National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections Number
Photographs, two postcards, and one lantern slide shelved as MSP 1470.
The Postman's Song, with words by Ellas Sterling Cummins, shelved in Sheet Music Collection, Box 6: 1890-1899.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Ark-adian Brothers and Sisters of California.
California Literature Society.
Cummins, Adley Hooks
Doan, Genevieve (Viva) Cummins
Mighels, Philip V.
American fiction--Women authors
Women authors, American--California
Women authors, American--California--Correspondence
Women Authors, American--California--Diaries
Index to Correspondence
- California Literature Society
- 1919 May 28
- 1926 March 22
Coolbrith, Ina Donna, 1842-1928
- 1913 October 7
- 1914 September 21
- 1914 September 23
- 1914 October 6
- 1914 October 11
- 1916 January 25
- 1916 March 1
- 1916 March 7
- 1916 March 8
- 1915 July 17
- 1916 December 2
- 1916 December 7
- 1916 December 19
- 1917 January 13
- 1917 January 24
- 1917 March 16
- 1917 December 19
- 1918 January
- 1918 May 7
- 1928 March 12
Hart, Ann Clark
- 1921 May 14
- 1921 August 8
- 1926 May 6
Hearst, Phoebe Apperson
Jordan, David Starr, 1851-1931
- 1914 December 29
- 1924 July 22
- 1924 December 10
Mighels, Philip Verril
- 1911 October 16
- 1912 February 14
- 1928 March 12
Phelan, James Duval, 1861-1930
- 1914 January 21
- 1917 September 1
- 1920 October 19
- 1925 August 17
- 1928 January 1
- 1928 January 13
- 1928 June 13
- Race discrimination
- 1911 June 25
- 1916 January 15
- 1920 November 25
- 1920 November 29
- 1924 February 7
- 1926 October 3
- 1927 January 15
- 1927 March 28
- 1928 April 21
- 1926 April 18
- 1932 April 15
- Women - Suffrage
- 1906 July 18
- 1917 September 1
- 1917 October 16
- 1920 June 21
- 1928 April 21
Gift of Edson Adams, Ernestine Adams, and Mrs. Hutchins.
No additions are expected.
Processed by CHS staff.
Ella Sterling Mighels, California pioneer, author and literary historian, was born Ella Sterling Clark in Mormon Island, the
first established California gold mining camp, near Sacramento, on May 5, 1853.
Her father, Sterling Benjamin Franklin Clark of Rutland, Vermont, came to California in 1849 and was propertied, prosperous
and the Alcalde, or judge, of the Sacramento district within three years. He then returned east to marry and bring his bride,
the former Rachel Hepburn Mitchell, to California. Rachel was a native of Philadelphia and the daughter of John Mitchell,
the County Superintendent of Schools.
Several months before Ella's birth, as her parents arrived in California, her father died. Rachel opened the first school
in the Sacramento area and, in 1854, married Dudley H. Haskell, a 49er and member of the first Nevada Legislature (1864).
The Haskells, including Ella's baby stepbrother and stepsisters, lived in Sacramento until 1863 when Rachel and the children
moved to Pennsylvania. Three years later the Haskell family reunited and moved to Aurora (or Esmeralda), Nevada, a Comstock
boom town. They maintained a toll road during the waning years of the town and Mr. Haskell was pleased to accept the position
of railroad land agent in Reno, offered by Leland Stanford in 1869. The Haskell family moved back to Sacramento where Ella
remained until her marriage to Adley H. Cummins in 1872.
Adley Cummins, a native of Chester County, Pennsylvania, came to California in 1869 at the age of nineteen and worked for
several years for the railroad. Cummins was a well known philologist, author, lecturer and lawyer. He was the love of Ella's
life and the father of her only child, a daughter named Genevieve or Viva, born October 17, 1875. The Cummins family traveled
a great deal but maintained a base in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1889, at the age of thirty-nine, Adley died of heart
Ella had spent much of her life writing articles and short stories, but now, following her great loss, she began to work on
a mammoth project, a compendium of early California journalism and literature to be published in 1893 as
The Story of the Files. This same year Ella was appointed Lady Commissioner from San Francisco to the Columbian Exposition.
During the writing of
The Story, Ella met Philip Verril Mighels, a native of Carson City, Nevada, a lawyer by education and a newspaper artist and writer by
trade. They were married in 1896 and moved to London the same year.
In 1901, following the death of Ella's mother, the Mighels family returned to the United States and lived in New York for
several years. Here Ella claims to have persuaded her husband to develop his literary skills. Regardless of her influence,
Philip became an acclaimed novelist and playwright while he continued to work for newspapers.
Viva Cummins married Augustus Doan in 1896 and spent several years at music school in London on a scholarship provided by
Phoebe Hearst. Viva performed as a “Race Impersonator”, singing and dancing in the style of the Native American, Hungarian,
Both Viva and Dudley Haskell died in 1905 and two years later Ella returned to California, never to leave her San Francisco
home again. She and her husband grew apart in temperament and career aspirations, and Ella divorced him in 1910. Philip died
in 1911 as a result of a hunting accident.
During the later part of her life, Ella developed a philosophy called “Ark-adianism”, which reflected her pioneer California
and Victorian up-bringing. She described Ark-adianism as, “...a system of philosophy which substitutes normal things for abnormal
things in every department of life especially the home life” (letter, 5/19/11).
Ella believed in kindness and humanism, in Church and the Bible, in the purity of the white race, in democracy and freedom,
and in the benign dominance of men. She was opposed to moral corruption, “chaos and socialism”, Jewish, Japanese and Black
immigration, scientific education and the medical profession.
She believed that children, who were in a conspiracy against authority, should be kept disciplined, innocent and happy. She
identified a child's seven friends--work, bread, music, art, letters, invention and common sense--and believed that women
should dedicate their lives to the upbringing of children as their mothers had before them. She did not believe in women's
suffrage (“They have no caution, no principles, when it comes to voting”, letter, 9/1/17), and she was opposed to birth control
(“Parents who lend themselves to exercising `Birth Control' are punished for interferring with Nature and they fall victim
to epilepsy, nervous prostration, insanity or lingering death”, letter, 12/28/16).
Children loomed large in Ella's life, and in her later years she developed a neighborhood literary program for the moral uplift
of young people which she named the “Ark-adian Brothers and Sisters”. Her program included providing “books one ought to read”,
and organizing both annual burnings of “bad” books and “potlatches” or gift giving parties. The motto of her little club was
“Thou shalt keep the peace” and she stressed the importance of innocence and happiness among her young neighbors.
In order to bring the children of her club into association with “nice friends”, Ella organized the California Literature
Society which met monthly at the home of Ina Coolbrith, California'a first poet laureate, until 1916, and then met elsewhere
until Ella's death.
As did other writers of her time, Ella identified herself with the early California pioneer spirit, writing constantly, if
not brilliantly, about the kind of pioneer Californians who had rocked her “to sleep in a goldrocker once used to wash the
pay dust from the American river sands” (O'Brien, 1946).
Ella tended to focus more on self-identified “fairy tales” and the mythology of the gold rush than on historical fiction.
Yet whe also wrote as a chronicler of early California literary history and was named “first historian of literary California”
by the state legislature in 1919.
Ella's literary career began at the age of ten, when the Aurora
Union published a fairy story she had written, and she was the first native Californian to publish a novel,
Little Mountain Princess, in 1880. Her best known later works were
The Full Glory of Diantha (1909),
Literary California (1918), an expansion of
The Story of the Files; and
The Story of a Forty-Niner's Daughter (1934). She also authored a play,
Society and Babe Robinson (1914) and persuaded James Phelan to publish her father's travel diary,
How Many Miles From St. Jo? (1929).
Ella occasionally wrote on other subjects of interest to her, such as the importance of maintaining the purity of the white
race (“The Fairy Tale of the White Man”) and the benign dominance of men (“The Mid-Victorian Man”). Most of her works on these
other subjects were in the form of fairy tales or common sense discussions and only a small number were published.
Ella died in 1934 following the publication of
The Story of a Forty-Niner's Daughter, written under the pen name of Aurora Esmeralda. Her autobiography reflected Ella's life long belief that “she was destined
to be the link between the Gold Rush days and the 20th century's brave new world” (O'Brien, 1946).
Cummins, Ella Sterling,
The Story of the Files. World's Fair Commission of California, Columbian Exposition, 1893.
Esmeralda, Aurora (Ella Sterling Mighels),
The Story of a Forty-Niner's Daughter. San Francisco: Harr Wagner Publishing, 1934.
Gudde, Erwin G.,
California Gold Camps. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.
O'Brien, Robert, “Riptides”,
San Francisco Chronicle, December 18, 1946.
Who's Who of Literary America, 1927.
Scope and Content
The Ella Sterling Mighels collection consists of correspondence, diaries, genealogical material, writing and stories, miscellaneous
material and scrap-books.
correspondence includes personal letters between Ella and her family, particularly her second husband, and other personal and business letters.
Some of her letters to others are handwritten or typed, but many are carbon copies of typed letters.
Ella's correspondence with Philip Mighels reflect and describe the course of her second marriage, which ended in divorce in
Ella's other correspondence was generally with authors, publishers, newspaper editors and politicians, including Ina Coolbrith,
James Phelan, David Starr Jordan, Phoebe Hearst, George Sterling, Ann Clark Hart, Harr Wagner, Fremont Older, Douglas Tilden,
Frank Fischer and Carleton Kendall.
She regularly discusses her current literary projects, complaining about her difficulties and frustrations with writing and
publishing, and assigning her works great social and moral value.
She also draws from her background in the California gold rush to discuss her childhood and the history of her family. She
often laments the passage of the pioneer mothers and fathers, their stories, their customs and their memories, and she writes
about being involved in many pioneer remembrance displays, including the erection of a statue of the “Pioneer Mother”.
Throughout much of her correspondence are discussions of her personal philosophy “Ark-adianism”, particularly as it concerns
women, the family and the raising and education of children. Her correspondence also contains references to her neighborhood
neophytes, known as the “Ark-adian Brothers and Sisters”, including several men and women who continued to inform her of their
lives and literary adventures long after they had left her fold.
diaries include two written by Ella's dauthter, Genevieve (Viva) Cummins Doan, chronicling her trip to England (1900-1901). They contain
descriptions of her boat trip, daily activities, studies, entertainment and dance productions as a “Race Impersonator”.
Ella also contributed a number of diaries or “Soulbooks”, which chronicle her thoughts, concerns, writing and daily activities
between 1904 and 1927. The “Soulbooks” contain little sayings (i.e., “Marriage is a custom invented by man for the protection
of woman and the conservation of the family”); copies of her published letters to editors, articles and short stories; letters
received and written; notes to herself (i.e., “Doe the next thyngge”); hand-bills, reviews, articles and ephemera concerning
her published works and her activities; material concerning the construction of a “Pioneer Mothers” statue; descriptions of
family and friends such as Adley Cummins, Philip Mighels, Ina Coolbrith and the Ark-adian Brothers and Sisters; material concerning
the California Literature Society and her title confirmation as “first historian of literary California”; discussions of her
current literary works and publishing problems, her health and financial concerns.
genealogical material includes two family trees of the Mighels family, questions regarding the Clark family and “The Book of the House
of Mitchell”, which contains a genealogy of the Mitchell, Clark and Haskell families. In “The Book”, Ella states, “The descendents
of William Mitchell[UNK]her great-grandfather[UNK]...have produced a race with such marked characteristics that they are a
source of constant inquiry to themselves and to others.”
writing and stories include typed and handwritten drafts of numerous lectures, stories, fairy tales, poems, plays and novels by Ella, such as
“Wawona”, “The Deathless Romance of Herman and Thusnelda”, “The Seven Faithful Fairies”, “Society and Babe Robinson”, “Killarg
and Thotha”, “Seven Men of Borealis”, “The Full Glory of Diantha”, and “Ar Vyvah”, as well as “thoughts and scribblings” on
miscellaneous subjects such as Ark-adian education.
miscellaneous material includes unorganized writing by others, particularly Ella's first husband, Adley Cummins; ephermera, reprints of Ella's articles,
newspaper clippings, and material relating to the California Literature Society and the Ark-adian Brothers and Sisters.
scrapbooks include a scrapbook organized by Adley Cummins (1873), containing newspaper clippings and information about the death of his
Several scrapbooks organized by Ella are also included (1893-1930). These contain published articles by Ella concerning various
subjects, particularly her travels to Alaska, London and the Chicago World's Fair of 1894; reviews of her works, particularly
“The Full Glory of Diantha”; newspaper clippings concerning her divorce from Philip Mighels, and her other activities; and
photographs, letters and ephemera.
Twenty one photographs, two postcards and one lantern slide were transferred to California Historical Society's Photograph
Collection. They include one postcard displaying the “Original idea of the `Children's Statue of the Pioneer Mother”', and
one of the statue “The Nations of the West” from the Panama Pacific International Exposition. They also include two photographs
of a mother an children (posing for the Pioneer Mother statue), one of Ella with her family (?), one of “Hal Haskell, Auburndale,
Mass.”, two of John Mitchell (?), two of Ella, two of Genevieve (Viva) Cummins, one of James Phelan, one of a “Group of Citizens
of Aurora, California (now Aurora, Nev.) taken 1865”, and nine of unknown individuals and places. Also included is one lantern
slide of an unknown individual.
Arranged into six series:
Series 1: Correspondence
Series 2: Diaries
Series 3: Genealogical Material
Series 4: Writing and Stories
Series 5: Miscellaneous Material
Series 6: Scrapbooks | <urn:uuid:d6ebec82-d614-40fd-9692-51a1140d722b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8n39s19q/admin/ | 2013-05-25T05:44:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940271 | 4,220 |
The Beater's Bible
(by Brutus Scrimgeour)
Chapter 1 for "The Beater's Bible"
(by Jenna Hathaway)
If you are reading this book, you are most likely a Beater in a Quidditch team, or you're just curious about those who hold the position. Well, look no further. This book has everything you need to know about Beaters and/or being a good Beater. In a Quidditch team, every single position is important - don't let that Seeker make you think otherwise! It is one common misconception that being the one who just flies around beating Bludgers towards the opposing team is the least important job and the position that needs the least skills. People actually think that anyone can be a Beater? Well, they can't be more wrong.
Being a Beater, as with being a Keeper, Chaser, and Seeker, is an art. There are strategies and calculations, which if done with perfect precision can guarantee the most outstanding results (such as the other team being unable to score at all, NOT the other team having broken bones everywhere, although well, that sometimes cannot be helped). Hitting that Bludger exactly at the right time and with extreme precision towards the Chaser who is intent on scoring could if done correctly, not only knock the Quaffle right out of their hands but also land the ball into the hands of your grateful teammate.
When the other team's Seeker has spotted the Snitch, and you feel that dread knowing that a) this fun match is going to end in a few seconds and b) your team is not going to be the one to win it, what is a Beater to do? If you know your beating techniques, you could totally distract said Seeker until the elusive Snitch disappears from their view again (which is the most annoying thing for a Seeker, but hey, a nice bonus for us right?).
Another common misconception is that if you're a Beater, it means that you're a violent person. Not necessarily. Even if your job IS to beat an enchanted rock around so it can hit people, that doesn't make you a big mean heartless bully. Not unless you let yourself become one! Show how wrong those people are; you can be a classy Beater that has swift movements and accurate swings and still could not hurt a fly! (Well... maybe).
I've seen women playing as Beaters too, even though they're a bit rare, so it's definitely a stereotype that you should prove incorrect. Maybe you feel like you have a Beater calling, but you're going to be the first female Beater in your school history. Well, and why not? Look at the bright side; you get to make history! Be proud and do the previously unthinkable. Prove how capable you are for the job, and maybe more women would feel inspired and follow your footsteps.
Now that I've returned your confidence in your most important position in the wonderful game of Quidditch, read on, and I will share to you all the techniques I know about becoming the best Beater for your team. Your skills are very much needed by your teammates, and you will only show them how dedicated you are by devoting your time to be the greatest player in Beating history. The following chapters await you!
Chapter 2 for "The Beater's Bible"
(by Tarma Black)
Rule One: Take Out the Seeker
Now that the censors have read the Preface and have made sure that this is an appropriate book for school-aged children -- and since they probably stopped reading in the Preface -- we can get down to brass tacks.
Rule One is this: take out the Seeker
The Seeker of the opposing team is the one person that you need to remove from the playing field. Use any method that you can get away with in order to remove that potential earner of 150 points.
Always be aware of the location of the Referee. The Referee can throw you out of the game, mandate a penalty shot for the opposing team, call a time out, or all of the above. So whatever you do, make sure the Referee doesn't see what you are doing if at all possible.
There are several possible techniques that one can use to eliminate the Seeker. Some of these methods are listed as illegal so it is best if both Beaters work in concert in this endeavour. One of the Beaters gains the attention of the Referee in some innocuous manner while the other does his or her best to get rid of that opposing Seeker.
One of the best ways to take out the Seeker is to simply hit a bludger towards them and hope that it hits a vital spot. A broken nose can greatly impair visibility. A concussion makes it hard to focus one's eyes to see the Snitch. Even smashing the broom tail can cause the broomstick flight to be unreliable.
Another method of taking out the Seeker is to simply run into them with your own broomstick. You need to be careful with this technique as it's best that you remain in the game even if the Seeker has to retire because of injuries. Do not damage your own broomstick (or your own body for that matter) unless it is absolutely vital.
An exquisite method of taking out the Seeker is the infamous Portescue's Ploy. It's difficult to manage and takes an incredible amount of timing, but if you can manage it, it's foolproof. Named after Ivanova Portescue, it is simply managing to get an opposing Chaser to run into their own Seeker. Ms. Portescue managed this by waiting for the Seeker to come into her territory, then she sent a bludger after the Chaser, angled such that the Chaser darted away from the speeding bludger and into their own Seeker.
If the Referee is at the opposite end of the playing field, two Beaters are able to do many things that might take out the Seeker. Often it is sufficient to trap them in a squeeze; one Beater flies alongside the Seeker and the other then flies directly on the other side and the two Beaters then squeeze the Seeker. If the Seeker panics, they can lose control of their broomstick. Losing control of a broomstick going 120 miles an hour can have interesting consequences. Be sure to stay out of the way of the consequences. Again, your own team needs to have both Beaters functioning!
Something else that two Beaters, working in concert, can do is use a summoning charm on the iron bludger. This is illegal (Quidditch foul number 437) so don't get caught. One Beater hits the bludger close to the Seeker. The other Beater has positioned himself or herself on the opposite side of the Seeker and when the Seeker is between the bludger and the other Beater, that Beater summons the bludger to him- or herself. With correct timing, that bludger will smash into the Seeker and no one will know the difference as long as no one was watching.
No matter how it is done, remember that the first rule is always:
Take out the Seeker.
If a censor has read this chapter, please be aware that everything in it is just kidding. I am not advocating such violent behaviors and heartily recommend that anyone who would act in such ways go to St. Mungo's for a checkup.
Chapter 3 for "The Beater's Bible"
(by Katie Gryffin)
Rule Two: Protect Your Team
Being a Beater isn’t all about injuring the other team; it is also protecting your team from the opposing Beaters. Although Rule One is to take out the Seeker, do you want your Seeker to be taken out? I thought not.
Always keep a close watch on the Bludgers and the opposing Beaters, especially when one of your team members is about to make a vital move, such as attempting to score a goal or catch the snitch. Make sure that they are not in any danger from Bludgers.
Although Seekers often boast of having the sharpest eyes, it is not always so. You should have equally sharp eyes, and it is not only the various enchanted balls that you have to watch. You should also pay attention to opposing Beater’s body language and facial expressions, as these can often give away the actions they are about to take against your team. The more you play Quidditch, the more of these signs you will pick up, but here are some of the most common ones:
*Concentrating gaze on a particular player - They are probably going to send the Bludger shooting towards them.
*Broomstick is facing one payer - Same as above
*Looking very angry if a goal has been scored or the snitch caught - Rush to protect the Chaser or Seeker, even if the game has finished; the Beaters may take violent actions.
There are many more signs, but they do not apply to all players. Particular players may have their own signals, such as clutching their pat harder, or snarling.
In the event that a Bludger comes dangerously close to a teammate, you know what to do. Smash your club into it as hard as you can in the direction of the opposite team. However, make sure that you focus on accuracy as well as power; you do NOT want to injure one of your own team. (Not only will this decrease your chances of a win, but you will be the victim of much teasing and insulting after the match has ended.)
As a Beater, you don’t only need to protect your team from Bludgers, but other dangers as well. If one of your players is having trouble controlling their broomstick, it is your job to be circling underneath them, ready to catch them if they fall. Meanwhile, The other beater can take charge over the Bludgers.
Chapter 4 for "The Beater's Bible"
(by Alexander Backwood)
Rule Three: Work as a team
You may think: oh dear, that’s a lot of tasks for one man. Take out the seeker, protect your own, catch falling members. Remember though that there are two beaters in a team. You don’t have to do it all by yourself.
BUT, this only works to your advantage if you work together. As much as you have to keep an eye on opposing beaters, you should keep contact with your brother in arms. There are some pretty neat manoeuvres that you can do together.
For example, even the best Beaters have a problem with accuracy when it comes to hitting over long distances. The chance of the Bludger going after another player, possibly even your own teammate, increases as the distance becomes greater. Not only that, but just hitting the ball in the right direction becomes an art in itself. You can make it easier on yourself. While the other Beater stays close to potential targets, you go after the Bludger, and then you hit it in the general direction of your co-Beater. He or she is then able to steer it far more accurately than you could ever have done. The target won’t stand a chance. Practice this.
Enough beaters have broken their noses by failing to see a Bludger coming towards them. Keep in touch with each other. Develop an instinct for each others intents and plans. There is a reason why some of the best Beater-teams are brothers and sisters. They have been developing that synergy since their childhood.
Cooperating with your chasers is another beneficial tactic. Fly in a fixed formation with the Chaser that has the Quaffle (preferably one beater on each side). In the best case, you won’t bother him or her while giving them optimal protection at the same time. This requires a lot of training though. There are a lot of cases where beaters have impaired their own team from scoring. We don’t want that, now do we?
So, always keep this in mind. Teamwork is cool, and can give you a big advantage. Besides, the fans love it! Just make sure you are well trained for it. Your team won’t be happy if you break your co-Beater’s nose with a well-meant but badly enacted Bludger-pass.
Chapter 5 for "The Beater's Bible"
(by Aaron Kingsley)
Rule Four: Protect the Goal
If the defense could use a little help, a beater or two can make a big difference on defense. There are several ways that you can set your beaters up on defense:
One back one forward: Position one beater to protect a zone around midfield, and the other towards the goal. If your Quidditch team has the Quaffle, you will not need to play this zone, but be aware of the ball’s possession. As your team flies to the goal, cover the chasers’ flanks as the advance towards the goal posts.
One left one right: Set one beater on the right hand side of the Quidditch field close to the goals and the other on the left. This formation is strongest when the offense tries to go down the middle. It’s also quite effective on the sides. If the keeper can’t get to the goal in time, the beaters can hit Bludgers at the incoming chasers in order to give the keeper some time. Once your team has the Quaffle, you can move the beaters up to midfield and play the zone there.
One up one down: Place on beater at a higher altitude than the other. That way if someone tries to attack from above, a beater is right there waiting for them. The one lower will be responsible for all the players at low altitudes. These players are often overlooked because when people play Quidditch, they usually pay attention to what’s in front of them. A good Quidditch player does not only pay attention to what’s in front of them, but also what’s AROUND them.
Goal Zone: Using any of the stated zones above, set the beaters close to the goal. This way the beaters actually become two keepers, but are able to hit Bludgers! This is not against the Quidditch rules AS LONG AS the beaters don’t touch the Quaffle.
Chapter 6 for "The Beater's Bible"
(by Madeline Bronte)
Rule Five: Never Hit the Referee (Directly)
Whenever people think of Beaters they also think of 2 other things; a referee and said referee’s face being hit by the Bludger. Ah yes, this feud between the Beater and the Referee that has been going on for centuries and is nearly as exciting as Quidditch itself. In actual fact, unless the Referee is being deliberately annoying, we Beaters don’t usually get too wound up. The only problem is they are ALWAYS deliberately annoying. A famous ‘referee/beater’ fight is that of the Puddlemere United Beater, Maxwell Montmerry and referee Casper Drake in 1815. Puddlemere were playing the Appleby Arrows and Drake kept awarding the Arrows free shots until Montmerry snapped, hit the Bludger at Drake, breaking his nose and giving him concussion. Drake retired from refereeing soon after and Montmerry was banned from the rest of the season.
Basically, hitting the referee will ALWAYS get you suspended, so the best advice to give is, don’t do it. Even if the referee has decided to not count any points your team has scored and has given the opposite team 1000 points instead (believe me it’s happened). If you so much as tap the referee you will be suspended and everybody will hate you so it’s best not to do it. The rules clearly state ‘No physical contact to be made’. What they do not say is ‘Do not aim the ball at the referee, so as to scare him but not hurt him.’ Here are the top three on how to do just that.
1) Hit The Ball On An Angle
This is probably the easiest move to do. Fly to one side of the referee and simply throw the ball up and hit it using a circular motion with your arm. The ball should follow that motion, going in a semi circle. If you have done this correctly and are not directly in front of the referee (that is a very important point to stress) the ball should soar straight in front of the referee, startling him.
2) Play Catch With Yourself
For this move to work you need to be extremely fast. Go directly in front of the referee and hit the ball so it goes hurtling towards him. Then, fly towards him very quickly, stop straight in front of him and hit the ball in the opposite direction. If he asks what you were doing simply tell him ‘I was playing catch seeing as how there’s nothing to do and you got in my way.’
3) Whoops, Didn’t See You There
This move requires excellent teamwork. One Beater hits the ball as hard and as fast as he can. The other waits behind the referee. As soon as the first Beater has hit the ball, the second knocks the referee’s broomstick, spinning him around. Stop him right before the Bludger reaches him and hit it back to the first beater, casually saying ‘Whoops didn’t see you there!’
These moves should ensure the referee never favours the other team again.
Chapter 7 for "The Beater's Bible"
(by Ariel Short)
Rule Six: Secure a Good Hit
Knowing the rules of the game is only the beginning of this fabulous sport. Rules are easy to understand, and it’s a fair assumption that most of the wizarding world (and thus you) already knows basics of Quidditch.
But let’s face it; famous Beaters did not achieve their fame because they passed a rule test. It was because their strategies and techniques helped them lead their teams to success. And don’t forget power! Who doesn’t know of Jamison Manovich’s spectacular hit in 1974, forcing the bludger out of the Quidditch pit so far that it didn’t return for a good full five minutes?
This, my super beater wannabes, is what will make your name one everyone will remember.
So how can you manage to perform so wonderfully in a game? There are four simple things to be aware of:
4) Arm Strength
Timing - Make sure that you swing at the right time. If you swing your bat too early or too late not only will you miss your chance at aiming a bludger at an opposing Chaser to prevent him from scoring. There’s also the chance that the ball will hit you. It’s not a pleasant feeling, as bludgers seem to have a personal vendetta against Beaters and like to physically act on it when able.
Position – Where on the bat you hit the bludger makes a big difference as well. Close to the handle and close to the tip, and the angle the bludger takes off at is hard to control. Also, the closer you are to the handle, the weaker the power. The best spot to hit the bludger with is a hand width from the tip. It’s also best to hit the bludger with the bat to your side, not in front of you to allow full use of your arms and shoulders.
Grip – A poor grip equals poor power, and a super weak grip could result in you dropping your bat when it hits a bludger. All not good things. Most beaters use a one handed grip in their dominant hand. A two handed grip does result in a more powerful hit, but its maneuverability and aiming decrease. Bludgers don’t always move in a straight path, and a one-hand grip makes it more likely to hit the ball as it allows you to stretch out if you need to and use your other hand for balance. A tighter grip also improves aim, and don’t forget to follow through! Keep in mind that different people prefer different grips. Frogins Fald was known for hitting bludgers with a three-fingered grip, though most beaters use their whole hand.
Arm Strength – If you have a strong arm, you’ll be able to make fabulous, goal saving hits with a one handed grip. The first priority is to hit the bludger (especially when protecting a teammate) but the second is to make sure it reaches your target (say, you’re opponent’s seeker). Good beaters make sure both arms have a similar strength, in case a bludger approaches them on their weak side. Also keep in mind that the larger your swing, the more power there will be behind it.
Chapter 8 for "The Beater's Bible"
(by Malik Carter)
Rule Seven: Initiate the Offense
Beaters are not only defensive players, but can play offensively as well. To be the most affective, beaters must first make sure their chasers have the possession of the quaffle. It does the team no good if the beaters are harassing the keeper if the rest of opposing team is down field attempting to score.
Once the quaffle is secured, protect the chasers from incoming bludgers; make powerful counters and take time to set up the shot. On offense, it’s very important that your bludgers find their marks. It will make both your job and the chasers’ job easier. Begin taking out the opposing beaters. This will be difficult since they have the ability to counter your bludgers, so be careful with how much time is spent trying to get rid of them. From the beaters, it is recommended to take out the most dangerous chaser. The most dangerous chaser is characterized as the chaser who is in position to steal the quaffle. Since their attention is focused on your chaser, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get rid of them. Continue to take out the chasers and counter any incoming bludgers as you approach the keeper. Once you reach the three goals, this is where it starts to get tricky.
The best situation when you approach the goals is to have all your beaters and chasers there, but this rarely happens. But when it does, you have to be able to seize the opportunity and score. Set one beater head on with the keeper and assign chasers to each hoop. The other beater should guard the rear and counter any bludgers coming from behind the formation. The combination of the beater and three chasers will be too overwhelming for the keeper, and the quaffle will soon be seen passing through one of the three hoops.
But as it was stated before, that is considered the best case scenario. In most cases you will probably have one or two chasers and a beater down field, if you’re lucky.
With one chaser, the chance of scoring is greatly decreased. However, if a beater is able to send a bludger down field, it should allow enough time for the chaser to score.
With two chasers, the chance is considerably greater, especially if a beater accompanies them. The chasers can juggle the quaffle between the two of them while the beater distracts the keeper.
There are many more complex offensive strategies for a quidditch team that are beater-orientated, but for a beginning or experienced beater, these plans will get you more goals for your team than what you would think.
Chapter 9 for "The Beater's Bible"
(by Lynete Vanderbuilt)
Rule Eight: Utilize Moves and Fouls...
...Just do not let the referee catch you! The beater is a crucial team member in Quidditch. Not only do you protect your team, but you also try to prevent your opponents from winning the match. Sometimes, hitting a bludger against the opposing team player is not enough, even if you take them out. Perhaps the others are too strong or the hitting ball does not have the desired effect. At that time, a beater must forget the ordinary 'hit it with the bat' technique, but has to resort to tricky moves and fouls to stop the opposing team. This chapter lists some of those, but as a player, you have to be careful not to get caught! You cannot afford to get a temporary or permanent ban from the sport, because your team will be lost.
There are two moves that beaters can use to effectively put a player out of the game or surprise them into dropping the quaffle. The Dobblebeater Defence is a move, where both beaters strike a bludger at the same moment. That way, the force of the flying ball is higher and causes a lot more damage than it would normally do. If this bludger hits, it is guaranteed that the opposing player will be knocked out of the game for good.
The next move, if executed perfectly, will certainly manage to confuse other players. Bludger Backbeat is a move, where the beater hits the bludger with the bat, but rather than sending it forwards, it will go behind him or her. This is one of the hardest moves to do, and is mostly used for keeping the bludgers away from your team, rather than hitting others.
Cannot hit that speeding ball? One of the opposing beaters is aiming for your seeker? Do not know where your partner is or what are they doing? Those are the circumstances that call for the use of fouls. When deliberately stopping your opponents with one of the seven hundred forbidden ways, you have to remember three simple rules.
Rule 1: Don't get caught!
It is imperative that you do not get caught! Not only are you in danger of being disqualified, but the opposing chasers can get a free shot at your goal posts, with a high possibility of increasing their chances of victory. So, when using fouls, never forget looking at a referee to see if they are paying attention. If not, go for it and protect your teammates.
Rule 2: Don't use your wand!
Although most of the Quidditch fouls deal with certain uses of spells, do NOT use your wand. It is the easiest way to get caught, because of a simple Priori Incantatem spell will reveal any spell that came out of your wand. Use your body and broom when resorting to fouls!
Rule 3: Have a good aim!
Last but certainly not least, have a good aim. When cobbing, bumphing, blatching and blagging, it is very important to hit right on the spot. That way you can be certain of the stop in the game or taking out the opponent.
Chapter 10 for "The Beater's Bible"
(by Katie Sanders)
Rule Nine: Have Fun and Look Good
Now that we have covered all of the basics concerning the optimal play strategy and how to perfect your gameplay, it’s time to focus on your play style. Let’s face it, everyone talks about seekers, but we all know that beaters are the most athletic, talented, and more often than not attractive members of any Quidditch time, so why not show it? Having some style in your play will separate you from the rest, help you build your fan base, and even improve your skills as a player, if done right.
The most important thing to remember about style is that every player has a unique one. Some are aggressive, some are light and fluffy, there have even been a few beaters throughout history who have been described as “flirty” players, it all depends on your goals and skills. Listed below are a few popular tricks, but feel free to explore, adapt, and find what works best for you. Just remember, don’t do something simply because it looks cool. Make sure that not only is it not hindering your gameplay, but that you are sure you can execute these tricks in a way that is safe…or at the very least, won’t get you killed.
This move seems simple, but is quite hard to master. The basic mechanics involve being able to shift your weight to one side of your broom to the point where you start to slide down, and then quickly be able to maneuver yourself and your weight all to the other side so as to pull yourself up. Anyone who has had to practice dodging techniques, such as a beater, should pick this up quickly.
The reason this one is so difficult comes into when you actually hit the bludger. If the move is executed correctly, the ball will spin as well. If the move is done well, this can work to your advantage by creating a nice spin, thus a harder hit, plus more difficult to dodge. However, if you’re not careful, you will simply cause the ball to spin out of control. Do not attempt this on the field until you are sure you have mastered ball control, otherwise you will let your team down and disappoint your fans.
Standing on Your Broom
This will not be easy, and a lot of practice will be required, but there is also a lot of reward with it.
Not many people can stand on their broom when flying. However, if you can pull it off, and manage to execute some good hits, you’re golden. The key to this is balance balance balance. You have to start small, muggle gyms often have contraptions called balance beams which they use for their sports. Try and locate that and practice on that. If you have the muggle money, they even often have teachers for this. If you don’t want to work with muggles, that’s fine. Any narrow raised platform will work. Start low to the ground for safety purposes, then work your way up.
The key’s to standing on a broom are:
Always have two feet on your broom unless you are attempting a flip (and that comes long after you’ve mastered standing, keep both feet on your broom. No fancy one-footedness here. Any professional Quidditch player or trick rider will tell you that just shifts your weight too dangerously to one side. Don’t get cocky.
Prepare for recoil I’m sure each and every one of you has felt a little bit of pushback when hitting a bludger with a lot of force, now imagine that standing! You have much less grip on your broom, and thus less balance after you hit. You can learn how to compensate for this, but it’s hard. One suggestion is buying Quidditch shoes with a higher than average grip, sold at specialty stores.
Know your limits I cannot stress this one enough. Each beater is different and thus has a different play style and range of abilities. Don’t just try something because an idol does it, know where you stand. You’ll get everything in time, do not rush it.
Being a beater is all about having fun. Adding a little style to your game will only help that. Try and discover your unique play style, don’t just copy your mate’s. In time, you’ll find it, and you’ll be better liked by both fans and players for it.
Chapter 11 for "The Beater's Bible"
(by Ian Carson)
Dealing With Loss
Whether you're the star beater on your Quidditch team or not, you're probably going to lose once in a while. Losing is something you should learn to accept in the game of Quidditch. Following are some steps to help your cope for loss.
1. Hope for the Best; Prepare for the Worst
You should always go into a game determined to win, but not so determined that a loss will emotionally damage you. Keep your head held high, but not high enough that you get your head stuck in the clouds. Being arrogant can blind you. You'll underestimate the opponents and get caught off guard.
2. Accept It
Accepting your loss is the first step to take in going back to normal. You need to come to terms with how and why you lost. Maybe think about things you could have done better and make a list so you can improve in the specific areas.
3. Try to Correct It
As I stated before, going over why you lost is crucial. You don't want to lose the same way twice, right? If you focus on why you lost, it will also help you to come with terms with accepting your loss. You can improve personal, and team performance as a whole by doing this step.
4. Move On
The forth and final step is to move on. You lost, right? Ok.... Now what? The answer is. Move on! Forget about it. You've practiced, right? It shouldn't happen again. You can't go back in time to change what happened. What has been done has been done. Your team as a whole needs to move on as well. One bad apple spoils the bunch.
In conclusion of this chapter, you should remember that you probably won't win at everything. Accept that you lost. Correct it. Then move on. I hope this chapter has helped you, or will help you deal with loss. Good luck! | <urn:uuid:19271d24-08cd-40f6-b05f-fcf9ad31d01c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hol.org.uk/library_writing.php?view=write&readbook=94 | 2013-06-19T19:05:05Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962688 | 7,063 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
|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 |
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 |
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 |
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.
FISHER, Circuit Judge: | <urn:uuid:2812fecb-5df0-4d4d-8c5b-e08e526bdc00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1603714.html | 2013-05-23T11:34:34Z | 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 | 0.931317 | 14,328 |
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.
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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 |
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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 |
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 |
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.
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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.
Mississippi State NEWS | <urn:uuid:5de1451a-e26b-4970-8d27-19a997d84f2b> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | https://mississippistate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1469561&PT=4&PR=2 | 2015-03-29T00:14:07Z | 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 | 0.956046 | 6,194 |
||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 |
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 |
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 |
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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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 |
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 |
Newsletter - June 2004
- Advisory News
- Current Events, News and Journal Articles
- Meetings and Conferences
- For More Information
Note: The following summaries are based on articles from the press and from peer-reviewed publications, and they represent the opinions of the original authors. The views of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government.
Recent Advisory News
- Michigan cuts fish advisory program
The The Grand Rapids Press is reporting that the fish advisory program in the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) has not been funded by the state legislature. "The legislature removed the $350,000 for that program two years ago. We borrowed from different areas to produce (the advisory) last year, but now there is no place to go," said T.J. Buchholz, the spokesperson for the MDCH. "We aren't planning to update it," said Buchholz. "We believe the fish advisory is very important for helping the public understand the health risks, but do we fund that or Medicaid? When you choose between the advisory or dental service, or going into a nursing home, the fish advisory seems less important." Bob Day, with the Michigan DEQ's Fish Contaminant Monitoring Program, said "We are finding that mercury concentrations are going down in some inland waters, places that we could exempt certain species from the mercury advisory. But at Great Lake sites, it's just the opposite, it seems to be going up." Day is the man who samples the fish for contaminants. His sends his recommendations to MDCH for consideration. But the MDCH scientist no longer works on the project, according to Buchholz. That person now works on on other issues.
Source: Howard Meyerson. State cuts fish advisory program. The Grand Rapids Press, May 29, 2004
- Signs Warn Visitors About Contaminated Fish at Lake Crabtree, NC
The U.S. EPA found high levels of PCBs in catfish and carp in Lake Crabtree, a popular fishing spot, and Brier Creek, North Carolina. The contamination was discovered during an investigation of Ward Transformer Sales & Service Inc., prompting the state to post warnings about eating contaminated fish from the affected waterbodies. In 1978, a contractor hired by Ward Transformer sprayed 30,000 gallons of oil contaminated with PCBs along more than 200 miles of rural roadsides in 14 counties. Robert "Buck" Ward, father of the company's current president, eventually was convicted of federal charges involving illegal dumping of toxic waste and served nine months in a federal prison. EPA officials are studying the pollution to develop a plan for cleaning up the 11-acre Ward site, which was put on the Superfund national priority list in April 2003. Lake Crabtree park rangers have posted signs and handed out flyers in English and Spanish in the area warning the public not to eat catfish or carp, and to limit meals of other fish from the lake to just one a month.
Source: Signs Warn Visitors About Contaminated Fish at Lake Crabtree. The Associated Press, May 21, 2004.
- Montana agency to kill 478,000 fish contaminated with PCBs
Montana wildlife officials plan to destroy nearly a half-million farm-raised trout and salmon that became contaminated with PCBs, apparently from paint used at Montana's largest hatchery. The PCB-laden paint was applied more than 25 years ago to the walls of the fish tanks at the Big Springs Trout Hatchery in Lewiston, where the trout and salmon are raised to help stock lakes along the Missouri River. The fish to be destroyed are contaminated at levels ranging from .029 to 1.69 parts per million, state fisheries chief Chris Hunter said. Health guidelines indicate people can safely eat one fish meal a week at PCB levels to .10 ppm, and one a month at levels between .11 and .47. The hatchery produces about half of the fish for Montana's stocking program. For more information, visit the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks website: http://www.fwp.state.mt.us.
Source: Montana agency to kill 478,000 fish contaminated with PCBs By SUSAN GALLAGHER, Associated Press, 5/14/04
- California issues new advisories for mercury
Mercury from California's Gold Rush days is lingering in three waterways flowing from the coastal mountains northeast of San Francisco, prompting warnings Tuesday from state health officials. The California Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) issued a draft advisory warning against consuming too much fish from Clear Lake, Cache Creek and Bear Creek in Lake, Yolo and Colusa counties, respectively. The draft advisory recommends that no one eat any fish or shellfish from Bear Creek, a 39-mile-long tributary of Cache Creek. For Clear Lake and Cache Creek, the draft advisory recommends women of childbearing age and children age 17 and younger eat bass, catfish and certain other fish no more than once a month, and men and women beyond childbearing age no more than once a week. If none of those fish are eaten, women of childbearing age and children 17 years and younger can have one meal a week of bluegill, hitch, carp, trout or crayfish, while women beyond childbearing age and adult men can have up to three meals a week of those fish. An advisory has been in place since 1987 for Clear Lake, but the new proposal includes the entire 81-mile length of Cache Creek from Clear Lake to the Yolo Bypass of the Sacramento River, as well as the North Fork of Cache Creek and all of Bear Creek. Mercury was mined in the Clear Lake area starting in the mid-1800s. State scientists planned to discuss the draft advisory at the Lake County Coordinating Resource Management Committee meeting in Clearlake. The public has until June 16 to comment.
Source: Mercury, a Gold Rush legacy, haunting coastal creeks. Don Thompson, ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 11, 2004
Current Events, News and Journal Articles
- Potential exposure to PCBs, DDT, and PBDEs from sport-caught fish consumption in relation to breast cancer risk in Wisconsin
In Wisconsin, consumption of Great Lakes fish is an important source of exposure to PCBs, DDT, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and other halogenated hydrocarbons, all of which may act as potential risk factors for breast cancer. The authors of this study examined the association between sport-caught fish consumption and breast cancer incidence as part of an ongoing population-based case-control study. The researchers identified 1,481 breast cancer cases 20-69 years of age whowere diagnosed in 1998-2000 from the Wisconsin Cancer Reporting System. Female controls of similar age were randomly selected from population lists (n = 1,301). Information about all sport-caught (Great Lakes and other lakes) fish consumption and breast cancer risk factors was obtained through telephone interviews. After adjustment for known and suspected risk factors, the relative risk of breast cancer for women who had recently consumed sport-caught fish was similar to women who had never eaten sport-caught fish. Frequency of consumption and location of sport-caught fish were not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Recent consumption of Great Lakes fish was not associated with postmenopausal breast cancer, whereas risk associated with premenopausal breast cancer was elevated. In this study the authors found no overall association between recent consumption of sport-caught fish and breast cancer, although they suggest there may be an increased breast cancer risk for subgroups of women who are young and/or premenopausal.
Source: McElroy JA, Kanarek MS, Trentham-Dietz A, Robert SA, Hampton JM, Newcomb PA, Anderson HA, Remington PL. 2004. Potential exposure to PCBs, DDT, and PBDEs from sport-caught fish consumption in relation to breast cancer risk in Wisconsin. Environ Health Perspect 2004 Feb;112(2):156-62.
- Fish consumption and other environmental exposures and their associations with serum PCB concentrations among Mohawk women at Akwesasne
A study was conducted with the objective of assessing how dietary, occupational, and residential exposures to PCBs contribute to body burden among pregnant Mohawk women residing near three hazardous waste sites. From 1992 to 1995, 111 pregnant women were interviewed about fish consumption and other environmental risk factors and donated a 20-mL venous blood sample for serum PCB analysis. To supplement previous fish sampling, samples of residential soil, ambient air, wild duck, and local meats and vegetables were also collected and analyzed for PCBs. The results indicated a significant decline in local fish consumption from an annual mean of 31.3 meals more than 1 year prior to pregnancy to an annualized mean of 11.7 meals during pregnancy. This change was reportedly a result of the advisories issued against consumption of local fish by pregnant and nursing women of childbearing age. The geometric mean concentration of total PCBs in the serum was 1.2 ppb, a level that is similar to that in other studies of women with no unusual exposures to PCBs. However, multiple regression analysis revealed that serum levels of total PCBs and three individual congeners were associated with local fish consumption. The PCB levels in soil, air, and local foodstuffs other than fish generally were not elevated, except for those obtained in close proximity to one of the hazardous waste sites, and no association was found between serum PCB levels and exposure through these media or through occupation.
Source: Fitzgerald EF, Hwang SA, Langguth K, Cayo M, Yang BZ, Bush B, Worswick P, Lauzon T. 2004. Fish consumption and other environmental exposures and their associations with serum PCB concentrations among Mohawk women at Akwesasne. Environ Res 2004 Feb;94(2):160-70.
- Wild salmon prices rise as consumers turn away from farmed fish
Over the past two years, campaigns have promoted the health, taste and environmental benefits of ocean-caught salmon. Scientific studies have found higher levels of PCBs in farmed salmon. And new laws are highlighting the origin of salmon for consumers. The convergence of all those factors has pushed wild salmon prices back up to the high prices seen in the late 1980s. Higher prices have made some middlemen balky, but strong demand has brought them around, said Scott Adams, production manager for Hallmark Fisheries in Charleston, Oregon. "I call a guy up and he'll say, 'I'm not buying fish at that price.' An hour later he calls back and asks if I have any fish left," Adams said. "It's amazing. It goes to show you people want to eat certain things." Fish marketing consultant Howard Johnson of H.M. Johnson & Associates has tracked a slight increase in farmed salmon prices, but noted that wild prices are up much more. He added that the buzz was all wild salmon at this year's International Boston Seafood Show, where Legal Sea Foods, a Boston-based chain of 26 restaurants, announced a new line of wild Alaskan salmon dishes. "What we have now is an informed public that wants our product," said fisherman Daryl Bogardus. "Instead of taking a back seat to farmed fish, we're getting the price we should." Surveys in Oregon have tracked a steep rise in consumer preference for wild fish, said EcoTrust Vice President Eileen Brady. In 2002, when asked what salmon they would choose at the grocery or a restaurant, 29 percent said wild salmon, 26 percent farmed salmon, and 35 percent had no preference, according to the survey done by Riley Research Associates of Portland. This year, 58 percent preferred wild salmon, and 10 percent farmed. "You throw in the PCBs in salmon, with mad cow, with the Asian bird flu, and you have a customer base that's waking up, searching for a healthier quality alternative, and of course wanting to support the local economy," Brady said.
Source: Wild salmon prices rise as consumers turn away from farmed fish. JEFF BARNARD, Associated Press, 5/5/2004.
- Mercury levels in marine and estuarine fishes of Florida: 1989-2001
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - Florida Marine Research Institute (FWC-FMRI) recently published a technical report regarding total mercury levels in marine and estuarine fishes from Florida waters. FWC-FMRI has examined total mercury levels in muscle tissue from a variety of economically and ecologically important fish species as part of an ongoing study to better understand mercury contamination in marine fishes. The FWC-FMRI Mercury Program is one of the most comprehensive programs in the United States for monitoring mercury levels in marine and estuarine fishes. The authors examined the concentration of total mercury in 6,806 fish, representing 108 marine and estuarine species from 40 families. Species represented all major trophic groups, from primary consumers to apex predators. The majority of individuals examined contained low concentrations of mercury, but concentrations in individual fish varied greatly within and among species. Species with very low mean or median mercury concentrations tended to be planktivores, detritivores, species that feed on invertebrates, or species that feed on invertebrates and small fish prey. Apex predators typically had the highest mercury concentrations. In most species, mercury concentration increased as fish size increased. Sampling in Florida waters is continuing, and future research relating mercury levels to fish age, feeding ecology, and the trophic structure of Florida's marine and estuarine ecosystems will help us better understand concentrations of this element in marine fishes. Copies of the report can be obtained from: FWC-FMRI (Attn: Librarian) 100 8th Ave. SE St. Petersburg, FL 33701-5020 or by sending a request to: [email protected]
Source: Adams, D. H., R. H. McMichael, Jr., and G. E. Henderson. 2003. Mercury levels in marine and estuarine fishes of Florida: 1989-2001. Fla. Mar. Res. Inst. Tech. Rep. TR-9. 2nd ed. rev. St. Petersburg, FL. 57 pp.
- Michigan DEQ to sample for Midland dioxin contamination
Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will collect soil samples and test for the presence of unsafe levels of dioxin in the city of Midland this summer. Previous results show dioxin is likely to be in excess of the state standard of 90 parts per trillion as far as two miles from the Dow Chemical Co. plant. City officials estimate that 8,800 homes and 21,300 people - nearly half of Midland's population - could be affected by DEQ regulations and Dow cleanup requirements. The city wants a health study to determine whether dioxin exposure has affected the community. It also wants the DEQ to note in advance what remediation actions will be required and at what levels. DEQ Deputy Director Jim Sygo says Midland property owners likely will be subject to a "facility" label that will require them to disclose information about contamination to potential buyers. That is the same label applied to residents in the Tittabawassee River floodplain dealing with dioxin contamination. More than 300 plaintiffs are suing Dow over the contamination. The lawsuit seeks damages for lost property value and seeks establishment of a medical monitoring trust fund.
Source: DEQ isn't backing down on Midland dioxin contamination. Associated Press. May 10, 2004
- Fish consumption, mercury exposure, and heart diseases
There is increasing concern regarding methylmercury exposure in populations that consume large amounts of fish. This situation poses a dilemma for those who choose to consume fish for its beneficial effects on heart disease risk. Recent evidence suggests that high mercury content in fish may diminish the cardioprotective effect of fish intake. In this review, the authors explore the current knowledge of mercury toxicity on the heart and evaluate the epidemiologic evidence to date.
Source: Chan HM, Egeland GM. 2004. Fish consumption, mercury exposure, and heart diseases. Nutr Rev 2004 Feb;62(2):68-72.
- Combining food frequency and survey data to quantify long-term dietary exposure: a methyl mercury case study
This article presents a probabilistic method of bridging the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) food frequency and the Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CSFII) data to estimate longitudinal (usual) intake, using a case study of seafood mercury exposures for two population subgroups (females 16 to 49 years and children 1 to 5 years). Two hundred forty-nine CSFII food codes were mapped into 28 NHANES fish/shellfish categories. FDA and state/local seafood mercury data were used. A uniform distribution with minimum and maximum blood-diet ratios of 0.66 to 1.07 was assumed. A probabilistic assessment was conducted to estimate distributions of individual 30-day average daily fish/shellfish intakes, methyl mercury exposure, and blood levels. The upper percentile estimates of fish and shellfish intakes based on the 30-day daily averages were lower than those based on two- and three-day daily averages. These results support previous findings that distributions of "usual" intakes based on a small number of consumption days provide overestimates in the upper percentiles. About 10% of the females (16 to 49 years) and children (1 to 5 years) may be exposed to mercury levels above the EPA's RfD. The predicted 75th and 90th percentile blood mercury levels for the females in the 16-to-49-year group were similar to those reported by NHANES. The predicted 90th percentile blood mercury levels for children in the 1-to-5-year subgroup was similar to NHANES and the 75th percentile estimates were slightly above the NHANES.
Source: Tran NL, Barraj L, Smith K, Javier A, Burke TA. 2004. Combining food frequency and survey data to quantify long-term dietary exposure: a methyl mercury case study. Risk Anal 2004 Feb;24(1):19-30.
- Exposure to persistent organochlorine compounds through fish consumption and the incidence of osteoporotic fractures
The objective of this study was to assess the impact of POC-contaminated fish on the self-reported fracture incidence of Swedish fishermen and their wives. A postal questionnaire was sent to 2096 fishermen and 1602 fishermen's wives from the Swedish east (exposed) coast and 4584 fishermen and 4217 fishermen's wives from the west (unexposed) coast. Self-reported fractures, together with specified current fish consumption and information about potential confounders, were registered. The response rates varied between 50% and 59%. The age distributions of the nonrespondents and respondents were almost identical. Hip, vertebral, and wrist fractures were classified as osteoporotic. The fracture incidence rates for specific skeletal locations were based on allocated fractures and person-years under risk from the age of 25 years until the time of fracture or the end of follow-up. The authors found no differences in fracture incidence between the east and west-coast cohorts. East-coast wives with more than one meal of fatty fish from the Baltic Sea per month had, however, an increased fracture incidence as compared with that of the east-coast wives who ate, at most, one such meal per month. No such exposure-response association was found for the fishermen. The authors conclude that the present study only minimally supports an association between POC exposure through contaminated fish and an increased risk of osteoporotic fractures.
Source: Wallin E, Rylander L, Hagmar L. 2004. Exposure to persistent organochlorine compounds through fish consumption and the incidence of osteoporotic fractures. Scand J Work Environ Health 2004 Feb;30(1):30-5.
- Mercury in fishes and their diet items from Flathead Lake, Montana
Mercury levels in lake trout, lake whitefish, and benthic invertebrates were investigated in Flathead Lake, Montana. For both fish species, mercury increased with size and age and showed a negative relationship with growth rate. No gender-based differences in mercury levels were observed for either lake trout or lake whitefish. A positive relationship between mercury concentration and depth was documented for lake trout and the pooled invertebrate sample, suggesting that individual lake trout have some long-term habitat preferences. The authors suggest that these findings underscore the need to consider biological attributes of organisms when conducting contaminant assessments and illustrate the usefulness of contaminants as food web tracers.
Source: Stafford Craig P(Reprint); Hansen Barry; Stanford Jack A. 2004. Mercury in fishes and their diet items from Flathead Lake, Montana. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 133(2):349-357
- Relations between land use and organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, and semi-volatile organic compounds in streambed sediment and fish on the island of Oahu, Hawaii
Bed-sediment and/or fish samples were collected from 27 sites around the island of Oahu (representing urban, agricultural, mixed, and forested land use) to determine the occurrence and distribution of hydrophobic organic compounds including organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs). Of the 28 organochlorine compounds analyzed in the fish, 14 were detected during this study. Nineteen of the 31 organochlorine compounds and 40 of the 65 SVOCs were detected in the sediment. Urban sites had the highest number of detections and tended to have the highest concentrations of pesticides. Chlordane compounds were the most frequently detected constituents at urban sites, followed by dieldrin, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and DDT compounds. PAHs were the most frequently detected constituents in watersheds with mixed (urban and agricultural) land use. The only pesticides detected at agricultural sites were DDT and its degradation products, DDD and DDE. No pesticides or PCBs were detected at the forested sites, but a few ubiquitous SVOCs were found in sediments at some forested sites. In general, concentrations of the most frequently detected pesticides were higher in fish than in sediment.
Source: Brasher A M D; Wolff R H. 2004. Relations between land use and organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, and semi-volatile organic compounds in streambed sediment and fish on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 46(3):385-398
- Dietary exposure to a group of naturally produced organohalogens (halogenated dimethyl bipyrroles) via consumption of fish and seafood
Concentrations of four naturally produced halogenated dimethyl bipyrroles (HDBPs) were quantitated in 10 samples each of marine fish, freshwater fish, canned fish, and shrimp composites collected from 1992 to 2002 for the Canadian Total Diet Study. Canned fish composites composed of epipelagic higher trophic level species contained the highest concentration of HDBPs, which was significantly higher than that found in the other three composites. The estimated daily intake of HDBPs via consumption of fish and seafood was determined to be 53 pg/kg of body mass/day and 0.10 pg of TEQ/kg of body mass/day when transformed to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin equivalents (TEQs). In the canned fish and shrimp composites collected in 1998, HDBPs accounted for approximately 98 and 19%, respectively, of the total quantitated TEQ (which included PCBs, dioxins, and furans). The authors state that the results of this study provide the first estimate of human exposure to naturally produced bioaccumulating organohalogens.
Source: Tittlemier SA. 2004. Dietary exposure to a group of naturally produced organohalogens (halogenated dimethyl bipyrroles) via consumption of fish and seafood. J Agric Food Chem 2004 Apr 7;52(7):2010-5.
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentration and composition determined in farmed blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) in a sea loch pre- and post-closure of an aluminium smelter
Concentrations of PAHs from an actively producing commercial shellfish farm in Loch Leven, Scotland, were found in excess of 4000 ng/g wet weight tissue. These concentrations were found to be considerably greater than had been recorded from mussels sampled elsewhere around the Scottish mainland. The PAH composition of the mussels from Loch Leven was dominated by the 5-ring, parent compounds; benzo[b]fluoranthene was the dominant compound. This data was consistent with the source being a discharge from an aluminium smelter. The individual compounds benz[a]anthracene, benzo[a]pyrene and dibenz[a,h]anthracene returned values of 304 ng/g 446 ng/g and 39 ng/g respectively; these were well above the 15 ng/g pragmatic guideline limit. Over the two year monitoring period, the concentrations of these compounds in mussels from Loch Etive, a reference location, ranged between 'not detected' and 4 ng/g for benz[a]anthracene). Mussels were transferred from a clean location to Loch Leven which demonstrated that the rate of uptake of PAH was rapid. Following closure of the aluminium smelter, the PAH concentrations in mussels decreased. Differences between the two sites within Loch Leven were noted with the longer-term impact remaining greater for the mussels closer to the original point discharge.
Source: McIntosh AD, Moffat CF, Packer G, Webster L. 2004. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentration and composition determined in farmed blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) in a sea loch pre- and post-closure of an aluminium smelter. J Environ Monit 2004 Mar;6(3):209-18. Epub 2004 Feb 4.
Meetings and Conferences
- American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting
The American Fisheries Society (AFS) will convene its 134th Annual Meeting at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Monona Terrace in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, from August 22nd through August 26th, 2004. The theme celebrates Wisconsin's name (which has been translated as "gathering of waters") and Wisconsin's celebrated ecologist Aldo Leopold. Your hosts invite you to gather with professionals, with colleagues, with old friends, and with new friends on the Isthmus next summer to learn how Leopold's legacy has influenced the conservation of our aquatic resources in the past and to plan how it may influence the future. For more information or to register, visit the website: www.afs2004madison.org/index.shtml. [broken link]
- Midwestern States Risk Assessment Symposium
August 25-27, 2004 at the Indianapolis Hyatt Regency Hotel. The 2nd Midwestern States Risk Assessment Symposium will feature some of the leading experts in the United States as speakers. The format will include oral and poster presentations, panel discussions, and meals with prominent speakers. The symposium will also feature Vendor exhibits and provide many opportunities for networking with colleagues from industry, government, academia, and consulting firms. Four states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio) are co-chairing sessions this year. Additional information, online registration, and abstract submission for papers and posters can be found at www.spea.indiana.edu/msras.
- Fourth SETAC World Congress
The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) will hold the Fourth SETAC World Congress and the 25th Annual Meeting for North America concurrently in Portland, OR November 14-18, 2004. The theme for the Fourth SETAC World Congress is "SETAC: 25 Years of Interdisciplinary Science Serving Global Society 1979 - 2004" For more information visit the website: www.setac.org/portland.html.
Please email the newsletter ([email protected]) if you would like to announce an upcoming meeting, conference, or to submit an article. | <urn:uuid:34e99a2c-54f4-4fee-bc82-537da1d762f3> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/fishshellfish/news/newsjune04.cfm | 2015-03-29T10:37:18Z | 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 | 0.937725 | 5,953 |
There are numerous articles about antibiotic resistance, appropriate antibiotic use, and other related issues. However, the Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work campaign has developed an abbreviated list of recommended readings to introduce people to the topic of appropriate antibiotic use.
Antibiotic Resistance Efforts
- Emmer CL, Besser RE: Combating antimicrobial resistance: intervention programs to promote appropriate antibiotic use. Infect Med 19:160-173, 2002.
- Interagency Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance: A public health action plan to combat antimicrobial resistance [114 KB, 46 pages]
- Friedman, CR, Whitney, CG: It's time for a change in practice: Reducing antibiotic use can Alter antibiotic resistance. The Journal of Infectious Diseases 197:1082-1083, 2008.
- Stephenson J: CDC campaign targets antimicrobial resistance in hospitals. JAMA 287:23512352, 2002.
- Weissman J, Besser RE: Promoting appropriate antibiotic use for pediatric patients: a social ecological framework. Sem Pediat Infect Dis 15:41-51, 2004.
- Whitney CG, Farley MM, Hadler J, et al: Decline in invasive Pneumococcal disease after introduction of protein-polysaccharide conjugate vaccine. New Engl J Med 348:1737-1746, 2003.
Antibiotic Use and Resistance
- Bronzwaer SLAM, Cars O, Buchholz U, et al: A European study on the relationships between antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance. Emerg Infect Dis 8:278-282, 2002.
- Infectious Diseases Society of America: Bad bugs, no drugs: As antibiotic discovery stagnates…a public health crisis brews [4 MB, 29 pages]. Accessed July 22, 2004.
- Levin BR: Minimizing potential resistance: a population dynamics view. Clin Infect Dis 33:S161S169, 2001.
- Lipsitch M, Samore MH: Antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance: a population perspective. Emerg Infect Dis 8:347-354, 2002.
- McGowan JE: Antimicrobial resistance in hospital organisms and its relationship to antibiotic use. Rev Infect Dis 5:1033-1048, 1983.
- Reichler MR, Allphin AA, Breiman RF, et al: The spread of multiply resistant Streptococcus pneumonia at a day care center in Ohio. J Infect Dis 166:1346-1353, 1992.
- Besser RE: Antimicrobial prescribing on the United States: good news, bad news. Annals Int Med 137:605-606, 2003.
- Bauchner H, Besser RE: Promoting the appropriate use of oral antibiotics: there is some very good news. Pediatrics 111:668-670, 2003.
- CDC: Office-related antibiotic prescribing for persons aged ≤14 years — United States, 1993—1994 to 2007—2008. MMWR 60:1153-6, 2011.
- Finkelstein JA, Stille C, Nordin J, et al: Reduction in antibiotic use among US children, 1996-2000. Pediatrics 112:620-627, 2003.
- Grijalva CG, Nuorti JP, Griffin M: Antibiotic prescription rates for acute respiratory tract infections in US ambulatory settings. JAMA 302:758-766, 2009.
- Gonzales R, Malone DC, Maselli JH, et al: Excessive antibiotic use for acute respiratory infections in the United States. Clin Infect Dis 33:757-762, 2001.
- Gonzales R, Steiner JF, Sande MA: Antibiotic prescribing for adults with colds, upper respiratory tract infections, and bronchitis by ambulatory care physicians. JAMA 278:901-904, 1997.
- Linder JA, Bates DW, Lee, GM, Finkelstein JA: Antibiotic treatment of children with sore throat. JAMA 294:2315-2322, 2005.
- Linder JA, Huang ES, Steinman MA, Gonzales R, Stafford RS: Fluoroquinolone prescribing in the United States: 1995-2002. Am J Med 118:259-268, 2005.
- Mangione-Smith R, Wong L, Elliott MN, McDonald L, Roski J: Measuring the quality of antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory infections and bronchitis in 5 US health plans. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 159:751-757, 2005.
- McCaig LF, Besser RE, Hughes JM: Antimicrobial drug prescriptions in ambulatory care settings, United States, 1992-2000. Emerg Infect Dis 9:432-437, 2003.
- McCaig LF, Besser RE, Hughes JM: Trends in antimicrobial prescribing rates for children and adolescents. JAMA 287:3096-3102, 2002.
- McCaig LF, Hughes JM: Trends in antimicrobial drug prescribing among office-based physicians in the United States. JAMA 273:214-219, 1995.
- Nash DR, Harman J, Wald ER et al: Antibiotic prescribing by primary care physicians for children with upper respiratory tract infections. Arch Pediat Adol Med 156: 1114-1119, 2002.
- Nyquist AC, Gonzales R, Steiner JF, et al: Antibiotic prescribing for children with colds, upper respiratory tract infections, and bronchitis. JAMA 279:875-877, 1998.
- Pichichero ME: Dynamics of antibiotic prescribing for children. JAMA 287:3133-3135, 2002.
- Shapiro, DJ, Hicks LA, Pavia AT, et al: Antibiotic prescribing for adults in ambulatory care in the USA, 2007-09. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2013 Jul 25. [Epub ahead of print]
- Steinman MA, Gonzales R, Linder JA, et al: Changing use of antibiotics in community-based outpatient practice, 1991-1999. Annals Int Med 138:525-534, 2003.
- Steinman MA, Landefeld CS, Gonzales R: Predictors of broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections in adult primary care. JAMA 289:719-725, 2003.
Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Studies
- Avorn J, Solomon DH: Cultural and economic factors that (mis)shape antibiotic use: the nonpharmacologic basis of therapeutics. Annals Int Med 133:128-135, 2000.
- Barden LS, Dowell SF, Schwartz B, et al: Current attitudes regarding use of antimicrobial agents: results from physicians’ and parents’ focus group discussions. Clin Pediatr37:665-672, 1998.
- Bauchner H, Pelton SI, Klein JO: Parents, physicians, and antibiotic use. Pediatrics 103:395-401, 1999.
- Belongia EA, Naimi TS, Gale GM, et al: Antibiotic use and upper respiratory infections: a survey of knowledge, attitudes, and experience in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Prev Med 34:346-352, 2002.
- Friedman JF, Lee GM, Kleinman KP, Finkelstein JA: Child care center policies and practice for management of ill children. Ambul Pediatr 4:455-460, 2004.
- Larson E, Lin SX, Gomez-Duarte C: Antibiotic use in Hispanic households, New York City. Emerg Infect Dis 9:1096-1102, 2003.
- Mangione-Smith R, Elliott MN, Stivers T, et al: Racial/ethnic variation in parent expectations for antibiotics: implications for public health campaign. Pediatrics 113:e385-e394, 2004.
- Mangione-Smith R, McGlynn EA, Elliott MN, et al: The relationship between perceived parental expectations and pediatrician antimicrobial prescribing behavior. Pediatrics 103:711-718, 1999.
- Srinivasan A, Song X, Richards A, et al: A survey of knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of house staff physicians from various specialties concerning antimicrobial use and resistance. Arch Int Med 164:1451-1456, 2004.
- Stivers T, Mangione-Smith R, Elliott MN, et al: Why do physicians think parents expect antibiotics? What parents report vs what physicians believe. Fam Prac 52:140-147, 2003.
- Vanden Eng J, Marcus R, Hadler JL, et al: Consumer attitudes and use of antibiotics. Emerg Infect Dis 9:1128-1135, 2003.
- White D, Mori A, Zweifler J, et al: Parental satisfaction without antibiotics. The Nurse Practitioner35: 40-42, 2010.
Community Level Interventions
- Belongia EA, Knobloch MJ, Kieke BA, Davis JP, Janette C, Besser RE: Impact of statewide program to promote appropriate antimicrobial drug use. Emerg Infect Dis 11:912-920, 2005.
- Belongia EA, Sullivan BJ, Chyou PH, et al: A community intervention trial to promote judicious antibiotic use and reduce penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneuimoniae carriage in children. Pediatrics 108:575-583, 2001.
- Finkelstein JA, Davis RL, Dowell SF, et al: Reducing antibiotic use in children: a randomized trial in 12 practices. Pediatrics 108:1-7, 2001.
- Finkelstein JA, Huang SS, Kleinman K, et al: Impact of a 16-community trial to promote judicious antibiotic use in Massachusetts. Pediatrics 121:e15-23, 2008.
- Gonzales R, Steiner JF, Lum A, et al: Decreasing antibiotic use in ambulatory practice: impact of a multidimensional intervention on the treatment of uncomplicated acute bronchitis in adults. JAMA 281:1512-1519, 1999.
- Hennessy TW, Petersen KM, Bruden D, et al: Changes in antibiotic-prescribing practices and carriage of penicillin-resistant Steptococcus pneumoniae: a controlled intervention trial in rural Alaska. Clin Infect Dis 34:1543-1550, 2002.
- Kiang KM, Kieke BA, Como-Sabetti K, Lynfield E, Besser RE, Belongia EA: Clinician knowledge and beliefs after statewide program to promote appropriate antimicrobial drug use. Emerg Infect Dis 11:904-911, 2005.
- Metlay JP, Camargo Jr CA, MacKenzie TD,et al: Randomized trial of a multidimensional educational intervention to improve antibiotic use for adults with acute respiratory infections managed in the emergency department. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 50:221-30, 2007.
- Perz JF, Craig AS, Coffey CS, et al: Changes in antibiotic prescribing for children after a community-wide campaign. JAMA 287:3103-3109, 2002.
- Taylor JA, Kwan-Gett TSC, McMahon EM: Effectiveness of an educational intervention in modifying parental attitudes about antibiotic usage in children. Pediatrics 111:e548-e555, 2003.
- American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and American Academy of Pediatrics Subcommittee on Otitis Media With Effusion: Otitis media with effusion. Pediatrics 113:1412-1429, 2004.
- Cooper RJ, Hoffman JR, Bartlett JG, et al: Principles of appropriate antibiotic use for acute pharyngitis in adults: background. Annals Int Med 134:509-517, 2001.
- Dowell SF, Marcy SM, Phillips WR, et al: Otitis media—principles of judicious use of antimicrobial agents. Pediatrics 101:165-171, 1998.
- Dowell SF, Marcy SM, Phillips WR, et al: Principles of judicious use of antimicrobial agents for pediatric upper respiratory tract infections. Pediatrics 101:163-165, 1998.
- Gonzales R, Bartlett JG, Besser RE, et al: Principles of appropriate antibiotic use for treatment of acute respiratory tract infections in adults: background, specific aims, and methods. Annals Int Med 134:479-486, 2001.
- Gonzales R, Bartlett JG, Besser RE, et al: Principles of appropriate antibiotic use for treatment of nonspecific upper respiratory tract infections in adults: background. Annals Int Med 34:490-494, 2001.
- Gonzales R, Bartlett JG, Besser RE, et al: Principles of appropriate antibiotic use for treatment of uncomplicated acute bronchitis: background. Annals Int Med 134:521-529, 2001.
- Hickner JM, Bartlett JG, Besser RE, et al: Principles of appropriate antibiotic use for acute rhinosinusitis in adults: background. Annals Int Med 134:498-505, 2001.
- Irwin RS, Baumann MH, Bolser DC, et al: Diagnosis and management of cough: ACCP evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. Chest 1S-292S, 2006.
- O'Brien KL, Dowell SF, Schwartz B, et al: Acute sinusitis--principles of judicious use of antimicrobial agents. Pediatrics 101:174-177, 1998.
- O'Brien KL, Dowell SF, Schwartz B, et al: Cough illness/bronchitis--principles of judicious use of antimicrobial agents. Pediatrics 101:178-181, 1998.
- Rosenstein N, Phillips WR, Gerber MA, et al: The common cold--principles of judicious use of antimicrobial agents. Pediatrics 101:181-184, 1998.
- Schwartz B, Marcy SM, Phillips WR, et al: Pharyngitis--principles of judicious use of antimicrobial agents. Pediatrics 101:171-174, 1998.
- Sinus and Allergy Health Partnership: Antimicrobial treatment guidelines for acute bacterial rhinosinusitis: Executive summary. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 130:1-45, 2004.
- Subcommittee on Management of Acute Otitis Media: Diagnosis and management of acute otitis media.Pediatrics 113:1451-1465, 2004.
Adverse Drug Events
- Budnitz DS, Pollock DA; Weidenbach, KN et al: National surveillance of emergency department visits for outpatient adverse drug events. JAMA 296:1858-1866, 2006.
- Shehab N, Patel PR , Srinivasan A, Budnitz DS: Emergency department visits for anitbiotic-associated adverse events. Clin Infect Dis 47, 2008.
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Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet at Kirtland, Ohio, December 27 and 28, 1832, and January 3, 1833. The Prophet designated it as the “‘olive leaf’ … plucked from the Tree of Paradise, the Lord’s message of peace to us.” The revelation was given after high priests at a conference prayed “separately and vocally to the Lord to reveal his will unto us concerning the upbuilding of Zion.”
1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you who have assembled yourselves together to receive his will concerning you:
2 Behold, this is pleasing unto your Lord, and the angels a over you; the b of your prayers have come up into the ears of the Lord of c, and are recorded in the d of the names of the sanctified, even them of the celestial world.
3 Wherefore, I now send upon you another a, even upon you my friends, that it may abide in your hearts, even the Holy Spirit of b; which other Comforter is the same that I promised unto my disciples, as is recorded in the testimony of John.
4 This Comforter is the a which I give unto you of b, even the c of the celestial kingdom;
5 Which glory is that of the church of the a, even of God, the holiest of all, through Jesus Christ his Son—
6 He that a up on high, as also he b below all things, in that he c all things, that he might be in all and through all things, the d of truth;
7 Which truth shineth. This is the a. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was b.
8 As also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made;
9 As also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were made;
10 And the earth also, and the power thereof, even the earth upon which you a.
11 And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your a;
12 Which a proceedeth forth from the presence of God to b the immensity of space—
13 The a which is in all things, which giveth b to all things, which is the c by which all things are governed, even the d of God who e upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things.
14 Now, verily I say unto you, that through the a which is made for you is brought to pass the resurrection from the dead.
15 And the a and the b are the c of man.
16 And the a from the dead is the redemption of the soul.
17 And the redemption of the soul is through him that a all things, in whose bosom it is decreed that the b and the c of the d shall inherit it.
18 Therefore, it must needs be a from all b, that it may be prepared for the c glory;
19 For after it hath filled the measure of its creation, it shall be crowned with a, even with the presence of God the Father;
20 That bodies who are of the a kingdom may b it forever and ever; for, for this c was it made and created, and for this intent are they d.
21 And they who are not a through the b which I have given unto you, even the law of Christ, must inherit c kingdom, even that of a terrestrial kingdom, or that of a telestial kingdom.
22 For he who is not able to abide the a of a celestial kingdom cannot b a c glory.
23 And he who cannot abide the law of a a kingdom cannot abide a terrestrial glory.
24 And he who cannot abide the law of a a b cannot abide a telestial c; therefore he is not meet for a kingdom of glory. Therefore he must abide a kingdom which is not a kingdom of glory.
25 And again, verily I say unto you, the a abideth the law of a celestial kingdom, for it filleth the b of its creation, and transgresseth not the law—
26 Wherefore, it shall be a; yea, notwithstanding it shall b, it shall be c again, and shall abide the power by which it is quickened, and the d shall e it.
27 For notwithstanding they die, they also shall a again, a b.
28 They who are of a celestial a shall receive the same b which was a natural body; even ye shall receive your bodies, and your c shall be that glory by which your bodies are d.
29 Ye who are a by a portion of the b glory shall then receive of the same, even a fulness.
30 And they who are quickened by a portion of the a glory shall then receive of the same, even a fulness.
31 And also they who are quickened by a portion of the a glory shall then receive of the same, even a fulness.
32 And they who remain shall also be a; nevertheless, they shall return again to their own place, to enjoy that which they are b to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received.
33 For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.
34 And again, verily I say unto you, that which is a by law is also preserved by law and perfected and b by the same.
35 That which a a law, and b by c, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, d, nor e. Therefore, they must remain f still.
36 All kingdoms have a law given;
37 And there are many a; for there is no b in the which there is no c; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or a lesser kingdom.
38 And unto every kingdom is given a a; and unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions.
39 All beings who abide not in those a are not b.
40 For a cleaveth unto intelligence; b receiveth wisdom; c embraceth truth; d loveth virtue; e cleaveth unto light; f hath g on mercy and claimeth her own; h continueth its course and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne and governeth and executeth all things.
41 He a all things, and all things are before him, and all things are round about him; and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things; and all things are by him, and of him, even God, forever and ever.
42 And again, verily I say unto you, he hath given a a unto all things, by which they move in their b and their seasons;
43 And their courses are fixed, even the courses of the heavens and the earth, which comprehend the earth and all the planets.
44 And they give a to each other in their times and in their seasons, in their minutes, in their hours, in their days, in their weeks, in their months, in their years—all these are b year with God, but not with man.
45 The earth a upon her wings, and the b giveth his light by day, and the moon giveth her light by night, and the stars also give their light, as they roll upon their wings in their glory, in the midst of the c of God.
46 Unto what shall I liken these kingdoms, that ye may understand?
47 Behold, all these are a, and any man who hath b any or the least of these hath c God d in his majesty and power.
48 I say unto you, he hath seen him; nevertheless, he who came unto his a was not comprehended.
49 The a shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not; nevertheless, the day shall come when you shall b even God, being quickened in him and by him.
50 Then shall ye know that ye have a me, that I am, and that I am the true b that is in you, and that you are in me; otherwise ye could not abound.
51 Behold, I will liken these kingdoms unto a man having a field, and he sent forth his servants into the field to dig in the field.
52 And he said unto the first: Go ye and labor in the field, and in the first hour I will come unto you, and ye shall behold the joy of my countenance.
53 And he said unto the second: Go ye also into the field, and in the second hour I will visit you with the joy of my countenance.
54 And also unto the third, saying: I will visit you;
55 And unto the fourth, and so on unto the twelfth.
56 And the lord of the field went unto the first in the first hour, and tarried with him all that hour, and he was made glad with the light of the countenance of his lord.
57 And then he withdrew from the first that he might visit the second also, and the third, and the fourth, and so on unto the twelfth.
58 And thus they all received the light of the countenance of their lord, every man in his hour, and in his time, and in his season—
59 Beginning at the first, and so on unto the a, and from the last unto the first, and from the first unto the last;
60 Every man in his own a, until his hour was finished, even according as his lord had commanded him, that his lord might be glorified in him, and he in his lord, that they all might be glorified.
61 Therefore, unto this parable I will liken all these a, and the b thereof—every kingdom in its hour, and in its time, and in its season, even according to the decree which God hath made.
62 And again, verily I say unto you, my a, I leave these b with you to c in your hearts, with this commandment which I give unto you, that ye shall d upon me while I am near—
63 a b unto me and I will draw near unto you; c me diligently and ye shall d me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
64 Whatsoever ye a the Father in my name it shall be given unto you, that is b for you;
65 And if ye ask anything that is not a for you, it shall turn unto your b.
66 Behold, that which you hear is as the a of one crying in the wilderness—in the wilderness, because you cannot see him—my voice, because my voice is b; my Spirit is truth; c abideth and hath no end; and if it be in you it shall abound.
67 And if your eye be a to my b, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light c all things.
68 Therefore, a yourselves that your b become c to God, and the days will come that you shall d him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.
69 Remember the great and last promise which I have made unto you; cast away your a thoughts and your b of c far from you.
70 Tarry ye, tarry ye in this place, and call a a, even of those who are the first b in this last kingdom.
71 And let those whom they have warned in their traveling call on the Lord, and a the b in their hearts which they have received, for a little season.
72 Behold, and lo, I will take care of your a, and will raise up elders and send unto them.
73 Behold, I will a my work in its time.
74 And I give unto you, who are the first a in this last kingdom, a commandment that you assemble yourselves together, and organize yourselves, and prepare yourselves, and b yourselves; yea, purify your hearts, and c your hands and your feet before me, that I may make you d;
75 That I may testify unto your a, and your God, and my b, that you are clean from the c of this wicked generation; that I may fulfil this promise, this great and last d, which I have made unto you, when I will.
76 Also, I give unto you a commandment that ye shall continue in a and fasting from this time forth.
77 And I give unto you a commandment that you shall a one another the b of the kingdom.
78 Teach ye diligently and my a shall attend you, that you may be b more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;
79 Of things both in a and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must b come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the c, and the judgments which are on the land; and a d also of countries and of kingdoms—
80 That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to a the calling whereunto I have called you, and the b with which I have commissioned you.
81 Behold, I sent you out to a and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to b his neighbor.
82 Therefore, they are left a excuse, and their sins are upon their b.
83 He that a me b shall find me, and shall not be forsaken.
84 Therefore, tarry ye, and labor diligently, that you may be perfected in your ministry to go forth among the a for the last time, as many as the mouth of the Lord shall name, to b up the law and c up the testimony, and to prepare the saints for the hour of judgment which is to come;
85 That their souls may escape the wrath of God, the a which awaits the wicked, both in this world and in the world to come. Verily, I say unto you, let those who are not the b elders continue in the vineyard until the mouth of the Lord shall c them, for their time is not yet come; their garments are not d from the blood of this generation.
86 Abide ye in the a wherewith ye are made b; c not yourselves in d, but let your hands be e, until the Lord comes.
87 For not many days hence and the a shall b and reel to and fro as a drunken man; and the c shall d his face, and shall refuse to give light; and the moon shall be bathed in e; and the stars shall become exceedingly angry, and shall f themselves down as a fig that falleth from off a fig tree.
88 And after your a cometh wrath and indignation upon the people.
89 For after your testimony cometh the testimony of a, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand.
90 And also cometh the testimony of the a of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds.
91 And all things shall be in a; and surely, men’s b shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people.
92 And a shall fly through the midst of heaven, crying with a loud voice, sounding the trump of God, saying: Prepare ye, prepare ye, O inhabitants of the earth; for the b of our God is come. Behold, and lo, the c cometh; go ye out to meet him.
93 And immediately there shall appear a a in heaven, and all people shall see it together.
94 And another angel shall sound his trump, saying: That a b, the c of abominations, that made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her d, that e the saints of God, that shed their blood—she who sitteth upon many waters, and upon the islands of the sea—behold, she is the f of the earth; she is bound in bundles; her bands are made strong, no man can loose them; therefore, she is ready to be burned. And he shall sound his trump both long and loud, and all nations shall hear it.
95 And there shall be a in b for the space of half an hour; and immediately after shall the curtain of heaven be unfolded, as a c is unfolded after it is rolled up, and the d of the Lord shall be unveiled;
96 And the saints that are upon the earth, who are alive, shall be quickened and be a to meet him.
97 And they who have slept in their graves shall a forth, for their graves shall be opened; and they also shall be caught up to meet him in the midst of the b of heaven—
98 They are Christ’s, the a, they who shall descend with him first, and they who are on the earth and in their graves, who are first caught up to meet him; and all this by the voice of the sounding of the trump of the angel of God.
99 And after this another angel shall sound, which is the second trump; and then cometh the redemption of those who are Christ’s at his a; who have received their part in that b which is prepared for them, that they might receive the gospel, and be c according to men in the flesh.
100 And again, another trump shall sound, which is the third trump; and then come the a of men who are to be judged, and are found under b;
101 And these are the rest of the a; and they live not again until the b years are ended, neither again, until the end of the earth.
102 And another trump shall sound, which is the fourth trump, saying: There are found among those who are to remain until that great and last day, even the end, who shall a b still.
103 And another trump shall sound, which is the fifth trump, which is the fifth angel who committeth the a—flying through the midst of heaven, unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people;
104 And this shall be the sound of his trump, saying to all people, both in heaven and in earth, and that are under the earth—for a ear shall hear it, and every knee shall b, and every tongue shall confess, while they hear the sound of the trump, saying: c God, and give glory to him who sitteth upon the throne, d and ever; for the hour of his judgment is come.
105 And again, another angel shall sound his trump, which is the sixth angel, saying: She is a who made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication; she is fallen, is fallen!
106 And again, another angel shall sound his trump, which is the seventh angel, saying: It is finished; it is finished! The a of God hath b and c the wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.
107 And then shall the angels be crowned with the glory of his might, and the a shall be filled with his b, and receive their c and be made d with him.
108 And then shall the first angel again sound his trump in the ears of all living, and a the secret acts of men, and the mighty works of God in the b years.
109 And then shall the second angel sound his trump, and reveal the secret acts of men, and the thoughts and intents of their hearts, and the mighty a of God in the second thousand years—
110 And so on, until the seventh angel shall sound his trump; and he shall a forth upon the land and upon the sea, and b in the name of him who sitteth upon the throne, that there shall be c no longer; and d shall be bound, that old serpent, who is called the devil, and shall not be loosed for the space of a e years.
111 And then he shall be a for a little season, that he may gather together his armies.
112 And a, the seventh angel, even the archangel, shall gather together his armies, even the hosts of heaven.
113 And the devil shall gather together his a; even the hosts of hell, and shall come up to battle against Michael and his armies.
114 And then cometh the a of the great God; and the devil and his armies shall be b into their own place, that they shall not have power over the saints any more at all.
115 For Michael shall fight their battles, and shall overcome him who a the throne of him who sitteth upon the throne, even the Lamb.
116 This is the glory of God, and the a; and they shall not any more see b.
117 Therefore, verily I say unto you, my a, call your solemn assembly, as I have b you.
118 And as all have not a, seek ye diligently and b one another words of c; yea, seek ye out of the best d words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.
119 a yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a b, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;
120 That your a may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with b hands unto the Most High.
121 Therefore, a from all your light speeches, from all b, from all your c desires, from all your d and light-mindedness, and from all your wicked doings.
122 Appoint among yourselves a teacher, and let a all be spokesmen at once; but let one speak at a time and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken that all may be b of all, and that every man may have an equal privilege.
123 See that ye a one another; cease to be b; learn to impart one to another as the gospel requires.
124 Cease to be a; cease to be b; cease to c one with another; cease to d longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be e.
125 And above all things, clothe yourselves with the bond of a, as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and b.
126 a always, that ye may not faint, until I b. Behold, and lo, I will come quickly, and receive you unto myself. Amen.
127 And again, the order of the house prepared for the a of the b of the c, established for their instruction in all things that are expedient for them, even for all the d of the church, or in other words, those who are called to the ministry in the church, beginning at the high priests, even down to the deacons—
128 And this shall be the order of the house of the presidency of the school: He that is appointed to be president, or teacher, shall be found standing in his place, in the house which shall be prepared for him.
129 Therefore, he shall be first in the house of God, in a place that the congregation in the house may hear his words carefully and distinctly, not with loud speech.
130 And when he cometh into the house of God, for he should be first in the house—behold, this is a, that he may be an b—
131 Let him offer himself in prayer upon his knees before God, in a or remembrance of the everlasting covenant.
132 And when any shall come in after him, let the teacher arise, and, with a hands to heaven, yea, even directly, salute his brother or brethren with these words:
133 Art thou a brother or brethren? I salute you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in token or remembrance of the everlasting covenant, in which covenant I receive you to a, in a determination that is fixed, immovable, and unchangeable, to be your b and c through the grace of God in the bonds of love, to walk in all the commandments of God blameless, in thanksgiving, forever and ever. Amen.
134 And he that is found a of this salutation shall not have place among you; for ye shall not suffer that mine house shall be b by him.
135 And he that cometh in and is faithful before me, and is a brother, or if they be brethren, they shall salute the president or teacher with uplifted hands to heaven, with this same prayer and covenant, or by saying Amen, in token of the same.
136 Behold, verily, I say unto you, this is an ensample unto you for a salutation to one another in the house of God, in the school of the prophets.
137 And ye are called to do this by prayer and thanksgiving, as the Spirit shall give utterance in all your doings in the house of the Lord, in the school of the prophets, that it may become a sanctuary, a tabernacle of the Holy Spirit to your a.
138 And ye shall not receive any among you into this school save he is clean from the a of this generation;
139 And he shall be received by the ordinance of the a of feet, for unto this end was the ordinance of the washing of feet instituted.
140 And again, the ordinance of washing feet is to be administered by the president, or presiding elder of the church.
141 It is to be commenced with prayer; and after partaking of a, he is to gird himself according to the b given in the thirteenth chapter of John’s testimony concerning me. Amen. | <urn:uuid:40b9c5bf-875c-4cc4-bfdc-1526e4a2d07f> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/88.77,80?lang=eng | 2015-03-29T11:14:53Z | 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 | 0.973042 | 5,659 |
May be I just can't figure out where the link is, I went to "My Profile" and I couldn't find any such link. May be I will just leave if there is no "Close account" link.
I have a reason for deciding to go: I think the moderators have become too strict and self centered. They just can't take good criticism or appreciate debates. They remind me of my old school teachers who punish kids or not let them go the bathroom. I have been observing this for a long time and I have had too much of this in the Windows vs other Operating Systems thread.
To one of my arguments in the same thread, the moderator replied this:
If your friend's developers "struggle to find out where things have gone in Linux" then I might humbly suggest that they're undeserving of the moniker.
In any event, at this point I am just so annoyed by this thread that I'm going to close it so I don't have to listen to the nonsense anymore.
And he did close the thread. I don't want to debate any further, and I don't care if the moderator is right or wrong. I'm moving just out to a better community (for me).
If you message a staff member, we will close your account.
With respect to that thread:
Firstly it was posted to MD and not General Computing. There is a difference, and MD can't be taken too seriously.
That said, the thread (in my opinion) had little to do conversation and contained too many opinions stated as fact. There was no intelligent discourse and as such it became annoying to those trying to discuss the topic.
EFH was prepared to put up his hand and be the bad guy. I asked him about his choice in the way he ended the conversation, but I do not disagree with closing it.
You would end out looking better if you copped this one on the chin and stood up ready for the next battle, or you can send me a PM and I'll close your account.
Threads get closed. Moderators are human. Life goes on. [ June 09, 2008: Message edited by: David O'Meara ]
There is nothing to prevent you from just not posting here any more, if that is what you want. But if you want to complain about the closing of that thread, why not simply complain about it? There's nothing wrong with that either and it's not an unreasonable thing for you to do.
I think the moderators tend to pendulate(why does firefox dictionary refuse to recognize this word man.!!) between being tooo liberal with some topics and being too sensitive with some. I think they are generally great people(with the exception of one or two) and trying to do their best.
I dont think this is something to leave the whole ranch over and I think may be in some way it keeps us focussed on what this site is mainly about and confrontational situations may lead to us not wanting to help one another when we meet in other forums in case we happen to step on each other's toes.
Originally posted by Joanne Neal: Does any dictionary recognise it ?
Yes, it's in the Oxford English Dictionary. I just checked in their online version.
I wasn't familiar with the word, but the OED has this definition:
2. intr. fig. To fluctuate or oscillate between two opposite conditions, opinions, etc.; to waver, vacillate.
[ June 09, 2008: Message edited by: Paul Clapham ]
Joined: Jul 14, 2007
There are lots and lots of often used words not detected as accurate by firefox unfortunately. Does your firefox have this problem too? I'm wondering if I got this bundled with FF or I downloaded it as an extension.
That's a core feature of Firefox, not of any extension. I would guess that it uses some kind of dictionary file to determine what is or is not a valid word. If that's the case, one could add to that file to keep the browser from flagging valid words.
According to me EFH was wrong in closing the thread. I know that this is a private forum but this also goes against the "Be Nice" thing. Secondly EFH could have chosen to simply ignore the thread rather than delete it. People who are so against MS are also a cause why other OSs don't spread. Rather than proving their point how to get things right they would simply close the discussion.
In my opinion if you want to get the best out of Javaranch avoid posting in MD and Jobs forum. You and moderators will not fight. Most of the time it happens that a new comer comes to JR for technical discussions and then slowly moves to MD and then ...
Originally posted by Anupam Sinha: According to me EFH was wrong in closing the thread.
And according to me, EFH was right.
I wonder which one of us will get our way?
(ahhhh ... it's good to be king)
Anupam, I would like to suggest that you take the time to consider why I choose to run things the way I do. As you learn this and think about a way to persuade me to change my mind, I suspect that you will learn why things function this way - and then you will most likely drop this.
Of course, if you cannot find the words to persuade me, and you still think I am wrong, you are, of course, always welcome to start your own site and run things the way you see fit.
OK, kids. I was going to keep my mouth shut and stay out of this, but if we're going to get into name calling and such, it's not fair for me to let other folks deal with the fallout from something I did. And make no mistake, it was me. Thanks for the backup, guys, but I worked alone on this one.
What I saw in that thread was some good folks wasting their breath talking past each other in one of the oldest Internet flame wars there is (and the most virulent, with the possible exception of "Emacs vs. vi".) It doesn't really matter that people were being civil up to that point. The thread had gone on for three pages already, and no one on either side had learned anything -- because of course, nobody ever learns anything in those discussions. Here's an actual drawing of one of the participants in that thread.
Part of the problem -- just like the problem with Emacs vs. vi -- is that most people in the discussion really only know one side of the story well. They know about X, and X is good enough for them, and once they tried Y, and they didn't really know how to use it, and so now they dislike it. People with enough experience to do really thoughtful comparisons are rare, and the other people in the discussion often don't recognize who those actually knowledgeable people are -- so nobody listens to them.
Some people don't even know one side of the story well -- they just believe what they've been told, even if it's not true, and then they present it as fact. And you can't really argue with them over the Internet, because, well, they don't know you or trust you the way they trust their cousin Hiroshi. They'd rather believe Hiroshi, because he's the one who taught them about computers in the first place.
So I closed it because I didn't want to see folks wasting their breath any longer, and frankly, because I was starting to feel the pull. I find it almost impossible to stay out of those pointless discussions, even though I know it's counterproductive. Kinda like it's impossible not to slow down and look at an accident on the highway.
Now, if y'all really like bashing your head against a brick wall, then there are plenty of forum sites that encourage that kind of behavior. There's Slashdot, for example, and plenty others besides. But as long as I'm working here, by the Trailboss' good graces, the Saloon isn't going to play host to those kinds of discussions. I've closed 'em before, and I'll close 'em agin.
One more thing: right there on the wall as you walk into "Meaningless Drivel", it says in bold type:
Please note that posts that have meaning or are not drivel stand a good chance of getting deleted.
Why Paul you are you always in such a mood. I know it's your site. I just posted what I felt.
The thread could had been simply closed if it was felt it was going nowhere.
"In any event, at this point I am just so annoyed by this thread that I'm going to close it so I don't have to listen to the nonsense anymore"
This sentence makes me feel like that EFH didn't wanted to have this thread around because he didn't like it rather than it was not going anywhere, to which I said he could simply ignore it.
I have seen many closed threads in MD. In them it's generally "This thread is going nowhere and it is being closed". But in this case this was not the case.
Does this comes anywhere close to BEING NICE.
I guess you would not be persuaded with my point. Just trying.
Joined: Mar 22, 2005
It wasn't a question of someone not liking the thread or the thread going nowhere. If I may interpret Ernest's intentions, he didn't like the thread because it was going nowhere. His words were: The thread had gone on for three pages already, and no one on either side had learned anything. I think that sums it up nicely.
The thread did contain a fair number of counter-factual statements; I think one may validly choose to call such statements nonsense. It's quite possible that not everybody considers that to be nice. This is a big community; people are going to disagree with one another every so often. Your point is noted. And now, as David said: Life goes on. Please. [ June 11, 2008: Message edited by: Ulf Dittmer ]
Joined: Apr 13, 2003
[UD]: His words were: The thread had gone on for three pages already, and no one on either side had learned anything. I think that sums it up nicely
It sure does. But it would had been great if these words were used on that thread as well. [ June 11, 2008: Message edited by: Anupam Sinha ]
personally, i almost closed that thread several times myself. In retrospect, I probably should have. that kind of debate never goes anywhere, and for many participants, has WAY TOO MUCH MEANING. Therefore, by definition, it didn't belong there, and should have been moved to the trash on day 1. EFH was really just picking up the slack where others (like myself) dropped the ball.
There are only two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors
Originally posted by fred rosenberger: personally, i almost closed that thread several times myself. In retrospect, I probably should have. that kind of debate never goes anywhere, and for many participants, has WAY TOO MUCH MEANING. Therefore, by definition, it didn't belong there, and should have been moved to the trash on day 1. EFH was really just picking up the slack where others (like myself) dropped the ball.
Then how come the thread ran into pages if it had too much meaning ? We were certainly not discussing Stephen Hawking's priciples on the Cosmos to categorize it as "TOO MUCH MEANING" . And wasn't anything with that kind of meaning ever discussed on MD before ? [ June 11, 2008: Message edited by: shan Iyer ]
Warm Regards, S.Iyer
Joined: Apr 13, 2003
My main point was not why the thread was closed but the fact that it could had been done in a better fashion. I guess this thread is going nowhere. Again I feel in the be nice thing. Let's just try to be nice.
I'm not going to debate specifics with you. We have a policy that basically says ANY thread in MD can be deleted or closed at any time, for any reason, by any moderator. When the thread got to a point where a mod felt it needed to be closed, it was.
If you want to discuss that policy, that's one thing. But i have nothing further to say about this specific thread.
Joined: Mar 22, 2005
And to elaborate on what Fred said: It isn't just that any thread in MD can be closed by any moderator, in fact any thread in any forum can be closed or deleted by any moderator who feels like that is the right thing to do. There are guidelines on how to moderate, but there is also a lot of leeway.
So yes, it's amazing that this particular thread wasn't closed way earlier. But we're all volunteers - we're not standing by and waiting for something to apply our moderator powers to. So sometimes a thread runs longer than it should have. In this case, I'm grateful that it did, because I personally was still participating, hoping to make an impact. In retrospect, it should have been obvious that that was futile. So I, for one, am thankful to Ernest that he ended what had run for too long; it kept me from spending more time on this.
And to get back on a more general level: there should not be an expectation of moderator's decisions being explained. Some may be, but some won't - it's up to the moderator to do what he or she thinks is best for the site.
At this point, I'll be presumptuous (some no doubt will think this arrogant) and declare that in my opinion everything that can usefully be said about this subject has been said. This thread won't be closed -so if someone wants to take part, they can-, but I'd ask anyone who feels the urge to do so to read -and think through!- all the above posts first. Thank you.
I think the fact that this thread exists and somebody has their knickers in a twist over a thread in MD, PROVES that that thread should have been closed or deleted.
THEREFORE - Damn good job Ernest! You always make the right call.
<h1>Thank You Ernest!</h1>
Apparently, your idea of nice is different from mine. Oh well. In fact, as I reread your posts in this thread, I find the way you present your opinion to be rather disrespectful of the opinions of others. I think that that, specifically, is not nice. So once again, it would seem that your idea of nice is different from mine.
I rather like my idea of what nice means.
And I rather like Ernest's interpretation of nice.
I find that I don't fancy your idea of nice at all.
I find that damn near everybody here, and certainly all of the staff, appear to have their idea of nice aligned with my idea of nice. So we all get along rather well.
I see that a lot of people have taken a rather large slice of their life to help you understand this. Oh sure, they could have watched a movie. Or a tv show. Or they could have talked to somebody about java. Instead, they were patiently taking their unpaid time to help you understand something that the rest of us seem to easily grasp. And rather than understand, you simply push that we must all change to your way of thinking.
So, allow me to express that I completely understand what you are suggesting. It is a different way of managing things. For a long list of reasons, I choose to not operate that way. It's my site, so I get to do that.
I understand that you don't understand my way of doing things. That's unfortunate. I feel that many important aspects have been explained to you. I suppose there are many things that you might do now, but here are a few that come to mind:
1) re-read this thread and attempt to understand why we do things the way we do. After that you will:
1a) understand and, thus, everybody is happy!
1b) not understand, but decide to go along with our "wackiness" so that everybody can be happy.
1c) not understand and (go to "2")
2) not care. Then choose a path to:
2a) leave and everybody is happy.
2b) hang around and be angry a lot until we ban you.
2c) hang around and be secretly angry and ignore our "wackiness": you'll develop an ulcer but the rest of us will be happy.
There are lots of other places to visit on the mighty internet. I suspect that there are quite a few that are aligned with what you think of as good management. Perhaps you will be happier there. Or ... perhaps ... something will click and you will understand that there are excellent reasons why we do things the way that we do. And maybe something else will click so that the next time you wish to make a suggestion, it will sound like you are being respectful to the people that donate their time to make this place possible instead of sounding like everybody is your personal servant and too stupid to understand the way you want them to shine your shoes.
Oh yes ... there is one more thing you might find worth considering .... do you think it is possible that not only has this issue been discussed before, but it has been discussed a thousand times more than what you see in this one paltry thread? This topic might have an amazingly rich history that has led to a really fantastic way of running things. A way of running things that makes one person out of millions slightly peeved, instead thousands rioting in the streets. A pretty fair trade in my opinion.
And now, to all of those people that have taken the time to patiently try to help folks find a smooth path, thank you very, very much. I think your efforts really help. Despite this small bit of evidence to the contrary.
Joined: Apr 13, 2003
It's your site and you decide what you want and it's my mind and I decide what's correct according to me. I still hold by my opinion and you hold onto yours. [ June 12, 2008: Message edited by: Anupam Sinha ]
I didn't even read the MD thread. I just read the fallout of a moderator talking about why he deleted it. To that he talked about being fair and nice and having wholesome butterflies whenever you talk to people on a thread, and then told the community how nice it is to be king. We get to do whatever we want...mmmmmmm feeeeelllzzz good.
So Yes, preach about people talking past each other and then say I'm teh moderator RAWR!! There's about a million sites with forums out there...give or take a million, and the most interesting threads are the ones where people(myself included) must defend their actions for world changing events like deleting threads and moving topics (human behavior at its finest).
Furthermore, it is so important to get the point across that completely contradictory reasons can be given. DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO. After all once it's done you can just say well, I made a mistake...I'm human. I <3 behavioral psychology. [ June 12, 2008: Message edited by: paul yule ] | <urn:uuid:a5c3c96d-0c77-4dea-9d29-e59e07048a1b> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.coderanch.com/t/3449/Ranch-Office/close-Javaranch-account | 2015-03-31T05:48:59Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131300313.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172140-00020-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98158 | 4,075 |
Crossover dribble - a dribble in which the ball is moved from one hand to the other while the dribbler changes directions.
Crossover dribbling - when a ball handler dribbles the ball across his body from one hand to the other.
Cut - a quick movement by an offensive player to elude an opponent or to receive the ball.
Cylinder - the imaginary area directly above the basket where goaltending or basket interference can occur.
Dead ball - any ball that is not live; occurs after each successful field goal or free-throw attempt, after any official's whistle or if the ball leaves the court; it stops play, which is then resumed by a jump ball, throw-in or free throw. Dead ball - occurs whenever the whistle blows to stop play and after a field goal, but before the opponent gains possession of the ball.
Defense - the act of preventing the offense from scoring; the team without the ball. The team not in possession of the ball whose objective is to keep the opponent from scoring; also a specific pattern of play used by a defending team.
Defensive rebound - a rebound of an opponent's missed shot.
Double dribble - a violation that occurs when a player dribbles the ball with two hands simultaneously or stops dribbling and then dribbles again.
Double team - a defensive play where two defenders guard one player, and when two teammates join efforts in guarding a single opponent.
Down Court or down the court - the direction a team on offense moves, from its backcourt into its frontcourt and towards its own basket.
Draft - the method by which NBA teams annually select college or foreign players to their teams, designed to promote balanced competition in the NBA.
Dream team - the name given by the media to the U.S. basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics; it was the first time non-amateurs were permitted to represent the country; the members of this team were Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Christian Laettner, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson and John Stockton. In the 1996 Olympics, the U.S. team was called Dream Team 2 and in 2000, Dream Team 3.
Dribble - process by which a player repeatedly bounces the ball off the floor so that it returns to his/her possession. It is the only legal means by which a player may move the ball across the court.
Dribble series - a number of consecutive dribbles which end when a player allows the ball to rest in one or both hands; a player is only permitted one dribble series before he must pass or shoot.
Dribbling - when a player repeatedly pushes, pats, taps or bats the ball toward the floor with one hand to cause the ball to bounce back up to either of his hands; used to advance the ball or keep control of it.
Drive - a quick dribble directly to the basket in an effort to score.
Drive to the basket - to move rapidly toward the basket with the ball.
Dunk - when a player close to the basket jumps and strongly throws the ball down into it; an athletic, creative shot used to intimidate opponents.
Elbow - also called the “junction;” a term often used to indicate the area of the court where the free-throw line and side of the key meet.
Elbowing - it is a violation if a player vigorously or excessively swings his elbows, even if there is no contact; it is a foul if contact is made and an automatic ejection if that contact is above shoulder level.
End line - the boundary line behind each basket; also called the baseline.
Established position - when a defensive player has both feet firmly planted on the floor before an offensive player's head and shoulder get past him; the offensive player who runs into such a defender is charging.
Established position - when a defensive player has both feet firmly planted on the floor before an offensive player's head and shoulder get past him; the offensive player who runs into such a defender is charging.
Fake or feint - a deceptive move to throw a defender off balance and allow an offensive player to shoot or receive a pass; players use their eyes, head or any other part of the body to trick an opponent.
Fast break - also called the run-and-shoot offense, it begins with a defensive rebound by a player who immediately sends an outlet pass toward midcourt to his waiting teammates; these teammates can sprint to their basket and quickly shoot before enough opponents catch up to stop them.
Fast-Break Attack - an offensive strategy in which a team attempts to move the ball up court and into scoring position as quickly as possible so that the defense is outnumbered and does not have time to set up.
Field goal - a basket scored on a shot, except for a free throw, worth two or three points depending on the distance of the attempt from the basket.
Final four - the 4 regional champions (west, east, Midwest and southeast) remaining from the 64 college teams that compete in the annual NCAA tournament; they play one another to determine the national champion.
Finals, NBA - the annual championship series of the NBA's post-season.
Flagrant foul - unnecessary or excessive contact against an opponent.
Floor - the area of the court within the end lines and sidelines.
Floor violation - a player's action that violates the rules but does not prevent an opponent's movement or cause him harm; penalized by a change in possession.
Forward - an offensive position played to the sides of the basket near the key area and out toward the sideline along the baseline.
Forwards - the two players on the court for a team who are usually smaller than the center and bigger than the guards; often a team's highest scorers.
Foul - a violation resulting from illegal contact with an opposing player.
Foul lane - the painted area 19' x 16' (12' in college) bordered by the end line and the foul line, outside which players must stand during a free-throw; also the area an offensive player cannot spend more than 3-seconds at a time in.
Foul line - the line 15' from the backboard and parallel to the end line from which players shoot free throws.
Foul shot - an unguarded shot taken from behind the free-throw line after a foul. If successful, the shot counts one point.
Fouls - actions by players, which break the rules but are not floor violations; penalized by a change in possession or free throw opportunities; see personal foul or technical foul.
Four-point play - a three-point shot followed by a successful free throw.
Franchise - a professional team.
Franchise player - a star player around which a franchise is built.
Free Agent, restricted - an NBA player whose contract has expired and who has received a "qualifying offer" from his current club, which provides a salary level predetermined by the collective bargaining agreement. While this player is free to negotiate an offer from a new team, his current team has a right of first refusal to match that offer, thereby obligating him to remain with his current team.
Free Agent, unrestricted - a player who has completed his 3rd NBA season (or 4th season, if his current team exercised its "option" to have him play for a 4th year) and is free to negotiate a contract with other NBA teams without his current team having a right of first refusal.
Free throw - an unguarded shot taken from behind the free-throw line after a foul. If successful, the shot counts one point.
Free-throw lane - also called the “key” or “lane;” a 12-foot wide area extending from the baseline to the free-throw line. Players may not be in this area during a free-throw attempt.
Free-throw line - a 12-foot-long line that is parallel to and 15 feet from the backboard.
Free-throw line extended - an imaginary line drawn from the free-throw line to the sideline to determine the location for certain throw-ins.
Frontcourt - the area between the midcourt line and the end line closest to the offense's basket.Frontcourt
Fullcourt press - a defensive tactic in which a team guards the opponents closely the full length of the court.
Full-Court pressing - when defenders start guarding the offense in the backcourt.
Game clock - shows how much time remains in each of the four 12-minute quarters of an NBA game or two 20-minute halves of a college game.
Guard - an offensive position played primarily at the perimeter, or away from the basket.
Guarding - the act of following an opponent around the court to prevent him from getting close to the basket, taking an open shot or making easy an pass, while avoiding illegal contact.
Guards - the two players on each team who are the smallest on the court; they usually handle setting up plays and passing to teammates closer to the basket.
Half-court or set offense - when a team takes the time to develop a play in its frontcourt, such as the give-and-go or a screening play; opposite of fast break.
Held ball - formerly called a “jump ball.” When two players on opposite teams are in joint control of the ball.
High percentage shot - a shot that is likely to go in the basket, such as a lay-up.
High post - an imaginary area outside either side of the foul lane at the free-throw line extended.
In the paint - being in the foul lane area which is painted a different color.
In the power zone - in the “key” area, so named because this area of the floor is painted.
Inbounds - the area within the end lines and sidelines of the court; also the act of bringing the ball into this area by means of a throw-in.
Incidental contact - minor contact usually overlooked by officials.
Inside shooting - shots taken by a player near or under the basket.
Intentional foul - a personal foul that the official judges to be premeditated.
Jump ball - 2 opposing players jump for a ball an official tosses above and between them, to tap it to their teammates and gain possession; used to start the game (tip-off) and all overtime periods, and sometimes to restart play.
Jump shot - a shot that is released after the shooter has jumped into the air.
Jump Tip-Off - the procedure for starting play at the beginning of a game or an overtime period. The official tosses the ball into the air between the two opponents positioned at the center-court circle; the two players jump up and try to tap the ball to a teammate.
Keep away game - a tactic used by the team that is leading near the end of the game to keep the ball from its opponents to prevent them from scoring while using up time off the game clock; also called freezing.
Key - also called the “free-throw lane” or “lane;” the area measuring 12 feet in width and extending from the free-throw line to the end line. Also referred to as “the paint.”
Key or keyhole - the area at each end of the court consisting of the foul circle, foul lane and free-throw line; named for the shape it had years ago.
Lay up - a shot taken close to the basket that is usually banked off the backboard towards the basket.
Lay-up or layin - a shot taken after driving to the basket by leaping up under the basket and using one hand to drop the ball directly into the basket (layin) or to bank the ball off the backboard into it (lay-up).
Leading the receiver: when a passer throws the ball where he thinks a receiver is headed.
Live ball - as soon as a ball is given to a free-throw shooter or a thrower on a throw-in, it is live, but the game clock does not restart until the ball is alive.
Loose ball - a ball that is alive but not in the possession of either team.
Low post - an imaginary area outside either side of the foul lane close to the basket.
Lower percentage shot - a shot that is less likely to go in the basket, such as one thrown by a player who is off balance or outside his shooting range.
Man defense - the defensive style where each defensive player is responsible for guarding one opponent.
Man-to-man defense - when a defender is assigned to a specific player and defends only against that player.
March madness - an annual competition between 64 college teams to crown a national champion; also called march madness because the three-week-long event is held during march; see also Final Four.
Match-ups - any pairing of players on opposing teams who guard each other.
MVP (Most Valuable Player) - an award recognizing the NBA player who contributed most to the regular season or to the finals.
NBA (national basketball association) - a professional league created in 1949 that now has 27 teams in the U.S. and is adding 2 Canadian teams in 1995.
NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) - a voluntary association of over 1,200 colleges and universities in the U.S. whose role is to establish standards and protect the integrity of amateurism for student-athletes.
NCAA Tournament - an annual competition between 64 college teams to crown a national champion; also called march madness because the three-week-long event is held during march; see also Final Four.
NIT (National Invitational Tournament) - the oldest college tournament, in which 32 teams not selected to the NCAA tournament compete each year.
Off the Dribble - a shot taken while driving to the basket.
Offense - the team that has possession of the basketball. Also, a designed play that a team uses to attempt to score.
Offensive possession - the team with possession of the ball.
Offensive rebound - a rebound of a team's own missed shot.
Officials - the crew chief, referee and umpire who control the game, stop and start play, and impose penalties for violations and fouls.
One-and-one - the “bonus” free-throw situation awarded for non-shooting fouls after the opposing team exceeds a certain number of team fouls in a half. The person fouled shoots one free throw; if successful, the shooter takes a second shot.
One-and-One or One-plus-One - in college, a free-throw attempt awarded for certain violations that earns the shooter a 2nd attempt only if the first is successful.
Open - when a player is unguarded by a defender.
Out of bounds - the area outside of and including the end lines and sidelines.
Outside shooting - shots taken from the perimeter.
Over the limit - when a team commits five more team fouls per NBA period (four each overtime); eight more per WNBA half; seven or more per half in college; this team is also said to be in the penalty.
Over-and-back violation - a violation that occurs when the offensive team returns the ball into the backcourt once it has positioned itself in the frontcourt.
Overhead pass - a two-handed pass thrown from above the forehead.
Overtime - an extra period played to break a tie score at the end of a regulation game.
Overtime or OT - the extra period played after a regulation game ends tied.
Palming - a violation committed by a dribbler that involves placing the dribbling hand under the ball and momentarily holding or carrying it while dribbling.
Pass - an intentional throw to a teammate.
Passer - the player who passes the ball to a teammate.
Passing - when a passer throws the ball to a teammate; used to start plays, move the ball down-court, keep it away from defenders and get it to a shooter.
Perimeter - the area beyond the foul circle away from the basket, including three-point line, from which players take long-range shots.
Period - any quarter, half or overtime segment.
Personal foul - contact between players that may result in injury or provide one team with an unfair advantage; players may not push, hold, trip, hack, elbow, restrain or charge into an opponent; these are also counted as team fouls.
Picked off - refers to a defender who has been successfully prevented from reaching the ball handler by an offensive screen.
Pick-up games - impromptu games played among players who just met.
Pivot - a Center; also the foot that must remain touching the floor until a ball handler who has stopped dribbling is ready to pass or shoot.
Pivot - a footwork technique in which a player keeps one foot in contact with a “spot” on the floor while moving the other foot to adjust the position of the body or to evade a defensive player.
Player-to-player defense - also “man-to-man defense;” a team defense in which each player is assigned to guard a particular opponent.
Playmaker - the point guard who generally sets up plays for his teammates.
Point guard - an offensive position played by a guard who usually brings the ball up the court and initiates the offense.
Point spread - a device established by bookmakers to equalize two teams for betting purposes; e.g., if a team is considered to be four points better than another, the spread is four points; to win a bet on the favorite, that team would need to win by more than the spread (in this case, by more than four points); the margin of victory can be more important than whether a team wins or loses.
Point-shaving - an illegal practice where players intentionally win a game, but by fewer points than the point spread; led to two major college scandals (involved thirty-two of the biggest stars in the 1950s, then twenty-two colleges in 1961).
Possession - to be holding or in control of the ball.
Possession arrow - in college, used to determine which team's turn it is to inbounds the ball to begin a period or in a jump ball situation.
Post -an offensive position played close to the basket along the key.
Post position - the position of a player standing in the low post or high post.
Press - an aggressive defense that attempts to force the opponents to make errors by guarding them closely from either half court, three-quarter court or full court.
Quadruple double - a triple double with double-digits scored in four categories.
Rebound - the act of gaining possession of the ball after a missed shot.
Rebounding - when a player grabs a ball that is coming off the rim or backboard after a shot attempt; see offensive rebound and defensive rebound.
Receiver - the player who receives a pass from the ball handler.
Regulation game - four twelve minute quarters in the NBA or two twenty minute halves in college; a game that ends without overtime periods.
Release - the moment that the ball leaves a shooter's hands.
Rookie - a player in his first NBA season.
Roster - the list of players on a team.
Run - occurs when one team scores several field goals in quick succession while its opponents score few or none.
Salary cap - an annual dollar limit that a single team may pay all its players.
Scoring opportunity - when a player gets open for a shot that is likely to score.
Screen or screener - the offensive player who stands between a teammate and a defender to gives his teammate the chance to take an open shot.
Scrimmage - an unofficial game between two teams, or five-on-five play between team members in a practice situation.
Shooter - a player who takes a shot at the basket.
Shooter's roll - the ability to get even an inaccurate shot to bounce lightly off the rim and into the basket.
Shooting range - the distance from which a player is likely to make his shots.
Shot clock - a clock that limits the time a team with the ball has to shoot it; twenty-four seconds in the NBA; in college, thirty-five seconds for men, thirty seconds for women.
Sidelines - two boundary lines that run the length of the court.
Sixth man - the best substitute on a team; usually the first player to come off the bench to replace a starter.
Slam dunk - when a player close to the basket jumps and strongly throws the ball down into it; an athletic, creative shot used to intimidate opponents.
Squaring up - when a player's shoulders are facing the basket as he releases the ball for a shot; considered good shooting position.
Starting lineup - the five starters who begin a game; usually a team's best players.
Substitute - a player who comes into the game to replace a player on the court.
Swing man - a player who can play both the guard and forward positions.
Team fouls - each personal foul committed by a player is also counted against his team; when a team goes over the limit, its opponent is awarded free-throw opportunities.
Technical foul - a foul that does not involve contact with an opponent; a foul that involves unsportsmanlike-like conduct by a player, coach or non-player; or a contact foul committed by a player while the ball is dead.
Technical fouls - procedural violations and misconduct that officials believe are detrimental to the game; penalized by a single free-throw opportunity to the non-offending team (two free throws and possession in college).
Ten-second line - the mid-court line over which the offensive team must advance the ball from the backcourt within ten seconds to avoid a violation.
Three seconds - a violation in which an offensive player remains within the key for more than 3 seconds at a time.
Three-on-Three - a game played with only three players on the court for each team.
Three-on-two - a common fast-break situation in which 3 offensive players attempt to score on 2 defenders.
Three-point field goal - a made basket from more than nineteen feet and nine inches during a high school or college game.
Three-point play - a two-point field goal followed by a successful free throw.
Three-point shot - a field goal worth three points because the shooter had both feet on the floor behind the three-point line when he released the ball; also counts if one foot is behind the line while the other is in the air.
Throw-in - the method by which a team with possession inbounds the ball.
Timeout - when play is suspended by an official or at the request of a team to respond to an injured player or discuss strategy; there are full timeouts (100 or 60 seconds in NBA, 120 seconds in WNBA, 75 or 60 seconds in college) and 20-second timeouts (30 seconds in college).
Tip-off - the initial jump ball that starts the game.
Transition - the shift from offense to defense.
Traveling - a floor violation when the ball handler takes too many steps without dribbling; also called walking.
Traveling violation – occurs when a player with the ball takes a step without dribbling (moving the established pivot foot).
Triple double - when a player scores double-digits in three categories during one game (points, assists and rebounds are most common, but it can also be blocks or steals); a sign of great versatility.
Turnover - a loss of possession of the ball by means of an error or violation.
Turnovers - when the offense loses possession through its own fault by passing the ball out of bounds or committing a floor violation.
Upset - when a higher-seeded team loses to a lower-seeded one.
Violation - an infringement of the rules that is not a foul. The penalty for a violation is the awarding of the ball to the opponent.
Weak side - the side of the court away from the ball.
Zone defense - a defense where each defender is responsible for an area of the court and must guard any player who enters that area; compare with man-to-man defense.
Zone defenses - a team defense in which each player is responsible for defending an area of the court and the opponents within that area.
Zone offense - an offensive pattern of play designed to beat a particular zone defense. | <urn:uuid:65e64252-065c-416c-9efe-5355c520032b> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.coachlikeapro.com/glossary.html | 2015-04-01T22:27:58Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131309963.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172149-00136-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960857 | 5,138 |
Does Portland truly rock? No doubt. Of late, our city’s indie-rock contingent has grabbed more than its share of the spotlight, with accolades pouring in from as far away as Britain. A gushy feature about our mighty music scene that appeared in last April’s London Sunday Times called Portland “a concrete grove of bohemian dreaming.” Uh, thanks?
It’s certainly been a momentous year. The Shins and the Decemberists dropped albums that reached respectable heights on the charts and earned critical rhapsodies, while Elliott Smith’s recent posthumous song collection, New Moon , hit Billboard’s No. 24. And in late March, Modest Mouse (at least some of whom live here) released We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank , which debuted at (drum roll, please) No. 1. And the hits just keep coming.
So we decided “Rocktober” was an opportune month to take stock of our city’s rock heritage, singling out Portland’s greatest musical artists, past and present. After comparing notes with more than two dozen longtime music-industry locals (including Music Millennium’s Terry Currier, record-label owner Alex Steininger and Jackpot! Studio’s Larry Crane, among others), and occasionally debating whether a group truly qualified as a “Portland” band, we hammered out a roster of artists who deserve an encore. Without further ado, we present our 15 finest (in no particular order), spanning nearly 50 years of Rose City rock ’n’ roll history, all of whom left their marks on Portland—and their music ringing in our ears.
1987-2006 Garage Rock
In 1965, when he was just 15, Fred Cole fronted a Las Vegas R&B group and was billed as “the White Stevie Wonder.” That was not, it turns out, mere teen braggadocio. After 43 years of playing, Cole has become a bona fide cult figure in the Northwest, thanks mainly to his recently disbanded garage-rock trio Dead Moon, which featured his wife, Toody, on bass and drummer Andrew Loomis. From Pearl Jam (which covers Dead Moon tunes in concert) to Cat Power (who recorded the band’s song “Johnny’s Got a Gun”), music luminaries revere the group not merely for its defiantly ragged sound, but also for its near-religious devotion to rock—which is as plain as the Dead Moon logo tattooed on Fred Cole’s face.
The Limelight: The documentary Unknown Passage: The Dead Moon Story , about the life and times of the venerable group, garners a host of strong reviews on the indie film festival circuit in 2005.
The Lowlight: In 1970, Fred, Toody and their kids flee to the Yukon Territory to avoid the draft, where they live in a rustic cabin and are forced to augment their diet with bear meat.
Courtney Taylor-Taylor, the sassy front man for the Dandy Warhols, began his musical career in rather inauspicious fashion: as a doorman at Key Largo, an Old Town rock club so notorious that it was nicknamed “Large Kilo.” Small wonder, then, that when the Dandys started playing their own gigs a few years later, their live performances more closely resembled bacchanalia than rock shows: Onstage nudity was common, as were 20-minute trance jams that would whip audiences into a whirling tizzy. Such provocative theatricality earned the Dandys a deal with Capitol Records in 1996, a relationship that lasted for 10 years and four albums; although their domestic sales were modest at best, the Dandys went multiplatinum in Europe. Some bands might have taken the resulting loot and relocated to a rock megalopolis—like New York—but the Dandys? They chose to purchase a huge warehouse in Northwest Portland, their own Warholesque Factory christened the Odditorium, where they continue to pursue their orgiastic muse—and make a pretty fine living in the process.
The Limelight: The Dandys play a lead role in the 2004 art-house documentary DiG! , the story of their musical rivalry with the San Francisco-based Brian Jonestown Massacre.
The Lowlight: Capitol Records turns up its nose at the band’s first batch of recordings in 1996, citing a lack of commercial potential.
Perhaps because they hail from a city where hip-hop doesn’t enjoy much visibility—or credibility—Lifesavas has cultivated a refreshingly anti-bling point of view. On their 2003 debut album, Spirit in Stone , Marlon “Vursatyl” Irving, Solomon “Jumbo the Garbageman” David and DJ Ryan “Rev. Shines” Shortell point and laugh at thug-life clichés while doing their utmost to maintain a positive musical vibe. “We thought we needed to come with a sound people wouldn’t necessarily expect,” Jumbo explains. “The opportunity was there for us to say something really human.” Lifesavas’ recent sophomore release, a slamming concept album called Gutterfly , provides additional evidence of the band’s more cerebral nature, drawing lyrical inspiration from the blaxploitation films of the ’70s and the groove-heavy musical cues from the same rich era. And with guest spots from George Clinton, Dead Prez and Vernon Reid, it’s clear that Lifesavas are right at home in distinguished company.
The Limelight: This year Rolling Stone magazine taps Lifesavas as one of its “10 Artists to Watch.”
The Lowlight: The group’s plans to record with legendary hip-hop producer J Dilla fail to materialize after Dilla’s untimely death from a rare blood disorder early last year.
Johnny & the Distractions
In his 1982 song “Complicated Now,” Johnny & the Distractions singer Jon Koonce howls, “Put on a leather jacket and scream about your broken heart,” which pretty much sums up what he’s done better than anyone else in Portland for almost three decades. His dramatic, weather-beaten voice and jeans-and-boots wardrobe earned him endless comparisons to Bruce Springsteen, as did his lyrics about fast cars, hard women and a hankering for freedom. Johnny & the Distractions put out two albums with A&M Records in the ’80s and even made the stadium rounds opening for the likes of Tom Petty, the J. Geils Band and Joan Jett. Today, the indefatigable Koonce continues to ply his trade with weekly gigs at smaller venues around town and at various McMenamins establishments.
The Limelight: The Distractions’ 1982 album, Let It Rock , sells nearly 100,000 copies, mostly in the Northwest.
The Lowlight: Their follow-up album, Totally Distracted , tanks—and then “the phone stopped ringing,” Koonce recalls.
2001-present Indie Rock
The Decemberists’ Capitol Records debut, The Crane Wife , may have scaled to No. 35 on the Billboard charts late last year, but lead man Colin Meloy got his start some six years ago on the Portland open-mike circuit. Back then Meloy, a recent transplant from Montana, attempted to win over audiences at smoky bars like the LaurelThirst Pub with middling, earnest alt-country tunes—an effort that failed to impress. So he junked the country set list and tapped into his “whims and fascinations” with historical literature—and the revamped repertoire proved irresistibly offbeat. “I honestly thought I would get fewer audience members,” he recalls, “but it had the opposite effect, which is a happy accident.” Today Meloy’s morose but charming pop songs about chimney sweeps, consumptive wretches, shanghaied sailors and fallen women (who else would have two songs referencing “petticoats” on the same album?) occupy a permanent place on the playlists of indie fans everywhere, while the band’s name usually sits close to the top of the bill at major rockfests from Bonnaroo in Tennessee to nearby Sasquatch in the Gorge.
The Limelight: Decemberists guitarist Chris Funk appears on The Colbert Report late last year for a six-string showdown with the comic pundit.
The Lowlight: At the last minute, Stephen Colbert invites Peter Frampton to play in his stead. Funk loses in a controversial judges’ decision.
It’s an easy jab to call Poison Idea the biggest band Portland has ever seen: Singer Jerry A weighs in at 300-plus pounds, and deceased guitarist Tom Roberts (aka Pig Champion) tipped the scales at a stout 450. But the beer-fueled and physically imposing PI was responsible for some of the most cathartic punk ever hatched: Jerry A was prone to cracking his noggin by flinging himself off the stage and could blow fire like a circus pro (a talent that resulted in bans from several local clubs). On one occasion he swallowed coins thrown at him from the crowd, and on another he carved the band’s name into his bountiful belly (the resulting carnage appears on the cover of the band’s 1986 album Kings of Punk ). That record, along with the incendiary Feel the Darkness (1990), showcases the band’s blazingly nihilistic stance and its antiauthoritarian bluster. Though album sales have never been huge, PI’s notorious legacy continues to expand.
The Limelight: Pantera covers PI’s “The Badge” on the platinum-selling soundtrack album for the Brandon Lee flick The Crow .
The Lowlight: Pig Champion dies of liver failure on January 30, 2006.
When life hands you lemons—you form a punk band. Everclear’s peroxide blond singer-songwriter Art Alexakis has bashed out a peaks-and-valleys career in rock by channeling a dismal upbringing—including an absentee father, a brother’s death by drug overdose and his girlfriend’s suicide—into wrenching rock songs like “Father of Mine” and “Heroin Girl.” Alexakis formed Everclear soon after moving to Portland in 1991 with a pregnant girlfriend in tow, and the band would log three platinum-selling albums between 1995 and 2000. Everclear’s star power has cooled since its salad days, but Alexakis remains a visible figure around town: He campaigned vigorously in Portland for John Edwards and went to the Democratic National Convention as a delegate in 2004, perhaps signaling that the angry young man has found a more purposeful outlet for his rage.
The Limelight: Everclear tops Pearl Jam and Green Day as Billboard ‘s Modern Rock Artist of the Year in 1998.
The Lowlight: Alexakis files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2005.
Before they were new-wave chart-toppers on MTV in the early ’80s, guitarist Marv Ross and his sax-playing wife, Rindy, worked the I-5 circuit in a swing and country band, playing five nights a week, sometimes five sets a night. The workload, says Ross, left him “fried,” so he borrowed $4,000 from his dad, bought an eight-track recorder and got serious about songwriting—a wise move, it turns out. A few months after its release in 1981, Quarterflash’s self-titled debut album on Geffen Records went platinum, and from 1980 to 1985, the band recorded seven songs that cracked the top 100. Between gigs by their current outfit, the Trail Band, Marv and Rindy reconvene Quarterflash about three times a year, most recently in June at Jacksonville’s Britt Festival. (They opened for Toto.)
The Limelight: On February 13, 1982, Quarterflash’s breakout single “Harden My Heart” rests at No. 3 on the Billboard charts, one notch above Journey’s “Open Arms.”
The Lowlight: Sandwiched between sets by Motörhead and the Scorpions, the band dodges batteries thrown from an unappreciative crowd at a 1983 heavy metal fest in Chicago.
“Portland was the best place to be in the ’80s,” recalls Wipers bandleader Greg Sage. “It was considered a loggers’ town, overlooked by the rest of the world, but that’s why so many unique bands came out of here.” That feeling of isolation ripples through Sage’s music, and today he is still considered a patron saint of the lonely and disenfranchised—in fact, the Wipers received more votes in our informal poll than any other band. Despite Sage’s legacy of alienation, his most revered song is the 10-minute anthem “Youth of America,” a song of punk solidarity from 1981. Nearly a decade after the band’s first recordings, grunge notables such as Mudhoney, the Melvins and, most notably, Nirvana praised the Wipers as having been a huge influence. Kurt Cobain even asked Sage and his group to go on tour with Nirvana, but it never came to pass.
The Limelight: Nirvana records the Wipers’ “Return of the Rat” for the tribute album 14 Songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers in 1993.
The Lowlight: The Wipers’ 1999 comeback album, Power in One , goes largely unnoticed, revealing that angst is a dish best served by the young.
Paul Revere & the Raiders
Matching suits were de rigueur in the early ’60s. So when you’re a bandleader with a name like Paul Revere, and you’re looking to develop an image, the solution is pretty obvious: colonial army uniforms and three-corner hats. So eye-catching was the Raiders’ sartorial trademark that it spawned regional imitators (the Redcoats, the Coachmen and George Washington & the Cherry Bombs, to name three). Eventually, their costume gimmickry and reputation for rowdy live shows pricked up the ears of a young Dick Clark, who in 1965 made the band regulars on his weekday teen-beat TV show, Where the Action Is. As a result, the Raiders racked up 24 charting singles, and singer Mark Lindsay enjoyed a stint as a pinup boy for 16 and Tiger Beat magazines.
The Limelight: The Raiders’ version of John D. Loudermilk’s protest tune “Indian Reservation” hits No. 1 in 1971.
The Lowlight: The band mimes and lip-syncs the novelty hit “Alley Oop”—while dressed as cavemen—on national television in 1966.
For anyone who was not fortunate enough to catch Hazel at La Luna or the X-Ray Café during its ’90s heyday, a “typical” show went something like this: Chatty drummer Jody Bleyle might dash across the stage chasing the drumsticks that had flown out of her hands. Bassist Brady Smith inevitably would deliver a monologue about the Baltimore Orioles, while guitarist Pete Krebs tried to maintain order and get the next song started. But most of the attention was captured by “ballerino” Fred Nemo, a bearded dervish who stood on chairs, balanced water pitchers on his head or convulsed wildly—often decked out in a flowery frock. The buzz over Hazel’s off-kilter concerts made it a must-see band, and subsequently a must-hear band: In 1993 the indie rockers became one of four local groups (Pond, the Spinanes and Sprinkler being the others) signed by Seattle’s prestigious Sub Pop Records, for whom they recorded two albums of vigorous pop-punk.
The Limelight: In 1995, Hazel’s video for “Comet” plays on MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head .
The Lowlight: On a tour of the South in 1993, Hazel gets its entire bankroll pilfered from the van during a gig in Athens, Ga. The same night, a club owner pays the band with several cases of “green” Budweiser, causing Bleyle to be violently ill at every rest stop between Athens and Mobile.
1959-present Garage Rock
Though it’s been covered by everyone from the Kinks to Iggy Pop (there are more than 1,000 recorded versions), no one had a bigger hit with “Louie Louie” than the Kingsmen, a group of Portland teenagers who in 1963 recorded the song—for a whopping $36—at Northwest Recorders (on SW 13th Ave), the same studio where local rivals Paul Revere & the Raiders would cut the song a few days later. The Raiders ended up with a more lucrative career, but the Kingsmen hit the jackpot on this particular tune: Their take on the oft-performed Richard Berry classic was No. 2 in the nation for six weeks. “‘Louie Louie’ is the whole history of rock ’n’ roll in three minutes and 40 years,” summarizes Rolling Stone writer Dave Marsh. With a few original members (now in their 60s), the band endures to this day, still cranking out the most ubiquitous frat-rock anthem of all time.
The Limelight: In 1985, the State of Washington attempts to make the Kingsmen’s version of “Louie Louie” the state’s official song, but the campaign falls short.
The Lowlight: Lawsuits in the mid-’60s over rights to the band name between two rival factions of the Kingsmen (featuring feuding ex-members) cause confusion among fans and permanent rifts in the group.
When Gus Van Sant was asked to comment following the tragic death of his friend Elliott Smith, who contributed the Oscar-nominated song “Miss Misery” to his film Good Will Hunting , he said simply, “His songs sound like Portland.” Four years after Smith’s demise, local coffee shops are still peopled by his acolytes—somber-looking chaps filling notebooks and sporting the ever-present watch cap favored by their fallen hero. Smith’s darkly whispered tunes such as “Rose Parade” and “Alameda,” about life on the margins of Portland, not only provided a stark counterpoint to the last gasp of grunge, but also helped lay the groundwork for a host of confessional singer-songwriters (a term that Smith, in fact, detested). Whether recurring depression and/or drug use led to his suicide by knife to the heart in 2003 remains a question mark (the case is unresolved), but there’s no debating the abiding influence of his work on our gritty little city.
The limelight: A rather shaky Smith sings "Miss Misery" at the 1997 Academy Awards. He’s beaten out by Celine Dion’s glutinous "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, but his star is officially at its apex.
The lowlight: Smith’s two-year lapse into heroin addiction after the release of his Figure 8 album in 2000 includes a dust-up with the cops at a Flaming Lips show in 2002.
1985-present Country Rock
The British have had a long, well-documented fascination with the savagery of the American West, which is about as good an explanation as any for why Richmond Fontaine’s epic, gritty music has generated such a rabid following across the pond—after nearly 10 years of slogging away at home. The band’s conversion from hardworking alt-country boys to Continental critical darlings came about thanks to a barrage of high praise from English magazines like Mojo and Uncut , the latter of which practically adopted the group and dubbed lead singer and songwriter Willy Vlautin “the laureate of the lost, the lonely and the rootless.” All the attention has enabled Vlautin to embark on a promising second career as a novelist—his debut, The Motel Life , was an Editors’ Choice of the New York Times Book Review this summer.
The limelight: In 2004, Uncut magazine names RF’s album Post to Wire the fourth-best album of the ear, behind releases from Brian Wilson, Wilco and Loretta Lynn.
The Lowlight: A bad review in a 1997 issue pf indie-rock magazine Magnet nearly convinces Vlautin to abandon music and return to school.
1994-2006 Punk/Indie Rock
Despite Sleater-Kinney’s identification with the Olympia, Wash., rock scene (they’re named after a nearby freeway off-ramp and recorded for an Olympia label), Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss have called Portland home for several years and played enough local shows to warrant inclusion in this company. Residence quibbles aside, the trio’s chops, creative drive and incalculable empowering influence on their fan base have made them one of the most talked-about and critically lauded indie groups of the last decade. From their brash and ragged early days as riot-grrrl champions to their highly polished and bombastic final album, The Woods , Sleater-Kinney never stopped pushing forward creatively, in the end even choosing to go on “indefinite hiatus” last year rather than risking a rehash of musical ideas. And despite overtures from major labels, Sleater-Kinney chose freedom and control over lucre, remaining with the fiercely independent labels Chainsaw and Kill Rock Stars until moving to Seattle’s Sub Pop to record its last album in 2005.
The Limelight: In 2001 Time magazine calls Sleater-Kinney “America’s best rock band.”
The Lowlight: Sleater-Kinney reaches a sufficient level of success to inspire a local backlash: Portland band the Punk Group releases its cheeky anthem, “Sleater-Kinney Sucks,” in 2004. | <urn:uuid:66ce4356-550e-4171-b38c-f0b162040f1a> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/articles/1007-rosecityrock/print | 2015-03-27T17:20:35Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131296587.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172136-00204-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943678 | 4,734 |
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Sharon joined University College as the Associate Dean in 2002. She was born and raised on a small family farm in the green mountains of Vermont. Her educational experiences include a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Maine, a M.S. in International Relations from Troy State University, and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Utah. From her life experiences and education emerged a broad skill set for various career paths. Before identifying her niche in higher education, she was a career counselor, high school teacher, and librarian at the U.S. Embassy in Germany. She has lived in Vermont, Maine, Utah, Arizona, the United Kingdom, and Germany. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking in the western mountains as well as cooking and traveling. She is proud of her 15 years of service to students in higher education as a practitioner-scholar.
John has been an academic advisor since 2001, when he was a graduate student in history at the University of Washington. In 2003, he started working in University College. John received his BA in history from Brigham Young University and his MA in history from the University of Utah. He enjoys helping students discover their strengths and create plans for their future success. When not at work, he loves exploring new trails and appreciating the beauty of all four of Utah’s seasons.
Martina has been an advisor in University College for over 15 years. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Masters in Career and College Counseling from San Francisco State University. Before settling in Utah, she worked in a variety of advising positions in higher education in California. She is committed to helping students identify their strengths and interests and design an academic program that utilizes the many opportunities at the University of Utah. She is married and has two daughters. She enjoys walking in nature, skiing with her family, tennis, reading and traveling.
Jason joined the University College team in March, 2015. He was born and raised in Southern California and attended Saddleback Community College. After transferring and graduating from Humboldt State University with a BA in Communication, he worked in advertising and sales until he found his true passion serving college students. Jason earned a MA degree in Educational Leadership from Western Michigan University. Before coming to the U, Jason has held various roles in academic advising and residence life in California, Michigan, and Florida. He understands that attending a university can bring unique challenges and is excited to provide tools that students can utilize to overcome barriers to their success. As a new transplant to Utah, Jason is eager to explore the outdoor opportunities that surround the campus.
Becki joined the staff in January 2011 as the Director of Student Technology Initiatives which was a new position for University College. This position was a perfect fit with her advising experience and education. She completed a BS in Public Relations from Utah State University, and, in 2012, she completed a Masters of Education in Instructional Design & Technology from Western Governor’s University. While an undergraduate student, she knew she wanted to work in higher education as a university representative while helping students transition. After graduation, she fell into advising and hasn’t left. Advising matched what she was looking for and has been a very rewarding career. In addition to working at the University of Utah, Becki advised undecided & academically at-risk students at Utah State University and Salt Lake Community College for eight years. She recommends students use the three A’s to be successful in college: 1) Attend class, 2) Ask Questions, 3) Advocate for yourself.
Jency has been an advisor in University College for over 18 years and prior to that was the departmental advisor for the Medical Laboratory Science program. He also taught business and math courses, primarily at community colleges, for nearly 15 years. He has a bachelor's degree in Biology from Ohio State University and an MBA from the University of Dayton as well as a Certificate in Higher Ed Leadership from the University of Utah. Jency enjoys running, biking, and other outdoor activities. He has completed over 40 marathons, as well as the Wasatch 100 trail run and the LOTAJA 200 mile bike race.
Anna has lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for most of her life. She is currently a senior at the University of Utah and is triple majoring in Political Science, Economics, and Spanish. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in Political Science and is interested in working for a non-profit in the future. In her free time she enjoys biking, running, and walking when the sun is shining. She also loves going to Chile to visit her family, eat empanadas, and swim at the beach.
Prior to joining University College, Sean taught writing at Oregon State University in Corvallis. During this time, he developed a deep interest in assisting students find and pursue their true academic, artistic, and intellectual passions. This interest most recently brought him to the University of Utah as an advisor for the Major Exploration Program. He holds a B.A. in Writing from Boise State University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Oregon State University. When not advising students, he toils before the keys of an old typewriter, inching his way toward the completion of his first novel.
Heather has been advising students in University College since 1998. She graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. degree in Human Development and a M. Ed degree in School Counseling. Heather enjoys advising students and helping them reach their academic goals. She loves animals, traveling, reading, the arts, and spending time with friends and family.
Angie joined University College as the Mathematics Advisor in 2012. Prior to that she was the Director of Undergraduate Services in the Mathematics Department for fourteen years, where she found that she truly enjoys working with students. Angie graduated from the University of Utah in 1997 with a BA in Mathematics and a minor in French. Outside of work she enjoys music, gardening, reading, and spending time with family.
Riley J. Greenwood was raised in Ogden, Utah and is currently pursuing Bachelor of Arts degrees in International Studies and Economics. Riley spent two valuable years living in various cities surrounding Concepción, Chile, where his eyes were opened to different cultures and people and a love to help and serve others was developed. Riley brings experience that relates to other students and carries with him a positive attitude and cheerfully fun personality. Riley loves the NBA (especially the one-and-only Utah Jazz) and playing a variety of different things such as sports, music, and videogames. Riley also loves spending time with his family, especially with his adorable golden retriever Obo.
Steve was born many years ago when lefthanders like himself were still ridiculed for the use of the "awkward appendage." The Nation was just starting to recover from the oil embargo of the early 1970's. The urban to rural migration was in full swing only to be halted shortly thereafter by the farm crisis of the 1980's. Steve learned at an early age to cook pizza, burritos, nachos, and Pop Tarts. These staples of life have fueled his efforts as he progressed to where he is today. Steve now directs the University College Advising Major Exploration Center. As part of this endeavor to assist students in choosing a major students can attend the Major Exploration EXPO which is held annually each September. Students can also work closely with Steve on choosing a major by taking the course UC 1050: Major Exploration. Steve received his B.S. and M.S. in Sociology from Utah State University. Seeing as though blood runs both red and blue depending on its level of oxygenation (Aggie blue, not that blue from the south) the University of Utah was a perfect fit. Steve also loves his wife and son, his chickens, and cycling. He rides road, mountain, and cyclocross bikes. Steve has raced his bike at the 2001 Collegiate National Championships, LOTOJA, Tour de Park City, Mt. Evans, and many others. Steve's advice: "Eat your greens, don't do drugs, get 8 hours of sleep, ride your bike, and go to class."
Steve’s Advising Philosophy: My role as an advisor is to master knowledge so that I can analyze information and ask probing questions. In doing so, I hope to help others to know, grow, and change for the betterment of self and humanity. I am committed to helping students achieve their goals by helping them explore their options and design a degree that is unique to their interests, abilities, and values. Students ultimately have the responsibility for their education. My responsibility is to teach so that students can make decisions that are well informed.
Marilyn has been an Academic Advisor at the U for over 25 years, and during this time has advised a wide variety of students. She currently specializes in international student advising, non-traditional student advising, and also assists with prelaw advising. She is originally from Ohio and has a Bachelor's Degree in Theatre from The Ohio State University. She enjoys working with students and helping them to achieve their academic and career goals. Some of her favorite things are travelling in the U.S. and internationally, hiking in the Wasatch mountains and Southern Utah, skiing, bird watching, photography, theatre, movies, and dinners and laughter with good friends.
Copeland Johnston was born and reared in Southern California and is an alumnus of the University of Utah where he completed a BA in History. After completing his degree he moved to Illinois and enrolled in Seabury Western Theological Seminary where he earned a Masters of Divinity. His passion for theology and liturgy made him well-suited for ordained ministry, but his zeal for learning redirected him to higher education and ultimately to his current position at the University of Utah. He is presently a Bridge Advisor for the College of Humanities and the University College. Within the College of Humanities he is responsible for two burgeoning programs: Religious Studies and Peace & Conflict Studies. Other responsibilities of his include helping students complete the BA language requirement.
Due to his theological background and training, Copeland has represented the University of Utah and the College of Humanities in print and television as an expert in Western Christianity. He has been interviewed on topics spanning from the election of Pope Francis to Christian customs. Copeland is also working in conjunction with the Program Director of Peace & Conflict Studies on future lectures involving legislative conflict and the LGBT community.
Outside of work he spends most of his spare time with his family. He has performed in the Utah Opera Chorus for several seasons and is involved in local charities.
Kira has over four years experience teaching, advising, and counseling students. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from the University of Utah in 2005. During her time on campus she worked with the Housing and Residential Education, University Tutoring Services, the CLEAR Program: Center for Engineering Leadership and the Utah Daily Chronicle. Since graduating from the University of Utah, Kira obtained a Master’s Degree in Communication Studies from the University of Montana, where she was also an instructor. Throughout her career, she has worked with a variety of women’s health non-profit organizations across the country. Kira brings a vast skill-set and knowledge of student services and advocacy work to her advising to keep quality student experiences as the focus of what the College of Fine Arts and the University College does best. Kira also sits on the board of directors for the National Women’s Health Network. In her free time, she frequently sets aside time to draw or paint and can often be found with a camera in hand.
Mayumi is an advisor in the Preprofessional Advising office. She has a Bachelor's degree in International Studies and a Master’s degree in Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies from the University of Utah. She is from Japan but has lived in Utah since 2004. She has two dogs and enjoys baking and traveling.
I have lived in Hawaii on the island of Oahu for my entire life and decided to attend the University of Utah after high school. I have three older sisters, one older brother, and a mom and dad, all of whom inspire me to do my best. I am majoring in Accounting, hope to attain a Master's Degree, and hope to become a CPA. I enjoy sports, games, books, cooking, hanging out with friends, and watching TV and movies. I love the rain and mountains, which remind me of home
Originally from Montana, Lena received her BS and MS in Psychological Science from Montana State University. She has served most recently as a general academic advisor at Montana State University in the Academic Advising Center and specialized in pre-medicine advising. She has coordinated an introductory psychology course, supervised graduate teaching assistants, and taught the first-year seminar for incoming students. Lena has also served as an academic counselor for TRiO – Student Support Services and coordinated a student retention initiative for the Office of the Provost. She currently coordinates the College of Fine Arts Sponsored Student Program and serves as a departmental advisor for Ballet, Film & Media Arts, and Modern Dance. She is grateful for the opportunity to continue working with students in higher education and is excited to collaborate with and assist students as they navigate the University of Utah. In her free time, Lena likes to be outdoors doing activities like running, hiking, and camping. She enjoys traveling, learning, and trying new things.
Tammy joined the University College in 2014. She graduated from the University of Utah with a BS in Behavioral Science and Health as well as a BS in Psychology. She then went on to graduate with a Master in Public Administration. Tammy has held several positions throughout the University of Utah and has also been employed at the University of Utah Hospital and Clinics where she worked in the Pulmonary Lab as a Blood Gas Technician. When she is not working, Tammy enjoys rock climbing, camping, traveling, cheering on her favorite football teams (both college and professional),and learning new things every day.
Before moving to Utah from Northern California, I had been involved in higher education since joined the Orientation Program at Humboldt State University in 2003 as an undergrad. I graduated from HSU in 2007, and after I graduated, I worked for a couple of years both in Admissions & Records and academic advising at College of the Redwoods. I then moved to Utah in 2009 to pursue graduate school in the Educational Leadership & Policy department at the U. I worked in the Office of Admissions for a few years as a Transfer Admissions Counselor before becoming an academic advisor in University College. I really like advising students because when I was in school, I struggled big-time academically. I enjoy helping students not make the same mistakes I did. Now that I know the tools to be a successful student, I can help students make it through school as smoothly as possible.
I enjoy exploring Salt Lake City and all of the cool stuff it has to offer with my partner and puppy - things like the Clark Planetarium, the Natural History Museum of Utah, U of U football, and the local breweries, restaurants, farmer’s markets, and beautiful scenery.
Shelley is from California, and has been involved with student and academic affairs since her freshman year on the north coast at Humboldt State University. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Geography and minored in both Communication and Leadership Studies. She eventually landed at the University of Utah to earn her M.Ed in Educational Leadership & Policy. Not being a native Utahan, she enjoys exploring the state with her wife and their dog to find out just what Utah has to offer. As of now, some of her favorites: Red Iguana, Sapa, X96’s Radio from Hell, U of U football games, downtown SLC Farmer’s Market, the Uintas, Bear Lake, the summer concerts at Red Butte Gardens, local museums and libraries, and the yummy local microbrews.
Leslie is privileged to have worked as an Academic Advisor at University College since 1999. For years she has worked hard on behalf of her students to help ease their transition to college, understand how to navigate the University’s systems, and aid in the major exploration process while co-creating students unique plan to complete their degree. Through programs she has enacted and guided, she has also had the opportunity to work with wonderful colleagues across campus.
Because of her passion for education, Leslie herself has sought out her own educational excellence. After obtaining her bachelor degrees in Political Science and Family Studies, she continued on to earn her M.Ed in Educational Leadership and Policy. From her undergraduate experiences in several student groups and her work as a Peer Advisor at University College she was intrigued by how universities function and sought to research questions regarding student preparation, transition and involvement in her post graduate work. These questions broadened as she pursued her Ph.D in Political Science. She is currently completing her dissertation which explores how higher education benefits societies as well as the individuals.
Leslie, a New Jersey native, loves living in the Salt Lake Valley where she enjoys spending time exploring the beauty of Utah with her husband, kids, and dog.
Julia joined the University College staff in August 2012. She graduated in August 2013 from the University of Utah with a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication and a minor in Leadership Studies. She loved working with students during her undergrad and is excited about working with students in her advising role. She is passionate especially about helping exploring students find opportunities and experiences to make their time at the U memorable.
Julia was born and raised in Utah. She has adored her time at the University of Utah and loves sharing that passion with students. Julia is often seen at University of Utah athletic events cheering on her Utes. She loves baking, photography, spending time with family and friends, good books, travel and most of all her dog, Rosie.
Terese has enjoyed working with students in academic advising and orientation at the University of Utah for over 15 years. As Director of the Transfer Center, she is
committed to helping transfer students become successful members of the University of Utah community. Terese is an alumna of the U of U, receiving a BA in English and MA in Linguistics. She is married with two children and enjoys the arts, outdoor activities, travel and gardening.
Quynh is an international student from Vietnam. She came to Utah in 2011. She got her Associate of Science in General studies at Salt Lake Community College in May 2013 and transferred to the University of Utah in August 2013. Quynh is passionate about helping other people. She likes to inspire and support others, provide information, connect people with critical resources and contacts. She is pursuing a bachelor degree in Health Promotion and Education and hopes to go to Occupational Therapy school in the future. Quynh hopes that her experience as an international student and a transfer student can help other scholars in their academic journey at the U.
Sarah joined University College in 2009 and has enjoyed her time advising students here at the U. Sarah oversees the Curriculum for courses taught through University College. Sarah loves working with all different types of student but she really empathizes with undecided student since she herself struggled to choose a major. After switching from business information systems to interior design to liberal arts she finally acknowledged her passion for literature and earned a BA in English and Literary Studies from Utah State University in 2005. After feeling very deprived of the intellectual stimulation that one can only achieve while engaged in scholarly pursuits she returned to Utah State University and completed an MS in Literature and Writing in 2008. Sarah has taught academic writing and literature courses at USU, SLCC, and Westminster College before settling here at the U. Outside of her work with students she enjoys writing creative non-fiction, reading poetry, traveling, appreciating the arts, cooking and baking, and spending time with family.
Brett grew up on a ranch in a small town in Montana before going on to graduate from Montana State University – Bozeman in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. He later earned his Master of Science degree in Applied Psychology from MSU - Bozeman in 2009. Following his graduation, he taught Psychology and Mathematics at a tribal college on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in central Montana for several years. During his time there he worked passionately with many non-traditional and first generation students to ensure that they would successfully graduate. With the goal of increasing native students’ access to science and mathematical careers, he ran an annual 6-week math program that was designed to move students from a pre-algebra skillset up to a level where they could successfully complete college calculus. In the fall of 2014, Brett joined the University College staff at the University of Utah as a bridge advisor in the College of Fine Arts. He looks forward every day, to helping students understand the intricacies and unwritten rules of attending higher education. He enjoys reading, watching movies, playing games, snowboarding, and spending time with his dog Captain.
Richelle grew up in Midvale, Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in Classics, and later a MEd in Educational Leadership and Policy. Richelle held various positions at the University of Utah before joining University College in 2009. In her spare time, Richelle indulges her passion for comparative mythology, dabbles in various needle arts, and in the summer enjoys the outdoors.
Jennifer joined University College in 2012 and has enjoyed her time advising students here at the U. She earned her Master’s in Educational Leadership & Policy from the University of Utah, and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication from Weber State University. Jennifer enjoys working with all different types of students but she really emphasizes the undecided, first year student. She herself had an amazing undergraduate experience and wants to assist students in designing an undergraduate experience that is as unique as they are. Jennifer attended Dixie State College, where she earned her associates degree before transferring to Weber State University. She took advantage of many extracurricular activities including community engagement, student government, and undergraduate research. Jennifer also enjoys yoga, swimming, photography, reading, and hiking in the beautiful Utah mountains.
The rumors that Tamara is a rocket scientist are greatly exaggerated. However, as Tamara did her graduate research in planet formation, she can understand your confusion. Tamara has always had a fascination with how the world works. Her interest in physics began in highschool. As an undergraduate at Utah State University, Tamara's studies focused on nuclear and particle physics. Her senior thesis was about the solar neutrino problem. This problem was solved between 2001 and 2003 when SNO observed, and Super-K confirmed that the mixing angle of neutrinos was much greater than previous measurements indicated. This was about the time that Tamara began grad school at the University of Utah. In grad school, Tamara took an interest in fluid dynamics, which led to her graduate research in planet formation. Tamara earned a Master's of Science in physics, but did not complete her Ph.D. After her Bachelor's degree, but before grad school, Tamara taught science and math for several years in the public education system. After grad school, Tamara again taught science and math in the public education system. For the last year, Tamara has taught astronomy at SLCC. With Tamara's background in physics and education, academic advising for physics is a natural career change. Tamara loves being able to join her two passions, working with students and talking about physics. Tamara is also a bit of a gardener, a foodie, and a quilter. She has also recently picked up the unfortunate habit of doing yoga. Be careful about bringing up any of these topics.
Jeff joined University College in January 2012. He has been tinkering with computers and related technology since he was a young child. His first computer was an Apple IIc, and although he got dysentery several times while trying to get to Oregon, he somehow survived into adulthood. When he was a teenager, the joy he got working with computers and technology turned into a full-blown passion. This might have something to do with his dial-up modem and computer crashing. He could only stare as his computer was blue-screened to death, and 28.8 kilobits of online social life were lost every second. Rather than give up, Jeff started tearing computers apart, until he had the components to make a new computer and get back into the game. Since that fateful day, Jeff has been hooked on all things tech.
David has been with University College since March 1996. He supports the administrative and advising staff (and the University Academic Advising Committee) by monitoring budget resources, as well as generally helping to keep things running smoothly (which ranges from ensuring that everyone gets paid, to keeping enough colored paper in the supply closet). He also fills in at the front desk and occasionally assists students with specific inquiries. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in French (plus a Secretarial Certificate) from the University of Utah, and attended the University of Washington for one year. He also holds the Certified Administrative Professional rating conferred by the International Association of Administrative Professionals. Among the things he likes best are animals, french fries, languages, Vancouver Island, collecting stamps, and being with friends.
Ginger was born and raised in Colorado, but she and her husband have lived in Utah since 2006. For nearly 15 years, Ginger has worked full-time in various industries, including medical billing, health insurance and banking. However, she has dreams of becoming a Wildlife Biologist and is now working towards an undergraduate degree in Biology from the U of U. Ginger is a nature enthusiast and enjoys studying birds, trees, and animals. Some of her hobbies include hiking, bird watching, stargazing, knitting, and sketching. She also loves traveling and spending time with family and friends. Ginger joined the staff of University College in October 2014.
Josh joined University College in the fall of 2013. Because of the wide variety of majors to choose from on campus, he is currently an undeclared student - which means he is working in the perfect place! Besides University College, Josh works in a gym, is very physically active and teaches a Zumba Fitness Class there once a week. He also teaches at the U of U Student Life Center. Outside of work, he enjoys reading good books, singing, dancing, and long walks on the beach.
Tammy joined University College on Friday the 13th of January, 2012. She loves working in this environment, especially to rub shoulders and to work with such great people at the University of Utah. Tammy is a Hoosier, hailing from Indiana originally but has lived in Utah for the last 24 years. She worked previously as a computer teacher in the Davis County School District and in the computer field for many years. She enjoys spending time with her family and loved ones, creating new things, learning, watching documentaries, exercising, meeting new people, and chocolate. She has 4 great kids and a German Shepherd named Scooby.
Sheryl McCallister is the Executive Secretary for the PreProfessional Advising Office. She graduated from the U in 1988 with bachelor’s degrees in Theatre and English and her secondary teaching certificate. She taught high school, until one day she realized that she was fast depleting her two sizes too small lifetime supply of patience on all the nonsense high school teachers have to put up with outside their classroom and fled education for the much less misanthropy-causing world of corporate administrative assisting. In 2009, she returned home to the U and found herself working in the PPA Office, where she has found that her very small store of patience is rarely tried. She thinks she will stay awhile.
Joy is new to the University College, but she has been an active part of the University's Parent Association for 5 years. She has two children attending the U. She currently lives in Sandy with her husband and this is her families' second time living in Utah. She was raised in California and has also lived in Illinois and Nebraska. The family returned to ski, hike and enjoy all Utah has to offer. Joy received her Degree from The University of California, Berkeley. She loves working with all people and hopes to help as many as possible navigate through the University.
Grant was born in Utah, but grew up in Boston, MA. He joined our faculty in September of 2014, and is a current student at the University of Utah as well. Grant enjoys surfing, skiing, reading, fixing computers and walking his dog Pickles. Hoping to graduate with a CS degree in the next few year Grant aspires to live a long life involved with the creation of cutting edge technology.
Student Services Building, Room 450 [MAP] | <urn:uuid:e181a99a-7d3f-4132-890a-2ff21ae1b904> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://advising.utah.edu/staff/ | 2015-03-31T09:39:35Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131300464.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172140-00144-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981608 | 5,981 |
Not Completely Worthless
Reviewed by Barry R. Bickmore
When Stephen Robinson and Craig Blomberg wrote How Wide the Divide? A Mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation, they covered a lot of ground and were obviously limited by space constraints. They didn't intend their book to be the end of fruitful discussion between evangelicals and Latter-day Saints but rather a beginning. Therefore, I do not have any particular problem with the idea of a group of evangelicals writing what they see as a more complete exposition of their point of view, in opposition to that of the Latter-day Saints. This is ostensibly the purpose of The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism—to respond to How Wide the Divide? by providing evidence for their faith and against the Latter-day Saint faith, in the process showing more clearly that Mormonism is really "another Gospel," not fit to be called Christian.
If this is the goal of The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism, the chapter "Christ" by Ron Rhodes1 fails on a number of counts. For instance, Rhodes does not respond to Robinson's central argument, that behind mainstream Christianity's creedal formulations lie extrabiblical assumptions and definitions that appear to have been adopted from the Greek philosophical schools. More important, Rhodes seems to have uncritically accepted some of the worst anti-Mormon caricatures of Latter-day Saint doctrine and spends a good deal of his chapter knocking down these straw men.
This is not to say Rhodes's argumentation is completely without merit. He does in fact bring up a few legitimate points that Blomberg does not. These deserve a response, no matter what his failings. In this review I intend to rebut Rhodes's most important arguments against the Latter-day Saint view of Christ and the Trinity and in the process clarify some aspects of the debate that he has not dealt with.
A Framework for Interpretation
It is a fundamental truth that nobody can interpret the Bible, or any other document, without supplying some set of assumptions and definitions external to the text. It just isn't possible. Consider this example from the New Testament: "Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven" (Acts 2:5 NIV). At Pentecost, were there really Jews visiting from every nation or just the ones in that part of the world? Even in our own language, these same terms can be ambiguous. If I were to say, "Everyone is here," would I necessarily mean everyone in the universe? One makes sense of such statements within an interpretive framework that lies outside the particular words used.
Craig Blomberg appears to have recognized and readily admitted this in How Wide the Divide? (see p. 142). Stephen Robinson made some limited attempts to show that many of the assumptions and definitions that mainstream Christians use to arrive at their doctrines about Christ and the Trinity were adopted from the pagan Greek philosophical schools and could not have been part of the original Christian message. In turn, Craig Blomberg made an attempt to neutralize this charge. Space considerations did not allow for a complete discussion, but if Rhodes had bothered to look up the footnoted references in How Wide the Divide? he would have been able to gain a more complete understanding of this most important issue. That mainstream Christianity's doctrines are based on pagan philosophy is not a charge that can be passed by in silence because the Hellenization of Christian doctrine is a topic too well attested in the scholarly literature.2 Consider, for example, the following recent admission by a group of evangelical scholars:
The view of God worked out in the early church, the "biblical-classical synthesis," has become so commonplace that even today most conservative theologians simply assume that it is the correct scriptural concept of God and thus that any other alleged biblical understanding of God . . . must be rejected. The classical view is so taken for granted that it functions as a preunderstanding that rules out certain interpretations of Scripture that do not "fit" with the conception of what is "appropriate" for God to be like, as derived from Greek metaphysics.3
I am not suggesting that these evangelicals are advocating a concept of God in all respects identical to ours. While they believe that "the early Fathers did not sell out to Hellenism, but they did, on certain key points, use it to both defend and explain the Christian concept of God to their contemporaries,"4 some evangelical scholars are beginning to realize the extent to which Greek metaphysics governs the boundaries of "acceptable" Christian theology and are attempting to unshackle themselves from its influence. Furthermore, they point out that people like Rhodes largely do not even recognize this influence at all—it is completely taken for granted.
In order to expand the discussion begun by Blomberg and Robinson, I intend to supply a few concrete examples where Latter-day Saints believe mainstream Christians have adopted Greek philosophical tenets in place of Hebrew thought forms.5 These examples will provide a framework for the discussion of how Latter-day Saints and evangelicals come to widely different conclusions about the very same biblical passages.
My first example is perhaps the most important: the kind of being God is. Is he a person with a body in human form, as the Latter-day Saints believe, or "a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense, eternally incomprehensible," as the Westminster Confession of Faith states?6 The Vatican Council further explains that God's being is "a unique spiritual substance by nature, absolutely simple and unchangeable, [and] must be declared distinct from the world in fact and by essence."7 These definitions of God go beyond anything in the Bible, but they happen to coincide nearly exactly with those taught by the ancient Greek philosophers. For instance, Xenophanes (570-475 B.C.) conceived of "God as thought, as presence, as all powerful efficacy." He is one God—incorporeal, "unborn, eternal, infinite, . . . not moving at all [and] beyond human imagination."8 Empedocles (ca. 444 B.C.) claimed that God "does not possess a head and limbs similar to those of humans. . . . [He is] a spirit, a holy and inexpressible one."9 This concept of God was adopted by Christians, starting in the mid-second century, in an attempt to make sense of their faith in light of the assumptions they inherited from their Hellenistic culture.10 Thus the Christian theologian Tertullian (ca. A.D. 200) could say, "The Father . . . is invisible and unapproachable, and placid, and (so to speak) the God of the philosophers."11
How did the Jews and Jewish Christians conceive of God before they moved out into the Hellenistic world? Christopher Stead, Ely Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Cambridge, writes that "The Hebrews . . . pictured the God whom they worshipped as having a body and mind like our own, though transcending humanity in the splendour of his appearance, in his power, his wisdom, and the constancy of his care for his creatures."12 In the early third century, the Christian theologian Origen argued against the Jewish and Jewish Christian belief in an anthropomorphic God, not by appealing to unanimous Christian tradition, but to the philosophers: "The Jews indeed, but also some of our people, supposed that God should be understood as a man, that is, adorned with human members and human appearance. But the philosophers despise these stories as fabulous and formed in the likeness of poetic fictions."13 Our evangelical friends interpret the anthropomorphic passages in the Bible allegorically, but Latter-day Saints see no compelling reason (apart from the assumptions of Greek philosophy) not to take Ezekiel quite literally when he says he saw "upon the throne, a form in human likeness" (Ezekiel 1:26 NEB). True, some passages describe God's "wings" or "feathers" (e.g., Psalm 91:4), and the like, but these are always given in a clearly metaphorical context. What, then, was Ezekiel's metaphor when he simply described what he saw?
Our neighbors might object that the biblical God cannot have a body, for that would contradict John 4:24. This verse can be translated "God is a spirit" but in modern translations is usually rendered "God is Spirit." This passage is parallel to two others from John's writings, where it is said that "God is light" (1 John 1:5) and "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Read in context, these passages are not metaphysical statements about God's "being" but rather descriptions of God's activity with respect to men. Stead explains how the ancient Hebrews would have interpreted God's "spiritual" nature. "By saying that God is spiritual, we do not mean that he has no body . . . but rather that he is the source of a mysterious life-giving power and energy that animates the human body, and himself possesses this energy in the fullest measure."14
In fact, some of the ancients, like the Latter-day Saints, considered spirit itself to be material. Origen complained that some of these actually used John 4:24 to prove that God is material! "Fire and spirit, according to them, are to be regarded as nothing else than a body."15 In contrast, historian J. W. C. Wand (formerly the Anglican bishop of London) writes that the Hellenized Christians learned what it meant for God to be "a spirit" from the Neoplatonists:
It is easy to see what influence this school of thought [i.e., Neoplatonism] must have had upon Christian leaders. It was from it that they learnt what was involved in a metaphysical sense by calling God a Spirit. They were also helped to free themselves from their primitive eschatology and to get rid of that crude anthropomorphism which made even Tertullian [A.D. 160-220] believe that God had a material body.16
Rhodes also objects that since God is said to be "omnipresent," the divine nature cannot be limited to a body (see pp. 104-5). Apparently Jesus' body is thought to be attached to the omnipresent divine nature as some sort of appendage. Again, Latter-day Saints do not take such passages as metaphysical statements about God's "being" but as indications that God's power and knowledge simultaneously extend to the farthest reaches of the universe (see D&C 88:6-13, 41). Apparently the ancient Jews and Jewish Christians agreed that God's body was not a limitation.17
The Greeks had a strong tendency to take statements about God in an extreme metaphysical—even mathematical—sense, whereas the Hebrews spoke in more relative terms. Consider Christopher Stead's statement about how the biblical authors spoke of God's immutability.
The Old Testament writers sometimes speak of God as unchanging. . . . In Christian writers influenced by Greek philosophy this doctrine is developed in an absolute metaphysical sense. Hebrew writers are more concrete, and their thinking includes two main points: (1) God has the dignity appropriate to old age, but without its disabilities . . . ; and (2) God is faithful to his covenant promises, even though men break theirs.18 (cf. Isaiah 40:28; Exodus 34:9-10)
What about all those statements about God's "eternity"? While mainstream Christian theologians, influenced by Greek philosophy, take this in an absolute sense, the biblical writers once again spoke in a more relative sense. For example, God is described as "from everlasting to everlasting" (Psalm 41:13 NEB), but the Hebrew word for "everlasting" is côlam, which literally means "(practically) eternity," "time out of mind," or "forever," expressing the concept of a really, really long time.19
In any number of examples from the Bible, such superlative terms are obviously used in a limited, relative sense. For instance, Exodus 31:16 says, "The Israelites shall keep the sabbath, they shall keep it in every generation as a covenant for ever" (NEB). Perhaps recognizing the ambiguity in the Hebrew terms used, the evangelical translators of the New International Version (NIV) render the passage, "The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant" (Exodus 31:16-17). So is it "every generation" or "the generations to come"? Were the Israelites to keep this covenant "for ever," or was it just a "lasting covenant"? Incidentally, the salient Hebrew word in this verse is the familiar côlam, the very word the Bible uses to describe God's eternity.
If it weren't for such linguistic ambiguities, Leviticus 16:34 might be especially troubling. "This shall become a rule binding on you for all time, to make for the Israelites once a year the expiation required by all their sins" (NEB). Of course, the NIV translates côlam here so as to make it a "lasting rule" rather than a "rule . . . for all time" or an "everlasting statute" (KJV).
As we can see, the philosophical framework within which Latter-day Saints interpret the scriptural passages describing the attributes of God is widely different from the one used by most mainstream theologians. In addition, a good case can be made to show that the LDS framework is very much like that of the ancient Hebrews and Jewish Christians. And yet, time and time again we will see that Rhodes, like most anti-Mormon writers, seeks to establish some contradiction between the scriptures and LDS doctrine by interpreting scriptural passages within his framework of ideas without taking into account that of the Latter-day Saints or even the biblical writers. In the following responses to his specific criticisms, I will expose this faulty methodology.
"The Only Begotten Son"
Rhodes's first target is the LDS view of the virgin birth, and here he shows not only a lack of understanding with respect to the LDS interpretive backdrop but also a willingness to twist the words of his LDS sources to make them sound offensive to evangelical ears. In order to justify his assertion that Latter-day Saints believe Jesus "was begotten through sexual relations between a flesh-and-bone Heavenly Father and Mary" (p. 121), he quotes several unofficial statements of LDS leaders, justifying himself by showing that Latter-day Saints consider the words of the living prophets as scripture—despite the distinctly antifundamentalist view of scripture held by the Latter-day Saints.20 In any case, even while expanding the field of sources for "official" LDS doctrine, Rhodes can't seem to provide any compelling evidence to make his case. What he does provide is a long series of statements by LDS leaders to the effect that Jesus is the literal, biological Son of the Father in the flesh. But this is simply a by-product of our understanding of God the Father as an anthropomorphic being with a flesh-and-bone body (the Father was the source of Jesus' Y chromosome) and says nothing about the mechanics of conception. For instance, Rhodes quotes Bruce R. McConkie and James E. Talmage to this effect, but what did they actually say about the mechanics of Jesus' conception? Talmage says he was begotten "not in violation of natural law but in accordance with a higher manifestation thereof."21 McConkie says:
How and by what means and through whose instrumentality does such a conception come? . . .
. . . When God is involved, he uses his minister, the Holy Ghost, to overshadow the future mother and to carry her away in the Spirit. She shall conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and God himself shall be the sire. . . . A son is begotten by a father: whether on earth or in heaven it is the same.22
These descriptions do not go beyond what the scriptures affirm, no matter what seamy innuendos Rhodes wants to pull out of them.23
He seems puzzled (see pp. 122-23) by McConkie's statement that "Our Lord is the only mortal person ever born to a virgin, because he is the only person who ever had an immortal Father."24 But then, if a resurrected, exalted man can transport himself through solid walls and leave them intact (see Luke 24:36-40), I see no reason why Jesus' conception could not have left Mary truly still a "virgin." Thus, President Ezra Taft Benson could say both that "Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the most literal sense"25 and that "his mortal mother, Mary, was called a virgin, both before and after she gave birth. (See 1 Nephi 11:20.)"26 I do not pretend to know (as Rhodes does) what anyone's private speculations about the particular mode of conception might have been. However, Latter-day Saints have generally been content not to publicly speculate about such unimportant topics, and we see attempts like Rhodes's to "fill in the blanks" for us as rather silly. (Incidentally, we would also see attempts to definitively explain how Jesus transported himself through a solid wall without specific revelation on the subject as silly.)
This discussion of Jesus' conception brings up the important question of how Jesus is uniquely the "Son of God." Mormons equate Jesus' unique Sonship with his incarnation. That is, he is the only son of God with respect to the flesh (see Mosiah 15:3), but one of many children of God with respect to his spirit (see Abraham 3:22-25). In addition, he was uniquely the Son of God even before his incarnation because he "was foreordained before the foundation of the world" (1 Peter 1:20; cf. Ether 3:14; How Wide the Divide? 136) to his calling. Thus, while Latter-day Saints connect Jesus' unique Sonship with the incarnation, we believe it is proper to refer to him as the "Only Begotten" even in the premortal existence. Mainstream Christians, on the other hand, believe that Jesus has always existed as the Son within the Trinity, "eternally generated" from the Father,27 and they do not specifically connect Jesus' unique Sonship to the incarnation.
Rhodes uses several scriptures (Hebrews 1:2; Colossians 1:13-14, 17; and John 8:54-58) to conclude that Jesus existed as "the Son of God" before the incarnation (p. 125). As we have seen, he is missing the point. Likewise, when he trots out passages from the Book of Mormon (such as 2 Nephi 27:23; 29:7, 9; Mosiah 3:5, 8) in support of the eternal nature of Jesus Christ as God, he simply ignores the LDS (and ancient Hebrew) usage of words like eternity. He also expends a great deal of effort showing that Greek terms such as firstborn and Only-Begotten don't necessarily require the interpretation the Latter-day Saints give them (see pp. 124–27), but he does not acknowledge Stephen Robinson's demonstration (see How Wide the Divide? 138-39) that the LDS view reflects a legitimate interpretation of such words.
One argument Rhodes uses is the following:
Many Mormons, including Stephen Robinson, appeal to Psalm 2:7 in an attempt to prove that Jesus was begotten of the Father. However, Acts 13:33, 34 makes such a view impossible, for this passage teaches that Jesus' resurrection from the dead by the Father is a fulfillment of the statement in Psalm 2:7, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father." (p. 124)
This is a legitimate point if the object is to establish that begotten was sometimes used in a more symbolic sense. However, I fail to grasp why this passage would be any more troubling for Latter-day Saints than for evangelicals, who believe Jesus is "eternally begotten." The resurrection of Jesus represents the complete fulfillment of his incarnation, so this passage fits very well with the LDS understanding indeed. In fact, the LDS interpretation receives significant historical support. For example, J. N. D. Kelly, commenting on a passage from Ignatius of Antioch (ca. A.D. 110, reputed to have been a disciple of John), says this: "His divine Sonship dates from the incarnation. . . . In tracing His divine Sonship to His conception in Mary's womb, he was simply reproducing a commonplace of pre-Origenist theology; the idea did not convey, and was not intended to convey, any denial of His pre-existence."28
Jesus as Creator
Rhodes's strongest argument against the LDS view that Jesus is one of a number of spirit children of God is his use of Colossians 1:16-17: "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." Rhodes comments, "The words 'thrones,' 'dominions,' 'principalities,' and 'powers' were words used by rabbinical Jews in biblical times to describe different orders of angels (see Romans 8:38; Ephesians 1:21; 3:10; 6:12; Colossians 2:10, 15)" (p. 127). Thus if Jesus created the angels, he couldn't possibly be their "spirit brother."
I can certainly see how one might read the passage in this way, but in fact its meaning is not so cut-and-dried. For instance, Romans 8:38 actually separates "angels" from "principalities and powers," and thus seems to militate against Rhodes's argument for the rabbinical interpretation: "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come . . ." Other passages are ambiguous in meaning (see Colossians 2:10, 15; Ephesians 1:21), while some Rhodes fails to mention specifically speak of the "principalities and powers" of this world (see Luke 12:11; Romans 13:1; Ephesians 6:12; and Titus 3:1). Furthermore, the very passage in question seems not to include spirits among Christ's creations. Paul goes on in Colossians 1:20-21, "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled." Does Paul here include Satan and his angels when he says Christ has reconciled "all things" in heaven and earth to himself? I think not. Again, Paul does not even seem to include the spirits of men among the "all things" Christ created, since he sets them apart by saying, "And you . . .," referring of course to believing Christians. He couldn't have included unbelievers in the "reconciliation"; otherwise, he wouldn't have qualified the prospects of reconciliation for his audience: "If ye continue in the faith . . ." (Colossians 1:23).
Let us also consider our interpretation and Rhodes's argument within the broader context: the nature of creation. According to the earliest Jewish and Christian belief, God doesn't "create" out of nothing. In his 1990 presidential address to the British Association for Jewish Studies, Peter Hayman asserted the following:
Nearly all recent studies on the origin of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo have come to the conclusion that this doctrine is not native to Judaism, is nowhere attested in the Hebrew Bible, and probably arose in Christianity in the second century C.E. in the course of its fierce battle with Gnosticism. The one scholar who continues to maintain that the doctrine is native to Judaism, namely Jonathan Goldstein, thinks that it first appears at the end of the first century C.E., but has recently conceded the weakness of his position in the course of debate with David Winston.29
Gerhard May has convincingly shown that where these early texts say God created out of "nothing" or "non-being," etc., they were using a common ancient idiom to say that "something new, something that was not there before, comes into being; whether this something new comes through a change in something that was already there, or whether it is something absolutely new, is beside the question."30 For instance, the Greek writer Xenophon wrote that parents "bring forth their children out of non-being."31 Philo of Alexandria wrote that Moses and Plato were in agreement in accepting a preexistent material, but also that God brings things "out of nothing into being" or "out of non-being."32 Therefore, in view of this common usage and the many explicit statements by ancient authors regarding preexistent matter, we must rule out a belief in creatio ex nihilo unless such a belief is explicitly stated. We do not find such explicit statements anywhere until the mid-second century with the Gnostic teacher Basilides and later the Christian apologists Tatian and Theophilus of Antioch.33
Clearly, when Paul said that Christ created "all things," the apostle did so in a sense limited by his underlying interpretive framework. Likewise, the Latter-day Saints often say Christ created "all things" but limit this statement to the material universe.
The Divine Names
Four names or titles are commonly used to denote God in the Old Testament: El ("God"), Elohim ("God" or "gods"), Elyon ("Most High"), and Yahweh (equivalent to "Jehovah").34 Most mainline Christians see all these designations as referring to one divine being. However, Latter-day Saint usage is much more complicated. On one hand, the divine names can refer to specific persons; for example, El or Elohim usually refers to the Father, and Yahweh usually refers to the Son. On the other hand, they have also been used as titles in reference to more than one divine person. Both the Father and the Son have been called "Jehovah" (D&C 109:34, 42, 68; 110:3). For instance, Joseph Smith said, "Let us plead the justice of our cause; trusting in the arm of Jehovah, the Eloheim, who sits enthroned in the heavens."35 The Latter-day Saints believe that the Bible passages that link Yahweh with Elohim or Elyon (see, for example, Isaiah 43:12-13; 45:21-22) refer to a "divine investiture of authority"; there the Son is allowed to speak in the first person as the Father.36 Thus where Moses says, "The Lord our God is one Lord" (Deuteronomy 6:4), Latter-day Saints see the phrase as an expression of the perfect unity of the Godhead.
Rhodes apparently does not understand the nuances of LDS use of these terms and lists a series of Bible passages in which Jehovah and Elohim are equated. "The Mormon doctrine can easily be debunked by verses in the Bible which demonstrate that Elohim and Jehovah are one and the same God" (p. 129).
But consider the following passage found in both the Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint versions of Deuteronomy: "When the Most High parcelled out the nations, when he dispersed all mankind, he laid down the boundaries of every people according to the number of the sons of God; but the Lord's [Yahweh's] share was his own people, Jacob was his allotted portion" (Deuteronomy 32:8-9 NEB).37 Based on this and other passages, some Bible scholars now conclude that the Israelites originally believed El to be the high God and Yahweh to be the chief among the "sons of El"—the second God and chief archangel who had special responsibility for Israel.38
Certainly belief in two Gods is a debated point and beyond the scope of this review, but it is beyond debate that this was a standard early Christian interpretation of the passage. As late as the fourth century, the great historian and bishop Eusebius of Caesarea could write, "In these words [Deuteronomy 32:8] surely he names first the Most High God, the Supreme God of the Universe, and then as Lord His Word, Whom we call Lord in the second degree after the God of the Universe."39 A similar interpretation of these verses is found in the Jewish Christian Clementine Recognitions, in which Peter says, "But to the one among the archangels who is greatest, was committed the government of those who, before all others, received the worship and knowledge of the Most High God. . . . Thus the princes of the several nations are called gods. But Christ is God of princes, who is Judge of all."40 Indeed, according to Margaret Barker, in a number of Jewish Apocalyptic texts there are actually two Yahwehs. Both the High God and principal angel are so designated.41
Clearly the LDS use of the divine names is complicated, so it is perhaps comprehensible that Ron Rhodes would misunderstand. However, it is equally clear that the LDS use has unambiguous precedents in ancient Jewish and Christian writings.
The Oneness of the Godhead
One feature of the New Testament all Christians must come to terms with is that in some passages the Father is represented as "the only true God" (John 17:3), while in others the Son and Holy Spirit are also called "God" (John 1:1; 14:26; Acts 13:2). How can this apparent contradiction be resolved? We can readily see that two disparate definitions of God must lead to different conclusions regarding this question.
In harmony with their definition of God as an indivisible, eternal, unchanging spiritual "essence," mainstream Christians like Rhodes say that the members of the Trinity are separate "persons" who share a single "Divine Being." All three persons have always existed in the same relationship to one another, and no hierarchy exists within the Trinity. That is, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do not differ in rank or glory. On the other hand, Latter-day Saints believe the members of the Godhead are separate beings, and so in a sense we believe in more than one God. However, Latter-day Saints also speak of "one God" in two senses. First, the Godhead is "one" in will, purpose, love, and covenant. Second, the Father is the absolute monarch of the known Universe, and all others are subject to him.
Rhodes disputes the LDS view of the divine unity in two ways. First, he disputes the subordinationist interpretation we apply to John 14:28, where Jesus says, "My Father is greater than I." Rhodes comments,
In response, we must point out that Jesus in John 14:28 is not speaking about His nature or His essential being (Christ had earlier said "I and the Father are one" in this regard—John 10:30), but is rather speaking of His lowly position in the incarnation. Simply put, Christ is "equal" to the Father in regard to His Godhood but "inferior" to the Father in regard to His manhood. . . . During the time of the incarnation, Jesus functioned in the world of humanity, and this of necessity involved Jesus being positionally lower than the Father. (pp. 130-31)
Furthermore, he adds that while the Father is said to be "greater" than Jesus, Jesus is said to be "better" than the angels (Hebrews 1:4), underscoring the idea that Jesus is "positionally" subordinate to the Father, but "by nature" above the angels (p. 131).
Certainly Rhodes reads quite a lot into the terms greater and better, but, more important, he again appears to misunderstand, or at least misapply, the nuances of LDS theology. In our system, to say that Jesus is subordinate to the Father in rank and glory implies absolutely nothing about his "essential nature." Mormons see gods, angels, and men as having the same "essential nature," as Rhodes appears to realize (p. 120). Since we do not equate "God" with some indivisible, eternally unchanging spirit essence, it makes perfect sense to call more than one person "God" and consider them to differ in rank and glory.
And in fact, the pre-Nicene church (excluding the Modalist heretics) universally held this view, even after the Greek concept of God was adopted. Kelly of Oxford University notes that even at the Council of Nicea, the majority party believed "that there are three divine hypostases [or persons], separate in rank and glory but united in harmony of will."42 Richard Hansen writes, "Indeed, until Athanasius began writing, every single theologian, East and West, had postulated some form of Subordinationism. It could, about the year 300, have been described as a fixed part of catholic theology."43 Henry Bettenson writes that "'Subordinationism' . . . was pre-Nicene orthodoxy."44
This doctrine took various forms, depending on the particular concept of God involved. Within Jewish Christianity, where God was often conceived of as having a body in human form, Jesus and the Holy Spirit were described both as gods, worthy of worship, and the chief among the archangels.45 (For instance, see the passage from the Clementine Recognitions quoted above.) While Latter-day Saints generally do not refer to the Son and Spirit as "angels," such a designation is consistent with our belief that Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and all angels and men are "sons of God" (Job 38:7), differing in degree and power, but not in essential nature.
An early second-century Jewish Christian document, the Shepherd of Hermas, speaks of "the angel of the prophetic Spirit"46 and of Jesus as the "'glorious . . . angel' or 'most venerable . . . angel.'"47 Justin Martyr (ca. A.D. 150) wrote that Jesus is "another God [Gk deuteros theos = 'second God'] subject to the Maker of all things . . . who is . . . distinct from Him who made all things—numerically, I mean, not [distinct] in will."48 He designated the Son as "this power which the prophetic word calls God . . . and Angel"49 and followed in the same vein: "We reverence and worship Him and the Son who came forth from Him and taught us these things, and the host of other good angels who are about Him and are made quite like Him, and the Prophetic Spirit."50 Justin Martyr also maintained that the Son is "in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third."51
Many other examples could be cited, but it is important to note that this "angel Christology" was not some aberration but was derived from various Bible passages that refer to "the Angel of Yahweh," who is in fact Yahweh himself.52 For example, in Judges 13 the "angel of Yahweh" appears to Manoah and his wife. When he disappears, Manoah says, "We are doomed to die, we have seen God" (Judges 13:22 NEB). Even more interesting is the frequency with which Yahweh and the two angels who appeared to Abraham (see Genesis 18–19) are called "men."53
Rhodes also objects to the LDS understanding of the divine unity on the basis of his idiosyncratic interpretation of the "oneness" passages in John's Gospel (see pp. 132-33). He asserts that John's claim that Jesus and the Father are "one" (John 10:30-33; 17:21-24) clearly means a oneness of nature: the Jews were prepared to stone Jesus for saying this because he was "claiming to be God" (p. 132). "But the context of John 17:21—where Jesus prayed that the disciples may be one 'just as you [Father] are in me and I am in you'—is entirely different. In this context, the Greek word for 'one' refers to unity among people in the midst of their diversity" (p. 133, emphasis and brackets in original). On the contrary, Jesus' statement that the oneness of his disciples was ideally to be "just as you [Father] are in me and I am in you" is the only clear comparison of anything in the Bible with the divine unity. The "context" in which we are supposed to understand the ideal unity of Jesus' disciples is directly supplied by Jesus. It is the divine unity itself!
Rhodes's discussion of Matthew 28:19 is equally mistaken. Is it really so significant that Jesus is said to baptize in "the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" (NEB)? Does the fact that the Godhead is referred to as having a single "name" really mean they are a single being? Equating oneness of name with oneness of being overlooks the common ancient and modern usage where someone's "name" is equated with his or her "authority." Someone could say, "I come in the name of the King," just as Jesus said, "I am come in my Father's name" (John 5:43). So also, Christ's ministers baptize by the authority of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which is a single authority and power.
If nothing else, it should be clear that the LDS interpretation of the divine unity is quite possible, given the information in the Bible, and in fact this interpretation receives significantly more historical support from the earliest Christian documents than does the alternative Rhodes supports.
The "Two Natures" of Christ
The foregoing discussion of the "nature" of Christ relative to God, angels, and men brings up another of Rhodes's objections. He complains:
Stephen Robinson in the book How Wide the Divide? [p. 83] makes reference to the "unbiblical doctrine of the two natures in Christ, which was added to historic Christianity by the Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451." While the Chalcedon Creed does teach the doctrine of the two natures of Christ, this creed does not constitute the origin of the doctrine. Contrary to Mormons, this doctrine is not something that is foreign to Scripture; it is derived directly from its pages. (p. 134, emphasis in original)
He goes on to argue that "Throughout Scripture we find constant witness to the fact that the incarnate Christ possessed both a human and a divine nature" (p. 134). Here he apparently misunderstands what Robinson was asserting and uses this distorted interpretation to perpetuate the falsehood that Mormons do not think of Christ as truly divine.
Of course, the Council of Chalcedon wasn't the origin of the doctrine of two natures—the councils did not bring doctrines into existence ex nihilo. The doctrine of two natures was that Jesus' divine nature is the omnipresent "spirit essence" the Hellenized Christians defined as God, and since this essence is "without body, parts, or passions," it cannot have been the part of Jesus that underwent suffering, emotion, and death. Thus Jesus must have possessed a human body and soul in addition to his divine nature. The original doctrine, on the other hand, was what Kelly discusses as a spirit Christology.54 That is, the Word entered a human body, just as other men's spirits do. As Ignatius of Antioch (ca. A.D. 110) put it, "God the Word did dwell in a human body, being within it as the Word, even as the soul also is in the body."55
Clearly the original formulation could not last once the Hellenistic view of God was universally adopted. Evangelical scholar John Sanders explains how the change was accomplished:
In the East the Cappadocian fathers (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus) [late fourth century] helped to shape the orthodox belief on the incarnation. They agreed with the Arians that the divine nature was impassible, immutable, illimitable and transcended all characteristics. However, using the newly developed doctrine of the two natures of Christ (human and divine), they were able to rebut the charge that the suffering of Christ implied that the Son was not of the same substance as the Father. The Son, sharing the divine substance, was incapable of change. Since Jesus is both the Son of God and human, and since only the human nature of Christ underwent change, it could be argued that the Son was fully God. This became the orthodox answer to the Arian challenge.56
The Atonement of Jesus Christ
Rhodes's final significant attack on LDS doctrine is a travesty. He actually contends that Latter-day Saints believe Jesus atoned only for the effects of Adam's transgression but not for our personal sins (see pp. 135-36). An exchange of several e-mails with Ron Rhodes57 did not clarify matters, and he still claims, "Having read many Mormon resources, I believe that what is in our book is an accurate representation and summary of Mormon belief on the atonement."
He supports his contention by appealing to a few passages from LDS literature which say that because of Christ's atonement, we are only responsible for our own sins and not Adam's. For instance, Rhodes quotes (see p. 135) LeGrand Richards, who says that Jesus "atoned for Adam's sin, leaving us responsible only for our own sins."58 But doesn't Rhodes believe we are responsible for our personal sins? Otherwise, why do countercultists such as Rhodes spend so much of their time and effort announcing that everyone else is going to hell? In addition, mainstream Christians have traditionally believed that we are all responsible for Adam's sin as well, so I fail to see how the LDS view denies the efficacy of the atonement. The truth is that both evangelicals and Mormons believe we are responsible for our personal sins but that through the atonement of Christ, we can be cleansed from sin (see 2 Nephi 25:23; Omni 1:26; Mosiah 3:11; 13:28; 16:13; Alma 22:14; 24:13; 33:22; 34:8, 10-12; 36:17; 42:15; Moroni 7:26, 38; 10:26; D&C 3:20; 18:22-23; 20:29; 29:1; and Articles of Faith 3-4). This cleansing is conditioned upon individual faith, although evangelicals and Mormons may have some disagreements over what true faith entails.
How could Rhodes make such a palpably false claim? He writes, "The official Gospel Principles manual tells us that Jesus 'became our savior and he did his part to help us return to our heavenly home. It is now up to each of us to do our part and to become worthy of exaltation'" (p. 135). And yet, if Rhodes had bothered to flip through chapter 12, "The Atonement," in the same book, he might have noticed section headings like "Christ Was the Only One Who Could Atone for Our Sins" and "The Atonement Makes It Possible for Those Who Repent to Be Saved from Their Sins."
Daniel Peterson recently exposed an obvious instance of plagiarism by Ron Rhodes and Marian Bodine,59 so I decided to spot-check a few of Rhodes's LDS sources that I happened to have on my bookshelf. While I found no obvious evidence of plagiarism in my check, I did find clear evidence that Rhodes lifted some of his quotations from other secondary anti-LDS writings without bothering to consult the original sources for accuracy or even to cite his secondary sources.60 For instance, he twice (supposedly) quotes Doctrine and Covenants 93:21-23 in the following manner. "Christ, the Firstborn, was the mightiest of all the spirit children of the Father" (p. 120). A few pages later, he again claims to be quoting those verses: "the mightiest of all the spirit children of the Father" (p. 125). While he has perhaps given an adequate paraphrase of those verses, he has not even come close to a direct quotation. The same phenomenon appears in his supposed quotation of a passage from page 193 of Bruce R. McConkie's Mormon Doctrine (1966 ed.). "The appointment of Jesus to be the Savior of the world was contested by one of the other sons of God. He was called Lucifer, son of the morning. Haughty, ambitious, and covetous of power and glory, this spirit-brother of Jesus desperately tried to become the Savior of mankind" (p. 120). Now, on page 193 of Mormon Doctrine we do indeed find part of an article on "the Devil," and Rhodes's "quotation" is actually a reasonable paraphrase of some of the information there. However, it is not a quotation of anything on that page, nor even in the same article, and in fact comes from a book by Milton R. Hunter.61 Similarly, he quotes (see p. 123) Bruce R. McConkie: "Our Lord is the only mortal person ever born to a virgin, because he is the only person who ever had an immortal Father" and cites page 745 of Mormon Doctrine (1966 ed.). While there is an article on "Sons of God" on that page, the quotation actually comes from the "Virgin Birth" article on page 822.
I could add other examples,62 but what makes Rhodes's carelessness even more baffling is that in at least one instance (see p. 122) he cites a secondary, anti-Mormon book for a quotation of an obscure LDS source, a comment by Brigham Young in an 1866 edition of the Deseret News. But the above examples are taken from sources one would find in any LDS bookstore, LDS bookshelf, or even in most public libraries! Are we to believe that Rhodes, a professional critic of the church, does not even have a copy of the Doctrine and Covenants on his bookshelf? If not, he could have looked up a copy on the Internet. And yet, in an e-mail to me Rhodes adamantly claimed, "Of course I read Robinson's book and the other sources mentioned in our book."
To clarify, what bothers me so much about Rhodes's research is not that he lifted quotations from secondary sources without attribution. My problem is that those secondary sources were apparently unreliable and have given Ron Rhodes a distorted view of LDS belief. And although he may have personally consulted reliable sources—for example, the Gospel Principles manual—he evidently did so only in search of quotations to support his distorted views. Otherwise, why would Rhodes have quoted Gospel Principles in his section on "The Atonement of Jesus Christ" to support a point that directly contradicts the chapter called "The Atonement" in the same book?
The foregoing discussion illustrates why anti-Mormon writers like Rhodes have never gained, and will never gain, a significant audience among the Latter-day Saints. He criticizes before trying to understand and in fact makes it abundantly clear that he does not understand what he criticizes. His methods are so careless that it takes only ten minutes of flipping through readily available books to expose them. He reproduces many of the same arguments that have been answered over and over by the Latter-day Saints and acts as if there can be no counterarguments. In short, he thinks we are so amazingly dense as to believe in a system of theology that can be brought tumbling down by a few biblical proof texts and quotations lifted from other such countercult literary gems.
This also serves to illustrate why Latter-day Saints have received How Wide the Divide? so well. It is not that we all agree with everything Stephen Robinson said or that we think he "won" the debate with Craig Blomberg. We have simply been starving for some resource that can serve as a catalyst for meaningful conversations with our evangelical neighbors. We are tired of having to clear up dozens of bizarre misconceptions (like Rhodes's version of the LDS atonement) at the outset of every single conversation with these people. In addition, I believe the book has done quite a bit to clear up several misconceptions Mormons typically have about evangelicals.
As I stated in my introduction, Rhodes's chapter does have some redeeming features in that he produces a few cogent arguments for the evangelical position that were not stated by Craig Blomberg. Therefore, although not very useful for the Latter-day Saint, this work is not completely worthless.
1.According to his Web page, home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/RonRhodes.html, Rhodes is the president of Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries and an adjunct professor of theology at Biola University, Southern Evangelical Seminary, and Golden Gate Seminary. He has a Th.D. in systematic theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and has been an associate editor of the Christian Research Journal.
2. See, for example, Edwin Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church (1914; reprint, Gloucester, Mass.: Smith, 1970); Jean Daniélou, The Theology of Jewish Christianity, trans. John A. Baker (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964); Jean Daniélou, Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture, trans. John A. Baker (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1973); Adolf von Harnack, History of Dogma, trans. Neil Buchanan, 7 vols. (New York: Dover, 1961); Harry A. Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Church Fathers, vol. 1, rev. 3rd ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970); James Shiel, Greek Thought and the Rise of Christianity (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1968); Christopher Stead, Philosophy in Christian Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
3. John Sanders, "Historical Considerations," in Clark Pinnock, Richard Rice, John Sanders, William Hasker, and David Basinger, The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1994), 60.
5. For recent discussions of this phenomenon from an LDS perspective, see Barry R. Bickmore, Restoring the Ancient Church: Joseph Smith and Early Christianity (Ben Lomond, Calif.: Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, 1999); Richard R. Hopkins, How Greek Philosophy Corrupted the Christian Concept of God (Bountiful, Utah: Horizon, 1998).
10. For instance, Sanders, "Historical Considerations," 72, writes, "Despite different attitudes taken by the fathers toward philosophy, the influence of Greek philosophical notions of God is universal, even among those who 'repudiate' philosophy."
17. See the following from Jewish Christian documents: Clementine Homilies 16.19 and 17.7, in ANF, 8:316, 319-20; Apocalypse of Abraham 19, in H. F. D. Sparks, The Apocryphal Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1984), 382.
20. Rhodes quotes Brigham Young (see p. 119), saying that any of his sermons are as good as any scripture in the Bible. However, he fails to recognize that Latter-day Saints have an extremely broad view of "scripture." For instance, Doctrine and Covenants 68:4 says in relation to any priesthood holder, "And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture." In fact, in our view even our canonized scriptures are not free from the "mistakes of men" (see the title page of the Book of Mormon). Especially relevant is the following comment by Brigham Young: "I am so far from believing that any government upon this earth has constitutions and laws that are perfect, that I do not even believe that there is a single revelation, among the many God has given to the Church, that is perfect in its fulness. The revelations of God contain correct doctrine and principle, so far as they go; but it is impossible for the poor, weak, low, grovelling, sinful inhabitants of the earth to receive a revelation from the Almighty in all its perfections." Journal of Discourses, 2:314.
In fact, one of the passages Rhodes quotes is the following, excluding the last sentence: "I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call Scripture. Let me have the privilege of correcting a sermon, and it is as good Scripture as they deserve." Journal of Discourses, 13:95. Clearly President Young did not mean that his sermons were "inerrant" in the fundamentalist sense. Therefore, although we believe the inspired words of our prophets are "scripture," we do not believe that all "scripture" is inerrant or that everything our leaders say is perfectly inspired. This is why we have a process of canonization in place to distinguish official doctrine and practice from what is not. The church as a body recognizes what is spoken by inspiration when we are "moved upon by the Holy Ghost" ourselves, and we canonize the most important and universally applicable of these statements. For an excellent discussion of this principle, see J. Reuben Clark Jr., "When Are Church Leaders' Words Entitled to Claim of Scripture?" in Brent L. Top, Larry E. Dahl, and Walter D. Bowen, Follow the Living Prophets (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1993), 225-42. Personally, I see no problem with critics of the church critiquing unofficial statements of LDS leaders. However, they cannot expect to get away with passing them off as something that they are not and that we never claimed them to be.
23. Rhodes also quotes Orson Pratt and Brigham Young, who say that the Father must have been married to Mary at the time of Jesus' conception (pp. 121-22). Certainly these are more suggestive (and speculative) than any of the other quotations Rhodes provides, but they still do not necessarily enlighten us about how Pratt and Young thought the conception of Jesus physically occurred. Furthermore, Rhodes cites Brigham Young's statement from an 1866 edition of the Deseret News and Pratt's from The Seer. By what stretch of the imagination does he characterize these as "official" teachings?
29. Peter Hayman, "Monotheism—A Misused Word in Jewish Studies?" Journal of Jewish Studies 42 (1991): 3. See Jonathan A. Goldstein, "The Origins of the Doctrine of Creation Ex Nihilo," Journal of Jewish Studies 35 (1984): 127-35; Jonathan A. Goldstein, "Creation Ex Nihilo: Recantations and Restatements," Journal of Jewish Studies 38 (1987): 187-94; David Winston, "Creation Ex Nihilo Revisited: A Reply to Jonathan Goldstein," Journal of Jewish Studies 37 (1986): 88-91.
33. See Frances Young, "'Creatio Ex Nihilo': A Context for the Emergence of the Christian Doctrine of Creation," Scottish Journal of Theology 44 (1991): 141. Even as late as the turn of the third century, Tertullian had to take the more ancient usage into account when arguing for the new doctrine. "And even if they were made out of some (previous) matter, as some will have it, they are even thus out of nothing, because they were not what they are." Tertullian, Against Marcion 2.5, in ANF, 3:301.
The only evangelical response to this work I have seen is by a graduate student at Marquette University, Paul Copan. Copan challenges May's assertion that creatio ex nihilo is a postbiblical invention, but in fact does not deal with May's primary evidence—the description by ancient authors of creation as "out of nothing" where preexistent matter is clearly presupposed. Paul Copan, "Is Creatio Ex Nihilo a Post-Biblical Invention? An Examination of Gerhard May's Proposal," Trinity Journal 17NS (1996): 77-93.
35. History of the Church, 5:94. Likewise, Brigham Young spoke the following with reference to the Father: "We obey the Lord, Him who is called Jehovah, the Great I AM, I am a man of war, Elohim, etc." Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 12:99.
38. See, for example, Otto Eissfeldt, "El and Yahweh," Journal of Semitic Studies 1 (1956): 25-30; Margaret Barker, The Great Angel: A Study of Israel's Second God (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster, 1992). For a good summary of the current scholarly debate, see Larry W. Hurtado, "What Do We Mean by 'First-Century Jewish Monotheism'?" in Society of Biblical Literature 1993 Seminar Papers, ed. E. H. Lovering Jr. (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993), 348-68.
43. Richard Hansen, "The Achievement of Orthodoxy in the Fourth Century A.D.," in The Making of Orthodoxy: Essays in Honour of Henry Chadwick, ed. Rowan Williams (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 153.
50. Justin Martyr, First Apology 6, in William A. Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1970), 1:51. Father Jurgens insists that this is the correct translation of Justin's statement and admits that here Justin "apparently [made] insufficient distinction between Christ and the created angels." Father Jurgens continues, "There are theological difficulties in the above passage, no doubt. But we wonder if those who make a great deal of these difficulties do not demand of Justin a theological sophistication which a man of his time and background could not rightly be expected to have." Jurgens, Faith of the Early Fathers, 1:56 n. 1. "This passage presents us with considerable difficulties. The word 'other,' used in relation to the angels, suggests that Jesus himself is an angel." Robert M. Grant, The Early Christian Doctrine of God (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1966), 81.
59. See appendix 1 in Daniel C. Peterson, "Constancy amid Change," review of Behind the Mask of Mormonism, by John Ankerberg and John Weldon, in FARMS Review of Books 8/2 (1996): 60-98. The example of plagiarism occurs in Ron Rhodes and Marian Bodine, Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Mormons (Eugene, Ore.: Harvest House, 1995).
60. An instance of this sort of thing in Rhodes and Bodine's book was exposed in Daniel C. Peterson, "Editor's Introduction: Triptych (Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch)," FARMS Review of Books 8/1 (1996): v-xlv.
61. Since the book Daniel Peterson caught Rhodes and Bodine plagiarizing was Marvin W. Cowan's Mormon Claims Answered, rev. ed. (Salt Lake City: Cowan, 1989), I decided to look through the online version of this book at Jerald and Sandra Tanner's Utah Lighthouse Ministry Web site, www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/mclaimscontents.htm. I found this exact quotation in chapter 2, in the section on Jesus Christ. However, Cowan cites Milton R. Hunter's Gospel through the Ages, 15. Indeed, I found the same quotation scattered through quite a number of anti-Mormon documents, but always attributed to Milton Hunter. We may never know the exact path this quotation took to reach Rhodes, but it seems clear that there has been some judicious "borrowing" of quotations, along with some garbling en route, among the anti-Mormon community.
62. For instance, on page 123 Rhodes quotes Orson Hyde as saying that Jesus was likely married to Mary, Martha, and "the other Mary"; he gives Journal of Discourses, 13:259, as his source. His quotation is accurate, but in fact is taken from Journal of Discourses, 4:259. Similarly, he quotes Brigham Young on page 119, citing Journal of Discourses, 13:254, but the correct reference is Journal of Discourses, 13:264. In another instance (p. 121), he cites Mosiah 4:3 as a reference for LDS beliefs about the "war in heaven," although the passage has nothing whatever to do with the subject. Rhodes likely lifted this from a secondary source and mistook an abbreviation for Moses 4:3 (Mos. 4:3) as referring to Mosiah. Either he has been lifting quotations without checking or attributing them, or he is extremely careless about copying down references. | <urn:uuid:855905a0-dd33-48b5-b3fc-dde2967ea22e> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1451&index=14 | 2015-03-31T09:45:22Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131300464.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172140-00144-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956738 | 12,814 |
Welcome Comrades to the 25th Edition of the ConquerClub Dispatch!
Well it's been 1 year since the newsletter started and 25 editions of the newsletter have been pumped out. It's been interesting watching the newsletter evolve as it has, we started with 5 or 6 people, and now we have more than 20 people and going stronger than ever before. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the newsletter in the past year and thanks to all who will contribute this year, the newsletter would not be where it is today without your commitment and dedication. Also i'd like to thank our readers, you are the reason we keep publishing the newsletter so thanks for your support over the past year.
Tell all your friends to subscribe!
Editor in Chief
Welcome to the 25th edition of this newsletter and it is another jam packed edition for the mess hall. This fortnight we are providing you with have the latest hot topics with
ARMY of GOD
, an analysis of the assault odds calculator plugin by
, more about the nuclear spoils feature by
and some valentines day advice, CC style from
. If that isn't enough, we also have an interview with everyones favourite off-topic poster
, another tale from the elf and a story for all those who have suffered from bad dice by
. Hope you enjoy it!
Nagerous Hot Topics by ARMY of GOD
Hot Topics: 1. Huzzah! The longest thread, thread is FINALLY the longest thread on Conquer Club! 2. Qwert is advertising for some advertising! 3. Hurry! Some people think "New Moon" is the best movie of 2009! 4. Congrats to myself for advertising the General Congratulations thread! 5. Talking about McGill University's social usergroup in the Newsletter was invented by Army of GOD on February 8th, 2010. Plug-ins and Addons: Assault Odds by Minister Masket
So you've come round to the fact that you're not being cheated by the dice. Excellent. Now you want to get down to the business of winning all those games you joined. Unfortunately, the luck factor means you can't win every game, but there are things you can do to increase your chances. Take the " Assault Odds" calculator for example. Now before I start (and if you're interested), do open up the link at the bottom in a new tab or window, because - like the Dice Analyser - it's fairly visual based, so you'll understand the description better if you're looking at the thing. Done? Good. For starters, ignore everything but the top three rows. This is the "Quick Calculator" part, and it very handily calculates the odds of success against your opponent(s), as opposed to you doing a quick number-crunch in your head and then subsequentially wondering where it all went wrong. Take the example already there on the calculator. An attacking army of 5 against a defending one of 3 has a 64.2% chance of success. The calculator automatically saves your entries to save you typing them out again, and if you need more, you can click the "Add Calc" button just underneath to add more blank rows. You even get a grand total percentage of winning all the battles you add in. Now what is that comma doing seperating the 8 and the 4 in the second row? Well that's how you add armies from different territories to the calculation, and it works with defenders too. Below this we have the "Pathfinder" section. Whereas the QC works best for single battles, the Pathfinder calculates your odds of successfully attacking a sequence of territories in the same turn. So firstly you choose the territory you're attacking from from the dropdown menu, then add your army number in brackets. Then you choose the valid bordering territory and add it's defenders. This one step will calculate the odds anyway, and you can add your next moves in the rows below. When you're done, you'll be presented with a total percentage of your chance of winning the lot. Finally, at the bottom we have the "Statistics" part. This will use your calculation from the QC part to tell you how many of your attackers are likely to survive, both in "minimum" and "exactly" columns. Don't get too attached to this part though. They are just numbers after all, not real soldiers. And that's it. For tips and the option to download this, here's the link I really hope you clicked on when I told you to: http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=83451 A word of warning however. At the time of writing you can only use this if you are using either Firefox with Greasemonkey or Google Chrome. So if you use IE or another browser, you're buggered. Next time - Clickable Maps! Valentine's Day Advice CC Style by FoxMists
Early last year
a.sub started a thread in General Discussion to work on his pick up lines. (Don’t lie, we all know you were really just looking for tips!) I found this to be an interesting idea and delved into what I thought would be moderately amusing and at least give me a heads up for the real desperate sorts that need this sort of help. Well, I was wrong. I was so very wrong. It was not moderately amusing. It was bloody hilarious and as lame as a one legged rabbit (hey! Not that kind of leg, you pervert!). And you know, it’s that time of year! Valentine’s Day! So I now present to you some of the more memorable pickup lines I came across. ( This will also help you avoid certain… people… if you know what I mean) It turned out that some keywords (and names) were practically required usage. "Want to go back to my place and auto-assault?" AndyDufresne “Hi there, I'm KingHerpes Free.” Jpcloet (Honestly “freestyle” was probably the most common. So common that I couldn’t force myself to add them here… Seriously. Painful.) And then there were the creative sorts: “Map Edition Sweetie, I know you are wondering where our relation is headed, and I've had 8 Thoughts about it. I would like to enter your Forbidden City, but don't want to move too fast causing you to Duck and Cover. This may sound like Madness, but please let me Land, and Sea where it takes us. You have shown me a New World of romance, I used to always just Battle for a rack. We've already tried a manage a trois, so maybe we can Conquer 4 and listen to the Wales. And if you were my Spanish buddy, I would want to Rail you, ese. What? I've been too vulgar? Baby don't go! Okay, well I will CCU later...” sully800 (We are now taking donations for the “Hobbies 4 Sully” fund!) Some people were kinda cute with their lameness. This was much appreciated. “How would you like to travel world together? I was thinking maybe E2, S3 or A12, as they are all so beautiful this time of year.” Jpcloet “It'll be worth the 72 hour ban for the things I want to say and do to you.” GENERAL STONEHAM "Babe, I'm not like the other guys. I don't nuke all over myself." AndyDufresne “You're the rainbow in my spoils...” MrBenn “my cards arent the only things that are escalating right now ” a.sub And we can’t forget the ladies! Top two from the girls? “ whoops, sorry baby, was a slip of the finger on the button" clapper011 (We’re guessing she has heard this line before ) AND, “Hey big guy, if you're UP for it, come over here and show me how good you are at Escalating..” Robinette Well. You gotta love a girl that knows what she wants, huh? If y’all are into self-torture, are ridiculously bored, or just plain sadistic, jump over to the thread and share the wealth! Your lameness will be noted and appreciated by others just like you! A Newt's Tale by elfish_lad
The Attack of the Clicky-Spiders A couple of months ago I wrote about wanting to expand my horizons from 1v1 Speed Crack (Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!) to team games and game variants. Some call them mutants. The game variants even. It's been an interesting couple of months. Here is an example: I am 8 unique wins away from my first freestyle medal. Which doesn't sound that hard... except that I really, really suck at freestyle and haven't gotten the hang of clickies. At all. Cause I suck. Especially on my laptop. With the small screen. And the stupid mouse pad. And the adrenaline kicks in and then I attack a neutral by mistake after deploying my troops 450 kilometers from where I intended and then I fort 3 senior citizens to their Retirement Villa on an island on the other side of the world, well away from any possible danger. At least with clickies I suck really, really quickly. The Elf's First Date But there was another interesting development recently - I was invited to join a clan. Here is how I think that transpired: I was in a late night speed dubs game with some random dude (another aspect of expanding my horizons) and we were getting smoked. Badly. You know those games. Nothing goes right. Oh, you can blame the dice or whatever, but you just know, deep down, at the back of your primordial cortex, no matter what you do, the fates are against you and soon that big dinosaur is going to be using your femur as a tooth pick. Or your primordial spouse is going to bash your head in with that special pointy rock you found. Either way. End of story. But then The Elf is smacked with the inspiration stick. It doesn't usually work that way. Usually I'm in charge of the stupid stick. That night, even after my random partner was removed from the field of battle, we hammered the other team back and won. Thrilling. Seriously. Here was the other team's response to our come-from-behind victory: "fuuuu...dge" It was brief but heart felt I'm sure. Right on suckers! Coming out of that game I think my random partner from that night figured I was good. And handed my name over to a clan leader looking for a good player. Instead they got me. The guy with the stupid stick. But since I didn't have any other invites to the prom I said sure. I hope they don't think I'm a cheap lay! 'Cause I'm not cheap. Kindergarten Zombies Now, this is no reflection on my clan-mates. At all. There are some great players in our clan, including our leader, but I would not be surprised if, in my brief tenure with them, I have recorded only a couple of wins in clan games. But as our clan has been rebuilding and adding a number of mid-ranked players like me here is what I think was happening in our first few games together: we were all reliving the first week of Kindergarten. Your mom drops you off. Another woman with those breast things is there but she doesn't even remotely smell like your mom. You cry for 25 minutes. You realize suddenly that you have just peed your pants. You punch another little boy in the head who just peed himself and won't stop crying. You take a nap. Eat some paint. And as Post My-Parents-Are-Never-Coming-Back Syndrome sets in, you sit on the carpet with 22 other traumatized youngsters, as if you are bit players in a "Dawn of the CC Dead" movie. Moaning, gnawing and drooling ensue. Then you break for lunch. I figure our clan will get better. We just need to eat more finger paint together. Not An Intergalactic Kegger?!?! And all of this leads me to my closing observation: there really are no short-cuts here at CC to being a good clan, or a good team, or a well rounded gamer. Just a lot of games and a lot of working things out. This was brought home to be by a partner in a dubs tournament recently. I made some initial moves and my partner sent me a very helpful PM afterward. In the message he/she laid out some different strategies critiquing some of my early moves. Pretty helpful stuff and in hindsight I realized that I should have seen this myself. But more importantly it was his/her closing words that really struck me: Five. Percent. When I first got here I would have figured that was nothing. After being in The Pit for six months now? Five Percent? Man. That is the world. doing it this way could increase your win % on this map by 5%. Huh. Maybe, just maybe, someday The Elf will give up the stupid stick for good! ~sees the skeptical stares~ Well. An Elf and dream can't he?!?! That's it for me. Off to eat some more finger paint! E. More Nukes by stahrgazer
About those nukes... I mean,
Nuclear Spoils. As players investigate the option, some find the setting disturbingly luck based, some find it requires strategy, and others are still choosing to avoid them as though they're afraid of radioactive fallout. For example, the Conqueror's Cup inter-clan tournament is disallowing nuclear spoils, the same as freestyle and speed settings have been disallowed for previous Clan Ladders. Please do not be confused; the Cup is not part of the Clan Ladder, although there exists a potential that the games will count in the ladder. But back to Nuclear Spoils and a few more facts. With this setting, it becomes more apparent that random deals cards like it does the dice: sometimes a terr comes in batches. Whatever terrs are on the map are part of the entire pool, so it is possible for one terr to show up several times in a game, and even possible for the same terr to show up in several or all players' hands; the odds are the same for any card at any time in the game, although I have yet to hear of one player getting the same card twice in one hand. Another interesting point about Nuclear Spoils is that the in-game statistics reveal more than the log will tell you immediately upon blasting an opponent (or oneself) off the map. The log will merely indicate that a territory was nuked, but the stats display immediately shows the number of territories, now reduced by one because of the nuke. The log will not indicate the terr-count change until the player takes the next turn. There are those who believe this is unfair, or untrue to the intention of the stats, which were placed, prior to the Nuclear Spoils setting, with the intention of revealing no more than the log will indicate. Now, the log may be behind the stats for as much as a full round (if you have unfortunately had to nuke yourself); but eventually the log will catch up to the stats display, indicating that the player who had 12 terrs at the start of his previous turn has 11 terrs at the start of the current turn. Is a one-round (maximum) difference enough to make you wish to change something? If so, you can visit the Nuclear Spoils thread and make your point known. I, on the other hand, believe this to be not much different than the ability to read an "owned" terr being cashed in a fog game; because of the +2 extra deploy, the log reveals information the ?? leaves in..errrr...question: which terrs does an opponent own? While the stats will display the terrcount, the stats do not indicate which terrs, but that bonus recipient lets one say, "Aha! Now I know where you are!" Granted, in that instance, the information is immediate upon the cash but.. well.. the stats info on nuclear spoils is equally immediate upon the cash. The stats were not intended to reveal more than the log; fog setting was intended to make only the number of terrs readable by the log. In both instances, cashing a card can reveal a little more information than was originally intended. And? So? To Nuke or not to Nuke, that is the question. Only you can answer it, for yourself. Bon Bombarding! The Invasion by Deathcomesrippin
For those of us who have suffered through bad dice, this one's for you....
The Invasion Day 7, Dakar Blue looked out over the shoreline. For the last two days, he had been camped here, with five other blues, awaiting instructions. Africa had been secured a few days ago, and the borders set. Across the stretch of ocean, an entire army of red sat at Sao Paulo, unaware of the plans of the warlords who ran the Great Blue War Machine. On day 5, Blue had been a part of the final push to move Green out of the African mainland completely, although word was they had secured Australia, which could prove to be a thorn in their side for the rest of this damned war. His commanding officer, Blue, had mentioned something to the effect of Flaming going on in some chat between Red and Green. Blue Command was looking to capitalize on this, and hoped to be able to place small amounts of reinforcements on Dakar until the time was right. Then, if all went according to plan, there would be a large influx of six, possibly SEVEN, reinforcements, and the true assault on the bastion of Red would begin. A squawk came over the loudspeakers set up over camp, informing all of the troops that it was time to change the watch. Blue looked one last time towards the ocean, wondering what was in store for him in the next few days. Day 10, Dakar: invasion of Sao Paulo The rumble of the motor came from all around him, causing Blue to think for a moment he was in some sort of living hell. The sides of the plane reverberated with rattling of the stores of ammo, foodstuffs, and other such items, creating a cacophony of clanging and banging. Blue Sergeant stood tall, and told the men about him that this moment would be the turning point, the first of many defeats for their enemies across the water, Red. All told, there were 14 blues on board, a frightening army considering Red's defences was a paltry 6. They were caught completely off guard by this assault. Whispers ran through the ranks of Red being led by a n00b general, a Cook maybe. Blue Command, of course, would never verify those rumours, but a refusal to answer was good enough for the troops. Blue gathered his gear. The final light went off, and the rear door of the plane opened. Below them, there was a field of green, the jungles of South America flowing past. Sao Paulo was lit up like a gigantic casino, flood lights crowding the air searching for the first signs of the enemy incursion. Then, all of a sudden (or so it seemed to Blue), the city was below them, and the order was given. Without another thought, Blue leapt clear of the plane, and freefell into his glory. Combat Results (14 v 6)- RED VICTORIOUS 4, 3, 3 - 6, 4- 2 Blue losses (The screams of the dying will be a sound Blue always remembers…..) 2, 1, 1 - 4, 4- 2 Blue losses (“Dear god, more of them….WHY WON’T THEY JUST DIE?”) 5, 3, 3 - 3, 3- 1 Blue loss, 1 Red loss (“Finally, the turning point. I hope this is where it ends...”) 1, 1, 1 - 6, 2- 2 Blue losses (“Blue’s dead, and Blue, and I saw Blue go down earlier….”) 6, 6, 5 - 6, 5- 1 Blue loss, 1 Red loss (“FALL BACK!!! FALL BACK TO THE BEACH!!!”) 5, 5, 2 - 6, 6- 2 Blue losses (“Blue and Blue were killed in the retreat, sir. Final casualties are still coming in.”) Blue was covered in blue gore. All about him, the bodies of his comrades, blues he had known for his entire life, were scattered like so many dice across a game board. The few left had been lead back to the shore, where they awaited the rescue ship. The fighting had been fierce, but even with overwhelming numbers, It was a lost cause. Out of the 14 who had travelled with Blue, he saw only three and himself. Red, on the other hand, now had an equal number, having only lost two. The first thought for Blue was frustration. The frustration of knowing you had lost, and also, that it might be a loss that you might not come back from. Blue Command was compromised, their troops for the front and borders spent of this assault. Already Green had been making overtures into Europe, and Red was crawling across North America. A bullet snapped sand into Blues' face, waking him out of his daydreaming. He raised his weapon and returned fire, the small sandbar he was by providing meagre cover. The other blues all had the same forlorn look on their faces, like dogs which had lost their masters. Blue hoped his didn't look like that, too. More bullets flew past, and Blue realized Red was making a push. This was it, his final moment. Blue prepared himself, shook the cobwebs out of his head, and tensed his legs for a spring over the sandbar. As he lifted himself up, a blue grabbed his shoulder and pointed out over the ocean. The rescue ship was approaching, slowly yet surely. Day 14, Nairobi Blue stood aside four other blues, the last of his men. Blue Command had given up long ago, and there was talk from the others about going rogue, or "neutral" as it was called by some. Blue didn't think less of them for this. After the epic failure of the invasion of Sao Paulo, Red followed through with an assault that pushed aside the meagre defences left in place at Dakar. Slowly, Red pushed further into Africa, taking Cape Town and Johannesburg, then Cairo. Now, only one area stood, Nairobi. The last word heard from the Blue General was "Red’s Foed". To the east, in Dubai, a sizable army of Green camped, awaiting orders from their enigmatic leader. To the west, the deadly west, a large force of Red sat at Cairo, looking on with a bit of pity on what was left of the once great Blue Empire. Blue looked back at his men, and at the approaching horde. End game.
During the last couple weeks of 2009,
collected nominations for the
Best Tournament of 2009
. After examining the list, 10 tournaments were chosen for a final vote. The Top 3 winners were all very close in the voting, with each officially 1 vote apart. Each winner has received a Contest Medal.
The Winning Tournaments: 1.- (14 votes) Tournament: 2008 College Basketball Season Tournament Organizer: flexmaster33 Nominator: denominator Keywords for nomination: Fun, keeping players involved. 2.- (13 votes) Tournament: Around the World in 80 Days Tournament Organizer: stahrgazer Nominator: Lindax Keywords for nomination: Different concept with unknown team mates. 3.- (12 votes) Tournament: Battle for Supremacy Tournament Organizer: barterer2002 Nominator: amazzony Keywords for nomination: Huge tournament and well run.
Congratulations to the winners and everyone who hosted a tournament in 2009. Hopefully there will be many exciting ones during 2010.
This issue features a pop-quiz that
pulled on 5 tournament organizers along with some of the tournaments currently taking sign-ups. Enjoy!
Tournament Pop-Quiz by amazzony
They have had their battles in numerous tournaments; now I decided to test their skill in a quiz. We have 5 participants who agreed to be part of the friendly battle: Tournament Legend
[OP], unique tournament titan Optimus Prime [Bart], excellent Tournament Director barterer2002 [Lx], top tournament organizers/winners Lindax [HA] and HighlanderAttack [Blitz]. Don't take the results too seriously, it's just a fun quiz where I asked everybody to answer honestly and not use help of forums/friends. If it was done, stays on their conscience and following data is also added just for statistics (which is also considered the biggest lie by some) and not for serious conclusions. What I know is that HA answered me 3 minutes after opening his message, OP Blitzaholic maximum 10 minutes after opening it, Lx took about 25 minutes to answer, Bart maximum 30 minutes and Blitz a bit under 4 hours. These are the questions that I asked and in the brackets is the amount of points received for correct answer(s). Who is the Head Tournament Director? How many different tournament tags are currently used? Name Top 3 of Multiple Tournament Winners! [max. 3 - 1 for each name] Name Top 3 of Most Tournament Games Created! [max. 3 - 1 for each name] Name Top 3 of Most Tournaments Completed! [max. 3 - 1 for each name] Name Top 3 of Most Tournament Games Played! [max. 3 - 1 for each name] What type of tournaments have been organised the most besides Standard? What is the date (month+year) when first 2 tournaments were completed? What is the date (month+year) when most tournaments were completed? What was the number of tournament completed? [2 - 1 for date, 1 for number of tournaments] Here are the correct answers which are taken from Tournament Hall of Fame [HoF], this topic and Blitz's Tourney LOVERS - most games. Maximum points that can be collected is 18. Night Strike 11 or 3 (as I formed the question badly then there can be 2 answers to this questions: either 11 tags from HoF or 3 tags for joining games: to/tot/game) Blitzaholic, HighlanderAttack, killmanic barterer2002, JoJo123, Optimus Prime barterer2002, HighlanderAttack, Blitzaholic HighlanderAttack, acores2005, amazzony Doubles March 2006 November 2009; 99 (December 2009 is also counted correct because it was mentioned in Issue 23 of the Newsletter that most likely December will beat all previous months). Now to the most interesting part - how did the participants answer! Optimus Prime [6 points] Code: Select all
(1) Night Strike
(2) 11 (3) Blitzaholic... JOHNNYROCKET24... Godd (4) Optimus Prime... amazzony... Gilligan (5) barterer2002... Blitzaholic... (6) Gilligan... Godd... vykingsfan64 (7) 1 vs 1 (8) June 2006 (9) April 2009... 79 HighlanderAttack [9 points] Code: Select all
(1) Night Strike
(2) I am not sure what this is asking so I will say 2 (3) Blitzaholic, HighlanderAttack and killimanic (4) Gilligan, Barterer, HighlanderAttack (5) HighlanderAttack, acores2005, Gilligan-not sure of third place (6) HighlanderAttack, acores2005, Gilligan-not sure of third place (7) Assassin (8) 12/2006 (9) 12/2009 Lindax [10 points] Code: Select all
(1) Night Strike
(2) Not sure I understand the question, but I'll say: 6 (3) Blitzaholic, HighlanderAttack, killmanic (4) Barterer2002, HighlanderAttack, Blitzaholic (5) Barterer2002, HighlanderAttack, Blitzaholic (6) HighlanderAttack, Blitzaholic, JOHNNYROCKET (7) Doubles/Team (8) December, 2006 (9) January, 2010, 75 tournaments barterer2002 [13 points] Code: Select all
(1) Night Strike
(2) 3 (game, to and tot) (3) Blitz, Killmanic, Highlanderattack (4) Bart, OP and HA (5) Bart OP and HA (6) HA, killmanic, and diminjarstef (7) doubles (8) October 06 (9) November 09 99 tournaments Blitzaholic [13 points] Code: Select all
(1) Night Strike
(2) Not sure, maybe 10? (3) Blitzaholic, Highlanderattack, Killmanic (4) If there was a recent update I would guess Optimus Prime, Amazzony, Barterer2002 (5) If there was a recent update I would guess Highlanderattack, Barterer2002, Blitzaholic (6) Highlanderattack, Acores2005, Amazzony (7) Not sure, I would guess doubles (8) Hmmm, maybe around May 2006 for both. (9) December 2008 and 78 completed, however, I would guess somewhere in 2009, maybe the Fall of 2009 this was broken due to an explosion of tourneys created So, here they are - results! All participants did well and I want to thank everybody so much for being my guinea pigs! Currently Taking Sign-ups by superkeener
Currently Taking Sign-ups
Here is a list of tournaments that still have open spots. Click on the link to sign up or to find more information on the tournament. Haiti Benefit Tournament viewtopic.php?f=90&t=106575 Coordinator: Industrial Helix This tournament aims to raise awareness for the earthquake disaster in Haiti. All games are played on the Haiti map with 8-players in each match. The 8 winners of the first round will battle for the tournament trophy. European Timeline Bracket viewtopic.php?f=90&t=107850 Coordinator: kawe85 A big Doubles tournament that that includes the maps of: Imperium Romanum, Europe 1914, and WWII Europe Darin’s 30th Tournament viewtopic.php?f=90&t=107706 Coordinator: Darin44 Darin is celebrating his 30th tournament with style - a tournament with 10 terminator games in each round on random maps. Only open to premium players. Indoor Athletics viewtopic.php?f=90&t=108132 Coordinator: Tupence Inspired by the Indoor Athletics International Match, this 125-player tournament is almost full, so go grab your spot now. The tournament will use a variety of maps. Only open to premium players. Horseshoes and Hand Grenades viewtopic.php?f=90&t=107936 Coordinator: YoursFalsey This tournament will focus on the new Nuclear Spoils, but players will be faced with 1v1 matches, Doubles, Terminator, and Assassin. This tournament has many open spots, and is only open to premium players. Family Game Night Tournament viewtopic.php?f=90&t=108780 Coordinator: ask me2 A tournament that stays true to the theme of its name. Maps featured are: Chinese Checkers, Conquer Four, Conquer Man, and Crossword. Circus Maximus Royal Rumble viewtopic.php?f=90&t=107549 Coordinator: kuma32478 Based on the WWE Royal Rumble, this tournament will feature 3-player terminator games on the Circus Maximus map. Doodle Earth Tourny viewtopic.php?f=90&t=108096 Coordinator: iamkoolerthanu This 64-player tournament on Doodle Earth will consist of 4-player games with the winner advancing to the next round. It’s filling up fast, so go and claim your spot now.
During the last two weeks there has been much activity in the Foundry, the Germany revamp competition has just ended, but there's already a new competition running. The melting pot seems more active than ever and the first maps begin to advance through the new process.
Talking about the process, in this issue, the second part of the Foundry special about the gameplay workshop. Then, we travel again through the History to discover the "hidden story" behind one of the maps on Conquer Club. Finally, as always, the maps currently in development.
Vancouver Competition The Winter Olympics come every four years and are a showcase of athleticism. They bring out the best in athletes striving for a bit of gold. In just a few short days, the torch will arrive in Vancouver and the games will begin. From Cyprus mountain to the Pacific Coliseum, the Olympics will also showcase the best of Vancouver, a fine city, worthy of hosting such an event. In order to celebrate this event, the CC foundry is having an contest of its own. Recently, the Vancouver map was put into live play, but now it is having a bit of a revamp. While the original map is a beautiful piece of artwork, the boys in blue thought that it should be spiced up for the games. A contest is being held where mapmakers can take the original Vancouver map, and make it Olympic themed. The winning map will temporarily replace the current Vancouver map in order to coincide with the 2010 Winter Olympics. You can find more information about the contest here. You can find info about the Olympics here. Foundry Twitter feed Are you always seeking the latest news about the foundry? Don't you want to miss anything foundry related? Don't worry the solution is within reach. Start following the Foundry Twitter feed and you will get the scoop on up and coming maps! http://twitter.com/CCFoundry Beta Maps Fractured America by isaiah40 is available for Beta testing. Atlantis by NemesisChild and Premier2k is waiting to be uploaded. Quenched Maps Our dear chief editor has got his first quenched map. , due to its superb gameplay, is already one of the most popular maps on Conquer Club. WWII Poland After a few small tweaks, the map is now perfect. Congratulations to samuelc812 After a long and careful examination, the was quenched. Third Crusade Map The last update was well received by the community and the new bonuses seem well balanced. With already more than 3000 finished games, the map was finally moved into the viewing gallery. Congratulations to Kabanellas and AndrewB Foundry Special - The Gameplay Workshop by natty_dread
Introduction In my last article, I went through the Melting Pot forum where maps are born. In this article we will be focusing on the next step of a map's journey from idea to live play, which is the Gameplay Workshop. Gameplay is probably the most important aspect of a map. A map with balanced and interesting gameplay, even if it is not so interesting graphically, can be a success. But a map with stunning graphics and inferior gameplay will probably be a lot less popular. Of course, the Foundry tries to focus on both aspects of every map. How to start When a map moves from the Melting pot into the Gameplay Workshop, the real development of the map begins. In this phase, most maps already have a clear idea of the direction of development the map is going to take, and a version of the map with all major gameplay features included: territories, bonus areas, legend... In the Gameplay workshop, the whole structure of the map may change several times. This is where the details are honed into perfection. For a beginner mapmaker, the concept may seem frustrating, but it is a necessary part of the Foundry process. First things to consider when designing gameplay for a map are: the number of territories, bonus values, size and amount of bonus areas... which all amount to one thing really: balanced gameplay. Balancing gameplay Balanced gameplay means that games should not be decided by the drop. For example, if you have 48 territories on a map and play a 4 player game, the first one to play his turn will have a clear advantage, as everyone starts with 12 territories, and the first to go can knock one or more players below the limit. But there is more to balancing the gameplay than just deciding the amount of territories on a map. The bonus values need to be considered, and for this several bonus calculators have been developed. Of course the bonus calculator does not give you the absolute truth, and common sense should be used. But it gives the mapmaker an idea where to start. The structure of the map also needs to be considered. Too many bottlenecks for example are not good, but neither is a too open playing field. What can I do to help When it comes to leaving feedback to maps in the Gameplay workshop, mapmakers of course appreciate when you keep your comments to the gameplay side, and ignore the graphics for now. It is not exactly wrong to give comments on the graphics, but gameplay feedback will surely be a lot more appreciated at this point. When giving feedback, think of the map as it would already be in live play. Try to imagine how the gameplay would work on the current version of the map. If you can see any flaws, the mapmaker will surely appreciate you pointing them out, as long as it is done in a polite manner. Iancanton, a moderator in charge of the Gameplay Workshop, has the following to say about leaving gameplay feedback: iancanton wrote:
All foundrygoers will have noticed that the main foundry has been split into two workshops: gameplay and graphics. There hasn't been much change of policy, since most maps needed to have the gameplay approved already before the graphics evaluations took place. The split simply makes clearer the current focus of the map: if a map's in the gameplay workshop, then comments on gameplay are most helpful.
What's good gameplay feedback? If you're unsure, then have a look first at the guide to giving feedback that's in the
tutorials and guides
section of the foundry.
Early feedback is welcomed by every mapmaker, to prevent him from wasting his time developing something along the wrong lines.
If something is wrong with the gameplay, then try to be helpful by suggesting a solution, if you can. The earlier this type of comment comes, the better!
gameplayfeedback wrote:i live in ruritania. there are no mountains in the western part of the map gameplayfeedback wrote:48 regions is a bad number for 4-player games. can u merge this and that? gameplayfeedback wrote:let the ship bombard all of the ports, which are too powerful gameplayfeedback wrote:make the auto-deploys start neutral gameplayfeedback wrote:the bonuses are unbalanced. there are too many small bonus zones in the north
Not so useful in the gameplay workshop are comments on things that don't relate so much to gameplay. It might sound obvious, but graphics adjustments are best made in the graphics workshop, after the mapmaker knows that the gameplay won't be changing much. Graphics ideas are still welcome, but be aware that the mapmaker may choose to do difficult or substantial graphics changes after he has the gameplay stamp, so that he doesn't have to redraw a fantastic work of art several times just because of gameplay fixes.
notgameplay wrote:the borders are pixellated notgameplay wrote:try using a font which looks more medieval notgameplay wrote:put the legend in a wooden frame Now, with all this, you should have a pretty good idea how to help mapmakers who are working on the gameplay of their map. I'd like to urge every one of my readers to visit the Gameplay Workshop, and browse the map threads. See maps that you like? See maps that you don't like? Give them feedback! The Foundry needs your help to produce more quality maps for you to play! That's it for this issue. Stay tuned for the next episode, the Graphics Workshop. History 101 - Route 66 by dolomite13
Route 66 - by oaktown Welcome to Route 66, America's Main Street. This fun map by veteran mapmaker oaktown utilizes an alternate bonus structure of 1 army for every 2 territories held as well as the ability to score a victory by holding the eleven cities along Route 66, from L.A. to Chicago. The visual style of the map takes you back in time to the golden days of Route 66 and makes you feel like your sitting at a diner along that famous road. Be sure to check out this map and get your kicks on Route 66. ROUTE 66 - ROLLING STONES LYRICS wrote:e Well if you ever plan to motor west Just take my way that's the highway that's the best Get your kicks on Route 66 U.S. Route 66 (also known as the Will Rogers Highway, and as "Main Street of America" or the "Mother Road") was one of the original U.S. highways, Route 66, US Highway 66, was established on November 11, 1926. The famous highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, encompassing a total of 2,448 miles. It was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song (written by Bobby Troup and performed by the Nat King Cole Trio and The Rolling Stones, among others) and the Route 66 television show in the 1960s. More recently, the 2006 Disney/Pixar film Cars featured U.S. 66. Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, changing its path and overall length. Many of the realignments gave travelers faster or safer routes, or detoured around city congestion. One realignment moved the western endpoint farther west from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica. US 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985 after it was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name "Historic Route 66". It has begun to return to maps in this form. Some portions of the road in southern California have been re-designated "State Route 66", and others bear "Historic Route 66" signs and relevant historic information. Over the years, U.S. Route 66 received many nicknames. Right after Route 66 was commissioned, it was known as "The Great Diagonal Way" because the Chicago-to-Oklahoma City stretch ran northeast to southwest. Later, Route 66 was advertised by the U.S. Highway 66 Association as "The Main Street of America". The title had also been claimed by supporters of U.S. Route 40, but the Route 66 group was more successful. In the John Steinbeck novel The Grapes of Wrath, the highway is called "The Mother Road", its prevailing title today. Lastly, Route 66 was unofficially named "The Will Rogers Highway" by the U.S. Highway 66 Association in 1952, although a sign along the road with that name appeared in the John Ford film, The Grapes of Wrath, which was released in 1940, twelve years before the association gave the road that name. A plaque dedicating the highway to Will Rogers is still located in Santa Monica, California. Map of Route Route 66 overlaid on Google Maps Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma The Birth and Death of Route 66 In 1857, Lt. Edward Fitzgerald Beale, a Naval officer in the service of the U.S. Army Topographical Corps, was ordered by the War Department to build a government-funded wagon road across the 35th Parallel. This road became part of U.S. Route 66. Officially, the numerical designation 66 was assigned to the Chicago-to-Los Angeles route in the summer of 1926. With that designation came its acknowledgment as one of the nation's principal east–west arteries. From the outset, public road planners intended U.S. 66 to connect the main streets of rural and urban communities along its course for the most practical of reasons: most small towns had no prior access to a major national thoroughfare. Wigwam motel #6 in Holbrook, AZ. Championed by Tulsa, Oklahoma businessman Cyrus Avery when the first talks about a national highway system began, US 66 was first signed into law in 1927 as one of the original U.S. Highways, although it was not completely paved until 1938. Avery was adamant that the highway have a round number and had proposed number 60 to identify it. A controversy erupted over the number 60. Ultimately Avery settled on "66" (which was unassigned) because he thought the double-digit number would be easy to remember as well as pleasant to say and hear. After the new federal highway system was officially created, Avery called for the establishment of the U.S. Highway 66 Association to promote the complete paving of the highway from end to end and to promote travel down the highway. Traffic grew on the highway because of the geography through which it passed. Much of the highway was essentially flat and this made the highway a popular truck route. The route passed through numerous small towns, and with the growing traffic on the highway, helped create the rise of mom-and-pop businesses, such as service stations, restaurants, and motor courts, all readily accessible to passing motorists. Due to the efforts of the US Highway 66 Association, Route 66 became the first highway to be completely paved in 1938. Several places were dangerous: more than one part of the highway was nicknamed "Bloody 66" and gradually work was done to realign these segments to remove dangerous curves. However, one section just outside Oatman, Arizona was fraught with hairpin turns and was the steepest along the entire route remained as part of Route 66 until 1953. Despite such hazards in some areas, Route 66 continued to be a popular route. During World War II, Route 66, already popular and fully paved, became one of the main routes and also served for moving military equipment. Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri was located near the highway. During its nearly 60-year existence, Route 66 was under constant change. As highway engineering became more sophisticated, engineers constantly sought more direct routes between cities and towns. Increased traffic led to a number of major and minor realignments of US 66 through the years, particularly in the years immediately following World War II when Illinois began widening US 66 to four lanes through virtually the entire state from Chicago to the Mississippi River just east of St. Louis, Missouri, and included bypasses around virtually all of the towns. By the early-to-mid 1950s, Missouri also upgraded its sections of US 66 to four lanes complete with bypasses. Most of the newer four-lane 66 paving in both states was upgraded to freeway status in later years. In 1953, the first major bypassing of US 66 occurred in Oklahoma with the opening of the Turner Turnpike between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The new 88-mile toll road paralleled US 66 for its entire length and bypassed each of the towns along 66. In some cases the new interstate highway not only paralleled the old Route 66, it actually incorporated much of it. In New Mexico, as in most other states, rural sections of I-40 were to be constructed first with bypasses around cities to come later. However, some business and civic leaders in cities along US 66 were completely opposed to bypassing fearing loss of business and tax revenues. In 1963, the New Mexico Legislature enacted legislation that banned the construction of interstate bypasses around cities by local request. This legislation was short-lived, however, due to pressures from Washington and threat of loss of federal highway funds so it was rescinded by 1965. Originally, highway officials planned for the last section of US 66 to be bypassed by interstates in Texas, but as was the case in many places, lawsuits held up construction of the new interstates. The state of Missouri officially requesting the designation "Interstate 66" for the St. Louis to Oklahoma City section of the route, but it was denied. In 1984, Arizona also saw its final stretch of highway decommissioned with the completion of Interstate 40 just north of Williams, Arizona. Finally, with desertification of the highway by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials the following year, U.S. Route 66 officially ceased to exist. Delgadillo's Snow Cap Drive-In Life After Death Some states have kept the 66 designation for parts of the highway, albeit as state roads. In Missouri, Routes 366, 266, and 66 are all original sections of the highway. State Highway 66 in Oklahoma remains as the alternate "free" route near its turnpikes. "Historic Route 66" runs for a significant distance in and near Flagstaff, Arizona. A surface street stretch between San Bernardino and La Verne to the east of Los Angeles retains its number as State Route 66. The First Route 66 associations were founded in Arizona in 1987 and Missouri in 1989. Other groups in the other Route 66 states soon followed. In 1990, the state of Missouri declared Route 66 in that state a "State Historic Route". The first "Historic Route 66" marker in Missouri was erected on Kearney Street at Glenstone Avenue in Springfield, Missouri. Other historic markers now line the entire 2,400 mile length of road. Many preservation groups have also tried to save and even tried to landmark the old motels and neon signs along the road in different states. In 1999 the National Route 66 Preservation Bill was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, which provided for $10 mln in matching fund grants for preserving and restoring the historic features along the route. In 2008, The World Monuments Fund added Route 66 to its World Monuments Watch list of 100 Most Endangered Sites. Sites along the route, such as gas stations, motels, cafes, trading posts, and drive-in movie theaters are threatened by development in urban areas, and by abandonment and decay in rural areas. As the popularity and mythical stature of Route 66 has continued to grow, demands have begun to mount to improve signage, return Route 66 to road atlases and revive its status as a continuous routing. Along these lines Route 66 has been established as a National Scenic Byway in Illinois, Arizona and New Mexico with National Scenic Byway status pending in Oklahoma and Missouri as of 2007. More Information Wikipedia.org Route 66 Video 4 Minute Tour of Route 66 Maps in Development
To see the full sized preview of the following maps just click on the title of the map, to visit the map development thread
Melting Pot Recently Design Brief Submissions: Gameplay Workshop Research & Conquer Mapmakers: OliverFA
Maybe the most innovative map currently in development. The map premise revolves about adding the Research concept to "normal" CC gameplay.
Some initial discussion about the gameplay, but for now is a rather quiet thread.
Macedonia Mapmaker: n.n. Description:
42 regions and a standard gameplay for this representation of the small Republic of Macedonia.
First Nations of South America Mapmaker: Tisha Description:
After the great success of First Nations of North America, tisha is back with the same graphics to represent the southern part of Americas.
The discussion is about the regions number.
Graphics Workshop Flanders 1302 Mapmaker: DubWarrior Description:
Set in the year 1302, when an army of Flemish peasants defeated the knights of the french army, this map has a standard gameplay and a nice graphics.
Few nitpicks for the legend and the signature and the map is ready for the Final Forge
CRICKET: Silly Mid On Mapmaker: cairnswk Description:
A map about cricket, the first map about a sport which is going through the foundry.
Recently stamped for gameplay, there's still some discussion about it.
German/Italian Unification Mapmaker: Industrial Helix Description:
Two maps about the wars of unification that took place int the last half of the 19th century and saw the rise of the united kingdoms of Italy and Germany.
Working on mountains
Final Forge Monsters! Mapmaker: dolomite13 Description:
As a honored wizard you have volunteered to explore the Caverns of Power and retrieve the Powerstones.
Recently stamped for graphics. Xml not yet checked.
Japan Mapmaker: RedBaron0 Description:
Modern Japan with an ancient graphics styleand a standard gameplay. A nice addition for ConquerClub, when quenched.
It looks ready.
Germany Revamp Mapmaker: WidowMakers Description:
The winner map of the germany revamp competition is now in the final forge. The old Germany map with a new look.
Power Rankings: Top 10 Clans by Georgerx7di (TSM)
Top Clans on CC By Georgerx7di (TSM) In lieu of the up coming Conqueror’s Cup and the controversy over the ladders, I have decided to do a opinion piece on the top clans on CC and personally rank them. As I write about clan wars, I find myself spending more and more time in the “completed challenges” forum, where I have learned a good deal about our clans. In preparing my rankings, I found that the first two spots were easy to fill based on available information. Spots 3-7 seemed to meld together at first and so I had to add more criteria to help me order them. Spots 8-10 were the hardest to fill, there were at least two or three clans that I had to leave off, who perhaps should have made it. So here are the criteria I used to decide who the best clans on CC are: 1. Clan war record. This gives a good indication of how good a clan has been over the life of the clan. 2. Current CLA Season 2 record for the league. This is a good indicator of how good a clan is at the moment, albeit not a perfect indicator. Most of my top 10 list was derived from these two factors and from my own experiences playing these clans. 3. Who the clans won or lost to in clan challenges. 4. Input from experienced clan players. This is important because there are things that I will not have gotten around to looking at, for example people leaving or joining a clan. 5. Win percentage in clan wars. This becomes important when you have two clans who seem very equal. AOD for example lost a clan war to IA by a score of 11-9, that is a lot different then loosing 16-4 and so should not count so strongly against them. Now without further ado, here is (in my opinion) the top ten clans on CC. Top 10 Clans on CC: 1. THOTA THOTA has a 7-0 record in clan wars, by far the best of anyone. Three of their wins were against top ranked opponents. 32-28 over LOW, 53-47 over Imperial Dragoons and 41-19 over Generation 1. The rest are lesser known clans, but its worth noting that their victory over Death by committee was by a score of 35-5. THOTA is also the champion in the first season of the CLA League. 2. TSM The Spanking Monkeys have a 3-0 record, all against top clans. They have defeated The Legion 25-15, Immortal Assassins 22-18 and LOW 34-26. LOW has kind of been the gateway to the top spots, if one could defeat them, then that clan would be ranked in the top 2 or 3 spots. All three of these have been traditionally considered top 10 clans, although The Legion has lost some good players very recently and will not make this top 10 list. The Spanking Monkeys are also leading division 1B in CLA Season 2 at the time of printing. 3. The Odd Fellows Union TOFU has a 3-0 record over some very good clans. They have defeated The Imperial Dragoons 24-16 and Generation 1 25-15. Their third win came over Mythology by a margin of 30-10. I was hesitant to place TOFU so high on the list however because of the fact that they were placed in Division 2 in CLA League. However they have absolutely dominated division 2A (winning 83% of their games!), in a division that includes O&H, EE, and Divine Domination (more on DD below). 4. Immortal Assassins The Immortal Assassins have a 3-1 record in clan wars, including defeats over AOD and BPB. Their only loss is to TSM (above). IA is also in second place in division 1A in this season’s CLA League, ahead of THOTA who is in third place and behind KORT. 5. Legends of War Their 5 wins are pretty impressive. They won a 36-24 match over Empire (ranked 6th on this list) and a 16-8 win over The Untouchables, who would have been considered for the top 10 if the clan were still in existence. LOW also defeated G1 28-12, and crushed PE 25-5. LOW had a record of 5-2 up till recently. Their only losses had come at the hands of the top 2 clans on this list; THOTA 32-28 and TSM 34-26 and are in second place in division 1B, only a half game behind TSM. With all this they might have been 3rd or 4th out of the top 10, however they were recently defeated, and quite soundly, by O&H (see issue 24 of The CC dispatch). With this 3rd loss, many no longer consider LOW to be at the very top. However, as their defeat of Empire, and their cla performance shows, LOW is still a clan to be taken seriously and that is why they earned my number 5 spot. 6. Empire Empire has an impressive 7-1 record including wins over The Legion, The Imperial Dragoons, Nemesis, BSS and a somewhat underrated Agents of Chaos. Empire blasted Nemesis 41-23 handing them their first loss. There are a few other blowout wins, AOC 38-22, The Worlds of the Wort 15-5, however other wins were not so impressive. Empire defeated Black Sheep Squadron 21-19 and The Legion by an even smaller margin 16-15. None the less, had it not been for their loss to LOW, Empire might be ranked in the top 3. Empire has also not been that impressive in CLA League, they currently have a 34-35 record and are 4th place in division 1A. Not an embarrassment by any means, considering that the clan above them in 3rd place is THOTA. Divisions 1A and 1B are filled with most of the best clans on CC, however to be ranked in the top 5 a clan has to be able to shine against this top competition. Empire gets 6th place for me. 7. Knights of the Round Table The Knights of the Round Table seemed to be an all-star team in the making. They recruited many top players and were expected to take the clan world by storm (much in the way that TOFU has). They are leading division 1A, an impressive feat, above IA, THOTA and Empire, however their clan wars have not been as impressive. KORT has a record of 1-0-1. Their first clan war ended in a 15-15 tie against Generation 1, a 3-5-1 clan with most of its losses coming to top clans. KORT came back to win their next clan war over The Brethren of the Fat Mermaid, (see issue 23 of The CC Dispatch) with a score that is currently listed at 38-17 with 5 games still not recorded. The Brethren are a good clan, with players like BoganGod and Draq, however with an 0-3 record it is hard to gauge the value of KORT’s victory over them. For these reasons KORT gets 7th place. Cla aside, they still have not proven themselves to be top 5 quality. 8. Nemesis After jotting down my top 7 clans, it became more difficult to decide who would get the last three spots. So I made a spreadsheet with a few columns. I put a check in one column for every clan that had a winning record in clan wars. Next I put a check next to every clan that had a winning record in CLA. One thing jumped out at me. There were only two clans who were not already on my top 10 list, who had both winning clan records and winning records in the current season of CLA. One was Nemesis, the other was Agents of Chaos (more on them below). Nemesis has a 3-1 record with wins over Mythology, Imperial Britain and Left4Dead; their only loss coming to Empire (above). They also have a 36-28 record in CLA League, good for 4th place in division 1B. 9. Angels of Death Angels of Death (formerly LOD) has an 9-4 record. Their 9 wins are all over mid-level clans, The Brethren or Mythology perhaps being the best of the bunch. Their losses however are mostly to good clans. They were beaten handily 37-23 by The Imperial Dragoons, however their other losses were all nail biters. They lost 23-22 against G1 and 11-9 against IA! Not a bad showing. Their other loss was a 5-4 loss to Freemium Forces in a 9 game clan war which probably should not count. AOD clearly deserves a spot in the top 10 with this record. However their CLA League performance has been less than stellar, 31-33 in division 1A. For this reason, and the absence of any victories over top ranked clans, AOD gets a 9th place rank from me. 10. Imperial Dragoons This was the toughest clan to place on this list. The Imperial Dragoons have a 3-3 record, the only clan on this list that isn't over .500. Surely I couldn’t put ID above Empire (6-1) who defeated ID. Perhaps I could have put them above AOD, who ID had defeated. ID’s losses were all to top clans, THOTA, TOFU and Empire. Their wins were over AOD, Skyforce and a 13 game win over Murder Inc. Overall not bad, and they beat AOD by a margin of 37-23. They also lost to THOTA 53-47, a pretty good showing. However to be considered a top clan one has to win. It’s hard to put a 3-3 clan above a 9-4 clan. Also, ID has a 32-37 record in CLA division 1A, good for 5th place in that division. This tells me that perhaps ID is not as good as they have been in the past. However should they win their current challenge against IA (it's tied at 15-15), I would have to bump them up a couple of spots on the list, perhaps even above KORT. Honorable Mentions: BPB The Bullet Proof Bandits have had an impressive showing in the CLA League, currently 39-25 and in 3rd place in division 1B. On the other hand, their clan war record is a pedestrian 1-1. They have a win over BSS, nothing to sneeze at, but only by a margin of 21-19. Their loss came at the hands of IA, a clan that I think very highly of. In the end two clan challenges just weren't enough to put them above AOD or ID. O&H The Outlaws and Highwaymen officially show a record of 2-2, however their two most recent victories have not been recorded. They will be at 4-2 when their two clan wars finish, including an impressive win over LOW (see issue 24). On the other hand their CLA League performance is a poultry 16-24 in division 2B. Another problem is their two losses. They lost to BSS (a good clan, but not in my top 10) and Divine Domination, a clan playing in their first clan war. O&H would have to be ranked around 11 or 12 at the moment for me. On the other hand, should they win their next clan war against G1 (they currently lead 5-4), this could solidify them as a top 10 contender. AOC I actually consulted some experts on this one. My final two spots had come down to AOD, ID, BPB, O&H, and AOC, and I was seriously considering putting Agents of Chaos in the 9 or 10 spot on the list. They have a 3-1-1 record and are leading their division in CLA League. So why didn’t they make the top 10. For one thing, their three wins all came against very low ranked clans. They had a tie against Mythology, not bad, but Mythology didn’t make the top 10 either. The only top clan that they played was Empire, and they lost that war 38-22. Finally, although they are crushing their division in CLA League (27-13), it is division 2B. For AOC to move up to the top 10, they have to beat a top clan and/or win in division 1 CLA. So although they are a good clan, they still have not proven themselves to be at the very to of CC clan competition. A win against an AOD or Nemesis is probably what it would take to vault them up to the top 10. Rising Star Divine Domination I will end with an up and coming clan to watch for in the future. Divine domination has completed 1 clan war, defeating O&H by a score of 33-27, not bad for a clan’s first challenge. Don’t forget that O&H is the clan that just defeated LOW by a good margin. DD is also in second place in division 2A, with a loosing record albeit (19-21), but every clan in that division has a losing record. TOFU is rolling 2A with an 83% win percentage. However, to be in second place behind TOFU is not a bad spot for a new clan, and they are just a few games shy of being over .500. I suspect that this will be a clan to keep an eye on. Final comments It’s unlikely that anyone will agree on the exact ranking of every clan. Some will place more value on players they know in the clan, or how they think the clan will perform in the future. I went with a system that weighed more on the past and more on winning and loosing clan wars because I felt that one cannot guess how a clan will do in the future. A record on the other hand is something that a clan has proven. And after all, winning clan wars is what we all strive for, not winning percentage. I personally would much rather my clan win 3 wars 21-19 then win 1 war 34-16 and loose 2 wars 19-21. So this is how I graded clans, how many wars did they win and how many they lost. As Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots once said, “Stats are for losers, final scores are for winners”. Conqueror's Cup by laughingcavalier (AoD)
COME SHOW WHAT YOUR CLAN IS REALLY MADE OF!! demanded Chuuuuck as he launched the first annual Conqueror's Cup, and within hours he had been joined by CC’s finest, keen to take part in the first knockout inter-clan competition. The contest is on an epic scale with 19 clans competing in a bracket competition. Each contest will constitute a clan war in itself, with 48 games played between clans in the early rounds, and 68 games in each semi and the finals – not to mention games to be played in pre-season qualifiers. Adding all that up, you see the size of Chuuuuck’s vision, and what has got so many clans excited. If all goes to plan, by December over 800 games will have been played. The winners might enjoy a similar status to those who take home the much-coveted title of winner of the only comparable competition, the Clan League. Chuuuuck wrote:One thing is constant in the clan forums, people are arguing over the rankings, who is better than who, and how "Clan A" hasn't really played anyone. Everyone seems to agree that the bigger clan wars that most clans participate in are a good way of judging who is better. So I decided a bracket style tournament where clans don't get to choose who they play, and they play each other in larger clans wars might be the best way to settle "who is the best". Chuuuuck’s own Empire were the first clan in, soon joined by all but a handful of the top clans. The Cup thread quickly made its’ way to the top of the clan forum, as CC heavyweights, notably Incandenza and Foxglove, helped out with planning, and others (you know who you are) began the all-important trash talk. Chuuuuck appreciates the enthusiasm and the help he has received from those in his own clan and beyond, especially TheSpaceCowboy who came up with the name the "Conqueror's Cup" and will be helping with the admin once the tourney gets going. Seeding was decided by vote. Clan leaders ranked the participants, with the results counted together to give each clan their position in the draw. THOTA sit at the top, followed by TOFU, Empire and Immortal Assassins. There were enough surprises to launch a heated debate on where each clan will finish ( Conqueror's Cup Predictions), but all agree they will prove their case where it counts, on the field of battle. Chuuuuck himself is quietly confident about the strengths of his own clan: Chuuuuck wrote:Obviously, I am biased. I think some players feel we are over-rated, but I feel Empire has gotten a lot better over the past year and I personally believe we are under-rated. I feel we will make a strong showing and at least make it to the semi-finals. The first round offers some great match-ups. Legends of War are looking to avenge their recent defeat at the hands of the Outlaws and Highwaymen, while Knights of the Round Table and Generation 1 will play it out for a win after their draw last time up. The pre-season qualifiers kick off on February 17th, as the lower ranked teams duke it out to make the first round proper which is scheduled to start in March. We will be covering the games here. A final comment from the tourney organiser: Chuuuuck wrote:
A very big thanks to
for everything they do for the clan scene, and a big thanks to the clan community as a whole. Their participation and excitement is what makes this tournament truly exciting.
show: Interrogation of pimpdave
Q. Hey there Pimpdave
A. Hey, thanks for doing this, nagerous. You're one of the coolest people here. Also, thanks for all the work you newsletter folks do. It's a real testament to the strength of the community we've all come to value that this thing happens. Q. What's your favourite colour? A. Green Q. Is your first name Dave or Pimp? A. It is actually neither. My first name is Dr. Octavious Pimpdave McAwesomeFace Q. What does Dave think about you pimping him? A. He actually thinks I've done a really good job. Q. What is the best book you have ever read, and why? A. Catch-22. It breaks my heart and fills it back up. Human nature on parade. Q. Did you manage to get Sergei hooked up? A. Fortunately for you, I'm pretty sure Sergei is still single, so you should drop him a line. I'll tell him you are in love with him for you. Because I'm a good friend like that. You can call him at 867-5309. He'd love to hear from you. Q. How many accounts have you had on Conquer Club? A. Current estimates place the number over 9000. Q. By what was your tenure at McGill University marked? A. Inventions, primarily. Q. Why is it the most powerful Uni ever? A. Because power was invented there in 1863. Q.When did McGill University invent you? A. Immediately after inventing the concept of being completely awesome which then was transmuted to me because it had to manifest as something. Q. What is your favourite song? You can tell a suprising amount about a person with just that one question! A. Well, if that's the case, you'll have to let me throw down like, 5, if you're going to read into it so much. That sort of thing changes often, but I can list 5 songs that have resonated with me over the years and that I can sing along to flawlessly. Let Down- Radiohead Big Time- Peter Gabriel Eulogy- tool Geek U.S.A.- Smashing Pumpkins The First Time- U2 Q. What year(s) did you attend McGill? A. Yes Q. In what faculty? A. Executive Vice President of Determining Inventions Q. How many babes did you make while there? A. What does make "babes mean"? Is that illegal? How did you hear about that? I mean, I'm not at liberty to discuss any top secret synthetic babe manufacturing that may or may not have been invented at McGill University during my tenure. Q. Is Canadian beer as good as they say it is? A. It's okay. Q. Who invented hockey? A. Some dudes on Long Island. SUCKERS. Q. Did you know that everything was invented at McGill University, including McGill University? A. Except for hockey and football, you jackasses, yes. Q. Do you think the space-time continuum would be torn asunder because everything was invented at McGill University? A. No, why would it be? Q. Where's Waldo? A. http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sll=5 ... 0000000024 Q. You're a GH member now, so I must ask: do you feel lucky punk? A. Not in general. Q. Do you have any diseases or physical traits that hinder you in any way? A. Yes, I suffer from the condition known as "the much too sexy". This presents many beautiful women hindering my path with their pleas for my attention. Q. What are your favorite parts of your body and personality? What are your least favorites? A. All of them. Q. If you HAD to commit suicide, how would you do it? A. If I HAD to commit suicide, it would be because I am a spy who has been captured, so I'd pop a cyanide pill to prevent my breaking under interrogation (everybody breaks). Q. Do you have any deeply disturbing memories? A. Everyone does. Q. What is the purpose/meaning of your life? A. … Q. Have you ever had any thoughts about being a woman? A. Not really. Not like I ever wanted to be one, but I've tried to put myself in their shoes on occasion. Q. What is your favorite song? Band? Singer/songwriter? A. The Roots Q.What is your favorite fast food? Favorite item? A. In N' Out Burger, but that might just be because I only have it when I go out to the West Coast, so it seems more special. As for stuff near me, I like Wendy's, if I have to have fast food, because of the (probably incorrect) perception that it's the most healthful one. I like California style burgers. Q. What is your favorite sit-in restaurant, and item? A. It's not a chain. I eat too much red meat, but my favorite is buffalo, be it burgers, steak or whatever. Buffalo meat is so good and lean. I'm also a big fan of any kind of food I've never tried before. I like trying food from all different cultures and locations. Q. What is your favorite movie? Genre? Director? Actor? A. Heat, Gone Baby Gone, Yojimbo, Three Kings, The Departed. Director: Michael Mann; Actor: They're all cattle, but I have a huge crush Christina Hendricks Q. What is your favorite TV show? Writer? Actor? A. The Wire; David Simon and Ed Burns, especially when Dennis Lehane does an episode. Q. What is your favorite book? Writer? A. Catch-22, as I said. Favorite writer right now is Dennis Lehane. Q. What is your favorite game? Format? A. Memoir '44. Q. If you could choose, what would be your last words? A. I'm going home. Q. If you have one, who is/was your favorite American president? A. Abraham Lincoln. For reasons too personal to post here. Q. What is your favorite war of all time? A. Star Wars. Q. Do you think that you enjoy answering questions more, less, or about as much as Juan_Bottom or Snorri1234? A. Caring about this question was invented at McGill University in the year shut up. Q. Would you trade a blastoise for a pikachu? A. WAT. Would this be before or after I gave you a super-mega-nuclear noogie for being such a huge dork? J/K LOL! SAX ATTAK! Q. What is the average wing-speed velocity of a swallow, either African or European? A. Depends on whether that swallow is above, below, or at the equator, but it's at least 9,000 miles per second. Q. What is your favorite past time altogether? A. Informing the world of all the glorious achievements of McGill University. Q. If you were able to choose exactly, how would you prefer to die? A. Saving someone else's life. And yes, there is someone in particular I wish I could go back and save in my place. Q. If you had to part with a piece of your body, what would it be? A. Wisdom teeth. Oops too late. Q. If you had to live out the plot of a horror movie, what would it be? A. 28 Days Later Q. What is your favorite car? Make, model, and/or year? A. '68 Mustang Boss in Bullitt Green. Since those are hard to come by, I'll settle for a BMW 5 series in black. Q. Do you think MaleAlphaThree's list of question is the list he submits to babes on dating sites? A. I don't know, but I do think it's copypasta. Q. What is your favorite map and why? A. I like New World because it's a cool concept, and I've never won on it yet. I also like Battle of Actium. I don't know why, I just think it's cool. Oh, and the Prison one is pretty cool too, but that's just because Juan_Bottom is a great teammate to have on that map, and I remember the games I've played with him there very fondly. In conclusion, DBC IS GREATEST CLAN IN ALL OF CONQUER CLUB, ALL OTHER CLANS HAVE INFERIOR FUN. Q. If you got randomly selected to go to Mars would you? A. If it meant my name went down in history as a hero like Neil Armstrong, then absolutely. Otherwise, I'd have to think about it. Q. Will you be attending a Muse show during their current North American tour? A. Not this time, but I've seen them live before, and they are awesome. Q. What level is your Blastoise? A. Seriously, I'm gonna give you a wedgie. Q. How many bitches are you pimping currently? A. None. I don't pimp bitches. That is disrespectful to women and I do not do that. (psst, bitches, get at me if you wanna make some money!) Q. What is the nature of your relationship with #1_stunna? A. He's one of my multis. Along with the other obvious ones, like Snorri, killing.44, saxitoxin, and Twill. Q. What are your complete thoughts on the #1_stunna and Beckytheblondie scandal? A. Teenage angst has paid off well, now I'm bored and old. Q. How many dogs do you own? Cats? Walruses? TVs? Microwaves? Women? J/K LOL! SAX ATTAK! A. One. One. None. One. Nine thousand. Forty two. LOL, I LOVE YOU. Q. Thanks for your time pimpdave! A. Well, I hope I've made you regret spending it reading this!
Stay Tuned for the next issue of the ConquerClub Dispatch for an interrogation of
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Interrogation with thegreekdog Submitting Your Own Articles
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Revolutionary History, Vol.1 No.2, Summer 1988. Used by permission.
Commencing with a slander campaign the Stalinists did not hesitate to move into action for the physical destruction of the revolutionaries.
We wish to tell here how they set about executing the direct orders of Moscow. Until now the arrest and murder of the best militants of the revolutionary movement has been the prerogative of fascism. Stalinism, a political tendency that calls itself anti-fascist and socialist, and recruits a large part of its supporters from the ranks of the proletariat, is today committing the same crimes as fascism.
No-one knows what has become of him, what has become of one of the most passionate advocates of the proletariat of Spain. (Victor Serge, Farewell to Andrés Nin).
The story of Nin is one that requires no comment. We will therefore sketch out the salient features of his life, and recall his mysterious end.
As a young pioneer attached to the Socialist Party in 1919, Nin announced to the congress of the CNT that he had passed syndicalism. The dictatorship of Martinez Anido forced him underground. His comrade Cornella was slain alongside him by the gunmen of the ‘Free Trade Union’.
We now reproduce the account of our comrade Victor Serge, an intimate and faithful friend of Andrés Nin.
Nin was more than an old friend to me, more a sort of brother – by his ideals, the paths he trod, the trials he underwent, and all that there could be of what cannot be expressed in the contact between one man and another. I knew him, I know what he is, and what he meant to all of us. This is not the first time that I have written “For Andrés Nin” at the head of an article. It was necessary to carry on a tenacious campaign to get him out of prison in 1922 in Correspondance Internationale, L’Humanité and all the Communist papers.
As a young militant of the CNT, he lived a while in Egypt, and then was a delegate to the third Congress of the Communist International. At the same time he met there Joaquin Maurin, his companion along the road, Francesco Ghezzi , and several others who since have not betrayed, who never will betray. In the meantime Edouardo Dato, the President of Alfonso XIII’s Council, was killed in the open Madrid Street by Ramon Casanellas who took refuge in Moscow. The Madrid government wished to find the hand of Moscow in this attempt, and blamed Nin – in defiance of common sense, but that wasn’t the point. He was arrested by accident in Berlin. With the support of the Soviet legation we succeeded in wrecking the extradition procedure, and he returned to Moscow. Elected by a Congress to be the second secretary of the Red International of Labour Unions, he carried out these functions for some years, working with Lozovsky, when he was becoming more and more flabby and weak. He told me about its deceit in all our meetings. The RILU, instead of becoming a living and healthy international focus, became more bureaucratic month by month, ending up by becoming no more than a vast machine for mounting intrigues and disseminating occasional aberrant slogans. In 1923 Andrés Nin joined the first Left Opposition of Preobrazhensky, Piatakov and Trotsky. But he was not as yet entirely ready for these struggles; he suffocated in the offices of the Profintern and it should be said that the very atmosphere of these offices suffocated him. He gave way. He gained all the more credit when, three years later, he took up completely the decisive struggle amongst those who, at great personal sacrifice, wanted to make one last attempt to reform the Bolshevik party, and the Stalinist bureaucracy that was confidently holding onto power. Then he gained even more credit by sending a short but categorical letter to the Central Committee, more to the point than most that the CC received: “The Opposition is right. I am with it without reservations”, declared the secretary of the RILU. I do not know what the statutes of the International made of it, but he was no longer secretary of the RILU the next day. And he continued to joke, for he was a comrade of rare good humour, while he waited for them to come to arrest him along with the others. For my part, I was waiting for the same thing, for the same reasons. We would bump into one another either at my place or his, in Leningrad or in Moscow, somewhat amazed to be still at (relative) liberty. We had to do various jobs in order to survive. Nin set about translating, Dostoyevsky first of all, and then Boris Pilnyak, into Catalan. He wrote a book defending the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat against Monsieur Cambo, the Catalan theoretician of the dictatorship. He collected texts and memoranda. A hard worker, and rather home-loving, he lived only for his work, along with his companion, Olga Kareva, and their little daughters. We lost a mutual friend, George Andreychin, from the American IWW, who “capitulated”, and told us, with his face turned away, “I am a coward”. (in which USSR prison is George Andreychin now?) While surveying the Spanish Revolution, Nin sent the CC another really extraordinary letter, with a view to forcing them to let him leave or imprisoning him – and took a great risk. There was a strong chance of his being deported to some Siberian place. But finally they decided to deport him. He found himself in a street in Riga, with his wife and kids, utterly penniless.
Back in Spain, Andrés Nin threw himself into activity. Although free, he was several times imprisoned again. He edited the press of the Communist Left, the Trotskyist Opposition, translated books, wrote leaflets and gathered people together without sparing himself, refusing careers both easy and advantageous. He broke finally with Leon Davidovich Trotsky over theoretical and tactical matters, though he remained attached to him by an old and lasting friendship. He drew closer to Joaquin Maurin, and it was from the fusion of their two groupings that the Workers Party of Marxist Unification was born in 1935. In 1933, when the star of Señor Lerroux and Gil Robles was rising, the Republican police attempted a quite serious blow against Nin. Arrested in Barcelona and conducted to an unknown destination, he arrived, no one knows how, in a prison in Algeciras. Events were to save him.
A minister, or rather, councillor of justice in the Taradellas cabinet that had been formed the day after the workers’ victory of 19 July 1936, Andrés Nin tried to push this government in the direction of the revolutionary gains, and for his part proceeded to the most radical conceivable reform of the apparatus of justice. He was the creator of the new Popular Tribunals.
He was only 45 years old, but he had already lived more than twenty years of activist life. For six years he quietly risked his life and liberty every day, with a healthy optimism, though without any illusions, as I know well. His conversation and writings reveal an active and far-sighted revolutionary thought. His entire life was a straight path.
Andrés Nin was arrested on 16 June 1937, two days before the date set for the POUM congress. It was an isolated arrest, and it was only later that we understood why the police, who had come to arrest the entire EC of the POUM, had been so little ‘demanding’. The Stalinists understood better than anyone what the loss of Nin would mean to the POUM. Nin had not only dared to tell the truth about the role of Stalinism in the Spanish Revolution and within the international revolutionary movement; he had committed the unpardonable crime of counterposing to Stalin in Spain a party, doubtless not very large, but growing more and more because of its ideological solidity. The leader of this party, Nin, the old ‘renegade’ of the Communist International, had to disappear. Olga Nin saw her husband in the police prefecture in Barcelona on the afternoon of 16 June. When she came back to bring him food and blankets an hour later he could no longer be found, and no one could inform her what had become of him.
The Stalinist press was not lacking in cynicism on this subject. Let us look at the facts.
Some days after his arrest the famous Agence Espagne (Spain Agency), and then all the Stalinist journals in the peninsula and in other countries, announced the discovery of a document devastating for the POUM. It was a question of a plan of Madrid found upon a fascist by the name of Golfin, and on the other side a message to Franco was written in invisible ink, in which it was a matter of a certain N, deemed to be an active agent in Republican territory. The journals in question allowed it to be understood that the initial stood for Nin.
The inquiry carried out by the first International Delegation consisting of Fenner Brockway, the secretary of the ILP [Independent Labour Party], Louzon and Charles Wolff came to the conclusion that the document had been stolen (we can well imagine by whom) by a police chief and that the part written in invisible ink had been added afterwards.
To become better informed about Nin’s destination, the above-named inquirers made their way to Valencia, where they were able to talk with several members of the government. M. Irujo then made the following declaration, which referred not only to Nin but also to the other members of the EC of the POUM: ‘I can assure you that none of the detainees has suffered either a scratch or bad treatment, nor any pressure other than that of their own consciences’.
About 25 July it became known beyond the borders of Spain with some astonishment from a speech by Frederica Montseny, who had previously been a minister in the government of Largo Caballero, in which she represented the CNT. Word for word she said: ‘But it has ended by us being told that the corpses of Nin and two other comrades have been found in Madrid’.
In the face of the indignation arising inside and outside Spain, on 29 July the minister of justice addressed a note to the newspapers listing the activists of the EC of the POUM held in official governmental prisons.
The name of Andrés Nin did not figure there.
Some days later, the Spain Agency recorded the disappearance of Nin ... and concluded that he had escaped! This reminds us of the shameless rumours about Joaquin Maurin, whom the Stalinists claim to have seen arm-in-arm with Queipo de Llano in Seville!
A second commission of inquiry on which were represented in particular James Maxton, president of the Independent Labour Party and a member of parliament, and Andre Weil-Cariel, a member of the executive committee of the Socialist Federation of the Seine (SFIO) left for Spain on 19 August and returned on 26 August. It reported:
1. Confirmation that the N document was worthless.
2. A certain number of declarations about the fate of Andrés Nin. Indalecio Prieto, the war minister, admitted that the arrest of Nin and the POUM leaders had not been decided by the government.
M. Irujo, the Minister of Justice, asserted that ‘Nin has never been in a governmental prison’.
M. Zugazagoitia, the Minister of the Interior, affirmed that the disappearance of Nin had occurred against the will of the government.
From a certain number of indications provided, whether by the second delegation, the Spanish anarchists, or imprisoned POUM comrades, it emerged that before the disappearance of Nin, he had been transported from one prison to another, all of them secret, and all GPU!
When he had come from Barcelona he was first of all imprisoned in the building of the Special Brigade, Paseo de la Castillana in Valencia, then in the Cheka of Atocha in Madrid, and then in the Cheka of the Pardo, again in Madrid. Then he was taken to its isolated villa at Alcala de Henares, where all trace of him is lost.
The names of the three policemen who arrested Nin are known (Ramallo, Valentin and Rosell). According to the comrades of the CNT the man who brought about his disappearance was a Russian commander from the General Staff of the International Brigade, Orlov.
The police chief, Ortega, who was under suspicion of complicity, and who in any case could not find Nin again, was dismissed. But he was replaced by a Stalinist called Moron, who once the investigation opened, set at liberty the police who had been arrested on the order of the investigating judge.
This question can only be answered by guessing. Two things, however, seem to be definite.
The first is that this act of calculated terror is marked by the hand of Stalinism. The extent of the communist attacks against the POUM in the month preceding, the origin of the accusations of espionage, the transport of prisoners to the headquarters of the GPU, the assassination and disappearance of other revolutionary comrades (Berneri, Barbieri, Erwin Wolf, Marc Rhein, Kurt Landau), and finally the more or less veiled confessions of the ministers to the Second Delegation, all incriminate the gentlemen of the Third International.
The second is that Nin has not been found. If he did appear, he would have far too much to say, and we know that he would not keep silent.
In the period that extends from the month of August 1936 (the first Moscow Trial) to the days we live in now, a time that has witnessed the extermination of all the Old Bolsheviks, all those who had taken part in the October Revolution or the building of the Third International, a militant like Nin, who had been a witness and participant in the struggles of old, had lived through the Moscow years, and had an international reputation, could not have been spared.
The ‘isolated villa’ at Alcala de Henares is close to a Soviet aerodrome. Was Nin taken to be questioned by the Russian officers who were to be found there? Was he taken off and transported to Russia? Was he killed where he was? No one knows.
Andrés Nin was one of those who compel respect by the whole assemblage of their human and intellectual qualities. He is one of the greatest victims of this new tyranny which is called Stalinism.
In the extent to which eyes are opened and illusions fall, the degenerate leaders of the Third International are obliged to resort to ever more violent, ever more cynical, and ever more odious practices to maintain their domination and to rid themselves of those who stand in their way.
But the time will come when blood cries out for justice, and when one of those changes of opinion will happen that stays the hand of the assassins. Slowly, but surely, one such movement is in the process of happening. Coming in the middle of a series of atrocities, the disappearance of Nin and so many other revolutionaries has aroused an immense movement of indignation both in Spain and in the entire world. The death of Nin will prove unfortunate for those who perpetrated it.
Kurt Landau was arrested on 23 September by two persons claiming to be policemen, accompanied by a guard. We soon understood that this time as well it was not a matter of an arrest, but of a kidnapping. On this subject the comrades of the Der Funke group in Paris wrote:
Thursday 23 September 1937. Kurt Landau, known under the pseudonym of Wolf Bertram, was kidnapped from a small building in the neighbourhood of Barcelona. From the circumstances of his disappearance it is evident that it can only be a question of kidnapping by Stalinist agents. It was in this way that Nin, Marc Rhein, Wolf, and many others had disappeared. Neither the official police, nor the government, can give any information with regard to their case. For months the Stalinists had been accusing Wolf Bertram of being “the leader of a band of terrorists” and the liaison agent between the Gestapo and the POUM. With reference to his revolutionary past and his activity in the immediate present, the accusation of being an agent of the Gestapo only appears to be a delirious invention.
As secretary of the Der Funke communist group, Wolf Bertram had to flee Germany before the agents of the Gestapo in March 1933. All the supporters of his group Der Funke before 1933, with the exception of Bertram, his wife, and one comrade alone, have been arrested, tortured, and thrown into solitary confinement and concentration camps. And it is against Bertram, himself pursued by the Gestapo, that the Stalinists have launched the accusation of being an agent of the Gestapo!
The hatred of the Stalinists concerns the theoretician of the Communist opposition. It concerns the author of the pamphlet Spain 1936, Germany 1918, in which he had already shown that the crushing of the revolutionary workers in Spain by the Stalinists ... to which since May they had contributed ... was an inevitable consequence of their policy.
Their hatred concerns a man who dedicated his life exclusively to the revolutionary movement, in the ranks of the Austrian Communist Party since 1923, a member of the Editorial Board of Rote Fahne of Vienna and of the Propaganda and Agitation Section of the Central Committee of the Austrian Communist Party and who joined with Trotsky in his struggle against Stalin since 1923.
The hostility of the Stalinists took in more nourishment when he formed the Bureau of the International Left Opposition with Alfred Rosmer and Trotsky in 1930. It in no way diminished when he broke with Trotsky in 1931 on account of differences over organisational questions, nor in 1933 when he energetically opposed Trotsky on the subject of the founding of the Fourth International.
The hatred of the Stalinists continually followed him, rightly on account of his international activity, which whether in Austria, in Germany, in the emigration, or in Spain, drew upon the foundation of Marxism to combat the policy of Stalinism.
In the emigration he dealt with the problems of the international working class movement in numerous conferences and articles. In November 1936 he left for Spain and placed himself at the disposal of the POUM to offer his strength to the Spanish Revolution.
Incapable of competing with their antagonists on the political plane, and from fear of seeing their criminal policy revealed, the present leaders of the Communist International are substituting murder and terror for discussion.
On 9 October Comrade CD [Carlotta Duran] passed in front of the tribunal and made the following declaration:
I had staying in my apartment in Barcelona a man called Kurt Landau, an Austrian by nationality, and a well-known Marxist writer.
On 23 September about seven o’clock at night two police agents along with an Assault Guard came to arrest Kurt Landau. No search was carried out, but the prisoner was taken off rapidly.
Investigations made in the General Commissariat of Public Order as well as in all the official prisons have produced no result. Since his arrest it is no longer known to where Kurt Landau has been taken nor where he is to be found now. Even the Deputy General of Public Order, Paulino Gomez, told those who took an interest in the disappearance of Kurt Landau that he had not been able to obtain any information from Valencia in response to his intervention. All these facts permit us to suppose that Kurt Landau was arrested under the very eyes of the responsible authorities without informing the Deputy General of Public Order. Were these policemen working on their own account? Were they obeying the orders of their superior, the Police Chief, M. Burillo? Where was Kurt Landau taken after his arrest? What has become of him?
On the assumption that the facts as stated show the following offences: illegal kidnapping, deprivation of liberty and perhaps murder, the undersigned informs the authorities.
She requested the court to take action on it and open an investigation with the object of finding out what has become of Kurt Landau, and to punish those guilty of it.
Now we provide the statement of Katia Landau:
When I was told that Kurt Landau had been arrested by two policemen and an Assault Guard, to begin with I thought that it was a normal arrest. But later, when I myself was taken to the seat of the GPU at 104 Paseo San Juan, I understood that the GPU had been able to proceed “legally” using the state apparatus, and into the bargain using a certain number of “especialemente elegidos” (specially chosen) guards, as they called them, from amongst the most trustworthy of the Young Communists.
“No one knows where, or for whom we are working. And when our term is finished we have seen nothing and heard nothing. Yes, that’s blind obedience if you like, but that is fitting for whoever agrees to become a convinced militant”, they told me.
Yes, I do know them, these young “idealists”, who go for a few hundred pesetas or more a month are willing to lend themselves to anything, and gave quite disgusted us with their “pride” at being militants of the “first rank”. There was never the slightest doubt about who arrested Landau. We know that the house had already been watched for some days before by a couple, a man and a young blonde, at first sight strangers. The description of the young woman leads us to suspect that it is a matter of SK , an agent of the GPU in Barcelona. Moreover, the time had been chosen when Kurt Landau was alone in the house. Witnesses say that he was given at the most three to five minutes to change his clothing, and then the waiting car, a grand and elegant Rolls Royce, disappeared in the direction of Barcelona. There has since been no trace, and no news.
Of what did the Stalinists accuse Kurt Landau? I will only quote the main accusations, repeated in all the interrogations of the foreign comrades who were POUM members. The most serious accusation, the one to which they ascribed the most importance, was that Kurt Landau had been a member of the Executive Committee of the POUM. It goes without saying that this was an invention pure and simple, since the EC of the POUM only contained Spanish comrades. Afterwards the international Stalinist press even made him the “theoretical head” of the POUM (special number of L’Internationale for the month of September 1937). During the questioning of Comrade P , Landau was accused of setting up the POUM German group, a real terrorist organisation, to prepare for the May events. Political letters were transformed into documents proving the preparation of terrorist acts, not only against Stalin, but against all the leaders of the Third International! The Stalinist leaders really had no chance here, accusing an activist of terrorism who had always opposed individual terror with all his ability...but the truth means little to them.
One of the foulest agents of the GPU, Moritz Bressler, alias von Ranke, brought the whole accusation down to rock bottom. He and his wife, Seppl Kapalanz, arrested a comrade and accused him of knowing where Kurt Landau was to be found. “If you do not give us his address”, they said, “you will never get out of prison. He is an enemy of the Popular Front and of Stalin. As soon as we know where he has gone, we are going to kill him.”
The kidnapping took place on 23 September. The Spanish comrades and their foreign friends undertook all the appropriate steps and interventions as in the case of a normal arrest. None of this produced any result. And on behalf of us, who had been imprisoned for months and months without being examined and without any formal charges, our comrades asked themselves: ‘Is it possible that we can keep silent in view of the fact that yesterday they made Andrés Nin disappear, and today Kurt Landau; whose turn is it to be tomorrow? Do we have to give up in the face of such methods of political gangsterism?’ There is no other means of protest for the political prisoner than the hunger strike. I have to say that my comrades did not support me out of pity, but from political conviction, to shout at the tops of our voices that we, although being prisoners condemned to political inactivity, could not and would not keep silent. We spoke up, and we were heard where we wanted to be heard – in the factories, wherever our comrades were working, the workers understood the political message of our hunger strike.
And the Minister of Justice, a ‘worthy’ Catholic, M. Irujo, also understood it; he understood that this strike was going to spread, and that by Sunday 22 November hundreds of anti-fascist prisoners were going to support it to protest vigorously against the methods of the Stalinists. M. Irujo’s sole intention was to put an end to this annoying tale at all costs, if possible in a conciliatory fashion. On 22 November the minister came in person to pay a woman prisoner a visit. For this reason he spoke of the murderers of Nin and Landau. He spoke without any proof, to put an end to the strike and to give a sharp slap to the Stalinists, who had been making themselves utterly ridiculous by accusing me formally of being implicated in the disappearance of Andrés Nin, to punish me for having talked about another disappearance.
A week after the hunger strike I was set at liberty. But a week after my release the ‘Grupo de Informacion’ arrested me again. It was a classic arrest, that is to say without a warrant and by sheer brute force. Along with me Comrade EH was also arrested. Before climbing into the car I wanted to call out to someone to note down its number; but then I perceived that there was none. Some days earlier, on 2 December, the Director of the Police, M. de Juan had told me: ‘Unfortunately, you are right. There have been kidnappings, and there are motor cars without a number, but I can assure you that there will be no more of them.’ And after my arrest carried out by the ‘Grupo de Informacion’, the Minister of the Interior, M. Zugazagoitia, replying to numerous interventions in my favour, declared that he was powerless in the face of the GPU, a part of his own ministry!
If I dwell upon my second arrest, it is to show on what the accusations against the revolutionaries are based, and who these ‘men’ are who came to Spain to ‘judge’ us.
We finally arrived at 104 Paseo San Juan, the GPU building in Barcelona. We quickly entered an office, and the first interrogation began immediately, the first, moreover, that was carried out by a Spaniard. He asked about the May Events, and my participation in them. Afterwards, he asked me at least three times if I was Jewish. Given his insistence, I asked him why it interested him so much. He told me, ‘For us it is question of race’. I replied that for us Communists and Socialists the question of race does not come up. But it did remind me of the language of the German fascists. He wanted me to believe that we were in the Ministry of the Interior. I asked to see the Minister of the Interior who, I said, had set me at liberty only a week earlier. Then he admitted that it wasn’t the Ministry, but a ‘departamento’(a department), which amounted to the same thing according to him.
The director of the ‘departamento’ arrived at six o’clock at night, accompanied by a foreigner. This foreigner was shut up in an office with me. As I complained about being arrested by force, without a warrant, he told us: ‘We are the Ministry of the Interior, we arrest whoever we wish and we absorb our arrest warrants from the prefectures’. And referring to the recent arrest of Gaston Ladmiral, he said: ‘We have arrested – and without a warrant – men who have been freed on the direct intervention of the French government. We are working independently of everyone.’
He told me that I was not being detained, but only held, because I knew a great many people. What they were waiting for was for me to supply them with some precious information. I answered firstly that I knew very little in general, and secondly that I was not disposed to supply information to the ‘Grupo de Informacion’. After this statement the atmosphere changed. He very quietly told me that I would never come out of this building alive, and that in eight days time I would be shot. I replied that it was more likely that they would allow me to starve slowly. As he spoke with an Austrian accent I asked him some questions, from which it emerged that we must have known each other from the Austrian Communist Party. Finally, I remembered having seen him at the ACP centre in Vienna 10 or 12 years ago, and at last I remembered his name, Leopold Kulcsar.
After an hour of conversation with him, his secretary, a little Hungarian guttersnipe called Harry , and the director of the ‘departamento’, I went up to the first floor. I was admitted into a luxurious apartment with its own morning room, bedroom, toilet and bathroom. It was the director’s apartment. The same night I asked for information about the other comrades. I was told that everyone was alright, and that all had beds and blankets. Afterwards I found out that these brutes had left Else in a lumber room without either light or blankets for five days, and that another prisoner, a shop assistant who moreover had a weak heart, had been left for 10 days and nights on a chair, without a bed, mattress or covers. She fell gravely ill. She was taken from the Calle Vallmajor to hospital through the intervention of the Director of the Prison. She had been quietly left to die in the Paseo San Juan. I was often told: ‘If you want to start up the hunger strike again, go ahead. These Spanish idiots don’t know how to work, so we will let you quietly starve.’ In all these altercations this individual spoke of the Spaniards with great contempt, as imbeciles to whom it was necessary to give lessons. Other comrades questioned by the foreigners told me the same thing. Adventurers who had come from every corner of the world thought they were masters of Spain.
When, in the course of an interrogation, I talked about the Police Chief, Paulino Romero, or of the Security Director who had received us and given us our provisional identity papers, he threatened to punish them. ‘We will drive out all these people. Now we have taken charge of everything.’
On the second day of my arrest, Thursday 9 December 1937, Leopold Kulscar dashed into my room at seven o’clock in the morning with a few scraps of paper in his hand. He pretended that these bits of paper were plans, drawn up by me, that he had found in my room. He said that he had known that I was a spy beforehand, but that he did not expect to find such striking proof of it.
As I had not been present during the search of the apartment where I lived, I supposed that these papers had been introduced after that event, and were perhaps real plans. But it was not even a question of that. The room I had lived in with EH for a week belonged to a leading young designer of the time. The so-called plans were designs drawn up by him to participate in a conference. But that didn’t help me at all. When it emerged clearly that I had never seen these scraps, I was told. “So much the worse for you. There is a fresh proof. In addition you were carrying on espionage even in the women’s prison’, supported, apparently, by the Director whom he had promised to drive out, as well as by M. Tassis, the Director General of the Prisons, who, it seems, was too indulgent. ‘We know’, he told me, ‘that you wrote illegal letters to your friend M, the editor of the Journal des Nations in Geneva.’ ‘How could it be to my friend M, as I do not know him?’ The man broke out laughing. ‘That’s ludicrous; are you going to deny that for years you lived with him, in a menage à trois? Proof is not lacking’, he told me.
M was known to me as a 100 per cent Stalinist. Was he no longer as faithful to the Stalinist line as formerly? I do not know. He was ill-chosen in any case, as I did not know him personally. But when I insisted that I should be shown a single illegal letter written by me to M, Leopold Kulscar very quickly subsided. He said that it was ‘not me but Kurt who had carried on this correspondence with M, a character who would be particularly suspect as he was directly maintained by the English government in the capacity of an agent of the Intelligence Service’. But as Kurt could not be found, they had to content themselves with me, and make me the principal defendant in a future trial for military espionage.
I was threatened with being transferred to a military prison to effect the quickest trial possible and have me shot in eight days.
Leopold Kulcsar told me word for word:
I have come on a special assignment for the Landau case. My historic mission is to furnish proof that out of twenty Trotskyists, eighteen are fascists, agents of Hitler and Franco. Perhaps subjectively you are a good revolutionary, but you are convinced that the victory of Franco would be more favourable to the realisation of your Trotskyist ideas than the victory of Stalinism.
He spoke about Kurt with a particular personal hatred. The phrase, ‘I can take a bloody revenge on Landau’ came up on every occasion: ‘If he falls into my hands one day, I will make him pay dearly for it’. He never told me, however, what it was he wanted to avenge. I often had the impression in this man’s presence of being in front of a pathological case. The man no longer appeared to know what he was saying. I will always remember certain phrases, for example such as: ‘I am a deeply religious man. Your blood will be on my head. I am convinced that you are a spy, but if I am mistaken, what does it matter? I will take responsibility myself.’
‘If Kurt has escaped from Spain’, he said, ‘all has already been prepared to denounce him to the French police for espionage in the South of France in alliance with fascist elements.’ He also threatened to denounce to the French police other comrades who figured in my correspondence in order to make it impossible for them to stay in France.
I was accused in the first place of having sold plans to France, whereas Kurt had been organising the transport of weapons for the FAI and the POUM. My visit to the Austrian Consulate on the night of my arrest was above all emphasised; I was charged with carrying on espionage with the Austrian Ambassador in Paris. And the proof: that my passport had been extended for five years.
Occasionally Spaniards, functionaries of the ‘departamento’ like Alfonso Martinez, assisted at the interrogations. They came to see me afterwards to make fun of the foreigner who could not make me talk, or so they said.
On 18 December I was transferred to Calle Vallmajor 5, a semi-secret prison directly and solely responsible to the ‘departamento’. Three weeks before my release the real head of the ‘departamento’ came to see me in prison, and asked me: ‘Tell me really, Madame Landau, why are you here? This question was being put to me by the same Señor Ordonez (a socialist who had called openly for the fusion of his party with the Communist Party) who on 9 December had signed the self-styled warrant for my arrest (arrested on strong suspicion of military espionage). I asked him who had authorised the coming of Leopold Kulcsar, as he himself said, on a special mission to take bloody revenge upon Landau. Unfortunately, Ordonez did not reply.
During the night of 29-30 December 1937, at two o’clock in the morning, my cell was abruptly opened. ‘Corre, corre, en libertad’ (‘Run, run, you are free’). I was given barely two minutes to dress. As everything had been taken from me, right down to the last chemise, I had no case to pack. Some hope!
I was taken along with EH to the Calle Corcega 299 (the Foreign police). Was it to be deportation, then? When I refused to accept it point blank, I was threatened with being thrown into the dirtiest and most wretched jails. ‘Are there any more wretched, then, than those of your own secret prison? No one answered this indiscreet question.
Then there was a resort to moral blackmail. If I refused deportation, none of my friends would leave. After speaking with VS, the director of the building, I gave in. He assured me in the presence of other comrades on his word of honour that Kurt was still alive, that he was in a Spanish prison, and that he would shortly be deported. When I straightaway asked him not to deceive me in order to get me to go, and that I would go if he had told me the truth, he said: ‘That would be a shameful game to play with you. I would never lend myself to playing such a part.’
And to give me more confidence, he told me of his past as a militant, and ended with these words: ‘Kurt will be deported, I promise you that, and in exactly the same way as yourself. Go quietly. Perhaps happiness is already awaiting you in Paris.’
A few more words about Leopold Kulcsar (Maresch), who had come to Barcelona in the capacity of an ‘examining magistrate’ in the Landau case. I always had the impression that he did not belong to the apparatus, but that he wanted to make his career out of the Landau case. I rather think that someone in the GPU had something on him, but that he had been allowed through because he had come from high up.
He and his wife, Ilse Kulcsar, had been expelled from the Austrian Communist Party in 1927 under suspicion of being police informers. Their moral reputation in the working class movement was most deplorable. Whereas she was a completely unscrupulous careerist, Leopold Kulcsar was accused of stealing money from the Social Democratic Party, a party he had joined after his expulsion from the Communist Party. Both of them, moreover, had belonged to the Neubeginnen Group in the same manner as Marc Rhein.
Having left Austria after the insurrection of February 1934, they made their way to Prague. Finally, Leopold Kulcsar worked for the Spanish embassy in Prague as head, so he said, of the News Service, but in fact as a military attache.
To get an idea about this Prague embassy we will quote the following case: The mother of a foreign member of the POUM who had been arrested along with us in Barcelona applied to the embassy to request an intervention on behalf of her son. ‘Your son is a brave lad,’ she was told. ‘But his friends are all agents of the Gestapo. Give us the names of two or three of them, and your son will be released. To prevent the worst happening we could even send a telegram today.’
Leopold Kulcsar died in Prague on 28 January 1938. M. Asua, the Spanish Ambassador in Prague, did not fail to render warm tributes to the deceased and to speak of the great services of LK during the Spanish Revolution. ‘Overwork’, he said, brought on the death of this brave man.’ The truth is that LK wore himself out questioning us for whole nights; he had overworked himself by continually inventing new methods of physical and moral torture.
M. Asua knew better than anyone, so it seems, how to estimate such services and sacrifices.
So perhaps he could tell us who authorised Leopold Kulcsar to go to Spain, who gave him absolute powers, and who opened for him the generally hermetically sealed doors of the Paseo San Juan.
Leopold Kulcsar is dead. But Ilse Kulcsar is ‘happily’ still alive and continuing the good traditions of her family. We saw her twice in the Paseo San Juan, assisting in the interrogations. She is at the moment in Paris, married again to a Spanish student. Ilse Kulcsar-Barea is spreading the story here that the Spanish government committed a grave error in releasing me, since I am very deceitful and I should have been made to talk (with the methods of Santa Ursula, isn’t that so, Ilse Kulcsar?) because it appears that I know very well where Kurt is, in Rio de Janeiro!
You can indeed spread the fabrications of the GPU when you are directly involved with it, but you should put a bit more spirit and intelligence into it.
However, Ilse Kulcsar, like Moritz Bressler and a number of others, are showing their devotion to the cause of Republican Spain in the course of the tragic hours that they are now quietly passing taking coffee in the ‘Dome’ in Paris.
We will end with the account of comrade EH, whom they wanted to make into a hostile witness against Katia Landau.
I was under arrest from 17 June 1937 to 29 November 1937 and placed at the disposal of the Special Tribunal of Espionage in Madrid. Having been released following the direct intervention of the Minister of Justice, then Irujo, I was again arrested along with Katia on the 8 December 1937, when I had gone to visit some female comrades in prison. The agent gave as an explanation that Katia had had to provide some details on a document issued by her Consul; I was only to be taken as security for Katia.
When we got to the building where the offices of the “departamento” were, our immediate separation was effected and I was locked up in the WC. Along with me in this strange cell was put a brutal-looking policeman, who incessantly threatened me with his revolver.
It was announced that I had been arrested on the order of the Minister of the Interior. I protested immediately against an action taken without a warrant of arrest.
I was led into an antechamber, where I found the same policeman who arrested us. He told me in conversation, “A fortnight ago I saw Landau in a cafe in Paris.”
All the policemen left the building during the dinner hour, and for three hours, in spite of our rigorous “isolation”. I had the opportunity of exchanging impressions with Katia.
When taken next up to the second floor, I recognised that apart from offices the building contained an entire prison. During the five hours that I had to spend on a chair, guarded by a policeman, I had occasion to see one prisoner in handcuffs and another shut up in a sort of cubicle with a double door.
At 23 hours I was led into another building in the block, where a foreigner, Leopold Kulcsar, who was later to interrogate me, looked at me for 10 minutes. Then he took my date of birth, and asked me for my handbag which had already been searched, which, however, he handed back to me. He sent every piece of a book of cigarette papers for them to examine in the laboratory. With reference to a piece of writing paper, he pretended to be able to disclose writing in invisible ink without a quartz lamp. Then he pretended that a simple case key was that of a strong box. Then he showed the extent of his imagination by a sensational discovery; a bead necklace of wax worth a hundred francs was made of real pearls. He took no notice of my observation that no one carries treasure in a handbag, pretending that this was really an old trick to disguise the value. He maintained that five photos of my husband represented five different men. Suddenly, placing one of these photos in front of my eyes, he exclaimed: “That’s Landau!” Then his secretary called Harry” who understood Spanish appeared, whereas his chief was almost totally ignorant of the language.
At dawn I was taken into a luxurious apartment to which Katia had been taken under the pretext that she had to identify me. Whilst leaving the chamber I was asked if the surroundings where Katia was staying did not lead me to think again, and when I replied “No”, I was told, “Well, she has confessed everything”. I was taken back to my cell after eight hours of questioning. This was a little room filled like a junk shop, with lamps, tables, etc. A metal bedstead without a mattress had to serve me for a bed, and a music stand for a pillow. There was no coverlet, and the shutters were hermetically sealed. There was no electricity, no air, and no light. At this time the cold was severe. Thanks only to continuous massaging was I able to prevent my legs and hands from freezing; and I was not able to get to sleep all night. The police had orders not to allow me to open the doors other than for going to the WC three times a day. All complaints on the subject of soap or towels were rebuffed. Thus I was not able to wash for 10 days.
During the nights they came to look for me for short interrogations and confrontations; and one day the Commissar came. He brought me the warrant of arrest forwarded by the same department, saying that I had been arrested on suspicion of military espionage. He took advantage of this visit to certify the “perfect” state of my accommodation.
Confrontations took place with comrades and also with unknown persons, among them Ilse K, the wife of LK.
When after 10 days I was given back my case, I quickly noticed that a box of films and photographs had been taken from it; and immediately I protested.
All the questions of the interrogation dealt with the activity of Katia and myself during our brief spell of liberty.
As I took care not to give the names of comrades, I was unceasingly accused of protecting fascists. When I spoke of a visit to the Austrian Consul the Commissar ascribed a tremendous importance to this interview, and talked about arms traffic that Landau had organised with the Consul. The main point of the interrogation turned upon the following question: “With what personage did Katia Landau make an appointment after coming out of hospital?” This question was repeated in a monotonous tone for half an hour, and when the Commissar lost his voice he passed over the talking to his secretary, who went on, and then they all questioned me in turn.
During this half hour in front of the desk I was made to remain upright. Even though all movement was forbidden me, in spite of the terrible cold I was forced to leave my coat. The question was always repeated in the same rhythm by tapping the measure with a comb upon the table.
‘ During the course of the questioning I was shown plans, illustrations, etc, that had been found in my room; these were designs drawn up by a young designer for an official conference, and no more than that. I was informed that I was to be judged in eight days. The Commissar, however, declared that he was prepared to save me the shame of being shot as a fascist on condition that I finally name my accomplices. Even though he was convinced of my innocence, he could not help me, because I had rendered this impossible. He pretended that all the correspondence (that reached me in the prison after being passed by the double censorship at the frontier and,the prison) had been sent by very suspect persons. He identified some English friends who owned a hotel in a little seaside resort near Barcelona (News Chronicle correspondents) as agents of the Intelligence Service. But as I had seen GPU agent — and — at their place in the March of the same year, both employed in the same “departamento”, I cited them as witnesses.
The declaration of the Commissar was always repeated, that he had no interest in pursuing the POUM comrades, but only fascists and the leaders of the conspiracy, whom he wanted to call Landau and his wife.
The final interrogation unfolded as follows: the Commissar was alone, and in a mysterious tone he asked me to confess everything now. He pretended that he wished to profit from the time that his secretary was absent to give me one last chance to acquit myself, to give him the possibility of saving me. He even held out the hope of an impending journey to Paris along with him. Finally, he announced to me that the following day would be the final interrogation and the presentation of the final transcript for my signature, but he produced neither the one nor the other. On 18 December l was transferred to the remand prison, Calle Vallmajor 5. I was placed in a small cell where there were already three Spanish women. There was no ventilation, as in my former cell. Three days before my release “Harry” appeared once more in my cell and gave me an unknown photo.” As I said that I did not recognise the figure, he insisted: “This is Landau”.
About two o’clock in the morning on the night of the 29-30 of January I was informed that I was released.
During the night of 9-10 April 1937, the journalist Marc Rhein disappeared from the Hotel Continental in Barcelona where he was staying. Marc Rhein was a member of the French Young Socialists. Politically he was not a direct antagonist of Stalinism. He had defended the Popular Front and had collaborated with the Stalinists in France. Despite the desperate efforts of his father to find him, even with the help of the Spanish authorities, he did not succeed.
Marc Rhein was the son of the Russian Socialist Abramovitch, who played an important part in the emigration. He was a member of the editorial board of Courrier Socialiste the bimonthly of the Russian Socialist Party [Mensheviks], which is in touch with militants living in Russia.
The interest shown by the GPU in regard to people linked with it can well be understood. Was it only because of his family connections with the leaders of the Courrier Socialiste?
The visit of Marc Rhein to Barcelona was no secret to the GPU. Either its agents hoped to draw out of Marc Rhein some information that interested them, or they hoped to operate a blackmail on his father. It is not impossible that they wanted to extract the name of the ‘Old Bolshevik’ who a year ago published a long letter exposing the crimes of Stalin in the USSR.
He was a tempting possibility for the GPU. Marc Rhein, no supporter of the political ideas of his father, became a victim of the manipulations of the GPU. He was kidnapped from Barcelona and many of those who know Stalinist methods believe that he was taken back to Russia, either to make him accuse his father, or as a hostage.
Marc Rhein left his hotel on 9 April without either his coat or hat. Nobody has seen him since. After his disappearance only one letter arrived, coming from Madrid, addressed to his friend Nicolas Sundelevicz (since July 1937 under arrest on the scarcely original accusation of wanting to kill Stalin). The handwriting was recognised by Abramovitch as being that of his son, the date of 12 May being doubtless added by an unknown hand. We might add that Leopold Kulcsar, the individual who came to Barcelona on a ‘special mission’ for the Landau case, and who arrested comrades Katia Landau, EH and others under the accusation of military espionage, belonged not only to the Austrian Socialist Party but at the same time to the Neubeginnen (Miles) group, of which Marc Rhein was part. Can we exclude the possibility that the wife of Leopold Kulcsar, Ilse Kulcsar, who was in Spain from October 1936 onwards, could especially inform us about the disappearance of Marc Rhein?
Erwin Wolf, a Czechoslovak citizen, came to Barcelona at the end of the month of May 1937 as the correspondent for an English journal supporting the Popular Front, Spanish News. Immediately after his arrival he presented himself to the Spanish authorities and joined the official organisation of foreign journalists in Barcelona.
Towards evening on 27 July 1937 Erwin Wolf was arrested for the first time. He was taken to the Puerta del Angel 24 along with another journalist, and it was there that P and KTh saw him for the last time. Wolf was released the following day. It is extremely interesting to note that whereas the Spanish press published nothing about the arrest of Wolf and the other journalist, the Italian fascist journal Corriere della Serra of 29 July published the following note: ‘On the 27 July 1937 the Spanish Secret State Police proceeded to arrest journalists Erwin Wolf and RSt. They were taken to the Puerta del Angel 24, to open a preliminary investigation into their political activity.’
The arrest of these two journalists was only known to ‘insiders’ – yet another proof that the Italian fascists have placed their agents as well in the midst of the GPU.
After being set at liberty, Wolf returned to his habitual domicile. Learning that his journal had ceased to appear, he decided to leave Spain. He had no difficulty in obtaining his exit visa. On the day of his departure his friend Tioli asked him on the telephone to pass by his place to pick up his letters. Wolf promised his wife that he would not be longer than an hour. An hour later he notified his wife that he would be coming a little later on.
Since that day Wolf and Tioli have disappeared. Tioli’s room at the Hotel Victoria was watched by the police for several weeks, and all those who asked for him were arrested.
Wolfs wife, a Norwegian, the daughter of a socialist deputy with whom Trotsky stayed in Norway, searched for her husband in all the prisons of Barcelona. Finally, she was advised to leave as quickly as possible so as not to share the fate of her husband. It was only thanks to the energetic intervention of the Norwegian Consul that she escaped arrest at the time she was due to leave.
The sister of Wolf intervened in favour of her brother at the Spanish embassy in Prague. On 10 October 1937 she received the following reply:
I have the honour to communicate to you that according to an official investigation of the General Management of Security, of which the Ministry of the Interior has informed us, your brother, Erwin Wolf, was in prison, arrested for subversive activity. He was set at liberty on 13 September 1937.
The Secretary of the Spanish Embassy in Prague
Let them dare to pretend that Wolf was arrested for ‘subversive activity’! We know only too well why Wolf was arrested, and why the GPU caused him to disappear. Wolf was Trotsky’s personal secretary, and it seems that he had to pay dearly for it.
In February 1937 Le Matin published a note saying that Wolf and Antonov-Ovseyenko had been shot in the USSR. That confirms the supposition that Wolf was kidnapped and taken to the USSR.
At the same time, Wolfs lawyer officially received the news that Wolf was in a state prison in Spain, at the disposal of the courts. But he was not permitted to see his client, and with good reason!
Hans Freund, known under the name of Moulin , was one of the most active members of the Spanish Trotskyist group. A German emigré, he pursued his studies in Geneva. Immediately after 19 July 1936 he left for Spain to place himself at the disposal of the Spanish revolutionary movement.
In August he was working politically in Madrid. He went as a journalist to the Guadarrama front, where the Stalinist Galan threatened to shoot him for his propaganda work among the militiamen.
Since the month of December 1936 he was in Barcelona, working with all his strength. But the GPU did not lose sight of him in Barcelona. An agent of the GPU, a Pole called Mink, was specially ordered to watch him.
After the May Days, Moulin was able to hide in a Barcelona street. It was only on 2 August 1937 that ‘unknown men’ arrested him in that town. There has been no news since.
Moulin was a dedicated Trotskyist, a passionate defender of the Fourth International. In spite of the political differences that separated them, the POUM comrades always regarded him as a pure and devoted militant.
The real leaders of the GPU in Spain are some old agents of the Russian GPU – Specialists. The huge number of agents are Stalinists from all the sections of the Communist International, Germans, Poles, Italians, Hungarians, Austrians, French, etc. The greater part of them came to Spain after 19 July 1936. Instead of going to the front they preferred to stow away in the apparatus of the GPU.
With the exception of the names of Feldmann, Herz , Kindermann, — and Kulcsar, the other names are generally pseudonyms.
The names erased are those of a GPU agent and his wife. Dedicated Stalinists, they understood that they were questioning revolutionaries and not traitors. They succeeded in escaping and reached France, where they fought in the resistance against the Nazis.
8. Francesco Ghezzi is described by Serge as ‘the only syndicalist still at liberty in Russia’ (Memoirs of a Revolutionary, Oxford, 1963, p.322).
9. When the Civil War broke out Maurin was attending a conference of the Galician federation of the POUM in Santiago de Compostella, and was caught behind the generals’ side of the lines. For a while he went unrecognised, and the POUM and its international supporters tried to help him by claiming that he had been killed. He was subsequently recognised and arrested. A plan to exchange him and other prisoners for fascists held by the Republicans was blocked by the Stalinists (R. Dazy, Fusilez ces Chiees enrages, Paris 1981, p.170; Gorkin, op. cit., n3 above, p.110).
10. Apparently not the same as the Orlov who later defected to the USA, according to Elizabeth Poretsky, Our Own People, Oxford 1969, p.259, n1 (Nikolsky/Orlov).
11. There is some evidence that Nin, like Erwin Wolf and perhaps Marc Rhein, was taken back to the Soviet Union via the port of Alicante to be finished off there (Burnett Bolloten, The Spanish Revolution, 1979, pp.457-8).
12. Seppl Kappalanz, the wife of GPU agent Moritz Bressler (Gorkin, op. cit., n3 above, p.201).
13. Perhaps POUM leader Luis Portela.
14. From the age indicated it appears that it is not impossible that this lightweight is, in fact, Laszio Rajk (1909-49), the chief victim of the postwar East European purge trials at the time Stalin completed the drive he began before the war to eliminate the agents who worked for him in Spain. If this is indeed the case, the sympathy of the Hungarian people at the time of his rehabilitation and reburial (1956) was greatly misplaced.
15. This and the following name were deleted from the original pamphlet during the Second World War, for the reason explained at the end. Thanks to the work of Pouvoir Ouvrier, French section of the MRCI, we are able to identify them with Moritz Bressler, alias von Rank, and his wife.
16. Seppl Kappalanz.
17. Victor Serge was always of the opinion that this was the reason for Rhein’s kidnapping. (Gorkin, op. cit., n3 above, p.57, n4)
18. The Letter of an Old Bolshevik was put together by the Menshevik emigré Boris Nikolayevsky on the basis of conversations with Bukharin denouncing Stalin’s crimes, and published outside the USSR under this title (S.P. Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution, Oxford 1980, p.366.)
19. Nicolas Sundelevicz was the son of a famous Menshevik who had spent much of his life in Siberia, and was a Trotskyist. He was arrested carrying POUM stickers and accused of preparing an attempt on Stalin’s life (Gorkin, ibid.; R. Dazy, op. cit., p.194).
20. The newspaper for which Wolf secured his press credentials is identified by Pierre Broué with the News Chronicle (Quelques proches collaborateurs de Trotsky, in Cahiers Leon Trotsky, no.1, January 1979, p.7.
21. Some of the personnel of the Secret State police were double Stalinist/Fascist agents. This was certainly the case with the later head of the ‘Foreign Section’ of the SIM, Maxim Sheller, who later fled to France (H. Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, Harmondsworth, 3rd ed., 1977, p.809, n1). Perhaps he was the source of this information fed to the Italians.
22. On 8 February 1938, the Fournier Agency released a statement that he had been transported to the USSR and shot at the same time as Antonov-Ovseyenko (R Dazy, op. cit., n9 above, p.198).
23. Hans David Freund (1912-1937), also known as Winter, was born into a family of German Jews, and became disillusioned with Stalinism after a visit to the Soviet Union. Whilst in Spain he worked for the German language propaganda division of the POUM, and tried to unite the two Trotskyist groups there, the Voz Leninista (Munis) and El Soviet (Bartolomeo) groups. (Cahiers Leon Trotsky, no.3, July/September 1979, p.135.)
24. Nikolsky/Orlov cf. n10 above.
25. The gap here should be filled with ‘Moritz Bressler, alias von Rank’. We owe this research to Pouvoir Ouvrier (cf. note 15 above).
26. Here again the gap should be filled by ‘von Rank’. cf. the last paragraph for the reason for these deletions.
27. Franz Feldman: without doubt the sinister Stalinist hatchetman Erno Gero, placed by Stalin as one of the post-war dictators of Hungary. Born in 1898, the age would be about right.
28. Katia Landau is mistaken about the names of Feldman and Herz, both being pseudonyms. Feldman is probably Gero, Herz is another name for the Lithuanian Stalinist George Mink, called a ‘Pole’ in Katia Landau’s text (cf. Cahiers Leon Trotsky, no.3, July/September 1979, p.179).
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7.6 The Client’s right to complain shall lapse if the Client has itself edited or has instructed others to edit the part or parts of the product forming the subject of the complaint, regardless of whether the Client has subsequently supplied the product to a third party or not.
Article 8 – Liability and indemnity
8.1 The Translation Agency shall exclusively be liable to the Client for any loss or damage directly and demonstrably deriving from shortcomings attributable to the Translation Agency. The Translation Agency shall under no circumstances be liable for any other forms of loss or damage, such as indirect loss, consequential loss, trading loss, loss caused by delay in performance or loss of profit.
8.2 The Translation Agency’s liability shall never exceed the invoice value, exclusive of VAT, of the part of the product or service in question, which part has already been invoiced and/or supplied or rendered. The Translation Agency’s liability shall never exceed EUR 45,000 per event or per sequence of related events.
8.3 Ambiguities in the text to be translated shall release the Translation Agency from any liability whatsoever.
8.4 The question of whether (the use of) a text to be translated or edited or the translation or edited version of such text, produced by the Translation Agency, entails any risk of bodily injury shall be entirely at the Client’s expense and risk.
8.5 No liability whatsoever shall be incurred by the Translation Agency in respect of damage to or loss of documents, data or data carriers made available to facilitate performance of the contract. Nor shall any liability be incurred by the Translation Agency in respect of any costs incurred and/or any loss or damage sustained as a result of (i) the use of information technology and telecommunications media, (ii) the transport or dispatch of data or data carriers, or (iii) the presence of computer viruses in any files or data carriers supplied by the Translation Agency.
8.6 The Client undertakes to indemnify the Translation Agency against any claims by third parties deriving from the use of the product supplied or the services rendered.
8.7 The Client similarly undertakes to indemnify the Translation Agency against any claims by third parties on account of alleged violation or infringement of property rights, proprietary rights, patent rights, copyrights or any other intellectual property rights in connection with the performance of the contract.
Article 9 – Dissolution and force majeure
9.1 If the Client fails to meet its obligations, if the Client is declared insolvent or bankrupt or if a petition is filed for the Client’s compulsory liquidation or bankruptcy, if the Client applies for or obtains a moratorium, if the Client is subject to an arrangement under the debt rescheduling regulations for natural persons or if the Client’s company or business is liquidated, the Translation Agency shall have the right, without being required to pay any compensation, to dissolve the contract in whole or in part or to suspend performance of the contract. The Translation Agency shall in that case be entitled to demand immediate payment of any outstanding amounts.
9.2 Should the Translation Agency prove unable to meet its obligations due to circumstances beyond its control and risk, it shall be entitled to dissolve the contract without being liable to pay any compensation whatsoever. Such circumstances (force majeure) include, but are not limited to: fire, accidents, illness, strikes, riots, war, terrorist attacks, transport restrictions and delays, government measures, disruption of the services of Internet providers, negligence on the part of suppliers or any other circumstances beyond the Translation Agency’s control.
9.3 If the Translation Agency is compelled by force majeure to discontinue further performance of the contract, it shall retain the right to payment for any work performed up to that moment as well as reimbursement for any costs and out-of-pocket expenses incurred.
Article 10 – Copyright
Barring explicit agreement in writing to the contrary, the copyright on translations produced by the Translation Agency shall devolve upon the Client at such time as the Client meets all its financial and other obligations to the Translation Agency in full with respect to the work in question.
Article 11 – Governing law
11.1 The legal relationship between the Client and the Translation Agency shall be governed by Netherlands law.
11.2 Any disputes in respect of which no binding decision has been given by the VViN Arbitration Committee in accordance with clause 7.5 above shall be submitted for judgment to the competent court at the place where the Translation Agency has its office.
Article 12 – Registration
12.1 These General Terms and Conditions have been lodged with the
Utrecht Chamber of Commerce (file number 40482690).
12.2 The Association of Translation Agencies is listed in the Trade
Register of the Utrecht Chamber of Commerce under number
The original Dutch text of these General Terms and Conditions shall prevail over versions published in any other language. | <urn:uuid:ca6d97a3-ab4e-45f9-a390-7060aff2d265> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://transenter.com/terms-and-conditions/ | 2015-04-02T03:05:47Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131310006.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172150-00260-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911975 | 3,759 |
About a year and a half ago, Savant was amazed to see the German digital restoration of Metropolis at a touring museum showing. In my city (Los Angeles) the beautifully-restored epic was presented with a live organ accompaniment and received by the audience as if it were a lost book of the Bible.
Metropolis predates what we call Science Fiction in movies, and proceeds in a totally different direction from movies about the destiny of man (2001) or various depictions of futuristic dystopias. It's a strange eclectic collage about key themes of the 20th century - progress, technology, class suppression, faith. Thea von Harbou's utopian conception is a mix of futurism and mysticism, faith and fate. An expressionist film, it derives a grandiose power from its massive architectural designs, whether of futuristic buildings or huge crowds of people moving in organized groups. It is 'quite a silly film', as H.G. Wells claimed, and also 'two films glued together by their bellies', as Luis Buñuel stated, but it also has a giddy, optimistic sense of wonder, an awe at the potential of man for greatness and folly, that no other film even approaches. Its mystery is contained as much in Brigitte Helm's silvery, unblinking eyes, as it is in the machine that transforms into a primitive god demanding sacrifice, or a Tolkien-like primitive house standing in the middle of a futuristic city. It's about the future, but also about dreams and visions and poetry on a vast scale.
Kino distributed a version of this restoration theatrically last fall, and this is what's been replicated on this DVD. The intertitles are in English, and the film is synchronized with a new recording of its original 1927 score. The result will stun anyone who has only seen the earlier, ragged-looking versions, on the screen or on video.
Meanwhile, Joh Fredersen interprets the prayer meetings as an uprising, and conspires with an old enemy, inventor/alchemist Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge, also of Dr. Mabuse), to instigate a premature revolt that Fredersen can suppress. Rotwang shows the leader his latest creation, a Machine-Man robot in metallic feminine form. The plan will be to kidnap Maria and give the robotrix her likeness; the 'False Maria' will be sent as an agent provocateur among the workers, preaching violence instead of peace. But Fredersen doesn't know that Rotwang bears him a vicious resentment, for running away with Rotwang's wife, Hel, long ago. Mad scientist Rotwang will send the false Maria to instigate an apocalyptic revolt that will destroy everything Fredersen has made.
As covered in detail in the insert liner notes written by Martin Koerber, Metropolis in this new incarnation is an integration of surviving pieces of the film found in archives the world over. Although some fans have reported that it's missing a shot or two seen in earlier versions, the virtuosity with which the Munich Filmmuseum has reconstructed the film is nigh unquestionable. 1
Since a big chunk of the story is still missing, mainly sub-plots and connective tissue, but also key scenes (like the fight between Rotwang and Fredersen), one has to read the intertitles correctly to get the big picture. The Filmmuseum has added new titles explaining the missing material, in a different typeface to make this easier.
There are also titles that cues the music movements - Intermezzo, things like that. Either the restorers went way overboard being literal about the cue titles listed in the score and the censor records, or Metropolis was conceived as a symphony of several movements, like Murnau's Sunrise.
It might be helpful to watch a few minutes of a previous copy, even the Giorgio Moroder version, to better appreciate the digital restoration done by Alpha-Omega of Munich. The image now has a proper grey-on-grey patina, instead of the harsh contrast of earlier prints. It's almost completely steady, instead of chattering, shifting, and warping in the gate as it always did before.
In 1983, Giorgio Moroder added lots of color tints to the movie, in addition to his own funky opticals and other futzing around. It is my understanding that in 1927 the film was originally released all in b&w, as we see it here.
The new material consists of longer versions of scenes, with better continuity (although some jump-cuts are still in evidence) and connecting tissue. As I stated before, the scene with Freder having a bad dream in his rooms, while the False Maria dances for the rich sons of the city, is vastly improved. It now has a smoother opening, that establishes the spy Slim (Fritz Rasp) at the foot of Freder's bed. When Maria dances, Freder has a dream of Revelations, and Slim seems to transform into the monk in the cathedral who talks about the coming of the antichrist. Through titles explaining missing material, and some now-restored montage shots, Freder, the False Maria, Slim, and the Seven Deadly Sins in the cathedral are now all linked - Death's scythe is an omen of doom for the city, and the False Maria's throne is now borne by the 'freed' Deadly Sins. The scene fuses Freder's delusions with biblical prophecy, eroticism, and visual poetry. It's uniquely cinematic, in that its impact could not be duplicated in print or on a theatrical stage.
The cleaned-up, re-beautified image also lets one appreciate the superlative design of Metropolis that was impossible in the inferior earlier prints. Metropolis has complete control of the illusion of scale. As in King Kong, when things are supposed to be big, they Look Big. This won't be as apparent on a monitor as it was on a screen, where the towering canyons of the city indeed appeared to be colossal. Simple sculptural details, such as the design of the Maschine Man robot, are better appreciated here as well. The same goes for the new montage elements, and the bizarre multi-image shots where dozens of eyes watch the False Maria spread her message of destruction.
Kino Video's DVD of Metropolis is a fine presentation in almost every respect. The bit rate and compression is always adequate, although complex scenes show a bit of additional grain on a large monitor. The film has been slightly windowboxed, which is a very good idea. This version has already come out in Region 2, and this Region 1 release retains all of the extras, translated through subtitles into English, French and Spanish. There are 13 cast and crew text biographies, and several photo, still, design, and poster artwork galleries. The original posters pictured are even annotated with the names of their original artists.
The two featurettes are phenomenal. In 'The Digital Restoration', Martin Koerber explains the methods used by Alpha-Omega to optimize and repair the film material we see. The narration is very frank and forthright about the problems of using automatic dirt removal software. We see a demonstration where fast-moving objects, like character legs and parts of faces, are erased along with the dirt. The key to such digital tools is to use them sparingly, and concentrate on the manual removal of flaws by trained artists ... which is how thousands of bits of speckling and dirt were removed from even the best film material they had. All of this is backed up with visual clips from Alpha-Omega. For one decomposed composite effect, the restorers apparently had access to the original optical elements, and recomposited them digitally to match the original effects work. Koerber shows us the entire process.
The longer making-of docu by Enno Patalas is even better, starting with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and explaining the German studio and political contexts before, during and after the making of the movie. Patalas ends on a very interesting note, explaining the incongruities (poetic contrasts?) in the film that he thinks contributed to its lack of success on its 1927 release. As he explains, nobody then would have guessed that Metropolis would become one of, if not the, most heralded silent film ever made.
The score, in 5.1 Surround, is very impressive, with some good themes and some fairly limp ones. I've read much more astute musical criticism of Gottfried Huppertz's work than I can offer. It certainly presents motifs that follow the basic drift of the story, but it makes little effort to 'ride' the emotional content of each scene, even to the extent that good silent-movie organists will 'play' the mood of the films they accompany. It's timed out well, right down to orchestrating aural blasts to complement the shift-change sirens on the rooftops of the city. But during the catacomb church scene, for instance, almost nothing at all happens to mark or underline Maria's entrance, or the two lovers coming together. I guess movie score 'Mickey Mousing' happened later with composers like Max Steiner.
Huppertz veers toward kitsch when his 'revolt' theme quotes 'La Marseillaise'. But his music consistently augments and amplifies the rhythms that Fritz Lang built into the film, such as the ringing of the giant bell in the Workers' city. That was the main failing of Moroder's dynamic disco score - it too often ignored the rhythms of the movie running beneath it.
This brings Savant to the issue that got him into hot water earlier with Kino. When Enno Patalas and his restorers toured the world with their digital print, they opted to screen it at 20 frames per second. I assume they determined this was the proper speed, otherwise why would they make the various screening venues go to all the trouble of changing over to varispeed motors, making sure the arclights wouldn't burn the film at the slower speed, etc.?
When Kino decided to release the film theatrically at 24 frames per second, it was the only practical thing to do. Having a theater change its aspect ratio is often too much to ask for, and most modern equipment is meant to run at 24 fps and nothing else. So it is of course reasonable to expect a wide release of the picture to be at the standard speed.
In this, history was on Kino's side. It's been established that at the original premiere of the film, it was projected at at least 24 frames per second, and perhaps at 25 or 26! The score was composed at that speed - indeed, the whole picture would have to be rescored and Huppertz's music adapted to 'fit', if the film were projected at the earlier 20 fps of the Museum tour. 2
Kino opted to carry through with their theatrical speed for the DVD release, and here is where Savant has differences. Metropolis is grand at any speed, but when one speeds it up so radically to 24 fps, it becomes another film experience altogether. The rhythms are faster. When they jolt jerkily with each step, the marching workers no longer look weary, shifting forward as if in a funeral procession. All of the fast action is now in a hyper-fast, Keystone Kops mode. In some shots that were originally undercranked to make the action faster than normal, the characters now zip about like fireflies.
The heavy, sombre fatality of scenes is diminished when their on-screen duration is shortened. Things like water and fire move much too quickly. The dramatic scene of Maria hanging from the rope of a ringing cathedral bell is now humorous. The rocking bell now makes her bob up and down like a puppet. Finally, the extreme fast-cut montages, some with shots lasting only 2 or 3 frames, had a perfectly-judged impact at 20 fps. At 24, they chatter past like some kind of mistake, or subliminal experiment. 5
Why would UFA premiere Metropolis at this fast speed? I believe it was because they were desperate. With financial ruin closing in, they reacted the same way modern studios do, by hedging their bets. They probably felt they had a control problem with Fritz Lang, who had delivered yet another 3 & 1/2 hour behemoth instead of the efficient moneymaker they needed - the days of two-part, four hour monstrosities like Mabuse and Die Nibelungen were over. Not to mention the liklihood that 1927 audiences wouldn't understand or appreciate Lang's avant-garde artistic abstractions. Most audiences still don't.
In the docu, Patalas explains that the long version (supposedly 210 minutes!) was withdrawn soon after it opened, and replaced with the first of several cutdown versions, simplifications that must have made the film incomprehensible and thus insured its lack of popularity. UFA wanted the film shorter, period. 3
The relative speed-up from 20 to 24 fps is best understood in the difference in running times. In the Museum screening, the film ran 147 minutes. At sound speed, the same film lasts only 123 minutes. This isn't the slight edge you see on TV Land, with time compression running a 24 fps Leave it to Beaver at 25 fps or so. This is faster.
It's true, when Savant heard about the speed decision for DVD, he squealed like a stuck pig, and acted indignant in a way that got a lot of attention I didn't need. The web is already overflowing with Whining Weenies complaining about trivial problems in DVDs. Kino didn't need the backtalk either, and made some attempts to show me the error of my thinking. I was given the reasoning that replicating the premiere speed was authorized, authentic and historically accurate, and was chided for pre-judging a film I hadn't seen. But I had seen Metropolis at 24fps many times and knew exactly how it would play. And that's how it does play in the Kino presentations. The False Maria's erotic dance, a show-stopper in the Museum, now looks like a Betty Boop cartoon. When UFA sped the film up for their 1927 premiere, Lang must have been crushed to see his good work so severely altered.
I did not read a single published review of the Kino theatrical release that complained about, or even mentioned, this speed difference that so concerns me. Did none of them see the earlier Museum run? The lack of concern is good ammunition for Kino to label me an errant nut (too late, that happened a lo-ong time ago), and dismiss my protests. But that doesn't change the facts - Audiences who tittered and laughed at the accelerated action of earlier versions, still chuckled in the theatrical run of this version. I had the opportunity to ask Mr. Patalas if he felt the 24 fps speed was 'correct', and his return email simply quoted Kino's 'authentic premiere speed' party line. Then why, when he toured his restoration around the world before Kino was involved, did he go to all the trouble to have it shown at the slower speed?
Kino Video's DVD of Metropolis is delightful. I'm buying a copy to send to a relative, and might get a third as a gift. But it is a licensed, franchised & marketed product that even the Munich restorers want & need to be a big success - the restoration was an adventure in perfectionism, not economy. If it doesn't make a profit, Metropolis 2001 will go down as a failure. Big-studio marketing experts would never greenlight a costly experimental incomplete restoration for an ancient public domain movie. And we aren't hearing of any new full digital restorations happening, when there are hundreds of films begging for it. 4 The miracle is that digital imaging can restore a not just viewable, but a dazzling version of a mangled masterpiece like Metropolis. The Munich Museum, Alpha-Omega and Kino all deserve to walk on rose petals while we cheer. As I said in an earlier column, the 2001 premiere of this version was the most important film event of the year.
But one last jab ... Metropolis expert Aitam Bar-Sagi reported that before the Kino deal, a European cable television outlet screened the film in a video version at the correct speed - with an inferior soundtrack, I understand, but at the correct speed. Hopefully that version, or something like it (C'mon, Kino, how about a followup disc?), perhaps with a choice of original scores, would fully restore Fritz Lang's masterpiece to the closest approximation of its original lustre.
On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor,
1. Aitam Bar-Sagi informs me that the Australian print of the film had an additional
shot in the Pleasure Garden, where the party girls react to the appearance of Maria. There also should be
several more seconds of the view of the main Metropolis cityscape, where a big zeppelin moves into the
space between the buildings. Either they were mistakenly omitted, or they didn't fit the original score.
2. At our screening, composer/organist Robert Israel adapted the score and made
it work for the much longer screening, where he played for an almost unbroken (I believe there was an
intermission) 2 and 1/2 hours.
3. That's the gist of both of Variety's 1927 reviews from New York (the Paramount
Rewrite-recut) and Berlin (apparently after the cut-down) : the reviewers in both cities think the film is
silly, has bad continuity and a story that makes no sense.
4. I understand Kino Video recently released a full-length Die Nibelungen,
that readers tell me is an incredible epic revenge tale with huge, Two-Towers like battles. It's
uncut, but hasn't been given the beauty makeover that Metropolis received. For that matter, I just
remarked while reviewing the beautiful but scratched Image disc of
Invaders from Mars, that it desperately needed
the class-A restoration magic of Alpha-Omega.
5. Speaking of subliminal effects, running the DVD slowly through these
fast-cut montages reveals images that
made an impact in the Museum screening (at 20 fps), that now barely register at all. It also shows a curious
cutting pattern. Many shots have a frame or two of black interpolated in between, that are difficult
not to notice. Savant has no information if the black frames were intentional or not, and
for all I know they were part of Lang's cutting philosophy. If all those German restoration experts weren't
involved (I can't imagine them meddling like that), I'd say the black frames were added to help the film
match the recorded score. | <urn:uuid:6aec0f66-8a0c-4dc4-a133-8accec4563db> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/print.php?ID=5463 | 2015-04-02T03:30:56Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131310006.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172150-00260-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9625 | 3,938 |
|Burns, Antoine||WR||6'1"||195||Milwaukee, Wis. / Rochester, Minn. CC|
|Cole, Travis||QB||6'3"||210||Lake Oswego, Ore. / Foothill, Calif. JC|
|Dozier, Ukee||DB||6'1"||170||Bradenton, Fla. / Southeast HS|
|Fraley, Justin||DB||6'1"||200||Cleveland, Ohio / Benedictine HS|
|Green, Jason||DL||6'4"||260||Orange, N.J. / Orange HS|
|Harston, Brandon||DL||6'3"||290||Fort Worth, Texas / Crowley HS|
|Jackson, Terry||RB||5'10"||195||Saginaw, Mich. / Saginaw HS|
|Johnson, Demetrus||RB||5'10"||175||Milwaukee, Wis. / Homestead HS|
|Matthews, Keith||WR||6'3"||190||Akron, Ohio / Archbishop Hoban HS|
|McElroy, Mark||OL||6'4"||300||Roseville, Minn. / Cretin-Derham Hall HS|
|Melander, Rian||OL||6'6"||240||Shoreview, Minn. / Cretin-Derham Hall HS|
|Pinson, Larry||RB||6'2"||225||Eagan, Minn. / Eagan HS|
|Plisch, Josh||OL||6'3"||290||Rothschild, Wis. / D.C. Everest HS|
|Prudden, Peter||DL||6'5"||270||Wayzata, Minn. / Breck HS|
|Redmann, Chad||TE||6'3"||230||Burnsville, Minn. / Apple Valley HS|
|Reid, Darrell||LB||6'3"||245||Farmingdale, N.J. / Freehold Boro HS|
|Sanders, Marcus||RB||6'0"||185||Ravenna, Ohio / Ravenna HS|
|Sims, Dominique||DB||6'2"||195||Minneapolis, Minn. / De La Salle HS|
|Smith, Arthur||OL||6'9"||323||Columbus, Ohio / Brookhaven HS|
|Stenzel, Eric||LB||6'3"||230||Mankato, Minn. / West HS|
|Toussaint, Mackenzy||DB||6'0"||177||Miami, Fla. / North Miami HS|
|Ward, Timothy||DL||6'3"||255||Milwaukee, Wis. / Bay View HS|
|Watson, Steve||LB||6'3"||215||Defiance, Mo. / Francis Howell HS|
|Wymer, Ricky||OL||6'9"||325||Westerville, Ohio / North HS|
Head Football Coach Glen Mason announced today that 24 student-athletes have signed national letters of intent to attend the University of Minnesota and play football for the Golden Gophers.
"We signed 14 on offense and 10 players on defense, so we are very pleased that we were able to fill some needs on both sides of the ball, particularly along the offensive and defensive lines," Mason said. "Our main priority is always to close the borders on the state of Minnesota and keep our in-state talent at home. We are very excited about the players who have decided to stay at home and play for the Golden Gophers. Our success last season enabled us to recruit some outstanding student-athletes to the University of Minnesota. I'm very happy with this recruiting class."
Antoine Burns, 6-1, 195, WR, Milwaukee, Wis. (Rochester CC) Named a junior college Gridwire All-American...listed in PrepStar's Super Juco 75 list...rated 17th in SuperPrep's Juco 100...caught 58 passes for 1,100 yards last season at Rochester...scored 23 touchdowns (17 receiving, three on punt returns, and three on kickoff returns)...his Rochester teams were a combined 22-2 with two bowl berths in his two seasons there... has three years remaining to complete his two years of eligibility...lists reading as one of his hobbies...plans to major in kinesiology at the U of M...high school coach was Adam Walker...junior college coach was Joel Swisher...son of Leon and Bernice Williams.
Travis Cole, 6-3, 210, QB, Lake Oswego, Ore. (Foothill JC) In his two years as the starting quarterback at Foothill JC, he threw for 5,286 yards and 58 touchdowns...passed for 25 touchdowns this past season...should compete for the starting job at the U of M next season...arrived on campus in time for second semester and is currently in classes...played both quarterback and receiver at Lakeridge High School, many times switching from one position to another with each play...runs the 40 in 4.65 seconds...has three years remaining to complete his two years of eligibility...also an outstanding baseball player, he was a draft pick of the Toronto Blue Jays...junior college coach was Marshall Sperbeck...son of Steve and Lisa Cole and Debra Cole.
Ukee Dozier, 6-1, 170, DB, Bradenton, Fla. (Southeast HS) Registered 38 solo tackles, 12 assists, four pass- breakups, and three tackles for loss in his senior season...played in nine games as a senior, missing the final four with a shoulder injury...the injury has since been repaired...runs the 40 in 4.5 seconds...basketball and track and field letterwinner...named most valuable performer on the track squad...one of the top long and triple jumpers in the state of Florida...high school coach was Paul Maechtle...son of Shirley Shird.
Justin Fraley, 6-1, 198, DB, Cleveland, Ohio (Benedictine HS) Two-time all-state selection...gained 922 yards in just 150 attempts as a senior (6.1 per carry)...amassed 2,450 yards during prep career and 41 touchdowns...racked up 210 tackles on the defensive side of the ball...intercepted 34 passes and forced 28 fumbles during his high school career...accumulated impressive stats while playing on a team that was 1-8 last season...played some quarterback in his freshman and junior seasons...runs the 40 in 4.45 seconds...president of his senior class and vice president of the student council...honor student with a 3.0 GPA...lists interception to seal the state championship win as a freshman as his most memorable sports thrill...also lettered in track and field...won the 100-meter state track championship as a junior with a time of 10.6...high school coach was Derek Slesh...son of Greg Fraley and Henry and Toni Curtis.
Jason Green, 6-4, 260, DE, Orange, N.J. (Orange HS) SuperPrep all-Northeast team selection...ranked 22nd- best player in the state...named to the all-state team after a senior season where he collected 85 solo tackles, 20 assists, 18 tackles for loss and 12 sacks...named to all-county and all-city teams as well during final prep campaign...also letters in basketball, where he plays forward, and track and field...has an interest in studying criminal justice...high school coach was Randy Daniels...son of Janice Green.
Brandon Harston, 6-3, 290, DL, Fort Worth, Texas (Crowley HS) Named to the SuperPrep all-Southwest team...one of the better defensive linemen recruits in the country according to Tom Lemming's Prep Football Report...amassed 120 career tackles, including 98 solos, despite playing just four games in his senior campaign due to a high ankle sprain...defensive career stats also include 15 sacks, 10 pass breakups, 15 forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, and three interceptions...caught 50 career passes for 10 touchdowns from his tight end position on the offensive side of the ball...also lettered in basketball...member of the honor roll with a 3.00 GPA...calls his most memorable sports thrill winning the state championship in basketball...high school coach was Brad McCone...son of Mike and Georgia Harston.
Terry Jackson III, 5-10, 193, RB, Saginaw, Mich. (Saginaw HS) Rushed for 1,774 yards and 21 touchdowns as a senior when he helped lead his high school to its first-ever state championship...also pitched in with 18 solo tackles on defense...played defensive back as a junior...three-year letterwinner...named to the all- conference and all-state teams following his senior season...basketball (point guard) and track and field letterwinner...lists hobbies as drawing and writing poetry...high school coach was Donald Durrett...son of Terry and Linda Jackson.
Demetrus Johnson, 5-10, 173, RB, Milwaukee, Wis. (Homestead HS) Named Wisconsin State Player of the Year by the Wisconsin State Coaches Association and the Wisconsin Journal Sentinal...Named a two-time all-state selection after amassing 2,229 yards, 32 touchdowns, and an average of 7.0 yards per carry in his senior season...the yardage and touchdown totals set single- season school records...rushed for school-record 315 yards and five touchdowns in a single game...also returned nine punts for an average of 24 yards per tote and two touchdowns along with 14 kickoff returns for an average of 30 yards per runback...caught 11 passes out of the backfield for 148 yards and a touchdown...has also accumulated three letters in basketball and one in track and field...named to the all-conference team in basketball and all-state squad in track and field...is an honor roll student who plans to major in business at the U of M...calls most memorable sports thrill rushing for 198 yards and two touchdowns in the state championship game...high school coach was Dave Keel...son of Nathaniel and Zara Johnson.
Keith Matthews, 6-3, 188, WR, Akron, Ohio (Archbishop HS) Two-time all-state selection...outstanding player on both sides of the ball in high school...played wide receiver and safety...caught 92 career passes for a total of 1,605 yards and 19 touchdowns...averaged 17.4 yards per reception in his prep career...also rushed for 574 career yards and six touchdowns...logged 205 career tackles on defense...credited with 11 career sacks, seven fumble recoveries, and eight interceptions...returned two of the interceptions for touchdowns...prep teams were 10-2 and 9-3 in his final two seasons...also a three-year letterwinner in track and field and basketball...lists most memorable sports thrill when he scored four touchdowns in a game...plans on majoring in business at the U of M...high school coach was Ralph Orsini...son of Diane and Willie Matthews.
Mark McElroy, 6-4, 300, OL, Roseville, Minn. (Cretin- Derham Hall HS) Named one of the top 10 offensive lineman prospects in the Midwest according to PrepStar...listed on the SuperPrep all-Midwest team...named to the all-state squad after helping lead Cretin-Derham Hall to the Class AAAAA State Championship as a senior...three-year starter at offensive tackle...played strong-side tackle...known for his exceptional run-blocking ability...was a big reason behind Cretin-Derham Hall's combined record of 34-2 over the last three seasons while earning three varsity letters...also letters in track, throwing the shot put and discus...recipient of the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award...honor roll student who carries a 3.2 GPA...lists winning the state football title as his most memorable sports thrill...high school coach was Rick Kallok...son of Robert and Carol McElroy.
Rian Melander, 6-6, 238, OL, Shoreview, Minn. (Cretin-Derham Hall HS) Named to the all-state squad after helping lead Cretin- Derham Hall to the Class AAAAA State Championship as a senior...allowed only two sacks on his quarterback all season from his weak-side tackle position...was one of the fastest rising prospects in the entire Midwest during his senior season, climbing from a preseason rating of No. 101 to a final ranking of No. 40 on the SuperPrep list of top players in the Midwest...named honorable mention All-America by USA Today...three-year letterwinner who was a big reason for Cretin-Derham Hall's combined record of 34-2 over the last three seasons...also played basketball...honor student with a 3.0 GPA...high school coach was Rich Kallok...uncle Jon Melander was a letterwinner along the offensive line for the Golden Gophers from 1986-89 who went on to play in the NFL...lists winning the state title as his most memorable sports thrill...son of Peter and Judy Melander.
Larry Pinson, Jr., 6-2, 225, FB, Eagan, Minn. (Eagan HS) All-state selection who rushed for 1,327 yards and 17 touchdowns as a senior...averaged 120 yards per game and seven yards per carry as a senior...runs the 40 in 4.6 seconds and can bench press 330 pounds...honored on the All-Lake Conference team as a senior...lived in Georgia as a prep junior and did not play football...named to the SuperPrep all-Midwest team...track and field letterwinner...honored as an all-conference selection in track...lists most memorable sports thrill as beating Apple Valley in the state section semifinals...named to the academic All-State team...holds a 3.99 GPA...interested in studying communications or pre-med at the U of M...high school coach was Dave Fritze...son of Larry and Lennelle Pinson.
Josh Plisch, 6-3, 290, OL, Rothschild, Wis. (D.C. Everest HS) Named the seventh-best offensive line recruit in the Midwest by PrepStar...listed as the eighth overall best line prospect (offense or defense) in the Midwest by SuperPrep...One of the most sought-after lineman in the Midwest, he led his prep team to a three-year varsity record of 30-5...high school All-America performer and two-time all-state selection...high school team was a perfect 14-0 as a junior...letterwinner in hockey (defenseman) and track and field (shotput and discus)...plans to major in elementary education at the U of M...lists his hobbies as skiing and spending time with family...high school coach was Wayne Steffenhagen...son of Sherri Plisch.
Peter Prudden, 6-5, 270, OL, Wayzata, Minn. (Breck HS) Named to the SuperPrep all-Midwest team...Named to the all-state team after leading Breck to a 9-2 record as a senior...prep teams combined for a 38-9 record in his four years as a letterwinner...a two-way player, he registered 195 career tackles, 20 sacks, 10 pass breakups, 11 forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries as a defensive end...allowed no sacks by the players he blocked as a senior on the offensive line...also handled long snapping duties and kickoffs...lettered in basketball as a power forward, averaging 11.4 points and 10.2 rebounds per game as a junior...member of school's student government...interested in studying business at the U of M...lists reading as one of his hobbies...high school coach was John Theil...son of John and Stephanie Prudden.
Chad Redmann, 6-3, 230, TE, Burnsville, Minn. (Apple Valley HS) Played a number of positions (running back, fullback, safety, defensive end, punter) during his prep career...rushed for career totals of 1,445 and 31 touchdowns on the ground...caught 18 passes for 230 yards...ran the ball 111 times for 541 yards and 11 touchdowns as a senior...had a career average of 39.0 yards per kick as a punter with a long boot of 65 yards...also returned four kicks for 120 yards...earned four wrestling and two track letters in addition to his three letters on the gridiron...has a career record of 73-14 with 42 falls on the mat...finished second in the state individually at heavyweight as a junior while helping his squad to the team championship as a junior grappler...he is 27-0 with 20 pins thus far this season on the mat...holds team weightlifting record...Academic All-State selection...high school coach was Mike Fritze...son of John and Cheryl Redmann.
Darrell Reid, 6-3, 245, LB, Farmingdale, N.J. (Freehold Boro HS) Ranked as the second-best linebacker prospect in the Northeast by SuperPrep...named one of the top linebacker prospects in the East according to PrepStar...rated the ninth-best player overall in the state...player of the year as a senior in Monmouth County...registered 99 tackles, including 36 solos, as a senior...also blocked five kicks, five pass breakups, and three forced fumbles in his final prep campaign...named to the New Jersey all-state team as well as being a three-time all- conference and all-area pick...played six games as a senior with a cast on a broken hand...rated one of the top players in the state despite his team's 0-10 mark during final prep campaign...also a four-time letterwinner in basketball as a forward...high school coach was Larry Boice...son of Jeanette Williams.
Marcus Sanders, 6-0, 186, RB, Ravenna, Ohio (Ravenna HS) Rushed for 2,374 yards (11.5 per carry) and scored 34 touchdowns as a senior...rushed for 6,688 career yards and scored 81 touchdowns...only fifth back in Ohio prep history to rush for more than 6,000 yards in his career...also caught six passes out of the backfield as a senior for 154 yards and a pair of touchdowns...rated the 10th-best running back in the Midwest according to PrepStar...set 14 school records including most yards rushing (career and season), most net yards (career and season), and most touchdowns scored (career and season)...a four-year all-conference selection...named honorable mention All-America...four-year starter...on defense, he was in on 108 stops and had eight sacks and four interceptions as a senior...honor student with a 3.0 GPA...basketball letterwinner as a point guard who averaged 13 points and 4.5 rebounds a game as a junior...high school coach was Cyle Feldman...son of Michael and Sharon Sanders.
Dominique Sims, 6-2, 195, DB, Minneapolis, Minn. (De La Salle HS) USA Today first-team All-America...named Minnesota State Player of the Year by the Associated Press after leading the Islanders to the state championship...rated one of the top 20 recruits in the Midwest according to SuperPrep...PrepStar calls him the top player in Minnesota this season...Parade Magazine All-America selection...one of four finalists for the Franklin Watkins Award, given annually to the top African- American student-athlete in the country...as a safety, he recorded 130 tackles, 23 pass breakups, three sacks, two fumble recoveries and two interceptions as a senior...rushed for 1,409 yards and 17 touchdowns during final prep campaign...passed for 756 yards and 12 touchdowns...also caught three passes for 112 yards and a touchdown and returned three kicks for touchdowns...runs the 40 in 4.5...an outstanding student, he carries a 4.16 GPA and ranks third in his high school class of 103...father Charles played basketball for the Golden Gophers from 1971-75...older brother Jason played basketball at Northern Iowa...older brother Ty played collegiate basketball at Kansas State after two years of junior college...high school coach was Tony Johnson...son of Charles and Kim Sims.
Arthur Smith, 6-9, 323, OL, Columbus, Ohio (Brookhaven HS) Helped lead his team to the state playoffs as a senior after winning the league championship his junior season...played on both sides of the ball, starting at both offensive and defensive tackle...teams combined for a record of 25-8 in his three seasons...logged 60 tackles as a senior, including three sacks, 10 tackles for loss, three pass breakups, nine forced fumbles, and four fumble recoveries...honored on the all-state, all- city, and all-conference squads...also lettered in basketball, wrestling, and track and field during his prep career...has shown an interest in majoring in pre- dentistry at the U of M...member of the high school honor roll...high school coach was Gregg Miller...son of Martie Johnston.
Eric Stenzel, 6-3, 230, LB, Mankato, Minn. (West HS) An all-state selection who led the Scarlets (Mankato West) to a 10-4 record and the Class AAAA state crown...also garnered all-state honors as a junior...set state records for assisted tackles (246) and total tackles (587) during his three-year varsity career despite playing half his senior season with a cast on a broken thumb...logged 163 tackles, including 96 solos, had five fumble recoveries and an interception in his senior campaign...featured in Sports Illustrated's Faces In The Crowd...named to the SuperPrep all-Midwest team...listed on the PrepStar all-Midwest team...three- year All-Big Nine selection...behind his leadership, team improved gradually from a 0-8 record his freshman season to the state title as a senior...runs the 40 in 4.7 seconds and bench presses 305 pounds...an honor roll student with a GPA of 3.00...basketball and track and field letterwinner...high school coach was Rick Sutton...son of Linnie and Brenda Stenzel.
Mackenzy Toussaint, 6-0, 177, DB, Miami, Fla. (North Miami HS) Third-team All-Dade County selection...had 11 pass breakups, five fumble recoveries, two interceptions, and three tackles for loss as a senior...led his high school to its first playoff berth in many years with an 8-3 mark...also letters in track and field, where he is a hurdler along with specializing in the long and triple jump...regional finalist in the 110 hurdles...plans to major in business at the U of M...lists pool and basketball as his hobbies...high school coach was Gil Lora...son of Manilia Bellot.
Timothy Ward, 6-3, 255, DL, Milwaukee, Wis. (Bay View HS) Athletic two-way prep player who played middle linebacker and tight end in high school...collected 85 tackles, 45 of which were solos, as a senior...also logged three sacks and forced three fumbles...caught 11 passes, three of which were for touchdowns on the offensive side of the ball...also lettered in basketball and track and field...was an all-conference performer (shot put and discus champ) as a prep junior...plans to major in business at the U of M...high school coach was Craig Klumb...son of Lillie Ward.
Steven Watson, 6-3, 215, LB, Defiance, Mo. (Francis Howell HS) Rated one of the top defensive end prospects in the Midlands according to SuperPrep...All-state selection who led his prep team to a combined record of 29-6 over the past three seasons...logged 115 tackles as a senior to accompany 12 sacks, six forced fumbles, and two fumble recoveries...63 of his tackles were solos...played fullback on the offensive side of the ball, gathering 712 yards and eight touchdowns...registered six sacks as a junior...a four- sport athlete who also lettered in track and field, basketball, and wrestling...won the conference championship in the high jump...calls defeating the top- ranked team in the state in double overtime in his senior season Homecoming game as his most memorable sports thrill...high school coach was Larry Branson...son of Robert and Judith Watson.
Ricky Wymer, 6-9, 325, OL, Westerville, Ohio (Westerville North HS) Three-time all-conference and two-time all-area selection...rated 14th-best offensive lineman in the Midwest according to PrepStar...had surgery the day before Thanksgiving to repair torn knee ligaments, but still managed to play in every game his senior season while injured...also played basketball his freshman and sophomore years in high school...considers working on computers as one of his hobbies...high school coach was Bob Cavin...son of Rick and Char Wymer.
Player bios courtesy of University of Minnesota | <urn:uuid:3abc918c-a44c-4bbd-94d0-ce221e203d40> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.gopherhole.com/page/show/374846-2000-gopher-football-recruiting-class | 2015-03-28T00:29:34Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297146.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00036-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958841 | 5,335 |
Utopia, Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was the second-to-last of Gilbert and Sullivan's fourteen collaborations, premiering on 7 October 1893 for a run of 245 performances. It did not achieve the success of most of their earlier productions.
Gilbert's libretto satirises limited liability companies, and particularly the idea that a bankrupt company could leave creditors unpaid without any liability on the part of its owners. It also lampoons the Joint Stock Company Act by imagining the absurd convergence of natural persons (or sovereign nations) with legal commercial entities under the limited companies laws. In addition, it mocks the conceits of the late 19th-century British Empire and several of the nation's beloved institutions. In mocking the adoption by a "barbaric" country of the cultural values of an "advanced" nation, it takes a tilt at the cultural aspects of imperialism. The libretto was criticised as too long and rambling by some critics and later commentators, and several subplots introduced in Act I are never resolved.
Utopia is performed much less frequently than most other Gilbert and Sullivan operas. It can be expensive to produce, requiring a large principal cast and two costumes ("native" and "drawing room") for most of the performers. The subject-matter and characters, including the specific government offices, are obscure for modern audiences, although its themes of corporatisation of public institutions and scandal in the British Royal family are evergreen. And although it contains some fine music, it perhaps has less than Sullivan's usual quota of unforgettable tunes. Bernard Shaw, however, wrote in his highly favourable October 1893 review of the show in The World, "I enjoyed the score of Utopia more than that of any of the previous Savoy operas."
In 1890, during the production of Gilbert and Sullivan's previous opera, The Gondoliers, Gilbert became embroiled in a legal dispute with their producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte, over the cost of a new carpet for the Savoy Theatre – and, more generally, over the accounting for expenses over the course of their long partnership. Sullivan sided with Carte and was made a defendant in the case, and the partnership disbanded. Gilbert vowed to write no more operas for the Savoy, and after The Gondoliers closed in 1891, Gilbert withdrew the performance rights to his libretti. It was not until October 1891, after conversations with their publisher Tom Chappell, that Gilbert and Sullivan reconciled. After fulfilling their respective open commitments Gilbert and Sullivan were able to plan to renew their collaboration on a new opera, Utopia, Limited. The lawsuit, however, had left Gilbert and Sullivan somewhat embittered, and their last two works together suffered from a less collegial working relationship than the two men had typically enjoyed while writing earlier operas.
Genesis of the opera
In November 1892, after lengthy and delicate discussions over the financial arrangements for a new opera, Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte were able to reach an agreement and set to work on the new opera. On 27 January 1893, Gilbert read the plot outline for the libretto to Sullivan, and by July, he was finished with the libretto. Gilbert suffered from bad gout throughout the summer and autumn of 1893 and had to attend rehearsals in a wheelchair. Gilbert and Sullivan disagreed on several matters, including the character of Lady Sophy, and Sullivan found some of Gilbert's lyrics difficult to set. Their lack of the cohesion during the writing and editing of Utopia was in marked contrast with what Sullivan called the "oneness" of their previous collaborations since Trial by Jury in 1875. Nonetheless, Sullivan completed the setting of Gilbert's first act within a month, and received particular congratulations from his collaborator for the finale, which Gilbert considered the best Sullivan had composed. For Utopia, the creators engaged Hawes Craven to design the sets, which were much praised. Craven was the designer for Henry Irving's spectacular Shakespeare productions at the Lyceum Theatre. Percy Anderson designed the costumes. The scenery, properties and costumes cost an unprecedented total of £7,200.
In 1893, the year Utopia, Limited was produced, Princess Kaiulani of the independent monarchy of Hawaii attended a private school in England. She was the talk of the society pages, with much speculation as to the influence English "civilization" would have on the Princess and eventually her homeland. Two decades earlier, in 1870, Anna Leonowens first wrote about her six-year stint as governess to the children of the king of Siam (Thailand) in The English Governess at the Siamese Court. The two ladies and their stories are likely to have influenced the characters of Princess Zara and Lady Sophy, respectively. Another impetus for Gilbert in the genesis of the work was his disdain for England's Limited Liability Act of 1862, which he had begun to explore in the previous opera with Sullivan, The Gondoliers.
By using an imaginary setting, Gilbert was emboldened to level some sharp satire at British imperialism, jingoism, the monarchy, party politics and other institutions that might have touched a more sensitive nerve if the opera had a British setting. In this work, Gilbert returns to the idea of an anti-Utopia, which he had explored, in various ways, in his early one-act operas, Happy Arcadia, Our Island Home, Topsyturveydom, and some of his other early works, especially The Happy Land. The previous Gilbert and Sullivan opera, The Gondoliers, also concerns an imaginary island kingdom where the rules of court are considerably different from those in Britain. In Utopia, the island begins as a virtual paradise, is thrown into chaos by the importation of "English" influences, and is eventually saved by an English political expedience. Gilbert's biographer Jane Stedman calls this a "Gilbertian invasion plot".
The opera's satiric treatment of limited liability entities that are not required to honour their obligations and scandal in the monarchy was effective in 1893 and still resonate today. In addition, the show satirises "practically everything English – English prudery, English conversation, English company promoting, the English party system, the English War Office and Admiralty, the County Council, and the English Cabinet." Apart from satirical elements, in Utopia, Gilbert indulges in some small topical touches throughout the libretto. For instance, he was up-to-date in his technological references (as he had been in H.M.S. Pinafore with the mention of the telephone), by mentioning George Eastman's new product, the Kodak camera, and its slogan. Gilbert also throws some barbs at the Lord Chamberlain's office, as he loved to do. In addition, The Court of St. James's is mockingly confused with St James's Hall and its minstrel shows. Sullivan joins in the parody, underlining the mock praise of all things English with a repeated motif throughout the score based on the melody of "Rule Britannia!".
Reception and aftermath
The Savoy audiences were glad to see Gilbert and Sullivan back together, and the first-night reception was rapturous. Sullivan wrote in his diary, "Went into the orchestra at 8.15 sharp. My ovation lasted 65 seconds! Piece went wonderfully well – not a hitch of any kind, and afterwards G. and I had a double call." The critics were divided on the merits of the piece. Punch, habitually hostile to Gilbert, commented, "'Limited' it is, in more senses than one." The Standard, by contrast, said, "Mr. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan are here at their very best … The wit, humour and satire of the book have not been surpassed in any of the author's previous operas, the composer's fascinating vein of melody flows as freshly as ever, and the orchestration is full of characteristically happy fancies … A more complete success has never been achieved in comic opera, even at the Savoy." The Pall Mall Gazette also praised Sullivan's contribution, but disparaged Gilbert's: in its view the music "has not its equal in the whole Sullivan and Gilbert series", but the book had "not merely a sense of cheapness but the sense of weariness even to exhaustion." The Era commented that Gilbert's "wit was as sparkling and his satire as keen as ever," and thought the council scene "screamingly funny". The Observer judged that Gilbert had lost none of his merits, and that "wit abounds" and "is as spontaneous as ever: not forced or vulgarised, and his rhymes are always faultless."
Some critics thought it a weakness that the work contained references to the earlier Gilbert and Sullivan operas, for example in the re-use of the character Captain Corcoran, and communications between King Paramount and the Mikado of Japan. The Pall Mall Gazette observed, "It is always a melancholy business when a writer is driven to imitate himself. Utopia (limited) is a mirthless travesty of the work with which his name is most generally associated. ... Mr. Gilbert has failed to make the old seem new". The Musical Times reported the theatregoing public's rejoicing that the partners were reunited, but added:
[A]ll would have indulged in renewed jubilations had Utopia (Limited) proved equal in humour and general freshness to the most successful of the companion works. This, unfortunately, cannot be said, although, of course, as compared with ordinary productions of the opéra bouffe class it stands out sufficiently clear. Mr. Gilbert could not put forward a silly or inane book, and Sir Arthur Sullivan could not pen music otherwise than refined, tuneful, and characterised by musicianly touches. It is only in comparison with such masterpieces of humour and dramatic and musical satire as Patience, The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard, and The Gondoliers that the libretto of Utopia (Limited) seems a trifle dull, particularly in the first Act, and the music for the most part reminiscent rather than fresh.
The Daily News and The Globe both noted that Act I ran longer than any previous Savoy Opera and needed pruning. The Manchester Guardian praised the work, but commented that there was "much (sometimes too much) Gilbertian dialogue". However, Gilbert and Sullivan's choices for what to cut are suspect. The soprano's aria, "Youth is a boon avowed" got some of the most enthusiastic reviews from the press but was cut after the opening night. The Globe called it "one of Sir Arthur Sullivan's best works". Also, the pre-production cuts left subplots that were introduced in Act I unresolved. For example, Sullivan refused to set one of Gilbert's scenes for Nancy McIntosh, which left the Scaphio–Phantis–Zara subplot unresolved. Rutland Barrington, in his memoirs, felt that the "second act... was not as full of fun as usual" in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
The show made a modest profit, despite the unusually high cost of staging it. In competition with the musical comedies' fashion pageantry, the drawing room scene was of an unprecedented opulence. The Manchester Guardian called it "one of the most magnificent ever beheld on the stage", and even Punch praised the splendour of the production, but it added thousands of pounds of expense, making Utopia the most expensive of all of the Savoy Operas. The taste of the London theatre-going public was shifting away from comic opera and towards musical comedies such as In Town (1892), A Gaiety Girl (1893) and Morocco Bound (1893), which were to dominate the London stage for the next two decades and beyond.
Utopia introduced Gilbert's last protégée, Nancy McIntosh, as Princess Zara, and the role was much expanded to accommodate her. According to the scholar John Wolfson, in his book, Final Curtain, this damaged and unbalanced the script by detracting from its parody of government. Commentators agree that McIntosh was not a good actress, and during the run of Utopia, her lack of confidence and health combined to affect her performance. Utopia, Limited was to be McIntosh's only part with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, as Sullivan refused to write another piece if she was to take part in it. Discussions over her playing the role of Yum-Yum in a proposed revival of The Mikado led to another row between the two that prevented the revival, and Gilbert's insistence upon her appearing in His Excellency caused Sullivan to refuse to set the piece. Three years passed before Gilbert and Sullivan collaborated again, on their last work, The Grand Duke.
Before the end of October, the title of the piece was changed from Utopia (Limited) to Utopia, Limited. Utopia, Limited ran for 245 performances, a modest success by the standards of the late Victorian theatre; although it was a shorter run than any of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1880s collaborations, it was the longest run at the Savoy in the 1890s. After the original production, four D'Oyly Carte touring companies played Utopia in the British provinces, and the piece was included in tours until 1900. There was also a D'Oyly Carte production in New York in 1894, performances in the D'Oyly Carte South African tour of 1902-03, and a J. C. Williamson production in Australia and New Zealand in 1905, managed by Henry Bracy. Rupert D'Oyly Carte considered producing a revival in 1925, but the cost of the production was found to be too great, and the proposed revival was abandoned. Utopia was not revived by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company until 4 April 1975, during the company's centenary season, directed by Michael Heyland. The performance was so oversubscribed that the company arranged to give four further performances at the Royal Festival Hall in London later that year.
Various amateur companies performed the opera during the 20th century, and it has enjoyed occasional professional productions in the U.S. by professional companies such as the American Savoyards in the 1950s and 1960s, the Light Opera of Manhattan in the 1970s and 1980s, Light Opera Works in Chicago in 1984 and Ohio Light Opera in 2001. The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players also gave a staged concert performance in celebration of the opera's centenary and again in 2010. The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company gave two fully staged performances at the 18th International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England in August 2011, producing a commercial video of the production. Although productions are still less frequent than those of the better-known Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and professional productions are rare, Utopia is regularly presented by some of the amateur Gilbert and Sullivan repertory companies, and an amateur production can be seen most summers at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival.
- King Paramount the First, King of Utopia (baritone)
- Phantis, Scaphio, Judges of the Utopian Supreme Court (comic baritones)
- Tarara, The Public Exploder (comic baritone)
- Calynx, The Utopian Vice-Chamberlain (speaking)
- The Princess Zara, eldest daughter of King Paramount (soprano)
- The Princess Nekaya (soprano) and The Princess Kalyba (mezzo-soprano), her younger sisters
- The Lady Sophy, their English Gouvernante (contralto)
- Salata (speaking), Melene (speaking), and Phylla (soprano), Utopian Maidens
Imported Flowers of Progress
- Lord Dramaleigh, a British Lord Chamberlain (high baritone)
- Captain Fitzbattleaxe, First Life Guards (tenor)
- Captain Sir Edward Corcoran, KCB, of the Royal Navy (bass)
- Mr. Goldbury, a Company Promoter, afterwards Comptroller of the Utopian Household (baritone)
- Sir Bailey Barre, Q.C., MP (tenor)
- Mr. Blushington, of the County Council (baritone)
On the fictional South Pacific island of Utopia, the monarch, King Paramount, has sent his eldest daughter, Princess Zara, to Girton College in England. He hopes that her training there will contribute to his plan to civilise his people. The Public Exploder, Tarara, disturbs the languor of the Utopian maidens ("In lazy languor, motionless") to remind them of his duty to blow up the King if the two "Wise Men", Scaphio and Phantis, order him to do so. The Wise Men appear, heralded by the chorus ("O make way for the Wise Men") and note that their duty is to spy upon the King to prevent "rascality" ("In every mental lore"). Phantis proclaims his love for the Princess Zara, and Scaphio promises to help him win her ("Let all your doubts take wing").
The king arrives ("A King of autocratic power we") and presents his two younger daughters, Nekaya and Kalyba, as models of English-style deportment ("Although of native maids the cream"). Their English governess, Lady Sophy, explains how young ladies should behave when approached by amorous gentlemen ("Bold-faced ranger"). The king joins the two Wise Men, commenting that life is a farce ("First you're born"). The king is quite upset about the Wise Men's power over him: he is unable to marry the Lady Sophy because of self-mocking articles that Scaphio and Phantis have forced him to write and publish in the newspaper under a pseudonym. He hopes that neither Sophy nor Zara will see the pieces, although he feels they are witty and well-written. Lady Sophy discovers the articles to her horror ("Subjected to your heavenly gaze").
Princess Zara now returns to Utopia with six British gentlemen (the "Flowers of Progress") in tow ("Oh, maiden rich in Girton lore"). She has become romantically involved with one of them, Captain Fitzbattleaxe ("Ah! gallant soldier"). Scaphio and Phantis, seeing her, are both smitten with love for the princess and argue jealously, finally agreeing to duel one another for her hand. Fitzbattleaxe comes up with a clever way to stall the Wise Men, by saying that, in England, two rivals must entrust the lady at the centre of a controversy to an officer of household cavalry "as stakeholder" until the argument is resolved ("It's understood, I think"). Thus, he and Zara can remain together.
Soon, the Utopians assemble, and Zara introduces the Flowers of Progress one by one – Fitzbattleaxe (of the army), Sir Bailey Barre (Q.C. and MP), Lord Dramaleigh (a Lord Chamberlain), Mr. Blushington (of the county council), Mr. Goldbury (a company promoter) and Captain Corcoran (of the navy – a joking reference to the character from Gilbert and Sullivan's early popular opera, H.M.S. Pinafore). The Utopian people are duly impressed, and they listen as each of the Flowers of Progress gives a piece of advice about how to improve the country. Mr. Goldbury explains, at some length, the British limited liability companies law ("Some seven men form an association"). The King decides to transform his entire country into a limited liability corporation – an innovation that even England herself has not yet accepted. Everyone but Scaphio, Phantis and Tarara is enthusiastic.
Fitzbattleaxe is concerned that the fervour of his love has affected his singing voice ("A tenor, all singers above"). He and Zara share a tender scene ("Words of love too loudly spoken"). Utopia has transformed itself into a "more perfect" replica of Britain – it has built an army, a navy, and courts, purified its literature and drama, and wholeheartedly adopted Mr. Goldbury's proposal, so that every person now is a limited liability entity.
The king and the Flowers of Progress exult in their success ("Society has quite forsaken"), and the people, pleased with English fashions and customs, sing of the country's newfound glory ("Eagle high in cloudland soaring"). Scaphio and Phantis are furious because the change poses a threat to their power ("With fury deep we burn"). They demand that Paramount revoke the changes, and when he refuses, they remind him of their power over his life ("If you think that when banded in unity"). But the King points out that they cannot blow up a limited company. Scaphio and Phantis plot with Tarara on how to reverse the course of events and retire ("With wily brain").
The younger princesses, Nekaya and Kalyba, meet Mr. Goldbury and Lord Dramaleigh, who explain that English girls are not so demure and are instead hearty and fun-loving ("A wonderful joy our eyes to bless"). The princesses are pleased at the prospect of abandoning some of the "musty, fusty rules" that they have been living under ("Then I may sing and play?"). Meanwhile, Lady Sophy bemoans Paramount's flaw that prevents her loving him ("When but a maid of fifteen year"). The King, his dignity rediscovered, approaches Lady Sophy and tells her the truth about the articles written about him, and she now happily agrees to marry him ("Oh, rapture unrestrained").
Scaphio and Phantis, however, have succeeded in convincing the people of Utopia that the changes are for the worse ("Upon our sea-girt land"). For example, there has been an end to war, making the army and navy useless; sanitation is so good that the doctors are unemployed; and so perfect are the laws that crime has all but ended, emptying the courts and leaving lawyers jobless. The people demand that the changes be revoked. Paramount asks his daughter for a solution, and, after a little prodding from Sir Bailey Barre, she realizes that she has forgotten "the most essential element" of British civilisation: Government by Party! Under the two-party system, each party will so confound the efforts of the other that no progress will be made, leading to the happy result that everyone seeks. The crowd is overjoyed, Scaphio and Phantis are thrown in prison, and the curtain falls as the people sing their praises of "a little group of isles beyond the wave" – Great Britain.
- Act I
- 1. "In lazy languor motionless" (Phylla and Chorus of Girls)
- 2. "O make way for the Wise Men" (Chorus)
- 2a. "In every mental lore" (Scaphio and Phantis)
- 3. "Let all your doubts take wing" (Scaphio and Phantis)
- 4. "Quaff the nectar" (Chorus)
- 4a. "A King of autocratic power we" (King with Chorus)
- 4b. "Although of native maids the cream" (Nekaya and Kalyba)
- 4c. "Bold-faced ranger" (Lady Sophy with Chorus)
- 5. "First you're born" (King with Scaphio and Phantis)
- 6. "Subjected to your heavenly gaze" (King and Lady Sophy)
- 7. "Oh, maiden rich in Girton lore" (Zara, Fitz., Troopers, and Chorus)
- 8. "Ah! gallant soldier" (Zara, Fitz., Troopers, and Chorus)
- 9. "It's understood, I think" (Zara, Fitz., Scaphio, and Phantis)
- 10. "Oh, admirable art" (Zara and Fitz.)
- (11. Cut song for Zara, "Youth is a boon avowed", sung on the first night but now lost.)
- 12. Act I Finale: "Although your Royal summons to appear" (Ensemble) and "When Britain sounds the trump of war" (Zara, Sir Bailey Barre, and Chorus)
- 12a. "What these may be" (Zara, Dramaleigh, Blushington, and Chorus) and "A company promoter this" (Zara, Goldbury, and Chorus)
- 12b. "I'm Captain Corcoran, K.C.B." (Capt. Corcoran with Chorus) and "Ye wand'rers from a mighty State" (Quartet, Chorus, and Soli)
- 12c. "Some seven men form an association" (Mr. Goldbury with Chorus), "Well, at first sight it strikes us as dishonest" (Ensemble), and "Henceforward of a verity" (King Paramount and Ensemble)
- Act II
- 13. "Oh, Zara!" and "A tenor, all singers above" (Fitz.)
- 14. "Words of love too loudly spoken" (Zara and Fitz.)
- 15. "Society has quite forsaken" (King with Chorus of Six Flowers of Progress)
- 16. Entrance of Court
- 17. Drawing Room Music
- 18. "This ceremonial", "Eagle high in cloudland soaring" (King and Ensemble)
- 19. "With fury deep we burn" (Scaphio, Phantis, and King Paramount)
- 20. "If you think that when banded in unity" (King, Scaphio and Phantis)
- 21. "With wily brain" (Scaphio, Phantis, and Tarara)
- 22. "A wonderful joy our eyes to bless" (Mr. Goldbury)
- 23. "Then I may sing and play?" (Nek., Kal., Lord D., and Mr. Goldbury)
- 24. "Oh, would some demon pow'r", "When but a maid of fifteen year" (Lady Sophy)
- 25. "Ah, Lady Sophy, then you love me!" (King and Lady Sophy)
- 25a. "Oh, rapture unrestrained" (King and Lady Sophy)
- 25b. Tarantella
- 26. "Upon our sea-girt land" (Chorus)
- 27. Finale Act II: "There's a little group of isles beyond the wave" (Zara, King Paramount, and Ensemble)
1 On the 1976 recording, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company preceded the Introduction with Sullivan's Imperial March, which he composed around the same time.
Historical cast information
|Soon after Sir Luke Fildes had been rewarded by a grateful country for his services to Art, Gilbert met him at a social gathering and congratulated him on his new honours. In the course of conversation, Sir Luke reminded Gilbert that the Dairy Maid "Patience" had been made up to exactly resemble the subject of his first successful picture, Where are you going to, my pretty maid? "Yes, I remember borrowing the idea for my milkmaid's costume from your picture," replied Gilbert, "but I have repaid that debt long ago by being the responsible cause of your new title."|
|"Responsible for my new title, how do you make that out?" asked the puzzled Sir Luke.|
|"Oh, it's easily explained," answered Gilbert. Didn't I write in Utopia:|
|"Well, your prophecy is certainly a pattern of modified accuracy," exclaimed Sir Luke, "I would like to be similarly accurate in your case."|
|-From Edith A. Browne's "Stars of the Stage: W. S. Gilbert" (1907), page 93.|
The opening night principal cast and 1975 centenary cast were as follows:
|King Paramount the First||Rutland Barrington||Kenneth Sandford|
|Scaphio||W. H. Denny||John Reed|
|Phantis||John Le Hay||John Ayldon|
|Tarara||Walter Passmore||Jon Ellison|
|Calynx||Bowden Haswell||Michael Buchan|
|The Princess Zara||Nancy McIntosh||Pamela Field|
|The Princess Nekaya||Emmie Owen||Julia Goss|
|The Princess Kalyba||Florence Perry||Judi Merri|
|The Lady Sophy||Rosina Brandram||Lyndsie Holland|
|Salata||Edith Johnston||Beti Lloyd-Jones|
|Melene||May Bell||Marjorie Williams|
|Phylla||Florence Easton||Rosalind Griffiths|
|Lord Dramaleigh||Scott Russell||James Conroy-Ward|
|Captain Fitzbattleaxe||Charles Kenningham||Meston Reid|
|Captain Sir Edward Corcoran, KCB||Lawrence Gridley||John Broad|
|Mr. Goldbury||R. Scott Fishe||Michael Rayner|
|Sir Bailey Barre||Hugh Enes Blackmore||Colin Wright|
|Mr. Blushington||Herbert Ralland||David Porter|
The first recording was issued in 1964 featuring the amateur Lyric Theatre Company of Washington, D.C. conducted by John Landis. The first complete professional recording was made in 1976 by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, conducted by Royston Nash, variously considered "a somewhat flat and uninspired account of the score" or to have "a sparkle and spontaneity" that are "irresistible". The critic Andrew Lamb wrote, "There is a suggestion of stodginess in the conducting … but the singing displays the dependability that is the D'Oyly Carte company's chief virtue. Kenneth Sandford is outstanding as King Paramount." Also available is a 2001 Ohio Light Opera set, of which Opera News wrote: "Conducted with verve by J. Lynn Thompson and featuring a generally strong cast, it serves the musical values of Utopia well. ... The principals sing with fine style and admirable diction." Unlike the D'Oyly Carte recording the later set has dialogue, though Opera News considered that some performers "lack dramatic variety in the spoken dialogue".
- Shaw, pp. 975–80
- Shepherd, Marc. "Introduction: Historical Context", The Grand Duke, p. vii, New York: Oakapple Press, 2009. Linked at "The Grand Duke", The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 7 July 2009.
- Both Gilbert and Sullivan had sworn to affidavits that turned out to be false. By the end of 1890, after reviewing matters with Carte's wife, Helen, Gilbert had admitted his mistake. Sullivan, however, refused to admit his error until October 1891. Ainger, pp. 307–28
- Ainger, p. 328
- Ainger, pp. 331–36
- Ainger, p. 337
- Ainger, pp. 338 and 342
- Ainger, p. 346
- Ainger, pp. 346–47
- Jacobs, p. 349
- Walbrook, H. M. "Utopia, Limited", Gilbert & Sullivan Opera; A History and a Comment, Chapter 15, London: F. V. White & Co. Ltd., 1922
- Rollins and Witts, p. viii
- Leonowens, Anna. The English Governess at the Siamese Court
- "Utopia, Limited". Off-Monroe Players, 9 February 2010, accessed 30 August 2010
- Hicks, William L. "Social Discourse in the Savoy Theatre's Productions of The Nautch Girl (1891) and Utopia Limited (1893): Exoticism and Victorian Self-Reflection", University of North Texas, August 2003
- Cellier and Bridgeman, pp. 312–13
- Stedman (p. 95): In "a Gilbertian invasion" plot, outsiders change a given society, as where the Thespians take control of Olympus in Thespis. Similarly, in The Wicked World, Broken Hearts, Princess Ida and several of Gilbert's other works, men introduce the element of mortal love into a previously content female society. See Introduction to Broken Hearts at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 11 March 2009
- Bradley, p. 972
- Cellier and Bridgeman, pp. 326–30
- Bamberger, David. "Sullivan: The Musical Wit – The Sequel", The Palace Peeper, vol. 74, no. 1, p. 4, September 2009, The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of New York
- Quoted in Jacobs, pp. 349–50
- Punch, 28 October 1893, p. 204
- The Standard, 9 October 1893, p. 3
- The Pall Mall Gazette, 9 October 1893, p. 3
- The Era, 14 October 1893, p. 11
- "Music – Savoy Theatre", The Observer, 8 October 1893, p. 6
- "Savoy Theatre", The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, Vol. 34, No. 609 (November 1893), p. 663 (subscription required)
- Allen, p. 378
- "'Utopia (Limited)' – The New Gilbert and Sullivan Opera at the Savoy Theatre", The Manchester Guardian, 9 October 1893, p. 4
- Allen, p. 379
- Wolfson, pp. 32 and 195–201
- Bradley, p. 1062
- Allen, p. 382
- Ainger, p. 346, and Allen, p. 380
- Ainger, p. 353
- Ainger, pp. 349–50
- Ainger, p. 352
- Wolfson, pp. 61–62
- "Savoy Theatre", The Times, 24 October 1893, p. 6.
- Bradley, p. 1083, and Ainger, pp. 347 and 352–53
- Coles, Clifton. "Mirette: Introduction", Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 28 May 1998, accessed 5 October 2014
- Rollins and Witts, pp. pp. 86–88, 90–92, 94–95, 98, 100, 104, 106, and 109
- The New York production played at the former Broadway Theatre on West 41st Street, opening on 26 March 1894 and running for 55 performances until 12 May 1894. See "Synopsis by Fredric Woodbridge Wilson", arcadia.org, 2000, accessed 21 April 2009 and Kanthor, Hal. "Gilbert and Sullivan: From London to America", University of Rochester, accessed 21 April 2009
- Bond, Ian. Foreword to libretto, The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive (2005)
- Moratti, Mel. "Approaching a New Century", Down Under in the 19th century
- He announced this idea on the last night of the London season in 1924 (see The Times, 28 July 1924, p. 10) and went as far as commissioning Percy Anderson to design new costumes
- Baily, p. 382
- Wilson and Lloyd, p. 203
- The first of which opened Off-Broadway on 27 February 1957
- "Colourful, energetic show created Utopian euphoria". Sheffield Telegraph, 25 August 2011. See also: "G&S Opera Company – Utopia Ltd". International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival website, 21 August 2011
- No 15, "Society has quite forsaken all her wicked courses"
- Rollins and Witts, p. 14
- Rollins & Witts, Third Supplement, p. 28
- Although she is listed in the opening night programme, Easton fell ill, and the understudy, Miss Howell-Hersee, took over until 7 November 1893 when Easton assumed the role. See Allen, introduction to programmes section, p. 4
- "Sullivan – Utopia Limited", The Gramophone, August 1964, p. 60
- list and assessments of recordings of the opera
- March, p. 1337
- Lamb, Andrew. "Utopia Limited", The Musical Times, Vol. 117, No. 1600 (June 1976), pp. 496–497(subscription required)
- Reviews of the 2001 recording at A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, accessed 22 April 2009
- Iredell, Cornelia. "Sullivan: Utopia, Limited", Opera News, 1 September 2001, accessed 21 April 2009 (free registration required)
- Ainger, Michael (2002). Gilbert and Sullivan, a Dual Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195147693.
- Allen, Reginald (1958). The First Night Gilbert and Sullivan. New York: The Heritage Press. OCLC 749296966.
- Baily, Leslie (1966). The Gilbert and Sullivan Book (Third ed.). London: Spring Books. OCLC 3651931.
- Bradley, Ian (1996). The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019816503X.
- Browne, Edith A. (1907). Stars of the Stage: W. S. Gilbert. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head. OCLC 5866733.
- Cellier, François and Cunningham Bridgeman (1914). Gilbert and Sullivan and Their Operas. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd. OCLC 58942004.
- Graham, Bruce: "From Bambouli to Utopia: Offenbach's Whittington as a possible source for Utopia, Limited" in The Gaiety, Spring 2006, pp. 23–27. Editor: Roderick Murray.
- March, Ivan (ed.) (2007). The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780141033365.
- Rollins, Cyril; R. John Witts (1962). The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan Operas: A Record of Productions, 1875–1961. London: Michael Joseph. OCLC 1317843. Also, five supplements, privately printed.
- Shaw, Bernard; Dan H Laurence (ed) (1898). Shaw's Music – The Complete Music Criticism of Bernard Shaw, Volume 2. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 0370312716.
- Wilson, Robin; Frederic Lloyd (1984). Gilbert and Sullivan: The Official D'Oyly Carte Picture History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0394541138.
- Wolfson, John (1976). Final curtain: The last Gilbert and Sullivan Operas. London: Chappell in association with A. Deutsch. ISBN 0903443120.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Utopia, Limited.|
- Utopia Limited at The Gilbert & Sullivan Archive
- Utopia Limited at The Gilbert & Sullivan Discography
- Utopia review
- Article on Utopia and Gilbert's satire of corporation law
- Article about Utopia, Limited
- 1893 review of Utopia, Limited in The Musical Times
- Biographies of the people listed in the cast lists
- Bab illustrations of lyrics from Utopia | <urn:uuid:6ec062aa-8623-490e-86d8-4fda858144c3> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_Limited | 2015-03-29T22:27:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131298755.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172138-00152-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937255 | 8,310 |
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CAME ENDS LIFEK
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Well-Known Real Estate
Dealer Shoots Self in Fit
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Despondent, it is believed, over
the death of hi:; wife to whom he was
greatly attached, John B. Caiie, a
well-known local real estate and in
surance man, committed suicide
sometime Sunday night or early yes
terday morning, by shooting himself
through the head with a high power
rifle. Came's dead body was found i%
lying on a pile of suitcases in a
clothes closet in his room, 419 West
Galena street yesterday.
Mir. Came spent Saturday at hi: tnl
office and apparently had given none
of his friends or acquaintances any
hint as to his intention to take his
life. Hie was absent from his room
all day Sunday, but is thought to
have returned late at night without
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Caine presumably loaded his rifle
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hayve put the muzzle in his mouth 51
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Mark I. Came; a sister, Mrs. Charles
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An inquest will probably be held
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GIRL ASKS O. CHANCE
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Says Main Has No Right to or
Drag Woman Down When tr
She Desires and Tries to not
Do Right. cot
"Because a girl has fallen once. cda
it isn't right that a man should keep a
dragging her down," stated Maxine tl
D)avis in police court yesterday, cat
when telling of incidents that led upem
to her arrest with William Amerin
on charges of disturbing the peace. the
Miss Davis said she had formerly an
had improper relations with Amerin, agi
but had left hime with the intention
of "going straight." She said
Amerin had been spreading evil stor
icesabout herr and that Saturday she pla
went to his home to take him to 5a1s thl
for his allhgcd acts. It wa I, the
:hi :.aid. that he beat and choked her fat
and e'.jcItd hei' from" the1( i house. I
Ai\e'rinl was fine(d $10 l andli Mis:;,
Davis was fiined $35. mn
SUES FI $2,500 t
FOR WLELM SERWlVIES
James T. Fitzpatrick, a Butte an- l
torncy, is suing Nellie Eiiscnbauer,
as the administratrix of the John 11.
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patrick claims is due him for legal
He alleges in his complaint that
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1916, agreeing to pay whatever the
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The plaintiff in this action is rep- i
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EAGLES TO SELECT hi
SITE FOR NEW HOME 2
Miembers of the BIutte aerie of '
Eagles at a largely attended imeeting g
last night unanimously decided to h
select a site and erect a lodge hall 8
exclusively for the use of the Eagles. n
SA special committee comiprising A. t'
I . Cohenl, chairman; D)on B. Kin.ig.
secretary; Jerry Sullivan, E. A. Sut- a
ilivan, William Malloy, J.. E. McNal- a
ly, \V. H. Maloney, Jack Turner, t
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The suit of John Wirta, one of th
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disaster of 1917, is in court today br
trying to collect $22,000 from the th
North Butte Mining company and se
from Norman Braley, superintendent
of the properly. ca
The complaint alleges that Wirta in
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crosscut where lie was working be- h
cause the passage way to the High Oi
Ore mine had been blocked by con- fr
crete bulkheads. It further states
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consequently Wirta was allowed to tii
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certain way of escape in time of
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that by reason of the company':; 1
carelessness in not informing its or
employes of the closing of the pass- bi
age, lie was trapped in the mine at of
the time of the fire in the shaft. 1]
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agonies that he has been ever since th
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In fact, the contention of the
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lessness of the company, but also the nt
fatalities and humani suffering, re- a1
:lilting froum such a fire. It seems
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plication for the upper floor wa,
withdrawn in favor of the army antl
Bulletin Boosters should patronize
"SLIPPERY VULCH" A
There i: an entortain ment entire- be
ly out of the ordinary now going on oc
at the Holland rink, where the L. O. ca
O. M. No. 431 is staging a unique oil
frontier night dance and joy festival th
each night until Sunday, June 1. m1
This fun camp i:s called "Slippery th
Gulch," and is proving a fun maker $1
that causes visitors to repeat their
visit the following evening and tic
bring their friends, thereby letting Cl
them in on the "one best bet of t.e be
"Slippery Gulch" is a realistic or
camp that has been used by the mov- St
ing picture studlios in Hollywood. P'
Calif., and the Loyal Order of Moose
have gone to a great expense in se
caring this attraction, and, judging J1
from reports received from Portland.
Ore., where this attraction played
for 10 nights, in the municipal audi
torium, before coming to Butte, the
fun loving folks should have the
time of hecir lives.
',.,c enteriong Holland rink one ch
beholds a towr square, surrounded th
by various storeg, banks, alusement pa
places and a mammoth dance hall-- eo
one end of the town is devoted to a th
big gambling "joint," where millions to
of "bucks" are won and lost nightly. la
This feature is sure proving nighly BR
attractive to the ladies, for they are th
the best patrons of this part of the it
Every one upon purchasing a tick
et of admission is given the equiva
lent in "fun currency," and as it is Yi
not redeemable, one must spend it
as quickly as possible.
"Calamity Jane's dance hall comes
in for a goodly share of the patron
age, for Sielaff's orchestra is furnish
ing the jazziest of jazz music, and
one is almost forced to dance wheth
er one wishes to or not.
The floor of the Holland rink has
been put in shape so that the most
exacting will find it in excellent con- Ci
dition for tripping the light fantastic. of
On next Friday afternoon (Deco- w
ration (lay) at 3:30 o'clock the fun Ii
will start and run continuously until w
midnight. This will give many an J.
opportunity to visit the camp that m
otherwise might not have the time hb
during the eight nights. tl
CAPTURE OF PETROIRAOl
RY IHINKS REPORTED
(Specie',l 1 nierd I'ro i s \Vire.)
LonTon, Mily 27.--A Vihorg dis
patch reported that Chinese. Lett.
and Finnish troops hold Petrograd
having o\verthrotn the soviet gov
ernmenll t. A heavy bombardmlent
fromi the sea is reported. apparently
directed at Petrograd and l'ronstadL. ce
Made Sawdust Valuable. 4
Not Illlany yeari's ago the sawdust ti
that nccumulated each spring albout b
the local mills was - nuisallle to the
mill-owners. It wais in tlihe waiy, Somei
of it was dlmped ilto the strenlrs andl
lish were exterminatied, and some wars
-'irven awl\ y to anyone who would make p
ulse of it. And about the only use that
S'ulllld he made of the sawdust was that i
ri' packing for ice in the ice-houses. h
The explanisiou of dairy farming g
1alted for iuore ice, and more ice called f
ior more sawdust. The demand note- n
'i'd the mill-owners that the by-prod. t
niit o Itheir mills, which they had been
giving iaway and throwing away, had
a c'omnlkrclal value. Sawdust Is now$
sold by the load.
Nan-I cried like a baby during the
lbain-ir don't believe It. You would
have been put out if you had.-Judge. I
7 Alice seems
very liberal in
Yes, and very i
lavish of them.
. .IK IN INTEEST--SA\E--
' B." KR[MEI- AND
"ILR." OBWN, NOW
Loeal Politician, Red Cross
Head and. Printer. Pur- t
chase Business of Paxson n
& Rockefeller. r
J. Bruce Kremer, Raymond Ruble c
,nd Trevor Bowen, it was announced "
'esterday, have purchased the drug "
$id sundries businesses operated on d
forth Main and West Park streets r'
inde' the 'firm name of Paxson & n
lockefeller and in the future will
onduct the business. Trevor Dowen
vill act as general manager.
Announcement was made by Mr. h
tockefeller that he intends to dis- y
Bose of all his business interests and s'
,roperty in Butte and travel for a h
ime until he decides upon a new lo
ation for his business energies. S
CIVIL SE[ ri E EXAMS t
FOR CLERK AND CARRIER
The United States civil service 0:
ommission announces that an etam
nation will be held at Butte (Mont.)
'ostoffice for clerk and carrier, June h
8, -1919, to establish an eligible ;
egister from which selection may h
e made to fill vacancies as they may Si
ccur in the positions of clerk and i
arrier at the Butte (Mont.) post- ii
ffice. Age limits, 18 to 45 years on ji
he date of the examination. Both
pen and women will be admitted to
his examination. Entrance salary, T
1,000 per annum. G
.Application blanks and informa- w
ion may be obtained by applying to s1
Tharles F. Williams, local secretary,
oard of United States civil service W
xaminers, Butte (Mont.) postoffice, t`
,r to the secretary, Eleventh United
tates Civil Service district. 303
'ostoffice building, Seattle, Wash. h
IOHN 0. AND FRIEND
CONNY VISIT MISSOULA
Missoula, May 27.-John D. Ryan, F
hairman of the board of directors of
he Anaconda Copper Mining com
bany; President C. F. Kelly of the v
ompany and John Gillis, manager of ti
he Butte mines, made'a brief visit v
o this city yesterday and visited the A
arge lumber mill of the company at
lonner, which is being rebuilt after
he disastrous fire which destroyed F
t several months ago. Mr. Ryan -
ees a bright future for Western
lonta na. The party returned to
3utte late in the day and Mr. Ryan s
end Mr. Kelly will return to New a
fork in about a week.
TACOMA MAN CHARGED
WITH KILLING BANKERS t
Tacoma, Wash., May 27.-Albert
lonway, assistant district attorney
if New York, following a conference
with Acting Gov. Louis F. Hart, an- 2
nounced that in his estimation there (
will be little difficulty in extraditing t
I. B. Allan. wanted in New York for t
murder and robbing a Brooklyn I
bank. Mr. Conway is waiting for .
the extradition papers from Governor t
Smith of New York, and he expects $
to return to New York with Allan
in his custody. Allan still declares c
he had no hand in the Brooklyn c
PLUMBING SHOP IN
NAVY YARD ON FIRE
(Special United Press Wire.) I
Norfolk, Va., May 27.-Fire, ac- I
companied by many explosions, is t
raging in the plumbing shop of the
Norfolk navy yards. The shop is
400 feet from the water and navy
tugs are throwing streams on the
NEW HANK IN FALILS.
Great Falls, May 27.-Application
for a charter from the treasury de
partment for another national bank
in Great Falls, which, if granted,
will give the city its ninth banking
institution, lhas been made by James
11. IRyan, president of the First Mort
gage Loan company of this city, and
four associates whose names have
not been made public. The applica
tion is made in the name of the
Northern National bank of Great
Falls, with an authorized capital of
$100,000 and a provided surplus of
Charged with kidnaping his child
by his former wife, Antone Papich,
a local miner, was arrested yester
day and is being held by the local
police for action by the authorities
at Bozeman. Papich was divorced
by his wife two years ago, the
mother securing custody of the
child. Papich was granted per
mission to visit the child occasion
ally, but was ordered not to take it
away from its mother.
WI.LL STAND BY SCOUTS.
Members of the Rotary club have
pledged themselves and their organ
ization to stand behind the drive to i
raise $10,000 for the yearly budget I
of the Butte Boy Scouts. Announce- 1
ment of the fact was conveyed to a
meeting of the executive committee
of the Scouts held yesterday atter
noon at which Deputy National
Field Commipsioner Charles Miller
of San Francisco was present.
$100 reward will be paid to any
noe proving we do not put in the
est main spring for $1. Mayer, 37
orth Main street.-Adv.
Carl Smith, in charge Of the Mon
ana Power company's Jefferson val
ey station at Parrot, is visiting in
lutte and Tuesday announced the
eceipt of an extended furlough in
ffect until such time as he is dis
harged. Mr. Smith was gassed
vlille fighting with the U. S. marines
a France and for that reason his
ischarge has been delayed. He will
esume his duties the first of the
nonth at Pai'rot.
You have got to clean and clear
he bowels thoroughly to have good
enlth after months of indoor life;
ou would do so now if you could
ee them as you do your face or
ands. Hollister's Rocky Mountain
'ea cleans and clears as nothing else
Lieut. A. J. Lavelle, nephew of
ity Jailer Barney Lavelle, has re
urned to Butte after being dis
harged from the army. Lieut. La
elle was a member of the Seventy
eventh division for more than a
ear in France. He was in the
hateau Thierry drive and was later
n duty with general headquarters.
Keep the little ones healthy and
appy. Their tender, sensative or
ans require a cooling, healing.
armless remedy to prepare their
tomachs for summer's heat. Hol
ister's Rocky Mountain Tea is ro
[able and safe, thorough but not in
Funeral services will be held
'hursday for the late Richard J.
Gallivan, well-known mine carpenter S
rho died Sunday night following a -
troke of paralysis at his home, 605
Vest Galena street. The funeral
rill be directed by Daly-Shea, under
Keep the little ones healthy and
[appy. Their tender, sensitive or
ans require a cooling, healing,
armless food and blood purifier to
repare their stomachs for the sum
ier's heat. Goat's milk is reconm
nended by leading physicians for
his purpose. It has no equal for
ummer complaint. Goat's milk can
ie secured from the Pierce &
3rocker ranch, Box 69, R. F. D.
vo. 1, Butte, Montana.-Adv.
The application of the Otis Ele
ator company, a foreign corporktion,
o do business in Montana was filed
vith Clerk and Recorder Sam L.
Dr. C. M. Eddy, dentist, 204-203
3ennsylvania block. Phone 4035-W.
The weekly meeting of the district
chool board will be held this eve
ling at the high school.
Washington Market. Ground bone,
( pounds for 25c.--Adv.
SUITS l!E SETTLED
IN DISTRICT COURT
In the suit of S. P. Wright against
\lfred L. O'Brien and Monia Ducie
)'Brien, the defendants withdrew
heir answer and acknowledged that
hey owed the sum of $1,000. Judge
Jwyer awarded plaintiff $1,207,
which represents the principal, in
;rest of $107 and attorney's fee of
The suit of W. P. Mitchell for
lamages against the Butte, Anacon
la and Pacific railroad was dis- -
nissed as fully settled out of court.
So, also, was a similar action
brought by J. P. Kill.
TOTEID ORATOR WILL
TALK FOR IRELAND
The Rev. Dr. J. G. Mythan, an
Episcopal clergyman of Norfolk, Va.,
will speak in the high school audi
torium on Sunday night on the right
of the Irish people to freedom. Dr.
Mythan is noted throughout the east
as an orator. The Rev. Michael Mc
Cormack will preside.
FRENCH AVIATOR IS
OUT OF RUNNING
Casa Blanca, Morocco, May 26.
ieutenant Roget, a French aviator
who left Paris Saturday on the first
leg of a projected trans-Atlantic
flight by way of Dakar to Brazil,
landed last night at at IKenitra, 30
kilometers from Rabat. His machine
was damaged in landing and the
trans-Atlantic trip will have to be
AUTO SLEUTH HERE.
C. J. McAllister, special agent of
the secretary of state is in Butte for
the purpose of apprehending all auto
drivers who have neglected to apply
to the secretary of state for license
numbers for their machines. He
stated that persons driving cars with
out 1919 license tags on both the
front and rear ends of the cars will
be arrested and prosecuted.
BOr SUFFERS INJURY.
While engaged in playing "follow
my leader," Iast evening, Jack Barne
coat, 8-yea;-o!d son of Mr. and Mrs.
J. D. Barnecoat, 605 West Park
street, fell from the-roof of a porch
and sustained a compound fracture
of the bones in his iight arm. The
boy was taken to Murray hospital
tiis morning for an X-ray examina
tion of his arm.
Bulletin Want Ad4 Get
Results. Phone 52.
Pounds of Ice
S. & H. Green Trading Stamps
with all cash purchases
and first payment on time
purchases. Shiners, the
only furniture store that
gives stamps with pur
taken at par in exchange
FOR LESS ON
EASIEST OF TERIYJ8
LY YOU SAW IT IN BULLETIN.
Expert Watch Repairing
Watch Cleaning, $1.50
Mainsprings - -$1.00
Both Guaranteed for One
People's Theater Bldg.
40 E. PARK ST.
17 S. MAIN ST.
Belier aid h)igg.er than
ever. A cale for the
workilg class. Give us a
We Have Excellent
Rooms in Connection
A good home for the mine
A Fine Room For $3.50
Center of the City
8am . and John .. Kogffql
AY YOU SAW, IT IN BULLE.IN.
or a (' .C el. ti1ble lasting
j)leasure catll be secured(
73 East Park 8t.
Fine line of wrist watche:,
signet .iiigs, cut glass,
vases aind jewelry of every
description. Ylour latron
The Finest in Butte
MAX VITT, Proprietor.
205 W. Park-1l5 8. Main | <urn:uuid:ccd4e05c-1c4c-4ab8-b22c-9e731eb7803f> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045085/1919-05-27/ed-1/seq-8/ | 2015-04-02T10:35:26Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427132827069.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323174707-00092-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.899211 | 6,795 |
More than three-quarters of respondents to this week’s RBJ Daily Report Snap Poll are opposed to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Tax-Free NY proposal, which is intended to be a magnet for new jobs and businesses.
The legislation—released last week and resubmitted Wednesday, with some changes, as START-UP NY—would allow eligible firms to pay no taxes for a decade if they locate at or near public and private colleges. To be eligible, a company would need to be a new business or one creating additional jobs. It also must be aligned with the academic mission of the university or college. A number of types of firms—including retail and wholesale businesses, firms providing financial services, and medical or dental practices—would not be eligible.
The START-UP NY plan—short for SUNY Tax-free Areas to Revitalize and Transform UPstate New York—was passed Wednesday by both houses of the legislature.
Other details in the legislation released last week include a provision that in years six to 10, employee wages over $200,000 would be taxed.
Cuomo and other supporters of the measure say it is needed to boost the upstate economy and counteract New York’s reputation as a high-tax state.
Critics say it would unfairly give preferential treatment to a relatively small group of businesses.
Seventy-eight percent of Snap Poll respondents say they oppose the tax-free plan. Eighty-eight percent say that a small, broad-based tax cut would do more to boost the upstate economy.
Roughly 590 readers participated in this week’s poll, which was conducted June 17 and 18 (before the legislation was reintroduced as START-UP NY).
Do you support or oppose the Tax-Free NY plan?
In your view, which of the following would do the most to boost the upstate economy?
A small, broad-based tax cut: 88%
The Tax-Free NY plan: 12%
I believe this is unfair to local businesses in the area that do pay taxes. I do not see the benefit to our economy from this. We need programs that help small business, not benefit a few in a specialized area.
—Kim Pandina, Panda Wear
Taxation in New York is a shell game. The money has to come from somewhere. If you give one person or business a tax break, then someone else has to pick up the slack. A broad-based tax cut and reduction in the number of duplicative offices and functions within New York State government is needed.
—Frances Reese, Reese Environmental Consulting
This, like most of the governor’s proposals, is simply window dressing. If cutting business taxes creates jobs, why not cut all business taxes? And, while we’re at it, perhaps the governor should talk to employers about what is driving companies to move jobs to other states. Policies that overregulate and practices that favor labor rather than employers are driving companies away. We need real structural change, not window dressing.
—John Calia, CEO coach
I think the plan discriminates against existing small businesses that are struggling to grow in the tax-heavy environment and furthermore discriminates against service-oriented businesses like ours.
—Joe Votava, CEO, Seneca Financial Advisors LLC
A large, broad-based tax cut on all businesses in New York State. Look at Ontario, Canada, and then look at us. Lower corporate taxes have been the catalyst for their growth.
I really can’t believe that I am agreeing with the unions that have been advertising against this, but it’s true. Showing favorites toward certain businesses vs. trying to lower taxes for everyone is wrong on so many levels. By the way, how will all of the current faculty and administrators on these campuses feel about paying income taxes when the business employees working next to them don’t have to? This is just another example of a Cuomo knee-jerk solution that has had no real thought put behind it.
“A small, broad-based tax cut” sounds good on the surface, but in order for it to be small enough to afford, it would be too small to have any effect. The Tax-Free NY plan is theoretically revenue-neutral, since the only companies that will be exempted from taxes will be ones that wouldn’t have been paying taxes to New York anyway.
—Matthew D. Wilson
Another Cuomo gimmick. If you are really serious, then lower taxes for the businesses that are already here and encourage them to stay and expand! And achieve this by cutting the cost of government, and eliminate state regulations that drive up the cost of doing business in New York. Things like the Triborough Amendment, prevailing wage laws, unfair workers’ compensation law “courts,” unfunded mandates, etc. And where is that “transparency” he promised? Instead, we get scandal after scandal.
—George Thomas, Ogden
Just some more ridiculous government interference in the marketplace. How about a large broad-based tax cut?
This is just another high publicity stunt to benefit a few. Fix the system so business in general has a chance.
—Ed Jackson, retired
I tentatively support it only for new technologies that wouldn’t compete with local taxpayers. Better would be a broad-based tax cut for all.
—Mike Hennessy, Open Door Mission
A concerted effort by our Legislature to reduce workers compensation, as well as a sweeping tax reform with reductions, would be a great start to address the issues faced by Upstate New York businesses.
—S. DiCiaccio, Research Financial Group
This is another example of Gov. Cuomo using political gimmicks rather than presenting real solutions.
We have to stop wasteful spending. Start by consolidating school districts, police/sheriff departments and other government agencies.
Attack New York’s issues as a whole, not in bits and pieces. In the long run, this just justifies more government to approve and monitor private projects.
Seems more fair to reduce taxes across the board rather than giving a break to select groups. Cuomo’s plan will divide, as opposed to unite.
—John Stapleton, Marathon Engineering
I like the concept, but the plan as it is currently defined is overly generous.
If Gov. Cuomo is so concerned about the (well-earned) reputation that New York is a high-tax state then, perhaps, he should lower the taxes. A good start would be to stop wasting tax dollars to advertise to New Yorkers about how great it is do business in New York. (If it's that good to start a business here, then he should be advertising in the Carolinas or in Texas.) The proposed tax-free zones will create yet another distortion in the economy that will benefit a few, with little or no benefit to the majority. The function of the government should be to create a stable environment and a level playing field where everyone can prosper.
In reference to your survey, one of the options was "a small, broad-based tax cut.” Another option should have been "a large, overall tax cut." This program is just another way for politicians to reward donors or curry favor. If it makes sense that diminishing the tax confiscation burden on businesses and employees spur economic growth, then we should be doing it statewide. The masters of smoke and mirrors are at it again—the buzzwords are "lower taxes" and "economic growth." Set up to benefit politicians (donors for dollars) at taxpayer expense. Don't misunderstand me, I'm all for this tax break. I just think it should be statewide policy and not just a program. By the time we're done paying for union wages, pensions, benefits, school taxes, property taxes and sales tax, there isn't much left. Now we have to support business that the government deems worthy with our tax dollars. The blatant proposal of such an ignorant program is telling for how stupid and complacent the constituency of New York State have become. We are the enablers of graft and corruption when there are no consequences and programs like this see the light of day. It's a sad day when the incompetent set policy for the capable. Shame on everyone who doesn't exercise their right to vote.
This is about as lame-brain an idea that a politician can dream up. How about getting the fraudulent politicians out of office, get rid of the "vote-getting programs" out of the system? This will automatically improve our ability to create jobs.
—J.A. DePaolis, Penfield
First we had urban development zones, then economic development zones, then Empire Zones, now Tax-Free NY zones. They don't work, they are rife with the kind of corruption Albany is known for, and they ignore the rest of the state that isn't part of the program. Cuomo is turning into such a huge disappointment—he had huge popularity two years ago and could have done so much for upstate's economy, but he's squandering it on these programs which are little more than fluff public relations moves. If he wants to create jobs here, he needs to create the conditions to encourage manufacturing, agriculture and energy development (drilling). The Tax-Free NY program will do nothing for any of those three industries, but it will create endless press conferences for Cuomo, Duffy and their subordinates.
Tax-Free zones are NOT the answer. We need long broad-based tax cuts to increase employment and our tax base. We have many great small businesses, who employee fewer than 200 people, that are the backbone of our Upstate economy. Let us make sure these companies stay whole, so they can continue to grow in business. We need to limited their taxes and regulation. Locally owned companies return three times to local economy over what national owner companies. Support you locally own businesses!
—Harold H. Ley, Appliance Associates of Buffalo and Stoney Point Business Consulting
Sounds like snake oil. What could possibly go wrong? How many politicians will we need to administer this program? The beneficiaries won't pay the tax to pay them. Instead of half-baked ideas about drawing business in, how about keeping the rest of us from leaving?
Less tax for them, more tax for me. I don't think so. How about less tax for everyone? There's an idea that just might stimulate economic growth.
Not big enough to make a difference with all the extra rules. Heck even the “having to be on campuses” was too much of a rule.
Until such programs include follow-up and accountability, trading tax revenue for "anticipated job growth" has not been and is not a viable economic model.
The proposed program is a slap in the face to all businesses currently operating in and paying taxes to New York. Where is the relief for us?
—Gene Tonucci, Allen-Bailey Tag & Label Inc.
People that have maintained businesses in New York would not benefit from a tax-free plan so after all these years of support—why would they even consider staying in New York. Albany should go on a fiscal diet and lose the bloat that exists.
—Eric Muench, president, Genesistems Inc.
What a joke, maybe I'll move so my employees won't have to pay state income tax just like Texas where Cuomo is recruiting companies to no avail. What a draw for recruiting new employees. No wonder his approval rating is 50 percent.
—Daniel Mossien, architect
A small, broad-based tax cut MUST be accompanied by an across-the-board spending cut at all levels of government in New York.
—Lester Wilson, Syracuse
Why not just cut the state corporate tax rate to zero across the board? If it is a good idea for a select group of businesses wouldn't be a good idea for all businesses? The tax revenue lost by cutting the state corporate tax rate to zero for all businesses would be made up many times over by more workers and companies paying more sales tax, property tax, personal income tax, utility tax and all the other taxes levied in our state.
—Doug Lyon, Lyon Capital Management
The title is totally misleading. It is a tax shift from most to a favored few. It is not the state's job to pick winners and losers. It is simply another Cuomo scheme to claim credit for tax cuts to a favored few.
—Jim W. Bloomfield
This entire "tax-free" plan from Cuomo stinks! Why should established companies who have been paying their "fair-share “of New York’s high taxes have to subsidize new companies, regardless of where they open or what they produce. It is amazing that this administration of Cuomo cannot grasp the big picture here: "Taxes are too damn high" for everyone!
This is not the way to grow the economy in New York. Existing competing businesses would be put at a disadvantage if these new companies were given unfair tax breaks. Even if these companies were aligned with the academic mission of the university or college, they could come to Upstate New York, set up shop, make their profits—tax free, and leave within 10 years. How will that help our economically challenged state in the long-term?
—Pete Deckman, president, Deckman Oil
In 1973, I started selling electronics and computers across Upstate New York. My big customers were Kodak (50,000+ employees), GE / Schenectady (60,000+), GE / Syracuse, Utica, Auburn, Binghamton area (100,000+), Bethlehem Steel / Buffalo (20,000). Today Kodak has about 5,000 employees. Most all of the GE plants are gone. Bethlehem Steel is gone. Stromberg Carlson and Taylor Instruments and General Dynamics are all gone from Rochester. So Mr. Cuomo wants to continue the high-tax, overregulation policies that have done such a great job of driving out these evil large companies. He wants to continue a failed program that carves out small areas in out-of-the way college campuses to encourage small companies to replace the large companies. What a great, visionary leader! I could never understand why the union leaders in this state kept supporting the Democrat Party that so effectively destroyed all of those union jobs. More great leadership making New York State No. 1!
—Dennis Ditch, Delta Square Inc.
That does not sound fair to me! Everyone should pay their fair share!
Meaningful across-the-board tax cuts will always stimulate growth. By leaving businesses and individuals more of their money, the result will be that they may invest, save and or spend more of their “profits” and wealth, thereby stimulating the economy. Of course by reducing taxes, governments must also curtail spending because government spending is the problem. We need to elect people into office who have as their main goal to reduce the cost of government. Targeted tax cuts only shift the burden over to others who like many private individuals cannot afford to pay more in taxes. Businesses will invest more in the long run if they are encouraged and allowed to save more of their profits—that means jobs may be created. Leave more people with more money in their pockets, and they may spend more, which drives demand, which producers (businesses) must meet and they make more profits which in the future will be used to build their businesses further. Ultimately, controlling government spending and broad across the
board tax cuts will benefit everyone and thus boost not just the upstate economy but the state's economy.
—Michael F. Kloppel, chairman, Ontario County Conservative Party, Canandaigua
Cuomo's proposal is another built-in pork barrel. Those he wants to dole to, he will. And vice versa. He should stop micromanaging and causing further division, and get on with the job of governing a great state like it should be governed. Instead, he dreams up and even writes pet legislation himself. The SAFE Act is a farce; women's so-called Equality Act only further demeans us and ignores other oppressed. Tax-Free NY is one more misnomer crafted to sound good on future campaign literature.
—Diane Harris, president, Hypotenuse Enterprises Inc.
We believe that the government should not choose to give preferential treatment to any select group of businesses. This only serves to put those not included in a disadvantage. We should let the free market system choose winners and losers and not special government programs.
—Ray Hutch, CEO, Synergy Global Solutions
Having the tax-free businesses and employees here would by definition provide no additional state tax dollars from them. As a result, the expenses to support the new businesses and employees (to educate, provide police and fire protection, maintain roads, etc.) would be left to the localities, and there would be no state aid dollars available to help. If an employee from the new company were to be laid off, could (s)he collect New York State unemployment since none was paid in on his/her behalf? If so, then it would be funded by current businesses. In effect, supporting these businesses and their employees is similar to being another unfunded mandate.
In Rochester, the UR is the largest employer. It makes sense to do whatever we can to both help universities grow and possibly provide jobs for recent graduates. The up-and-coming businesses are most likely to be technology- and medicine-based, as well as information systems. Giving businesses that are most likely to be the foundation of our future economy makes more economic sense that giving minute breaks to existing businesses. It's not perfect, but it is a step in the right direction.
—Frank Orienter, Rochester
The Tax-Free NY plan discriminates against existing businesses that don't get those benefits. It may very well force the competition out of the state, leaving the non taxpayers behind, a lose-lose situation. Reduced government spending and related reduced taxes is the way to go. It benefits everyone.
Government attempting to micro-manage the Free Enterprise System? Sounds like a prescription for failure!
—Tom Shea, Thomas P. Shea Agency Inc.
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—Wayne Donner, Rush
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Part IV: Faster Than Light Travel--Concepts and Their "Problems"
This is Part IV of the "Relativity and FTL Travel" FAQ. It discusses the various problems involved with FTL travel and how they apply to particular FTL concepts. This part of the FAQ is written under the assumption that the reader understands the concepts discussed in Part I of this FAQ which should be distributed with this document.
In the event that you need more information about this FAQ (including copyright information and a table of contents for all parts of the FAQ), see the Introduction to the FAQ portion.
Chapter 6: Introduction to the FTL Discussion
The following discussion completes the purpose of this FAQ by considering faster than light travel with relativity in mind. After this brief introduction, I will discuss the general problems associated with FTL travel. These problems will apply differently to different FTL concepts, but I need to go over the general idea behind the problems first. After this general discussion of the problems, we will consider their applications to specific FTL concepts. We will also consider possible, conceptual "solutions" to the particular problem that seems to plague all FTL concepts. Finally, because this FAQ is written for the rec.arts.startrek.tech newsgroup, I will go over some notes and arguments for why "warp" drive should be explained in a particular way in order to get around the FTL problems and give us what is seen on the show.
6.1 A Few Notes On The Meaning of FTL Travel
Before we begin the discussion, I wanted to go over the basic idea of what we mean by FTL travel. To do so, we should start by noting that most of space-time through which we would want to travel is fairly flat. For those who have not read Part III of this FAQ, that means that special relativity describes the space-time fairly well without having resorting to general relativity (which applies when a gravitational field is present). Sources of gravity are few and far between, and even if you travel "close" to one, it would have to be a significant source of gravity in order to destroy our flat space-time approximation. Now, some FTL travel concepts we consider will involve using certain areas of space-time which are not flat (and I will go over them when we get there); however, the important thing for us is that all around these non-flat areas, the space-time can be approximated fairly well as being flat.
Thus, for our purposes, we can use the following to describe FTL travel. Consider some observer traveling from point A to point B. At the same time this observer leaves A, a light beam is sent out towards the destination, B. This light travels in the area of fairly flat space-time outside of any effects that might be caused by the method our observer uses to travel from A to B (by justin tforge tech). If the observer ends up at B in time to see the light beam arrive, then the observer is said to have traveled "faster than light".
Notice that with this definition we don't care where the observer is when he or she does the traveling. Also, if some space-time distortion is used to drive the ship, then even if the ship itself doesn't move faster than light within that distortion, the ship still travels faster than the light which is going through the normal, flat space-time that is not effected by the ship's FTL drive. Thus, this ship still fits our definition of FTL travel.
So, with this basic definition in mind, let's take a look at the problems involved with FTL Travel.
Chapter 7: The First Problem: The Light Speed Barrier
In this section we discuss the first thing (and in some cases the only thing) that comes to mind for most people who consider the problem of faster than light travel. I call it the light speed barrier. As we will see by considering ideas discussed in Part I , Chapter 1 of this FAQ, light speed seems to be a giant, unreachable wall standing in our way. I note that various concepts for FTL travel may deal with this problem, but here we simply want to talk about the problem in general.
7.1 Effects as One Approaches the Speed of Light
To begin, consider two observers, A and B. Let A be here on Earth and be considered at rest for now. B will be speeding past A at a highly relativistic speed as he (B) heads towards some distant star. If B's speed is 80% that of light with respect to A, then for him (as defined in Section 1.4 ) is 1.6666666... = 1/0.6. So from A's frame of reference, B's clock is running slow and B's lengths in the direction of motion are shorter by a factor of 0.6. If B were traveling at 0.9 c, then this factor becomes about 0.436; and at 0.99 c, it is about 0.14. As the speed gets closer and closer to the speed of light, A will see B's clock slow down infinitesimally slow, and A will see B's lengths in the direction of motion becoming infinitesimally small.
In addition, If B's speed is 0.8 c with respect to A, then A will see B's energy as a factor of larger than his rest-mass energy (Note, I use an equation for energy here defined in Section 1.5, Equation 1:8 ):
where m(B) is the mass of observer B. At 0.9 c and 0.99 c this factor is about 2.3 and 7.1 respectively. As the speed gets closer and closer to the speed of light, A will see B's Energy become infinitely large.
Obviously, from A's point of view, B will not be able to reach the speed of light without stopping his own time, shrinking to nothingness in the direction of motion, and taking on an infinite amount of energy.
Now let's look at the situation from B's point of view, so we will now consider him to be at rest. First, notice that the sun, the other planets, the nearby stars, etc. are not moving very relativistically with respect to the Earth; so we will consider all of these to be in the same frame of reference. Remember that to A, B is traveling past the earth and toward some nearby star. However, in B's frame of reference, the earth, the sun, the other star, etc. are the ones traveling at highly relativistic velocities with respect to him. So to him the clocks on Earth are running slow, the energy of all those objects becomes greater, and the distances between the objects in the direction of motion become smaller.
Let's consider the distance between the Earth and the star to which B is traveling. From B's point of view, as the speed gets closer and closer to that of light, this distance becomes infinitesimally small. So from his point of view, he can get to the star in practically no time. (This explains how A seems to think that B's clock is practically stopped during the whole trip when the velocity is almost c. B notices nothing odd about his own clock, but in his frame the distance he travels is quite small.) If (in B's frame) that distance shrinks to zero as his speed with respect to A goes to the speed of light, and he is thus able to get there instantaneously, then from B's point of view, c is the fastest possible speed.
From either point of view, it seems that the speed of light cannot be reached, much less exceeded. This, then, is the "light speed barrier", but most concepts people have in mind for producing FTL travel explicitly deal with this problem (as we will see). However, the next problem isn't generally as easy to get away with, and it probably isn't as well known among the average science fiction fan.
Chapter 8: The Second Problem: FTL, Causality, and Unsolvable Paradoxes
In this section we will explore a problem with FTL travel that doesn't always seem to get consideration. The problem involves ones ability to violate causality in certain frames of reference with the use of FTL travel. While this in itself doesn't necessarily make FTL travel impossible, the ability to go further and produce an unsolvable paradox would make the FTL travel prospect logically self contradictory. So, I will start by discussing the meaning of causality and the problems of an unsolvable paradox. I will then try to show how any form of FTL travel will produce violation of the causality principle. Finally, I will explain how, without special provisions being in place, FTL travel can go further to produce an unsolvable paradox.
8.1 What is Meant Here by Causality and Unsolvable Paradoxes
The principle of causality is fairly straight forward. According to causality, if there is some effect which is produced by some cause, then the cause must precede the effect. So, if for some observer (in some frame of reference) an effect truly happens before its cause occurs, then causality is violated for that observer. Now, recall our discussion in Section 1.1 concerning when occurrences happen in a frame of reference. There I took a moment to explain that when I talk about the order of events in some frame of reference, I mean their actual order, and not necessarily the order in which they are seen. One can imagine a situation whereby I could first receive light from the effect and later receive light from the cause. However, This might be because the effect is simply much closer to me than the cause (so that light takes less time to travel from the effect I observer, and I see it first). After I take into account the time it took the light to travel from each event, then I will find the order in which the events truly occurred, and this will determine whether or not there is a true violation of causality in my frame. This true violation of causality is what I will be talking about, not some trick concerning when observers see events, but a concept concerning the actual order of the events in some frame of reference.
Now, one can argue that the idea of causality violation doesn't necessarily destroy logic. The idea seems odd--to have an effect come first, and then have the cause occur--but it doesn't have to produce a self-contradictory situation. An unsolvable paradox, however, is a self-contradictory situation. It is a situation which logically forbids itself from being. Thus, when one shows that a particular set of circumstances allows for an unsolvable paradox, then one can argue that those circumstances must logically be impossible.
8.2 How FTL Travel Implies Violation of Causality
I refer you back to Diagram 2-9 (reproduced below as Diagram 8-1 ) so that I can demonstrate the causality problem involved with FTL travel. There you see two observers passing by one another.
The origin marks the place and time where the two observers are right next to one another. The x' and t' axes are said to represent the frame of reference of O' (I'll use Op--for O-prime--so that I can easily indicate the possessive form of O as O's and the possessive form of O' as Op's). The x and t axes are then the reference frame of the O observer. We consider the O system to be our rest system, while the Op observer passes by O at a relativistic speed. As you can see from the two coordinate systems, the two observers measure space and time in different ways. Now, consider again the event marked "*". Cover up the x and t axis and look only at the Op system. In this system, the event is above the x' axis. If the Op observer at the origin could look left and right and see all the way down his space axis instantaneously, then he would have to wait a while for the event "*" to occur. Now cover up the Op system and look only at the O system. In this system, the event is below the x axis. So to O, the event has already occurred by the time the two observers are passing one another.
Normally, this fact gives us no trouble. If you draw a light cone (as discussed in Section 2.8 ) through the origin, then the event will be outside of the light cone. As long as no signal can travel faster than the speed of light, then it will be impossible for either observer to know about or influence the event. So even though it is in one observer's past, he cannot know about it, and even though it is in the other observer's future, he cannot have an effect on it. This is how relativity saves its own self from violating causality.
However, consider the prospect of FTL travel with this diagram in mind. As O and Op pass by one another, the event "*" has not happened yet in Op's frame of reference. Thus, if he can send an FTL signal fast enough, then he should be able to send a signal (from the origin) which could effect "*". However, in O's frame, "*" has already occurred by the time O and Op pass by one another. This means that the event "Op sends out the signal which effects *" occurs after the event which it effects, "*", in O's frame. For O, The effect precedes the cause. Thus, the signal which travels FTL in Op's frame violates causality for O's frame. Similarly, since "*" has already occurred in O's frame when O and Op pass one another, then in his frame an FTL signal could be sent out from "*" which could reach O and tell him about the event as the two observer's past. However, for Op, the event "O learns about * as O and Op pass one another" comes before * itself. Thus, the signal which is FTL in O's frame violates causality in Op's frame.
In short, for any signal sent FTL in one frame of reference, another frame of reference can be found in which that signal actually traveled backwards in time, thus violating causality in that frame.
Notice that in this example I never mentioned anything about how the signal gets between the origin and *. I didn't even require that the signal be "in our universe" when it was "traveling" ( remember our definition of FTL travel). The only things I required were that (1) the signal's "sending" and "receiving" were events in our universe and (2) the space-time between the origin and "*" is flat (i.e. it is correctly described by special relativity diagrams). Some FTL ideas may invalidate the second assumption, but we will consider them a bit later. We will find, however, that violation of causality still follows from all the FTL travel concepts.
8.3 How We Get Unsolvable Paradoxes
As I mentioned before, violations of causality (as strange as they may be) do not have to truly, logically contradict themselves. However, it isn't too difficult to show (starting with the above arguments) that FTL travel can be used to produce an unsolvable paradox (a situation which contradicts its own existence). As a note, in the past I have called such situations "gross" violations of causality.
I'll illustrate the point with an example (again referring to Diagram 8-1 ) Remember we said that as O and Op pass, Op can send an FTL message out (from his frame of reference) which effects "*". However, rather than having him send a message out, let's say that Op sends out a bullet that travels faster than the speed of light. This bullet can go out and kill someone light-years away in only a few hours (for example) in Op's frame of reference. So, say he fires this bullet just as he passes by O. Then the death of the victim can be the event (*). Now, in O's frame of reference, the victim is already dead ("*" has occurred) when Op passes by. This means that another observer (stationary in O's frame) who was at the position of the victim when the victim was shot could have sent an FTL signal just after the victim's death, and that signal could reach O before Op passed by him. So O can know that Op will shoot his gun as they pass each other.
To intensify the point I will make, we can let the signal which was sent to O be a picture of the victim, or even an ongoing video signal of the victim's body. Thus, O has evidence of the victim's death before Op has fired the weapon (a plain ol' violation of causality). However, at this point O can decide to stop Op from firing the gun. But if the bullet doesn't go out, and the victim never dies, then why (and how) would a video signal/picture of the victim's dead body ever be sent to O? And yet, O has that video/picture.
In the end, it is the death of the victim which causes O to prevent the victim's death, and that is a self contradicting situation. Thus, if there are no special provisions (which we will discuss later ) FTL travel will not only allow violation of causality, but it can also produce unsolvable paradoxes.
At this point, I want to clearly list the various events which must happen to produce an unsolvable paradox in our "FTL bullet" example. Through the rest of our FTL discussion, this will be helpful as a reference listing.
Event Listing and Comments:
It is important to note that the real crux of this problem does not come from the form of the FTL travel used, but from the relationship between the two, ordinary frames of reference for observers (O and Op) who never themselves travel FTL. This ordinary relationship (determined by relativity) can be demonstrated through experiments today, and as long as the exact same experiments can be performed in the future to yield the same results, then this argument must still hold. This is the power of this problem, and we will see that the special provisions we will discuss later must concern themselves with the ability of the observers to use the relationship between themselves in order to produce unsolvable paradoxes. Thus, the provisions will not be specifically concerned with the form of FTL travel used or the future theories which might suggest FTL travel, because the problem we have discussed here will be present regardless of either of these considerations.
And so, we have discussed the two problems which arise with FTL travel. Our next job is to consider various, specific FTL concepts in light of these problems. If your not interested in the discussion of the various forms of FTL travel, and you want to take my word for it that they will all suffer from the problem discussed above, then you may want to skip to the " Special Provisions " section.. I'll leave that to the reader.
Chapter 9: FTL Concepts with these Problems in Mind
Next, we want to ask about how one might try to get around these problems. Many of you have heard of ideas which get around the light speed barrier problem. For example, if we can do our traveling in some other, parallel "space", then we won't be bothered by the light speed barrier in our own space. However, these ideas have a much harder time getting around the second problem. In fact, to get around the second problem, we will see that special provisions will have to be made.
Therefore, the format of this discussion will involve the following. First, we will look at the various concepts which exist for possibly allowing FTL travel. I will show how each of them allows one to get around the light speed barrier problem, and I will explain how (without special provisions) none of them can bypass the second problem--producing unsolvable paradoxes. Finally, I will introduce some special provisions (beyond the basic assumptions made for the FTL concepts) and show how one can imagine using these provisions in conjunction with some of the FTL concepts to get around the second problem.
9.1 Tachyons (Without Special Provisions)
Tachyons are hypothetical/theoretical particles which would travel FTL. The concept of the tachyon attempts to get around the infinite energy requirements which the light speed barrier problem poses on a particle as it approaches the speed of light. This was accomplished by demanding that the particle have certain characteristics which we will discuss here.
First, consider the energy and momentum. Recall that we can write the energy (E) and the momentum (p) of a particle of mass m as expressed in Equation 1:8 and Equation 1:6 which are duplicated here:
(Eq 9:1--Copy of Eq 1:8)
(Eq 9:2--Copy of Eq 1:6)
Where is defined in Equation 1:5 as . From this we find that , which is greater than 1 if v is greater than c. We can thus write
But since we can also express the energy squared as defined in Equation 1:7 :
(Eq 9:4--Copy of Eq 1:7)
we find that the only way to get is if the mass squared is negative (because then reduces the sum in Equation 9:4 ). The mass would then be the square root of a negative number, and such an obviously unreal number is called an imaginary number (imaginary numbers may seem odd, but they have important uses in mathematics). In general we express such imaginary numbers as a product of a real number multiplied by something that symbolizes the imaginary square-root of negative one: . So, the mass of a tachyon is imaginary. Further, from the equation for , we find that it too is imaginary if v is greater than c, but it is also negative because we have the i in the denominator of , and 1/i = -i. (We can show this as follows: start with and multiply and divide the right-hand side by (which doesn't change the value): . The top of that equation is just i, and the bottom is . Thus 1/i = i/(-1) = -i.) That would mean that from Equation 9:1 , the energy would still be a real, positive number (because to get E we multiply the i in the imaginary m by the -i in to get ). The same would be true for the momentum, .
I would like to note that I have read elsewhere that the energy would be negative for a tachyon, but this doesn't seem to be the case.
The final interesting property of tachyons I will mention comes
from noting that as their velocity increases, the value of their
will become a smaller, negative, imaginary number
(because when v/c > 1, is a
negative, imaginary number that decreases as v gets larger). That
means that the value of a tachyons energy will decrease as the speed
of the tachyon increases--or in other words, as the tachyon loses
energy, it gains speed. One result of this is that if a charged
tachyon were to exist, then because it would travel faster than light,
it would give off a radiation known as Cherenkov radiation. This would
take energy away from the tachyon and cause it to go faster and
faster, continually giving off more and more energy. Neutral tachyons,
however, wouldn't do this.
In any case, we can consider the possibility that tachyons exist and always travel faster than light. They then never have to cross the light speed barrier, and they do not have infinite energy (but their mass is imaginary and their energy decreases as their velocity increases). However, they still cause trouble because of the second problem--if you can use them for FTL communication, they can be used to create unsolvable paradoxes using the same arguments as we used in our "FTL bullet" example.
To explore the question of using tachyons for FTL communication, one can apply quantum mechanics to the energy equation of the tachyon. What one finds is that either (1) the tachyons cannot be localized, or (2) the actual effects of a tachyon cannot themselves move faster than light. In either of these cases, the tachyon cannot be used to produce an FTL signal.
A third idea would also allow the tachyon to exist without the possibility of using the tachyon to send FTL signals. The basic idea is that there would be no way to distinguish between the situation through which you could receive a tachyon and the situation though which you could transmit a tachyon. To show what I mean, consider Diagram 8-1 yet again. From the O frame of reference, a tachyon could be sent "from" * and "to" the origin. However, as long as you cannot distinguish between the transmitter and the receiver, then the Op observer could reinterpret this as a tachyon being sent "from" the origin "to" *. Neither, then, will believe that the tachyon went backwards in time. Obviously, there is no way for a message to be sent (because then you could identify the sender and decide which way the tachyon "really" went), and it wouldn't be quite right to call this FTL travel. However, it would allow tachyons to exist (though uselessly) without causing any problems.
And so, we find that with tachyons, one of the following must be true:
9.2 Using a Special Field/Space/etc. (W/o Special Provisions)
This next concept is often found in FTL travel methods of science fiction. The basic idea is that a ship (for example) can use a special field or travel in another space/dimension in order to "leave" the physics of our universe and thus not be limited by the speed of light.
Again, we see that this concept is basically designed to get around the light speed barrier problem; however, it doesn't deal very well with the problem of producing unsolvable paradoxes.
Though the FTL observer or signal which travels using this concept would leave the realm of our physics, the relationship between two observers (like O and Op) who stayed behind (within the realm of our physics) would not be effected. This means (if you recall the points made earlier about the "second problem") that the arguments for producing an unsolvable paradox must still hold (unless there are special provisions), because those arguments were based on the relationship between the two observers who themselves never traveled FTL (and thus never left the realm of our physics).
Thus, we very quickly see that with any such methods (as long as no special provisions apply) one can produce an unsolvable paradox.
9.3 "Folding" Space (Without Special Provisions)
Another concept which pops into the minds of science fiction lovers when considering FTL travel is that of "folding" space. Basically, the idea is to bring two points in space closer together in some way so that you can travel between them quickly without having to "actually" travel faster than light. Of course, by our definition of FTL travel in Section 6.1 (where the light you are "racing" against goes through normal space between the starting and ending points) this would still be considered FTL travel.
A frequently used approach for picturing this idea is to think of two dimensions of space represented by a flat sheet of paper. Then consider yourself at some point on the paper (call this point "o"). If you want to travel to some distant point ("D"), you simply fold/bend/crumple/etc the paper and place "o" and "D" close to one another. Then its just a matter of traveling the now short distance between the points.
Again, we see an FTL concept which is built in order to get around the problem of the light speed barrier. However, we will see, once again, that the second problem of FTL travel is not so easily fixed.
We begin to understand this when we consider again the sheet of paper discussed above. Every object in that two dimensional space has a place on the paper. However, because objects may be moving, their position depends on the time at which you are considering them. Basically, if you are sitting at "o", you imagine every point on that sheet of paper as representing space as it is "right now" according to your frame of reference. However, as we have discussed, what is going on "right now" at a distant location truly depends on your frame of reference. Two observers at "o" in two different frames of reference will have two different ideas of what events should be represented on the paper as going on "right now". This difference in simultaneity between different frames of reference is what allowed for the "unsolvable paradox" problem to exist in the first place. Thus, even though you "fold" the paper so that you don't "actually" travel faster than light, you don't change the fact that you are connecting two events at distant points (your departure and your arrival) which in another frame of reference occur in the opposite order. (In the other frame of reference, you aren't just bending space, you're bending space-time such that you travel backwards in time.) It is that fact which allowed the unsolvable paradoxes to be produced.
In the end, unless special provisions are present, one can use this form of FTL travel in our FTL bullet example (I refer you back to the listing of events in Section 8.3 ). Op will fold space in his frame of reference to connect the passing event with the event "*", while the third observer will fold space from his frame of reference to connect the event "he sees the victim die" with an event "O learns of the victims death before the FTL bullet is sent". Thus, you can used this method to produce an unsolvable paradox as we discussed earlier.
9.4 Space-Time Manipulation (Without Special Provisions)
The final concept we will discuss before looking at special provisions is what I call space-time manipulation. The idea is to change the relationship between space and time in a particular region so that the limitation of light speed no longer applies. This is basically confined to the realm of general relativity (though the more simplified concept of "changing the speed of light" can also be handled by the arguments in this section). We won't worry too much about the particulars of how GR can be used to produce the necessary space-time, because the arguments that will be made will apply regardless of how you manipulate space-time in the region of interest.
There are two general types of space-time manipulation to consider. The first I will call "localized", because the space-time that is effected is that surrounding your ship (or whatever it is that is traveling FTL). A basic example of this is the idea for FTL travel is presented in a paper by Miguel Alcubierre of the University of Wales ( the paper is available via the world wide web ). In the paper, Alcubierre describes a way of using "exotic matter" (matter with certain properties which may or may not exist) to change the space time around a ship via general relativity. This altered space-time around the ship not only keeps the ship's clock ticking just as it would have if the ship remained "stationary" (in its original frame of reference), but it also "drives" the ship to an arbitrarily fast speed (with respect to the original frame of reference of the ship before it activated the FTL drive).
The second type is thus "non-localized", and it involves the manipulation of space-time which at least effects the departure and arrival points in space-time (and perhaps effects all the space-time between). A basic example of this is the idea of a wormhole. A wormhole is another general relativity concept. Again, exotic matter is used, but here space-time is effected so that two distant locations in space are causally connected. You can enter one "mouth" of the wormhole and exit from the other very distant "mouth" so as to travel FTL (by our definition in Section 6.1 ).
Both of these concepts get around the light speed barrier problem, but again we will argue the case for the problems with unsolvable paradoxes. To do this, we will first carefully describe the situation in which a couple of FTL trips will occur. Let's call the starting point of the first trip "A". B will then be the destination point of that trip. Also, consider a point (C) which is some distance to the "right" of B ("right" being defined by an observer traveling from A to B), and finally consider a corresponding point (D) which is to the right of A. Diagram 9-1 uses two dimensions of space (no time is shown in this diagram) to depict the situation (at least from some particular frame of reference).
(x and y are spatial dimensions)
Now, let's go back to the FTL bullet example through which we first explained the unsolvable paradox problem. In this case, the FTL bullet travels from A to B through space-time manipulation. (The event "the bullet leaves A" is event (1) in our list from Section 8.3 ). This means that all the space-time along the bullet's path between A and B might be affected by the space-time manipulation. Thus, we can no longer assume (after the bullet's trip) that a space-time diagram such as those we have drawn (which only apply to special relativity, not GR) will still apply. However, the space between D and C does not have to be effected by the FTL drive. Because of that we can make our argument by considering the following events:
The above events show that even though the space-time may be changed between A and B during the bullet's trip, the O observer can still know about and use the fact that the victim was killed in order to prevent the victims death. We use the same arguments we did in the section concerning the "second problem" ( Section 9.1 ), except that the two FTL portions (the bullet and the signal from the third observer) are sent from two different locations so that neither is affected by the other's effects on space-time. Thus, as long as there are no special provisions, this form of FTL travel will still allow for unsolvable paradoxes.
9.5 Special Provisions
Thus far, we have seen that the second problem is not easily gotten around using any FTL concept. However, we have also insisted during our arguments that none of these FTL concepts include "special provisions". The specific provisions we were referring to will be discussed here. Basically, these are ideas which allow one to bypass the second problem in some way, and the ideas are generally not specific to any one form of FTL travel. They don't require that you bend space-time in some way or that you travel in some other universe or that you be made of some specific form of matter when you do your FTL traveling. What they do require is for the universe itself to have some particular property(ies) which, in conjunction with whatever form of FTL travel you use, will prevent unsolvable paradoxes.
There are four basic types of provisions, but we can express the general idea behind them all before we look at each one specifically. Recall that in producing the unsolvable paradox in our "FTL bullet" example, there was a series of events listed , each of which had to occur to produced the paradox. The provisions simply require that at least one of these events be prevented from occurring. With the first and second provisions we will discuss, no restrictions necessarily have to be placed on the actual FTL travel, and any of the events (even those not directly dealing with the FTL travel) can be the "disallowed" event. The other two provisions place restrictions on the actual FTL travel in certain cases in order to prevent the unsolvable paradox.
9.5.1 Parallel Universes
In the first provision, one of the events in our list is not so much prevented as it is "transferred" to or from another (parallel) universe or reality. For example, say O has just received the information about the victim who dies at the "*" event, and O is waiting to stop Op from firing the FTL bullet. However, before he stops Op, he could find himself transferred to a parallel universe. In this universe he is able to stop Op from firing the bullet. The unsolvable paradox is resolved because the information about the death at "*" was not from the universe in which O stopped Op. Instead, O brought the information from a very similar parallel universe when he came over.
As another example, the bullet which killed the victim could have appeared from a parallel universe rather than being sent from Op in "our" universe. In this case, it is the "other universe bullet" which kills the victim. This bullet could seem to come from Op in our universe, though it actually came from an Op in the parallel universe. So, O is lead to believe that the bullet came from his own Op, and O stops Op from firing the FTL bullet. However, he doesn't prevent the death of the victim because the bullet which did the killing came from the "other universe Op". Again, the paradox is resolved.
Now, in that second case, the FTL bullet wasn't just performing FTL travel, but was involved with inter-dimensional travel. However, the second FTL signal in which the information is sent from the third observer to O (event number 4 in our list ) was allowed. Thus, though this provision can effect the FTL trips, it doesn't have to forbid either of them.
In the end, as long as one of the events is forced to transfer to or from a parallel universe, there will be no unsolvable paradox (although why or how the inter-universe transfer would occur is left unanswered). Also, we should note that this provision could be applied with any of the FTL concepts we have discussed in order to allow them to exist without being self-inconsistent.
9.5.2 Consistency Protection
The second provision is what I am calling "consistency protection". The idea is that the universe contains some sort of built-in mechanism whereby some event in our list of events would not be allowed to occur.
An example of such a mechanism can be found when we look at the situation through quantum mechanics. (A theory of Steven Hawking called the "chronology protection conjecture" (CPC) attempts to do just that--the jury is still out on this theory, by the way, and will probably be out for a long time.) In quantum mechanics (QM), we do not think in certain terms of whether or not an event will occur in the future given everything we can possibly know about the present. Instead we consider the probability of an event (or string of events) occurring. One form of consistency protection would insist that QM prevents the unsolvable paradoxes because the probability of all the events occurring so as to produce an unsolvable paradox is identically zero.
Under this explanation using QM, our bullet example would be resolved through arguments similar to this: It may be that the Op observer is unable to produce the FTL bullet (perhaps his FTL gun fails), thus averting the paradox. If he is able to get the FTL bullet on its way, then perhaps the bullet will end up missing its mark. If it does hit the victim, then perhaps the victim's friend will be unable to send an FTL signal back to the O observer (perhaps his FTL message sender fails). If the signal to O gets sent, it still might not be received by O. If O receives it, he may be unable to stop Op from firing the bullet. In any case, this particular QM explanation would insist that one of these events must not occur, because the quantum mechanics involved forces the probability of all of the events occurring to be zero.
To sum up, this provision requires that some mechanism exists in the universe that would prevent at least one of the events from occurring so that the unsolvable paradox does not come about. This mechanism does not have to specifically target any of the FTL trips/messages which one might want to make/send, but it could disallow any of the events which must be present for the unsolvable paradox to occur. We should also note that this provision (just like the last) can be apply regardless of the FTL concept used.
9.5.3 "Producing" Restricted Space-Time Areas
This provision is sort of an extension on the previous one, but its mechanism specifically targets the FTL travel so as to restrict one of the FTL trips or messages one must use to produce an unsolvable paradox. Remember that in the list of events for our FTL bullet example, there were two different FTL portions (the FTL bullet and the FTL message from the third observer to O). This provision would cause the sending or receiving of one of these "messages" to strictly prohibit the sending or receiving of the other. I will try to illustrate the basic way in which such restrictions could work to always prevent unsolvable paradoxes. I will then give an example where this provision is implemented with a particular FTL concept.
For the illustration, we need to consider each of two possibilities within our FTL bullet example. In the first possibility, the Op observer is allowed to send his FTL bullet which strikes the victim, but that FTL trip must then restrict the third observer's ability to send the FTL message to O. In the second example, the third observer happens to decide to send some FTL signals to O at some point before the event "*" (which is the event in our example that usually marked the victim's death). Now, we let the third observer continue to send those FTL signals until some point after "*". Then, if the victim dies at "*" because of the FTL bullet, then since the third observer is sending FTL signals to O at that point, he would be able to tell O about the victim's death, and the paradox would still be possible. Thus, in this second case, the FTL bullet must not be allowed to strike the victim (the FTL travel of the bullet is restricted because the third observer sends FTL signals to O).
So, how would these restrictions work in these two possible cases? Well, as it turns out, if all unsolvable paradoxes are going to be averted while only placing restrictions on particular FTL trips, then there must be a very specific provision in place. To explain this, we will look at both possible situations, and consider diagrams which explain each one. (Note that these diagrams are drawn a little differently from Diagram 8-1 so as to better show the point I am trying to make here.)
(Case 1--The FTL bullet is allowed to strike at the event "*")
In this diagram we mean to illustrate case one in which the FTL bullet leaves the "passing event" (i.e. the origin, "o") and is "received" by the victim who immediately dies at event "*". Now, I have also drawn parts of two light cones (marked in yellow). One part is the "upper half light cone of the event '*'," and the other is the "lower half light cone of the passing event, 'o'". The upper half light cone of "*" contains all events which an observer at "*" (like the third observer in our bullet example) can influence without having to travel FTL. All observers agree that all events in this area occur some time after "*" (as discussed in Section 2.8 ). Also, the lower half light cone of "o" contains all the events which could effect "o" (which, remember, is the event at which the FTL bullet is sent) through non-FTL means. Thus, as long as no FTL signal/traveler can leave as an event in the upper half light cone of "*" and be received as an event in the lower half light cone of "o", then all unsolvable paradoxes will be averted. There would be no way for the third observer to witness the death of the victim and afterwards get a signal to O before the bullet is fired.
Now, that seems to be straight forward. We just need to make this provision: When an FTL signal is transmitted as event T, and it is received as event R, then it must be impossible for any information to be sent as an event in R's upper ("future") light cone and end up being received as an event in T's lower ("past") light cone. If the universe restricted FTL travel in this way, it would be impossible to produce unsolvable paradoxes.
However, we can see that the matter can get a little complicated when we consider things from O's frame of reference (which is also the frame of the third observer). In this frame, after the third observer witnesses the victim's death at "*", the event "the bullet leaves" hasn't occurred yet. He might then argue that no FTL signal has yet been sent which would keep him from sending a FTL message to O. The problem with his argument is that he has already witnessed the result of the FTL bullet being sent (even if it hasn't occurred in his frame yet). Thus, any FTL signal he tries to send to O (in the lower half light cone of the origin/passing event/bullet-being-fired event) must be prevented from being received by O.
Ah, but what if he (the third observer) just happened to decide to start sending FTL signals to O (just to chat) before the bullet strikes the victim? That leads to our second case. Here, then, is a diagram we will use to describe this second case.
(Case 2--The FTL bullet may not be allowed to strike at the event "*")
Now, there are a few extra events here. The point "s" marks the point where the third observer starts sending FTL signals to O while "T" marks the point where he finishes sending those FTL signals. The point "R" marks the point where O receives the last message which was sent at "T". Now, here we have drawn the upper and lower half light cones of interest, and according to our discussion above, it would be impossible for Op to send his bullet at the origin, "o" (which is in the upper half light cone of R) and have it "received" by the victim at "*" (which is in the lower half light cone of T). So, according to that argument, the bullet doesn't strike while the third observer is sending FTL signals to O, and so the third observer never tells O about the victim's death.
However, this doesn't have to be what happens, and we might just end up back at the first case. You see, either (1) the signals sent by the third observer are all successful, and the FTL bullet is restricted from striking the victim at "*" (that's the second case); or (2) the FTL bullet does strike the victim at "*" and any FTL signals that the third observer sends after "*" are restricted from reaching the O observer before the bullet is fired (this is the first case, even though the third observer was sending signals to O just before the bullet hit). The obvious question, then, is "which one of these two cases actually occurs?" The answer happens to be, "it really doesn't matter." You see, as long as one or the other does occur, the situation remains self consistent and no self inconsistent paradoxes are produced. Roll some dice and pick one, if you like, or let some unknown force decide which happens. It really doesn't matter for our argument. Is that a bit odd? Yes. Is it self-inconsistent so as to produce unsolvable paradoxes? No.
Finally, as example to show this provision in action with a particular FTL concept, let's consider a case where space-time manipulation is used via a wormhole. Recall that in our discussion of this FTL concept in
, we showed that one can still produce unsolvable paradoxes. Notice, that there still must be two FTL parts (we discussed one FTL "trip"--the bullet--from A to B and another--an FTL message--from C to D). Now, to prevent the paradox, the existence of the wormhole that allows the bullet to travel from A to B could forbid the existence of the wormhole that allows the FTL message to go from C to D. This is a situation where case 1 applies, and here the way the provision is satisfied comes from the conceptual ability of one wormhole's existence to forbid the existence of another wormhole.
And so, we have a provision which simply restricts (in a very particular way) certain FTL trips because of other FTL trips. We have found that there doesn't have to be a discernible answer to the question of whether trip A disallows trip B or trip B disallows trip A, but as long as it is one case or the other, this provision will keep all situations self consistent and thus avoid unsolvable paradoxes.
9.5.4 A Special Frame of Reference for the purpose of FTL Travel
The fourth and final provision is (again) something of an extension to the previous one. This provision also forbids certain FTL signals, but it does so in a very specific and interesting way (there will be no question as to which trips are allowed and which are not). To explain this provision, I will start by describing a situation through which the provision could be applied. I will then explain how the provision works, given that particular situation.
Now, as I describe the situation, I will use the idea of a "special field" to implement the "special frame of reference". However, it isn't necessary to have such a special field to imagine having a special frame of reference. I am simply using this to produce a clear illustration.
So, join me now on a journey of the imagination. Picture, if you will, a particular area of space (a rather large area--say, a few cubic light-years if you like) which is permeated with some sort of field. Let this field have some very particular frame of reference. Now, in our imaginary future, say we discover this field, and a way is found to manipulate the very makeup (fabric, if you will) of this field. When this "warping" is done, it is found that the field has a very special property. An observer inside the warped area can travel at any speed he wishes with respect to the field, and his frame of reference will always be the same as that of the field. This means that the x and t axes in a space-time diagram for the observer will be the same as the ones for the special field, regardless of the observer's motion. In our discussion of relativity, we saw that in normal space, a traveler's frame of reference depends on his speed with respect to the things he is observing. However, for a traveler in this warped space, this is no longer the case.
For example, consider two observers, A and B, who both start out stationary in the frame of reference of the field. Under normal circumstances, if A (who starts out next to B) began to travel with respect to B, then later turned around and returned to B, A would have aged less because of time dilation (this is fully explained in Section 4.1 of Part II if you are interested). However, if A uses the special property of this field we have introduced, his frame of reference will be the same as B's even while he is moving. Thus, there will be no time dilation effects, and A's clock will read the same as B's.
Now, for the provision we are discussing to work using this special field, we must require that all FTL travel be done while using this field's special property. How will that prevent unsolvable paradoxes? Well, to demonstrate how, let's go back to our FTL bullet example and consider one of two cases. In case 1, we will let Op's frame of reference be the same as the frame of reference of our special field. With this in mind, let's go through the events listed in Section 8.3 once again; only this time, we will require any FTL travel to use the special property of the field we have discussed.
So, here is the new list of events given that the special frame of reference of the field is the same as Op's frame. Remember, our new provision requires that any FTL trip will have to use the property of our special field, thus the object/person/message traveling FTL will be forced to take on the frame of reference of our special field (Op's frame in this example). (It may be good for you to review the original list before reading this one):
But that is where the "agains" stop. You see, in the original argument event (4) was possible in which the third observer sends this information about the future to O via an FTL signal. In the frame of reference of O (and the third observer), that FTL signal could be sent after the victim's death and arrive at O before the passing event (when the bullet was fired). But now, as the FTL signal is sent, it must take on the frame of reference of the special field. That frame of reference is the frame of Op, and in that frame the victim dies after the bullet is fired. So, in the new reference frame of the message (forced on it by the provision we are making) the bullet has already been sent, and thus the FTL message cannot be received by O before the bullet is sent.
From the frame of reference of the third observer, he simply cannot get the FTL signal to go fast enough (in his frame) to get to O before the bullet is sent. From Op's frame of reference (that of the special field) any FTL signal (even an instantaneous one) can theoretically be sent using our provision. However, from O's frame (and that of the third observer) some FTL signals simply can't be sent (specifically, signals that would send information back in time in Op's frame of reference--look again at Diagram 8-1 to make this clear). This prevents the unsolvable paradox.
We can also consider case 2 in which the special frame of reference of the field is the same as O's frame of reference. In this case, any FTL traveler/signal/etc must take on O's frame of reference as it begins its FTL trip. Thus, as Op passes O and tries to send the FTL bullet from his frame of reference, the bullet will have to take on O's frame as it begins is FTL trip. But in O's frame of reference, the event "*" has already occurred by the time O and Op pass one another. Therefore, from the FTL bullet's new frame of reference (forced on it by the provision we are making), it cannot kill the victim at the event "*" since that event has already occurred in this frame. Thus, the paradox is obviously averted in this second case as well because of our provision.
So, in the end, if all FTL travelers/etc are required to take on a specific frame of reference when they begin their FTL trip, then there will be no way an unsolvable paradox can be produced. This is because it takes two different FTL trips from two different frames of reference to produce the paradox. Under this provision, if you are sending tachyons, the tachyons must only travel FTL in the special frame of reference. If you are folding space, the folding must be done in the special frame of reference. If you are using the special field itself to allow FTL travel, then you must take on the field's frame of reference. Etc. If these are the cases, then there will be no way to produce an unsolvable paradox using any of the FTL concepts.
As a final note about this provision, we should realize that it does seem to directly contradict the idea of relativity because one particular frame of reference is given a special place in the universe. However, we are talking about FTL travel, and many FTL concepts "get around" relativity just to allow the FTL travel in the first place. Further, the special frame doesn't necessarily have to apply to any physics we know about today. All the physics we have today could still be completely relativistic. In our example, it is a special field that actually has a special place in the physics of FTL travel, and that field just happens to have some particular frame of reference. Thus, the special frame does not have to be "embedded" in the makeup of the universe, but it can be connected to something else which just happens to make that frame "special" for the specific purpose of FTL travel.
And so, we have seen the four provisions which would allow for the possibility of FTL travel without producing unsolvable paradoxes. For the case of the real world, there is no knowing which (if any) of the provisions are truly the case. For the purposes of science fiction, one may favor one of the provisions over the others, depending on the story one wishes to tell.
Chapter 10: Some Comments on FTL Travel in Star Trek
Since this document is meant for the rec.arts.startrek.tech newsgroup, it seems appropriate to take all we have discussed and apply it to what we see in Star Trek. Of course, it would be foolish to assume (unfortunately) that the writers for the show take the time to learn as much about these concepts as we now know, and I am certainly not implying that a conscious effort was made to incorporate what we know to be true in a consistent way on the show (after all, this is Star Trek :'). However, interestingly enough, if we apply the concepts correctly, we can explain most of what Star Trek has shown us. That is what I will try to do here.
10.1 Which Provision is Best for Explaining Warp Travel
First, we might want to consider the four provisions and try to decide which one would best fit Trek so that everyday warp travel couldn't be used to produce unsolvable paradoxes.
So, let's consider both the first and second provisions. In these cases, neither of the two FTL trips in our FTL bullet example will necessarily be forbidden. So, if we consider that example yet again, we can make the following argument: Let Op be the Enterprise. Then, rather than sending a bullet, the Enterprise could itself travel from the origin to "*". It could then (through ordinary acceleration) change its frame of reference to match O's. Then it could travel from "*" (or just after "*"--we have to give them a little time to do their acceleration) back to the O observer, and it could get to O before it ever left for its first FTL trip (i.e. we put the Enterprise in place of the FTL signal sent by the third observer). Thus, since neither the first or second provision has to forbid any of these actions, the Enterprise could use everyday warp travel via this method to easily travel back in time without having to do something as dangerous as zipping around the sun (as they have had to do on the show).
In addition, if the first provision governed normal warp travel, then making different trips from different frames of reference would introduce the possibility that you would find yourself being transferred to another parallel universe to prevent unsolvable paradoxes. Also, if the second provision governed normal warp travel, it would require Star Trek ships to be careful as to which frames of reference they were in when they decided to enter warp. After all, they may not want to accidentally meet themselves from a previous trip (in which case the universe may destroy them to protect self consistency). So, there seems to be some daunting arguments against using either the first or second provision to keep ordinary warp travel from producing unsolvable paradoxes in Trek.
Okay, what about the third provision? With that provision it would be impossible to use ordinary warp travel as a "time machine". However, this provision does cause certain noticeable restrictions on some FTL trips (remember, it allows certain FTL trips to prevent other FTL trips). There could be cases where the Enterprise would be prevented from completing its warp trip on time because of an FTL signal sent by someone else. We certainly don't see that on the show (not surprisingly). So, considering this provision, I can't easily point out any arguments to support using it to keep warp travel from being self inconsistent.
This leaves us with the fourth provision, and I think you will see that it the provision of choice for the purposes of Trek. Of course, this fourth provision must involve some special frame of reference; therefore, we might first ask about where this special frame might come from. Thus, I will make a proposal for answering such a question in the next section, and then I will present what I believe are strong arguments for using the fourth provision to keep normal warp travel from being self inconsistent in Trek.
10.2 Subspace as a Special Frame of Reference
When we discussed the fourth, "special frame of reference" provision, I introduced the idea of a field which had a particular frame of reference. For Star Trek, we can imagine subspace to be this field, and we can let it pervade all of known space. Then, subspace (or at least some property of subspace) would define a particular frame of reference at every point in space. When you entered warp, you would take on the frame of reference of subspace and keep it, regardless of your velocity with respect to subspace. This would ensure that normal, everyday warp travel would not produce unsolvable paradoxes (as we discussed in Section 9.5.4 ).
So, what does this provision give us that the third provision didn't? Well, by assuming that subspace defines a special frame of reference, we can explain some interesting points on the technical side of Trek. For example, in the "Star Trek the Next Generation Technical Manual" (and in other sources) we see that the different warp numbers correspond (in some way) to different FTL speeds. But when they say that Warp 3 is 39 times the speed of light, we must ask what frame of reference this speed is measured in. With subspace as a special frame of reference, it would be understood to mean "39 times the speed of light in the frame of reference of subspace."
The same idea can be applied to references made to impulse-drive-only speeds. In the Technical Manual, they mention efficiency ratings for "velocities limited to 0.5c." They also mention the need for added power for "velocities above 0.75c." But these velocities are all relative, and so we must ask why these normal, slower than light velocity of the Enterprise should matter when considering efficiencies, etc. After all, the Enterprise is always traveling above 0.5 c in some frame of reference and above 0.75c in some other frame of reference. However, since impulse is supposed to use a subspace field to "lower the mass of the ship" (so that it is easier to propel), we could argue that the speed of the ship with respect to subspace (assuming subspace defines a special frame of reference) would effect efficiencies, etc.
Further, there is a much more documented example which refers to warp 10. As many of you know, warp 10 is supposed to be infinite speed in the Next Generation shows. That means that the event "you leave your departure point" would be simultaneous with the event "you arrive at your destination". But, as we have discussed, the question of whether two events are simultaneous or not truly depends on the frame of reference you are in. So, we ask, in what frame of reference is warp 10 actually infinite speed. Again, we can use the frame of reference of subspace to resolve this issue. Warp 10 would be understood to be infinite speed in the frame of reference of subspace.
Finally, using this provision, there would be a standard, understood definition for measuring times, lengths, etc. Times would be measured just as it would tick on a clock in the frame of reference of subspace, and distances would be measured just as they would be by a ruler at rest in the subspace frame of reference. Basically, the feeling we have for the way things work in every day, non-relativistic life would be applicable to Trek by using the subspace frame of reference as a standard, understood reference frame.
And so, I believe that the fourth provision gives us the best explanation for how normal, everyday warp travel in Trek could be self consistent.
10.3 The "Picture" this Gives Us of Warp Travel
Given the previous discussion, we see that the fourth provision seems to fit Star Trek like a glove. Thus, it may be best for us to view warp travel in Star Trek like this: Subspace is a field which defines a particular frame of reference at all points in known space. When you enter warp, you are using subspace such that you keep its frame of reference regardless of your speed. Not only does this mean that normal warp travel cannot be used to produce unsolvable paradoxes, but since in warp your frame of reference would no longer depend on your speed as it does in relativity, relativistic effects in general do not apply to travelers using warp. Since relativistic effects don't apply, you also have a general explanation as to why you can exceed the speed of light in the first place.
(As a note, this is similar to Alcubierre's idea for "warp" travel (mentioned earlier), but in his idea the traveler did not take on a "special" frame. Instead, he took on the frame he had before entering warp, but that allows two trips from two different frames of reference to produce an unsolvable paradox. If we add subspace as a special frame of reference to Alcubierre's idea, we could get a self consistent situation which would be very similar to what we see in Trek.)
For more information on how this might conceptually work in the science fiction world of Trek (at least one way I imagine it) you may want to read my other regular post, "Subspace Physics". Here, however, we can at least use this "picture" of warp to consider how the outside universe might appear to someone traveling at warp speed. Remember, at any point the warp traveler's frame of reference it is as if he is sitting still in subspace's reference frame. We could illustrate the way such an observer would picture a particular event by using the following idea: Picture a string of cameras, each a distance (d) away from the one before it. Let these cameras all be stationary in the frame of reference of subspace, and let them all be pointed at the event of interest. Further, let each camera have a clock on it, and let all the clocks be synchronized in the subspace frame. Then, we can set each camera to go off with the time between one camera flash and the next being d/v (where v is the FTL velocity of the observer we want to illustrate). Then, each picture is taken in the subspace frame of reference, but the string of pictures (one from each camera) would form a movie in which each frame was taken from a different place in space from the previous frame. Thus, we can use this to produce a film of how an event would look to a warp traveler.
Of course, in Trek they have subspace sensors which do all their seeing for them (faster than light, of course). However, the above does illustrate one's ability to use this view of warp travel to answer various technical questions.
10.4 Some Notes on Non-Warp FTL Travel and Time Travel in Trek
Now, there are cases in Trek where FTL travel exists without necessarily using subspace (and thus the subspace frame of reference would not apply and would not prevent unsolvable paradoxes). For example, if the wormhole in Deep Space Nine is assumed to be the same as a wormhole we theorize about today, then it wouldn't need to deal with subspace to allow FTL travel. (Now, what they call a wormhole doesn't necessarily have to be what we call a wormhole, but for this illustration, let's assume it is). So, if the wormholes in Trek aren't bounded by the subspace frame of reference, we could imagine a situation whereby they could be used to cause unsolvable paradoxes. This is true for any form of FTL travel in Trek which might not use subspace. However, I propose that in cases where subspace isn't used (so that its special frame of reference could not prevent unsolvable paradoxes) then the first or second provision, "parallel universes" or "consistency protection", would apply. In that way, we can allow for non-warp/non-subspace-using FTL travel in Trek while still preventing unsolvable paradoxes.
Further, consider time travel in Trek. Actual time travel couldn't be accomplished by using subspace alone (the subspace frame along with the fourth provision would prevent it). However, I propose again that such travels in time should not be able to produce unsolvable paradoxes because the "parallel universes" or "consistency protection" provisions would apply (since subspace alone couldn't be in use to produce the time travel).
For example, consider the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Time's Arrow" (in which Data's severed head is found on 24th century Earth, and Data eventually travels back in time to (unintentionally) leave his head behind to be found). Now, after the head was found, one of the crew (let's say Riker, just to use an example) could decide to try to produce an unsolvable paradox. Riker may decide to do everything in his power so as to keep Data from going back in time. He may even try to destroy Data and his head to accomplish this task. Of course, Riker isn't the type of person to do this, but what if he was? Well, in that case, he would be trying to produce an unsolvable paradox, and the first or second provision would prevent it. For the first provision, the head found in the 24th century might have actually come from a parallel universe. For the second provision, we could imagine various ways in which Riker might fail in his task of trying to keep data from going back in time. Further, we could consider the case in which he would succeed in producing an unsolvable paradox and we could insist that such situations would destroy themselves or prevent themselves from ever happening.
Such a situation is seen in a particular Voyager episode. In this episode, members of the crew are caught in a "subspace fissure", and they travel back in time. By the end of the episode their trip back in time has produced a self-inconsistent situation. That series of events then becomes impossible and ceases to exist by the closing credits. This could be seen as a result of having the "consistency protection provision" apply to a case where the subspace frame of reference is bypassed via "subspace fissures".
So, even though we can be relatively sure that this was not the intention of the writers, the situations shown do seem to comply with the concepts we have developed. If you are a sci-fi writer, understanding these concepts may help you in the future.
10.5 To sum up...
To sum up, we have found that by introducing a special frame of reference which would be "attached" to subspace, and by further insisting that any type of FTL/time travel done without using subspace be governed by the "parallel universe" or "consistency protection" provisions, we will not only have a self consistent universe for our Star Trek stories, but we can also (coincidentally) explain many of the "but how come...?" questions which some Star Trek episodes produce.
Chapter 11: Conclusion
In Part I of this FAQ, I presented some of major concepts of special relativity, and here in Part IV , we have discussed the considerable havoc they play with the possibility of faster than light travel. I have argued that the possibility of producing unsolvable paradox is a very powerful deterrent to all FTL concepts. Further, we have introduced four basic provisions, at least one of which must be in place so that FTL trips/signals (sent using any of the FTL concepts) cannot be used to produce unsolvable paradoxes. Finally, we looked at the science fiction of Star Trek while considering all that we had discussed. We concluded that warp travel could be governed by the fourth provision (via subspace defining a special frame of reference) while all other FTL travel (or time travel) could be governed by the first or second provisions. This, I believe, best explains what we see on Star Trek.
If you have not read Part II or Part III of this FAQ, and you are interested in learning more about relativity (special and general), then you may want to give them a look.
As the end result of producing this FAQ, I hope that I have at least informed you to some extent (or perhaps just helped to clarified your own knowledge) concerning relativity and the problems it poses for FTL travel. | <urn:uuid:9ef81656-b130-47d2-b47e-2db80496fd4f> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.physicsguy.com/ftl/html/FTL_part4.html | 2015-04-02T09:40:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427132827069.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323174707-00092-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960104 | 15,493 |
Brette Barrouquere (AP) reports the latest on Steven D. Green accused of being the ringleader, murderer and gang-rapist in the slaying of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi.
The prosecution and the defense will do their opening arguments April 27th and jury selection has already concluded. Barrouquere notes that the prosecution's witnesses: "Prosecutors listed nearly a half-dozen members of the al-Janabi family as potential witnesses. They will have a court-certified interpreter who will also be available to the defense for witness interviews, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa Ford said."
Meanwhile, this is from On Top Magazine's "Fresh Anti-Gay Death Threats In Iraq:"
Men who adopt the more Western values of short hair and a clean-shaven face are often accused of being gay in the Middle East.
“This [homosexuality] has spread because of the absence of the Mehdi Army, the spread of sexual films and satellite television and a lack of government surveillance,” the office's of Sheikh Ibrahim al-Gharawi, a Shiite cleric, told the news agency.
Ali Hili, of Iraqi LGBT, gave gay weekly Gay City News a grim assessment of the situation. According to Hili, the group has confirmed more than 23 murders of gay people in Iraq since December.
Openly gay Congressman Jared Polis, who recently toured Iraq, has called upon the State Department to act.
“We asked the embassy and the State Department to investigate the reports of killings of gay men, and turned over to the charge d'affaires the names and phone numbers of all the gay Iraqi contacts we had and a letter detailing our concerns,” Polis said.
Polis told the paper that the letter included allegations that the Iraqi government was involved in the killings.
Time magazine's Mark Kukis offers "Report Shows Torture Is Widespread in Iraq" which includes this:
Published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, the report examined the causes of death for 60,481 Iraqi civilians killed violently during the first five years of the war, using statistics compiled by Iraq Body Count. The findings are surprising to anyone familiar with the regular headlines from Iraq blaring explosions around the country. Executions with firearms, not bomb blasts, have killed most civilians in Iraq. Researchers say 33% of the victims examined in the study died by execution after abduction or capture. And 29% of those victims had signs of torture on their bodies such as bruises, drill holes or burns. Suicide bombers in cars or on foot were responsible for 14% of the victims in the study, while U.S. airstrikes killed 4%. (See pictures of the aftershock in Iraq and the U.S. from torture allegations at Abu Ghraib.)
And that is all I could find that C.I. did not have room for or time for in the snapshot. This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:
Friday, April 17, 2009. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces a death, the US State Dept fudges in a new report, Matthis Chiroux prepares for a court date, and more.
Starting with war resistance, Matthis Chiroux was supposed to stand before a military body last month but that changed. He explained to Digital Journal's Stephen Dohnberg why the date was changed to April 21st, "My former JAG attorney volunteered for Iraq service and was deployed a number of weeks ago. Thus, I had to get a new lawyer and a new court date. I think the Army may have been hoping I'd already bought tickets for people to be in attendance and it would have wiped out my finances. Lucky for me, I'm a last minute kinda guy. My replacement is a JAG attorney. Thomas M. Roughneen." This is "Resistance to an Abhorrent Occupation: Press Release of Matthis Chiroux" (World Can't Wait):(ST. LOUIS, MO) The U.S. Army will hear the case of Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, an Individual Ready Reservist who last summer publicly refused activation and deployment orders to Iraq, on April 21 at 1 Reserve Way in Overland, St. Louis, MO, at 9 a.m. Chiroux, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, refused to participate in what he described as "an illegal and immoral occupation" May 15th, 2008, in Washington D.C., after nine other veterans testified to Members of the U.S. Congress about atrocities they experienced during deployments to Iraq. Chiroux also vowed to remain public in the U.S. to defend himself from any charges brought against him by the military. (see matthisresists.us for a record of that speech and others by Chiroux) "My resistance as a noncommissioned officer to this abhorrent occupation is just as legitimate now as it was last year," said Chiroux, adding, "Soldiers have a duty to adhere to the international laws of war described as supreme in Art. 6 Para. 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which we swear to abide by before the orders of any superior, including our former or current president." Following Chiroux's refusal to deploy, the military did not contact him until after he and 10 other IVAW members marched on the final presidential debate Oct. 15, 2008, in Hempstead, N.Y. demanding to question then Senators Obama and McCain regarding their war policies and plans to care for returning veterans. After the veterans were brutalized and arrested by police, (one suffered a fractured skull and is currently suing the police for damages) the Army charged Chiroux with "misconduct" for refusing to deploy, announcing their intentions to discharge him from the reserves as a result. "I go now to St. Louis to honor my promises and convictions," said Chiroux. "Obama or No-Bama, the military must cease prosecuting Soldiers of conscience, and we will demonstrate to them why." Following the hearing, Chiroux and other IVAW members will testify about their military experiences which led them all to resist in different capacities the U.S.'s Overseas Contingency Operation (formerly the Global War on Terror). For more information, see matthisresists.us and ivaw.org.
Betty covered Mathis last night in "April 21st, St Louis, Matthis needs your support." June 15, 2008, Matthis explained his reasoning which includes:
I believe that this nation and this military may come to know the same truth: That the rule of law has been forsaken and we must return to it or be doomed to continue disaster. I believe in the goodness of the American people and I believe that justice is not dead because we as a people believe that it is our responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government in our names. We know this truth to be self-evident that our nation can unite to oppose an illegal occupation which is killing and scarring and shattering the lives of our youth and the Iraqi people. On this Fathers Day, know, America, that your children need you. We need you to care for us and to care for our country which we will inherit when you are finished with her. We need you to end this occupation of Iraq which has destroyed a country and scattered its people to the wind like ashes in the tempest -- a tempest that has engulfed the nation of Iraq and scrubbed any sign of peace and prosperity from the surface of a civilization older than even history itself. Fathers, we need you to care for your children and the children of Iraq for they know not why you fight and carry no fault in the conflict. Fathers, your sons and daughters need you now to embrace peace for though we were attacked, we have dealt in retaliation that same suffering one-thousand times over to a people who never wronged us. The nation will know little healing until first we stem off the flow of blood and human life for justice and healing will never be done by a blade or a bullet or a bomb or a torture cell. By continuing to participate in the unjust occupation of Iraq, we, as service members, are contributing to that flow of human life and we cannot now -- nor could we ever -- call the Iraqi people an enemy in the fight against the use of terror. But terror is all we now know. We are terrified of the prospect that we have been lied to. We are terrified by the idea that we have killed for nothing. We are terrified to break the silence. We are terrified to do what we know is right. But never again will I allow terror to silence me. Nor will I allow it to govern my actions. I refuse terror as a tactic for uniting a people around an unjust cause. I refuse to allow terror to motivate me to do violence on my fellow man especially those who never wronged me in the first place. I refuse to be terrified to stand in defense of my Constitution. And I refuse to be terrified of doing so in great adversity. As a resister to the Iraq Occupation, I refuse to be terrified by what may come for I know those who stand against me are in terror of the truth. But I will speak my truth, and I will stand by it firmly and forever will my soul know peace. Thank you.
Matthis Chiroux's entire speech is in the June 16, 2008 snapshot. Iraq Veterans Against the War notes:
On Tuesday April 21st an Army administrative discharge board will hear the case of Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, an Individual Ready Reservist (IRR) who last summer publicly refused activation orders in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The board will convene at 9am at the Army Human Resources Command, 1 Reserve Way in Overland, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis. IVAW members and supporters will rally outside the hearing starting at 8:30am.
Although Chiroux is voluntary attending this hearing, all other IRR members who have refused activation have not had any disciplinary actions taken against them by the military other then receiving a General or Other Than Honorable discharge from the IRR. This discharge has no effect on benefits like the GI Bill that IRR members earned through their service while on active duty. Service members who have questions about the IRR can click here or contact the GI Rights Hotline at 877-447-4487.
So that's this coming Tuesday. Wednesday the 15th, the latest 'progress' report on Iraq was released. The US State Dept report is entitled [PDF format warning] "Iraq Status Report." Page 3 offers an overview of the report entitled "Highlights" which includes:
* Amnesty International Calls on PM Maliki to Protect Homosexuals in Iraq (POLITICAL, page 4).
* Iraqi Vice President to Meet with Executives from Total (ECONOMIC, page 10).
* Prime Minister Maliki Visits Moscow for High-Level Talks (DIPLOMATIC, page 20).
* High-Profile Attacks Fail to Re-Ignite Sectarian Violence (SECURITY, page 22).
We'll dive into security and move to page 23 where the following appears -- see if you can catch the distortion:
MNF-I COMMANDER Says U.S. on Track to Meet Withdrawal Deadlines:
* General Odierno said he believes the United States is on track to withdraw from major Iraqi cities by the end of June and all combat troops to depart Iraq by the end of 2011. Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," General Odierno said "We continue to work with the Government of Iraq so they can meet that timeline so that they are able to maintain stability after we leave. . . I still believe we're on track with that."
It continues but that quote had NOTHING to do with the June deadline. John King never combined the two -- the June deadline and end of 2011 one -- into one question asking
Gen Ray Odierno's thoughts. Here's the section they've pulled the quote from and the quoted section above will be in italics:
KING: Let me -- let me ask you -- let me move back to a more serious question, and the idea that, in the previous administration and in your service prior to this administration, you were very clear that you thought these decisions should not be based on political timelines; they should be based on conditions on the ground. I understand you're executing the orders of the commander in chief. I just want to get a sense of, are you concerned at all that the bad guys, the enemy, knows the timeline, too, and they are simply going into hiding, hoarding their resources, gathering their weapons and waiting for you to leave? ODIERNO: There is always that potential. But, again, let me remind everyone what change was in December when the United States and the government of Iraq signed an agreement, a bilateral agreement that put the timeline in place, that said we would withdraw all our forces by 31 December, 2011. In my mind, that was historic. It allowed Iraq to prove that it has its own sovereignty. It allows them, now, to move forward and take control, which was always -- it's always been our goal, is that they can control the stability in their country. So I think I feel comfortable with that timeline. I did back in December. I do now. We continue to work with the government of Iraq so they can meet that timeline, so that they are able to maintain stability once we leave. I still believe we're on track with that, as we talk about this today.
First note that the State Dept did not even get the words correct ("once we leave," not "after we leave" -- and, yes, in a government report, quotes should be correct). Second, notice that entire quote is to King's question about 2011. Click here for full transcript and here for report and video option (all links are CNN). In that interview, Odierno was not stating that the June deadline was on track. He has, publicly, with other outlets, raised the possibility of remaining in Iraqi cities past June 30th and did in that interview. The paragraph as written is a deliberate distortion and including his qualifiers somewhat (as the report finally does) comes after the report has already established a contrary message and it distorts what Odierno said. That's unacceptable. It is not accurate to take comments Odierno makes about a 2011 deadline and pass them off as remarks regarding a June 30, 2009 deadline. It's also bad p.r. because the rumors already that Gen Ray Odierno is being "censored" and that he was balled out for some of his public statements two days before that CNN interview. The State Dept misrepresenting Odierno's words only appears to confirm those rumors since they indicate an urge to put words into the general's mouth. Moving on, page 7 is "Key Legislative Issues" and we'll note that in full.
* Hydrocarbons Package: The Framework Law was resubmitted to the Oil and Gas Committee on October 26 and then returned to the Council of Ministers. There has been no progress on the other three laws in the package.
* Budget: The Council of Representatives (COR) passed a budget on March 5. The Presidency Council approved the 2009 budget on April 2.
* COR Speaker: The COR has yet to reach a consensus on appointing a new Speaker since Mahmoud Mashadani was ousted on December 23, 2008. The COR concluded spring recess and resumed on April 14.
Credit to whomever wrote the report for at least getting it correct that the Speaker was ousted. Very few press reports -- including the New York Times -- get that correct. We'll note the LGBT section in full:
Amnesty International issued a letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urging the Iraqi government to take "urgent and concerted action" against the recent rise in violence against the gay community in Iraq, including by condemning the killing of six men found dead in Sadr City in past weeks, and bringing the murderers to justice. Congressman Jared Polis also brought the issue to the attention of Iraqi officials during his delegation's recent visit to Iraq.
We noted the letter earlier this week. Amnesty International has not posted it online but they have posted this:
Amnesty International has written to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki expressing grave concern about a reported spate of killing of young men solely because of their sexual orientation and calling for urgent and concerted action by the government to bring those responsible to justice and to afford effective protection to the gay community in Iraq.
Over the last few weeks at least 25 boys and men are reported to have been killed in Baghdad because theyw ere, or were pereceived to be, gay. The killings are said to have been carried out by armed Shi'a militamen as well as by members of the tribes and families of the victims. Certain religious leaders, especially in al-Sadr City neighbourhood, are also reported in recent weeks to have urged their followers to take action to eradicate homosexuality in Iraqi society, in terms which appear effectively to constitute at least an implicit, if not explicit, incitement to violence against members of the gay community. Three corpses of gay men are reported to have been found in al-Sadr City on 2 and 3 April 2009; two of the bodies are said to have had pieces of paper bearing the word "pervert" attached to them, suggetsting that the victims had been murdered on account of their sexual identitiy.
In the letter sent to the Prime Minister Amnesty International expressed concern at the government's failure to publicly condemn the killings and ensure that they are promptly and effective investigated, and that the perpetrators are brought to justice. The letter also drew attention to reported statements by one senior police officer that appear to condone or even encourage the targeting of members of the gay community in Baghdad, in gross breach of the law and international human rights standards.
Amnesty International reminded the Iraqi government that it is a fundamental principle of international human rights law, including international treaties that have been ratified by and are binding on Iraq, that "All human beings are equal in dignity and rights" and are entitled to all rights and freedom set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, without distinction of any kind, such as on grounds of race, sex, religion, political, or other status, including sexual orientation and gender identity. The organization called on Prime Minister al-Maliki [to] take immediate and concrete steps to address this sitatuion, including to publicly condemn, unreservedly and in the strongest terms, all attacks on members of the gay community or others on account of their sexual, gender, ethnic or other identity, and to commit to ensuring that those responsible for such abuses are identified and brought to justice. Further, police officers or other officials who encourage, condone or acquiesce in such attacks must also be held to account and either prosecuted or disciplined and removed from office.
This morning AFP is reported that signs are going up around the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad threatening to kill a list of people alleged to be gay. The posters are put out by the Brigades of the Righteous and AFP translates the posters as stating, "We will punish you, perverts" and "We will get you, puppies" has been scrawled on some posters -- "puppies" being slang for gay males in Iraq. The Australian carries the AFP report here. Liz Sly and Caesar Ahmed (LAT's Babylon & Beyond) report the message on the posters included, "If you don't cease your perverted acts, you will get your fair punishment." The reporters also noted that a Sadr City resident saw a poster with approximately 15 names (of people who would be killed) written on it. These posters are going up around Sadr City. Where is the United Nations condemnation? Where is the White House, where is the US State Dept? Chris Johnson (Washington Blade) notes the only member of the US Congress to condemn the targeting of Iraq's LGBT community, US House Rep Jared Polis and reports:
Noel Clay, a State Department spokesperson, said U.S. officials "condemn the persecution of LGBTs in Iraq," but he couldn't confirm whether the violence they're facing in Iraq is because of their sexual orientation. Clay noted that while homosexuality is against the law in Iraq, the death penalty is not the punishment for homosexual acts.
And yet at the start of this month the State Dept's Iraqi Desk John Fleming was telling Kilian Melloy (The Edge) that, "Homosexuality not a crime in Iraq." He was also stating that same-sex relations were of no conern to Iraqis ("immaterial"). That is laughable. Noel Clay has stated that same-sex relations have been criminalized in Iraq so unless or until the State Dept issues a public clarification, we will operate under the belief that Clay is correct. Attempts by the press to figure this out has been stonewalled.
Stonewalling? That brings us to yesterday's attack in Anbar Province on the Tamouz Air Base. How many died? No one can find out. Liz Sly and Usama Redha (Los Angeles Times) explain, "It is common in Iraq to receive contradictory information about casualties in the initial hours after an attack, though such a major discrepancy is unusual. A spokesman for U.S. Marines in Anbar declined to comment." Ernesto Londono (Washington Post) quotes Iraqi Maj Yassen al-Dulaimi stating, "We are shocked by the fact that a suicide bomber was able to infiltrate the guarded camp and passed through the gate to carry out this terrible attack." "Confusion often clouds accounts of attacks here, but rarely have senior officials offered such divergent reports about a death toll," observes Steven Lee Myers in this morning's New York Times. But the key note by Myers is this one: "Journalists were prohibited from entering the base and the hospital, which Iraqi and American officers visited after the wounded arrived." That's what this is, an attack on a free press. A bombing took place. A death toll is known and should not be in dispute. The puppet government (and possibly the US as well) is worried about 'embarrassment' and that apparently trumps facts and the right-to-know. This is appalling and would be similar to the US hiding an attack (example, 9-11) and barring the press from the area and from hospitals. It is an attack on the press and it is an attack on the historical record. Staying with attacks on the press, Wednesday Marc Lynch (Foreign Policy) weighed in on the efforts of the Iraqi military to close the newspaper Al-Hayat: "That's not a good sign. Reminds me of the bad old days of 2004-2005 when the Iraqi government and MNF-I were routinely attacking the Arab media for fueling the insurgency and the offices of al-Jazeera and other satellite television stations were shuttered. You would think that they would have learned form the experience of banning al-Jazeera, which didn't prevent it from covering Iraq politics but did reduce the access that officials had to its airtime."
Iraq got some airtime on the second hour of The Diane Rehm Show today when guest host Susan Page (USA Today) spoke with Barbara Slavin (Washington Times), Warren Strobel (McClatchy Newspapers) and Kevin Whitelaw (US News & World Reports).
Susan Page: Barbara, we saw some bombings -- some uptake in violence there.
Barbara Slavin: Yeah, there've been a number of bombings there in Baghdad, in Kirkuk, in Mosul. There was a suicide bomber who went into an Iraqi army installation which was supposed to be secure in western Iraq so this is worrisome. The US is beginning to draw down, it's moving its soldiers out of the cities and the question is: Can Iraqis cope? We had a guest yesterday, we had an advisor to the president of the Kurdish Region of Iraq who said he was, frankly, very, very worried that if Iraqis could not make some important decisions in terms of political reconciliation -- I mean they still don't have an oil law, they still haven't figured out what to do about the status of Kirkuk which is a city claimed by many, you know there are still problems between Sunni and Shia -- that if they couldn't have these political reconciliations within the next years, this Kurdish leader said he didn't want the Americans to withdraw. Now I don't think there's much of a stomach frankly to stay but it is worrisome in terms of the continued violence in their country.
Susan Page: Could it complicate the timetable that President Obama laid out for pulling out US troops?
Warren Strobel: I think it absolutely could. You know I think there's a minset, Susan, in this country that, certainly, the American people and officialdom that "Iraq is over, it's getting better, we're getting out, problem done, let's move on to Afghanistan, Pakistan." But that's not necessarily so. And I think what you're seeing in Kirkuk and elsewhere is various ethnic groups, they're positioning themselves for post-US Iraq. And that's uh -- it could complicate Obama's withdrawal timeline.
Slavin was referring to tensions between the Kurds and the central government. Ernesto Londono (Washington Post) reports that "some Iraqi and U.S. officials believe [tension over Kirkuk] could escalate into armed conflict" and that this has "prompted the U.S. military in January to increase its troop level in Kirkuk from a battalion, roughly 900 troops, to a combat brigade of about 3,200 soldiers."
Today the US military announced: "AL ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq - A Multi National Force -West Marine died as the result of a non-combat related incident here April 16. The Marine's name is being withheld pending next-of-kin notification and release by the Department of Defense. The incident is under investigation." This brings the number of US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war to 4274. In other violence,
Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) notes a Baghdad mortar attack which left 4 dead and either more injured.
Meanwhile in the US, Jo Freeman examines the state of the peace movement at Senior Women Web and notes the March 21st march on the Pentagon staged by A.N.S.W.E.R. and others turned out "[b]etween one and two thousand people" (it was at least 10,000) while UPFJ saw "a few hundred" on April 4th (that tally is correct). Freeman's biggest contribution is in explaining that the Friday April 3rd action (which had a few thousand) was by the Bail Out the People Movement. Freeman also provides the background on several organization but is sketchy on UPFJ. Jo is incorrect that the Iraq War is ending and, for the record, during Nixon's time she was far less likely to present an assertion as a fact. But in good news for the peace movement, some realities about Barack are beginning to stick. The issue of torture was covered last night by Mike ("Barack's latest disgrace"), Marcia ("Ray McGovern"), Ruth ("Ray McGovern"), Kat ("It's called 'justice,' Barack") and Cedric ("Barack needs a Constitutional tutor") and Wally ("THIS JUST IN! HE DOESN'T KNOW JUSTICE!"). Amnesty International notes:
US President Barack Obama has been accused of "condoning torture" following his announcement that CIA agents who used harsh interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects will not be prosecuted. Amnesty International has called on the US administration to initiate criminal investigations and prosecutions of those responsible for carrying out acts of torture, including waterboarding, in its "war on terror". "President Obama's statements in the last days have been very disappointing. In saying that no one will be held to account for committing acts of torture, the US administration is in effect condoning torture," said Daniel Gorevan, of Amnesty International's Counter Terror with Justice campaign. "It's saying that US personnel can commit acts of torture and the authorities will not take any action against them. Memos were released this week detailing the range of techniques the CIA was allowed to use during the Bush administration, including sleep deprivation and simulated drowning (otherwise known as waterboarding). "The memos, in effect, justified torture techniques," said Daniel Gorevan. "We want to see prompt movement on behalf of the US administration on this to prosecute those responsible for the acts of torture, as well as those who authorised and justified these acts."
National Lawyers Guild member and GI Rights attorney James Branum observes, "President Obama and AG Holder are in my opinion now complicit in these crimes. Their argument that the CIA agents were relying on legal advice is a crock of ****. I'm sure Nazi lawyers said the holocaust was 'legal' too." Chris Floyd (Empire Burlesque) explains, "Barack Obama is being given great credit for releasing the memos, although as the president himself points out in his statement, their release was actually required by law. I suppose it's true that the United States government has become so degraded that we must be surprised and glad when a president actually obeys the law when it suits him, but I must say that I can't find any great cause for rejoicing -- especially as Obama's statement immediately and definitely ruled out prosecuting any of the direct perpetrators of these criminal actions." At Just Left, Michael Ratner (Center for Constituational Rights president) explains, "In making the decision not to prosecute, President Obama is acting as jury, judge and prosecutor. It is not his decision to make. Whether or not to prosecute law breakers is not a political decision. Laws were broken and crimes were committed. If we are truly a nation of laws as he is fond of saying, a prosecutor needs to be appointed and the decisions regarding the guilt of those involved in the torture program should be decided in a court of law." With Dalia Hashad, Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith, Michael Ratner also co-hosts WBAI's Law and Disorder. The American Civil Liberties Union encourages people to "demand accountability for torture" and makes it simple to send a message to the US Attorney General's office with a form at the previous link. World Can't Wait's Debra Sweet states it clearly, "And, given that Obama is releasing these memos AT THE SAME TIME as he is officially announcing he won't prosecute those who carried all of this out means --in my view - - that nobody familiar with the release of these memos can any longer claim honest confusion about whether or not Obama represents 'change'." World Can't Wait is staging a forum on torture tomorrow in Orange, California (near Santa Ana and Anaheim):
Bush's Department of Justice legalized torture. Now Obama's Department of Justice won't prosecute and will even provide free legal representation to torturers. Your government refuses to bring war criminals and torturers to account. Will you remain silent or get informed, take a stand and build a movement to stop torture and demand accountability for war crimes?
WHAT: Forum on National Security, Rule of Law & Torture: The Torture Memos of John Yoo
WHEN: Saturday, April 18th, 2009 10 AM - 2 PM
WHERE: Chapman University Law School, Kennedy Hall, Rms. 237 A&B, 370 N. Glassell (at Sycamore), Orange, CA 92866
WHY: John Yoo, while working for the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel, drafted legal memos which, some say, influenced the U.S.'s decision to legalize torture. John Yoo is currently a visiting professor at Chapman University School of Law, where the controversy continues.
"John Yoo's complicity in establishing the policy that led to the torture of prisoners constitutes a war crime under the US War Crimes Act". Cited from testimony provided to U.S. Congress on May 6, 2008 by Marjorie Cohn, National Lawyers Guild President.
WHO: Concerned residents and students from the Chapman community and surrounding area came together and formed Stop Torture Coalition to voice opposition to legalization of torture, inform people about torture, and call on people to stand against this assault on human rights and civil liberties. This forum is hosted by the National Lawyers Guild, Chapman Student Chapter.CONTENT: A public forum with Question and Answer session to examine• Whether Yoo is complicit in the commission of war crimes.• Whether torture is necessary for national security.• What is the impact on our basic human and civil rights.
M. Katherine B. Darmer, Professor of Law, Chapman University Law School
Larry Everest, author of "Oil, Power & Empire", writer for Revolution newspaper
Ann Fagan Ginger, President of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute
Tim Goodrich, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Ameena Qazi, staff attorney for Council on American-Islamic Relations
Moderated by Michael Slate, host of KPFK's Tuesday edition of Beneath the Surface
ENDORSED BY: Answer-LA, California Teachers for Academic Excellence; Code Pink- OC; David Swanson / AfterDowningStreet.org; Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute; Military Families Speak Out- OC; National Lawyers Guild Chapman Students Chapter; National Lawyers Guild –LA; Orange County Peace Coalition; Patrick Henry Democratic Club; Peace and Freedom – OC; Progressive Democrats of America; Scientists Without Borders; Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian-Universalist Church in Anaheim; US Federation of Scholars and Scientists; Westside Progressives; Women For: Orange County; and World Can't Wait.
TV notes. NOW on PBS begins airing Fridays on most PBS stations (check local listings) and this week:Americans are addicted to coal--it powers half of all our electricity, and is both plentiful and cheap. In fact, some call America the "Saudi Arabia of Coal." But are we paying too high an environmental price for all this cheap energy?With carbon emissions caps high on the Obama Administration's agenda, coal is in the crosshairs of the energy debate. This week, NOW Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa travels to Wyoming to take a hard look at the coal industry there and its case that it can produce "clean coal"--coal that can be burned without releasing carbon into the atmosphere. President Obama has been outspoken in his support for "clean coal" technology, but some say the whole concept is more of a public relations campaign than an energy solution.As part of the report, Hinojosa talks with Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal and Jeff Goodell, the author of "Big Coal," who says that carbon dioxide emissions generated from coal contribute to global warming.Our investigation is part of a PBS-wide series on the country's infrastructure called "Blueprint America."Washington Week also begins airing tonight on most PBS stations and sitting down with Gwen this week are Tom Gjelten (NPR), Spencer Hsu (Washington Post), Eamon Javers (publication which shall not be named) and Martha Raddatz (ABC News). Also on PBS (and begins airing tonight, check local listings) Bonnie Erbe sits down with Eleanor Holmes Norton, Genevieve Wood, Linda Chavez and Melinda Henneberger to discuss this week's news on To The Contrary. And turning to broadcast TV, Sunday CBS' 60 Minutes offers:401K RecessionNever created to be a mainstay of workers' retirement funds, 401ks became just that to millions of Americans who are now facing uncertain futures because of the devastating losses in the stock market. Steve Kroft reports.
Cold Fusion Is Hot AgainPresented in 1989 as a revolutionary new source of energy, cold fusion was quickly dismissed as junk science. But today, the buzz among scientists is that these experiments produce a real physical effect that could lead to monumental breakthroughs in energy production. Scott Pelley reports. Watch Video
Blood BrothersMatador Cayetano Ordonez nearly dies during this segment when he's battered by a bull in a Bob Simon report about him and his brother Francisco – Spain's remarkable bullfighting family – who these days are creating just as much drama outside the ring as in it. Watch Video
60 Minutes, Sunday, April 19, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
iraq veterans against the war
the los angeles timesliz slyusama redhathe new york timessteven lee myers
chris johnsonthe washington bladekilian melloydoug irelandernesto londonothe washington post
nprthe diane rehm show
60 minutescbs newsnow on pbspbsto the contrarybonnie erbe
law and disordermichael ratnermichael smithdalia hashadheidi boghosian
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Best Online Wine Shops
Best Online Wine Shops
Last Bottle Wines
Last Bottle offers just one wine each day, but it's not your average flash-sale site filled with distractions like glassware and fancy chocolates. This latest venture from online retailers Stefan Blicker, Brent Pierce and Cory Wagner boasts an appealing, minimal design and no-fuss ordering. Located in Napa Valley, Last Bottle's proximity to some of the country's greatest producers allows it to offer very deep discounts (up to 75 percent) on the carefully chosen wines it offers. Other perks include free shipping, credits for referrals and a much-loved $25 credit for purchasing the actual last bottle of the day's offering.
Founded in 2012 by Mike Zima, former head sommelier at Mario Batali's flagship Del Posto in New York, SommPicks specializes in, as the name suggests, wines that sommeliers love. To Zima, this means pioneering producers, benchmark styles, hidden gems—in other words, wines that deliver serious value and maximum pleasure per ounce, only served at retail instead of in a fancy dining room. The celebrity somms doing the choosing include Caleb Ganzer from Eleven Madison Park and Raj Vaidya from Daniel. Often, the wines come straight from private cellars.
Bottlerocket founder Tom Geniesse came up with his store's innovative browsing structure after becoming frustrated with traditional wine shops. "A roomful of bottles with price tags was not sufficient to help me make good, informed choices," he says. To offer a better experience, Bottlerocket attempts to answer questions: What are you cooking for dinner tonight? Who are you giving a gift to? What goes with Thai take-out? Click on "beef," to learn that Geniesse's favorite steak wine right now is Rocca di Frassinello's Le Sughere di Frassinello, a fantastic barrique-aged project from Maremma (west of Chianti) produced with the legendary Domaines Barons de Rothschild.
Before she opened her New York City store, Christy Frank spent about seven years working for Moët Hennessy USA, most recently managing the company's Australia and New Zealand portfolio. Part of her job was to crisscross the country, visiting more wine shops than she cared to count—which meant when she finally opened her own, Frank knew exactly what to do. With wine descriptions that are quirky, accessible and fun to read, her website offers great browsing. Try the Smallfry Joven Barossa Valley, a Tempranillo-based blend that will surprise anyone who thinks Australian wines are all big, jammy Shirazes. Frank loves the wine for its red fruits, autumn-like spice and fresh acidity. "After visiting the beautiful, biodynamically farmed vineyard where the grapes are grown," she says, "I love it even more."
Founded by globe-trotting wine expert Jon Rimmerman more than 18 years ago, Garagiste bills itself as "the original email offer wine company" and operates on a model now copied by many retailers. Daily offers are sent out to members of the mailing list, and customers order bottles to be held until one of the site's two yearly shipping dates. The site does no advertising, instead relying on word of mouth and the strength of Rimmerman's narrative descriptions to sell its wines, all of which are sourced directly from wineries and many of which are priced under $15. Garagiste is the benchmark retailer for organic and natural wines, the "indie label of the wine trade," as it's been called.
Chambers Street Wines
Since launching more than a decade ago, Chambers Street has become a go-to retailer for wine geeks around the country. It's loved for its large selection of esoteric organic and biodynamic wines (mostly from France), as well as an extensive collection of mature wines sourced from private cellars—especially bottles from Piedmont, Italy. Founders Jamie Wolff and David Lillie also share a love for the wines of the Loire Valley (Wolff spent years vacationing there, and Lillie visited as a musician in the late '70s). The mixed cases, 12-bottle packages chosen by the extremely knowledgeable staff and priced around $120, are a great way to experience the Chambers Street mentality.
Started by a group of collectors in 1996, WineBid.com is technically an online auction house, but the site's "buy it now" option allows for straightforward shopping. The website is one of the most easily navigable in the business, and you can even sign up to receive emails when your favorite type of wine comes up for auction, whether it's cru Beaujolais or Vin Jaune. Because the wine is sourced from private collectors, selection varies. You can get an old bottle of premier cru Burgundy for a special occasion, then round out a case with sub-$20 wines, most of which will have more bottle age than you'd find at retail.
After ditching a career in investment banking and earning two prestigious wine certifications, Sharon Sevrens created this store to focus on artisanal wines made with minimal intervention from winemakers. From day one she has refused to sell anything that she herself hasn't personally tasted and enjoyed. Since everything has passed her sniff test, it's safe to try something from off the beaten path, like the Skouras Moscofilero from Greece. If palates align, come back for more.
California Wine Merchants
Founded by Sherry-Lehmann vets Taylor Senatore and Jennifer DiDomizio, California Wine Merchants was meant to fill an obvious gap: the lack of small-production domestic wines in the Europe-centric New York market. Now the site is the place to go for eclectic and under-the-radar wines from the West Coast, and it has a great track record for discovering talent. (It stocked bottles from star winemaker Steve Matthiasson long before he became a Food & Wine Winemaker of the Year in 2012.) For a sense of the shop's palate and ethos, try the wines from Chris Brockway of Broc Cellars. His fantastic, unusual bottlings include wines made from obscure grapes like Valdiguié.
If you're willing to do a bit of clicking, GetWineOnline.com can provide the same sort of thrill as finding an amazing pair of shoes at Marshall's for a price that seems like a mistake. The store might not be the sexiest or most informative, but the prices demolish any objections. If you like finding diamonds in the rough, this website is for you.
Spirits are the draw to this off-the-radar shop, founded by Kamal Mukherjee to combine his professional IT experience with his love for, as he puts it, "fine libation." The unassuming brick-and-mortar location in Brooklyn is hardly worth a visit, but spirits geeks could spend hours poring over the website's selection of absinthe, shochu, Japanese whiskey and much more, including the most comprehensive and fascinating selection of tequila and mezcal anywhere on the net.
Where to Buy Wine Online: More Top Picks
This is the ultimate source for obscure American wines—Merlot from North Yuba, California, say, or Ohio River Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. It also offers wines directly from more than 120 wineries. One to try: the appealing Bowers Harbor Vineyards Semi-Dry Riesling from Michigan's Old Mission Peninsula. Tip: A search tool parses each state's shipping laws to determine which wines shoppers can buy.
Run out of a modest Corvallis, Oregon, wine shop of the same name, this is a comprehensive source of top Washington and Oregon wines from producers like Beaux Frères and Leonetti Cellar—though it sells great wines from obscure producers, too. Tip: Avalon's wine clubs, like the Northwest Big Reds Club and the Reserve Pinot Noir Club (membership costs $80 per month), are a great way to access up-and-coming stars, like Oregon's Daedalus Cellars and Washington's O-S Winery.
Bounty Hunter Rare Wine & Provisions
Mark Pope's Bounty Hunter is a restaurant in downtown Napa, as well as a catalog and Web site featuring top Napa and Sonoma wines. One recent find: the rare 2002 Mount Veeder Progeny Cabernet Sauvignon from Marco DiGiulio, who also made the cult Lokoya wines. Tip: Download the catalog; it's an always-enjoyable read.
Brown Derby International Wine Center
Great deals in Missouri on California wines? Brown Derby owner Ron Junge uses his long-standing connections to bring great California wines like Copain Syrah home to the Show-Me State. He also offers hard-to-find gems such as the Diebolt-Vallois Blanc de Blancs Champagne. Tip: Many, but not all, of the wines here have low markups. Low inventory numbers ("Only 6 left!!") are often a guide to bottles that are going fast.
K&L Wine Merchants
Serious wine lovers have been turning to this California retailer for more than 30 years. K&L's wine buyers not only hunt down the best from nearly every region in the world, but also sell hundreds of direct-import wines at great prices. The Web site shows real-time inventory of just how many bottles of a given wine are still available. Tip: Direct-import sparkling wines include terrific bargains such as Tarlant Brut Zéro Champagne.
Mission Fine Wines
Chang-rae Lee's Pick: Go-to site for rare Bordeaux and Burgundies, with older bottlings from Spain, too.
This no-frills site isn't actually in Napa but Chino, a small city between Los Angeles and San Bernardino. Owners Tom and Kris De Grezia have access to highly allocated wines, which they offer at excellent prices. These include famous names like Ridge Monte Bello, as well as lesser-known ones like Rusack Santa Barbara Pinot Noir. Tip: Check out the "90+ Under $20" section for bargains.
North Berkeley Wine
Chang-rae Lee's Pick: California retailer-importer that specializes in wines from France, Italy and (uniquely) Chile.
The Rare Wine Co.
Chang-rae Lee's Pick: Terrific source for vintage Barolos, Burgundies and Rhône wines, as well as Madeiras.
Twenty Twenty Wine Merchants
Los Angeles-based owner Bob Golbahar specializes in hunting down impossible- to-find wines for impossible- to-reach clients like Jack Nicholson and Sandra Bullock. The informative and easy- to-use site includes prestige bottles like Cabernet from Harlan Estate and the 1995 Denis Mortet Clos de Vougeot, but also great deals. Tip: The site contains lists of 99- and 100-point wines for those buying bottles to fill out their collections.
This California wine-storage company's recently launched Web store is packed with more than 1,500 hard-to-find wines, like Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis, along with scores and average retail prices based on online data and recent auction sales. Specialists offer to help anyone looking to build a killer collection—and buy at least $10,000 worth of wine. Tip: The site lists great older bottles, like the sought-after 1994 Dominus Estate.
This is eBay for wine lovers, where frenzied bidders vie for wines like a 1979 Château Pétrus or a 1999 Screaming Eagle. Modest bidders can score bargains, too—there's a no-minimum section where lots open at just a buck. Handling charges nudge up the total but are still quite reasonable. Tip: Watch auctions in the "Closing Today" section and pounce on them, eBay-style.
A Case for Wine on the Web
Novelist Chang-rae Lee loves nothing more than hanging out in his local wine shop, but he finds some of his best deals on the Internet. His secret: He's befriended his e-tailer.
In recent years, like a lot of people, I've been buying more of my wine online. Frankly, I feel guilty about it, for I abhor living too much in the techno-cave, with all these meager, glowing implements; I love a lively fire in the hearth, and snuggling in beside my sweet-smelling wife, and drinking wine so tasty that it makes me think I can sing. Who wants to make virtual any of this life's pleasures? Really, nobody.
Yet we all do: We surf the Net for reasons of convenience, efficiency and frugality, which are mostly commendable things. And we're bypassing even the minor pleasure of buying things in personbooks, music and (most irking to me) wine. The picture I would prefer to hold of myself is the fellow who faithfully patronizes (perhaps plagues?) the local wine shops rather than browses some brightly arrayed screen. Maybe you know the type: the oeno-pest who's in the store every Friday afternoon (does he have a job?) studying the labels like a cryptologist, or chatting with the staff about a producer's vinification methods or a Piedmont vintage's weather. To be sure, I'd rather be there in person, discussing a wine's qualities with an enthusiastic merchant rather than passively scrolling through professional tasting notes. And I believe in the importance of neighborhood proprietors (whether they sell wine or house paint) to a vital, thriving community; they're the hubs of the real social network.
Yet sometimes, I simply can't deal. Maybe I've been writing all day, and my head feels as though it's been pummeled, and I can't quite bear someone hovering. Or an unfamiliar salesperson will descend and push a wine because it just received "a monster Parker rating." Or, perhaps worst of all, a normally trusty staffer will excitedly suggest a bottle, and when I taste it, I'm sorely disappointed; I'll be loath to go back and have an awkward, fitful conversation, its implication being, "No offense, but I despised that wine you dearly love." Things can quickly get too personal, especially in matters of taste. I enjoy delicate, mature wines exponentially more than their youthful, exuberant versions, and online retailers tend to have a wider selection of older wine, while most brick- and-mortar shops only have enough room to carry the latest vintages.
So I'll sit at my desk and search. I'll click around the Web for the best price and a clue to the quality of the retailer's storage facilities, wondering whether the real-life operations are as tech-cool or retro-dusty as their sites. I enjoy browsing the nerdier ones, like North Berkeley Wine and the Rare Wine Co., which provide their own blogs or even photos of staffers' tasting trips, essentially offering a wider experience of what it means to engage with a wine.
You can see that I'm more than a bit conflicted, that my opposing urges have me wanting a connection that's substantive and helpful, yet one I can keep at a comfortably virtual distance. But unlike the online buying of other taste-dependent products (say, novels), in wine cyberspace you can, if you look, find people to query and hear their commentary, getting both knowledge and personality without the trouble of putting someone off (or being put off yourself). And so inevitably, during my searches, I find myself wondering who is working behind the screen in Florida or Missouri. It turns out that I want to peek behind the digital curtain. I want to hear a human voice.
So I'll call, say, under the pretext of a question about shipping, but then I'll ask about other vintages of the wine I'm interested in, hoping that the person I'm talking to (a salesperson or maybe even the ownerI've found many of the retailers to be smallish, partner-run operations) is knowledgeable and willing to chat, just like in my local store. They're often game for conversation, so I'll ask for other recommendations, each of us sharing what we've recently enjoyed, probing the other for clues to preferred styles, tastes.
I'm admittedly a difficult customer, being a slightly delusional wine lover/collector, someone without deep pockets but who favors older, mostly European wines. Not being a hedge-fund manager, I can't touch superstars from the classic regions, but sometimes the wines of slightly less-renowned producers, especially in underrated vintages, can be great values, especially when you're guided by a good adviser. Once we do begin to connect, I might ask how he or she got into the business, if there was a pivotal "wine moment" (there often is), try to see if I'll be able to rely on her for advice in the future. Once I chatted for nearly a half an hour with a nice fellow (I never got his name) at the Rare Wine Co. about the differences in style between Conterno and Borgogno Barolos, then about respective trips we'd made to Italy. And while I'm sure I've been thought a nuisance or even a bit creepy, I've almost always found the person on the other end to be more passionate about her work than she has to be, maybe even a touch messianic; someone who'd much rather drink good wine and share notions about its glories than merely sell it.
My favorite online retailer is Mission Fine Wines, which is based in Staten Island, New York. Its website is defiantly old-school, just a stripped-down listing of inventory that you can sort by region, producer and vintage, featuring not a single picture or much of anything else that's descriptive, save for a few sentences on a featured wine. Essentially, you have to know what you wantat least initially. For as with all the better online retailers, there's a live opinion available, if you desire; how else can you try something new (or old and perhaps fragile) with confidence, but after a real conversation? I found the Mission website a few years ago when a friend mentioned that he ordered regularly from them, as he'd gone to college with the owner, a voluble, lovable, big-hearted oenophile named Joe Palmiotti, who named his company after the first wine (La Mission Haut-Brion) that had wholly captivated him. As it turned out, that wine ultimately repaved the course of Palmiotti's professional life. Because of multiple sclerosis, he had to quit his career as a bond trader, and he soon started selling fine wine, first via word of mouth and then through the Web. I spoke to him before confirming my first order (something I try to do with a retailer I haven't bought from before), as I wanted to hear his thoughts on the '97 Château Palmer that was then featured on his site at a great price ($65 a bottle, around half what it's going for now).
Joe was, of course, hugely enthusiastic about the wine, holding forth without an atom of snobbery or pretentiousness, his comments smart and comprehensive and nuanced, convincing me that I should try this richly fragrant, silken wine despite its "poor" vintage, promising me, too, that I could return the rest for full credit if I didn't absolutely love it. I sadly have but two bottles left of the case. I've found that most of the online retailers I regularly patronize are similarly accommodating, standing by their wines by offering credit for corked bottles (counter to what the usual stipulated "conditions of purchase" read). They want you to trust them, for it's the only way someone will become a regular buyer, especially of more expensive, older wines; some even indicate on their websites, as Mission Fine Wines does, that they welcome visitors.
Naturally, such an invitation is irresistible to someone like me. I couldn't help but arrange a visit to Mission's Staten Island warehouse, a windowless, gray-plastered building across from the malodorous waters of a harbor busy with work boats and loading cranes. On the way there, I passed sheet-metal fabricators, pawn shops, Guatemalan hair salons, perhaps 900 Italian delis and pizzerias, and all the stoop-shouldered row houses pinched between them, with pimped-out Dodge pickups parked askew out front.
Inside, though, it's a different world. I've never seen such a collection of rare and valuable wine in so workaday a place. Multiply this warehouse by scores and you realize this is the real advantage of buying wine onlinethat you can comb the stocks of dozens of good purveyors and can get almost anything you want (and can afford), that you can click and browse and dream. But this is no automated robot-run operation: Think of your own basement, only cleaner and bigger and colder, though no less cluttered, with seemingly random stacks of wooden case boxes of cult California Cabernet and grand cru Burgundy peppered with loose bottles of Penfolds Grange. The organization is clearly a reflection of Joe's mad-wine-genius brain, the bottles and cases arrayed in an idiosyncratic house of memory: There's an open box of '79 Krug Clos du Mesnil here, some '96 Mouton there, ancient ports and Madeiras perched precariously on a narrow shelf.
And though it seems impossible that one could ever locate a particular wine here, Joe can blindly reach behind roughly piled boxes of Rhônes and Rieslings and know he'll grab a zesty, minerally Leflaive Mâcon-Verzé he's been wanting me to try, which he opens for us now. Joe's partner, Alex Gelleri, and the rest of the Mission gang (all of two) take a break and come by for a taste, as does Charlie, the cheery warehouse landlord, who (blond hair aside) looks and sounds just like Leo Gorcey of the Bowery Boys and is soon waxing poetic on the mystical qualities of a 19th-century Bual he'd bought from Joe. Our talk centers on the wine in the glass but is not limited by it, as we're laughing as much as swirling, joking about politics, the pratfalls of middle age, raising kids. And I'm reminded that this is the ultimate reason you buy any wine, virtually or not: The truth is, you want to get up from your seat, venture beyond the screen, whether via telephone or in person. For you should, in fact, go there. And maybe really click.
Chang-rae Lee's novel, The Surrendered, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He teaches at Princeton University.
Tips for Online Wine Shops
Despite years of shopping for wine on the internet, I still can't quite get used to the idea. Wine, after all, isn't like a book or CD. Holding a bottle, inspecting its label—you just can't replicate that experience inside a browser window. Yet I do most of my wine buying online. Why?
For starters, the comparison shopping is unbeatable. With search engines like Wine-searcher.com and Google (which most retailers love), you no longer have to go to the Montrachet; the Montrachet will come to you. Cross-referencing the latest scores and top recommendations is blissfully easy, and especially pleasurable when you can do it at home in your bathrobe on a Saturday morning.
Certain things separate the top Web sites from the also-rans. Ease of use and good customer service matter, for a start; so does price. But ultimately, what really counts is selection.
- Sites that sell rare and older wines should be clear about the source and condition of the bottles and offer some guarantee about condition. Vinfolio, for instance, will issue a credit or replace a flawed bottle within 90 days.
- Auction and consignment sites often charge the winning bidder fees of up to 18 percent. Be sure to check before bidding. Handling charges may be added too, even for wines picked up in person.
- While shipping wine is easier than ever, it can add to the final cost—up to $15 or more per bottle. A good retailer will also warn you of shipping hazards, notably hot or cold weather; but according to NapaCabs.com’s Tom De Grezia, "people will still order when there’s a major heat wave going on."
- Not every store can mail wine interstate. Pennsylvania, for instance, has a ban.
- Wineries often sell their own wine online, but not always at the best price. Comparison shop. The best tool is Wine-searcher.com. Serious buyers should splurge on its Pro service ($39 per year).
Jon Bonné is the wine editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Updated Fall 2013 | <urn:uuid:64e22555-ff0a-4d2d-b1e1-ad2126b17a9e> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/10-best-online-wine-shops | 2015-03-28T05:50:49Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297281.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00160-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95197 | 5,264 |
You only see what your eyes want to see
How can life be what you want it to be?
You’re frozen, when your heart’s not open…
- Madonna (Frozen)
/In other news, police are now investigating the shooting that took place on Marigold highway two weeks ago. According to reports, the only victim at the scene was Heero Yuy, only son to billionaire businessman and socialite, Odin Yuy. Two men, suspected to be his attackers, were apprehended and taken into police custody. They are both believed to be responsible for many cases of stolen vehicles around the city for the past few months. Heero Yuy has been confirmed as being in stable condition and doctors believe he will be released soon from the single gunshot wound on his left shoulder. The seventeen year-old Yuy heir…/
The remote control fell out of his hand and amongst the pillows as he lay back with a soft sigh. Long lashes fluttered closed as the boy felt the drowsiness from the drugs he had been given earlier finally take effect. He tried to fight it as he forced his eyes open again. He blinked slowly, and took notice of his surroundings with a low groan. He was still in the hospital even though he had been promised he would be sent home a day or two earlier. He didn’t like being cooped up in a single place for a long time. The feeling of claustrophobia and the sense of being held prisoner were making him feel even more paranoid than ever before.
He kept having the feeling that they were keeping something from him…again.
For two weeks, he had been drifting in and out of consciousness. The pain in his shoulder had been numbed the first night he had been brought in and the surgery performed just as quickly. He should have been out by now, he kept telling himself. But no, they had to keep him here for monitoring purposes.
His lashes fell closed again and with a light grunt, he forced them open to glare at the vase of brightly colored flowers of which species he knew nothing about. The smell was a bit maddening and Heero could remember trying to get the nurse to take them out of the room. Everyday a fresh batch of flowers were sent to his room from well wishers, family members and even strangers he had never heard of. What a pain.
His parents had, of course, spent the first night and consecutive days afterwards with him. They had naturally been worried and fussed over him like he was a child all over again. A bit aggravating, but quite thoughtful and nice of them, he thought with a small smile. But beneath all of that, Heero sensed that all was not as it seemed. They had come together, yes…but they had been apart as well. Hikari would usually sit inches away from him, talking about everything going on at the house. She had been forced to cancel the party she had planned for Milliardo, but she was going to throw an even bigger one once he got out of the hospital. This time it would be in celebration of his recovery and for Milliardo’s welcome. Just like killing two birds with one stone.
Heero had smiled dutifully at his mother’s enthusiasm, but had noticed from a quick glance at his father, that the dark-haired man was quite silent and had a thoughtful expression on his features. He had seen his father look like that before, so it really shouldn’t have been a surprise to him at the time.
Sighing softly, Heero forced his gaze towards the large windowpanes on his left. It gave him the breathtaking view of the ocean just a few miles away and somehow, the thought of the blue waters looking so calm and serene had him feeling a bit better.
Relena and Milliardo had been there on the night of the attack. So, Heero knew he was right when he had guessed it was the girl’s scream of terror. Her brother had managed to find the highway, but that was only because of Trowa’s phone call. The Barton heir had called Relena to let her know the situation as it stood and had given them his and Duo’s whereabouts. Relena had then called the police for backup and that was how they had burst onto the scene. Everything that had happened on that night still seemed surreal to Heero and there were times when he could have sworn that it had all been one bad dream. Relena had of course, come in to visit as often as she was allowed. And although, she spent her time talking to him, Heero got the sense that she was finally beginning to realize that she had little to no chance of winning him back.
“I just want to be your friend,” he had told her quietly. “Can’t we just be good friends?”
Tears had welled up in her eyes and she had taken off the simple gold engagement ring and flung it in his face before running out of the room. She hadn’t come back to visit since then…but then again, that had been yesterday. Milliardo had only come by twice, not that it mattered much to Heero whether he showed his face to him again or not. But he had needed to know the whereabouts of the man he had saved and besides the enigmatic smile the blond gave him each time, Heero was beginning to get even more frustrated at Milliardo’s unwillingness to tell him anything.
Duo had not visited him…yet.
He felt the dull ache of misery sear through him as the thought came back to hit him with a vengeance.
That’s right. He hasn’t come. He won’t come. He didn’t go to David’s funeral…why should he come to see me now?
He raised a hand to scrub his eyes angrily, which had begun to burn with unshed tears before he allowed it to fall back to the bed heavily.
A light knock on the door had him glancing quickly at the clock. Visiting hours were no longer in effect. So who could it possibly be?
“Can I come in, Heero?”
A reluctant and small smile came to his lips as he heard the softly spoken Japanese words. Keiko only spoke in Japanese whenever she was extremely angry or in a particularly good mood. According to her, it would be a shame to let their native tongue go to waste if they didn’t continue speaking it whenever chance they got.
“Yeah…” he replied as he held up his hand in greeting, watching her step carefully into the room and close the door gently behind her. She was dressed in a white sweater and a long black skirt that fit her like a second skin. The bruises on her face had begun to heal nicely and in a few days they were bound to be gone completely. She was carrying a bouquet of orchids, which she dropped unceremoniously onto a table. Pulling a chair closer to his bed, she sat down with a heavy sigh escaping her lips.
“What are you still doing here?” she asked with a raised brow as she eyed his hospital gown-clad form. “I thought you were supposed to be out by now.”
Heero shrugged and shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. You tell them to get me out of here.”
“Wish I could, brother,” she replied with a small smile that made her look so much different and even more beautiful. Their eyes met and they held each other’s gaze for a long moment each knowing that they had so much to tell the other but not knowing where to begin.
“I’m glad you are okay, Keiko,” he finally said quietly. “You turned out…alright…”
She had the grace to blush at the intense look in his eyes as she waved her hand in dismissal. “Stop saying that. I haven’t done anything.” She got to her feet and stood beside the window, her gaze now pinned on the deceptively calm ocean.
“Has he come yet?” she asked suddenly, causing Heero to blush darkly at how direct the question had been.
“No…” he mumbled. “No, he…hasn’t…”
“That idiot!” Keiko barked out coldly as she spun around to face him again. “No one has seen him at the house for the past two weeks either! Where could he have gone?”
Heero lowered his lashes and tried hard to squash down the growing worry. Duo couldn’t have…
“I mean, his things are still there,” Keiko continued, unaware of the huge sigh of relief that escaped her cousin at that little piece of good news. “He just hasn’t been sleeping in the house, that’s all. I’m…”
“Worried?” Heero finished with a teasing smile.
“Like hell I am! That…that…that…he almost killed me!”
Heero chuckled weakly at the memory of Duo’s horrible driving on that night. But the laughter died down as he felt the claws of loneliness bury themselves into his heart again. For one brief moment on that night, he had touched the teacher again. Had Duo had an inkling that this might happen? Was that kiss a sort of…goodbye?
No…I can’t…I don’t want it to be…
“Yuzuki said she might drop by again later on tonight,” Keiko said around a yawn. “She seems to be doing well again.”
Heero gave a small nod. “You never did tell us why you went looking for her, Keiko,” he said with a puzzled look on his face as he noticed the dull red hue on her cheeks.
And sounding a bit too defensive, she replied curtly. “Is it so wrong to look for someone now? I was just trying to help out, that’s all.”
Heero didn’t buy it, but rather than worry too much about Keiko’s credibility, he focused his attention on the events that had surrounded the Japanese woman. Luckily, Yuzuki had been at home when Trowa and Quatre had arrived. They had both, naturally, wanted to know her reason for leaving, but all she had told them was something along the lines of people changing and people needing to move on with their lives. She had served the Yuy family for so long now that she thought it was time for her to depend on herself. She would still love and cherish Heero and would do her best to visit him at any and all times possible.
People change. People need to move on…
Keiko sat down on the chair again and stared into her cousin’s rather sad countenance. “Kami-sama, you’re both so clueless sometimes,” she muttered with irritation. “After all you have both been through, he just chooses to disappear. And you saved his life too! The ungrateful bastard!”
“That’s why you love him, right?” Heero asked quietly.
“Lo…Love??” came the flustered stammer from the red-faced girl. “I am so over him! So don’t worry, I have no plans to steal your precious boy-friend from you…”
Heero lifted his lowered gaze to stare at the now silent girl in bemusement. “What is it?” he prodded gently.
Keiko shook her head and gave a surprisingly shy smile. “It’s nothing. It’s just that…”
A sudden knock on the door had both of them blinking in surprise before gaping at the head that stuck itself into the room. In a voice that was filled with complete boredom, Milliardo spoke up.
“You told me you were only going to be here for ten minutes, Keiko. It’s been almost half an hour.”
The flush on the girl’s cheeks did not lessen as she caught the bewildered look her cousin was giving her.
Milliardo was actually talking to Keiko…normally?!
The blond caught Heero’s look and stepped into the room with a light shrug. “She made me bring her here, so don’t look at me or her like that. There’s nothing going on between us.”
Keiko scowled. “Like I would want anything to do with a brainless loser like you.”
The Peacecraft heir tightened his jaw at the jab and gave a curt nod. “Well, you might as well find the bus to go home on. I’m out of here.”
“Wait!” the girl cried out quickly as she rose to her feet to place a soft but quick kiss on her cousin’s cheek. “Sorry, Heero, but I’ve got to go with him. I can’t take the bus. I…uh…I have no money with me.”
They both knew she was lying. Keiko would have rather walked the distance than use any public mode of transportation. Yes, she was that spoiled.
“Whatever makes you happy, Keiko,” Heero muttered around a small smile. “Take care now. And thank you for visiting me.”
Another light blush filled her cheeks as she gave a small nod. “No worries, Heero. What are cousins for?” And giving him a light wave, she made her way out of the room with a scowling Milliardo following, but Heero’s desperate cry had the blond stopping in his tracks.
“What is it now?” he asked lazily, not really looking at the teen on the bed. He already had an inkling of what the question was bound to be, but an inner perverted need to torture Heero a bit longer reared its ugly head again.
Heero grit his teeth at the smug look on Milliardo’s face, but forced himself to ask as politely as possible. “Have you heard anything yet?”
The blond shook his head. “No. Oh, I’m sorry, looks like the boyfriend isn’t hanging around you any more, is he?”
“Or maybe you should take his lead and move on, Heero. He seems to be doing that easily enough, why can’t you?”
But the blond wasn’t done yet. Luckily, Keiko was out of sight and he was free to do as he pleased. Retribution was a wonderful thing. Not that there was really any reason for Milliardo to feel a need for revenge, but he guessed that the very idea of Heero falling for someone he might have had a chance with was enough to fuel his jealous streak.
“What’s the matter, Heero? Where’s all that tough guy talk? Are you just going to sit there and let him go find another young man to tutor, hmm? Why don’t you…?”
“Go fuck yourself,” Heero growled out with barely contained fury. He would have loved to get off the bed to wipe that smug look off the blond’s face, but he knew that his legs would fail him at this point. He hadn’t moved in two weeks and his joints were bound to take some time to get into better working condition.
Instead of getting upset, the insult seemed to only tickle Milliardo’s funny bone as he gave a hearty chuckle in response. “Good one, friend. Good one.” He made a show of glancing at his watch before giving Heero a wink and a patronizing grin. “Looks like my time here in Loser’s Ward is over. Remember what I said, Heero. People change. They need to move on. Think about that, friend. See you around.”
And with a light mocking bow, the heir let himself out, leaving only an empty shell of a young man in his wake.
“I feel a bit weird doing this,” Quatre mumbled as he picked up the small statue of something that looked like a goat. It had been sitting among other similar looking statues on the wide mantel-piece that belonged to a certain teacher. Duo sure did have a lot of strange collectibles.
“What’s so weird about it?” came the muffled question from the taller boy, who was currently rummaging through a box of books that had been sitting in the corner of the living room. “We are just looking for things that could give us a clue as to where he might have gone. I hardly think it’s fair for him to just leave with no warning or explanation.”
Quatre pursed his lips in thought as he picked up a leather bound book that had been lying on one of the couches. “What if he ran away because he couldn’t face the thought of losing Heero,” he mused out loud. “Remember, Trowa? He couldn’t make himself attend David’s funeral…so maybe…”
“But Heero isn’t dead, Quatre,” Trowa reasoned with a sigh as he tossed yet another book to the side. “Damn…there’s got to be someone that knows about his whereabouts.”
Trowa blinked in confusion at the softly mumbled words before turning to face his blond companion. “What’s that?”
Quatre pointed to the book he was holding. “It’s written in here. ‘To the coolest reject I know, love Wufei’…”
“Let me see that.” Trowa walked up to pluck the book out of the Arabian’s hands, eager and excited green eyes reading the smooth calligraphy over and over again. “That’s him! Don’t you remember, Quatre? The guy we met at Duo’s pool party!”
“Oh yeah! I remember now,” the blond agreed with growing excitement. Things were looking up now. “Wufei…Wufei…” he wracked his brain for the last name, but Trowa beat him to the punch.
“Right. So, what do we do now? Call him? Visit him?”
“Get a phone directory,” Trowa suggested as he began to make his way towards Duo’s bedroom to search for any possible address books lying around. “The sooner we speak to him, the better for us…and Heero.”
Now, Wufei wasn’t one to question Fate and what it had in store for him, but in this case he had the feeling that he was about to make an exception.
The morning had started innocently enough. There was nothing out of the ordinary to complain about. He always woke up at about seven in the morning, had a quick jog around the block, came back in and got himself ready for work. Much to Meiran’s chagrin, he always had the tendency to skip breakfast and settled for getting only a doughnut and a cup of coffee from the small shop a few blocks away. He really didn’t know why she should complain. It wasn’t as if he was eating himself into the ground or anything.
After breakfast came work. Now that he was in the executive ranks, he didn’t really need to answer to anyone else but the big guy on the top floor, so he could come in at whatever time he liked. However, Wufei was punctual and never failed to miss his ten o’clock daily meetings with the members of his department.
The accounting division was bound to be a failure without him, he figured with a smirk as he punched the buttons on the elevator that was to take him to his office. Without his knowledge and expertise, all those bumbling fools would have made a wreck of an otherwise successful company.
The doors slid open and he gave absentminded nods of greeting to the ones that came his way. It was a luxurious place, if he did say so himself. Functional and tastefully furnished, the beige and tan colors muted and created a sense of professionalism that was sadly lacking in today’s business world.
“Good morning, Mr. Chang,” came the lithe sing-song voice from his secretary. She was a beautiful dark-skinned girl, who had just graduated from a well-known university with honors, which was a rarity in itself. Giving her a rare smile, he nodded and accepted the folder she handed to him.
“Thank you, Amy,” he responded as he made the turn towards his office, only to stop dead in his tracks as his gaze fell upon the headline that blared at him from a newspaper that had been left on a side table.
‘Billionaire’s son hospitalized…’
That shouldn’t have been enough to grab his attention, but it was the name beneath it that had Wufei snatching the paper off the table with trembling hands.
“Yuy…Heero Yuy…” he mumbled thickly as dark eyes scanned the report. “Shot…eye witnesses…girl…Peacecraft…Milliardo…Relena…”
Duo? Where was Duo in all of this?
The report had not mentioned anything about the young man on the scene, but Wufei had the feeling that the teacher must have been there. So what had happened? Why hadn’t Duo been mentioned?
/I can’t deal with it, Wufei…I can’t stand to see those I love suffering…because of me…/
Amy was startled at the vehemence of her boss’s cry but she wasn’t one to question him on matters that were on a personal level. She could clearly see that he was agitated and she wisely kept her distance.
“Amy,” Wufei began briskly as he began to make his way out of the office. “I want you to call Kohae and tell him to lead the meeting this morning. I will not be around for a while, so forward all my calls, okay?”
“No…don’t forward my calls,” he corrected after a few seconds of thought. “Just take down messages or tell them that I will call back later on.”
“Yes, sir,” she repeated quietly as she took down the notes. “Will that be all, sir?”
The Chinese man frowned in thought for a moment before shaking his head. “That will be all. Have a good day, Amy.”
With a light nod, he made his way out of the office and towards a place he knew a certain teacher would be.
Apparently, he wasn’t the only one looking for Duo as he had just gotten a phone call from two of the unlikeliest of people. For a second, the names had not rung any bells in his mind, but once they had mentioned Duo and Heero in the same breath, he had recognized their voices on the spot.
And now, here he was in front of the apartment building that Duo had once called home, waiting for the two boys to make an appearance. They had all promised to meet here and even though Wufei was doubtful that his friend would be at home, there was no harm in trying, was there?
He glanced towards the windows, wondering if perhaps the man with the braid was watching from up above. But the eerie stillness was quite unnerving and for a moment, Wufei debated on whether barging in there unannounced was really a good idea in the first place. He was sure that Duo would be upset if he found out he was being ambushed like this.
He spun around quickly, surprised (and a bit upset at being caught off guard) at the presence of the two boys he had been waiting for. They must have grown a bit taller since the last time they met, but there was no denying who they were. Trowa Barton and Quatre Winner were actually standing before him. Wufei glanced at the lone black car that was parked by the curb with a wary smile. Not a good idea to park such an expensive looking car in such a neighborhood, but then again, it could end up being the safest place for it.
“Trowa? Quatre, I believe?” he responded with an outstretched hand in greeting. “Nice to meet you both again.”
The teens gave small sighs of relief, having wondered if they would have to reintroduce themselves all over again. They had been lucky to find one of Duo’s old address books in one of the boxes he kept in the basement. Well, actually they had found Meiran’s number and had called her first. She had been more than willing to share any and all information about her husband-to-be. That was the only way they had gotten access to his cell-phone number in the first place. But those matters were quite trivial compared with what they had to deal with at the moment.
“We are really sorry for taking you away from your business,” Trowa began quietly.
Wufei waved a hand in dismissal, although he had a friendly smile on his face. “It’s no problem at all. I would have taken a break anyway. I just saw the newspaper this morning.”
Both boys gave small but uneasy smiles, knowing full well that the older man was going to ask them a question. However, sensing their uneasiness, Wufei gave a small nod instead and began to lead the way into the building. There would be time to find out everything and this was not it.
“Watch your step,” he warned as he pushed open the door that led to the front lobby. Trowa and Quatre tried hard not to wrinkle their noses in distaste at the foul stench of rotten vegetables and wet feet that assailed their senses. A loud cry from a baby permeated the already noisy building as doors banged open and shut, added with noises from bickering neighbors or couples.
The two heirs exchanged wary glances with one another, wondering just how anyone could live in such a place and retain their sanity. But, not being one to judge, they followed Wufei’s sure and steady steps, hands stuck deep into their coats as they did not want to touch the dingy staircase rails or walls. Black with soot and covered with some rather obscene graffiti, they shuddered and unconsciously huddled closer to the older man.
Finally, they got to Duo’s floor and the boys were grateful that it was at least a bit quieter than the rest. Wufei’s strides took them towards Room 531, which was locked as evident from the small twist the Chinese man had given to the door knob. He pressed the doorbell and waited.
“I can’t…can’t believe he lives here,” Quatre muttered thickly as he moved closer to his partner. The sound of something like glass crashing on the floor above them had them both moving even closer to their guide.
“It’s okay, Quatre. It’s not as bad as it looks really,” Wufei replied softly, as he peered through the peephole. He couldn’t see a thing of course, but then again that didn’t mean anything, did it? Was Duo even home?
“How long have you known Duo?” Trowa asked in genuine curiosity. “You seem to know him better than…anyone.”
“And how would you know that?” Wufei asked in faint amusement. “I’ve only known him for three years. That’s hardly long enough to consider myself a ‘Duo’ expert.”
“But you’ve known him…and you know more about him than we do,” Trowa insisted with a light frown. “What is Duo like, really? Please tell us.”
The Chinese man’s brow creased lightly as he stepped away from the door. He eyed the two boys who had eager but serious expressions on their faces. They looked genuinely concerned for their friend and he could understand that. He felt the same way about Duo and he would be damned before he betrayed the American’s trust.
“Why should I tell you anything about him?” he asked with that same look of wariness in his eyes. “If Duo chose not to reveal too much about himself, then who am I to fill in the missing pieces?”
“Because those missing pieces are what we need to make Heero better, Wufei,” Quatre replied quietly. “Heero needs Duo and I am sure that Duo feels the same way. He just can’t keep running away from the truth whenever it hits him in the face.”
Wufei’s jaw tightened at the comment, but he refused to say anything.
“Please, Wufei…anything at all you can say to help us…” Trowa pleaded again. “We would greatly appreciate it.”
You have friends now, Duo, Wufei thought ruefully. People who actually give a damn now. So, friend? What do you have to say for yourself?
The nurse looked stricken as she tried desperately to get the boy back into his bed.
“Please, Mr. Yuy, you’ve been going at this for an hour now. You need to get some rest!”
But the Japanese boy paid her no attention. Drops of sweat rolled off his skin as he moved the crutches again. His arms were practically numb from the constant maneuvering he had been doing all afternoon. He grit his teeth and moved them forward again, biting back a cry as the pain shot up his spine. He was aggravating the wound on his shoulder, but anything was better than lying down and doing nothing.
He had to walk again. If not for his sake, then for Duo’s sake.
Bless me father, for I have sinned. It’s been….one year since my last confession.
/What is your sin, my son?/
I have…I have killed someone again, father. Someone I love very, very much…
She would have to call the doctor. This was getting too much for her to watch. It was as if the boy was punishing himself for something.
“Please, Mr. Yuy. You are bleeding again. Please stop this!”
One more…just one more step and my toes will move again.
He moved the crutches, having to swerve a little to avoid hitting his bed, but all he succeeded in doing was pulling the muscle of his left arm a bit tighter, hence causing his already blood-soaked bandages to darken a bit more. He could feel himself getting light-headed, but he also knew that he was almost there.
He could put his right foot down now.
Wait for me, Duo. I’m coming!
/And how did you kill him, my son?/
With my love. I think. I think it’s a sin to be in love with someone, don’t you agree? You hurt them without really wanting to. You just do and even though you tell yourself it will never happen again and you do all you can to avoid it ever happening again, it just does. It’s like a fucking avalanche…Forgive my language, father.
/It’s alright. In the heat of confession, we are hardly in control of our emotions. And what did you do next, my son?/
I ran away.
She left the room. She couldn’t take it anymore. She had to get some help. The boy was going to die right in front of her and she had just been recruited for only a month.
My parents…are separated, Duo. Do you know that?
He placed his right foot down again, forcing…willing the lax muscles to work for him. A little twitch on his big toe. Progress at last!
They are getting a divorce, Duo. Do you know that?
His left foot was going to be the killer. It was as if it had decided not to work for him at all.
My mother is going to be on her own now, just like she wants to be. Shouldn’t I be happy for them, Duo?
He groaned and forced the wave of nausea to dissipate. He could feel the blood dripping down his arm now. He figured he must have overdone it a little.
The door burst open and the doctors rushed in. Voices filled with concern drifted in and out of his consciousness as he struggled not to pass out from his semi-delirious state. He forced his eyes open to stare out of the window, feeling the tears he so longed to fall continue to lock themselves away in his heart.
I love you, Duo. Don’t you know that?
He tightened the grocery bag against his chest as he made the turn towards his apartment. There was something always so soothing about being in a church and talking about your problems to someone who couldn’t really give a damn about you. Priests were a dime a dozen in this city. They were very good secret keepers. Everyone’s nasty business was kept behind their hollowed walls and if by any chance any of them got a conscience and reported to the police…then that was the parishioner’s problem to deal with.
He stopped as he noticed the black car parked on the curbside, amethyst depths narrowed in thought as he read the license plate. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, not really feeling anything much as he figured it was bound to happen sooner or later. He knew it couldn’t possibly be Heero, so it was all narrowed down to Trowa and Quatre.
Damn, but those boys were pretty nosey.
With another resigned sigh, he made his way into the building and towards his floor. Sure enough, standing like a group of tax-collectors were the two culprits and his best friend. He forced a warm smile on his face and waved lightly.
what do I owe the pleasure of having you fine gentlemen visit my home?”
He winced at the accusatory looks that were thrown at him, feeling his cheeks darken with color as he realized that neither of them were smiling much.
Wufei was the first to break the thick silence as he said quietly, “You know what we are here for, Duo. We don’t need to go into details, do we?”
The teacher frowned and shook his head lightly, hands reaching into his pockets to bring out his keys. “Sorry, boys but the lesson’s over,” he muttered thickly. “Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to go into my apartment now.”
“How can you do this to him?” Quatre asked in a voice filled with pain and disbelief. “How could you do this to…both of you?”
“It’s simple, Quatre,” came the cold retort. “We all have to grow up sometime and move on. It’s obvious that I’m not the one for Heero and never will be. I will only cause him trouble and I don’t want that in his life or mine, got it?”
“Bull shit, Duo,” Trowa interrupted just as coldly. “You just can’t deal with the fact that you’re going to be responsible for him, can you? He saved your goddamn life and you can’t even go to say thank you?!”
“I don’t remember asking him to do that for me, did I?” Duo asked with a cold smirk on his face. “It’s always the same fucking thing, isn’t it? Why? Why do they always feel like they have to save my goddamn life?! And what do I get in return? They die! That’s what!”
“Heero’s still alive, Duo,” Wufei said softly. There was a look in his eyes that Duo knew only too well. It was the same look he’d the first time they had actually had a real conversation together.
Back then, the teacher had hated it on sight but it had done wonders in the long run. He had opened up and bared his soul to the Chinese man. But now…things were different.
“I can’t go back, Wufei,” he muttered thickly, as if hoping that his friend would at least be on his side. “Can’t you see? I can’t go back. I can never go back.”
Resounding, sharp and loud, a shocked silence descended on the quartet as Duo’s gaze widened in surprise. For a moment, the pain didn’t register in his mind, as all that filled his vision was the teary-eyed blond standing before him.
He had been slapped and by Quatre no less.
What the fuck was the world coming to?
“You…” he began softly, still in disbelief as a hand slowly lifted to caress his reddened cheek.
The Arabian did not allow him to finish. “You can go back, Duo,” he said fervently, his voice thickened with the tears that had begun to cascade down his cheeks. “For Allah’s sake, you can! Why won’t you let him completely in, Duo? He has changed so much because of you! We have never seen Heero this happy before and it was all thanks to you! You can’t just leave him now, damn it! Give him one final lesson before you walk away at least!”
Trowa held on to the trembling shoulders of his partner, the same look of determination and plea in his eyes. “Just one more, Duo,” he added quietly. “As his teacher, you owe him that much.”
Duo’s eyes burned as he stared into their eyes. What are you two asking me to do? I am too…
A hand on his shoulder had him staring blindly into the smiling face of his best friend.
“Wu…fei…” he croaked out weakly. What do I do, friend? Tell me what to do.
And as Wufei wrapped his arms around his trembling friend’s body, offering him the warmth that he needed so badly, he whispered softly into the teacher’s ear in a voice that left no room for compromise.
“It’s time for one more lesson, Duo.” | <urn:uuid:bd8659a9-0ed5-421e-b335-0706b11f11c3> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.kiyasama.com/tutor/22.htm | 2015-03-28T05:11:50Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297281.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00160-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991437 | 8,492 |
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85% would repurchase
Package Quality: 4.0
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on 11/12/2013 6:01:00 PM
More reviews by SorceressOfTheDark
Age: 56 & Over
Skin: Dry, Fair, Cool
Hair: Blond, Straight, Fine
My sweet, sweet Halston. How do I love thee. Let me count the ways. This is a perfume that knows sweetness, but not sugar, that understands bitterness without a sour bite, that encompasses what the woods has to offer-in all that Mother Nature can produce, with the warmth and sweetness of the summer leaves, the cool crispness of Autumn bark with its lichen and mosses, the reverence of cold, crisp Winters still, and the dank, decrepitness of Springs thawing leaves, left-over and rotted remnants from season't past and now warmed by yet another season. Halston is a gestation of cycles, of primal urges and tempered by societal banality and its' demands, and that's exactly what 1975 was all about, its inaugural year. The Primal Scream was uttered in metropolitan cities, bell bottoms scraped the floors with Frye boots and platforms danced the night away while shiny winged-back hair did the hustle. Those years were a paradox of times and so is this perfume. One side is dark, damp and disquieting with its mosses while its counterpart of sweetness brings one back to better moments. America had come out of the war, and spirits, altho still dealing with adversity needed to get away. America needed a diversion. Disco was born. Halston's powerful sweetness overlies all of the notes in this timeless (now) classic. Perfumes address what society is feeling, what they may want or what they may need., Halston did just that and did it very successfully. Today's available versions are two. One is called an "alcohol-free spray cologne", available in a spray version, same bottle with tree moss extract and oak moss extract. This Halston has an oily base that dries quickly and is excellent as a perfumed moisturizer. Longevity is shorter because of its composition. The bottle without or without the name, still produced within the last few months, also has the tree moss and oak moss extract is a natural spray cologne. (I'd suggest checking the batch number for the actual date produced.) Sillage is wonderful as is longevity. The depths of todays' version may not be as strong as one of yesteryear but they are still very good and smell absolutely wonderful. They are all just completely different animals and need to be appreciated as such. The oil is sweeter at first, the vintage is deeper, and the new formulation is lighter. They are still Halston. If you adore a strong vetiver mingled with sweet patchouli and the woods, this one's for you.Top Notes: Mint, Melon, Green Leaves, Peach, Bergamot.Middle Notes: Carnation, Orris Root, Jasmine, Rose, Cedar, Ylang-Ylang, Marigold.Base Notes: Sandalwood, Patchouli, Amber, Musk, Oakmoss, Vetiver, Incense.
11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
on 7/11/2013 2:41:00 PM
More reviews by sunshine824
Skin: Combination, Tan, Not Sure
Hair: Black, Other, Other
I had to write a new review for this fragrance as I've been wearing it a LOT the past few weeks and have several different variations of it - and I love all of them.Vintage: I have a vintage splash bottle of the cologne that has 'Halston' on the bottom label and on the box as well. This one is light and refreshing. Smells very chypre-ish but never heavy or stuffy at all. It's quite green, more green than the more current offerings and if I had to compare it to any other fragrance it would be Estee Lauder's Private Collection or Alliage. It's smooth and well blended. There is nothing harsh or loud about it at all. I think any complaints about Halston would be of the newer formulations by Elizabeth Arden(though they are quite good).Older Reformulation: This bottle has Elizabeth Arden as the manufacturer but does NOT have the name "Halston" written on the bottle. The juice is lighter in color than the vtg. but is MUCH stronger. It's a bit harsher and less green than the vtg. and has some sharp edges to it. The opening can be rather harsh and drydown is more patchouli heavy than the vtg, but it's nice and what I've smelled the most often and recognized as "Halston."Most Recent Reformulation: This bottle also has EA as the manufacturer, but the juice is even lighter and almost pink. It has "Halston" written on the bottle. Between this new 'pink' juice and the previous darker reformulation, I'd say this one is actually closer to the vintage bottle of Halston that I have. It is a bit greener and fresher with a little bit of sweetness to it(though I would never call it "sweet"). It mimics the green grassy drydown of the vtg cologne moreso than the older reformulation. But it's also has a little more patchouli than the vtg(probably to replace some of the oakmoss that is restricted). Both this and the other reformulation have more sillage and lasting power than the vintage. I've also read reviews that said that the reformulated version is "less pretty" than vintage. This pink version is closer to vintage and more pretty than the older reform. It still has a little more patch than the vintage, but even on my patch amplifying skin(and I don't like patchouli) it's not heavy or over bearing. I think Elizabeth Arden did a great job with this version of the reformulation. I can tell they put a lot of effort into bringing it back to the original and I can actually smell some of the notes in this better than in the vintage. I don't understand why so many reformulations end in heartbreak and Elizabeth Arden can actually bring Halston back to it's original form(for the most part). I also have a small bottle of the perfume that was manufactured by Elizabeth Arden and while I like the drydown, the opening is quite rough. It's strong and heavy on the woods. It's probably a perfume version of the earlier reformulation that is also harsh.Halston is unique and beautiful. I love that it isn't overly sweet nor is it stuffy. It could be worn as an every day casual scent or only for special occasions. It would be perfect in a black tie event or a picnic. I think it was made to be a signature scent. It's so uniqe and unforgettable that lately when I wear something else I end up wearing Halston instead of it because other fragrances are boring to me. Can I also mention how much I just LOVE the bottle? It's one of only 2 or 3 bottles that I would want to keep whether I liked the fragrance or not(the others being Mitsouko & Chanel No. 5 for their classic lines, and the Tocca bottles). But the Halston bottle is chic, naughty, and original so I like it best.I will definitely repurchase and will probably be repurchasing the new 'pink' juice. It's affordable, easy to find, and closer to the vintage with a little more 'oomph.'
8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
on 1/4/2013 9:43:00 PM
More reviews by Therealslayergrrl
Skin: Combination, Medium, Warm
Hair: Brown, Wavy, Medium
I think this is where I got my love for chypre's came from. Someone in their infinite wisdom gave me a bottle of this when I was in 6th grade.. Yikes! It was super strong and WAY too strong for me then. I think I probably killed my poor classmates sense of smell with this. (sorry guys) It was so bad my Mom took it away from me and I got a lesson on how to properly wear perfume from my Grandmother. Just one whiff and I fall in love all over again.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
on 2/9/2012 5:28:00 PM
More reviews by cjenn
Skin: Normal, Other, Not Sure
Hair: Brunette, Other, Other
The bottle is so classic, so reminiscent of Studio 54 and the heyday of disco what with Halston himself holding court at the bar of the original New York discotheque. That said, I always remember my mom had this bottle on her dresser and it just screamed 1970s! It's very powdery on the top notes and is ultra sexy and made for the confident woman!!!! LOVE THIS classic fragrance.
on 6/28/2011 9:39:00 PM
More reviews by stayce
Skin: Acne-prone, Other, Not Sure
Hair: Blond, Other, Other
Well, this is really two reviews: maybe three years ago I came across a bottle at Marshall's and tried it. At the time, it felt too adult and too heavy for Southern California, and I discarded it. Last year I was seized with curiosity and got a travel size bottle at the fancy Rite Aid. And... yikes. I don't know if the first bottle I bought was older stock or whether they rolled out a cheaper reformulation for the mini bottles, but it was an unbelievably harsh blast of artificial rose warring with Chlorox, with no base notes. I hope it was a fluke.
on 2/11/2011 8:03:00 PM
More reviews by Shadow_Witch
Skin: Normal, Fair-Medium, Cool
Hair: Brown, Wavy, Fine
I read a lot of reviews about the evils of perfume reformulation here on MUA. I too, have contributed one or two but it would appear by the reviews I am reading lately that every second review of any fragrance that has been around at least 10 years dismisses all that is not the original production year as REFORMULATED. And to perfumistas, reformulated = the devil. Just like food and wine, even if you follow the same recipe to the letter every time, there is always the occasional "not so good/bad batch" as well as the superlatively good batch, no? Sometimes when you're cooking, you may be missing an ingredient and need to substitute.... often, it comes out tasting the same, no? Back to this review: I am a self-proclaimed '70s fragrance freak. All my favourite fragrances were produced and first released within the years 1970 and 1979. I mourned the day I finished my original bottle of Halston from the late '70s. The reviews here on MUA and fragrance boards/blogs throughout the internet had me convinced that the current Halston "formulation" was nowhere near the original. So much so that I didn't bother replacing my bottle for years. Then last week, I broke down and bought a bottle at the cheapest price I could find.This brings me to my review of Halston. I received my little bottle of Halston with the Halston printed on the bottle which, according to noses who know is not worth the bother. I opened the box with mixed feelings of impending disappointment and cautious optimism, I sprayed it in the air. Oh my how wrong they were! My little bottle of Halston is pure oakmoss-y, green, incense, musky chypre goodness!!!This makes me think that perhaps we sometimes "remember" the fragrances of our past/youth... wrong? Also, our body chemistry changes too. Hormones, diet, smoking, medication, etc, these things and more all affect how a fragrance develops on our skin every time we wear it.If you have loved Halston since the seventies like I have or, if you've never even sniffed it. I recommend you do. This baby is a little powdery and very, very, sultry. This is ultra femme with a capital confidence. This is not the fragrance of a woman who needs to smell like fruity florals or dessert to feel attractive. Halston is the fragrance of women who feel good in their skin no matter how old/young they are. I'm happy to have my Halston back. Will definitely repurchase. The bottle design is legendary. continued >>
19 out of 21 people found this review helpful.
on 10/25/2010 8:20:00 PM
More reviews by Chamuda
Skin: Other, Other, Not Sure
Hair: Other, Other, Other
Halston, where have you been all my life?Love the feminine softly curved bottle, and love the juice even more.It's the perfect green, mossy, oakmoss, incense musky perfumey scent. It sprays on nice but dries down even nicer. I actually find it calming when I smell it - as if it has aromatherapeutic effect.The lotion is nice too, a bit more mildly green in scent, will go well with the cologne. Both are highly recommended!
on 10/15/2010 11:49:00 PM
More reviews by youdroppedabalmonme2
Skin: Very Oily, Fair, Not Sure
Hair: Red, Other, Other
This review is for Halston **before** it was acquired (and reformulated, and cheapened) by EA Fragrances. I tried some of the Halston now being sold in drugstores and discount stores, and while it retains some of its original character, it falls absolutely flat in comparison to the original. My advice is to get this on eBay-- someone is always selling vintage stock.SO, to return to my point: Original 1975 formulation of Halston is a magical chypre on my skin. Warm, woodsy, and clean, it has some of the best sillage I've ever experienced in a fragrance. Elegant, yet subtly sexy... it reminds me in the drydown of more assertive chypres like Aromatics Elixir and Paloma Picasso, but where those scents can be aggressive and difficult, Halston is just plain lovely. At first spray, it does smell a bit "dated," if only because it employs real oakmoss and is not the faintest bit sweet. But give it 10 minutes, and it will steal your heart with its gorgeous unfolding. I can see why previous reviewers have equated Halston with the glamour and excitement of the disco era. Still, it is timeless.
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
on 10/15/2010 4:20:00 PM
More reviews by rsmuskie
For all you sweet young naive things out there who think that anything made in the 70's or 80's is granny or old lady, have I got news for YOUZE: this fragrance is a man slayer. Period. Doesn't matter if the guy is 19 or 90. This is the fragrance that wins them all - hands down! I hadn't worn it in years, but recently wore it to the bank, and a 20 year old teller was fawning all over the scent. "I don't know what you're wearing, but you smell really great!" I hated to tell him that not only was he not even born when the fragrance was in its first heydey, but that his parents were both probably still in grade school and hadn't even met yet... And yet, the kid knows what he likes! CIndy Crawford in her Halston: enough said. If you're bold enough to try it, do so.
12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
on 2/25/2010 9:36:00 PM
More reviews by crickett85
Skin: Dry, Fair, Not Sure
I haven't worn this scent for years but recently got a bottle while feeling nostalgic.I think the scent has changed. While I used to think of this as a pleasant mossy-woodsy scent, it now smells chypre but with a cloyingly sweet undertone (that I don't remember it having before). Somehow I think that it is less oakmoss and more something(?) else, more of a cloyingly sweet scent.This REALLY has sillage....tremendous lasting power and a little goes a long way...so use lightly.And, while it's recommended for daytime use, I find a scent this heavy more appropriate to evening wear.Overall, I still like the scent but not as much as I did when I was in college back in the 80s. I really think that is because the scent has been reformulated. I STILL just love the bottle though.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Are you sure this product is discontinued?
daasfdsad, asdadasd, addasdasdas, asdasdasdasfsdfgdfs, fgdssdgfdgfg, gfgdgdfgdhfgj
Reviewer did not try the product Profanity/Vulgar language Advertising (Vendor promotion, iHerb Coupons etc.) Marketing campaign (BzzAgent, Influenster etc.) | <urn:uuid:91cd4d1a-3eee-4f50-985e-51559ecbd633> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.makeupalley.com/product/showreview.asp/ItemId=38294/Halston/Elizabeth-Arden/Fragrances | 2015-03-28T05:43:50Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297281.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00160-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963233 | 3,666 |
Please, post suggestions and improvements only. "I can't understand line xxx could you improve it?" is acceptable and will be addressed if pointed out. Just don't turn this into a Q&A thread. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This guide is tailored for version 9.94+ since there have been many changes to RNG Reporter over the years and methods have become more efficient. I. [jump=intro]Introduction[/jump] II. [jump=startup]Getting started[/jump] -[jump=eonsetup]Setting up EonTimer[/jump] -[jump=eonuse]Using EonTimer[/jump] -[jump=clocksetup]Setting up DS clock/Hitting your seed using EonTimer[/jump] III. [jump=capture]Capturing [/jump] -[jump=seedsearch]Searching for a seed[/jump] -[jump=seedverify]Verifying your seed[/jump] [jump=verifyall]*All games[/jump] [jump=verifydp]*DPPt[/jump] [jump=verifyhg]*HGSS[/jump] -[jump=frameadvance]Advancing frames[/jump] [jump=findadvance]*Determining number of advances[/jump] [jump=frameverify]*Verifying frames[/jump] -[jump=specialcase]Special cases [/jump] [jump=wondercard]*Wondercards[/jump] [jump=roamerdp]*DPPt Roamers[/jump] [jump=roamerhg]*HGSS Roamers[/jump] [jump=swarm]*Swarm Pokemon[/jump] [jump=gira]*Distortion World Giratina[/jump] [jump=starter]*Kanto/Johto/Hoenn/Sinnoh Starters[/jump] [jump=sinjoh]*Sinjoh Ruins Dragon Event[/jump] [jump=egggift]*Egg Gifts[/jump] [jump=honey]*Honey Trees[/jump] [jump=fossil]*Fossils[/jump] [jump=rocksmash] *Rock Smash[/jump] [jump=safari]*Safari Zone[/jump] [jump=marsh]*Great Marsh[/jump] [jump=surf]*Surfing/Fishing[/jump] [jump=headbutt]*Headbutt Trees[/jump] [jump=redgyara]*Lake of Rage Red Gyarados[/jump] [jump=trophy]*Trophy Garden[/jump] [jump=manaphy]*Manaphy Egg[/jump] IV. [jump=breed]Breeding[/jump] -[jump=seedfind]Finding a seed for IVs[/jump] -[jump=eggfind]Finding a seed for shiny Egg[/jump] DPPt -[jump=egggetdp]Getting your shiny Egg[/jump] -[jump=getivsdp]Getting the correct IVs[/jump] HGSS -[jump=egggethg]Getting your shiny Egg[/jump] -[jump=getivshg]Getting the correct IVs[/jump] V. [jump=id]ID/SID[/jump] -[jump=findpid]Finding a PID[/jump] -[jump=findid]Finding an ID[/jump] -[jump=getid]Getting your ID[/jump] -[jump=confirmid]Checking your Delay[/jump] VI. [jump=misc]Miscellaneous[/jump] -[jump=chain]Chained Shinies[/jump] -[jump=cc]Cute Charm[/jump] [a]intro[/a] I: Introduction So you've encountered all these people with shiny Pokemon with perfect IVs, and now you want to know how to get some for yourself? Look no further, for this guide will show you every step of getting your dream Pokemon. This guide's purpose is to walk you through the basics of RNG manipulation in the 4th Generation Pokemon games. It is written with the layman in mind and is intended to be simple and easy to follow, without overwhelming the user with complex computer lingo. At every opportunity given there will be a picture or two that spells out exactly what to do. If you're reading this, it's assumed that you are already familiar with the concept of natures and IVs and have at least unlocked a majority of the content in the Pokemon game you wish to do this in. You must also be using an actual DS and game carts if you wish to follow along. Here are a few terms you must be familiar with before beginning: Seed - A value determined based on the current date, time, and delay Delay - A value determined based on the time spent from the moment the game is booted up to the moment the game file is loaded Frame - A value that increases based on actions that happen in-game. If you don't really understand what these terms are, don't worry about it. It's enough to know that frame, delay, and seed are three things that we are trying to control for our purpose and that manipulating your seed is almost the same thing as manipulating your delay, so there are really only 2 things to keep track of. Occasionally this guide will split up into two sections: one for Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, and another for HeartGold and SoulSilver. This is because some methods differ between the games. Below are the things you'd want to get in order to prepare for this endeavor: Requirements RNG Reporter (latest version is 9.96) Two-stage timer (EonTimer recommended) DPPt Coin Flip Pokétch App HGSS (Optional) All 3 roamers released and NOT caught. Must have one of the following people registered in your Pokégear: ***Professor Elm: you should have his number, but you must do all three of the following: -Show him a hatched Togepi or any of its evolutions -Have a Pokemon withPokérus -Have reached Kanto ***Juggler Irwin (North of Goldenrod City) Recommended for all games Chatot with Chatter (2 recommended) A Pokemon with Synchronize and the nature you're interested in getting A Pokemon with Sweet Scent, or the Honey item Pokemon to help catch other Pokemon (Spore, False Swipe, Thunder Wave, etc) A GBA non-spinoff Pokemon game (basically any game that allows use of the PalPark feature), only for those who have a DS or DS lite. Knowing your SID (Secret ID) for obtaining shiny Pokemon. The easiest way to find this is to use Pokecheck, but if you have no other options then for DPPt you'll need to have multiple Chained shinies and for HGSS you'll need to not have caught the Red Gyarados yet. To find your SID, in RNG Reporter, head to "Find SID from Chained Shinies" under 4th Gen Tools. If using HGSS and the Red Gyarados method, you'll have to capture it but not save, write down the IVs/nature/gender then restart and repeat. In the Chain to SID window, all you have to do is enter your Trainer ID and the data for your Chained Shiny/Red Gyarados then hit Calculate. Keep repeating this using different shinies/Red Gyarados until the "Possibilities" is 1. [a]startup[/a] II: Getting Started Read this first! To start off, download RNG Reporter and EonTimer Pretty much all RNG manipulation processes can be summarized by a few steps, so if you focus on perfecting each step, you should have no trouble cranking out perfect Pokemon. The steps are: -Searching for a seed -Hitting your seed -Verifying your seed -Advancing to the correct frame But first there are some setups that need to be done, starting with our timer. [a]eonsetup[/a] Setting up EonTimer Once you finish this section, you won't have to do this again. First select the button that's circled in green below. Let's take a look at the window below. You'll want to change Countdown Mode to A/V. The only other thing you'll need to change is Action Count, which is basically how many beeps you want EonTimer to make as the timer counts down to 00:00. Next go to the Application tab Select Auto-Save for "On Exit", and it's up to you whether you want the program to check for updates on startup. Once you've done that, you're done and no longer have to do this again. At this point, you'll want to determine your desired method of RNG manipulation so skip to the appropriate section. It's recommended to go to section III first because it's the easiest one to start with. [a]eonuse[/a] Using EonTimer Now we'll show you how to set up EonTimer for a 4th Generation Game. If using DPPt, set Calibrated Delay to 600 and Calibrated Sec. to 14. If using HGSS, set Calibrated Delay to 490 and Calibrated Sec. to 14. Once set, do not touch either value unless you're switching to a game that requires the change. The only thing left to worry about is Target Delay and Target Sec., which can be found in the Seed to Time window, as shown below. Here the Seconds value is 23 and the delay value is 4357, so in EonTimer Target Delay would be 4357 and Target Sec. would be 23. We'll be showing how to set up the Seed to Time window in later sections so don't worry about it for now. Just don't forget to change Target Delay and Target Sec. whenever you're attempting a different seed. [a]clocksetup[/a] Setting up your DS clock and hitting your seed For this section we will be trying to hit seed 0x11111111 using the date 7/28/12 and time 17:54:23 (See the highlighted option in the above picture) If you are attempting to hit another seed, know that you will only need the DATE and TIME for this part. On your DS, click the icon circled above and go to the blue option shown below, and select the calendar. Change the date to the desired date Now we look at EonTimer again; if you're using DPPt, it should be set up as follows: Take note of the Minutes Before Target option; see how it's 2? We'll have to take that into account when we change our time. Our target time is 17:54:23, so simply subtract 2 MINUTES from the time (remember, the format is hours:minutes:seconds) to give us a time of 17:52 and change the DS clock as follows. Do not exit from this screen at this time. Also keep in mind that the subtraction of 2 minutes does not apply all the time. If Minutes Before Target said 0 instead of 2, you should input 17:54 as the time in your DS clock. Now the moment you've been waiting for. With your DS still at the screen above, hover your mouse cursor on the Start button in EonTimer and prepare to press A on your DS at the above screen. Then simultaneously press Start on EonTimer and press A on your DS. Restart your DS and wait at the screen below. When EonTimer reaches 00:00 (And you'll know it's about to if you have it set to Audio or A/V mode since you can hear beeps), press A. The timer should be counting down to 00:00 again. Head to the screen shown below and wait there. Once the second timer reaches 00:00, press A and hope for the best. This approach applies to all 4th generation games. Once you're in-game, head to the section on Seed Verification to see what to do next. [a]capture[/a] III: Capturing a Perfect Pokemon Let's start off with the simplest form of RNG manipulation, the capture. First, we need to choose a target. Either a legendary or a wild Pokemon will work. To make life easier, bring a Pokemon with the Synchronize ability and the nature you wish to get. If you want a wild Pokemon, you'll have to find a Pokemon with Sweet Scent and bring it along as well. If you don't want to go through the trouble of finding a Pokemon with Sweet Scent, then you can use the item Honey, which gives you the same effect. General info for both games [a]seedsearch[/a] Step 1: Searching for a Seed The first thing we need to do is find an IV spread we're content with getting. To do that we need to go to the 4th Generation Time Finder as seen below. Now that we're in Time Finder, we need to fill in some information before we search. Say we want to search for a pure specially based Pokemon. Such a Pokemon would use the IVs 31/x/31/31/31/31 and is typically either Modest, Calm, Bold, or Timid. You'd fill in the Time Finder similar to what's shown in the picture below. Before rushing in, let's take a moment to explain a few entries in Time Finder. Note about the dropboxes next to IVs: == means you want an exact IV. >= means you want an IV greater than or equal to the selected IV. <= means you want an IV less than or equal to the selected IV. != means you want an IV not equal to the selected IV. E means you want an even IV. Useful if you want a certain Hidden Power but don't care too much about an imperfect Base Power. O means you want an odd IV. Useful if you want a certain Hidden Power but don't care too much about an imperfect Base Power. HP means you want an IV that keeps the Hidden Power's Base Power from being lowered. Useful if you want to search for a Hidden Power of 70 Base Power. If you're curious, the IVs that satisfy this are 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22, 23, 26, 27, 30, and 31. HP_E is the same idea as HP, but restricts the search to even IVs. It's useful if you're looking for a specific Hidden Power of 70 Base Power. HP_O is the same idea as HP, but restricts the search to odd IVs. It's useful if you're looking for a specific Hidden Power of 70 Base Power. For DPPt minimum delay should be around 650. For HGSS minimum delay should be around 550. For HGSS it's recommended to set the minimum frame around 10-15. Method Regarding method, for all 4th generation games Method 1 is used only if you're going for the following: Method 1 Pokemon Manaphy Egg Wondercards have their own method, which is just a modified Method 1 DPPt Riolu Egg from Riley Starter Pokemon (NOT recommended) Cynthia's Togepi Egg Fossils from Mining Museum Cresselia, Mesprit, and Kanto bird trio Eevee from Bebe Porygon from Veilstone HGSS Raikou, Entei, and Latios/Latias roamer; the Latios/Latias from the Enigma Stone event is NOT Method 1 Sinjoh Ruins Dragon event where you need Arceus Togepi Egg Bill's Eevee ExtremeSpeed Dratini received from Dragon's Den Kanto/Hoenn/Johto starters (Johto starters NOT recommended) Goldenrod/Celadon Game Corner prizes Tyrogue from Mt. Mortar Pewter City Museum fossils Note: Any Pokemon received from a trade or as a gift that has a fixed nickname and OT (Kenya the Spearow, Gaspar the Haunter, etc.) will have set IVs and nature so RNG manipulation techniques will never work on them. If the Pokemon you seek does not fall into the Method 1 category, select Method J if using Diamond/Pearl/Platinum and Method K if using HeartGold/SoulSilver. Please refer to the [jump=capture]special cases[/jump] section and check if your Pokemon falls under this category Encounter Type As for Encounter Type, if you're going for a Pokemon that has an overworld sprite that isn't the Red Gyarados (Sudowoodo, Snorlax, Heatran, Giratina, Azelf, etc.) select Stationary Pokemon. The rest are self-explanatory. Most of the time you'll be picking Wild Pokemon as your method unless you're only going to capture legendaries, in which case you'd pick Stationary Pokemon. Encounter Slot If you're looking for a specific Pokemon, like a wild Bronzong in Mt. Coronet, you'll need to pay attention to what's called Encounter Slots. An Encounter Slot is what determines the species of Pokemon you'll get. How do we know what's what for the Encounter Slots? On the main window of RNG Reporter, under 4th Gen tools, you'll find tables for this. If using Platinum, select Platinum Encounter Table and ctrl+F "Bronzong" in the page that opens. You'll find that Bronzong is in slot 0, so you'll have to select slot 0 for Encounter Slot. If you don't care about getting a specific Pokemon at the moment leave it as Any. Ability For a list of which abilities are 0 or 1 see here. Now that we've explained the Time Finder, let's see what comes up. Click the Generate button to start searching. If you want to capture a wild shiny, that's also possible. To search for possible wild shiny IVs in your current file, input your ID and SID and check the shiny only box. If you are willing to start a new game to get better IV spreads on your shiny captures it is NOT recommended to search for shinies now, but you can still find out what shiny spreads your current game has. Select an IV range you are satisfied with (usually >=25 in the stats that matter) and whatever natures you're interested in and hit Search. See the picture below for an example layout. Whichever path you choose, the end steps are the same. Once you've found an IV spread, nature, encounter slot, and ability you're satisfied with, right click it and select "Copy Seed to Clipboard". As an example, we'll be using the Modest 31/4/31/31/31/31 spread with seed C1070A66. Head to the 4th Gen Seed To Time window and input your seed and desired year and seconds. It does not matter what you put for year and seconds as long as seconds isn't close to 0 or 60. Once done, hit Generate. The picture below has DPPt selected so if you're playing HGSS, be sure to select that instead! In addition, change the entries next to "Delays" from 10 to 50 and the entries next to "Seconds" from 1 to 2. It's not necessary, but it's important if you actually want to find what delay you've hit. [a]timersetup[/a] Step 2: Timer and clock Setup, hitting your seed Now you can start hunting down your Pokemon! Do NOT close the Seed To Time window as you will need it open for the next 90% of this process. Go back to Section II [jump=eonuse]"Using EonTimer"[/jump] and [jump=clocksetup]"Setting up your DS clock"[/jump] and follow those instructions. Once you're in-game, see the next section on seed verification. [a]seedverify[/a] Step 3: Delay/Seed verification IMPORTANT: For both games, once you have confirmed your delay and if it is odd but your desired delay is even and vice versa, insert either a FRLG or RSE cart into your DS to change this. It's important to note this because if you hit an even delay once you will always hit even delays. Likewise with odd delays, and inserting a GBA Pokemon game in your DS is the only way to flip the delays from even to odd and vice versa. If you do not have a DS that has a second slot for GBA games, change your year in the Seed to Time window by 1. Make sure that you also change the year in your DS clock. [a]verifyall[/a]All games Chatot's Chatter will have varying pitches every time you play it. This is useful if operating in an area with random NPCs or if you have caught all roamers in HGSS. To use this, record a custom Chatter loud enough so that you can distinguish between high and low pitches. Once in-game listen to Chatot's cry and note the pitches. See if the pattern matches that of your seed's. If a match is not found, use coin flips or Elm/Irwin calls to determine what seed you did hit. You'd probably want to copy the seed you hit in the main window and see how the pitches correspond to what you perceived them to be. It may take multiple tries until you can match the pitches with their categories, and even then there's room for error, so only use this if you absolutely have no other viable options. Also keep in mind that doing this will advance your frame by 1 for every Chatter you listen to, so make sure to account for this. [a]verifydp[/a]DPPt To reliably confirm your seed, you'll need the Coin Flip Pokétch application. But first, in Seed to Time, hit the Generate button that's next to the Search Coin Flips button, and change the Delays and Seconds +/- entries to match what's shown below. Now click "Search Coin Flips" and you should see the window below. Flip the coin in the in-game app 10 times and input the coin flips in this window. The top row corresponds to the first 5 coin flips and the bottom row corresponds to flips 6-10. Once done, click OK. Say we got the following for the first 10 flips: T, T, T, T, H, T, T, H, H, T; the input should look like And we would get the following output: So in this case we have hit a delay of 2642. If your delay is 2643 or another odd number, then as mentioned earlier insert a GBA Pokemon game into slot 2 if using a DS/DS Lite or just change the year in Seed to Time by 1 and redo this process. [a]verifyhg[/a]HGSS Seed verification in HGSS is much less tedious than in DPPt, as there are many ways to do this. The easiest way to verify your seed is through roamers. As soon as you start your game open the Pokégear map and look for the roamer heads that represent what route they're currently on. In Seed To Time select HGSS and check the boxes to the right for whichever roamer is still active (R for Raikou, E for Entei, and L for Latias/Latios). Naturally if there are no active roamers you'd leave the R, E, L boxes unchecked. If you're saving at your destination, you will want to take note of where your roamers currently are and fill in their current locations next to the check box. See the note in the picture below. You don't have to do this, but very rarely some extra frames will be skipped or the roamer locations will be different, and doing that accounts for those irregularities. Click the first Generate button on top, then highlight a Date and time you're satisfied with and click the second Generate button. Take note of all your roamer locations, either through the in-game map, or this window in RNG Reporter that already has all routes marked. Once that's done, click the Search Roamers button and enter the routes your roamers are currently on. Another way to confirm your seed is to resort to either calling Elm or Juggler Irwin, who is found on Route 35. Both NPCs have 3 different responses depending on the frame, and each response from Elm will have a counterpart response from Irwin. These 3 responses are denoted in RNG Reporter by E, P, or K. In other words, if you call Elm and he is going to say his E response, if you had called Irwin instead of Elm, he will say his corresponding E response. Which responses are which are shown below. E responses K responses P responses Do note that getting all of Elm's possible calls requires some work. You need to have gotten a Pokemon with Pokérus at some point to unlock his P option, and have been to Kanto to unlock his K option. Thus, Irwin is a much better choice to call as he is accessible when you get to Goldenrod and it takes no extra effort to unlock all his possible responses. Since roamer verification is much quicker than this, you should only resort to this method if you've already caught all your roamers or have only one active roamer left. To use Elm/Irwin calls effectively, click the Search Calls button, then call Elm/Irwin in-game and take note of what their responses are. Select K, E, or P as appropriate and note the Possible Results under the output. This updates as you enter your calls, and once you get 1 for it, you can stop calling. Make sure your Seed To Time window has the correct active roamers checked off as not doing so will mess up the search. For the examples shown, both the roamer and Elm/Irwin calls method will give us a delay of 2644 which is 6 off from our target delay of 2650. Making sure that the date and time matches with the original date and time as well as getting a correct delay is only part of the equation of getting the right seed. If your delay is 2643 or another odd number, then as mentioned earlier insert a GBA Pokemon game into slot 2 if using a DS/DS Lite or just change the year in Seed to Time by 1 and redo this process. As a general rule, if your delay is around +/- 6 off from your target, you do not have to make any changes to EonTimer. If it's more than +/- 6 off, in EonTimer simply enter the delay you hit in the Delay Hit section and click update. You can still update EonTimer even if your delay is within the +/- 6 range, but it generally won't affect the results too much. Now try again and confirm your delay is consistently within the appropriate range. Once you have verified your seed, head to the next section on frame advancement. [a]frameadvance[/a] Step 4: Frame advancement All games Any NPC that randomly moves will advance frames by 1 for each random movement. This can include turning or walking. If an NPC does both at once, then the frame advances by 2. Note that NPCs who are off-screen can advance the frame still, as long as they are within the same area. Because of this, it is advisable to attempt your captures in areas with little or no NPCs. In DPPt you can stop some NPCs from randomly moving through the Vs Seeker. If this cannot be avoided you must press X to bring up the menu the moment you enter the in-game world. This freezes all NPCs in place and stops them from making any unnecessary advancements. Chatter - to do this you must have a Chatot with the move and you MUST record a custom Chatter to advance frames with this method. Once you do, accessing Chatot's summary window like the one below will advance the frame by 1. To make things quicker, you can have two Chatot next to each other in your party and just keep flipping between their summaries. You do not have to listen to the whole Chatter sound, simply accessing their summary is enough. Taking a step or turning in areas where you can encounter wild Pokemon (grass, water, or caves) advances the frame by 1 for each step/turn made. Walking at least 128 steps will advance the frames by the number of Pokemon in your party. Do know that the games have an internal step counter that starts at 0 and resets to 0 when it reaches 128 and is always saved. This means that if you load your game and the step counter is at 127, taking one step will advance your frames. As a result, don't resort to this method unless it's absolutely necessary, which it won't be a majority of the time. Having an active roamer in your game advances your initial frame by 1 for each active roamer. If you have Raikou, Entei, and Latios all roaming in your SoulSilver game, you would start off at frame 4. Exclusive to DPPt Journal flipping Whenever your Journal is on a page that displays (insert Pokemon's name) was caught (Time) like the one below, frames are advanced by 2. Flipping your Journal to another page with a similar entry will also advance it by 2. It doesn't matter how many entries there are, as long it has at least one (Pokemon) was caught (Time) entry, the frame advances by 2. Exclusive to HGSS Calling either Elm or Irwin will advance frames by 1 per call. By using this you can also tell what frame you are on. Let's say you're currently on seed 3F02A923, have 3 roamers out, and want to encounter a wild Pokemon. If you want to get to frame 12 your Elm/Irwin calls should be PEEKKEEE, then Sweet Scent/use Honey. It's important to get to the call that's on the frame before your target frame and stop there because going over means you can't get it anymore and will have to start over. Radio This method is recommended only for very high (200+) frames. To advance frames with the radio, drag the cursor in the middle to an appropriate station which will advance frames by a certain amount. To advance again, move the cursor so that there is no station currently playing, like in the picture below, then drag it back to the station. Repeat as necessary. There are only two stations of interest, the first being the bottom right one, which advances by 1 unless Buena's Password is playing, in which case it advances by 0. The other one is Oak's Pokemon Talk, in the upper right. This one advances up to 14-18 frames, and is what you should use if you want to hit very large frames. Because of the inconsistent frame advances with Oak's show, it's recommended to play it safe. If you were going for frame 210, you'd do 210/18 = 11 toggles to that station (always divide by 18). At this point we don't know what frame we're on but we're on at least frame 11x14=154. So do 5-10 Elm/Irwin calls and see if you can find a match. Once you do, do not advance through Pokemon Talk again, but instead use Chatters/the Drama station. [a]findadvance[/a] Step 4a: Determining the number of advances (both games) Now that you've seen the possible methods of advancement, the next question you might have is how many should I do? To answer this, we'll have to go to the main window of RNG Reporter. Copy your seed into Seed (Hex) and fill in your encounter type and method. Don't forget this step! Unless otherwise noted, method should be J for DPPt and K for HGSS. Encounter type should also be left at Wild Pokemon unless you're fishing or doing a legendary or a Pokemon with an overworld sprite, in which case you'd select Stationary Pokemon. See the section "Special Cases" for more details. If you're going for a specific species of Pokemon (i.e. Bronzong in Mt. Coronet in Platinum), you'll need to take the encounter slot into account. As previously mentioned, Bronzong is in slot 0, so you'll need to find the frame that's slot 0. Make sure the slots match up, otherwise you'll get a different Pokemon. See the picture below for an example. If you want Bronzong you'll have to use frame 230, not frame 224 or 226, despite those frames having the same IVs. You also need to check if you're using a Pokemon with Synchronize. If so, select the nature of your Synchronizer. Once that's done, hit Generate. Find your desired IV spread. It should be easy to spot the IVs because 30 and 31 IVs are bolded by RNG Reporter. Shown below is what a search for our Modest 31/4/31/31/31/31 spread in DPPt would look like. If you are doing this in a "quiet" area (with no NPCs that will advance your frame) then you will start on frame 1 assuming no active roamers. If you are using the roamer verification method in HGSS, then your starting frame will be 1+ (# of active roamers), meaning if all three roamers are currently roaming you start on frame 4. For this case we want to get Modest 31/4/31/31/31/31, which is on frame 145 or 147. If there are no roamers active, simply do 145-1 = 144 OR 147-1 = 146 frame advances then encounter your Pokemon (either through Sweet Scent/Honey or talking to it). Once you capture it check its nature and IVs and it should be the Modest 31/4/31/31/31/31 Pokemon we seek. If there are active roamers, you'd be doing 145-(starting frame) or 147-(starting frame) advances where starting frame is 1+(# of active roamers). The (target frame)-(starting frame)=(# of advances) formula is virtually the same for any attempt at RNG manipulation, unless there are random NPCs in the area. (NOTE TO USERS OF RNG REPORTER PRE 9.94: The frames are automatically adjusted to account for Sweet Scent/Honey in later versions. In the above example, if you were trying to get this Pokemon you DO NOT have to make any further adjustments if using the most current RNG Reporter. Simply do 144 or 146 advances before Sweet Scenting/using Honey and you should get it.) For areas with randomly moving NPCs, it's going to be a little harder. Still using the above example, as soon as you enter the game world mash X to bring up the in-game menu ASAP. If you're using HGSS, then confirm your seed first through Elm/Irwin calls or roamers. If using DPPt, then you should use Vs Seeker to stop any NPCs from moving first before even attempting this, then if you're sure that the area has no randomly moving NPCs, verify your seed with coin flips. After that, do your frame advancements as if you're on frame 1 (that means 144 or 146 advancements still) then use Sweet Scent/Honey or talk to the Pokemon to start battle. If all goes well you should get your desired Pokemon. If you didn't, and say you got Quirky with IVs of 23/20/22/13/22/12 (frame 150), if you did 144 advances, you're aiming for frame 145 and had 5 random advances, so the next attempt should be 144-5 = 139 frame advances instead. By the same logic, doing 146 advances means you were aiming for frame 147, so you had 3 random advances, and thus should advance by 146-3 = 143 frames. If using DPPt and you still have randomly moving NPCs you can't stop (due to not being able to battle them), you'll have to give up trying to verify your seed through coin flips and resort to Chatot pitches. Going back to the above picture, see how there's a column called "Chatot Pitch"? Each frame will generate a different pitch for Chatter whenever you listen to it, which also advances the frame by 1. You'll want to record a Chatter that makes it easy to identify the pitch upon listening to it. Once you've done this you should practice by first hitting a delay in an area with no NPCs but with wild Pokemon, finding the seed, copying the seed to RNG Reporter's main window, and listening to the Chatter pitches to try to get a feel for what's low, mid-low, high, etc. Once you've got the hang of it, your RNG manipulations should go a lot smoother, especially in DPPt. If this method is too hard for you, you'll have to resort to bringing up the menu ASAP, doing your advances, and catching your Pokemon while hoping your seed is correct. [a]frameverify[/a] Step 5: Verifying your frame DPPt does not have many methods to verify that you hit your correct frame. The best way to know this is after you've caught your Pokemon and check its IVs. Platinum has two useful NPCs that can help with this. One lies in Veilstone City's Game Corner exchange booth and can verify its Hidden Power type and the other lies in the Battle Tower (called "The Judge" in-game) and can tell you some nice information about your Pokemon's IVs. Using The Judge The first thing he will tell you about your Pokemon relates to the sum of its IVs. He will say one of 4 options, depending on the sum of the Pokemon's IVs (ranges from 0 to 186): Decent - 0-90 Above Average - 91-120 Relatively Superior - 121-150 Outstanding - 151-186 Obviously, you'll want Outstanding, as shown below. The next thing he'll tell you is the stat that has the highest IV. If your Pokemon has multiple highest IVs the Judge will tell you which stat is the highest at random, with a tendency to say Special Defense if that is one of the Pokemon's highest IVs. The last thing he tells you is related to the value of the highest IV. He will say one of the following, depending on the value of the highest IV: Rather Decent - 0-15 Very Good - 16-25 Fantastic - 26-30 Can't be better - 31 Unless you're going for a specific Hidden Power, you'll want 31 most of the time, which results in "Can't be better", as shown below. On Characteristics Circled in the picture below, a Pokemon's characteristic gives a hint on what one of the highest IVs is. Because you will be aiming for at least one 31 IV for virtually all your RNG manipulation time, only the characteristics that show up when your Pokemon has a 31 IV will be listed. They are as follows: Often dozes off - HP Likes to thrash about - Atk Capable of taking hits - Def Mischievous - SpAtk Somewhat vain - SpDef Alert to Sounds - Speed Because of the Judge's bias towards Special Defense in Platinum, it is not recommended to use him to confirm how many 31 IVs you have, as it can take over 30 conversations with him to confirm your Pokemon's IVs if you have a 31/31/31/31/31/31 Pokemon. To save time you'll instead want to determine this by using your Pokemon's characteristic and his overall assessment of your Pokemon's IVs. HGSS on the other hand has Elm/Irwin calls to verify your frame. If you're verifying your seed, you will either have roamers active or have to make a few Elm/Irwin calls, both of which advance frames. Your last calls should have the pattern EKKEEEEP, as shown below. To reiterate, it is important that you reach the call that's ONE FRAME BEFORE YOUR TARGET and no more. Once you've done that, acquire your Pokemon or engage it in battle. If encountering a wild Pokemon, use Sweet Scent/Honey to force an encounter. The two aforementioned NPCs are also present in HGSS, with the Hidden Power NPC located at the Celadon Game Corner and the IV NPC still residing in the Battle Tower. The IV NPC has been dramatically improved in HGSS. If you have a 31/31/31/31/31/31 Pokemon, he will now say which stat is the highest in sequence, in the order of HP, Atk, Def, Speed, SpAtk, SpDef. Therefore, it will only take at most 6 conversations with him to determine your Pokemon's IVs. [a]specialcase[/a] Other special cases To reiterate, if something does not appear here, use Method J if using DPPt or Method K if using HGSS. For all cases, the given starting frame assumes that no roamers are active. If you have roamers, your starting frame will increase by the number of currently active roamers. [a]wondercard[/a] Wondercards Fundamentally, a Wondercard is not that much different from a regular capture, but there are some key differences. The first difference is the method of generation. It isn't going to affect too much when it comes to the Time Finder, just make sure you select Wondercard IVs as your method, as shown below. All Wondercards are obtained from a delivery man wearing green in any Poké Mart. Start off by saving in front of him. For DPPt, you'll want to save in the Pastoria City Mart, as that has the least number of randomly moving NPCs. For HGSS, save in either Fuchsia or Cerulean City's Mart, as there are no randomly moving NPCs in either location. It's also important to save while no NPCs are currently moving. Once that's done, you'll have to do the usual steps of finding a date and time, delay, and advancing your frames to get to your desired Pokemon. See the section on capturing a perfect Pokemon for more details. The biggest difference is the method used is Wondercard IVs, so make sure that's what you set it to when trying to hit your frame. In addition, when doing this in DPPt make sure you bring up the menu the moment you enter your game to prevent any unnecessary advances by NPCs. The most painful part of this process is getting the correct nature. Whether you get it or not will come down to luck. Unlike other methods of RNG manipulation there is no known way to reliably control what nature you'll get without cheating, so it comes down to perseverance. [a]roamerdp[/a] DPPt Roamers Cresselia and Mesprit Cresselia and Mesprit are generated by Method 1 and have a starting frame of 5. Their data is generated once you talk to them and they fly off, so save in front of them and do your frame advances once you've confirmed your seed then talk to them to release them. If aiming for a frame of 100 you'd need to do 100-5=95 advances through either Journal flips or Chatters before talking to them to release them. Kanto Birds (Does not apply in HGSS) The birds are Method 1 Pokemon. Their data is generated after talking to Professor Oak and releasing them. Each bird has a different starting frame Moltres - 1 Zapdos - 6 Articuno- 11 Choose one bird (preferably Moltres) and do your seed verification and frame advancements before releasing it. Once that's done, capture your target bird and KO the other two. Defeat the Pokemon League and head back to Oak. The remaining two birds will be generated in the same order and will have starting frames of 1 and 6, so if Moltres was caught Zapdos would now be on frame 1 and Articuno would be on frame 6. Do the usual delay hitting and frame advancements before talking to Oak to get the next bird, catch it and KO the bird you weren't going for and do the same thing you did to revive and capture the last bird. [a]roamerhg[/a] HGSS Roamers All HGSS roamers are generated by Method 1 and have a starting frame of 1. It is recommended to release all roamers first. To get your dream roamer you need to KO the roamer you want to get, and leave the other two alive. Then you need to head to the Elite 4 and save one step before entering the battle with Lance. At this point you will need to hit your seed (verify it using the two roamers that are still alive, as you cannot call anybody here) and advance using Chatot or the radio. If you are using 2 roamers to verify delay, which you should be, and you are aiming for a frame of 100, you'd start on frame 3 and thus need to do 100-3 = 97 advances before battling Lance. Once the advances are done, defeat Lance and wait until the game saves. The KOed roamer will have respawned and all you need to do is catch it to verify it's the one you were after. As a side note, either Raikou or Entei can be easily done when you first meet them in the Burned Tower. If you manipulate their IVs upon first releasing Raikou and Entei, Raikou will have a starting frame of 1 and Entei will have a starting frame of 6. [a]swarm[/a] Swarm Pokemon Swarm Pokemon are treated as Method J or K Pokemon depending on what game you're playing. Starting frame is normally 1 but could be higher due to random NPCs. The encounter type is Wild Pokemon. Once you've confirmed what Pokemon is currently swarming and what route it's on, simply head to the Encounter Slot tables and ctrl+F the swarming Pokemon. Once you know what encounter slot it's on, the steps are the same as a wild Pokemon capture. [a]gira[/a] Distortion World Giratina (NOT Turnback Cave Giratina) Giratina is a Method J Pokemon. Every time the Distortion World is loaded the frame advances by 11. If you're doing advances through the Journal or Chatter your starting frame will be 23 (It will be 12 if you're advancing the frame through the Journal without accessing it from the menu, i.e. when it first appears when starting the game). The recommended procedure would be to start the game (loading the Distortion World map once), open the menu, and do either Chatters or Journal flips as if the starting frame is 23, then engage in battle (loading the Distortion World map a second time). [a]starter[/a] Kanto/Hoenn Starters The starters are generated by Method 1. Each starter has a different starting frame however. Kanto Bulbasaur - 1 Charmander - 5 Squirtle - 9 Hoenn starters all have a starting frame of 1. The Johto and Sinnoh starters also operate similarly, but it is NOT recommended to get perfect starters this way as you have no reliable method of confirming your seed or advancing your frames and will have to rely on luck from randomly moving NPCs. Johto Chikorita - 1 Cyndaquil - 5 Totodile - 9 Sinnoh starters all have a starting frame of 1. [a]sinjoh[/a] Sinjoh Ruins Dragon Event The dragons are generated by Method 1 and have a starting frame of 1. Simply save one step away from the center of the circle of your desired dragon, as shown below, hit your seed, and do your Elm/Irwin calls to verify/advance your frame, then step into it to begin the event once you're done. [a]egggift[/a] Egg Gifts All Egg gifts are generated by Method 1 and have a starting frame of 1. There may be NPCs that will interfere throughout this process, so it's up to you to decide whether they're worth it or not. [a]honey[/a] Honey Trees Honey tree Pokemon use Method J, use method Wild Pokemon, and have a starting frame of 1. It's recommended to do this in a route with NPCs that can all be frozen through Vs Seeker. The hardest part of this is finding the desired Pokemon in your tree, so you'll need to place Honey in as many trees as possible and wait a day for Pokemon to appear, then check if the trees have your desired Pokemon. [a]fossil[/a] Mining Museum/Pewter Museum fossils The fossils are generated by Method 1 and have a starting frame of 1. Do note there are random NPCs in both facilities which may disrupt progress so keep the menu open as much as possible. [a]rocksmash[/a] Rock Smash There are encounter slots for Rock Smash Pokemon. However, there is no implementation for the frames where you get an encounter, so avoid this method for now. [a]safari[/a] Safari Zone (HGSS) Compared to the Great Marsh, the Safari Zone is relatively tame due to the lack of NPCs. The search procedure is exactly the same as a regular wild capture in HGSS (Method K). The only tricky part is manipulating the encounter slots. All information below is courtesy of Princess of Johto. Safari Zone: Encounter slots - How to find out the slot for each frame! First thing, open up the Safari Zone encounter slot tables. Now, while it's true that the encounter slots have been mapped out, there is no way to calculate the encounter slot of a specific frame. So, the first step of using the encounter slots is to figure out the encounter slot of your target frame(s). Go to the Safari Zone encounter slots and choose "Plains" as the area. Ignore the Priority Table part for now. Notice how every encounter slot for the Plains area has a different Pokemon + Level combination. What you're going to do is change your Safari Zone so that the Plains is the first area you walk into. Bring your Synchronizer and Sweet Scent user, and save in front of the man who you pay. Hit your seed, get into the Safari Zone, go into a patch of grass, and start calling Elm to figure out what frame you're on. Advance to the frame you need to be at and then use Sweet Scent. Do your best to catch the Pokemon and verify that you hit your frame. Take note of what level and species of Pokemon you got. Now, look at the encounter slot table. What Pokemon did you get? Was it a level 16 Rattata? Then the encounter slot for your target frame is 3! Was it a level 17 Abra? Then your encounter slot for your target frame is 7! Pretty self-explanatory. As a side note, you will get Raticate instead of Rattata at night. I recommend finding the encounter slot for all of your possible target frames (some seeds have PIDs and IVs that repeat on different frames but have different encounter slots) so you have a wide variety of options. If you're not planning to catch block Pokemon, then you basically have everything you need to know. That's because once you find your slots for each frame, the slots will stay the same for every Safari Zone area. That means that if you have slot 8 on frame 13, and you go to the Savannah area at daytime and hit frame 13, you'll get a Tauros! But what if you do want block Pokemon? That's where the priority tables come in! Safari Zone: Encounter slots - How to use the priority tables! On the encounter slot tables is a list of Pokemon that appear after placing x amount of blocks. To get a certain Pokemon to appear you must place the appropriate number of blocks in that area, and if there are any that require a certain amount of days you must leave them for that many days. Changing the date on the DS apparently does not make this process faster so if you want a Gible or Bagon you'll have to wait months to get it. You have your blocks set in the right area, you've waited the required amount of days, yet you don't know how to use the priority table, right? Well let's fix that! In this example, let's say I'm using a seed that has an encounter slot of 2 on frame 23. And I want a Gible from the Rocky Beach area. Let's go to the Rocky Beach area on the encounter slot tables. Look at the priority table, and notice that Gible is listed as "3". What does this mean? There are 4 different types of blocks, and each Pokemon requires a different type and number of each. When you place the blocks for a single Pokemon, that Pokemon takes up Slot 0. But once you place blocks that yield more than one Pokemon, then priority comes into play and determines which Pokemon takes slot 0, which Pokemon takes slot 1, and so on. Here's the priority: Plains blocks -> Forest blocks -> Peak blocks -> Water blocks. Looking at the priority table for Rocky Beach, Dodrio and Electrike are listed before Gible. Both Dodrio and Electrike require Plains objects, but since Dodrio needs less, it is the first priority. So if you placed 10 Plains blocks, Dodrio would take up Slot 0 and Electrike would be Slot 1. Now if we take a look at Gible, it needs 13 Plains and 17 Peak. So how come he's listed before Mareep? It has something to do with the fact that Gible requires Plains objects, and Plains are always first. With Pokemon that require two different block types, it's kind of hard to explain their priority. For example, Bagon needs 9 Forest objects and 19 Peak objects, but it is listed after all the Pokemon that require Peak objects, even though Forest comes before Peak. So when in doubt, just look at the priority table. If we placed 13 Plains objects and 17 Peak objects, then Gible would end up on Slot 2. This is because Dodrio and Electrike will be present because of the Plains blocks that Gible requires. Dodrio takes slot 0 because it's 1st priority, Electrike takes slot 1 because it's 2nd priority, and Gible would become slot 2 because it's 3rd priority. The rest of the Pokemon that appear because of Gible's Peak objects don't really matter, because they're all on encounter slots after Gible. So then I would advance to my target frame that has the encounter slot of 2, and Gible will appear! Usually, you would be able to manipulate the slot of the block Pokemon you wanted, but with Gible that's not the case. Let's try another one so I can show you how to manipulate the slots of a block Pokemon. We'll use the same area, Rocky Beach. This time I'll have an encounter slot of 4 instead of 2. My target Pokemon will be Manectric. Manectric needs 10 Forest blocks. How will I get it all the way to slot 4?! OK, so you place the 10 Forest blocks. You end up with Mareep in slot 0 (since it needs 5 Forest blocks) and Manectric in slot 1. So, let's manipulate these slots! If you place 10 Plains objects, you get Dodrio and Electrike involved. Dodrio will always take up slot 0 because it's 1st priority. Electrike becomes slot 1, Mareep becomes slot 2, and Manectric becomes slot 3. In order to push Manectric up one more slot, you need to place Gible's objects (and wait the required amount of days). So then Dodrio would be slot 0, Electrike will be 1, Gible will be 2, Mareep will be 3, and Manectric will be 4! Then I'd just advance to my target frame and Manectric will appear. You can't push Manectric up anymore slots because you've already made all the Pokemon before Manectric on the priority table appear. But Pokemon that need Peak or Water objects are generally easier to get onto the slot you want, because there are more Pokemon before them on the priority table so you can push them up more. But those Pokemon are harder to get on lower slots because they usually cause some other Pokemon to appear when you place their required blocks. For example, Gible. When you put down Gible's required blocks, Dodrio and Electrike would appear all the time no matter what. So Gible cannot be on a slot lower than 2. Safari Zone: How to hit your seed and target frame! You should know how to hit your seed and advance your frame, but the Safari Zone is a bit different. You still hit your delay and advance your frame the same way, but since you can't save inside the Safari Zone, you have to save before you enter the Safari Zone. So make sure you have your areas all set up where you want them and all your blocks laid out. Also bring a Synchronizer if you need it. Then go up to the man you pay to get inside, and save. Next, just keep attempting to hit your seed and verify with Elm calls. Once you hit your seed and verified it talk to the man and pay him. The beautiful thing about the Safari Zone is that there are no NPCs, so you won't experience any erratic frame advancements! The only frame advancements that won't happen on purpose is if you trigger the 128 step counter. That will advance the frame by however many Pokemon you have in your party. Anyways, once you're in the Safari Zone walk over to the grass patch or tiny pond and advance your frame like usual. To reduce your odds of hitting the wrong frame due to the 128 step advancement, you should resort to using Elm/Irwin calls. Once you get to the correct frame, Sweet Scent and you should have hit your frame! And that's it! Very easy, really. The hardest part is catching the Pokemon or waiting the amount of days. [a]marsh[/a] Great Marsh (DPPt) In order to successfully get perfect Pokemon from the Great Marsh we will need to introduce the occidentary. After encountering a Pokemon, your frame will advance to the frame of "occidentary +6". Searching for Great Marsh encounters is the same as a capture in DPPt (Use Method J). Be sure to search for frames around 200-300 for this method. "Swarm" Pokemon such as Skorupi will replace encounter slots 6 or 7 so make sure you include that information in your search. To begin a Great Marsh capture, you'll first need to hit your seed and confirm it using coin flips before entering the Marsh. You'll also need to make sure you have at least 2 empty spaces in your party. Then enter the Marsh and go to the area where your desired Pokemon resides and head to a grass spot. Use Sweet Scent/Honey and capture the resulting Pokemon. After this, quickly open the menu and note the IVs/nature and try to find the resulting frame. Once you do, note the occidentary and add 6 to that number. This should be the frame you are now on. From this point you should do whatever frame advances are necessary to get to your target frame, then use Sweet Scent/Honey. Hopefully no NPCs will have made any unnecessary advances. [a]surf[/a] Surfing/Fishing Surfing/Fishing Pokemon are generated through Method J/K and have a starting frame of 1. The main differences between them and a regular capture are: -Surfing/Fishing have their own encounter slots. -The encounter slots for Fishing vary based on the type of Rod you're using. In the Encounter Tables you can access the encounter slots for Fishing/Surfing methods at the bottom left. -Surfing/Fishing Pokemon have their own method. The procedure for Surfing/Fishing is exactly the same as a capture. Make sure to save while already in the water and do not move until you're done. You'd encounter a Surfing Pokemon through Sweet Scent/Honey, while for Fishing you'd naturally use the appropriate Rod. Don't forget to also select the appropriate encounter type when doing your search and when trying to hit your frame. [a]headbutt[/a] Headbutt trees Unfortunately the encounter slots vary each save file, so there is no reliable way to get your desired Pokemon from a Headbutt tree. Your best course of action would be to stick with one tree and determine what encounter slot your Pokemon resides by figuring out your seed then encountering Pokemon until you meet the one you want. You can use the main window of RNG Reporter to figure out what encounter slot the Pokemon occupies. Once that's done then do a search using the appropriate slot. From here the procedures are the same as a capture. Other than this obstacle it's the same as a capture in HGSS. Also try to do this in areas that don't have random NPCs. [a]redgyara[/a] Lake of Rage Red Gyarados The Red Gyarados is generated through the Chained Shiny method. Simply conduct a search using Chained Shiny as the method and go through the same steps you would for a regular capture. [a]trophy[/a] Trophy Garden In order to do Trophy Garden Pokemon you will need to do a search for Encounter Slots 6 or 7. Slot 6 contains today's special Pokemon while Slot 7 contains yesterday's special Pokemon. Other than being limited to those two encounter slots the procedures are exactly the same as a regular wild capture in DPPt. [a]manaphy[/a] Manaphy Egg The Manaphy Egg is received like a Wondercard Pokemon, but it uses the Method 1 generation. The Wondercard follows the usual initial frames. It has a shiny check on it that prevents the hatched Manaphy from being shiny normally, but there is a way to bypass this check and get a shiny Manaphy. You'll need to know the PID of the IV spread you're going for. Once you have it, you'll need a save file that isn't the one your Manaphy Wondercard is on, and has this PID shiny. Do the RNG manipulation and receive the Egg, and trade it to this game. Hatch it in the other game and if you did it correctly, you should now have a shiny Manaphy. Because trading requires saving, you'll want to attempt this in HGSS since there's almost no room for error there. To summarize, if you want a shiny Manaphy in game A: 1. Find out what shiny PID you have in game A. 2. Get the Egg with the same PID in game B. 3. Trade the Egg from game B to game A. 4. Hatch the Egg in game A. 5. Congratulations, you now have a shiny Manaphy! [a]breed[/a] IV: Breeding Perfect Pokemon Note: For a much easier experience, do your breeding in an HGSS cart. It also has the most exclusive Egg moves which is never a bad thing! This section assumes you've attempted capturing a Pokemon. You can still proceed if you haven't, but you may have to go back to that section to get a good understanding of some things. [a]seedfind[/a] Step 1: Setting up and finding a seed for IVs Breeding your ideal Pokemon is more involved than capturing one, especially if you want to hatch a shiny Pokemon. Hatching a shiny involves hitting two seeds instead of one, while getting a nonshiny Pokemon only requires hitting one seed. Whenever the Daycare Man has an Egg to receive, the nature, shininess, ability, and gender of the Pokemon are fixed and will not change until another Egg is generated. This is what hitting the first seed is for. The IVs of the Egg are generated upon receiving the Egg, and this is what hitting the second seed is for. The main things you need to know for this process are the IVs of your parents. Let's say we want to breed a shiny Jolly Scrappy Miltank. We'll be using a Smeargle and another Miltank as parents. The Smeargle has IVs of 31/31/31/31/31/31 and the Miltank has IVs of 31/31/31/10/31/31. Now in RNG Reporter head to the 4th Generation Time Finder. Our first step is to figure out what order to deposit our parents in. If you are using parents each with 3-6 of the desired IVs, then you won't have to worry about this step and can deposit them in any order. If not, and say you are using IVs of 4/18/31/5/16/20 on Smeargle and 25/31/6/8/31/31 on Miltank, you will want to head to the 4th Generation Time Finder and on the Egg IVs tab set it up like this for DPPt , and this for HGSS. You can stop searching once you find a delay and frame you're comfortable with. A frame of over 10 is recommended but you can go lower if you don't like doing advances. Once that's done, if you are going for a shiny Egg you should take off any held items and deposit the parents in the order listed, otherwise if the female or Ditto parent has the nature you're going for have them hold an Everstone before depositing. "Parent A" should be the first parent you deposit and "Parent B" should be the second. Save your game at this time. Do NOT bike around until an Egg is generated at this time. [a]eggfind[/a] Step 2: Finding a Seed for a Shiny Egg The next step is going to be getting that shiny Egg. If you don't care about that skip this step and simply bike around until the daycare man has an Egg, save in front of him, and take the Egg and hatch it. If it has the ability and nature you want you should reset your game and move on to the next section on getting IVs. If you don't mind hitting another delay/seed you can still use this to get a nonshiny Egg with the appropriate nature/ability/gender so read on. Still in 4th Generation Time Finder, check out the Shiny Egg tab. First input your ID and SID and check the shiny only box if you want a shiny, leave it alone if you don't. Then select the nature/gender/ability you want. If you're using International parents (both parents do not have the same country of origin) check that box as well. Still using Miltank as an example: DPPt [a]egggetdp[/a] Step 3 (DPPt): Getting your shiny Egg (DPPt) Set it up similar to the screen below and hit Generate. Now that we have our results, select one you'd like to use, preferably with the lowest number of additional flips. Then right click it and select "Copy Seed to Clipboard". And we're off to the Seed to Time window. We'll be using seed 0F0402F2 for this. Do the usual Seed to Time stuff and you should get something like this: Attempt to hit your seed (See Section II [jump=eonuse]Using EonTimer[/jump] for more details.) and do 10 coin flips to confirm your seed (see Section III [jump=verifydp]Verifying your seed (HGSS)[/jump] for more details). Once that's done, do another coin flip (or if doing another seed, flip whatever the number in the Additional Flips column is after doing your first 10 flips) and bike around until the Daycare Man has an Egg for you. You should be doing a number of "10 + Additional Flips" coin flips if you did this right. Save in front of him, pick up the Egg, hatch it, and confirm your shiny. [a]getivsdp[/a] Step 4 (DPPt): Getting the correct IVs (DPPt) Solaceon Town is infested with randomly moving NPCs and will make getting the desired IVs difficult. The best way to remedy this is to breed in HGSS, but if you have absolutely no other choice, prepare for a lot of trial and error for each breed. Attempt to hit your delay, and when the game starts, mash X to bring up the menu ASAP, then close it and immediately take the Egg. Do ten coin flips to determine what seed/delay you hit and hatch the Egg. It doesn't matter whether or not you have the correct seed right now, as we are interested in figuring out our initial frame. Once the egg is hatched, check the IVs. If you're using Diamond or Pearl you either have to use Rare Candies, or fight one high level Pokemon to level them high enough without gaining more than 4 EVs. Platinum has the IV judge in the Battle Tower who can give you a good idea of how good the Pokemon's IVs are. For example, if you're going for seed 0B000799 but you got seed 0B00079F instead, say you hatch the Pokemon, check the IVs and get 3/18/31/5/16/12. This corresponds to frame 8, which means your initial frame is probably 8. The target frame is 13, so every time you start your game up, you would have to do 5 frame advances, most likely through Chatter, before taking the Egg. After taking it, do your coin flips to verify your seed. If it isn't correct, retry until it is. Once you get it, hatch the Egg and confirm the IVs. If for some reason the IVs are not what you wanted, find the exact IVs and find out what frame you actually hit. You'll probably be 1-2 frames off, so if your frame is 15 instead of 13, compensate for this next attempt by doing 3 Chatters instead of 5. HGSS [a]egggethg[/a] Step 3 (HGSS): Getting your shiny Egg (HGSS) Set it up similar to the screen below and hit Generate. Now look at the frame column and select an entry with a frame of 1. You can pick other entries that don't have a frame of 1 but it is not recommended. It also doesn't matter whether you have roamers active in your game or not as they do not affect this frame. This frame is completely different from the usual frame you hit to get IVs, so we'll be calling this the "Egg frame". Once a suitable entry is found, right click it and select "Copy Seed to Clipboard". We'll be using seed 07050660 for this. Go to Seed to Time and do the usual stuff. Now hit the seed (see section II starting from [jump=eonuse]"Using EonTimer"[/jump] for details) and confirm your seed through either Elm/Irwin calls or roamers (See section III [jump=verifyhg]"Delay/Seed Verification"[/jump] for more details. For this scenario calls of EEEKEPEPK means you've hit your seed, as the above picture implies). Once you're certain you have the right seed, bike around until the Daycare Man has an Egg. Save in front of him, take the Egg, and hatch it to confirm your shiny. If you chose a seed that has an Egg frame greater than one you'll have to do a few extra things. Calling Joey advances the Egg frame by 2 and the Daycare Man generating an Egg will advance it by 1. So if your Egg frame is 6, you'd have to call Joey twice (moves the Egg frame to 4), reject the first Egg when the Daycare Man has one (moves it to 5) and save when the Daycare Man has another Egg (at Egg frame 6). This Egg should contain your shiny. For simplicity's sake you'll want to stick with Egg frames of 1 to avoid the extra steps. Once you've confirmed your Egg contains a shiny, you can reset your game, as long as you saved beforehand. Whenever you take that Egg, it will always contain a shiny. [a]getivshg[/a] Step 4 (HGSS): Getting the correct IVs (HGSS) Now that you've got a shiny Egg locked and loaded, it's time to get the IVs you want and hatch a perfect shiny. The biggest thing to worry about is a randomly moving NPC on the Daycare route, which is easily fixed by sticking to frames over 10. For this example we'll be using the seed 0B000799. Using the seed 0B000799, we want to hit frame 13. The corresponding Elm/Irwin calls are EPPPKPPEKPPE. As usual, attempt to hit your seed and as soon as the game world is loaded mash X to bring up the menu ASAP so the NPC doesn't make too many unwanted advancements. On RNG Reporter you can look up where your current frame is and see what Elm/Irwin calls are needed by setting up the main window similarly to the picture below. Make sure you get to the call that's on the frame before your target and stop there. This cannot be stressed enough. If using the roamer method for verifying seed you will start on frame 4, and if the NPC hasn't advanced the frames, you will get calls of PKPPEKPPE. There is a chance he might have advanced some frames so do around 3-4 Elm/Irwin calls and see if you can identify what frame you're on. Once you have that, the rest of the calls are trivial. After all the necessary calls are made, close the menu and mash A to claim your Egg. Hatch it and visit the IV judge at the Battle Tower to confirm the IVs. If your IVs do not match your target, you'll need to find the exact IVs of the offspring. If you got IVs of 10/31/21/8/16/15, then you've hit frame 11, and thus on the next attempt you'll need to do two more calls/Chatters (although if you're using Elm/Irwin calls, you should never be under your target frame, this is just an example so you can see how to use the picture above to find out what frame you really hit). | <urn:uuid:5da24bbd-4333-4da8-9a02-92efbb5dc25e> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/revised-4th-generation-rng-manipulation-guide-gp-2-2.3467154/ | 2015-03-28T05:24:23Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297281.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00160-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933646 | 15,497 |
Food and Drink
Food and Drink
- 119 Pins
Pumpkin Crunch Cake
Desserts, Dump Cake, Recipe, Pumpkin Crunches Cake, Food, Yummy, Pumpkin Crunch Cake, Cake I, Pumpkin Pies
Pumpkin Crunch Cake - Cook'n is Fun - Food Recipes, Dessert, & Dinner Ideas
Pumpkin Crunch Cake This recipe looks a lot like Dump Cake. I hadn't seen a pumpkin version before though.
Pumpkin Crunch Cake - this is one of my favorite desserts to make AND to eat!!! So easy and better than pumpkin pie!!
Pumpkin Crunch Cake- i made this years ago!! It was so yummy!
Chees Blintzes, Sour Cream, Cinnamon Sticks, Creamcheese, Food, French Toast, Cheese Blintzes, White Breads, Cream Cheeses
Creamcheese . . .gonna try
Cinnamon Sticks Ingredients 1 (1 pound) loaf white bread 4 tablespoons white sugar 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened 2 tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup butter, melted 1 pint sour cream Directions
"Cheese blintzes" - quicky version. Made with toast, that is cut brimless and rolled thin; filled with cheese filling, dipped in butter and rolled in sugar-cinnamon and then roasted in oven... Cheese filled french toast rolls... *sigh*
#recipe #food #cooking Cream Cheese Blintzes
Cheese Blintzes Ingredients 1 (1 pound) loaf white bread 4 tablespoons white sugar 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened 2 tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup butter, melted 1 pint sour cream Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a cookie sheet generously with non-stick cooking spray. Trim crusts from bread and roll the slices flat. In a small bowl combine sugar and cinnamon to make a mixture. In a large mixing bowl, mix softened cream cheese, milk and vanilla until smooth. Spread this mixture onto each slice of flattened bread. Roll each bread slice up. Dip bread/cream cheese rolls in melted butter, roll the blintzes immediately in the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Cut rolls into 1 inch pieces. Arrange the blintzes on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Serve with sour cream.
Caramel Apple Pork Chops
Brown Sugar, Apples Pork Chops, Pork Recipe, Porkchops, Food, Pork Chops Recipe, Fall Recipe, Dinner Recipe, Caramel Apples
Caramel Apple Porkchops - Great Fall Recipe throw the chops in a marinade overnight of 2x apple juice to soy. The sweet and salt help make the chops even juicer. Bake covered in foil at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Remove foil - sprinkle with brown sugar and chopped pecans - bake 15 mins more for carmelize and crunch.
Caramel Apple Pork Chops Recipe by allrecipes: "Warm, spicy, and sweet, this wonderful Fall recipe is a guaranteed favorite for kids, and is great with smashed potatoes and buttered green beans." by Karena
So we recently purchased a half a hog from a local farmer...hence all the pork recipes. This Caramel Apple Pork Chop recipe was really good!
Caramel Apple Pork Chops Recipe - Cannot wait until Fall, the food is so comforting!
Supreme Apple Butter
Apples Cider, Brown Sugar, Butter Food, Apples Butter, Brandy Apples, Pears Butter, Butter Recipe, Drinks Pinterest, Supreme Apples
Supreme Apple Butter ~ used this recipe to make pear butter. Excellent.
Supreme Apple Butter - Click image to find more popular food & drink Pinterest pins
Supreme Apple Butter Recipe. Doesn't require apple cider.
Supreme Apple Butter; Brandied Apple butter
Supreme Apple Butter: 1-12 oz can frozen apple juice concentrate, 1c apple cider 4lb Macintosh apples - peeled cored chopped 3/4c brown sugar 1t cinnamon 1t ginger 1/4t cloves / Bring apple juice, apple cider & Macintosh apples to boil. Reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 1 hr until apples easily mash. Mix dark brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger & cloves into apple mix. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered 2 hr, stirring occasionally, until thick. Pour into sealed sterile containers, cool 1hr before serving.
Slow Cookers BBQ Pulled Pork
Slow Cooker Recipe, Brown Sugar, Pulled Pork Recipes, Crock Pots, Cooker Bbq, Slowcooker, Pulledpork, Bbq Pulled, Pork Sandwiches
This BBQ pulled pork recipe will amaze all of your guests! #bbq #pulledpork #zoomin zoominmarket.com
Slow Cookers BBQ Pulled Pork Recipe
Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Pork - I love pulled pork but this was too spicy! I need to find a different slow cooker recipe
Slow Cookers BBQ Pulled Pork @keyingredient #pork #sandwich #slowcooker
Pulled Pork Crock Pot Boneless shoulder roast (or boneless loin roast) 3 lbs pork 1 pkg McCormick® Slow Cookers BBQ Pulled Pork Seasoning 1/2 c ketchup 1/2 c packed brown sugar 1/3 c cider vinegar Place pork in slow cooker. Mix ingredients. Pour over pork. Cover. Cook 8 hrs LOW or 4 hrs HIGH. Remove pork from slow cooker. Shred pork, using 2 forks. Return pork to slow cooker. Mix and heat with sauce before serving. Serve on sandwich rolls, if desired.
Caramel Peanut Fudge
Desserts, Peanuts, Sweets, Fudge Recipe, Food, Peanut Fudge, Caramel Peanut, Candies, Peanut Butter Bar
Caramel Peanut Fudge Recipe
Caramel Peanut Fudge Allrecipes.com #food #fudge
Caramel Peanut Fudge - This is a dessert that is just to die for! It will be a great hit at any bake sales, picnics, or just for you! Anyone ought to love it
Caramel Peanut butter bar!
Caramel Peanut Fudge Allrecipes.com use only one layer of butterscotch chips and increase one of chocolate. Put into small candy cups as caramel will ooze - use 1 7 oz jar of marshmellow cream instead of measuring marshmellows
Maple Cookies;1 cup butter, softened *1 cup packed brown sugar*1 egg*1 cup real maple syrup*1 tsp vanilla extract*2 tsp baking soda*1/2 tsp salt*4 cups all-purpose flour*1/3 cup sugar for decoration.:350 F bowl, grease cookie sheets.Cream,butter,b sugar. the egg, syrup, vanilla. Mix until well. Sift together the flour,salt,baking soda. Stir into mixture. Shape 1 inch balls, roll in sugar. Place on cookie sheets 2 inches apart and flatten slightly.Bake 8-10 min. Let cool on wire rack.
Desserts, Foodanddrinks, Cookies Monsters, Cookies Allrecipescom, Maple Cookies, Food And Drinks, Cookies Recipe, Cookies Ii, Ii Recipe
Maple cookies... My dad, the original Cookie Monster, will LOVE these!
Maple Cookies II Recipe
Maple Cookies Recipe Desserts with butter, brown sugar, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla extract, baking soda, salt, all-purpose flour, granulated sugar
Quinoa Recipe, Side Dishes, Style Quinoa, Spanish Quinoa, Healthy Side, Dinner Ideas, Spanish Styl Quinoa, Spanish Style, Spanishstyl Quinoa
Spanish Quinoa Recipes | Just had this for dinner, yummy!! I cut the oil in half, substituted cayenne for chili powder and added cilantro as garnish.
Spanish quinoa - side dish or burrito filling
Spanish-Style Quinoa, makes a great healthy side dish loaded with protein
Spanish style Quinoa - my favorite quinoa recipe
Tasty Recipe, Worldsbeer Margaritas, Beer Matgarita, Fun Recipe, Birthday Parties, Cincodemayo, May 5, Traditional Margaritas, World Beer Margaritas
Beer Margaritas. - hurry Cinco de Mayo! 1 can of frozen limeaid (concentrate) 12 oz tequila 12 oz sprite/7 up 12 oz beer Ice Lime
Beer Margaritas, everyone enjoyed them at my birthday party last night
Not a fan of #tequila? Try these yummy #Beer Margaritas! #cincodemayo #cincodedrinko #fiesta #rita
lemon salmon burgers
Salmon Burgers Recipe, Sandwiches, Yummy Food, Salmon Patti, Yummy Lemon, Lemon Salmon, Breads Crumb, Burgers Patti, Dinner Tonight
Lemon Herbed Salmon Burger Patties
Yummy Lemon Salmon Burgers Recipe. This sounds amazing!
Dinner tonight.. Yummy Lemon Salmon Burgers
Lemon Salmon Burgers Recipe: If i sub'd the onions for chives and replaced the bread crumbs with instant rice, this would be #lowfodmap
David Loftus chicken and mushroom pasta bake
Baked Pasta, Pasta Recipes, Chicken Mushrooms, Mushroom Pasta, Mushrooms Pasta, White Wine, Favorite Recipe, Food Recipe, Jamie Oliver
Chicken and mushroom pasta bake • 20g/a small handful of dried porcini mushrooms • olive oil • 4 chicken thighs, boned, skinned and cut into bite-sized pieces • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper • 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced • 350g/2 handfuls of mixed fresh mushrooms, cleaned and torn • 200ml white wine • 455g dried spaghetti • 500ml double cream • 200g Parmesan cheese, grated • a sprig of fresh basil, leaves picked
Chicken and Mushroom Pasta Bake. My FAVORITE recipe ever. Thank you Jamie Oliver!
Chicken and Mushroom Pasta Bake. Pasta Recipes. Chicken Recipes. Jamie Oliver Recipes
Chicken & mushroom pasta bake (Spaghetti tetrazzini) | A little guilty pasta pleasure | Jamie Oliver #food #recipe
chicken mushroom pasta bake (spaghetti tetrazzini) | Jamie Oliver | Food | Jamie Oliver (UK)
Spicy Rapid Roast Chicken
Cheap Paleo Recipe, Roast Chicken, Rapid Roasted, Roasted Chicken Recipe, Roasts, Spicy Rapid, Chicken Allrecipescom, Spicy Roasted, Dinner Recipe
Spicy Roast Chicken Recipe
Spicy Rapid Roast Chicken Recipe is Paleo friendly and so tender! #paleo #healthy #spicy
Roast dinner recipes
Garlic Croutons, Recipe Food, Caesar Salad, Cooking Garlic, Amazing Food, Food Fetish, Homemade Croutons Recipe, Breads, Food Cooking
Garlic Croutons from Allrecipes.com for caesar salad. Melted the butter in the microwave then added garlic powder instead of whole garlic and sprinkled in oregano and a little parmesan cheese into the melted butter before adding the cubed bread. Used a little more bread than she suggests. Delicious and easy!!
Sweet Blackberry and Brandy Sauce
Sauces Recipe, Angel Food Cakes, Brandy Sauces, Sauce Recipes, Sweets Blackberries, Blackberries Seasons, Ice Cream, Blackberries Sauces, Blackberries Brandy
Blackberry Brandy Sauce to top Angel Food Cake
Home-made Sweet Blackberry and Brandy Sauce - This is a really easy sauce to serve over ice cream, cheesecake, or perhaps even pancakes. Serve it warm over vanilla ice cream or chill it, and serve over plain cheesecake.
Sweet blackberry and brandy sauce recipe | Allrecipes.com
Blackberry sauce for my cheesecake
Thanksgiving Cheese Ball
Thanksgiving Cheese, Ball Awesome, Yummy Recipe, Chees Ball, Cheese Ball Recipe, Ball Food, Appetizers Recipe, Yummy Dips, Ball Allrecipescom
Thanksgiving Cheese Ball awesome
Thanksgiving Cheese Ball By: SARCLA: "Similar to other cheese ball recipes, yet different! Our family has this every year as a prelude to Thanksgiving dinner, along with a relish tray, to use up those last few minutes while the turkey's browning. Double it and freeze one for New Year's! Serve with an array of crackers."
Art Thanksgiving Cheese Ball food
Very Best Blueberry Cobbler!
Desserts Recipe, Frozen Blueberries, Blueberries Cobbler Recipe, Cobbler Recipes, Cake Mixed, Cake Mixes, Cooking, Drinks Pinterest, Food Drinks
Very Best Blueberry Cobbler! (recipe)
Very Best Blueberry Cobbler! This works with any fruit and a cake mix :) Can't wait to try this!
Very Best Blueberry Cobbler! - Click image to find more Food & Drink Pinterest pins
#recipe #food #cooking Very Best Blueberry Cobbler!
Very Best Blueberry Cobbler! would be great with any berries. NS modified it by increasing berries, decreasing the sugar in the bread portion and substituting buttermilk for the milk. it was a big hit with frozen blueberries from Lake Chelan.
Nanaimo Bars II
Christmas Baking, S'More Bar, S'Mores Bar, Coconut Walnut, Bar Ii, Coconut Bar, Food Recipe, Custards Powder, Nanaimo Bar
Nanaimo Bars II - A no-bake square, that freezes well. I make these during the year, but they are a must on my Christmas baking list as family and friends look for them. My parents live just outside of Nanaimo, B.C. Canada. Read more at http://99foods.com/recipes/Nanaimo-Bars-II-105019
Nanaimo bars without the custard powder... I want to try making these at Christmas, since Mike's mom can't have tartrazine (a colourant used in custard powder)... I may also cross these with the recipe I already have, taking only the filling layer from these ones.
No-Bake Coconut Walnut Bars
Nanaimo Bars/Chocolate Coconut bars
Grilled Zucchini and Squash
Zucchini And Squashes Recipe, Fun Recipe, Grilled Squashes And Zucchini, Yellow Squashes, Summer Recipe, Grilled Zucchini And Squash, Tweets Functional D S Id Var, Grilled Vegetables In Foil, Recipe Night
Grilled Zucchini and Yellow Squash
Grilled Zucchini and Squash Recipe - Key Ingredient
Beth's Portobello Mushroom Burgers
Mushrooms Burgers, Burgers Allrecipes Com, Burgers Food And Drinks, Beth Portobello, Burger Recipes, Burgers Allrecipescom, Portobello Mushrooms, Drinks Pinterest, Burgers Reciperef
Beth's Portobello Mushroom Burgers - Click image to find more popular food & drink Pinterest pins
Beths Portobello Mushroom Burgers Recipe
Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie
Peanut Butter Bananas, Almond Milk, Soy Milk, Banana Smoothie Recipes, Bananas Smoothie Recipe, Peanut Butter Cups, Bananas Sandwiches, Peanut Butter, Frozen Bananas
Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie: Blend 1 ripe frozen banana, 2 TBSP P.B., & 1 cup milk. Serves 2, Cal 224.6. Try adding 1/2 cup soy milk & 2 TBSP honey. gm
Peanut butter banana smoothie. Sounds delicious with (vanilla) soy milk!
peanutbutter banana smoothie
Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie Recipe-I replaced soy milk with almond milk
Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie Recipe. Sub in plain yogurt for soy milk, add ice.
beef and vegetable stir-fry
Beef Recipes, Vegetables Stirfry, Vegetables Recipe, Beef Stir, Food, Vegetables Stir Fries, Jamieoliver, Jamie Oliver, Stir Fry
Jamie Oliver Beef and vegetable stirfry
Beef and vegetable stir fry #food
beef stir fry - jamie oliver
Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry | Beef Recipes | Jamie Oliver Recipes
Baingan Bharta (Eggplant Curry) | <urn:uuid:c26d11d2-b16c-427a-b4ae-2ee6fa064f4b> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | https://www.pinterest.com/kassidyvialp/food-and-drink/ | 2015-03-31T20:52:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131301015.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172141-00100-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.797315 | 3,469 |
EDIT November 11th 2014
YES I KNOW NARUSAKU IS NOT CANON!
But this does not mean all the reasons listed below does not give NaruSaku fans reasons to believe in what we did. We had DEVELOPMENT starting from chapter 3 before any other ship was introduced. If you are going to comment about how NaruSaku did not happen in a negative fashion I am going to hide your comment and block you.
EDIT: June 18th, 2012. I finished most of the journal!
AND 65 FAVORITES!?! Holy shet guys!
And why is it getting more pageviews than my art?! Your all jerks! JK JK! I love you guys!
I seen this journal linked all over the place. On forums, websites, comments, tumblr, facebook and more. GSAFSYGKA!!!
*Let me love you*
this is a WIP Journal so if you have anything to add, send a link to the manga chapter and your personal opinion!
EDIT 2: Dear NaruHina fans. I know you say Sakura is nothing like Kushina. That's fine, but you are doing the same exact thing. Take the plank out of your own eye before judging.
Edit 3: August 30th, 2012: 127 favorites?!
Remember, this is only a one sided view focusing only on the NarutoXSakura MinatoXKushina portion. It is created only to discuss, critique, reference and/or simply to just hold onto and encourage. It is not to discourage other pairings, it is to understand where some NaruSaku fans get their faith in their pairing and why. This is not solid proof as to NaruSaku happening in the end.
Most images have links when you click on them to the chapter I took it from so you can see the chapter for yourself. You can also right click, "copy image link" and paste the URL for a full view of the image.
Lets face it, Kishimoto is not making any pairing solid between team 7 (at the moment) but the main thing that I found recently are NaruHina/SasuSaku fans claiming that Kushina and Sakura are nothing alike and are two completely different characters so we shouldn't even compare them. Yes and no. They are two different characters with different backgrounds but they do have similar traits. Compare and contrast. Kishimoto is the one who started the "comparing" rampage by this one panel:
"のような" = Like
Used in a general term to compare two simulates.
の・ようなもの No Yōna Mono = Something like it
Question #1. How do you know she doesn't mean finding someone like Kushina found Minato?
CONFIRMED: In the original context, Kushina IS referring to finding someone like her personality wise. I had a friend, who is Japanese, translate and tell me what he thought. He is not into the Naruto manga and even asked me afterwards where the page was from. So this is not a bias statement, it is fact.
To be honest, I really believe (most would) that Kushina is talking about personality....not looks. Maybe a little bit of background because it shapes who they are but not always. Hinata was a shy and insecure person before she got the "hard times" when her father found no favor in her. Her "problems" are not what shaped her, she was shaped as a shy and insecure individual even before her father and Hanabi. I am talking about backgrounds that shaped a person personality wise. This is why I do not find Hinatas "problems" a good comparison with Kushina since she was shy and insecure before which caused her problems.
We can agree that Sakura and Kushina both have a hot-tempered attitude, one that is short fused and competitive. Both lashing out on the closest victim or the target when their fuse is cut short by insulting words or an action.
*Note: Kushina beat up the boys who made fun of her as a kid. Sakura did not do that to the girls (Ino did for her). Though, since she gained confidence from the experiences, she does lash out on whoever makes fun of her now i.e. Naruto, Konohamaru and Sai.
Road to Ninja
Twice in Road to Ninja Kushina lashed out at Naruto:
The first time in the Hokage office and she punches him for saying something insulting.
The second is at the family residence when Naruto wouldn't eat and Kushina broke down his door and yelled at him.
Question #3: "Kushina beat up the people who made fun of her but Ino did that for Sakura."
Right-on but Sakuras bullies were female and Kushinas were male. Maybe that made a difference, maybe it didn't.
Kushina didn't need a guy to fight off those who made fun of her. She lashed out, like what Sakura does to Naruto. We also learn that Kushina and Minato had been in some arguments during their relationship when they were both alive which would be normal for a realistic relationship. Kushina even stating that she always won the argument except this one time:
I have heard time and time again about the NaruHina argument that "I don't like Sakura because she doesn't treat Naruto right, Hinata loves him and would never do or say such things to him". Minato was probably was an innocent guy in these arguments but Kushinas heated attitude probably made her hard headed and nearly impossible to win against. Kushina admits to being impatient.
When Kushina and Sakura get excited, they also have a verbal tick:
Dattebane' (Kishimoto states Narutos word Dattebayo (Kushinas Dattebane) has no meaning but says "That isn't really modeled on anything either. When I thought of childlike speech, "dattebayo" instantly came to mind. It's like it's become a part of Naruto, and even now it brings out his "mischievousness".)
Shannaro (Loosely translated to Hell Yeah, Bastard, Fuck Yeah in English translation in the manga)
Not to mention when they both got excited and encouraged Naruto, their poses replicate eachother:
Minato and Naruto
At one point, Kushina had not liked Minato, even looking down on him just as Sakura had done to Naruto.
We know this is the opposite of what Naruto was trying to do. He was trying to get her attention not to see her struggle but to get her to see him. This is also why he is probably trying to bring Sasuke back, because he wants her to see he understands her pain and wants to fix it.
Kushina explains it was because she was young and didn't know better. Unlike Kushina, Sakura learned to slowly break down those walls she had for him after Sasuke had rejected her, calling her annoying:
Sakura later encourages Naruto more times than Hinata has even appeared in the manga. She even encourages (internally) for Naruto to show everyone that he is greater than what everyone thinks. She doesn't falter when it comes to faith in his ability in the preliminary exams:
The Scary Mom Effect
There was one thing that I found that helped me laugh about Kushina as a mother which is repeated in the series: moms are scary! And was it not Shikamaru who asked his dad what he saw in his mother? Shikaku replied saying that there are times when she is gentle, implying that she's not as tyrannical as her son perceives her to be.
I have had NaruHina fans ask this A LOT about NaruSaku and what we see. Well, if you aren't looking, you wont see why. We see a gentle side of Sakura that puts Naruto above even Sasuke. The Heaven and Earth Bridge scene was a great example. Sakura ran after Naruto, knowing full well she could die but his well being was more important. Not to mention she knew the reason he got this far in his beast mode...Sasuke. She was willing to put Narutos safety above Sasuke, telling him she will get Sasuke alone FOR Naruto. Not for herself, for Naruto.
(And Naruto has no idea what Sakura did and her conversation in Yamato here.)
More than once has Sakura been caught admiring Naruto, enjoying his presence. She is not all "evil", "mean" and constantly hitting Naruto or abusing/putting him down like a lot of NaruHina fans tend to say. Sakura genuinely cares about Naruto. She has a different way of showing she cares.
(13 and 16 year old Sakura admiring Naruto. Both times Naruto didn't see this.)
So Sakura cares about Naruto. She is seen caring and supporting him far more than we see her put him down. If someone only views the negative side of Sakura, they are like Shikamaru, ignoring the good qualities and hopefully one day they would become neutral and see both sides.
But I will say this: Sakura would be one scary ass mom!
Question #4: Sakura and Naruto would be like two Kushinas. It doesn't work, now does it?.
Look at Sakura parents. Kishimoto crated Kizashi as a light hearted, carefree man who Sakura gets annoyed of because of his lame jokes. Mebuki, her mother, is stern and strong. She was inspired by Japanese Yankees which means her mom was a troublemaker and delinquent at one point. Kishimoto even stated that he created them so they would "bicker" and Ino stated they were "intense as always". Get a carefree guy who jokes around and a stern women and you get someone simular to Naruto and Sakura (still with differences to make individuality).
One thing that I noticed was that Kushina and Sakura both had a physical quality that they did not like. Kushina, it was her hair and for Sakura, it was her forehead to which the guy that they did not admire and made fun of had complimented them on it.
Who was the first to compliment Sakuras forehead? Who was the first to compliment Kushinas hair?
(Naruto disguised as Sasuke)
The one thing I do get from the bench scene is that what Sakura is looking for in Sasuke is not who he is. Sakura searches for reassurance in a guy, verbal compliments and acceptance. I think Sakura would still be like that in a relationship throughout her life and I can never see Sasuke fulfilling that thirst Sakura has. Naruto, on the other hand, is the kind of person Sakura is wishing Sasuke was.
Several times Naruto had made hints and expressed his love for Sakura.
(This panel can be admiration but he's admiring Sakura *wink wink*)
MINATO: Chapter 631
This chapter sealed the deal. Minato had mistaken Sakura as Narutos girlfriend then went on to compare Sakura to Kushina. Minato did not say this out loud so it does not effect Narutos opinion on Sakura.
A couple of things to think about:
1. If MInato could see the village be destroyed by Pein and know about Jiraiyas death from being inside of Naruto, wouldn't he have known about Hinatas confession? Wouldn't Minato know about Narutos feelings?
2. Minato was a hokage. He was in a war. He knows medical ninjas on the battle field so why did he point out that Sakura is Narutos girlfriend rather than just a friend or a random medical ninjas healing Naruto? Can Minato sense something more between them than what us audience picked up? Did Kishimoto do that on purpose?
3. Minato was there when Kushina told Naruto to find a girl like her. He see's Kushina in Sakura and made a comment about Sakura being Narutos girlfriend. What is the point of that if it isn't hinting something?
Question #4. How can Naruto just say "no" to Hinata after the way she confessed? He has to like her back.
Just like how can Naruto say he doesn't deserve to become hokage if he can't even save a friend? He earned his right to be hokage but because Narutos emotional side would feel regret and that he doesn't deserve it, he wont take it. Remember, he doesn't feel he can confess to Sakura if he can't keep a promise. If he can't save Sasuke, he can't keep his promise which means he can't confess to Sakura which means he also wouldn't feel fit to become hokage (because of Sasuke). He has all that on his shoulder. He wont just skip over Sasuke and Sakura and hop right over to Hinata. Doesn't work that way. Which is why he never said anything to Hinata for a long while about the confession. He still hasn't.
This might be taking it a bit too far but I am going to add it anyways since so many mention I should. Kushina and Sakura were both saved by the man who complimented and loved them against an enemy Uchiha who tried to kill them. Yes, I understand it was Kurama who was going to crush Kushina but he was being controlled by Tobi/Obito.
(Chapter 501: kissmanga.com/Manga/Naruto/Nar… /Chapter 484: kissmanga.com/Manga/Naruto/Nar… )
when I saw that chapter where Minato saved Kushina, I thought of Naruto and Sakura, not the other way around. There are times when I see Minato and Kushina like Naruto and Sakura. And Kishimoto has editors to point out anything that he may have used before or what it reminds them of. One of his editors could have said "this reminds me of when Naruto saved Sakura" and Kishimoto simply says "yes". We don't know. I just assume with his assistants and editors that they would point these out so they are intentional when published. If its a repeat, I do not think it is an accident.
Question #5. Hinata was the only one to fight Pein for Naruto. She risked her life for him. Where was Sakura? She could have easily have jumped in and try to fight Pein.
Sakura couldn't see what was happening. As a medical ninja during a time of crisis, she is taught to stay back and be one of the last ones to die and heal. Sakura was probably doing just that, as she was taught.
Arguments I dislike:
"Sakura hits Naruto. Naruto doesn't deserve that."
And Kushina hit Naruto. Kushina must be an abusive mother. *eye roll*
Plus, when has Naruto ever complained about Sakura? Like Minato and Shikaku, Naruto puts his tail between his legs and let the Sakura win in arguments. The only time Naruto did not tolerate Sakura was during the fake confession and in this case Sakura was not being honest with her feelings entirely. When Sakura lashes out and punches Naruto in the past, Sakura wasn't hiding any feelings and acted on them. They were 100% real emotions that she felt. She wasn't masking her feelings. The fake confession, she was. Naruto would rather have Sakura be 100% honest and true about her feelings than say what he "wants" to hear. When Sakura is honest with herself and her feelings, that is when Naruto adores her the most, even if he ends up through three walls.
"Hinata is like Minato and Naruto is like Kushina. That is what Kushina was saying"
NO. Kushina said to "find a girl like me" not "find a girl like Minato". End of story.
"The fake confession scene was Kishimoto cutting out the possibility of NaruSaku from happening."
The point....you missed it...
Then the point of the fake confession was overlooked. The only reason Sakura created a team and went out to Naruto was because of Narutos safety. Sakura lied to manipulate Naruto because she felt she had no other choice. Kishimoto wouldn't have just had Sakura walk to Iron country just to give a fake confession to cut out the possibility of NaruSaku, it was because Sakura was trying to get Naruto back in the village, away from the Akatsuki and also so she could handle Sasuke on her own. It was all for Naruto and Sakura was desperate and hurt.
"Hinatas boobs are bigger."
God, do I hate that argument! Kushinas are small too. >:T And Naruto isn't a shallow kind of guy. If he likes a girl, it is for who she is personality wise, not boob wise.
"Hinata was the first to encourage and support Naruto."
Manga wise, false. Hinata doesn't show up until the chunin exam. And verbally encourage Naruto, out of all the females, it was Sakura who first verbally encouraged Naruto (that we know of) and the first female to stand up on behalf of Naruto. Not to mention Sakura was the first of the rookie 9 to state she wanted Narutos dream of becoming Hokage a reality.
"Sakura doesn't love Naruto."
"When she was younger, the one Sakura yeared for then loved, was Sasuke. Naruto was merely a nuisance, the loser who always came between her and Sasuke. But as she goes over various missions in the past, and Sakura comes to a realization. When times were hard, when she wanted to give up on life, it was always that nuisance, Naruto, who protected and encouraged her. How does she feel about Naruto? Sakura still has not found an answer."
If Naruto was just a friend or comrade, why would Kishimoto state that Sakura doesn't know her feelings for Naruto? Why would he place that in the character data book in the first place? He couldn't have put anything else in the data book or even left out the last two sentences and said Naruto has became her best friend...but he doesn't. And yes, Kishimoto stated in an interview after this book was published in Japan that Sakura really does love Sasuke...but he doesn't say that Sakura doesn't love Naruto. He knew full well what was going to happen between Sakura and Sasuke and knew Sakuras feelings and yet he still published this as Sakuras data. And yet Kishimoto does not state that Hinata loves Naruto in the data book but that Naruto is the "embodiment of potential and confidence" for Hinata. I think Naruto is more of a goal than someone as far as relationship goes and I (an opinion of mine) think Naruto knows that and feels honored but wont lie about his feelings and return them to Hinata if he still loves Sakura.
I am just going to throw in a couple of other things not related to MinaKush.
Jiraiya and Tsunade
I often feel like what Jiraiya failed at, Naruto will accomplish...including the girl.
Obito and Rin
Simular team setup. The loser of the group ends up liking the medical female of the team while the girl likes the cool genius who acts ignorant but changes due to the goofy idiot of the team who vows to change the shinobi ways.
Sasuke and Sakura
Honest to God, I believe Sasuke knows Naruto likes Sakura. If Sai could figure it out, I think Sasuke knows as well.
So why NaruSaku?
The biggest thing for me is that Naruto and Sakura have development. They have experienced and seen each other cry, laugh, hurt, be rejected and knocked down and yet they don't think of each other differently. Even when Sakura was hurt by the 4-tails, Sakura never ONCE blamed or saw Naruto any differently. She knew that was not who Naruto was and that is a lot of development in Sakuras character towards Naruto. Though, when has Sakura ever judged Naruto for being the 9-tails container? Naruto took Sakuras hits but never complained. They seen and been the victims of each others arguments, punches, stupidity and ignorance and they still stand strong.
Kishimoto stated that Sakuras love for Sasuke was selfish. All she thought about was Sasuke and didn't care for Naruto or anyone else. I feel that same obsession with Hinata towards Naruto. Sakura had at least acknowledged that Hinata loves Naruto but does Hinata know that Naruto loves Sakura? Of not, she doesn't know Naruto as much as Sai does (which is saying something) or that she doesn't care about his feelings and thoughts on Sakura and wants him for herself. Thus is why I did not like the "holding hands" portion in the war. She is too obsessed and central on Naruto for herself and I feel like she doesn't think about Naruto and how he feels. If Hinata really loved Naruto, she wouldn't force anything and encourage him to do what he feels is right.
Naruto was willing to bring Sasuke back to Sakura even if that would hurt him the most (at the time). He's never once forced or said he would "claim" Sakura and he is wise. He is willing to let her come to him on her own if she does. That would mean she has no obligation or sorrow or choose him out of pity.
There is NO proof that Naruto is over Sakura. His attention is on the war and helping and encouraging his comrades while trying to save/fight Sasuke. Sasuke is #1 on his plate right now so Sakura takes a backseat...so does Hinata. As we know, for years Nauto liked Sakura to the point Sai noticed. If it is that obvious and is a repeated fact for Naruto, I don't think his feelings are going to sway over one small argument to which Sai say's "now I understand why Sakura couldn't tell you the truth.". Though, Sakura is not over Sasuke, it is also not confirmed that Sakura does not love Naruto. Kishimoto states that.
Some great quotes
"We've never seen Naruto even once go to hit Sakura back. He'd rather be beaten
within an inch of his life rather than hit her."
- Akano Kin
"Naruto gives up all of his goals to fufill Sakura's. She sees the human side that needs
to be cared for."
"Why DO we like Narusaku? Simply because of their interactions and continual
development throughout the series"
"Naruto and Sakura are very similar. The relationship is built not just forced. The
support they show for each other is just amazing."
"One of the major reasons I support the Sakura/Naruto pairing is that they can be
who they are around each other, no masks."
"Sakura can find strength and determination in Naruto, and at the same time, Naruto
can find wisdom and maturity from Sakura."
"The greatest thing about Naruto & Sakura is that they have the ability to be romantic
even without being overly sappy & amorous."
"Hinata even smiles when Sakura hugged Naruto. When Sakura was hugging Sasuke,
Naruto was torn up. It's different feelings."
"Naruto has loved sakura throughout the entire series. So that ends that argument
"From the whole course of the manga, he just likes Sakura more than any girls and
some people tends to forget that."
BEFORE YOU COMMENT!
1. Yes. I know there are differences between the characters
2. Yes I know there are similarities with Hinata
3. No I am not saying this is poof as NaruSaku being cannon
4. Don't twist my words or take it literally
5. I don't care if NaruHina happens
I just want Naruto to be happy and loved in the end
You may proceed to comment if you wish. | <urn:uuid:f5a6f543-300d-44d2-b641-d600d2bfd458> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://narutoxsakura-fc.deviantart.com/journal/Why-we-compare-Kushina-and-Sakura-updated-299391235 | 2015-03-28T12:13:15Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297505.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00284-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981882 | 4,970 |
ICT SATELLITE ACCOUNT
Information and communication technologies (ICT) play an important role in the way in which we live and do business. There is considerable interest in the role of ICT as a significant driver of socioeconomic development, for example, in the way that ICT has allowed businesses to increase productivity. For official statisticians, the measurement of these technologies provides significant conceptual and measurement challenges. A key part of the ABS response to these challenges has been the development of an ICT satellite account for Australia for 2002-03. This was preceded by the release in 2003 of a 'pilot' ICT satellite account in respect of 1998-99.
The notion of a satellite account was conceived in the System of National Accounts 1993 to expand the core national accounts for selected areas of interest, while using relevant concepts and structures from the core national accounts. An ICT satellite account involves the identification of ICT products and activities within the national accounting framework so that a comprehensive and coherent set of economic data on ICT supply and use can be produced.
There are few international examples of ICT satellite accounts, and the concepts and methods used here are largely based on existing international statistical standards for national accounts. Nevertheless, developments from a number of international fora are also incorporated, in particular, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Working Party on Indicators for the Information Society and the OECD Task Force on Software Measurement in the National Accounts.
This publication represents the first official satellite account on ICT and its direct contribution to the Australian economy. In particular, it contains data on the contribution of ICT to key macro-economic variables such as gross domestic product (GDP), investment, imports and exports. As this satellite account constitutes an integrated set of statistics on ICT products and services within the internationally recognised Australian System of National Accounts, it represents a valuable policy and research tool with a wide range of applications.
This satellite account is the product of development work requiring a number of assumptions and synthetic estimates for some components, and therefore at this stage the estimates should be considered experimental.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics welcomes user comments. Comments should be directed to:
National Accounts Research
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Locked Bag 10
Belconnen, ACT, 2616.
For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Peter Comisari on Canberra (02) 6252 5381.
BACKGROUND TO THE ICT SATELLITE ACCOUNT
There has been substantial interest in recent years, both in Australia and internationally, in those products and services known as information and communication technology (ICT) products and services (hereafter referred to as ICT products), in the industries that import, produce or distribute those products and in who uses these products. ICT products are closely associated with the phenomenon of the 'new economy' and with other events such as the 'dotcom' boom and the privatisation of telecommunication service providers seen in a number of countries over the past two decades. Much of the demand for economic data on ICT products has been driven by the interest of economists and policy advisors in the uptake of new technologies and in the role ICT may have played in the productivity surge of the 1990s.
Satellite accounts, as articulated in the international System of National Accounts 1993 (SNA93), allow for an expansion of the national accounts for selected areas of interest while maintaining links to the basic concepts and structures of the core national accounts. The ICT satellite account developed by the ABS uses the national accounts framework to present a picture of the value of transactions in ICT products within the Australian economy. The link with the national accounts enhances the usefulness of the data in analysis because it ensures comparability to, and consistency with, key economic aggregates such as GDP. However, the satellite account does not provide an analysis of the contribution of ICT to productivity growth, nor is it a compendium of all available ICT-related information collected by the ABS or available through other sources.
The ABS provides a variety of ICT-related information from its extensive suite of ICT surveys. These surveys include the Information and Communication Technology Industries Survey (ICTIS), the Business Use of Information Technology Survey (BUIT), the Household Use of Information Technology Survey (HUIT) and the Government Technology Survey (GTS). Appendix 1 describes the framework used by the ICT satellite account in which these and other data are brought together and integrated for the whole economy.
Broadly, ICT products include computer hardware and their peripherals, parts, components and consumables, computer software, telecommunication assets, computer services, telecommunication services and wholesale and retail margins on ICT products. ICT products do not include those ICT goods and services produced and consumed in-house in the process of producing other goods and services. In turn, the 'ICT Industry' is defined with reference to those same products, and includes wholesaling and retailing. Appendix 2 provides a detailed discussion of issues relating to the scope of the ICT satellite account and the classifications used. ICT products in this publication are defined within the ABS Classification of ICT Products and are presented in Appendix 3.
The economic value of ICT products is already included in the Australian System of National Accounts (ASNA) in key economic aggregates such as GDP, industry gross value added, gross fixed capital formation (investment) and household final consumption expenditure (HFCE). However, the classifications and data sources used in the national accounts are generally not designed to systematically isolate ICT products, or the industries producing or distributing those products. Similarly, the national accounts do not systematically isolate the use of ICT products by businesses, government and households, although some important aggregates such as business investment in computer software are already separately available.
The basic compilation framework for the ICT satellite account is the national accounts 'supply and use' system. It has been adapted to focus on ICT products and the industries producing or distributing those products. Fundamentally, the system consists of a supply table that tracks the supply of ICT products from imports and from Australian producers, and a use table that tracks the use of those products by industries, government, households and for export. It aims to be comprehensive in its coverage. Many different sources of data of varying quality are used to populate the supply and use tables. Appendix 4 provides a description of the various ABS data sources used. In order to satisfy the identity that the supply and use of products must be equal, discrepancies due to deficiencies in the source data have been identified and resolved. A great strength of the framework is that it facilitates this data confrontation and provides a basis for optimising the quality of the overall estimates in the face of deficiencies and gaps in data coverage.
One role of the satellite account has been to review and, where necessary, make improvements to ICT data series used in the ASNA itself. These improvements were substantially reflected in the 'historical revision' of the national accounts published in Australian System of National Accounts 2004-05 (cat. no. 5204.0) in November 2005.
Some satellite accounts use a set of recommended classifications and frameworks developed from international research and discussion over a number of years, with international agencies usually taking the lead. For example, when the ABS developed its satellite accounts for tourism and non-profit institutions there were international guidelines available to guide the work. There are no such guidelines available for an ICT satellite account, although there have been international initiatives on some aspects important to this work.
International experience shows that the measurement of ICT transactions is not easy, particularly given the intangible nature of software, the licencing and leasing arrangements involved and the bundling of ICT products. It was therefore inevitable that a range of significant data and other issues required close attention in producing this publication. Appendix 5 provides detail on the substantial number of methodological issues encountered. Inevitably, a number of judgement calls were necessary to integrate the data and to take a stance on issues for which there is as yet no clear international standard. Consequently, the results contained in this publication should be considered experimental. Appendix 6 provides further comment on the quality of the estimates produced and Appendix 7 describes the relationship between these estimates and certain other ICT-related ABS data series.
Because of the large developmental aspect to the ICT satellite account, this publication gives considerable attention to describing the ABS response to the various challenges encountered in producing the published tables. The ABS hopes this will encourage constructive commentary on the issues described and contribute to the development of best practice in statistical measurement internationally.
This publication was preceded by a pilot ICT satellite account in respect of 1998-99, the results of which were published as a feature article 'An Information and Communication Technology Satellite Account' in the December quarter 2002 issue of Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (cat. no. 5206.0). On the basis of knowledge gained from the pilot ICT satellite account, the ABS undertook to collect a range of additional data from businesses and government to compile the accounts contained in this publication.
ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
The scope of this satellite account was determined by the range of goods and services considered to be 'ICT'. Essentially, ICT products include computer hardware, computer software, telecommunication assets, computer services and telecommunication services. An ICT satellite account details the supply and use of these products and also measures the direct value that ICT products add to the economy through the key aggregates ICT GDP and ICT gross value added.
ICT GDP represents the total market value of ICT products produced in Australia after deducting the cost of goods and services used up in the process of production. ICT accounted for $36.2 billion or 4.6% of total GDP in 2002-03.
Industry gross value added is free of the effects of changes in taxes and subsidies on products that can vary between industries and over time and is therefore the preferred national accounts measure of industry contribution to value of production. ICT gross value added was $34.8 billion (4.9% of total gross value added) in 2002-03.
The ICT share of gross value added exceeds the ICT share of GDP. Since GDP is equivalent to gross value added plus taxes less subsidies on products, this result simply reflects ICT's relative share of taxes less subsidies on products.
ICT share of the Australian economy, 2002-03
ICT GROSS VALUE ADDED
There is no 'ICT industry' in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC). Instead, producers of ICT products operate in a number of ANZSIC industries. Of the ICT contribution to total gross value added of 4.9%, Telecommunication services contributed 2.2 percentage points, Computer services 1.4 percentage points, ICT wholesale 0.7 percentage points, ICT manufacturing 0.1 percentage points and all other industries 0.5 percentage points.
Viewed differently, the most significant industry contributors to ICT gross value added were Telecommunication services (44.3%), Computer services (28.0%) and ICT wholesale (14.8%).
INDUSTRY CONTRIBUTION TO ICT GROSS VALUE ADDED - 2002-03
ICT gross value added
Share of ICT gross value added
|ICT specialist industries |
|Telecommunication services |
|Computer services |
|Total ICT specialist industries |
|Other industries |
COMPARISON WITH 'NON-ICT' INDUSTRIES
When compared with the seventeen conventional ANZSIC industry divisions the ICT contribution to total gross value added of 4.9% in 2002-03 ranked ninth. ICT gross value added exceeded that of Agriculture, forestry and fishing (3.3%), Government administration and defence (4.4%), Education (4.8%), and Personal and other services (2.0%). Among the industries with a contribution to total gross value added exceeding that of ICT were Mining (5.0%), Construction (6.4%) and Finance and insurance (7.4%).
INCOME COMPONENTS OF ICT GROSS VALUE ADDED
Gross value added corresponds to the income items compensation of employees, gross operating surplus, gross mixed income and other net taxes on production. In the ICT specialist industries, compensation of employees ($17.1 billion) and gross operating surplus and gross mixed income ($13.1 billion) combined comprised 97.5% of gross value added. Among the ICT specialist industries, Computer services contributed most to compensation of employees, and Telecommunication services had the highest gross operating surplus / gross mixed income.
INCOME COMPONENTS OF ICT GROSS VALUED ADDED - 2002-03
Compensation of employees
Gross operating surplus/Gross mixed income
Other net taxes on production
ICT gross value added
|ICT specialist industries |
|Wholesale trade |
|Telecommunication services |
|Computer services |
|Total ICT specialist industries |
|Other industries |
|na not available |
AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTION OF ICT PRODUCTS
The value of Australian production of ICT products was $65.1 billion in 2002-03. Over 90% of this production took place within ICT specialist industries. The largest single contributor to total Australian production of ICT products was Telecommunication services ($32.7 billion) followed by Computer services ($15.5 billion). Retail trade ($3.6 billion) was the largest contributor among the 'Other industries'.
INVESTMENT IN ICT
Business and government invested $26.7 billion in ICT products in 2002-03. Computer hardware made up 40.2% ($10.7 billion) of this investment and packaged and customised software 30.8% ($8.2 billion). The Communication services industry ($5.1 billion) contributed 19.3% to total ICT investment - the largest share of any industry. Other major industry contributors to ICT Investment were Property and business services (14.1%), Finance and insurance (12.1%), Government administration and defence (11.4%) and Manufacturing (8.6%).
Industry share of ICT investment, 2002-03
Private businesses and public corporations contributed 83.4% ($22.3 billion) of total investment in ICT products in 2002-03 while general government contributed 16.6% ($4.5 billion). The Commonwealth Government accounted for 59.5% of general government sector ICT investment. The largest ICT product investment by any sector was private sector investment in software ($9.2 billion), followed closely by private sector investment in computer hardware ($8.8 billion). General government invested $2.1 billion in software, $2.0 billion in computer hardware and $0.4 billion in telecommunication equipment.
ICT investment, By sector and product - 2002-03
Investment in ICT accounted for 13.8% of total investment in Australia in 2002-03. Some industries invest more intensively in ICT, which is reflected in the marked industry-to-industry variation in the proportion of ICT investment to total investment. The Communication services industry had the largest proportion of ICT investment to total investment at 80.7%. This was followed by Government administration and defence (58.2%), Finance and insurance (48.2%), Wholesale trade (30.3%), and Property and business services (27.1%).
ICT investment to total investment, By selected industries - 2002-03
ICT investment as a proportion of total investment
|Wholesale trade |
|Communication services |
|Finance and Insurance |
|Property and business services |
|Government admisnistration and defence |
|All other industries(a) |
|(a) Excluding ownership of dwellings and ownership transfer costs. |
Annual growth in investment for computer hardware and software fluctuated between 1997-98 and 2004-05, though it remained positive throughout this period. The 18.3% peak in growth in software investment between 1998-99 and 1999-2000 reflected Y2K related software spending.
Investment in computers, Annual growth - 1997-98 to 2004-05
BUSINESS USE OF SELECTED ICT TECHNOLOGIES
The following table shows recent trends in business use of computers and the Internet, and web presence in businesses. Over the last five years, business use of these technologies has increased substantially, particularly business presence on the web and use of the Internet. In 2002-03, 83% of businesses indicated use of a computer, while 71% used the Internet and 23% had a web presence.
BUSINESS USE OF SELECTED TECHNOLOGIES
|Businesses using a computer |
|Businesses using the Internet |
|Businesses with a web presence |
|Business Use of Information Technology, 2002-03 (cat. no. 8129.0). |
Intermediate consumption is the value of goods and services used up as inputs in the process of production. In business accounting terms, intermediate consumption corresponds to 'business expenses' (as opposed to investment spending). Business and government intermediate consumption of ICT products was valued at $33.5 billion in 2002-03. The largest item of intermediate consumption of ICT products was telecommunication services valued at $18.9 billion, followed by other computer services ($11.0 billion).
Following national accounts conventions, all household spending on ICT products is treated as consumption spending. Households spent $16.0 billion on ICT products in 2002-03. The largest single component was phone carrier services, which accounted for $10.8 billion (or 67.0%) of household expenditure on ICT. Households also spent $1.8 billion (11.4%) on computer hardware, $1.2 billion (7.5%) on telecommunication equipment and $1.1 billion (6.8%) on Internet services.
Household spending on ICT products accounted for 3.5% of total household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) in 2002-03. This was similar to the level of household spending on education services, clothing and footwear and alcoholic beverages and tobacco.
HFCE, Selected components - Relative to total HFCE: 2002-03
INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ICT
Australia experienced a deficit of $9.7 billion in net trade in ICT products in 2002-03. That is, the level of ICT product imports ($14.0 billion) was $9.7 billion greater than ICT product exports ($4.2 billion). ICT imports accounted for 8.4% of all imports while ICT exports accounted for 2.8% of exports. Re-exports made up $1.2 billion of total ICT imports and exports. Re-exports are imports which are exported in the same condition or after undergoing only minor transformation which leaves them essentially unchanged. Computer hardware and telecommunication equipment together made up 73.5% of ICT imports. The largest ICT export items were computer hardware at $1.3 billion and telecommunication services at $1.1 billion. In combination, these two items comprised 55.2% of total ICT exports in 2002-03.
For analytical purposes ICT employment is defined to include 'computing professionals and technicians' working in both ICT and non-ICT related industries. ICT employment excludes persons employed in ICT related industries in such activities as data entry, call centre and general management and administration.
Computing professionals and technicians accounted for 2.5% (or 234,700 persons) of total employed persons in 2002-03. Computing professionals dominated this category, accounting for 74% or 174,800 persons. 'Computing professionals' covers system managers, designers, programmers and auditors, software designers, and applications and analyst programmers.
The Property and business services industry employed 49.1% of all computing professionals and technicians in 2002-03. The second largest industry employer of computing professionals and technicians was Government administration and defence (9.0% or 21,100 persons) followed by Finance and insurance (8.1% or 19,100 persons).
Employed persons, Computing professionals and technicians - By industry - 2002-03
This page last updated 28 January 2009 | <urn:uuid:0bae7a61-f2df-4ee8-8ebb-eac48db6e61c> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/ProductsbyReleaseDate/52F69D385978038DCA2571290008557E?OpenDocument | 2015-03-28T12:27:36Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297505.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00284-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925796 | 4,181 |
Vaccines, Blood & Biologics
Resources for You
Fatalities Reported to FDA Following Blood Collection and Transfusion: Annual Summary for Fiscal Year 2011
As previously mentioned in the annual summary of fatalities reported to the FDA in Fiscal Years (FY) 2005 through FY2010, the blood supply is safer today than at any time in history. Due to advances in donor screening, improved testing, automated data systems, and changes in transfusion medicine practices, the risks associated with blood transfusion continue to decrease. Overall, the number of transfusion related fatalities reported to the FDA remains small in comparison to the total number of transfusions. In 2008, for example, there were approximately 24 million blood components transfused.1 During the proximate period of FY2008, there were 54 reported transfusion related and potentially2 transfusion related fatalities, with subsequent reports of 66 in FY2009, 64 in FY2010, and 58 in FY2011.
CBER is distributing this summary of transfusion fatality reports received by the FDA to make public the data received in FY2011, to provide the combined data received over the last five fiscal years, and to compare the FY2011 report to the fatality reports received in the previous four fiscal years.3 We also include information on the infrequent reports of post-donation fatalities. Throughout this report we note changes over time, but the reader should interpret these changes cautiously, given the small numbers of reports and inherent variations in reporting accuracy. The significance of shifts in numbers derived from small populations may appear to be greater than they really are.
Refer to Sections 606.170(b) and 640.73 of Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR 606.170(b) and 21 CFR 640.73), for fatality reporting requirements. For information regarding the notification process, see our web page, Notification Process for Transfusion Related Fatalities and Donation Related Deaths, http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/safetyavailability/reportaproblem/transfusiondonationfatalities/default.htm. For further information, see our Guidance for Industry: Notifying FDA of Fatalities Related to Blood Collection or Transfusion, September 2003.4
A team of CBER medical officers reviews the documentation submitted by the reporting facilities and obtained by FDA investigators, to assess the relationship, if any, between the blood donation or transfusion and the reported fatality.
If you have questions concerning this summary, you may contact us using any of the three following options.
- Email us at [email protected],
- Call us at 301-827-6220, or
- Write us at:
FDA/Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research
Office of Compliance and Biologics Quality
Division of Inspections and Surveillance (HFM-650)
1401 Rockville Pike, Suite 200 North
Rockville, Maryland 20852-1448
During FY2011 (October 1, 2010, through September 30, 2011), we received a total of 79 fatality reports. Of these reports, 69 were transfusion recipient fatalities and 10 were post-donation fatalities.
Of the 69 transfusion recipient fatality reports, we concluded:
- 30 (43%) of the fatalities were transfusion-related,
- 28 (41%) of the fatalities were cases in which transfusion could not be ruled out as the cause of the fatality,
- 11 (16%) of the fatalities were unrelated to the transfusion.
We summarize the results of our review in the following sections. Sections A through D of this document present the transfusion-related fatalities. Sections E and F and Table 4 present the fatality reports which were unrelated to the transfusion, or in which we could not rule out the transfusion as the cause of death. Section G presents the post-donation fatality reports.
- Overall Comparison of Transfusion-Related Fatalities Reported from FY2007 through FY2011
- Transfusion Related Acute Lung Injury (TRALI)
- Hemolytic Transfusion Reactions (HTR)
- Microbial Infection
- Transfusion Not Ruled Out as Cause of Fatality
- Not Transfusion Related
- Post-Donation Fatalities
In combined Fiscal Years 2007 through 2011, Transfusion Related Acute Lung Injury (TRALI) caused the highest number of reported fatalities (43%), followed by hemolytic transfusion reactions (total of 23%) due to non-ABO (13%) and ABO (10%) incompatibilities. Complications of Transfusion Associated Circulatory Overload (TACO), microbial infection, and anaphylactic reactions each accounted for a smaller number of reported fatalities (Table 1 and Figure 1). Over the last three fiscal years, the number of fatal TACO reports has decreased, from 12 (27%) in FY2009, to 8 (20%) in FY2010, and 4 (13%) in FY2011. Recent articles provide additional information about TACO. 5,6,7 The number of reported transfusion related deaths attributable to anaphylaxis8,9 has remained small over the last five fiscal years; with the exception of one FY2010 case, in which IgA levels were not measured, patient IgA deficiency was ruled out in 11 of the 12 cumulatively reported cases. In another FY2010 case, a haptoglobin deficiency was possibly implicated in the patient’s anaphylactic reaction.
Table 1: Transfusion-Related Fatalities by Complication, FY2007 through FY2011
Figure 1: Transfusion-Related Fatalities by Complication, FY2007 through FY2011
While TRALI represented 43% of confirmed transfusion related fatalities reported to CBER over the last five fiscal years, there was a decrease in TRALI fatalities, from 18 (45% of confirmed transfusion related fatalities) in FY2010, to 10 (33%) in FY2011, and an overall decrease in TRALI fatalities over the reporting period. In FY2007, TRALI accounted for 65% of confirmed transfusion related fatalities, compared to 33% in FY2011 (Table 1).
In FY2011, the 10 TRALI cases were temporally associated with products from 24 donors. HLA/HNA antibody test results were available for 21 of these donors. Donor genders were identified for 22 of the donors, which included 11 males and 11 females. Our limited data do not elucidate the role of particular donor antibodies or donor gender.
In five cases, reporters who included patient testing data were able to match donor antibodies with recipient cognate antigens; however, there were no antigen/antibody combinations that appeared more frequently than others.
Although the transfusion community has taken voluntary measures to reduce the risk of TRALI, this complication of transfusion continues to be one of the leading causes of transfusion-related fatalities reported to the FDA. However, the number of TRALI cases associated with plasma products continues to decrease (Figure 2). Current literature describes the results of continued international efforts to reduce the use of plasma for transfusion prepared from female donors, and other strategies to reduce the incidence of TRALI.13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20
Figure 2: Reports of TRALI Cases by Implicated Blood Product, FY2007 through FY2011
In FY2011, the number of reported fatal hemolytic transfusion reactions increased from 7 (18%) in FY2010 to 9 (30%) of confirmed transfusion related fatalities. There were increases in both ABO hemolytic reactions - from 2 (5%) in FY2010, to 3 (10%) in FY2011, and non-ABO hemolytic reactions – from 5 (13%) in FY2010, to 6 (20%) in FY2011 (Figure 1 and Table 1). Despite these recently observed increases, a downward trend in the total number of reported fatalities due to hemolytic transfusion reactions has continued since FY2001 (Figure 3).
Table 2: Hemolytic Transfusion Reactions by Implicated Antibody, FY2007 through FY2011
FY2008: anti-C+K+Fyb+S+N+V+Jsa+Goa+warm autoantibody.
FY2009: antibody combinations included E+Jkb, S+Jka+Jkb+K+Fya+Fyb+V+C+N+HTLA
FY2010: antibody combinations included D+C+K+S, Jkb+FYa+C+E+K+Lea+Leb, c+E+Jkb+K+Lea+panagglutinin+cold agglutinin
FY2011: anti-Jka+c+E+M (warm reacting)
FY2009: Includes one report of an unidentified warm autoantibody and one report of Hyperhemolysis Syndrome. Information about this syndrome has been published.21
FY2011: Includes one report of Hyperhemolysis Syndrome, and one report of an unidentified antibody..
Figure 3: Hemolytic Transfusion Reactions, FY2001 through FY2011
In FY2011, there were three reports of fatal hemolytic transfusion reactions due to ABO-incompatible transfusions:
Two of these fatalities were attributed to errors:
- In one case, correctly labeled red blood cells (RBC’s) were issued in separate coolers for two patients. Failure to properly identify one patient resulted in transfusion of an incompatible group A RBC to the group O recipient.
- The second case occurred after initiation of a massive transfusion protocol for a trauma patient whose blood group was unknown. The container released to the emergency room (ER) inadvertently included both group O and group A RBC units. The patient was later determined to be group O.
The remaining case illustrates the potential risk associated with ABO-incompatible plasma in plateletpheresis products, when donor ABO antibodies in the transfusion product are incompatible with the patient’s red blood cells and are present in sufficiently high titers to cause in vivo hemolysis. This case involved transfusion from a donor with a high-titer anti-A.22 Over the last five years there has been one other fatality due to transfusion of apheresis platelets with a high-titer blood group antibody, an anti-B (FY2008). In both cases, the recipients’ blood groups had recently changed following ABO-mismatched hematopoietic stem cell transplants.
In FY2011, there were six reports of non-ABO fatal hemolytic transfusion reactions:
Two of the six cases were attributed to errors in the lab:
- In one case, an anti-K was correctly identified; however, an error in pulling segments for K typing and compatibility testing resulted in the transfusion of an incompatible, K positive unit.
- In a second case, a positive antibody screen misread as negative resulted in transfusion of an incompatible Fya positive unit. The immediate spin compatibility test did not detect the incompatibility.
- The remaining four cases illustrate difficult compatibility issues without clear answers, including three patients with complex RBC antibody presentations which worsened following transfusion, and one case of delayed hemolytic transfusion reaction/hyperhemolysis syndrome in a sickle cell patient.
In FY2011, there were four reported fatalities attributed to microbial infection, compared to two in FY2010. Babesia microti, associated with a transfusion of Red Blood Cells, was implicated in one of these fatalities, and S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, and M. morganii were implicated, one case each, in platelet transfusion fatalities. Apheresis Platelets were associated with the K. pneumoniae and M. morganii infections, and the S. aureus infection was associated with a unit of Pooled Platelets (Figure 4).
Babesia accounts for 42% (10/24) of reported deaths due to microbial infection over the previous five fiscal years, followed by Staphylococcus aureus, which accounts for 21% (5/24) (Table 3).
During the five-year reporting period, all of the implicated bacteria associated with fatal microbial infections were facultative anaerobes.
Figure 5 shows a downward trend in the number of bacterial infections associated with Apheresis Platelets since FY2001.
Table 3: Microbial Infection by Implicated Organism, FY2007 through FY2011
|Streptococcus dysgalactiae (Group C)||1||17%||0||0%||0||0%||0||0%||0||0%||1||4%|
*Nine Babesia microti and one probable Babesia MO-1 species
Figure 4: Microbial Infection by Implicated Blood Product, FY2007 through FY2011
Red Blood Cells microorganisms: B. microti (9), B. MO1(1)
Pooled Platelets microorganisms: S. aureus (1), E. coli (1), S. dysgalactiae (1), S. pneumoniae (1)
Platelets Pheresis microorganisms: S. aureus (4), S. marcescens (1), S. epidermidis (1), M. morganii (1), K. oxytoca (1), S. viridans (1), S. warneri (1), K. pneumoniae (1)
Figure 5: Bacterial Infection by Apheresis Platelets, FY2001 through FY2011
As noted above, 28 (41%) of the 69 reported fatalities in FY2011 were cases in which the transfusion could not be ruled out as the cause of the fatality. In these reported fatalities, the reporting facilities were unable to identify a specific complication of transfusion as the cause of death. Often, these patients had multiple co‑morbidities, and after review of the investigation documentation, our medical reviewers could neither confirm nor rule out the transfusion as the cause of the fatality (Table 4). Therefore, we did not include these 28 reported fatalities in the analysis in Sections II.A through II.D (transfusion-related fatalities), above.
After reviewing the initial fatality reports and the investigation documentation, we categorized 11 (16%) of the 69 reported fatalities as “Not Transfusion Related.” Our medical reviewers concluded that, while there was a temporal relationship between transfusion and subsequent death of the recipient, there was no evidence to support a causal relationship (Table 4). Thus, we did not include these reported fatalities in the analysis in Sections II.A through II.D (transfusion-related fatalities), above.
Table 4: Fatalities Not Related to Transfusion or Transfusion Not Ruled Out, FY2007 through FY2011
|Transfusion Not Ruled Out||11||8||22||24||28|
|Not Transfusion Related||13||18||8||7||11|
In FY2011, we received seven reports of fatalities following Source Plasma donation, and one reported fatality following a Double Red Blood Cell (apheresis) donation. For all eight cases, although the donations could not be definitively ruled out as being implicated in the donor’s death, our medical reviewers found no evidence to support a causal relationship between the donation and subsequent death of the donor.
We received two FY2011 reports of fatalities following Whole Blood donation. In one case, the donation was ruled out as being implicated in the donor’s death. In the remaining case, although the donation could not be definitively ruled out as being implicated in the donor’s death, our medical reviewers found no evidence to support a causal relationship between the donation and subsequent death of the donor.
Over the five-year reporting period, there was one FY2010 Source Plasma donation, in addition to the FY2011 Whole Blood donation mentioned above, in which the donation was definitively ruled out as the cause of the fatality. For the remaining cases, our medical reviewers concluded that, while there was a temporal link between the donations and the fatalities, there was no evidence to support a causal relationship between the donations and subsequent death of the donors (Table 5 and Figure 6).
Table 5: Post-Donation Fatality Reports by Donated Product, FY2007 through FY2011
|Apheresis Red Blood Cells||0||1||0||0||1|
**Both were autologous donations
Figure 6: Post-Donation Fatality Reports, FY2007 through FY2011
**Both Whole Blood donations in FY2007 were autologous
1 Report of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The 2009 national blood collection and utilization survey report. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, 2011.
3 The FY2005/FY2006 data are not discussed in this report, but are available at: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/ReportaProblem/TransfusionDonationFatalities
4 Guidance for Industry: Notifying FDA of Fatalities Related to Blood Collection or Transfusion, September, 2003. http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/guidancecomplianceregulatoryinformation/guidances/blood/ucm074947.htm.
13 Middleburg RA, van Stein D, Zupanska B, et al. Female donors and transfusion-related acute lung injury. A case-referent study from the International TRALI Unisex Research Group. Transfusion 2010;50:2447-2454.
14 Wiersum-Osselton JC, Middleburg RA, Beckers EAM, et al. Male-only fresh frozen plasma for transfusion-related acute lung injury prevention: before-and-after comparative cohort study. Transfusion 2011;51:1278-1283.
17 Arinsburg SA, Skerrett DL, Karp JK, et al. (2011), Conversion to low transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI)-risk plasma significantly reduces TRALI. Transfusion. doi: 10.1111/j.1537-2995.2011.03403.x.
18 Lucas G, Win N, Calvert A, et al. (2011), Reducing the incidence of TRALI in the UK: the results of screening for donor leukocyte antibodies and the development of national guidelines. Vox Sanguinis. doi: 10.1111/j.1423-0410.2011.01570.x
20 Eder A, Herron Jr R, Strupp A, et al. Effective reduction of transfusion-related lung injury risk with male-predominant plasma strategy in the American Red Cross (2006-2008). Transfusion 2010;50:1732-1742. | <urn:uuid:22bb2f34-6003-455a-83cf-fc297d95a0ce> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/ReportaProblem/TransfusionDonationFatalities/ucm302847.htm | 2015-03-30T05:54:32Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299114.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00108-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.87327 | 3,979 |
Oct 10, 2012, 12:31 PM EDT
4:42 PM: Bryce Harper flies out to second and that’s the ballgame. Cardinals win 8-0 and take a 2-1 lead. The Nats’ backs are up against the wall.
Stay tuned to HBT for some postgame analysis and all kinds of other things on a busy, busy evening of playoff baseball.
4:41 PM: Jayson Werth walks. He’s the Nats first baserunner since the sixth inning.
4:24 PM: After not going down in order in any of the first six innings, the Nats have gone down 1-2-3 in both the seventh and the eighth. We’re heading to the ninth with the score still 8-0.
4:18 PM: Michael Morse with a long fly out. No oohs or ahhs from the crowd this time. They’re starting to get jaded just like the fans of every other team. Playoff frustration will do that to you.
4:15 PM: Costas and Kaat continuing on the Strasburg stuff. Believe me, I have beaten that horse as much as anyone, but the two pitchers who pooped the bed in this series so far would have pitched even if Strasburg was on the team. And the Nats offense has sucked too. Strasburg will be a fun conversation topic if the Nats lose this series, but let’s not pretend he’s the difference between victory and defeat.
4:13 PM: Mattheus just walked Allen Craig and unleashed the loudest F-bomb I’ve heard in a televised game since Greg Maddux retired.
4:07 PM: Ryan Mattheus is in for the Nats now in the top of the eighth. He gets two outs but then allows a Jon Jay single, a Carlos Beltran ground rule double and a Matt Holliday single and now it’s 8-0.
3:53 PM: It looked like multiple broken ankles would happen on the play, but Bryce Harper just grounded to first to a diving Allen Craig, Rosenthal covered first and just beat out Harper for the out.
3:45 PM: Garcia finally gets out of the inning, throwing 30 pitches to do it. The bottom of the seventh awaits.
3:40 PM: Molina works a full count off Garcia and then takes ball four. A run scores, it’s 6-0 St. Louis.
3:35 PM: The Cardinals start the seventh inning with back-to-back singles by Jon Jay and Carlos Beltran off of Christian Garcia. Then Matt Holliday grounds out to third, but the runners advance on the long throw. Davey Johnson decides to walk Allen Craig to load the bases. Yadier Molina comes up with the bases loaded and one out.
3:30 PM: And Rosenthal gets Jayson Werth to foul out. The Nats have left a ton of runners on base today. Just can’t get that key hit.
3:26 PM: It’s Trevor Rosenthal. Here comes some serious heat, folks.
3:25 PM: Suzuki pops up — the 12th flyball out of the game — but then Stephen Lombardozzi lines a single to right. Two on and two out and here comes Mike Matheny to take Carpenter out of the game. We go to the pen. MLB Network cuts away before they say who is coming in. Oh well.
3:21 PM: Chris Carpenter strikes out Espinosa on a called strike three. Joe West took approximately eight years to make that call. Because it’s the Joe West show. Meanwhile, Mike Matheny comes out to check on Carpenter. Carp says he’s OK. I guess we’ll see in this at bat to Suzuki.
3:18 PM: Ian Desmond leads off the bottom of the sixth with a single past Kozma at short. He’s 3 for 3. Chris Carpenter is approaching 100 pitches. He has pitched 17 innings all year before today. You have to figure he’s done soon.
3:13 PM: Carpenter strikes out. It’s 5-0 Cards after five and a half. At least Nats fans won’t be hitting rush hour all at once when the game ends.
3:11 PM: Kozma strikes out and the dangerous Chris Carpenter comes to the plate. Two out, runner at third.
3:06 PM: Craig Stammen is in for Edwin Jackson to start the sixth. He plunks the first hitter he faces — Yadier Molina — and then gives up a double to David Freese. Molina had to stop at third because it was a high, high hit that just glanced off the wall. Werth almost caught it. Two runners in scoring position, no one out. This could break open big here now. Nats pitching coach Steve McCatty making a slooooow walk to the mound to allow time for the pen to get going.
2:59 PM: And Morse pops up to right, leaving the bases loaded. A real missed chance there. Cards lead 4-0.
2:58 PM: Jim Kaat, in describing that walk: “it won’t show up in the box score, but …” Actually, Jim, yes, walks do show up in the box score.
2:57 PM: With runners on the corners, Carpenter gets Adam LaRoche to a full count and then … walks him. Bases loaded and the tying run to the plate. It’s Michael Morse.
2:53 PM: The Nats have a little something cooking now. Jayson Werth was at first and took third on a two-out single by Ryan Zimmerman.
2:51 PM: Carpenter retires Bryce Harper with a popup for the second out of the fifth. Costas says it’s nine popups or flyballs for Carpenter so far. Nats just getting under everything.
2:42 PM: After the sacrifice, Beltran grounds out to third, and Carpenter can’t advance. Edwin Jackson then strikes out Allen Craig. Gee, if only the Cardinals had one more out. I’m not really rooting for either team here, but I sorta want bad things to happen to Mike Matheny now for bunting with his leadoff hitter after the pitcher hits a double.
2:37 PM: And Mike Matheny has Jon Jay bunting. Carpenter gets to third so I guess it worked, but with the pitcher nailing Jackson like Carpenter did, why doesn’t Matheny five Jackson a free out? When you have a boxer on the ropes, you don’t start clinching. You smack him in the head.
2:35 PM: Chris Carpenter nails a leadoff double off Edwin Jackson. It was freakin’ cranked and almost went out. Carpenter is 2 for 2 against Jackson and is now 4 for 7 against him in his career.
2:32 PM: Meanwhile, in game action, Ian Desmond doubled, but he was stranded at second. Chris Carpenter is shutting out the Nats on four hits through four.
2:29 PM: When the Nats were stuck with the 1PM start, fans complained that MLB was not respecting the history of the moment. Glad to see the Nats themselves are properly reverent:
BREAKING: George, Tom, Abe and Teddy are doing the Gangnam Style dance on the warning track. And Teddy wins the race again! #natitude
— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) October 10, 2012
2:27 PM: Why hasn’t the government cracked down on Axe Body Spray for false advertising? I’ve used their products before and not once — once! — was the opportunity to participate in a foursome with three towel-clad beauties presented to me.
2:24 PM: Edwin Jackson strikes out two in the fourth. Guess he can’t mulligan the first two innings, but it’s good to see him snap out of it.
2:22 PM: Costas just dropped a factoid Nats fans might not like: since the advent of the wild card, the team with the best record in baseball has only won three of 17 World Series.
2:15 PM: End of the third, still 4-0. Looks like everyone has settled down now.
2:13 PM: Not gonna say the Nats fans are totally out of it right now. Bryce Harper just flied out to left and, as Matt Holliday was camped out under it, the crowd was shouting “Nooonaann!” or something like it.
2:09 PM: Sometimes I say that I don’t think commercials work. Then the DQ chicken strip basket ad comes on and I’m all hungry for DQ chicken strip baskets. Hurm.
2:07 PM: Jackson strikes out Allen Craig and then induces a Yadier Molina double play. Jackson lives to give up solid hits in another inning.
2:01 PM: Matt Holliday hits a solid single to lead off the third. Jackson has nada.
1:58 PM: Meanwhile, the second inning ends with the Nats doing no damage. It’s still 4-0.
1:57 PM: I thought Bryce Harper looked weird earlier but I couldn’t figure out why. Here’s why: red contact lenses. Holy crap that’s disturbing.
1:54 PM: Jim Kaat notes that Joyce is “no stranger to controversial calls.” You don’t say. Now MLB showing replays of the Armando Galarraga play. Oy.
1:53 PM: After a leadoff single, Danny Espinosa tries to bunt his way on, but was called out by first base umpire Jim Joyce. On replay, Espinosa was safe. Imagine Jim Joyce getting a call at first base wrong.
1:51 PM: You guys think I’m a troll? Ha!
@craigcalcaterra If this were a night game like it should have been, it would still be scoreless.
— Zachary Levine (@zacharylevine) October 10, 2012
1:46 PM: Jon Jay hits into a double play. Jackson needed that like nobody’s business. Then Beltran grounds out. Inning over. But, dudes, 4-0 Cardinals.
1:43: PM: Next pitch, Chris Carpenter of all people hits a single to right field. We officially have Bad Edwin Jackson in the house. I wonder what Stephen Strasburg thinks about all of this.
1:42 PM: Pete Kozma hits a three run homer! It’s 4-0 Cards. And Nats Park deflates, almost immediately.
1: 41 PM: After the double, Jackson goes 3-2 to Descalso who then deposits the payoff pitch into left for a single. Runners on first and second, no one out.
1:38 PM: David Freese leads off the second with a double. Edwin Jackson floated it over the plate despite Kurt Suzuki wanting it outside. If his command is off, he can be beaten around like nobody’s business.
1:33 PM: Carpenter strikes out Morse to end the inning. Carpenter threw a lot of pitches that inning. He tends to settle down as games go on. The Nats missed a chance.
1:31 PM: Carpenter goes full count to LaRoche and he grounds to second. If it was any other runner there would have been no chance at all for a double play. LaRoche was safe at first, but because he’s slow as molasses out there, it was close. Runners on the corners, two out and Michael Morse at the plate.
1:26 PM: One out Werth on first, Ryan Zimmerman hits a slow grounder to third which David Freese muffed. Runners on first and second now and Adam LaRoche at the plate. It was too slow a ball for a double play, methinks, but there should be two out now.
1:25 PM: Bryce Harper nailed a ball to right which sounded like a homer off the bat but fell short for an out. The crowd almost exploded. When I was at Nats Park in August I noticed that, like a lot of places with relatively new fan bases, Nats fans tend to think every pop up is a potential homer. The phenomenon is enhanced, I imagine, by all the playoff Nattitude flowing through the place.
1:23 PM: Costas notes that Davey Johnson is “a forward thinking guy.” Which is totally true and always has been. One thing I’ve hated to see this year is the lazy idea that Johnson is somehow some crusty old school guy simply because he’s old. Nothing is further from the truth.
1:21 PM: Jayson Werth leads off the bottom of the first with a single to center. The crowd goes nuts. They’re really amped in Washington, you can tell. Probably all thrilled that their bosses gave them the day off.
1:20 PM: As I watch the 115th Captain Morgan commercial of the postseason, I will note that Michael Morse was impossibly slow getting to that double to left field. The ball stuck under the pad on the wall, and Morse was expecting a bounce. If he’s more spry about it, Holliday may not score.
1:15 PM: Matt Holliday singled and then Allen Craig doubled into the left field corner. Holliday scores. 1-0 Cardinals. Then Molina ground out, and the Nats are out of the top of the first.
1:13 PM: Second out of the first inning is a popup to Danny Espinosa at second. He fought the sun. It looks kinda brutal out there. Keep it in mind for later.
1:10 PM: Joe West is the home plate umpire. Not all umpires get to ump in the postseason. It’s an honor and a reward for what MLB thinks is good work. Think about that. Joe West.
1:08 PM: I know we’re supposed to hate everything on the Internet, but I’m not gonna lie, I like the Bronson Arroyo/Aroldis Chapman Red Hooded Sweatshirt commercial. Laugh every time. I don’t care what you think of me.
1:06 PM: In case you missed it earlier, here are the lineups:
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS WASHINGTON NATIONALS 1. Jon Jay, CF 1. Jayson Werth, RF 2. Carlos Beltran, RF 2. Bryce Harper, CF 3. Matt Holliday, LF 3. Ryan Zimmerman, 3B 4. Allen Craig, 1B 4. Adam LaRoche, 1B 5. Yadier Molina, C 5. Michael Morse, LF 6. David Freese, 3B 6. Ian Desmond, SS 7. Daniel Descalso, 2B 7. Danny Espinosa, 2B 8. Pete Kozma, SS 8. Kurt Suzuki, C 9. Chris Carpenter, RHP 9. Edwin Jackson, RHP
1:00 PM: I forgot that we get Bob Costas for this broadcast. He’s so big now — hosts the Olympics and everything else — that it’s kind of jarring to hear him in a regular old baseball game, even a playoff game. I’ll say though — and I’m not being an NBC homer here, I’ve always thought it — that Costas was the best baseball play-by-play guy outside of the Valhalla in which Scully, Harwell and the like reside.
12:57 PM: Frank Robinson is about to throw out the first pitch. He’s accompanied by several members of the military. For there is no one short of that as badass as he is. Gotta love Frank. Oh, and he threw a strike on the fly.
12:31 PM: Since Major League Baseball was so cruel and unethical to schedule the Nats first-ever home playoff game at 1PM, and since they put it on MLB Network, I realize that a lot of you guys can’t really see it. In light of that, we’re doing you a solid and live-blogging it.
Seeing how much hell we’ve given the Nats this week, we promise to be equal opportunity trollers for this one. I’ll admit it will be harder to troll the Cardinals without Tony La Russa around, but I’m sure we’ll think of something. Suggestions in the comments, of course.
Be sure to hang out here once the game gets underway at 1:07PM Eastern. And that’s the case even if you think I’m gonna be mean to your team. It beats workin’, right?
- The average Major League Baseball salary this year will be more than $4 million — a record 6
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Effect of CPAP on insulin resistance and HbA1c in men with obstructive sleep apnoea and type 2 diabetes
- 1Sleep Unit, Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK
- 2Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK
- Dr Sophie D West, Sleep Unit, Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine, Churchill Hospital, Old Road, Oxford OX3 7LJ, UK;
- Received 2 November 2006
- Accepted 10 April 2007
- Published Online First 8 June 2007
Background: The effects of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) on insulin resistance are not clear. Trials have found conflicting results and no appropriate control groups have been used.
Methods: Forty-two men with known type 2 diabetes and newly diagnosed OSA (>10 dips/h in oxygen saturation of >4%) were randomised to receive therapeutic (n = 20) or placebo CPAP (n = 22) for 3 months. Baseline tests were performed and repeated after 3 months. The study was double blind.
Results: Results are expressed as mean (SD). CPAP improved the Epworth sleepiness score significantly more in the therapeutic group than in the placebo group (−6.6 (4.5) vs −2.6 (4.9), p = 0.01). The maintenance of wakefulness test improved significantly in the therapeutic group but not in the placebo group (+10.6 (13.9) vs −4.7 (11.8) min, p = 0.001). Glycaemic control and insulin resistance did not significantly change in either the therapeutic or placebo groups: HbA1c (−0.02 (1.5) vs +0.1 (0.7), p = 0.7, 95% CI −0.6% to +0.9%), euglycaemic clamp (M/I: +1.7 (14.1) vs −5.7 (14.8), p = 0.2, 95% CI −1.8 to +0.3 l/kg/min1000), HOMA-%S (−1.5 (2.3) vs −1.1 (1.8), p = 0.2, 95% CI −0.3% to +0.08%) and adiponectin (−1.1 (1.2) vs −1.1 (1.3), p = 0.2, 95% CI −0.7 to +0.6 μg/ml). Body mass index, bioimpedance and anthropometric measurements were unchanged. Hours of CPAP use per night were 3.6 (2.8) in the treatment group and 3.3 (3.0) in the placebo group (p = 0.8). There was no correlation between CPAP use and the measures of glycaemic control or insulin resistance.
Conclusion: Therapeutic CPAP does not significantly improve measures of glycaemic control or insulin resistance in men with type 2 diabetes and OSA.
Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is characterised by recurrent upper airway obstruction during sleep, recurrent apnoeas and arousals. It is associated with central obesity and affects approximately 4% of men.1 Population studies have found that OSA is associated with insulin resistance, and the more severe the OSA, the greater the insulin resistance, independent of general obesity.2 3 Insulin resistance occurs when the metabolic effect of insulin is reduced, leading to a lack of hepatic and peripheral tissue response to insulin-mediated glucose metabolism.4 This most closely correlates with central obesity, and the greater the visceral fat, the greater the insulin resistance.5 It is postulated that the insulin resistance in OSA is due, not only to visceral obesity, but also to increased sympathetic drive from the frequent arousals, hypoxia and sleep fragmentation—all of which are thought to impair glucose tolerance.6 7
Insulin resistance is frequently observed in pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes develops when normoglycaemia is no longer maintained as a result of inadequate pancreatic β cell compensation and insulin production. Insulin resistance is affected by many variables including changes in weight, body fat distribution (with visceral fat causing more insulin resistance than subcutaneous fat), exercise, drugs and smoking. Studies of longitudinal change in insulin resistance as an outcome need to include a control group to allow for such confounders. Insulin resistance is measurable by several techniques including the homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) for basal assessment8 and the euglycaemic clamp for stimulated insulin assessment.9
There has been interest in whether the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for the treatment of OSA can improve the insulin resistance found in OSA. If the hypoxia, arousals and increased sympathetic drive found in OSA were adequately treated, would the insulin resistance and hence the glycaemic control improve? Several studies have tried to answer this but, so far, the available data have not led to a conclusive answer as the significance of any changes cannot be assessed without a control group.10–14 We therefore performed a randomised controlled trial using therapeutic and placebo CPAP to assess the effect of CPAP on glycaemic control (glycosylated haemoglobin, HbA1c) and insulin resistance (determined by euglycaemic clamp and HOMA) in men with established type 2 diabetes and newly diagnosed OSA.
Subjects were recruited via the Oxford Sleep Clinic between June 2004 and August 2005. Eligible subjects were men aged 18–75 years with established type 2 diabetes (on diet, oral hypoglycaemic agents or insulin therapy). They had excessive daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Score (ESS) ⩾9) and were due to start CPAP for OSA, established from overnight laboratory sleep studies (VisiLab, Stowood Scientific Instruments, Oxford, UK). The entry criterion for OSA was >10 oxygen saturation (Sao2) dips of >4% per hour on an overnight sleep study. Patients were excluded if they required urgent CPAP or if they had unstable diabetes (requiring an escalation in treatment). Additional details are provided in the online data supplement available at http://thorax.bmj.com/supplemental.
Eligible subjects were seen for their baseline study visit 10 days before commencing CPAP. Subjects were asked not to change their diet or exercise habits for the duration of the study, and their primary care physicians were asked not to change their medications unless essential. Following baseline studies, each subject was randomised to receive either therapeutic or placebo CPAP for 3 months in a double blind fashion. Randomisation was by means of a balanced computer programme (MINIM Version 1.5, Evans S). CPAP was first used overnight at home following an afternoon training session, which is standard practice in our unit. Two weeks after CPAP initiation, all patients were seen in the nurse-led CPAP clinic. The nurses involved in the randomisation, CPAP initiation and ongoing CPAP care were separate from the study investigators. After 3 months of CPAP treatment the baseline studies were repeated. At the end of the study all subjects receiving placebo CPAP were changed to therapeutic CPAP. Subjects gave written informed consent and the study was approved by the local ethics committee.
Subjects receiving therapeutic CPAP had autotitrating machines (Autoset Spirit, ResMed, UK) while those receiving placebo CPAP had the same machines set to their lowest pressure with a flow restricting connector inserted at the machine outlet and six extra 4 mm holes inserted in the collar of the main tubing to allow air to escape and to prevent rebreathing of carbon dioxide. A pressure of <1 and >0 cm H2O was delivered, insufficient to hold open the pharynx. These methods of placebo CPAP provision have been used previously.15 16 The data from the CPAP machines were downloaded at the second study visit.
Measures of insulin resistance
Insulin resistance was assessed by both HOMA and euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp on a single day. Studies were carried out after an overnight fast and omission of the morning oral hypoglycaemic agents or insulin. Baseline blood samples were collected for the determination of glucose and insulin for HOMA. Following the basal sampling, subjects underwent a hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemic clamp.9 They were kept awake for the duration of the clamp in order to avoid any confounding effects of sleep on glucose metabolism.
Other blood tests
HbA1c, lipids (cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides), adiponectin and highly sensitive C-reactive protein were measured.
Measures of body composition
Height and weight were recorded, body mass index (BMI) was calculated and neck, waist and hip measurements were made. Body composition was measured using bioelectrical impedance analysis (Bodystat 1500, UK).
Measures of sleepiness and activity
Subjective sleepiness was measured by the ESS and objective sleepiness was measured once at the same time of day using a modification of the Maintenance of Wakefulness test (MWT) (OSLER).17 The Short Sleep Apnea Quality of Life Index (Short SAQLI) was completed.18 These variables were measured to confirm patients were responding to therapeutic CPAP compared with the placebo group. Physical activity was assessed at baseline and at the end of the study using wrist worn actiwatches (electronic devices containing accelerometers which measure and record intensity, amount and duration of physical movement; Cambridge Neurotechnology Ltd, UK).
Analysis of data
The primary end point was the change in HbA1c measured after 3 months of therapeutic or placebo CPAP. Secondary end points were changes in insulin sensitivity measured by HOMA and euglycaemic clamp. Differences between groups (using the change from baseline as the outcome variable) were assessed with the unpaired Student t test. A χ2 test was used to compare the proportions in each group on different diabetes therapy and duration of diabetes. Non-normally distributed data were logarithmically transformed before applying parametric statistical tests and data are reported as geometric means. Activity data were analysed using non-parametric tests. A p value of <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Analysis was performed with SPSS Version 12.0.
The study was powered not to miss a difference of 0.8 in HbA1c (assuming a within subject SD of 0.8)19 at a significance level of 5% and with a power of 90%, which required 20 subjects in each treatment group.
Figure 1 shows a flow chart of the study. Forty-eight men were considered for entry to the study: four declined and two were unsuitable, so 42 were enrolled. Twenty-one men were randomised to receive therapeutic CPAP and 21 to receive placebo CPAP. One patient randomised to receive therapeutic CPAP had a defective machine which delivered minimal pressure so his data were therefore analysed with the placebo group. The two groups were well matched at baseline with no significant difference in age (mean (range): therapeutic 58 (29–74) years, placebo 55 (24–66) years), >4% Sao2 dips/hour (therapeutic 33.1 (11.0–87.9), placebo 39.1 (10.8–82.2), BMI (therapeutic 36.6 (26.2–49.2), placebo 36.8 (29.2–47.1)) or HbA1c (therapeutic 8.5 (6.5–12.1), placebo (8.4 (6.0–13.6)). For diabetes, five subjects were treated with diet only, 23 with oral hypoglycaemic agents (OHA), 23 with insulin and OHA, and four with insulin alone; the proportions of subjects receiving these treatment categories were not significantly different between the two groups (p = 0.6, χ2 test). The mean duration of diabetes was 7.3 years in the therapeutic CPAP group and 6.5 years in the placebo group (p = 0.3, χ2 test). Completion data were available for 40 men: one patient receiving therapeutic CPAP did not attend his second study visit as he was admitted to hospital for emergency cardiac surgery and one patient withdrew from the study because he was unwilling to continue using CPAP (randomised to placebo). Patients who attended and had poor or negligible CPAP usage were included and analysed on an intention to treat basis. Euglycaemic clamps were performed on 33 of the study participants; technical difficulties meant these were not performed in the first nine participants. There were no adverse events in either of the groups.
Measures of daytime sleepiness and SAQLI score
Subjective sleepiness measured by the ESS improved in both groups following CPAP treatment (table 1), but the change was significantly greater in the group receiving therapeutic CPAP (p<0.01). Objective sleepiness, measured by the modified MWT, improved significantly only in the group receiving therapeutic CPAP by a mean of +10.6 min (p<0.001). This change in MWT was similar to our previous randomised controlled trial in this area (+7.0 min), and the change in ESS was of an effect size (1.9) nearly as large as this previous study (2.2) in which the patients had less comorbidity.15 The mean short SAQLI score improved following CPAP treatment in both groups, but the change between the groups was significantly different in favour of therapeutic CPAP (p = 0.04).
The mean (SD) blood glucose concentrations over the last 20 min of baseline euglycaemic clamp were 5.9 (0.5) mmol/l in the therapeutic CPAP group and 5.9 (0.5) mmol/l in the placebo group (p = 0.8); and in the repeat clamp the levels were 6.1 (0.8) mmol/l and 5.9 (0.5) mmol/l, respectively (p = 0.5).
HbA1c and insulin sensitivity
The results are shown in table 1. HbA1c did not change significantly following CPAP treatment in either of the groups. There was no significant change in insulin sensitivity in either the therapeutic or placebo CPAP groups after 3 months of treatment. The plasma insulin concentrations during the baseline and final euglycaemic clamps were not significantly different between groups. The geometric mean (SD) plasma insulin concentrations over the last 30 min of the baseline clamp were 1405 (239) pmol/l in the therapeutic CPAP group and 1436 (335) pmol/l in the placebo group (p = 0.6), and in the repeat clamp geometric mean (SD) plasma insulin concentrations were 1453 (339) pmol/l and 1481 (327) pmol/l, respectively (p = 0.8). Insulin sensitivity (M/I) is expressed as the quantity of glucose metabolised (M) per unit of plasma insulin concentration (I), data obtained from the euglycaemic clamp. At the end of the study M/I had changed by +1.7 (14.1) in the therapeutic CPAP group compared with −5.7 (14.8) in the placebo CPAP group (p = 0.2). A positive change indicates an improvement in insulin resistance. HOMA-%S changed by −1.5 (2.3) in the therapeutic group and −1.1 (1.8) in the placebo group (p = 0.2). Adiponectin did not change significantly following CPAP treatment in either of the groups (therapeutic −1.1 (1.2), placebo −1.1 (1.3), p = 0.3). The changes in HbA1c and adiponectin were found to be not normally distributed and therefore the two groups were compared again with the Mann-Whitney test, but this made no difference and the results remained non-significant (p = 0.3 and 0.4, respectively). There were no correlations between change in M/I with change in weight, BMI, waist to hip ratio, bioelectrical impedance, HbA1c, HOMA-%S, adiponectin or change in physical activity.
Other blood tests
There were no significant changes in any of the measures of fasting lipids or highly sensitive C-reactive protein over the 3-month period in either of the two groups.
Measures of body composition
There was no significant change in any of the measures of BMI, waist to hip ratio, neck size or bioelectrical impedance over the 3-month period in either of the two groups (table 1).
The average activity for the most active 10 h (M10, usually representing wakefulness) and the least active 5 h (L5, usually representing sleep) per day over a 7-day period were calculated. The activity levels were found to be highly variable and changes after CPAP in those receiving therapeutic CPAP did not reach statistical significance (M10, p = 0.4; L5, p = 0.1); mean (SD) change in M10: therapeutic CPAP +13.3 (68.3), placebo CPAP +0.7 (5.9), 95% CI −43.0 to +17.7; mean (SD) change in L5: therapeutic CPAP −0.3 (0.8), placebo CPAP −0.4 (1.6), 95% CI −1.0 to +0.8 arbitrary units/1000.
There was no significant difference between the two groups in the mean number of hours for which CPAP was used on the nights it was used (table 2). In the therapeutic CPAP group there was no correlation between the hours of CPAP usage per night and the change in M/I, %S-HOMA or HbA1c. Three subjects in the placebo CPAP group (14%) and five in the therapeutic CPAP group (26%) used CPAP for an average of <1 h/night over the last 1 and 3 months. The main analyses were repeated with these poor compliers excluded (ie, per protocol) and the results remained non-significant with no suggestion of an improvement in the therapeutic group.
This double-blind randomised controlled trial of therapeutic and placebo CPAP for 3 months in men with type 2 diabetes and OSA has not shown any significant improvement in glycosylated haemoglobin or insulin resistance measured by euglycaemic clamp and HOMA. As anticipated, subjects receiving therapeutic CPAP experienced significant improvements in their subjective and objective sleepiness and sleep apnoea quality of life scores, similar to our previous studies, indicating that CPAP was effectively treating their OSA, but this was not accompanied by improvements in glycaemic control or insulin resistance.
There were no significant changes in any of the other variables measured, despite the clinical response of improvement in OSA. Adiponectin is an adipocyte derived peptide with insulin sensitising properties. It is decreased in adiposity and increases after weight reduction, and higher levels correlate with increased insulin sensitivity.20 A previous study found large and significant changes in adiponectin, together with significant changes in M/I, following treatment with pioglitazone.21 Adiponectin is therefore another marker, along with %S and M/I, which can be used to determine if there is a change in insulin resistance but, in our study, it did not significantly change. The fact that neither the primary outcome measure of HbA1c nor any of the other variables associated with insulin resistance changed adds validity to the consistent findings of this study. The euglycaemic clamp is widely accepted as the gold standard for assessing insulin resistance; as markedly supraphysiological insulin concentrations are achieved, this method is applicable over a wide range of insulin sensitivities and glucose tolerances from normal to diabetes.22 Whatever the insulin resistance, agents that change the sensitivity tend to show effects with the euglycaemic clamp. The clamp data (Vmax effect) are concordant with the HOMA data (basal effect),8 22 so it is unlikely that a real change was observed with these two methods.
For comparison, a similar double-blind randomised controlled trial was carried out in 30 subjects with diet controlled type 2 diabetes to assess the effects of pioglitazone on glycaemic control and insulin resistance.21 Following 3 months of pioglitazone compared with placebo treatment, HbA1c significantly improved (−0.6%, p = 0.003) as did HOMA-%S (+23%, p = 0.02), M/I (+12 l/kg/min1000, p = 0.009) and adiponectin (3.8 ng/ml, p = 0.00004). These results show that larger significant improvements in all these measures are achieved with pioglitazone, whereas the small improvements in HbA1c and M/I found in the CPAP group in our study are not statistically significant and are unlikely to be clinically significant. The validity characteristics of the euglycaemic clamp (mean (SD) of the measures of blood glucose concentrations over the last 20–30 min and SD of M/I) in our study were comparable to those in this pioglitazone study, as was the variation in the repeat measurements of HbA1c, HOMA-%S and M/I between the two time points.
The patients studied all had well established type 2 diabetes. The development of type 2 diabetes reflects a progressive decline in pancreatic β cell function rather than increasing insulin resistance.23 The patients had a range of ages (24–74 years) and were receiving different treatments for their diabetes; neither age nor diabetes treatment was significantly different between the two groups. In a comparison depending on a change following an intervention with within-subject comparisons being made, homogeneity of groups is not of the same importance as it is in a cross-sectional comparison. Wider recruitment can therefore be seen as an advantage.
Studies of drug treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes receiving different therapies have shown significant improvements in insulin resistance, typically within 3 months.24 25 The use of CPAP for 3 months would therefore seem to be long enough for any changes in insulin resistance or glycaemic control to occur. It would be difficult to justify ethically giving placebo CPAP for longer than 3 months in this symptomatic group. It is possible that CPAP might be effective in a pre-diabetic group by improving insulin resistance via an improvement in the activity of the still functioning β cells; this is an area for future research.
It could be argued that the mean CPAP compliance figures of <4 h use per night in our study might account for the lack of improvement in glycaemic and insulin resistance variables. If subjects had used their CPAP for longer, decreasing the number of apnoea-related arousals and the resultant sympathetic nervous system activation, would they have improved their insulin resistance? We do not think this is the case. First, the mean CPAP compliance was clearly great enough in the therapeutic group to improve the OSA, making a significant difference to sleepiness (measured by ESS, MWT and SAQLI) whereas the placebo group experienced no significant improvement. Since the sleepiness improved, the number of apnoea-related arousals was likely to have decreased together with the associated sympathetic nervous system hormone surges. Second, there was a range of mean compliance over the preceding month from zero use to 9.1 h/night, with poor and good compliers in both the therapeutic and placebo groups. A per protocol analysis of these good compliers did not change the results, neither could we could find a correlation between any of the measures of insulin resistance or HbA1c and CPAP compliance. We would have expected positive correlations if improvements in insulin resistance were associated with compliance. Indeed, even the study by Harsch et al13 showed no correlation between CPAP use and the improvements in insulin resistance. This is surprising, given that the treatment of OSA is thought to lead to improvements in insulin resistance via decreased sympathetic nervous system activation. We are clear that the outcome of our study is not due to lack of CPAP use.
The inclusion of a control group treated with placebo CPAP is particularly important in a study of insulin resistance. It is likely that glycaemic control and insulin resistance would be influenced by taking part in a study, regardless of the intervention, as people are more likely to modify their behaviour when they know they are being monitored. It would be impossible in an uncontrolled study to attribute any changes purely to the intervention concerned. There have been several studies published assessing the effect of CPAP on insulin resistance. None have used a control group, which leads to concern regarding the interpretation of the results. Harsch et al treated 40 patients with therapeutic CPAP and performed euglycaemic clamp studies prior to CPAP, after 2 days and after 3 months.13 A significant improvement in insulin sensitivity (the reciprocal of insulin resistance) was found after 2 days of CPAP treatment which was sustained at 3 months (p = 0.001). Mean BMI did not change during the study. The subgroup of patients with a BMI of >30 kg/m2 showed no significant change in insulin sensitivity at 2 days but a significant improvement at 3 months (p = 0.03). There was no correlation between improvement in insulin sensitivity and CPAP use. The investigators hypothesised that the early changes in insulin sensitivity after 2 days were due to improvements in sleep disordered breathing and associated decreases in nocturnal sympathetic drive, as well as improvements in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function due to improvements in sleep and hypoxia. The later changes in the patients with BMI >30 kg/m2 may have been due to changes in body fat distribution.
It has been noted previously that the clamp procedure itself increases sympathetic nervous system activity, presumably because patients are uncomfortable and anxious and this is likely to increase insulin resistance.26 Control patients who underwent a clamp procedure, but received only saline, had increases in plasma norepinephrine similar to those found in patients undergoing a euglycaemic clamp with insulin and glucose. By the time of the second clamp, patients are likely to have acclimatised to the situation and insulin resistance is hence reduced,27 and by the third clamp this acclimatisation would be greater. This effect makes the inclusion of a control group mandatory so that changes in insulin resistance are not falsely attributed to the intervention concerned. One study which assessed the change in insulin resistance in people with type 2 diabetes treated with either pioglitazone or placebo showed that insulin resistance (measured by euglycaemic clamp) improved in both groups after 3 months, although the improvement was greater in the pioglitazone group (41% vs 10% in controls).21 The improvement in the control group was likely to be due, at least in part, to acclimatisation to the clamp procedure itself, as well as other factors such as better adherence to diet and medication or increased exercise. We did not see such improvements in either group in our study, possibly because the subjects were encouraged not to alter their diet or activity. It could be questioned whether the 18% and 31% improvement found in insulin resistance by Harsch et al13 after 2 days and 3 months respectively might not, in fact, be due to CPAP but to clamp acclimatisation, study effect or confounding variables.
The other studies published on this subject have had small numbers of patients (n⩽10) and have also not had control groups. A study of 10 subjects by Brooks et al12 showed a non-significant improvement in insulin sensitivity following 3 months of CPAP (28%, p = 0.06). A further study in nine subjects with type 2 diabetes by Harsch et al14 showed a significant improvement in insulin sensitivity after 3 months of CPAP (42%, p = 0.04).14 Both of these results could have been due to the effect of acclimatisation on the second clamp, study effect or biological variation in insulin sensitivity, as well as the confounders which affect insulin resistance. A study by Saarelainen et al11 found no significant effect of treatment for 3 months with CPAP on euglycaemic clamp measures in 10 subjects with OSA,11 as did a study by Smurra et al10 in 10 patients with OSA treated for 2 months with CPAP. Babu et al28 looked at HbA1c and 72 h continuous glucose monitoring before and after approximately 3 months of CPAP treatment. No significant improvement in overall HbA1c was found (p = 0.06), but HbA1c significantly improved in those patients in whom it was initially above 7% (p = 0.02, likely to be due to regression to the mean) and there were some improvements in postprandial glucose levels (p = 0.05). Again, without a control group it is difficult to attribute these improvements in glycaemic control solely to CPAP and not to the effect of being monitored in a study.
In conclusion, OSA, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes are all increasing in prevalence as population obesity levels increase. Our randomised placebo-controlled study adds evidence that CPAP does not improve insulin resistance and glycaemic control in men with established type 2 diabetes and OSA. Routine treatment of OSA in patients with type 2 diabetes is unlikely to result in improved diabetic control or a reduction in treatment requirements through a direct effect on insulin resistance.
Additional details are provided in the online data supplement available at http://thorax.bmj.com/ supplemental.
The authors thank Joy Crosby who randomised all the patients and supervised their CPAP and the staff of the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism for their help with the euglycaemic clamps.
This study was funded by Diabetes UK and the Grand Charity.
Competing interests: None.
- body mass index
- continuous positive airway pressure
- Epworth sleepiness score
- glycosylated haemoglobin
- homeostatic model assessment
- Maintenance of Wakefulness test
- oral hypoglycaemic agents
- obstructive sleep apnoea
- Sleep Apnea Quality of Life Index | <urn:uuid:6fbdb2b8-b865-41c2-8e9a-cf12b0535f37> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://thorax.bmj.com/content/62/11/969.long | 2015-04-01T01:07:59Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131302428.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172142-00224-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953521 | 6,407 |
Newspaper Page Text
THE DAILY ARGUS I
JOHN W. POTTER.
Satcrdat. Jahcary 25, 18IK).
The system of ballot reform advocated
tj Got. Abbett. of New Jersey, provides
for the registration of every voter; abso
lute secrecy of the ballot, en exclusively
official ballot with a prohibition of the
use of any other the setting aside of an
election In any precinct wherever the
courts shall be satisfied that the electors
for any reason have been deprived of a
fair opportunity to express their choice
at the ballot box; the right of nomination
by petition: a limitation of the amount
which may be legally spent In or for any
election, and declaring the election void
should this mount be exceeded by any
candidate or any person acting for or In
his behalf; the publication by every can
didate of an itemized statement, under
oath, of all moneys expended at such
election by him or with his knowledge,
and a failure to do so rendering the elec
How lew was Carried.
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had. lie had worked from early spring
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two acres to buy hi two boys new boots.
and ten acres more on top or this to fit
tbem out with new suits. To buy bis
wife a protected dress took 100 bushels
more; while five acres went in a solid
lump for the carpet on the floor. His
taxes and his grocery bill absorbed els
crop of oats, while the Interest on his
farm mortgage took all his fattened shoals
The shingles for his new cow sheds, and
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Deer steers and the balance of his corn.
So he sat In his door at noonday, lonely,
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but I know tbere is something wrong;
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gate and get to the bottom of facts: and
MI bet 4 to begin with that the tariff it
a tax. Aledo Democrat
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Tbe following list of articles with tar.
IS duties on tbe same shows bow tbe
government discriminates against tbe
necessities and In favor of the luxuries:
DUTIES OH ARTICLES OF 5ECE88ITIKS.
Castor oil, 180 per cent. Linseed oil.
02 per cent. Common window glass. 86
per Cent. Raw wool, 45 per cent. Steel
rails, 85 per cent. Horseshoe nails, 118
per cent. Cheapest mixed woolen goods,
coatiog 24c. per vard abroad. 77 per cent.
Spool tnread, 61 per cent. Common
woolen shawls costing abroad 68c. a
pound, 86 per cent. Common worsted
stockings, costing 26c. a pound abroad,
.73 per cent. Rice, l(Jfl percent. Corn
starch, 85, per ceot. Salt, 80 per cent,
DUTY OX ARTICLES OF LCXCBT.
Oltar of roses, free. .Neroli. or orange
nower oil, free. Diamonds, 10 per cent.
naw sua, rree. Jewelry. 85 per cent.
Hold studs, 25 per cent. Finest still
wines, In bottles, 29 per cent. Finest
thread lace, 80 per cent. Pate de foie
grss. 25 per cent. Musical Instruments
of all kinds. 25 per cent. Curry and
curry powder free. Olives, green or pre
pared, rree. Spices of all kinds, free.
A thousand other items might be treated
in use manner.
FiSH STORicS ARE EARLY THI3 YEAfl,
Irut tlie 4,non MtaritO.it with TCIiatMay
He Called a (orir.
rnirAro. Jan. M "That's rmo of the bact
nh t- i Ilmvw rnroiiiittfred," said C E,
.M'ir';'; h Uul ali'tnr on the counter
l. I' 'Jm; store ut Tfiirtyfirth street an1
(I'lti'." lifuv.) ai'i:nt:. ( tiifno, "and tha
U-t .nrt uf I- i Mint it U truf." Tbs lot.
li r a in in I.n fth -r, F. H Marshull, in
EMom. Ir mi l tvn . i i;,, n .Ian. VI.
B.igl.t a Wi.ll Kveit Flic.
it inn uU'iit ai in. I.. 1 "A week go last
rri'iav ju.,u "i'Imt itum ami tha two
Bii- I u 'hik ,.nt i" i id nrdin City, ton
mile, ii'tnli of Iitj. for Kim.t spearing
ti.r,-t. t!i t in t;i. I..wa riv.r Wetnter
t.l k !n sfwur Info a t .h, which be inun-
niTi to .mi l ontojx.f tti It after a big
:niCi It prove 1 tor a wall-eyed nlke
i( ordinary slrj. lint ratii-r thicker than
.iul an I of. K.i.-b extraordinary weight
tl.at it wa ltni rtim.'il to Investipate the
ialrl f..r Hnnkliw.
"Th tUti U-Imk cm fu a (jurn. wa found
tmlde rnnt.tininc ;V iu gnkl c1n, llfl.fio in
nfr. . , in (trp 'tiiw. t, ,iu.0t n railroad
douu., an'i ..,. Mtl( aj ertifloat of
upoir in a laTin,"! L of Johnntown. A
np nr pHp-T, a!o f mad In tUa pant, bore
r or.i won wrut -n 'Tiw l'Hjpartyof
rfonn j Juno Jhi-y hvo lipait( tbs
conTenm at t!. wmrt txuise in Eldora, with
afflduvitu vertifring that the finding tiwk
ymv ai jmcrilwl alifT.
Iul a Llkaly . the Hot f lc.
iTisiueiT, niM .Mr. MBrthall. "that tha
nn iwnllowe thnf j,urc at Johnntown ear
w.m. ........ ur, ,K.'i ti i,r M.vcrai vnr apo,
and r. arlil tl. pl,,-c l.ri. 1. wax caught
v rv,,,iirii.uv; .ion n in-' (.oi.,ntigti rVtr
iuo Alk-Kbhiiv, don th.. AII.'thBiir and
. ka. J . a . t aa . '
..... w.u.) i,. in.. .iiiinplti ,i u,, Um jiii
icaipVi to tha Iowa rivrr."
JOHN PLANKINTON DYING.
.nuimnairo Vuth Paahor at tha folnt
MiLWACKF.it WW , Jan 'A John I'lankln
vn, in tiilllioiiitim prk ptirker, and farmer
partner nf fhll Aruu.ur, of Chiinpo, la lying
i ma point of il.Mith ut big roaidriiM-e In tbia
J tlr "" t.Hlioirt attack Thu.day
anu inn in conueof i mi with the paralysis
Ih.t .....I. I ... ..... - 1 J.
- mm aiiiiom neipiHs iir weeks,
iuuiiiuiwiy ('rooirttU-.! Inn,.
Tho Iowa laai,,k.
T)a Xlnraru 1. T . m..
.--, ., tfnu. wj, inera aaeua
to ba a ehauea for the deadlock In the learii
uiture to be brokou that Is If the Democrats
will agree to a proposition tha RepubUoans
um in innr inia proposition la that
they will connont to hara Hotchkiaa, Demo
crat, for temporary speaker aad Wllrox,
Republican, for temporary clerk tf the Den
o craia win KiTetliam three of the lira on
sua creOuntmla committee and Eotcb-
sina win afcree not. to do anything to throw
ininoon contested Kupublicana.
" iremw tue jjrmncrata ww consent is
THE BOLD WESTERN ROBBER.
Ha Gag a roatofflce Clark aud ttmf Away
wim tna swag.
autoqckrqce, n. M., Jan. 25 Two
ouiscaci men bound and gagged 2? ijcht Clerk
L, L. Roy at tna poatoOlua hara early yeater
day morning, pouuded the combination knob
on the stir with a sledge hammer and robbed
tha vault of t.K In money, i,o 0 in stnmpa
and sereral hundred dollars worth or Jewel
ry. All tha register baga were cut open
and tba firt-claa packages tkcii. Tbe
"'""" m " in not known, but Poatmaa
tar Walker think the robbers aecured from
them severnl tliounnnd dollars more. Tha
roliliera were iu tha offloa eeveral hours.
After thy loft Roy fraad hiinaelf and nte
Iluby Valley, Cel.. boasts of tnowdrifU
uny teat deep.
Natural Gas Adds Many
tims to Its Roll.
HAVOC BY A DOUBLE EXPLOSION.
Horror Piled on Another at Col
ambus, O. The Leaky Pipe
Does Deadly Work.
A Carious Multitude. Attracted by tha
First Disaster, Stands on a Volcano Un
knowinglyThe Eiptoslon ttesntts In
Frightful Scene of Wreck end Mangled
t'afortanates Horse Attached to a
ladder Wagon Dash Madly Through
tho Crowd Several llooses Wrecked
Sis Corpses ReeoTered and Many I'oo
Colcmbih, O., Jan. 'A Tliere wat a
soeue of death and destruction in thin rity
laet night whose borrlble f.atur and sick
ening details sro not surpaiwe.1 in the hi-
tory of Ohio. A few moment' after 5 o'clock
an alarm of fire sounded, calling out the en
tire department The stiveta were thronged
with the thousands of toilers who were re
turning to tlnir homes from workshop and
factories, and quickly spread tbe
news that a frightful calamity had
happened in tho southern part of
the city. Tbe streets lea Jin to that
section were soon crowded with people go
ing to the scene, but their preeence there
heaped horror upon horror, as will ba seen
Moons of tha Catastrophe.
An explosion had occurred at the double
residence of Messrs. Michael Bowers and
John Harriot, at tbe corner ot Wall and
Noble allies. The cause of the calamity was
an accumulation of natural gas in the cellar
of the house referred to. The city has re
cently been supplied with natural gas, and
lending past the house occupied by Marriot
and Bowers Is one of the mains throuzh
which the commodity is furnished to the
public The pipes had leaked and tha explo
sive fuel had found its way through fissures
in the ground to the cellar which was the
seat ot the horror. It became ignited in
some unknown manner and exploded with
terrific foroe, wrecking the building and
Oiling tbe air with debris.
Tha Destroyer lay In Walt.
Mrs. Marriot was blown out of tbe bou
and a man named Qouldlng. who was stand
lug near the structure, was blown across the
Street. Mrs. Marriot was carried across the
street and into tbe residence of William
James, a bookkeeper for the book firm ot
Glock & Beck. Dr. Wlssinzer. a prominent
physician, was called to attend her injuries.
iru- i . . . .
ium uuuse wnere me injured Jay was soon
crowded with people attracted by the acci
dent, and it was soon necessary to close the
doors that no more might enter. Little
know those scores of spectators hudJled
around the sufferer that thcr were standing
in a death trap, which was then on tbe verce
carrying tnein into eternity.
THE SECOND EXPLOSION.
A r rightful Ipheaval That Creatoa Hor
Suddenly the air was rent bv a tremendous
explosion which made the earth quake and
flUed the air with flying timbers, bricks and
debris of all kinds. Darkmws ensued and
then a dead-like stillness reigned for a few
moments. It wss brokou bv shrieks and
death groans. The house in which lav the
powerless rorra or Mrs. Marriot had been
blown to atoms and it occupants burled be
neath the wreck. Hundreds of spectators
who lined the sidewalks were knocked vio
lently down by the shock and laid powerless.
Then to cap tbe climax a team of soirited
hones attached to one of the fire department
jaaaer trucks became rrenKied by the exolo-
sion ana oasnea awsy into the crowd, carry
mg ueam in ineir wage, j nev ran over
and Injured scores of people. A beautiful
little babe was knocked from its mother
arms ana teUlns beneath the men-ii
wheels of the vehicle, was cmhed to death.
Tho Mammons to tbe Rescue.
As soon as the maddened steeds had dis
appeared In the darkness many of tho spec
tator ana Bremen, wuo bad been uninjured
oy eiioer ot tne horrors, turned their aften
lion to digging out tha persons burled be-
naatn the ruins of the house. Guided by the
crwe ami moan or tha mangled and dying,
men gropou in tne darkness, pulling out
dead body here, a mangled, yet liviug. form
mere, ami couveying them to rostiug places.
wroups ot men, women and children iuth
a rot around tha prostrate forms, and blood
curdling shrieks made the awful scene more
revolting, as friends recognized frinujs, in
jureu or oeau parents round tliolr luuti
anu ciiiiuren, and vice vara. It rouuirml
several nours to remove all the dead si.. I
Injured from tbe ruins, and it is not vet
Known wnn or now many are tbe victims.
THE ROLL OF THE VICTIMS.
lb . ... b. ETUI a w- .
.-M.a.w ." " am..-u I. .1 , 11.1 II U 1 Ma
Far as Known.
following is the list of kill.tl and wonn.U
od so far as ascertained: Killed f!hori-
becht, Mrs, John Marriot. Infant son of
cnaries Worry, James Uoymour tuolored boy)
uuanown wuiie man, unknown uuImi.
lDjnrsd-rr T. K. WisHinger. bodlv and
probably fatally burned and bruised; Her
man liaker, badly burned; Daniel Cherry
burned painfully; Charles Woodruff, cut and
brulsod seriously; Mrs. Fully, burned and
injured internally, probably fatally fat
rick Hui-kie, cut on bead; Aaron Be.-un, cut
on race and band; benjamin Morgan,
gasuee on bead and internal iniu-
... . I w . . . .
rm; iimne ixiwrr. DUmeU and brni.
Albert Ticklidor, bruied and cut; '.
Brady, burned and cut; Edward Vienier
out aud burned ; Wolff, cut and burno1
aiiss u.'iie nmiiu, batiiy hurt; Mrs. Corn,
B" -.. -,.. 1 .
Dauiy l.urneil; Tot" Marriott, terrihlv
burned about the shoulders and neck; Tom
Doyle, hands burned partially off; Emma
Bowers, probably fatally burned; Marshall
auiDourne, norrible injuries on the neck and
hand; William Brady, probably fatally
suffocated; William James, hands and face
roasted and will die: Mrs, William
James, badly cut and bruised, blaukiu
ger, horribly burned and cut.
Elmer Gates, a young man. was standi HZ
opposite tha hoase when the second explo
sion ocourrea, ana was struck hy a missile
which broke bis leg.
A young man named Mssblider. who iaa
resident of Granville, n.. was aeverelv
burned and shocked.
Tom Doyle, a saloon porter was burned in
a most horrible mauner. When tne im
promptu bnndagns were removed from bis
hands, the flesh dropped off in muny places,
leaving the bones exposed.
ineodore Whoutlng was watching tbe firs
across the street, when the explosion oc
curred. The blaze and falhn? debris
frightened the horses ot a hose cart, which
wheeled and ran on to the pavement. The
gentleman was knocked down and had one
leg broken In two places. Police Officer
Lynsky was in tha house at tbe time it fell
aud was badly injured.
Many Others Badlv Bart.
Many others were badly injured, but were
carried away by friends aud their names
cannot be Warned. The houses for several
blocks around the sceua of tha einlosion
have been made into hospitals, where many
are being cared for. Miss Belie Smith, who
was badly Injured, had gone into tbe doomed
bouse just prior to the explosion. Her face
wet badly In-ukwd and siie was suffering
from many bruises about tbe body. She
was almost completely buried in tho debris
and had to lm dug out. Tbe doctors pro
nounce her Injuries serious, but think she
Dr. T. K. WiBsinavr Was In tha Jimv
bouse when be was hurt He was attending
.patient .injury at the othsrpbvje, when
the second explosion occurred. Those who
beard him talk say he said he suddenly saw
the flames creeping along the floor of the
room and immediately threw himself under
a table and placed his hands over his ey.-s to
shield them. Benjamin Morgan, also a ipec-
tator, was badly injure.!. He was knocked
down by one of tbe hoee carts in the geteral
rush for safety after the first explosion, and
then run over by the mad crowd. Mot gan
lives at Shawnee, and wss a delegate to the
miners' convention, which had been in ses
sion here. He is thought to be internall in
jured. Pet Marriott Is a 16 year-old girl. Wien
she reached the street she was almost nal:ed,
Her life was saved by turning a stream of
Drove Hlni a Raving Manlao.
The saddest case was that of Ed Pfef'er.
He was struck by the falling timbers ind
was terribly cut about the bead. Tbeshx:k
of the blows rendered the man a raving
maniao for the time being. It required tbe
united efforts of several men to hold him on
the seat of the patrol wagon as it dashed up
At midnight a half-dozen persona were un
accounted for, among whom were the widow
Tull and her son. who occupied part of 1 be
first house that exploded,
PECULIAR CASE OF INSANITY.
The Sufferer Has n Mad Mania for K 11
Baxoor, Me., Jan. ai Murtagh McLeod,
i . , , , ... .
m luiuuennan wuo nas ueen in tbe woods or
some time, was brought to this city in irons
Thursday night by a deputy shsrlff. The
cause of his arrest was the development of
insanity which led him to attack and try to
kill borsoe. He was sitting on a loir landinir
shsrpening a long knife some days ago.wten
a spienaia team or borses was driven uo bv
a teamster. At the sicht of them McLead
uttered a wild cry and jumped from his m at
to the borses and literally disembowe ed
one of the animals before he con 1.1 he
Slopped the Bloody Work.
The workmen around him secured him Just
aahe was about to make an attack on the
other horse. He only made a slicrbt
ance. The man was bound hand and fcot
and kept in camp until a team was ready to
start for civilisation, when he was load l
aboard and given to a deputy sheriff. He
seems to be particularly violent at the sig it
of animal, but since he has been confined
has acted in a perfectly rational mannfr.
Tbe physicians regard his case as an ex
ceedingly peculiar one and are watching it
Bound to Have an Extended Name.
Cleveland, O., Jan. 36. The convention
to organize a non-partisan temperance union
met again In Music hall yesterday mornin
The ladies decided that National Crusade -s
was not a good title, and changed the name
to Non-Parti san Women's Christian Temper
ance union, rretaucnt-eiect rnlnney notified
the convention of her acceptance of tie
fuee. Further officers were elected as fol
lows: General secretary. Miss F. Jenn e
Duty, of Cleveland; recording secretary,
Mrs. Florence MUller, Iowa; financial secrio
tary, Mrs. Shortledge, of Pennsylvania ;
treasurer, Mrs. C. Cornelia Alford, Brook
lyn. It wss decided to pay the presider t
and general secretary salaries of 1,300 eacl..
About 12,500 were raised at tbe afternoon
session to help maintain tbe expenses of thi
new organisation. After the transaction cf
further routine business a flual adjournment
"Old Hatch" Robbed.
CbicaOO, Jan. i5. Statements to tho
effect tbat B. P. Hutchinson had been swin
dled out of a big sum of money from $10
000 to fWO.OoO by his settling clerks, wer i
circulated on the board of trade yesterda"
morning. Mr. Hutchinson denied that ho
bad lost a large amount, but admitted ho
had lost some money, possibly $2,000 or
$3,000. The thieves are said to be Harry
Stoney, Hutchinson's settling clerk, ann
Henry B. King, settling clerk for W. P
Wanted a Tragedy and Was Accommodated
BlKJnsoHAM, Ala., Jan. 25. Thursday
evening John Carroll, a wealthy farmer
living a few miles north of here, was shot
dead by R. B. Barnes, a prominent lawyer,
in the small town of Opelika. A few days
ago they met in Opelika aud Carroll spat in
Barnes' fare, and also applied insulting epi
thets. Thursday Carroll came to town
armed, and meeting Barnes advanced upon
him with his revolver drawn. Barnes drew
bis revolver and fired, killing Carroll In
stantly. Most Mast Of His Time.
New York, Jan. 25. About tbe time or
tlie hanging of the Chicago Anarchists Jo-
haun Most, the New York 'Red," made a
sanguinary and incendiary speech. For this
he was arrested, tried and sentenced to stare's
prison tor a year and $000 fine. He appealed
the case, and has since been out on bail
Yesterday the case was decided against him.
ana ne win now nave to serve bis term.
Tba Man with the Clan-na-Gael-I'hobla.
SaK Antonio, Tex , Jan. 'A. Chester A
Baboock, the young attorney of Quincy. Ill
(not Chicago), who became demented under
tbe hallucination that be was pursued by
tbe Clan-na-Uael, has improved very rapidlv
and has been removed from the hnspital to
tha hotel, where he is now under the oar of
letting t'n on Coorelon in Inland.
DfBLLV, Jan. !. A proclamation by tha
viceroy or Ireland Is published In Tha On.
setts releasing from tbe operation of tha
coercion act thirteen counties, tnelndina
eegai, iverry, ana Limerick.
Fire nt Chicago.
IMCaoo, Jan. M. Fire last niaht dam-
apea tna eiotnmg stock of Austrian, Wise St
K.O. to we extent of 120, WW, and the build
ing, Adams street, $1,000.
Kerlous Accident at Champaign. Ills.
ChaMPaIun, His., Jan. Si. A very serious
accident occurred yesterday aftarnoou on
the Cbai'iHilgn and Urbana street railway
tuecar leaving mis city at lio p. ni. Was
crowded with pass!uirer. mostly woiuaii
w hen it left the track and rolled down a
wenty-five foot embankment. None were
killed, but thirteen were iulured. the mokt
serious being: Mrs. A. M. - Dawson, sboul-
U-r broken; Miss Angie Ireton. arm broken:
Miss Ixnn Friaon, bones of both lugs frac
tured; Miss I. N. Wade, severe injuries
about the head; Miss Sarah Bunuett, of Mat
toon, severe cut on neck and probable inter
F.a-Kenator Iliddlebarger llend.
WlxcHESTgR, Va.. Jan. S5. The death of
x-Henator Riddleberger was announced
yesterday morning. The event, which had
been imminent for aoiue days, took iiln.-n at
:30 o'clock. His end was painless. Mr
Biddleberger came into national prominence
during tbe Readjuster period in Virginia,
and was elected to the United States senate
by that party and tha Republicans. His life
shortened and his career ruined bv an
irresistible love for intoxicants. He was
born in 1844.
ttown on Oleomargarine.
Belvtoerk, Ilia, Jan. 23. At the session
of the Illinois Dairyman's association yester
reeolutious were adopted to the effect at that
the laws regulating tba manufacture and saia
of oleomargarine should be strictly and vigor
ously enforced, that the association is opposed
to tne adulteration or butter and cheese and
in favor of a state dairy and food commis
sion. Talmage Lunches with Gladstone.
Lokdok, Jan. 85. Rev. Dr. Talmage. of
Brooklyn, took lucbeon and spent tbe after
noon with bladstone at Hawarden castle
yesterday. To his guest Gladstone expressed
himself freely on religious and political
topics, and charged him with messages of rs
gnrd for President Harrison and sympathy
with Mr. Blaine in his recent affliction.
A BensltUe Jail Keeper.
Lajur, Mo., Jan. 25. Joseph Garrett.
dVputy sheriff and Jailer, shot himself
throngh the heart Thursday and death fol
lowed in a few momenta. He left a wife
and seven children. Tba only motive known
that of despondency caused bv an nn.
founded rnmnr that ho ho4 uu. I - i
recent escape of sonis prisoners.
ISLAKD ARGUS, SATURDAY JANUARY 25, 1890.
FUN IX PROSPECT.
Important Features of the Nev
A LIVELY TIGHT A SUKE THING.
Carlisle States the Changes lo a Demo
cratic Caucus and Its Voice Is for War
Cen. Filibuster Likely To Ba a Promi
nent Figure In tbe Near Future Mill
ions for a Navy Proceedings la the
Washwqto City, Jan. 2i Tbe caucus
of Democratic members of the house last night
lasted for over two hours, but at 10:80 o'clock
when an adjournment was taken, tho only
resolution adopted was one enjoining secresy
on tbe caucus proceeding). Tbe meeting was
well attended. Holman, the permanent
chairman, presided and after he had called
the caucus to order recognized Carlisle, who
proceeded to explain the principal features
of the new code prepared by the Republican
members of the committee on rules. Car
lisle said that the radical and dangerous
features of the new code proposed to abolish
the house calendar; to revive the morning
hour; to make 100 members constitute a
quorum; to abolish as motions of privilege
those for the taking of a reec or for the ad
journment of the bouse until a fixed date.
Another Important Innovation.
Another and very important innovation
provided tor by the new code, Carlisle ex
plained, provided for tbe transaction ot busi
ness during the morning hour. By this rule
a committee, on making a report, could de
maud immediate consideration of tbe bill on
which the report is made and could continue
to have it considered during the morning
hour day after day until disposed of. No
motion U consider another question, except
that of another committee, can, under this
rule, be enterJaimvl while the bill is undis
ood Prospect for Filibustering.
Considerable discussion followed Carlisle's
explanation all the speakers favoring fight
l.ig tbe new code on tbe fbxir of the house
until the end. Without coming to any action
on the matter the caucus proceeded to the
consideration of a plan of action on the con
tested election esses. Many different propo
sitions were brought forward, and a lively
and interesting discussion took place. All
agreed, however, that any attempt on the
part of tbe Ri-publicans to have any of
these cases considered tfore the new code
of rules are adopted should be opposed in
every possible way, even by filibustering of
the most radical character.
HALE'S BILL FOR THE NAVY.
A Proposition to Spend S349,OOO,O00 on
Washington City, Jan. 25. Yesterday
me senate committee on naval ansirs or
dered a favorable report on Senator Hale's
bill for tbe construction of 127 naval vessels
ot various kin.W at the cost, including $63,
000,000 already expended, of 349,W 5,000.
The decisiou, however, was not unanimous,
and l handler and McPherson will submit a
minority report, as they favor the construc
tion or fast cruisers, torpedo boats, etc., in'
stead of line of battle ships at the present
time, while tbe majority of tbe committee
desire the immediate construction of heavy
oawe snips, senator Stanford also is un
derstood to be only partly in accord with the
Dlscusstof Customs Administration.
Washington City, Jan. 25 The house
put in yesterday considering McKinley's cus
toms administration bilL The principal
ngbt was over the amendment requiring
gooas, against tue classification of which an
appeal has been taken, to remain in govern
ment custody until the appeal U decided.
Mills opposed it because, be said, if the im
porter got his goods and sold them he put
on the higher duty: then if he won the suit
be pocketed the difference, takinz money
from the taxpayer with one hand, and from
the government with the other. Carlisleop-
posea it oecause it was a hardship on the
nonest Importer only, as tbe dishonest im
porter did not go into court. The laws
should be made so plain as to prevait wrong
ciarancaii.m. i be amendment was defeated.
Some little progress was made with the bill,
Sim me nouse ajjoarned.
Reciprocity with Canada.
Washington Cjtt, Jan. as Representa
tive Bntterworth and S. J. Ritchie, of Ohio,
spoke to tbe ways and nutans committee
yesterday urging uurestricted reciprocity
with Canada. Butterworth's plain includes
me settlement of the fisheries dispute, In-
World's Fair Matters.
washinuton City, Jan. 23. The sub
committee of the World's fair committee ot
the bouse has decided against all the resolu
tions presented to it and will ask permission
or me run committee to proceed to frame a
iu emtiraonif the entire subject, except as
The Color Llna In tlie O. A. R.
A rGt'HT a, Ua., Jan. . Tba aVpart
tuental encampment, O. A. R., was held here
yesterday. Charleston, Havannah, Maoon,
A.uauu ana i aiinuoosa pools were repre-
wie.i. uoiorea aeiegates from Beaufort
and Savannah claimed admission as repre
senting colored posts. Tho majority of the
committee on credential reported against,
snu me minority in ravoror admitting them.
The minority rejort was adopted, 13 to 4,
whereupon I. I). Crawford, commander; h!
Burns, adjutant, and Philip Hiedingsfeler,
representing E. 8. Jones post No. 5, of Ma
xn, withdrew from the encampment under
nstructlons of their poet
The Dlorkade Ntill ( nbroken.
San Francisco, Jan. a. The blockade
n the Central Paciflu remains uubroken
aid snow is still falling in the mountains.
The storm is the greatest known since tbe
road was built Many mvuutain aud valley
1 1 reams in northern California are swolleu
nnd tbe Sacramento river is rising so rapidly
tbat another flood is feared. Heveral ava
Innchee are reported in the Siskiyou moun
t alns, adding to the blockade tbere.
One Benerlt of Cold Weathor.
Mount Carmel, Pa , Jau. 25 An hn-
ruvemeut iu tbe oual trade is noticed sinoe
tlie weather has become colder. Tha Bell
l lore and Morris Ridge colliers resumed
vork yesterday, and other operators an
t ounce their intention to start up Monday.
Might Have Gone to Canada.
New York, Jan. 29. Ueorga H. Louns
t erry, who resigned as cashier of the Ifew
York postofflce Thursday, shot himself dead
at Hackansack, K J., last evening. It is re
ported that there ia a deficiency of 125,000 in
Will Demand lnoroaeed Wngos.
WiLKXSBABlUE, Pa., Jan. ai At mass-
n .eeting of miners last night it was unaided
to demand a !U nor cent, inareaaa in wages
o i April L Oyur s,isj0 luiuers are interested
it tbe movement
Russia Taking Care of Natalia.
London, Jan. 25. It is stated that the
Brvian regents have received from St
Petersburg a hint that tbe exnnlsion of ss.
Veen Natalie from Berria, which it ia a4-
"jaa the regents had planned, would be n-
it la rumored tbat this "rriandlv tin"
wjl be beeded and tbat ail tba danger of
' italie's expulsion is removed.
A Handsome Rest dene VuraetL
SEW YORK. Jan. 35. The reddenca at
Pircy R. Pyne, tho well-known Wall etraat
m in, at Riverdale-on the-Hudson, was dan
aged by Ore at a late hour Thursday night.
Tl loss is estimated at from f 25,000 to $30.
00(. . '
La Grippe Losing It Grip.
Chicago, Jan. 28. There was a deckUd
de o-ease in the number of deaths westardaw.
In all there were seventy-four nmorted at
tb i health department, of which only six
wt re due to influenza.
All Quiet nt Appal nob loola.
U-PALACHICOLA, Fla.. Jan. 83. Every.
thing was quiet here yesterday and ttia
the ught the trouble with the colored strikers
is 1 1 an end.
ROUND WENT NELLY
With Only a Single Suit of
THE LADY GLOBE-QIKDLEE'8 FEAT.
Miss Nelly Biy Arrives at Chicago on s
Flying Trip Across tha Continent as
Wtnd-Cp ot Her Voyage Around the
World Jules Verne's Phineas Fogg
Knocked Ont of Time Lightning Run
ning on American Railways.
Chicago, Jan. 25. Miss Nellie Bly, the
young lady who is making a flying tour
around the world, reaoued Chicago on her
way home at 6:05 yesterday morning, and
left for New York at 10:30. She will make
the trip iu seventy-tlir days, barring
Borne two months ago Tlie Now York
World coucluded that it was time for some
great sensation, and castiug about for a sub
ject bethought it of tha fictitious trip of
Phineas Fogg arouud tbe world in eighty
days, as recounted in one of Jules Verne's
delightful works. A beaten record was al
ways a good new s item. Why would it not
do to try aud lsat the record of the famous
Fogg? Especially if a woman was the trav
eler. No sooner bald than dona. Miss "Nel
lie Bly, which name, so far as really being
the genuine all-wool and a yard wide cogno
men of the lady selected, is all in yoar eye,
it being her bom de plume, was willing to
undertake the trip as who wouldn't f and
so she started.
A Rival for Honors.
At tbe same time that Miss Bly took up
her journey east. Miss Elizabeth Bisland
was sent west by another New York paper,
her purpose being to beat The World corre
spondent This wasn't fair in one particular,
because Miss Bly had no knowledge that
she was running a race with a real live
woman instead of a flctictious man. Miss
Bisland would probably have put The
World in a""ho le""by prod uciug a bi gger sen
eation than The World's if she had not met
with bad luck. She expected to take a fast
Atlantic lines when she reached the Atlantic
ocean, but the said liner was taken off before
the lady reached port; and now she is
somewhere on the Atlantic aboard ot the
slow going Bothnia and undoubtedly hope
Novel but Not Extraordinary.
The trips these two young ladies took were
novel, inasmuch as they went alone with but
one suit of clothes each and that not like
McGinty's, their best and carrying small
handbags for baggage. To beat Phineas
Foggs' time, barring accidents, is not a
great feat as the facilities are undoubtedly
greater now than when he made his famous
voyage. The most exciting part of the trip
for Miss Bly was that across the American
continent, which was made in unprecedented
time by the help of special trains and with
tbe assistance otall the railways on the
The Arrival In Chicairo.
As stated in tbe first paragraph Miss Bly
arrived in Chicago yesterday. To meet her
a party of newspaper men left on the Atchi
son, Topeka and iSanta Fe road at 4 o'clock
yesterday morning for Joliet, whore the
special train tbat had borne her all the way
from San Francisco was due about 7 o'clock.
The trip was made all right, and Miss Bly's
train arrived in due time. It came on like
a cannon ball, and the Chicago reporters'
car was coupled on and tbe run to Chicago
begun, the newspaper men meantime invad
ing tbe parlor car in w hich the lady had
made the trip.
Miss Globe Glrdler Appear.
Tbe cheer of welcome bad awakened Miss
'"AT" f!W ,k Ud ?n P
the door of her state-room
tbe aisle stepped a young lady of medium
height, her slender, willowy figure clothed
in a perfect fitting nlster ot light check, but
toned lrora neck to toe. A jaunty, half
Jockey traveling cap sat gracefully on her
neaa. ner coai-DiacK nalr was coiled in be
coming fashion and her sparkling eyes and
her cheeks ricbly colored with the glow of
perfect health, showed bow keenly she was
enjoying ner battle with time. In one of
her hands, neatly gloved in Snede, she car
ried a dainty whip, which proved to be the
dned tad of a monkey, In tbe head of which
was imbedded a bright ruby from CoUn.
ice otner she extended to ber fellow news
paper workers as she called tbem, giving
each a cordial, hearty shake as Mr. O'Neill,
Tha World's Chicago corros pendent, made
Americans Scarce Abroad.
Miss Bly spoke with an English accent
and when this mentioned, -I did not know
it," she replied. "No, I am an American."
she continued, striking ber ulster with her
bejeweled whip, "and never more so than
since my retnm. I am not surprised, however,
that I have a little Engli-b accent, for from
the time 1 bade farewell to The World's
London correspon-lmt in Dover, I did not
see an Atnerhwu until I reached Yokohama
end 1 not see tbe stars and stripes until I saw
tnem waving over our consul's house at
Hong Kong. I tell you the old flag looked
Tho All-Pervading Rriton.
-nut tnougn Americans were scarce tha
English were plentiful, and from London to
Ban Francisco there were always a few of
tbat nation amonc my fellow-nasaenmrs
Bo I suppose I got my accent from them.
But I'll soon get over it
-Ami tirear .o, not a bit Whv. th
Journey has Iwen one gret delight If any-
oouy wants a vacation trip, l can think of
Do more pleasant way to take it than to fly
around the world."
The Inevitable Quoetton.
And what do you think of Americaf
queried a reporter who had been accustomed
to interviewing, in New York, fresh arrivals
Abt yon should have asked me that when
I landed." Miss Bly replied. ' But it is not
necessary for me to say it is the best coun
try of all. And especially for traveling."
Flying Across n Continent.
Why, see," she said, glancing at a Rus
sian bracelet In which was set a watch: "it
ia now 8 o'clock on tba morning of the 24th.
and but sixty-nine hours ago I was just start
ing from San Francisco. I have (wen in tbe
oar all tha way, except part of the time
when on the Atlantio and Pacific road, which
is pan or tne baata Ke system. I rode in the
engine. How we flew! Tho soenery in the
mountains was grand. I held the throt
tle and pulled it out as far as it would go.
Going down grade I managod the airbrake.
One of tbe surprising things along the lour-
nay was the crowds that gathered at the sta
tions to meet me.
Had to Please tho Populace.
I had to appear on the platform and bow
to tbem and answer lots ot questions The
women seemed particularly interested in my
dress and were very anxious to know if I
badfr-oaUy taken only one with me. That fact
Seemed more wonderful In their eyes
"At one of the stations a man yelled from
the crowd to know if I had ridden on an ele
phant during my trip. When I told him I
bad not, be looked disgusted and walked
Made Some Lightning time.
"Talking of fast time, though, we have
made plenty cf it The 250 miles the other
tide of Emporia, Kan., we covered in ex
actly 850 minutes, and a spurt of sixty -nine
miles near Dodga City we made in fifty-five
minueA I nave been ahead of my time at
every place. And now I am several
hour ahead. 1 am a little sorry the Santa
Fa has made such fast time, because now I
tnaJJ bava only two hours and a half in
Chicago, for I must take the 10:80 on tbe
Pennsylvania for home. Had we arrived
when wa expected I oould have scent fiva
hours, and several of thorn at the Press
Roeaptloa at tho Press Clob:
Miss Bly did go to tha Press club, how
ever j she had to. And there were a goodly
number of tho members present to offer
tbelr congratulations. After a stay of an
hour she was taken to Kinsley's, where,
attar dispatching a toothsome breakfast, tha
party drove to the board of trade.
Paralysed tha Board.
The visit bad not bsen foreknown on tba
board, bat as Miss Bly stepped to tha rail-
Latest Styles and the most
1 IMPROVE t
flLace Curtain Stretchers
cut of us nrnn mum.
Will Save you Monev, Time and Lstior.
Evasv lloussasaPEa Shoh.d IIavb Onij
any Isdy .uo operate them.
For Sale By
TKLEPHOIB NO. 10M.
ing of the private pillory a broker, with
mouth cpeu an.i arms uplifted preparatory
to hurling a bid iuto tlie man-tossing pit.
caught sight of her Iiuuitiveiy be guessed
her Meuttty and in placs of the bid be
"There's Nellie Bly."
Instantly trading ceased. The members
crowded into the middle of the floor, and
after gazin? a moment at the young lady
above broke forth into cheers and hurra hi
Miss Bly bowed, and as she turned to go, three
cheers and a tiger were given.
THE MINERS' AMALGAMATION.
A Plan for Pooling Their Issues Adopted
Also a Name as Is a Name.
Colcmbcs, O., Jan. 2. The ties that bind
ihe mine workers and KnighUof Labor have
at last amalgamated. Tho joint committee
of both organizations made its report yestsr
dsy. Tba constitution Dresented was taken
Ur. LV CMOtl..ia ar,A m.lA M.i . i.
amendments. It provides that the name of
, the n
organization shall be the "Cuited
Mine Workors of National Division Assem
bly 1S5, K. ot L., and the National IVores
lve Union;" thus the names of Iwth old or
ganizations are preserved. The National
officers witl consist of a president or master
workman, vice president or worthy foreman,
secretary-treasurer, and an executive board
somposed of seven memlters.
Membership and Officer.
The constitution further provides tbat any
member in good standing of either tbe Pro
gressive union or N. P. A. 13... K. of L.,
HhaU be eligible to office under the amalga
mation, providing lie becomes a member of
both organizations before qualifying. This
provision is occasioned by the fact that th
N. P. U. is an open organization aud N. D.
A 135 a secret one The time of the annual
conventions is fixed on the second Tuesday
In February of each year, tbe place to be
voted upon at each preceding convention.
This practically settles the whole matter
and tbe remainder of the session will be oc
cupied in routine business and fixing a na
tional scale of prions.
On tbe board of trs.le to-day quotations
ranged as follows: V huat No. t February,
opened , closed tB.'jc; March, opened ,
closed ; May, optmU sc, closed urs-tc.
Corn No. FebTuarr, opened av, closed'
March, opouej . -t closed 3ui$o; May,
opened ICV, closed 314c. Oats No. s Febru
ary. 0ned closed SiTr; March,
opened -IMk'. close.1 ; May. orviied fcisVc,
closed 2."H-4sc. Pork-rehmary. opened
J9.tc.t4. closed ttf.TT", March, ojiened and elsd
is.WHi: May. opened flu 2 , rlowd f M.17H.
Lard February. oK-ne,l .'.O.', closed 5.'J0
L.ve tt-k The fo low-inn Were tlie quota
tions at iha t'nion stork yards: Hut Market
active, and all parties buying with prices
lower: light irrades, fcJTuia.yO; rouuh pack
ing. f.S.Tiitf-l.T."); uiixe.1 lots. $..7i.,4.si; heavy
DArkiiiK and shipping lots. S3.Shct.uii. Cattlo
-Market null aii.t lower. Iieeves, ia.iMj.j.OO;
bulk. T:'i4 -O. eows, $l.at8i(t; stockers
soil feeders. Si.'iS Vi ,". Hheep - Higher; na
tive muttons, t3.7;:..s : western corn-fed,
S i.ill ib.HI; IhiuIm, i"..t' t 2T.
1'r.Rluee: Hutter Fancy EUfin creamery, 2d
ctz.c tiueat dairy. ltjAir: parkin stock,
436-. Ege eUrlctly treau. H.iNV V doz.;
ice house, lilillo. Live poultry-Hens,
t'. turkeys, ;r. rtu. ks, '..3.IU; geese, (t.nUrt
Potatoes -Beauty of Hebron, C5j
37c V hu. on track; couui.ou ami mixed loin, "
4l3-'c. Apples kod to faiirj , 51 CnjiV) y b'bL
t-'ranunriue-Wisconsin, s-s. u iti.7.per lm.
.Ns w 1 or L.
-NEW Yoiik. Jan. S!4
-No. ? red
winter. KHAo tash:
lo January, urtc; do February. "O'jc; do .March,
KTtc: do May, fr75jf. Corn -No. . iiui..i'
o-sitfcj. H ,h; do January. l"lc: do F.-b-
ranry, 7te; do Mar b, :jh'o. do iiay, iv"
Oats Quiet but ete idy; No. S; mixed. 2Wa
ixSic ciih: do January. 30V: do Minurr u
An March. 2wr.; do M;ik- !!. Hl i'..n
Barley-Nomiiih!. Pork-Firm: m.ws, 11. Ik
11.75 for new. Lard UuU. Fobrusrv. Sfl K
March. ': May, S3 47.
Live Moi k i'attle Market extremely dull
iteerH. W.W?4 .Hi V l s; oxen. 3 0A8..
bull-laud cows, H.iOv.ai. Hhewj. nud Lambs
-Ouiet: vheen. f tMinH. a U IM ihs: lumha.
$?.(JftT.li0. U'.is - Xoinio dly steady; live hogs,
yi.SM64.2l t lvKI It's.
Hay rpland prairie, $7 055.8 00. ,
ojl-niaiuij-n yvs 00.
Hsy Wild. 45 ai 5 uj.
This powder never varies. A marvel of parity,
rtranirth and wboiesomnees. Mors economics
thsa the ordinary kinas, and cannot ba sold in
competition wth tbe mnltitadeot low test, short
wslght alum or pr vhosphale powders . JSoULonlw
aseaas. Botal BAaixa Powdib Co., 10 Wall
8U, . T. .
attractive prices combined, make
A A R
A A U
No. 1623 Second Avenue.
the Best, and
1622 SECOITD AYElsTUB,
STOVES AND RANGES
IMPERIAL ALADDIN RANGE for Soft Coal
ALADDIN VENTILATOR for Hard Coal.
ilo Jbe UUt det,igD of, ,,be ,0Dg 8eriM ot ALADDIN Stoyes. This is beautiful in
its ornamentation, novel In many of its features-is bound to be a good seller Be
buy " mb"m'ne 8lVe ud ,earn ,U good poinl8 for after 8ce'"g ' I - S
I have of course a supply of the celebrated ROUND OAKS. This has been
dnnTC1 tb,at V UKbe,Dg CSPied M fBr M the dre V unscrupulous ?X. bu"
JOHN T. NOFTSKER,
Cor- Third avenue and Twentieth St., Rock Island.
Our establishment ia getting too small for our rapidly
growing business and we have decided to
give up our
to gain room, and will commence on Wednesday. Nov.
20th to sell out our entire stock of
BLANKETS and LAPROBES
at aud I low cost. This is not a sham-sale but a bona
tide sale, as we will not carry any more Blank
ets in the future. For particulars
see local page.
The Pioneer Clothier, Hatter and Gent's Furnisher,
115 and 117 West Second St., DAVENPORT, I A.
A. J. SMITH & SON,
TILES and GRATES.
A. J. SMITH & SON,
125 and 127 Weat Third Street, Opp. Masonic Temple, DAVENPORT.
trade a great success at the
ten. i rriTk,.. | <urn:uuid:2bc8d36f-eb95-4d97-b01c-ea29929d0d6a> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92053945/1890-01-25/ed-1/seq-2/ | 2016-07-25T09:15:03Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257824217.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071024-00152-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.899152 | 13,079 |
Tuesday, May 31, 2011. Chaos and violence continue, the Kurds talk of a sit-in if the Kirkuk issue isn't resolved, a vice president announces his resignation, the US government's desire to extend the military's stay in Iraq gets attention, and more.
Monday was Memorial Day for the United States -- a time to note the sacrifices of the fallen. From Kelley B. Vlahos' "Memorial Day in Wartime" (Antiwar.com):
Another Memorial Day. Of course it's been around for 103 years, but this is our ninth during wartime, which means we're simultaneously honoring dead soldiers, while were putting new ones in the ground at Arlington Cemetery.
As of Friday, 4,454 American servicemen and women have been killed in Iraq; 1,595 in Afghanistan. That doesn't seem like a lot when you consider the more than 58,000 dead in Vietnam and over 415,000 killed in World War II, but we know that today's singular medical capabilities have allowed for tens of thousands of soldiers and Marines to live today who wouldn't have made it off the battlefield 40 years ago. Let's just say it's been a war of a hundred thousand casualties.
Kimberly Hefling (AP) reminds that there are over "4,3000 children of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars". Yesterday on PRI's The Takeaway, Celeste Headlee spoke with Iraq War widows LaNita Herlem (her husband, Sgt 1st Class Bryant Herlem, was killed in Baghdad April 28, 2006) and Tayrn Davis (her husband Cpl Michael Davis was killed in Baghdad May 21, 2007). Davis has started the American Widow Project.
Taryn Davis: I guess it all started when my husband Michael was killed in Baghdad, Iraq. I was 21-years-old and basically felt ostracized from society -- even though I had family and friends around -- due to my age and it being written off because I was 21. And I found myself on the internet looking for a way to embrace this title that I held as a military widow because I already knew it signified my husband's sacrifice and my own but I wanted to find the answers on how it could one day symbolize my survival. So I typed in "widow" and it came back with "Did you mean 'window'?" Which probably discouraged most. But it led me to doing more and more research and over half of those serving now are married so we're looking at around 3,000 military widows from Iraq and Afghanistan alone and over 83% of those are under the age of 35. So I just saw this need to bring together this new generation of military widows. Not so much find them counselors, but give them peer-to-peer support, let them see other twenty and thirty and forty-something-year-old widows that really had just started out this amazing lives with their spouses and had them torn apart.
Last week, Danielle Berger (CNN -- link has text and video) reported on the American Widow Project and explained, "When a widow first makes contact with the American Widow Project, Davis sends her an introductory packet that includes her documentary film. The website provides a 24/7 hot line that allows immediate connection to another widow, information on support and services, and personal stories from women who have lost their husbands. It constantly reminds the women that they are in familiar, accepting company." And where was the president of the United States? Niles Gardiner (Telegraph of London) reports:
Can you imagine David Cameron enjoying a round of golf on Remembrance Sunday? It would be inconceivable for the British Prime Minister to do so, and not just because of the usually dire weather at that time of the year. Above all, it would be viewed as an act of extremely bad taste on a day when the nation remembers and mourns her war dead. I can't imagine the PM even considering it, and I'm sure his advisers would be horrified at the idea. And if the prime minister ever did play golf on such a sacrosanct day he would be given a massive drubbing by the British press, and it would never be repeated.
Contrast this with President Obama's decision to play golf yesterday, Memorial Day, for the 70th time during his 28-month long presidency. For tens of millions of Americans, Memorial Day is a time for remembrance of the huge sacrifices made by servicemen and women on the battlefield. The president did pay his respects in the morning, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, but later in the day traveled to Fort Belvoir to play golf. The story has not been reported so far in a single US newspaper, but was made public by veteran White House correspondent Keith Koffler on his blog.
So, with US troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, Barack basically tossed a wreath and then ran to the links, making clear his priorities.
Today Ayas Hossam Acommok (Al Mada) quotes State of Law's Izzat Shabandar stating that it is too soon to determine a position on whether or not to extend the presence of US military on Iraqi soil beyond 2011. Dar Addustour reports that US Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey has stated in a media conference that the issue of withdrawal or remaining remains up in the air. Sunday on Weekend Edition, Liane Hansen wrapped up her strong tenure as host of the program (she will be strongly missed and hopefully will return as guest host from time to time -- she offers her goodbye to Sunday Weekend Edition here) and she examined Iraq with the US weapons inspector sent to Iraq (after the start of the war) to find WMD, David Kay. "We've taken our eye off Iraq," Kay observed and noted of telling the truth about WMD (he was sent to Iraq post-US invasion to locate WMD and there were none) that "you lose some friends by what position you take on various issues. I discovered -- although it really wasn't a new discovery -- that candor is one of the values not valued in Washington. Oh, what I miss most are the friendships that were shattered by that, just had staked too much of their career on there being weapons of mass destruction. And not only didn't we find them, we found that they didn't exist prior to the war." For any who have forgotten the lie of WMD is one of the biggest lies the US government told to start the Iraq War. The Sunday broadcast also featured a report by Kelly McEvers on Nouri's recent declaration that, if the majority of the political blocs agree, US troops can stay on the ground in Iraq beyond December 31, 2011.
Kelly McEvers: Before the speech, few thought Maliki would be bold enough to take such a position in public, mainly because many Iraqis still view an American troop presence as an occupation. Now, though, Maliki's advisers, along with officials in the U.S. military, are working on changing the narrative. They're not combat troops anymore, they say. The soldiers who'd be here next year wouldn't even be advisers. [. . .] Analysts in Iraq say a new agreement between the U.S. and Iraq to authorize some 20,000 American troops beyond December is likely; there are just under 50,000 troops now. But like other political debates in this deeply divided country, analysts say, it's going to be a long and drawn-out fight.
Sunday, on Weekend Edition, NPR became the first US mainstream news outlet to tell the truth about what the US government is working on. For weeks now, relying on the Arab press, we've noted the pressure that is taking place to extend the SOFA or develop a new arrangment. Day after day, the US press has ignored it. And, in the beggar media (the so-called alternative press), they've flat-out lied and told you nothing or told you it's all Robert Gates. Robert Gates is stepping down as the US Secretary of Defense. When that happens, who are these cowards going to hide behind to avoid placing the blame where it rightly goes?
Monday the New York Times' Tim Arango appeared on Talk of the Nation (NPR) and discussed Iraq -- specifically the variables if US forces stay on the ground in Iraq beyond 2011 -- thereby allowing NPR to be out front on the story. Arango observed of Moqtada al-Sadr's threats of violence if the US stays beyond the end of this year, "At the same time, you know, a lot of people, you know, a lot of people believe it's a bluff, and a lot of people say that he would have no chance with the, you know, fighting the Iraqi security forces today. The last time he did so was in 2008, and they've - you know, they're much improved." And, in 2008, he lost in Baghdad and he lost in Basra.
Arango then acknowledges what a minor presensce al-Sadr's bloc is in Parliament ("roughly 40" seats out of 325) but goes on to talk about how Moqtada backed Nouri for prime minister. While that is true, Nouri became prime minister. Unless there's a vote of no-confidence, it doesn't matter if Moqtada supports him or not. (In 2007 and 2008, Moqtada openly refused to support Nouri. Didn't force his government to collapse.) If Moqtada wants to push a no-confidence vote, it needs to be remembered that Moqtada would only be 40 votes and you need to be figuring who would align with Moqtada?
Let's play this out. Say the majority of the blocs vote to extend the SOFA and keep the US military beyond 2011 and Moqtada is against that. Is that issue going to be the one Moqtada rides to a no-confidence vote? Not at all. He can't. If the bulk of the blocs votes that way why would they then turn against Nouri over it? It makes no sense.
Moqtada vowed he would not support Nouri. He also vowed that he would hold a referendum and abide by the vote. Nouri was not the number one choice in the referendum or the number two choice. But Moqtada ran with Nouri when Iran broke down the facts and handed out the orders to Moqtada. What he did in October and November is now meaningless. He can't say, "I take back my October support!" We'll note this exchange.
CONAN: Secretary Gates, who of course retires next month, but he has said if we're going to stay beyond the end of this year, we're going to have to have a request from the Iraqi government for that pretty soon. Any idea of what's the drop-dead date?
Mr. ARANGO: You know, it's funny, when you talk to the military commanders, they'll say, and they'll remark, and it's been a trend throughout the war. Like, the Iraqis march to a different time than the Americans do, and there really is no drop-dead deadline. And I guess the drop-dead deadline is December 31st because I think - which is a bit of an exaggeration, but I think as they're planning the drawdown, they will always have these contingencies, the American military to leave X amount of troops should the Iraqis finally, you know, make this request.
What will happen if there's no extension by December 31st is that any US troops in Iraq will switch to State Dept's oversight and that a significant number will be deployed to Kuwait where they would wait in limbo if the White House believed that an extension of the SOFA was going to take place (though it hadn't by December 31st). That is the actual plan at this point.
(Not my plan. I'm for all troops out now. That's the White House's plan but they don't believe it's going to take that long. They believe they'll have an extension. And, of course, the back up plan has been -- as addressed in open hearings in Congress repeatedly -- to move the troops from the umbrella of DoD to the State Dept.)
As continuing the US military presence is discussed, the US military recently ticked off a community. In Karbala, the US carried out a military operation involving a helicopter as they attempted to raid a home for a man . . . who died four days prior to the raid. And the response in Karbala? Aswat al-Iraq reports:
The deputy chairman of Karbala's Provincial Council disclosed that a letter of denunciation shall be handed to the U.S. Embassy due to the U.S. Army's airborne landing north of Karbala, calling on the central government to exert pressures on the U.S. army to cease its violations.
Nisayif Al-Khatabi told Aswat al-Iraq that "the U.S. forces carried out an airborne landing on house to arrest a citizen without any coordination with the local government or security forces."
Wen Xian (People's Daily -- link is text and audio) reports "According to sources, the United States, still keeping 46,000 troops in Iraq, hopes to keep 10,000 to 12,000 U.S. troops in nine military bases in Iraq after 2011 for as long as more than four years. In other words, U.S. forces will remain in Iraq by the end of U.S. President Barack Obama's second presidency if he is re-elected to a second term in 2012." Aswat al-Iraq notes that Moqtada's bloc is stating they will have no conversations with any blocs about extending the US presence in Iraq. Nouri got what he wanted from Moqtada. He got what he wanted from the Kurds. He promised everything to get to be prime minister. He promised the Kurds a referendum (one that Article 140 of the Constitution mandated be held by 2007) and a December census. But then he got the post and called off the census and backed off the referendum. Aswat al-Iraq explains Kamal Karkuki, Speaker of the KRG Parliament, declared today that if there is no movement to implement Article 140, Kurds will begin staging sit-ins and, he says, "The sit-ins shall be similar to those in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen to oblige the other party to make the consensus on the fate of the province. The road map to solve this problem is Article 140. We will accept no bargaining in this regard."
Nouri first became prime minister in 2006. Under his leadership, Article 140 was supposed to be implemented. It never happened. Now that he's got his second term as prime minister and things could be different but so far he's shown no indication to honor promises or to lead. Dar Addustour notes that yesterday's big meet-up between political blocs did not go well and the Erbil Agreement was not honored. A source tells Dar Addustour that Iraqiya has reached a decision to pull out of the government in protest. That may or may not be true (the source is unnamed). More curious is the back and forth between State of Law and Iraqiya, specifically members of State of Law speaking to the Arabic press to attack Ayad Allawi. Alsumaria TV also notes the failed meet-up, "Iraqiya List headed by Iyad Allawi announced the failure of talks with the State of Law Coalition. Al Iraqiya blamed the failure of talks on the State of Law and affirmed that it will convene today to announce its final stand." Al Rafidayn also reports that Allawi will be announcing that Iraqiya is withdrawing from the government and has a source who states State of Law refused to budge despite pressure from the other blocs.
Yesterday, Iraqi vice president (one of three) Adel Abdul-Mahdi tendered his resignation. Most of the press (especially US) danced around the topic of Jalal Talabani, President of Iraq, accepting it. Dar Addustour at least notes that Talabani is out of the country. AFP tells you what so many won't: "Hakim said Mahdi's resignation would not be official until it was offered directly to Talabani, who is currently in the United States receiving medical treatment." For years now, we've told you about Talabani's visit to the Mayo Clinic -- and about the collapse he had in the local bookstore shortly after leaving treatment one visit. I have no idea if the press is ignorant or just being dishonest. Ponder the choices as you read the US coverage.
And why did Adel Abdul-Mehdi resign? Ned Parker and Salar Jaff (Los Angeles Times ) report:
Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi's decision was meant to set an example for the rest of the government, which has been bloated with state ministries and the expansion this year of the vice presidency from two to three positions, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq said.
"I hope this will start a push to slim down the government," party chief Ammar Hakim said on the group's website. The party described the move as "a reaction to the popular will."
The government had not yet formally accepted his decision as of late Monday.
Adel Abdul-Mehdi was the Shi'ite vice president in Nouri's first term as prime minister as Tareq al-Hashemi who also continues a second term as vice president. al-Hashemi is Sunni, Adel Abdul Mehdi is Shi'ite. Iraq added a third vice president this year, Shi'ite Khudayr al-Khuzaie. Though Abdul-Mehdi's term had expired, President Jalal Talabani asked him to hang on until after new vice presidents could be voted in. He said he would and told the press that, after that, he was done, he did not want a second term. Despite that assertion, he took a second term. Not only that but, earlier this month, Aswat al-Iraq reported, "The President of the Republic, Jalal Talabani, has issued a Presidential Decree, naming Adel Abdul-Mahdi, as 1st Vice-President." That declaration took some by surprise and they saw it as an effort to give Abdul-Mehdi more power. He certainly didn't object to it publicly. Nor did he object to the size of the Cabinet. Nouri inflated the size in an attempt to create positions for all the people he'd promised posts if they'd support him in his bid to continue as prime minister.
Granted, Nouri still hasn't named a Minister of Defense, a Minister of National Security or a Minister of the Interior; however, the increase in the size of his Cabinet (deputy ministers and all) was well known before January.
If indeed that's Adel Abdul-Mahdi's objection, it's a new objection or one he's not given much weight to until now. Alsumaria TV paints a different picture of Abdul-Mahdi's displeasure which includes, "The source stated that one of the major reasons for Abdul Mehdi's resignation is the fact that Vice Presidents' issue was included in the present political crisis and due to people's denunciation and religious authority's dissatisfaction over Parliament's vote on three Vice Presidents." Aswat al-Iraq offers Supreme Islamic Council's Jumaa al-Atwany offering the following:
Atwani said that "the struggle for narrow-party interests, on the expense of the supreme national interests, under the current situation passing on Iraq and the Region, and non-sincerity in the activity, all those reasons, as well as the appreciation of the supreme national interest had made Abdul-Mahdi to prefer to withdraw from his post as Vice-President."
"There is an important nucleus point for the resignation, being that the voting by the Parliament on the three Vice-Presidents had taken place in one consignment, that was agreed upon outside the Parliament," he said.
"After the entrance to the Parliament hall and the completion of the attendance by its members, the voting began, and the Legislatures of the Supreme Islamic Council rejected it, along with the refusal of the (Shiite) Religious Authority in Najaf of the voting in 'one basket,' he said, adding that all those reasons have made Abdul-Mahdi withdraw from his post.
Wildest rumor out of Iraq on this topic right now? Abdul-Mahdi, anticipating a vote of no-confidence for Nouri in the next weeks (over the corruption and services issues), is positioning himself to vie for the post of prime minister. Though it's unlikely, it is true that Abdul-Mahdi hoped to be prime minister in 2006 and again in 2010. (And he has many supporters.)
Yesterday, there was an assassination attempt on Nineveh Province Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi. New Sabah reports that while al-Nujaifi was not injured in the attack on him, Ministry of Defense nominee Khalid al-Obeidi was in a Sunday attack. Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) explains, "Khalid al-Obaidi was heading home when the blast struck. He was transferred immediately to an area hospital and is in stable condition." al-Nujaifi had been on his way to Baghdad. He and al-Obeidi both belong to the Iraqiya slate and Ayad Allawi (Iraqiya leader) is calling for an investigation into the attacks. al-Nujaifi is the brother of Osama al-Nujaifi who is the Speaker of Parliament.
Violence continued today. Reuters notes a Kirkuk roadside bombing claimed 2 lives and a Mosul armed clash resulted in three by-standers being injured.
Turning to the US, Iraq War veteran Adam Kokesh hosts Adam vs the Man for RT Television (and they recently explored summer, education and books). Saturday (link goes to video of the incident), he and other people were at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. DC Parks Police attacked several people, including Adam, for the 'crime' of dancing.
Meanwhile, at CNN, Gregg Keeslin contributes a column on a very important issue:
Two years ago, my son, Army Spc. Chancellor Keesling, died by suicide in Iraq. He was 25 and on his second deployment.
Shortly after his death, my wife, Jannett, and I learned of a long-standing policy in which presidential letters of condolence are withheld from families of American service members who die by suicide.
We wrote to President Barack Obama on August 3, 2009, asking him to reverse this policy, and since then we have tried to keep up a steady drumbeat for change. There has been a fair amount of media attention, including from CNN, and recently U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, co-chair of the Senate Military Family Caucus, and a bipartisan group of Senate colleagues sent a letter to the president on behalf of this issue, echoing a bipartisan request from House members.
We learned in late 2009 that the White House would be reviewing the policy, when then-White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told then-CNN reporter Elaine Quijano that the White House had inherited this policy and was reviewing it. Yet as of this writing, we and the hundreds of other families whose children have died by suicide while at war wait for a result.
I wonder: What is the White House reviewing and why it is taking so long?
An action by the president would send a powerful message throughout the military ranks to take mental health issues more seriously. Suicide among those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan has become an epidemic. Last year a Pentagon report found that every 36 hours, a soldier commits suicide.
While Keesling wonders why the White House won't pay the proper respects to those who have lost a loved one in the service to suicide, Iraq War veteran Miguel Valenzuela wonders what the government's problem with his mother is? Will Ripley (9news.com -- link has text and video) reports that Miquel's mother, Celia Novak, was forcibly deported to Juarez after living in the US for 25 years, with legal residency, and working as a registered nurse. Ripley notes, "Novak's family has hired an immigration lawyer, but her appeal could take months or even years. The Denver Post reports there are 7,200 pending immigration cases in Denver, with an average wait of 501 days for a hearing. Her lawyer is hoping to take the case to federal court." We'll note that Barack has set a record on deportations and has far outdone Bully Boy Bush on this issue and we'll also wonder what US Senators Mark Udall and Micahel Bennet are doing to help this military family?
Yesterday Kat: published three reviews: "Kat's Korner: Give 'em the keys" on Death Cab for Cutie, "Kat's Korner: It was nothing, he insisted loudly" on Ben Harper and "Kat's Korner: The Master of the Teen Drama" on Phil Spector. In addition, Mike posted "Memorial Day" at his site. | <urn:uuid:1d6dd959-ba94-4907-aafc-5395f57f6b4d> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2011/05/iraq-snapshot_31.html | 2016-07-25T08:08:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257824217.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071024-00152-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976514 | 5,225 |
By JOHN L. SLOAN
Guy called me and tipped me off to this. I thought I would share it with you. See, to me it seems like it happens just about every year. Some legislator with an axe to grind sponsors a bill or four that are just plain stupid and are for the soul purpose of self-something. By that, I mean they only serve his sense of self.
Dear Ken: What can you tell us about Nolan Gould, who plays Luke on Modern Family?
Gould, 13, turned pro at the ripe old age of 3 making TV commercials. His film credits include Montana, Space Buddies, Monster Heroes and Friends With Benefits. He also co-starred in the Hallmark TV movie Sweet Nothings in My Ear and will star in the upcoming TV movie Ghoul. The native of Columbus, Ga., also co-stars in the 2013 flick The To Do List.
By KEN BECK
The Wilson Post
BOWLING GREEN, Ky.Live television has got Hayley Harmon wrapped around its fingers, or might it be the other way around?
Harmon, who grew up in Lebanon and graduated from Friendship Christian School in 2006, has hit her career path at full gallop as news anchor of AM Kentucky and host-producer of Midday Live on WBKO-Channel 13 in Bowling Green, Ky.Holding down the fort on two live TV shows every weekday is no easy feat. It helps to have the gift of gab and a quick wit about you.
By KAREN FRANKLIN
I have no doubt that Mother Nature is not only wreaking havoc on us but also on our feathered friends who are wondering if it is winter or spring. We have several days of mild weather only to be reminded that it is officially still winter by a few really cold, yucky days. Then we go back to rather mild days and so the cycle continues. Im personally ready for spring to kick in full-time! Im also hoping to get some birding in with Ray when the weather warms up.
Spring is a great time to catch migrating birds who are heading back to the breeding grounds for the summer months. Of course this will also mean the loss of our winter birds like Juncos, White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow and more as they too start to migrate back to their summer territories.
While the SEC basketball tournament is just around the corner as of Monday, there were four games remaining in the regular season.
That is one-fourth of the 16-game SEC schedule, enough time for some fence-straddling teams to fatten their resumes.
With four teams in a knot for fourth place with 6-6 SEC records, there are plenty of candidates to join the Top Three Kentucky, Florida and Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament field.
By ANNE DONNELLPersonal writing you know, journals, diaries, scribbles can be raised above the ordinary, and that happens probably more commonly than expected. Anyway, thats what we have here: excerpts from an excellent recent trip log kept by my childhood friend, Laura Triebold. Laura and her husband David are Wisconsin dairy farmers. Shes also a nurse with two masters degrees. Youve heard from her before when she graciously permitted me to share some of what she wrote about one of their annual trips to Spain. This time its Australia and New Zealand, a trip began Christmas Eve, 2011. I love armchair traveling with them; Laura (Lollie to me and to her grandchildren) is very observant and checks out details. It all comes to life. The following is #12 Sticker Shock.
By SAM HATCHER
Congratulations to Bernie Ash on his recent appointment to the post of Wilson County Veterans Affairs Officer.
Mr. Ash, a Lebanon businessman, member of the County Commission and most importantly with respect to this appointment, a Vietnam veteran, will serve this office well.
Working in concert with County Mayor Randall Hutto, Mr. Ash has a full agenda ahead of him.
While many times the services provided by this office go under the radar so-to-speak, it is no less a very important and vital resource for those who have so unselfishly dedicated a portion of their life to the service of our country.
Our veterans deserve the recognition espoused by this office and the services provided.
We look forward to what plans Mr. Ash may have and how he will move forward to fulfilling the responsibilities of the Veterans Affairs Office.
To the Editor:
Ten years after George W. Bush and his foreign policy advisors planned to invade the Iraqi people months before Sept. 11, 2001 and seize their oil for the powers that be, thousands have needlessly died and trillions of dollars cunningly dispersed.Yet the conspirators did this with complete impunity and now theyre in on dividing up the rest of the take 110 billion barrels of oil. Meanwhile, since many of the troops have come home the U.S. taxpayers are obliged to pay thousands of corporate mercenaries up to a thousand dollars a day or roughly $3.2 billion a year, counting the most expensive embassy in the world, to protect it for those privileged few.
Lebanon City Council is to hold a special called meeting today at 5:30 p.m. to consider on second reading several measures brought up during Tuesday night's regular meeting.
Items on the agenda include several amendments to lease agreements with aircraft hangar tenants at the Lebanon Municipal Airport, construction of an outdoor firing range for the Lebanon Police Department and many line item transfers.
The council will meet in the Town Meeting Hall of the Lebanon Administration Building located at 200 N. Castle Heights Ave. in Lebanon.
By PATRICK HALL
The Wilson Post
Lebanon City Council approved on first reading an ordinance to raise the local Sales and Use Tax by 0.5 percent during their regular meeting Tuesday night, taking a step toward a public referendum on the issue.
Councilors voted 6-0 in favor of the ordinance to change the local sales tax from 2.25 to 2.75 percent. The current state sales tax rate is 9.25 percent and Lebanon and Wilson County equally split 2.25 percent of that total.
It gives the people a chance to speak, said Ward 1 Councilor Alex Buhler.
The proposed increase would give the city an extra 0.5 percent that only the city would collect, unless the county acts at a later date by passing its own ordinance.
The ordinance must now be sent to the Tennessee Comptrollers Office for approval according to City Attorney Andy Wright, who said the council has to vote on the matter again before a public referendum is held.
They (State Comptroller) have to give their okay on it for the ordinance to be valid, Wright told the council.
This sounds like a good idea, said Ward 6 Councilor Kathy Warmath about having a public referendum.
The council held little discussion on whether or not to approve the sales tax increase, but a second reading is required after the measure is returned to the council from the Comptrollers Office.
A special election would have to be held for the public to vote on the ordinance and the city would have to foot the bill for the election.
The next general election is held on Aug. 6 and Wilson County Administrator of Elections Phillip Warren noted the city would have to wait until July to pass the ordinance on second reading in order to attach the measure to the general election ballot.
Staff Writer Patrick Hall may be contacted at [email protected].
By PATRICK HALL
The Wilson Post
A change in federal guidelines has the City of Lebanon and Mayor Philip Craighead rethinking ways to fund a proposed addition to the Cedar City walking trail along Bartons Creek near three local schools.
The project has been on the table since Craighead was elected Mayor in 2008 when he noted the city received a grant for $500,000 and then, in 2009, received another grant for a little over $500,000.
The grants required the city to pay 20 percent of the project costs, totaling $250,000. Craighead said the city planned to meet that requirement by putting up a soft match of engineering costs and land donation.
We were notified that the federal interpretation of the guidelines had changed and the match had to be $250,000 in cash, Craighead said.
The trail would stretch from Hickory Ridge Road near Byars Dowdy Elementary School all the way to Leeville Pike, and travel along Bartons Creek. Craighead hopes that another city park can be built across from the new Lebanon High School to complement the walking trail.
Since the grants were originally awarded, the city has since spent $115,000 on engineering for the trail, but Craighead said they found out that expense wont count toward the $250,000 the city is required to pay.
Over the last few years, Craighead noted the city has jumped through many hoops with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, with its engineering and project proposals due to the trails proximity to Bartons Creek.
Since the changes, Craighead said they tried to avoid having to pay $250,000 in cash, considering they already spent $115,000 for engineering, intended for a soft match.
We tried everything we could to be grandfathered in, to avoid the changes along with other cities that were in the same position, the mayor said.
Those efforts were not successful and Craighead recently informed the City Council that they would have to now have to budget for the match to help pay for the project.
He said the city would need to budget $125,000 over the next two years in order to meet deadlines for the grant. The city has to acquire the land and get the project under contract by August 2013. The project has to be completed by August 2015.
Craighead hopes the trail will only enhance an area that has the potential to grow with the addition of the new LHS on Hartmann Drive and Winfree-Bryant Middle School on Leeville Pike.
The importance of this trail is the proximity to two new schools and connections to residential areas, Craighead said.
He added the future lighting of Hartmann Drive would also add to the areas ability to attract businesses, noting the city also had to weather a change in funding for streetlights.
Originally, the Tennessee Department of Transportation was going to fully reimburse the city for the streetlights. However, due to a conflict with Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation, Craighead said TDOT is not handling the lighting and MTEMC will put the lights up and charge the city a small usage fee.
Craighead noted the city was able to move the estimated cost of the lighting, around $800,000 into a fund to pave streets in the city that are in desperate need of attention.
The combination of all these things will hopefully be attracting new businesses to locate in this area, Craighead said. Its a good investment for our city.
Craighead noted the council is concerned with the $125,000 putting a strain on the citys budget over the next two years. Just last week, Craighead reported the city did not have to utilize any of the $1.8 million allocated from the reserves in the 2010-2011 budget.
The city was expected to end that budget year with a $6,000 surplus thanks to larger-than-expected sales tax revenues. The city reportedly exceeded its projected sales tax receipts by around $900,000.
Craighead noted the trail would have been harder to budget for if the city had to use the $1.8 million allocated in that budget. However, since the reserves were not used, he hopes the council will favor budgeting for the walking trail.
The payoff will be substantial, he said.
Staff Writer Patrick Hall may be contacted at [email protected].
After 22 years of service to the Mt. Juliet Police Department and more than 45 years of total law enforcement service, Lt. Gwin King has announced that the time has come for his retirement.King, who began serving with the Mt. Juliet Police Department in 1987, has served as the Chief of Detectives since the start of his career in Mt. Juliet. However, King has close to five decades dedicated to the law enforcement profession.
2012 All-District Team - Boys
MVP Caleb Chowbay - Mt. Juliet
Dee Oldham Wilson Central
Cameron High Lebanon
Jeff Long Hendersonville
Seth Brown Beech
Ryne Chamberlain Beech
Brandon Shephard Mt. Juliet
Brad McClung Station Camp
Conner Brandon Wilson Central
C.J. McEwen Mt. Juliet
Jacob Williams Wilson Central
DaShawn McMurry Mt. Juliet
Tyrone Harrison - Portland
2012 All-District Team Girls
MVP Caya Williams Mt. Juliet
Julia Fox Lebanon
Kia Perry Station Camp
Sydney Vanlandingham Wilson Central
Helen Mitchner Mt. Juliet
Sally McCabe Mt. Juliet
Cheyenne North Station Camp
Taylor Peterson Wilson Central
Emily Hatfield Hendersonville
Alex Banks Beech
Jamasha Jackson Mt. Juliet
Janasia Williams Station Camp
Kayla White - Portland
Kiwanis Little League will hold tryouts Saturday, February 25 at the Kiwanis baseball complex in Lebanon's Baird Park.
Little leaguers age 8-12 need to register either in person on Saturday or online prior to tryouts. The first session will begin at 10 a.m. for 11 and 12 year olds who did not play in the league last year with 9-10 year old tryouts following at 12 noon.
All 9-10 year olds need to tryout including returning players from last year. No tryouts are required for 8 year olds.
The 57 year old league has launched a new website for registration and to record stats, photos and even video highlights of the upcoming season.
The site, www.lebanonyouthlittleleague.com, is live and active for interested players and their parents to browse and to learn more about the Kiwanis Little League.
A new 9-10 year old division has been added this year for advanced players to compete in player-pitch Little League baseball games.
"The 9-10 year old league is new and will allow the kids that want a higher level of baseball in this age range to compete with kids with similar skill sets. We will still offer a minor league program for those who can compete in a machine-pitch setting," explained Sean Patrick Kiwanis Little League President.
The minor league division will field players in age ranges from 8 to 10 years old. Those 9 and 10 years old who do not make the major league division are automatically placed on a minor league team.
"We will have three divisions this year, a minor league for entry level players, and two major league divisions for more advanced players. We hope to have four or five teams in our 9-10 year old division and five or six teams in our 11-12 year old division," Patrick added.
Kiwanis Little Legue will hold alast chance registration and tryout for all ages Tuesday, February 28 at the College Hills Church of Christ Witt Family Life Center located at 1401 Leeville Pike in Lebanon. Tryouts on Tuesday night will begin at 6:30 p.m. and end at 8 p.m. www.lebanonyouthlittleleague.com,
For any questions concerning the Lebanon Kiwanis Little League program, call 615-878-0208.
LAFAYETTE -- Maceio Gaines calmly sank two free-throws with 10 seconds left in regulation to lift No. 2-seeded Watertown to a 49-47 victory over top-seed Friendship Christian in Tuesday's District 8A championship game at Macon County High.
Tournament MVP KenAndre Bates (3 pictured) and Ty Jobe led the Purple Tigers (24-5) with 13 points apiece while Jake Belcher added seven and Josiah Smith five.
Allen Heaston led FCS with 14 and Dalton Patterson had 10 as the Commanders fell to 21-3 on the season.
Both teams will host first round games in the Region 4A tournament Saturday, Feb. 25. WHS will host Pickett County; Friendship will entertain Clay County.
Saturday's winners will advance to the regional semifinals the following week in Livingston.
BOYS ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM -- MVP KeAnDre Bates, Maceio Gaines, Nick Sackman and Josiah Smith from Watertown; Mark Sandoval, Hunter Anderson, Dalton Patterson and Allen Heaston from FCS; Cody Sircy and Dylan Hurst from Trousdale County; and Tyler Bradford from Gordonsville.
photo by DEREK WHITED
DISTRICT 9AAA CONSOLATION --
LEBANON -- Down 46-44, Wilson Central outscored Mt. Juliet 21-9 over the final eight minutes and came away with a 65-55 victory over the top-seeded Bears in the District 9AAA consolation game Tuesday night at Wilson Central.
Senior Dee Oldham scored 20 points for the Wildcats, who improved to 23-5 heading into Saturday's region 5AAA opener at Dickson County. Conner Brandon chipped in with 14 and Jacob Williams added 12 for the winners.
Mt. Juliet was led by Caleb Chowbay with 20 points. The Belmont-bound senior ripped four 3-pointers. C.J. McEwen added 17, but no other MJHS player reached double figures.
The Bears, now 25-6, will be on the road at the District 10AAA champ for a first round regional game Saturday. First round winners will advance to Clarksville Northeast for the regional semifinals, consolation and finals.
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(Second in a four-part series) When Elizabeth Warren, Teresa A. Sullivan, and Jay Westbrook, co-authors of the 1989 book As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America, were charged by Rutgers Law School Professor Philip Shuchman with scientific misconduct in 1990, they quickly asked for an investigation to clear their names. Sullivan, who resigned earlier this month as President of the University of Virginia, “immediately asked [her] employer, The University of Texas, to investigate the charge,” as she told me in a letter I received by email from her on June 5, 2012.
By 1990, all three co-authors–Sullivan, Warren, and Westbrook–were well established fixtures in University of Texas academic and social circles. Sullivan was the Chairman of the Sociology Department at the University of Texas, and would soon become the Dean of Graduate Studies. Westbrook was a long-tenured member of the faculty at the University of Texas Law School. Warren, who taught at the University of Texas Law School from 1981 to 1987, had by this time moved on to the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a top ten school with great prestige.
Warren’s former colleagues at the University of Texas took pride in her emergence as a rising legal star of the left, a reputation she carefully cultivated. According to some who have followed her career, she was considered a master practitioner of hard-nosed academic political tactics, and her critics in the genteel world of higher education were increasingly wary of her.
It was in that environment that current President of the University of California system Mark Yudof (then Dean of the University of Texas Law School) and current University of Texas Dean of Graduate Studies, ad interim Judith Langlois, wrote the April 1991 report for the investigation that Sullivan requested. It was titled University of Texas Preliminary Inquiry Report: Scientific Misconduct Against Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Westbrook. You can read the full report, provided to Breitbart News by Teresa A. Sullivan here.
The document, though riddled with errors, was accepted by University of Texas President William Cunningham on April 22, 1991, as conclusive evidence exonerating Sullivan, Warren, and Westbrook from charges of scientific misconduct.
Mark Yudof, co-author of the 1991 University of Texas Preliminary Inquiry Report: Scientific Misconduct Against Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Westbrook, is now the President of the University of California system
The lack of serious scrutiny of Ms. Warren’s academic research has continued for the subsequent two decades. Questions about Ms. Warren’s empirical studies have not been fully explored, and specific policies she has promoted–in particular those that led in 2010 to the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act and its onerous Consumer Financial Protection Bureau–have been imposed upon the public.
Breitbart News is not alleging that Sullivan, Warren, and Westbrook engaged in scientific misconduct. We are, however, presenting evidence that suggests the 1991 investigation conducted by the University of Texas into the allegations brought by Philip Shuchman in his scathing sixty page review of the book Sullivan, Warren, and Westbrook co-authored in 1989 was neither thorough nor exculpatory. In that review, Shuchman charged:
This book contains so much exaggeration, so many questionable ploys, and so many incorrect statements that it would be well to check the accuracy of their raw data, as old as it is. But the authors arranged matters so that they could not provide access to the computer printouts by case, with the corresponding bankruptcy court file numbers, this preventing any independent check of the raw data in the files from which they took their information.
The 1991 University of Texas Preliminary Inquiry Report fails to answer Shuchman’s charge that “the authors arranged matters…preventing any independent check of the raw data.” Though Shuchman implies this “arrangement” may have been deliberate, he has no specific basis for the suggestion, other than the suspicious nature of the facts. The effect of the decision by the co-authors was clear, however. It became virtually impossible for other scholars to check their data.
In addition, the 1991 University of Texas Preliminary Inquiry Report fails because there are at least five specific factual errors contained in this brief three page report that purportedly “exonerates” Sullivan, Warren, and Westbrook.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) plays a role in this investigation because it funded the research upon which Sullivan, Warren, and Westbrook’s 1989 book was based with a grant in the amount of $109,999 to principal investigator Teresa A. Sullivan, and co-principal investigators Jay Westbrook and Elizabeth Warren for a study of “Consumer Choices in Bankruptcy: Statutory Intentions and Statutory Consequences.” The data in this study formed the basis for the 1989 book. Research began around September 1, 1983 and continued for about three years thereafter. The University of Texas at Austin was listed as the sponsor of the grant.
Factual Error 1: “NSF has subsequently dismissed Shuchman’s complaint (see letter of March 6 from NSF Office of Inspector General)
The Facts: The March 6, 1991 letter from NSF investigator Montgomery Fisher to Teresa A. Sullivan did not constitute dismissal of Shuchman’s complaint of scientific misconduct by the NSF.
March 6, 1991 letter from Montgomery Fisher at NSF to Teresa A. Sullivan
Instead, it focused narrowly on Shuchman’s request for “access to the original data” used in the study. NSF investigator Montgomery K. Fisher simply confirmed in this letter that he had communicated to Professor Shuchman that Elizabeth Warren and her co-authors were willing to provide a list of the cases they sampled:
“Prof. Sullivan also says that the names and court file numbers are not, and have never been, part of the file. (There was apparently some misunderstanding regarding the applicability of HHS’s Human Subjects regulation; as you observed in note 249 of your article, this project was probably exempt from the regulation.) They are willing, however, to provide you a complete list of the cases they sampled, should you desire to verify each datum. In these circumstances, I believe Profs. Sullivan, Westbrook, and Warren have demonstrated sufficient willingness to comply with NSF’s policy in favor of openness of scientific communication.” [emphasis added]
It was not clear, however, why the authors had not simply documented and archived their data so that others might replicate their results.
Factual Error 2: “Many of the bankruptcy cases were more than ten years old.”
The Facts: The data set was from 1981, which was exactly ten years prior to the 1991 University of Texas Preliminary Investigation Report. None of the data set was “more than ten years old.” The cases were not “resolved” in some instances until several years after 1981.
Factual Error 3: “We conclude, along with NSF, that Sullivan, Warren, and Westbrook did not violate any policy of scientific openness, nor did they engage in scientific misconduct.”
The Facts: At the time the April 1991 University of Texas Preliminary Inquiry Report was written, NSF had come to no conclusions on either the matter of scientific openness or the matter of scientific misconduct. NSF did not come to any conclusions regarding the Shuchman allegations until three months later when a sole investigator wrote a closeout memo on July 2, 1991.
The closeout memo, like the March 6, 1991 letter before it, did not address allegations of scientific misconduct. Instead, it focused on the narrow question of data sharing and scientific openness.
Curiously, in circumstances that will be examined in more detail later in this series, the author of the memo notes that in his personal judgment Shuchman’s allegations did not meet the NSF definition of misconduct:
My examination of [redacted, most likely ‘Shuchman’s’] review (which was published at [redacted] (1990)) and letters made it clear that the allegations regarding the substance in the book do not meet the NSF definition of misconduct.
(As subsequent articles in this series will show, it was NSF policy at the time to undertake investigations of allegations of scientific misconduct on the basis of an investigation conducted by a team of experts rather than an examination conducted by an individual investigator.)
Factual Error 4: “To have provided Shuchman with identifying information would have violated the investigators agreement with our IRB [Institutional Review Board] and with their granting agency, NSF.”
The Facts: To the contrary, the NSF closeout memorandum dated July 2, 1991 stated clearly “[i]n her letters [redacted, but probably ‘Teresa A. Sullivan’] had given the impression that the identifiers for the data base against the [redacted] file it had been coded from, existed but that she could not provide the database to [redacted, but probably ‘Philip Shuchman’] with those identifiers included because of HHS’s Human Subjects Regulation (45 CFR part 46).”
The NSF called Sullivan’s argument on this matter “bogus, because (A) on the cover sheet of the proposal the [Principal Investigators–Sullivan, Warren, and Westbrook] had stated the proposal was exempt from the HSR under 45 CFR section 46.101 (b) (3) and (B) it was in fact exempt under 45 CFR section 46.101 (b )(5).” (Emphasis added.) Sullivan’s failure to disclose this significant change in the methodology to the funding agency, NSF, was problematic at best, and may possibly have been a violation of the original terms of the grant.
Indeed, the NSF closeout memo is quite critical of the authors’ approach to verification of the data used in the study:
When I talked to [redacted but most likely ‘Teresa A. Sullivan’] however, she said that the identifiers were excluded from the database from the start, because of the interpretation of the HSR by [redacted but most likely ‘The University of Texas’] Institutional Review Board. Thus, they were not refusing to provide the database with the identifiers: they couldn’t because the identifiers weren’t put in to begin with…It is unfortunate that their IRB erroneously compelled them to omit useful information from the database, rendering verification of their data exceedingly difficult.”[emphasis added]
One scholar who reviewed this excerpt from the NSF closeout memo, and who spoke exclusively to Breitbart News, noted the impact Institutional Review Boards can have on academic research, suggesting that they have significant power to protect information on human subjects–even when dealing with public records.
Factual Error 5: “[T]hey [the authors] had an agreement with IRB (and therefore, the National Science Foundation) to treat the information as confidential.”
The Facts: Sullivan, Westbrook, and Warren may have had an agreement with the IRB (the University of Texas Institutional Review Board), but the funding agency–NSF–was not party to that agreement. NSF did not learn of it until after Shuchman’s complaint was filed and the NSF inquiry was initiated.
Besides these five factual errors made in the report, this 1991 University of Texas “investigation” was also flawed for the critical and obvious question it failed to ask: Did Sullivan, Warren, and Westbrook intentionally misinterpret HPP federal regulations on “protection of human subjects” in order to persuade the Institutional Review Board of the University of Texas to impose what they knew to be uncalled-for constraints on the use of primary data for the purpose of making the data set unverifiable by other researchers?
A more thorough report would have interviewed the members of the University of Texas Institutional Review Board and questioned them as to why no one had apparently bothered to reconcile the University of Texas’s regulations with the conditions of the NSF grant.
Here’s how Sullivan, Warren, and Westbrook described their methodology, which sampled data from 1981 bankruptcy filings from the 15 federal district courts in the three states of Pennsylvania, Texas, and Illinois in their 1989 book:
“Because existing data were inadequate, we had to collect data on the characteristics of bankrupt debtors, their assets, their liabilities, their jobs, their marital status, whether they were homeowners, and so forth. This decision meant we would have to gather an enormous amount of information. We coded over 200 variables for each of 1,529 debtors, generating over 300,000 pieces of information.” (page 342)
Sullivan, Warren, and Westbrook went on to describe their crucial decision–a decision that was unknown to the funding organization, NSF, until after it began to investigate Professor Shuchman’s allegations of scientific misconduct:
“[A]ll the data were coded by someone with at least a basic understanding of bankruptcy law and procedure. Every coder–indeed every person associated with the project–signed an agreement promising to hold confidential any information acquired about any individual. Although the files we used are public documents, the petitioners, lawyers, and judges had become, for the social scientist, human subjects, and we used normal safeguards for the protection of human subjects. These safeguards included the use of identifying numbers rather than names on all the data tapes prepared, and careful storage, under lock, of any data with identifying information. The names of all debtors and some creditors in this book are pseudonyms.” (page 350)
Despite an invitation to Warren and her co-authors from officials at Rutgers University and the editors of the Rutgers Law Review to defend themselves publicly against charges of scientific misconduct Shuchman made in his 1990 Rutgers Law Review article, neither Warren nor co-authors Teresa A. Sullivan and Jay Westbrook have ever publicly defended themselves against Shuchman’s charges in an academic journal.
They did, however, as subsequent articles in this series will demonstrate, use the cover provided by the University of Texas whitewash report to encourage the unsuccessful attempts by the University of Texas and the University of Pennsylvania to put pressure on Rutgers University to force Professor Shuchman to recant.
June 23, 1992 letter from Rutgers Provost Samuels to Texas Provost Monti
Both Teresa A. Sullivan and Jay Westbrook continue to defend their 1989 work vigorously, while Ms. Warren has failed to respond publicly in any way on this matter. In a recent email to me, Professor Westbrook stated:
Concerning the Shuchman article. The allegation of scientific misconduct was false and was found to be false in two independent investigations supported in substance by two universities and the National Science Foundation. The specific claims made by Professor Shuchman about the validity of our data conclusions were obviously wrong, but were part of the usual academic debates about emerging research. Any suggestion the claims were more than typical academic disagreements would be factually false. The many positive reviews of our book in leading legal and scientific publications speak for themselves as does the fact that our work is generally regarded as part of the bedrock of contemporary study of consumer bankruptcy in America.
Professor Westbrook’s claim that “the many positive reviews of our book in leading legal and scientific publications speak for themselves” doesn’t tell the entire story of the book’s reception by academic peers. It is worth noting that most of these positive reviews were written by academics with little or no expertise in bankruptcy law. One positive review in Science Magazine was only a page and a half long. The author, Ramona Heck, specializes in home based employment and the family. Another favorable review, mentioned specifically in Teresa A. Sullivan’s letter to me received by email on June 5, 2012, was written by Dr. David Caplovitz, who was described in his 1992 New York Times obituary as a “a sociologist and an authority on American spending habits and misleading sales practices.”
All three nationally recognized experts on bankruptcy who reviewed the book–Shuchman of Rutgers Law School, Marjorie Girth of SUNY Buffalo Law School, and economist Michelle White of the University of Michigan–gave it negative reviews. In the final two articles in this series, we will explore the unanswered questions posed by those reviews, as well as the institutional failings of the National Science Foundation and Harvard University and the roles they played in this unfolding scandal.
Michael Patrick Leahy is a Breitbart News contributor, Editor of Broadside Books’ Voices of the Tea Party e-book series, and author of Covenant of Liberty: The Ideological Origins of the Tea Party Movement. | <urn:uuid:46957477-a9dc-46c0-a6e8-e3f92df3bea6> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2012/06/25/university-texas-whitewash-elizabeth-warren-scientific-misconduct-charge-entangles-uva-uc-presidents/ | 2016-07-25T08:22:46Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257824217.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071024-00152-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966977 | 3,489 |
November 6, 1945
Information Bulletin, Embassy of the U.S.S.R.
Comrades! After several years of a hard war we are today celebrating the 28th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution under conditions of peace and a glorious victory over fascism. We have left behind four years of war against Hitlerite Germany, which had ravaged our country and the whole of Europe, and also the war in the East against aggressive Japan, in which we had to join in the autumn of this year.
In an heroic struggle, in which the Soviet people played a part of decisive importance, peace has been won for the peoples of the entire world, and the main hotbeds of world fascism and world aggression, both in the West and in the East, have been crushed. Now we have the opportunity of returning to peaceful labor so as to consolidate our victory.
As Comrade Stalin said: "Our Soviet people have given unstintingly of their strength and their labor for the sake of victory. We have lived through hard years. But now each one of us can say: We have won. From now on we can consider our country saved from the threat of German invasion in the West and of Japanese invasion in the East. The long-awaited peace has come for the nations of the world."
The Germans invaded our country in the belief that the suddenness of their bandit attack would guarantee them success. Not in Germany alone, but also in other countries many people thought that the Soviet Union would not hold out for long, and that in a few weeks, or at any rate in a few months, Germany would smash the U.S.S.R. and Hitler would celebrate victory. After the comparatively easy successes of the Hitlerites in western Europe many believed this to be inevitable.
This conclusion was reached, in the first place, by those who in general did not recognize the "legitimate nature" of the October Revolution in Russia, and also by those who proved incapable of understanding the truly popular nature of the Soviet State created by our Revolution.
The German invasion of the Soviet Union was also a great test for our friends abroad, who with sinking hearts followed the exceptional hardships experienced by our country in the first phase of the war.
Despite the suddenness of the attack, the Soviet Union stayed on its feet. The material damage and deep wounds inflicted on it in the early part of the war failed to undermine its physical and spiritual strength.
The Red Army proved capable of reorganizing and recovering from the first blows. The Soviet people strained its forces and ensured a shattering rebuff to the enemy. Everyone remembers the time when our Army switched from the defensive to the offensive, at first on isolated sectors and then all along the front.
The interests of self-defense necessitated the formation of a united anti-Hitler front of democratic states, big and small. It is universally known that the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition effectively accomplished its historical task of organizing the joint struggle of the democratic countries against Hitlerism. It is also well known that the opening of the Second Front in Western Europe, when Germany was caught in a vise between two fronts, made the position of German fascism hopeless. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that the radical turn in the situation on the Soviet-German front occurred fully one year before the opening of the Second Front, when the Hitlerite troops started rolling back in disgrace before the Red Army's powerful and ever-growing onslaught.
Thus the State created by the October Revolution succeeded not only in defending itself from fascist attack, but also in launching an offensive in order to put an end to the principal hotbed of fascism and aggression. It then became plain to everyone that the Soviet system bears no resemblance to the decrepit Tsarist power of the times of the First World War. Thus it became evident that the Soviet State could defend itself with credit, and withstand the gravest trials ever known in the country's history.
Hitlerite Germany threatened not only the Soviet State. Even before they attacked the U.S.S.R., the German-fascists seized Norway, Belgium, Holland, France, Greece, and Yugoslavia. Among their allies were not only fascist Italy, but a number of other European countries which had concluded military alliances with Germany. Spain and certain other countries rendered Hitler semi-open support. The menace of Hitlerite attack loomed over Britain. Had the drive into the Soviet Union ended in success, the whole of Europe could have fallen under Hitler's heel.
Already the Hitlerites were praising to the skies the "new order" they proposed to institute in Europe. Fascist underlings, like the Quislings and Lavals of all varieties, had already harnessed themselves to their German master's cart. Everywhere the domination of Hitlerism was established by destroying all democratic institutions and abolishing all the political rights of the working classes, while at the same time the Hitlerites plundered and squeezed the enslaved countries of all their material resources, the better to supply and arm their bandit fascist hordes.
Their initial successes, when they invaded the Soviet Union, turned the Hitlerites' heads more than ever. They started talking even more frankly not only of their domination of Europe, but of their claim to dominate the world. Their dangerous plans-adventurist plans to establish the domination of the German race over the other nations of Europe, and not of Europe alone-were revealed to the whole world. The German-fascist theory of the domination of a "master race" over other nations classed as "inferior races" became a direct menace to the existence of European civilization.
In the countries invaded by the Hitlerite bands the peoples proved poorly prepared to offer a rebuff to the fascist invaders. Only gradually, thanks to the efforts of the finest patriot-democrats, did the democratic forces of resistance to the invaders begin to take shape and grow.
But even in those countries where, as in Yugoslavia, the entire people supported the uprising against the invaders, forces were lacking to break the military might of Hitlerism. It was not until our Army swung into the offensive and started battering the German troops, having divested them of their halo of invincibility, that broad opportunities opened for the liberation of the peoples enslaved by German imperialism. Advancing to the West, the Red Army brought liberation to neighboring countries and other European nations. The Soviet Armies, together with the Allied Armies, now acted as the liberators of the European countries, including those countries which had broken their alliance with Germany and joined the ranks of the nations fighting for the destruction of Hitlerism.
Thus the liberation of the European countries from Hitlerite oppression will go down in the history of our victorious Red Army as a glorious page.
Fascist Italy was the first to come in on Germany's side when she had unleashed war in Europe. At the time of the attack on the U.S.S.R., the governments of Rumania, Hungary and Finland, having concluded military alliances with Hitlerite Germany, plunged their countries into war against the Soviet Union. Bulgaria, with a government which at that time consisted of Hitlerite agents, also became Germany's ally. Thus, with some exceptions, those European countries where fascist regimes prevailed bound their destinies with those of Hitlerite Germany in the Second World War.
Germany's defeat, therefore, meant not only defeat for German fascism, it also resulted in the defeat of fascism in other European countries Consequently, the significance of our victory should be appraised not only in the light of the defeat of German fascism, but also in the light of the military, moral and political defeat of fascism throughout Europe.
After the termination of the war in Europe, the Allied powers were faced with the task of crushing Japanese aggression in the East in order to speed up restoration of world peace. The Soviet Union could not hold itself aloof from this task, both because of mutual obligations existing between the U.S.S.R. and its Allies, and because of the imperative demands of the interests of our security in the East.
All of us remember that in the past Japan more than once attacked our country, and that our State constantly faced the threat of Japanese invasion in the East. All this rendered inevitable the Soviet Union's entry into the war against Japan.
It is not difficult to see that, since the time when German fascism started suffering defeat after defeat on the Soviet-German front, the outcome of Japanese aggression in the East was also predetermined. Having finally come out against Japan, the Soviet Union accelerated her defeat and so hastened the end of the war in the East. Following in the footsteps of Hitlerite Germany, Japan surrendered to the Allies.
Both German imperialism's plan to dominate Europe, and the claims of Japanese imperialism to dominate Asia have crumbled, although but recently both western and eastern fascists regarded those plans only as a stepping stone to world domination-showing by their own example how short-sighted and adventurous aggressive intentions of this kind are in our times.
The defeat of Japanese imperialism, the main hotbed of fascism and aggression in the East, and the liberation of China from the Japanese invaders are of enormous positive significance for the democratic development of the countries of Asia, and not of Asia alone. The interests of all the democratic countries demand that this victory be consolidated.
It is therefore natural that the Soviet Union should attach such great significance to negotiations between the Allies on the establishment of proper control by the principal Allied powers over the execution of the terms of Japan's surrender. Difficulties arising out of this problem have not as yet been eliminated. But the Soviet Union expresses confidence that all the peace-loving powers fully realize the necessity of consolidating victory over aggressive Japan, and of creating proper conditions for the cooperation of the Allied powers for this purpose
Both Germany and Japan were forced to surrender unconditionally to the Allies. Thus the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition attained its goal. The people of our country realize with satisfaction that the Soviet Union has played a decisive part in bringing the Second World War to a victorious end in the interests of the democratic countries, and especially in crushing the most dangerous hotbed of fascism and aggression-Hitlerite Germany.
The Soviet people gave the name of Great Patriotic War to their war against Hitlerite Germany. Their example became a model for patriots in other lands in their fight for their countries' freedom and independence. It is also well known that the Soviet people not only liberated our own country, but also fought heroically for the re-establishment of peace and freedom throughout Europe.
One year ago Comrade Stalin said: "It is now universally acknowledged that by their selfless struggle the Soviet people have saved the civilization of Europe from the fascist vandals. That is the great service rendered by the Soviet people to the history of mankind."
The Second World War differed from the First World War in many respects, and in the first place in the scale on which the nations participated, and in the number of victims and the material damage caused by the war. Four-fifths of the population of the globe participated, in varying degrees, in this last world war. More than 110,000,000 persons were mobilized in both belligerent camps. It is practically impossible to name any country which was neutral in those years.
For allowing the Second World War to break out, that is, for failing to take timely measures against the aggressive forces of fascism, which unleashed this war of unparalleled scale, humanity paid an incalculable price in human lives and in the devastation of many states. War was imposed on our people, whose answer to invasion was the proclamation of a Great Patriotic War.
Hitlerite Germany attacked the Soviet Union not only with the aim of seizing our territory and destroying the Soviet State. Hitlerism proclaimed that its aim was the extermination of the Russian people and the Slavs in general. Until the time when the Russian people, as also the other peoples of the Soviet Union, completely re-formed their ranks in conformity with Stalin's call, "Everything for the front," and when they finally broke the backbone of the German Army, the brutal Hitlerites did not stop at anything in pursuit of their man-hating purposes in the territories they seized. To forget this would be a crime against the memory of millions of absolutely guiltless people who have perished, against their orphaned families, against the entire nation. Nor can we forget the enormous material damage inflicted on us by the German invaders and their allies in the many long months of their brigandage on Soviet territory.
The chief war criminals, before all else, must be made to answer for this. The German-fascist invaders completely or partially demolished and burnt down 1,710 towns and more than 70,000 villages; burnt down or demolished over 6,000,000 buildings, and left nearly 25,000,000 people homeless. Among the demolished and most heavily damaged cities are the biggest industrial and cultural centers of our country, such as Stalingrad, Sevastopol, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Odessa, Smolensk, Kharkov, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don and many more.
The Hitlerites demolished or damaged 31,850 industrial enterprises employing nearly 4,000,000 workers and office employees. They ruined and ransacked 98,000 collective farms, including most of the collective farms of the Ukraine and Byelorussia. They slaughtered or seized and carried away to Germany 7,000,000 horses, 17,000,000 head of cattle, and tens of millions of pigs and sheep.
The direct loss alone inflicted on our national economy and our citizens has been estimated by the Extraordinary State Committee at 679,000 million rubles at government prices. We cannot forget all this, and we must demand of the countries which unleashed the war that they at least partially indemnify the damage they caused. The justice of this desire of the Soviet people is undeniable. Nor should it be overlooked that the decisions of the Berlin Three Power Conference on reparations by Germany have not yet made satisfactory headway.
None of us, however, advocates a policy of revenge toward vanquished peoples. Comrade Stalin has pointed out more than once that the desire for revenge, like the desire for retribution for grievances, is a poor counsellor in politics and in relations among peoples.
We should not be guided by desires for revenge, where the vanquished peoples are concerned, but should strive to hinder the outbreak of fresh aggression, and to place any new aggressor in a position of utmost isolation among the nations. It is not past wrongs that should guide our actions, but the interests of the maintenance of the peace and security of the nations in the postwar period.
Indisputably, for the sake of ensuring a stable peace the peace-loving nations must possess the necessary armed force. This refers, at any rate, to the countries which bear the main responsibility for ensuring peace. But the interests of safeguarding peace have nothing in common with the policy of an armaments race among the Great Powers, which is preached abroad by certain especially zealous partisans of imperialist policies.
In this connection one should mention the discovery of atomic energy and the Atomic Bomb, whose application in the war with Japan demonstrated its enormous destructive power. However, atomic energy has not as yet been tested for the purpose of preventing aggression or safeguarding peace.
On the other hand, there can at present be no such technical secrets of great importance as could remain the possession of any single country or any narrow group of countries. Therefore the discovery of atomic energy should encourage neither fancies concerning the utilization of this discovery in the international play of forces, nor a carefree attitude toward the future of the peace-loving nations.
There is also quite a lot of noise going on in connection with the creation of blocs and groups of states as a means of safeguarding certain interests in foreign relations. The Soviet Union has never belonged to groupings of powers aimed against other peace-loving countries. In the West, however, attempts of this kind were made repeatedly, as is well known.
The anti-Soviet nature of a number of such groups in the past is also well known. In any case, the history of blocs and groupings of Western powers proves that they served not so much to curb aggressors, but rather on the contrary, to encourage aggression, and aggression by Germany in the first place.
That is why the Soviet Union and other peace-loving states should not relax their vigilance in this respect. The re-establishment of peace throughout the world has by no means resulted, and could not result, in the re-establishment of the prewar situation in relations among countries. For some time to come Germany, Italy and Japan have dropped out of the list of great powers which set the tune in international life as a whole. This is as it should be for the period during which the Allies exercise united control over them-control aimed at preventing the revival of aggressiveness in these countries, but which does not hinder their development and progress as democratic, peace-loving states.
Of considerable significance for the future of Europe is also the fact that a number of fascist and semi-fascist states have taken the democratic road, and are now striving to establish friendly relations with the Allied states. It seems evident that the consolidation of democratic principles in those states should be supported, not obstructed.
One cannot fail to notice that in the camp of the Allied countries, too, the war has brought about no insignificant changes. There, as a rule, the reactionary forces have been to a considerable extent dislodged from their former positions, clearing the road for democratic parties, old and new.
In a number of European countries radical social reforms have been carried out, such as the abolition of the antiquated system of big landed estates, and the transfer of the land to the poor peasants, which undermines the former mainstay of the reactionary fascist forces and stimulates the growth of the democratic and socialist movement in those countries.
Some states now place on the order of the day such important economic reforms as the nationalization of big industry, the eight-hour working day, and so on, which lends a new spirit and confidence to the growing ranks of the democratic movements in Europe and outside of Europe. Some reactionary press organs try to ascribe these bold democratic reforms mainly to the increased influence of the Soviet Union. The hollowness of such contentions is obvious, as it is common knowledge that problems of this kind have been successfully solved in the progressive European countries before now.
This does not mean that the forces of fascism have been finally crushed, and need not be reckoned with any longer. All of you have read the Crimean declaration of the Three Powers on liberated Europe, saying: "The establishment of order in Europe and the rebuilding of national economic life must be achieved by processes which will enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of nazism and fascism, and to create democratic institutions of their own choice."
Much still remains to be done to ensure the proper execution of the Crimean declaration. There is no doubt, however, that with all its negative consequences, the war against fascism, having ended in victory, has helped in many respects to clear the political atmosphere of Europe, and opened new roads for the regeneration and development of the anti-fascist forces as never before.
This situation undoubtedly meets the interests of the peace-loving states, and one should wish that realization of the necessity of "destroying the last vestiges of Nazism and Fascism" may take even firmer root among the European peoples.
The Soviet Union has always been true to the policy of strengthening normal relations between all peace-loving states. In the years of war the Soviet Union established friendly relations with Great Britain and the United States, with France and China, with Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and now has long-term treaties with nearly all these countries of alliance and mutual assistance against any possible new aggression by the states which were the main aggressors in this last world war.
On our part, everything possible is being done to establish normal and good relations also with those other countries which discarded their policy of hostility and mistrust of the Soviet Union. The same purpose is also served by the development of trade and economic relations between our country and an ever-growing circle of foreign states. With them cultural relations, too, are being strengthened.
The Anglo-Soviet-American anti-Hitler coalition, formed during the war, is now undergoing a test of its strength. Will this coalition prove as strong and capable of joint decisions under new conditions, when more and more new problems of the post-war period are arising? The failure of the London Conference of Five Ministers was a certain warning in this respect.
But the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition encountered difficulties during the war, as well. However, the coalition of three Powers proved able to find, though not always at once, the correct solution of the immediate problem in the interests of the entire anti-Hitler coalition of large and small states-a solution that also took into account the need for further strengthening the cooperation of the great democratic powers.
This year a new international organization, the "United Nations," has at last been founded. It has been set up on the initiative of the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition, which thereby assumes chief responsibility for the results of its future work.
It is clear to us that the "United Nations" organization should not resemble the League of Nations, which proved absolutely impotent in the matter of resistance to aggression and the organization of the forces of resistance to aggression once begun.
On the other hand, the new organization should not become the tool of any great power, since for any single power to claim a leading role in general world affairs is just as inconsistent as for it to claim world domination. Only the joint efforts of those powers which bore the burden of the war, and ensured the victory of the democratic countries over fascism-only such cooperation can make for the success of the work of the new international organization for lasting peace.
For this, it is not enough to express good intentions. What has to be proved is one's ability to cooperate in this fashion, in the interests of all peace-loving states.
The Soviet Union has been and will be a bulwark protecting the peace and security of the nations, and is ready to prove it by deeds, not words.
The glorious victories of our army will go down in the history of our country, and in world history, linked with the name of Generalissimo Stalin. Guided by Stalin, that great leader and organizer, we have now proceeded to peaceful construction, in order to attain the true blossoming of the forces of socialist society, and to justify the best hopes of our friends the world over.
The four years of war with Germany was a test for all the forces of the Soviet State. The Soviet Union passed this test with flying colors. The words of great, immortal Lenin again came true: "Never will that people be vanquished whose workers and peasants, in their majority, have realized, felt, and seen that they are defending their own Soviet power-the power of the working people; that they are defending a cause whose victory will secure for them and their children the possibility of enjoying all the blessings of culture; all the creations of human labor."
The Red Army emerged from the war covered with the glory of the victor. It has matured as an armed force, and grown even stronger in its Soviet fighting spirit.
Millions of people, so badly needed by the collective farms, mills and factories, and by our entire country, which has now addressed itself to the great task of securing a new upsurge of socialist construction, are now returning home to peaceful labor.
The Soviet people is now united around its Party as never before, and advances in organized ranks under the leadership of the Party of Lenin and Stalin. It was our great good fortune that in the hard years of war the Red Army and the Soviet people were led forward by the wise and tried leader of the Soviet Union-great Stalin.
Everyone knows how greatly the international prestige of the U.S.S.R. has grown. This became possible because of the military, economic and political achievements of our country. One year ago Comrade Stalin expressed this in the following words: "Just as the Red Army achieved military victory over the fascist forces in its long and arduous single-handed struggle, so the workers in the Soviet rear won economic victory over the enemy in their lone fight against Hitler Germany and her associates."
Comrade Stalin also said: "It is not only military defeat that the Hitlerites have suffered in this war, but moral and political defeat as well. The war has demonstrated to everyone how greatly our country has grown and strengthened in a military-economic respect. The war has also shown to no less an extent how greatly the Soviet Union's moral and political prestige has increased in the eyes of other peoples. We experienced exceptional economic hardships in the early years of the war; nevertheless our country proved capable of supplying our heroic army with everything it needed, including first-rate armaments superior in quality to the enemy's weapons."
Enduring the privations and hardships of wartime, the Soviet people worked without folding their hands, and we must pay tribute to our workers in the rear, especially to the selfless Soviet women and young people, so boundlessly loyal to their Motherland. It was this which permitted us to maintain the living standard of our people in the difficult time of war.
Millions of sons of the working class were mobilized and fought at the front. Yet the mills and factories continued working, owing to the influx of new cadres, especially from among the women and youth. Quite a few new factories, power stations, mines and railways were built during the war, mostly in the eastern districts of the country. Socialist emulation and new methods of raising labor productivity were invariably the main concern of the advanced workers and of the entire working class.
The trade unions and other workers' organizations carried on intensive organizational and educational work among the working masses. The workers, men and women alike, worked harder than before the war. Many difficulties were overcome as a result.
The collective farm peasantry demonstrated in war time its political consciousness and organization in agriculture, developed by the collective farm system. The peasants, men and women, have now perfectly realized the importance of socialist emulation on collective farms, and have done much to make up for the enormous damage inflicted on agriculture by the German invaders' temporary seizure of part of our country's territory.
All this enabled us to carry on through the war years with reliable grain stocks, and to supply the essential industrial enterprises with agricultural raw materials. It was not easy to cope with this task, especially if we recall that our Red Army consists chiefly of collective farmers.
Another factor which enabled us to cope with our war time tasks at the front and in the rear was that the Soviet intelligentsia did their duty to their Motherland. The war showed clearly what our intelligentsia has become under the Soviet system. One hears no more talk of the "old" and "new" intelligentsia. Life itself has eliminated this problem. The overwhelming majority of the intelligentsia honestly and effectively discharges its noble duty in organizing economic life, in training new cadres of specialists, in safeguarding the public health, and in raising the cultural level of the population. Today we may say with satisfaction that the Soviet intelligentsia are worthy of their people, and loyally serve their country.
The friendship of the peoples of the Soviet Union has grown stronger during the war. Our multi-national state, with its different languages and varying modes of life, its varying culture and history, became even more united, and the Soviet peoples grew ever closer to each other.
No other multi-national state could have withstood the trials through which we passed during the war. Only our state, in which there is no place for the exploitation of man by man, in which there are no antagonistic classes, but instead workers, peasants and intellectuals, all equal citizens, administering both local affairs and the affairs of state-only such a state, and not the old Russia of nobles and merchants, could have withstood the German invasion in the hard years of 1941-42, smashed the reckless enemy with its own forces, thrown him out of its territory, and moreover rendered powerful assistance to other nations in their liberation from foreign enslavers.
Today in our country there are no oppressed or unequal peoples like those which only recently, under the Tsarist regime, were of colonial or semi-colonial status. In the Soviet State the rights of every people to independence and free national development are recognized. All peoples are reared in the spirit of friendship and mutual respect. They are also reared to recognize the services of each people, in accordance with its efforts to develop its own national culture and to advance still further the Soviet State as a whole.
The activity of our countless trade union, industrial, cultural, sports and other workers' organizations, the creation of collective farms uniting many millions of Soviet peasants all over the vast territory of the Soviet Union, the steady growth of socialist emulation at mills and factories, on collective and state farms, in mines and on railways-all these manifestations of the flourishing of a real democracy of the people, such as we did not know in the old days, and which cannot exist in any other state, divided into classes of oppressors and oppressed, a thing which in our country was done away with long ago by Soviet power.
The rapid progress of cultural life in our country, and the fact that our intelligentsia, the advanced and most cultured section of the people, have now merged with their people, so raising the moral and political unity of Soviet society to an even higher level-in all this one cannot fail to perceive a new advance of Soviet democracy, which inspires us with new hopes and confidence for our country's future.
The fact that the Soviets have ensured to all the peoples the steady progress of their national cultures, active care in fostering national talents, and growing friendship and fraternal mutual assistance among equal Soviet peoples, which was lacking in the old Russia, and which does not exist as yet in other countries, under either monarchist or republic regimes-all this bears witness to the all-conquering force of Soviet democracy, to its great significance for the truly progressive development of the peoples.
The mobilizing force of Soviet democracy and Soviet patriotism as a source of inspiration for heroic exploits was revealed with particular force during the war. The Soviet people are happy because, thanks to the October Revolution which saved our country from being reduced to the status of a second-rate state, the forces of the people, fettered by the regime of the nobility, bourgeoisie and big landowners, were set free and given unheard-of opportunities for development on the basis of the Soviet system. That is why our victory over fascism was also a great victory of Soviet democracy.
In the course of the war, the Soviet people had to step far beyond the borders of their country. The strong resistance of fascism compelled our troops to enter a number of foreign states, to learn more about life in their towns and villages, and to enter western capitals such as Vienna, Budapest and Berlin.
In all those states, including those which yesterday sided with fascism, the Soviet people easily found a common language with the working classes and democratic circles. Naturally, one could not expect that they would regard as their friends the enemies of yesterday, belonging to the camp of the servants of fascism and the upper circles of society which had been kept in their position by fascist regimes.
Acquaintance with the life of other nations will certainly be of benefit to our people, and will broaden their outlook. It is interesting, however, that the Soviet people return home with an even more ardent feeling of loyalty to their Motherland and the Soviet system.
The strength of the Soviet Government is its closeness to the people. Unlike parliamentary democracy, Soviet democracy is of a truly popular nature. Therefore the Soviet State, as a state of a new type, has tasks which are not inherent in states of the old type. Thus the duties of the Soviet State include the political education of the people in the spirit of safeguarding the interests of world peace, of establishing friendship and cooperation between peoples-which far from excluding, on the contrary calls for the exposure of all attempts to prepare new aggression and to regenerate fascism. This necessity should not be forgotten in the post-war years.
Under the Soviet Constitution it is a crime to preach hatred between races and nations, anti-Semitism, and so on-just as it is not permitted in our press to exalt crime, robbery and violence against man. Such "restrictions" are as natural, under Soviet democracy, as the very opposite is natural, unfortunately, in some other countries. In some countries freedom of speech and of the press is still interpreted in such a way that the mercenaries of fascism do not have to don masks in order to carry on unbridled propaganda in the interests of aggression and fascism, even though the peoples in all quarters of the globe have already paid an enormous price in blood and hardship for the orgy of the world aggression and fascism which they earlier allowed.
It is not every state that has enough strength to undertake the task of educating the people politically. When the fascist states tackled it, the only result was that they trampled on the spiritual life, culture and rights of the people.
The advantage of Soviet democracy were proved by the Soviet Union during the war with particular vividness. The U.S.S.R. passed through the fire of the war ordeal, and grew even stronger, as a genuine state of the people. As is generally known, in our country the Bolshevik Party bears a special responsibility for the political education of the people. It is in the first place to our great Party that we owe our achievements in this respect. That is why the Soviet people's words of gratitude and love for the leader of the Bolshevik Party-"Our teacher, our father and leader, Comrade Stalin"-are so full of meaning.
We are nearing the new elections to the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. These general elections take place after ail the trials experienced by the Soviet State in the Great Patriotic War. Our people will bring to the polls the wealth of political experience they have gained in those years, after pondering deeply the destinies of their country, and developments in Europe and the whole world. The Bolshevik Party, together with wide circles of active Soviet nonparty citizens, is preparing for these elections, which it regards as a most important manifestation of Soviet democracy, and one more powerful means of rallying our people and further strengthening the Soviet State.
Our country has switched over to peaceful construction. Great new tasks are facing all the people. Naturally, we shall devote the necessary attention also to the new territories which have become part of the U.S.S.R. As is well known, the enemy who invaded our country prevented us from giving due attention to the organization of the Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia, which before the war had formed part of the Soviet Union for only a short.
Now, by treaty with Poland, the new Soviet-Polish frontier has been established. As a result, all territories inhabited by Byelorussians have been finally reunited in one Soviet Byelorussia, which can advance with confidence along the road of free national development.
By virtue of the treaty with Czechoslovakia, as is known, the Transcarpathian Ukraine has also at last become part of our state, and now the Soviet Ukraine unites all the Ukrainian lands-an age-old dream of our Ukrainian brothers
By treaty with Rumania, Soviet Moldavia now embraces all the territories inhabited by Moldavians, which affords them extensive opportunities for further national development.
The western frontier of our country has likewise been extended by the inclusion of the Koenigsberg region in the Soviet Union, which gives us a good ice-free port on the Baltic Sea. In the Baltic area Soviet Lithuania, Soviet Latvia and Soviet Esthonia have been re-established.
Such are the contours of our present western frontier, which is of the greatest importance from the point of view of safeguarding the security of the Soviet Union.
In the northwest we have restored our frontier with Finland in conformity with the Soviet-Finnish Peace Treaty of 1940. Furthermore, the Pechenga (Petsamo) Territory, in the north, has been restored to the Soviet Union.
Lastly, as regards the Far East. Here the Soviet Union takes over South Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands, which is important for the security of the U.S.S.R. in the East.
It remains to mention the restoration of the rights of our state to the railway in Manchuria, and to the Port Arthur and Daloy areas in the southern part of Manchuria.
All these areas, and also the area of our Porkkala-Udd naval base on Finnish territory, must receive proper attention from us, and in so far as they are new Soviet territories, will require the special attention of our state.
We must cope as soon as we can with our urgent tasks in Soviet territories which were temporarily occupied by the enemy armies. The Germans left behind them many ruined cities, thousands of ruined and plundered villages. Restoration began everywhere in these parts immediately the invader was driven out, but as yet only a small part of the work has been done.
The Soviet people, all the Soviet Republics, should bend their efforts to secure the early and complete economic and cultural rehabilitation of these districts.
The restoration of factories and mills, collective farms, machine-tractor stations and state farms, of schools and hospitals and dwellings-to give every urban and rural resident a home of his own for himself and his family-these are our urgent tasks.
Soviet institutions and trade unions, Party and Young Communist League organizations, also the collective farms and their organizations in the countryside should regard it as their chief duty to care for the men who did the fighting, and are now returning home from the army-to care, also, for the invalids, and for the orphaned families of Red Army soldiers. We must do everything in our power to cope effectively with this responsible task, and to heal the wounds of war at the earliest date. That is another urgent duty.
Right now, we must tackle the fundamental task of developing the national economy so that within a few years we may considerably surpass our pre-war standard of economic development, and ensure a considerable improvement in the living standard of the entire population.
That is the meaning of the recently published decision of the Party and the Government, on the drafting of a Five Year Plan for the rehabilitation and development of the national economy of the U.S.S.R., in the years 1946-50, and of the similar plan for the rehabilitation and development of railway transport.
Our people well know the power of the Stalin Five Year Plans which built up the might of our state, and ensured our victory. We need a new advance in heavy industry, in order to provide the country with more metal, coal, oil locomotives, rolling-stock, tractors, agricultural machines and automobiles, vessels of various kinds, power stations and many other things.
The people of the towns and villages expect a considerable increase in the output of consumer goods, also an improved food supply. The task of satisfying the needs of the collective farms, and the requirements of agriculture has become more urgent than ever. Our cultural requirements have grown and become more varied. Again, not for a moment can we forget our great duty to provide properly for the needs of the country's defense, the needs of the Red Army, the needs of the Navy.
We have no unemployment; and shall not have any. In our country everyone has work, for ours is a state of the working people. We must give more thought to the better organization of labor in industry, in agriculture, in transport and in all our institutions, so that the labor productivity of the Soviet citizen, and the quality of his work, may yield the best results.
In our day of advanced technology and the extensive application of science in industry, when it has even become possible to utilize atomic energy and other great technical discoveries, the utmost attention should be paid, in economic plans, to problems of technology, of raising the technological level of our industry, and of training highly skilled technical cadres.
We must keep abreast of the achievements of modern world technology in every branch of industry and the national economy, and secure conditions for an all-round advancement of Soviet science and technology.
The enemy interfered with our peaceful constructive work. But we shall catch up with everything as it should be, and will attain prosperity for our country. We shall have atomic energy too, and many other things.
So let us tackle these tasks with all our inexhaustible Bolshevik energy, with the mighty energy of Soviet people. Let us work as Comrade Stalin teaches us!
Lastly, about our tasks in foreign policy. The Soviet Union has always given first place to promoting peace and cooperation with other countries for the sake of universal peace and the development of international business relations.
While we are living in a "system of states," and while the roots of fascism and imperialist aggression have not been finally extirpated, our vigilance in regard to possible new violators of peace should not slacken, and concern for the strengthening of cooperation between the peace-loving powers will continue to be our most important duty.
We have no more important task than that of consolidating our victory, which we won in staunch struggle, and which has opened the road to a new great advance for our country and for further raising of living standards of our people. Never before have we faced prospects of socialist construction on so vast a scale, or such opportunities for the growth of the strength of the Soviet Union. Our people are full of faith in their great cause, the cause of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
Long live the Soviet people, the victor people, and their Red Army and Navy!
Long live and prosper our great Motherland, the Motherland of the October Revolution!
Long live the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics!
Long live the Party of Lenin and Stalin-inspirer and organizer of our victories!
Long live the leader of the Soviet people-great Stalin! | <urn:uuid:596fc9cc-a2f5-4b11-9aaf-230ed9ec14df> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/post-war/1945-11-06a.html | 2016-07-29T06:21:45Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257829972.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071029-00156-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966972 | 8,714 |
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Introduction Health examination is not complete without the oral health assessment. Regular assessment of dental diseases have been seen to be important as they keep on varying in occurrence and severity. This has to be measured both qualitatively and quantitatively and the measure of these parameters are recorded by an µIndex¶ (plural ± Indices). It is a very important tool in the branch of dental public health and in the study of epidemiology.
Definitions An µIndex¶ has been defined by µRussell¶ as ³A numerical value describing the relative status of a population on a graduated scale with definite upper and lower limits, which is designed to permit and facilitate comparison with other populations classified by the same criteria and methods.´
³Periodontal disease´ means disease involving either or all of the attachment apparatus of a tooth. Many researchers place gingival diseases also under the heading of Periodontal diseases while others differentiate the two.
Periodontitis is a bacterially induced inflammation of the gingival tissues together with loss of both the attachment of the periodontal ligament and bony support.
Periodontal Index (PI) This Index was developed by Russell A.L. (1956).
It took him ten years to develop this index because of a lack of sophisticated methodologies to assess the prevalence and severity of gingivitis and destructive periodontal disease. In earlier times, clinical appearance of the tissues of the anterior teeth was taken as the only basis for segregating individuals for epidemiologic studies of gingival and periodontal disease in large populations. These observations permitted evaluation of only relative proportions of affected and unaffected individuals in the populations under consideration. So, according to WHO the PI has made great strides to the epidemiology of periodontal disease due to its definition that very quickly achieved wide international acceptance. (WHO, 1999)
However nowadays this index in not used much in epidemiologic surveys because of the introduction of new periodontal indices and refinement of criteria amid increasing periodontal research.
The PI was intended to estimate deeper periodontal disease by measuring the presence or absence of gingival inflammation and its severity, pocket formation, and masticatory function. The scale of value for the PI ranges from 0 ± 8 with increasing prevalence and severity of disease. The PI is a composite index because it records both the reversible changes due to gingivitis and the more destructive and presumably irreversible changes brought by deeper periodontal disease. Because of this, it is an epidemiological index with a true biological gradient.
Method All the teeth present are examined. Gingival tissue is assessed for gingival inflammation and periodontal involvement.
Instruments used Mouth mirror and explorer are supplemented occasionally by straight jaquette scaler or the chip blower for demonstration of a periodontal pocket. Periodontal probing was not recommended because, according to Russell, it added little and proved to be a troublesome focus of examiner disagreement.
Scoring Criteria Russell chose the scoring values (0,1,2,4,6,8) in order to relate the stages of the disease in an epidemiological survey to the clinical conditions observed.
Russell¶s rule According to Russell¶s rule ³When in doubt assign the lower score´.
Calculation of the index The PI score per individual is obtained by adding all of the individual scores and i.e. PI score per person = Sum of individual scores/number of teeth. dividing by the number of teeth present or examined.
PI score per group = Sum of scores of all individuals/number of individuals
Scoring Relation to clinical severity (1959) .
a plane mouth mirror and an explorer.8 to 8.7 to 1.6 to 5.Use of the PI requires a minimum of equipment: a light source.0 Full mouth extractions Uses of PI 1. It is also important because a number of epidemiological surveys have been conducted world over using this index.2 0.The PI is fast and easy to use.Clinical conditions Clinically normal supportive tissues Simple gingivitis PI scores Treatment 0 to 0.Used in epidemiological surveys. 2.9 Oral prophyllaxis Beginning of destructive periodontal disease 0.PI serves well for making an overall assessment of the periodontal status of a population. . 5. 3.9 Minimal periodontal treatment Established destructive periodontal disease 1. 4.3 to 0.Used in the national Health Survey (NHS).More data can be assembled using PI than most other indices of periodontal disease. 6. the largest ongoing health survey in the United States.0 Ellaborate treatment periodontal Terminal disease 3.
Modern understanding has shown the PI to be invalid because it does not include evaluation of Clinical Attachment Loss (CAL). The PDI is a clinician¶s modification of Russell¶s Periodontal Index. Ramfjord developed his own system for measuring periodontal disease. This system became known as the Periodontal Disease Index (PDI). The Periodontal Disease Index (PDI) was developed by Siguard P. grades all pockets of 3 mm or more equally and scores gingivitis and Periodontitis on the same weighted scale.Drawbacks of PI 1. Periodontal Disease Index As a consultant to the World Health Organization for a 1957 study of periodontal disease in India. . 4.The number of periodontal pockets without obvious supragingival calculus is also underestimated in the periodontal index. 2. Taking the most valuable features of existing indices and adding new features to compensate for their shortcomings. Ramfjord in 1959. Ramfjord was faced with the inadequacies of the available indices for measuring periodontal disease. 3. the results tend to underestimate the true level of periodontal disease.It doesn¶t indicate the degree of periodontal tissue destruction. especially early bone loss in a population.Since no caliberated probe or essentially radiographs are used when performing the PI examination.
To provide measurable reference data for assessment of correlations with factors of potential significance in the etiology of periodontal disease. Calculus component 3. 4. The PDI has been framed to be accurate for use in longitudinal studies. 3. The most important feature of PDI is measurement of the level of the periodontal attachment related to the CEJ of the teeth. 2. namely: 1. To assess prevalence and severity of gingivitis and Periodontitis within the individual dentitions and in population groups. the PDI was developed due to a lack of methodologies to determine prevalence and severity and with the intent to be a more sensitive version of the PI for use in clinical trials. Components of Periodontal Disease Index The PDI comprises of three components. 5.Gingival and Periodontal component Scoring methods .As in the case of the PI. To provide accurate recordings for clinical trials of preventive and therapeutic procedures in periodontics. Plaque component 2. The PDI is primarily concerned with an accurate assessment of the periodontal status of the individual person. Objectives 1. To provide an accurate basis for longitudinal studies of periodontal disease. To provide a meaningful basis for estimate of need for periodontal therapy in selected population groups.
36. Evidence of ulceration of the gingiva with bleeding is considered. The gingival status is scored first. 44). lingual and interproximal surfaces with each other. 24. Presence or absence of stippling is not considered as related to gingival inflammation. Changes in colour are evaluated by observing the colour of the gingivae around the tooth to be scored and comparing the colour corresponding to the buccal. Any minor change either in contour.Only six selected teeth are scored for assessment of the periodontal status of the mouth. The gingivae around the teeth to be scored are first dried superficially by gently touching with absorbing cotton. one may concern all of the teeth in the mouth. 21. for short term clinical trials and where a limited number of patients are available. However slight contour change alone is never scored as gingivitis. Change in consistency is checked by applying gentle pressure with the side of periodontal probe against the gingiva to determine if there is a soft or spongy consistency. as well as comparing it with the colour of the gingiva around the adjacent teeth. Change in form is initially a blunting or rounding of the margin of the gingivae and thickening of papillae. if the . stippling or consistency alone is not considered to be a definite manifestation of gingivitis. The six selected index teeth are (according to FDI notation 16. however. These are known as Ramfjord¶s teeth. 41.
a ³University of Michigan´ number O probe is used. After the distance from the free gingival margin to the CEJ has been measured. The following criteria is used for crevicular measurements:- . The next step is recording of crevice depth related to the CEJ. The University of Michigan number O probe is graduated at 3.gingiva is touched gently with the side of a periodontal probe. of if there is severe redness and marked change in contour. This can be achieved only if there has been loss of periodontal attachment. The end of the probe should be placed against the enamel surface coronally to the margin of the gingiva so that the angle formed by the working end of the probe and long axis of the crown of the tooth is approximately 45°. an attempt should be made to move the probe along the cemental surface. Later on it was simplified by taking the score at the mesial surface of the tooth as representative of all surfaces. The probe should always be pointed towards the apex of the tooth or the central axis of multirooted teeth. The mesial measurement should be made at the buccal aspect of the interproximal contact area with the probe touching both teeth if there is a neighbour tooth present and the probe pointing in the direction of the long axis of the tooth to be scored. making it necessary to estimate intervening measurements. The buccal measurements should be made at the middle of the buccal surfaces. 6 and 8 mm. For this purpose. Minimal force should be used to pass the probe in apical direction maintaining contact with the tooth.
If the gingival margin is on cementum.1. The distance from the CEJ to the bottom of the pocket can then be found by subtracting the first from the second measurement. record the distance from the CEJ to the gingival margin as a minus value (a) then record the distance from the CEJ to the bottom of the gingival crevice as a positive value (b). Ramfjord¶s method for measuring this distance is often referred to as the ³Indirect method for measuring periodontal attachment loss´ Scoring Score Criteria 0 1 2 3 Absence of inflammation Mild to moderate gingival changes not extending all around the tooth Mild to moderate gingival changes extending all around the tooth Severe gingivitis Calculation of the PDI score The PDI score can be calculated for an individual and a group For Individual = Total of individual tooth scores/ Number of teeth examined For group = Total individual PDI score/ Number of people examined . Both loss of attachment and actual crevice depth can easily be assessed from these scores. If the gingival margin is on enamel. measure from gum margin to CEJ and record the measurement. Then record the distance from the gingival margin to the bottom of the pocket. 2.
Epidemiologic surveys 2. Shannon I L. If any of the six index teeth is missing. This index is also known as ³Periodontal Screening Examination´ The GPI is a modification of the PDI of the Ramfjord for the purpose of screening individuals to determine who needs periodontal treatment. calculus and . The GPI assesses three components of periodontal disease: gingival status. and collectively material alba. hence leading to inter examiner bias. NHANES) Gingival Periodontal Index Developed by O¶Leary T J. Hence in between scores need to be estimated. Gibson W A. Uses: 1. It is more time consuming as compared to Russell¶s Index. Schuessler C F and Nabers C L. two aspects of the index are often used: Selection of the six Ramfjord teeth and the method for measuring pocket depth and loss of periodontal attachment. Although the PDI is rarely used nowadays. 2.g.Either of the PDI score ranges from 0 ± 6. another tooth is not substituted in its place. periodontal status (crevice depth). 6. Values marked on probe are 3. Ramfjord¶s technique for measuring pocket depth and periodontal attachment loss has been used in national surveys (e.Longitudinal studies in periodontal diseases Drawbacks: 1. in 1963. 8 mm.
Method: Scoring is done on all teeth present. The assessment is done segment wise. 38 to 34. 13 to 23.overhanging restoration. Segmentation of the mouth The Dentition is divided into six segments: (According to FDI notation) 18 to 14. Gingival status The specific criteria for the gingival status component of the GPI are as follows: . 33 to 43. 24 to 28. Eachsegment is assessed for each of the three components of periodontal disease. 44 to 48. The latter triad is independently called as the ³Irritation index´. The primary objective in using the index is to determine the tooth or its surrounding tissues. with the severest condition within each segment.
Compiling the Gingival Periodontal Index The highest score (either gingival or periodontal) found for each dentulous segment is recorded and the sum is divided by the number of segments to give the GPI score for the individual. Uses 1.To monitor patient progress 2.For epidemiologic surveys .The highest score found on any tooth in a segment is recorded as the periodontal score for the segment.
Gingival Bone (GB) Count Index The GB count index was given by Dunning J M and Leach L B (1960) This index records the gingival condition and the level of the crest of the alveolar bone. Scoring . and proportionate measurement of bone loss is made on a 0 to 5 scale. Subjective measurement of gingivitis is made on an arbitrary scale of 0 to 3 for each tooth. This index permits differential recording of both gingival and bone conditions. The bone level is assessed by clinical examination but radiographs are recommended for greater accuracy.
The criteria used for scoring bone loss is as follows: Score Criteria 0 Normal Lack of continuity of cortical plate at the crest of interdental bone. Time consuming .One score is assigned to each tooth studied. Up to 1/3rd of supporting bone lost 4 5 6 More than 1/3rd and up to 2/3rd of supporting bone lost 7 More than 2/3rd of supporting bone lost Disadvantages The index in its present form does not distinguish between slight involvement of many teeth and extensive involvement of a few teeth. with possible widening of Periodontal Ligament. Shetham A and Striffler D F developed an index similar to the Bone count component index in 1970. and a mean is computed for the whole mouth.
stage of advancement) of loss of Periodontal attachment (LPA) by determining the percentage of sites within the mouth with LPA greater than 1 millimeter (i. The ESI utilizes the Ramfjord¶s method to measure loss of periodontal attachment.e. . number of sites affected within the mouth) and severity (i.Extent and Severity Index (ESI) This index was developed by J P Carlos. the ESI has demonstrated relatively the same level of reliability in partial mouth examinations versus full mouth examinations.e. extent) and the mean LPA for affected sites (i. The ESI was developed because of a lack of satisfaction with the previous indices of periodontal disease and because of the emergence of a newer conceptual model of periodontal disease by ³Socransky and associates´ The PI was based on a model in which periodontal disease was a slowly progressing. severity). Furthermore. The ESI is considered to be a simple and reproducible procedure requiring minimal examiner training.e. It dealt with gingivitis as part of the biologic gradient that extended from health to advanced periodontal disease. In the newer model. It can be used in a variety of survey types such as cross sectional surveys and longitudinal studies.e. continuous disease process. periodontal disease is a chronic process. M D Wolfe and A Kingman (1986) to assess the extent (i. with intermittent periods of activity and remission that affects individual teeth and sites around teeth at different rates within the same mouth. Some consider the ESI not to be a true index since it summarizes data and is descriptive rather than analytical.
with an average severity of 1. for interpretation. Afterwards. a tooth site is considered diseased only when loss of attachment exceeds 1 mm.Procedure To obtain the ESI.g. an ESI of (60.0) suggests a generalized but mild form of periodontal disease whereas an ESI of (20. 27% of sites examined showed evidence of disease. mid-buccal and the mesio-buccal aspects of each tooth using the Ramfjord procedure. Disease severity. a coin toss) to select which upper quadrant to examine. E. In addition. 2. on average. S. ESI = (E.. is expressed as the mean loss of attachment. For the ESI. 6. in excess of 1 mm.e. So as stated earlier. disease extent.0) suggests a severe localized form of periodontal involvement.34 mm loss of attachment per diseased site. This results in a maximum of 28 measurements (i. So. . is expressed as the percentage of sites among examined sites with an LPA greater than 1 mm. for affected or diseased sites. a maximum of 14 measurements in each quadrant) for each subject. The contralateral quadrant in the lower arch is then automatically decided. use a random procedure (e. the ESI is written as follows where E is rounded off to the nearest whole number.34) means. Third molars are not examined. S) An ESI expressed as (27. 1.
e. . the recession of the gingival margin and alveolar bone. pathological pockets and numbers of erupted teeth were considered basic to data requirements. The assessment of gingivitis. the Oral health unit of the World Health Organization (WHO) took the initiative to organize a group of experts from 14 member countries to examine and advise on the epidemiology. George Beagrie.Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs (CPITN) This index was developed for the ³Joint Working Committee´ of the World Health Organization´ and ³Federation Dentaire Internationale´ (WHO/ FDI) by Jukka Ainamo. having the objective of developing a method for the evaluation of treatment needs. Jean Martin and Jennifer Sardo-infirri in 1978. For population studies and field trials. i. As far as calculus is concerned.. Having accepted that periodontal disease is one of the most wide spread diseases of mankind. Gingival recession and tooth mobility were also excluded from the recordings. gingival bleeding and pocket formation. This index was developed primarily to survey and evaluate periodontal treatment needs rather than determining past and present periodontal status. named for the WHO Technical Report Series (TRS) publication number in which this method was first featured. The CPITN is an evolution of the ³621´ method. Terry Cutress. recording of plaque was considered less important than the assessment of its consequences. etiology and prevention of periodontal diseases. David Barmes. it was included as being necessary to any study of treatment need.
. International uniformity Its limitations include partial recording. it provides guidance on the planning and monitoring of the effectiveness of periodontal care programmes and the dental personnel required. The CPITN is a procedure which uses clinical parameters and criteria relevant to planning for the prevention and control of periodontal diseases. Speed. CPITN is therefore not a diagnostic tool and should not be used for planning of specific clinical treatment of individual patients. namely periodontal pockets.Scope and Purpose The CPITN procedure is recommended for epidemiological surveys of periodontal health. and 3. The major advantages of CPITN are: 1. gingival inflammation (identified by bleeding of gentle probing) and dental calculus and other plaque retentive factors. Primarily the CPITN is a screening procedure for identifying actual and potential problems posed by periodontal diseases both in the community and by the individual. The CPITN records the common treatable conditions. Also. Simplicity 2. It does not record irreversible changes such as recession or other deviations from periodontal health such as tooth mobility or loss of periodontal attachment. exclusion of some important signs of past periodontal breakdown ± notably attachment loss and absence of any marker of disease activity or susceptibility. The CPITN is not intended as a comprehensive assessment of total past and present periodontal disease experience.
In order to determine periodontal disease status. in the maxilla. but not non-treatable or irreversible conditions (i. reduced halitosis. for the presence or absence of: 1.Pocket depths of 4 or 5 mm . these were the facial and mesial aspects of the right first molar (16 ± FDI notation). improved quality of life. reduced potential threat to longevity of teeth. enhanced general well-being and appearance. elimination of bleeding from the gums. the lingual and mesial aspects of the left first molar (36). right central incisor (41) and right first premolar (44). left central incisor (21) and left first premolar (24) and in the mandible. The recordings were made in the following order. attachment level). Originally. This selection of teeth was as proposed by Ramfjord (1959) for partial mouth recording of periodontal disease. recession. Reasons for attempting to control periodontal disease and promote good periodontal care include. and improved mastication. Treatment needs It implies that CPITN assesses only those conditions potentially responsive to treatment. Subgingival calculus 3.e. Supragingival calculus 2. the group supported the use of a partial mouth recording system with scores being taken with the aid of a probe from two surfaces of six teeth.With this information appropriate oral care services can be planned for populations and for individuals.
Each sextant is given a score. it is included in the adjacent sextant.Pocket depths of 6 mm or more 5. When only one tooth remains in a sextant.Gingival bleeding after probing 6. the recordings per sextant are based on findings from specified index teeth. For epidemiological purposes.Recession (eventually recession scores were discarded).4. Sextants Six sextants (depicted based on FDI notation) 17 ± 14 13 ± 23 24 ± 27 47 ± 44 43 -33 34 ± 37 The third molars are not included. the highest score in each sextant is identified after examining all teeth. . For clinical practice. Index teeth In epidemiological surveys assessing the periodontal treatment needs of a population. The treatment need in a sextant is recorded only if there are two or more teeth present and not indicated for extraction. except where they are functioning in place of second molars. the score is identified by examination of specific index teeth.(2 ) Procedure for CPITN The dentition is divided into six parts (sextants) for assessment of periodontal treatment needs.
This probe is particularly designed for gentle manipulation of the often very sensitive soft tissues around the teeth.5 mm markings. The probe has a ball tip of 0. The Joint Working Committee of WHO/ FDI have advised the manufacturers of CPITN probes to identify the instruments as either µCPITN±E¶ for the epidemiological probe with 3. The additional lines may be of use when performing a detailed assessment and recording of deep pockets for the purpose of preparing a treatment plan for complex periodontal therapy.The WHO Periodontal Examination Probe ± CPITN Probe Figure .5 mm markings. The CPITN probe is both thin in the handle and is of very light weight (5 gms).5 mm and 5. . thus decreasing the tendency for false reading by over measurement.5 mm and 11. namely measurement of pocket depth and detection of subgingival calculus.5 mm and ending at 5. A variant of this basic probe has two additional lines at 8. The probing force can be divided into a µworking component¶ ±to determine pocket depth and a µsensing component¶ ± to detect subgingival calculus.5 mm and 11. This probe was designed for two purposes.5 mm from the working tip.5 mm diameter that allows easy detection of subgingival calculus.5 mm.CPITN Probe The recommended periodontal probe for use with CPITN was first described by WHO (TRS -621 ± 1978). Probing procedure A tooth is probed to determine pocket depth and to detect subgingival calculus and bleeding response. This feature combined with the light probe weight facilitates the identification of the base of the pocket. or µCPITN±C¶ for the clinical probe with additional 8. The pocket depth is measured through colour coding with a black band starting at3.
Pain to the patient during probing is in most cases indicative of the use of a too heavy probing force. Recommended sites for probing are mesial. whenever possible be in the same plane as the long axis of the tooth. the lightest possible force which will allow movement of the probe ball point along the tooth surface is used. with the probe tip remaining in the sulcus. the probe may be µwalked¶ around the tooth. 1987). For µsensing¶ subgingival calculus.The working force should not be more than 20 grams ± a practical testfor establishing this force is to gently insert the probe point under the finger nailwithout causing pain or discomfort. The direction of the probe during insertion should. the ball tip should follow the anatomic configuration of the tooth root surface. When gently inserting the probe into the gingival pocket. mid line and distal. Sites in addition to the recommended ones should be probed if there is suspicion that a higher scoring condition is present.e. The probe is inserted between the tooth and the gingiva. and the sulcus depth or pocket depth is noted against the colour code or measuring lines. . both on facial and lingual/ palatal surfaces. The probing may be done by withdrawing the probe between each probing or by the probe tip remaining in the sulcus or pocket in order to walk the probe around each surface (i. buccal and lingual) of the tooth (Cutress. The ball end of the probe should be kept in contact with the root surface. ³Walking´ the probe should be done with short upward and downward movements. Ainamo and sardo-infirri. The probing may be done by withdrawing the probe between each probing or alternatively.
Recording of code 4 makes further examination of that sextant unnecessary. Note:. The codes are listed in descending order of treatment complexity as follows: Code ³X´ When only one tooth or no teeth are present in a sextant (third molars are excluded unless they function in place of second molars) Code ³4´ Pathological pocket of 6 mm or more present i.If the deepest pocket found at the designated tooth or teeth in a sextant is 4or 5 mm. Code ³3´ Pathological pocket of 4 mm or 5mm present. there is no need to examine for gingival bleeding. the black area of CPITN probe is not visible. Note:. when the gingival margin is on the black area of the probe.e.If code 2 is attained. a code of 3 is recorded ± there is no need to examine for calculus or gingival bleeding. Code ³2´ Calculus or other retentive factors such as ill fitting crowns or poorly adapted edges of restorations are either seen or felt during probing. i. Bleeding may be delayed for up to 10 ± 30 seconds after probing. Codes and Criteria The appropriate code for each sextant is determined with respect to the following criteria. . the gingiva or gum of the examined tooth should be inspected for the presence or absence of bleeding before the subject is allowed to swallow or close their mouth.e.After probing.
Code ³1´ Bleeding observed during or after probing. The requirement is that more than one functional tooth is present. If µyes¶. As soon as the highest scored criterion has been determined there is no need to examine for the presence of lower score criteria. Code ³0´ Healthy tissue. but bleeding occurs after gentle probing. a code of 1 is recorded for the sextant.4 or 5 mm deep pockets. Control of bleeding by means of self care is a pre. No signs of disease is observed. then score µx¶ and move to next sextant. calculus or other plaque retentive factor.requisite for all periodontal therapy. or examine all teeth (for clinical screening procedure). Note:.0) Bleeding is a sign of early disease which can be overcome by self care following suitable oral health education and instruction. This treatment is recognized as ³Treatment need 1´ (TN -1) . Classification of treatment needs (TN) A recording of Code 0 (healthy) or code X (missing) for all six sextants indicates that there is no need for treatment (TN . If µno¶. Determine appropriate highest score for each sextant. bleeding only. Examination procedure The aim is to determine the highest score applicable to each sextant with the least number of measurements. for presence of 6mm or deeper pockets. in that order.If neither pathological pocket nor calculus is observed. First decide whether the sextant can be validly scored. examine index teeth (in epidemiological procedure).
The treatment of these conditions may require ³complex therapy´ for which skilled clinically trained and experienced dental personnel are needed. for patients with deep pockets even after scaling. On the other hand. Oral hygiene and scaling will usually reduce inflammation and bring a 4 or 5 mm sulcus depth or below 3 mm. (TN -2) * Therefore. scaling and root plaining. Sextants with such pockets are placed in the same treatment category as calculus and other plaque retentive factors i. This need for complex treatment is recognized as ³Treatment need 3´ (TN -3) A sextant scoring code 4 also will fall in ³Treatment need 3´ (TN -3) Substitution for excluded and missing Index teeth The index (and substitute) teeth are excluded from the CPITN scoring when the decision has been made to go for extraction due to any cause. root plaining and control of bleeding by oral hygiene. there will generally be residual pockets. The CPITN differentiates between pockets of 4 or 5 mm and 6 mm or deeper because of the currently accepted different approach to their treatment. a CPITN code of 2 or 3 means TN ± 2.. the removal of calculus and other plaque ± retentive factors demands the professional care defined as µTreatment need 2¶ (TN -2) The depth of a pocket is not necessarily related to the amount of attachment loss.The control or elimination of gingival bleeding should be a prime goal even if further treatment is not available. Unlike plaque that can be eliminated through self care. . Although not pathological in themselves.e. calculus and other plaque retentive factors favour plaque retention and inflammation.
If all teeth in a sextant are missing or only one functional tooth remains. 25 ± . the nearest adjacent premolar is examined. substitute 21 for it. The ten CPITN index teeth are the first and second molars in the posterior sextants and a central incisor in each of the two anterior sextants. Choice of age groups While applying the CPITN. If the single tooth is an index tooth. the WHO standard are grouping should be used. if the first molar is not present or has to be excluded. then the worst index tooth score is recorded. substitute teeth are selected.The indication for extraction because of periodontal involvement is that the tooth has vertical mobility and causes discomfort to the patient. i. using the following rules. In subjects under 20 years of age. all the remaining teeth in that sextant are examined and the highest score is recorded. Remember that 2 or more functioning teeth must be present in a sextant for it to qualify for scoring. 3. 4.e. then the recording is based on the examination of the remaining index tooth. 6. 2. If both index teeth in a posterior sextant are absent or excluded from the examination. 1. substitute for mandibular teeth. A single tooth in a sextant is considered as a tooth in the adjacent sextant and subject to the rules for that sextant. 5. 7. If 21 is also excluded then identify the worst score for the remaining teeth. In the anterior maxillary sextant if tooth 11 is excluded. single years to 19 but including a group 15 ± 19 years then 20 ± 24 years. When one or more of the index teeth are missing or excluded at the time of examination. one of the two index teeth is not present or has to be excluded. Similarly. the sextant is coded as missing. If in a posterior sextant.
3. 1. 45 ± 54 years. Utilization of CPITN recordings The CPITN is designed for rapid and practical assessment of various periodontal treatment needs in population surveys and for initial screening of . or if a high prevalence of disease appears present at an early age. 55 ± 64 years and 75 ± 84 years and over. 2. It is recommended that age groups 15 ± 19 (or 15 years).29years. To obtain the µmean number of sextants¶ (MNS) for each condition per person. 4) Step 2: To obtain the prevalence (percentage) of subjects with codes 0. there have been very few changes to the index for epidemiological and public health purposes. examination of age groups 7± 11 years and 12 -14 years may be justified. 4 as their score. codes 0.e. 3. divide the total number of sextants with highest score for the person by the number of dentate subjects examined. 30 ± 34 years. Where resources allow. Modifications of CPITN Besides the slight changes to the CPITN since it was first described. 2. by the total number of dentate subjects examined and multiply by 100. 1. 35 ± 44 years. divide the counts of codes respectively. 35 ± 44 years and 65 ± 74 years be the age groups for data collection for international comparison and for planning and monitoring. Calculation of CPITN The CPITN for a population group can be calculated as follows: Step 1: Count the number of charts with different codes and add up the codes individually (i.
calculus and periodontal pockets. For this ³CPITN ± C´ probe is used. 16. Indicators:. Procedure: The mouth is divided into sextants as in the case of CPITN. 27 .Three indicators of periodontal status are used for this assessment. the teeth to be examined are: 17. (Note: this replaces the former instruction to include single remaining tooth in the adjacent sextant). A sextant should be examined only if there are two or more teeth present which are not indicated for extraction. gingival bleeding. However. 11. The time needed for the CPITN in recording the codes for the six segments should not exceed 1 ± 2 minutes.patients attending for regular dental care. The modification is done by the inclusion of measurement of ³Loss of attachment´ and elimination of the ³Treatment Needs´ category. a finding of the need for complex treatment necessitates a more precise identification of the teeth and tooth surfaces affected before starting the actual therapy required by the individual patient. 26. the CPITN recordings are sufficient for treatment planning. Community Periodontal index This index is based on a modification of the earlier used CPITN. Index teeth: For adults aged 20 years and over. For patients requiring oral hygiene instruction and scaling only.
only six index teeth 16. In this case. 37 The two molars in each posterior sextant are paired for recording and. 26. The probing for sensing gingival pockets and calculus is same as for CPITN. there is no replacement. 31 and 46 are examined. For subjects under the age of 20 years.e. If no index teeth or tooth is present in a sextant qualifying for examination. if one is missing. pockets should not be recorded i. 11. distal surfaces of third molars should not be scored. This modification is made in order to avoid scoring the deepened sulci associated with eruption as periodontal pockets. 41. 46. only bleeding and calculus should be considered. when children under the age of 15 are examined. 36. all the remaining teeth in that sextant are examined and the highest score is recorded as the score for the sextant. For the same reason. Examination and recording .. 36.47.
as a part of their ³Navy Periodontal Screening Examination´ (NSPE) The NPDI has two parts: 1.(according to FDI notation) 16. The six selected teeth are:. and 2.Navy Periodontal Disease Index (NPDI) The NPDI was introduced by Grossman F D and Fedi P F in 1974. dentisty.A pocket score which measures tissue destruction as determined by pocket depth. 21.A gingival score which assesses inflammation as determined by colour. Method The gingival and pocket score is done on six selected teeth. 24. consistency. enlargement and bleeding. .
41. middle and distal areas ofboth facial and lingual surfaces. µ1¶ ± Inflammatory changes are present. consistency. loss of normal dentisty and consistency. The greatest single measurement determines the pocket score for the tooth. any colour change. has firm consistency. The mesial and distal areas are measured at the facial and lingual line angles. The pocket examination includes six probing measurements of the depth of the gingival sulcus or pocket on each of the six designated teeth using a calibrated probe. substitute the next most posteriortooth and if the central incisor is missing substitute the nearest incisor in the samearch. Scoring Criteria µ0¶ ± Gingival tissue is of normal colour. The gingival examination is for colour. slight enlargement and/or blunting of papilla or gingiva and tendency to bleed on palpation.36. and no exudate is present. These measurements are taken on the mesial. If any of the selected posterior tooth is missing. Changes may include. but do not completely encircle the tooth. . µ2¶ . contour and bleeding.Inflammatory changes completely encircling the tooth. 44 The gingival scores are determined by examining the gingival tissues and the pocket scores by probing sulcular or pocket depth.
.Pocket Score µ0¶ ± pocket depth not over 3 mm µ5¶-pocket depth greater than 3mm but less than 5mm µ8¶ ± pocket depth greater than 5mm Calculation of NPDI score Gingival & pocket scores ± added & divided by no of index teeth.
Int Dent J 1994. J Dent Res 1960 39: 506513 Cutress TW. 35: 350-359 Dunning J. Periodontitis. the Periodontal Screening and Recording procedure in the USA. J Dent Res 1991. CDOE 2000. Gingival Bone Count: A method for epidemiological study of periodontal disease. J Dent Res 1956. 70: 1380-85 Nasi JH. Effect of examining half the teeth in a partial periodontal recording of older adults.References Flemming TF. Ann Periodontol 1999. Analysis strategies for longitudinal attachment loss data. 28: 1-9 Russell AL. Background to . Etler JR. 10th edition WHO ± Oral Health Surveys . 44: 58588 Dhingra K. Carranza. Clinical Peiodontology. Ainamo J. Vandana KL. Essentials of Preventive and Community Dentistry 2nd edition. Arya Publishing house. The community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs (CPITN) procedure for population groups and individual Hunt R. Sardo Infirri J. A system of classification and scoring for prevalence surveys of periodontal disease. Int dent J 2011: 61: 76-84 Peter s. 4: 32-38 Beck JD. Indices for measuring periodontitis: a literature review. and implementation of. Fann S. Leach LB.
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After sixteen hours on the bus, I arrived in Tulsa, Oklahoma just before noon on a hot July day determined to find Charlie, actually Charlotte, but that’s not what I called her. I flew into Chicago and then took the long bus ride to Tulsa, wanting to experience Route 66. After almost two years of meeting Charlie, my cyber lover, I wanted to surprise her, just show up, a daring act in itself as fear of what a disaster this might be swept over me. What would she think when she realized who I was? Would she be disappointed? Disillusioned? Alarmed? Would I? For some reason, surprising how this sounds, we had never exchanged photos. Would she be what I fantasized after months of visualizing her without a photo? Would she believe it was me, someone she had never seen.
I found out that there were no buses from Tulsa to Jarvis, where she lived, so I decided to hitch a ride rather than rent a car. I stood out on the highway for about ten minutes, my small back pack on my shoulder and within ten minutes got a ride with an old geezer in a rusted old Dodge truck, wearing a cowboy hat, white stubble on his chin.
When I told him I just came from Maine and was heading for Jarvis, he looked at me, “Why that dinky town?”
“Don’t laugh,” I said, “but I’m looking for a woman I met on the internet.”
“No shit,” he said, looking at me. “She must pretty damn hot for you to come all this way,” he said. “And I bet she’s a lot younger than you, ain’t she?” he laughed.
“Yes, but so what? Age is just a number,” I added, knowing that was trite but didn’t know what else to say.
“Guess so,” he said, glancing at me, “but I hope your pecker holds up,” he laughed.
We drove for quite awhile talking about this and that and then I must have dozed off. When I woke up and looked around I saw the road sign that said Jarvis five miles.
“Won’t be long,” the old guy said, smiling at me. “Hope you find her.”
“Me, too,” I answered.
I saw the sign, “Entering Jarvis.” We drove past a gas station convenience store and into the middle of town.
“You can drop me off here in front of the hardware store,” I said, pointing to it.
He pulled over to the curb and I grabbed my backpack and hopped out.
“Thanks for the lift,” I said.
“No problem,” he responded, saluting me with his hand at the edge of his cowboy hat. “Good luck with your lady,” he said and smiled, then shook his head. “You’re gonna need it,” he laughed.
When I got out of the truck, he took off and I looked around. I stood on the sidewalk in the glaring hot sun, not sure which way to go to find the Jarvis Community Center where I knew she worked. I didn’t even know if she would be there and whether I would recognize her. What would I do if she wasn’t there since I didn’t have her phone number and had no idea where she lived? I took a chance, but then, what is life if you don’t take chances.
While standing there, uncertain which way to go, I saw two men sitting on a bench outside the hardware store, unshaven, smoking and looking out at the pick-up trucks and dusty cars driving by. One wore a cowboy hat, the other a green baseball cap pulled low over his eyes.
“Excuse me, can you tell me where the Community Center is?” I asked walking closer to the bench.
The man with the cowboy hat looked up, the cigarette dangling from his lip, and pointed down the street with his thumb, “Two blocks down, other side of the street, Can’t miss it.”
The other man glanced up at me then took a drag on his cigarette, looked away and sent a wad of spit to the curb.
“Thanks,” I said, nodding and headed in that direction. I passed a drug store, a small coffee shop, the post office and then saw the sign of the community center on the other side. I crossed the street and stood in front of the red brick building, looking at the door and suddenly felt my throat tighten. I saw a black pick up truck with oversized tires parked nearby and wondered if that was Charlie’s. I remembered her telling me that’s she drove a truck with big tires.
I gripped my backpack tighter as I stared at the door, feeling self-conscious. “Would she think I look like an old man?” I muttered to myself. I was twenty-some years older than Charlie, though inside I felt youthful. Online, age didn’t seem to matter, but now she would see my graying hair and beard, my wrinkled brow, the smile lines around my eyes. This was a reality, not cyber space.
I took a deep breath, put my hand on the knob, hesitating before entering. I glanced at myself in the glass of the door and saw my reflection.
“What am I doing here?” I thought before opening the door, “Well, here goes, what ever will be, will be.”
I had a mental picture of Charlie, remembering how she described herself. I knew she had brownish blond hair, a pony tail, blue eyes, dimples when she smiled. I knew she always wore jeans and a t-shirt, remnants of her tom-boy days on the farm where she grew up. In my imagination, she was beautiful with smooth fair skin, long legs, tight jeans, slender, her tits, “a good hand full,” she said. I know in bed, she wore a white satin nightie that came halfway down her thighs, that’s where we spent most of our cyber time if we weren’t on her couch.
When I entered, closing the door behind me, I stood in a large entrance way and looked around, hoping I would see someone that I thought resembled the Charlie in my imagination. I noticed a gym with a stage at one end, several small offices on the other side and a conference room with a large table and chairs around it.
And then I saw a young woman with a blonde pony tail, jeans and a red t shirt coming out of an office with several folders in her hand, I wondered if that was Charlie. She looked exactly as I pictured her.
“I bet that’s her,” I said to myself, watching her walking, my heart leaping and then I wondered again if I was insane to come all this way unannounced and uninvited to surprise her. Here was the “moment of decision and revision which a moment could reverse” I thought, as a line from T.S. Eliot went through my mind.
In our over two years of almost daily meetings on the internet, I felt I knew Charlie and knew she valued the time I took to know her, asking probing questions, letting her know that though we agreed initially to be on line “fuck buddies,” I cared about her and miraculously, our relationship gradually grew and evolved to a deeper level. We became on-line lovers who actually loved each other, at least to the degree that you can in a cyber relationship. Both of us accepted the limitations, the sense of it being real and unreal at the same time and we came to treasure our time together.
But now, we were about to enter a new dimension, the face to face reality. I swallowed and shook my head in disbelief that this meeting was actually going to happen. I watched the young woman I thought was Charlie walk towards another office clutching the folders. She glanced over at me near the door then turned away. I was not surprised that she didn’t continue looking at me, a stranger, because I knew how shy she was. I knew she kept herself protected and private, quiet, reserved, preventing people from getting to know her. However, in the safety of the internet, she allowed her passionate sexuality to be unleashed in quick fucking sessions that were basically anonymous one night stands. She liked it rough and wild and that’s what happened when we first met on line, but for some reason, we began meeting frequently. Our relationship evolved and became deeper, more loving. Over the two years, our relationship grew into what made me impulsively perhaps foolishly want to find her in real life.
I was uncertain how to approach her and gradually have her realize who I was. It was going to be a challenge, but I was eager to enter into this game of revealing myself, surprising her and hopefully, as she came to realize it was me, seducing her at the same time, though the possibility remained, she would be angry and turned off by my uninvited presence.
“Excuse me, miss,” I said, walking over to her. “I just arrived in town and wondered if there was a motel around here.”
“A motel?” she repeated and stiffened. I could feel how tense she was as she looked at me. “Well, there’s a motel just outside of town about five miles from here.”
That was the first time I heard her voice since we had never spoken on the phone. She was too shy for that. Her Oklahoma twang made me chuckle as the difference in this reality and the reality of reading her words on-line sunk in. She didn’t write with a twang.
“Five miles, really, that far,” I said, pausing a moment. “Well, I just came here on the bus from Maine.”
“Maine!” she repeated, “Wow! I know someone in Maine.”
I had hoped mentioning Maine would trigger this response.
“You do!” I responded. “Do you know where in Maine?” I asked.
“I’m not sure but I know it’s on the coast. He lives in a cabin in the woods and off the grid.”
She seemed excited to talk about someone she knew in Maine. As soon as she said that, she took a deep breath and looked away and became tense again. She looked down at her feet and clutched the folders to her chest like armor.
“Wow, you know someone who lives in Maine and in the woods off the grid. That’s really a coincidence cause that’s how I live. I live in the woods and off the grid.”
“Really, wow! That is a coincidence,” she said, looking up. “That’s so amazing.”
“You have beautiful blue eyes,” I said which stunned her and caused her to blush.
“Oh really, thank you,” she said and looked away then down at the floor, the folders still held tightly to her chest.
“But why are you blushing,” I asked, remembering her telling me she blushed easily.
She didn’t answer but looked at me and shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know,” she finally said and shrugged her shoulders again.
“I’m sorry if I embarrassed you,” I quickly said. “I couldn’t help it. I just noticed how blue your eyes are and wanted to tell you.”
“Thank you,” she said again, smiled and looked away.
“And you have dimples when you smile,” I added. “I like that.”
She blushed again. Her face turned pink and she touched her face. “Oh yes, my dimples,” she said, holding her fingers just below her flushed cheek.
After a brief silence, I shifted my backpack from one hand to the other and cleared my throat. “Can I use a phone to call the motel?” I asked.
“Sure,” she answered. “You can use the phone in my office, well it’s not my office, but I’m using it,” she said, seeming to relax a little. “Follow me.”
“Thanks,” I said and walked behind her, loving how her ass looked in the tight faded jeans. “She’s even sexier than I thought she would be,” I mumbled to myself, still uncertain what would happen.
In the office, she took the phone book out of a drawer, opened it and looked up the number of the motel. She wrote it down and handed me the slip of paper. “Here’s the number.”
“You’re very helpful,” I said, smiling at her. Our eyes met. “That’s really something that you know someone in Maine who lives in the woods and off the grid like I do.”
She nodded and smiled. Again our eyes met. “An amazing coincidence,” I added.
“It is,” she said, with a slightly perplexed expression, scrunching her eyebrows and squinting as she looked at me. I could tell she was thinking about the coincidence.
I dialed the number and got a busy signal. “Busy,” I said, putting the receiver down. “Don’t let me interrupt your work. I’ll call again in a few minutes.”
Again, I looked into her eyes, thinking she’s even more beautiful than I imagined. I looked at her blond hair, her fair skin, the dimples, the way her tits stretched the t-shirt, the way her tight jeans fit. Even with her shyness, I could feel her sweetness. I already knew that lurking just below the quiet, reserved surface was a passionate, wild woman who inspired me to make this long trip to find her.
“What’s your name,” I asked, our eyes meeting as I waited to dial the number of the motel again.
“Charlie, short for Charlotte,” she answered, looking away and opened the file cabinet to put the folders away.
“Hmmm, Charlie,” I repeated. “I like that name. It’s one of my favorite names” then added, “and you’re really pretty.”
Again, she blushed and looked away. I knew I was being bold, but I also knew she was someone who avoided being noticed and I wanted to break through that barrier she created.
“You’re blushing again,” I said, smiling.
“I’m not used to people talking to me like you are,” she said. “It’s hard for me.”
“I understand,” I said. “I just like the way you look. I hope you don’t think I’m just saying that to get into your pants.”
When I said that she looked a little shocked though surprisingly didn’t look away. I think I excited her.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that about getting into your pants,” I added, letting my eyes drift down her body. “But I think you’re pretty sexy,” I said, our eyes meeting and I saw she liked that I thought she was sexy.
“You do, do you?” she responded, looking around to see if anyone was listening She looked down at her desk again then back at me. “Thank you,” she said looking into my eyes.
“I bet you have lots of guys wanting you,” I said.
“Not really,” she said, swallowing, the blush returning to her cheeks.
“I think it’s amazing that you know someone in Maine who lives in the woods in a solar cabin and here I am a guy who lives in a cabin in Maine, also off the grid.”
“Why did you come to Oklahoma?” she asked, looking at me, “and why Jarvis of all places?”
“Well, I’m not sure exactly but I was looking for a woman who lives in this town.”
“Really,” a puzzled look crossed her face as she looked at me. “You know a woman who lives in this town?”
“Yes, someone I met on the internet,” I answered.
“Oh, you met a woman on the internet who lives around here?” she asked, the perplexed expression returning to her face as she looked at me.
“Yes, I took a chance to come to Jarvis and surprise her.”
“Interesting,” she said, smiling, looking intently at me, again, our eyes met. “Well, I hope you find her,” she added after an awkward silence. She looked around again to see if anyone was listening then back at me. “That’s pretty exciting that you would come all this way to surprise a woman you met on the internet.”
The way she looked at me I knew she was catching on and ready to play. “Yeah, I met this guy on the internet,” she said. “He’s older than me, about your age, I’d say, but I don’t think we will ever meet.”
“Interesting,” I said. “Well, it’s a small world. Maybe one day you’ll meet,” I added.
“You kind of remind me of him, but that’s impossible, he would never come all this way to Oklahoma.”
“Yeah, it’s quite a long ways to come,” I said, nodding. “He’d have to be pretty crazy to come all this way to meet his fuck angel,” I said, smiling, knowing I would hit a chord.
She didn’t say anything but I could tell she was stunned. I often called her my fuck angel. We were both silent, looking into each other’s eyes, but I could tell she was figuring out what was going on and just looked at me, squinting slightly.
“Yeah, it would be crazy to come all that distance,” she said. “He would never leave his cabin in the woods. He’s a writer and a real hermit.”
“Hmmmmmm, that’s interesting. I’m a writer and I hardly ever leave my cabin,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s some coincidence, how about that?” I smiled, shaking my head as if in disbelief.
“There’s no way he’d come to Jarvis,” she said, still puzzled but the look on her face told me she knew what was happening. “Anyway he said we would never meet,” she added.
I nodded and picked up the phone, our eyes on each other as I dialed the motel again. Suddenly, she picked up a few more files from the desk and walked over to the filing cabinet.
As I listened to the phone ringing, I looked at Charlie opening one of the drawers. She turned and looked at me, noticing I was looking up and down her body as I held the phone. Our eyes met and we smiled slightly, acknowledging the game we were playing. I was impressed with how cool she was when she realized what was happening, acting unsurprised to see me but fascinated. She closed the filing cabinet and came back to the desk while I spoke into the phone and then hung up.
“I don’t need a reservation,” I said.
“Didn’t think you would,” she said, nodding. “I’m not surprised. It’s a pretty seedy place but it’s the only one around.”
“I kind of like seedy places,” I said. “They have atmosphere and character instead of those sterile places I’ve stayed at and fifty bucks for the night sounds good to me, just as long as it has a bed and a shower, it will do.”
“Hmmmm, I like seedy motels too,” she said, smiling. “They can be fun.”
When she said that, she looked at me and bit her lower lip and smiled. I smiled back at her, our eyes locked on each other. We had talked about meeting in a seedy motel in one of our fantasies.
“What do you mean,” I asked, “What kind of fun? Tell me.”
“You know the kind of fun I mean,” she responded, looking into my eyes, that coy smile on her lips, “Hot fun.”
“Yeah hot motel fun,” I repeated, smiling at her. “Now how can I get there?” I asked. “I don’t have a car.”
“Well, I’m off this afternoon. I guess I could give you a ride if you don’t mind waiting fifteen minutes.”
“That’s very friendly of you,” I said. “I mean, I’m a stranger. Do you think you can trust me, I mean, taking a stranger to a seedy motel?”
“I don’t know if I can trust you but I will take my chances. Anyway, I can take care of myself if you try anything.” She paused, smiling, looking playfully into my eyes. “And why shouldn’t I trust you. What would you want to do to me?”
I walked around the desk and stood close to her, our bodies almost touching. “That’s a good question,” I said, moving a little closer, both of us feeling our rising lust. “I would like to do a lot of things,” I said, softly, our eyes locked on each others eyes, both of us enjoying the teasing, feeling the growing sexual tension. “A lot of hot fun things,” I added.
“Oh really,” she said. “What makes you think I would let you?” She smiled then pushed me away, gently. “Let me finish up here,” she said. “Then I’ll drive you to your motel. It’s on my way home, anyway.”
“Okay, I’ll just look around while I’m waiting,” I said and walked towards the door then turned back and looked at her clearing her desk, my cock already hard from the intensity of being so close to her. I could not believe this was actually happening and I was excited at how cool Charlie was when she realized who I was and what was happening. She immediately got into the game we were playing and I remembered how intuitive she was when we fucked online. We were always on the same wave length.
I walked around the center looking at some pictures and reading different notices on the bulletin board. Finally, I saw Charlie walking towards me with a small back pack hanging loosely from her shoulder. “She’s just as sexy as I thought she’d be,” I thought to myself again, loving how her tight faded jeans fit and how her tits looked in her tee shirt, her nipples now showing, certain she had taken off her bra.
“Ready, stranger,” she said, smiling, her dimples showing. “My truck is outside.”
I followed her to the black truck, again noticing the big tires on it. “Some truck,” I said.
“Yeah, gets me where I want to go.”
We both climbed in the truck and she made a u-turn, the tires squealing and started down the street towards the motel. As we passed the hardware store, the two guys were still sitting on the bench and I nodded at them as we drove past.
In the truck we were quiet at first but kept glancing at each other, wondering what to say as our minds tried to comprehend what was happening. I liked that she was pretending she didn’t know me and it was if we were picking up from one of our on line role playing games, our two realities merging. I noticed how her tits jiggled in her tight red t shirt when we went over a few bumps.
“What are you looking at?” she asked.
“Did you take your bra off?” I asked boldly.
“Yeah, I hate bras,” she answered, smiling and looking in my eyes. When she said that I knew she was no longer the shy Charlie, but the Charlie who liked turning me on, who liked letting her secret sexy self loose instead of hiding behind her shy, good girl, protected manner. She was the Charlie no one knew but me.
“That’s interesting because the girl I know around here hates bras too,” I said.
“Oh really,” she responded. “Sounds like your friend and me are alike.”
“You are,” I said. “In fact, you remind me of her,” I added.
“Hmm, I do, now that’s interesting,” she said, looking into my eyes. “She must be some hot girl for you to come all this way.”
“She’s very hot,” I said, “but she hides it from people.”
“I bet she’s going to be surprised when you just show up,” she said looking straight ahead. I could see a slight smile on her lips.
“Well, I hope I find her. I don’t have any idea where she lives,” I said.
“I hope you find her, too. Coming all this distance for someone you met on the internet is pretty hot,” she said. “That would really turn me on if this guy in Maine I met on the internet showed up.”
“Really,” I said, our eyes meeting when she said that. “It sure is nice of you to drive me to the motel,” I said. “I mean, taking a chance with a stranger and taking him to a motel can be pretty risky.”
“Should I be worried?” she asked, looking over at me.
“Maybe,” I answered. “You got me pretty turned on in the office and you seemed pretty interested,” I added. “I think you took off your bra to tease me,” I said, looking at her.
“I said I hate bras, mister and I’m not a tease,” she said, smiling at me. “I happen to be a very good girl. I would never tease you. I’m not like that.”
“Well, here we are, Sunrise Motel,” she said, pulling into the parking lot, glancing over at me.
“Thanks for the ride, Charlie,” I said
“Well, I hope you find her,” she added, looking out at the motel. We were silent.
As I opened the door, I paused with my hand on the handle. “Hey, would you like to see my motel room?” I asked, looking into her eyes. “You said you like seedy motels.”
“Well, I don’t know,” she responded. “I don’t think I should go into a motel room with a perfect stranger like you,” she said. “You might get the wrong idea about me, like I said I’m a good girl. I don’t go into motel rooms with men I don’t know.”
“Oh come on,” I said. “Anyway you said you can take care of yourself.”
“I can,” she said. “I’m always in control.”
“And you said motels can be fun, especially seedy ones like this place,” I said. “I want you to see my room,” I said, “just to see what you think. Don’t you trust me?”
“Well, okay, but just for a minute,” she said. Again our eyes met and she smiled at me. “Yeah, I’d like to see your room, but don’t you get any funny ideas. I’m not that kind of girl, you know.”
“Cool,” I said, getting out of the truck. “Wait here, Charlie, I’ll be just a few minutes, “I said as I hopped out of the truck.
“Now remember I can only stay for a minute. I’ll just let you show me your room and then I have to take off.”
“No problem,” I said before closing the door.
I went to the office while Charlie waited in the truck. “I can’t believe this is happening,” I thought as I entered the office, loving how she was playing our little game, how cool she was being. I could tell she wasn’t disappointed seeing me in person or she would have slipped out of what was happening. I couldn’t wait to get her into the room to see how this would all unfold, but I knew she was just as turned on as I was. I could feel myself getting hard just thinking about it.
After I registered with the old frumpy woman at the desk and she handed me the key, I walked towards my room and waved for Charlie to follow me. She got out of the truck and looked around.
“Now don’t you try anything, mister,” she said, smiling at me.
I nodded and smiled back at her but didn’t say anything as we looked into each others eyes, knowing we were playing with each other. She walked slightly in front of me and I could not take my eyes off of her round luscious ass straining the tight jeans and felt my cock getting harder. “Damn I want her,” I thought to myself. She turned her head, glancing into my eyes, then down at the bulge in my jeans and smiled, looking back into my eyes.
She stood close to me as I unlocked the door. “I can only stay a minute,” she said again, pressing her tit against my arm, both of us getting hotter.
When the door opened, Charlie walked in ahead of me, my eyes on her delicious ass, my hard cock pressed tight against my jeans. I then closed the door and threw my backpack on the bed, a few feet away.
“Yep, pretty seedy,” I said as I looked around at the shabby bureau, the TV mounted on the wall, the gaudy red carpeting and the bathroom at the other end of the small room.
‘Yeah,” Charlie said, nodding, looking at me. “Pretty seedy,” she repeated and started walking towards the bathroom when I suddenly grabbed her arm. She gasped as I pulled her to me, turned her around and slammed her hard against the door and kissed her. She responded like I knew she would. She liked it rough and now at last all the pent up lust that had been building was unleashed as we attacked each other, our tongues swirling in each others mouths with loud moaning sounds.
As we kissed, I took her hands and held them over her head, pressing her against the door, our bodies grinding and humping each other as we devoured each others tongues, her soft tits crushed against my chest.
“Oh baby,” she cried as we both gasped for air. “Take me you crazy man!” she yelled. We looked into each others eyes as we fucked through our clothes, grinding and humping, her legs spread apart as my cock moved all over her tight jean covered pussy. I let her hands go and she grabbed my ass and pulled me into her, arching her back, spreading her legs wider apart as she pushed her pussy harder against the length of my hard cock, as we humped each other, fucking through our clothes.
“Oh fuck!” she screamed. “I need you in me!”
I ignored her and put my thigh between her legs, pulling her forward and she began riding my leg, sliding her pussy up and down my thigh.
“Oh fuck! This is so hot,” she moaned between kisses, her hands still holding my ass as she moved herself up and down my thigh, pulling me harder against her pussy. “Oh baby, I like this,” she moaned. “Oh fuck! This is so hot!” she repeated, moving faster on my thigh.
I then lifted her off my thigh, holding her by her ass, as she spread her legs wider apart, arched her back, my cock grinding against her jean covered pussy as she rode it, moving up and down my pole, faster and harder, leaning back, holding on to my shoulders, humping me shouting, “Oh baby, baby, fuck me! I want your cock in me! I need your cock,” she gasped, both of us getting raunchier, hornier. This was the Charlie I loved.
Gripping her ass as we continued grinding and humping, her back arched, her arms wrapped around my neck, her tits pressed tight against her t-shirt, her hard nipples poking like mountain peaks. Moving my hands to her tits in my hands, kneading them roughly, loving how round and soft they were, a real handful, I then leaned forward and we kissed, making loud animal sounds, our tongues swirling wildly in our mouths as she slid her jean covered pussy up and down my bulging cock while I hungrily molested her tits with my hands, our mouths devouring each other.
“I want to fuck you,” I said, taking my mouth from hers as we both gasped for air. I pushed her harder against the door. “I want to fuck you hard!” I growled. Our mouths then smashed against each other, our tongues swirling as we kissed madly.
I quickly moved one hand to her pussy, grasping it in the palm of my hand, pressing it hard against her crotch. I moved my lips away from her lips, keeping my mouth just above hers. “This pussy is mine!” I growled as I grasped it
Suddenly, I grabbed her arms, turned her around and pushed her towards the bed. I threw her down hard, looking at her lying on her back looking up at me. I grabbed her ankles and spread her legs wide apart, the seam of her tight jeans pressed against her pussy. I got down on my knees between her open legs, my hard cock throbbing in my jeans. I pounced on top of her, my cock pressed against her pussy. I kissed her hard, my tongue opening her mouth, our tongues deep in each others mouths, kissing fiercely. While we kissed, we continued grinding and humping against each other, picking up speed and intensity. She arched her back, grinding her pussy against my hard cock as we fucked each other through our clothes, humping and grinding harder and harder, our tongues moving wildly in our mouths, our desperate hungry moaning getting louder. I wanted this to be a long wild fuck, both of us consumed with lust, loving how connected we were in this reality, feeling our hungry bodies for the first time after over two years of cyber fucking almost every day.
Fuck me!” she screamed. “Please, I can’t stand this! I need you in me!”
“Oh yeah,” I said, looking into her hungry eyes. ‘What do you need?”
“Give me you fucking cock! I want your cock!” she shouted, the wanton wild woman I knew released from her good girl façade.
Though it was all I could do not to rip her clothes off of her, I kept humping and grinding against her pussy as she lifted her hips and arching her back, humping me. I loved driving her crazy, teasing her, getting her so out of control, wanting to get fucked hard.
“I thought you were a good girl,” I said, my mouth just above her mouth, our eyes locked on each others eyes. I smiled, “but you’re nothing but a cock tease. You’re not a good girl.”
“I am a good girl,” she said.
I laughed, knowing the game we were playing and kept humping her, grinding my cock harder. “You like this don’t you, you bad girl,” I growled, our eyes locked on each other’s eyes, remembering how she liked talking dirty, how hot it got her. “You like being bad. You like how my cock feels on your cunt, don’t you, you slut.”
‘Oh fuck,” she shouted. “I can’t stand it. I need you in me! Yeah, I’m your slut!”
I looked down at her, grinding my cock against her. “Tell me what you want.”
“Fuck me, you bastard! Don’t tease me!”
“Beg,” I yelled, humping and grinding, both of us getting more and more frustrated by our clothing.
“I need your cock! Please! I can’t stand this. Fuck me now. Now! Take me!”
I then got up on my knees and quickly unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans. She lifted her ass and squirmed out of them. I tossed them across the room and quickly took my jeans off as she wiggled out of her soaked panties. My cock, freed at last was sticking straight out above her dripping pussy. She looked at it and reached to grab it.
“Hey!” I shouted pushing her hand away and took my cock in my hand and started moving the tip up and down her wet pussy lips, coating my cock. Her eyes were closed, her mouth wide open as I teased her, letting her enjoy the sensation. I then pressed the tip of my cock against her clit, rubbing it, pushing my cock against it. She opened her eyes and looked into mine, arching her back, lifting her pussy, trying to suck my cock into her.
Please! Please! I want it now! I can’t stand it!”
I ignored her and leaned forward and lifted her tight t-shirt over her tits and grabbed them roughly with both hands, pushing them together and started sucking both of her nipples at the same time, the length of my hard cock now pressed against her dripping pussy. As I slid my cock up and down her slippery pussy, the tip of my cock grazing her clit, driving both of us insane. She shuddered each time my cock rubbed her clit,
“Oh fuck” she yelled, grabbing my ass and pulling me against her.
As I sucked her nipples, twisting them from side to side with my mouth, Charlie wrapped her strong legs around my waist, her arms around my shoulders, lifting herself, arching her back, screaming, “Fuck me! I need to cum! Don’t do this to me! Please! Please!”
I could not believe we were in this seedy motel room instead of fucking online. We knew each other so well that this reality and the cyber reality merged, but the fact is we were now on a real bed in a real seedy motel and not in our imaginations.
I continued sucking her nipples, squeezing her tits, biting and twisting them from side to side, my hard cock throbbing as she squirmed and lifted herself desperately wanting me inside her.
I loved teasing her and got up on my knees, took my cock in my hand and again started moving the tip up and down her wet pussy lips, then moving the head just inside her entrance, feeling how juicy and warm she was. I then moved the tip of my cock to her clit and rubbed it, teasing her, watching her writhing and thrashing under me, my cock swelling. I was losing control. Suddenly, I reared back and slammed my cock, deep and hard, opening her tight pussy with one thrust.
“Ohhhhh yes!” she screamed at my sudden ramming.
“Take my cock!” I screamed as I pulled out and rammed my cock into her pussy again and again, harder and harder. “Take it! Fuck me, Charlie! Fuck me!”
“Ohhhfuck,” she shouted as I opened her, pulled out and drove my cock into her again and again. “Yeah, fuck your slut!” she yelled. “Give it to me hard!”
This was the Charlie I loved, the wild, sexy woman who loved to fuck and felt safe letting go with me. She was no longer the shy, hidden woman but a fully alive, passionate, uninhibited lover, fully allowing her submerged insatiable lust free with me.
I got my hands under her, grabbed her ass, lifted her up as my cock thrust deep and hard driving her back to the bed, both of us grunting. I lifted her again her legs wrapped tightly around my waist, her body arched, her pussy completely open to me as I pounded her again and again.
“Oh fuckkkkk! I’m cummmming, don’t stop! Ohmygod! Here it comes,” she screamed, her head thrashing, her back arching, her body convulsing violently, exploding in a huge orgasm, her pussy gripping me, her cum flowing all over my driving cock. I wanted her to cum first so that we could keep going. I kept thrusting, pulling out and pounding her as hard and fast as I could, fucking her through her orgasm.
Ohhhhhh,god, I’m cumming!” she screamed and I could feel her orgasm sweep over her as she shuddered, trembled and exploded all over my cock as another tremendous orgasm swept over her like a tidal wave, her screaming filling the room with her wild shrieking.
I then surprised her by quickly rolling onto my back without removing my cock and pulled her on top of me, knowing she wanted more. I got her to straddle me.
“Ride me! I screamed, my cock still deep in her, as she sat up on me, not moving, my hard cock filling her dripping pussy.
“Oh baby you always know what I like,” she said, looking down at me. I smiled, looking up at her, my cock deep in her pussy as she started to move around slowly.
“Yes, I know what you like,” I said, laying still as she moved slowly on my cock, biting her tongue, looking into my eyes. My hands gripped her ass as she rocked back and forth then in little swirling circles.
Mmmmmmmmmm,” she moaned deep in her throat as she pleasured herself.
She then sat straight up. I watched the expressions on her face, her eyes closed, her teeth biting her lower lip as she moved slowly up and down and around, moaning softly, concentrating on her pleasure. She then placed two hands on her tits and rubbed them hard with her hands and continued rising and lowering herself slowly swiveling her hips in small circles, using my cock as a fuck toy.
“Oh baby, I could do this all day,” she murmured then lifted herself on her knees, just above my cock and took it in her hands and started moving it up and down her wet pussy lips then pressing the tip hard against her clit. “I love this. I love your cock. I love playing with myself, using you like this. It feels so good, so good, so good, mmmmmmmmmmm, baby, I love your cock. I love fucking you.”
I looked up at her closed eyes, loving her face as she bit her lower lip. “Use me!” I said. “Play with it. Fuck your self with my cock,” I said.
I loved watching her hand on my cock, moving it up and down her wet pussy, teasing her self, pressing it against her clit as she moved slowly on me, her legs straddling me, her pussy dripping on my cock.
“Ohhhhhhhhh this feels so good. So hot,” she said half to herself, her eyes closed. “Mmmmmmmmm,” she moaned, her tits sticking straight out, her nipples enlarged and hard. I placed my hands on her tits, playing with them, loving how soft they felt.
“Yeah, baby, do that. Yeah, do that, mmmmmmmm yes, oh baby this is so hot. I love fucking you, oh fuck I love this.” Her eyes were closed and she was talking to herself and to me. I loved giving her this pleasure. It turned me on and got me so hot. Being older let me last longer and extended both of our pleasure.
I loved seeing my cock in her hand, watching her move it up and down her pussy, her thighs wide apart, her cunt dripping cum all over my cock, loved seeing her lift herself and then come down slowly on my pole, my cock going all the way in, disappearing then coming out, as she slid up and down, the sensation of her warm velvety pussy on my cock driving me crazy.
She then took my cock out of her pussy, her hand tight on my cock, moving it harder and harder against her clit, biting her lips as she concentrated, making soft guttural sounds and then she started speeding up as she got hotter, suddenly, lifting herself up and came down hard on my cock, forcing it deep into her tight pussy, “Oh fuck!” she gasped.
She then leaned forward, her hands on my chest as she bent over and started moving back and forth, slow at first and then faster, moving back and forth faster and faster, harder and harder, her clit rubbing against my cock as she rode me, leaning forward, like a jockey on a race horse galloping to her finish line.
As she leaned forward, I moved my hand to her round ass and put my finger in her ass hole and felt her shudder as I moved my finger in and out.
“Oh fuck!” she screamed, responding to my finger filling her ass and continued moving forward and back more aggressively. “Yeah, do that. Do that!”
She was riding me harder and faster, my finger moving in and out of her ass as she moved forward and back, riding faster, harder as my cock went deeper and deeper and suddenly she screamed, “Oh fuck, I’m cumming! Here it comes.
Suddenly, she sat straight up, lifted her self off my cock and came down harder, driving my cock deeper into her tight pussy.
I lifted myself off the bed thrusting my cock into her as she went up higher and came back down harder and harder forcing my cock as deep in her as it could go.
Her screaming got me so hot, I knew I would burst if I didn’t take control and fuck her. As she screamed and her second orgasm surged through her, cum pouring out of her pussy and all over my cock, I suddenly and roughly pushed her off of me, flipping her onto her back, grabbing her ankles, lifting her legs to my shoulder, our eyes locked on each other and she could see I was now out of my mind with lust and was going to fuck her savagely like I knew she loved.
“Take me!” she screamed.
Suddenly, I reared back then rammed my cock into her, opening her tight pussy. “Take my cock!, I shouted, driving into her as hard as I could.
“Give to me!” she screamed, her head thrashing from side to side. Suddenly she wrapped her legs around my waist, her arms wrapped around my shoulders. I then lifted her off the bed, almost pulling out of her pussy and then pounded her back to the bed, listening to bed squeak and the headboard banging against the wall as we fucked like wild savage animals.
I felt her pussy muscles tightening and gripping my cock as I thrust into her, pulling out and thrusting again and again as hard as I could. As I thrust, I felt her shudder and tremble and knew she was about to orgasm with me. Just then I felt my cock explode as I thrust deep and felt her pussy spasm on my cock as cum gushed out of my cock like hot lava and I screamed like a wild animal.
Charlie was screaming and sobbing, our loud sounds, filling the room. I kept thrusting, our orgasms coming at the same time.
Suddenly, I pulled out, grabbed my cock and squirted cum all over her stomach and tits before I collapsed on her. Charlie kept her legs wrapped tightly around me and we both lay there, breathing heavily, unable to move, the warm stickiness on her stomach and tits felt wonderful.
I somehow found the strength to lift my head and lick her cum covered tits as she moaned in my ear, “Oh, this is so good,” she murmured. I then moved my mouth to her lips and kissed her with my cum covered mouth and then laid my head back on her shoulder, panting and gasping for air, both of us still breathing heavily, her strong arms and legs embracing me.
After a few minutes, I lifted my head and smiled down at her, our eyes looking into each others eyes. “Surprise,” I said and laughed.
“You’re nuts,” she responded.
“I know,” I said smiling, “Very nuts!” I then lay my head back on her shoulder, both of us still gasping and panting.
After a few minutes of just laying on her, my head on her shoulder, I rolled off and got Charlie to turn on her side so that we were spooning, one of our favorite things to do on-line. I wrapped my arms around her and cuddled close to her.
“I love this,” she said, softly.
We were silent as we lay there trying to comprehend our situation. We were no longer cyber lovers. We had come down to earth and were now in the reality of each other’s arms, me, twenty years older and not entirely sure what that meant. How would my being here change our relationship, where could we go from here? Where did I want it to go? We lay there quietly, feeling incredibly close, both of us preparing to face the unknown.
She could tell I was off thinking and turned and knocked me gently on my head with her knuckles. “Stop thinking and be here with me,” she said, bringing me back to earth.
“I love you,” she said softly, touching my cheek.
“I love you, too,” I whispered, smiling.
She lay her head back down and I kissed the back of her hair, smelling the strawberry shampoo she always used. I pulled her closer, feeling my deflated cock pressed against her round ass. We both dozed off and slept like that for an hour. I woke first and let her sleep, enjoying the soft warmth of her body as I lay next to her.
I thought about Charlie’s secret life, the shy, quiet woman living her guarded, protected life, hiding her passionate, sexual needs. I knew she felt conflicted, wondering if something was wrong causing her highly sexual nature to rebel against the moralistic teachings she grew up with. This was not only her conflict but an age old conflict of living in a puritanical society. I thought how people fear wildness and want the safety of convention while at the same time longing to abandon their fears and inhibitions, to be renegades, outlaws, free of rules.
I loved how passionate we both were, how we threw all convention aside when we fucked like wild animals screaming “dirty talk” at each other as we fucked with wanton abandon, allowing our primal urges to take over. As I held her, I thought how lucky we were to have found each other, how we are able to let go, calling each other names as we fucked and then returned to our tender caring way with each other. We were like two sides of a coin.
As I lay there holding Charlie, thinking and loving having her in my arms, I felt her stir, felt my cock moving against her round luscious ass. I wanted to bring her out of sleep by slowly turning her on, only this time, we made sweet tender love, kissing, touching, my cock going slowly in and out of her warm wet pussy, moving as if in a slow dance until we started moving faster and harder, culminating in another overwhelming orgasm, both of us again coming at the same time. I lay on her, loving the feeling of her under me, listening to her breathing, loving that as raunchy we could get, we could also be tender and loving.
I rolled off of her and onto my back. She lay her head on my shoulder and I kissed the top of her hair, loving the smell of her shampoo and how she felt in my arms, still finding it difficult that we were there and not at our computers, miles apart.
“I’m kind of hungry,” I said.
“Me, too,” she responded, looking at me. “Let’s take a shower and then get something to eat.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said, taking a deep breath.
Suddenly, she jumped out of bed and dashed toward the bathroom.
“Hey! Whatcha you waiting for?” she called, looking back at me sprawled out on the bed.
I jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom just as she was turning on the water in the shower. She looked at me as she got in under the water. “Come on in, the waters fine,” she laughed.
It was a tiny shower stall with a plastic curtain that had black umbrellas on it. I got in and grabbed the small bar of motel soap wrapped in paper and opened it as we both managed to get under the warm water. We faced each other, our wet hair falling over our faces as the water cascaded on us. I took the soap and a wash cloth and moved it over her shoulders and then down between her tits, getting her soapy as I washed her body. I moved the soapy cloth down her body, washing her thighs and her pussy, getting all the stickiness off. I turned her around and washed her back and then her ass, moving my soapy hands all over her ass.
“Mmmmmmmmm,” she moaned. “You take such good care of me.”
“I like taking care of you,” I said as I washed between her legs.
“I like taking care of you too,” she said and got down on her knees, grabbed the soap from my hand and started washing my thighs. She moved her hand between my legs, and started washing my balls, holding them in her soapy hand. I leaned back against the wall, water still falling over both of us as she ran her soapy hand over my deflated cock. I bit my lip, loving how her hand felt. I didn’t think I could get hard so soon but her hand felt so good, I felt it responding, getting harder as she wrapped her hand around it, moving her hand up and down my growing cock. I spread my legs wider as I leaned back against the wall looking down at her giving me a hand job with her soapy hand.
She then moved her mouth to my cock, the water washing away the soap and began licking the tip of my cock with her tongue.
I looked down at her placing the tip of my cock in her mouth, moving back and forth over the sensitive tip, each time getting my cock deeper in her mouth. I placed my hands on the back of her head as she sucked my cock.
“Oh, Charlie,” I half whispered, watching her move her mouth back and forth on my cock. I looked at the water beating down on her. She looked up at me as my cock went in and out of her mouth. Our eyes met.
Suddenly, I pulled my cock out of her mouth, reached down and pulled her up, turned her around and pushed her up against the shower wall, spreading her legs apart. She knew what I wanted and bent forward, opening her pussy to me.
“Fuck me!” she screamed, her voice echoing in the shower stall, the water pouring down on us. I placed one hand on her hip, holding my cock in the other hand. I was so hot from her mouth that I thrust my cock into her pussy with one hard thrust causing her to gasp. .
She bent over more as I pounded her pussy. Suddenly, I reached my hand forward and grabbed her wet hair and pulled it, forcing her to turn and face me. Our eyes met as the water came down on her back. I stood behind her and rammed my cock into her pussy as she pushed back, using her arms against the wall to get me deeper.
‘‘Harder! Harder!” she screamed, her voicing echoing in the shower stall.
I let go of her hair and grabbed her hips and rammed my cock as hard as I could. I felt her spasm and orgasm as she screamed, but I kept fucking her, wanting her to orgasm again. I kept fucking her and suddenly felt my whole body shudder, my cock swell and I erupted in a huge orgasm, the warm water pouring over both of us as we fell to the shower floor.
Feeling the water cooling down, l quickly got up, turned the water off and reached for the towels just out side the shower. I wrapped the towel around her. I got the other towel and started to dry myself. I then put my towel around Charlie and pulled her to me and dried her back with my towel.
We then got out of the shower and ran back to the bed and fell on it, holding each other with the towels wrapped around us. I was now on my back and she looked down at me.
“Me too,” I said.
“We can get a pizza at the convenience store,” she said. “They make pretty good pizza.”
I watched Charlie squirm into her jeans and put her t shirt on while I got dressed. We walked quietly to her truck and drove back towards town. While we waited for the pizzas, I looked around the store, glancing at the magazine rack, posters for rental movies, a large refrigerator case with sodas and beer. The store was cluttered with groceries and over the counter medicines, candy, a long row of cigarettes.
When I paid for the pizzas and the two sodas, Charlie stood next to me and the old woman looked at both of us. She obviously knew Charlie but I could tell she was wondering who I was with my shaggy grey hair and beard.
“Thanks. Grace,” Charlie said as she took the pizza box.
“Yeah, thanks, Grace,” I said to her and smiled. “Nice place you have here,” I added.
When we got outside, Charlie told me, “You made her day. She’s the biggest gossip around here.”
“Really,” I said as we got into the truck, holding the pizza and sodas on my lap.
“Yeah, with Grace, Jarvis doesn’t need a newspaper.”
I nodded and laughed.
We were silent as we drove back to the motel, both of us wondering where my surprise visit would end. It was getting dark out. We had spent the entire afternoon in the motel room.
When we got back to the motel, we put the pizza down on the bed between us and ate. Charlie leaned over and kissed me on the cheek and then took a deep breath. “So, mister why did you decide to surprise me like this?”
“I’m not sure. I guess I just had to see you and see how real our relationship is. I was curious about the difference between a relationship in cyberspace and a relationship in this reality, you know, here in person. So I took a chance.”
“So what do you think?” she asked.
“I think we made the transition from out there to in here pretty well, that’s what I think.” I smiled, “What do you think?”
“I think I agree, but now what?”
“I don’t really know,” I answered. “I’d like to stay here for a day or two before heading back to Maine.”
Charlie and I continued eating our pizza. We were quiet, thinking about our situation.
“I’d like to have a night or two in your bed and see you in your white nightie,” I said, smiling at her.
“Good! I’d like that,” Charlie responded.
Two days later, Charlie drove me to the bus station in Tulsa. We were quiet most of the way. When we got to the bus station, she came in with me to wait for the bus. I hugged her, “You were everything I thought you would be.”
“You were too,” she said.
“I’m glad we didn’t even talk about the difference in our ages,” I said.
“It’s not an issue for me,” she said.
“Good,” I said. “Age is just a number,” I added, still not liking that phrase.
Just then I saw it was time to board the bus. I picked up my little backpack and Charlie walked me to the bus. We hugged each other and kissed, holding each other close and tight.
It was hard to leave her, but I knew it was the right thing to do, go back to Maine and continue our on-line relationship, richer now because of this visit.
As I got on the bus, Charlie waved and smiled. “Hey, don’t be surprised if I just show up one day.”
Again, she waved and we both smiled at each other. As the bus pulled away taking me home, my mind saw her walking up the path to my cabin.
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Given at a
conference of cardinals and bishops held in Rome, December 17, 2010. The author is auxiliary bishop of Karaganda, Kazakhstan.
The primacy of the worship of God as the basis of all true pastoral theology.
I. The theological foundation of pastoral theology
To speak correctly of pastoral theory and practice, it is necessary first to be conscious of their foundation and their theological aim. The aim of the Church is the aim of the Incarnation: “propter nostram salutem.” This is how the faith and the prayer of the Church are expressed: “Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de caelis et incarnatus est.... et homo factus est.” This salvation means the salvation of the soul for eternal life. The purpose of the Church’s whole juridical and pastoral order also consists of this salvation, as the last canon of the Code of Canon Law tells us: “prae oculis habita salute animarum, quae in Ecclesia suprema semper lex esse debet.” (can. 1752)
The content of the salvation of the human soul consists of holiness, of renewal and indeed perfection of the original human dignity in Christ. God has created man according to His image and His likeness (Gen. 1:26) and this work is marvelous, as the Church says in the liturgy. “Deus, qui humanae substantiae dignitatem mirabiliter condidisti”. But more marvelous yet is the renewal and the perfecting of this image that has come by the work of the Redemption: “mirabilius reformasti”. Renewal, new perfection, holiness consist of the unimaginable grace of man’s participation in the Divine nature itself: “Divinitatis esse consortes”. This participation in the divine nature means being adopted sons of God, being sons in the Only Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, the only Son of God by nature, made himself the first-born of many brothers by His true incarnation: “primogenitus in multis fratribus” (Rm 1:29). By means of His redemptive sacrifice Christ offers man the grace of Divine life. The same Divine life in the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is present in the humanity of the Son of God: “in ipso inhabitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter”, in Him all of divinity dwells bodily (Col 2:9). Christ incarnate is full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14). The Holy Spirit shares the grace of Divine sonship and all the other necessary graces of holiness from this font of Divine life by means of the Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, in the liturgy of the sacraments. Thus we can better understand what the Second Vatican Council taught:
Liturgia est culmen ad quod actio Ecclesiae tendit et simul fons unde omnis eius virtus emanat. (Sacrosanctum Concilium 10)
The liturgy is the summit toward which the action of the Church tends, and, at the same time, the fountain from which all her energy flows. Apostolic work, in fact, is ordered so that all who have become sons of God by means of faith and baptism may join in assembly, praise God in the Church, and take part in the sacrifice and at the table of the Lord. (SC 10).
II. A pastoral vademecum of the Second Vatican Council
In the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, in the context of the discourse on the primacy of worship and adoration that is to be rendered to God, the Council presents a solid synthesis of a sound and theologically valid pastoral theology, a sort of pastoral vademecum with the following seven characteristics:
The Church announces the good tidings of salvation to those who do not believe, so that all men may know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and may be converted from their ways, doing penance [Jn. 17:3; Lk. 24:17; Ac 2:38]. To believers also the Church must ever preach faith and penance, she must prepare them for the sacraments, teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded [Mt. 28:20], and invite them to all the works of charity, piety, and the apostolate. For all these works make it clear that Christ's faithful, though not of this world, are to be the light of the world and to glorify the Father before men. (SC, 9).
From this brief synthesis given to us by the Council we can establish the following seven essential notes of pastoral theory and practice.
1. The duty to proclaim the Gospel to all non-believers (SC, 9).
Such a proclamation must be explicit: that is, faith in Jesus Christ, to which one arrives by the grace of conversion and repentance. Therefore there is no room for a theory and a practice of so-called “anonymous Christianity”, there is no acceptance of alternative ways of salvation other than the way of Christ: Christ is the one Mediator between God and men. This is what the Council teaches in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, saying:
The Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. (n. 14)
In paragraph n. 8 of the same Dogmatic Constitution, the Council says: “Unicus Mediator Christus” (see also ibid., n. 28). Human beings who are saved in eternity are saved by their acceptance of the merits of the one Mediator, Jesus Christ, in their earthly life (ibid., n. 49). The Second Vatican Council teaches, presenting the following quotation from the Council of Trent: “per Filium eius Iesum Christum, Dominum nostrum, qui solus noster Redemptor et Salvator est” (ibid., n. 50). In the Declaration on Religious Liberty the Council teaches that every man is redeemed by Christ the Savior and is called to Divine sonship, which can be received only by means of the grace of faith (Dignitatis humanae, n. 10).
Pope Paul VI, in his address at the opening of the second session of the Council in 1963, taught: “Jesus Christ is the only and the highest Teacher and Pastor, and the one Mediator between God and men.” (Sacrosanctum Oecumenicum Concilium Vaticanum II. Constitutiones, Decreta, Declarationes, Città del Vaticano 1966, p. 905). The same Pope repeated at the Council the following year: “Jesus Christ is the one Mediator and Redeemer” (ibid., p. 989). The teaching of the Council continues: “Now, since he who does not believe is already judged, the words of Christ are at one and the same time words of judgment and of grace, of death and of life.” (Ad gentes, n. 8). Missionary activity is a sacred duty of the Church, because it is the will of God Himself who insists upon the necessity of faith in Christ and of baptism for eternal life (ibid., n. 7).
2. The duty of proclaiming the faith to the faithful (SC, n. 9)
The primary task of the Church consists in taking care that the faith of the faithful grow and be protected from the danger of error: therefore this means to take care for the purity, the completeness, and the vitality of faith. Already in his address at the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Blessed Pope John XXIII declared unequivocally, in a yet more effective way, how the principal duty of the Council was to be the protection and the promotion of the doctrine of the faith: “ut sacrum christianae doctrinae depositum efficaciore ratione custodiatur atque proponatur” (loc. cit., p. 861). The Blessed Pontiff continues, maintaining how, in the exercise of this her duty in our time, the Church may never take her eyes away from the sacred patrimony of the truth, received by Tradition. The Council must transmit Catholic doctrine in its integrity, without diminishing it and without distorting it: “integram, non imminutam, non detortam tradere vult doctrinam catholicam.” Pope John very realistically observes how this may not be appreciated by everyone. It is therefore necessary, says the Pope, that the whole of Christian doctrine be received in our days by all, without omitting a single part: “oportet ut universa doctrina christiana, nulla parte inde detracta, his temporibus nostris ob omnibus accipiatur.” (ibid., 864)
In receiving and promoting the entire doctrine of the faith, we must follow a way that is accurate as to its form and concepts, following the example of the Council of Trent and the First Vatican Council, as as Pope John XIII reaffirms. In the Declaration on Religious Liberty the Council admonishes the faithful to “let them be about their task of spreading the light of life with all confidence and apostolic courage, even to the shedding of their blood.” (DH, n. 14) Furthermore they have “a grave obligation... ever more fully to understand the truth received from Him, faithfully to proclaim it, and vigorously to defend it.” (ibid.) In the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, the Council exhorts: “Love and good will, to be sure, must in no way render us indifferent to truth and goodness. Indeed love itself impels the disciples of Christ to speak the saving truth to all men.” (n. 28). Pope Paul VI, in the address at the opening of the second session of the Second Vatican Council affirmed: “The foundation for renewal of the Church must be a more exacting study and a richer promotion of Divine truth.” (loc. cit., p. 913)
In the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity the Council expresses itself in these terms: “In our own times, new problems are arising and very serious errors are circulating which tend to undermine the foundations of religion, the moral order, and human society itself.” (Apostolicam actuositatem, n. 6). In the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, the Council observed how grave moral errors were being spread, already then, and exhorted all Christians to defend and promote the natural dignity and the high, sacred value of the matrimonial state (n. 47). The Council, in the same document, reproves immoral customs in relation to marriage and to the virtue of chastity, saying that “polygamy, the plague of divorce, so-called free love and other disfigurements have an obscuring effect” on the dignity of marriage and the family. “In addition, married love is too often profaned by excessive self-love, the worship of pleasure and illicit practices against human generation. Moreover, serious disturbances are caused in families by modern economic conditions, by influences at once social and psychological, and by the demands of civil society.” (ibid.) The Council gives an unequivocal teaching on marital chastity: “Relying on these principles, sons of the Church may not undertake methods of birth control which are found blameworthy by the teaching authority of the Church in its unfolding of the divine law. (Pius XI, Casti Connubii). All should be persuaded that human life and the task of transmitting it are not realities bound up with this world alone. Hence they cannot be measured or perceived only in terms of it, but always have a bearing on the eternal destiny of men.” (ibid., n. 51).
In the Decree on Missionary Activity, the Council exhorts that every form of indifferentism, syncretism, confusion be excluded (AG, 15). In the Constitution Gaudium et Spes, the Council rejects a purely worldly and anti-religious humanism (n. 56). The same conciliar document speaks of atheistic humanism which not only threatens the faith, but even exercises a negative and globalizing influence on all the spheres of social life:
Growing numbers of people are abandoning religion in practice. Unlike former days, the denial of God or of religion, or the abandonment of them, are no longer unusual and individual occurrences. For today it is not rare for such things to be presented as requirements of scientific progress or of a certain new humanism. In numerous places these views are voiced not only in the teachings of philosophers, but on every side they influence literature, the arts, the interpretation of the humanities and of history and civil laws themselves. As a consequence, many people are shaken. (ibid., 7).
Pope Paul VI, in his homily at the last public session of the Second Vatican Council, affirms that the Council is proposing to the people of our time a theocentric and theological doctrine about human nature and the world (loc. cit., pp. 1064-1065). In the homily given at the seventh public session of the Second Vatican Council, October 28, 1965, Pope Paul VI explains that despite the general pastoral nature of the council, it intends to propose the perennial and authentic doctrine of the Church, excluding doctrinal relativism; the Council is fulfilling a work
that does not historicize, does not relativize, according to the metamorphoses of secular culture, the nature of the Church, always the same and faithful to herself as Christ willed her and as authentic tradition perfected her, but makes her better suited to carry out her mission of doing good in the renewed conditions of human society. (loc. cit., pp. 1039-1040).
In his speech given the same year, 1965, on the occasion of the eighth public session of the Council, Pope Paul VI criticized the behavior of those who incorrectly and abusively misinterpret the intention of Blessed Pope John XXIII on the Church's pastoral adaptation to the new needs of our time (“aggiornamento”). Furthermore, the Pope expounds the spirit of the Council in this regard and puts everyone on guard against doctrinal and juridical relativism, stating that Pope John XXIII
certainly did not want to attribute to this programmatic word the meaning that some are trying to give it, as if it were to agree to ‘relativize’ everything in the Church according to the spirit of the world today: dogmas, laws, structures, traditions, whereas the sense of the Church's doctrinal and structural stability was so alive and firm in him as to make it the cornerstone of his thought and of his work. Aggiornamento will mean from now forward, for us, wise penetration of the spirit of the Council celebrated and faithful application of its norms issued in happy and holy wise. (loc. cit., pp. 1053-1054).
In the original Latin text, Paul VI does not use the word “aggiornamento” but the word “accommodatio”. The famous expression “aggiornamento” of Blessed John XXIII has become legendary by now. In his original intention, this expression has nothing to do with a doctrinal, legal, or liturgical relativism.
The new pastoral and benevolent attitude of patient understanding and of dialogue with society outside the Church does not involve doctrinal relativism. Pope Paul VI defends the Council from such a possible accusation in the aforementioned homily during the seventh public session: “This attitude ... was strongly and continuously operating in the Council, to the point of suggesting the suspicion to some that a tolerant and overpowering relativism toward the outside world, to fleeting history, to cultural fashion, to temporary needs, to the thoughts of others, had dominated persons and acts of the ecumenical synod, at the expense of the fidelity owed to tradition and to the detriment of the religious orientation of the council. We do not believe that this misfortune should be imputed to it, in its real and deep intentions, and in its authentic manifestations” (loc. cit., p. 1067). Here, Paul VI is defending only the real and deep intentions and authentic manifestations of the Council, not entering into the merits of persons.
The Council expressly rejects any kind of religious syncretism in missionary activity and requires that the particular traditions of peoples be enlightened by the light of the Gospel, always leaving intact the primacy of the Chair of Peter (AG, 22).
3. The duty of preaching repentance to the faithful (SC, n. 9)
One cannot speak of a true pastoral doctrine and practice without the essential element of repentance in the life of the Church and of the faithful. Every true renewal of the Church in history took place with the spirit and the practice of Christian penitence. The Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium n. 8 states that the Church must continually advance on the road of penitence and of renewal. Then it says that the faithful have to conquer in themselves the reign of sin by self-denial with a holy life (ibid., n. 36). In missionary activity the children of the Church must not be ashamed of the scandal of the Cross (AG, n. 24).
We can understand the true spirit of this conciliar teaching about the necessity of penance better if we consider the fact that, on July 1, 1962, the Feast of the Most Precious Blood, in view of the imminent opening of the Council, Blessed Pope John XXIII dedicated an entire encyclical to the necessity of penitence under the title “Paenitentiam agere”. It deals with a pressing invitation to the Catholic world and an exhortation to a more intense prayer, and a penitence beseeching Grace upon the coming Council. The Pope indicated the thought and the practice of the Church, as in the example of preceding councils, recalling the need for interior and exterior penitence as a cooperation with the Divine redemption. Concretely Pope John XXIII recommended in each diocese a penitential intercessory event, explaining how
with the works of mercy and of penance all the faithful seek to beseech God almighty and implore of him that true renewal of the Christian spirit which is one of the principal aims of the council. (n. II, 2)
The Pope continues:
In fact, Our predecessor Pius XI of venerable memory rightly observed: «Prayer and penance are the two means set at the disposition of God in our era to redirect to Him poor humanity which is wandering without a guide; it is they that take away and repair the first cause and principle of our confusion, which is the rebellion of man against God.» (Encyclical Caritate Christi compulsi)” (ibid.)
John XXIII directed the following ardent exhortation to the bishops: “Venerable brothers, make every effort without delay by every means that is in your power, so that the Christians entrusted to your care may purify their spirit with penance and arouse themselves to greater fervor of piety.” (n. II, 3)
The spirit of penitence and expiation must always animate every true renewal of the Church, as Pope John XXIII hoped would be produced by the Second Vatican Council. This attitude protects the Church from the spirit of worldly activism. As the Pope taught in the end of his encyclical:
What a wonderful, what a heartening spectacle of religious fervor it will be to see the countless armies of Christians throughout the world devoting themselves to assiduous prayer and voluntary self-denial in response to Our appeals! This is the sort of religious fervor with which the Church's sons and daughters should be imbued. May their example be an inspiration to those who are so immersed in the affairs of this world as to be neglectful of their duties towards God. (ibid.)
In the following words we can grasp that true spirit that animated the Pope of the Council and certainly the pars maior et sanior of the Conciliar Fathers:
They must repudiate it [worldly hedonism] with all the energy and courage displayed by the martyrs and those heroic men and women who have been the glory of the Church in every age of her history. If everyone does this, each in his own station in life, he will be enabled to play his individual part in making this Second Ecumenical Vatican Council, which is especially concerned with the refurbishing of Christian morality, an outstanding success. (ibid., n. II, 2).
4. The duty to prepare the faithful for the sacraments (SC, n. 9) The Council, in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, teaches that the sacraments are the principal means by which all the faithful of every state and condition are called by the Lord to the perfection of holiness (n. 11). The principal end of the sacraments consists, according to Sacrosanctum Concilium n. 59, in the sanctification of men, the edification of the Mystical Body of Christ, and in the worship due to be rendered to God. Rarely in the history of the Church has the supreme Magisterium so insisted on the importance and the centrality of the sacred liturgy, and particularly of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, as the Second Vatican Council in fact has done. The fact that the first document of the Council to be debated and approved was dedicated to the liturgy, that is, to Divine worship, is meaningful and manifests this clear message of the primacy of God: God and the worship of adoration which the Church renders to Him must occupy the first place in all the life and activity of the Church. Sacrosanctum Concilium teaches us: “Sacra Liturgia est precipue cultus divinae maiestatis” (n. 33), and by this the worship of the Divine majesty must be the summit of all the activity of the Church: “Liturgia est culmen ad quod actio Ecclesiae tendit et simul fons unde omnis eius virus emanat” (n. 10).
The sacred liturgy is primarily and necessarily the true font of the Christian spirit, says the Decree on the Formation of Priests (Optatam totius, n. 16). The purpose of all the sacraments is found, in turn, in the eucharistic mystery, maintains the Decree on the Life and Ministry of Priests, quoting St. Thomas Aquinas: “Eucharistia est omnium sacramentorum finis” (Summa Theologica, III, q. 73 a.3 c) and adds: “In Sanctissima enim Eucharistia totum bonum spirituale Ecclesiae continetur” (St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, III, q. 65, a. 3, ad 1), (Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 5). The same document says again that the Eucharist is the source and summit of all evangelization, and with all the more reason, the Eucharist is the source and summit of all the pastoral life of the Church. In Sacrosanctum Concilium we find this synthesis: “Particularly from the Eucharist, Grace is derived in us, as from a spring, and the sanctification of men and the glorification of God in Christ toward which all the other activities of the Church converge as toward their end, are obtained from it with the greatest efficacy.” (n. 10).
5. The duty to teach the faithful all the commandments of God (SC, n. 9)
Another element of pastoral activity is this: “To believers also the Church must ... teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded” (SC, n. 9). The Pastors of the Church therefore have the duty to teach the Divine laws and commandments in all their integrity. In the Declaration on Religious Liberty the Council states: “the highest norm of human life is the divine law – eternal, objective and universal – whereby God orders, directs and governs the entire universe and all the ways of the human community” (DH, n. 3). The Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes maintains: “Man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged.” (n. 16) The same pastoral document states: “Spouses should be aware that they cannot proceed arbitrarily, but must always be governed according to a conscience dutifully conformed to the divine law itself, and should be submissive toward the Church's teaching office, which authentically interprets that law in the light of the Gospel.” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 50)
The Council continues, saying: “This split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age.” (ibid., n. 43) Such an error has become even more manifest in recent years in which one observes the phenomenon of people who, while professing to be Catholics, at the same time support laws contrary to the natural law and to the Divine law, and openly contradict the Magisterium of the Church. These words of the Council echo now: “Let there be no false opposition between professional and social activities on the one part, and religious life on the other.” (GS, n. 43) Moral, domestic, professional, scientific, social life must be guided by the faith and so ordered to the glory of God. (ibid.) Let us observe again, in these teachings of the Council, the importance of the primacy of the will of God and of His glory in the life of every one of the faithful and in all the Church. The Council affirms this not only in a document on the liturgy, but in the pastoral document par excellence: the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes.
6. The duty of promoting the apostolate of the lay faithful (SC, n. 9).
Another essential point of pastoral life is this: “To believers also the Church must ever … invite them to all the works of charity, piety, and the apostolate.” (SC, n. 9) In this point lies the great historic contribution of the Second Vatican Council to elevating the dignity and the specific role of the lay faithful in the life and activity of the Church. One can say that this is an organic development and a crowning of the Magisterium of Pope Paul VI regarding the question of the lay faithful. The Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium gives us a formidable synthesis on the question of the lay faithful in the Church and in the world, with a solid theological foundation and a clear pastoral direction, saying:
Moreover, let the laity also by their combined efforts remedy the customs and conditions of the world, if they are an inducement to sin, so that they all may be conformed to the norms of justice and may favor the practice of virtue rather than hinder it. By so doing they will imbue culture and human activity with genuine moral values; they will better prepare the field of the world for the seed of the Word of God; and at the same time they will open wider the doors of the Church by which the message of peace may enter the world. Because of the very economy of salvation the faithful should learn how to distinguish carefully between those rights and duties which are theirs as members of the Church, and those which they have as members of human society. Let them strive to reconcile the two, remembering that in every temporal affair they must be guided by a Christian conscience, since even in secular business there is no human activity which can be withdrawn from God's dominion. In our own time, however, it is most urgent that this distinction and also this harmony should shine forth more clearly than ever in the lives of the faithful, so that the mission of the Church may correspond more fully to the special conditions of the world today. For it must be admitted that the temporal sphere is governed by its own principles, since it is rightly concerned with the interests of this world. But that ominous doctrine which attempts to build a society with no regard whatever for religion, and which attacks and destroys the religious liberty of its citizens, is rightly to be rejected. (n. 36)
Here the Council condemns secularism without using the word, citing Leo XIII (Encyclical Immortale Dei, Nov. 1, 1885: ASS 18 (1885), pp. 166ff. Idem, Encyclical Sapientiae Christianae, Jan. 10, 1890: ASS 22 (1889-90), pp. 387ff. Pius XII, Discourse Alla vostra filiale, March 23, 1958: AAS 50 (1958), p. 220), who said that “the legitimate healthy laicity of the State is one of the principles of Catholic doctrine.” (ibid.) The Pope continued, saying: “the life of individuals, the life of families, the life of greater and smaller collectivities, will be nourished by the doctrine of Jesus Christ, which is the love of God and, in God, the love of neighbor.” This doctrine finds in its essential elements a clear echo both in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church and in the Pastoral Constitution of the Second Vatican Council.
On the proper vocation of the laity, the Council says: “It is proper to the laity to seek the kingdom of God, dealing with temporal things and ordering them according to God.” (Lumen Gentium, n. 31) In the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, the Council speaks of the idolatry of temporal things because of an excessive confidence in the progress of the natural sciences and of technology. (AA, n. 7) The Council continues, affirming that matrimonial and familial life is the place where the Christian religion permeates all the organization of life and transforms it more every day. At the same time, the Christian family proclaims in a clear voice the present power of the kingdom of God and the hope of eternal life. In this way, with its example and with its witness, it accuses the world of sin and illuminates those who seek the truth (ibid.) We can observe here how current is this expression of the Council: the Christian and Catholic family is a living accusation to the world, accusing the world of sin.
The particular form of the apostolate of the laity consists in the witness of the life of faith, hope, and charity: it excludes, therefore, an apostolate of activism and of worldly interests. We can locate within the Decree on the Laity a brief vademecum of the lay apostolate, where the Council teaches that the internal form of the lay apostle must be conformation to the suffering Christ, and that the purpose of his apostolate is the eternal salvation of the people of the world. The Council says: “They should all remember that they can reach all men and contribute to the salvation of the whole world by public worship and prayer as well as by penance and voluntary acceptance of the labors and hardships of life whereby they become like the suffering Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 4:10; Col. 1:24).” (AA, n. 16). Often the lay apostle puts even his life in danger due to his fidelity, says the Council. (ibid., n. 17)
7. The duty of promoting the vocation of all to holiness (SC, n. 9)
The final essential note of pastoral activity in the Church consists of promoting the vocation of all to holiness, saying that the followers of Christ, being not of this world, must be yet the light of the world. (SC, n. 9) More specifically, the Council deals with this theme in the fifth chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, nn. 39-42: “De universali vocatione ad sanctitatem in Ecclesia”. In this one can see the truly historic and most specific contribution of the Second Vatican Council. Holiness consists fundamentally in the imitation of Christ, of Christ poor and humble, of Christ who carries the Cross, says the Constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 41. The imitation of Christ reaches its peak in martyrdom, in the courageous witness of Christ before men. (ibid., n. 42). The Council says: “All must be ready to confess Christ before men and follow Him on the way of the Cross during persecutions, which are never lacking to the Church.” (ibid.)
III. The authentic intention and purpose of the Second Vatican Council
For a correct reading of the texts of the Second Vatican Council, it is necessary to take account also of the specific characteristics of the time in which it developed. In the homily of Pope Paul VI during the last general congregation of the Second Vatican Council on Dec. 7, 1965, the Pontiff gives the following description of the historical period in which the Second Vatican Council was celebrated:
it is necessary to remember the time in which it was realized: a time which everyone admits is orientated toward the conquest of the kingdom of earth rather than of that of heaven; a time in which forgetfulness of God has become habitual, and seems, quite wrongly, to be prompted by the progress of science; a time in which the fundamental act of the human person, more conscious now of himself and of his liberty, tends to pronounce in favor of his own absolute autonomy, in emancipation from every transcendent law; a time in which secularism seems the legitimate consequence of modern thought and the highest wisdom in the temporal ordering of society; a time, moreover, in which the soul of man has plumbed the depths of irrationality and desolation; a time, finally, which is characterized by upheavals and a hitherto unknown decline even in the great world religions. It was at such a time as this that our council was held to the honor of God. (loc. cit., pp. 1063-1064).
According to an expression of Blessed Pope John XXIII in the speech given at the final general congregation of the first session of the Council, December 7, 1962, the one purpose of the Council and the one hope and confidence of the Pope and the Council Fathers consists in this: “To make ever more known to the men of our time the Gospel of Christ, that it be practiced willingly and that it penetrate deeply into every aspect of society.” (loc. cit., pp. 881-882). Can there be a more authentic and more Catholic pastoral principle and method than this?
In the address for the closing of the first session of the Second Vatican Council, Dec., 8, 1962, Pope John XXIII presented the true purpose of the Council and its desired spiritual fruits in this way: “So that the Holy Church, firm in faith, strengthened in hope, and more ardent in love, may flourish with a new and youthful vigor, and, fortified by most holy laws, be more effective and more resolute in fulfilling the Kingdom of Christ.” (Handwritten letter to the bishops of Germany, January 11, 1962)...Now the Kingdom of Christ on earth will be enlarged with new growth. Now the good tidings of the redemption of man will resound louder and sweeter in the world; thereby the supreme rights of almighty God, the bonds of fraternal charity among men, the peace that was promised on this earth to men of good will shall be confirmed.” (loc. cit., p. 891). According to the intention and desire of the holy pontiff John XXIII the Second Vatican Council was to contribute strongly to the following end: “that in the whole human family the fruits of faith, hope, and charity may grow most abundantly.” According of the words of John XXIII, in this consists the singular importance and dignity of the Council (ibid.)
IV. The challenge of contrasting interpretations
For a correct interpretation it is necessary to take account of the intention manifested in the conciliar documents themselves and in the specific words of the conciliar Popes John XXIII and Paul VI. Finally, it is necessary to discover the thread leading through all the work of the Council, which is the salus animarum, that is, the pastoral intention. This, in turn, depends on and is subordinate to the promotion of Divine worship and the glory of God, that is, it depends on the primacy of God. This primacy of God in the life and all the activity of the Church is shown unequivocally in the fact that the Constitution on the Liturgy intentionally and chronologically occupies the first place in the vast work of the Council. The seven essential notes for pastoral theory and practice are found exactly in the Constitution that deals with the worship of God and the sanctification of men, in n. 9 of Sacrosanctum Concilium, and they are: 1. The urgency to preach Christ to non-believers so that they may be converted; 2. The greatest care about preaching the doctrine of the faith; 3. The essential role of penitence in the life of the Church; 4. The sacraments as principal means of salvation and sanctification, where the Eucharist occupies the central and culminating place; 5. The integrity of moral doctrine; 6. The apostolate of the lay faithful in the Church and in human society; 7. The universal vocation to holiness.
The characteristic of rupture in the interpretation of the conciliar texts is shown in the most stereotypical and widespread way in the thesis of an anthropocentric, secularizing, or naturalistic shift by the Second Vatican Council in regard to the preceding ecclesial tradition. One of the most well-known manifestations of such a confused interpretation was, e.g., the so-called Theology of Liberation and the subsequent devastating pastoral practice. The contrast between that theology of liberation and its practice, and the Council, appears evident in the following conciliar teaching: “the proper mission that Christ has entrusted to His Church is not of the political, economic, or social order: in fact, the end that he has set is in the order of religion.” (GS, 42). The same document then says that the nature and the mission of the Church are not tied to any particular political, economic, or social system. (ibid.) The Constitution Gaudium et Spes quotes the following words of Pius XII:
An interpretation of rupture of doctrinally lesser weight is shown in the pastoral-liturgical field. One can cite under this topic the loss of the sacred and sublime character of the liturgy and the introduction of more anthropocentric gestural elements. This phenomenon makes itself evident in three liturgical practices well known and widespread in nearly all the parishes of the Catholic world: the nearly total disappearance of the use of the Latin language, the reception of the Eucharistic Body of Christ directly on the hand and standing, and the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice in the modality of a closed circle in which priest and people continually look each other in the face. This manner of praying, that is: not all facing in the same direction, which is a more natural bodily and symbolic expression with respect to the truth of everyone being spiritually turned toward God in public worship, contradicts the practice that Jesus Himself and His Apostles observed in public prayer at the temple or in the synagogue. Moreover, it contradicts the unanimous testimony of the Fathers and all the prior tradition of the Eastern and Western Church. These three pastoral and liturgical practices, in noisy rupture with the laws of prayer maintained by generations of faithful Catholics for nearly a millennium, find no support in the conciliar texts, but rather contradict either a specific text of the Council (on the Latin language, see Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 36, § 1; 54), or the “mens”, the true intention of the conciliar Fathers, as can be verified in the Acts of the Council.
Its divine Founder, Jesus Christ, has not given it any mandate or fixed any end of the cultural order. The goal which Christ assigns to it is strictly religious. . . The Church must lead men to God, in order that they may be given over to him without reserve.... The Church can never lose sight of the strictly religious, supernatural goal. The meaning of all its activities, down to the last canon of its Code, can only cooperate directly or indirectly in this goal. (Pius XII, Address to the International Union of Institutes of Archeology, History and History of Art, March 9, 1956: AAS 48 (1965), p. 212)
In the hermeneutical uproar of contrasting interpretations and in the confusion of pastoral and liturgical applications, the Council itself united with the Pope appears as the one authentic interpreter of the conciliar texts. One could make an analogy with the confused hermeneutical climate of the first centuries of the Church, provoked by arbitrary biblical and doctrinal interpretations on the part of heterodox groups. In his famous work De praescriptione haereticorum Tertullian was able to set against the heretics of various orientations the fact that only the Church is the legitimate owner of the faith, of the word of God, and of tradition. With that in the disputes on true interpretation, the Church can drive the heretics “a limine fori”. Only the Church can say, according to Tertullian: “Ego sum heres Apostolorum” (Praescr., 37, 3). Speaking analogically, only the supreme Magisterium of the Pope or of a future Ecumenical Council will be able to say: “Ego sum heres Concilii Vaticani II”.
In the decades past there have existed, and exist to this day, groupings within the Church that commit an enormous abuse of the pastoral character of the Council and of its texts, written according to that pastoral intention, since the Council did not wish to present its own definitive or irreformable teachings. From the pastoral nature of the Council’s texts it is evident that its texts are, on principle, open to further completion and to greater doctrinal clarification. Taking account of the experience of several decades since then, of interpretations doctrinally and pastorally confused, and contrary to the continuity, over two millennia, of doctrine and prayer of the faith, the necessity and the urgency rise for a specific and authoritative intervention by the pontifical Magisterium for an authentic interpretation of the conciliar texts with completions and doctrinal clarifications: a type of “Syllabus errorum circa interpretationem Concilii Vaticani II”. There is need for a new Syllabus, this time directed not so much against errors coming from outside the Church, but against errors spread within the Church on the part of those who maintain a thesis of discontinuity and rupture with its doctrinal, liturgical, and pastoral application. Such a Syllabus would consist of two parts: a part marking errors and a positive part with propositions of doctrinal clarification, completion, and precision.
Two groupings that maintain the theory of rupture are evident. One such grouping tries to protestantize the life of the Church doctrinally, liturgically, and pastorally. On the other side are some traditionalist groups that, in the name of tradition, reject the Council, and avoid submission to the supreme living Magisterium of the Church, the visible Head of the Church, submitting for now only to the invisible Head of the Church, waiting for better times.
During the Council, Pope Paul VI explained the meaning of true renewal of the Church in this way:
“We think that the new psychology of the Church should develop along this line: clergy and faithful will find a wonderful spiritual work, to be discovered through the renewal of life and activity according to Christ the Lord; and We invite Our Brothers and Our Sons to this work: let those who love Christ and the Church be with us in professing more clearly the meaning of the truth, proper to the doctrinal tradition that Christ and the Apostles inaugurated; and with that the meaning of the discipline of the church and of the profound and cordial union, which makes us all confident and united, as members of one body.” (Paul VI, Address at the eighth public session of the Second Vatican Council, Nov. 18, 1965, loc. cit., p. 1054)
Pope Paul VI, explaining the mens of the Council, affirmed in his speech during the eighth public session: “So that all may be strengthened in this spiritual renewal, we propose to the Church to recall fully the words and example of Our last two Predecessors, Pius XII and John XXIII, to whom the Church herself and all the world are indebted; and to that end, we direct that the processes of beatification of those Supreme Pontiffs, most excellent and devout and dear to us, be begun canonically. In this way, the desire expressed by both the one and the other will be seconded, in a sense, by countless voices; in this way the patrimony of their spiritual heritage will be secured for history; and it will prevent that any motive other than the veneration of true sanctity – that is, the glory of God and the edification of His Church – would recompose their authentic and dear image for our veneration and for that of future ages.” (Paul VI, Address at the eighth public session of the Second Vatican Council, Nov. 18, 1965, loc. cit., p. 1054)
In substance, there were two impediments against the true intention of the Council and its Magisterium bearing abundant and lasting fruits. One was found outside the Church, in the violent process of cultural and social revolution in the 1960s, which, like every powerful social phenomenon, penetrated within the Church, contaminating vast ranges of people and institutions with its spirit of rupture. The other impediment showed itself in the lack of wise and intrepid Pastors of the Church who would be ready to defend the purity and integrity of the faith and of the liturgical and pastoral life, not letting themselves be influenced either by praise or by fear (“nec laudibus, nec timore”).
The Council of Trent stated in one of its last decrees on the general reform of the Church: “The holy synod, shaken by such grave evils that burden the Church, cannot fail to recall that the most necessary thing for the Church of God is... to choose the best and most suited pastors; with all the more reason, inasmuch as our Lord Jesus Christ will call negligent pastors, unmindful of their duty, to account for the blood of those sheep who might perish because of bad governance.” (Sessio XXIV, Decretum de reformatione, can. 1) The Council continues: “Thus to all who for any reason have received from the Holy See any right to intervene in the promotion of future prelates, and to those who take part in other ways... the holy Council exhorts them and admonishes them to recall foremost that they can do nothing more useful to the glory of God and to the salvation of peoples, than to dedicate themselves to choose good and suitable pastors to govern the Church.” (ibid.)
Thus there truly is the need for a conciliar Syllabus with doctrinal value, and moreover there is need to increase the number of holy, courageous pastors, profoundly rooted in the tradition of the Church, free from any type of mentality of rupture whether in the field of doctrine or of liturgy. In fact, these two elements constitute the indispensable condition so that doctrinal, liturgical, and pastoral confusion may diminish notably and the pastoral work of the Second Vatican Council may bear many and lasting fruits in the spirit of tradition, which joins us with the spirit that reigns at all times, everywhere, and in all true children of the Catholic Church, which is the one and the true Church of God on the earth.
Rome, December 17, 2010
“The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council: a pastoral council. Historical-philosophical-theological analysis.
Conference of studies on the Second Vatican Council toward a right hermeneutic in the light of the Tradition of the Church, organized by the Theological Seminary “Immacolata Mediatrice” of the Franciscans of the Immaculate.
Istituto Maria SS. Bambina, via Paolo VI 21, Roma, December16-18, 2010.
AA: Apostolicam actuositatem AG: Ad gentes DH: Dignitatis humanae GS: Gaudium et spes SC: Sacrosanctum Concilium
English translation by Richard Chonak.
The source text in Italian was provided courtesy of L’Espresso newspaper at:
Englsh translations of the conciliar decrees and constitutions were taken from vatican.va. | <urn:uuid:7a040202-5530-4bee-8bfb-e2dee5cc6af6> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.ewtn.com/library/bishops/schneider-proposte.htm | 2016-07-23T15:19:53Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257823072.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071023-00019-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934314 | 10,353 |
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