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Keyword: Archeology
Proceedings of The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Volume XCI 1958-1959.
Publisher: National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland: 1961
Hardcover in quarter cloth binding with paper covered boards, some light shelfwear but in otherwise Very Good condition. First edition, pp ix, 134, b&w illustrations and plates to rear, index. Contents include: A recumbent grave-slab from Breckon, Esha Ness, Shetland, Glenachan Rig Homestead, Cardon, Peeblesshire, A chambered cairn at Isbister, South Ronaldshay, Orkney View more info
Proceedings of The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Volume XCV 1961-62.
Hardcover in quarter cloth binding with paper covered boards, some light shelfwear but in otherwise Very Good condition. First edition, pp iv, 334, b&w illustrations and plates to rear, index. Contents include: Late Fifteenth Century Church paintings from Guthrie and Foulis Easter, The Date of the Medieval Coin-Hoard from Tom a'Bhuraich in Aberdeenshire, Two Pictish Symbol Stones: (i) Flemington Farm, Aberlemmo, Angus View more info
Proceedings of The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Volume LXXXVI 1951-1952
Hardcover in quarter cloth binding with paper covered boards, some light shelfwear but in otherwise Very Good condition. First edition, pp xi, 238, b&w illustrations, fold out illustrations, index. Contents include: Report on the Partial Excavation of a Broch at Sae Breck, Esha Ness, in the parish of Northmaven, Shetland, Re-Excavation of the Chambered Cairn of Quoyness, Sanday, on behalf of the Ministry of Works, Scottish Medieval Pottery: the Bothwell Castle Collection, Early Textiles Found in Scotland View more info
Proceedings of The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Volume LXXIX 1944-1945
Hardcover in blue cloth, some light shelfwear but in otherwise Very Good condition. First edition, pp xxxii, 189, b&w illustrations, index. Contents include:Old Windmills in Scotland, with Special Reference to the Windmill Tower at Dunbarney, Perthshire, The robes of the feudal baronage of Scotland, Opening of the Exhibition 'From the Stone Age to the '45' in the National Museum, An Unusual Cinerary Urn from Droughdool, near Dunragit, Wigtownshire. View more info
Proceedings of The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Volume XCIII 1959-1960
Hardcover in quarter cloth binding with paper covered boards, some light shelfwear but in otherwise Very Good condition. First edition, pp ix, 268, b&w illustrations, fold out illustrations, index. Contents include: Scottish Late Bronze Age Metalwork: Typology, Distribution and Chronology, The Palisaded Settlements at Harehope, Peebleshire. Excavations, On Coins purchased for the Museum, The Glenluce and Rhoneston Hoards of Fifteenth-Century Coins View more info
Traditions of Sea-Bird Fowling in the North Atlantic Region
Publisher: The Islands Book Trust: 2005
Illustrated card covers, some very minor shelfwear but otherwise in Near Fine condition. First edition, pp 215, b&w illustrations and maps, references. Very Scarce. View more info
Manda: Excavations at an Island Port on the Kenya Coast (Memoir / the British Institute in Eastern Africa)
By: Chittick, H. Neville
Publisher: British Institute in Eastern Africa: 1984
Condition: As New
Hardcover in As New condition with As New Dustwrapper. First edition, pp xvi, 258, b&w illustrations, appendices, bibliography, index. Excavations at an Island Port on the Kenya Coast. THE PACKED WEIGHT OF THIS BOOK IS OVER 1KG, SO FOR UK FIRST CLASS AND INTERNATIONAL, ADDITIONAL POSTAGE COSTS WILL BE REQUIRED. View more info
A Tale of Two Burghs: the Archeology of Old and New Aberdeen.
By: Evans, D. H., Murray, J. C.
Publisher: Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, 1987. 0900017201: 1987
Seller ID: 581
Large paperback in very good condition. First edition, pp 52, with colour and b&w illustrations. Brief history of the city of Aberdeen with reference to archaeological findings in the city in both its Old and New parts built around St Machar's cathedral and the port respectively. Gives insights into life in the medieval town and afterwards. S8. View more info
Archaeology of Boats and Ships: An Introduction.
By: Greenhill, Basil; Morrison, J. S.
Publisher: Conway Maritime Press Ltd: 1995
Large hardcover in Fine condition, dustwrapper with some very light shelfwear but otherwise in Near Fine condition. First edition, pp 288, b&w illustrations and diagrams, bibliography, glossary, index. THE PACKED WEIGHT OF THIS BOOK IS OVER 1KG, SO FOR UK FIRST CLASS AND INTERNATIONAL, ADDITIONAL POSTAGE COSTS WILL BE REQUIRED. DUE TO THE LARGE SIZE OF THIS BOOK, IT MAY BE SHIPPED AS A MEDIUM WHICH MAY INCUR FURTHER COSTS. View more info
Excavations at Aksum: An Account of Research at the Ancient Ethiopian Capital Directed in 1972-74 by the Late Dr. Neville Chittick (Memoirs of the British Institute in Eastern Africa)
By: Hay, S.C. Munro
Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd: 1989
Hardcover As New with As New dustwrapper. First edition, pp xiii, 359, appendices, bibliography, index. An Account of Research at the Ancient Ethiopian Capital Directed in 1972-74 by the Late Dr. Neville Chittick. THE PACKED WEIGHT OF THIS BOOK IS OVER 1KG, SO FOR UK FIRST CLASS AND INTERNATIONAL, ADDITIONAL POSTAGE COSTS WILL BE REQUIRED. View more info
Shell Middens in Atlantic Europe.
By: Milner, N. & Craig, Oliver & Bailey, G.
Publisher: Oxbow Books: 2007
Large softcover with minor shelf wear, otherwise in Very Good condition, with pp200, with b&w illustrations, diagrams and maps, The archaeological investigation of shell middens has a long and rich history. By the mid 1830s, the presence of artefacts found with large accumulations of shell along the Danish coast had successfully demonstrated that these sites were the result of human activity rather than natural processes. At about the same time in other parts of Europe, shell middens were also being discovered and written about - a process which continued throughout Europe as time went on. U... View more info


Eden McCallum has added Leo Andronis to its consulting team in London. Andronis, who joins the consultancy as Associate Partner, transfers from A.T. Kearney.
Leo Andronis has 15 years of industry and management consulting experience spanning Strategy and Operations. Prior to joining Eden McCallum earlier this month, Andronis was a Principal at A.T. Kearney, serving the firm's Process Industries and Strategic Operations practices in the UK. During his spell with the management consultancy – which spans two terms – he focused mainly on developing and implementing growth strategy and short term profit improvement, with his industry experience focussing on the Energy, Chemicals, Pulp & Paper, Manufacturing and FMCG sectors. Previously Andronis was a Director of Strategy and of Operations Planning with Georgia Pacific, based in Belgium, and he began his career in the US with Exxon Mobil and Rohm and Haas.
Earlier this year Eden McCallum boosted its London-based team with Jan-Willem Weggemans (a former Bain, BCG and A.T. Kearney consultant) and Michael Edwards, an alumnus of Accenture and McKinsey.


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Best Fights In Witcher, Season 2
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Strongest New Characters In Witcher Season 2
Characters must be tough to live in The Witcher's untamed environment. Season 2 introduces even greater peril in the form of creatures, magicians, and legions of the White Flame, threatening to destroy the Continent entirely. Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer strive…
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Biggest Game References In The Witcher Season 2
The Witcher TV series has become one of the streaming service's biggest blockbusters, and the second season is now available. The critical response has been mainly good, with critics applauding its substantial improvements over the first season. While Andrzej Sapkowski's…
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Official Jaskier Halloween Parody Poster Of The Witcher Season 2 Released
Netflix's The Witcher has been releasing various odds and ends like images, trailers, and more specifically, posters base don characters. One of the more recent character posters featured Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer sporting their new looks for the second season —…
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What unites both the climate crisis and the financial crisis?
What is it that has driven scientists and environmentalists to risk arrest in protests across the world? What is it that's driven people from all walks of life to show up in their thousands to occupy their cities? In both cases, there's a growing sense that the system is fundamentally broken, and that our current political elites are unable (rather than just unwilling) to fix them. And in both cases, it's becoming increasingly apparent that our current political system is a major cause of the problems. Which therefore makes it even harder to discover solutions.
So how do we make progress? If we're going to take seriously the problems that have led people to take to the streets, then we have to understand the processes that are steadily driving us in the wrong direction when it comes to things we care about – a clean environment, a stable climate, secure jobs, a stable economy. In other words, we have to understand the underlying systems, understand the dynamics within those systems, and we have to find the right leverage points that would allow us to change those dynamics to work the way we would like.
Perhaps the best analysis of this I've ever seen is Donella Meadows' essay on leverage points. [If you're not already familiar with it, I highly recommend reading it before tackling the rest of this post]. Meadows has written some wonderfully accessible material on systems thinking, but only gives a very brief overview in this particular essay, because she's focussing here on how to identify leverage points that allow one to alter a system. She identifies twelve places to look, and orders them, roughly, from the least effective to the most effective.
To illustrate the point, I'll begin with a much simpler system than the ones we really want to fix. My example is the controllability of water temperature in a shower. The particular shower I have in mind is in a small hotel in Paris, and is a little antiquated, the result of old-fashioned plumbing. It takes time for the hot water to reach the shower head from the hot water tank, and there's enough of a delay between the taps that control the hot and cold water and the temperature response, that you're forever trying to adjust it to get a good temperature. It's too cold, so you turn up the hot tap. The temperature barely seems to change, so you crank it up a lot. After a few minutes the water heats up so much it's scalding. So you crank up the cold tap. Again, the temperature responds slowly until you realise it's now too cold. You turn down the cold tap, and soon find it's too hot again. And so on.
Does this remind you of the economy? Or, for that matter, the way the physical climate system works over the course of tens of thousands of years? More worryingly, it's the outcome I expect if we ever try to geo-engineer our way out of extreme climate change. Right now, the human race is cranking up the hot tap. But the system responds very slowly. And by the time we've realized the heat has built up, we'll have overshot our comfort zones. We'll slam on the brakes and end up overcompensating. Because the system is just as hard to control (actually, a damn sight harder!) than that annoying shower in Paris.
#12 Changes in constants, parameters, numbers. Example: Change the set point on the water tank thermostat. In general, such adjustments make no difference to the controllability of the shower. [There is an interesting exception, when we're prepared to make really big adjustments. For example, if we crank the thermostat on the hot water tank all the way down to 'pleasantly warm' we'll never have to balance the hot and cold taps again, we can just use the "hot" tap. Usually, such really big adjustments are unlikely to be made, for other reasons].
#11. Change the sizes of buffers and stocks relative to their flows. Example: Get a bigger hot water tank. This will make the energy bills bigger, but still won't make the shower any more controllable.
#10. Change the structure of material stocks and flows. Example: Replace the water pipes with smaller diameter pipes. This might help, as it reduces the thermal mass of the pipes, and hence, may affect the lag between the water tank and the shower, leading to more responsive shower controls.
#9. Change the length of delays, relative to rate of system change. Example: Relocate the hot water tank closer to the bathroom; or Wait a little longer for temperature response to settle before touching the taps again. Such changes might be hard to achieve (hence they're high up on the list), but very effective if we could do them.
#8. Increase the strength of negative feedback loops relative to the impacts they try to correct against. Example: Take a deep breath and calm down – you're the negative feedback trying to keep the system stable. If you're less impulsive on the taps, you'll help to dampen the temperature fluctuations. If the system is changing too quickly, or is subject to instability, identifying the negative feedbacks, and working to strengthen them can often yield simple and effective leverage points. But when you're in the shower getting scalded, it might be hard to remember this.
#7. Reduce the gain around positive feedback loops. Example: Replace the taps with ones that offer a finer level of control. This reduces the big temperature fluctuations when we turn the taps too quickly, and hence reduces the positive feedback loop that leads to temperature overshoot.
#6. Change the structure of information flows, to alter who does (or does not) have access to information. Example: Put an adjustable marker on the shower dial to record a preferred setting. Changing the flows of information about a system is generally much easier and cheaper than changing any other aspect of a system, hence, it's often a more powerful leverage point than any of the above. For the shower, this one tiny fix may entirely cure the temperature fluctuation problem.
#5. Change the rules of the system (incentives, punishments, constraints). Example: Set limits on amount of time you can shower for. This might reduce the incentive to spend time fiddling with the temperature controls. But who will enforce the constraint?
#4. Nurture the power to add, change, evolve or self-organize system structure. Example: Teach yourself to tolerate a wider range of shower temperatures. or: Design a new automated temperature controller.
#3. Change the goal of the system. Example: Focus on getting clean quickly rather than getting the water to exactly the desired temperature. Of course, changing the goal of the system is hard, because it means changing people's perceptions of the system itself.
#2. Change the mindset or paradigm out of which the system arises. Example: Is cleanliness over-rated? or: why stay in these antiquated hotels in Paris anyway? Paradigm shifts are hard to achieve, but when they happen, they have a dramatic transformative effect on the systems that arose in the previous paradigm.
#1. The power to transcend paradigms. Example: Learn systems thinking and gain the ability to understand a system from multiple perspectives; Realise that system structure and behaviour arises from the dominant paradigm; Explore how our own perspectives shape our interactions with the system.
Note that Meadows emphasizes the point that all twelve types of leverage point can be effective for changing systems, if you have a good understanding of how the system works, and can make good choices for where to make changes. However, in a self-perpetuating system, the dynamics that created the problem you're trying to solve will also tend to defeat most kinds of change, unless they really do alter those dynamics in an important way.
Note that for many of these examples, I've chosen to include the person in the shower as part of my 'shower system'. More importantly, some of my suggestions refer to how the person in the shower understands the shower system, and how her understanding of the system affects the system's behaviour. This is to emphasize a mistake we often make when thinking about both the climate and the economy. In both cases, we have to understand the role that people play within these systems, and especially how our expectations and cultural norms themselves form part of the system. If people, in general, have the wrong mental model of how the systems work, it's significantly more challenging to figure out how to fix things when they go wrong.
Let's look at how the list of leverage points applies to the climate system and the financial system.
#12 Changes in Constants, parameters, numbers.
Climate System: tighten pollution standards, negotiate stronger version of the Kyoto protocol, increase fuel taxes, etc.
Financial System: change the interest base rates, increase size of stimulus spending, increase taxes, cut government spending, put caps on campaign contributions, increase the minimum wage, vote for the other party.
While changing the parameters of the existing system can make a difference, it's rare that it does. Systems tend to operate in regions where small parameter adjustments make no difference to the overall stability of the system. If there's a systemic effect that is pushing a system in the wrong direction (dependence on fossil fuels, financial instability, poverty, etc), then adjusting the system's parameters is unlikely to make much difference, if you don't also change the structure of the system.
None of these examples are likely to make much difference to the underlying problems. To understand this point, you have to understand the system you're dealing with. For example, the whole problem of climate change itself might appear to be the result of a small parameter change – a small increase in radiative forcing, caused by a small increase (measured in parts per million!) in atmospheric concentrations of certain gases. But that's not the real cause. The real cause is a systemic change in human activity that traces back to the industrial revolution: a new source of energy was harnessed, which then kicked off mutually reinforcing positive feedback loops in human population growth and energy use. A few more parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere is not the problem; the problem is a new exponential trend that did not exist previously.
However, remember there's sometimes an exception, if you make very large adjustments. For the climate system, you could increase fuel taxes so that gas (petrol) costs, say, ten times as much as it does today. Such an adjustment would be guaranteed to change the system (but not perhaps, when the mobs are done with you, in the way you intended). Here's an interesting rule of thumb: if you change any parameter in a system by an order of magnitude or more, what you get is an entirely different type of system. Try it: a twenty-storey building is fundamentally different from a 2-storey house. A ten-lane freeway is fundamentally different from a single lane road. A salary of $1 million is fundamentally different from a salary of $100K.
Climate System: Plant more forests to create bigger carbon sinks. Ocean fertilization and/or artificial trees to soak up carbon, etc.
Financial System: Increase the federal reserve, require banks to hold larger reserves, increase debt ceiling limits.
In many systems these are hard to change, as they require large investments in infrastructure (the canonical example is a large dam to create a buffer in the water supply). This also means it can be hard to make frequent, fine-grained adjustments. More importantly, they tie up resources – keeping a large stock means that the stock isn't working for you: your bigger water tank will make your energy bills much higher (and won't affect your shower adjustment problem anyway). Making banks keep larger reserves will make them much less dynamic, and will reduce the funds available for lending.
All of these things might ease the problem a little, but none of them will make any significant difference to the cause of the problem. No matter how big you make the reserves, you'll quickly be defeated by the exponential growth curves that you didn't tackle.
Climate System: Carbon Capture and Storage (diverts emissions at the point they are generated, so they don't enter the atmosphere).
Financial System: Create a Tobin tax, which diverts a small percentage of each financial transaction to create a new pool of money to fix problems. Create new kinds of super-tax on the very rich. Separate the high street banks from their gambling investment operations.
Physical structure is also, usually, very hard to change, once the system is operating, although it's sometimes easier to change how things flow than it is to create new buffers. However, both types of change tend to have limited impact, because the stocks and flows arise from the nature of the system – which means the system itself will find ways of defeating your efforts, for the same reason it ended up like it is now.
For example, separating high street banks from investment firms won't really achieve much. People will find other ways to gamble bank money on foolish investments, if you haven't actually addressed the reasons why such investments are made in the first place. Similarly for carbon capture and storage — diverting some percentage of the carbon that would go into the atmosphere via (expensive) CCS won't help if our use of fossil fuels continues to grow at the rate it has done in the past. The fundamental problem of exponential growth in fossil fuel use will always outstrip our attempts to sequester some of it. There's also the problem that on the timescales that matter (decades to centuries), it's not clear the carbon will stay put. Oh, and CCS is only ever likely to be feasible on large, static sites like big power plants, so won't make any different to emissions from transport, aviation, agriculture, etc.
Climate System: Speed up widescale deployment of clean energy technologies. Speed up the legislative process for climate policy. Speed up implementation of new standards for emissions. Use a faster ramp up on carbon pricing. Lengthen the approval process for new fossil fuel plants, oil pipelines, etc.
Financial System: Lengthen the approval process for risky loans, mergers, etc. Speed up implementation of government jobs programs. Slow down economic growth (to remove the boom and bust cycles).
Often, these kinds of change can be very powerful leverage points, but many of the delays in large systems are impossible to shorten – things take as long as they take. Also, as Meadows points out, most people try to shift things in the wrong direction, as many of these changes are counter-intuitive. For example, reducing the delay in money transfer times just increases chance of wild gyrations in the markets. Governments around the world usually seek to maximize economic growth, when often they should be trying to dampen it.
#8. Increase the strength of negative feedback loops relative to the impacts they try to correct against.
Climate System: Make the price of all goods reflect their true environmental cost. Remove perverse subsidies to fossil fuel companies (the cost of extraction & processing should be a negative feedback loop on dependence on fossil fuels); introduce better monitoring and data collection for global carbon fluxs, to more quickly assess impacts of different actions.
Financial System: More transparent democracy to allow people to vote out corrupt politicians more quickly; Remove subsidies, bailouts, etc (these distort the negative feedbacks that keep the financial system stable); protection for whistleblowers; more scrutiny of boardroom pay rises by unions and shareholders.
Negative feedbacks are what tend to keep a system stable. If the system is changing too quickly, or is subject to instability, identifying the negative feedbacks, and working to strengthen them, can often yield simple and effective leverage points. All of the examples here a likely to be more effective at fixing the respective systems than anything we've mentioned so far. Some of them rely on people acting as negative feedbacks. For example, by offering better protection for whistleblowers, you create a culture in which the people are less likely yield to corrupting influences.
Climate System: Higher energy efficiency standards (this dampens the growth in energy demand); Green development – mechanisms that allow people to improve their quality of life without needing to increase their use of fossil fuels; wider use of birth control to curb population increases.
Both Systems: Slower economic growth (above, I described this as a "length of delay" issue – as slower growth can allow other processes, such as clean energy technology to keep up; but more importantly, economic growth is itself a positive feedback loop that drives ever more resource consumption, financial fluctuations and environmental degradation.
Runaway feedback loops inevitably destroy a system, unless some negative feedback loops kick in. In the long run, a negative feedback always kicks in: we use up all the resources, we kill off most of the population, we bankrupt everyone. But by that time the system has already been destroyed. The trick is to dampen the positive feedbacks long before too much damage is done, and this is often much more effective than trying to boost the strength of countervailing negative feedbacks. For example, if we want to address inequality, using tax structures that stop the rich getting ever richer is much more effective than creating anti-poverty programs aimed at mopping up the resulting inequalities.
Economic growth is an important example here. Remember that economic growth is a measure of the change in GDP over time. And GDP itself is a measure of the volume of financial transactions, or in other words, how fast money is flowing through the system. Accelerating these money flows makes all the instabilities in the financial system much worse. Worse still, one of the primary ways that GDP grows is by ever accelerating consumption of resources, so you get a self-reinforcing positive feedback loop between over-consumption and economic growth.
Climate System: Get IPCC assessment results out to the public faster, and in more accessible formats. Put journalists in touch with climate scientists. Label products with lifecycle carbon footprint data. Put meters in cars showing the total cost of each journey.
Financial System: Publish pay and benefit rates for all employees of private companies. Publish details of all political donations. Increase government oversight of financial transactions.
Both Systems: Open access to data, e.g. on campaign financing, carbon emissions, etc; Require all lobbyists and think tanks to publish full details on funding sources.
Changing the flows of information about a system is generally much easier and cheaper than changing any other aspect of a system, which means these can be very powerful leverage points. Many of these examples are powerful enough to cause significant changes to the underlying behaviour in the system, because they expose problems to the people that shape the behaviour of the system.
Providing people with full information about the true cost of things at the point they use them is a very powerful inducement to change behaviour. Meadows gives an example of electricity meters in the front hall of a home, rather than in the basement. Another one that bugs me is the information imbalance between different transportation choices. We always know how exactly how much a trip will cost by public transit, but the cost of driving is largely invisible (paying to fill up, paying the insurance and maintenance bills, etc are too far removed from the actual per-journey decisions). Some potential fixes are very simple: Google maps could show the cost, as well as the distance & time, when doing journey planning.
Climate System: Government grants for energy efficiency projects. Free public transit. Jail-time for executives whose companies break carbon emissions rules. Mandatory science comprehension testing for anyone standing for public office.
Financial System: Give workers the right to vote on boardroom pay rates. New regulations on what banks can and cannot do with investors' money. Remove immunity from prosecution for politicians. Ban all private funding of political campaigns.
Both Systems: Strict limits on ownership of media outlets. New ethics rules for journalists and advertisers.
These changes tend to impact the behaviour of the system immediately (as long as they're actually enforced), and hence can have very high leverage. Unfortunately, one of the problems with fixing both the climate and financial systems is that our systems for changing the rules (e.g. legislative processes) are themselves broken. Large corporations (especially fossil fuel companies) have, over a period of many years, deliberately co-opted legislative processes to meet their own goals. Where once it might have been possible for governments to pass new laws to address climate change, or to change the way governments allocate resources, now they cannot, because these processes no longer act in the interest of the people. Similarly, the mainstream media has been co-opted by the same vested interests, so that people are fed little more than propaganda about how great the system is.
Climate System: Evidence-based policymaking. Resilient communities such as Transition Towns (these empower individual communities to manage their own process of ending dependence on fossil fuels).
Financial System: Switch from private companies to credit unions and worker-owned cooperatives.
Both Systems: Change to proportional representation for elections (this gives a more diverse set of political parties access to power, and helps voters feel their vote counts). Celebrate social diversity and give greater access to political power for minorities (this removes the tendency to have one dominant culture, and hence helps build resilience).
Systems gain the ability to evolve because of diversity within them. In biology, we understand this well – the diversity of an ecosystem is essential for evolutionary processes to work. Unfortunately, few people understand this matters just as much for social systems. Societies with a single dominant culture tend to find it very hard to change, while societies that encourage and promote diversity are also laying the foundations for new ideas and new forms of self-organization to emerge.
The political culture in the US is case in point. US politics is dominated by two parties that share an almost identical set of cultural assumptions, especially to do with the capitalist system, the role of markets, and the correct way to manage the economy. This makes the US particularly resistant to change, no matter how much the evidence accumulates that the system isn't working.
Climate System: Don't focus on emission reduction, focus on eliminating each and every dependency on fossil fuels. Don't focus on international negotiations towards a treaty, focus on zero-carbon strategies for each city or region.
Financial System: Stop chasing short-term corporate profits as the primary goal of the economy. Corporations should aim for sustainability rather than growth. Instead of measuring GDP, measure gross national happiness.
Both Systems: Recognize and challenge the hidden goals of the current system, such as: the tendency for large corporations to maximize their power and influence over national governments; the desire to control access to information via media conglomerates; the desire of ruling elites to perpetuate their control.
Of course, changing the goal of the system is hard, because it means changing people's perceptions of the system itself. It requires people to be able to step outside the system and see it from a fresh perspective, to identify how the dominant goals of the system shape its structure and operation. In short, it requires people to be systems thinkers.
There's one kind of goal change related to the climate system that troubles me: instead of trying to prevent climate change, we could instead focus on survival strategies for living on a hotter planet. Given what we understand of the impacts on food, water and habitable regions, this would only be possible for a much smaller human population, and so it entails giving up trying to save as many people as possible. But it's a very simple leverage point. The problem is that there are both ethical and practical reasons to reject this approach. The ethical reasons are well understood. The practical problem is that humans are very effective at fighting like crazy over diminishing resources, so it's hard to see how this approach would work in the face of growing waves of climate refugees.
Climate and Financial Systems: Triple-bottom line accounting (forces companies to balance social and environmental impact with profitability). A shift in mindset from consumerism to living in harmony with the environment. A shift from material wealth as a measure of success to (say) social connectedness. A shift in mindset from individualism to community. A shift from individual greed to egalitarianism.
Paradigm shifts are hard to achieve, but when they happen, they transform the systems that arose in the previous paradigm. Much of the root cause of current problems with climate change and financial instability are due to the dominant paradigm of the last thirty years: blind faith in the free market to fix everything, along with accumulation of wealth and material assets as a virtue.
… And then take to the streets.
Conclusion: Notice that as we proceed down the list, and look at more fundamental changes to the systems, the solutions for climate change and the financial crisis start to merge. Also notice that in both cases, many of my examples aren't what climate scientists or economists generally talk about. We need to broaden the conversation.
Copyright: Copyright to this article is retained by its author, Steve Easterbrook of Toronto.
Crowbar picture by Pearson Scott Foresman is in the public domain.
Nice write-up, but I think in our situation, the metaphorical shower isn't ours to fix, because none of us are hotel operators, and unfortunately those who are the hotel operators are somewhat, shall I say, cantankerous.
Frank - i think that's the feeling that has driven the growth of the occupy protests. But it's a mindset we have to change - in there as leverage point #2.
When we got democracy, we thought we, the people, were finally in control. It's a comforting thought, and one that has dominated western culture since at least the end of WW2. It allows us to be smug when talking about China (and the USSR before that). But then we find that we don't "own the hotel" after all, and that the real owners have no desire to run it in the way that suits our interests. So that might be the most important part of the system to change first. Fix democracy so that it works the way its supposed to. Get rid of special interests and monied elites. End the flow of corporate money into politicians' warchests. Get rid of the mounds of personal debt that shackle us to the current system.
I see the occupy protests as an encouraging sign that people are starting to understand these things, and are getting angry about it.
But going back to the hotel metaphor, how will that work? We can't just say, "Hmm, we should get the hotel owners to work in our interests!" and leave it at that. We'll probably need to find something else which we are already allowed to tweak, and tweak that in a way to make the whole opinion feedback loop work again.
On that, I'd love to learn more about the comparison between Hayek and Stafford Beer. Both saw society as complex systems beyond the grasp of any individual or organisations' cognitive limits - but made polar opposite conclusions on what that meant for control. Hayek says: social justice is a dangerous illusion, the catallaxy (the price system and the evolved structures that support it) should not be interfered with - and humans that think differently are no smarter than uppity ants. Stafford Beer and cybernetics I know less about, but I've read that it directly attacks the problem of beyond-cognition-limits complexity and ways to steer it. (Hence Stafford Beer's plan for the Chilean cybernetic economy). But as I say, I worry this takes the same approach as the 'capitalism = perfect democracy' path and mistakes systems signals for the deliberative process of a group of people deciding their own fate.
Making the kind of incremental but substantial changes that Pacala and Socolow describe can hardly be described as tinkering with parameters. These represent large changes in the way that humans collect/generate, distribute, and use energy; they are substantial system changes. And they are flexible and open to adaptive management, as they state in their 2004 paper. Nothing's tightly prescribed.
It's fine to talk social revolution and power to the people and all but call me when it happens on a time or intensity scale that actually means anything.
Very informative piece. I started reading books by Howard T Odum and Fritjof Capra to get more of an understanding of systems theory, after reading a lot on George Mobus' blog called Question Everything, but as it is quite complicated and I have many more, simpler interests, I gave up for the time being.
Here and there you hint at the problem of economic growth and the way it is measured, but just as one of many fragments for which solutions are needed. I personally believe that it is more than just a fragment. I believe it is the key to meaningful change, as the neoclassical economic theory that has infinite growth at its core has shaped so much of our society and culture. In other words, it dominates the context in which everything works, and has become the tool of powerful elites to make all wealth flow in one direction: towards them.
I don't know in which of the 12 numbers it would fit (I'd have to re-read your piece, but need to go to bed now), but what are your thoughts on replacing this neoclassical economic theory by something more rational and comprehensive such as steady state economics, or ecological economics?
Here's what I think: We want to get from a state where one sort of system A dominates, to a state where a different sort of system B prevails, where B exhibits certain attributes we desire -- e.g. the system is durable, it is just, it is simple, it allows for individual expression, it produces policies in the people's interests, etc. And inevitably, the various desirable attributes will tread on each other's toes -- we may need to trade off simplicity for justice, say -- and that's when the fun starts.
I just discovered that this essay is here (with pictures) not just at Serendipity. It might interest you that a similar conclusion is reached by a different route in this essay: America's Democracy Deficit (my title not theirs) at Aljazeera.
Jim: No argument there. But no progress has been made on most of their wedges. In another 7 years, they'll write another paper saying we're now going to need another X wedges.
You can't implement the wedges unless you change some other aspects of the system too. Fixing the way governments (at all levels) make decisions is probably a necessary pre-condition for most of the wedges.
My central argument is that the changes that are needed are so fundamental that they require leverage at the lowest two levels: i.e. paradigm/mindset change, and the ability to step outside paradigms and understand how they work.
If you buy that, then here's the discussion we have to have: Do we need to replace capitalism with a different paradigm? You can't have this question on most blog sites, because you'll be overwhelmed with people who equate the question with treason. For too long, people have been trained to think within a very narrow paradigm, based on two axioms: (1) there are only two choices: capitalism vs. communism, and (2) communism is completely discredited. Which lead to stupid arguments about whether greens are really communists in disguise, because they want to reign in capitalist excesses.
So if neither work, then what's the new paradigm? Or alternatively, if you think capitalism (or, if you like, communism!) can be patched up so that it allows us to live comfortably and sustainably within the planetary boundaries, what does the new version look like?
A comment was moderated out of the stream. See it here.
It is interesting that the current system is called "capitalism" which is the name given it by the communists. One wonders, had communism not come along, would we be so obsessed with finance today.
I don't think the genius of corporate capitalism should be underrated. There are reasons it has become the corrupting influence that have almost nothing to do with individual human choices. But its creativity remains astonishing.
Surely a more important question is to decide what kind of democratic process should be put in place to select good politicians, who will then decide what kind of economic system to enact to protect the 99%.
The Attorney General plays a dual role -- as a prosecutor in federal criminal cases, and as a representative of the executive. This causes a conflict of interest, to such an extent the current AG now pretty much picks and chooses cases based on political considerations rather than facts -- and therein lies the road to national ruin.
Perhaps it's better to have the two roles of the current AG played by two separate people?
Planet3.0 is international in focus. So similar suggestions regarding other countries, and especially analogies, are welcome.
But as far as the US goes, this seems like a good idea. As do Lessig's suggestions for taking money out of politics.
I heard an excellent radio commentary while we were driving a few weeks ago. Very important, I'm Australian. The person being interviewed was saying that her(?his) group had found that there was a profound difference in attitude between Australians and other citizens of the usual democracies. Why? Compulsory voting.
Despite many Australians complaining that it is undemocratic to not allow the 'choice' not to participate in democracy, the mere fact of compulsory voting gave us the advantage of feeling involved. I will try and track it down - it might have been a book review or something similar. But the idea that simple ideas about how (or how much) citizens participate in democracy can lead to greater or lesser feelings of alienation - and thereby to better or worse understanding of policy and issues - is worth thinking about.


text:
Genetic Testing: Clinical and Personal Utility
Rachel A. Mills, MS, Susanne B. Haga, PhD, and Geoffrey S. Ginsburg, MD, PhD
Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(8):604-609. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.8.ecas1-1208.
Dr. Orson is a family practice physician who has been treating Michael since he was born. He knows Michael's parents and siblings, having been their family doctor for nearly 30 years. He is also intimately familiar with Michael's family history: 3 members of his family in their 30s and 40s have suffered sudden cardiac death. Michael is now 22 years old, 10 years younger than his uncle was when he died of this cause. Michael is therefore vigilant about clinical surveillance of his overall health, but tends to avoid the subject of his family history altogether. He has, however, happily shared with Dr. Orson news of his recent marriage and his desire to start a family.
In preparation for Michael's first office visit since his marriage, Dr. Orson has done some research and found a genetic testing kit that examines a 5-gene profile of known inherited mutations that can lead to arrhythmias or death. Dr. Orson believes that the testing will either alleviate Michael's anxiety or allow him and his wife to prepare for possible cardiac complications.
Dr. Orson enters the exam room to find Michael accompanied by his wife Susan, who announces that they are expecting their first child. Dr. Orson congratulates them and inquires after the course of the pregnancy. Then he turns to Michael to continue the annual check-up. After giving Michael a clean bill of health, he brings up the topic of genetic testing and encourages Michael to submit a sample to test for the known channelopathies. Michael's mood changes; he becomes upset and angry about the suggestion.
"I'm about to become a father and you're telling me to take a test that might announce a death sentence?" Michael eventually says.
"I think it would be valuable information to know so we could initiate treatment or, at worst, prepare your family to anticipate…complications. We have ways of better predicting likelihoods of serious diseases now; why not use that information to prepare yourself appropriately?" Dr. Orson retorts.
"Why would I want to know that I might die soon? Can't I just live my life like everybody else, without thinking about my own mortality?" Michael responds.
Dr. Orson insists, "But the test could also provide reassurance, and think of your family and how they should prepare. I'm confident that if this testing had been available for others in your family, they would have gotten it. I really think you should consider it, for your good and the good of your family."
Michael curtly thanks Dr. Orson for his time and the check-up and leaves the appointment. As Susan prepares to follow, Dr. Orson asks her to see if she can talk with him at home about the testing.
In the past two decades, a number of genes have been found to be associated with dysfunctions of ion channels in cells (channelopathies) that can lead to sudden cardiac death. Testing is available when clinical symptoms, abnormal ECGs, or family history are present. Familion [1], GeneDx [2], and Correlagen [3] are commercially available genetic testing panels for mutations underlying channelopathies, cardiomyopathies, and other lethal cardiac disorders. Testing is also available through medical and research facilities [4].
With the identification of several causative genetic variants and testing platforms such as Familion, it is now the standard of care to discuss genetic testing for channelopathies, particularly for patients with a significant family history like Michael's [5, 6]. However, the utility of genetic testing may be limited—only some genetic variations in one disorder, long QT syndrome (LQTS), can guide therapy [7], while the clinical recommendations are not yet well-defined for asymptomatic people with genetic mutations associated with other channelopathies, such as short QT syndrome or Brugada syndrome.
The case of Dr. Orson and his patient Michael raises questions about the management of patients with a family history of sudden cardiac death. One is the timing of Dr. Orson's discussion about genetic testing. Given Dr. Orson's long-time care of Michael and knowledge of the family history, a discussion about genetic testing might have best been had earlier. Though it is possible that Dr. Orson might have not had the knowledge or access to such testing, he could have referred Michael to a genetic specialist who would be more knowledgeable about familial channelopathies and options for genetic testing. Unfortunately, like many primary care physicians today, Dr. Orson may have been hindered by lack of education about genetics and genetic testing or lack of access to genetics professionals [8].
The primary ethical dilemma is that Dr. Orson is stuck between the duties of beneficence and nonmaleficence on the one hand and respect for patient autonomy on the other. These three principles are central to medical ethics. Beneficence means promoting good and nonmaleficence is the avoidance of harm; respecting patient autonomy is about honoring and promoting patients' wishes, values, and preferences for health care. Dr. Orson recognizes that if Michael doesn't have this testing, he may be missing the opportunity for treatment. Further, Dr. Orson is concerned about the health and well-being of Michael's unborn child and any future children.
To find balance between these competing ethical duties, it is important that Dr. Orson and Michael consider the clinical utility, as well as the personal utility, of the test. Clinical utility is an intervention's usefulness in changing clinical outcomes, while personal utility takes into account things like psychosocial effects, family planning, lifestyle changes, future decision making, and the value of the information to the patient [9].
Dr. Orson's situation is not an uncommon one, especially concerning genetic tests with limited clinical utility. The potential "burden of knowledge" often influences a patient's perception of personal utility, as is commonly seen by geneticists and genetic counselors working with families affected by diseases like Huntington, Alzheimer, and some cancers. There are currently no treatment or preventative measures that patients at increased risk of these diseases can take; thus, genetic testing would not have significant clinical utility. The primary benefits of this testing would be personal: genetic testing can provide knowledge about disease risk for the patient and family members and inform life and end-of-life decisions. The risks associated with testing for diseases with no clinical utility include psychological burden and genetic discrimination—although the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) protects patients from changes in health insurance or employment, it does not cover life insurance or disability [10].
It is difficult to compare the risks and benefits of genetic testing in cases like Michael's; each risk or benefit can have a different "weight" for every patient. Even people within the same family may make different decisions about testing based on how they weigh these risks and benefits.
Testing Michael for channelopathies may have some clinical utility, unlike testing for Huntington or Alzheimer diseases. With a genetic diagnosis of long QT syndrome, for example, there would be the possibility of treatment with beta blockers and risk reduction by lifestyle modification. However, in Michael's situation the benefits of genetic testing are uncertain. It is unclear which hereditary channelopathy is affecting Michael's family. Without this knowledge, one cannot know whether Michael's genetic test would yield clinically useful information. If a symptomatic family member were to undergo genetic testing to identify the underlying mutation, the type of channelopathy would be specified. Then Dr. Orson and Michael would have a better understanding of the clinical utility of genetic testing for him. However, as Michael is already "vigilant about clinical surveillance of his overall health," he would probably find that genetic testing has limited clinical usefulness if testing of another family member revealed the familial syndrome was not treatable.
Though it is important that Dr. Orson consider the implications of genetic testing, ultimately the decision is Michael's. A legal and ethical precedent has been set recognizing patients' right not to know their genetic risk for diseases [11]. The decision about genetic testing is a personal one that is influenced by a number of factors that a health care professional may or may not be able to appreciate completely. The patient will likely take into account the perceived treatability and preventability of the disease as well as a perception of his or her own personal risk [12]. Given the possibility of minimal clinical utility, the decision hinges on Michael's view of the test's personal utility.
It may be beneficial for Dr. Orson to refer Michael to a genetic counselor or a geneticist who is trained to discuss such testing with patients. Genetic counselors have a central ethos of "nondirectiveness" [13]; counselors seek to provide the patient with the information necessary to make an informed decision. Genetics professionals may also be able to determine which channelopathy is affecting Michael's family by doing a thorough review of his family history, thereby informing the decision further.
Dr. Orson may also consider bringing up genetic testing to another family member, perhaps someone who has been affected with symptoms of a channelopathy like syncopy or who has an abnormal ECG. Genetic testing is most informative when performed on someone affected by the disease in question [14]. Once a concrete diagnosis is made within the family, Michael may reconsider testing, particularly if treatment options are available or he is interested in the possibility of ruling out the presence of the mutation.
Autonomy/Informed consent,
Genetics/Genetic testing,
Patient-clinician relationship/Conflict of values
Transgenomic. FAMILION comprehensive genetic tests for cardiac syndromes. http://www.familion.com. Accessed July 20, 2012.
GeneDx webs site. http://www.genedx.com. Accessed July 20, 2012.
Correlagen web site. http://www.correlagen.com. Accessed July 20, 2012.
See an extensive list at National Center for Biotechnology Information. GeneTests. http://www.genetests.org. Accessed July 20, 2012.
Ackerman MJ, Priori SG, Willems S, et al. HRS/EHRA expert consensus statement on the state of genetic testing for the channelopathies and cardiomyopathies. Europace. 2011;13(8):1077-1109.
Cowan J, Morales A, Dagua J, Hershberger RE. Genetic testing and genetic counseling in cardiovascular genetic medicine: overview and preliminary recommendations. Congest Heart Fail. 2008;14(2):97-105.
Modell SM, Bradley DJ, Lehmann MH. Genetic testing for long QT syndrome and the category of cardiac ion channelopathies. PloS Curr. 2012. http://currents.plos.org/genomictests/article/genetic-testing-for-long-qt-syndrome-and-the-category-of-cardiac-ion-channelopathies/. Accessed July 20, 2012.
Klitzman R, Chung W, Marder K, et al. Attitudes and practices among internists concerning genetic testing. J Genet Couns. Published 2012 May 15 [epub ahead of print].
Grosse SD, Kalman L, Khoury MJ. Evaluation of the validity and utility of genetic testing for rare diseases. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2010;686(115):131-
Department of Health and Human Services. "GINA": The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008: information for researchers and health care professionals. http://www.genome.gov/Pages/PolicyEthics/GeneticDiscrimination/GINAInfoDoc.pdf. Accessed May 17, 2012.
Andorno R. The right not to know: an autonomy based approach. J Med Ethics. 2004;30(5):435-439. http://jme.bmj.com/content/30/5/435.full. Accessed May 17, 2012.
Norrgard K. Ethics of genetic testing: medical insurance and genetic discrimination. Nature Educ. 2008;1:1. http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/ethics-of-genetic-testing-medical-insurance-and-651. Accessed May 16, 2012.
Uhlmann WR, Schuette JL, Yashar BM (eds). A Guide to Genetic Counseling. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley-Liss, Inc.; 2011.
Tester D, Will M, Haglund C, Ackerman M. Effect of clinical phenotype on yield of long QT syndrome genetic testing. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2006;47(4):764-768.
Virtual Mentor. 2012;14(8):604-609.
10.1001/virtualmentor.2012.14.8.ecas1-1208.
The people and events in this case are fictional. Resemblance to real events or to names of people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The viewpoints expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.
Rachel A. Mills, MS is a clinical research coordinator and certified genetic counselor at the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She received her MS in genetic counseling from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her primary research interests include public and professional genetics education and the use of genomics in health care.
Susanne B. Haga, PhD is an associate research professor at the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy and Sanford School of Public Policy and the director of education and training at the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, all at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She received a PhD in human genetics from the University of Maryland. Her research interests focus on the translation of genomic medicine, particularly pharmacogenetics, and the legal, regulatory, ethical, educational, and social implications of genomic research and applications.
Geoffrey S. Ginsburg, MD, PhD is the founding director for genomic medicine at the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, the founding executive director of the Center for Personalized Medicine, and a professor of medicine and pathology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Duty to Warn At-Risk Family Members of Genetic Disease
Anne-Marie Laberge, MD, PhD and Wylie Burke, MD, PhD
Familial Genetic Risk
David John Doukas, MD
Getting Personal: The Promises and Potential Pitfalls of Personalized Medicine
Byram H. Ozer, MD, PhD
Will Personalized Medicine Challenge or Reify Categories of Race and Ethnicity?
Ramya Rajagopalan, PhD and Joan H. Fujimura, PhD
State of the Art and Science
Advances in Clinical Genomics
Aaron M. Lowe, PhD
Ghazal of Algorithms
Sara Wainscott, MFA


surface must be maintained according to Fibar's maintenance instructions.
Prior to the start of construction, you will receive a binder with all the necessary information to properly construct your Fibar System playground safety surface. It will also include special tools to make the job more efficient, and to help ensure playground equipment safety. Additional copies are available upon request at no charge.
These rubber wear mats provide extra protection and accessibility. To prevent displacement of the Fibar in high-use areas, FibarMat wear mats must be installed under all swings, tire swings, slide exits, and all other wear areas, including sliding poles. This will help to ensure compliance with the Federal Accessibility Law of March 15, 2012. Note: A FibarMat wear mat must be installed under all swings and slide exits to preserve the Warranty.
Swings: A Use Zone equal to 4 times the height of the top rail is needed in front of and behind swings (2 times in front and 2 times behind) to ensure a safe swing set.
Slides: For playground protection on slides, the Use Zone surrounding a slide should be a minimum of 6 feet, except for the slide exit area where the Use Zone shall be a minimum of 6 feet or the distance between the highest point of the slide to the protective surfacing. The Use Zone at the slide exit need not exceed 8 feet.
Comprehensive instructions on maintenance are included with FibarSystems installation instructions.Your local Representative is available to deal with any immediate questions you might have.
Fibar® Engineered Wood Fiber was tested by U.S. Testing Laboratory, Textile Service Division. Detailed test results are available from The Fibar Group, LLC.
FibarSystems are unique playground surface products, the creation and origination of which are covered by U.S. Patent Numbers 4,679,963; 5,026,207; and 5,076,726. Prior to construction, the installer must obtain a license from The Fibar Group, LLC. There is no charge for this license. Following the designs according to the patents ensures that FibarSystems will be installed correctly, with the correct material, which, in turn, guarantees coverage under all applicable warranties and product liability insurance.
Please make sure that there is a suitable area for access and delivery.
"Safety and Legal Compliance for Playground Surfaces" and "FibarSystem Accessibility" are available from your local Representative or The Fibar Group, LLC. Presentations with featured speakers can be arranged for large groups.
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In the interest of public playground safety, IPEMA provides a Third Party Certification Service whereby an independent laboratory validates a surfacing manufacturer's conformance to ASTM F1292, Standard Specification for Impact Attenuation Under and Around Playground Equipment, and for an engineered wood fiber manufacturer, its certification of conformance, also, to ASTM F2075, Standard Specification for Engineered Wood Fiber for Use as a Playground Safety Surface Under and Around Playground Equipment, Section 4.6, for testing the presence of Tramp Metal. The use of the corresponding logo(s) in Fibar materials signifies that The Fibar Group, LLC has received written validation from the independent laboratory that the product(s) associated with the use of the logo(s) conforms to the requirements of the indicated standard. Check the IPEMA website (www.ipema.org) to confirm product certification, its thickness, and critical height.


Many people have made Wild Folk, well, Wild Folk. Along the way the different personalities and directions that the farm has taken have provided us with a rich history and some deep foundations with which to grow.
In the summer 2012 the farm energy, plan and direction got reinvigorated as Ben came aboard. Born in the suburban flatlandia, where the grass grows as high as a chipmunk's eye, Ben didn't see himself settling down in rural Maine. After graduating from college nearby, he starting farming in Maine with an apprenticeship, then a management position at a non-profit in Portland, a farming consulting gig in Zimbabwe, and few other pursuits out west before realizing that trying to leave Maine was futile. He is currently in the MOFGA Journey-person program and has been managing the farm for the past 2 years. Learning from the land, and systems, soils, and structures have been a main focus.
We see permaculture, farming and community as great tools for the social and environmental directions we support, largely due to their ability to address large issues with small-scale grassroots solutions. We believe in the movement and intertwining of movements, which means we value opening the food movement in new horizons (i.e. permaculture production and experimentation & flood paddy rice), and synthesizing how we eat with how we communicate.
The nearby community is dear to the farm's character and conviviality; folks come out often. We try to have cob oven parties twice monthly during the summer and yoga sessions as well. Many close friends (David for one) live in town where we frequent dinners, parties, food/wine tasting and the like. We have been so fortunate with all of our past apprentices, Wild Folk, and the relationships we have all cultivated together.


text:
Warren Promises to Divide Jerusalem, Fund Terrorists
The hostility of the American Left to Israel goes back to Soviet policy during the Cold War years. This is one more blast from the past we could do without.
By Karin McQuillan
Democrat presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were the star speakers at the national conference of J Street, a woke anti-Israel (verging on anti-Semitic) group, which met last week in Washington, D.C. Our two socialist candidates, sharing the podium with terrorists, are competing to see who can top the other in betraying our ally, Israel, and promoting Palestinian terrorism.
Warren addressed the audience by a video, in which she promised to divide Jerusalem. "Both parties should be able to have their capitals in Jerusalem," she declared.
For Warren to promise that as president she would carve out part of Israel's capital city and hand it over to Israel's mortal enemies is an ugly and dangerous plan. It wouldn't be within her power or legal authority in any event.
But bullying Israel plays well with her woke audience, stewed in campus anti-Semitism and anti-Israel propaganda for decades. It suits Warren's Marxist anti-colonial voters to believe that as Caucasians, Israelis have no rights to their indigenous homeland, nor to its Jewish capital founded long before Christianity and Islam were born.
Warren should know that dividing Jerusalem is terrible for American interests. She would create a terrorist enclave in the heart of Israel's capital and destabilize our strongest ally in the fragile Middle East.
Such is Warren's big plan for Israel, which she summarizes as a means to "fix the damage caused by Donald Trump's reckless policies."
Promises Kept
Soon after taking office, President Trump cemented his reputation as a straight shooter who does what he promises, when he moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. It was a dramatic message to the Palestinians that their threats of violence will no longer intimidate us. Similar to his policies on the U.S. border, Trump's allegedly rash act was merely following a law passed by Congress decades ago.
Presidents Bush and Obama each courted American voters by promising the very same thing, but as soon as they were elected, they quietly deep-sixed their pledges, citing "national security" reasons. Trump, too, was warned the Middle East would erupt if he stuck to his pledge, but the president follows common sense and honors the trust of voters and our allies. He doesn't cover his derriere by following the self-interested advice of experts.
Unlike Warren, President Trump wouldn't dream of kowtowing to Arab anti-Semitism and imperialist ambitions. He treated Israel with the same respect accorded all other nations, by locating our embassy in their capital. There was no Arab meltdown. On the contrary, the Saudis and Israel have a more realistic relationship of détente under Trump's foreign policy than ever before. The Palestinian Authority has been quiet.
It was also a smart move politically. President Trump won a lot of gratitude from American Christians and conservative Jews. Retired Jews are a key voting demographic in the important swing state of Florida, and helped deliver the state to him in 2016. Miami-Dade voters over the age of 45 voted 56 percent for Trump.
Writing Off Voters, Scamming Taxpayers
By reversing Trump's course with Israel, Warren would write off older Jews, just as she is writing off large swathes of the unwoke American public.
Warren had more to promise her followers who loathe Israel. She plans on "finding ways to apply pressure and create consequences," specifically, knuckling Israel under by withholding military aid.
Apparently she wants to resuscitate Obama's hostile attitude toward Israeli and American Jews, which helped presidential contender Mitt Romney win 30 percent of the Jewish vote.
Warren also pledged she would restore funds that President Trump wisely cut that were dedicated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and to Gaza, which is run by the terror group Hamas.
Canceling UNRWA was one of President Trump's genius moves. UNRWA is a U.N. agency dedicated solely to helping Palestinian "refugees." Other refugees are persons fleeing their country. A Palestinian "refugee" need only have a great-grandparent who once worked in Israel. Part-time work counts. The U.N. defines Palestinians as refugees who always lived on the Arab side of the 1949 armistice line.
For decades, UNWRA was a wealth redistribution project, taking $250 million a year from American taxpayers and shelling it out to Palestinian terrorists and welfare queens. We paid for food, education, housing, and even personal loans for 5 million qualifying Palestinians, irrespective of financial need. Millionaires were not excluded from our generosity.
President Trump hates America being played for a sucker.
UNWRA had 30,000 employees of which all but 200 were Palestinian. Since there are only 30,000 Palestinians alive today who were displaced in 1948, that's a 1-1 staff-to-refugee ratio. U.N. international staffing for all other refugee services in the world is less than 6,000 people. Total. That's for 126 countries such as Sudan, Somalia, and Syria. The most staff any one country gets is 437.
A Terrorist Mini-State on the Dole
Is UNRWA really Warren's idea of fairness or compassion? Is she blind to what UNWRA became—a hostage situation in which terrorists were put in charge of ordinary Palestinian people?
It is well known that Palestinian terrorists run UNRWA housing projects and schools. UNWRA teachers destroyed four generations of Palestinian children, making them moral monsters who believe Jews are subhuman pigs who deserve to be slaughtered. They groom 7-year-olds to become suicide bombers. They run paramilitary summer camps where small children must leap through a hoop set on fire, screaming, "Kill the Jews." These camps were paid for by American funds until Congress put a stop to it.
In short, UNRWA was a terrorist mini-state on the U.S. dole.
President Trump killed this scam. This is what Warren promises to revive. On "humanitarian" grounds.
Which raises the perennial question: Why don't liberal Jews use their brains and see that the Democrats are throwing them to the wolves?
Answer: most don't want to be blacklisted professionally and socially by parting ways with their intolerant and punitive fellow Democrats. The good news: A small but crucial and growing number of Jewish voters will find the growing Democrat level of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish animus is a step too far.
This week in Iowa, a Democrat voter accused America of "genocide" against the Palestinians. Warren nodded and agreed, "I like your frame on this."
About Karin McQuillan
Karin McQuillan served in the Peace Corps in West Africa, was a clinical social worker and psychotherapist, and is now a writer and regular contributor to American Thinker and American Greatness.
Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images


text:
Apr 23, 2020, 9:29 AM
Headlines in Iranian English-language dailies on April 23
Tehran, April 23, IRNA – The following headlines appeared in the English-language newspapers in the Iranian capital on Thursday:
** IRAN DAILY
IRGC puts Iran's multifunctional orbit into satellite
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRCTC) said on Wednesday it successfully launched and placed Iran's multipurpose satellite into the orbit which is also capable of carrying out defense operations.
Rouhani: Iran will fare better than others after oil price drop
Iran will not suffer as much as other countries from the oil price drop because it is less reliable than others on crude exports, President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday.
US fails to block UN virus vaccine resolution
The UN General Assembly has demanded equal access for any future COVID-I9 vaccine but its seeming unanimity was a fluke. The United States, in fact, opposed the resolution but acted too late to stop it, diplomats said Wednesday.
** KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL
Iran Shoots First Military Satellite Into Orbit
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has successfully launched and placed the country's first military satellite into the orbit.
U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Double in Little Over Week
U.S. coronavirus deaths topped 45,000 doubling in a little over a week and rising by a near-record amount in a single day.
Iran Less Harmed by Oil Price Drop Than Others: President
Since Iran's dependence on the oil incomes has been reduced, its economy will suffer fewer harms than other oil producers in the wake of the recent plunge in the crude prices, President Hassan Rouhani says.
** TEHRAN TIMES
Iran's IRGC launches first military satellite into orbit
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) successfully launched Iran's first military satellite into the orbit on Wednesday
Historic fall in U.S. oil prices amid virus outbreak
When the capital city of Tehran partially emerged out of the shutdown on Saturday, we witnessed some traffic on the roads for the first time after almost a month, since the beginning of Nowruz holidays. President Hassan Rouhani has refused to implement 24- hour lockdown
U.S. opposing good relations between Iran, neighbors: Takht-Ravanchi
Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, has said Iran is ready to make amends with its neighbors while the U.S. remains the main obstacle to peace in Western Asia.
** FINANCIAL TRIBUNE
Iran's Housing PMI Hits New Low
Amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the Purchasing Manager's Index for Iran's housing sector fell to the lowest level in the month ending March 19 since the index was first calculated for the sector in the Iranian month starting Oct. 22, 2019, with a reading of 44.30.
Iran Launches 1st Military Satellite
Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has successfully placed Iran's first military satellite into orbit on Wednesday.
More Corona Curbs Eased
Iran reopened its parks and recreation areas on Wednesday in line with its phased easing of coronavirus restrictions, following a recent decline in infections and deaths.


Will the public have the same opportunity to be involved in the Clean Air Act permitting process for hazardous waste combustors as they now have for the RCRA permitting process?
The opportunities for public involvement in the Clean Air act permitting process are commensurate with those in the RCRA permitting process. The public participation requirements for title V permits are identified in Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR) parts 70 and 71, and include such activities as allowing an opportunity for public hearing and public comments on draft permits. In addition, we are requiring an informal public meeting early in the MACT compliance process as part of the requirements for the Notification of Intent to Comply (NIC). This meeting, which provides an opportunity for the public to learn of a facility's plans for compliance, is patterned after the RCRA pre-application meeting.
We also recommend that once a facility that already has a title V permit completes its performance testing under the MACT requirements, and submits its Notification of Compliance (NOC), that the initial NOC be incorporated into the title V permit using the significant permit revision procedures. The primary rationale for using these procedures is to afford the public an opportunity to review all of the information pertinent to the facility's compliance obligations. We want to ensure a level of public involvement when including operating requirements in title V permits that is commensurate with that under RCRA. In RCRA, operating parameters are initially developed pursuant to trial burns and incorporated into permits either through initial issuance (in the case of facilities operating under RCRA interim status) or through a RCRA class 2 or 3 permit modification (in the case of new facilities). In either situation, significant opportunities exist for public review and input parallel to those under initial title V permit issuance or significant permit modification procedures.


David Bowers, born 1956 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and graduated from art school in Pittsburgh 1979. He began working as a staff artist at various studios in the Pittsburgh, PA area. In 1981, David began teaching his craft at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where he lectured for ten years. In 1991, David began his illustration career working mostly with book publishers in New York City in which he completed over one hundred book covers in the span of over ten years. His work has graced the cover of numerous prominent magazines, including TIME. He painted the portrait of J. P. Morgan for the cover of Cigar Aficionado , as well as the family portrait of the Rothschild family and the Chateau Latour Winery for the covers of Wine Spectator magazines. His illustrations have won many awards over the years, recognising Bowers' position as one of the eminent illustrators of his time. As David transitioned into Fine Art, his work continues to be recognized by various organizations including the "Best of Show" from the American Society of Traditional Artists in 2014, the "Jack Buncher Award" from the Carnegie Museum of Art in 2013, the "Best of Show" in 2011, "The Best Tromp L'oeil" in 2010 and "Pioneer in Realism" award in 2009 from the International Guild of Realism.
Bowers' paintings are in many private collections throughout the United States and Europe as well as The Museum of American Illustration in New York and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.


Shutter Sports are team sport photography specialists. Founded in 2016 by Kara & Will who met on the job and realised the industry needed an update. With over 15 years combined experience they have refreshed and modernised the service currently offered to junior sporting clubs. Their fun and streamlined approach requires minimal input from coaches and managers and creates a flexible and reliable service.


Babar and his family are enjoying a day aboard their boat when a sudden storm sweeps them far away from Celesteville and they end up shipwrecked on a coral reef. The elephants are able to make their way to shore on a nearby tropical island which appears to be uninhabited. Soon, however, Babar and his family make an exotic new friend who shows them how to find food and shelter and introduces them to all the wonders of the island. Despite the fun they have singing songs, telling stories and even baking delicious treats, the elephants yearn for their home in Celesteville. Will they ever be rescued and what will happen to their newfound friend?
Babar on Paradise Island is a tale of friendship and discovery. Created by Jean de Brunhoff in 1931 from an original bedtime story by his wife, Babar has lived on through his son Laurent de Brunhoff who has kept his spirit alive for more than 50 years. Building on the original framework he has created many new and exciting adventures for the elephant family.


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Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur's Soul — Stefan Doering Interview for TV Show The New Yorkers – Best Coaches Inc
Stefan Doering
Edna White
Thomas Moebus
Vision / Mission Statement
COACHING & SERVICES
Complimentary Strategy
Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur's Soul — Stefan Doering Interview for TV Show The New Yorkers
In 2002 I was nearly killed in an assault on the street. After regaining consciousness from a coma, I had lost 95% of my vision, much of my hearing and almost all of my balance. Doctors announced I might never walk again.
When I left the hospital, I decided to set a seemingly impossible goal for myself– to run five miles in Central Park within 90 days. The support I got from dozens of friends and business associates — and a mastermind group that I created — showed me the power of having a team in achieving an unreasonable goal.
That's when I decided to dedicate my life to helping others achieve the unreasonable.
Chicken Soup for the Soul is a series of nonfiction books, each of which contains a collection of short, inspirational stories and motivational essays. There are now hundreds of titles, and it is one of the best selling nonfiction series of all time.
As you know, they have long branched out from their original book to titles like, Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul, Chicken Soup for the Adopted Souland many others.
That's where I come in to this story. Chicken Soup of the Soul had been working on the title, Chicken Soup of the Entrepreneur's Soul for seven or eight years. The format of the book follows the theme of the series, and includes inspiring stories and essays written by entrepreneurs to help motivate other entrepreneurs. The content is meant to be uplifting, and to encourage entrepreneurs to move beyond obstacles. I am one of the entrepreneurs who shared their story.
and if you're ready to make your own unreasonable goals a reality, sign up for a free 45 minute consulting call.
The New Yorkers Television Interview: Stefan Doering, BEST Coaches, Inc. from BEST Coaches on Vimeo.
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The heavy-duty version of our premium NATO watch strap with the classic Bond style stripes, with updated buckle. Very fine weaving as the regular PhenomeNato straps, but a little thicker (and stiffer). Stainless-steel rectangular keepers, and sewn-in buckle with high polished finish.


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goCapeBreton.com
Please take a moment to: Sign Our Petition
Why is Cape Breton having to wait?
Sustainability and good business go hand-in-hand
Cape Breton Post 11 Aug 2021
MARY C. SENECAL-MACPHERSON This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
When we hear candidates or elected officials make cliched remarks such as they want assurance of a return for the investment, it's a clue that they are not paying attention. They can't possibly be aware of the federal government's response to the Climate Change accord, with unprecedented funding for infrastructure which includes the short-line funding that supports a green economy and economic development.
Canadians and people all around the world are dealing with floods, fires, drought and early and protracted hurricane seasons, all climate change driven. We are beginning to feel the impact that scientists predicted years ago. Very recently we have been advised by the scientists to accelerate our efforts. This decade, 2020 to 2030, is critical to avoiding the worst consequences of the climate crisis.
Unfortunately, with little time remaining, we as Canadians need to compensate for those countries that are lax in their efforts to meet their obligations.
The Railway Association of Canada, states that "Rail is three times more beneficial to the environment than truck and four times more fuel efficient. Rail can move one tonne of freight 215 kilometers on a single liter of fuel and a single freight train is capable of removing over 300 trucks from our congested road and highway networks."
In Canada, transportation is seen as the major contributor to greenhouse gases, 27.4 per cent. Trucks contribute to the bulk of this offence, producing over half of all trade-related emissions.
The Canadian government is strongly moving toward a green economy. If hundreds of trucks daily from the Moncton-North Sydney-Moncton route were reduced and replaced with a commitment to rail it would make an appreciable difference for the environment and would help to bring us in line with an economic policy that rejects regional disparity.
Currently, these trucks are fueled, staffed, maintained and insured in New Brunswick. Heavy trucks add to the highway maintenance costs for Nova Scotia. With only 20 per cent of the traffic going to the Newfoundland ferry being required to have a viable rail system, it wouldn't render the trucking industry inviable. Nova Scotia's 2019 figure for highway and road restoration is $1.6 billion. The savings to the province against these costs could alone meet the requirements of a sound business case.
Rail restoration for eastern Nova Scotia can be a sustained contributor toward solving the problem of climate change and at the same time enable the province to respond to the dire economic needs of our region and to the alarming safety concerns. The port-rail strategy will yield a thriving economy which in turn will attract and retain badly needed doctors.
In Barry Sheehy's recent column ('Nova Scotia lagging behind rest of country,' Cape Breton Post, July 27), he points to the abundant natural resources Nova Scotia has that are in global demand and questions why they are not being exported. The revitalization of rail has the potential to benefit not only eastern Nova Scotia but the entire province, the entire region. Rail can facilitate new European market access for a wide range of local products, overall, dramatically increasing multilateral bulk trade.
No surprise that Nova Scotia, with the lowest per capita income, correspondingly, has the lowest trade to GDP ratio in the country. We know that trade drives the economy; trade should never be a concern for a coastal province.
It's not just an end-of-line problem for Sydney. The whole line - Pictou County, Port Hawkesbury, Richmond and other locations – is adversely impacted without rail. It is difficult to attract new businesses and impossible for existing businesses to grow without rail. Rail will benefit all, including Halifax. Rail will ensure uninterrupted service to Newfoundland, a constitutional obligation.
The restoration of rail will position Nova Scotia as a gateway to Canada and the United States, not unlike the Vancouver-Prince Rupert, B.C., model. Keep in mind, in the beginning, Vancouver strongly opposed Prince Rupert but today the arrangement is a remarkable success. Prince Rupert did not draw traffic from Vancouver. Instead, bulk exports were increased to meet the number of imports.
The need for rail is more than a regional thing. It's global.
We acknowledge and thank NDP Leader Gary Burrill for his public expression of support for rail. Burrill recognizes the regional disparity and knows there is no need of it.
The Scotia Rail Development Society urges the public to contact the candidates/elected officials and express your support of rail and help make it part of the discourse. Time for Cape Breton to speak up; everything hangs in the balance.
Mary C. Senecal-MacPherson serves as secretary for the Scotia Rail Development Society. The Sydney resident is a retired teacher and NGO executive assistant.
Copyright © 2021 Cape Breton Post
Our Mission Is Fivefold:
Explore various options for continuation of the rail service to Sydney, Cape Breton
Demonstrate the vital importance regionally in order to support the continuation of the rail link to Sydney, Cape Breton
Support efforts to ensure continuation of the rail link to Sydney, Cape Breton
Secure in perpetuity the right of way of the line
Demonstrate that rail transport is the most affordable and environmentally friendly land transport for climate change
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Q: C# - Keeping the values from functions I want to call a function like Spawn() in this case, but without losing values from it after calling it (for example, I want entityPicture to still be available after I call Spawn(), so I can use it later on MainWindow_KeyDown() function). Same with X and other variables like that.
using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace EpicGame
{
  public partial class MainWindow : Form
  {
    public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    public void MainWindow_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        int EntityCount = 0;
        Background.ImageLocation = "Background.jpg";
        Background.SizeMode = PictureBoxSizeMode.AutoSize;

        Spawn(600, 600, EntityCount, "Player 1.png"); EntityCount++;
    }

    // Controls
    public void MainWindow_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.KeyCode == Keys.D) MoveRight();
        entityPicture.Location = new Point(X, Y);
    }

    // Movement
    public void MoveRight()
    {
        X++;
    }

    // Entity spawning
    public void Spawn(int X, int Y, int ID, string Path)
    {
        PictureBox entityPicture = new PictureBox();
        Image Entity = Image.FromFile(Path);
        entityPicture.Image = Entity;
        entityPicture.SizeMode = PictureBoxSizeMode.AutoSize;
        entityPicture.Location = new Point(X, Y);
        entityPicture.BackColor = Color.Transparent;
        Controls.Add(entityPicture);
        entityPicture.BringToFront();
    }

    private void Background_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

    }
  }
}

A: You can declare it public in the form class like:
  public partial class MainWindow : Form
  {
      PictureBox entityPicture = new PictureBox();

  }

I don't know the type of entityPicture so just used PictureBox as example, you use the correct type.

A: Your root issue is one of scope.  Have a look at this video, it walks through your exact issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NemPMKTxM7w
You can technically move entityPicture to the top of the class, however given this appears to be a WinForms window, I would add the PictureBox via the designer so it's only declared once.  If you declare it at the class level and reinitialize it in Spawn (i.e. = new PictureBox()) repeatedly, you're going to create a memory leak.

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