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Home/HRDs in Israel and the OPT/December 2022 Newsletter
December 2022 NewsletterNoa2022-12-16T00:23:17+02:00
Recent Developments in the Situation of Palestinian and Israeli Human Rights Defenders – December 2022
Rising Settlers' Violence in the West Bank
West Bank: The case of Hafez Huraini
On Monday, September 12th, a violent incident took place in the oPt, near A-Tuwani village. Hafez Huraini, a prominent Palestinian HRD was quietly working his land when several settlers approached him carrying weapons – including an M16 gun – and threatened him. A violent incident pursued, and Huraini was injured in both his arms as a result of the attack. One of the settlers was also injured, as part of Huraini's attempts to defend himself against the trespassing and severe violence inflicted upon him. Immediately after the incident, Palestinian and Israeli activists on the ground called the Israeli police; while Huraini was immediately detained, arrested and interrogated for attempted murder, the settlers remained free.
This is an outrageous accusation, not only as Huraini acted in self-defense upon the violent settler attack, but also because the settlers have trespassed into his private land. Following the incident, Huraini was arrested for 10 days, while the settlers remained free, and were not even interrogated until a week after the event. HRDF-funded lawyer, Adv. Riham Nassra, represented him in all three arrest hearings in the military court before he was finally released on the night of Thursday, September 22nd, with release terms of a 10,000 NIS deposit, two bails of 5,000 NIS each, and a ban from his field where the incident has happened.
As of today, Huraini was not indicted for this incident – however, that does not mean he will not be indicted for it in the future. He recently went through surgery on his arm.
Please read more about this case here.
Hafez Huraini at his arrest hearing, with two hands broken. Photo by Oren Ziv, Local Call
Hagar Geffen and Michal Hai
On October 19th, 2022, in the Palestinian village Kissan near Betlehem, Israeli HRDs Hagar Geffen and Michal Hai, were violently attacked by settlers, as they were accompanying Palestinians during the olive harvest.
Every year in the fall, many Palestinian families go to harvest their olives; in the past years, given the rise in settler's violence, they are assisted and accompanied by Palestinian, Israeli and international activists, as part of the "Faza'a" activity.
As the HRDs got near the field, settler youth began following them. When they reached the field to begin the activity, they saw that the olives were already stolen. Soon after, a group of masked settlers arrived and began throwing stones towards them and beat them using kicks and bats. Hagar, who is seventy years old, was severely hurt and had to be evicted to receive medical care. She was hospitalized with fractures in her shoulder and chest and with a broken rib.
Another HRD, Michal Hai, had begun filming the incident as the settlers approached them. Soon after, as she was trying to protect Hagar from the attackers, she was also attacked: the settlers beat her and stole her photography equipment. They also stole Geffen's phone out of her bag, and her camera.
Even though there is clear documentation of some parts of the incident, to this date no suspects were arrested. At first, the police also did not contact Geffen to take her testimony; then, they called her and a few others for interrogation. Eventually Geffen was contacted to give her testimony, but the other activists were interrogated as suspects for causing a severe injury, and released with bail and a 15-day ban from the harvest area. Apparently, the settlers had submitted a complain on assault.
HRDF-funded lawyer, adv. Riham Nassra, represented the two HRDs. We will continue to follow this case.
Attack of Hagar Geffen by violent settlers.
Police Brutality by Proxy: Settlers' Violence in Sheikh Jarrah
On the night between October 13th and 14th, a massive settler attack took place in Sheikh Jarrah. Starting at 9 pm and for about four hours, dozens of right-wing activists and settlers attacked the neighborhood violently, all while the police is present and not preventing it.
According to HRDs and the neighborhood residents, around one hundred settler youth took part in the attack. The police present on the ground did not try to stop the Israelis, however when some Palestinians started throwing stones in in self-defense, the policemen arrested them. In addition, MK Ben-Gvir – who is going to be the Minister for National Security in the forming government, came to the neighborhood and even pulled out his gun, to which the police did not respond either.
Throughout the night the police arrested ten Palestinian residents – including four minors; no Israelis were arrested. HRDF-funded lawyer, Adv. Nasser Odeh represented nine of the ten arrestees, including the minors. On Friday, and after an arrest hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrates Court, one of the minors was released, and the other three were held in custody until Sunday.
However, regarding the five adult arrestees, the judge refused to have a full arrest hearing given the late time of day (close to Shabbat), despite Adv. Odeh's objection. The judge had briefly looked at the material before deciding to release one of the arrestees; the rest remained in custody until Sunday. Later on that day, two more Palestinian were arrested – one of them a minor.
On Sunday, October 16th, the three minors were released to home arrest for five days, while the rest remained in detention for another two to three days.
One of the Palestinian residents of the neighborhood was interviewed to Local Call, and said: "the police gave them a green light to attack us, to do whatever they want, but we were hurt (by the police) with stun-grenades and the (policemen) came after us" (rough translation). Other activists have attested to the same thing, and there is also some video footage from the event showing policemen in the scene doing nothing to stop the Israeli violent attack. Some Sheikh Jarrah residents were hurt and needed medical care.
Only at 1 am, after hours of the attack – the police brought larger forces and dispersed the Israeli settlers.
While this settlers' attack did not include direct police violence, standing around violent settlers and not stopping them from attacking Palestinians is, indeed, providing them with a 'green light' to their violent actions. This is police brutality by proxy, as the police is supposed to protect all people from intentional violent attacks against them, not according to political and ethnical distinctions.
Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah examining the damage to their cars after the nightly violence. Photo by Oren Ziv, Local Call
Military and Police Harassment of HRDs in the oPt
South Hebron Hills: Arrest of Palestinian Farmer while Working in His Field
Said Awaad is a Palestinian farmer and a prominent HRD who fights for the land rights of his local community in the South Hebron Hills. Since the area is exposed to harassment from settlers to the farmers who work in their fields, he is often accompanied by "Taayush" activists to prevent this harassment. On Saturday, November 12th, he was arrested by the military, allegedly for violating a closed military zone order. Even though this is a minor alleged offense, he was detained for 96 hours. On Tuesday, November 15th, his arrest hearing took place at the Ofer military court – a day earlier as per the defense's request.
In the hearing, the police said that Awaad violates closed military zones repeatedly, and therefore asked to release him with a ban from the zone for 90 days, and bail. HRDF-funded lawyer, Adv. Riham Nassra represented Awaad, and claimed that there was no reason to keep him in custody for so long for such a minor, and sole, offense. She also explained that Awaad was on his way to his field which is inside the closed zone; she presented a previous ruling of the supreme court, according to which the closing orders should be used to permit the family's access to the grounds, and not prevent it.
As this kind of friction happens often in that area, Awaad is used to it and agreed to leave the premises – even though the closing order he was presented with was not relevant to that specific area. As he briefly approached the closed area to attend to one of his children, he was immediately arrested by the military. Adv. Nassra also added that while there is video footage taken by the Israeli "Taayush" activists, none of them were summoned to give their testimony to the police. Finally, adv. Nassra also claimed that the closing order was presented to Awaad on one of the soldiers' phone, and not the original order as required.
After listening to the defense, the judge clearly stated that the fact that the closing order was only presented on the soldier's phone means that no legal order was presented, and therefore the alleged offense of not obeying a legal order is irrelevant. He also mentioned that even though the order was with a wrong map – Awaad was physically prevented from reaching the ground, while settlers from a nearby illegal outpost were not prevented from reaching the exact same location.
The judge also criticized the police for not calling the witnesses who were present from the beginning to give their testimony. He also referred to the police claims, saying that if it is, indeed, a situation that repeats constantly – then the police should not intervene without a clear review of the legal situation. Given that the legal review was not done – the judge refused the police request for a banning order from the area. The judge has ordered Awaad's release under terms of a personal bail of 1,000 NIS, and bail by an Israeli citizen of 20,000 NIS.
This is an outrageous situation, where even though the judge has accepted the defense claims, and agreed with Awaad regarding the unlawfulness of his arrest – he has still decided to release him under terms only, for no clear reason. This shows the bias of the military court system, where even when a Palestinian's claims are accepted – he is still the one suffering restrictions to his freedom.
However, this is still a unique success in the military court, as it proves the amount of illegality in many of the military and police actions: presenting wrong orders; not presenting the original orders; disobeying previous supreme court decisions; not calling witnesses for testimony; and more, and all while allowing settlers to behave in exactly the same way for which the Palestinians are arrested.
While this incident was clearly documented, arrests of Palestinian farmers for similar reasons happen on a regular basis; this is a problem that needs to be treated from its root, both in terms of clarifying the legal situation and of holding the military and police accountable for their illegal actions and unjustified arrests.
Hebron: Severe Assault of HRDs by a Soldier
On Friday, November 25th, a group of Jewish activists arrived in Hebron for a political and solidarity tour. This tour was of religious Jews, who came to show solidarity with Palestinians after the brutal settlers' attack which took place in Hebron the previous week during Shabat Hayei Sarah.
During the tour, there was a heavy military presence, and at some point, one of the soldiers began beating up one of the activists. Allegedly, he was trying to detain him, and then punched him in the face and continued beating him even when the activist was on the ground. As a result, the activist suffered from a fracture in his face. Another soldier threatened the activists, including Palestinian HRD Issa Amro who was filming the situation, and was filmed saying "Ben-Gvir is going to bring order, you've had it".
The attack was in response to the soldiers deciding that the activists were "breaking the law" by standing in the street – even though Israelis, for example the settlers who live in Hebron – are allowed to walk in the street. When the activists asked what is the reason to prevent their passing, the soldiers began pushing them and tried to detain the activist who was then assaulted. The soldier who was filmed threatening the activists also said "You are doing everything against the law, I am the law". Later, he also said: "I don't like leftists, go away because you are leftists, I will break you".
The threatening soldier was sentenced within his military unit to 10 days in military prison before the sentence was lowered to 6 days only. However, he was not interrogated by the Military Police Investigative Unit – meaning his actions were examined in a disciplinary hearing within his unit, but not through the military's criminal procedure. The assaulting soldier was interrogated by the Military Police Investigative Unit, but so far he was not indicted for that incident.
The activist who was attacked and two others were detained after the assault, and their phones were confiscated by the police. All of them were released later that day, but summoned to interrogation again on Sunday, November 25th. HRDF-funded lawyer, Adv. Riham Nassra gave legal counselling to the two activists who were not assaulted; after their interrogation, they were released to house arrest for five days and were banned from Hebron for 14-days. the activists were interrogated also for entering area A – even though the tour was in "Hebron 2", where Israeli settlers live and it is considered area C.
On November 30th, 2022, Adv. Nassra represented the activists in front of the Magistrate's Court in Jerusalem, in an appeal on their release terms. The activists were interrogated for allegedly assaulting soldiers, disturbing the soldiers, and disturbing public order. After a lengthy discussion regarding the necessity of house arrest for activists who were not violent, the judge has ruled that there is a reasonable basis to believe that the activists were involved in these offenses, and therefore the house arrest was legitimate. Therefore, the judge has rejected the appeal and left the terms of release – house arrest and bans – in order. The activists were released from house arrest the next day, December 1st at night.
At the same time, HRD Issa Amro was also arrested as a result of filming the incident on Friday. On Monday, November 28th, he was summoned for interrogation by the police. Prior to that, HRDF-funded lawyer, Adv. Riham Nassra provided him with legal advice. At the end of the interrogation, the police detained him until Wednesday, November 30th. The police interrogated Issa for the following crimes: assault of a soldier, obstructing a soldier, disturbing public order, and obstruction of a criminal investigation. The last count was added during the interrogation because Issa went to the police station without his cell phone (which he used to record the above-mentioned videos).
On Wednesday, Adv. Nassra represented Issa in his arrest hearing at the military court. The police asked the court to prolong his arrest by six days to complete their interrogation. From Adv. Nassra's questioning, we learned that the alleged accusations are actually not related to the incident on Friday, but only to the fact that Issa did not bring his phone with him to the police station and to his alleged behavior in the police station (yelling). For these actions, he was interrogated for obstruction of the investigation and disturbing a policeman.
In response to Adv. Nassra's questions, the police officer said that the police did not collect videos from the street cameras, nor did it summon the Israelis who documented the incident on Friday to interrogation (unlike Issa). Adv. Nassra highlighted the fact that even though three of the Israelis from the incident were detained – one even suspected of assault – none of them were under arrest at prison, like Issa. In addition, even though Issa came with a flash drive with the videos to the police, however, the police insisted on receiving his phone. The police officer called Issa a "generator of crime" as he accompanies groups of Israelis to area A; he also said that these "delegations" that come create friction and conflict, and that this is what created the incident on Friday.
The police requested that if Issa is released, it will be under extremely constraining terms. Finally, the judge has decided to release Issa later that day, under terms: he should not contact anyone else who was involved for 30 days; come to every police interrogation; he is banned from his home and the Tel-Rumeida area in Hebron until Tuesday, December 06th; and must pay a 1,500 NIS bail.
The week after this incident, Breaking the Silence organized another solidarity visit, where Issa was detained again for a few hours.
This incident is a terrifying example to the progresses in violence and in Jewish supremacy the new government might bring with it. HRDF will continue to stand with Israeli, international and Palestinian HRDs who show solidarity, and continue to insist on their rights to freedom of expression, movement and demonstration.
Israeli activist hit by a soldier in Hebron. Photo courtesy of Breaking the Silence
Soldiers Attempt to Criminalize HRDs; Military Admits to "Differences" from Situation on Ground
On October 28th, 2022, Israeli HRD A.M was arrested for allegedly throwing rocks at soldiers in the South Hebron Hills, near Avigail unauthorized outpost. He was arrested during a peaceful activity of accompanying Palestinian shepherd. While the two HRDs present on the ground claimed that the stones were only thrown towards the herd, far away from the soldiers and in order to manage the herd's direction (this is a common shepherding practice), the soldiers claimed that they were attacked. The soldiers were quickly backed up by the Military Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Aviv Cochavi as well as the Minister of Defense Benny Gantz. The minister for Internal Security, Omer Bar-Lev, also joined the condemnation, and called the actions "terror activists".
The HRD, a 20-years old soldier who was on vacation from the military, was initially detained for allegedly violating a closed military zone – even though he was out of the closed zone. The soldiers did not present the closing order at first, and when they did so after the HRDs insisted – the order presented did not match the geographical location where they were. Then, after the HRD was detained – the soldiers claimed that he attacked soldiers by throwing rocks at them, and he was arrested by the police.
HRDF-funded lawyer, Adv. Riham Nassra consulted A.M before his interrogation; he was interrogated for assault and for entering a closed military zone. He was finally released with a ban from the area for 15-days. Adv. Nassra also gave him legal consultation ahead of two internal disciplinary hearings he faced in his military unit, before being released from his military service shortly after.
While A.M was interrogated, the police leaked the wrong "news" to right-wing media, which quickly reported that a leftist activist, who is also a soldier on vacation, attacked soldiers in the West Bank. HRDF's media consultant immediately launched actions to prevent the circulation of this fake news. Following the officials' condemnation of the HRD, A. M's mother wrote a letter addressed to them which was published in Haaretz; Adv. Nassra gave her legal consultation as well.
Following the publication of the letter, and following some corrections in several news outlets, the Internal Security Minister published an apology, and the Minister of Defense mentioned that the soldiers were not attacked, but did not apologize. The Military Chief of Staff did not respond, despite the military's internal investigation stating that there were "differences" between the initial report from the soldiers and the actual situation on the ground.
This kind of spreading of fake news is a worrying trend; not only that policemen leak confidential information to right-wing media reporters – but the reporters trust the police and the settlers' reports blindly and repeatedly publish fake news without proper fact-checking. While HRDF's media consultant worked tirelessly to prevent the spread of this fake news and change the narrative, this sort of lie should not be reported in the first place, let alone supported by military and government officials. We see this kind of media work as highly important, as it allows us to provide HRDs with holistic protection.
Prominent HRDs Targeted for Their Activity, Bans Used as a Deterrence Mechanism
On Sunday, December 11th, prominent HRDs Yasmin Eran-Vardi and Itai Feitelson were arrested in the South Hebron Hills – where they volunteer daily with Palestinian HRDs and with the local communities. They were arrested for obstruction to a soldier and for insulting a public servant; the police claimed that they called the soldiers names while also violating a closed military zone order (obstruction).
The police suggested releasing them under terms of house arrest and a ban from the area, but the HRDs refused to sign. HRDF-funded lawyer, Adv. Karin Torn Hibler gave them legal consultation all throughout their interrogation. Since they refused to sign the terms, they were held in custody for the night, and brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Monday, December 12th. In the arrest hearing, the police requested that they will be banned from the South Hebron Hills for 180 days, not contact the soldiers (who are regularly in the area) for 60 days, and pay numerous bails.
Adv. Torn Hibler represented them in the arrest hearing and claimed that the HRDs were never presented with a closed military zone order. She also explained that the HRDs were on private Palestinian land which was being worked on by an Israeli settler; the HRDs wanted to help the Palestinian stop the work and therefore they called the military, and the soldiers arrived. Adv. Torn Hibler also mentioned that the ban requested from the whole of South Hebron Hills is too broad – it is a very strong restriction to the HRDs' freedom of movement and expression and with no justification related to the specific case. Therefore, she requested their release with no terms.
The judge ruled that there is a reasonable basis for the offense of insulting a public servant and therefore ordered their release under terms: a ban from the area for 10 days; no contact order with the soldiers for 30 days; and multiple bails of a total of 10,500 NIS each. The judge also gave a penetration order to their phones and video camera.
This is a clear targeting of prominent HRDs for their human rights work. The 180-day ban the police asked for is outrageous, but it may have been ordered without a professional and successful representation by Adv. Torn Hibler. We believe that professional legal defense is crucial to the work of HRDs, and will continue to provide it wherever it is needed.
SLAPP: "Elad" Right-Wing Organization Sues Human-Rights Organizations and Activists for Defamation
On September 11th, 2022, "Elad" right-wing organization has sued left-wing and human rights organizations Emek Shaveh and their spokesperson, Ir Amim and Mehazkim, as well as three individual human rights defenders, for alleged defamation.
The suit concerns the media campaign these organizations launched against a series of musical shows which took place in summer 2022 in Jerusalem in "Farm in the Valley" in Ben-Hinum valley in Jerusalem. The musical series was initiated by "Elad" among others – including the Jerusalem municipality and the Israeli music club "Zappa". All in all, Elad is asking a compensation of over four million NIS for this alleged defamation.
The human rights organizations initiated the campaign in order to explain that the shows are taking place on land which is privately owned by Palestinians residents of Silwan, who were not asked for their permission, nor were they receiving any monetary compensation for this land use. Elad claims that the lands are not in private ownership, but rather in governmental ownership – and are managed by the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority. While the activists' campaign did not deny the fact that it is a national park – they are questioning the political reasons behind the expropriation of Palestinian land for this park. Therefore, they asked Zappa to cut this collaboration – and not support Elad, since it legitimizes their work – expropriating land from its rightful Palestinian owners, and transferring it to Jewish ownership, and promoting the Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, while severely harming the Palestinian residents.
HRDF has taken upon itself to take care of the legal representation of the three HRDs who were sued personally, and HRDF-funded lawyer Adv. Carmel Pomerantz will file their defense claims soon. We will continue to update on this issue in the future.
Additional HRDF Activities and Updates
Advocacy Tour in the Europe with Youth of Sumud
Between October 10th-20th, HRDF has embarked on an advocacy tour in Europe alongside Palestinian grassroots organization Youth of Sumud, represented by HRD Sami Huraini and in cooperation with our partner Kurve Wustrow.
The goal of the tour was to raise awareness to the pressing issues of Masafer Yatta, criminalization of HRDs and the military court system in as many institutions and organizations in the international community as possible. Over the course of 10 days, we visited Brussels, Geneva, Berlin, and Wustro (in Germany), and met with various CSOs, politicians, public servants, and activists.
Advocacy tours are an important tool for us to strengthen our ties with the international community, and we hope to continue to maintain these strong and effective bonds in the future.
UN Special Rapporteur on HRDs refers to the situation in Masafer Yatta
On December 08th, and following several communications of HRDF to the UN Special Rapporteur on HRDs, Ms. Mary Lawlor, has issued a statement regarding the situation in Masafer Yatta. In that statement, she voices concern by information indicating that "…in addition to continuing Israeli Security Forces operations aimed at the forced eviction and transfer of Palestinian residents of villages in the Masafer Yatta region of southern Hebron, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Israeli settler attacks on the area's Palestinian human rights defenders have been insufficiently investigated, compounding a climate of impunity for human rights violations".
Please read Ms. Lawlor's full statement here.
Training to Activists and HRDs
As part of HRDF's work, we are committed to providing HRDs in all fields with holistic treatment. As part of this aspiration, we find great importance in providing professional training – legal and others – to equip rural communities, activists, and HRDs with better ways to defend themselves against legal persecution. In 2022, we have provided 17 training sessions, in the following subjects: 11 legal trainings on criminal procedure, defendant's rights, arrests, protesters' rights and coordination with the police – for groups of activists and HRDs; 3 documentation trainings to various communities who are attacked on a daily basis; 2 geographical trainings of the South Hebron Hills region; and 2 wellbeing and methodological trainings.
We see the results of this training every day on the ground, and we hope to continue to provide and expand them in 2023 as well.
We welcome your interest and support. If you have any further questions regarding these and other matters please contact: [email protected]
*In compliance with a law, intended to harm and silence organizations who criticize the Israeli Occupation and Israeli government's policies, we are proud to declare that the bulk part of HRDF's funding comes from "foreign state entities" – democratic states with whom we share the values of human rights.
Copyright 2023 HRDF | All Rights Reserved | Developed by Bright
In compliance with a law, intended to harm and silence organizations who criticize the Israeli Occupation and Israeli government's policies, we are proud to declare that the bulk part of HRDF's funding comes from "foreign state entities" - democratic states with whom we share the values of human rights.


The "Servo Control" debug window allows you to see the positions of all of your servos attached to your Servo Controller. This window will also allow you to manually move the servo position by expanding the window by using the "More" button.
Once the Servo Control window is opened you will be able to see a run-time update of all the servo's positions. You can also change the Targets and Change Rates of each servo manually.
By clicking the "More" button, you can save, edit, and load servo positions.


text:
2012 London Olympics
Sport 2012 London Olympics
By djbhammer,
October 15, 2010 in Sport
SaintM
The press must be having a field day with that MOD chap.
"Is there a risk of say..... clowns with ebola virus filled custard pies attacking athletes in the Olympic Village?"
"Yes. It's a very real risk and we can do little to prevent it."
zxcvbnm
I'm fucking sick of the Olympics, before it's even started. So I had to pay extra council tax, despite having a Kent postcode, to pay for it and then get no priority for tickets. Now they're putting missiles all over the fucking place, the roads will be fucked up, public transport can't cope already - it's going to be a big, big royal tits up.
Here's what you can see when you take your dog for a walk in Oxleas Wood at the moment:
Ground based air defence, Rapier System. by Tim Walton Photography, on Flickr
Which signs?
This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions. What he means is Old Testament, real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes... The dead rising from the grave Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!
dayte
To be fair the Rapier system looks pretty sexy
/Tom Clancy
If videogames have thought me anything, it's that a single shot to the jerry can will blow the whole thing sky high.
Olympics off to a great start then
Weavus
Official Destiny Saviour
Just managed to get 4 tickets for the opening ceremony .... they only had £150 tickets available.
Olympic excitement rekindled!
Mr Do 71
Anish Kapoor's sculpture tower of junk will cost only £15 to go up! But you'll get your quids worth, as they've got wacky mirrors up there.
£15!
myoozikk
It look like a collapsed roller coaster & perfectly represents the UK's olympics as a train wreck shower of shit & waste of money.
El Pibe
I cannot wait! The Olympics are going to be awesome. Bring it on!
Graham S
So I've been to a bunch of the test events and I went to the opening of the stadium last week, and had a wander around the park too.
I still think it's a bit weird that access is via the shopping mall. It is a very swanky mall though, and it's been a big success. Bluewater is practically empty nowadays and Westfield is permanently rammed. One of the pole vaulters had to carry her pole through it. It feels like the developers of the mall, who had billions to invest, had the planners over a barrel, otherwise I'd imagine some better town planning for the future. Also it's not too nice getting to the mall / Olympics via a long tunnel with quite a low ceiling from the tube station. I'm sure this was to do with the limitations of the site, but doesn't feel very grand.
The park feels a bit bleak. It's not summer yet, there is still lots of planting to be done, but it definitely felt like you were on an industrial estate in East London with a few modern buildings and lots of temporary seating everywhere. And a new Macdonalds. Some kid was asking if there would be jugglers and circus acts wandering around in the summer, and it could definitely do with something. I guess the Dow Chemical wrap on the stadium might improve matters.
The Kapoor / Mittal/ Orbit tower. I don't know: the steps that lead you up to it, are they going to continue to be covered by grey mesh cage? I think it must be temporary building safety stuff, because I'm pretty sure it was lit with temporary fluorescent lighting tubes. I heard it was originally going to be left open, but then was gradually sealed off sure to safety concerns, and eventually there couldn't even be gaps between the steps big enough for coins to drop through. But then, I think the opening of the tower was this week? I certainly hope the grey bits aren't part of the finished structure, as they look bad.
The stadium is good. No roof, so hopefully it's not a washout. Even a bit of rain on Saturday dampened the mood a lot. I had great seats, and the leg room was fine. Don't think I'd want my football team to play there, but should be great for the Olympics.
The first half of the opening was the finals of the University athletics meet + some UKA events. I was quite interested to watch some good runners, watch the athletes prepare etc. It's not hugely entertaining though, and I hope in the summer there is some commentary to give the audience focus and explain what's going on, it's quite hard to keep track of the field events especially.
Then the second half, the actual opening, was an embarrassing disaster. The "Military Wives" (some choir that has had a hit single) had a nightmare with the National Anthem. One of those situations that they can't have been able to hear themselves thanks to monitors not being loud enough, and it was all over the place, in many different keys, out of tune, incredibly cringe-making. And that set the tone really. "Fun" dreamed up by beauracrats. Minor celebrities in Zorb balls, on exercise bikes, and in tug of wars. And sponsored to a desperate extent. If your team wins your part of the stadium might win a Cadbury®'s chocolate lolly! Or a VISA® card pre-loaded with £20.12! Oh man, it can't be like this in the summer, can it?
I left before the opening. An audience member was supposed to do the official opening. I'd had a lengthy day dream where I was selected and shouted "MCA Rest in Peace!" into the mic, and then did a Black Power salute and called for a moment of silence. But that didn't happen. Instead some kid did it and I went home early, with everyone else who was leaving in droves.
Of all the events I've seen, the cycling was easily the most entertaining. You really got the impression these guys are the best in the world. The venue is amazing. The events were exciting. There was plenty of interesting stuff to look at, as they prepare in the middle of the track.
Some of the other stuff was a bit underwhelming. I'm used to football players being absurdly lauded, overpaid, their every tweet or grunt inspected for its significance. But athletes, divers,etc. it seems quite a lonely life. Such sacrifice and commitment and achievement, but they're basically ignored and the events feel like glorified school sports days. I suppose if you have talent you should work so you can express it at the highest level, but it doesn't it look all that great an existence.
I'm still looking forward to the summer. It seems like the basic logistics have all been done competently. Even the scandals (sponsor censorship, missiles) have been a bit weak, compared to mismanagement of previous games (buildings being unfinished etc). I think we might pull this off. It's been quite interesting to watch, and its been good to see things given a facelift round here, even if there were probably cheaper ways to do it.
Hope my sofa and telly arrives in time. I'm sure Seb Coe would be proud that he inspired such a purchase.
Girth Certificate
Does northern Ireland have their own team, or is Team GB weirdly named
Oh, I have a secret source with information about the Opening Ceremony. They are sworn to secrecy, but you won't tell anyone will you? It all sounds a bit embarrassing, although this person discusses it terms like "they're doing the best they can with the budget". Anyway, one section is a celebration of the NHS, in dance! Can't wait!
Oh wow I didn't even know this was being made, what a fucking monstrosity.
Anyway, one section is a celebration of the NHS, in dance!
Armando Iannucci is apparently scripting reality.
Two weeks notice? Isn't that illegal?
Very. Even if they gave you the 2 months (which pretty much takes you to the olympics) if you REALLY want to fuck with them just don't leave, they won't get you out until well after the olympics finish anyway.
For double lulz, find who they've short term rented the flat to for that time and offer to share with them for half what they were going to pay the landlord.
ryodi
More new weapons tech at the Olympics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/may/12/british-military-sonic-weapon-olympics
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that a device that can be used as a "sonic weapon" will be deployed in London during the Olympics.
The American-built long-range acoustic device (LRAD), which has been used by the US army to control crowds in Iraq, can emit an ear-piercing beam of sound.
RubberJohnny
They're not even pretending that one is going to be used to fight terrorism. It's for peaceful protests.
Lol at 'will be deployed', not 'may be deployed in extreme circumstances'.
They're not even pretending that one is going to be used to fight terrorism.
Hey man, we have to be ready in case the Hulk attacks.
Sonic Boom!
bcass
Cost £20 million to build it too. Seriously, can the country that gave the world Newton, Shakespeare and Darwin really not do better than that? Tragic. Utterly tragic.
Everything about these games reeks of mediocrity. Even the rampant paranoia is laughable. The unadulterated commercialism emanating from the event is beyond vile. McDonalds as a sponser to the olympics?
They let Kapoor put mirrors in that thing? He designed a mirror in Nottingham that caused the theatre that owns it to put the following disclaimer on their website:
Contrary to media speculation, Sky Mirror does not pose any danger to the public or pigeons in the form of a barbecue ray.
Here's hoping he got it working this time around.
C'mon, now you're just being negative for the sake of it. This will be the best Olympics since the Beijing Olympics, so chin up and take pride!
TehStu
Techies
http://www.guardian....weapon-olympics
I love that its purported use is an ultra powerful loudspeaker for warding off errant boats in the Thames, that happens to shatter your eardrums if you turn it up to 11.
Anyone else trying to get tickets now? The wait time is all over the place. First 1 minute, then 6, then 10, then 3, 5 etc.
Yiggy
Yeah well this morning was an extension of the annoying experience that I had before.
To be fair the problem is that for anything other than the football I think there are mainly single tickets left. Especially for the bigger events that remain.
I had tickets in my basket for the Hockey Final, Hockey preliminaries, various athletics even at extorionate prices, all of which were listed as 'available' but none of which were available in my ticket configuration which was 3 seats.
I finally ended up with Beach Volleyball on the opening weekend (Mens and Womens 4 Matches) which seems like it could be fun. 4 tickets in altogether for £66 each.
That will do and along with tickets we already have to the Wheelchair Tennis at the Paralympics (which I believe is in the olympic park) should cover my olympic experience.
There were still tickets for the Olympic Football GBR game at Wembley against the UAE along with final tickets. I still think they are going to have trouble shifting all the football ones. All that seems to be left now is Football, Hockey, Beach Volleyball, Greco Roman Wrestling, Wrestling and Athletics.
McDonald's sponsor most sports events and I'm not sure what people expect?
It doesnt mean anyone has to eat that shit!
I mean you would rather there were sponsors than we have to pay even more right?
Of course I agree that shouldn't be what it's all about but it's an unavoidable side effect these days for ANY Major sporting event.
The grey stuff on the Orbit is a permanent part of the design, and not some temporary building works related thing. It looks a bit better close up.

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Gap-tooth giant Michael Strahan is at the center of a shocking love child scandal! RadarOnline.com can reveal a 21-year-old man — given up for adoption at birth — is convinced Michael is his father. But the 44-year-old former NFL great has refused to recognize the man as his biological child!
David Brown is Strahan's strapping mirror image, and believes he was born after the Good Morning America co-host knocked up a lover before marrying his second wife, Jean Muggli, in 1999.
"I know it in my heart," Brown told Radar. "All of the facts point in that direction. If Michael were sitting in front of me now, he would know, too. That's why I think I got the run-around."


text:
Bulbophyllum urosepalum is a species of orchid in the genus Bulbophyllum.

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The Bulbophyllum-Checklist
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Angara commends SBP for hosting FIBA 3×3 World Cup
Published June 9, 2018, 12:22 PM
By Mario Casayuran
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, a member of the Senate majority bloc, on Saturday lauded his fellow officers at the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) for taking the lead in hosting the 2018 FIBA 3×3 World Cup from June 8 to 12 at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan, which would again showcase the Filipinos deep love of basketball.
Senator Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara
(Facebook / MANILA BULLETIN)
Angara expressed gratitude to SBP president Al Panlilio, SBP chair emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan and the rest of the SBP organization for making this annual world event possible in the country.
"I would like to congratulate SBP for taking the lead in hosting this year's FIBA 3×3 World Cup. It underscores not only the Filipinos' passion for basketball, but also our capacity to host such an event," he said.
Angara is the SBP chairman who has earned the monicker "Sports Senator" for carrying the causes aimed at uplifting the sports community in the country.
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The Philippine team is clustered with Brazil, Canada, Mongolia and Russia in Group C.
"I'm sending all my best wishes to the Philippine team which is representing our country. Let us show the world the true spirit of camaraderie and sportsmanship," Angara said.
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Sunday Matinee
The Military Industrial Toy Chest: Barry Levinson's Toys at 25
In the age of drone warfare, this tragically underrated fable is well overdue for a reevaluation
Cat Blackard
December 17, 2017 | 1:30pm ET
The Sunday Matinee takes a look at a classic or beloved film each weekend. This week, Art Director Cap Blackard is joined by legendary film director Barry Levinson to examine one of the most tragically overlooked films of the 90s.
It was Christmas, 1992. Shopping malls were still beacons for holiday commerce, Bill Clinton had just been elected president, and Robin Williams' film career was on fire (the good kind). Aladdin had just come out and was a massive hit, but he wasn't promoting that picture. Instead, Williams was devoting his publicity efforts to an extremely unusual film he'd starred in called Toys. Williams knew The Mouse would have no trouble selling itself, whereas Toys – that was a toughie.
The film, written and directed by Barry Levinson, is a modern-day fable and best described as such: Once upon a time, there was a toy maker named Zevo who lived in a wondrous factory. He devoted his life to bringing whimsy to the world and keeping the joy and innocence of childhood alive in children of all ages. But when he died, he made a terrible mistake. Fearing that his son, Leslie (Williams), was too carefree to run a business, the toy maker gave his factory to his brother, an army general (Michael Gambon). War was the only game The General knew how to play, so he made war toys: miniaturized, remote-controlled weapons. To save Zevo Toys and maybe even the world, Leslie had to grow up and lead a revolt against his mad uncle before it was too late.
Toys has grown chillingly poignant since its release 25 years ago. In the deceptive wrapping of a boldly colored fantasy world, it's a cautionary tale about drone warfare – two years before the first test flight of the Predator drone. On a more macro scale, it's also about the infantile nature of the warmonger and the struggle for pacifists to take action. Though all that easily gets lost behind the film's other remarkable features: its otherworldly production design (never seen in cinema before or since), an incredible soundtrack helmed by Hans Zimmer and Trevor Horn, and an eclectic cast of unusual characters alongside Williams and Gambon — Joan Cusack, Robin Wright, and LL Cool J. Even with all that, Toys was destined to be a hard sell, but in 1992 it was in good company with the likes of Robert Zemeckis' fatalistic fantasy comedy Death Becomes Her and Tim Burton's Batman Returns. The latter of which was a summer release but also depicted an equally fantastic world during Christmastime … though at the opposite end of the color spectrum.
Hear our full interview with Barry Levinson and go on an even deeper dive into Toys, with author, Cap Blackard in their podcast:
Levinson calls Toys "a black comedy in primary colors," which would have been a killer tagline if the marketing department wasn't asleep at the wheel. The lead trailer featured Williams out in a wheat field improvising into the camera – and nothing more — while the more traditional trailers were front-loaded with Christmas marketing but offered a kaleidoscope of surreal visuals: a house unfolding from a giant box, a duck descending on a bed in a room inside a room painted like the sky … The aesthetic read as high-brow kids' stuff, but the rating was PG-13. Just what was this movie about, and who was the intended audience? Williams offered some choice descriptions in interviews: "David Lynch Babes in Toyland," "Fellini meets Fisher Price," and one from the film itself: "F.A.O. Schwarzkopf" — evoking the US Army general at the center of the Gulf War. An international tagline for the film smartly echoed that statement with "make believe, not war." Meanwhile, the US tagline was the oblique "laughter is a state of mind."
Toys tanked in theaters, due in no small part to the studio's noncommittal marketing and the baffled and scathing reviews that followed. Most reviewers could agree they'd never seen anything like it, but the satire was lost on them. The New York Times drew the conclusion that "very young children would seem to be the target audience, though they won't have a clue as to what's going on. Their adult companions will be driven to dreamless slumber." Certainly Toys isn't a perfect film, but if anything it's a vivid, waking dream. Plot points whiz by in incidental dialogue, giving precedence to the nearly musical surrealism of the world. The film's notable stars and a sizable budget apparently obscured the obvious fact that Toys is an art film. A "pop" art film is perhaps more accurate, but like all good art it thrives on repeat viewings; and no matter how bombastic Williams and co's performances are, the film's intent was clearly never to be a gut-busting Hollywood comedy. If this film came from France or Japan the public narrative about Toys would be very different.
"All you really can do is do the work that you believe in," says Levinson. "Sometimes you can be celebrated, and sometimes you can be trashed. That's the nature of it all. That's filmmaking." Toys was seen as a big departure for him, a far cry from Good Morning, Vietnam, where he'd first worked with Williams, or his Academy Award-winner, Rain Man. But, in fact, Toys was to be his directorial debut. He and his then-wife Valerie Curtin had written it in either 1978 or 1981 (his book, Levinson on Levinson says the former, but in our recent interview he insisted the latter). Either way, it took over a decade to bring Toys to the screen, due in no small part to the scope of the vision. Levinson said in his book that at the time of his original pitch, "you couldn't mention a movie that would conjure up the image of this film, so for the executives there was an absence of an idea of what it might be. That made it rather dangerous."
Both at its release and even now, comparisons for Toys are few and far between, thanks in no small part to Ferdinando Scarfiotti's (The Last Emperor) astounding production design. The geometry and optical illusions embedded into every set pull from the playbooks of modern art luminaries like Belgian surrealist René Magritte and Italian futurist Fortunado Depero – fusing their styles into a world that immediately takes viewers somewhere else. Take the Zevo factory floor, outfitted with colossal animatronics, spitting out toy parts, or the indoor rolling hills with a mechanical duck crossing. "We're existing in our own time and place," says Levinson. "We were in an alternate reality. So, therefore, we could do and be as crazy as we wanted."
Even the incidental cars are left of reality. Leslie drives the ultra-rare 1950 Muntz Jet, and even The General's SUV is a Lamborghini LM002, the company's exclusive military-grade vehicle. In both cases, the designs are strange and less than 400 cars were made. "We just tried to stay away from anything that would depict where we were in time and place, as best we could."
Toys' visuals are met in equal measure by the film's music, and the two commune with each other throughout. Hans Zimmer and pop producer legend Trevor Horn collaborated on both the score and assembling a star-studded soundtrack. Some pieces were composed before production to inform scenes, such as Tori Amos' uncharacteristically electronic "The Happy Worker" that plays in the Zevo factory to pastel-smocked, dancing employees. "We were right on the doorstep of turning this into a musical," says Levinson. "We sort of kept a bit of the musical stylization without the musical." There are also further soundtrack-exclusive contributions from Grace Jones, Thomas Dolby, Pat Metheny, and a remix of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" that's absolutely amazing. But the crown jewel of the soundtrack is easily the film's main theme: a Christmas song called "Closing of the Year", performed by Wendy & Lisa with an uncredited Seal.
"Closing of the Year" is a goosebump-inducing departure from standard yuletide sentiments. It's filled with a genuineness that embodies what the holidays purportedly mean: "if I cannot bring you comfort, then at least I bring you hope. For nothing is more precious than the time we have…" There's a somberness there, a realism perhaps but emphasized with love and perseverance. It's a message that we certainly need in 2017, now more than ever. But if you're wary of another gloomy Christmas song, "Closing of the Year" still has you covered as it explodes into a veritable exaltation of wintertime beauty with mysterious Seal lyrics. The track has outlived the film and continues to appear on discerning holiday playlists and has even made the rounds being performed by opera singers and orchestras.
Toys isn't a typical Christmas movie by any means. It's more in the realm of Die Hard and the aforementioned Batman Returns than, say, Elf. The film opens and closes with the holiday, using it as a focal point for the magic and innocence of the toy factory in its prime: celebrating joy with "huggable fun for everyone." The goodness at the heart of the idea of Western winter holidays is critical to ushering viewers into the state of mind needed to enter the world of Toys. Christmas is magical. I remember the excitement of being a kid and opening presents. I remember the thrill of a brightly colored toy. Boom – the world of the film makes sense – and now the subversion of that pure, strange realm at the hands of The General can take full effect. Now, when the room where the toy makers are manufacturing fake vomit starts closing in on them, it's a combination of funny and disturbing as that carefree reality collapses.
In its earliest incarnation, the story was relatively the same, but with a greater inclusion of virtual reality as one of The General's war toy innovations. At the time, the technology was barely a gleam in the tech world's eye – Tron hadn't even been made yet. VR was just hitting prevalence in '90s pop culture when Toys came out (Lawnmower Man released earlier in the year), but for Levinson the gimmick of immersion into a headset had evolved into something much more sinister:
"As the '80s went on, you began to see video games, and you'd say, 'Okay, well, if that's where they are, then where are they going to go in the future?' When do video games begin to look like reality? How would you tell the difference? If you were blowing up cars in a video game, what would be the difference if you were blowing up a building somewhere in the world?"
And so The General's plan evolved a step further. With his toy company, he'd miniaturize the military at a fraction of the cost. By taking advantage of kids' hand-eye coordination, he'd bus in school kids, set them down in front of new Zevo video games, and have them running ops – never knowing it was real. All that's left is to sell the idea to "the Washington boys" in a disturbing scene involving x-rays, surgical scissors, and a bunch of brass in a cow pasture.
Both Toys and Levinson's 1997 film Wag the Dog (celebrating its 20th anniversary this month) are eerily poignant political commentaries today, but bordered on the absurd when they were released. All it took was a little foresight and carefully wielded satire. "It exists, so therefore it will be," says Levinson.
"You're not going to suddenly go, 'Oh yeah, I don't think we'll do that.' They will. I mean, look. I just saw a thing the other day that said they're having toy tanks now. Little things that can drop in and wander around and do all this damage with whatever kind of firepower they're bringing to it. All of those elements, a combination of artificial intelligence … present scenarios to where we're going to go. There's no question about it."
What Levinson is talking about are the real-world evolutions of the Tommy Tanks from the film. Just as the Hurley Burley Helicopters begat UAVs, there's an increased focus now in remote-operated tanks coming from both Russia and the US. But what about the lethal bouncing ball and chain gun baby – too crazy to exist? Maybe literally, but in its early days, Sphero, the company responsible for the Star Wars BB8 toys, was constantly pushing back offers from the military to buy into their RC tech. Fortunately for us, like Zevo, they refused the call for their toy tech to be used in military applications. However, they did parody the notion in an April Fools' video.
There is one glaring mystery in The General's plot, though: Just what is the Sea Swine? In the film, Leslie encounters a motion-sensitive, amphibious and autonomous, possibly part biological, weapon in a pit of water. The "Sea Swine" eventually leads to The General's comeuppance, but though it plays a pivotal role, it remains mostly obscure. "That was part of his strategy of building for the future," explains Levinson. "He would create weaponry that would look like, in this case, fish life. It doesn't even look like a piece of military equipment. The disguise of it would be very effective, and this military prowess would be quite devastating … Who's going to pay attention to some sea serpent?" We can only hope that that's one prediction that goes too far, but at this rate – who knows?
When Toys does get compared to other films, it gets put alongside Dr. Strangelove and Terry Gilliam's work. Amazing bedfellows, and yet the movie still languishes in relative obscurity and budget releases instead of the Criterion edition one might suspect. Perhaps that's because adults at the time snubbed it. It wasn't a kid's movie, but in 1992 it was the young people who managed to see this film in theaters or on TV and home video that latched on to it. While the film doesn't have enough of a definable group of fans to earn it bona fide cult status, there's a generation of thirtysomethings who have a deep affinity for surreal landscapes and can quote LL Cool J's lunchtime boarder disputes ("I want my string beans to be quarantined"). If it were released in 2017, Toys might be lauded as biting political commentary of the day and not a disposable flight of fancy. Now that the absurdity of our own reality has risen to meet Toys' satire, it must certainly be time to reexamine this film. Or maybe it's too late.
Trevor Horn
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The Military Industrial Toy Chest: Barry Levinson's Toys at 25


text:
Smith, Elder & Co. va ser una de les editorials britàniques més destacades per les obres que va publicar al .

Va ser fundada a Londres pels escocesos George Smith (1789–1846) i Alexander Elder (1790–1876) el 1816, primer com una papereria i llibreria. El 1819 van publicar un primer llibre, un recull de sermons i d'assajos del capellà anglicà John Morison: Sermons and Expositions on Interesting Portions of Scripture. Va continuar amb èxit sota George Murray Smith (1824–1901). Són molt coneguts per la primera edició del Dictionary of National Biography («Diccionari biogràfic nacional» DNB) o encara l'edició de Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë el 1847.

Va ser comprada per John Murray a principi de 1900. L'arxiu ara es conserva com a part de l'Arxiu John Murray a la Biblioteca Nacional d'Escòcia a Edimburg a Escòcia.

Referències

Editorials del Regne Unit


I received a letter from a reader the other day. It was handwritten in crabbed penmanship so that it was very difficult to read. Nevertheless, I tried to make it out just in case it might prove to be important.
It seemed that in one of my innumerable essays, here and elsewhere, I had expressed a certain gladness at living in a century in which we finally got the basis of the Universe straight.
The young specialist in English Lit, having quoted me, went on to lecture me severely on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the Universe at last, and in every century they were proven to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about out modern "knowledge" is that it is wrong.
The young man then quoted with approval what Socrates had said on learning that the Delphic oracle had proclaimed him the wisest man in Greece. "If I am the wisest man," said Socrates, "it is because I alone know that I know nothing." The implication was that I was very foolish because I knew a great deal.
Alas, none of this was new to me. (There is very little that is new to me; I wish my corresponders would realize this.) This particular thesis was addressed to me a quarter of a century ago by John Campbell, who specialized in irritating me. He also told me that all theories are proven wrong in time.
Now where do we get the notion that "right" and "wrong" are absolutes? It seems to me that this arises in the early grades, when children who know very little are taught by teachers who know very little more.
How do you spell "sugar?" Answer: s-u-g-a-r. That is right. Anything else is wrong.
Again, how much is 2 + 2? Suppose Joseph says: 2 + 2 = purple, while Maxwell says: 2 + 2 = 17. Both are wrong but isn't it fair to say that Joseph is wronger than Maxwell?
Suppose you said: 2 + 2 = an integer. You'd be right, wouldn't you? Or suppose you said: 2 + 2 = an even integer. You'd be righter. Or suppose you said: 2 + 2 = 3.999. Wouldn't you be nearly right?
If the teacher wants 4 for an answer and won't distinguish between the various wrongs, doesn't that set an unnecessary limit to understanding?
Suppose the question is, how much is 9 + 5?, and you answer 2. Will you not be excoriated and held up to ridicule, and will you not be told that 9 + 5 = 14?
If you were then told that 9 hours had pass since midnight and it was therefore 9 o'clock, and were asked what time it would be in 5 more hours, and you answered 14 o'clock on the grounds that 9 + 5 = 14, would you not be excoriated again, and told that it would be 2 o'clock? Apparently, in that case, 9 + 5 = 2 after all.
Or again suppose, Richard says: 2 + 2 = 11, and before the teacher can send him home with a note to his mother, he adds, "To the base 3, of course." He'd be right.
Here's another example. The teacher asks: "Who is the fortieth President of the United States?" and Barbara says, "There isn't any, teacher."
"Wrong!" says the teacher, "Ronald Reagan is the fortieth President of the United States."
"Not at all," says Barbara, "I have here a list of all the men who have served as President of the United States under the Constitution, from George Washington to Ronald Reagan, and there are only thirty-nine of them, so there is no fortieth President."
"Ah," says the teacher, "but Grover Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms, one from 1885 to 1889, and the second from 1893 to 1897. He counts as both the twenty-second and twenty-fourth President. That is why Ronald Reagan is the thirty-ninth person to serve as President of the United States, and is, at the same time, the fortieth President of the United States."
Therefore, when my friend the English Literature expert tells me that in every century scientists think they have worked out the Universe and are always wrong, what I want to know is how wrong are they? Are they always wrong to the same degree? Let's take an example.
In the early days of civilization, the general feeling was that the Earth was flat.
This was not because people were stupid, or because they were intent on believing silly things. They felt it was flat on the basis of sound evidence. It was not just a matter of "That's how it looks," because the Earth does not look flat. It looks chaotically bumpy, with hills, valleys, ravines, cliffs, and so on.
Of course, there are plains where, over limited areas, the Earth's surface does look fairly flat. One of those plains is in the Tigris-Euphrates area where the first historical civilization (one with writing) developed, that of the Sumerians.
Perhaps it was the appearance of the plain that may have persuaded the clever Sumerians to accept the generalization that the Earth was flat; that if you somehow evened out all the elevations and depressions, you would be left with flatness. Contributing to the notion may have been the fact that stretches of water (ponds and lakes) looked pretty flat on quiet days.
Another way of looking at it is to ask what is the "curvature" of Earth's surface. Over a considerable length, how much does the surface deviate (on the average) from perfect flatness. The flat-Earth theory would make it seem that the surface doesn't deviate from flatness at all, that its curvature is 0 to the mile.
There were reasons, to be sure, to find the flat-Earth theory unsatisfactory and, about 350 B.C., the Greek philosopher Aristotle summarized them. First, certain stars disappeared beyond the Southern Hemisphere as one traveled north, and beyond the Northern Hemisphere as one traveled south. Second, the Earth's shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse was always the arc of a circle. Third, here on Earth itself, ships disappeared beyond the horizon hull-first in whatever direction they were traveling.
The curvature of such a sphere is about 0.000126 per mile, a quantity very close to 0 per mile as you can see, and one not easily measured by the techniques at the disposal of the ancients. The tiny difference between 0 and 0.000126 accounts for the fact that it took so long to pass from the flat Earth to the spherical Earth.
Mind you, even a tiny difference, such at that between 0 and 0.000126, can be extremely important. That difference mounts up. The Earth cannot be mapped over large areas with any accuracy at all if the difference isn't taken into account and if the Earth isn't considered a sphere rather than a flat surface. Long ocean voyages can't be undertaken with any reasonable way of locating one's own position in the ocean unless the Earth is considered spherical rather than flat.
So although the flat-Earth theory is only slightly wrong and is a credit to its inventors, all things considered, it is wrong enough to be discarded in favor of the spherical-Earth theory.
No, it is not a sphere; not in the strict mathematical sense. A sphere has certain mathematical properties—for instance, all diameters (that is, all straight lines that pass from one point on its surface, through the center, to another point on its surface) have the same length.
What gave people the notion the Earth wasn't a true sphere? To begin with, the Sun and the Moon have outlines that are perfect circles within the limits of measurement in the early days of the telescope. This is consistent with the supposition that the Sun and Moon are perfectly spherical in shape.
Isaac Newton, toward the end of the seventeenth century, showed that a massive body would form a sphere under the pull of gravitational forces (exactly as Aristotle had argued), but only if it were not rotating. If it were rotating, a centrifugal effect would be set up which would lift the body's substance against gravity, and the effect would be greater the closer to the equator you progressed. The effect would also be greater the more rapidly a spherical object rotated and Jupiter and Saturn rotated very rapidly indeed.
The Earth has an equatorial bulge, in other words. It is flattened at the poles. It is an "oblate spheroid" rather than a sphere. This means that the various diameters of the earth differ in length. The longest diameters are any of those that stretch from one point on the equator to an opposite point on the equator. The "equatorial diameter" is 12,755 kilometers (7,927 miles). The shortest diameter is from the North Pole to the South Pole and this "polar diameter" is 12,711 kilometers (7,900 miles).
The difference between the longest and shortest diameters is 44 kilometers (27 miles), and that means that the "oblateness" of the Earth (its departure from true sphericity) is 44/12,755, or 0.0034. This amounts to 1/3 of 1 percent.
To put it another way, on a flat surface, curvature is 0 per mile everywhere. On Earth's spherical surface, curvature is 0.000126 per mile everywhere (or 8 inches per mile). On Earth's oblate spheroidical surface, the curvature varies from 7.973 inches to the mile to 8.027 inches to the mile.
The correction in going from spherical to oblate spheroidal is much smaller than going from flat to spherical. Therefore, although the notion of the Earth as sphere is wrong, strictly speaking, it is not as wrong as the notion of the Earth as flat.
Even the oblate-spheroidal notion of the Earth is wrong, strictly speaking. In 1958, when the satellite Vanguard 1 was put into orbit about the Earth, it was able to measure the local gravitational pull of the Earth—and therefore its shape—with unprecedented precision. It turned out that the equatorial bulge south of the equator was slightly bulgier than the bulge north of the equator, and that the South Pole sea level was slightly nearer the center of the Earth than the North Pole sea level was.
There seemed no other way of describing this than by saying the Earth was pearshaped and at once many people decided that the Earth was nothing like a sphere but was shaped like a Bartlett pear dangling in space. Actually, the pearlike deviation from oblate-spheroid perfect was a matter of yards rather than miles and the adjustment of curvature was in the millionths of an inch per mile.
This can be pointed out in many other cases than just the shape of the Earth. Even when a new theory seems to represent a revolution, it usually arises out of small refinements. If something more than a small refinement were needed, then the old theory would never have endured.
Copernicus switched from an Earth-centered planetary system to a Sun-centered one. In doing so, he switched from something that was obvious to something that was apparently ridiculous. However, it was a matter of finding better ways of calculating the motion of the planets in the sky and, eventually, the geocentric theory was just left behind. It was precisely because the old theory gave results that were fairly good by the measurement standards of the time that kept it in being so long.
Again, it is because the geological formations of the Earth change so slowly and the living things upon it evolve so slowly that it seemed reasonable at first to suppose that there was no change and that Earth and life always existed as they do today. If that were so, it would make no difference whether Earth and life were billions of years old or thousands. Thousands were easier to grasp.
But when careful observation showed that Earth and life were changing at a rate that was very tiny but not zero, then it became clear that Earth and life had to be very old. Modern geology came into being, and so did the notion of biological evolution.
Again, how about the two great theories of the twentieth century; relativity and quantum mechanics?
You might say that the difference between infinite and finite is itself infinite, so why didn't Newton's equations fall to the ground at once? Let's put it another way, and ask how long it takes light to travel over a distance of a meter.
If light traveled at infinite speed, it would take light 0 seconds to travel a meter. At the speed at which light actually travels, however, it takes it 0.0000000033 seconds. It is that difference between 0 and 0.0000000033 that Einstein corrected for.
Conceptually, the correction was as important as the correction of Earth's curvature from 0 to 8 inches per mile was. Speeding subatomic particles wouldn't behave the way they do without the correction, nor would particle accelerators work the way they do, nor nuclear bombs explode, nor the stars shine. Nevertheless, it was a tiny correction and it is no wonder that Newton, in his time, could not allow for it, since he was limited in his observations to speeds and distances over which the correction was insignificant.
Again, where the prequantum view of physics fell short was that it didn't allow for the "graininess" of the Universe. All forms of energy had been thought to be continuous and to be capable of division into indefinitely smaller and smaller quantities.
This turned out to be not so. Energy comes in quanta, the size of which is dependent upon something called Planck's constant. If Planck's constant were equal to 0 erg-seconds, then energy would be continuous, and there would be no grain to the Universe. Planck's constant, however, is equal to 0.000000000000000000000000066 erg-seconds. That is indeed a tiny deviation from zero, so tiny that ordinary questions of energy in everyday life need not concern themselves with it. When, however, you deal with subatomic particles, the graininess is sufficiently large, in comparison, to make it impossible to deal with them without taking quantum considerations into account.
Newton's theory of gravitation, while incomplete over vast distances and enormous speeds, is perfectly suitable for the Solar System. Halley's Comet appears punctually as Newton's theory of gravitation and laws of motion predict. All of rocketry is based on Newton, and Voyager II reached Uranus within a second of the predicted time. None of these things were outlawed by relativity.
In the nineteenth century, before quantum theory was dreamed of, the laws of thermodynamics were established, including the conservation of energy as first law, and the inevitable increase of entropy as the second law. Certain other conservation laws such as those of momentum, angular momentum, and electric charge were also established. So were Maxwell's laws of electromagnetism. All remained firmly entrenched even after quantum theory came in.
For instance, quantum theory has produced something called "quantum weirdness" which brings into serious question the very nature of reality and which produces philosophical conundrums that physicists simply can't seem to agree upon. It may be that we have reached a point where the human brain can no longer grasp matters, or it may be that quantum theory is incomplete and that once it is properly extended, all the "weirdness" will disappear.
Again, quantum theory and relativity seem to be independent of each other, so that while quantum theory makes it seem possible that three of the four known interactions can be combined into one mathematical system, gravitation—the realm of relativity—as yet seems intransigent.
If quantum theory and relativity can be combined, a true "unified field theory" may become possible.
If all this is done, however, it would be a still finer refinement that would affect the edges of the known—the nature of the big bang and the creation of the Universe, the properties at the center of black holes, some subtle points about the evolution of galaxies and supernovas, and so on.
Virtually all that we know today, however, would remain untouched and when I say I am glad that I live in a century when the Universe is essentially understood, I think I am justified.


These let you trim off component leads close to the board since the cutting edges of the blades are flush with the bottom of the cutters.
The cutting edges of most cutters are offset from the bottom surface of the tool blades, which limits how close to a surface they can cut. These cutters can trim leads completely flush with a surface, if needed. The blades are also angled so that they can remain flush to the working surface while the handles are elevated away where there is room to grip them. The handles are covered with comfortable padding.


General Discussion - Less discernable.
Posted by douglasboyle August 24, 2013 in the Group General Discussion .
with speakers who's mandarin isn't so clear?
eapecially men, their mandarin is not so distinct. I don't really know how to describe or ask. But I find I can understand you guys but so many people I meet in china. Their mandarin is not as clear. Or will this just come in time?
Thanks guys. I can't believe how awesome you are. Maybe I just need more exposure. But I'm so excited with being able to communicate in china. Can't believe it. Thanks guys.


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You don't have to run, you can jog, or walk and you are even guaranteed to finish ahead of the big names.
The guest athletes - see full list of who and where below - will literally get behind the natio,n as so-called Tail Walkers', volunteers who ensure no one ever finishes last at parkrun events.
More than 630 free parkruns (5k) and junior parkruns (2k) take place every Saturday morning in parks across the UK.
The National Lottery and UK Sport, which funds elite UK athletes from Lottery ticket sales, have now teamed up with organisers parkrun UK for a series of high profile #teamparkrun events on Saturday, August 19.
The aim is to get the nation active, while celebrating the public's support of elite and community sport through playing The National Lottery.
It is backed by Sport England, sportscotland, Sport Wales, Sport Northern Ireland, the British Olympic Association and British Paralympic Association, as well as a host of national governing bodies.
REGISTER TO TAKE PART: It's free to take part but you need to register in advance. For full details and to register visit www.teamparkrun.com.
VIDEO: World Championship gold and Olympic bronze curler Eve Muirhead brought up the rear at a parkrun in Falkirk. Watch her four tips on how to Parkrun in the UK Sport video at the top of this page.
It is hoped some people will take part in a parkrun for the very first time – either walking, jogging, running or volunteering themselves – with a view to starting their journey to a more healthy, active lifestyle.
Join big name British athletes and take part in #teamparkrun on August 19, 2017.
The #teamparkrun event follows the success of last year's I am Team GB, which inspired nearly 1 million people to take part in the UK's biggest ever sports day - with athletes joining in community sports events as part of a Rio 2016 Olympians homecoming.
That day celebrated the role the nation played in supporting elite athletes by playing The National Lottery.
National Lottery players have been backing Britain's record-breaking Olympic and Paralympic athletes for 21 years.
UK Sport chair Dame Katherine Grainger is encouraging the public to take part in #teamparkrun events on August 19, 2017.
Dame Katherine Grainger, five time Olympic medallist and the newly appointed Chair of UK Sport, said: "The nation, and specially National Lottery players, have been backing us as athletes for 21 years now and none of us would be where we are today without their support.
"While sport and activity are integral to our lifestyles, we know that for some people taking up activity for the first time can be a scary prospect. parkrun offers a free, friendly and welcoming way to start, and our athletes will be there on August 19 to make any newcomers feel extra welcome.
Arabella Gilchrist, Head of The National Lottery Brand, said: "#teamparkrun offers a brilliant way of celebrating the support the public gives British sport by playing The National Lottery.
High five from Dame Katherine Grainger, five time Olympic medallist and the newly appointed Chair of UK Sport.
Adam Gemili, Athletics, Cannon Hill.


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St Edward's Prep New Outdoor Seating Area
Tuesday 9th March 2021
As our pupils return to school for the remainder of the Spring Term they are able to make use of the new outdoor seating area between the astro and the playground.
Mr Slade along with Mr Stanford and Mr Imiolek have been working incredibly hard over the last couple of months to get the work completed in time for our school reopening. We are sure you will all join us in saying a very big thank you to them.
Online Learning Provision Continues
As we move towards half term we here at St Edward's Prep are looking to further improve the online provision expanding on what we are currently offering. Adding to our 6 core subjects a day mixed with breaks and off screen time, we have held a Friday family quiz challenge and a superhero fitness session. Screen free afternoons have also been hugely popular with projects to design and flight test an aeroplane as well as designing and making our very own superhero board game.
St Edward's Prep is going co-ed!
Wednesday 4th November 2020
We are very pleased to announce that St Edward's Prep is going co-ed! Girls will be joining our Pre-Reception Little Griffins class from January 2021 and then the Reception class from September 2021.
Announcing our new Head Boy
Our new Head Boy for this term exemplifies the St Edward's Prep key Pupil Characteristics and Attitudes to Learning in all he does at school.
Introducing the new Head of St Edward's Prep
Friday 18th September 2020
'Learning should end in tangible action.' So says Jonathan Parsons, Head of St Edward's Prep. 'We need to help children understand why they are learning something and what can they use it for. What skills are going to help them achieve and empower them to take control of their learning journey, to enjoy building these skills and to ultimately become successful'.
Walks with Hawks
Tuesday 15th September 2020
There was an air of excitement as the pupils of St Edward's Prep arrived for school on a glorious sunny Monday morning.
Our Parent Teachers' Association had arranged an educational visit for the boys from the wonderfully engaging and knowledgeable Clare at Walks with Hawks.
Clare has been busy educating the boys on Birds of Prey and what they love to eat, their habits and where they live and what threatens their existence.
One of our Year 6 students managed to answer 21 out of 25 questions correctly and achieved a Gold Award
St Edward's pupils rise to the equation!
Our high-quality mathematics education provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.
Mr Parsons' Guide to Digital Learning
Monday 23rd March 2020
Help navigating through digital learning at home
Friday 20th March 2020
Coronavirus update - Friday 20 March


Blalock Mansion may be fictional, but it's had a long history of occupants.
Off and on I've written about events about this fictive Blalock Mansion on 7th Street in Port Edwards, WI. Just wanted to tell you that this week I'll write a few stories that came from this mighty structure. If you look back at the posts I've written, two that you might get a chuckle from are the I and II Pranktical Joke adventures of poor Arlen walking by the mansion when it was an asylum. Also, there are others. In the search feature above, type in Blalock or pranktical to see past posts.
The Blalock built in 1890 first was a home for the Blalock family, early pioneers and a business family here in central Wisconsin. Then after they left, the mansion housed people in what was then called an asylum, but a high functioning place where there was little difference between the citizens who came here and the staff. At times they changed roles. During the teens the place was a hospital and medical facility, treating those they could during the flu epidemic of the later teen years. Then the mansion housed a variety of groups in the 20s including Lepers for the Lord, a fringe religious group who had a unique view of what people had to know and do to understand Christ. Finally, from 1931 to the late 50s it housed a number of wayward waifs, serving as a Wisconsin orphanage.
It was from here that a large number of people came in contact with this area, and I now suspect that many or nearly all the people who currently live in the 7th Street area were related to orphans from those years.
The imaginary foundation of this mansion can be seen at the south end of 7th Street. Never a reality, now a hypothetical estate that will become the basis for a good number of stories.
Six pack offer. To anyone from the 7th Street area who stops by and tells me they read this on the blog, I will buy a 6 pack of something for you, within reason. This offer from 6 weeks ago had no takers.
Caretakers at the mansion around 1910.