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In Niall Ferguson's new book, The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power, he addresses a dawning recognition that the utopia of free speech and tolerance we were promised the internet would bring about hasn't quite materialized. "The conflicts of the 16th and 17th centuries," he argues, "already have unnerving parallels today, in the time of Facebook, Islamic State and Trumpworld." In other words, the web has put a rocket under our culture wars and existing social divisions, making the public sphere a much more ornery, mistrustful place – one of rancor and bloody-mindedness.
If all one ever did was to read clever books – and ones not yet published, at that – about how the world is going to hell in a handcart, one's sense of impending doom might simply impend too much. So I haven't read it. But he's probably right, isn't he? The network technology of our age has plugged many of us into spurious, echo-chamber bubble-worlds containing only "people like us." And some of these spurious worlds reflect pat, off-the-peg ways of understanding the real world that are enormously baneful: radical Islam; a reductive neo-Marxism that rejects everything pertaining to the status quo ante; equally reductive, counter-revolutionary movements that embrace or flirt with blood-and-soil nationalism. For many of those beholden to such explanations of the world, opposing views are an affront. Their battles and revolutions are in the here and now.
What of the rest of us, though? Blithely, resolutely, I neglect to "check my privileges" when I make the following assertion: that most people really don't give a stuff about ideology. We may feel herded into thinking we ought to, because that is the dynamic on which our politics and news industry – the one hand-on-teat with the other – hinges. But we don't really. We may feel motivated – in part, if we're honest, by the narcissism of small differences – to vote one way or another. But deep down we're not entirely sure what we think on a whole range of issues, even as we have no wish to stop others from saying what they do, earnestly, think. Or think they think. We're interested in what works in practice, rather than in theory. Many of us even have friends who vote differently to ourselves. What we don't have is memes on the internet about all of this.
Online, networks have emboldened all manner of outliers to find and raise up their voices. Collectively, their strength is boosted by a news media brought low by the democratizing – and profit-sapping – effects of the same technology. In short, the zealous, the shrill and the contentious are all given disproportionate amounts of oxygen by an industry that is in itself in a state of asphyxiation. The result is a surfeit of noxious politics and ideology in the public sphere.
So much for journalism's ability to filter out the unimportant or offer a sense of proportion on any of this. Unfortunately, much of what passes for scholarship fails, similarly, to reckon with the silent ambivalence of zoon non-politikon in the age of Twitter fights in which everyone ends up calling everyone else a fascist.
It often seems that barely a month goes by these days without some new study emerging of how liberals and conservatives are possessed of different types of brain. The liberal bias of these studies is often pronounced: conservatives are found to be rigid, uncompromising bastards who hate ambiguity and live in constant fear of dying, whereas liberals are emotionally and intellectually dextrous, co-operative, creative and equable, and emit small beams of sunshine from their hindquarters as they go about their selfless lives. But the tendency to separate human thought into dueling theories, or worldviews, is persistent in intellectual spheres generally. Right or left; individualist or communitarian; authoritarian or libertarian; "anywhere" (culturally fluid and cosmopolitan) or "somewhere"(rooted and socially conservative); Edmund Burke or Thomas Payne; Keynes or Hayek: show me an exam question, and I will show you a binary formulation.
So, then, a protest. Can't we be both and / or neither? Can't we trust in markets and in the idea that there is such a thing as the common interest? Can't we desire government that does useful things on our behalf and steers away from intervening on our freedoms? Can't we have respect for tradition and believe in progress? Can't we have a journalism that cuts through the noise and strives towards some idea of universalism instead of pandering to the squalid, zero-sum dynamics of identity politics and competing victimhoods, that does not concern itself with who has taken offense but is not afraid to give it to those who poison the well?
Thomas Hobbes was not a great believer in the idea of a natural moral order in the world. Humankind, as he saw it, would be liable to regress to a state of viciousness and avarice without the steadying hand of a coercive state. It's a bleak view, but one which it seems to me today's left and right attribute each to the other, in their different ways: the left caricatures the right's view of human nature as a deification of selfishness; the right mocks the left's statist impulses, in which it discerns a fundamental lack of trust in ordinary people to make their own decisions. Such levels of mutual mistrust, then, that each caucus believes the other lacks faith in humanity entirely.
It does feel, now, like the tendency to believe the worst of others on account of views they hold, or express, is widespread. If Hobbes saw the world as a nasty, cut-throat place, then – as Niall Ferguson may be understood to intimate – growing numbers seem bent on proving him right.
Categories: Politics etcetera | Tags: Donald Trump, Edmund Burke, Facebook, Friedrich Hayek, Islamic State, John Maynard Keynes, Niall Ferguson, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Payne | Permalink.
A toast to Xi's crackdown on boozing
This article can also be read at SCMP.COM
Donald Trump apparently once jeopardised a business deal with a group of Hong Kong billionaires by declining to indulge in a drinking contest with them.
According to the unwritten ordinances of contemporary punditry, this preamble should lead – like all Trump-related preambles – into some veiled, or even unveiled, disparagement of his lack of deportment, his racism, and most crucially his hair.
Not today, though. No sir. Even a stopped clock tells the right time every 12 hours and I'm with Trump on his tee-totalism. The man is mad, bad and dangerous enough without getting on the El Dorado. But look: as arguments for abstinence go, the prodigious drinking that attends a large part of both state and commercial activity in these latitudes is hard to beat.
Therein also lies the reason why President Xi Jinping ought to be given some credit for his campaign against the mainland's drinking classes. Last month (June) brought a win in his efforts to curb what might properly be described as Russian levels of boozing in public life as cadres in Anhui province were told that, with the exception of events involving foreign affairs, or held to attract investment, there would be no more drinking at official dinners – otherwise known as "the office".
The ban, designed to combat an ingrained culture of "working at the drinking table" according to Xinhua, came in the wake of an investigation into several deaths in the province among functionaries who had been too assiduous in their gan bei toasts and succumbed to alcohol poisoning. It also followed Xi's move, shortly after assuming office in 2012, to place restrictions on alcohol at military functions. The practice of lower-ranking officers in the People's Liberation Army endlessly toasting their superiors was held to be causing widespread liver disease and elevated blood pressure, not to mention chronic badger breath, among the officer class at large.
It's my suspicion that listening to Party orders of business in Anhui province is not something that can easily be endured sober. It would be wrong to make light of this matter, though. Where politics and drink intersect it is customary to refer to Winston Churchill, and if there is one point about drinking on which Britain's "Greatest Briton" is clear, it is that no-one but he could achieve what he managed on the drinking regimen to which he was devoted. "I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk," said the man who liked to drink almost as much as he liked being at war.
The reality is that many who drink to excess in public life are tragic, second-rate characters, and it seems to me the archetype here is Boris Yeltsin, a Falstaffian figure who revelled in representing a tradition of alcoholism bridging Russia's new era of capitalist autocracy with its Communist and Tsarist ones. As Bill Clinton tells it, he (Yeltsin) once got so bladdered on a visit to Washington that he was found roaming Pennsylvania Avenue, outside the White House, dressed only in his underpants and attempting to hail a taxi. He wanted to get pizza, see. As an adjunct to that, he was completely incompetent, sold off the state's prize assets to gangsters and started two wars in Chechnya.
In the mainland, where in certain contexts it's considered bad form to refuse a drink, there's something of that buffoonish macho spirit of recklessness in the alcoholic brinksmanship of the baijou dinner. As one civil servant in the Anhui city of Ma'anshan told the China Daily: "Many Chinese believe they can judge a person's quality through observing the attitude and style of one's drinking."
It may be that Xi Jinping's main concern is to see that his country's officials do not dilute what the writer Yuan Weishi called their "wolf's milk" – Yuan's phrase to describe nationalistic indoctrination – with headier brews. Yet while the President's crackdown on corruption means a little transparency here and there without significantly changing how things work, clearer heads in government as a result of reforming the country's drinking culture might actually result in actions that make life better for people.
Categories: Other, Politics etcetera | Tags: Boris Yeltsin, Churchill, Donald Trump, PLA, Xi Jinping, Yuan Weishi | Permalink.
Saying women are more ethical than men does not make it so
"Women are not only stronger… they're more ethical," said the fashion designer Donatella Versace in a recent interview, adding: "the future belongs to women."
I have been reminded of these comments over the past few days, by the fall from grace of Brazil's female president, Dilma Rousseff.
Rousseff is being impeached, having failed to dispel links to a scandal involving kickbacks from Petrobras, the state-owned oil conglomerate, while she was the country's energy minister. In that fate, she is rather less fortunate than Cristina Kirchner, who was president of neighbouring Argentina until last December: Kirchner managed two full terms, despite numerous claims of corruption, misuse of public funds and falsification of public statistics against her administration.
I grant you, being completely and utterly bent is something for which Latin American politicians are renowned. And sure enough, most of Rousseff's political opponents, including the male ones waiting to supplant her regime, also stand accused of offences: perjury, money laundering, misappropriating dosh, forging documents, you name it. Politics in Brazil sounds like a barrel of laughs, unless you're one of the governed. But, anyway, the point is this: the route to advancing equality of the sexes taken by women like Rousseff appears to be equality of venality. What happened to being more ethical? Eh, Donatella?
In the US, however vile and unpleasant Hillary Clinton's opponents on the right, she knows better than to campaign on an ethics ticket. Firstly, she is a Clinton. And secondly, it seems improbable that she has ever held a position on any issue that hasn't been tradeable for votes. Nevertheless, a two-fold pitch of being a woman and, by way of corollary, not Donald Trump, should be enough to put her in the White House. If that sounds like an oversimplification, it's one that's backed up by the polls: electing America's first female president is the top reason given for backing the otherwise unloved Hillary in 2016.
The notion that women are a pacifying force in public life, that they are more collaborative and compassionate than men, who all want to be Julius Caesar, was perpetuated in the U.S. by the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker in his 2011 book The Better Angels of Our Nature. Plenty of evidence contradicts that thesis, however. In a meta-analysis of studies involving more than 12 million people, researchers at Iowa State University found an almost 80 per cent overlap between men and women on more than 75 per cent of psychological characteristics. In everything from morality to risk-taking, intelligence, personality traits, leadership style and satisfaction with life, they discovered men and women are just about the same.
The problem here for men arises in deciding which of these competing narratives is less likely to rouse feminists to anger. On the one hand, while they may encourage us to question what we think of as male characteristics, what moron among us would dare to deny any aspect of what women decide constitutes womanhood? On the other hand, it is probably as reckless, if not more, to state a belief in differences between the genders – unless one is willing to go the way of the gelded sycophant and admit that women are just better all-round at being human in the 21st century. That may well be the case but, Jesus, get some spine lads.
Back to actual politics, and women in it, though. For every Catherine the Great, Russia's enlightened despot, and every Cory Aquino, who was regarded in the Philippines as a national treasure, I will show you a Wu Zetain and a Gloria Arroyo. Wu, who ruled China for 15 years from 690 AD, is thought to have strangled her own daughter in order to frame a rival. Arroyo, who left office in 2010, remains under hospital arrest in Manila, charged with plundering state coffers.
In Britain, opinion is still divided on Margaret Thatcher, but compassion and collaboration are not words unhesitatingly thrown her way. When she died, the singer Morrissey called her "A barbaric terror without an atom of humanity." Another conservative, Angela Merkel, fares rather better in her country's affections, but her approach to diplomacy has been described as "Kissingerian", for which read cunning as a rat.
On the left, Indira Ghandi was a ruthless political operator who went to war with Pakistan and ruled India by decree during a two-year state of emergency. Julia Gillard's backdoor grab for power in Australia would have impressed Machiavelli. And, seemingly quiescent over the persecution of the Rohingya Muslims, even Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize-winning Aung San Suu Kyi has let her halo slip since her release from house arrest in 2010.
None of this is to argue against having more female politicians. According to the United Nations, the percentage of women in politics globally has almost doubled in the past two decades, but it's still only at 22 per cent. Some places are going at the issue with less zeal than others. Lots of countries now have some kind of gender quota system in place, though. And where I come from, the government in the devolved Scottish parliament has a completely gender-balanced cabinet, in addition to its three main parties all having female leaders.
It is rare nowadays that we get to say Scotland represents the future of anything. In this instance, though, it does. Personally, I think anyone who wants a career in politics should be put in chains, but the quotas? I'm all for them. In the west, women are doing better in education than men and they're starting businesses at a higher rate too. Online, social media networks are culturally feminised spaces. Why shouldn't public life fall in line? More quotas, I say. Women-only shortlists. Ban men from standing for election. Ban them from leaving the house. Just don't tell me women are going to run the world differently.
Categories: Politics etcetera | Tags: Angela Merkel, Aung San Suu Kyi, Catherine the Great, Christina Kirchner, Cory Aquino, Dilma Rousseff, Donald Trump, Donatella Versace, Gloria Arroyo, Henry Kissinger, Hillary Clinton, Indira Ghandi, Julia Gillard, Machiavelli, Margaret Thatcher, Nicola Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson, Scotland, Steven Pinker, Wu Zetain | Permalink.
Ugly populism is not an argument against democracy
The beacon light on the shining city on the hill is guttering. The barbarians are at the gate and the fox is in the henhouse. The worm, you may be assured, has scoffed the apple. Ladies and gents, American democracy is being exposed for a sham by an absurd buffoon who looks like a character from the funny papers. The mot du jour is dysfunctionality, and dysfunctionality is afflicting all known institutions grievously – but some (political parties, the electoral process) more than others. With the rise of Donald Trump, we have reached the inevitable end-point of politics' showbusiness vajazzling. America's Got Talent but it's being offered a preening, pelt-haired Tony Soprano instead and if it's repulsed it's also enamoured.
I offer my apologies. Words along these lines are in over-supply right now – as likely to be voiced by disbelieving American conservatives as by liberals, by people with a dog in the fight as by despairing onlookers in other parts of the world. It's almost as though Trump's detractors have begun to echo and amplify the nihilism of his message. Millions of Americans, it is understood, have lost faith: in government, in political parties, in big business, in the media. Trump exploits this loss of faith to build a following. Trump-watchers respond that this following is further proof of the loss of faith, and of the dysfunctionality of the system – of the parties' inertia, of a debased campaign financing model, of the remaking of politics as a reality gameshow. Others look at his followers and blame the situation on their stupidity and susceptibility. Either way, if you believe many parts of the commentariat, it's democracy itself that is kaput.
This is a negative message for Americans to consume. For folks in places around the world where democracy does not exist it is all the more depressing. Indeed, the only people likely to take any solace from it are those who consider democracy a virus anyway. People like the Chinese Communist Party and its friends. Look, they might say of the world's most hubristic polity – democracy is a mass of contradictions that offers only the illusion of freedom. Institutions are at the mercy of big money, Congress is gridlocked, mob violence attends public rallies and demagoguery is cutting through. In such an analysis, radical populist movements – whether in America or in Hong Kong, where we have a growing "localist" faction that's driven in part by anger at the city's "mainlandisation" and a failure to address blue-collar concerns – are warnings against disrupting the corporatist status quo.
There's little doubt that Trump is garnering support not only for the populism of his message but also for his abandonment of the normal rules of civility – those are for the establishment "schmucks" on all sides who've propagated a system of top-down technocracy. Flat-footing his opponents by being provocative and boorish has played well with large constituencies of voters who are tired of party automatons. Other candidates gotta serve somebody – big pharma, Wall Street; The Donald's personal wealth allows him to make a virtue of serving only himself. His anti-establishment credentials thus defined, he has eschewed consistency. Who knows what a Trump presidency might have in store for the world? His instincts seem not only protectionist but isolationist. He thinks America gets a raw deal as the world's policeman. On the other hand, he wants to "rebuild" its military, and he wants to "beat" China, Mexico, Russia and Iran. If there's a unifying message, it might be that the rest of the world can go to hell.
Trump also believes in torture, mass deportations and banning certain monotheistic types not of a Judaeo-Christian persuasion. The man most likely to gain the Republican Party presidential nomination is an authoritarian oaf. Does this invalidate democracy? No, it does not. Not in any real sense. Authoritarian thugs can be voted in; in democracies they can also be voted out. Meanwhile, the United States Constitution enshrines checks on the executive branch of government. That hoariest of Winston Churchill quotes serves: "Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
In a more pragmatic sense, a Trump candidacy, while representing a nadir, may actually be good for the GOP: it may cause it to fracture, but the healing process would surely return it to a more centrist, consensus-building course. Already, the Trump enema has convinced some conservative thinkers that what's required is to develop more policies that appeal to working people. Moreover, if – as pollsters anticipate – Hillary Clinton wins a two-way race against Trump in November, she could end up with a uniquely bi-partisan mandate.
To those who despair, or gloat, at the state of U.S. democracy, however, one need only point out one abiding characteristic of it to sustain a more romantic view. If millions of Americans have "lost faith" in politics, then millions of others do not appear at all cynical about the enterprise (and it's true that both Trump and his leftist counterpart in the Democratic primaries, Bernie Sanders, have brought entirely new groups of voters into the process). A passion for voting and elections has been a feature of American civil society since at least the 1830s, when the French writer Alexis de Tocqueville exclaimed on it in his classic book Democracy in America. A little further back, Aristotle defined man as a political animal (zoon politikon) with an innate need to debate questions of justice and the common good. Sometimes this gives rise to expressions of humanity's uglier nature. But no, democracy itself is not the virus.
Categories: Politics etcetera | Tags: Alexis de Tocqueville, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, localism, Republican Party, vajazzling | Permalink.


Unity recently announced support for Windows 10, starting with Unity 5.2. To help developers export their games and publish to the new Universal Windows Platform for Windows 10, I put together a quick tutorial.
This is exactly what I needed to see. Love it. Pretty similar to how we did it for Win 8. Thank you for taking the time to make this. I owe you a coffee next time we meet!


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Republic of Korea, UNFPA and UN Women partner to advance gender equality for some of the furthest behind women and girls in Tanzania
The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania has made significant progress and commitments to tackle gender inequalities and discrimination, as articulated in national, regional and global development agendas.
Msasala District, Shinyanga Region: UNFPA and UN Women have launched a $5 million, three-year Joint Programme –"Realizing Gender Equality through Empowering Women and Adolescent Girls" – in Msasala District, Shinyanga Region, Tanzania, supported by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). It follows the launch of the same programme in Ikungi District, Singida Region, on 29 September.
The launch of the Joint Programme, the culmination of a two-year consultation process, will harness the strengths of sister agencies UN Women and UNFPA, and national and local partners in both Singida and Shinyanga, to advance gender equality efforts and ensure that rural women and girls in Ikungi and Msasala Districts are not left behind.
The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania has made significant progress and commitments to tackle gender inequalities and discrimination, as articulated in national, regional and global development agendas. Sexual, psychological, physical, and economic violence, however, remain a reality for many women and girls in Singida and Shinyanga Regions.
Gender roles upheld by deeply-rooted social norms that ascribe women and girls a lower social status continue to perpetuate violence and force women and girls into housekeeping and caring for siblings, teenage pregnancy and early, forced and child marriage. The resulting time poverty, lack of education, and a lack of assets and access to financial services all combine to limit women and girls' opportunities and participation in community life and productive paid work.
Efforts through the programme will seek to challenge social norms that continue to lock women and girls in a cycle of inequality and violence and empower them to participate in economic and social life. Creating a more enabling environment for women to hold land titles and for smallholder farmers, including young women, to participate and be more productive in the agricultural sector will be a focus of activities, as will strengthening gender-based violence prevention and response systems with the involvement of paralegals, police and the health sector and establishing community structures and safe spaces that increase women's and girls' agency and ability to uphold their rights.
Gender equality and women and girls' empowerment is a top priority in Korea's development cooperation. The Korea International Cooperation Agency have worked closely with multilateral partners, including UN Agencies, in Tanzania to address some of the critical challenges women and girls face in health and education.
The Joint Programme is an integral part of the United Nations Development Assistance Plan II in Tanzania and will directly contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development while supporting the implementation of national development plans and strategies.
Warren Bright
bwarren@unfpa.org
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
Other entities involved in this initiative
Korea International Cooperation Agency

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Blackstone Minerals to spin out non-core gold assets into Codrus Minerals IPO
04:05 Thu 19 Mar 2020
viewIG Group
IG Group Hldgs plc - Non-Executive Director Changes
RNS Number : 6998G
IG Group Holdings plc
LEI No: 2138003A5Q1M7ANOUD76
Non-Executive Director Changes
Appointment of Helen Stevenson
The Board of IG Group Holdings plc (the "Company"), a global leader in online trading, is pleased to announce that Helen Stevenson was yesterday appointed as a Non-Executive Director of the Company. Helen was also appointed as a member of the Company's Remuneration Committee.
Commenting on the appointment, Company Chairman Mike McTighe said: "Following an extensive, externally facilitated, search I am delighted to welcome Helen to the Board. She is a highly experienced Non-Executive Director with significant marketing and digital skills and experience. Helen's appointment complements and builds on the skills of the existing Board members and her experience in the ever-changing world of executive remuneration is especially welcome."
Helen Stevenson said: "IG Group is an award-winning, multi-platform trading company with strong technology assets, a high-quality customer base and a clear and exciting growth strategy. I'm looking forward to working with the Board and the management team to realise further the potential of the business."
Retirement of Stephen Hill
The Board of the Company yesterday received notice from Stephen Hill of his intention to retire as a Non-Executive Director of the Company at the expiry of his current term with effect from 27 April 2020.
Mike McTighe, on behalf of the Board, would like to extend his thanks to Stephen for his contribution to the Board during his 9-year tenure and wish him every success for the future. Mike said:
"Stephen has been an invaluable support to the board and executives throughout his period with the company. His insights and perspectives have been greatly appreciated over the years. We thank him for his dedication and service and wish him well."
This announcement is made in accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.11.
Helen Stevenson - Biographical Details
Helen Stevenson brings extensive marketing and digital experience from a range of industries together with strong customer focus. Helen is an experienced Non-Executive Director with particular experience regarding remuneration matters. Helen is currently the Senior Independent Director of Reach plc and Kin and Carta plc and a non-executive director of Skipton Building Society.
Helen served as Chief Marketing Officer UK at Yell Group plc from 2006 to 2012 and, prior to this, served as Lloyds TSB Group Marketing Director. Helen started her career with Mars Inc where she spent 19 years, culminating in her role as European Marketing Director, leading category strategy development across Europe.
Helen has a BA (Hons) Degree in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University.
There is no further information to disclose in accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.13R.
Liz Scorer 020 7573 0727
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About IG
IG empowers informed, decisive, adventurous, people to access opportunities in over 16,000 financial markets. With a strong focus on innovation and technology, the company puts client needs at the heart of everything it does.
IG's vision is to provide the world's best trading experience. Established in 1974 as the world's first financial derivatives firm, it continued leading the way by launching the world's first online and iPhone trading services.
IG is an award-winning, multi-platform trading company which allows retail, professional and institutional clients to trade 24 hours a day, 7 days a week*. IG is the world's No.1 provider of CFDs** and a global leader in forex. It provides leveraged services with the option of limited-risk guarantees and offers an execution-only stock trading service in the UK, Australia, Germany, France, Ireland, Austria and the Netherlands. IG has a range of affordable, fully managed investment portfolios, which provide a comprehensive offering to investors and active traders.
IG is a member of the FTSE 250, with offices across Europe, including a Swiss bank, Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and North America. IG Group Holdings plc holds a long-term investment grade credit rating of BBB- with a stable outlook from Fitch Ratings.
*Excluding 10pm Friday (GMT) to 4am Saturday (GMT)
**Based on revenue excluding FX (from published financial statements, June 2019)
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UNDER The Skin is a tender – and true – story of love, set against the horrors of the Second World War. It is moving, shocking and beautifully acted. I implore you to catch it if you can. Short, sharp and brave theatre.
Written by Israeli playwright Yonatan Calderon, it flits between a women's labour camp (Neuengamme) near the end of the war and Tel Aviv 1991 when the Gulf War was raging – and the city's residents are regularly being alerted to possible rocket attacks.
The common denominator is Charlotte Brod who in her youth was Lotte Rosner, a gifted ballet dancer who loved to be Giselle. But in 1991 she is a somewhat crotchety individual out of love and carrying the shadows of the past on her shoulders. Haunted by ghosts.
She is visited by Kirsten Eberhardt, claiming to be a young journalist. She is seeking confirmation that Brod is Charlotte Rosner, an acclaimed ballerina in her youth. Brod is in denial while Eberhardt seems more concerned about self-preservation, grasping for a gas mask whenever the whirr of a bomb can be heard overhead.
Slowly, the jigsaw pieces are put together as we are transmitted back to 1944 where Lotte and her best friend Ida Berman are struggling to survive in the camp. Summary executions are the norm, a murdering doctor (Doctor Schmidt) goes about her job with glee, and starvation is never far away.
Yet there is salvation in the form of Nazi commander Ilsa Kholmann – known around camp as 'Bube' (boy). She is smitten by Lotte and saves her life twice – preventing her from joining a gang of five volunteers to feed the pigs (code for being summarily shot) and enabling her to survive the murderous clutches of the female camp doctor when she falls ill.
Bube then hatches an escape plan for Lotte which involves her performing before a group of SS officers, but it fails. With the allied forces getting ever closer, Lotte and Ida are transported to Bergen-Belsen, but Bube is undeterred. She tracks Lotte down and breaks into the camp dressed as a Jew.
Is it really love or is she just attempting to save her own skin? It ends in an awful double tragedy which explains Brod's state of mind more than forty years on (Ida is always a 'presence in Brod's room). Eberhardt's appearance in Tel Aviv squares the circle.
Based largely on the trial protocol of Kholmann, this play is heart-breaking on so many levels. It is also cleverly acted with the three actresses doubling or trebling up, changing costume on stage. Dance and movement is a recurring theme – the play's cement.
Adi Loya's transformation from 66 year old Brod to the ever marching 'Bube' is quite magnificent while Natasha Lanceley plays Lotte with great sensitivity. She even passes herself off as a half decent ballerina. When not Lotte, Lanceley plays journalist Eberhardt.
Completing the trio is Batel Israel who is wonderful as the caring Ida. She is also effective in her cameos as smiling assassin Schmidt and the host at the cabaret which Lotte performs at.
Under The Skin is raw theatre. Maybe, it suffers a little from being too fractured with nine scenes being crammed into just an hour. But this is a story which just had to be told. Hats off to both writer Calderon and director Ariella Eshed.
Under The Skin runs until Saturday March 31 at Old Red Lion Theatre, London.
It then shows at the Warren Theatre as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival on 16 and 17 May.


This weekend, we will find out who is going to compete in Super Bowl 52. After a crazy divisional round with upsets and walk-offs, four teams remain in the quest for a Lombardi Trophy. For this special post on Charm City Bird Watch, we will break down the AFC Championship and the NFC Championship. Our preview for each contest includes a quick blurb and a score prediction from founder Jake McDonnell, along with contributors Nolan McGraw and Tyler Feeser. Both games take place this Sunday, Jan. 21.
Jake: If you picked the Jacksonville Jaguars to compete in the AFC Championship game before the season began, hats off. After shocking the world by defeating the Steelers last week, the Jags look to do the same this Sunday in Foxboro. If they do, they'll embark on what would be the franchise's first trip to a Super Bowl.
On the other side, the Patriots look to reach the eighth Super Bowl appearance for quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick. Just like usual for the Patriots, there is some drama surrounding the team this week. According to reports, Brady jammed his throwing hand during a team practice held on Wednesday. The injury kept Brady out of practice on Thursday. That's definitely something to monitor over the next few days.
I pointed this out on the Ebony Bird podcast this week, and I originally heard it while listening to the Simms and Lefkoe Podcast, but over the summer the Jaguars and the Patriots held a few joint practices together before their preseason game on Aug. 10. We all know the schemer Belichick is. Something tells me that Belichick knew the talent on Jacksonville's roster was good enough to get them into the playoffs. Belichick probably got what he wanted when the Jags scrimmaged the Patriots. It allowed Belichick to see what Jacksonville does well and what they do not to well on both sides of the football. Imagine what these joint practices, along with 18 games of Jags film to watch, will do for Belichick this week.
Nolan: I had a gut feeling about Jacksonville victory last week and it came true. The Jaguars improved upon their wildcard game against the Buffalo Bills and did exactly what they were supposed to. Leonard Fournette had a great game and Blake Bortles was smart with the ball. This allowed the defense to play without any hesitation and forced the Steelers to play from behind. Even though the Jaguars defense was successful on Sunday, they still allowed Ben Roethlisberger to throw for 469 yards and five touchdowns. Unlike the Steelers, New England will not be overlooking the Jaguars and I don't expect them to be in a situation where they are down by three scores.
This one is going to come down to a few key drives late in the game. Jacksonville contained a talented Steelers offense and forced some very timely turnovers but will they have an answer for Rob Gronkowski? On top of this, I'm not entirely convinced that Bortles can have another mistake free game. Even if he has another clean game, does he have what it takes to win if this game turns into a shootout? Jacksonville's run has been a lot of fun to watch but I really can't bet against the Patriots in this one.
Tyler: This is the matchup that everyone outside of New England was hoping for. The Jaguars defense vs Tom Brady and Patriots offense. Is this the defense that can slow Brady down? Is this the defense that can take him down completely and knock the Patriots out of the playoffs? The short answer is no.
The Jaguars defense has been dominant this season. There is no denying that. They are vulnerable though. See the Steelers game last week, the 49ers game, and the Rams game. Don't think for one second that Brady, McDaniels, and Belichick won't come in knowing exactly how to exploit this Jaguars defense. I expect the Patriots running backs and Rob Gronkowski to all have big games catching the ball.
Lets not lose sight of the fact that Jacksonville can get pressure on the quarterback. They will get to Brady and we could see 🚨ANGRY BRADY🚨 come out on Sunday. The Jaguars defense is somewhat similar to the Ravens and Giants defenses that historically give Brady fits. Lets also not forget that Tom Coughlin, who seems to have the Patriots number, is now with the Jaguars.
From the Jaguars offense perspective, I think Blake Bortles will continue to make a few plays here and there. His confidence is carrying him right now and that is what the Jags need. Leonard Fournette will be getting the same treatment Derrick Henry got last week. The Patriots defense will be selling out to stop him because he is the best player on the opposing offense. That will force Bortles to make plays if the Jaguars want to win. Can he outperform the future hall of famer? We will find out.
Image Credit: Behind the Steel Curtain NFC Championship – #2 Minnesota Vikings @ #1 Philadelphia Eagles – 6:40 pm – FOXJake: Like I said about the Jaguars playing in the AFC Championship, if before the season you predicted a Nick Foles/Case Keenum dual in the NFC Championship, let me know so I can buy you a beer sometime soon. I'll admit, I was in the wrong picking the Falcons last week. Jim Schwartz had his defense playing lights out, forcing Matt Ryan into several bad decisions. They attacked Atlanta's weaknesses and limited the reigning NFC Champions to 10 points. On the following afternoon, it was Keenum and Stefan Diggs connecting on a walk-off 61-yard touchdown that is now being deemed "The Minneapolis Miracle." No matter if it's Vikings fans crying tears of joy after so many heartbreaking playoff losses, or Eagles fans riding the coattails of Foles, there's a lot of emotion going into this game.
Both teams quickly became Super Bowl favorites early in the season, and the Vikings even have a chance to become the first team in NFL history to compete in a Super Bowl at their home stadium. I believe that we will see that happen, because I'm picking the Vikings this weekend. Foles and company did just enough to get by last week against an above-average, but not great, Falcons defense. The Vikings finished the regular season with the top-ranked defense in yards allowed. Their numbers have slipped lately, but I think they'll handle whatever the Eagles throw at them.
Just like the Falcons, the Vikings are used to playing in a dome, which scares me. However, I'm going with Minnesota in a nail-biter.
Nolan: I was wrong about Philadelphia's defense last week. They controlled the game against Atlanta and even when the Falcons were threatening at the very end, Philly stood their ground and got a huge red-zone stop. However, they will have their hands full again this week as the Vikings come to town. Minnesota has prided itself on their defense this year but also showed that they can trade punches with a high-octane offensive team like the Saints. Julio Jones and Mohamed Sanu gave the Eagles some trouble last week and I expect Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs to do the same.
I think it will be harder for Nick Foles and the Eagles offense to stay clean against the Vikings defense. Philadelphia fumbled the ball four times against Atlanta but only lost two of them. They overcame these turnovers last week, but the Vikings defense will not be as forgiving as Atlanta's. While I acknowledge that the Eagles have a good defense, I am still not sold on Foles and his ability to put points on the board. He was smart with the ball last week but only led the offense to one touchdown drive. I don't care how good the Eagles defense is, Foles has to start scoring if the Eagles are going to make the Super Bowl.
Tyler: One way or another, I feel like this game is being underappreciated. Everyone is underestimating and, to be honest, flat out disrespecting Philadelphia. Many people believe that last week's game between Minnesota and New Orleans should have been the NFC Championship game. But realistically, the Saints got dominated in the first half and only led that game for about two minutes. The second half was great but the only reason people will remember the game is because of the ending. I'm not trying to trash that game, but lets give Philadelphia some credit for getting here when nobody expected them to.
I am really looking forward to this game. Many people may expect this game to be boring due to both teams boasting great defenses that could potentially take over the game. I for one am looking forward to watching a game like this. I enjoy watching games like the one in Pittsburgh last week, but something about this matchup has me drawn in.
Last week, Philadelphia showed that they love the underdog role, which they will be in again on Sunday. The stadium will be rocking and the defense will feed off the atmosphere. The top-ranked rush defense will shut down the Vikings running game and force Case Keenum to make plays himself. The Eagles secondary will have to have a great game against one of the better receiving corps that they faced all season. If the Eagles' pass rush can get pressure on Keenum that would help out the secondary tremendously.
Minnesota's defense, from top to bottom, is even more impressive than Philadelphia's. I don't expect the Eagles running game to have much success. The key for the Eagles offense is going to be Foles not turning the ball over. If he can't do that I don't think the Eagles will stand much of a chance. If he doesn't turn the ball over this one will come down to wire and be very low scoring.
This entry was posted in Various and tagged AFC Championship, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, NFC Championship, NFL, NFL Playoffs, Philadelphia Eagles. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
Objection Network
Video games, anime, podcasts and more!
Rack Focus
Chris, Video Games
Where is Persona 5?
Here's what we know about Persona 5:
Series director Katsura Hashino will return to put the game together
Composer Shoji Meguro will be back to come up with a ridiculous soundtrack
Shigenori Soejima will design the characters again
Forget worrying about a release date for P5 — at best, we might get a reveal of the game itself at E3 this year. This is somewhat surprising to me, considering that the first news about Persona 5 being in development was back in the summer of 2011. Since then, there's been no news outside of the information above.
The good news is that Persona fans have not been abandoned in the meantime. After Persona 4's PS2 release in 2008, Atlus has released the definitive version of both of their most popular games (Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden), as well as a brand-new fighting game (Persona 4 Arena) with characters from the series.
But here's the problem: Arena featured an intricate story mode with with events that took place two months after the conclusion of Persona 4, including an ending that left a lot of questions unanswered. Was this a precursor to Persona 5? Would we see the return of familiar character instead of an entirely new cast?
P4Golden was no different — it featured additional content after the conclusion of the main story that explained more about what happened to the characters and Inaba. Still, instead of tying things up for P4 with a pretty bow, it felt like there were still dozens of possibilities for the cast, including a new character who could join the investigation team.
Don't get me wrong: These additional glances at the worlds and characters of P3 and P4 are only a good thing. Seeing so much work put into the story for Arena was amazing (especially by fighting game standards) and Golden turned P4 into one of the best games of all-time. I have no beef whatsoever with receiving more time with some of my favorite characters.
My only problem with all this is that it seems like a waste of some great momentum. Maybe that's why I was a little let down by Sony's PS4 conference — somewhere in the back of my mind I was hoping we might see a reveal of Persona 5. Some screenshots, maybe, or a logo on a box. To this point, none of that exists; all we have so far is a partial list of the development team and some nebulous hints that the game is "in progress." Considering that it's already been five years since the original release of P4, and the series has exploded in popularity since then, I guess I'm just surprised that Atlus is taking this at such a slow pace.
Look, I think P5 will be worth the wait, and I certainly don't want to rush development just to get my giant hands on a game. It would just be nice to get some information to tide fans over while the process continues.
February 25, 2013 March 4, 2017 Arena, Atlus, blog, Chris, persona, Persona 5, Playstation, RPG, video games, Yukiko
11 thoughts on "Where is Persona 5?"
I demand long-haired Chie in Persona 5. Marie and Rise can tag along too I suppose. Then we'll all enjoy a fsteak over at Aiya's and talk about how awesome we all are…
And that works, because it leaves me and Yukiko to go off somewhere and…help each other…study. Yeah.
connorbros says:
The only Persona I played was 4 and I loved it, so I'm waiting excitedly. I love what I have played of the Shin Megami Tensei series in general… major fan of the Devil Survivors. I'm super excited about Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem
~Dylan
Yeah, that was by far the most random part of the series of announcements Nintendo made a few weeks ago, but I'm definitely interested by the potential that crossover has.
Tyler Graves says:
Persona 4 was the first and only game I had played as well, if you liked it, play Persona 3… I'm playing it right now and its incredibly good.
Bon James says:
I hope they do an all new cast. P4 had good characters, but it was a bit too campy for my taste. I want this game to be dark and depressing. I cried during persona 3. I want a dark game.
That's fair. For me, my pick would probably be a brand-new cast with maybe a couple of cameo appearances or loose ties with the earlier games.
Persona 4's plot was a little too scooby doo for me, but I loved the characters. Every single one of them stood out (especially Rise.) I definitely preferred the overall dark plot of persona 3 though. A mixing of the two games, as arena might have been hinting at, could be awesome.
Ven says:
Thanks for your visit and like! You've earned yourself a follower with this great post. You're right; I hadn't thought about it, but it has been five years since P4… Hah, I love all those games and have played them each at least twice, but if P5's coming out for the PS3, that just gives me one more reason to buy one.
Yep, it's surprising that it's been that long since P4 originally released. I think the reason is that we've seen remakes of both P3 and P4 in that span (plus Arena as a new title). Makes you wonder what the hold-up is on news about P5…
Krauser0 says:
Well they've been working on shin megami tensai soul hackers and shin megami tensai 4 as well. Who knows how long those have been on development. So it stands to reason that persona 5 would come out after. They want to touch base with the 3ds so they can draw more consumers in. I work at a video game store and let me tell you. People killed for the persona 4 collectors and even the basic now. Plus the previous ds games like devil survivor 1 overclocked and devil survivor 2 had limited print runs. The company knows how to entice people by making them buy it day one. The fact no release date has been announced is because its a business strategy. Let the people wait a while, draw in new customers and boom. Instant profit day one.
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Chris is the brains, brawn, and height behind most of At The Buzzer. He drinks four gallons of milk a week. Email him at chris@atthebuzzershow.com.	View all posts by Chris
Team Objection Podcast #467 (01/14/21) January 14, 2021
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Whitewashing and The Legend of Korra
Team Objection Podcast #467 (01/14/21)
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Objection Network is a pop culture extravaganza with a weekly podcast every Thursday at noon, daily Let's Play videos, and a bevy of blog posts for your enjoyment.
The current crew includes Chris and Shaun, who have been there since the beginning, and Michelle, who joined in 2014. We also have other contributors like Michaela who chip in from time to time.
We cover everything from video games, anime and movies to music, books and idiots in the news. And yes, everybody here loves Phoenix Wright, thank you for asking.
This whole thing was started as At the Buzzer in February 2011, the brainchild of three men desperate for attention. It's slightly related to an old Flagstaff radio show from 2008, kinda like how Frasier was slightly related to Cheers. In other words, we're all getting old and it's a little depressing.
(467) Hot Sun Take January 13, 2021
The gang merges a recent segment with a bit of basketball talk, blurring the lines for the sake of punditry. Also, Chris challenges himself in strange ways, Dave enjoys getting pummeled, and Shaun tries to stay away from the ledge.
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The gang looks back at the best in pop culture from the last year -- TV, video games, movies and more -- with some alterations for a bizarre 2020. Also, Chris looks down at misery porn, Dave makes Shaun stop and consider, and Shaun chronicles the past in graph form.
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The gang conjures up memories of the old Lightning Round by diving into some quick topics before the end of the year. Also, Chris has a mediocre callback, Dave is the voice of the voiceless, and Shaun of all people tells folks to calm down.
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text:
Q: Why is there a limit for major of 65535 in the library when using eddystone UID format? Could I redefine this limit? I need to set a value of instance id greater than 65535 for transmitting like a beacon but Android Beacon Library apparently doesnt allow that.
Code works fine with a value of major less than 65535.
uuid="87657753868957865aaa"
major = "1000"; // when this number is bigger than 65535 doesn t work
beacon = new Beacon.Builder()
                .setId1(uuid)
                .setId2(major)
                .setManufacturer(0x00e0)
                .setTxPower(-59)
                .build();
beaconParser = new BeaconParser()
         .setBeaconLayout("s:0-1=feaa,m:2-2=00,p:3-3:-41,i:4-13,i:14-
19");

Could I use a major bigger than 65535?

A: You can set a value greater than 65535, but it must be expressed in hex format.  Try, "0x10000" (65536 decimal) or  "0xffffffffffff" (the max value allows by an Eddystone Instance ID).
See the "Allowed formats" for parsing a string into an Identifier in the Javaocs here: https://altbeacon.github.io/android-beacon-library/javadoc/org/altbeacon/beacon/Identifier.html

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


He has been booed, criticised and vilified, sometimes even by his own NRL club fans.
Now Brisbane prop Matt Lodge deserves a "pat on the back", teammate Andrew McCullough says.
Lodge began the NRL season as public enemy No.1 amid the backlash over Brisbane throwing him a one-season lifeline following his much publicised 2015 New York drunken attack.


text:
Q: Parameter not being passed to layout-macro-def It seems like a parameter is not being passes to a layout-macro-def, and I can't figure out why.
I've read the documentation for layouts / layout macros.
In my layout, I have something like this:
result-view {
  match:  dailyDeals (this) {
    from-property: inventory (inventory) // the param to pass
  }
  message {
    template  ("Wow!") {
      speech ("#{value(this)}")
    }
  }
  render {
    layout {
      section {
      ....
      value ("#{value(inventory.item)}" // e.g., a vbox text value
      ....
      layout-macro (myMacro) {param (inventory)}
      }
    }
  }
}

And I have a layout macro like this:
layout-macro-def (myMacro) {
  params {
    param (inventory) {
      type (inventory)
      max (Many)

    }
  }
  content {
    ....
    value ("#{value(inventory.item)}" // e.g., a vbox text value
    .....
   }
}

I can access inventory values from within the layout just fine (e.g., inventory.item.) However, it seems that inventory isn't being passed (or is empty?) when it gets to the macro, because inventory.item won't show up in the layout from myMacro.
What am I missing?

A: I think you need to add the expression key to the param.
Try this:
 render {
    layout {
      section {
      ....
      value ("#{value(inventory.item)}" // e.g., a vbox text value
      ....
      layout-macro (myMacro) {param (inventory) {expression (inventory)} }
      }
    }
  }


I had been planning on making Paris-Brest for a long time but have been knocked back on numerous occasions due to my futile attempts at tracking down praline paste in the big smoke. Basically, it is impossible to get hold of the stuff on the high street and so far, it seems only tradespeople can order it from suppliers and at that, the minimum size is a 5kg tub! Luckily for me, my pesky persistence finally paid off when I managed to track down a company online called Home Chocolate Factory which stocked praline paste in 1kg tubs AND sold to non-trade peeps, woohoo! After a quick phonecall, I managed to get my hands on the last tub they had in stock in superfast time cos they insisted on sending it to me via DHL since it was an edible product!
Once the choux was cooked, then it was onto making the pastry cream for the Paris-Brest cream - all pretty straightforward there. The final step was to make the Paris-Brest cream which involved whisking pastry cream with praline paste and softened butter - the good news was that my cream didn't lose volume and turn into a liquid like last time!! The bad news was that I had miscalculated the amount of cream needed and didn't have enough for my Paris-Brest, poo! The choux recipe made more than 1 large Paris-Brest so I figured that the Paris-Brest cream was for the whole choux recipe and decided to go for half the amount just to fill the 1 pastry, how wrong was I??? Luckily for me, my Paris-Brest was smaller than the one I made at school meaning that I needed less cream but I was still left a couple of inches short - a bit bummed at that.
So close and yet so far, damn!!


Black and white photograph showing the auditorium of the Alexandra Palace Theatre. The photograph is taken from the centre of the dress circle. The auditorium is a long rectangular space. The main seating area, the stalls, is flanked by corridors incorporating exits, these being marked by low segmental pediments; the proscenium is square, flanked by niched figures and surmounted by a coat-of-arms; a chandelier is suspended from the centre of the panelled ceiling.


Lots of people are unaware of brand-new technology in hot water heater, so believe about going tankless. That old hot water heater keeps 40-60 gallons of water hot, 24 Hr a day, 7 days a week. Tankless water heating units only heat the water as you need it and will save you cash now and will bring you revenues when you sell. Bobby Brown proposed to his girlfriend, manager Alicia Etheridge, at the yearly Funk Fest in Jacksonville, FL, on May 7, 2010.
He called her up on phase, where she included their eleven month-old boy Cassius. He then got down on one knee, asked her to marry him, and she stated yes. The size is another important factor, due to the fact that the larger the space, the bigger should be the heating unit you need. Their sizes are based on watts, so speak with the dealership of the makers who can offer you an idea depending location of your space.
Generally there will be a temperature level control in many models, so that you can increase or decrease temperature level at will. Look for hotel energy saver label to help you minimize power use. Make sure that the heater has all the safety features. As the heating system will be on throughout your sleeping hours it is essential that they are absolutely safe to use. Not to be confused with the hotel hard lock, likewise situated in Las Vegas, the Hard Rock Cafe is on the south half of the Las Vegas Strip.
Just north of the MGM Grand, throughout the street from the Monte Carlo. It is within strolling range of any any the hotels from the World Hollywood all the method to the Excalibur. 39. Residential or commercial property photos for retrieval companies. Some circumstances will see you not able to return house. Some business are trained and equipped to go into these areas to gather individuals's possessions.
Residential or commercial property images will enable you to determine specific items you 'd like obtained. Prague's worst problem are minor burglars. Constantly ensure you close all your bags, don't have your loan or passport in back pocket and be on alert. I would likewise suggest to lower the amount of jewelery you place on. Thieves normally focus in primary traveler areas and work in groups. So even if you get the man who just took your wallet he normally manages to pass it onto his team mate.
Likewise never leave prized possessions in an automobile on unattended bags. When leaving constantly ensure to lock it. Two important suggestions when taking a trip are; not to accept any item from a complete stranger, and not to leave your luggage in an unattended area. You must take care; it's possible you will be targeted by burglars and drug smugglers. Report anything you believe is suspicious and stay on your guard.
Upkeep for both is actually rather easy. Regular checkups to guarantee that the vents are tidy are a must. Debris and dust need to be cleared to ensure that the quality of air is outstanding. It is important that vents have a screen to prevent any rodents, insect or any other pest from getting in.


Our client, one of the companies in the business of commodity manufacturing and trading is seeking to hire a Regional Sales Manager- Commodity to be based in Dubai, UAE. Reports to the General Manager.
The ideal candidate would have to come with atleast 8-10 years' of experience of sales in a commodity or food ingredients company. Preferably a post graduate.
DAKSADA is in search of talented and motivated individuals for the post of Sales Manager-Commodity (Indian) in the field of Sales in one of their office located in Dubai - United Arab Emirates. The ideal candidate should have post graduate - ca qualification and atleast 6 years of experience. The position require business, manufacturing, trading, regional, sales, general, food, post, numerical skills, computer knowledge, communication mandatory skills. This is a Full-Time morning shift job.


text:
Le trophée Dunc-McCallum (en anglais : ) est un trophée de hockey sur glace remis annuellement depuis 1968 au meilleur entraîneur-chef dans la Ligue de hockey de l'Ouest.

Le trophée est nommé en l'honneur de Dunc McCallum, entraîneur des Wheat Kings de Brandon de 1976 à 1981, remportant durant cette période 251 victoires et mettant la mains sur la coupe Ed-Chynoweth en 1979.

Gagnant du trophée
Les entraîneurs surlignées en jaune ont également remporté le titre d'entraîneur de l'année dans la LCH.

Notes et références

Dunc McCallum

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


At the direction of your client, your company is shipping into Kansas Vinyl Applicator Packs ("VAP".) VAPs are used by wholesale customers of your client to display samples of roofing materials. You ask if Kansas law imposes a sales or compensating tax on VAPs shipped to Kansas.
Compensating tax is levied for the privilege of using, storing, or compounding within this state any article of tangible personal property. Such tax shall be collected in an amount equal to the consideration paid by the consumer multiplied by the rate of 4.9%.
Your client's company is obligated to remit compensating tax to the state of Kansas on all promotional materials, that are delivered to an address within this state.


text:
Thanks for the Pageviews, Ivan
Joanna Glasner
Bad weather has been very good for business at Weather.com and other popular forecasting sites. They are posting record traffic in the wake of Hurricane Ivan's arrival on the mainland. By Joanna Glasner.
A deadly hurricane slams into the Gulf Coast, toppling trees with 130 mile-per-hour winds, forcing entire cities to evacuate and leaving millions without power in its wake.
It's the kind of week that coastal dwellers dread and weather websites thrive on.
Amid a remarkably destructive season for hurricanes in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, weather forecasting sites are enjoying a record-breaking year for user traffic and advertising revenues.
"This is the time that we were made for," said Joe Fiveash, general manager of Weather.com, the online arm of cable television's The Weather Channel, which sent out a team of weather trackers equipped with satellite phones and digital cameras to capture the wrath of Hurricane Ivan. The site, ranked by web measurement firm Nielsen//NetRatings as the most visited online weather destination, logged an eye-popping 70 million pageviews on Wednesday alone, as Ivan prepared to wreak havoc on the Gulf Coast.
Of late, weather sites have been drawing more users than the most popular general news sites. Fiveash finds that top news sites get more traffic when political or military issues dominate the headlines, such as during the initial stage of the war in Iraq. But when Mother Nature is making news, it's weather websites who rule in the pageview wars.
During the month of August, when Hurricane Charley hit the now storm-weary western coast of Florida, 39 percent of workplace internet users and 21 percent of home users looked at weather content online, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Year-over-year, traffic to weather sites rose sharply as well, with both Weather.com and WeatherBug, the two top online weather providers, increasing their readers by close to 30 percent.
"With the internet it's available at the snap of a finger, whereas on TV you have to wait around," said Kaizad Gotla, internet analyst with Nielsen//NetRatings, of online forecasting. He attributes much of the rise in online weather monitoring to people signing up or downloading desktop applications for services that give personalized forecasts by zip code.
As the higher rate of broadband penetration makes it easier for users to view satellite imagery and other graphics-laden weather information, competition is heating up among forecasting sites to distinguish themselves from the pack. Nearly all are pushing applications to personalize forecasts, both for users and advertisers.
Weather.com, which launched in 1995, boasts that its affiliation with The Weather Channel and its staff of more than 100 meteorologists enables it to provide deeper analysis of public weather data. The website, with a staff of about 150, also provides forecasts for specific activities like golf, skiing or sailing.
But it's severe weather that really gets staff at Atlanta-based website revved up, said Fiveash, who presided over the Hurricane Ivan coverage.
"We had a guy at three in the morning sticking his cell phone out the window so people could hear what the wind sounds like as a Category IV hurricane hit," he said. The site also upped its page-serving capacity to handle the flood of storm-related traffic.
At WeatherBug, founded in 1993 and based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, the main source of data is a network of 7,000 weather stations the company installed at schools across the country. People who download WeatherBug's software get information about current neighborhood weather, forecasts, severe weather alerts and other news streamed to their PCs.
A relative newcomer to the internet forecasting business, 4-year-old MyWeather.net of Madison, Wisconsin, offers personalized forecasts delivered to subscribers' e-mail inboxes. The company, a spin-off of Weather Central, which makes weather graphics and animations for broadcasters, signs up subscribers through partnerships with local television stations and other media outlets.
Fans of satellite imagery often go directly to the source, theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is currently tracking tropical storms Jeanne and Karl, as well as Ivan.
"It's been off the charts for us," said Greg Hernandez, online editor for the NOAA website, regarding traffic volumes. In the first nine days of September, traffic to the site matched levels that last year took about four months to reach.
For commercial weather sites, public demand for forecasts is translating into an easy sell to advertisers. Sites are pitching ads linked to individual ZIP codes, seasonal weather patterns, or even that day's forecast.
"We can not only say it's going to rain this week, but it's raining at ZIP code 30327 right now," said Fiveash. He says a popular option for advertisers is to correlate ads with temperatures, pitching, for example, a cool drink on an insufferably hot day in Phoenix, Arizona.
Pete Celano, vice president of marketing for WeatherBug, uses a similar sales approach. Advertisers can pick a particular place, age group and even weather condition under which they prefer to pitch their product. In one case, Celano recalls, a movie studio advertised a film only in places where it was raining that weekend.
So far, however, advertisers have shied away from hurricane-specific promotions.
"It would probably be inappropriate to do, say, plywood during a hurricane," Celano said.
Becaues the top weather sites are privately held, little data is available showing the extent to which such advertising strategies have paid off. Weather.com, a division of newspaper publisher Landmark Communications, said it has been profitable for the past two years. Fiveash said revenues, which come mostly from advertising but also from content syndication and subscriptions, are up 65 percent this year compared to the same period last year.
Part of that growth reflects an overall rise in Internet ad spending this year. However, there's no denying that bad weather has been very good for business. Even if autumn and winter prove tamer by comparison, sites are hoping that the recent scourge of storms will sustain public interest in updated forecasts.
"Severe weather is often the inducement for a user to sign up for one of our services," said Matt Peterson, president of MyWeather. "But what really sustains them is when they make the transition from concern about severe weather to ongoing usage."
For this winter, forecasters don't have any firm predictions for weather trends. One phenomenon they have tracked, said Ray Ban, vice president of meteorology science and strategy at The Weather Channel and Weather.com, is a mild warming in ocean temperatures in the South Pacific, otherwise known as the El Niño effect. Whether that will translate into extreme temperatures or precipitation levels along the West Coast, however, is anyone's guess.
"The fact is we're dealing with a massive Earth system and we only measure it like the pimple on the proverbial butt," he said. "Just predicting where known storms are going is a huge challenge. It's really early to begin to think about what the upcoming winter's going to bring."
How Telegram Became the Anti-Facebook
Hundreds of millions of users. No algorithm. No ads. Courage in the face of autocracy. Sound like a dream? Careful what you wish for.
Darren Loucaides
A Fight Over the Right to Repair Cars Turns Ugly
In the wake of a voter-approved law, Subaru and Kia dealers in Massachusetts have disabled systems that allow remote starts and send maintenance alerts.
'I'm the Operator': The Aftermath of a Self-Driving Tragedy
In 2018, an Uber autonomous vehicle fatally struck a pedestrian. In a WIRED exclusive, the human behind the wheel finally speaks.
Lauren Smiley


A day at the Zoo, how innocent is that?
Yelley Babois indicated that he does not have issues with zoos: 'As long as the animals have enough space and this space resembles their natural habitat, I am okay with it. Elles van der Veer had another opinion and reacted to Yelley's stand as following: 'Of course… they should disappear!' Renee Weijers, who once worked for a zoo, writes: 'The zoo was not very animal friendly, as the main target was to keep the customer happy, which ultimately hurt the wellbeing of the animals. It was nothing more than an exotic factory farm, as far as I am concerned'.


It's kind of a surprise to those of us who think of All Saints Regional Catholic School as a "new" school, but the school year 2014-2015 will be the school's 25th, and it's 25th Anniversary will take place in September, 2015!
As chance would have it, September, 2015 will also mark the 100th Anniversary of Catholic School Education on the North Shore, St. Patrick's School, one of the four local schools regionalized in 1990 to form ASR, having started in ASR's present building in September of 1915.
Now that ASR itself is a quarter century old, some of its alumni have decided that it was time to form an Alumni Association in order to keep in touch with classmates, keep alive their memories of ASR and to help out the school as it brings the proud heritage of Catholic School education in this area into a Second Century.


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Research Article| June 01 2006
Influence of climate warming on Hálslón Reservoir sediment filling
Sigurdur Magnus Gardarsson;
Sigurdur Magnus Gardarsson *
1University of Iceland, Engineering Research Institute, Department of Environmental and Civil Engineering, Hjardarhagi 6, IS-107 Reykjavik, Iceland.
*Corresponding author. E-mail: sigmg@hi.is
Jonas Eliasson
Sigurdur Magnus Gardarsson, Jonas Eliasson; Influence of climate warming on Hálslón Reservoir sediment filling. Hydrology Research 1 June 2006; 37 (3): 235–245. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2006.014
Hálslón reservoir is the main reservoir of the Kárahnjúkar hydropower project in the eastern highlands of Iceland. Studies for the environmental impact assessment for the hydropower project showed that sediment will fill the reservoir in about 500 years based on the present sediment transport rate. The main source of the sediment is the Brúarjökull outlet glacier which is a part of the Vatnajökull ice cap. Recent studies of the influence of climate warming on glaciers in Iceland show that they will decrease significantly and, in some cases, completely disappear during the next few hundred years. In this study, a glacier melt model for the Brúarjökull outlet glacier is constructed to predict how fast the glacier will retreat in response to accepted climate warming scenarios. The results from the glacier model are then used as input to a sediment transport mass balance model for the Hálslón reservoir, which predicts the influence of the retreat of the glacier on the sedimentation in the reservoir. The modeling shows that, instead of the reservoir being completely full of sediment in 500 years, the Hálslón reservoir will at that time still have about 50–60% of its original volume as the sediment yield will decrease as a result of the decreasing glacier size.
Climate warming, glacier melting, sedimentation, sediment transport


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La Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire - Lausanne (BCUL) est une institution publique à vocation patrimoniale, culturelle et académique. Elle dispose de six sites complémentaires :
 BCUL site Unithèque (collections sciences humaines et sociales)
 BCUL site Internef (collections sciences économiques et Droit)
 BCUL site Riponne (collections de culture générale, vaudoises et musicales)
 BCUL site Provence (collection destinée aux usagers du Gymnase Provence)
 BCUL site Renens (collection destinée aux usages du Gymnase de Renens)
 BCUL site HEP Vaud (collections qui s'adressent prioritairement aux étudiants, au corps professoral et aux collaborateurs de la HEP, ainsi qu'aux enseignants du canton de Vaud)

Dépendant du service des affaires culturelles, elle est  à la fois destinée à la communauté universitaire ainsi qu'au grand public vaudois. Elle détient la production documentaire touchant le canton de Vaud (dépôt légal et documentation vaudoise).

Histoire

 1537 : Fondation de l'Académie de Lausanne par les Bernois et création présumée de la Bibliothèque de l'Académie. Logée à la Cité, elle est réservée aux professeurs.
 1750 : Les étudiants acquièrent le droit de consulter les livres deux heures par semaine.
 1806 : La Bibliothèque de l'Académie devient Bibliothèque cantonale.
 1825 : Ouverture d'une salle de lecture pour le public.
 1898 : La Bibliothèque cantonale devient Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire (BCU)
 1938 : Entrée en vigueur de la loi cantonale concernant le dépôt légal. Désormais, un exemplaire de chaque ouvrage publié dans le canton doit être remis à la BCU.
 1966 : Ouverture d'une phonothèque.
 1971 : Création par la BCUL de SIBIL (Système informatisé pour les bibliothèques de Lausanne).
 1977-1982 : Transfert à Dorigny des collections universitaires.
 1982 : La Bibliothèque des Pasteurs (aujourd'hui la Bibliothèque des Cèdres) est rattachée à la BCUL.
 1985 : Naissance de RERO (Réseau romand des bibliothèques) partageant un catalogue collectif.
 1990 : Ouverture d'une médiathèque à Dorigny.
 1997 : La BCUL et le RERO abandonnent SIBIL au profit du système américain VTLS.
 2007 : La BCUL est la première bibliothèque francophone à conclure un accord de partenariat avec le projet Google Recherche de livres.
 2009 : La BCUL constitue la plus grande e-library de Suisse en numérisant quelque  libres de droit.
 2010 : La BCUL adopte une nouvelle charte graphique et devient la BCU Lausanne.
 2011 : Fermeture de la Bibliothèque des Cèdres.
 2012 : Lancement de la plateforme Scriptorium
 2013 : Intégration de la bibliothèque du gymnase Provence (Lausanne) qui devient le site Provence de la BCU Lausanne
 2014 : Intégration de la bibliothèque de la HEP Vaud qui devient le site HEP Vaud de la BCU Lausanne
 2014 : Lancement du Projet RenouVaud dont le but est d'accompagner la sortie du Canton de Vaud du Réseau des bibliothèques de Suisse occidentale (RERO)
 2016 : Entrée en fonction du réseau Renouvaud le .

Collections et fonds

En 2017, la BCU Lausanne conserve et met à disposition sur place :
  documents
  périodiques (papier et électroniques)
  e-books (eLectures)
  documents numériques individuels
  enregistrements sonores
  partitions musicales
 170 incunables
 688 fonds manuscrits
 140 fonds d'archives musicales
  cartes et plans
La BCU Lausanne offre également l'accès à des ressources à distance (bases de données, revues, livres, etc.). Ces dernières sont pour la plupart sous licence de site, i.e. accessibles sur les postes informatiques de l'UNIL ainsi que sur ceux à disposition dans les différents espaces publics de la Bibliothèque ; l'accès à domicile par un accès authentifié est réservé aux membres de la communauté universitaire lausannoise.

Certaines ressources peuvent être consultées librement et sont clairement identifiables sur le site internet de la BCU Lausanne.

Depuis 2012, la BCU Lausanne propose un accès gratuit à plusieurs millions de pages numérisées de documents patrimoniaux (livres, journaux, revues et livres publiés dans le canton de Vaud ou écrits par des Vaudois) sur sa plateforme Scriptorium.

Scriptorium se veut être une plate-forme évolutive dont les contenus s'enrichissent au fur et à mesure de l'avancement des campagnes de numérisation menées par la BCUL. Un premier volet a été constitué par quelques-uns des principaux journaux vaudois, tels les quotidiens 24 Heures (autrefois la Feuille d'avis de Lausanne, 1762-2001), Le Matin (autrefois la Tribune de Lausanne, et son ancêtre L'Estafette, 1862-2001), ou encore le Nouvelliste vaudois (1822-1914) ainsi que La Revue et la Nouvelle revue de Lausanne (1868-2002). Un second volet comprend des collections moins généralistes : c'est le cas des dossiers regroupant les revues de l'UNIL ou encore les titres historiques de la presse satirique vaudoise ainsi que les principales gazettes suisses du siècle des Lumières. Un troisième volet est constitué de collections de presse régionale : presse de l'est vaudois et presse de la vallée de joux.

Catalogues
 Renouvaud : le catalogue général de la BCU Lausanne est intégré dans le catalogue du réseau Renouvaud.
 Bases de données : produites par des organismes documentaires externes à la BCU Lausanne, elles sont le plus souvent utilisées pour repérer des articles de revues, non indexés dans le catalogue général de la BCU Lausanne.
 Multimédias du site Riponne : permet de chercher par média et par domaine dans les collections du site Riponne.
 Manuscrits et mémoires, fonds anciens : ces documents sont recensés dans des fichiers propres.

Anciens directeurs
 Jean-Pierre Clavel
 Hubert Villard

Directrice depuis 2008
 Jeannette Frey

Bibliographie
 Silvio Corsini, «Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire - Lausanne», dans «Collections cantonales. Héritage en devenir» (Collections cantonales vaudoises) PatrimoineS , 2018, .

Notes et références

Voir aussi

Articles connexes
 Université de Lausanne (UNIL)
 Bibliothèque cantonale
 Réseau des bibliothèques de Suisse occidentale

Liens externes
 Site officiel
Rapports annuels
 Scriptorium de la BCU Lausanne

Lausanne
Culture à Lausanne
Culture dans le canton de Vaud
Bâtiment à Lausanne
Université de Lausanne
Bien culturel d'importance régionale dans le canton de Vaud


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Home » BC Network » Recent Updates » Batgirl And The Legion Of Sadistic Disability Fetishists by Eric Glover
Batgirl And The Legion Of Sadistic Disability Fetishists by Eric Glover
Posted by Rich Johnston August 14, 2011 Comment
Eric Glover writes for Bleeding Cool;
Thinking over three reactions to an article on the Barbara Gordon controversy
About a month ago, I wrote an op-ed on DC Comics' decision to super-glue the severed spinal cord of a paralyzed character and have her skipping on two legs again – "Give Batgirl The Chair". Long story short, I was pretty pissed about it. Although the superhero in question meant a lot to fans as the able-bodied, fearless feminist Batgirl, I drew more significance from her after her retirement as plain old Barbara Gordon, during which the Joker shot her through the spine (the bastard). The fact that DC decided to "cripple the bitch"—yeah, someone actually said that—and crystallize it as canon was obviously a misogynistic low, but what the company decided to do next brought with it some redemptive highs: Ever since 1989, DC has poured massive effort into crafting the former Batgirl into the exceptionally capable Oracle, a woman who's basically run the DC universe (or DCU) from a wheelchair as an information broker and professional badass. But because DC's path to better representation of people with disabilities has always been more "Stairmaster" than "escalator," Oracle has carried a disproportionately high burden of social significance on that controversial back of hers, and I suppose it was inevitable that sooner or later, something had to give.
With DC returning Barbara Gordon's body to near-mint condition starting with Batgirl #1 next month, written by Gail Simone, I thought it crucial my op-ed galvanize an effort against DC's choice, and soon. Once the article was published on Bleeding Cool, it seemed effective at recruiting the choir I was preaching to, but my critique of DC invited its own backlash of criticisms—some of which I should have seen coming, some of which had no business being real:
"I'm pretty sure this was written by the weirdo with e [sic] disability fetish…"
"I'm amazed that somebody would spend that amount of time to write such inanity. Or [sic] we supposed to believe that given a cure someone with a disability, yes a frickin disability, would turn it down because of some bizarre sense of community to fellow cripples? If so, please take your time out of the day to send messages to various medical researchers whose work is clearly the removal of such hindrances in peoples lives and tell them to stop, cause you're doing bad bad things…"
Kinda lost me at "cripples," dude.
"A handicap is a problem to be overcome… And personally, if I was crippled I wouldn't want to read about a cripple, I'd want to read about people who can do things I can't…"
Point was more that people aren't problems to be overcome. And again with the "cripple." What year is this?
It would be misleading to tell you these were the only kinds of comments I got, and equally misleading to tell you they were few and far between. But putting aside those commentators suffering from Keep Spidey White Syndrome—an unfortunate condition that causes everyday people to use demeaning and ignorant language to legitimize their arguments—there were some more level-headed expressions of disagreement put out there. Most often, they could be attributed to one of these three categories:
1) It's kind of sadistic to want Barbara in that chair.
2) Be patient. It's a reboot. DC will put Barbara back in her role with a disability eventually.
3) Leave Gail Simone alone. It wasn't her choice to heal Barbara; it was her bosses'.
So now that we've designated a kids' table…
Confronting my sadism
It never occurred to me that demanding the presence of characters with disabilities would ever be equated with enjoying the pain and difficulty that comes from living with them. You'd think this'd just be a straw man, but I actually received more than one quip either explicitly or implicitly accusing me of sadism, and I guess behind that crude and charged terminology could have been a genuine concern at play: Why keep Oracle disabled? If she were real, wouldn't you want her to live an easier life?
Of course I would, and no one's pretending having a disability doesn't suck sometimes, a lot of the time, or even all of the time. Considering the inconveniences, condescension, medical costs, odd looks from strangers, and the inaccessibility of certain physical or social aspects of community, yeah, I would definitely pull out my inner Jesus and go on a miracle-working rampage, if I could. But as long as cures aren't available for countless disabilities affecting people's entire lives, I think we'd better accept and understand the ones that are sticking around for a while. And, you know, the people living with them.
Because ignoring the existence of those with disabilities in order for "normal" people to feel better–or in the case of this Batgirl thing, more entertained–is inflicting pain on one party for another's sense of pleasure and… Wait, what's the definition of sadism again?
Another part of my article that really didn't take with its more devout naysayers was my association of ability with identity. For some reason, despite the incredible amount of discrimination that people with disabilities have to face as a group on a regular and often daily basis, many of my detractors just couldn't wrap their heads around the fact that disability can sharply influence a person's idea of self, personality, and pride (or lack thereof)—which could explain why someone with a disability might like to see someone who reflects them in their media.
So in honor of the critics who weren't grasping the identity argument, here's the Batgirl controversy wrapped up in more familiar package: race. Imagine, instead of seeing a proportionate percentage of people who look like you on your TV, that only one actor of your skin color has a regular role on any show. Everyone else, on every other program, on every other station, shares another skin color. Every time you change the channel, see a commercial, peek at the extras in the background, they're all the same race. A little weird, right?
Take it a step further. There are occasionally guest appearances of people with your skin color, but their skin tone is almost always changed to the majority's sooner or later. The one character who looks like you is portrayed positively, but remains isolated—and at the back of your mind, you understand that chances are slim this character will look like you forever. Then, one day, the inevitable does happen—and the reason, you're told, is that this character is more accessible to everyone else this way. Besides, this character used to look like everyone else (Why keep Oracle a racial minority? If she were real, wouldn't you want her to live an easier life?).
The analogy's not perfect, but the overlap's still there. Characters with disabilities show up extremely rarely in entertainment, and especially in comics. Until now, readers with disabilities have only had Oracle as the one reliable, prominent character in DC Comics who resembles them. Other characters have been disabled, but usually healed in some way involving advanced technology, magic, or continuity tweaks returning them back to "normal." And now even Oracle has joined the overwhelming mass of able-bodied heroes that already over-represent their real-life counterparts. The logic being that Barbara was able-bodied 20 years ago, and apparently, that's her "truest" version.
The reboot theory
The second big objection I usually get about the article is that it's moot, given that DC's reboot is bringing everyone back to their earlier days, and Barbara is logically being reverted to her pre-paralysis state (even the famous comic book junkie Kevin Smith made this mistake). Except that's it's not a reboot; it's a relaunch. The difference may seem subtle at first, but it becomes more glaring the more you investigate what it means.
A reboot would imply that everything in the DCU is starting from scratch, or something close to it. And by that nature, surely Barbara Gordon will be disabled again at some unspecified time in the future (read: when writers feel like it). Aside from the fact that "probably" isn't good enough for a group that's been systematically marginalized in pop culture—and neither is an indefinite waiting period, for that matter—there's another huge error about this way of thinking: once the relaunch starts, Barbara will have already been Oracle.
The relaunch, when broken down, basically means a reshuffling of character histories, not a restart. So instead of getting a de-aged Barbara too young to be paralyzed just yet, DC is actually tweaking her story so that she was recently shot and temporarily disabled, operating for a short period as Oracle, and now returning to her role as Batgirl. In other words, DC has repositioned Barbara to make Oracle a part of her past, and never again a part of her future.
Letting Gail Simone be
Even people who agreed with my op-ed had a tough time swallowing the parts that criticized Gail Simone, DC's kick-ass writer extraordinaire. When Newsarama writer Jill Pantozzi called out DC for failing to live up to its promise of diversity after Barbara was announced as able-bodied again, Simone stepped forward and told her side of the story, arguing why the new and healed Barbara could be a good thing for comics.
And here's the thing: she nailed it. Simone is known for not only being an exceptional writer, but also a wonderful person, and she came off no less true to her reputation during her interview with Pantozzi. Her points were compelling and her sentiment sincere, leaving very little to be said in rebuttal once the interview was over.
So naturally, my own article—and the campaign it was supposed to support—would have been a joke if I hadn't addressed Simone's extremely sound arguments. If I was going to raise any hell about why healing Barbara was an unethical move on DC's part, I had to address every aspect of Simone's well-articulated points, or the op-ed would have hit the ground dying. Because Simone occupied so much of my article, several readers misunderstood my words to mean I was out for her blood—or at least blamed her more than I did DC's higher-ups. In truth, Simone's well-intentioned explanations were the only justifications offered by DC at the time, in any capacity, and ignoring them for the sake of "sparing Gail" would have been a shot in my own foot.
Besides, as amazing as Simone is, she didn't have to take on Batgirl. But because she chose to, I'm sure she understands the responsibilities that come with her controversial decision, and the sadistic wheelchair fetishists out there who were bound to come her way.
Visit the Barbara's Not Broken Facebook cause page to take a stand against DC's decision.
Photo courtesy of DC Comics/Barbara's Not Broken, Originally posted at The Faster Times.
(Last Updated August 15, 2011 8:47 am )
Swipe File: ROD Vs Brian Bolland, Mike Deodato And Friends…
Sunday Trending Topics: Swiped


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Football logos
Seattle Seahawks Logo
Seattle Seahawks Logo PNG
The Seattle Seahawks logo is the sort of emblem that creates a strong emotional response. The aggressive, indigenous bird, whose fierce glare is not that easy to forget, has been only modified twice.
Meaning and History logo
The emblem was created in 1975, not long after the team got its name. Both the name and the emblem made their debut on June 17. Back then, the team's General Manager John Thompson described a Seahawk in the following way: a "tough, fish-eating bird." The logo featured a picturesque blue and green osprey's head with a strong beak.
The 2002 emblem
At first glance, the logo was almost the same, as the core visual metaphor was not changed. However, in fact quite a few modifications took place, resulting in a cleaner, more aggressive and stylish look.
A shift in the color palette brought the following new shades: a lighter and a darker shades of blue and lime green. The redesign was done by NFL Properties in-house design team and was connected with the club's moving to the NFC.
The 2012 symbol
In terms of the overall shape and the lines, the Seahawks logo has remained the same. Only the color scheme has been tweaked. Starting from 2012, it included the so-called College Navy and Action Green shades, as well as the Wolf Grey accent color.
The origin of the logo
John Thompson, who was hired as the team's general manager in 1975, mentioned that when the NFL firm was commissioned to design the logo, he asked them to "follow the Northwest Indian culture". There were no strict conditions in this respect, but it was desirable to make the logo somewhat reminiscent of the Native American art. Also, according to Thompson, NFL actually mentioned referring to some books on Northwest Indian culture. This fact was even explored in a 1975 article in Seattle PI. However, in the course of time the origin of the logo was forgotten, and it was only in the 2010s that the connection was "discovered" once again and the newspaper article was unearthed.
The book that inspired the designers was Art of the Northwest Coast Indians by Robert Bruce Inverarity published in 1950. Here, there was a photo of a Kwakwaka'wakw mask. It was a so-called transformation mask existing in the two forms: when closed, it showed an eagle, while when it opened during the dance, it revealed a human face. It represented a supernatural eagle, also called thunderbird, which could exist in the human form.
The similarity with the Seahawks logo was absolutely obvious: one cannot but notice the bold line around the eye and the mouth, the distinctive eyelid lines, as well as the overall shape of the head and beak. Most likely, the mask was made somewhere between Alaska and Seattle.
Where is the mask now?
Shortly after the origin of the Seahawks emblem was rediscovered, the mask itself was found, too. It turned out to be part of the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine. Prior to it, the mask was in the property of the German artist Max Ernst, then, following his death in 1976, was purchased by a private collector, William P. Palmer III. His collection, in its turn, went to the Hudson Museum in 1982.
To make the mask closer to the Seahawks fans, it was brought from Maine to Seattle. At the end of the 3,200 mile journey, the mask arrived to the Burke museum, where it has been on display more than once.
The current Seahawks wordmark features a solid all-cap typeface. The type is perfectly legible, yet recognizable due to the distinctive sharp elements present on all the letters.
The color palette includes the shade of blue that is called "College Navy" (or "Seahawk Blue"), as well as "Action Green" and "Wolf Grey." All the three are the team's official colors, also present in their uniform.
Buffalo Bills logo
Kansas City Chiefs Logo
Green Bay Packers Logo
New Orleans Saints Logo
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Logo
Tennessee Titans Logo
Philadelphia Eagles Logo
Dallas Cowboys Logo
Oakland Raiders Logo
Pittsburgh Steelers Logo