Well, now that my exams are out of the way, and the horrible cold I had during my study break is also slowly but finally winding its way out of my body, I can finally relax and just veg out on my sofa to watch all the amazing shows I've been missing on Netfllix.
There are a few new shows that have started over the last few months, and they all sound great, so I'll be playing catch up for the next few weeks.
I've heard good things about this show. Jane Fonda ("Grace") and Lily Tomlin ("Frankie") star as two women whose lives are suddenly turned upside down when their husbands reveal they are gay and leave them for each other. Both sparring partners and partners-in-crime, they form an unlikely bond to face an uncertain future together and discover a new definition of "family," with laughter, tears and plenty of mood enhancers along the way.
From executive producers Marta Kauffman ("Friends") and Howard J. Morris ("Home Improvement"), the hilarious and heartbreaking comedy takes on aging with gusto – from joint pain to joint rolling and blind dates to night blindness – and offers a poignant look at how life's turning points show us who we really are. The series also stars Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, along with Brooklyn Decker, Ethan Embry, Baron Vaughn and June Diane Raphael.
Again, I'v e heard great things about this show but am coming slightly late to the party. People in work spoke very highly of it last year, so Id say it's worth watching.
Starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, it's an uncompromising exploration of power, ambition and the American way, the series orbits Francis Underwood, the House Majority Whip. Underwood is the politician's politician – masterful, beguiling, charismatic and ruthless. He and his equally ambitious wife Claire stop at nothing to ensure their ascendancy.
Based on the BBC miniseries of the same name, the third season of House of Cards is executive produced by David Fincher, Joshua Donen, Beau Willimon, Kevin Spacey, Dana Brunetti, John David Coles and Eric Roth. The one-hour drama is produced by Donen/Fincher/Roth and Trigger Street Productions, Inc. in association with Media Rights Capital for Netflix.
Piper, Red, Crazy Eyes, Taystee, Poussey, Sophia, Daya, Gloria, Big Boo, Pennsatucky and all of Litchfield's ladies are back for more drama and laughter…as Alex makes her return and a new inmate, Stella (Ruby Rose) joins the gang.
I love food documentaries, food reality shows, food everything. So this was right up my alley and looking forward to watching this.
Chef's Table features six of the world's most renowned international chefs, and offers viewers the opportunity to go inside the lives and kitchens of these culinary talents. Chefs featured include Massimo Bottura (Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy), Dan Barber (Blue Hill Restaurant at Stone Barns and in New York City, USA), Francis Mallmann (El Restaurante Patagonia Sur in Buenos Aires, Argentina), Niki Nakayama (N/Naka Restaurant in Los Angeles, CA, USA), Ben Shewry (Attica Restaurant in Melbourne, Australia) and Magnus Nilsson (Fäviken in Järpen Sweden).
5. Once upon a time – Season 4.
I love this show, LOVE. IT. I was flicking through TV channels two years ago and thought "hey, isn't that Robert Carlyle?" and stopped to watch. I fell in love with it! Now back for its fourth season on Netflix, I'm glued to the screen. It physically hurt knowing it was on and I had to study for my exams.
Set in the fictional town of Storeybrooke, fairy tale characters have been transported to our world by a curse cast by the evil queen. It covers stories as vast as Snow White and the seven dwarves, Rumpelstiltskin, Beauty and the beast, Peter pan, The wizard of Oz and Robin Hood. And in season 4….you have to watch it! The comic con trailer sets the scene nicely for it.
I hope this gives you a little flavour of all the new shows that have come online the last few months.
All images have been sourced from Netflix.
Glad you're feeling better and hope the exams went well. This list is just what I need. I've only heard of 'Orange is the new black'. Looking forward to watching.
Irish Parenting Bloggers | What I'll be doing on my summer vacation (1) – Netflix!!


This provider has NPI #1699011775 and is licensed in Ohio (#A 1294).
This provider participates in the following insurance and discount plans: OCCM, Plumber and Pipefitter 295, Hearing Care Solutions, PEHP, Homelink, Plumber and Pipefitter 803, Northwood, AAA, Steamfitters Local 449, CAP, Metra, Unified Hearing, Charter Twp, Union Reporter, HealthPass, MCAS, Harmony Hearing, Highmark Employee Discount , UAW, VA Choice, LECOM, AARP-HearUSA, Advanced Hearing Providers, Federal Employee Program, Jordan Furniture, TruHearing, Care and Save Discount Prg, Lake Medical Imaging, Heavy and Highway, Macomb County, Senior Provider Network, Paragon Home Resources, AMAC, Summit Township, BCBS of Michigan, Perkspot, Pruitt Medicare and NEI.
This provider participates in the following insurance and discount plans: Pruitt Medicare, Metra, Perkspot, AARP-HearUSA, Care and Save Discount Prg, Jordan Furniture, Homelink, TruHearing, PEHP, OCCM, LECOM, Lake Medical Imaging, Unified Hearing, Steamfitters Local 449, CAP, Plumber and Pipefitter 295, Highmark Employee Discount , Hearing Care Solutions, MCAS, Advanced Hearing Providers, HealthPass, Federal Employee Program, Harmony Hearing, Northwood, AAA, Senior Provider Network, Union Reporter, Heavy and Highway, Plumber and Pipefitter 803, Summit Township, Paragon Home Resources and AMAC.
This provider has NPI #1679946933 and is licensed in Ohio (#A.01982).
This provider participates in the following insurance and discount plans: AARP-HearUSA, HealthPass, Pruitt Medicare, Perkspot, Metra, Plumber and Pipefitter 803, Union Reporter, Harmony Hearing, Care and Save Discount Prg, Jordan Furniture, OCCM, VA Choice, Homelink, UAW, PEHP, Unified Hearing, Lake Medical Imaging, LECOM, CAP, AMAC, Highmark Employee Discount , Summit Township, Heavy and Highway, Plumber and Pipefitter 295, Federal Employee Program, Advanced Hearing Providers, Northwood, AAA, Steamfitters Local 449, MCAS, NEI, Paragon Home Resources and Senior Provider Network.
Read 1 verified patient review for Modern Hearing Solutions of Wadsworth, Inc! Their review score was 5 () from 1 review.
Choice Hearing Centers and Modern Hearing Solutions provide their patients with extraordinary service at every one of their four locations. They are patient-centered practices with state-of-the-art equipment and technology. The professionals take the time to get to know each patient in order to find solutions that suit each one's individual hearing challenge, budget and lifestyles.


Guacanayabo Hotel has a true lookout by the sea that benefits from its privileged location in the city of Manzanillo, in eastern Granma province, which is marked by its beautiful bay and local traditions related to its waters.
The hotel offers 112 air-conditioned rooms and provides a wide range of tourist offers, including excursions to Cayo Perla, in the heart of the Guacanayabo Gulf, as well as trekking programs.
Manzanillo is a major attraction for tourists, since many musical shows are held there, including music played with the traditional oriental organ, in addition to the fact that the farm La Demajagua, which played a key role in Cuba's wars for independence, is located in Granma province.
It is an important industrial port for the exportation of sugar. On most nights you will find some form of live musical entertainment taking place. The city is quiet. The most notable architectural features being Moorish in origin in the main square: a riotous gazebo, wedding-cake fountains and sphinx statues, and a casa de la cultura with a tiled courtyard depicting Columbus' landing.
Here is a monument for Cespedes, one of the leaders of the war against the Spanish colonialists at the end of the 19th century.


Cell phone dangers are significant-- What about wireless in Schools?
The State of California Public Health Department kept warnings of cell phones secret. With 27 versions ranging from the initial statement in 2009 version (as ana example): "Do not allow children to use a cell phone, except for emergencies." A well established guideline in Europe, to the 2014 final version: "Parents may want to limit their child's phone use to texting, important calls and emergencies." That was never even published.
The guidelines remained hidden and ultimately abandoned except for the efforts of Joel Moskowitz, a public health researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, who sued the State to force the release of the records. Lawyers argued that release of the warnings could cause unnecessary panic. Moskowitz reply was, "The public has a right to this information paid for with their tax dollars."
Is it better to be harmed, passive and uninformed, or to know the dangers and precautions to protect one's health and to be preemptive? The answer is obvious. The large question is why was this suppressed and why so many versions that continually moved from warnings regarding issues such as brain cancer to the final watered down language -- "More research is needed before we know if using cell phones causes health effects." This statement has already been proven and the fine print on cell phone directions give explicit instructions regarding how close to have a cell phone to your body.
You can read the complete news report in the SF Chronicle 5/21/2017 appearing on May 21st, Sunday in the Bay Area section, front page and page 2.
Perhaps you remember recently the raging lawsuit San Francisco faced from the wireless industry lobbying organization CTIA, when SF Supervisors unanimously voted to have companies report the amount of radiation cell phone models produced so the public could know their risks. That law suit was dropped as reported when the city was threatened by the CTIA with financial burden so great and over so long a period in court that financial harm would result to the city. That shameful event joins a report from the Wall Street Journal showing the dramatic increase of cell phone towers not regulated by the government. Government's role is to protect society, not just special interest groups.
A more important and demanding issue is the EMF dangers for children in classrooms with wireless technology exposed throughout the day in our schools. Cancer clusters for teachers occurred in schools with wireless technology and the dangers to children is a serious problem that must be confronted and dealt with if we are to be a responsible society.


text:
Издательство «Гебетнер и Вольф» () — польское книгоиздательское предприятие.

На волне промышленного подъема во второй половине XIX в. в Польше, входившей в состав Российской империи, стали создаваться новые издательства.

Книгоиздательский дом «Гебетнер и Вольф» основан Густавом Адольфом Гебетнером и Августом Робертом Вольфом в Варшаве в 1857 году. Крупнейшее в истории польского книжного дела издательство «Гебетнер и Вольф», выпустило до 1937 г. свыше 7 тысяч наименований книг и 7147 нотных изданий.

В разные периоды своей деятельности имело ряд филиалов во многих городах Польши и заграницей, в том числе, в Кракове), Люблине, Познани, Лодзи, Закопане, Париже. Распространяло книжную продукцию в России, США и Франции.

В 1913 г. вступило в акционерное общество The Polish Book Importing Co. в Нью-Йорке.

Издательство издавало большими тиражами школьные учебники, художественную литературу, произведения для детей и юношества, популярные серии для народа, книги по истории, словари, справочники, книги по музыке и ноты.

В списке изданного произведения польских классиков А. Мицкевича, Ю. Словацкого, Ю. Крашевского, М. Конопницкой, Б. Пруса, Э. Ожешко, Г. Сенкевича, Вл. Реймонта, С. Жеромского, Я. Ивашкевича, Л. Рыделя и многих других.

Осуществляло издание энциклопедий и ряда журналов, в частности «Tygodnik Ilustrowany» и «Kurier Warszawski». Издательство «Гебетнер и Вольф» приобретало права на издание новинок музыкальной жизни Польши, например, оперы С. Монюшко «Галька».

Иллюстрировали издания известные художники С. Выспяньский (1899) и др.

В 1929 г. Гебетнер выкупил долю Вольфа. В этот период времени главным редактором издательства был Александр Ват (настоящая фамилия — Хват).

В 1948 году фирма «Гебетнер и Вольф» была национализирована. В 1957 г. прекратила свою издательскую деятельность, а в 1973 г. и книжную торговлю.

Примечания

Ссылки
 Энциклопедия «КНИГА»
 В. А. Есипов. Учебник по курсу «История книжного дела»

Гебетнер и Вольф
Гебетнер и Вольф
Гебетнер и Вольф

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The purpose of this page is to demonstrate that hurd-i386 meets the archive criteria.
Are machines available to general public?
Source of the whole port is available. Almost all of the packages use the same sources as the official Debian ports. A few packages that need to be patched are in a separate repository called unreleased until Debian maintainer merge the patch. Sources of those packages are also available.
Is this architecture related to other architectures already in the archive, or that also should be considered, either now or in the future? Can the related architectures be supported in a single architecture (eg, with a biarch arrangement)?
Are there 3 or more developers (or n-ms) actively maintaining the port? Who are they?
What sort of architecture is this? Desktop/workstation? Mainframe/supercomputer? Embedded? Something else?
General purpose, though targetted at desktop/workstation users for the time being.
Access to different hardware could be restricted via a translator which would act as a permission validator (imagine a "no USB sticks" policy in an industrial environment) -- eddy.petrisor@gmail.com.
Update: There is now firewalling support, through stateless BFD input/output rules.
Does it have any users? If a desktop system, are there Debian admins who run Debian systems on the arch? If an embedded system are there real systems shipping that a Debian port will be useful for? If a mainframe system are there real systems with many users that a Debian port will be useful for? Who are they?
Is there kernel and toolchain support? At what level? Are the latest versions supported, or are legacy releases required for compatability with some hardware? as the ABI stabalised, or are there major ABI changes coming up? Is the ABI stable enough to ensure users will be able just apt-get dist-upgrade from one version to the next?
The GNU Mach microkernel is supported in upstream by the GNU/Hurd maintainers.
The GNU Hurd is supported upstream by the GNU/Hurd maintainers.
The GNU libc is maintained upstream by Roland ?McGrath and others.
GCC is supported out of the box in upstream for the i386 part. We are maintaining the GNU/Hurd part, it only consists of a few files in the gcc/config/ directory.
binutils is supported out of the box in upstream for the i386 part. We are maintaining the GNU/Hurd part, it only consists of a few cases in the various scripts.
Libtool supported out of the box in upstream.
Has a buildd been setup? How much of the archive has been built (count by source package, builds of old versions are fine for this case)?
One buildd (beethoven.theo.chemie.tu-muenchen.de) was running since August 2005, now off. Two more buildds (bach/mozart, Xen instances on callisto.debian.net) are running since March 2008. One more buildd (rossini, Xen instance on hurd.ethz.ch) was running from Sept 2008 to Feb 2013, now off. One more buildd (ironforge, KVM instance on shattrath.sceen.net) is running since Oct 2011.
Currently 78% of the source package have been built.
What hardware is potentially available as a fast buildd?
General i386 hardware, not all is supported by GNU Mach though.
Is there any corporate support of this arch, and the Debian port in particular?
Currently no companies provide corporate support for GNU/Hurd.
Is there an example box developers can login to to see if it works?
Two porting boxes are available: exodar.debian.net and strauss.debian.net. Otherwise, access to a box can easily be arranged for interested developers. More information is available here.
Are there existing comprehensive free distributions of this OS? If so, why is a Debian distribution useful?
No, this is the only usable GNU/Hurd distribution. Some other distributions exist in planning stage though, Gentoo GNU/Hurd, Bee GNU/Hurd (both are inactive for many months now) and lately the GNU project has resumed work on the GNU system itself, but this has been dormant again for many months now as well. An Arch GNU/Hurd port has seen some activity lately but went dormant too.
What demonstrable benefits does this OS have over existing Debian OSes?
The GNU Hurd was started as a new approach at operating system design and is the GNU project's replacement of a traditional Unix kernel. It follows the GNU philosophy of giving as much power to the user as possible. This is achieved by a multi server design on top of a microkernel, which makes it possible to put a lot of what traditionally resides in the Unix kernel (file systems, network stack, authentication) into user space and thus make them replaceable and extendable by the user. Through various support libraries (libdiskfs, libnetfs, libps, etc.) the development of new system components (translators) is greatly facilitated. Unlike on Unix, UIDs are not an inherent part of a process but instead separate first class objects. They can be obtained from the password server, passed between processes and destroyed. This can be used to support privilege separation and sub-Hurds (similar to User Mode Linux) without assistance from the system administrator.
Does this system have a standard Unix API?
Yes, POSIX is implemented via glibc. Its API differs from the GNU/Linux one in some occasions, e.g. networking is rather modelled around the BSDs, and some system limit macros (PATH_MAX, MAXHOSTNAMELN, MAXPATHLEN) are not defined as no such limits exist.
Does the OS support modern glibc and gcc?
GPL license for the GNU Hurd and GNU Mach, LGPL license for glibc.
Does the OS build largely without source changes? If so, what proportion of the archive has built?


text:
Winning To Wealth
Becoming A 1st-Gen Millionaire At Age 31
This post may contain affiliate links. See disclosure for more info.
Tap To Share
Steven Stack is a millennial, yet, he is only 3 generations removed from slavery.
In this episode we cover:
his family history
how slavery, Jim Crow, etc affected generational wealth
bad investments and what he learned from them
deciding to pay off his house
and practical steps to becoming a millionaire
Check out the full episode below.
Connect With Steven Stack
Read The Transcript
Michael Lacy 0:00
You're listening to Episode 53 of the winning to wealth podcast, becoming a first generation millionaire in your 30s.
Unknown Speaker 0:10
You're listening to the winning to wealth podcast where you'll hear real stories from real people who are on the path to building real wealth. These stories will show you how to earn more money, pay off debt, start investing, and make better money choices so you can build wealth for your future. Now, here's your host, Michael Lacy, what is up
with the fam, this is Episode 53, of the winning to wealth podcast. And I'm so glad you're here with me to learn more about money from the just great, great guests that I have lined up for you all today. So growing up, I was never really the fastest kid in my age group. But don't get me wrong, like I had some wheels. But there were always just a few kids that were a little bit faster than me. Now, when I was in about the fourth grade, there was this kid named rich, who was just always the fastest kid in our apartment complex. And being fast was a really huge deal in the hood that I grew up in. And not for like any stereotypical reasons or anything like that. But because they were grown me and they used to have this race for money, like every Saturday. Now looking back on it, this was a terrible example for us. But as a kid, I mean, I got to make a few bucks just racing my friends in a field of grass. So sign me up, like I'm all for that. And I guess I had been on a roll because I remember one day I decided to challenge rich to a race. And I will never, ever forget him looking me right in the eyes and saying, Man, I'll give you a head start and I'll still win. Now my little fourth grade self was like, cool. I feel like I can beat you with a head start. And so I took the bet. And I just knew that this was my chance to beat him and go down in like what was like our little Hall of Fame or whatever. And so we lined up me a few steps ahead of him. We get the signal. And we just take off running as hard as we can down this field. Yeah, I got smoked. And I mean, rich smoked, everybody. But it was embarrassing for me. Because I had the head start. And I just remember like everybody clowning me extra hard and saying stuff like man, just imagine how far ahead rich would have been. If you didn't get that Head Start. Today's guest is Steven stack. He's a man of faith, a husband of 10 years, a father of three, and the founder of the financial education platform stacking with stack. Steven is also a millionaire who paid off his house at age 32 to become 100% debt free. But as you're about to see, in this interview, Stephen didn't have anything close to a head start. And yet he still found a way to win. Stephen stack first, thank you for accepting my random invite onto the show from Instagram. But I'm glad to have you here my brother, and I'm excited to talk a little bit about your family history and how you were able to become a millionaire in your early 30s. So again, just Welcome to the show, man. I'm excited to have you.
Steven Stack 3:35
Yeah, yeah. Well, no, I'm, I'm happy to be here. And it did go down into DMS. Man, it happened.
Wait, I want to kick this off. Because when we talked on the phone before this interview, you really you shared like a really interesting story about just your lineage like your family's heritage, going back to like your grandparents being born in the late 1800s. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about that a little bit.
So the thing that really would have stood out to you and probably even to the listeners is, even though I am I'm a millennial. I'm in my mid 30s. I am only three generations removed from slavery. And for those who are listening, Yes, you heard that right. I am only three generations removed from slavery. And a big part of that is because my, my mom was number 12 out of 12 kids, and my dad was actually number 10 out of 12. So she's she's literally got nieces and nephews that are older than she is. And her. Her father, my grandfather was born in 1897. And my grandmother, her mom was born in 1900. And to take that third generation back. My grandfather's father, so my great grandfather was born in 1859, as a slave, like he actually was a full blown, outright slave and lived on that plantation until 1871. So, so yeah, a lot of history that spans across just that little bit of time or a little bit of generations. Let me say,
yeah, and you know, this is a money show. So we, you know, we talked about how life intersects with money. And so at that time, with your great grandparents and your grandparents, there's a lot going on in America, in terms of being black, right? Like, you've got, obviously great grandparents slave, but then post slavery, you've got Civil War, so you've got the Homestead Act that comes with that. You've got sharecropping, that's probably still going on around that time. So talk a little bit about just kind of how those things affected those generations in your family.
Oh, yeah. So so just just For the uninitiated, the Homestead Act of 1862. And the southern Homestead Act of 1866, they actually gave more than 200 and 70 million acres of land, which would be approximately 10%, of the entire US landmass, to 1.6 million white families, and that was between American born and European immigrants. So we've got all kinds of history that's happening at that time, which even just to kind of stretch that out even further. It was estimated that about 46 million American adults that were living in the year 2000, were descendants of the descendants of recipients of those two homestead acts. So what what does that mean, you know, that's a lot of numbers, is that that would be roughly a quarter of all American adults, being direct descendants from those two acts. And also it would be more than the African American population in the US currently, if you're if you're looking at 46 million people. So it very much matters, these things that were happening in that time, or things like sharecropping, and convict leasing, which we're not that far removed from stuff like that.
But for the people who are listening who don't understand sharecropping and convict leasing, can you kind of break those down, so that they have kind of the full context of really what was happening with black people and money around that time.
So what what was supposed to happen with things like sharecropping is that you would have people who were working, working a field or you know, plot of land, and that they were supposed to get a share of the crop that they were harvesting. But it was very exploitative. The system, in which what would end up happening is, you'd always end up falling short of, of what it would take for you to turn a profit, you'd get charged for the tools and the things that you would use to actually be able to harvest the crop. And somehow, some way, the math would always come together to where you owed and had to continue working the land and you never got to own or get out of that hole. And then when you think around things like convict leasing, you would have people who were in prison, who were doing work that was bolstering the economy. But these people were being arrested for literally existing. Without getting into all of the nitty gritty details, I tell people to look at things like the vagrancy laws or black codes, were to give some examples. Like it was illegal for a black pastor to preach to a black congregation without getting written consent from the president of the local police, which you can see how problematic something like that would be, or vagrancy is just you're outside, you're just outside quote unquote, loitering, and you could be arrested for that.
Yeah, essentially. I mean, this is like an extension of Slavery just as a different name. And so, at that time, I also know that it was illegal really, for black citizens or black Americans to purchase land. And I understand that your family has kind of some history with that. So can you talk a little about what happened with your, in your family tree with purchasing land around that time.
Steven Stack 10:23
So my, my grandfather wanted to purchase land for, you know, for his family, and there were white people, they wouldn't, they wouldn't allow him to purchase land, they wouldn't, they wouldn't sell it to them. And he was a person of faith. He was a Christian. And there actually was a white gentleman that was also a person of faith that agreed to buy the land, like my grandfather had the money, but he bought the land on behalf of my grandfather, and then turned it over to him.
Michael Lacy 10:59
Okay, and so just for understanding, like, so around what timeframe was was this happening? Like, again, you've got the Homestead Act, and all those sort of things. So what about when was this going on?
So you're this would be before the Great Depression? So we're thinking like, somewhere around, you know, like, 1919 ish, 1920s, somewhere in in in that ballpark? So early, early 1920s, what would be some of the timeframe?
Okay. And so and you mentioned that your parents were actually like the youngest of all the children. So around when were your parents born trying to kind of establish a timeline here to kind of keep the picture in people's heads of kind of what's going on?
See also Should Financial Independence Be Considered A Form Of Activism?
Yeah. So my, my grandfather, he was actually, in his 50s, when he had my mom. She was born in 1949. And my dad was born in 46. So for them, they would have been very aware. And, and just just in understanding what was going on in America, when you start thinking about like, civil rights movement, they remember where they were, when JFK was assassinated, when Martin Luther King was assassinated, these these weren't, these aren't things that you just read in history books they lived it,
right? Well, as we talk about this in the context of wealth, right, like, I guess I kind of want to make this a little more tangible for the people who are listening, right. So what's happening here is you've got stacks, grandfather, not able to buy land, right. And he's got to kind of maneuver his way around that. And the reason for that, again, it's it's illegal for black citizens to buy land. But you've got something like the GI Bill that comes along shortly after that, that builds suburban areas, and they put in the deeds that you can't sell to black people, black people cannot buy. Like, for instance, one specific example that comes to mind is Levittown, right. And so you've got the area of Levittown where all these soldiers are trying to buy land, and they're, they're being locked out. And then you've got a guy like Bill O'Reilly, who grows up and live in town and benefits from this, who then turns around and makes millions on a career telling people to bootstrap themselves. So like, as you can see, there is a direct correlation between like the history of race in this country, and the ability to build generational wealth up to this point. So it does matter. And I'm trying to bring this conversation to the forefront with this episode. Because so many people think that it is about bootstrapping, and there is a personal responsibility component to personal finance. But that's not to say that these things that have happened, don't still have an effect today. And so as we go into the rest of this episode, like, I really want you to look at this from the context of like, Oh, this guy made it. So everybody else should be able to do it. I don't want you to kind of take that perspective. What I want you to do is think about it like, wow, okay, look at all the barriers that his parents his grandparents had to overcome to set him up. And had they not had to go through that had they had access to suburban areas, had they had access to similar education and all those things, how much further stack could be right now that he is already and so that's really the focus of that, but not to really get on my soapbox too much. Like, I want to, I want to talk a little bit about like your parents experience with because again, like you said, they're going through the civil rights movement, there's redlining, there's all this segregation, like all these other things are happening. what's what's that experience, like from your understanding?
So I'll tell you just kind of an anecdotal story. worry that I know really shaped my dad's viewpoint on a lot of things. He, he told me about when he was a young person that he remembered going to the market with his dad to buy, like some grain and some rice. And he saw how his father was put in a space where he had to pay more, for the same grain as some of the white people that were actually going to that same market. And that really left an imprint on my dad of saying, Man, I want to do everything in my power to be in a good financial space, in the midst of what is a broken society or system. And so that between seeing his parents work hard, and his siblings work hard, and then seeing things like that, he it gave him a resiliency to say, I want to do all that I can to be in the best spot that I can be in. And for those that come after me,
I want to kind of move forward and kind of transition more into your story now. So like, when we talk about your parents, your grandparents that legacy? Did your parents really sit down and instill a good financial foundation in you? Or was that something that you had to kind of seek out and really educate yourself on?
So they did, and yet I still had to go seek and so I'll try to explain that. They instilled in me this idea of living within my means. So you can't, you can't spend more than than what you make than what you have coming in. So they taught me that and the the importance of saving for a rainy day. And they also taught me the importance of giving being generous to others. You just never know what people may be going through and wanting to help people out. So for that very, that was a very rich foundation for me to see that from them. Now, on the other side of things, they they were Savers, but not necessarily investors. So for my parents, the idea of investing would be more like getting a CD or a certificate of deposit from a bank, where you know, you put put some money in, you lock it in for whether it's you know, 12 months or 60 months, and you just get that rate over that stretch of time. But this idea of investing, whether it be in the stock market or real estate that wasn't really top of mind for them. So I did have to go out to learn more about things like that.
I want to ask you, and I mean, this is for you to speculate on. I don't know if you've had this conversation. But why do you think that is that your parents were more so savers than investors? Do you? I mean, have you had that conversation? Do you have a reason for that?
I mean, they didn't get a whole lot of exposure to it. And not from from there, folks. I mean, they were just trying to live. I mean, again, we got to think about what the times were, like, we had complete outright, Jim Crow and segregation that they were living through, it's like, Hey, man, like you can get hosed down in the street dogs sicked on you, someone can just say, you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. And there be absolutely no justice whatsoever. That was going to happen. So there there were just a lot more things on their plate.
When did you start to take an interest in wealth building for yourself because you get this background. And that teaches you to live below your means. And most people don't even get that. So I'm sure like, as a result, you you know, you kind of come out a little bit ahead of your peers in that regard. But when for you didn't click that, hey, I really want to learn about investing and start going this route.
in some regards, like I had a different mentality from early age. So when when I was eight years old, we I can remember clearly going to a motel on on vacation, which you know, motels are where you literally are outside, right. If you open up your room door, you're outside you can park your car right next to it. And I can remember thinking man, I wonder who owns this place. And how much money are they making, you know, we're paying, you know, $60 a night or $90 at night to stay here. But, but I wonder how much the people who own this place are making and so you know, I would think along the Those lines and things like that from an early age, as well as I would see my dad work hard, and I'm so thankful for his diligence. And it given me a work ethic to want to work hard, but also would just sit back and say, Man, do I want to have to work hard, like this my entire life to get to where I am in my 60s, and then start to peel back some on the act of working or and say, Man, how can I make my money work just as hard as me, if not harder? So I would say I started having that transition of thought around, I'd say around like 13 or 14 years old, of, of, you know, putting money doing the CD thing and seeing how cool it was that, hey, the bank is just paying me money for for having it be in here. And it's FDIC insured, you know, so that means up to at that point, you know, a quarter of a million dollars was insured by by the government. And I'm like, What are other things that I can do that make me money while I'm just chillin? Right?
So okay, so when did you really start investing? Like, did you start? Maybe right after high school after college? Kind of when did it When did you start taking those action steps for yourself?
So I would say, in high school, so around like 1516, is when I started to get pretty excited about at least just doing the bank stuff, like just looking in newspapers, what has the best rates for the banks, and doing things like that? I didn't start to do investing beyond that, though, until college, I did like a little real estate deal, which I really didn't make any money from it. But I learned a lot and said, Okay, I want to keep at this thing of doing investing.
So and I'm curious about that, like, what, what didn't go well for you in that? And what lesson Did you take away that made you a better investor later.
So so the first thing that I would say, and this is still true today is I would tell anybody, if you do not know how it works, do not invest in it. So for, for me, I invested, you know, maybe about 1500 dollars. And just on the strength of me knowing this person, they paid me back what I invested, but it was not from the investment itself. It was just Hey, I know, Steven step personally. And he's my friend, I'm going to pay him back. But I had no understanding really of the investment. It was it was all kinds of complex stuff with with real estate and, and there was some things around trying to flip notes and things of that sort, that it sounded good. But I didn't know really what was going on.
See also Why This Couple Paused Their Debt-Free Journey After Paying Off $70,000
You know, it's interesting that you bring that up, because it makes me think about when we had our conversation the other day, and I told you the story of how like, I started investing in the stock market right before the recession hit. And I didn't know you know, what was going on. And so I'm seeing like, the little bit of money that I put in there kind of go down, and I just pull it out. I was like, I don't know what's going on. Let me just get out of this. And I look back on that now. And I'm like, oh, my goodness, what, you know, reading one book, what if and how much of a different place I would be in if I had just read one simple investing book and understand that these things happen, and they're just cyclical. But then you shared how you went in a different direction around that time. And since we're living in this pandemic, and things are volatile, like I do want to talk about kind of how you navigated that last recession, and kind of what have been some of the benefits of the choices you made during that time.
So that was a great time in life, in that I was for many people wasn't good. So let me let me start by saying that it wasn't good for a lot of people with the great recession and the housing market crisis, crisis, subprime lending, lending all those things. For me, I was just getting into the professional working world, in the thick of the Great Recession. And so I'm seeing all these people be impacted. And by this point, you know, I had a little bit more knowledge about investing in the stock market. And so I'm hearing people say, Oh, man, my portfolio is just been trashed. It's gone. so far. Down, people have seen their value cut in half, in some cases. And so for me, I remembered a quote that I want to say was attributed to Warren Buffett, and I'll just give it kind of a paraphrase of saying when people are greedy, be fearful, and when people are fearful, be greedy. And the thought behind it was to make the moves in the rough times. And so for me, I didn't know a whole lot about investing. But I knew enough to say, I'm going to put as much money as I can into like my work 401k at that time, because if things are really as bad as what people are saying, this is probably a really good time to buy. And so that's just what I did, is just did that and figured, hey, even if things get worse, I'm in my early 20s, I've got time to ride the wave out.
Another thing that we talked about was was your decision to become mortgage free. Like, that's actually why I reached out to you is because I wanted to focus specifically on your mortgage freedom journey. But the more we talked, the more I learned, and the more I wanted to share. So can you talk about like when, and why you decided to pay off your home.
So paid off the house, at the end of November, November 30, of 2018, went ahead and knock the mortgage out, purchased the house in May of 2015. And actually put a plan together to try to pay it off in five years, had some investments go extremely well, to the point that just my wife, and I just said, Hey, we're gonna go ahead and knock this thing out. And so we paid it off early, at the end of November of 2018. And the why behind doing it is it gave me leverage flexibility, just incredible freedom to do whatever it is that I want to do, because the home is the biggest expense, and everything else is already paid for. And so I'll even kind of further this point on this question. You may not even asked it. But let me just say what it means that my mortgage is paid off. What it means is that I could get a job at a fast food restaurant and pay all of my expenses, and have some money left over for saving. That's what paying off my house means to me, then, and now is just an incredible amount of flexibility in the financial decisions that make the life decisions I make. And so that was really the reason behind wanting to do that. And I mean, I knew I could have gotten a better return and some in some other areas. But I couldn't really put a price tag on the the freedom that has come with paying off the house,
you mentioned that, like when you bought the house, you had kind of put together a plan to have it done in five years. I know for us, like when we bought our house, we went into it kind of with the same thing like okay, we want to pay off our house, we we gave a goal of 10 years, and we set a budget we knew like okay, this is how much we can afford based on this goal. And when we got to the mortgage lender, like they get they doubled what we said that we could afford to spend and it was like what this, this just doesn't make any sense. So I want to talk about just kind of some of the decisions you had to make on the buy, that really set you up to be able to pay off the mortgage in that amount of time.
Right. So I love that you asked me this question. So many times when people buy a home, which by the way is generally the biggest purchase that a person's going to make in their life. They look at it and say, How much can I afford? Or you know, what, what can I get? You know, what's, what's the kitchen setup going to be? You know, what kind of space is in the master bedroom? And what is the master bathroom look like? For me, you know, those things have some important, but for me I was looking at how will this shape the trajectory of the rest of my life. So I came in saying hey, how much how much do we want us to spend towards our place of residence, and we based our budget off of that, as well as if we did a 15 year mortgage versus a 30 year which would allow more money to go to the principal Right out of the gate with the property. So So we actually reverse engineered it of saying, How much money do we want to pay per month towards our place of residence. And that will determine our budget, not how much we are approved for in a home and how nice the kitchen looks.
Right? And I love that I do. So can you talk a little bit about what the what the price was, if you comfortable talking about it, what the price was of the home, and then what your income range was around that time.
So the home was on the brink of being foreclosed on, we paid $193,000 for for the house back in 2015. And today, it's worth over $300,000. So it's it's appreciated significantly. But even when we bought it, it had some equity in it. Because I had a real estate investing background, I wasn't too concerned about some of the repairs, and just some of the aesthetic things that needed to be done with the purchase of the house.
So and you mentioned your income range around the time when you were paying it off.
So I'll at least give you this we at that point, we were definitely in the in the six figures on on income.
So six figure income and $193,000 house, it's gone in in like three years. Right? That's incredible, right? I mean, and I really want you guys to catch how awesome that is like, it wasn't like, you know, you're making some million dollar income a year to pay off your house like this is just everyday people sharing everyday stories about what they're doing to build wealth. So and So I love that. But so once you paid off the house, what was the next goal on your list once you were mortgage free.
So there were three areas that we look to invest in are currently doing it. The first was, we did want to invest more just again, like in the in the market, and real estate with the extra funds. So that was that was number one. Number two, was that we want it to invest that much more in others, which What I mean by that is giving, being generous, helping others out along the way, and giving to different organizations and nonprofits and ministries and things like that, with some of the extra funds that were going to our lender, which we let go. And then the third was investing in us. And so doing that much more traveling, so we were already doing traveling where we've been all over, not only the US but all over the world, but being more frequent with that, and just doing doing different things. So I'm a father of three. So investing in doing fun things with, with my wife and children as well. So those those were the three areas investing again, like just traditionally speaking, investing in assets, then investing in others giving and then also investing in ourselves as far as from an experiences standpoint, you
know, something that's something that we hadn't talked about the the the giving component of wealth building, and it's something that's important to me. And so can you explain why that was important to you and your family to add that in? Instead of just using all of that to invest and build wealth at a more explosive rate? or putting that money back into your family? Like what made you stop and say, you know, it's important that we do this that we provide our help others in our community and abroad?
Well, part of it is just even even how I define wealth is not only limited to finances, right? So So for me, the biggest part of wealth for me is my relationships, the people that I get the the honor to just live life with and being able to see others do well. So this this may be a money quote for you Pun intended in the saying that, just when in this space, you hear people talk about being self made something you will even though we haven't known each other long, something you'll never hear me say is that I'm self made. I stand on the shoulders of those who came before me and those who are And have walked alongside me. And so I don't want to forget that. Just because I may be doing well, I still want to be helping others along the way, just as others helped me along the way.
See also How CollegeBacker Makes It Easy For Parents To Save For College
That man, that's that incredible answer. I kind of agree with that, like my wife and I, we kind of have a very similar structure where we've have this family financial mission statement, where, you know, our top three priorities are honor God with our resources, serve others well, and you know, do for our family, create time, create memories, and all those things where our family and so it's good to hear like, your priorities are almost exactly in line with kind of the things that we've said, as someone who is aspiring to be where you are. That's, it's awesome to hear you say that. So I appreciate you sharing. But I know that on this journey as well, you also became a millionaire. So I can't let you go without talking about that, right? Like, when did that happen? Was that like, pre or post mortgage payoff? For you,
it was pre, so hit the hit the millionaire mark, around the age of 30 to 31, somewhere in there. I mean, and you can understand this, especially when you start talking about net worth, and having funds be in investments, you know, things kind of move, move up and down. Just as you know, as, as the days, weeks and months go by, but I'd say somewhere in that area would be when when it hit that it was like, Okay, I'm I'm at seven figures, and it is steadily above that, and just continues to rock it up.
Wow. Okay, so looking back, just kind of own the totality of your journey, right from, you know, learning about being a saver as a child to becoming an investor to paying off your house, and just really doing all these incredible things like becoming a millionaire in your early 30s. What would you say are just like the two or three action steps that really made the biggest difference for you getting where you are now.
What what I would say to those listening is, is first you're gonna have to take action. So this, this didn't happen, necessarily by chance. I mean, there, there were willful decisions that had to be made. And I'm a big believer of time in the market is greater than timing the market. Now granted, there were some things that worked extremely well on the timing side. But I'm a huge fan of dollar cost averaging of just consistently putting money aside over time. So want to take action. And that action should be around figuring figuring out your financial landscape. So if you have more money going out than coming in, we got to solve that, like yesterday. We need to we need to assess what's going on there. But then we got to figure out things as far as having an appropriate amount of money say, just so when when bad times come because they will that it doesn't destabilize you. And we've got to figure out investing, you got to invest.
Simple, simple, simple stuff. Nothing that's like excruciating Lee painful things we talk about on the podcast every single week. I mean, this is just simple stuff. So for all of you guys listening who've been following along and you've been taking action every week, like we talked about, that should be encouraging to hear from a millionaire, that you're making the right choices, you're building the right habits, just keep plugging away at it. But to kind of wrap the episode up like there's, there's one thing I want to discuss with you. I did this solo episode, and I think this is going to kind of tie this whole episode together. I did this solo episode shortly after George Floyd was murdered, in which I talked about how financial independence and building wealth can and should be considered a form of social activism for black Americans living today. Because when you have that financial cushion, like you said, you can go get a job at McDonald's and be straight. Like I don't have to worry about dealing with workplace harassment, toxic workplace environments. That's not to say that will shields you from racism, right? But it does kind of allow you to pick and choose certain environments that you can be in. And to your point about your your top three priorities like it does allow you to give right and help out in those situations to organizations that are on that fight. So I just want to kind of get your thoughts around that idea of financial independence being a form of social activism for our community. Oh, yeah.
Oh, I mean, so I mean, that is That is the reason why I do financial coaching, like in helping others, and especially if we're just talking about black people and just people of color is it's incredibly important. Now, I'm going to say what I'm going to say, even if I'm not in the greatest spot financially, but it doesn't hurt the case, then I'm also in a space where I can literally say, hey, if I go without a paycheck, for the next five years, I still have years left of funds, and I wouldn't, I wouldn't stop working for five years. So but it helps in having some of that conviction, to speak to the things that are happening in in society, in the culture, in our nation, and even even around the world to have that financial independence. And let me say this other thing real quick. So there's a lot of truth to the statement of working twice as hard for half as much. And there's so many, there's so many instances that show when you just start looking at a wealth gap of African Americans doing the same things as other groups or the majority, or, you know, majority with Caucasians. And yet the results are vastly different. Here's what I'll say to that. Yes, we should do or take action to try to remedy that. But you know, what I also want, I want us to make excellent financial decisions. In the meantime. So yes, should I be further ahead? If there weren't some societal things at work? Yes, you can make that argument for sure. And yet, I also still want to make the best financial decisions that I can make in what the context is right now. And so for those listening, it's Hey, yes, you can bemoan what's going on. But also, let's try to make those awesome decisions. In the meantime, until the change comes,
I love it. I love it. And I couldn't agree more. So as we wrap this up, I do want to give you the opportunity to share where people can find you. If they want to connect with you follow you follow along as you continue to educate people about personal finance.
Yes, so you can find me on Instagram. I'm on Instagram at stacking with stack and again, that stacking with stack if you also want to connect on any kind of financial coaching, types of things, obviously you can reach me through there but you can also email me directly at Stephen dot L
dot [email protected]
Well, Stephen, man, I appreciate you sharing your journey, man. And all you listeners, definitely be sure to go connect with Steven on Instagram. If you already forgot his ID handle, you can head over to winning to wealth comm slash Episode 53 for the show notes because I've got everything he mentioned linked right there. All right, now it's time for this week's win of the week. Now, as I mentioned earlier in the episode, I don't want you to use this episode as a weapon to downplay the struggles of other marginalized people in this country. Like it's easy to say, oh, stack made it so everybody else should be able to. There are steel to this very day. very real barriers at play that make this journey just that much harder for certain sectors of our population. However, if you're in one of those sections of the population, I want to echo what stack said, Be diligent about your finances until those barriers are removed. Don't sit idly by just waiting on somebody to come save the day for you. In the same way that rich wasn't held back by my head, start in our race. Don't let somebody else's Head Start keep you from giving this wealth building journey, everything that you've got. So do the simple things that stack mentioned. And if you do that it is inevitable that you'll find yourself having way more than enough because one thing I've learned about this journey is that wealth is more about time. It's not about being the smartest, being the most sophisticated or even having all the answers. If you just start with one small step, whether it's getting caught up on your bills, building a budget, opening a brokerage account, or whatever that next step is for you. And you're just consistent over time, take one step and then another and then another until you've reached your biggest goals. You will win because this stuff we talked about every week. It really does. Work. These are actual real life examples of people who are just sharing the things that they've done that works. But it's up to you to do the work, even when things are stacked against you. Now, if you need a place to vent or to even get help or insight while you're on a journey, join my facebook group with almost 15,000 people that are just like you trying to figure it all out. You can find that group over at winning to wealth.com slash teammates that is winning to wealth.com slash teammates. But hey, that's all the time I have for this week. So until we talk again, keep racking up those wins one at a time. Take care.
Unknown Speaker 45:46
You've wrapped up another episode of the winning to wealth podcast. To learn more about how you can start making winning money decisions head over to winning to wealth.com
winningtowealth

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Carolyn Hayman OBE, Chief Executive of Peace Direct.
↑ Staff, Peace Direct, accessed February 22, 2008.
↑ Competition Judges for the Changemakers Innovation Award: "Entrepreneuring Peace", Changemakers, accessed February 25, 2008.
This page was last edited on 25 February 2008, at 02:24.


There were nearly 200 people killed in teen car accidents in Missouri in 2009: Missouri was ranked the 10th deadliest state for teen collisions.
Over the last five years, Missouri car accidents involving teen drivers took the lives of nearly 1,100 people, according to Safe Roads 4 Teens. Roughly 81,000 people died nationwide.
The fact is that teen drivers are at a heightened risk for accidents on our roadways: their inexperience behind the wheel can put them in serious danger. In response to this problem, many organizations have developed safety initiatives targeted towards teens - on this blog, we recently covered the nationwide Drive2Life campaign for high school students, and the resources offered by the Southeast Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety. In addition, our Perryville car accident lawyers would like to ask parents to discuss the importance of safe and responsible driving with their teen drivers. A parent's voice can be the most influential one of all.
In 2005, drivers between the ages of 15 and 21 made up only about 7 percent of all licensed drivers in Missouri, yet that age group contributed to nearly 30 percent of all injury accidents and more than 20 percent of all fatal accidents. According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a teen is either injured or killed in a Missouri car accident every 43 minutes.
* There were nearly 2,500 teen drivers killed in traffic accidents in 2009.
* Teen car accidents took the lives of nearly 3,500 additional people.
* Of the people killed in 2009, more than 1,400 were passengers of teen drivers. Nearly 1,500 were occupants of another vehicle, and nearly 500 were bicyclists, pedestrians or non-occupants.
* Teens are four times more likely to get into an accident than older drivers.
Parents are urged to talk with teens about safe driving tips before it's too late. Keeping safe driving habits as a frequent topic of conversation at home may be one of the most beneficial ways to keep your teen driver safe.
* You and your young driver should check the vehicle's brakes and brake fluids. Speeding is one of the most common factors in their accidents. While a teen may be interested in how fast the vehicle can go, you should remain interested in how fast it can stop.
* Limit the number of passengers that your teen can drive with. With every passenger in the vehicle, the risks for an accident increase.
* Be a good role model for your teen driver. Young drivers are most likely to develop the habits that they've been exposed to. Lead by example.
* Insist that all vehicle occupants wear a seat belt.
* Enact a curfew for your drivers. Teens are more likely to get into an accident during the night.
* Check out some online resources that are available for parents. All State's website offers a teen driving contract, while kidshealth.org has several useful articles for parents and teens.
If you or your teen driver has been injured in car accident in Perryville, Dexter, New Madrid or elsewhere in Southeast Missouri, contact the New Madrid Personal Injury Lawyers at Aaron Sachs & Associates PC for a free initial consultation. Call 1-888-777-AUTO.


These creators are among the best of the best. Join these legendary developers on your own epic Roblox adventure!
Armed with his Bluster Buster, Litozinnamon is ready for combat! This accomplished StyLiS Studios game developer helped bring to life some of the most recognizable, award-winning games on Roblox, including Call of Robloxia 5 – Roblox at War and Phantom Forces.
Adorned in gold and equipped with the legendary Dominus Aureus, Gusmanak is one of Roblox's most elite developers. Winner of the Game Developer of the Year award in 2013, this founder of Dualpoint Interactive is most recognized by the community for designing Apocalypse Rising and Tiny Tanks.
Never one to miss a limited item, Merely has scoured the lands of Roblox for its most treasured possessions. Throughout his journey, he has collected the prized golden Domino Crown and many other rare items. Together with his twin brother, Seranok, Merely is well-known for being one of the most prolific Roblox developers out there. He created a place called Trade Hangout, where you can trade virtual items.
After spending years honing his sword-fighting skills, TheGamer101 fears no warrior! It's not in his personality to shy away from an epic battle, so he continues to train by battling stronger and more fearsome foes. He and his brother enjoy spending their time collecting limited items on Roblox, like the Black Iron Domino Crown.
Long-time Roblox superstar and brother of Merely, Seranok was recognized as the community's choice for Player of the Year in 2012. His Golden Chalice of Fame allows him to exude pure illustriousness wherever he roams, while his Rocket Jumper enables him to boost through the air at incredible speeds. His work on the game Catalog Heaven is widely acclaimed on Roblox.
He makes games. Mad games. Loleris created some of the most popular games on Roblox, including The Mad Murderer, Darkness, and Intense Sword Fighting. He always carries around his Stunna Shades just in case he needs to leave the scene of an explosion in the coolest fashion.


text:
Rescued animals, a new dinosaur on display, apology from South Korean president | May 19
Greg Kohn 0 Comment Daily Brief, The Baltimore Sun Animals, Argentina, Balkan flood, dinosaur, Indonesia, Sewol, South Korea
A rescued orang utan in Indonesia prepares for release into the wild while a pig and dog are saved in the Balkan floods, the original fossilized femur of a previously undiscovered giant dinosaur species is on display in Trelew, Argentina, South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye takes responsibility for the mishandling of last month's Sewol ferry disaster, and more in today's daily brief.
Rizki, 10 months orphaned Bornean orang utan starts learning to bite and eating leaves at Surabaya Zoo as he prepares to be released into the wild on May 19, 2014 in Surabaya, Indonesia. The two baby orangutans, brothers, were found in Kutai National Park in a critical condition having been abandoned by their mother on May 14, 2014. The Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) have since been nursing the animals back to health, treating them for malnourishment and 16 wounds predominantly to the feet and hands. (Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images)
Novak Djokovic of Serbia sprays champagne to celebrate after winning the men's singles final match against Rafael Nadal of Spain at the Rome Masters tennis tournament May 18, 2014. (Giampiero Sposito/Reuters)
A man reacts near a house tilted by floods in the village of Krupanj, west from Belgrade, May 19, 2014. Communities in Serbia and Bosnia battled to protect towns and power plants on Monday from rising flood waters and landslides that have devastated swathes of both countries and killed dozens of people. (Marko Djurica/Reuters)
A man climbs on the roof of a house to feed pigs they rescued during heavy floods in the village of Vojskova, May 19, 2014. Communities in Serbia and Bosnia battled to protect towns and power plants on Monday from rising flood waters and landslides that have devastated swathes of both countries and killed dozens of people. (Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters)
A man rescues a dog during heavy floods in Vojskova May 19, 2014. More than a quarter of Bosnia's four million people have been affected by the worst floods to hit the Balkans in more than a century, the government said on Monday, warning of "terrifying" destruction comparable to the country's 1992-95 war. (Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters)
Leon's coach Guatavo Matosas (in suit) and his players celebrate after winning their Mexican league championship final soccer match against Pachuca at the Hidalgo stadium in Pachuca May 18, 2014. (Edgard Garrido/Reuters)
Marlene lies over the original fossilised femur of a dinosaur displayed on exhibition at the Egidio Feruglio Museum in the Argentina's Patagonian city of Trelew, May 18, 2014. According to the palaeontologists Jose Luis Carballido and Ruben Cuneo, the fossils are that of a sauropod and preliminary tests dates the fossils at some 90 million years old. The scientists said the dinosaur could be 130 feet long and 65 feet tall, and weigh at 85 tons, and it is a previously undiscovered species of titanosaur, an herbivore, which lived during the Late Cretaceous period. (Maxi Jonas/Reuters)
A patch of sunflowers are displayed at the Chelsea Flower Show in west London, on May 19, 2014. The Chelsea flower show, held annually in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, will run this year from May 20-24. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)
South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye weeps as she makes a televised address to the nation from the presidential Blue House in Seoul on May 19, 2014. Park took tearful responsibility for the mishandling of last month's Sewol ferry disaster, admitting that many lives were lost through incompetence and a lack of preparedness. Yonhap/AFP/Getty Images)
Brett Stewart of the Sea Eagles is tackled by Jarrod Mullen of the Knights during the round 10 NRL match between the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the Newcastle Knights at Brookvale Oval on May 19, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. (PMatt King/Getty Images)
Britain's Prince Harry visits the Cassino's Commonwealth War Cemetery at the end of a ceremony on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the WWII's Monte Cassino battle, on May 19, 2014. (Alessandra Tarantino/AFP/Getty Images)
Raja Club Atletic's supporters watch the game in a green smoke during the match against Moghreb Athletic of Tetouan on May 19, 2014 in Casablanca. Raja Club Atletic won the match 5-0. (Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images)
A man walks through a field of maize, planted under a film of biodegradable plastic which raises the soil temperature at the start of the season, near the city of Londonderry May 19, 2014. (Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)
New York City Police Department officer Rosa Rodriguez is cheered by dozens of fellow officers as she is wheeled out of Weill Cornell Medical Center following severe injuries received in a Coney Island fire last month on May 19, 2014 in New York City. Officer Rodriguez, who was critically injured in the fire, lost her partner Officer Dennis Guerra in the incident. Police have said that 16-year-old Marcell Dockery has admitted to lighting a mattress on fire in the hallway of the building because he was bored. Thirty six year-old Rodriguez is a mother of four has been in the hospital since the April. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Israeli soldiers of the Ultra-Orthodox battalion "Netzah Yehuda" take part in their annual unit training in the Israeli annexed Golan Heights, near the Syrian border on May 19, 2014. The Netzah Yehuda Battalion is a battalion in the Kfir Brigade of the Israel military which was created to allow religious Israelis to serve in the army in an atmosphere respecting their religious convictions. (Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images/Reuters)
« Best photos from the 2014 Preakness » Climbing the monument


text:
//
//  QKLoginData.h
//  kaixinwa
//
//  Created by 张思源 on 15/7/14.
//  Copyright (c) 2015年 郭庆宇. All rights reserved.
//

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface QKLoginData : NSObject

/** md5密码*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * password;
/** uid*/
@property(nonatomic,strong)NSNumber * uid;
/** 设备号*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * equipment_id;
/** 创建时间*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * create_time;
/** 手机号码*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * telephone;
/** 客户端类型*/
@property(nonatomic,strong)NSNumber * client_type;
/** 用户类型*/
@property(nonatomic,strong)NSNumber * user_type;
/** upkey*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * upkey;
/** 登录时间*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * login_time;
/** lasttime*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * lasttime;
/** 学校*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * school;
/** 绑定微信*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * weixin;
/** 昵称*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * user_name;
/** 个性签名*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * signature;
/** 地址*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * address;
/** 绑定qq号*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * qq;
/** token*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * token;
/** header*/
@property(nonatomic,copy)NSString * header;
@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Being away from the people you've been with for how many years is indeed one real pain in the chest. I've been missing a lot of people I dearly loved since they chose to be gone.
I just missed how we used to be... how we turned each serious talk into something very memorable... how we always ended up learning from each other's mistakes... how we did silly things that were absolutely not allowable.


6DoF Motion Platform Simulator (Virtual Lab) is built up of simulation training room and observation learning room. In the training room,the trainer can organize the trainees in both training room and learning room to go through the training simultaneously. The training room is equipped with a 6DoF Motion Platform Simulator. And the learning room can accommodate 20 trainees at the same time. During training, the trainer will guide a trainee to operate the simulator in the training room and the rest of the class stays in the learning room to observe and discuss training topics with the trainer via video conferencing. This system is designed for accumulating and enhancing drivers' experience. It is suitable for new driving technique training and evaluation.
Different cinemas design for your choice.


To filter salaries for Business Development Representative in Fort Smith, AR Area, Sign In or Register.
How much does a Business Development Representative make in Fort Smith, AR?
The average salary for a Business Development Representative is $42,395 in Fort Smith, AR. Salary estimates are based on salaries submitted anonymously to Glassdoor by Business Development Representative employees in Fort Smith, AR.


In the late 1960s, dockets in federal courts were becoming increasingly crowded, the backlog of criminal cases having more than doubled in the decade 1958-68. One suggestion for relieving pressure on the dockets was reduction of jury size in civil jury trials from 12 to some lesser number. In the absence of a constitutional amendment, however, the seventh amendment appeared to bar such a reduction in jury size. Nevertheless, within the span of a few years the Supreme Court was to announce a series of decisions which eliminated the constitutional significance of the number 12 and permitted the adoption of the 6-member jury. This judicial revolution reached its culmination last Term in Colgrove v. Battin, which eliminated the requirement of a 12-member jury in civil trials in federal courts.
Mark S. Davidson, Recent Developments, Constitutional Law—Trial by Jury Guaranty of Seventh Amendment: Local Court Rule May Establish Number of Jurors at Six in Federal Civil Cases—Colgrove v. Battin, 413 U.S. 149 (1973), 49 Wash. L. Rev. 1146 (1974).


text:
Rewind to
India opens Pandora's ODI Box
They were the slowest country to embrace the one-day game, but they more than made up for it in the years that followed
Martin Williamson20-Oct-2012
The Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad during the first ODI played on Indian soil PA Photos
India's victory in the 1983 World Cup was one of the game's watershed moments, representing the start of a shift in the balance of world cricket towards the subcontinent, as well as marking the moment when one-day cricket truly usurped Tests as the most popular, if not pure, form of the game.
Until that point one-dayers were often seen as secondary to Test series, but a lucrative sideshow nevertheless. England were the early adopters, scheduling short ODI series alongside the regular summer tours from 1972, and New Zealand and, half-heartedly, Australia also tried the format out. It was the advent of World Series Cricket in 1977 that broke the dam, and by the end of the decade everyone was in on the act. Except India.
India's failure to take the format seriously was there for all to see on the opening day of the inaugural World Cup in 1975, when Sunil Gavaskar ground out 36 not out in 60 overs against England at Lord's as his side made no attempt to chase down a stiff target. The BCCI put in a bid to stage the 1979 tournament but it was not taken seriously nor was it serious. At that time, the logistics of such an event in such a massive country were unthinkable.
While the Indian board was willing to play one-dayers away from home, it refused to entertain the idea of series in India. Perhaps inevitably the reason was simply one of finances. Test matches in India attracted massive crowds - 60,000 turned up to watch under two hours of the dead final day of the Calcutta Test in 1976-77- and the board feared if it opened Pandora's box and revealed the shorter form of the game, the public would stop flocking to the five-day games. As it happened, those concerns were justified.
By the time England toured India in 1981-82 the pressure on the BCCI to bow to the inevitable was too great. After two World Cups the Indian public wanted to see limited-overs matches and the English also pressed for some games. So three ODIs were scheduled, dotted around the six Tests.
The tour was blighted by controversy before it had even begun and for a time it seemed it would be cancelled, as the authorities objected to the presence in the England squad of players with South African connections. Even when that was sorted there were ongoing rows over umpiring, Geoff Boycott quit midway through, and the series ended with news breaking of a rebel England visit to South Africa.
England arrived in Ahmedebad late on November 24 after a tiring journey from Baroda but boosted by victories in their opening three matches. No sooner had they checked into their hotel than the England management were at loggerheads with the BCCI officials who handed them the playing conditions.
First official ODIs of major teams
The crowd watch a mundane start to India's ODI story PA Photos
England (January 5, 1971)
Australia (January 5, 1971)
New Zealand (February 11, 1973)
Pakistan (February 11, 1973)
West Indies (September 5, 1973)
India (July 13, 1974)
Sri Lanka (June 7, 1975)
Zimbabwe (June 9, 1983)
Bangladesh ( March 31, 1986)
South Africa (November 10, 1991)
Faced with the problem of early-morning dew, England wanted to play 45 overs; the BCCI insisted on 50. England wanted fielding restrictions throughout; the BCCI wanted them for 15 overs only. England wanted the day split into three two-hour sessions; the BCCI wanted two three-and-a half hour sessions. The BCCI won out in every case.
"We put forward our views," shrugged tour manager Raman Subba Row. "But at the end of the day we're playing in India and we have to do as the board says." England captain Keith Fletcher, who had a forgettable trip, added: "We know where we stand. We've just got to go out there and get on with it."
"It is the first occasion that the Indians have staged a limited-over match between two countries," the Times' correspondent noted. "But they have not been prepared to accept advice from the tourists despite their great experience of this type of cricket."
The next day the teams assembled at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium for India's inaugural home ODI. It was to be the only international fixture held there. For Madhav Gothoskar, one of the umpires, it was also his first and last taste of the international game. More than a quarter of a century later he told India Today how he watched crowds packing in under tents erected over the ramshackle stands. "They wouldn't stop coming. Soon there were people sitting inside the boundary line."
What they got hardly set the pulses racing. A slightly delayed start gave England almost what they wanted - a 46-over match - and India began cautiously on a very green track as Ian Botham bowled three successive maidens. In his fourth over he bowled Kris Srikkanth for a debut duck, and in the next over Bob Willis had Sunil Gavaskar caught at slip.
Thereafter Dilip Vengsarkar (46) led a stodgy recovery as India plodded to 156 for 7. There was brief amusement when a drive from Syed Kirmani disappeared down a drainage hole and none of the England side would put their hand down to retrieve it, leading to a delay while a volunteer groundsman was summoned
England made a cautious start but after reaching 43 for 1 they slipped to 61 for 4, and the home crowd started to sense their side was back in the match. But Mike Gatting, aided by Fletcher and then Botham - who finished proceedings by sweeping and pulling Roger Binny for successive sixes - steered England home with 13 balls in hand.
It was an inauspicious beginning but there was no turning back. The Test series was closely fought but numbingly dull in terms of both over rate and run rate, as India sat on a lead they established in the first match. Phil Edmonds reckoned that the decision of some to throw in their lot with the rebel South Africa tourists was not so much because of the money but because they were "bored to the soul with Test cricket after that tour". Nevertheless, the crowds flocked to the matches and an estimated 394,000 people watched the Calcutta Test.
Wisden's review of the series proved prescient. "It is also to be hoped that the Indian Board recognise the need to put some ginger in their pitches before their crowds start losing interest. There was little sign of that on this tour; but with the increasing popularity of one-day cricket, bolstered by India's unexpected 2-1 victory in the one-day series, it could happen."
India bounced back to win the second and third matches to take the one-day series 2-1
By the time Pakistan visited India two years later, crowds for ODIs were massive but the Tests were poorly supported with the Times noting the Indians had clearly decided they "preferred the instant version of the game".
Mike Gatting
Keith Fletcher
England in India ODI Series
Martin Williamson is executive editor of ESPNcricinfo and managing editor of ESPN Digital Media in Europe, the Middle East and Africa


text:
José Luis García Sánchez est un réalisateur de cinéma espagnol né le .

Filmographie
 1968 : Pólipos en las trompas (court-métrage)
 1970 : Labelecialalacio (court-métrage)
 1971 : Loco por Machín
 1971 : Gente de boina
 1975 : El Love feroz
 1976 : Colorín colorado
 1978 : Las truchas
 1981 : Dolores (documentaire)
 1981 : Cuentos para una escapada
 1985 : La corte de Faraón
 1986 : Hay que deshacer la casa
 1987 : Divinas palabras
 1988 : Pasodoble
 1989 : El vuelo de la paloma
 1991 : La noche más larga
 1993 : Tirano Banderas
 1995 : Suspiros de España (y Portugal)
 1995 : El seductor
 1997 : Tranvía a la Malvarrosa
 1997 : Siempre hay un camino a la derecha
 2000 : Adiós con el corazón
 2001 : Lázaro de Tormes
 2002 : La marcha verde
 2004 : Franky Banderas
 2004 : ¡Hay motivo!
 2004 : María querida

Voir aussi

Liens externes

Prix Goya du meilleur scénario original
Prix Goya du meilleur scénario adapté
Réalisateur espagnol
Naissance en septembre 1941
Naissance à Salamanque


Introducing "Greetings from Los Angeles," my latest pictorial history from publisher Gibbs Smith.
Following the format of my other books, "Greetings" is a comprehensive, humorous, historical tour of Greater Los Angeles told through vintage images (postcards, photographs, brochures, matchbooks and other dazzling ephemera).
This is the amazon link if you'd like to purchase a copy, or come to my book launch/slide talk at Soap Plant Wacko in Los Feliz on August 19th where there will be a special surprise (more on that in a few days).
Featured are over 250 rare glimpses of the city, starting with its early years as a dusty pueblo; Chinatown's evolution; the miraculous orange empire; backyard oil wells; Venice of America; roaring 1920s and corrupt 1930s; colorful evangelists; glamorous Wilshire Boulevard; fabulous nightclubs; movie studios and lavish stars' estates; and theme parks such as Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and Marineland of the Pacific.
Witness the birth of midcentury modernism, futuristic Googie coffee shops, and space-age LAX. Recall a postwar suburban paradise of drive-ins, bowling palaces, beach parties, Dodgers baseball, hotrod culture, and mushrooming tract developments.
Fun facts and images that didn't make it in the book will be posted on Facebook and Instagram soon.
Gallery | This entry was posted in Home. Bookmark the permalink.
1 Response to Peter Moruzzi's New Book "Greetings from Los Angeles" Is Finally Available!


text:
McCain's POW Record, you be the Judge
August 6, 2015 by IHeartAmerica	in John McCain, military, pow, Senator John McCain and tagged john Mccain, military, pow
John McCain rose to become one of America's most powerful senators and became the Republican Party's nominee for President in 2008 mostly on his Prisoner of War (POW) status. Absent his POW history, McCain would no doubt have lived his entire life in relative obscurity. It usually takes more than simply being a veteran or being the son of a Navy admiral or even being a POW to make one obtain famous hero status. How many other POWs do you know who have achieved McCain's political power and influence?
Alabama's Jeremiah Denton was a POW who truly endured intense torture at the hands of the enemy and who became one of our finest U.S. senators. And there was never the first hint of dishonorable conduct or scandal or accusations that Denton used his war record for personal profit. I had the privilege of meeting Senator Denton a couple of times, and the thing that struck me most about the man was his deep and genuine humility. The same cannot be said of John McCain.
John McCain's POW record has been shrouded in controversy from the very beginning. Many independent journalists and military veterans have accused McCain of being America's version of "Tokyo Rose." They offer convincing evidence (or at least credible postulations) that McCain was NEVER tortured, that he received special treatment by his captors, and that he actually willingly participated in anti-America propaganda, in much the same way that Tokyo Rose did in the Pacific during World War II.
One Vietnam veteran who was publicly critical of John McCain was my friend Jack McLamb. McLamb served nine years in secret operations in Cambodia and other nations before going on to become one of the most highly decorated police officers in Phoenix, Arizona, history, winning Police Officer of the Year twice before taking a role as a hostage negotiator for the FBI.
McLamb said of McCain: "I know a lot of Vietnam veterans and a few POW's and all the POW's that I've talked to over the years say that John McCain is a lying skunk.
"He never was tortured–they were there in the camp with him and then when he came in….he immediately started spilling his guts about everything because he didn't want to get tortured," said McLamb, contradicting the official story that McCain only offered his name, rank, serial number, and date of birth.
"The Vietnamese Communists called him the Songbird, that's his code name, Songbird McCain, because he just came into the camp singing and telling them everything they wanted to know."
McLamb also said: "The POW's said that McCain made 32 propaganda videos for the communist North Vietnamese in which he denounced America for what they were doing in Vietnam.
"They have these sealed now, our government has these sealed, we can't get to it, they have it classified. In truth the POW's hate John McCain."
See the report here:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2008/020708_never_tortured.htm
There are many similar reports about John McCain. I suspect that Donald Trump is familiar with these reports. Here are a few of them:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/no_author/sen-tokyo-rose-r-az/
http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/06/13/mcnasty/
http://www.unz.com/article/mccain-and-the-pow-cover-up/
Reports note that former American POWs such as Col. Ted Guy and Gordon "Swede" Larson, who were held in the same communist prison as McCain, have gone on record saying that they are very skeptical about McCain's claims of torture.
See this report:
https://hope2012.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/songbird-mccain-the-evidence-in-his-own-words-his-fellow-veterans-and-his-captors/
Another former POW, Philip Butler, a man who was also imprisoned with McCain, is more sympathetic to the man, saying that he had probably been tortured early on in his captivity and made no reference to McCain's alleged anti-America propaganda charges–but was emphatic that McCain was unqualified to be President. Butler firmly said that he would NOT vote for McCain because McCain was a hot-tempered man who had become a Bush-like warmonger and who had used his POW status for personal and political gain. Remember, this is from a fellow POW who actually likes McCain.
http://www.alternet.org/story/95825/i_spent_years_as_a_pow_with_john_mccain%2C_and_his_finger_should_not_be_near_the_red_button
Regardless of McCain's real war record (the U.S. government has sealed the record, so we will likely never know the truth about the matter), it is a fact that, as one of the most powerful senators in Washington, D.C., John McCain has done little to assist America's veterans. In fact, McCain is commonly regarded as being one of the strongest opponents to the investigation and rescue of POWs left behind in Indochina following the Vietnam War.
While a member of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs (1991-1993), McCain referred to POW/MIA family members and activists as "whiners," "vultures," and "the lunatic fringe." Although the committee concluded that there were indeed American POWs left behind in Indochina, McCain voted to normalize relations with Vietnam without any accountability for America's missing servicemen. In so doing, McCain ignored a letter written by fellow POW Captain Eugene "Red" McDaniel and co-signed by 50 former POWs which asked him to not support normalized relations with Vietnam until the POW issue had been resolved.
In 1996, McCain opposed the Missing Service Personnel Act (MSPA) as being "unnecessary" and "burdensome." He also helped to amend the MSPA to remove criminal liability, which POW/MIA families knew was a serious blow to obtaining meaningful accountability on behalf of their loved ones still languishing in Southeast Asia.
http://www.renewamerica.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7839
And this report:
http://www.vvof.org/mccain_hides.htm
John McCain has spent most of his senatorial career promoting an open border with Mexico, a path to citizenship for illegal aliens, and incessant foreign wars; facilitating the miserable performance of the Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA); and covering up evidence of Americans left behind in Indochina. No wonder so many people have referred to McCain as "The Manchurian Candidate."
Read this report:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2014/11/john-mccain-always-and-forever.html
By telling the truth about John McCain, Donald Trump has hit the rawest of nerves within the Washington establishment (and New World Order globalist elite). Without a doubt, John McCain is one of the globalist elite's political darlings. A favored son of globalist puppet-masters such as Henry Kissinger, John McCain has been a water boy for the New World Order from the time he entered politics. Guilty of corruption as one of the infamous "Keating Five," John McCain was given a mere "slap-on-the-wrist" and allowed to continue his pernicious ways.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/k/keating_five/index.html
And McCain's "war hero" status has made him virtually untouchable–until now.
My mind is far from made up in regards to supporting Donald Trump's presidential candidacy. But, so far, Donald Trump has been willing to courageously confront the Washington establishment in an in-your-face, no-holds-barred manner that we have not seen in a long, long time. And if Trump accomplishes nothing else in his presidential bid except exposing establishment sycophants like John McCain, I, for one, am excited that he has entered the race.
P.S. This is the final announcement regarding the availability of THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS. This is a giant compilation of over 50 of America's greatest documents in one volume. THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS cannot be found in stores or anywhere else. And this is a limited printing, so our supply will not last long.
Notable constitutionalists such as Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and former congressman Ron Paul have their copy of THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS.
Most schools today, including most private and Christian schools, do NOT require the reading of these great historical documents. Without the written record of our history, how are we going to pass down our heritage to our children and grandchildren? And with the way things are going, how much longer will it be before these documents are completely forgotten, or even banned?
Again, this is the final announcement; so order your copy of THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS now.
To order THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS, go here:
The Freedom Documents
And to read a more detailed description of THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS, go here:
A Great Way To Celebrate Independence Day
© Chuck Baldwin
If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link.
The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website.
Source: Western Journalism
http://truthuncensored.net/john-songbird-mccain-exposed-vietnam-vets-and-pows-liar-and-fraud-video/
http://www.westernjournalism.com/donald-trump-is-right-about-john-mccain/
http://waynedupree.com/exposed-veterans-voice-displeasure-and-non-trust-of-john-songbird-mccain-who-spilled-his-guts-to-get-out-of-torture/#.VawlY_lVikr
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/true-military-record-john-mccain-global-open-networker-
← Make America Great Again, with Donald Trump!
Fox News, Unfair and Unbalanced →
One thought on "McCain's POW Record, you be the Judge"
Pingback: John McCain Is the Source of the General Flynn Leaks | I Heart America


3M frequently provides free software updates to our underground locating and marking equipment. To get the most out of your products, find your particular underground locator model below to check for any needed updates.
To update your 3M™ Dynatel™ Locators 1420, 2200M, 2500 and 7000 series, click here: PCTools.exe updated on August 26th 2016.
To download the zip file of this software for your 3M Dynatel Locators 1420, 2200M, 2500 and 7000 series, click here: PCTools.zip updated on August 26th 2016.


text:
Magnificat!
by Peter Williams 16th November, 2014
The audience in St Paul's Cathedral was treated to a wonderful night of choral music inspired by the idea of the Magnificat. Polyphonic Voices and visitors Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir. The choirs performed separately and together and, for the second half, were joined by the Australian Baroque Brass and the Polyphonic Players for a striking performance of Bach's Magnificat. It was a night where the pieces chosen celebrated and honoured the Virgin Mary. Each choir exploited versatile groupings to good effect in the spacious volume that the Cathedral provides.
Voices NZ, under the close direction of Dr Karen Grylls, opened the night with a cappella pieces ranging from Rachmaninoff to contemporary composers of the late 20th century. They began with Salve Regina by New Zealander, David Childs, which was a perfect showcase for all sections of the choir. The strength of the tenor line and the bright, clear soprano section were an immediate attraction. They captured the imposing opening of "Hail Mary" and later the emotion of "this valley of tears", ending with extremely moving hypnotic repetitions of the word "Maria".
Over the five pieces the singing was always clear, capturing well the variety of emotions, dynamics and rhythms. Impressive building of crescendo and great accentuation were features of the Magnificat by Cesar Alejandro Carillo with some almost jazz rhythms. This contrasted with the delivery of softer, more flowing lines and sustained block sound of Andrew Baldwin's Magnificat.
After a tender and quite romantic Bogoroditse of Rachmaninoff, the choir continued with Three Sacred Hymns composed by Russian Alfred Schnittke in 1986. The three pieces were sung with dramatic force and a good solid underpinning of the low bass line. It again enabled the choir to show its strengths in each part – lovely flowing lines and the excitement of close harmony and texture. The final force of the Amen brought their part to a stunning conclusion. The only drawback here was the shuffling into different formations for each of the three hymns; it was distraction in such a short piece.
Polyphonic Voices followed with works by Thomas Tomkins and Tomas Luis de Victoria representing the Renaissance, and the more contemporary John Taverner and Pawel Lukaszewski. This too is a very professional and accomplished choir directed by Michael Fulcher. Whilst there were a couple of hesitant entries and the tenor line was a little exposed, they easily handled the complexities of the pieces – for SATB, 10 parts and the three choirs needed for Victoria's Magnificat. Tomkin's Magnificat contrasted appealing solo voices with tightly interweaving lines for the double choirs, coming together with clear forcefulness by the full choir.
Lukaszewski's Ave Maria (1992) used the double choir structure to great effect to give added depth to the emotion of the piece dedicated to his mother as it allowed the sound to expand out in the space of the Cathedral. The last parts were almost "ground bass" in effect where repetition added to the devotional feel of the piece. In the Taverner "Mother of God, here I stand", the choir excelled with pianissimo volume and clear lines moving though dissonances to harmony giving a sense of transfiguration, awe and reverence. Much of this section was accompanied by Christopher Cook on the Chamber Organ.
A very moving conclusion to the first half was the wonder-filled "Det ar en ros utsprungen" using both choirs. The held humming or 'ng' sound surrounded the words sung by smaller groups like petals surrounding the heart.
After interval, Bach's Magnificat burst forth with thrilling trumpet, timpani and strings leading to the bright entrance of the combined choirs. They used the E-flat edition which has four interpolations to expand the Christmas message.
Throughout the work, the playing of Australian Baroque Brass and Polyphonic Players was robust and supportive, especially the recorders in "Esurientes". The choir was superb, and of great presence with warm moments, as well as decisiveness, control and strength in the more complex contrapuntal parts. There was a welcome transparency from both the choir and the orchestra in this large Cathedral setting.
Outstanding amongst the soloists was Siobhan Stagg who gave a performance of simplicity and ease with the style. This was through beautifully nuanced singing through all registers. It was delightful for its clarity, openness of tone and well-articulated runs. She teamed with the solid performance of the bass, Michael Leighton Jones, for a moving Virga Jesse floruit which was a celebration by Mary and Joseph of the birth of Jesus. Alto Emma Muir-Smith was slightly overshadowed by the strength of Michael Petruccelli' s tenor in the "Et misericordia". Muir-Smith's voice is clear and precise, and hopefully she will develop even further as the lack of vibrato was most engaging. Petruccelli's time came with the well-sustained bite and attack of "Deposuit potentes".
Michael Fulcher's conducting of Virga Jesse floruit maintained a sense of the Bach line where the music flowed articulately, grandly and full of dignity. This was a moment where in the words of the Dean of the Cathedral, "voices, instruments, music and scripture come together in spirituality".
The picture is of conductor Michael Fulcher.
Opera Australia: Tosca review
MSO Mahler 2: Resurrection
Babi Yar 75th Anniversary Commemorative Concert
Stephen Hough in Recital