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The Boats Of Cherbourg
The Battle For Jerusalem
Jerusalem On Earth
Teddy Kollek
Abraham Rabinovich
Author and Journalist.
"A tense, exciting thriller all the more fascinating because it's true."
Curt Schleier, Newsday
"Abraham Rabinovich writes so well that I kept fearing the day I would finally finish reading his masterpiece of international intrigue."
By James J. Bell (Chamblee, GA United States) Amazon.com reader.
How I came to write The Boats Of Cherbourg
On Christmas Eve 1969, five small boats slipped out of Cherbourg harbor after midnight into the teeth of a Force Nine gale that sent large freighters scurrying for cover. The boats, ordered by Israel from a local shipyard, had been embargoed for more than a year by French President Charles de Gaulle. In a brazen caper, the Israelis were now running off with them. As the boats raced for home and Paris fumed, the world media chortled at Israel's hutspa. But the story was far bigger than they knew.
Eight years before, the commander of the Israeli navy had assembled senior officers for a brainstorming session. The navy faced downgrading to a coast guard unless it could reconstitute itself as a fighting force on a starvation budget. What to do? A desperate proposal emerged from the two-day meeting.
Israel's fledgling military industries had developed a crude missile which was rejected by both the army and air force. The navy would now try adapting it. If placed on small patrol boats, the missiles, with their large warheads, could give these cheap vessels the punch of a heavy cruiser.
Over the next decade, engineers working virtually round-the-clock developed the first missile boats in the West. Of a dozen boat platforms ordered in Cherbourg seven sailed to Israel before the embargo. The five that escaped completed the flotilla. But the Soviets had meanwhile also developed missile boats which they distributed to their Arab allies. Their powerful and accurate missiles had twice the range of Israel's. To secure Israel's sea lanes, the navy devised electronic countermeasures that would hopefully divert the enemy missiles.
On the first night of the Yom Kippur War, an Israeli squadron engaged three Syrian missile boats in the first ever missile-to-missile battle at sea. The Syrian boats fired first but all three were sunk. Two nights later, three Egyptian missile boats were sunk. The electronic umbrella had worked and no Israeli boat was hit. A new naval age had dawned.
The Boats Of Cherbourg is available in eBook formats from most major book retailers including:
"Dear Mr. Rabinovich:
Your recent book, The Boats of Cherbourg, almost caused my wife to divorce me, especially when I began to read it for the second time. I cannot recall a more fascinating book.
As the consummate reporter you correctly suspected a story but you had a tiger by the tail, didn't you. It truly was a ball of yarn that you unraveled. "Truth is stranger than fiction" is an understatement when thinking of the threats to Israel and how they were met, the "imagineering" required to conceive and design the missile boats – then to fund them and actually acquire them.
Were it not for possible political and diplomatic embarrassment that might result from popularizing Israeli cunning and chutzpah in the escape from Cherbourg, The Boats would provide the scenario for a thrilling motion picture or TV Special.
I thank you for a memorable reading experience."
A letter from Morton H. Harmel, Yarmouth, Massachusetts.
"Techno thriller — an admirable story, very well told.
If this book had had a press agent, it would have been a bestseller. It has the technical depth of a Clancy thriller — but it is a true story, based on over a hundred interviews. The battle scenes are especially remarkable. Chess for keeps. The Israelis used a short range "smart" missile against a long range, not-so-smart missile. Each 14,000 hp missile boat had to charge its enemy at full speed to close the range gap, under fire, with many miles to put under the keel before it could realistically open fire itself. An Israeli boat was able to do this successfully by cloning itself electronically, so that the incoming Russian-made missiles "saw" multiple racing targets instead of one. The hair-raising aspect of this primitive countermeasure was that one of the targets seen by the incoming missile was indeed the real, almost completely vulnerable oncoming Israeli missile boat. Put this one next to Hornblower. A classic."
Written by an Amazon.com reader.
"The best kept secret in Naval History.
The heart of the story, the dramatic plan to "liberate" the patrol boats, is told in a manner that makes you feel the suspense and the tension the Israelis manning the boats must have felt. A must on any Naval History buff's bookshelf."
By Kevin Lane (Norfolk, VA United States) an Amazon.com reader.
"Triumph of an Idea.
Israel had purchased a particular type of boat from France but De Gaulle refused to release them. Thus an incredible plan was hatched to steal them (well, take what was theirs) and somehow return to home waters.
The background, the arrangements, the spies, the methods and the actual theft is better than fiction. Needless to say, the import was more than "stealing a ship". It was about developing a gunboat with a special type of rocket that could skim the surface and inflict maximum damage. The fruits of this labor were borne out in the 1973 Yom Kippur War in which Israel took total control of the seas, entered Egyptian waters, and prevented any Arab naval excursions. Great story."
By Avid Reader an Amazon.com reader.
"Tremendous!
This is a fantastic and gripping book. Israel's development of missile boats is a story of small maverick teams trying to achieve breakthroughs; of innovative naval commanders; of maverick combat leaders; of strategy and planning. An outstanding and inspiring book on many levels. Highly recommended!"
"A great book about an amazing Naval story.
This is a very well written book which should be studied by midshipmen at every naval college. The stealthy breakout of the boats from Cherbourg reads like a spy thriller. The first experience in naval history of ships engaging missile to missile reads like a techno thriller. Kudos to the author for combining all of this in one book."
Written by Matthew Bracken "author of Enemies Foreign And Domestic" (Jacksonville, FL USA).
1. The Eilat, 1967
The bridge of the destroyer Eilat was crowded, as it always was towards sunset, when the watch is doubled against surprises lurking in a world half drained of light.
Through binoculars, Commander Yitzhak Shoshan, captain of the Eilat, could make out the tops of cranes in Port Said silhouetted against the horizon to the west. Around him, commands were being given laconically into intercoms with the exaggerated enunciation used for clarity in shipboard communication.
Shoshan's orders were to skirt the edge of Egyptian territorial waters twelve miles from Port Said; he was 13.5 miles out and intending to get no closer. After asking the watch officer to confirm the distance with a radar check, he ordered the vessel turned south, towards the Sinai coast.
Ever since Israel's spectacular victory in the Six Day War four months before, the navy had been patrolling Sinai's coasts and showing the flag. In its forays towards Port Said, the northern entranceway to the Suez Canal, the navy was not only showing the flag but ramming it down the Egyptians' throat. It was highly unlikely that the devastated Egyptians would do anything about it, particularly since the Israeli vessels kept to international waters.
Despite Israel's postwar euphoria, Shoshan had been ill at ease about these brushes with Port Said ever since a night action three months before. Two unidentified vessels had been detected on the Eilat's radar emerging from the Egyptian harbor and turning east. His standing orders were to attack if Egyptian vessels ventured into territorial waters off Sinai. Shoshan took his destroyer ten miles out to sea and ordered two torpedo boats operating with him to lie close to the shore at Romani, where the land mass would mask them from radar detection. The intruders were soon abreast of Sinai. When their escape route had been cut off, the torpedo boats sprang.
The Egyptian vessels turned out to be torpedo boats as well. They split as soon as they detected their pursuers, one running back along the coast and the other heading out to sea. The two Israeli boats overtook the inshore vessel and raced in an Indian circle around it, the gunners keeping their fire bearing on the Egyptian vessel until it burst into flames. The other Egyptian boat was intercepted by the Eilat and blown out of the water.
Instead of reveling in this classic ambush, Shoshan was uneasy. The Egyptian navy, he felt, was unlikely to let the humiliation pass without attempting revenge. Shoshan was one of the few people in Israel who had reason to believe that the Egyptians had the means to achieve it.
Since 1962, Egypt had been receiving vessels from the Soviet Union designated as missile boats. No one in Israel knew the nature of those missiles — neither their range nor whether they had the capacity to home in on a target. Neither the Egyptians nor the Syrians had yet attempted to use them, not even in the Six Day War, when they had twenty-four missile boats between them. Israeli military circles believed that even if the Soviet-made missiles had some kind of homing capacity—and that was far from certain — the Egyptians were unlikely to operate them sufficiently well in combat conditions for the vessels to constitute a serious danger. In any case, Israel's ability to punish the Egyptians severely made it unlikely that they would even attempt to fire the missiles.
Before receiving command of the Eilat two years before, Shoshan had been the navy's chief electronics officer. He knew from that tour of duty that Israel had no effective measures to counter missiles. In the skirmish off Romani, he had initially kept his distance in case the Egyptian vessels were missile boats, which would find the relatively large silhouette of the Eilat an easy target. For the same reason, he ordered the Eilat this day—October 21, 1967—to turn away from Port Said while still a good mile and a half from Egyptian waters. According to intelligence, there were missile boats inside Port Said harbor.
It was now almost 5:30 p.m., and the eastern Mediterranean embraced the ship with its usual autumnal calmness. In five minutes there would be a routine sounding of battle stations as the sun prepared to slip below the horizon. Off-duty sailors lingered at the rails to watch the sunset or stare into the chameleon waters, which had now turned blue-black. This would be the last swing past Port Said on this patrol. In a few hours the Eilat would turn towards home.
"Green rocket to starboard."
The cry from the bridge shattered the sunset reverie. From the direction of Port Said, the starboard lookout had seen a flaring of greenish light. The glow turned orange-yellow, and from a roiling of smoke on the horizon a dark object hurtled into the sky. Shoshan swung his binoculars and saw a bright ball of light. It was not rising like a flare but wafting lazily toward them, trailing smoke. He saw it swerve slightly and knew instantly that he was looking at his nightmare. The missile age at sea was beginning. He had less than a minute to try to save his ship and its 200 crewmen.
The sinkng of the Eilat changed the nature of naval warfare as dramatically as had the appearance of ironclad vessels a century before. A small boat firing from the horizon had destroyed a ship ten times its size.
The West had known of the existence of Soviet sea-to-sea missiles but had no idea of their accuracy or power. Three of the four missiles fired at the Eilat had hit their target. The fourth had missed only because there was virtually nothing left of the ship sticking out of the water.
There was only one country in the world working on an answer to this new weapon. That country, as it happened, was Israel.
2. The First Escape
The two small craft with the spindly masts seemed out of place in the vastness of the naval base in Cherbourg. They flew no flag, displayed no names, and bore no armament.
The vessels were the sixth and seventh in a series of twelve ordered by the Israeli navy. The first five had sailed for Israel since the sinking of the Eilat fourteen months before. But the small Israeli naval mission posted in Cherbourg was becoming increasingly pessimistic about the chances of the remaining boats being permitted to leave after their launching. An embargo on arms shipments to the Middle East imposed by President Charles de Gaulle on the eve of the Six Day War had not initially been applied to the unarmed boats being built in Cherbourg. Few people outside Cherbourg knew of their existence; in Cherbourg the local press deliberately refrained from mentioning them for fear that employment at the shipyard might be affected if the boats' ambiguous status became a public issue. However, with Paris's new pro-Arab orientation becoming increasingly blatant, the fate of the Cherbourg boats was clearly endangered. Captain Hadar Kimche, the head of the Israeli mission, had begun seeing to it that freshly launched boats waiting for completion of sea tests had enough fuel to get away if an embargo seemed imminent.
Now, in the last days of December 1968, that moment seemed to have come. Israeli commandos had raided Beirut Airport three days after Christmas and destroyed thirteen planes in retaliation for an attack on an El Al plane in Athens by Palestinians a few days before. No one had been killed in the Beirut raid, but the Israelis in Cherbourg feared Paris's reaction to this blow at the dignity of a country that had been a French mandate.
The feeling of unease was shared by Admiral (ret.) Mordecai Limon, a former commander of the Israeli navy now serving as head of the military purchasing mission maintained by the Israeli Defense Ministry in Paris. With his extensive political contacts, Limon had reason to believe that De Gaullian wrath might now be extended to Cherbourg.
Telephoning Kimche on Wednesday, January 1, 1969, Limon relayed rumors he had heard that action might be taken against the Israeli boats. "Things are getting warm here," he said. Boat Number Six, launched in November, had completed its trials and was scheduled to sail for Israel in a few days. Boat Number Seven had been launched only a few days before and had not yet been tested at sea. Speaking elliptically, Limon made it clear to Kimche that if Boat Number Six could leave that night, it would be a good idea to do so. Kimche indicated his assent.
Assembling the crew and going aboard Boat Number Six to prepare it for sailing, Kimche left to his deputy, Commander Moshe Tabak, the delicate task of getting clearance from the French navy to leave port without revealing to them that the boat would not be coming back. At the operational level, this involved arrangements for opening a swing bridge that would let the boat out of the arsenal, as the French naval base was referred to. At the quasi-diplomatic level, it was much more awkward.
Before the departure of each boat for Haifa, the Israelis would notify the French naval authorities in Cherbourg. At a ceremony in naval headquarters in the arsenal, Kimche would present the captain of the departing craft to the French admiral commanding and there would be mutual toasts. The Israelis had requested anchorage facilities in the naval base while the new boats were being tested for fear of a possible Palestinian attack in the unguarded civilian port in the weeks between their departure from the shipyard and their departure from Cherbourg. The French had generously obliged, even providing living quarters for the crewmen and support facilities. To delude them now and run off with Boat Number Six under false pretenses was an unsavory act for the Israeli officer, who had developed warm personal relations with his French counterparts. But Tabak accepted that his own feelings were of little consequence in the matter.
Telephoning Commandant Sardas, the French liaison officer with whom the Israelis dealt, Tabak said that the crew of Boat Number Six would be taking the vessel out again in the evening for a running-in exercise. This time it would be a long-distance test that would last forty hours. Captain Kimche would be joining the boat and there was a chance, if the weather was good and the test produced no problems, that the boat might continue on to Israel, rather than return to Cherbourg and risk bad weather on its scheduled date of departure the following week.
"Oh, no, Commandant," said Sardas. "How would I explain that to my superiors?"
"If you want," said Tabak, "I'll explain it to them."
The boat's preparations were nearly completed when darkness fell. Its captain, Lieutenant Commander Yaacov Nitzan, told his radioman to inform the arsenal that the boat would be leaving at 7:00 p.m. and to request that the swing bridge be opened at that hour. Tool kits left behind by shipyard workers who had been putting finishing touches on the vessel were still aboard when it slipped through the arsenal exit into the harbor.
High seas pursued the boat as it raced south at thirty knots. Nitzan had been assured that the boat would be easy to handle, but he could barely control its movements. The waves were moving at the same speed as the vessel, which was behaving like a bobbing cork. Hoping that increased speed would afford the boat a better grip, he moved up to thirty-seven knots, but the boat heeled over so sharply as it skidded down a wave that he feared it was going to broach. Nitzan throttled back to twenty-one knots and found that the boat responded well.
Nearing Cape Vincent at the southern tip of Portugal on the second night, Nitzan was informed of fifty-knot headwinds awaiting him if he turned the corner into the Mediterranean. He chose to wait out the storm in the shelter of the cape. Dropping anchor close to shore, he ordered the galley to prepare a hot meal for the exhausted crew.
The premature departure of Boat Number Six had taken by surprise Lieutenant Commander Shabtai Levy, designated as captain of Boat Number Seven. Each of the Israeli boats departing Cherbourg normally carried the captain of the boat that was to follow so that he could familiarize himself with the boat's handling during the six-day run. Levy, who was in London when the boat left, boarded a commercial flight to Gibraltar to intercept the vessel at its first refueling stop.
The same storm that had forced Nitzan to seek shelter was battering Gibraltar's airport when the British airliner carrying Levy approached. The pilot announced over the loudspeaker that because of the weather the plane was diverting to Algiers. The Israeli naval officer, who was wearing civilian clothes, asked a stewardess to speak to the pilot urgently. Upon learning Levy's identity, the pilot agreed to brave the storm and land at Gibraltar rather than risk having his passenger taken into custody by the Algerian authorities.
Meanwhile, shipyard workers in Cherbourg who found the boat gone expressed their disappointment to Tabak at having been deprived of the farewell cocktail party that preceded the departure of each Israeli vessel.
"You haven't missed out on anything," he assured them. "We're going to have the party Friday on Boat Number Seven."
That vessel was still covered with an untidy clutter of cables and unfastened equipment, but tables for the celebration were set up in the boat's largest cabin. In a brief speech, Tabak praised the workers for having finished Boat Number Six on schedule. "As you know, the boat has gone out for testing. Captain Kimche has decided to continue with it to Israel. He reports all the systems functioning perfectly." Raising a glass, Tabak offered a toast: "To the life of the boat and to those that will come after it. May they reach safe harbor."
In the spirit of bonhomie, a foreman announced that he would come the next day to install heating on the bridge of Number Seven, which was to begin its sea trials on Sunday. Tabak's aversion to cold was well known in the shipyard. "I don't normally work on Saturdays," said the foreman, "but I will do it for you — providing, of course, that the boat will still be here."
Tabak joined in the guffaws. Gesturing at the exposed cables, he said, "Do you think we would sail three thousand miles in this?"
"Do I know?" replied the foreman with a Gallic shrug. "You people are capable of anything."
The frantic week was not quite behind Tabak when he arrived home that evening. He put in a call to Gibraltar to make certain about fueling arrangements for Number Six, called London to confirm Levy's departure for Gibraltar, and contacted Haifa to inform Israeli naval headquarters of the latest developments.
These chores completed, he could at last turn to that snug harbor in which the Jewish people have ever been able to find brief solace in a stormy world — the Sabbath. Unlike most Friday nights, this time there were no guests for the Sabbath meal. His enjoyment of the quiet family meal with his wife, Esther, and their infant son was heightened by the prospect of a solid night's sleep that lay ahead.
He was still sleeping the next morning at eight when the phone rang. "It's Mocca," said Admiral Limon, using the nickname by which he was known to intimates. "Do you remember the vacation in Israel that you asked for? Well, they've approved it. I'd be interested in your leaving as soon as possible."
Tabak had asked for no vacation but, groggy as he was, he understood that Limon was telling him to get Boat Number Seven away to Israel. The two had discussed a few days before the possibility of having to escape with Number Seven if an embargo seemed imminent, but in view of the boat's condition they had spoken only of taking it across the Channel to get it out of French jurisdiction.
"Are you sure they want me to take the vacation in Israel and not England?" Tabak asked.
"No, no, they want you to go to Israel, as you requested," said Limon. "You're needed there. Can you leave today?"
"I'll have to check some things — tickets and flight schedules. I'll try to make it today. I'll call you as soon as I know."
Hanging up, Tabak wondered if he had understood Limon correctly. However, as his mind focused, he decided that he had. He telephoned an aide and told him to get to the crew's quarters immediately and make sure no one left for the weekend. Dressing swiftly, he made his way to mission headquarters, the task before him unfolding in his mind. The boats were normally tested hundreds of miles before being sailed to Haifa and serious problems were often uncovered. Boat Number Seven would be risking winter storms on a three-thousand-mile journey with no testing at all. It would have to sail with only a crew of twelve — all the crew members remaining in Cherbourg — instead of the normal complement of thirty, and its captain, Lieutenant Commander Levy, had flown to Gibraltar to join Number Six. Furthermore, it had a handicap none of the other boats had had. In order to test the boat's stability when armed, an unwieldy seven-ton dummy cannon had been secured to its deck.
On the street, Tabak saw a car carrying his chief machinist and two other sailors. He flagged them down.
"We're going to Paris for the day," said the machinist.
"Your plans have just been changed," said Tabak. "Get back to the boat and get it ready to sail. We're leaving today for Haifa. The French aren't to know about it."
Remaining behind to mind the shop would be Lieutenant Haim Shachak, the mission's supply officer. Tabak told him to get food aboard Number Seven and, if possible, to get customs clearance so that, legally at least, the boat would not be a runaway. The one legal requirement before departure, the Israelis had learned, was customs clearance, which attested that the foreign parts imported to France for the boat, like its German engine, were aboard the boat when it sailed. Informing the French navy of departure was merely a courtesy.
It was raining heavily when Shachak rang the doorbell of the customs officer's home on the outskirts of Cherbourg.
"Oh, Commandant, what wind has brought you?" asked the Frenchman in surprise, ushering him in.
Shachak apologized for interrupting the official's weekend and said that an emergency had occurred. "You've probably heard about the raid on Beirut Airport," he said. "There's a lot of tension now in the Middle East, and the boat is needed there. We want to sail today and would like clearance. We need your help."
"But the boat is unarmed," said the customs officer. "What could you do with it?"
"We'll put a gun on it and patrol."
When Shachak quoted a passage from Jonah to reinforce a point, the customs officer's wife, who had joined them, responded enthusiastically. She was the daughter of a minister and was delighted at the opportunity to exchange biblical quotations with the Israeli visitor.
"Listen, Jacques," she said to her husband. "The commandant has come especially for you. Go with him."
The official dutifully put on his coat and accompanied Shachak.
There remained the vital task of obtaining a weather map of the treacherous Bay of Biscay. Tabak assumed that Limon had understood that to be the meaning of his remark about checking timetables. Intent on avoiding Commandant Sardas because of the embarrassment over Boat Number Six, he went directly to the office of the arsenal's weekend duty officer, instead of going through the liaison officer. As he entered the room, Tabak was startled to see that the duty officer behind the desk was Sardas.
"What are you doing here?" asked the Frenchman warily.
"I've come to apologize," said Tabak, recovering quickly. "I heard you were duty officer."
Sardas's tense demeanor relaxed a bit. "You don't know how angry they were with me in Paris," he confided. "I was rebuked."
The two men chatted awhile, and then Tabak said, "We're having trouble with the propeller of Number Seven and want to test it. Can I get the weather?"
"No problem," said Sardas.
He went out to the meteorologist's office down the hall and returned with a large map of the region. Tabak pretended to study the Cherbourg area, but out of the corner of his eye he carefully noted the barometric readings for the Bay of Biscay. He was relieved to see no troublesome lows.
Still missing from his weather picture was the area farther south, around Cape Vincent. For this he radioed Boat Number Six, which was still anchored there. Kimche reported that the wind had dropped sufficiently for his vessel to get under way for Gibraltar. Tabak hinted that they might be seeing each other sooner than expected.
Shortly before noon, the boat's chief petty officer informed Tabak that it was impossible to fuel the boat because the shipyard foreman and two assistants had arrived to install the heating system on the bridge. There was nothing to do but wait. The foreman would immediately have understood what was afoot if he had seen the boat being fueled for a long journey. Fortunately, the workmen were done in less than an hour and fueling could begin.
As the day wore on, Tabak was increasingly troubled by a sense of unease over the operation. Contacting Haifa, he expressed his misgivings and asked whether the urgency was real. "If you're sure about the boat's seaworthiness," headquarters replied, "go."
By midafternoon, preparations were complete. Attempts to pry loose the dummy gun had failed and the boat would have to sail with it aboard. Tabak telephoned Limon in Paris. "I've got my tickets and I'll be leaving Cherbourg by train at 4:30."
Limon wished him a good journey.
Tabak returned to the boat to find a new French duty officer taking a keen interest in the unusual Saturday afternoon activity around the Israeli vessel. Tabak introduced himself and informed him that they were going out in order to test the boat's propeller. Could a sailor be posted to open the bridge at 4:30? The duty officer assured him it would be taken care of. The bridge swung open at the designated time and Tabak conned the boat out through the narrow opening.
The boat ran well across the relatively calm Bay of Biscay. With the excitement of the departure behind him, Tabak was again seized by doubts. Had the escape really been necessary? Had Limon perhaps overreacted? By running off for the second time in three days — deceiving the French naval authorities again — were they not endangering the boats yet to be built? Ten hours out to sea, Tabak received a message from Haifa congratulating him on his rapid organization and departure. It eased his mind to know that headquarters was pleased. Presumably they knew something he didn't.
Limon had not overreacted. He had been informed on Friday by a senior French official that de Gaulle had decided to declare a total embargo in reaction to the Beirut raid. An order was to be sent later in the day from Paris to all customs offices to halt clearance of war materiel destined for Israel. The directive was being issued before a public announcement of the embargo in order to forestall any last-minute flight of materiel that Israeli machinations might contrive. Limon was able to persuade a French official to have the message to the Cherbourg customs office misaddressed to a district customs office in Normandy and dispatched only late on Friday. The directive would not be rerouted to Cherbourg until after the weekend.
Tabak was unaware of this as he rounded Cape Vincent and entered the Mediterranean. The sea was mountainous but the wind was behind him. Low clouds were thick around Gibraltar. Entering the harbor, he tied up alongside Boat Number Six and stepped down from the bridge for the first time in forty-nine hours. Kimche was on the quay to greet him.
Leaving the two boats to sail on to Israel the next day under Tabak's command, Kimche flew to London and took the cross-Channel ferry to Cherbourg to face the French wrath.
"Oho, are they looking for you," said Commandant Sardas when Kimche telephoned him. Donning a dress uniform for the confrontation, the Israeli officer was ushered into the office of the admiral commanding the arsenal.
Flanked by aides wearing severe expressions, the French officer remained standing and did not offer Kimche a seat. The Israelis had not acted "avec honneur," said the admiral. They had violated the French navy's hospitality and he was therefore obliged to ask them to leave the premises of the arsenal within twenty-four hours. Kimche was asked if he had anything to say.
"What would you have done in my situation?"
"That is not a question I am obliged to answer," said the admiral.
The tension eased somewhat as the admiral accompanied Kimche to the door, the official message having been delivered. As they parted, the admiral shook hands and said, "In the same situation, I might have done the same."
Outside the door, French officers were waiting to make arrangements for the transfer of Israeli property from the arsenal. Kimche asked for a twenty-four-hour extension which was readily granted.
The punishment was far milder than expected. The Israelis had feared banishment from Cherbourg and possibly a halt in further construction of the boats. They had been willing to risk it to ensure that at least Boats Six and Seven were in hand because of their critical importance.
The boats of Cherbourg were not the conventional patrol boats they seemed. They were in fact among the most unconventional vessels afloat, platforms for a technology and method of warfare almost a decade ahead of any Western navy's. Israel was gambling the future security of its sea frontier and maritime lifeline on these frail-looking craft. They were the realization of a revolutionary concept that had emerged eight years before in Israeli naval headquarters in Haifa almost as a passing thought.
It was two years after the Yom Kippur War that I first heard about the Israeli missile boats. The media had reported virtually nothing about the navy's activities in the war. With the country's existence hanging on the fierce tank battles raging in Sinai and on the Golan and on the air force's desperate attempts to stem the Arab tide, the navy had clearly played a marginal role at best.
I was part of a Jerusalem Post team that covered a symposium on the war in 1975 addressed by Israel's top military commanders and political leaders. Although it was not part of my assignment, I stopped by to hear a lecture by the navy commander, Admiral Binyamin Telem, out of curiosity about what the navy had in fact done. His talk was a revelation. There had been battles at sea, which the public was unaware of, and they had been fought — for the first time in history — not with guns but with missiles which pursued enemy vessels with their own radar. Israel had employed a new kind of warship, missile boats, and so had the Arab navies.
The Egyptian and Syrian missile boats, acquired from the Soviet Union, outnumbered the Israeli vessels by more than two to one and their missiles had more than twice the range of the Israeli missile. Yet the Israeli missile boat flotilla had come through the war without losing a boat or a man while sinking almost every Arab vessel encountered and driving the Arab fleets into harbor. Israel had itself conceived and developed its missile boat. No other country in the West had anything similar.
This, then, was not some irrelevant skirmishing of gunboats on the margins of a bloody land war but a turning point in the history of naval warfare. A nation of three million had developed an advanced weapon system that not even the United States possessed and it had proved superior to the only other missile boat system in the world, developed by the Soviet superpower.
Months later, in an idle moment of reflection, Telem's talk came to me as I walked down Ben-Yehuda Street in central Jerusalem. Before I reached the corner, I had an epiphany – a sudden recollection of the arrival in Haifa five years before of newly built patrol boats that Israeli sailors had run off with from Cherbourg after the boats were embargoed by the French government. The world had chuckled at Israel's audacious "theft" of vessels which it had ordered and paid for. The boats had escaped on Christmas eve into the teeth of a Force 9 gale and made it to Haifa after a week-long run. Might those innocent-looking patrol boats, I wondered, have been the platforms for the missile boats which performed so spectacularly in the war three years later? Might that have been the reason that Israel went to such lengths, endangering its relations with France, to get them out of Cherbourg?
Taken together, the two episodes made for a tale greater than its parts, a tale of national will that surpassed conventional bounds.
I wrote to the Israeli Defense Ministry to express my interest in writing a book on the subject and to request access to relevant military sources. The request was kicked up to Defense Minister Ezer Weizmann himself who sent me a letter saying that the matter was still too sensitive to be written about, particularly the Cherbourg aspect. When Weizmann was replaced by Ariel Sharon I tried again and received a similar reply from his office. In late 1982, Sharon was forced out as defense minister and the portfolio was temporarily taken over by Prime Minister Menahem Begin. I wrote once more. This time I received a reply from naval headquarters in Tel Aviv inviting me to a meeting. Apparently no one in Begin's office knew what to do with my request and it had been passed on to the navy. A friendly captain behind a desk questioned me about my background and about the kind of book I intended to write while a female officer took notes and asked me to send a copy of a book I had previously written.
A month later I was invited back. Looking solemn this time, the captain informed me that after consideration the navy had decided it could not cooperate. Crestfallen, I was about to take my leave when he stopped me. "We won't stand in your way if you want to interview people on your own. We could even provide telephone numbers of any specific persons you ask for."
"But where would I begin?" I said. "I don't know who to ask for."
The officer wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to me. On it were the names of two persons and their telephone numbers. He did not tell me who they were.
I left the office uncertain whether to be depressed or elated. It took me a while to understand what was happening. The navy did not want to get involved in the project officially. The captain had mentioned that after seeing a recent movie about Israel's naval commandos the naval command had regretted cooperating with the film company that made it. On the other hand, it wanted to have the story of its exploits told – exploits unknown even to the Israeli public. The navy would help me with my project, but from a discreet distance.
The names on the slip of paper given me by the captain were Hadar Kimche and Moshe Tabak. I called Kimche first and traveled to his home on Mount Carmel in Haifa on a stormy winter evening without knowing what edge of the story I was about to touch. It was only after we began talking that I realized that I was not at the edge of the story but at its very center. Kimche had commanded the Cherbourg breakout and was the first commander of the missile boat flotilla. When I left his home after four hours the piece of string the captain in naval headquarters had handed me had become a web leading in a dozen different directions. From Tabak, who had been Kimche's deputy, I received an expanded picture and the names of still more people to track down.
There would be more than a hundred interviews in the coming years. I would have lengthy talks with former commanders of the navy instrumental in the development of the missile boat concept, including Yohai Bin-Nun, whom I met at his kibbutz on the Mediterranean coast; Shlomo Erell, then serving as inspector general of Israel's defense establishment; and "Binny" Telem on his small farm near Netanya. "Yomi" Barkai, the feisty officer who commanded the flotilla during the war, recounted the battles as we sat in the cabin of the small yacht he lived on for half the year between sailings as captain of a merchant vessel.
I had two long sessions with Yitzhak Shoshan, who had commanded the destroyer Eilat, the first ship ever to be sunk by a missile. As we sat in the small plant he now managed, he displayed the emotional scars inflicted by the loss of his vessel and a quarter of his crew shortly after the Six Day War. Many of the interviews with ex-naval officers were conducted in electronics plants in the Haifa and Tel Aviv areas where they had gone to work after completion of their military service. The navy made relevant active duty personnel available for interviews at the Haifa naval base. I was permitted to join a missile boat on a training mission and even to simulate firing a missile at night. Moshe Arens, a former aeronautics professor at the Technion who had gone on to become Israel's defense minister, met with me in hisJerusalem office.
A key figure in the story, Admiral (ret.) Mordecai (Mocca) Limon, who master-minded the Cherbourg breakout, initially refused to be interviewed, noting that he had declined numerous requests because of the political sensitivity of the subject. He relented, however, when informed of the navy's cooperation. We met twice in his executive offices in Tel Aviv, where he managed Rothschild interests in Israel. To meet another key figure in the story, Ori Even-Tov, the developer of the Gabriel missile, I traveled to the United States, where he had founded an electronics plant in a Philadelphia suburb.
In Washington, D.C., declassified documents on the Sixth Fleet activities during the Yom Kippur War were made available at the Naval Historical Division in the navy yard. Retired Vice Admiral Daniel Murphy, who commanded the Sixth Fleet during the Yom Kippur War, shed light during an interview on the little known confrontation between the American and Soviet fleets in the Mediterranean as their client states battled nearby on land — the largest naval confrontation of the Cold War. American naval authority Norman Polmar offered helpful insights on missile development as well as encouragement, noting that there was virtually no literature on the subject of Israel's missile boats. Retired Rear Admiral Julian Lake (USN), a member of the American team that debriefed Israeli naval officers after the war, had carried out a study on the development of modern weapon systems around the world. The way the Israeli navy analyzed the threats facing it and the steps it took to deal with them, he told me, "stands out as the one clear example where everything was done right."
In Cherbourg I met with Monsieur Corbinais at the Amiot shipyards which had built the missile boat platforms. On the basis ofIsrael's success, his shipyard would win numerous orders for similar boats, including from Arab countries. A shipping agent in Cherbourgprovided me with the Paris telephone number of a shadowy figure, Victor Zipstein, reportedly a former Mossad agent, who had traveled toCherbourg with Limon the night of the escape. From a public telephone in a Paris railway station I contacted Zipstein who, after initially refusing to speak, went on to offer important confirmation about central points in the Cherbourg affair and new revelations while a long line of impatient Parisians formed behind me before dispersing in search of other working phones.
I met in Paris with General Cazelles, who had been sacked by the Pompidou government for his inadvertent role in the affair, and found the distinguished old officer still dazed by what had happened to him. From retired French officials, I obtained copies of relevant documents, including intelligence reports on the flight of the Cherbourg boats. Ex-Premier Jacques Chaban-Delmas described in an interview the government's deliberations when the escape was discovered, including a proposal from the defense minister that the French Air Force interdict the fleeing boats.
In the end, all these strands emanating from the piece of investigative string offered by the captain in naval headquarters would weave together into a single tale. There were three distinct parts to the story – the development of the missile boat system, the escape fromCherbourg, and the performance of the boats in battle. For me, the first part was the most exciting even though it was the most sedentary – an act of intellectual daring and creative teamwork that would foreshadow the successes of Israel's military industries in future decades such as the Iron Dome anti-rocket system. The story of the Cherbourg breakout is told comprehensively for the first time on the basis of interviews with the principals involved.
In maritime encounters around the world after the Yom Kippur War, the missile would prove to be king. In the Falklands campaign, the British, despite electronic defenses, lost two vessels to Exocet missiles fired by Argentine planes. In the Persian Gulf, tankers would become targets in a shooting gallery for Iranian and Iraqi missiles and even the American destroyer, USS Stark, would fall victim.
The virtual absence of references to the Israeli missile boat performance in the Yom Kippur War, even in professional literature, was probably due to the secrecy with which the Israeli navy initially shrouded events for security reasons as well as to tight-lipped habit and lack of publicity consciousness. Even in Israel, the story of the electronic defenses that permitted the Israeli missile boats to overcome the technology of a superpower and ward off all incoming missiles was virtually unknown outside the navy itself. But the tale was too good to be left to old sailors spinning yarns in pubs.
My eBooks:
Letter and Reply
The Yom Kippur War – 40 years on


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CFMOTO CELEBRATES 30 YEARS
CFMOTO celebrates its 30th Anniversary at its headquarters in Hangzhou China.
The President of CFMOTO Mr. Lai Guogui, General Manager Mr. Lai Minjie and other company board members, members of the board of supervisors, 100 managers and more than 10 VIP guests including the President's father Lai Jinfa the former CFMOTO President were invited to join the celebration.
The General Manager Mr.Lai Minjie made a speech to mark the occasion. He began by going back to the beginning when the former CFMOTO President Mr. Lai Guogui first started with a small motorcycle production and assembly line in his own home in Hongqiao, Wenzhou City. Then he moved to the milestones of CFMOTO over the past 30 years and how it has become a successful powersports manufacturer. "The product is the core of the business," says Mr. Lai Minjie. CFMOTO continues to focus on innovation and development to build on the core product and lay the foundation for future growth and to become a premium global powersports brand. Mr. Lai Minjie then concluded by extending his sincere thanks to CFMOTO customers, employees, board members and the former President Mr. Lai Jinfa.
After the speech a 30th anniversary video was played interviewing CFMOTO employees who had been apart of CFMOTO for more than 20 years. The President then awarded the 17 employees for their commitment and hard work.
Former President Mr. Lai Jinfa was then invited to cut the 30th Anniversary cake to mark the occasion.
150 people attended the 30th Anniversary and more than 2000 CFMOTO employees were witnessing the event through live streaming.
At the end a limited edition 30th Anniversary 250NK was auctioned online for 12.9 RMB (9th of December) as a part of the celebration and in typical Chinese fashion 'good luck red packets' were also given way by the President to 3 lucky employees.
Now 30 years young, CFMOTO has plenty of new and exciting plans for the next 30 years and beyond.
The joint venture with KTM is soon to take its next step with a new manufacturing plant due to open in 2020. A brand new CFMOTO R&D facility and not to mention the exiting line up of new models soon to be released.
A space to watch as CFMOTO grows into becoming a premium global powersports brand.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Can't a Woman Just Win? Marion Bartoli and Wimbledon's Rampant Sexism
By Liana Satenstein
Physical appearances are always on the forefront of discussion in that women (and men) are either applauded for their looks or completely degraded. Displays of rampant sexism were all too evident after the French tennis player, Marion Bartoli won Wimbledon on Saturday. In reports from The Guardian UK, BBC commentator, John Inverdale said the following callous remarks regarding her physical attractive-ness, "I just wonder if her dad, because he has obviously been the most influential person in her life, did say to her when she was 12, 13, 14 maybe, 'Listen, you are never going to be, you know, a looker.'" Inverdale further compared Bartoli to Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova by saying, "You're never going to be 5 ft. 11, you're never going to be somebody with long legs, so you have to compensate for that.'"
In case Inverdale did not know, it does not matter whether you are tall or have blonde hair — none of those characteristics define a player's ability to win or lose a game. Bartoli has handled the situation rather gracefully, responding with a verbal shoulder shrug: "It doesn't matter, honestly. I am not blonde, yes. That is a fact. Have I dreamt about having a model contract? No. I'm sorry. But have I dreamed about winning Wimbledon? Absolutely, yes. And to share this moment with my dad was absolutely amazing and I am so proud of it."
Amongst all of the offensive hype, it is fantastic to see Bartoli keep her cool. As for Inverdale, he should stick to sitting behind the bleachers, but perhaps next time, he should just be quiet.
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Frederick Ernest De La Fontaine (30 January 1878 - 9 December 1957) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Fontaine played in a variety of positions during his career and was a member of a very successful Fitzroy side, winning four grand finals and losing two. Of the four premierships his most notable performance came in the 1904 decider where he played at full back and set up the winning goal to Percy Trotter after making a run from defence.

References

External links

1878 births
1957 deaths
Australian rules footballers from Melbourne
Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents
Fitzroy Football Club players
Fitzroy Football Club Premiership players
Four-time VFL/AFL Premiership players
People from Richmond, Victoria

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Ten science-backed, research-backed ways to cut calories. No internet fluff, no nonsense, no noise, just science and some little tricks and behavioral tricks that you can use to cut some calories really quick.
People who consume coffee or tea black ended up consuming between 40% and 50% less calories throughout the course of the day. By calories, we mean artificial sweeteners, added almond milk, added cream, anything. Be aware that you dramatically increase your coffee calories when you add cream. So, give it some careful consideration because 40% increase in calories is 40% percent increase in your waistline.
Why we do this? Simply because it keeps you throughout the course of the day but also because it slows down the Carbohydrate absorption throughout the rest of the day. The American Heart Association has found significant decreases in instances of heart disease and weight gain in those that consume between 10 and 20 grams of Fiber with their breakfast. Furthermore, High-fiber diet linked to lower risk of death and chronic diseases in comparison with people who have a diet which is low in fiber. With a nutrition high in fiber you avoid cancer, stroke and even relevant diseases such as heart diseases and type 2 diabetes.
Simple trick that you may want to employ even if it's just bit of Psyllium Husk, add it in your morning smoothie.
What is Zevia? Zevia is a carbonated water that is sweetened with Stevia and there are some interesting facts when it comes down to Stevia in the first place.
The Journal of Dietary Supplements found that by just supplementing a small amount of Stevia before a meal actually showed a decrease in the blood Glucose after the meal.
What that means is that Stevia helps us utilize our Carbohydrates better and wisely so they are not just spiking our blood Glucose. Carbonated or sparkling water can be a healthy and energizing alternative to plain water. Find out the health benefits of consuming carbonated water in http://www.LIFETOLIVEIT.com.
Now, carbonated water in general is going to be the best bet. You obviously want to replace your soda with just Carbonated water if you do not have any natural sweeteners that are acting as a crutch. Additionally, although some may say that carbonation is not good for us, you do have an effect of satiation. It bloats you a little bit which means that you are less likely to go and eat some more food. When you get hungry, drink a little bit of carbonated water and it fills you up.
Of course, I am not talking about consistently grazing on Protein because we don't need nearly as much protein as we consume. I am talking about adding a small percentage of Protein to every meal that you eat. Even if that means a little snack, even if that means you are normally going to have a tablespoon of Almond Butter or add a little bit of chicken or a little bit of egg.
Another quick, extremely practical and very effective daily protein source would be your favorite crazy bulk supplement which will not only make you feel fuller for longer but it will also massively help you with your muscle building goals and fitness workout results.
There is a study from the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that found consuming resistant Starches along with Whey or along with Proteins dramatically reduced the impact of Carbohydrates. Furthermore, it reduced the amount of calories we are consuming on average over multiple weeks.
Let me get down to how it works. When you combine fat and carbs, you are not doing a good thing for your body, spiking Insulin and allowing Carbs and Fats to get shuttled into the cell and leaving the storage. What do we normally put on salads? Normally, we put Ranch or we put normal Salad dressings that almost invariably have oils on them. That is fine and dandy but then, we have to watch the toppings.
We tend to add extra toppings like Cranberries, like Cherries and other fruits. All these foods spike your Insulin a little bit and cause the fat from the salad dressing to go right into the fat storage. So, salad dressings hurt your healthy diet, they are full of Sodium, Saturated fat as well as Sugar. For these reasons, you should cut them from your daily nutrition if you want to lose your belly fat which is also the most stubborn kind of fat to burn.
If you are going to put some salad toppings on your salad, you want to make sure that they are high-fat, low-carb and combined with the kind of dressing that you have, ie Ranch or Almonds. Do not combine a sweet Balsamic with things like Almonds, for example.


December, the run up to Christmas and often the winding down of work. And while, for me, December is a quiet month in terms of talks it is still a busy month for writing. In fact the holiday period is a good time for me to write and usually highly productive.
This month I am busy working on the first draft of the second in my 1950 set crime novel featuring a Scotland Yard detective called Inspector Alun Ryga who is sent down to the coast to investigate murder cases. The first in the series DEATH IN THE COVE is to be published in 2019 and is set on the Island of Portland in Dorset with the second - the one I am currently writing- being set in Newhaven, East Sussex. By the New Year my aim is to have completed that first draft.
If you want to get in the mood for Christmas with a crime novel or thriller then there are plenty to choose from including fourteen in the DI Andy Horton series, three Art Marvik mystery thrillers and my two standalone crime novels. And as three of my crime novels are set in December I'll be focusing on them - as well as the latest DI Andy Horton mystery DEAD PASSAGE - this month. I'll also be taking the opportunity to look back over 2018.
In forthcoming blogs I'll be featuring the story behind each of the December set crime novels, some videos and extracts of two Inspector Andy Horton crime novels THE SUFFOCATING SEA and FATAL CATCH and my crime thriller novel IN COLD DAYLIGHT.
Firstly to kick off here's a summary of each.
Fatal Catch a DI Andy Horton crime novel by Pauline RowsonFisherman haul a gruesome catch: a severed human hand and Horton finds himself immersed in a complex case where everyone has a reason to lie and no one is who they seem.
More to come in December.


The Deberosa Craft house is open for business! This weekend will be a combination yard sale and a variety of crafts. In a few weeks seasonal wreaths, garlands and trees will be available every weekend through Christmas!
Here are some of the mason jar art from my mother plus votive candles made of soy wax, gourd art and other crafts.
More of the mason jar art and other crafts.
THis is a unique piece carved from a solid piece of wood from Bali.
Antler art, paracord art and bead work.
Bead art and gourd art – more added weekly!
This entry was posted in Arts and Crafts, Decorative Painting, For Sale, Gourd Art, Homestead, Uncategorized and tagged Christmas, crafts, sale. Bookmark the permalink.


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mostrapalazzofarnese » Pop » Cliff Ferré - Cafe Society
Cliff Ferré - Cafe Society mp3 album
Cliff_Ferré Vocal Novelty US
Performer: Cliff Ferré
Title: Cafe Society
Formats: AUD FLAC AA RA MOD VOC MP1
Style: Vocal, Novelty
Kristen Stewart in Café Society. For her performance of Strange Fruit at the Café Society, she had waiters silence the crowd when the song began. During the song's long introduction, the lights dimmed and all movement had to cease. As Holiday began singing, only a small spotlight illuminated her face.
The Album is an album by British singer Cliff Richard. It was released in 1993 by EMI Records and features five UK Top 40 hit singles; "I Still Believe in You" (UK "Peace in Our Time" (UK "Human Work of Art" (UK "Never Let Go" (UK and "Healing Love" (UK The Album peaked at number one on the UK Albums Chart, becoming Richard's first non-compilation or non-film soundtrack album to reach the top spot since 21 Today in 1961. Peace in Our Time" (Peter Sinfield, Andy Hill) – 5:46.
There are no setlists by Cliff Ferre on setlist. fm yet. You could help us by adding a first setlist. You can track changes of setlists by this artist by selecting the option below.
Last played Saturday, February 09 2019 at 08:33 PM. Cliff Ferre.
Cliff Ferre, Actor: Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. Actor, composer, dancer, singer and author, educated at Deerfield Academy. He was a singer and dancer in Billy Rose's 'Aquacade', and in many other Broadway musicals. He served in the US Army during World War II, and appeared in the service show "This Is the Army"
A1 Rosie Don't Bang On The Piano
A2 Favorite Indoor Sport
A3 A Cocky Cowboy
A4 Joe's Joint
A5 Uncle Harry's Little Peacock
A6 The Pirate's Poop
B1 Fifi's Got The Biggest One In France
B2 Hawaiian Tale
B3 The Greatest Broad-Jumper
B4 Ain't It A Beauty
B5 House With The Little Red Light
B6 That No Good...!!!!
LP 100 Cliff Ferré Cafe Society (LP, Album) Kem Records LP 100 US Unknown
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Jesus de Nuances Ferre Gola - Boite Noire (CD 2) download mp3
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The SLS AMG GT3 hasn't had a bad career. Not by a mile. And we shouldn't be talking in past tense about it since the new car that will be taking its place still has a little over year until it's ready. Plenty of time for the SLS AMG GT3 to rack up a few more wins, then.
When you're the spiritual successor of the silver arrows racing legends you can feel the pressure pushing down on every square inch of your lightweight body. You have to live up to your past; you have to live up to the expectations.
During the 2014 racing season, the SLS AMG GT3 has 34 overall victories to brag about, six championship titles and two endurance wins. Moving on to lesser achievements, it also had 52 class victories and 101 podium finishes. I'd say no matter how high the expectations, the SLS AMG GT3 has fulfilled them, if not more.
Starting with 2016 Mercedes will be offering a new model in its place – called the Mercedes-AMG GT3 it is, clearly, based on the street version of the AMG GT and will be taking part in all GT3 competition. However, it might even find itself fighting alongside its forefather, the SLS AMG GT3, since the company has announced that it will be extending its support for this model.
"The supply of spare parts and the service support are guaranteed in the future. All teams further on starting with the race gullwing can thus make their long-term planning and can rely on the usual full support by AMG Customer Sports", went the official statement.
Technical details about the future racing model are being kept secret for now but it has been confirmed that the car will begin an "intense testing and development period" starting next year.
Mercedes-Maybach launches in China before the U.S.


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Junior Business Analyst
DWP Digital
Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Can you solve problems and identify processes?
Can you pick the right approach to build relationships, and engage and work with a variety of stakeholders?
Do you like working in a complex, fast-paced environment?
Do you want to launch a career as a Business Analyst while helping to deliver one of the biggest and highest-profile digital transformation programmes in the world?
DWP. Digital with Purpose.
We are offering a great chance to launch a career as a Business Analyst. You'll join DWP Digital's vibrant and growing community as a Junior-level Business Analyst.
You'll be working as part of an agile multi-disciplinary team along with 10 other BAs, looking at automation, bots and multi-channel products used by over 100,000 DWP colleagues. Together you'll deliver technology change projects that make a real difference to DWP and the millions of people who use our services.
You'll join the largest BA community in government. We're an active and supportive community committed to helping our people be at their best.
We will help you develop a good understanding of the techniques used by Business Analysts (BAs) and support you as you contribute to the role's core deliverables like writing draft requirements, user stories, elicitation techniques and working with testers.
You'll show willingness to learn, good attention to detail, and an ability to work in complex environments, managing interactions and outcomes with internal and external stakeholders. You'll need a keen eye for problem solving too.
You will be given responsibility as you grow into your role, and under the guidance of other BAs you'll help deliver real change for DWP by defining requirements and recommending solutions.
You will build your skills and knowledge by working with more experienced BAs and working towards certifications, all with the support of the wider community of practice.
Details. Wages. Perks.
You'll join our team in our brilliant digital hub in your choice of Manchester, Newcastle or Blackpool: https://careers.dwp.gov.uk/our-locations/
We also all have the tech and tools we need to enable our people to work flexibly, and many of us are working remotely at the moment due to COVID-19.
We offer competitive salary up to £34,285., a brilliant civil service pension with employer contributions circa 27%, and a generous leave package.
We have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:
Family friendly policies
Volunteering and charitable giving
Discounts and savings on shopping, fun days out and more
Interest-free loans to buy a bike or a season ticket
Sports and social activities
Learning & development, including coaching, mentoring & accreditation
Shortlisted for a Best Place to Work in Digital Award - https://bit.ly/3lL7DJR
Career progression opportunities and lots more
CLICK APPLY for further information and to start an application.
Some top tips for getting hired here at DWP Digital via the links below:
http://bit.ly/3bw3Fzo AND http://bit.ly/2SugTEt


—West Yorkshire Cross Country League, Race #3 – Thornes Park, Wakefield .
Knavesmire's Ladies have been first team at each of the first three races. This time being 1st of 12 competing teams.
Knavesmire's Men were 8th team out of 13.
Thanks to those who came out to support on the day, especially Club Coach Pete Schofield and Brian Hughes and Fiona and Neil Strange for photos.
—Newcastle Town Moor Half Marathon.
492 participants, 42 from YKH ( 8.5 % of total ).
331 participants, 30 from YKH ( 9 % of total ).
78 participants, 7 from YKH ( 9% of total ).


Our consultative approach to website translation ensures the right mix of services for a user-friendly, compelling, searchable multilingual website or landing page. If you are new to translation, we will help test and choose the tools best suited to your needs. If your localization process is well-established, we will adapt to your workflows.
Do you need help reaching international audiences? Let's talk.


6 oThen the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, pand you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.
10 When they came to vGibeah,1 behold, a group of prophets met him, oand the Spirit of God rushed upon him, and he prophesied among them.
6 vAnd the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.
10 bThe Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord gave Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand. And his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim.


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Dangerous shift: How did the India-Pakistan rivalry get to this point?
26 Feb, 2019 09:00 PM 6 minutes to read
An Indian man shouts slogans silhouetted against smoke from bursting of crackers as he celebrates reports of Indian aircrafts bombing Pakistan territory, in New Delhi, India. Photos / AP
By: Joanna Slater, Pamela Constable
India launched an airstrike on a target within Pakistan yesterday, the most serious escalation in hostilities between the two countries in decades.
According to Indian officials, the strike's target was the training camp of a Pakistan-based militant group that had claimed responsibility for a massive suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir on February 14.
The nuclear-armed neighbours have a long history of animosity. The main, ongoing source of conflict is Kashmir, a Himalayan border region whose status has been contested ever since India gained independence and Pakistan was created in the partition of British India.
Since then, the two countries have fought three brief wars - in 1947, 1965 and 1971 - as well as a smaller conflict in 1999. Over the last two decades, there have also been numerous attempts at rapprochement: At one point secret talks reportedly neared a final resolution on Kashmir.
Now, with the February 14 attack and India's retaliatory strike, tensions are once again on the rise.
For India, the Kashmir attack is part of a longer pattern in which Pakistan's intelligence services have fostered and guided militant groups that carry out deadly attacks throughout India.
Pakistan views its far larger neighbor as an occupying power in Kashmir that also seeks to undermine Pakistan's own stability. Pakistan denies supporting terrorism but says it gives political and moral support to Kashmiri "freedom fighters."
Here is a selection of recent highs and lows - though mostly lows - in their tense relationship.
1989: The insurgency in Kashmir begins
The dispute over Kashmir is as old as India and Pakistan. India controls the larger and more developed chunk of the Himalayan region, which forms its only Muslim-majority state. In 1987, legislative elections were held in Indian-controlled Kashmir, but Kashmiri Muslims protested that the polls were rigged. Two years later, an armed insurgency erupted in the region, along with mass protests. The militancy against Indian rule has continued, with ebbs and flows, ever since. More than 70,000 people have been killed, according to human rights groups.
India says airstrike in Pakistan killed 'very large number' of militants
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1999: A bus trip raises hopes for reconciliation
In 1998, India and Pakistan both tested nuclear devices, marking a fundamental shift in the strategic balance in South Asia. The next year, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee travelled by bus to Pakistan across the only official border opening in a gesture of friendship. He and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged to resolve their differences through dialogue.
Pakistani Kashmiri residents climb out of a bunker built outside their home in border town of Chakoti situated at the Line of Control in Pakistani Kashmir.
1999: The Kargil conflict breaks out
Before the year was out, hopes for reconciliation were dashed. After months of cross-border firing in the mountainous Kargil region of Kashmir, the fighting escalated dangerously, with infiltrators from the Pakistani side crossing into high-altitude security posts in India. This time, the spectre of nuclear war hung over the dispute. A meeting between Sharif and US President Bill Clinton in Washington helped end the fighting, and Pakistan withdrew back to the Line of Control, but mutual hostility remained intense.
2001: Gunmen storm India's Parliament
In December, five militants attacked India's Parliament in the heart of New Delhi, killing nine people before the attackers were shot dead. The brazenness of the attack - in the most secure area of the capital, on a target symbolising Indian democracy - left India shaken and enraged. India blamed the attack on two Pakistan-based militant groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, and accused the Pakistani intelligence service of being behind the operation. India massed hundreds of thousands of troops at the border with Pakistan and kept them there for the better part of a year.
2004: Leaders launch a peace initiative
After the attack on India's Parliament, the relationship between India and Pakistan entered a deep freeze. But by late 2003, the atmosphere began to thaw: Top diplomats returned to Islamabad and New Delhi, and transportation links between the two countries were reinstated. Most promising of all: An agreement by Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to open talks on all issues, including Kashmir. The talks continued for three years.
#India claims to have killed hundreds of Pakistani militants in airstrike in #Pakistan, the first strike inside Pakistan by India since the 1971 war. But villagers local to the area hit say no one was killed and mostly just trees damaged https://t.co/5TFzv8HJqr
— Saeed Shah (@SaeedShah) February 26, 2019
2008: Terrorists strike Mumbai
In November, a team of 10 attackers approached India's financial capital by sea and targeted a railway station, two luxury hotels, a renowned cafe and a Jewish community centre. By the time their three-day killing spree was over, more than 160 people were dead. India presented Pakistan with a dossier showing that the attack was planned and carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba. India also said Pakistan's spy agency helped orchestrate the attack. Last year, devotees of Lashkar's former leader ran for Parliament in Pakistan's elections.
2016: India launches "surgical strikes" across the line dividing Kashmir
After militants belonging to a Pakistan-based militant group stormed an Indian army base in Kashmir, killing 19 soldiers, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to respond. India announced that it had launched "surgical strikes" in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir - commando raids that crossed the Line of Control. Indian experts said similar raids had been conducted before but never made public. Pakistan said no such incursions took place.
At least four killed and seven wounded in Kotli district of Pakistan administered Kashmir, hospital official tells AJE. Intense shelling at the Line of Control this evening in Nakyal and Koiratta sectors, residents say.
— Asad Hashim (@AsadHashim) February 26, 2019
2019: Pakistan-based group carries out deadliest attack of 30-year Kashmir insurgency - and India retaliates
On February 14, a suicide attacker rammed an explosives-laden SUV into a convoy of Indian paramilitary police, killing 40. The attacker was a local Kashmiri teenager who had joined Jaish-e-Muhammad, a Pakistan-based militant group.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to "avenge every tear" that was shed in the wake of the bombing. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said the country would take action against anyone involved in the attack "if evidence is found." He also vowed to retaliate if India responded to the attack with military action against Pakistani targets.
But India did not heed Khan's warning. In the most serious escalation between the two countries in two decades, Indian fighter jets crossed the Line of Control, and hit a target that, according to India, was a training camp used by Jaish-e-Muhammad. India called its strike a "non-military strike," as it was not aimed at Pakistani military targets, and said it was taking "pre-emptive" action against Jaish-e-Muhammad.
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Study Art in the Northern Rocky Mountains at Montana State University
Explore new avenues in artistic practice and scholarship amongst a diverse cohort of peers while gaining leadership skills both academically and professionally.
by Montana State University November 19, 2021 November 18, 2021
Montana State University MFA graduate student Tom Pomarico, working in his studio (photo by Leif Everson)
The School of Art at Montana State University offers two master's degrees, a Master of Art in Art History and a Master of Fine Art in the studio area. The MFA program is designed for the professional artist, including those who plan to teach art at the college level, while the MA program prepares students for graduate work leading to careers as academic instructors, museum curators, or art critics and in allied fields such as art administration, historic preservation, and gallery work.
The goals of these degrees are twofold: To center the graduate experience in the conceptual and production processes of sophisticated art-making, and to graduate individuals who are capable of successfully developing, organizing, and executing complex artistic/entrepreneurial endeavors. As they progress toward earning their degrees, students have the opportunity to engage with traditional fine art media along with environmental art and new media.
Montana State University's MFA program is housed at the Melvin Graduate Studios and exhibition space in Bozeman, Montana. Our studio faculty include experts in the fields of painting, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, and metalsmithing, all of whom are engaged in their research and studio practice on an international level.
Study areas for the MA students are located on campus in Haynes Hall. Art History faculty have extensive experience in the fields of museum curation and archival research, as well as a collectively distinguished record of publication across a diverse range of topics.
MSU offers a number of funding and fellowship opportunities for graduate students, with a particular interest in supporting Native American applicants. Many students receive teaching assistantships that provide fee waivers and in-state tuition rates to help defray the cost of study, which are awarded annually on a competitive basis. Financial aid is also available to students who show evidence of need. While such assistance may take various forms, most graduate students receive aid through loans.
Applications for the studio MFA degree are due February 15, 2022, and applications for fall admission to the MA in Art History are due March 15, 2022.
For more information, visit art.montana.edu.
Tagged: Art Education Announcements, Montana, Sponsored


The eBay Module for WP Robot is the best eBay autoblogging plugin for WordPress. It allows you to add targeted auctions to your WordPress blog on complete autopilot to ensure your blog stays fresh and updated at any time. Automatic posts created by the module include a screenshot of the product sold, the current bid or buy now price and more details.
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Red Dog is a fast, fun and simple card game. You may also know it as Acey Deucey, Yablon or In-Between.
The standard game plays with a single deck but the best returns for players are when extra decks are used - the more the better. We've found the best Red Dog games online for you.
Red Dog Websites Directory - listings of good info and resources we've found around the net.


Download and install easy PDF Action Center.
Select C# as your programming language and HTML as your input source for the PDF.
Select the features you want to use in your C# HTML to PDF App.
Generate and download C# code to include in your project.
Or Download a C# HTML to PDF project or a functioning sample App.
Here is sample code that shows the simplicity of using easy PDF SDK.
Generate PDF/A and PDF/X forms for archiving and prepress data interchange.
Run PDF creation in memory for high-speed operation.
Create 32 bit and 64 bit PDF Apps.
Create Sand Boxed PDF apps to protect your system from crashes.
Create PDFs from attachments to Word and Outlook.
Use easy PDF SDK Action Center to get started quickly.
Select the settings for your PDF (size, font, image etc.).
Pick the programming language you want (C#, in this case).
Hit-run to generate a sample App to test your HTML to PDF Creation.
Once you are satisfied, generate sample code for your app or a Project file to create a new App.
Here are some sample C# HTML to PDF documentation and Sample projects.


This branch began with a crazy set of young people eager to make a difference. This branch is run from one of the most important port cities in Nigeria and true to form, they always make an entrance when it's their turn to shine.
PH branch was created in the year 2000. That same year, she held 1st show titled Third Day.


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Amazon Alexa Fellowship Expanded to UT
September 2, 2019 by Ferdinand Mehlinger
By Rachel Cooper in 40 Acres on |
In 2018, Alexa is a household name. The top-selling artificial intelligence device from Amazon occupies space in millions of homes around the world, always ready to play music, write a grocery list, or scour the internet to answer a burning question. As the ubiquity of these devices and voice technology increases, scientists, including researchers on the Forty Acres, are working to develop ways these devices can make our lives even easier.
, Amazon announced the second class of its Amazon Alexa Fellowship, which includes 18 universities from across the globe to research and teach conversational AI. The Alexa Fund, a $100 million investment fund for voice technology innovation, selected UT to be a part of the Alexa Graduate Fellowship, which supports the research and education of PhD and postdoctoral students studying conversational AI. Computer science PhD student Wei-Jen Ko is the recipient of the fellowship at UT, which includes funding for tuition, a stipend, and mentoring from an Amazon Alexa scientist.
Jessy Li, an assistant professor in the department of linguistics, is one of Ko's advisors on the project. Li will be working with Ko to conduct research, which will focus on how to make Alexa— and other AI devices—able to develop more specific and lifelike conversational dialogues with users.
"If you start talking with these chatbots, and you go into any kind of meaningful conversation, sometimes these chatbots tend to generate very safe but meaningless responses like, 'I don't know,'" Li says. "That's a problem with current systems, so we are trying to tackle that using a concept rooted in computational discourse and tech specificity to assess the level of details to kind of orient the system more toward informative responses."
Not only will the fellowship focus on research to improve the technology, but it will also include a teaching component so students can use the systems. Greg Durrett, an assistant professor in the department of computer science, is one of three faculty members assigned to the fellowship and will teach a natural language processing course for undergraduates in the spring. Amazon will donate Alexa devices and equipment to the class so students can experiment in developing and teaching Alexa new skills, such as how to look up answers to specific questions.
"This is really useful experience for students who want to get hands-on with these things and understand how this technology works before they go on to either research it further or pursue a career building this stuff," Durrett says.
This partnership between Amazon and UT comes as the tech giant (which recently hit $1 trillion in value) eyes Austin as a potential host for its next headquarters. Whether or not the city is chosen, Durrett says he hopes the collaboration between the university and the company will continue because it is mutually beneficial.
"Obviously, Amazon has a lot more money than universities do," Durrett says. "So there's this kind of symbiotic relationship of getting funding from companies, and then those companies take students on as interns or hire students for full-time gigs, or can provide technology that assists with the research going on at universities."
This isn't the first time Amazon has invested in UT. Two years ago, the first Amazon pickup location in Texas opened at Gregory Gymnasium, allowing campus and community members a convenient place to pick up and return orders from the site. Now, UT is the only university with the graduate fellowship in the state and just one of six in the county. The research conducted during this project could significantly change the future of artificial intelligence for the better, adding another achievement on this campus that could change the world—Alexa, play "The Eyes of Texas."
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Product Overview The Seidon 120V is Cooler Master's new water cooling kit that with the best C/P ratio. The compact 120mm radiator virtually fits every case. Thanks to a 120mm PWM fan with a wide RPM range Seidon can operate silently or unleash a powerful cooling storm at your command.
The durable FEP Tubing provides the advantages of nearly no moisture absorption, high thermal stability and high pressure tolerance.


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Egypt seeks deal to localize protective devices technology
Mon, 15 Jul 2019 - 12:02 GMT
Minister of Military Production Mohamed al-Assar (middle) and the managing director of Trayal Corporation and accompanying delegation (r) in a meeting in Cairo, Egypt. July 15, 2019. Press Photo
CAIRO - 15 July 2019: Minister of Military Production Mohamed al-Assar met on Monday with the managing director of Trayal Corporation and accompanying delegation to discuss cooperation in manufacturing protective equipment for chemical warfare.
Assar had first presented the manufacturing, technical and technology capabilities of the factories and companies affiliated to the ministry. Later, the Trayal Corporation general manager affirmed that the firm will work on localizing the technology of manufacturing protective equipment for chemical warfare in the ministry's companies and plants.
Trayal is a Serbian corporation that produces pyrotechnical devices, explosives, tires, protective devices and rubber goods.
Earlier this month, Minister of Military Production Mohamed al-Assar signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Saudi company called Newton to localize IT technology used in the sectors of marketing, logistics, technical support and maintenance.
The MoU is considered a first step towards signing a contract between the National Organization for Military Production and Newton. Through such partnership, both would supply products and spare parts to the GCC and Middle East countries, introduce new production lines, and offer maintenance and training services.


F41 is a beautifully designed Deluxe 6 berth holiday home in an ideal location with easy access to facilities and beach. Benefiting from modern interior, open plan living space, cosy lounge, piped gas, allocated parking, large master bedroom with Jack & Jill en-suite toilet and the added luxury of double glazing and central heating.
LOUNGE; The generous lounge incorporates comfortable wrap around seating, welcoming décor, modern electric fire, flat screen 32" TV, Freeview & DVD player. The unit has an occasional pull out bed located in the lounge. We advise that the sofa bed would be comfortable for one adult, but F41 can accommodate a maximum of 6 guests.
KITCHEN & DINING AREA; The fully equipped kitchen fitted kitchen with integrated fridge and freezer, microwave, hob, cooker and extractor fan. The dining area benefits from free standing table and four chairs.
BEDROOMS: This accommodation has two bedrooms, one master bedroom with king size bed, vanity area and access to the main toilet and shower. There is also room to place a travel cot. The twin room has two single beds (these can be pushed together to form additional double), fitted wardrobe and overhead shelving. There is an occasional sofa bed located in the lounge. F41 can accommodate a maximum of 6 guests.
PLEASE NOTE: Total sleeping capacity is no more than six guests. Linen is available to hire, this can be added in the booking process.
BATHROOM & TOILET: F41 benefits from a fully fitted shower room fitted with full size shower with glass door, toilet, and wash basin accessible from the hallway and master bedroom. There is a also a separate toilet and wash basin.
VERANDA; F41 does not have a veranda.
NEAREST CARAVANS FOR GROUP BOOKINGS; To find the closest caravans for group bookings please click Browse Caravans at Ladram Bay, then select F field (F) from the Park Area list and click Search.


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About Undoing Racism/Community Organizing® Workshop
RACE: A Girl Like Me
Undoing Racism® Workshops
ReThinking Racism For Racial & Social Justice Workshop
Latino Challenges Toward Racial Equity Workshops
Racial Equity Organizers Monthly Gatherings
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Racial Equity Organizers Jan & Feb Meeting: Jim Crow Past and Present
Posted by Annie Rodriguez 87pc on
Join us as we explore the past of our country to understand the present and help shape the planning for the future.
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
Saturday - January 31st, 2015 @ 9:30am -12:30pm
OUTNOW - 1695 Main St. (2nd floor), Springfield, MA 01103
Episode 1 -Promises Betrayed (1865-1896) & Episode 2 - Fighting Back (1896-1917)
The premiere episode begins with the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction, periods that held so much promise for free black men and women. The second episode explores the dramatic rise of a successful black middle class and the determination of white supremacists to destroy this fledgling black political power.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age of Colorblindness
Saturday - February 21, 2015 @ 9:30am - 12:30pm
Location TBA - Springfield, MA
Moving to present day, The New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans and other People of Color locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement.
Discussion following each film:
How do we create a space to engage in deep, meaningful dialogue about race, racism, and structural inequity in the age of mass incarceration and a so called post-racial society.
How zero tolerance rhetoric emerged within the school environment and influenced the criminalization of youth in the larger social picture and have impacted school discipline policies which have been influenced by the war on drugs and the "get tough" movement.
How we began viewing youth in schools as potential violators rather than as children needing our guidance.
Strategize presentation of recommendations for local police departments and local school systems.
Engage in the critical questions of how we managed to create, nearly overnight, a penal system unprecedented in world history, and how that system actually functions — as opposed to the way it is advertised.
Below are links to resources and articles:
Holyoke Public Schools review by state education department moved up
Report: Black, Latino Students Disproportionately Disciplined In Mass. Schools
178 Complaints Filed Against Springfield Police Department
MAP: 71 Police-Involved Deaths In Massachusetts From 2004 - 2014
Mayor Sarno Signs New Executive Order Creating Community Police Hearing Board: The Executive Order is aimed at increasing police accountability to the community while assuring professional management of the Police Department.
The Racial Equity Monthly Meetings are designed to help individuals committed to Racial Justice and Equity collectively develop a deeper understanding of and address racism in their personal lives, organizations and community. The meetings also provide networking opportunities and support local organizing efforts.
January 31, 2015 at 9:30am - 12:30pm
Springfield Central Library
Rosa Matta · · 413-222-8793
How many other people are you bringing?
Also RSVP on Facebook
springfield Racial Equity


THE STORY PEOPLE. By Heather Kaufman. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2016. 352 pages. $12.99.
In her debut novel, The Story People, Heather Kaufman introduces the reader to an idyllic book store named Palermo's in the charming fictional town of New Holden, Indiana. New Holden is replete with community parks, a grocery store, a dynamic Lutheran congregation, various restaurants, and colorful citizenry.
The novel primarily follows Ben Palermo and Rosemary Berg. Ben is the young bachelor and unexpected owner of Palermo's. Ben inherited the store when his uncle, the previous proprietor, passed away. Rosemary is a young—and also single—illustrator and author of children's books with strong childhood memories of Palermo's thanks to the Story People.
The Story People are the ever-evolving imaginative creatures of a young boy and girl who meet by chance in a "secret room" on the third floor of Palermo's many years ago. The Story People are ghost-like without being scary and ravenous story-eaters without being destructive. They're demanding yet sympathetic. Ultimately, the Story People would be the perfect subject matter for a young author/illustrator looking for an idea for her second book.
Ben and Rosemary both suffer from the well-intentioned meddling of friends, family, and acquaintances who know just how each of them should spend their lives, and with whom they should spend it. Thus, the reader is introduced to Professor Jenson, Oma, Mrs. Gardner, Liam, Mrs. Frank, and Mrs. Baumgartner, each with their own histories, quirks, interests, and foibles.
Woven all together, The Story People tells a delightful story of a community that encounters all the usual pitfalls of selfishness, anger, scheming, and drama, while also blossoming in forgiveness, charity, kindness, and resolve.
Ever in the background is St. John's Lutheran Church, pastored by a young Dale Andrews, whose shepherding is often needed, and always well-regarded.
The Story People reads a bit like a Love Inspired® book you'd find on the shelves of a small library at an assisted living facility. That is to say, it is an easy read with serious themes that never takes itself too seriously or leaves you, the reader, without hope. Unlike a Love Inspired® book, the Christian themes in The Story People are not blandly generic, but clearly grace-rich and Christ-centered (i.e., Lutheran).
Like a groan-inducing punchline to a joke that tries too hard to be funny, there were times when the Lutheran dimension of the book felt forced, as though it was put in the story to appease the publishing house rather than serve the narrative. One such instance is early on when Rosemary and Ben first cross paths and she purchases a biography on Lucas Cranach the Elder from Ben's store. I rolled my eyes. Of course, if the reader doesn't know who Lucas Cranach the Elder is, then this detail will be skimmed over without thought.
The Story People is a promising and delightful novel from Heather Kaufman that will likely appeal more to a female audience than a male one. It's a quick and delightful read if you're looking for an enjoyable and well-structured storyline. I'd recommend it to my parishioners, both young and old, without reservation.


Let's talk a little bit about care. First of all, let's understand what it means. Normally, when we care about somebody else, actually what we're saying to ourselves is, we care how that somebody else thinks about us. In other words, yes, there is the care for a child, the care that, you know, that they get fed, the care that they're taken care of. There's the care for a friend or a husband or a partner, that perhaps their clothes are in the right space or perhaps that they are in the right framework. But that's not what we're going to discuss here. We're going to discuss real [hebrew]. The idea that if you see somebody that is close to you, a child, to make sure that they learn the principles, the values of working for something. That it isn't a free trip. Make sure that in a relationship, you try to help them, to grow on a spiritual level. To open the doors, perhaps. And when you're angry, to close them to yourself. To breathe deep, not to involve yourself in a minor... a minor problem that perhaps can spill over into something enormous for no reason. True care means that I'm looking for you and not for myself. For instance, there is a precept that says something like this, that there are only two times that you can tell somebody what to do. One is if you truly love them. And the second, is if you're sure that if you tell them, they'll do, what you say. Interesting, because most of us have opinions on everything, even though we know, that perhaps most of it, will fall on deaf ears. So, with that in mind, when we speak about caring for somebody else, first, we have to check ourselves, to make sure, that it isn't caring for me, and what that other person might think. He'll get angry with me, he won't like it, I won't be in the same place I was before... Or the care is truly, truly, truly, for the other person. For instance, you have a friend and he's ill. You believe in alternative medicine and he wants to go to the doctor. "No, I want you to go, I think this is better." This is not care, this is enforcing your opinion on somebody else. And this is not what we're talking about. True care means, even perhaps you see something and you might be right, to find a way to talk to them with open conversation. And if they say "no", it's "no". Remember, that even the creator moved back, when the vessel said "I no longer want to receive". So let's make sure a) that when we give somebody advise it's out of love and real care and then only if we're sure that they'll take heed to it. Not because it's beneficial for me, because I know what's right, It's my doctor, it's my dentist, it's the way I live my life, and if you live your life like me, everything is going to be right. A lot of that comes from ego and not out of care. So let's try to be more cognisant that care comes from the true nature to share. Thank you.


Last year, the infamous Snowtown bank – in which eight bodies were found decomposing in six plastic barrels – went up for auction. It was affordable, as I recall; on the market for less than $200,000. It came attached to a little, comfortable house. It wasn't too far a drive from the city of Adelaide. One night, a group of us fantasised about pooling our money and buying the place and using it as a getaway. That's it, we said. It would make a great writers' retreat.