The best all-around team early in the season — dominant defensively and offensively even while Kobe Bryant is playing "just" a team brand of basketball. However, the NBA schedule always tests you. They will keep winning, but they're not going 82-0. There will be some tough losses that should allow coach Phil Jackson to work his magic.
Amare Stoudemire will be an MVP candidate, and this team has as many offensive weapons as any team in the league. New coach Terry Porter is stressing balance on both ends of the floor.
Steve Nash will still have chances to push pace when he gets opportunities to run. Most importantly, for the Suns to be an elite team, they need to get Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw to play at a high level. We saw Barbosa give them exactly that effort in Monday's 107-102 victory over Memphis, in which he had 16 points in the fourth quarter.
However, over an 82-game schedule, when you have a team that includes several players above the age of 30, the schedule tests your legs. A lot of times shots that fall earlier in the season don't drop at the end. Also: Will the Suns be able rely on defense to win some games?
I think they will be a playoff team, a No. 6-8 seed — they should win well over 50, but 60 is pushing it.
This team is growing up, and the young players are contributing. Josh Smith is one of great defenders in the game, and Al Horford is showing himself to be a consistent young big man who can score, rebound and play defense. Joe Johnson is an all-around talent — one of only a handful of guys in the game who can start at the 1, 2 or 3 and still be just as effective. Off the bench, Ronald "Flip" Murray has made positive contributions.
The pitfall in the short term is going to be Smith's health. While he recovers from an ankle sprain, the Hawks will miss him.
I think we still need to wait and see on this team. Last season's 37-win team showed it can compete in the playoffs — now the challenge is having the energy and competitive drive to secure a better playoff seed.
LeBron James is off the charts with 41 points twice already this season against the Bulls. He gave the Bulls a chance to look in the mirror and see a different No. 23 dominate. Mo Williams is finding his stride.
But I still want to see how the Cavs' small backcourt holds up — and having Delonte West and Mo in the backcourt makes for a small tandem. That's something teams might try to take advantage of. Still, I saw Cleveland as a top-three team in the East, and I still feel that way.
Paul Pierce is my MVP so far, boosted by his huge fourth-quarter performance against the Raptors on Monday night. His maturation and confidence in being the champion is very evident by the way he's performing. This is a complete team and a joy to watch. You can't minimize Kevin Garnett's excitement and enthusiasm, and Ray Allen still has the sweetest stroke in the game. Kendrick Perkins is a physical presence who is helping control the paint.
Doc Rivers is officially in the NBA's coaching elite. His team understands they won the championship by playing defense, a quality that puts them head and shoulders above the rest as the best team in the East.
This team just began a five-game East trip with a loss in New York. Playing without an injured Deron Williams on the road is about to catch up with them. Mehmet Okur is gone, too, tending a family matter in Turkey. This is going to be uphill battle.
It's early, but this trip might be crucial. The Jazz play very well at home — the toughest home court in the league — but getting W's on road is vital. If they get some consistent intensity on the road, that will help them finish as a top-four seed — which will be imperative for them to advance.
It was great to see coach Jerry Sloan get his 1,000th win with the Jazz — his consistency and character make him one of those stories that transcend sports.


I have a license for Absolutetelnet and use it daily. I've setup a bastion server in AWS and I'm trying to get key forwarding to work.
1. Convert .pem to .ppk with Puttygen.
2. Add private key ppk of bastion and any server I might connect to after, TO pagent.
3. Enable "Allow agent forwarding" in Putty config.
5. SSH from bastion to host in private subnet.
I'm at a loss with as to how to complete this in Absolutetelnet. Authentication tab -> Use RSA/DSA key to login -> can only specify one .pem key!
Forwarding tab -> Authentication Agent Forwarding is enabled.
I even tried combining all necessary private keys into a single .pem. No such luck.
You're correct. Absolute only supports a single key when logging in. To make agent forwarding work, you have to put its public key into the authorized_keys on all the servers you may need to connect to.
Thanks for the reply! Will putting Absolute's public key on the servers I need to connect to be any less secure than the Putty/Pagent setup?
It's no less secure. The only thing you distribute to each hosts is your public key, whether you have 1, 2, 3, or more key pairs. If one of those hosts becomes compromised, it doesn't compromise the others because there's nothing they can do with the public key.
The security comes in keeping your private key private. File-based private keys can be stolen, so keep them encrypted! Owning the private key validates your identity, or at least that you're in possession of the private key. I would think that becomes less secure if you have more of them to manage or keep them in multiple places. There may be administrative reasons why you might want more than one key, but I can't think of any good ones.
Also consider using hardware based keys. For just a few dollars, you can get a USB smartcard token that does the required crypto ON THE TOKEN. It's just like file based key authentication except the private key never levels the token, so can't be stolen or compromised. Unless of course they PHYSICALLY steal it from you and coerce you to give up them PIN. AbsoluteTelnet/SSH supports hardware based authentication tokens natively. I can give you more information if you're interested.
Last Edit: 2018/07/20 16:36 By bpence.
Do you mean "the private key never leaves the token"?
Thanks for the info on this! I might pick up a smartcard.
Sorry, yes of course. Private key. I've corrected the post above.
With the token, the signing operation actually occurs within the token, so the private key is never exposed. Other than that, it works exactly like file-based key authentication. Other things, such as agent forwarding work as well, with all of the operations needed for the authentication taking place in the key.
Here's a little howto I put together. This is specific to the PIVKEY token, but will work with other tokens and even smartcards. I would appreciate any feedback you might be able to offer and the approach or even the details or completeness of the tutorial.


text:
Le Seychelles parteciparono ai Giochi della XXVIII Olimpiade, svoltisi ad Atene, Grecia, dal 13 al 29 agosto 2004, con una delegazione di 9 atleti impegnati in sette discipline.

Risultati

Collegamenti esterni

2004
Seychelles

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Safeguard PerfectPartner Business Solutions is a distributor of business printing, marketing and promotional products and services. We have clients in over 25 states and client service centers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Illinois. We are known for having an awesome work culture in a small business environment, with all the resources of an international company. Our organization is made up of extremely dedicated professionals who provide extraordinary, personal and efficient service and we are always looking for great like-minded individuals to join our team.


It turns out the bank sent someone to repossess the house located across the street from Barnett's house, but by mistake broke into hers instead. "They told me that the GPS led them to my house," Barnett said. "My grass hadn't been mowed and they just assumed." She called the McArthur Police about the incident, but weeks later, the chief announced the case was closed. Barnett said that according to the bank president, this was the first time something like this has happened. She presented him with an $18,000 estimate to replace the losses, but the president refused to pay. "He got very firm with me and said, 'We're not paying you retail here, that's just the way it is,'" Barnett said. "I did not tell them to come in my house and make me an offer. They took my stuff and I want it back." The shock of having her house broken into and belongings taken by mistake has now turned into anger. "Now, I'm just angry," Barnett said. "It wouldn't be a big deal if they would step up and say 'I'm sorry, we will replace your stuff.' Instead, I'm getting attitude from them. They're sarcastic when they talk to me. They make it sound like I'm trying to rip the bank off. All I want is my stuff back."
You and the rest of the country, Katie.


When I heard that from Andy it seemed completely reasonable. In a few flashes I remembered my young mind. The part that was afraid of the dark. The part that was so excited by snowfall that I'd stay outside until I was soaked to the skin and my extremities hurt. And I remembered Santa.
I didn't answer him. He wasn't trying to be mean. It was the argument we had often. We were both scientists, biologists, but it was only me who believed in an afterlife.
It was friendly banter most of the time. We'd been friends since the sixth grade. We went to the same private Catholic school.
Andy was the third, and last, child of a Catholic father and a mother he only described to me as "growing up handling snakes." I never met her. She died in a car accident when Andy was seven. He was in the car with her. He remembers it all, he says. And when he talks about it there's less pain in his voice than an emptiness where the pain should be. Andy is the happiest guy I know. When he thinks of his mom I think he wishes she'd had time to have fun.
Andy's mom didn't go right away.
They'd been driving on an icy road, carefully, but a car lost control entering the highway next to them. It slammed into the passenger side rear and sent the sedan spinning. Andy says he remembers 3 complete rotations on the ice, all with enough centrifugal force for him to think the whole time that they were about to flip at any moment. Andy's mother put her hand instinctively across his chest, holding him as he screamed. She was silent. Their car bounced off a concrete barrier and spun back into oncoming traffic. They were struck next by a truck.
The car landed butter-side down and Andy's mom hit her head in three collisions: the driver's side window, the windshield, and the roof before her neck settled into her shoulder like the vertebrae had been reduced to dust.
Andy remembers her asking if he was okay, which miraculously he was. He'd been too small to be thrown against anything. All around him parts of the car were forced inward, but nothing touched him.
He was a seven, so there was no more Santa Claus, but he believed in the god his parent's shared. He loved his mother as well as a kid could. She loved him like an adult who grew up handling snakes.
A car pulled up behind them and tried to help. The snow was coming down now and several other cars had become involved with the collisions. Andy remembers it getting quiet for a few minutes.
Nobody wanted to touch her. They couldn't get to her anyway. They tried to fish Andy out of the window, but he refused to go. He could reach her right forearm. He squeezed it and her eyes would open for him for a few seconds. Even at seven he wasn't wondering if she was going to make it. There must have been panic there, but he never described it to me that way.
It was what she said when he asked her if they'd see each other again that seems to have framed his worldview.
"I don't know Andy," is what she said.
Andy wanted to believe after that, but he couldn't. He watched her drift off, remembers when the mom he'd loved for seven years became an object, when there was nothing there anymore. He was alone in a car. He was cold. There was no sense of wonder or magic. There was no Santa. He passed out. The next thing he remembers is being home again, with his dad.
A cross-country travelogue featuring an old Audi and Nina Simone.
A young couple on vacation at the beach observe the quick friendship of a young boy and the couple's dog.
A recently evicted man gets help on the street while waiting for the mail.


text:
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Despite a series of close opinion polls, many showing the Leave campaign ahead, the outcome of the referendum caused widespread shock. The United...	 Published: 28 June 2016

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Weilheim ist ein Stadtteil der baden-württembergischen Universitätsstadt Tübingen. Er liegt südwestlich der Innenstadt.

Lage
Im Neckartal, 3 km südwestlich der Kernstadt, liegt Weilheim an der Bahnstrecke Plochingen–Immendingen und an der L 370 Tübingen–Rottenburg am Neckar. Zum Stadtteil Weilheim gehören auch die nahe gelegenen Ortsteile Kreßbach und Eck auf der Hochebene des Rammerts. Weilheim liegt in einer Höhe von 333 m über NHN.

Geschichte

Der Stadtteil Weilheim ist sicher um einiges älter als 900 Jahre. Sein Name lässt – wie bei anderen "Weil" oder "Heim"-Orten – auf eine Entstehung spätestens im 7. Jahrhundert schließen. Die erste schriftliche Erwähnung als "Wilon" erfolgte um 1090, als der Graf Liutold von Achalm hier dem Kloster Zwiefalten eine Schenkung machte. Deshalb wurde auch 1991 das 900-jährige Jubiläum gefeiert.
Im Zusammenhang mit der Grundausstattung des Klosters Zwiefalten wird die Weilheimer Kirche und damit das Dorf erstmals schriftlich erwähnt. Der Ort gehörte zunächst in den Einflussbereich der Grafen zu Tübingen und kam später an Württemberg. Seit der Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts gehörte Weilheim zum Amt Tübingen, später zum Oberamt Tübingen bzw. zum Kreis Tübingen.

Das Patronat der Nikomedeskirche in Weilheim lag von 1441 bis zur Säkularisation 1806 beim Tübinger Spital. In den Jahren 1499 bis 1521 wurde die Kirche auf den Fundamenten ihrer Vorgängerin in ihrer heutigen Form als spätgotische Hallenkirche mit einem 5/8-Chor und einem massiven Turm mit Satteldach neu errichtet. Eine Besonderheit ist der Namenspatron Nikomedes – in Württemberg gibt es nur in Hildrizhausen eine weitere Nikomedeskirche. Unklar ist dabei, ob es sich dabei um den Nikomedes handelt, der im ersten Jahrhundert in Rom als Märtyrer zu Tode kam oder um den Bischof in Nikomedien, der 303 bei einer Christenverfolgung ums Leben kam.

Bedeutung für die Tübinger Studenten erlangte das im 18. Jahrhundert an der Straße zwischen Tübingen und Rottenburg in Weilheim erbaute Neuwirtshaus, welches auch als Weilheimer Kneiple bekannt wurde, da dieses mit seinem Fechtboden außerhalb der akademischen Gerichtsbarkeit der Tübinger Universität lag.

Im 19. Jahrhundert wurden die auf der Hochebene des Rammerts liegenden früheren Ortschaften Eckhof und Kreßbach, die mittlerweile nur noch Weiler oder Hofgüter waren, in Weilheim eingemeindet.

Am 1. August 1971 wurde Weilheim nach Tübingen eingemeindet.

Wappen
Das Ortswappen Weilheims zeigt auf blauem Grund eine gestürzte silberne Pflugschar, darüber ein silbernes Schildhaupt, welches mit einer rechtshin liegenden blauen Hirschstange belegt ist.

Persönlichkeiten
Ritter Friedrich von Weilheim genannt Usel war ein Ministeriale der Pfalzgrafen von Tübingen. Er wurde 1289 durch den Pfalzgrafen Eberhard von Tübingen und seinen Bruder Rudolf von Tübingen dem Kloster Bebenhausen als Gewährschaftsbürge für den Verkauf ihrer Weinberge in Jesingen und anderer Ländereien verpflichtet.

Im Pfarrhaus in Weilheim lebte 1920 als Theologiestudent Paul Schneider, der später als "Prediger von Buchenwald" bekannt wurde. Hier lernte er die Tochter des Weilheimer Pfarrers Dieterich kennen und heiratete sie 1926 in der Weilheimer Kirche.

Literatur

 Jost Reischmann (Hrsg.): 900 Jahre Weilheim. Ein Heimatbuch. Verwaltungsstelle, Tübingen-Weilheim 1991.

Weblinks

 tuebingen.de

Einzelnachweise

Stadtteil von Tübingen
Ehemalige Gemeinde (Landkreis Tübingen)
Gemeindeauflösung 1971


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text:
Australian children aged five to 11 now eligible for COVID-19 vaccination
By Amila Dedovic
From today, children across Australia aged between five and 11 are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as the next phase of the immunisation program kicks into gear.
Children will be able to receive two doses of the the paediatric Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine eight weeks apart as recommended by the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI). The dose administered is one-third of the dose given to people aged 12 and older.
Despite concerns about appointment availability, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt assured there will be enough vaccine supply for children.
"We have approximately two million doses that are available over the course of the coming weeks," Hunt said.
"And then that will be supplemented by an additional million before January 3 for a population of 2.3 million children."
"We want to encourage all parents to bring their children forward over the period between now and the end of January, to protect them and to help protect the community with the vaccinations."
According to SA Health, children with pre-existing conditions are at greater risk of severe disease from COVID-19, including children with type 1 diabetes, obesity, a history of prematurity, heart disease, immunocompromising conditions, and complex and chronic illnesses.
As it stands, more than 73 per cent of children between 12 to 15 years old have been fully vaccinated. To date, Pfizer is the only vaccine approved for use for children aged between five to 11.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is also currently evaluating an application from Moderna for its COVID-19 vaccine to be used in Australia for children aged six to 11. The government has already put supply deals in place with the pharmaceutical giant should it be approved by the TGA and recommended by ATAGI.
Bookings can be made using the Vaccine Clinic Finder.
Updated at 10.43am AEDT on 10 January 2022.


Sit in the car of your choice. Not just the driver's seat, but the passenger seats, front and back. Check for comfort level, ease of getting in and out, and visibility.
Take a few minutes to look at the control panel. If you're not sure, ask our Salesperson to demonstrate how each feature works.
Adjust the seat, fasten your seat belt, and adjust your rearview and sideview mirrors.
Keep the audio system turned off initially. This is so that you can listen to the engine or determine how much wind noise there may be. You'll also want to be able to hear our Salesperson as they answer your questions or provide directions.
Check for any blind spots as you change lanes.
Note the feel of the acceleration as you pull out into traffic. Does it have enough get up and go, or does it feel sluggish?
Feel the brakes as you press down on the pedal. It's not unusual for the brakes in new cars to grab quickly, so it's best to go easy on them.
Make sure you can reach the knobs and can easily read the control panel.
Determine maneuverability by assessing how well the steering system handles as you round curves and turn into side streets.
Notice if there are any uncomfortable jolts from uneven road surfaces.
If possible, find a nearby highway so that you can see how the vehicle handles at a faster speed.
Turn on the audio system to check for clarity.
Take a few minutes to take notes or even take a picture of the vehicle and its sticker price listing all the standard features.
Check out the trunk or cargo space. Investigate any bins or compartments.
Ask your Salesperson any questions you may have.
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In the past week i've found myself feeling that i want to understand Jesus more fully. To understand all that He has done for me/us. And what does it mean to be sons & daughters of God.
That's the Christian paradigm, Mary Sue, though many theologians today would not restrict it to those who explicitly profess Christian faith. But in the New Testament, especially Paul, adoption was the way of speaking about how we come, through faith in Christ, to belong to God's family. A "child of God" means that one has been "born again" in Christ through faith and baptism. This teaching recognizes two kinds of connection with God: by nature, as in God's gift of existence to each of us, and by grace, as in God's gift of salvation through Christ.
In some Christian denominations, the idea of adoption of emphasized in a narrow sense as including only those who have explicit faith and belong to or are affiliated with a Christian community. The other extreme is to state that God's offer of salvation through Christ touches all people, even those who have never heard of Him, and that anyone who is faithful to the guidance of their conscience unto goodness is also saved. See Karl Rahner's teaching on "Anonymous Christians," which influenced the bishops at Vatican II, and Pope Benedict XVI as well.
Rahner was probably the most influential Catholic theologian of the 20th C.
Adoption would ideally lead to a full realisation of our position as children of God, and the inheritance that is ours as sons and daughters. This is really mind boggling because it involves the manifestation, not just of our true spiritual nature, but also of our position in Christ, which is deep in the heart of the Father. It hints at an exalted role in the universe and in spiritual realms, and the incredible power we can and will have. It's the manifestation of the true glory of the children of God that everything groans for.
Ephesians is good for this, Mary Sue.
I'm only beginning to read the Lumen Gentium .
...All the members ought to be molded in the likeness of Him, until Christ be formed in them.(62)" For this reason we, who have been made to conform with Him, who have died with Him and risen with Him, are taken up into the mysteries of His life, until we will reign together with Him.(63) On earth, still as pilgrims in a strange land, tracing in trial and in oppression the paths He trod, we are made one with His sufferings like the body is one with the Head, suffering with Him, that with Him we may be glorified.(64)"
supernatural adopted sons and daughters of God. Phil, perhaps i use the term incorrectly for what i'm trying to say in RC terms.
Samson. Thanks for the suggestion about reading Ephesians.
here i don't yet understand.
Christianity doesn't glorify suffering, but it does recognize suffering as being a common denominator amongst all human experience. Every human suffers, and through the Crucifixion God entered into human suffering and now uses it to glorify Himself, or in other words to manifest His divine presence.
Paul thank you very much for your comments.
obedience & all this entails.
Good for you to be embarking on this area of study, Mary Sue. Keep us posted on how your reading and reflection is going.
plan because we will be happy.
with a friend about the time i was terrified thinking God was going to kill me.
Right away she said, that wasn't God, that was the devil & she said he got me good.
to surface & that was changing.
moved into my crown & heart, then it seemed all over.
The Holy Eucharist was understood & experienced as Holy today. For me it is a movement from trust & concept to a reality.
"Catechism Of The Catholic Church" #1776 "...For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God...His conscience is man's most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths. "
the proper formation of my conscience.
I spoke to my priest about the proper formation of conscience during my last confession. I told him that for such a long time I had "formed" my own conscience, making allowances for things that clearly went against Church teaching because I wanted those things to be true or right.
I no longer want to form my own conscience in that way. I find the wisdom of the church to be a far better guide to the formation of my conscience than I proved to be given my past track record. Every time I submit to the church against my own desires or intuitions I find myself more than pleasantly surprised and the wisdom of the church becomes ever more clear.
This is not an exercise of the mind, but rather a surrender of the will to Christ who forms me in ways I could never do on my own. Praise be to God.
One thing I've discovered via the same process is that things that didn't initially make sense to me, or seemed arbitrary or hard or strange, eventually revealed deeper levels of meaning. When I first began praying the rosary, for instance, I wasn't Catholic and didn't "believe" in any of the things I was saying, really. But I said them with my heart anyway, just because it felt like a nice thing to try. And it ended up being very transformative and was part of what led to my conversion. Similarly with confession, which many Catholics I knew rarely attended. After my baptism I started going regularly, even though no one encouraged it much (except the old books by saints I was reading!). I found it tremendously helpful, both psychologically and supernaturally. The practice of obedience is an act of surrender, and it will form you in ways you can't on your own, which is the point of all those sacraments and rules and such.
Conscience formation is quite a responsibility, and the Church provides us a gift in its moral teachings on a wide range of issues. The usual process of formation is to learn the teaching, and why it was given; pray about the issues at stake; if conflicted, discuss the issue with a priest or other believers; strive to put the teaching into practice; see what you learn from the experience and what's right for you.
One extreme would be to say there's no need to form conscience: just do what the Church teaches. But that's not even what the Church holds out as the ideal. Issues like abortion that are considered gravely wrong are off-limits in all circumstances, but there are many other kinds of issues that are not so black-white. One must make moral decisions of all kinds each day, and conscience is our guide to making good ones. If a believer stays close to God, they can generally trust that the Spirit is guiding them.
For last 10 days i've struggled with the intervowen natures of Mariology and Christology.
Mother Mary has only had a very minor role in my relationship with Jesus. Neither the belief nor desire to worship her are there. Respect for her is certainly there. Neither my relationship with Jesus nor my conscious have been formed along the lines of including Mariology.
else. I'm questioning my decision to have joined the RC Church. While I had read about the Church's beliefs about Mary I didn't deeply understand their significance till now.
unable to take phone calls.
I'm not sure I understand your questions or struggle about Mariology and Christology, Mary Sue. Could you maybe elaborate a bit more?
Mother Mary has only had a very minor role in my relationship with Jesus. Neither the belief nor desire to worship her are there. Respect for her is certainly there.
Mary Sue as RC we do not worship Mary, and should not worship Mary and should not be encouraged by anybody to worship Mary...that would be idolatry. So if your concern is that Mary is being elevated to the place of Christ or God then I would suggest that you have perhaps misunderstood the Church's teaching on this topic or perhaps been led to believe the Church teaches something she does not regarding Mary (perhaps by non-Catholics who often think we worship Mary or elevate her to the place of Christ).
Mary lives to lead people to Christ. She prays for us and desires that we come to know and love her Son, God our Father and the Holy Spirit. Mary is the model of all saints who lead us to Christ and not to themselves.
Hope that helps. I'm also a recent convert and so I've struggled through how to understand Mary in the Catholic Faith myself, would be happy to chat some more about this with you if you like, here or via private message.
That's a great answer, Jacques. Thanks.
Mary Sue as RC we do not worship Mary, and should not worship Mary and should not be encouraged by anybody to worship Mary...that would be idolatry. So if your concern is that Mary is being elevated to the place of Christ or God then I would suggest that you have perhaps misunderstood the Church's teaching on this topic or perhaps been led to believe the Church teaches something she does not regarding Mary (perhaps by non-Catholics who often think we worship Mary or elevate her to the place of Christ)."
resistance to this & just start by being open to the possibility.
the path to deepening their relationship with Jesus.
"Hope that helps. I'm also a recent convert and so I've struggled through how to understand Mary in the Catholic Faith myself, would be happy to chat some more about this with you if you like, here or via private message.
Yes, Jacques your response was very helpful.
necessity of it as this has not been a major part of my journey up until this point.
journey, it's just that i have been on this for many years as a non Catholic. So what I'm hearing is (and I can't say i'm hearing things correctly )is that the way Jesus has come to me isn't the right way. That as a Catholic it is done differently. And I say what!!
I don't know where you're hearing that, Mary Sue, but you don't have to be a practicing devotee of Mary to be a Catholic. As Jacques noted, we recognize her role in salvation history and we know that we can pray to her as our mother in Christ. That's not required, however.
monastic order and all of them are Marion.
to Mary surfaced & painful issues were brought forward. Then every cell was radiating flowers within my body. Major biological cleansing going on. There is now a special place in my heart for Mother Mary.
Sounds like quite a transformation in the past couple of days, Mary Sue. Cells "radiating flowers" must be an exquisite kind of experience. Glad to hear you're warming up to Mother Mary.
So glad you've had a breakthrough with this Mary Sue. I was just telling somebody the other day that when I first contemplated becoming Catholic and what that might require regarding Mary I wasn't quite sure how it was going to work. My life was so full of Christ already that I didn't know where Mary could possibly fit. But the amazing thing is that Mary didn't take up some place in my spirit that used to belong to Christ, as though including her would mean having to take away from Him...what happened was that God opened up a whole new place within me that I didn't ever know existed, and this is the place that Mary now fills.


Kyu Ho Youm joined the School of Journalism and Communication in 2002 as the inaugural holder of the Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair. As a prolific communication law scholar, he has published a number of book chapters and research articles in a wide range of leading journalism and law journals. Youm's law journal articles on freedom of expression have been cited by U.S. and foreign courts, including the House of Lords in Great Britain, the High Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of Canada, and the Supreme Court of the Philippines. His media law research has been used by U.S. and international lawyers in representing their clients in press freedom litigation. Additionally, he has been quoted by a number of international and American news media, including the New York Times, on freedom of expression issues in the U.S. and abroad.
A member of the Communication Law Writers Group, Youm has been involved in writing Communication and the Law, a major media law textbook in the United States. He has also contributed to Media, Advertising, and Entertainment Law Throughout the World. A native of South Korea, he has authored several books on Korean and U.S. media law.
Youm was honored as the recipient of the Guido H. Stempel III Award for Journalism and Mass Communication at the Ohio University E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, as the Wee Kim Wee Visiting Professor at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and as the distinguished global speaker of Yonsei University's BK21Plus program in Seoul, South Korea.
"The Global Influence of the United States on Freedom of Information," in TROUBLING TRANSPARENCY: THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF FREEDOM OF INFORAMTION, ed. David E. Pozen & Michael Schudson (2108) 249-68 (with Toby Mendel).
MEDIA LAW AND ETHICS, 5th ed. (2018) (with Roy Moore et al.).
KOREAN COMMUNICATION, MEDIA, AND CULTURE: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY (2018) (co-edited with Nojin Kwak).
"Defamation," in COMMUNICATION AND THE LAW, ed. W. Wat Hopkins (2019).
International and Comparative Media Law.
Public Relations and Advertising Law.


KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Western Michigan University will grant degrees to more than 2,400 students during four commencement ceremonies Saturday, April 28, in Miller Auditorium.
WMU President Edward Montgomery will officiate during the four ceremonies. Montgomery will award 2,462 diplomas on behalf of the University: 1,901 at the bachelor's level, 519 at the master's level and 42 at the doctoral level.
This spring's graduates will represent 22 countries and include 50 military veterans.
Those attending commencement should note that backpacks of any kind are strictly prohibited in Miller Auditorium. In addition, bags and purses should be no larger than 4.5 inches by 6.5 inches, or about the size of a small handbag or clutch purse. Larger bags not returned to a vehicle may be searched.
All four ceremonies will last about two hours and be geared toward students who are graduating from a particular set of degree-granting academic units.
The 9 a.m. ceremony is for graduates of the College of Education and Human Development and College of Fine Arts.
The noon ceremony is for graduates of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and College of Health and Human Services.
The 3 p.m. ceremony is for graduates of the College of Aviation, Haworth College of Business and Extended University Programs.
The 6 p.m. ceremony is for graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences.
April's graduation exercises will feature music by the Western Brass Ensemble, conducted by Dr. Stephen M. Wolfinbarger. The national anthem and alma mater will be sung by the University's chapter of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia professional music fraternity, conducted by Ethan Fegan.
Tickets are required for guests to attend commencement. All seats are general admission. Guests who need accessible seating or other accessibility services should call (269) 387-2320 to make arrangements. Guests without tickets may view the commencement ceremonies live on a large screen in 2028 Brown Hall, which is near Miller.
Students participating in graduation exercises may reserve up to four guest tickets. Those who are eligible to do so and who meet the deadline may request up to two additional tickets while quantities last. These additional tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
More information about the ticketing process is available at wmich.edu/commencement/tickets.
All of the spring ceremonies will be broadcast live on Channel 5.1 of EduCABLE, the University's cable television system, and throughout the Kalamazoo area on Public Media Network Channel 191, a local public access channel on the Charter Communications commercial cable television system.
A live webcast of the ceremonies also will be available online the day of graduation. A maximum of 1,000 connections will be accepted. Not all browsers are compatible with the commencement stream. For instructions on how to view the live webcast, visit wmich.edu/commencement/broadcasts.
A professional photographer will take pictures of each graduating student. Color proofs will be sent to the students, but the purchase of prints is optional.
Free parking will be available in all parking areas adjacent to Miller Auditorium. Commencement guests should plan to arrive at least 30 minutes before each ceremony. The address to use if locating Miller by GPS or online driving directions is 2200 Auditorium Drive, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008.
WMU only conducts formal graduation exercises after the fall and spring semesters and the summer I session, although students also may graduate after the summer II session. A final list of spring 2018 graduates is expected to be distributed to hometown newspapers in June.
For complete graduation information, including directions to WMU and how to obtain tickets or view the live webcast, visit wmich.edu/commencement. Direct questions to the Registrar's Office at (269) 387-4300.


text:
Aurora Cannabis, which serves as a leading cannabis firm hailing from Canada, has initiated a petition urging the federal government to designate medical cannabis with the title of 'essential service.' The firm is laying in strong efforts for the initiative and is promoting the idea of continuous access to medical cannabis to the patients even if restrictions to mail service are imposed.
The news was circulated in the community through a Twitter post by the firm on its official handle. The team has urged the community to sign the petition through a link given in the post. The post read:
We believe patients should have continued access to #medicalcannabis even if restrictions to mail service arise. That's why we're urging the federal government to designate it an essential service. You can help by signing @CFAMMcan's petition here: https://t.co/lmpl0s75zZ pic.twitter.com/zXgnAceoj9
— Aurora Cannabis (@Aurora_MMJ) March 31, 2020
According to the pointers given in the petition, Aurora Cannabis has requested the people to draw the attention of the House of Commons to enforce a federal designation of medical cannabis to the status of an essential or a constitutionally protected service. This will ensure that all the activities associated with the preservation of patient access to medical cannabis via the government-controlled channel to qualify as essential services. It also urges to acquire this designation to ensure the continuous delivery of necessary medicines, including medical cannabis irrespective of the mail service restrictions.
The petition highlights how the recent outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has put the lives of hundreds of thousands of native Canadians, including children, police and military, oldies, and others at critical risk. It stated that there exists strong clinical evidence that affirms the effectiveness of cannabis in reducing the dependence of opioids. The only way to access medical cannabis is directly from licensed medical sellers via the mail, and any kind of disruption in mail service might lay barriers for the patients while putting their lives at risk. The worsening situation can increase the potential of spreading/ transmission of COVID-19 infection in the general public at a fast pace. The firm clarified that shifting to other new medications might require the health care system to first scrutinize its effectiveness before putting it to use on the patients and risking their lives. This might put extra pressure on the health system when their focus should entirely be on saving the lives of the infected people.
Aurora Cannabis is confident that by making medical cannabis as an essential service, the federal government can aid the relief operations channelized against the coronavirus outbreak in a big way. The company has been actively participating in boosting the relief operations carried upon against the COVID-19 pandemic. It donated the N95 masks to their home province Alberta to give in their input in the war against the deadly virus.
Aphria Inc. Earns a Spot in Global and Mail's Inaugural Report
Role of Cannabis and CBD in Light of COVID-19 Outbreak


text:
export { style as ArrowStyles } from './style';
export default from './Arrow';

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The volunteers at St George in Bloom have been busy helping to make St George at greener and better place to live. They held an Awards Ceremony on Friday 29 September in which they looked back on their various projects, presented awards, and looked ahead to potential projects for the future.
The Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor of Bristol, Cllr Lesley Alexander was at the ceremony at Summerhill Methodist Church Hall to present the awards and to thank everyone for their efforts. The Lord Mayor commented on the vibrant allotment society and how the community was pulling together.
Cllr Asher Craig, Deputy Mayor for Communities, Events and Equalities, and also Ward Councillor for St George West, was also in attendance to thank local residents for their efforts.
Before the presentations those present saw a presentation of all the projects and enhancements that the volunteers from St George in Bloom have made to the area, together with information on their plans to make further enhancements in the future.
One of the recent successes was the 'Changing the area from Grey to Green' project for which St George in Bloom received a £5000 grant from the Tesco's Bags of Help awards scheme. The St George & Redfield Voice regularly reports on the various projects undertaken by St George in Bloom. The team of volunteers also have exciting for 'greening' various other sites in St George.


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Lifesexhealth
STI Stigma in ProgressHow Jameela Jamil Failed Feminists with HPV
by Emily L. Depasse
Published on November 27, 2019 at 4:20pm
Jameela Jamil, Activist & Founder, I Weigh, speaks onstage during the 2019 Concordia Annual Summit - Day 2 at Grand Hyatt New York on September 24, 2019 in New York City. (Photo credit: Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)
Actress and activist Jameela Jamil, who Harper's Bazaar named one of its 2019 "women who dare" because she's the "feminist-in-progress we all need," is no stranger to criticism. From being called out for headlining the Curvy Con, though she's not plus-size, to centering herself in the the body-positivity movement to failing to understand the meaning of inclusivity, Jamil has taken most of her criticism in stride. She has been known to respond to critics, leading her to change her Twitter bio to read, "I respond to abuse publicly, so don't start fights that you can't finish." And her I Weigh movement on Instagram promotes "radical inclusivity, so that no one feels alone," Jamil has made yet another misstep in terms of being inclusive.
On October 18, Jamil received a less than enthusiastic response from her followers after she called Piers Morgan "Britain's HPV" and "somewhere between human…and piece of diseased crusted anal fluff" on Twitter. Sex and culture critic Ella Dawson was one of many people who responded by trying to educate Jamil about STI stigma. "Aren't you a body-positive activist?" inquired Dawson. "This joke only adds to the stigma of super common STIs, a stigma that prevents people from seeking testing and treatment, and makes people who are HPV+ feel awful about themselves and their bodies," she said. In her response, Jamil publicized her own Human papillomavirus (HPV) diagnosis while also saying that she's a promoter of "body neutrality," a movement that prioritizes what makes the body feel good, rather than the body's appearance.
Jamil's continued defense and endorsement of HPV as a punch line has ramifications beyond her Twitter audience. When jokes about HPV and other common STIs enter the realm of social media, they serve as a testament to the feelings and fears that accompany a positive STI diagnosis. STI stigma, defined as thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes that society upholds about sexually transmitted infections and those that test positive for them, can come in the form of being labeled "dirty," "diseased," "careless," "damaged," and "slutty." A social worker, bartender, and senior marketing analyst have one thing in common: HPV. Within the last month, these three friends have confided in me about their positive HPV diagnosis. "I always get tested for HPV and it's always come back negative," the bartender shared. "I got the fucking HPV vaccine for Christ's sake. I tried so hard to do the responsible thing. I know I shouldn't feel guilt and shame, but that's just where I am." The social worker had a similar reaction, though she also had a distaste for testing protocols. "I feel angry, mostly at men in general, and I'm resentful of my boyfriend, even though he might not have been the one to give it to me. It's just really fucking annoying that he gets to live his life without ever worrying about this," she vented. The senior marketing analyst shared a similar concern about her partnership: "What does this mean for us?" she inquired with an intonation of desperation.
Each woman's sentiments echo the shame, anger, isolation, uncertainty, and fear that comes with contracting an STI. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that HPV is the most common STI in the United States, with more than 79 million positive diagnoses and 14 million new infections annually. There are more than 100 different types of HPV that most often present without symptoms but certain high-risk types may lead to genital warts and cancer if left untreated. Collectively, sexually active persons between the ages of 15 and 24 comprise 50 percent of all positive STI diagnoses with one in two testing positive for an STI before age 25. These statistics, however, mean very little when it comes to the ways that those who test positive can be isolated by lack of awareness.
Jamil certainly isn't the first public figure to use STIs in a comedic bit. Think back to The Hangover's infamous herpes line, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Except for herpes. That shit'll come back with you." And how could anyone forget Coach Carr (Dwayne Hill) saying chlamydia is the consequence of becoming sexually active in Mean Girls? These references are rarely challenged, largely because of the way STIs are taught during sex-education.
In the United States, only 39 states and the District of Columbia require that sex education be taught in schools and, of those 39, only 17 programs require that students are taught medically accurate information. In England, Jamil's home country, schools just introduced more comprehensive sex-education topics into their curriculum for the first time in nearly 20 years. When sex educators discuss STIs, they typically present them as infections to be feared, avoided, and labeled as a consequence for engaging in sex. Students bear witness to slides revealing more extreme cases of infections and a list of their presenting symptoms. Between the jokes, barebones presentation, and attitude of invincibility among students is a silence that goes unacknowledged. Though sex educators are moving toward more inclusive and comprehensive lessons that incorporate consent, pleasure, and LGBTQ identities, there's still room for students to be misinformed, especially if they're looking to the news media to educate them.
Since 2014, the CDC's annual STD Surveillance Report has noted a rise in one or more of the four STIs included in the report—and this does not even account for those STIs that go unreported, but news outlets still present STI rates in a way that horrifies their audience. In April 2019, broadcast news media flocked to reports about "spiked" rates of herpes at Coachella. Of course, this wasn't 'news" considering that most of the world population under age 50 tests positive for herpes simplex virus. In October 2019, The Onion, a satirical news outlet, published a post in response to the CDC's 2018 STD Surveillance Report of climbing STI rates: a purple eggplant emoji, presumably signifying a penis, covered in sores. Headlines that negatively frame STIs are not raising awareness; they're increasing misinformation, miseducation, and miscommunication.
Using STIs like a punch line only perpetuates stigma and equates the experiences of those who test positive with their infections, making these comprehensive conversations increasingly more difficult to have. Jamil's dismissal of STI stigma and refusal to accept responsibility for perpetuating it counteracts her stated commitment to body neutrality—and to feminism as a whole.
Like what you just read? Help make more pieces like this possible by joining Bitch Media's membership program, The Rage. You'll get exclusive perks and members-only swag, all while supporting Bitch's critical feminist analysis. Join Today
Read this Next: "How to Get Away with Murder" Brings an HIV-Positive Character to Primetime
by s.e. smith
Shonda Rhimes's dramatic show includes an important story-arc that challenges public conceptions of who gets HIV.
by Emily Depasse
Emily L. Depasse is a sexologist redefining the narratives around sexually transmitted infections (STIs), relationships, and the childfree life. She holds a BA in Gender and Sexuality Studies and is a graduate student at Widener University's Center for Human Sexuality Studies in the sex therapy program. You can follow her work on Instagram and Twitter @sexelducation.
Taste It
by adrienne maree brown
Resistance Narratives: Lidia Yuknavitch on Joan of Arc, Bodies, and Reimagining the Love Story
by Sara Rauch
Abuelita Knows Best
by VBF
No Rest for the (Already) Tired
by Anna Hamilton


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Debt Rattle August 27 2015
August 27, 2015 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 11:44 am Finance Tagged with: China, crisis, Greece, Lehman, meltdown, Minsky, oil, refugees, selloff, stocks
Arthur Siegel Zoot suit, business district, Detroit, Michigan Feb 1942
• US Stocks Surge, Snapping 6-Day Losing Streak (AP)
• Worst Decline In World Trade In 6 Years (RT)
• China Meltdown So Large That Losses Eclipsed BRICS Peers, Twice (Bloomberg)
• The Stock Market Hasn't Had a Selloff Like This One in Over 75 Years (BBG)
• China's Workers Abandon The City As Beijing Faces An Economic Storm (Guardian)
• China's Central Bank Won't Do Beijing's Dirty Work (Pesek)
• China Is In A Serious Bind But This Is Not Yet A 'Lehman' Moment (AEP)
• Capitalism Is Always And Fundamentally Unstable (Steve Keen)
• The US Is Short on Options to Confront Next Crisis (Benchmark)
• Stock Market Tumult Exposes Flaws in Modern Markets (WSJ)
• China Remains a Key Commodities Player, Despite Waning Appetites (WSJ)
• Oil Industry Needs to Find Half a Trillion Dollars to Survive (Bloomberg)
• For Oil Producers Cash Is King; That's Why They Just Can't Stop Drilling (BBG)
• Alberta's Economy Heading Toward Contraction (Globe and Mail)
• Yanis Varoufakis Pushes For Pan-European Network To Fight Austerity (ABC.au)
• Tsipras Rules Out Coalition Partners, Says Varoufakis 'Lost His Credibility' (AP)
• Greek Minister Says €5 Billion ATE Bank Scandal Is Biggest Of Its Type (Kath.)
• Hedge Funds Set To Bank Millions Short Selling In London Share Slump (Guardian)
• Mass Migration: What Is Driving the Balkan Exodus? (Spiegel)
• Hungary Scrambles To Confront Migrant Influx, Merkel Heckled (Reuters)
Debt rattle.
The Dow Jones industrial average rocketed more than 600 points Wednesday, its biggest gain in seven years, snapping a six-day losing streak that had Americans nervously checking their investment balances. While the surge came as a relief to many, Wall Street professionals warned that more rough days lie ahead, in part because of weakness in China, where signs of an economic slowdown triggered the sell-off that has shaken global markets over the past week. Heading into Wednesday, the three major U.S. stock indexes had dropped six days in a row, the longest slide in more than three years. The Dow lost about 1,900 points over that period, and more than $2 trillion in corporate value was wiped out. On Tuesday, a daylong rally collapsed in the final minutes of trading.
On Wednesday, the market opened strong again, and the question all day was whether the rally would hold. It did, and picked up speed just before the closing bell. The Dow vaulted 619.07 points, or 4%, to 16,285.51. It was the Dow's third-biggest point gain of all time and its largest since Oct. 28, 2008, when it soared 889 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index, a much broader measure of the stock market, gained 72.90 points, or 3.9%, to 1,940.51. In %age terms, it was the best day for the S&P 500 in nearly four years. The Nasdaq composite rose 191.05 points, or 4.2%, to 4,697.54. Analysts said investors apparently saw the big sell-off as an opportunity to go bargain-hunting and buy low. "That always leads to a bounce or spike in the market," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist for Prudential Financial.
"Meanwhile, the IMF predicted the world economy would grow 3.5% this year…"
The first half of 2015 has seen the worst decline in world trade since the 2009 crisis, according to World Trade Monitor. The data could imply that globalization has reached its peak. In the first quarter of 2015, the volume of world trade declined by 1.5%, while the second quarter saw a 0.5% contraction (1.1% growth in annual terms), which makes the first six months of the year the worst since the 2009 collapse. Global trade won back 2% in June, but the authors of the research, the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, warned that the monthly numbers were volatile and suggested looking at the long-term figures.
"We have had a miserable first six months of 2015," chief economist of the WTO Robert Koopman told the FT. The organization had predicted trade would grow 3.3% this year, but is likely to downgrade the estimate in the coming weeks. According to Koopman, the downturn in world trade reflects the delay in the recovery of the European economy and the economic slowdown in China. "There's an adjustment going on in the global economy and trade is a place where that adjustment becomes pretty visible," added the economist. However, despite the fact that globalization has indeed reached its peak, there are no signs that it will decline, said Koopman. Meanwhile, the IMF predicted the world economy would grow 3.5% this year.
$5 trillion.
Take the combined size of all stocks traded in Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, multiply by two, and you'll get a sense of how much China's market value has slumped since the meltdown started. Shanghai-listed equities erased $5 trillion since reaching a seven-year high in June, half their value, as margin traders closed out bullish bets and concern deepened that valuations were unjustified by the weak economic outlook. The four other countries in the BRICS universe have a combined market capitalization of $2.8 trillion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. China has accounted for 41% of equity declines worldwide since mid-June, with the scale of the drop also exceeding the entire size of the Japanese stock market.
Losses accelerated following the shock yuan devaluation on Aug. 11 as investors took the step as a sign the government is more worried about the pace of the economic slowdown than previously thought. That, in turn, sent convulsions through global markets, particularly hurting countries that rely heavily on China as a destination for their exports of vegetables, minerals and fuel, including Brazil, Russia and South Africa. The Shanghai Composite Index remains 33% higher in the past 12 months. "China has been the single most important source of growth in the world for several years, hence such a sharp slowdown has a profound impact on trade," Nathan Griffiths at NN Investment Partners in The Hague said by e-mail. Stock-market volatility on the "downside is much more important than the move on the upside for broader markets," he said.
By one metric…
By one metric, investors would have to go back 75 years to find the last time the S&P 500's losses were this abrupt. Bespoke Investment Group observed that the S&P 500 has closed more than four standard deviations below its 50-day moving average for the third consecutive session. That's only the second time this has happened in the history of the index. May 15, 1940, marked the end of the last three-session period in which this occurred. This string of sizable deviations from the 50-day moving average is a testament to just how severe recent losses have been compared to the index's recent range. "Not even the crash of 1987 got this oversold relative to trend," writes Bespoke.
The money management and research firm produced a pair of analogue charts showing what's in store if the S&P 500 mimics the price action seen in mid-1940. Overlaying the axes gives the impression that the worst of the pain is behind us, and a market bottom isn't too far off. However, indexing the S&P 500 to five sessions prior to the tumult shows that a replication of the mid-1940 plunge could see equities run much further to the downside and into a bear market. If it tracked the 1940 trajectory, the S&P 500 would hit a low of 1,556 in relatively short order. But Bespoke doesn't think stocks are fated to repeat that selloff.
"There is nothing, nothing, we have seen – Chinese fears, positioning, valuation, or any other factor – suggests to us that we are headed to 1556," the analysts write. "More likely, in our view, is something along the lines of the top analogue; we doubt the bottom is in, but see it unlikely we enter a bear market and a true stock market crash."
Back to the country.
Liu Weiqin swapped rural poverty for life on the dusty fringes of China's capital eight years ago hoping – like millions of other migrants – for a better future. On Thursday she will board a bus with her two young children and abandon her adopted home. "There's no business," complained the 36-year-old, who built a thriving junkyard in this dilapidated recycling village only to watch it crumble this year as plummeting scrap prices bankrupted her family. "My husband will stick around a bit longer to see if there is any more work to be found. I'm taking the kids." Weeks of stock market turmoil have focused the world's attention on the health of the Chinese economy and raised doubts over Beijing's ability to avert a potentially disastrous economic crisis, both at home and aboard.
The financial upheaval has been so severe it has even put a question mark over the future of premier Li Keqiang, who took office less than three years ago. Following a stock market rout dubbed China's "Black Monday", government-controlled media have rejected the increasingly desolate readings of its economy this week. "The long-term prediction for China's economy still remains rosy and Beijing has the will and means to avert a financial crisis," Xinhua, the official news agency, claimed in an editorial. Meanwhile Li told the state TV channel CCTVthat "the overall stability of the Chinese economy has not changed". The evidence in places such as Nanqijia – a hardscrabble migrant community of recyclers around 45 minutes' drive from Tiananmen Square – points in the opposite direction.
"It's the worst we've seen it. It's even worse than 2008," said Liu Weiqin, who like most of the village's residents hails from Xinyang in south-eastern Henan province, one of China's most deprived corners. "When things were good we could earn 10,000 yuan [£1,000] a month. But I've lost around 200,000 yuan since last year," added Liu, who was preparing to leave her cramped redbrick shack for a 10-hour coach journey back to her family home with her eight-year-old son, Hao Hao, and five-year-old daughter, Han Han.
Trouble in Utopia?
China's Zhou Xiaochuan is either the smartest or most reckless central banker in the world. Even after its fifth rate cut in nine months on Tuesday, the People's Bank of China is running a monetary policy that's too tight for an economy on the brink. The PBOC is grappling with weakening growth, excessive debt and a plunging equity market that's wreaking havoc on household wealth, corporate profits and business confidence. So why is Zhou still only offering monetary-baby steps over the shock-and-awe recently favored by Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda? It's partly because he wants to prevent China's central bank autonomy from being reduced to a hollow cliché.
Zhou's team – well aware that he has a control-obsessed Communist Party looking over his shoulder – wants to make sure President Xi Jinping does his part to restore China's economy. We'll know soon enough whether Zhou is being reckless. Many commentators have argued the PBOC should initiate quantitative easing. After all, China's overcapacity and debt levels – the country's local governments alone owe more than Germany's annual gross domestic product – caution against a new round of fiscal stimulus. If the data on China's economic fundamentals and Shanghai stocks cascade lower in the months ahead, Zhou might have some explaining to do. But, for now, his show of independence is a silver lining amid the ongoing turmoil.
Zhou is an economic modernizer without peer in today's Beijing, a disciple of former premier Zhu Rongji, China's most-important reformer since the pioneering Communist Party chairman Deng Xiaoping. Zhou's top goal has been to get the yuan added to the International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights program. But unlike other Chinese policy makers, who want to leverage that status to increase the country's global clout, he wants to use it to spur further economic reforms. He knows that once the yuan is recognized as a reserve currency, Beijing will have no choice but to adhere to global economic norms.
Ambrose can't seem to be able to make up his mind these days. Make it a Minsky moment then.
The European and American economies are at this point like 747 jumbo jets flying smoothly into stiff headwinds at 37,000 ft. Such craft do not normally fall out of the sky just like that. The great unknown is China. Some of us never believed in the first place that the Communist Party can perform miracles, or that China is necessarily destined for economic hegemony this century. We have long argued that the post-2009 credit blitz has been unprecedented in any major country in history. Loans have increased from $9 trillion to $27 trillion in six years. The extra debt alone is greater than the combined banking systems of the US and Japan, and its potency is dying as the output gained from each yuan of fresh credit drops from 80pc to nearer 25pc.
We argued – like premier Li Keqiang, our lonely hero in the Politburo – that the country is hurtling straight into the middle income trap unless it ditches Deng Xiaoping's obsolete catch-up model in time, both by weaning itself off investment-led growth and by relinquinshing the Party grip on Chinese society. We expected trouble. Yet the crumbling credibility of China's leaders this year is disturbing to watch. They have made serial errors. They sat on their hands as real one-year borrowing costs rocketed to 5pc. They botched the local government reform plan over the winter, precipitating a four-month fiscal crunch (spending fell 19.9pc in January) that would bring any country to its knees. They deliberately stoked a stock mania in Shanghai and Shenzhen, thinking it would reflate the economy by means of equity rather than debt.
They then mobilized the state's coercive powers to stop it collapsing, only to fail. Finally, they abandoned China's dollar peg and switched to a managed float before the economy had pulled out of recession (my term, not theirs), causing much of the world and many of its own citizens to conclude that Beijing is deliberately trying to drive down the yuan. It is this that precipitated the August storm. It is has the potential to turn dangerous. Nomura says capital flight reached almost $200bn in early July. Reports are circulating that it may be much higher. The central bank (PBOC) is burning through foreign reserves to defend the currency. This is causing a liquidity squeeze and lowering the monetary multiplier, yet the PBOC cannot easily slash rates to support the economy without inviting further outflows. Hence the timid 50 point cut in the reserve requirement ratio on Tuesday.
We are already seeing signs of disguised capital controls. Beijing has invoked anti-terror laws to investigate anybody suspected of smuggling money out of the country. Police raids are under way in Macau, the casino centre used to launder capital flight. Beijing has lifted the interest rate cap on long-term deposit accounts to try to entice savings to stay within China. These steps may at least slow the exodus of money. My own view – with low conviction, as they say in the hedge fund world – is that China will weather this immediate storm, though with difficulty.
That is Minsky.
Minsky's view that capitalism is fundamentally unstable can be derived from a simple, dynamic view of capitalism: without bankruptcy or government intervention, a pure free market capitalist economy will collapse into a private debt black hole. The political implications of this are (a) that capitalism needs debt write-offs to survive, and (b) that government money creation is needed to avoid economic collapse. This is a huge political shift from today's politics where the rights of creditors are enforced to the detriment of debtors, and where Neoliberalism has attempted to reduce the size of the public sector.
Used all the tricks in the book.
Stock market and commodity price declines are sweeping the globe, raising a question: If the U.S. economy lands in another hole, what tools does it have to dig itself out? Perhaps not many, or at least not as many as before the 2008 meltdown. U.S. debt stands at 74% of gross domestic product, compared with 35% in 2007, based on a Congressional Budget Office report released Tuesday. That burden is expected to grow further in coming years, limiting government options for additional fiscal stimulus in the form of spending or lower taxes. While the U.S. could follow in the footsteps of Japan, Ireland, Italy or Greece, which have racked up even higher debt-to-GDP levels, heftier deficits would be a hard political sell.
After all, Congress has been loathe to borrow, curbing spending through "sequester" limits and pushing the nation to the brink of default in 2011 amid disputes over a debt-limit extension. In recent years, the Federal Reserve has provided the stimulus that austerity-minded fiscal policy makers didn't. The central bank has held interest rates near zero since 2008 and carried out three massive asset purchase programs to boost the economy. Now, cutting interest rates wouldn't be an option in the face of a big downturn. That means the Fed would need to once again turn to unconventional steps such as further asset purchases or increased forward guidance. They've done it before, so it's hard to make the case that they wouldn't do it again, but it does mean that a crucial option — interest rates — is missing from their toolbox.
Partly for that reason, the Bank for International Settlements has warned that still-low rates around the world pose a looming economic risk. "Restoring more normal conditions will also be essential for facing the next recession, which will no doubt materialise at some point," according to an annual report from the organization of central banks. "Of what use is a gun with no bullets left?"
"..Monday's issues are likely to lead to changes in how markets operate at times of uncertainty.." Ha ha, want to bet?
Monday's mayhem exposed significant flaws in the new architecture of Wall Street, where stock-linked funds—as much as shares themselves—now trade en masse on U.S. markets. Many traders reported difficulty buying and selling exchange-traded funds, a popular investment in which baskets of stocks and other assets are packaged to facilitate easy trading. Dozens of ETFs traded at sharp discounts to their net asset value—or their components' worth—leading to outsize losses for investors who entered sell orders at the depth of the panic. Products built to provide insurance for investors came up short. As a result of trading halts in futures tied to the S&P 500 index, it was difficult for investors to get consistent prices on contracts linked to them that offer insurance against S&P 500 declines.
Elsewhere, the value of the most widely tracked Wall Street gauge of investor anxiety, the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, wasn't published until almost 10 a.m. Monday, half an hour after stock trading began and after the Dow Jones Industrial Average had already posted its largest-ever intraday point decline. That made it difficult for investors to easily gauge the fear in the market. "ETFs have democratized investing," said David Mazza, head of ETF research at State Street Global Advisors, a major ETF provider. But he and others added that ETFs don't prevent investors from suffering losses if they buy or sell when the market is under stress. Analysts said that, while losses were inevitable for some investors amid the turmoil, and unruly trading is hardly unheard of on late-summer days, Monday's issues are likely to lead to changes in how markets operate at times of uncertainty.
The WSJ tries for a positive spin here, but what this really means is commodities are in for foul weather.
The fear that China's appetite for commodities, from copper to coal, is falling after a decade of breakneck growth has sent prices tumbling, but the country's sheer scale in these markets means that China will continue to shape them in the long term, even if at a slower speed. China now buys about an eighth of the world's oil, a quarter of its gold, almost a third of its cotton and up to half of all the major base metals. Its buying power has made the country integral to global commodities trading, influencing everything from prices to the hours traders work. While analysts predict a slowdown in the growth of Chinese commodity demand, they believe the country's clout in the market isn't likely to wane.
Commodities have fallen sharply in recent days, extending a summer of declines, amid concerns that a slowdown in China's economic growth will sap the demand that drove markets through more than a decade of gains. China's voracious consumption amid double-digit annual economic growth also encouraged a glut of new supply, from fertilizers to gold. Earlier this week, oil fell to its lowest levels in over six years. Industrial metals, such as copper and aluminum, have lost about 20% of their value this year, as has iron ore.
At a time when the oil price is languishing at its lowest level in six years, producers need to find half a trillion dollars to repay debt. Some might not make it. The number of oil and gas company bonds with yields of 10% or more, a sign of distress, tripled in the past year, leaving 168 firms in North America, Europe and Asia holding this debt, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The ratio of net debt to earnings is the highest in two decades. If oil stays at about $40 a barrel, the shakeout could be profound, according to Kimberley Wood at Norton Rose Fulbright in London. "The look and shape of the oil industry would likely change over the next five to 10 years as companies emerge from this," Wood said.
"If oil prices stay at these levels, the number of bankruptcies and distress deals will undoubtedly increase." Debt repayments will increase for the rest of the decade, with $72 billion maturing this year, about $85 billion in 2016 and $129 billion in 2017, according to BMI Research. A total of about $550 billion in bonds and loans are due for repayment over the next five years. U.S. drillers account for 20% of the debt due in 2015, Chinese companies rank second with 12% and U.K. producers represent 9%. In the U.S., the number of bonds yielding greater than 10% has increased more than fourfold to 80 over the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 26 European oil companies have bonds in that category..
Hamster and treadmill.
Investors sent a surprising message to U.S. shale producers as crude fell almost 20% in August: keep calm and drill on. While most oil stocks have fallen sharply this month, the least affected by the slump share one thing in common: they don't plan to slow down, even though a glut of supply is forcing prices down. Cimarex Energy jumped more than 8% in two days after executives said Aug. 5 that their rig count would more than double next year. Pioneer Natural Resources Co. rallied for three days when it disclosed a similar increase. Shareholders continue to favor growth over returns, helping explain why companies that form the engine of U.S. oil – the frackers behind the boom – aren't slowing down enough to rebalance the market.
U.S. production has remained high, frustrating OPEC's strategy of maintaining market share and enlarging a glut that has pushed oil below $40 a barrel. "These companies have always been rewarded for growth," according to Manuj Nikhanj, head of energy research for ITG Investment Research in Calgary. Now though, "the balance sheets of this sector are so challenged that investors are going to have to look at other factors," he said. Output from 58 shale producers rose 19% in the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Despite cutting spending by $21.7 billion, the group pumped 4% more in the second quarter than in the last three months of 2014.
That's buoyed overall U.S. output, which has only drifted lower after peaking at a four-decade high in June. The government estimates production will slide 8% from the second quarter of this year to the third quarter of 2016. OPEC has been pumping above its target for more than a year. The oversupply may worsen if Iran is allowed to boost exports should it strike a deal with the U.S. and five other world powers to curb the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
"The province's Wildrose opposition has noted that a barrel of Alberta's oil is now cheaper than a case of beer."
Faced with a collapse in energy prices, widespread drought, forest fires and the uncertainty of an untested government, the engine that drove much of Canada's growth over the past decade has seized. Alberta's economy is expected to contract this year. "I think it's inevitable that Alberta will be in a contraction this year," said Todd Hirsch, the chief economist for ATB Financial. "In 2016, I'm still optimistic we can squeeze out a very modest recovery. But this province won't feel like it normally does until 2017 at the earliest." Apart from a devastated energy sector, the provincial government has declared a provincewide agricultural disaster. After weeks of near-record drought, fields of parched grain can be found across much of Alberta.
The Agriculture Financial Services Corp. now expects to pay out as much as $1-billion to struggling farmers. Although most of Alberta's farmers have crop insurance, the provincial agency will use the money to ensure the speedy compensation of farmers for lost crops and revenue. At the same time, dry weather gave rise to an early fire season in Alberta that has burnt 493,000 hectares across central and northern areas of the province – a burn area nearly twice the five-year average. A final price tag for the 1,646 fires seen across Alberta so far has yet to be determined. The struggling economy will have a huge effect on the government's finances.
The provincial budget deficit could be the largest in nearly two decades, topping $8-billion if oil prices remain low, according to John Rose, the City of Edmonton's chief economist. That would complicate Premier Rachel Notley's campaign promise to increase spending on health and education while balancing the books by 2018. "It's turning out worse than I expected," said Mr. Rose, who warned of a significant slowdown in the provincial economy last December. "My forecast for 2015 was predicated on oil holding around $60 a barrel through the year. Things have gone awry."
Can't reform EU, Yanis.
As far as Yanis Varoufakis is concerned, the Greek election campaign will be 'sad and fruitless'. He tells Late Night Live why he won't be running and why he is instead putting his energy into political action on a European level. When Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras suddenly resigned last week, calling for fresh elections, his former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis was about to set off for France. His destination was the Fête de la Rose—a political event organised by the French Socialist Party, held annually in the tiny town of Frangy-en-Bresse, not far from the Swiss border. As rain poured down on the gathering, Varoufakis opened his speech with words familiar to any student of Marxist politics: 'A spectre is haunting Europe.'
In Varoufakis's adaptation, the spectre is that of democracy, and the powers of old Europe are as opposed to democracy in 2015 as they were to communism in 1848. For Varoufakis, the events of this year are an 'Athens spring' that was crushed by the banks after the Greek public's vote against austerity in July. But as he explained to Late Night Live, he won't be running for Greek parliament in the September elections, as he no longer believes in what Syriza and its leader, Tsipras, are doing. 'The party that I served and the leader that I served has decided to change course completely and to espouse an economic policy that makes absolutely no sense, which was imposed upon us,' he says.
'I don't believe that we should have signed up to it, simply because within a few months the ship is going to hit the rocks again. And we don't have the right to stand in front of our courageous people who voted no against this program, and propose to them that we implement it, given that we know that it cannot be implemented.' He has sympathy for a grouping of rebel MPs known as Popular Unity, but fundamentally disagrees with their 'isolationist' stance of desiring a return to the drachma. Instead, he says, his focus has turned to politics at the European level. 'I don't believe this parliament that will emerge from the coming election can ever hope to establish a majority in favour of a rational economic program and a progressive one,' he says.
'Instead of becoming engaged in an election campaign which in my mind is quite sad and fruitless, I'm going to be remain politically active—maybe more active than I have been so far—at the European level, trying to establish a European network. 'National parties forming flimsy alliances within a Europe that operates like a bloc, like a macroeconomy, in its own interests—that model doesn't work anymore. I think we should try to aim for a European network that at some point evolves into a pan-European party.'
"(Varoufakis) was talking and they paid no attention to him. They had switched off.."
Greece's prime minister on Wednesday raised the political stakes ahead of next month's early national election, saying he will not enter a coalition with the main center-right and centrist opposition parties even if he needs their backing to govern. Alexis Tsipras resigned last week, barely seven months into his four-year mandate, when his bailout-dependent country received a new rescue loan that saved it from a looming bankruptcy and exit from the euro currency. He is seeking a stronger mandate, after his radical left-led coalition effectively lost its parliamentary majority when dozens of his own hardline left lawmakers refused to back new austerity measures demanded for the loan — which parliament approved with the backing of pro-European opposition parties.
Tsipras is widely expected to win the snap election, which will most likely be held Sept. 20, but it is unclear whether he will secure enough seats in parliament to govern alone. In an interview with private Alpha TV Wednesday, Tsipras ruled out a coalition with the center-right main opposition New Democracy party, or the smaller centrist Potami and PASOK parties. "I will not become prime minister in a coalition government with (New Democracy, PASOK or Potami)," he said. "I think that all three parties essentially express the old political system." Before the election date is set, main opposition parties must complete the formal process of trying to form a national unity government. That procedure — doomed due to the parties' disagreements — is expected to end Thursday.
Tsipras' disaffected former comrades are angry at his policy U-turn to secure the international loans, as he was elected Jan. 25 on pledges to scrap creditor-demanded income cuts and tax hikes. They have formed the rebel group Popular Unity, now Greece's third-largest party. Deepening the rift in Syriza, 53 members of the 201-strong central committee — the main party organ — announced their resignations from the party Wednesday, as they are switching to Popular Unity. Tsipras has argued that he was forced to accept creditors' terms to keep Greece in the euro, and said that if he secures a slender majority in the election he will seek a coalition with his current partner, the small right wing populist Independent Greeks.
[..] In his interview, Tsipras said he accepted the bailout deal to avoid having to deal with a Greek bank collapse "and, possibly, civil strife" if the country was forced out of the euro. Tsipras also explained why, shortly before the agreement, he sacked his flamboyant finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, who alienated Greece's creditors with his aggressive talk and delaying tactics. Tsipras said that in a top-level June 25 meeting he and Varoufakis attended with the IMF, ECB and EC heads, "(Varoufakis) was talking and they paid no attention to him. They had switched off," Tsipras said. "He had lost his credibility with his interlocutors."
Until the next one.
Minister of State for Combating Corruption Panayiotis Nikoloudis on Wednesday described the illegal loans provided by the now-defunct Agricultural Bank of Greece (or ATEbank) between 2000 and 2012, which he is responsible for investigating, as the "biggest scandal since the modern Greek state was founded." "We are talking about €5 billion at least… which dwarfs the infamous [Giorgos] Koskotas scandal involving the Bank of Crete [in the late 1980s], which ran to the equivalent of €60 million."
The results of a preliminary investigation, which were made public in July, indicated that ATEbank was used to siphon some €5 billion to supporters of previous governments as part of a patron-client relationship. Prosecutors are investigating more than 1,300 loans that were issued without the necessary guarantees being demanded by the bank. ATEbank was absorbed by Piraeus Bank in 2013. Nikoloudis said that the loans were not given randomly, but to specific people, including "media owners, select businessmen and agricultural cooperatives."
Shorting Sainsbury.
Hedge funds are set to bank tens of millions of pounds from the slump in share prices in London, having bet almost £18bn that the FTSE 100 would fall. The funds making the bets include Lansdowne Partners, which is run by George Osborne's best man, Peter Davies, and Odey Asset Management, which is led by Crispin Odey – who made millions by predicting the credit crisis and earlier this year said the world was heading for a downturn "likely to be remembered in 100 years". Short selling, effectively betting that share prices will fall, involves borrowing shares in a company and selling them with a view to buying them back at a lower price. The hedge fund makes a profit by banking the difference , as long as the shares do in fact fall.
As concerns over the slowing Chinese economy have grown, traders have increasingly bet that the fallout would be felt in blue-chip shares in London. The average%age of FTSE 100 company shares out on loan to short sellers has risen from 1.2% a year ago to 1.75%. The value of the short positions hedge funds have taken in FTSE 100 companies is £17.8bn, according to research by Markit. By the close of trading on Monday the FTSE 100 had fallen for 10 days in a row, sending it 17% down from its record high in April, before bouncing back by 3% on Tuesday. The biggest short positions are in Wm Morrison and J Sainsbury, with 16.4% of Morrisons shares out on loan, and 16.2% of Sainsbury's shares. Traders have bet on the two supermarkets struggling further in the face of fierce competition from the discounters Aldi and Lidl.
Hopelessness is.
When Visar Krasniqi reached Berlin and saw the famous image on Bernauer Strasse – the one of the soldier jumping over barbed wire into the West — he knew he had arrived. He had entered a different world, one that he wanted to become a part of. What he didn't yet know was that his dream would come to an end 11 months later, on Oct. 5, 2015. By then, he has to leave, as stipulated in the temporary residence permit he received. Krasniqi is not a war refugee, nor was he persecuted back home. In fact, he has nothing to fear in his native Kosovo. He says that he ran away from something he considers to be even worse than rockets and Kalashnikovs: hopelessness. Before he left, he promised his sick mother in Pristina that he would become an architect, and he promised his fiancée that they would have a good life together.
"I'm a nobody where I come from, but I want to be somebody." But it is difficult to be somebody in Kosovo, unless you have influence or are part of the mafia, which is often the same thing. Taken together, the wealth of all parliamentarians in Kosovo is such that each of them could be a millionaire. But Krasniqi works seven days a week as a bartender, and earns just €200 ($220) a month. But a lack of prospects is not a recognized reason for asylum, which is why Krasniqi's application was initially denied. The 30,000 Kosovars who have applied for asylum in Germany since the beginning of the year are in similar positions. And the Kosovars are not the only ones. This year, the country has seen the arrival of 5,514 Macedonians, 11,642 Serbians, 29,353 Albanians and 2,425 Montenegrins. Of the 196,000 people who had filed an initial application for asylum in Germany by the end of July, 42% are from the former Yugoslavia, a region now known as the Western Balkans.
The exodus shows the wounds of the Balkan wars have not yet healed. Slovenia and Croatia are now members of the European Union, but Kosovo, which split from Serbia and became prematurely independent in 2008, carves out a pariah existence. Serbia is heavily burdened with the unresolved Kosovo question. The political system in Bosnia-Hercegovina is on the brink of collapse, 20 years after the end of the war there. And Macedonia, long the post-Yugoslavia model nation, has spent two decades in the waiting rooms of the EU and NATO, thanks to Greek pressure in response to a dispute over the country's name. The consequences are many: a lack of investment, failing social welfare systems, corruption, organized crime, high unemployment, poverty, frustration and rage.
"..helicopters, mounted police and dogs.."
Hungary made plans on Wednesday to reinforce its southern border with helicopters, mounted police and dogs, and was also considering using the army as record numbers of migrants, many of them Syrian refugees, passed through coils of razor-wire into Europe. In Germany, which expects to receive 800,000 of them this year, Chancellor Angela Merkel was heckled by dozens of protesters as she visited an eastern town where violent anti-refugee protests erupted at the weekend. The surge in migrants seeking refuge from conflict or poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia has confronted Europe with its worst refugee crisis since World War Two, stirring social tensions and testing the resources and solidarity of the 28-nation European Union.
A record 2,533 mainly Syrians, Afghans and Pakistanis crossed from Serbia into EU member Hungary on Tuesday, climbing over or squirreling under a razor-wire barrier into the hands of an over-stretched police force that struggled to fingerprint and process them. Authorities said over 140,000 had been caught entering so far this year. Unrest flared briefly at a crowded reception center in the border region of Roszke, with tear gas fired by police. Another 1,300 were detained on Wednesday morning. More will have passed unnoticed, walking through gaps in a border fence being built by Hungary in what critics say is a futile attempt to keep them out. They packed a train station in the capital, Budapest, hundreds of men, women and children sleeping or sitting on the floor in a designated "transit zone" for migrants.
Almost all hope to reach the more affluent countries of northern and western Europe such as Germany and Sweden. Visiting the eastern German town of Heidenau, where violence broke out during weekend protests by far-right militants against the arrival of around 250 refugees, Merkel said xenophobia would not be tolerated. About 50 protesters booed, whistled and waved signs that read "Volksverraeter" (traitor), a slogan adopted by the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement earlier this year. "There is no tolerance for those people who question the dignity of others, no tolerance for those who are not willing to help where legal and human help is required," Merkel told reporters and local people. "The more people who make that clear … the stronger we will be."
Home › Forums › Debt Rattle August 27 2015
This topic contains 3 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by Nassim 5 years, 4 months ago.
Arthur Siegel Zoot suit, business district, Detroit, Michigan Feb 1942 • US Stocks Surge, Snapping 6-Day Losing Streak (AP) • Worst Decline In World T
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle August 27 2015]
I've been in China's true back country, and I'd live there in a second. The unspoiled parts.
That was a village we had to walk to, on a donkey trail, for an hour. The village where we parked the Jeep Cherokees – no, I would NOT want to live there.
The pristine village was full of happy people, immaculate laughing young women being what caught my eye the most. 🙂 Adobe houses, communal threshing floor in the middle of everything.
The village on the road- had dead motorcycles, bare lightbulbs everywhere – and no smiles, almost no young people. Ah, the benefits of western capitalism.
Greenpa, we'll yet find out how severe the destruction of the Chinese countryside has been, if we're "lucky". What I've read through the years is horrendous. Many Chinese have no countryside to go back to.
Nassim
Much of Australia has been getting more than its fair share of rain in recent years – after a drought that was blamed on Global Warming.
The kangaroos are multiplying at an alarming rate as these two clips show:
"Scary kangaroos"
"Hungry kangaroos on collision course with snow traffic from Canberra"
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/hungry-kangaroos-on-collision-course-with-snow-traffic-from-canberra-20150826-gj7zss.html
I guess we are living in a parallel universe down here.
Debt Rattle August 26 2015 Refugees Expose Europe's Lack Of Decency


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Valley Represented At Travelers Club Championship In Ottawa
TOPICS:ChilliwackCloverdaleCurlingOttawaTravelers Club Championship
Posted By: Don Lehn November 22, 2015
Fraser Valley/Ottawa – Curling dreams will be coming true for the 28 teams that open the 2015 Travelers Curling Club Championship on Monday at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.
The seventh Travelers Curling Club Championship begins Monday at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club
This is the seventh edition of the Travelers Curling Club Championship. This week-long round robin takes place in a different Canadian city each year and offers Canada's top club curlers an elite national championship experience. Curling Canada's 14 Member Association teams (from 10 provinces, three territories and Northern Ontario) will battle to make the playoff rounds on Friday and Saturday.
Each team is allowed only one player who has played in a provincial/territorial Juniors', Men's (Brier), Women's (Scotties) or Seniors' championship in the current or previous four curling seasons, or participated in a Grand Slam event in the current or previous four curling seasons.
As well, no player on the teams can have played in a Canadian Juniors, Men's, Women's or Seniors national championship in the current or previous four seasons.
And while these aren't the curlers you watch routinely on television, there are some notable names in the field that will contest the men's and women's championships.
On the men's side, a name that immediately jumps out is Andrew Hackner, second for Team Northern Ontario from Geraldton. Hackner is the son of two-time Brier and world men's champion Al Hackner. In addition to his curling credentials, Andrew Hackner played in two CIS Men's Basketball Final 8 national championship tournaments as a member of the Lakehead University Thunderwolves.
Hackner's skip, Mike Assad, skipped Northern Ontario to a 5-6 record at the 2001 Brier, and has played in three Canadian Mixed championships.
Team BC comes from the Chilliwack Curling Club, Chilliwack, B.C. Skip: Kevin Britz Third: Kenneth Britz Second: James Crawford Lead: Darren Jarvis.
On the women's side, Nova Scotia skip Monica Moriarty is the sister of Colleen Jones, and was a member of Colleen's 1982 Scott Tournament of Hearts-winning team. Moriarty also played with Jones at the 1984 and 1989 Hearts, and was an alternate on the Jones-skipped Nova Scotia teams in 1994 and 1996. Additionally, she threw lead rocks for Paul Flemming's 1999 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship gold-medal team.
Since the inaugural Travelers Curling Club Championship in 2009 in Toronto, Alberta has won the men's title three times, while Saskatchewan has claimed two titles and Ontario one.
On the women's side, Ontario has won three times, followed by Manitoba with two and Alberta with one.
Team BC comes from the Cloverdale Curling Club, Surrey, B.C. Skip: Leanne Andrews Third: Jenn Routliffe Second: Kim McLandress Lead: Phillppa Johnston
At the 2014 Travelers Curling Club Championship in Halifax, Saskatchewan's Kory Kohuch won the men's title, while Ontario's Kerry Lackie won the women's crown.
The 14 men's and 14 women's teams will be split into two seven-team round-robin pools. After a single round-robin, the top three teams in each pool will make the playoffs. The first-place teams will be seeded directly into the semifinals, Friday, Nov. 27, at 6:30 p.m. (all times Eastern). The second- and third-place teams will meet in crossover quarter-finals Friday at 1:30 p.m, with the winners moving into the semis.
The gold- and bronze-medal games are Saturday, Nov. 28, at 10 a.m.
Selected games from the 2015 Travelers Curling Club Championships will be live-streamed at www.curling.ca/2015travelers/
Scores and standings from the event will be available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/.
For draw times, team lineups and other event info, go to: www.curling.ca/2015travelers/
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