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RONALE SANJAY NAIDU
March 26, 1982 - October 13, 2003
HOME	 BIOGRAPHY	 PHOTOS	 POEMS	 FOUNDATION	 MEMORIAM SOCCER TOURNAMENTS
Biography of Ronale Sanjay Naidu
On March 26th, 1982 at the Vancouver General Hospital, Ronale Sanjay Naidu, the beloved first child of Raj and Suzie Naidu was born. He was a beautiful baby boy all wrapped in blue, weighing 7 lbs 8 ozs.
At the age of four, Ronale began preschool at Tinky Wiggle in Vancouver. He went to Morley Elementary School in Burnaby for grade one and attended Carnarvon Community School in Vancouver for his elementary education.
He attended Kitsilano Secondary School in Vancouver with great success.
When Ronale was two and a half years old he started swimming and skating lessons.
At age four he started to play baseball and soccer.
He decided soccer and baseball were the sports he enjoyed and would continue to play.
In elementary school, Ronale played on the school team in volleyball, basketball, and table tennis.
He thoroughly enjoyed sports.
He was a great leader and team player.
Ronale played baseball with Kitsilano Little League from 1989-1993.
He received the Bill Prince Memorial upon graduation from Carnarvon Community School.
During high school, Ronale grew more passionate about sports and his focus during these years was basketball and soccer.
His interest in soccer really grew at the age of twelve when he joined Point Grey Soccer.
In 1994, he captained the Roman Tulis European Soccer squad touring team that played in Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary.
His club team placed 2nd at the Provincial Cup.
In 1995/96, his touring team, Roman Tulis, finished 7th at the Leige Cup in Belgium.
He was a Provincial All-star Team member and his team was the tournament champion of the Provincial Cup, Coastal Cup, Nike Firecracker (Washington) and Nike Friendship Cup (Oregon).
During 1997/97, Ronale captained the U15 Provincial Team to 3rd place at the National Championships.
His team competed in the Nike Surf Cup Semi-finals and he captained the Vancouver Selects.
In 1998, Ronale captained the European touring team that won the Ian Rush Invitational in Wales.
He had a professional try-out with Glasgow Celtic and played with the Celtic in the Keil Classic v. Blackburn, Coventry and Sutherland.
The Keil Classic included other prominent teams such as Ajax, Bayern Munich and Liverpool.
Ronale captained the Vancouver Selects in 1999 and was a BC Provincial Team member.
He Captained the European touring team that placed 4th at the Maldegem Invitational in Belgium where they defeated Leeds United in the quarterfinals.
The Slovakian Jr. National Team, Sparta Rotterdam, Club Brugge, Nac Breda and F.C. Utrecht competed at the Maldegen invite as well.
Ronale trained at the Western Canadian Training Center with Olympic Soccer Coach Bruce Twanley.
His position was center back/sweeper and midfield.
Upon graduation from Kitsilano High School, Ronale received an Academic and Soccer Scholarship to the University of New Mexico.
He joined their team, Lobos, in the year 2000 and played for two years.
In 2002, Ronale transferred to Simon Fraser University.
He played with their team, Clan for two years while completing 4th year sciences.
In 2003, Ronale took red-shirt to concentrate on his studies.
Ronale was involved with the Fijian Community Soccer Club.
The last tournament he played was in Fiji, the Sangam Tournament, where he received MVP.
One October evening, Ronale played with the SFU Alumni Team and later went out for dinner with friends, Ronale never returned home.
During his twenty-one years of life, Ronale touched many people's lives.
His joyful, charismatic, generous and positive character inspired and uplifted everyone he met.
Ronale was a polite, disciplined exceptional gentleman who was full of life and loved to attend parties.
His peaceful spirit permeated all who were blessed with his presence.
Ronale was quiet in nature though he loved to meet new people, experience different adventures and places through his deep love and commitment to sports.
He excelled and was honoured with an outstanding number of awards for his involvement in sports.
Ronale loved his coaches dearly.
His respect for elders was shown in his immediacy in greeting and sharing with them at family gatherings, celebrations and events.
Over two thousand people attended Ronale's funeral to honour the gift of his life and the special sacredness of how he touched their lives.
Held close to everyone's heart he shall always be remembered and treasured for his gentle spirit and the tremendous leadership, power, skill, tenacity and beauty he brought to everything in his life.
A charity foundation has been established in honour of Ronale. Click on FOUNDATION for details on memorials and scholarships dedicated to Ronale Sanjay Naidu. The Ronale Sanjay Naidu Foundation welcomes your DONATIONDONATION
If you have any photographs, poems, or any other contributions please let the WEBMASTER know.


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The Nutcracker - English National Ballet
Opened 11 December 2019, Closed 5 January 2020 at the London Coliseum
English National Ballet presents Wayne Eagling's acclaimed 'Edwardian' ballet production of The Nutcracker in London this Christmas
On an enchanted Christmas Eve, under the heavy boughs of the candlelit tree Clara battles with the Mouse King and falls in love with a handsome Prince. As the air grows colder and snowflakes begin to fall, Clara and her valiant Nutcracker take a balloon ride across the frost-dusted skyline to the glistening Land of Snow where her adventure really begins. Journey back in time with English National Ballet to a frost-covered, gas lit world and join Clara, her Nutcracker doll and the mysterious Drosselmeyer in this traditional, festive tale for all the family (aged 5 and over).
This production of The Nutcracker - specially created by ENO Artistic Director, Wayne Eagling, with concept by Toer van Schayk, was first seen in London in December 2010, and is English National Ballet's 10th interpretation of this much-loved classic. A world of Edwardian elegance, designed by Peter Farmer, brings to life the eternally popular Tchaikovsky score that features the 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy' and many other familiar favourites.
Over 100 dancers and musicians bring Nutcracker to life with exquisite dancing, beautiful sets and Tchaikovsky's popular score played live. From the sound of the orchestra tuning up, to the final bows and cheers, a trip to English National Ballet's Nutcracker is an unforgettable Christmas treat.
PLEASE NOTE: Children under 5 will not be admitted
"Sugar Plums were still on ration when the London Festival Ballet danced its very first Nutcracker back in 1950. English National Ballet (as it is now known) has worn out nine productions since then and now Wayne Eagling's company has unveiled its latest version at the London Coliseum: utterly traditional, thoroughly captivating. Peter Farmer's well-mannered, high Victorian sets and costumes are in stark contrast to the previous lot by the cartoonist Gerald Scarfe... The sheer bankability of little Clara's adventures in a magical realm where rats, fairies and sweetmeats dance to a ravishing Tchaikovsky score can sometimes cause The Nutcracker to dominate a ballet company's schedule. Audiences never tire of it but dancers sometimes do and Eagling has seen to it that the new production is stuffed with plum roles. The party guests of the first act all return in another guise during the second. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier are usually parachuted in for their five-minute pas de deux but Eagling integrates them into the narrative. The grown-up fairy steps into the infant Clara's shoes the moment her dream begins, while the Prince doubles as the nephew of Drosselmeyer, the mysterious toymaker." The Sunday Telegraph
"After years of the gaudy, bawdy, Gerald Scarfe-designed production, Wayne Eagling's new version is a breath of fresh air. Designer Peter Farmer has gone back to chocolate-box, high Edwardian nostalgia and it looks ravishing. However, there are changes in the plotline. Clara the girl becomes a woman as soon as she enters her dream, and eventually dons the Swarovski-encrusted mantle of the Sugar Plum Fairy herself, while her saviour/beau switches awkwardly between the Nutcracker and Drosselmeyer's nephew. The Mouse King and his furry, skull-headed hordes are supposed to be a menacing constant presence but lurk rather ineffectually for much of the time, and the Mouse King's death is hastily passed over. Yet there is a joyous quality to this production which makes it feel like pure entertainment. The corps is well drilled, the choreography often enchantingly realised." The London Metro
"The Nutcracker may seem like a simple Christmas bauble of a ballet, but as Wayne Eagling's production for English National Ballet demonstrates, it's tricky to stage. Based on the complicated tale by ETA Hoffmann, its plot accommodates a multiplicity of stories and fantasies, which nestle inside each other like Chinese boxes but don't quite connect. Eagling, in his new version, is determined to reduce the number of boxes. Most of the ballet's original framing story concerning the magician Drosselmeyer's quest to free his nephew from the Nutcracker curse is edited out. Instead, Eagling focuses on Clara, the girl caught up in Drosselmeyer's quest, so that the ballet becomes focused on her first adolescent experience of love... Essentially this is a Nutcracker that relies on the dancing to cast its spell." The Guardian
"For English National Ballet, The Nutcracker isn't just a popular family entertainment. It's an annual tradition that has kept the company afloat for 60 years. For the past eight of them, ENB has been dancing Christopher Hampson's version, with Gerald Scarfe's outlandish caricatures and jokey designs. For this, the company's tenth Nutcracker, their artistic director Wayne Eagling has turned the clock back to a more traditional time... The spectacle is undeniable and Eagling's choreography at its best is very dancey, spirited and pleasingly shaped (if a little challenging in places)." The Times
English National Ballet The Nutcracker in London at the Coliseum opened on 11 December 2019 and closed on 5 January 2020

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Category: Term in review
The Term so far . . .
It is early days, but we thought it worth a preliminary look at the justices' and the advocates' relative participation at oral argument in the 2019 Term. The graph below shows the number of words spoken in by each group, in aggregate, in the 15 cases heard so far this Term, and in the 71 cases heard last Term, for context.
A comparison of words spoken at oral argument in the 2018 and 2019 Terms by the Advocates and the Justices
As illustrated, there is considerable variation in participation between cases, with some controversies inspiring more words from both the justices and the advocates, some from one or the other, and some quiet cases, such as the very first case, Kahler v. Kansas, a murky death penalty case. But the overall trends are, so far, indistinguishable from last Term.
The picture is more interesting when looked at broken down by individual justice, as in the next graph. Last Term, we showed that Justice Kavanaugh gained momentum after a quiet start, following his highly controversial confirmation hearings. That trend has continued this Term, with Kavanaugh overtaking fellow conservatives, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Gorsuch, though not yet Justice Alito. No word from Justice Thomas this Term as yet.
A comparison of words spoken at oral argument in the 2018 and 2019 Terms, by Justice.
Also apparent is that Justice Ginsburg continues to increase her verbal contribution at oral argument, a good sign of her improving health. She is still relatively quiet compared to the other liberal justices. Indeed, other than Justice Ginsburg, we see the same liberal/conservative divide as last Term. The liberal justices speak more than the conservative justices, even as the conservatives dominate the Court in terms of decision-making.
We will report more as the Court says more throughout the Term.
The New Median: Ideology in the Post-Kennedy Court
Guest post by Maveric Searle
This week we have a guest blogger, a Northwestern Pritzker law student, Maveric Searle, who developed a new measure of judicial ideology for a final paper in Tonja Jacobi's Supreme Court cases seminar. He also applied it to the current Term, based on the limited decisions released so far, to answer the very pressing question of who we can expect to be the new median of the Court. Maveric has turned his paper into a ScotusOA post, providing the first take on the new ideological spectrum of the Roberts Court.
A new median
The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2018 represented a potentially pivotal moment in the modern history of the Supreme Court. Kennedy had long held the spot of the median justice on the Court. The median justice, whose vote is often the deciding vote in contentious cases, is typically thought of as being the most powerful or the most influential justice. Kennedy's retirement represented not only the appointment of a new justice, but also the opportunity for a new justice to fill the position at the Court's center. Chief Justice John Roberts is commonly seen as the favorite to become the new median justice. This post analyzes the Court's early rulings from the October 2018 Term to see if Roberts has lived up to those expectations, or if the Court's newest member, Justice Kavanaugh, could be its new median.
Conceiving the Median: Agreeability and Majoritarianism
One simple way to identify the median justice is to look at who has voted in the majority most often this Term. The median justice should have a high rate of voting in the majority because historically the median is in the majority in closely decided cases more often than any other justice.
The numbers above suggest that the median is likely Kavanaugh or Roberts, each of whom has been in the majority at a higher rate than their colleagues. Kavanaugh has a higher ranking than Roberts, but importantly Kavanaugh did not participate in several cases this term, and a dissenting vote in any one of those cases would have moved him below Roberts.
Another straightforward approach is to look at how often each Justice agreed with the other Justices. The median justice should have a high agreement rate because, by virtue of being centrist, he or she will generally agree with colleagues on either end of the spectrum more often than will the opposite extreme justices.
Once again, Kavanaugh and Roberts are duking it out for top spot, tied for who looks most likely to be the median in terms of average agreeability rate. Given the similarities in both their rates of voting in the majority and their average agreeability rating, a more sophisticated analysis is needed to determine which of the two is the new median justice.
Ranking the Justices on a Left-Right Ideological Spectrum
It is now well accepted who is a liberal justice and who is a conservative justice, not only because the justices are nominated and confirmed by increasingly polarized political actors, but because each of the currently serving Justices has prior affiliations with either the Federalist Society or the American Constitution Society. The key question is: what are the differences among the liberals and among the conservatives? And in particular, with a new five justice conservative majority, who will be the most moderate conservative justice, and thus the median of the Court?
To identify the median justice by ideology along a left-right continuum, the next measure examines how often each justice votes with the conservative justices as compared to the liberal justices. Justices are classified as liberal or conservative based on the political party of the president who appointed them. It then counts how many liberal and conservative justices each justice agreed with in each case (using the percentage of the ideological bloc that the justice agreed with, to account for the fact that there are more conservative than liberal justices).
In a unanimous decision, every justice would agree with 100% of both the conservative and liberal justices. In a 5-4 ideologically ordered decision, a conservative justice would agree with 100% of the conservative justices and 0% of the liberal justices. In a case like Garza v. Idaho—a 6-3 decision with Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissenting—each justice in the majority agreed with 40% of the conservatives (Roberts and Kavanaugh) and 100% of the liberals. Each justice in the minority agreed with 60% of the conservatives and 0% of the liberals. Justices are given weight for agreeing with themselves to ensure that decisions with a lone dissenter have an impact on the dissenting justice's final score.
These percentages are then turned into an aggregated 0–1 "liberal score" and an aggregated 0–1 "conservative score," with e.g. 60% agreement being a score of .6. A net ideology score is then determined by subtracting the liberal score from the conservative score for each justice. Using this method, unanimous decisions do not impact the final score because they result in an equal increase to both the aggregated liberal and the aggregated conservative score.
Finally, the net ideology scores are standardized by taking the final score and dividing it by the number of non-unanimous cases that each justice participated in. This yields a number between -1 and 1 for each justice, who can now be ranked them from left to right.
The resulting ranking lines up well with common intuitions, with the possible exception of Justices Gorsuch and Alito: Gorsuch lying slightly to the left of Alito may surprise some, particularly given Gorsuch's emphasis on originalism and Alito's rejection of that methodological approach most commonly associated with conservatism.
However, the scores may be capturing some nuance that would be missed by overly focusing on the two Justices' rhetorical approaches, as there are some areas where Gorsuch has shown himself to be more liberal than Alito. For instance, in Biestek v. Berryhill, Gorsuch wrote a dissent that was joined by Justice Ginsburg. This dissent likely represents the two formalists agreeing based on factors that were methodological rather than ideological. Given the limited data available from the cases decided so far this Term, an unusual case like Biestek had a significant impact on Gorsuch's final score: this decision alone moves Gorsuch from slightly to the right of Alito to slightly to the left. But Biestek may be quite representative: when it comes to matters of fairness—a key concept in the standard "underdog"–sympathetic model of liberalism—there is a strong argument to be made that Gorsuch lies to the left of Alito in some areas.
Unlike the statistics on justice agreeability and rate of voting in majority, the standardized ideology scores of Roberts and Kavanaugh demonstrate a significant difference between the two Justices. Although Kavanaugh has been in the majority at the highest rate, and he is tied with Roberts in terms of average agreeability, Roberts' ideology score puts him distinctly to the left of Kavanaugh.
While it is still early in the post-Kennedy era of the Court, and a number of the Court's most controversial cases have yet to be decided this term, this method suggests that Chief Justice Roberts will in fact be the Justice to look to as the Court's new median. The early numbers suggest that we really are seeing "the Roberts Court."
October 2018 Term in review — Part IV (Interruptions, continued)
Gender versus seniority
In this post, we continue to examine the role of interruption at oral argument in the 2018 Term. In our last post, we showed that the overall rate of justice-to-justice interruptions went down in the 2018 Term, as did the gender imbalance of those interruptions. In this post, we scrutinize who is interrupting and who is being interrupted at the individual level. The data suggests that, in 2018 at least, gender is not the only factor seemingly at play: seniority also seems to be an important factor in this Term's judicial interactions.
Interrupting versus being interrupted: who is disproportionate?
The figure below looks at justice-to-justice interruptions. It shows the relationship between the rate of being interrupted and the rate of interrupting for each justice in the 2018 Term. We published a similar figure for the 1998-2016 and 2017 Terms in a previous post. This is a good way to assess whether someone is being interrupted because they simply talk a lot: if that were true for an individual justice, high rates of being interrupted would correlate with high levels of interrupting. The dashed 45° line represents parity between being interrupted as often as one interrupts. Thus, even though the data is presented in terms of raw number of interruptions, the 45° line effectively accounts for variation in the rate of each individual justice's speech episodes. For instance, Justice Thomas sits at the zero point on both axes, since he rarely speaks. Justices who are interrupted more than they interrupt sit above and to the left of the 45° line (represented by solid red circles), justices who interrupt more than they are interrupted sit below the 45° line (represented by hollow black circles).
Consistent with the finding that female justices are interrupted at significantly higher rates than male justices, once again in the 2018 Term, Justices Sotomayor and Kagan were the two justices most frequently interrupted by other justices. The figure shows the raw number of interruptions for each axis: Sotomayor and Kagan were each interrupted approximately 49% and 35% more often than the most interrupted male justice, Justice Alito.
However, there is an obvious difference between Sotomayor and Kagan. Sotomayor was once again the most interrupted justice in the 2018 Term, and she was interrupted by her fellow justices many more times than she interrupted them. In contrast, Kagan interrupted her fellow justices even more than she was interrupted. In previous years, this was not the case. Previously, we found that Kagan was learning to reduce her polite language—which seems often to simply make her easier to interrupt—but she had lagged behind Sotomayor and other female justices in making this adaptation. Kagan may be learning to more effectively stand up for herself at oral argument.
The other striking result from the first figure is that, unusually, there are two male justices who sit on the upper left side of the 45° line. Both Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch were interrupted more than they interrupted, which is atypical. Since these are the two most junior justices, and Kagan and Sotomayor are the next two most junior justices, it seems likely that there is a seniority effect in justice-to-justice interruptions at play in the 2018 Term. In prior research, one of us found that seniority was a statistically significant factor in interruption rates—more senior justices interrupt more junior justices at significantly higher rates than vice versa—however the effect in substance was overwhelmed by the impact of gender (as it also was by ideology).
Although we have not yet conducted regression analysis for the new Term, the figure suggests that seniority may have been more significant this Term. But this does not mean gender is no longer significant. We note that Kavanaugh and Gorsuch were interrupted only slightly more than half as many times as Sotomayor and Kagan. Gender still seems to be heavily at play in terms of who is interrupted, even though Kagan is breaking the pattern somewhat in terms of who does the interrupting. (We do not want to make too much of Justice Ginsburg's lower rates of both interrupting and being interrupted, due to her absence from some arguments. Previously, she was lower on both fronts.)
Advocate interruptions of justices: improvement?
We see more or less the same pattern when we examine how often the justices were interrupted by the advocates. The figure below shows how often each justice was interrupted by one of the advocates, per thousand words spoken by the justice. In contrast to previous findings, there is no self-evident gender effect here. Seniority seems to be at play as much as gender.
When looking at which advocates do the interrupting, we also see less of gender effect than was found in previous Terms. The figure below indicates which advocates interrupted the justices the most, normalized per thousand words.
Of significant interest, the number one interrupter on this measure was a woman, Barbara Underwood. Underwood appeared in a particularly contentious, and potentially significant, case, Department of Commerce v. New York, on the question of whether federal government may include a citizenship question in the 2020 Census. Having a woman in the number one spot is not the only shift: there does not appear to be the previous gender pattern at all in the other advocates' interruptions of the justices in the 2018 Term, as the two genders are distributed quite evenly. We think that the fact that women can now interrupt as much as men is a great step forward, although technically advocates should never interrupt the justices, according to the Supreme Court rules. This advance is particularly important given our recent finding that female advocates were given less of an opportunity to speak in 2018 oral argument than male advocates.
Technical notes:
Note that some advocates do not appear in the third figure, as the transcript indicates that they did not interrupt at all during their appearance/s.
When we talk about interruptions in this post, we include any time one speaker interrupts another speaker as indicated in the transcript by the "–" notation at the end of the line. Previously, we have differentiated between quickly occurring interruptions, which may be accidental (called "crossovers" to capture two people beginning to speak at almost the same time), and more distinct interruptions, occurring when a speaker clearly has the floor, capturing more explicitly impolite or deliberate interruptions. We do not yet have the timestamps for this Term to make this distinction. Consequently, there may well be instances where the transcript reflects an interruption which some of our readers may feel was not "really" an interruption. That may be so, however, readers should also consider that perceptions of whether one speaker has interrupted another are affected by the biases and expectations of the listener and we trust the court reporters to at least be consistent. We have used the same definition of interruption in all of the data in this post.
October 2018 Term in review — Part III (Interruptions)
A more civil Term?
As we have now well documented, there has long been a gender imbalance in the rate of interruptions of female justices versus male justices. Previously, we asked whether that imbalance had improved in response to the attention being given to the Virginia Law Review article that revealed this pattern, as both Justice Sotomayor and Justice Ginsburg had each suggested it had. As of OT2017, we found that it had not. But an analysis of justice to justice interruptions from the 2018 Term suggests there has been improvement at the Court.
Female Justices are still disproportionately interrupted, but less so
The next two figures are based on our calculation of the normalized rate of interruption for the male and female justices, per argument. Given that Justice Thomas is virtually silent at oral argument and in light of the fact that a number of arguments in the 2018 Term took place before an eight-person bench, it is important to normalize the rate of interruption by the gender ratio of the participating justices in each case. For example, where Justice Ginsburg was absent and Justice Thomas was silent, we treated the Court as comprised of two women and five men. We went back and applied the same methodology to the oral arguments transcripts for previous terms, going back to 1998.
The figure immediately below shows the difference in the normalized rate of interruption for the female justices compared to male justices (orange bars). All bars that appear above the zero line mean that women are interrupted more than men; bars below the line show the reverse. Adjusting for their relative numbers on the Bench, the female justices were interrupted at a higher rate than the male justices in every Term except for 2004 and 2005. What is more, that difference was growing on average from 2006 to 2017. But the 2018 Term shows an improvement.
The 2018 Term was not only less gender imbalanced than the extraordinary 2017 Term, the gender difference was also somewhat lower than in every Term since 2011. Perhaps the change that Justice Sotomayor perceived, of an improved and more civil environment at oral argument, is now manifesting more clearly?
A recent improvement, or a broader trend?
However, the difference in the normalized rate of interruption may be less informative than the same information looked at as a ratio of interruptions between men and women. The figure below shows the ratio of interruptions of female versus male justices (blue bars): a Term measuring at 1 would have an equal number of interruptions of female justices and male justices, normalized by their respective numbers on the Court.
Looked at in this way, not only is the 2018 Term a vast improvement on recent years, it has a lower gender imbalance than any Term since 2004, back when Justice Ginsburg was the sole woman on the Court. It also suggests that perhaps our pessimism last year was unwarranted: this shows that in terms of the ratio of interruptions, female to male interruptions also dropped significantly in 2017, after the issue became one of public comment.
A more civil Court?
Although the difference in the normalized rate of interruption between female and male justices (orange) went up in the 2017 Term and down in the 2018 Term, the ratio of those same numbers (blue) went down in each of those terms. What explains this difference between the orange bars and the blue bars? The answer is that the number of justice to justice interruptions is not constant, not by any means, as the next figure shows.
The 2018 Term was not only a less gender imbalanced term in terms of interruptions, it was also seemingly more civil (or at least less heated) than the 2017 Term. The rate of interruptions in 2017 was exceptionally high, and 2018 saw interruptions drop somewhat. We do not want to overstate the civility that represents: 2018 still saw the third highest level of interruptions in the last 20 years, but the increase over previous years is more in line with a general linear trend, rather than the exponential shift that could have been inferred from last Term's interruption levels.
We also have to be wary of reading too much into the lower rate of justice to justice interruptions in the 2018 Term. The decrease in interruptions might simply be attributable to the large number of cases where at least one justice was absent—Justice Ginsburg through illness and Justice Kavanaugh by joining the Court partly through the Term. In the next post we will break down interruptions by justice.
One final point to note: remember that the 2004 and 2005 Terms were the only two terms in which men were interrupted more, proportionally, than women. We see from the above figure that those two Terms were also outliers in terms of the number of interruptions. This suggests that even with just one relatively senior woman on the Court, the unusual lack of gender imbalance in those two Terms was seemingly a result of more men being interrupted, rather than women being interrupted less.
October 2018 Term in review — Part II (Advocates)
In our October Term 2018 in review part I, we identified patterns of behavior among the justices. In this post, we look to the other side of the Bench, the advocates. As we have shown elsewhere, the proportion of female advocates appearing before the nation's highest court has increased over time, but the Supreme Court Bar is still largely a "boys club." Our analysis suggests there has been little improvement in representativeness at Supreme Court oral argument in the 2018 Term.
Me too? Where are the women?
In the 2018 Term, there were 124 individual advocates who appeared before the Supreme Court: 26 were female and 98 were male. Over the 71 oral arguments, these advocates collectively made 185 appearances: 32 by women and 153 by men.
One might imagine that women would get better opportunities through the Solicitor General's office than in the private sector. And it is marginally better, at least this Term. In OT2018, of the 124 advocates, 20 appeared for the Solicitor General's office in some capacity: Noel J. Francisco as the SG, Jeffrey B. Wall as the Principal Deputy SG, and 18 other deputy SGs and assistants to the SG. Five of these 20 government lawyers were women; however, those women accounted for only 9 of the 53 appearances. So, in sum, women account for 20.97% of Supreme Court advocates in OT2018, and 25% of advocates appearing for the SG's office.
Repeat players: is it any better for female advocates next time around?
The figure below shows that the odds only get worse when we look at repeat performances. Of the 34 repeat players (those appearing twice or more) in 2018, only 6 were female. Four were from the SG's office and two others also appeared twice or more: Ann O'Connell Adams, Rachel P. Kovner, Erica L. Ross, and Morgan L. Ratner, all assistants to the SG, Lisa S. Blatt, Chair of Williams & Connolly's Supreme Court and Appellate practice, and Teresa Ficken Sachs, Co-Chair, Appellate Advocacy and Post-Trial Practice Group at Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin.
Let me talk: are women treated differently?
So much for appearances: once before the Supreme Court, were women also treated differently? We are interested in particular in whether the justices allowed male and female advocates the same chance to speak. The next figure shows the number of words each advocate spoke on average, per appearance this Term.
Looking at the average number of words spoken per appearance, there does not seem to be a clear gender pattern: 14 women were in the top half of the graph, 12 in the bottom half. That suggests that though their numbers may be low, women are getting to speak their turn without any greater interruption. That impression, however, is wrong.
To see why, think about the role of the Solicitor General: many believe the SG's office receives greater deference from the justices, but looking only at the number of words may not show this. Given that the SG's office regularly appears as an intervening amicus, the SG's representative often talks for a shorter period than the non-government advocates.
To see if men and women, and government and non-government lawyers, are given the same chance to get a word in between the back-and-forth between the justices, the next figure shows the number of words spoken by each advocate as a ratio of the number of words spoken to him or her by the justices.
Now we see that the Solicitor General's office did in fact tend to receive more deference in OT2018 than appeared in the raw numbers. In terms of gender, of the 24 women to appear in OT2018, only 7 were in top half in the ratio of words spoken, one was exactly in the middle and the remaining 18 wallowed in the bottom half of the table.
Once accounting for the fact that there are differences in the times of various advocates appearing for the Court, we see that not only are women grossly underrepresented in the Supreme Court Bar, but when they do get a chance to appear, they are not given as much chance to actually speak. Gender differences persist at the Supreme Court in the 2018 Term.
* Revised to correct advocate misidentification in earlier versions at Thursday May 9, 2019 7:39PM.
October 2018 Term in review — Part I
The Supreme Court has finished hearing oral arguments for the October Term 2018; analysis involving success rates will need to wait for all the vote outcomes to be revealed, but we can summarize much of the behavior at oral argument already.
As we have described in detail inThe New Oral Argument: Justices as Advocates, one of the defining features of modern Supreme Court oral arguments is how active the justices are. In The New Oral Argument, we argue that much of this activity is directed at judicial advocacy, and we found that "losers on the Court" tend to be more active, fighting back through their words. This includes justices who were in the minority when the case was decided. It also includes losers in a big picture sense: we found that when the Court has been dominated by conservatives, liberals have been more active—in contrast, in the 1950s and 1960s, when the liberals dominated, the conservatives were relatively more active. With the Court becoming even more conservative in the 2018 Term—with the retirement of the moderately conservative Justice Kennedy being replaced by now Justice Kavanaugh, anticipated to be considerably more conservative—we expected to see the liberals being more active than the conservatives. As the figure below shows, that is what occurred.
The figure above shows both words spoken and speech events by each bloc of justices, for the average justice within each category. On average, liberal justices each spoke approximately 37,000 words to the conservatives' approximately 26,000 words per justice. Liberals engaged in more than 1,100 speech episodes on average, the conservatives only 950. Note that for both these calculations, we treat the conservative bloc as consisting of four speaking justices: Justice Thomas speaks so infrequently that he is in a class of his own (the "monastic conservative" bloc?).
Looking at the justices in more detail, the next figure shows the differences for the 2018 Term.
True to form, Justice Breyer was the most verbose justice in the Term, but he was not as far ahead of the other justices as he had previously been. Justice Sotomayor was not far behind Breyer, and in fact spoke more often. But as we know, Sotomayor is the most interrupted justice on the Court, as she was again last Term, so it makes sense that, as shown above, even though Breyer talked more than Sotomayor, Sotomayor needed more speech episodes to say less than Breyer.
For once, Thomas appears as a blip instead of a vacancy, due to those 41 words—all spoken in one case, all directed to one side (disagreement gap, anyone?), all during the advocate's rebuttal, and all challenging the side making a Batson challenge in a criminal case. The facts of the case, Flowers v. Mississippi, were so outrageous that even the ordinarily prosecution-friendly Justice Alito was shocked by the astonishing behavior of the local prosecutor. Thomas' intervention in Flowers was not inspiring: his three questions were premised on a misunderstanding of the law or the facts. We were also struck by the fact that the official court transcript contains extra words Thomas did not say but which were required/implied by traditional rules of grammar.
Focus on Kavanaugh and Ginsburg
In light of all the controversy over his nomination and his remarkable conduct during the nomination process itself, for which he subsequently apologized, Justice Kavanaugh's performance on the Bench is obviously worthy of scrutiny. When Kavanaugh first joined the Court, he seemed unconfident; after a few halting attempts to question the advocates, he soon became more practiced. However, throughout the Term, we noticed that Kavanaugh continued to cede the floor more often than is typical for a male justice.
The other justice on everyone's mind this year was Justice Ginsburg. Attention was drawn to Ginsburg due to her recent illness and ostensible frailty, but also because she was the star of an Oscar nominated biopic. The top three justices on both sides of the figure above are liberals, but Ginsburg was the exception, second bottom only to Thomas. Her activity cannot be assessed in raw totals due to her first absence from oral arguments due to illness. The next figure is also revealing on that question.
The figure above explores how Ginsburg's and Kavanaugh's performance at oral argument varied over the course of the Term. The figure shows the moving average in words spoken by our two key justices of interest, Ginsburg and Kavanaugh, as compared to the average for the other three liberals and other three conservatives (we have excluded Thomas who, despite breaking his silence, still barely registers). It shows the 71 cases of the Term, including Knick v. Township of Scott appearing twice, once for argument and once for re-argument. A moving average (here, of the last 7 cases) makes it easier to read any time trend that emerges, but it obscures the extremes—for instance, it will not show silence in a given case, but we can note that where it is interesting.
Ginsburg broke her ribs between cases 22 and 23, but her activity levels were already dropping from case 11 onwards, and she was silent in the two cases prior to breaking her ribs. We can only speculate as to whether she was already feeling ill from the cancer that was discovered after the break. She then missed 11 cases as she recovered from surgery. But the good news is that she is back up to full RBG activity levels—in fact, in the last dozen cases, Ginsburg has been more active than she was prior to the rib break or the cancer diagnosis. We hope this is a sign she is now in very good health. She is still not as active as the other liberals, all of whom are younger than her, but she is up to the level of the average conservative justice (who are also all younger than her).
Speaking of conservatives, our prediction that Kavanaugh became more active over time is borne out in the figure. He began as the second quietest justice on the Court until Ginsburg's temporary decline; Kavanaugh is now on average very similar to the other conservatives. It is interesting to note that, comparing the conservatives and the liberals overall over the course of the Term, even though the conservatives were consistently less active than the liberals, the two groups moved largely in lockstep (except for a bump in the activity of the liberals during the 40s cases). This suggests that, with the exception of that group of about 10 cases, while there are systematic differences between the two groups, the justices as a whole agree on which cases are more worthy of their input.


Inspired by the four elements of earth, wind, fire and water, Les Merveilleuses by Laduree's Summer 2015 makeup collection launches on 15 May in Japan and features pearly blue packaging.
Also launching on 1 May is their first bodycare line designed for mothers and kids. The soap and body lotion have a fruity floral fragrance.
Here's a sneak peek at the Lunasol Summer 2015 collection, tweeted by Nao. The eyeshadow quad looks interesting at first glance but my guess is that the two beige shades would disappear on the skin while the light chartreuse shade would be mostly pale yellow shimmer.
Amidst the sea of new foundation launches, Albion has offered up an intriguing new Tight Film Foundation SPF30 PA+++ (6000yen, 30g) which is designed to make the face appear slimmer thanks to its "Memory Filming Polymer" that forms a lifting net over the skin. It has an innovative jelly texture that is lighter than traditional cream foundations and wraps like a thin veil. Available in six shades, the reviews on Cosme.net appear to be mostly positive, with several remarking on its impressive lasting power. I'm not sure if it will be available at Albion counters in Singapore but this just launched in Japan on 16 February so it could make an appearance later this year in Singapore.
Bobbi Brown will debut its new Intensive Skin Serum Foundation SPF40 PA++++ (6900yen, 30ml) on 10 April in Japan. Available in 11 shades, it contains extract of cordyceps sinensis, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine for boosting energy. According to the ingredients list (available here), it also contains extracts of watermelon, apple, lychee seed, artemia and lavender oil (which can be a skin irritant). It provides broad spectrum sun protection with the inclusion of titanium dioxide, zinc oxide and octinoxate.
Due out on 4 April from Canmake is their new Be My Baby BB Cream SPF50 PA++++ (20g, 640yen). It is supposed to be resistant against sweat and sebum, and contains hyaluronic acid for boosting skin's moisture content. It has a light texture and provides natural-looking coverage of pores and skin discolorations. Pic from Maquia.
Shiseido's HAKU celebrates its 10th anniversary this year with the launch of Melanocool White Solid on 1 March in Japan. This is an emollient solid cream that is meant to be stored in the refrigerator (not in the freezer) and melts like butter on the skin, keeping it thoroughly hydrated. Simply use the included spatula to scrape two pearl sizes for one application. It is formulated with Shiseido's patented 4MSK complex (4-methoxysalicylicate) to suppress the formation of melanin, extracts of ginseng, green tea and Angelica acutiloba, plus hyaluronic acid and glycerin. The regular size retails at 10,000yen for 45g while the 10g trial size is 2300yen. HAKU has reigned as the number one whitening beauty serum in Japan for the past 9 years with more than 17million units sold.
Sofina will launch a new Primavista Liquid Foundation UV SPF25 PA++ (30ml, 3200yen) on 21 April in Japan. Available in 7 shades, it has a long-lasting 'soft fit' formula to help conceal pores and other skin imperfections. For use in all seasons.
Esprique will release two limited edition Rich Fondue Rouge (2500yen) and Sakura Blossom Loose Cheek (2300yen) in PK802 (girlish pink) and PK803 (coral) on 16 March in Japan. Watch their new TV commercials for the new CC Pore Cover Perfect Base and powder foundation here.
4. Body Oil (40ml, 4500yen): Formulated with camellia oil, organ oil and other botanical oils, this can be used on the face, body, nails and hair for boosting tired skin and alleviating dry patches. The oil has a light texture and a fresh juniper berry scent.
Suqqu will release two limited edition Eye Color Palettes (4800yen) and a Color Lip Protector SPF20 PA++ (3500yen, 2g) on 1 May in Japan. The 'Summer Gradation' eyeshadows are in the trio format introduced last autumn, and named EX01 紅掛空 (bordeaux and orange gradation) and EX02 夜彩空 (navy and light brown gradation), supposedly inspired by the colorful summer skies. No pics available of the palettes yet unfortunately, but in the meantime, you may wish to check out the queen of all Suqqu palette collections spanning 2006 to 2014. Now that's a major lifetime achievement!
According to Abe Sawako, Chanel's new Perfection Lumiere Extreme Compact Foundation is slated for release on 17 April in Japan, along with this Le Tissage blush. The foundation reportedly provides flawless longlasting coverage of pores.
The Collection La Perle de Chanel has just launched at all counters in Singapore. I couldn't resist picking up the Harmonie Levres Lip Palette in Arabesque (S$86, 5.5g). The cream blush in #80 Invitation is another standout piece, a soft baby pink sprinkled with micro shimmer. However, after checking online, it seems like this is actually a re-promote as Invitation was released in 2014. The collection is not Asia-exclusive as it can be found on the Chanel US website.
Scenting my home now is this new Crabtree & Evelyn Caribbean Island Water Lily Home Fragrance Reed Diffuser (S$115), launching in February in Singapore.
Designed to evoke the restorative calm of a Caribbean island getaway, it comes beautifully packaged in a sleek glass bottle filled with seashells sourced from the Philippines, encased in a solidly constructed wooden box with a vintage style clasp. The box will probably be re-purposed to store my accessories, although the baby seems to want to fill it with his toys instead.
The airy green floral scent is refreshing without descending into generic forgettable blandness. It is composed of top notes of lemon, peppermint and sea air accord with a sweet feminine heart of casuarina, orange blossom and jasmine, rounded off with warm base notes of cedarwood, sandalwood and marine accord. The scent throw reaches two to three metres, sufficient for most small and mid-sized rooms.
Press sample sent for consideration.
Jill Stuart serves up a colorful juicy fruits-inspired collection for Summer 2015 on 17 April in Japan. The star product is the new Forever Juicy Oil Rouge (8 shades of which 1 is LE, 2800yen) in a strawberry-shaped packaging and plumped up with various beauty oils.


I appear to have turned into a geisha with this hairstyle. But with the cold wind blowing it was a day to scrape the mop up. Got this necklace from Topshop in the sale for £2.50! Bargain! Currently a stressing about everything uni, but we had a nice day printing today. May not be completely relevant as the two projects I'm doing are photography, but it's all about experimentation. However, my red jumper is now decorated with black smudges of printing ink all along with right arm, I feel like I'm back at Secondary School.
It was surprisingly a sunny day today, perfect lighting for an OTT post. I saw this skirt in Zara ages ago, but held myself back from making the purchase. The fact that I did was fate, as not long after I found it in the summer sale for half price! Bargain! Due to having little money funds at the expense of being at uni, I'm trying (with great difficulty) to try and produce some different outfits with what I already have. Attempting to mix it up and give new life to overused and unworn items in my wardrobe. It is hard, and some times I just end up going back to my obvious choices for comfort and ease. But today I made a bit of an effort, making use of this skirt that has been unworn since my holiday in August.
A lot of my friends and even my parents call me a hippie, I think its the hair. This floral headband doesn't help, but what the heck, lets embrace my inner hippie. I know floral hair pieces are so over done, but I love it so much and the sad thing is I hardy ever wear it. It was love at first sight when I saw the Her Curious Nature stall at London Fashion Weekend this February. I was drawn line a magnet when I saw all the flowers and jewels. I tried on most pieces on the stall, and of course I wanted one of the most extravagant and most expensive ones. However, funds wouldn't justify it, and this little beauty satisfied my shopping cravings.
So Beth and I thought it would be brilliant idea to do outfit posts on the windiest day EVER! The waves were crashing up left right and centre, sea salt splashing everywhere, the wind tearing my hair up and the clouds hiding the good light. Not our brightest plan, but no pain no gain.
Oh the things us girls do for fashion!
So third year of uni is kicking in and it's stress mania! One of our first projects is competitions, one of which we had to find and choose ourselves. It was so hard to find one out there that inspired me and had an appropriate deadline. But, at last I came across the Company magazine's, Company Academy competition. Although the deadline left me just under two weeks to produce a concept, source everything, photograph and edit, I'm always up for a challenge and so went ahead anyway.
This may not be real life magazine worthy, and I will admit it's not one of my best pieces of work (photography and concept wise), but with the amount of time I had to do everything I will settle with the outcome. I want to thank Jemma Johnstone, my beauts model, as well as the boyf Richard who stood for the whole shoot holding palm leaves infront of the lights, and of course my mother who not only did the make-up, but also made us lunch and provided the school hall for me to shoot in. What our friends and family for hey!
I am currently singing Katy Perry's Firework in my head whilst writing this post. After Uni grinding our gears as usual yesterday, me and Bethy hit the beach for the firework display, after being glued to Kepping Up with The Kardashians all day (i know). The display may have only lasted 13 minutes, (to be precise) but it was pretty good for a freebie on our doorstep! Due to literally living on the beach, we took with us a mug of hot chocolate each, as well as blanket and popcorn. We were wrapped up to the nines, with cameras in hand.
Who doesn't love firework night!


text:
Roligheten is een plaats in de gemeente Västerås in het landschap Västmanland en de provincie Västmanlands län in Zweden. De plaats heeft 89 inwoners (2005) en een oppervlakte van 22 hectare.

Plaats in Västmanlands län
Västerås

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Do you think to install canopy to your house? Canopy that serves as a protector of the home from rain or sun is now starting a lot of people use. Canopy can be mounted in several locations, such as the yard, warehouse, factory or garage. The canopy is now also having another function, namely beautify the appearance of your home. Canopy shape diverse the buyers to make more choices to determine the canopy in accordance with their needs. An ideal canopy is a leak-proof canopy, no rust, strong, not easily broken, resistant to acids and salts, and soundproofed. That is the factors which form the several considerations in choosing canopy.
Currently, there are several forms of canopy that many in the market. There are canopy with curved shape with a minimalist form. Canopy with curved shape is usually more robust because of the shape of the curve. The curved canopy shape makes this canopy can withstand a load that is above and the weight of the canopy itself. Canopy with curved shape is widely used because it makes the raindrops sound muffled when compared with a canopy with a flat shape.
The second canopy is a canopy with a minimalist form. Canopy in this form are many installed by many people today. Canopy with minimalist shape could save expenses because of the flat. Canopy with a minimalist form above is perfect when paired with minimalist design house, too. However, you should consider the strength of the canopy of this form. Flat-shaped canopy should be fitted with an accurate slope level. If the slope of the canopy is not installed properly, then rain water can not flow down perfectly. The water that do not turn down and still above at the canopy will affect the age of your canopy.
Apart form the canopy; you also have to ensure the framework is used to support the canopy. Framework that is used to prop up the canopy is be made of stainless or at least coated with anti-rust paint. Given the order will be immediately doused by rain water and sun heat directly, and then you should also give attention to the canopy frame.
However, apart form the canopy, you must also consider the material used as manufacturer's canopy. The materials used in making them go round wooden canopy, polycarbonate, plastic and concrete. Canopy rated the best qualities are canopies made from original polycarbonate. This canopy will not be easily broken once installed. Choose canopy made of polycarbonate with brands that are familiar to avoid fraudulent sellers.
You are strongly recommended to ask about the canopy which will you buy to the seller in order to get clear information. If you have determined the canopy material to be purchased, then the next step is to get the canopy making a reliable and proven good. There is a good idea to go to several places before deciding where to be selected to create a canopy.
Make sure you calculate the budget to install canopy to your house.


text:
Environment experts discuss the Circular Economy and the European strategy against climate change
15 of March of 2017
The Spanish Centre for Innovation on Climate Change (the Spanish node of the European initiative Climate-KIC), the Institute for European Studies of the Catholic University of Valencia, in cooperation with SEIMED, organised a one-day session on the Circular Economy. The event brought together environment experts to discuss the opportunities provided by the European strategy on the Circular Economy. Amongst the speakers were Daniel Calleja, the European Commission's General Director for the Environment, and Valentín Alfaya, Ferrovial Director for Environment and President of the Spanish Green Growth Group. Also attending the debate were experts from different fields and sectors, such as José Luis Muñoz, Director General of Climate-KIC Spain; Teresa Ribera, Director of France's Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations; Carmen Iglesias, Director of the Energy Lab research centre; Francisco Álvarez, Director General for Economy, Entrepreneurship and Cooperatives of the Valencia Regional Government; and Juan Sapena, Director of the Catholic University of Valencia.
During the event, the European Commission's most ambitious strategy in connection with the fight against climate change, the Circular Economy, was discussed from different perspectives and sectors.
According to the official press release, Daniel Calleja stated that "Sustainable development can be the driver for consolidating the European model of integration" given that the context of the European Union is changing, with new challenges emerging in a very complex situation of economic crisis coupled with a migration and borders crisis and, for the first time in the history of the European Union, a request to leave the Union from one of its member states. "The challenges are huge, but sustainable development could very well be the driver for consolidating the European model, since 95% of European citizens consider the environment as important to them, and two thirds believe that the EU should be doing more on the issue."
For his part, Valentín Alfaya stated that "the París agreement is changing the way we do business, affording certainty to the global commitment on climate change, particularly for the financial sector, and there is no going back." He also stated that, from the perspective of the industrial sector, "we have gone from looking at ways of decarbonising, to changing our portfolio of activities." The opportunities emerging for entrepreneurs are mainly in the energy sector for production and use, the water sector, and, lastly, the planet's increasing urbanisation. Moreover, the Spanish Green Growth Group has shown its commitment through the Declaration of Barcelona, which offers the government 10 recommendations for supporting a sustainable economy. Finally, Alfaya called on companies to commit to sustainability, since every single Euro not invested in decarbonising today would represent a cost of four Euros in 2050.
The European Union strategy includes legislative proposals on waste, with an increase in recycling and a reduction in landfill; and measures for eliminating barriers in sectors or flows of specific materials, such as plastics, food waste, critical primary materials, construction and demolition, biomass and biological products.
Ferrovial is a member of the Climate-KIC
Ferrovial is a member of Climate-KIC through the network's Spanish node since February 2017. Ferrovial's participation in this European network is an example of cooperation between the Department for Health and Safety, Quality and the Environment, and the Department for Innovation and Processes. This cooperation allows alignment of the strategic interests on issues regarding the environment and climate change with the Group's commitment to innovation, either through the implementation of innovation projects, or through access to the network of entrepreneurs organised by Climate-KIC. Valentín Alfaya highlighted the importance of the programme, for its potential to become a major influencing tool for European policies on issues of climate change and energy.
# Circular economy
# Climate change
# Corporate Social Responsibility
# Environmental conservation
# Events
# Sustainability
# Valencian Community
# Ferrovial
Ferrovial presents its new blog, with a more interactive design and new content formats
Ferrovial continues to rank as one of the companies most committed to gender equality, according to the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index
Cintra Presents Its Vision of Mobility at the 2nd Spanish Conference on Smart Roads
Innovate Construction Awards winners 2021
AGS Airports Ltd to trial new artificial intelligence-led technology at security sites in all their airports
The Ruta del Cacao Highway Receives Carbon Neutral Certification from ICONTEC
Ferrovial Awarded the ComputerWorld 40th Anniversary Award
Ferrovial's Health and Well-Being Program Wins the Digital HR Health and Business Award
Ferrovial advancing with production of floating offshore wind platform in the Basque Country
Ferrovial Construcción is awarded the contract to improve the connection of Vespucio Norte Highway with Ruta 68
IndesIA appoints its Board of Directors to boost Artificial Intelligence in Spanish industry
Ferrovial ranked as a world leader in sustainability according to CDP
Rafael del Pino participates in the VII Forum on Engineering and Public works
Ferrovial completes sale of its Environmental Services business in Spain and Portugal to PreZero
Ferrovial collaborates with the Candelita Foundation on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women


Featuring the well known square and compasses - the single most identifiable symbol of Freemasonry. The letter G in Freemasonry stands for both God and Geometry. Men's ring in solid 925 Sterling silver. High polish finish.


The BRICS block conceived as a basket of emerging markets to yield financial returns turned out to be far more suited for building something very different – a governance network that reaches out into different parts of the world. The outreach exercises undertaken by BRICS economies in the past five years may have brought the regional partners of the BRICS countries closer to the block's core members in terms of the understanding of where the world economy is and where it is headed. But apart from bridging the conceptual divides across the Global South another important dimension is the sheer physical distance between BRICS members and their counterparts in the developing world.
Indeed, the uniqueness of the BRICS formation is precisely its geography and the tremendous distance that sets the core BRICS members apart. If one takes the distance between the capitals of the respective BRICS countries any other block or grouping pales in comparison to the polarities exhibited by BRICS linkages. Even if only the economies of BRICS from the same continent of Eurasia are taken into account, the distances between the capitals of India, China and Russia already set the extremes that are hard to match in any other grouping. In particular, the distances between Moscow and Beijing as well as New Delhi and Beijing reach 5787 kilometers and 3800 kilometers respectively, while the Lisbon-Warsaw connection (one of the longer ones between EU capitals) spans 2760 kilometers. The inter-continental divides between BRICS countries take the factor of distance to a whole new level: for example the distance between Moscow and Brasilia amounts to 11180 kilometers .
At the same time, the other facet of the uniqueness of BRICS is that while they are extremely far from each other, they are at the same time closer than any other block to the outside world. In this respect, every BRICS economy is a leading force in each of the main regions of the developing world – Brazil in South America, South Africa in the African continent, Russia in the CIS region, China in East Asia and India in South Asia. If the average of all the connections between the BRICS core is likely to be far ahead of any other block, the average distance from the any of the BRICS members to other countries is likely to be the lowest of all regional groupings.
Accordingly for BRICS the factor of distance is an unprecedented challenge and a unique opportunity. The extremity of the distance between the BRICS economies renders the attainment of high trade intensities difficult as is borne out by the experience of the grouping in the past decade. Indeed, the indications of the gravity model, which sets potential trade as a function of distance and the respective country GDP levels, suggest that the possibility set in terms of intra-BRICS trade may be limited, particularly along the inter-continental axis. Accordingly, the unprecedented challenge calls for an unprecedented response in terms of mutual integration being promoted in novel ways that serve to overcome the distance factor.
The way to overcome distance in economic integration is to prioritize those areas of cooperation that are less affected by the distance factor. One key aspect is the development of the services sector, including financial cooperation and e-commerce. The crucial point here is that the services sector is precisely the segment of all BRICS economies that is relatively underdeveloped and harbours the potential to deliver a critical contribution to GDP growth rates. Nowhere among BRICS is this more relevant than in China, where the switch from industrial to services growth is already transforming services and household consumption into the main engines of economic expansion at the expense of industry and investment.
Other prescriptions for dealing with distance include the development of innovative sectors and in particular the digital economy, which may be one of the key ways of transcending the gravity of any given location. Another crucial area is investment cooperation, including through the construction of regional and global value-chains. Most importantly, however, economic integration and infrastructure development present the most powerful tools of overcoming distance – lower trade and customs barriers, greater economic weight of the combined formations, improved connectivity across regions and economic blocks serve to attenuate the geographical barriers.
As for the unique opportunity that is harboured by the proximity of BRICS to different parts of the developing world it is largely expressed via the regional partnerships formed by core BRICS members, most notably their priority regional trading arrangements such as the Eurasian Economic Union, Mercosur or SADC. It is through the concert of such regional trading arrangements that the BRICS countries perform the role of conduits to each other's macroregions in different parts of the globe. Indeed, this may be the true mission of the BRICS grouping – aside from the creation of alternative integration and development models it is an arrangement that raises the optionality of economic ties in terms of gaining access to different parts of the global economy with BRICS and their regional partners serving as ports of entry or widows into a given macroregion or continent.
The key questions are how to leverage this uniqueness of BRICS in terms of their proximity to the outside world and how can the transmission of trade and investment impulses be strengthened across such a framework? Firstly, it appears that boosting regional economic integration between BRICS and their respective regional partners could significantly raise the "conductivity" of linkages from core BRICS members into the wider regions and BRICS-led regional formations. Secondly, a framework of "integration of integrations" that serves as a platform of cooperation among the BRICS-led regional integration groups could significantly raise the capabilities of BRICS members and their regional partners to reach out and establish ties in other macro-regions of the developing world with core BRICS and their neighbours.
This interaction between stronger ties across BRICS core members on the one hand and between BRICS and their regional partners on the other may be a mutually reinforcing one: the stronger the regional integration of a given BRICS member, the better the "conductivity" of economic ties from other BRICS countries into that region and the greater the gravity pull of a larger economic weight exerted by the regional integration grouping with respect to other BRICS. And conversely, the stronger the inter-BRICS connectivity, the more attractive is each BRICS core member to their respective regional neighbours as a more reliable gateway into large and expanding markets.
In the end, BRICS presents a different configuration compared to any alliance formed thus far – a geometry that shortens the distance with the outside world at the cost of extending the distance among the core members. Another way to look at the geometry of the BRICS alliance is that there is no core and no periphery – in effect BRICS may be termed as being "equidistant" to the outside developing world. Such a setting argues in favour of prioritizing BRICS cooperation towards investment, services and regional cooperation via "integration of integrations". What it also suggests is that the extended BRICS+ format that brings together core BRICS members and their regional partners could benefit from a flexible "network-type" of an arrangement rather than being predicated on rigid and uniform standards.
 In terms of geography another block that is unique, but in a reverse fashion is the Eurasian Economic Union. It may be characterized as having the greatest distance to the outside world given the inwardness of the geographical location of most of its members – 4 out of 5 member countries of the Union are landlocked, with most of the Central Asian economies exhibiting extreme distances from the coastal lines.


Involuntary Smiles: Water, Water, Everywhere!
I know, enough with the pregnant stories already! But bear with me. It seems it is influencing every aspect of my life right now, and so that is basically all I have on my mind. Besides, I need to remember how I feel this time so next time when I am 11 months pregnant I can look back and say "Oh yeah, I remember that."
The house was quiet. I knew that I only had one chance to shower. I also knew if I lingered, my chance would come and go faster than a sneeze if I didn't act immediately. I grabbed my terry cloth robe and quietly stepped into the bathroom. I had to be quiet because Keith is a light sleeper and was just on the other side of the wall. I visited "my friend John" and relieved myself, then stepped into the shower, once again enjoying the heat as it pricked my skin. I love hot showers! I love letting the water fall over and around me, the steam slowly rising up and filling the bathroom like a symphony. That is one of my favorite things in the world. With my eyes closed I stood and let the stresses that had been building up just wash off and disappear down the drain. Suddenly I felt it. An extra rush of water. My eyes popped open and my shower was ruined.
I didn't know if my water had broken or if I had just had some extra liquid stored up in my bladder. I didn't feel that familiar urge at all, but it hadn't been enough water to warrant going to the hospital saying my water had broken. Nor was I feeling any pain. My mind rushed through every possibility and worry, expectation, and excitement crawled out of the drain they had been washed down, and back up to perch on my shoulders like stresses will do. My mind had a new obsession. I finished my shower much quicker than I had hoped to, and called Jeffrey just to give him the heads up. If my water had broken, I would probably have to rush to the hospital. But I wasn't having any pains. So I had to watch. And all the peace and tranquility I was hoping for took one last look at me and left, laughing.
What had happened? The nearest I can figure is the baby jumped just right on my bladder and forced liquid out of my body, thus creating a sensation like broken waters. But really, I can just go down in the books as yet another pregnant woman who had the false alarm. The "I thought my water broke, but really I just peed my pants" story. And now I am open to mocking. For this time only. As I know that most pregnant women go through this, and I am not alone, and there are probably a million and a half stories similar yet worse than mine. I am just glad I wasn't standing in line at the grocery store. And I hope it doesn't happen again, because really, no warning at all.
As I was reading this, I was thinking, "Yay! Amy got her weekend wish!". But then I got to the the final paragraph. Bummer. Hang in there!!!
When my water broke with James in the middle of the night, Dave DIDN'T believe me. He kept saying that I probably just peed and to go back to bed. Oh, the things our body does to us!
Hey, at least you were in the shower, right?
I'm kind of wondering how I'll know too. I kept having pains last night but nothing frequent and obvious so I guess its not labor yet. Hopefully getting closer though!
When my water broke with Alicey it wasn't a huge gush of water (like you always see on TV) it was a slow leak. I wasn't even sure my water had broken because it was so slow until a visit to my OB confirmed it. With Avy, I just wore a pad for the last little bit just in case any sort of leaks occured but then I developed toxemia and had to be induced so they broke my water for me. Now that was a GUSH!!! The things we go through for these babies. Don't get me wrong, it's totally worth it but I don't think my bladder will ever be the same again. Hang in there! Not too much longer!!
Oh my! I had no idea that could happen. I'm glad you're sharing these stories! I need to know all the fun I'm missing.
The things we go through to get our little ones here! And towards the end EVERYTHING is suspect!
My water was broken for 3 days before I really questioned what was happening. It was a very slow leak. But they confirmed it was amniotic fluid and were mad at me for not coming in earlier. I never did go into labor by myself that time, so they induced me. Ask about it at your next appointment if you still think it might be something or notice anything weird.
Yes at least it happened in the shower!
When I was at the hospital in labor, after I got back to my room (they had me walking around the hallways) there was a moment where I was not sure if my water broke or if I totally peed myself, all over the floor.. so weird to have no idea what is happening like that and to have no control.
Hey Amy...I saw your comment on my page and thought I would comment back over here. I didn't make holes in the bottle, however that would be pretty cool! I used beads as ornaments. The lights are inside the bottle. It is an awesome decoration!!!


There are lots of people out there who need to have some of the best ever resumes written for them. This is as a matter of fact something that you can attest to, especially in the event that you have ever thought about writing a resume perhaps for a job. Lots of students in particular know how to write some of these papers, so it should not be much of a challenge for you to handle this on your own. Given the chance, you need to try and ensure that you are able to see to it that you can put into use the information that you have learned in school, and use it to earn some good money online by writing resumes.
In as far as the opportunities that are available for you are concerned there is so much that you can think about, so much that you can come to learn about to eventually help you learn a thing or two about how to deliver a strong resume for a client. It is always a good thing to make sure that before you start searching for some of the best jobs out there, you are able to perfect your art as a writer, so that you do not get to deliver work that does not seem to add up.
One of the best things about freelance websites is the fact that there are currently so many of them all over the place. There are lots of such websites that you can gain access to, register to become a member and within no time, you will be able to bid for and apply to jobs which are posted by clients who need resumes.
You have to remember that in as much as it is very easy for you to use this option, you must still exercise some level of caution so that you do not get ripped off in the process.
You might also want to check out some of the popular discussion forums especially on job boards and other areas where job seekers often gather to discuss some of their challenges. This way you can find some good leads to help in resume writing and get paid for it.


Sunflower Journeys welcomed a new producer this year. John Njagi joined our staff and compares the Kansas life he now lives to the upbringing he had in his native Kenya. Next, it's on to Ramona, Kansas where two sisters are making quite a stir after arriving from California and taking the Sunflower State head-on. Then we look at a new business started in Topeka by Concepcion Reyes in this Plains People segment. She operates an Asian/oriental food market and caters to the specific needs of people from many cultures.
Episode #1908- "The Open Road"
This Sunflower Journeys program looks at the Interstate highway system as implemented by Dwight D. Eisenhower. The need to move troops and equipment across our state in the early 20th century led to the interconnected system we have today. Next we travel to Marquette, Kansas and explore a the Kansas Motorcycle Museum. And finally, the open road is the means by which Bud and Evelyn Widick travel and meet up with their circle of friends in the RV lifestyle in this Plains People segment.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Shining Force Central • View topic - SFC Forum RPG launches after 4 years in the making!
SFC Forum RPG launches after 4 years in the making!
Re: SFC Forum RPG launches after 4 years in the making!
That was the first thing I made sure I read was how to become part of SFC:RPG. So that is why I am always posting and seeing what everyone is talking about always good to try and become part of this awesome website.
Very exited to finally see this, ive been lurking a while hoping for breakthroughs, congratulations.
I tried to play the rpg when I had like 56 posts, but it said I couldn't play since I hadn't been active in a while... hopefully that will change in a couple of days!
You have to post every few days in order to be active enough to play.
Oh, thats a shame, i would just love to try out the rpg. ;c Thing is, I don't have much to post about.
It doesn't take that long to do. Just pick some topics and post a comment relevant to the thread.
will any game developers re-vamp all the shining force series? if any developers are out there and are reading this message, I say that there is a great need for the SF series to be re-born.
Sega owns the rights (and is an extremely over-protective asshat about unauthorized remakes), and the extended series over in Japan is pretty popular as it stands.
this is new for me, the extended series what are they?
Wouldn't you count Shining Wisdom and Shining Soul as part of the extended series? I never really played them so I don't know if they are canon or not.
Ah, knew I forgot something.
Yes, there's also Shining Wisdom, Shining Soul, and Shining Soul II, and Shining Force: Return of the Dark Dragon is considered by most to be a sub-par retelling of the first Force game, though the translation is more faithful than the original's official translation, in many parts.
Is Shining Wisdom part of the extended series? I thought that was still Camelot canon along with the other Saturn games, or is there something about it that makes it non-canon?
SW's definitely canon with its references to SF2, even though the gameplay is different from the rest and it's the main reason it stands out.