text:
Vexy Thing: A New Book on Gender and Liberation
By J. T. Roane December 13, 2018 Comments Off on Vexy Thing: A New Book on Gender and Liberation
This post is part of our blog series that announces the publication of selected new books in African American History and African Diaspora Studies. Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation was recently published by Duke University Press.
The author of Vexy Thing is Imani Perry, the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University where she also holds affiliations with the Program in Law and Public Affairs and Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is the author of numerous books: Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop (Duke University Press), More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the US (New York University Press), May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem (University of North Carolina Press) and Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry (Beacon Press), as well as numerous articles in the fields of legal history, cultural studies and literary studies. Follow her on Twitter @imaniperry.
Even as feminism has become increasingly central to our ideas about institutions, relationships, and everyday life, the term used to diagnose the problem—"patriarchy"—is used so loosely that it has lost its meaning. In Vexy Thing Imani Perry resurrects patriarchy as a target of critique, recentering it to contemporary discussions of feminism through a social and literary analysis of cultural artifacts from the Enlightenment to the present.
Drawing on a rich array of sources—from nineteenth-century slavery court cases and historical vignettes to writings by Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde and art by Kara Walker and Wangechi Mutu—Perry shows how the figure of the patriarch emerged as part and parcel of modernity, the nation-state, the Industrial Revolution, and globalization. She also outlines how digital media and technology, neoliberalism, and the security state continue to prop up patriarchy. By exploring the past and present of patriarchy in the world we have inherited and are building for the future, Perry exposes its mechanisms of domination as a necessary precursor to dismantling it.
"Given the political turn in the United States in November of 2016, Imani Perry's Vexy Thing will become a central text for those involved in discussions of that thing called 'the patriarchy.' By thinking of patriarchy as a single phenomenon across different registers, Perry guides readers into their own sense of its stronghold on American, if not global, iterations of self and other, state and nation. This is a powerful statement about feminism for the here and now." — Sharon Patricia Holland, author of 'The Erotic Life of Racism'
J.T. Roane: What type of impact do you hope your work has on the existing literature on this subject? Where do you think the field is headed and why?
Imani Perry: This is such an exciting time for feminist thought. On the one hand, discussions of gender and sexuality and how to liberate ourselves from gender based violence and injustice are actively debated in the public sphere. People of all stripes are thinking a great deal about gender. At the same time, there is a growing and complex body of feminist scholarship coming from the various disciplines. Consequently, feminist thought is moving in many directions at once, and at best feminists are insisting upon complex accounts of gender and unapologetic arguments for gender liberation. This book is one in that number. The beginning of the book offers a description of patriarchy as structure that emerged in the context of modernity and empire. It pushes past our tendency to talk about patriarchy solely in terms of ideology, and accounts for how gendered relations of power were created by law. I also refuse to separate out an understanding of patriarchy as separate from other forms of domination. Instead patriarchy is fundamental to all sorts of domination that has existed since the 18th century.
Later in the book I move into the present moment. I argue that despite the transformations of 20th century social movement, our lives are still shaped by the structure of patriarchy. And yet we face a new set of challenges when it comes to gender liberation that are shaped by neoliberal capitalism, globalization, and the hypermedia world we occupy.
Throughout the book I describe feminist thought as a reading practice, a way of analyzing the layers of domination. Towards the end, however, I focus on how we translate that reading practice into a way of living as what I call a "liberation feminist." I suppose what I most hope for with this book is that it offers readers some critical tools for the present, and a way of understanding how we got to be where we are now. Insofar as it is a book that draws on a long history of Black and other women of color feminisms, as well as Marxist feminisms, I hope that the book compels readers to understand those traditions ought to be at the center of feminist thought rather than on the margins as it is often case.
Share with a friend:
Copyright © AAIHS. May not be reprinted without permission.
← Previous : Reclaiming the Black Past: A New Book on the Use and Misuse of African American History
Literacy, History, and African American Spirituals : Next →
J. T. Roane
J.T. Roane is assistant professor of Africana Studies in the School for Social Transformation at Arizona State University. Roane is broadly concerned about matters of geography, ecologies, sexuality, and religion in relation to Black communities. He is at work on a manuscript, Dark Agoras: Insurgent Black Social Life and the Politics of Place in Philadelphia. Follow him on Twitter @JTRoane.
Sign up to get the latest posts and updates.
Categories Select Category AAIHS Business Abolition Abolitionism Activism Africa African American Death Ideology African American History survey African American material culture African diaspora American exceptionalism American identity American Revolution Antebellum anti-capitalism Archives Art Assimilationism Author Interview Black Ecologies Black Europe Black Family Black Feminism Black Freethought Black Girls Black history Black Identity Black Internationalism Black Political Thought Black Power Black Protest Black Protestantism Black Studies Black Urban History Black Youth Book Review capitalism Caribbean Cemetery/Burial Grounds Civil Rights Movement Civil War class Comics Death Desegregation early republic Economics Education Embodiment Featured Books Featured Posts Film Free People of Color Gender Geography Hashtag Syllabi Higher Education Hip-Hop historiography HIV-AIDS Indigenous Studies Intellectual Identity Interwar Period Jazz Jim Crow Labor Latin America Law and legal history LGBT Liberalism Literature Lynchings Marcus Garvey maroons Meaning of freedom medical racism Memory methods Military Monuments Mourning Museums Music New Negro Oral History Pedagogy Performance Plantations Poetry Policing Popular Culture Post-Racial ideology Primary Sources Print Culture Prisons Professional Development Race Race Consciousness Racial Violence Racism Reconstruction Religion Resistance Resources respectability Roundtables School Equality Science Fiction Sexuality Slave law Slave revolts Slavery Sport Teaching Uncategorized UNIA Visuality Voting rights Women
#AAIHSRoundtable Activism African Diaspora archives art black feminism black intellectual history black internationalism black lives matter black nationalism black politics Black Power black protest Black radicalism black radical tradition Black women capitalism carceral state Caribbean civil rights Civil Rights Movement Donald Trump education Gender Haiti Jim Crow literature mass incarceration music Pan-Africanism police brutality police violence Politics race Racial Violence racism religion Resistance sexuality slavery slave trade South teaching W.E.B. Du Bois white supremacy
The Best Black History Books of 2020
By AAIHS Editors
Women's Experiences during the American Civil War
By Robert Colby | 1 Comment
Online Roundtable: Robert T. Chase's 'We Are Not Slaves'
Medicalizing Black Military Service in an Age of Global Imperialism
By Christopher D. E. Willoughby
Mass Incarceration and the Metaphor of Slavery
By Shannon King
Each author's posts reflect their own views and not necessarily those of the African American Intellectual History Society Inc. AAIHS welcomes comments on and vigorous discussion about our posts. We recognize that there will be disagreement but ask that you be civil about such disagreements. Personal insults and mean spirited comments will not be tolerated and AAIHS reserves the right to delete such comments from the blog.


Air Force Brooch – Hope Design Ltd.
These military brooches bear an US Air Force centerpiece and crystal rhinestones. This Air Force jewelry makes the perfect gift for a Airman, veteran, mother, wife, girlfriend, sister, grandma, and aunt. This piece will be hand-crafted by a military spouse at Hope Design Ltd., combining military heraldry with a beautiful modern brooch.
613239 Silver 13G, measures 2 1/4 inches.
613339 Gold 13D, measures 2 1/4 inches.
613439 Light Blue 13i, measures 2 1/4 inches.


Wild Ocean Self Catering is located right on the water, close to the lovely Kleinbaai slipway (about 1,5 km along the beach road) and at the back runs the Kleinbaai golf course.The property stands in Danger Point - The 360º view stretches from the sea front, all the way to Danger Point lighthouse, and the white sands of Pearly Beach. At the back is a beautiful view of the mountains. Just in font of the property is a big natural tidal pool, crystal clear waters, ideal for protected swimming.
Danger Point is know for the whales that frolic in front of this lovely home. You can swim in the pool while watching the whales.
Golf: Golf Course close by.
Wedding Venues: Stunning venue for a wedding. On the beach with white patio and ice blue pool with the sea as the background for photos! Plenty of space to put up a marquee.
Conference Venues: Private VIP conferences can be arranged.
Family friendly: This is for the entire family with the lovely pool area and huge garden to run freely and smell the sea air.


If you have a question or you'd like to volunteer on the campaign, you can contact TimBen personally at his email, timbenin10@gmail.com. If you'd like to make a donation, please write a check payable to Committee to Elect TimBen Boydston to City Council 2018 and send to the address below.
Thank you in advance for showing an interest in the future leaders of our city!


text:
Cell Host Microbe. 2015 May 13;17(5):716-25. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2015.03.014. Epub 2015 Apr 23.
Integrating chemical mutagenesis and whole-genome sequencing as a platform for forward and reverse genetic analysis of Chlamydia.
Kokes M1, Dunn JD1, Granek JA2, Nguyen BD1, Barker JR1, Valdivia RH3, Bastidas RJ4.
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Center for the Genomics of Microbial Systems, Duke University Medical Center, 268 CARL Building, Box 3054, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Center for the Genomics of Microbial Systems, Duke University Medical Center, 268 CARL Building, Box 3054, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University Medical Center, 2424 Erwin Road, Suite 1102 Hock Plaza, Box 2721, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Center for the Genomics of Microbial Systems, Duke University Medical Center, 268 CARL Building, Box 3054, Durham, NC 27710, USA. Electronic address: raphael.valdivia@duke.edu.
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Center for the Genomics of Microbial Systems, Duke University Medical Center, 268 CARL Building, Box 3054, Durham, NC 27710, USA. Electronic address: robert.bastidas@duke.edu.
Gene inactivation by transposon insertion or allelic exchange is a powerful approach to probe gene function. Unfortunately, many microbes, including Chlamydia, are not amenable to routine molecular genetic manipulations. Here we describe an arrayed library of chemically induced mutants of the genetically intransigent pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis, in which all mutations have been identified by whole-genome sequencing, providing a platform for reverse genetic applications. An analysis of possible loss-of-function mutations in the collection uncovered plasticity in the central metabolic properties of this obligate intracellular pathogen. We also describe the use of the library in a forward genetic screen that identified InaC as a bacterial factor that binds host ARF and 14-3-3 proteins and modulates F-actin assembly and Golgi redistribution around the pathogenic vacuole. This work provides a robust platform for reverse and forward genetic approaches in Chlamydia and should serve as a valuable resource to the community.
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
10.1016/j.chom.2015.03.014
Generation of an ordered array of sequenced C. trachomatis mutants for use in genetic analyses
(A) Chemically mutagenized C. trachomatis (C. t) LGV-L2 434/Bu strains were clonally isolated by plaque purification and arrayed in 96 well plates. Genomic sequencing libraries from a pool of 20 mutant strains and 1 reference strain were tagged with a unique barcode, combined with four other pools, and sequenced on an Illumina NGS platform. (B) Distribution of synonymous (green), non synonymous (gray), nonsense (red), and non coding (white) single nucleotide variants (SNVs) identified among mutagenized C. t strains. (C) Distribution of ORFs without variant alleles (2%, black), with alleles harboring only synonymous SNVs (2%, green), containing both synonymous and non synonymous SNVs (96%, gray), and with nonsense SNVs (10%, red). (D) Density of SNVs (number of SNVs/10 k. b of DNA sequence) across the C. t LGV-L2 genome. * denotes rRNA paralogues (CTL_r01_2 CTL_r02_2). Underrepresentation of SNVs is due to an inability to unambiguously map sequencing reads to these loci. (E) Distribution of the number of variant alleles identified per ORF.
Integrating chemical mutagenesis and whole genome sequencing as a platform for forward and reverse genetic analysis of Chlamydia
Cell Host Microbe. ;17(5):716-725.
C. trachomatis tolerates perturbations in the tricarboxylic cycle and DNA repair networks
(A–C) The LGV C. t central carbon metabolic network. The distribution of all synonymous (green), neutral (yellow), non-neutral (orange), and nonsense (red) bearing alleles is depicted for each ORF in the network. Distributions are normalized to total number of SNV bearing alleles identified per ORF. All ORFs with observed nonsense alleles are shaded in light red. (A) Production and break down of branched glycogen is not necessary as LGV C. t tolerates nonsense mutations in glgB and glgX. (B) The presence of a nonsense mutation in pgi suggests that the pentose phosphate pathway is sufficient to circumvent loss of fructose-6-phosphate production when the EMP pathway (Glycolysis) is blocked. (C) Nonsense mutations in glt and sucA suggest that LGV biovars can sustain metabolic activity with a severely curtailed TCA cycle. The TCA cycle is further truncated due the presence of a fumC (dashed box) pseudogene. All compounds imported from the host are shown in blue. (D) LGV C. t biovars can tolerate defects in their DNA mismatch repair machinery as suggested by the presence of nonsense bearing alleles in mutS and mutL. (E) Defects in the nucleotide excision repair pathway are also tolerated as evidenced by the presence of nonsense bearing alleles in uvrA and uvrC.
The inclusion membrane protein InaC is required for F-actin assembly at the inclusion
(A) F-actin assembly at inclusions (arrowhead) is absent in HeLa cells infected with M407. F-actin (grayscale) and C. t (red) were detected by indirect immunofluorescence at 30 hpi using rhodamine-phalloidin and anti-MOMP antibodies respectively. DNA (blue) was stained with Hoechst. (B–E) F-actin assembly in M407 inclusions is rescued upon expression of wild type InaC. InaC expression is restored in M407 mutants transformed with a plasmid expressing wild type inaC from its own promoter as assessed by immunoblot (C) and immunofluorescence (red, D) analysis and without affecting the distribution of another inclusion membrane protein, IncG. F-actin assembly at the inclusion (white arrowheads, (C)) is restored in M407 transformed with a plasmid encoding inaC but not an empty vector. Note that the average intensity (D) and frequency (E) of F-actin around complemented inclusions is comparable to wild type. Mean ± SEM for three independent experiments is shown. At least 50 (F) or 300 (E) inclusions were enumerated in each triplicate for each experiment. * indicates P < 0.05 by one-way ANOVA and Newman-Keuls post hoc. Scale bars represent 10μm.
The recruitment of ARF and 14-3-3 proteins and Golgi redistribution to the inclusion requires InaC
(A and B) ARF and 14-3-3 proteins interact with InaC. Lysates from HEK 293T cells expressing either GFP or a GFP-InaC fusion protein were incubated with GFP-Trap resin. Bound proteins were identified by LC-MS/MS (). Proteins of ARF and 14-3-3 families are shown with corresponding accession numbers (A). The specificity of these interactions was confirmed by SDS-PAGE followed by western blot with specific antibodies (B). (C) InaC mediates the recruitment of 14-3-3β, -ε, and Golgi-specific ARF GTPases to the inclusion. HeLa cells were infected with the indicated C. t strains and either processed at 30 hpi for immunofluorescence using anti-14-3-3 antibodies (left) or transfected with EGFP-ARF isoforms for 24 hours before processing at 30 hpi for microscopy (right). Note that the intensity of 14-3-3 and ARF1, 4 and 5 recruitment to inclusions correlates with InaC expression. The divergent ARF6 was not recruited to inclusions or bound to GFP-InaC. (D and E) Golgi redistribution around the inclusion requires InaC. HeLa cells were infected as in (C) and processed at 30 hpi for immunofluorescence using anti-GM130 (grayscale) anti-IncG (red) antibodies and Hoechst (blue), and the frequency of Golgi distribution was quantified. Golgi distribution at least halfway around inclusions was scored as a positive (E), as detailed in . (F) F-actin assembly is required for Golgi redistribution at inclusions. HeLa cells were infected with a wild type LGV-L2 strain and treated with 500nM Latrunculin B for 30 minutes before processing as in (E) at 30 hpi. Mean ± SEM for three independent experiments is shown. At least 40 (E) or 90 (F) inclusions were enumerated in each triplicate for each experiment. * indicates P < 0.05 by one-way ANOVA and Newman-Keuls post hoc (E) or Student's t test (F). Scale bars represent 10μm.
Publication types, MeSH terms, Substance, Grant support
Chlamydia trachomatis/genetics*
Genetics, Microbial/methods*
Genome, Bacterial*
Molecular Biology/methods*
Mutagenesis*
Mutation*
Reverse Genetics/methods*
R01 AI100759/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States
AI102500-01/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States
AI081694/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States
F32 AI102500/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
British Jews Awakening as American Jews Remain Asleep
Tags: anti-Israel, Anti-Semitism.Israel, Arab, hatred, Jews, nations.NGO, President Trump, receive, United States, World
First thing we need to recognize is that the problem with anti-Semitic members both in the general membership as well as elected to positions of power and to Parliament is far more pronounced in the British Labour Party than it has risen to amongst the Democrat Party in the United States. Still, between Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, amongst other Representatives within the Democrat Party, the Democrats have had ample opportunity to stand against the rising anti-Semitism, especially as it has reared its ugly head within their ranks. Just as the Labour Party who ignored their early warning signs until it became too great a problem for the party to excise, the Democrats are doing all they are able to whitewash the cases of anti-Semitism with general denunciations of hatred. The Democrats Party even passed on demoting their freshman Representative who has made the strongest and most of anti-Semitic tropes and references from her seat in the Foreign Affairs Committee, one of the most prestigious and important postings which one can be given, and given her either a lesser committee appointment or no committee appointment, probably not that unusual for a freshman Representative. But Speaker of the House Pelosi and the rest of the leading Democrats could not even see their way clear to perform that simply task. Just as is becoming apparent in Britain, the United States is also experiencing rising anti-Semitism both within the public and in the halls of power. The anti-Israel and thus anti-Semitic pronouncements and positions taken by the Black Congressional Caucus, often from behind closed doors, have until now been mostly ignored and treated as an annoyance as this was not a threat which would sway legislation and was kept quiet by the media's choosing not to report upon such. With Ms. Omar, Ms. Tlaib and affirmations made by Ms. Cortez made openly, even before the cameras of the media and on talk shows, their anti-Semitic remarks and references were not covered up nor hidden from the public view just as if they desired to be noted for their positions and were quite proud of their anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic positions and desired to let the world know. We hope that these three continue to find the limelight and pronounce their ugly hatreds such that the American public can witness their repulsive and abhorrent anti-Semitic feelings.
Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
The main question is where will this lead for the British, Americans and also most of Europe where such problems are becoming an epidemic. In France there was the problem with outright and obvious anti-Semitic undercurrent behind the Yellow Vests Protests. Much of Europe has been suffering from anti-Israel positions largely through their refusal to condemn and vote against anti-Israel denunciation in the United Nations General Assembly and within the numerous positions held by them within the various United Nations agencies, specifically the Human Rights Commission, UNESCO and numerous others. This should have been expected of the Europeans after the findings that many of the anti-Israel and pro-BDS NGO's which operate within Israel working against the sitting government (when there is one) and against the feelings and positions of the general public were being funded by the European Union and numerous European governments receiving well over half of their funding from those sources and very little from within Israel. Furthermore, every time Israel attempted to pass laws very similar to those used by Europeans and most of the rest of the world, which would only permit NGO's to register as Israel providing they received the majority of their funding from Israelis, their native peoples, the European Union and most European government and politicians all would wail and moan about how Israel was destroying democracy and must permit these foreign funded NGO's continue to be licensed by and call themselves Israeli. No other developed nation allows such ridiculous permission for NGO's who are acting as a fifth front against the government and the people to remain as domestically accredited. Now we will need to be concerned within a few years when the United States joins the chorus financing further anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic positions which will claim to speak for the Israelis as they receive validation from the government simply because any NGO can present themselves and be validated as Israeli laws concerning NGO's are very few and not very restrictive. This is not democracy but its evil twin separated at birth and is actually the exact opposite when NGO's, which are unable to receive funding within Israel, can receive the majority of their funding from entities which desire to harm Israel and remain Israeli.
There are many people both in Israel and across America, who believe and say with complete forthright honesty, claiming that the United States and Israel have always been and will always be allied and friendly. These are people with little grasp of reality or history as the United States and Israel have not always been allies or friends or even on the same side. Granted, President Harry Truman went against the advice of his Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and the vast majority of his advisors plus the others around him and recognized Israel when she declared her independence, though it took the Congress a number of months to be convinced to validate the President's move. Still, immediately after this when the six Arab armies with other allies invaded Israel with genocidal intents, the United States placed an arms embargo on all countries involved in this conflict. If not for Czechoslovakia, Israel might never have received sufficient support of arms required to at least retain much of her lands losing Gaza and the Shomron (West Bank, parts of Judea and Samaria) with the former held by Egypt and the latter taken by Jordan. It was not until the Six Day War in 1967 that these regions were liberated by Israel and, were Israel to be treated as a normal nation, should have been readmitted into Israel with the Arabs residing within given the opportunity to register as legal resident aliens or leaving what was liberated Israeli territories. Similar such events have occurred around the world and especially in Europe as the lines between nations were traded back and forth from the numerous European and other conflicts where, as part of many of these redrawing of lines back to previous location returning lands to one nation or another, often the residing peoples were forced to return within the new boundaries of their country and not permitted to remain and join the new ruling nation. But things are never that easy when it comes to Israel. Much of the problem is that the world has this insatiable appetite for oil, the main product of the central Arab powers, well, that and sand, which they employ to twist and force many a national opinion when it comes to the Jewish State.
These Arab nations, as a result of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), imposed an embargo against the United States in retaliation for the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military as well as to gain leverage in the post-war peace negotiations. This caused people in the United States to have gasoline rationed with often odd-even day restriction on license plates determining who could buy gasoline with some stations limiting the amount any single driver was permitted to buy and many stations running out of gasoline by noon each day. There were gas lines and people would rise a couple of hours early just to buy fuel and still make it to work close to on time. This also led the Arab oil producing nations and their allies around the world to limit production to force prices higher raking in millions of dollars, pounds, francs, marks and other currencies and greatly increasing their leverage over Europe and other parts of the developing world. This influence has contributed greatly to the anti-Israel animosity worldwide. This resupply by the United States during the 1973 Yom Kippur War was actually the first major arms delivery by the United States which would also go on to make Israel a deal she unfortunately, at that time , could not resist to provide F-16s and additional F-15s to Israel in exchange for Israel not placing the Lavi fighter Jet into production. The Lavi would have been a direct contender with the F-16 for world fighter sales, so this decision by the United States was anything but altruistic. The deal included the United States assuring Israel of air superiority in exchange for Israel not producing aircraft which would directly compete with the American markets in fighter jets. With the recent delivery of the F-35 JSF to Israel, one would be led to believe that the United States has remained honest in their agreement. There have been announcements that the United States will be selling F-35 JSF to United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia as well as potentially Egypt and their being sold to Turkey currently being held up, but likely to be made in the near future depending on the White House and President Trump resisting the pressures from the Defense Department and State Department to provide Turkey with the new aircraft. This could lead to Israeli adversaries and potential adversaries (and traditional adversaries) being provided with the F-35 JSF such that in a future engagement Israel would be facing as much as three to one odds against her in placing these planes into the air. This was also possible to a more limited extent with the F-15 and F-16. Perhaps it is time for Israel to return to the fighter aircraft market and produce her own next generation fighters.
Those claiming that Israel need never worry about her relations and military aid from the United States is overly optimistic. Granted, the United States military receives much data and suggestions for improvements on their military hardware used by Israel and the two nations have cooperated in numerous projects mostly in the anti-missile systems development. Such cooperation could be quickly curtailed with a change in who is President of the United States. We saw somewhat of a breakdown in the normal order of relations between Israel and the United States while President Obama was in the White House which was accentuated with the drafting and permitting the passing by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 which was intended to prevent Israel from ever annexing the lands which were promised her through the San Remo Conference, the British Mandate and the initial White Paper. This was partially undone by President Trump with his recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital City of the Jewish State, which he stated was not anything as monumental as it was a simple recognition of history and truth. As many Americans will attest, President Trump will not be President forever, though for many it already feels that way.
The rising anti-Semitism which had struck the British Labour Party at every level, is rampant across Europe and is now becoming evident within the halls of Congress and will eventually threaten every high office in the land and should strike a terrifying chord amongst the Diaspora of Judaism as it portends their having to leave their comfortable existence as it may not remain so comfortable. Many will refuse to admit to their being a problem claiming that these small events are but anomalies and nothing to get all worked up over. They apparently have forgotten all the adages such as, "From the little acorn mighty oaks do grow." The soil the world over had been prepared by numerous decades of growing anti-Israel protests, escapades within the United Nations structures and propaganda financed by the Arab oil conglomerates all of which have simply further and further infected the world preparing it for yet another round against the Jews as well as Israel. Make no mistake that once a nation begins to work against Israel, the follow-on rise in anti-Semitism will not be long in coming. It is next to impossible for a passive person with little care one way or the other over Israel to be swayed into the position that it is all because of the Jews and these Jews and their Israel are causing all the worldly problems when such is repeated ad nauseum in the news, in protests and now in the halls of Congress. This is how the start of anti-Israel and eventual anti-Semitism following in any nation and apparently around the world. The very beginnings are evidenced in these interactive maps, ADL in 2014 with access to a 2015 update on worldwide anti-Semitism. There have been numerous studies performed which depict the rise in anti-Semitism. We would like to present an idea for some enterprising people with the proper equipment and funds to track world wide anti-Semitism and the way it followed anti-Israel and anti-Zionist political tracks by NGOs and eventually governments. The link between these two types of hatred need be measured while knowing the result of the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist animosity is anti-Semitism and all to which that inevitably leads. Hatred of Israel and the Jews is nothing new in the world and there is a long history of the results of such inflammations of hatred from throughout history and it has never ended well for those who first began to persecute and hate the Jews.
Time to Shutter the BDS Movement
Tags: anti-Israel, Anti-Semitism, Arab, Arab boycott, BDS, Blood Libel, Hamas, IDF, Israel, Jews, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian refugee
The Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel needs to be countered and soon. Yes, there are some states in America and even thoughts of a Federal Law against the BDS type of brandishing, specifically when it chooses only a single target, in this case Israel. Much of the BDS movement is pure and simple anti-Semitism and many of its supporters are willing to believe the evils claimed to be committed by Israel without doing any in-depth research to find the truth. But the sheepish followers have no reason to not believe the lies told as they are bombarded by multi-billion dollar propaganda financed with oil money from the Arab Middle East and regurgitated by their leftist professors who simply hate Israel. For some reason, perhaps a form of latent anti-Semitism which lies deep within the societal conscience after three millennia of persecuting the Jews, it becomes easy to believe that the State of the Jewish People is doing all those horrid things as, after all, our societal subconscious remembers the stories which were told throughout history in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Russia and beyond of how the Jews poisoned the wells causing the plagues, Jews used the blood of innocent Christian (Muslim) children to bake Matzoh (Passover bread), sacrificing non-Jews on their secret religious ceremonies in their houses of worship, this was often used to explain the disappearance of individuals, specifically those who were killed by the rulers in secret and often left the body in the Jewish house of worship as proof; cannibalism, money theft often linked to usury, drinking blood of non-Jews as a medical remedy, casting evil spells, hexing, black magic, spying as enemy agents, disloyalty, stealing organs for transplant into Jews, stealing particularly children's eyes preferably blue eyes, murders, arson and almost anything else one could try and blame the Jews and these falsehoods were readily believed and often led to pogroms or the sacking of the Jews ghetto forcing the Jews to flee often with most of their possessions destroyed or stolen. These were called blood libels simply because the earliest ones all revolved around the Jews using non-Jewish blood in rituals, holy observances, sacrifices or in the production of Jew food such as Matzoh. These are the historic demonization of the Jews, which were common throughout the Christian and Muslim worlds, though this was more prevalent in the Christian world; Islam was not innocent of such accusations against the Jews.
The modern blood libels are more subtle and devious centering on the Jews as being a group which stands separate from others and acting exclusively against any non-Jews, goyim. Just for clarification, in Hebrew, the word goy means nation or people and when used in the plural, goyim, it means non-Jew, as the Jews are a single nation thus the plural cannot be applied to the Jews. It has no connotation of good, bad or evil, it simply means people and slang it is used to denote other. But there have even been the rehashing if blood libels with Hamas recently invoking the tale that the Jews were killing Palestinian Arabs for their organs and even kidnapping Arab children for their beautiful eyes. The Arab world has oft repeated the Matzohs are made using Arab children's blood which the Jews get by kidnapping an Arab youth, usually under the age of five or six, and placing them alive in a barrel with nails driven through it and rolling it to bleed the child. Hint, if you were at all familiar with Jewish Halachic Law, you would know that the Jews are forbidden from eating blood and that this is why they salt their meat so heavily, so as to remove every last drop of blood in a final rinsing. The canard that the IDF kills Arabs for their organs is so obviously false just on the face of it as organs must be matched to the recipient from the donor so closely that it would be impossible to use any randomly procured organs.
The blood libels today are also more inventive and varied in order to match the modern times. There is one that Israel does not allow the Arab Palestinians to vote. Well, the first question which need be asked would be, vote where and in what elections. The answer will usually be that Israel will not allow the Palestinians to hold elections. The truth is a bit different. First, it is true that the Palestinians are not permitted to vote in Israeli elections. Along that line, neither are Jordanians, Egyptians, Syrians or any other peoples outside of Israelis permitted to vote in Israeli elections. The Palestinians reside in two regions with each having their own governance. In Gaza, Hamas rules, chooses their leaders and it is your basic dictatorship and thus no elections. In the West Bank (for the remainder of this article we will use the name Shomron which is an area of Judea and Samaria which Jordan occupied illegally from 1948 through June 1967) are ruled by the Palestinian Authority. The President, Mahmoud Abbas, knows that should he permit elections he would not win and thus loose the protection of his Force 17 and very likely end up killed by those he has, we'll just say upset. This has led to him now serving the twelfth year of his four or five year term which began in 2005. He cancelled the 2009 elections, failed to initiate the next attempt, cancelled a couple of others and lastly an agreement with Hamas to hold election in both Gaza and the Shomron ran into some difficulties, is how it was explained. So, Israel has nothing to do with whether or not the Arab Palestinians get to vote or hold elections, that is up to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, neither of which are all that fond of the people voting. On a different note, the nearly 20% of the Israeli population which are Arab get to vote along with Christians and numerous other groups including some you may never of heard of such as the Baha'I and they all get to vote along with the Jews in Israeli elections. The criteria are very simple, if you are an Israeli, then you vote in the Israeli elections and if you are not an Israeli, you don't. Another complaint is that the Arab Palestinians must pass through checkpoints to go into Israel. So, Mexicans, Canadians (largely) and any foreigner entering the United States also get to go through a checkpoint to enter, it is called Customs. Further, Israelis get to go through checkpoints in order to go to the movies, shop in a mall, go to many restaurants, enter hotels, ride the trains and all sorts of things as part of preventing terrorism. You know, kind of like taking off your shoes, belt and all metal objects and possibly more, depending on the TSA Agent's mood, all to prevent terrorism on aircraft. The main thing one need filter the claims against Israel through is that the Palestinian Arabs are not Israelis and are treated as the foreigners they are. Remember their claim that they want their country of Palestine established, not returned because there has never been a nation called Palestine, it was a reference to a region which included Jordan.
So, the claims against Israel are largely false or a very long stretching of half-truths. This makes the BDS movement something resting atop of a foundation of lies. Israel is far from an Apartheid state as Israelis come in ever hue and racial variety. Below we have four pictures of soldiers from the IDF which includes a cross-section of races, national origins, genders and all the variety one might not expect. Israel is amongst the least race-conscious places on the planet. But the BDS movement is counting on your having absolutely little and preferably no knowledge about Israel. Then there is the other means that they often convert music stars, actors and actresses, politicians and other famous people by bringing them on a guided tour of Israel and Palestinian areas. The principle word is guided. First, they will take the victims, and that is what the group is, on a tour of northern Tel Aviv and Netanya, best portrayed as the Israeli version of Biscayne Bay, Florida or similar very expensive and elite neighborhoods to show the way the average Israeli lives, trust us, it is anything but average; then they take them on a tour of a few, as many as five, "typical Palestinian villages, never Nablus or Gaza City, these are Potemkin Villages in reverse, screen sets showing poverty and desperation with a cast of actors who put on the act claiming all sorts of horrors and a story of how they were thrown from their grand home somewhere in Israel, often Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. These villages do not have an actual permanent population, they are sets which lie empty except when they need to put on a show. When people talk about the abject poverty in these villages, ask them if they got to visit places without a guide and simply roam around unchaperoned, something which would actually be hazardous to many people if they were to visit certain areas, just like any city, there are just areas which are not as safe as one would like when roaming around. We would not even suggest roaming around our town though the chances of walking into trouble is virtually nil.
Six Soldiers from India's 'Lost Tribe' and Some Women of the IDF
Pvt. Jonathan left everything in China to enlist in the IDF and Sgt. Salah Halil with other Arab members of his unit
The BDS stories are full of falsities and misleading statements which all rely on your believing that were the Jews to ever get their own nation, they would act with such animus as a reaction to the treatment they received at the hands of others. The reality is exactly the opposite if for no other reason than the Torah instructs us in Exodus, Chapter 23, Verse 9, to "And you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, since you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Instructions do not come much clearer than this one. Jewish Oral Law tells this even further telling us to love the stranger amongst us. The Palestinian Arabs are not amongst us and where they do mix with us they are accepted and trusted which has led to tragedy on the rare occasion that one of the Arab Palestinians decides that shooting the people they work with might be a good way to win friends and influence people. This was exactly what happened in the Barkan Industrial Park shooting where Ashraf Walid Naalwa tied-up and shot to the head execution-style Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel age twenty-nine and Ziv Hajbi age thirty-five as well as injuring severely with shots to her torso a fifty-four-year-old woman employee who preferred to remain anonymous. We would like to note that the remaining Palestinian Arabs with passes allowing them to work in the Barkan Industrial Park remain employed and working in the park alongside the Israeli employees, many of whom are Jews. There were no retaliatory actions taken against the other Park employees including those in the specific manufacturing plant where this shooting occurred. The BDS people would probably only refer to the fact that in this case the IDF killed Naalwa when attempting to take him into custody leaving out the part that he had attempted to shoot his way out of being taken. Hopefully you are getting a sense of the extremes and lies which are behind and powering the BDS movement and their reliance on the proclivity for people to believe the worst in Jews and thus even more-so of Israel. Below are six pictures, before looking at the description, try and figure which are from Israel and which from Nablus ruled by the Palestinian Authority and which are from Gaza City under Hamas rule. The reality is that there are almost indistinguishable neighborhoods in each with greatly varying levels of wealth. There are extremely wealthy Palestinian Arabs and there are Israelis living with meager wealth. According to the story-line given by the BDS propagandists, there are only uber-wealthy Jews and impoverished Arabs. That is as large a lie as any of their other claims. Israel is a vibrant, democratic, equal, varied and diverse country with its share of problems just like any other nation. Is Israel perfect, absolutely not, but it is one of the most pleasant and accepting places and rates as the eleventh happiest nation which when one considers all the various challenges faced by Israel, that is a remarkable little fact. Does being the eleventh happiest country sound anything close to what the BDS propagandists paint as the picture of Israel, full of hate and almost a police state?
Top Nablus Palestinian Authority
Middle Gaza City Hamas
Bottom Tel Aviv Israel
The Israel we see everyday and in our travels is a place where we are glad we moved here and made it our new home. We can compare it well against our life in America and as there are things which are better in the United States, there are things about Israel which puts it ahead of America. Israel is a wonderful, open and free society where people from numerous and varied nations and cultures live largely in harmony. Israel is one of two centers, the other is India, for the Baha'I people and has one of their two beautiful centers with its perfectly manicured gardens. Unfortunately, most of the news about Israel is about terrorism, the Palestinian Arab difficulties which are largely because the Arabs have refused every offer to provide them with a state. What the BDS people do not tell you is their efforts are a continuation of the Arab boycott of Israel and that the only state the Arabs are willing to accept is one where they replace Israel and the Jews are made to find another nation to accept them. Should no nation be willing to take the Jews in, the Arab solution to that is to finish what Hitler started, and they admit this in Arabic amongst themselves, never in English as that would reveal a truth they prefer not to advertise. Before reading our final paragraphs, please take a long look at the map below.
Israel and the Arab World
Are the Palestinians needful and suffering? That is a valid point. The question is where they should be settled. Should they replace Israel and leave the Jews to suffer whatever the world decides, which would likely be closed doors leading to very bad results. Where is there room for these refugees? Let us compare two people's refugees. The Arab refugees from the formation of Israel were placed in refugee camps and locked there to be used as a weapon against Israel. Their original numbers were somewhere around seven to eight hundred thousand and over the decade after the formation of Israel the Arab world made over eight-hundred-thousand Jews, most of which came to Israel and were absorbed into the country and given full rights. Why cannot the Arabs take their own brothers while Israel absorbed an equal number of refugees. Because they have been ostracized by their own people, their numbers grew to where they are reputed to be more than five million which makes their return to Israel unthinkable. When many of them would have little other than killing the Jews should they be given the opportunity, this would make their inclusion in Israel difficult, but the Arabs want their nation to replace the Jews and take everything the Jews have from their wealth to their lives. There have been refugee swaps after most wars, there was the exchange between India and Pakistan and no one was placed in a camp, there was a refugee problem when Poland annexed lands previously belonging to Germany and there were no refugee camps, only the Arabs decided that their brothers were to be separate and never treated as equal. The Arabs who remained in Israel are treated as equals in Israel and have identical rights as every other Israeli citizen. How is it Israel could accept the Arabs, many homeless after the 1948 Arab war on Israel, but the Arab nations are unable to do similarly? The reason is that they are hypocritically using their brothers and sisters as a weapon to power the BDS movement which is designed to destroy Israel as the Jewish state and send almost seven million Jews out of their homes making them stateless. Lastly, how can there be a Palestinian Arab refugee camp in Gaza City or Nablus or the others within the Palestinian ruled lands under either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas? Here is a link to a one-hour informative examination of the Arab Palestinian Refugee problem.
What is needed is an anti-BDS movement to counter their poison and defamation of Israel. It should be a simple movement where people actually need only perform two small tasks. The first is to sign a petition supporting Israel and her right to exist as the Jewish State as long as she continues to recognize and respect the minorities living amongst her. The second is to make an effort to buy Israeli products when choosing products. Israel makes some of the worlds finest wines, grows and exports produce and manufactures an impressive array of products. Many of us already own some items which are very dependent on Israeli technology and developments. Even the BDS anti-Semites use such products and if they were to be honest, they would avoid all things Israel and not just what is easy. Such things include your cell phone which relies on Israel technology, all Intel microprocessors, instant messaging software and so much more. There need be an NGO to counter the BDS movement which respectfully informs people who decide to cancel appearances in Israel or otherwise fall victim to the harassment policies and practices of the BDS movement who bombard their web sites and e-mails with threats and demands that they treat Israel as the pariah amongst the nations and berate these people until they cave. The anti-BDS would simply bolster their decision not to fold to the threats and inform them that they are being victimized by people using multiple e-mail accounts and identities and they are only a minority. There would need to be a web site which included a list of people willing to support Israel and another of companies which support Israel including all those with research and development sites located in Israel or manufacturing in Israel. It would also provide a list of Israeli products which people could choose and prefer in support of Israel. And it should offer bumper stickers which state different pro-Israel statements such as, "I Buy Israeli," "We love Israel," "Israeli Products Inside" and other supportive slogans often including a Star of David replacing the letter "o" for added effect. The "Israeli Products Inside" could also come in a smaller size sticker which companies could place on their products which have Israeli made or designed products inside showing their support for Israel and all she has given the world. Such a movement would gain strength as more people displayed pro-Israel sentiments making it less stressful and threatening to support Israel because now you have support and are not alone, that is the secret. Perhaps the best sticker would simply state, "You are not alone" with all the o's made out of Stars of David. If you love this idea, we would love to try to arrange for this to become a reality.
Freedom of Speech has Died in America
Tags: Anti-Capitalism, anti-Israel, Anti-Semitic, Anti-Zionist, Contract with America, Freedom of Speech, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Great Society, John Kennedy, Leftists, National Debt, Newt Gingrich, Palestinian Arabs, President Andrew Jackson, President Johnson, Racism, United State
Give me your children and I'll change society in ten years. Please assist us, as despite most of us remember hearing this phrase or one very close, none of us could even venture a guess to who, what, when or where. Suffice it to say that something similar to this was said by somebody notable enough for us to remember having read, heard or dreamt it. In the United States, the children in question are school age and especially university age children where in all too many of these institutes of higher education there are safe spaces and speech codes where to even be accused of transgression is a guilty verdict. Where you have speech codes, you lack free speech, and it is that simple. The actual basis of the concept behind free speech is the guarantee that everybody, and it means everybody, can say what is on their mind about anything free of fear that saying so will result in criminal charges and the only possible repercussion would be possible loss of friends and a tainted reputation. That is free speech. It is not free speech if all you ever need hear are opinions with which you agree, or worse, you only get to hear what others have defined as acceptable speech, especially if these are also the same people who hold your future in their hands and within their gradebooks. Unfortunately, for all too many of American university students, the entirety of the above sentence is their reality day in and day out. Numerous of the leading and most prestigious universities such as many of the California University System, all too many Ivy League Colleges and too many other all too well known and sought after universities, there are speech codes, safe spaces and other politically stifling inventions which are being used by the leftist administrators and professors to control the environment while programming the minds of mush sent them presumably to be educated to think, not programmed what to think. The combination of speech codes, safe spaces and unipolar faculty all supporting a singular political bend and the end result is so easily predictable.
When speech codes are designed to support such concepts as global climate change (global warming) is fact, Palestinian Arabs dispossession, anti-capitalism, racism in American society, transgender rights, sexism and other leftist viewpoints and suppress any counter viewpoints combined with reinforcement from curriculum and safe spaces to turn to to escape any transgressions of the speech code or anything which might upset a student's sensitive psyche and you end up with a host of programmed leftist social justice warriors turned loose each year on society and eventually they will change their world. And just in case you might be wondering, that is exactly the intent of the combination of programming tools being implemented at too many American universities. They take a variety of inexperienced, young students whose minds have yet to experience the realities of life in the real world and place them in an environment where everything is arranged such that only leftist, socialist, progressive political concepts are permitted and provided as accepted truth without allowing for any opposing viewpoints and after four to ten years of such programming send out little leftist, Marxist mind-numb robots all set to correct the world and repair all inequities using the knowledge given them.
Amongst the forty-five declared goals for the Communist takeover of America is to, "Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks." They can check this one off their list as the leftists have all but taken complete control of the textbook industry and the teaching institutions and teaching curriculum. The only viewpoint which, in the United States, is challenging the pure leftist agenda has been the Arabist Islamist viewpoint with an intensified curriculum of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and soon to follow on, anti-Semitic viewpoint. On many campuses, the leftist and anti-Israel, anti-Zionist viewpoint and instruction have merged so seamlessly that in politics as a whole, the two have become partners in trade for numerous leftist groups to adopt anti-Israel, anti-Zionist views as a natural extension of their political viewpoints. In order to make such an environment and assure that the little mushballs entrusted to them in many universities, they have implemented the concept of speech codes which completely support the curriculum such that none ever have to hear a discouraging, or contradictory, phrase. In the classroom, the students quickly learn that to disagree with a professor's political views risks failure or more critical grading at the least making receiving honor level grades a student adopts the professor's political views as their default thought process. After a number of years, the higher the degree, the longer the years and the deeper the indoctrination and the longer a student adopts the leftist viewpoint, the more rote repetition of the specific political points held within, the higher the likelihood that the student adopts these views as their own out of habit and repetition. Of course, that is the intended result the professors are seeking from these general soft-sciences and social sciences curriculum as the textbooks and teaching staffs bear witness.
So, what does this hold for the United States and the future? Well, presuming that nothing is going to change, then the United States will continue sliding further and further left until some future President Obama will be the conservative candidate. Before somebody screams that, there will be a corrective slide which would prevent such, let us say that we can only hope that they are correct. The problem we have is after over a half-century of observing the world political stage, and the United States in particular, since the mid-Twentieth Century, there has been a steady and continuous with an occasional lurching back to the right which was all but immediately erased by the next leftist to be elected. As so many have attempted to point out, President John F. Kennedy in the 2000 elections would have run as a Republican with his agenda of lower taxes and building the military. Of course, what these exclamations ignore is that from the 1960 election to 2000, candidate John F. Kennedy would have endured forty years of the Washington Post, New York Times, mainstream broadcast television and all too many other leftist pressures that he very well might have been an entirely different President elected at the turn of the century and would not have run a campaign the equivalence of George W. Bush in 2000, he would have been a more electable version of Al Gore. But fear not, if social media and the uproar caused by the election of President Trump, no true history of conservatism, by an overwhelming number of youthful political enthusiasts, the educational programming is working efficiently and producing an enthusiastic force within American society. What will the future hold? That will not be difficult to tell.
United States National Debt 1940 to 2007
One quick measure might be the above graph of the national debt by year. Up until 1960, the debt grows very slowly and then takes off with a short respite in the late 1990's before continuing upward. This has been due to ever increased social spending brought on by both main parties with the sole respite coming when the Republican Congress forced a government shutdown under the leadership of Newt Gingrich and his Contract with America where the budget was briefly balanced. Still, even then, it was but a brief respite brought on by a conservative correction, something that was not managed even under President Reagan. The ever-increased debt has resulted not only from the initial Great Society initiated by President Johnson but the ever-added amounts and increased numbers of programs which have pushed the debt ever higher. The final number in 2007 was around nine-trillion and now a mere ten years later at the end or 2017 and the debt is now at twenty-one trillion dollars, a doubling and then some in a mere decade. Should the United States debt continue to climb as such and it will clear one-hundred-trillion by mid century assuming things are not brought under control and the ever-continuous slide towards socialism turned back. Does it appear that this might be the case? Well, in all honesty we fear the United States will spend itself into oblivion before it learns its lesson as every other attempt at socialism has resulted in the same end. That is a truly frightful realization and one can only hope that the United States is scared from failing while it might still be possible to produce their way back to solvency. It will take an extended effort and the electorate changing direction aiming to bring government under control, spending back within limits and fiscal discipline which has not been seen in over half a century. What the United States needs is four or five President Andrew Jacksons in a row as he was the last President to ever pay off the national debt completely, and he only managed to do so for a few months.


Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions (MICE) is a buzz word in the world of business, usually this means that one organization will sponsor a trip for their clients or business associates as incentives for a job well done, some times for a job to be done well. On the 2nd of May my colleague & I escorted 46 employees of a top client on an overseas trip. This was a 5 nights, 6 days trip crossing 4 countries and my second overseas trip ever. The following series will detail the trip.
Day 1 – May 02: We departed from Chennai to Schipol Airport by the Emirates airline and so the stopover was in Dubai. A 4.25 AM flight meant a 1 AM check in and therefore no sleep for the hosts as we had to gather the travellers assembled from across the country in a city hotel and take them to the airport. The inevitable Indian Stretchable Time standards ensured that we reached the airport late enough to give me a nervous attack.
A mad check in followed by a serpentine immigration check escorted by the guide from Kuoni left me exhausted, so much so that the 4 hour flight in an Airbus A330 to Dubai went by in a blur.
Dubai airport is seriously impressive and my favourites are the water installations and the underground train that shuttles within the airport.
The mammoth A380 with its comfortable legroom, awesome inflight entertainment ensured that the 8 odd hour flight from Dubai to Schipol was enjoyable.
I caught a movie and then listened to The Messiah on the flight. The food on the flight was below expectations and serving crackers with every meal was unusual at least for me. And I could not help noticing that the prettiest airhostesses can be found in some of our domestic sectors, on the Emirates they looked tired and very plain.
The best part of the flight were the three camera angles that was part of the inflight entertainment, the movement of the plane could be seen from the tail, front and lower cameras for an unforgettable experience.
We landed in Schipol airport Amsterdam in the afternoon and after the mandatory resetting of the watches I realized that I had not slept for nearly 28 or so hours. I liked the Schipol airport and my first impression was that all airports should be designed liked this one. The airport opens into a mall with a railway station and a bus stand outside ensuring connectivity. Our bus was waiting for us and so we jaywalked across the road to the bus. I mention jay walk as there it is simply not done, people wait at the pedestrian and the traffic waits for them to cross.
The first thing I noticed about the bus was that it was a left hand drive and so we looked quite silly searching for the door on the wrong side. So we boarded the bus and another thing caught my eye, a dustbin.
A segregated dustbin with degradable, non-degradable and plastic like some we may have seen here but what was different was that this was being used, I noticed a man eating a hotdog throw the crumbs in one, the wrapper in another. Small things, but they make a difference.
I learnt a few more things during the drive to the hotel. On the road the order of priority is for the pedestrian, cyclist and then the motorist with dedicated cycle tracks everywhere and everyone respects the traffic lights even if there is no vehicle in sight. The roads are very narrow and the houses in the older part of the city are ancient with an average vintage of 200 odd years.
It was amazing to hear that around 8000 homes are protected monuments in the city with a government permission required for the owners to renovate or repair their homes. In addition the government subsidizes the maintenance costs!!! The houses share common walls and are very narrow almost like houses in Mylapore or Triplicane! Another quirky feature of the homes was the narrow doors and a hook on the roof, these hooks were used to lift goods or furniture into the homes as the doors are very narrow!
We checked into the Renaissance hotel a part of the Radisson chain and had a packed lunch before we set off for the first part of the sightseeing that was a visit to the Hieneken Museum.
Hieneken appears to be one the most famous exports of Amsterdam and the museum stands testimony to the same. The makers of the beer have converted the original factory into a museum for their famous product and a visit to the facility seems to be a part of the tourist itineraries of Amsterdam. The museum tour takes a visitor through the manufacturing process of the beer and its heritage. The staff seem so passionate about the beer and their enthusiasm is so infectious that I could not decline the complimentary beer and drank it the way it is supposed to be drunk (with manly gulps!).
We finished the tour and realized that it was still bright though it was over 6 PM. The sun sets late in this part of the country and the sun set at around 9.30 PM that evening. The beautiful network of canals adds beauty to a historical town and the water in the canals appear clean. (Sigh).
It was almost unreal to see bright sunshine and the clock showing that it was 8 PM when we reached the Indian hotel for dinner. After an Indian dinner a sore point of the trip we retired to our rooms completely exhausted. I was told by the guides that Indians are poor travelers reluctant to try any local food and if they are vegetarians it gets tricky so Indian it was right through the trips in the Indian restaurants that seemed to be everywhere. It was a tired end to a long day that started the day earlier.
Wow! Amsterdam is on my list of places. I heard that people sometimes roam naked in the streets! Maybe now, it doesn't happen as much.
Awaiting to read the forthcoming Amsterdam and other countries' posts.


If you're having plumbing issues, contact a Raleigh plumbing expert today for assistance at (919) 626-3626!
Every homeowner faces plumbing issues throughout the years. Whether it's clogged sinks to burst pipes, some homeowners are quick to face plumbing challenges and try to fix them on their own. While some issues can easily be taken care of, there are others that you should never attempt to fix on our own. Many plumbing issues require experienced plumbers who have the tools and knowledge to handle them. The Durham plumbing experts shared the top plumbing issues that you should be handled by a professional.
If you are remodeling your home and you need to change your plumbing system, you should get a professional plumber to help you with all the plumbing updates. Whether you need to mount a new sink, tub or pipes, a plumbing professional can help you install them properly. Changing items in your plumbing system is a complex job. You don't want plumbing mistakes to ruin your remodeling job; that is why you should leave this job to the professionals.
Whether your water or sewer pipes need to be replaced, this is never a job you should handle yourself. Trying to replace a pipe on your own can make the situation much worse if you don't know exactly what you are doing. Replacing pipes requires the right tools and knowledge to replace them correctly.
Since all water heaters have a unique set of features, looking up how to fix your water heater on YouTube won't necessarily work. Trying to fix or install a water heater on your own can make situations much worse. Installing a water heater on your own can be extremely dangerous because some electric water heaters have large amounts of volts of electricity. If you try to install a gas water heater, you may end up with a gas leak. For that reason, we recommend letting a professional install or fix water heaters for your safety.
You may notice you have a problem with your water line when your water pressure is low, or you have discolored water. If you have a water line problem, it is best to have a professional handle it. Trying to fix the issue yourself can cause more damage and you will end up spending more money.
Since low water pressure can be caused due to a number of issues, this is another plumbing problem you should never attempt to fix yourself. Some are caused due to a pipe blockage and even a cracked pipe. If you notice that the water pressure is low, contact a professional. Although it may seem like a minor problem, low water pressure can also be a sign of a major plumbing problem.
If you're experiencing the plumbing issues listed above, it is vital to have an experienced plumber handle it. Contact the Durham and Raleigh plumbing experts at JD Service Now. Call us today to schedule service at (919) 626-3626!


[By Shiho Nakaza in Los Angeles, California USA] A small band of Los Angeles sketchers went to Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Irwindale for 51st Worldwide Sketchcrawl last month. I meandered around the grounds full of participants and performers in broad interpretations of "Renaissance" costumes mixed with whimsy and fantasy.
Some of the musical bands were rocking to acoustic metal like it's 1499.
Other musicians were accompanying belly dancers, while some dancers moved around the May Pole, with San Gabriel mountains in the background.
And a joust completes the Renaissance Faire!


NikeLab is a new platform for innovation and expression.
To celebrate the launch of NikeLab at their 1948 store in Shoreditch, Nike asked us to bring their digital flyer to life in the form of a projection.
Using our own filmed lasers the inhouse team 'engraved' the information on cardboard. The result was a spectacular projected light show that sat perfectly within the 1948 store.


No, this is not a bash at Pakistan, it is a deep cry over the tragedy that has engulfed Pakistan so that it is no longer "pak" (pure), no longer just and no longer honorable…Thanks to the decades of inept, corrupt military leadership and the even more corrupt and incompetent (though brief) civilian leadership.
Thanks also to the US for helping to create and maintain such corruption on the people of Pakistan ("Why do 'they' hate us?", asked a wide-eyed George Bush as he moved to slaughter a million people).
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily suspended the death sentence of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy, her lawyer said, in a case that hit global headlines after the murder of two politicians who tried to intervene on her behalf. Asia Bibi, a farm worker and mother of four, became the first woman to be sentenced to death under Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law in 2010.
Muslims should be ashamed to think of Pakistan as being a Muslim-ruled country.


text:
Q: Array, need to sort via Keys Ok, not really sure how to do this.  I have values that are being outputted from a SQL query like so:
$row[0] = array('lid' => 1, 'llayout' => 1, 'lposition' => 1, 'mid' => 1, 'mlayout' => 1, 'mposition' => 0);
$row[1] = array('lid' => 2, 'llayout' => 1, 'lposition' => 0, 'mid' => 2, 'mlayout' => 1, 'mposition' => 0);
$row[2] = array('lid' => 2, 'llayout' => 1, 'lposition' => 0, 'mid' => 3, 'mlayout' => 1, 'mposition' => 1);
$row[3] = array('lid' => 3, 'llayout' => 1, 'lposition' => 1, 'mid' => 4, 'mlayout' => 1, 'mposition' => 1);
$row[4] = array('lid' => 4, 'llayout' => 1, 'lposition' => 2, 'mid' => 5, 'mlayout' => 1, 'mposition' => 0);

etc. etc.
Ok, so the best thing I can think of for this is to give lid and mid array keys and have it equal the mposition into an array within the while loop of query like so...
$old[$row['lid']][$row['mid']] = $mposition;

Now if I do this, I need to compare this array's keys with another array that I'll need to build based on a $_POST array[].
$new = array();
foreach($_POST as $id => $data)
{
   // $id = column, but we still need to get each rows position...
   $id = str_replace('col_', '', $id);
   // now get the inner array...
   foreach($data as $pos => $idpos)
       $new[$id][$idpos] = $pos;
}

Ok, so now I have 2 arrays of info, 1 from the database ($old), and another from the $_POST positions ($new), I hope I got the array keys correct.
Now I need to figure out which one's changed, comparing from the old to the new.  And also, need to update the database with all of the new positions where new lid = the old lid, and the new mid = the old mid from each array.  I'm sure I'll have to use array_key or array_key_intersect somehow, but not sure exactly how...???
Also, I don't think an UPDATE would be useful in a foreach loop, perhaps there's a way to do a CASE statement in the UPDATE query?
Also, Am I going about this the right way?  OR should I do it another way instead of using a muli-dimensional array for this.
Basically I need to update in the database where each array within the same keys = changed value and I need to update it where mid = mid in the database (the second key value).
Also, I think it would kinda be like this:
$newest = array();

        foreach($old as $c => $d)
        {
            foreach($d as $e => $f)
                $newest[$c][$e] = $new[$c][$e];
        }

But isn't there a better way to do this with 1 or 2 php array functions?  And I still also need to know which values have changed.... arggg

A: I'm editing this entire answer, since my last try was completely unhelpful.
I notice this:

foreach($old as $c => $d)
  {
    foreach($d as $e => $f)
      $newest[$c][$e] = $new[$c][$e];
  }

And I feel compelled to suggest giving more thought to your variable names. Highly descriptive variable names help for understanding your own code, and especially help for other people to understand your code.
Now, to try to tackle your question again...
I don't use array_diff_assoc() a lot, but I believe you would use it like this:
$temp_changed=array();
foreach($new as $id => $mid){
    $temp_changed = array_diff_assoc($mid, $old[$id]);
    if(count($temp_changed)){
        $changed[$id] = $temp_changed;
    }
    unset($temp_changed);
}
The array_diff_assoc checks keys and values, and in the above example returns an array of all key/value pairs in $new[$id] that are not in $old[$id]
So you will end up with the array $changed that has the same structure as $new and $old
Then you can just:
foreach($changed as $id=>$mid){
  // Do UPDATE
}
As for the way you cycle through multi-dimentional arrays with nested foreach statements, if there is a better way I don't know about it.

A: Ok, thanks guys for all of your help, really really appreciate it!!  Though I found a better way, as it does it way faster than array_diff_assoc.  This is the function that I found, and after having both arrays, I just use $updatedArray = array_diff_no_cast($new, $old);
function array_diff_no_cast(&$ar1, &$ar2) {
   $diff = Array();
   foreach ($ar1 as $key => $val1) {
      if (array_search($val1, $ar2) === false) {
         $diff[$key] = $val1;
      }
   }
   return $diff;
}

Cheers :)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The Friends of Charles Darwin
Charlie is our Darwin
Mini Biographies
About the Friends of Charles Darwin
About Richard Carter, FCD
Darwin and Wallace: the lost photograph
I'd heard the legend, of course. Every Darwin groupie has. The missing photograph of the two independent discoverers of evolution by means of Natural Selection, Darwin and Wallace, standing side-by-side. Together. In the same frame.
The incorrigible sceptic in me had always dismissed the tale as a myth. Wishful thinking. It never happened. But wouldn't it be fantastic if it had?
And then, last week, browsing the History of Science section in one of my favourite second-hand bookshops, I chanced upon a collection of Thomas Henry Huxley's essays, Darwiniana. I picked it up to examine it, and this fell out:
The legendary missing photograph: Darwin (R) and Wallace (L).
There's a Pulitzer in this for me, mark my words.
Writer and photographer Richard Carter, FCD is the founder of the Friends of Charles Darwin. He lives in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.Website • Facebook • Twitter • Newsletter • Books
Buy my book: On the Moor: Science, History and Nature on a Country Walk
"…wonderfully droll, witty and entertaining… At their best Carter's moorland walks and his meandering intellectual talk are part of a single, deeply coherent enterprise: a restless inquiry into the meaning of place and the nature of self."
—Mark Cocker, author and naturalist
Amazon: UK | .COM | etc.
Subscribe to the newsletter:
Posted on: 20-Apr-2013 01-Jul-2019
File under: BlogKeywords: aardman · alfred russel wallace · charles darwin · humour
← UCL's free public Lunch Hour Lecture series
The Friends of Charles Darwin are now on Facebook →
6 thoughts on "Darwin and Wallace: the lost photograph"
10-May-2013 at 09:20
I'm really disappointed.
Richard Carter, FCD says:
I think it's a cracking photo.
Bill Mechior says:
16-Jul-2013 at 20:08
Wensleydale cheese wasn't made on a large scale until the end of the 19th century, and it seems unlikely that Wallace could have survived without it. The photo must be a fake.
John S. Wilkins says:
You can tell it's a PhotoShop job...
GrrlScientist says:
08-Jan-2019 at 12:33
wallace was bald??
Russell Musgrove says:
I'm glad to see this has finally seen the light of day. Just think of the attention it will get and the money it could be sold for. Pulitzer? I think this deserves the big one, the Nobel!
Newsletter No. 8: Reading for amusement
Darwin reads Malthus · mass extinctions · earthworms · Gilbert White · Lonesome George · lichen · zebras · Neanderthals · life on Venus? · bats · book reviews · and more…
Newsletter No. 7: Stirring up the mud
160 years after Darwin 'stirred up the mud', the 'controversy' over evolution by means of natural selection was settled long ago, as far as the scientific community is concerned.
Hello, South Korea!
I am delighted to announce that the Friends of Charles Darwin have their first member from South Korea.
The Darwin bicentennial oak, 11 years on
Eleven years ago today, I planted the Darwin Bicentennial Oak in my garden.
An embarrassment of Richards
In which my head appears on a spike (six times).
Hello, Serbia!
I am delighted to announce that the Friends of Charles Darwin have their first member from Serbia.
28-Sep-1838: Darwin brainstorms Malthus
On 28 September 1838, Charles Darwin made some notes inspired by the writings of Rev. Thomas Malthus, and a famous simile was born.
Gilbert White's influence on Charles Darwin
To mark the 300th anniversary of his birth, a brief account of Rev. Gilbert White's influence on Charles Darwin.
26-Apr-1882: Charles Darwin buried in Westminster Abbey
On 26th April 1882, Charles Darwin was buried in Westminster Abbey. How this honour came about is described by his son Francis Darwin in The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin…
03-Dec-1831: Darwin's first night aboard HMS Beagle
Darwin records his experimentations with a hammock.
Book review: 'The Stubborn Light of Things' by Melissa Harrison
A nature diary.
Book review: 'On the Origin of Species' by Charles Darwin (1st ed., 1859)
…or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
Book review: 'Tamed' by Alice Roberts
Ten species that changed our world.
Richard Carter's other websites
RichardCarter.com
writing &photography
Full list of Richard's web presences
On the Moor: Science, History and Nature on a Country Walk
There is grandeur in this view of life…


"oishi" (delicious) but also presented so beautifully! Thus, when I visited the various restaurants, food markets, hotels, etc., I took digital images. I hope you will enjoy these photos. While observing, perhaps your Pavlovean responses will be activated.


Robert Griffin III isn't happy with the way things are going in Washington, and his father reportedly shares that sentiment.
Robert Griffin III has been shut down for the season, and he isn'€™t too happy about it. Neither, reportedly, is his dad.
The Washington Redskins quarterback's father, Robert Griffin II, was heavily involved in his son's development as a quarterback in his younger years and was very visible during the QB's career at Baylor. Now, he's making his presence felt within the Redskins' organization, according to Jason Cole's recent piece for Bleacher Report.
The elder Griffin, who was spotted in the Redskins' locker room after a recent game, has become a nuisance for Washington, privately questioning Mike Shanahan's decisions in last year's playoffs that led to the younger Griffin's knee injury, according to The Washington Post. He even called for new leadership for the team and has been reportedly lobbying for Baylor head coach Art Briles, who coached RG3 for four years in college, to be the 'Skins'€™ next head coach.
Cole's report also reports that RG3 wasn't exactly the easiest player to coach this season, claiming he was often frustrated with the offense and even dismissed corrective criticism from coaches on the sidelines. Griffin also apparently has refused to alter his footwork to improve his passing, with one team source reportedly acknowledging the quarterback can be arrogant.
Griffin and Shanahan have apparently stopped talking since the quarterback'€™s benching, according to a report that surfaced Sunday. That doesn't bode well for Shanahan's future with the team, which after a 3-11 start to this season doesn't look too bright anyhow. With Shanahan potentially on the way out, the elder Griffin may be able to get a hold of team owner Dan Snyder's ear and convince him that Briles is the best man for the future of the franchise.
Google's most-searched athlete in 2013?


Organic. 100% cotton. Perfume free. Totally chlorine free. Biodegradable. Vegetarian Society approved.
Absorbency: Junior, (grams): less than 6 Absorbency: Regular, (grams): 6 to 9 Absorbency: Super, (grams): 9 to 12 Absorbency: Super Plus, (grams): 12 to 15 Use the chart to select the minimum absorbency to control your menstrual flow and reduce the risk of getting TSS. Absorbency ranges and terms are standard for all tampons industry-wide.


The strength and diversity of CORE's research has attracted graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from a wide range of countries and with a variety of educational backgrounds, including biomedical science, chemistry, engineering, optometry and microbiology.
Graduate and post-doctoral work is integrated into CORE's overall research agenda. Students and fellows are encouraged to contribute ideas and share their expertise in addition to presenting their own work at international conferences and interacting with the wider research community.
Collaboration with faculty within the School of Optometry and other University of Waterloo departments such as Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Systems Design Engineering and Physics offers applicants an opportunity to work with several other disciplines.
For more information please contact Dr. Lyndon Jones.


Come on careta, come on!
Those who walk down the streets of Acupe (in the state of Bahia) on Sundays in July can't avoid meeting the traditional "rubber Careta (or grimmace)." There are countless people, both children and adults, dressed in frightening masks and outfits and hitting those who provoke them.
They appear when you least expect, you turn a corner and here comes a group of them, walking towards you with a deep, penetrative glare.
The whole community is a stage for fear, for scares, and the courage of facing this fear on these July Sundays.
The game goes like this: the "caretas" walk around armed with their little sticks trying to attack those who provoke them. They walk around anonymously, covered in costumes that make them unrecognizable, waiting for a brave soul to tease them, to challenge them, and then… A game of dares takes place.
"Come on careta, come on!" This is the cue for the careta to run in incredibly fast sprints after these instigators, who take off to hide in a house or simply run until the careta tires and gives up the chase.
Once they admit giving up, the agitator is free; he eases his body and can even get a hug from the careta, a sign that it is all a game. A real experience of being hunter or hunted, the monster or the daring warrior, of living the fear and suspense of being caught or having the chance of hitting your instigators.
"You are not disguising yourself when you put on a mask, quite the opposite, you are presenting yourself, we are showing who we actually are. The mask is just a pretext because, in truth, is we who are there, our wishes and desires, it is you right there, everything you feel, you give yourself to it, laying out everything you have within, and offering what you have inside to others," he says.
It's a chance for children to live out their own fears in doses they can control.
Each one decides what they want to be, and if they want to enter the game or not. Some like to dress up as careta while others prefer to run from them, they can switch roles from Sunday to Sunday, or there are days they simply don't want to participate in any of it, they are free to choose. But the opportunity to live and face fear is for everyone.
In order to become a careta you have to rent one of these industrialized masks a few days ahead, after all, there aren't enough masks in town for so many boys and girls. For the cost of R$4.00 (about $1.50) you can use the mask for half a day.
You also need clothes in addition to the masks, preferably red, black or white, and enough so they cover the entire body, without leaving any trace of who is under the costume. Jacket, pants, socks, gloves and cape are part of the attire. They use what's available, especially to make the cape. We've seen capes made of table cloths, old curtains, fabric taken from umbrellas, foam fabric, or whatever else is at hand. The whole outfit can also be rented, which results in adaptations to the customer's body, such as rope belts tied around the waist, sleeves longer than the arms, and long table cloths dragging along the ground; what matters is being inside it and completely covered.
The basic rule of the caretas is to remain unrecognizable, so not even speaking is allowed since someone could recognize your voice. They stay silent for hours, only scaring others with their crooked gait or by showing their scary face and their little whipping sticks.
Behind the masks it's possible to do things you wouldn't have the courage to do in other moments. There are, for example, countless scenes of caretas approaching pretty girls, playing a flirtatious game without, however, revealing who they are.
But there is no vandalism or people leaving the game hurt. The violence is only as big as the satire, the challenge and the courage of each one.
"The caretas used to be made of cardboard, there weren't these rubber ones, bu,t due to complaints from people about the excessive violence that was happening, some people decided they should go out in blocks, without hitting or running after people. So it became a block with a band that followed it, with the group only simulating running and scaring people. Then, since there was no longer anyone that made the paper masks to go out on the street, as a form of resistance, they began using these industrialized masks," Monilson tells us.
During this time the children weren't allowed to play, there were only adult caretas and only during Sunday afternoons. The children began to go out in the mornings as caretas because in the afternoon they were terrified of the adult ones and weren't capable of facing them.
Adults invest a lot more into creating costumes and characters that are both funny and scary. There are adult caretas that look pregnant, enormous gorillas, and some carry rods with real dead bats and rats on the end. On the other hand, the children play the role in the essence of fear, without much extra investment.
The majority of the population of Acupe supports this manifestation. "It's a game for kids to have fun, there's nothing wrong in what they do," says Érica's mother, on of the girls we followed from the moment she dressed up as a careta to when she chased after her instigators.
But there are also those who disapprove. We witnessed parents coming out the doors or windows of their houses waving sticks and threatening anyone that came after their children. "Come here and I'll get you for real, come!" one father yelled while running after a careta. However, we also heard that the same people who complain that the caretas are too violent also wonder when they will come out.
One way or another, the caretas resist time, culture, and all the nuances of modern life.
A story that is still embodied by the people of Acupe.
"This feeds the identity of this community, it shows who they are. You won't hear in the discourse of people here any references to the plight of black slaves, their struggle in the plantations, etc. This discourse is over and has been embodied, it exists in the Sundays in July, in the drums of the terreiro (Afro-Brazilian ceremonial grounds)," explains Monilson.