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When Fools Rule
Make Way for Ducklings Prank, Boston Common
Sign warns: No photography, to avoid erosion of sculptures from the light emitted by cameraphones.
photo credit: Whoisjohngalt, English Wikipedia CCA-BY-SA 3.0 Unported
Once the glory day for pranksters, April Fool's Day seems to be less dutifully observed these days.
Sometimes the pranks are good-humored, harmless, and funny. Unfortunately, some cause an injury to feelings at least. Perhaps any decline in this second type might be welcomed as a change to human nature. Are we now any less inclined to find humor in the distress of others? Let's hope any injury is modest enough to easily forgive and soon forget.
Some April Fool's pranks live longer than others though. One radio broadcaster when I was growing up, appropriately and affectionately known to his listeners as "Bird Brain Bert Robertson," caught the wrath of city officials. One April 1st, he told his listeners that the City would soon turn off the water supply to all suburbs.
He so convincingly urged his large group of loyal listeners to get prepared for their day's domestic water needs by filling buckets, pots, sinks, and bathtubs, that the City's Water Commissioner asked Bird Brain to stop at once; the level of water in the Dam supplying the City was dramatically falling.
When Bird Brain informed listeners of their April foolishness, they delighted in his offbeat success and quickly forgave him. Regardless of the wasted water, for which he'd not be so readily forgiven today, the effect then was that Bird Brain's popularity rose further.
These days, a NOT-forgivable prank too often played out any day of the year is by some "bird brain" politician who dreams up outrage to get a headline.
As my grandmother would have said, tarred with the same brush, and even less forgivable is the media sub-editor who publishes the outrage [even if critical of it--please see earlier blog posts on the uselessness of "not" and so-called fact-checking]. And, LESS forgivable because the media sub-editor sets an expectation in journalists that "we the people" are willing to still be the victims of the sickness in those outrage pranks of a politician.
Little wonder that the residual effect of such foolishness in public communication is an appetite among some media gatekeepers for more foolish fiction. I guess this was what caused journalists to turn up recently to their first press conference with a new President to put questions with in-built potential to manufacture outrage.
These journalists' questions sounded eerily like they were distilled from partisan talking points; which themselves result from questions that media-manipulators put to members of focus groups to stimulate pre-determined foolishness.
Anyone who doesn't see this as truly bizarre, even without the other bizarre truth that political parties, media, and other companies actually pay money to support this whole set-up, needs at least another cup of coffee.
Also, little wonder then, that this charade of ever-increasing competition for media listeners is causing so many of us to find and enjoy other pursuits.
It's remarkable that such a tragi-comedy continues--a relic of a bye-gone era that was itself manufactured by media rating agencies.
Someone should point out that the world has changed.
at April 01, 2021 1 comment:
Civil Civics
photo credit: US Air Force, Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
Just when the need is great, this month more than 300 educators from across the United States delivered a report and roadmap targeted to enhance Educating for American Democracy, for K-12 education in history and civics.
This remarkable effort, involving wide-ranging consultations for over a year, resulted from the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the US Department of Education to address the serious need in this country for better understandings of civics. This is an ambitious roadmap, providing national guidelines that invite responses for state, local, tribal, county, and district-level solutions to how the roadmap gets implemented.
A key educational goal is to enable future generations to be effective citizens and decision-makers, by seeing their part in shaping the future.
During a national forum to launch the roadmap, Harvard Professor Jane Kamensky spoke to the purpose of equipping students "to ask hard questions, and learn to answer them effectively from evidence, and by deliberating about that evidence even with people who disagree with you, maybe especially with people who disagree with you."
The roadmap outlines a carefully considered approach to improve understandings and involvement in civic decision-making. It incorporates historical content and the stories of the nation's institutions and democratic concepts, as well as considering "people with contemporary debates and possibilities."
This effort to strengthen the foundation in the United States for citizen participation in civic decision-making will be ongoing. It provides a welcome step to address the well-documented need to improve history and civics education, to help sustain democracy.
The Next Thing?
"I wandered lonely as a cloud"
photo credit: texas_mustang, Wikimedia CCA-2.0 Generic
Who knows, with Spring trying to make it in the northern hemisphere, and, for many months, nations that had leaders and populations enough with common sense mostly COVID-clear, and opinion pollsters unable to excite us with poll results, and vaccinations seriously underway in many locations, perhaps we can feel okay reading Tolstoy, Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, Muriel Spark or whomever you prefer, unconcerned for now about any next black swan upsetting the millpond?
Maybe reflection, reminiscence, even nostalgia are permitted now? Just for a while, can we anticipate the tulips and daffodils, then savor the tastes and scents known only to the anxiety-free? Let the cat be the one leaping at shadows on the window.
Be relaxed, that book from 2001, The New New Thing is no longer on the best-seller list. Rest-[what a great word]-assured, we will be able to get through moments of zen or other peace, and never miss that other dopamine, unexcited by the not-latest breaking news.
Weren't secret gardens dreamt up for this time? Why let politicians and other marketers of statistics make worry? Feel confident, someone will keep pots of potentiality stirred in your absence.
Will you really lose your edge by taking a Spring or Summer break (dare we think?) away from the crowd? ... especially with skills gained from a year's lockdown! Why let claptrap now rule your life when some lonely beach or wilderness holds such promise, and might soon be enjoyed.
Let's hear it for this kind of ennui!
photo credit: Jan van Boeckel, ReRun Productions, Wikimedia CCA-BY-SA-4.0 International
A Gary Larson cartoon that a friend recently shared illustrates, by analogy, some of the dilemma the United States faces tackling domestic terrorism.
In the cartoon, four pampered pooches are grouped together in a green field. They are looking toward the edge of trees or woods on the left, and behind them is a pull-cart, with one dog in harness to the cart. The cart is stacked with large books labeled Domestication. The pooches are well-groomed and relaxed, with the lead dog reading aloud from a large open book, also labeled Domestication. This optimistic pooch directs the reading from the book toward the woods, where a pack of wolves glare back at the dogs, fixed in their gaze, and poised for attack, clearly anticipating lunch.
Putting aside the visual exaggeration the cartoonist used to create the comic, the recognizable dilemma remains that "we the people" (also known as "lunch") don't seem to be equipped with even a basic playbook to handle the culture of domestic terrorism.
And, wouldn't it be a good thought to have some ways to address this reality? Especially since, of the many human phenomena, culture is among the slowest to change - regardless of what the latest promises for culture change in organizations promise.
Almost two decades ago, after 9/11, and following a dozen bomb alerts in just one day, I recall my wife's wisdom saying sadly that this would change the country forever. So, to handle foreign terrorism domestically, we have built practices to lessen risk.
But, it was two years ago that a neighbor wanted to help fight the coup. This then-odd comment was stimulated by a domestic wannabe-leader's using such words repeatedly in mailings to the neighbor and so many others. I knew then we were at the beginning of a very different reality.
Domestic terrorists have used age-old emotional appeals, such as fear of "others" or an array of desires... for recognition, for virility, for accomplishment or for belonging, to strengthen connection with adherents and to acquire new followers for the propagandist's worldview.
Unfortunately, as a society, we are well primed to tolerate and respond to propaganda processes, thanks to generations of political and commercial propagandists working us over. For example, perhaps we think of rumor and fashion as two very different realities that we live with. Yet they are very similar in how potently and quickly each spreads and stimulates automatic responses. As Jacques Ellul pointed out, rumor and fashion are forms of propaganda; it's just that in the interests of commerce, we've given fashion a more friendly name.
Fads of fashion are spread by ad populum appeals, advancing a herd-mentality, especially when supported by advertising campaigns. Just one odd example was the now, little-seen yo-yo. This toy, for anyone not familiar with it, consists of small discs joined by an axle spinning at the end of a piece of string, and was featured as far back as 440 BC on a Greek vase. The toy's popularity has waxed and waned over the centuries. From the 1960s, the yo-yo saw a comeback campaign, with a series of television advertisements. It was also used to help sell otherwise unrelated products, as yo-yo dexterous performers toured the world's schools and fairgrounds; and, by the way, promoted products.
These folks displayed skill we wanted to emulate, by delivering amazing tricks with these spinning disks at the end of a piece of string, from the basic "walk-the-dog," which every self-respecting school-kid might master, to "around-the-world," "rock-the-cradle," and other more elaborate tricks that only the truly competent could tackle after much practice.
All this seemed fairly harmless. It was certainly less immediately dangerous than the physical harm dealt out in some enduringly fashionable contact sports. Yes, fashion is quite the driver of a range of behaviors, including the banal, like hula-hoops, emoji, and the assigning of "likes."
The problem that occurs for "we the people" is when the propagandist, whether commercial or cult-promoting, can find, from among all the possible responses that we might make, a relational response that connects us to the propagandist's objective. In other words, we, the propagandized give ourselves over to automatic response to what's said by the propagandist about what's going on around us.
Or, putting this into pulp-talk, when anyone enters that zombie-zone, even someone silently scorning the propagandist or related conspiracy theorists or partisan politicians and pundits, that person becomes a participant in the propagandist's play. A more engaged level in the zombie-zone is when you spend energy on criticizing the propagandist. This usually requires repeating and therefore promoting the propagandist's name and some foolishness or dogma, while making the criticism. Maybe more importantly, it also means you're wasting your time in the propagandist's alternative reality, taking you away from real reality.
In his comprehensive and nuanced book Propaganda, Jacques Elull concluded by illustrating where propaganda could fail. He implied ways to mount counter-attacks, to diminish the impact of propaganda, as I've outlined in earlier blog posts. The strategies he described are potent, as are the recommendations more recently in the work of Randal Marlin, so well-grounded in the wisdom of both Ellul and George Orwell. All these writers have serious value in these times. Each helps to build further principles and techniques for the practical dismantling of propaganda.
It's good that many school curricula have increasingly included ways to identify and counter propaganda techniques. Many incorporate simple approaches for dismissing the inane emotional fallacies of much advertising; but more and broader efforts are needed.
For example, further strengthening is needed more widely of efforts to teach writing through a problem-solving approach, to advance writing as thinking. For some insights on this, do take a look at former colleague, Roslyn Petelin's interview of Professor David Crystal in 2014 (on YouTube). Crystal raised concern about the absence of grammar from most writing classrooms from the 1960s up until the 1990s, which, as Petelin pointed out, Professor John Frow called "a calamity." Hard to figure how one's supposed to write thoughtfully without a workable knowledge of grammar. Whatever fashion drove this impulse might periodically still need dismantling.
In relation to the domestic terrorists in the United States, it's a reasonable start to keep calling terrorists what they are and to keep calling out lies or "the big lie," while prosecuting illegal behaviors. We do also need to get beyond these first stages and address the systemic challenges though.
What will we do to -
* Enhance feelings of belonging in civil society among the propagandist's targets?
* Defuse the impact of rumor that occurs through social media and otherwise, which gains power, as Ellul noted, "the farther away the source and the greater the number of individuals who have passed it on, [so that]... the more the objective fact loses importance and the more the rumor is believed by the multitudes who adhere to it"?
* Nurture a variety of viewpoints through stepped-up "conversation and dialogue" as Ellul urged--to sharpen doubts about formulaic comments, and lessen the likelihood of responding to a propagandist?
* Intercept spontaneous responses to a propagandist, before these become learned responses connected to the propagandist's objective?
Brainwashing seeks to weaken independent thought and absorb the individual into the mass. Ellul pointed out that propaganda more broadly also aims to eliminate individualizing factors. He warned that: "At the moment when the attitudes learned by propaganda begin to prevail over... [what is] ... second nature, they become collective, and the propagandist who has taught them can then calculate more easily what a given stimulus will elicit from them."
Our better future will be found through the vigor of our strengthening individual thought.
at February 24, 2021 2 comments:
What the Inaugural Address Means
"We Hold These Truths" - Jefferson Memorial
photo credit: Billy Hathorn, Wikimedia CCA-BY-3.o Unported
The recent inaugural address of the new president of the United States was distinct in both content and style.
Most important was the outline of policies to reassert truth, law, and justice as national values. Importantly too, the language of the inaugural address signaled a novel integration of analytical and intuitive styles.
I was interested to hear this different language mix from President Biden, having just compared the language of the previous president with ten notable speakers from the 1890s to 1980. Compared with these speakers, the outgoing president had the most intuitive communication style.
In contrast, President Biden blended a mix of content and function words that reinstated an analytical communication style in the presidency, while also incorporating some language features that suggested an intuitive approach.
The speech was structured to logically address problems facing the nation and to offer solutions. Language features included a substantial number of complete sentences, low occurrences of non-referential adverbs, prepositions, and impersonal pronouns, as well as a strong presence of such common rhetorical devices as anaphora and other parallelism, antitheses, and other features that reinforced a conceptual, analytical communication style. It also derives some punch from a frequency of verbs and verbals, especially action verbs, infinitives, and participles.
The speech was delivered in a largely conversational tone. This combined with accumulations of many very short sentences, 38 sentence fragments, quite a few occurrences of "we/our" and imperatives, some questions, use of "and" to begin sentences and phrases, interpolations, and relatively few conjunctions, all helping to suggest an intuitive approach.
Why this matters is that, as mentioned in an earlier blog post, a study published by the National Academy of Sciences not long ago had noted a decline of the analytical communication style in American presidents and other English-speaking political leaders since about 1980. Apparently "voters are increasingly drawn to leaders who can make difficult, complex problems easier to understand with intuitive, confident answers."
Since the later twentieth century, mostly gone from popular taste are the long, grand rhetorical flourishes, replaced first by the conversational language and tones required on radio and television, then more recently by a snappy resonance demanded in social media.
After the perversions of brief and snappy into untruthful, illegal, and unjust, to deliver whatever is most outrageous, perhaps we are to see whether outrageous language might more often get shunted aside by a quieter rhetoric in an analytical communication style--which is buttressed with an intuitive approach.
Perhaps it's not a total pipe dream to hope that the mix of content words in the inaugural address that actually refers to people, tangible things, and real concepts might open the way for further, similar public communications that reference reality.
Can we even hope these continue to get some media attention, instead of the covey of "audience-tested" outrage words delivered into talking points and media releases that have become so common for too long?
"Triste"
photo credit: Arwen Abendstern, Fickr by Wikimedia CCA-BY-2.o Generic
As the inexorable grind of the United States legal processes progress in the coming months and years, accountability for words will come into even sharper focus.
Scrutiny of the gossip-sphere of social media might finally see some requirements for reasonable behavior beyond the user agreements of social media companies that this week proved to be valuable.
Capitol rioters are about to discover in court how sophisticated the tools of law enforcement have become during recent decades to detect bad behavior online, before and after a riot.
Skilled analyses of the public and dark webs, assembling evidence of involvement and intent, are just some of the tools that are now routine in much law enforcement. Two decades of efforts to anticipate the intent of terrorists, by analyzing behavior and language, have delivered many advances in detecting intent.
The tools of language analysis to attribute authorship from relatively small samples of text are also much more refined. Stylometry techniques commenced almost 100 years ago have developed further from 50 years ago in Sweden and Britain to arbitrate the authorship of plays by Shakespeare, Fletcher, Marlowe and Middleton. Almost 40 years ago, I used stylistic analysis of language to advise the Director of Public Prosecutions on the likely authorship of an accused murderer's disputed police record of interview.
Public language such as the positive-sounding codewords used to incite mobs are appropriate for legal attention too. We all know what "Fight like hell" means in the context of a mob and riot; accumulated positive-sounding codewords extolling the coming utopia are not any more neutral in context and are easy to track because of their repetition.
Of course, so many criminals seem driven by belief in their own superiority that the "knock at their door" by law enforcement in coming days, weeks, months or even years will likely still be a surprise.
at January 13, 2021 2 comments:
Sydney Fireworks, New Year
photo credit: Rob Chandler, Fickr by Wikimedia CCA-BY-2.o Generic
"The propagandist's first requirement is to be heard," said Jacques Ellul in 1965.
Regardless of whether or not you've heard of Ellul, this observation ought to be self-evident to anyone who thinks for more than a moment about the matter.
Why then do so many media megaphones irresistibly remain servants of someone they also regularly describe as an outrageous liar? Why magnify manufactured outrage?
When facing any other serious threat, it would be a no-brainer to first remove the threat. And, to be fair, some media are making headway in countering propaganda, mainly by bringing us other wanted news.
By searching out lucid opponents whom any propagandist has, perhaps more yet will elaborate better and new visions for the future, without mention of the propagandist or his outrageous fantasies.
A wonderful quality of propaganda is how quickly it decays, when denied opportunity for a "refresh."
So much "news" is still slave to the gossip formulae, named by media analysts for years, of reacting to Disaster, Celebrity, Crime, Sex, and Violence. This is sad commentary on the lack of imagination of some media and media educators when thinking of their audiences.
After too many years of countless variants of this kind of verbal and nonverbal abuse, for sure, our household will not be alone in continuing to search out the better media options.
Trouble with Theory
Supreme Court, Washington DC
photo credit: United States Government, Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
At the outset, just for the record, I'm committed to theory and putting theory to work. Yet, whether "relentless public scrutiny" is just a fallacy of political theorists is about to be clarified in the United States.
We're soon to see what happens to democracy too. Coming days, weeks and maybe years will produce an uncountable number of words about this. Whatever happens, divergent ideas of popular democracy, liberal democracy, and representative democracy will likely get thrown around with abandon.
Although what we mean by democracy is a legitimate concern, perhaps the more immediate question should be who will do something useful about two especially serious failures of theory?
Firstly, what will you do to push back on the too-frequent failure of the so-called "guardrails" of public accountability?
Perhaps someone can tell me where the prosecution of public corruption in the United States has recently worked effectively? Most often this appears no longer expected in this oh-so-sensitive-to-popular-sentiment political climate.
Are voters supposed to believe that the multiple statute books federally, for example, really lack "teeth" or require such difficult proof that prosecution really is worthless?
Proof of value should be performance in use, not leaving needed laws sitting in the statute books. Goodness knows there's been plenty of malfeasance and corruption to warrant prosecutions in recent times.
Political theorists continue to write about their interviews with leading political and government pragmatists. Then, they republish as largely unqualified "wisdom" what they're told about artifacts called "guardrails," which appear to be so valued that they can't be tainted by use.
Meantime, the numbers of whistleblowers and others leaving public service with careers and personal safety in tatters for speaking out just continue to soar.
If a law is not useful enough to be used, the time on theorizing could be better spent dreaming up some provisions that even flawed public figures would have to use - or else, spend some time dreaming up how such failing "representatives" of the public might be removed quickly but fairly by the population if they don't. Apparently, that's a problem worthy of a legal-political science equivalent of Einstein.
Secondly, what will you do to find and urge the elected politicians who do care to do something better, to help:
1. educate everyone about detecting and calling out propaganda;
2. codify remedies to the multiple deficiencies of norms and regulations to protect the rule of law; and
3. educate everyone about putting civics to use?
I'm sure you could add much to this list, as I could, but these are gargantuan enough for a start.
Here we all are now, stuck in the effects of blatant failures in accountability, and "we, the people" remain caught in the consequences of bad actors.
While such matters are still richly fermenting, before much further deluge of theoretical posturing, it's time to demand action.
Beyond Heavens
Orion Belt
photo credit: NASA, Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
Growing up with astronomy as an interest was some preparation for dealing with current fantasies in public communications. Although astronomers see very little of the oblivion they relentlessly probe, they often develop remarkable theories to understand the unexplained and what might feel unexplainable.
Gazing into the heavens is serious business though. These generally-trusted scientists don't confuse theory and myth. For example, shining brightly in the night sky is the welcome constancy of the planet Venus. Named for the goddess of love, a tangible value of Venus is to help navigators by pointing to the constellation Orion, the hunter.
Orion, as we know, is also something of a bright light in mythology who has attracted varying interpretations. He had what could be called an encounter with Artemis during his quest for one of the seven nymphs sent by Zeus to guard her. Now, Artemis is the Greek equivalent of the Romans' Diana, and both were goddesses of the hunt (your choice on who to follow, I guess).
This was fascinating to the Ancients and apparently also got the interest of some astronomers with dual devotion to mythology and science. The ancient Greeks and Romans believed the gods played with we mere mortals. In subsequent centuries, apart from the withering vine of astrology and the never-say-die occultists, mostly astronomers and other mere mortals have agreed that the gods and their colluder representations in the sky above us are illusions.
Astronomers see that the forces and matter of the real universe are massive, observable, magnificent, and often beyond our grasp. At first glance, the scale might feel similar when viewing the fantasies of stoked fears, greed, and even apathy that perpetuate populist politics.
The myths are large, the outrage of conspiracy theories are galactic in size, both colorful and gaseous in composition. Just looking at and recording their aberration sure doesn't help.
At human scale, comedy can be a usefully quick comeback. More enduring is to build systematic education in both values and analytic ability.
Regardless of whether or not what our leaders say is truthful, lawful, and just, apparently "voters are increasingly drawn to leaders who can make difficult, complex problems easier to understand with intuitive, confident answers." This is according to a 2019 worldwide study of long-term trends in politics and culture, cited in Proceedings National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 116, No. 9, pp. 3476-81) edited by Stephen Pinker. This study further notes that a decline in analytical communication style began around 1980.
Do I need to mention again that this was noted to be a worldwide trend (at least, in English-speaking nations)? So, the time for action is yesterday.
Of course, if the world wants to keep waiting out the passing of the equivalent of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, that's an option, just not a good one in these precipitous times.
Catnip Curse
"black and white cat"
photo credit: Rosendahl, Wikimedia Public Domain
Germaine Greer described herself during an Address to the National Press Club of Washington DC, on 18 May 1971, as a "media freak." Her comments were certainly catnip for the media. She was promoting her just released book The Female Eunuch. Yes, now about half a century ago.
She urged women to invent new ways to deal with the truly violent man. Rather than learning karate, she pointed out that karate or other rule-based reactions don't work against the genuinely violent.
Greer shrewdly observed that the genuinely violent don't muck about with Marquess of Queensberry rules; rather he uses "a broken bottle, a wheel brace, a tire lever or an axe. He does not see the fight through, but seeks to end it quickly by doing as much harm as he can as soon as he can," she said.
Any of us observing the genuinely amoral might get the analogy. Whether you are dealing with an amoral person physically or otherwise, it's best to know that the norms of karate or boxing or equivalent conventional rule-based schema don't apply.
When your opponent lacks stability and is obsessed with self-preservation, these character flaws function like catnip. You might get opportunity for just one response. And, you better hit the right spot so to speak; per another sporting analogy, you better not be counting on a "Hail Mary."
To reframe this as a fable: A cat will lay in wait sometimes for days observing the patterns of one scurrying mouse. Put catnip into the mix and all semblance of rules leave the scene. So maybe it will help to think of your genuinely amoral, not stable opponent as being about as predictable as a big cat on catnip. How will you deal with this, without being able to count on the equivalent of Animal Control?
As Aesop might say: The true leader proves him/herself by his/her qualities.
Thinking for a Future
US propaganda poster in 1917
photo credit: James Montgomery Flagg, Wikimedia Public Domain-US-expired
After 1949, the world was under threat of thermonuclear annihilation following the Soviet explosion of an atomic bomb and America's commitment to develop the even more massive hydrogen bomb.
The playwright Arthur Miller, much later, wrote of this time, "An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted... The whole place was becoming inhuman, not only because an unaccustomed fear was spreading so fast, but more because nobody would admit to being afraid."
Unsurprisingly, with eyes opened and emotion keyed to the significance of our time, Americans are voting in unprecedented numbers. Time will tell how bumpy a ride the next weeks will be.
For the years beyond to be better, I believe some changes are needed to offset the virus of populism, which also will NOT "just disappear." And, no nation is immune. As if there's not enough to deal with in the challenges imposed through COVID and the irresponsible neglect of wannabe leaders!
A sad lesson from the current era is that norms and the rule of law are no bulwarks against rogue actors who specialize in word-salad and obstruction that exploit the legal system for personal advantage.
With the United States now showing, more than ever before, that we can come together with family, friends, and neighbors to vote, surely to climb the next rocky mountain we need to find paths to the future.
Central now for civil society to operate are workable ways to detect and counteract propaganda, along the lines outlined in earlier blog posts on this site. As Dorothy L. Sayers noted after the tyranny of World War II, each of us needs to be better able to disentangle "fact from opinion and the proven from the plausible."
Today, we see largely that part of the political process that politicians allow us to see. Learning what we do from politicians, illusion is imbibed by describing it to others. Worse still is when voters ignore entirely what's happening, in some mistaken belief that nothing changes whoever you vote for, as some non-voters just shared with a television reporter. With such people searching for information as a way to reduce uncertainty, so begins the cycle toward the cult.
Every society has its own illusions. Best to truly understand how public figures shape their words and actions to relate to us. We clearly need a better basis for learning how to learn. So, some starter thoughts:
1. Education programs require strengthening of critical thinking as core to being a good citizen (and a graduate from any level of education);
2. Virtues of justice, prudence, courage, and wisdom require more effective nurture in public figures, teachers, librarians, students, parents, family, friends, neighbors, and all of us;
3. Improved civics knowledge and practical understanding of what democracy prevents are urgent needs.
Hopefully, we can agree this much at least with the warning from Dorothy L. Sayers in 1947 in The Lost Tools of Learning that "the sole true end of education is simply this : to teach [wo/]men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain."
This is not about any kind of rivalry among disciplines of learning or in the teaching staff-room. By analogy, it is about the future to be found in past success--such as, for the past two years, the sustained efforts of students from Parkland High School in Florida--lest we forget!
Go High
Isocrates (436-338 BC)
"Rhetoric as that endowment of our human nature
which raises us... to live the civilized life."
photo credit: Student Lives TVW, Wikimedia CCA-SA-4.0 International
During this never quiet time in Silly Season, you might find some renewal in checking out Philip Collins' thoughts about Speeches that Shape the World and Why We Need Them - this is the subtitle for his book titled When They Go Low, We Go High.
After the launch of this book, in which Collins of course discussed the source of its title, Sam Leith put a microphone in front of the author for The Spectator podcast on 25 October 2017. Early in this interesting interview, Collins pointed out that the best case for democracy is what it prevents, as Albert Camus had noted.
Collins goes further in his book, comparing democracy and populist utopia (pages 71-84). This emphasized again for me the wisdom of keeping close with people who know how little they know.
If someone also aims for the stars while keeping feet on the ground, then you've likely found a true leader. The true leader shares feelings for what "we the people" care about; And, talks with us to let us know what the leader will do to:
* help put a roof overhead and keep it there;
* see we can get food;
* assure health care we can afford;
* provide a pathway to a job; and
* respect our freedoms and peace of mind.
For this person, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be a governing principle. These are just some of the ways we can "go high."
Collins' book focused mainly on speeches that address these very real concerns of any of us. The speeches that he discussed are, in my opinion, mainly Good (Pericles, Lincoln, Pankhurst, Churchill, Kennedy, Mandala, King, Reagan, etc), with a few of the Bad and Ugly (Hitler, Castro, Mao), along with a host of others worthy of attention.
With his insider's understanding as a former prime ministerial speechwriter in Britain, Collins shared lesser known insights about the context, composition, and delivery of the speeches. He has put together an entertaining read. In both podcast and book, he pointed out the virtues of going high, to change people's circumstances for the better, through politics.
He also shared some interestingly common tells about the autocrats. They consistently self-indulge how poorly done by they are, especially by the media not loving them - and are forever angry. Sound familiar? And, their utopia ordinarily requires returning to some mythically better past; apparently unable to show us a better future, much less to do so with humor.
Another well-known commonality of autocrats, Collins wrote, is to drumbeat various inventions about conspiracies of the elite against the people; consistently claiming that "utopia [is] just around the corner, if only the corrupt elite had cared to venture there." Another tell is that the propagandist/autocrat self-portrays as leading efforts to "rise above the smears, and ludicrous slanders from ludicrous reporters." Yet another tell is to claim "a lot of people are saying," as authority for some preposterous drivel. Apparently, this is all in every days' "work" for the self-dealing autocrat.
Collins book is a worthwhile and reassuring read at this time. Engagingly brief also is his description of rhetoric as a positive, developed canon of principle and knowledge. This addressed my pet peeve about the educators or others who preface their analyses of propaganda with long preachy explanations of rhetoric. Please, would you put your energy and words toward the better use of rhetoric's tools of analysis that have been around for some 2,400 years.
How about we all do what we can to edge the understanding of rhetoric, as other than a pejorative, into the popular imagination and, as a system for living, back into the mainstream of all educational curricula!
Maybe then the vain regrets I recently read about The Lost Tools of Learning, in a booklet published in Oxford in 1947, would actually go to some purpose. Maybe then, just maybe a propagandist wouldn't have such an unchecked path.
Maybe a propagandist could be caught out and stopped in time in future.
Rip Van Who?
Artist: John Quidor (1801-1881), Art Institute of Chicago, Wikimedia Public Domain
Do you sometimes wish you'd fallen into a long sleep early in 2020 like the fabled Rip Van Winkle? Look around and you will find some people did.
When you encounter anyone like Rip, it's best to be careful. Rip didn't understand much when he met the silent ghosts of Henry Hudson's crew playing a game of nine-pins in the Catskill Mountains. He didn't ask who they were or how they knew his name. He did get what it was about their magic purple liquor that he imbibed, which putting him to sleep. It just worked for him to miss the American Revolutionary War.
So, chances are that if you're on an evening or early morning walk trying to social distance from the joggers and dog-walkers, or wherever you find someone sleeping or sleep-walking through the twenty-first century, this person won't get much about the current reality either.
But, there are people to shake awake yet. Ever since memory, the USA has yet to turn out the higher percentages of voters recorded in some countries. Getting out the vote person-to-person, door-to-door is the powerful method to do this, with face-masks on (not just by phone or weaker social media).
Meantime, to out-think and out-do the propagandist, George Orwell (1946), Vance Packard (1957), Jacques Ellul (1965), and a host of others have provided us with ways to deal with the continuous propaganda that often numbs the "sleepers," and all of us.
For example, Jacques Ellul named the counter-actions you can take against a continuous propaganda onslaught.
1. Challenge any propaganda that targets our pre-existing attitudes AND reassert our beliefs in honesty, justice, temperance, courage, and wisdom - and, our desire to live in a society that enables health, jobs, shelter, food, safety, freedom, with any bad actor held accountable.
2. Highlight the harm to people of anti-democratic actions that deny health care, jobs, safety, postal services, etc. AND say exactly what should happen instead.
3. Reassert the rightness of facts, positively and specifically (without naming the lie or the liar, to avoid being a megaphone for the corrupt).
4. Keep repeating what is right (propaganda decays over time, especially when crowded out of the public communication channels).
Oh, and as George Orwell urged about any verbal refuse, be sure to call out and mock the foreign propaganda that misses our culture. As we saw in my previous blog posting, this is really easy when it's half-baked with lots of "tells."
Too many of our fellow "we, the people" might seem to be awake in their sleep-walk, as they continue to be polite about a propagandist. But some have taken years to publicly call a lie a lie. And, some in the media still broadcast unfiltered drivel of a propagandist; or, endlessly micro-analyze his nonsense, thereby promoting him and his nonsense. Maybe they have some dangerously mistaken belief that this serves some purpose of even-handedness, or democratic debate, or advertising sales.
I even heard a federal senator this week say, completely unacceptably, that the shame for the failure of his opponents to act properly was on his opponents. How about what that senator had not accomplished holding them to account? He wasn't elected to be a bystander.
During this Big Sleep, with apologies to Raymond Chandler, many "we, the people" patiently expected someone else to stop the useless growth of lawyers taking legal actions. Providing employment for lawyers wasn't supposed to be a main outcome of democracy. Yet, too many such proceedings continue in multiple, drawn-out, inconclusive actions, instead of anything useful to stop the propagandist.
Lookalike despots, autocrats, and wannabe leaders flourish when they are unchecked. There's still time to block and check in workable ways.
One step we can all help with NOW is to personally encourage friends, family, and neighbors to get out the vote.
at September 29, 2020 No comments:
Foreign Fake-Fun Flops
Counter-image: "Every Dance Counts"
I've NOT here linked or pictured the propaganda video received.
Above is a counter-image of a genuine "flash mob" dance (one of a great many in the USA)
photo credit: Lorie Shaull, DCPantsuitPower Flash Mod Dance, Wikimedia CCA-BY-SA-2.o Generic
When a foreign adversary focuses on spontaneity for a propaganda video, it's great when they don't get that they're on slippery ground.
Anyway, for the propaganda video I just received, it's even more encouraging that whoever was the chief of propaganda failed to see the humungous humor in the incongruity of having a few hundred young folks happen to gather at a mountain-top ski-field. Then, to have them so-called spontaneously break into a "flash mob" dance, for some unclear reason, dancing to vintage American music--with the foreign adversary's iconic buildings etc also just happening to be in the backdrop views.
Maybe it was a further "tell" that contradicted the supposed spontaneity that on-site were a helicopter and two gigantically high bucket-cranes used to video the wide-angle shots. Oh yes, this was a big-budget production, worthy of the attention of whoever was the chief of propaganda.
There were many other "tells" in this week's video too. It was brought to the inbox by those fun-loving folks who stimulated the Berlin Wall. What's that about history repeating, and the adoration of walls? But I'm not in the business of listing out all the "tells" that would be obvious to the rest of us.
In the interests of the health of those who were the creative "talent" for the video, I hope they get to transfer soon from the Propaganda Bureau to the Tourism Bureau, or anywhere else--before the failure of this propaganda flop is fully understood in the foreign propaganda bureaucracy.
The philosopher Jacques Ellul, whom I've mentioned once or twice before, warned foreign adversaries to beware of their cultural clumsiness, when it comes to launching propaganda in another country. Gotta admit this video seemed better than the foreign propaganda in Ellul's time, but that's still no compliment.
Maybe the fake in the video I just saw would slip by some folks--like the social media mob who won't pause to think, or busy folks eager for any joy amid the COVID Pandemic.
Still, the "tells" of sleaze-at-work were very many, which is good for "we, the propagandized."


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Marvel Unveils Spider-Man PlayStation 4 Release Date
John F. Trent
Marvel, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Insomniac Games officially announced the Spider-Man release date for PlayStation 4. The game will debut on September 7, 2018. They made the announcement via Twitter this morning showcasing a number of bonuses you can get if you pre-order the game.
The wait is over! "Marvel's Spider-Man" swings onto PlayStation 4 September 7th. Pre-order today: https://t.co/iGfWeQHCgC #SpiderManPS4 pic.twitter.com/EdHhKNqXIO
— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) April 4, 2018
Spider-Man will be set eight years after Peter Parker has become Spider-Man. He's a more experienced Spider-Man who is well-versed in improvisational combat, dynamic acrobats, fluid urban traversal, and environmental reactions. While Spider-Man is well-versed in taking it to the bad guys, he's still struggling to balance his personal life and career.
The game must be pre-ordered before September 7, 2018 in order to get all the bonuses.
They include Spidey Suit Pack, Skill Points, Early Unlock of a Spider-Drone Gadget, Spider-Man PS4 Custom Theme, and Spider-Man PSN Avatar.
The Spidey Suit Pack gives you access to three suits to alter your appearance including a punk Spider-Man suit. The Skill Points give you a head start and allow you to unlock active finishers, web grab, or faster web swinging from the beginning of the game, the Spider-Drone Gadget lets you unleash a mobile Spider-Drone to distract and web your enemies. The Spider-Man custom theme features artwork from Adi Granov, and the Spider-Man Avatar gives you a bold White Spider icon for your PlayStation Network avatar.
Along with these basic pre-order bonuses. There is a Collector's Edition and a Digital Deluxe Edition.
The Collector's Edition
The Collector's Edition comes with a custom steelbook, a white spider sticker, a mini artbook with early-look concepts and unreleased artwork, a Collector's Edition Marvel's Spider-Man Statue by Gentle Giant, and Marvel's Spider-Man: The City that Never Sleeps which is three-post launch story chapters with new missions and characters. The DLC will be available by March 2019. It will also include all of the other pre-porder bonuses. The Collector's Edition will run you $149.99.
Digital Deluxe Edition
The Digital Deluxe edition also comes with Marvel's Spider-Man: The City that Never Sleeps post-launch DLC and the other standard pre-order bonuses. The Digital Deluxe Edition will run you $79.99.
Insomniac GamesMarvelSony Interactive EntertainmentSpider-Man
John is the Editor here at Bounding Into Comics. He is a massive Washington Capitals fan, lover of history, and likes to dabble in economics and philosophy.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Man dies after being taken from the water in Galway
Published: Friday, 15 June 2018 14:42
A man has died after being taken from the water at Galway city docks early this morning.
Gardaí, emergency services and the RNLI lifeboat attended the scene at 5.45 am.
The RNLI lifeboat crew was tasked to take the man's body from the water, he was brought to University Hospital Galway where he was pronounced dead.
Gardaí say there will be a post-mortem examination later today and they are in the process of trying to identify the man.
Galway RNLI
University Hospital Galway
The Department of Agriculture is warning of the risk of Avian Influenza in Ireland's poultry sector, following an outbreak of Low Pathogenic AI in England. The outbreak was confirmed in a flock of 27,000 commercial chickens in Suffolk. All poultry owners are…


The New Year came and went and for the first time I didn't make any resolutions. Now, with the year nearly half over, and with everyone well on the path to either accomplishing their resolutions, or throwing them out completely, I'm planning on making one resolution and taking the steps to make it stick. I am going to start a gratitude list.
The use of a gratitude list to elevate one's psychological state (happiness or contentment) is well known, well documented, and is definitely not news. It is one of many things that are included on other people's list of resolutions, but never on mine. I am happy. I am content. At least I thought so, until today while I was driving home with my husband after dinner with friends.
While we were enjoying the company of our friends, we each shared the big things that had happened in our lives since we'd last spoken to each other. One friend had been in an accident in a car he had purchased just four weeks earlier. Another friend wanted out of her current job and had been on two interviews. Another friend had just returned from a graduate school trip to Guatemala.
When it came time for me to say what we had been up to, I told our group of friends that we had, after a two and a half year battle with our homeowner's association, finally tented our condo to treat the termites that had destroyed our bamboo floor.
I also said that while we were required to leave our home for three days to complete the fumigation, we had stayed in a hotel with bed bugs, and my husband, we discovered, was allergic to them and was all swollen and itchy.
Lastly, I told them that I'd found another lump in my breast similar to the one that I had found last year that I had to get tested, retested, and retested again in what was one of many health scares for my husband and I in the past few years.
On the drive home I said, "Why does it always have to be something? Why can't things just go perfectly for a while?" I realized as soon as those words left my mouth, that I tend to focus on the negative things happening in our life and ignore the positive. I was stunned by my flash of insight into my personality, and the way I handle life's problems.
As I said earlier, I would definitely describe myself as happy. I feel that I am more than content, and actually thankful for the life I have, but when difficult situations arise (and they arise frequently), it is the details of those difficult situations that I focus on. When I realized this was true of me, I immediately decided that I needed to change this habit and avoid a cycle of bitterness or self-pity.
The reality of life is that difficult things do come up all the time; my dad just had open heart surgery and my mother is battling cancer, but if I put the difficult things side by side with the wonderful or positive things the lists don't even compare. The list of positive things is so long I can't complete it. The list of difficult things is very short. To focus most of my attention on the things that are hard, and ignore the long list of amazing and positive things is detrimental to happiness, thankfulness, and my overall wellbeing.
I know I am coming to the benefits of a gratitude list very late, but I am grateful that I have finally arrived at the door of thanksgiving, and a thanksgiving that lasts all year not just one day with turkey and pumpkin pie.


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Home » Reviews » CD » G » Gloosh - Timewheel
Gloosh - Timewheel
Gloosh
Timewheel
by James Brizuela at 29 April 2020, 7:29 AM
GLOOSH is a solo melodic black metal band, hailing from the lands of Russia. Formed in 2019, GLOOSH recorded their first full-length album, "Timewheel", over the winter of 2019. The band name threw me off a little, as GLOOSH does not sound like it would be a brutal and beautiful black metal band, but that is exactly what they are. "Timewheel" is chock full of atmospheric and melodic black metal supremacy. This being a solo project, is impressive. The instrumentation offers a brutal and melodic interweaving of sounds.
"Vjkhr" kicks off the album with a blistering attack of fast guitar-riffing and unrelenting drums. This track brings in the more extreme black metal sounds of the album. There is a great deal of melody in the guitars though. What is interesting is there an almost rock and roll sound brought in to accompany the black metal themes. "Timewheel" starts off with a simplistic rock beat, with black metal undertones, before returning with the brutal sound that exists throughout the album. "Samsara" brings in more of the black metal sound, but with a welcomed doom metal/rock undertone, while also bringing in some proggy sounding interludes. This is one of my favorite tracks off the album, as it blends a myriad of sub genres in its sound. Also, the instrumental break in the back half of the track showcases the musical prowess of George Gabrielvan. There is this different level of melody that exists in the black metal of GLOOSH, that allows you to take a moment to be captivated by its sound.
"Clouds" offers up that more melodious break that really brings you into the atmospheric sounds of the album. It is quite beautiful. "Groza" brings in the brutal black metal but institutes some beautiful clean angelic-like backing vocals that just cap off this intensely beautiful track. The prog elements also make a return in this track. There is little to gripe against in the pure musicianship of GLOOSH. The album is solid from start to finish. Overall, "Timewheel", is a fantastic atmospheric journey of beauty and brutality. This is the debut album for GLOOSH, and they are off to a fantastic start. I am excited to see what elements exist in the next album. This is a triumphant black metal debut album.
1. Vjkhr
2. Timewheel
3. Samsara
4. Clouds
5. Groza
6. Mokh
George Gabrielyan – Vocals, All Instrumentals
Record Label: Casus Belli Musica


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MNN.com > Lifestyle > Natural Beauty & Fashion
Ramblers Way: Stay warm with U.S.-made eco thermal wear
The founder of Tom's of Maine finds new green inspiration in a line of U.S.-made eco wool undergarments.
Siel Ju
December 18, 2009, 11 p.m.
Images courtesy of Ramblers Way
Pretty much every enviro-leaning friend I have brushes with Tom's of Maine toothpaste — even after 86 percent of the company got sold by the grassroots eco-minded Tom and his wife Kate Chappell to Colagate for $100 million in 2006. And now, the Chappells have started another groundbreaking green business: An eco-thermal wear venture called Ramblers Way.
Earlier this week, I got to chat with Tom Chappell about his ultrasoft long Johns (and Janes), undershirts and more, made from wool grown from organically raised sheep at the Chappells' farm in Maine and like-minded farms in the West. We're talking practical, sustainable basics that are comfortable and long-lasting too!
"Seventy percent of U.S.-grown wool is exported," says Tom, who points out that all of Ramblers Way products are all U.S. grown and made. "We've lost our textile industry in this country except for a handful that remains. What I'm trying to do is rejuvenate the American textile industry with an interesting fine fiber wool, and producing it in this country. What we've done is we've created a line of next-to-the-skin undergarments. And we've achieved that without having to bring raw materials in from Australia or New Zealand or China. It's all done domestically with domestic sheep."
A new big green company wasn't exactly what Tom originally had in mind, however. In fact, Tom says he wanted to start something relatively small-scale. "What I wanted to do was to get off the treadmill of running a company like Tom's, which I built for 38 years, and be more in touch with the rhythms of nature," says Tom. "Buying a farm and finding a way to create sustainability for the farm was the original idea."
Those plans changed once the Chappells started looking more closely at the textile industry. "What happened is that we weren't able to do what we wanted with the wool on a farm scale because the equipment doesn't exist in the cottage industry size to make the kind of product of fine worsted wool undergarments that we wanted to make," Tom says. "It required more sophisticated commercial-scale equipment — spinning equipment, primarily. So that took us up a notch and we decided to go ahead and build a business again. So we went from a lifestyle idea to a second business."
Now, Tom's farm houses about 60 sheep, which after breeding for a season, will grow to about 100 — the sheep capacity for the farm. The Chappells bought a second farm in same community, which is now being prepped for sheep-raising. Both farms are approved for certified organic.
That said, Tom says the definition of organic's a contentious issue when it comes to yarn. "There's an unfortunate dilemma about the word organic in the wool industry in the country, so I have to differentiate to clarify and say very carefully that what we've been able to do is certify our farms, our land, our soils as organic,. But to certify the wool as organic is complicated with an international debate right now, and it's hard to know whose standard you're working with."
"What I thought we should do as a business is simply operate with the strictest of standards as we did at Tom's of Maine with the word 'natural.' We were very strict about what we meant with that, and we're doing the same thing in wool. And basically, we're doing what it take to create a sustainable herd and sustainble wool, a sustainable industry. So that means being very light on environment. We're not bringing in wool from another country. We're not treating the wool with chemicals."
So Tom works with less-officially-certified, but more readily understandable standards when sourcing from other farms. "What we've decided to do is, rather than confuse the consumer with the debate over natural and organic, we tell people right on our website what we're using for practices on our farm, what our farmers are using for practices. And it's a pretty straightforward story of strict accountability to the environment and the animals."
This, of course, means working closely with the other farmers that produce wool for Ramblers Way clothes. "We've been building relationships that raise Rambouillet — that's the breed that we need, because it has the finest fibers of any breed in the country. They are people who work with appropriate practices of husbandry and ecology, so we've built relationships with probably 6 – 8 different ranchers in the west, and we buy their fine wool at shearing time in April."
"When we buy the fine fiber, we're talking about a grade called superfine fiber. A herd of about 10,000 sheep might produce 100,000 lbs of wool, but maybe only 15 — 20,000 of that is 18 micron superfine that we want to use in our products. They separate that out for us. and we've created a market for their superfine grade. Previously they were selling that to the commodity market."
Tom also pays close attention to the processing that goes into making the garments. "We have a patented enzyme, for instance, a process for making our garments machine washable. Most machine-washable processes use what's called superwash, and superwash is a process of chlorination to denude the follicles of any nubs on the edges, to be followed by a spraying of liquid nylon. Those are two steps we won't use in our product process, because we don't think they're sustainable. And we don't want to work with non-renewable resources like nylon."
So how does Ramblers Way keep its fabrics soft? "The yarn itself is a worsted yarn, as opposed to a wool yarn. What that means is it's a special spinning process done with lining all the fibers in parallel to each other as they go into the process of turning into a yarn," says Tom. "That's different from a woolen yarn because woolen yarns are twisted and interlocked before they are spun into a yarn. The advantage of the worsted yarn is that you get a smoother surface, a tighter tensile strength, and a more durable fabric because you're also working with very long fibers. All of these contribute to high durability. It's the same yarn that would go into a very expensive worsted suit." Having felt a sample of Rambler's Way fabric, I can attest to the fact that the stuff's soft, surprisingly thin, and durable.
Ramblers Way opened its store on Oct. 9 this year — which means that while holiday shoppers get to click away, some pricing kinks still need to be ironed out. For one, a pair of women's underwear costs a whopping $47 — a price that Tom himself says he's not happy with. "In [the garment makers'] defense, there's a lot of labor and sewing involved — not much material, but a lot of labor. So there's more labor going into a pair of underpants than there is sometimes in a T-shirt. But my aim is to get it down under $40, sooner than later."
Still, Ramblers Way's already forging its innovative ways. Smaller environmentalists, for example, benefit from Ramblers Way's pricing strategy. Says Tom: "The ethics to me of pricing by size is that most manufacturers just average things into one price. And what that does is the smaller people on this earth are paying for the bigger people. But not in our case. We're making big people pay their weight."
While Ramblers Way currently brags about its web-only storefront, Tom says he's open to retail sales too. "There's a lot to be said, particularly for the environment, about trying to do as much as you can through one portal and one warehouse," says Tom. "It's a lot lighter impact for the environment. On the other hand, retailers play an important role of advocating a product and merchandising a product."
"We'd like to find room for the independent stores. My daughter said the low rise long johns are perfect for women that want to wear jeans all year because they're warm, and the low rise hides the underwear. So she said, you really ought to make this a point at specialty jeans shops. We've been working with one test case — a men's independent clothing store in Portland, Maine. And it's gone extremely well. I'm very very interested in make this product available to independent specialty shops."
Ramblers Way likely won't go the way of Tom's of Maine, however. "I built my business in toothpaste with 40,000 stores, including all the major chains, and that's not the direction I want to go with Ramblers Way," says Tom. "Part of it is very selfish — This is a family owned business and I don't want to build a national sales force. I want to keep it simple. But I do want to have national distribution."
"So we're looking into new ways we can merchandise without going the standard route of just trying to get our brand in all the stores. So part of the answer is strategic — I don't want retailers to take control of the brand — and part of the reason is selfish — I don't want to have that kind of business at this point in my life."
How does Tom spend his days now? "I visit the farm frequently and I love being with the sheep and I like seeing what we're doing. For instance, we're converting all of our properties to geothermal heat and solar panels, so that we can become carbon neutral. That's a lot of fun, and I love seeing the sheep on the hillside. But this is a business now of commercial scale. And it's a learning experience for me to be bringing customers to an online store rather than to a physical store. So I've just had to be very much available to the choices that we need to make, the investments we need to make, to bring people to the website and find what we have to offer appealing enough to buy."
Ramblers Way eco-wear costs $47 to $95 apiece, and is available now on the company's web store. Stay warm by shopping there, or get inspired by Tom's eco-entrepreneurial story by reading Eco-Barons, a book by Edward Humes that recaps the story of Tom's of Maine.
Related topics: Agribusiness, Eco-fashion, Green Business
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Christie v. City of El Centro (Cal. Ct. App. - Jan. 13, 2006)
What the heck is going on out there in El Centro?!
It's the day before Thanksgiving, and a busy day in the parking lot at the Costco in El Centro. So Stephanie Hernandez decides -- somewhat rudely, in my view -- that she's just going to sit in her car in the middle of traffic in the closest row of the Costco parking lot until someone pulls out. She waits for a full 20 minutes (blocking traffic the whole time) until she finally gets a spot. Meantime, to pass her, cars have to swerve around her vehicle to get by, and several do. Including Ben Christie. Unfortunately, Ben accidentally hits Stephanie's bumper while doing so. Mind you, there's not even a scratch on the bumper; indeed, when the police later inspect Stephanie's bumper, all they can find is a place where dust has been disturbed.
But Stephanie will have none of it. She's the wife of an El Centro police officer. So she immediately gets on her cell phone and calls the El Centro Police Department, uses a secret code to indicate that she's the spouse of an officer, and has the police come out. Meanwhile, Ben has finally found a parking space and gone into Costco. Stephanie tells her police officer buddies that Ben had "rammed" her car three times "with increasing force" -- so much so that the car rocked back and forth -- and that she feared for her life and the lives of her children in the car. Remember, there's not even a scratch. But the cops go into Costco and grab Ben, telling him that he's busted. And they subsequently charge him with -- get this -- felony assault with a deadly weapon, as well as assault and reckless driving. Dude. And they promptly strip search the guy and throw him into prison for six days -- again, during the Thanksgiving holiday -- before he finally is arraigned (and released) on Monday.
At trial, they offer Ben a plea to midemeanor disturbing the peace. But Ben tells 'em to stuff it. At the close of the trial, the jury deliberates for a whole hour before acquitting Ben of all charges.
So Ben -- hacked off, no doubt -- promptly sues for false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and a variety of other torts. The first judge assigned to the suit is Judge Jones, whom Ben promptly strikes. The action is promptly reassigned to Judge Foerster, who conducts a trial in March 2004 and eventually grants a nonsuit in favor of the City of El Centro. Ben moves for a new trial, and at the hearing on this motion (which is before Judge Foerster), Ben's attorney says that he's pretty sure that Judge Foerster talked about the decision to nonsuit the case with the previously disqualified judge, Judge Jones. Suspiciously, Judge Foerster doesn't immediately respond to this allegation, but thereafter, issues a well-crafted disclosure that says, oh, yeah, I did talk to Judge Jones about this case, but only about various "laws and procedures". Indeed, eventually, Judge Foerster owns up to a second conversation with Judge Jones as well, this time in connection with the new trial motion.
Ben's not psyched about this, and moves for a new trial and to disqualify Judge Foerster. Judge Warner, from San Bernadino, is assigned the disqualification motion, and finds that Judge Foerster acted improperly, noting that "[t]he appearance of impropriety is patent. A judge simply should not speak with another judge about a case in which the latter has been disqualified." Duh.
So the case then gets assigned to Judge Donnelly for a hearing on Ben's motion for a new trial, who concludes that Ben is indeed entitled to a new trial because the motion for nonsuit was granted by Judge Foerster, who was disqualified due to his prior ex parte contacts with the previously-disqualified Judge Jones. The City of El Centro then appeals. But Justice Nares -- properly -- disagrees with the City. Affirmed.
Crazy stuff going down in El Centro. You guys out there have got to get your act together. This was not the finest hour for justice in your fine City. In the future, please do not strip search a dude and throw him in jail for six days during the Turkey Holidays simply for touching the bumper of a cop's wife in the Costco parking lot. And do not have your judges talk to other disqualified judges. You just don't do that stuff. It ain't right.
Kumar v. Gonzales (9th Cir. - Jan. 23, 2006)
Sadoski v. Mosley (9th Cir. - Jan. 24, 2006)
Young v. Runnels (9th Cir. - Jan. 23, 2006)
City of Stockton v. WCAB (Cal. Ct. App. - Jan. 27,...
Pizarro v. Lamb's Players Theatre (Cal. Ct. App. -...
People v. Evans (Cal. Ct. App. - Jan. 24, 2006)
People v. Quintero (Cal. Ct. App. - Jan. 24, 2006)
People v. Najera (Cal. Ct. App. - Jan. 24, 2006)
Kelly v. Stamps.com, Inc. (Cal. Ct. App. - Jan. 23...
Kenna v. USDC (9th Cir. - Jan. 20, 2006)
Ray v. Gonzales (9th Cir. - Jan. 20, 2006)
Christie v. City of El Centro (Cal. Ct. App. - Jan...
Doe v. Rumsfeld (9th Cir. - Jan. 12, 2006)
Tuazon v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (9th Cir. - Ja...
U.S. v. Alferahin (9th Cir. - Jan. 11, 2006)
Yahoo! v. La Ligue Contre Le Racisme Et L'Antisemi...
Pony v. County of Los Angeles (9th Cir. - Jan. 11,...
Stanley v. Trustees of the California State Univer...
U.S. v. Weaver (9th Cir. - Jan. 10, 2006)
Beal Bank v. Arter & Hadden PLUS Barak v. The Quis...
People v. Bhakta (Cal. Ct. App. - Jan. 9, 2006)
Ramona Unified School District v. Tsiknas (Cal. Ct...
Anderson, McPharlin & Connors v. Yee (Cal. Ct. App...
People v. Phillips (Cal. Ct. App. - Jan. 3, 2006)
U.S. v. Adams (9th Cir. - Jan. 3, 2006)


CHICAGO, IL -- Last year, many school districts worked with private investigators to uncover families who were attending public schools outside of their district. This year, the trend is expected to continue and many parents are compiling documentation to prove to schools that they live within a district. Last year, the Orland Park district took one parent to court after private investigators found that the family did not reside in the district. The school district is now pursuing a civil case to get $24,208 in tuition fees from the family. This year, Oak Park Elementary School District 97 mandates that all students in the school verify their places of residence before enrolling.


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By the Rivers of Babylon: NYC Reggae Fest!
On October 5th, New York City will be home to a loaded Reggae Festival titled By the Rivers of Babylon. With just a few weeks left before the big Festival, tickets are selling out as the bill will include co-headliners John Brown's Body & Groundation in addition to special guests New Kingston, Kiwi & more…
The festival is being held at the 3,500 square foot outdoor Watermark on the edge of the new Pier 15. The event runs from 3:00pm – 10:00pm. Fans in attendance at The Watermark will enjoy, in addition to live reggae music, an unparalleled panorama of the New York Harbor between the Brooklyn, Manhattan & Williamsburg Bridges.
In addition, this is only the second time that John Brown's Body & Groundation have shared the stage together and it'll be their first time on the east coast. Formed in Boston, MA John Brown's Body is currently promoting their latest album Kings & Queens via Easy Star Records, which is considered one of the top albums of 2013 by The Pier! After two decades of existence, JBB's Future Roots style of music is now considered present tense!
From Sonoma County, CA Groundation blends elements of Jazz, Funk and transcendental Dub in their progressive sound – some call it Progressive while capturing the essence of true Roots Reggae.
Out of Northeastern US and Brazil, Kiwi has hit their stride with a new lineup featuring some of the New York City area's finest soul and funk musicians. And hailing from Brooklyn New York, 3 brothers formed by their father Courtney Panton Sr, who also plays bass on stage with the group who call themselves New Kingston playing an alternative mix of Reggae & Dancehall.
You can purchase tickets as cheap as $25.00 online via Ticketweb by clicking HERE or by calling 866.468.7619.
JBB Links:
JBB Website
JBB Facebook
Groundation Links:
Groundation Website
Groundation Facebook
Article By: Mike Patti
Watch: John Brown's Body – "Step Inside"
Watch: Groundation – "Humility"


Do you have a strategy in place to increase organic search engine visitors to your site? Are you harnessing the full power of search engines to generate sales for your business?
If you haven't got an SEO strategy in place, your competition are winning more new business from search engines than you. Potential customers are searching for you everyday and getting in front of them consistently should be one of your main marketing priorities.
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My clients work with me to reach their goals. There must be good synergy between us to get the very best results, so I don't work with everyone. To find out if we're a good fit for your business, just get in touch. Even if we can't work together, I'll probably give you some new ideas to think about.


Companies like Apple, Google, GE and noted others have already established their credentials as leaders of innovation. But what about those companies that struggle to innovate yet come up short? They come to imstrat to help them generate, embed, and sustain innovation as an enabler of growth and a source of competitive advantage.
Too many organizations think about innovation as a destination not a tool. They talk as though innovation is an end state rather than a means to an end. . Executives often use expressions like "We need to be more innovative", "or "Innovation needs to be a core value". This kind of thinking can lead both organizations and the people who are assigned roles as innovators down a circuitous and frustrating path to failure. Innovation is best understood when seen as a tool or an enabler of something, usually something new like a new product, process, service, or even a new organizational culture or more efficient and effective organizational design. Only when innovation is seen as a tool with a specified intent can real progress be made. We help our clients grapple with is the "why" of innovation. If an organization cannot develop clarity around the "why" of innovation, then the what and how become irrelevant.
Value creation is always the end game for innovation. Innovation is fun, but often folly if creativity cannot be turned into cash or some measurable outcome of value. If the outcome of an innovative initiative does not create value for someone, be it economic or social, then the time, effort, and resources spent in the process are hard to justify and makes the sustaining and embedding of innovation much more problematic. In all our consulting and educational training programs, we make sure that innovation is inextricably linked with the development of an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset. Many organizational innovators come from technical and R&D backgrounds, but do not necessarily think like entrepreneurs about their inventions. imstrat helps these individuals and the organization think through the entire value chain of innovation from Idea generation, through implementation, to value creation.
Leading innovation is not the same as managing the process of innovation. Successful leaders of innovation use us to help then leverage innovation as a tool for gaining competitive advantage. . Getting others to see the world differently, energizing them to take risks, supporting experimentation, and defending ideas against all the roadblocks and blockheads that often stand in the way of innovation requires a special kind of leadership. While many others talk about the processes and models of innovation, imstrat stands alone in focusing on the unique leadership skills necessary to lead innovation especially in organizations that have many built in innovation killers. We has developed a proprietary Leading Innovation (LI) Program which utilizes our 11 Leadership Behaviors assessment tool to determine whether an organizations leaders are doing the things that that create a culture of innovation. We also utilize our proprietary ILS (Innovation Landscape Survey) that profiles where and how innovation efforts are being stalled or derailed..


From 2007 to 2011, all high school students in the state of Texas were required to take four years of English, four years of mathematics, four years of science, and four years of social studies to graduate from high school. This rigorous curriculum (known as the 4-by-4) was designed to prepare all students to enroll in four-year colleges in Texas and around the country.
But some Texas educators felt too challenged to fulfill such "lofty expectations" for all students. After all, some argued, not "all" students should consider college as a real option for themselves. Such assumptions of potential, we suspect, were directed at not one's own children but rather at other peoples' children.
Some educators had low expectations for groups of students, and some short-sighted private sector leaders had no concern with the diminished opportunities that lead to students enrolling in a watered-down high school curriculum with fewer math, science and social studies requirements. Working in tandem, these two forces orchestrated major revisions to the Texas 4-by-4 standards.
In 2013, Texas' political leadership chose to modify the Texas strong 4-by-4 college readiness curriculum and put in its place a thinly-veiled new system of student tracking. This new system created different "paths" to graduation that were achieved by changing the course combinations different sub-groups of high school students would need to take in order to graduate.
The changes were accompanied by the creation of vague yet alluring labels for the new curriculum tracks (called "endorsements"): STEM, business and industry, arts and humanities, public service, and multidisciplinary studies. The varying paths were sold as equivalent and promised to lead all students to being college ready (a concept that also was watered down to mean that all students would be prepared to enroll in a two-year college, rather than a four-year college, without needing remedial courses).
The reality is that most of the new tracks require significantly fewer advanced math and science courses. Students who pursue the distinguished level of achievement at least must take Algebra II, which is needed for entrance into a four-year college program. Since even within the tracks there are ways to steer students either toward or away from college, students and families must be vigilant.
Schools were given the task of providing guidance to students and parents on these new curriculum plans. The law, as adopted, requires schools to review graduation plans with incoming ninth graders and their parents and to ensure that parents sign their child's plan.
What the state leaders did not provide were uniform guidelines on the specific new information to be provided or in what form or language. Schools were only provided minimal additional resources to deal with all the new requirements associated with advising students and parents.
The result has been a hodgepodge of local school-developed informational materials, inconsistent understanding among middle school and high school staff of what the new curriculum tracks involve, and a lag in data on how the curriculum changes are impacting courses students are now taking and, later, data on how the modified curriculum is impacting enrollment in colleges and universities.
A recent survey of parents in a large number of South Texas communities reveals that nine out of 10 parents still have very little or no information on the content or implications of the new curriculum track options incorporated into the new law. (See story in the June-July issue of the IDRA Newsletter). We suspect that a similar poll of parents around the state would produce similar numbers.
Given what we know of the challenges schools have historically faced in communication with and engaging parents – let alone parents of middle and high school students – it is clear that better communication and engagement strategies are needed to ensure all students are on paths to be rigorously prepared for college. Our research on effectively engaging parents of minority and low-income students suggests that those efforts need to consider the following.
Make the 4-by-4 curriculum the default for all students.
Engage with parents from the beginning of the school year rather than waiting for spring enrollment or waiting to respond to issues that arise.
Have summary materials on the different curriculum endorsements available at middle schools and high schools with clear information on the impact of those routes on career preparation and on chances for enrolling in a four-year college.
Provide sufficient time for students and their parents to consider the graduation requirements and the implications of the various endorsement tracks, which may well turn out to be life-altering options facing students as young as 13 and 14 years of age.
Expand the pools of staff who are advising students on the various curriculum tracks and move away from counselor-student focused approaches that result in 300, 400 and in some cases 500 students per counselor.
Document, summarize and review the impact of the shift away from the standard 4-by-4 curriculum on the numbers of students selecting each endorsement track to ensure that no disproportionate concentrations in vocational paths compared to college prep paths.
Monitor the impact of the new curriculum on the number of students enrolling in two- and four-year colleges and set triggers that alert the school to major shifts in post-secondary enrollments.
Though it is too soon to have data on the impact of the new curriculum tracking system, similar schemes in the past in Texas and elsewhere had dismal results. In the meantime, information is needed on how middle and high schools are handling the expanded requirements that they inform students and parents about the curriculum endorsement selection process and how this is impacting the decisions being made. It is imperative that schools and communities monitor this new process closely and are ready to take appropriate action if unintended concentrations and drops in college enrollment are identified as early by-products of the new tracking scheme.
Texas Legislature, House Bill 5 (2013). Sec. 28.026. Notice of Requirements for Automatic College Admission and Financial Aid.
IDRA. Tracking, Endorsements and Differentiated Diplomas – When 'Different' Really is Less – A Post Session Update, IDRA Policy Note (San Antonio, Texas: IDRA, October 2013).
Cortez, A. "Texas Endorsement System Threatens to Track Poor and Minority Students – IDRA Calls on Texas State Board of Education to Ensure All Students Have Access to High Quality Curriculum," IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: IDRA, November-December, 2013).
SAHCC."The Impact of Education on Economic Development in Texas".
Albert Cortez, Ph.D., is director of policy at IDRA. Comments and questions may be directed to him via email at feedback@idra.org.


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Kanton Bouillante () byl francouzský kanton v departementu Guadeloupe v regionu Guadeloupe. Ležela v něm pouze obec Bouillante. Zrušen byl při reformě francouzských kantonů v roce 2014.

Bouillante

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Список міністрів закордонних справ Румунії

Міністри закордонних справ Румунії
 Апостол Арсаке — (1862);
 Александру Кантакузіно — (1862);
 Йоан Ґріґоре Ґіка — (1862–1863);
 Ніколае Росетті-Беленеску (1863–1865);
 Александру Пападопол-Калімах — (1865–1866);
 Йоан Ґріґоре Ґіка — (1866);
 Петре Мавроґені — (1866);
 Джордже Барбу Штірбей — (1866–1867);
 Штефан Ґолеску — (1867);
 Александру Теріачіу — (1867);
 Штефан Ґолеску — (1867–1868);
 Ніколае Ґолеску — (1868);
 Димітріе Ґіка — (1868–1869);
 Ніколае Калімакі-Катарджіу — (1869–1870);
 Александру Ґолеску — (1870);
 Петре Карп — (1870)
 Ніколае Калімакі-Катарджіу — (1870–1871);
 Ґеорґе Костафору — (1871–1873);
 Васіле Боереску — (1873–1876);
 Димітріе Корня — (1876);
 Михаїл Коґельничану — (1876);
 Ніколае Іонеску — (1876–1877);
 Михаїл Коґельничану — (1877–1878);
  — (1878–1879);
 Васіле Боереску — (1879–1881);
 Думітру Бретіану — (1881);
 Евґеніу Стетеску — (1881);
 Димітріе Стурдза — (1881–1885);
  — (1885);
 Йон Братіану — (1885);
 Михаїл Ферекиде — (1885–1888);
 Петре Карп — (1889);
 Александру Лаговарі — (1889–1891);
  — (1891);
 Александру Лаговарі — (1891–1895);
 Димітріе Стурдза — (1895–1896);
 Константин Стоїцеску — (1896–1897);
 Димітріе Стурдза — (1897–1899);
 Йон Лаговарі — (1899–1900);
 Александру Марґіломан — (1900–1901);
 Димітріе Стурдза — (1901–1902);
 Йон Братіану — (1902–1904);
 Якоб Лаговарі — (1904–1907);
 Йон Лаговарі — (1907);
 Димітріе Стурдза — (1907–1908);
 Йон Братіану — (1908–1909);
 Александру Джувара — (1909–1910);
 Титу Майореску — (1910–1913);
 Еманоїл Порумбару — (1914–1916);
 Йон Братіану — (1916–1918);
 Александру Авереску — (1918);
 Константин Аріон — (1918);
 Константін Коанде — (1918);
 Йон Братіану — (1918–1919);
 Артур Вейтояну — (1919);
 Ніколае Мішу — (1919);
 Александру Вайда-Воєвод — (1919–1920);
 Дуіліу Замфіреску — (1920);
 Таке Іонеску — (1920–1921);
 Ґеорґе Деруссі — (1921–1922);
 Йон Ґеорґе Дука — (1922–1926);
 Йон Мітілінеу — (1926–1927);
 Барбу Штірбей — (1927);
 Йон Братіану — (1927);
 Ніколае Тітулеску — (1927–1928);
 Ґеорґе Міронеску — (1928–1930);
 Йон Міхалаке — (1930–1931);
 Константін Арджетояну — (1931–1932);
 Димітріе Ґіка — (1931–1932);
 Александру Вайда-Воєвод — (1932);
 Ніколае Тітулеску — (1932–1934);
 Ґеорґе Тетереску — (1934);
 Ніколае Тітулеску — (1934–1936);
 Віктор Антонеску — (1936–1937);
 Істрате Мікеску — (1937–1938);
 Ґеорґе Тетереску — (1938);
 Ніколае Петреску-Комнен — (1938–1939);
 Ґриґоре Ґафенку — (1939–1940);
 Михаїл Манойлеску — (1940);
 Михаїл Р. Стурдза — (1940–1941);
 Іон Антонеску — (1941–1943);
 Міхай Антонеску — (1943–1944);
 Грігоре Ніколеску-Бузешті — (1944);
 Константин Вішояну — (1944–1945);
 Ґеорґе Тетереску — (1945–1947).
 Анна Паукер — (1947–1952);
 Симіон Буґічі — (1952–1955);
 Ґриґоре Преотяса — (1955–1957);
 Іон Георге Маурер — (1957–1958);
 Аврам Буначіу — (1958–1961);
 Корнеліу Менеску — (1961–1972);
 Джордже Маковеску — (1972–1978);
 Штефан Андрей — (1978–1985);
 Іліє Ведува — (1985–1986);
 Йон Тоту — (1986–1989);
 Йон Стоян — (1989);
 Серджіу Челак — (1989–1990);
 Адріан Нестасе — (1990–1992);
 Теодор Мелешкану — (1992–1996);
 Адріан Северин — (1996–1997);
 Андрей Плешу — (1997–1999);
 Петре Роман — (1999–2000);
 Мірче Дан Джоане — (2000–2004);
 Міхай Резван Унгуряну — (2004–2007);
 Келін Попеску-Терічану — (2007);
 Адріан Міхай Чорояну — (2007–2008);
 Лазер Коменеску — (2008);
 Крістіан Дяконеску — (2008–2009);
 Кетелін Предою — (2009);
 Теодор Баконскі — (2009–2012);
 Крістіан Дяконеску — (2012);
 Андрей Марга — (2012);
 Тітус Корлецян — (2012—2014);
 Теодор Мелешкану (2014);
 Міхня Моток (2014);
 Богдан Ауреску (2014—2015);
 Лазер Коменеску (2015—2017);
 Теодор Мелешкану (2017—2019);
  (2019);
 Богдан Ауреску (2019—).

Див. також
 Список міністрів закордонних справ країн світу
 Посли Румунії в Україні
 Посли України в Румунії

Посилання
 Міністерство закордонних справ Румунії
 Офіційний сайт уряду Румунії

Румунія
Румунські дипломати

Списки:Румунія


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Carroll University has received a $2.9 million federal grant to help disadvantaged high schoolers
The grant will fund the creation of an academy to help high school students in under-represented communities enter health-care professions.
Carroll University has received a $2.9 million federal grant to help disadvantaged high schoolers The grant will fund the creation of an academy to help high school students in under-represented communities enter health-care professions. Check out this story on jsonline.com: https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/waukesha/news/waukesha/2018/10/11/carroll-university-gets-largest-federal-grant-its-history/1604367002/
Jane Ford-Stewart, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 3:53 p.m. CT Oct. 11, 2018 | Updated 10:10 p.m. CT Oct. 14, 2018
Carroll University in Waukesha just received the largest federal grant in university history.(Photo: Google)
Carroll University announced Thursday, Oct. 11, that it has received the largest federal grant in the university's history.
It is a five-year, $2.9 million grant to create an academy to help high school students in under-represented communities enter health-care professions.
The future academy's goals are to increase diversity in health professions and to bring more health care to medically under-served communities, according to a news release from the university.
In partnership with the United Community Center and the Waukesha School District, Carroll will identify, recruit and prepare high-school juniors and seniors for pre-allied health programs. Those include physical therapy, physician-assistant studies, occupational therapy, exercise physiology, exercise science, athletic training and public health, the release said.
The academy will create support systems and development opportunities for the students to help them get accepted into college allied-health programs, the release said.
The grant is from the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Read or Share this story: https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/waukesha/news/waukesha/2018/10/11/carroll-university-gets-largest-federal-grant-its-history/1604367002/


A Thwarted Art Theft In Italy A famous painting was stolen out of a church in a small Italian town last week. But town leaders, tipped off about the planned heist, replaced the original with a copy.
A famous painting was stolen out of a church in a small Italian town last week. But town leaders, tipped off about the planned heist, replaced the original with a copy.
A small Italian town in the region of Liguria garnered a lot of attention this past week for an art heist. The painting titled "The Crucifixion" by Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel the Younger was a gift to the small village of Castelnuovo Magra's church from a rich family. It's worth 3 million euros.
FRANCESCO MAGRESE: When you are a not-so-rich community, a community of hard worker people, having something important for the worldwide community, in a way, it's a matter of proudness.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's Francesco Magrese (ph). He is a member of the town council. He was shocked to hear about the theft at first.
MAGRESE: It was something that really surprised me. But thank God it was just for a few hours.
MAGRESE: The painting that they were admiring in the church, it was not the real one.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's right. The painting that the thieves stole was a copy. The police got a tip that thieves were planning on stealing "The Crucifixion" and replaced it with a copy last November. And only a few people among the 8,500 residents knew.
MAGRESE: You have to believe me. I was not informed. And even if I am in the town council of the municipality, only the mayor and the priest, the Don Alessandro Chiantaretto, were informed by the police about there were some rumors about the fact that the painting could be stolen.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: They kept that secret. But some of the townspeople did guess that something wasn't quite right with the copy. Rumors spread, but they also kept their mouths shut for months as the police laid in wait. The thieves only broke into the church this past week. They still haven't been caught. But what they have is worthless.
Now, this wasn't the first time thieves targeted the Flemish masterpiece. It was actually stolen in 1981 and recovered a few months later. Until the investigation into this latest attempt is finished, the original painting will remain in safekeeping. Magrese believes this latest heist will discourage other would-be thieves.
MAGRESE: They discovered that the police can be smart. And also, the people of the community and the priest can be smart to avoid such things. So I hope this is going to be a lesson.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: The other lesson, of course, is that a whole village can actually keep a secret.


Our #5WomenArtists campaign wraps up this Sunday, and there is still time to participate! Join the conversation, carry the movement forward with campaign merchandise, and continue your support of women artists throughout the year.
This week we interviewed Nell Burnham, digital marketing production officer at Tate, about the strides her institution is making to better represent women artists, including a schedule of five major solo shows by women artists throughout 2019–2020.
Washington, D.C.'s Hirshhorn Museum has acquired Yayoi Kusama's reconfiguration of Phalli's Field, her very first Infinity Mirror, which will go on view in 2020.
French New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda has died at age 90.
In the current exhibition Black Models: From Géricault to Matisse, the Musée d'Orsay has temporarily renamed Manet's Olympia and other iconic works to honor the black subjects depicted in them.
Museum Hue co-founder Stephanie Cunningham talks about racial diversity in cultural institutions on the latest episode of the Museum Archipelago podcast.
The City of New York has revealed five proposals for the forthcoming Shirley Chisholm monument created by artists Firelei Báez, La Vaughn Belle, Tanda Francis, Mickalene Thomas, and Amanda Williams and Olalekan Jeyifou.
At the Pasadena Museum of History, Something Revealed: California Women Artists Emerge, 1860–1960, presents nearly 300 works by 132 overlooked women artists.
The Remai Modern in Saskatoon, Canada, presents a survey of Rebecca Belmore's 30-year career in Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental. A member of Lac Seul First Nation (Anishinaabe), Belmore's work is rooted in the political and social realities of Indigenous communities. The sculptures, installations, photographs, and performance-based works in this survey address water and land rights, women's lives and dignity, police and state violence against Indigenous people, and the role of the artist in contemporary life. On view through May 5.
—Alicia Gregory is the assistant editor at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.