text:
Chancellor's push for brown site homes welcomed in Cheshire East
Cheshire East Council leader Michael Jones today welcomed the Chancellor's announcement relaxing planning rules on brownfield sites.
In order to boost the country's house-building programme, local authorities will be required to grant automatic planning consent to developers wishing to build on brownfield land.
Brownfield sites are sites that have been previously developed before being left to stand idle such as a disused factory.
Councillor Jones said: "I welcome this announcement by George Osborne as a policy to get many acres of waste land in our towns and cities turned into decent homes.
"This will stifle the temptation for developers to attack the greenbelt with the excuse that building on the greenbelt is essential to meet housing supply targets.
"Brownfield sites are not always attractive to developers because of the cost of clean up but hopefully the removal of planning red tape will provide them with the incentive they need.
"I echo the statement by the Business Secretary that this will speed up schemes and preclude the need for building in the green belt and we in Cheshire East see ourselves as a vanguard of this new policy.
"Here in Cheshire East we are under constant pressure to grant permissions on green belt and we want to protect the countryside on behalf of our residents.
"This policy will help us to do that."
Cheshire East Council recently secured a £100,000 grant from the Department for Communities and Local Government to establish a local development order in Macclesfield where two brownfield sites will be cleaned up and prepared for development.
Although 77 per cent of homes in the borough have been built on brown sites in the last five years, the Macclesfield area has failed to meet the Council's aspirations for more brownfield development.
Caroline Simpson, Cheshire East Council's executive director of economic growth and prosperity said: "Macclesfield is a good example of how this Council is encouraging brownfield development and in addition to this we are also offering grants to convert unused space above shops and commercial premises in the town centre to create living accommodation.
"Such a policy will help to breathe new life into our towns."
Cheshire East has 181 brownfield sites currently under construction and a further 375 sites about to be developed giving a total of 3,696 new homes.
Around 47 hectares of brown land has been identified as having development potential and the capacity for more than 1,400 new homes.


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Category: communications
Startups and their irresistible offers to our employees
If, like me, you run a small to mid-sized business then I'm sure you'd empathize when I say that the startups are the bane of our lives when it comes to staff retention.
Like voracious vultures their HR officers and talent scouts circle our businesses for any of our staff who show promise. When they spot them, they open their deep wallets and swoop in on these young workers with offers so they will find difficult to resist.
I've been wondering if these enterprises end up empowering these young talents or ruin the rest of their lives. The source of this musings is because I know of the daughter of a family friend that quit her present job because this startup offered her, a person who has been in the workforce for 3 years, about Rp60 million per month basic salary, plus share options in the company.
To be sure. She is bright and talented. She could cobble together a good-looking PowerPoint deck and present fairly convincingly. But when it came to managing people she was still green, unable to convey instructions concisely and clearly and making sure that her direct reports understood and executed her instructions well. She still had to, like good wine, mature. Her ego still got too much in the way and she became defensive under pressure.
Someone like that, in a world not distorted by startups and e-commerce companies, would find it difficult to command a monthly salary a third of what she's being offered in the communications industry.
To her credit, she sought some advice before she accepted the offer. Asked what I thought, I had one question for her: "What skills and experience of yours, do you think, their generous offer is based on?" She never gave me a clear answer but said she was fearful that an opportunity like this would not come again.
Pressed to elaborate what I thought I said she should not be to worried about missed opportunities. Indonesia today is awash with investors pouring money into startups, even those with dubious business models. They would still be around in a couple of years.
If she spent this time in a conventional business where she could be mentored properly she would, at the end of this period, be so much stronger professionally. She could then command an even higher salary then but more importantly she would be more equipped to handle the other aspects of a competitive professional environment – the internal politics, the art of managing upward, and the measured responses required when things go terribly wrong.
On the other hand, if she joined a startup now, she could end up like so many of the highly-paid young and talented people in startups today – good to look at and listen to, but not too closely, or the superficiality or immaturity will start to show, contributing to bad decisions, tamper tantrums and anxiety.
My pitch, however, lost out to the prospect of drawing a fat paycheck, a grand sounding title and the allure of working in a startup. She decided to join them in the end.
I didn't feel too flustered by that because she was not working for me and she might be able to land on her feet after a few stumbles. But I can't help wondering whether, on the whole the startups are doing any favors to these young talents and the industry with the irresistible offers.
unspun	communications, Indonesia	Leave a comment September 12, 2021 2 Minutes
Mining for trouble
This is a post I wrote for our company's blog
Those who have an interest in media handling skills would find this interview — between the BBC's Rebecca Henschke and Terry Filbert, the CEO of Baru Gold Corp that runs Tambang Mas Sangihe — a masterclass on what and how not to say things.
The company has been attracting a lot of attention lately following the sudden death of Sangihe Deputy Bupati Helmund Hontong, after the BBC reported that he openly wrote to the national government opposing the setting up of the mine.
Two days after that report, he collapsed and died on a Lion Air flight between Denpasar and Makassar.
Read the rest of the story by clicking on the link below:
Sangihe: Did the Messenger kill the message?
unspun	business, communications, Crisis and issues management, Public Relations	Leave a comment July 13, 2021 July 13, 2021 1 Minute
Was Naomi Osaka professional in not wanting to take press conferences?
As someone who trains the C-Suite on Media Handling Skills, what we in the PR profession sometimes shorten to Media Training, I can empathise with Naomi Osaka for not wanting to speak with journalists after her matches.
At the same time I cannot but help wonder if Osaka was professional in citing mental health as the reason for pulling out of the French Open.
However you look at it though, the power equation between the media and their interviewees is changing because of social media ,so it should prompt journalists to do some navel gazing at how they should behave in press conferences and other interview situations. Let me explain.
Great opinion piece by Jonathan Liew in The Guardian
Firstly, Osaka deserves our sympathy because the media can be inane. How inane? see this article in Vice.
The media can ask all sorts of questions, whatever suits their fancy. This is so and has been so for a long time because of the power that the media once held over our public lives.
At their apex, the media could make you or break you because they were the only means of reaching a wider audience. They acted as gatekeepers and shaped the opinions of the public. Their influence was so pervasive that Mark Twain counselled us to "never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel."
The residual authority from its heyday makes many journalists think they have a right to question any public figure and lob hardball questions at them. Never mind the caliber of question, the interviewee should answer truthfully, honestly and openly, without losing their cool. If they lose their temper in the process, then tough luck for the interviewee and good luck for the journalist because it makes good copy or television.
Then there is Osaka. Here one needs to be careful as once mental health is invoked in this age of cancel culture, everyone gets hyper-sensitive. To be heard even questioning whether the excuse is appropriately professional is to face the possibility of being accused of insensitivity, racism, sexism and other labels.
Nonetheless what needs to be said is that she did, as a consenting adult, sign a contract with the French Open and part of the contractual requirement is that she appear at press conferences after matches. It's not right, and may not even be informative for the viewers and fans, but let's face it, professional tennis is not a sport but part of the entertainment industry. The industry is funded by sponsors and advertisers. To keep sponsors sponsoring and advertisers advertising they need to feed the Content Beast. When Osaka signed with the French Open she signed up for feeding the Beast, which in turn ensured a large pay checks she gets when she wins tournaments.
I am sure that someone like Osaka must have been media trained. The answers, when she was still speaking at press conferences, were good ones. Even when she was faced by stupid and inane questions. She was able to hold her own. Some of the fundamental lessons in media training is to expect the media to ask inane questions but mercifully reporters' questions do not matter; what matters is our answer – what we say and how we say it. Another lesson is that reporters tend to ask the same questions many times, even when you're just answered the same question.
Everyone, from this perspective, should take a leaf from Henry Kissinger's playbook. He famously walked into a press conference saying something like "I have prepared my answers, I am now ready to take your questions."
It is therefore a bit debatable whether Osaka's decision to pull out of the French Open was a professional move, after all one of the definitions of a professional is someone who makes money from a certain activity or a sport. If you make money from the sport, it behoves the professional to understand how the sport is funded in the first place.
No matter which side of the debate you fall on, one issue that we should all consider seriously is the professionalism of the Press. What should professional sports journalists ask that would inform, educate and entertain (tastefully) their readers and viewers? That would be a journalist's job.
But when they descend to inanity, then they are not doing any favours to anyone. They need to realise that in today's world, where a player can tweet and reach more people than the entire audience of their media outlets, they no longer live in the days where they buy ink by the barrel.
unspun	communications, journalists, Media, Media training	Leave a comment June 2, 2021 June 2, 2021 3 Minutes
Clubhouse is all the rage – and the likely site of the next business crisis
Don't get me wrong. I think Clubhouse, the audio chat app that is taking the world and Indonesia by storm is fantastic.
Here you have an app that makes interaction easy among people with same interests. And because its audio only it also creates a feeling of intimacy and ability to network during sessions.
Another added benefit is that since it is organized usually as an informal and chilled-out chat, there is little preparation needed.
The result: Every Indonesian what fancies themselves as connected has signed onto the service and many have already organized Tchaikovsky rooms from a few people to a few hundred. Either that or they are desperately waiting for an invite to get onto Clubhouse.
The ease and informality of these chat rooms are Chatroom's great strengths. But they also harbor its great danger – the likelihood of uncontrolled blabbering, under the mistaken notion that its an informal chat and there are little consequences to speaking your mind.
Users of Clubhouse or any social media application should always remember that whatever you do or say there can be recorded or copied and shared to a wider audience. There is little control once words are written, images are shared or words are uttered and you can never be sure who will be listening in, first hand or second hand.
Today I saw a chat room discussion on PR matters in which a spokesperson for a company that was recently in a crisis-like situation agreeing to talk about their recent experience.
Sharing is great but when your company has just undergone a reputation all crisis and nerves are still tender, one wrong word or phrase can plunge it back into the couldron.
I am sure that there will be a crisis or two arising from Clubhouse chats.
This is not to say that people should avoid something new like Clubhouse . They should try it and use it by all means but they should never underestimate how whatever happens on social media can often be taken out of context.
No matter how new or sexy the technology, skill, deliberation and awareness are still needed.
unspun	brands, business, communications, Crisis and issues management, Indonesia, Public Relations, Social Media	Leave a comment February 16, 2021 February 16, 2021 1 Minute
Eiger IV: Wow, what a turnaround – in a good way
CEOs are like the rest of us. They make mistakes.
But because of their elevated position and their egos many times its easier for them to bluster and get defensive over these mistakes. And it takes a really big man to admit theirs and ask for an apology.
After the Eiger letter berating Youtubers reviewing its products went viral, the brand came under a groundswell of criticism.
The CEO , Ronny Lukito, then issued a non-apology, failing to take responsibility for the incident, to be genuinely contrite and to explain why something like that would not happen again.
His critics weren't assuaged and many were further inflamed. Unspun wrote about that and said that he failed to adhere to the 3Rs of crisis communications, which are Regret, Reason and Remedy and that he should seek professional help in his communications.
He must have, as today he issued a YouTube video and a statement apologizing to the affected YouTubers and taking full responsibility for the incident.
He explained that it was his idea to issue the offending letter. His PR, Marketing and legal teams tried to talk him out of it but because of arrogance he overruled them.
He has since realized his mistake and this incident has been a humbling and educational lesson for him. He has since appointed professionals to help him come up with better policies and improve their communications.
Surat Pernyataan Media dari CEO EIGER.pdfDownload
The result: if the comments on his YouTube posting are any indication, Netizens have forgiven him and appreciated his honesty and humility.
This is a good lesson for other CEOs on what to do during a crisis for their brand. I'm sure that Eiger will go from strength to strength from here if Mr Lukito maintains such an growth mindset.
I always loved their products. Now I love them more.
unspun	brands, communications, Crisis and issues management, Indonesia, Marketing, Public Relations	Leave a comment February 5, 2021 February 5, 2021 1 Minute
First Media: Snark can't buy them love
First Media's blundering tweet last night is a lesson why corporations and brands should be concerned about their social capital.
At about 10pm First Media social media admin thought they'd be clever and ride on the Eiger letter fiasco that earned the ire of Indonesian netizens.
Through its twitter account @FirstMediaCares they posted a letter similar in format to one sent out by Eiger competitor Arei, which was used to shade Eiger's obtuse letter because its invitation for consumers to review its products was very laid back and inclusive.
Obviously, the First Media admin thought they were being smart and witty. Afterall, many companies had done the same and they raised a chuckle and approving plaudits from Netizens.
The posting attracted the attention of Uber influencer Ernest Prakarsa who simply commented: "Aduh. First Media. Aduh."
He followed this with another tweet saying "Heads gonna roll" and attached the image of the First Media letter.
What followed was a long chain of replies and comments from other Netizens and disgruntled First media customers spewing invective with the common refrain: get the bloody service right before trying something snarky
The First Media admin began their first aid by deleting the posting with the image of the letter, thinking that they could mitigate the barrage of criticism.
As always, on the internet once something is posted there is bound to be a Smart Alec out there who has downloaded or screen captured the image. You just can't put the Jinn back into the bottle.
True enough, netizens began posting the taken down image and First Media became the laughing stock on Twitter.
This incident provides a good example why corporations without strong social capital are often attacked and criticized.
Social Capital is about a network of relationships built on shared values, trust, cooperation and reciprocity. In other words you have to take care of your stakeholders and win their trust instead of just taking their money and shafting them when it comes to after sales service.
Social Capital, if you observe from the many complaints and invective of dissatisfied and angry customers directed to First Media on social media, is something that the company obviously has a deficit of.
As such trust in the company is low and at any given opportunity the tendency of its users is to trash it. Even an innocuous attempt at humor like the letter last night backfires because the brand has such low social capital.
What can the brand do? It can start by listening to its customers and acting on their complaints for a start. The number of people who feel like they were banging their heads against a wall when trying to get First Media to restore their service is legendary.
I know that there are many disgruntled First Media customers out there. If any of you are disgruntled and think First Media is unresponsive or ineffective in servicing you, just leave a comment below for them to know how low their Social Capital is among their most important stakeholder – you the consumer.
unspun	brands, communications, Crisis and issues management, Indonesia, Social Media, Twitter	Leave a comment January 30, 2021 2 Minutes
Eiger III: the Legal Eagle's wings are clipped, but has the root cause been addressed?
Note: I got the information about the sacking from an online news portal in Indonesia. Have been told that the twitter account of Hendra Lim is actually a fake.
So apologies all. Disregard this post but rather than me deleting it I think it best to clarify it here and leave the rest as is so that others might be able to know that it's fake as well. Hendra Lim apparently still works at Eiger.
Eiger has sacked the legal manager whose insulting letters to YouTube reviews of its products has put them under an uncomfortable spotlight, (see here)
The sacking is confirmed by the Leggal manager himself in his own twitter account
Hendra, however, seems unable to stop shooting himself on the foot, lamenting in a twit that politics between businesses, artistes and YouTubers and virtually the whole world is conspiring to keep The People poor and heap blame on them.
He's young and perhaps will recover from this but any prospective employer looking at his social media feeds (and we employers do check, or have people point it out) would do a triple take before taking a chance on him in the future.
Be that as it may, he is now out of Eiger's hair. Does his departure, however, mean that Eiger's problems are over?
It depends. If the management there has owned the problem then they'd be ok moving forward.
As I said in the last posting, if they had learned from this incident they'd recognize it is as much management's as the legal manager's failure that triggered this incident.
If they realize this then they'd take communications and reputation protection seriously and hire professional communicators to to a communications job.
If they haven't then they will remain a crisis waiting to happen. Time will tell, WFH audiences await the next installment.
unspun	brands, communications, Crisis and issues management, Indonesia	Leave a comment January 29, 2021 February 1, 2021 1 Minute
Eiger II: A lame apology and more trouble coming
Latest update on Eiger saga here
Yesterday the outdoor adventure gear brand Eiger got into a hot mess when its Leagal Eagle went a step too far and dissed off YouTubers reviewing their products. (See post here)
By late afternoon the Eiger CEO Ronny Lukito had had enough and decided to take matters into his own hands. He apologized for his Legal Eagle's letter with his own letter.
All good apologizing but you have to wonder who is advising him on the PR front because the apology was not really an apology. When this happens it usually invites ongoing resentment and possible future attacks.
He started the latter with an apology to the community. He then admitted that the offending letter that had gone viral had indeed been sent by Eiger and they realize that this was a wrong and inappropriate action. So far so good.
Then he had to say that the original intent of the letter was to provide input to the reviewer so they can improve. Bang! Another shot in the foot. Although he tried to paper over the hole with "we realise that how we conveyed that was wrong", he had stumbled.
This is what communicators classify as mixed messages. It's when observations, inferences, feelings and wants are jumbled up.
Here it would have been fine if he said that whet they did was wrong, he as CEO takes responsibility for the act, he's sorry for all the frustrations and angst caused. Instead he went on to explain their intent which still sounds patronizing, because its an outdoor gear maker telling a YouTuber how to improve shooting review videos.
Lukito also left out a vital element of apologies in crisis-like moments. He failed to say what action he's taking to make sure that this does not happen again. Without stating this he is giving the impression that the company is not taking responsibility for the incident and not interested to learn from their mistakes. At worst, many would think that they will get back to business as usual once this kerfuffle is over.
All this leaves the company open to more criticism if the opportunity arises.
Lo and behold, the opportunity came this morning when some Netizens uncovered an incident where the legal department of Eiger asked the giant online e-commerce site to take down a reseller's product posting of a Sritex face mask. And Tokopedia complied!
Now it looks like Eiger has not only shot itself on the foot but is also extending its foot fetish toTokopedia.
Like I said yesterday, I think Eiger makes great products. It has also been quite smart and savvy in its design and branding. It is now the victims of its own success but it is something that it can easily fix by seeking professional help.
It takes skill and experience to communicate well. To entrust it to a legal flunky is being careless with your hard worn reputation as it takes skill and experience to communicate well, with authenticity and ethically.
They should seek professional help in the short term while they look to hire an experienced communicator in-house expressly for reputation all management.
unspun	brands, communications, Crisis and issues management, Indonesia, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media	Leave a comment January 29, 2021 January 29, 2021 2 Minutes
Plumbing the depths with Eiger
I love the Eiger outdoor brand. Their products are affordable and often of good quality. A sandal I bought has lasted me years and looks like it will continue for at least another year or two. Damn comfortable too.
But good as they are in making outdoor gear they apparently suck at customer relations. Here's what happened:
On 28th January, competitor outdoor gear brand Arei's issued a letter inviting Netizens to review its products.
Arei's invite sounded very inclusive and cool. Reviewers could use any method, any camera, any theme or in any location they liked to do these reviews.
Eiger must have thought it could do the same but when netizens began reviewing their products and uploading them on YouTube – and the reviews weren't flattering – Eiger's Legal General Manager began to get antsy.
He started sending nasty letters to the reviewers. They began with a faux politesse of "Firstly, we thank you for uploading a review of our product on your YouTube channel…" then quickly drew out the stiletto.
Instead of explaining in a rationale manner whether the review was fair to Eiger, it instead criticized the video's quality, specifically the angle it shoes to show their products in an unflattering manner.
The Eiger Legal Manager also was an audiophile. Complaining that the sound quality was bad to make it quite inaudible and lastly, he criticized the suitability of the location of the shoot.
With that, the manager hoped that the YouTuber would take down that posting and, a bitchy parting shot: "We hope you will become a better Youtuber in [shooting] review videos."
That's a shot in their own foot by any measure but that's not all. When news of that came out on social media it, of course, went viral and Eiger became a trending topic.
Eiger's troubles did not end there. It turns out that the manager had sent out at least identical letters to two other YouTubers.
That makes it at least three shots to two legs. How many shots the manager had fired nobody really knows.
Netizens have a habit of digging up interesting information about foot shooters and one of them dug up a poster of the manager giving a talk.
The topic: How to Implement Agile Human Capital in Transition and Shifting Era. Oh irony of ironies.
Makes you wonder the caliber of people invited to give talks these days. And what possessed Eiger to entrust its communications function to a legal person instead of a communications professional
Al manager
unspun	brands, business, communications, Crisis and issues management, funny shit, Indonesia, shit-for-brains	3 Comments January 28, 2021 January 29, 2021 2 Minutes
Mr President: Apart from professional help, you need honest feedback
Even the usually mild-mannered Endy Bayuni was forced earlier this week to rant against the President and his team's egregious handling of the Coronavirus outbreak in the usually tepid The Jakarta Post.
He counseled seeking professional help instead of relying on amateurs for something as serious and critical as the matter staring us in the face.
His advice, like so many well-meaning ones, seem to have fallen on deaf ears. Or has it? One wonders.
From the inaction and indecisiveness that Jokowi practices, to the gaffes that he makes when he finally acts or speaks (example: Lat Saturday Jokowi admitted to withholding information on COVID-19 because "we don't want people to panic") he must have been influenced by his advisors.
Anyone that has been in leadership positions are usually surrounded by advisers and courtiers. The quality of these people, who often become the eyes and ears of the ever-busy Leader, become crucial to how he perceives the world, what informs him and subsequently, the decisions he makes.
Who are they? Few of us have the inside-track on who he trusts apart from Luhut, but if you look at who Jokowi surrounds himself with you may get a good idea of the type of people they are.
They are usually smart professionals, seemingly liberal, connected in politics and business, influential on social media and above all loyal – some say fanatically loyal – to Jokowi.
The last quality is where the double-edged sword cuts. Their loyalty blinds them to the mistakes Jokowi is making and the merits of his rivals. This loyalty also makes them drink the Cool Aid when it comes to Jokowi's reluctance or inability to act boldly, especially in holding others in positions of responsibility to account.
The result is groupthink is of the highest harm.
Groupthink, as some may recall, was the greatest bane of Kennedy's administration. Although Camelot was staffed by the brightest people whose IQ was off the charts, they as a group had so little diversity in opinion and viewpoint that none of the inner circle held the view that the Bay of Pigs invasion was an exercise in folly and miscalculation. been.
Groupthink, one suspects, is at work overtime in Indonesia today. Whatever Jokowi does or doesn't do over the Coronavirus outbreak is wise or excusable because of the political complications.
Terrible record but you gotta admit Anies Baswedan looks like a leader when other political leaders are pussyfooting around wringing their hands or stubbing their feet
No one else can do better than Pakde. So when Anies took to TV and social media to announce the initiatives that Jakarta, was making, including the closure of schools, it was dismissed as yet another antic of Anies the Sweet Talker with No Substance.
In spite of his record of failure to deliver, Anies looked decisive, he looked open and he looked like a leader when compared to Jokowi's fumbling doesn't not occur to any member of the Groupthink.
Their instinct is to dismiss the fact that Anies did better than Jokowi in this instance. They'll now take to social media to disparage and scorn him. This has not been lost to Indonesia's netizens who are slowly but increasingly wising up to their antics. hence the backlash against Jokowi's Buzzers in social media.
This is dangerous in the extreme for Jokowi who because of the Groupthink surrounding him, would have lost his ability to sense danger.
And danger there is. The public is getting more disillusioned by the day by the culture of impunity that Jokowi has allowed to grow in his administration. You have the Health Minister Terawan who failed miserably to handle the first stages of the Coronavirus outbreak in Indonesia who has not been sacked or even chided.
Lashed to incompetence and creating a culture of impunity
You also have imbecilic officers like Siti Hikmawaty, the Commissioner of the Commission for the Protection of Children saying stupid things like a woman can get pregnant if she swam in the same swimming pool as a man, yet has not been chided or removed from office. The list goes on but the message people get is that the bad guys do not get punished or removed but allowed to fester in the administration.
She who says women can get pregnant if swimming with a man in the same pool is still sitting comfortably in office, drawing her salary
Jokowi's abysmal handling of the Corona virus outbreak also poses a political danger to him. With the national Government seemingly paralyzed by inaction and indecisiveness, the regional leaders are beginning to assert themselves in this leadership vacuum.
Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan's announcement of school closures and his publishing a map of Coronavirus infections in the city con only be interpreted in this context.
The problem is that this Governor, who comes to power by allying himself to racist and religious extremist politicians, is starting to look like a leader.
The last thing most of us want is for Anies to come to power. It hurts all the more to realize that Anies's gins are only possible because of the ineffectiveness of Jokowi's leadership.
It is time that Jokowi does a reality check of what sort of advice he is getting from his advisors and whether he's only living in an echo chamber build by Groupthink.
But here's the irony: how will he ever know he would have to do this reappraisal, as none of his advisors will bring this up to him (and Unspun doubts that Jokowi reads this blog).
In sociology there is something called the Johari Window where one of its quadrants contains something that everyone else knows about you; butt it is something that you do not know yourself. It is the building block for Greek tragedies as heroes inexorably plunge to their fates inspite of all the signs warning them of danger.
Let's hope this does not come to pass.
unspun	communications, Crisis and issues management, Indonesia, Persuasion	Leave a comment March 14, 2020 4 Minutes
Kurawa, Big Media, and the GoodBener who would be president
A battle royale is raging on Twitter between established online media houses including kompas.com, kumparan.com and professional buzzer @Kurawa and so far there have been threats of legal suits, applying the Draconian UU ITE and others.
The story unfolded on January 5 when Rudy Valinka, aka @kurawa, tweeted an accusation against Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan for media placement carrying the messages that he was GoodBener (rally good, a play on Gubener) to become President. Kurawa said it must have cost a few hundred million rupiahs, an unnecessary expense that could have been used to alleviate the plight of flood victims.
He then followed up with screen grabs of how several media outlets seem to have similar headlines and quotes.
Here's one from Kumparan.com
This one from detik.com
And this one from Kompas.com
Then @Kurawa started saying he was disappointed by kompas.com for receiving a media placement from Anies, as he thought that Kompas.com was really objective.
@Kurawa also attacked other media, including Jawa Post. The editor replied to him on Twitter saying that their reporter had not "complied with proper procedures" when uploading this story and they were therefore removing their story.
Kompas fought back, saying that their journalist wrote the original story and others had copied their content. Kumparan also disagreed to allegations. From there, as with the way of social media, things all got heated up and murky because everyone started weighing in.
There was talk of lawsuits, the use of the UU ITE, going to the press council and other remedies. As usual, everyone had strong opinions.
What lessons can the rest of us get from this incident? Here's Unspun's list:
1. Kurawa may or may not have jumped to a premature conclusion that the publications all had been bought over by Anies to report the incident. The media, however, still needs to look at themselves and how they report the news
2. What's obvious is that there was a lot of cut-and-paste and story/photo sharing on the level of the reporters. How This managed to evade the scrutiny of the editors is the real story here. And even if they had, surely a good editor would look at the competitors' stories the next day and call in the reporters for the cut-and-paste stories?
3. The established media's standards have been dropping for a long time and they are not functioning as a vigilant Forth Estate should. Issues and incidents arise and just as fast sink into obscurity and neglect. There is no follow-through of stories to their end. Hard questions are not asked.
4. The established media houses should realize that the only way they can recover from this tailspin of diminishing advertising revenues is to boost their credibility. It is only with good, hard reporting that they can stand any chance of staying alive, let alone return to profitability. The Guardian is a good example where good journalism pays.
In a time in Indonesia when all the three estates of the country – the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary – have shown themselves to be dysfunctional, it is more important now than ever for the Press – the Fourth Estate – to provide the checks and balances that would ensure that Indonesia remain a vibrant democracy.
One can only hope that this incident forces everyone involved to do some introspection of their rights and obligations to Indonesian society, and then go ahead to discharge them.
unspun	ask the right question, communications, Indonesia, Media, politics, Social Media, Twitter	Leave a comment January 6, 2020 2 Minutes
Something amiss about the Government's handling of demonstrations
There is something amiss in the Government's handling of the demonstrations that have taken place in at least nine cities over the past week.
It is at best, half-hearted and amateurish; at worst, grist for a conspiracy theorist's mill.
Contrast this week's handling of protests with that of how it handled the protests surrounding the riots of May 21 and 22, after Prabowo refused to accept the results of the Election Commission's decision that Jokowi had won the presidential elections.
Reformation in Repair. Source: The Jakarta Post
The police acted with discipline, determination and restraint.
And it was communicative, calling press conferences and briefing the media often on developments and messages the government wanted the citizens to know. Police Chief Tito Karnavian was also highly visible in press conferences, giving the public an assurance that things were being handled properly and everything was under control.
Jokowi too was visible, giving press briefings and appearing confident that everything was under control.
Unspun remembers conversations with Jakarta old timers marveling about how professional the Indonesian Police Force could be if it wanted to.
Then the student demonstrations began last Wednesday and the Police suddenly looked amateurish again in their handling of protestors. Time and again the police had to apologize for its mistakes and videos of police brutality began cropping up.
It had to apologize for a policeman running into a mosque with shoes on to apprehend a protestor. It had to backtrack after accusing Jakarta City ambulances of carrying rocks, petrol for Molotov cocktails and fireworks to supply rioters. It shot teargas into Atma Jaya University, a zone set aside for first aid to injured protestors.
In its communications Police seemed to play a defensive game, otherwise issuing admonitions that fell on deaf ears.
And all this wall, what realty stood out was the absence of leadership. Tito gave a press conference somewhere but he said nothing substantial. He then virtually disappeared from the public eye.
On the Government's side the deafening silence from Jokowi is astounding. That left the way open for the relics of his government, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto and Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko to fill in the vacuum with their tone-deaf hectoring and defensive statements. Many wondered why the Presidential Chief of Staff, who should concern himself with the internal running of the presidential office, was acting as government spokesperson.
In the vacuum of information that they have created, all sorts of conspiracy theories have begun to surface.
Some say that Jokowi has his hands full trying to balance the demands of the parties in the new Cabinet. Others say that the police ineptness is part of a conspiracy to weaken him. Still others hint of dark forces at play orchestrating paid rioters to create mayhem.
Nobody really knows what's happening and whether the government will get a handle on things, and that's the problem.
Indonesia is at an important juncture. After over two decades of Reformasi, corruption and sense of entitlement among the elite have made a strong comeback. The swift and cavalier passage of the Bills to the KPK law and Criminal Code was a manifestation of this comeback and its contempt for the other sectors of Indonesian society.
Through the passage of the Bills Parliament has shown that it cannot be trusted to act in the public's interest. The Judiciary Has along ago been discounted as an institution that can protect their rights. And now the Executive, helmed by Jokowi, is also showing signs of tentativeness, indecision and compliance to the demands of conservatives.
What that means for most people is that Indonesia is approaching a failed state. This sounds dramatic but how do you describe a nation when none of the branches of government can be relied on to act as a check and balance of the other branches?
This is why the students are right in refusing to meet with Jokowi unless it is in an open forum where he can be held accountable. And they are right to continue the pressure through further protests until the message gets through that the Executive and the Legislature is accountable to the people.
unspun	communications, Indonesia, politics	Leave a comment October 1, 2019 3 Minutes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Beside the tour guide activity, I also accept missions for interpretation and translation. Being an experimented interpreter and translator (more than twenty years of experience) based in Budapest, graduated in economics, translation and (simultaneous and consecutive) interpreting, my working languages are French, English and Hungarian. With my experiences obtained in the world of business and enterprise, all fields included, I am at your disposal if you need an interpreter or a translation of high level.
In case of simoultanious interpreting, an additional 50% applies.
I do also interpreting during marriage ceremonies. The tariff is 20 k HUF or 60 € / ceremony. In case of a longer program, the tariff is of 40 k HUF or 120 € / day.
My interpreting tariffs are set for missions done in Budapest (administrative borders). In case of missions to be done in the country or abroad, travel expenses, meals and accommodation are to be paid by the Client.
I also give language courses. During the lessons, I make students to speak a lot while also focusing on grammar. From beginner to advanced level.
For any request of interpretation, translation or language courses, please contact me at any of the contact information indicated on this page.
Tariffs are net prices, that means that a 27% VAT is to be added.
Tariffs are valid until December 31st, 2016.


text:
How successful is Modi Government's Start-up India program?
What is Amdahl's Law?
What is the concept of Heinz's dilemma in Kohlberg's theory?
Who is Rapunzel? What's her story?
What's the meaning of the phrase 'what you seek is seeking you'?
What is the associativity of Python's ** operator?
What is the significance of Humayun's Tomb?
What is Fleming's left-hand thumb rule?
What is the C# equivalent to Java's isInstance()?
What is the history of women's day celebration?
What is the PHP equivalent of MySQL's UNHEX()?
What is the Java equivalent to MySQL's smallint?
Is IPL the brainchild of Lalit Modi?
What is the difference between Python's re.search and re.match?
What is bullying? How does it affect anyone's life?
What is Modi Government's Swachh Bharat mission?
Governments & PoliciesGrowth & EmpowermentPoliticiansGeneral Topics
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, also known as the Clean India Drive, Clean India Mission or Swachh Bharat Campaign, is a campaign that has been launched by the Modi government in order to make India a thoroughly clean and sanitized country. Mahatma Gandhi famously stated "Sanitation is more important than Independence", a comment that was meant to highlight the importance of cleanliness and sanitization of our country. Modi Government has come up with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to build a better nation by 2019.
How did start
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a program that is run by the Modi government for seriously working to accomplish the vision of the Father of the Nation by calling people from different walks of life and making sure that it attains maximum success.
This mission was officially launched on the 2nd of October 2014. The goal of the program is to achieve a completely Clean India by the year 2019, which is the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Special steps have been recommended to achieve a completely clean country within a span of five years. The mission is implemented accordingly for covering all the rural as well as urban areas of India that fall under the Ministry of Urban Development as well as Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
The Modi government has urged the people of the nation to devote only 100 hours in a year to achieve the goal of cleanliness within their surrounding areas. Such efforts can really go a long way in making sure that the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan becomes a grand success.
In order to ensure effective implementation of the mission, a number of implementation mechanisms and policies have been decided upon for the program, including the three important working phases such as the planning phase, the implementation phase, and the sustainability phase. When followed correctly, these phases can help the government in achieving a completely clean country within the next 5 years.
The campaign is meant to cover all the 4041 statutory towns of the country and clean the streets, roads, and the infrastructure of India. The first official attempt towards a clean and sanitized India was taken even before the launch of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. On 25th September 2014, Narendra Modi took a major step to solve sanitation problems of the country and also implement better waste management methods all over the country by creating well-structured sanitation facilities for all.
Prasanna Kotamraju


Eastern Mojave Vegetation Westgard Pass.
Westgard Pass is the only east-west route through the White-Inyo Mountains, and is the dividing line between the two mountain ranges.
California Highway 168: at Westgard Pass.
Other photos about Geography - Northern Mojave or Westgard Pass.


text:
Milan település az Amerikai Egyesült Államokban, Ohio államban. Thomas Alva Edison születési helyeként ismert. Polgármestere Steve Rockwell.

Története
Eredetileg Beattynek hívták.

A falut 1817-ben Ebenezer Merry alapította.

Az első emberek, akik itt laktak (pontosabban nem itt, hanem egy közeli faluban) indiánok voltak, akik a Huron folyó mellett telepedtek le. Falujukat Petquottingnak nevezték.

A falu lakossága 1367 fő (2011). Összetétele 97,5%-a fehér, 0,7%-a afroamerikai, 0,1%-a indián, 0,6%-a ázsiai származású, 0,2%-a egyéb, 0,9%-a kevert, és 1%-a mexikói származású.

Testvérvárosa: Javata, Japán.

További információk
A település weboldala

Ohio települései

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Bloomability: My Week In Pictures!
I am spending the day recovering from a week full of fun, late nights, hot tub swims, shopping dates, Netflix dates and much more! My week in Cali was great. It's always hard to leave, ALWAYS. But I'm grateful for the week that I got. Below is my week in pictures! Tomorrow I'll be sharing my New Years Resolutions and my hopes for this year.
A sweet picture of Zach and his sisters! We did a mini fam photo session!
My favorite night together. Shopping, Sushi Bar, and Bowling!
He's dating the daughter of a photographer-- selfies are a no brainer!
Another sweet gem from the photo session!
Selfies with Chenoa (Zach's sweet mom)!
Zach's darling little sister, Zoe!
One of my favorite pictures of us!
Protein Balls in 10 Minutes!


I'm a horticulture student, like art and photography and dabble in cookery and baking – I make things with my hands and love to experiment. I tend to run before I can walk in all things creative and sometimes make a mess because of it. I'm ok with that.
I also love reading, history, documentaries and biology. I could read all night and day quite happily. Some of my favourite authors include Stephen Baxter, George R. R. Martin, Jean Auel, and Lois McMaster Bujold.
I'm interested in stuff. I like finding out about interesting things. I have a terrible memory, though, so I sometimes find it difficult to remember those cool things!
I started this blog after stopping with an old gaming blog. The name I chose for this blog reflected that – '/hug' or 'slashhug' is an emote used in games, 'afk' meaning away from keyboard was meant to reflect the fact that this was a blog about what I did when I wasn't sitting in front of the laptop.
I don't keep to a set schedule – though I try to post at least once a week. I dither between spurts of gardening and cooking, drawing and visits to various places and the blog reflects that. There are also occasional cat photos.


Anyone has any idea on what to do?
Have no knowledge of PHP Nuke but have you installed phpMyAdmin to check your MySQL tables? Also did you install MySQL via your Site Manager? The second it required to run a MySQL database and the second is a great tool for working with that database. The erro almost sounds like it is generated by the PHP Nuke script and it may be that it gives that error when it can not connect to MySQL.
Yes, i've installed phpMyAdmin and also installed MySQL through sitemanager. However, I'm not too sure about the settings for the database. Where do i find that.
What is PHP Nuke asking you for? It should be something like this..
db name = should be in your php nuke info or use phpMyAdmin to check what database it created.
db passwd = all depends on when you set the mysql database up could be the same as your main account password.
Those are the variables that phpBB2 has to have to connect to a database and they are stored in a config file in it's directory.
Hey 2fangs, did you get it going? I have played around with PostNuke on a westhost vds and it works great. I'm thinking about using it for my .org site.
The only thing I will add to what wildjoker has posted above is that I had to create a user besides "root" to get PostNuke to connect to the database.
I just installed Nuke myself and I got the same error.
"db user = root" is wrong. It should be your MySQL username- try your domain name.
Also, did you use phpMyAdmin to run the nuke.sql file on the database?


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Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland
The Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland
Our Pole Star is Truth
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Frances P. Ruane
The Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland (SSISI) is a learned society which analyses the major changes that have taken place in population, employment, legal and administrative systems and social services in Ireland.[1] It operates as an all-Ireland body.[2]
The Society was founded in Dublin in 1847 by a group of Irish academics, clergymen, aristocrats and politicians.[3] Its first president was Richard Whately. From its establishment until the 1920s the overwhelming majority of members were Unionists of the Anglo-Irish class, who were, generally speaking, more sympathetic to the British administration in Ireland than with the Irish Home Rule movement.[4] As a result, most papers read to the Society until at least 1870 were in favour of assimilating the laws and practices in Ireland to those applying in England and Wales. Even so, official political or religious endorsement has never been allowed in the Society. During the nineteenth century it frequently provided an important platform for people who were concerned about major social problems, such as the care of orphans and neglected children. The key figures associated with the founding of the Irish National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1889 were prominent members of the Society.[5]
From 1924, several Irish nationalists became presidents of the SSISI.[6] In addition, the Society began to enroll a substantial number of senior officials from the new Irish civil service, and as such has formed a close relationship with the Irish state.[7] The Journal of the Society has provided one of the few opportunities to penetrate the official anonymity of the Irish public service; senior civil servants have spoken more freely on crucial aspects of government policy at SSISI meetings than in any other public forum. On the whole the papers presented to the Society have been concerned with practical problems, such as crime, poverty and economic progress, and by a common concern with the condition of Ireland.
The current president of SSISI is Frances P. Ruane, who is only the second female president in the Society's history. The Society often meets at the Royal Irish Academy and its journal is printed with the help of Trinity College Dublin, where Honorary Secretary Ronan C. Lyons is based, and disseminated with the help of the Central Statistics Office and the Central Bank of Ireland.
Presidents[edit]
Richard Whately, 1st President of the SSISI
Lord O'Hagan, 3rd President of the SSISI
Lord Emly, 5th President of the SSISI
Lord Monteagle of Brandon, 11th President of the SSISI
Since 1847, the SSISI has appointed numerous notable figures from academia and politics as its president:[8][9][10]
Richard Whately (1847–1863)
Mountifort Longfield (1863–1867)
Thomas O'Hagan, 1st Baron O'Hagan (1867–1870)
James Anthony Lawson (1870–1872)
William Monsell, 1st Baron Emly (1872–1875)
Jonathan Pim (1875–1877)
John Lentaigne (1877–1878)
John Kells Ingram (1878–1880)
Edward Dillon Mapother (1880–1881)
William Neilson Hancock (1881–1882)
Thomas Spring Rice, 2nd Baron Monteagle of Brandon (1882–1884)
James McDonnell (1884–1888)
Thomas Wrigley Grimshaw (1888–1890)
John O'Hagan (1890–1891)
William Findlater (1891–1894)
William Huston Dodd (1894–1896)
Joseph Todhunter Pim (1896–1900)
James Johnston Shaw (1900–1902)
William Frederick Bailey (1902–1904)
Robert Edwin Matheson (1904–1906)
Arthur Warren Samuels (1906–1908)
Richard Cherry (1908–1911)
Thomas A. Finlay (1911–1913)
Charles Athill Stanuell (1913–1917)
William Lawson (1917–1918)
William John Thompson (1918–1920)
Sir Thomas Molony, 1st Baronet (1920–1924)
Charles Hubert Oldham (1924–1926)
James Creed Meredith (1926–1929)
John Hooper (1929–1930)
J.C.M. Eason (1930–1934)
Joseph Brennan (1934–1938)
Stanley G Lyon (1938–1942)
George O'Brien (1942–1946)
Roy C. Geary (1946–1951)
Joseph Johnston (1951–1953)
Jim P. Beddy (1953–1956)
James Meenan (1957–1959)
William A. Honohan (1959–1962)
M. Donal McCarthy (1962–1965)
Patrick Bourke (1965–1968)
Thomas Kenneth Whitaker (1968–1971)
Thelka J. Beere (1971–1974)
Thomas P. Linehan (1974–1977)
Brendan Menton (1977–1980)
Robert O'Connor (1980–1983)
Robert Dennis Collison Black (1983–1986)
Jerry J. Sexton (1986–1989)
Kieran A. Kennedy (1989–1992)
Padraig McGowan (1992–1995)
Dermot McAleese (1995–1998)
William Keating (1998–2001)
Brendan Walsh (2001–2004)
Aidan Punch (2004–2007)
Dónal de Buitléir (2007–2010)
Paul Sweeney (2010–2013)
John D. FitzGerald (2013–2016)
Frances P. Ruane (2016-2019)
^ K.J. Rankin, 'The Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland', in The Oxford History of the Irish Book, Volume IV, James Murphy (ed.) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) pp.563–574
^ SSISI website, 'Home' http://www.ssisi.ie/index.php (Accessed 30 September 2014)
^ S. Shannon Millin, The Statistical and Social lnquiry Society of Ireland: Historical Memoirs with Portraits (Dublin: E. Ponsonby, 1920)
^ R. D. Collison Black, The Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland Centenary Volume, 1847–1947 (Dublin: Eason, 1947)
^ SSISI website, 'History' http://www.ssisi.ie/history.php (Accessed 30 September 2014)
^ Mary E. Daly, The Spirit of Earnest lnquiry (Dublin: Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, 1997)
^ http://www.ssisi.ie/ssisi_presidents_6_5_2014.pdf SSISI website, 'Biographical Portraits of the Past presidents of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland'
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Statistical_and_Social_Inquiry_Society_of_Ireland&oldid=868182538"
1847 establishments in Ireland
All-Ireland organisations
Learned societies of Ireland
Politics of Ireland
EngvarB from July 2016
Use dmy dates from July 2016


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Marcosians
(Redirected from Marcosian)
The Marcosians were a Gnostic sect founded by Marcus, active in Lyon, France and southern Europe from the second to the 4th century. Women held special status in the Marcosian communities; they were regarded as prophetesses and participated in administering the Eucharistic rites. Irenaeus accuses Marcus of seducing his followers, and scornfully writes (Adversus Haereses I. 13, 4) that the whole sect was an affair of "silly women."
The Marcosian system was a variation of that of Valentinus. It retained the 30 Aeons, but called them "Greatnesses" and gave them numerical values. It kept the myth of the fall of Sophia but called it a "Divine Deficiency". Unique to it was the adaptation of the Pythagorean number theory (Isopsephy) to Gnosticism.
1.1 Theory of letters
1.2 Tetrad
1.3 Ἰησοῦς
1.4 Aeons
1.5 Episemon
1.6 Six
2.1 Baptism and Trinitarian Baptismal Formula
2.2 Eucharist
2.3 Prophecy
SystemEdit
Marcus holds his knowledge to be the product of a divine revelation of the body of the Anthropos:
The infinitely exalted Tetrad descended upon him from the invisible and indescribable places in the form of a woman . . . and expounded to him alone its own nature, and the origin of all things, which it had never before revealed to any one either of gods or men. . . . [and] said:—I wish to show thee Aletheia (Truth) herself; for I have brought her down from the dwellings above, that thou mayest see her without a veil, and understand her beauty—that thou mayest also hear her speaking, and admire her wisdom. Behold, then, her head on high, Alpha and Omega; her neck, Beta and Psi; her shoulders with her hands, Gamma and Chi; her breast, Delta and Phi; her diaphragm, Epsilon and Upsilon; her back, Zeta and Tau; her belly, Eta and Sigma; her thighs, Theta and Rho; her knees, Iota and Pi; her legs, Kappa and Omicron; her ankles, Lambda and Xi; her feet, Mu and Nu. Such is the body of Truth, according to this magician, such the figure of the element, such the character of the letter. And he calls this element Anthropos (Man), and says that is the fountain of all speech, and the beginning of all sound, and the expression of all that is unspeakable, and the mouth of the silent Sige.
—  I. 14, 1-3
Theory of lettersEdit
Sometimes Marcus counts the number of letters in a name, sometimes he reckons up the sum total, when to each letter is given its value in the Greek arithmetical notation: sometimes he uses a method which enables him to find still deeper mysteries.
Marcus points out that if we take a single letter, Δ, and write its name at full length, δέλτα, we get five letters; but we may write again the names of these at full length and get a number of letters more, and so on ad infinitum. If the mysteries contained in a single letter be thus infinite, what must be the immensity of those contained in the name of the Propator.
Concerning this name he gives the following account:—When the first Father, who is above thought and without substance, willed the unspeakable to become spoken, and the invisible to become formed, He opened His mouth and emitted a Word like Himself, which being the form of the invisible, declared to Himself what He was. His name consisted of four syllables successively uttered, of four, four, ten, and twelve letters respectively.
It might appear as if we were to understand as the first of these the word ἀρχή; and this name of four syllables and thirty letters seems to correspond to a description of the system of thirty Aeons divided into two Tetrads, a Decad, and a Dodecad. Each letter is one of the Aeons, and contains within itself an infinity of mysteries. Each letter makes its own sound, it knows not the sound of the adjacent letter, nor of the whole, but the restitution of all things will take place when all the letters are brought to make the same sound, and then a harmony will result of which we have an image in that made when we all sound the Amen together.
This comparison shows an interesting point of agreement in liturgical usage between the Gnostics of the 2nd century and the Roman church of the time of Jerome, whose well-known words are "ad similitudinem caelestis tonitrui Amen reboat." What is stated about the limited knowledge of each Aeon may be compared with what Hippolytus of Rome tells of the Docetae (viii. 10).
TetradEdit
The Pythagorean Tetrad.[1]
Marcus pushes into further details his designation of the Aeons as letters of the alphabet. There are twenty-four letters in the alphabet, and twenty-four is the sum of the letters of the names of the first tetrad:
The Unspeakable (ἄῤῥητος)
Silence (σειγή)
Father (πατήρ)
Truth (ἀλήθεια)
Followed by those of the second tetrad:
Word (λόγος)
Life (ζωή)
Man (ἄνθρωπος)
Church (ἐκκλησία)
These form the Ogdoad. Again, the Greek alphabet consists of nine mutes, eight semivowels, and seven vowels. The mutes belong to Father and Truth (The Unspeakable, and Silence, of course, do not count); these being mute reveal nothing to man. The semivowels belong to Word and Life, but the vowels to Man and Church, since it was a voice coming through Man which gave power to all.
For the seven heavens, we are told, utter each its own vowel sound, the first A and so on; and it was the sound of their united doxology borne to the earth, which gave generation to all things on the earth. By the descent of Him who was with the Father from the nine into the seven, the groups of Aeons were equalized and perfect harmony produced.
ἸησοῦςEdit
Further, it is to be observed that in the Greek arithmetical notation eight letters are used to denote units, eight tens, and eight hundreds: total 888; but this is exactly the numerical value of the letters in the name Ἰησοῦς. Similarly, the Α and Ω is identified with the περιστερά which descended on Jesus, the numerical value being in both cases 801.
Other mysteries are found in the six letters of the name Ἰησοῦς (see Episemon, below), the eight letters of χρειστός, which again added to the four of Υίος make twelve. These, however, are only the spoken names known to ordinary Christians; the unspoken names of Jesus and Christ are of twenty-four and thirty letters respectively. Either Hippolytus, or an early copyist of his, makes an attempt to solve the mystery of the unspoken names by writing at full length the letters of the name χρειστός; χεῖ, ῥώ, εἴ, ἰῶτα, σίγμα, ταῦ, οὐ, σάν; but we have here only twenty-four letters instead of thirty, so we must be content to remain in ignorance of what would seem to have been one of the most valuable secrets of this sect.
AeonsEdit
To understand the generation of the thirty Aeons from the Ogdoad, we have only to take the first eight numbers and add them up, leaving out six—for it is the Episemon and not a letter of the usual Greek alphabet:—
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 7 + 8 = 30
Again, we find the fall of the twelfth Aeon, Sophia, indicated in the alphabet; for Λ, which arithmetically denotes 30, the number of the Aeons, is only the eleventh letter in the alphabet. But it set about to seek another like itself, and so the next letter is M, or ΛΛ. Again, add up the numerical value of all the letters of the alphabet ending with λ and we have ninety-nine; that is deficiency, a number still counted on the left hand, which they who have "knowledge" escape by following after the one which, added to ninety-nine, transfers them to the right hand. The reader will remember Juvenal's "jam dextera computat annos."
EpisemonEdit
Even numbers are female, odd numbers male, by the union of the first of these, 2 and 3, was begotten the Episemon, or 6, the number of Salvation.
In the account of his system given by Irenaeus (I. xiv.), copied by Hippolytus (Ref. vi. 45) and by Epiphanius (Haer. 34), τὸ ἐπίσημον is repeatedly used to denote the numerical character for six; the number 6 is ὁ ἐπίσημος ἀριθμός; the six-lettered name Ἰησοῦς is τὸ ἐπίσημον ὄνομα, etc., language perplexing to the old Latin translator, who renders the word by "insignis." A similar use of the word is found in Clement of Alexandria (Strom. vi. 16); but this cannot be called a quite independent illustration, for the coincidences are found to be such as to put it beyond doubt that Clement, in his account of the mysteries of the number 6, makes unacknowledged use of the same writings of Marcus as were employed by Irenaeus. Eusebius (Quaest. ad Marin. Mai, Nov. Pat. Bib. iv. 299), copied by Jerome or Pseudo-Jerome (Brev. in Psal. 77, vii. 198, ed. Vallars.), suggests, as a way of reconciling the difference between the evangelists as to whether the Lord suffered at the third or the sixth hour, that a transcriber's error may have arisen from the likeness of Gamma and the Episemon, i.e. apparently Γ and Ϝ.
The source whence all modern writers have learned their use of the word episemon is Joseph Justus Scaliger's essay on the origin of the Ionic letters.[2] He there quotes as from Bede, de Indigitatione, a statement of an old grammarian, who, having mentioned that the Greeks denote numbers by letters, and for this purpose join to the letters of their alphabet three other characters, goes on as follows:—
Prima est ς quae dicitur Episimon et est nota numeri VI.; secunda est G quae vocatur kophe et valet in numero XC.; tertia est ϡ quae dicitur enneacosia quia valent DCCCC.
Here, as well as in the preceding passages, episemon is used with special reference to the character for six; but Scaliger turns into Greek the phrase "nota numeri VI." τὸ ἐπίσημον τοῦ ἑξ ἀριθμοῦ, and seems to have inferred that the marks for the numbers 90 and 900 had equal rights to the same title; and he also gives the name Episemon to each of the six Phoenician letters said not to have been received by the Ionians, saying, for instance, that the letter ἧτα was originally an episemon, and distinguishing between the episemon of the number 6 and the digamma or episemon of Vau. He does not name his authority for this way of speaking; nor do we know that the character which was by some called βαῦ, and by others τὸ ἐπίσημον, was ever called by any one before Scaliger by the combination ἐπίσημον βαῦ. However this may be, Scaliger has been followed by all who have written on the subject since his time.
The true account of these three characters seems to be that though the Phoenicians themselves did not use the letters of their alphabet for purposes of numeration, the Greeks, who derived their alphabet from them, did so in the 5th century BC; that their alphabet then still contained two of the Phoenician letters which in the next century were disused, viz., βαῦ in the sixth place, and κόππα, the Roman Q, coming after π; that these letters then took their natural place in the system of numeration, which was afterwards made complete by the addition, at the end of the letters of the alphabet, of another character to denote 900, which from its shape was at a considerably later period called σανπῖ.[3] The character for six had not come to be identified with the abbreviation for στ in the time of Marcus, as known through Hippolytus. In calculating the numerical value of χρειστός he counts the σ and τ separately; and it is to be noted that he calls the former s Sigma, and the latter San. It is possible that Marcus expressly identified his episemon with the digamma, for though in Irenaeus, the reading is undoubtedly διπλο γράμματα, the context gives probability to Dr. Hort's conjecture that Marcus wrote γάμματα. He says that this number added to the number of the twenty-four letters makes thirty. Now the double letters are already included in the twenty-four, but the Digamma stands outside the alphabet, and therefore its number might properly be added to that of the letters.
SixEdit
With regard to the properties of the number 6, Marcus and Clement were in part indebted to Philo of Alexandria, who explains (De Op. Mund. 3) that it is the first perfect number, i.e., according to Euclid's definition, one equal to the sum of the numbers 1, 2, 3 which divide it without remainder (Aug. de Civ. Dei, xi. 30), the second such number being 28, which is the sum of its divisors 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 (Orig. t. 28 in S. Joann.); that being 2 × 3 it arises from the marriage of a male and female, i.e., odd and even number; that there are six directions of motion, forward, backward, right, left, up, down; etc. Marcus observed that
The world was made in six days
In the new dispensation Jesus after six days went up to the Mount of Transfiguration
There, by the appearance of Moses and Elijah, the number of His company became six
He suffered at the sixth hour of the sixth day of the week
And thence concludes that this number has the power not only of production, but of regeneration. As seven is the number of the heavens, and eight is the supercelestial ogdoad, so six denotes the material creation (see also Heracleon); and, in particular, the material body through which the Saviour revealed Himself to men's senses, and conveyed to them that enlightenment of their ignorance in which redemption consisted. Clement, if not Marcus, finds the Saviour's higher nature represented by the episemon, which is not taken into account by one who looks merely at the order of the letters in the alphabet, but reveals itself in the system of numeration.
Irenaeus points out that the mysteries of Marcus all depend on the employment of the modern form of the Greek alphabet, and that they disappear when a Semitic alphabet is used. He shows also (ii. 24) that it is possible to say as fine things about the properties of the number 5 as about those of the numbers which are glorified by Marcus.
PracticesEdit
Main article: Valentinianism
The Marcosians had formulae and sacraments of redemption. If so great mysteries were contained in names, it naturally followed that to know the right name of each celestial power was a matter of vital importance; and such knowledge the teachers promised to bestow. Others held that these applications could not procure spiritual redemption—only by knowledge (gnosis) could such redemption be effected.
Baptism and Trinitarian Baptismal FormulaEdit
Eusebius of Caesarea writes that the Marcosians baptised people "Into the name of the unknown father of the universe, into truth, the mother of all things, into the one that descended upon Jesus."[4] This may show that the Trinitarian baptismal formula existed at least at that time, and probably earlier,[5] and that the Marcosians adopted it as their own.
Marcus taught that the baptism of the visible Jesus was but for the forgiveness of sins, but that the redemption of Christ, who in that baptism descended, was for perfection; the one was merely psychical, the other spiritual. Of the latter are interpreted the words in which Jesus spoke of another baptism (Luke 12:50; Matthew 20:22).
Some conferred this redemption by baptism with special invocations; others went so far as to reject Christian baptism and to substitute a mixture of oil and water which they poured over the head of the candidate. By confirmation the Gnostics intended not so much to give the Holy Ghost as to seal the candidates against the attacks of the Archons, by which the initiated would after death become incomprehensible and invisible, and leaving their bodies in this lower creation and their souls with the Demiurge, ascend in their spirits to the Pleroma. Probably the Egyptian religion contributed this element to Gnosticism. Some of these Marcosian formulae were in Hebrew, of which Irenaeus has preserved specimens much corrupted by copyists.
EucharistEdit
A knowledge of astrology was among Marcus's accomplishments, and apparently some chemical knowledge, with which he gained a reputation of magical skill. The eucharistic cup of mingled wine and water was seen under his invocation to change to a purple red; and his disciples were told that this was because the great Charis (Grace) had dropped some of her blood into the cup. Sometimes he would hand the cup to women, and bid them in his presence pronounce the eucharistic words:
May that Charis who is before all things, and who transcends all knowledge and speech, fill thine inner being, and multiply in thee her own knowledge, by sowing the grain of mustard seed in thee as in good soil.
—  I. 13, 2
Then he would pour from their consecrated cup into a much larger one held by himself, and the liquor, miraculously increased at this prayer, would be seen to rise up and fill the larger vessel.
ProphecyEdit
Marcus taught his female disciples to prophesy. Casting lots at their meetings, he would command her on whom the lot fell boldly to utter the words which were suggested to her mind, and such words were accepted by the hearers as prophetic utterances.
Marcus (Marcosian)
Colarbasians
Valentinus
Valentinianism
^ Hemenway, Priya. Divine Proportion: Phi In Art, Nature, and Science. Sterling Publishing Company Inc., 2005. ISBN 1-4027-3522-7
^ Scaliger, Joseph Justus. Anim. in Chron. Euseb. pp. 110–116.
^ Hankel, Geschichte der Mathematik, p. 34; Kirchhoff, Studien zur Geschichte des gr. Alphab.
^ Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History iv. 11.
^ St. Justin Martyr, 1st Apology lxi.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Salmon, George (1882). "Marcus (17)". In Smith, William; Wace, Henry (eds.). A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines. Volume III. London: John Murray. pp. 827–829.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Marcosians" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.
Counting with 2 numbers, more gnostic counting
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You are here: Home / Marketing News / Twitter Can Act As A Protector Against Tasteless Media
Twitter Can Act As A Protector Against Tasteless Media
July 25, 2013 By Sarah Jayne Brown Leave a Comment
Twitter is often met with mixed feelings by the public.
For some it is an obsessive pass time where they can connect to their favorite stars and tweet their musings about life and their day. To its critic, it is an example of the decline of western civilization. They scoff at people who discover breaking news through Tweet outbreaks instead of CNN and long for a time when newspapers were one of the most popular main forms of media and hash tag was not in the American lexicon.
But like it or not, Twitter has invaded vast parts of our culture. Not only does Twitter have at least 500 million users, but it has been integrated into American Politics. For the past two Presidential elections, CNN has allowed twitter followers to ask candidates political questions during presidential debates.
More importantly, This week a Twitter Campaign known as Black Twitter successfully killed two book deals.
Within the same week that George Zimmerman was acquitted for killing Trayvon Martin, not only Juror B37 announced that she would write a book about the trial, but Zimmerman himself would also be writing a book based on his so-called ordeal.
Sharlene Martin, a literary agent stated "My hope is that people will read Juror B37's book, written with her attorney husband, and understand the commitment it takes to serve and be sequestered on a jury in a highly publicized murder trial. The reader will also learn why the jurors had no option but to find Zimmerman not guilty…"
Bring in Black Twitter, a phenomenon coined to describe media obsessed African Americans. Now it is the leader in a political and cultural movement in America. This began when Genie Lauren, also known as @MoreandMoreAgain via twitter created a Change.org petition to stop Juror B37's authorial plans. This resulted in Lauren gathering 1,300 signatures, and tweets describing Black Twitters rage over the book deals.
One Twitter user referred to the book's capitalization of Trayvon Martin's trial "Blood Money".
This outbreak of angered twitter users led to Sharlene Martin directly messaging Lauren via Twitter stating that she would be dropping B37's book deal.
"I decided to rescind my offer of representation after watching Juror B37 on Anderson Cooper 360. I believe I made a grave error in judgement in wanting to represent this story. Shortly after I reached out to B37 and suggested we terminate our book representation agreement".
This is not the first time the internet has played a part in motivating people politically. During the Arab Spring Facebook was integral in mobilizing and helping a revolution blossom. In an age where technology is constantly affecting the historical landscape it will be interesting to see how the internet and other forms of media will affect the Trayvon Martin Case and the new racial dialogue that has been opened.
Filed Under: Marketing News Tagged With: Internet, marketing news, Social Media, Twitter


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We Need Robust Legislation to Tackle Child Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking
It would be naïve to suggest that we can completely eradicate child sexual exploitation. Like any other crime it will continue to be committed while there remain individuals intent on committing it. However what we can do is ensure that we put in place a legal framework that has the welfare of young victims at its heart. It is my hope that this inquiry will help to achieve this.
Sarah Champion
Labour MP for Rotherham
13/01/2014 12:13pm GMT | Updated March 15, 2014
Child sexual exploitation and internal trafficking devastates lives and shatters communities. These are the most pernicious of crimes. For so many years these atrocities have remained hidden, shrouded behind our misunderstanding of how such crimes are committed and the damaging control perpetrators exert over their victims.
These days, we have a far greater understanding of the nature of child sexual exploitation. Thanks to the work of organisations such as Barnardo's our knowledge of the nature and roots of this kind of abuse has increased exponentially.
However more needs to be done which is why, in partnership with Barnardo's, I am conducting a root and branch inquiry to shine a light on child sexual exploitation. We want to know if current legislation does enough to protect children and ensure their abusers face the full force of the law.
Last year we saw the awful impact of these terrible crimes laid bare in courtrooms across the country. Barnardo's works with more than a thousand victims every year and know the lasting psychological effect on young people can be profound. It is a sad truth that on occasion the process of seeking a prosecution for the crimes committed against them can be as traumatic to the child as the abuse itself.
At every stage of the justice system there is a need for change. New guidelines from the Crown Prosecution service and the Sentencing Council published last year rightly moved the emphasis from the victim to the perpetrator. However despite this progress there remains a great deal still to be done if we are to tackle these evil crimes.
Convictions rates for instances of child sexual exploitation and internal trafficking remain worrying low (in 2012 of 56 police investigations known to Barnardo's only 15 resulted in prosecutions and only 6 in convictions). The experiences of children who face their abusers in a court of law are still damaging.
As part of the inquiry we are hearing evidence from everyone involved in tackling child sexual exploitation and trafficking. Before Christmas we listened to the child victims of sexual exploitation. They told of the abuse they suffered, the trouble they had disclosing their experiences and how they were treated and supported by the authorities.
Now we are hearing what members of the legal profession have to say. Judges, barristers and solicitors work with existing legislation on a day to day basis. They play a vital role in not only bringing the perpetrators of these terrible crimes to justice but also protecting their victims from further harm.
It is essential that they have all the tools they need to effectively combat these offences. We want to know if the law could be changed to improve the way we deal with this crime and protect its victims.
It would be naïve to suggest that we can completely eradicate child sexual exploitation. Like any other crime it will continue to be committed while there remain individuals intent on committing it.
However what we can do is ensure that we put in place a legal framework that has the welfare of young victims at its heart. It is my hope that this inquiry will help to achieve this.
Barnardo'schild abusechild traffickingUK Labour Partyuk politics