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Re: The Beacon
Mary Barr -- I see that you are in the news and that you now list your office at the Beacon:
www.marybarr.com
Inmate advocates: No medical reason for birth at prison
BY BORYS KRAWCZENIUK
The Times Tribune -- STAFF WRITER
Advocates for prison inmates say they can?t imagine what might be in Shakira Staten?s medical records that would explain why she ended up giving birth in a Lackawanna County Prison cell.
?There?s nothing in the medical records that would explain that,? Nancy Goldstein, the director of communications for National Advocates for Pregnant Women. ?It?s not OK to give birth on the floor of a prison cell.?
Ms. Staten, who gave birth early July 10, contends her pleas to go to a hospital were ignored for four hours. County officials have defended the actions of prison staff and stopped short of saying something was done wrong, although County Commissioner Robert C. Cordaro said Friday he was ?appalled? that the birth happened in the cell.
County Commissioner A.J. Munchak, who also called the cell birth ?wrong,? has said Ms. Staten?s medical records hold the explanation for why it happened. County officials are withholding further comment until after a Prison Board internal review is complete. They are in the process of obtaining Ms. Staten?s medical records, after she agreed to their release on Wednesday.
?Why would they need that?? asked Catherine Wise, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Prison Society.
Mary Barr, a prison inmate advocate in Jersey City, N.J., who was twice pregnant while in prison, said the birth didn?t surprise her because prisons are mostly focused on security rather than medical care.
?They assume you?re faking it, or you?re crazy,? Ms. Barr said. ?They have the same assumptions the public has sometimes. Or they could be busy, or they could just not care.?
Mr. Cordaro disputed the notion that county officials don?t care.
?We?re extremely concerned. This is a child. This is a baby, this is a woman who?s pregnant, regardless of her circumstances,? he said.
?One of the things we wanted to make sure of when there was a prisoner beating, we said over and over at our meetings, ?This is somebody?s kid, this is somebody?s nephew, this is somebody?s friend. These are somebody?s parents.?
?They?re human beings, and we?ve never looked at it differently than that,? he said.
Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com
marybarr wrote:
Just joining and my 2 cents
Hi! I have read over all the posts and want to add my 2 cents. My hubby and I just bought a one bedroom at The Beacon and our move in date is June. For those that think the building is spooky---that's okay---some folk don't enjoy Victorian, Modern, Asian, or other styles, and that is their prerogative. We love art deco! Plus it does look like a building from a futuristic sci-fi movie and we love that too! We also live in a wonderful place now but it only has an outdoor pool and I want a year round pool. Not to mention the fully equipped and staffed gym, juice bar, three pool tables, massage rooms, three saunas (one for men, one for women and one community) card room, outdoor grilling space and rooftop dining, dog run, restaurant, dry cleaner, gourmet deli, cafe, shuttle service, valet parking, large and small movie theaters, fountains---and my apartment has a view of the Statue of Liberty! The counters on the island and in the kitchen are this incredible blue stone that really fits our taste and the bathrooms and closets are to die for! Plus I have a huge pantry and washer/dryer. AND a 30 year tax abatement! Our maintenance will only be around $800.00 including electricity, cable, high speed internet, parking, gas and water. Okay, enough about how excited I am about the building.
Some of you discuss the neighborhood as if you are afraid of either black or poor people. That saddens me. But luckily I am not afraid. People are people, in the projects or anywhere else, you get good and bad. But I do believe Montgomery Projects won't be there long. They will be torn down and folk relocated to townhouse-like low income housing. The neighborhood IS undergoing a revival with townhouses being built and renovations to the darling Victorian homes there. Will some people NOT buy in the town or really get to know the outside neighbors? Probably. But that happens everywhere. I live in Harmon Cove in Secaucus and, aside for some of the Outlet stores, we shop in NYC. And we go to Whole Foods, and even the movies in Edgewater, because they are managed better than the theaters here. The restaurants and theaters there in Jersey City looked good when we drove around---during the day---and nearby Hoboken has great restaurants and another dog run too! Is the neighborhood shabby in spots? Yes, but take a look at West New York, Guttenberg and Weehawken. Blvd. East has all these high rises and renovated houses, but inland they have mismatched, unkempt buildings, and shabby shopping areas. And tour through NYC and see the same. Go to ANY state and city---I was just in Boise, Idaho---same thing.
Maybe those comments would be better directed to what the heck is wrong with our country, and why there is such a gap between those that can afford to live well and those that can't. The only way to change that is by voting for change in how we spend our tax dollars. When Corrections Officers get paid more than teachers you know what is going to happen. When we spend $42,000 a year to place a drug addict in prison, where they receive nothing but a hard time, and expect them to come back out a changed person, you know what is going to happen. We perpetuate the problems we say we want to change. That is only the fault of the people living in the big mansion, tower, whatever, on the hill, if they don't get involved in social justice. And finally, BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD. My two cents, and come up and visit anytime! Mary
MrWolf
Re: Hidden office discovered in old medical center -- Ornate room may have been where \'Boss\' Hague
Congrats, Billc. I'm looking forward to meeting you and Mary in about a month when I close. Thanks again for the update.
billc
Re: Hidden office discovered in old medical center -- Ornate room may have been where 'Boss' Hague's
I moved in to the Beacon last Thursday but another couple moved in on Friday. WE are expecting at least 50 others in the next two weeks based on elevator reservations. It is still very much a construction site but everyone has been very helpful. The management company staff took care of my movers when I had to close on the property and move in at the same time because my closing was delayed a day due to a paper work delay. The management staff laid heavy paper on the wood floors to protect them and helped me rearrange the furniture when the movers were gone. The next day they helped hang art work. A free day of maid service comes with the apartment, which I haven't used yet. The view of the Statute of Liberty is better than I expected considering that I bought the least expensive one bedroom available and it's only on the 7th floor. The construction of my apartment is solid. Even the interior walls are stuffed with insulation and some kind of sound deading fiberboard. The fixtures are from Kohler and the appliances are stainless steel Elite series from GE. The counter tops are Italian blue veined slate. I'm pretty pleased with the way it all looks. The main lobby is not finished yet so you have to enter the building by a side door but they are working on the lobby every day and I can see the progress. The indoor pool is still 2 to 3 weeks from completion but everything is showing progress daily. The shuttle bus ride to Exchange place and back is quick and easy. I'm treated like royalty and the staff jumps at my slightest need. Everyone stops what they are doing to make way for the "owner". It's a little embarrassing at times. Sometimes when I ask a question they think its a criticism and start apologizing. I'm hoping this will subside when more people move in and we are not such a novelty to have around.
Hidden office discovered in old medical center -- Ornate room may have been where 'Boss' Hague's
Hidden office discovered in old medical center
Ornate room may have been where 'Boss' Hague did his deals
Christopher Zinsli
Reporter staff writer 07/22/2007
HAGUE?S OFFICE ? This office in the old Jersey City Medical Center is being turned into a poker room as part of a condominium project called The Beacon. Many believe it was once used by infamous Mayor Frank Hague. Photo by Christopher Zinsli.
A sledgehammer smashed through a sheetrock wall, revealing a hidden office in the old Jersey City Medical Center.
The now defunct hospital is being transformed into luxury condos, and many believe that an office unearthed there by developers in 2005 belonged to a legendary politician: former Mayor Frank Hague.
From 1917 to 1947, "Boss" Hague is said to have ruled Jersey City with an iron fist. While he was never convicted of any crimes, he used his power over the police and fire departments to strengthen his base and build his patronage system in Jersey City.
And the old Jersey City Medical Center complex at Montgomery and Baldwin avenues was originally intended to be a symbol of his power, as he dedicated nearly 25 years of his administration to its expansion.
Hague put the medical center at the heart of his public-works agenda, and if city residents could not afford to pay for their treatment there, they were not charged.
The building was closed in 2004 so it could be turned into a residential complex called The Beacon. A year later, construction crews began unearthing unused rooms and stairwells that had been blocked off.
With mahogany walls, a terrazzo floor, and an ornate chandelier, the hidden office clearly served an important purpose before it was partitioned away years ago, only to be rediscovered in late 2005.
Interestingly, historians have spoken of a hidden office in the medical center used by Hague. Since it was walled off sometime in the last 25 years, the office has become a source of rumor - as much fact as fiction.
Ulana Zakalak, the historic consultant overseeing construction of the Beacon condonminiums, said she inferred the recently discovered office's provenance from its design.
"[Hague] had particular tastes in furnishings. Every space he seemed to occupy was wood-paneled in a certain way," Zakalak said. "So as soon as I saw this office, I just knew this had to be it. It's a very elaborate office for a hospital. And we knew he had an office on the first floor. It has to be it."
Charles Markey, who worked at the medical center in the 1970s, said that photos he has seen of the discovered office match his memories of a room where he sometimes used to conduct job interviews. At that time, the office was used by the Personnel Department, but Markey said it was "a well-known fact" that the office had once been Hague's.
'Secret' office, 'secret' stairwell
As Jersey City's longest-serving mayor and an influential politician on the national level, Hague and his reign have become the stuff of local lore.
For years, tales have been told of an office maintained by Hague at the medical center, where clandestine meetings took place with visitors arriving through a "hidden" doorway leading to a "secret" stairwell.
Even reputable historical sources sometimes preface their descriptions of the office and stairway as if they're not sure whether it really existed, lending the room an aura of myth.
So it's natural that certain parts of the story seem to have been embellished over time. There is, indeed, a back door there, but it may have just seemed hidden because it blends in with the wood-paneled walls.
But other parts of the story seem to have been confirmed by discoveries made during the restoration.
Across the hall from the Hague office, demolition crews discovered a small, walled-off space that once contained a stairwell. To access it, they had to break through a solid brick wall.
It is not clear whether the hidden stairwell is the one spoken of in local legend, since many alterations were made to the medical center in the 60 years since Hague was mayor.
Zakalak said many aspects of the building were changed over the years.
"Rooms had been rearranged," she said, "corridors had been rearranged, staircases had been closed off. And as we started going through the buildings, we found interesting spaces. There are interesting spaces throughout the entire hospital complex."
A second room near Hague's old office is being converted by the developers into a private reading lounge.
Will become poker room
The developer of the Beacon is the New York-based company Metrovest Equities.
George Filopoulos, president of Metrovest, said he plans to turn the opulent office into a poker room for the exclusive use of residents of The Beacon. Filopoulos said he hopes the room will evoke thoughts of the Hague era, with images of political dealings negotiated in smoke-filled backrooms.
"You think of Frank Hague and you think of those days, and you say, 'Hey... Let's make a poker room!' "
Filopoulos said. "There'll be a bar and a private lavatory back there. We've got great high-backed leather chairs that we purchased, a big plasma TV. It's going to be a real club feel."
The first residents of The Beacon are now moving in, Filopoulos said.
A historic hospital
In 1936, halfway through Hague's expansion of the medical center, President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of a new building amid a cheering crowd that was reported to be larger than 200,000. Hague declared a city holiday for the event.
As grand as the medical center was - it was the third-largest hospital in the country at one point - it quickly became apparent that it was much too big for the city's needs.
It is said that during the Hague years, the medical center cost $3 million per year to operate, even though it brought in less than $1,500 in payments.
One by one, the complex's dozen buildings were closed, until in 2004 all operations were moved to a new facility on Grand Street.
Christopher Zinsli can be reached at jcmag@hudsonreporter.com.
Beacon: Ready for first move-ins
The conversion of the old Jersey City Medical Center into a luxury residential building is to enter another stage next week as the building opens its door to its first homeowners.
A spokesman for the developer of the Beacon - New York-based Metrovest - confirmed yesterday that the city issued a number of certificates of occupancy and a handful of people are slated to move into their new digs starting Monday.
It was unclear exactly how many people are expected to move into their units next week.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the old Jersey City Medical Center is one of the state's largest examples of Art Deco architecture.
Its conversion into the Beacon is one of the most highly anticipated projects in the city and market observers have hailed it as the measuring stick for sales outside the Downtown area.
When completed in 2010, the complex will feature 1,200 condominium units, a public theater, a gourmet market, parks, shops, a dog run, a library and business center, screening rooms, a spa and a museum devoted to the Jersey City Medical Center.
The Jersey City Medical Center was spearheaded by Mayor Frank Hague, who wanted to create a model for medical services to the poor.
JARRETT RENSHAW
It looks like the Beacon Complex will be getting a school:
From the New York Times: "Negotiations are under way with the 75-year-old Little Harbor Academy, a Roman Catholic-sponsored school, currently at a site on Marin Boulevard, that offers prekindergarten through eighth grade to children of any creed, said George Filopoulos, president of the Manhattan-based Metrovest Equities."
Having a school on site will encourage families to consider the Beacon as an option to leaving town and moving to boring suburbia.
Beacon Penthouse goes for $2.3 mil; boom continues in JC, Hoboken
By ANTOINETTE MARTIN, The NYTimes
THERE is a wealth of high-end, high-rise condominium units coming on the market along the Jersey ?Gold Coast? ? and purchase prices are soaring to new heights.
Last week, a two-story penthouse at the Beacon, the former Jersey City Medical Center complex that is being converted to condominiums, set a record for a high-rise apartment in Jersey City when a purchase contract was signed for $2.3 million.
?This is indeed a leap,? said Jacqueline Urgo, executive vice president of the Marketing Directors, which is handling sales. She said that her agency had overseen sales at Liberty Terrace, the last high-rise to break price barriers in Jersey City, and that the highest purchase price there had been $1.45 million.
Most Liberty Terrace units were sold by September, though, said Ms. Urgo ? and she sees the market for expensive condos with riverfront views as having picked up significantly since then.
At the 55-story Trump Plaza, now under construction in Jersey City, more than 200 contracts for condos have been signed since sales started in October. Asking prices for apartments there range from $400,000 to around $2.5 million for the penthouse, which has not yet been sold.
The Beacon, a $350 million conversion of eight Art Deco structures set on a hill in Jersey City?s downtown, has until now been marketed as a lower-cost alternative to waterfront high-rises. Studio units on low floors of the first two Beacon buildings, which are to open this spring, sold for $325,000.
A total of 265 units, out of 315 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom condos in the first two buildings, have sold, according to the developer, Metrovest Equities, based in Manhattan. Ultimately, Metrovest plans to create 1,200 condos and rental units at the Beacon complex.
The penthouse that sold is now taking shape on the 20th and 21st floors of the Beacon?s Capitol building. It will offer three bedrooms, three full and two half baths, a library, a den, a breakfast room and a private interior elevator, with a total of 3,195 square feet of interior space. In addition, the penthouse has three terraces covering 2,100 square feet, facing north, southeast and west, with views of the full Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty.
?This is some apartment,? said George Filopoulos, Metrovest?s president. ?We?ve tried to take advantage of all the unique architectural features these buildings offer, and the quirks in this one make for a magnificent home.?
More than 100 different designs have been developed for units at the Capitol and the Rialto, the other Beacon building now under construction. The Rialto penthouse unit is being marketed, as are the two condos below the penthouse at the Capitol.
Just to the north, in Hoboken, where prices have generally tracked higher than in Jersey City, a record is certain to be set whenever contracts are signed for two penthouse condos atop the W Hotel, now being built beside the Hudson River.
The asking price for those units ? which come with full W Hotel service ? is $4.4 million, according to the developer, Michael Barry of the Hoboken-based Applied Development Company. He said that there had been a number of ?serious lookers? and that he expected both to sell well before completion of the hotel building in the summer of 2008.
Prices for the W condos are roughly $1,000 per square foot ? around $300 per square foot more than the typical new-construction high-rise unit gets in Hoboken ? according to the Marketing Directors, which is handling W?s sales as well.
But, Ms. Urgo noted, the W will provide exceptional service and ambience for Hoboken, with a sleek design by the Manhattan architecture firm of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, as well as concierge service, a restaurant and shopping area, the W Bliss spa, an upstairs bar and a stunning lobby with a street-level bar.
There will be nine floors of condos with two, three or four bedrooms atop the hotel ? a total of 38 units ? with asking prices starting at $1.5 million. Mr. Barry said 32 were already under contract.
The four-bedroom penthouses each provide 4,250 square feet of space, with unobstructed wraparound views of New York City from their 25th floor perch. Each has floor-to-ceiling windows, a den and a fitness room, the developer said.
Three three-bedroom units on the floor below have been sold for $2.6 million, which may be a record for high-rise units in Hoboken, according to the Marketing Directors.
Another candidate to challenge Hoboken?s record might be Maxwell Place, where the first of two riverfront buildings recently opened to its first occupants, but where closing prices have not yet been reported. A second building is being marketed, although construction has not started. Several large two-bedroom units on upper floors of the second building have asking prices in the $2 million range.
The W and Maxwell Place have been attracting buyers from Manhattan and New Jersey in roughly equal numbers, according to Applied and the Pinnacle Companies, the builder of Maxwell Place.
Another huge development in Jersey City, the Liberty Harbor project, which covers 28 city blocks, will have 667 units coming on the market this year and next, with an eventual 7,000 to 10,000 units planned at a site adjacent to the Paulus Hook neighborhood. Right now, the project has some four- and five-bedroom town homes on the market, at prices of $1.5 million to $1.66 million.
At Port Liberte in Jersey City, several lavish town homes at the water?s edge are up for resale at prices in excess of $2 million, including one for $2.99 million. And in Hoboken, two grand three-story brownstones are listed at $2.75 million and $3 million.
?The high-rise market is different, though,? Mr. Filopoulos noted. ?We?re really excited about setting a record with the Beacon that signifies a real change in the high-rise picture in Jersey City.?
As with the W, he said, the amenities are crucial to the value of the condos.
The Rialto and Capitol buildings are joined by a two-story lobby with a 24-hour doorman and concierge. Residents will also be provided valet parking, shuttle service to PATH trains and ferry stations, and access to a 25,000-square-foot ?lifestyle and fitness? center with a full-time staff. Club Aqua, as the center is called, is to feature an indoor pool, gym, lounge with hot tubs, his and hers saunas and steam rooms, a ?social sauna,? treatment rooms, a yoga studio, a juice bar, a screening room and a children?s playroom.
Beacon residents will also have access to a restored Art Deco theater that will be available for events, a catering kitchen and a rooftop sundeck for grilling, dining and lounging, Mr. Filopoulos said. ?Additional spaces are being brought back to mint condition to be used as poker rooms, a reading gallery and a billiards hall,? he added.
A ?town center? now under construction will have a rooftop bar-restaurant, shops, a market, a prekindergarten and day-care facility, a movie theater and an art gallery.
6 more abatements for Beacon
By KEN THORBOURNE
JERSEY JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
"The Beacon" - the massive rehab project to transform the old Jersey City Medical Center into a swanky condo complex - received six 30-year tax abatements from the City Council last week, even though questions were raised about the number of local residents and minorities who have been hired to work on the project.
Not only did the Beacon get six more abatements - bringing the total to nine - but they're also better than the city's standard deal. Most developers are required to pay the city 16 percent of gross annual revenues, but these abatements require 12 percent. The first three abatements were an even better deal, at 10 percent.
But the City Council meeting, held Wednesday night, wasn't a walk through the park for the developer, Manhattan-based Metrovest Equities.
Led by Ward F representative Viola Richardson, the council raised questions about the company's compliance with the city's "project employment and contracting agreement."
The pact requires Metrovest to make a "good faith effort" to hire a workforce that's 51 percent from Jersey City. Within that group, 51 percent are supposed be minorities and 6.9 percent women, officials said.
According to city records, Metrovest had 298 construction workers on the job in October, of which 52, or 18 percent, were Jersey City residents; 49 were minorities, and none of them were women.
Given the 298 total, the numbers of local residents working on the job should have been much higher, said Moses Ballon, project manager for the city. The October goals called for 150 local residents, 77 of them minorities, and 11 of them women, he noted.
Angered by the figures, Richardson - who despite the statistics ultimately joined her colleagues in unanimously approving the abatements - scolded Metrovest's attorney, Eugene T. Paolino.
"Last year I held a job fair and you took 300 resumes," Richardson said. "This is unacceptable."
The following day, George Filopoulos, president of Metrovest Equities, disputed Ballon's numbers. Plus, Filopoulos said, the numbers change week to week, month to month. For example in April, he said, 73 out of 146 workers on the job were minorities from Jersey City.
The correct numbers for October were a total of 346 workers, of which 128, or 37 percent, were Jersey City minorities, he said.
The biggest obstacle to making good on the employment goals is the fact his job is union, Filopoulos said. His general contractor, Turner Construction, automatically rejects anyone without a union card, he said.
To compensate, Filopoulos said, he's set up an affiliate company, whose entire 11-person workforce are minorities who live in Jersey City. He's also contracted with the Jersey City Housing Authority to do recruitment, he said.
"So it is not a function of not trying," said Paolino. "George has acted in a more pro-active manner than anyone else."
I bought at the Beacon and I'm not worried about the people who live in Montgomery Gardens, I grew up in a public housing project in Connecticut called Washington Village. We were poor, but like most folks around us, our parents were law abiding and hard working - when they could find work. The people in Montgomery Gardens are the same.
There was a public housing study done in the mid to late 90's in Jersey City that found that 50% of the police calls were produced by less than 17% of the units, so even when there is a problem there, it's just a few problematic people, not the majority. It's also true that a lot of the problems in public housing are caused by the outside elements that public housing often attracts, and the lack of anything constructive for people under 18 to do there. The city should address that. What we don't need is a greater police presence. If the Beacon has a police mini station it won't reduce crime significantly, it'll just mean the paperwork gets done faster.
The thing I don't like about living near Montgomery Gardens is that the place is unattractive, hasn't aged well, and is an outmoded form of public housing that is difficult to police and maintain. When you add to that the projected cuts of 60 staff to the Jersey City Public Housing Authority expected in 2007, its not a good solution to the need for low income housing in Jersey City either.
Project Hope IV, which is a federal program to replace outmoded high rises with lower density buildings and townhouses that blend better with a community and have a relationship with the street, is a much better solution to housing for the poor. Jersey City has two Project Hope IV sites and hopes to expand them in the next 5 years.
Montgomery Gardens in not in the current 5 year plan for Jersey City Public Housing, but the plan is amended from time to time. With Democratic Control of Congress about to exert itself, there may be more money to expand Project Hope IV sites in Jersey City and across the country.
Wanting something better than Montgomery Gardens does not have to be an expression of racism or NIMBY, it could be a reflection of how we, as a society, care for the least powerful. I'm constantly amazed at how cynical some of the posters are on this site.
The people who are buying at the Beacon, at least the ones I've talked to, are decent people buying a home, not speculators, who are looking to get as much for their dollars as they can. They bought at the Beacon knowing what was around the complex, no one at the sales office told them anything was going to be demolished, and they bought anyway, why not wish them well?
Who is more a part of the problems in a city, those who put money into an area and hope it improves, or those who say I would never buy there because its overpriced, and the area is bad, and the developers are dishonest, and so on? What would the area you live in look like today if others had felt that way about the rest of Jersey City over the last 20 years?
Roaring20s
From Moved to Dallas TX
ThorsHammer wrote:
My hope is that the Beacon serves as sort of a fortress to keep all the mugs, thugs and pugs to the south of Montgomery as the folk north of the towers can live in peace and splendor.
Heyyyy...I'm one of those mugs, thugs and pugs!!
Posted on: 2005/11/9 1:05
ThorsHammer
From Journal Square
bixlo wrote:
The place gives me the creeps. I think they should change the name to "The Bellevue", because you'd have to be insane to want to be committed there.
I actually think they're damn cool buildings, almost like they materialized out of some dark comic book. Any minute now I expect Batman to come crawling down the side. That being said, I sure as hell wouldn't pay what they are asking to live in that area. My hope is that the Beacon serves as sort of a fortress to keep all the mugs, thugs and pugs to the south of Montgomery as the folk north of the towers can live in peace and splendor.
...it's quite a hike through some rough blocks at that.
Well...remember what downtown looked like before Newport came along? It wasn't exactly the land of wine and roses either. The area around the Beacon will change for the better and prices will go up in the Beacon once the changes start happening. I for one, welcome the Beacon and it's residents.
bixlo
From Van Vorst
The place gives me the creeps. I think they should change the name to "The Bellevue", because you'd have to be insane to want to be committed there. And you would, literally, be committed to your premises because there's nothing around. I don't care how close you argue downtown is to the place, it's NOT, it's quite a hike through some rough blocks at that.
jbinjc
I bought a unit in the Beacon! Yes the area is a little rough, but so was the waterfront 10 years ago. The building and the amenities are going to be incredible. The price per square foot is less than half of what I would pay on the waterfront in Paulus Hook, and a 1/3 of what I would pay in Manhattan. Kick in the 30 year tax abatement and I can finally afford a decent place to live. There are many beautiful details in and outside those buildings, anyone should just take a trip into the sales office and see the marble and craftsman ship in the lobby... they don't make buildings like the Beacon anymore. If you think that 1200 units in the beacon can come online and do nothing for the area where it is located, than maybe you should not consider the Beacon. However I disagree. Get it now before it is too late.
Annod
From Exchange Place
The New York Times has an article on the Beacon:
Old Hospital Yields Quirky Apartments
By ANTOINETTE MARTIN
THE first apartments resulting from the transformation of the historic Art Deco buildings that served for seven decades as this city's medical center are about to go on the market.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/30/realestate/30njzo.html
Since so many people died there, do I need the Ghostbusters to excorcise the place if I buy one? The buildings do look scary to me.
AlanSommerman
A shuttle to Exchange Place serves 3 user groups - people who work at Exchange Place, people who work in lower Manhattan and people who work near a light rail station. I suspect that people who work at Exchange Place might find the Beacon an interesting proposition. Working and living in NJ might beat working here and living in NY from a tax perspective. I'd be curious to see how NYC's lower real estate taxes offset NJ's lower income taxes. Anyone have any data? Has our abatement largesse made NJ a really good deal for people moving here from NYC?
Yes,we have no bananas.
(Silver & Cohn, 1923)
1djcview
From McGinley Square
cyclotronic wrote:
If you're saying what I think you're saying (the Beacon is closer to Exchange Place than it is to JSQ) than you're wrong.
What I am saying is that the distance between the Beacon and Exchange Place is less than the distance between JSQ and Exchange Place.
Plug the directions into a system like maps.yahoo.com. The Beacon is the Old Jersey City Medical Center, which had a main address of 50 Baldwin. JSQ is basically 1 Path Plaza. That comes out to 1 mile, and it's exaggerated, since they are driving directions, while you can walk the wrong way down a one-way street. I'd guess it's closer to 8/10ths of a mile.
On the other hand, 50 Baldwin to 1 Exchange Place comes out to 1.8 miles, slightly exaggerated because a car has to go around 1 block at the end. Regardless, it's still twice as far to walk to Exchange Place.
I figure the shuttle buses from the Beacon are chosing the route to Exchange Place for 3 reasons:
- shorter PATH ride
- nicer surroundings at that station
- easy, straight drive
1djcview wrote:
if you're walking to Exchange Place, the Beacon is CLOSER than JSQ.
Roaring20s wrote:
St. Peter's is working in a collaborative effort called Bergen Communities United (BCU for short). They're working with several neighbourhood groups (WB/LPNC, APNA, ESBA, etc.) MCDC, McGinley Square Partnership, Fairmont Housing and others to come up with a viable community plan for this section of the city.
Hey, neighbor. Any idea how I can contact these entities?
Yes...is there a specific one that you want to contact or will anyone do??? PM me and I'll get back to you (after 4pm as I'm on the road most of today).
jcarlo33y wrote:
I hear St. Peter's Univ is looking to help with fixing up the areas around McGinley. Especially the Armory, McGinley Square (adding a small island park), and Bergen Ave.
jcarlo33y
I went to a showing and the apartments are amazing. I'm wondering if I should buy there, but then the walk to PATH is rather long compared to a 2-minute schelp that I now have.
Henry said that the restaurant and misc. stores will be open to the public. Plus I would have thought anyone purchasing a store would have in their contract of sale that The Beacon must remain open to the general public.
I can't imagine a restaurant, bank, grocey store been profitable with only 120 units as customers, (growing to 1200 in 5-years). However, I might be wrong.
Those of us who have moved by necessity to McGinley Square, which is more convenient to downtown and lower Manhattan than most of the Heights, will be happy to engage in commerce with Beacon residents. I'll be happy to buy in their stores and sell them my goods and services.
I was on the Beacon website, they will have their own restaurant, grocery store, screening room and other amenities. If these are actually built they will be a gated isolated community. They probably will get in their cars and go to Shoprite, Target, Home Depot and Whole Foods in Edgewater.
harsimus wrote:
I think you've succumbed to wishful thinking. Change is coming to that area but it will only affect the Med Center campus. The Beacon will be, probably for decades, an upper-middle class enclave surrounded by projects. They will be as much a part of the JC community as those who live in Port Liberte. They will drive and not walk. They will take shuttles to and from the PATH. And they most definitely will not mingle with the surrounding neighborhood. They will have their own retail amenities. I wonder how long it will be before it becomes a gated community?
The idea of "buying out" people who live in rent-subsidized government housing sounds like a rumor that would be started at the Metrovest marketing department. Don't believe it for a second.
Don't get me wrong. I think its a good project and it saves buildings that are worthy of being saved. I just don't believe that The Beacon will be a catalyst to bring change to that neighborhood.
I agree that the Beacon has the potential for becoming another Port Liberte however, there are changes happening in the surrounding neighbourhoods that will (hopefully) attract the new residents to Monticello Avenue. We're already working on attracting the types of businesses that will cater to the residents of the Beacon in our Main Street efforts. The Beacon certainly is an enticement for those upscale shops to look again at Monticello Avenue (and hopefully McGinley Square) as the Beacon becomes populated with more affluent people.
Regarding the rumour on the buyout of the projects...I don't know if I believe it but Metrovest has put a decent amount of money into this and I'm sure that Filopoulous is smart enough to know that the Montomery Gardens Projects will be a hindrance to selling the condos so I won't rule out the rumour just yet.
harsimus
From Wayne Street
Change is coming to this area...I know that it's difficult for some of you to believe that anywhere west of the turnpike would be an alternative to the waterfront but it's true. I heard a rumour that Metrovest was trying to buy the people out of the projects and relocate them somewhere else...don't know if it's true but it's what I heard.
I think (and someone correct me if I'm wrong on this) that the Beacon will be providing shuttle service from there to Exchange Place. Don't know if it will be all hours or if it's just for rush hour.
I actually can believe that 70 people would have put down money to live here...it's got incredible views of Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, the Watchung Mountains, etc. For those that want a view that isn't blocked by neighbouring towers (a la Newport), this would be ideal as it sits on top of the Palisades.
glx wrote:
I think it's perfectly fair to have a discussion about the area around it. I find it odd that 70 people had no problem with paying over half a million dollars in "one week" to live next to the projects.
It's barely (20 minutes) within walking distance to the PATH and it's certainly not an area that I'd want to walk around at night (and I'm a big dude).
I'd like to buy around JC, but can't really justify taking a gamble of an area around projects that don't look like they're closing any time soon is going to magically reform itself. Even if you get rid of the multi-story projects there's still single-unit projects 2 blocks away.


The Navman Wireless MDT-860 Mobile Data Terminal enables the rapid development of a high quality customized product for solution providers. The MDT-860 provides a field proven, cost effective platform on which a vast array of products can be built, including: telemetry devices, modems, RFID readers, barcode scanners, swipe card readers, PLC's, printers, etc.
The MDT-860 is a robust solution for sending, receiving and storing messages. The enclosure is designed to survive thermal extremes and vibration. A built-in power supply is provided that is capable of operating in a wide variety of vehicles.
The MDT-860 enables flexible programming functionality. The programming capability extends to the LCD display, allowing you to create simple menus for pre-defined messages, and variable backlighting. A variable-volume annunciator can be programmed to alert operators to incoming messages.
The MDT-860 is up to the task of handling communication within a global economy. With a built-in multi-lingual font library, the MDT-860 enables communication via text messaging in countries around the world.
The MDT-860 Software Development Kit (SDK) offers system integrators a flexible environment for custom application development to meet specific mobile data requirements. The MDT contains robust Flash memory that is large enough to handle complex programming tasks.
Existing MDT-850 applications using the BDF font system can be easily modified with a supplied tool to make better use of the higher resolution screen and numeric keypad. All other functions remain unchanged.
The SDK comes with a conversion utility to allow applications requiring images to be updated to the new C-based format. A range of graphical operations are available, as well as support for bitmap fonts.


text:
Home News Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust Names CFO and Treasurer
Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust Names CFO and Treasurer
The board of Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust Inc. has appointed Matt Lopez to serve as chief financial officer and treasurer of the company.
The board of Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust Inc., a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust sponsored by SmartStop Asset Management (SAM), has appointed Matt Lopez to serve as chief financial officer and treasurer of the company. Lopez replaces Michael Crear, who submitted his resignation last month.
Lopez currently serves as CFO and treasurer of affiliated non-traded REITs, Strategic Storage Trust IV and Strategic Storage Growth Trust II, positions he has held since January 2017 and July 2019, respectively. He previously held a similar capacity at SmartStop Self Storage REIT.
Lopez also served as controller of SAM, where he was assigned to the accounting, financial management, and SEC and regulatory reporting of certain sponsored programs. Lopez joined SmartStop Self Storage as a controller in November 2014 and served in the position until its merger with Extra Space Storage in October 2015. He held various positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, including audit senior manager from 2008 to 2014.
Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust invests in Class A student housing and senior housing communities and owns two student housing properties and four senior housing properties. The REIT raised approximately $93 million from its private offering which ended in March 2018, and its public offering was declared effective in May 2018. The company raised $17.4 million in investor equity in its primary public offering.
In April, Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust suspended its primary public offering and share redemption program, as well as distributions to shareholders, citing the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its potential financial impact on the company.
SmartStop
SmartStop Asset Management
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
import pipeTesting.TestRunner;

import java.io.File;

/**
 * Created by Nick on 2/20/2015.
 */
public class Main {

    private static final String usage =
            "Usage: verify-pipe.jar <manifest file> <pipeline dir> <baseline dir> <test-file>";

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        if (args.length != 4) {
            System.err.println(usage);
            System.exit(-1);
        }

        File manifestFile = FileFromArgOrExit(args[0], "artifact manifest file");
        File pipelineDir  = FileFromArgOrExit(args[1], "pipeline directory");
        File baselineDir  = FileFromArgOrExit(args[2], "baseline directory");
        File testsFile    = FileFromArgOrExit(args[3], "tests file");

        TestRunner testRunner = TestRunner.FromTestFile(testsFile, manifestFile, pipelineDir, baselineDir, System.out);

        boolean passed = testRunner.RunTests();

        if (passed)
            System.exit(0);
        else
            System.exit(1);
    }

    private static File FileFromArgOrExit(String arg, String prettyName) {
        File file = new File(arg);
        if (! file.exists()) {
            System.err.println(String.format("Could not find %s at %s!", prettyName, arg));
            System.exit(-2);
        }
        return file;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Home — Reality Check — Where Does Vinland Saga Take Place? What Is It Based On?
Where Does Vinland Saga Take Place? What Is It Based On?
Smith Wilson
Found in: Netflix, Vinland Saga
Netflix's Vinland Saga takes place in 1013 AD in England, where the Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard has been largely conquered. The plot is based on historical accounts from the time period, including The Flateyjarbók, The Saga of the Greenlanders, and The Saga of Erik the Red.
Vinland Saga, an action-adventure anime based on Makoto Yukimura's historical Japanese manga series of the same name, is a story of vengeance, hatred, war, and self-discovery. Thorfinn is a young inhabitant of a harsh and frozen Icelandic village where war has become commonplace and death looms over people's heads on a daily basis.
It's no surprise that stories about finding the legendary land of Vinland, which is said to be warm, fertile, and peaceful, were popular when Thornfinn was growing up. Unfortunately, as the conflict between the Danes and the English escalated, the influence of Viking mercenaries grew.
The violent and unforgiving conditions contributed to Thorfinn's father's death. This marked the start of Thorfinn's journey to avenge his death while also making peace with himself. Vinland Saga, which debuted on July 8, 2019, is set to return with its second installment on Netflix. As a result, many people have been curious to know where the series takes place. And if you are wondering the same, here is everything you need to know!
Previously, we touched on Halfdan.
Vinland Saga Takes Place in 1013 Ad in England: The Series Is Based on the Time Period When the Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard Conquered England!
Netflix's Vinland Saga takes place in 1013 AD in England, which has been largely conquered by the Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard. As King Sweyn nears the end of his life, his sons, Prince Harald and Prince Canute, argue over his succession. The plot is based on historical accounts from the time period, including The Flateyjarbók, The Saga of the Greenlanders, and The Saga of Erik the Red.
In 1013 AD, Thorfinn works for Askeladd with the intention of challenging him to a duel and killing him in retaliation for his father's death in 1002 AD when they were attacked by him on their way to England. Askeladd's company served as mercenaries under Danish King Sweyn in the Danish invasion of London by the British in 1013 AD, and Thorkell the Tall, Thorfinn's fight-loving uncle who served with Thors in the Jomsvikings.
Askeladd alters his strategy in order to protect his mother's homeland of Wales from invasion as a descendant of Artorius. While Askeladd is successful in making Canute assertive, he learns that Sweyn intended for his son to die so that his oldest son Harald could succeed him and prevent a Danes schism.
Askeladd is eventually forced to make a sacrifice by killing Sweyn during an audience when the king announces his plan to invade Wales, feigning insanity as Canute kills him so that the prince can take over Dane-occupied England without question. However, Thorfinn scars Canute in an attempt on the prince's life and is sentenced to life in enslavement by an empathic Canute.
Thorfinn is working on a farm owned by Ketil, a wealthy farmer who treats slaves well, a year after Askeladd's death. Later on, he befriends another slave named Einar. Canute launches his campaign with the seizure of Ketil's farm, duping Ketil's sons, Thorgil and Olmar, into justifying the seizure by claiming that Ketil's men were easily defeated by Canute's Jomsvikings.
Thorfinn confronts Canute in an attempt to persuade him to spare the farmers. Canute relinquishes his claim to the farm after witnessing Thorfinn's transformation into a pacifist. Thorfinn and Einar are now free, and they say their goodbyes to Sverker and Snake before sailing back to Iceland with Leif, Thorfinn's father's old friend.
Thorfinn explains his intention to settle in Vinland and build a new life of peace for his mother and sister. Thorfinn, Leif, Einar, and Leif's adopted son, Thorfinn Bug-Eyes, plan to travel to Greece and sell narwhal horns to raise funds for their trip to Vinland. Thorfinn's crew is later joined by others, and after attempting to fight them, they are captured by some Jomsvikings and end up in Thorkell's service.
Thorfinn resumes his journey with his companions. Thorfinn resumes his journey with his companions. Thorfinn leads the assassins around a series of islands, while the rest of the crew flees to Odense. Two of them are spies, and they take Thorfinn and Hild to meet Captain Vagn, the leader of a rebel camp of Jomsvikings seeking to usurp power from Floki before it passes to Floki's grandson Baldr.
Thorfinn is appointed temporary leader of the Jomsvikings and, with the assistance of Thorkell, carries out Canute's orders to disband the Jomsvikings and spare Floki and Baldr from execution. Floki and Baldr are banished. Gudrid, admitting her feelings for Thorfinn, talks Thorkell out of a promised duel, and they are allowed to leave and continue their journey to Greece. Sigurd returns home without Gudrid but realizes he has no romantic feelings for her and releases her.
Thorfinn's crew returns to Iceland two years later with the proceeds from the sale of the narwhal horns. Thorfinn and Gudrid marry and have a son named Karli. Thorfinn begins to assemble a crew to colonize Vinland with the resources promised by Halfdan. Thorfinn strives for peace by establishing a land free of weapons, but his ideals are frequently challenged by his subordinates.
Canute appears in the lands, but Thorfinn opposes any assault on the innocent. When the crew arrives in Vinland, they begin establishing farms to live with the natives who are terrified of him. When the natives confront Thorfinn, despite their differences, Thorfinn manages to make peace with them. Thorfinn is expecting a second son four years later, but he still struggles to connect with the natives.
Additionally, Vinland Saga is now streaming on Netflix.
Before leaving, find out the release date of the dubbed version.
Take a look at Blurred Reality for more engrossing topics of your favorite shows.
Is Steve Hyde Mentioned in That '90s Show? What Happened to Danny Masterson's Character? Read More
Kim Chun Ri From Physical 100 on Netflix: Find Her on Instagram!
Choo Sung hoon aka Yoshihiro Akiyama From Physical 100: Age, Wife & Nationality of the Korean MMA Fighter!


As new influenza virus strains emerge, finding new mechanisms to control infection is imperative. In this study, we found that we could control influenza infection of mammalian cells by altering the level of glucose given to cells. Higher glucose concentrations induced a dose-specific increase in influenza infection. Linking influenza virus infection with glycolysis, we found that viral replication was significantly reduced after cells were treated with glycolytic inhibitors. Addition of extracellular ATP after glycolytic inhibition restored influenza infection. We also determined that higher levels of glucose promoted the assembly of the vacuolar-type ATPase within cells, and increased vacuolar-type ATPase proton-transport activity. The increase of viral infection via high glucose levels could be reversed by inhibition of the proton pump, linking glucose metabolism, vacuolar-type ATPase activity, and influenza viral infection. Taken together, we propose that altering glucose metabolism may be a potential new approach to inhibit influenza viral infection.
Reducing glucose metabolism dials down influenza viral infection in laboratory cell cultures, providing an entirely new approach for combating seasonal flu, according to research that will be presented on Sunday, Dec. 15, at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) annual meeting in New Orleans.
While annual flu shots are based on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC)'s predictions of the viruses that will be in widest circulation each flu season, the new approach targets one metabolic requirement of all influenza viruses: glucose.
Reducing viruses' glucose supply weakens the microbes' ability to infect host cells, said Amy Adamson, Ph.D., and Hinissan Pascaline Kohio of the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
Yet to infect cells, the influenza virus is dependent upon the actions of the cell's own proteins, and so another strategy for slowing viral infection would be to target essential viral needs, for example, their dependence on cellular glucose. Dr. Adamson and Kohio showed that influenza A infection can be controlled in laboratory cultures of mammalian cells by altering glucose metabolism.
When the influenza virus initially infects a cell, and the virus is confined in an endocytic vesicle, the viral proteins HA and M2 use the acidic environment inside the vesicle to fuse the viral lipid envelope with that of the vesicle, and then release the viral genome into the cytosol. The acidic pH that mediates these important viral process is established and maintained by the cell's vacuolar-type H+ ATPase (V-ATPase) proton pump. The researchers found that this dependence could be used to manipulate the infection's success.
Dr. Adamson and Kohio boosted glucose concentrations in the laboratory cell cultures, and influenza infection rate concomitantly increased. Treating the viral cells with a chemical that inhibits glucose metabolism significantly decreased viral replication in the lab cultures. The researchers also demonstrated that the infection could be restored to high levels simply by adding ATP, the major source of energy for cellular reactions, bypassing the need for glucose.
Looking closer, they discovered that higher levels of glucose promoted the assembly of the V-ATPase proton pump that drives the release of the influenza A genome into the cytoplasm, the internal watery environment of the cell.
When Dr. Adamson and Kohio added the glucose inhibitor to the cell cultures, the assembly of the molecular pump was suppressed. Viral infection, they concluded, was closely tied to the assembly of the V-ATPase pump, and this dependence could be used to manipulate infection success.
Specifically, they were able to suppress viral infection of cells by dismantling the V-ATPase through the lowering of glucose levels. In addition, they inhibited infection by treating cells with chemical inhibitors of glycolysis, the initial pathway of glucose catabolism. Conversely, influenza viral infection of cells could be increased by giving cells more glucose than normal, the researchers report in the journal Virology.
The ease with which the researchers could dial viral infection down by controlling glucose levels and thus V-ATPase activity suggested a new strategy for throttling influenza viral infection.
"Taken together, we propose that altering glucose metabolism may be a potential new approach to inhibit influenza viral infection," said Dr. Adamson and Kohio.


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The Front End Web Developer is responsible for producing high quality, front end web code with an emphasis on efficiency, ease of maintenance and compatibility.This position works with the design and implementation team to streamline the design implementations process for optimal, high quality, end-user engagement and utility.


About: All ceremony and no pomp. Following catholic mass on February 3rd, two candles are held up to the throats of worshippers – and their throats are blessed. CalendarCustoms described the St Etheldreda's service in Holborn as the most celebrated in London, so that's where I went.
About: Another church service, but this one was certainly livelier… The Lord Mayor of the City of London and LOADS of school children are present, all to celebrate the founder of the Sir John Cass foundation and its associated schools. All attendees wear red feathers – a symbol for Cass' blood stained quill. He signed his will (and the money to fund the schools) as he was dying, causing much controversy over its authenticity.


text:
The GOP Has a Mad Max Problem
Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz are hurtling toward a chaotic crash as their three-lane road narrows to one.
For the politerati, the 2016 presidential campaign's No. 1 metaphor—and it has already become a cliché—is the highway lane. Pundits, political operatives, and other observers (perhaps including your aunt) have droned on about which GOP candidate inhabits which lane. There's been talk of a tea party lane, an establishment lane, a social conservative lane, a populist lane, and so on. Now that the first three contests of the season have occurred, it's becoming clear that there are, at most, three lanes, and, in what might be bad news for Republicans, those lanes might not merge anytime soon. In fact, there may be concrete barriers between each of them, and that increases the odds of a big, chaotic crash at the point where these lanes must converge.
Here's the quick and easy breakdown. There is a social conservative lane, a road for the candidate fancied by the evangelical voters, the part of the GOP base that used to be called the religious right. Sen. Ted Cruz has the wheel here. Ben Carson once had a shot at this crowd and still draws some support from these quarters. But he's faded from serious contention, and Cruz, who campaigns as a godly and courageous conservative, has the natural hold on this bunch. He hasn't rounded up all the evangelical voters. In the South Carolina primary, 74 percent of the GOP voters said they were evangelical or born-again Christians, and Cruz drew 27 percent of that group. (Donald Trump bagged 33 percent, and Sen. Marco Rubio won over 22 percent of them.) The hard core of this group—the born-againist—will stick with Cruz and likely provide him a consistent (and perhaps persistent) base—enough to keep him in the hunt. Cruz could eventually draw many of the hanging-on Carson voters, and he also appeals to the so-called liberty voters, a ragged collection of tea partiers and libertarian-ish votes. But there's little reason to doubt that Cruz can maintain command of this lane for the next few weeks.
Rubio has elbowed aside Jeb Bush (who?) and Gov. Chris Christie to claim the establishment lane (also known as the not-Trump-or-Cruz lane). He was elected to the Senate in 2010 as a tea partier. But in Washington, he joined pro-business GOPers to work on immigration reform and sidled up to the neocons on foreign policy, and, despite his short-time hobnobbing with party insiders in Washington and his New Hampshire robot moment, he's the last non-Trump-or-Cruz standing in the win, place, or show ranks. The establishment has to have a horse—as do suburban Republican voters free of Trump fever and not taken by Cruz's fundamentalism. So Rubio is in control here. Gov. John Kasich is a marginal threat to Rubio. But he's not gaining on him this week.
The most interesting lane is Trump's. It seems to be a lane all its own. At times, it doesn't seem to be part of the regular GOP highway. Maybe it's an HOV lane. Or an off-road bypass. Trump can blast away at the party elite, defend Planned Parenthood, tick off the pope, decry the Iraq War, and accuse George W. Bush of lying and call for his impeachment, and the voters in his lane—which, according to exit polls, includes a healthy mix of Republicans who say they are evangelical Christians—don't mind at all. Like Kramer in the 150th episode of Seinfeld, Trump has repainted the lanes, and his is wide enough to include a mishmash of voters. His folks care not about the usual Republican conventions. Trump rails against the Democratic and Republican idiots of out-of-control Washington, where too much money is spent for no good reason. He denounces the trade deals GOP officials and their corporate allies relish. He points an accusing finger at big-money donors and special-interest lobbyists, asserting (as does Sen. Bernie Sanders) that the game in Washington, on Wall Street, and everywhere else is rigged. He insists he won't let politicians gut Social Security. He wants health care of some sort—but not Obamacare!—for all. At the same time, he embraces the conservative positions on abortion and gun rights—and talks tough on China, ISIS, and just about everything. And there's the Trump Wall and the ban on Muslims. Trump backers I have encountered at campaign events seem mostly nonideological. (In South Carolina, Trump basically did as well with Republicans who termed themselves conservative as those who said they were moderates.) Trump voters certainly are not looking for consistency. They're mad as hell, buy his line that the country is shot to hell, and crave a politician who shares and expresses their attitudes—and who vows he will god-damn do something about it.
The Trump bloc appears to be a blend of Perot independent voters (who were attracted to the billionaire's concern about federal spending and the national debt), Reagan Democrats (who were drawn to that conservative's big-stick approach and racially tinged welfare-bashing), and Buchanan Republicans (who were in synch with the commentator's right-wing populism and America-first nativism). The Trump voters don't seem to share much in common with the voters in the other lanes. Those I've spoken with come across as outsiders to Republican land and people who have not been fully engaged in politics prior to the Trump campaign. Even if they have voted as Republicans in the past, they don't think of themselves as loyal members of that tribe.
The big problem for the Republican Party is that there is not a lot of overlap between the Trump, establishment, and social conservative lanes—and, for the moment, each of the three have significant support. The party is not quite divided into equal thirds. It looks as if Trump may have a third of his own, with Cruz and Rubio each possessing between a fifth and a quarter. And the rest of the vote has been with other candidates, and some of that may now be drifting. But if these three end up the final major candidates, there's a strong chance the race could evolve into a three-way split, or slog. Should that occur, it might be difficult for any one of them to amass a commanding lead in the delegate count.
The Republican contest could end up looking less like this:
And more like this:
But with only three souped-up vehicles, each driven by a fellow desperate to make it to the ramp at the end of the highway that only has room for one car.
Want another metaphor? Think of a trifurcated civil war. (Syria?) There are three warring factions within the GOP right now: the evangelical and purist conservatives who are looking for their Reagan or Goldwater to wage an ideological crusade, the mainline Republicans who want a draw-inside-the-lines conservative with crossover appeal who is no fiery revolutionary, and the Trumpist interlopers who have crashed the party's gates eager to place their Cromwell on the throne. The latter group has the advantage at the moment: more early wins, better standing in the polls. With Jeb Bush recently vanquished and Kasich and Carson voters perhaps soon in play, the landscape could shift. Still, at this stage, each rival camp remains quite distinct from the others, and it is tough to see how one side finally attains majority dominance.
Back to the original metaphor: There are three cars hurtling toward a one-lane road. If none run out of gas, it won't be pretty.


text:
Louisiana Tech announces 2013 Non-Conference Football Schedule
By Kevin Kelley - December 20, 2012
The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs have announced their 2013 non-conference football schedule, which features games against NC State and Kansas.
Tech opens the 2013 season at the NC State Wolfpack of the ACC on Aug. 31. The two schools have never met on the football field.
The following week, the Bulldogs host their only non-conference game at home against the Lamar Cardinals. Lamar is a member of the Southland Conference in the FCS. Louisiana Tech leads the overall series 17-5, but the two haven't played since a 1986 contest in Beaumont.
On Sept. 21, the Bulldogs travel to face the Kansas Jayhawks of the Big 12. Louisiana Tech won the first meeting 16-11 back in 1987, but Kansas won the next two 34-14 in 2005 and 29-0 in 2008.
Louisiana Tech's final non-conference game of the season is against Army in the 2013 Heart of Dallas Kickoff Classic on Sept. 28. The game, which was initially scheduled for Joe Aillet Stadium in Ruston, will be played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas.
Louisiana Tech was slated to play at Houston in 2013, but that game was canceled along with a 2014 visit by the Cougars. That opened the door for Lamar to return to the schedule.
The 2013 season will be the first for Louisiana Tech in Conference USA. The full C-USA schedule will likely be announced early next year.
2013 Louisiana Tech Football Schedule
Louisiana Tech Future Schedules
Derek Johnson says:
Good luck Skip Holtz.
PNB says:
next time you are offered a bowl…..TAKE IT!
Damn shame this team is not in a bowl. But they could have been….
Jinzo says:
Real shame they missed out,that offense is real beast! La. Tech could score on anyone in the country….
Herandos says:
They could make a run to a BCS Game, if they stay undefeated.


text:
A $15,000 donation was made by the charitable trust of Raymond and Janice Bland to the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail endowment fund. In this story, learn more about Raymond and Janice Bland, and the significance of this donation to their family and the Ohio & Erie Canalway National Heritage Area.
To ensure the continued development, maintenance and activation of the Ohio & Erie Canalway Towpath Trail for future generations, please consider a donation to the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail Endowment Fund by visiting our website.
Raymond & Janice Bland
Raymond and Janice Bland loved exploring the canals of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Both natives of Warren, Ohio, the couple spent countless hours exploring the historical route of the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal, the Ohio & Erie Canal, and other systems throughout the state. Raymond enjoyed history, the engineering, and the economic forces of the canal systems.
"Their values very much became part of our values," says Karen Petersen, daughter of Ray and Jan.
Karen and her sister Joyce Brothers remember what were called "Sunday Fun Days" growing up. After church and a Sunday meal, the family would head out to explore areas of interest such as Historic Zoar and Roscoe Villages. These trips were representative of the values the Bland family held dear: education, history, family, adventure, nature, and community, among others.
As Karen and Joyce grew up and moved out, Karen says Ray and Jan would continue Sunday adventures, walking completed sections of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail.
The Zoar Hotel in Historic Zoar Village. Photo by Ken Robinson.
"Well into their 70's they would drive to the Towpath Trail, park and walk a mile or two. He would keep track of where they stopped, so they could start there again next time. Dad was very proud to be able to say with humor that he had walked from Cleveland to Akron twice — each 1–2 mile stretch counted towards his walk north, then turning around and walking back to the car counted as his walk south."
Through interactions with the society and trips to visit other locations, Ray found the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal through Warren had not been mapped, leading to years of planning with community members and resulting in a tour of the canal from Youngstown to Newton Falls in the spring of 2008.
Unfortunately, Mr. Bland passed away suddenly in 2007 at the age of 80. Jan continued the work of her late husband, enjoying the opportunity to interact with community members, learning new things, and exploring the canal. Her dedication continued beyond the tour, leading to the dedication of an Ohio Historical Marker installed in the Trumbull County Court House Square recognizing the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal development through Warren.
Janice Bland with community members, dedicating a new Ohio Historical Marker recognizing the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal as it passed through Warren, Ohio. Photo taken from dedication video here.
Whether interacting with the Canal Society, getting involved in other community organizations, or just exploring local culture on a Sunday afternoon, Raymond and Janice Bland were always fulfilling their desires to explore, learn, and support their local community. These passions were passed on to their daughters.
"It was great because it just instilled this love of learning for Joyce and I," Karen says of the opportunities to explore. "That's how we grew up, surrounded by people who were excited to learn and excited to go out and explore. It was very humble and down to earth."
Jan passed away in January 2018, leaving a legacy she and Ray had built over decades. To ensure support continued for causes dear to their hearts, the couple planned for charitable giving. This planning led to financial support of nearly 30 organizations across Ohio, including the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition. Karen says she and Joyce have had the pleasure of following their parents' wishes, talking with these organizations, and seeing the impact.
"It's been such an honor to go around and meet people who are going to be positively impacted and knowing that my parent's gift is going to help keep programs in place for the future."
Karen Peterson (middle) and Joyce Brothers (right) with Dan Rice, presenting a new plaque to recognize donors of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail endowment fund.
"We are incredibly grateful to Raymond and Janice Bland for their generous donation to the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail Endowment Fund," said Dan Rice, president and CEO of the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition. "Karen and Joyce's memories of family hikes along the Towpath are a wonderful testament to its importance as a destination for individuals, families and future generations."
The donation to the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition is supporting the Towpath Trail endowment fund through Akron Community Foundation. This money will be used to ensure local communities continue to be connected with the natural, cultural, historical, and recreational assets of the Ohio & Erie Canal and Towpath Trail.
"It meant a lot to them to be able to walk the Towpath Trail and that's why I think they would be really happy to know that they had a part in preserving that for future generations. So that other people could slow down, walk, learn, and understand the economics and engineering, and all of these other things that go into it that you may not think about," Karen said. "It's beyond just recreational value, but that is certainly an important part of it, too. It's recreation, industry, engineering. People."


I'm quite new to the family tree research but is anyone else finding that getting to look at birth certificates, death and marriage certificates on GRONI becomes quite expensive after a while?
There are also various other free sites, although I feel less than there used to be. Try a google search for the name and area you are looking for. Go to Genuki.
This is why subscribing to one of the commercial sites, or using library editions is often cost effective if you cannot get to local records offices/archives. It is also why we all value the help of people willing to do lookups, without them research would often be impossible.
GRONI charges £2.50 per view whereas Scotlandspeople charges around £1.60 or thereabouts, so fairly similar. England used to charge £9.25 to get a certificate though there is currently a pilot scheme for photocopies which is a bit less. And some countries such as Australia charge around $40 I believe, so GRONI aren't too bad.
Be aware that some Northern Ireland certificates are available to view free on the irishgenealogy site. Births in Northern Ireland 1864 to 1917, marriages 1870 to 1921 & deaths 1878 to 1921 can all be viewed free there. You just need GRONI for the years outside those bands.
Compared to the price of a packet of cigarettes which go up in smoke and cause illnesses I think it is a reasonably priced hobby to have. Yes some parts are expensive but compared to other hobbies such as car restoration or following a premier football team it is relatively cheap. I think some people expect to do this hobby without out laying out some cost.
Personally I find it is the amount of time spent on it that is the biggest outlay. I used to have to spend a day at the archives looking through parish records on a film reader, very time consuming. I am more than willing to pay an annual subscription so I can view the same records online. I can do this at home now and because they are indexed I can search more effectively.
Cost is always relative to the end result.
Most of my research was pre Internet. I had to drive 40 miles to London to Bush House for GRO, Portugal Street round the corner for Census returns.
Once I had got back to 1837 it was PR's in Gloucestershire CRO and then Gwent CRO. 80 miles?
If I was starting from scratch now I might not resent annual subs to Ancestry and Find My Past. I must have driven thousands of miles and spent thousands of £'s.
I use other (free) resources to find information from Northern Ireland counties and actually end up purchasing very, very few certificates from GRONI.
Emerald Ancestors- using marriage search you can get year and district plus first name(s) of spouse.
If you have a couple in 1911 census and they are listed as being married 20 years then putting in the groom's name in the free search might allow you to discover year and district of marriage so that you can find it in Irish Genealogy marriages- particularly helpful with common names.
Can help to find date of death, address, spouse or other relatives even if there is no Will and/or only extract is available.
I didn't even think about researching the Scottish side of my family in pre internet days.
The other thing is that, with Ancestry or FindMyPast, you can get a far better guess at which are the right certificates to pay for.


Stunning end unit in great complex, low strata fees, huge private fenced back yard, 3 bedrooms up, with a bright den/flex room on upper level, away from bedrooms, bright kitchen with lots of cabinets, nice open plan, living room is open and very bright as well, 3 good sized bathroom (powder room has heated floors). One car garage and room for a second car on the apron in front of garage. Great location with schools, shopping. W/C express all within walking distance, lots of room for your pets as well (2 allowed) call today for your private showing.


To help improve POP Peeper for new users, I have created a short survey which asks you what the default settings should be for several options. To access the poll, please open the "message of the day" from within POP Peeper (there is a button in the status bar or you can open it from the Help/About menu). It's very short and should only take a few minutes to complete.


Our last session at Newbyres village for the year saw us making winter foliage wreaths with the residents. This was a follow on from the wreath making workshop we held at the new Beacon building on Saturday 8th December. It was really lovely to be able to offer the residents the opportunity to make some wreaths for their Christmas fayre on the 15th December.
In all, we made over a dozen wreathes using Dogwood, Fir, Holly and Lelylandii and pine cones. The result was some really beautiful creations.
It has been such a wonderful few months assisting in the garden and activities at Newbyres Village and I am very grateful for the opportunity to do this. Many thanks to Gail Flynn and to Catriona Moredaunt for volunteering with me.
Looking forward to more opportunities in 2019.


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Threads that Bind
An interactive forum for lovers of horror, suspense, the occult, and terror of every stripe
Jack Tyler
Tim Sorrensen
The Catacombs of Horror
Last week, our very capable colleague CW Hawes looked into the specifics of one man who saved one publication, which in turn went on to give voice to much of what we call modern horror. This week I propose to take a look at the whole shooting match, horror, terror, suspense, thrillers, and attempt to ferret out how we got to where we are. Disclaimer: Much of what you're about to read is based on my own intuitive reading of conditions as they are, but I'd buckle up anyway.
The human animal has doubtless been besieged by fear since before he had the tools to express it. Humanoids and hominids, living on the open savanna and possessing neither the speed of the antelope, the size of the buffalo, nor the horn of the rhino to defend himself must have been viewed as a tasty snack by big cats, bigger bears, and a breed of wolf the size of a Shetland pony. So fear, nay, blood-curdling, mortal terror became baked into our genes long before the most rudimentary form of language was around to give it voice.
It has been with us from the dawn of time, and the evolutionary purpose is not to paralyze us in the face of danger. Quite the contrary, it's a warning meant to save our lives. Have you ever been walking or driving in a strange part of town, and you get a sudden feeling that you shouldn't take the route you were planning on? That's the gift of fear, your senses operating on a subliminal level to warn you that something isn't right. Early humans must have experienced these feelings and taken some very convoluted routes to the water hole because of them, but they likely served to keep our ancestors mostly safe and well.
Advance the clock to the dawn of civilization. Agriculture, husbandry, the early cities take form and flourish, releasing us from whims of fortune to begin our climb to complete dominance of the planet. And yet the fear remains. The farmer fears that there won't be enough rain… or that there will be too much. The artisan fears his competitors, the merchant fears the thief, the city-dweller fears the plague.
See the common word there? To paraphrase a popular video game series, "fear… fear never changes." It is with us always, from waking to sleep, lurking, waiting for the trigger to give it reign over all reason and clarity of thought. Over the millennia, fear has given rise to superstitions by the thousand, to such wasteful ignorance as oracles and astrology to guide our lives by predicting the future, to burning our neighbors alive for supposed witchcraft, to religious leaders and politicians who seek, often with success, to manipulate us by stoking our fears.
But nearly as often, the masters of fear have sought to entertain us by triggering the terror in a harmless way; by giving us a tale of fiction. This has to be older than time, with tales of savage beasts and mythical monsters being told around the campfires of our preliterate ancestors. The best of these tales became canonized in accepted forms, and then they began to be published, truly entering the world of entertainment.
My own Early Master was Edgar Allan Poe. The same fifth-grade teacher who encouraged me to write also introduced me to the pulse-pounding terror of The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-tale Heart, and The Masque of the Red Death. My classmates and I had been introduced to the "The Classics" in the form of agonizing slogs such as Canterbury Tales and Little Women, stories that gave me my first thoughts of suicide, but here at last were books that made reading an adventure and gave it purpose, and they were based in pure horror. Coincidence? I think not.
I went on to learn that there were other pioneers laying down the foundation of modern horror even before Poe wrote the stories and poems that so changed my outlook on reading. In 1764 Horace Walpole, the fourth Earl of Oxford who served in the House of Lords for 26 years, penned The Castle of Otranto, a medieval period piece set in a haunted Italian castle. Anne Radcliffe followed thirty years later with The Mysteries of Udolpho. Then in 1839, the demented genius that was Poe released Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque and sealed us into the Catacombs of Horror forever. Other well-known writers from Franz Kafka to H.G. Wells went on to broaden the genre and make it accessible and acceptable to generations that followed. Only literary snobs whose goal is to seem loftier than thou continue to denigrate it; they're beating a dead horse.
It continues to develop in the hands of Dean Koontz, Clive Barker, and our generation's master, Stephen King. And horror isn't at all confined to the supernatural, aliens, and the products of runaway science. How much real-life horror did the victims of Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, and the Green River Killer endure before they finally expired? A story about any of them, or a fictional version thereof, certainly classifies as horror. Truman Capote built a reputation and a successful career on the concept.
So you see, you don't need to love ghosts rattling chains or beasts from 20,000 fathoms to be a horror fan. It's all around you, and as Stephen King suggested, "We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones."
So, what's your guilty pleasure that goes bump in the night? I'd love to hear about it, and I'd love it more if you could turn me on to some new sub-genre that I could get lost in. The comment box is a click away… let's share a scare, shall we?
Jack "Blimprider" Tyler
Philosophy of Horror
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4 responses to "The Catacombs of Horror"
Dr. Thomas Davison, author says:
Jack, great read! I was glad to see you mention the importance of reading for aspiring writers. I was reminded of a quote from Stephen Kings' book on writing, "Reading is the creative center of a writer's life." Tom.
Jack, I enjoyed reading your blog. You have an insightful holistic view on this topic. Thank you for sharing! Tom.
Jack "Blimprider" Tyler says:
Thank you, sir. This is a recent passion with me… well, relatively recent. The point is that I'm really into it, and it's good to see I'm not making a fool of myself.
Jack, keep going strong, my friend. Your passion is contagious and motivates me to delve deeper. Tom.


In the summer of 2014, Chuck DiTrapano, a highly esteemed pharmacist from Reading, Pennsylvania reached out to me via email. The following is an important excerpt from Chuck's poignant message that truly made me believe that we had been brought together for a very distinct purpose.
Then Chuck began to share with me his heartfelt story of how his advocacy journey, as well as, his life experience, led him to establish a very successful family owned and operated business called RxTOOLKIT. As an expert pharmacist, he went on to explain in detail his true determination and effort to prevent tragic medication errors like the one that claimed my beautiful daughter Emily's life in 2006. Just like me, Chuck was horrified at the thought that preventable medical errors are now the third leading cause of death in America, claiming over 440,000 lives each and every year! As a leading pharmacist, he also knew that medication errors were responsible for the largest percentage of these preventable deaths. With that said, the following is the story of how RxTOOLKIT was actually born, in Chuck's own words, and was taken from the early email correspondence we had regarding this important issue.
In 2004, I was a supervisor at Reading Hospital and saw a need for a more effective communication tool for our staff. I realized that there was a mountain of information needed in order for the staff pharmacists and myself to perform our jobs successfully in a fast paced environment. I also realized that this information had to be readily available and easy to reference. RxTOOLKIT was born. Having the correct information and the appropriate tools at our fingertips enhanced decision making, added consistency, and improved patient safety. That same year, we received the ISMP Cheers Award for our web-based application.
Over the last 10 years, besides adding literally hundreds of pages of information, we have added more than 20 different applications to RxTOOLKIT.com. Our tools are created by pharmacists through direct clinical experience and front line development. They are developed solely on needs and feedback of actual users (pharmacists, technicians, physicians, and nurses) and solve both the small and large problems that pharmacists face every day. We have developed specialized tools for the most difficult and fragile segments of our patient population, including pediatrics and the NICU. Our tools can be fully customized to meet the needs of any institution's procedures or protocols. We continue to pursue a very aggressive development agenda.
We have just launched our brand new homepage(s) designed to illustrate the features and benefits of our web based applications. Our tools are designed and priced to help ALL patients regardless of hospital size, pharmacy capabilities, and financial constraints. We believe in our motto: Safety is Priceless, RxTOOLKIT makes it affordable.
We have also come to know Eric Cropp. I invited him to speak to our staff last year. I have been around long enough to witness tragedy and I am all too familiar with the second victim. I think it is important that he share his message—"this can happen to you". It is so easy for even the best of professionals to get lulled into thinking "this can't happen to me". Although I have been spared a firsthand experience such as Eric's, I have had "near misses", two of which are forever embedded in my brain. After hearing Eric's story, and getting to know him, we developed the blog medsafetyonline.org. Our goal for the blog is to increase focus on the second victim and improve patient and provider safety through the exchange of resources, ideas, and experiences within the pharmacy and clinical practice community. I believe that by expanding the dialog among health care professionals and sharing our stories we can help to increase education and make a difference from the inside out.
On November 11th of 2014, I flew to Philadelphia to meet Chuck, in person, and to give two lectures at Reading Hospital that he had arranged. The whole experience was absolutely amazing! What made it so special was the simple fact that I felt an immediate bond with Chuck because he appeared to be on exactly the same path I was, the guy was on a mission to save lives from preventable medication errors and ultimately put a stop to all of these senseless tragedies that occur with far too many patients, each and every year! Furthermore, he proved to me he was "walking the walk" when I was given an extensive tour of Reading Hospital. I subsequently learned that RxTOOLKIT software was deeply integrated into virtually every aspect of pharmacy operations at this enormous healthcare facility and had been clinically proven to prevent medication errors for almost ten years!
Shortly after my visit in 2014, Chuck and I began discussing, in detail, how our two organizations could collaborate and partner on the development of a pharmacy technician eLearning training program that would significantly improve the core competency of ALL pharmacy technicians across the United States if they enrolled and participated in the program for continuing education credits (CE). Hence, RxTOOLKIT eLearning was born (in BETA now!).


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Help With Ordering
Since the first seed catalogue was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become the UK's largest Mail Order Seed and Plant company. Through the publication of our catalogues and the operation of our award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the very best quality products money can buy. In addition to our longstanding UK presence, the brand also operates throughout the world through its international website and offers its popular seed range through major garden centres across Europe.
Our product range has also expanded to include an award winning seed range, young plants, bulbs, seed potatoes, onions and garlic sets, soft fruit and fruit trees as well as an extensive range of gardening supplies. All have been carefully selected through stringent testing and trials to make gardening a pleasure and a success for our customers. In addition, we also offer a wonderful range of Christmas gifts sent with a personalised card to both the gardeners and non gardeners in your life!
We are very proud to have our own plant breeding programme based in Suffolk in the UK, and can boast a number of award winning discoveries - including the stunning Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy' and Buddleja 'Buzz'™.
Thompson & Morgan is very pleased to offer a UK based customer services division who can respond to your horticultural queries as well as resolving any queries you may have regarding your order or why not join our thriving Facebook community for additional advice on gardening and plants.
If you prefer to choose your seeds in a local garden centre, Thompson & Morgan sells a large range of flower and vegetable seeds through major garden centre chains in the UK and Europe. Click here for major UK stockists.
If you are growing plants for resale, our Direct2grower division supplies a large range of seeds and British Grown plug plants to commercial growers and seed wholesalers.
Seeds are a perfect choice for marketing promotions - please consult our Promotional Seeds website for further details of the services we can provide to support your campaigns.
Find out about our holding company
More than 150 Years of Accumulated Horticultural Knowledge and Experience
The UK has a rich horticultural history and there are many well known personalities who have given their names to plants, garden styles and modern day horticultural companies. Among the companies that have founded the country's seed industry a few names still survive, although their independence has been surrendered. Yet, as one of the oldest firms in the business, Thompson & Morgan retains both its identity and its reputation for innovation and quality.
It all began in a small garden behind a baker's shop in Tavern Street, Ipswich, tended by William Thompson, the baker's son. He started work by helping his father but, stricken with ill-health, he began studying botany and passionately cultivated the garden at the back of the shop in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. He was soon to acquire the name of the 'baker botanist'. From the back garden he moved to a nursery at the edge of Ipswich and then to an even larger one. Eventually there were three Thompson nurseries in the town and William began to publish a magazine called 'The English Flower Garden'.
In 1855 his first catalogue was produced and this was to be the forerunner of an unbroken line stretching through to today. William Thompson specialised in growing rare and unusual plants, seeds of which were sent to him from many overseas countries. It brought him a spirit of adventure, earned his business a reputation for exciting introductions and gave him the friendship of such great scientists as Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir Michael Foster and Charles Darwin. As one of the most distinguished plantsmen of his day his skill in raising plants of the Western United States was recognised when, in 1876 a volume of Curtis's Botanical Magazine was dedicated to him. This was a rare honour. Twenty years later the Royal Horticultural Society invested him with its highest honour, the Victorian Medal of Honour.
The seed raising firm expanded and William Thompson entered into a fortuitous partnership with John Morgan. Although Morgan was by no means a botanist he was a shrewd businessman with sound financial knowledge and he was able to offer capital resources that enabled the expansion of the enterprise to be soundly financed.
William Thompson died in 1903 at the age of 80 but he had lived to see Thompson & Morgan become one of the country's greatest seed firms with a reputation for introducing more species and varieties to the British gardening public than any other seed company - a tradition that continues to this day. William's death left John Morgan the sole owner of the business until, ten years later in 1913, Joseph Sangster became a partner.
A brilliant horticulturist and talented administrator, having previously been the manager of Lissadell Gardens in Ireland, Joseph was to add 4,000 plant names to the established 2,000 already in the Thompson & Morgan catalogue. He took over the company completely when, in 1921, John Morgan died. After ten more years, a site on London Road in Ipswich was purchased and two years after that Joseph was joined in the company by his son Murray. Murray had already received horticultural training in Edinburgh as well as having work experience at Slococks, the then well-known nursery of Woking, Surrey. The reputation of the company had grown to such an extent that whenever someone somewhere in the world wanted the seed of a particular plant, more often that not it was Thompson & Morgan who were able to supply it.
In 1939 Thompson & Morgan became a limited company and when Joseph died in 1952, Murray Sangster took control. He was later joined by his two sons, Keith and Bruce, both of whom had received horticultural training. In 1973 they decided to expand their distribution centre to Poplar Lane, Ipswich from where the company still operates. One year later, in 1974, Murray retired and Keith and Bruce Sangster took over the management of what was to become one of the most progressive horticultural companies in the world. On Murray's death in 1994, Keith and Bruce became sole owners of the company.
In 1982 Bruce headed the company's expansion in the USA after previously having a distribution base in Jackson, New Jersey. In 1999, the company became part of International Garden Products Inc., of Boston, MA, USA. In May 2002 Thompson & Morgan returned to independent private ownership.
In the late 1990's Paul Hansord, the Managing Director at the time, developed an innovative range of Young Plants which were to be delivered throughout the UK. This side of the business has gone from strength to strength, leading the way in mailorder plants.
Imaginative marketing techniques have made Thompson & Morgan the industry's pace-setters and have helped keep the company dynamic and young at heart. The quality of the product is the cornerstone of the company's success, and quality control dominates every aspect of Thompson & Morgan's operations. All suppliers have to stipulate seed germination rates, regular checks are made by Thompson &Morgan's management of all contracted growers' crops and every consignment of seed is rigorously tested in the laboratory and trial grounds by the company's technicians. Finally, the seed inserted into the well-known and distinctive Thompson & Morgan packets. With every packet comes the company's guarantee as to its viability.
To assist the amateur gardener Thompson & Morgan have tried to take the mystery out of gardening practices and engender the maximum enjoyment from growing seed. With this in mind the company published a 32-page booklet 'The Germination Times'. The publication has received much praise from both beginners and experts as a definitive addition to the subject, and a further example of the way that Thompson & Morgan's innovative approach to marketing is founded on long, practical experience. There are now also extensive growing guides and tips available online.


Check Point revealed that banking trojans were extensively used by cybercriminals during August, with three variants appearing in the company's latest Global Threat Impact Index.The Zeus, Ramnit and Trickbot banking trojans all appeared in the top ten. These Trojans work by identifying when the victim is visiting a banking website, and then use keylogging or webinjects to harvest basic login credentials or more sensitive information such as PIN numbers.
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