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Compromise on abortion isn't impossible, it's inevitable
Jun 2, 2022, 4:23 PM | Updated: 4:51 pm
Protesters march near the Supreme Court to demand an end to gun violence and call for abortion rights protection on May 28, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
(Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
BY MICHAEL MEDVED
The Michael Medved Show, 12pm-3pm on KTTH
The present passion surrounding the abortion issue has produced political panic and apocalyptic rhetoric on both sides.
For instance, pro-life firebrand Jeanine Pirro used a May 3 segment of The Five on Fox News to decry the unspeakable slaughter associated with the termination of pregnancies. "And my stats that I have," she indignantly declared, "are that there are 63 million abortions a year in this country!"
Washington prepares for 'influx of patients from Idaho' after strengthening abortion protections
On the other side of the issue, numerous pro-choice commentators warned that if the Supreme Court moved ahead with its leaked intention of overruling Roe v. Wade, then other Constitutionally-protected elements of American life would be subject to similar judicial assault. A typical sub-heading: "Rights to contraception, gay marriage, and interracial marriage could be endangered under a draft Supreme Court ruling."
Such inflammatory observations promote the notion of a pending "abortion crisis" that implacably polarizes the people, ignoring contradictory evidence that indicates that Americans may be closer than ever to achieving consensus on this enduring dispute.
The first priority toward reaching that goal must be to clear away the accumulated layers of lies and misunderstandings that distort the public's perspective.
As one example, Judge Pirro (yes, a former member of the New York State judiciary) isn't just wrong about the human cost of abortion, she's wrong by a factor of 100 to 1. While she claimed the United States endured "63 million abortions a year in this country," the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show an actual 2019 total of 629,898.
Pirro's obvious mistake derives from a widely circulated estimate by the National Right to Life Committee of 63.4 million as the total number of abortions during the 49 years since the Supreme Court handed down Roe. That means that the number of abortions during the half-century since its national legalization averaged 1.3 million each year — or more than double the most recent accounting in 2019. In other words, far from facing an "abortion crisis" the number of abortions in the United States has gone down steadily and dramatically, even while the population has increased.
The rate of abortions compared to live births hit its all-time high in 1984 (364 per 1,000 live births) but stands at well below 200 today. Such numbers indicate incontestable (and continuing) success for anti-abortion activism — especially if its true purpose is not just to win political or legislative squabbles, but to spare as many as possible of the unborn and to allow them to enter our world of life.
Certainly, a final judgment overturning Roe by the highest court in the land will expedite that process, which helps to explain why abortion defenders so frequently cite the purportedly imperiled prospects of more broadly supported rights — to contraception, or interracial marriage — rather than focusing on a procedure which continues to split the public. This may amount to a deft public relations strategy, but it raises illusory fears with a scant basis in reality.
Is interracial marriage, for example, actually "endangered" by the judgment on Roe? The most recent Gallup Poll (released in September of last year) showed that a record 94% say they "approve of marriage between Black people and white people." Since 1967, when Loving vs. Virginia unanimously overturned the anti-miscegenation laws in 16 Southern and border states, opinions of mixed marriages have shifted rapidly and consistently.
Today, of course, no elected official or jurist could survive in any position of authority if he or she argued for a new ban on mixed-race marriage. In fact, it's difficult even to imagine such an issue arising before a court whose two Black members (Clarence Thomas and the newly confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson) are both married to white spouses.
But no similar transition has occurred regarding the issue of abortion. Roe v. Wade sparked spirited dissent from Justices White and Rehnquist when first decided, and immediate resistance from activists, religious leaders, and politicians. At the time, some 20 state legislatures had already legalized abortion with certain restrictions; for many skeptical observers, the court's sweeping decision represented an unnecessary and inappropriate intrusion in the normal legislative process.
That concern, more than a faith-based issue of morality, produced Justice Alito's carefully reasoned judgment to reject more. It's a serious mistake to see his draft decision as an emphatic "No" on abortion meant to replace Justice Blackmun's resounding "Yes" of 1973. In fact, the most striking aspect of this new decision is its rarity: showing an important governmental institution that is foregoing power rather than seizing it and exercising it. Nothing in the current turn of events will settle disagreements on abortion, permitting a series of legislative battles with the normal give and take, rather than embracing the absolutes of one side or the other.
At the end of the process, we will most likely join the rest of civilization in allowing the populace and its elected representatives, not unaccountable jurists with lifetime appointments, to reach decisions that express the public will. As George Will points out: "In 39 of the 42 European nations that permit elective abortions, the basic limit is at 15 weeks of pregnancy or earlier." Coincidentally, perhaps, that's the same standard that Mississippi imposed in its recent legislation that has won apparent court approval in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization. "Around the world," Will notes, "fewer than 20 nations allow abortions after twenty weeks of pregnancy on any grounds."
According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, Americans hold nuanced and non-absolutist views on the subject that should combine with the proven virtues of our federal system to allow a workable resolution to debates that have tormented the country for fifty years.
History of abortion laws and politics in the Evergreen State
No, most of our fellow citizens don't believe abortion is a form of murder—that's why only a minuscule percentage embrace the thought that a woman (or her doctor) should be jailed or executed for terminating a pregnancy. On the other hand, the notion of making abortion available without restriction or condition also commands nothing near majority support. Pew reports that 80% of the public opposes the notion of legal abortion under all circumstances, and 90% disagree with the idea of legal abortion under no circumstances. As on many other issues, Americans tend to come together to cluster in the middle.
With its emphasis on right and wrong, guilty or not guilty, the court system wasn't built to shape practical politics. That's why the dominant role of judges in this arena for the last half-century has served to give America the least modulated and moderate abortion approach of any major nation.
But now, the issue returns, appropriately, to state legislatures, elected bodies that cannot function without deals, concessions, and conciliation.
Compromise on abortion isn't impossible; in the long term, it's inevitable.
Listen to Michael Medved weekday afternoons from 12 – 3 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3).
Follow @https://twitter.com/MedvedSHOW
Michael Medved on AM 770 KTTH
Tune in to AM 770 KTTH weekdays at 12pm for The Michael Medved Show.
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Donald Trump hopes to make history as the second President to ever recapture the White House after losing an election and leaving power.
Medved: Does the lack of a "Red Wave" indicate anything?
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Medved: Imprisoning violent criminals may be costly, but releasing them costs society more
Barr described the shift in policies and priorities that began in the Reagan and H.W. Bush administrations, with a focus on "getting tough" on crime.


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1MATCH URL: https://static.rappler.com/images/aquino-giving-speech-08242012.jpg
#SCWatch
Next 3 presidents will have Sereno as CJ
(UPDATED) President Aquino can name 3 more justices before he steps down in 2016
Purple Romero
Published 8:01 PM, August 24, 2012
Updated 2:04 PM, August 30, 2012
MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – "You know someone will replace you. Give them the wherewithal to effect their vision... I try to lead by example. I might have the most power in the country, but I don't want to exercise it unnecessarily."
This is what President Benigno Aquino III told Rappler in a June 2012 interview, when asked if he would appoint a justice to replace Justice Martin Villarama, who is set to retire in April 2016.
By that time, Aquino will only have two months left in office, and the High Court – through its 2010 decision exempting the judiciary from the appointment ban – allows presidents to make an appointment even during the election period.
Aquino said he would let his successor make the appointment instead. This is something that his predecessor, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, chose not to do when she insisted in appointing Renato Corona as chief justice two months before she stepped down from the presidency.
But on Friday, August 24, President Aquino made a radical move, naming the first female chief justice in Philippine history – and the youngest one in recent history.
In appointing the 52-year-old Justice Lourdes Sereno as chief justice, Mr Aquino effectively stripped the next 3 presidents of the chance to appoint the leader of the judiciary.
Barring impeachment, resignation or any untoward incident, Sereno will serve for 18 years until she reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 in July 2030.
One previous chief justice had a longer term -- 19 years: Cayetano Arellano, the first Supreme Court chief justice appointed in 1901 under the American Civil Government who retired in April 1920, according to reports.
Under the 1987 Constitution, Philippine presidents have a one-time term of 6 years. President Aquino steps down in 2016. His immediate successor will assume office in June 2016; the next president will take over in June 2022; and the next one will assume the presidency in June 2028.
Asked about concerns that Sereno would stay too long in the post, Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said: "The Constitution mandates that for a member of the Supreme Court he can be or he should have the minimum age of 40 years old and retire at the age of 70. Therefore the Constitution anticipates the possibility of someone being appointed at an early age."
He acknowledged that "this is the first time that someone as young as Justice Sereno, who's only 52, has been appointed at that young age. Normally, you would appoint somebody who has less than 5 to 10 years in office before he or she retires or before he retires from the Supreme Court."
But the President made the decision "after an assessment and evaluation" and with only one consideration - that Sereno would be able to "institute reforms in the judiciary," Lacierda explained.
Lacierda expressed hope that "reforms will take root" in the judiciary with Sereno's appointment.
One vacancy
Sereno's appointment as chief justice creates a vacancy in the High Court and allows the President to again appoint another associate justice.
The Judicial and Bar Council - the body that screens and vets aspirants for judiciary positions – will have to officially declare the selection process open. The council is expected to meet on September 3.
Before he steps down in 2016, Aquino can appoint 3 more SC justices: Sereno's replacement; the justice who will take over the seat of Justice Roberto Abad who is retiring in 2014; and – if he changes his mind – the new justice to replace Villarama in April, 2016.
By then, he will have appointed a total of 6 justices to the 15-person High Tribunal: Sereno, Justices Bienvenido Reyes and Estela Perlas-Bernabe, and the 3 future justices. – Rappler.com
More in #SCWatch:
SC must return to 'dignified days of silence' - Sereno
'Woman CJ not necessarily pro-woman'
Sereno is 1st female chief justice
22 official candidates for Chief Justice
JBC to interview CJ candidates starting July 24
25 accept nominations for chief justice
Questions for chief justice candidates
JBC should review process of choosing CJ
Besides JBC, Palace has judicial search committee
CONVERSATIONS: How should the JBC choose the next chief justice? #SCWatch
Filed under:Justice Lourdes Sereno•Supreme Court•President Benigno Aquino III

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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8 Things I thought while I was watching Fifty Shades of Grey
SheKnows Editorial, Claire Gillespie
February 16, 2015 at 9:28pm PM EST
Lia Toby/WENN.com
My Fifty Shades of Grey movie experience was like being on the world's biggest hen do. Sober. Some weird and wonderful things went through my head while I was watching the film. Here are eight of them.
Related story I'm a Pregnant Single American Mom — Thank God I Live in the UK
1.We're all still teenage girls at heart
Maybe it was because I was at a late night showing of the film and 80 percent of the audience had been getting wasted in the local pub waiting for it to start. Or maybe there's just something about naked bum cheeks that make us all regress to adolescence. Whatever the reason in my two decades of regular adult cinema-going I'd never experienced so much, um, audience participation. And on that note…
2. Cinema and alcohol don't mix
Part of what I love about going to the cinema is the silence. No mobile phones. No talking. I'm not a control freak — the occasional whisper or rustle of popcorn is OK and, of course, laughter and tears at appropriate moments is part of the experience — but I don't pay £13 to sit in a cinema full of pissed women, screeching at every flash of nipple and cackling at their own jokes. And I use that term lightly. "Hey, she's stolen my body!" yelled one woman when Anastasia Steele appeared yet again in all her naked loveliness. Cue much laughter. For what felt like several minutes.
More: We counted all full-frontal and lip-biting shots in Fifty Shades, just for you
3. Is this supposed to be funny?
For the first half of the film, almost every line delivered by Johnson as Anastasia provoked whoops of laughter from the audience. Lines like "Are you going to make love to me now?" or "What is a butt plug?" were made amusing by her deadpan delivery while others, like "That was nice" after Grey had given her a good seeing-to, just seemed awkward and the audience responded with half-hearted chuckles. Still trying to figure out if the humour was intentional did help pass the time during the dullest parts of the film. Primarily the endless contract negotiations.
4. I totally get why Rita Ora snubbed the Fifty Shades premiere
As Christian Grey's sister Mia, she's in the film for about 90 seconds. She has one line, then necks wine and mumbles something in French at the dinner table. You're awesome on The Voice, Rita. Focus on what's working.
5. I might get a fringe cut in
Photo credit: Ivan Nikolov/WENN.com
I had serious hair envy after watching Dakota Johnson for two hours. Even after she'd been tied up, blindfolded and subjected to all sorts of kinky BDSM stuff, her fringe was perfect.
6. Sometimes, films can never do what books can
The book Fifty Shades of Grey is no classic. It's not even particularly well written if you're fussy about that kind of thing. But if you read it at the right time, in the right place, it's pretty damn good. I read it on the beach in the south of France, on a weekend trip with my best friend. We each read our copies at the same time, lying in the sun, heads a little woozy with rosé wine. Every now and then we'd turn to each other, wide-eyed and say, "Have you read [such-and-such a bit] yet?" Then giggle a lot. Fifty Shades of Grey was way more interesting on paper than on the big screen.
7. I definitely need to watch Pride and Prejudice again
Yeah, a little weird to be thinking about a Jane Austen adaptation during this particular film. But remember how awesome the 1995 BBC miniseries was? The role of Elizabeth Bennett won Ehle a Bafta TV award for Best Actress and the chemistry between her and Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy leaves Johnson and Dornan in the shade.
Photo credit: TheGlitzieGirl1/YouTube
More: Eloise Mumford tells us what everyone's getting wrong about Fifty Shades of Grey
8. Um, is that it?
The ending of the film was far more shocking than anything that took place in the "Red Room of Pain," insofar as it was completely unexpected. As in "did the cinema just have a power cut before the movie finished?" unexpected.
Have you seen the film yet? What did you think?
More Fifty Shades
Here's what Fifty Shades means to a real dominatrix
Fifty Shades of Grey baby names
How to plan a girls' night out, Fifty Shades of Grey style


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Tag Archives: Coleford
A baby in Adelaide in 1869
My contribution to Sepia Saturday this week, with its request for mother and baby photos is this carte de visite presenting John Henry Baynham Bosley born in Adelaide 6th June 1869 and sitting on the knee of his mother Corah.
This photographer changed the information on the back of his cards from time to time and this allows us to date this photo to 1869 – 1870.
Also in the photo is Thomas George Dufty Bosley. born October 1867, sitting on his father's knee, with Eliza Bosley born 1864 standing between her parents. There had been another daughter Annie but she had died. These children are my grandfather's cousins.
The father in the photo is Thomas Bosley who came from Coleford in Gloucestershire and he was the older brother of my great grandmother Eliza Fricke We have seen her before in Tea Time with Bikes , at home in Newland St Coleford and as the mother of the bride in the Bride was Eliza.
But we have also met the toddler Thomas George on the right of the photo when he was older in Men in Aprons – Potters When this Tom Jr. was nine years old he began work at Hindmarsh Pottery as an apprentice to his Uncle George, now his stepfather. His job was to weigh up the clay and prepare the balls for "throwing".
Thomas and Corah had six children before Thomas died in 1873, three months before his sixth child was born. Corah who was still in her twenties then married Thomas's younger brother George and had six more children.
This photo was in the possession of Eliza Fricke (nee Bosley), when she died. She lived in Carisbrook, Victoria and her two brothers in Adelaide, South Australia. Eliza Fricke's two Bosley brothers are the only Adelaide connection discovered in the family , No one has said that this is a photo of Thomas and Corah Bosley and their children but my identification is based upon the fact of Eliza Fricke's two brothers living in Adelaide , the dating of the photo from recorded identifications used on the back of the carte de visite, and the order and ages of the children.
Another carte de visite from Adelaide dated at 1874 – 5 is this photo which I believe is the younger brother George, the second husband to Corah. He was a prominent potter in Adelaide at that time.
I am quite confident with my deductions; Until someone proves me wrong.
More Mums and Bubs and other bits and pieces are to found on this week's Sepia Saturday.
This entry was posted in Family History, Family Stories, Genealogy and tagged 1869, 1870, Bosley, Carisbrook, carte de visite, Coleford, Duryea, Fricke, photographer, potter on April 25, 2015 by lazycoffees.
At Home in Newland St, Coleford
This week I begin with an postcard which is showing its age at 111 years and which has some identifying printing on the front, though no message has been written in the conveniently placed blank space.
It tells us that it is a photo of Newland St in Coleford, on the edge of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.
The printing at the end also tells us that it is one of The Wrench Series of postcards and also has the name Arthur J. Bright, Coleford. Arthur Bright was the Editor of The Dean Forest Guardian.
The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney tells us about the Wrench Series.
One of the first picture postcard companies which offered British views was set up by a 17 year old teenager Evelyn Wrench. His idea for the company, Messrs. Wrench and Co., began while on holiday in Germany with his parents in 1900.
On the left is the Baptist Church and at the far end of the street you can get a glimpse of the clock tower standing in the Market Place at the crossroads at the centre of the town. Originally it was part of an octagonal church. These can be seen on this section of an 1840 tithe map of Coleford
The postcard was in the possession of my great aunt whose mother Eliza Bosley had come to Australia from Coleford in 1863 and the image was provided to me by a second cousin. The card had been posted in Coleford in 1904 to a Mrs Ambery in Williamstown. Friend or relation, I do not know at this stage, but with the help of some clues from Mark Dodd I now have a reasonable explanation of how it came to shift from Williamstown, a suburb of Melbourne, to Eliza Fricke in the mid-Victorian town of Carisbrook.
When Eliza was young and living in Coleford her maternal aunt Amelia Baynham and her husband Stephen Aston, living at Five Acres, just to the north of Coleford, had a lodger. It was 1851 and the lodger was William Ambery, a year younger than their son Edward Aston. Eliza would have known these two young men. After all Edward Aston was her cousin. Both boys were to marry and together with their wives emigrated to Adelaide in 1855 on the John Banks. Then both families either together or separately moved over to Carisbrook in Victoria. Edward Aston was to remain in Carisbrook but William and Mary moved on after a while.
Meanwhile Eliza grew up, lost both her parents and with two younger sisters came out to Carisbrook in 1863 to be reunited with Edward and his wife Ann, and William and his wife Mary. And so it stands to reason that Mary, later on living in Williamstown, would pass on to Eliza a picture of "the street where you lived" which had been sent to Mary – Newland St, Coleford. There is still the question in my mind as to whether or not William Ambery could have been related to his hosts, Stephen and Amelia Aston.
Here is a similar view of Newland St taken by my sister in 1986 with someone sitting on the front fence of the Baptist Church, taken before I knew of the postcard's existence. And why is this particular view of Newland St of interest to me ? It is because of this next photo which is the house where Eliza Bosley lived in Coleford before coming to Australia and it was somewhere opposite the Baptist Church. Presumably that is Eliza or one of her sisters in front of the house.
Two vertical groups of three windows, with the uppermost being slightly smaller. Could this building possibly be the same white house, in the centre of the 1986 photo, with a single doorway replacing the original two doors. It is opposite the Baptist Church, Or is it just my imagination.
As for William and Mary Ambery, William had joined the Victorian Railways and was a train examiner at Castlemaine, then after an illness moved to Williamstown and opened a woodyard, in Douglas Parade. He was also elected a Councillor on the Williamstown Council. (Trove)
And so my story comes full circle beginning with a postcard arriving for Mrs Ambery in Douglas Parade, Williamstown.
Meanwhile, over at Sepia Saturday people are posting about courtrooms and all things legal, or anything else which takes their fancy.
This entry was posted in Carisbrook, Emigration, Family History, Family Stories, Postcards, True Stories, Uncategorized and tagged Ambery, Arthur Bright, Aston, Bosley, Carisbrook, Coleford, Fricke, Newland St, postcard, Williamstown, Wrench on January 16, 2015 by lazycoffees.


A marvelous Marvel -- and Debbie Reynolds.
Hey, Hey, Hey: How the Mighty Have Fallen!
All these woman can't be lying, can they?
"Gotham" Goes Goth and Ribeiro Does the Carlton!
From good judge to "Bad Judge" -- which is just what it sounds like.
The Doctor Who Is In!
Well, Mrs. Ray Rice, thanks for setting back the women's movement to caveman days.
One last, well-deserved, weepy, standing ovation.
Remembering the clubs where the late comedian established her working patterns.
Did the late comedian, like so many comedians, share an occupational hazard?
He created a chaotic, affectionately flamboyant circus. We need it back.
Fox News 'Red Eye' guest finds a creative way to build an audience.
No actor is good enough to save some awful shows.
Allison Janney can do no wrong.
Two words - Sofia Vergara - it's all downhill after that.
Daytime, Oh, Daytime…Wherefore Art Thou?
Fifty year old "General Hospital" is still the best that daytime has to offer.
Given the moronic hostility toward the creation of Marx Brothers Place, canines may be the answer.
Like skimming across puddles of clear water in a sea of bittersweet molasses.


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Apple Menu, Meet The Start Button
Wednesday, December 23, 2015 by Wil Gomez in Tips and Tricks
Way back in the day, far into the last century, long before Steve Jobs' second coming, and the re-birth of OS X (it was, more or less, NeXT before it was OS X), there was the Apple Menu.
No, not the Menubar. The Apple Menu in Mac OS, the single click to the Apple in the Menubar which revealed a customizable list of folders and files and apps; a way to navigate to almost anything anywhere on a Mac with a single click. Alas, those days are gone, but now there's a clever utility which mashes up the Windows Start button with the Apple Menu of yesteryear.
Click, Ye Shall Receive
Microsoft took a lot of heat with the Windows Start button, the single-click pop up menu which was the starting place for most people infected with using Windows. First, the name Start itself was typical Microsoft. "How do you shut down a Windows PC? Go to the Start button." See?
How do you navigate apps, files, and folders on a Mac? Let me count the ways. Any number of third party utilities come with such options, but so does the Dock, the Mac's Menubar, and the Finder, and the latter can do it all multiple ways, too.
Enter StartX, a Mac utility which lives in the Menubar and gives you a single click way to navigate through files and folders and apps. Usage could not be much easier. Click the Menubar, select what you want to view, or which app to open, or which folder to open with a click.
That's it. There's not much to customize, not much to configure, no settings to worry or fuss over. Click and everything you want and need pops down in an easy to navigate menu.
Almost.
Without any kind of configuration how can you organize the files and folders the way you want. Therein lies the only rub. StartX uses the Mac's built-in LaunchPad app as the organization tool. So, to put apps, files, and folders where you want them in the pop down menu from the Menubar, you'll need to rearrange them accordingly in the LaunchPad app, and that's not exactly difficult, but it requires an extra step.
Here's a way I use the Mac's Dock to do something similar, but it's even easier. And it's free. Open the Mac's Finder, select the folder you want access to, and drag it to the Dock. That creates an alias in the Dock, click it, the folder pops up, and you can select whatever is inside.
This drag and drop alias method works with the Applications folder, the Utilities folder, the Desktop and Download folder, the Documents folder, and even the User Library folder. That makes it a simple way to navigate to find files, folders, and apps with a single click, and without configuration.
About Wil Gomez
I live in Brooklyn, New York and work in Manhattan; a Mac owner for almost 25 years, and an IT specialist on mixed platforms-- Mac, Windows, and Linux. Read more of my articles here. My fiancée is semi-famous Kate MacKenzie. Follow her on PixoBebo.
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James Nearing says
Thursday, December 24, 2015 at 11:26 PM
If you think that StartX is good, try XMenu from Devontechnologies.com and you will find that it is free and very much configurable. It will even let you place an alias of the MacHardDrive into one of the drop down lists and then to drill down to anywhere on the computer (that you have permission for).
cal worthington says
Xmenu is decent but doesn't get updated often by Devon. The last time was over a year ago. A search on Mac360 revealed a number of times Xmenu was reviewed in recent years, all positive.
An Amazing Problem In iCloud And Dropbox


Renato Vicario and Janette Wesley own and operate 2 organic and sustainable farms on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, in Tuscany and South Carolina. The spirits are crafted and sourced only from grains and fruits that are not genetically modified (no GMO company policy) and do not use any chemical additives or flavors. In fact, many of the fruits, herbs, and spices used to create Vicario's liqueurs are grown on their own farms. Vicario and Wesley named their Italian farm "The Garden of Earthly Delights," that which is reflected in the imagery on their bottles; details from the Hieronymus Bosch painting illuminate each label of their artisanal liqueurs.
After many years of making liqueurs at home in Italy, Renato Vicario wrote a book titled "Italian Liqueurs" to share his knowledge. Steeped in regional, mythical, and historical traditions, Vicario Liqueurs are made in the same traditional methods as they have been for centuries.


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Since I have been lame and didn't update my chorus page for the entire year, I decided to put the entire 2001-2002 season on a single web page. Part of the reason is that as this is my third year with the chorus, it's becoming more routine and less novel, so I don't have as much to say about the day-to-day life in the chorus. But I do want to keep some record of what I've been doing in the chorus, and since the season is ending, I figured it would be as good a time to do it as any. I'll list the concerts that I participated in this season in chronological order.
Brahms Requiem (10/01)
Dvorak Stabat Mater (11/01)
Villa-Lobos Choros No. 10 (12/01)
Bach Christmas Oratorio (12/01)
Liszt Faust Symphony (1/02)
Festival of Choirs (3/02)
Ravel Daphnis et Chloe (5/02)
Rimsky-Korsakov Mlada (6/02)
The Brahms Requiem is a phenomenal piece for the chorus - unlike most requiems where soloists take the spotlight, the chorus is the star of the piece. There are a couple of soloists, but they only participate in a couple of movements, where the chorus is a major part of every movement. So we in the chorus love the piece for that reason.
But this time around, it was even more special. We performed the Requiem in the second week of October, soon after September 11, which gave a deeper resonance to the words that we were singing. In fact, we had a choral retreat on the first Saturday after 9/11, where we sang the Requiem all the way through for the first time as a group, and our conductor wisely kept his comments to a minimum, and let us sing, and bond together as a group with this phenomenal music. It helped.
With translated lyrics ranging from "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall have comfort" to "Behold, all flesh is as the grass, and all the goodliness of man is as the flower of grass" to "But the righteous souls are in the hand of God, nor pain, nor grief shall nigh them come" to the final ecstastic movement "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord", the Requiem acquired a more personal meaning in the days after 9/11. I am not a religious person, but the music itself transcends mere belief and goes straight to the soul.
By the time we got to the performances, we had really made the piece into our own tribute to 9/11, imbuing it with a fervor and an emotional intensity that was apparent to the audience. The San Francisco Chronicle reviewer commented "Once or twice every season, it becomes necessary simply to sit and marvel, in awe and gratitude, at the greatness of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus." It was an amazing experience of the power of music to help start the healing process.
San Francisco Chronicle review
Contra Costa Times review
I had really been looking forward to the Dvorak Stabat Mater, because of my affection for some of Dvorak's other works, such as the New World Symphony, and his Slavonic Dances. But it turned out to be fairly routine, without much to distinguish it in my eyes - in fact, I remember very little about the piece at this point. This may have been due to the fact that we were preparing it at the same time as the Brahms Requiem so it suffered in comparison. So I don't really have anything clever to say about this piece.
Review: San Francisco Chronicle review
This was a fun piece. Part of the Pan-American Mavericks concert, Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer with many influences (MTT introduced the piece each night with a comment that it was a cross between Stravinsky and Esther Williams). From the program notes, "this Choros is a twelve-minute explosion of unbridled physicality and electrifying energy. You can think of it as a South American Carmina Burana, only not so simpleminded and much, much shorter." In this piece, he splits the chorus up into a percussion section which spits out Indian names in a fast-paced patter (e.g. "Jakata kamaraja, Ti Tu Ti To Ti Tu Kaya!"), and a soaring chorus with a beautiful melody.
Bach is the man. He knew how to write music for choirs, and it shows. His music is always characterized by a sense of rightness in my mind - there seems to be no doubt as to where the next note is. Even when he crosses you up and does something unexpected, after you sing it, you begin to see why it had to be that way. It's a weird experience. Or maybe I just sang too much Bach in college (in the MIT Chamber Chorus, we did a Bach cantata or motet pretty much every concert it seemed like).
So because of my worship for Bach, the Christmas Oratorio was a blast. Helmut Rilling, one of the foremost Bach interpreters in the world, was the guest conductor and he was, as usual, amazing. He knows the piece inside and out, to the point where he rehearses and conducts it from memory. And he knows what kind of sound he's trying to achieve. This concert had an open rehearsal which a couple of my friends attended, and they commented to me afterwards that it was fun to watch him work, because they could hear his suggestions, hear us incorporate them, and then hear how it made the piece better. We agreed this is why Rilling gets paid the big bucks :)
This was a quick piece for the men in the chorus - we sit for most of the symphony, stand up for five minutes at the end, sing, and leave. Not much to say about the music. It was an interesting piece, with each movement representing one of the major characters in Goethe's Faust (Faust, Gretchen and Mephistopheles), and the chorus at the end talks about how "Woman's divinity leads us on high".
The Festival of Choirs brought together the San Francisco Symphony Chorus with four local high school choirs in one huge concert. It was a fun experience for both the symphony choristers, getting a chance to see the exuberance of youth (I commented to one of the older folks in the chorus that I now understood what they felt like around me), and for the high schoolers, getting a chance to sing in Davies Symphony Hall in front of 2000+ people and to see that singing is something you can throughout your life, not just in school.
The music itself wasn't too exciting - we had to keep it pretty straightforward for the high schoolers - but we did do the Bruckner Mass in E Minor which was excellent (sung with high schoolers interspersed throughout our chorus on the main stage). We also did one of my favorite pieces, Byrd's Ave Verum Corpus, although it works better for a chamber chorus than for a chorus of 200. Fun stuff, and the kids really enjoyed it.
Ravel Daphis et Chloe (5/02)
Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe was originally written as a ballet, although it is often performed in concert format, as we did. The chorus sings wordlessly through the piece, creating an atmospheric effect appropriate to the action of each scene. I don't really have too much to say about the piece itself, except that it is widely considered to have the most amazing musical depiction of a sunrise ever written (I actually preferred the one in Haydn's Creation, but I'm definitely outvoted by the aficionados).
Review: San Jose Mercury News review
Mlada is a massive opera-ballet written by Rimsky-Korsakov. It is not well-known, but it influenced an enormous number of modern composers, from Stravinsky to Prokofiev to Ravel (MTT commented when we were doing Daphnis et Chloe, that we were among the few who understood that Ravel completely ripped off Rimsky-Korsakov in writing that piece). Mlada has a huge orchestra, soloists, a large chorus, and a ballet dancer. And that's with the minimum staging that we did. At our first rehearsal, our conductor showed us a performance by the Bolshoi, and there was dancing, and singing, and props, and all sorts of craziness.
We lived in terror of this piece for the last couple months, as there is a lot of music to learn, with lots of random entrances by the chorus that you have to stay awake for, and a ton of Russian to learn to pronounce. The choral score is 342 pages long, and while a lot of that is the soloists, it's still an enormous piece - concert time runs to 2 hours and 45 minutes including a short intermission. But it finally came together in concert week, as it always does, with the help of 9 hours of rehearsal in the last couple days. And now it's fun - the chorus gets to do a lot of characterization, ranging from maidens weaving wreaths, to huntsmen in the forest, to peddlers in a market, to demons of hell, to worshipful pagans at the high temple. As we've gotten more comfortable with the music, we are doing a better job of making our physical personae match up with the music, and doing a little bit of acting. Fun stuff.
Entertaining MTT quotes from rehearsals of Mlada:
"It's sort of a Czarist Disney!"
"You're pagan equestrian I Ching hooligans!" referring to a scene where, in a full production, the priests set up poles, let horses ride around knocking them down, and then analyze the patterns to predict the future. The chorus sings its support of these events, but we weren't being enthusiastic enough to suit his tastes, so he tried to convince us we were supposed to be like soccer hooligans, eventually uttering the quote above.
"It's the Pagan Family Values act!" referring to the last act where we go to the temple and make offerings to our pagan gods and pray for forgiveness.
Back to Eric's chorus page


The Investment Tax Credit (ITC) currently pays for 30% of every Solar installation through a tax credit claimed against the tax liability of the solar array owner.
The U.S. tax code allows for a tax deduction for the recovery of the cost of tangible property over the useful life of the property. The Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) is the current depreciation method for most property. The market certainty provided by MACRS allows businesses in a variety of economic sectors to continue making long-term investments and has been found to be a significant driver of private investment for the solar industry and other energy industries. Businesses can write off the value of their solar energy system through using MACRS, reducing their tax burden and accelerating returns on solar investments. Accelerated depreciation can reduce net system cost by an additional 30 percent.
Note: The Consolidated Appropriations Act, signed in December 2015, extended the "placed in service" deadline for bonus depreciation. Equipment placed in service before January 1, 2018 can qualify for 50% bonus depreciation. Equipment placed in service during 2018 can qualify for 40% bonus depreciation. And equipment placed in service during 2019 can qualify for 30% bonus depreciation.
"a set of devices whose primary purpose is to collect solar energy and convert and store it for useful purposes including heating and cooling buildings or other energy-using processes, or to produce generated power by means of any combination of collecting, transferring, or converting solar-generated energy." M.S. 297A.67, subd. 29.
The exemption is very broad and could apply to solar Photovoltaic (PV) systems, solar water-heating systems and solar space-heating systems. All components of these systems are exempt, including panels, wiring, pipes, pumps and racks. Buyers must complete Minnesota Department of Revenue Form ST3 "Certificate of Exemption" in order to claim the exemption. Sellers are required to keep the form in their files for tax reference.
A newly-installed solar power system is 100% exempt from associated property taxes. When a solar power system is installed, your property value rises significantly, however, the solar array is property tax exempt.
Preserve Cash: Upgrade your property while preserving traditional bank credit and cash for other projects.
Low Annual Payments: Long term PACE financing results in low annual payments allowing energy savings to offset PACE payments.
Get Tax Incentives and Rebates: With PACE financing the property owner owns the system so they keep all rebates and tax incentives for the improvement.
Transfer Lien with Property: PACE lien is attached to the property and can transfer to next owner on sale of the property.
Off Balance Sheet: PACE financing is potentially off balance sheet. Consult your accountant for guidance.
Net metering is a billing mechanism that credits solar system owners for their surplus electricity added to the grid, allowing customers to apply that credit towards electricity they may draw from the grid at another time. In Minnesota, all utilities are required to provide net metering for all solar power systems less than 40 kW.
This means utility must compensate customers with systems less than 40 kW in size for net excess generation (NEG) at the "average retail utility energy rate," defined as "the total annual class revenue from sales of electricity minus the annual revenue resulting from fixed charges, divided by the annual class kilowatt-hour sales." Compensation may take the form of an actual payment (i.e., check for purchase) for NEG or as a credit on the customer's bill.
For systems sized 40 kW or greater but less than 1,000 kW in size, NEG will be credited at the avoided cost rate. Alternatively, a customer may elect to be compensated in the form of a kWh credit.
NEG credits will be reimbursed at the end of the calendar year at the avoided cost rate for customers of investor-owned utilities. NEG credits expire at the end of the year for customers of municipal utilities and electric cooperatives.


text:
This application uses the [Google Cloud Firestore client libraries](https://cloud.google.com/firestore/docs/quickstart-servers#java) and is compatible with Native Image compilation.

This sample runs through basic operations of creating a new document, running queries, and then deleting the created resources.

## Setup Instructions

You will need to follow these prerequisite steps in order to run the samples:

1. If you have not already, [create a Google Cloud Platform Project](https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/creating-managing-projects#creating_a_project).

2. Install the [Google Cloud SDK](https://cloud.google.com/sdk/) which will allow you to run the sample with your project's credentials.

   Once installed, log in with Application Default Credentials using the following command:

    ```
    gcloud auth application-default login
    ```

   **Note:** Authenticating with Application Default Credentials is convenient to use during development, but we recommend [alternate methods of authentication](https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/production) during production use.

3. Install the GraalVM compiler.

   You can follow the [official installation instructions](https://www.graalvm.org/docs/getting-started/#install-graalvm) from the GraalVM website.
   After following the instructions, ensure that you install the native image extension installed by running:

    ```
    gu install native-image
    ```

   Once you finish following the instructions, verify that the default version of Java is set to the GraalVM version by running `java -version` in a terminal.

   You will see something similar to the below output:

    ```
    $ java -version

    openjdk version "11.0.7" 2020-04-14
    OpenJDK Runtime Environment GraalVM CE 20.1.0 (build 11.0.7+10-jvmci-20.1-b02)
    OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM GraalVM CE 20.1.0 (build 11.0.7+10-jvmci-20.1-b02, mixed mode, sharing)
    ```

## Sample

1. If you wish to run the application against the [Firestore emulator](https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/beta/emulators/firestore), make sure that you have the [Google Cloud SDK](https://cloud.google.com/sdk) installed.

   In a new terminal window, start the emulator via `gcloud`:

    ```
    gcloud beta emulators firestore start --host-port=localhost:9010
    ```

   Leave the emulator running in this terminal for now.
   In the next section, we will run the sample application against the Firestore emulator instance.

2. Navigate to this directory and compile the application with the Native Image compiler.

    ```
    mvn package -P native -DskipTests
    ```

3. **(Optional)** If you're using the emulator, export the `FIRESTORE_EMULATOR_HOST` as an environment variable in your terminal.

    ```
    export FIRESTORE_EMULATOR_HOST=localhost:9010
    ```

   The Firestore Client Libraries will detect this environment variable and automatically connect to the emulator instance if this variable is set.

4. Run the application.

    ```
    ./target/native-image-sample
    ```

5. The application will run through some basic Firestore operations and log some output statements.

    ```
    Created user alovelace. Timestamp: 2020-12-15T20:19:28.444070000Z
    The following users were saved:
    Document: alovelace | Ada Lovelace born 1815
    Number of users born before 1900: 1
    Number of users born earlier after 1900: 0
    Number of users whose first name is 'Ada': 0
    ```

## Sample Integration test with Native Image Support

In order to run the sample integration test as a native image, call the following command:

   ```
   mvn test -Pnative
   ```

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
LG UltraFine 5K Display now available to order from Apple's website for $974
Chance Miller
- Nov. 28th 2016 2:47 pm PT
@ChanceHMiller
Update: The LG UltraFine 5K Display is no longer available to purchase. We'll keep an eye on availability and update when the situation changes.
After announcing that it was discontinuing its first-party display over the summer, Apple revealed at its Mac-centric event last month that it had partnered with LG for a pair of standalone displays. Now, Apple has made the LG UltraFine 5K Display available for purchase via its website.
Sylvania HomeKit Light Strip
If you head to Apple's Online Store, you'll be able to purchase the 27-inch LG UltraFine 5K Display for $974. That price may sound a bit out of left field, and that's because the LG display was one of the USB-C products that Apple discounted earlier this month following the release of the new MacBook Pros that feature exclusively USB-C ports. Prior to being available to order, Apple and LG's UltraFine 5K Display was listed as unavailable.
The LG UltraFine 5K Display is made specifically for Apple's new MacBook Pros and features a 5120 x 2880 resolution with a P3 wide color gamut. Included with the purchase is a Thunderbolt 3 cable, which can both transmit data and power/charge the new MacBook Pros. You'll also find three USB- C ports for additional connectivity, as well.
At this point, the UltraFine 5K Display is available online only with no in-store availability. Currently, Apple says that orders will ship in 6-8 weeks, for a delivery window of January 12th through January 26th.
It's worth noting, however, that the discount will disappear come January. Without the discount, the display will go for $1,299, so despite the long shipping times, it's likely better to get your order in now as opposed to waiting for in-store availability or for shipping times to go down.
If you're looking to spend a little less, Apple and LG also worked together on a 21.5-inch 4K UltraFine display that's available for $524 and shipping in 5-6 weeks. Once the USB-C discount goes away, this display will go for $699.
Last week, one of the first hands-on unboxing videos of the new LG UltraFine 5K Display hit the web and as more reviewers and customers get their hands on the display we should expect impressions to continue to roll in.
Do you plan on purchasing one of the new LG UltraFine displays? Let us know down in the comments.
If you're still seeing "unavailable," use private/incognito mode as you're still viewing a cached version of the page.
Apple's premium laptop comes in 13- and 15-inch screen sizes. Each model includes 2-4 USB-C ports for charging, accessories, and data transfer. Higher end models also include the Touch Bar.
LG UltraFine Display (4K & 5K)
The LG UltraFine Display is a product forged from a partnership between LG and Apple. It comes in both 4K and a 5K varieties, and features USB-C connectors for connecting to eligible Macs and for connecting peripherals.
Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.
Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com
Chance Miller's favorite gear
Shop Apple at Amazon
Twelve South Curve


I have a choice , either over trade or over post, patience means sitting with both your hands in the pockets.
I suspect the irony of F.L.s question is completely lost on him/her!!
I wouldnt want to be a member of a private club that would want people like me as a member.
I'm thinking FL is a little bit of both.
You better at cricket than snake charming.
Took a moment for the penny to drop!
what is wrong with you , I know you are trades are great?


Earned the New Brew Thursday (Level 42) badge! Earned the Brewery Pioneer (Level 76) badge!
Earned the Brown Bag Liquor (Level 67) badge!
Earned the Cheers to Independent U.S. Craft Breweries (Level 41) badge! Earned the Riding Steady (Level 82) badge!
Head was good. I could pin point the hops. Solid beer. I just enjoy beer like this regardless.
Earned the Cheers to Independent U.S. Craft Breweries (Level 25) badge! Earned the New Brew Thursday (Level 23) badge!
Nice dry finish. I like it.
Earned the Pale as the Moon (Level 8) badge! Earned the Land of the Free (Level 24) badge!


text:
swisspartners Talent
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partners' view
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Becoming a swissPARTNER
Values, vision and mission
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this is the else
Finance meets art - swisspartners – The art of finance
Finance meets art
MARKUS WINTSCH, CEO OF THE SWISSPARTNERS GROUP, AND SIMONE TÖLLNER, HEAD MARKETING, EXCHANGE IDEAS WITH GALLERY OWNERS CLAUDIUS OCHSNER AND DANIEL WAHRENBERGER FROM THE GALLERY WOS ON THEIR LOVE OF ART AND ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ART AND CREATIVITY AT SWISSPARTNERS.
The discussion was moderated by Kathrin Meister.
Art has always featured large at swisspartners. The swisspartners slogan, "The Art of Finance", was created in 2016. How did this strong affinity to art come about?
Markus Wintsch: Art plays a central role at swisspartners and has done for the past 29 years. The founding partners, as well as the partners who joined through to the end of the 1990s, are all art lovers. They all share close connections with art. And the same partners have a long track record of erving clients who also have an affinity to art.
In some cases, partners have brought their own private artworks into the office. Building on this, we have gradually expanded our art collection in collaboration with various art dealers. When selecting works for this purpose, we have always insisted on them having a connection to the world of finance. We have also commissioned painters to create works of art exclusively for swisspartners. One picture, for example, embodies the swisspartners values.
Our affinity to art is also expressed in our slogan, "The art of finance". This was created during the last makeover of our corporate identity. Today, it is an integral part of our corporate design. It is a highly versatile slogan that we mix and match in a variety of ways. In the case of Partners' View, for instance, we have picked "The art of reading".
"Our affinity to art is also expressed in our slogan, 'The art of finance'."
Markus Wintsch
What role does art play in your clients' asset portfolios?
Markus Wintsch: Just like real estate or collectible cars, art has long been firmly established as an asset class in the investment portfolios of wealthy private clients. Many clients of swisspartners have been collecting art for decades. This is something we frequently only learn about when we visit them in their own homes. In their home surroundings, we are not only able to gain a better picture of our clients and their families, but also get to see how they live and what is important to them. Art often plays a prominent role here.
"I see my role as an opportunity to combine the fields of art and marketing."
Simone Töllner
The partnership between the Gallery WOS and swisspartners goes back a long way. How did it come about?
Claudius Ochsner: Through my former gallery Barr & Ochsner, I have been in close contact with Ralph Schuler ever since early 2000. Our collaboration took on a more concrete form when Simone Töllner came in.
Simone Töllner: Art in our organisation is a subject that is very close to my heart. Shortly after I joined swisspartners in July 2019, I met with the three owners of the Gallery WOS to set up a working partnership. This covers, on the one hand, the swisspartners art events and, on the other, support for our in-house art exhibitions. We enjoy a great degree of freedom and trust on the part of swisspartners' management in advancing our art projects. This has naturally added to the success of our partnership to date. Thanks to art, we are able to bring new creative flair to our office premises and to inspire our clients at art events.
What do the three letters WOS stand for and how are you specialised?
Daniel Wahrenberger: The letters stand for the gallery's three owners, Wahrenberger, Ochsner and Schafflützel. Its 'predecessor' galleries, Barr & Ochsner and Wahrenberger, boast over 50 years of combined experience in the art market. Back then, Thomas Schafflützel helped out in my gallery. At a meeting with Claudius Ochsner, we came up with the idea of presenting a combined booth at the next art fair. Shortly after that, Thomas Schafflützel moved to Barr & Ochsner. We then launched our joint gallery, the Gallery WOS, in September 2019. You can find us in Zurich's beautiful Kirchgasse, where we opened our premises in mid-2020. We inaugurated another showroom in Pfäffikon this March.
Claudius Ochsner: Due to the merger of two galleries, we are naturally very broadly positioned. On the one hand, we represent the programme of the former Barr & Ochsner gallery: classical modernism with a focus on German expressionism, American pop art and European art of the 1940s and 1950s. Daniel Wahrenberger traditionally has a different approach to art: He primarily represents a small circle of contemporary artists with whom he maintains personal contact.
"Only together with his friends could someone like Picasso become a person who influenced generations of artists."
Claudius Ochsner
Simone Töllner, you are head marketing at swisspartners and oversee the in-house art exhibitions and art events. Would you like to tell us something about your connection to creativity and art?
Simone Töllner: I was given the opportunity to join swisspartners as Head Marketing in 2019. My background is actually in the humanities: I studied art history, philosophy and German literature and followed up with a master's in cultural studies and media conception in Zurich. After that, I qualified in marketing in part-time study. That makes me quite the odd one out in finance (laughs). Creativity is literally something I was born into, as my grandfather was a landscape painter of the classical Munich school at Munich Academy of Fine Arts. I spent my childhood between canvases and the smell of turpentine and linseed oil (painting materials – ed.). Before swisspartners, I worked for about 12 years in sales and marketing at several prestigious Swiss art galleries. As many of my former gallery clients were from finance, I was able to develop a high affinity for the finance sector during that time. I see my role at swisspartners as an opportunity to combine the fields of art and marketing. The working atmosphere in our organisation is characterised by individuality and creativity. That's probably why I feel so at home here.
swisspartners is currently redesigning its Zurich office. Meanwhile, the Gallery WOS has opened a new showroom in Pfäffikon,Schwyz. How big a role do spaces play in unlocking creativity?
Markus Wintsch: Certainly a big one! The only thing I regret about the remodelling of our office premises is that art will probably have to take a back seat. But together with the Gallery WOS or our artist friends, I'm confident that we will find a way to integrate art into our open-plan layout. We would like to continue to give our team the opportunity to identify themselves through art and to create a creative atmosphere of well-being in our premises.
Simone Töllner: At swisspartners, we had two different permanent exhibitions in the past, each with a completely different ambiance. We are also noticing how strongly our employees have identified with 'our' art over time. As already mentioned, works of art that hung in our corridors and offices for many years were sold because of the redesign – in some cases triggering strong emotions.
Markus Wintsch: Clients have frequently picked up on our artworks as a talking point over the last 29 years. Often enough, we spoke at greater length about the art in our premises than about the performance of their portfolios (laughs). Because our redesigned offices will have an open-plan layout, it's going to be a challenge to hang art here. In future, we will make more flexible use of the space we have available for creativity and art – among other things with loans from the Gallery WOS. Accordingly, we are now in the process of selling a large part of our art collection.
Daniel Wahrenberger: Not long after opening our gallery in July 2020, we had to go into lockdown. One positive outcome of the pandemic has been that because people had to spend more time working from home, they wanted to make their home surroundings more attractive. It goes without saying that art is an important part of this. Art also plays a major role when it comes to receiving visitors, whether at home or in the office. As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
What do you hope that the open-plan layout will do for the creativity of your work at swisspartners?
Markus Wintsch: My great wish is that after the pandemic, people will be happy to come back to the office to exchange ideas and maintain social contacts. All of that has suffered over the last two-and-a-half years. Getting people to return to work from the office isn't at all easy. But the remodelling of our office premises is bound to motivate our team to come and work in a superbly designed office environment and finally meet colleagues again. After all, we spend around two-thirds of our waking hours at work. As part of the redesign, we hope to incorporate ideas that were previously unthinkable, such as living green walls. So as well as promoting art and creativity, we will also to an extent be bringing nature into the office.
"We would like to continue to give our team the opportunity to identify themselves through art."
On 5 may, the Gallery WOS opened a new exhibition, Picasso & Friends. The exhibition shines the light on Picasso's work in connection with a circle of other outstanding artistic personalities. To what extent does the principle of "Individuality and Mutuality" also apply to the finance sector?
Markus Wintsch: As our client base gets younger, the more important the team approach to customer service becomes for us as a financial boutique. Today, flexible advisory approaches are needed from different people with different know-how, strengths and weaknesses. In the past, you could cover all bases with a one-man or one-woman show – one Picasso, if you will. But growing specialisation has massively changed the game over the last ten years. Nowadays, no one person can know everything, or provide all services. It always takes a strong team. In the Picasso & Friends exhibition, it is the 'friends' who are the team. At swisspartners, we not only need friends from within our own ranks, but also friends from outside the company.
Is our interpretation of the Picasso & Friends exhibition at the Gallery WOS accurate?
Claudius Ochsner: Picasso was, of course, an outstanding personality. Together with Georges Braques and Juan Gris, he founded Cubism. But if his circle of friends – other artists who were also productive at the time – had not taken up the movement, it would have remained a flash in the pan. Only together with his friends could someone like Picasso become a person who influenced generations of artists. In the other direction, his friends also influenced Picasso's own work. He too took up elements from other artists and reinterpreted them. A good artist doesn't live and work in isolation from the outside world. He or she goes out to see, hear, read and visit exhibitions. The result is either a poor impression of the collected elements – or something brilliant. In Picasso's case, it was the latter.
"At some point, you embark on your own 'art journey', and that ends up resembling a tree that branches out in all sorts of directions, again and again."
Daniel Wahrenberger
Which art movement or artist has shaped and inspired you most over the years?
Claudius Ochsner: Paul Cézanne never fails to fascinate me as an artist. He is one of the founders of modernism, redefined the artistic eye for detail, played with light and shadow, left unfinished works that as far as he was concerned were finished, and anticipated Cubism and abstraction. Without him, 20th century art would simply not have happened.
Daniel Wahrenberger: My background is in contemporary art, as you know, and I have always actively worked with artists and also coached them. After we merged our two galleries, for example, I discovered modernist cynicism for myself. Committing to a single art movement would definitely be too narrow. At some point, you embark on your own 'art journey', and that ends up resembling a tree that branches out in all sorts of directions, again and again. There is always something new to discover, but everything goes back to the same roots.
Simone Töllner: My roots without question are drawn from the old masters. At the same time, out there in the fringes, there are many artists that I admire very much. But the common thread that has followed me through my entire life is figurative art. I am fascinated by art that depicts, or that completely distorts reality. At home, I have lots of portraits and full-length works – I like to surround myself with people and faces. I live with my 'friends' on the canvases and am happy in their company.
Markus Wintsch: When collecting, I focus on modern art, which is atypical for the finance sector. An important factor for me is to know the artists personally. For example, I have acquired 50 artworks from one artist, because supporting the livelihood of this artist and his family is a project close to my heart. I also love large-format paintings and value harmonious colours. Art has to flow as part of the contextual environment – the frame, the surroundings and the people who live there.
Would you describe yourself as creative?
Daniel Wahrenberger: We are not short on creativity. The important thing is to channel it in an organised way. When you own a gallery and deal with different artists, art movements, projects, art fairs and so forth on a daily basis, creativity just flows of its own accord. It is important to find a common thread while staying open to new projects, such as with swisspartners.
Claudius Ochsner: Another facet of creativity is that we seek creative financing solutions for collectors who would like to buy something but do not have enough money at that moment.
Simone Töllner: Sure I'm creative, or I wouldn't be where I am today. I might not create art as such in the way that an artist does, but I always try and find creative solutions.
Markus Wintsch: I like to bring my creativity to bear in the interior and exterior of investment properties – that's my passion. Creativity is particularly needed in the property sector because buildings are often so monotonous. When it comes to the interior design of our offices, though, I'm happy to leave the creativity to Simone Töllner and Vanessa Burkart (Head Human Relations). They do a great job here on their own! I look forward to finally getting back together in person with the swisspartners team and harnessing our mutual inspiration in our redesigned premises.
"Art has to flow as part of the contextual environment – the frame, the surroundings and the people who live there."
More about the Gallery WOS:
galerie-wos.com/en
Who is …?
Yes, but is this art?
Creative advisory solutions
ONE by swisspartners
Your Wealth at a Glance.
swisspartners new service: ESG Investments and sustainable investing


text:
NY judge will not release grand jury transcripts in chokehold death
By Brendan Pierson
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York state judge on Thursday refused to release the transcripts of secret grand jury proceedings into the killing of an unarmed black man last July by a white police officer who put him in a chokehold.
Acting Supreme Court Justice William Garnett said that civil liberty groups, the news media, public defenders and New York's elected public advocate had not shown a "compelling and particularized need" for the records, and that making them public would undermine the grand jury process.
"Most important to the integrity and thoroughness of the criminal justice system is the assurance to witnesses that their testimony and cooperation are not the subject of public comment or criticism," the judge wrote.
Eric Garner's death, along with the fatal shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old black man in Ferguson, Missouri, last August by a white police officer sparked protests around the country by people outraged by police treatment of African Americans.
A grand jury in New York City's Staten Island declined to indict the officer who put Garner in a chokehold, Daniel Pantaleo, on any charges last December.
New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, the Legal Aid Society, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Staten Island branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the New York Post all petitioned for the release of the grand jury records.
NYCLU Legal Director Arthur Eisenberg said in a statement that his organization was disappointed with the decision, adding that it "reinforced the distrust many New Yorkers already feel toward the performance of the criminal justice system in this case."
Daniel Donovan Jr., the Staten Island district attorney who presided over the Garner grand jury proceedings, said in a statement that he respected the judge's decision.
The NYCLU and Staten Island's public defender said at a hearing in February the transcript would let the public decide whether officers get special treatment from grand juries.
(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Lisa Shumaker)
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Hey, this is skool, and I would like to show you this new Miner-Hog hybrid deck I've been using.
First, I'll be talking about replacements.
Miner- Knight, although this will change the playstyle and make the deck more defensive, even though it already has many good defensive cards.
Ice wizard- Minions, Archers, Electro wizard- Electro wizard is the best replacement but the others work fine, too.
Bowler- Executioner, but it isn't as good because of reasons we'll discuss later.
Tornado- Poison, it reduces defensive capability but works better with the miner.
The log- Zap, very similar function.
Inferno tower- cannon, if you want a faster cycle.
Skeletons- Ice spirit, both of these are usually a cycle card, but skeletons are better for distraction, Ice spirit is better with Hog, your choice.
Miner- Great card in general, both offense and defense. Pair with tornado/poison to get extra damage and supplement the hog. I usually use it more in games when my opponent has good counters to hog. Try to use it on OFFENSE.
Ice Wizard- Great on defense, takes out hordes of troops. Works extremely well with Bowler and Tornado. Also use to counterpush.
Bowler- Excellent against hog, e-barbs and almost all troops. Most underrated card in the game. Also good on offense as a tank for hog or miner.
You can go to the profile settings and manage your decks. If you got problems the editor is not 100% ready.