text:
Walking a Mile in Iran's Shoes
March 29, 2007 Topic: Security Region: Persian GulfMiddle East
Iranian Ambassador to the UN Javad Zarif defends Iran's uranium-enrichment program and suggests that Iran cannot be "bullied" into denuclearizing.
by Marisa Morrison
Despite the long-standing enmity between the United States and Iran, there is one thing that the two countries can agree on: Nuclear weapons are dangerous. Of course, according to the Iranian Ambassador to the UN, Javad Zarif, most Iranians would disagree with Bush's notion that Iran is a "most dangerous regime" that seeks these "most dangerous weapons." Speaking at The Nixon Center yesterday, he strenuously defended his country's right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. But he emphasized that nuclear weapons are very dangerous weapons and that Iran does not want them.
The sophisticated but occasionally fiery Zarif blamed mutual misunderstandings between the United States and the Iranians for creating the present showdown on nuclear weapons. The lack of communication between the two countries has allowed gross misperceptions to flourish, breeding an atmosphere of deep mistrust when their officials do interact. Some of this tension between the United States and Iran would be alleviated if the two adversaries would consider the national interests of the other, the ambassador asserted. A recognition of each state's security concerns could represent a first step towards a solution to the nuclear standoff, he said.
Unfortunately, the ambassador perceives that the possibility of a negotiated settlement is receding: Iran, the United States and Europe had a much better chance of striking a deal two years ago than they do today. The root of this impasse, as Zarif sees it, is the United States' assumption that ratcheting up the pressure on Iran will compel the mullahs to meet U.S. and UN demands.
However, as the United States continues to "bully" Iran, Zarif said, the Islamic Republic's leadership becomes increasingly hesitant to make concessions on its nuclear program, Zarif said. In the end, he added, current U.S. policy on Iran will "backfire", as "a few more Security Council resolutions [will make] a few more centrifuges in Iran."
Not only does the United States employ the wrong techniques to resolve the nuclear issue, but it apparently involves the wrong parties in the process of finding a solution. While the United States frames Iranian uranium enrichment as a problem with a multilateral solution, the Iranian government strongly believes that only bilateral talks between the United States and Iran-not Security Council sanctions-will produce positive results.
By making the nuclear conflict the overriding issue in its relations with Iran, the United States-in the ambassador's opinion-is squandering the opportunity to gain Iran's assistance in quelling the violence in Iraq. Both Iran and the United States have an interest in creating stability in Iraq, so-Zarif asked-why does the United States insist on alienating Iraq's neighbor?
He also suggested that resolving the U.S.-Iran conflict might be easier than holding Iraq together. While the mullahs and politicians may not agree on every issue, they stand shoulder-to-shoulder in favor of uranium enrichment. There may be multiple power centers in the Iranian government, but these competing groups coalesce around the nuclear issue. Meanwhile, the ever-unfolding Iraq drama presents the United States with a multitude of domestic players with incompatible interests. The American officials responsible for managing the situation in Iraq have a task in front of them akin to retrieving water that has been poured on the ground, said Zarif.
Before moving into the off-the-record portion of his talk, the ambassador offered a stern warning to those who still think that a military solution to the nuclear issue is possible. An American use of force would not only violate international law, he said, but would also be ineffective in resolving the nuclear issue. In fact, Zarif concluded, it is precisely because force has been shown to be ineffective in international affairs that governments were able to outlaw its use.
Marisa Morrison is an apprentice editor at The National Interest.


Lee's years of experience in the print business allows him to advise on the best type and weight of stock for your particular job, and to help you select the right finish. These decisions are important – there is a wide range of paper and boards to choose from and Lee can help you avoid making any expensive mistakes.
Lee has managed our print room since 1989; his high level of quality control and attention to detail are matched only by meticulous planning, from plate making through production, to collating and distribution.


text:
package com.google.gwt.dom.client;

import com.google.gwt.core.client.JavaScriptObject;

/**
 * HTML5 article element.
 *
 * @see W3C HTML5 Draft
 */
@TagName(ArticleElement.TAG)
public class ArticleElement extends Element {
    public static final String TAG = "article";

    /**
     * Assert that the given {@link Element} is compatible with this class and automatically typecast it.
     */
    public static ArticleElement as(Element element) {
        assert is(element);
        return (ArticleElement) element;
    }

    /**
     * Determines whether the given {@link JavaScriptObject} can be cast to this class. A null object will
     * cause this method to return false.
     * @param o the object to test
     * @return true if the given object can be cast to this class, false if otherwise or null
     */
    public static boolean is(JavaScriptObject o) {
        if(Element.is(o)) {
            return is((Element)o);
        }
        return false;
    }

    /**
     * Determines whether the given {@link Node} can be cast to this class. A null object will cause this
     * method to return null.
     * @param node the Node object to test
     * @return true if the given Node can be cast to this class, false if otherwise or null
     */
    public static boolean is(Node node) {
        if(Element.is(node)) {
            return is((Element)node);
        }
        return false;
    }

    /**
     * Determines whether the given {@link Element} can be cast to this class. A null object will cause
     * this method to return null.
     * @param elem the Element object to test
     * @return true if the given Element can be cast to this class, false if otherwise or null
     */
    public static boolean is(Element elem) {
        return elem != null && elem.hasTagName(TAG);
    }

    protected ArticleElement() {

    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This chapter in the Sustainable Community Strategy reflects our belief that coordinated advice and information services and resources make a real difference to resident's lives and the city as a whole.
People often turn to these services for help when they are facing difficult times, for example when someone in the family has lost their job, when they are facing relationship breakdown, bereavement or perhaps when someone in the family has fallen ill.
Ensuring people have early access to the advice and information they need has huge benefits to the individual as it helps to stop problems from getting worse. This has wider benefits for the community and economy as it means individuals are less likely to need to depend on services further down the line and more likely to be able to make the most of the opportunities open to them.


Midnight Mango E-Liquid by Mouse Chef is a rich mango with a delicious blend of ripe peaches for a sweet, fruity and creamy taste.
It was exactly what it said it was the description was right on.
5 out of 5	Mango Madness!
A lot of fruit vapes miss their mark in my opinion. The flavor is typically too subtle, or fake tasting for my palate. Not the case with Midnight Mango! Mouse Chef delivers with a bold, sweet, fresh mango flavor, with subtle hints of other fruits, that add a bit of body to it. Talk about a fantastic summer, or beach vacation juice! I really enjoyed it in Southern California, while hanging out on the beach.
3 out of 5	Must have for mango lovers..
This juice have a average sweetness and mango flavor, i can say the juice is not addictive but, it is a juice that you can add in your juiceline for people who love mango..


Moon phase on 14 February 2018 Wednesday is Waning Crescent, 28 days old Moon is in Aquarius.
Waning Crescent is the lunar phase on 14 February 2018, Wednesday . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 2% and getting smaller. The 28 days old Moon is in ♒ Aquarius.
Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 7 February 2018 at 15:54.
Lunar disc appears visually 8.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1781" and ∠1943".
Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2018 after 15 days on 2 March 2018 at 00:51.
The Moon is 28 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the second to the final part of current synodic month. This is lunation 223 of Meeus index or 1176 from Brown series.
2 days after point of apogee on 11 February 2018 at 14:16 in ♐ Sagittarius. The lunar orbit is getting closer, while the Moon is moving inward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 13 days, until it get to the point of next perigee on 27 February 2018 at 14:48 in ♋ Cancer.
Moon is 402 485 km (250 093 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves closer next 13 days until perigee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 363 938 km (226 141 mi).
Moon is in descending node in ♒ Aquarius at 21:11 on this date, it crosses the ecliptic from North to South. Moon will follow the southern part of its orbit for the next 13 days to meet ascending node on 28 February 2018 at 05:03 in ♌ Leo.
2 days after previous South standstill on 11 February 2018 at 23:21 in ♑ Capricorn, when Moon has reached southern declination of ∠-20.026°. Next 11 days the lunar orbit moves northward to face North declination of ∠20.056° in the next northern standstill on 25 February 2018 at 20:07 in ♋ Cancer.
After 1 day on 15 February 2018 at 21:05 in ♒ Aquarius, the Moon will be in New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy.


text:
KIT WISE
Travel is an integral part of Kit Wise's life and work. Born in Portsmouth, UK, Wise studied at the Royal College of Art in London before receiving a post-graduate scholarship to the British School in Rome.
Recent work has focused on the experiences of the rapid-transit traveler and how international urban environments can feel both familiar and strange. Currently, Wise uses the notion of the artist as 'sojourner' to assess the increasingly fluid or plastic experience of geographical and cultural space. His practice ranges across digital photography, sculpture, animation and drawing.
In 2006 Wise will occupy the Australia Council Tokyo Studio. His work was recently included in Group Material at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and in Bodybag at the Academy of the Arts at Inveresk. He currently resides in Melbourne and lectures in the Faculty of Art & Design at Monash University.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Imperial War Museum, London
Oppy Wood, 1917, Evening by John Nash, 1919
On the morning of 30 December 1917, during the Battle of Cambrai, John Nash along with eighty other fellow infantrymen taking part in a counter-attack climbed out of a snow-bound trench at Welsh Ridge near Marcoing on the Western Front. Immediately raked by enemy machine-gun fire, with 'all officers killed or wounded and only one sergeant left', Nash was one of only a dozen men to survive the action unscathed.
The experience gave rise in the following year to two of his greatest oils: 'Over the Top: 1st Artists' Rifles at Marcoing, 30 December 1917', one of a handful of officially commissioned works depicting a specific moment in the conflict; and the tranquil pastoral evening scene 'The Cornfield', painted, in Nash's words, 'at sheer relief at being alive and in the English countryside'. Other striking images of the War include the haunting canvas 'Oppy Wood, 1917, Evening'.
These works, along with around three hundred oils, watercolours, drawings, wood engravings and lithographs, from a career that spanned nearly seven decades, are now on display at the Towner Gallery in Eastborne, in the first major retrospective of the artist for over half a century. The exhibition shares its title, 'John Nash: The Landscape of Love and Solace', with the first comprehensive study of Nash's life and works by Andy Friend, co-curator with Sara Cooper of the show, which will travel on to Compton Verney in Warwickshire in October.
Unlike his brother, the Surrealist and landscape painter Paul Nash, who was four years older and trained at the Slade, John never received any formal art education. However, by the time he was 20, in 1913, he began featuring in shows in London, Brighton and Leeds and catching the eye of the critic Frank Rutter, who later recorded being impressed in John's work by 'an extraordinary innocence of vision and sense of delight and wonderment in all seen and painted'.
With the outbreak of war it became no longer viable to make a living as an artist and John took a job first in a factory, then an office. In 1915, he attempted to join up, but was rejected as 'unfit', which left him feeling 'like a sheep going to slaughter & reprieved by the butcher's whim'. His more established and better connected brother, Paul, had already been accepted for officer training and moved on to become an Official War Artist.
When John was finally enlisted in 1916, it was as a private. Paul visited him one day near the Front in his chauffeur-driven car and John later recorded that his brother never appreciated how very different their experiences of the war had been and had 'no conception of the realities of being an ordinary soldier'.
John's application to become a War Artist was finally granted in 1918. But as one in the 'other ranks' he had not been allowed to make drawings or sketches of any kind while in the trenches, so unlike Paul he had to rely on his well-attested talent of close observation and extraordinary powers of recall. And when John's war works were displayed, a veteran of the Marcoing action said of Over The Top that 'it immediately recalled in every detail the early morning scene on Welsh Ridge on December 30th, 1917'.
John first met Christine Kühlenthal, a student at the Slade, shortly before the War. She was the daughter of a German family comfortably settled in England. They shared interests beyond art - both were accomplished pianists and country lovers - and their friendship blossomed into a love affair. With John's being sent back to the Front no longer a threat 'for the forseeable', they married in May 1918. near Christine's family home in Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire. They agreed that even after formalizing their relationship both should be free to have 'other loves', an unconventional arrangement that survived nearly six decades of marriage, she continuing to have affairs with both men and women and he with other women.
Christine's journals and the couple's letters have proved an invaluable source for Andy Friend's excellent book accompanying the exhibition, and he has been assiduous in untangling the complex ramifications of Nash's and Christine's extramarital excursions. Christine was considerably better trained technically than John and showed real talent, but from the start she decided that his career should take precedence and, as Friend amply demonstrates, her support was a vital element in his fulfilling his gifts and forging a successful artistic career.
'John Nash lives in the country,' wrote John Rothenstein, then director of the Tate in 1956, 'he is a life-long and single minded lover of landscape'. And, as Andy Friend points out, half his work as a painter can be traced back to places within a quarter of an hour's walk of the three successive cottages where he and Christine lived, in Whiteleaf and Meadle in Bucks and Bottengoms Farm near Wormingford on the Essex-Suffolk border. However, every year he also made regular expeditions to further flung locations such as Norfolk, Dorset, Cornwall, Wales, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Skye and latterly to Provence.
During the 1920s he also showed 'a growing inclination towards a close up view of things', finding 'half a haystack' as interesting as 'a wide stretch of country'. This led to a parallel career as one of the 20th-century's most important botanical painters and contributions to numerous publications in this field. Among these were classics such as his 'Poisonous Plants' (1927), 'English Garden Flowers' (1948) and 'The Artist Plantsman' (1974), most of the text for which he completed in a single day before his death three years later.
Despite the Wall Street Crash in 1929, Nash's one-man show in London the following year was 'a sell-out'. In those troubled times a critic writing in The Observer commented that Nash 'seems to approach Nature with a serene peace of mind and finds restful foliage of luxuriant trees, the sleeping waters of forest ponds, the quiet harbours at eventide, or the homely shapes of simple wild flowers easily adjustable to his abundant store of formalized conceptions'.
The frontispiece of the catalogue featured his oil 'Yarmouth Docks', which the newspaper's critic singles out for special praise, not least for its mellowness and 'harmoniously subdued range of pinks and greys'. However, by the end of the decade the artist was to find himself in the far from tranquil setting of a dockyard under attack by massed German bombers.
Nash was one of the few painters to serve as a War Artist in both World Wars. He originally volunteered for the Observer Corps, but thanks to Sir Kenneth Clark was recruited as a painter and dispatched to the naval dockyard at Devonport. This time, in the uniform of an Honorary Royal Marine Captain, he was free to record whatever he wished. But he was constantly interrupted by the necessity to return salutes and, having been reported by suspicious dockyard workers for 'making plans', with demands to produce his identity papers. This culminated with the artist being arrested at the seaplane base and marched off under armed guard.
Despite the obstacles, Nash produced a number of memorable works. But he was clearly somewhat relieved to be moved on to the Swansea Docks. There, caught in the middle of a major bombing raid, he spent the night taking part in the firefighting, an experience that resulted in 'Dockyard Fire' (1940), which has been described 'as radical a work as any produced in the Second World War.' The artist was even happier when he secured 'a hush hush job', applying his skills to deception and camouflage in preparation for the D-Day landings.
Unlike Paul Nash, who was considered a leading British modernist and exhibited at the Surrealist Exhibition in Paris in 1938, John remained on the periphery of fashionable metropolitan artistic circles and remained little affected by modernist movements in contemporary art. Nevertheless, in 1967 he was accorded a retrospective at the Royal Academy, displaying over 250 pieces, an unprecedented tribute for a living artist at that time.
A number of critics during the course of Nash's career commented on the directness and intensity of his vision. Of himself he said: 'I don't look for more than the reality but reality does move one and at times even startle one'.
Nash was always a self-effacing artist and reluctant to put himself centre stage. Yet his work does convey something of the man. As a more recent critic, Christopher Neve, perceptively observed: 'In the honest surfaces of the pictures, it is fair to detect an undertow of loneliness, even of melancholy… the only figure in the landscape is Nash himself, the viewer, and the degree of introspection implied by the paintings makes the possibility of intrusion by other people almost alarming.' And it is such elusive qualities that also contribute to making his work so engaging and absorbing.
John Nash: Landscape of Love and Solace; Towner Gallery, Eastborne, 17 May - 26 September 2021; Compton Verney, Warwickshire, 23 October - 2 January 2022; The Landscape of Love and Solace by Andy Friend (Thames & Hudson (£30)