This paper was presented by Nakita Valerio for the Annual HCGSA Conference at the University of Alberta, February 2016.
This unusual comment has always stuck with me, not only because it is indicative of a kind of German-centric authority in memorializing the Holocaust but also because it demonstrates a narrative common about Poland, which even permeates within Poland, about a kind of ineptitude at existing in general, never mind at memorializing what is considered one of the most important sites of memory for the Holocaust. This curator is not the only person to express a sense of insufficiency when visiting the camp, in fact, entire books have tried to get at why the memorials at Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau leave the visitor with a nagging sense of incompleteness and "restlessness of the soul". Such authours as Jonathan Webber argue that the Holocaust is a rupture in the fabric of creation, and that trying to identify its causes (morally) leads to insurmountable issues for the writers of history, thus rendering any memorial hopelessly inadequate, presumably more so than memorials normally are. Webber is not alone, citing a slew of authours grappling with the immense anti-ethical implications of the Holocaust and failing to come up with solutions for curators of this critical space. Webber concludes his article by citing the lack of a unified religious (specifically Jewish) voice as crucial for reconciling the immensity of the Holocaust to our inability to reason with it and, by extension, as a comfort for our collective morality.
I argue that it is neither some kind of perceived Polish ineptitude nor a lack of religious unity nor existential trauma that are to blame in terms of the majority of problems people have with the camp, and, in fact, the sacralisation that happens in the latter formulations, which make Auschwitz the inverse of the Kantian sublime, inhibit our ability to assess Auschwitz for the historical space that it is. The symbol of Auschwitz is no longer the historical place of Auschwitz and something very valuable and illuminating has been lost in the process. Considering I am working in the field of social memory and the Holocaust, you would think I would be deeply interested in the symbolic currency of the symbol of Auschwitz and how it is used in various mindscapes of cultural systems around the world –and I am. But my point in trying to ground us in the physical space of Auschwitz once more is to note something of urgent necessity which thinkers who sacralize the camp run the risk of overlooking, and which could have dire consequences for the symbolic use of Auschwitz in the future: its conservation.
Before I get into the stark challenges of conservation, which are wholly unique to it and will illuminate a major reason for the sense of insufficiency in the camps, I want to discuss both the problems of religious unity and sacralization briefly. An article published on August 10, 2007 by The Krakow Post was entitled "U.S. Sacred Ground Foundation wants to build sanctuary in Auschwitz." The concept behind the proposed monument "was to reflect a symbolic burial ground for those who died in the concentration camp." The presumed purpose of something like this is to recognize the diversity of people who died in Auschwitz and whose remains ought to be honoured. It is also assumed that this sort of project has been undertaken because of the impossibility of separating intermingled remains for appropriate burial according to each victim's religion. Ultimately, however, "The International Auschwitz Board [was] not keen on the project [because] Auschwitz is considered to be a cemetery today and Judaism does not permit any monument erection within the grounds of a cemetery." Other such memorials have been proposed and rejected in the past, preferring instead to be built outside of the camp where they "have a greater chance of success." This is but one example of how Auschwitz has become a contested space. Some might argue that contestation is an inherent part of constructing culturally important places, particularly those that are religiously sacred; that, by virtue of defining a place for one group, others will necessarily be excluded. This is a bleak reality that does not bode well for the future of those seeking to heal at Auschwitz for numerous demographics who flock there looking for closure and answers, nor for those who want to use it as a space of learning for future generations. It is, in my opinion, that under exceptional circumstances, exceptions need to be made. An example of this type of exception was reported again in The Krakow Post when an Aboriginal Elder from the Budawang people in New South Wales Australia was permitted to perform the first ever Aboriginal healing ceremony in Auschwitz. Perhaps it was the fact that 59-year-old Noel Butler had no link whatsoever to any identifiable religious group that had been victimized at Auschwitz that he was permitted to do this. However, this reasoning does not hold true for a mass Muslim prayer for the dead held inside the camp and conducted by imams from around the world on May 23, 2013. Rather, perhaps the acceptance of such acts of ritual healing have been accepted by the establishment because of the impermanence of such ceremonies.
Religious contestation of the space is, by far, the least of the worries associated with the camp. Most of these attempts at closure and religious healing in the space are thwarted by its sacralization in another realm: with the elevation of Auschwitz as the site for commemorating the tragedy of the Holocaust, as somehow emblematic of the entire historical episode's face. By making Auschwitz untouchable, a kind of gruesome hierophany at which all the darkness of the human soul broke through and is somehow still emanating from that space, many historians have lost the ability to see what really underlies the first main obstacle to memorialization, something completely left aside in the conversation: that is, conservation.
The record for the preservation of Auschwitz has been grim and it is clear that the primary reasons for this relates to inadequate funding that has hampered the process of restoring the buildings and other structures of the camps.
Part of the issue with this state of affairs is the size of the camp and thus the sheer volume of funds that are required on a continual basis for the maintenance and upkeep of the grounds. For anyone who has not been there, the three camps comprising the Auschwitz zone are enormous and total 40 square kilometers or 4000 hectares. In comparison, the other major killing zones on Polish soil are tiny. Treblinka, is a mere 17 hectares. It was never conceived of as anything other than a place to commit murder and the overwhelming majority of people sent there were killed within two hours of their arrival, totaling a minimum of 870,000 murders. Belzec camp near Lublin, Poland (another death center only) was reported to have been the site of murder for at least 434,508 people. It measures only 27 hectares. Sobobir death camp claimed the lives of between 200,000 and 250,000 prisoners and it measures only 24 hectares. Auschwitz, on the other hand, was part of a larger agricultural and industrial experiment initiated by Heinrich Himmler to assist Germans of the Reich who had settled on stolen Polish land. Slave labour from the camp, involving around 10,000 prisoners at any given time, was part of the prerogative of the creation of Auschwitz. The size of the camp is the first major obstacle to preservation because the level of funding required is both enormous and in constant demand. The fact that the camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau has come to stand for the face of the entire Holocaust makes its preservation crucial for many and yet, it is in need of the most funding to do this, to the neglect of other killing centers.
Reports immediately after the fall of the USSR indicated that many of the wooden barracks had rotted away, the crematoria were literally sinking into the ground, and the mountains of belongings stolen from the victims (from their hair to shoes, suitcases and eyeglasses) were breaking down. An article in the Ocala Star-Banner from February 19, 1990 indicated that Poland (which had toppled its Communist government only the summer before) had "formed a commission to change the 35-year-old museum exhibition, which highlight[ed] the Soviet army's liberation of the camp but mention[ed] the Holocaust only in passing." Preservation cost estimates at that time were thought to be around $40 million. Frank Reiss, the vice-president of a New York foundation enlisted to help with the assessment of the site, called for an urgency in the repairing process, stating that "If nothing is done, in 10 to 20 years, the site will be practically non- existent…[and that] the tens of thousands of pairs of shoes…if you touch them, they fall to dust." The fact that these exhibits have not changed since the 1950s (until the present day) says a lot about the sense of urgency employed in addressing these urgent matters.
It is also true that the grass threatens to overtake the boggy pool of ashes that still lies beyond the crematoria where remains were buried. If this is an issue that can (or should) be addressed is another point of contention in memorialization. Are curators supposed to "recreate" the experience for visitors? Does this lend itself to authenticity or Hollywood-esque practices? Reiss, in the exact same article, notes that rebuilding things to be as they were is unproductive, and that ruins should be preserved as they are: as ruins.
Competing narratives about how preservation should happen continue to plague the allocation of limited funds, to the continued detriment of the decaying camps. Van Pelt, quoted above, has also stated that recreating the experience for viewers undermines the nihilism of the camps, particularly Birkenau. He has publicly stated that it is "the ultimate nihilistic place. A million people literally disappeared. Shouldn't we confront people with the nothingness of the place? Seal it up. Don't give people a sense that they can imitate the experience and walk in the steps of the people who were there." And yet, most people don't share this view, particularly when the impending disappearance of the camp running parallel to the disappearance of Auschwitz survivors as time marches on.
The second point to take from Smolen's comment is the inadequacy of funds that the Polish government has made available for undertaking such a massive preservation process. It should be noted that there are at least 13 important extermination, concentration and labour camps located in Poland alone – all in varying stages of neglect, some in far worse condition than Auschwitz. For example, the gas chambers at Sobobir weren't unearthed (after being discovered beneath a road) until September 2014, likely due to the fact that the camp was closed in 1943, prior to the end of the War. The number of places of historical responsibility for the government of Poland is seconded only by Germany. This has resulted in a number of unusual methods of preservation in the country, some of which people might call bizarre. This includes one program (called Tikkun and meaning "Fixing or Rectification" in hEBREW), started in 2003, which has enlisted the help of 1,500 inmates in Polish prisons to clean and repair Jewish cemeteries, and engage in Jewish cultural and learning activities such as touring extermination camps and watching films about Jewish life. That the Polish government has contracted out its memorialization work to inmates at the local prison is a clear indication of the dire and desperate point to which the process has come.
Auschwitz, as the only concentration camp, and at the same time extermination camp – the biggest of them all – a symbol of the terrible entirety, is one of the foundations of our post-war European civilisation. This is the reason why for me, turning to other countries for financial support is not accounting for historical responsibility. What is to be won here is not only the preservation of the past and memory, but the foundations of a future where we understand the importance of Auschwitz as a place where we should all meet.
State donors for the preservation of Auschwitz-Birkenau include these main contributors: Germany ($80 million), the United States ($15 million), Poland ($13 million), the European Union ($5.9 million), Israel ($1.5million) and Canada ($400,000). However, less than a year after the establishment of the foundation for the site, the shortcomings of the museum were exposed in terms of security (with the stealing of the Arbeit Macht Frei sign in January 2010) and continuing conservation issues. In an interview in The National Post as recent as May 5, 2013, Eli Rubenstein (an Auschwitz tour guide) has shown that the problem of decay at Auschwitz is still very real despite significant funds being raised and action taken. It may, in fact, be an impossibility in terms of long-term preservation. The fact that, "with each spring thaw, shifts in the soil threaten to deliver a final, devastating blow to the fields of ruins" is not the only daunting part of this task. Specialists in building infrastructure have the goal of restoring three brick barracks per year. This is an exceedingly expensive task that requires significant underground work, installing concrete foundations to slow the effects of the shifting ground. Conserving one brick barrack is expected to cost as much as $1 million. As if that weren't overwhelming enough, specialists in charge of deteriorating personal effects have noted that each individual shoe takes two hours to clean and inspect. With hundreds of thousands of shoes alone, these specialists feel a sense of urgency like no other.
It is on this critical point that I will conclude and know that I do so, because in a similar way as the survivors mention, I have wondered if such a massive project of conservation is worth the effort against what seems like a futile end-goal. However, if we accept that places can tell us volumes of historical information and can made to do so as well, then the narrative of the Holocaust relies on future funding for Auschwitz's conservation in a collaborative effort, first and foremost. Simultaneous to this, while the issue of religious contestation may only be overcome through the creation of impermanent rituals of healing on the grounds of Auschwitz, the sacralization of Auschwitz as an inverse moral hierophany must be abandoned, and by scholars especially. It does not lend itself well to comprehending the factors that allowed for Auschwitz to occur, nor the possibility of another Auschwitz. The challenges of evoking sensations and understanding from a place like Auschwitz, particularly in an educational way for people with no experience of the camp, are real, particularly as time marches on, survivors continue to pass on and we get further away from the immediacy of this historical episode; however, none of this can even begin to be addressed if the space of Auschwitz is not given primacy through conservation efforts first. Given that the exhibits at Auschwitz-Birkenau still have not been altered in over sixty years and the grounds and artifacts are deteriorating faster than specialists can preserve and restore them, it looks like there is a long way to go in putting place first, before it is too late.
 "An Aboriginal Experience in Auschwitz." Krakow Post. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1308.
 "US Will Give $15M for Auschwitz Museum." Krakow Post. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.krakowpost.com/article/2211; "Auschwitz Still Seeking Funding." Krakow Post. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1814. "Auschwitz Museum to Receive EU Funds." Krakow Post. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1384; "Poles Ask the World for Funds to Stop Auschwitz Falling into Ruin." Mail Online. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1041890/Poles-ask-world-funds-stop-Auschwitz-falling-ruin.html.; "With Auschwitz's Historic Grounds Falling into Disrepair, Poland Appeals for International Funds to Preserve Concentration Camp." National Post News. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/05/fo0506-je-auschwitz/.; "Auschwitz-Birkenau." Auschwitz-Birkenau. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://en.auschwitz.org/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=722&Itemid=8.; "Poles Ask the World for Funds to Stop Auschwitz Falling into Ruin." The Evening Standard. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.standard.co.uk/news/poles-ask-the-world-for-funds-to-stop-auschwitz-falling-into-ruin-6836666.html; Warsaw, Matthew. "Auschwitz Museum 'needs £113m' for Repair Work." The Telegraph. April 24, 49. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/4347667/Auschwitz-museum-needs-113m-for-repair-work.html; "Can Auschwitz Be Saved?" History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places | Smithsonian. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/history/can-auschwitz-be-saved-4650863/.; Berg, Raffi. "Cash Crisis Threat to Auschwitz." BBC News. January 26, 2009. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7800397.stm.
 "Can Auschwitz Be Saved?" History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places | Smithsonian. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/history/can-auschwitz-be-saved-4650863/.
"Auschwitz's Deterioration Alarming to Conservators." Ocala Star-Banner. February 19, 1990. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19900219&id=CadAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rwcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4114,7711723.
 "Archaeologists Make More Historic Finds at Site of Sobibor Gas Chambers – Jewish World News." Haaretz.com. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/.premium-1.616667.
 "Reconstructing Attitudes to Judaism in Poland." Krakow Post. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.krakowpost.com/article/5840.
 "With Auschwitz's Historic Grounds Falling into Disrepair, Poland Appeals for International Funds to Preserve Concentration Camp." National Post News. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/05/fo0506-je-auschwitz/.; "Auschwitz-Birkenau." Auschwitz-Birkenau.
 "Counting the Cost." Krakow Post. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1254.
 "Poles Ask the World for Funds to Stop Auschwitz Falling into Ruin." The Evening Standard. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.standard.co.uk/news/poles-ask-the-world-for-funds-to-stop-auschwitz-falling-into-ruin-6836666.html.
 "Mission of the Foundation." Mission of the Foundation. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.foundation.auschwitz.org/index.php/artykuly/12-articles/22-ratowac-auschwitz-birkenau.
 "Auschwitz Still Seeking Funding." Krakow Post. Accessed December 10, 2014. http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1814.
The Drawing Board is pleased to announce that our very own, Nakita Valerio, has been selected as a recipient for the 2015-2016 State of Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship in Graduate Studies. After an intense competition among applicants, Nakita was announced as a winner on August 10, 2015 . The award comes with significant financial assistance which will be used to fund her studies in Edmonton and research abroad.
The Holoc aust is a provocative measure of the Muslim memory of Jews. Though it isconsidered the starting point in Critical Memory studies, there is yet to be much scholarship devoted to its memory in the Islamic world. An intimate history of relatively peaceful coexistence between Moroccan Jews and Muslims has been challenged in a comparatively short time by narratives of nationalism and diaspora, the Israeli occupation of Palestine, their economic-trade policy, the rhetoric regarding normalization of Israel, and educational protocols surrounding the constructed memory of Jews in Morocco. My working research questions are as follows: How is the Holocaust remembered by self-identified Moroccan Muslims? How is this affected by education, politics and self-prescribed ideas about the "Islamic and Jewish religions"? How does this affect overall remembering of Jews in Morocco? These questions are situated in the context of Memory literature and are used to understand how societies reconcile multi-layered cognitive dissonance.


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FOX's Terry Bradshaw Shares Concerning Thoughts On Brock Purdy Injury
Video: Michelle Wie On Andrew Luck's Time At Stanford: 'He Was A Nerd'
Before Andrew Luck was the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, a rising star quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, he was the big man on campus at Stanford.
Luck, 24, played for the Cardinal from 2008-11, leading Stanford to an 11-2 record and BCS bowl appearance in his final season.
Michelle Wie, who just won the U.S. Open, took classes at Stanford starting in 2006, earning her degree in 2012. She was reportedly close with Luck. The pair graduated together in June 2012.
What was Luck like in college? According to Wie, who appeared on "The Dan Patrick Show" this morning, "he was a nerd."
Luck describes himself as "a nerd"--if you go to Stanford you kind of have to be, Wie said--so this likely isn't an insult to the Colts' signal caller.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Enclave Gaming owner Britsaint on Forge of Champions: "They are working with us to ensure that this is a league that will blow up in the future"
Couple Sodi Pops	June 19, 2018 0 Comments
After the announcement of the UK's LVP-run Forge of Champions, we had the opportunity to speak to Enclave Gaming owner Philip 'Britsaint' Macartney on what this means for the UK scene, what this means for Enclave and what life is like as an organisation owner.
NTS: Back in April, Enclave played in the inaugural European Masters, which was a first of it's kind for LoL Regional Leagues. Have you noticed any effects of the extra exposure that this brought to Enclave and the UK scene, particularly from fans of other regions that may not have previously had an interest in the UK?
Britsaint: I think the most impact it had was that it showed the path that we always wanted Enclave to take. When we first joined the ESL Premiership we always had the mentality that we didn't only want to compete in the UK forever. Of course we always want to promote our national scene, not all teams would have stayed in the UK as there are other regions that are more profitable, but those that do stay have a passion for it. However we did want to progress onto a European scene.
The way we got our spot was actually very lucky. Because eXcel and Wind and Rain already confirmed their places from the previous season, two extra spots were dropped down to us and Misfits. This meant that when it came to the tournament, it was a case of "we're quite lucky to be here, let's see what we can do". We went out there and could definitely see it was a different level to what the UK scene is, and it showed us that we wanted to compete on this stage.
In terms of exposure it has helped a lot, there are now a lot of people out there who know who Enclave are. We can even see this in scrims. When our LoL team scims, other teams will notice us a lot easier. I definitely think it helped overall for our reputation.
NTS: That brings us nicely to our next question, what were your expectations going into the European Masters? Did the team perform as they'd hoped, or is it perhaps more the case that there couldn't be too much disappointment with results given that the team was reasonably lucky to qualify?
Britsaint: We never expected to reach the final stages, I think we all knew that our team was one that had limitations. Even though it was impressive how we reached 4th spot in the UK (being only the 6th highest funded team), we knew that these limitations would likely prevent us from making finals.
We did believe that we could make it to groups, and I was disappointed by the fact that, by that point, I think that there were certain players who no longer wanted to play with each other. Even though we were facing teams we had never lost to in scrims throughout the season, we were then losing to them which was a big shock in a way.
All in all we were disappointed, but we were still fairly lucky to be there so we have to be happy with what we got.
NTS: Moving forward, Forge of Champions was recently announced as the new primary UK tournament. As a team owner in the UK, how do you think this is going to benefit more than the ESL Premiership has in the past?
Britsaint: In a sense I feel sorry for the team behind the ESL UK as there are a lot of restrictions put on them. They definitely wanted to help, but had their hands tied behind their backs in a sense. However with LVP they have less constraints put on them and are allowed do certain things that ESL aren't able to do, particularly in terms of transparency in their reach and how much exposure they are able to achieve.
In terms of Forge of Champions, they are working with us to ensure that this is a league that will blow up in the future, and that a path to a professional scene inside the UK is opening up. I think that's something ESL wanted to do, but couldn't due to certain constraints, which a Riot-backed LVP don't have.
NTS: Enclave haven't announced their FoC roster yet. Is this close to completion? When can we expect some announcements for this?
Britsaint: We should be announcing this on the 18th (this has now been announced here). The foundation of the roster has been finished for around a month and the players have been scrimming. We're at a point now where we're preparing for the league and preparing for the announcement.
All I can say is that we've done something that I don't think any other team have done this season in terms of a certain player and where we've got them from. That's something that I think will be quite spicy once we announce it and I hope the announcement picks up a lot of traction.
I will be very surprised if we don't make it to Barcelona, and I will also be surprised if we aren't going there as one of the main teams to win it.
NTS: What are Enclave's expectations for Forge of Champions? What are the chances of seeing Enclave in the finals in Barcelona in September?
Britsaint: I will be extremely surprised if we aren't in the finals in Barcelona. In terms of the UK, unless you have a gaming house then there is a finite amount of UK talent out there, for example with players like xMattyy going over to France. The UK talent is slowly leaving the scene and so there's only a finite pool of players out there.
As there are multiple teams trying to get gaming houses, they are importing a lot of players into the UK as players must be staying in the UK to count as residents for Forge of Champions. Because of teams doing this, we think a lot of UK talent has been left and we've snatched them up. We feel that in the roles that have been left with UK talent, we've picked up the best players.
I don't imagine that there will be a lot of teams will come through the qualifiers, no matter how much money has been put behind them, that will be able to match the talent that we have. I will be very surprised if we don't make it to Barcelona, and I will also be surprised if we aren't going there as one of the main teams to win it.
NTS: Now some focus on the team itself. Enclave was founded in 2015 and has now been running for 3 years. In the world of Esports this is quite a long time, and many teams would not last as long as this. Why do think Enclave has managed to find success and is continuing to grow?
Britsaint: I think Enclave has gone through certain stages. As an owner at the stage we are currently, I am not looking at it so much as a community organisation but more as a business. This is a business that has to assess it's business needs, it needs to look at where it's revenue streams are going to come from. It's got to look at how we are going to make this viable and I think that, for the future, this is going to be extremely important in the direction that we are heading now in the UK.
I think that if I was in my current mindset that I am now when I first started then Enclave would be in a very different place and would've been bigger, but when I first started it it was kind of a case of "this is a community, we're looking to really have fun and just enjoy ourselves". I think because of that ethos a lot of people have been able to keep supporting Enclave; not just as fans but also volunteer work which has allowed to keep going along without huge investment.
Now it's come to that point where I think we are taking it seriously in terms of business, but also trying to continue on with the values that we were built upon – still focusing on community, still focusing on our fans and making good content for them.
One thing that happens a lot is that some teams take it too seriously. You have to have fun, make a meme every once in a while. When I sit down with Sam, our Creative Director, we are trying to think of how to make things into a joke. That's what our fans want and that's what we feel is our niche in the UK teams.
You can kind of see the different personalities in the different organisations. I think eXcel is the one that wants to be taken very seriously, as a professional organisation, and I think in some aspects they definitely are. Diabolus want to be seen as the bad guys; the bad boys. We are the ones that are kind of the jokers, where we've mastered the art of flaming people and getting away with it which is great. Misfits speaks for itself.
Each organisation is starting to come out with their identity.
It consumes your life, and if it doesn't consume your life then you're not running the org properly.
NTS: For you, as an owner, what does your day-to-day look like? I doubt it's a regular 9-5.
Britsaint: I would say it's not a 9-5, but its a 9-1am. As the only source of income for Enclave I am still working as a Sales Executive, but I can multitask really easily. Throughout the day, even though I'm on the phone getting on suppliers, I'm still probably either watching scrims at the same time or talking with management and coming up with ideas.
I tried to get in a general manager and we had one until recently, but due to some difficulties in the pre-season he had to leave and I've had to take on a more hands on role, which I'm more than happy to do. I would say that the first part of my day, the 9-5, is me working out the day-to-day. Then once I get home I'll usually have a meeting, around 18:30, or I'll be talking with people or talking with investors/sponsors (with one that we're announcing very soon).
I'd say that after I get home at 17:30, I eat dinner, and then I'm on my computer at around 21:30 until around 22:00 to 24:00 doing Enclave stuff. It's a very long day, it's very tiring, I'm pretty sure my girlfriend hates it, but that is life as an org owner. It consumes your life, and if it doesn't consume your life then you're not running the org properly.
NTS: Last question, something that I'm very passionate about. Where do think tomato ketchup should be stored, in the cupboard or in the fridge?
Britsaint: This is actually a really difficult question. I generally don't give a shit. I could have it in the cupboard or in the fridge. At the end of the day, I think the proper place for it is probably in the fridge. If it's in a nice, cool environment then it's staying fresh. I imagine it's probably the best, but if it's in the cupboard then I'll have it either way.
You can find Britsaint on Twitter here, and Enclave Gaming here.
CategoriesInterview, League of Legends News
Tagscomputer, enclave, enclave gaming, esl, esl premiership, esports, european masters, foc, forge of champions, gaming, Interview, lol, news, pc, tech, uk, video games
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To my mind, there are two kinds of shoppers: bargain shoppers and recreational shoppers. Madison has promotions this week for both kinds of retail adventurers.
For bargain shoppers, there's the three-day Slice of Summer Sidewalk Sale, July 26-28. Lemon-shaped balloons and colorful banners will help you find participating retailers. A bonus: those stores will be serving complementary lemonade.
During a Slice of Summer, participating stores will be open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, plus 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. You'll find plenty of bargains as Madison's merchants clear out their summer merchandise.
What about that other kind of shopper – the recreational shopper? This woman (and she usually is a woman!) is not focused on price or finding a certain something on her list. She's on an adventure to find the new and unusual, the one-of-a-kind, the first-on-her block item. She favors whimsy over practicality. She wants to bring home something that expresses her personality.
She's more likely to take along a friend or two on her expedition. They are more likely to stop for a glass of wine, a meal or maybe dessert and coffee. These women are looking for an experience.
For this recreational shopper, I highly recommend the Fourth Friday Art Jam, sponsored each month, April through December, by the Madison Main Street Program. Art Jam celebrates all the arts – visual and performing. Art galleries are open late and often have special exhibitions.
This Friday, for example, painter Gigi Straub will open her new exhibit, "Circle of Life," from 6to9 p.m.at Carlson's Art Gallery, Jefferson and Second streets. Gigi is a highly original and spiritual painter whose works will lift your spirits.
There will be art displayed outside in the alley near Art on Main, 309 W. Main St. That's the home of the many artists and artisans of the Madison Art Club. Don't miss the masterpieces local artists have painted on the outside wall of the building.
Village Lights Bookstore,110 E. Main St., will host a July 27 opening for painter Maureen O'Hara Pesta and photographer Jesse Pesta, who are mother and son. For their joint exhibition "Urban and Rural," the mother will show her bright, spontaneous plein air paitnings of rural life, while her son will display gritty black-and-white images of life in New York City. The exhibit will run through Sept. 25.
You'll also see street musicians, such as local songwriter Kriss Luckett-Ziesemer, who sings her heart out in front of Madison Nut and Candy, 207 E. Main St.
After an evening of recreational shopping during Fourth Friday Art Jam, I usually finish out the evening with coffee and a snack at Gallery 115, at115 E. Main St. This is the studio-gallery of the talented Eric Phagan. They stay open until 9 p.m. Live music wafts from Eric's studio loft and there are delicious desserts to choose from. Ah, life is good!


Even the most successful companies often require an outsider's perspective on how they do business. Part of the reason for their success is recognizing that there is always room for improvement and that there is value in conferring with experts. That is where organizational consultants come in. Organizational consultants are independent contractors retained by a company to assess its operations and develop a plan to improve its efficiency and ultimately increase its profitability. These consultants require a thorough knowledge of business, organizational theory and project management. In most cases, they have developed this knowledge through a combination of higher education and experience in the field.
In this article we will look at where organizational consultants work, what skills employers seek in prospective candidates and how they are trained.
Where do MBAs in Organizational Consulting Work?
Companies in all industries and of all sizes may contract organizational consultants, indicating that organizational consulting professionals ply their trade in a wide variety of environments. Fortunately, the skills they bring to bear apply to something all of these diverse businesses have in common: an organizational structure. Whether a company manufactures microchips or facilitates e-commerce solutions, the concepts of how to get the best use of human and material resources remain largely consistent.
Organizational consultants may be solo operators, partners in boutique firms or agents of transnational consulting firms. Some of the big names in organizational consulting include Deloitte, Ernst & Young, IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG, according to a recent study from IDC.
What Skills do Organizational Development Consulting Firms Look For?
Organizational Assessment: By close observation of day to day operations, research and interviews, the consultant develops an understanding of a company's strengths and weaknesses.
Change Management: Once a plan has been developed, how can it be enacted? The consultant guides management and personnel through the process of shifting problematic behaviors and working more efficiently.
Problem-Solving and Team-Building: An expert external presence can cut through blocked lines of communication between staff, provide outside-the-box recommendations for dealing with obstructions and bring together stakeholders.
Meeting Design: Poor meeting procedures can severely stifle the usefulness of these gatherings and impede productivity. In a real way, organizational consultants can help personnel re-learn how to communicate with one another.
Meeting these challenges requires a professional with an inside understanding of how successful businesses operate, and the insight to make the lessons gleaned from this study transferable. Therefore, employers are looking for candidates with a relevant academic background and a proven knack for personnel management.
How are Organizational Consultants Trained?
While many veteran consultants entered the field when only a bachelor's degree was required and developed a strong resume of direct professional experience, today most employers prefer candidates with a graduate degree in business, such as an MBA. Today there are a number of MBA programs which offer specializations in organizational consulting.
Spring Arbor University's online MBA is one such program. Offering a fast-track option which can be completed in as little as one year, or a traditional path requiring a minimum of 18 months, this top-ranked program augments core lessons in international business, finance, marketing and more with a focus on behavioral science and organizational leadership.
Graduates will find themselves well-positioned to pursue entry-level jobs in organizational consulting, a field with an average salary range between $71,000 and $142,000 per year.
For more information on SAU's online MBA program, please contact us for a program guide.


A Publication of 1841 and 1844, Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson was published in two volumes originally. This is one of the most unique and stirring creation by Emerson. Covering a number of topics, it presents a truly inspiring opportunity to discover unique ideas about otherwise mundane subjects. A uniquely American touch is rendered to all the essays in this collection. Considered a masterpiece by the author, the work is brimming with aphorism and wisdom.


Wen Jun Meng, Juergen Rilling, Yonggang Zhang, René Witte, Sudhir Mudur, and Philippe Charland, A Context-Driven Software Comprehension Process Model. Second International IEEE Workshop on Software Evolvability at the IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM), September 24, 2006, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. IEEE.
You can also visit the workshop's webpage.
This paper has been selected as one of the best papers to be published in an extended version in the IEE Proceedings Software Journal.
Official version: IEEE Xplore. Also available: local copy.
Copyright © 2006 IEEE. It is posted here by permission of IEEE for your personal use. Not for redistribution. DOI: 10.1109/SOFTWARE-EVOLVABILITY.2006.1.


Hey there, I am new to this site. There is another tech site that I generally frequent but lately they have not seemed to be of much help.
Here is my story....I will try to make it short and to the point. Some time ago my whole system just started acting goofy (a highly technichal term in MY techie dictionary...lol) programs did not open right, my IE disapeared, it would not open, then my Netscape did the same. I had to use only Mozilla for the longest time because it was the only browser I could get to open.
Ok, so, I finally broke down and decided to reinstall the XP. That seemed to do it, everything worked great, all my messeners were working again, all of my broswsers worked great, programs opened and ran with out a hitch.
This morning I tried to access my yahoo mail through the desk top icon (the IE yahoo mail link) it seemed to work fine, typed in my name and password. The mail screen remained just long enough for me to see how many messages I had then it went to some funky search screen which in the address bar said -- about:blank. No matter what I am trying to access via IE, I can see it breifly then it goes to -- about:blank. Occassionally I get a pop up there that tells me that I have a virus or spywear. Even then if I click on that pop up, it sends me only to a search engine that I don't know what it is and in the address bar it says -- about:blank!!!!!
So far everything else on my system is doing ok. Messengers are still working and so is Netscape. I can access my yahoo email through Netscape. Is something up with IE......I really don't think that it could be my system again. I have a really great deep scan AV prog which is not finding any problems, I also have Ad-aware and SpyBot. They found a few things, but after running them and clearing them out I still have the same BS with IE!!
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated, please either post or email or message me.
Download and install Adaware or spybot to check for spyware.
AV programs are all up to date and are finding nothing. I already ran both Ad-aware and Spy Bot. I cannot update the IE because I can only access it through Netscape and it is telling me that I must have IE 5.0 or newer to run. I do (or did as of this morning) have IE 6....(I think) 2. Since my IE pages always go to About:blank and some messed up search engine I cannot do it using IE.
check IE tools > connection > lan and proxy options and make sure its not routing you through a proxy.
Even after reinstalling XP IE shoudl have bee returned to an out of the box state, which leads one to believe a virus or spyware. Run Hijackthis and post the log.
It was set to go through a proxy, so I changed it and it changed itself right back!!
ya see thats more similair to spyware or a trojan, make sure you update the adaware defs as well.
Here is what Hijackthis is showing me. I have not yet made any changes.
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [PopUpStopperBasic] "C:\PROGRA~1\PANICW~1\POP-UP~1\PSBasic.exe"
Ok, so do you use things like Willdtangent, Weatherbug, Ghost Surf and Seti? I would can that crap. The stuff that looks kind of suspicious is the last couple lines, software-dl.real.com, perhaps is Real Audio, not sure about the gfb.dll.....you might want to confirm what that is.
I do use ghostsurf and seti.......what about the first few lines where it refers to IE and says navigation failure?
Ya, it looks like it is setting your search pages to crap, and still throwing you in through a proxy listening on port 7212 , getting rid of that would be a good start.
you could do a netstat -o to see what process is listening on port 7212, then check the pid in task manager and see what file is actually running the process.


Everyone's favorite YouTuber PewDiePie has what appears to be exclusive access to an early version of The Last Guardian. He has posted the first 20 minutes or so on his channel, though around half of it is gameplay that has already been shown off before.
I've never thought this game looks all that great, and after watching the video, I'm not convinced otherwise. To me it looks like a majority of it is slowly walking around carrying heavy objects, slowly climbing ladders and chains, and occasionally having your dog bird thing do something. Without the "thing I'd like to pet," this seems like a snoozefest, but I hope for all the fans who have been waiting that isn't the case.


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A personal letter from our founder
Posted on January 22, 2014 by Alexandra Matts
A few weeks ago, I was subject to a rather gruelling interrogation from an old friend. "Why should I travel with Extraordinary Africa?" he asked. Given that we've known each other since we were 19, I'd hoped the answer would be obvious. But then, I probably should've known better than to strike up a business conversation with a management consultant. This letter began as an email to him, explaining why Africa's so wonderful and why I think Extraordinary Africa delivers just that.
Waking up in the bush
Sundowners after a dusty day
Canoeing the Zambezi
Spotting a Pangolin in Zimbabwe
Fishing in Mozambique
"These are my personal African highlights, so please forgive any lack of professionalism in the photography!
Africa isn't trendy and it's rarely "now". It's far, far better than that. You might have seen photos of a million ravishing sunsets, but when it's you perched on the bonnet of your Landrover, sundowner in hand, each quiet moment of peace is uniquely its own. Lions do run across vast, spreading, golden plains, just like the wildlife documentaries show. But when it's you they're running towards, the last thing you're thinking is that it's some boring cliché that you've already seen on TV. When you see a shooting star- and grab the hand of the person next to you, just because that's what you do- just try saying it was frankly rather dull and has been done a thousand times before. Visiting Africa just isn't like any other holiday.
There are hundreds of companies that organise holidays to Africa. But so many of them churn out the same old templates, that don't do the continent, or their customers, justice. Because Africa isn't standard, and because people are never the same, I didn't want to organise the standard holidays. Sometimes following the rules or logistics makes life cheaper, or easier, but if that's not what you want, then it's not what you'll do. I want to show you the magic that I feel, in a way that works for you. The idea behind Extraordinary Africa is to set your soul on fire, make it an utter delight for you to arrange, and leave you dreaming of more. We hope to leave you charmed and excited, full of enthusiasm before your adventure, and remembering it wistfully afterwards.
Anyway- that's my vision. I want to show you Africa my way, but whatever else happens, please make sure you go, each corner of it is so utterly wonderful, I couldn't bear for you to miss out.
The man-eating lions of Tsavo
The British Government began building a railway at vast expense in the face of significant local hostility. Yet despite huge practical obstacles and opposition in parliament the plan soldiered on. Sound familiar?
Yet this was 1896. Building what later became known as the "Lunatic Express", the British colonial Government in Kenya stuck unrelentingly to their plan. A railway from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Uganda, was required, and a railway there would be. Even one that included a siding next to the High Commissioner's mansion so he could head out on hunting parties in privacy. (Thank you Wikipedia, please let that be true). Attacks by local tribesmen, malaria, and huge geographical obstacles wouldn't get in the way.
Lions, not man-eaters. As far as we know.
In 1898 the railway workers hit an obstacle. They needed to build a bridge over the Tsavo River. While building bridges by day was hard work, by night the worker's camp was troubled by something far more terrifying. Two maneless lions, later known as the Ghost and the Darkness, were killing and eating the Indian railway workers. They built campfires to scare off the lions. They built thick thorny bomas in the style of the local Maasai to shelter their tents. The leader of the project, Lt. Col John Patterson hid out in a tree with his trusty Martini-Enfield rifle. But to no avail.
Hundreds of workers ran away in terror, but still the lions kept coming. Eventually Patterson shot one huge lion, 9ft 8 from nose to tail. He escaped wounded and returned to camp to stalk Patterson, before eventually dying. It took 8 men to carry his body back to camp. 20 days later the second lion was shot. He was shot 9 times over 11 days before he was eventually killed. They were found to have eaten 10.5 and 24.2 humans respectively. (What happened to the other 0.3 of a person, we can't possibly comment).
To this day there's no answer as to what made the Tsavo lions man-eaters. It could've been that one was suffering from appalling toothache, than an outbreak of rinderpest meant they had no cattle to prey on, or that they'd grown used to the taste of human flesh by preying on slave caravans heading overland to the coast. The lions ended their days as rugs on Patterson's floor, and can now be seen in the Chicago Field Museum.
** Please accept our apologies for any inaccuracies. Like all good campfire stories, we've told it to the best of our abilities, but we're prepared to be corrected!
Posted in Campfire tales, Kenya, Lions
Save £575 per person on a luxurious wilderness adventure in Uganda
Uganda's long been one of our favourite African countries and it seems the world is catching on to it. Not only is Uganda home to some of the very last mountain gorillas in the world, it also has the sort of game reserves that people come to and sigh "this is what the Serengeti used to be like"… Kidepo (recently acknowledged by CNN as the 3rd finest game reserve on the entire continent- fine praise up against such heavyweights as the Kruger, Masai Mara or Ngorongoro Crater) has spectacular game viewing and a fraction of the vehicles you'd find elsewhere in Africa.
Why? Well it used to be virtually impossible to visit unless you chartered a private plane, but scheduled flights announced in December 2013 have put safari in Kidepo firmly on the map. Combine this with some of the spectacular special offers available during the green season in Bwindi and you've got a great value, utterly magical trip on your hands.
Kidepo Zebras
Day 1: Fly overnight from London to Entebbe, and crash out here for the night. Welcome to Africa!
Day 2: Connect on to your light aircraft flight up to Kidepo, a vast undiscovered savannah ringed by craggy peaks, where the wildlife clusters around the Narus and Kidepo Rivers. Remote and with utterly wonderful scenery and game viewing, this is a park to visit now before the hoardes catch on that it's easy to visit. Spend 3 nights here at Apoka Lodge. Take game drives and look out for cheetah (not found elsewhere in Uganda), leopard and lion. Look out for ellies, skittish zebra and fat little warthogs with their tails firmly in the air. Take a walking safari and trace pug marks in the dust, or a night game drive to watch the glint of eyes as you pass by in the darkness.
Bwindi Gorilla © Aurelia Thomas
Day 5: From Kidepo, take a private flight down to Bwindi National Park. Not cheap, no (if you want to do this itinerary at a reduced price, we can send you back to Entebbe for a night in between), but what a way to get a sense of the magnificent Ugandan landscape. Spend 3 nights here at the utterly wonderful Gorilla Forest Camp- so close to the national park that it's not unknown to spot gorillas actually in the gardens. Just watch this YouTube video if you don't believe us… We'll include two gorilla treks while you're here so you really get a sense of how special these wonderful animals are.
Day 8: Fly back to Entebbe and relax beside Lake Victoria, before your overnight flight back to London.
Day 9: Arrive in London early in the morning.
Normal price from £5,805 per person sharing. Travel in April, May or November, and pay £5,230 per person sharing, with discounted gorilla permits, and a free night at Gorilla Forest Camp, saving £575 per person!
Includes two gorilla permits (usual price US$500pp per permit), international flights, 7 nights accommodation, all food, internal light aircraft flights (including one private flight), game drives, walking safaris and transfers.
Posted in Adventure, Green Season, Uganda
Where to spot… Leopards
There's something about spotting a leopard on safari that sets people's pulses racing. It's often men that fall passionately for this slinky cat (sorry boys!)- it's the ultimate predator, perfectly designed for the silent stalk, the stealthy hunt and the efficient kill.
Leopard at Singita Sabi Sand
It's possible to spot leopards on safari all over Africa, but they're notoriously elusive. Stories abound about leopards successfully disguising themselves, even amongst large human populations. Legend holds that when a lone leopard was spotted on Nairobi railway station, the storyteller was rubbished. 3 years later, the bones of a recently deceased leopardess was spotted under a rarely used platform… Well, so the story goes.
For those who want more reliable leopard sightings there are a number of places to visit in Africa where a safari of two or three days should give you a very reliable chance of seeing a leopard. We've put some effort into personally checking these out, so do ask us if you have any questions.
Okonjima Leopard
3. Okonjima, Central Highlands, Namibia
The AfriCat Foundation at Okonjima is utterly absorbing for anyone who's ever been fascinated by the big cats. It's important to stress- these cats aren't wild. They've been collared and are closely monitored by the research team. This makes it possible to get up close to leopard (also cheetah and wild dog) in a way that's just not possible elsewhere, and learn more about hands on research and conservation than you would in 10 safaris.
2. South Luangwa, Zambia
I've had phenomenal sightings in the South Luangwa and a colleague who (though good at rather tall tales) claims to have spotted 7 leopard in one night drive. The leopard here are often spotted on night game drives with spotlights- this is the time of day when leopard are most active, as they're on the hunt for fresh food. By day, look for the flicker of a tail up in the sausage trees, where leopards like to lounge on long flat branches.
Leopard spotted with Bushcamps on safari in the South Luangwa
1. Sabi Sands, South Africa
Without a shadow of a doubt, of all the places I've done safari in Africa (and there have been a few) the Sabi Sands has been by far and away the best place to spot leopards. I've tracked adults through the grasses at Lion Sands, watched leopards lounging in trees from Nottens, and most satisfyingly of all, clocked a spotted face stalking me through the reeds over breakfast at Singita Ebony. If you're a leopard lover, go tomorrow, take my camera, and never look back.
Posted in Leopards, Namibia, Sabi Sands, South Luangwa
African titbits: the Cullinan Diamond
To be honest, I only read about the Cullinan Diamond for a quiz I was setting. Jewellery's pretty to look at, but it doesn't really hold the same fascination as watching an elephant for half an hour. When I started reading about the Diamond however, I was sucked in by Wikipedia, passed through numerous anonymous websites and spat out the other end by the Daily Mail. I was fascinated.
The Cullinan Diamond was discovered in South Africa in 1905, and (according to the Daily Mail, though no other sources I can reference) was so implausibly large, it was nearly thrown out with the rubbish. The superintendent rescued it and recognised the diamond for what it was: 3,106 carats and thought to be the largest diamond ever discovered. In fact, a smooth fracture down one side suggests this is only a small portion of an even larger diamond. The diamond was named after Sir Thomas Cullinan the owner of the mine, and purchased by the Transvaal Government for £150,000. They voted to send it to King Edward VII as a token of their loyalty, and although this was shortly after the end of the Boer war, this was mainly driven by the Boer population and opposed by English settlers.
The Cullinan Diamond was so valuable it had to be sent to London from South Africa by roundabout means. A parcel was ceremonially placed on a steamer ship in the captain's safe, and guarded by detectives all of the way to London. Meanwhile the real diamond was sent in an unmarked box by normal post. The Cullinan Diamond was presented to the king, but without modern precision cutting tools, cutting it was another challenge. Eventually, Asscher and Co, after many months of studying the diamond, faced up to the task. Legend holds that Mr Asscher had a doctor and nurse on standby, and after breaking one blade successfully cut the diamond straight through. He then fainted clean away.
Today the Cullinan Diamond has been cut into 9 large stones (amongst them the Star of Africa), and numerous smaller ones, which form a significant part of the British crown jewels. Their value is priceless, but one estimate puts the combined value at well over £100 million in today's prices.
Posted in Campfire tales, South Africa
Green season safari- is it all it's cracked up to be?
Posted on January 8, 2014 by Alexandra Matts
Think of African landscapes and the chances are you'll be imagining an endless golden savannah, broken only with twisted and parched acacia trees. The wildebeest are cantering frantically in search of water and fresh grass (this is the main driver of the Great Migration) and vultures float on the thermals hoping to spot a lion kill.
Baby Hippo in the Green season with Norman Carr Safaris
Leopards with Norman Carr Safaris- green season
Lightening in the Luangwa with Norman Carr Safaris- green season
Birding with Norman Carr Safaris- green season
Boat safari with Norman Carr Safaris- green season
There's another Africa however, the Africa that blossoms with life in and around the rains. The green season (sometimes rather optimistically known as the "emerald season") transforms the landscape. Rivers burst with life and grasses and trees seem to glow in almost implausibly bright hues. Under thunderous storm clouds young animals learn to stand on shaking legs within minutes of their births, and predators look sleek and happy with a bellyful of food. This is the time when you'll take the most spectacular photographs and see the bush at its very best (and sometimes at half the price of the peak periods).
Beyond that, the parks are largely deserted, and if you've done several safaris it's utterly fascinating seeing the game reserves in a new light. Birding in particular is utterly glorious- if you've never seen a fish eagle swoop for its kill or a finfoot skiddle-skaddle across the water's surface- this is your moment.
Green season safaris are at their best in Kenya and Tanzania in March and June (catch the savannah with its spring colours) or in Zambia between January and April. The ultimate experience is a boat safari in the South Luangwa– thanks to our friends at Norman Carr for the amazing selection of photos above. Elsewhere, watch the desert spring to life in Namibia, the mighty flood at the Victoria Falls or catch the mini Migration in the Kalahari.
Posted in Botswana, Green Season, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia
Proposing this Valentine's Day? We have just the idea for you….
Let's face it – we've all sat through a thousand boring 'and then, suddenly, he was down on one knee!' stories. A 2014 Valentine's proposal demands something a little more interesting. Paris is passé, and New York is just a tiny bit naff - with direct flights, just an hour's time difference (two in the winter), Cape Town has world-class food and wine, Valentine's Day sunshine, and a certain understated cool that makes your moment all yours.
The Mother City: what girl could say no?
If you're waiting for the right time to propose, a long weekend in Cape Town will leave you spoiled for choice. Take a helicopter flight over the city or spirit your beloved away on a speedboat ride in the bay. Whisk her (or him) up to the Winelands for a gentle horseback trot through the vineyards and a glass of award-winning local fizz. Cycle through the Mother City by night, or hike up Table Mountain and then, when the timing's just right…
And – assuming the answer's "Yes"- celebrate with canapés and sundowners on the Waterfront, a picnic amongst the penguins at Cape Point or dinner in the private art gallery at Ellerman House. So much more interesting than a glass of champagne at the Eiffel Tower – and, once you're factoring in African prices, not that much more expensive. Who could fail to fall in love with that?
Posted in Romance, South Africa
Adventure Africa Beaches Botswana Campfire tales Elephants Extraordinary Picks Food Green Season Honeymoons Interviews Kenya Leopards Lions Malawi Masai Mara Mountain Biking Namibia People Romance Safari South Africa South Luangwa Tanzania Top tips Trip Reports Uganda Wildlife Zambia Zanzibar
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Xikar is the premium company for cigar cutlery but has proven they know how to preserve a cigar just as well as they can cut it with their line of travel humidors. These fantastic humidors have all the bells and whistles cigar enthusiasts need in order to be sure their precious cigars are protected under any and all circumstances. Xikar's travel humidors feature an airtight crushproof construction to protect cigars from any bump, drop or fall. While the outside is tough as nails, the inside as soft as a cloud with its high density Urethane foam cradles enveloping the cigars in a cloud of protective goodness. With Xikar's travel humidor, enthusiasts can now take their cigars anywhere!


To encourage DX activity, Mediterraneo DX Club instituted – since Jan 01, 2010 – two new categories for all Members who have a noticeable DX curriculum: Star and Diamond.
Since the goliardic spirit animating this initiative, it's important to specify that there is no difference and no privileges among all MDXC Members!
This is just a nice way to encourage excellence in DXing practice.
Have you at least 250 DXCC entities regularly accredited? If so, you're already a Star Member!
Email us your confirmed DXCC entities, callsign and MDXC number. After a quick cross-check on the official DXCC list you'll be mentioned in the MDXC Star Members list.
Furthermore, you can use on your QSL-card and website the special logo allowed for Star Members only. To update your confirmed entities, simply follow the same way.
In case that you have at least 300 DXCC entities, regularly accredited, email us your request to become a Diamond Member and wait for our cross-check on the official DXCC list.
As soon as your name will appear in the official Diamond Members list you'll be able to proudly use the Diamond Member special logo.


text:
You are here: Home / Reviews / Journals / Reviews in History / 2015 / August / An Intimate History of the Front
Review (monograph)
Reviews in History
Author (Review)
Roche, Helen
Language (Review)
Language (Monograph)
Author (Monograph)
Crouthamel, Jason
An Intimate History of the Front
Masculinity, Sexuality and German Soldiers in the First World War
Gender Studies, Military History
Time classification
20th century → 1900 - 1919
Regional classification
Europe → Western Europe → Germany
Weltkrieg <1914-1918>
Männlichkeitskult
Original source URL
http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1812
recensio.net-ID
27576842f56e496b990ffc08a55ef8ba
10.14296/RiH/2014/1812
Roche, Helen: review of: Jason Crouthamel, An Intimate History of the Front. Masculinity, Sexuality and German Soldiers in the First World War, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, in: Reviews in History, 2015, August, DOI: 10.14296/RiH/2014/1812, downloaded from recensio.net
https://www.recensio.net/rezensionen/zeitschriften/reviews-in-history/2015/august/an-intimate-history-of-the-front
Terms of licence
This article may be downloaded and/or used within the private copying exemption. Any further use without permission of the rights owner shall be subject to legal licences (§§ 44a-63a UrhG / German Copyright Act).
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Jason Crouthamel: An Intimate History of the Front. Masculinity, Sexuality and German Soldiers in the First World War (reviewed by Helen Roche)
In his classic thriller Greenmantle, first published in 1916, John Buchan describes his hero Richard Hannay's first encounter with his adversary, the German officer Colonel Ulrich von Stumm, in a fashion which hints at a hidden strain of sexual deviance within the German armed forces:
We went up a staircase to a room at the end of a long corridor. Stumm locked the door behind him and laid the key on a table. That room took my breath away, it was so unexpected. A thick grey carpet covered the floor, and the chairs were low and soft and upholstered like a lady's boudoir... At first sight you would have said it was a woman's drawing-room.
But it wasn't. I soon saw the difference. There had never been a woman's hand in that place. It was the room of a man who had a fashion for frippery, who had a perverted taste for soft delicate things. It was the complement to his bluff brutality. I began to see the queer other side to my host, that evil side which gossip had spoken of as not unknown in the German army.(1)
In his original and informative study of the inner life of German soldiers in the First World War, Jason Crouthamel both complicates and deconstructs clichés such as these, throwing an important new light on questions of gender and sexuality in the German military. Using a rich variety of sources, from soldiers' private diaries and letters home to trench newspapers and military court records, Crouthamel's sensitive analysis aims 'to illuminate the world of German men in the Great War, [... revealing] how front soldiers perceived ideals of masculinity, expressed love and other emotions, found intimacy, and experienced sex' (p. 2). In particular, he is interested in recording their struggles to live up to the pressures of what he terms the 'hegemonic masculine ideal' of the 'steel-nerved ordinary front soldier', which not only formed a staple of wartime propaganda, but also contributed to forging the postwar myth of a 'New Man', fired in the horrific crucible of the trenches.
Broadly speaking, Crouthamel defines this prevalent masculine ideal as a dominant paradigm constructed by elites, which did not necessarily resonate with ordinary soldiers' experiences and expectations. Instead, he believes that we should portray these men's inner world in terms of a diverse, nuanced model of 'multiple masculinities' (p. 7). The work is therefore divided into six main chapters – many of which overlap to a certain extent – each exploring various facets of soldiers' self-construction, and their engagement (whether overt or covert) with questions of sexuality and gender.
The first chapter, 'The ideal man goes to war', explores in detail official propaganda and policy which promoted the image of the 'good comrade', sexual restraint, and idealised relations between soldiers and women on the home front. At first, the war was seen as an excellent opportunity to expunge male decadence – including heterosexual and homosexual promiscuity; only later, with the rise of the VD crisis and the explosion in prostitution, did civilian authorities (including priests and medics) begin to realise that sexual and moral corruption might also be a consequence of war. In this context, the ideal masculine image was regularly defined in opposition to demonised countertypes, such as the neurotic, the homosexual, the dandy, the Jew, or the emancipated woman; articles and cartoons in official newspapers and army periodicals upheld traditional gender roles and stigmatised those, such as homosexuals, who deviated from them, fuelling fears of a supposed crisis in sexual behaviour – whether due to working-class 'degeneration', or aristocratic decadence.(2)In contrast, the bourgeois male was imagined as 'a pillar of rational sexual control' whose will was strong enough to resist the irrational instincts of feminine passion, and hence to uphold the national community as well as traditional moral values. In similar vein, women on the home front were portrayed as inhabiting a parallel universe in which sexual abstinence, self-control and self-sacrifice, as well as providing long-distance moral support for their menfolk, could form an equal contribution to the war effort. Meanwhile, women who approached the front too nearly were seen as a dangerous distraction from military duties; particularly females from occupied nations, who could always play the role of seductive saboteurs or filthy whores, against whom the soldiers' wives and girlfriends – as German Madonnas – could shine the more brightly.
By January 1915, at the height of the VD crisis, during which syphilis and gonorrhoea had rendered over 50,000 men incapable of fighting (i.e. the equivalent of an entire army corps!), the gulf between idealised images of fighters 'so focused on the nation's survival and final victory that [they] did not require the solace or escape of sexual pleasure', intended to reassure the home front that the sexual instincts of their menfolk could easily be sublimated through focusing on battle, and the sordid reality, created an ever-widening schism between the military command and adherents of moral and religious organisations (p. 29ff.). In response to the military authorities' attempts to take control over soldiers' sexual lives, clamping down on prostitution and providing sex education and cheap condoms, the moral crusaders attempted to push for complete abstinence, mobilising media campaigns which promoted the abstinent warrior over the selfish brothel-visiting debauchee, and berating the military for its hypocrisy in providing men with prophylactics and sanctioned bordellos which could only encourage promiscuity. This led to some calls for action which seem almost stunning in their naivety, such as that of Dr. Aufhauser, a military chaplain writing for the Catholic periodical Allgemeine Rundschau, who called not only for massive expansion of the Sittenpolizei (vice police), but also for the closure of all bordellos and for beer to be banned from soldiers' quarters: 'To replace them, he suggested Christian reading groups and lemonade' (pp. 33–4).
The second chapter, 'Masculinity in crisis: sexual crime, dislocation, and deprivation', continues to explore the increasing contrast between the official image of the abstinent war hero and the reality of the war's brutalising effects. Many soldiers bitterly resented the home front's expectations that they should remain abstinent, and some also seem to have turned to homosexuality in the face of the sexual and emotional deprivation and unbearable stress which they experienced. In addition, Germany experienced a steep rise in sex crimes committed by soldiers on leave, including sexual violence and rape of girls under 14. However, even in the case of repeat paedophile offenders (as well as in instances of bestiality and homosexual rape), the courts tended to see good front-line performance as a mitigating circumstance and evidence of excellent character, which would very often result in reduced or derisorily short sentences. The idea that there might be an intrinsic link between soldiers' experiences at the front and an escalation in sexual violence at home was not one which the military authorities were ultimately prepared to countenance.
While Klaus Theweleit's Männerphantasien painted a portrait of a world of the trenches in which men felt brutally, joyously unconstrained, released from any need or wish for feminine comfort – or even female contact, Crouthamel's third chapter, '"Don't Think I'm Soft": the masculine image presented to the Home Front in soldiers' letters', stresses the increasing emotional dependence with which soldiers often relied upon communications with their womenfolk. Despite the incalculable experiential divide between those suffering at the front and those left at home, unable to comprehend the war's horrors or the physical and psychological impact of mass violence, which could lead to simmering resentment or even a widening chasm between some couples, others grew closer through the intimacy of their correspondence. Feldpostbriefe could even become a kind of confessional in which men could reveal their emotions, their fear and despair, escaping the official ideal of self-control and stoicism and escaping into 'an alternative world filled with love and compassion' (p. 66). Thus, for instance, Fritz N., writing in April 1917, constructed an elaborate fantasy with his fiancée Hildegard about how she might join him in his billet:
"I must explain to you how you can find me! We could meet in a shack in a deep-cut trench. You must be quiet, very quiet, because there are so many people everywhere. Radio operators, telephone specialists and other soldiers – I'm not alone in my bedroom: the captain lies next to me and he's such a light sleeper!! And it's so terribly cold! You must firmly cuddle me. And it would be nice if we could have breakfast together!..." (Letter from Fritz N. to Hildegard, 20 April 1917, Bd. 65, Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart, cited on p. 87.)
Other soldiers, meanwhile, apparently found a different form of escapism in embracing their feminine side, letting off steam in the context of satirical creative writing or theatrical revues in which they could explore what it might be like to take on a female role, rather than having to live up to official male expectations. In the fourth chapter, '"I Wish I Were a Girl!" escaping the masculine ideal in front newspapers', Crouthamel depicts such dabblings in more 'effeminate' desires and emotions as a fantasy of gender transgression which reflected disillusionment with the emotionally stifling masculine ideal; a reaction to the melodramatic propaganda in more censored, propagandistic military papers which prescribed how the ideal soldier should behave. Following Thomas Kühne's lead, Crouthamel points to the ways in which the concept of male Kameradschaft (comradeship) came to embrace both masculine and feminine traits, filling the vacuum of care and nurturing created by the absence of women at the front.(3) As an example, he cites an article in a trench newspaper which depicted the metamorphosis of that most paradigmatically masculine object, the Stahlhelm (steel helmet) into a utensil for various traditionally feminine tasks: a wash basin, cooking pot, or shopping basket (p. 102).
Chapters five and six – respectively entitled '"We Need Real Men": the impact of the front experience on homosexual front soldiers', and 'Coming home: postwar sexual chaos, disillusionment, and battles over masculinity' – focus to a greater extent on the impact of soldiers' front experiences on post-war society. Particularly among homosexual groups such as the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen, the war was seen as an opportunity to 'contest the exclusively heterosexual nature of militarised masculinity' (p. 121), and to prove homosexuals' patriotism and integration into the social fabric of German society. Rejecting Magnus Hirschfeld's construction of homosexuals as a 'third sex', many members of these groups presented themselves as hyper-masculine warriors; a militant fighting force in the crusade against homophobia – often using the imagery of the battle front to fuel their post-war struggles for emancipation. In so doing, they themselves castigated more 'effeminate' homosexuals in order to counter moral criticism, thus endorsing the mainstream militarised ideal of manliness, at least in part. Meanwhile, even returning soldiers who were not perceived by German society at large as homosexually deviant were suspected of being immoral, hedonistic and a danger to the social fabric – indeed, debauchery on the battle front was also blamed for Germany's ultimate defeat; a sexual variant on the stab-in-the-back myth. In turn, the returning soldiers themselves were often intensely disappointed by the circumstances which greeted their homecoming; the domesticity which they had idealised for so long seemed both stifling and insecure, and comfort was not always to be had from one's emotionally distant (and at times shockingly emancipated) womenfolk. Instead, it could seem easier to turn for solace to a sentimentalised idealisation of Kameradschaft, glorifying in the exclusively male bonds created by trench warfare.
Despite some repetitiousness in style, and a certain proliferation of gender-studies jargon which can occasionally grate, Crouthamel's study is generally readable as well as informative and illuminating – and it has the virtue of being concise enough to devour in a single sitting. My only pressing question would be how far the phenomena which he discusses here can be considered representative, and whether there were actually more soldiers than he gives credit for who remained at least partially convinced of the value of the 'hegemonic masculine paradigm' to the bitter end – as did the subjects of Theweleit's study.(4) In particular, the evidence discussed in the fourth chapter feels a little thinly-spread; arguably, soldiers cross-dressing in theatrical revues or indulging in blue humour in trench newspapers need not necessarily be living out complex transgender fantasies. It might also have been helpful if the author had included in his introduction a brief sketch of the life of rank-and-file German soldiers (and the ways in which this differed from the more familiar experience of their British or American counterparts) – which would have helped to clarify questions of how far these men's training and treatment by their superiors might have contributed to their brutalisation, how often they were entitled to escape the rigours of the front on leave, and so forth.
However, in conclusion, it is fair to say that the material which Crouthamel has brought to light certainly allows for a fascinating investigation of masculinity 'from below', and that his book constitutes a useful addition to the growing body of literature exploring the cultural history of 'experience' in the Great War. It is only to be hoped that his work will open up further studies of this fascinating and under-researched body of evidence.
1. John Buchan, The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay (London, 1930), pp. 217-18.
2. Even before the outbreak of the Great War, the Eulenburg scandal had rocked German society with its purported revelations of licentious homosexuality in the most exalted military and imperial circles – cf. e.g. Norman Domeier, Der Eulenburg-Skandal. Eine politische Kulturgeschichte des Kaiserreichs (Frankfurt am Main, 2010).
3. cf. Thomas Kühne, '"... aus diesem Krieg werden nicht nur harte Männer heimkehren". Kriegskameradschaft und Männlichkeit im 20. Jahrhundert,' in Thomas Kühne, ed., Männergeschichte – Geschlechtergeschichte. Männlichkeit im Wandel der Moderne (Frankfurt am Main, 1996), pp. 174–92.
4. Klaus Theweleit, Male Fantasies, Volume I: Women, Floods, Bodies, History, trans. Stephen Conway (Cambridge, 1987).
The author is happy to accept this review and wishes to thank the reviewer for her close analysis of my arguments, use of sources and conclusions.
Filed under: Deutschland, Weltkrieg <1914-1918>, Soldat, Männlichkeitskult, Sexualverhalten, Homosexualität


Giving is always more fun when you can do it with your friends. We can help you get organized.
Schools, neighborhood associations, youth organizations, churches, businesses, craft guilds, and other groups want to help refugees. We're thrilled that so many want to do it through Butterfly Boxes. Our goal is to help make the planning easier so you can focus your energy on giving! Use the buttons above to download posters & flyers and to tell us about your drive.
We have some ideas for group projects, and know these are just the tip of the iceberg. Do you have another idea? We'd love to hear about it!
Decide what kind of Butterfly Box(es) you want to build (baby, kid, teen, or adult). Print out a copy of the shopping list(s), and let your group members sign up to bring items to fill the box.
Schools can assign each class or grade level a specific type of box.
Divide into smaller groups and compete to see who can finish their box first.
Special note: this option works especially well for groups of mixed socio-economic status. Items on the list fall into a broad price range, but every item fills a critical need.
Collect items from the shopping lists and let us put the boxes together.
Pick a theme and encourage your members to donate items from the list that fit the theme - school supplies, toiletries, stuffed animals/dolls, or children's books are good places to start.
Choose 3-5 specific items from the shopping lists that you want to focus on, and put out a call for just those. Contact us if you need help deciding what would be most helpful based on our current inventory. Or watch our newsletter for the next month's featured "most needed" items and organize your drive around those.
We include a handwritten welcome note in every Butterfly Box. We encourage messages from all members of our community, and we think this is a great way to include kids in your efforts. Provide notecards (notes should be written on 4"x6" cards - postcards work great!) & markers, and ask everyone to write at least 1 or 2.
Use simple language. Many refugees are still learning English.
Butterfly Boxes are distributed to refugees coming to Oregon. Most will be resettled in Portland, but some will live elsewhere in the state. Please write your notes so they can be distributed to any of these new Oregonians.
Refrain from using religious language, as we don't have the capacity to ensure that your note would reach someone who shares your religious beliefs.
If your group is a crafty bunch, this could be a great option for you! See our "Get Crafty" page for inspiration, or let your members decide what to contribute.
Decide on one item everyone will make on their own. Encourage members to bring their completed projects to your next meeting so everyone can "ooh" and "aah" at each others' talents.
Choose a simple project that can be completed individually or by assembly line during your next meeting.
Think outside the box. Are there ways you and your coworkers can contribute to Butterfly Boxes without organizing a drive?
Do members of your team travel frequently? Encourage them to collect toiletries from hotel stays.
Do you do business with distributors who would donate if someone simply asked?


text:
Robots battle monsters in the spectacular movie 'Pacific Rim'
BY MATTHEW LUCASCorrespondent
Sometimes you just need to watch some giant robots beat up some giant monsters.
That's the basic premise of Guillermo Del Toro's spectacular summer extravaganza, "Pacific Rim." Earth has been invaded by alien life not from the sky, but through a rift to another dimension in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. As these giant monsters, called "kaiju," wreak havoc on major cities, humanity devises a way to fight them head on — creating giant robots called "jaegers," piloted by two highly trained individuals whose brains are connected directly into the machine, creating a perfect synergy with each other and their robot.
Soon the kaiju threat is neutralized, the jaeger pilots become heroes, and children are playing with kaiju and jaeger toys. But it isn't over. Kaiju attacks begin to increase, and governments begin to question the effectiveness of the jaeger program, so they cut the funding to build a giant wall around the Pacific Ocean to keep the kaiju out. So Stacker Pentecost (a terrific Idris Elba), the military leader of the jaeger program, groups the remaining jaegers in Hong Kong for one last stand against the kaiju, before Earth is destroyed forever.
It sounds a bit like just another brainless exercise in CGI mayhem, but under Del Toro's direction, "Pacific Rim" becomes much more. Crafted as an homage to Japanese "kaiju" (giant monster) and "mecha" (giant robot) films Del Toro loved as a child, the film is clearly a work of great passion and artistry.
Sure, it's mainly two hours of giant creatures beating on each other, but Del Toro actually gives us characters worth caring about with real soul and compelling human drama, with jaw-dropping special effects and first-rate production design. A lot of care and intelligence went into the making of this film, and it shows.
Del Toro has proven himself at both more serious, artistic films ("The Devil's Backbone," "Pan's Labyrinth") as well as lighter popcorn fare ("Blade II," "Hellboy") and is perhaps one of the most talented directors working today. "Pacific Rim" is a chance for him to recapture his childhood on screen, to deliver something for the 12-year-old boy in all of us, and he succeeds in the biggest way.
The film is pure spectacle, a visual and aural assault, a massive adrenaline rush that conjures a real and tangible sense of awe at the awesome destruction before us.
The love for these films is evident, and Del Toro makes us love them, too, through the sheer force of his enthusiasm.
This is a film that's hard not to fall for, because few things are as exciting as watching robots fight monsters.
It's a "guy" movie up one side and down the other, but it's also a feast for the young and young at heart. This is one wild, deliriously entertaining ride, and it's worth every penny.
Matthew Lucas, a former Davidson County resident, studied theater and film studies at Appalachian State University. He now resides in Banner Elk and has a blog where he posts movie news, reviews and commentary at www.fromthefrontrow.net.


text:
dystrofia
 dystrofia rogówki
 dystrofie mięśniowe
 dystrofia mięśniowa Duchenne'a
 dystrofia tłuszczowo-płciowa
 dystrofia twarzowo-łopatkowo-ramieniowa
 dystrofia Fuchsa
 dystrofia miotoniczna
 dystrofia mięśniowa Fukuyamy

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Skill 1: Battle Charge [370%ATK]: Charges towards the enemy to inflict damage and provokes for 1 turn with a 50% chance.
Raids: Olivine's lack of proper debuffs makes her a poor choice here. Natural 2 star and 3 star monsters such as Konamiya and Dona should be used over Olivine here.
ToA: While Olivine can serve as a good provoker and attack bar reducer, his dark brother Basalt serves a similar but better role here. Choose to build him only if you're lacking any alternative.
PvP: Olivine's best use here is as a wind tank and attack bar buffer / cleanser. The best way to utilize him here is as a poor man, one-sided Tiana for your team.
Frankly speaking, Olivine serves as a very niche monster. There are much better alternatives for newer players.
Olivine's damage is extremely poor, with his first skill scaling off his minuscule attack base while the 2nd skill has a weak 100% multiplier that scales off his HP.
If you choose to build him, try to get some accuracy to ensure that his provoke and attack bar reduction will land.
There is a Secret Dungeon available on January 2016 for Olivine. Do take advantage of this to farm skillups for the better Battle Mammoths in the family, Talc and Basalt.
I'm the creator of the Nat2-3's [FR] guild on which we do not use nat4 and nat5. Olivine takes a very important place on our GB10 team and Arena according to his useful kit. He is certainly a good choice for an early team but lots of nat4-5 monsters can do it better later.
remove from allies, not enemies – he's like konamiya a cleanser till i got my vero i was building him… now he's on hold cause he's useless for me; i'll build a basult or a spectra for the ATB reduction, well even a Krakdon is better for this job, and outside of early GB10 and troll AD u have no where to use him after u got vero.
Is a not bad unit. Dependskn what u need. If u need a cleanser with atb increase. Olivine is good to go. There are obviously better units for this. But some just dosent like it or is unable to get it.
I runed mine 2X Energy 1x Focus Hp% all. Spd and acc subs. Not bad.


text:
Network to Prevent Gun Violence in the Americas
Informes y Datos
A gun pledge Biden can easily keep
Post author:John
Post category:English
By Jeff Abramson, The Hill
In his 2019 gun violence prevention policy platform then-presidential candidate Joe Biden pledged to "ensure that the authority for firearms exports stays with the State Department, and if needed, reverse a proposed rule by President Trump."
Today, March 9, marks one year since Trump put that proposed rule into effect. Now-President Biden can and should reverse it.
At one level, the Trump policy change was a bureaucratic shuffling of authority among executive departments — an easy thing for Biden to undo. More fundamentally, it has risked weakening human rights scrutiny and careful oversight of firearms exports, likely making it easier for human rights abusers, criminal gangs and terrorists to get their hands on U.S.-supplied weapons.
The needed reversal would put administrative oversight of the export of many types of firearms, including semi-automatic rifles and pistols, as well as sniper rifles, back under the jurisdiction of the Department of State (DOS) where they were for decades on something called the U.S. Munitions List (USML). By moving them over to the Department of Commerce (DOC), the Trump administration not only redefined these weapons as primarily commercial objects, but it sidestepped a specially required Congressional notification for potential sale of them. In recent years, congressional oversight has been critical in stopping transfers where there are significant human rights concerns, including specifically to the Philippines and Turkey.
Outside the halls of Congress, opposition to the new rule has remained strong. The vast majority of the thousands of public comments received in 2018 about the then-proposed change were negative. In 2019, a diverse group of more than a hundred religious, gun violence and domestic violence prevention, human rights, education, arms control and peace organizations issued a letter opposing the rule change. Letters have continued in the interim, with a coalition of more than 85 gun violence prevent groups calling for the now-enacted rule to be reversed amongst their comprehensive November recommendations to the incoming administration.
Inside Congress, putting items back on the USML would not require any new resolutions. Congress would be regaining oversight, not losing it. And, in 2019, the House's National Defense Authorization Act called for keeping the original rule in place — a show of support.
In sum, the president can do this on his own and has plenty of allies.
The reasons for acting are compelling.
The semi-automatic and many of the other weapons in question are precisely the same ones at the heart of too many mass shootings and community tragedies in the United States. With a president who has said that there is "no longer a bright line between foreign and domestic policy," it is a striking disconnect between making it easier to sell these weapons abroad while trying to deal with their harm at home. (In fact, they remain on the USML Import List when they are sold into the United States.)
The rule change, announced to fanfare by the gun lobby just in time for the 2020 Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show and Conference (SHOT) and Commerce Department-led training on how to increase sales, appears to be feeding an export boom. Census trade data compiled by analyst John Lindsay-Poland comparing the last six months of 2019 with the final six months of 2020, when the impacts of the new rule could be most apparent, show that international sales of semi-automatic pistols from the U.S. jumped by 124 percent. A short list of recipient countries of concern for those weapons and handguns include Thailand (recently rated "not free"); Mexico, Brazil and the Philippines (where gun violence runs rampant, at times perpetrated or fed by government actions); and Saudi Arabia (where serious human rights concerns abound).
These are countries where we should be expressing more care. Returning export authority for these weapons to the DOS, where human rights concerns can be better accounted for and where Congress would again receive notifications, is a critical step. But alone, that is not sufficient. As a DOS inspector general audit in 2019 uncovered, there are significant concerns about how licensing is managed internally. Today, the DOS remains a partner in the interagency review process, drawing into question the wisdom of many of their decisions before and after the shift to the DOC. Due to the Trump-era hollowing out, Biden needs also to sufficiently fund the DOS's capacities and make sure it better prioritizes human rights concerns.
The advice I gave in testimony to Congress nearly two years ago remains the same, but is now more urgent. "We must be mindful that we are not talking about benign trade commodities, but rather the types of killing machines that are arguably the ones most responsible for death and injury in conflict worldwide. Export of small arms deserve[s] the highest level of oversight and attention from the executive branch and the Congress."
Biden can and should take the first critical step by returning firearms to the USML under the DOS oversight.
Jeff Abramson is a senior fellow for conventional arms control and transfers at the Arms Control Association.
The Sniper Rifles Flowing to Mexican Cartels Show a Decade of U.S. Failure
Hemisphere: Interview on stopping weapons traffic to Mexico
CEO of gun company Sig Sauer arrested in Germany
Stay up to date on Mexico and our campaign to stop the U.S. weapons trade into Mexico.
Film: Where The Guns Go
Video: Border Encuentro
Youth from 67 Sueños protest at U.S.-Mexico border against guns and imprisoning of migrants.
Stop US Arms to Mexico
Copyright 2022 - Stop Gun Violence in Mexico


The fast evolving and competitive retail landscape, with its ever-expanding options for consumers and shoppers, demands retailers and manufacturers to have the right offerings at the right place at the right time. "The retail landscape would be impossible to navigate without accurate, timely information about shoppers, and that's where VideoMining acts as the in-store analytics solution provider," begins Sanjay Mittal, CEO, VideoMining. Befitting the name, the firm pioneered the use of video to study shopper behavior and characteristics. "Our patented video technology tracks and measures millions of shopping trips, to unearth or mine the hidden 'nuggets' of critical information from video to better understand the shopper's behavior," exclaims Mittal. The firm's patents on demographic identification from images: age, gender, and ethnicity provide critical information in the segmentation of users and analytics based on such segmentation.
The core expertise of VideoMining is rooted in its 'in-store behavior analytics' for consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and retailers. "Our platform combines shopper behavior data measured with multiple sensor technologies with transaction data, store layouts and planograms to create detailed insights on shoppers from the time they enter the store to their exit. The omni-sensor platform combines a hi-res camera, wifi access point, and beacon along with on-board image processing capabilities that works in an IoT architecture. "Leveraging our powerful and cost effective solution enables retailers to instrument all their stores to reach each and every shopper," exclaims Mittal.
Used by CPG manufacturers, ShopperFirst enables them to make effective decisions about product packaging and placement in the aisles, new product introductions, evaluating the effectiveness of their trade promotions, and shopper marketing investments. With ShopperFirst, VideoMining is bringing their in-store analytics platform online, delivering performance analytics for every stage of the in-store path-to-purchase funnel and providing insight into how shopper segments respond throughout those stages.
"Similarly, our heatmaps and differential heatmaps help find key traffic patterns that are critical in this regard," extols Mittal.
For the year ahead, VideoMining is set to launch several exciting ShopperFirst programs. The first of these programs builds on VideoMining's highly successful annual Grocery Shopper Insights (GSI) MegaStudy program, offering continuous year-round tracking, where unique data on shopper behavior and characteristics powers a variety of analytics applications.
Delivering a complete range of in-store solutions, the firms Prescriptive Analytics Engine (PAE) proffers value beyond data reporting and insights delivery to provide manufacturers and retailers with directional advice and specific guidance as to best practices and next steps aimed at getting results. "We combine our unique in-store shopper behavior and segmentation data with other key data sources, and apply proprietary analytics backed by years of industry expertise to deliver a timely and in-context roadmap to success for our clients," says Mittal.
Squarely focused on the CPG Retail space, VideoMining has invested heavily in mastering the nuances of this complicated collaborative space. "With our continued focus on innovation to meet the specific needs of CPG and Retail space, we have created and deployed technology to get detailed measurements about in-store shopper behavior and then use these insights to help both retailers and CPG optimize their marketing and merchandizing decisions," mentions Mittal.
"Our long term vision is to move beyond a panel of stores to have a presence in every store such that we can not only understand shopper behavior but in real-time influence their decision," says Mittal. A huge step toward this goal is VideoMining's recent shift from a yearly snapshot view of shopper behavior to continuous monitoring of in-store behavior.


Great Waterfront Boat Dock with Deep Wide Cove and quick access to main lake.
Extended Outdoor Living at the Lake!
Relax on this Upstairs Deck, keep an eye on youngsters from this amazing deck!
Beautiful Welcoming Entry to the Home.
Windows all across the water side of the house.
Beautiful Newer Boat dock with 2 boat lifts and 2 jet ski lifts.
Wonderful Open Concept living with Cozy wood burning fireplace and lots of window facing the water.
Good sized Living Dining Combination Room Open to the kitchen and great windows to the water.
Upstairs Loft Bedroom with views to the water.
Upstairs Loft has additional living area.
Well Lit for Night Recreation at the Lake.
Great Fireside chats on those cool winter evenings.
Home is 1 minute to open water by boat!


why does left ventricle have the thickest walls compared to the other chambers?
Left ventricle has to push the oxygenated blood to all the parts of the body, including the extremities. Hence it requires great force to do this. For this purpose, the walls of the left ventricle are the thickest.