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Radovan Karadzic
Radovan Karadžić faces verdicts in war crimes trial at The Hague
Former Bosnian Serb leader is accused of ordering mass killings at Srebrenica in 1995
Julian Borger World affairs editor
Thu 24 Mar 2016 09.49 EDT First published on Wed 23 Mar 2016 13.58 EDT
Karadžić is likely to be found guilty of charges including crimes against humanity, which could see him face a life sentence. Photograph: Jerry Lampen/AP
A tribunal at The Hague is passing judgment on Radovan Karadžić in one of the most anticipated war crimes trial verdicts in Europe since Nuremberg.
The international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has begun to hear verdicts on 11 charges against the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, including two counts of genocide.
Dozens of Bosnian survivors of massacres and concentration camps have travelled to The Hague for the judgment. Karadžić and his successors in the current Bosnian Serb leadership have shrugged off individual and collective blame for the crimes.
Karadžić's lawyer and legal observers predicted he would be found guilty on some, if not all the charges, which include genocide, crimes against humanity and hostage taking. Were this the case, he would face a life sentence.
The Radovan Karadžic war crimes trial is Europe's biggest since Nuremberg | Julian Borger
Rival activists gathered in The Hague on Thursday morning. Under a grey morning sky, survivors and the families of victims of the many war crimes of the conflict, assembled on a patch of grass outside the tribunal with banners and photographs of the dead. Serb supporters of Karadžić were expected to arrive later. Some were seen driving through The Hague on Wednesday night, with Serb folk music blaring from their car windows. There were unconfirmed reports of several busloads of Karadžić supporters arriving overnight.
In an unexpected and dramatic development on Thursday morning, Florence Hartmann, a former spokeswoman for the ICTY prosecutor's office, was detained by UN police. In 2011 Hartmann was found guilty by the tribunal appeal chamber of contempt and fined for using confidential tribunal documents for a memoir of her time at the court. The fine was later converted into a week-long prison sentence and an arrest warrant issued, but her home country, France, refused to extradite her. When she appeared outside the court building, she was approached by UN police and the Bosnian demonstrators attempted to close ranks around her to prevent her being detained, but later the police were able to bring her into the tribunal building and dragged her through the lobby as she shouted protests against her treatment.
The verdicts constitute the most important moment in the 23-year existence of the ICTY. The chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said it embodied the tribunal's achievement in ending impunity for crimes on a mass scale.
"This judgment demonstrates that justice for the most horrific atrocities is possible," Brammertz told the Guardian. "Thirty years ago, men such as Karadžić would have remained in power or enjoyed a comfortable exile. Today, they have to stand before a court of justice and their victims and be judged for what they have done."
Karadžić portrayed himself as constantly striving to limit the bloodshed when he was president of the breakaway Republika Srpska while it was "ethnically cleansed" of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and Croats, through mass killings, systematic rape and other forms of terror.
"It is very simple to see from all the evidence that the president, in such circumstances, couldn't do any more, and that my permanent fight to preserve the peace, prevent the war and decrease the sufferings of everyone regardless of religion were an exemplary effort deserving respect rather than persecution," the 70-year-old former psychiatrist and writer said in a rare interview conducted by email with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network from his cell at Scheveningen on the Dutch coast, where he has been held since his capture in Belgrade in 2008.
Karadžić admitted civilians had been killed in Srebrenica in 1995, when 8,000 men and boys from what was then a Muslim enclave were slaughtered. But he blamed it on unspecified rogue elements in the Bosnian Serb army.
"With Srebrenica, unfortunately, I cannot deny everything that is alleged, but I have to contest the extent and background of what happened," he said. "Again, it wasn't an army unit that was tasked to do the misdeed; rather it was a sort of patchwork, a random collection of guys summoned to do the killings, to their surprise, against their own will and interest, and it was so clandestine that the perpetrators hid it from their most immediate commander."
Karadžić with Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladić in 1995. Photograph: Ranko Cukovic/Reuters
Karadžić's biographer, Robert Donia, predicted he would treat the verdict with the theatricality that was his hallmark throughout the war.
"Karadžić is likely to interpret a judgment of guilty as yet another assault on the Serb people as well as on himself," Donia said. "In his eyes, he is martyring himself on their behalf and will continue in incarceration to sacrifice for them and combat the slanderous judgment."
In a clear sign that the verdict is unlikely to heal the deep and persistent ethnic divisions in Bosnia, the president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, opened a student dormitory named in Karadzic's honour this week with the defendant's wife and daughter. Dodik has accused the ICTY of practising "selective justice".
Croats, Bosniaks and Kosovans have been convicted by the ICTY, but Serbs make up the majority of the defendants. Court officials say this reflects the fact that the majority of the atrocities were carried out by Serb forces and paramilitaries.
Karadzic's trial lasted five years, and the tribunal has taken another 18 months to reach a verdict and sentence. He faces two charges of genocide: one for Srebrenica and a second broader count for mass killings perpetrated across Bosnia during the 1992-95 war, which cost 100,000 lives. He also faces five counts of crimes against humanity, including extermination, and four counts of war crimes, one of which is the taking of hostages, a reference to the abduction of UN peacekeepers and their use as human shields.
The verdict will be most closely watched in Bosnia, the scene of many of the crimes. A Srebrenica survivor, Muhamed Durakovic, said there was a building sense of anticipation there.
"Everyone is going to be glued to their televisions. They have waited for so long here," Durakovic said by phone from Srebrenica. "This has dragged on for so long. People had begun to lose faith and were worried that justice would not come before the end of the biological lives of the defendants."
He said a guilty verdict would be helpful in undoing a sense of injustice felt by survivors.
"To undo the damage is a process, not just one event. It is a process in finding the truth and seeking justice. In the face of the deniers, we need to be aware of exactly what happened, and I think the ICTY has helped greatly in that."
Richard Goldstone, a South African judge who was the tribunal's first prosecutor, told the Guardian in an email interview: "Aiding reconciliation is a complex issue. I have no doubt that justice does help and that was certainly the South African experience.
"In the case of Karadžić, the fact that he was at large for 13 years must have frustrated victims. That said, his eventual capture and trial and, I am confident, a conviction tomorrow, will bring solace to many of the victims who are still alive."
Karadžić: life and crimes
1945: Born in the Montenegrin village of Petnjica, Yugoslavia. He moves to Sarajevo in 1960 to study psychiatry
1990: Becomes leader of the Serbian Democratic party in Bosnia as Yugoslavia collapses
1991: Assembly of the breakaway Serb republic is announced and Karadžić warns Bosnian leaders not to secede from Yugoslavia
1992: Bosnia declares independence in March and war breaks out with Karadžić's Serb separatist forces in April. The seige of Sarajevo begins
1995: Nato intervenes in Bosnia to help stop the war after massacres in Srebrenica and Sarajevo. In November, the Dayton peace deal is agreed. Karadžić is indicted by the ICTY for genocide
1996: Karadžić is forced to step down from the Republika Srpska presidency but continues to wield power behind the scenes
1997: The manhunt for war crimes indictees begins and Karadžić goes underground
2008: Karadžić is found in Belgrade posing as a new age guru, Dragan Dabic, and arrested
2009: His trial for genocide and crimes against humanity begins in The Hague
2014: Trial ends and tribunal begins considering verdict and sentence in September
Srebrenica massacre
Radovan Karadžić war crimes sentence increased to life in prison
Former Bosnian Serb leader given longer sentence over his role in bloody conflict
Radovan Karadžić's sentence for Bosnia genocide exposes continuing divisions
Victims say 40-year sentence is too lenient while many Serbs continue to support man who oversaw 1995 massacre at Srebrenica
Radovan Karadžić sentenced to 40 years for Srebrenica genocide
Wartime leader of Bosnian Serbs found guilty of 10 of 11 charges at international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
Radovan Karadžić 'criminally responsible' for Srebrenica genocide – video
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić is deemed 'criminally responsible' for the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica, and sentenced to 40 years in jail
The Radovan Karadžic war crimes trial is Europe's biggest since Nuremberg
Julian Borger
The hunt for Radovan Karadžić, ruthless warlord turned 'spiritual healer'
Student dorm named after war crimes suspect Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžić's lawyer expects guilty verdict over war crimes


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Trick-or-Treating Gives Me Major Anxiety
By Zibby Owens Oct 25, 2018
Halloween is the ultimate anxiety amplifier. Not just for kids — for me.
As someone who has gone through life with what my 95-year-old grandmother calls, "the worry gene," I try to sidestep situations that make my anxious tendencies spike, like being stuck in a crowd (which is why you won't find me at a music festival).
When it comes to managing my anxious feelings, I've found the most helpful thing is to stay busy; I have trouble relaxing because then my brain starts spinning. Instead, I'm always taking on multiple projects, writing, hosting a podcast, reading incessantly, running around town, baking challah, planning events. Resting on Shabbat? Not for me. Doing more actually calms me down.
But then, every year, October 31st rolls around. Experts say avoidance isn't a successful strategy for managing anxiety, so I to push myself through Halloween, smiling alongside the kids, even though the evening has literally every element of a stress-inducing event. Here's why.
1. You have to publicly align yourself with a group of friends.
For people like me who have always flitted between groups, it's a challenge. For my kids — and I have four of them! — their friends sometimes shift with changing schools, so it's even more stressful.
2. You have to dress up in clothes that reflect something about yourself.
I'm still wondering whether the headband I wore last Saturday night was too preppy. But wearing a whole statement outfit? On purpose? Come on! My best costume ever was when, a few years ago, I dressed up as a breast pump. That spoke volumes about the state of my life at the time. For kids, especially middle schoolers, that's an impossible job — do they even know who they are yet? Should they be Jojo Siwa or a vampire? Or maybe Jojo Siwa isn't "cool" anymore? Black Panther or Peyton Manning? It's OK for a girl to be Peter Pan, but can a boy be Elena of Avalor? What does it say about their gender identity? Anything? Nothing? Does it matter in the slightest?
3. You have to talk to strangers and ask for free food.
All year long, we tell our kids not to talk to strangers — and, especially, never, ever accept food from said strangers. But now we're walking up to random townhouses and hoping for Kit-Kats. Plus, not every child is an extrovert — some find it tough to even say, "Trick or treat!"
4. You have to manage the scarcity panic.
What if there are no more M&Ms?!! What if the building is OUT OF CANDY?! AHHH!!!! Everyone runs helter-skelter as if they couldn't just head to the grocery store the next morning and pick up a pack of Hershey's (on sale). It's as if there's a set amount allocated for the Halloween night and that's it. Now… go!
5. It's late at night, exactly the time when anxiety spikes on a "normal" day.
For kids, instead of getting ready for bed and worrying about their test the next day, they're wandering the streets. For parents, instead of laying in bed staring at the ceiling (and trying to remember what we forgot to do that day), it's chasing kids around, exhausted, outside and in the dark at our most beleaguered, weakened moment.
6. The feeling of danger, thanks to all the scary decorations and sounds.
I can't even watch E.T. and I'm more than 40 years old. These mean Halloween streets are terrifying! Will my kids and I ever sleep again?
7. Crowds
I get overwhelmed in crowded places like stadiums and airports. On Halloween, the sidewalks are all like aisles at Madison Square Garden. What if I lose the kids?!
8. Uncertainty
Where exactly will we go? Who will we see? What if the kids want to change groups of friends mid-stream? What if the costumes don't work out? What if the weather is bad? What if? What if? WHAT IF?!!!!
Sugar amplifies anxiety symptoms and impairs the body's ability to cope with stress. The crash after a sugar high can also heighten anxiety. Um, the day after, anyone? The sugar hangover plus lack of sleep is a Halloween-themed recipe for disaster. Sorry ahead of time to all my kids' teachers. I'll be holed up at home, counting down the days until Thanksgiving.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: Crash/hang during boot sequence after loading apple menubar items in Mojave Macbook Pro 15" 2018 32GB RAM running the latest addition of Mojave.
90% of the time, when I start up my computer it hangs. This occurs after I've logged in but will result in either a black screen with an outline cursor that moves, or a spinning beach ball with no menu bar. I am convinced there is a problem with some program or system event that loads during the start up sequence. I can successfully boot into a clean simple separate admin account (that successfully loads some additional agents like dropbox, citrix, techtool pro) so it's something I've added to my main account. When I boot using Safe Mode, the initial Apple menu items load, through time machine icon, but then I get a spinning beachball. The initial menu items actually respond to menu clicks, but the beachball returns when I move outside that part of the menu bar. Boot with Diagnostic (D key) finds no issues.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Great works of literature tell us the story of who we are.
The most powerful tool we have is language. English majors at Houston Baptist University focus on exploring both the artistry of words as well as developing the tools for critical thinking and writing. Whether it be a Shakespearean tragedy or a corporate report, those studying English can interpret the world around them and translate their thoughts into clear language, preparing them for the workplace, graduate study and a trajectory of lifelong learning. Our graduates enter the fields of teaching, law, professional writing, creative writing and business as they take their ability to interpret language with them into artistic, professional and personal endeavors. Beginning with a concentration on poetry, drama and prose, and including courses in the Great Texts as well as American and British literature, English majors master both the classics and contemporary works while developing their skills in oral and written communication.
While many English majors go on to teach, the ability to think critically, analyze ideas and communicate effectively is in great demand in today's marketplace.
Our English degree will also prepare you for graduate studies. HBU English majors have been admitted into law school and graduate programs in English and other fields in the humanities. We encourage students who intend to apply to graduate schools to take our course on Literary Theory. Students seeking further distinction may attain departmental honors through successful completion of a 30-page thesis through independent study with a faculty member.
Click the "course catalog" button at the top of this page for more information.
If you are inquisitive, open-minded, creative and desirous of discovering beauty, truth and goodness in literature, and you wish to develop communication and critical thinking skills through conversation and careful reading, then you should study English at HBU. Apply today.
We can't wait to see you! If you want to meet one of our great professors, Contact the Department of English and Modern Languages.


The 18th century brought with it the beginnings of a brand new period for women as some of the extra progressive nations in Europe began to treat ladies as more than property. Around the globe, girls with higher levels of schooling look like more resilient in the face of disaster. They're higher able to prepare for, adapt to, and bounce back from disasters. This resilience extends to their children and families. fifty five Human Rights Watch interview with Mary, Kandahar, July 18, 2016.
The doc might have been geared toward ladies within the Middle East, as a result of it was not translated from Arabic to English by its creators. It is meant as a information to the life a girl in the planned caliphate ought to lead. Plan International's new international campaign is Girls Get Equal. This youth-led social change marketing campaign is about making certain each girl and younger lady has power over her life and the world around her.
4. Commence Making Better Options. Recommendation & SupportCoreTel: 020 7486 0341E-mail: [email protected]: 221 Human Rights Watch interview with senior government provincial education official identify withheld, July 2016. one hundred twenty Human Rights Watch interview with Shakila, Mazar-i Sharif, July 23, 2016.
226 Human Rights Watch interview with CBE supplier identify withheld, Kandahar, July 18, 2016. sixty two Human Rights Watch interview with Freshta and her mom, Mazar-i Sharif, 2016. This additionally holds for malaria; higher-educated women and girls are less prone to contract malaria, have children who're much less more likely to contract malaria, and are more seemingly to use prevention strategies, comparable to mattress nets.
An air cleaner with a carbon filter enhanced with an additive to make the elimination of those heavy-obligation chemical compounds easier is an efficient, proactive, but non-invasive solution to get rid of these pollutants. ninety six Human Rights Watch interview with Ahmad, Mazar-i Sharif, July 22, 2016. 214 Human Rights Watch interview with professional on training in Afghanistan title withheld, cellphone interview, April 21, 2016. See also: Paul Watson, Canada's Afghan legacy: Shoddy school buildings and sagging morale," Toronto Star, July 15, 2012, (accessed July 12, 2017).


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No. 11, October 1999
Amicus Attorney IV
Gavel and Gown software released Amicus Attorney IV in late August. The new version of this market-leading case management software accomplishes two main tasks: it increases the speed and reliability of the program and scales it up for use by larger firms. It also incorporates many improvements and a major new feature, the Call Center.
Amicus Attorney IV now comes in three versions: the single user Organizer version; the Advanced Edition for up to 20 or so users (equivalent to the old "Team" version), and a Client/Server edition that will accommodate up to 200 users.
Case Management software, such as Amicus, helps attorneys organize their work by integrating their phone calls and other messages, contact lists and calendar and to do lists with the firm's list of client/ matters. These in turn are linked to time and billing software, so that when, e.g., you complete a phone call information concerning it is transferred to a time entry. Amicus integrates with third-party software such as HotDocs and CompuLaw's court rules program. Studies show that assiduous use of such software can increase an attorney's captured time by 10-20% per year (the key word here being "assiduous").
The speed and reliability of Amicus IV has been dramatically improved by shifting much of the processing from the server to the client workstation. In some cases, such as opening the program, benchmark tests show that with 15 users, the Advanced Edition is up to 10 times faster than the previous version, and the Client/Server version is even faster.
Amicus now also includes a major new feature, the Call Center. This is a beefed up version of the previous "yellow stickies" feature (which still exists). It functions as an internal e-mail service which allows you to route messages around the office and save them to a particular client file. This remedies one of the insufficiencies of the "yellow stickie" function, namely that the information contained in them could not be associated with a file.
Amicus IV also integrates with single user e-mail programs such as Outlook Express. However, it is not MAPI compliant and does not work with corporate e-mail systems such as GroupWise, Exchange or Lotus Notes. This is a significant failing in a program designed for use in firms with more than 20 or so users.
A large number of other ease of use and minor improvements have been made. Many of these are related to the database and program administration, but end users will also appreciate others, such as the introduction of the Responsible Attorney function. Instead of all users associated with a file getting various notifications that Amicus can generate, such as how much time has been spent on a file, now only the Responsible Attorney receives them. The new Amicus also supports Groups, which makes it much easier to assign users to files with a single Group selection, rather than having to repeatedly select each user individually. In addition, the number of custom fields has been dramatically increased, to 50 per file type and 20 for contacts (versus 10 and 3 respectively in the old version). The number of phone numbers has also been increased to 20.
At the same time, in the process of making major improvements to the program, Gavel and Gown has failed to make many minor corrections that users have been asking for. If you have a particular issue that has been nagging you, the new version may or may not fix it. For example, it is still not possible to pick what columns appear in the Client index view; nor replace the category "lawyer" with "attorney. Everyone has their own list of things that weren't fixed. In this respect, Amicus IV is very much a work in progress: major changes and improvements now make the program easier to use, faster and more reliable, and enable larger firms to use the program effectively, but many minor changes that were long overdue did not get made.
The Client/Server version uses the excellent Faircom database rather than SQL. This means that a firm does not need to purchase SQL licenses on top of the program. However, the Client/Server version will not run on a Novell server and does need a dedicated NT server for firms of more than about 20 users. This could be an issue for firms unwilling to invest an additional $5-7,000 for an NT server to run the program.
All in all, Amicus IV is a must upgrade for firms currently experiencing performance or network problems. In addition, firms for which the Call Center would resolve a potentially troublesome problem of how to save e-mails and other inter-office messages to a file will want to upgrade. In addition, firms at the higher end of Amicus' previous capacity or that were too large to use it easily, should consider the Client/Server edition.
Heckman Consulting Relocates
Heckman Consulting has relocated from Norwalk to Old Saybrook, Connecticut, at the mouth of the Connecticut River. This will make it more convenient for us to service clients in Hartford and the Eastern part of Connecticut. Our new address information is:
Heckman Consulting
One Fencove Court
E-mail remains the same: heckman@heckmanco.com.
WordPerfect Law Office 2000
The next version of the WordPerfect Legal Suite, based on WP 9, will be known as WordPerfect Law Office 2000 and is due to be released at the end of November. The basic functionality will be the same as the WP 8 Legal Suite. It will include the Organizer (single-user) version of Amicus Attorney IV, West's CiteLink, and the HotDocs document assembly program. In addition, it will include a special edition of ExpertEase's DealProof.
DealProof (which was reviewed in our Newsletter No. 9, March 1999) is an advanced proofreading tool that will check a document to ensure that, e.g., definitions and dates are consistent, that no dates are omitted, etc.
WP 9 includes vastly improved filters for converting to and from Word documents. Even firms that are not in a position to upgrade to WP 9 and firms using Word should consider buying a copy for Word conversion (WP generally does a much better job of conversion than does Word). WP 9 also includes the ability to publish a WordPerfect document to the Adobe Acrobat PDF format (with some limitations concerning graphics inserts). In addition, WP 2000 for the Law Office package will include Service Pack 2 for WordPerfect, so that the bugs that plagued the original release of WP 9 should largely be eliminated.
Fixing Footnotes. Ever inherit a document in which the footnote format no longer matches the margin, font, etc. of the document? Fortunately, there is an easy way to fix this problem. At the very beginning of the document, select Format | Styles (or Alt-F8). Select the footnote style and click "Edit." Then insert the proper margin, font, etc. All your footnotes will change to this format - unless of course, someone has previously edited each one manually!
Edit Your Toolbar. WordPerfect or Word will be much easier to use if you edit the toolbar to put some of your most frequently used functions on it.
In WordPerfect, right click on the toolbar, select "Edit" and add buttons for features you want. Then click OK. Some features I commonly put on toolbars include: Envelopes, Margins, Line Numbering, Paragraph Formatting and Double Underscore (useful for bills).
Woody's Office Watch. Woody Leonhard, publisher of the "Microsoft Annoyances" series (for Word, Office, Excel, Windows, etc.) has an excellent web site that is a must for any heavy-duty Word User. It now features a column specifically designed for legal users. To subscribe, go to www.wopr.com.
Word Can't Count Words
A recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit has highlighted the fact that Microsoft Word may issue erroneous word counts when submitting briefs.
Fed. R. App. 32(a) (7) limits the allowable length of a brief to 14,000 words, and of a reply brief to 7,000 words. Under Rule 32 (a) (7) (B) (iii), footnotes count toward this limit, but the "corporate disclosure statement, table of contents, table of citations, statement with respect to oral argument, any addendum containing statutes, rules or regulations, and any certificates of counsel do not count toward the limitation." Thus, you determine the "countable" words by selecting the body of the brief and doing a word count.
Unfortunately, recent versions of Microsoft Word (97, 98 and 2000) do not count the words in footnotes under these circumstances. This can lead to underrepresenting the number of words in a brief and creating a situation where, in the words of the Court, "Counsel...may unintentionally file a false certificate and a brief that exceeds the word limits... Current versions of Corel WordPerfect...do not have this problem. WordPerfect does what lawyers may suppose that Word does (or should do): it automatically includes footnotes in its word and character counts." The full decision of the Court of Appeals can be found at http://laws/findlaw.com/ 7th/991754A.html.
In order to count words correctly using Word, you must manually add together counts for the body of the text and footnotes. After the initial outcry when this problem turned up, Microsoft issued a macro that allows Word users to obtain a correct count without going through the steps manually. It is available (along with detailed instructions) at http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/downloadDetails/swcmacro.htm.
Life After Reveal Codes (sic)
The following "rant" was originally posted on the Technolawyer forum (www.technolawyer.com) and is presently scheduled for publication in the ABA's Technology issue of Law Practice Management magazine in the "Network2d" technology insert section.
I can't take it any more. Having (mainly) refrained from the reveal codes / styles dispute, let me throw in my two cents. As an avid reader of Woody's Office Watch (all you ever wanted to know about MS Office at www.wopr.com), I was directed to Microsoft's White Paper: "Word 97: Life After Reveal Codes." To paraphrase Mark Twain: there are lies, damn lies, and then there are Microsoft White Papers.
The MS White Paper (or should it be called a Purple Paper?) has two core assertions. The first is: "the concept of codes in a word processor dates back to the days when ... documents [were sent] to dot matrix printers as streams of information. Unlike WordPerfect, Microsoft was designed in the age of the laser printer, a tool that accepts information an entire page at a time instead of as a stream of text and codes." So streaming text is old fashioned and "objects" ("a page at a time") is the newer, more powerful, sexier tool.
So let's see: major book publishers rely on ... streams of text to produce large books, manuals, etc. (My wife, a computer typesetter, used a $30,000 program that generated 1200 page books from streams of text coming in from various databases).
So let's see: the Internet (that's as modern as you can get, right?) uses HTML which is based on... streams of text surrounded by codes.
So let's see: XML, SGML, all the "new" Internet publishing mechanisms are based on guess what? streams of text.
The truth is much different: heavy duty publishing has always relied on text streaming, it has nothing to do with old fashioned vs. modern. It has to do with the way text is input in heavy-duty applications (long documents, newspaper, books, etc.) vs. light weight applications for which a "page at a time" is adequate: short letters, etc. If the Internet is the future, then streamed text is the future, not the past.
I would also note that MS 2000's "round trip" ability with HTML depends on proprietary extensions, so if you try to post one of these documents on the web, a very large number of people will not be able to read it (unless they upgrade to MS office 2000).
The second big lie is implied in the statement "Word is a What You See Is What You Get word processor. This means Word shows you on screen exactly what your document will look like when printed out. This reduces the need for formatting codes, because you can see formatting as you apply and manipulate it." The underlying implication is that WordPerfect is not a WYSIWYG program. Microsoft's ongoing strategy is to compare Word 97 to WP 5.1 without every stating so explicitly. This is an apples and oranges comparison. For what its worth, the fact is that WordPerfect is much more WYSIWYG than Word: footers do not appear grayed out in WordPefect as they do in Word, documents are editable at any resolution, there is no need whatsoever for a "print preview", etc.
However, being "WYSIWYG" is not a panacea. How many Word users complain that changes are made that "suddenly" affect the whole document and they have no clue how to undo them? One of the common "tips" for converting WP to Word documents is to strip out all formatting and start from scratch.
Defenders of Word like to speak of the power of "fully debugged" styles. This is truly a glorious phrase, but what does it mean? Basically, that somebody has probably spent dozens of hours figuring out how to make the style do what it is supposed to do and nothing else under any circumstances no matter how weird. And this brings us to the question of time and money. All the suggestions for developing styles, writing Visual Basic macros, etc. are a question of your hourly billing rate (or your consultant's rate). It means investing considerable time up front, hoping to recoup it later on in increased productivity. Anybody who has read the legal column in Woody's Office Watch knows that this is not for the faint of heart nor for anybody who has anything better to do for the next week or so. As a friend of mine used to say: MS is a consultant's dream, since they are a prime purveyor of software that almost works - hence the need for more consulting dollars.
As I said at the beginning, I follow Woody's Office Watch avidly, especially the legal column. Anybody who can a) understand what they are describing and b) thinks this is a reasonable way for a word processor to work should by all means switch to Word.


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By Ashley Lee - L.A. Times (TNS)
Brendan Fraser stars in "The Whale." (A24/TNS)
The movie version of "The Whale" ends with a breath, a bright light and a beach. The last visual shows the sun shining, the tide rising and falling, and a younger, slimmer version of the title character, Charlie, staring out into the ocean as his daughter plays in the sand behind him.
If the serene seaside scene confused you, you're not alone: That final flashback was a surprise to playwright and screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter, as director Darren Aronofsky tacked it on without discussing it with him. But the ending's overall effect echoes the final moment of its source material, which actors and directors who've staged the popular play consider to be a release that, when performed, feels communal and generally satisfying for the audience in the room.
"The way it's structured, this play is designed to slowly and repeatedly turn up the pressure until it almost can't be tolerated," said Davis McCallum, who directed an 2012 off-Broadway staging at Playwrights Horizons. "And then it has this really cathartic release at the end of the piece — a blackout, a sound effect, and a moment where the audience just lived in that silent darkness together."
Both the play and the movie "The Whale" center on Charlie (Brendan Fraser), a reclusive, morbidly obese instructor of online writing classes who has been eating himself to death since the passing of his lover, a casualty of religious homophobia.
The character is an amalgamation of Hunter's past lives: as a closeted gay kid attending a fundamentalist Christian school in rural Idaho, a depressed adult who silently self-medicated with food, and an expository writing instructor for college freshmen (the piece's heartbreakingly honest line "I think I need to accept that my life isn't going to be very exciting" is an actual submission from one of Hunter's students).
Throughout "The Whale," Charlie is visited by his estranged and troubled daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink), and his frustrated ex-wife, Mary (Samantha Morton), both of whom Charlie abandoned when he ended his marriage and came out as gay; Liz (Hong Chau), a conflicted caregiver who is also the sibling of Charlie's late lover; and Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a fundamentalist missionary who is far from home. Hunter doesn't shy away from any of the issues the characters are dealing with "but doesn't bury you in [them] either," said Martin Benson, who directed a 2013 staging at South Coast Repertory. "He's not advocating anything, he's just writing what he believes is true."
These characters and their concerns are similar to those in Hunter's other plays, which tackle subjects "fundamental to Greek tragedy: the limitation of humanity's vision, the place of religion in society and the desperate longing for relief from the lonely uncertainty of life," wrote Los Angeles Times critic Charles McNulty when Hunter received the MacArthur "genius" grant in 2014. "He proceeds not with a moral point but through observation of the way his characters either defend their bunkered existences or attempt to reach beyond them — or more commonly, some combination of the two."
Throughout the intimate live piece — which is staged without the escape of an intermission — all five characters reveal truths to each other and the audience that raise the stakes of their potential bonds.
"These deeply flawed characters actually care about each other so much, but there are so many obstacles for them to express that love or connect with one another in real ways, however desperately or destructively," said Joanie Schultz, who directed a 2013 production at Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater. "So when some of them finally do, it's gorgeous and almost magical."
Numerous stagings of "The Whale" accentuate the pressure-cooker effect by designing Charlie's living room, where the entirety of the play unfolds, with an extra sense of claustrophobia or isolation. For example, the 2014 Bay Area run raised the Marin Theatre Company stage by four feet and angled Charlie's ceiling so that, from the audience's perspective, the character appeared to "dominate the space in a way that intimidated the people who visited him," said director Jasson Minadakis.
Likewise, the off-Broadway version strategically lit the space "so that it felt as if his room were hovering in this dark void," said director McCallum; the Chicago staging positioned the proscenium "like an island in the sea, which was really effective because they're all alone on their own islands in some ways, with all these barriers to connection," said director Schultz.
Within these confined spaces, the actors who played Charlie — each wearing body suits weighing anywhere from 30 to 100 pounds — charted his arc physically and emotionally. As he attempts to nudge daughter Ellie toward a place of authentic self-expression, he too reveals himself to his students. The intention is that, by the time Charlie shares that he's giving his life savings to Ellie, and endures great pain to stand up and walk toward her as she reads her "Moby Dick" essay aloud to him, the audience would feel the overwhelming fulfillment Charlie gets during his final breath in the play.
"Every night, it was a journey, and it wasn't easy to watch or to perform," recalled Tom Alan Robbins, who starred in the 2012 world premiere in Denver. "His goal is self-destructive, but you want the audience to understand what has driven him to do this, and that his redemption is in the relationship he tries to forge with his daughter. You want that last second to be a combination of incredible pain and incredible triumph because, however briefly it is that they connect, it's still an achievement for him."
"Ellie says terrible, devastating things to Charlie throughout the whole thing, but he loves her so much that it doesn't even hurt him," said Matthew Arkin, who played Charlie at South Coast Repertory. "So in that final moment, whatever flaws he had, whatever mistakes he made and in whatever ways he couldn't love himself enough, he lived a life redeemed, because he gave everything to save his daughter."
Whether Charlie dies at the end of "The Whale" is up for debate. As written in Hunter's script, the stage directions of that breath simply read, "A sharp intake of breath. The lights snap to black." Many theater makers say that breath could very well be his last inhale, after which he is finally freed from the pains of his body, his loneliness, his grief. "The love and connection that Charlie gives Ellie is a gift, and hopefully she will remain true to her voice and herself in a way that he gave up on," said Hal Brooks, who directed the Denver premiere.
It also could be considered in a metaphorical way, mimicking "how whales immerse themselves for so long underwater and then they finally come up to the surface," said Schultz, or "a deep intake of breath before diving in somewhere they've never gone before," said Shuler Hensley, who played Charlie in the New York run as well as a London staging in 2018. "It's a brilliant ending, because audience members have constantly told me they couldn't breathe afterwards. They didn't know what to do, whether to applaud or get up or move because they've become so connected to Charlie."
When asked about the ending, Hunter didn't clarify Charlie's status because, he said, it's not necessarily relevant. "The final moments of this play and this movie abandon realism a little bit, and it's no longer about this guy in this apartment," he explained. "What matters is that he's connected with Ellie, he's done the thing that he's been trying to do throughout this entire play, and that connection feels real and genuine. There's this apotheosis that happens, and in the film, Charlie literally ascends off the ground."
Though Hunter didn't write the beach scene that follows Charlie's onscreen ascension, he called it "marvelous" and shared an interpretation of what it might mean: "If it's a flashback to the last time Charlie went swimming in the ocean, close to when the family fell apart, what I see in that shot is a man staring down the abyss of self-actualization, contemplating the decision he has to make about the different avenues he can take.
"Maybe he was thinking about what would happen if he stayed in that marriage: Ellie would have grown up with a closeted father, [his lover] Alan would have been miserable and, as Liz points out, would have probably died way before he did when he was with Charlie," Hunter continued. "Choosing to stay or leave, both paths are complicated and tragic in their own ways, but ultimately, I think Charlie took the more hopeful route, and chose to look for the salvation one can find through human connection."


text:
Title: Le Soir
Subject: The Crab with the Golden Claws, Red Rackham's Treasure, The Secret of the Unicorn, The Seven Crystal Balls, Belgian stay-behind network
Collection: 1887 Establishments in Belgium, French-Language Newspapers Published in Belgium, Media in Brussels, Publications Established in 1887
Rossel & Cie. S.A
Béatrice Delvaux
Rue Royale 100,
.be.lesoirwww
Le Soir (literally, "The Evening") is a French language daily Belgian newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel, it was intended as an politically-independent and traditionally Liberal source of news. It is one of the most popular Francophone newspapers in Belgium, competing with La Libre Belgique, and since 2005 has appeared in Berliner format. It is owned by Rossel & Cie, which also owns several Belgian news outlets and the French paper La Voix du Nord.
History and profile 1
Circulation 2
Editorial stance 3
Google controversy 4
Charlie Hebdo bomb threat 5
History and profile
Le Soir was founded as a free advertising newspaper in 1887.[1][2] Later it became a paying paper.[1]
When Belgium was occupied during the Second World War, Le Soir continued to be published under German censorship, unlike many Belgian newspapers which went underground. The paper, which became known as "Le Soir Volé" (or "Stolen Le Soir"), was parodied by the resistance group, the Front de l'Indépendance which in 1943 published a satirical pro-Allied edition of the paper, dubbed the "Faux Soir" (or "Fake Soir"), which was mixed with official copies of the paper and distributed to news kiosks in Brussels. The "Stolen Le Soir" was notable for including Hergé's Adventures of Tintin cartoons in serialized form during the war.
The renewed production of the "Free Le Soir", under Lucien Fuss, restarted on 6 September 1944, just days after the Allied Liberation of Brussels. The publisher of the paper is Rossel company.[3]
In the period of 1995-96 Le Soir had a circulation of 182,798 copies.[4] Its 2002 circulation was 130,495 copies with a market share of 20.3%.[5] The circulation of the paper was 104,000 copies in 2003[6] and 101,000 copies in 2004.[3]
Compared to its centre-right Catholic competitor, La Libre Belgique, Le Soir is seen as liberal and progressive with politically federalist leanings.
Reaffirmed on the occasion of the release of the new format on 15 November 2005, Le Soir describes its editorial stance as "a progressive and independent daily newspaper."[7] It describes its aims to be a "counterweight" and "always alert, in line with society".
It describes its role as:
An evening paper to fight for the rights of man and women, to respect human dignity, freedom of expression, tolerance, multiculturalism, difference
— Béatrice Delvaux, editor-in-chief, 2005.[8]
Google controversy
The paper gained some notoriety on the internet after it successfully sued the search-engine Google for copyright infringement. The case was built on the fact that Google made parts of the newspaper's website available through its search engine and its Google News service, even after the articles in question had been removed from the newspaper's website.[9] A Belgian judge ruled that this did not conform to Belgian regulations and ordered Google to remove all "copyright violations" from its websites. Google responded as requested, by removing all links to the Belgian newspaper not only from its news service but also from its search index.[10]
Charlie Hebdo bomb threat
In response to the
1887 establishments in Belgium
French-language newspapers published in Belgium
Media in Brussels
Publications established in 1887
The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé
The Adventures
of Tintin
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (1930)
Tintin in the Congo (1931)
Tintin in America (1932)
Cigars of the Pharaoh (1934)
The Blue Lotus (1936)
The Broken Ear (1937)
The Black Island (1938)
King Ottokar's Sceptre (1939)
The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941)
The Shooting Star (1942)
The Secret of the Unicorn (1943)
Red Rackham's Treasure (1944)
The Seven Crystal Balls (1948)
Prisoners of the Sun (1949)
Land of Black Gold (1950)
Destination Moon (1953)
Explorers on the Moon (1954)
The Calculus Affair (1956)
The Red Sea Sharks (1958)
Tintin in Tibet (1960)
The Castafiore Emerald (1963)
Flight 714 (1968)
Tintin and the Picaros (1976)
Tintin and Alph-Art (1986, unfinished)
Professor Calculus
Thomson and Thompson
Rastapopoulos
Bianca Castafiore
Chang Chong-Chen
Jolyon Wagg
Borduria
Khemed
Marlinspike Hall
San Theodoros
Syldavia
Wadesdah
Tintin and the Golden Fleece (1961)
Tintin and the Blue Oranges (1964)
Tintin and the Temple of the Sun (1969)
Tintin and the Lake of Sharks (1972)
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
Hergé's Adventures of Tintin (1958–62)
The Adventures of Tintin (1991–92)
I, Tintin (1976)
Tintin and I (2003)
Tintin on the Moon (1987)
Tintin: Destination Adventure (2001)
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)
and memorabilia
The Mystery of the Blue Diamond
Le Thermozéro
Tintin media
Books about Tintin
Tintin magazine
Tintin postage stamps
Tintin coins
of Hergé
Studios Hergé
Edgar P. Jacobs
Jacques Martin
Roger Leloup
Josette Baujot
Jacques Van Melkebeke
Zhang Chongren
Legacy of Hergé
Hergé Foundation
Ideology of Tintin
Musée Hergé
Parodies and pastiches
Tintin in Thailand
Methuen Publishing
Le Petit Vingtième
Literary critics
Michael Farr
Philippe Goddin
Benoît Peeters
Yves Rodier
Numa Sadoul
Book: Hergé and Tintin
Category: Tintin
Newspapers in Belgium
Gazet van Antwerpen
Het Volk
La Capitale
La Libre Belgique
Grenz-Echo
Official website (French)
^ a b Bart Van Besien (29 October 2010). "The case of Belgium". Media policies and regulatory practices in a selected set of European countries, the EU and the Council of Europe (PDF). Athens: The Mediadem Consortium. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
^ "European News Resources". NYU Libraries. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
^ a b "Media pluralism in the Member States of the European Union" (PDF). Commission of the European Communities. Brussels. 16 January 2007. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
^ Media Policy: Convergence, Concentration & Commerce. SAGE Publications. 24 September 1998. p. 10.
^ David Ward (2004). "A Mapping Study of Media Concentration and Ownership in Ten European Countries" (PDF). Dutch Media Authority. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
^ "World Press Trends" (PDF). World Association of Newspapers. Paris. 2004. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
^ "Communicating Europe Manual: Belgium" (PDF). European Stability Initiative. July 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
^ Delvaux, Béatrice (2005). "Le Soir se leve contre l'inacceptable". Le Soir. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
^ White, Aoife (13 February 2007). "Belgian Newspapers win Google Lawsuit".
^ Belgian newspaper: Google blocking us on searches, Associated Press via CBS News, 15 July 2011
^ "Don't let free speech die". Index on Censorship. 8 Jan 2015.
^ "RWB Appeals to Media Outlets to Publish Charlie Hebdo Cartoons". Reporters Without Borders. 7 January 2015.
^ Withnall, Adam (11 January 2015). "Hamburger Morgenpost firebomb: Arson attack on German newspaper that printed Charlie Hebdo cartoons". The Independent. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
^ "Belgian paper that ran Charlie cartoons evacuated after threat". Yahoo News. 11 January 2015.
^ Béatrice Delvaux (11 January 2015). "La rédaction du «Soir» évacuée après des menaces: un suspect bientôt interpellé". Le Soir.
^ "Les Unes emblématiques de Charlie Hebdo". La Soir.
Philippe Servaty
Faux Soir
Le Soir faced bomb threats for republishing Charlie Hebdo cartoons,[14][15] including many satirising religion.[16]
The Crab with the Golden Claws
Le Soir, Steven Spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin, Casterman, German occupation of Belgium during World War II
The Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin, Casterman, Le Soir, German occupation of Belgium during World War II
The Secret of the Unicorn
Mana, The Adventures of Tintin, Casterman, Le Soir, Red Rackham's Treasure
The Seven Crystal Balls
Casterman, The Adventures of Tintin, Le Soir, Tintin (magazine), Prisoners of the Sun
Belgian stay-behind network
French language, Westland New Post, Le Soir, Belgium, Cold War


text:
Pataki In Dubbing; To Release Soon
golden star ganesh,	pataki	ranya
ganesh in pataki
Ganesh's new film 'Pataki' which is in the making for the last one and a half years is nearing completion. The film is in the dubbing stage and the film is likely to be released in the month of April.
'Pataki' is being directed by Manju Swaraj of 'Shravani Subramanya' fame and produced by S V Babu under the S V Babu Productions. The film is a remake of Telugu hit 'Patas'.
Actress Ranya who was last seen with Sudeep in 'Manikya' is the heroine of the film. Apart from Ganesh and Ranya Rao, Saikumar, Ashish Vidyarthi, Sadhu Kokila and others play prominent roles in the film.Venkatesh Anguraj is the cameraman, while Arjun Janya is the music director of the film.
Related Articles :-
Pataki Teaser on 31st December night
Ganesh's Dream Fulfilled With Pataki
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One Film Olds Clash At The Box Office


text:
Australian Information Commissioner Bill 2010; Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Bill 2010; Health Practitioner Regulation (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010
All Senate debates on 13 May 2010	« Previous debate	Next debate »
Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I table three revised explanatory memoranda relating to the bills and I move:
Australian Information Commissioner Bill 2010
The purpose of the Australian Information Commissioner Bill 2010 is to establish the Office of the Information Commissioner.
The Bill will implement the structural reforms outlined in the Government's election commitment, Government information: restoring trust and integrity. Together with the Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Bill 2009, it constitutes the second stage of the Rudd Government's overhaul of FOI.
The new Office of the Information Commissioner will bring together the independent oversight functions for privacy protection (principally regulated by the Privacy Act 1988) and for access to government information (regulated by the Freedom of Information Act 1982). The Government considers that the co-location of privacy and FOI policy will enhance oversight and allow for consistent information policy.
For this purpose, the Bill creates two new independent statutory positions of Information Commissioner and Freedom of Information (FOI) Commissioner. It also makes provision for the appointment of the Privacy Commissioner in this legislation instead of under the Privacy Act 1988.
The absence of an independent statutory monitor for FOI was identified as an impediment to effective administration of the FOI Act in the joint 1995 Australian Law Reform Commission and Administrative Review Council Open Government report and later by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. To correct that deficiency, the Information Commissioner and FOI Commissioner will have broad ranging FOI functions. They will ensure a constant voice which not only addresses poor FOI practices, but also addresses attitudes that are not conducive to the presumption of openness which is intended by the Government's FOI reforms.
The nature of the FOI functions and privacy functions are too extensive for one office holder to effectively manage. Conversely, the appointment of multiple statutory officers of equal standing does not present an effective governance model. The Bill establishes the Information Commissioner as head of the Office for both strategic and administrative purposes. It is intended that the FOI Commissioner will be mainly responsible for the FOI functions, and that the Privacy Commissioner will be mainly responsible for privacy functions.
While the Government expects that the three office holders will work together cooperatively, the Bill makes provision for the Information Commissioner's view to prevail in any disagreement on matters which involve substantial policy decisions. Provision is also made to ensure that there is no duplication in the performance of essential determination functions.
The FOI functions include those functions that will make the Information and FOI Commissioners strong advocates for FOI, such as promoting awareness, issuing guidance, monitoring compliance and providing training and assistance. It is intended that the Office of the Information Commissioner will be a resource for agencies as well as for the public. The Commissioners will also be given a function of undertaking merits review of access decisions and investigating complaints. The comprehensive nature of the Commissioners' FOI functions is in keeping with the Government's intention to provide a central clearing house for FOI matters.
The privacy functions are those functions now performed by the Privacy Commissioner. The Government is currently embarking on reforms to the Privacy Act by preparing draft legislation for release for public consultation early next year. Any changes that are made to the functions and powers of the Privacy Commissioner following the Government's privacy reforms will of course be aligned with the new structure created in this Bill.
The Bill also gives the Information Commissioner a discrete function of advising the Government on information management policy. That function reflects the capacity for the new structure to generate strategic advice to Government on broader information management policy and practice, including in the use of systems employed in information management. Consistent with the objective of achieving a coordinated approach to information management policy across government, the Information Commissioner is to be assisted by an Information Advisory Committee. The Committee will be chaired by the Information Commissioner and will comprise senior executives from key agencies and other persons outside government who have suitable experience or qualifications.
The establishment of an Office of the Information Commissioner not only supports the important outcome of promoting a pro-disclosure culture and revitalising FOI, but also lays new, stronger foundations for privacy protection and improvement in the broader management of government information.
Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Bill 2010
The main purpose of the Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Bill 2009 is to amend the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to usher in a new regime for access to government information.
When Labor was elected to Government, we committed to reforming Australia's Freedom of Information laws. We committed to driving a cultural shift across the bureaucracy to promote a pro-disclosure attitude. The Bill implements this important election commitment, and marks the second stage of the Government's plan to undertake the most significant overhaul of the FOI Act since its commencement in 1982.
The Government delivered the first stage of reform earlier this year, introducing and passing new legislation to remove the power to issue conclusive certificates in the FOI Act and the Archives Act 1983.
This Bill, together with the Information Commissioner Bill 2009, meets the Rudd Government's remaining FOI election commitments which are designed to restore trust and integrity in the handling of government information.
The two Bills introduced today are the product of a participatory process. The Government consulted a number of stakeholders and then released exposure drafts of each Bill for public comment in March this year.
Proposals in the Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Bill are also drawn in part from the key findings of the 1995 joint Australian Law Reform Commission and Administrative Review Council Open Government report. The report's key findings have been updated and supplemented by other measures to deliver better access to government information.
The Bill is intended to deliver more effective and efficient access to government information and promote a culture of disclosure across Government.
In pursuit of the FOI Act's objective to give the Australian community access to government held information, the existing limited publication requirements under Part II of the Act are to be replaced. The Bill provides for a new framework which will require pro-active publication of information by agencies. This new publication scheme will require agencies to actively consider the types of information they have which can and should be made available to the public. This measure represents a significant shift away from the current system that is predominantly reactive; responding only to requests that have been made.
The publication of information, which will be primarily web-based, needs to be structured, informative and user friendly. The Information Commissioner, an office which will be created by the Information Commissioner Bill 2009, will be responsible for ensuring this occurs. The Information Commissioner will be responsible for issuing guidance to agencies on how they can ensure optimal publication. Agencies will also be required to develop plans showing what information they will publish to further the objectives of the Act.
Our system of government remains responsible and accountable to the people it serves. This Bill amends the objects clause of the FOI Act to expressly refer to the important role that access to government information serves in promoting Australia's representative democracy.
The Bill proposes many changes to improve the effectiveness of the FOI application system. The changes are closely entwined with the structural reforms proposed by the Information Commissioner Bill 2009. The aim of these measures is to ensure that the public interest in disclosure remains at the forefront of decision making, and that the right of access to documents is not unduly restricted by liberal application of exemption criteria.
A new, single form of public interest test weighted towards disclosure will be introduced and the test will be applied to more exemption categories than is currently the case. The public interest test is to be added to the economy, research and personal information exemptions and is to be partially applied to the business affairs exemption. In response to public consultation, the public interest test will not be applied to that part of the business affairs exemption which relates to documents disclosing trade secrets or commercially valuable information.
Decision makers will be required to address the public interest factors taken into account in their reasons for the decision. The Bill does not seek to exhaustively define public interest factors. It has long been recognised that the categories of public interest are not closed. The public interest will vary depending on the subject matter.
Certain factors which are not conducive to open and accountable government, including arguments solely concerned with political sensitivity, will not be able to be argued as factors supporting non-disclosure of documents. This extends to arguments ordinarily associated with the deliberative documents exemption, for example, that disclosure would cause a loss of confidence in the government or cause embarrassment to the government. In keeping with the intention of the reforms to promote disclosure, the Bill lists some pro-disclosure factors but does not list factors against disclosure.
The Bill will repeal exemption categories for Executive Council documents, documents arising out of companies and securities legislation, and documents relating to the conduct by an agency of industrial relations.
The Bill also proposes two limited exclusions from the operation of the FOI Act for certain intelligence related information. The public interest in maintaining confidence in the information must clearly outweigh the public interest in access to that information. The nature of intelligence agencies' functions and some programs which operate to ensure Australia's strategic defence are such that those intelligence functions would be compromised by public dissemination of that information. These functions cannot be carried out with the same level of transparency ordinarily expected of administrative action. This is recognised by the special accountability systems in place for the intelligence agencies through the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.
A substantial change which will significantly increase accessibility to information will be reducing the term during which the FOI Act governs public access to government information, and accelerating the application of the Archives Act. The Bill amends the Archives Act to bring forward the open access period for all records (other than Cabinet notebooks and census information) from 30 years to 20 years. The open access period for Cabinet notebooks is to be brought forward from 50 years to 30 years. These measures will make government information available earlier under the Archives Act.
The Bill also amends section 33(1)(b) of the Archives Act to address concerns with the current application of the provision. Decisions made by the Australian Government on section 33 exemptions will be made consistent with past practice and our international obligations, and will be based on the national interest and based on the views of partner governments.
The Government recognises that the promise of better information disclosure requires structural reforms. The establishment of an Information Commissioner and FOI Commissioner, as independent officers, will address a long-standing lacuna in effective FOI administration. In addition to promotional, monitoring and guidance functions, the Commissioners will directly participate in the process by reviewing access decisions made by agencies and Ministers. Review of a decision by the Information Commissioner will not replace review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). A party can still apply for AAT review after an Information Commissioner review if needed. Both forums will offer full independent merits review, unfettered by the limiting effects of conclusive certificates. Retaining an option of review by the AAT, an experienced review body, will be particularly important for highly contested FOI matters.
Information Commissioner review will be characterised by reduced formality and adversarial contest, with most applications determined on the papers. The Commissioners will be able to dispose of an application where an agreement is reached between the parties or by determination if no compromise is reached.
Following public consultation on the exposure draft, the applicant will have the option of seeking internal review or going directly to the Information Commissioner for review of an initial FOI decision. By making internal review optional, agencies should be encouraged to make the best possible access decision at first instance.
There is potential for a substantial resource impost in the maintenance of an effective FOI system. That impost in part exists because not all government information can properly be released and so it can take time for agencies to work out what information can be released and what cannot. The broad range of FOI functions to be vested in the Information and FOI Commissioners are designed to ensure the objects of the Act are achieved with as minimal contest, and therefore cost, as possible. That includes fostering a pro-disclosure culture among agencies. To manage access requests that are manifestly unreasonable, the Information Commissioner is given a power to restrict an applicant's access rights by declaring them to be vexatious. Provision is also made to enhance consultation provisions for dealing with onerous or vague requests for documents.
The Information Commissioner will also take over the bulk of the role of the Ombudsman in investigating complaints about handling of FOI requests. However, the Ombudsman will still have capacity to investigate complaints which relate to FOI where it would be more appropriate or effective for the Ombudsman to do so.
One aspect of the current law which has restricted the public's access to information is cost. Cost should not deter reasonable requests for access to information. The Bill, together with amendments proposed to regulations, remove all application fees, including for internal review.
No costs will apply for access to a person's own information. The first five hours of decision making time for applications from journalists and not-for-profit organisations will be free and for all other applications the first hour of decision making time will be free. Some of these measures will be implemented through amendment to regulations. The regulations will also be amended so that if there is a failure to comply with a statutory time period, any charges will be waived. The Information Commissioner will be tasked with reviewing all charges within 12 months of the Commissioner's appointment.
The Government is allocating $19.5 million over 4 years for the establishment and running of the Office of the Information Commissioner (in addition to existing resources for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner).
While the Privacy Act 1988 largely regulates the handling of personal information by Commonwealth agencies, access to and correction of a person's own information is currently enforced through the FOI Act. Around 85-90 percent of FOI requests annually are for personal information. The Government proposes to amend the Privacy Act so that it is the principal legislation which provides for an enforceable right of access to, and correction of, an individual's own information. That proposal will be addressed in draft legislation covering broader reforms to the Privacy Act expected to be released for public comment early in 2010.
The Government believes the legislation now before the Parliament comprises a strong package of measures to enhance access to information for the Australian public. To ensure the reform package delivers effective change, provision is made in the Bill for the Act to be reviewed two years after the commencement of the reforms. The Government will also consider further improvements and will ask the Australian Law Reform Commission to inquire into whether the FOI Act or another disclosure regime should apply to the private sector.
This Government recognises that transparent and open government is a key component of a healthy and vibrant democracy. When the Rudd Government was elected, Labor committed to significantly reform Freedom of Information laws and these Bills fulfil the Government's promise to the Australian public.
Health Practitioner Regulation (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010
This bill supports the implementation of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for health professions.
I am very proud to be standing here today introducing this legislation – this Bill is a landmark reform for our health system.
With this Bill, for the first time there will be a national system for the registration and accreditation of 10 health professions– bringing consistency and uniform standards to our health workforce.
Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have already passed the Bills which will put in place the national system. The ACT and Northern Territory have introduced their Bills and South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia are well advanced in their planning.
National registration has been a long time coming – the previous government, with the current Leader of the Opposition as Minister for Health, identified it as a goal, and then decided to sit on his hands. After years of blaming the states and territories for all the problems in the health system, he was unable to work with them to deliver this key health reform.
Just as he sat on the sidelines whilst 60 per cent of Australians suffered from a shortage of doctors, he dithered on this important workforce reform.
The Rudd Government recognised that this goal was one that had stalled and needed pursuing – we immediately got to work with the States and Territories – and in March 2008 signed an intergovernmental agreement to progress the National scheme.
We know that a National scheme could reduce red tape, increase standards and improve safety for the Australian community.
We also know that a national scheme will improve the mobility of the health workforce. It will stop health professionals for having to re-register every time they step across a State border, saving time, money and inconvenience. This for example will help to boost locum support for rural doctors as Doctors become freer to work across State boundaries.
On 3 November 2009, the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act 2009 (Qld) received Royal Assent in the Queensland Parliament.
The National Law sets out the framework for the scheme, covering registration of health practitioners and accreditation of health education and training, complaints, privacy and information sharing, and transitional arrangements.
The Commonwealth does not need to apply the National Law, however consequential and transitional amendments are required to the Health Insurance Act 1973 to ensure that medical practitioners continue to retain the same Medicare billing eligibility from 1 July 2010.
It also streamlines the extensive systems involved in registration and recognition of medical practitioners for Medicare purposes ensuring reduction of red tape, currency of the Health Insurance Act 1973 regulations and adequate access to Medicare rebates and retention of practitioners in Australia.
Streamlining the recognition of doctors for Medicare purposes
The current pathways to specialist, consultant physician and GP recognition in the Health Insurance Act 1973 necessitate communication exchange between Medicare Australia and relevant organisations (such as medical colleges) to ascertain Medicare eligibility.
These arrangements have been put in place because previously there was variation across states and territories for the recognition of specialist qualifications and general practice qualifications in the registration process.
The National Registration and Accreditation Scheme provides a nationally consistent means of identifying both specialists and GPs, and the mandatory requirement for Continuing Professional Development in the Scheme means Medicare Australia is no longer is required to monitor whether practitioners providing a 'Medicare rebateable service' are meeting Continuing Professional Development requirements.
It is essential that the extensive systems involved in registration and recognition of doctors for Medicare purposes are streamlined to ensure reduction of red tape, currency of the Health Insurance regulations and efficient access to Medicare rebates.
The Health Insurance Act 1973 provides various pathways for recognising specialists, consultant physicians and general practitioners (GPs) for Medicare purposes.
This Bill provides an opportunity to streamline current specialist recognition processes under Commonwealth legislation.
This includes removing the current Vocational Register of General Practitioners, particularly now that the Medical Board of Australia has recommended that Health Ministers endorse 'general practice' as a specialty for the medical profession.
I am aware that the Medical Board of Australia is soon to make decisions about the eligibility requirements for the General Practitioner specialty register.
I can assure the House that this bill will not disadvantage medical practitioners that are currently registered in states and territories.
In particular, it will not disadvantage any GPs that are currently on the Vocational Register whether or not they have a fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners or the Australian College of Remote and Rural Medicine.
Streamlining specialist recognition will also facilitate workforce mobility and access to Medicare for International Medical Graduates.
The National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for health professions will modernise the regulation of health professionals by creating a single regulatory environment.
By ending the duplication of effort, multiple standards and red tape caused by separate systems in each state and territory, we will have a more workable registration scheme for Australian patients and practitioners that also contributes to improving the safety of our health system for all Australians.
It provides the community with the reassurance that health professionals across Australia meet a common set of standards. Our health workforce will also benefit from the improved mobility the national scheme will offer.
I would like to extend my thanks to all of the professional groups who have constructively engaged in an incredibly complex task over four years – this includes the current State and Territory Health Professional Boards who have faced enormous change.
I would also like to recognise the expertise and hard work of the officials who have undertaken the work that is making National Registration a reality.
Lastly I acknowledge my Ministerial colleagues around the country who are all committed to a National scheme for the registration of health professionals- and put the national interest first.
I look forward to the National Law being adopted in the remaining jurisdictions over the coming months and the implementation of a National registration and accreditation scheme for the first time in Australia.
Debate (on motion by Senator Sherry) adjourned.
Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for a later hour.
Ordered that the Health Practitioner Regulation (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010 be listed on the Notice Paper as a separate order of the day.


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Eucrypta chrysanthemifolia är en strävbladig växtart som först beskrevs av George Bentham, och fick sitt nu gällande namn av Edward Lee Greene. Eucrypta chrysanthemifolia ingår i släktet Eucrypta och familjen strävbladiga växter. Utöver nominatformen finns också underarten E. c. bipinnatifida.

Bildgalleri

Källor

Externa länkar

Strävbladiga växter
chrysanthemifolia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Exclusive Timepieces & Jewels July 2019 | Monaco LOT 121
121. Rolex A valuable and fine Rolex Explorer II reference 16550 in stainless steel for Van Cleef & Arpels with signed bracelet, original paper and retailer's invoice
Model: Explorer II
Reference N°: 16550
Case N°: 9695179
Movement N°: 1695157
Bracelet: Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 39
Signed: Dial, Case and movement
Accessories: papers
The Rolex Explorer II ref. 16550 is the model that replaces the 1665 Freccione in the mid-80s, produced in a small series it maintained its characteristics despite a decisive restyling.
The dial can alternately be white or black while the hands are the iconic Mercedes type, similar to that used on the contemporary Rolex GMT-Master.
Amongst collectors, the Explorer II with ivory-colored dial is the most sought-after version of the reference 16550 that can be found. The present watch features a very warm tone of ivory "rail" dial, so named because of the symmetric division of the two lines below the center. The case and bezel are very well preserved but the most important feature on this watch is its special bracelet. Inside the deployant are in fact deep and crisp engraved the three letters VCA, standing for Van Cleef & Arpels, famous jeweler. Established in 1906 at 22 Place Vendôme, the story of Van Cleef & Arpels began when Alfred Van Cleef married Estelle Arpels in 1895. Immediately it showed to the world its expertise in the creation of fabulous jewels but this capability in the production of amazing objects has been translated also in the creations of exceptional timepieces with particular combination that are now notable masterpieces for collectors.
This watch is also provided with the important Original Rolex Warranty signed Van Cleef & Arpels and the very rare business card and retailer invoice confirming its purchase on February 20th, 1991.


Theaetetus is a lunar impact crater that is located to the southeast of the crater Cassini near the eastern edge of Mare Imbrium. It was named after the ancient Greek mathematician Theaetetus. It lies just to the west of the Montes Caucasus range, which forms the eastern shore of the mare. To the southwest is the prominent crater Aristillus.
The rim of Theaetetus is distinctly polygonal in shape, with a slight rounding at the vertices. There is a low outer rampart and a slight central rise on the crater floor, which is offset to the northeast of the crater midpoint. The interior is otherwise relatively featureless.
This crater has been noted in the past as a site of possible transient lunar phenomena. In 1902, a white cloud was observed briefly in the vicinity of the crater. Other observers, including Patrick Moore and W. H. Pickering, have also noted unusual appearances in this area.
^ "Theaetetus (crater)". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Theaetetus (crater).


Mitsubishi NY-60 Line Hide Lineset Cover System Simple Wall Cover - 2-9/16" x 2-9/16"
Mitsubishi'sLine Hide System represents one of the best possible ways to hide a mini split line and improve the exterior look of your home all at the same time. Line Hide comes in an incredible array of sizes and shapes, with corners and joints to suit any construction project one may have. High quality materials ensure that any Line Hide tubing attached to a home will last for decades. Line Hide parts can be painted with most exterior house paints, allowing any homeowner to have a coherent outdoorlook to their home while at the same time hiding unsightly mini split line sets.
Line Hide is not just for HVAC either, it can be used to hide any exterior wiring, cabling or piping around a home. It can even be used indoors, as it meets the UL94v-0 interior design standard. Snap on covers and a full selection of almost any shape imaginable allows Line Hide to help any home look its best.
Note:This product, although appearing white in its photo, is an almond off-white color. Mitsubishi Line Hide can be painted to the color of your choosing with most paints, matchable to the exterior of your home or business.
Currently no specifications available for this product. Please check product description or call our sales support team if you have any further queries.


A.	1 and 3 leave from diagonal corners and one touch give and go with 2 and 4.
B.	Skate across the ice and pass to 5 and 7.
C.	1 and 3 skate around the circle and 7 pass to 3 and 5 pass to 1.
D.	1 and 3 skate in shoot and follow the shot for a rebound.
E.	Options: After the shot 1 and 3 either screen, circle back for a rebound.
F.	Options: Give and go with 2 and 4 or defend a 1-1 vs. 2 and 4 the next attackers.


College of Design is an application-oriented research institute. Emphasizing both theory and practice, our educational objectives are as below.
1. To cultivate advanced talents responsive to the need of national economic development.
2. To foster students' abilities to expand the domestic and foreign markets and to contribute to the enhancement of industrial design quality and the better environment.
3. To promote the management of sustainable environment and the foundation of cultural creative industries so as to create a healthy and comfortable cultural milieu.
4. To nurture specialists of sustainable environmental design and cultural creative design with response to the current trend of digital technology and knowledge economy.
5. To build symbiotic relationships between local industries, academics and research, we enable students to carry out industry-university cooperative research projects.
The College of Design aims to create healthy and sustainable surroundings. Our development compasses wide and various design fields including products, furniture, interior space, architecture, landscape, house, community, urban planning, and interactive media application.


The powerful new GeForce RTX™ 2070 takes advan- tage of the cutting-edge NVIDIA Turing™ architecture to immerse you in incredible realism and performance in the latest games. The future of gaming starts here.
GeForce RTX graphics cards are powered by the Turing GPU architecture and the all-new RTX platform. This gives you up to 6X the performance of previous-gener- ation graphics cards and brings the power of real-time ray tracing and AI to games.
Powered by NVIDIA Turing™, GeForce RTX™ 2070 brings the power of AI to games.


Adding to an already explosive E3 last year, many stealth gaming fans rejoiced as a brand new entry to the Hitman franchise was announced. Yes, lots were excited to see where the series would head after the middling response to Hitman: Absolution, many more were skeptical about what could come next. Would this latest Hitman entry, known only as Hitman, implied to be a soft reboot of the franchise, be a return to form and reprise Hitman: Blood Money? Or would we see another continuation of the disappointment in Absolution?
These worries were festering on forums and discussion boards across the Internet, dissecting videos and developer statements alike to try and find some semblance of a hint of how the game was going to play, and it was looking like yes, new Hitman would be like Blood Money! We'd have freedom to explore maps, multiple assassination methods, and a working disguise system. What made Hitman unique would be back, and we wouldn't be playing a generic stealth game once again. As if a joke from some mighty trickster god, it was at this time that IO Interactive revealed that Hitman would have an episodic release structure.
While in line with a recent trend in Square Enix games, with Final Fantasy 7's remake and Life is Strange both being episodic releases, fans of the Hitman series didn't take this change as a positive one. Understandable, since episodic games haven't always been successfully done.
During the run up to Hitman's release in March with a single map, audiences were concerned, considering all the changes and announcements. This first map would set the audience perception for the rest of the game, and set expectations on what to expect from future maps and episodes.
Set in Paris, Episode One set the bar for what fans will now come to expect from Hitman going forwards. With the challenge of having to keep players entertained until the next episode released, IO not only provided a huge sandbox featuring the opportunity for different assassination styles, methods and approaches but also introduced a series of challenges outside the main level.
Built upon highly replayable levels to create new environments and problems for players to solve, Episode One lead to very creative solutions to assassinations. You'd also gain experience from each solution, providing a very real progression and motivation to keep going. Anything gained from finishing these challenges would translate into gear for your next mission.
similar to MMORPGs in how we get huge content patches, with smaller content being drip fed to us through the expansion, to keep us engaged. For a game as devoted to experimentation and exploration as Hitman is, giving players this much time without pressure is the perfect use for episodic content, and shows that the often-maligned distribution method truly can have merit, in the right case.
In a world where big budget games are continuously filled with bloat and which have less of a focus on delivering a truly tight gaming experience, Hitman's use of episodic content provides players time to explore and enjoy what the team at IO have lovingly put together. With the success of both Hitman and Life is Strange, it'll be interesting to see what Final Fantasy 7 does with its episodic structure, and how it uses that to its advantage.
Hitman is a wonderful experience so far, and with still four episodes still to go, is one of my favourite games of the year. Getting to go back to a much-loved series from my school days, in such a polished and pure package, is a wonderful thing. Based on how successful both the game and it's method of delivery have been, I can't wait to see where the series, and other Square Enix games, go next.
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Lake Chapala is a good choice for a single woman. This region of Mexico is home to an established and thriving community of American, Canadian, and other expats. There's a developed support system in place, from bridge clubs to gardening classes to book groups. The locals are well-accustomed to foreigners living among them, and many speak English.
As Chapala is in the mountains, the weather is pleasant. Guadalajara is nearby, meaning you have easy access to all the services and conveniences of a big city, including an international airport with regular service to the States.
Lake Chapala is what you might call a "tourist retiree" destination. The local Mexican community has adapted to and made accommodations for the gringo community. The area has developed into something like the Costa del Sol in Spain, where sometimes you have to remind yourself that you're in Spain.
Chapala isn't as touristed as the Costa del Sol, but it's a very gringo-fied part of Mexico.
On the other hand, in many ways, Panama City, too, is an increasingly gringo-fied place. You'll never mistake Panama's capital for anything other than the developing world (my assistant Marion corrected me this morning when I referred to Panama as the "Third World"…"That's now how you call it," she chastised). At the same time, this city, with its high-rises, shopping malls, mega-movie theaters, jazz clubs, trendy restaurants, and art galleries, more resembles Miami than it does any other city in this part of the world.
A single woman might also be comfortable in Boquete, in the interior of Panama, where, as in Chapala, an expatriate community has taken hold. Plus, Boquete is near David, which offers shopping (including Costco) and other support services. And Boquete, again like Chapala, is in the mountains, meaning the weather is pleasant year-round (certainly more pleasant than here in Panama City).


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Spaces in the market for new interiors magazine
Spaces: "has a lifestyle twist"
Lynda Clarke, the former editor of Traditional Homes & Interiors magazine, is launching her own title called Spaces.
The 96-page glossy is described as an interiors magazine with "a lifestyle twist". It will be a bimonthly and feature practical advice on home decorating.
The cover features the strap-line "the look for your lifestyle" and Clarke said it would appeal to young people looking for ideas on how to decorate their flats or houses before they let them out.
"We think there is a gap in the market for a magazine for young people, probably first- or second-time buyers, who want things to look good, but haven't got huge amounts of time or money," she said.
The editorial has been divided into three separate sections – home space, idea space and special space – and each issue will have a particular theme, the first issue being the Fifties. The title features original Fifties fashion along with legal guidelines on how to let property and practical decorating tips. Celebrity hairdresser Trevor Sorbie is also pictured talking about the decor in his apartment.
Clarke has remortgaged her house to fund the launch and produced the first issue at home with her partner, photographer Ken Sparkes. Clarke has previously worked for That's Life! and Woman's Weekly and continues to contribute to the fashion and beauty pages of Take a Break.
Sparkes also has a solid background in interiors, having worked for Ideal Home, Homes & Ideas and Period Living and Traditional Homes. Carla Bower, a freelance on Traditional Homes and Interiors, is deputy editor.
"I always wanted to do my own magazine and we thought if we were going to do it we might as well do it now," said Clarke.
Spaces is due to launch nationwide on 26 June with a print run of 20,000 and cover price of £3.25. It will be positioned between Living Etc and Elle Decoration on the news-stand.
Despite a growing number of titles, the sector posted growth of 24 per cent in the latest ABCs. Living Etc reported sales of 92,695, up 14 per cent, and Elle Decoration showed a rise of 2.5 per cent to 61,850.
By Ruth Addicott
Evening News produces souvenir edition


Robert Crumb's iconic illustration, "A Short History of America," starts with its first panel depicting a pastoral country scene. The next panel introduces the railroad to this setting; the next panel, a telegraph line, a small house, and a dirt road. Subsequent panels add more and bigger buildings, more utilities, pavement, etc. By the 12th panel, our bucolic country setting is choked with cars, pavement, and all the ugliness that has characterized the suburban "growth and development" that followed WWII.
The final three panels depict three possible future scenarios: ecological collapse, the techno-future with flying cars, and the ecotopian future with bicycles and trees. We all wish to avoid ecological collapse; I feel that the financial and energy resources are not going to be there to support the techno-future; which leaves us with the ecotopian future. It is that scenario that I would like to see urban planning strive for.
Social and architectural critic James Howard Kunstler laments that suburban sprawl has been "the worst misallocation of resources in human history." Countless cheap, flimsy tract houses, strip malls, burger joints, and big box stores fan out in most directions from our cities—all of it built with the full expectation that we will always drive around in cars. Meanwhile, US tourists flock to European cities for the pleasure of vacationing in a humane, pedestrian-scale urban environment: Taller, mixed-use buildings line the street, defining it as a large, outdoor room. Flowers, parks, and trees combine with sidewalk cafes and corner markets to create a festive, lively environment where people walk many places, public transit is fast and convenient, and community flourishes. After their European vacation is over, US tourists return to their own wretched US cities where the downtown is commercially comatose and all serious shopping is done by driving to the Walmart on the edge of town.
It will be more challenging than most people understand for US-style automobile culture to survive the end of fossil fuels (a whole other essay). Urban planners consider 15 dwelling units per acre to be the minimum density necessary to support reasonably fast and efficient public transit. Most suburban sprawl development in the US falls woefully short of that. So, in terms of land use, we've painted ourselves into a corner.
In 1991, I sold a single house in San Francisco and bought five contiguous city lots with a smattering of older houses about one mile west of the center of Eugene, Oregon. Already a builder, I soon discovered green building. That led me to permaculture, intentional community, appropriate technology, and renewable energy; all of it culminating in the ecovillage and broader ecocity concepts. Owning vacant city land, I experimented with various green and natural building techniques. The more interesting things I built, the more interesting people moved in. Upon completing a triplex in 2002 and with a regular meditation group, we named the place Maitreya EcoVillage. It has continued to organically grow and change ever since. Much of that change has been focused on density—density of dwelling units, density of food production, density of uses and activity, density of fun and laughter.
In a nutshell, where urban development is concerned, we need to have sufficient density to support functional public transit, bicycling, and walking, and yet have it be so beautiful, fun, green, and rich with community that people will enjoy being there—not yearning to jump in their cars to get away.
Many historical cities were dense for security purposes. The oldest part of Barcelona has some streets so narrow that a car can't physically fit on them. Not coincidentally, this is arguably the most fun, vibrant, and lively part of the city—the streets filled with people walking places and never a dull moment. I would argue that nowadays our cities should densify again—also for security purposes. Like a threatened turtle, pulling its legs and head into its shell, we must pull our urban extremities inward in preparation for life without fossil fuels and the approaching "Long Emergency," as Kunstler calls it.
With some residents having bought an adjoining property, Maitreya EcoVillage now houses about 30 to 35 people on 1.25 acres. In addition to about 10 dwelling units, there is also a Cascadian anarcho folk grass band, a brewing cooperative, a wood shop, a steel fabricating area, a koi pond, a sauna, a strawbale and earthen community space, a cob guest cottage, a biogas digester, a free food distribution area, and lots of gardening. Currently under construction are an octagonal meditation sanctuary, a 4000 gallon rainwater cistern, an outdoor kitchen and an 8.5 ft. x 16 ft. tiny house complete with bathroom and kitchen that I wish to Airbnb—bringing an educational, ecotourism component to our village. Next year I want to build a permanent greenhouse to experiment with aquaponics.
I built a new house on top of an existing, single story 1940s-era house—an example of what could be done to millions of dreary, energy-wasteful US homes: making them all into creative, net-zero-energy, eco-trophy duplexes. I have a few rooftop decks in mind. The idea is to go up rather than out—wanting to make Maitreya as full as possible of fun and interesting activity all within its limited urban footprint. Richard Register's ecocity vision includes rooftop gardens and rooftop cafes with bridges joining rooftop to rooftop. An important aspect to stacking up the urban fabric is that the farmland surrounding our cities is more precious than we've understood. When the tractor trailer rigs stop bringing our food from 1500 miles away, we'll appreciate the tragedy of having paved over so much farm land.
While it's still a glorified landlord-tenant arrangement, I like to think that I'm the world's coolest eco-landlord. We have business meetings at least once per month where decisions are made by consensus. (How many cats are acceptable in an urban ecovillage setting?) Having gotten to be 61 years old without producing any children of my own, I have a standing offer among those here that upon their organizing a credible financial entity to assume ownership, I will bequeath it a substantial percentage of the equity. Thus, Maitreya EcoVillage will hopefully continue boldly into the future with a life of its own.
Robert Bolman is a green builder and artist. In 1991 he bought one acre of land west of the center of Eugene, Oregon that is now Maitreya EcoVillage.