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Shuggy's Blog
"It has been the misfortune of this age, that everything is to be discussed, as if the constitution of our country were to be always a subject rather of altercation than enjoyment." - Edmund Burke anticipates the Neverendum
Can't be arsed blogging so here's some people who can
It's not always the case but sometimes I wonder if the popularity of blogs is in inverse proportion to how interesting they are.
Since he decided to stop blogging, this man has never been so busy, which is welcome.
Consistently funny and this is hilarious.
And this is really quite gorgeous:
"There are plenty of blogs that reflect the orthodox left lunacy and ones that use seductively more 'reasonable' language to reach similar conclusions. However, there are two other broad categories of sites that can be found. Firstly, there are those that are firmly anti-totalitarian but have little or no critique of domestic politics. They have made their peace with the establishment and the legacy of Thatcherism. However dramatic their declarations of human rights, they are Tom Paines abroad but Edmund Burkes at home. Whilst the finely tuned English ear is quick to pick up the contented cadences of the privilege of class.
As for the other, it is a, sometimes fractious, cacophony. There are humanist Marxists, left libertarians, social democrats, Old Labour diehards, those who would combine Marx with Mill, querulous liberals, and others who place human emancipation at the centre of an ecological understanding of the diversity of the natural world. It is where I feel most at home and where the more interesting, and idiosyncratic, writing is taking place."
Now wouldn't you rather read stuff like this instead of some fucking liberal making a 'stand' about something? They always stand. Don't they ever get tired? They wear me out, that's for sure.
Posted by Shuggy at 11:55 PM No comments:
The truth about teacher blogging
We can more or less say what we want because most of you don't having a fucking clue about what actually goes on in schools. Apart from anything else, quite a large proportion of bloggers, and the assorted visitors to comments boxes, seem to have gone to either private or grammar schools.
So, for example, you can get this:
"It is no secret that some of the most ordinary teachers in the land are in the private sector. Some private school teachers are of course excellent. But simply because they don't have to be excellent in order not to be eaten alive by their children, there are many who are not."
"The inner city is the perfect place for mediocrity to fester. And what of those outstanding teachers in the inner city? They eventually leave for the Independent sector."
...from the same author. And no-one notices - because they don't, as I said, have a fucking clue about what goes on in schools. You could make these consistent, I suppose - but it's going to involve a little intellectual yoga. So, anyway - the solution [blog author from the comments]?
"Break the unions of course!"
Over a period of about twenty years or so, discipline has deteriorated, assaults on staff are up, and while it's difficult to measure objectively, I think you'll find that most teachers, parents, and employers would argue that standards have declined. At the same time, the power of central government has increased, as has the power of 'managers', as has the role of the private sector. Now, teachers' unions can be, as I can testify, fairly useless and reactionary - but to cite them as the principal problem? Bollocks!
Miscellaneous education nonsense and some random reflections on liberty
This, for example:
"Head teachers should allow imams, rabbis and priests to offer religious instruction to pupils in all state schools, teachers' leaders have said."
Where to begin? I won't bother because you know what I think already. I want to record my irritation at this expression 'teachers' leaders' though. You're only a leader if someone's following you.
Then there's this piece from the Guardian:
"Schools should return to an early 1980s style of liberal education..."
'Teachers' leaders' again. Jamie K responds:
"I remember the "liberal 1980's" well, under the rule of the Great Earth Mother. It was a free lovin' hippy paradise."
But actually in this case the NUT's argument wasn't silly at all - and neither are Jamie's remarks, which are worth reproducing in full:
"Yet the eighties were more liberal in at least one important respect: there may have been violent disagreements about the government's role in the economy but there was little urge to make the whole of private life the territory of endless management, incentive and punishment initiatives.
Now I feel like I'm on the wrong end of a political Doppler shift. The general assumption I grew up with was that past in general was always more reactionary. The sixties may have seen a struggle towards greater social liberalism, but that just went to prove the point. We now seem to be getting to the stage where the past – at least, the fairly recent past - is always more liberal because there was a general acceptance of much greater personal autonomy."
Quite so. One could stress that one sphere in which 'endless management' intrudes into our lives is in the workplace. Teachers rightly complain about bureaucracy and target-meeting but forget, or are unaware to begin with, that today almost everyone's jobs are places where you have to fill in forms about what you're going to do - then you do it - then you fill in more forms about what you've just done. We can justly blame Thatcher for this - it's just that the logical conclusion of her ideas, and her centralisation of Britain, hadn't filtered through until the next decade.
This got me to thinking - who is more free now than they were twenty years ago? I'm convinced that we are less free - both on the trivial level, and on the big building blocks of our liberty. Trivial: when I was at school, pupils - provided they were over sixteen - could smoke. Today, teachers who smoke are out with the pupils behind the fucking bikesheds having a puff (yes, I failed in my attempt to stop). Building block level: in my lifetime the uncompromised right to silence has gone, jury trial has been limited, restrictions on free speech have increased, as have the rights to protest. Then there's the whole detention without trial thing to consider. And fucking ID cards.
It's not that there hasn't been some advances in liberty. In my lifetime homosexuals have become freer - which is good. The consumers of pornography are freer - which is good. Smokers of cannabis are, for the time-being, freer - which is good.
And not all the restrictions on liberty have been bad. Teachers can no longer use corporal punishment - which is good. Dog-owners feel less free to allow their mutts to shit in public parks - which is excellent. Drivers of big fuck off SUVs are getting the vibe that no-one likes them - which is very good. And I'll concede this to you: previously the rights of non-smokers with regards to the old public places hadn't been very well catered for.
But generally we're less free. I certainly feel less free. And legally we're objectively less free - and that doesn't take into account all this shit going on in the workplace that sparked this rant off in the first place. My son's aunt has to record on a timesheet when she goes for a piss, for christsake. I know Paulie a) likes a challenge b) doesn't really agree with this, so I'll invite him to respond to this 10 mark essay question: "The average person is both experientially and legally less free than he or she was twenty years ago and you don't have to be a 'bloggertarian' to be pissed off about this." Discuss.
Posted by Shuggy at 9:55 PM No comments:
While we're on the subject...
There was a rather good article in the Scotsman a few days ago about the SNP's - specifically Salmond's - foreign policy posturing:
"If Alex Salmond ever finds himself the leader of an independent Scotland, though, with his own troops to deploy and life-or-death decisions to make, he will find that, for all but the most committed pacifists, these choices are far more complex than most anti-war rhetoric allows.
It is to be hoped that no future independent Scottish government – or, indeed, any future UK government – would ever again be tempted to make the mistake of joining a peacekeeping, or peacemaking, operation without the full sanction of the United Nations. But that clear policy position aside, the act of sending young men and women to risk their lives, in situations where there can never be complete certainty that their sacrifice will do more good than harm, is always controversial, never easy, never without its lingering sense of guilt."
I don't think Scotland will ever be independent to the extent it has its own army but it's still a problem of devolved politics that it, in the hands of the nationalists, allows those who are in power to pose with the convenient innocence of opposition. Oliver Kamm linked to this story a while back where the Iranian ambassador said that Scotland and Iran shared "similar views" on many issues, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and nuclear non-proliferation. What Oliver didn't mention was the response from Salmond's office:
"A spokesman for Mr Salmond said: "The ambassador is doing no more than recognising that the party now forming the Scottish Government was opposed to the war in Iraq – as, indeed, are a majority of MSPs in the Scottish Parliament."
This clearly isn't all the ambassador was doing and you'd think that the SNP might have done more to resist this rather obvious attempt to use devolution to undermine foreign policy commitments that are matters solely reserved for Westminster. They could have at the very least shown their support for the Scottish troops currently stationed in Afghanistan - given that our present First Minister voted in Westminster in favour of the war. But they didn't - which was rather the point of the Scotsman article:
"I once heard the philosopher Bernard Williams argue that politicians are people who dirty their hands with power on our behalf, so that the rest of us can continue to feel clean. Yet Alex Salmond, though now a very senior politician, still talks of war and peace like a man with clean hands, exonerated from guilt by his very Scottishness; small wonder that to anyone with a feeling for history, that cry of "it wisnae us" often has an empty sound, and never quite rings true."
Posted by Shuggy at 10:01 AM No comments:
Iraq - five years on
While it seems reflections are obligatory, mine are going to be limited for the time being. One of the reasons for this I gave in my very first post on this subject where I explained why I don't really care to join the blogosphere 'debate':
"But there was a more melancholy reason: I didn't want to be involved in a debate that I've found profoundly depressing at times; lots of jeering and sneering and a really quite unpleasant tendency to impute moral and/or intellectual failure to one's opponents. Often, both camps have carried out what could only be described as a sort of intellectual scorched-earth policy towards the middle ground."
Things haven't changed much - if anything they've got worse. Did you know, for example, that once upon a time the bionically smug Chris Bertram used to describe himself as, "a non-supporter of the war rather than an opponent"? Pretty much the same place, as far as I can tell, as Norm ended up.
It should be obvious that people who like to pretend that those of us who supported the invasion of Iraq imagine it's been a huge success are doing just that - pretending. There isn't any of us who hasn't adjusted their original position in some way. No-one argues now that the way the case was made for war was defensible. And hardly anyone argues that the conduct of the war was defensible.
But that's all I'm willing to concede. I appreciate people will find this inexplicable. I astonished and disgusted many people who know me by my support for this war. I astonished myself. I'm no stranger to self-disgust either but I'd have to say that this never has anything to do with the positions I take on this or that issue. For this is part of a wider problem we have on the left - the idea that morality is a function of the stands we take on big geo-political issues. As if what we think matters a damn, as if this was important compared to how we quit ourselves as men and women in relation to our families, friends, colleagues and neighbours.
But I digress. There are a dozen different reasons why I'm not doing a Johann Hari. I might explain some of them in due course but here's just one: Johann describes himself as having been a 'cheerleader' for the invasion of Iraq and now he feels terribly guilty about it. Fair enough in as far as this goes because I think cheerleading is a fairly accurate description of what he did. But don't invite us all to do likewise because some of us didn't do this in the first place. Some of us were more circumspect. Some of us backed the war even though we knew the outcome wasn't certain. Some of us had misgivings about the whole enterprise from the outset and so felt less need to acquire them after the fact. Some of us were there for the first one and made all the clever anti-war arguments at that time. Then came over a decade of 'containment' over which time we came to the conclusion we'd been wrong. So when it came around a second time, we could do no other but lend our reluctant support. This forms part of the reason why some of us aren't repenting today.
Cross-posted on DSTPFW
Religion and association
Happy chocolate egg day, people.
On this day, we have somebody introducing readers of CiF to the theodicy problem. Here's my take on this ancient theological conundrum: one one hand, it is indeed difficult to understand how one can reconcile the idea of a supreme being who is both omnipotent and omnibenevolent yet allows evil to exist. On the other hand, if I were such a deity, I'd be firing off thunderbolts to many of the contributors to CiF on a regular basis, so if god exists, she's definitely more tolerant than me.
Then there's Theo Hobson. Easy to mock Theo, and worth doing from time to time, but despite the fact that he's written a post entitled, "Why I am a Christian", that leaves you none the wiser, I'm not going to because a) it was a liberal piece and b) it did stir up a couple of thoughts that have been rattling about for a wee while now. He writes:
"My eccentric view is that Christianity can only really be communicated in the context of freedom. The churches attack secular liberalism as a threat to their power bases, but actually it's the ally of true Christian culture. We need a secular state, in which we can develop a new sort of Christian culture that has left institutionalism behind."
Historically, I thought, he's wrong: the spread of Christianity, like Islam, has been achieved through violence and cannot be separated from the subsequent institutions that were put in place as a result of this violence. But then I started to think he might have something resembling a point, which is similar to the one I made here about democracy, what it comes to be associated with and the implications this had for the success thereof.
Why are Americans more religious than Europeans? You could argue that Americans are simply more simple-minded than Europeans but that would in itself be a simple-minded argument to make. More likely it is a result of the fact that this nation of immigrants, many originally fleeing religious persecution, formed a constitution that forbade the marriage of religion and the state. This has meant that religion for many Americans has never had the association with state-sponsored bigotry, superstition and segregation - to say nothing of pogroms and persecutions - that it does for many Europeans. This relationship between religion and its association with state power arguably goes back much further: I dimly remember it being argued by some church historian that one of the reasons Ireland took to Catholicism with such enthusiasm was that unlike elsewhere in Europe, it wasn't something that could be associated with empire (although I'm not sure about this because it wouldn't explain Poland).
This is why, I've argued before, in the present situation it is essential that Islamist theocracy has to be seen to have been tried and failed, rather than its defeat being precipitated by external forces, if at all possible. Because the religion and association thing works the other way too, as far as we can tell. Just as Bismarck's Kulturkampf proved from his point of view to have been rather counterproductive, the suppression of Islamist organisations Egypt-style is unlikely to work in the long-run. Secular dictatorships in the Middle East are bound only to give negative associations to the very idea of secularism. Hmmm, could be construed as a neocon observation to make so this being around the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, cue the sinister mood music and get ready to boo and hiss just like y'all have been doing for the past five years.
The ability to predict the future has not been given to men. Not by God, as the failure and humiliation of those who claimed to be his prophets, like those who climbed hills dressed in white awaiting apocalyptic redemption, shows. Not by science either. When I was at university, 'social scientists' everywhere were in a melancholy, sceptical, circumscribed frame of mind. It was right that this should have been so: the memory of their spectacular failure to predict the fall of the Berlin wall was only a few years old.
Now to the micro level, today:
"Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain's most senior police forensics expert.
Gary Pugh, director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said a debate was needed on how far Britain should go in identifying potential offenders, given that some experts believe it is possible to identify future offending traits in children as young as five."
Fear the government that gives ear to the 'experts'. The reality of universal and compulsory education is that tomorrow's thieves, rapists and murderers have to go to school somewhere - and I think I've seen a few of them. No, I know I've seen a few of them because the parochial tabloid news tells me so.
Sometimes, though, the future confounds your worst expectations. Someone you thought destined for a life of crime gets himself a girlfriend, and a job, and turns out to be someone who just didn't like school very much. Nor his parents. Nor himself - but he grew out of it.
Dangerous, then, to make judgments based on 'potential' - since these can be nothing other than subjective, prejudiced and by definition speculative. One would have thought, therefore, that whatever resources are available might be better used to catch those whom we know have actually reached their potential to commit crime. But such advice falls on deaf ears in an age where it is seldom understood that in a free society prevention is never better than cure.
In Enoch's footsteps
What a charming man the Bishop of Motherwell is:
"ONE of Scotland's most senior Catholics has launched an attack on the "gay lobby" in Scotland, claiming there is a "huge and well-orchestrated conspiracy" against Christian values.
The Rt Rev Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell and president of the Catholic Education Commission, said gay rights organisations aligned themselves with minority groups, such as Holocaust survivors, to project an "image of a group of people under persecution"."
Words fail me. He wiped the spittle from his chin and he continued:
"In this New Year's honours list, I saw actor Ian McKellen being honoured for his work on behalf of homosexuals, when a century ago Oscar Wilde was locked up and put in jail. It's a very small group of people, but very active and organised – and extremely indulgent. The opposition know exactly what they're doing. We don't."
It was left to Calum Irving, the director of Stonewall Scotland, to point that that the Catholic Church has rather more wealth and political influence than the gay rights lobby. One such example would be the fact that while Stonewall doesn't actually run any schools in Scotland, the Catholic Church - aided and abetted by the tax-payer - does. Here the bishop has previous form. He is also president of the Catholic Education Commission and co-author of the Charter for Catholic Schools in Scotland [pdf]. In this capacity he has expressed 'unease' with gay teachers:
""Being openly gay would not at all be compatible with the charter."
The president of the Catholic Education Commission added: "It would cut across the whole moral vision enshrined in the charter and it would be offering a lifestyle that is incompatible with Catholic social teaching.
"Being openly gay could well affect promotions.""
There was a rather good response in the letters' page in the Scotsman, from which I took the title of this post:
"Forty years ago, Enoch Powell delivered his "Rivers of Blood" speech, in which he blamed moves towards racial equality for what he considered to be the impending destruction of British society. Powell's blatant racism was, thankfully, rejected by mainstream politics and he was consigned thereafter to the back-benches.
Bishop Joseph Devine has followed Powell's example and sought to blame moves towards equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Scots for what he imagines will happen to society as a result.
Like Powell before him, Bishop Devine must be challenged by all Scots who believe bigotry has no place in today's Scotland. The bishop seems to believe the SNP government may be more ready to follow his lead. Alex Salmond and his colleagues must swiftly and decisively make it clear that Bishop Devine speaks only for a bigoted minority and not for Scotland as a whole."
Before I went into teaching, I used to be in favour of allowing 'faith schools' to remain open in a woolly-liberal 'let's celebrate the gorgeous mosaic of our diversity' sort of way. Not any more. Piss on Bishop Devine - and piss on his charter. 'Unease' isn't the word to describe my feelings for him. I despise Bishop Devine and his festering ilk - with their buttoned-up appetites and their diseased minds. I count them mine enemies.
Is homophobic abuse "endemic in schools"?
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers thinks so:
"More than 70% of teachers have heard put-downs in their school or college that refer to sexuality, according to a survey of 268 teachers by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. In particular, teachers report that pupils routinely use the term "gay" in a pejorative manner."
The other 30% have their heads up their asses. But Zoe Williams reckons the ATL are being a tad literally-minded:
"I do not for a second pretend to know what's going on with today's yoof, but I do know this: when schoolchildren call one another "gay", they do not mean homosexual. Or maybe they do sometimes, but not always. The word, paradoxically enough, having been appropriated by homosexuals in the first place, has now been seized back by homophobes to mean "rubbish" or, on some occasions, "broken"."
Some terribly earnest Liberal Democrat lady takes issue with this:
"Zoe Williams manages to reduce bullying and prejudice to semantics. Yes, language changes and I'm all for a living vibrant language. But changes in language do not happen by coincidence. I think the fact that gay, in the playground, now means rubbish, crap or broken is as a result of homophobia. What about those teenagers who are gay and hurt by these insults being thrown around? What about the gay teachers and adults around them? Did Zoe Williams consider them when she suggested that we all give up because teenage 'yoof' culture will win out in the end."
If you read both pieces, I think you'll agree it is unfair to accuse Zoe Williams of reducing bullying and prejudice to semantics.
Here's some observations of my own:
The use of 'gay' as a pejorative term is indeed widespread - and obviously it has a homophobic origin. Nevertheless it is true to say that when it is used it does not always, or even usually, refer to sexuality.
It does not follow from this that it is acceptable - although I don't think this is what Zoe Williams was saying exactly. The thing is, I think it's the Lib Dem here that is reducing prejudice and bullying to a question of semantics because while homophobia is indeed prevalent in schools, the use of the term 'gay' as a term of abuse is not indicative of its increase. Bad enough being a teenager, even worse being one who is a bit different, and I'd imagine pretty nightmarish being a gay teenager in a Glasgow school. However, it remains the case that there is a much greater toleration of homosexuality amongst teenagers than there was fifteen or twenty years ago.
But what do I know? More than any of the people linked above, that's what. But this is part of a wider issue: concerns over the language people use should not be dismissed as political correctness - but it is a mistake, I think, to imagine that you can alter people's attitudes simply by policing what they say.
Old sitemeter's a bit more lively than normal - which isn't saying much. What's odd is that what accounts for all of the increase in hits is Americans typing "woman on toilet seat" into Google and getting to this post from 2006.
What exactly the fuck is going on?
Update: Ah, mystery solved - courtesy of Will.
Pupils 'to take allegiance oath'
The suggestion that making school pupils swear allegiance to the Queen would foster a 'sense of belonging' has been rightly pilloried everywhere.
I mean, what the fuck? Neither Orwell nor Huxley in their darker moments foresaw our rulers trying to turn the country into one giant Scout camp, did they?
Metropolitan angst: an election guide
Thank fuck I don't live in London. Not only are you presented with two prize assholes who represent the cheesy and somewhat sleazy celebrification of our politics - you also have to torture yourselves over the choice. Here's David Aaronovitch, for example:
"Clearly, at the empathic level, one prefers the Tiggerish mammal. What is not to like about Boris?"
I dunno but I'd have thought if you even found yourself thinking such things, never mind writing them, it might be worth while asking yourself, "What the fuck am I doing?"
It's not that I don't understand the appeal of Boris. On the plus side, he has:
1) Floppy hair.
2) He's funny - usually unintentionally.
3) He rides a bike.
On the downside:
1) He's a fucking Tory.
So you don't vote for him. Simple.
Seven deadly sins - updated
My god, you have to accept that you're getting old when you find yourself in (partial) agreement with Mary Kenny in relation to the new, groovy, updated and relevant list of 'mortal sins' this present Pope has come up with.
Part of the whole experience of becoming a) more conservative and b) increasingly lazy in my old age is that I expect other people to be traditional on my behalf. I can't be bothered, myself.
I expect Marxists to be Marxists - not come out with convoluted reasons for supporting reactionary and violent religious movements.
I expect liberals to be liberals - not make arguments about how you will be 'really free' if you ban people from smoking, force them to stay on at school, and presume you have the consent to raid their corpses for spare parts unless they say otherwise - the sort of thing you can read over at Illiberal Conspiracy from time to time.
And I expect Catholics to be Catholics - instead of going for all this nebulous crap about 'social justice' and environmental crimes and whatnot. Kenny writes:
"Now, a vague concept of social justice is all very fine and dandy, but one person's social justice may be another's cause for litigation. Drug abuse is clearly a sin against the human body (the temple of the Holy Ghost), but some individuals are afflicted with addiction problems they are powerless to overcome. As for accumulating excessive wealth to the detriment of the common good: well, that's an argument that could go on for hours. Days. Years."
Quite so. Does Ratzinger not understand: he who marries the spirit of this age will become her widower in the next?
See, with the old list there's no doubt - I'm going to hell:
Greed: Medium
Gluttony: Medium
Wrath: High
Sloth: High
Envy: High
Lust: Very High
Pride: Medium
But as for all this hippy tree-hugging shite - who knows?
Silly Test: Via
Btw: Error #80 in the Syllabus of Errors says:
"The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization."
Thought you might like to know that.
'Marxism' today
My, how it has changed since my day. I'm not usually one for drawing people's attention to the musings of the more spaced-out individuals on the ultra-left but this car crash I found via Shiraz Socialist really is one of the most bizarre arguments I've read for some time. Take this, for example:
"The very relevant point made by Dr Williams is that religious faith and its entailed commitments are less negotiable than secular ones, as believers hold that they have a sacred covenant with divine law. However, progressive theologians and scholars of all faiths seek to distinguish between those aspects of their religious belief that are fundamental – or in terms of their own belief systems divinely ordained – and those aspects which are a reflection not of divine will, but of social and cultural accident."
So, I can claim my 'commitments' are less negotiable than yours provided I insist they are sanctioned by a deity? The comrade not only finds this acceptable - he actually wants the polity to accommodate these more than it does already. He might even find something 'progressive' in the fact that what you insist are 'divine commitments' have been distinguished from what is mere 'culture' by some theologian. One assumes that the way these 'progressive scholars' make this distinction is with reference to the relevant holy texts. Was this 'Marxist' aware he was articulating a defence of what is 'fundamentalism' by most people's definition? It gets worse:
"It is taken as self-evidently correct amongst most progressives that teaching creationism or intelligent design in schools is reactionary, but is this really the case? Now I am a big defender of science, and of scientific method. But the current situation in schools seems to be that GCSE students are introduced to Lamarkism, Darwinism and in some schools Creationism, and then told that Darwinism is correct, and that is the answer they have to give to get credit. Now of course Darwinian theories of evolution are correct, but there are two important subsidiary issues: i) is it a necessary role of the state to enforce upon all citizens that they accept evolution? ii) does simply telling students that Darwinism is correct arm them with the theoretical tools to distinguish why faith based arguments are excluded from science?"
I'm not sure the cause of scientific education could cope with many 'big defenders' such as this. By this logic, teaching alchemy would be acceptable - nay, progressive - provided at some point it was made clear that it is chemistry is correct. But it's the line about the state forcing people to accept evolution that displays a special kind of insanity. Schools teach science - and this village idiot finds something authoritarian in this? People aren't forced to accept anything. That people are free to reject all the available evidence and insist that the world was created in seven days is demonstrated by the fact that 'creationism' is being discussed at all!
But it was his discourse on 'national culture' that really made my jaw drop:
"To take an extreme example, German and British troops who faced each other in the trenches of the first world war had a near identical experience, and an identical political interest in ending the war. Politically therefore there was grounds for solidarity and internationalism. But culturally, there was no shared community through which they experienced this similar fate - and indeed the shared communal experience was with their own national officer class. Few British soldiers will have read Erich Maria Remarque, few Germans will have read Siegfried Sassoon or Rupert Brookes."
Because we all know that it isn't the shared experience of living with families, working in factories in towns and cities or being members of trades unions that maketh a community. Oh no - as every good Marxist knows, it's reading the same literature that does it.
It's perhaps undignified to rattle the cage of Bedlam in this way but I record this because I was simply so astonished - naivety on my part, I dare say. It's not that I'm assuming the author of this piece is representative of the left. I'm not a Marxist myself and I certainly don't see the left as the repository of all virtue - especially these days. It's just that when someone described themselves as 'Marxist', you used to have a rough idea of where they stood. I may be wrong but twenty years ago it would have been inconceivable for someone to produce such an apologia for the religious right such as this and still claim they were a Marxist. This in itself strikes me as being a significant change that has taken place in my life-time.
Yet another silly test
Try this one.
Here's what I got.
While self-assessment is probably pointless, I'm not sure about this one. Looking at where I am - and knowing myself reasonably well - I'm not sure this test leaves enough space in the green square for Chris Dillow.
Miscellaneous spleen
Proms not inclusive, says Hodge:
"The Proms attract too narrow a section of society, culture minister Margaret Hodge has suggested in a speech."
It seems to me perfectly natural that the Proms should attract a narrow section of society. I'd be worried if anything other than a narrow section of society didn't find the Proms to be a load of shite. Why have we got a Culture Secretary and why is it Margaret Hodge? She went on:
"But she acknowledged that culture could also be divisive - citing the examples of Jerry Springer: The Opera, which Christians said was blasphemous and Behtzi, a play which depicted sex abuse in a Sikh temple and was cancelled after protests."
But isn't culture intrinsically divisive? It divides those who like a given piece of culture from those who don't. I mean, I wouldn't be seen dead at Jerry Springer: the Opera - not out of any concerns about blasphemy but because Jerry Springer is shite so any opera about it is bound to be uber-shite. I went to the opera once. It was horrible. People laughing at the jokes in the opera as if they were the most hilarious lines they'd ever heard. Bunch of phonies - bet they couldn't even speak Italian. If they could speak Italian, they'd have known the jokes weren't that fucking funny. Still, at least Hodge isn't as big a walloper as David Cameron:
"Tory leader David Cameron said she did not "get it" and said the Proms were a "great symbol of our Britishness"."
So - Britishness has something to do with standing next to a bunch of yahoos waving Union flags and singing Land of Hope and Fucking Glory, is it? Jeez - some of us are unionists but this unutterable tosser of a man isn't exactly helping our case.
Then there's the government's 'Obesity Strategy'. Aren't you sick of hearing about this? It's annoying the shit out of me, and I'm not even fat. Some plank said it was a crisis on the scale of global warming or some such shite. I would have thought it obvious to any half-educated person that it's most unlike global warming. Global warming has to do - if I understand it - with the possibility we'll all melt because of the pollution being pumped into the atmosphere - except in Glasgow where - surprise, surprise - they predict that the effect of global warming will be that it rains more than it does already. Fucking typical. Anyway, the point being if someone deposits toxic green gloop into a river, this is a matter for everyone. Economists call these 'externalities', or something. Whereas if someone's overweight, this is really a matter for them, isn't it? And please don't give me any of this crap about the cost to the NHS. Where did people get this fucked-up idea that the short space we spend on this ball of dirt is to be spent worshiping other people's taxes, for fuck sake?
I'm particularly annoyed that the fat police are upsetting my comrade Peter Ryley. Do you read him? You really should. He writes stuff worth reading - whereas bloggers who get a kazillion hits a day just cut and paste some bullshit they read about Muslims in the Daily fucking Telegraph and invite about a billion comments from complete and utter fuckwits. How did that happen? But I digress... What upset this splendid gentleman was a piece in Comment is Wank from some deranged harpie that writes for Conservative Future (oxy-fucking-moron) where she argues that our nanny state simply isn't nannyish enough for her tastes. Gordy, for example, doesn't go far enough when he says:
"[T]hat people [should] "have access to the opportunities they want and information they need in order to make choices and exercise greater control over their health and their lives".
The thing is, like with our sex-lives, I'd have thought politicians are the last people who should be lecturing us about healthy living. There's not a few of them that don't look strangers to a few extra pounds to me. And Gordon Brown, while not fat, doesn't exactly look like the picture of health, does he? He's sort of stodgy and pallid as if he spends most of his time sitting on the sofa eating white bread with the curtains drawn.*
Ok, dunno about you lot but I feel better after that. See ya later...
This line stolen from here.
Oxford's finest
Are to be offered a thousand quid by Oxford University to teach in 'our toughest schools', according to the Times:
"It hopes that in return the graduates will help to persuade more pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to apply to study at Oxford and other leading universities.
The move follows research from the Sutton Trust educational charity, which recently found that half of state school teachers would never, or only rarely, encourage their brightest pupils to apply to Oxbridge."
I was wondering how this particular sales pitch is going to go...
Teacher: Be all you can be, reach for the skies - you have the potential for Oxford, m'boy.
Pupil: But sir - you went to Oxford and all you ended up doing was becoming a fucking teacher. Fuck that for a game of soldiers.
Anyway, there's an inspiring tale of how one teacher had, via this sort of scheme, gained "vital life and workplace experience that would be valuable in her preferred future career as a management consultant":
"'In one Year 7 class I was trying to explain electricity', she said. 'They did not respond. So I got everyone to get up and walk around the class as I pretended to push them round. They were the current and I was the energy – the battery – that powered them to move. It worked, they got it.'"
Excellent, excellent. I had a very similar experience myself. In one year eleven class, I was trying to explain trench warfare. They did not respond. So I got them to re-arrange the desks into trenches. Then I got out my Lee Enfield .303 and blew the heads off anyone who stuck theirs above the parapet. It was such a valuable learning experience that I feel a career as a management consultant beckons. Unfortunately I'm now awaiting trial. I intend to plead insanity.
Miscellaneous education nonsense and some random r...
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text:
The University of South Carolina Women's Basketball Team Turned Down an Invite to the White House
By Madison Feller
While President Trump is hosting collegiate sports championship teams at the White House on Friday, there will be one notable team not in attendance — the University of South Carolina women's basketball team.
The Gamecocks won their first NCAA Women's Championship this past April when they beat Mississippi State 67-55. But the team's coach Dawn Staley announced Thursday in a statement that she declined the White House invitation. "We did hear from the White House about attending tomorrow's event, but we will not be able to attend," she said. "As I've been saying since our practices for this season started, all of our focus is on the season ahead. The only invitation we are thinking about is to the 2018 NCAA Tournament."
However, the Associated Press reported that when the team initially won the championship, Staley said they would accept a White House invite because "it's what it stands for. It's what national champions do." Then in September, after they had yet to receive an invitation, Staley said, "We haven't gotten an invitation yet and that in itself speaks volumes." She also said that "some things transpired over the last few months. I haven't talked to anyone about it. I got bigger fish to fry than worry about an invitation."
Staley could be referring to Trump's decision to withdraw his White House invitation to NBA player Stephen Curry this fall:
Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team.Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!
According to the Associated Press, every NCAA women's basketball championship team since 1983 has received an invite to the White House. While the White House has yet to confirm which NCAA teams accepted an invitation, given Trump's unusual recent sparring with athletes and athletic organizations, some may be focusing on other priorities.
Madison Feller Madison is a staff writer at ELLE.com, covering news, politics, and culture.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Emmanuel Sanchez Wants To Take Over The World
David Tees Mar 26, 2017 8:30PM
Emmanuel Sanchez is preparing for battle against former Bellator MMA Bantamweight Champion Marcos Galvao at Bellator 175.
Sanchez doesn't only want to defeat Galvao, but he also wants to take over the world.
"I'm like Tony Montana (from 'Scarface'): 'I want the world and everything in it,'" Sanchez told MMA Junkie. "I just want to fight and fight the best and be at the top, and I want to beat them all. Short or tall, big or small, they all will fall. When I retire and I'm done fighting, at the end of the day people are going to say, 'Wow, this guy fought the best and beat the best and was willing to fight anyone, anywhere, any time.' That's what I want. I want to be the best fighter in the world."
Galvao will be making his Bellator MMA Featherweight Division debut in this fight. The featherweight fighter has gotten most of his wins by decision and that's something that doesn't concern him too much.
"I put no pressure (on myself to finish fights)," Sanchez said. "I'm like Bruce Lee and I flow like water and just go wherever the fight goes and have fun. You can't ever forget why you started this. You put too much pressure (on yourself) and you're not going to perform. It doesn't matter. Fight your fight and have fun and be free and do what you love, and the results will be golden."
Bellator 175 takes place on Friday, March 31 from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois with Rampage Jackson and King Mo headlining. Fightful will be providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.


Great fun was had at the Lynxspring booth during the 2014 Niagara Summit Vendor Showcase. We got to spend time with Lynxspring President and CEO, Terry Swope, who shared his views about Lynxspring's products and philosophies. We also had a very special treat, as the one and only Marc Petock, interviews Jeff Houpt, of Automation Integrated, LLC, one of Lynxspring's top integration partners, whose Lynxspring solution reduced operational costs on such a broad scale that this major retail customer was able to almost double their number of stores and increase their market presence from five to eleven states.
Where's Waldo? Thanks to Tridium for a great time at the coolest club in Vegas, The Marquee.
See how the smartest people in building automation controls roll. Waldo? He was not invited.
Stay tuned to Controltrends for all your Niagara Summit updates.
The opening reception of the 2014 Niagara Summit was the backdrop for this week's ControlTalk Now. Step inside the fabulous Marquee Club at the Cosmopolitan Hotel and meet the movers and shakers of the building automation controls and energy world and get your Control News of The Week.
ControlTrends had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of Niagara Community members arriving from across the country and from around the world. Among the early arrivals were the team from Cochrane Supply, SysMik's Einat Shlomiuk, BASSG's Alper Uzmezler, Magnum Energy Solutions' Craig Opalich, Renick Brother's Jim Jancse, and host of others. Stay tuned for ControlTrends' next 2014 Niagara Summit Update, your eyes and ears at the Summit!
Go to the Live Feed and share your 2014 Niagara Summit Experience!


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text:
Salina is een plaats (town) in de Amerikaanse staat Oklahoma, en valt bestuurlijk gezien onder Mayes County.

Demografie
Bij de volkstelling in 2000 werd het aantal inwoners vastgesteld op 1422.
In 2006 is het aantal inwoners door het United States Census Bureau geschat op 1465, een stijging van 43 (3.0%).

Geografie
Volgens het United States Census Bureau beslaat de plaats een oppervlakte van
2,9 km², waarvan 2,7 km² land en 0,2 km² water. Salina ligt op ongeveer 201 m boven zeeniveau.

Plaatsen in de nabije omgeving
De onderstaande figuur toont nabijgelegen plaatsen in een straal van 12 km rond Salina.

Externe link

Plaats in Oklahoma

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


For more than 60 years, Graham has been pushing the belief that Jesus' Second Coming is near.
How do prophetic claims like this affect political participation, education, medicine, science, media, film making, etc? (I've dealt with the "last days" argument in a number of books and numerous articles. For a study of the subject, see my books Last Days Madness and Is Jesus Coming Soon?) Why bother with long-term projects if the end is near?
Liberals love it when conservatives talk about the end times. Liberals know that political change takes lots of time. It took more than a century to get us to this political place in history. When Christians hear of the latest claim that we don't have much time before the end, social and political disengagement seeps in.
When liberals see wars, potential future disasters like "Global Warming," economic turmoil, and technological over exuberance, they use these as an excuse to increase the power of government. They never let a crisis go to waste.
Of course, not all end-time speculators are political pacifists, but enough of them are that it makes a difference in elections and everything else.


When working with various room types and flooring finishes, it is important to have a partner who can make a tough job easy to understand. Inside Edge provides you with the highest quality installations, while keeping the safety of your residents our top priority.
Working with senior living centers requires the highest level of professionalism to be exhibited by employees. Everyone working for Inside Edge who works in these facilities is required to complete extensive training and adhere to our senior living code of conduct.
Intricate patterns in carpet or tile can be a burden to most installers. Inside Edge, however, creates detailed documents for every room, lobby, living space, and any other area that is getting refreshed. That means patterns and layouts are done properly the first time.
We needed a flooring partner that understood the complexity of working in an occupied space and could get the job done efficiently because we had a condensed timeframe to get the remodel done. We needed to quickly upgrade our facility, but needed a flooring installer that understood the sensitivity of working in our assisted living environment where our residents live. The Inside Edge Team were not only responsive, but they were professional and respectful. They paid attention to detail and I think our residents even enjoyed watching them complete the installation! Their on-site execution was well orchestrated and went so smoothly for us!


text:
mail@claytonfuneralhome.com
100 Elton-Adelphia Road (Rt. 524), Freehold Township, NJ 07728
Religious Considerations
Interstate and International Service
Download Price List or Arrangement Form
Local Business Resources
Funeral Home Merchandise
Paul Howard McCormick
Clayton & McGirr Funeral Home
100 Elton-Adelphia Road
Freehold Township, New Jersey, United States
Obituary of Paul Howard McCormick
Paul Howard McCormick, 59, of Freehold Township, passed away on October 20, 2018 at home. Paul was born in Red Bank and was raised in the River Plaza section of Middletown. He had lived in Long Branch, Red Bank, Shepherds Hills, PA and East Greenville, PA before moving to Freehold Township. Paul had worked in the HVAC industry for many years. He was an avid golfer and had a passion for the art of drawing and wood carving.
Paul is survived by his two sons, Nicholas McCormick and his girlfriend, Mary of Georgia and Alex McCormick of Pennsylvania; three brothers, Keith McCormick and his wife, Denise of Howell, Patrick McCormick and his wife, Sheila of Farmingdale and David McCormick and his wife, Maureen of Hackensack; and many nieces and nephews.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend a memorial gathering at the Clayton & McGirr Funeral Home, 100 Elton-Adelphia Road (Route 524), Freehold Township on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM with his memorial service to follow at 4:00 PM. For information, directions, or condolence messages to the family, visit www.claytonfuneralhome.com.
100 Elton-Adelphia Road | Freehold Township, NJ | Phone: (732) 462-0101 | Fax: (732) 462-1536 | Email: mail@claytonfuneralhome.com
Robert C. McGirr - Owner & Manager - N.J. License #3273


text:
Dan Duncan (* 2. Januar 1933 in Shelby County (Texas); † 28. März 2010 in River Oaks, Houston) war ein US-amerikanischer Unternehmer.

Leben
Duncan war 1968 Mitgründer des US-amerikanischen Unternehmens Enterprise Products. Er war lange Vorstandsvorsitzender und dessen Hauptanteilseigner. Das Unternehmen ist in der Erdöl- und Erdgasbranche tätig. 1968 wurde Enterprise Products mit 10.000 Dollar Kapital und zwei Lkws zum Propangas-Transport gegründet. 2010 hatte die Firma 48.700 Meilen Onshore- und Offshore-Pipelines und war einer der größten Pipeline-Betreiber der USA. Die Firma hatte Speicherkapazität für fast 220 Millionen Barrel Erdgas und flüssiges Erdgas.

Duncan war verheiratet und hatte vier Kinder. Duncan gehörte im Jahre 2005 nach Angaben von Forbes Magazine zu den reichsten US-Amerikanern und war in der Liste The World's Billionaires vertreten. Sein Vermögen wurde zuletzt auf neun Milliarden Dollar vom Forbes Magazine geschätzt.

Duncans war ein bekannter Großwildjäger. Duncan war Besitzer der Double D Ranch mit Großwildarten aus Afrika. Duncan war Mitglied im
Safari Club International (SCI), einen Großwildjägerverein. Vom Safari Club International erhielt er zahlreiche Auszeichnungen für seine Trophäen. 2006 erhielt er den SCI World Conservation Hunting Award, den Großwildjäger erhalten, welche auf sechs Kontinenten Großwild jagten. Duncan hatte 407 Einträge im SCI trophy record book. Er tötete unter anderem Löwen, Elefanten, Nashörner und einen Eisbären.

Weblinks
 Forbes Magazine:Dan Duncan
 New York Times:Legacy for One Billionaire: Death, but No Taxes, 2010

Einzelnachweise

Unternehmer (Vereinigte Staaten)
Unternehmer (20. Jahrhundert)
US-Amerikaner
Geboren 1933
Gestorben 2010
Mann


Picking up people randomly won't fill the state's coffers. I really thought this info should be out in public domain. We are trying calling to WB Office and sending them emails but bnegal no use.
No problem from WB Govt. Or else I would have asked the Seller to reduce the total amount on the invoice.
Form 50a west bengal 25, September 12, You can contact Sr. Jul, Information sharing improves knowledge of both. Looking to hire any one in West Bengal who can get it generated for me and charge a few bucks for their service. NIC sent the email at 5. So maybe that's why he harassed us by asking for indemnity bond which seems totally unnecessary otherwise? RC People santoshC 8 January 29, Alas, how wrong I was!
The only concessions given are i One doesn't need e-waybill if consignment value is less than Rs 50, and probably Rs 5, for UP ii No entry tax is applicable on any consignment. But you cannot go from Afgan Any form 50a west bengal free number for help related to Waybill form generation.
I thought if I import it from U. Mail me if you need any more assistance. How do we obtain this form? January 08, Please help as our courier partner fedex refuses to take form 50a west bengal shipments there. Or do they enforce the rules randomly and some unfortunate guy who gets caught has to pay the fine and penalty and the majority escape without paying? June 28, Is there any time limit after which the application is approved and I can get that SMS key?
I checked out Blue Dart's document on state wise regulations. An early reply will be highly appreciated on my direct mail i. Luckily we managed to get the job done with Rs.
As CBEC and GST council struggle to rollout pan-India e-waybill due to lack of IT infrastructure, it has been decided that e-waybill will start from in a staggered manner, and will be fully operational from October 08, Dont know what to do. March 03, Never faced any problem. Welcome Guest, please login or register. Reputation Add to Reputation: Since it was for my personal use I did exactly like what you are doing going for Category B but 3 days it was bdngal.
How is the end user supposed to know all these things unless the couriers inform us? Now, if this is true then what about the hundreds of items that I have purchased so far and did not have to pay any tax VAT or Entry Tax at all? Find the details below form 50a west bengal my experience below which will surely help you out. If you are still awake after reading all these, you can look for keyword 'penalty' and see how much power is given to the commissioners!
It sest only enrich some unscrupulous taxmen. I am a casual buyer. What is the point of having such rules? West Bengal RC Skills: My other hobbies include railroad audio recording and photography. Can end users generate waybills through the form 50a west bengal link at http: That was the goal theoretically, but as you can see, they will suspend your application and make you visit them and take your interview! We had no choice as I already paid for the mattress Rs.
Go in office hour. So I went there with my father with all form 50a west bengal documents. If you are in Kolkata, Go wext Form 50a west bengal, near Hestings crossing.
January 29, I was shocked because for my earlier imports they never asked for it.
Many lesser known couriers accepting consignment without waybill are just taking chances. When I tried to generate the waybill in FF it produced error messages but on Chrome worked flawlessly!


text:
Der Calumet River (von Calumet, , "Friedenspfeife") ist ein System aus stark industrialisierten Flüssen und Kanälen zwischen Chicago in Illinois und Gary in Indiana. Früher waren der Little Calumet River und der Grand Calumet River ein Fluss. Ersterer floss von Indiana nach Illinois und dann zurück nach Osten zu seiner Mündung in den Michigansee bei Marquette Park in Gary.

Hintergrund
Der Name "Calumet" leitet sich ab von einem französischen Kolonialnamen für eine bestimmte Art von Friedenspfeife der Indianer, die als universelles Zeichen des Friedens unter den Illiniwek galt und die Pere Marquette im Jahre 1673 gezeigt wurde.

Vor der Veränderung durch den Menschen floss das Wasser westwärts von LaPorte County entlang des Little Calumet River, machte eine Haarnadelkurve bei Blue Island und floss dann ostwärts entlang des Grand Calumet River bei Miller Beach in Blue Island in den Michigansee. Das Gebiet ist sehr flach, und der Verlauf und sogar die Flussrichtung des Flusssystems hat sich immer wieder verändert. Die geringe Neigung sorgt dafür, dass der Fluss nur eine sehr geringe Strömung aufweist.

Industrie entwickelte sich im Gebiet des Calumet River ab etwa den 1870er-Jahren. 1890 war der westliche Teil des Grand Calumet River durch die Abfälle von Stahlverarbeitung, einer Fleischfabrik sowie Kleber- und Stärkefabriken stark verschmutzt. Die Industrie verbreitete sich entlang des östlichen Teils des Flusses zwischen 1890 und 1910 mit ähnlichen Ergebnissen. Diese Jahrzehnte der unregulierten Verschmutzung haben die Flusssedimente bis heute stark verschmutzt hinterlassen.

Im September 2008 wurden die Gebiete von Lake und Porter County zu Katastrophengebieten erklärt. Der Little Calumet River durchbrach seinen Deich und überflutete Teile der Städte Munster und Highland. Im September 2019 benachrichtigte die in Luxemburg ansässige ArcelorMittal die Behörden Indianas darüber, dass giftige Abwässer aus ihrem Stahlwerk in einen Arm des Little Calumet River geflossen seien, was zu einer kurzzeitigen Sperrung von drei Stränden am Lake Michigan führte.

The Calumet River entwässerte ursprünglich nur den Lake Calumet in den Michigansee bei der South Side von Chicago. Ein Kanal, der ihn verlängerte, wurde Einer Sage nach von Voyageuren in einem Bereich erbaut, wo viele Bootstransporte erfolgten. Dort habe ein Aushub die beiden Calumet Rivers verbunden, an dem Punkt, wo der Name von Grand zu Little wechselt.

Der T. J. O'Brien Lock and Dam wurde 1960 im Fluss errichtet, um den Austausch von Wasser zwischen dem Lake Michigan und dem Fluss zu regulieren.

Der Grand Calumet River, dessen Quelle in Miller Beach liegt, fließt 25,7 Kilometer durch die Städte Gary, East Chicago und Hammond sowie Calumet City und Burnham auf der Illinois-Seite. Der Großteil des Flusswassers fließt in den Michigansee über den Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal. Etwa 42 Kubikmeter Wasser fließen aus dem Fluss pro Sekunde in den See. Heutzutage stammt ein großer Teil des im Fluss transportierten Wassers aus städtischen und industriellen Abwässern. Obwohl die Einleitungen reduziert wurden, wurde das Gebiet weiterhin kontaminiert.

Little Calumet River
Der Little Calumet River floss ursprünglich durch das New Durham Township im LaPorte County in Indiana bis zu seinem Zusammenfluss mit dem Grand Calumet und dem Calumet-Fluss, aber der Bau des Burns Waterway 1926 zerteilte den Little Calumet River effektiv in einen westlichen und einen östlichen Ast. Er westliche Ast ist jetzt bekannt als der eigentliche Little Calumet River und fließt durch, oder vorbei, an Portage, Lake Station, Gary, Highland, Griffith, Munster und Hammond, South Holland, Dolton, Lansing, Calumet City, Harvey, Riverdale, Phoenix, Dixmoor, Burnham und Blue Island in Illinois. Er fließt mit dem Grand Calumet River zum Calumet River zusammen. Dieser Flussabschnitt ist 66 Kilometer lang. Sein Lauf ist seit 1926 durch den Bau des Burns Waterway in zwei Teile zerteilt. Der Teil östlich des Hart Ditch in Munster fließt ostwärts in den Burns Waterway und von dort in den Lake Michigan. Der Teil westlich des Hart Ditch in Munster fließt westwärts in den Calumet River und Cal-Sag Channel. Der Little Calumet hat eine Länge von 175 Kilometern. Sein Einzugsgebiet ist 550 km² groß. Die wichtigsten Zuflüsse sind der Deep River, dessen Zufluss Turkey Creek, sowie der Salt Creek, ein Zufluss des East Arm Little Calumet River. Alle Zuflüsse entspringen der Valparaiso-Moräne und fließen nordwärts in den Little Calumet River.

Der East Arm Little Calumet River, auch bekannt als Little Calumet River East Branch, beginnt knapp östlich von Holmesville in dem Ort New Durham Township im LaPorte County in Indiana, fließt dann durch Chesterton, Porter und Burns Harbor, wo er verbunden ist mit dem Port of Indiana-Burns Waterway. Er hat eine Gesamtlänge von 35 Kilometern. Er floss weiter westwärts Richtung Illinois als Little Calumet River, aber die Errichtung des Burns Waterway im Jahre 1926 leitete seinen Wasserfluss teilweise in den Lake Michigan ab.

Bis in die späten 1940er- oder frühen 1950er-Jahre führte der Calumet River stark verschmutztes Abwasser, und die einzigen im Fluss lebenden Fische waren Karpfen. Bei starkem Frühlingsregen überflutete der Fluss oft Gebiete angrenzender Flüsse.

Der Litte Calumet River wurde seit 1990 im Rahmen eines 200 Millionen US-Dollar teuren Flutregulierungs- und Regenerierungsprogramms vom Chicago District des United States Army Corps of Engineers umgebaut. Das Projekt sollte 2013 beendet sein. Das Projekt umfasste den Bau von 35 km an Deichen und Mauern, eines Regulierungsbauwerks bei Hart Ditch und fast 27 km an Wanderwegen. Außerdem wurden 11 km des Flusses verlagert, um den Wasserfluss zu verbessern. Zudem wurden die Brücken, über die Schnellstraßen führen, verändert, sodass ein ungehinderter Wasserfluss möglich ist. Ein Flutwarnsystem wurde ebenfalls eingerichtet. Sobald es vollendet ist, wird dieses Projekt über 9500 Haushalte und Unternehmen in den Städten Gary, Griffith, Hammond und Munster in Indiana beschützen und ungefähr 11 Millionen US-Dollar an jährlichen Flutschäden verhindern. Durch Ausläufer des Hurrikans Ike trat am 15. September 2008 starker Regen in der Uferebene des Little Calumet Rivers auf. Häuser und Einkaufszentren im nördlichen Munster und südlichen Hammond wurden evakuiert. Durch die Flut wurden hunderte Häuser beschädigt. Kürzlich wurden ein neuer Deich entlang der Northcote Avenue in Munster gebaut, um die Einwohner vor künftigen Flutereignissen zu schützen.

Calumet-Saganashkee-Kanal
Der Calumet-Saganashkee-Kanal ist ein Schifffahrtskanal im südlichen Cook County. Er dient als Kanal zwischen dem Little Calumet River und dem Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Er ist 26 km lang and war ein Einstich über eine Zeit von 11 Jahren, von 1911 bis 1922.

Der Calumet-Saganashkee-Kanal dient der Binnenschifffahrt und war ein aktiver Bereich der Schwerindustrie in der südlichen Nachbarschaft der Stadt Chicago und angrenzender Vorstädte. Seit 2006 wurde er hauptsächlich zur Ableitung von Abwasser aus dem südlichen Cook Country, inklusive des Deep Tunnel Project im Bereich Chicago, in den Illinois Waterway benutzt. Er wurde im Sommer auch von Sportbooten benutzt.

Die westlichen 7,3 km des Kanals verlaufen durch das Schutzgebiet Palos Hills Forest, eine große Parklandschaft, die von der Forest Preserve District of Cook County betrieben wird.

Der Cal-Sag Channel diente als Ruderstrecke der Panamerikanischen Spiele 1959.

Der Calumet-Sag Trail, ein 41 km langer Radweg, wird den Kanal umgeben und vom Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal zum Burnham Greenway verlängert sein, sobald er vollendet ist.

Weblinks

 US EPA Area of Concern
 Prairie Rivers Network
 TopoQuest, Cal Sag and Little Calumet
 Encyclopedia of Chicago – Calumet River System

Einzelnachweise

Geographie (Chicago)
Fluss in Illinois
Fluss in Indiana
Fluss in Nordamerika


Bitcoin is preferred by many traders in making transactions. The cryptocurrency that was created in 2009 is seen by many investors as the best asset to invest. The cryptocurrency is controlled by a system referred to as blockchain which is used to record transactions. The participants of bitcoin have to make records on the blockchain to ensure that the ownership is not shortchanged.
To encourage people in keeping the records, that involves the use of computers people who justify the blocks are honored by freshly developed bitcoins. The process itself is known as bitcoin mining. The number of bitcoins to be mined is controlled so as to have limited supply of the bitcoins. One is only allowed to mine a maximum of 21million bitcoins. For durability of the process, the process used in mining gets a little bit harder making it longer to get the cryptocurrency.
Those involved in the mining process are compelled to use powerful computers throughout the process until the bitcoin is earned. The more powerful the computer used is, the higher the rate of electrical power consumed. It is believed that the amount of electricity used to mine a single bitcoin could be used in homes for a month. Most of the bitcoin mining is carried out in China where it is believed that 80% of the cryptocurrency comes from the country and the cost of electricity is cheaper as compared to UK or US.
Research carried out shows that the amount of energy used by bitcoin in 2017 is equivalent to the energy consumed by 160 countries. The average energy used in Ireland and Africa is much lower than the energy used to mine bitcoin annually. The mode of electrical production in China poses threat to the environment in that the electricity is generated from combustion of fossil fuels which emit carbon monoxide.


text:
Op-ed: How to save on city health care spending—fairly and honestly
More than 250,000 retired municipal workers are on city health insurance plans.
"Politics ain't beanbag," wrote the great 19th-century newspaperman Finley Peter Dunne. And that is certainly proving true in the city's attempt to change the law that has protected city employees' and retirees' health care for the past 55 years.
The Adams administration, supported by the Municipal Labor Committee leadership, is trying to get the City Council to change Administrative Code 12-126.
That law requires the city to pay for the health insurance of city employees, retirees and their dependents, pegged to a defined amount. The city is trying to change the law to remove the peg.
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That would eliminate any guarantee of health insurance for current workers, and it would void any promises made to 250,000 municipal retirees.
Last year the de Blasio administration tried to force all retirees into a Medicare Advantage plan significantly inferior to the Medicare-plus-supplemental plan on which they've relied for a half-century. The state Supreme Court struck down the attempt.
Honor promises
Mayor Eric Adams flip-flopped on his campaign promise and appealed the ruling. Now, after a skeptical appellate panel questioned the city's logic, the mayor and union bosses are simply trying to gut the controlling statute.
Why? Money. Had the mayor been able to force retirees onto a Medicare Advantage plan, $600 million in annual costs would have been shifted from the city budget to the federal budget. Despite overwhelming evidence that Medicare Advantage plans are materially worse than traditional Medicare, it is hard for the city to walk away from that much "found" money.
The city is playing hardball with the Municipal Labor Committee as well. In 2014 the de Blasio administration and the MLC agreed to raid the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund of $1 billion to pay for teacher raises. In turn, the unions were supposed to "repay" the fund by finding real health care savings. They didn't.
That would have required making tough choices that affected current-voting, dues-paying union members. Instead, they tried to impose the Medicare Advantage plan on retirees, whom they no longer represent. But retirees fought back and won in court. So now the city is saying to the MLC, "Change the statute [12-126] or pay us back the $1 billion."
The City Council should reject that backroom deal. It is manifestly unfair to senior citizens and disabled first responders and is also shortsighted policy with respect to attracting and keeping a talented workforce.
It's unnecessary, too, as the retirees have identified more than $500 million in annual health care savings. According to two top insurance companies, for example, the city is overpaying for the Senior Care program by at least $50 million annually. But the MLC has not invited any new bidders.
Similarly, the city hasn't done an eligibility audit in 10 years; the last time it did one, it found more than $100 million in savings.
Not surprisingly, the MLC is working hard to prevent retirees from presenting their case to the City Council.
We understand that politics ain't beanbag. But neither should we simply accept sweetheart deals crafted by a powerful few in the shadow of the Tweed Courthouse. The City Council should at least hear from retirees on how the city could save money and honor promises made to these civil servants during the past five decades.
Steve Cohen is a lawyer at Pollock Cohen, one of the firms representing the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees.
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Q: Running top k elements in a sorted, fixed size list / python I am trying to keep a list of top k elements of a large set of tuples. Since keeping it in the memory is impossible, I want to use a fixed size list to keep only the top k values (with the keys). I have tried to use min heap but python's heap is terrible as it lets non unique keys to be inserted. That is a huge problem. So I thought I can use a sorted list/dict instead (tuples with unique keys). Using the sketch function I retrieve the number of counts that substring has appeared in the whole text (O(1) time)). I am beginning to think I do something wrong with the loops or pops and assignments, because the minheap also has a similar problem where only the top k shows up in the 25 size list, and the rest are rather low counts (when it is in fact higher )
for line in lines[1::4]:

    startIdx = 0
    while startIdx + k <= (len(line)-k):
        kmer = line[startIdx:(startIdx+k)]
        count = randint(1, 250)

        if count > 2:
           if len(tdict.keys()) < topcount:
                tdict[km] = count
           else:
                kMin = (sorted(tdict,reverse = False, key=lambda x: x[1]))
                if count > tdict[kMin[0]]:
                     topkmerdict.pop(kMin[0])
                     topkmerdict[km] = count
        startIdx += 1

    linesProcessed += 1

A: Please try changing the line:
  kmerMin = (sorted(topkmerdict,reverse = False, key=lambda x: x[1]))

to:
  kmerMin = (sorted(topkmerdict,reverse = False)

The previous line is only sorting on the second character of the string key values.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
<?php

namespace Oro\Bundle\ApiBundle\Request;

/**
 * The most often used request validation constrains.
 */
final class Constraint
{
    const FILTER       = 'filter constraint';
    const SORT         = 'sort constraint';
    const REQUEST_DATA = 'request data constraint';
    const REQUEST_TYPE = 'request type constraint';
    const ENTITY_TYPE  = 'entity type constraint';
    const ENTITY_ID    = 'entity identifier constraint';
    const FORM         = 'form constraint';
    const EXTRA_FIELDS = 'extra fields constraint';
    const RELATIONSHIP = 'relationship constraint';
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The building is planned for five stories, encompassing 68,000 square feet of "Class A" office space and 5,000 square feet of retail space. The location is a block off South Bayshore Drive and a brief stroll from CocoWalk.
William Hamilton Arthur IV is the architect of the project, which includes wraparound balconies, a rooftop terrace, and an underground parking garage with hydraulic car elevators. 27@Lincoln joins Mary Street, which is another new office building announced in the Grove.
Groundbreaking is slated for early 2018.