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Whale shark carcass washes ashore on Sanibel Island beach; FWC biologists to get samples
According to the University of Florida, whale sharks are the largest fish in the sea, growing longer than 40 feet.
Whale shark carcass washes ashore on Sanibel Island beach; FWC biologists to get samples According to the University of Florida, whale sharks are the largest fish in the sea, growing longer than 40 feet. Check out this story on news-press.com: https://newspr.es/2uS5Ysg
Brittany Bernstein and Michael Braun, Fort Myers News-Press Published 1:59 p.m. ET July 22, 2018 | Updated 9:39 p.m. ET July 22, 2018
A dead whale shark washed up on a Sanibel beach on Sunday morning. It was discovered off of West Gulf Drive at about 7:30 a.m. A tissue sample was taken, where it will be sent off to a lab for testing. Officials are letting nature take its course as far as removal of the huge shark. (Photo: Andrew West/The News-Press, Andrew West/The News-Press)Buy Photo
The carcass of a 21-foot-long adult whale shark washed up off West Gulf Drive on Sanibel Island on Sunday morning.
Biologists from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission were on their way to where the carcass was rolling in the surf to collect samples.
"I'm sure they were going to try to determine a cause of death," said Brian Norris, an FWC spokesman.
Marine biologists from the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum were on the beach near the Island Inn on Gulf Shore Road where the shark came ashore.
The shark's cause of death was not immediately known, but Shell Museum marine biologist Rebecca Mensch said the shark showed little signs of decay and likely died Saturday night or Sunday morning.
The shore where the shark was found is littered with dead fish as well, causing many to speculate that red tide may have been the cause of the animal's death.
"The research is still ongoing whether or not these animals are susceptible to red tide or, if they are, how sensitive are they," Mensch said. "So, that's not something one way or the other that you can say it was red tide."
A tissue sample and toxicology test that can take anywhere from days to weeks to provide results may give the biologists answers as to whether red tide affected the shark, she said.
The museum has been working with Mote Marine Labratory and Aquarium in Sarasota to determine if the shark was one of the animals that Mote tracks. But when a team of three marine biologists looked over the shark for tagging, it did not appear to be one of Mote's sharks.
A dead whale shark washed up on a Sanibel beach on Sunday morning. It was discovered off of West Gulf Drive at about 7:30 a.m. A tissue sample was taken, where it will be sent off to a lab for testing. Officials are letting nature take its course as far as removal of the huge shark. (Photo: Andrew West/The News-Press, Andrew West/The News-Press)
The shark drew a crowd of dozens of beachgoers, many of whom were snapping pictures and taking video, in awe of the giant animal.
"You've been to like aquariums and stuff and you're like 'This is the wildlife' but seeing it up close and in nature it's shocking," said Lily Miller, a 16-year-old from Cleveland, Ohio who was visiting Sanibel for the first time with her family. "Especially seeing a huge dead shark. It breaks my heart and it's not something you ever expect to see, especially when you're out in the (gulf)."
While whale sharks aren't something you might expect to see on Southwest Florida beaches, they are actually quite common on the other side of the coast, near Cozumel, Mexico, where they are currently mating, Mensch said.
"This part of the Gulf of Mexico stays shallow really, really far — about 100 miles — so this really, really shallow water is not a normal place you expect a huge animal like this to be in," she said.
Keil picklesimer, an employee of the Island Inn Sanibel and Rebecca Mensch, a marine biologist with Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum takes a tissue sample for Mote Marine Laboratories of a dead whale shark that washed up on a Sanibel beach on Sunday morning. It was discovered off of West Gulf Drive at about 7:30 a.m. (Photo: Andrew West/The News-Press, Andrew West/The News-Press)
Mensch added that it's hard to tell where the shark was when it was last healthy because strong currents and wind could have carried it to Sanibel's shore.
The plan is to let the shark decay naturally in the Gulf, Mensch said, warning beachgoers to steer clear of the animal.
More: Sharks and gators sometimes go tooth-to-tooth along the Florida coast
More: Five sharks found in Southwest Florida waters
More: YETI the great white shark surfaces off Southwest Florida's coast, Hilton close
Photos: Red tide found in whale shark that washed up on Sanibel beach
A dead whale shark washed up on a Sanibel beach on Sunday morning. It was discovered off of West Gulf Drive at about 7:30 a.m. A tissue sample was taken, where it will be sent off to a lab for testing. Officials are letting nature take its course as far as removal of the huge shark. Andrew West/The News-Press, Andrew West/The News-Press
A dead whale shark has washed up on a Sanibel Beach on Sunday morning. Andrew West/news-press.com
A dead whale shark washed up on a Sanibel Beach on Sunday morning. Andrew West/news-press.com
The tides and waves can easily create an environment where one can slip and fall under the shark, which likely weighs thousands of pounds, she said.
Scavengers that will be attracted to the shark's carcass as it decays are another danger, Mensch said. With varying scents and murky water on a wavy day a scavenger wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a person's foot and the shark's flipper.
According to the University of Florida, whale sharks are the largest fish in the sea, growing longer than 40 feet. They exhibit unique pattern of blue-gray to brown coloration with white spots centered between pale horizontal and vertical stripes.
They are filter feeders, often swimming near the surface of the open sea, gulping in water and filtering everything from plankton and fish eggs, to crustaceans and schooling fish, to occasional larger prey like squid or tuna.
Despite their size, they are considered harmless to humans, and will often interact with divers to the extent of allowing the divers to grab on to a fin and hitch a ride.
Gina Young, who comes to Sanibel every year from Alabama said the shark was "gigantic" and it was "sad but amazing to see the shark in person.
"Every time we come to Sanibel, it's something different," she said. "This year, it's the whale shark."
A whale shark, estimated at 25 feet in length by Tony Crumrine of Cracker Charters in Lake Park, visited the nearshore waters of Palm Beach Sunday. (Photo: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY TONY CRUMRINE)
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Dr. Tan works in Brooklyn, NY and specializes in Internal Medicine. Dr. Tan is affiliated with The Brooklyn Hospital Center.
I said i'd do a clip of afro samurai , well here it is, put some old skool rap in it , hope u like it .
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BlogHome » Could Michigan See a New Historic Preservation Tax Credit? (Please?)
Could Michigan See a New Historic Preservation Tax Credit? (Please?)
Sarah Szurpicki
Blog, Place Making
Our recent report, "A Path to Good-paying Careers for all Michiganders: A 21st Century state policy agenda," lays out the importance of placemaking to a prosperous Michigan, especially in our biggest cities. Some states have powerful economic development tools especially tailored to creating the cities that attract and retain talented residents, including historic preservation tax credits. Michigan had some of these tools—and may again.
Last month, State Senator Wayne Schmidt introduced Senate Bill 469, which would reestablish a version of the historic preservation tax credit that, from 1999-2011, was so successful at spurring development and rehabilitation. The bill is now under consideration in the finance committee.
Benefits of Historic Preservation Tax Credits
When Michigan's previous tax credit was about to be abolished in 2011 in favor of the Community Revitalization Program Fund (CRP), I worked with Let's Save Michigan, a project of the Michigan Municipal League. We organized a letter-writing campaign that resulted in 1,612 letters to the governor, state representatives, and state senators in opposition to ending the historic preservation and brownfields tax credit. This credit was serving a vital tool for stimulating development, and it seemed unlikely that the replacement CRP would have the same impacts.
Here is an excerpt from that campaign:
The economic impacts of our Historic Preservation and Brownfield economic development tools are well documented:
Since 2000, 706 brownfield projects were approved. These projects totaled $12.87 billion in investment (private dollars). The approved tax credit (state investment) was $1.270 billion dollars.
The Historic Tax Credit(HTC) alone has leveraged $1.46 billion in direct rehabilitation activity and created 36,000 jobs since its enactment in 1999.
Each $1.00 of credit issued leverages $10.56 in direct economic impact.
The HTC has leveraged $251 million in Federal historic tax credits. This is federal dollars coming back into Michigan's economy!
Michigan Historic and Brownfield tax credits make projects feasible when others have given up. They put underutilized and core urban real estate back on local and state tax rolls.
It's important to note that these programs are used to fill gaps in the financing of rehabilitation real estate projects and issued only after rehabilitation expenses are incurred. Therefore projects generate significant economic impact, and state and local tax revenue before the credits are issued.
Michigan's HTC and Brownfield programs are some of the state's most useful tools for revitalizing older communities. They make rehabilitation projects possible, and those projects drive economic growth in Michigan.
Unfortunately, the campaign was unsuccessful. Fortunately, some legislators are now reconsidering.
As a fund receiving annual allocations rather than a tax credit, the CRP is limited in its ability to impact Michigan communities, and in its capacity as a strategic tool. Only a limited number of projects will qualify and a smaller number receive awards, which means that each year, projects are left with a financing gap. Finally, the CRP as implemented seems to be designed for large-scale, commercial, and job-creating development, leaving smaller housing developments without support. The old tax credit—and the new one proposed by Sen. Schmidt—can even be used by homeowners rehabbing an historic property.
While it's clear that these tax credits are huge economic development boosts in communities that feature historic properties, there's also strong evidence that historic properties in particular help to develop a strong, authentic character that attracts residents and tourists, increases neighborhood pride and cultural identity, and helps a community stand out as unique.
Michigan communities need more tools to enable their revitalization, or else we won't be able to develop the concentrations of educated workers that we need. We look forward to watching the progress of this bill or others like it.
Download our report on what it will take to make Michigan prosperous again here.
communityhistoric preservationplacemakingrevitalizationtax creditvibrant neighborhoodsWayne Schmidt
Sarah is a policy associate for Michigan Future, Inc. and partner at New Solutions Group, LLC, a consulting firm devoted to smart, collaborative, innovative approaches for organizations serving the public good.
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Stefan Brink says:
I have a Historic home in Royal Oak. Although I know this building is nearly 100 years old and the first one constructed in the "new" neighborhood. Although I've been maintaining it since 1990, I don't believe that it is in a designated Historic area. All the other architecture surrounding it is from the 1940's and 50's or later. I wish to continue rehabbing this property with improvements and could use some help. Any ideas how to qualify and to support your initiative ? I tried the link for a sample letter to the city council and it wouldn't load. Also, I see Royal Oak is not on your list and would like to influence/change that. Please let me know.
Stefan Brink
Sarah Szurpicki says:
Hi Stefan — The letter-writing campaign I referenced in my blog post ended a while ago–it was an effort to prevent the passage of the CRP in 2011.
I am not an expert in how to navigate historic preservation of one's home. But you may get some help by calling the office of the Oakland County Planning Department. Here's what I found online: https://www.oakgov.com/advantageoakland/planning/historicpreservation/Pages/default.aspx
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Q: How to download images asynchronously from web server My application screen looks similar to the image attached. I have multiple rows and each row has a Bitmap image, title and description field. All the information's are getting fetched from our supporting web-server in the form of XML. Now, I have used observer design pattern, which creates a separate thread for connecting to my remote server over HTTP, downloads and parse the XML. The XML includes the URL for image, title and description for  each row.

I have tried few approaches so far,
Approach 1:

*

*Created a separate method (drawRow()), which takes care of putting the contents together by specifying the layout.

*And, then using the method downloadImage(), I am trying to download the remote URL from the drawRow() method. But it sucks, as it downloads using the same thread and UI gets blocked.
Approach 2:
While searching for the above issue, I came across WebBitmapField in blackberry from coderholic.com.
And, then I am using the below code from my drawRow() method. As I understand the WebBitmapField, here is using observer design pattern and the image is downloading over thread other than UI thread. It works fine when I have limited number of rows like 5 or 10. But when I have more number of rows to be drawn it throws TooManyThreads exception, as it creates a new thread for each row.
I have got this link taskworker-thread-blackberry, but not much clear with how to achieve my requirement.
As I understand, in blackberry an application can create maximum of 16 number of threads. So, now I believe. I may need to create a thread pool specifying max size to 10.
Can anyone please help me to understand and implement the thread pooling for blackberry for my current problem?
Also, I appreciate anyone giving me any other best approach which will fit for my requirement.
Thanks in advance.

A: You have everything what you need. So:

*

*Create one TaskWorker for your application (use singelton)

*Implement Task class from TaskWorker - DownloadImageTask (simply put everything from Runnable.run() to Task.doTask() method)

*Instead of new thread creation in Util.getWebData() call TaskWorker.addTask()
There are probably more minor details but you could figure out how to finish it.
And I think it's better to have two method in Callback - success(byte[] data) and error(Throwable error) - to determine end result and escape converting images to String and back.

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animal rights activists
News Roundup / March 2, 2018
February Fur News: Fashion Week Protests and Extreme Vegans
by Truth About Fur, voice of the North American fur trade
It's time for our roundup of February's fur news stories, and it makes sense to start with the catwalk shows…
It's time for our roundup of February's fur news stories, and it makes sense to start with the catwalk shows and the inevitable fashion week protests. With fashion shows come protesters, trying to push their animal rights agenda on the general public. As usual, their protests were chaotic and not very effective. One activist in London stormed a catwalk show that did not even contain any fur. Meanwhile, Dennis Basso (a designer best known for his furs) showed a beautifully furry collection, and Elle says that fur sweatshirts are now a thing (pictured). We can get on board with that.
WWD did an interesting interview with Tom Ford, who made it clear that he thought fake fur was very damaging for the environment (so why is he using it, then?), but claims that he will now only offer furs that are by-products of the meat industry. Let's see how long this new strategy lasts. His most interesting comment was that "I have a customer who is very used to wearing leather and fur; it's a part of our business." It's the reason why brands keep coming back to fur: FUR SELLS.
And speaking of fur selling, Truth About Fur's blog post last week looked at the future of fur retailing, and how some stores are adapting their sales and marketing strategies to the modern consumer.
Proud Olympian
Samuel Girard is a proud trapper and champion speed skater.
The Winter Olympics ended last week and we were thrilled when we heard that Samuel Girard, who won bronze in speed skating, is also a proud trapper. He's not alone in taking pride in what he does, of course: this trapper says trapping is nostalgic and "in his blood", while these trappers play a role in bobcat conservation and dealing with beaver issues. And trappers are also the ones who put the "fur" in Alaska's Fur Rondy - here's why. It's not all fun though. This is a terrifying story (with a happy ending) about a trapper whose snowmobile got stuck and was forced to spend the night outside in minus 50℃.
Sexual Harassment, Topless Women
There were some unexpected headlines involving animal rights activist groups last month. The Humane Society of the United States's CEO, Wayne Pacelle, resigned over sexual harassment claims. Apparently this is not unusual, in fact, it appears to be quite common in the animal rights movement. And yet these women go topless (pictured) at fashion week protests, and the movement continues to use degrading imagery of women in its campaigns. And, this certainly hasn't stopped these people accusing farmers of being rapists and sending them death threats. How about we take the sex, nudity, and harassment out of this argument, and argue our causes with facts? There's no doubt in our mind that vegans hurt their case by being too extreme, and the same could be said for the whole animal rights movement.
Here are a few more articles from February that are worth a read:
Fake fur is worse than real fur (duh).
Whales are being threatened by microplastics. (When will we stop with these horrible synthetic materials?)
A nude activist says she doesn't need clothes because animals don't have them. (This is even more ridiculous than the fashion week protests at fur-free shows.)
The ethics of killing animals is complicated (though you already knew that).
Try and avoid bringing your emotional support peacock on a flight. (He won't be allowed on the plane.)
RIP Alcide Giroux
Alcide Giroux was a leader in the development of humane trapping methods. See our blog post, "Alcide Giroux: My first 60 years enjoying nature as a trapper".
Lastly, It is with a sad heart that we learned this week about the sudden passing of the legendary Canadian trapper, Alcide Giroux. Alcide (pictured above) was a leader in the development of humane trapping methods. He was also tireless in promoting recognition of trappers as true conservationists and front-line guardians of nature. Alcide learned his bushcraft from his Métis father, a man he liked to say had a GPS in his brain – and the man he credits with teaching him the importance of promoting respect and animal welfare in trapping. At a time when we are working to increase public understanding of the important role played by trappers in environmental conservation, we owe much to Alcide's pioneering efforts as an important leader and spokesperson for the trapping community. Rest in peace, old friend.
News Roundup / January 4, 2018
December Fur News: the Truth About Sheep Fur and Farmers Speaking Up
It's our first news roundup of 2018 so let's review the fur headlines from December, including stories about sheep fur,…
Vest by Grey Jason Wu.
It's our first news roundup of 2018 so let's review the fur headlines from December, including stories about sheep fur, farmers speaking up, and activists up to no good.
Let's start with fashion. December saw the showing of the Pre-Fall 2018 collections, which were jam-packed with fur, and proof that Gucci and Michael Kors' announcements are not a trend that is industry-wide. China has a huge appetite for the luxury material and we are seeing pro-fur stories in the fashion media and in opinion pieces. Whether you are looking for a fur coat, a trapper hat, or fur slides, there's something for everyone.
But the fashion media aren't all fur-savvy. A Vogue writer, Emily Farra, thought that sheepskin did not require the animals' pelts, so we decided to write up a piece about sheep fur. Also known as sheepskin or shearling, sheep fur is not wool, and uses the animals' skin and hair. Pamela Anderson is one of many people who didn't realise that sheepskin actually used sheep's skin, and now she is busy campaigning to get the Kardashians to give up fur. We are sure they will be willing to do it, for an hour or so.
The confusion about sheepskin and sheep fur raises questions about how far removed people are from animal husbandry and how farming works. An article entitled "The gulf between farmers and the people they feed is getting dangerously wide" is an excellent piece exploring this very concept – which has wide repercussions given that we all depend on farming for survival. This young British farmer has been very vocal about the fact that farmers "will always be here.(pictured)" And right she is, farming is such an important industry and animal rights activists have very little understanding of how it works. Speaking of how farming works, we loved this article about how mink farmers are using manure as biofuel.
Positive Trapping Stories
Farmers and trappers don't often work side by side, but here's an example of how farmers are trying to preserve a trapping programme, in order to protect their livestock. It's one of many positive trapping stories from last month, including this feature on a passionate trapper, this article about how it is great to be in the woods, and this piece that breaks down the misconceptions of trapping. On the news front, we were happy to hear that wild fur buyers in Nebraska have been busy, people are waking up to the opportunities of nutria, and the Thompson fur table is doing a bustling trade.
You can't be anti-fur and anti-pipeline.
There's less good news from the protest front lines. This Mother Jones piece exposes how activists are willing to take more risks to push their agendas. From death threats to homesteaders, startling ponies carrying children, declaring war on macaroni and cheese, and threatening hunters, it is clear they will stop at nothing to fight their often ridiculous and hypocritical causes. We highlighted some of this hypocrisy in a recent blog post, where we explained that being anti-fur and anti-pipeline (pictured) is actually quite contradictory. But despite their threats, their inability to distinguish between sheep fur and wool, or their ridiculous hunger strikes, people are beginning to question whether animal rights are unconstitutional, and if veganism is culturally insensitive.
Grocery shopping in Nunavut has its perils!
Let's end December's roundup with a few stories that caught our attention last month:
The Russians are doing it better - at least when it comes to fur education for kids.
Sea Shepherd have given up fighting the Japanese whalers.
If you are disposing of a Christmas tree this week, pat yourself on the back. Like fur, it is way better to shop real than fake.
And grocery shopping can be more dangerous than you think. (pictured)
Environment & Conservation, Fur Hypocrites / December 20, 2017
Fur Hypocrites: You Can't Protest Pipelines and Fur
by Alice in Furs, fur fashionista
In the fur trade we see all kinds of hypocrisy from our critics, and one that we see regularly is…
In the fur trade we see all kinds of hypocrisy from our critics, and one that we see regularly is people who protest pipelines and also protest fur.
If you live in a country that has a real winter, you'll need winter clothing for survival. There are really only two types of material suitable for winter clothing: animal based materials (such as fur, leather, shearling, wool, and cashmere) and synthetics. Anyone who is against fur is presumably against the use of other animal materials (if not, you are really not thinking very clearly, but that's a story for another day), but anyone who is against pipelines should presumably be against synthetics, because most synthetics are made from petroleum by-products.
Faux fur coats, like these ones from British brand Shrimps, are made from petroleum co-products and are neither renewable nor biodegradable.
So why do we constantly hear the animal activists touting the benefits of fake fur as an alternative to the real thing? That's a question we just can't answer. We frequently run across anti-fur folk who promote synthetic alternatives, yet are against pipelines. Maybe someone needs to tell them that those pipelines are needed to produce the plastic clothing they want us all to wear. Most people protest pipelines because they want to protect pristine nature. So wouldn't it make sense that these people would also be against wearing clothing made from petroleum by-products, which, we are now learning, pollutes our air and water with micro-particles of plastic when washed, and then sits in a landfill for a thousand years when discarded?
SEE ALSO: Hypocrite profile: Stella McCartney
We are in a fragile situation right now on the planet – rising temperatures, oceans accumulating plastic, and a dependence on non-renewable energy. A life without fossil fuels in the near future is going to be close to impossible, but we should be looking at reducing our consumption of them. Petroleum is not easy to extract, it's not good for the environment, and it is not renewable. Solar power, wind farms, and electric cars are all helping us move away from the use of petroleum, but this will take time. Meanwhile, though it is hard to give up on gas or certain plastics, we can easily reduce our consumption of some petroleum-based products: notably, single-use plastics (water bottles – I'm talking to you) and synthetic clothing.
Warning: Protesting pipelines while wearing synthetic clothing will make you a hypocrite.
Yet we hardly hear about reduction of synthetic fibres as a viable way to reduce our dependence on petroleum products and the pollution these materials cause. And this is surprising – given that there are many animal and plant-based alternatives to synthetic fabrics that are as viable and useful as synthetics. No fabric is perfect, and everything requires energy to produce, but the materials that are sustainable, long-lasting, and biodegradable should always be the first choice. Imagine how dramatically our consumption of plastic clothing would decrease if we all pledged to wear clothing items for five years instead of one. Not only would we buy less, but we would probably buy better quality (and therefore less synthetics) in order to ensure that the garments lasted longer.
SEE ALSO: Hypocrite profile: Ricky Gervais
It's easier to choose a leather shoe over a synthetic one, than it is to find an airline that will fly you to your holiday destination in an electric plane. And while the effect of plastic clothing may not be the most hurtful to the environment (compared with cars and industrial pollution), the damage is nonetheless scary. Microplastic particles are now being found in our food, water, and air – and the culprit is often synthetic clothing. Next time you eat an oyster burger washed down with a pint of your favourite local ale, keep in mind that you are getting a side dish of plastic particles, free of charge.
Industrial pollution is bad, and we can work to reduce it. We can also reduce our consumption of petroleum by buying less synthetic materials.
It doesn't make sense to protest pipelines and be against the use of animal products in clothing. If you are concerned about the planet and our consumption, then by all means let's try and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and let's encourage more renewable forms of energy. But if that's your stance, then your wardrobe had better reflect that as well. If you are aiming to live an environmentally conscious life, then your wardrobe should include clothing made from plant-based materials and animal products, produced sustainably and ethically, made to last, and when they find themselves ready for the landfill, your wardrobe should biodegrade and return into the cycle of nature.
SEE ALSO: Hypocrite profile: Pink
But if you choose to protest pipelines while wearing synthetic clothing made from petroleum co-products, you may find yourself in a conflicting position (read: you are a hypocrite.) Fur is a natural, renewable resource and fur clothing is warm, long lasting, and biodegradable. A synthetic fleece jacket made from petroleum co-products releases plastic particles into the water and the air every time you wash and dry it, and will end up in a landfill for thousands of years, never able to fully biodegrade. How many 30-year-old fleece jackets do you find being handed down from one generation to the next? Not many. But you might find me on my way to protest pipelines wearing the 40-year-old muskrat coat my grandmother gave me a few years ago.
Animal Rights / February 16, 2017
Why Animal Rights Activists Are Becoming More Aggressive
I received a phone call the other day from a very frightened fur retailer. Two young women had come into…
For animal-rights activists, arson was a way to save lynx from a new ski resort, Vail, Colorado, 1998.
I received a phone call the other day from a very frightened fur retailer. Two young women had come into his store while he was serving a customer and begun lecturing him about the evils of selling fur. He had tried to stay cool and asked them to leave, several times, but they kept at him until, finally, he lost it and said things he wasn't proud of. They had filmed him too; now his outburst was on an activist website and his Facebook page had been bombarded with comments accusing him of being a sexist thug.
"Am I finished?" he asked, shaken. "That's not me, but they were so aggressive; honestly, I was frightened." I told him to remove the threatening posts from his Facebook page – but to take screen-grabs first, for the record. I also advised him to make a police report about the women who had harassed him, and to ask the police to keep an eye on his store at night. (The windows of several fur stores in the same town were broken in the weeks that followed.)
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. An outerwear store that sells fur-trimmed parkas in Vancouver has endured rowdy protests several times a week for more than a year. Activists now often follow fur-wearers down the street, haranguing them. DxE ("Direct Action Everywhere") activists invade department stores, intimidating consumers and thumbing their noses at store security. At the opening of new Canada Goose stores in New York and Toronto, protesters carried "F*ck Canada Goose" posters. (So much for compassion and intelligent dialogue!) "Fur police" recently patrolled the streets of Hamburg, Germany, lecturing fur-wearers and giving them "tickets".
READ ALSO: "Meat of the Matter: Peace-loving avengers," by Dan Murphy, for Dairy Herd Management.
Fur is still a favorite target but any animal-based business can find itself under attack. An infuriating new tactic of animal rights activists is to blitz commercial Facebook pages with negative ratings and comments, as a Vancouver chef recently discovered when he added seal meat to his "sustainable and cultural foods" menu. (Ironically, activists often claim that the seal hunt is immoral because only the fur is used!)
Here are 5 reasons why animal rights activists are becoming more aggressive ... and why it will likely get worse before it gets better.
1. Aggression Works
Activists have learned that many retail stores – even those of large corporations – have a low tolerance for confrontation. Things were different when most furs were sold by furriers running multi-generational family businesses; fur was what they knew, and they defended it with passion. With fur now popular for trim and fashion accessories, it is sold in a much wider range of stores.
This is putting fur on more people than ever before, but it also makes retailing more vulnerable: if fur represents only a small fraction of your sales but generates 99% of your security and PR problems, caving in to PETA is a tempting option. Unfortunately, the message to animal rights activists is that threats and intimidation work.
Simplistic, vulgar, and arrogant. PETA speaks the language of contemporary youth culture.
2. Pop Culture
If you have seen a music video recently -- or follow much of what passes for political debate these days -- you understand that the vulgar, arrogant and often aggressive tone of animal rights activists ("F*ck Fur!") is very much in tune with certain elements of contemporary culture. And because there's no sign of popular culture becoming much more polite any time soon, we can expect the arrogance and aggressiveness of these activists to intensify too.
3. Animal Rights Activists Are Getting Frustrated
Cleveland Amory, founder of the Fund for Animals, began campaigning against the fur trade in the late 1960s, almost 50 years ago. Protests intensified in the 1980s and then, again, with the emergence of media-savvy organizations like PETA. The traditional fur coat was also challenged by more casual lifestyles and the availability of less expensive winter clothing materials.
But just when it looked like Western consumers were abandoning their furs, the trade reinvented itself. Suddenly fur is everywhere, not only on 70% of designer runways, but in the streets – as trim on coats and parkas, on handbags, vests, scarves and boots. As trim and accessories, fur is more affordable and is being worn by more young people than ever.
Like old-time Stalinists frustrated with the "false consciousness" of workers who didn't support The Revolution, many activists have concluded that, if moral persuasion isn't working, it's time for more vigorous methods. "As long as they do the right thing, we don't really care why they've done it," says PETA executive vice president Tracy Reiman when asked whether companies give up fur to avoid harassment, rather than because they share PETA's views.
If activists produce a video of "rabbits that are having their fur ripped out, ... everybody watches it." That doesn't mean that it's normal practice. See:"Is PETA's Angora rabbit video staged?"
4. Social Media Encourage an Escalation of Emotion
Animal rights activists have always used disturbing images, but mainstream media rarely broadcast the most gruesome of them. In the Brave New World of social media, however, the gorier the better. As PETA's Tracy Reiman says, "… we put out a video of rabbits that are having their fur ripped out, and everybody watches it."
It is not hard to understand why normally compassionate people would be horrified by some of the images circulating on the Internet. If I thought these images really represented the fur trade, I would be against it too. So don't be surprised that some idealistic young people decide it's time to take stronger action to end such (apparent) atrocities.
The anonymity of social media also encourages more radical and polarized opinions, in all types of politics.
5. "Animal Rights" Is a Fundamentalist Ideology
The previous four points provide ample explanation for the more aggressive tone of animal rights activists. A more troubling question is whether the "animal-rights" philosophy itself may inevitably lead to more aggressive behaviour.
Despite all the media coverage of PETA's antics, few people – journalists included – understand the profound chasm separating traditional "animal welfare" values from the radical and comparatively new "animal rights" doctrine. Animal welfare refers to our responsibility to minimize suffering for the animals we use. Hopefully everyone reading this post agrees with this. Animal rights, by contrast, says that humans have no right to kill or use animals at all, even for food or important medical research.
A more troubling question is whether the "animal-rights" philosophy itself may inevitably lead to more aggressive behaviour.
But if we truly believe that killing and eating an animal is the moral equivalent of murdering and eating another human being, then how far should we go to stop such "crimes"? Seen this way, activists who become more aggressive or even commit illegal acts are not "going too far"; rather, they are reading their animal-rights philosophers correctly.
"Animal rights" -- like other fundamentalist doctrines -- does not allow for respect or tolerance of differing views. In this sense, the increasing aggression of animal rights activists is not an accident or an aberration. But if intolerance and aggression are the logical conclusions of "animal rights", maybe it's time we took a much more critical look at this radical new philosophy. This will be the subject of a future article.
News Roundup / July 8, 2016
June Fur News: Seriously Stupid Stuff
by Alexandra Suhner Isenberg, former Online Communications Director, Truth About Fur
Every month, as I read through the past month's fur news headlines, I think to myself, "Wow, this animals rights…
Every month, as I read through the past month's fur news headlines, I think to myself, "Wow, this animals rights activism story is even stupider than the ones from last month." This month is no exception. In fact, June might be hard to beat because the activists have been up to some seriously stupid stuff. Let's have a look.
In this article, PETA suggests that eating a burger is the same as eating your dog (pictured above). It is also campaigning to get Lululemon to stop using goose down in its jackets, and replace it with something synthetic. Great idea! Let's "save" the geese by replacing them with petroleum-based products instead - so much safer for the animals and the environment, right? But this shouldn't come as a surprise, given that these people value the life of a gorilla over that of a 3-year-old boy and think that setting fire to buses is going to further their cause.
Can you handle a bit more stupid? Here are our top three seriously stupid animal rights shenanigans from June.
Third place goes to the woman who spent $300 to get a lobster from the grocery store back into the sea. I guess she doesn't realise that buying lobsters only contributes to demand, and her particular lobster was probably caught again 20 minutes after its release. (Grocery stores are all, like, "Lobster sales are going up! Even vegans are buying 'em!")
Second place goes to the vile, disgusting PETA people who are using the Orlando shooting as ammunition (pardon the pun!) for their anti-hunting agenda. America's largest mass shooting does not, I repeat, DOES NOT, deserve to be compared to hunting deer. EVER!
Deer Vasectomies?
Speaking of deer, the first place spot goes to the imbecile who thinks the best way to control the deer population on Staten Island is to start a 2 million dollar a year male deer vasectomy program, which the New York Department of Environmental Conservation thinks is a bad idea, and will have "limited effectiveness" and be "unable to quickly reduce deer-human conflicts."
And let's give the special runner-up award to Kimberly Sherriton, a housewife in Long Island who organised a series of protests outside a farm because she wanted to save the life of a cow that they were going to slaughter to eat. The best part? Her solution was, "Please, tell him to go to Whole Foods and go get some antibiotic-free beef there." Because Whole Foods sells beef from cows that weren't slaughtered, right? I can't even deal with this level of stupid.
If you haven't heard enough about the animal rights activists, then read about the crazy things animal rights activists say (some of these are quite disturbing), how animal-rights extremists endanger animals, four ways mainstream animal rights movements are oppressive, and the ugly truth about PETA.
Renowned Trapper
Moving on to the furry stuff! We just posted this piece about a renowned Canadian trapper on our blog (pictured below), definitely worth a read and if you want to know more, he's written a book about his life! This is a great video on trapping, entitled Meet Your Local Trapper, and Vice has once again shown its support for hunting and trapping by publishing How to Make It as a Fur Trapper in Northern Alberta. Ever wondered why mink is the world's favourite fur? We sure did, and that's why we wrote this blog post about mink fur.
True life stories of Métis trapper Alcide Giroux.
If you are struggling to find ways to include fur in your summer wardrobe (the struggle is real, people) then Vogue's piece 14 Ways to Wear Fur All Summer Long has some really useful tips. If you are in a shopping mood, then you'll be pleased to hear that Kluger Furs has expanded and Adrienne Landau is now selling online, thanks to Beyoncé and Madonna. And if you are looking for a few soft materials to fill in the gaps of your fur wardrobe (maybe the summer mink ideas weren't working for you?) then keep an eye out for this new blend: perino.
Inuvik's chief reindeer herder hangs up his lasso. Source: CBC.
A few more links worth reading:
When activists tell you that the majority of Americans think wearing fur is wrong, then they are lying. Americans think wearing fur is more acceptable than medical testing on animals, cloning, and extramarital affairs.
Want a job after college? Study agriculture - possibly one of the most secure fields of all.
Does real fur biodegrade faster than fake fur? We are doing a test called The Great Fur Burial.
We all know black, brown, grizzly, and polar bears, but have you heard of the pizzly bear?
Looking for a new job? Looks like there's an opening for a reindeer herder in the Northwest Territories (pictured above).
We don't mind breastfeeding in public, but we don't recommend doing it in the middle of the road. And yes, this is vaguely fur-related :)
Animal Rights / June 22, 2016
Things Animal Rights Activists Say – Part 2
If you've worked in the fur industry or been vocal about your love for fur, then you have probably suffered…
If you've worked in the fur industry or been vocal about your love for fur, then you have probably suffered some verbal abuse from animal rights activists. Animal activists like to claim they hold the moral high-ground and that they are the compassionate ones. Well, let's look at some of the things these models of compassion say ...
What they say about ... using foul language in front of farm animals:
"[it's] conceivable that verbal abuse of an extreme nature [against any animal, including sheep] could constitute an act of violence"
Nicolah Donovan, president of Lawyers for Animals (source)
I guess they never heard the old adage, "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me."
What they say to ... a homestead farming family when they post a photo of a cow they have just raised and then slaughtered for food:
"What if I start raising children for raping? Would that be acceptable? Would that be better than raping another child? It's stupid to think it is OK to kill animals."
- Luis Pacheco (source)
It takes a very, very sick mind to compare raising cows for meat to imprisoning and sexually assaulting children. A very, very sick mind.
What they say about ... the fur trade:
"I can't wait to start seeing coats made of human skin. As long as humans are raised on farms, I don't see how it matters how they are killed."
- animal rights activist (source)
I guess we should be grateful that humans aren't being farmed, or we'd have to look out for this psycho!
What they say about ... bugs' lives and children's lives:
"The life of an ant and the life of my child should be accorded equal respect."
- Michael W. Fox, former vice-president, HSUS (Associated Press, Jan. 15, 1989)
Does this guy have kids? Do they feel the same way?
Animal Rights / April 28, 2016
What they say about ... poor labour practices in garment manufacturing in poorly regulated countries:
"I dont care about humans being exploited. animals arent in control of their destiny. period. i realise humans are massively destructive to everything. thats why i hate em." [sic]
If you hate humans so much, why don't you go and live in the forest by yourself?
What they say about ... committing activism crimes that land you in jail:
"We will demystify incarceration. Jail is not a problem. It presents an opportunity to recruit."
We agree! Let them all go to jail please!
News Roundup / June 8, 2015
Fur in the News: May 2015 Roundup
Let's start this month's Fur in the News roundup by reminding everyone about our new project, the Fur Family Album. The…
Let's start this month's Fur in the News roundup by reminding everyone about our new project, the Fur Family Album. The story of fur starts long before a fancy coat is seen on a catwalk or photographed on a celebrity. It starts with the trapline or the farm, then the auction, the processing, the design, the making, and the store. Help us to tell the real story of the fur industry by sending us photographs of your experience of fur. Please read our full introduction to this project and then familiarize yourself with our submission requirements.
Screen grab of Angora rabbit social experiment video.
Around the World in Fur
Now, we are going to take a little trip around the world and look at the fur news stories that made headlines in different countries. Let's start in Seoul, Korea (above), where some pedestrians got a shock when an animal rights activist ripped hair from their heads, in a pathetic attempt to protest angora. I can't see how violence towards passersby is going to further animal activists' cause, but then again, I don't understand much of anything they do.
THE GUARDIAN: A bearded seal. Greenland's hunters harvest approximately 150,000 seals a year, and biologists calculate that a figure of 500,000 annually would be sustainable. Photo: Paul Souders/Corbis.
Let's move to Europe, to Germany specifically, where another activist planted needles into meat in a supermarket as a protest against the meat industry. The words "mad cow" come to mind!
Moving over to England, where a soap opera actress led a protest in front of Harvey Nichols to express anger at the store's decision to start selling fur again. Apparently her cause isn't that popular as she was the only person who turned up to the protest. Activists all over England were busy doing crazy things, including threatening to burn a TV presenter's children because of a BBC investigation into badger culls. Interesting that they want to save the badgers but burn children.
But maybe the craziest activist of the month award goes to English singer Morrissey who used Ireland's gay marriage referendum as a platform to remind people that meat and fur farming is bad, and meat eaters are no better than paedophiles. No words to describe his comments ... no words ... Finally for England, Canadian Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq played in London last month and that prompted some press about her music, her distaste for PETA and her support of sealing.
Back over the Channel in continental Europe, we had a demonstration of seal hunters at the EU parliament, who are trying to convince them to reverse the ban. The Guardian also wrote a good piece on this subject.
Our Instagram graphic of the month.
North American Fur News
Meawhile across the pond, a Los Angeles Times journalist wrote a fantastic op-ed about the hypocrisy of meat-eating fur haters. This is a subject that seems to be gaining traction and it is great that people are finally starting to recognize this issue. But unfortunately not all Americans are being reasonable, as quite a few of them seem to want animals to have the same rights as humans. Does this mean we can't legally kill a mosquito? People standing up to the activists include hunter and angler Peter Ryan, who does not take kindly to being threatened on Facebook, and this HSUS whistleblower.
Let's end in Canada with a lovely seal dinner and some nice sealskin clothes for your closet, shall we? But beware of crazy shoplifting seals, like this one, who stormed a grocery store in search of fish and took off when he realized that the goods he planned to steal were fruit. That's what I do when I find out that the dinner host is serving vegan!
News Roundup / May 4, 2015
Fur In The News: April 2015 Roundup
Let's start the April Fur In The News roundup by talking about one of the most important annual fur hunts: it's…
Let's start the April Fur In The News roundup by talking about one of the most important annual fur hunts: it's SEAL time!
We try and keep this monthly blog post upbeat, but sometimes things need to get serious, so let's start with the sad news: this article paints a very sad picture of how native Greenlanders' livelihood and way of life is being seriously affected by the EU seal ban.
Our least favourite rock star continued his uninformed tirade against the seal hunt. I read last week that Paul McCartney is one of the richest musicians in the world, so maybe he'd like to donate some his hundreds of millions to finding alternative work for all the seal hunters he protests against. Or even better, maybe he could just shut up and mind his own business.
SEE ALSO: EU SEALING POLICY IS HYPOCRITICAL, ANTI-DEMOCRATIC
Our other big April event was Earth Day - and we were sure to remind everyone about how fur is a green, renewable resource that is much less harmful to the planet than most of the alternatives.
More Animal Rights Nonsense
Let's move on to the thorns in our side ... those pesky animal rights activists. But the good news is, they are getting lots of bad press!
PETA's lamb shearing campaign (below) caused outrage, Meanwhile this article is exposing how PETA targets children in its advertising campaigns (this really is sickening). Then PETA stooped to new lows by teaming up with former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and controversial Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio (known for his total disregard of human rights when treating his prisoners) to promote vegetarian diets for prisoners. This video highlights just how hypocritical this campaign is.
OUTRAGEOUS: PETA's lamb shearing campaign
Here are a few more articles questioning the AR movement that are worth reading: "Let the Fur Fly: A call against animal rights extremists," from the Wesleyan Argus; "Why do people value pets over humans?" from Bustle; and
"Exactly what is endangered?" from The Compass.
There have been a lot of news articles talking about how important it is to look at both sides of the story - especially when it comes to issues involving animal rights. This article about a zoo in Vancouver was a prime example of how people can be incredibly misinformed about why zoos exist and how they get their animals. This piece, entitled "Don't believe everything you see: the truth about undercover videos", explains how activists get their videos and how normal farming practices can be misinterpreted as cruelty. Hopefully we'll be seeing fewer and fewer such videos as legislators move to shut them down; Senate Bill 433, or the Property Protection Act, currently working its way through the North Carolina state legislature, is just one example.
Fur Farming Scores Points
While we are on the subject of farms, we consider it a great victory that the Canadian government is funding mink farm research. Here's a nice profile on a farmer in Ontario, and this article talks about the security threats involved with having a fur farm, threats that don't seem to be slowing down business. (Farmers: 1, Activists: 0.)
Over at the Truth About Fur headquarters, we've been giggling over the animal rights activists attacked by clowns, wondering why an anti-hunting campaign (above) is being fronted by a model in a fur coat cavorting with a live bear, and writing about how we shouldn't make assumptions about political views when it comes to who is pro- and who is anti-fur.
If you find yourself with a bit of extra fur lying around, you may want to consider some new, innovative uses for fur. How about a seal skin g-string? Or check out this crow who steals panda fur to line his nest.
Our most popular videos this month were this one of a vet trying to save a buck who is drowning from the weight of a dead buck whose antlers are locked with his (this is super suspenseful!), and this one of a bear trying to eat a fake deer.
Our favourite trapping photo is of these guys and their amazing beaver catch (above) from Full Response Scents, and the one that touched us most was this one from Minka Minkovitch (below), whose caption reads "Warmth and survival is more important than western propaganda." We wholeheartedly agree.
Warmth and survival is more important than western propaganda
Let's end this month's roundup with a warning for anyone traveling to New York City or Sweden: watch out for coyotes in apartment buildings and beavers attacking bus passengers.
News Roundup / March 12, 2015
Fur In The News – February 2015 Roundup
February 2015 has come and gone, and it's time for our Fur In The News roundup of the month's best…
Fendi Fall 2015
February 2015 has come and gone, and it's time for our Fur In The News roundup of the month's best stories. It's a furry time of year in the fashion world right now. For starters, we are still in the depths of winter and furs are all over the streets.
On the high fashion front, February is the start of fashion month, when the top catwalk designers show their Fall 2015 collections. Who ever said fur is dead was very wrong. (Well, technically the animals are dead, but fur is VERY alive on our catwalks.) Spotted all over New York, London, Milan, and soon, Paris, fur continues to be a staple in the designer collections.
We've got a soft spot for Fendi, who are famous for their furs and showed a collection of fur-trimmed down coats that look like Canada geese on drugs. (You'll also need some drugs to get over the shock of the price tags.) Check out their show on Style.com.
And while we are talking about designers, Pamela Paquin's brand Petit Mort has been getting a lot of press. She makes fur accessories out of road kill, and we love this feature on her finding her "materials." Of course, the animal rights terrorists activists are still kicking up a fuss, so let's talk about them for a moment.
Are They Terrorists? Hell Yes!
Many of us are following the case of Kevin Johnson and Tyler Lang, two animal rights activists who have served prison terms for releasing mink and foxes from fur farms in the US. They are facing federal charges (under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act) that may result in a further 10 years in prison.
People are debating whether they deserve to be branded as terrorists. We think you all know our feelings on the subject: you terrorize people and their farms, you are a terrorist. Read some articles on the story here and here.
And since we are on the (fun) topic of animal rights activists being charged with felonies, we also suggest reading this article in the New York Times about a woman who stole two ducks from a farm which produces foie gras.
We do loathe giving the activists so many column inches, but we'll end it with this fantastic video aired during the Superbowl. Made by the good people at the Center for Consumer Freedom and PeTA Kills Animals, it was inspired by the horrific kill rates at PeTA's "shelters." Warning: this is a bit of a tear-jerker.
"Fur: An Issue of Life and Death"
February saw the end of a fantastic exhibition on the fur industry, its issues, and its history. Entitled "Fur: An Issue of Life and Death", this show at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen was a fascinating trip into the history of the use of fur, from ancient to modern times.
Featuring a massive collection of high-fashion items, the show certainly demonstrated the innovative designs that can be made from fur. There was a "guess your fur" activity (which demonstrated how fake fur can be good quality, as it was hard to identify which one was not real). Also highlighted were the fur and skin costumes dating from 1850 to 1950 from Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Siberia and the Sami areas of Scandinavia. The seal stomach raincoats were very interesting to see.
"Fur: An Issue of Life and Death", National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen
And while we are on the topic of seals, the seal hunt continues to make headlines, starting with some negative comments Canadian hockey commentator Don Cherry made about eating seal meat (he should just phoque off).
Seal poutine also made the news, and let's give a round of applause to Conservative MP Greg Kerr who passed bill C-555, which will double the size of the legal buffer that prevents observers from coming near the seal hunt.
Positive Ending
Let's end on an assortment of positive notes.
- We loved that Kid Rock wore an otter coat in order to spite his activist ex-girlfriend Pamela Anderson;
- This is a great little film about one of the US's largest mink farms (pictured below);
- And here is some interesting fur history: an article about 1920's beaver farming.
That's it for now. Spring is only three weeks away so enjoy these last days of winter with your minks, foxes, coyotes, lynx, beavers, and chinchillas, just as long as they aren't fake!
Zimbal Mink Farm: A Wisconsin Family Affair


text:
Equality Under the Law
Freedom of Speech and Association
Gunnison Sage-Grouse Endangered Species Act Litigation
Drawing a line on federal power under the Endangered Species Act
Colorado and two if its counties challenged the listing of the Gunnison sage-grouse as "threatened" for lack of evidence, and challenged the designation of critical habitat as overbroad. For years, the affected states, counties, and landowners partnered to conserve the species while maintaining economic viability but the federal governm ...
Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy & Reliability, et al. v. U.S. Department of Interior, et al.
Flocks of California gnatcatchers need no federal protection
The federal government has expanded its reach using the Endangered Species Act to cover spurious "subspecies." The ESA does not define "subspecies" and the Fish and Wildlife Service has offered no definition of its own. Instead, it simply announces when it has determined a "subspecies" to exist and, relying on th ...
California Sea Urchin Commission v. Combs
Separation of powers at stake in battle over agency otter rule
When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked Congress for permission in the 1980s to introduce sea otters into Southern California waters, Congress agreed but required protections for lawful fishing activity. In 2012, the Service declared that they would no longer honor the fishing industry protections. On behalf of sea urchin and abalone divers, ...
Brott v. United States
Jury trial sought in rails-to-trails regulatory takings case
Kevin Brott owns land in Muskegon, Michigan. In 1886, a railroad obtained a right-of-way easement across his land. When the railroad ceased operation, the easement terminated and full ownership of the land returned to the owner. The federal government, however, invoking the National Trails System Act and related regulations, nullified Brott's ...
WildEarth Guardians v. Department of Justice
Unintentional, accidental "take" of species should not be a crime
A radical environmental group challenged the government's interpretation of the Endangered Species Act. Because the ESA's criminal penalties apply only you "knowingly" take a protected species, the government reasonably interprets this to mean that you must know that your actions will cause take and the identity of the speci ...
State of Wyoming v. Zinke
Bureau of Land Management threatens to end fracking boom
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) purports to regulate all "hydraulic fracturing" – fracking – on federal lands based on the potential impacts of fracking to underground drinking water sources, despite the fact that Congress's Energy Policy Act lets states, not federal agencies, decide how best to regulate fracking's p ...
Epic Systems, Inc. v. Lewis
Victory! Supreme Court rules for freedom of contract
Under its terms of employment, Epic Systems, Inc. required that employees agree to handle any workplace dispute individually. This meant waiving any future class-action or collective arbitration—a freedom of contract protected by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). Lower courts disagreed, saying the company's one-on-one arbitration agreement ...
Cascadia Wildlands v. Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife
Oregon properly withdrew special protected status for thriving wolf packs
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission removed the Canadian timber wolf subspecies of gray wolf from the state's endangered species list in late 2015. Three environmentalist groups opposed this decision and sued to invalidate the delisting. On behalf of the Oregon Cattlemen's Association a ...
National Restaurant Association v. Department of Labor
The outer reaches of a statute are bookends, not blank pages
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) restricts the tipping practices of companies that use tips as a supplement to reach their federal minimum wage obligations—the so-called tip credit. The FLSA forbids companies from requiring tip-earning employees—such as waiters—to share tip money with untipped staff—such as line coo ...


Shapes include Butterfly, Ladybugs, round, square, rondell, disc, rectangle, flowers, leaves, cube, teardrops, nuggets and probably more not listed, all in different sizes and shapes. Glass includes transparent, matte, ab and some hurricane.
Prices are 40 grams per pack.
Flowers, Leaves, Teardrops, Rondells, Fluted, Butterfly, Round, Square, MORE!
Shades of Pink. Some made from hurricane glass.
Shades of Green. Some made from hurricane glass.


Ten inmates of the Nsawam Maximum Security Prison and the Kumasi Central Prison are to commence their tertiary education after they wrote and passed the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in November/December 2011.
Four of the inmates: two males and two females from the Kumasi Central Prison passed with distinction and qualified for admission to any university in Ghana, while six others have qualified for the polytechnics and the colleges of education.
However, because they cannot attend regular school due to their status as prisoners, the Prisons Service is collaborating with the Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling (CNDLOS), the Commonwealth of Learning and some universities in Ghana to roll out a distance learning programme that will lead to the award of diplomas and degrees in some of the country's prisons.
The Officer in charge of Inmates Education at the Prisons Headquarters in Accra, Superintendent Afari Mintah, throwing light on the achievements of the 10 inmates, said they had been beneficiaries of the President's Special Initiative on Distance Learning (PSIDL) which was introduced in some prisons in 2008.
He said prior to 2008, education at the prisons had been informal, with special emphasis on religion as a 'tool' to reform them, but the PSIDL (now CNDLOS) afforded the prisons Service an opportunity to kick-start formal education.
"We started with skills acquisition such as catering, hairdressing, carpentry, block-laying and basketry before we introduced junior high school (JHS) education," Supt Mintah said.
The JHS education, he said, began on a pilot basis with 60 inmates from the Nsawam Medium Security, the Kumasi Central prisons and the Ankaful Main Camp, before it was extended to the Tamale Central and the Wa Central prisons.
He added that the educational backgrounds of inmates were evaluated before they were put in the appropriate classrooms.
The inmates, he explained, were taught voluntarily by prison officers and other inmates who had the requisite knowledge in the various subjects.
"Some of the inmates have first degrees, while others have master's degrees, so they help to teach the classes," he said.
According to Supt Mintah, "in 2010, the Prisons Service registered 35 adult prisoners and 20 juveniles from the Senior Correctional Facility for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and they all passed with aggregates between 11 and 24; some of them even gained admission to conventional senior high schools,".


Agar MR, et al. "Efficacy of Oral Risperidone, Haloperidol, or Placebo for Symptoms of Delirium Among Patients in Palliative Care: A Randomized Clinical Trial". JAMA Internal Medicine. 2017. 177(1):34-42.
In patients with acute delirium, is the use of antipsychotics safe and effective in improving symptoms?
In patients with acute delirium, the use of antipsychotic drugs is associated with greater incidence of symptoms and increased severity of delirium as compared to placebo.
Treatment of delirium throughout the study included nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic measures with the goal of therapy being to reduce distress, maintain safety, and resolve delirium is possible. Despite limited supporting data, antipsychotic drugs are often used in inpatient settings to treat symptoms of delirium. There is no approved medication for symptomatic treatment of delirium, but clinical guidelines do recommend the use of antipsychotics in cases of severe distress of behavioral disturbance.
This study, published in January 2017, was a multi-site, double-blind, parallel- arm, dose-titrated, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial. The trial was completed in conjunction with nursing staff at palliative care centers associated with the study. Patients included in the study were adults receiving hospice or palliative care with an advanced progressive disease that was no longer curable and required inpatient care by a specialist team.
The study concluded that antipsychotic drugs are not effective for the treatment of delirium. Management of symptomatic delirium should include screening techniques and support interventions. A recent meta-analysis similarly concluded that antipsychotics are ineffective at reducing severity or duration of delirium.
Clinical guidelines recommend antipsychotic drugs to be reserved for severe distress or behavioral disturbance, when other strategies have been ineffective or are inappropriate, with consideration of patient safety.
Primary outcome: average of the last two delirium symptom scores on day 3, using the baseline score (average of the eligibility delirium symptom score and the score before the first dose of the study drug) as a covariate.
Presence of the target symptoms of delirium associated with distress, defined as a delirium symptoms score of 1 or more on the **Nursing Delirium Screening Scale [NuDESC] [severity range, 0-6]).
Participants 65 years or younger received a 0.5 mg loading dose administered with the first dose of 0.5 mg, then 0.5 mg maintenance dose every 12 hours. Doses could be titrated by 0.25 mg on day 1 and by 0.5 mg thereafter to a maximum dose of 4 mg/d.
For participants older than 65 years, the loading, initial, and maximum doses were halved. The placebo solution was titrated similarly using matching volumes of solution for each dose level.
Study treatment duration was 72 hours. Participants were observed daily, with NuDESC (nursing delirium screening scale) scores measured every 8 hours. The last assessment performed 12 hours after the sixth dose.
Comparisons are intensive therapy vs. standard therapy.
Survival rate differences were not significant for placebo vs risperidone (HR, 1.29; 95% CI, 0.91-1.84; p= .14).
Did not include multiple comparisons between other drugs. The study only compared placebo vs. risperidone and placebo vs haloperidol.
Doses used in study may have underestimated the adverse consequences of using antipsychotic drugs to treat delirium in routine practice.
The study was funded by the Australian Government's Department of Health under the National Palliative Care Program, with individual site funding provided by grant NHMRC 480476 from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. Both funding sources had no role in design and conduct of the study.
This page was last modified on 14 January 2019, at 19:32.


As the quote above indicates, and as I believe the finale embodied, there are no do-overs: what happened, happened, which is why you're reading a short meandering consideration rather than a definitive statement. "The End" lacks any definitive statements: we learn nothing about what the island really is, we get no new information about the Dharma Initiative or any of the people involved, and the episode leans towards spiritual conclusiveness rather than any resolution of the series narrative. Lost doesn't try to end in a way which closes off its plot holes or pieces together its own meandering qualities, but rather creates an episode that says the journey was worthwhile, that the time these characters spent with each other and the time we spent with these characters was all worth it.
And for all of the questions that we may still have – and trust me, I think all of us still have questions – I firmly believe that the quality of this series finale and the overall quality of the series simply cannot be among them. Beautiful and heartwrenching, "The End" captures more than any other series finale I've watched the sum total of the series' experience, awakening in viewers the same power of recall which pulls together half of the series' narrative.
Ah yes, that eternal question: a week after finally getting something close to answers about the Sideways universe and what it means for the series, "Everybody Loves Hugo" appears at first to be the start of another waiting period. The Man in Black is right when he says the above, of course: there is a difference between the show sitting around wasting time and the show waiting for the right moment to introduce something that will truly change the direction of the series.
I'd argue that "Happily Ever After" gave us the momentum required to (hopefully) negotiate the difference between these two approaches. While early episodes lacked the context necessary for us to view the flash sideways as something that was building to something larger as opposed to just the show twiddling its thumbs to toy with our minds, the new details about how the Flash Sideways work means that there is now a function to the "waiting," making it seem more purposeful and goal-oriented.
It's one of the things which makes "Everybody Loves Hugo" a particularly intriguing episode; after creating the expectation that it would be a quiet episode of waiting and wishy-washy motivations, various characters get tired of waiting and take things into their own hands, creating some rather explosive moments that punctuate a philosophically intriguing hour.
And that certainly doesn't qualify as "doing nothing," even if we're still waiting for the big answers.
There are only so many ways that we can talk about the "Flash Sideways" structure of Lost's sixth season before we discover its deeper meaning, only so many ways that we can pass judgment while technically reserving judgment.
However, I will contend that those who suggest that the structure is meaningless without a sense of the big picture are overstating things: yes, episodes like "Recon" might become more interesting with a rewatch once the pieces start to come together, but the structure is capable of being interesting in its own right. Like the original flashbacks, the segments are more dependent on individual characters than the show has been in a long time, and so we love episodes featuring Locke and Ben while we become frustrated with episodes featuring Kate and whatever other character we don't tend to like very much.
I'll be curious to see how people respond to "Recon," a Sawyer episode that threatens to rewrite the character's fairly popular transformation during the "LaFleur" story last year. Part of what made Kate's flash so problematic was that it felt regressive: it's one thing to hearken back to an earlier structure that focuses more on these characters, but it's another to show them more or less exactly as we'd seen them before. Some even argued that Sayid's flash had the same problem, in that it didn't show us anything new, or really change our perception of the character.
Personally, I think that we can take a lack of change as a fairly substantial clue to the deeper meanings at play here, but what makes "Recon" work is that the changes we've witnessed on the island feel as if they have heavily influenced the James Ford we meet in the flash sideways. The changes between this Sawyer and the one we saw in the first season are not dissimilar from the changes between the Sawyer who crashed on Oceanic Flight 815 and the Sawyer who was known as Lafleur, and it's the sort of change that says more through simple character drama than any plot-based exposition could ever accomplish. The scenes are as much a reminder as they are a reveal, and while that might not currently seem fitting for a final season I think it's all going to work out in the long run (or the long con, if you prefer).
Every good season finale should do two things: it should place into context the actions of the previous episodes, and it should in some way hint or infer what might happen in the future. Of course, there is no exact science on how to do these things: there doesn't need to be a distinct cliffhanger in order to excite viewers about what might take place in future episodes, and at the same time there doesn't need to be a tidy conclusion to the action of the season for it to feel as if it has all come together.
One day out from "The Incident," Lost's fifth season finale, what I find most interesting is how the events of the episode manage to tie up absolutely nothing, end things on a cliffhanger with almost no evidence upon which to base hypotheses (which I'll get to in Part Two over the weekend), and yet forced viewers to rewrite their opinions of the entire season thus far whether in regards to character motivations, theories of time travel, or even something as simple as the allegiance of an entire faction.
While the show has often used flashbacks and flashforwards as a way to alter the very fabric of the show, for the most part that was either illuminating a new plot point (people leaving the island), an individual character, or a macro-level showrunning decision that's impact within the narrative itself was fairly limited. In this instance, what the show delivered was the installation of an idea so gut-bustingly radical that it does all of these things, introducing new plot elements and giving new depth to characters and their allegiances, while taking the usual show-running involvement and building it into the show itself.
In some ways, the two characters that we meet at the beginning of "The Incident" are the showrunners within the show, those who are there to pull some strings, to set into action events, and to watch as they unfold. However, there are obvious limitations to their abilities, and two very different philosophies behind them. Their identities, and the potential influences that inspired them, are the most important factor heading into the show's sixth and final season, and the one that I'm going to try to wrap my head around here.
Because, in my view, the past, present and future of this island, these people, and this series all depend on them…or, more accurately, on their action or inaction. And so, in today's first of two posts trying to figure out just what the finale's events mean for the seasons that have come before and the show's final season, let's take a gander at the biggest revelation at all: the existence of two men who (arguably) rule them all.


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Jarogo Waterfall also known as Jarogo Banda Waterfall is a waterfall located in Matta Tehsil in Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the Province of Pakistan. It is also known as the highest waterfall of Pakistan. It is about  from Matta Tehsil and  from Mingora.

Etymology
The word Jarogo means broom in Pashto but its history goes back to the ancient times of the Hindu Shahi period in Swat. There was a Hindu woman named Jarogai, who was widely known and esteemed in the surrounding areas, so the people named it after her.

See also
Shingrai Waterfall
Swat Valley
List of waterfalls of Pakistan

References

Waterfalls of Pakistan
Tourist attractions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Tourist attractions in Swat
Swat District

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Forums > General Chat > Off Topic >
R.I.P. -- The Obit Thread
Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by westwingnut, Aug 10, 2015.
Page 40 of 40 < Prev 1 ← 35 36 37 38 39 → 40
southernlady Well-Known Member
Sharpie61 said: ↑
Anne Rice has passed away. R.I.P.
https://variety.com/2021/film/global/anne-rice-interview-with-the-vampire-writer-dead-1235131503/
The Witching Hour remains one of my favorite books.
RIP Anne
#781 southernlady, Dec 13, 2021
Morgotha Well-Known Member
Oh, that's sad. I enjoyed her books when I was younger, she wrote about the most verbose vampires the world has ever seen, LOL. RIP.
#782 Morgotha, Dec 13, 2021
purriwinkle Well-Known Member
It is sad. I remember reading Interview With the Vampire. I didn't continue reading more of her books due to all the vampire angst but perhaps I should give some of her other books another try. She certainly was a talented writer, RIP.
#783 purriwinkle, Dec 13, 2021
Sharpie61 Well-Known Member
John Madden and Harry Reid
#784 Sharpie61, Dec 28, 2021
NOOOOOOOO!!!!!
R.I.P. Betty
https://people.com/tv/betty-white-the-golden-girls-and-hot-in-cleveland-star-dead-at-99/
IKR? I thought for sure she would make it to 100. I'm heartbroken. She was a gem. RIP Betty.
DeadZedHead Well-Known Member
purriwinkle said: ↑
I thought she was going to outlast sliced bread.
#787 DeadZedHead, Jan 1, 2022
Actor Sidney Poitier has died at age 94.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/entertainment/sidney-poitier-death/
I can remember a number of great films he starred in. I think one of my favorites was In the Heat of the Night although as a kid, To Sir With Love was all we could talk about in school. RIP Mr. Poitier.
#788 purriwinkle, Jan 7, 2022
For some reason I really liked The Lilies of the Field.
#789 Sharpie61, Jan 7, 2022
Funny x 1
DeadZedHead said: ↑
Classic! This one had me laughing out loud too…
R.I.P. Bob Saget
https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrit...ated/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab
#793 Sharpie61, Jan 10, 2022
Another actor we lost over the weekend was Dwayne Hickman who died of complications from Parkinson's disease at age 87.
I used to watch him in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and have always liked watching him and the rest of the cast in Cat Ballou.
RIP Mr. Hickman.
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/dw...-many-loves-of-dobie-gillis-actor-1235149782/
#794 purriwinkle, Jan 10, 2022
R.I.P. Ronnie Spector
#795 Sharpie61, Jan 12, 2022 at 6:13 PM


We wanted to create a day that inspired brides to have a pre-wedding photo session for just themselves: getting ready + celebratory portraits. A day to celebrate and honor all that you are as an individual woman — a woman about to adventure into one of the most beautiful unions of life: marriage. A personal, vulnerable day where a bride-to-be gets to choose how she wants to depict herself to the world.
Her "getting ready" time includes sipping some tea from bed & hanging in her all-white room while getting her hair and makeup done. It's so important to incorporate down-time for yourself, not only on your wedding day, but on a day to day basis! To really enjoy getting to spend quality time with your own self - and when bright, big-windowed rooms are added, it becomes the best photographing place to do it. Incorporating a bride-only session into your schedule before your big day allows for the bride to get showered with fun, celebratory moments where she can express herself in so many ways, including style-wise: choosing a whole different outfit that she loves besides her future wedding look! For the bridal portraits, we created a contemporary fairytale. A gorgeous tulle skirt paired with a soft white tee gives the look just the right modern + whimsically timeless taste. This look goes to show you that you can truly get creative with your style before your big day.


text:
Kirk is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
Arts
Kirk Covington, American musician

 Kirk Docker, co-creator of Australian TV series You Can't Ask That
Kirk Franklin (1970– ), American gospel musician
Kirk Hammett (1962– ), American musician, lead guitarist of Metallica
Kirk Jarvinen (1967–), American artist
Kirk Joseph (1961–), American musician
Kirk Kelly (c. 1960–), American singer
Kirk Lightsey (1937–), American pianist
Kirk Mitchell (1950–), American author
Kirk Pengilly (1958– ), Australian musician
Kirk Powers (1957– ), American musician
Kirk Whalum (1958– ), American saxophonist
Kirk Windstein (1965– ), American musician

Athletics
Kirk Baptiste (1963– ), American Olympics athlete
Kirk Barton (1984– ), American football player
Kirk Baumgartner (1967– ), American football player
Kirk Bowman (1952– ), Canadian ice hockey player
Kirk Broadfoot (1984– ), Scottish footballer
Kirk Bullinger (1969– ), American baseball player
Kirk Chambers (1979– ), American football player
Kirk Cousins (1988– ), American football player
Kirk Dixon (1984– ), English rugby player
Kirk Dressendorfer (1969– ), American baseball player
Kirk Earlywine (1964– ), American basketball coach
Kirk Edwards (1984– ), Barbadian cricketer
Kirk Ferentz (1955– ), American football coach
Kirk Furey (1976– ), Canadian ice hockey player
Kirk Gibson (1957– ), American baseball player
Kirk Hanefeld (1956– ), American golfer
Kirk Haston (1979– ), American basketball player
Kirk Herbstreit (1969– ), American sportscaster
Kirk Hilton (1981– ), English footballer
Kirk Hinrich (1981– ), American basketball player
Kirk Hudson (1986– ), English footballer
Kirk Hunter (1963– ), Northern Irish footballer
Kirk Jackson (1976– ), English footballer
Kirk Johnson (1972– ), Canadian boxer
Kirk Lowdermilk (1963– ), American football player
Kirk Maltby (1972– ), Canadian ice hockey player
Kirk McCarthy (1966–2004), Australian motorcycle racer
Kirk McCaskill (1961– ), Canadian baseball player
Kirk McLean (1966– ), Canadian ice hockey player
Kirk Merritt (born 1997), American football player
Kirk Morrison (1972– ), American football player
Kirk Morrison (poker player), American poker player
Kirk Muller (1966– ), Canadian ice hockey player
Kirk Netherton (1985– ), English rugby player
Kirk Nielsen (1973– ), American ice hockey player
Kirk O'Bee (1977– ), American cyclist
Kirk Olivadotti (1974– ), American football coach
Kirk Palmer (1986– ), Australian Olympics swimmer
Kirk Penney (1980– ), New Zealand basketball player
Kirk Powell (1972– ), Jamaican cricketer
Kirk Radomski (1969– ), American figure in the baseball steroids scandal
Kirk Reynoldson (1979– ), Australian rugby player
Kirk Rueter (1970– ), American baseball player
Kirk Saarloos (1979– ), American baseball player
Kirk Scrafford (1967– ), American football player
Kirk Shelmerdine (1958– ), American race car driver
Kirk Yeaman (1983– ), English rugby player

Entertainment
Kirk Acevedo (1974– ), American actor
Kirk Alyn (1910–1999), American actor
Kirk Baily (1963–2022), American actor
Kirk Baltz (1959– ), American actor
Kirk Baxter (1972– ), Australian film editor
Kirk Brandon (1956– ), English musician
Kirk Browning (1921–2008), American television executive
Kirk Cameron (1970– ), American actor
Kirk DeMicco (1969– ), American screenwriter
Kirk Degiorgio, British DJ
Kirk Demorest, American filmmaker
Kirk Douglas (1916–2020), American actor
Kirk Fogg (1959– ), American actor
Kirk Francis (1947– ), American film sound mixer
Kirk Harris, American actor
Kirk Thornton (1956– ), American voice actor
Kirk B. R. Woller (1962– ), American actor

Finance
Kirk Boott (1791–1837), American industrialist
Kirk Kerkorian (1917–2015), American businessman

Law
Kirk Anderson (judge) (fl. 2000s), Jamaican judge
Kirk Bloodsworth (1960– ), American advocate for justice reform
Kirk Cashmere (1955–2004), American lawyer

Military
Kirk Lippold, American naval officer

Politics
Kirk Cox (1957– ), American politician
Kirk Dawes (1958– ), British mediator
Kirk Fordham (1967– ), American Congressional aide
Kirk Fordice (1934–2004), American politician, governor of Mississippi
Kirk Humphreys (1950– ), American politician
Kirk MacDonald, Canadian politician
Kirk Schuring (1952– ), American politician
Kirk Talbot (1969– ), Louisiana politician

Science
Kirk Bryan (geologist) (1888–1950), American geologist
Kirk Bryan (oceanographer) (1929– ), American oceanographer

Others
Kirk Hyslop (1889–?), Canadian architect
Kirk Lankford (1985– ), American murderer
Kirk Martinez, English academic
Kirk Schulz, president of Kansas State University
Kirk White, Pagan lecturer and author

Fictional characters
Kirk Anderson (As the World Turns), fictional character on the soap opera As the World TurnsKirk Cranston (Santa Barbara), fictional character on the soap opera Santa BarbaraKirk Gleason, a character from the hit WB show Gilmore GirlsKirk Lazarus, fictional character from Tropic ThunderKirk Sutherland, fictional character in British TV series Coronation StreetKirk Van Houten, fictional character from The Simpsons''

As a middle name
Michael Kirk Douglas (born 1944), American actor
Marshall Kirk McKusick (born 1954), (computer scientist)

See also
Kirk
Kirk (disambiguation)
Kirk (surname)
Kirk as a placename element

Scottish masculine given names
English masculine given names


Former FBI Agent R. Lindley DeVecchio fed a mobster-turned-informant confidential information that was used "to devastating effect" to help former Colombo crime family capo Gregory Scarpa kill four people.
He is now free on $1 million bail. He has denied having a decade-long, illicit alliance with Scarpa. His supporters include a cadre of former agents who put up the money to cover DeVecchio's legal bills.
However, in recently unsealed court papers, prosecutors renewed a litany of sensational charges the judge will hear at the trial. Among the key witnesses is Scarpa's longtime mistress, Linda Schiro, who only recently agreed to come clean after authorities offered police protection. Linda Schiro was the love of Greg Scarpa's life and she knows all of Greg Scarpa's secrets.
Authorities say FBI agent DeVecchio began cultivating Scarpa as an informant in 1980. Scarpa already had a colourful history with the FBI.
Most don't know but Scarpa and his crew helped the FBI solve the 1964 murders of three civil-rights workers in Mississippi by strong-arming a Ku Klux Klan member.
As years passed and the internal struggle for control of the Colombos intensified, prosecutors claim the ethical boundaries of the mole and his FBI handler began to blur during their weekly meetings -- and the bodies began to pile up.
An indictment alleges that in 1984, after receiving a tip from DeVecchio that another mobster's ex-girlfriend might be an informant, Scarpa shot and killed her at Wimpy Boys Social Club. Three years later, Scarpa had his son whack a rival based on another tip from FBI agent DeVecchio that the victim was stealing money.
In 1990, the FBI agent told Scarpa that an accomplice in a shooting was about to rat on the mobster's son. The 18-year-old victim was found the next day on a street corner with a bullet in his head. Authorities say another rival mobster was gunned down in 1992 after DeVecchio provided tips about his daily routines- confidential information honed from FBI surveillance.
More recently, prosecutors leveled fresh accusations that DeVecchio provided security for a crew of bandits during a bank burglary. Oh, DeVecchio.
"The 9/11 Commission Report, published in July 2004 and later nominated for a National Book Award, concluded that the original World Trade Center bombing cell was made up of a "loosely based group of Sunni Islamists"; further, that the 9/11 plot had originated not with Ramzi Yousef in Manila in 1994, as I had demonstrated, but with Yousef's uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who—according to Snell's account—merely pitched the planes-as-missiles operation to Osama bin Laden in 1996. The evidence I'd obtained from the Philippines National Police demonstrated that the Yousef-KSM Manila cell was funded directly by bin Laden via his brother-in-law, but the Commission, with the backing of Snell and other ex-Feds, concluded that KSM wasn't even a member of al Qaeda in 1996.
By mid-2004 I was getting closer to the truth. The 1996 FBI 302 memos I'd tried to share with the commission showed that the Bureau, and prosecutors from the Justice Department, had affirmatively covered up evidence of an active al Qaeda cell in New York City. The same intelligence revealed the existence of a bin Laden-sponsored plot to hijack U.S. airliners, designed to pressure the U.S. to free the blind Sheikh and Ramzi Yousef, who was locked up in the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Lower Manhattan. Similar threat reporting would show up in Presidential Daily Briefings in 1998 and 2001—a fact that later made headlines—but my findings revealed that the FBI had buried identical intelligence years before.
Why would America's most elite law enforcement and investigative agencies suppress such critical intel?
Their motive could be traced to a most surprising quarter: organized crime. As a phone book-sized file of documentary evidence from prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York reveals FBI investigators and federal prosecutors were desperate to avoid a scandal over an alleged corrupt relationship between R. Lindley DeVecchio, a senior supervisory special agent in the Bureau's New York Office, (NYO) and a notorious hit man named Gregory Scarpa Sr., whose two-year war of succession in the Colombo crime family had left twelve people dead, including two innocent bystanders.
Through a bizarre turn of events, the Yousef evidence came from the killer's son, Greg Scarpa Jr., a junior wiseguy who happened to inhabit a jail cell adjacent to Yousef's at the MCC. But rather than risk losing a series of sixty Mafia cases in the Eastern District built on tainted evidence from Scarpa Sr., the Feds decided to bury the intel.
One of the lead prosecutors who disconnected those dots, I learned, was Patrick Fitzgerald, then the head of Organized Crime and Terrorism in New York's Southern District. Considered the Justice Department's leading authority on bin Laden, Fitzgerald would go on to become U.S. Attorney in Chicago, and special prosecutor in he ongoing investigation of media leaks regarding former CIA operative Valerie Plame, which ultimately cleared White House aide Karl Rove, while indicting Lewis "Scooter" Libby, top aide to Vice President Cheney.
Much of this tangled tale was laid out in great detail in my second investigative book Cover Up, published in September of 2004. It documented an ends/means decision by senior FBI and Justice Department officials to suppress the DeVecchio scandal, preserve those mob cases, and brand the Yousef-Scarpa Jr. intelligence a "hoax" and a "scam." Until the cover up, that intelligence—chronicled in dozens of FBI 302's and notes from Yousef—was considered so important to the Feds that they gave Scarpa Jr. a camera to photograph it and even set up a phony Mafia front company, the "Roma Corporation," allowing them to monitor Yousef's outside calls.
By the fall of 1996, the Bureau's internal affairs probe on DeVecchio was closed and Yousef was convicted along with Murad and a third conspirator. Dietrich Snell and Mike Garcia, the current U.S. Attorney for the SDNY, had won a decisive victory and the Feds soon began to believe that they were winning the war against al Qaeda. But the burial of that evidence, which prevented other U.S. intelligence agencies from appreciating al Qaeda's true breadth and depth, would have shocking repercussions.
As I looked back on the Justice Department's counter-terrorism track record, I concluded that many of the dots left unconnected by the FBI and DOJ on the road to 9/11 appeared to have been the result of an intentional obscuring of the evidence.
Continuing to work sources and examine the reams of documentary evidence generated in the SDNY al Qaeda cases, I came to the conclusion that the FBI's failure to prevent the African embassy bombings in 1998, the deadly assault on U.S.S. Cole in 2000, and the 9/11 attacks themselves, went beyond gross negligence. It seemed as if a number of FBI officials and federal prosecutors at the heart of the bin Laden hunt realized that they had been outgunned for years. So they had acted affirmatively to partition the intelligence.
I believe that their motive was to sanitize the record and thus prevent the public from understanding the full depth of the FBI/DOJ missteps in the years leading up to September 11. So "walls" were intentionally built, and key intelligence was withheld from other agencies, including the CIA and DIA. In any other government enterprise, the consequences might have been more benign. but in the realm of national security that compartmentalization of intelligence proved fatal.
By the third anniversary of 9/11, the Scarpa-Yousef evidence had been published in Cover Up. Sixteen months later, DeVecchio would finally be arraigned on murder charges stemming, in part, from that investigation. But many unanswered questions remained. I wanted to know the names of the men and women in the shadows at Justice who had suppressed the evidence and hidden the truth behind al Qaeda all those years. I also wanted to learn why the Bush 43 Administration would act to obstruct an investigation into the destruction of the Able Danger intel, a scandal that took place during the Clinton years?
It took me months of further digging before the depth of the government's deception started to become clear."


Arrival at Rome Fiumicino Airport. Meeting with a tour leader and transfer by private bus to the reserved hotel in Rome. Accommodation in the reserved rooms. Day at leisure. Dinner in a restaurant. Overnight.
Breakfast in the hotel. Lunch and Dinner in a reserved Restaurant. Days at leisure.
Almost three thousand years of history have made the artistic and architectural patrimony of Rome so rich that the tourist feels overwhelmed. Starting from the Roman monuments, famous worldwide, like the Coliseum or the Roman Forum, through the medieval masterpieces, up to the Baroque magnificent churches and palaces… it has been estimated that 50% of the world art heritage is located in Rome. You will have the opportunity to visit this magnificent city and to feel the flavor of "la dolce vita" along its streets and squares. Overnight in Rome.
Check out at the roman hotel and transfer by private bus to Rimini.
Arrival in Rimini and check in at the reserved Hotel. Day at leisure. Dinner in the hotel. Overnight in Rimini.
5th to 9th day Rimini.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner in the hotel.
Days at leisure. Discover the thousand faces of Rimini: sea and beach, history, art and culture, Fellini's places, venues and new trends, sport activities, relax and spa, amusement parks, country-side and castles, local gastronomy, shopping tour and many, many events for all tastes and for all ages. During this stay many visits can be made, having Rimini as a starting point, such as Venice, Florence, the ancient Republic of San Marino, as well as the many fashion shops and outlet stores present in the surroundings. For children these resorts offer a variety of theme parks, ranging from the famous water park Aquafan, to the Dolphin show Oltremare, Italy in Miniature, the fun park Mirabilandia and many others.
If needed, our representative will be available for excursion bookings and/or shopping assistance. All transportation can be actioned by private bus. Overnight in Rimini.
Check out at the hotel and transfer by private bus to Venice.
Arrival in Venice and check in at the reserved Hotel. Day at leisure. Dinner in the hotel. Overnight in Venice.
In the morrning check out and transfer by private boat to Venice International Airport.
3-4 star Hotels situated in a central locattion. All rooms with private facilities either with shower or with bath tub.
Accommodation in rooms with private facilities. Meals taken in the hotel.


It runs and can detect Windows 10 crash dumps perfectly fine. BlueScreenView is going to automatically scan the Windows folder where crash dumps are generated and add them to the crash dump list. You can then easily select them, and the info that�s contained within the crash dumps is going to be shown in the preview window down below.... In the lead up to the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft has revealed that most Windows 10 users will be required to apply system updates via the Windows Update service.
??? Windows 10 Error Dump ?? Fix, Clean, Repair # [ WINDOWS 10 ERROR DUMP ] & Improve Its Performance! SPEED Up Your PC - Free Scan Now! (Recommended).... 2/01/2016�� How do I dump Windows 10 I go to settings, update and security and a list appears on the left but before I can click on recovery, the list disappears. A couple of times it stayed but was non-responsive when I tried to click on recovery.
In the lead up to the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft has revealed that most Windows 10 users will be required to apply system updates via the Windows Update service.