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Tag Archives: trial
Lessons in Fiduciary Duty
Posted on May 25, 2020 October 20, 2021 Author By David W. Merritt, Esquire
In an October 21, 2016, published decision titled In Majorca Isles Master Ass'n, Inc., 560 B.R. 824 (Bankr. S.D. Fla.) ("Majorca Isles"), the United States Bankruptcy Court awarded a Florida Master Association with an incredible $16.3 million judgment against a developer and its appointed trustees, in what the Court described as a "modern day story of David and Goliath." Setting aside the transition aspects of the case, the decision provides an excellent guide for boards and property managers – particularly those involved with master associations – facing issues of poor record keeping and conflicts of interest.
In Majorca Isles, developer D.R. Horton appointed trustees to sit on both a master association (the "Master") and its five subsidiary associations (the "Subsidiaries"). The Master was responsible for shared property and services, including swimming pools, clubhouses, parking areas, landscaping, gate facilities, security guards, and cable television. The various governing documents of the Master and the Subsidiaries condominium associations provided:
Each unit owner was personally obligated to pay assessments to the Master;
The Master was empowered to impose, liens, late charges, and attorney's fees on delinquent unit, and to bring foreclosure and money judgment actions against the individual owners;
The Master was required to maintain complete and accurate records as to assessments paid by each individual owner;
The Master could choose to delegate its assessment collections to the Subsidiaries, in which case the subsidiary associations were to pay the master assessments in full prior to the Subsidiaries' expenses.
Despite these requirements, beginning in March 2006, the Master collected assessments from unit owners without creating any financial records of the assessments. Then, in October 2007, the trustees determined to collect the Master's assessments by "bulk billing" the Subsidiaries. As a result of the bulk billing, the Master continued to create no financial records for individual owners.
As the great recession set in, revenue dropped and nearly half of the Master's unit owners became delinquent. The trustees, sitting on both the Master and Subsidiary boards, decided to cut funding to the Master in favor of the Subsidiaries, removing amenities like security personnel, home alarm monitoring, and cable television. Facing growing delinquencies, the Master sought the assistance of a collections law firm in September 2009. The firm, after reviewing the governing documents, advised the trustees: (1) the Subsidiaries were prohibited from paying their own expenses prior to fully funding the Master; (2) collections were made impossible by the lack of financial records; and (3) owners would likely be able to successfully defend against any collections actions due to the trustee's non-conformance to the governing documents. The trustees wrote off their attorney's advice as "just a legal opinion", and quietly abandoned attempts to recover the unpaid assessments.
Control of the master board turned over to the unit owners in January 2011. Lacking records necessary to collect delinquencies, and unable to pay its expenses, the Master became immediately insolvent and filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, bringing it under the jurisdiction of the Bankruptcy Court and to the attention of Barry Mukamal, a bankruptcy trustee. Mukamal, in what the Court described as an "extraordinary" service to the Master, recreated seven years of assessments records "from scratch," and successfully pursued the developer and its trustees for a $16.3 million judgment.
Importantly, the Court found the individual trustees breached their fiduciary duties to the Master. In doing so, the trustees managed to satisfy almost every major method for undermining the business judgment rule protecting fiduciaries: (1) acting despite a direct conflict of interest; (2) acting contrary to specific terms of the governing documents establishing their authority; and (3) disregarding the specific advice of qualified professionals such as legal counsel. The Court concluded the trustees were personally liable to the Association for over $3.8 million for, among other things:
$750,000 in delinquent assessments made uncollectable by the failure to institute a collection program, the failure to collect from the Subsidiaries, and the disregard of advice from outside counsel;
$200,000 to recreate the Master's financial records due to the failure to create or maintain adequate records; and
$867,066 for unilaterally removing security services and cable television amenities, thereby favoring the Subsidiaries and the developer.
Majorca Isles must be read in the larger context of the trustees' roles as employees of the developer, as among other things, the trustees were therefore not protected by any indemnification clause in the governing documents. While the egregious conduct in the case would likely fall outside of a traditional indemnification clause, it is also likely the Court would have been more sympathetic to elected volunteer trustees. Additionally, the Court's decision, applying Florida statutes and common-law, can only serve as persuasive precedent in New Jersey.
Nevertheless, the decision drives home that trustees and property managers owing a fiduciary duty to a condominium or homeowners association can be sued for failing to create accurate and complete financial records, failing to establish a meaningful collections program, and failing to provide advertised amenities. In particular, trustees and property managers should strongly consider abstaining from decisions where any of the following apply: (1) a direct conflict of interest splits fiduciary duties between a master and subsidiary association, or between an association and some third party; (2) the action, course of conduct, or lack of action contradicts the governing documents; or (3) the decision contradicts the advice of the qualified professionals such as engineers and legal counsel.
Developer Guilty of Consumer Fraud
Posted on May 25, 2020 April 21, 2021 Author By Francis J. McGovern, Jr., Esquire
In Etelson v. Shore Club Urban Renewal LLC, a Hudson County jury found that the developer, the LeFrak Organization, Inc., Newport Associates Development Company and James LeFrak violated the Consumer Fraud Act and Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act ("PREDFA") in their advertising and marketing of a luxury high rise riverfront condominium in Jersey City (Shore Complex, North and South Towers). The jury found that the developer and its marketing materials misled purchasers of condominium units by advertising breathtaking and panoramic views of the water and Manhattan skyline when the developer knew those views would be blocked in the near future.
The jury relied upon several key facts in order to find the Developer liable for consumer fraud. The developer's marketing materials included a painting of the Shore Complex showing a smaller 11- 12 story building to be constructed across the street and northeast, between the Shore Complex and the Hudson River. The developer's sales brochure and website did not show any buildings located between the shore Complex and the Hudson River. There were some drawings that showed a smaller building to be constructed in the future. In addition, to the Developer's marketing materials, the developer's sales staff told potential purchasers that a smaller building (12-15 story) might be constructed on the nearby parcel. All the while the Developer was constructing a larger building that would block the view of the river and the Manhattan skyline.
The unit owners testified that they purchased these units for the views of the river and the Manhattan skyline. The unit owners also testified that they would not have purchased the units if they were informed that a taller building was going to be constructed across the street blocking their views.
The jury awarded the unit owners $1,253,420 in damages representing the reduction in value of their units without the views. Because the jury found that the developer violated the Consumer Fraud Act, the plaintiffs were awarded treble damages, plus their costs and attorneys fees for a total damage award of $4,817,638.12. The developer appealed and the Appellate Division affirmed the jury verdict and found that it was supported by the evidence.
The evidence at trial showed that while actively marketing the Shore Complex, the developer had submitted plans to the City planning board seeking approval for a 31 story rental apartment building tower to be constructed which would block the Shore Complex unit owners' views of the river and the Manhattan skyline. The developer did not change its marketing material and did not disclose this to potential purchasers. Instead the developer continued to market the units by advertising spectacular views knowing that they would not last for long.
The jury found that the developer had misrepresented the views and failed to disclose their plan to develop the taller 31 story tower that would block the views. None of the developer's sales agents told prospective purchasers that a taller building would be constructed between the Shore Complex and the Hudson River. The Developer's sales staff was not told about the plans to construct a 31 story tower. They assured potential purchasers that the building to be constructed in the future would not block views for anyone residing on the 15th floor or higher. Interestingly, the Developer's sales staff testified that if they had known of plans to construct a 31 story tower between the Shore Complex and the river, they would have disclosed this to potential purchasers.
At trial, the developer argued that it did not mislead the purchasers because there were disclaimers on the marketing material and in the Public Offering Statement. The Appellate Court noted that these disclaimers were not dispositive on the issue of misrepresentation and indicated that the developer would still be liable if the jury found that there were misrepresentations or omissions that induced a purchaser to buy a unit.
This case is significant to Associations who are in the process of transition, the transfer of control from the developer to the Association and the identification and resolution of construction defects and financial defects. The court affirmed that a developer can be liable to individuals for consumer fraud in the marketing and advertising of the condominium. The court also noted the significance of marketing materials, advertisements and conversations that were not part of the sales contract or the POS.


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Cell Phone Radiation Facts and the Dangers of Corporate Censorship
TOPICS:CancerCell PhoneCensorshipConsumer RightsRadiation
BY ARJUN AP.
It is no longer a secret or an overlooked rumor that cell phone radiation poses serious health risks to the consumer. Are cell phone companies now educating consumers on radiation levels and health risks or does this information continue to be censored, hidden beneath the hype of evolving technology and novel trends? The public cannot rely on corporations to choose full disclosure and consumer well-being over profits and censorship. Learn the facts on cell phone radiation for yourself.
Cell Phone Radiation Facts and Research
Modulated radio waves, which are used in mobile phone technology, do have a detrimental effect on cells. They are known to drive away calcium ions from cell membranes, thus weakening the membranes and allowing for unwanted leakage. The sharp changes of modulated radio waves occur at radiation levels that are dangerous for humans. This has been known since the mid-1970s thanks to the work of W. Ross Adey and colleagues at the UCLA Laboratory of Environmental Neurobiology.
Based on the action of cell phone radiation at a cellular level, exposure is believed to be linked to electromagnetic hypersensitivity, fertility problems, and an increased risk of cancer. What are the known long-term effects of cell phone use?
According to the Environmental Working Group, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced that ten years of cell phone use can increase the likeliness of developing a malignant brain tumor. Other international researchers found that the increase in risk is as much as 90 percent. The risk of developing a benign brain tumor increases by 60 percent after ten years.
Even more serious is the potential health risk for children who use cell phones. With softer skulls the radiation from cell phones may penetrate to the brain twice as much as is the case with adults. There is also a likely connection with behavioral problems in children and cell phone use.
Have Cell Phone Companies Been Censoring Information?
Have cell phone companies been aware of this information? Did they know that the radiation from their products was dangerous? If so, why has the public not been made aware of these facts?
In many European countries, such as Germany, Switzerland, Finland, and France, government agencies have been recommending action against radiation exposure and have made this information readily available to the consumer. Mobile phone companies in the United States had to have known that there may be health risks from long-term use of modulated radio waves because they have had to test for the SAR (specific absorption rate) for years in order to sell their products. The tests are done by the companies themselves or private companies are hired out to do the testing. The SAR numbers for different cell phones have been listed on the FCC website since 2000. Before that, they were not made available to the public. This figure is found in the instruction manual or on a separate piece of paper found within a newly purchased mobile phone; this is now required by law.
Not only is there a deliberate lack of transparency (SAR ratings are not listed on phones or packaging and there are not clearly-posted warnings about the long-term dangers of cell phone use), but the radiation exposure standards that are used today need to be updated. Permitted levels are too high and they do not take the more vulnerable skull of a child into consideration at all. As long as cell phone companies make sure their products are within this outdated range, regardless of the fact that the radio waves are dangerous, they are not breaking the law and have every legal right to not actively inform the consumer of the potential threat.
The Risk to the Public of Corporate Censorship
Cell phone company employees who make policy decisions are not evil doers who are trying to give people brain tumors. It is also wrong to assume that they are a collective group of people trying to serve the well-being of the masses. They are members of a business entity trying to sell a product to a consumer.
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By not actively disclosing the facts on cell phone radiation and pursuing research to ensure the safety of their products, pertinent information has been censored. Even today with conclusive research on serious long-term threats, cell phone companies are not advertising the dangers.
The biggest threat with this type of corporate censorship is the consumer who assumes that a company would not censor information for the sake of profits. The way to thrive in a society that accepts such practices is to look up the information yourself. Investigate the products that you buy, especially the ones you use on a regular basis. Ask questions, be critical, and do not passively accept commercial advertising as your trusted source of information.
Arjun is an independent researcher, writer, speaker and a consciousness activist. He writes for Activist Post and Natural Blaze.
Image credit: Pixabay (modified)
Arjun is an independent researcher, writer, speaker and consciousness activist
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


When Meena was 24 years old and pregnant with her 2nd child, she was diagnosed with HIV. Her husband knew that he was HIV positive before they were married but he did not disclose his status to her. She was scared and worried but the local government hospital in Hyderabad told her about Nireeshana ACET.
The year 2002 has very poignant memories for Teen, who was then a nine-year old school girl. That was the year her mother died and she came to live at the House of Grace (a partner of ACET Thailand), a home for children infected or affected by HIV.


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import React from 'react';
import classNames from 'classnames';

const MFizzIcon = (props) => {
  const classes = classNames(['icon-' + props.icon, props.className]);

  return (
    <i className={classes} aria-hidden='true' />
  );
};

export default MFizzIcon;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Sumatra Showdown: Why a Former Greenpeace Activist Is Now Backing a Controversial Paper Company
Asia Pulp and Paper has a Greenpeace-fueled reputation of destroying Sumatran rainforest areas. But Patrick Moore, a once-prominent Greenpeace activist, is defending APP's practices. Why?
Asia Pulp and Paper, a subsidiary of Sinar Mas, has a Greenpeace-fueled reputation of destroying Sumatran rainforest areas. APP's reputation is so tarnished that heavyweights like Staples and Office Depot have stopped stocking paper from the company. But Patrick Moore, a formerly prominent Greenpeace activist, is defending APP's practices. Why?
In the 1970s, Moore was an important figure in Greenpeace Canada, where he claims to have served "in the top committee" during his entire 15-year tenure (a Greenpeace fact sheet on Moore admits that he "played a significant role in Greenpeace Canada for several years"). But Moore, who holds a PhD in ecology, tells Fast Company that his fellow directors "began to adopt positions on chemicals, biology, and complicated issues that I could not defend from my scientific background and understanding."
So in 1986, Moore left the organization. He spent some time fish-farming and joined the Forest Alliance of British Columbia (a group started by logging companies). In 2001, he launched the environmental consulting firm Greenspirit Strategies, which works with clients in the nuclear, mining, and forestry industries, among others.
That brings us to the present day, and Moore's defense of APP against attacks from Greenpeace. Last year, Greenpeace released a report entitled "Pulping the Planet", which accuses APP of destroying two important rainforest areas
in Sumatra–Kerumutan, a location covered in "carbon-rich" peatlands, and the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape, a spot filled with orangutans and tigers. The report features photos, complete with GPS coordinates, of species-rich areas that APP has supposedly destroyed.
Moore, a subcontractor hired by APP to investigate its Indonesian operations, denies all of it. The deforestation? APP reforests sustainably logged areas with new fast-growing trees (i.e. eucalyptus trees). "I believe it's reforestation," he says. "Plantation forestry is the opposite of deforestation." In any case, Moore claims, real deforestation is caused by desperate peasants migrating into forests for agricultural production. According to Moore, the best solution to avoiding illegal encroachment is to give peasants job opportunities–much like APP and its pulpwood suppliers are doing.
All those scary pictures outfitted with GPS coordinates? "That's what it looks like right after you cut the trees, rather than a year later when it looks beautiful and green," he says. "These are areas that have been designated for growing and harvesting trees." Moore even wrote a 43-page paper defending his stance.
Greenpeace, of course, is enraged by Moore's claims, as well as his repeated reminders that he used to work for the organization. Greenpeace even has a fact sheet up dispelling many of Moore's claims over the years, including this one:
According to Moore, logging is good for forests causing
reforestation, not deforestation. TRUTH: Webster's Dictionary defines deforestation as "the action
or process of clearing of forests." The argument advanced by forest
industry spin-doctors that clear-cutting "causes reforestation, not
deforestation" is without basis in fact. It is like arguing that
having a heart attack improves your health because of the medical
treatment you receive afterwards.
Moore thinks Greenpeace's attacks are misdirected. "If they want to blame somebody, blame the government," he says. "This is the government of Indonesia's land, given through concession to be used by APP to grow trees to make paper. I don't think there's anything sinister about that."
Who is correct: Moore or Greenpeace? It's hard to say for certain without flying over to Indonesia and checking out APP's lands. But according to SourceWatch, Moore has a history of making controversial environmental statements (Moore on mining: "Since my entry into the global environmental movement in 1971, mining
has contributed significantly to a more sustainable world economy, and
key beneficiaries of this progress are mining workers, families and
communities").
But ultimately, while Moore may have been paid to give an objective evaluation of APP's operations, the fact remains that he was paid by the company. Greenpeace was not.
Ariel Schwartz is a Senior Editor at Co.Exist. She has contributed to SF Weekly, Popular Science, Inhabitat, Greenbiz, NBC Bay Area, GOOD Magazine and more


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About: smoking
Health 22-07-2019
Mitsotakis pledges to finally implement smoking ban in Greece
The newly elected center-right government (New Democracy-EPP) in Greece has vowed to implement a smoking ban in enclosed public places, which has existed since 2008 but never took effect.
Individual action against smoking is not enough, Romanian president says
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis accused the country's socialist government on Tuesday (26 March) of failing to inform citizens about tobacco-related risks and ignoring prevention as a tool against smoking. EURACTIV.com reports from Bucharest.
EU health chief: Next Commission will strengthen tobacco rules
The next European Commission will propose strengthening tobacco regulations, based on a report showing how the Tobacco Product Directive (TPD) works in practice, the EU Commissioner responsible for health, Vytenis Andriukaitis, told EURACTIV.com in an interview.
Public health activists say eradicating tobacco must be a human right
Halting the spread of tobacco "epidemic" worldwide is a human right, which global leaders should recognise as such and take particular measures in this direction, public health activists told EURACTIV.com ahead of an anti-tobacco conference in Bucharest next week.
Greek court says e-cigarettes do not differ from traditional smoking
A top Greek court has decided that electronic cigarettes should have the same legal restrictions as traditional smoking does when it comes to bans in public places and advertising.
Campaigners tell Austria smoking ban is not 'freedom of choice' but a health right
Any visitor from Western Europe who enters a bar or a pizza place in Austria is undoubtedly surprised that smoking on the premises is still tolerated and actively practised.
Commission urges Greece to implement smoking ban in public places
The number of smokers in Greece has decreased the last five years, however, the non-implementation of a smoking ban law in enclosed public places has irritated the population, which calls it "cultural degradation".
Economy & Jobs 04-12-2017
Angry tobacco industry asks Andriukaitis for 'transparent dialogue'
The tobacco industry is fuming at EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis following his statement that manufacturers are "silent" over illicit trade.
Andriukaitis: National health systems need 'fundamental reform'
EU countries could save money and lives by increasing investment in disease prevention and health promotion, the European Commission said on Thursday (23 November), stressing that good health policy requires political will across all sectors.
Commission backs French idea to ban on-screen smoking
The European Commission is supportive of an idea recently raised in France to ban smoking in films in order to make tobacco consumption less glamorous, an EU official told EURACTIV.com.
EU's approach to COPD remains focused on tobacco control
Despite alarming figures, the European Commission does not plan specific targets or a harmonised approach for the prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Instead, it says it will ensure tobacco control policies are properly implemented in the member states.
Life-threatening lung disease: Europe's 'unknown' killer
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lung disease that results in changes in several different parts of the respiratory system and lungs at the same time. But it is far more than just a 'smoker's cough'.
Tobacco makers denounce 'brand theft' from plain packaging
The trend towards imposing plain packaging on tobacco products has made industry executives furious and denounce "Brussels-led overregulation" that effectively leads to "brand theft".
Campaigners push to hitch tobacco control onto sustainable development agenda
Anti-tobacco campaigners from across Europe today (31 May) called on their national governments to use the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals to drive forward tobacco control legislation.
Greek government under fire for not implementing smoking ban law
Anti-smoking campaigners heavily criticised the Greek government for not implementing a 2008 law that prohibits smoking in public places. EURACTIV.com reports from Athens.
E-cigarettes are not 'cool', EU's top health official says
Vytenis Andriukaitis, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said he opposed e-cigarettes being advertised as another 'cool' thing to attract young smokers, reminding they must also carry a health warning.
Eurostat: One quarter of EU citizens are smokers
One in four Spaniards over 15 years old (25.3%) is a tobacco smoker. This is slightly higher than the EU average of 24%, according to Eurostat. EURACTIV Spain reports.
WHO denies members failing to pay UN tobacco agency
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is fuming over an NGO report which claims that members do not pay their contributions to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the UN's tobacco agency.
Greece mulls reimbursement of anti-smoking medicines
In an effort to implement an effective anti-smoking law in enclosed public places, the Greek government is examining whether to start reimbursing the cost of anti-smoking drugs.
Greek smoking ban ineffective
Nearly nine years after it became law, Greece is still struggling to implement a smoking ban in public spaces.
Romanian parliament bans smoking in bars and playgrounds
Romania extended a smoking ban on Tuesday (15 December) to include bars and playgrounds, becoming the latest European Union state to strengthen anti-smoking controls.
Tobacco lobby stubs out total German tobacco ad ban
The ambitious plans of the Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Christian Schmidt, to ban tobacco advertising have been scaled back. Critics have cited pressure from the tobacco industry. EURACTIV's partner Tagesspiegel reports.
Respiratory diseases among the EU's biggest killers
Respiratory conditions linked to industrial and agricultural emissions killed 670,000 EU citizens in 2012. Men were more affected than women. EURACTIV France reports.
Energy & Environment 27-08-2015
UK study recommends e-cigarettes as healthier alternative to smoking
Electronic cigarettes are 95% less harmful than normal cigarettes and could be a useful tool to help people quit smoking, a study published by Public Health England said. EURACTIV France reports.
RSS - smoking


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(Italy, 1991)
There's a movie titled What Did You Do in the War, Daddy" that I like a lot. A group of G.I.s enter a small town in Italy, with instructions to take it. But the villagers are glad to see them. The Germans left town a few days ago, and they are happy to be liberated. It all turns into a drunken festival. It's very funny.
This is sort of like that. A small group of Italian soldiers are dropped off on a small Greek island to act as lookouts for British and American shipping. But things go wrong. The ship is sunk, their radio is broken, and they are forgotten. The villagers are okay with the soldiers being there, and gradually they fit into village life. Years go by. They have no idea what is going on in the outside world. They don't hear the news of Mussolini's death and of Italy becoming part of the Allies. It's a small, gentle movie. For some reason Roger Ebert walked out of a showing, something he seldom does. He must have had a bug up his ass that day, as there is nothing at all wrong with this movie. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film.
Shoeshine (1946)
Monsieur Vincent (1947)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
The Walls of Malapaga (1950)
Rashomon (1951)
Forbidden Games (1952)
Gate of Hell (地獄門 (Jigokumon) (1953)
La Strada (1954)
Musashi Miyamoto (1955)
Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Mon Oncle (1958)
The Virgin Spring (1960)
Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
Sundays and Cybele (1962)
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1963)
The Shop on Main Street (1965)
Closely Watched Trains (1967)
Z (1969)
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971)
Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972)
Black and White in Color (1976)
Madame Rosa (1977)
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978)
Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980)
Mephisto (1981)
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
The Official Story (1985)
Babette's Feast (1987)
Pelle the Conqueror (1988)
Cinema Paradiso (1989)
Mediterraneo (1991)
Indochine (1991)
Belle Époque (1992)
Burnt By the Sun (1994)
Kolya (1996)
Character (1997)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
The Barbarian Invasions (2003)
The Sea Inside (2004)
Tsotsi (2005)
The Lives of Others (2006)
The Counterfeiters (2007)
A Separation (2011)
The Great Beauty (2013)


What does "open" really mean in the context of NFV?
2015 was certainly an interesting year for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). It was the year when it became clear that the early use cases will likely be virtual CPE applications that offer a compelling business case for Return-on-Investment (ROI) and which can be implemented with minimal technology risk. It was the year when the ETSI initiative moved beyond the initial architectural phase into detailed work on specific technical topics. And it was the year when everyone in the NFV community started trumpeting the message of "openness", despite an apparent lack of consensus about what "open" actually means in this context.
As a supplier of a Carrier Grade NFV infrastructure platform based on open-source software, it's important to us at Wind River that we understand exactly what the industry means by the term "open solutions". We also need to know what service providers expect in terms of "openness", since they're the actual consumers of NFV solutions. So we were delighted to have the chance to sponsor a recent survey conducted by Telecom TV, which asked the question "What does 'Open' really mean?" for NFV.
The survey remains open, so there's still time for you to submit your inputs and comments. If you're even remotely involved in NFV, we'd encourage you to do so because the whole objective is to obtain feedback from as wide a community as possible.
In this post, we'll summarize the key results to date and discuss some of their implications for NFV vendors. If the overall trends change significantly as more people respond, we'll publish an updated summary later, reflecting the final set of answers and comments.
First, it's always good to know who we're listening to and in this case the respondents were around 33% Telecom Equipment Manufacturers (TEMs), 33% software vendors, 10% service providers and the rest "other" (probably media and analysts). So a reasonable mix of company types, though we look forward to getting a few more service provider responses.
"All APIs in the platform are openly published".
The survey next asks what other considerations are most important when developing a PoC and when deploying NFV in a commercial network. The results are very similar in each case and by a significant margin the #1 consideration is "Interoperability with solutions from other vendors", with "Carrier Grade availability and reliability" a close second. This was not a surprise to us and it's why we launched the Titanium Cloud ecosystem in 2014 to accelerate NFV deployments and minimize our customers' schedule risk. Through Titanium Cloud, we work closely with our partners at an engineering level to make sure that their products work correctly with Titanium Server, while leveraging the features of Titanium Server to ensure Carrier Grade reliability and maximum performance.
"Technical support from suppliers/component vendors".
project, it's worth considering what will happen once this leads to a stable code base leveraged by multiple vendors to create NFV solutions.
We would expect that at this point OPNFV becomes a de facto standard against which all NFV vendors will have to test their solutions.
Companies providing VNFs, for example, will need to verify the correct operation of those VNFs when running on the basic OPNFV code, just as they also validate them today on the NFVI platforms like Titanium Server that are actually deployed by their customers.
The survey clearly shows that the industry has realistic and pragmatic expectations about the features of pure open-source code. In answer to the question "Do you expect to get all the reliability and availability you need for a commercially deployed NFV solution from pure open source?", so far a resounding two-thirds of respondents answered No.
It's worth noting in this context that neither of the first two OPNFV releases, "Arno" and "Brahmaputra", incorporates any features that contribute to delivering Carrier Grade reliability in the NFVI platform. This is an example of an area where a company like Wind River, with extensive experience in delivering six-nines (99.9999%) infrastructure, adds critical value.
Solutions such as Titanium Server build on community-driven reference code and enhance it with functionality that is an absolute requirement for platforms deployed in live service provider networks, while remaining fully compatible with all the applicable open standards.
The last question that we'll highlight in this post refers to the aspects of NFV that are most impacted by open source solutions. Specifically, it asks "How important is an open solution when considering…" six different criteria. In this case, the clear frontrunners are "Avoidance of vendor lock-in" and "Interoperability", reinforcing the importance of compatibility with both industry standards and de-facto standards that we mentioned earlier.
Also perceived as significant in terms of the answers to this question are "Time to market", "Uptime / availability", "VNF performance" and "Differentiation".
The results of this survey already provide an interesting snapshot of the industry's views on "openness" in NFV.
From the perspective of the service providers who are actually deploying NFV-based services in their networks, the benefits of compatible, interoperable solutions are significant. Seeing proof that the various elements of their end-to-end solution have been pre-validated to work together correctly accelerates their overall deployment time, while also reducing their schedule risk and enabling their program managers to get a little more sleep at night.
At the same time, compliance with open standards compels vendors to develop solutions that are interoperable and replaceable. This is key to avoiding the vendor lock-in that existed in the "bad old days" of physical network infrastructure, which after all was one of the main motivations that drove service providers worldwide to collaborate on NFV in the first place.
Disruptive technology changes like NFV represent a rare opportunity for aggressive service providers to grab market share from their competitors, thereby growing revenues and increasing their profitability. Solutions that are fully compatible with all the relevant open standards allow them to achieve that boost to their business while leveraging open-source solutions and avoiding and risk of vendor lock-in.
Finally, basing your NFV deployment on open-source software doesn't have to mean that you end up with the same performance and reliability as your competitors. Choosing a platform that extends the open-source baseline with compatible, value-added enhancements allows you to differentiate yourself from the pack and grab market share during this exciting industry disruption.


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Zainub Verjee: Will the COVID-19 crisis prod us to truly embrace a Canadian culture that gives agency to artists?
posted on June 4th, 2020 at 12:17 PM
By Zainub Verjee
How should we imagine arts in a post COVID-19 crisis scenario?
While the reportage on the impact of this crisis on arts is predicated on a box office model, the idiom of tourism has established itself as central to the idea of arts, along with its concomitant fact of the "festivalization of culture" as the norm across Canada.
As the chatter of recasting the sector raises its head, the question becomes urgent, and often posed: What shape will the arts take in a post-crisis scenario?
On one hand you have the status quo-ist forces and on the other there are those who want to accelerate the entire neoliberalization of the sector, leaving no agency for the artists and institutions, nor any possibility of advocacy on their behalf. In such an eventuality, that voice will be completely taken over by other kinds of entities, such as those representing real-estate and government-relations interests.
In the clamour, what gets lost is the fact that the arts are not just about an artist or a cultural institution or a work of art; they're a complex ecosystem— a web of processes, policies, institutions, and systems of knowledge. In the current crisis, it implies that in the domain of arts and culture, it is not the economics per se which is at stake but rather the very political economy of arts.
The public-policy context in which art and culture function is not a priority either for the politicians or even for the scores of artists and culture workers, who do not comprehend the politics of culture or the institutions that they engage with. This is complicated by the ambivalent nature of a cultural policy itself, let alone a more nuanced understanding of its differentiation from an arts policy, thus resulting in the poverty of public discourse.
Yet, every generation has their actors who end up fighting the cultural battles, often reinventing the wheel. For some the exasperation stems not only from the feeling of living in a loop reality but through the fact that presents Canadian art as a fait accompli. Invariably, when one zooms out, the questions get posed in all seriousness: what is Canadian art? More precisely, what has become of art and culture in Canada in the past seven-odd decades in the post-war era?
Let's start with the systemic reality.
In 1951, the final report of Canada's Massey Commission (a.k.a. the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences) was released. Better known as the Massey Report, this document provided the armature of what would become a state-defined national culture in Canada and gave birth to the idea of Canadian content. I have written and spoken on it extensively terming it the Great Canadian Amnesia. Premised on 19th-century ideas of nation-state's obligations towards civilization and less for culture, the Massey Report becomes the political document that offers social control, protection, and patronage of arts towards its mandate of producing a "national culture" as part of the nation-building process.
By the '70s, the rumbling against the report had begun. Susan Crean termed it "national identity as a cultural smokescreen" in her book Who's Afraid of Canadian Culture?, calling it "the effort of an elite class of patrons to preserve its own cultural forms by transforming them into Official Culture." Maria Tippett in her book Making Culture: English-Canadian Institutions and the Arts Before the Massey Commission identified the ideological biases in how the elite kept the community artists, folk art, amateur artists, and artists' activism at bay.
In a politically expedient measure, the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism in the 1960s offered the managerial template of multiculturalism to package difference as a recited truth in the context of sameness of the Massey Report. In an act of policy review, the 1982 Applebaum-Hébert Report, firmed up the nexus of national and neoliberal, as Free Trade offered a different logic to the process of establishing the "national culture".
Through the 1980s to the early 2000s, the very locus of cultural policy has been a subject of intense debate as the central concerns of a cultural policy were co-opted by other disciplines such as Culture Studies and Cultural Anthropology in an evolving post-colonial discourse. The focus of the debate was pegged on meanings rather than management and governance of culture. However, today the central premise of a cultural policy is no longer the state patronage of art or value of art itself but more focussed on citizen's right to culture. This is different from the post war impulse of "democratizing culture", which took the form of "audience development" that both replicates and reproduces forces of status quo. The box-office model is a further extension of this process of acquisition of cultural capital.
The crisis of cultural policy and institutions, if not of the Massey Report, then of its heirs and successors in cultural administration, is too important a story to be left to a future generation to tell. Today, as old narratives repeat, their biases both become more powerful and, to those in power, more invisible. The Massey Report continues to have a bearing on the present state of crisis in the culture sector and its policy-making. Systemic change takes time and vision and a leadership with fortitude and selfless investment.
The pandemic has brought a new set of protagonists to the fore, a new generation that is addressing the survival of arts in this crisis. Living in a "breach of event", as one update replaces the other, we lose our sense of history. In such a spasm of history, we foster an amnesia.
The choice before us: Will the current crisis prod us to truly embrace a Canadian culture that is beyond the closed confines of a two-founding nations plank allowing for a range of voices and giving agency to the artists, or have we mortgaged our imagination to the Massey Report?
Zainub Verjee is the laureate of 2020 Governor General's Visual and Media Arts for Outstanding Contribution. An artist, critic, with expertise in cultural policy and cultural diplomacy, she was at the fore front of the cultural policy work in the 1980s-2000s in Canada and internationally. She has worked on issues of Artist Labour, Racial Equity, Cultural Diplomacy and Culture Trade. Former Executive Director of the Western Front, her work on the BC Arts Board led to the formation of B.C.Arts Council. Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Ontario Association of Art Galleries in Toronto.


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Men's Underwear That Travelers Will Love
A great travel outfit starts with the perfect pair of underwear.
When we travel, we want our clothes to feel comfortable, yet stylish, and that includes our underwear. From the airport, to the plane, to the hotel, and off to dinner, travelers need underwear that's breathable and comfortable, but also attractive, because you never know when your pants might come off.
Luckily, there are some great brands out there making underwear that's all of the above. Whether you're jet-setting to Europe or hiking Yellowstone with your buddies, these undies will keep you going through whatever your adventure brings.
Brighton Briefs by Tracksmith
Tracksmith is a Boston-based company that very much embodies the New England lifestyle. Equal parts preppy, classic, and athletic, the brand is renowned for making high-quality athletic clothing that's stylish enough to wear anywhere. Their Brighton brief continues that tradition by being a simplistic, classic brief that's made with tons of unique features. Stretchy, yet soft, this Merino wool-based underwear is moisture-wicking and odor resistant. Plus, its seamless design means no annoying tags or stitch lines to chafe or scratch against you. Made for runners, the Brighton brief is tough enough to handle even the longest days of travel. $48 USD.
Kalenji Running Boxer Brief by Decathlon
For bargain hunters, there's no better option than the Kalenji running boxer brief from Decathlon. With an incredibly cheap price point of just $8.99 USD, it's by far the cheapest option we tried out for this list. But cheap doesn't mean poor quality. Decathlon is a brand known for its dedication to athletes and people with active lifestyles, and therefore, they literally test their products on athletes.
The boxer briefs were worn by athletes during training in order to test their durability, comfort, and moisture-wicking abilities. Better yet, they're eco-friendly! The boxer briefs are made from 85% recycled polyester. One thing to note is that these are very stretchy. I ordered a Large and when I opened the package, I was convinced it was a pair of children's underwear. However, when putting them on, they stretched to an unbelievable degree and proved to be comfy and lightweight. $8.99 USD.
Bamboo Motion Boxer Brief by Free Fly
Proving that sustainability doesn't hinder quality, Free Fly's bamboo motion boxer brief is attractive and comfortable. Made from bamboo-based viscose, these boxer briefs are hands-down the softest ones we tried for this list. They're designed with a relaxed fit, which makes them feel breathable and comfy, and provides a good amount of space in the fly area for guys who like to let their boys dangle. The bamboo fabric is also naturally odor-resistant, making these perfect for those 16-hour trans-Pacific flights to Australia, as well as long days spent outdoors. $28 USD, or 3 for $60 USD.
Natural Boxer Brief by Ibex
Made from Ibex's proprietary Pro-Tech Lite fabric (which is made from Australian and New Zealand Merino wool), Ibex's natural boxer briefs are perfect for casual nights out or a day on the trail. Naturally anti-microbial and odor resistant, Ibex's boxer briefs are perfect for everyone. Plus, their design (like much of Ibex's products) are made to be simple, practical, and easy to pair with just about any outfit. Other features that make Ibex's undies stand out from the pack are their no-slip waistbands and their two-way fly, making it easy to whip your dude out when you need to go, but not easy for him to slip out on accident. $55 USD.
125 Boulder Boxer Brief by Artilect
Artilect makes their 125 Boulder boxer briefs using Nuyarn – a new method of wool processing that enhances its natural abilities (such as its softness, moisture-wicking capabilities, and odor control). Best of all, Artilect's Nuyarn is Blusign-certified, meaning the fabric was created sustainability and ethically, for both people, animals, and the planet.
The 125 Boulder boxer brief also comes with a wide array of benefits, including a stretchy, easy fit, as well as ventilated fabric on the inside of the thigh in order to keep you feeling comfy and cool even when you're running to catch the train or doing yoga on the beach. Artilect makes performance underwear so outstanding you'll want to wear them every day. $42 USD.
Pro Iconic + Active Boxer Brief by BN3TH
BN3TH's Pro Iconic+ boxer briefs have a secret weapon that makes them one of the best active boxer briefs ever: their "MyPackage Pouch" design. While the underwear's legs fit like a standard pair of active boxer briefs (stretchy and snug), BN3TH's crotch area is more loose, giving your eggplant and walnuts a roomy and open space that's incredibly supportive. It's like two different underwear came together to create something incredibly comfortable. Better yet, BN3TH weaves silver fiber within their box briefs' fabric in order to give them odor-eliminating abilities. $35 USD.
Briefs and Boxer Briefs by Pact
Classic, casual, and ready to roll. What more can you want from your underwear? Pact is known for its timeless and practical designs and its commitment to the planet. Pact's briefs and boxer briefs are made with organic cotton, meaning no toxic chemicals were used in the processing, and the production process used only 20% as much water as conventional cotton. Even better, Pact's underwear is made in Fair Trade-certified factories, ensuring equity for both people and the planet.
Without heavy processing, all that's left is a wonderfully soft pair of underwear that's sure to become your new go-to pair for any occasion. While certainly not designed for high-octane action, Pact's underwear is perfect for the frequent flyer, a night on the town, or a relaxing dinner at the hotel. Even the most hardcore traveler needs a solid pair of classic, cotton underwear. Starting at $14 USD.
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Video available for COVID-19 Briefing Series: Data Modeling
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Professors Sergei Maslov and Nigel Goldenfeld have been creating data models about COVID-19 since early in the pandemic, and their data has been instrumental in some of the state's responses to COVID-19. In this edition of the COVID-19 Briefing Series, professors Maslov and Goldenfeld explain in greater detail their COVID-19 data… Continue Reading
Video available for COVID-19 Briefing Series: Return to Campus
On August 5, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign hosted another edition of the COVID-19 Briefing Series, with this particular presentation focused on what students and their families need to know before students return to campus. If you were unable to watch the briefing live, a recording has been posted to YouTube: The briefing covers a… Continue Reading
COVID-19 Briefing Series: Return to campus for students & parents
The University of Illinois will host a COVID-19 Briefing about what students and parents need to know about the Fall 2020 semester. The Briefing will stream live on Wednesday, August 5 at 11:30 a.m. CDT. The briefing is the latest in the university's COVID-19 Briefing Series. The panelists for this discussion about return to campus… Continue Reading
Video now available for COVID-19 Briefing Series: Human Resources
If you were unable to watch the live stream of the COVID-19 Briefing Series: Human Resources on July 23, a recording of the Briefing is now available on YouTube: The briefing covers a number of topics of interest to university employees, including remote work, quarantine, what happens if an employee tests positive for COVID-19, non-compliance,… Continue Reading
COVID-19 Briefing Series: Human Resources
The University of Illinois will host an COVID-19 Briefing about Human Resources on Thursday, July 23 at 1:00 p.m. CDT. The briefing is the latest in the university's COVID-19 Briefing Series. Chancellor Robert Jones will be joined by Senior Associate Chancellor for Human Resources Elyne Cole, Executive Director of Human Resources and Administration Deb Stone,… Continue Reading
COVID-19 Briefing Series: Athletics
The University of Illinois will host an COVID-19 Briefing about Athletics on Thursday, July 16 at 11:00 a.m. CDT. The briefing is the latest in the university's COVID-19 Briefing Series. Chancellor Robert Jones will be joined by Director of Athletics Josh Whitman, Senior Associate Chancellor for Administration and Operations Mike DeLorenzo, and Associate Director of… Continue Reading
COVID-19 Briefing Series: Cleaning, Safety and Building Operations
On Monday, June 29, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will host an online COVID-19 Briefing at 11:00 a.m. CDT. This briefing on Cleaning, Safety and Building Operations is the latest in the university's COVID-19 Briefing Series. Matthew Tomaszewski, Executive Associate Provost for Capital Planning, Mohamed Attalla, Executive Director of Facilities & Services, Brian Brauer,… Continue Reading
COVID-19 Briefing Series: University Life
The University of Illinois will host an COVID-19 Briefing about University Life on Wednesday, June 24 at 9:00 a.m. CDT. The briefing is the latest in the university's COVID-19 Briefing Series. Chancellor Robert Jones will be joined by Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Danita Brown Young and Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Sean… Continue Reading
COVID-19 Briefing Series: SHIELD – Target, Test, Tell
For the next presentation in the COVID-19 Briefing Series, Chancellor Robert Jones will be joined by two members of the SHIELD: Target, Test, Tell committee. This committee is charged with developing strategies on how the university plans to conduct COVID-19 testing and exposure notifications to maximize the safety of our university community. The briefing will… Continue Reading
COVID-19 Briefing Series: Academics
As part of the continuing COVID-19 Briefing Series, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will host an online briefing on Tuesday, June 9 from noon to 1 p.m. CDT. Provost Andreas Cangellaris will be joined by Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Bill Bernhard and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Kevin Pitts. They will discuss the… Continue Reading


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(idea) by hamster bong Fri May 19 2000 at 9:46:34
Oh, but Webster 1913, dreamy is so much more than that, so gloriously much more.. it's beautiful it's enrapturing, it's something that is so infinitely intriguing that it doesn't even fit under the heading "reality". It simply encompasses everything that a perfect dream would be. Thus, I would have to say the way the trees are swaying in the wind outside my window just now, with a gorgeous pink backdrop from the rising sun.. it is, well.. dreamy.
And on that note.. I've got some sleeping to do, and some dreaming and possibly some dreamy sleeping. Oh, blissful day that carried on for so much longer than I thought you would.. but you held so much more for me than I had originally thought you would. Bless you for that, and for keeping me awake long enough to see the way the sky fades from orange, to pink, to blue'y gray..
If I didn't know better.. I'd almost think I saw a coconut hanging from my apple tree. Yes, yes.. I'm coming Mr. Sandman, just give me a minute or two to enjoy the dreamy sunrise..
(definition) by Webster 1913 Tue Dec 21 1999 at 23:14:09
Dream"y (?), a. [Compar. Dreamier (?); superl. Dreamiest (?).]
Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
"The dreamy dells."
Tennyson.
Non-everythingian friends and their responses to this place Dreamy bastard The Garden of Earthly Delights Mr. Sandman
Orlando Bloom Stone Reader oneiric "I am Colin"
How to write a Teen Fiction novel La belle jardinière (ein Biedermeiergespenst) Jean-Baptiste Greuze Fortune Cookie Prize
Covered in snow Alison Goldfrapp walking in the wind who knows what dreaminess lurks in the cheek pouches of hamsters
Dreamy little humans Rainy Daze Special Agent Dale Cooper Fear Factory
bread English words of American origin
Note to self: Ignore the troll
What I learned from the skateboarders outside my window


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Letter from the editor | 117
The polysemy of resistance
Mariluce Moura - Editor in chief
Hysteria is at the foundations of psychoanalysis. Freud's sensitive looking at and listening to hysterical personages – and not just their symptoms and discourses – led him little by little to unveil the unconscious, later on to perceive the patients' resistance to treatment, and then gave him powerful indications about the effectiveness of the flow of free associations, which opened up the road to the analysis of dreams – the inaugural act and touchstone of psychoanalysis. But there is a more or less generalized impression that hysteria hardly survived Fräulein Anna O., a patient of Breuer, and Freud's patients Frau Emmy von N., Miss Lucy R., Kataharina and Fräulein Elisabeth von R., all of them women whose stories we made acquaintance with in the report of fine literary labor Clinical Cases, which are a part of the Studies on Hysteria, published in May 1895, about two years after Preliminary communication, the first scientific report by Freud and Breuer on the theme. Hysteria, showing historically in its body the marks of a heavy sexual repression that was hardly realized, was apparently a personage of the 19th century, which would be undone in the time that psychoanalysis advanced through the following century. The path of the 20th century between wars of every kind, death of the great utopias, noteworthy technical-scientific advances, that were to change human society and sociability profoundly, seemed to lead to other ills of the mind and of the spirit of these times, like the panic syndrome, bulimia and anorexia.
Well, what the fine cover story of this issue of Pesquisa FAPESP advises is something totally different: no, hysteria has not died, it is just concealed by incorrect diagnoses of epilepsy. As the science editor, Carlos Fioravanti, reports, beginning on page 42, based on surveys from the São Paulo Hospital and Clinics and from other specialized medical centers in Goiás, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul, besides São Paulo, one in every four cases diagnosed as epilepsy in Brazil is, actually, hysteria. Moreover, in spite of its name, which goes back to the word uterus, hysteria is not a psychic disorder that attacks only women, but affects men as well. It really is worth checking it out.
But this issue throws light on other occult elements. It exposes other shadow zones. Generally speaking, we imagine that we are tranquil and all at peace when, after an agitated, fatiguing day, we can finally relax in bed between snug sheets, with sweet-smelling blankets, a soft pillow, and wait for sleep to arrive. Sweet illusion: an unbelievable battalion of tiny relatives of spiders and ticks, so ugly in appearance that, if we could see them, would justify the most terrible nightmares, is nesting right there in bed, next to our bodies. I am talking of human dust mites, the contemporary terror of the allergic all over the world, of course, because they are an extremely efficient trigger of crises of rhinitis, asthma, conjunctivitis and other ills. The article by the assistant science editor, Ricardo Zorzetto, tells, from page 52 onwards, how these little animals have found their private paradises in houses and in bedrooms in particular. But there are no real reasons for despair: the article also explains how to get rid of the monstrous arachnids.
More light, or rather, refraction of light. A new white pigment, whose development Pesquisa FAPESP has followed up since the first steps, eight years ago, within a few months should be present in the formulation of paints all over the world. Biphor – that is its name – results from a partnership between Unicamp and Bunge, and is produced using nanoparticles of aluminum phosphate, as the technology editor, Marcos de Oliveira, reports on pages 80 and 81. This pigment is going to compete with titanium dioxide, the current raw material of white paints.
To close off by completing a circle, which is always a seductive movement, it is worth the trouble to read this month's story, by Ana Elisa Ribeiro, which tells a bit more about women. Those that write and those that read, do you know where they learnt that? "In the involvement of the soul with the world, in the most beautiful resistance of the texts they produced."

This work first appeared on Pesquisa FAPESP under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Read the original here.

Hysteria is at the foundations of psychoanalysis. Freud's sensitive looking at and listening to hysterical personages – and not just their symptoms and discourses – led him little by little to unveil the unconscious, later on to perceive the patients' resistance to treatment, and then gave him powerful indications about the effectiveness of the flow of free associations, which opened up the road to the analysis of dreams – the inaugural act and touchstone of psychoanalysis. But there is a more or less generalized impression that hysteria hardly survived Fräulein Anna O., a patient of Breuer, and Freud's patients Frau Emmy von N., Miss Lucy R., Kataharina and Fräulein Elisabeth von R., all of them women whose stories we made acquaintance with in the report of fine literary labor Clinical Cases, which are a part of the Studies on Hysteria, published in May 1895, about two years after Preliminary communication, the first scientific report by Freud and Breuer on the theme. Hysteria, showing historically in its body the marks of a heavy sexual repression that was hardly realized, was apparently a personage of the 19th century, which would be undone in the time that psychoanalysis advanced through the following century. The path of the 20th century between wars of every kind, death of the great utopias, noteworthy technical-scientific advances, that were to change human society and sociability profoundly, seemed to lead to other ills of the mind and of the spirit of these times, like the panic syndrome, bulimia and anorexia. Well, what the fine cover story of this issue of Pesquisa FAPESP advises is something totally different: no, hysteria has not died, it is just concealed by incorrect diagnoses of epilepsy. As the science editor, Carlos Fioravanti, reports, beginning on page 42, based on surveys from the São Paulo Hospital and Clinics and from other specialized medical centers in Goiás, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul, besides São Paulo, one in every four cases diagnosed as epilepsy in Brazil is, actually, hysteria. Moreover, in spite of its name, which goes back to the word uterus, hysteria is not a psychic disorder that attacks only women, but affects men as well. It really is worth checking it out. But this issue throws light on other occult elements. It exposes other shadow zones. Generally speaking, we imagine that we are tranquil and all at peace when, after an agitated, fatiguing day, we can finally relax in bed between snug sheets, with sweet-smelling blankets, a soft pillow, and wait for sleep to arrive. Sweet illusion: an unbelievable battalion of tiny relatives of spiders and ticks, so ugly in appearance that, if we could see them, would justify the most terrible nightmares, is nesting right there in bed, next to our bodies. I am talking of human dust mites, the contemporary terror of the allergic all over the world, of course, because they are an extremely efficient trigger of crises of rhinitis, asthma, conjunctivitis and other ills. The article by the assistant science editor, Ricardo Zorzetto, tells, from page 52 onwards, how these little animals have found their private paradises in houses and in bedrooms in particular. But there are no real reasons for despair: the article also explains how to get rid of the monstrous arachnids. More light, or rather, refraction of light. A new white pigment, whose development Pesquisa FAPESP has followed up since the first steps, eight years ago, within a few months should be present in the formulation of paints all over the world. Biphor – that is its name – results from a partnership between Unicamp and Bunge, and is produced using nanoparticles of aluminum phosphate, as the technology editor, Marcos de Oliveira, reports on pages 80 and 81. This pigment is going to compete with titanium dioxide, the current raw material of white paints. To close off by completing a circle, which is always a seductive movement, it is worth the trouble to read this month's story, by Ana Elisa Ribeiro, which tells a bit more about women. Those that write and those that read, do you know where they learnt that? "In the involvement of the soul with the world, in the most beautiful resistance of the texts they produced."


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What Is Biomass? A R...
What Is Biomass? A Renewable Energy Source, But Not So "Clean" (Yet)
Biomass energy refers to organic matter such as wood, crops, food waste and animal manure that is turned into fuel via direct burning or chemical conversion. While biomass itself is a renewable resource, biomass plants can actually emit concerning levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses into the air when burning biomass. So critics claim that biomass isn't yet a truly clean energy source.
7 min read • Last updated: Dec 08, 2022
What is biomass?
What is biomass energy?
How is biomass energy created?
Is biomass renewable or nonrenewable?
Biomass being used right now
Is biomass energy safe?
Biomass as a (not so) clean energy source
Biomass. At first glance, the term can make you think of something strange you don't want growing on your front lawn: "Get that biomass out of my yard!" But once you get the gist of what biomass is, you won't find it strange or unwanted at all.
That's because biomass is simply an organic energy source, or one that's created from materials derived from living things. This includes plants and trees (which are already in many front yards), along with a host of other materials derived from plants, animals and other organisms (that you may not even want hanging out in the back).
Below, you'll find a rundown on what biomass is, its status as a renewable or nonrenewable energy resource, and how it may be poised to play a role in the future of clean energy.
Biomass is an organic energy source, and you may have already used a form of it without even realizing it. Anyone who has sat around a campfire or lit any type of wood-burning fire to enjoy its warmth is officially a biomass user.
Trees and plants are the most common biomass materials, especially corn and soybeans. But they're not the only ones.
Biomass energy sources include:
Wood: This includes firewood, wood chips and pellets, and waste products and sawdust from furniture and lumber mills.
Crops: Corn and soybeans as mentioned, along with switchgrass, sugar cane, woody plants, algae, and waste from food and crop processing facilities.
Biogenic materials: Certain solid waste products count as biomass, such as cotton and wool products, paper, food, and yard and wood wastes.
Animal manure and human sewage: No further explanation needed
While biomass refers to an organic energy source, biomass energy refers to the energy produced by this source. A little redundant, yeah, but it's important to note.
A tree is just a tree until some type of process is used to convert the wood to energy. The same holds true for other materials. A corn stalk is just a corn stalk. Sawdust is just sawdust. Manure is just a piece of, well, manure. You get the drift.
The concepts of biomass and biomass energy are straightforward. Converting it into energy, not so much. Here's where things can get a bit complicated. There are four main processes used to convert biomass into biomass energy. These processes are:
Direct combustion, commonly known as burning
Thermochemical conversion
Chemical conversion
Biological conversion
Direct combustion
Direct combustion is not only the most common process for converting biomass into energy, but it's also the most straightforward. It involves directly burning the materials to produce heat and electricity.
Burning biomass can produce:
Heat for water and buildings
Heat for industrial processes
Electricity in steam turbines
It's also where your campfire fits in. Creating heat with a campfire is officially using direct combustion to create biomass energy. Mention that the next time you're out in the woods.
Here's where things start to get really fun. Thermochemical conversion involves using heat to produce different types of solid, liquid or gaseous fuels. You'll find different types of thermochemical conversions, each using different amounts of heat and oxygen levels to produce different types of fuel.
Pyrolysis heats the biomass materials to 800 to 900 degrees Fahrenheit in the near absence of oxygen. Pyrolysis can be used to produce:
And there's more. The bio-oil can be processed using a method called hydrotreating, which uses high temperatures, hydrogen and a catalyst. Hydrotreating can be used to produce:
Renewable gasoline
Renewable jet fuel
Gasification heats the biomass materials to 1,400 to 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit with controlled injections of oxygen or steam. Gasification can be used to produce:
Syngas
Syn-what? Officially known as synthesis gas, syngas is a gas rich in carbon monoxide and hydrogen that can be used for:
Generating electricity in gas turbines
Creating additional liquid fuels if further processed
And there's more here, too. Separate the hydrogen from the syngas, and you can burn the hydrogen or use it in fuel cells.
Thankfully, chemical conversion is a bit less complex than thermochemical conversion. Chemical conversion produces liquid fuels through a process called transesterification. Transesterification can be used to convert animal fats, vegetable oils and greases into fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). FAME, in turn, is used to produce:
Here you want to think yogurt, and the way bacteria can do amazing things to plain old milk. Biological conversion uses biological processes to produce liquid and gaseous fuels. It can produce:
Ethanol through fermentation
Renewable natural gas through anaerobic digestion
Anaerobic digestion is a process where bacteria break down manure, food wastes and other biosolids in the absence of oxygen. Some sewage treatment plants and livestock and dairy operations actually have anaerobic digesters in place produce renewable natural gas. It can also be captured at landfills containing solid waste.
Properly treated renewable natural gas, also called biogas or biomethane, is a more sustainable version of gas and can be used in place of fossil fuel natural gas (which is harmful to the planet).
We've used the word "renewable" several times. Renewable gasoline. Renewable diesel. Renewable jet fuel. These fuels are renewable because yes, biomass itself is renewable. That's one of biomass' biggest advantages.
Biomass qualifies as renewable because it's replaced naturally. That means it can be used repeatedly without running out. And it can be replaced relatively quickly without irrevocably depleting earth's natural resources.
Plants: May be replaced in as little as one growing season
Trees: May be replaced in one or two decades
Food waste: Will persist almost indefinitely as long as humans are alive
Animal manure: A constant as long as animals exist
Fossil fuels: On the contrary to plants, trees, food waste and other organic biomass material, fossil fuels take millions of years to form and are not renewable resources
Because renewable energy comes from natural sources that can be consistently replenished, it's often referred to as clean energy. But biomass is not necessarily the "cleanest" energy on the list of renewable energy options.
Wind power and solar energy are at the top of the cleanest list, while biomass falls several tiers below.
Wind and solar are renewable, and the act of turning them into energy keeps the environment unscathed (some critics rightfully acknowledge that building wind and solar farms can disrupt the environment—but careful planning can mitigate this concern).
Geothermal energy is renewable, although gases are released during plant construction and geothermal energy fluids need to be pumped back into the earth more quickly than they are being used.
Hydropower is renewable, although the environment can be impacted through the industrialization associated with building the hydro dams.
Biomass is renewable but can release large amounts of pollutants into the atmosphere when direct combustion is used. Burning of forests also impacts wildlife and the overall environment. Not to mention, cutting trees for biomass energy reduces the forest's natural ability to sequester and store carbon.
Biomass may seem like a wonderful idea down the line, but it's actually being used right now. In fact, the first biomass gasification plant in the U.S. opened back in 1998. Located in Vermont, the Joseph C. McNeil Generating Station uses harvest waste and wood from below-quality trees to produce 50 megawatts of electricity.
Another biomass example comes from the Beijing Dequingyuan chicken farm, where three million chickens produce 220 tons of manure each day. Gasification technology is used to covert the manure into 14,600 megawatt-hours of electricity each year. To put that in context, one megawatt of electricity is enough to power between 400 and 900 homes for an entire year. Now reread the megawatts produced from the chicken farm. Whoa.
And the biomass doesn't stop there. About 4.7% of the total U.S. primary energy consumption in 2020 was provided by biomass. The breakdown of biomass use is:
50% Industrial
28% Transportation
10% Residential
9% Electric power
3% Commercial
Yes, biomass energy is a safe form of energy. The pages and pages of government regulations make sure of that. But that doesn't mean there aren't a few downsides—especially when considering how clean biomass is (or isn't).
Pollutants are probably the biggest potential issue. Burning biomass releases pollutants and particulates into the atmosphere, many of which are dreaded greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming. If those pollutants are captured and recycled, the problem is mostly mitigated—but this isn't always happening with today's biomass plants.
Additional downsides of biomass don't necessarily impact the safety aspect of biomass energy, but they can affect its overall feasibility and status as a "clean" energy source.
Most biomass plants require fossil fuel to be cost-effective.
Biomass needs to be replenished as rapidly as it's used, and forests are not known for growing overnight.
Biomass crops can hog the land, taking space away from food crops or even natural habitats.
Biomass' future: Renewable, yes, but not yet truly a "clean" energy source
Whew. You've just absorbed a ton of information on biomass, an endeavor that will serve you greatly for years to come. That's because biomass may very well have a solid place in the future of renewable energy.
While it's true there are still several kinks that need ironing out, plenty of investigation and exploration is currently underway. One of the greatest kinks is the biomass carbon pollution issue. Biomass power plants in California currently release more carbon than coal while producing the same amount of electricity. And cutting down trees to produce biomass energy depletes forests, destroying habitats as well as the trees that reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide. Another key to making biomass work on the larger scale is to find a way to grow large quantities of biomass at low costs.
These are very legitimate concerns backed by data that say biomass is not as clean as some may lead you to believe. But that doesn't mean it's out of the running entirely. Like many of our current renewable energy sources, improved technological advancements and government incentives may lead to better biomass energy processing methods.
Those methods need to reduce emissions while increasing biomass energy's standing in the clean energy hierarchy. Those advancements may not be that far off. After all, if chicken manure can be converted into 14,600 megawatt-hours of electricity every year, there may be no limits on what other incredible feats can be achieved.
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Home/Business/Haiti's 'descent into hell' looms closer after death of president
Haiti's 'descent into hell' looms closer after death of president
Jovenel Moïse, gunned down in front of his family this week, made many enemies and few friends in four scandal-plagued years as president of Haiti.
So many enemies that when a squad of mercenaries posing as agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stormed the president's private villa in the early hours of Wednesday, it was not entirely clear which side his bodyguards were on. Haitian authorities have since ordered the interrogation of his security detail.
Video shot by witnesses circulating on the internet appear to show the killers closing in on the house under cover of darkness in a slow-moving convoy of vehicles. Some of the attackers walk between the cars brandishing submachine guns and shout in English "DEA operation" and "do not shoot".
Once inside, the assassins fired repeatedly at Moïse and his wife Martine. The president was hit 12 times and his left eye was gouged, investigating magistrate Carl Henry Destin told Le Nouvelliste, a Haitian newspaper. Martine survived the attack with serious injuries and was airlifted to Florida for treatment.
Haitian authorities paraded 17 members of the 28-man hit squad suspected of killing the president in front of the media © AFP via Getty Images
The attack prompted international condemnation and in Haiti, consternation despite the country's endemic violence. "People are in limbo right now," said one resident of Port-au-Prince. "Whether you loved Moïse or hated him, it's the same reaction: a deep state of shock."
Among the many unanswered questions are: who ordered the killing, why the bodyguards apparently offered no resistance and what will happen next in Haiti, already in deep crisis even before the assassination.
Although murders are common in the Caribbean nation and coups punctuate Haiti's history, no president has been assassinated in office since a mob dismembered Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam in 1915.
That killing prompted a 19-year occupation of Haiti by US troops but Washington's reaction this time was different. White House press secretary Jen Psaki stated on Thursday that presidential elections scheduled for this year should proceed.
In Haiti, the authorities have been quick to highlight the foreign identities of the president's killers. Police chief Leon Charles said on Thursday that 26 of the 28-man hit squad were Colombian and two were Americans of Haitian descent. Seventeen have so far been arrested and at least three killed. Others are on the run. It is unclear why the supposedly professional hit squad failed to organise a getaway.
Claude Joseph, Moïse's sixth prime minister, moved swiftly to assert control after the killing, imposing a state of emergency, holding a news conference and ordering the airport and local businesses to reopen © Joseph Odelyn/AP
Speculation is rife as to who ordered the assassination. Moïse, a former banana exporter, had shown an increasingly authoritarian streak in his final period in office, jailing opponents, ruling by decree, allowing the terms of parliamentarians and mayors to expire without fresh elections and seeking constitutional changes that would have abolished the senate, given him immunity from prosecution and cleared the way for a second term.
Violent street protests erupted in 2018 over accusations that Moïse and his officials had pocketed millions from a Venezuelan subsidised oil scheme, something he always denied.
"Moïse had a large number of enemies," said Laurent Dubois, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia. "One could speculate in many different directions. I imagine this will be traced back to an internal source but it's hard to say whether we'll ever really know."
Equally murky is what comes next in a country wracked by political instability, worsening gang violence and acute poverty. Claude Joseph, Moïse's sixth prime minister, moved swiftly to assert control after the killing, imposing a state of emergency, holding a news conference and ordering the airport and local businesses to reopen after two days in which the streets had been quiet. However, Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon nominated by Moïse two days before his death to take over as premier, claimed he was the legitimate leader.
Constitutional experts were foxed: Haiti has two possible legal formulas in the event of a presidential death, there is currently no sitting parliament to endorse a nominee and the head of the supreme court — a possible successor — died of coronavirus last month.
For now, the United States and the United Nations are dealing with Joseph; secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke to him on Wednesday and State spokesperson Ned Price repeatedly described Joseph as "the acting prime minister".
Protesters call for the resignation of Jovenel Moïse at a demonstration in November 2018 © Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images
Whoever takes over faces a steep challenge. In April, the Catholic church warned that Haiti was "descending into hell" after seven of its clergy were kidnapped and observers said there had been a marked deterioration in security from early June as gang violence surged.
"We need this government which has no legitimacy to accept a process of dialogue with all those who could constitute a national unity government," said Didier Le Bret, who served as France's ambassador to Haiti from 2009-13 and now works for a consultancy, ESL & Network. "No electoral process is possible in Haiti for months because none of the conditions can be met."
Even before the killing, Bruno Maes, Unicef country representative, said Haiti was facing its worst humanitarian crisis in years because of violence by armed groups, acute fuel and food shortages and an upsurge in Covid cases. "The number of people who need immediate humanitarian assistance is 1.1m," he said. "We cannot use the main road to the south to reach people because armed gangs are controlling it so we have to use helicopters."
International powers seem unwilling to intervene. A 13-year UN mission to Haiti ended in 2017 without bringing lasting stability and critics said a Security Council statement this week amounted to little more than hand-wringing. With the US, the traditional arbiter, on the sidelines, some fear Haiti risks drifting into violent anarchy.
"The poor people of Haiti have suffered enough," said one local businessman. "People are dying, people are hungry. The people can't take it any more. Life is too painful."
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