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Musicians From Every Country Form Earth Orchestra To Record Unique Song
4 December 2020, 5:36 am ·1-min read
LONDON: For the first time in music history, 197 musicians – one from each country – have formed an orchestra, hoping to exemplify how people can transcend physical and cultural borders to come together.
The Earth Orchestra's song "Together is Beautiful" – recorded in different locations then mixed together – and a documentary telling the stories of some of the musicians were released on Friday.
Earth Orchestra member Olgha Nk, from Cameroon, said she saw the project, which was three years in the making, as "the whole world holding hands". Other musicians were also struck by the unifying element of the project.
In May 2019, 57 of the 197 members met at Abbey Road Studios in London to lay the groundwork for the song.
The project was overseen by BAFTA-winning composer George Fenton but many of the musicians improvised around his melodies and themes, combining musical styles and using instruments indigenous to their countries.
Romanian musician and double bass player Michael Cretu said he felt the song was exactly what the world needed right now, "more collaborations with everybody," he said.
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These Hard To Ignore Red Flags Could've Easily Helped Nidhi Razdan See Through The Harvard Scam
The whole issue with NDTV's former journalist Nidhi Razdan has certainly evolved into a big deal. On Friday, that is 15th January 2021, Nidhi Razdan posted on her Twitter that she had been "the victim of a serious phishing attack". This was in relation to a job offer she had seemingly gotten from Harvard University […]
Delhi HC permits minor rape victim to terminate 26-week pregnancy
New Delhi, Jan 18 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Monday permitted a 16-year-old rape victim to terminate her 26-week pregnancy after an interaction with the minor and her family regarding the risks associated with the procedure at such an advanced stage.
Ibrahim Ali Khan Joins All Stars Football Club, to Play with Abhishek Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor
Ibrahim Ali Khan has reportedly joined the All Stars Football Club owned by film producer Bunty Walia, and will join team members Abhishek Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Kartik Aaryan and Aditya Roy Kapur soon.


Johnny Procell has seen the light. So has Ken Beach. And Jerry Taylor. Illuminated and enlightened.
In the hours of darkness, when lesser souls have given in and gone to bed, these hardy souls seek and find angling salvation in a pool of electromagnetic radiation. In other words, night fishing around lights.
And they're not alone in getting a charge from luminous landmarks. Striped bass, white bass, and the hybrid progeny of the two figured it out first.
Lighted areas, particularly those offering cover—boat docks, piers, and bridges—are like a watering hole during a drought. All life gravitates to them. Predators and prey share close quarters, creating a smorgasbord of dining opportunities for those at the top of the food chain.
Noted bass researcher Doug Hannon, host of cable television's The Bass Professor and Sportsman's Challenge, agrees with the light-loving trio of Procell, Beach, and Taylor. "Lighted docks present a super opportunity for anglers."
Hannon says the primary reason lighted docks and similar structures draw fish is that, "Docks are fundamentally attractive to fish. When such a structure is illuminated, its features become obvious. It stands out.
"Roving schools of baitfish that would normally swim past an unlit dock become aware of it and pause, creating a logjam in the flow of life," Hannon says. "It's like a car wreck on an interstate. If traffic is heavy, it can back up for 10 miles for no reason other than people slowing down to look.
"Predatory fish such as stripers, whites, and hybrids see the light and the structure it reveals. They instinctively sense the potential feeding opportunities it presents. "Predatory fish are primarily daylight feeders, and light attracts them and shadows conceal them. Their basic feeding strategy is to see to catch prey," Hannon says.
"By nature, light decreases exponentially from the source, Hannon explains. "So, around docks and other lighted structures, light fades quickly, creating a strong edge effect. Predators like bass hide in the darkness, see their prey, and catch it without much effort since the prey's unaware of the predator's presence. Also, when predators chase their prey into a different environment, such as darkness, the prey must deal with other factors besides a predator on its tail. Lights on structures definitely create a predator exploitation situation."
While virtually any dock, pier, bridge, pump station, or other light-related structure will hold at least a few gamefish most nights of the year, certain structures outshine others in attracting bass. And the most productive may vary from night to night. Always among the best, however, are those illuminated consistently all night, every night. Large main-lake docks and those over or near deep water usually rate higher than backwater landings. Both floating and stationary docks are enticing to bait and predators. "Floating docks, however, often run out farther and span over deeper water," Hannon notes.
The number, intensity, positioning, and type of light fixtures also determine the likely fish-holding ability of a dock. "The more light, the more fish," says Dallas-based veteran guide Johnny Procell (972/264-1352). Landings with lights low to the water or aimed at the surface indicate dock owners with fishing on their minds. These residents often sink brushpiles next to their docks in hopes of creating backyard fish habitat.
Also, at times, different types of lights attract the most fish. Hannon suspects that the yellowish glow of sodium bulbs penetrates water more effectively and creates greater visual contrast than white lights such as mercury vapor or halogen. This is why fog lights are yellow. Procell and Jerry Taylor (817/549-0072), long-time guide on north Texas' Possum Kingdom Reservoir, concur, each saying they generally find more fish around sodium lights. All experts agree, however, that no significant source of illumination should go ignored, because, at times, white lights produce larger catches than yellow.
Anglers lucky enough to locate submerged swimming pool lights, reveals Taylor, have found the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. "The surface glows, like a giant aquarium. Shad, white bass, and stripers swim in big circles. When we had them here on Possum Kingdom, we'd catch 100 stripers a night. It was unreal. We caught them first on shallow-running baits and livebait, switching to jigging spoons and slabs for deeper fish," Taylor says.
Like fish and fishermen, insects love lights. And these swarming pests present a further attraction and stimulant for baitfish. Procell, Beach, and Taylor have observed increased baitfish and bass activity around lights abuzz with bugs. "I wear dark clothing because insects are less attracted to it. If my partner is wearing a white shirt and all of a sudden starts jumping and swatting, I know we're on the right dock," Procell says.
"Surface temperature," says Hannon, "delimits the times striped, white,and hybrid bass can dine around shallow structure. Water temperature largely determines where they can live and feed. In general, lighted docks are best for stripers when water is in the 50°F to 60°F range. Their preferred temperature is 54°F, and they're temperature sensitive. Hybrids and white bass, being more temperature tolerant, are more common feeders around docks. A good indicator of when stripers and other species will feed near lighted docks is times of year they school on top."
Virginia Beach, Virginia, striper expert Ken Beach, who fishes at least 150 times a year, has spent many a night angling for big striped bass under the lights of the U.S. 13 causeway at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. He finds that saltwater stripers begin to move upward as the surface temperature falls toward 70°F. "Best times in the bay are from November through March, when the water is below 70°F. When it drops into the 60s, I can almost walk across the top of the water on them," he says.
Spawning runs and other traditional seasonal movements also provide obvious clues to when docks in certain areas will hold concentrations of fish. Taylor says fish gravitate to certain docks most of the year on Possum Kingdom, a relatively deep, clear lake. "They usually aren't off the docks for more than a week or two at a time," he says. In fact, Taylor finds that fish key on main-lake deep-water docks all year. During winter and spring, most well-lighted wharfs including those in confined shallow areas, such as the backs of sloughs, can offer considerable big-fish action. "In colder months, especially early spring, I catch more big stripers around docks than during the rest of the year," Taylor says.
Procell, who fishes several Texas lakes noted for outstanding striper, hybrid, and white bass angling, including Ray Hubbard, Tawakoni, and Texoma, says he starts hitting the docks and other lighted areas late in the year. "My favorite time is from September until it gets too cold to fish at night. In the dead of winter, we catch stripers ranging up to 18 pounds by fishing around docks in water 16 to 20 feet deep."
The fall-through-spring period presents the window in which tolerable waters surround most lighted structures and therefore presents the optimum chance for anglers to find feeding stripers, whites, and hybrids on docks at night. During warmer months, a lighted structure over deep water still provides action as deep as 25 feet or deeper.
Moon phase also plays a role in the light-fishing equation. The blacker the night the better. Moonlight tends to dilute the effect of artificial light, scattering baitfish and making docks less obvious. Cloud cover nullifies this effect, however. Clear or slightly stained water also produces a better night feed. And a modest wind that creates a slight chop on the surface aids in hiding the presence of anglers from shallow, easily-spooked fish.
Approach a lighted dock with patience, stealth, and caution. The largestfish generally lurk on the shadowy fringes. "Most feeding stripers will work the outer edge of the light line, usually in constant motion, trying to flush and force schools of bait into the light," Hannon says. "Predators often hunt from below, driving prey to the surface, where they get caught in the light. Direct light is detrimental to the defensive system of minnows, especially at night, when they really flash."
The softly glowing line that appears on the surface to mark the edge of a light's reach may actually be several feet closer to the fixture than the subsurface edge. Usually the light travels at a downward angle from the source and penetrates and spreads through the water like a transducer cone. "Light illuminates the water beyond the dark surface edge, and that's where the fish position," Hannon says.
Procell starts fishing around lighted docks shortly before dark. "Most marinas have some sort of channel cut or creek the fish use as a highway. That's the first and last place they bite. I get there before dark and work the bottom in an area about 20 feet deep with slabs, spoons, and Sassy Shads. Then I move shallower and use surface plugs and both hard and soft jerkbaits as night approaches," he says. Even if fish are feeding on top directly under the light, Procell prefers to thoroughly fish the darker water first. When casting a topwater such as the Zara Spook, he keeps a hard or soft jerkbait handy as a follow-up lure to throw at short strikers.
Taylor also begins casting well away from the source of light. "I start easingup on the docks from about 200 yards out and sometimes pick up several fish before getting under the lights. On occasion, I've caught more fish outside the lights. I may be 100 yards from the light and be on the bigger fish," he says.
As Taylor approaches the light-to-dark transition zone, he first casts parallel to the fixture rather than throwing directly toward it. "I normally start with a shallow runner like the Bomber 16A or a Long A. I cast across the arc of light if I can, dropping my bait in the dark that encircles the light. I then reel my lure into the light and stop it. Often I can see it float up. Then I twitch it, and that's when they usually hit."
After catching all he can on shallow-running plugs and soft jerkbaits, Taylor switches to leadhead lures, probing deeper along the light-to-shadow threshold. "Soft-plastic shad and bucktail jigs often attract additional fish from the same spot," he says.
Though bass are chasing schools of baitfish toward the surface, sinking lures such as jigs, grubs, and large lipless crankbaits fished well below the surface or even on the bottom can be quite effective. And nearby timber, brushpiles, and rocks also should be worked.
After thoroughly fishing the outer limits of light, a move closer in can yield more strikes, provided the fish don't become spooked. Stealthy anglers, careful not to get too close or make too much boat noise, observe fish using the dock as an ambush point. "I look for the fish to see what they're doing. Some may use the dock as cover and charge out when bait swims by," Taylor says.
Beach says he also regularly observes stripers hiding in shadows. "Fish literally line up in a 2-foot-wide shadow cast by a railing on one of the bridges up the river system that feeds the Chesapeake." And on quiet nights at the U.S. 13 bridge, Beach says, stripers hover in shadows just under the surface, mouthing floating rock lice as they sweep past bridge pilings. Boat activity, however, keeps fish from staying up. "I welcome heavy boat traffic because it seems to position the fish on bottom behind the columns. Sometimes just enough boats keep the fish from surfacing, but not enough to put them on the bottom."
Beach fishes the bridge by tying to a piling and casting upcurrent. If the fish are on top, his downcurrent, stationary position enables him to work the fish without alarming them. Normally, however, the fish suspend or hover near bottom. At such times, Beach makes a cast just long enough to bottom-out at the depth of the fish as the lure swings back to the boat.
Rod, reel, and line selection depend on lure weight, amount of cover, and size of the targeted quarry. For big stripers and hard-fighting hybrids or around submerged timber or rock, 6 1/2- to 7-foot heavy-action rods, baitcasting reels, and line testing 20 pounds or stronger are recommended.
Scaling down to 6- to 6 1/2-foot rods and line in the 15-pound range enhances castability and action with medium-size lures. For white bass and small stripers and hybrids, spinning tackle and line in the 8- to 12-pound range offers tremendous sport.
A variety of lures will catch stripers and hybrids around lighted structures. Procell matches lure size to dominant baitfish in the area, but he prefers a fairly heavy lure. Large baits allow longer casts and therefore less chance of spooking fish. The old adage about catching more big bass on big lures also holds true, especially later in the year when many baitfish have grown to full size.
Most successful anglers use both hard and soft jerkbaits in white, chartreuse, baitfish, or reflective patterns for surface-oriented fish. Similarly colored crankbaits and lipless rattling crankbaits also work well. In fact, a crankbait intentionally tuned to run to the side will track under a floating dock when cast beyond it. Topwaters draw strikes, but seem less effective than other baits, Taylor says.
For suspended or bottom-oriented fish, leadhead lures such as Sassy Shads and bucktail jigs with grub trailers are the weapons of choice. White, chartreuse, or a combination thereof are always high-confidence colors. Beach notes that on misty nights on the bay, black or black-metalflake plastics draw the most strikes.
Taylor and Beach regularly use available livebait. "I used to fish off my dock in the morning before sunup," Taylor recalls. "I'd take a large bluegill, rig it without weight, and cast it as far as I could. One morning, I caught 17 stripers between 8 and 12 pounds."
Taylor usually fishes bluegill or shad. Beach casts a variety of livebaits including alewives; gizzard shad; menhaden; and eels, which work especially well on the largest stripers.
While white bass hit relatively large artificials, they usually prefer smaller baits. Small grubs, crankbaits, lipless crankbaits, in-line spinners, soft jerkbaits, or crappie jigs fished around and directly under the lights often produce limit-busting catches, Taylor and Procell say.
If night bassing is your game, don't just sit there in the dark. Follow Procell, Taylor, and Beach's lead. Lighten up. You'll find more fish, more action, and more fun, no matter your skill level. If you get your bait in the water around a well-lit dock, chances are you'll catch fish."
Lighted docks, piers, bridges, and other structures hold some species of fish all year. Everyone from trophy hunters to eager youngsters can find what they seek by knowing when to fish around such illuminated architecture. The most consistently productive structures have bright lights with deep water directly below or nearby. Brush, rocks, or other cover add to the attractiveness.
In cooler months, temperature-sensitive fish, such as stripers, white bass, and hybrids, often dominate. On many lakes, black bass take over as the chief predatory species the rest of the year.
Davey Hite, a top Bassmaster tournament fisherman from Prosperity, South Carolina, has long known that lighted structures offer all kinds of angling opportunities for black bass enthusiasts. "I fish docks at night with the same baits I use in daylight—Texas rigs, jigs, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and lipless crankbaits," Hite says. On Lake Murray, Hite's home water, lighted docks are relatively scarce, so he waits until early morning, after most other anglers have left.
As with stripers and hybrids, the biggest black bass in the area often position where artificial light begins to fade. Hite says, "I catch most of my best bass on cover on the edge of the light. I fish all the pilings and poles, plus any brush or rocks in the area. I usually throw a Texas-rigged black 11-inch V & M worm first. Then I cast crankbaits such as the Norman ZZ Top and spinnerbaits as I work my way toward the lights."
Jerry Taylor, a veteran guide on Possum Kingdom Reservoir in north Texas, finds excellent catfish and crappie angling around lighted landings. One of his favorite times to catch cats is after a major insect hatch. "The catfish come up in 2 or 3 feet of water. They're easily spooked, but I can actually see them swimming around eating insects." Taylor fishes either weightless crickets or grasshoppers on small hooks with light spinning tackle, targeting his casts to the biggest fish he sees. "A coffee can full of soured grain dumped near lighted docks can also turn on shallow cats," Taylor says.
Some crappies call deeper lighted docks home all year. Taylor generally fishes close to the light, dropping his minnow or jig to the bottom, slowly working it back up until he determines the depth where the fish are holding. Brushpiles and dock posts should be fished thoroughly, he says.
Young anglers wanting to feel a tug on their line drop just about anything with a tiny hook around a lighted dock for bluegills. Earthworms and crickets are always reliable bluegill baits.


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A dog is like a television remote in the sense that you need to program him. The potential is there, but it's your job to suss it out. Dogs are trainable, they just need a caring person to bring out their good traits.
TIP! Ask yourself how your dog is seeing things. Sometimes a dog will be a slow learner, and this can be frustrating.
Get your dog chew toys to get rid of teething pains. The right chew toys should be given to the pup immediately. If painful teething is the problem, let the puppy chew on a wet washcloth that has been frozen.
TIP! When trying to train your dog, avoid accidentally reinforcing negative behaviors. You should avoid using strips of food or attention to train when you are trying to discourage behaviors.
Consistency is of the utmost importance when it comes to crate training. When letting your dog out of the crate, be sure to immediately allow your dog to relieve himself. As you continue this training, your pet will begin to wait until he gets to the appropriate location to relieve himself.
To ensure success, you must ensure that the crate you are using is appropriate for the size and breed of your pet. Keep in mind that your puppy will eventually grow into a bigger dog. Be sure to select a crate that allows your dog to have ample room as it grows. Dogs need room to move about and lie down, and they should not be cramped.
Maintain short training sessions. Your dog's memory and attention span is short, keep the training this way. If more training is desired, work in some break times so your dog can play before continuing with training.
TIP! If your dog wants to jump you should squeeze their paws when they do so, they will know that they shouldn't do that. If done lightly, it won't hurt the dog, but it'll make them uncomfortable.
Primary reinforcement is something that you can implement in your training sessions. Primary reinforcement is a positive reinforcement training strategy that relies heavily on things your dog already enjoys. Primary reinforcements include using food as treats and rubbing your dog's belly. This teaches your dog something that they desire.
TIP! To put a halt on barking, teach your pup to obey a basic command. When it starts barking, show them the treat and say the command until it quits barking.
In order to have a great dog, you need to learn control and firmness. You want to avoid being strict all of the time. You need to find the right mixture of strictness and love. This ensures you have a positive relationship between the dog and yourself.
TIP! In order to encourage good behavior during training, praise is critical. Talk in a positive voice, smile and offer your dog some treats when it does something right.
It's a good idea to keep in mind the number of treats you are giving your dog throughout the day. Giving him too many will add unneeded calories to his diet and cause him to become overweight. Treats don't spring to mind when thinking about a pet's diet, but they have an impact – one that is magnified during the reward-heavy training process.
Once you decide to train your dog, it is very important that you continue with the training no matter what. Your dog will not remember his training if you are not there to constantly remind him of what you expect. Taking care of your dog must include instituting a training plan, as well as meeting his food and shelter needs.
TIP! If you are consistent, you will be able to teach your furry friend to wait. Take your dog outside every hour to help teach him this is where you want him to use the bathroom.
If you travel with your dogs, pack your dog's needs for sleep, toileting and sleeping. Items such as food and water dishes are essential when traveling. You can buy dog food when you get there, of course, which is a lot easier than bringing it with you.
TIP! It is critical that you teach your dog the difference between correct and incorrect behaviors. You have to have consistent boundaries from everyone in contact with the animal.
How certain are you that your pet is getting adequate nutrition in its diet? Dogs are like children in the sense that bad diets lead to them acting bratty and hyperactive. Consider changing your dog's diet to something more species-appropriate, and he'll have long-lasting, consistent energy all day. Ask your vet for recommendations.
TIP! When training your dog, do not include any punishments. If your dog does exhibit bad behavior, correct this behavior by showing him is expected of him.
TIP! When your dog is six months old, get them neutered or spayed. You should have him or her spayed or neutered along with taking him or her to obedience classes.


Veterans Administration loans were created to help veterans finance the purchase of their homes with favorable loan terms. For the purpose of the VA program, "veteran" includes active duty service personnel and certain categories of spouses. Like FHA loans, the federal government insures VA loans, or guarantees VA approved lending institutions against loss from default on qualifying loans.
Subject to loan limit set by VA, see 2016 High Cost County Limits below.
Home equity lines differ from traditional mortgages that provide funds up front, then required repayments of principal and interest each month. With a home equity line, a borrower may draw against any available credit on the line while continuing to make monthly payments during the "draw period."


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Home Features MH17 report suggests efforts were made to cover up causes of disaster
MH17 report suggests efforts were made to cover up causes of disaster
TNC Reporter
The long-awaited Dutch report into the shooting down of flight MH17 suggests attempts were made to cover up the causes of the disaster, including a bungled autopsy on the body of the captain in which metal fragments from a Buk missile were deliberately removed.
Dutch investigators said on Tuesday that the three pilots were killed instantly, after a Russian-built Buk missile exploded within a metre of their cockpit. The blast ejected hundreds of pieces of shrapnel into the plane with "tremendous force", said the Dutch safety board report.
But investigators declined to apportion blame for who had downed the plane, merely saying the rocket was fired from a 320 sq km area of eastern Ukraine. Further "forensic investigation" was needed to determine the precise launch site.
But speaking to Dutch journalists in The Hague, in the corridor of parliament, the chairman of the safety board, Tjibbe Joustra, later admitted that the Buk missile was fired from a rebel-controlled area.
He told the Volkskrant newspaper: "The boundaries fluctuated a bit, but it is an area where pro-Russia rebels wrested control."
He added: "If you really want to determine the location, you should take soil samples and examine witnesses. This is not our competence."
The report by the Dutch safety board said that more than 120 objects, "mostly metal fragments", were found in the body of the first officer, who had sustained "multiple fractures". When Dutch experts identified the captain's body they found it had already "undergone an external and internal examination to remove foreign objects".
Despite apparent attempts to remove shrapnel, "hundreds of metal objects were found", the report said, as well as bone fractures and other injuries.
Among the fragments of missile shrapnel examined, two were in the shape of a bow tie, which the Dutch board found to be characteristic of a particular type of Buk missile warhead. However, the Russian manufacturer had earlier denied that any such fragments were found, and insisted an older Buk model was used, one that was no longer in service in the Russian armed forces.
The Boeing 777 was shot down on 17 July 2014 over an area of Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed rebels, who for several days refused to allow access to the sprawling crash site. All 298 people on board died.
The report noted that some "aeroplane parts and cargo" photographed immediately after the crash vanished. "Avionics units" from the cockpit disappeared too. Other pieces of wreckage, filmed by investigators and showing perforation and soot, had gone by the time they came to take them away.
The Dutch safety board has led a 15-month multinational investigation into the causes of the crash. On Tuesday it revealed the reconstructed front section of the plane at a hangar in the Gilze-Rijen airbase in southern Netherlands. It was a ghostly sight. Inside were the mangled seats where two of the pilots had sat.
The plane's left glass windscreen was perforated with holes. The crumpled metal cockpit floor featured large gouges. From outside, the devastating impact of the Buk missile was visible: a scattering of gashes, immediately below the port side of the cockpit. The metal had sliced diagonally though the plane, exiting from the lower right-side.
The right side of the plane was largely unscathed. Five windows from business class could be seen above the red and blue stripe of Malaysia Airlines livery. The door where the passengers entered had survived. Poignantly, its emergency opening instructions were intact.
Speaking in front of the rebuilt plane, Joustra said MH17 was cruising at 33,000ft on a routine flight path to Asia when a 9N314M warhead hit it. The warhead was fitted to a 9M28 missile. It had been fired from a Russian-built Buk surface-to-air missile system. Joustra ruled out other scenarios that might explain the disaster.
An animated video showed the moment the Buk struck the left-hand side of the cockpit. On-board microphones recorded the moment of impact. This allowed investigators to determine the devastating blast occurred on the upper-left hand side of the cockpit.
According to Joustra, the passenger plane broke up midair. The cockpit and the floor of the business class cabin tore away almost instantly from the main body and crashed. The rest of the plane continued flying for about five miles in an easterly direction, hitting the ground about a minute to a minute-and-a-half later. Debris was scattered over about 50 sq km (19 sq mile).
The report said that some passengers "suffered serious injuries that probably resulted in their deaths". Others became unconsciousness "in a very short space of time". It said: "It cannot be ruled out that some occupants remained conscious for some time during the one to one-and-a-half minutes for which the crash lasted." No photos or text messages were found on phones recovered from the scene.
Earlier on Tuesday Joustra delivered his report to relatives of the victims in The Hague. The report conceded that family members had to wait "an unnecessarily long period of time" for formal confirmation that their loved ones were dead. The Dutch authorities "lacked management and coordination", it added.
Two-thirds of the victims were Dutch nationals, with others from nine other countries including Malaysia and Australia. Ten British nationals were killed. Claudio Villaca-Vanetta, whose husband Glenn Thomas, from Blackpool, died on board MH17, said: "We had some of the answers we were looking for today, but by far not all of them.
"We now know for sure that Malaysia Airlines was allowed to fly there, and we know now that it was a bad decision by Ukraine to leave the airspace open and that by just raising the cruise height it was safe for commercial airliners. We know there was a missile which is manufactured in Russia only.
"Of course, this doesn't tell us who did it, who is accountable for it. That is where we want to get now."
David Cameron welcomed the report, adding that "those responsible for downing this plane will be held to account". The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, urged Russia to cooperate in the investigation. "The priority now is to find and pursue those who are responsible." Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, however, called the report "biased in nature".
The board had previously made clear its findings would not deal with blame and liability. A criminal investigation by the Dutch prosecutor's office is scheduled to conclude in 2016.
On Tuesday Joustra said the Buk missile had been fired from area of eastern Ukraine which since April 2014 had been the scene of fighting between pro-Russia separatists backed by Moscow and Ukrainian government forces.
The Netherlands, Ukraine and Russia had all carried out their own simulations into the missile's probable trajectory. Russia was the only one of the seven countries involved in the report's preparation that dissented from its central conclusions, Joustra said, adding that Moscow believed "it was impossible to determine the type of missile or warhead with any certainty".
It is widely assumed that Russia-backed separatists were responsible for bringing down flight MH17, but the US has stopped short of blaming Moscow directly. The Kremlin has blamed Kiev – variously suggesting that a Ukrainian military jet shot down the Boeing 777 – a theory the report dismisses – or that a missile was launched from a government-held area.
The Russian simulation includes areas under Ukrainian government control. The other simulations suggest the Buk was fired from separatist territory. An open-source investigation by the website Bellingcat, published last week, tracks the Buk missile launcher from a Russian military base in Kursk. It was then smuggled across the Ukrainian border, and taken back to Russia after the Buk rocket was fired.
In Moscow, the makers of Buk missile systems, Almaz-Antey, held a press conference on Tuesday morning apparently aimed at distracting attention from the Dutch report. The manufacturer said it had performed two experiments it says proved one of its missiles could not have been launched from areas under pro-Russia separatist control.
Meanwhile, Joustra said there was a simple, "dispiriting" answer to the question: why was MH17 allowed to fly above eastern Ukraine? It had not occurred to anybody that the airspace was unsafe for civilian jets at cruising altitude, he said. This was despite the fact that 16 Ukrainian aircraft and helicopters had been downed since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
About 160 civilian planes flew over the area on the day of the disaster. Three were in "close proximity" when the Buk was fired, Joustra said. Ukraine should have closed its airspace to civilian traffic, he added.
On the ground the crash sites were left unguarded in the days after the disaster, with journalists and rebel fighters able to wander freely in the fields. There were numerous reports of looting and tampering with evidence, although rebel authorities angrily denied them.
The clearup mission was complicated by the proximity to the front lines of the crash site and what sometimes appeared to be deliberate obstruction from the rebels.
While local emergency services performed gruesome cleanup feats in difficult conditions, there was little coordination or oversight of the work and on occasions bodies and possessions were seen being thrown into unmarked vehicles. In the days after the crash, Australia's then prime minister, Tony Abbott, said there had been "evidence of tampering on an industrial scale".
The plane's black boxes were also subject to intrigue, with Ukrainian security services releasing audio recordings it alleged showed rebel leaders coordinating a ground search for the boxes and demanding that when found they were kept secret, as Moscow wanted to examine them first.
The Donetsk authorities denied the recordings were authentic. The boxes were handed over to a Malaysian delegation by rebel leaders in Donetsk four days after the crash.
Culled from: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/13/mh17-report-suggests-efforts-were-made-to-cover-up-causes-of-disaster
Malaysian Airlines flight mh17
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Not Going Postal
Posted on August 11, 2020 by Larry Franz
The president and his stooges are screwing with the post office, apparently because the president doesn't like the post office, but also because they think it will help him in the election, when more people will vote by mail than ever before.
Since the post office is the federal government's most popular agency and most voters prefer getting their mail on time, interfering with delivery in August is probably a really stupid "strategy" (in a rational, non-Fox country, it surely would be).
The Democrats want the post office's inspector general to investigate, but inspector generals are easy to fire. They also want to give the post office a couple billion dollars as part of the next pandemic relief bill, assuming the Republican Senate eventually agrees to do its job.
The result is that some observers are recommending that as many of us as possible vote in person in November (it will be much easier for some of us than others). Or else that we take our ballots to special "drop boxes" available in some states, although it isn't clear when those ballots will be counted.
More from Jamelle Bouie of The New York Times:
There's no mystery about what President Txxxx intends to do if he holds a lead on election night in November [although I don't think he will]. He's practically broadcasting it.
First, he'll claim victory. Then, having spent most of the year denouncing vote-by-mail as corrupt, fraudulent and prone to abuse, he'll demand that authorities stop counting mail-in and absentee ballots. . . .
He also seems to be counting on having the advantage of mail slowdowns, engineered by the recently installed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy [delays are already occurring around the country and making people mad]. . . .
If Txxxx is leading on election night, in other words, there's a good chance he'll try to disrupt and delegitimize the counting process. That way, if Joe Biden pulls ahead in the days (or weeks) after voting ends — if we experience a "blue shift" like the one in 2018, in which the Democratic majority in the House grew as votes came in — the president will have given himself grounds to reject the outcome as "fake news".
The only way to prevent this scenario, or at least, rob it of the oxygen it needs to burn, is to deliver an election night lead to Biden. This means voting in person. No, not everyone will be able to do that. But if you plan to vote against Txxxx and can take appropriate precautions, then some kind of hand delivery — going to the polls or bringing your mail-in ballot to a "drop box" — will be the best way to protect your vote from the president's concerted attempt to undermine the election for his benefit.
Txxxx is the underdog in this year's race for president. . . . [He] is desperate to hold on to power, but he probably can't win a fair fight. . . .
A key element of Txxxx's strategy is to undermine the Postal Service's ability to deliver and collect mail. The president's postmaster general has removed experienced officials, implemented cuts and raised postage rates for ballots mailed to voters, increasing the cost if states want the post office to prioritize election mail. And Politico reports that Txxxx's aides and advisers in the White House have been searching for ways to curb mail-in voting through executive action . . .
If vote-by-mail is the safest option in a pandemic, then the point of the White House's effort is to create a dilemma for voters who place a premium on safety. . . . Consider the partisan split as well. Fifty-four percent of Biden supporters prefer mail-in voting, according to a July poll from ABC News and The Washington Post, while only 17 percent of Txxxx supporters say the same.
If in-person voters are disproportionately pro-Txxxx, and mail-in voters are disproportionately pro-Biden, then you have the ingredients for an election night standoff, where the president claims victory before all the votes have been counted and tries to secure his "win" by keeping mail-in ballots off the table.
There are reforms that could keep the president from taking this tack. To account for postal delays, states can pledge to count ballots postmarked on or before Nov. 3, so that they're included in the total even if they arrive late [some states require ballots to be delivered, not postmarked, by Election Day]. To speed up the process, states could permit election officials to verify and count mail-in ballots even before [November 3rd]. They could also decline to release results until all polls close and all votes are in. News organizations, similarly, could set expectations for viewers and bring as much transparency as possible to vote counts and other forms of election analysis [yes, in theory, they could].
Nonetheless, there is a chance that the president takes this path regardless of state officials and the media. And there's every reason to think that some portion of the Republican Party will back him. The Txxxx campaign and the Republican National Committee are already challenging mail-in voting laws and suing to keep states like Nevada and Pennsylvania from enlarging their scope. . . .
The best defense for the president's political opponents is, if possible, to vote in person. For some, this will mean going to the polls in November, in the middle of flu season, when the spread of Covid-19 may worsen. In most states, however, there are multiple ways to cast or hand in a ballot. Every state offers some form of early or absentee voting, and 33 states — including swing states like Arizona and Wisconsin — allow absentee voting without an excuse. Txxxx supports absentee voting — it's how his older supporters in Florida vote — and his opponents should take advantage of the fact that those systems won't be under the same kind of attack. Many vote-by-mail states also offer drop boxes so that voters can deliver ballots directly to the registrar. And if you must mail in your ballot, the best practice would be to post it as early as possible, to account for potential delays. . . .
There you have it. To head off the worst outcomes, Txxxx must go down in a decisive defeat. He's on that path already. The task for his opponents is to sustain that momentum and work to make his defeat as obvious as possible, as early as possible. The pandemic makes that a risk, but it's a risk many of us may have to [actually, should] take.
This entry was posted in Life, Politics and tagged 2020 Election, Postal Service, The Evil Among Us, Voting by Larry Franz. Bookmark the permalink.


I have spent the last hour giving my maid instructions in the most basic of her duties – cleaning.
Yes, I agonise a lot about my househelp, but that's because in Uganda we insist on getting people out of their muddy hovels in remote villages and bringing them to the city to help keep our tastefully appointed houses clean and orderly.
We get primary two drop-outs with no considerable history of interaction with electricity and charge them with operating flat irons, microwave ovens, electric cookers and, in extremely misguided cases, vacuum cleaners.
Which is why my current maid – the first one I have found close to acceptable in decades of actively loathing domestic help – has had me frustrated for the last one hour of my life.
I am in no way related to her but these people have a tendency of calling you 'Uncle' or 'Aunt', which I prefer to the first-name basis some people go for with their domestics.
But today I wasn't taking a 'me no understand' from anyone. I emerged from my chambers to inspect the breakfast offering and caught her wiping the fridge door with a dirty rag – to be precise, a tea towel that has probably been in residence for a year or so.
Tea towels cost an average Ushs1,500 each (as low as Ushs500 if you are a sensible shopper but as high as Ushs6,000 if you insist on doing your shopping in high-end 'malls'), and we have a policy of buying a couple every other week just so the crockery stays clean.
That policy is supposed to be complemented by a disposal system that should rid us of filthy rags such as was wiping the fridge door this morning, but the maids can never seem to get the point of throwing old things away.
Taking the lesson from the very top, I explained (again) the origin of man and disease, the risks associated with the ingestion of germs, the folly of poor hygiene, and the damage to one's face that could be caused by the rapid acceleration of my hand with the full weight of my arm pivoting outwards as would have resulted if she did not immediately dispose of all tea towels older than three months old.
Thus, she grasped the point.
The excitement going round at the installation of a new cabinet is palpable (another one of those words we always like to use regardless of what they mean).
The last cabinet we had was fantastic when we first put it in, but the newspapers started messing it up within a very short time.
I have always detested newspapers for this purpose but everyone seems to think that's what they are for, so whenever we have a new cabinet put in place newspapers go into action before anything else.
1. The edge of the newspaper curls up in that funny way and gets in the way of the door closing.
2. The newspapers turn dirty brown after some time and you just know that the cups and plates are full of germs.
3. The moment you place a cup or plate inside the cabinet without drying it thoroughly, the newspaper is gone.
4. And don't get me started on the time you pour yourself a much needed hot cup of tea, take a sip and …ugh! Newspaper bits!
The literary Jedi, that is.
This morning I watched the most magnificent traffic jam building up in Kampala, from the Mulago roundabout all the way to the Uganda Wildlife Authority offices in Kitante.
It was so neat I suspected that Events Warehouse or Silk Events were putting it together. By the time I got to the junction at John Babiiha Avenue I was fighting the temptation to park somewhere and watch the progress.
If I were Chinese I'd probably have set up a betting table and posted odds on how far the jam would go. Then, I'd have gotten cronies to place bets on Bukoto, around Kabira Country Club.
A little bit more entrepreneurship would have had me funding popcorn stands along the way for people to enjoy the show with snacks in hand.


text:
Becoming Inspired, Cultivating Awareness, Encouraging Creativity, Energizing Your Dream, Moving out of Limitation
What Will Change in You When You Make the Choice You Really Want?
I remember using the pros and cons method for choosing the college I went to. That gave me the understanding that I preferred a large, coed university with an international program. What it didn't do was help me understand how a college education could help me learn how to develop authentically as a person, and in that way, help me find a career path that genuinely interested me.
That's where coaching could have been very useful in offering me different ways to make new, aware choices for learning, expanding my skills, and becoming the person I really am. The choice-making options that coaching offers include what Joshua Rothman in "The Art of Decision-Making" describes as—
Maximizing values— understanding what's really important to you— and making choices based on those values
Diverse perspectives— seeing your situation from different angles— helping you see aspects you hadn't thought of in making a new decision
Old self into new self— when a choice point requires that you open into a completely new way of engaging with your life
Aspiring to new values— aspiring to a new direction that interests you, but you don't know why or whether it could be right for you
The following example shows how using values and perspectives helped lead a client of mine from aspiring to a new way of working to shifting into a new self— that is, opening into a completely new way of engaging with his desired work and his whole life.
Matt, a corporate manager in his early forties, turned to coaching because he felt stultified in his career. He aspired to creating his own business, but wasn't sure that he was the type who could do well working for himself. When he came for coaching, he first wrote out a list of his values, which included— family, financial freedom, environment, and living authentically. Then we did the coaching exercise, "Perspectives," which helps people explore different choices or options by encouraging them to push the boundaries of what they feel is possible.
With Matt, I used "Perspectives" to explore his attitude towards "working outside the box." The perspectives he chose to explore included "Critic" and "Dolphin." As I guided him through each perspective, I encouraged him to stand in different places, close his eyes, breathe, feel the sensations in his body, and visualize his internal energy level, "environment," and attraction to that perspective.
He felt the fear in his contracted body sensations of the "Critic" as he thought about working outside the familiar corporate container. The "Critic" reminded Matt that it would not be easy to have the same level of financial ease and daily structure outside the corporate environment. Matt felt a deep weight inside his chest, as if his heart were closing down.
Ultimately, however, Matt chose the the "Dolphin" perspective to help him find a way to work "outside the box." He realized that his new "Dolphin" attitude gave him energy for taking action on his dream. It also supported the purposefulness of his commitment to his family and the environment. It felt good, both physically and emotionally — excellent intuitive reasons for going with his new choice!
Matt then learned about the steps he needed to take to start his own consulting business with pro-environment action groups, and began doing this kind of work on a part-time basis. As he stepped into his chosen way of working, he said he felt as if "a huge weight had released from his chest" and he was "coming back" to who he really was.
Synchronistically, the company he worked for was downsizing, and offered Matt the option of leaving his corporate position with a sizable severance pay. Because he was now emotionally and financially prepared to leave, Matt's career transition became a deeper, transformational change. He left a career whose purpose was defined by others— and became a person who worked and lived out his own, immeasurably more satisfying purpose,
What Makes Taking a BIG RISK for Change Worthwhile?
Making a change that will radically shift your life involves taking a risk that is a definite challenge to what is known and familiar to you. Such challenges can be external, involving changing professions, investing capital to create change, or moving to a different place. But at a transformational level, taking a BIG RISK involves changing from within yourself, too. What is a BIG RISK to one person will not necessarily be the same BIG RISK to someone else with a different personality, skills, and life experience.
The bigger the challenge is to a person, the bigger the risk will seem. My client Jessica was a parent considering whether to publish a book she'd written about a controversial subject she was passionate about— bullying in public schools. Her son had been bullied when he was younger, and this had seriously impacted his sense of well-being.
But for her, even thinking about publishing this book was like being in a nightmare of having to solo pilot and land a small plane in dangerous terrain without total confidence in her equipment or or her ability to fly.
Jessica came for coaching because she felt stuck, almost paralyzed, with fear. She'd written her book, but was afraid to publish it because of possible harmful consequences to her and her family. So I started by having her define what the value was to her in taking on such a huge challenge. While privacy for herself and her family was important to her, with her son in college, she felt a renewed inner drive to publish and voice her concerns about bullying at school.
Coaching gave Jessica a safe, supportive place to talk freely about the meaning to her of putting her book out in public. In this way, I heard her compassion and empathy for those children who were bullied and whose lives at school became a horror. She began to feel compassion for herself in her struggles with her fear of creating this genuine transformative change. She also felt more supported and grounded in planning for a big leap forward.
It's important to remember that taking a BIG RISK to make a change that matters vitally to you is not about the absence of fear. It's about becoming aware that fear indicates the presence of a new and larger possibility in your life. One way to do this is by acknowledging what success really means to you. Taking on the challenge of making a change that emotionally engages you is what makes taking the risk worthwhile.
Jessica now saw the risk she was taking as "My BIG Adventure!" What will be your reward? I asked her. She replied, "The adventure itself, learning to fly freely by motivating others to stop bullies in schools!"
Next, Jessica planned smaller action steps she could take to accomplish her mission. Using the metaphor of trying to land a small plane safely in dangerous, unknown territory, she saw that she could prepare by having her equipment (her book) carefully inspected before flight time (by her editor and her friends reading over her manuscript). She could be trained in making emergency landings (learning how she could handle criticism of herself and her book); and very importantly, learn to not to be hijacked by fear.
She recognized how vital it was to have understanding friends and professional/ emotional support people to help her through any challenges that would arise after her book's publication.
She checked out the terrain of who she wanted to read her book, and made a list of her allies in getting the book out with positive reviews from teachers, other educators, and parents she knew. She had in-person and online talks with these people and began to get contacts for interviews on the radio, newspapers, education journals, and online sources. Jessica felt excited, and increasingly confident of her vision to change public school culture by creating zero-tolerance for bullying.
At a deeper level, Jessica found her inner well of inspiration to create something bigger than herself of true value in the world— making a beneficial contribution to young, vulnerable people. In transforming her fear of taking her BIG RISK to go forward with her book publication, Jessica felt empowered to meet the challenge of getting to where she really wanted to go!
"You shifted perspectives . . . You allowed your heart to open. You let the bird out of the cage. You are flying!" — Pamela Hale, Flying Lessons
Moving out of Limitation, Accessing Body Energy, Self-Confidence
Feeling Stuck? Try a Radical Shift in Perspective!
Have you ever felt completely stuck as a professional— trying to find work you love, or having to do work you do not love at all? It happens to everyone at certain times, really jarring your sense of yourself as a competent, resourceful, purposeful, even worthwhile, person in the world.
What can you do when you feel stuck like that to get your creative juice going again? One thing you can do is get into a radically different perspective from the one you
are in. If you can't do it for yourself, get in contact with a friend or colleague who's empathic, but not stuck, and allow something new to emerge in talking together that turns your mind in a totally different direction. Coaching, too, can offer this kind of experience, as I shared once in a rather dramatic encounter.
It was early in my coaching career, and I was invited to give a presentation at a support group for people in mid-life seeking jobs. I came early to watch how the group worked together and found myself looking several times at a participant who moved very strangely, I thought. He wasn't disabled, but his body seemed all at odds with himself. Even standing still, one shoulder was significantly higher than the other, and his whole torso was somewhat askew. But most particularly, his face looked out vaguely, seemingly without focus.
From my training as a somatic facilitator, I had an intuitive thought that he might be inwardly distressed from the sheer drudgery of waking up daily for months, maybe more than a year, to the endless round of the job search process.
Then it was my time to talk to the group about career transitions. Throughout the room, the energy was tired, low, and discouraged, so I led some exercises designed to help people expand their vision or sense of possibilities. I felt it might be interesting to the group to offer a mini-coaching session for one person that everyone else could tune into.
There was only one concern I had— I hoped I wouldn't have to coach this particular man, who seemed so out of touch with himself, in a limited, 15-minute session. Of course, he was the only person to raise his hand.
He literally shuffled forward to the front of the room. His energy level was almost at zero. I asked him what he'd like to be coached on. He mumbled something about finding a new job. In response to my question about what he'd really like to be doing for work, he responded with litanies of positions he'd held and positions he was applying for. There was no uplift to his voice anywhere, no opening I could elicit.
I felt myself as stuck as I've ever been as a coach until, out of sheer desperation, I seized upon an inspiration. "Barry," I said, "What is it that you can tell us about yourself that none of us here knows?"
Suddenly, there was an amazing shift in Barry's posture and stance. His body literally unwound and righted itself. He took the microphone in his hand, actually smiled, and, speaking clearly and audibly to the group, told us about his joy in volunteering as an auctioneer to raise money for a nonprofit group he supported. He had such poise and passion as he told us about what he did with this work, that the group in front of him clapped and cheered. He beamed. For the first time in a long time Barry received affirmation for what he truly loved to do and who he truly was as a whole person.
In the 2013 movie Her, Theodore, a professional writer of personal letters, is emotionally and professionally stuck. His upset over the failure of his marriage leads him to start a new, unorthodox relationship with a specialized operating system in his computer named Samantha. Having a completely open mind without conventional limitations, Samantha invites him to join her in a connection that will bend his mind open and jumpstart his whole life.
When Theodore asks her how she works, she replies, "Well, basically I have intuition . . . But what makes me me is my ability to grow through my experiences. So basically, in every moment I'm evolving, just like you."
Falling in love with Samantha, Theodore finds that he's opening to a more playful and expansive approach to life that unsettles him, but brings him new awareness and fulfillment with his intimate and professional relationships.
I don't know what happened next with Barry's job quest, but it was clear that he'd had a transformative and breakthrough moment. He finally acknowledged to his support group that he knew what it was to work in a heart-centered way— and that that was what he really wanted.
Calling on intuition, Moving out of Limitation, Transforming fear
Transforming Fear into Heart-centered Ways to Work and Live
Recently I spent a few days exploring some of the high desert terrain of the Mojave desert in southern California, enjoying the experience of being in space inhabited by massive stones and a surprising diversity of flowering plant life given the extreme limitation of water.
Being in the desert in springtime and seeing wildflowers emerging from spiny cacti or growing at the feet of enormous, ancient boulders made me think of my work in helping people move out of limitation and blossom into new ways to work and live. We humans have so many talents, skills, and creative abilities, it's such a loss that we spend the time we do feeling limited in what we do, how we love, and how we live our "wild, precious" lives— until we learn to wake up and feel our intuition guiding us in new directions.
What I've noticed is that when you try to limit change in your life— mostly out of fear— you hold back from your own intuition that tells you when you've outgrown a particular path and would do better to move on in a new direction. We get intuitive promptings every day about what we want to do and don't want to do. Many times we ignore them, because we're afraid they might tell us that we're tired of certain ways of living and working— and that we could risk losing what we've already got.
Ongoing stress, pain, and illness are common body signals that you're not in balance or that you're losing touch with what you're doing in your life. Emotional signals such as burnout and disengagement with your usual activities in your career or in other places in your life can also indicate that fear of a necessary change is present.
And when you ignore spiritual messages such as significant dreams, or a lack of spirit or purpose— you risk over time damage to your health, wholeness, connection with others, and pure sense of aliveness.
Because I know how important it is to become aware of our fear of change in our desire come alive and bloom fully and successfully, I'm now making my webinar— Facing and Transforming the Fear of Change (based on my book, Success with Soul— Loving Your Livelihood, Living in Balance)— available for purchase.
In this webinar, I describe why and how fear holds people captive from enjoying the work they do and the lives they lead. With special exercises, I help you connect with your awareness as the first step to transforming fear into the energy and focus you need to move forward— towards living and working authentically and well.
This 45-minute webinar is sponsored by Living Forward— a heart-centered coaching & training group in Chicago developed by my wonderful colleague, coach and trainer Suzanne Ness, MS, CPCC. For more information and to order, please click here.
"When you hold back, [your life] holds back . . . But when you commit, it comes on like blazes." -- from Art and Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland
Moving out of Limitation, Transforming fear, Transformational Change
Facing and Transforming the Fear of Change— New Webinar, March 22, 2017
Most of you receiving this message know that I'm a certified life coach who works extensively with people who are creating heart-centered career and life-balance changes to live fully and well. To do this successfully, it's vital to understand not only what calls you forward, but also the ways in which fear holds you back from making the changes you need to work and live with fulfillment and satisfaction.
As Tara Brach, PhD— therapist, international meditation instructor, and author of Radical Acceptance— says, "When we live with fear, we spend our time and energy defending our life rather than living it fully."
Are you spending too much of your time feeling stuck and just defending your life? Learning to recognize your fear of change will help you clear your mind and your energy so you can develop the life you truly want to live.
Fear of change is a way of staying small and limited in your outlook and your actions. Becoming aware of the impact of this fear, however, is the first step towards moving forward and creating transformative change from your heart.
If you're feeling stuck and want to make new changes that matter to you, I invite you to join me for my webinar, "Facing and Transforming the Fear of Change," on Wed., March 22, 2017, at 4 PM PDT/7 PM EDT. This webinar is part of the series, "Being Human," sponsored by Living Forward, LLC.
For more information and to register for this webinar, please click here.
Awakening Self-Compassion, Moving out of Limitation, Opening Your Heart
Self-Compassion— Easing the Path of Change
There's been so much out there on the internet this past year about compassion— not just for others, but also for ourselves. Why do we need to be compassionate towards ourselves? When is this necessary? And how can self-compassion help us ease the potential for failure when we take new risks to change the way we work and live our lives?
In general, I feel that many people I've met in my life tend to be much kinder and more supportive of others on a regular basis than of themselves. There are reasons for this in our upbringing. Many of us were taught at home to be kind and to consider the feelings of others. But how many of us were brought up to be gentle and considerate of ourselves when we've made mistakes or had a hard time at school, work, or in a close relationship? Many high-achieving people I know were more often taught to get up and go at it again, without learning to acknowledge that we're allowed to make mistakes and be less than perfect— and still be caring and effective people.
In an interview on the radio show, Wise Counsel, Kristen Neff, PhD.— author of the book, Compassion-- The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, and co-creator with Christoffer Germer of the highly regarded Mindful Self-Compassion training program— she states that "probably the number one reason people aren't more self-compassionate is that they confuse it with self-indulgence. They really think that they need self-criticism to motivate themselves, and that if they were kind to themselves, they would basically let themselves get away with anything."
Neff adds, "It's almost easier to give yourself compassion if you're thinking of yourself as someone else." If a friend were upset, for example, that she didn't do well with a job interview, you would be very unlikely to take her to task, tell her how she's always so unprepared or unfortunate— those things you're so much more willing to tell yourself. Does batting yourself on the head over and over help motivate you to try again, perhaps in a new ways using some different skills? Probably not!
So as a professional who helps people make career and other life transitions, I'm grateful to Neff and others who are actively researching the role of self-compassion in working and living our lives fully. A key finding is that it's much more motivating to treat yourself humanely, with kindness and understanding, than endlessly criticizing yourself for wrong turns, lapses, and errors of judgement.
I'm glad to be reminded of this, since one thing I know well from my clients' journeys and my own is that making changes and taking risks— even to manifest the dreams and goals you really want— can be very challenging at times. The bigger the changes you go for, the more unknown the territory, the greater is the likelihood of missteps and big mistakes.
That's why in the form, "What I Ask of You," that I give to all new clients, I repeat the message about self-compassion during the process of making changes several times in different ways:
- Just do your best. There is no "perfect" way to do things.
- Remember that change-- even change that we choose for ourselves-- is reliably uncomfortable at times.
- Accept both your successes and your failures along the way. Every step you take is good learning that can help you create your vision for yourself.
- Be compassionate towards yourself.
In my exploration of other research projects on how being compassionate to ourselves can positively affect our ability to make positive changes in our lives and in the world, I was also intrigued by this insight from Jean Fain, psychotherapist and teaching associate at Harvard Medical School, and author of the book, The Self-Compassion Diet— A Step-by-Step Program to Lose Weight with Loving-Kindness: "Self-compassion is the missing ingredient in every diet and weight-loss plan. Most plans revolve around self-discipline, deprivation and neglect."
So in your quest for achievement-- with your new eating habits, your work, or your relationships-- remember that you, like everyone, will screw up or just plain fail in certain ways, at certain times, in the journeying. You are not alone. You do not have to punish yourself in order to make positive changes in how you work, live, and are within yourself. This is what it is to be human. We are fallible, AND we can learn from our mistakes and hold the light for ourselves, as well. As poet Mary Oliver writes:
love what it loves.
So the next time you feel you're off-track, stop, take a few deep breaths, rest your hand on your heart with loving understanding for your discomfort, know you can learn from your mistakes, get up off your knees, re-calibrate your course with caring and compassion.
Moving out of Limitation, Heart-Centered Livelihood, Opening Your Heart
Love from the Heart of Wood— A Valentine to Passion, Boundlessness, and Resilience!
Here's a classic romantic love poem stanza I'd like to share for Valentine's Day! What I get from it is that love is boundless, passionate, and enduring. Elizabeth Barrett Browning grew up in London in the 19th century, an invalid under the restrictive oversight of her Victorian father. She freed herself through expressing her soul through her poetry (for which she was famous). This ultimately led to her meeting, falling in love with, and marrying the poet Robert Browning, who literally helped her liberate herself from her father's home— leading her to a new life in Florence, Italy, where she blossomed, as a person and a writer.
A different sort of valentine, but one that shares Elizabeth Barrett Browning's feeling for the passion, boundlessness, and endurance of love are the words below of George Pocock— the migrant English builder of state-of-the-art crewing shells (boats) in the first half of the 20th century. Pocock was also the soul partner of the varsity crewing coach, Al Ulbrickson, at the University of Washington, brilliantly detailed in the book, The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown.
As mentor to Joe Rantz— a member of the crewing team that won the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, Pocock would meet with Joe to talk with him and help him find his inner core as an athlete and a person:
Joe crouched next to the older man and studied the wood and listened intently. Pocock said the rings told more than a tree's age; they told the whole story of the tree's life over as much as two thousand years. Their thickness and thinness spoke of hard years of bitter struggle intermingled with rich years of sudden growth….
As Pocock talked, Joe grew mesmerized. It wasn't just what the Englishman was saying, or the soft, earthy cadence of his voice, it was the calm reverence with which he talked about the wood— as if there was something holy and sacred about it— that drew Joe in. The wood, Pocock murmured, taught us about survival, about overcoming difficulty, about prevailing over adversity but it also taught us something about the underlying reason for surviving in the first place. Something about infinite beauty, about undying grace, about things larger and greater than ourselves. About the reasons we were all here….
Pocock paused and stepped back from the frame of the shell . . . carefully studying the work he had so far done. He said . . . it wasn't enough to master the technical details of it. You had to give yourself up to it spiritually . . . When you were done and walked away from the boat, you had to feel that you had left a piece of yourself behind in it forever, a bit of your heart.
What is love? From these special "valentines," I believe that feeling and sharing love is the foundation of all the well-being and success in our lives-- because love endures in the heart of the wood, is resilient, has infinite beauty and undying grace, and is, finally, larger than ourselves and who or what we love.
Moving out of Limitation, Self-Confidence, Transformational Change
The World Series and Beyond-- If You Can't Trust Your Gut, Get a Coach!
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that no matter how much you did you simply couldn't change the outcome so that you felt alive and purposeful? Sometimes it takes someone else with the experience and ability to see your potential to help you break out of an inner prison and live out your true purpose.
Read on and consider what the San Francisco Giants' baseball team manager, Bruce Bochy, did for Travis Ishikawa to build his confidence and motivation to the point of hitting the winning home run that's sending the Giants to the ultimate baseball competition, the World Series.
"For all the wives or parents who might be trying to convince a baseball player to grow up and abandon his dream, Travis Ishikawa just ruined things. In this most unlikely of post season runs [for the San Francisco Giants], the moment belonged to the most unlikely player of all. A 31-year-old journeyman who had considered abandoning the game just months ago."--Ann Killion, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/17/14
A journeyman, in baseball speak, is a player who's been around, maybe playing more in the minor leagues than the major leagues, not accepted as a primary player on a major league team, at least, not for long. (Think Robert Redford in the film, The Natural.) What fascinates me most about the Giants is the back stories of its players and in particular, now, Ishikawa, age 31 (starting to get old for baseball) and how he was even on the team that day at all. Earlier this year, Ishikawa was talking with his wife, wondering if his dream of playing baseball for a major league team was over and he should try some other line of work.
Then last Thursday, the Giants won a crucial, nail-biting game against the St. Louis Cardinals due to Ishikawa's towering home run during the last inning, sending the Giants on to the World Series!
What made Ishikawa break on through to the other side? There were many factors. One, certainly, was that he kept patiently practicing throughout his time of self-doubt. However, a huge break for him was that the Giants' head manager, Bochy, saw untapped potential in Ishikawa that he himself didn't see, mentored his development over the first few months, and backed him at a critical moment in that final game when he might have been pulled out for letting the other team score.
All of which led to Ishikawa being at bat and making a vital home run just when it was needed most. "'I've got to thank Bochy, Ishikawa said, "He knows what he's doing. I trust his gut."
That's the important thing-- when you're feeling stuck and finding it hard to trust your own gut, it's vital to have someone at your back who sees and trusts what you can really do-- and helps motivate you to do it. That's a big part of why and how coaching works-- beyond baseball-- for people who who need support in building their self-confidence and achieving the successful outcomes they really want!
Calling on intuition, Moving out of Limitation, Taking Risks
The High Cost of Ignoring Your Calling-- or Why to Work and Live Authentically!
Following the recent publication of my book, Success with Soul-- Loving Your Livelihood, Living in Balance, I've received more inquiries from people from a wide variety of professions, from medicine to engineering, from architecture to the food industry, in non-profits and private companies, about their deep desire for authentic work and lives in balance. The blog post below on this topic is based on a talk I had with Gregg Levoy, motivational speaker and former journalist, and is excerpted from my book and from an article published in 2011 in the International Coach Federation e-zine:
Gregg Levoy was a journalist who got the call, but, as he writes in his book, Callings-- Finding and Following an Authentic Life, "Like most people, I will not follow a calling until the fear of doing so is finally exceeded by the pain of not doing so." In his own case and those of others he has interviewed, he has noted that "the more we make a claim for our own vitality, the more we help others do the same." And what is vitality? Vitality is our energy and passion to live fully, to discover our purpose, to awaken to the gifts we have to offer and not just get by -- on the job, in our relationships with others-- in the short amount of time we have on this planet.
Drawing from American Medical Association research findings that "the majority of heart attacks occur around nine o'clock on Monday mornings" (when many of us are going back to work after the weekend), Gregg noted that many people are, "more precisely, going back to work [they] don't like, work that doesn't match [their] spirits, work that can literally break your heart."
What fears have locked you into a corner-- loss of income, what others will think of you, no future security (rather less of this these days), no longer belonging to a certain group, losing prestige? When is the cost of ignoring your own inner promptings for change too high? How much do you have to suffer or stuff down in your body and spirit before you listen to your own true needs and take the first step towards liberating your self, your work, your life? How much suffering are you causing others by not heeding your own call for professional and personal fulfillment?
I shared with Gregg the story of a man I met many years ago at a weekend retreat on "The Genius of Place" by my friend, Bob McGahey, in the Quaker-based community of Celo, North Carolina, just outside of Asheville. Jim was new to the area and rather quiet, but when Bob talked about listening to the calling of one's spirit and the land, he stepped forward, turned paper white, and fainted on the spot.
Following this dramatic scene, Jim told us that he had been a salesman for many years in Los Angeles, driving thousands of miles a year, and was feeling burnt out. So he began exploring alternative places to live and work in the United States. Over the past year, he said, he had been having an insistent feeling inside that he was "dying" by living in LA. So he began exploring alternative places to live and work in the United States.
On a hunch, based on some reading he'd done, he came out to Asheville, saw an ad for Bob's retreat, and felt that he was called to be there. Shortly thereafter, he gave up his job and home in LA, and moved to Asheville to begin a new way of working and living that let him be part of a more accessible, smaller-city environment.
I remember Jim often because of his visceral response to Gregg's question, "How do you know if a call is true for you?" Jim's call was so powerful that it resonated in his body and soul. In his book, Callings, Gregg described the impct of a major career risk he took: "I was scared to death-- and I knew I had to try it." So did Jim-- and it worked.
So if you're feeling on the edge, uncomfortable in your career despite material advantages, or as if you're just coasting through life, not living out your potential that wants to be expressed, just listen, truly listen within yourself. You may well be feeling a calling to wake up and take the step that can make all the difference in your life now!
Building Connection, Moving out of Limitation, Living Authentically
What Is It to Succeed with Work and Your Life?
This past weekend I saw an incredible play at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, Chinglish-- David Hwang's mind-bending play about cross-cultural miscommunication-- and I couldn't stop talking about it for hours afterwards! Since I've been writing an ebook this year about transitions to work you love that expresses your own authenticity, I particularly resonated with aspects of Chinglish that moved in this direction.
We first meet Daniel-- the American protagonist and owner of a small family sign-making business-- as he is acquiring a personal translator to help him in his business negotiations with local Chinese politicians and government bureaucrats. What the audience gradually learns is that Daniel desperately needs a contract with the Chinese in order to support his business and, thereby, redeem his self-esteem, which was mangled from a disastrous ending to his former career.
In the chapter in my book called "Defining Success in Your Own Terms," I note that:
"Often, a successful career or other life transition depends on your choosing a perspective to live with that gives light and meaning to your new direction. You may possibly not get the job you most wanted, but staying open to the possibilities of another one that you do get can bring unexpected rewards, such as new learning and new directions you might not have dreamed of. Or you may meet someone who helps change your life."
This is what Daniel experiences as he moves out of both linguistic and cultural ignorance in China to the new understanding that what he knows and expects is heard and understood entirely differently by the local government officials he needs to convince to buy his services. He moves in "new directions" he would never have dreamed of by allowing himself to be guided by an initially hostile woman, Xi Yan, the Vice Minister for Culture. For reasons only gradually explained, she becomes an ally, helping him redefine success for himself. In the process, he becomes a person with far more understanding of the bewildering wonderland of cross-cultural and woman-man miscommunications.
I wonder what Daniel would say if I asked him (as I do the readers of my book), "What did you need to change in your attitude or perspective to feel successful in your work and your life as a whole?" I suspect he might say "letting myself stay open to possibilities in the face of complete misunderstanding of my words, my intentions, and my culturally shaped expectations." For it was only in this way that his shame could transform into unexpected redemption for his work, and for his whole life.
When have you made a change in your attitude or perspective so that you felt successful in your work and your life as a whole?
Some Action Steps for You!
1) If you're planning to be in the San Francisco Bay Area, get tickets for Chinglish at Berkeley Repertory Theater-- until October 22nd!
2) If you, or people you know, are interested in finding work you love with a life in balance, keep reading my blog posts this fall for previews from my forthcoming book, Success with Soul-- Loving Your Livelihood, Living in Balance.


AG William Barr's dodgy behavior in today's hearing did nothing to assure Americans that he is playing an objective role in redacting Mueller's report.
Today, the House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) held a hearing on the Justice Department's budget. Since this was Attorney General William Barr's first appearance since the release of his controversial summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, there were several questions on the investigation.
Multiple reports ahead of the hearing added fuel to the mounting skepticism among Democrats and the American public (as polling indicated). In his 4-page summary of Mueller's nearly 400-page report, Barr took it upon himself to clear President Trump of obstruction of justice despite the fact that Mueller did not reach a conclusion. Some investigators on Mueller's team reportedly feel that Barr downplayed their findings. They've reportedly told associates that Barr mischaracterized their "alarming and significant" evidence of obstruction of justice. Some on Mueller's team also reportedly believe that although they did not find a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, the evidence of collusion they gathered was "compelling". Barr also didn't release the summaries Mueller's team reportedly drafted for the public to see.
These concerns drove the questions from many Democrats on the committee. Some key moments during the hearing included when Barr said he will not provide the full unredacted Mueller report to Congress, when he stated he will release a redacted version of the report within a week, when he refused to answer a question about whether President Trump has seen the report, and when he claimed he is reviewing the conduct of the FBI's Russia investigation.
Perhaps most notably, Barr refused to answer a question about whether the White House has been briefed on Mueller's report. The Attorney General insisted that he won't talk about the report until it's released. This is significant because Barr has previously assured the public the White House hadn't seen the report, but wouldn't provide that same assurance today. Given Trump's recent shifts in tone concerning the release of the report, the American people should know if the White House was read in. Later, Barr continued answering questions about the report, which makes this exchange seem even more like a dodge of that specific question.
Barr made some news when he claimed that he offered Mueller the opportunity to review his 4-page summary before he released it and that Mueller declined.
After testifying that the Inspector General investigation into the FISA process will be finished by June, Barr made some waves when he appeared to claim he was going to make a GOP dream come true. Reporting later confirmed that Barr has formed a team for this purpose.
Additionally, there was one response from Barr about hate crimes that raised eyebrows. Rather than acknowledging that hate crimes rose during the Trump administration, Barr claimed to be ignorant of data from his own department that found a 17% rise in hate crimes in 2017. Was Barr trying to protect the image of President Trump?
Barr says he has seen no data that indicates hate crimes have risen under the Trump administration.
There was also an interesting moment where Barr apparently indicated that he doesn't believe the DOJ's argument that Obamacare should be invalidated will prove to be successful.
Attorney General William Barr's dodgy behavior did nothing to assure Americans that he is playing an objective role in this process. Barr said he will redact info pertaining to "peripheral" characters that were not charged. How much info will he redact concerning the President? We will see if he delivers a substantial amount of the report to Congress in the coming days or if House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) will have to use the subpoena powers his committee voted to authorize.


We are so driven to re-unify our collective soul here on earth and to take up form that we have endured billions of years of evolution to do so. That we stand on the brink of being able to make the final walk over the abyss of our lower levels of consciousness and step fully into free will brings us to the altar of a kind of gratitude that defies gravity. It is in this space that we defy gravity for in that defiance, we remember our God selves, and never find it sweeter to be able to stand here and now upon this holy, sacred ground.
To stand on the shoulders of all that has come before and grab the golden ring requires us to take the great sacrifices of our ancestors and go for it. But we must never think that we do this just for ourselves alone. The truth be told, if we think that, then we are not totally in free will, yet. For free will understands that all that has come before is a part of us, as well as those who stand now who are not yet awake. For as we re-enter the garden as mature, free-willed, self-realized creator gods and goddesses, we are making the winning touchdown for the whole of creation.
Now entering the garden sounds fine and romantic. For sure it is, but not in the ways that we might think. Most of all, what it represents is our ability to live with each other, with other creator gods who have gone all the way within their own spirit, feel the strength of their own sphere of influence, touched their own divinity, and forged the will to love and live in peace with their kin. It could be said that there is no greater bliss than to meet your true kin. Kindred Spirits are not just your family, but are the people, animals, and places that speak to your heart, in such a way as to help you remember all that you have been, all that you are... and hints at what is to come.
The soul group is the final stage to the reunification of God/dess in the flesh. This is not something that can be spoken of, nor understood in a logical way. For when you begin to come together with your soul group, you are moving out of the path of suffering and into deeper aspects of yourself, the parts of you that are longing for a higher vibration so that the anguish of the separated self can be relieved of it's cosmic loneliness. Yet, it is not just a mental loneliness, or even sheerly emotional. It is intuitive and knowing that exceeds the physical senses. It is complete empathy, synthesis and cooperation for the glory of God... the glory of the people and this creation. For the Gift of this Earthwalk, the Gift of God is our Free Will... and the Gift of Free Will gives us the one thing of the great work; the freedom to Love.
Your only question here today is, Where am I not free to love? In a nation of gods in the making who were bound to experience the pillars of severity and mercy, science and art, yes's ad no's, right and wrong, good and bad, hot and cold, hard and soft, joy and sorrow.. will you come to understand your true nature, realize that you are at the top of the tree and that it is finally time to decide... Do you choose the middle path? Do you need the rod and the staff to prod you along? And if so, how hard do you want to be whacked with the stick? Or are you ready to listen to gentle voice of the beautiful mother within? Your own soul's whisperings that all beauty, joy, creativity, splendor and bliss is available to you here and now?
The choice is not yours, until you say so. You are not wrong. Thy will be done. So it is up to you to decide your world's fate. How do you choose to be in the world? Don't choose love and then continue to suffer. Realize that you need to go to the root of the cause and get right with the choice to choose. If you believe in free will, then you can open the doors to a whole new world. If you do not, then knowing this is a point of power. These are not simple choices. Your entire life experience is designed to help you remember who you are. Keep listening, allow yourself to experience the proof of life. One day you will decide to choose another way. In that moment your gratitude will come into its fullest measure of abundance within you. That is the day when you are truly abundance, for that is the day that you are fully free to love.
I honor my power of choice.
I notice where I am not free and open to more love.
I ask what would love see, what would love do?
Help me see through the eyes of love.
Soul friends and beloveds are part of my god self.
As I move closer to my higher self, I reunite with my soul group.
My soul group is here for me in ways I cannot imagine.
Love is an action, resulting in more love.
Love moves my soul to greater creativity.
As I seek to express my soul, my communication improves.
As my communication improves, what I saw heals myself and others.
My words and creativity inspire other souls to express.
Love is the highest art form.
Light is my canvas, love is my paint.
I paint my life with love and make a masterpiece.
My kindreds are my chosen family.
I recognize the divinity of my kin, and my soul friends.
Through my kinship with my soul friends, I heal my relationships with my family.
My family is healed and restored to dignity and honor.
Any deep family wounds are brought to a place of at-one-ment within my being.
I honor the sacrifice of my family in our spiritual partnership, and elevate this relationship into a higher vibration.
My life is a response to the prayers of my ancestors.
God and Goddess now live within me.
I manifest the Mother and Father God force within me for the greater good of my kindred.
Humanity is the Living God.
I am connected to the Light of Creation.
I love myself and I love others.
Church of Spiritual Light presents the 2018 Eleventh Annual Thanksgiving Feast and Giveaway Ceremony. Please bring your favorite holiday dish to share, as well as a small gift which will be given away to honor a very special sacred ancient ritual to show gratitude for our blessings. The gift can be anything that has meaning to you, including feathers, stones, figurines or sacred objects. In order to honor the energy it should be something that you love and not a cast off item.


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How do I add a secondary address to receive email notification?
Once logged in to ECF, select the Utilities menu > Maintain ECF Account option. Select the Email information tab located at the bottom of the screen. The next screen will display all of the current email information and allow modifications to be made. Under the "Send the notices specified below" option, place a check mark in the "to these additional addresses" box, and complete the email address in the text box provided; select the "Return to Account screen" tab at the bottom of this screen, then select the "Submit" button for final submission of changes. Continue through all the screens to update any cases as necessary.
What about Court generated documents that require certification?
On request, a copy of the document can be printed with the certification seal in the traditional manner. However, there is a fee of $11.00 per certification, plus $.50 per copy of the document.
Can an attorney authorize someone in the attorney's office (such as a paralegal, secretary, or etc.) to use the attorney's login name and password to file documents in CM/ECF?
Yes, this is often done in law offices. The Court recommends that such access be very limited and controlled. Anything filed under the attorney's login and password is deemed to have the attorney's signature on it.
Can an attorney add new attorneys to the database?
No. Only Court staff with appropriate permissions may add attorneys to the database as system users. However, it is possible for an attorney to add another attorney to a case and to the database during case opening. The new attorney would NOT have filing privileges. In order to obtain those privileges, the attorney must comply with the proper application to the Court to obtain a login and password.
How is payment of filing fees handled for CM/ECF cases?
Payment is accepted by credit card, debit card, and ACH. The Court accepts American Express, Mastercard, Visa, or Discover.
Can the general public view CM/ECF cases and the documents in those cases?
Access to view cases and documents in CM/ECF is available to anyone with a PACER login and password. PACER offers convenient electronic access to case file documents, listing of all case parties, reports of case related information, chronologies of events entered in the case record, claim registers, listing of new cases, judgments or case status, and a calendar of events. However, as a result of the policy recently adopted by the Judicial Conference, the public cannot view documents filed in civil social security appeal cases or criminal cases. To defray the costs of PACER and CM/ECF, the Judicial Conference has set a fee of ten cents per page for electronic court data via the Internet, except for calendar information, for which there is no charge. Parties entitled to documents as part of the legal process receive a free electronic copy, although they will be charged for replacement copies, whether in paper or electronic form. Additional information concerning PACER can be found on its website (www.pacer.uscourts.gov).
Can any member of the public use CM/ECF to file documents with a Court?
No. Full access to CM/ECF is available to authorized attorneys and trustees. On a limited basis, CM/ECF is available to high volume creditors and other professionals.
Can a creditor file a claim conventionally (paper)?
Being a paperless Court, we encourage filers to file their claim electronically. You may also file a claim via the internet without logging in to CM/ECF by filing a claim using our Electronic Proof of Claim Module. Please visit http://www.alnb.uscourts.gov/electronic-proof-claim for more information. For the filer who does not have a capability of filing electronically, the Court will accept the Proof of Claim "conventionally" (paper).
When paying for filings by credit card, what type of credit cards will be accepted?
VISA, Master Card, American Express, and Discover.
Will the Court scan all of the documents in the older case files after going live with CM/ECF?
No. The paper files will remain as they are now. After July 1, 2004, all files will be electronic.
Electronic Proof of Claims
Employment Dispute Resolution


Everyone knows that Koalas love Eucalyptus, but this Koala took his passion to a whole new level. He turns the leaves into beautiful origami sculptures.
You'll never find his intricate work in a gallery, however. He prefers leaving the pieces behind trees and floating down streams.