Views from the loch.: The naked truth!
I am sorry this is such a long letter however if I were to include all that took place during Mr Xxxxx's tenure it would be akin to Tolstoy's War & Peace! The purpose of this letter is not to make a chump out of Mr Xxxxx for he has done that himself, it is merely to set the record straight by means of verifiable facts! I apologise it has not been possible to send this by e mail but we still do not have the club database which he is keeping from us! As a member you obviously want the fishing to be the best it can be, we will show below just what you would end up with if one such as Mr Xxxxx got his hands on the reins!
By now I have no doubt you have received a rather woolly and very nasty and defamatory e mail from Mr Xxxxx our ex loch keeper outlining a whole host of imaginary grievances that he has. When he resigned he shouted in a loud voice that he would see the whole lot of us out and that he had a long memory and accusing the club officials of dishonesty and defrauding the club of large amounts of money! We still await proof of this allegation. When someone confronts you with a raised voice and threatening posture people usually assume they mean you harm and this is the way I interpreted his actions. Naturally the aftermath for the safety of others was that his membership of the club was terminated with immediate effect and later ratified by other committee members.
Mr Xxxxx is no longer a member of St Mary's Angling Club confirmed by his resignation and more importantly his subsequent dismissal. He is barred from fishing on the lochs and the length of that ban will be decided when the executive committee next meets. He said in his "letter" that he would not walk away from the club in which he has invested so much time and effort but correct me if I am mistaken that is exactly what he did do as written by his own hand and subsequently ratified when he was sacked! Under the terms of our lease we the club committee administer the fishing and are the ultimate arbiters of who can and cannot fish on our waters!
He claims a member postulated that he was "set up" by me, I do not think we have any members who are that stupid! Why would I bother to go to the trouble of fabricating an elaborate scheme to get rid of him when all that needed to happen was one member to complain and there is no shortage of them, the committee to meet and his dismissal be approved! Plain and simple, no prevarication, no schemes! To think of the times I had to defend him from angry members frankly makes me cringe!
Regarding a previous article on a shopkeeper the offending post was removed because of a copyright infringement due to my inexperience in such matters, yes like any other (excepting Mr Xxxxx of course) I do get it wrong sometimes. The man that never made a mistake never made anything! The thrust of my argument that unqualified people should not advertise themselves as fishing guides by means of a flashy website has been proved to be the correct viewpoint and is now universally accepted. Our site informs and protects the angling public from hiring an unqualified person who has no angling qualification, vetting certificate or emergency health training. These qualifications are now the expected minimum standard for anyone calling themselves a fishing guide! It was a long and tortuous journey but from huge feedback received it was very well received by anglers. Someone has to grasp the mettle and tackle wrongdoing and because of our actions anglers now have a higher quality and safer experience if they choose to hire one of these people! In effect our site is the bible for anglers seeking a fishing guide.
It's poetically comedic but when the "racial incident" took place Mr Xxxxx was among the most vociferous in his condemnation of people from a certain country. His war cry was always going out to hunt anglers from another country unfortunately he failed in this venture as can be seen from our news reports! It was a mistake in this politically correct climate but we complied fully with the request from the police to remove the poster. At no time did Mr Xxxxx raise any concerns about our initial stance. As for Mr Young having a quiet word with the inspector we agreed in open forum that such a stance would not be employed again! I doubt that Mr Xxxxx's reassurance if indeed it took place would carry any weight at all. As for me resigning over this incident I could see no reason at all for so doing as there was a consensus regarding our actions. If any resigning was to take place then all would have to resign! If I had cost the club half as much as Mr Xxxxx has then I would have no hesitation in resigning!
I won't descend into the gutter to return Mr Xxxxx's jibes and his erroneous remarks about my trade's union duties they are irrelevant, unfounded and legally actionable, I await the proof regarding this slur on my character? As for being thrown out of an angling club in Gala. I can tell you now such an event never took place, and once again I look forward to the proof of his unfounded spiteful allegations. When these are received I will publish them here. I left Gala Angling club after a spell on the committee in the eighties without a blemish on my character. Yet again he has defamed me by publishing two statements which are completely untrue and I challenge him to prove them!
Again with his statement that I pestered an old donkey to join the club committee he is wide of the mark again, can this man not get anything right? The real situation which was way before Mr Xxxxx appeared was in fact the contrary. The incumbents pestered me to join the committee as the person they wanted to be president refused the position. I was pressured into accepting the position lest the club fold which was a real possibility at this point as we had around a dozen member's mainly elderly fellows! Isn't it funny how actually being there allows you to recollect the real events that took place! Mr Xxxxx however shows extreme gullibility in taking as read the twisted hearsay from his "friends"! I really do wonder regarding Mr Xxxxx's cognitive abilities!
Mr Xxxxx really hits the bottom of the barrel when he tries to imply our Salmon day is a day out for the privileged few. Long before Mr Xxxxx appeared on the scene we secured the Salmon day as a prize in our competition and since we have the whole beat we expanded the outing to accommodate those who turn up for work parties to push the club forward. Incidentally Mr Xxxxx did not feature heavily in that respect for if he did he would have been invited to come along. Our other competitions are open to any member who wishes to fish just check our news pages to see our adverts asking for participants! Mr Xxxxx either cannot or does not fish for Trout so such a competition would be of no interest to him. Looks like another fail for Mr Xxxxx!
With regard to the wider world in the news page it is merely a bit of fun outlining my own views as the title suggests previously lauded by Mr Xxxxx himself, and if members wish it to cease then it will cease. No such request has been received. As for being a dictator it's obvious I'm not a very good one because any real dictator worth his salt would have had the likes of Mr Xxxxx removed from post a long time ago! I have a zero tolerance stance on Muppet like behaviour as do the committee and this will continue! It's worth reiterating here only one request to the committee has been refused in five years and that was Mr Xxxxx's outlandish request that we purchase two further engines!
Now regarding past loch keepers, he spoke to all of them from the last 30 yrs – No he didn't! Let me outline the circumstances which led to their leaving since newer members especially Mr Xxxxx will be unaware of the circumstances. One left because he did not turn up to furnish boats and engines to visiting Pike anglers who had travelled great distances (one group was from Manchester) to come and fish. This meant that I had to drop everything and severely inconvenience my customer and come up from Gala to kit them out and come back late afternoon to deal with the boats and engines as well as refunding part of the cost for time lost lest our reputation be trashed! I never once made any claim for any petrol or loss of earnings because of this. This deplorable situation continued for a couple of months before we called a halt and terminated his employment paying in full all that was due to him around £630.00 I seem to recollect.
Another restricted membership of the club forcing anglers to buy day permits on 10 occasions (on which 50% commission was paid) rather than taking out a membership on which no commission was paid and we still have current members who were affected by this scheme. Another just stopped turning up leading to me yet again having to step in and forsake my fishing and help the club out! Piotr finished with regret seeking to move to another part of the country and we still converse in fact I furnished him with a job reference only a few days ago. Another who gave us great service moved on to other things and again we parted on good terms. That is the real situation but then again Mr Xxxxx was not here to witness this but plenty others were! Facts always trump fantasy hearsay as Mr Xxxxx is finding out!
Mr Xxxxx goes on about unreasonable demands. All we ask of our loch keepers is to check and sell tickets, keep the boat house area clean and clean the boats with the help of others once a year. He was made aware of this when he commenced his job and agreed they were not onerous! In regard to our engines both engines are now running well and as usually happens our mechanically minded committee members will maintain them. Mr Xxxxx harps on about servicing the engines free of charge yet at the start of the season both were choked with overwintered fuel so that's an example of top notch servicing then! Mr Xxxxx highlights the poor condition of our Chinese engine and it's true it's in a bit of a state. What he did not tell you was that he dropped the engine and allowed it to fall smashing the undercarriage leaving loose components everywhere and causing god knows what internal damage. A relatively new and decent engine trashed!
When he phoned to tell me (that was in the good old days when he did report to us) he said not to worry as he had repaired it and indeed he had, it was like something constructed from a Meccano set in a Beano comic. Luckily one of the committee stepped in and formed a billet alloy handle which at least made it usable! His carelessness cost us dear and did we discipline him for this, we did not! I am now led to think our benevolence was severely misplaced! We did offer Mr Xxxxx £50 cash per engine for servicing but that was a starting point for a basic service comprising of plugs & oils and we asked him to come back with a different figure but he did not, any work beyond servicing would attract extra payment. On reflection it was probably for the best. Did I mention he broke the gear lever on our Mariner, a new one was only £40 but it took a whole day, time given up by Elliot Fraser to dismantle the engine from the prop shaft to fit the new one! A pretty decent record I don't think, the man is the embodiment of mechanical mayhem! Oh and there is a length of metal for that Lomond which will be fitted in due course. Once again everything here is verifiable from multiple sources unlike Mr Xxxxx's unfounded and vicious fiction!
Lack of communication is a two way process. Mr Xxxxx used to come round every week to fill us in on what had been going on but this stopped suddenly around the time of the engine scenario. At this time we knew his days were numbered. Regarding the rubbish, yes a member used to burn some but some rubbish will not burn, wet bait, tins and discarded foodstuff. Remember the fire was only to burn that members rubbish and that collected in the boat house, not the entire angling population of the lochs rubbish. I did move the ten bags of rubbish to the verge and hey presto it was gone the next day. I did mention that it might be possible to use the cafes bin and fair do that was not acceptable.
What is rather more difficult to understand is how such a well revered and connected man was not able to find another bucket among his many friends. We are only tolerated in the area he says but within a few days we were able to find a bin where our rubbish would be welcome! We have here a man with too much time on his hands, a huge chip on his shoulder and a vastly overinflated opinion of himself! Oh and Mr Xxxxx very kindly expressed concern for Les and yes he has had a torrid time of it this year. Now is that the same Les who you left to clear up the almighty mess you left when "clearing" the boat house front? It took him 3 weeks to get rid of all your rubbish, not showing much respect to our older members now are you! Incidentally all you achieved was to coppice the area now instead of trees there are branches everywhere. It nearly slipped my mind but I do believe you were going to stump the area will that take place anytime soon or was that another half job?
Now regarding the boat cleaning, he saw me mid afternoon scrubbing the boats but declined to help and I was left to get on with it as I have been for the last 3 years. Admittedly when he first started he did bring a pressure washer down to clean them but I think it packed in or something similar and the event did not take place. This same pressure washer was to be used to remove moss from the boathouse roof but again this did not take place! Our Arran boat being beached is a bit of a joke for a man that is around every day carrying out enforcement work. Surely a wee nudge as the level drops would see it back in the water, surely that's not beyond his intellect. I would have thought the "enforcement team" would have easily managed to push it into the water after all two lesser individuals (me and Elliot) got it afloat on Saturday in no time at all!
Mr Xxxxx mentions the two bags of cement as being the best bit and he is halfway there. Couple that with the massive beam he cut in half that we use as runners to haul in our boats (apparently it was to repair a boat he fished out of the Lowes and it doesn't even belong to him!) and we are 100% there! Mr Xxxxx was told in no uncertain terms to make use of any item after he had cleared it with us! I think he thought he was the loch supremo able to overrule anyone and do anything he liked without fear of challenge. No one else displays such arrogance everyone else including me clears it first. In fact the damning blow is if you extrapolate his thinking to a real world workplace how many employers would tolerate his way of working with employees removing equipment or consumables as they thought fit! As an employee the onus is on him to ask and the committee to adjudicate.
He says he had authority to use and replace anything he used, just how is he going to replace the 30ft long beam he cut in half that we use for pulling the boats into the boat house? It will cost us dear to replace this! After usage last week it appears our Lowes boat needs to come in for overwinter refurbishment by his thoughtless actions he has turned this simple task into major logistics operation. If you ever saw the Lowes boat recently I am sure you would think it was a paddling pool as it was always full of water! The weight of this water has pushed the sides apart breaking the joins to the floatation tanks yet another of his achievements. Past loch keepers at least had the sense to unscrew the drainage port to allow the water to drain out! He seems to make a habit of giving us extra work and costing us money. As for the members comments I can furnish many more who are astounded at his warped way of thinking and yet again he flounders against the facts.
I would certainly agree with Mr Xxxxx that chemistry is not his subject. The amount of bleach used to clean all the boats was 2 litres which had reacted with the large amounts of green algae on the boats rendering it harmless before it was discharged into the loch! The advice we were given by SEPA when a potential spill of 25 litres of high strength sodium hypochlorite was suspected of being dumped in the Megget was that we were not to worry as it would kill everything immediately where it spills out but would be inactivated and broken into harmless components in the process. That is why it is considered suitable as a household bleach. So two litres of inactivated bleach discharged into the bay doesn't really make it as wildlife crime of the century. In his increasingly desperate search to try and rubbish the committee this is another song and dance about nothing! At this point Mr Xxxxx says he asked me why I had not contacted him regarding the missing cement He did not get a wall of silence as he claimed rather he was told that like any other member if you want something you ask, he did not like that.
On club AGMs he has attended 3 AGMs, all of the committee have attended loads more and it is here that Mr Xxxxx's inexperience and superficial understanding shines through. Although he is a greenhorn had he bothered to ask he would have found we do not have the luxury of electing members of the committee because they are as rare as hen's teeth! Anyone attending such a meeting barring a fool would have deduced this! Everyone wants the fishing but no one wants the work so yes they are collectively appointed. If we did not do this the club would have folded many years ago. Oh and the club constitution which you quote shows again just how out of touch you are, it was amended six years ago to account for low turnouts. Collective appointment is by necessity not choice. He moans that half the committee never turn up, in fact again he shows his inexperience and superficial understanding because any committee member not being able to attend go out of their way to let us know, its common courtesy. Another triumph for facts over lies!
Now, the really nasty part in his "letter" where he hoped to drive a wedge between the committee members something he will not do, for we are resolute in our stance. We all say things that on reflection we probably should not have said. I have no recollection of the phrases cited by Mr Xxxxx in fact I would have thought they were more in his style! I have used Anglo Saxon expletives to describe many people as we all do, it is not done with malice in mind. The classic however is accusing me of calling a local hotelier a drug addict! I have no beef with the chap in fact as fellow bikers we get along well. Mr Xxxxx however has a longstanding feud with this chap over money. In fact when he was the loch keeper he was forbidden to enter his property to check anglers it fell to others to do this (me), which meant we ended up with a sort of part time restricted access loch keeper yes, he could only do part of the job, oops he must have forgot to pass that gem on!
You really do wonder how low some people will stoop to try and convince others, a whole paragraph devoted to name calling is complete childish nonsense but what we have come to expect of him. I have passed his "letter" to the hotelier with who I spoke at length on Saturday. This is something Mr Xxxxx would be unable to do! Whoever heard of a loch being administered by a man who is barred by one of the riparian owners from entering upon his land! Well I suppose there is always a first time! Sometimes the facts can sting, as they say "the truth often hurts"!
He appears a bit miffed that he has not made the top twenty when it comes to work done for the club. Believe me he is nothing when compared to others! He has just arrived and all of a sudden he is the self proclaimed saviour of the club. Quite frankly we do not need saving especially Mr Xxxxx's type of salvation. Was it not for the hard work of a few members you would not be able to walk into the club boathouse as the floor would have collapsed by now because the joist was rotten at the door! It took four members weeks to put right this damage coupled with much club money! Similarly we would not even have the boathouse as according to the terms of our lease it needs to be repainted every 7 years and we are hugely grateful to the lads all six of them who stepped in to help us out! We also installed the safety rail and landing on entry to the boat house to comply with health and safety regulations. Again Mr Xxxxx is oblivious to our many obligations!
I haven't been running the club single handed for years as he claims rather with the aid of a group of others every one of whom pushes Mr Xxxxx into the shade. Mr Xxxxx seems to think I have no opinions I believe he now thinks differently, oh and the Archers are on a Sunday. Mr Xxxxx is keen to blow his own trumpet regarding his status in the area I know many who sing a different tune. He alludes to the incident with the dogs at Riskinhope where a member was bitten by an out of control dog. The police issued a warning to the offending shepherd (one time Mr. Xxxxx's drinking pal) and we would take the same course of action again. Again he relies on hearsay as the mainstay regarding our journey, pity he wasn't there to get the facts straight because others were. Clearly he is a man on the outside looking in!
On our engines it seems Mr Xxxxx once again is sadly lacking, we do not have two outboards we have four (two of which are spares) and the white one he mentions does not even belong to the club it belongs to me and Les and is in fact working. He has been with us for 3 years and he seems to be unaware of the simplest things! As already mentioned the Chinese engine is not in the best of condition mostly thanks to Mr Xxxxx but will be under heavy repair soon. He goes on to say our engines should be out every weekend and through the week, clearly the voice of a novice! Obviously the concept of sustainable fishery management has completely passed him by and exposes his complete lack of understanding as to how a wild fishery runs! The lochs are not a stocked commercial fishery and using the above formula the lochs would become barren in no time at all with massive overfishing, injured and dying fish all over the place. I find it strange that in his "letter" to members he never once mentioned keeping our lochs sustainable, all the words pointed to increased revenue which would benefit him, maybe he was trying to turn our part time job into a full time one with commensurate wages! He has not a clue regarding our population of fish or how to sustain them, thank your lucky stars he has nothing to do with the club!
Interestingly over the last few weeks I have sold over £200.00 worth of tickets and as I do not take any commission the club has an extra £100.00 and there will be more! Collecting today from our other sellers we are another £100 up looks like Mr Xxxxx not being here has no effect on us at all. At this point I must thank all our permit sellers you are doing an absolutely splendid job, thank you!
We have permission from SNH for two petrol outboard engines (again he is oblivious to this) as the lochs are a SSSI, if we wish any more we would have to justify this with concrete evidence supporting our request and we do not have any. Stating we would like our loch keeper to earn extra revenue is pretty flimsy stuff and is against our long term vision for the lochs. He wants anglers everywhere which will generate lots of cash for himself whereas we and the majority of our members want a sustainable fishery!
A survey which was carried out for us by a leading ecologist gave us an idea of the angling pressure the lochs could sustain and we restrict angling to remain within these parameters. Now this is becoming extremely tiresome but this chap seems to have no understanding whatsoever regarding our history and the way we operate! The engines were never purchased to earn us money, they were primarily provided merely as a service to members and secondly visitors. This statement has appeared many times in our news pages. We expect at the end of their commercial life to have made a significant loss on them! We could not justify spending large amounts of money on a resource that is little used. Running the club along the lines of a commercial fishery will lead to the death of the club in a very short time something that we found out in 2006 by accident, again something he knows nothing about. Mr Xxxxx tries to imply that only he knows the way forward for the club. The reality is however before he even arrived we had been through all the so called "improvement" scenario's he envisages! In ideas and actions we are years ahead of him! There is no substitute for experience when it comes to fishery management clearly from his "letter" Mr Xxxxx does not possess any, he is a lightweight!
He states we have no working engines in fact as of last Saturday we have two and two in reserve! Mr Xxxxx seems to be viewing the fishery as a business, maybe a cheeky bit of self interest there. Mr Xxxxx gives the impression that the loch keeper's job is akin to that of an estate gamekeeper giving him extra powers and kudos. We were going to get him a Scottish Office warrant card to give him increased powers but we decided jointly not to apply as rejection was a strong possibility! Both Ian and Piotr held such authority along with me and Les. Being our loch keeper is in fact a part time job that pays little has no extra status. Thus on the basis of being unable to justify the huge outlay and our wish to keep in pristine condition our fish stocks we have ignored his wish to increase angling traffic therefore increasing his wage and damning our fishery. We are here to serve the membership by seeking to provide and optimise the fishing so that members can have the best experience possible! There seem to be two opposing views here, what is best for Mr Xxxxx's pocket, and our view what is best for the members and the lochs!
Our Pike tagging project ran for five years and resulted in over 140 Pike being tagged from 2lbs to 24lbs 13oz. It gave us a fascinating insight into their growth, feeding habits and movement in the loch. It also showed the effects of poor angling and just how fragile these fish are. Our Pike would be absolutely decimated if Mr Xxxxx had his way and motorised boats were trolling about everywhere most days of the week. I think the above demonstrates clearly just how poor Mr Xxxxx's grasp of fishery management is if indeed he has any skill at all in this area. He claims expert knowledge with regard to Pike, that facet of his persona has yet to show itself! He was the one that proposed the club rule that Pike anglers rods should be no more than 30yards apart meaning an angler fishing 3 rods could have his rods spread over 90 yards! We had decided to give him a long leash and give him more autonomy in the club and this was the result. That one didn't go down well, certainly not coming from an expert. Increased autonomy was a mistake and we quickly reversed this freedom. It was in fact embarrassing fending off the negative comments that came in, that rule has now been rescinded! And he wonders why no one takes him seriously!
Mr Xxxxx was very keen to have a pier and indeed we did order cement and aggregate at Mr Xxxxx's behest however he made no attempt to start the project. He blames me for the non appearance of a digger; the digger would be supplied by the Selkirk flood protection works and will arrive when it arrives. No one on the committee has any favour in this matter and Mr Xxxxx certainly has no clout. Supply of this digger is entirely down to the flood protection people with two plus points – it will be supplied free gratis and it will have all the required consent to meet SEPA regulations when it arrives. Yet again all this seems to have flown straight over his head.
With regard to enforcement, the current situation is not ideal but much better than it was during the final six months of Mr Xxxxx's tenure, I have lost count of the number of anglers I had to issue permits to because Mr Xxxxx was AWOL. However as our new loch keeper starts in September the situation will change again. He says there is currently a free for all, not so. The angler at Bowerhope he mentions did in fact have a permit (a very nice chap with his wife and dog from the Cumbria region) and was approached not by one but by two of our agents one of whom was me. Incidents like this which clearly have been fabricated do I feel cast doubt over Mr Xxxxx's credibility with regard to speaking the truth! Mr Xxxxx is keen to highlight an incident of anglers cutting trees which I grant you is not good. He forgets however an episode two years ago when some of his personal angler friends were cutting trees opposite the secret swim something I had to sort out, I wonder where his crack enforcement team were then! There appears to be a touch of Walter Mitty syndrome here maybe watching too much Bodie and Doyle repeats on the TV. They were also missing when a group of foreign anglers drove into a field at the top of Riskinhope armed with a chainsaw and copious amounts of beer which again I had to sort out! He also seems to be unable to move on the cars parked on the grass verge in this area and on the small loch something which I have to do regularly.
Mr Xxxxx implies that if he is on the go illegal anglers would disappear; of course this is absolute nonsense and he knows it! Mr Xxxxx has no permission to be on the land of the Tibbie Shiels for a start, a sort of loch keeper lite who can only police part of the loch! We should have dismissed him when this was made known to us but yet again we gave him the benefit of the doubt! Look back on our news pages to see the widespread evidence of illegal anglers during his tenure! He states that the unfortunate theft that took place would have been avoided if he was still in post which of course is utter and fantastic rubbish, this man has a terrific imagination. No one, not even Mr Xxxxx's crack enforcement team can police the area and stop all incidents, his time at the club has proved that beyond doubt. It is clear Mr Xxxxx talks a good job but that is where it ends! In summary a good loch keeper is an undoubted asset to the club however to try and claim that all incidents could be tackled is frankly ridiculous! We can and will survive indeed thrive without Mr Xxxxx's assistance!
He talks of local business's withdrawing support to the club; we do not get any support. I suppose he means our competition day where we start at the cafe and end at the Tibbie. We are most grateful to both of these establishments however if the cafe did not host the morning rolls the Tibbie or the Gordon would be happy to do so. We would much rather get on with any businesses in the area but we can happily move forward without them! I was just about to mention a time when the cafe was excluded from selling tickets and the Tibbie restricted in this matter but again it strikes me Mr Xxxxx is completely unaware of this as wasn't even here! It was the current administrators who invited the cafe to sell our permits. I wonder why one of the past loch keepers who he has conversed with and who are his personal friends did not relay this fact to him, everyone in the valley knows of this except Mr Xxxxx.
With regard to the local community we do all we can to help them out. We regularly cleaned out the Megget when dumping took place something that was not our responsibility yet something we were happy to do. We make a donation of £50.00 every year to the village hall fund it's not a lot but it's better than taking away. When we were asked we arranged for repairs to be carried out to the roof of the village hall. The bona fide roofing contractor did not have transport so I ran him up and back home at no cost to the village hall committee or the club. Similarly we provided a couple of sanders (my machines) complete with consumables to allow Piotr to sand and varnish the floor of the hall.
When Ian Fernyhough said that Mrs Mitchell Snr was disappointed at the condition of the war memorial we both went down and on a Sunday afternoon cleaned it up and restored the plaque to a bright satinised finish and filled the inscriptions in black so they could be read easily. We gave out free of charge our two electric generators on four occasions to different residents to help out during electricity power cuts. We carried out emergency repairs to the door on the cafe after it had been broken into, the filler and glass fibre can still be seen to this day! Through Piotr we returned to the Mitchell family the components of their bridge which was washed away during a flood coming from Megget dam depositing that material all over the loch. Through two of the best loch keepers we ever had Piotr and Ian we cleaned up rubbish in the lay bys, on the roads and on the shores of the loch. This was not part of their remit but they did it nevertheless, people with a real sense of community! There was no banging on about crack enforcement team's then just good old fashioned hard work which they did diligently to the benefit of the area. So clearly it can be seen if we are asked or if we see an anomaly we do all that we can to help. I apologise for repeating this phrase but yet again Mr Xxxxx in his glorious naivety knows nothing about this and more importantly nothing about our club!
The lack of investment mentioned by Mr. Xxxxx is another misnomer. This is the problem with a newbie that has not done their homework they invariably talk nonsense! In the last ten years we have spent close to £8,000 on club equipment and fishery development, show me another local angling club that has invested to this extent! We paid out £800.00 alone to have the lochs surveyed and a plan of action implemented by a marine biologist from the Wild Trout Trust with a view to maximising Trout recruitment! Mr Young waffles on about the poor state of our lifejackets yet we wonder if this is the case why he did not inform us. As a good employee that is part of his function, it is he who comes into contact with our lifejackets more than any other. He says if the worst happened it would be hung round his neck and you know what he is correct! As an employee it is his duty to report any substandard equipment so we can allocate funds and resolve the problem. We have received no such notification of a problem with our life jackets.
Mr Xxxxx has the gall to talk of mismanagement; the biggest instance of mismanagement was carried out by Mr Xxxxx in not answering phone calls and texts thereby diverting them to me. Offhand I can think of 8 anglers who were inconvenienced by his actions on a regular basis. Anglers looking to book boats ignored, hell two even had to go up to his abode and then on to the gamekeepers house where he was found lounging around his garden and yet again we did not discipline him giving him the benefit of the doubt! Mr Xxxxx says he is closely monitoring the lochs well there's a novelty. In the last six months he was hardly ever seen, a situation relayed to me by many anglers and yet he maintains he is there with his crack enforcement team (I wonder who they are?) every Saturday! I would very much like to speak with the member who counted 12 visiting anglers (do non members glow yellow in the dark!) without a permit methinks he has had too much of the amber nectar coupled with Mr Xxxxx's undoubted talent for fabrication and exaggeration! In fact one of our sellers who was around that night says he is talking utter rubbish, methinks since he has no facts he relies on his vivid imagination!
Mr Xxxxx claims that he sorted the problem with illegal anglers but again he is guilty here of little more than self aggrandisement. Indeed his presence was a bonus as would the presence of any loch keeper but a cure all – never in a lifetime! It is clear to me that his next employer will be a lucky one. Imagine being able to cure all ills just with his presence! I am beginning to wonder if he is that chap who goes into a phone box and comes out in a blue cape and tight leggings to save the world! I am sure our new loch keeper who will take up his duties soon (September) will seek to have a presence such as Mr Xxxxx clearly professes to have. He says that he is receiving pictures of rubbish sent in by riparian owners. Now I wasn't aware he knew any of our riparian owners or even knew who they are excepting the hotelier he speaks of but then again he is persona non grata in this situation, I would be most interested to hear who these riparian owners are, please enlighten me!
I am glad Mr Xxxxx has no plans to hold on to club property it is still a mystery why he has not handed this over. He states he wants to avoid a confrontation well he is the one who started the whole business. You would have thought that such a bold enforcement officer could conjure up a scheme whereby the property is dropped off without risking his life. He wants this matter concluded quickly as do we, he knows how this could be achieved. Indeed he did ask for the clubs books which he will not get as only members have access to club accounts and he is not a member. All he needs do is hand back the club property we will calculate who is due what and any monies due paid and the accounts will be audited prior to the AGM for any member to see. All this nonsense about independent examination of our books relating to him, he has had 3 years to examine our books and now he is on the road out he wants this to take place. Hand the club property back we will pay in full all we are due and that ends the matter!
He has asked for all the clubs old permit books. This is a spoof if ever I heard of one. For all of these books he has been paid and by not registering a complaint or query he has rubber stamped and accepted that payment as being correct, he is not a stupid man just inexperienced and misguided and clearly capable of working out what he is due! He accepts this mode of operation without question for two and a half years then when he chooses its suddenly all wrong! He gets a weekly amount plus 50% of every permit sold, now that can't be such a difficult calculation that he needs an accountant! Don't be taken for a fool here, what manner of person hands over books of receipts without asking for payment it's beyond belief! Our treasurer has squared up Mr Xxxxx for every book he has handed over paying him whatever he asked after checking, the only ones that might require payment are the ones he is keeping from us! Are we to believe that books get handed over and then passed back and forth until the loch keeper decides he wants paid!
What follows is a cautionary note for Mr Xxxxx.
By your vindictive "letter" in which you try and belittle me there are many defamatory statements on which I may choose to initiate further action. You have attempted to rubbish me and the work of a core group of St Mary's Angling Club without whose help the club would not exist! You will not be forgiven for your treachery you have no future at St Marys Angling Club! Please think very carefully before you write to my employers because any defamatory statements in such a letter will be actioned. Oh and my employers for whom I do unpaid voluntary work to help disadvantaged individuals have agreed to furnish me with a copy of any letter sent by you, I have already briefed them on your despicable behaviour!
If Mr Xxxxx wants to initiate legal action then he should do so we will of course do likewise. It's a shame that this situation has come about particularly the blatant attack on me personally in that scurrilous jumble of words he calls a letter. During his resignation speech we offered to sit down calmly and thrash out any problems. He did not take up that offer! I could easily have filled a page with Mr Xxxxx's colourful personal past history but I am not currently inclined to do so, I won't stoop to his level. Nor will I resort to name calling which seems to be one of the main thrusts in his statement of case. This committee has guided the club through the years to a position where we have a sustainable fishery with adequate resources for our needs. All of the committee and some other members have worked tirelessly to push the club forward and received little thanks for so doing. Trashing the good work of these people will not endear Mr Xxxxx to the aggrieved members.
Our record is there for all to see, we purchased the outboard engines and the wave beating 4 man plus luggage Arran boats to make multi party Pike angling easier. We have worked with the Wild Trout Trust who recommended much of the bank work we carried out under guidance from the Tweed Forum. We almost achieved the reintroduction of Arctic Char into the lochs in conjunction with Scottish National Heritage (Dr Colin Bean) and Professor Peter Maitland, Professor Colin Adams and his team from Glasgow University establishing vitally important contacts which will serve us well in the future! Only when a Tory/Puppet administration seized power did the project flounder as SNHs budget was slashed leaving them unable to fund the project. The issue is however still on the cards and if an administration that values quality of life comes to power we will again seek their reintroduction.
We carried out much bank work with the Tweed Forum at Riskinhope which turned into a disaster area due in full to a shepherd putting in markers for the fence inches from the bank. We revived and reinvented our club competition and have plans for another. Our Pike tagging project which was sent all over the UK and a copy was even sent to some enthusiasts in the US who expressed interest in our project. We have built up a solid relationship with the Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain and the Pike Anglers Alliance Scotland. There are many more initiatives and relationships which we have cultivated. Mr Young's total achievements appears to be zero excepting the odd relationship with a few Muppets in fact in the latter stages of his career at the club he was simply a liability! The club was on its last legs when we took over with only a handful of members it is currently thriving thanks to good and thought out management. Suddenly a wee windbag arrives with no contacts ideas or knowledge and it's all bad – on yer bike mate!
There are indeed two sides to every story and the above is ours. Everything said here is true and can easily be verified unlike the pages of Mr Xxxxx's vengeful fiction. We are looking here at a committee who have governed wisely and prudently for over ten years over a club that has grown by the actions of that right thinking committee along with the local community or a newly arrived deity who talks a great job, is a wizard at writing fiction, transmitting twisted hearsay but can only administer part of the loch due to the restrictions placed upon him by one of our riparian owners and in all aspects he is an inexperienced lightweight who has not a clue as to how our club operates!
Please note that any correspondence emanating from Mr Xxxxx has nothing whatsoever to do with the club and if he is found to be using club property in this case the database we WILL take legal action against him.
I would like to thank the many members who have been in touch I very much value your support in the light of such a cowardly and venomous personal attack by an individual who has a personal grudge to bear.
You have seen his statement of case and above is ours. He will try and pull himself out of his self made hole but will fail! I am sorry that members have had to read his drivel and from mails received many of you are furious. Bitter people like him turn up from time to time the best advice I can give to members is to ignore him and carry on enjoying your fishing!
There is no argument without the facts and as you can clearly see he hasn't got any! Hearsay, innuendo and outright lies fall well short of the mark! With regard to running our club Mr Xxxxx knows nothing! He is simply an opportunist beginner who thought he could do better but as we have shown his actions do not marry his words and rather fittingly his words damn him! His record paints a picture of inadequacy, fantasy and confusion!
He has been judged as unfit to be our loch keeper more importantly he has been judged as unfit to have any association whatsoever with St Mary's Angling Club! Whilst engaging in this sport with Mr Xxxxx has been fun it will now cease. Sacked employees are not on our horizon! We need to once again to turn our attention back to focus on the lochs and the club members who fish here! Once we have the database this treatise will be sent to all members by e mail and paper copy as the situation requires.
Thank you for your perseverance in reading our statement of case.


I'm hosting an Open House at 237 SPRINGMERE WY in Chestermere.
Pride of ownership! Stunningly designed, professionally decorated and air-conditioned 2 story home in quiet cul-de-sac. Main floor decorated with beautiful alder cabinetry in the kitchen, island, granite covered counter tops, hardwood floors, and walk in pantry & stainless steel appliances. Family room with stone faced F/P, main floor laundry, 2pc bath and good sized home office. Oversized private master bedroom with walk-in closet & 5pc ensuite incl., 2 bdrms with full bath, skylight and bonus room enhances comfortable family living with extensive maple railing. Large windows throughout. Permitted fully finished basement with in-floor heating, one large bedroom, great room and stunning 3pc bath with steam shower & rain heads! Built in sound system throughout the whole house. Fully finished garage with custom floors. Professionally landscaped with interlocking paving stones, good sized deck with glass hand railing & gas line, mature trees. Shed is powered with light & plugs. This is your dream home.


text:
Turn Down the Noise
By David Whelan on January 6, 2022
I've been taking advantage of some time off work to get some reading done. I tend to look in the business section but am noticing that a lot of the ebooks I find on Overdrive that are readable are in sociology. That's where I came across Noise and it has been occupying my mind for most of the holidays. The basic idea is that our decision-making is impacted by noise and bias, and the book takes you through examples of noise, particularly using the criminal justice system as an example.
One of our kids is a methodical reader. They read a book, then flesh out their reading list with citations from the bibliography, and so on. Me, I'm a bit more like a really bad weekend fisher. I fire up Overdrive and poke around for books that look interesting. Sometimes I come up with a catch and just as often I don't.
Noise is a book I already know I'm going to be re-reading. There's a lot in it and I find myself reading a chapter and unfocusing as I think about how I could apply the concepts. It's the first book in a long time that I've felt worth highlighting as I go.
I'm going to touch on two of those potential applications for a law library director. But anyone who is interested in the criminal justice system may want to give this a read. It talks particularly about how noise in judicial judgment and sentencing can create wildly different, and unjust, results in similar cases.
It also looks at why humans are particularly weak at removing noise from decision-making but repeatable methods – algorithms – can be better. And that, after discussing artificial intelligence and machine learning, explains that their ability to remove noise doesn't mean they are a definitive answer to the problem.
No one should doubt that it is possible – even easy – to create an algorithm that is noise-free but also racist, sexist, or otherwise biased.
Noise, Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass Sunstein, p. 455 (ebook)
But, as Tom Sawyer says, that's too many for me. As I say, I need to go back and read Noise a couple more times. A first read was enough for me to think about how to start using the ideas, though.
Reference Work
One of the things the book breaks down is the difference between predictive and evaluative decision-making. It's the difference between forecasting next year's sales and determining the appropriate sentence for a criminal defendant. (Chapter 4) In particular, the book breaks down why similarly situated people – like judges – make different judgments given the same inputs.
Noise in evaluative judgments is problematic for a different reason. In any system in which judges are assumed to be interchangeable and assigned quasi-randomly, large disagreements about the same case violate expectations of fairness and consistency.
Noise (chapter 4, p. 77 ebook)
Reference librarians do not generally make life and death decisions. But our staff do engage in regular evaluative judgments about what information a researcher needs. In theory, a self-represented litigant asking a question at 9am on a Monday is going to get the same answer as a lawyer asking the same question at 2pm on a Wednesday.
They are both seeking information to help them answer questions about a legal issue. But do they get the same answer? The same resources? Do we direct the self-represented litigant to resources in plain English that may be less detailed? Do we assume the lawyer can navigate the looseleafs or online services better than other researchers? Are we confident that all reference interactions are handled equally across the staff?
She gave no indication that – after the initial apprenticeship phase – she had learned to agree with others, had checked to what extent [her responses] did agree with them, or had even tried to prevent her practices from drifting away from those of her colleagues.
A reference librarian that I have a lot of respect for has a mental template of the ideal reference response. Once you've gone through the interview and identified what, exactly, the researcher needs, there is an output to create. This librarian has a qualitative template that defines a sweet spot – 3 to 5 resources, annotated and hyperlinked – of what they hope to send to each researcher.
What I like about this template is that it creates a repeatable rule. In theory, it has become such a habit for them that, whether the question is first thing on Monday or mid-week, everyone will receive a similarly thorough answer.
But how do we know what reference is doing? Even a solo law librarian may send a wide range of responses depending on what the authors of Noise call occasion noise. Sometimes we lack the time we would like to make a thorough response. Sometimes it's due to other resources.
Occasion noise is the product of a second lottery. This lottery picks the moment when the professional makes a judgment, the professional's mood, the sequence of cases that are fresh in mind, and countless other features of the occasion.
Noise (chapter 7, p. 114 ebook)
One thing that the authors discuss is doing a noise audit to determine the variability in judgments. How different are the responses that your reference staff give to an answer? The concept takes me back to law school legal research class, where we are given a fact pattern that we need to research. Even as potential professionals, we didn't always get the same answer and, even if we did, we may not have reached it the same way.
It makes me think more about how much templating we could do outside the reference librarians' head. And about the type of oversight a reference team might exert itself over its output. This might manifest itself as:
e-mail templates that are pre-populated with the target number of response items (a list with three bullets, for example, as a reminder);
a weekly review of sent reference email, to look for differences in approach, and to determine whether those differences impact quality of answers or customer service
a checklist at the reference desk to ensure that responses in certain situations are repeatable. Directional reference? Point to the resource's location, explain the content's purpose, leave the reference desk and lead researcher to the resource.
Another idea might be to have each reference question reviewed before it goes out. Yes, I completely understand that this creates an enormous amount of friction, even if any of our law libraries had enough people to engage in this sort of editorial review. The authors of Noise cite a situation where a second-level review was incorporated:
[The researcher] suggested … that it would be preferable to mask the first reader's ratings [on admissions applications] so as not to influence the second reader. The school's reply: "We used to do that, but it resulted in so many disagreements that we switched to the current system."
We do not have the resources to do this sort of review in most of our law libraries. But we should also be aware that we may not be rigorous in our review if it is likely to cause inter-personal friction within our teams. Each attempt to remove noise from our judgments can have consequences.
Board Herding
I am constantly on the alert for my tendency to a negative first reaction: why we can't do something. It causes me to shut up and listen, which has its own added benefits. Law library directors can have an outsized impact on group discussions and input gathering for decision-making. I've mentioned "highest paid person in the office (HIPPO)" before.
Chapter 8 of Noise is a fascinating look at the challenges around group judgments, including social influences and early movers. You start to see how easy it can be to influence a group merely by creating enough momentum (downloads, up votes) to influence movement in one direction or another.
I was also struck by information cascades. And I immediately envisioned how this works at a board of directors or board of trustees meeting. This can be particularly fraught for law libraries with governance boards.
Board members bring value to law library governance. Each one should, in theory, have a set of skills and background that makes them able to help the law library director. It is a tricky balance because the law library director also brings subject-matter expertise to the board table. Everyone at the table needs a bit of humility about what they're good at and what they're not, and to keep in mind what the Board's role really is: strategy, accountability oversight, and not operations.
I've had the opportunity to see a lot of governance boards in action. After you've been at an organization long enough, you may actually see the board membership change. At my current organization, there's a bit of change every 2 years. At the ABA, there was an annual influx and outflow of participants.
The challenge a law library director and Board chair face is uninformed consensus. The director needs to worry about this as it can complicate the ability to successfully make operational decisions. The Board chair needs to be aware of it to ensure that the board is making the best decisions possible.
Information cascades can make this decision-making worse. If you have a board member who always speaks first – regardless of their knowledge of the topic at hand – you may find that this first input shifts how the Board responds. Subsequent speakers or other decision-makers may infer that earlier or more ardent speakers have information that they themselves lack.
[I]nformational cascades make noise across groups possible and even likely…. [P]eople tend to neglect the possibility that most of the people in the crowd are in a cascade, too…. We might think that their shared agreement reflects collective wisdom, eve if it reflects the initial views of just a few people. Noise (chapter 8, p. 143 ebook)
Lawyers and judges and other board members use law libraries. They do not necessarily understand what a law library does. If your law library board does not change frequently, you can miss out on new perspectives and skills. But you can probably be confident that they, at least, understand how the law library operates.
I've seen information cascades at the board level blow an issue completely off course. It doesn't take much and, if there are other, latent divisions in the board, you may find a topic become a proxy for some other problem the board is experiencing. Board decisions have impact and bad decisions will have negative impacts for the law library.
The director isn't the chair, though. So how do you help to derail information cascades that are unhelpful as a bystander? This is what I've been thinking about doing in group discussions, whether with staff or a board or with peers in a professional association:
note who speaks first on a topic. Is one person always the first person out of the gate, on every issue? We have someone at my current organization who is like that, and he both wastes the group's time and contributes no value because he mistakes enthusiasm for expertise. If it's always the same person, take action (or highlight it for the board chair after the meeting) to try to bring in other voices earlier.
understand who has what expertise even if they do not overtly share it. This requires interacting with board members and others outside the meeting. This makes sense politically, to understand unstated currents underlying the board's makeup. But you may find out someone has an idea or expertise that they may not share without prompting.
Fortunately, this overlaps with other goals of group interaction. If you've got people or representation who tend to be underrepresented or unheard, you can steer the discussion to them. It can be easier to just let the discussion happen but I think committee and board chairs, and directors in staff discussions, should be more mindful about their role. Just as I try not to ever speak first in a discussion, to avoid constraining ideas, I can make sure everyone has a chance to speak and to break up cascades.
And information cascades aren't all bad. If your experts speak first and thoughtfully, they can save the board time. A consensus decision can reflect that a lot of the people at the table may not have the same subject matter expertise. But law library boards are frequently populated by law school graduates, who may not be self-aware about their subject matter expertise limitations and unable to admit not knowing. A bit of vigilance on the part of the law library director and board chair can help to avoid uniformed cascades.
I'm going to wrap up. This post is plenty long and reflects, perhaps, how interesting the concept of reducing noise in decision-making is for me! I used to buy books for my governance board – like a book club, so everyone could read the same things – and this is the first time in a long time that I think I've found a book that everyone should read.
Law Library, Technology
Explorations with Information and Technology
David Whelan

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


When sitting at the computer I have only to look slightly left to see a substantial part of my rural kingdom. The view is through a window original to the house, double-hung, a single pane below and the top with two mullions, a three-over-one, one would pretentiously say.
The bottom half of the bottom sash is blocked by my "desk," an assembly of cherry boards held up by various sticks and crosspieces. The ell-shape creates a deep corner; my computers have lived on this temporary stage for twenty years.
This little house was built with four rooms only, two down and two above: girls and boys separated by a wall upstairs, parents in the smaller of the downstairs rooms. A kitchen shed was added later. My writing space is in what was the main room, including a fireplace with which to cook and stay warm, the design of a great room, but too modest in size for that modern appellation. It is the only room in this humble hut that has been citified.
Which is to say transformed by sheetrock. This blasphemous condition happened because back in the early days of desktop publishing we purchased a laser printer, an outrageously expensive item to our modest income, which toner would clog and refuse to print due to humidity. So the room was gutted to the balloon-framed studs and ceiling joists, insulation implanted, then a vapor barrier installed, then the out-of-place sheetrock which I skip-textured and Chris painted a so-light blue that it looks merely off-white. A small window air-conditioner reduced humidity and made summer with closed doors bearable. Above the view window is an early laser-printer output, a quotation from Philip Roth: "Nothing bad can happen to a writer. Everything is material." It has served to sustain.
As the computer faces the corner directly, the look left to the window is but a slight turn of the head. This is a position to which I have become so attuned that any future writing studio will have the same design.
The view is the thing. A writer's muse is beyond gold. When observed gazing for long periods out a window, a writer is in fact hard at work. Writing appears to take place with scrawls on paper or taps on keyboard but the real work happens while the mind is playing. Such play is enhanced with a stimulating view.
The view is south, through the screened porch, across the front yard, down to the stream, onto the hill beyond and the sky above. Its particulars include various weeds and grasses delusionally named lawn, two lilac bushes, two heartnut trees, a cedar, various oaks, a young mulberry Chris disclosed last summer through heroic brush removal, big walnuts, a butternut and several sycamores at the stream, two of which are now within the future trout pond area and selected to hold a future treehouse for grandsons, then up to an unending panorama of oaks and pines and finally the sky. The new stream crossing destined to become a dam is far left while the largest white oak on the place dominates at stage right.
Nature never rests; the scene is always alive. Seasons prepare, then burst into view. When door or window are open the sweet earthy smell of growth and decay flows in. Bluebirds, cardinals, crows, jays, finches, woodpeckers, phoebes, and wrens feed, mate and rear their young, turkey vultures soar on updrafts, kingfishers splat the water for minnows, squirrels stash and retrieve acorns. Deer appear across the stream, ears and tail flicking. If Benny, the Napoleonic Aussie spots them, they are gone in a bound, outraged snorts track them up the forested hill. Turkeys appear and they, too, are routed from his territory, as happened minutes ago.
If all the critters are quiescent then there is always something else at work: morning fog, breeze or wind or cloud movement, water riffles and reflections, constantly migrating shadows, raindrops on leaves, as is happening now.
This is the value: nature soothes; movement inspires.


text:
Anti-Russian sanctions based on fraudster's tales? Spiegel finds Magnitsky narrative fed to West by Browder is riddled with lies
Home Politics Anti-Russian sanctions based on fraudster's tales? Spiegel finds Magnitsky narrative fed to West by Browder is riddled with lies
Via RT
British investor Bill Browder has made a name for himself in the West through blaming Moscow for the death of his auditor, Sergey Magnitsky. Der Spiegel has picked apart his story and uncovers it has major credibility problems.
For years Browder – Russian President Vladimir Putin's self-proclaimed "enemy number one" and head of the Hermitage Capital Management fund – has been waging what can only be described as his personal anti-Russian campaign.
The passionate Kremlin critic relentlessly lobbied for sanctions against Russian officials everywhere from the US to Europe – all under the premise of seeking justice for his deceased employee, who died in Russia, while in pre-trial detention, where he'd been placed while accused of complicity in a major tax evasion scheme.
10 years ago, Sergei Magnitsky died in detention after exposing a tax fraud scheme by Russian officials. Justice has yet to be served, but his legacy lives on through both the Russia & Global Magnitsky Acts that have sanctioned 156 #humanrights abusers & corrupt actors globally. pic.twitter.com/q8AAgY7J64
— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) November 16, 2019
Browder, who was himself sentenced in absentia by a Russian court to nine years in prison for tax evasion, and was later found guilty of embezzlement as well, presented Magnitsky as a fearless whistleblower who exposed a grand corruption scheme within the Russian law enforcement system, and who was then mercilessly killed out of revenge.
The investor has succeeded in feeding this narrative to the Western governments and the mainstream media alike, prompting the US to adopt the Magnitsky Act in 2012, which allowed the US to sanction numerous Russian officials and businessmen over alleged human rights violations. Some American allies, including Canada and the UK, later followed suit and passed similar motions, which either allowed the sanctioning of Russian officials or called on their governments to do it.
Russian court orders arrest of UK investor Bill Browder over organization of criminal network
Yet, the businessman, who has over the years donned the mantle of a human rights campaigner, does not plan to stop at that and is now lobbying for an EU-wide equivalent of the Magnitsky Act, which would allow the banning of Russian officials from the bloc's countries and the freezing of their accounts.
READ ALSO 2 people in India die after receiving Covid jab as Bharat Biotech says vaccine too risky for some
On the tenth anniversary of the auditor's death, the German weekly Der Spiegel has decided to take a closer look at Browder's story about Magnitsky. And the paper found out that the narrative doesn't quite flow as smoothly as Western politicians and the MSM would like it to.
The whistleblower image Browder has built for Magnitsky starts splitting at the seams from the very beginning, as Browder appears to be dishonest, even in minor details like his claim that Magnitsky was his lawyer, Der Spiegel's Benjamin Bidder reveals in his investigative bombshell.
The problem is that he was not. The man was an auditor, who was hired by Browder's company as a tax specialist and then worked in this capacity for years with the US-born British investor. Browder himself had to admit this fact when he was questioned in a US court while seeking to make the US impose sanctions on yet another group of Russian entrepreneurs.
Tycoon who pushed Magnitsky Act warns EU minister that opposing Russia-bashing is 'career ruining'
Magnitsky's role as a whistleblower also comes into question as the deceased auditor's former lawyer confirmed to Der Spiegel's Bidder that his client had, in fact, been summoned by Russian investigators to provide testimony in a tax evasion case that opened at least months before he came up with his corruption allegations.
Other documents obtained by Der Spiegel, including Magnitsky's unpublished emails, also suggest that Magnitksy acted not of his own volition but on the instructions of Browder's senior lawyer, at a time when the Russian authorities had already been investigating dubious letterbox companies Browder supposedly had used in his tax evasion scheme for years.
Finally, the records of Magnitsky's interrogation, released by Browder's own people on the internet and seen by Der Spiegel, show that he'd never explicitly accused Russian police officers Artyom Kuznetsov and Pavel Karpov, whom Browder declared to be the masterminds behind the supposed corruption affair, and ultimately behind the auditor's murder.
READ ALSO Negative Covid-19 test to become MANDATORY for Slovakians to go to work, visit countryside
Russia should make a register of hostile Western politicians, call it 'Browder List' – Senator
This fact was also implicitly confirmed by a UK court, which issued a ruling on a libel lawsuit filed by Karpov against Browder in 2012. Although the court ruled that Karpov simply had no prior reputation to defend in the UK and rejected his claim, it still called Browder a "storyteller," arguing that he could not even come "close to substantiating his allegations with facts." The British media, however, presented the verdict as a resounding victory for Browder.
No murder
The German weekly also found similar inconsistencies in the story of the auditor's supposed murder, as told by Browder. In his claims, the businessman constantly refers to a report by the Moscow Public Monitoring Commissions (PMC) – an independent, non-governmental body consisting of rights advocates that conducted its own thorough investigation into Magnitsky's death.
Browder maintains that Magnitsky was deliberately murdered. Yet, the commission's report, which is still freely available on its website, contains no claim of this sort. The commission does decry the harsh jail conditions which the auditor was kept in, and accuses the Russian authorities of failing to fulfil its duty to protect his life. However, it says nothing of murder.
It is not just the text of this report that Browder has apparently distorted, though. In August, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a ruling on Magnitsky's case, ordering Russia to pay his widow and mother €34,000 ($38,000) in damages.
Moscow accuses Browder of illegally taking $1.5bn out of Russia & fabricating evidence that led to the passing of the sanctions-imposing Magnitsky Acthttps://t.co/nDAijXaXvp
— RT (@RT_com) July 17, 2018
Browder was quick to hail this decision as "destroying the Russian government's narrative" and proving that "the Russian government murdered Magnitsky." However, it would seem Browder's own narrative was dealt a blow instead.
READ ALSO Turkey slaps Twitter, Periscope & Pinterest with advertising bans, vows to fight 'digital fascism'
The ECHR never even mentioned the word "murder" in its ruling. Instead it said that Russia basically failed "to protect Mr Magnitsky's right to life" by providing inadequate medical care and failed "to ensure an effective investigation into the circumstances of his death."
It even concluded that Magnitsky's arrest "was not arbitrary, and that it was based on reasonable suspicion of his having committed a criminal offence" – though it did also say there was no "justification" for his lengthy pre-trial detention.
Buying into convenient narrative
In his investigative report, Der Spiegel's Benjamin Bidder eventually concludes that, although Magnitsky might have fallen victim to some "gruesome injustice," his image is still far from that painted by Browder in his efforts to pit Russia and the West against each other.
A question arises whether there has ever been a perfidious political murder plot or the West simply was made to buy into the lie of a fraudster.
The journalist says that Browder's "justice for Magnitsky" campaign might have, in fact, been part of his own "personal revenge" on Russia, one that uses the auditor's fate as fuel for an "argumentative perpetual motion" that helps the businessman himself stay afloat in the sea of Western politics.
CNN enlists help of fraudster Browder & Integrity Initiative 'experts' to fan Russia meddling claims in UK
Yet, there is another question that needs to be asked: Why did Western politicians and the media support Browder's narrative so eagerly, without even fact-checking it first? The answer is simple.
According to Bidder, Browder is "so successful because his narrative seems to fit perfectly with the devastating image" that Russia has in the West, making it much more convenient for the media to just toe the line instead of questioning it.
Subscribe to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won't tell you.
Previous PostAre Iranian Hackers Planning An Attack On Key Oil Assets?Next PostElon Musk Presents Tesla's Craziest Vehicle


text:
You are here: Home » Awards » NAB's Marconi Awards Recognize Outstanding Country Stations
NAB's Marconi Awards Recognize Outstanding Country Stations
Lorie Hollabaugh • September 20, 2013
The 2013 Marconi Awards were handed out last night in Orlando at the NAB's Marconi Radio Awards Dinner & Show. Finalists were selected by a committee of broadcasters, and winners were voted on by the NAB Marconi Radio Awards Selection Academy. The Marconi Radio Awards were established in 1989 and named after inventor and Nobel Prize winner Guglielmo Marconi. The Mavericks performed at this year's event, which recognized some of radio's outstanding players over the last year.
MusicRow reporting station WKDZ-FM Cadiz, Ky. has been crowned the Small Market Station of the Year at the 2013 National Association of Broadcasters' Marconi Radio Awards. The distinguished awards recognize radio's outstanding personalities and stations. To offer congratulations and learn more about WKDZ, contact the station's general manager Beth Mann at [email protected].
Winners of the 2013 NAB Marconi Radio Awards:
Small Market Station of the Year: Ham Broadcasting WKDZ – Cadiz, KY
Small Market Personality of the Year: Monk & Kelly, Cookeville Communications WGSQ-FM – Cookeville, Tenn.
Large Market Personality of the Year: Cornbread, Hubbard Wil-FM – St. Louis, Mo.
Country Station of the Year: Cox Media Group KKQB – Houston
A full list of winners from the evening can be found at nab.org.
Category: Awards, Featured, Radio
Hollabaugh, a staff writer at MusicRow magazine, has written for publications including American Profile, CMA Close Up, Nashville Arts And Entertainment, The Boot and Country Weekly. She has a Broadcast Journalism and Speech Communication degree from Texas Christian University, (go Horned Frogs), and welcomes your feedback or story ideas at [email protected]
Swift's Spectacular RED Tour »
« Charlie Cook On Air: America's Second Most-Popular Sport


text:
One Day er en film instrueret af Ditte Haarløv Johnsen.

Handling
Historien om en afrikansk prostitueret kvinde, der er bosat i Danmark og tilbyder sex via annoncer i Ekstra Bladet. Filmen beskriver en dag i denne kvindes liv: hendes telefonsamtaler med datteren - og med kunderne. Læbestiften smøres på, cigaretterne ryges med omhu.

Referencer

Eksterne henvisninger

Danske film fra 2007

Film fra Danmark (administrationskategori)
Prostitution
Dokumentarfilm fra Danmark

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The paper investigates principal-principal (PP) conflicts arising in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in ASEAN 5 countries; Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The issue is of importance to investors and the growth of equity markets in ASEAN countries in South East Asia and probably well beyond. Large controlling shareholders in Asian public limited corporations, according to prior research, do cause agency conflicts. However, the net effects cannot be estimated with any degree of accuracy without understanding and being able to distinguish the single effect of an investment project. The relation between large shareholders and agency conflicts is difficult to test empirically since no public information is provided at the individual investment project level, which differs from the case of corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) (Amihud, Lev, & Travlos, 1990). The diagnostic testing potential the analysis to utilise HausmanTaylor (HT) technique that takes into account time variant and time-invariant data into the model analysis. PP conflicts associated with M&A were found to be rampant. These suggest consequences in terms of limited willingness to participate in shareholding as part of individuals' portfolios. Similarly, challenges regulators concerned to promote the secondary market for equities are addressed in this paper by promoting the use of dividend ratio policies as an indicator for PP conflicts.


text:
ActsAchtanna
Mergers, Take-Overs and Monopolies (Control) Act, 1978
Permanent Page URL
View by SectionAmharc de réir Ailt
View Full ActAmharc ar an Acht Iomlán
Bill History Stair Bille
Commencement, Amendments, SIs made under the Act Tosach Feidhme, Leasuithe, IRí arna ndéanamh faoin Acht
Print Full ActPriontáil an tAcht Iomlán
Previous SectionAlt Roimhe
Next SectionAn Chéad Alt Eile
Print SectionPriontáil an tAlt
Appeal to High Court against orders of Minister.
12.—(1) Where the Minister makes an order under section 9 (1) or 11 (1), an appeal on a point of law may be made to the High Court against the order within one month of the coming into effect of the order by any enterprise referred to in the order.
(2) Where the High Court allows an appeal under this section, the Minister shall by order amend or revoke (as may be appropriate) the order the subject of the appeal as soon as practicable.
(3) Where pursuant to subsection (2) the Minister makes an order following an appeal, section 9 (5) (in the case of an appeal against an order under section 9 (1)) or section 11 (5) (in the case of an appeal against an order under section 11 (1)) shall not apply to the order under subsection (2).
(4) An appeal against a decision of the High Court under this section shall not lie to the Supreme Court.


text:
22.01.2020 » Juventus 3-1 AS Roma. Easy round for the Vecchia Signora!
Juventus are through to the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia, after beating AS Roma by 3-1 at the Allianz Stadium. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the opener in the first half and still saw Bentancur and Bonucci adding their names to the scoresheet before the break.
It was an easier game than most had anticipated, as Juventus and AS Roma clashed in Turin for the Coppa Italia quarter-finals round, with the Bianconeri sealing an easy 3-1 win thanks to a strong first-half performance. The Italian champions made sure their opponents wouldn't give them too much work tonight and secured a 3-goal advantage still before the half-time break, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Bentancur and Leonardo Bonucci all scoring a goal each. Juve will now face either AC Milan or Torino in the cup's semi-finals. As for Ronaldo, it was his first game in the competition this season and he managed to extend his goalscoring streak to 12 goals in his last 8 games.
Cristiano Ronaldo game photos in Juventus vs AS Roma
Juventus 3-1 AS Roma - Goals and highlights:
All Cristiano Ronaldo actions vs AS Roma:
Lots of changes in the lineup...
With a very tough game awaiting them this next Sunday in Naples, Maurizzio Sarri decided to rotate almost half of his squad against AS Roma tonight, which given the quality and depth of his squad, doesn't necessarily mean he played a weaker lineup than he usually does... Nevertheless and despite the difficult fixture against Napoli on the weekend, today's game was also a dangerous one against one of the best teams in the Serie A.
Sarri started by rotating his goalkeeper, playing Buffon instead of Szczesny. In defense, Alex Sandro took the left wing, Danilo the right one, and Bonucci paired up with Rugani in the center. De Ligt was left resting on the bench, but he should return to the team on Sunday.
Juventus midfield was taken by Pjanic, Rabiot and Bentancur, with Douglas Costa taked to make the connection to the attacking areas. Matuidi, on the other hand, started on the bench and only came on near the end of the game. Upfront, it was up to Gonzalo Higuaín and Cristiano Ronaldo to cause havoc. Dybala rested tonight and will certainly return to the starting eleven against Napoli, next to the Portuguese star.
Ronaldo, Bentancur and Bonucci secured the win!
The opener was scored in the 26th minute of the first-half, in a counter-attack play boosted by Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese star grabbed the ball on the left side of the attack, stormed to the inside of AS Roma's penalty box and unleashed a well placed shot to the low corner of Pau López's goal to make it 1-0 for the hosts. It was a great effort from the 34-year old forward, who has now scored his first goal in the Coppa Italia this season (he missed the game against Udinese in the previous round) and his 19th goal in all competitions for Juventus.
The second goal of the night was delivered by Rodrigo Bentancur, in the 38th minute of the first half. The Uruguay international got involved in a counter-attack play through the middle corridor, was fortunate enough to keep the ball at shooting range after a rebound inside the box and then finished his goalscoring chance by striking the ball with the tip of his toes. There wasn't much Pau López could do in that situation and the Bianconeri were suddenly 2 goals up against Roma.
The 3-0 definitely reduced AS Roma's chances of still dreaming with a comeback and it was scored just a few instants before the half-time break. A great cross from Douglas Costa near one of the edges of the box found Leonardo Bonucci completely free of marking on the far post and whenever that happens, it's like hitting a penalty-kick for the Italian defender. The 32-year old defender headed it straight into the back of the net to set the hosts' advantage in 3 goals and there wasn't much Roma could still do from that point onwards, despite still having 45 minutes left to be played in the second half.
The Romans would still score a goal in the 50th minute, but Juventus' experience would come on top and the scoreboard wouldn't suffer any further changes and the game finished 3-1. Onto the semifinals!
Juventus line-up vs AS Roma:
Goalkeeper: Buffon
Defenders: Alex Sandro, Bonucci, Rugani, Danilo
Midfielders: Bentancur, Rabiot, Pjanic
Attackers: Douglas Costa, Cristiano Ronaldo, Higuaín.
Cristiano Ronaldo next game for Juventus in the Serie A is on January 26, against Napoli. You can watch Napoli vs Juventus, Brentford vs Leicester City, Valencia vs Barcelona, Wolverhampton vs Liverpool, Brescia vs AC Milan, and Borussia Dortmund vs FC Koln, all matches provided from our live soccer game pages.
Napoli vs Juventus kick-off time (26-01-2020):
Italy (Turin) | UTC/GMT+1: 20:45
Sources: ronaldo7.net / juventus.com / beinsports.com / sports.yahoo.com
[ Ronaldo photos in Juventus vs AS Roma / Back to News Index ]


text:
Q: How do I find the value of a group of radio buttons? I have a function which loops through a form and finds the values of each element, for example, checkboxes, input fields etc. as it loops through the tags of this form it adds them onto a string, for example, if I had a select tag with several option tags inside of it, it would take the value of the select tag, which is conveniently the currently selected value of the select tag, and add it to the string.
The problem is, radio buttons don't seem to have a place in the form where they store their current value. I know that radio buttons are grouped by name, but how can I find out which radio button is selected without using an id for the radio button's tag? in addition, my form will have several different radio button groups, and must be able to retrieve the values of each of them individually once I click submit.
Here is an example radio button form
    <form id="radioTestForm">
        <input type="radio" name="group1" value="cows">1</input>
        <input type="radio" name="group1" value="ducks">2</input>
        <input type="button" onclick="radioTest()" value="submit"></input>
    </form>

On a final note, I can't use jquery for this, it has to be in javascript.

A: function getRadioValue()
{
    for (var i = 0; i < document.getElementsByName('group1').length; i++)
    {
        if (document.getElementsByName('group1')[i].checked)
        {
            return document.getElementsByName('group1')[i].value;
        }
    }
}

Working Demo

A: Suppose this your form
<form name="form1">
Apple <input type="radio" name="fruit" checked value="apple" >
Orange <input type="radio" name="fruit" value="orange" >
Apricot <input type="radio" name="fruit" value="apricot" >
</form>

<input type="button" onclick="whichFruit()" value="Choose a fruit">

You will detect radio button selected as follow
function wichFruit()
{
  var element = document.form1.fruit;
  for (var i=0; i < element.length; i++)
  {
    if (element[i].checked)
    {
      var fruit = element[i].value;
      break;
    }
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Tesla's Berlin Gigafactory halted due to hibernating snakes
Zzzz...
By Shannon Connellan on December 8, 2020
> Tech > Transportation
Tesla's colossal Gigafactory being built just outside Berlin could see construction halted again, but this time by an unlikely foe: hibernating snakes.
First reported by Berlin's Tagesspiegel(Opens in a new window) and then by Reuters(Opens in a new window), a German court has required Tesla to suspend all forest clearing at the 300-hectare site, located in Grünheide in Brandenburg, south-east of Berlin, due to concerns from environmentalists it could threaten local snakes in hibernation.
"The Landesumweltamt (state environmental authority) and Tesla will now be consulted, they need to make submissions by this afternoon and then we assess the situation," a spokesman for the administrative court told Reuters.
Mashable has reached out to both Tesla and the Landesumweltamt for comment.
Local environmental group NABU told Reuters their main concern was for the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca), which they said hibernates in the ground, and could be disturbed by the deforestation onsite. These claims are reportedly being investigated by local authorities. Mashable has reached out to NABU for further information.
Smooth snake (Coronella austriaca), a non-venomous colubrid species found in northern and central Europe. Credit: Arterra / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Announced in Nov. 2019, Tesla's Berlin-Brandenburg Gigafactory is set to open in 2021, and will be the fourth of its kind following Gigafactories in New York, Nevada, and Shanghai. Aiming to produce 10,000 vehicles per week, according to Tesla, the factory will focus on Model Y production at launch. CEO Elon Musk revealed renders of the Gigafactory in July, which confirmed a solar roof.
It's not the first delay for the Gigafactory due to environmental concerns. Since early 2020, local activists have protested against the factory, raising concerns over the site's mass clearing of forest and impact on the local environment. Construction was briefly halted in February after environmentalist group Green League Brandenburg challenged the impact of the factory on local water supplies among other things in a Berlin court. Tesla quickly got the green light to continue clearing an approved 92 hectares of forest.
Notably, a statement on Tesla's website used to read(Opens in a new window), "We are committed to improving the natural environment near the factory and in the wider state of Brandenburg. We aim to replant an area three times the factory plot, with mixed trees native to their habitat and the potential to become an old growth forest, while working with environmental and other expert groups for the best possible outcome.
"We are also working to ensure plenty of clean drinking water through water-saving measures in the factory as well as a structural solution with and for the community in the medium term."
Now, the same page just reads(Opens in a new window), "Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg will be an ideal work environment with modern and sustainable features. Situated in the municipality of Grünheide and its natural surroundings..."
More in Tesla, Elon Musk
Shannon Connellan
Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House.


text:
Specialty Lighting Market Size & Share Report, 2020-2027
Specialty Lighting Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Light Type (LED), By Application (Entertainment, Purification), By Medical Type (Surgical, Examination), And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027
Published Date: May, 2020
The global specialty lighting market size was valued at USD 5.3 billion in 2019. It is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.0% from 2020 to 2027. Increasing adoption of lighting solutions for special purposes and the need for enhanced illumination across medical, entertainment, and other industries are promoting market growth. The UV lamps for the disinfection of surface, air, and water are anticipated to be the key growth driver. Moreover, increasing number of global events, such as music concerts, and the rapidly growing entertainment industry are augmenting the demand for specialty lighting solutions.
Increased number of events like concert tours and sports competitions boosts the demand for specialty lighting. The U.S. hosts over 800 music festivals per year, attracting a crowd of nearly 1 million people. Other than the U.S., Japan, India, South Korea, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, and the U.K. are some of the most popular countries for music concerts. Hence, the commencement of these big events helps specialty lighting vendors in generating a significant amount of revenue every year. Also, rising demand from the televisions series production entities, operas sets, and the film industry is contributing to the market growth.
Technological advancements, such as IoT and smart lighting solutions, are also expected to contribute to market growth. The smart light connected via an app is widely used in clubs and at events. On the other hand, the higher installation cost of these lighting solutions is hindering their adoption. Strict regulations for lighting industries, such as the Energy Star Program, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the National Electric Code (NEC), pose a challenge for market growth.
The COVID-19 pandemic leading to lockdown and curfew across the world has slowed down the market growth. However, demand for medical lighting is expected to surge owing to the construction of temporary hospitals and demand for surgical and examination facilities. Several countries across the globe are outrunning the number of beds in the hospital, which need to be curbed with the construction of new isolation and treatment wards and the procurement of more medical equipment and lighting.
Light Type Insights
The LED lighting segment held the highest market share of over 65% in 2019. The introduction of LED over incandescent and halogen bulbs has boosted the market growth owing to longer life, less heating, and cost-saving features of LED lights. The LED lights have taken over every section of lighting, including smart, decorative, specialty, and architectural lighting. They are more versatile and convenient for various fixture designs producing color and pattern.
The demand for LED in specialty lighting is increasing due to its advantage in creating lightweight fixtures. The longer shelf life is another major factor driving the adoption of LED specialty lights. The halogen and incandescent lights are prone to breakage and fusing when used for an extended period, while LED lights do not break due to their smaller glass frame fitted inside the fixture. In addition, they consume lesser electricity compared to traditional lights.
The entertainment segment held a major market share of over 42% in 2019. It will maintain its dominance during the forecast years as this industry is completely dependent on various forms of cinematography and photography lighting, such as fill lighting, backlighting, practical light, hard & soft lighting, bounce lighting, and ambient light, to create the desired effects. The film industry, such as Hollywood and Bollywood, is a major contributor to segment growth. Moreover, the film industry hosts many awards shows and events where specialty lighting, which boosts the growth further.
The purification segment is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR of 7.9% over the forecast period. The growth is attributed to the usage of specialty UV lights for purifying water, air, and surfaces. The demand for water purification has increased across the globe owing to depleting water sources and recycling of wastewater. Moreover, air purification is vital at pharma and testing labs to avoid foreign particles in medicine or samples. The surface purification is required for disinfecting the place or prevent the formation of bacteria. UV-CLEAN, a no-touch technology with a highly lethal wavelength for killing microorganisms uses an automated disinfection device to inactivate microorganisms at the genetic level using UV-C energy. Hence, the application of UV lighting for purification or disinfection of place is expected to aid in the segment growth.
Medical Type Insights
Surgical lighting emerged as the largest segment in 2019 accounting for over 53% of the global share. Specialty lighting in the medical industry is vital in providing better visibility during medical procedures. The technical and operational guideline for examination and surgical lighting requires 85 CRI to 100 CRI color renditions, and a color temperature ranging between 3,000K to 6,700K. While the 1,000lx illumination suffices examination lighting requirement. The surgical lighting needs to have illumination in the range of 40,000lx to 160,000lx.
The demand for surgical lighting has been growing with the usage of modern operational equipment to avoid fatality during surgeries. In addition, the advent of LED lights has further improved the reliability of surgical lighting. The examination lighting is estimated to register the fastest CAGR from 2020 to 2027 due to rising product demand. Dedicated examination lighting helps examiner or doctor to avoid any mishap during the usage of the tool, thereby making it an essential part of the medical checkup procedure, which is anticipated to support the market growth.
North America held the largest share of over 35% in 2019 and is expected to lead the market during the forecast period. The growth is attributed to the presence of major lighting companies offering services for various areas, such as horticulture, entertainment, water treatment, medical, seaports, and aquarium. Moreover, rapidly expanding end-use industries, such as entertainment, in the region is also driving the product demand. In addition, a robust healthcare system in the U.S. and Canada contributes to the increased demand for surgical and examination lighting.
Asia Pacific is projected to register the fastest CAGR over the forecast period due to rising usage of specialty lightings across several industries. The entertainment industry in India is one of the dominant and highly preferred sectors by market vendors, as there is a constant demand. China and Japan's healthcare industry is also contributing to regional market growth. Moreover, extensive usage at the harbor to lighten up space and improved safety and productivity while operating during the night supports market growth.
Major companies focus on product launch, partnerships, and M&A to expand their portfolio and strengthen their foothold in the global market. For instance, in January 2019, SLD Laser launched its Laser Light products for specialty lighting applications that deliver nearly ten times brighter light than LED, with an extended illumination range of up to 1km, along with lower power consumption, longer lifetime; and high directional output compared to LED. In March 2020, Signify Holding acquired "Cooper Lighting Solutions" from Eaton, which is aimed at strengthening Signify's market position in the North America region. Some of the prominent players operating in the specialty lighting market are:
Advanced Specialty Lighting
Brandon Medical
CREE (IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC.)
Herbert Waldmann
Signify Holding
Steris PLC
Specialty Lighting Market Report Scope
CAGR of 7.0% from 2020 to 2027
Light type, application, medical type, region
North America; Europe; Asia Pacific; Latin America; MEA
U.S.; Canada; U.K.; Germany; China; India; Japan; Brazil; Mexico
Advanced Specialty Lighting; Brandon Medical; CREE (IDEAL INDUSTRIES INC.); Getinge AB; Herbert Waldmann; Integra Lifesciences; OSRAM GmbH; Signify Holding; Steris PLC; USHIO
This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of the latest industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2016 to 2027. For the purpose of this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global specialty lighting market report on the basis of light type, application, medical type, and region:
Light Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)
Medical Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)
Middle East & Africa (MEA)
How big is the specialty lighting market?
b. The global specialty lighting market size was estimated at USD 5.31 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 5.57 billion in 2020.
What is the specialty lighting market growth?
b. The global specialty lighting market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.0% from 2020 to 2027 to reach USD 8.95 billion by 2027.
Which segment accounted for the largest specialty lighting market share?
b. North America dominated the specialty lighting market with a share of 35.5% in 2019. This is attributable to the growing industrial and commercial sector and demand for surgical and examination lighting across the robust healthcare system of the U.S. and Canada.
Who are the key players in the specialty lighting market?
b. Some key players operating in the specialty lighting market include Advanced Specialty Lighting, Brandon Medical, CREE (IDEAL INDUSTRIES INC.), Getinge AB, Herbert Waldmann, Integra Lifesciences, Steris PLC, and USHIO.
What are the factors driving the specialty lighting market?
b. Key factors that are driving the market growth include the adoption of lightings for special purposes such as UV lamps for disinfection of surface, air, and water and need for enhanced illumination across aquarium, medical, entertainment, and harbor among others.


The pedal box on my S1 Lotus Esprit was in perfect shape albeit a little deteriorated. The brake master cylinder had leaked, probably for a decade, sending brake fluid down into the pedal box assembly. Most of the paint was falling off and there was some light surface rust.
While the pedal box isn't really a component you see from inside of an Esprit, I decided to disassemble everything and have the pieces refinished, replacing the hardware along the way and the throttle return spring. After having ordered a new brake light switch and new pedal rubbers, I'm still waiting for those to arrive from overseas. Otherwise, it was a really simple job.
The pedal box needed some attention after being removed from the car.
The freshly powder coated unit assembled with new hardware.


Sweet bell pepper 1 vnt.
Slice the lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, leek and bell pepper. Season with dill. Add some salt and pepper. Prepare the dressing: add mustard, honey, lemon juice and oil. Mix well and pour it on the vegetables. Stir well. Put pieces of fried chicken, toasted bread and grated DŽIUGAS cheese on top.