text:
Chemistry & Industry
Current: Scary but still opportunities
Scary but still opportunities
C&I Issue 5, 2009
Despite a drop in attendees, of 10% according to the organiser, but judged more like 25% by attendees themselves, and much less ostentatious stands from the big players, there was still some optimism at Informex 2009. There was still much concern, however, about the current and possible future impact of the global recession on the fine and speciality chemical sector.
But the unexpected optimism wasn't just limited to US companies, as UK exhibitors reported mixed but generally positive business performances that depend upon the nature of their customers. Clearly suppliers to the consumer electronics and automotive sectors are suffering the effects of the drastic cut-backs in those sectors, but companies supplying the pharmaceutical, often considered recession-proof, and the biotech sectors are still experiencing good demand. There were comments, however, about problems with the smaller biotech firms, which have yet to market or license a product and are experiencing cash flow problems.
Big pharma and speciality pharma firms that have products on the market do not seem to be cutting back on material purchases whatever they are doing to reduce their workforces. To meet these demands there is still investment under way amongst their suppliers.
Since the beginning of the year, the pharma business at Saltigo, part of Germany's Lanxess, has been headed by Andreas Stolle, with sales and marketing in the pharma business line the responsibility of Tony Jones. Both agree that 2009 will offer not only challenges but also opportunities for the life sciences segment. 'Nearly all pharmaceutical companies have launched cost-cutting programmes. With money so tight, efficiency and cost discipline will also become more and more important in future for smaller, researchoriented pharmaceutical firms,' says Stolle.
Jones pointed out that the underlying conditions are also changing for the big companies in the industry: 'Their portfolios will become less dominated by blockbuster products, as in many instances we see a move towards a more limited yet potentially attractive range of niche products. This creates interesting business possibilities in the field of custom synthesis wherever our customer's internal capacities are not available or are not sufficiently flexible to meet their product and market development aspirations.'
The first phase of upgrading Saltigo's US site in Redmond, near Seattle, Washington, acquired in 2008 to support its pharmaceutical business, has been completed. 'The capacity of the cGMP pilot plant was doubled and a second kilolab opened,' said Redmond site manager, Timothy Fitzpatrick. 'In addition, we installed a low temperature unit in the pilot plant, which enables us to operate at temperatures down to -70°C. This capability enables us to perform many modern synthetic steps with a high degree of selectivity in order to achieve the stringent quality demands of our customers whilst at the same time reducing the formation of unwanted byproducts.'
It is also increasingly important to provide security of continuing supply. At its integrated site in Leverkusen, Germany, Saltigo increased its capacity for a pharmaceutical precursor for a major pharmaceutical manufacturer while production was ongoing. Output of the active ingredient precursor was raised from 30 to 50 t/year. Carsten Hesse, head of pharma manufacturing strategy said: 'It was essential as far as our customer was concerned that supplies of the product could continue during the expansion phase. Careful coordination of the investment programme running in parallel with normal production ensured we had no downtimes at all that would have resulted in an interruption to the overall supply chain.' The project also led to process and plant optimisation including a speedup of analytical procedures.
SAFC Pharma, part of Sigma-Aldrich, has begun operations at its laboratory complex in Carlsbad, California, US, adjacent to an existing viral substance production facility. The new complex includes a dedicated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) facility, a tissue culture laboratory and stability suite supported by microbiology and regular testing labs, and houses a scientific team focused on quality control (QC), process development (PD), assay development and validation.
Asymchem Laboratories, based in Morrisville, North Carolina, launched its integrated chemical and pharmaceutical services programme designed to accelerate the development of drug candidates to Phase I clinical trial stage. The integrated approach is said to eliminate 'white space', reduce costs and hand-off delays, and increase the benefit-risk ratio, providing one seamless process. The company will also open its new cGMP high potency compound production facility in Tianjin, China, in March 2009. Two API suites will be available initially: one with five 50L reactors, the other with 100L reactors.
UK custom synthesis specialist Excelsyn has also completed the initial phase of a threeyear expansion and upgrade programme at its Holywell site, north Wales. Under the new site masterplan, major enhancements will include a new API finishing suite, reactor train alignment and increased product isolation capacity.
India's Piramal Pharma Solutions is on schedule to commission a new state-of-the-art formulations development and clinical trial materials (CTM) supply centre at Ahmedabad, India. The centre will have GMP supply capabilities from March 2009. The development is the latest in a series of investments, involving both European and Indian assets, broadening Piramal's involvement in clinical trials.
'The latest development in Ahmedabad signals the continuing upgrade in our clinical trials manufacturing and services capabilities,' commented R Ananthanarayanan, president and head of Piramal Pharma Solutions. 'The programme marks further expansion of our synthesis-tomarket supply chain, with further elements due for announcement later this year.'
Northern Ireland's Almac Sciences launched its solid state chemistry capabilities into the US market. Optimising the physical, solid form properties of an API is a critical early step in drug candidate development. Almac believes it is one of only a handful of contract providers with this capability at its Craigavon laboratory complex. The company also highlighted its new capability to create scaleable cloned biocatalysts for the synthesis of chiral acids, amides, esters, alcohols and amines, and the expansion of its GMP and non-GMP radiolabelling service.
'Cash and cost savings are priorities in the present climate, but the industry can't afford to simply set process innovation aside until things get better,' said Pete Jackson, ceo of UK catalyst technologies company Reaxa, which claims market leadership in metal scavenging technology. 'Sustainable advantage for the longer term will only come from determined development and application at scale of faster, cleaner and less costly production processes,' said Jackson.
Most new drugs require at least one stage of precious metal chemistry and Reaxa's technology, is said to allow products to be tailored to help simplify work-up and minimise metal losses. The company's bulk QuadraPure and QuadraSil scavengers are now available in hundreds of kilos, and production of tonne lots will be on line later this year. Additionally, Reaxa's scavenger range encompasses highly functionalised smaller-scale, high purity applications.
With their potential for re-use, combined with avoidance of costly purification steps, Reaxa's encapsulated EnCat catalysts can also dramatically cut process costs in cross-coupling, hydrogenation and oxidation chemistries. The company is currently trialling its most advanced new product: Nickel EnCat, a non-pyrophoric and re-usable hydrogenation catalyst.
With nickel accounting for 20% of the pharma hydrogenation catalyst market Nickel EnCat is said to offer an alternative to current generation Raney/ sponge nickel catalysts. These require complex and hazardous processes, are awkward to handle and often limited to single use. Nickel EnCat has labtrialled successfully and is currently in 'beta test' trials in Europe, North America, India and Japan.
Scotland's lipid specialist Equateq has successfully synthesised omega-6 fatty acid dihomma-gamma-linoleic acid (DGLA) in commercial quantities at up to 98% purity. As a precursor to eicosanoids, the hormone-like substances that regulate cell function, DGLA has a potential application in the treatment of eczema, psoriasis, asthma and arthritis, but has been difficult to source naturally. The most usual route is via GLA sourced from evening primrose or borage oils, which is converted to DGLA in the body. 'My team has essentially mimicked processes from within the human body in order to deliver DGLA in a super-pure form,' said ceo Adam Kelliher. 'We expect to be announcing characterisation of several other lipid APIs in the months and years to come.'
In addition to promoting its growing ChiPros range of chiral amines, alcohols, epoxides and acids for use as reagents and drug building blocks, BASF featured two new catalysts from its NanoSelect platform technology. The catalysts, LF100 and LF200, have been designed specifically to provide a lead-free replacement for Lindlar catalysts used in hydrogenation processes. Based on unimodal nano-sized palladium clusters, the new catalysts offer similar activity and specificity to Lindlar catalysts, but offer significant cost savings as a result of having much lower levels of precious metal, up to 10 times less, and eliminate the problem of lead appearing in the final product. Further R&D to look at platinum and rhodium catalysts based on this technology is currently under way, according to Hans Donkervoort, global technology manager for BASF specialities and fine chemicals catalysts in the Netherlands.
In the area of C-C coupling, BASF introduced its organozinc halide reagents, which are now available in commercial scale quantities for Negishi coupling reactions. According to Christopher Sutton, product manager for BASF's organozinc chemistry, the new reagents operate under milder conditions, with faster reaction times, and give higher yields compared with the Grignard reagents used in Kumada coupling reactions, where the highly reactive nature of the reagent gives low specificity, the tin-based reagents used in Stille couplings, where the tin also gives toxicity problems, and boron-based Suzuki reactions, where functionality affects the reactivity. He said the BASF organozinc reagents are highly chemoselective and are tolerant of functional groups, such as aldehydes, esters, ketones and ethers on both the nucleophile and electrophile.
Informex returns to San Francisco in 2010, 16-19 February, but before that Informex India will take place in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, 12-15 March, 2009.
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One of the things that my friends and I could spend hours doing is chatting about all the different things that we have been watching, listening to and reading. I always love hearing what they are loving, partly because I love listening to them ramble on about the things they are most passionate about but also because one of my favourite things is finding new shows, books and music to explore. Today I thought I would take inspiration from these wonderful catch ups and share what I have been loving 'entertainment wise' recently with you. I have narrowed it down to a few favourites and I hope it inspires you to maybe watch something that you haven't seen before or pick up a new book.
So, let's start with what I have been watching. My absolute favourite programme at the moment is the second series of the historical drama Victoria, which is aired on ITV. It is all about the early life of Queen Victoria, who is played by the fantastic Jenna Coleman, and shows the ups & downs of her reign with beautiful cinematography & all round brilliant acting. For me it has sort of replaced the hole that Downton Abbey left when it finished a few years ago. Victoria has a similar dynamic and is equally as cosy to settle down and watch. Any fans of a good, 'cosy' drama should definitely check this out, it's brilliant.
Another of my 'cosy programmes' is, of course, The Great British Bake Off. What more do I need to say! I have to admit that I was a bit worried, to say the least, when the BBC sold out to Channel 4, but actually it still really works and dare I say I think the few changes they have made mean that it is an even better programme than it was before (controversial, I know)! As you all know, I am a huge fan of Noel Fielding and I think the new judges and presenters have settled in really well. Plus they have some brilliant contestants this year and the showstopper challenges have all been a lot more fun. It is a brilliant programme and if you have been holding off watching it because of the channel change, don't! It remains the brilliant programme it has always been and long may it continue.
I have to admit that I am one of those people that will read a ridiculous amount for a few months and then not at all for the next few months. My want to read goes in waves and I hate to admit that I am in a bit of a reading slump at the moment. Having said this I can still pick up the sort of books that you can just pick up and flick through andy current favourite is the pocket-sized 'The Little Black Book' by fab business woman Otegha Uwagba. It is a brilliant book full of practical and inspirational advice for creative women who are in the workplace or own their own business in the creative field and has been so useful for me over the past few weeks as I try to find my way in the big adult world! From finances to public speaking this book is the perfect guide to building the career that you want and has even managed to keep my attention during the dreaded reading slump.
Another type of book that I have been really loving, much to my surprise, is a good cookbook. I have been trying to do a lot more cooking recently and so have been on the look out for some great recipes. My favourites to flick through at the moment are currently 'Toast, Hash, Roast, Mash' by Dan Doherty and 'Tanya Bakes' by YouTuber Tanya Burr. The former because every recipe involves egg in some form or another -YUM- and the latter because I am also really getting into baking, especially her gorgeous chocolate cookies! A few years ago if you had said to me that I would be reading cookbooks I would have said never in a million years, but here I am recommending them to you today and honestly, I am really happy to be able to do so!
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As you can see I have been enjoying loads of great entertainment recently and I hope you can find something in this post that takes your fancy, something new to try. If you have any recommendations of things that you have really been enjoying let me know and I will definitely check them out!


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text:
+ Co-Op Campaign
Fable Legends Aims to Focus on New Co-Op Gameplay Elements
News 8/21/2013 at 9:28 PM by Christopher Metz 3
Being evil this time around has its benefits.
Yesterday at Gamescom, Lionhead Studios and Microsoft revealed their newest title in the Fable series, Fable Legends. From the look of things, this sequel will feature a very different co-op experience never seen before from the previous games.
Much like the previous Fable titles, players will return to the mystical world of Albion to, but this time with the added opportunity to bring up to four other online friends along for the ride (three AI characters will follow along when playing alone). Fable Legends will allow players to level up their characters however they want, be it through swordplay, archery, or arcane magic, you name it (think Skyrim with its customization features). All the good stuff Fable is known for, like questing, monster slaying, looting, and character upgrading will still be present, however, a whole new twist to the "morality" system has been introduced.
Along with the enhanced co-op, Fable Legends introduces a revamped "morality" system where up to four players play as the Heroes, while the fifth can assume the role of a Villain mastermind out to destroy them. This has the fifth player controlling armies of unique minions to battle the Heroes, set traps, and gain experience/gold.
"'Fable' has given you the freedom to be as righteous or morally bankrupt as you want in the past, but for the first time in "Fable" history, "Fable Legends" gives you the chance to embrace villainy and assume the role of an evil mastermind. Playing a Hero utilizes the classic "Fable" style of gameplay, but as a Villain, you'll combine strategy and tactics to control an army of minions against the Heroes. Command your troops in real-time and carefully manage your minions' unique abilities to ensure the forces of evil prevail."
These minions will all have different abilities to discover and utilize, so carefully planning and strategizing comes with being the bad guy; this is where Xbox SmartGlass will come into play. Using a smartphone or tablet, the Villian can wage his war in almost an RTS style against the heroes, while the Heroes can use it to view their quests, progress, and more. Thus far, we're more than curious to know more about how this mode will work for couch co-op.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Processing Array[Byte] in spark dataframes I have a dataframe df1 as below with schema:
scala> df1.printSchema
root
 |-- filecontent: binary (nullable = true)
 |-- filename: string (nullable = true)

The DF has filename and its content. The content is GZIPped. I could use something like the below to unzip the data in filecontent and save it to HDFS.
def decompressor(origRow: Row) = {
    val filename = origRow.getString(1)
    val filecontent = serialise(origRow.getString(0))

    val unzippedData = new GZIPInputStream(new ByteArrayInputStream(filecontent))

    val hadoop_fs = FileSystem.get(sc.hadoopConfiguration)
    val filenamePath = new Path(filename)

    val fos = hadoop_fs.create(filenamePath)

    org.apache.hadoop.io.IOUtils.copyBytes(unzippedData, fos, sc.hadoopConfiguration)
    fos.close()
  }

My objective:
Since the filecontent column data in the df1 is a binary i.e Array[byte] i shouldnt distribute the data and have it together and pass it to the function so that it could decompress and save it to a file.
My Question:

*

*How do I not distribute the data (column data)?

*How do I make sure the processing happens for 1 row at a time?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Sebastian Gutzwiller (französisch Sébastien Gutzwiller, * 1. November 1798 in Uffheim bei Sierentz; † 20. Oktober 1872 in Basel) war ein Elsässer Maler.

Leben

Jugend- und Wanderjahre
Sebastian Gutzwiller wurde am 1. November 1798 in Uffheim bei Sierentz geboren, als Sohn des Sebastian Gutzwiller, Ölmacher, und seiner Frau Catherine Bacher. Über seine Jugendzeit und seine Ausbildung ist nichts Genaues bekannt, da schriftliche Quellen fehlen.

Aus dem Jahre 1815 stammen die ersten bekannten Bilder: die Bildnisse seiner Patin Adelgonde und seines Paten Jacques Haaby, Müller in Uffheim. In den folgenden Jahren war Gutzwiller auf Wanderschaft, nach einem Nachruf in den «Basler Nachrichten» vom 28. November 1872 und nach dem Artikel von Daniel Burckhardt-Werthemann im «Schweizerischen Künstlerlexikon», der offenbar auf mündlicher Mitteilung zweier Töchter Gutzwillers beruht. Der junge Maler soll sich «in Paris an der Kunstakademie» aufgehalten haben, wo er das Restaurieren erlernt und sich im Porträtieren weitergebildet habe, und sei danach nach Rouen, Le Havre, Marseille gereist. In keiner dieser Städte hat sich bisher sein Leben oder Wirken nachweisen lassen. In den Akten der Ecole des Beaux-Arts ist kein Dossier über ihn zu finden; die Municipal- und Departements-Archive wissen von keinem Aufenthalt, in den Museen wird kein Werk von ihm aufbewahrt – sechs Jahre seines Lebens entziehen sich allen Nachforschungen. So muss man annehmen, dass er sich als Gehilfe in privaten Ateliers, vielleicht bei Lehrern der Ecole des Beaux-Arts, weitergebildet hat. Die Produktion dieser Jahre ist Gebrauchskunst gewesen, die mit den Auftraggebern, «kleinen Leuten», verschwunden ist.

Heirat und Niederlassung in Basel

Im Jahre 1821 ist Sebastian Gutzwiller wieder in den Akten erfasst. Er ist ins Elsass zurückgekehrt und verheiratet sich am 29. März mit Caroline Grumler in Mülhausen. Am 23. April 1823 wird die erste Tochter Charlotte Marguerite geboren, offenbar in Mülhausen; 1830 folgt Caroline. Wo und wovon die junge Familie gelebt hat, ist nicht bekannt. Gutzwiller scheint in dieser Zeit Beziehungen zur nahen Stadt Basel aufgebaut zu haben; am 22. April 1833 lässt sich Gutzwiller «als Kunstmaler bei H. Lamy» nieder. Am 4. Februar 1833, kurz vor der Niederlassung der Familie in Basel, wird Karl geboren. Der kleine Karl wird im Basler Münster getauft, ebenso die 1834 geborene Sophie und die 1835 geborene Constantia Amalia, Amalie genannt. 1837 folgt die jüngste Tochter Henriette; sie wird in der Leonhardskirche getauft und stirbt schon 1844. Interessant ist, dass der katholische Gutzwiller zumindest seine in Basel geborenen Kinder reformiert taufen ließ. Dies war nicht nur eine Anpassung an die neue Umgebung; auch seine Frau war reformiert.

Aus den folgenden Jahren sind einige Porträts in Öl und drei Lithographien bekannt; sie befinden sich im Historischen Museum und im Kunstmuseum Basel. Aus Gutzwillers Schaffen in den 30er Jahren haben sich jedoch vor allem Kirchenbilder erhalten. Im Elsass wurden in diesen Jahren viele Kirchen erweitert, neu gebaut oder renoviert und bei dieser Gelegenheit mit neuen Altarbildern ausgestattet. Die ersten heute bekannten Aufträge für Altarbilder erhielt Gutzwiller von der Kirche seines Heimatdorfes Uffheim: einen St. Michael für den Hochaltar sowie eine Immaculata für den linken Seitenaltar. Sicher kam ihm seine Ausbildung oder Tätigkeit als Kopist zustatten. Das Ergebnis scheint die Auftraggeber befriedigt zu haben, und es folgten über zehn weitere Aufträge für Altarbilder im Elsass, der größte Teil davon sogar erst nach seiner Niederlassung in Basel. Diese Aufträge bildeten eine sichere Einnahmequelle in einer Zeit, als seine Familie schnell wuchs.

Aus der Zeit um 1840 stammt ein Ölbild, das sich in Privatbesitz befindet, eine Arbeit, die zeigt, dass Gutzwiller sich vom volkstümlichen Maler seiner Jugendzeit zu einem soliden und angesehenen Porträtisten entwickelt hat. Wir kennen die Namen der Dargestellten nicht: Eine junge Frau mit einem Kind und einem Hündchen lehnt sich an ein Tafelklavier. Sie richtet ihre hellen Augen aufmerksam auf den Betrachter, lächelt leicht. Sie trägt festliche Kleidung und Goldschmuck – Gelegenheit für den Maler, seine handwerklichen Fähigkeiten zu zeigen: Seide, Pelz, Rüschen, Gold sind in ihrer Stofflichkeit eingefangen. Rechts neben der Frau, links vom Betrachter aus, sitzt ein ungefähr sechsjähriges Kind mit einem fein modellierten Gesicht in zarten Farben. Es blickt ohne ein Lächeln aus dem Bild und hält einen kleinen Hund auf dem Schoss. Gutzwiller stellt ein stimmiges Interieur zusammen, in dem die einzelnen Teile – das Klavier mit dem offenen Notenheft, die Stiche an der Wand, der geraffte Vorhang mit fein gearbeiteten Spitzen, die Tapete – und das Ganze zur Charakterisierung der abgebildeten Menschen arrangiert ist. Alles atmet solide Bürgerlichkeit, aber auch Liebe zur Kunst – kurz: biedermeierliche Ordnung. Perspektivische Unzulänglichkeiten übersieht man der ausgeglichenen Farbigkeit und der Atmosphäre des Bildes wegen.

Das Altarbild der Stadtkirche St. Martin in Olten
Gutzwiller hatte sich in Basel einen gewissen Namen gemacht. Offensichtlich wurde er nun auch außerhalb des Elsass und der Region Basel zur Kenntnis genommen. Aus dem Jahr 1841 kennen wir das Familienporträt Munzinger aus Olten. Etwas später erhielt er den Auftrag, das von Martin Disteli entworfene Altarbild in der Stadtkirche St. Martin auszuführen.

Die Geschichte dieses Altarbildes ist ziemlich verworren und nicht ohne Tragik. In den Oltner Neujahrsblättern 1999 wurde sie ausführlich dargelegt. Sebastian Gutzwiller ist zwar «nur» Ausführender dieses Werks, aber sein Name wird in diesem Zusammenhang schon früh genannt. Die Quellen sind einzigartig, denn bisher ist kein Werk Gutzwillers bekannt, zu dessen Entstehungsgeschichte schriftliche Quellen erhalten geblieben sind. Die konkreten Angaben über sein Wirken sind ein Nebenprodukt der guten Quellenlage zu Disteli.

Eine Oltner Bürgerin hatte 1842 testamentarisch einen Betrag für ein Hauptaltargemälde, einen heiligen Martin, in der Stadtkirche St. Martin vermacht. Eine Altarkommission wurde eingesetzt; sie wollte den Auftrag an den berühmten Mitbürger Martin Disteli geben und bat ihn, eine Skizze vorzulegen. Disteli war hocherfreut über die Anfrage und war stolz, von seiner Heimatstadt einen so wichtigen Auftrag zu erhalten. Er hatte schon früher Altarbilder für die Kirche der Nachbargemeinde Kappel gemalt, ohne seine unerbittlich antiklerikale Haltung aufzugeben. Besonders willkommen war ihm die Anfrage, weil er wegen seiner radikalen Publikationen in große Geldnot geraten war.
Disteli legte nicht die gewünschte Skizze eines Heiligen Martin vor, sondern eine Kreuzabnahme – ein solches Bild hatte er schon für Kappel gemalt. Damit begann ein Streit zwischen dem Künstler und der Behörde, der 1843 darin gipfelte, dass die Behörde das Altarbild öffentlich ausschrieb.

Unter den Künstlern, die sich um die Ausführung des Auftrages bewarben, befand sich nach Dietschi [1920] unter anderen Sebastian Gutzwiller. Dieser habe einen Kupferstich von Cornelius' «Jüngstem Gericht» von 1840 in der Ludwigskirche München beigelegt und sich anerboten, vor Ort eine Kopie anzufertigen. Leider lassen sich die Quellen, die Dietschi benutzt hat, nicht mehr auffinden; wenn wir ihm Glauben schenken dürfen, sind zwei Fakten interessant: Gutzwiller schlägt eine Kopie vor, und zwar eine nach dem neuesten, berühmten nazarenischen Fresko in München; er zeigt damit, dass er die Entwicklungen der Kunst mitverfolgt. Und: Gutzwiller bringt das Thema des «Jüngsten Gerichtes» auf, ein Sujet, von dem vorher nie die Rede war, das aber schließlich verwirklicht wurde.

Dank der Beharrlichkeit eines Kommissionsmitglieds und Freundes Distelis ging der Auftrag doch an Disteli. Am 12. März 1843 wurde der außerordentlichen Gemeindeversammlung das «Project eines Vertrages» der Gemeinde Olten mit Disteli vorgelegt; der Vertrag wurde genehmigt. In unserem Zusammenhang ist der Artikel IX interessant: «Für diese Kunst-Arbeit bezahlt die Gemeinde dem Herren Disteli […] eine Summe von Fr. 2800.–. In dieser Summe ist aber auch das Honorar inbegriffen, das Hr: Disteli an Hr: Gutzwyler [sic] in Basel, welchen er auf sein eigenes Anerbieten zur Aushülfe im Ausmalen beizuziehen sich anheischig gemacht.» [Kunstmuseum Olten]. Der Passus ist sprachlich schwerfällig und fehlerhaft formuliert. Doch die Bedeutung ist klar: Disteli hat sich verpflichtet, den Maler Gutzwyler bzw. Gutzwiller als «Aushülfe im Ausmalen» beizuziehen. Sicher ist, dass damit handwerkliche Qualität und termingerechte Fertigstellung garantiert waren.

Disteli konnte noch den Entwurf vorlegen; er gefiel allseits. Die Ausführung wurde nochmals verzögert durch neue Auseinandersetzungen des Künstlers mit der Behörde, diesmal wegen Geldfragen. Dieses Zerwürfnis konnte im Herbst beigelegt werden, doch die Ausführung des Bildes musste auf den Frühling verlegt werden. Im März 1844 starb Disteli, erst 42-jährig. Kurz darauf wurde die «vorhandene Hauptzeichnung» in der Kirche aufgehängt. «Mittlerweile wurde Herr Kunstmaler Gutzwyler in Basel, der sich neuerdings um die Ausführung beworben, eingeladen, die aufgehängte Zeichnung anzusehen, um daraufhin mit der Kommission zu unterhandeln. Derselbe erschien hierauf am 20. dies., untersuchte die Zeichnung und erklärte sich bereit, dieselbe auszumalen».

Das von Sebastian Gutzwiller gemalte Bild unterscheidet sich in einigen Details von den Entwürfen Distelis. Es wirkt weniger eigenständig und genialisch als der Entwurf, sondern konventionell und akademisch, in Details genrehaft. Gutzwiller vergrößert die Zahl der Heiligen und Seligen links und rechts von Christus, er lässt Putten schweben, er fügt eine betende Madonna zwischen Christus und Johannes ein und markiert den Übergang zwischen Himmel und Erde mit einem zweiten Engel. Er bekleidet die Nackten und Halbnackten. Interessant ist die Behandlung der Gesichter: Die Geretteten haben nazarenisch-liebliche Gesichter, die Verdammten wirken ausgeprägt individualisiert.

Das Oltner Jüngste Gericht gehört zu den wichtigeren Kirchengemälden der Schweiz dieser Zeit. Distelis virtuoser, kraftvoller Entwurf und Gutzwillers nazarenisches Verständnis der Kirchenmalerei, aber auch seine handwerkliche Erfahrung in der Ölmalerei haben sich zu einem eindrücklichen Werk verbunden.

Das Basler "Familienkonzert"

Einen Höhepunkt in Gutzwillers Schaffen bildet das häufig abgebildete «Familienkonzert» von 1849. Es ist das wohl bekannteste Werk Gutzwillers, jedenfalls in der Schweiz; es gilt «als Inbegriff baslerischer Wohnstubenidylle der ausgehenden Biedermeierzeit» [von Roda 1989]. Man weiß nicht genau, ob das Musizieren einer bestimmten Familie dargestellt ist. Eine häufig vertretene Vermutung sieht in den dargestellten Personen Gutzwillers eigene Familie. Dagegen sprechen allerdings Anzahl, Alter und Geschlecht der Personen: Im Jahr 1849 hätte die Familie Gutzwiller aus vier Töchtern und einem Sohn bestanden; die beiden Jüngsten hätten 13 und 14 Jahre gezählt. Die Beliebtheit dieses Bildes nährt sich unter anderem mit aus dieser Ungewissheit, wer die dargestellte Familie sei. Es ist aber auch sehr anziehend in seiner einfachen, fast naiven Komposition und seiner warmen Farbigkeit; es zeigt eine überschaubare, friedliche Welt. Darüber hinaus ist es wegen seiner Detailgenauigkeit eine Bildquelle zu sozial- und kulturgeschichtlichen Fragen.

Restaurierungstätigkeit im Alter
Nach den beiden ältesten biografischen Berichten hat Gutzwiller in Paris das Restaurieren erlernt. Einem undatierten Zeitungsbericht von E. Maior zufolge hat Gutzwiller im Jahre 1842 die von Hans Holbein dem Jüngeren bemalten Orgelflügel aus dem Basler Münster restauriert; in diesem Artikel wird Gutzwillers Arbeit als «grob», ja «herzlos» bezeichnet. Dies ist der erste Restaurierungsauftrag, der für Basel bezeugt ist; weitere folgen ab 1849 im Auftrag des Kunstvereins. Auf den erhaltenen Quittungen sind nur summarische Angaben enthalten wie z. B. 36 «gefirniste geputzte und theils restaurierte Bilder», «Retouche», «Reparation». Eine Rechnung für «Restauration holbeinisches Gemälde» über Fr. 20.– ist das letzte Zeugnis für eine restauratorische Tätigkeit Gutzwillers (24. Dezember 1870).

Ein Bildnis aus dem Jahre 1858 ist das letzte Werk Gutzwillers, das sich erhalten hat: Das Bildnis der Sophie Singeisen, geb. 1842, die auf dem Porträt als 16-Jährige bezeichnet wird; das Bild muss also um 1858 entstanden sein (Hist. Museum Basel).

Sebastian Gutzwiller stirbt am 20. Oktober 1872 in seiner Wohnung an der Hammerstraße 24, nach einer anderen Quelle im Spital. Zwei Tage später wird er auf dem Theodorsfriedhof in Kleinbasel beerdigt. Am 30. Oktober einigten sich die sieben Erben – Ehefrau, Sohn, die verheiratete Tochter mit ihrem Mann und die drei ledigen Töchter – auf den Verzicht eines Inventars. Da sie alle offensichtlich harmonisch im Haus des Schwiegersohnes Effinger an der Hammerstraße 24 zusammenlebten, war es überflüssig.

Würdigung
Gutzwiller war ein solider Handwerker, von dem einige Werke überlebt haben, die sehr geschätzt werden: ein paar Porträts aus den Basler Museen, das Familienkonzert, das Jüngste Gericht in Olten.

In seinem Schaffen lassen sich aufgrund der erhaltenen Werke drei Schwerpunkte erkennen: die Porträt- und Genremalerei, die von 1815 bis 1858, also von der frühen Jugend bis ins spätere Erwachsenenalter sicher belegt ist, die Kirchenmalerei, für die wir sichere Belege zwischen 1831 und 1845 haben und schließlich die Restaurationstätigkeit, mit Belegen von 1842 bis 1870. Gutzwiller hat sich, wenn wir diese Schwerpunkte auch zeitlich als repräsentativ annehmen dürfen, damit auch an der Nachfrage orientiert: Vor der Erfindung der Photographie war die Porträtmalerei eine gefragte Fertigkeit, auch in ländlichen oder kleinbürgerlichen Schichten; nach 1860 ging die Nachfrage zurück. Die Kirchenmalerei spielte in den dreißiger Jahren eine große Rolle, als die Kirchenbautätigkeit im Elsass sehr lebhaft war. Und in den vierziger Jahren nahm allgemein das Interesse an alter Kunst zu, eine Folge davon waren die Restaurationsaufträge des Kunstvereins.

In der Porträtmalerei seiner mittleren Jahre schätzte man seinen Sinn für Interieurs, seine Liebe zum Detail, seine handwerklichen Fertigkeiten in den Bereichen der Stofflichkeit und der Farbe.
Die Kirchenmalerei ist konventionell, mit Ausnahme des Oltner Jüngsten Gerichts, das die mittelalterliche Bildidee individualisiert. Allerdings stammt der Entwurf, wie oben erwähnt, von Martin Disteli.

Über die Restaurationstätigkeit ist wenig bekannt. Gutzwillers technische Fertigkeiten im Umgang mit Material sind unbestritten, und seine Liebe zum Detail müsste Gewähr geboten haben für saubere, zurückhaltende Arbeit.

Quellen
 Kunstmuseum Olten, Disteli-Archiv, C 1, C 24
 Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt
 Stadtarchiv Olten, Altarkommission St. Martin

Literatur
 Verena Bider: Le peintre alsacien Sébastien Gutzwiller et son activité en Suisse. In: Annuaire de la Société d'histoire du Sundgau, 2000, S. 31–46.
Verena Bider: Gutzwiller Alsacien – Zwischenbericht über eine Spurensuche. In: Baselbieter Heimatblätter, Organ der Gesellschaft für Baselbieter Heimatforschung, Bd. 64, 1999, Heft 4, S. 164–179 (Digitalisat).
 Biografisches Lexikon der Schweizer Kunst. Hrsg.: Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft Zürich; Lausanne. Zürich, 1998. ISBN 3-85823-673-X
 Daniel Burckhardt: Gutzwiller, Sebastian. In: Schweizerisches Künstler-Lexikon, Bd. 1, 1905
 Hugo Dietschi: Die Decken- und Wandgemälde in der Stadtkirche Olten, im besonderen das Chorgemälde von M. Disteli. Olten, 1920
 Burkhard von Roda: Wohnstuben der Biedermeierzeit. Bilder zur Geschichte der bürgerlichen Einrichtung in und um Basel 1809-1849. In: Kunst und Antiquitäten, 1989;1

Weblinks
 Tapan Bhattacharya: Gutzwiller, Sebastian. In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz. 23. Dezember 2013
 Gutzwiller, Sebastian In: Deutsche Biographie

Einzelnachweise

Maler (Frankreich)
Maler (Basel)
Person (Elsass)
Geboren 1798
Gestorben 1872
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
HomeCar NewsMahindra XUV300 debuts in South Africa - Exported from India
Mahindra XUV300 debuts in South Africa – Exported from India
Satya Singh
One way to fight the slump in local markets is to explore global opportunities, which is exactly what Mahindra appears to be doing. Some time back Mahindra MD Pawan Goenka had talked about XUV300's global potential, which has now come true with the debut of XUV300 in South Africa.
Mahindra has now showcased the XUV300 to their dealers in South Africa. Launch is scheduled in the coming days. After this, Mahindra will be eyeing other major markets such as Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Based on SsangYong Tivoli's X100 platform, XUV300 is a truly global product that comes with a host of advanced features.
Mahindra is launching XUV300 in South Africa first, as it already has an extensive network of 60 dealerships in the country. This would make it easier for XUV300 to hit the ground running in South Africa. SsangYong Tivoli is not sold in South Africa, which is another reason why Mahindra is taking its bets on XUV300's launch in this country. In South Africa, XUV300 will take on rivals such as Ford EcoSport, Mazda CX-3, Renault Duster, Renault Captur, Suzuki Vitara, Opel Mokka X, and Mitsubishi ASX.
New Mahindra XUV300 has stylish exteriors, featuring LED DRLs, floating roof design, diamond-cut alloys and edgy LED tail lamps. Interiors have a premium look and feel and are designed to be spacious and comfortable. The car comes with several hi-tech features such as GPS navigation, futuristic instrument cluster, and a 17.8 cm touchscreen infotainment system supporting Android Auto™ and Apple CarPlay. XUV300 also offers best-in-class safety features such as 7-airbags, front parking sensors, four disc brakes, and hill start assist.
Performance is another area where XUV300 is ahead of its rivals. It gets its power from a 1.5L turbo diesel engine and 1.2L turbo petrol engine, both of which generate best-in-segment torque. The diesel unit makes 115 bhp power and 300 Nm torque, whereas petrol unit delivers 110 bhp power and 200 Nm torque. Both engines are mated to 6-speed manual transmission. Automatic transmission is in the works and is expected to be launched soon. An electric variant of XUV300 (S210) is also being developed and it will be launched in India in 2020.
In South Africa, bookings and test drives are now open for XUV300. To attract customers, Mahindra is offering free fuel vouchers and a chance to win a trip to India worth R100,000.


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The Pope and Sodomy
Time is running out.
Has it appeared "odd" to anyone else that there are so many promoters of sodomy around Pope Francis? Hardly a week goes by where some outlandish gay thing after another fails to make an appearance in some manner, shape or form — from reports of the gay orgy in the apartment of Cdl. (Francesco) Coccopalmerio's assistant near the end of last year to Abp. (Vincenzo) Paglia's homoerotic painting to the gay-themed Nativity set in St. Peter's Square to gay cheerleaders Fr. James Martin and Fr. Thomas Rosica's special jobs in the Vatican bureaucracy to a very gay-friendly company running aspects of the Vatican's communications apparatus to the infamous line in the Synod on the Family's 2014 Midterm Relatio that homosexuals have certain gifts and qualities, an idea sneaked into the document by Abp. Bruno Forte, known to be extremely gay-friendly. It's so much, people are wondering when the Dome of St. Peter's is going to be painted pink. And believe us when we say those examples are just the tip of the iceberg.
The ascendancy of the homosexual clerical culture really took off in Rome and other quarters of the Church decades ago — slowly at first but then has picked up steam. Pope Benedict even admitted recently that he had encountered a group of four or five homosexual cardinals he had to deal with.
Pope Francis at the beginning of his pontificate created international headlines when he admitted privately there was a gay lobby inside the Vatican. Of course, many people became very concerned when the Holy Father appointed Msgr. Battista Ricca to head up the Vatican Bank. Ricca was reported to have carried on a gay relationship with a captain in the Swiss Army during his time in Uruguay — so notorious in fact that clergy there appealed to the Vatican to have him removed. It was Battista, as a sidebar, that Pope Francis was talking about back in 2013 when he gave his well-documented comment, "Who am I to judge?"
It's also important to note that privately various orthodox types in the Vatican and Rome are expressing deep concern that homosexual practice in the Vatican "has never been worse," as recorded this past summer in multiple news reports. The Vatican has been overrun by a gay culture which promotes its own kind from within. The great danger, here, is of course that active gay clergy or those who support it cannot be transmitters of the authentic faith. They are living lives or supporting others who live these lives which run in complete contradiction to the tenets of Catholicism, yet they seem to have control over practically everything in the Church. And it has a supporting or trickle-down effect throughout the Church.
For example, in next months, virtually heretical Religious Education Congress — sponsored by Los Angeles Abp. Jose Gomez — one pro-homosexualist after another dot the lineup of invited speakers. Privately, here in the United States, priests will tell you that a gay mob runs practically every level of the Church which we have ample proof of in Cdl. Timothy Dolan's archdiocese of New York. Last month, a homosexual priest came out to his parish at Sunday Mass in the archdiocese of Milwaukee, and Abp. Jerome Listecki praised him and said Catholics should support him.
Father James Martin is allowed to openly lie about Church teaching in parish after parish and diocese after diocese, and practically no one in the hierarchy says a word. In fact just the opposite, they come out and support him and even one-up him in their assaults against the Faith, saying gay couples can receive Holy Communion as Cdl. Blase Cupich did in Chicago or that we can just ignore all that sin stuff and have a pilgrimage for gays like Cdl. Joseph Tobin did in Newark, New Jersey. And on the other side of the Atlantic, Cdl. Reinhard Marx has come out publicly and said the Church should begin blessing same-sex unions, something Abp. Johan Bonny of Antwerp, Belgium, had already called for a couple of years ago.
All over the Church in the West calls for the embracing of sodomy from the hierarchy are accelerating and increasing in volume. They style it as respect and compassion and human rights etc. But what is at the heart of this is sodomy, plain and simple? Nobody is saying that people struggling with their crosses, whatever type of cross they have, should be treated in any other way than with compassion and respect. Of course they should. It even says that in the catechism. But it is a bridge too far to call on Catholics to accept the sin, thinly veiling it as love when it is anything but love. Call it what it is, it's sodomy. And these bishops and cardinals cannot support what they claim to support without also supporting that.
These gay unions that they want to bless, uplift and support are unions centered around the belief that sodomy is a perfectly legitimate expression of their feelings of love for each other. At some point, reasonable minds have to pose the question: is the reason so many prelates and cardinals are pushing so hard for something that affects so few people because they are homosexuals themselves? Seriously, if Martians landed on earth tomorrow, they would think the Church was the gay rights lobby in robes. It's practically all they ever go on about.
These men are sowing confusion and error in the hearts and minds of the faithful, as well as promoting an evil agenda which the world embraces, and they are using or rather abusing their authority and influence to do so. They need to repent of their wickedness before they die or hellfire awaits them. And they need to publicly admit the horrible circumstances in to which they have placed many souls, pushing them to the precipice of Hell.
What the laity have to understand is this simple fact as hard as it is, maybe, and as unpleasant it is to think about it; these men hate the Church, even while they claim to love it. They hate the Truth because it convicts them and their consciences and exposes the evil that they harbor. And they hide all this evil and contempt and scorn for the Church under cries and appeals for compassion and kindness, something they are unwilling to extend to souls who actually need it.
They have found in Pope Francis, who cares about mercy, even to the point of allowing confusion to foster, a man whose strings they can easily tug, using that "mercy" argument to hide their real agenda which is an overthrow of the Church. A final warning to them since they have no supernatural faith — and you cannot have supernatural faith and behave like this — they are incapable of seeing the Church in a supernatural way. To them, it is a merely human institution that can be altered and refashioned according to the whims of mere humans. But the Church is not merely human. It is a joining, a mysterious union between God and man, and as such it belongs to God.
He will not allow this to continue much longer because the rabid gays in the Church are now touching sacred things, wanting to declare that which is evil, good, and that which is good, evil. When Our Blessed Lord sets about to offer correction, it's usually a fearsome prospect.
A Cloud of Witnesses
They really do surround us.


There's no denying the success of computer-animated movies. Toy Story might have started it all, but which one is truly the best?
Science fiction movies push the boundaries of our imaginations and challenge us to look ahead. Which sci-fi films are the greatest?
The SNES was one of the greatest consoles ever thanks to an endless library of awesome games. But which of these were truly the best?


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The Passenger (1975)
Maria Schneider and Jack Nicholson hit the road in Antonioni's partly frustrating, partly masterful The Passenger
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Cast: Jack Nicholson (David Locke), Maria Schneider (The Girl), Ian Hendy (Martin Knight), Jenny Runacre (Rachel Locke), Charles Mulvehill (David Robertson), Steven Berkoff (Stephen)
Ever wanted to jack in your life and have a go at being someone else? It's a temptation we've all felt at one time or another, that chance to make a completely fresh start free of all those burdens and expectations of our own lives.
It's a temptation thrown in the way of David Locke (Jack Nicholson) a British-American journalist, trying to make contact with rebel groups in the deepest Sahara deserts of Chad. Returning, after a failed excursion, to his 'hotel' in the tiny, beat-up village in the middle of the desert he finds that the only other resident, an Englishman, has died of a heart attack. The two man have a physical similarity, enough for Locke to decide to swop places with the dead man and leave Chad under a new identity as David Robertson. Curious to follow the details left in Robertson's appointment diary, Locke finds that he has taken the identity of an arms dealer – making sense immediately of why Robertson was also in the hotel at the time – forcing Locke to stay one-step ahead of both the arms dealers and his wife Rachel (Jenny Runacre) and producer Martin (Ian Hendry) keen to talk to him about 'Locke's' death.
If that sounds like it might be an action packed thriller – you'd be wrong, because let's not forget that this is an Antonioni film, and if there is one thing you can expect from the revered auteur of the Art-House, it's that his films are mysteries wrapped in enigmas. The Passenger is no exception, a slow, intriguing mood piece that only partially allows the audience even half a chance to puzzle out what it's about, mixed with striking images and haunting sequences of fundamental unknowingness. Despite the paragraph above there is almost no plot in The Passenger, with the film instead focused on themes of alienation, existentialism, destiny, fate and identity. In other words all the big stuff.
Much of this is captured in the character of Locke. Played by Jack Nicholson in a stripped-down, purged style a million miles away from the "Jack" of legend, Locke is a blank. We spend almost the entire film with him, but learn virtually nothing about him. What desires or miseries or depressions drive him to abandon his life and head out into a new life? We have only vague whispers about an unhappy marriage (with a wife having an affair with someone else) and a general listless dissatisfaction with his own life and career. Locke is a character yearning for some kind of release, some kind of higher meaning – the happiest he seems to be in the movie, is hanging over the side of a cable car, arms outstretched, pretending to fly over the waters below. It's a freedom like that – some sort of total unshackling from the modern world altogether – that he seems to want or need.
So why doesn't he go for it? Why doesn't he just junk Robertson's appointment diary and escape properly into the wide world, well beyond the reach of Chad rebels, curious wives and BBC Producers? Perhaps because he is a Passenger himself, a man who lacks the essential will and freedom of purpose to make his own destiny, to escape the structure of a world he finds so constricting? Instead, he seems bound of a wheel of fire, compelled somehow to continue following some sort of structure unable to yank himself fully free of the chains of this modern world. He wants to be a free spirit, but he remains a little man, to whom events happen, who is approached by people, who follows directions not forging his own path.
He gets as close as he can to opening up by talking to a passenger of his own, a mysterious girl (played with an unaffected naturalness by Maria Schneider that is part graceful reality, part wooden stiffness but works perfectly) he encounters while following Robertson's trail. He first spots her sitting on a bench in London, then sees her again atop Guadi's La Pedrera in Barcelona. Is this coincidence? Is this fate? Destiny? Or is this a curious suggestion that the girl may be more than she seems? None of these questions is answered by the film, but it fits perfectly in with the unknowing vagueness and quizzical unpredictability of its events. Hammering home the blank unknowability of Schneider's character, she isn't even named in the film. She joins Locke on his journey, but her motivations are as vague as his – is it escape, a bohemian lark, a curiosity that guides her? Who knows?
The film continues in this vein, showing Locke drifting from Chad to the UK to Berlin, Barcelona and Seville, never seeming to allow Locke more than a few seconds of freedom. Is the film asking if there is any such thing as true freedom, that even after swopping lives Locke still finds himself locked down into following a series of pre-arranged duties, like a train on a line? It's not clear, but it's beautifully filmed. Antonioni's mastery of the camera shines throughout the film, and it's full of haunting and immersive imagery, not least in his skilful use of locations and framing, with Locke and the Girl frequently positioned oddly or even dwarfed by the architecture and locations around them, from the plains of the desert to the towers of Gaudi.
Antonioni also saves for this film some sequences which are simply breathtaking in their cinematic mastery and beauty. His control of technique is near faultless – while his art house vagueness might have you pulling your hair out at points, these sequences will have you winding the film back just to relax in their skill and confidence again. Early in the film, we see Locke sit and fake his passport in his Chad hotel – oh for the days when identity theft was as simple as glueing a new photo into a passport – the camera smoothly moves around him, while he listens to recordings of Robertson and he meeting, until it settles onto the balcony (all this in one take) at which point Robertson walks into frame and continues the conversation, Locke following him and, there we go, Antonioni has taken us suddenly into the past. Without a single cut, the camera follows the conversation before panning back round to Locke sitting once again writing.
It's a sequence that cineateases would be raving about, if it wasn't dwarfed by the film's penultimate shot, a stunning seven-minute single take that would be simplicity itself to make with CGI and Steadicam today, but was somewhere achieved without the invention of others. Starting on a single shot of Locke's Seville hotel room, the pan slowly focuses on events outside the grilled window, the camera slowly zooming in on the outside until it passes through the grill and rotates 180 degrees back to see the room from the outside, while the Girl and other mysterious people arrive and leave outside. It's a beautiful, brilliant, sublime, masterful piece of cinema. It's compelling, surely one of the greatest "one-take" shots in all of cinema. Simply perfect. Directors could sit and dream of making such a shot.
Antonioni's masterful direction and wilfully obtuse exploration of his themes makes for a film that is at time frustratingly unreadable, but also crammed with opportunities for the viewer to insert their own views and interpretations, something that is only going to become more tempting (and rewarding) with repeated viewings. Alongside that, it's a simply beautiful and sublimely made piece of cinema – and if for no other reason deserves your time.
Labels: Ian Hendry, Italian Film, Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Michelangelo Antonioni, Psychological dramas, Steven Berkoff
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These are prime times for pathological liars to thrive. Toxic moochers are on the rise because narcissism is now a world-wide pandemic. They have infiltrated society for one primary reason. Their emotional food supply is abundant. And like any predatory animal, when the food supply is plentiful, the population of predators rise. And the world, I am sad to report, has accepted that it is perfectly fine for members of our species to prey on our own children and on our own kind to serve the depraved. Impersonal relationships facilitated by social media appear, at least in small part, to have fueled the fire.
Read more here on how traumatized children are now a public health crisis.
Read more here on narcissists posing as healers.
Lying is learned but so is our ability not to lie just like our ability not to cheat. Our personalities and characters along with our empathy and sense of reason are also developing at the same time. So, if we are developing and adapting normally, we are learning in parallel how and when to limit our deception by experiencing the personal pain and observing the pain of others we care about when we go too far with our lies. This is when we learn to identify when our deception will harm us and others more than it will benefit us. This is how we learn to turn compassion we are born with to empathy and how to use that ability wisely to support our emotional and relational health to benefit ourselves and others. This is how we learn to put on the brakes to behaviors that will benefit us at others' expense and vice versa.
They lie pathologically to imbalance power and create doubt, confusion, uncertainty, and chaos so they can manipulate us more effectively. They are emotional moochers. So they lie bomb (a.k.a engage in crazy making) to play on and trigger our fears and to get us to believe we are not worthy of better. While no one even other narcissists is immune to being targeted, their preferred targets are those most vulnerable to manipulation including empaths, those in emotional pain, and even entire groups whose thinking is fear- and pain-based.
These tactics like the old bait and switch are as old as the hills, but nevertheless, are very effective. Convincing you that you or others in need are weak, of less value, crazy, or are a danger, a threat, makes you seem less believable, weak, unlovable, undesirable, and unworthy and even less human. And ultimately by getting you to believe the lies and question your beliefs, they can more easily get you to abandon your natural desire to care for, empathize and help yourself and others. They manipulate you to believe that you and the vulnerable are not lovable and not worthy of your basic rights to life, liberty, and happiness because you are "moochers" who are stealing from those more worthy (e.g. them) when they, in reality, are the "moochers." Remember The Wizard of Oz, nothing but smoke and mirrors controlled by a wizard you were instructed not to pay attention to? Well, while anecdotal and filmed in the 1930s, it is based in reality about pathologically lying narcissists and the importance of being able to separate lies from truth.
Authentic: "Not false or copied; genuine; real; representing one's true nature or beliefs; true to oneself or to the person identified.
Read more on how to develop integrity of character and authenticity.
We must be mindful, vigilant and informed in all our choices and especially in whom we choose to love, associate with, trust, and choose as our lawmakers, senators, the head of state! We can work on improving our own emotional health.
Read more here on how to identify and eliminate toxic people in your life.
Learning to recognize these toxic individuals and distinguishing them from authentic people, managing boundaries, and learning to say no can be instrumental in helping us all take our power back, learn to use our compassion responsibly, prevent our exploitation from emotional moochers, making better choices based on facts rather than emotional triggers, and living the joy-filled lives we were put on this earth to live.
In "Useful Tips to Identify Toxic People in Your Life," I provide 15 simple and very effective tips to help you identify manipulation tactics of toxic people and distinguish authentically virtuous and competent people from the emotional vampires who exploit power, value, credit, attention, or whatever they need from you.
I remember many years ago, early in my career, a colleague I babysat for and who was very happily married referred to his and his brother's chronic infidelity as "the family curse." I found out about his betrayal when he approached me for medical advice about symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases. I was flabbergasted especially when he told me his wife and family were "the best" and most important thing in the world to him. I have been fascinated ever since by those who readily cheat and betray others and those who do not. So I started to explore during my own healing journey those qualities in people that would motivate them to betray a.k.a cheat and those that would prevent them from cheating a.k.a. be loyal. This is what I discovered about why cheaters cheat.
Betrayal and loyalty are dependent on the level of character and personal power that impact the ability to obligate and commit to another. Anyone can cheat and very easily. Betrayal takes no effort at all except to plot and scheme perhaps. Now, this applies to all forms of betrayal of relational trust including abuse, abandonment, cheating, fraud, lying, conning, manipulating, addictions, exploiting and benefitting at the expense of someone else. It even includes betraying and abandoning our own selves after the betrayers betray us such as in codependent relationships. To not cheat, to be loyal and faithful takes personal power, integrity of character, healthy self-worth. Why? What is the big deal?
Because it takes personal resilience, wisdom, and strength of character to not have to succumb to what is easy and may be gratifying in the short term, to know it will not sustain us in the long run, and to have the compassion and conscience it takes not to break the trust of someone we vowed not to or who trusts us. And it takes hard work to learn the difference and which one we and the ones who trust us are more worthy of. So being loyal requires not only the ability to commit in word or thought (e.g. invalidated promise) but the ability to act on and demonstrate the commitment promised (e.g. validate the promise). A promise is hollow and valueless until we deliver on that promise.
We, assuming we are emotionally healthy, believe we are agreeing to something we know we can deliver and are able to deliver and understand we are worthy of the same in return. This is why we have codes of ethics and oaths and vows where we commit in good times and bad, in sickness and health when our ability to act on that commitment of loyalty are challenged the most. We trust the other's word based on what they say and faith that it aligns with their thoughts and actions and abilities. Hopefully, that is based on them earning that trust. Ah? Or so we thought.
The strength of character that enables us to be loyal doesn't come for free or have anything to do with how much money you have, or your looks, formal education, title, prestige, level of privilege. It is worked for and earned. The problem is that usually the most faithful people and the most loyal are also the ones with the higher level of compassion and lower levels of self-worth that make them vulnerable to emotional predators and pathological liars who are not able to source their power internally. So we think others have the same good intentions as we do and they have worked as hard as we have to develop the character strength to be loyal friends, lovers, spouses, family members and co-workers when in reality they have not! We expect enemies to betray, to intentionally want to inflict pain, not those we love and trust. What happens, then, when we are betrayed by someone who we not only trust but are driven by our love and loyalty to believe and protect and stand by when things get rough? This is typically how our reaction plays out.
After the shock, disbelief, confusion as to why someone would do to me what "I would not do to them in a million years," we typically blame ourselves. Sadly, the self-blame can turn into toxic shame. While we did nothing wrong except perhaps to rely on someone who is unreliable, we blame ourselves for the perpetrator's lie(s), inability to commit, lack of compassion, unfaithfulness, treason, crimes, addictions.
Repetitive betrayals can cause trauma bonding and exaggerated fear of abandonment. We can stay too long in exploitive relationships and sabotage our own healing to avoid "betraying" even toxic people who are harming us. We can mistake trauma bonding caused by peptide addiction for love. We can even sabotage healthy relationships to avoid abandonment or betrayal that we fear more than the breakup. And for empaths whose lives have been filled with multiple losses and betrayals, healing challenges including learning the dynamics of healthy relationships can appear insurmountable when in reality they are not. Read more on the challenges of loss for empaths.
Cheating is an easy way to feel powerful, feed the ego of people who have nothing reliable in their tool kit of character traits, values, wisdom and coping and life skills to prevent them from cheating. Weakness in character, lack of moral compass, low self-worth, lower consciousness, lower resilience, lower levels of compassion, higher levels of narcissism and entitlement, and lower level of ability to delay gratification are the character traits that motivate a person to need more power, more immediate gratification and to seek out easy ways to achieve them at the expense of trust, family, vows, oaths to defend nations, society, lives, human rights, children, minorities, or whatever suits them. So weakness of character motivates a person to betray and facilitates the betrayal because they have no internal "brakes" to prevent them from cheating or exploiting. In essence, betrayers are wired for betraying.
Dr. George K. Simon, a preeminent expert on manipulative aggressive personalities and author of the best sellers In Sheep's Clothing, Character Disturbance, and The Judas Syndrome confirms that those with covert aggressive personalities like pathological narcissists lack the capacity to love because they lack empathy and the warning signs of such empathy deficits are in part in the attitudes they display toward obligation. Narcissists simply detest putting out effort that might, even in part, benefit someone else.
Dr. Simon's research confirms that narcissists can work very hard and can spend inordinate amounts time and energy working purely to get something they want such as another love interest that would benefit them. As many of us very well know, they can put in extraordinary efforts to groom and love bomb a potential mate or spouse or as we have seen in recent news, commit fraud to enter college or government. But putting the same amount of energy into a personal relationship, taking care of a sick family member, demonstrating the loyalty and consistency they promise are completely different matters and very unattractive enterprises to them. They want all the benefits of marriage, for example, without having to work for them or earn them! Dr. Simon emphasizes that narcissists resist working to become better human beings more than any other kind of work. So even when it comes to respect and love and admiration or even college admittance and educating themselves, they want to come by them in the same manner as everything else – without having to earn them. And guess what folks? How do we build integrity of character? Competence? Problem solving? You got it! By earning it through hard work to set goals, make a plan to achieve them, critically thinking, being successful, and learning lessons through mistakes we make along the way. If we don't, we do not develop those human qualities that allow us to love, grow, and to integrate normally into society. We essentially remain stunted in our growth, rely parasitically on others, exploit resources, and spend our energy manipulating power and resources from others without returning the value.
Can those who have been betrayed learn to heal, release the shame, grieve the loss, and improve the health of their relationships to benefit themselves? Of course. Remember? They are the ones with resilience and authentic power, the ones with the inner strength to be loyal and faithful, true to their commitment of trust, and have no need to cheat.
Can the betrayers heal? Not my call. No one knows. However, this I do know. Once a serial betrayer, forever a serial betrayer. And there is no cure for pathological narcissism. The more severe the betrayal and the more serious the level of weakness in character of the perpetrator, the more likely any promises and bit of perceived improvement will be faked, temporary, and unsustainable. Remember, the parts of their brains that plot and scheme and lie work perfectly fine. It is the parts that would prevent them from cheating, have remorse, and learn from their mistakes that don't.
No doubt that narcissism is a hot topic with we all being such a self-centered lot on top of the pandemic of pathological narcissists wreaking havoc in government and even those posing as healers on social media to support their parasitic need for adulation even from the victims they victimized. So we not only have lots of them we deal with daily but experience the damage they cause as well.
This inundation of life across the globe by both has led to much confusion that I see in the 1000's of blogs and threads I read weekly! One of the most frequent and popular questions I see and receive is from victims of narcissistic abuse asking if they are the narcissist! I have tons of articles in the Blog and 1000's of posts at Yourlifelifter that break this subject down. I will summarize them here for those needing clarity and for newbies searching for answers on the differences between being narcissistic and being a Pathological Narcissist.
Narcissism like compassion is a normal human characteristic that falls on a spectrum however, like most things, too much or too little of either can cause issues. We see the consequences of both more so in our vested relationships with ourselves and others and in our own degree and comfort with self-worth and self-care. Since our relationships are core to our self-worth and our happiness, the degree of our narcissism and compassion can seriously impact both. Too much or too little compassion can imbalance power in relationships, hinder management of personal boundaries, and put healthy mutually respectful interactions at risk.
Caring too much can motivate us to rescue others we believe need help even those who don't need or want rescuing. It can cause us to give too much, become a people pleaser and to neglect our needs over the needs of others where we put greater value than our own worth. We become vulnerable to anyone or anything that triggers that overabundance of compassion and need for validation of our worth. We are vulnerable to codependency we learn from being exploited as children. Having too much compassion (that we commonly see in empaths) can make us vulnerable to those who will intentionally exploit our compassion with no intention of returning the benefit. Giving too much and not being validated for that effort can lead to emotional fatigue and depression and even trauma.
People, with too much compassion, however, as Dr. Kristin Neff demonstrates in her studies, can learn self-care and how to use their compassion responsibly and to treat themselves mindfully with more kindness especially when they are in pain. They can heal the wounds that caused these faulty beliefs and unhealthy behaviors. They can learn internal boundaries that allow them to monitor and show compassion in ways that will promote their emotional health and self-worth.
Too little compassion, on the other hand, that we see in highly narcissistic people, and worse, in many personality disorders, makes us dependent on others as well but for totally different and more nefarious reasons. Healing for some is not possible.
Like in those with too much compassion, we see the biggest impacts from low levels of compassion on the health of relationships. The narcissistically disordered with very low to non-existent compassion have no internal brakes that would motivate them to respect other's needs or wishes or boundaries and that would prevent them from mooching and using others to service their needs at their expense. They also have little to no motivation to return the favor. Other people become essentially their "prey." They become masters at identifying emotions in others and how to trigger them to direct other's power for their personal benefit but are not able with compassion to recognize those same emotions in themselves. They, in fact, as the McGregor studies show, target empaths with too much compassion who they have learned are the most vulnerable to their manipulation tactics. Interestingly enough, narcissists themselves are very easily manipulated and can target other narcissists.
Do Narcissists Target Other Narcissists?
They also use others with lower levels of compassion (but not pathologically low) who Dr. Jane McGregor refers as "apaths" to help them in their attacks. We in the narcissistic abuse recovery community refer to them as "flying monkeys." These apaths have enough compassion to prevent them from an all out premeditated stealthy attack on another, but not enough to put another's safety or needs ahead of their own especially when doing so would disturb them or upset them, cost them, or make them appear less acceptable to the audience, group, family, job, etc. Apaths have brakes, just faulty selective ones.
As discussed earlier, empaths with too much compassion learn to give it away freely in exploitive childhoods where their emotional needs were not met in healthy ways. While the brains of those with too much compassion and moderate levels can rewire and they can learn to fix their skewed beliefs and use their compassion more responsibly to improve their emotional and relational health, those with pathologically low levels cannot.
Empathy: Is It a Gift or a Curse?


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