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Home » News » MGIMO Institute for International Studies Publishes Article in Leading European International Relations' Journal
MGIMO Institute for International Studies Publishes Article in Leading European International Relations' Journal
Researchers of MGIMO's Institute for International Studies (IIS) and the Laboratory of International Trends Analysis (LAMP) published their paper in the established European Journal of International Relations. The journal is included in Q1 of both Scopus and Web of Science, ranking top-6 in Web of Science "International Relations" category.
The authors of the article "International studies in an unpredictable world: still avoiding the difficult problems?" found that forecasting international relations in most research publications is usually undertaken through broad generalizations rather than in a form of analysis of specific events probability. This hypothesis was proposed in 2000 by Richard Lebow and his co-authors in a study God Gave Physics the Easy Problems. MGIMO staff set themselves the task of testing this hypothesis empirically and determining if the situation in the field of forecasting international relations has changed over the past 20 years.
The researchers carried out a large-scale undertaking: a team of 18 specialists analyzed 5,559 articles published in leading academic journals between 1992 and 2014 over the period of two years. The task was to select and study the papers predicting the development of international events.
The team used the data already available on articles on international relations from the TRIP database, which allowed researchers to avoid independently coding information on the methods, approaches and subject focus of each publication. At the same time, each of the 5,559 articles was classified in a special way.
The group developed a specific research methodology and divided all forecasts in two groups: nomoscopic (seeking to formulate generalizing predictive patterns) and idioscopic (for situations unfolding in a specific timeframe with a specific set of actors).
Although international relations in general tends to produce more and more forecasts from year to year, the authors of the article note that such a growth is mainly due to the increase in the number of nomoscopic forecasts. The number of idioscopic forecasts, however, remains low. This means that researchers still tend to avoid difficult problems associated with forecasting social processes following the path of generalizations and identifying generalized predictive patterns.
"It is important for international relations to have a clear picture of its own limitations and imbalances for further development. We were able to better understand what these imbalances and limitations are in terms of the ways of setting and solving predictive issues. By interpreting our findings, we can locate a tension at the very heart of international research. This tension is associated with the question of what is the purpose of world politics studies – to identify general patterns or to understand specific practical problems. Our analysis shows that in prognostic international studies, striving for generalizations still prevails today," summarizes the leading author of the article, Ivan Fomin of LAMP.
According to the Director of LAMP and IIS Andrei Sushentsov, "Russian researchers rarely manage to publish research articles in journals of such a level. The average impact factor of European Journal of International Relations for the last five years is 3.925, which can be compared with economics journals traditionally cited more actively than other journals on social sciences and humanities. Since the foundation of the journal in 1995, only two articles by Russian researchers have been published in it with last time being ten years ago."
"Publishing articles in top-10 journals indexed in international citation databases should help strengthen MGIMO's position in international rankings. Since 2010 MGIMO staff has provided around ten articles to journals of this level. We continue to encourage the high academic results of our employees," says MGIMO Vice-Rector for Research and International Cooperation Andrey Baykov.
Boris Ananiev, Nikita Neklyudov, Dmitri Tkach, and Alexander Chekov of LAMP and IIS, as well as a senior lecturer of the Russian Presidential Academy Constantine Kokarev and interns of LAMP took part in the abovementioned research. The research was carried out within the framework of a grant project "Transformation of the system of international relations in the context of a changing technological order" under the supervision of LAMP leading researcher William C. Wohlforth.


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Ask the US Embassy
Church council calls for non-partisan dialogue to address crime 1:11 pm
Parenting workshop to focus on puberty
THE Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of Ardenne High School and Maverick Communications Ltd are staging a workshop this weekend to guide parents in handling the emotional and physical changes in their children as they experience puberty.
It is set for Saturday, February 23 from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm at the school, and will be executed under the theme: 'Parenting Children through 'Puberty: Achieving Positive Outcomes'.
For Ardenne, the venture is worthwhile since it will foster good parenting — which is key to the growth and development of young children.
"The executive agreed that as a collective body and as a school family the situation of poor parenting should be tackled — which too often is manifested in the classroom as negative behaviour. It gets more difficult when the teenage years begin and our children need us even more to help them find their way and their voice. It can make us feel disappointed when we are not parenting right," said Mitsie Harris Dillon, president of the PTA.
"Parenting is an awesome duty and a pleasure, and we thought this workshop would give a much-needed opportunity to engage in conversation with parents and share tips and success stories that will help us build the type of relationship with our children that will strengthen bonds and build rapport and respect," she added.
Melody Cammock-Gayle of Maverick Communications explained that while there is no blueprint for parenting, its definition is broader than facilitating good grades, as it speaks more fundamentally to fostering a conducive environment for children's holistic growth and development through different milestones, puberty being one of the most challenging.
"There is no doubt that during adolescence the parent-child relationship undergoes a period of change," said Cammock-Gayle. "Adolescents increasingly distance themselves from their parents as part of their move towards independence. Mutual understanding is vital, but how is that achieved? How do you, as parents, reconcile their need for distance while courting the need to monitor them even closer?" she asked, pointing to some of the issues the workshop will seek to address.
Live cooking demonstrations courtesy of Facey Commodity will be a feature of Saturday's workshop, where a celebrity chef will show how preparing meals together as parent and child is not only great for ensuring that children eat healthily, but is also great for bonding.
Psychologist Dr Leahcim Semaj will be the workshop facilitator.
Church council calls for non-partisan dialogue to address crime

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Peloursin ist eine autochthone Rotweinsorte des Isère-Tals und wird heute in geringen Mengen in Südostfrankreich, Kalifornien und Australien angebaut. Interessant ist sie, da aus einer Kreuzung von Peloursin und Syrah die verbreitete Sorte Durif entstand.

Die große Fülle an Synonymen erklärt sich aus ihrer früheren Verbreitung im Savoie und im Département Franche-Comté. In Frankreich ist die Sorte nahezu ganz ausgestorben. Offiziell wurden Ende der 1990er Jahre noch ca. 0,59 Hektar Rebfläche erhoben.

Siehe auch die Artikel Weinbau in Frankreich, Weinbau in den Vereinigten Staaten und Weinbau in Australien sowie die Liste von Rebsorten.

Synonyme
Die Rebsorte Peloursin ist auch unter den Namen Belossard, Chatille, Corsin, Durazaine, Duret, Dureza (nicht mit der Rebsorte Dureza zu verwechseln), Durif (nicht mit der Rebsorte Durif zu verwechseln), Durif fourchu, Famette, Feunette, Fumette, Gondran, Gronnat, Gronnay, Gros beclan, Gros nat, Gros noir, Gros noirin, Gros plant, Mal noir, Mauvais noir, Mosaguin, Parlouseau, Parlousseau, Pelaursin, Pellorcin, Pellossard, Pelossard noir, Pellourcin, Pelorsin, Pelossard, Pelossier, Peloursin noir, Plant d'Abas, Plant de paris, Pourret, Pourrot, Saler, Salet, Salis, Sella, Soler, Spartin, Treillin, Verne und Vert noir bekannt.

Weblinks

Literatur

Rotweinsorte

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


It's looks like Lara Logan and Steve Kroft are coming to cable. Showtime announced today that it would premiere 60 Minutes Of Sports in November. The new show will feature contributions from 60 Minutes reporters and CBS Sports broadcasters. The show will mark the first time new segments from CBS News' 60 Minutes brand will appear on cable; Showtime is owned by CBS Corp. Old 60 Minutes segments have appeared on CNBC and Viacom's VH1. Cable rival HBO has been broadcasting the monthly Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, which has a newsmagazine format, since 1995.
60 Minutes Of Sports will feature two new segments and an updated sports-related 60 Minutes story from the newsmagazine's past. It will also feature a studio-based interview with a newsmaker. The show will be co-executive produced by 60 Minutes executive producer and CBS News chairman Jeff Fager and 60 Minutes' executive editor Bill Owens. "Today is a seminal moment in the 25-year history of Showtime Sports, 60 Minutes is the pioneer of this genre. Adding the most well-known and highly respected brand in television to the growing lineup of Showtime original sports programming exponentially increases the value proposition for our subscribers", Showtime Sports EVP and GM Stephen Espinoza said. Showtime Sports already airs Inside The NFL, All Access NASCAR and Showtime Championship Boxing.


Ashton's temporary replacement, she's filling in the rest of the year while a formal replacement is interviewed/etc.
Im still taking fanart/guest strip submissions to air during a Break-cation! Date of that is still up in the air, but will say something before it happens.
I considered leaving the principal unidentified to see if people freaked out about Ashton being involved. But noped out of that.
Friday cliffhanger, with no transcript, only a cryptic message from the Creator, which may be an apology, a warning, foreshadowing , or a politcal comment on the selection of the available candidates running for Mid-Terms.
Without more infor or more context or both, it is difficult to say.
That's probably what this is leading into. I'm hoping that at least it doesn't go the other way.
I think that's spot-on. It would fit in with what Agent Brown said about the "guppies" some time ago.
If it were "the other way" (i.e., getting rid of Selkie), then (a) Mina wouldn't have that pleased expression, and (b) Selkie and Todd would have known about it ahead of time.
Point of note– I'm pretty sure that Mina already knows what is going to be said; I'm guessing there was an emergency faculty meeting this morning dealing with it so the teachers can answer questions and be briefed on their part of whatever is going on.
Might be real entertaining, especially since Miss Flower was possibly NOT invited to the meeting.
"Interim principal" implies she's a temp. Also, Dave mentions below the comic that she's serving for the rest of the school year while candidates for a full time replacement are being interviewed.
That's how I'd run a school.
That's an incredibly empty desktop. I guess Angela hasn't fully settled in to the position yet.
AARGH! FRIDAY CLIFFHANGER! YOU FIEND! I wanna see more Sarnothi students!! And maybe some teachers!!
Best thing would be having a sarnothi speaker come in for a Q&A with the children.
I really hope the staff can help keep Selkie safe. Especially from the other students' parents.
They're looking at her like she's a monster. I'm kinda doubting the parents, specifically Truck's monster ones, will see her as harmless.
Especially if a certain speciesist bully's parents have their way.
Probably after the kerfuffle with how he handled the Selkie/Truck issue.
I'd assume that's when it was, but I don't remember it being specifically mentioned before.
He quit when it became obvious he was going to get kicked to the curb. He tried to use it to make Selkie guilty here.
To Selkie's credit, she thought it was great that he could stay home and watch cartoons.
She has a pleasant smile, so it can't be bad.


More times than I can count, I've stood before a room full of people eager to learn the success secrets I've taught to clients who have become champions in 10 different sports. Each time, the audience expects the first half of the S.C.O.R.E.® System (Self-discipline, Concentration and Optimism). However, when I get to relaxation, I always see brows wrinkle.
Much of modern American life can be summed up as "what have you done for me lately?" This can quickly lead to the mentality that the only path to your well-defined goals is to adopt an "always on" strategy. This involves more effort, longer hours and often an unhealthy level of caffeine consumption.
But the best in the world don't get to the top by "being in a hurry." To the contrary, top performers are those with a disciplined and focused calm. In this episode of The Jim Fannin Show, I'm going to help you step off the treadmill and reset your mentality for a more balanced, enjoyable and successful way of living.
The basics to manage a relaxed, comfortable and productive life.
The common factors in "Blue Zones," where residents have uncommonly long lives. You'll definitely want to learn the "Blue Zone" secrets if you want to thrive over 100 years old.
One thing that should be on your calendar weekly, bi-weekly or monthly in order to beat stress.
The ideal temperature for your bedroom to optimize rest and wake up refreshed.
Why meditation is much more than a fad, and how it can help your performance in multiple arenas.
Finally, we stop by the Zone Café and send you out as a closer to have the best week ever!
This episode of the Jim Fannin Show is brought to you by Vivid Seats. Vivid Seats is an online event ticket marketplace dedicated to providing fans of live entertainment with experiences that last a lifetime. Go to the App Store or Google Play and download the Vivid Seats app. Enter promo code INFLUENCE to receive 10% off your first purchase with Vivid Seats.
Also, make sure to check out the Blinkist app summarizes 2500+ bestselling nonfiction books into packs key insights that you can read or listen to in just 15 minutes. Over 7 million people are using Blinkist everyday to glean the insights they need to become their best selves. Right now, for a limited time Blinkist has a special offer just for our audience. Go to Blinkist.com/Fannin to start your free 7 day trial. You can cancel any time. That's Blinkist.com/Fannin.
If you have questions, comments, or something you want us to cover during our "Ask Jim" segment, you can email Jim directly and we'll cover it on next week's show!


One hundred and two patients with unstable angina pectoris were randomized into three groups: CDDP group ( n = 33), clopidogrel group ( n = 35), and combination group ( n = 34).
Myocardial necrosis can therefore be distinguished from angina pectoris.
Effects of spinal cord stimulation onmyocardial blood flow assessed by positron emission tomography in patients with refractory angina pectoris.
symptomatic and ECG improvement reported in the included 18 articles, the review concluded that ginseng was more effective than nitrates in treating angina pectoris (P = 0.
Curative effect of Danshen composite unstable angina pectoris.
Time elapsed since HIV/AIDS diagnosis, the type of antiretroviral (ARV) regimen, smoking and obesity were the items of comparison selected for their association with angina pectoris.
Reports suggest that sympathetic re-innervation of the transplanted heart can occur (2-6) and therefore angina pectoris should be considered in the differential diagnosis of chest pain which develops some years after heart transplantation.
In men without a full diagnosis of major depression, angina pectoris, MI, coronary heart disease, and heart surgery were associated individually and significantly with an increasing number of depressive symptoms.
Over six million Americans live with a painful chest condition called angina pectoris, resulting from blockages in the arteries that supply blood to the heart or other coronary disease.
Other health end points studied have included elevated blood pressure, angina pectoris, ischemic heart disease, use of antihypertensive or cardiovascular drugs, and consultation with a doctor (for unspecified reasons).


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HomeNewsManufacturing Technique Reduces Inventory, Costs
Manufacturing Technique Reduces Inventory, Costs
Originally Published MDDI March 2005 NEWSTRENDS
Erik Swain | Mar 01, 2005
Originally Published MDDI March 2005
NEWSTRENDS
Erik Swain
Gates: Packaging is more than developing a package that fits and protects the product. Ease of use, inspection, shipping, and ergonomics considerations should also be taken into account.
Conventional wisdom holds that the best way to make the manufacturing process less expensive is to reduce labor costs. In fact, says a team from HEI Inc. (Boulder, CO), the best way is to reduce inventory, both warehoused and in process. At January's MD&M West show in Anaheim, CA, the team showed how device companies can reduce inventory through customer-demand-based manufacturing (CDBM).
"Materials are usually 70–90% of the cost of goods sold," said Roy Humphrey, a product line manager at HEI. "Overhead makes up the second-highest percentage, and labor ranks third, usually at 2–10%."
Using CDBM drastically reduces inventory, and thus reduces overall material costs and cuts overall manufacturing costs, Humphrey explained.
One principle of CDBM is to manufacture using batches as small as possible, even by individual product in some instances. This, Humphrey said, drastically cuts in-process inventory and gets each product through the manufacturing and quality control processes more quickly. To illustrate, the HEI team had six attendees simulate a manufacturing floor, making paper airplanes from a blank sheet of paper, with each person responsible for making a different fold. Using batches of six, it took 12 minutes to get a designated sheet from the start of the process to the finish. At the time that sheet got to the end, 46 others were in process. Doing the exercise in batches of three took 6 minutes and left 18 in process. Doing the exercise in batches of one took just over a minute and left five in process.
Another principle is mixed-model manufacturing, which can work with some kinds of medical devices but not others. This involves determining which products share which manufacturing processes and devising a manufacturing strategy that takes advantage of such efficiencies. In conjunction, said Henderson, which steps add value and which don't should be documented, and the steps that don't add value should be condensed or eliminated. Yet, he said, time and expense for rework and scrap should be identified and built into the process. Some level of rework and scrap is inevitable, and failing to plan for them begets inefficiencies.
Incorporating these and other principles of CDBM not only increases inventory turns, but also improves manufacturing lead times, on-time deliveries, service levels, and first-pass yields, he said.
Copyright ©2005 Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry


This wall mounted faucet features dual handles for ultimate functionality. The open spigot design means your bathtub will take on the tones of a spa as a small water fall fills the space. You will enjoy the look and feel of this fixture and the brushed nickel finish provides a sophisticated touch.


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Welcome to FOTMD Fredawn. It is good to have you aboard. Enjoy exploring this site.
Hey Fredawn, welcome aboard. Glad ya found us.
Hi Fredawn, and welcome to the wonderful world of the Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer. It's a good place to come, spend some time, learn about the dulcimer, and to meet some good people.
Welcome Fredawn to Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer. So glad you have found the dulcimer and are looking forward to learning. This is a great place to learn all about the mountain dulcimer. Glad you joined. Best wishes on your dulcimer journey.


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Red flags in the European Union press freedom debate
February 7, 2013 1:01 PM EST
The European Union enjoys waving the banner of press freedom overseas. However, it is sometimes at a loss when it has to define its approach to press freedom among its own member states. Last year, the EU tried and failed to convince the Hungarian government to radically amend its highly controversial media law. The conservative…
Journalists assaulted, detained during rally in Malaysia
Bangkok, April 30, 2012–Security forces attacked several journalists Saturday while cracking down on a rally in Kuala Lumpur, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists rejects the government's claims that police acted with restraint and calls for an independent investigation into the attacks.


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History is Not Over: An Interview with Viet Thanh Nguyen
June 4, 2017 Interviews
ALEXANDER BISLEY interviews VIET THANH NGUYEN
Author Viet Thanh Nguyen is on a hot streak. Since winning a 2016 Pulitzer Prize for The Sympathizer, his nonfiction collection Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War and this year's short-story collection The Refugees have amassed acclaim. In an ultimately uplifting conversation with Alexander Bisley, Nguyen discussed America's obligation to help Syrian refugees, writers' political responsibilities, and why the past's traumas endure.
Alexander Bisley (AB): Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, your impressive nonfiction work, came out last year and was a finalist for a National Book Award. "Don't put our names in it because the history is not over," your father said, when you proposed dedicating it him and your mother. That brings to mind William Faulkner's line: "The past is never dead. It's not even past."
Viet Thanh Nguyen (VTN): Anybody who has lived through a traumatic historical event will testify to the veracity and the endurance of Faulkner's claim. He's talking about the American South and slavery and its ongoing impact in American culture. Many decades later, that particular past is still not dead, and it has resurged in the issues that Black Lives Matter raises.
In the case of the Vietnam War, it's true as well. Even though the war was declared over in 1975, anybody who participated or even witnessed that war continues to be affected by it. That includes my parents, many Vietnamese refugees, and many American veterans who I encounter through my books. They've contacted me through emails or letters or shown up for my events and continue to tell the stories of the past that they have not been able to get away from.
Traumatic pasts need to be dealt with in complex ways. We need to be able to tell stories about this past, which is what people like Faulkner do relative to his history and what I do relative to mine. We also need to be able to confront these pasts collectively as societies, to try to figure out the proper measure of apologies and reconciliations and reparations that need to take place. And I think in both the cases of slavery and the Vietnam War, we haven't had that just confrontation with our pasts.
AB: The Sympathizer was partly a response to Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness. How about your latest book, The Refugees?
VTN: The Sympathizer is a direct rejoinder to Apocalypse Now and the whole canon of American movies about the Vietnam War. I wrote the stories of The Refugees mostly before The Sympathizer. I wrote them partially out of the same impulse, which is my feeling that to be a Vietnamese-American growing up in this country was to understand that Americans knew little and cared less about the experiences of Vietnamese people. This was exemplified in all these Hollywood Vietnam War movies, which I grew up watching. That was a very painful experience for me to see that the role of Vietnamese people in these movies was to be silenced, to be raped, to be killed, to scream, or when we had a word/words to say, it was basically to say "thank you" to Americans, for rescuing us.
Watching these movies was one of the primary motivators to want to be a writer, because I wanted to be able to tell the stories of Vietnamese people that were very different than what were being shown in these films. That was what led to writing the short stories of The Refugees; I was simply focused on humanizing Vietnamese people and telling their stories. By the time I got to The Sympathizer, I felt freed up to become a much more political writer and to directly address Apocalypse Now and what it represented in terms of the wilful American ignorance towards others.
AB: Your story of coming to America as a four-year-old refugee from Vietnam is formative. Why should America take in Syrian refugees?
VTN: In 1975 when the Vietnam War ended, the United States did something really important: it took in 150,000 Vietnamese refugees, of which I was one. In the next couple of decades they took in literally hundreds of thousands more of not just Vietnamese, but also Cambodian and Laotian refugees as well. The United States has not taken in every refugee population that has asked to come in, even if they owed certain obligations to the countries of origin.
As a Vietnamese refugee, I think that it's important to both bring up this history of American generosity, but also this history of American selectivity so that we understand now, with Syrian refugees, the United States is being selective. But that it has had a tradition of hospitality and generosity that it can draw on. It's then the obligation of people like me who benefited from this selective hospitality to remind other Americans of what they've done in the past, and encourage them to continue to do that today.
AB: Do you believe American writers have a political role to play, especially at present?
VTN: That obligation to speak up as the conscience of the country or community that they live in has always been a part of American literature and letters, but perhaps it's been a task that American writers have faltered at in the last few decades because politics have not seemed so urgent.
The only positive aspect about the Trump administration is that it has clarified the political stakes for writers. We haven't seen this level of political commitment on the part of American writers since the Vietnam War. I've never seen writers collectively so angry and motivated to speak up politically, so that's refreshing. Writers have taken to the streets, written essays, and taken a stance on being public intellectuals. It would also be really crucial to see them take those political motivations and infuse them into their own fiction writing. Contemporary American fiction is dominated by non-political middlebrow writing.
AB: Speaking of political, I interviewed The Underground Railroad's Colson Whitehead, before Trump won: "Their chickens are coming home to roost," he said. "It's gratifying to see how the GOP has destroyed itself. Unfortunately, they'll probably drag us down with them. So the arc of justice bends ever so slightly. But we're all going to pay the price for their twenty years of foolishness." Do you have any thoughts in response?
VTN: Before the election I probably would've agreed with Colson. But it seems that the GOP have [been] successful in managing their internal contradictions, at least to win the presidential election. Is the GOP going to be destroyed internally by its own internal contradictions, now? I wouldn't be so optimistic that we can simply sit back and wait for the inertia within the GOP to lead it to its ultimate destruction, because the inertia within the Democratic Party is certainly very strong as well. If the election taught me anything, it's that neither of the dominant wings of these political parties is speaking to core problems in the United States.
And as long as that's the case, then it won't be inevitable that the moral arc of the universe will bend towards justice. It could be very well the case that the arc of the universe is going to bend towards destruction. That potential has always been linked in American culture: the Obama idea and the Martin Luther King idea that we're always gradually moving towards justice is an optimistic one. I think that ignores the fact that within American culture, as within any culture, [lies] the potential for self-destruction because of internal contradiction. In the case of the United States, that contradiction is around questions of race and exploitation. If the Democratic Party wants to see the GOP internally combust, it has to get in front of the problems of race and exploitation, and it hasn't done a very good job of that in the last few decades.
AB: With the squid scene (a scene in which the narrator masturbates with a dead squid), The Sympathizer homages Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint liver moment. Of our current times, Roth says: "I found much that was alarming about being a citizen during the tenures of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush. But, whatever I may have seen as their limitations of character or intellect, neither was anything like as humanly impoverished as Trump is." Roth slams Trump's "indigenous American berserk" in The New Yorker. "Ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of expressing or recognizing subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency, and wielding a vocabulary of seventy-seven words that is better called Jerkish than English."
VTN: Philip Roth is a political writer in one sense, but not someone who has gone off on these kinds of justified tirades, so I'm happy to see it. Does Roth's correct characterization of Donald Trump apply to this entire portion of the American electorate that voted Trump in? No. His description of Trump describes trolls, the people who write in the comment sections of newspaper articles. They are the underbelly of the American consciousness. However, what's really dangerous is that there's a much larger portion of the American people who are in such anger, or despair, or cynicism, that they will vote for someone who is, in effect, a troll [laughs].
AB: With regards to The Sympathizer, you've infamously said, "I didn't get as much sex in as I wanted." How do you feel you fared with The Refugees?
VTN: I think part of the point of The Sympathizer was to put as much of that as I could onscreen, and even so my editor made me take out a couple of things that were not contributing to the story line [laughs].
Sex as a part of someone's identity and motivation runs throughout many of the stories in The Refugees. All the sex that happens in The Refugees takes place off-screen, so to speak. The tone of the book is very much about the psychic and emotional travails of refugees and the people they meet and love. The sex is important, but the actual act of sex is not that important—though I think that you can clearly see that sex is a crucial motivating factor for so many things that happen in the people's lives. There's a mistress in "Fatherland," there is another man who impregnates someone's former wife in "Someone Else Besides You," and the confrontation with one's own gay sexuality in "The Other Man."
AB: In addition to writing prolifically, you're a professor at the University of Southern California. Can you share any insights you give to your USC writing students?
VTN: What I tell my students, and just about everybody, is there aren't many secrets to becoming a writer. Ones that have been important to me are: to write a lot, to read a lot, and to be patient. All those things are actually really hard to do [laughs], they're simple in concept but difficult for people to carry out. You need to write a lot because basically, the only way to learn how to write is to practice.
I don't know if I spent 10,000 hours learning how to write as Malcolm Gladwell would say is necessary, but I certainly put in thousands of hours. I also have definitely put in tens of thousands of hours into reading, because you need to read deeply and widely in order to know what not to do, what kinds of traditions that your work fits into, and how to allude to those traditions. And finally, you need patience because unless you're one of those geniuses who scores a million dollar book deal at 25, you, and most writers, will toil in obscurity for many, many years, even decades, before recognition will happen.
AB: Tom Boyle, one of The Sympathizer's champions, is a mentor?
VTN: When I first got to USC, where I now teach and where Tom was teaching, I was 26 years old and he was already famous. I wondered how I could inject some of his writing's energy and rhythm, especially his short stories, into my own writing.
Even though we didn't know each other very well, Tom gave me a great blurb for the novel. In times afterwards, we had a meal, and he shared his wisdom about what it's like to be on the road, or how to perform in front of an audience. That was really important to me because Tom is a great showman, he gives good readings. That's a rare talent, given the number of bad and boring readings that I've attended.
AB: In conversation, he certainly has remarkable energy and style. Writers can't retire, he told me.
VTN: [Laughs] I think that professors retire, and that Tom has retired as a professor of creative writing, but he's still out in his Montecito villa, writing away as productively as he did before he retired from teaching. I think that writers write until they're physically incapable of writing. Writers, like athletes, probably don't know when it's a good time for them to retire. I think even if the public may perceive a decline in a writer's abilities, that's irrelevant to the writer. The writer exists by writing, and I foresee that fate for myself.
AB: And the physical book, despite having been pronounced dead thousands of times over the last decade or so, thrives!
VTN: That's taken me by surprise. There was a period of several years where I was reading on the Kindle. What changed my mind about that was seeing my own novel come into print [laughs] and taking great delight in the physical feeling of holding the book—it brought back to me all the happiness of what it was like to be in the library or in the bookstore in my youth and young adulthood.
I think that feeling of attachment to the physical object is true for many people, that's why we see the resurgence of vinyl, the surprising endurance of independent bookstores, and the resurgence in hardcopy book sales. I think we can take hope in the fact that we're still human beings and not creations of artificial intelligence. That as human beings, as physical people, we still take pleasure in the tactile. There is something about that printed book that appeals not just to our minds but to our bodies as well.
Viet Thanh Nguyen is the author of The Sympathizer, Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, and most recently, The Refugees.
Alexander Bisley is a Wellington writer.
Interview transcription credit: Petra Westropp.
Photo credit: Viet Thanh Nguyen headshot by Bebe Jacobs.
Alexander Bisley Interviews The Refugees The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen
History is Not Over: An Interview with Viet Thanh Nguyen 06.04.2017
"I Hope I'm Not a Moth": Lindsay Wong on Coming of Age Through Memoir
LINDSAY WONG
The book is about what happens when you find out your family is not normal. Your belief system and your way of being are totally fucked up.
Resisting the Path of Least Resistance: An Interview with Jennifer Egan
I love the feeling of being delivered out of my self and into another world. I balk when I start to feel like anything is about myself, or someone like me—and I'm terrible at writing about people I know, so I've given that up, much to the joy of my family and friends. Whenever I feel like I'm developing a path of least resistance I try to resist it.


Out of Synch is a project that looks at the synchronisation of design elements and the effect of breaking that synchronisation so that these elements move in and out of alignment.
The project does not focus on one particular weaving style or technique, so rather than describing the different techniques used in any detail, I will focus on the nature of the Out of Synch approach and how I have applied it to various styles of weaving.
The main approach I have used takes two independent repeating sequences and ensures that the length of the repeat of one is longer than the repeat of the other. The effect of this is that the two sequences go in and out of alignment. This approach can be applied in a number of ways.
The simplest example is this piece.
Here, each stripe has three independent components: the width of the stripe, the weave structure of the stripe and the colour of the stripe.
If the repeat for each component were the same, say five, then a simple sequence of five stripe widths, five structures and five colours would give an overall repeat of just five stripes.
In my version, the repeats are different: there are three stripe widths, four structures and five colours with an overall repeat of 3 x 4 x 5 = 60 stripes.
In practice, the textile is less than 60 stripes high so the pattern actually never repeats.
This check design uses bold contrasting stripes in warp and weft.
Conventionally, the colour stripes would synchronise with the block structure of the weave so that, for example, the dark areas can be woven with one weave structure and the light areas with a different one.
In my version the colour stripes are wider than the block structure, so the weave structures are not in synch. with the colours, giving a more complex pattern.
I've applied the same idea to a double cloth structure here.
One layer of cloth uses four dark colours and the other uses three light colours.
The stripes in each layer are wider than the block structure of the double cloth so the colour changes do not always occur at a block boundary (both horizontally and vertically) adding subtle complexity to the design.
Here the lack of synchronisation is much more obvious.
The main block structure of the double cloth, woven in shades of blue and grey, is out of synch. with the horizontal orange bars.
This design element appears to travel up the cloth independently of the main block structure.
This design harks back to my previous project When Waves Collide.
Here there are two interleaved waveforms woven into the fabric.
The two waves have different wavelengths so, once again, they are not synchronised, but move in and out of alignment vertically through the textile.
The second approach I have taken is one that can be applied to a single sequence. I think of it as "skipping a beat", similar to a cog with a broken tooth that slips on each turn.
Here a simple repeating sequence such as ABCD, ABCD … is replaced with one that slips regularly ABCD -BCD A-CD AB-D ABC- … (in this case, missing every fifth element) giving a new longer sequence: ABCD BCDA CDAB DABC.
In this piece I have used this approach to disrupt the block threading.
In my version the sequence misses every 9th beat, so that it becomes 1-8, 10-1, 3-10, 12-3… resulting in a much longer repeat. Using the same principle for the lifting sequences this produces a much more complex pattern.
The examples I have given here apply the idea of a slipping sequence to the threading order and the sequence of lifts during weaving, but it can be applied to any sequence.
Elsewhere, for example, I have used it to create a colour sequence for a four-colour stripe.
I hope I have shown that, although these are simple ideas, they have a substantial effect when applied to a range of weave structures. These are just examples though: there are other variations of both approaches that could be explored, and many other weaving designs and techniques that they could be applied to.


text:
Q: Getting users input then outputting it Im trying to make an easy way of installing powercord themes but im not sure how i could get the users input then output it in a os.system command, this is what i have now
import os
import colorama
import time

input("Hi please insert a github powercord theme link: ")

themelink = ""

print("installing powercord theme...")

os.system("cd C:/Users/kai78/powercord/src/Powercord/themes && git clone {}".format(themelink))```

A: You have to save your input when you get it.
some_input = input('Type something: ')

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Posts Tagged 'New / Cold War'
VIDEO: General Wesley Clark grilled on Operation Gladio, KLA and 9/11 wargames.
Posted: October 11, 2008 in 2008, Videos
Tags: 911, New / Cold War
On 10/3/08, retired Four-Star General Wesley Kanne Clark took part in a discussion about International Justice at the UCLA Law School. Clark, who had been Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) of NATO during Operation Allied Force in the Kosovo War, insisted that international justice is important but in conflict with the long history in the United States of acting as seen fit in the moment.
Operation Gladio – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Related pages at History Commons:
Al-Qaeda in Balkans (165)
Military Exercises (74)
-Condoleezza Rice Admits Georgia Started War with Russia
"The Georgian government launched a major military operation into Tskhinvali [the capital of South Ossetia] and other areas of that separatist region," she said.
"Regrettably, several Russian peacekeepers were killed in the fighting," she added.
Act of War: US to establish naval base in Georgia
U.S., Russian Ships Square Off in Black Sea
Military help for Georgia is a 'declaration of war', says Moscow in extraordinary warning to the West
US Missile Defense In Europe Becomes A Reality
Russia: Poland Risks Attack Because of US Missiles
*Obama's "New Cold War" Ambitions
*Why I FEAR Obama like no other, like no other.
Posted: September 15, 2008 in 2008, Articles, Exclusives
Tags: 911, American Imperialism, BushCo., Militarization, New / Cold War, ObamaCo., Perpetual War, War on Terror
Italian Translation HERE.
By Ignorance Isn't Bliss
Amidst all the potential nasties, I fear one thing most. And this one reason alone is why I've deeply felt for some time that he will surely be the one "elected". And I'll premptively point out that the list of reasons that precedes this one thing almost wholeheartedly applies to McCain as well (worse in many cases).This won't be a reason any Liberal or Conservative would ever expect, nor is the preceding list hardly particular in any 'wedge issue' topic. Vote None of the Above!
So is it…
…because Obama & Biden voted on the economic bailout bill ?
This is so massive I don't even know where to begin.
…because Obama has set campaign funding record history in donations from the corporate & banking establishment(s) ?
It's striking that for the first time a Democrat has recieved more investments in these areas than the Republicans. Why would they invest in him?
…because Obama constantly talks about 'giving the little guy (YOU) a fair shot', and then refuses to attend a Presidential debate featuring nominees from the other 'third' parties ?
…because he's calling for a Stasi-like "national security force" consisting of middle & high school children that is larger than the US military ?
…because Obama's proposal for a civilian national security force "just as well funded" as the US military means costs somewhere towards the $1trillion per year that the Pentagon already enjoys ?
…because he "believes" in the delusional "War on Terror" ? Link 1 Link 2 Link 3
…because Joe Biden is a "War on Terror" fearmonger who during the Dem debates spouted off the same fearmongering rhetoric as the GOP's Neocons were using ?
…because Obama lies about al Qaeda being "stronger than ever" in order to fear-monger the population into supporting the Establishments foreign policy with him as the only solution ?
…because Obama is just another pawn of the privately-owned tyrannical Federal Reserve ?
The FR has devalued the dollar to being worth less than 4 cents since its inception in 1913. The monetary system orchestrated by the FR is designed to suck the wealth from the lower & middle classes while preserving the riches of the wealthy. When the system is designed to exploit the weaker, limited tax cuts for the poor have a marginal effect, meanwhile an expanded war machine adjusts the tax losses for a marked portion of the elite, and an ever increasing National Debt ensures more profits for the bulk of the national bankers.
The Federal Reserve helped create the original Great Depression, and now they've done the same by helping to cause the 'New Great Depression' via the Subprime Mortgage disaster. Now "the Fed" is gaining more power in the fallout.
…because Obama, like McCain, supports the notion of a military draft (sounds similar to annual legislative proposals from another Democrat -who endorsed him- for a 'universal' military draft that includes all women ages 18-40) ?
"If we are going into war, then all of us go, not just some" – Barack Hussein Obama.
…because VP Biden is a War on Drugs hawk, a "war" which in practice undermines and persecutes minorities in particular ?
…because Obama gloats about mentioning the Middle Class while ignoring the 'Lower Class' in the same event and showing disdain for them on other occasions ?
…Biden voted for the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which abolished education grants for prisoners ?
…because Obama voted for the new FISA Act, which granted immunity to telecommunication corporations for illegal wiretapping , and runaway governmental wiretapping ?
…because Barack didn't support Dennis Kucinich's drive to impeach Bush & Cheney, stating that "impeachment is not acceptable" ?
…because Obama has pledged to let Bush's crimes remain buried for all time ?
…because Obama & Biden disregard the fact that the primary motivation for 9/11 terror attacks on the US is US foreign policy itself (meaning that continuing the perpetual war policy literally means never ending perpetual war) ?
…because Obama talks about ending the occupation of Iraq, but then votes to fund it ?
…because Obama claims to advocate closing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, but has not supported two specific bills that would have done so ?
…because Obama wants to expand taxes in general, but in particular implement a "global tax" ?
…because Zbignew Brzezinski, his chief foreign policy adviser, is a flagrant neoliberal global imperialist who essentially created "Osama Bin Laden" and the "War on Terror" ?
…because he supports BushCo.'s Russian border missile "defense shield", which is their 'solution' of creating a "New Cold War" to ensure perpetual wars even with an eroding notion of a never-ending "War on Terror" ?
…Obama & Biden voted for the PATRIOT Act, which dissolved majority of the Bill of Rights ?
…because Biden drafted legislation after the Oklahoma City Bombing, which was defeated for being too radical, and later claimed the PATRIOT Act was virtually the same bill ?
…because Obama told his supporters to "I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face" ?
…because Joe Biden supports what amounts to runaway copyright laws expanding "Big 5" media content protection ? Because Biden bends over for expanded FBI powers, and supports banning private citizens rights to using software encryption ? Because Biden has about the most dismal Cyber Rights voting record possible including Dept. of Justice prosecution of file sharers and making it a felony to record Internet radio ? Link
…because Obama was soft on HR1951 / S1959, which was the open embracement of the modern day COINTELPRO which was used to violently repress civil rights groups (Black Panthers, etc) in the 60's and 70's ?
…because Joe Biden supports stripping US citizens rights & ability to defend itself (from tyrannical government) with firearms ?
…because Obama in Illinois as a state legislator supported banning the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic firearms, and then some ?
…because VP Joe Biden promised a Supreme Court ruling on mandatory "Verichip" implants for the US population ?
…because he's just another front for NAFTA, even though he pretends he isn't ?
…because despite criticising the "Politics of Fear", he still supports both the War on Terror & Global Warming ?
After years of propaganda from each side on these matters he doesn't even have to directly engage in pure fearmongering. He merely needs to mention the issues and support them. The effects of others fearmongering is already there to invoke. FACT: there isn't an actual consensus on man made "Global Warming".
…because he's for an expanded global government UN ?
(This goes without saying)
…because Obama is a first term Senator, meaning we don't even have a clear record of who we're dealing with ?
…because he doesn't speak about nor does his campaign respond to the Depleted Uranium US munitions issue ?
It turns out that most US military tank rounds -amongst many other munition types- are made from DU, which has a 4 billion year half-life and causes birth defects in now multiple countries where it has been used by US forces since the first Gulf War.
…because Obama hasn't answered the question whether or not the President can declare war without the Congress ?
US Constitution says that "Congress shall have the power.. to declare war". After WW2 the 2 Party System hasn't declared a single war although fighting in dozens, arguably hasn't won any, and many of them last to this day (Korea for example). The "Authorization" process has resulted in Vietnam & Iraq as prime examples.
…because, despite all the 'Strengthening the Middle Class" & "regulations" rhetoric, Obama fronts for Wall Street's corrupt infrastructure ?
The old axiom 'Put your money where your mouth is' sure comes to mind, but it goes further than just that. Link 1 Link2 Link 3 Link 4 Link 5
…because Obama dodges the new 9/11 investigation issue, and for sure doesn't speak about it whatsoever ? Or because Joe Biden rabidly opposes a real investigation ?
Regardless of your view, it doesn't take much research to conclude that the 9/11 Commission "investigation" was a total farce, and that the stakes are so high in this regard that to not insist on a full investigation goes beyond mere national suicide.
UPDATE: The day before 9/11, Joe Biden predicted 9/11'esque attacks, and then, in the days following Sept. 11th, he met with the Pakistani General who funded Mohammed Atta. Mahmood Ahmed, the General and head of the CIA-linked ISI, that was in Washington DC meeting with majority leaders of Congress during the attacks of 9/11, was never even mentioned during the 9/11 Commission hearings.
…because his wife and he are both Council on Foreign Relations members ?
The CFR is the ideological powerhouse organization in which te past 90 years worth of never ending "American Imperialism" perpetual war may be mostly to attributed to. The list of some members of this group should speak for itself: George H. W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Allen Welsh Dulles, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Walter Lippmann, John McCain, David Rockefeller, Fred Thompson, Herbert Hoover, Michael R. Bloomberg, Sandy Berger, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Robert M. Gates, Gary Hart, John Kerry, Irving Kristol, John D. Negroponte, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, James Woolsey, Gerald Ford, Rupert Murdoch, Porter J. Goss & Newt Gingrich. BUT, not only does the CFR steer American Imperialism, its the powerhouse driving one world government. One example is the whole "North American Union" controversy. The NAU is driven almost completely by the CFR, whose mission resembles the dictatorial European Union. Much more can be said of this but these entries are meant to be short. NAU Link 1 NAU Link 2 NAFTA Link 1 SPP Link 1
…because he preached fearmongering to a foreign crowd in Germany about rampant border-less 'threats', where he in effect called for a "New World Order" without using those particular words ?
…because Obama and Dick Cheney of all people on earth are cousins (in a similar vein to how Bush & John Kerry are cousins) ?
So a few of these might seem flimsy, but that doesn't discount my other points while when you add them in its just gets uglier and uglier.
…because his economic adviser (since Barack's Illinois Senate campaign), Austan "the ghoul" Goolsbee, is Skull & Bones the same as the Bush's and even John Kerry, despite there not being more than 900 living members of this nefarious organization at any giving time ?
At one point, during its rule, the Bush administration contained 11 S&B members, not to mention his dad and brother Jeb.
…because he's another in a long line of Israel Lobby politicians ?
This is another touchy subject, but the fact remains that the Palestinians weren't the ones who expelled the Jews from Israel, and in the modern sense there are 'private citizen' Zionist terrorists who commit the same atrocities as the Muslim extremists. And even though the Israeli government performs 'Big Brother' operationsagainst the Zionist terrorists -who literally call for genocide against their enemy- the vast majority of policies and actions by said Israeli government still complement their work just the same. The legacy of the Israeli government has been compared to the 'apartheid' South African regimes of decades past, but name calling happened in those decades. So for Obama to support the Israeli government has rammifications paralleling supporting the confederate leadership during the US "Civil" War. Now for the touchy side, Israel means lots of things for lots of different people.There are lots of different justificiations or rather rationalizations for continuing blind support for Israeli policies , that I don't have time to get into here. But suffice to say, many assume it has to do with Biblical scripture, but the part that doesn't make sense is we still find the same support by the so-called 'heathen' Liberal elitists. The answer to this paradox is the key to understanding the whole point of Israel: Israel is simply a US imperial beach-headfortress in the Middle East, to ensure American Imperialism over the Middle East. Which means their tyrannical policies get the blind eye, not that the Israeli Lobby runs the United States.
…because advanced computer analysis of his speeches has him as the "king of spin" compared to even the likes of Bush and Giuliani ?
…because BushCo. has already spent 8 years on turning the White House and the Imperial Presidency into a centralized dictatorial powerhouse, but Obama has failed to make sweeping & itemized promises to undo it all while he'll be quite busy doing all of his other "change" to assume he'll actually focus on cleaning up the dictatorial presidential executive orders, congressional legislation and over 1100 executive signing statements ?
NO! None of those are the reason.
I'm quite 'used to' those sorts of travesties & tyrannies already.
The reason is actually more simple and subtle: Crowd Control.
The Answer: Nobody can possibly subdue the masses like Obama can. That's why he's the Ruling Establishment's man. After 8 years of BushCo. over half the population aren't just pissed, they're in complete distrust of the government in general. The control scheme to keep us ignorant and asleep is falling apart at the seams. And even more important than just having a pissed off political party the nations youth are waking up at an 'alarming' rate. The youth are the ones who protest. And Black's have a history of rioting, while the current economic meltdown promises to underhand Blacks in particular.
Only Obama can can get the bulk Democrat's, The Youth and Minorities under his wing, while at the same time not having too much of the GOP base pissed to all whits end. Consider if Hillary would have "won": virtually the entire GOP base would have been up in arms. While there will still be an us vs. them sense of defeat and so forth, the same amount of hate wouldn't exist, especially not right away. And since Obama is apparently in a position to start taking on Neocon foreign policy positions he seems poised keep even some of the staunchest Neocon types content.Besides Hillary wouldn't have ever had the Obama effect on The Youth.
Meanwhile, it's The Youth in particular that must be put under wraps. Further, considering African American voter disfranchisement in the past 2 presidential elections, I'd say that they're already a whits end. What better way to garner their unbridled support than to allow them to 'vote' for a 'Black' man? For the majority of the population to be willingly controlled, we must trust, we must "Believe In" the system in general and the election process in particular.
Let's say you happen to be amongst the puppeteers who run the big show from behind the scenes. Like if you were one of the many deeply embedded in the Military Industrial Complex, the central banking scheme, the Big 5 Media, etc. You know, the people that steer (electioneer) and even rig the elections. The "Disaster Capitalists" whose portfolios are set to make profits off of any and nearly all disasters. The people who seek world government aka global domination, and who use the United States as the machine to make that a reality.
Well if you're one of these people then you face a serious problem: you can't control a system when most of its population doesn't trust you. Likewise, you can't control an alert population. Most importantly: you can't maintain a system of quiet domination when the youth of it are angry, and are making noise in the streets. Enter Obama.
To maintain a hegemonic system of never ending perpetual war -bent on global domination- you need a subdued and dumbed down citizenry. In particular, you need the youth not only ignorant to the hard truth, but you also need them to believe in your government. Therefore, the more cult-like you can get them the better.
For a spell Bush enjoyed such a scenario. But where it lacked, especially after the invasion of Iraq, was only about half the population idolized he and 'his' government. It wasn't too long before one half of the population cursed his name to the ranks of Hitler, and nowadays maybe half of his own 'cult' doesn't dodge him like the plague. Many who once gobbled up his every breathe as truth handed down from God Almighty now have awoken to the morbid truth of a nightmare that runs much deeper than Bush and his cronies. That nightmare is best known as the "American Dream".
Back to the 'criminal profiler' view, as central social engineering planners, by necessity of career and worldview, you see the '08 election coming. You've had several years to study 'your' 'market' and 'your' 'audience'. So as you and your think-tanks contemplate the best way to ensure your future goals, it would already be obvious that you need your masses truly on board. Total subservience; Total acquiescence; Or at least as close as possible.
But now, during the final stages of your plot for world control, of true militaristic technological totalitarianism, you face the youth in new ways. Many things, but 2 things in particular, besides 'the war' itself, compel them. First, the nation is barreling towards being $10 trillion in national debt, which means its the youth in particular in trouble. Second, there's this pesky new thing known as the Internet helping the masses wake up to the reality that your controlled media 'pentopoly' would normally divert them from.
In this 21st Century reality you need a 21st Century 'leader' to whip the 21st Century masses into an all-time cultish fervor. The obvious choice would be Barack Hussein Obama. You really couldn't ask for more from your position. It's the best of both worlds, and after-all, thanks to careful engineering over many decades, there are only 2 realities for the masses to pick from (Left or Right).
After nearly 8 years of rabid hatred from most of the one half, and the youth of the typically marginalized masses beginning to wake up, you must get these segments of your control scheme under wraps. Especially considering each have the War doctrine among the top items of their lists. When you're executing Vietnam'esque policy you can't have a repeat of the response to such. You've already learned that lesson.
The solution to maintaining your policy goals is not to actually strip away the policies, but rather send in the perfect man to convince the masses that the policies will "change" and therefore they can go back to bed. You need the perfect oratory hitman, from your own ranks, of course. And the masses need him, because after most of a lifetime of deep-concerns revolving around ballgames, TV commercials and power-shopping they are a strained citizenry in light of the painful truth of modern years.
So with Obama its a slam dunk. By gearing the foreign policy just right, you'll be able to keep much of the Right at least content. You will only be able to please the some of the staunchest pro-war-mongers so far, but that's ok because many of them are already over with "BushCo." obsession. Meanwhile, again, most Youth & Democrats & Minorities will be put back to sleep.
-Obama & McCain for reinstating the Military Draft?
Posted: September 15, 2008 in 2008, Articles, Videos
Tags: American Imperialism, Militarization, New / Cold War, ObamaCo., Perpetual War, War on Terror
Recently in my posting of the Obama Calls For National Civilian Stasi story I pointed how how his calling for all middle & high school children to perform every year in a "National Security Force" (spy on your neighbors, etc) I pointed out the parallels with Democrat Charley Rangel's annual legislative push (since Iraqi invasion, besides the '08 election year) for a "Universal National Service Act" requiring all men and women ages 18-42 to serve in military or homeland security service.
History of Rangel's legislative military draft endeavors.
Well I'll be damned that sure enough Obama is now supporting the notion of a military draft.
WSWS:
In remarks that clearly pointed toward the restoration of the military draft under an Obama administration, the Democratic candidate said Thursday night that his job as president would include demanding that the American people recognize an "obligation" for military service. "If we are going into war, then all of us go, not just some," Senator Barack Obama declared.
Obama's comments came as he and his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, took part in a forum on national service at Columbia University in New York City. Earlier in the day, both candidates joined in a memorial service at the site of the World Trade Center, commemorating the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
While "national service" encompasses more than the military, including such government-run programs as the Peace Corps, Americorps and Teach for America, as well as private and religious programs, both McCain and Obama focused on expanding the US Armed Forces as a major goal of the next administration, whether Democratic or Republican.
In an indication of the bipartisan support for the increasing militarization of American society, McCain jokingly offered to name Obama his coordinator for national service if the Republican were to win the election, and Obama reciprocated.
The forum was co-hosted by Judy Woodruff of the Public Broadcasting Service and Richard Stengel, editor of Time magazine. Woodruff introduced Stengel as the man responsible for the magazine's 2007 cover story, "The Case for National Service," which Woodruff said had "ignited this movement."
McCain was the first of the two candidates to appear at the forum. In response to a direct question from Woodruff, he rejected the restoration of the draft, voicing support for maintaining an all-volunteer army. Such a disavowal is to be expected 55 days before a presidential election, and no doubt Obama would have given a similar response had he been asked the same question.
But in the course of his discussion with Woodruff and Stengel, McCain repeatedly connected the imperative of "national service" with the outbreak of international crises in which an American military role would be posed. Citing the Russian intervention in Georgia and the deteriorating position of the US-backed regime in Afghanistan, he said the American people could "see a whole lot of things happening in the world that's going to require us to serve."
McCain also said that he would sign the bipartisan legislation, co-sponsored in the Senate by Democrat Edward Kennedy and Republican Orrin Hatch, to triple the size of Americorps, the domestic version of the Peace Corps.
Obama's comments were even more directly related to building up the US military. He spoke at some length to offer effusive praise for the armed forces. Woodruff asked him about the record number of Army officers leaving the military because of repeated, lengthy overseas deployments.
The candidate responded, "Well, first of all, as commander-in-chief, my job is to keep America safe. And that means insuring that we've got the best military on Earth. And that means having the best persons in uniform on Earth. We have that right now, but as a consequence of these wars, they have been strained incredibly. I think it's important for us to increase the size of our Army and our Marines so we can reduce the pace of tours that our young men and women are on."
After recalling his grandfather's service in World War II, in the army of General George Patton, he noted that his grandfather was eligible for GI Bill education benefits and Federal Housing Administration loans to help purchase a home because of government policies favoring the discharged veterans. "There was that sense of sacred obligation that, frankly, we have lost during these last two wars," Obama said. "I want to restore that."
Obama went on to make his most direct statement of the campaign about expanding military service, declaring: "But it's also important that a president speaks to military service as an obligation not just of some, but of many. You know, I traveled, obviously, a lot over the last 19 months. And if you go to small towns, throughout the Midwest or the Southwest or the South, every town has tons of young people who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's not always the case in other parts of the country, in more urban centers. And I think it's important for the president to say, this is an important obligation. If we are going into war, then all of us go, not just some."
Taken in the context of a forum on national service, these comments have an unmistakable and ominous implication. Military service in the volunteer army is undertaken disproportionately by small-town and rural youth, for both economic and cultural reasons. It is far less common for middle class and working class youth in large cities, and especially their suburbs, to enlist in the military.
Obama holds out the prospect that, at least initially, his demand for wider participation in military service would consist of encouraging more enlistments in the volunteer army. When that failed, as it undoubtedly would, to produce sufficient cannon fodder for the next round of imperialist wars, the logical next step would be reactivation of the Selective Service System, which still exists, albeit in mothballed form.
In political terms, Obama's appearance at Columbia was aimed at demonstrating to the American political establishment that he is prepared to reject any pressure from antiwar college students, who are a major component of his campaign's personnel and volunteers. To that end, Obama not only called for expanded military service, he directly attacked the exclusion of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) from many college campuses.
Stengel noted that Columbia had invited President Ahmadinejad of Iran to speak on the campus, but "haven't invited ROTC to be on campus since 1969."
Obama replied, "Yes, I think we've made a mistake on that. I recognize that there are students here who have differences in terms of military policy. But the notion that young people here at Columbia or anywhere, in any university, aren't offered the choice, the option of participating in military service, I think is a mistake."
The suggestion that young people at Columbia or anywhere else are denied "the option of participating in military service" is preposterous. In no country in the world is there so much media advertising and societal pressure—largely, at this point, economic—to impel young people into the military.
ROTC became a focus of hostility on hundreds of campuses during the Vietnam War era, and was in many cases banned as a student organization. These restrictions largely ended after 1975, but they were continued or reestablished on a handful of campuses after the Clinton administration established the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, reaffirming the longtime Pentagon ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. Such a ban violates the non-discrimination rules imposed by many campuses on corporate recruiters.
In response to a further question from Woodruff, Obama elaborated on his efforts to recruit young people to become participants in, and potential victims of, military violence. "Inspiring young people to serve is something that the president is uniquely positioned to do," he said, adding that this could be for civilian positions that are adjuncts to US military operations overseas, such as the State Department, USAID or civil engineering.
Obama returned to the subject of widening participation in military service in words that were cautiously phrased but deeply reactionary. "I think there are special obligations during wartime," he said. "We always have potential conflicts around the world, and our military has to remain strong and ready. And so I want to encourage military service, as well as other ways of serving, regardless of whether there's war or not. But I do think that over the last several years, the fact that the burden has been shouldered by such a narrow group is a problem."
In a closely balanced election, with the outcome still very much in doubt, Obama hopes to win the support of the real decision-makers—the topmost levels of the financial, political and military elite. Only a Democrat, he is suggesting, with the smokescreen of "equal sacrifice" and "fairness," can provide the millions of recruits for the US military machine that will be required for wars against countries such as Iran, Russia and China.
While utilizing the occasional high-flown phrase to appeal to the idealism of youth and students, Obama is offering the ruling class a brutal bargain: Select me as president, and I will repay you in blood.
-New Evidence Of McCain's Foreign Policy Adviser, Kissinger, Chile Coup d'état
Posted: September 13, 2008 in 2008, Articles, Intel Doc's
Tags: American Imperialism, Neoliberals, New / Cold War, Spooks
Nixon Vetoed Proposed Coexistence with an Allende Government
Kissinger to the CIA: "We will not let Chile go down the drain."
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 255
Posted – September 10, 2008
Peter Kornbluh- (202) 994-7116, peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
Washington D.C., September 10, 2008 – On the eve of the thirty-fifth anniversary of the military coup in Chile, the National Security Archive today published for the first time formerly secret transcripts of Henry Kissinger's telephone conversations that set in motion a massive U.S. effort to overthrow the newly-elected socialist government of Salvador Allende. "We will not let Chile go down the drain," Kissinger told CIA director Richard Helms in one phone call. "I am with you," the September 12, 1970 transcript records Helms responding.
The telephone call transcripts—known as 'telcons'—include previously-unreported conversations between Kissinger and President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State William Rogers. Just eight days after Allende's election, Kissinger informed the president that the State Department had recommended an approach to "see what we can work out [with Allende]." Nixon responded by instructing Kissinger: "Don't let them do it."
After Nixon spoke directly to Rogers, Kissinger recorded a conversation in which the Secretary of State agreed that "we ought, as you say, to cold-bloodedly decide what to do and then do it," but warned it should be done "discreetly so that it doesn't backfire." Secretary Rogers predicted that "after all we have said about elections, if the first time a Communist wins the U.S. tries to prevent the constitutional process from coming into play we will look very bad."
The telcons also reveal that just nine weeks before the Chilean military, led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet and supported by the CIA, overthrew the Allende government on September 11, 1973, Nixon called Kissinger on July 4 to say "I think that Chilean guy might have some problems." "Yes, I think he's definitely in difficulties," Kissinger responded. Nixon then blamed CIA director Helms and former U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry for failing to block Allende's inauguration three years earlier. "They screwed it up," the President declared.
Although Kissinger never intended the public to know about these conversations, observed Peter Kornbluh, who directs the National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project, he "bestowed on history a gift that keeps on giving by secretly taping and transcribing his phone calls." The transcripts, Kornbluh noted, provide historians with the ability to "eavesdrop on the most candid conversations of the highest and most powerful U.S. officials as they plotted covert intervention against a democratically-elected government."
Kissinger began secretly taping all his incoming and outgoing phone conversations when he became national security advisor in 1969; his secretaries transcribed the calls from audio tapes that were later destroyed. When Kissinger left office in January 1977, he took more than 30,000 pages of the transcripts, claiming they were "personal papers," and used them, selectively, to write his memoirs. In 1999, the National Security Archive initiated legal proceedings to force Kissinger to return these records to the U.S. government so they could be subject to the freedom of information act and declassification. At the request of Archive senior analyst William Burr, telcons on foreign policy crises from the early 1970s, including these four previously-unknown conversations on Chile, were recently declassified by the Nixon Presidential library.
On November 30, 2008 the National Security Archive will publish a comprehensive collection of Kissinger telcons in the Digital National Security Archive (DNSA). Comprising 15,502 telcons, this collection documents Kissinger's conversations with top officials in the Nixon and Ford administrations, including President Richard Nixon; Defense Secretaries Melvin Laird, Elliot Richardson, and James Schlesinger; Secretary of State William P. Rogers; Ambassador to the U.N. George H.W. Bush; and White House Counselor Donald Rumsfeld; along with noted journalists, ambassadors, and business leaders with close White House ties. Wide-ranging topics discussed in the telcons include détente with Moscow, military actions during the Vietnam War and the negotiations that led to its end, Middle East peace talks, the 1970 crisis in Jordan, U.S. relations with Europe, Japan, and Chile, rapprochement with China, the Cyprus crisis (1974- ), and the unfolding Watergate affair. When combined with the Archive's previous electronic publication of Kissinger's memoranda of conversation — The Kissinger Transcripts: A Verbatim Record of U.S. Diplomacy, 1969-1977 — users of the DNSA will have access to comprehensive records of Kissinger's talks with myriad U.S. officials and world leaders. Like the Archive's earlier publication, the Kissinger telcons will be comprehensively and expertly indexed, providing users with have easy access to the information they seek. The collection also includes 158 White House tapes, some of which dovetail with transcripts of Kissinger's telephone conversations with Nixon and others. Users of the set will thus be able to read the "telcon" and listen to the tape simultaneously.
READ THE DOCUMENTS
l. Helms/Kissinger, September 12, 1970, 12:00 noon.
Eight days after Salvador Allende's narrow election, Kissinger tells CIA director Richard Helms that he is calling a meeting of the 40 committee—the committee that determines covert operations abroad. "We will not let Chile go down the drain," Kissinger declares. Helms reports he has sent a CIA emissary to Chile to obtain a first-hand assessment of the situation.
2. President/Kissinger, September 12, 1970, 12:32 p.m.
In the middle of a Kissinger report to Nixon on the status of a terrorist hostage crisis in Amman, Jordan, he tells the president that "the big problem today is Chile." Former CIA director and ITT board member John McCone has called to press for action against Allende; Nixon's friend Pepsi CEO Donald Kendall has brought Chilean media mogul Augustine Edwards to Washington. Nixon blasts a State Department proposal to "see what we can work out [with Allende], and orders Kissinger "don't let them do that." The president demands to see all State Department cable traffic on Chile and to get an appraisal of "what the options are."
3. Secretary Rogers, September 14, 1970, 12:15pm (page 2)
After Nixon speaks to Secretary of State William Rogers about Chile, Kissinger speaks to him on September 14. Rogers reluctantly agrees that the CIA should "encourage a different result" in Chile, but warns it should be done discreetly lest U.S. intervention against a democratically-elected government be exposed. Kissinger firmly tells Secretary Rogers that "the president's view is to do the maximum possible to prevent an Allende takeover, but through Chilean sources and with a low posture."
4) President/Kissinger, July 4, 1973, 11:00 a.m.
Vacationing in San Clemente, Nixon calls Kissinger and discusses the deteriorating situation in Chile. Two weeks earlier, a coup attempt against Allende failed, but Nixon and Kissinger predict further turmoil. "I think that Chilean guy may have some problems," Nixon states. "Oh, he has massive problems. He has massive problems…he's definitely in difficulties," Kissinger responds. The two share recollections of three years earlier when they had covertly attempted to block Allende's inauguration. Nixon blames CIA director Richard Helms and former U.S. ambassador Edward Korry for failing to stop Allende; "they screwed it up," he states. The conversation then turns to Kissinger's evaluation of the Los Angeles premiere of the play "Gigi."
5) President/Kissinger, September 16, 1973, 11:50 a.m. (previously posted May 26, 2004)
In their first substantive conversation following the military coup in Chile, Kissinger and Nixon discuss the U.S. role in the overthrow of Allende, and the adverse reaction in the new media. When Nixon asks if the U.S. "hand" will show in the coup, Kissinger admits "we helped them" and that "[deleted reference] created conditions as great as possible." The two commiserate over what Kissinger calls the "bleating" liberal press. In the Eisenhower period, he states, "we would be heroes." Nixon assures him that the people will appreciate what they did: "let me say they aren't going to buy this crap from the liberals on this one."


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Hornachos è un comune spagnolo di 3.784 abitanti situato nella comunità autonoma dell'Estremadura, comarca Tierra de Barros.

Storia
Nel 1234 Hornachos venne occupata dall'Ordine di Santiago. La locale comunità morisca rimase per secoli musulmana. Nel 1609 venne decretata l'espulsione dei moriscos.

La comunità si stabilì in Marocco, nella città di Salé, fondando la Repubblica corsara del Bou Regreg della quale divennero élite.

Note

Collegamenti esterni

Comuni della provincia di Badajoz


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Роберт Мертенс (; 1894—1975) — немецкий  и директор музея научно-исследовательского института и музея естествознания им. Зенкенберга во Франкфурте-на-Майне.

Биография
В 1912 году переехал в Германию.

Научные достижения
Как герпетолог он описал 52 вида пресмыкающихся.

Роберт Мертенс считался более 20 лет (1954—1975) знатоком рода Phelsuma (фельзумы), в котором он описал не менее 20 новых видов и подвидов.

В 1960 году Мертенс избран членом Леопольдины. Его «Рептилии и амфибии» региона Рейн-Майн до сих пор используются как надёжный источник сведений о рептилиях в окрестностях Франкфурта.

Обосновал мимикрию Мертенса.

Смерть
Роберт Мертенс скончался в возрасте 80 лет от укуса капской винной змеи, которую он содержал во Франкфурте и от яда которой до сих пор нет противоядия. Он умер через 18 дней после укуса.

Память
В честь учёного названо девять видов и два подвида рептилий, среди которых варан Мертенса, а также бычок-компаньон Мертенса.

Примечания

Литература
 Konrad Klemmer: Robert Mertens, sein Leben und Werk. In: Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. Band 20, 1977, ISBN 3-510-61238-8

Ссылки

Музейные работники Германии
Члены Леопольдины
Умершие от укуса змеи


I don't watch the news much anymore. I've grown tired of the negative political ads this season. Can't believe I heard political advertising will likely top $3 billion dollars this year. I heard Jon Stewart was holding the Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington D.C. and decided to watch some of it online. Was very glad I did. Stewart voiced so many things that resonated deep in my soul.
Jon Stewart taught me today a little more of what it means to truly love my neighbor.
If we amplify everything we near nothing. There are terrorists and racists and Stalinist and theocrats but those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers or real bigots and Juan Williams and Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate.
These cars – that's a school teacher who probably thinks his taxes are too high. He's going to work. There's another car – a woman with two small kids who can't really think about anything else right now. There's another car with a woman who's in the NRA. She loves Oprah. There's another car – an investment banker, gay, also likes Oprah. Another car's a Latino carpenter. Another car a fundamentalist vacuum salesman. Atheist obstetrician. Mormon Jay-Z fan. But this is us. Every one of the cars that you see is filled with individuals of strong belief and principles they hold dear – often principles and beliefs in direct opposition to their fellow travelers.
And yet these millions of cars must somehow find a way to squeeze one by one into a mile long 30 foot wide tunnel carved underneath a mighty river. Carved, by the way, by people who I'm sure had their differences. And they do it. Concession by concession. You go. Then I'll go. You go then I'll go. Oh my God, is that an NRA sticker on your car? Is that an Obama sticker on yours? Well, that's okay – you go and then I'll go. And sure, at some point there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder and cuts in at the last minute, but that individual is rare and he is scorned and not hired as an analyst.
Because we know instinctively as a people that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light we have to work together and the truth is, there will always be darkness. And sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn't the promised land. Sometimes it's just New Jersey.
But we do it anyway, together.


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The nominations are in! This morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards. CIFF connections include 18 Oscars nods and several films that played the festival have multiple nominations.
Join us at THE GRAND on February 9 to see who takes home the gold during the live broadcast at A Red Carpet Affair, our annual Oscars viewing party and fundraiser.
For the second year running, you can also see Oscar Nominated Shorts on the big screen at Globe Cinema, on the weekend of January 31st- February 2nd.
This year JOKER leads the pack with 11 nominations, and Netflix's THE IRISHMAN, 1917 and ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD follow with 10 nominations each. Other films that made our programmer's top 10 lists with multiple nominations include MARRIAGE STORY, PAIN AND GLORY, and THE LIGHTHOUSE.
Ten films screened by CIFF received Oscar nominations this morning, including:
PARASITE received six nominations for Best Picture, Best Director for Bong Joon-Ho, Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay for Bong Joon-Ho, Best International Feature, and Best Production Design. By far the most sought-after ticket of last year's festival and the winner of our Fan Favourite Award in 2019 broke records, becoming the first South-Korean film to not only make in into the Best International Feature category but be nominated for Best Picture. Seems like Calgarians were right to stand out in the snow for a chance to see it in last September!
JUDY received two Nominations for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Renée Zellwegger and for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
Antonio Banderas received a nomination as Best Actor in a Leading Role for PAIN AND GLORY, which CIFF screened last October as an exclusive perk for donors to our 2020 campaign.
Alongside PARASITE, overall four of the five nominees for Best International Feature screened at CIFF last year, with HONEYLAND, LES MISÉRABLES, and PAIN AND GLORY getting nominations.
Three of the five nominees for Best Documentary Feature had their Alberta premieres at CIFF, with FOR SAMA and HONEYLAND playing during the festival and THE CAVE as part of our year-round Doc Soup Series.
Three short films screened at the festival were nominated, MÉMORABLE and SISTER (screened at CIFF in 2018) for Best Animated Short and THE NEIGHBOURS' WINDOW for Best Live Action Short. If you missed these the first time, they'll both be available to see again as part of our Oscar Shorts series.
Get tickets to A Red Carpet Affair, our annual Oscars viewing party and fundraiser and watch the 92nd Oscars live on the big screen with us or check out the Oscar Nominated Shorts taking place January 31st - February 2nd at Globe Cinema.
Back to blog listing
Shorts Programmer Brennan Tilley's Top 10 Films & Shorts of 2019
Sachin Gandhi's Top Ten Films of 2019
CIFF Programming Admin Adam Keresztes' Best of 2019
Artistic Director Brian Owens' Best Films of the 2010's
Best Films of the 2010's by World Programmer Sachin Gandhi
Christmas Gift Ideas from CIFF
ATLANTICS Interview with Director Mati Diop


Last month Wealth Professional spoke to Warren Gibson of DomaCom, an internet-based platform for fractional investing in property built around an ASIC registered managed investment scheme.
He believed the program, which is unique in Australia and possibly globally, was an ideal solution to SMSF property investment.
Gibson disagrees with many recent reports that warn investors off SMSF property and says it can actually be an extremely valuable offering, and one that will be a growing trend.
"The attitude to property in a SMSF is extraordinary for the simple reason that property, like it or not, is the basis of most peoples wealth creation. It is a market four times the value of the stock market and ownership of property has been around for hundreds of years longer than the stock market.
SMSFs are simply another entity in which to hold property just as you can hold it in a trust, individually, within a corporate structure and so on.
I don't understand the hoo-ha in relation to property in SMSFs – other than advisers who cannot charge FUM fees on it because they cannot advise on it.
Sure some people are pushing the envelope when they create an SMSF simply to hold a single property. There is single asset risk exposure to be considered plus a distinct lack of liquidity.
Property is a legitimate asset class like shares, cash and fixed interest, the only difference being that it is also an all or nothing proposition. In other words you buy a property, or you don't.
There are of course property trusts and REITS but they buy commercial property - so how does one buy residential property?
People want to own residential property and that includes trustees of SMSFs – which is why we created a fractional model. The fractional model enables property to be broken down into bits in a similar way to breaking down the ownership of a company by issuing shares.
The beauty of the DomaCom model is in using a MIS structure to do so which enables financial planners to advise on the structure and hence include the value in the fee basket.
In terms of the actual property SMSF trustees can choose the property they want from any property on the market in Australia and, with other investors, invest in it in a syndicate like structure.
If enough investors cannot come together then it simply does not happen. We expect advisers will select properties or engage a property consultant to select a few properties and create private book builds for their client base to ensure sufficient capital can be raised to purchase the properties.
This is what SMSF trustees want – choice, transparency, and flexibility. If they wanted anything else they would stay in an industry or corporate funds and let the fund manager choose.
Sure property is a longer term investment and could be tricky for a 50 to 60 year old if they are buying a whole property in a SMSF. It all comes down to asset allocation. If a whole property is only 20% of your SMSF it's probably not so much of a problem, but if it is 80% or more then it could be a massive problem for someone in their 50s.
And in terms of regulating property, the DomaCom Fund, for example, is a regulated investment so the properties that are purchased are done within a regulated product.


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Home News Cold Fire Heats Up Montecito
Cold Fire Heats Up Montecito
Cheyenne Johnson
Photo by Caitlin Griffin
A fire started in the upper hills of Montecito around noon on Nov. 6. Evacuation orders were issued in the area surrounding the Cold Spring trail shortly after the blaze started.
The fire was quickly contained and evacuation orders cancelled three hours after the start of the fire. The Cold Fire caused no damage to the surrounding homes and there were no reported injuries. Geri Ventura of the Montecito Fire Protection District commended those involved in the containment for their quick actions to ensure the fire did not spread to residential areas.
"I believe that the response was fast and appropriate," said Ventura. "We were fortunate that there were no other incidents going on in the area, which availed several air resources that were able to continually douse the fire with water and retardant. Because there were no winds to speak of, the fire's progress was not pushed at the speed in which we have seen with some of the other local incidents, like the Tea Fire and the Jesusita Fire. This particular fire was driven by the topography."
The Montecito Fire District, Santa Barbara City and County Fire, United States Forest Service, Carpinteria and Summerland Fire, Vandenberg Air Force Bases and others responded to the fire, as well as volunteers who were there to assist with any necessary evacuations.
The Santa Barbara County Fire is currently investigating the fire as arson, and an unidentified man was detained on suspicion of starting the blaze. Ventura said he has not received any information on whether or not they've identified the suspect.
The blaze did not stop hikers from returning to the trail once the fire was contained and extinguished. Shannon Daniel, a resident from Oxnard who regularly travels to Montecito to hike the Cold Springs trail, said that she was initially very worried because the trail is one of her favorites, but that was happy to return once the area was deemed safe. Daniel said the recent upkeep of the trail and the homes surrounding it help ensure her safety, as well as that of fellow climbers
"It looks like they're keeping it clean," said Daniel.
Ventura said that while this fire was quickly contained, residents should still be vigilant and wary of the potential for disastrous fires.
"We cannot stop a wind drive fire," said Ventura. "We can only try to protect those structures that lay in the fire's path. In a slope-driven, or topography-driven fire like we had the other night, we can more aggressively attack the fire to prevent its spread. We recommend that residents pay close attention to the weather, and take precautions for themselves when the ominous trifecta of high temps, low humidities and high winds exists. Talk to your family members about your evacuation plan…Walk around your home and take a quick inventory of the things you would take if you only had minutes to spare. Pay close attention to weather reports."
Ventura urged residents to prepare for fires by having a survival kit near the car for easy access and to prepare for emergencies well in advance.
"The time to prepare," said Ventura, "is not when you are being told to evacuate."
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