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Todd Jay Leonard, Blog Archives
The following articles were originally published in The Shelbyville News in the column "Letters Home: A Hoosier in Japan."
http://www.shelbynews.com
Send questions and comments to me at toddjayleonard@yahoo.com.
๏Trash laws here are nothing compared to Japan
๏Neighborhood system transmits information
๏'Johnny Appleseed' Ing brings seeds to Japan
๏Japanese harvest is similar to Indiana's
๏Japanese wedding receptions can be costly
๏Traditional Japanese weddings are beautiful
๏Japanese funerals have ancient traditions
๏Funeral rituals in Japan are strict, somber
๏In Japan, a waving cat indicates good luck
๏Per request, Leonard's column about Japan returns
Japanese funerals have ancient traditions
In my last column, I commented on various funeral customs practiced in Japan. I would like to continue that theme in this column, as there are several more traditions that I believe you will find culturally different and, at the same time, interesting.
In Japan, it is customary and socially correct to make an offering of money to the deceased person's family when attending a funeral. This money is called "koden," with the amount given dependent upon how close you were to the person, your social position in the community and/or your own financial ability.
The usual amount of money offered is around $30 to $50. It is extremely important that the money given is put in a special envelope that has black and white cords elaborately tied around it. Also, the bills should be old and well-worn — not new. Offering a new bill as a funeral offering could give the appearance that the death was expected and you had time in advance to prepare "new" bills for the occasion.
The opposite is true when offering money to a wedding couple; only new, not-yet-circulated bills should be given. This shows that you made a special effort to visit the bank in order to prepare crisp, new bills, which shows you approve of the wedding. Used bills for a wedding could convey that you are not that pleased about the union.
The subtlety involved in these types of cultural practices make it very hard for an outsider not to offend people on some level. These cultural cues are based on a long tradition, practiced amongst a very homogenous group of people. Japanese people intuitively know such implied hints and can read a situation instantly, relying on their own cultural background and knowledge "to do the right thing." Outsiders like me, on the other hand, must fumble around and learn by trial and error.
America, with its patchwork quilt of ethnic groups, could never have such indirect customs, due to the wide variety of cultural backgrounds that have fused together to make the United States the country it is today. An American bridal couple would not give it a second thought if someone gave them a $100 bill that had been in circulation; the hidden meaning, so apparent in Japan, would have to be more direct for Americans to get it (e.g. putting no money in the envelope — now, that would get an American's attention).
The cost of a funeral in Japan, like in the United States, can be exorbitantly expensive. The monetary offering paid by each attendee helps to defray the cost incurred upon the family. In return, in order to cancel out any obligation to the person giving the monetary gift, the family then prepares a small gift for the attendees as a token of their profound appreciation for the generosity extended to them.
These gifts are usually valued at $15 to $20 and are wrapped in white, gray or black paper; usually included in the gift bag is a note of appreciation from the family. The attendees are handed these gifts as they leave the funeral.
In the past, I have received telephone cards, coupons to exchange for rice, handkerchiefs and hand towels in such instances. Japanese social etiquette requires that a gift of money be reciprocated, in some way, hence the reason why the family is obliged to offer guests a token gift at the funeral or soon after.
In addition, it is important for the attendees to write on the offering envelope in very light, even gray ink. Again, to use a rich, dark ink would suggest that the death was expected and the person writing had ample time to prepare the ink from an ink-stone. In the old days, it took much time and effort to prepare the "sumie" ink to write letters.
Using gray ink conveys that the death was such a shock that the person had no time to properly concoct the ink and hurriedly mixed it, resulting in a dull, grayish-colored ink.
A woman at my university is a master calligrapher, and she is always ready and willing to help me with these calligraphy-related duties. When she writes on a funeral envelope, it is ever so light, and her writing is so beautiful — a work of art. My Japanese writing, in contrast, looks like it was done by a 3-year-old.
Nowadays, stores offer a huge assortment of items to make these necessary tasks easier. One can purchase a pen that automatically writes in a grayish ink. All supermarkets and convenience stores have a section that sells the various types of envelopes needed for these culture-specific obligations.
Just as there is an assortment of envelopes for funerals, there are those for weddings and other happier occasions that come in red, white and gold.
The more elaborate envelopes signify the amount of money placed inside it. It would be strange to use a highly decorated envelope with only a small amount of money placed inside it. So, there are all kinds of envelopes to choose from — from the very plain to the ostentatious — depending upon the size of your offering.
Funeral customs in Japan are steeped in tradition that often goes back to ancient times. Of course, the burial custom in Japan is to cremate the deceased and then place the ashes in a family altar at a grave site (and not bury the person in the ground, like we normally do in the United States).
This custom has its origins in Buddhism, but is also done out of practicality. The scarcity of available land, and the exorbitant cost of land, makes it impractical to bury people in individual plots.
By TODD JAY LEONARD
A woman is attending to a family grave at a Japanese cemetery. The ashes of many generations are interred into the same gravesite, both according to long-established custom and because of the scarcity of available land in Japan. Submitted photo


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In baseball, defense-independent pitching statistics (DIPS) (also referred to as fielding-independent pitching, or FIP) is intended to measure a pitcher's effectiveness based only on statistics that do not involve fielders (except the catcher). These include home runs allowed, strikeouts, hit batters, walks, and, more recently, fly ball percentage, ground ball percentage, and (to a much lesser extent) line drive percentage. By focusing on these statistics and ignoring what happens once a ball is put in play, which – on most plays – the pitcher has little control over, DIPS claims to offer a clearer picture of the pitcher's true ability.

The most controversial part of DIPS is the idea that pitchers have little influence over what happens to balls that are put into play. Some people believe this has been well-established (see below), primarily by showing the large variability of most pitchers' BABIP from year to year. However, there is a wide variation in career BABIP among pitchers, and this seems to correlate with career success. For instance, no pitcher in the Hall of Fame has a below-average career BABIP.

Origin of DIPS
In 1999, Voros McCracken became the first to detail and publicize these effects to the baseball research community when he wrote on rec.sport.baseball, "I've been working on a pitching evaluation tool and thought I'd post it here to get some feedback. I call it 'Defensive Independent Pitching' and what it does is evaluate a pitcher base[d] strictly on the statistics his defense has no ability to affect..."  Until the publication of a more widely read article in 2001, however, on Baseball Prospectus, most of the baseball research community believed that individual pitchers had an inherent ability to prevent hits on balls in play. McCracken reasoned that if this ability existed, it would be noticeable in a pitcher's 'Batting Average on Balls In Play' (BABIP). His research found the opposite to be true: that while a pitcher's ability to cause strikeouts or prevent home runs remained somewhat constant from season to season, his ability to prevent hits on balls in play did not.

To better evaluate pitchers in light of his theory, McCracken developed "Defense-Independent ERA" (dERA), the most well-known defense-independent pitching statistic. McCracken's formula for dERA is very complicated, with a number of steps. DIPS ERA is not as useful for knuckleballers and other "trick" pitchers, a factor that McCracken mentioned a few days after his original announcement of his research findings in 1999, in a posting on the rec.sport.baseball.analysis Usenet site on November 23, 1999, when he wrote:  "Also to [note] is that, anecdotally, I believe pitchers with trick deliveries (e.g. Knuckleballers) might post consistently lower $H numbers than other pitchers. I looked at Tim Wakefield's career and that seems to bear out slightly".

In later postings on the rec.sport.baseball site during 1999 and 2000 (prior to the publication of his widely read article on BaseballProspectus.com in 2001), McCracken also discussed other pitcher characteristics that might influence BABIP. In 2002 McCracken created and published version 2.0 of dERA, which incorporates the ability of knuckleballers and other types of pitchers to affect the number of hits allowed on balls hit in the field of play (BHFP).

Controversy
Controversy over DIPS was heightened when Tom Tippett at Diamond Mind published his own findings in 2003. Tippett concluded that the differences between pitchers in preventing hits on balls in play were at least partially the result of the pitcher's skill. Tippett analyzed certain groups of pitchers that appear to be able to reduce the number of hits allowed on balls hit into the field of play (BHFP). Like McCracken, Tippett found that pitchers' BABIP was more volatile on an annual basis than the rates at which they gave up home runs or walks. It was this greater volatility that had led McCracken to conclude pitchers had "little or no control" over hits on balls in play. But Tippett also found large and significant differences between pitchers' career BABIP. In many cases, it was these differences that accounted for the pitchers' relative success.

However, improvements to DIPS that look at more nuanced defense-independent stats than strikeouts, home runs, and walks (such as groundball rate), have been able to account for many of the BABIP differences that Tippet identified without reintroducing the noise from defense variability.

Despite other criticisms, the work by McCracken on DIPS is regarded by many in the sabermetric community as the most important piece of baseball research in many years. As Jonah Keri wrote in 2012, "When Voros McCracken wrote his seminal piece on pitching and defense 11 years ago, he helped change the way people—fans, writers, even general managers—think about run prevention in baseball. Where once we used to throw most of the blame for a hit on the pitcher who gave it up, McCracken helped us realize that a slew of other factors go into whether a ball hit into play falls for a hit. For many people in the game and others who simply watch it, our ability to recognize the influence of defense, park effects, and dumb luck can be traced back to that one little article".

DIPS ERA was added to ESPN.com's Sortable Stats in 2004.

Alternate formulae
Each of the following formulas uses innings pitched (IP), a measure of the number of outs a team made while a pitcher was in the game. Since most outs rely on fielding, the results from calculations using innings pitched are not truly independent of team defense. While the creators of DICE, FIP and similar statistics all suggest they are "defense independent", others have pointed out that their formulas involve innings pitched (IP). Innings pitched is a statistical measure of how many outs were made while a pitcher was pitching. This includes those made by fielders who are typically involved in more than two thirds of the outs. These critics claim this makes pitchers' DICE or FIP highly dependent on the defensive play of their fielders.

DICE
A simple formula, known as Defense-Independent Component ERA (DICE), was created by Clay Dreslough in 1998:

In that equation, "HR" is home runs, "BB" is walks, "HBP" is hit batters, "K" is strikeouts, and "IP" is innings pitched. That equation gives a number that is better at predicting a pitcher's ERA in the following year than the pitcher's actual ERA in the current year.

FIP
Tom Tango independently derived a similar formula, known as Fielding Independent Pitching, which is very close to the results of dERA and DICE.

In that equation, "HR" is home runs, "BB" is walks, "K" is strikeouts, and "IP" is innings pitched. That equation usually gives you a number that is nothing close to a normal ERA (this is the FIP core), so the equation used is more often (but not always) this one:

where C is a constant that renders league FIP for the time period in question equal to league ERA for the same period. It is calculated as:

where lgERA is the league average ERA, lgHR is the number of home runs in the league, lgBB is the number of walks in the league, lgK is the number of strikeouts in the league, and lgIP is the number of innings played in the league.

The Hardball Times, a popular baseball statistics website, uses a slightly different FIP equation, instead using 3*(BB+HBP-IBB) rather than simply 3*(BB) where "HBP" stands for batters hit by pitch and "IBB" stands for intentional base on balls.

xFIP

Dave Studeman of The Hardball Times derived Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP), a regressed version of FIP.  Calculated like FIP, it differs in that it normalizes the number of home runs the pitcher allows, replacing a pitcher's actual home run total with an expected home run total (xHR).

where xHR is calculated using the league average home run per fly ball rate (lgHR/FB) multiplied by the number of fly balls the pitcher has allowed.

Typically, the lgHR/FB is around 10.5%, meaning 10.5% of fly balls go for home runs. In 2015, it was 11.4%.

SIERA

Baseball Prospectus invented this statistic, which takes into account balls in play and adjusts for balls in play. For example, if a pitcher has a high xFIP, but also induces a lot of ground balls and popups, his SIERA will be lower than his xFIP. The calculations for it are as follows:

See also
 Baseball statistics
 Defense-Independent ERA
 Defense-Independent Component ERA
 Pitch quantification
 Sabermetrics
 Voros McCracken

References

Pitching statistics

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Congratulations to Rachel and Darren, married June 26 at The Citizen Hotel! After a beautiful ballroom ceremony, guests headed up to the 7th floor Metropolitan Terrace to dance the night away. We love Rachel's beautiful pink ring!


Remanufacturing is a process where a particular product is taken apart, cleaned, repaired, and then reassembled to be used again. Many different types of products can go through this process, including auto parts, tires, furniture, laser toner cartridges, computers, and electrical equipment. Essentially any product that can be manufactured can also be remanufactured. In order for a product to be considered remanufactured, most of its components should be used (although some of them can be new if the older parts are too defective to be salvaged).
As society continues to better understand the effects of pollution and the consequences that come with the depletion of our natural resources, different steps are being taken to ensure the health of the environment for future generations. This general awareness has led to many new developments to preserve our world. Remanufacturing is one such development. This process is responsible for large energy savings, extending the lives of landfills, and cutting down on the amount of air pollution that would normally occur when a product goes through a reprocessing procedure.
While the basic concept is quite simple, remanufacturing is actually an extensive process. It requires that a used product be completely disassembled in order to assess its actual condition. If it is determined that remanufacturing is worthwhile, various parts of the product are cleaned, restored, repaired, and replaced. Further refinements are then performed and the product is reassembled so that it once again operates in the manner for which it was intended. The product is then ready to be used again. Each step in this process is essential to the entire concept of remanufacturing and careful precautions must be taken to ensure that each step is carried out correctly.
Often, the process of remanufacturing gets confused with other similar activities. Rebuilt and recharged products are very close to remanufactured ones and the three terms can often be considered synonymous with each other. Rebuilt products usually refer to auto parts, while recharging is usually performed on imaging products like the aforementioned toner cartridges.
Other types of products are almost completely different from those that have been remanufactured. For example, a remanufactured product is not a recycled one. Recycling involves using a product or its parts as raw materials for a different product and is generally applied to consumable goods like newspapers, bottles, and cans. Very rarely are recycled products resold to be used as they were originally intended, and when they are, the quality is not as good as a remanufactured product.
In addition, a remanufactured product should not be confused with a repaired one. Usually when a product is repaired, the whole remanufacturing process is disregarded and only defective parts are investigated and replaced. Likewise, restored and reconditioned products are ones that are brought back to their original condition, but these changes are usually cosmetic and apply to things like antiques, rather than mass market consumer products. In addition, remanufactured products should not be classified as "used." A used product is one that has not been repaired and therefore has no guarantees regarding its performance. Finally, demanufacturing and remanufacturing should not be confused with each other. Demanufacturing is simply the disassembly step that all products that are going to be remanufactured must go through.
Although remanufacturing and recycling are two different things, many environmental groups are embracing the concept of remanufacturing over recycling because it cuts down on the use of energy and resources used for processing. While recycled goods are consumed, then returned to their original raw material form to be used again, remanufacturing "recycles" the value originally added to the raw material.
In the book The American Edge: Leveraging Manufacturing's Hidden Assets , Professor Robert T. Lund explained that "Remanufacturing differs from recycling also, most importantly because it makes a much greater economic contribution per unit of product than does recycling. The essential difference arises in the recapture of value added. Value added is the cost of labor, energy, and manufacturing operations that are added to the basic cost of raw materials in the manufacture of a product. For all but the most simple durable goods, value added is by far the largest element of cost. Even in a product as simple as a beer bottle, the cost of the basic raw materials (sand, soda, and lime) is much less than 5 percent of the cost of a finished bottle. The rest is value added. For a product such as an automobile, the value of the raw materials that can be recovered by recycling is only in the order of 1.5 percent of the market value of the new car. Value added is embodied in the product. Recycling destroys that value added, reducing a product to its elemental value—its recoverable raw material constituents. Further, recycling requires added labor, energy, and processing capital to recover the raw materials. When all of the costs of segregation, collection, processing, and refining are taken into account, recycling has significant societal cost. Society undertakes recycling only because, for all nondurable and many durable products, the societal cost of any other disposal alternative is even greater."
Aside from environmental benefits, there are many other reasons why remanufactured goods exist. Like many good business decisions, remanufacturing simply saves money by prolonging the economic life of a product. A small business with a tight budget can save money by using remanufactured products because they often cost less (anywhere between 40 and 60 percent less) and come with warranties and extra services that guarantee their performance.
In recent years, remanufacturing has grown into a big business. Recent studies suggest that there are over 70,000 remanufacturing firms employing close to a half million people in the United States. Together, these firms make over $50 billion a year, proving that remanufacturing is a force to be reckoned with in today's economy. Because of this trend, it would seem that there are many opportunities for small businesses to get in on the action provided by the remanufacturing industry. For example, an auto repair business can easily branch out and start offering remanufactured goods as part of their services, or a small business that repairs office machines will gain the necessary knowledge to remanufacture related products at the same time as it conducts its normal business activities.
If a small business decides to get into the remanufacturing industry, it must first and foremost study and understand the market. Despite the recent success of remanufacturing, there is still a negative perception among consumers regarding products that contain used parts. Many consumers feel that a remanufactured product is not durable as a brand new one and may require additional maintenance in the future. This is a serious issue that must be addressed before a small business decides whether it is worth it to pursue remanufacturing as a vocation.
Like any business venture, remanufactured products must be properly marketed in order for the company producing them to ultimately succeed. Management must target consumers who will appreciate the fact that remanufactured goods are a great financial alternative to new ones, but educate them enough so that they understand they are not sacrificing quality for price. A sound warranty plan and follow-up calls that gauge the product's performance are also suggested. Like any product or service, a remanufactured product will benefit from positive word of mouth and grow into a solid business because of it.
Inexperienced remanufacturing firms must also be careful not to compete against themselves when marketing remanufactured and new goods at the same time. In addition, management must work with their own employees so that they understand the many benefits of the remanufacturing process. Many employees may be hesitant to offer remanufactured goods to their customers for fear of potential prejudices regarding the performance of the product.
Most importantly, a small business must have the means at its disposal to locate and recover the products and resources that will be used in the remanufacturing project and ultimately perform the task at hand. Once these products are found, they must be transported to the destination where disassembly will take place. After that, they will most likely be transported to another location that specializes in reassembly. Finally, any unusable parts and products must be collected and transported to recycling centers or other places that specialize in their disposal.
There are many legal and regulatory issues that affect the remanufacturing industry that businesses must be aware of. Intellectual property and anti-trust matters; federal, state and local recycling procedures; and government economic incentives are just a few of these issues. The Remanufacturing Institute is the watchdog organization for the entire industry and they are constantly monitoring these issues and representing the views of the businesses that are involved in remanufacturing. In addition, the federal government requires that all remanufactured goods must be labeled as such so that they cannot be passed off as new products.
Ferrer, Geraldo, and D. Clay Whybark. "From Garbage to Goods: Successful Remanufacturing Systems and Skills." Business Horizons. November, 2000.
Lund, Robert T. Remanufacturing: The Experience of the United States and Implications for Developing Countries. World Bank, 1984.


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Wonder Valley – The BOLO Books Review
by Kristopher | Nov 7, 2017 | Review
Wonder Valley is a desert oasis nestled in the backcountry of California; and yet, it is also a mirage – both corporeal and elusive. Although it is an Eden-like sanctuary, temptation, betrayal, and happenstance threaten to disrupt its mercurial equilibrium. Not unlike the island of misfit toys, Ivy Pochoda's Wonder Valley features a cast of characters residing on the outskirts of society – at the intersection of invisibility and inferiority – always in a constant battle to belong.
Wonder Valley begins with an effective tableau documenting the escapades of a naked runner dodging cars on the crowded Interstate 110 around Los Angeles, California. Even more than the runner himself, readers are introduced to a number of spectators at various locales along the highway. These are the folks that will become the core of the novel – the beating heart of Wonder Valley (and Wonder Valley.)
But the story really begins years earlier, when one of Patrick and Grace's twin sons decides to flee the commune his parents began in Twentynine Palms. Escaping the only home he has ever known seems like Owen's only choice at the time, but the universe has other plans. This simple act of rebellion with put into orbit a series of life-changing events no one could have foreseen.
Ivy Pochoda may not be a prolific as many of her contemporaries in the crime fiction genre, but her ambitions are aimed no less high. Wonder Valley is an epic novel told on a personal level. Each of the characters in this novel resonates with traits familiar to all readers, and yet every one of them is a unique individual. No two readers will have the same experience reading Wonder Valley. By focusing on those at the fringes of society, Pochoda effectively examine both the flaws and perfections of humanity at large.
Reading Wonder Valley is like wandering into an unexpected miasma only to emerge a changed person on the other side. The storyline weaves in and out of various character's minds, travels through past and present with ease, and seems at points to be aimlessly scattered – and yet the hold the book casts over the reader remains strong until slowly the various elements begin to converge and a masterpiece emerges.
Wonder Valley is a crime novel, but it is also a postcard portrait of California – or at least a specific part of this most diverse state. The literary moniker is not one I particularly like to employ, but if readers compare Wonder Valley to other equally strong crime novels, what may emerge is an understanding that every novel has its own unique fingerprint – some are striving for a universality that is more sweeping than others, which doesn't make them "better," just different. When done successfully – as Ivy Pochoda does with Wonder Valley – the ultimate winner is the reader.
BUY LINKS: Wonder Valley by Ivy Pochoda
Disclaimer: A print copy of this title were provided to BOLO Books by the publisher. No review was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Gibbes Museum of Art, Simeon Warren take home top statewide arts awards
"Outstanding ambassadors for our state"
by Connelly Hardaway
Provided/File
Each year, the S.C. Arts Commission honors South Carolinians with the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Award for the Arts, which recognizes outstanding achievement and contributions to the arts in South Carolina.
This year, one Charleston organization and one local individual took home Verner Awards: The Gibbes Museum of Art, for organization, and Simeon Warren for Arts in Education.
Warren is a cathedral-trained stone carver, sculptor, and conservator; he is also a founding faculty member at the American College of Building Arts. At the American College of the Building Arts, Warren developed college-level courses for professors, delivered the college's licenses to recruit and to teach, hired the college's faculty, and served as dean from 2006-2013.
And while most people are familiar with the Gibbes as a renowned local art institution, the Gibbes is also continuously developing new multi-dimensional education and outreach programs.
In addition to these Charleston recipients, Columbia's Tyrone Geter took home the state's highest honor in the artist category. While Geter isn't a Charlestonian, you can still check out his work downtown in the Neema Gallery.
Related Artist Tyrone Geter, represented by Charleston's Neema Gallery, accepts invitation to Yaddo residency: Joining the ranks of Langston Hughes, Jacob Lawrence, and David Foster Wallace
Artist Tyrone Geter, represented by Charleston's Neema Gallery, accepts invitation to Yaddo residency
Joining the ranks of Langston Hughes, Jacob Lawrence, and David Foster Wallace
Today owner of downtown Charleston's Neema gallery, Meisha Johnson, announced that one of the gallery's artists, Tyrone Geter, has accepted an invitation to a residency at Yaddo, an artists' retreat.
In a press release S.C. Arts Commission Chairman Henry Horowitz said, "Each of the Verner Award recipients makes a tremendous contribution not just locally, but they are honored for broad impact on the state's arts community and beyond. These are outstanding ambassadors for our state."
This year's awards will be presented on Wed. May 1 in a morning ceremony at the USC Alumni Center in Columbia. Learn more about the awards and the ceremony online at southcarolinaarts.com.
S.C. Arts Commission Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Verner Award Gibbes Museum of Art Simeon Warren
Nominate local artists and arts contributors for two S.C. Arts Commission Awards through Nov. 8
Nominate by Nov. 8
by Lilli Serral on September 2, 2019
Gibbes offering reduced admission for the month of April
Save a buck, see some art
by Morgan Galvez on April 1, 2019
Broad Street's Neema Gallery showcases the work of African-American artists 1
Grace and prosperity
by Connelly Hardaway on January 30, 2019
Gibbes Museum of Art
135 Meeting St. (Downtown)
Neema Fine Art Gallery
3 Broad St. (Downtown)


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Confirmation Class meets Wednesday nights in the Youth Room. This class is led by our Youth Leader Brian Brown and our Pastors Ruth and Gary Larson and is open to all middle school aged youth. Join us for class, fun, and games! And bring a friend!


Two editors from Mademoiselle have trapped a hapless, unknowing reader in a block of clear lucite, where they will subject her to countless literary and sartorial experiments (until the demise of the magazine in 2001).
You can tell the woman in beige is a senior editor because her eyes are completely dead. (Also because, look, beige!) The woman in red is a market editor. Also, the editor in beige is on the verge of tearing a button off her jacket and hurling it at the poor trapped reader. Just because she can.
Just as in Story Part One, I suspect that one of the major characters in Part Two is a MAN! That little white hat, those gloves, the 3/4 sleeves — all disguising her/his masculinity.
They are actually two women from a long lost Amazonian tribe called the Fashamazonistas. They are plotting (please see the knowing elbow which is about to strike)on the best way to rip said Lucite Lady our of her Time Warp Box in order to steal her much better dress and then devour her as an apertiff. They have the distinct advantage of one leg which is much longer than normal(characteristic of their kind) which they will use to break the Time Warp Box and to extract Lucite Lady. They will then impail her on the umbrella, cart her off to their native land, season her with fresh herbs, and begin the roast…all to obtain The Dress.
Beige EditorBot's eyes are slightly out of focus, so she is retuning with her central dial.Or possibly that is the control for her extra length leg.
These former Mademoiselle models are gloating; Red over the fact that her face is visible while her arch enemy, Blondie, only gets her backside view on a propped poster. Beige is expertly pointing out that proper button placment is the key to eliminating gaposis, but wonders why she has been given an umbrella that looks to be as useful as an iron to a bachelor.
It's actually a time-travel portal. The lady in beige is an assassin-bot from the future. She is setting her eye lasers to "stun", and will walk through the portal and onto the catwalk in a few moments in a ploy to stun and capture all of the leading fashion designers and haul them back through the portal to her vintage-fashion-obsessed mistress.
What are you guys drinking? These posts (and comments)are so much fun, I'm speechless.
For Crying out loud – BEIGE has an ADAM's APPLE!Thank God for you , Erin and all you commentors…I am havinga sh**ty day and this really cheered me up!
I agree that the lady in beige is an assassin-bot from the future. A very specialized type, though. She is actually the "Cleaner", as is evidenced by the sinister black bag.
That is hysterical! I've never seen a pattern envelope where the main view interacts with a little inset of the back view, and especially not by draping her arm over it!
Red Dress: Are you ready Doctor?Beige Dress: Yes, I see we all have our gloves on, lets get started.Red Dress: Imagine being born with your long leg in the back like that. Can we really fix it?Beige Dress: In my experience it's a very quick fix. Just move the long leg to the front, like the rest of us, and she'll be fine. Red Dress: It must be hard to have to walk through life backward just because your leg is in the wrong place.Beige Dress: That's why we're here. To help this poor soul go through life front-wise.Red Dress: It's a rea shame for someone so skinny to have a handycap like that.Beige Dress: Yes, you're right. Skinny people like us have a right to face forward in life.Red Dress: Nice hat, by the way.Beidge Dress: Oh, it's not really a hat. It's the lid to my double boiler. I didn't have room in the cupboard for it, so I just put it on my head.Red Dress: It's a good thing we're so skinny.Beige Dress: Open my black back and pass me the umbrella.
Bag. Open my black bag. Honestly, I need a proof reader.
I'm so glad you used the word 'lucite', as commenters on my blog claimed that the word is dead! My vocab is vindicated!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_1listing_id=21147495take a look at this corset :)not letter print, but close!
The lady in the black dress is pulling a Jonathan Strange and walking into a magic mirror to explore the lands on the other side. Her assistant in the red dress looks smug and confident because she's seen this stunt before. The government official in the prim tan with the Peter Pan collar, however, is shocked and incredulous.
Beige: I think we over-did it with the sunlamps. My right eye feels a little wonky.Red: Your eye?! Half my hair is singed off. I feel so woozy, I can barely keep my eyes open. I need to lean against this picture frame-at least you have that umbrella-whew.
White Hat needs a Bromo-Seltzer.


This list is for those in the former group; latter group, we don't expect you to understand.And of course we used plenty of Wet Hot American Summer pics, because that's the only movie that understands you.
Let's bask in the glow of the autumn light and the warmth of our hands near each other and near our drinks. I am in love with the burning reds and yellows and oranges of the leaves and their cascade to the earth.sters: fall and 5775 are fast-approaching, and with them sweaters, boots, and (even) cooler temps.We can practically taste the pumpkin spice lattes already. In case you haven't heard, Amazon recently launched an awesome charity initiative that will totally justify all those unnecessary late-night impulse buys.No, really, I just want to be at home in sweats near my plants and my art with soft lady voices singing to me and can I just make you a cuppa somethin' off of my stove? I am in love with the sunrises and sunsets and eyes waking up from restful sleep.I am in love with presses of coffee made in the dark morning hours.We know parting with sweet, sweet gluten for eight days can lead to agonizing, salad-filled melancholy – especially in a foodie city like Chicago – so now is the time to load up, friends.
Your bar/bat mitzvah was the best of times and the worst of times – and definitely the most embarrassing of times. Back then, it was the totally most awesome of times – awkward body issues aside.This time of year, the only thing going around the Jewish community more than influenza and greasy latke smell is Christmas envy. Just ask your friends who grew up with both Jewish and Christian family members.This post goes out to all of us pulling double duty (and double the presents! Every year on the High Holidays, we think about what we can do to be better people in the year ahead.Well, change is like, hard, especially the self-improvement kind.So, we thought maybe it's a bit more realistic to ask ourselves "how can I be less of a terrible person? It's been a joy pretending to live in northern California, but it's time to face the truth, Oy!Here are 18 ways you can bring the Force into your Shabbat.


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The Once and Future Rohvannyc is currently wandering the world searching for things. Also, stuff. He's not sure exactly what. He's found the Key to the Door and it leads somewhere interesting. Still he isn't willing to go through it all the time. He always returns to the Island. He's gotten a truly deadly tan and is steadily earning cigs to work on his treetop palace-to-be, two spaces north of Kittania. He shares this tree, which is a Mallorn, with Basement Cat. Right now it's at least a good place to rest and get away from the rest of the Island. You can also explore a faraway place if you go there. See Rohvannyc's Tree.
Rohvannyc (call him Roh, it's easier) is originally from a desert planet. Yes, he has pointed ears, but no, he's not one of THOSE. Just because he's a stone-face doesn't mean he doesn't have a good sense of humor. His interests include: avoiding paperwork, eating large quantities of Tasty Meat (see steak), exploring different forms and abilities, killing Gary Gygax at every opportunity, and letting Ogres off the hook instead of slaughtering them. He also likes to fly over waterways so no monsters attack him and he can actually get where he's going in a timely manner. He's been known to blow two or three Newdays in the process of rebuilding broken Outpost walls. He eagerly awaits the time when building things becomes easier, because there's a lot he wants to do with his tree.
As it says elsewhere, Roh used to be a First Officer aboard a starship (no, not that one) and he'd been out on a very long cruise. He was looking forward to getting some leave to relax a bit and get away from all the paperwork. Since he wasn't anywhere near his homeworld, he couldn't visit his wife Rashanah and their many, many children. So instead he checked out a shuttle and landed on a rather odd planet where he was promptly Shanghaied to be a Contestant on this bloody annoying reality show. Once he realized he wasn't going back any time soon, he stopped raging around like a barbarian and decided to enjoy himself. His theory is that if he kills the Drive enough times, a large enough release of Improbability at that moment will send him back to his shuttle, so he can go back to his ship and request huge amounts of hazard pay and whiskey.
After trying out life as a Kittymorph (liked that), a Zombie (not so much), a Midget (useful, but obnoxious), and a Robot (rather fun actually), he's gone back to something resembling his original form. But with Wings. So you see a dark skinned, muscular, black haired, pointed eared, kind-eyed fellow flying or walking around the Jungles with a leather battle kilt and a huge boar spear, that's probably Roh. The polite term to use for his race is "Sky Elf." He'll cheerfully respond to "Roh," "Rohvannyc," or "Commander." If you call him "Asshole" he'll nod agreeably but ignore you.
One other item he has is a neatly trimmed beard that Improbably appears and disappears at will. His boar spear isn't anything special, it's just practical. The length and crossbars keep nasty things like Panthzers and Octophants at a comfortable distance, and the blade is good for slashing as well as stabbing. It also doesn't require gasoline.
About Rashanah:
Roh's wife is, if you will listen to him, the most beautiful woman in all the Universe. She's incredibly kind and gentle but with a tough side that can make seasoned warriors step back and protect their vulnerable bits. She can make the best flatbread you have ever tasted and she's so good with plants that her right thumb actually seems to glow a fluorescent green. Roh has recently heard rumors that she may be here. If so, he wants to find her as soon as possible.
About Basement Cat:
He is a long, slinky, shiny black cat with glowing yellow eyes and a taste for evil people's souls. He spends most of his time asleep up in Roh's tree, guarding the place and allowing him to run around looking for adventure. The story of how they met is long and complex and involves a crab enchilada.
Latest project:
Rohvannyc has married Rashanah officially, Island Style, and happily lives with her in his tree. They created a clan together. He is now industriously building a castle with many rooms called Castle Starfire after his clan. It is located in the forest at the left "eartip" of the Island.
Places built:
A large treehouse north of Kittania,
A castle at the left "eartip,"
A Spire at the right "eartip,"
A bar north of Newhome,
A heap of tyres south of Squat Hole.
A Speakeasy down by the ass of the Island.
A house in a grove of willows south of Pleasantville, near a swamp.
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rohvannyc.txt · Last modified: 2018/03/02 03:44 by Rohvannyc


Aircraft cabin lighting company STG Aerospace has announced that Panama carrier Copa Airlines has installed its liTeMood retrofit LED lighting system, representing the first airline in South America to complete a Boeing 737-800 installation of the system.
With many of its B737NG fleet installed with Boeing Sky Interior, Copa was looking for a cost-effective way to upgrade and harmonize the look and feel of cabin interiors of the older aircraft installed with fluorescent lighting. The liTeMood installation followed an on-wing demonstration in Panama during 2014.
Marcus Williams, director of sales and marketing at STG Aerospace stated, "As the first ever liTeMood installation in South America, this is an important win for STG Aerospace and we're looking forward to the opportunity to work closely with Copa Airlines going forward. With the South American aviation industry continuing to exhibit strong growth and representing a strategically important market for us, we're keen to promote liTeMood's many benefits across the region".


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English Premier League 13 hours ago
Transfers 20 hours ago Rodrigo Faez and Dermot Corrigan
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Transfers 1 day ago Rodrigo Faez and Dermot Corrigan
Griezmann hints at new, secret goal celebration
Griezmann: Messi is the image of football
FC pundits offer their advice to Gareth Bale
Sources: PSG have no Barca offer yet for Neymar
Transfers 3 days ago Julien Laurens
Sources: Madrid will listen to €80m Bale offers
Transfers 3 days ago Rodrigo Faez and Dermot Corrigan
Nicol: Things will go 'horribly wrong' if Neymar stays at PSG
Griezmann gets nutmegged twice at 1st Barca training session
Blog - The Toe Poke 4 days ago
What Griezmann must do to gain respect at Barca
Sources: Valdes to be named Barca U-19s boss
Barcelona 4 days ago Moises Llorens and Sam Marsden
By Sam Marsden
Barcelona, Espanyol need to show respect at Catalan derby - Ernesto Valverde
BARCELONA, Spain -- Ernesto Valverde has called for both sides to show each other respect when Barcelona travel to Espanyol in the Catalan derby on Saturday.
Last year's four meetings between the two sides were marred with spats on the pitch and mud-slinging off it.
Defender Gerard Pique referred to Barca's city rivals as "Espanyol from Cornella" after a Copa del Rey game between the two sides in reference to the area of Barcelona where they have played their home games since 2009.
Espanyol labelled it an attempt to discredit them and subsequently reported Pique to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) for his comments.
Pique scored a late equaliser when the two sides met the following week in the league, celebrating by raising his finger to his lips in front of the Espanyol fans, telling them to be quiet.
However, despite last season's string of fiery encounters -- the sides met three times in two weeks in January -- Valverde does not expect Pique to be the centre of attention this weekend.
Catalan rivals Barcelona and Espanyol have played several testy matches recently.
"Pique's having a really good season," the Barca coach said in a news conference on Saturday. "We don't have to think anything special about him and things that haven't happened.
"We hope the atmosphere will be the best it can be, despite the rivalry. We always try to downplay these things, but on the pitch we don't have any friends. We know what it means for them to win and they know what it means for us.
"The important thing is what happens on the pitch. And after, whatever happens, we have to shake hands. I hope that everyone shows respect and that there's a good atmosphere."
Barca returned to the top of the La Liga with last week's win over Villarreal, while Espanyol, who were second at one point, have slumped to seventh. They're seven points off the top.
"There's no distance [between the two sides] but that doesn't matter anyway," Valverde added. "Points don't count in this fixture. It's played more with the heart than the head.
"Beyond their defeat to Girona [in their last match at Cornella-El Prat], they've been really strong at home. It's a test of fire for us, especially as we have struggled to win away from home."
Barca hope to welcome back Luis Suarez and Arthur Melo for the fixture, but Sergi Roberto, Samuel Umtiti, Rafinha and Malcom are all still missing.
Valverde highlighted the importance of Arthur, a summer signing from Gremio, to the team. The Brazilian midfielder's not played since the 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid at the end of November.
"He gives us a lot, that's clear," the coach said. "He helps us to keep the ball, gives us control, he wants the ball. The team is together in possession when he's there because of his passing.
"Arthur helps in all those facets of the game. We hope he's ready but there are options if he's not: Arturo [Vidal], [Carles] Alena... Arturo is more vertical. Alena is similar to Arturo, but different, because he can drop deeper in terms of keeping the ball."


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U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan introduces first bill, for…
U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan introduces first bill, for access to abortion medication through telehealth
Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan talks to a crowd of supporters at the Senate House Garage in Kingston, N.Y., on Tuesday night, Aug. 24, 2022, after the race for the special election in the 19th Congressional District was called in his favor. Ryan's wife, Rebecca is at left. (Tania Barricklo/Daily Freeman)
September 23, 2022 at 7:09 p.m.
KINGSTON, N.Y. — It didn't take newly elected U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan long to get down to business.
On Sept. 22, nine days after being sworn in as congressman, Ryan, D-Gardiner, introduced the "Protecting Reproductive Freedom Act."
The bill would pre-empt state laws that prohibit women from accessing abortion medication through telehealth and would require a report to Congress on additional ways to expand access to reproductive health care.
"A woman's right to choose is one of this country's foundational freedoms, and there is no place for government interference in these private medical decisions, yet extremist state lawmakers are restricting access to FDA-approved abortion medication and even threatening to open Americans' mail to stop the delivery of doctor-prescribed healthcare services," Ryan said in a press release announcing the measure. "This legislation would ensure that women across the country can access this safe and effective medical treatment."
Medication abortion accounts for over half of all abortion care in the U.S. The process involves a two-dose regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol and is approved for up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.
Since January, legislators in at least 20 states have proposed bills that would restrict or ban access to those abortion pills, which were approved more than two decades ago by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as bills that would require women to obtain those medications from a doctor in person.
Ryan has been an outspoken champion for reproductive health care and abortion rights. He is a member of the "Pro Choice Caucus" congress members working to preserve, protect and advance policies that ensure reproductive autonomy. He is a co-sponsor of the EACH Act, which requires federal health care programs to provide coverage for abortion services and requires federal facilities to provide access to those services, as well as the Protecting Access to Contraception Act, which bars state or local officials from prohibiting or restricting the possession, sale, transportation or use of contraceptives.
In July, the House of Representatives passed The Women's Health Protection Act, a bill to codify Roe v. Wade, which was overturned by the Supreme Court. That bill would have to be picked up by the Senate to move forward.
Ryan was elected to the 19th Congressional district in a special election in August to replace former U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, who resigned to become New York state's lieutenant governor.
Ryan is running in November for election to the new 18th Congressional district when he will face off against Republican Colin Schmitt of Ithaca.
Schmitt did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday and Friday.


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HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1970s → 1970 → November 1970 → 11 November 1970 → Commons Sitting → ORDERS OF THE DAY
SENNI VALLEY (RESERVOIR)
HC Deb 11 November 1970 vol 806 cc559-70 559
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Weatherill.]
§ 11.30 p.m.
§ Mr. Caerwyn E. Roderick (Brecon and Radnor)
I am grateful for this opportunity of bringing this subject before the House. I am also grateful to the Minister for his presence at this late hour, and to my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, West (Mr. George Thomas) for attending. I hope that the Minister has been authorised by the Secretary of State to make up his mind as a result of this debate and not to prejudge the issue.
As this is the first time that I have addressed the House, I feel privileged in being allowed to raise the kind of problem for which my predecessor became well-known—namely, protection of the rights of his constituents. Hon. Members do not need me to remind them of what Tudor Watkins did here. He left a reputation for conscientiousness, diligence and courage which makes me feel proud to follow him. He fought many a battle in the interests of Brecon and Radnor and of Wales, and it is gratifying to see the affection and respect with which he is remembered here. Twenty-five years as Secretary of the Welsh Parliamentary Labour Party is no mean feat, and for an ex-miner to become the Chairman of the first Select Committee on Agriculture is sufficient indication of his eagerness to study and tackle a new field concerned with his constituency. The respect he has in Brecon and Radnor is even higher: Tudor is a household name there.
In case anyone should think that Brecon and Radnor are two towns, I must make it clear that this constituency covers two whole counties. It is regarded as the biggest in the land, covering an area of 1,200 square miles—or should I say nowadays 3,000 square kilometres? Any similarity in build between Tudor Watkins and myself is not a coincidence. The exercise involved in covering such a territory keeps one's weight down: I can recommend it to anyone with weight problems.
We are grateful to Mr. Michelmore for the free plug he gave us on television when announcing our result in the General 560 Election, when he described it as one of the most beautiful areas in the country and recommended that everyone should visit it at one time or another. That is probably why such a large part of it is included in the Brecon Beacons National Park. Hon. Members will appreciate that the people are very wise, having returned a Member to this side of the House for 25 years, and having now done so again.
Unfortunately, Brecon and Radnor have very serious problems. The coal mining industry has disappeared completely from the south end of the constituency. Public transport is non-existent in a major portion of the area, including the whole of Radnorshire. Employment opportunities are very poor, leading to migration of young people from the rural areas.
But another problem is exercising us at the moment, and that is the purpose of this debate—namely, the loss of good agricultural land for water storage and the consequent disappearance of live, valuable communities which this entails.
We are discussing the proposal of the Usk River Authority to build a reservoir at Senni. I know that the authority will say that it wishes only to investigate and take borings to see whether the land is suitable to build a reservoir. Is it conceivable that it will spend thousands of pounds on borings and then not proceed with a reservoir if the site is suitable? As one farmer put it, "We are for ever doing things like that: we keep digging holes for gateposts without any intention of putting up gateposts."
No, the people of the Senni Valley are resisting the boring because they know that this is the prelude to a reservoir. We have had resistance in Wales for many years over the construction of reservoirs for the benefit of our friends in English towns, but this time the problem is clarified. This time the water is for consumption in another part of Wales, thus focusing attention on the real problem—matching the needs of urban areas with the interests of rural areas.
Resistance in Senni is intense and would appear to the outsider to be fanatical. It would also be difficult for the outsider to comprehend its nature. These good people are a most peace-loving group but now they are defending 561 their homes, their livelihoods and their way of life.
A town dweller might say that one piece of land or one part of the countryside is much like another. On the contrary, the families of these good people have lived there for generations, having spent their lives there building up a warm, close and cultured community. They are defending something which is above mere economics.
We recognise the continuous, growing demand for more water, but we have reached the stage of asking what happens when there are no more valleys to flood. Thus, we feel that the time has come to look urgently for a solution to this problem.
We have a patchwork of water boards and river authorities in Wales, just as we have in other parts of the country. To try to understand the structures and the responsibilities of these bodies is quite a task, and I will not go into detail tonight. We are anxious that a Water Development Authority for Wales should be set up, as recommended by the Welsh Council. We are aware of the fact that this is being considered by the Central Advisory Water Committee.
We are conscious of this need because we have a line of demarcation involved in this area. The Minister will be well aware of the fact that a reservoir, the Brianne, is in process of construction a comparatively short distance away. Incorporated in the design of this reservoir is the proviso that its level can be raised 35 ft. to provide greater storage. How much simpler it would be to raise the level now rather than later.
But this reservoir is being built to cater for the needs of the West Glamorgan Water Board. It would be possible to transfer excess water from this reservoir to the Usk, but, of course, the Usk River Authority would be responsible for the extra costs. The river authority says that no official request has been made to it to negotiate on this scheme. That is the authority's case. I am asking the Secretary of State to make such a request. In the absence of a Water Development Authority for Wales, he is the person responsible to ensure that that is done. In fact, the Welsh Council, in its "Report on Water in Wales", published in June this year, said: 562 We acknowledge control over the development of water resources in Wales is now the responsibility of a Welsh Minister. No one can now build a reservoir anywhere in Wales without the approval of the Secretary of State for Wales. If the Secretary of State is not responsible for water resources, who else can make an official request to this river authority to get on with negotiations?
When the previous Secretary of State gave permission for borings to take place, he also made it a condition that alternative sources should be examined. Would the present Secretary of State ensure that the extension of the Brianne Dam is properly considered? By "properly considered", I mean that he should be involved in the negotiations, not stand idly by while the negotiators fail to agree on a price. If the cost is a little higher than building a new reservoir at Senni, that must be weighed against the cost to the community of unnecessary flooding of valleys.
I am anxious that the Minister should become involved because we have a breakdown in other negotiations on our hands at the moment. Negotiations have been pursued for the transfer of water from the Cray and Usk reservoirs—incidentally, these are in the catchment area of the Usk River Authority but are owned by the West Glamorgan Board—but, as one newspaper put it, Senni are the victims of a sordid cash squabble". The board and the river authority could not agree a price. Would the Secretary of State please become involved here, too?
There are other areas in the Upper Towy Valley, I am given to understand, which are largely uninhabited and could be investigated, but the Usk River Authority cannot go into them as they are outside its area. That is one reason why we look forward to a Water Development Authority for Wales which would eliminate these demarcation disputes—something which I understood was very dear to the heart of the Minister's party. Serious consideration should also be given to increasing the capacity of the Talybont Reservoir.
I have made these suggestions because they would ensure adequate supplies for many years to come and avoid flooding 563 the Senni Valley unnecessarily. We cannot be sure at this stage what part underground storage and desalination will play in the near future. I recognise that underground storage will supply only a fraction of future needs, but if it avoids building just one reservoir it will be worth while. We shall soon find good agricultural land so scarce that future generations will not thank us for our shortsightedness. With a reservoir, that land is lost for ever.
Desalination is said to be expensive. So was television when it started, but sets have become cheaper as the techniques have been developed and more sets have been built. As fuel demands became greater we started on nuclear power stations—expensive though they were. Some day, I am convinced, we shall need desalination in a big way: we ought to be pressing on with the programme.
An article in the Sunday Telegraph last Sunday said that local authorities … have been advised that because the general demand for water is gradually overtaking the supply in reservoirs and rivers they should reconsider building three desalination plants—in the North-East, South-West, and South-East. Building such plants would be far quicker than going through the long process of turning more mountain valleys into gigantic reservoirs. British authorities have so far refrained from doing more than consider the possibilities of desalination, though British companies produce most of the distillation plant on the market. Twenty countries now depend on desalination for the greater part of their water. Americans take 100 million gallons of sea water and turn it into drinking water each day, using more than 500 plants. We expect a Water Resources Board report on Wales in a matter of months. Why do we not await the report before setting the wheels in motion to drown another valley?
In the course of my travels in the constituency I frequently pass the delightful home of the Minister. It is set in a beautiful valley. I do not know whether it is feasible to consider a reservoir there: we never know—someone might get the bright idea. I assure him that I shall do all I can to help him defend his home if that day comes, because the Minister is a constituent of mine, and I will do all I can for him, as I shall for the Senni people. I ask him to use all his influence now with 564 his colleague the Secretary of State to consider the plight of the people of Senni when they see their homes needlessly destroyed. Will he now exercise the same compassion in this matter as he would expect were it his own home that was in danger?
To sum up, I ask the Secretary of State to press the Usk River Authority to commence negotiations with the West Glamorgan Board for an extension of the Brianne Reservoir—it is not that it is unwilling to do so but only that it is waiting for someone to ask it to do so—and to conclude negotiations over the use of the Usk and Cray water. We can no longer leave it to the river authority, because it is understandable that the authority will simply seek the cheapest and easiest way out. I sincerely hope that the Secretary of State will not allow himself to be completely imprisoned by legalistic and economic considerations.
§ The Minister of State, Welsh Office (Mr. David Gibson-Watt)
The hon. Member for Brecon and Radnor (Mr. Roderick) has raised a subject which is certainly of very great concern to his constituency. As he says, I live in his constituency, and I am grateful to him for the remarks he has made about me personally. As an individual I am equally concerned about this problem, and have been for a number of years, not only in the period of this Government but in that of the previous Government.
As Minister of State, Welsh Office, my job this evening is, first, to commend the very excellent maiden speech which the hon. Gentleman has just made. I was sorry that it took so long for the lawyers to get through their arguments and that his speech came on rather late at night; otherwise the House would have been full to listen to what he had to say. The hon. Gentleman's speech not only sounded well, but I believe that it will read well. It showed his deep concern for a local problem, and it is always of interest to the House to hear a speech on a subject with which an hon. Gentleman is clearly conversant.
The hon. Gentleman also spoke about his predecessor who enjoyed campaigns with me over a period of time and, as the hon. Gentleman rightly said, over 565 what is geographically the largest constituency in either England or Wales. We all look forward to hearing further speeches from the hon. Gentleman.
Equally as Minister of State I must tell the hon. Gentleman from the start of my speech that I can give him no news about the Senni Valley which is not known already. There is at present no proposal before my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State to build a reservoir in the Senni Valley. The subject of the debate is therefore hypothetical. For me to express any views on such a project could be held to be prejudging a matter which may arise under some statutory procedure at a later date. This would be equally unfair for the promoters of any scheme and potential objectors.
Let me now get the record straight and let us understand exactly what we are discussing and what has taken place.
The Usk River Authority applied in 1968 to the then Secretary of State the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Cardiff, West (Mr. George Thomas) for compulsory powers to enter on to certain land in the Senni Valley for the purpose of establishing the feasibility of the site for the construction of a reservoir. That was in 1968. On 22nd August, 1969, the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Cardiff, West gave his assent on the clear understanding that this in no way pre-judged consideration of any proposal that might be made thereafter to build a reservoir. On 15th September, 1969, the order was made, and it came into operation on 22nd September, 1969.
I stress that since then the matter has rested with the Usk River Authority, which has the legal right to go on to this land.
I would stress that it does not lie with my right hon. and learned Friend to make an official approach to the Usk River Authority, which the hon. Gentleman asked for tonight and which we were told in yesterday's South Wales Echo the hon. Gentleman would be calling on my right hon. and learned Friend to do.
The hon. Gentleman suggested that the Usk River Authority was not looking for sources of water elsewhere. I will seek to put the hon. Gentleman right on this 566 point. The clerk of the authority said this in a Press release: The possibility of augmenting the throughput of the existing Usk Reservoir by water abstracted from the River Towy in conjunction with the Brianne Reservoir scheme, now under construction by the West Glamorgan Water Board, is also being examined. Clearly, the hon. Gentleman did not read that report, or he would not have raised that point in this debate.
§ Mr. Roderick
I said that the authority was not looking at all the alternatives. That is why I pressed my point that the authority should be looking at this most feasible alternative upon which all engineers are agreed. The authority is considering some alternatives, but I hope that the Minister will persuade the authority to look at all the alternatives, as it has an obligation to do.
§ Mr. Gibson-Watt
The whole point of what I am saying is that it is not possible for my right hon. and learned Friend in the present legal position to make the official approach for which the hon. Gentleman asks. It is open to the hon. Gentleman himself to tell the authority of any other point which he thinks should be investigated.
The authority will not listen.
Has the hon. Gentleman put to the authority the suggestions that he has made in the debate tonight?
My right hon. and learned Friend is in no position to do anything about this matter, as things stand. I repeat that the right hon. Member for Cardiff, West made a compulsory Order on 15th September, 1969, and that remains. My right hon. and learned Friend cannot revoke it and he cannot make an official approach to the Usk River Authority in the way I have been asked to urge him to do.
By virtue of Section 4 of the Water Resources Act, 1963, it is the statutory duty of each river authority to take such action as it considers necessary for the purpose of conserving, redistributing or otherwise augmenting water resources in its area.
It is well known that the Usk River Authority, in carrying out its duties to find additional water supplies to meet the shortage to which the hon. Gentleman referred and which is soon expected 567 in South East Wales, is also examining other possible alternatives. The shortfall is expected to be 110 million gallons a day by the year 2001.
In the long-term, the possible alternatives will, no doubt, be laid before my right hon. and learned Friend, with the economic and social comparisons that apply to each project, and he will have to judge. That is the job of the Secretary of State of the day. It will then be for him to decide the matter, in the light of all the evidence and this would, of course, be subject to the public inquiry procedure.
While I recognise the motives which caused the hon. Gentleman to raise this matter tonight and while I sympathise with his feelings and those of his constituents on the subject, the fact remains that the legal position as it now stands makes it impossible for my right hon. and learned Friend to take the action which the hon. Gentleman wants him to take.
§ Mr. Gwynoro Jones (Carmarthen)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Brecon and Radnor (Mr. Roderick) on his excellent maiden speech and on raising this matter and, thereby, enabling me to intervene briefly.
While I accept what the Minister said about the Usk River Authority having a clear duty to accommodate the needs of its consumers, is he aware of the woeful lack of co-operation and co-ordination between river authorities and water boards in Wales?
We are a small country. Already a great deal of land is taken for reservoirs, national parks and the rest. Our resources are being taken from us, and it is time that we seriously considered the possibility, indeed the desirability, of having greater co-ordination.
Regarding the possibility of increasing the level of the Brianne, as an alternative to Senni, the alternative suggestions should not be left to the last moment but should be settled at the outset. May we have an assurance not only that there will be greater co-ordination in these matters but that the hon. Gentleman will examine the desirability of initiating a water development board for Wales?
568 Something along these lines must be done because the situation cannot be allowed to develop for much longer. The day must come when the people of Wales will say, "No more. We cannot accept any longer the drowning of our valleys, inhabited or not."
§ Mr. George Thomas (Cardiff, West)
I rise to join the Minister and my hon. Friend the Member for Carmarthen (Mr. Gwynoro Jones) in offering to my hon. Friend the Member for Brecon and Radnor (Mr. Roderick) warm and sincere congratulations on his clear and cogent maiden speech. The House by long tradition takes a great interest in the maiden speakers as they come before us. My hon. Friend paid high tribute to my old friend and colleague Tudor Watkins, who served in the House as a close colleague of ours for a quarter of a century.
In congratulating my hon. Friend, may I tell the Minister that, whilst legal channels may not be open to him, when I was Secretary of State for Wales I had the warmest unofficial contacts with the river board. I remember meeting the board and having lunch with its members. The Secretary of State can find various ways of indicating the wish of my hon. Friends that at least the board should look at all possible sources. I hope that he will convey to his right hon. and learned Friend our strong feeling on the question.
With the leave of the House, I should like to speak again.
I am interested to hear what the hon. Member for Carmarthen (Mr. Gwynoro Jones) says about the matter, and what his right hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, West (Mr. George Thomas) has to say. There are two points that I would make. First, both the hon. Member for Brecon and Radnor (Mr. Roderick), who opened the debate, and his hon. Friend spoke in favour of a Welsh water board. But I wonder whether either of them read an article in the Liverpool Daily Post by their right right hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, West on 8th September. It has been described by some as his political obituary. The headline was: It is just nonsense to talk of a Welsh water board". 569 The article goes on to say a good deal about it. The right hon. Gentleman has shot down his hon. Friends.
As to what the right hon. Gentleman has just said, is he honestly saying, now that he has vacated the seat of the Secretary of State, that by having a nice little unofficial lunch with the water board the matter can all be sorted out? If so, he is being less than frank with the House.
§ Mr. George Thomas
I did not want in any way to mislead the Minister or the House. The Minister must not get excited. What I was suggesting in a most reasonable frame of mind was that the Secretary of State should convey to the river board the opinions expressed by my hon. Friend tonight. That is not asking too much.
If that is so, perhaps the right hon. Gentleman could tell the House why he did not do that between 15th September, 1969, and 18th June, when his party left office.
I am sorry that this is becoming a duet. But the Minister of State must realise that my hon. Friend has put various new proposals before us tonight, including, although the Minister tried to twist it around, a very different proposal from the one with 570 which I dealt in the article to which he referred. If the Minister was honest with the House, as we expect him to be, he would acknowledge that what I was dealing with there is not at all the same as what my hon. Friends have been talking about tonight.
For the last time I rise because I do not think that the right hon. Gentleman's arguments hold a great deal of water. His views on a water board are well known, and, of course, his views on the duties of the Secretary of State should be very well known to him.
§ Mr. Gwynoro Jones
§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Miss Harvie Anderson)
Order. It would be in order for the hon. Gentleman to ask the leave of the House to speak again.
§ Mr. Jones
With the leave of the House, may I say that what my hon. Friend and I were emphasising was not a water board but a development board or co-ordinating board, which is a vastly different matter.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at Twelve midnight.
Back to LEGAL AID (FINANCIAL CONDITIONS)


In the United States and Great Britain, immigration abetted by multiculturalism is corrupting society's unwritten constitution, which is the positive embodiment of the spirit that animates a society and gives it a driving force of unity in belief and national aims.
Without that consensus there can be only a disparate group of people with little or no attachment to their new homes. That is what we see increasingly, here and in Great Britain, under the impact of a tsunami of immigration from alien cultures and religions.
Combining this huge flood of immigration with a liberal-progressive ethos of rootless multiculturalism sets the stage for disintegration of American and British societies more effectively than terrorist attacks by Islamic jihadists. No longer is education viewed as a melting pot to teach our history and the principles of our government.
Without the pre-existing unwritten constitution of 1776, which Jefferson said was the source of his words in the Declaration of Independence, our written Constitution has become vulnerable to distortion by activist judges and liberal-progressive educators.
In Great Britain, the danger is even more acute. England has no single written constitution, depending instead upon various documents, commencing with Magna Carta in 1215, and long preserved traditions that circumscribe political power and social interaction.
To see what happens when liberal-progressives impose standardless "tolerance" and multiculturalism on a society, read Theodore Dalrymple's A Confusion of Tongues: Why Britain struggles to assimilate immigrants.


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Check the population of 'Dadhi and topiwalas': BJP candidate in Gujarat Assembly Election.
I will fight for Hindus and feel need to reduce numbers of skull cap wearers, bearded people: BJP contestant from Gujarat.
Upendra Bharti | HENB | Vadodara | Nov 7, 2017:: Shailesh Sotta, BJP's contestant from the Dabhoi Assembly in Gujarat this time has said that there is a need to reduce the population of 'Topiwalas and Dhaadhiwalas (skull cap wearers and bearded people). It had an apparent reference to unchecked growing population of Muslims in India. Unpleasantly, the Muslim society is instigated by the Muslim clerics does not adopt the ways of birth control.
"If any 'topi, daadhiwala' (anybody wearing a cap and sporting beard) is sitting here (in the crowd), then pardon me, but there is a need to reduce their population. Many leaders asked me not to say this, as it may go against me, but if 90 per cent of people are supporting me, then why shall I stop speaking about the 10 per cent people?" Sotta purportedly said at what appeared to be a small gathering in Dabhoi town in Vadodara district.
The video of the speech he made in Gujarati has gone viral.
"(They say) don't talk about the community in which you are born (Hindu), and if you want to talk about that (the community), then don't contest election. But I will fight election for the religion in which I am born," Sotta purportedly said.
Sotta, a Vadodara councillor who is contesting Assembly polls for the first time, said they (Muslims) will have to stop sporadic clashes (communal incidents) or they will get 'eent ka jawab pathhar se (tit for tat response).
Dabhoi is going to polls in the second phase on December 14. "There was a meeting of a peace committee in which a 'tadipaar' (externed criminal) said that he is scared of the BJP candidate (Sotta). There is nothing wrong in this," he said. He said he came to Dabhoi to "scare people" and not the other way round. "I came here to scare people. I am here not to get frightened, but to make others frightened. And if anti-social elements remain scared, then it is required for this place," he said.
Read this news in Hindi::>गुजरात: BJP उम्मीदवार के बोल- टोपी-दाढ़ी वालों की आबादी कम करने की जरूरत
After Sotta's video was aired by some news channels, Ahmedabad-based social worker Nishant Varma filed a complaint with the State Election Commission against Sotta over his "highly communal and instigating" comments against the Muslim community and for "violating the poll code".
Read this news in Bengali::> 'দাড়ি ও টুপিওয়ালাদের সংখ্যা কমাতে হবে': গুজরাতের দাবোই বিধানসভা কেন্দ্রের বিজেপি প্রার্থী
"He (Sotta) is clearly heard saying that Muslim population must be reduced in the area, and that Muslims will face 'eent ka jawab pathhar se'. He is saying all this to appease 90 per cent (Hindu) voters and not the rest 10 per cent," Varma said in his complaint. "He (Sotta) is referring to Muslims as 'topi and daadhiwala' which is completely unacceptable and a clear violation of the model code of conduct as well as various provisions of the CrPC and IPC," he said.
__Inputs from FreePressKashmir.
One comment on "Check the population of 'Dadhi and topiwalas': BJP candidate in Gujarat Assembly Election."
Suchindranath Aiyer (@Suchindranath)
An excellent resolve. But can't be done without well trained, well planned, organized violence. <oslem train for it all their lives in accordance with Quran and Hadiths whereas "Hindoos" were emasculated by British stooges like Gandhi, Nehru and Ambedkar. Modi Sarkar has even banned Air Rifles!
This entry was posted on December 8, 2017 by hinduexistence in Hindu Politics, Hindu Protest, Hindu Retaliation, Hindu Vote Bank and tagged Check the population of 'Dadhi and topi', Gujarat Assembly Election 2017, need to reduce numbers of bearded people, need to reduce numbers of skull cap wearers, Shailesh Sotta.
https://wp.me/pCXJT-8Mj


The owners and developers needed to have this building up quickly with high-end, eco-friendly finishes. In addition, the building also needed to be LEED certified. The owners were concerned about drainage and water runoff due to the location and lack of space for a detention pond.
KDW constructed a "Class A" 6-story office building with an 8-story concrete parking garage.
The office building includes a rainwater collection tank located beneath ground-level of the parking garage. KDW designed/built the detention under the parking garage. The building has a large water conservation tank for irrigation.
The building includes high-end energy efficient fixtures (including volcanic tile and low-e windows), exterior stucco, stone veneer, and aluminum metal panels.
The building includes two (2) 234-ton chillers located on the roof, VAV boxes, decorative fixtures, cedar canopy soffits, exterior aluminum canopy, swimming pool wall tile in building entry, subway wall tile stainless steel toilet partitions, 25,000 sq ft polyiso roof, exterior stone veneer that flows into the interior, glass handrails on the second floor, and four (4) elevators.