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Boeing Finds Significant Potential in "Green Diesel" as a Sustainable Jet Fuel
Current fuel for trucks could supply 1 percent of global jet fuel demand
- Price-competitive, biofuel reduces CO2 emissions
- Current fuel for trucks could supply 1 percent of global jet fuel demand
Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - 10:30am
NEWSROOM: Boeing
CAMPAIGN: Boeing & the Environment
SEATTLE, Jan. 14, 2014 /3BL Media/ -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] has identified "green diesel," a renewable fuel used in ground transportation, as a significant new source of sustainable aviation biofuel that emits at least 50 percent less carbon dioxide than fossil fuel over its lifecycle. The company is working with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and other stakeholders to gain approval for aircraft to fly on green diesel, further reducing the aviation industry's carbon emissions.
Boeing researchers performed analysis that found green diesel, which is made from oils and fats, to be chemically similar to today's aviation biofuel. If approved, the fuel could be blended directly with traditional jet fuel.
"Green diesel approval would be a major breakthrough in the availability of competitively priced, sustainable aviation fuel," said Dr. James Kinder, a Technical Fellow in Boeing Commercial Airplanes Propulsion Systems Division. "We are collaborating with our industry partners and the aviation community to move this innovative solution forward and reduce the industry's reliance on fossil fuel."
Significant green diesel production capacity already exists in the U.S., Europe and Singapore that could supply as much as 1 percent - about 600 million gallons - of global commercial jet fuel demand. The wholesale cost – about $3 a gallon with U.S. government incentives – is competitive with petroleum jet fuel.
Boeing, the F.A.A., engine manufacturers, green diesel producers and others are now compiling a detailed research report that will be submitted to key stakeholders in the fuel approvals process. These efforts follow Boeing's leadership in working with the aviation community in 2011 to include a blend of up to 50 percent aviation biofuel in international jet fuel specifications. Biofuel approved for aviation must meet or exceed stringent jet fuel performance requirements.
"Boeing wants to establish new pathways for sustainable jet fuel, and this green diesel initiative is a groundbreaking step in that long journey," said Julie Felgar, managing director of Boeing Commercial Airplanes Environmental Strategy and Integration. "To support our customers, industry and communities, Boeing will continue to look for opportunities to reduce aviation's environmental footprint."
Green diesel, also called "renewable diesel," can be used in any diesel engine. It is chemically different and a different product than the fuel known as "biodiesel."
Boeing partners with airlines, engine makers, governments, fuel companies and research organizations around the world to commercialize sustainable jet fuel. Boeing and the 27 airlines in the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group are committed to develop biofuel that is produced sustainably, without adverse impact to greenhouse gas emissions, local food security, soil, water and air.
Jessica Kowal
Environment Communications
jessica.m.kowal@boeing.com
Learn more about Boeing and the environment
Boeing 2013 Environment Report
More From Boeing
Wednesday, October 20, 2021 - 8:45am
Wednesday, October 6, 2021 - 8:30am
Monday, July 26, 2021 - 11:20am
Videos from Boeing
Boeing Recognized for Sustainability Leadership
Boeing Advances Biofuels, Recycling and Conservation


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Dissertations and Theses (1964-2011)
Americans in South Africa, 1784-1870
Booth, Alan R.
Embargoed until:
This study discusses the course and consequences of Americans -- traders, whalers, explorers and missionaries -- in South Africa between 1784 and 1870. Sources for the study included logbooks, personal and business papers of merchants and ship captains, colonial records, and missionary letters. Research was carried on in libraries and archives in the United States and Great Britain. Yankee whalers found by the late eighteenth century that South African waters, especially in the vicinity of Walvis and Delagoa Bays, abounded with right whales. The whalers' activities in Cape waters included not only conventional trade at Cape Town and Simons Town, but also considerable trade and intercourse with Africans along the coasts. The trade of Americans with South Africa began as the result of their quest for new world markets prompted by the withdrawal of trade advantages by Great Britain after the American Revolution. The Cape of Good Hope came to be valued by merchants as a place where a general cargo might be sold and another loaded for markets either in the Orient, the West Indies, or the United States. Located on a major trade route, the Cape was valued as a place where information on world markets could be obtained. American trade was discouraged and frequently interrupted by British and Dutch regulatory acts and discriminatory duties. But after the early thirties, with the rise of the American glove, shoe and tanning industries, the importation of hides and skins from South Africa firmly established the trade. With the rise of the wool trade by the late forties, commercial relations were further strengthened. Thereafter, while the Cape continued to be a limited market, it was conditions in America which primarily influenced the commerce: the American Civil War and various United States tariff acts determined the quantity and character of the staple Cape export to America, wool. Missionaries from the American Board arrived in South Africa in 1835. Motivated largely by the millenarian tradition, they came to preach the gospel and save "heathen" souls before the Second Coming. Their early efforts were unsuccessful. The Interior Mission to Mzilikazi was plagued by sickness, and finally withdrew after the Boer attack on Mosega in 1837. In Natal, after a more encouraging start with Dingaan's Zulus, the Maritime Mission was again forced to flee after the massacre of the trekboers in February, 1838. Two missionaries remained in South Africa, and by 1839 they had returned to Natal. The growth of the Mission over the next three decades was steady but moderate, marred in part by the missionaries' prejudices and conservative attitudes toward African customs and education. Gradually more tolerant attitudes began to prevail among the missionaries, with the resultant strengthening of the Mission. Churches were formed and became self-supporting, and by 1870 there were African pastors in the field. By the thirties, the sum total of American involvement had brought sharp reaction from Cape Europeans. American munitions smuggling to the Zulus was a cause of concern, and there were fears that American trading and missionary activity in Natal signified colonial ambitions there on the part of the United States. It was an American merchant ship in Port Natal which finally prompted Governor Napier's decision in 1841 to reoccupy Natal. American consuls in South Africa were relatively inactive until the American Civil War, when the Alabama captured a Union merchantman in Table Bay. Ensuing complications, including a supposed American territorial violation at Angra Pequena, clouded American-British relations until the Geneva Arbitration award in 1872.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University
PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you.
Dissertations and Theses (1964-2011) [1525]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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How to Recruit the Next Generation of Loan Officers
As Millennials are slated to assume the greatest share of the housing market during the next few years, who will be on the other side of the table to serve them? That's the question Brena Swanson, a reporter for HousingWire, poses in her story, 3 Tips to Recruiting Millennial Loan Officers.
According to mortgage recruitment firms, the average age of a loan officer is 54, which could turn into a succession planning issue in the next five to 10 years. Additionally, this questions whether or not the age difference will become a barrier between mortgage professionals and Millennials
"The world is changing, and the best way to get good ideas is to get new minds," Chuck Cowan, president of recruiting firm CCowan & Associates, said in an MPAMAG.com article. "There are young people in the business, but that number isn't where it should be."
Cowan goes on to say Millennials' ample knowledge of technology makes for a more-informed consumer group and for a more flexible workforce. "Young people know technology and they are adaptable because of it," he added. "You must be able to reflect your customer."
Swanson's HousingWire article details what the industry can do to attract millennial loan officers, which begins with a different conversation. "Income is the last piece. Give them the option to take ownership of their career," Casey Cunningham, CEO at XINNIX, told HousingWire.
At Castle & Cooke Mortgage, we believe our employees are our greatest asset, which makes us unique and paves the way for a long and successful career when loan officers join our team. If you're looking to take your career to the next level, click here to find out more about our loan officer opportunities.
(Source: HousingWire and MPAMAG.com)
By Castle & Cooke Mortgage|2015-07-02T15:48:50-06:00July 2nd, 2015|News, Tips|0 Comments


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Haas will reassess F1 plans ahead of 2021
Image by Andy Hone/LAT
By Chris Medland November 8, 2019 8:19 AM
By Chris Medland | November 8, 2019 8:19 AM
Haas F1 team owner Gene Haas is not negative about the 2021 regulations and future direction of Formula 1 but will now consider his plans in light of the sport's pending significant changes, according to team principal Guenther Steiner.
The newest team in F1 joined ahead of the 2016 season and impressed during its first three years, making steady progress and finishing fifth in the constructors' championship last season. While Steiner runs the operation day-to-day, he outlined the new regulations to Haas (pictured at left, above, with Steiner) during the United States Grand Prix weekend and says they had hours of discussions at Circuit of The Americas.
"I talked him through everything because he's in California and I'm in North Carolina so we'd rather speak face-to-face rather than over the phone," Steiner said. "I gave him all the information and talked him through everything so now he needs to digest everything. Because when I speak for a long time, we get confused.
"It was all positive. It was just bringing him up to speed and it was much easier to do that (in Austin). We came in on Saturday and I spent more than two hours with him and (Sunday morning) it wasn't too long. But on Saturday it was a long time because I had to talk him through everything, explaining the new commercial agreement and all that stuff. It's normal."
Haas has previously voiced his discontent at the revenue distribution in F1 and the inability for midfield teams to challenge for podiums and victories, so Steiner admits the team owner will now analyze whether he believes he'll get a better return from the sport in the future.
"I mean, the biggest problem he has is with our performance. Who is impressed with the state of F1 if you don't make money out of it? It's a big investment.
"I think he has to digest everything and then see what he wants to do. But he's not negative about it. He's just like every good businessman, he has to rethink what to do but he is not negative about it. For sure he has doubts like everybody else and it's something new, but it's normal business."
Haas currently sits ninth in the constructors' championship on 28 points, one shy of its previous lowest total of 29 from its first season in F1, when it finished eighth overall.
Gene Haas, Guenther Steiner, Haas F1, Formula 1
https://www.blueliq.com/2019/11/08/haas-will-reassess-f1-plans-ahead-of-2021/	Haas will reassess F1 plans ahead of 2021 - Blueliq
https://www.planetf1.com/news/haas-to-review-f1-involvement-from-2021/	Haas to review F1 involvement from 2021 | PlanetF1
[…] "I talked him through everything because he's in California and I'm in North Carolina so we'd rather speak face-to-face rather than over the phone," Steiner told RACER. […]


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Poodle dashes off, stops New York subway line
Things To DoLifestyle
PUBLISHED: February 16, 2018 at 10:57 p.m. | UPDATED: May 18, 2018 at 9:59 a.m.
NEW YORK (AP) — It doesn't take much to slow down the New York subway system.
On Friday afternoon, one bundle of fur stopped train service on a transit line between Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Officer George Tsourovakas (tsoo-roh-VAH'-kahs) says a poodle named Dakota got away from a Brooklyn park run near the Manhattan Bridge and dashed into the York Street station, making it to the tracks of the F train and running southbound on the northbound tracks. To spare the animal, power was turned off and service to Manhattan ground to a halt for about an hour so the poodle could be rescued.
Officers responded, finally catching the dog two subway stations away, trailed by both Dakota's dog walker and its owner.


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Help and support:
Support for children and young people
Financial support and compensation
Dealing with the media
Coping with the anniversary
About the attack
Journey of Recovery
We Love Manchester Emergency Fund
The We Love Manchester Emergency Fund is a charity set up after the Manchester Arena attack of 22 May 2017, following a phenomenal outpouring of emotion and support from around the world.
The fund raised £21.6m, thanks to the generosity of the public.
The objectives of the fund:
To relieve financial need among the victims and survivors of the disaster including families and dependants of those killed or injured
To relieve sickness or disability whether physical or mental of victims of the disaster and their dependants
To support such other charitable purposes as the trustees shall consider appropriate.
The money was released in phases to ensure that people got help quickly. Funds were distributed to bereaved families, those who were left with long-term injuries, those who had a hospital stay and those who have been psychologically traumatised.
About Published reports Governing document
Support is available on a number of subjects and from a range of organisations. Anyone affected by the Manchester attack can access the support services.
© Manchester City Council
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City Council and partners.
Website by Cornerstone Design & Marketing
Manchester Support


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[Odds and Evens] Trailblazer Hideo Nomo 25 Years Later
[ODDS and EVENS] 'King Kazu' Miura's Never-Ending Farewell Tour is Farcical
Sumo's Flying Monkey Gives Japan's Ancient Sport a Jolt of Youthful Exuberance
Figure Skater Yuzuru Hanyu Sets the Path for His Third Olympic Gold
Ed Odeven
Hideo Nomo and Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza
June 2, 1995, is a monumental day in the annals of Japan's baseball history.
Twenty five years later, it's an ideal time to revisit Hideo Nomo's first MLB victory, and his role as a baseball trailblazer. Even more so perhaps because of the current absence of the regular season in North America and Japan due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nomo achieved greatness from the get-go in his pro career with the Kintetsu Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League, including 18-, 17-, 18-, and 17-win campaigns in his first four years (1990-93), while at the same time nabbing four PL strikeout crowns (287, 287, 228, and 276) in that span. He slipped to 8-7 in 1994, when he was bothered by a shoulder injury.
After the 1994 campaign, the Buffaloes rejected Nomo's desire to have an agent represent him in contract talks and a six-year contract. Agent Don Nomura and Nomo struck back. The hard-working right-handed hurler "retired." The voluntary retirement clause in the Japanese Uniform Players Contract, which hadn't been exercised before, enabled Nomo to break away from the Buffaloes, who retained his rights in Japan, and pursue playing opportunities elsewhere.
It revolutionized the relationship between MLB and NPB, opening the floodgates for Japanese players to pursue their dreams in North America.
But first it led to a minor league contract for Nomo with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Feb. 13, 1995. Yes, Nomo still had to prove himself to Dodgers management at a North American ballpark, but he had a $2 million USD signing bonus and a $109,000 deal, which was the MLB minimum salary in '95.
That's the short version of the story (more details in an upcoming series).
1995 MLB Season
A bitter labor dispute ended the 1994 MLB season early when the players went on strike on August 12, and the World Series was canceled for the first time since 1904. Finally, on April 2, the 232-day strike ended. The season started three weeks later. SEE Nomo's 1995 season game-by-game pitching log here.
Nomo, meanwhile, made one start for the Bakersfield Blaze (Class A California League), working 5 1/3 innings in a 2-1 loss to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes on April 27.
His call-up to the majors made him the first Japanese native to compete in the majors since left-handed reliever Masanori Murakami of the San Francisco Giants in 1964-65.
In his MLB debut on May 2 against the Giants at Candlestick Park, Nomo showcased his ability to strike batters out (seven), but also issued four walks in five scoreless innings. He allowed just one hit in a 4-3 loss. Four more no-decisions followed on May 7, 12, 17 and 23. SEE the CNN report on Nomo's May 2 debut game here and check out the full game video here.
"The Tornado" took his first loss on May 28 against the visiting Montreal Expos, toiling for 6 1/3 innings. He gave up four hits and three runs, walked seven and fanned nine.
Then, on June 2, Nomo stymied the New York Mets over eight frames, holding them to two hits and one run (a Bobby Bonilla homer in the second). In the ninth, he yielded a leadoff walk to Rico Brogna, then reliever Todd Worrell replaced him. Nomo had thrown 123 pitches (70 strikes). FIND the June 2 boxscore here.
The Osaka native, who walked three and struck out six, watched the rest of the game from the dugout.
Worrell got the third out on a Dave Segui groundout to second baseman Delino DeShields.
Video footage preserved the hosts' post-game euphoria, and Dodgers announcer Vin Scully vividly described the way it ended.
"Hideo Nomo getting (high-) fives and hugs as he comes on the field," the Hall of Fame broadcaster said. "A big grin on Hideo's face as he has finally done it."
Longtime Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, who retired after the 1996 season, couldn't hide his excitement.
"For him to get his first victory here, with the crowd like that, it was very dramatic," Lasorda told reporters after the game.
"I haven't felt that kind of electricity here, going through the crowd, in a long time. He pitched a great game. … Believe me, he was thinking about getting that first win, and we got it for him. And that's the first of many he's going to win for this club. He's a real quality pitcher."
Said Dodgers backup catcher Tom Prince, who started in place of Mike Piazza: "He was outstanding. He moved the ball around, and his forkball was working. He made some big pitches."
Stepping out of the dugout, Nomo tipped his cap for the fans, and then he celebrated.
Nomo carried a bottle of champagne into the Dodgers clubhouse after the game, according to the Los Angeles Times
"I'm very happy and I'm very glad," Nomo declared.
"I can't say that I was really tired," he added, speaking to reporters through a translator.
Hideo Nomo and teammate Mike Piazza embrace after a good game
Fearless Performer on The Mound
Against the Mets and teams in both leagues throughout the rest of his 12-season MLB career, Nomo fired a baffling forkball that the late Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray, a legendary wordsmith, once called "a split-fingered something-or-other that tends to disappear on the way to the plate."
"He was fearless. He could strike out anybody on the planet," former MLB manager Phil Garner once said of Nomo.
This approach to pitching manifested itself throughout Nomo's magic carpet ride in June.
After the aforementioned victory over the Mets, Nomo enjoyed an amazing month on the mound: six starts, six wins (also beating in succession, the Expos, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Giants, and Colorado Rockies). He gave up six hits or less in all of them, while issuing 16 base on balls and recording 60 strikeouts in 50 1/3 innings. His June ERA: a microscopic 0.89.
In June, three games in particular helped propel Nomomania forward.
*June 14: Against the host Pirates he whiffed a Dodgers rookie record 16 over eight innings.
*June 24: Versus the visiting Giants he tossed a two-hit shutout, walked three and fanned 13.
*June 29: Facing the Rockies in the City of Angels, he scattered six hits, walked one and struck out 13 in another complete-game shutout.
Nomomania took off as the wins piled up, and he captivated baseball fans on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.
Millions of fans in Japan tuned in to watch all of his games, which were broadcast live in the middle of the night or in the morning.
And a delightful twist on Harry Belafonte's "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O) entered the pop music stratosphere, with Cookie Brown & The L.A. Fans' "Hideo Nomo Song."
Some choice lyrics include: "Hey Mister Dodger Man, thanks for signing Nomo. We're always watching Nomomania. … When Nomo pitch, they eat their lunch.
"He throw the forkball and the thing ride by. The next thing you know, the ump says goodbye."
Nomo was named the National League's starting pitcher for the 1995 MLB All-Star at The Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, on July 11. Piazza was the starting catcher. For Nomo, it was a dominating, two-inning effort as his forkball danced and darted, with three strikeouts and one hit allowed. SEE Nomo's start in the 1995 MLB All-Star Game here.
The last rookie to start the All-Star Game? Dodgers southpaw Fernando Valenzuela in 1981. Fernandomania followed, which created a ballpark buzz that Nomomania replicated.
Nomo led the NL in strikeouts (236) and went 13-6 with a 2.54 ERA. He earned the National League Rookie of the Year award.
He commanded respect throughout the baseball world, even back home where plenty of people criticized his decision to leave the Buffaloes, brandishing him a traitor.
Nomomania swept across MLB in 1995 and Hideo Nomo remained a fan favorite throughout his career.
A Transcendent Figure
But in the final analysis, Nomo became a national hero because he stepped away from his comfort zone in the prime of his career.
People admire him for having the courage to do so.
"It was clear that Hideo wanted this challenge," former Dodgers general manager Fred Claire told JAPAN Forward's Odds and Evens by phone from California. "He was willing to risk his reputation in Japan. He was willing to risk what he had accomplished as an outstanding and popular player in Japan. He was willing to put all of that on the line, not knowing if he would be successful, but believing in himself, and that's why Hideo was a true pioneer.
"He had the confidence in his ability and he had no fear," concluded Claire, who served as GM from 1987-98.
Hideo Nomo paved the way for Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui, Yu Darvish and Daisuke Matsuzaka, Masahiro Tanaka and Shohei Ohtani, among others. More than 60 ballplayers born in Japan have now competed for MLB teams.
And it all started with victory No. 1 (of 123 MLB wins) for Nomo on June 2, 1995.
Look for exclusive interviews, retrospective analysis and more on Nomo's first season in the major leagues in an upcoming series, "Revisiting Nomomania 25 Years Later," here on JAPAN Forward.
Author: Ed Odeven
Follow Ed on JAPAN Forward's [Japan Sports Notebook] here on Sundays, in [Odds and Evens] here during the week, and Twitter @itsjapanforward.
Related Topics:1995 All-Star GamebaseballEd OdevenFred ClaireHideo NomojapanJapanese BaseballKintetsu BuffaloesLA DodgersMLBNomomaniaNPBOdds and EvensPhil GarnerThe TornadoTom PrinceTommy Lasorda
Ed Odeven is a longtime sports journalist who previously worked for The Japan Times as its chief basketball reporter for nearly 14 years. He also covered a wide range of other sports for the newspaper, including at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Games. A graduate of Arizona State University, Odeven worked for several newspapers in the Grand Canyon State before moving to Japan. He has freelanced for dozens of media outlets around the world.


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Relationships and the Cards: Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris
Leave a Comment / Destiny Cards & Relationships, Famous people, Karma card connections / By careerastrology_qg077s
Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift are dating!
What makes them compatible or incompatible? Let's see.
Calvin Harris was born 17 January 1984, making him a Capricorn Pig, and Taylor Swift was born December 13, 1989, making her a Sagittarius Snake. Snakes can squeeze pigs just a bit too hard for their liking! Capricorns and Sagittarians do not always get along either. Capricorns are hardworking and serious folks. Sagittarians tend to take things a bit more lightly. Is this relationship headed for the end before it even starts?
Well, what are their destiny card connections?
Calvin Harris is the 10 of diamonds, 5 of hearts, and Taylor Swift is the 5 of clubs, 7 of diamonds.
10 of diamonds men tend to be all about their work, to the exclusion of all else. The 10 of diamonds sits in the most blessed spot in the whole spread, the Jupiter/Jupiter position. They can make a lot of money and they should work for themselves. Being a Capricorn on top of this may make Calvin Harris a work-a-holic. Not taking enough time for relationships may have been a problem for Calvin Harris in the past. Or he may have just gotten involved with people he works with. Since both he and Taylor are in the music business, this relationship makes more sense for him. What about Taylor?
As a 5 of clubs she wants to experience variety in all things. But because she's also the 7 of diamonds, otherwise known as the millionaire's card, she cares a lot about her career and money too. They are both diamonds, and so both of them will care about succeeding in a worldly way. This can help them understand each other.
They are pretty far apart from each other in the life spread. But let's take a closer look.
Right away we can see that Calvin Harris' planetary ruling card, the 5 of hearts, is Taylor Swift's first karma card. What does that mean? It means that they are alike in a lot of ways. 5s generally want variety in life. 5 of clubs want mental variety, they like to move around and never be tied down to one thing. 5 of hearts are pretty similar, except that they like variety in relationships. When the 5 of hearts is your first karma card, it means that you tend to embody the negative aspects of that. So you might be known as a playboy or playgirl, and leave a trail of broken hearts wherever you go.
When it comes to Taylor Swift, we already know that she loves to fall in love, break up and write songs about it. Her 5 of hearts first karma card really works for her creativity and songwriting. When you fall in love with your first karma card, you will tend to see them as a burden, and they will tend to see you as a blessing.
If she has the patience to see how Calvin Harris acts out the parts of herself she doesn't like, she might get a lot out of this relationship.
They also have a past life mars connection between her 7 of diamonds and his 10 of diamonds, making for a nice sexual connection that is less difficult than a mars connection in the life spread.
This relationship might be rocky, but it certainly will be an experience for both of them, and that's really what they're after.
[raw] [/raw]


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Buy/Sell/Exchange Books
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We are currently not buying stock
We expect to start again in a couple of weeks
We regret any inconvenience this may cause
as usual we are still taking small exchanges and credits
to shop cards
A Pirate Looks at Fifty
Buffett, Jimmy
For the millions of fans of Jimmy Buffett's music as well as his bestselling books, Tales From Margaritaville and Where Is Joe Merchant?, here is the ultimate Jimmy Buffett philosophy on life and how to live it. As hard as it is to believe, the irrepressible Jimmy Buffett has hit the half-century mark and, in A PIRATE LOOKS AT 50, he brings us along on the remarkable journey which he took through the Southern hemisphere to celebrate this landmark birthday. Jimmy takes us from the legendary pirate coves of the Florida Keys to the ruins of ancient Cartegena. Along the way, we hear a tale or two of how he got his start in New Orleans, how he discovered his passion for flying planes, and how he almost died in a watery crash in Nantucket harbor. We follow Jimmy to jungle outposts in Costa Rica and on a meandering trip down the Amazon, through hair-raising negotiations with gun-toting customs officials and a 3-year-old aspiring co-pilot. And he is the inimitable Jimmy Buffett through it all. For Parrotheads, for armchair adventurers, and for anyone who appreciates a good yarn and a hearty laugh, here is the ultimate backstage pass -- you'll read the kind of stories Jimmy usually reserves for his closest friends and you'll see a wonderful, wacky life through eyes of the man who's lived it. A PIRATE LOOKS AT 50 is a breath of fresh air and a ingenious manual for getting to 50 . . . and beyond.
Second hand Hardback
Winn, Raynor
Mayle, Peter
Eating Up Italy - Voyages on a Vespa
Fort, Matthew
My Colombian Death - A Journey into the Heart of South America's Most Dangerous Country
Thompson, Matthew
The Gunpowder Gardens - Travels Through India and China in Search of Tea
Goodwin, Jason
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In the first part of our series on acne scarring we covered how to heal post inflammatory pigmentation, the kind of darkly colored mark that occurs after a blemish is formed. They can take months to heal, but with proper skincare and patience, the skin will regenerate and the skin's regular, uniform tone will return. The second type of acne scar that can occur, and that is much harder to get rid of, are the skin indentations known as rolling or ice pick scars. When it comes to these guys, a combination of high quality, botanically active skincare and other, more clinical treatments are usually necessary to help fill in the skin.
For acne scar indentations, the two best procedures are microneedling with PRF, and sublative laser with PRF. PRF is basically your body's own growth factor. First, your blood is drawn, then the PRF is separated from the blood via centrifuge, and it is then applied to your face during the treatment. And yes, in case you were wondering, they do cost a lot of money and you do need to go to a medi-spa to get these done. But if you do choose to go this route and find a reputable, responsible, clean and experienced practitioner, the results can be pretty amazing.
For the right skincare ingredients to accompany your treatments, or to use in place of them (because let's face it, not all of us are going to have the money to pay for advanced skincare treatments), stay tuned for part 3!


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The AI & Automation Must-Have: Humans-in-the-Loop
Keith McCormick
Despite advances in machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and automation, there remains the need for human participation within the decisions and processes we seek to automate. In my recent blog series on exception processing, I noted that exceptions are so common that all ML experts should develop a plan—on every project—to address them.
I also sat down with these three industry experts to discuss how best to combine the strengths of humans with the power of automation:
Dean Abbott, Chief Data Scientist at SmarterHQ
James Taylor, Founder and CEO of Decision Management Solutions
Ian Barkin, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Sykes
The common theme throughout each discussion was that many perceive the need for human-in-the-loop (HITL) intervention as a flaw in the system. While it is true that the developers of these systems try to keep the number of exceptions to a minimum, a prudent design will both appreciate and anticipate the need for humans.
Dean Abbott and the Confidence of Machine Learning Models
During my discussion with Dean Abbott, he coined a phrase, "squishy middle," that has proven quite popular. He might not have intended it to become a paradigm example, but it has become an apt description of instances when a ML model isn't sure which outcome is most likely.
How do you best handle this uncertainty or ambiguity? He and I discussed this in the context of a particularly interesting case study, a seemingly mundane processing of payouts for truckers' invoices. The company described would buy invoices from truckers and trucking companies at a discount. The truckers would get paid more quickly, while the company made a little profit on the difference. Naturally, there was an approval process for deciding which invoices to purchase that could be automated.
This was an interesting application from a relatively small, local company in San Diego. Let's say a trucker has a delivery to Walmart. They deliver cargo and Walmart pays the invoice net 30, but the trucker needs the cash earlier because they're out that money. This company buys invoices and holds back a small percentage of the invoice to cover its expenses. The idea was this: can we build machine learning models to identify whose invoices are good to purchase and whose are not? And obviously, what we would love is if you could completely automate this.
Like most projects of this kind, the machine learning model was indeed able to identify some cases that were extremely likely to be safe invoices to advance, and others that were very high risk that should be rejected.
Then you've got the squishy middle, those with 30% to 70% success rates. These are the ones that really need human intervention because obviously there's additional data that is available or that only humans can infer, that may not be readily available in digital form. In these cases, the ML model reduces the workload so the company can process more invoices—addressing the ones that are easy, while allowing humans to focus on the ones that are hard.
That was the most noteworthy example that we discussed, but Dean or I could have shared similar stories for hours. It is in the very nature of machine learning models; sometimes they are certain of an outcome and sometimes they are not.
In many cases, a human can insert an additional piece of information—usually something that humans are particularly apt at processing like images or language—and they can give the machine learning model what it needs to be certain. Notice that this isn't a human-as-an-override process, rather, it is having a human provide the missing piece of information or the human-in-the-loop. This distinction was particularly important as we discussed decision management with our next industry expert, James Taylor.
James Taylor and Efficient Decision Management
One of many powerful pieces of advice from James Taylor is that humans should be utilized to provide better inputs to models, not override the models. This distinction is an important one because if the human is going to be an override, they need to incorporate all of the known information and they need an extremely high level of subject matter expertise. At one point in our discussion, James made this clear using the case of a top surgeon in his field.
A highly experienced surgeon can size up a patient's likelihood of surviving surgery by meeting them and looking over their appearance. That kind of expertise is a rare commodity. It should be reserved for borderline cases because, as James explained, if the risk of sudden death without surgery is very high, then surgery should occur immediately regardless of appearance.
There are even broader implications here. If the decision management system is designed properly, someone with a focused specialty (but without extensive overall expertise) can be of assistance. This was a particularly interesting part of the conversation because it described exactly the kinds of situations where CloudFactory has been successful.
James elaborated on this point while discussing a disability claims example, and how it could be broken down into a series of tightly focused micro-decisions that do not necessarily all require deep subject matter expertise.
Nor do you need an employee to do this. Once you break the problem down, you're not trying to decide whether to pay the claim, you're trying to make a decision that informs the decision about paying the claim, a much more focused decision. As long as you think the issue is that you have to decide whether to pay the claim, then you'll of course think you have to use an in-house data science team to review all the data, because making the decision to pay the claim is a big business decision; it's important. But, in this case, the first decision isn't about paying the claim. It's more focused, more micro. There's a random medical report about someone. You don't even need to know who. You just need to know that this person is making a claim for a broken leg. Then you just need to answer if the doctor is saying they have a broken leg or not.
This is incredibly powerful advice because it means that you don't have to delay a calendar year (or more) trying to get something very tricky working like text analytics. And you don't need an MD or other expert. You can have an external trained and managed workforce provide this piece of information, when needed. It's the optimal combination of employees, business rules, machine learning models, and an external workforce.
Ian Barkin and Why Deterministic Models Still Require Exception Processing
Based upon my conversations with Dean and James, it would perhaps seem that the challenge of automation is dealing with the uncertainty that you face. Evaluating trucker invoices and the disability claims process each had an element of uncertainty.
One way to think of Ian Barkin's specialty in robotic process automation (RPA) is that he has many of the same deployment and organizational challenges, even when there is certainty in the process or task being automated. As we discussed, there are applications of RPA both with and without predictive models. But even when he doesn't have the predictive model, most other elements are the same.
In the realm of RPA, it might be onboarding an employee, which can involve five or even 5,000 steps. But these are still defined steps in a user manual. You just need to digitize them; you need to just emulate the step that a human had been doing and have software configured to do those steps.
So, does RPA eliminate the human in the process? It would seem so, but wasn't that also the case with machine learning and decision management? In reality, the human isn't eliminated from any of these scenarios. And while RPA is often deterministic (and doesn't involve uncertainty), there are times that the system doesn't get all the information that it needs to complete the process or task. In that sense, it is almost exactly like the situation that James described with the disability claims. In fact, Ian had a similar example, this time involving money laundering.
Anti-money laundering is a very complex event that happens enough times to be a problem, but not so much that there's enough big data to really train algorithms. It's certainly more complex than just simple RPA, although there are some components of an anti-money laundering process that are still digitizable with RPA. The other element is that once you get into some more complex machine learning, you're not able to as-reliably audit and sign off on why the algorithm caught the fraud. In a highly regulated industry, like banking, you can't go to the regulator and say, well, we prevented this person from making this transaction or opening this account because our ML algorithm identified this fraud accurately, we just don't know why it was accurate.
With the growth of advanced "black box" algorithms like deep learning, there has been a parallel growth in what is called explainable AI (XAI) to try to get around the issues that Ian is describing. So, he faces a double dilemma: not enough data for advanced algorithms and a reluctance to create opaque models with advanced algorithms. Ian believes that this is where the subjective human input is still sometimes required, not unlike James' example, and where an external, managed workforce such as CloudFactory can be trained to handle effectively.
Some of it is around patterns of events that seem unlikely where humans are just able to pick them out...just knowing something is fishy but isn't necessarily explainable.
Ian and I shared a laugh around our "squishy" and "fishy" adjectives during the interview, but this is ultimately serious stuff because combining automation and people helps effectively optimize decision-making
What all three of these industry experts have in common is realism around what automation can do, what it sometimes fails at, and a systematic approach to taking advantage of its strengths—all while respecting how critical humans are to the process.
Data Labeling Training Data AI & Machine Learning Exception Processing


Elizabeth Gardner is currently a PhD student at Louisiana State University, where her research focuses on communities of women in works by southern women writers and explores what models of community might exist in these texts. She sees her work as the president of the ESO executive council as a continuation of this emphasis on community and is dedicated to helping the ESO serve as a source of support for its members. Elizabeth received her MA from the University of Georgia in 2016.
Delia Byrnes is a PhD candidate in the Department of English at the University of Texas at Austin, where she researches contemporary American literature, energy culture, and the environmental humanities. Her dissertation, "Refining America: Energy Culture, the Gulf Coast, and the US Imagination," examines oil imaginaries in contemporary Gulf Coast narrative media. Her essay on petro-aesthetics in HBO's True Detective appears in The Global South, and her scholarly reviews appear in the E3W Review of Books. For the past two years, Delia served as the Digital Media Coordinator for SSSL, and co-coordinated the 2018 SSSL biennial conference in Austin, TX. She joins the ESO Executive Council as the Mentorship and Advocacy Chair. In addition to coordinating the ESO's mentorship program, Delia looks forward to developing resources to foster a diverse, inclusive, and accessible intellectual community for all emerging scholars.
Dr. Garrett Bridger Gilmore is an Instructor of English at the University of Alabama and comes to the ESO Executive Council by was of the University of California, Irvine, where he recently completed his PhD in English. His research focuses on the role of literary criticism and pedagogy in shaping political horizons for anti-racist thought and action. His dissertation focused on the political stakes of "white racial melancholy" in how canonical white Southern writers were taken up by critical proponents of racial liberalism in the mid twentieth-century. Through readings of paired works from before and after the rise of racial liberalism (e.g.: "That Evening Sun" and Requiem for a Nun, "The Barber" and The Violent Bear It Away), he argues that the way racial liberalism can be made to accommodate reactionary Southern politics signals its fundamental flaws, the fruit of which we deal with today. A chapter from the dissertation, "Refracting Blackness: Slavery and F. Scott Fitzgerald's Historical Consciousness" is forthcoming in Mississippi Quarterly. Coming from a graduate institution outside of the South, Garrett hopes to help expand the ESO's geographic outreach and online community in order to help connect emerging scholars at non-Southern institutions.
Joshua Ryan Jackson is a PhD student at Georgia State University. He came to southern studies during his MA at the University of Arkansas, after which he freelanced as a self-taught data journalist, marketing copywriter, and editor. His academic research interests include speculative narratives of region in nineteenth and twenty-first century Souths, with a particular interest in examining how the South is marketed. His work has appeared in various academic and non-academic publications, both digital and in print. These include The Cormac McCarthy Journal, In Media Res, and TheBlack90s.com. He has also been a regular contributor to organizations that publish content on state-of-the-field issues affecting digital marketing, online education, and higher education, including Online Marketing Institute and Online Course Report. Josh has joined the Executive Council with the hope of facilitating more academically diverse and community-engaged learning projects, such as a service-learning partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative and alternative academic professionalization opportunities with the Southern Poverty Law Center. Along with the rest of the ESO, he hopes to foster a more welcoming professional space for women, queer scholars and scholars of color, one that both models and spearheads clear and responsible social planning, rhetoric, and action for the whole of SSSL.
William Murray is a PhD candidate and Blount Fellow at the University of Alabama. His research primarily focuses on how conceptions of race and region are shaped in the national imaginary. One can find his work published in the Mississippi Quarterly, the Eudora Welty Review, the CEA Critic, and the South Carolina Review. In his dissertation, he explores how post-1975 narratives, from and about the South, use the region to project and protect white innocence. Will is also the SSSL Newsletter's Assistant Editor and Bibliographer. He joins the ESO Executive Council as Projects Chair.
Will Palmer is a PhD student at the University of Mississippi where he is working on a dissertation project considering the cross-sections of sound, environment, and race on the Mississippi River in modernity. The project will look at literary representations of sound and reconsider the traditional narratives of migration and racial difference pervasive in 20th century American popular thought. His work has appeared in south: an interdisciplinary journal and The Routledge History of the American South. He has presented across the United States on a wide range of topics including bluegrass, hip-hop, popular culture, protest music, and modernism. For the last two years, he has served on the executive council for the Emerging Scholars Organization as MA representative and will stay on for another term as Community Outreach and Activism Chair. Currently, Will is working on an analysis of Claude McKay's 1929 novel, Banjo, and the ways sound works to establish and trouble regional and racial identities in working class spaces.
Kristin Teston serves as the Professionalization Chair on the ESO Executive Council. She is a third year PhD student at the University of Mississippi, where she specializes in twentieth and twenty-first century American literature and culture. Her dissertation project focuses the visual representations of ruins in the U.S. South. She explores how humans have reshaped the climate and the natural landscape and how literature and film reflect on that creation and destruction. As an ESO representative, her goals are to increase the resources and opportunities for emerging scholars in order to expand their prospects within and beyond the field of academia. ESO is committed to the future of its members and the field of southern studies. Professionalization is essential to this purpose, which is accomplished through the success of emerging scholars whether they find themselves employed as faculty members or in positions outside of the academy.
Kelly Vines has served as the MA Representative and the President of the ESO executive council. She now serves as the organization's Past-President Advisor. She is a PhD Candidate and former Assistant Director of the University Writing Program at Louisiana State University. As a member of the ESO executive council, she is dedicated to providing emerging scholars with the necessary tools to succeed in their professional endeavors, facilitating communication and collaboration between southern studies scholars across our disparate geographies, making the SSSL and southern studies a more welcoming place for emerging scholars, and advocating on behalf of emerging scholars in political realms. She is the recipient of a dissertation fellowship from the American Association of University Women, and she is currently working on her dissertation, "Post-Plantation Entanglements: Bodies, Objects, and Landscapes in U.S. and South African Literature and Culture," which questions how, why, and to what effect contemporary authors, artists, and tourists move through or re-inhabit plantations in symbolic and material ways. Her work has been published in the North Carolina Literary Review and Mississippi Quarterly. In addition to her more traditional academic work, she also co-produces About South, a podcast about the South: www.aboutsouthpodcast.com.
If you would like to contact the ESO executive council, please send an email to emergingscholarsorg@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook.


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What Life Is Like For The Obamas Today
By Mariel Loveland/Jan. 28, 2019 5:14 pm EST
The Obamas called the White House home from 2009 to 2017. Now that they've moved out of their famed address into a normal home with doorbells, things have changed quite a bit for the former first family. Though they stayed in Washington, D.C. so Sasha Obama could finish school with her friends (barring big sis Malia Obama, who's off at Harvard and globe-trotting with her British boyfriend), it seems like the family is hardly in one place for too long.
In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres (via Today), Michelle Obama said "home is where we make it. We were in the White House for eight years, but it wasn't the house, it was us in it. It was our values and our love for each other, and we just move that to another house."
Move to another house they did — a huge $8.1 million pad, and then a yacht, and then a white water raft in Bali. There's no denying the Obamas have been living it up since their time in the White House concluded. When they're not hanging out with A-list celebs such as Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks, they're embarking on brand new career endeavors — from writing memoirs to producing Netflix films. Here's what the former first family has been up to since shipping out of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The Obamas' epic year of vacations
What better way to celebrate graduating from the White House than with an epic gap year? In 2017, that's just what the Obamas did. Who else gets to hang out with Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks and Bruce Springsteen on a yacht in the tropics?
According to People, the former first couple and a collection of iconic celebs stayed on a "450-foot yacht" in Tahiti in April 2017. They reportedly ate lunch on Vanilla Island, stopped over at Taha'a Island, shipped out to Bora Bora, and probably had at least one of Oprah's famous margaritas. It should be noted that Oprah wouldn't divulge the nitty gritty details about their epic time. "What happens on the boat, stays on the boat," she said (via People).
The following month, the Obamas jet set to Tuscany, where — according to the Daily Mail — Michelle Obama showed off her bare shoulders. Barack Obama reportedly let loose by undoing the top button of his polo.
After that, the Obamas moved course to a full-fledged family outing in Indonesia — Barack's old stomping grounds (with a brief popover to Guam on their way). According to E! News, the family stayed at a Four Seasons that cost $2,300 per night and enjoyed a day of white water rafting. There's currently no word on how much it costs for the Secret Service to rent a raft vs. a Mar-a-Lago golf cart.
Malia lived it up at Lolla
Without the confines of the White House, Malia Obama has been given free reign to be a normal (albeit massively famous) college student. If you believe the hype, there may be no one who enjoyed the 2017 Lollapalooza music festival more than the former first kid. Honestly, it's probably impossible to enjoy the dirt and port-o-potties as much as a 19-year-old not yet jaded by decades of working plumbing (though, the White House bathrooms are probably pretty nice.)
According to TMZ, Malia was out of her cage and doing just fine as she "headbanged and writhed on the ground" with her friends during The Killers' headlining set. She reportedly rocked out so hard that she needed to hitch a ride on a golf cart at the end of the show. TMZ claims she looked "kinda dazed," but headbanging all day will do that. Footage obtained by the tabloid depicted Malia looking mighty tired as she was escorted out. Girl, remember to stay hydrated next time!
Sasha got the best bedroom
There's probably just one person who's happier with her new digs than the grand design of the White House: Sasha Obama. With Malia Obama out of the picture at Harvard University, the youngest daughter got free reign to pick the best room at the family's post-White House home. In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres (via Today), Michelle opened up about how Sasha basically won the bedroom lottery. "Sasha actually killed in this house. She has like this two-room suite, it's all decked out," Michelle told DeGeneres. "She's got like a living room area and bedroom, and she designed it, so [Barack's] really hating on her."
Why would Barack be a little salty? It looks like he got the short end of the stick. Michelle admitted that her hubs "doesn't have enough closet space" and was left with the "smallest room for his office." There's also space for Malia, who got a room in the attic because "you don't waste rooms on college kids," her mom quipped. Nonetheless, the entire family is adjusting to normal life, which includes having a doorbell and actually answering the door when it rings. How novel!
Barack and Michelle tag-teamed a $60 million book deal
After Michelle and Barack Obama left the White House, the family wasn't out of work for very long. In fact, this husband and wife upgraded to a far more lucrative career than simply being politicians — they're now officially celebrity memoir authors. According to Entertainment Weekly, New York's five largest trade publishers were duking it out to sign the former first couple, but the pair went with its old go-to. Barack previously released three books with Penguin Random House, and decided to sign a new $60 million deal with the publishing company alongside his wife. Talk about a power couple.
There's no world in which $60 million doesn't seem like a lot of money, but it's hard to really comprehend just how much that actually is. For starters, it's a massive upgrade for Michelle, who didn't get a dime for being first lady, despite launching her Let's Move campaign and helping push the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act into legislation. As president, Barack was making around $450,000 a year (though, living in a free mansion certainly counts for something). Consider this: Former President Bill Clinton only got a paltry $15 million for his post-White House memoir, and there was a heck of a lot more drama in that administration (if only for the fact that a presidential affair is the stuff from which HBO dramas are made). Let's just say Malia probably won't have any student loans.
What's a book tour without friends like these?
Michelle Obama wouldn't keep us waiting after inking her lucrative book deal. The mother-of-two released Becoming in November 2018 and embarked on a book tour. Though a life on the road can be lonely, especially for a woman used to having a family and 24-hour staff, it seems like the former first lady had plenty of good company. Her pal Oprah Winfrey (maybe you've heard of her) chose Michelle's memoir for her book club — an exclusive collection of inevitable best-sellers. (Basically, your mom has probably already read this.) The talk show host took things one step further and gave her friend her very own primetime TV Special, Oprah Winfrey Presents: Becoming Michelle Obama. According to USA Today, she even helped the former first lady launch her book tour by asking questions at the kick-off in Chicago.
Winfrey wasn't the only one to visit Michelle on the road. According to USA Today, Barack paid a visit in Washington where he gave his wife a bouquet of pink roses and compared himself to his good friend Jay-Z (of course the Obamas are friends with the first family of rap, too). "This is like, you know when Jay-Z comes out during the Beyonce concert? ... Like, 'Crazy in Love'?" he said (via USA Today). "It's the same thing. It's just a little sample to enhance the concert."
The Obamas might be the next Steven Spielberg
The Obamas have undeniably worn many hats since leaving the White House — from book authors to public speakers to retired parents on vacation. In May 2018, the former first couple added a new item to its resumé: film producers. Netflix announced that Barack and Michelle had inked a deal to producer their own films and series with the streaming service. According to Reuters, the Obamas' production company is called High Ground Productions. With it, they have the option to create "scripted and unscripted series, documentaries and feature films." Sometimes they'll appear in the shows they create; other times they'll simply curate. In other words, Barack and Michelle apparently have the creative control to do whatever they want.
It's uncertain exactly how much the Obamas nabbed for their Netflix deal, but if they're looking for interns, they've got one experienced student right in the family. Malia Obama has interned for HBO's Girls and the Harvey Weinstein Company — the latter still owed her money after filing for bankruptcy, according to Deadline. Barack Obama is no stranger to the world of TV either. The former president appeared on Netflix's My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman.
The Barack-Biden bromance lives on
Barack Obama and Joe Biden's friendship — the bromance that spawned friendship bracelets and launched a thousand memes — has apparently endured its exit from the White House. In July 2018, the presidential pals popped over to Georgetown's Dog Tag Cafe for lunch. According to The Washington Post, the nonprofit bakery "teaches veterans, military spouses and caregivers about business." While at the cafe, Biden and Barack personally met all of the organization's 13 fellows. There were hugs, handshakes, and from the looks of one Instagram post, La Croix. Barack even made a cheesy dad joke about the former vice president getting the bill.
Later that year, Biden went on record to talk about his close relationship with Barack. "All those memes? All those memes are basically true," he said during an October 2018 campaign rally (via The Hill). "Except I want to make it clear: Barack did the first friendship bracelet, not me."
Barack's been jamming to Cardi B
We're not going to pretend like most dads have the trendiest taste in music. It's a safe bet that if the average pops curated a Spotify playlist, it'd be a whole lot of The Rolling Stones and not much else. It would also require excusing the fact that our dads don't really know how to use Spotify in the first place — but if you need a burned CD, they're totally on it. They've got binders full of 'em.
Barack Obama is not like other dads. He's a cool dad with an even cooler taste in music. That's apparently what you get when you're pals with Jay-Z. According to The Week, the former president continued his tradition of curating a year-end, best-of playlist in 2018. He posted the track listing on Instagram, which included "Apes**t" by his good pals The Carters along with songs by Janelle Monae, Prince, and Chance the Rapper. The father of two even pivoted from the mainstream and picked a couple indie darling deep cuts such as "Need a Little Time" by Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett and "One Trick Ponies" by Kurt Vile. He even threw in a song by Cardi B. Does he sing along to "I Like It" on road trips while his daughters melt into their seat belts with embarrassment? We need some video! Stop holding out.
Barack hit the Billboard charts
Barack Obama may not be a musical superstar like his vacation-mate Bruce Springsteen, but he has seen some very unlikely musical success. In 2019, the former president landed a chart-topping hit on Billboard's "Hot R&B Songs" chart. Wait, did Jay-Z suddenly teach him how to rap? Is Michelle getting in on a verse? Is everyone dancing in front of the Louvre on the Obamas' epic year of vacations? Sadly, none of the above, but it's still pretty cool.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the former president appeared on "One Last Time (44 Remix)" from the hit musical Hamilton (the one seemingly everyone has seen despite no one ever being able to get actual tickets). The gospel-inspired remix, which gives a nod to the 44th president in the title, features Barack delivering George Washington's farewell address. It started with "307,000 on-demand U.S. streams and 9,000 downloads sold in the week ending Dec. 27" which was enough to push it up to No. 22 by the Jan. 5, 2019 rankings.
So, let's make this totally clear: the post-White House Obamas are book authors, TV and film producers, and chart-topping musical artists. Is there anything the former first family can't do?
Barack and Michelle were voted the most admired people in America
There's a wealth of reasons to admire Michelle Obama. She rose up from the South Side of Chicago, graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School, and made history as the very first black first lady in the White House. She launched a massively successful health and fitness campaign, which resulted in the passing of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act; helped veterans and service member with Joining Forces; and championed education and empowerment through Reach Higher and Let Girls Learn. She also has really fit arms. Seriously, Vogue decided to point out seven of her arms' greatest moments. Have your arms had even a single great moment that expanded beyond carrying the stuff you need to carry? Let's just say there was a reason Michelle was voted the most-admired woman of 2018.
In a 2018 Gallup poll, the former first lady beat out her good friend Oprah Winfrey as the most admired woman in America. She secured 15 percent of the votes, which is a huge margin considering Winfrey pulled in just five percent. Hillary Clinton and Melania Trump, Michelle's fellow first ladies, both earned four percent of the vote.
Barack Obama cleaned up alongside his wife. For the 11th year in a row, the former president was voted the most admired man, securing 19 percent of the vote. Donald Trump finished a close second with 13 percent of votes.
Malia got herself an Ivy League boyfriend
Malia Obama is living every college girl's dream. Besides learning important things and working on getting a prestigious degree, she picked up a hot, British rugby player who also happens to be wealthy. Seriously, is her life a movie? It probably will be with her parents' aforementioned Netflix deal!
In 2017, TMZ spotted the former first daughter kissing a Harvard mystery man at a football game. He was later identified as Rory Farquharson, the son of Insight Investment Management Limited's CEO. According to The Telegraph, the Farquharson family lives in a six-bedroom home in Suffolk worth around $2 million. Not too shabby, right? Malia's man isn't just wealthy — he's studious and driven. The athlete was reportedly "head of school" at The Rugby School, a prestigious boarding school where he joined the chemistry club and played rugby and golf. Farquharson also appeared alongside Prince Harry in a rugby video for the 2015 World Cup Opening ceremony and has been loosely linked to the royals. In other words: Farquharson can probably relate to Malia's life in the spotlight to some degree. The pair has been spotted enjoying outings in New York City, London and Paris. Not a bad starter boyfriend, girl!
Malia struggled with fame at Harvard
Being forced into the spotlight is never easy, especially when you're a kid. Who wants their awkward teen years broadcast on TMZ? After years of poise and composure while cameras watched her every move, Malia Obama finally broke down when a fan crossed the line.
Barack Obama reportedly teared up when he dropped her off at Harvard, likening the experience to open-heart surgery, according to USA Today. He was reportedly "proud that I did not cry in front of her." Malia's first few weeks at the Ivy League school were highly publicized, and the former first daughter appeared to be fed up. According to TMZ, she broke down in Harvard Square when a woman ran up to her as she was entering a salad shop. The lady asked if she could take a picture for her granddaughter, but Malia declined. The grandmother then loitered around the shop and tried to take a picture of Malia anyway. That's when the former first daughter reportedly screamed, "Are you gonna take it in my face like an animal in a cage?" Honestly: true.
The grandma did get a photo, but Malia held fast to her limits. It's not easy blending in around the dormitories when you used to call the White House home.


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Issue 82: Literary Adaptations Redux
Reflecting Backward from Carol to The Price of Salt
Samantha Bañal
About halfway through Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, Carol and Therese make a pit stop during their cross-country road trip. The two women have decided to take their mutual attraction out on the road, but the tension between themselves and a hostile midcentury society still persists. This tension spills over when Carol makes a critique of young Therese's outlook on the world.
"I wonder if you'll really enjoy this trip," Carol says. "You so prefer things reflected in glass, don't you? You have your private conception of everything. … I wonder if you'll even like seeing real mountains and real people." Therese takes the punch to the gut, but thinks to herself, "Real people? …hideous." But Carol continues: "How do you ever expect to create anything if you get all your experiences secondhand?"
We might consider literary adaptation a secondhand experience. Like Carol, we often wonder how a film dares to dilute a novel to an image reflected through glass and celluloid. "The book is better," we smugly argue, failing to realize that cinema lies somewhere between reflection and reality. When we pair the cinematic with the literary, something transcendental can occur—if only we let both forms tap into their best assets.
The Price of Salt obsesses over this question of turning a "reading" of the world, or a lover, into a reality; Carol, its adaptation, dramatizes this anxiety by mobilizing cinematic and inherently visual language. Rather than shrinking from the hall of mirrors that inevitably unfolds when creating a literary adaptation, Carol embraces reflections and distortions, folding them into the film's core aesthetic. As a result, Todd Haynes, Phyllis Nagy, Rooney Mara, and Cate Blanchett together reveal the literary adaptation's potential for investigating the chasms between our private conceptions, like a reading of a book or a romantic fantasy, and the real thing, a character embodied or a love requited.
For advice on how to actually do this, you can scour the internet for interviews with Haynes or Nagy, Blanchett or Mara, but the best guidance comes from Carol herself during the film. During Therese's (Mara) first visit to her home, Carol (Blanchett) questions whether Therese would like to be a photographer. When Therese wonders whether she's even any good at it, Carol counsels, "All you can do is keep working. Use what feels right. Throw away the rest." Following Carol's advice, the creators behind the film threw away quite a lot of Highsmith's novel, but still managed to maintain its essential qualities.
First published in 1952, Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt was categorized as a lesbian pulp novel, with all the seedy accoutrements attached to the genre. The narrative follows Therese, a young shop girl and stage designer, who falls in love with Carol, a disillusioned housewife, whose husband will later divorce her and cite her deviant sexuality in a bid for their daughter's custody. Highsmith's novel, however, possessed numerous important distinctions from its peers. She kept the blonde/brunette dynamic, for instance, that we still see in popular depictions of queer couples and, with it, the usual temptress and virgin power play. But thankfully, Highsmith threw out the rest.
She especially barred shame and self-reproach from her novel, and dared to give Therese and Carol a happy ending. This had never happened before for lesbian characters, pulp or otherwise. Before The Price of Salt. and long after, queer characters have had to pay a high price for their deviant behavior; one of them—usually the butch or the temptress—would either go insane or die. Carol should've been committed to an asylum, while Therese would've married Richard, her heteronormative option. Both The Price of Salt and Carol keep these threats present in the narrative, but firmly banish them to the fringes. How could these men in the film, doused in their dour brown clothes and awkward behavior, gain either woman's allegiance, much less her love?
The Price of Salt rooted its women within everyday culture. Typically, in the lesbian pulp tradition, ladies get up to their bad behavior while in sorority houses, military barracks, or other all-women settings. Carol and Therese, on the other hand, are New Yorkers. They inhabit bustling Manhattan and take a road trip through America because (that's right) we're everywhere. And same-sex desire doesn't happen just because a character can't find an opposite sex person around. It happens because, as Carol finally admits to her divorce lawyers, "I wanted it to happen." Yet, this idea of queer mobility and freedom in midcentury America is somewhat of a fantasy, as Todd Haynes's other great midcentury period piece, Far from Heaven, depicts.
In Carol, Haynes highlights the feeling of being within and without one's culture through the film's visual language, particularly its constant divisions, obfuscations, and framing devices. Whenever Carol or Therese try to discuss their private lives with another person, the shot is split in two. Therese shares her interest in photography with Dannie (John Magaro), an acquaintance who goes from brief romantic interest to friend. Likewise, Carol first confides her craving for a road trip to one of the other wives at a party she's forced to attend with her husband Harge (Kyle Chandler). Both shots are divided. Neither queer woman can connect with their straight interlocutor, despite their attempts.
In contrast, when Therese speaks to another queer woman, those divides are markedly crossed as the other woman moves towards Therese, either in comfort or flirtation. All these scenes occur behind glass, forcing us to look at these women through a translucent surface. Once we note this, it's easier to realize how many shots contain a window that clouds our uninhibited view. Carol and Therese are divided from others and separated from us, which makes the moments without refractions and framing so much more poignant, from the first lovestruck glance to the last.
Looking directly at Carol and Therese, however, naturally begs the question: Who are they? And can the novel help us construct these characters? Phyllis Nagy, Carol's screenwriter, discussed this central question in an interview at TIFF, calling Therese "basically a stalker" and stating that Carol "had to be invented." Highsmith's novel comes entirely from Therese's extremely limited, first-person perspective on Carol. As a result, we never gain access to Carol herself. When Nagy first began adapting the novel, she threw this idea out and started to write Carol into the film, not as a mere projection of Therese's gaze, but as a fully realized woman. Then, as the years passed and the screenplay kept flitting through various producers and directors' hands, Nagy began to soften Therese's stalker perspective.
Thankfully, Todd Haynes came on board and reclaimed Therese's atypical point of view. He encouraged Nagy to return to her early drafts of the screenplay, which were more intrinsically tied to Highsmith's famed, psychopathic aesthetic. (Let's not forget, Highsmith also wrote Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley.) "There was a greater ease between the women initially in the script," Haynes told Indiewire. "and in the novel there was tremendous tension and uncertainty. So that sense of being locked inside one point of view was strengthened and made more disquieting." Therese keeps her central, albeit limited, perspective from the novel, but now Carol's perspective runs parallel to Therese's, strengthening the tension even further.
The first time we see Carol alone on film, she's brushing her daughter's hair, and both are reflected in the vanity mirrors. Then, to offset the mirrored Carol, the film flits through a couple domestic scenes—coloring a picture with her daughter, while correcting her husband's casual sexism, and multitasking in the kitchen—until she meets Therese for their "glove lunch." Blanchett's performance during the lunch complements Haynes and Nagy's work and transforms Carol into flesh and blood. During this first private meeting, Blanchett carefully balances between seductive and contained, daring but scared. Her eyes say lust and desire, while her red-stained mouth opens and closes in hesitance and uncertainty. She's a pickup artist, maybe, but she's also a married woman and a lesbian in the 1950s.
To further realize Carol and offset these tense reminders of the period, Blanchett adds humor and improvisation. Whether it's a head-to-toe size-up of Therese, or a joke, or a wink, or a line like "I never looked like that" when first undressing her, Blanchett transforms Carol from a cardboard cutout of a discontented housewife into a sassy femme top, who will draw a gun on you but seems to bow before the systemic pressures of domesticity, if only for a moment. And yet, she also reflects the Carol that peeks through Therese's limited perspective at times in the novel, "a woman with a child and a husband, with freckles on her hands and a habit of cursing, of growing melancholy at unexpected moments, with a bad habit of indulging her will." Blanchett's got her, in vivid Sandy-Powell-designed colors no less, but there still lies the problem of Therese.
The other major change Nagy made to the novel was to turn Therese into a photographer. When questioned about this change, Nagy gave a pragmatic answer—a stage designer on the screen would've been a "nightmare," she argued, while "photography is always the easiest answer. It's visual." It's a smart move from a character standpoint, and becomes even more so once Haynes makes mid-century, documentary-style photography the film's main aesthetic.
To create Carol's visual language, Haynes and frequent cinematographer Edward Lachman drew largely from mid-century American photographers, especially women like Ruth Orkin, Helen Levitt, Esther Bubley, and Vivian Maier. Saul Leiter's photographs made the most obvious impact. Haynes and Lachman adapted Leiter's overarching interest in reflection, capturing figures through windows, mirrors, and glass. Haynes also heightens the visual allusions through the film's overarching framing device, lifted from David Lean's Brief Encounter.
Through these foundational decisions, Haynes smoothly transfers the novel into a medium that exists within time and motion, while also embedding Therese's gaze into every shot of the film. Nagy might've given Carol her own perspective, but Haynes filters them all through a photographer's lens, a photographer like Therese. The tension of adaptation, reflection, and a polluted perspective persists despite the script's best efforts; Highsmith is still there, lurking.
The Price of Salt began as an exercise in fantasy fulfillment. Highsmith also worked as a department store clerk and, like Therese, grew instantly enamored with a mysterious female customer. Unlike Therese, Highsmith's mysterious woman never reciprocated her interest. There was no lunch date, no weekend getaways to the suburbs, no road trip, and certainly no happy ending. This partially explains Highsmith's disinterest in making a thing of the novel. The Price of Salt inversely delineates Highsmith's own romantic failure, and none of us like to be reminded of those. She cast a mirror upon her own life to catch a new angle and perhaps create an alternate, directly reversed version of reality.
Highsmith didn't stop at The Price of Salt though. Only later did biographers realize just how far she went to try and make her fantasy a reality. In her Afterword for the novel, written in 1989, Highsmith explains how she saw the beautiful blonde woman at the store where she worked, went home, sketched the plot, then fell ill with the chickenpox. Since she had the woman's delivery address though, Highsmith decided, two years later, to stalk her while she was finishing the novel.
She took a train from Pennsylvania Station to New Jersey and watched the woman, a Mrs. E. R. Senn, pull into her driveway on North Murray Avenue. "I felt quite close to murder too," she wrote in her journal that day, "Murder is a kind of making love, a kind of possessing." Sounds more like Ripley than Therese, but Highsmith continues: "To arrest her suddenly, my hands upon her throat (which I should really like to kiss) as if I took a photograph, to make her in an instant cool and rigid as a statue." Highsmith makes her desire explicit here, a desire for control through creating an art object out of a person. She can now be managed and adored at will.
Highsmith buries much of this in The Price of Salt, but Therese's actions still reek of invasion. In the novel, Therese describes Carol's beauty, "which struck her like a glimpse of the Winged Victory of Samothrace." There's that rigid, cool statue Highsmith wanted. Call it a fantastic twist of fate or a fair bit of synchronicity, but over half a century later, there's Highsmith herself in the film adaptation of her novel, finally doing to Carol what she wished to do to her mystery woman. Not throttling her, thankfully, but rather taking her picture, fixing her in time and space. The film, as a shrewd work of literary adaptation, reveals this buried tension and lays it bare before a watching audience.
These days, we're constantly taking pictures of ourselves, our friends, our lovers, and even strangers. We've become numb to the camera as a gaze that captures and transforms a being in motion into a static yet immortal image. Carol, however, reminds us of photography's invasiveness and distortion. "I always feel funny taking pictures of people," Therese admits in one scene, "like it's an—." "Invasion of privacy," Dannie finishes. Thanks to his encouragement, Therese nevertheless begins to take pictures of people, particularly one person: Carol. The couple's first driving sequence in the Lincoln Tunnel, for instance, highlights motion, fantasy, and Therese's gaze upon Carol. Blanchett's face is refracted through glass, then also intercut with discordant snapshots that arise from Therese's fantastic and sometimes future perspective. Already, Therese mixes the Carol sitting next to her, with the Carol of her imagination, and the Carol of her nostalgic musings.
In The Price of Salt's Lincoln Tunnel sequence, Therese "wished the tunnel might cave in and kill them both, that their bodies might be dragged out together." Once again, Highsmith mixes queer desire with death and makes Therese feel, like Shakespeare's Othello did, if it were now to die, 'twere now to be most happy. In her journal, however, Highsmith did not wish to die. She wished to kill.
Haynes and Nagy replace this unsettling tension with photography's inherent ability to capture, to "shoot." The Lincoln Tunnel sequence ends when the car stops, and Therese puts a new roll of film into her camera. Carol is further away from her now, buying a Christmas tree for her home. Therese stays by Carol's car and takes her photograph, just as a private eye would. The staging is clear and reminds us of that tension Haynes wanted to infuse into the film from the novel. The scene recreates the simultaneous distance yet proximity, through the camera, of falling in love, especially when you're doing it for the first time with another same-sex person. It also unconsciously recreates the predatory within the romantic, especially when that desire is marginalized.
The entire film production excavates the very weirdness that Highsmith sought to hide when she used a pseudonym to publish The Price of Salt or undermined the novel's worth later in her life. The film makes overwhelming desire the central interest, but transforms it into something tender and heartbreaking, too. "What [The Price of Salt] does," Haynes explained, "is it brings that same sense of the criminal to the amorous mind and the amorous experience. And what it feels like to begin to fall in love with somebody and not know how they feel in return."
Given this reflection across the various mirrors of the film, the novel, and Highsmith's personal fantasy, the stereotypical lesbian-pulp conclusion—which features the asylum, the police, or the accidental death—becomes an even greater and present threat. To thwart this seemingly inevitable end, Therese must complete the daunting but essential task of negotiating a space in her mind for her idea of Carol to coincide with Carol herself. Carol must evolve from photographs and fantasy to a woman Therese can sit across a table from and refuse. And even more difficult, Therese must learn how to become an individual apart from Carol.
Both the novel and the film have a hard time figuring out how to do this. In the adaptation, Abby (Sarah Paulson) goes to pick Therese up and drive back with her to New York City, a jarring sequence that begins with Therese falling asleep with Carol and waking up to Abby watching her from a corner. They conveniently (and, some might argue, intelligently) skip an even more puzzling section in the novel, where Therese spends time on her own out West. She settles in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she comes across a portrait of someone who looks strikingly like Carol.
"It was Carol," Therese thinks, during this scene. "The mouth smiled and the eyes regarded her with nothing but mockery, the last veil lifted and revealing nothing but mockery and gloating, the splendid satisfaction of the betrayal accomplished." Therese immediately runs from the scene of her "betrayal," but the break is already made. Later, on the phone, Abby asks her why she has not called Carol. "Yes, why hadn't she? Because she had been thinking of a picture instead of Carol." Therese must reconcile these two Carols and their uncanny implications or ultimately keep them divided, which in turn would divide her from Carol.
In the film, when Therese arrives back in New York, she tries to move on with her life. She begins repainting her apartment with help from Dannie. "You really captured whoever this is," Dannie comments when he sees Therese's portraits of Carol. Rather than a painted portrait fixed in a dusty library, Carol's photo portraits still move through Therese's home and mind, until, while assessing which pictures to send to The New York Times for a job, she places Carol's pictures on the rubbish pile. She recreates her own home and personal style, transforms her voyeuristic hobby into a possible profession, and ultimately takes ownership of her life. She moves on without Carol and leaves the fantasy behind, the photographic world she created.
Meanwhile, Carol forces herself into her former role. She goes through the motions of psychotherapy and struggles with the limitations placed upon her life and home. Then suddenly, on her way to a meeting with her husband and their divorce lawyers, Carol sees Therese through glass, and the sight jolts her into wakefulness. A newly-styled and matured Therese crosses a busy city street on her way to work. Carol watches her in fascination, her face scrunched into the taxi window's corner until Therese finally leaves her sight.
During the divorce meeting, Carol owns her sexual desires toward women, particularly Therese, naming her during the deposition. She refuses how she's been framed—legally and visually—throughout this final section of the narrative and even from the inception of the film. We only see Carol refracted through glass once more, as she writes a note to Therese, asking if she'd be available to meet. The refraction, perhaps the most distorted of the film, speaks to the chasm both Carol and Therese now have to traverse.
When Therese shows up to the meeting, Carol tells Therese she loves her. Therese doesn't respond and the moment vanishes when Jack interrupts. And suddenly, we've circled back again to the film's opening. The hall of mirrors stretched to its utmost now snaps back to reality, where the camera no longer refracts or reflects between these women. They separate once more, and we follow Therese, as she goes to a house party and willfully alienates herself. She looks across the couples, all tinted in an artificial green light, and finally flees to Carol and to life.
In the final scene, Therese scans the Oak Room for Carol. Finally, their eyes meet. In the novel, the final lines read, "Then as she was about to go to her, Carol saw her, seemed to stare at her incredulously a moment while Therese watched the slow smile growing, before her arm lifted suddenly, her hand waved a quick, eager greeting that Therese had never seen before. Therese walked toward her." Therese makes her final decision, and it's Carol who is smiling and making a new gesture, something for Therese to discover. "It was like meeting Carol all over again," she thinks, "but it was still Carol and no one else." In a finale no less breathtaking now then it was in 1952, they've rounded their personal journeys and found a way to circle back to one another, like the toy train Therese advised Carol to buy when they first met.
To depict this almost ineffable moment, the film's final shot belongs to Carol as she stares directly into the camera and slowly smiles. The real Carol finally breaks through the photos, the portrait, the glass and mirrors, even Highsmith's journal entry. This finale also echoes Blanchett's last moment on screen in I'm Not There, a stylized Bob Dylan biopic and her previous collaboration with Haynes. In that film, the camera stays on Blanchett for almost one beat too long, until the smile seems to shift from the character (Jude Quinn) to Blanchett herself. That overextended shot opens a gap in the text and lets the world beyond the film squeak through. In both these final looks, Carol and Jude hold a secret they seem on the verge of divulging. Then, right before they do, Haynes cuts away—with a gunshot (not unlike a snare pop) in I'm Not There and a black screen in Carol. The smile hangs in some liminal space between the character, the actor, the camera, and the audience and transfers to a place that cannot be seen on film or articulated in a novel. It beckons us to consider what comes next.
Since Carol 's release, the lesbian film landscape has dramatically shifted, and queer characters' stories are breaking onto box office charts and garnering major accolades at film festivals and award ceremonies. The desiring queer woman's gaze perhaps developed the most since Carol with more characters taking a camera into their hands and capturing their lover, as they do in Disobedience or Atomic Blonde, but the problem of possession still remained. Then along came Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Sciamma, as both writer and director, turns the passive muse into an active subject. Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), the subject of Marianne's (Noémie Merlant) portrait, looks back at her artist and thus constantly stares directly at the camera. She talks back, advises, and pushes Marianne further, inspiring her portrait-artist and lover. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Sciamma explains how she constructed the tension in her film. "There's all this surprise that lies within equality," she asserts, "that's the new tension. You don't know what's going to happen if it's not about the social hierarchy, gender domination or intellection domination." Portrait of a Lady on Fire begins here and explores this relationship of ultimate equality. In The Price of Salt, Therese flees from her lover's uncanny portrait, and in its adaptation, both Carol and Therese reach out blindly into a midcentury American visual landscape that obscures, distorts, and divides. It's a wonder that the story ends on a note of possibility and connection.
Conversely, Sciamma's characters reach for one another through the camera itself and, in the process, actively transform each other from the first frame to the last. Carol offered us that potential at the end of the film, but Portrait of a Lady on Fire invites us to see it happen. And coincidentally, Portrait's strength draws from Sciamma's commitment to infusing her former relationship with Adèle Haenel into the text itself, rather than burying it or reimagining it, as Highsmith did. "We talked a lot about cinema [during our relationship]," Sciamma explains, "and we grew enormously intellectually. I also wanted to show that in the film: the lasting, emancipating effect that such a romantic encounter can have on your life." Carol and Therese look at one another, finding completion and individuality in the other, while Marianne looks at Héloïse in Portrait's final scene and watches her revel in an aesthetic moment, which she was better prepared for and loved all the more because she loved Marianne. Because their mutually productive relationship—gazing upon a lover, then having that lover speak back and say, "I am also looking at you"—helped emancipate them, even if they separated.
In The Price of Salt, while she's out alone in South Dakota, Therese receives a letter from Carol. The film also features a letter from Carol, but the novel's version is better. Carol writes about how she watches the heterosexual couples around her, their squabbles and disconnects. "The rapport between two men or two women," Carol writes, "can be absolute and perfect, as it can never be between man and woman, and perhaps some people want just this, as others want the more shifting and uncertain thing that happens between men and women." Love depicted in a novel or film always shifts, but Carol addresses something different here, and particular to queer experiences. She expresses that very equality and reciprocity Sciamma centralizes in her film to reveal how love and great art should offer clarity and freedom to each of us as individuals.
I read The Price of Salt ten years after I first suspected my queer sexuality and instantly decided to live in the closet. That pulp novel changed my life because, through its happy ending, it opened up the possibility that I could exist, as someone in love and loved. Highsmith's novel reflected my fears and hesitations, but then showed me that my life was possible. Years later, Carol taught me that I deserve more than mere possibility, than just the right to exist. Carol dared to be beautiful, while still retaining its humanity and its weirdness. It folded itself into the tones and motifs of almost a century of visual language, then filled it up, like a warm fur cloak, with flawed and vulnerable personalities.
Since Carol, we've been free to dare more dangerously and decadently. Rather than viewing one another refracted behind glass or beyond a driveway, clutching onto a camera or an address slip, we now can prop a mirror against a lover's body and dare to stare, to begin the work of drawing ourselves and our partners in truer, more vivid and roughened edges.
Carolposts
Samantha Bañal is a writer and teacher based in her hometown of Miami. She graduated from the University of Florida with a PhD in English, specializing in Victorian literature and queer aesthetics. She currently teaches literature and rhetoric to high school seniors and enjoys writing about LGBTQ+ film, television, and pop culture.
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Growing our collections in the history of computer cartography
ArticleAt the Map Center, exciting donations have motivated a new collections interest
Ian Spangler
338 words / 2 minutes
The Map Center is soliciting donations in the area of early computer cartography, including maps, datasets (physical or born-digital), papers, and other cartographic objects produced between 1960 and 2000. In this post, we introduce two new collections that exemplify this interest.
Here at the Map Center, we're thrilled to welcome two new archival collections which help narrate the history of computer cartography: the Applied Geographics, Inc. Records and the David J. Weaver Collection.
Donated by David Weaver, co-founder and former Vice President of Applied Geographics (AppGeo), these collections encompass hundreds of cartographic objects including maps, data creation tools, software manuals, and more. See below for some photos taken during our time processing the archival collections.
While the collections have a special focus on maps made by AppGeo, many other authors including Esselte Map Service, Intergraph, and various Massachusetts state agencies are also represented. Taken together, these collections provide a unique glimpse into major changes in cartographic design, process, and philosophy between the late 1970s and 2012.
Since dedicated collections of maps produced during the early days of computer cartography still remain rare, we're eager to collect maps—especially ones created between 1960 and 2000—that reflect:
Changes in cartographic practice. How did advances in computation affect the look of maps? What conventions and standards were introduced (or erased) as the mapmaking process was increasingly computerized?
Methodological changes in spatial analysis. How did computer cartography and geographic information systems (GIS) transform the kinds of questions we could ask (and answer) with maps? To what extent did this change the relationship between the map, the mapmaker, and the audience?
Early technical workflows or data creation techniques. What novel data creation techniques did advances in computation allow? How was this data analyzed in the form of maps?
In short: we're interested in maps that bring the process of early computer cartography to life. If you want to learn more about this initiative—or if you think you have some maps that fit the above criteria—don't hesitate to reach out to us.
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I have uploaded a new show podcast for January 3, 2018. Click here to go to the show archives page to listen or you can listen on the link below. The latest show is on the top of the page.
-Socialized medicine in the US was not possible 20 years ago.