text:
8 Types of Imaginary Creatures "Discovered" In Fossils
BY Bess Lovejoy
A protoceratops skeleton
Karen, Flickr // CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
The wild and colorful mythological creatures that our ancestors dreamt up—dragons, unicorns, griffins—didn't all originate as mere flights of fancy. In some cases, ancient fossils protruding from the earth may have inspired the ideas behind these mythical monsters. In more recent years, showmen and the uninformed have deliberately displayed fossils as "evidence" of imaginary beasts—after all, monsters make great celebrities. Here are eight types of imaginary creatures once "found" in fossils.
1. Griffins
Ancient Greek authors reported that gold-seeking Scythians did battle with griffins deep in the Gobi desert, where the mythological creatures—with the bodies of lions but the beaks and wings of eagles—were said to protect the precious metal's mines. Folklorist Adrienne Mayor has convincingly argued that these Greek stories were inspired by fossils from Protoceratops dinosaurs, which once littered the Gobi desert and can still be found there in relative abundance. Like the griffin, the Protoceratops has four legs and a beak, and its elongated shoulder blades may have been interpreted as wings—although it's not known to have been a gold-digger.
2. Cyclopes
John Cummings, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0
The ancient Greeks also believed that the island of Sicily was crawling with mythical one-eyed giants known as the Cyclopes. As far back as the 1300s, scholars have pointed out that Sicily and other parts of the Mediterranean were once home to an ancient species of elephants whose enormous skulls look a lot like Cyclopes' heads. The elephant skulls, which can still be found around the area, include a large central nasal cavity where the trunk was once attached, and which could resemble a lone, large eye socket.
3. Tengu
Malcolm Lidbury (aka Pink pasty), Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0
In Japan, fossilized shark teeth have been interpreted as the long, sharp nails of the part-human, part-bird goblins known as Tengu. The fossils are called tengu-no-tsume, or "Tengu's claw." They are said to guard against evil spirits and to cure demoniacal possession, and are sometimes enshrined in temples as a treasure.
4. Giant Humans
Bill Faulkner, National Park Service, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain
In Greece, the discovery of massive bones from mammoths, mastodons, and woolly rhinoceroses was seen as confirming the existence of mighty giants and ancestral heroes. Even St. Augustine and the prolific Jesuit writer Athanasius Kircher misidentified enormous teeth and bones from ancient mammals as evidence of giants, and the practice still hasn't entirely died out.
According to the scholar James L. Hayward, one of the most remarkable cases of such misidentification came from eminent Swiss physician Johann Jacob Scheuchzer, who in 1726 published the 24-page treatise Homo diluvii testis ("The man who witnessed the flood"). The treatise included descriptions of fossil skeletons found in lakebeds near Oeningen, Switzerland, which were presented as if they were the remains of ancient humans who lived in the time before Noah and his ark. The treatise was cited as "evidence" of pre-flood man until 1787. Later, paleontologist Georges Cuvier correctly identified the fossils in question as belonging to a giant salamander.
5. Unicorns
iStock.com/SergeyMikhaylov
In the Middle Ages, Danish sailors brought the pointy, pale, spiraled horns of the narwhal to Europe, where people believed they were the remains of magical unicorns and possessed valuable healing powers. In fact, narwhals contributed to the idea of the unicorn horn being long and white; earlier tales had described them in a variety of shapes and colors, but the myths and legends solidified around the look we know today once narwhal horns came on the scene.
But narwhals aren't the only animals passed off as unicorns: In 1663, German naturalist Otto von Güericke made the first-known reconstruction of Pleistocene mammals, labeling his awkward creation a two-legged "unicorn." (His unicorn "horn" is said to be a mammoth tusk, although some sources say he used a narwhal horn atop mammoth and woolly rhinoceros bones). A reconstruction of his creation is on display near the zoo in Osnabrück, Germany.
6. Dragons
Jstuby, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain
A variety of creatures' remains have been said to belong to dragons, including the woolly rhinoceros. In fact, the town hall of Klagenfurt, Austria once exhibited a woolly rhinoceros skull as the remains of the Lindwurm, a serpent-like dragon that terrorized the area before being slain by knights. The town's Lindwurmbrunnen (dragon fountain), constructed in the 16th century and still on view, is based on that skull.
Fossils of lepidodendron (an ancient tree-like plant) have also been exhibited as dragon skins, and not all that long ago. Some were presented in Wales in 1851 as pieces of the body of a gigantic fossil serpent. (If you squint and don't know any better, the leaf bases on the trunk of the plant look a little like scales.)
In Asia, dinosaur fossils have long been mistaken for dragon bones and teeth. "Dragon bones" are still sold as such by practitioners of traditional medicine in eastern and southeastern Asia, where they are said to cure madness, diarrhea, and other ailments. The medicine is actually formed from the fossils of dinosaurs and other extinct animals found in China's fossil beds.
7. Vishnu's Wheel
Becks, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 2.0
In medieval Europe, people believed that fossilized ammonites—an extinct group of marine invertebrate animals—were petrified coiled snakes, and saw them as the evidence of the work of divine figures like St. Hilda, who turned snakes into stone.
But in the Himalayas, fossil ammonites are considered sacred and thought to be the discs or wheels belonging to the Hindu god Vishnu (the four-armed god holds a disc or wheel in one of his hands). The fossils are still held in high regard by Hindus throughout India, while in Nepal and Tibet, they are seen as representing the 8-spoked wheel of the law, dharmachakra.
8. Sea Serpents
Ellis, R. Monsters of the Sea, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain
Specimens from "sea serpents" have been identified as partially decayed basking sharks, deformed snakes, and masses of floating seaweed. But in the 1840s, conman Albert Koch went across the clay fields of Clarke County, Alabama, looking for bones from Basilosaurus, a 40-million-year old genus of a newly-discovered, giant, reptilian-like whale. Koch assembled the bones he discovered into a 114-foot-long creature he labeled Hydroarchos, the "water king." The abomination was twice the size of the real Basilosaurus and an obvious composite rather than one complete skeleton, but that didn't stop King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia from buying the thing for his Royal Anatomical Museum. (Koch later created another one for a museum owner in Chicago.) In 1845, Koch exhibited the "great sea serpent" at the Apollo Saloon in New York City for an entry fee of 25 cents.
dinosaurs fossils myths
100 Years Later: 50 Facts About Prohibition
BY Scott Beggs
(Updated: January 17, 2020)
The sheriff of Orange County, California, dumping bootleg booze during Prohibition
Orange County Archives, Wikimedia // CC BY 2.0
For 13 years, the United States had a constitutional ban on booze. By 1920, the chorus of citizens who didn't want the "corrupting" effects of alcohol ruining society had grown loud enough that the government acted to shut down booze-based business—and on January 17, 1920, Prohibition in the U.S. officially went into effect. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibited the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors."
Try considering what life might be like without a local pub or easy access to bottles of wine while you read these 50 not-at-all-dry facts about Prohibition.
1. Prohibition's roots are as old as the colonies.
Revellers buying their drinks at a bar in 1931, when Prohibition was in full effect
Keystone/Getty Images
Distilled spirits were the first domestic product to be taxed by the nascent federal government, led by President George Washington, as a way to raise a significant amount of money from a popular luxury item. The tax also found support with social reformers, who hoped this "sin tax" would stop people from drinking as much.
2. Early Americans protested prohibition back then, too.
Farmers and distillers refusing to pay the tax led to the Whiskey Rebellion, which saw armed resistance challenge Washington's militia. The resistance ultimately fell apart, and two men were convicted of treason. (Washington later pardoned them.)
3. Maine got an early start on prohibition.
The first state to outlaw alcohol was Maine, which passed its law in 1851 thanks largely to the local Temperance movement leader and Quaker mayor of Portland, Neal Dow. After four years under the law, a mob of 3000 stormed city hall in 1855 when "[t]he city's Irish working-class residents found out their teetotaling, saloon-raiding mayor was storing $1600 worth of liquor at City Hall," according to Smithsonian.com. Oops.
4. Kansas prohibited alcohol in its constitution.
Maine's prohibition test led to several other states adopting similar laws, but Kansas was the first to have a constitutional ban on alcohol manufacturing and sales. Voters passed the amendment in November 1880, and their state legislature made manufacturing alcohol a misdemeanor shortly after.
5. The Supreme Court once called alcohol "evil."
Peter Mugler set up a brewery in Kansas in 1877, and the constitutional ban made his business worthless. So when he was indicted on charges of violating the new ban, he appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court ... where he lost. In the 8-1 decision, Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote that the court had to consider the social deterioration caused by alcohol and that "idleness, disorder, pauperism, and crime existing in the country are, in some degree at least, traceable to this evil."
6. Prohibition had a trial run during WWI.
Americans got a taste of prohibition when the Wartime Prohibition Act passed and took effect June 30, 1919. The idea behind the act was to preserve grain for the war effort.
7. The Prohibition Party mascot was a camel.
Servet TURAN/iStock via Getty Images
Republicans have the elephant. Democrats have the donkey. The Prohibition Party had the camel, a perfect symbol for not drinking.
8. Economists were in favor of Prohibition.
Many economists, including the former president of the American Economic Association, Dr. Irving Fisher, thought prohibiting alcohol would have a positive effect on the nation's economy. One major target was "Blue Monday," the wasted day of productivity following a Sunday of heavy drinking.
9. Prohibition was entangled with nativism and anti-immigrant sentiments.
While alcohol was the main enemy, communities that favored alcohol (like Catholic immigrant groups) also came under fire. Nativist rhetoric was used alongside anti-alcohol arguments that railed against alcohol as an agent of social corrosion, and at least one national Prohibition figure, Bishop James Cannon, openly used anti-Catholic language.
10. Income tax partially made prohibition possible.
Congress generally refused to consider prohibition because taxing alcohol was so lucrative. But after the income tax was established in 1913, representing two-thirds of the taxes the federal government took in by 1920, the fiscal incentive for denying prohibition was almost completely wiped out, paving the way for genuine consideration of the ban.
11. Some people believed alcohol turned your blood to water.
Odd beliefs and misinformation were common while Prohibitionists fought to get the law on the books. One belief was that your blood would become water if you drank, a notion popularized by the "Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction." But it's not the only such strange belief.
12. Prohibition rebooted the KKK.
Topical Press Agency, Getty Images
Because of the connection between Prohibition and anti-immigrant sentiment, the then-diminished Ku Klux Klan used the 18th Amendment and its social backers as a means of resurgence. The racist organization recruited from Protestant Prohibition groups and provided foot soldiers for raids where law enforcement lacked funds and people.
13. Anti-German sentiment gave prohibition a boost during WWI.
With its connection to nativism and anti-immigrant sentiment, the Prohibition movement got a big boost when the United States entered WWI against Germany. Since German Americans ran a majority of the breweries, dry activists argued that buying alcohol was akin to supporting the enemy.
14. President Wilson vetoed the Volstead Act.
While the 18th Amendment made Prohibition the law of the land, the Volstead Act defined what "intoxicating liquors" were and set the parameters for enforcing the new rule. Although publicly agnostic on the wet vs. dry issue, President Wilson vetoed the bill and declared that "personal habits and customs of large numbers of our people" should be legislated with greater caution. However, Congress overrode his veto.
15. Anti-alcohol groups claimed wine was made with cockroaches.
Dry pastor T. P. Hunt warned people off Madeira wine by saying it was "common practice" to make it with a bag of cockroaches.
16. Prohibition supporters also claimed your brain could catch fire …
Prohibition fan George McCandlish said that he'd seen a dead man's brain burst into flame when doctors tested it for alcohol with a lit match.
17. … And that your liver would grow to be 25 pounds.
Drinking does damage the liver, no doubt, but Prohibitionists exaggerated its effect in a bizarre direction when claiming the organ (which is normally about three pounds) could swell up to as much as 25 pounds while drinking.
18. Prohibition proponents also claimed that second-hand alcohol smelling would hurt unborn children.
Alfred Ploetz was a German who moved to Massachusetts in 1890 and wrote in The Influence of Alcohol Upon Race that pregnant women who merely smelled alcohol risked giving birth to deformed babies. He later moved back to Germany and joined the Nazi party as a prominent eugenicist.
19. Prohibition helped women get the vote.
Topical Press Agency/Getty Images
Women were major leaders of the temperance movement, arguing that alcohol made men waste money, become violent, and destroy families. Frances Willard of the Women's Christian Temperance Union called the movement a "war of mothers and daughters, sisters, and wives." Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton also created the Women's State Temperance Society. In nationalizing a cause women cared about, Prohibitionists saw their success as working hand-in-hand with progress toward allowing women to vote. They managed to succeed without that, but the 19th Amendment, which granted women's suffrage, was ratified only seven months after the 18th.
20. The 18th Amendment didn't actually make drinking alcohol illegal.
As you can tell by the prohibitive language on manufacturing, selling, and transporting, the 18th Amendment didn't outlaw drinking hooch per se. There was just a lot less of it to go around.
21. There were 1520 federal agents focused on battling booze.
The Department of the Treasury and the Coast Guard were responsible for enforcing Prohibition, and 1520 agents—many with little training—combated breweries, home operations, and smugglers on land and sea.
22. Doctors had a medical loophole during Prohibition.
Medical professionals lobbied to prescribe alcohol for medicinal purposes while the drug was illegal. Thousands of doctors and pharmacists got official licenses and created a lucrative side gig. Still, there were limits on how much a patient could get: A pint every 10 days.
23. Clergy could also serve sacramental wine during Prohibition.
In 1922, IRS head and main Prohibition regulator David Blair lifted the ban on wine for religious use. It's likely that most local officials let churches use wine even before then.
24. The British refused to help crack down on illegal smuggling.
During Prohibition, British-run Nassau in the Bahamas became a smuggling hub, so the American government repeatedly asked the British government to help shut it down. They did not—probably because alcohol imports to the Bahamas jumped from 5000 quarts to 10 million between 1917 and 1922, and the government collected tariffs on all of it.
25. Winston Churchill had a doctor's note for alcohol so he could drink in America during Prohibition.
Fox Photos/Getty Images
Prescriptions for medicinal alcohol were a luxury, and there was that pesky cap on how much you could get—unless you were Winston Churchill. Not only was his prescription for an "indefinite" amount of alcohol, the doctor put a minimum limit of 250 cubic centimeters (a little more than 8 ounces) on it.
26. Breweries started making ice cream and pottery during Prohibition.
While the church helped keep the wine industry afloat, beer brewers had to transition to survive. The equipment, right down to the refrigerated trucks, made ice cream a lucrative change for Anheuser-Busch and Yuengling, and Coors built and expanded their bottling company to make pottery and ceramic tubing for the military.
27. They also made beer without the alcohol.
It probably can't technically be called beer, but Anheuser-Busch also predicted Prohibition passing and launched a cereal-based, non-alcoholic drink called Bevo in 1916.
28. Anheuser-Busch had beer ready when prohibition ended.
In another sign of the company's forward-thinking, Anheuser-Busch got approval from the government to brew 55,000 barrels of beer in anticipation of Prohibition's end, which is why people could raise their glasses when they heard the law was dead.
29. People bought bread-making ingredients to make beer at home.
Buyenlarge/Getty Images
Sorry, homebrewers: During Prohibition, it was illegal to make beer at home. Fortunately, breweries also shifted to selling malt extract to the public as a baking additive that no one actually used to bake with. One newspaper reckoned that enough malt extract was sold in an Ohio town each week to make 16 loaves for every person who lived there.
30. You could also buy a brick of grapes during Prohibition.
In a similar pivot, winemakers began selling bricks of dried grape juice that came with a warning label with explicit instructions on how not to let it soak and ferment into delicious wine.
31. Prohibition encouraged the Waldorf-Astoria to create the modern kids' menu.
Oases of adult fun, hotel restaurants used to keep children out, but with the threat of losing money during Prohibition, the famous Waldorf-Astoria in New York turned to the youth market with a special menu featuring Little Jack Horner and broiled lamb chops.
32. Medicinal booze really helped Walgreen's.
The burgeoning pharmacy credits milkshakes, but selling booze when it was illegal arguably helped Walgreen's expand from 20 stores to 525 in the 1920s.
33. Men and women started drinking together during Prohibition.
Before Prohibition, men and women were largely separated socially. The pub was a men-only domain. Once alcohol became illegal, speakeasies that were already breaking the law saw no real need to discriminate who they sold to, so women joined in the fun. Over time, men and women drinking and listening to music together in a crowded, sweaty room became the norm.
34. Prohibition gave birth to NASCAR.
PICSUNV/iStock via Getty Images
The connection between illegal hooch and the sport of driving incredibly fast is a pretty obvious one: Moonshiners transported their illicit wares in the fastest cars they could build to evade police. Since driving fast is fun, people kept doing it even without cops on their tail, and by 1947, NASCAR was founded.
35. Brand-name booze became a big deal during Prohibition.
Moonshine was cheap, but it could blind you. Or kill you. So, if you had the money, you'd order something with a familiar name and a comforting label. Foreign liquor manufactures created brands specifically for the U.S. market to capitalize on the consumer desire to not be killed by unregulated hooch.
36. There was an explosion of slang during Prohibition.
Bathtub gin. Juice joint. Whale. Blotto. A lot of words sprung from the collective imagination while hooch-makers served white lightning to booze hounds on the sly.
37. Enforcement during Prohibition was tragically uneven.
While Congress and the president kept drinking, and the wealthy got by with pricey "medicinal" alcohol from pharmacies, police enforced the law to dramatic effect among urban immigrant and African American communities.
38. There was a lot of hooch at the White House.
Prohibition, schmohibition. President Warren Harding (who voted for the Volstead Act as a senator) kept a fully stocked bar in the White House and had frequent poker nights where everyone drank whiskey.
39. Congressmen kept drinking and had their own supplier.
Bootlegger George Cassiday brought bottles of alcohol to Congressional buildings in a briefcase, making an average of 25 trips a day. He became widely known as "The Man in the Green Hat" when he was arrested while wearing, ahem, a green hat, and banned from entering the Cannon House Office Building (so he switched to the Russell Building). Capitol Police largely let him go through unchecked, but the Prohibition Bureau initiated a sting operation that sent Cassiday to prison for 18 months.
40. George Cassiday estimated that 80 percent of congressmen drank illegally.
George Cassiday, bootlegger to Congress, in 1930
Library of Congress, Wikimedia // No known copyright restrictions
The bootlegger wrote articles for The Washington Post and claimed that 80 percent of Congress broke their own law during Prohibition. Apparently, they also left bottles lying all over the place.
41. Prohibition turned public sentiment around on tipping.
Before Prohibition, the public looked down on tipping as an outdated specter of the aristocracy. But with alcohol sales disappearing overnight, a lot of businesses suffered, so they cut corners by not paying servers as much—and encouraged customers to tip servers to make up the difference.
42. Drinking went down during Prohibition.
In the earliest days of the Volstead Act's implementation, alcohol use dropped to 30 percent of pre-Prohibition levels. It jumped back up while the 18th Amendment was still in place, but only to 60 to 70 percent of the original level.
43. Ending Prohibition took doing what had never been done.
In the United States, there are two methods of ratifying amendments to the Constitution: One is sending the amendment to state legislatures; the second is sending it to state ratifying conventions. The second method had never been used before the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th, and it hasn't been used again since. On December 5, 1933, Utah became the 36th state to approve the repeal of Prohibition, making the amendment official. Maine passed it the following day, and Montana, purely symbolically, passed it the following August.
44. Two states rejected the repeal of Prohibition outright.
Both South Carolina and North Carolina did not ratify the 21st Amendment. Even more drastically, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Oklahoma didn't even call a convention.
45. FDR drank a martini to mark the end of Prohibition.
Prohibition lasted for 13 years, and when Utah put repeal proponents over the mark, President Franklin Roosevelt celebrated with a martini and said, "What America needs now is a drink."
46. Some states stayed dry after Prohibition was repealed.
As you might guess from the states who refused to even consider the 21st Amendment, not everyone was happy about going back to imbibing. Kansas, for example, prohibited alcohol until 1948. In Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, counties have to opt-in to legalizing alcohol. About 18 million American now live in "dry" areas.
47. The black market made $3 billion per year during Prohibition.
A haul of illegal liquor found during Prohibition
National Photo Company Collection, Wikimedia // No known restrictions
Prohibition Commissioner Dr. James Doran estimated in a 1930 interview that the illicit alcohol industry pulled in $3 billion a year, with 25 million gallons of booze a year coming from "distillation in large, hidden stills." That's $45 billion in today's money considering inflation. It also cost the government $11 billion in lost tax revenue and more than $300 million to enforce.
48. Seventy percent of Americans now drink.
Despite Prohibition, Americans never fell out of love with alcohol. According to the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 70 percent of Americans over the age of 18 had consumed alcohol in the past year. More than half reported having a drink within the past month.
49. Almost one-fifth of Americans think drinking is morally wrong.
According to a 2019 Gallup poll, 19 percent of Americans said drinking alcohol was morally wrong, and a 2014 CNN poll [PDF] found that 18 percent believed alcohol shouldn't be legal. So it may not be a surprise that ...
50. The Prohibition Party still exists.
Their platform is still rooted in Christianity and supports assisting vineyard operators to switch their crops.
alcohol beer History Lists News
When Mississippi Once Banned Sesame Street
BY Jake Rossen
Children's Television Workshop/Courtesy of Getty Images
Since it began airing in the fall of 1969, Sesame Street has become an indelible part of millions of children's formative years. Using a cast of colorful characters like Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, and Oscar the Grouch, along with a curriculum vetted by Sesame Workshop's child psychologists and other experts, the series is able to impart life lessons and illustrate educational tools that a viewer can use throughout their adolescence. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone—even Oscar—who would take issue with the show's approach or its mission statement.
Yet that's exactly what happened in early 1970, when a board of educational consultants in Mississippi gathered, polled one another, and decided that Sesame Street was too controversial for television.
The series had only been on the air for a few months when the newly formed Mississippi Authority for Educational Television (also known as the State Commission for Educational Television) held a regularly scheduled meeting in January 1970. The board had been created by the state legislature with appointees named by Governor John Bell Williams to evaluate shows that were set to air on the state's Educational Television, or ETV, station. The five-member panel consisted of educators and private citizens, including a teacher and a principal, and was headed up by James McKay, a banker in Jackson, Mississippi.
McKay's presence was notable for the fact that his father-in-law, Allen Thompson, had just retired after spending 20 years as mayor of Jackson. Highly resistant to integration in the city during his tenure in office, Thompson was also the founder of Freedom of Choice in the United States, or FOCUS, an activist group that promoted what they dubbed "freedom of choice" in public schools—a thinly veiled reference to segregation. Mississippi, long the most incendiary state in the nation when it came to civil rights, was still struggling with the racial tension of the 1960s. Systemic racism was an issue.
Entering this climate was Sesame Street, the show pioneered by Joan Ganz Cooney, a former journalist and television producer who became the executive director of the Children's Television Workshop. On the series, the human cast was integrated, with black performers Matt Robinson and Loretta Long as Gordon and Susan, respectively, appearing alongside white actors Jada Rowland and Bob McGrath. The children of Sesame Street were also ethnically diverse.
Astrid Stawiarz, Getty Images
This appeared to be too much for the Authority, which discussed how lawmakers with control over ETV's budget—which had just been set at $5,367,441—might find the mixed-race assembly offensive. The panel's participants were all white.
The board pushed the discussion aside until April 17, 1970, when they took an informal poll and decided, by a margin of three votes against two, to prohibit ETV from airing Sesame Street—a show that came free of charge to all public television stations. (The decision affected mainly viewers in and around Jackson, as the station had not yet expanded across the state and was not expected to do so until the fall of 1970.)
The members who were outvoted were plainly unhappy with the outcome and leaked the decision to The New York Times, which published a notice of the prohibition days later along with a quote from one of the board members.
"Some of the members of the commission were very much opposed to showing the series because it uses a highly integrated cast of children," the person, who did not wish to be named, said. "Mainly the commission members felt that Mississippi was not yet ready for it."
The reaction to such a transparent concession to racism was swift and predictably negative, both in and out of Mississippi. Board members who spoke with press, usually anonymously, claimed the decision was a simple "postponing" of the show, not an outright ban. The fear, they said, was that legislators who viewed ETV as having progressive values might shut down the project before it had a chance to get off the ground. It was still possible for opponents to suffocate it before it became part of the fabric of the state's television offerings.
The concern was not entirely without merit. State representative Tullius Brady of Brookhaven said that ETV exerted "a subtle influence" on the minds of children and that the Ford Foundation, which funded educational programming, could use its influence for "evil purposes." Other lawmakers had previously argued against shows that promoted integration.
Slaven Vlasic, Getty Images
Regardless of how the decision was justified, many took issue with it. In an anonymous editorial for the Delta Democrat-Times, a critic wrote:
"But Mississippi's ETV commission won't be showing it for the time being because of one fatal defect, as measured by Mississippi's political leadership. Sesame Street is integrated. Some of its leading cast members are black, including the man who does much of the overt 'teaching.' The neighborhood of the 'street' is a mixed one. And all that, of course, goes against the Mississippi grain."
Joan Ganz Cooney called the decision a "tragedy" for young people.
Fortunately, it was a tragedy with a short shelf life. The following month, the board reconvened and reversed its own informal poll result, approving of Sesame Street and agreeing that ETV could air it as soon as they received tapes of the program. Thanks to feeds from Memphis, New Orleans, and Alabama, Sesame Street could already be seen in parts of Mississippi. And thanks to the deluge of negative responses, it seemed pointless to try to placate politicians who still favored segregation.
In the fall of 1970, the Sesame Street cast appeared in person in Jackson and was met by representatives from the board, which helped to sponsor the live performance, though it's not clear any apology was forthcoming.
Sesame Street would go on to win numerous awards and accolades over the proceeding 50 years, though it would not be the only children's show to experience censorship on public television. In May 2019, ETV networks in Alabama and Arkansas refused to air an episode of the PBS animated series Arthur in which a rat and aardvark are depicted as a same-sex couple getting married.
entertainment History kids muppets News Pop Culture TBT Television tv


text:
Seqster launches new cloud version of virtual trial data tool
IBM Watson joins Norway cancer cluster
Richard Staines
IBM is looking to build partnerships with healthcare organisations to unlock the potential of its Watson cognitive computing system – and its latest partner will be a cluster of cancer biotechs and academic experts based in Oslo, Norway.
The US-based computing firm is the latest organisation to join the Oslo Cancer Cluster, a network of academics, pharmaceutical companies and biotechs that have sprung up around the site of the Norwegian Radium Hospital in Oslo.
At an event hosted by AbbVie, one of the pharma companies that has also formed a partnership with the site, Loek Vredenberg, technical leader at IBM Norway, said the company is trying to find ways to develop Watson's potential within healthcare systems.
"For us at IBM, collaboration is very important," he said.
The conference saw one example of how Watson can already help with their prescription decision-making, a conference heard.
The conference, Behind The Scenes of Breakthrough Innovations, heard that Watson can use its cognitive abilities to provide suggestions for physicians trying to decide drug regimens for patients.
With science progressing rapidly, doctors may find it difficult to keep pace with the most relevant treatment options.
Watson can aid them by drawing up a list of suggestions by analysing patient data, and interrogating the available scientific data, to produce a list of options. The system is already being used in China to personalise cancer care.
IBM's system is designed to improve health outcomes and thus bring indirect savings to health systems – but the company was coy about how much the systems will pay to access Watson.
Representatives of IBM declined to give details about how much they charge for the service – but said the price will vary from country to country.
The US has a healthcare system which is largely based on private contributions, while in Europe and Nordic countries, health systems are publicly funded – so the amount of cash available for this kind of technology varies.
Peter Mortensen, Watson Health Executive at IBM, said: "There are different price models."
Ulf Hertin, healthcare lead at Sweden's analytics firm SAS Institute, said that health IT companies could look to vary the cost of the services they provide, based on the kind of clinical results that they produce.
A health outcomes based pricing system could serve both the health system, and the IT provider, by stimulating them both to improve patient outcomes, said Hertin.
He told the conference: "If you improve an outcome then you can share that."
The project is just the latest high profile initiative for IBM's cognitive computing superstar. Watson has been recruited to help in the US Cancer Moonshot 2020 Initiative as well as clinical trial patient matching programmes. In the UK, Watson is helping create its first 'cognitive hospital' in Alder Hey Children's hospital.
3 key trends shaping the immunology market
New Speakers from Roche & Imperial College announced for SMi's ADMET Event
bluebird bio to split into oncology and gene therapy specialists

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
How Lebanon became the latest Battlefield in the Cold War between Saudi Arabia and Iran
Middle East Monitor 11/02/2021
By Amira Abo el-Fetouh | –
( Middle East Monitor ) – Lebanon is plagued by crises, with a new one added almost daily. The people are suffering from power cuts and fuel shortages, and queue for hours at petrol stations and bakeries. Daily life has become unbearable. There is also the conflict between the Lebanese armed forces and Hezbollah to contend with. Nobody knows how it will end. Is another civil war on the way? The price for this will be paid by ordinary people with their money, blood and lives.
As if all of this wasn't enough, we now see that Minister of Information George Kordahi has unwittingly dragged Lebanon into a new crisis following statements he made during an episode of the "People's Parliament" on Al Jazeera, when he called the war in Yemen "futile". The programme was recorded in August, before he became a minister in the government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Following his appointment, Kordahi asked Al Jazeera not to air the episode because he had expressed his personal views, not the official Lebanese government position. His request was ignored, and the episode was aired. The timing is suspicious, given that it has prompted a diplomatic crisis.
The graceless Saudi Arabian Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, was not happy with Kordahi's comment. It was Bin Salman, remember, who launched his coalition military campaign against Yemen under the name "Operation Decisive Storm" eight years ago, and has not been able to resolve it. He claimed at the time that the battle would last just a few hours during which he would eliminate the rebellious Houthis and restore the legitimate government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to Yemen.
As we all know, it didn't turn out that way. Houthi missiles have hit Riyadh and other Saudi cities, forcing Bin Salman to present an initiative to end the war in Yemen, which the Houthis rejected without hesitation. Now Bin Salman is asking some Western countries to mediate with Iran — which backs the Houthis — for a ceasefire and negotiations. Recent news is that there are indeed negotiations taking place between Saudi Arabia and Iran behind closed doors.
Kordahi isn't alone in thinking that the war in Yemen is futile; politicians and government officials in the West have said the same thing, as have analysts and writers, myself included. We have urged an immediate end to the fighting because it has killed and injured tens of thousands of Yemenis, destroyed their land and country, and created a humanitarian catastrophe.
So why did Saudi Arabia react so strongly after Kordahi's comment was aired by Al Jazeera? What was the major crime that made Saudi Arabia and its coalition ally the UAE expel the Lebanese ambassadors from both countries, recall their own ambassadors from Beirut and impose economic sanctions on struggling Lebanon? Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar have also condemned Kordahi's statements and reiterated their support for Saudi Arabia.
I believe that there is more to this than Kordahi's comment. This was confirmed by the Saudi foreign minister's remarks to Reuters about the crisis. "I think it's important that the government in Lebanon or the Lebanese establishment forges a path forward that frees Lebanon from the current political construct, which reinforces the dominance of Hezbollah," said Prince Faisal Bin Farhan.
The way that Saudi Arabia has escalated the crisis with Lebanon illustrates the immaturity of the governments of failed Arab states. Lebanon's misfortune is that it is plagued by Saudi Arabia and Iran, each of which backs their Lebanese followers along sectarian lines.
Although Prime Minister Mikati praised Saudi Arabia's regional role and its support for Lebanon in particular, his country's support for Riyadh and condemnation of the Houthi attacks on the Kingdom did not satisfy Bin Salman. I wonder, though, why the prince did not take such a strong stand against those in the West who have condemned his "futile" war in Yemen.
Why didn't he feel that the Kingdom was being insulted when Donald Trump insulted it in his speeches and said that he would milk the country, which needed to pay for US protection. He also said if it wasn't for the US, Bin Salman and his ilk would not still be in their positions. Why have they stayed silent in the face of constant insults by Western leaders and officials? They look in their mirrors and see lions; they are anything but.
George Kordahi is under pressure to resign, but he insists that Lebanon is a sovereign country and cannot give in to blackmail, so he will not submit his resignation. However, the fate of the Mikati government will depend on him doing so. According to Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, Kordahi is considering the resignation proposal, but he is consulting with others before making his decision. This is a reference to his allies in Syria and Hezbollah.
Mikati's government could well fall if Kordahi insists on staying on as minister of information. On the face of it, this is a storm in a teacup which wouldn't have such serious repercussions under normal circumstances. But this is not a normal set of circumstances. We could well be looking at Lebanon as the latest battlefield in the war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Amira Abo el-Fetouh is a writer on politics and literature and a physician, living in Cairo.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor or Informed Comment.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
TRT World: "Saudi Arabia expels Lebanese Ambassador, bans all imports from Lebanon"
Filed Under: Arab World, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Yemen
Middle East Monitor is a not-for-profit press monitoring organization, founded on 1 July 2009, and based in London. Journalists who have written for it include Amelia Smith, Diana Alghoul, Ben White, Jehan Alfarra and Jessica Purkiss. The editorial line straddles the British left and the British Muslim religious Right.


In October, 1996, a group of 25 wrestling coaches, officials and supporters met in Monterey, California to organize a California Wrestling Hall Of Fame.Since this meeting, a steering committee has met and adopted by-laws recommendations to the state Hall Of Fame Committee. Additional meetings took place and a selection procedure for induction into the California Wrestling Hall Of Fame is in place.California has been long overdue in establishing a Hall of Fame. There are many past coaches, officials, athletes and supporters of wrestling who should be recognized and remembered for their contributions to our sport, "the oldest living sport" Wrestling.
At the present time, we are searching for a Hall Of Fame facility. Many prefer a location in a central California city such as Fresno, Bakersfield, or San Luis Obispo, so that it could be centrally located. However, if the committee could locate a facility that would facilitate our Hall, that is where we would go as this is our primary goal.
If you would like further information on the goals of the California Hall Of Fame (see mission statement), or would like to serve on the Hall Of Fame Committee, contact Lynn Dyche at (408) 978-9543 or email Lynn at dyche2747@sbcglobal.net. The committee is also seeking donations to support this worthwhile endeavor.


Reach out to us in Charli Hyden, we are looking forward to hearing what you have to say. It is an important part of growing into something better and maybe even bigger. Thank you for your continued patronage, see you around.


text:
Q: Working with .txt in VS2008 in C I wrote some program which overwrites some text in .txt file and put the overwritten one in another output.txt... But it's constantly saying that the file can't be opened. What should I do?

#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>

int main()
{
 FILE *ul=fopen("hexbr.txt","r"),*iz=fopen("bitovi.txt","w");
 int i;
 char ch;

 if ((!ul)||(!iz)) { printf("Neuspesno otvaranje datoteke!");return 0; }
 while((ch=fgetc(ul))!=EOF)
  {
   if ((isdigit(ch)) || (c>='A' && c<='F'))
    {
     if (isalpha(ch))
       switch(ch)
       {
         case 'A': { fputc('1',iz);fputc('0',iz);fputc('1',iz);fputc('0',iz);continue; }
         case 'B': { fputc('1',iz);fputc('0',iz);fputc('1',iz);fputc('1',iz);continue; }
         case 'C': { fputc('1',iz);fputc('1',iz);fputc('0',iz);fputc('0',iz);continue; }
         case 'D': { fputc('1',iz);fputc('1',iz);fputc('0',iz);fputc('1',iz);continue; }
         case 'E': { fputc('1',iz);fputc('1',iz);fputc('1',iz);fputc('0',iz);continue; }
         case 'F': { fputc('1',iz);fputc('1',iz);fputc('1',iz);fputc('1',iz);continue; }
       }
     for(i=0;i<4;i++)
      {
       fputc((ch & 0X8)?'1':'0',iz);
       ch<<=1;
      }
    }
   else fputc(ch,iz);
   if (ch=='\n') { ch=fgetc(ul);fputc(ch,iz); }
  }
 fclose(ul);
 fclose(iz);
 return 0;
}

A: The program did not compile without error, there is a pair of typos here, c should be ch:
... (c>='A' && c<='F') ...

Apart from that the program almost works, and the output file (created in the same folder as the executable) is readable.
There is a mistake in trying to handle newline chars, which mistakenly causes the next (printing) char to be passed through and not converted to binary. I left newline and return to be passed through like other non-hex chars.
Other than that, the handling of A..F is clumsy. I suggest trapping them like this:
while((ch=fgetc(ul))!=EOF)
{
    if ((isdigit(ch)) || (ch>='A' && ch<='F'))
    {
        if (isalpha(ch))
            ch -= 7;
        for(i=0;i<4;i++)
            {
            fputc((ch & 0X8)?'1':'0',iz);
            ch<<=1;
            }
    }
    else fputc(ch,iz);
}

And you might want to check and convert the lower case a..f too.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


On the day the Murphys released their joint tax return, Phil Murphy was again mostly laying low. Of Thursday's three events featuring former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and astronaut husband Mark Kelly, Murphy was scheduled to attend only one, leaving lieutenant governor candidate Sheila Oliver to take the lead. The theme? Gun laws.
"We can and we must close the loopholes that allow some gun sales to go through without a background check. We can and must work with neighboring states on comprehensive ways to curb the flow of illegal guns. We can and we must block and outlaw bump stocks in New Jersey," said Oliver.
New Jersey has some of the nation's toughest gun laws, and, in fact, the state's overall gun death rate is about half the national rate, but in counties like Essex, Camden and Salem, the rates are much higher. Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011 and her husband have become strong advocates for new gun laws. On Thursday, Kelly criticized Kim Guadagno while Giffords served in the role of inspirational leader.
"You know, one day, she'd say that she'll talk about gun safety another day. Then, the next day, she would close the door to any thought about talking about gun safety, and the day after that, she would often go silent. But after the gun lobby says that they would be open to a discussion about bump stocks, she's open to a discussion about bump stocks," said Kelly.
"Now is the time to come together, be responsible. Democrats, Republicans, everyone. We must never stop fighting. Fight. Fight. Fight," said Giffords.
Murphy was expected to join Giffords at a rally on the issue Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, those tax returns show the couple's combined income for 2016 was more than $4.6 million. They paid $1.4 million in federal and state taxes.
The Guadagno campaigned called that half a loaf.
"He hasn't released thousands of pages of his tax returns, which would disclose his worldwide investments, $1.8 million in itemized deductions and other detailed information about his massive fortune," the campaign said in a statement.
Murphy's camp said they'll release more detailed information on investments and deductions Friday, which will be closely examined again as the week with the Democratic campaign comes to a close.


Grease a 9-inch springform pan, and dust with unsweetened cocoa; set aside. Melt chopped chocolate and butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Whisk together egg yolks and vanilla in a large bowl. Gradually stir in chocolate mixture; whisk until well blended. Beat egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beating until sugar dissolves and stiff peaks form. Fold one-third beaten egg white mixture into chocolate mixture; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture just until blended. Spoon batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes. (Do not overbake.) Let stand in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes before removing sides of pan.


text:
Q: Как удалить каждый n-ый элемент в списке с помощью Stream API? У меня есть некий ArrayList<String>, как мне с помощью стримов удалять каждый 5 элемент?

A: List<String> filteredList = list.stream().filter(new Predicate<String>() {
    int counter = 1;
    @Override
    public boolean test(String s) {
        return counter++ % 5 != 0;
    }
}).collect(Collectors.toList());

A: Метод принимает исходную коллекцию, возвращает новую после удаления
public List<T> delEveryFive(List<T> list) {
return IntStream.range(0, list.size())
    .filter(n -> n % 5 != 0) //5 - каждый 5 эл-т удаляется.
    .mapToObj(list::get)
    .collect(Collectors.toList());
}

Источник


text:
This Texas Restaurant With a Robot Server Has Very Mixed Reviews
Emily Claire Published: March 1, 2022
@fortworthlovelist via TikTok
Japan House is an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant located outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth area in North Richland Hills, Texas.
I came across the restaurant on Tiktok, and everything from the building design to the decor is aimed at making you feel like you're actually in Japan. You pay $29 dollars per person for all-you-can-eat sushi, ramen, sashimi, hibachi and more. But the really fun thing about it is the adorable cat robot waiters that bring you your food.
Despite all these features which sound like a lot of fun, many people in the TikTok comments had some issues with the place.
There were quite a few commenters saying that they had tried Japan House and were disappointed with the quality of the food. They claimed the fish wasn't fresh and that it wasn't worth the price. They also mentioned how busy the restaurant was and that it's not unusual to wait around an hour for a table. The long wait, price, and allegedly non-fresh fish led many people to say it's just not worth it.
While some commenters didn't like Japan House, there were still plenty of people talking about how it's a cool experience and that they definitely suggest trying it out. I think it's a little unreasonable to expect extremely fresh fish in a landlocked city and paying $30 for all-you-can-eat sushi isn't a bad price, so I don't know how valid the complaints are. However, I would have to try it out myself to really form an opinion.
Despite some people's complaints, I would love to try Japan House if I'm ever in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It seems like a fun and unique experience that isn't available in many places around Texas or the U.S. in general.
5 Unique Lubbock Airbnb Stays That Cost Less Than $100 a Night
Here are 5 Airbnb rentals available in Lubbock, Texas for less than $100 a night. These rentals range from studios that sleep two or three people, all the way up to homes that sleep five people with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The 25 Highest Paying Jobs in Texas
These are the 25 highest paying jobs in Texas based on information from the May 2020 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Source: This Texas Restaurant With a Robot Server Has Very Mixed Reviews
Filed Under: Food and Drink, restaurants, tiktok
Categories: Lubbock News, Videos
Lubbock Man Sick Of Waiting For Aloha BBQ To Reopen Learns To Make His Own


Steam lists it as releasing on October 31. It's unclear whether this has anything to do with Valve's new censorship policies.
Nicely presented information in this post, I prefer to read this kind of stuff. The quality of content is fine and the conclusion is good. I always find www.nexter.org here for news about everything !!! Thanks for the post.


DHan (pronounced Da - hon) joined the SummitWind management team as Executive Assistant in September 2008. It was only a few months before she became Project Administrator. This is not the first time DHan has worked with her dad, Jim. He had her doing farm work at 5 - driving the truck, hoeing weeds out of rice fields (13), putting on shingles (14), etc. DHan claims Dad has been a great boss and now partner. Right before starting work for SummitWind, DHan graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies from Belmont University in Nashville, TN. She participated in Belmont's "Finish What You Started" program for returning adults, and in one year was able to complete her degree. She is pleased to say she spent three years at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, connecting her to SD life.
Previously DHan has worked as a real estate agent helping people buy and sell homes. She is familiar with coordinating efforts to meet the individual needs of clients. The real estate business also familiarized her with contract law and the Realtor Code of Ethics. DHan also managed the videography department of Nashville's Media Services for several years. Here she worked with the law community, scheduling videotaping of depositions, production of media and invoicing. She became quite skilled at mediating problems. This is a skill she used daily while volunteering as President of her Home Owners' Association, and while Moderator of her church.
DHan and her son, Gleeson, live near Nashville, TN. Gleeson is a mature middle schooler and one of the top scholars in his class. He runs a mile in about 6 minutes, plays basketball and has lots of great friends. DHan loves working in, learning about and advancing renewable energy projects. Leaving a legacy to Gleeson that Mom and Grandpa Jim worked to make the world a better place is what drives her.
At SummitWind, Wahpeton Wind and Blue Cloud Wind, DHan accounts for the details, networks and fosters relationships. She retrieves information at the local Register of Deeds offices, gathering pertinent information like exact land descriptions, easements and right-of-ways. If there is any kind of assistance needed in communication, problem solving, contracting, mailing or running around to do, DHan does that as well. Almost daily Jim and DHan collaborate on managing the wind projects. In 2009 she became a partner with Jim, Doug & Tellus in BCW. Now she is really motivated.


text:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">

<title>Table of Contents</title>

Migrating to 1.1

    Table of Contents

Migrating to 1.1

    When Should the Great Migration Occur?

    What Does Deprecation Mean?

    How to Convert Your Program

	Special Coding Techniques

	How to Convert Code that Uses I/O

	How to Convert Code that Uses the AWT

    Lists and Tables

	Alternatives to Deprecated Methods in java.lang, java.net, and java.util

	Character Streams versus Byte Streams

	Alternatives to Deprecated Classes and Methods in java.io

	Alternatives to Deprecated Methods in the AWT

	All Deprecated Classes and Methods in JDK 1.1

	Event-Conversion Table

        Packages New for 1.1

        Classes New for 1.1

	Changes to the Java Language

    JDK 1.1 Compability

	Incompatible Changes in the 1.1 AWT API

Migrating to 1.1

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


According to the OECD, Mexico, South Korea and Greece are among the countries with the longest working hours every year. In Mexico, average annual hours worked come to 2,257 while in South Korea and Greece, they total 2,024 and 2,018 every year respectively. Despite that, a longer working week does not necessarily result in higher levels of productivity. In 2017, GDP per hour worked across the economy came to $21.6 in Mexico, $37 in South Korea and $38.9 in Greece.
By contrast, GDP per hour worked is $99.5 in Ireland, $83.1 in Norway and $72.2 in Germany. That's despite all three of those countries working less hours per year on average than the ones mentioned above. That certainly reinforces the idea that a four-day working week could boost productivity and match current economic output. That was trialled by a company in New Zealand in July and concluded that a four-day working week resulted in a drastic improvement in work-life balance, productivity, heightened commitment, and lower stress levels.


We insist to give the best to our client that's why we only choose the high quality and fine material. An elegant wedding invite is not only about the artwork, texture plays an important role too. People not just see, they feel too. We have 2 fine card, one is Signature and the other one is Pearlescent Luxe.
Signature is matte bright 270gsm white high quality acid free paper with a crisp scala texture. If you are looking for simple but want to have some texture which could show your inner style, this is perfect.
Pearlescent Luxe is fine quality 300gsm metallic pearlescent paper with iridescent shimmering metal-effect alloys. It adds a little glamour to the whole card. This material is always All-Time-Favourite. But, for the darker background, the shimmering effect is not obvious which we usually recommend customer to take Signature material instead.
28, 1st Floor, Persiaran Mahsuri 1/2, Sunway Tunas, Bayan Lepas, 11900 Penang.


It's official - Netflix has released streaming of the "Fuller House," a spin off of the earlier 90s comedy "Full House." The season released at 3 a.m. Friday, Feb. 26, 2016.
Many fans stayed up late last night to binge watch the series. So far, many comments online have been positive.
Most of the original cast is participating, minus the Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.


text:
Q: I want to make accordion in ng-repeat loop using angularjs only with no ui.bootstrap and no jquery I tried using the code given below. This code is not collapsing others. It simply leave other panels open.I want to close other panels on clicking of the current panel. Any help will be appreciated without using jQuery and ui.bootstrap

                     click

               {{item.item}}

and the controller part in which I tried adding the collapsed class to all and then adding the in class to the current clicked item and also removing the collapsed class from the current item
$scope.print= function($event){
   var el= angular.element(document.querySelector('.nothing'));
   console.log(el);
   el.addClass('collapsed');
   angular.element($event.target).removeClass('collapsed');
   angular.element($event.target).addClass('in');
}

A: First, document.querySelector returns only the first match but you want to get them all. querySelectorAll won't do the job either because you target the  tags which change their classes will do nothing.
If any, you can change the classes of the .collapse elements - remove in and add collapsed.

<!DOCTYPE html>

  <title></title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.1/css/bootstrap.min.css">

            click

            {{item.item}}

https://jsbin.com/momuniz/edit?html,output

But this will hide the expanded panels without animation because changing the classes is not enough, it should be with timing so the collapse will be smooth.
To fix it, we need bootstrap to do the collapse and there is an API for that: collapse ().
So instead of remove and add classes by yourself, let bootstrap to do it with
el.collapse('hide')

Live example

<!DOCTYPE html>

  <title></title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.1/css/bootstrap.min.css">

            click

            {{item.item}}

https://jsbin.com/nigumad/edit?html,output
By the way, you don't need querySelector/All when you use angular.element because you can pass the selector directly to angular.element - angular.element('.nothing')


text:
package helma.xmlrpc;

import java.util.Vector;

/**
 * The XML-RPC server uses this interface to call a method of an RPC handler. This should
 * be implemented by any class that wants to directly take control when it is called over RPC. Classes
 * not implementing this interface will be wrapped into an Invoker
 * object that tries to find the matching method for an XML-RPC request.
 */

public interface XmlRpcHandler {

    /**
     * Return the result, or throw an Exception if something went wrong.
     */
    public Object execute (String method, Vector params) throws Exception;

}


text:
Q: Passing complex type with collection parameters to Invoke in a Ria Service I am running into a problem using an Invoke method of a Ria Service.
Specifically, on the silverlight side of things I am adding a collection of Entity objects to a Parent Entity Object.
The Collection is set up as an Association.
When I pass the parent object to the Invoke method the Collection to does not serialize and come through. In this case all the information is new and nothing is yet stored in the database so I don't have any primary keys for any of the entities.
Does anyone have any idea how to get a Complex object containing a collection to serialize to an Invoke method?


Volume 4 includes the names of those Slave Owners with surnames that begin with the Letter M thru R who reported births between the years 1853 to 1865.
According to the information in this volume no one from Rappahannock County with the surname RICHARDS reported a birth during that time frame.
These volumes are indexed by surnames of owners who reported births.


I remember, as a small child, the excitement I would feel about Christmas! I also remember the anxiety I would feel regarding my parents and "where" I would spend the holidays. I remember feeling responsible to "make" my parents happy by being sure they each knew that I loved them and that I wanted to be with them on these important days. However, since my father and mother lived an hour apart, I could never be with them both on days like Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's. I remember lots of tears being shed by my mother as I would drive away to go to my father's house and I would watch her and wonder if she was going to be ok. I had a sinking feeling inside about leaving her alone and was constantly worried that she needed me there in order to be happy. My heart was always torn between "where" I was physically and where I was "needed" emotionally.
As I reflect on those feelings, I realize now that it was not my responsibility to "make" my parents happy or to "plan ahead" for them to enjoy the holidays. Children should not carry those burdens. The intentional efforts needed around complicated holidays are completely the responsibility of the adults. Looking back I can see that both of my parents expected something from me that was unrealistic and I was not able to provide it for them. They "needed me" in order to be happy – to enjoy the holidays – and to keep their emotional stability together. That was an unfair expectation to put on a child.
As a co-parent parent of a seven-year-old, I recognize that spending Christmas without our children can be one of the most difficult experiences known to parents, especially if we have had years of traditional holidays in the past and are now faced with creating new traditions and new ways to celebrate. In no way am I trying to minimize the "ache" or the sadness that a parent can feel inside as they watch their little ones (or teens) drive away with their other parent. In no way do I minimize the potential loneliness that single parents can feel during the holidays. These are hard moments. These take courage to walk through and it takes intentional PRE-PLANNING to handle them well.
What are the most important factors at stake with your child's heart<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />? Emotional stability, minimal conflict, the freedom to love and enjoy both parents, the real meaning behind the holidays – these are just a few. Do whatever it takes to think on these FIRST when planning for the holidays – not on your own emotional needs or expectations. You are the adult and it's not about you - - it's about the children.
Are we thinking about 365 days a year? God showed me early on, in my own co-parenting journey, that what was MOST important is how my daughter feels 365 days a year, not just one day!! Is she emotionally whole and healthy? Is she free to love us both? Do her dad and I think about the "big picture" more than the momentary holiday? Does it really matter if we open Christmas presents on December 25th or are the gifts just as special and enjoyable on December 28th or 29th? Why do we let one day on the calendar dictate so much emotional stress, financial strain, physical exhaustion and unrealistic commercialized expectations? The media would want us to focus on the stuff that makes Christmas special, but I would say, Christmas is about the birth of Christ. That can be celebrated and fully embraced 365 days a year - - why "split" the holidays into such stressful experiences that are focused on the calendar and the clock? Is that why God gave us Christmas?
What do I do when faced with spending a significant holiday alone without my children? (This applies to both single parents and blended family parents.) Now this is where it can get fun! Plan a trip with another single parent (or blended family parents), close friends or family members. Go somewhere unique and different that you have never been (even if it's an hour away and you're back in your own bed that evening). Open your home to other single parents and blended family parents who are in the same boat, without their children. Make a whole day of it – encourage everyone to bring food, movies and games – relax and enjoy the unique fellowship between other adults that can all understand how challenging holidays can be. Decide to spend the day giving your life away in service at a local homeless mission, women's/men's shelter or meeting a need in another person's life - ask a friend to join you and let the day be about serving others in much greater need than yourself – it will be amazing to see how God shows up! Bottom line: intentionally make fun plans for the holiday so that it does not surprise you!
Create new traditions! Instead of spending your time regretting how life has turned out and reminiscing about all that used to be – decide this year to come up with one or two completely new traditions that can be implemented with your children. Especially if this is the first holiday as a single parent or blended family, try to really think outside of the box!
· Have a pajama fashion show and play disco music on Christmas morning!
· Make breakfast for dinner on Christmas Eve and snuggle up and watch Shrek!
· Bake a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake together, use a tube of brown frosting and draw a simple cross on the cake and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus (on ANY day – December 18th, 22nd, 29th – whenever it's the best fit for your children!).
· Pick another family in need and work together to provide something special for them so that your gifts and talents can bless someone else.
· Go Christmas caroling on New Year's Eve (why not?!).
· Make pizza for the main course and dessert pizza to follow.
· Celebrate your new family and the creative legacy you CAN leave in the midst of raising children between two homes.
Make plans for the evening of "departure day" before Christmas. If this is the year your children spend with their other parent, enlist a few of your best friends to go out to dinner and a movie, or to come over for dinner and a game of chess. Pre-plan an activity so that after your children drive away you already HAVE PLANS to do something intentional for yourself so that the emotions don't surprise you - - and if you need to shed tears or talk about the feelings you are experiencing, you'll have the support of other adults who can walk that out with you (but please don't let your children see you cry when they depart with the other parent).
Say positive words out loud!! Let your kids "go freely" and send them off with JOY that they will have a wonderful time with their other family and that you are sincerely EXCITED and happy for the fun they will have while they are away from you. Say those words out loud and often so that their hearts can fully "go" with them to enjoy a few of the days away from you – it will set them FREE to laugh, love and enjoy their other parent. It is a gift you are giving YOUR CHILD by saying these words out loud! It has nothing to do with the other parent, but ALL to do with your precious children and their ability to live free of guilt, free of inappropriate expectations and to simply live out loud the best life possible!!
None of this is easy, but it is all manageable and you can find a way to do it differently! Remember also that God's sweet comfort is close and He has promised us that He will NEVER leave or forsake us – He is with us at all times and He hears every thought, every question, every disappointment and He catches every tear.
Next Month: Photos & Memorabilia – what to do with them for the children's best interest.


text:
Rashid Khan Becomes Second Ever Cricketer to Achieve This T20 Feat. Watch | Cricket News – Latest trending news
Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan is considered to be one of the best bowlers in the T20 format and the 24-year-old added another feather to his already illustrious career on Monday. Rashid, who is currently playing for MI Cape Town in the SA20 League, became the second bowler ever to take 500 wickets in the shortest format of the game. Rashid achieved the feat by dismissing Clyde Fortuin in the 14th over during the match against Pretoria Capitals. West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo is the only other cricketer to take 500 wickets in the T20s. Bravo currently has 614 wickets to his name.
The moment Rashid Khan picked his 500th T20 wicket – The GOAT of T20s. pic.twitter.com/wAHiygckUS
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) January 23, 2023
Rashid has been an integral part of the Afghanistan cricket team for quite some time, and he has also proved his mettle in T20 leagues all around the world. The spinner ended the match against MI Cape Town with figures of three wickets for sixteen runs in four overs – the best among his teammates.
Rashid was on the verge of creating history and he was able to bamboozle Fortuin with an excellent delivery. The ball moved slightly in the air and the batsman ended up edging it onto his stumps.
However, the effort from the spinner was not enough as the Capitals clinched the game by 52 runs.
Will Jacks led the charge for the Capitals with a 19-ball half century and although seven wickets fell in the last 13 overs, Kusal Mendis and Theunis de Bruyn played quick fire knocks to take their team to 182.
Facebook " paraid="1021905887″ xml:lang="EN-US">In response, Dewald Brevis looked in brilliant touch but three wickets each for Wayne Parnell and Anrich Nortje proved to be the deciding factor as MI Cape Town slumped to a heavy defeat.
"Request PM Modi To Shut Wrestling Federation": Former Coach
Denial of responsibility! Theinspi is an automatic aggregator around the Global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email: [email protected] The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
Originally published at www.theshocknews.com
Where the Duggars Stand With Josh Duggar After Child Porn Scandal
Warner Bros. Casting Batman For James Gunn & Peter Safran's DC Universe
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence Announce Return for Fourth 'Bad Boys'
Green comet will swing by Earth for the first time in 50,000 years | CNN – Latest trending news


text:
Jean Charest might well win a federal election – but a Conservative leadership race would be a tall task
John Ibbitson
Published December 19, 2019 Updated December 19, 2019
This article was published more than 1 year ago. Some information in it may no longer be current.
Jean Charest speaks at the Canadian Aerospace Summit in Ottawa on Nov. 13, 2019.
Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Jean Charest is thinking of running for the leadership of the Conservative Party. He would make an ... interesting choice.
Mr. Charest is a consummate politician who would broaden and deepen the base of the party. Justin Trudeau's Liberals would be very unhappy to see him across the aisle.
But though Mr. Charest might well win a federal election, first he would have to win the party's leadership. And that would be no easy thing.
As leader, Mr. Charest took the Progressive Conservative Party from the brink of extinction – winning only two seats in the 1993 election – to barely needing life support – 20 seats and 19 per cent of the vote in the 1997 election. In the next decade, he won three consecutive Quebec elections as premier, an almost impossible feat in that turbulent province.
His instincts are broadly conservative, favouring tax cuts and smaller government. If he often failed to act on those instincts – well, Mr. Charest understands that the art of politics lies in respecting the political terrain, rather than trying to bulldoze it.
On social issues, we could expect support for women's rights and the rights of sexual minorities. A Charest government would respect provincial autonomy as well. Although they are very different people, a Conservative government under Jean Charest would look not that different from Stephen Harper's Conservative government: a strong emphasis on lower taxes, a move toward a balanced budget and an incremental, pragmatic approach to smaller government.
And Mr. Charest could achieve what Mr. Harper could not: strong Conservative gains in Quebec. In Ontario, he would be one of the most attractive candidates the Conservatives could pick, if the question was – as it should be – who can best break through among suburban immigrant voters.
But how would Mr. Charest fare in Western Canada? Not well, which is one reason why the odds of him winning the leadership are so long.
The Reform Party, which begat the Canadian Alliance, which largely begat the Conservative Party, arose as a protest against the Progressive Conservatives when they were led by Brian Mulroney. Mr. Charest was a protégé of Mr. Mulroney. As premier, he supported the long-gun registry that Westerners hated and the Harper government abolished. Quebec set up its own version of the registry after the national program ended.
Western Reformers created their party because they were sick of being ignored or belittled by Central Canadian elites. Mr. Charest is the literal embodiment of those elites.
Within the party, Ontario is also an issue. Mr. Charest first courted, then abandoned, the Common Sense Revolution ideology that propelled Mike Harris to power. There is no love for him within that wing of the party.
There is also the question of how he would put together a political campaign, having been off the national stage for more than 20 years.
Mr. Charest has also been dogged by ethical issues from his time as premier. He has never been charged with or even credibly accused of improper conduct, in the wake of investigations into the Quebec Liberal Party and the province's construction industry.
Nonetheless, eyebrows have been raised. Conservatives love to portray Liberals as a party of greased palms and insider influence. Mr. Charest is not the ideal vehicle for such a message.
So the former premier has baggage. If he won the leadership, there is a risk – although probably only a small one – that the party could rupture into its Red Tory and Reform wings, with the Liberals guaranteed another decade in power.
All that said, there are first-tier candidates and second-tier candidates in any leadership race, and in this Conservative race Mr. Charest would belong emphatically in the first tier, along with former cabinet minister Peter MacKay and former interim leader Rona Ambrose. As a political performer, he would run circles around his opponents.
Other potential candidates, including MPs Erin O'Toole, Pierre Poilievre and Gérard Deltell, are second-tier. During the next election campaign, they would have to introduce themselves to Canadian voters, which is always a disadvantage.
Political parties have two purposes. One is to get a certain idea across. The other is to win and hold power. Liberals mostly care about the second purpose; Tories tend to fixate on the first. But if the Conservatives are a serious party, they should want to win. And if they want to win, say hello to Jean Charest.
To the next Conservative leader: May the best woman win
Equality-of-ridings could have major impact in deciding who replaces Andrew Scheer
Former chair of Conservative leadership race says quick vote on leader possible
Follow John Ibbitson on Twitter @JohnIbbitson


Ten years after 2005's The Craft, BLACKALICIOUS' self-release, Imani, Vol. 1 arrives September 18, 2015. Fans can hear "On Fire Tonight" via Rolling Stone and support their Pledge Music campaign, whose proceeds go towards launching the record, here: http://goo.gl/hKVvMZ. Three years in the works, the album stays true to rapper Gift of Gab's clever tongue-twisting wordplay and DJ/producer Chief Xcel's unique beats through a mix of production and live instruments. A tour is expected later this year.
The audacious album is only the beginning as Imani Vol. 1 is the first volume of a trilogy, and features appearances from Lifesavas, Lateef, Japanese-American rapper Lyrics Born, funk band Monophonics, polyphonic Afro-Pop singer Zap Mama, and Fantastic Negrito who won a performance on NPR's "Tiny Desk". Bosko (Big Boi, Kanye West), Myron of retro soul duo Myron & E, Imani Coppola, and Amde Hamilton also appear on the record. "We wanted to keep the focus closer to us," Gab says. "Vol. 2 may be a bit more guest-heavy, but this one… we want people to get Blackalicious," he told Exclaim. Past albums have featured the likes of Zack de la Rocha and ?uestlove, among others.
with Jimmy Fallon. Imani, Vol. 1 is their fourth overall LP after 1999's Nia (Swahili for "purpose"), 2002's Blazing Arrow, and 2005'sThe Craft.


This feature is universal. It occurs with 3 different values: Fin, Inf, Part. Some words have combined values of the feature; 1 combinations have been observed: Fin|Inf.
7591 tokens (15%) have a non-empty value of VerbForm. 1030 types (17%) occur at least once with a non-empty value of VerbForm. 797 lemmas (15%) occur at least once with a non-empty value of VerbForm. The feature is used with 2 part-of-speech tags: VERB (4317; 9% instances), AUX (3274; 7% instances).
4317 VERB tokens (100% of all VERB tokens) have a non-empty value of VerbForm.
The most frequent other feature values with which VERB and VerbForm co-occurred: Subcat=Tran (3568; 83%), Tense=Pres (3424; 79%).
3274 AUX tokens (100% of all AUX tokens) have a non-empty value of VerbForm.
The most frequent other feature values with which AUX and VerbForm co-occurred: Tense=Pres (2899; 89%).
The 10 most frequent relations where parent and child node agree in VerbForm: VERB –[aux]–> AUX (1004; 67%), VERB –[obl]–> VERB (362; 79%), VERB –[conj]–> VERB (237; 75%), VERB –[ccomp]–> VERB (119; 72%), AUX –[aux]–> AUX (95; 86%), VERB –[xcomp]–> VERB (64; 98%), VERB –[cop]–> AUX (31; 82%), AUX –[ccomp]–> VERB (24; 75%), AUX –[conj]–> VERB (21; 66%), VERB –[xcomp]–> AUX (20; 100%).


I like literate roleplays in the sense people are keen writers, produce at least a decent paragraph per post and at least know how to spell!
I'm short tempered and about as sweet as a vicious rottweiler. Alongside that im passionate, headstrong, creative and faultlessly loyal/kind when i take a liking to someone.
Writing, reading, dancing, drawing, gym, getting out and about, stoking my vanity and going abroad on adventures.
Anything as long as its literate.
whether you're here by mistake, punishment or you belong... find yourself in the bizzare purgatory known as frayham and come against lavish demons, creatures and somethings beyond words. But what are you more afraid of.. them or yourself?
The people too dangerous to go into prison.. yeah they're put here.. and you'll be working with them.. i hope you have life insurance.
An elite boarding school for monsters takes on a human project.


text:
Darwin Hindman Jr., 1933-2019
Darwin Alexander Hindman, Jr, 86, died at home on Monday, June 17, 2019, of pulmonary fibrosis.
A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 22 at Calvary Episcopal Church.
He was born April 30, 1933, in Columbus, Ohio, to Darwin Alexander Hindman and Virginia Doak Hindman. After his mother's death, he was adopted in 1965 by his stepmother, Nancy Elizabeth "Betty" Bebout Hindman.
He arrived in Columbia with his parents in 1936, when his father joined the faculty of the University of Missouri.
He attended school on the University of Missouri campus from kindergarten through law school, at the University Lab School and then the University of Missouri. He earned a BA in political science in 1955, and JD from the Law School in 1961. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi social fraternity and Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. In 2014, He was awarded a Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa from the University of Missouri.
He served in the US Air Force from 1955-58 as a B-47 bomber pilot with the Strategic Air Command. He served in the Reserves from 1958-62. His rank at discharge was Captain.
He married Axie Anderson on July 23, 1960. They have two children, Ellen (Ian) Thomas and Darwin Alexander "Skip" (Betsy) Hindman III. They have four grandchildren, Emily and Jack Thomas, and Walter and Darwin "Sandy" Hindman IV.
He began his practice of law in Mexico, MO in 1961. In 1967, he opened a law firm in Columbia, where he practiced until 2010. He was elected mayor in 1995 and served five terms.
Darwin believed that people working together can make a positive impact on the world, and that his role was public service. He was especially inspired to promote policies to help people live healthier lives and enjoy and preserve nature. He often spoke of using policy to help more people live more satisfactory lives.
One of his inspirations was time spent at a small, rustic cabin built by his family in northern Minnesota, which has come to be a treasured place for family connections.
He got his political start working on campaigns for environmental causes, such as preserving the Meramec River and Irish Wilderness. In the 1980s, he promoted the construction of Columbia's MKT trail as a pilot rail-trail project, and then became the founder and chairperson of the KATY Trail Coalition. His efforts to create the KATY trail included testimony before the US Senate to promote legislation which made rail-trails possible all over the country.
He promoted creative ideas such as Columbia's now-defunct deposit ordinance, its innovative sewage-treatment wetlands, and the building of a public recreation center. The efforts which led to the building of the ARC took decades and two failed campaigns before it was finally approved by voters.
Other causes he supported included the city's Percent for Art policy; a salt drive for Kutaisi, Columbia's sister city in the Republic of Georgia; co-chairing the Citizens Committee for Soil, Water and State Parks in 1996 and 2006; and the creation of a Race Relations Task Force for the city in 1996.
His work was acknowledged by many groups, including the following awards and recognitions:
--Conservation Federation of Missouri: Special Award of Appreciation for leadership in the campaign for the KATY Trail (1987)
--Columbia Chamber of Commerce: Outstanding Citizen Award (1989)
--The Missouri Bar Association Thomas D. Cochran Community Service Award for the Missouri lawyer "whose service and professionalism has significantly enhanced his community" (1990)
--University of Missouri: Alumni Achievement Award (1991)
--MU School of Law: Honorary initiate to The Order of the Coif (1992)
--Chevron-Times Mirror Magazines: Conservation Award: Citizen (1995)
--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Memorial Association: Community Award (1997; 2003 for support of the John William Boone Home and African American History)
--City of Kutaisi, Republic of Georgia: Honorary Citizen
--Missouri Parks and Recreation Association: Public Achievement Award (1999)
--Columbia Values Diversity Celebration: Special Award for Promotion of Diversity and Race Relations (2003, 2010)
-- MU QEBH Honorary Initiate (2004)
--Voluntary Action Center: Community Service Award (2005)
--University of Missouri: College of Arts and Science, Distinguished Alumnus Award (2006)
--Missouri Recreation and Parks Association: Hall of Fame (2009, initial class)
--Robert Wood Johnson Leadership for Healthy Communities Program: the first National Leadership for Healthy Communities Awards (2009)
--Women's Intersport Network: Kent Heitholt Memorial Award in Honor of Extraordinary Efforts on Behalf of Women in Sports (2010)
--Howard B. Lang Jr. Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service to the City of Columbia (2010)
--American League of Bicyclists, the first National Outstanding Achievement Award (2010)
--Regional Economic Development, Inc (REDI)—Special Outstanding Service Award (2010)
--The Columbia-Boone County League of Women Voters Outstanding Citizen Award (with wife Axie) (2010)
--Trail Blazer Award, National Rails to Trails Conservancy (2011)
--Boone County Missouri Historical Society Hall of Fame (with wife Axie) (2017)
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions are suggested to one of the following: Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (www.pulmonaryfibrosis.org), or Columbia Parks and Recreation Fund (https://tinyurl.com/y63vw5cg) including the Darwin and Axie Discovery Garden or the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (https://tinyurl.com/y6hdgqk7). Checks for any of the organizations may be sent c/o Parker-Millard Funeral Home, 12 E. Ash St., Columbia, MO 65203.
Arrangements are under the direction of Parker-Millard Funeral Service and Crematory; 12 East Ash Street, Columbia, Missouri, 65203; (573) 449-4153.
Condolences may be left online for the family at www.parkermillard.com.


I didn't have a theme. Just having my son in the center of each of the pictures was enough for me! I used a notecard with the number of months, and it's a treat to see through the sequence of pictures how my son was growing and developing. We actually just found a print-out of the three-month picture yesterday. Man, did it get me excited for the next one!
That's sweet! They definitely make the whole picture. Make the baby the "theme" completely works too! A completely blank background and whatnot would be really awesome, they are the main focus that way.
You're right though, you take them for those moments. They go by too fast.
Totally forgot the key component of my comment: ADORABLE!
Thank you 🙂 He's a cutie!


text:
Rethinking Media's Role in Conflict and Peace in the Middle East
How can the power of media be better employed to resolve conflict in the region?
Elie Abouaoun and Alberto Fernandez
In 2014, the world watched in disbelief, as global news networks covered the stream of gruesome and horrific beheading videos released by the so-called Islamic State. For the first time, by bringing the terror of the Islamic State directly to the devices in the palm of our hands, it felt personal and close by, rather than across the world in a mysterious land.
Without question, the role of the media in peace and conflict is becoming ever more important. While terror groups like IS have been proven effective in their use of media for their sinister agendas, has the rest of the world caught up?
As media technologies advance, so too must our strategies to responsibly and effectively harness their power. Sadly, in some cases in the Middle East and North Africa, media have been employed, by both regimes and terrorists, as a tool to cause harm, incite violence and fuel dangerous narratives.
With conflict and seemingly unending turmoil ravaging the region today, the role of media is as important as ever in documenting and exposing citizens around the world to the realities on the ground. However, strict requirements and seemingly impossible lists of legalities and compliances imposed by authoritarian regimes result in the suppression of ideas and stories that run counter to the official narrative.
This is especially true in states where the government has cracked down on publications that are critical of their policies, which they describe as "fake news." Too often journalists are targeted for illuminating injustice at the hands of harsh regimes in the region; regimes that are finding it more and more difficult to keep the world in the dark in the modern technological era.
It is not surprising then that the region suffers from a lack of access to credible and reliable information; the result of amateurs taking up journalism as part of "democratization" combined with the unfortunate reality that serious journalists are co-opted by regimes to spread disinformation that aligns with official narratives. It is also challenging to decipher fact from fiction, as competing political agendas and international interests try to direct narratives and sway public opinion in their favor.
The mix of digital technology, unscrupulous politics and commercial exploitation of the new communications landscape highlights the need for a revised framework of ethics, essential for rebuilding public trust in journalism and media; a framework that reasserts that the core values of accuracy, independence and responsible reporting that have evolved over the past 150 years remain as relevant as ever.
The Media's Power to Build Peace
In a recently co-hosted conference in Tunis, Tunisia, the United States Institute of Peace and Al-Hurra Television partnered to address this complex issue and discuss recommendations for how the power of the media can be better employed to promote peacebuilding initiatives and resolve conflict in the region.
By enhancing cooperation and coordination among local, independent media outlets in the region to create networks for knowledge sharing, their influence and strength would be consolidated and magnified.
Additionally, by educating media practitioners in the region about the critical role they can play in building peace, promoting solidarity and understanding among communities in conflict with one another, they can challenge narratives of hatred and the use of violence as legitimate means to an end. Empowering media practitioners to embrace this role is essential, and there is a great opportunity for the international community to play a role here.
With ever advancing media technologies, there are countless creative ways to elevate moderate voices and promote positive chronicles of peace and conflict resolution to change harmful narratives.
Looking at the long-term, the region would benefit from developing and delivering media education to communities, beginning from an early age with a focus on using such skills for peacebuilding initiatives and innovatively combatting hate speech. With ever advancing media technologies, there are countless creative ways to elevate moderate voices and promote positive chronicles of peace and conflict resolution to change harmful narratives.
Finally, and most essentially, governments of the region must provide the space for peace journalism to flourish to mitigate conflict and reduce tension, embracing the positive role that peace journalism can play in bridging divides. Getting violent and paranoid regimes to provide greater space for independent voices is a major challenge, as the trend line has tended to go in the opposite direction since the so-called "Arab Spring," toward greater control and even intelligence service dominance over the media.
Certainly, media alone cannot reverse decades of deep-seated conflict and turmoil in the region, but it can in fact catalyze modest strides toward understanding, empathy and humanizing the "other."
Restless masses throughout the Middle East are deeply unhappy with the status quo, as demonstrations from Algeria to Iran have made abundantly clear. Despite massive repression and regime media manipulation, many of the old lies don't seem to work anymore. The region is indeed hungry for truthful representations of its own history with conflict and for accurate depictions of the consequences and human toll of the violence that has devastated the region. Without it, future generations are likely to repeat it.
This article is cross-posted here with permission (on agreement) from the United States Institute of Peace.
Categories: Middle East - media - mass media - information
Ambassador Alberto M. Fernandez is president of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc.
Elie Abouaoun
Dr. Elie Abouaoun is the director of Middle East and North Africa Programs, based in USIP's Regional Hub in Tunis, Tunisia. Dr. Abouaoun joined USIP after serving as the executive director of the Arab Human Rights Fund. Prior to this, he was the acting country director and program manager of the Danish Refugee Council in Iraq. Elie spent time working as the program coordinator for Ockenden International – Iraq, and before this, within the Lebanese NGO Arcenciel, he was the director of external relations. Dr. Abouaoun served as a senior trainer and consultant for various international organizations since 1996, including the Council of Europe since 2000. In 2001, he was appointed a member of the Reference Group, established by the Directorate of Education-Council of Europe, to supervise the drafting of COMPASS, a manual for human rights education. He later supervised the manual's adaptation and translation into Arabic to be distributed throughout the Arab region in 2003.
"How can the power of media…
"How can the power of media be better employed to resolve conflict in the region?"
An excellent question, not for the question itself, but in that it throws off the hypocrisy that the media is an impartial observer, standing outside events and seeking only to report facts.
"With ever advancing media technologies, there are countless creative ways to elevate moderate voices and promote positive chronicles of peace and conflict resolution to change harmful narratives."
Who decides what's positive and what's not? Who's moderate and who's not? What to emphasize and what to suppress? It used to be that reporters were taught to stay "outside the story", not to become part of it. Influence was for the editorial page. Apparently that changed when "reporters" became "journalists".
"The region is indeed hungry for truthful representations...and for accurate depictions...."
Indeed. But as the media starts trimming or adding information to influence the results, they become part of the problem, no more trustworthy than any other source. Perhaps that's the reason amateurs have become popular -- they often wear their biases on their sleeve, without pretention to impartiality. Their information may be slanted, but at least it's a known direction.
wrbaker
The world rarely saw what…
The world rarely saw what the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army did in the Vietnam War because the press had already chosen sides. One rare occasion was the "Highway of Horror" in 1972 when even the New York Times couldn't avoid briefly writing about, even then it was tucked well inside their paper.