text:
Coursera Reports Third Quarter Fiscal 2021 Financial Results
By: Coursera via Business Wire
November 02, 2021 at 16:10 PM EDT
Revenue grows 33% year-over-year
Large-scale reskilling efforts drive Enterprise growth of 75% year-over-year
Coursera (NYSE: COUR) today announced financial results for its fiscal 2021 third quarter ended September 30, 2021.
"Our third-quarter performance reflects the continued urgency with which companies, campuses, and governments around the world are investing in digital skills," said Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda. "Our recently launched SkillSets and Academies, together with our growing portfolio of Professional Certificates, are well-positioned to fulfill the rising demand for role-based learning among individuals and institutions."
Financial Highlights for Third Quarter Fiscal 2021
Total revenue was $109.9 million, up 33% from $82.7 million a year ago.
Gross profit was $67.7 million or 61.6% of revenue, up 55% from $43.7 million a year ago. Non-GAAP gross profit was $68.3 million or 62.1% of revenue, up 56% from $43.8 million a year ago.
Net loss was $(32.5) million or (29.5)% of revenue, compared to $(11.9) million or (14.4)% of revenue a year ago. Non-GAAP net loss was $(8.0) million or (7.3)% of revenue, compared to $(7.0) million or (8.5)% of revenue a year ago.
Adjusted EBITDA was $(3.1) million or (2.9)% of revenue, compared to $(4.3) million or (5.2)% of revenue a year ago.
Net cash provided by operating activities was $10.7 million, compared to $(1.3) million used in operating activities a year ago. Free cash flow was $7.1 million, compared to $(4.2) million a year ago.
For more information regarding the non-GAAP financial measures discussed in this press release, please see "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" and "Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below.
"Our third quarter revenue grew 33% year-over-year, demonstrating the progress we've made in creating a differentiated, skills-based learning experience for our institutional customers," said Ken Hahn, Coursera's CFO. "Our 2021 revenue outlook anticipates 40% year-over-year growth for the full year, a reflection of the durable and long-term demand we continue to see for online learning."
Operating Segment Highlights
Consumer revenue for the third quarter was $66.5 million, up 16% from a year ago on sustained demand for our entry-level Professional Certificates and growing adoption of Coursera Plus. Segment gross margin was $45.5 million, or 68% of Consumer revenue, compared to 54% a year ago. The company added 5.5 million new registered learners during the quarter for a total of 92 million.
Enterprise revenue for the third quarter was $31.8 million, up 75% from a year ago on the acquisition of new customers and expansion of our existing relationships. The total number of Paid Enterprise Customers increased to 711, up 124% from a year ago. Segment gross margin was $21.4 million, or 67% of Enterprise revenue, compared to 69% a year ago. Our Net Retention Rate (NRR) for Paid Enterprise Customers was 113%.
Degrees revenue for the third quarter was $11.6 million, up 59% from a year ago as prior cohorts scale and students begin newly launched programs. Segment gross margin was 100% of Degrees revenue; there is no content cost attributable to the Degrees segment as students pay tuition directly to the university, and the university pays us a fee based on the amount of tuition. The total number of Degrees Students reached 16,068, up 40% from a year ago.
All key business metrics are as of September 30, 2021. For more information regarding the metrics discussed in this press release, please see "Key Business Metrics Definitions" below.
Content, Customer and Platform Highlights
Content and Credentials:
Added IBM Data Engineering to our expanding catalog of 15 entry-level Professional Certificates and announced ACE Credit Recommendation for entry-level Professional Certificates from Google and IBM, with learners now eligible to receive up to 12 college credits from participating colleges and universities.
Introduced a new tiered fee structure to support the growth of online degrees, with early adopters including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Colorado Boulder, and announced a Post-graduate Diploma in Applied Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of London.
Welcomed more than 10 new educator partners, which included top-tier universities in India, such as IIT Bombay, IIT Guwahati, Indian Statistical Institute, and Ashoka University, as well as leading industry partners like Oracle and Juniper Networks.
Enterprise Customers:
Coursera for Business launched and expanded programs with companies across the globe, including BBVA (Spain), Expedia Group (U.S.), Reliance Industries Limited (India), Yara International (Norway), and Zurich Insurance Group (Switzerland).
Coursera for Government launched a statewide program with the Missouri Department of Higher Education & Workforce Development, an expanded nationwide training program with Costa Rica's Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE), and a digital inclusion initiative with the City of Chicago.
Coursera for Campus saw strong momentum in India, signing up 16 universities in the country, and in the U.S., we announced a partnership with the Oklahoma State Regents of Higher Education covering 15 universities, including over half of all public universities in the state.
Learning Platform:
Launched the Leadership Academy, powered by our proprietary SkillSets platform and designed to help companies deliver and measure world-class management training at scale in critical soft skills such as change management, talent development, and collaboration.
Announced general availability of SkillSets for all universities using Coursera for Campus, a critical tool to help their students target and acquire competitive skill proficiencies required for in-demand jobs.
Introduced a number of localized experiences for India, our second-largest market of registered learners, including a homepage for better discovery, geo pricing, 5 new payment options, and bulk pricing to serve our most avid learners.
Highlights reflect developments since June 30, 2021 through today's announcement. For additional information on these developments, see the Coursera Blog at blog.coursera.org.
Fourth quarter fiscal 2021:
Revenue in the range of $109 to $113 million
Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $(16.5) to $(19.5) million
Full-year fiscal 2021:
Actual results may differ materially from Coursera's Financial Outlook as a result of, among other things, the factors described under "Special Note on Forward-Looking Statements" below.
A reconciliation of our non-GAAP guidance measure (adjusted EBITDA) to corresponding GAAP guidance measure is not available on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort due to the uncertainty regarding, and the potential variability of, expenses that may be incurred in the future. Stock-based compensation expense-related charges, including employer payroll tax-related items on employee stock transactions, are impacted by the timing of employee stock transactions, the future fair market value of our common stock, and our future hiring and retention needs, all of which are difficult to predict and subject to constant change. We have provided a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures in the financial statement tables for our historical non-GAAP financial results included in this press release.
Conference Call Details
As previously announced, Coursera will hold a conference call to discuss its third quarter performance today, November 2, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time).
A live, audio-only webcast of the conference call and earnings release materials will be available to the public on the company's Investor Relations page at investor.coursera.com. For those unable to listen to the broadcast live, an archived replay will be accessible in the same location for one year.
In compliance with disclosure obligations under Regulation FD, Coursera announces material information to the public through a variety of means, including filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, press releases, company blog posts, public conference calls and webcasts, as well as the investor relations website.
About Coursera
Coursera was launched in 2012 by two Stanford Computer Science professors, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, with a mission to provide universal access to world-class learning. It is now one of the largest online learning platforms in the world, with 92 million registered learners as of September 30, 2021. Coursera partners with over 250 leading university and industry partners to offer a broad catalog of content and credentials, including courses, Specializations, Professional Certificates, Guided Projects, and bachelor's and master's degrees. Institutions around the world use Coursera to upskill and reskill their employees, citizens, and students in fields such as data science, technology, and business. Coursera became a B Corp in February 2021.
Key Business Metrics Definitions
Registered Learners
We count the total number of registered learners at the end of each period. For purposes of determining our registered learner count, we treat each customer account that registers with a unique email as a registered learner and adjust for any spam, test accounts, and cancellations. Our registered learner count is not intended as a measure of active engagement. New registered learners are individuals that register in a particular period.
Paid Enterprise Customers
We count the total number of Paid Enterprise Customers at the end of each period. For purposes of determining our customer count, we treat each customer account that has a corresponding contract as a unique customer, and a single organization with multiple divisions, segments, or subsidiaries may be counted as multiple customers. We define a "Paid Enterprise Customer" as a customer who purchases Coursera via our direct sales force. For purposes of determining our Paid Enterprise Customer count, we exclude our Enterprise customers who do not purchase Coursera via our direct sales force, which include organizations engaging on our platform through our Coursera for Teams offering or through our channel partners.
Net Retention Rate (NRR) for Paid Enterprise Customers
We calculate annual recurring revenue ("ARR") by annualizing each customer's monthly recurring revenue ("MRR") for the most recent month at period end. We calculate "Net Retention Rate" as of a period end by starting with the ARR from all Paid Enterprise Customers as of the twelve months prior to such period end, or Prior Period ARR. We then calculate the ARR from these same Paid Enterprise Customers as of the current period end, or Current Period ARR. Current Period ARR includes expansion within Paid Enterprise Customers and is net of contraction or attrition over the trailing twelve months, but excludes revenue from new Paid Customers in the current period. We then divide the total Current Period ARR by the total Prior Period ARR to arrive at our Net Retention Rate.
Number of Degrees Students
We count the total number of Degrees students for each period. For purposes of determining our Degrees student count, we include all the students that are matriculated in a degree program and who are enrolled in one or more courses in such degree program during the period. If a degree term spans across multiple quarters, said student is counted as active in all quarters of the degree term. For purposes of determining our Degrees student count, we do not include students who are matriculated in the degree but are not enrolled in a course in that period.
In addition to financial information presented in accordance with GAAP, this press release includes non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP net loss, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin and Free Cash Flow, each of which is a non-GAAP financial measure. These are key measures used by our management to help us analyze our financial results, establish budgets and operational goals for managing our business, evaluate our performance, and make strategic decisions. Accordingly, we believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and board of directors. In addition, we believe these measures are useful for period-to-period comparisons of our business. We also believe that the presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures provides an additional tool for investors to use in comparing our core business and results of operations over multiple periods with other companies in our industry, many of which present similar non-GAAP financial measures to investors, and to analyze our cash performance. However, the non-GAAP financial measures presented may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies due to differences in the way that these measures are calculated. These non-GAAP financial measures are presented for supplemental informational purposes only and should not be considered as a substitute for or in isolation from financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP metrics have limitations as analytical tools.
Non-GAAP Gross Profit and Non-GAAP Net Loss
We define non-GAAP gross profit and non-GAAP net loss as GAAP gross profit and GAAP net loss excluding the impact of stock-based compensation, and payroll tax expense related to stock-based activities. We believe the presentation of operating results that exclude these non-cash or non-recurring items provides useful supplemental information to investors and facilitates the analysis of our operating results and comparison of operating results across reporting periods.
Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin
We define Adjusted EBITDA as our net loss excluding: (1) depreciation and amortization; (2) interest income, net; (3) stock-based compensation; (4) income tax expense; and (5) payroll tax expense related to stock-based activities. We define Adjusted EBITDA Margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by revenue.
Free Cash Flow is a non-GAAP financial measure that we calculate as net cash used in operating activities, less cash used for purchases of property, equipment, and software, and capitalized internal-use software costs. We exclude purchases of property, equipment and software, and capitalized internal-use software costs as we consider these capital expenditures to be a necessary component of our ongoing operations.
Reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the Appendix.
Special Note on Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Any statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as: "accelerate," "anticipate, "believe," "can," "continue," "could," "demand," "estimate," "expand," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "objective," "ongoing," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "target," "will," "would," or the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology intended to identify statements about the future. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: the urgency with which companies, campuses, and governments around the world are investing in new and digital skills; the growth of our Professional Certificates portfolio; the rising demand for role-based learning among institutions; our ability to fulfill demand for role-based learning; the continued demand for online learning; anticipated features and benefits of our customer and partner relationships and our content and platform offerings, including the Leadership Academy, the general availability of SkillSets for all universities using Coursera for Campus, and the introduction of localized experiences in India; the anticipated utility of non-GAAP measures; anticipated growth rates; and our financial outlook, future financial performance, and expectations, among others. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following: our ability to manage our growth; our limited operating history; the nascency of online learning solutions and risks related to market adoption of online learning; our ability to maintain and expand our partnerships with our university and industry partners; our dependence on our partners for content available on our platform; our ability to attract and retain learners; our ability to increase sales of our Enterprise offering; our ability to compete effectively; the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on our business and our industry; regulatory matters impacting us or our partners; risks related to intellectual property; cyber security and privacy risks and regulations; potential disruptions to our platform; and our status as a B Corp, as well as the risks discussed in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2021 and as detailed from time to time in our SEC filings. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance, or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements relate only to events as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements except to the extent required by law.
Coursera Inc.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited)
(In thousands, except number of shares and per share amounts)
Three Months Ended September 30,
Nine Months Ended September 30,
Cost of revenue(1)
Research and development(1)
Sales and marketing(1)
General and administrative(1)
Loss from operations
(11,888
Other income (expense), net
(286
Loss before income taxes
Income tax expense
Net loss
Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders—basic and diluted
Weighted-average shares used in computing net loss per share attributable to common stockholders—basic and diluted
(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:
General and administrative
Total stock-based compensation expense
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited)
Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $48 and $195 as of December 31, 2020 and September 30, 2021, respectively
Deferred costs
Prepaid expenses and other current assets
Property, equipment and software, net
Operating lease right-of-use assets
Intangible assets, net
Restricted cash
Liabilities, Redeemable Convertible Preferred Stock, and Stockholders' Equity (Deficit):
Educator partners payable
Other accounts payable
Accrued compensation and benefits
Operating lease liabilities, current
Deferred revenue, current
Operating lease liabilities, non-current
Other liabilities
Deferred revenue, non-current
Redeemable convertible preferred stock
Stockholders' equity (deficit):
Accumulated other comprehensive income
Accumulated deficit
(343,551
Total stockholders' equity (deficit)
Total liabilities, redeemable convertible preferred stock, and stockholders' equity (deficit)
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited)
Cash flows from operating activities:
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash provided by operating activities:
Depreciation and amortization
Stock-based compensation
Amortization or accretion of marketable securities
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable, net
Prepaid expenses and other assets
Educator partners and other accounts payable
Accrued and other liabilities
Operating lease liabilities
Deferred revenue
Cash flows from investing activities:
Purchases of marketable securities
Proceeds from maturities of marketable securities
Purchases of property, equipment and software
Capitalized internal-use software costs
Purchases of content assets
Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities
Cash flows from financing activities:
Proceeds from issuance of redeemable convertible preferred stock, net of issuance costs
Proceeds from exercise of stock options and warrants
Proceeds from exercise of unvested options, net of repurchases
Proceeds from initial public offering, net of offering costs
Payment of deferred offering costs
Payment of tax withholding on vesting of restricted stock units
Net cash provided by financing activities
Net increase in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash
Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash—Beginning of period
Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash—End of period
Reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash:
Restricted cash in prepaid expenses and other current assets
Total cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash
RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES (Unaudited)
Three Months Ended September 30, 2021
Payroll tax expense related to stock-based activities
Other expense, net
Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021
Other income, net
Interest income, net
Adjusted EBITDA
Adjusted EBITDA margin
)%
Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities
Less: purchases of property, equipment and software
Less: capitalized internal-use software costs
Source Code: COUR-IR
For investors: Cam Carey, ir@coursera.org
For media: Arunav Sinha, press@coursera.org


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BBC: "Greece wiretap and spyware claims circle around PM Mitsotakis"
Greek NEWS, POLITICS
by Athens Bureau
Greece has been engulfed in a spy scandal that has embarrassed, and at the same time, exposed the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The story emerged last year when Thanasis Koukakis found out his phone had been infected with spyware that can extract data from a device. He also discovered he had been tracked by Greece's EYP National Intelligence Service via more traditional phone-tapping.
It then emerged that an MEP had also had his phone tapped before he became leader of Greece's third-biggest party.
On Thursday, the spotlight turns to a European Parliament inquiry committee tasked with investigating the use of surveillance spyware in the EU.
Koukakis will testify to the committee on the use of spyware in an attempt to get to the truth of why he was targeted and by whom. The government in Athens insists it does not use spyware, although phone-tapping is allowed with the consent of a prosecutor.
"It all goes back three years, when I started investigating a series of wrongdoings that involved Greek banks and the EU bailout money used to save them from bankruptcy at the peak of the financial crisis," Koukakis told the BBC.
After his initial reports, he began looking into a potential cover-up - a task that involved talking to members of the judiciary. He believes it was the Mitsotakis government that decided to place him under surveillance in order to eavesdrop on his exchanges with judges and their assistants.
He became suspicious when his phone began behaving strangely. The battery would run down faster than normal, while calls he made were being answered before he could hear the ringtone.
Koukakis contacted Greece's independent Authority for Communication, Security and Privacy (ADAE) to find out if he was being tracked, but it took the watchdog a year to get back to him. By that time, the government had passed a law barring ADAE from revealing if surveillance had been carried out for national security reasons.
In his case, he says EYP tracked him for six weeks from 1 June to 12 August 2020, the day he approached the communication authority. The government has neither confirmed nor denied he came under surveillance.
Shortly before the ADAE got back to him, he received a strange text message from an unknown number. "Thanasis, are you aware of this story?" the text read, accompanied by a link which directed him to a fake site. By clicking on the link, he unknowingly installed Predator spyware on his phone.
But Koukakis was not the only target. On 21 September 2021, the same link was sent to Nikos Androulakis, a Greek MEP. The text read: "Let's take this issue seriously mate. We've got a lot to win."
Unlike the journalist, the MEP did not click on the link and Predator was never installed on his phone. He treated it as a message from a stranger and ignored it. It was only when he approached the EU's IT experts in July 2022 that he found out there had been an attempt to install Predator on his phone.
Nikos Androulakis immediately filed a complaint to Greece's High Court. Within days, he found out that EYP had wiretapped his phone via his mobile provider. The surveillance only stopped when he was elected head of Greece's centre-left Pasok Movement of Change in December 2021.
The Greek government has denied that EYP is using Predator spyware.
The government spokesman indicated that other, private players were behind the use of Predator in Greece and neither the government nor EYP were aware of it.
Greece's EU ambassador, Ioannis Vrailas, wrote to the European Commission insisting EYP had never bought or used Predator software or any other illegal surveillance system.
But the prime minister has come under pressure over the affair, because it was his decision to place EYP under his direct control when he came to power in July 2019.
In a televised speech, Mr Mitsotakis said he was not aware an opposition politician had been targeted. While it was legal, he said it should not have happened: "When I was informed of it, I didn't hesitate to admit that it was wrong."
The escalating scandal has already claimed two big casualties.
EYP head Panagiotis Kontoleon has resigned, as has the prime minister's top aide and nephew, Grigoris Dimitriadis.
The prime minister's office was adamant the aide had not gone because of the spyware affair, adding that he and the government were not connected to it. But the spy chief's resignation was linked to "incorrect actions found in the procedure of legal surveillance".
Kyriakos Mitsotakis is adamant that Greece's intelligence service has not used Predator spyware
Three days after he quit, Mr Dimitriadis launched a series of lawsuits targeting media allegations linking him to the Predator story. He also sued Thanasis Koukakis for tweeting a link to the stories.
A Greek parliament investigative committee hopes to shed further light on the Androulakis affair. Many questions remain unanswered: if state authorities did not use Predator spyware, who did?
Koukakis told the BBC that more people were poised to come out with stories similar to his. He has taken his case to the European Court of Human Rights, but believes ultimately, it will be journalists who uncover what happened.
Dutch MEP Sophie in 't Veld, who is on the European Parliament's inquiry committee, paints a bleak picture of the use of spyware in Europe, which she says jeopardises EU fundamental rights.
According to her, 14 EU countries alone have used Pegasus spyware: "Then there's Predator, there's Tykelab in Italy; there's another branch in Austria with links to Russia; Cyprus and possibly Bulgaria are the hubs for exports, and Ireland and Luxembourg are used to manage the money flows," she told the BBC.
Four EU governments have been accused of spying on their citizens for political reasons, she says: "Then we know that the Commission has also been targeted. This is a big mess: it's Watergate on steroids."
Tags: Androulakis, Greece news, Greek news, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Mitsotakis, Predator, Spyware, wiretap
300,000 jobs created since New Democracy government, Dimas says
Magnitude 5.4 quake off Greek islands; no damage reported
Athens Bureau September 8, 2022
Stefanos Tsitsipas' Near-Death Experience at Sea Gives Him the Drive to Win
Gct January 29, 2023
Greece to send Leopard-2 tanks to Ukraine
New air link to Athens from Kuwait this summer
Greek rapper nabbed armed with gun charged
Iliana Papageorgiou speaks about dating her ex-husband: "We are divorced, I didn't expect to get back with him"
Athens Bureau January 29, 2023

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Just 6% of Rhône Valley wines are white, but there is huge variety of styles, from straightforward, everyday wines to some of the finest, most distinctive whites in the world.
Though they share some grape varieties, the white wine in the Southern and Northern Rhône are very different. With some destined for the dinner table and others deliciously drinkable by themselves, there are styles to suit all tastes and plenty of value to be found at every level.
We'll take a close look at the varieties and appellations that make white Rhône an increasingly popular and sought-after category.
Find below Matt's top white wine produce selection for the Rhône Valley, classed by appellation.
Côtes-du-Rhône: Domaine du Seminaire, Domaine de l'Amandine, Domaine Gramenon, Domaine de Remejeanne.
Matt Walls is a freelance wine writer and consultant based in London.
He is a contributing editor at Decanter and writes regular articles for other magazines and websites such as Foodism, Imbibe and timatkin.com.
He won the Best Newcomer awards at the 2013 Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards for Drink Me, his first book on wine, which has sold over 10,000 copies.
He publishes a popular wine blog, www.mattwalls.co.uk, for which he won International Wine & Spirit Competition Blogger of the Year 2015.
When not writing, Walls advises restaurants on wine lists, hosts tastings, judges food and wine competitions and develops wine apps.
Matt is interested in all areas of wine, but specialises in those of the Rhône – he is Regional Chair for the Rhône at the Decanter World Wine Awards.
The Rhône is France's second largest producer of AOC wines (after Bordeaux). Its viticultural history dates back to the Romans who sculpted its terraced topography and introduced the vine.
It is in the Rhône where east meets west. The granite and schist of the Massif Central (west) collide with the sedimentary soils of the Alps and its foothills (east)….
So, how well do you know the Rhône?
Christophe Tassan is interviewed by Decanter Magazine's Andrew Jefford about the Rhône Valley and its wines. "I was born in the dining room, in hospitality," Christophe tells us, which seems appropriate, as this interview took place in a San Francisco restaurant around the corner from The Battery, where he is currently the wine director.
As with all wine regions, there is a list of producers with whom every wine student should be familiar in order to understand the diversity and complexity of the wines produced.
In the Rhône, the list is long because there are those known for their traditional winemaking styles and those known for being more modern (if not avant garde!).
In this seminar, you'll meet the rogues and renegades and old guard.
British national residing near Gigondas in the Southern Rhône. Born to a French mother (from Provence), Olivier studied Economics at Cambridge University and, having obtained First Class Honours, took the well-trodden route into industry working for Unilever, Time Warner and Linklaters LLP.
Olivier's passion for wine took off at Cambridge but a decade later after gaining qualifications with the WSET, Olivier established a part-time boutique UK wine importing business with Jeremy Williams in 1999. Their passion for wine encouraged them to make their own wines in Provence for sale in the UK by sourcing locally-grown fruit.
Olivier and his lawyer wife, Janet decided to permanently leave the London rat race in 2003 and move to Provence. Olivier planted his own micro-vineyard in Valréas from which he continues to grow and make small quantities of wine today; but it was his fascination for the French concept of "terroir" that took Olivier on a different route.
Whilst French wine culture is routed in "terroir", the concept is very poorly understood (if at all) by majority of the wine-drinking public. With time on his hands, Olivier embarked on a two year research project interviewing growers and winemakers to get to the root of this elusive concept – what is terroir and how does it really influence wines, wine-growing and wine-making practices? What is truth, what is myth and more interestingly, what do we still not know?
Olivier decided that the best way to educate wine consumers was by establishing what was in 2006, the first Rhône-based Wine Tour business www.wine-uncovered.com. Olivier consulted on inaugural Grenache Symposium in 2010 and provides consultancy services for importers and educational services on behalf of the professional association, Inter Rhône.
Chateauneuf-Du-Pape 2016… A Fabulous Vintage !
As autumn is drawing to a close and the wine presses have been washed and put away, the first wines tasted before being blended confirm what had been sensed: 2016 is going to be a fabulous vintage! And if some compare it to the magnificent 2010, some others do not hesitate to go as far as the famous star-vintage 1990… Either way, the evidence that we are witnessing the making of a great vintage is clear.


text:
Aideen Devine
Poetry, Politics and Opinions
Filter: stand by me
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Wednesday, 18 May 2022, 14:36
Edited by Aideen Devine, Monday, 23 Jan 2023, 13:45
It was a surprise to no one that Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night except maybe Sam Ryder who might have thought he was about to actually win. Hard luck Sam and deepest commiserations, I feel for you!
I don't believe for a minute Ukraine won, there were many better songs in the contest but to paraphrase Not the 9 O'Clock News, 'nice propaganda shame about the song'. But in these days of X-Factor style manipulation, CGI, media bias and outright lies who knows what to believe anymore.
And why all the concern for Ukraine? There's been a war raging in Yemen for years and not a word about it, or anyone from the celebrity circus of the dire and meaningless showing up to support the downtrodden over there. But then it all depends on where the interests of the military/industrial complex lie doesn't it, and who they own.
Formula 1 cancelled Sochi this year but were happy enough to go to Saudi Arabia, that bastion of freedom and social justice, and Australia, who were only outdone in lockdown tyranny by China. And, again, the silence was deafening from the world of entertainment. Who would have thought that Right Said Fred would have been the most vocal advocates for freedom and at the forefront of the anti-lockdown/mask/forced jab tyranny of the last 2 years? Not a word from Bono, Geldof, Sting, Paul Weller or Bruce Springsteen, all those fake grandstanders for freedom and justice, what a bunch of hypocrites and champagne socialists!
Surely cringiest moment of the year has to be Bono singing 'Stand by Ukraine' to the tune of Stand By Me, and in one foul moment desecrating, not only one of the great classics of the Motown era, but my love for it as well. I'll never be able to listen to it again without seeing that self-righteous prick squawking along – some things are unforgivable, these people have no shame! Isn't it strange too that all these celebrities can just pop over for a visit to a deadly war zone and not even a helmet or flak jacket needed for protection!! Hmmm…never a sniper around when you need one!
The sad thing about all this manipulation is that the genuinely talented and deserving get nowhere. Imagine if you were one of the other contestants on Saturday night; you put in all that effort, you possibly wrote the song, like Sam, learned it, practiced it and put yourself forward for selection, worked for months in preparation and, then, propaganda wars takes over and all your effort is rendered meaningless.
The same thing is happening in women's sport. All those years of training and then some bloke with an overdose of oestrogen and a fake pair of tits comes in and takes it all away. Women's sport is going to be wiped out because biological women cannot compete against biological male athletes. The physical differences that happen in puberty are irreversible and it is not possible to make a male a female regardless of how many hormones/suppressants they take or what they identify as. See link below.
All this so-called 'social justice' has a down side and it started with the 'everyone' gets a medal' that killed off the school sports day. Jordan Peterson, in one of his lectures, talks about killing the spirit of a child and that the quickest way to do it is to put down their behaviour/effort when they are doing well. Isn't that just what is happening here? Imagine the disappointment the child who was good at sports and who actually won the race must have felt. So what if poor little Johnny cried because he lost! Life is not always about winning and the sooner he learns to cope with loss and failure the better his life will be, a bit of adversity can build character.
Gone are the days when your abilities, skills and talents mattered as you strived for excellence in something. These things don't matter in the world of social justice, the only thing that matters now is the content of your underwear, or your sexual preferences, or how many boxes you can tick for the neo-liberal fascist brigade. As noted in Jen Psaki's replacement in the Biden administration:
Female – check,
Black – check,
Immigrant – check…the job's yours. You're not gay too are you, or feel a bit manly?
Ok, pity though, we could have checked another box or two!
The other downside to this is that when you put people in positions based on a social justice box tick, and not on actual merit then, inevitably, there will be failure. Just look at the political leadership across the globe. How many of them are there because of their talents? You don't have to delve too far into their history to see that they are all hand-picked for who they are and not what they can do. Justin Trudeau is where he is because of his father, a former Premier of Canada. Emmanuel Macron worked for the Rothschild's before launching, or being launched, into politics. Jacinda Ardern graduated along with the likes of Tony Blair from the WEF's young global leadership programme. See link below, you'll note a few familiar names there.
But in all the shouting for 'social justice' I haven't heard a mention of nepotism or connection to the upper classes and moneyed rich. British politics and all those top civil service jobs are all filled with graduates from Oxbridge who came up through the public school system. The 'Old Boys Network' is still going strong and not a word about the advantages mummy and daddy's money and connections bought for their offspring. Nor has there been much about how the rich own and control everything already, or when the rules these governments enforced on the rest of us over covid, did not apply to them because when you have a private jet you can go anywhere, at any time, without restriction, or party at your leisure like Boris and the rest of them.
When 'everyone gets a medal' it undermines those who excel and kills off their reason for trying, why bother training, studying, acquiring a skill when someone with no training, no effort and no skills can walk in and take away all that you have worked hard for.
The 1960's were a golden age in Britain, social mobility was at its highest, Britain led the world in industry, music and art, and it held the promise of a more equitable future. The working classes were better off than ever and had a strong voice that was finally being heard. It was the generations who remember those times that voted for Brexit because they saw how much their country had declined since joining the Common Market/EU and finally had the chance to stop the rot.
The Eurovison song contest which also began back in the 1960's was one of those shows that the whole family used to gather around the TV to watch and see if you could pick the winner, like the Miss World Contest, before the feminist rabble intervened and killed it off. It was fun, a bit of harmless entertainment that everyone could enjoy. God forbid you try to have some fun now when cancel culture rules and the self-righteous and humourless are in charge!
Most of the social justice warriors/neo-liberal fascists are not even aware that they are just pawns in a rich man's game, designed to keep us down and fighting amongst ourselves while they, quite literally, get away with murder. The stresses of the last two years have left us all fatigued and stressed, the world has been turned upside down and the lunatics are still in charge. It feels overwhelming.
And yet it is in the world of art and entertainment that I see hope. Artistic types have to be able to create and seldom fit into a one size fits all, homogenous, characterless world where you are not allowed to have fun, disagree and 'MUST FOLLOW ZE RULES AT ALL TIMES!!'
The Sex Pistols have re-released God Save the Queen, just in time for the Jubilee (links below and a few more for the fun of it!) It is good to see that the spirit of punk is still alive and well. Stick it to them Johnny! While It may appear that the 'elites' have it all going their way at present, they control politics, the media and the corporate world but no one gets to have it all their way, all the time, forever. Change will come, people are waking up and the pendulum will eventually swing back the other way. I just hope it will be sooner rather than later so that the 'architect's' of the present mess can be held to account. But, in the meantime, just to try and speed things along, you can always introduce your children/grandchildren to the Sex Pistols and see if we can inspire a new generation to bring on the Anarchy! Altogether now! I am an anti-Christ, I am an anar-chist…
Transgender women in female sport: why biology matters (sportsperformancebulletin.com)
World Economic Forum's "Young Global Leaders" Revealed | Covert Geopolitics
Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen - YouTube
The Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The U.K (official video) - YouTube
Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant - YouTube
Tags: god save the queen, sex pistols, common market, eu, miss world, brexit, wef, tony blair, jacinda ardern, rothschild, emmanuel macron, justin trudeau, china, not the nine o'clock news, ukraine, right said fred, saudi arabia, yemen, bruce springsteen, paul weller, sting, bob geldof, bono, stand by me, motown, martin luther king, eurovision song contest
More Good Reads
Saturday, 23 Feb 2019, 00:24
Edited by Aideen Devine, Wednesday, 30 Mar 2022, 11:31
I've been on a bit of a reading binge again. First up, Alan Cummings autobiography, Not My Father's Son. This was an interesting read and for anyone who doesn't know him, he played the role of Eli, in The Good Wife which is how I came to know him. Alan's father was a bit of a psycho and he suffered badly from his bullying and abuse. But in spite of all that, he got out and did very well for himself. I won't say anything more about it, I don't like to give too much away but a good read and I would definitely recommend it.
On a similar theme, I was in the library 2 weeks ago and saw Operation Lighthouse by Luke and Ryan Hart. I had heard them on the radio, the day before, talking about their lives and the book they had written. Coincidentally, it was on the recommended display in the library when I went in to return the Alan Cummings autobiography so, I thought, I would give it a go.
Luke and Ryan's father was also an abusive bully, controlling and manipulative. He was never physically violent until he was completely murderous, and he shot and killed their mother and sister and then shot himself. Their reason for writing the book was to show that while a relationship may not always be violent, it can still be abusive through the use of coercive control. Their father wanted to control every aspect of the lives of his family and did so through his bullying and demanding behaviour. They were also appalled at the sympathy shown to their father by the media after he murdered their mother and sister and how little sympathy was directed towards his victims. I would highly recommend this, if for no other reason, than to open our eyes and minds to the quiet acceptance of abuse in society and the tendency towards victim blaming in the media.
Another, in the real lives genre, was Gavin Edward's biography of River Phoenix, Last Night at the Viper Room. This tells the story of River Phoenix's life, from birth until his death, at aged 23. Best known, in my house at least, for his role in Stand by Me, the Rob Reiner directed film, from the short story by Stephen King, The Body. A favourite of my son's when they were growing up and one I still watch fairly regularly.
River's parents were a couple of hippies who became part of the Children of God cult in the US and who travelled around and lived for several years in South America, preaching and recruiting on their behalf. The leader of the Children of God cult, David Berg, advocated sexual relationships between children, and between children and adults. River's parents parted company with them when they started prostituting women to attract more recruits but there is evidence in the book of River being introduced to sex at a very young age.
There is no doubt his death was a tragic loss. He was quite heavily into drugs and although, he had been clean for a couple of months while shooting what turned out to be his last film, the moment he got back to LA, he was straight back to the drugs. How much of his drug use was a result of his upbringing, we can only guess at but the lack of education and involvement with the Children of God, I'm sure, played a part.
I never knew that he was interested in music but it turned out that he was more interested in making music than movies, and there are some videos of him with his band, Aleka's Attic, on Youtube, if anyone is interested. Sadly, the talent he had, never got to play out into maturity, like so many before him. That's the thing about drugs, it only end one of two ways, you either stop or die. But an excellent read and highly recommended as it also contains snippets about many of the other actors who came to prominence in the 1990's, like Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Leonardo Di Caprio.
Tags: books, children of god, stand by me, the body, stephen king, rob reiner, ryan hart, luke hart, operation lighthouse, last night at the viper room, river phoenix, gavin edwards, not my father's son, alan cummings
Movies & endings
Monday, 4 Sep 2017, 20:25
Edited by Aideen Devine, Monday, 4 Sep 2017, 21:01
I went to see The Dark Tower last week, the film based on the Stephen King books. I think this was a one off and it wasn't a bad effort. Although, I thought, Idris Elba was too young and fresh-looking for the role of The Gunslinger. In the books Roland is ancient and has been around forever. Also, it was all a bit too quick for my liking but I won't complain too much about having to look at Matthew McConaghey, for an hour and a half, or Idris Elba for that matter!
The Dark Tower is a whole epic of 7 books originally (apparently 2 more have been added which I haven't read) and were all very enjoyable, except for the ending. If you haven't read the series, then you'll have no idea what I'm talking about now, but I'll try not to give too much away in case they're on your 'to read' list. The problem I had with the ending, was the very same thing Stephen King referred to in Misery (great book, mediocre film), when Annie Wilkes pulls Paul Sheldon up for cheating with the story like they used to do in the old Saturday shows, when you were sure the hero had died going over the cliff in the locked, burning car, or some such, but by the next week he has somehow managed a miraculous escape.
The Dark Tower had one of those endings. Roland had moved back in time and was leaving with the horn of Eld after the battle of Jericho Hill but that didn't make sense to me. I'm doing an Annie Wilkes now! He would have had to go back and re-fight the battle in order to win it and in my mind he would also have to go back to when he entered Hambry and save Susan Delgado.
I've read quite a few Stephen Kings, they are my pleasure in between the heavy stuff. Misery is my favourite book, and my favourite film adaptation is Stand By Me. The re-make of It, is out this week and if the trailers are anything to go by, then it's something to look forward to. I know a lot of people were disappointed by the ending in the movie first time around so I'm not sure how that's going to be rectified but what works in fiction doesn't necessarily work on screen. Anyway, I won't spoil it by giving away any details. However, I will say that the endings of several of Stephen's more recent novels were disappointing, Under the Dome was one and Joyland another, Revival too, was a bit of a let-down but my biggest disappointment this year, was not a book but a film, the final Planet of the Apes movie, War for Planet of the Apes.
Firstly, it wasn't a 'War', it was a battle and not much of a battle either and from looking at the trailers beforehand; I was expecting WW3 with nukes. Mind you, the way Donald and the Young 'Un are squaring up, we could be headed for the real thing any day now! I'm convinced Lil Kim, could make a case for an Ulster Scots grant with his name!
The big let-down, apart from the 'war', was all the emoting that was going on. It was like an episode of Dr Phil! Caesar was giving it all the dramatics of rage and burning anger, like an obstreperous teenager. While Maurice, the big orangutan, was giving out so much deep and meaningful advice, I half expected him to be given his own talk show.
Then, there were parts of the story that didn't make sense either. How did the soldiers manage to capture the other apes when Caesar was following them, and the other apes had been left behind?? Go figure?? The real pity is, the cgi was the best I've seen but like so many 'epics', too much thought given to the 'show' and not enough to the story. Yes, James Cameron, I'm talking about your Avatar (great visuals, lazy, old, clichéd story) You think you would have learnt from the hash Lucas made with Star Wars!
Anyway, if the books and movies have been disappointing, at least music brings its own rewards and the God of Rock, himself, the one and only Mr Robert Plant, returns to the Ulster Hall in December! And I will be there!
The new Star Wars is out then too, lets hope that's 2 bright spots on the December horizon to look forward to. May the force be with you or rock on! Whatever, is your wont!
Tags: stephen king, planet of the apes, the dark tower, idris elba, matthew mcconaghey, robert plant, star wars, stand by me, avatar, james cameron, dr phil
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http://icap.columbia.edu
ICAP at Columbia University
About ICAP at Columbia University
ICAP was founded in 2003 at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Now a global leader with expertise in HIV prevention, care and treatment, and health systems strengthening, ICAP provides technical assistance and implementation support to governments and non-governmental organizations in more than 30 countries. ICAP has supported work at more than 5,300 health facilities around the world. More than 2.5 million people have received HIV care through ICAP-supported programs and nearly 1.4 million have begun antiretroviral therapy.
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"I spent my summer conducting child and maternal health HIV-related research in Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland) with Columbia University's (ICAP) MHIRT Fellowship Program. My experience ignited a passion for both promotion of women's health and global health as a future public health physician. What I appreciated most was the constant support of both my personal and professional development. "


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The regulation of consumer information pertaining to the treatment of farm animals used as ingredients for food production, such as front-of-pack labeling
The treatment of animals for fiber purposes in law and policies
The regulation of the production and commercialization of alternatives to conventionally-farmed animal source products (plant-based and cell-based)
Efforts to contain and combat legal exemptions (including common industry practices and traditions)
The legal treatment of animals used for scientific purposes
The regulation of alternatives to in vivo models
The EU and Member States policies to phase out animal-based science
Animals used for entertainment purposes
The legal treatment of wild animals in captivity for entertainment purposes (zoos, circuses, film industry, etc.)
The legal treatment of animals used in traditions and rites (bullfighting, cockfighting, ritual slaughters, etc.)
Laws and policies to curb biodiversity extinction
Laws and policies to combat wildlife trafficking
The laws and regulation regarding private ownership of wild animals
The legal treatment of so-called "invasive species"
Hunting laws
International and Trade Law
International law and policy instruments regulating the treatment of animals as tradable goods and natural ressources (UN Conventions, OIE Codes, Free Trade Agreements, etc.)
World Trade Organization rules and relevant interpretation of WTO agreements by the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body, and its articulation with EU and national laws
2021 Summer Newsletter
The 2021 summer edition of Animal Law Europe is out. All the EU animal law and policies-related updates of these past few months straight to your inbox!
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The Summer Edition of the Newsletter is Out!
Welcome to our second quarterly newsletter! This quarter's research note is about the labeling of animal source food in the EU, as the European Commission announced the creation of an "EU animal welfare label" as part of the EU Green Deal.
media appearance
Animal Law Europe Receives ACE Movement Grant
Animal Charity Evaluators announces Animal Law Europe as a recipient of the 2021 Movement Grants, along with 15 other organizations.
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Tag Archives: Swedish
Church of Sweden Ordains First Openly Lesbian Bishop
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
STOCKHOLM, November 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Sweden's Lutheran church announced it had ordained its first openly homosexual bishop on Sunday, less than a month after it gave its ministers the right to "marry" same-sex couples in church.
The Church of Sweden, which was the state church until 2000, had backed the parliament's adoption of the same-sex "marriage" law, which took effect on May 1. Its synod approved homosexual church "weddings" on October 22.
Eva Brunne, 55, was consecrated as the Bishop of Stockholm in a ceremony at Uppsala cathedral, just north of the Swedish capital, the Church of Sweden said in a statement.
Brunne is in a civil union partnership with another woman, Gunilla Lindén, who is a Church of Sweden pastor. Together they are the guardians of a three-year-old child.
"It is very positive that our church is setting an example here and is choosing me as bishop based on my qualifications, when they also know that they can meet resistance elsewhere," Brunne told the Associated Press.
Anglican bishops from England and Northern Ireland in fact refused to attend the ordination.
Five bishops from various levels within the Anglican Church, including Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, decided not to attend the November 8th ceremony, the Dagen newspaper reports.
"The Anglican Church has a moratorium right now concerning the ordination of bishops who live together with someone of the same sex," Alan Harper, a bishop from Armagh in Northern Ireland, told the newspaper.
Swedish Archbishop Anders Wejryd, who conducted the ordination of Brunne, disputed the claim that the Church of England was boycotting the ceremony.
"That's not true at all," he told the Kyrkans Tidning newspaper. "We send invitations to those with the highest rank. That's why the Archbishop of Canterbury received an invitation, but no one expected him to say yes."
According to Wejryd, the international invitees who declined to take part in the ordination included "many who generally never come."
Other invitees who declined to attend, according to Swedish news service The Local, were bishops from the Lutheran churches of Iceland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the World Lutheran Federation.
This Report from LifeSiteNews.com
www.LifeSiteNews.com
Posted in Anglicans, Christianity, England, Estonia, Homosexuality, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Lutheran, Northern Ireland, Sweden, United Kingdom	| Tagged 2000, adoption, Alan Harper, Anders Weiryd, Anglican, announced, approved, Archbishop, Archbishop of Canterbury, Armagh, attend, backed, based, bishop, Bishop of Stockholm, bishops, boycotting, capital, cathedral, ceremony, child, choosing, Christian, Christianity, Christians, church, Church of England, Church of Sweden, churches, civil union, claim, concerning, conducted, consecrated, couples, Dagen, decided, declined, disputed, England, Estonia, Eva Brunne, example, expected, first, guardians, Gunilla Linden, highest, homosexual, Iceland, international, invitations, invitees, Kyrkans Tidning, Latvia, law, lesbian, levels, Lithuania, live, Lutheran, marriage, marry, meet, ministers, moratorium, news, newspaper, north, Northern Ireland, openly, ordained, ordains, ordination, Parliament, Pastor, pertnership, positive, qualifications, rank, received, refused, reports, resistence, right, Rowan Williams, same, same-sex, send, service, setting, sex, state, Stockholm, Sweden, Swedish, synod, The Local, together, Uppsala, various, weddings, woman, World Lutheran Foundation | Leave a comment
TURKEY: ANCIENT MONASTERY THREATENED
Muslims' legal action against 1,600-year-old structure called 'malicious.'
ISTANBUL, January 22 (Compass Direct News) – Syriac Christians in southeastern Turkey say a land dispute over the historic Mor Gabriel Monastery is part of a larger system of discrimination against the religious minority in this overwhelmingly Islamic country.
Muslim residents of southeastern Turkey dispute the boundary lines of an ancient Christian monastery dating to the fourth century as being unnecessarily large for the needs of a religious community. Islamic village leaders from Yayvantepe, Eglence and Candarli are attempting to confiscate one-third of the monastery's property, claiming it was wrongfully appropriated and that they need it for their livestock.
Area Muslims also say the land in question is forest and thereby registered as land belonging to the State Treasury.
"Our land is being occupied by the monastery," said Ismail Erlal, village leader of Yayvantepe, according to Cihan News Agency. "We make use of the forest there and pasture our animals; we won't give up our rights."
Among the most contentious issues are the monastery walls built around its perimeter, rebuilt 15 years ago. Village leaders complain in a lawsuit to obtain the land that the monastery has gone beyond its rightful bounds. In August the land survey office of Midyat said it had determined that 270 hectares of the monastery's 760 hectares were government property, including land inside and outside the monastery's walls.
A court in Mardin originally scheduled a hearing for Friday (Jan. 16) to determine the legal status of the monastery walls, but it was rescheduled to Feb. 11 to allow the court more time to examine the case. At the February hearing the court will determine if the 270 hectares of land belong to the government or the monastery.
Metropolitan Timotheos Samuel Aktas, leader of the monastery, answered in a report that the monastery has the right to leave its land uncultivated and has paid taxes on the property since 1937.
The state originally charged the monastery with being founded illegally, but it dropped those charges by canceling a hearing originally schedule for Dec. 24. Rudi Sumer, the attorney representing the monastery, said that the claim was groundless since the monastery has foundation status dating back to modern Turkey's origins, not to mention centuries of existence beforehand.
The mayors of Yayvantepe, Eglence and Candarli also charged the monastery with attempting to proselytize young children (illegal in Turkey) and carrying out "anti-Turkish" activity.
Metropolitan Aktas said in a report that these claims were groundless and of the same provocative nature that has historically sparked violence against Turkey's Christians.
"All the allegations are frivolous and vexatious, devoid of any logic or evidence, solely aimed with the malicious intent of rousing anti-Christian sentiments by the surrounding Muslim villages," he said.
Europe Watching
Mor Gabriel Monastery, founded in 397, is the most revered monastery for Syrian Orthodox Christians. It is inhabited by 15 nuns and two monks and is the seat of Metropolitan Bishop of Tur Abdin Diocese.
In recent decades the monastery has turned into a religious and social center for the country's remaining Syriacs by offering schooling to children and teaching their ancient language of Syriac, a variant of the language spoken by Jesus.
"The monastery is everything for us," said a Syrian Orthodox Christian who grew up in Turkey's southeast. He added that many families in the area had named their children after Mor Gabriel. "Syriacs would give up everything for the monastery."
An international outcry from the European Parliament and numerous Assyrian organizations throughout Europe arose in response to the charges, according to the Assyrian International News Agency. A member of the German consulate said his country would monitor the case closely, as Turkey is attempting to join the European Union and its human rights record has come under close scrutiny.
Many Syrian Orthodox Christians have left southeast Turkey in the last 30 years as violence escalated between the military and Kurdish terrorists. In the last five years, however, some Syriacs have begun returning home – only to find their property occupied by others.
Residents who fled Mardin province in the mid-1980s returned to find two of their village's Syriac churches converted into mosques. And the demographic shift from Syriacs to Kurds has increased pressure on the monastery.
"Turkey must protect its Assyrian community," said Swedish parliamentarian Yilmaz Kerim to the Hurriyet Daily News. He visited the monastery as part of a delegation in December. "There are only 3,000 left in Midyat."
The lawsuit has the support of a local parliamentarian who claims Christians relished their opportunity to leave Turkey. Süleyman Çelebi, member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said Syrian Orthodox Christians had never come under pressure, despite their claim that they were exploited, and even emigrated away from Turkey "with joy" in previous decades.
The three villages that brought the lawsuit against the monastery overwhelmingly supported the Islamic-rooted AKP in last year's national elections. Çelebi claims that the official boundaries of the monastery were established in Ottoman times but not properly observed by the Syriac Christians.
According to the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, Turkey grants full protection to churches, synagogues and other religious establishments to freely practice their own religions. But this treaty only designated Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians and Jews, creating complications for groups such as the Syrian Orthodox and Protestants to open schools and churches.
Syriac Christians claim to be one of the first people to accept Christianity in the Middle East. Their historic homeland stretches through southeastern Turkey, but their numbers have dwindled to 15,000 following decades of government pressure and fallout from war against the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
Posted in Christianity, European Union, Germany, Islam, Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Orthodox, Sweden, Turkey	| Tagged 1923, 397, ;province, accept, action, activity, aimed, AKP, allegations, ancient, animals, answered, anti-Christian, anti-Turkish, appropriated, Armenian, Assyrian, Assyrian International News Agency, attempting, attorney, beforehand, belonging, boundary, bounds, built, called, canceling, Candarli, case, center, charged, charges, children, Christian, Christianity, Christians, churches, Cihan News Agency, claim, claiming, community, complain, complications, confiscate, consulate, contentious, converted, country, court, creating, dating, delegation, demographic, designated, determined, devoid, Discrimination, dispute, dropped, dwindled, Eglence, elections, emigrated, established, establishments, Europe, European, European Union, evidence, examine, excalated, existence, exploited, fallout, families, forest, foundation, founded, fourth century, freely, frivolous, German, government, grants, Greek, groundless, hearing, historic, historically, homeland, human rights, Hurriyet Daily News, illegal, illegally, increased, inhabited, intent, international, Islam, Islamic, Ismail Erlal, issues, Jesus, Jews, joy, Justice and Development Party, Kurdish, Kurdistan Worker's Party, Kurds, land, land survey, language, large, larger, Lausanne Treaty, lawsuit, leader, leaders, legal, lines, livestock, local, logic, malicious, Mardin, mayors, member, mention, Metropolitan Bishop of Tur Abdin Diocese, Metropolitan Timotheos Samuel Aktas, Middle East, Midyat, military, minority, modern, monastery, monitor, Monks, Mor Gabriel Monastery, mosques, Muslim, muslims, named, national, nature, needs, nuns, observed, obtain, occupied, offering, office, opportunity, organizations, originally, origins, Orthodox, Ottoman, outcry, overwhelmingly, paid, Parliament, parliamentarian, part, pasture, people, perimeter, Persecution, practice, pressure, property, proselytize, protect, protection, Protestants, provocative, rebuilt, record, registered, religions, religious, relished, remaining, report, representing, rescheduled, residents, response, revered, rightful, rights, rousing, Rudi Sumer, ruling, schedulled, schooling, schools, scrutiny, seat, sentiments, social, southeastern, sparked, spoken, state, State treasury, status, stretching, structure, Suleyman Celebi, support, surrounding, Swedish, synagogues, Syriac, Syriacs, system, taxes, teaching, terrorists, threatened, treaty, Turkey, uncultivated, variant, vexatious, village, villages, violence, visited, walls, War, watching, wrongfully, Yayvantepe, Yilmaz Kerim, young | Leave a comment


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Newmilns Snow and Sports Complex expansion gets underway
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Newmilns Snow and Sports Complex have announced plans for a £1m upgrade of their facilities, replacing the existing dry ski slope and constructing two new parallel courses.
Ranging in length from 32m to 100m these will cater for both beginners and experienced skiiers alike with the added attractions of a table top jump area and moveable race gates.
Barr Construction are currently on site at the Complex undertaking clearance work to the existing site, this entails removal of existing foliage and topsoil to allow the ground to be re-profiled for a steeper slope.
A ski lift and tow are currently being shipped in from France and Austria to ferry skiiers from the activity area up to the new slopes, which forms the first phase of a larger development which will see formation of a new clubhouse designed by Laurence McPherson Associates.
Robert Pollock of NSASC said: "We are looking forward to having an updated complex suitable for the needs of all our visitors from leisure snow sports enthusiasts to future snow sports racers. After spending much of our time raising the funds ourselves, we are looking forward to finally completing the renovation."
Mike Scott, project manager at Barr, added: "We've been on the site for the past couple of weeks and are due to complete the project at the end of the year."
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Looking to extend your presentation skills? Create detailed 3D models using this intuitive and easy-to-learn program. Over 2 sessions you will be introduced to the fundamentals of SketchUp enabling you to create realistic floor plans and 3D models. You'll use the 3D Warehouse, the world's largest online library, to import furniture and lighting.
Whilst this short course has been created for those working in the design or construction industry you'll need little or no experience in this software, only enthusiasm! Please note you will need to purchase a student version of SketchUp (approx $71.50), this course is not accredited, upon completion you will receive a Statement of Completion.
Capture the imagination of your clients with bold 3D imagery.
Interior Decorators and Designers, Architects, Draftspeople, Builders, Landscape Architects and those working in the construction industry.
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Landscape Architects and those working in the construction industry.
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Bay Tree Marine and Small Engine. Certified and Factory Trained Marine and Small Engine Mechanics. Located 2 miles west of Bay Tree Store on highway 49.
Offers web and graphic design, domain registration, hosting assistance and search engine submission. Located in Alberta, Canada.
Search engine optimization articles and guide with testimonials. Alberta, Canada.


Avanti un Altro is a leading TV quiz show hired on Italian television. We worked with Mediaset, the broadcaster, to create a compelling mobile version of the tv show.
The game is backed by a complex architecture. Sparkling Labs created the mobile app in itself, available both on Android and iOS, and a server side component. Players can enjoy single player game mode and can create fun challenges against Facebook friends or random opponents. Furthermore the system is deeply integrated into the Mediaset Connect experience: a virtual currency acquired in Avanti un Altro mobile game can be used into Mediaset Connect while the player is watching the tv show with a two-way synchronisation system.


The Coburg bar at the Connaught Hotel on London's Mount street has got things just right. Bar Manager, Mark Jenner, who has a nose for fine wines and spirits has commissioned another nose, perfumer Roja Dove, to make a scent that will create the perfect ambiance for his guests. Never a man to do things by halves, Roja has made not one but two divinely scented candles exclusively for the bar. In his foreword, which is in the bar menu, he describes the Neroli fragrance, which welcomes you in as you get into the party spirit and then at the other end of the bar, when you cosy down for a night's drinking, you will be greeted with a smoky Vetiver. Excellent attention to detail always gets top marks from us.


We've heard the calls, complaints, emails, YouTube comments, blog posts, pigeon messages, texts, e-mails, tweets and Tumblr reposts. You've wanted us. You've needed us. You didn't even know you wanted and needed us, but here we are and you love it.
There hasn't ever been a site like us before. Many have tried, many have failed, but you know we're the only ones who can give you what you've wanted all this time, and we can't wait to do it.
You love anime, even though everyone makes fun of you for it.
Well, we love you. We love your ridiculous costumes, your lisp, your bad hygiene and your overactive imagination. We love your intelligence, your need for sharp wit, your obsession with fictional characters and how much you wish those two brothers from Supernatural would just make out. Okay, we don't love that last part at all, but we love that you love it, because you're our kind of people. You're a fan.
Fans need a place to go to read something different, enjoy the beast within and unleash that love of creativity that others have that brings you back for more.
Well, this is that place. We'll cover every nook and cranny of the pop culture and the geek world. We'll cover it with our viscous ooze of sarcasm, wit and bold-faced lies.
This is your place. This is for you. Now stop breathing so goddamn hard and start clicking on the rest of the site!


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Knight, Alfred Victor (1897–1983)
by David Stevens and Greg Swinden
Alfred Knight, with the ship's cat, c.1944
Alfred Victor Knight (1897-1983), naval officer and master mariner, was born on 20 February 1897 at Dover, Kent, England, son of William Knight, grocer's manager, and his wife Annetta Louisa, née Howgego. Educated at St Mary's School, Dover, Victor was active in the local Scout troop as well as the church choir. He joined the Roberts Steamship Co. as a cadet in 1912 and served his apprenticeship in the tramp steamer Batiscan. On 21 April 1915 he was appointed midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve.
After serving in the armed merchant cruiser HMS Victorian on blockade duty in the North Sea, Knight was posted to destroyers, first HMS Owl on escort duty to France and then HMS Crusader on the Dover Patrol. He was promoted to temporary acting sub-lieutenant in February 1917 and to temporary sub-lieutenant in February 1918. On 23 April that year he was in HMS Sirius during the attack on Ostend (Oostende) harbour, Belgium. The raid, designed to block the port to prevent its use by the Germans as a destroyer and U-boat base, failed in its objective but was a substantial propaganda success. Knight was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his `great coolness under heavy fire'. He was mentioned in despatches for his actions during a second assault on 10 May. In February 1919 he was promoted to temporary acting lieutenant and appointed to HMS Northolt, which was employed on postwar minesweeping duties.
Leaving the navy in January 1920, Knight obtained his master's certificate next month and resumed his career in the merchant navy, sailing on voyages to the Americas and the Far East. He worked for the Booth and Blue Funnel lines, and also for a time with Malayan Customs in their campaign against rubber smuggling. Following a visit to Australia, he was appointed as a lieutenant, Royal Australian Naval Reserve (Seagoing), on 1 January 1923. In 1925 he joined the Union Steam Ship Co. of New Zealand Ltd. On 12 April 1930 at St Nicolas's Church of England, Coogee, Sydney, he married Irene Ethel Pain (d.1967), an artist. He was promoted to lieutenant commander, RANR, in 1931 and to commander in 1937.
Mobilised for full-time duty on 16 March 1940, Knight served at Navy Office, Melbourne, in the trade division. In February 1941 he was appointed commanding officer of the Bathurst-class corvette HMAS Lithgow, which was commissioned in June. Lithgow swept for mines in Bass Strait, assisted in the destruction of the Japanese submarine I 124 off Darwin in January 1942, escorted troop convoys to Papua and took part in the campaign to recapture Buna in December. He was appointed OBE (1943).
In February 1943 Knight took command of HMAS Westralia, then being converted as a landing ship, infantry. Under his command Westralia trained more than 21,000 men in amphibious warfare, transported more than 19,000 men and 30,000 tons of military equipment to forward areas, and took part in the Allied landings at Arawe, New Britain (December 1943), Humboldt Bay, Netherlands New Guinea (April 1944), and Leyte Gulf, the Philippines (October 1944). He was appointed to the United States of America's Legion of Merit (1946). The citation described him as a `forceful leader' who, by his `splendid co-operation in the conduct of a vital training programme, aggressive determination and untiring energies … contributed materially to combined large-scale operations'.
Appointed sea transport officer, Sydney, in November 1944, Knight was promoted to captain in December 1946. He was demobilised on 1 July 1947. Transferring to the Australian Shipping Board (Australian National Line from 1956), he commanded various merchant ships. He was made ANL's first commodore soon after his retirement in 1962 and honorary commodore of the fleet in 1972. On 17 October 1968 at the registrar-general's office, Sydney, he had married Hilda Marian Menlove, née Stevens (d.1975), the divorced wife of D. A. Menlove. He was chairman of the Glebe Island Committee, a director of Altikar Pty Ltd (later associate-director of Multicon & Altikar Engineering Pty Ltd), and an active member of many naval and merchant-navy associations. His recreations included golf and fishing. Survived by the daughter of his first marriage, he died on 22 January 1983 in his home at Double Bay and was cremated following a funeral at the naval chapel, HMAS Watson.
F. M. McGuire, The Royal Australian Navy (1948)
W. N. Swan, Spearheads of Invasion (1953)
G. H. Gill, Royal Australian Navy 1939-1942 (1957)
G. H. Gill, 1942-1945 (1968)
Naval History Review, June 1975, p 3
Sydney Morning Herald, 27 Jan 1983, p 11
series A6769, item Knight A V (National Archives of Australia)
ADM 240/40 (National Archives, London).
David Stevens and Greg Swinden, 'Knight, Alfred Victor (1897–1983)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/knight-alfred-victor-12745/text22991, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 27 January 2023.
Dover, Kent, England
Double Bay, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
merchant ship's master


Federal fire officials are planning to conduct a 125-acre prescribed burn Monday, April 21 if weather conditions remain favorable.
The Junction Butte prescribed fire area is east of U.S. Highway 9 and north of Grand County Road 33 on Bureau of Land Management public land.
Smoke will be visible from Kremmling, GCR 33 and U.S. Highways 40 and 9. Duration of the project is expected to beone or two days.
Goals for this project are to improve waterfowl habitat, increase forage for elk and deer, and open irrigation ditches to allow water flow to wetland areas. Removal of old, dense vegetation will open the ditches and overgrown wetland areas and promote regeneration of grasses.
Burn plans have been prepared and approved and ignition takes place when weather and ground conditions are within specifically determined parameters that allow for safe and efficient operations. All required permits have been issued by the Colorado State Air Quality.
For more information contact Kevin Thompson, 970-724-3033, BLM Kremmling Field Office.


The Distortion MKII pedal is designed to have a clear high gain sound, an aggressive attack, low noise and a wide audio spectrum.
The Luminus is an active equalizer that gives a bandwidth-boost to your tone. A spectrum of warmth and clarity will make your sound will huge and alive.
The FX Glow is a high-end level booster with a built in FX loop. That means that you can use it on your amps serial loop (to level boost your solo for example).
The Re-amping box is the solution for home guitar recording.
It converts a line signal into a guitar signal.
This way it is possible to record guitar at home without any studio-stress.
The RogerThat Delay is a clear digital delay.
Its key feature is that the delay effect doesn't change anything about your guitar sound, it just adds delay.
With the Swap Box you can switch the order of 2 effects (chains) or pedals.
For Example, you can connect a tubescreamer to the A side and a booster to the B side.
When you press the switch the order will change.


The Age of the Free Agents has dawned upon us!
Two hundered years after the colonial wars from Sirius Online, both factions have determined themselves to start exploring for newer, better options to colonize the universe. Earth and, in conclusion the Terran Forces have exploring the outer rims of the galactic arm, trying to find artifacts of other species to be used in the war efforts, with the Colonies seek contact towards the core of the galaxy.
Time upon time both have clashed upon each other, but only the invention of the Jumpgate-Technology made this recent expansion. Now you can be an independent pilot under the banner of of of these factions and seek out the treasures of the universe yourself!
Join a new Story-driven universe together with your Twitch Subscribers or play alone and uncover the secrets of the Crimson!


HOUSTON – Houston office vacancy rate is high, but office construction is dwindling and the big supply of sublease space is gradually fading, according to CBRE.
"The worst is behind us," said Cody Armbrister, senior managing director of the Houston office of CBRE, at a press briefing Wednesday. The "early green shoots" of recovery are beginning to emerge, he said.
Houston has a vast amount of available office space as the market recovers from the impact of rapidly declining oil prices. The office vacancy rate is at a 22-year high, CBRE reports and the Class A availability rate is approaching 23 percent.
The Energy Corridor area in west Houston is one of the soft spots in the Houston office market, said CBRE's Kristen Rabel. Downtown Houston also has a significant amount of available sublease space.
Landlords are making significant concessions and giving generous tenant improvement allowances to make deals happen, Rabel said. "TI and free rent are through the roof," she said.
Houston had 788,000 SF of negative net absorption in the first quarter, CBRE reports.


Kleptophobia, or fear of theft, can really be used to explain two distinct fears. The first is a fear of being stolen from or robbed. The second is a fear of stealing from someone else. The two fears are sometimes related and should exist simultaneously.
Both forms of kleptophobia are often, however not always, triggered by a detrimental event. For example, when you have been robbed at gunpoint, you're at higher danger of creating a concern of being robbed. Likewise, if in case you have ever been a thief, chances are you'll worry that you'll fall back into previous patterns.
Either form of kleptophobia can also be rooted in inside struggles or conflicts. Society doesn't cleanly divide into abstracts of good and evil, and defining our personal morals will be challenging. For example, most of us have been taught as children to not steal, however how many of us actually return additional change that we were given by mistake? It is frequent to justify small cheats, but simultaneously worry that this behavior may constitute stealing, or may even lead to larger and more definitive thefts.
Likewise, most people accept that business will not always be fair and sometimes people may be taken advantage of. We are likely to let small issues go in an effort to be cooperative or keep away from confrontation. Over time, however, even minimal amounts of overcharges can lead a person to feel victimized, ultimately worrying that next time we will likely be more critically taken advantage of.


In the spring of 2016, actor/director Mary Stuart Masterson founded Stockade Works, a non-profit organization dedicated to Make Local Work™ in fostering the further potential of film and tech in the Hudson Valley. With the goal to boost the local economy by bringing film and television production to the region, her passion was contagious and effective.
We are thrilled to share with you that Stockade Works and Rural Ulster Preservation Company (RUPCO) has been awarded $1 million in economic and community development funding through the New York State Regional Economic Development Council Initiative.
"These funds will allow us to kickstart our co-working, production facility which is an essential link in the entertainment ecosystem chain," remarked Stockade Works Founder and Executive Director Mary Stuart Masterson.
Voice your support to Make Local Work!
Encourage Governor Cuomo to sign the bill to expand the Empire State Film Production Tax Credit Program to the Hudson Valley.
Legislation (A.9415 -Gunther / S.6987 -Amedore) to promote new economic opportunity is currently on Governor Cuomo's desk. We urge you to contact the Governor's office or call 1-518-474-8390 immediately to voice your support, we only have until November 4, 2016 to get it signed!


This charming 4-star heritage hotel is located in the heart of Hvar between the old Rector's Palace and St. Mark church. Guests here will receive a warm welcome and enjoy modern and stylish accommodation.
Hotel Park Hvar is a lovely boutique hotel occupying a historical building from the First World War era. A short 10 minute stroll takes to you to Milna, Dubovica and the city centre meaning you can take your pick of the shopping, entertainment and excursions on offer. Popular cultural and historical attractions include the Hvar Fortress, Franciscan Monastery and Heritage museum. The beach is just 5 minutes away too.
Restaurant Park offers excellent cuisine and Central Park Club delivers a great mix of music, a fantastic wine selection and sophisticated cocktails.
The modern rooms and suites have satellite TV, free Wi-Fi, minibar, safe, air conditioning and floor heating.
Charming rooms with views of the old town and streets. Each consists of a bedroom with double bed and bathroom with shower.
Available with town or sea views, these suites have a bedroom with double bed and living room with pull out bed.
Both are one-bedroom suites and can accommodate 2 adults and 2 children.
- Superior Top Storey Triple Suite, Sea View - one bedroom, large living room and bathroom with massage tub. 75 sq m. Max adults: 3. Max children: 2.
Restaurant Park Hvar: Take in stunning views and enjoy the stylish atmosphere at this charming terrace restaurant. Serves traditional Dalmation and international cuisine using high quality, seasonal ingredients.