text:
Mahesh Bhatt on Me Too movement: It's a long journeyhttps://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/mahesh-bhatt-me-too-movement-in-bollywood-5395702/
Mahesh Bhatt on Me Too movement: It's a long journey
Mahesh Bhatt shared his views about the latest Me Too movement in Bollywood, while promoting his film Jalebi.
Written by Mimansa Shekhar | New Delhi | Updated: October 11, 2018 3:31:02 pm
Sadak 2: Jishu Sengupta, Akshay Anand and Priyanka Bose join the star cast
Between Mahesh Bhatt's wife and Alia's mother, Soni Razdan struggles to be herself
Won't speak against a child: Mahesh Bhatt on Kangana Ranaut's sister's allegation
Mahesh Bhatt spoke on Me Too movement while sharing stories of strong women around him.
In the light of the current MeToo movement, Mahesh Bhatt feels it is a long journey as it requires a deeper change. The filmmaker, who was in New Delhi to promote his latest production Jalebi, exclusively spoke to indianexpress.com about why we need to do more than just expressing our outrage.
"Women have fought this for long, but now it is happening here and more power to them. But you can't solve these problems through quotes or public opinion. It needs a much deeper, inner change. That's why we have put them in temples. And the temple is a place of the heart, where you revere women and give them that place. I think that is the most important thing. Also, let's not be in a hurry to see a happy ending with just expressing your outrage, because it's a long journey," Bhatt said.
Also read | #MeToo: Here is the list of all men from the film industry who have been accused of harassment
Sharing his personal stories and take on how women need to take things in their hands, he shared, "I remember the incident of Mr. Gill, the man who stopped the insurgency in Punjab. He was pulled up by a woman for inappropriate behaviour and there was legal action taken against him. So it was not something that was born with Bollywood or not something that happened overseas. It was there."
"I remember my domestic help with whom I went to the market one day. Somebody tried to grope her. She turned around and gave him a slap in the market. And I still remember the sound of her bangles! She was like a tigress. I'll never forget she looked so beautiful when she was like that!" he added.
Also read | Imran Khan: Everyone in the industry knew about Vikas Bahl
Jalebi actor Rhea Chakraborty, who was also present at the promotions, added, "MeToo came six years ago in America. People spoke even then, people are speaking even now. But now couple of Bollywood people have spoken so it has become a thing, but I am glad that it did because more girls need to talk and more girls need to feel that there are more girls out there who are talking. So they are not fearful, they are not scared anymore. At the same time until and unless there is a resolution or a solution to this, it's just going to be conversation points."
The MeToo movement in Indian gained steam after actor Tanushree Dutta once again accused Nana Patekar of sexually harassing her during the shooting of 2008 film Horn Ok Pleassss. This was followed by several women coming forward to share their ordeal. So far, Vikas Bahl, Rajat Kapoor, Alok Nath, Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba are among those who've been accused of allegedly harassing women.
Organisations like MAMI and CINTAA have also pledged strict action against these men.
Mahesh Bhatt
Me Too movement
Mahesh Bhatt on Me Too movement: It's a long journey
1 Badhaai Ho actor Neena Gupta: Nice to be in times where senior actors are getting meaty roles
2 #MeToo: Here is the list of all men from the film industry who have been accused of harassment
3 Anil Kapoor credits Subhash Ghai's Meri Jung for changing his life


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Athene posts record profits – The Royal Gazette | Bermuda News, Business, Sports, Events, & Community
17670E28-278B-4620-9FF3-236784071758
Athene posts record profits
Scott Neil, Assistant Business Editor
Athene Holding Ltd has reported a profit of $640 million, or $3.23 per share, for the third quarter.
That is up on the $274 million, or $1.39 per share, recorded for the same period last year.
Adjusted operating income was $381 million, or $1.95 per adjusted operating share, up on last year's third quarter figure of $231 million.
Jim Belardi, chief executive officer of Athene, said: "Our record third-quarter financial results reflect our continued focus on delivering superior value.
"We are extraordinarily well positioned with a multichannel distribution platform that provides sustainable and opportunistic growth at very attractive ROEs [return on equity].
"With a current portfolio of more than $100 billion, ongoing organic growth capabilities, and identifiable inorganic opportunities in excess of $100 billion, we have an abundance of opportunity in front of us.
"Importantly, we remain patient and disciplined in our approach to building shareholder value, which has resulted in a 23 per cent year-over-year increase in adjusted book value to approximately $46 per share."
The Bermudian-based company is a provider of retirement savings products. Its adjusted book value per share was up 8 per cent, quarter-over-quarter, at $45.94. That was a 23 per cent improvement year-over-year.
Mr Belardi added: "In recognition of our superior financial performance, market leadership, capital growth, and improved business diversification, S&P upgraded the financial strength ratings of Athene's operating companies to 'A' on August 16. This ratings upgrade will accelerate the strong momentum of our business, and we look forward to establishing new partnerships and engaging as a financial solutions provider to a broader market."
Athene: quarterly profit of $640 million
CG distributes antigen test kits
Accelerant Re wins excellent rating
New head of office at Artex Risk Solutions
Aspen in pact with Pat Ryan Specialty Group
SiriusPoint invests in partner MGA
Published November 02, 2018 at 9:00 am (Updated November 01, 2018 at 8:56 pm)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Image Title: Custom Built In Media Center Ethos Carpentry Throughout Cabinets Inspirations 6. Filename: custom-built-in-media-center-ethos-carpentry-throughout-cabinets-inspirations-6.jpg. Image Dimension: 720 x 960 pixels. Images Format: jpg/jpeg. Publisher/Author: Amani Connelly. Uploaded Date: Saturday - June 09th. 2018 19:04:12 PM. Category: Architecture. Image Source: homedecor.com.
Tap The Thumbnail Bellow to See Related Gallery of "Custom Built In Media Center Ethos Carpentry Throughout Cabinets Inspirations 6"


Our month-long Hemingway celebration continues with a striking new story by Samuel Stevens, "Diminutives," whose setting of Paris is a nod to Ernest Hemingway and the Lost Generation. But so is its style. Few writers understand what Ernest Hemingway was fully up to when he revolutionized writing. Stevens is one of them.
Note how Stevens' story is like a Modernist painting– a collage of parts expressing the fragmentation of our time. As if helplessly riding a bus about to crash, we're replaying– reliving– that broken insane world Hemingway experienced. Around us is a sense of foreboding. Imminence. Chaos.
Stevens' story is simple but at the same time it's a mix of impressions and ideas. A splash of confusion, or a slap in the face. The story is there in front of us, like a painting. Right there. It's very short, but there's enough in it to like or dislike. Or hate.
There were no subjects to write about any more, either in America or here; the world was too mixed up to really stop and look at it.
AS we weren't able to get anything from our pipeline ready in time to post today, I've knocked out a quick essay I believe is timely.
It also addresses a thought which has been in my head of late– that we have to stop dividing ourselves. Naïve? Maybe. In this tumultuous year of 2016, too many of us treat ideology like religion. We put party and identity before country. We're unable to compromise on anything.
Pop is populism, but how do we define that?


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ESPN Digital Posts Banner Year
By posted by Deborah D. McAdams 13 February 2017
BRISTOL, CONN.—ESPN Digital Media said 2016 was a banner year. For the full calendar year, the platform was said to have reached an average of "112.1 million unique fans globally each month, ESPN's largest total ever and up 5 percent over 2015. ESPN's average monthly unique visitor total was 20.4 million more than the the No. 2 sports property—Yahoo Sports-NBC Sports Network, 91.7 million."
On average, site visitors spent 7.9 billion minutes using ESPN digital properties globally, 3.0 billion more than No. 2 Yahoo Sports-NBC Sports Network, with 4.9 billion, ESPN said. Other platform metrics provided by ESPN:
Throughout the calendar year, fans visited ESPN digital products more than 10 billion times and spent 84.3 billion minutes with ESPN digital content.
ESPN delivered an average minute audience of 160,000 in the U.S. in 2016l, versus Yahoo Sports-NBC Sports Network with 90,000 and MLB with 38,000.
ESPN accounted for 29.9 percent of all sports category usage on digital platforms compared to Yahoo! Sports-NBC Sports Network with 16.9 percent and MLB with 7.1 percent.
ESPN reached 48 percent of all monthly U.S. sports category users in 2016 and 34 percent of all monthly U.S. internet users regardless of category.
The ESPN App was No. 1 in the U.S. sports category for monthly unique visitors in every month of 2016.
ESPN's portfolio of apps reached 25.1 million monthly unique visitors and generated 34.3 billion minutes of usage throughout the year, more than any other sports media property.
ESPN garnered 33 percent of all U.S. sports app usage.
Fans watched 4.9 billion on-platform digital video clips on ESPN platforms in 2016, up 9 percent from a year ago. ESPN saw 1.7 billion video views on phones, up 42 percent year-over-year.1
An average of 8.3 million unique viewers streamed ESPN content monthly in 2016, up 24 percent from a year ago. Viewers spent a total of 22.5 billion minutes streaming ESPN programming across all platforms during the year, up 44 percent.1
Locast Now Available for Orlando Viewers


text:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;
using Thinktecture.IdentityModel.Client;

namespace MRTutorial.Client
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            RunAsync();
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

        private static async void RunAsync()
        {
            var response = await GetTokenAsync();
            var result = await CallApi(response.AccessToken);
        }

        private static async Task<TokenResponse> GetTokenAsync()
        {
            var client = new OAuth2Client(
                new Uri("https://localhost:44303/identity/connect/token"),  //MRTutorial.IdentityServer
                "roclient",
                "secret");

            return await client.RequestResourceOwnerPasswordAsync("foo", "bar", "sampleApi");
        }
        private static async Task<string> CallApi(string token)
        {
            var client = new HttpClient();
            client.SetBearerToken(token);

            return await client.GetStringAsync("https://localhost:44305/api/test");  //MRTutorial.ProtectedApi
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Celebrating the fact that suddenly there is over 20000 fans supporting me and my music.
3 years ago i would have never thought that this is possible in such a short amount of time.
So there was a definite need to finally give free access to the very sought after version of " The Wish" featuring B'utiza on vocals.


This year's MUTEK Montreal shaped up to be an entertaining time. In addition to stellar acts, top notch sound, and beautiful performance spaces, there were also a ton of interesting workshops and Q&As happening that made for a quite immersive experience. The fact that most of the performances occurred at 4 main venues that were close in proximity to each other made it easy to catch at least a little of each performance.
Because we got in on Wednesday night, our soiree didn't begin until Thursday. We began with a trip to the Quartier de Spectacles to see CMD play live at an outdoor stage flanked by an open grassy knoll. The rain didn't stop people from coming out, and gathering under covered areas in the park and even across the street to listen to Corina MacDonald's set. It was uptempo, dance worthy, and set at an odd time. We feel that she could have gone on later because the material itself was not fit for a rainy afternoon, but more for a prime time club night. That being said, we were glad to see her on the bill and hope to see her again in a more fitting environment where people can really get down to her uncompromising sound. Other highlights of Thursday include Dasha Rush's Antarctic Takt. It was a hypnotic performance that had us entranced. Constantly shifting rhythmic and visual patterns toppled over one another building into a climax of ecstatic fury that left everyone breathless once it was over. Bravo! It was a great lead in to Richard Devine's modular wizardry. His entire performance was done using his rig of modular synthesizers, and it was obvious at moments that even he didn't know exactly what to expect from his beast of an instrument, which made it all the more exciting for the audience.
The festival kept ramping up as it went along, and Friday was the night that the dancers were really looking forward to. Karen Gwyer got her refreshing groove on giving us the A side to the B side of her fascinating Q&A with Wired Magazine's Jennifer Allan. It was a fascinating conversation where she touched on what it means to wear so many hats (including that of a mother) and the precarious issue of balancing them all at once. Metropolis was the mega club of the festival and saw Steffi take the stage with her new hardware set to countless screaming fans. Let's just say she brought it, and took no prisoners while she was at it. It was nearly impossible to walk across the dancefloor because bodies were standing their ground moving to the thunderous beats of her well manipulated machines. Lucy closed out the night with modular synthesis techno magic that worked the us into a frenzy in a no holds barred performance easily in my top 10 of all time.
All the female performances were over by the end of Friday night for some odd reason so it was pretty much a dude fest for the rest of the time. Saturday night's events were pretty good even so. Of the performances we were able to catch that night, Millie and Andrea stood out as pretty amazing despite their questionable choice of moniker. Patricia, another male act, held it down with his acid techno live set that had people mercilessly stomping their feet. It really did seem like more women were performing at Mutek, hmmmm curious. DBX played late on Saturday night and went on just as many were beginning to yawn and look at their watches. He woke us up for sure when he got on the mic doing his pitched down vocals with John Tejada on live drums. It was a super funky performance and the vibes were thick in the crowd. We want to do a special shout out to Music For Lamps, an ambient act that produced the most mystical melodies which were great for stretching out and doing yoga poses before the beat ridden uptempo acts that came later in the evening. The visual component of their act consisted of lamps set up to react to the sounds they are playing via mic triggers. Very innovative and atmospheric!
Sunday nights highlights included Pole and MFO and Strategy. It makes perfect sense that Pole is a sound designer/mastering engineer because the silky sound he produced really stood out as the icing on the cake, as many at the event would concur. Femmecult also got to attend a roundtable discussion at CMD's radio show Modular Systems on CKUT. Square Root of Evil aka Nancy Dru, Echo Beach, Ylang Ylang (who also performed at MUTEK,) CMD and I, SciFiSol, got a chance to chat about pertinent issues and play some of our tunes which you can listen to online here.
One of our few laments of the festival was that we didn't have clones of ourselves so that we would be able to attend more of the workshops during the day. Unfortunately, we had to spend some time sleeping, but next year we hope to plan so that we can attend more talks and interactive events, of which their were many. It really is wonderful that many of these events are free and open to the public. The other lament was that there were not more women performing at the festival. In our research over the last 5 years we have personally come into contact online with hundreds of female composers (thanks FemalePressure) who would fit the artistic criteria of many of the performers we saw at MUTEK this year. Therefore, the question of innovation comes to mind. Would it not be more innovative to provide audiences with a broader perspective of electronic music that includes a more balanced representation of all genders, instead of the perspective of a majority of white males? In the end, it comes down to in group dynamics, visibility and access to the conversation in general.
Despite our aforementioned issues, the festival was an absolute blast and very well thought out logistically. It is understandable that it would be counted as one of the preeminent electronic festivals in the world. This summer, be on the lookout for our festival interviews with Dasha Rush as well as Patti Schmidt, who is one of MUTEK's curators, where we address the topic of more visibility for female composers.


It's the big game! Or maybe you're planning a pep rally for school. Whatever the occassion, there are a few essential items you should consider so the crowd can show their spirit!
Sunglasses and rally towels are classic items, and of course anything that makes a lot of noise is a must in my opinion. I tend to prefer items that are out of the ordinary, though. The conversation starters that last beyond the date of an event. That's the point of branded merchandise anyhow, right?
You want to make a statement and you want your brand to be remembered, so, if the budget and occasion allow it, try out something different! Make sure your brand stands out, either because the item is useful, outrageous or simply unique. In some cases, the product can fit all three categories, like our Sport-Tek ® Striped Arm Socks!
These arm socks come in a variety of colors, so you are bound to find a set that match your logo. While you're adding a layer of warmth to arms, you might as well keep everyone's head toasty too with a matching Beanie!
I guarantee these arms socks will turn heads and make a lasting impression on all those who wear and see your product at an upcoming game or event!
← Join Us at this Year's Innovation Expo!


The Monetary Authority of Singapore has recently announced a grant of S$30 Million in order to strengthen the existing cybersecurity infrastructure and also to help with developing local talent.
This grant is funded under the Financial Sector Technology & innovation scheme (FSTI), to support the advancement in the cybersecurity functions, in Singapore-based Financial Institutions.
Financial Institutions with key global or regional cybersecurity functions and operations in Singapore to expand and deepen their capabilities locally.
This grant will also help fund the development of local cybersecurity talent by the way of cybersecurity programme.


text:
From 12:00 am to 12:00 am
STMKP > Events > Saint of the Day > Feast Day of Saint Miki and Companions
0 All Booked All Booked All Booked 7907 Feast Day of Saint Miki and Companions https://stmkp.org/?event=feast-day-of-saint-miki-and-companions&event_date=2023-02-06&reg=1 https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr 2023-02-06
Feast Day of Saint Miki and Companions
February 6, 2023 From 12:00 am to 12:00 am
2023-02-06 00:00 2023-02-06 00:00 UTC Feast Day of Saint Miki and Companions
Saint Paul Miki and Companions
Starts 12:00 am


When we say apartment house, rooms are connected and are made to be partitioned, but actually it is a maisonette type and the staircase is in the room.
When we say apartment house, rooms are connected and are made to be partitioned, but actually it is a maisonette type and the staircase is in the room. There is no stairway in the room in the residence of an apartment, it is not made that there is a room on the upper or lower floor. However, there are stairs in the room in the maisonette type apartment, so it will be an apartment where you can live as if you live in a detached house.
Maisonette type apartment has rooms on the upper and lower floors, making noise on apartment-specific noise by having the upper room as a child's room. In a condominium, there are many things like noise running around as children run into noise troubles, and in case of noise problems you may have to leave. Also for couple who work together, maisonnet type apartment house is recommended, so if you have room above and below, you will not be concerned about each other even if your bedtime is up if you go home.
Because maisonette type is made like a detached house, it is also recommended for those planning to buy a detached house in the future. You can simulate living in a detached house.
Copyright (C)2019In my later yearsI would like to live in a tropical country.All rights reserved.


text:
Q: If integration of arbitrary polynomial with respect to Borel measure $\mu$, over $[0,1]$ vanishes, is it true that $\mu$ equals to $0$ on $ [0,1]$? I am having difficulties to deal with following problems;
Assume $ \displaystyle\int_{[0,1]} x^n d \mu =0$ for all $n$,
then is it true that $\mu=0$ on [0,1]?
I think it is definitely true.. but I don't know how to proceed..
Can anybody help me?

A: You are not saying if you include $n=0$ in your conditions. If you do, then the equation for $n=0$ is $\mu([0,1])=0$.
Assuming you don't, it's not true in the generality you are asking. The problem with using the functions $\{x^n\}$ to define your measure is that they are all $0$ at $0$. So if $\mu$ is the Dirac measure, i.e.
$$
\mu(R)=\begin{cases}1,&\ \text{ if } 0\in R\\0,&\ \text{ if} 0\not\in R\end{cases}
$$
Then $\displaystyle\int_{[0,1]}x^n\,d\mu=0$ for all $n$.

A: The main interest of teh problem is to show that we can't find a finite signed measure satisfying $\int_{[0,1]}t^nd\mu(t)=0$ for all integer $n\geq 0$ (missing $n=0$, as mentioned before, would make the problem wrong with the counter-example $\delta_0$). If we assume $\mu\geq 0$ then the problem is trivial.
Let $\mu=\mu^+-\mu^-$ the Jordan decomposition of $\mu$, where $\mu^+$ and $\mu^-$ are non-negative measures. We have, by Stone-Weierstrass theorem, that $\int_{[0,1]}f(t)d\mu(t)=0$ for all $f$ continuous on $[0,1]$.
As the characteristic function of a closed set $F$ can be approximated pointwise by continuous functions $f_n$ such that $0\leq f_n\leq 1$, we have by dominated convergence theorem applied to $\mu^+$ and $\mu^-$ that $\mu^+(F)=\mu^-(F)$ for all $F$ closed. This can be extended to all Borel subsets of $[0,1]$, as they generate this $\sigma$-algebra and are stable by (finite) intersections. So $\mu=0$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
possible & not so possible futures
Home Episode	Fire From the Deep
Fire From the Deep
In this episode, a huge submarine volcano erupts, breaks the surface of the ocean, and forms a new island. What happens next?
Tracy Gregg, associate professor of geology at the University at Buffalo
Rebecca Carey, senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania
Paraskevi V. Nomiku, assistant professor of geological oceanography at the University of Athens
Gianpierro Orbasano, Tongan photojournalist and explorer
Michael Bates, Prince of Sealand
James Grimmelmann, professor of law at Cornell Tech
Hunga Tonga volcano eruption forms new S Pacific island
New Pacific Island Could Resemble Ancient Martian Volcanoes
Tonga Underwater Volcano Eruption Disrupts Flights
VOLCANO OFF THE COAST OF ICELAND FORMS A NEW ISLAND
Savage Earth
New Tonga Volcanic Island May Surivive Much Longer Than Expected
"I rule my own ocean micronation"
The largest deep-ocean silicic volcanic eruption of the past century
Tsunami hazard risk of a future volcanic eruption of Kolumbo submarine volcano, NE of Santorini Caldera, Greece
Volcanic ash as fertiliser for the surface ocean
The Submarine Volcano Eruption off El Hierro Island: Effects on the Scattering Migrant Biota and the Evolution of the Pelagic Communities
What is law of the sea?
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
Principality of Sealand: Nation Building by Individuals
Sealand, Havenco and the Rule of Law
Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.
If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you've spotted one of the little references I've hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you're right, I'll send you something cool.
And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! Head to www.flashforwardpod.com/support for more about how to give. But if that's not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help.
That's all for this future, come back next time and we'll travel to a new one.
FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW
▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹ ▹▹
Hello and welcome to Flash Forward! I'm Rose and I'm your host. Flash Forward is a show about the future. Every episode we take on a specific possible… or not so possible future scenario. We always start with a little field trip to the future, to check out what's going on, and then we teleport back to today to talk to real life experts about how that world we just heard might really go down. Got it? Great!
This episode we're starting in the year 2022.
[waves, fishing boat sounds] [radio sound]
Marion: Ethel, Ethel this is the Marion, on channel 16 over.
Ethel: Marion this is Ethel over
Marion: Ethel switch over to channel 71
Ethel: switching to 71.
Marion: Ethel have you been to Henry Bay today?
Ethel: Yeah passed through a few hours ago.
Marion: You see anything weird?
Ethel: No, why?
Marion: I gotta lotta dead fish floating around in the water.
Ethel: Dead fish?
Marion: Yeah just floating around, thousands of 'em.
[bubbling, crackling]
Marion: And the water's weird. It's like, soda bubbling or something.
Ethel: You been drinking too much?
Marion: No more than usual!
[louder bubbling, weird sounds, sloshing, radio crackling]
Ethel: Marion you okay out there?
[explosion sounds]
Marion: (shouting) There's some kind of explosion! A volcano? I think it's a volcano!
[explosion sounds fade out] [waves, fishing boat sounds]
Ethel: Marion, Marion, Marion, this is Ethel on channel 16 are you okay over.
Marion: Ethel this is Marion I'm okay.
Ethel: What the hell happened?
Marion: Must be a volcano, I'm watching it now. Tons of smoke and ash erupting up out of the ocean. Must have killed the fish before it reached the surface.
Ethel: Probably wanna get out of there right?
Marion: Yeah I'm moving, over and out.
[waves, fishing boat sounds]
Ethel: Marion, Marion, this is the Ethel
Marion: Ethel this is Marion, over.
Ethel: You go by Henry Bay today?
Marion: Nah, had my excitement for the week.
Ethel: There's an island here now.
Marion: An island?
Ethel: Yeah I guess the volcano made an island man. We should have a party out there.
Marion: All that ash going to clog up your intake you know.
Ethel: I'm not sticking around long.
Marion: How close are you?
Ethel: 50meters I'd say. Looks pretty solid. Wanna check it out tomorrow.
Marion: Why not, 11 hundred?
Ethel: See you then, over and out.
<fade out>
Rose: So this episode is about a future in which a huge underwater volcano erupts, breaking the surface of the ocean, forming a new island, and generally wreaking havoc. This episode was suggested by listener and longtime friend of the show, Charlie Lloyd. And in fact, while this might seem far fetched, it's actually not at all. There are tons of volcanoes underwater.
Tracy Gregg: So on Earth there are over 60,000 kilometers of mid-ocean ridges, and they're really just a long line of volcanoes. So it's the largest volcanic chain of mountains on the planet. But we don't see it because it's underwater.
My name is Tracy Gregg and I am an associate professor of geology at the University at Buffalo, in Buffalo New York and my area of expertise are volcanic eruptions and I have studied them everywhere from the moons of Jupiter to the bottom of the ocean.
Rose: So there are 60 thousands kilometers of mid-ocean ridges, which, is the equivalent of over 37 thousand miles for those of us still imprisoned by the Imperial system. To put that into context, the circumference of the Earth is just under 25 thousand miles. So there is enough mid-ocean ridges to circle the earth one and a half times, approximately. And along all those thousands and thousands of miles of mid-ocean ridge, there are volcanoes. And those volcanoes are actually erupting all the time, we just never know about it. On land, scientists use high-tech monitoring systems to detect volcanic eruptions even before they even happen.
Tracy: We listen for earthquakes that are, I say listen, they are subsonic, we can't actually hear them but but we have instruments that can feel the vibrations caused by magma, molten rock, moving underground. And that's a much better signal that something's happening than our eyes.
Rose: On dry land, there are lots and lots of these seismometers in the ground all over the world. But underwater? Not so much.
Tracy: It's just a lot more expensive and a lot harder to put those seismometers in place under two and a half kilometers of seawater.
Rose: In fact, there are only two regions of the entire mid-ocean ridge that have these monitoring devices in place.
Tracy: One is off the coast of Oregon along what's called the Juan de Fuca Ridge
Rose: If you read that New Yorker piece about the really big earthquake that could destroy all of Seattle, this is the ridge it was talking about.
Tracy: and another off the coast of Mexico. West Coast of Mexico it's called the East Pacific Rise. Those are places that we know are active and they are monitored and we can listen for those earthquakes. But that's two spots along 60000 kilometers of So it's happening all the time and we don't see it.
Rose: Most of the time, these eruptions happen without breaking the surface of the water. Which makes sense when you think about it right? On Earth, when a volcano erupts really violently, what we're generally seeing is a ton of dissolved gases hitting the air and EXPLODING.
Tracy: And I think most people's everyday experience with this would be a soda pop or a beer bottle where you grab that bottle and you look at it and and you don't see any gas in there but you shake it up and that foam rises to the top and you know there's gas in there. Now you can see it. And you know what happens when you open a soda pop bottle that you've shaken. Right. It blows up.
Rose: So on land an explosion would be like opening that bottle, which is easy to open. But underwater, there are thousands of pounds of water on top of your bottle cap.
Tracy: So if if the gas is kept under pressure with your soda pop that's keeping the lid on then it's not going to explode. Well water weighs a lot and so volcanoes on the bottom of the ocean under two and a half kilometers of water. They're also under a lot of pressure and so that gas that's inside the magma doesn't want to come out it doesn't want to make bubbles it wants to just stay dissolved in the magma. So if you take the same magma with the same amount of gas and you erupted on land and you interrupt it underwater on the deep sea floor on land it will explode underwater. It won't. It will just create a lava flow.
Rose: What that means is that some of the most powerful eruptions underwater never actually break the surface at all. In fact, in 2012, the largest deep-ocean volcanic eruption of the last century was only discovered by accident, thanks to a woman who happened to notice something while she was looking out the window of an airplane.
Rebecca Carey: A passenger on a commercial airline jet was flying from Tonga to Auckland and she looked out of her window and she could see these gigantic tan like accumulations on the sea surface
Rose: This is Rebecca Carey,
Rebecca: from the University of Tasmania and I am a volcanologist.
Rose: So this woman's plane landed in New Zealand, and she called up a group of scientists there to ask them what the heck this thing was that she saw.
Rebecca: and that really triggered a process within Geological Nuclear Sciences New Zealand to try and discover exactly what these features were.
Rose: So the scientists went out to look, and what they discovered was that this weird thing in the ocean that this woman had seen was not an oil slick or anything like that. It was a pumice raft,
Rebecca: So a pumice raft is essentially a accumulation of volcanic pumice classmates that are buoyant they're full of holes that sit together on the ocean surface.
Rose: And this particular pumice raft had come from a volcano known as Havre.
Rebecca: Havre volcano is a submarine volcano that's located on a submarine volcanic chain that extends north of New Zealand towards Tonga. It's approximately a thousand kilometers north north east from Auckland.
Rose: Now, scientists knew about Havre before this 2012 pumice raft, they had first discovered and mapped the volcano in 2002. So when they saw the pumice, they suspected it might have come from Havre. But they had seen no other signs of an eruption. Even once they were able to determine that this pumice had come from Havre, they had no idea how strong the eruption had been. The size of the pumice raft told them something:
Rebecca: We had a qualitative sense that this was a very powerful event. The pumice raft itself had a volume of about 1 cubic kilometer so that's equivalent approximately to them out the 1980 large Mount St. Helens event.
Rose: But a pumice raft alone can't tell you everything
Rebecca: But that we only saw the surface manifestation of what had happened we had no idea of what had happened on the seafloor whether it was a single vent multiple vents and an area where those vents were. We didn't know we virtually nothing knew nothing.
Rose: So scientists decided to go back to Havre and revisit the volcano. They had a map from their 2002 studies, and with this new data they could compare how the topography had changed, and they could assume that most of that change was probably from the eruption. So Rebecca and her team set out to examine the volcano using a couple of different high-tech tools, including…
Rebecca: A remotely operated vehicle called Jason. I think we spent 240 hours on the sea floor. And secondly an autonomous vehicle called Century.
Rose: Taken altogether, the mapping, the submarines, all the work they've done, what Rebecca and the other researchers found was that this explosion had been really, really big.
Rebecca: The largest deep ocean silicic eruption of the past century.
Rose: And the word silicic in there just refers to the type of magma that came out of the volcano. It's the same type of magma that came out of Saint Helens when it exploded in 1980. And in fact, the researchers think that this eruption was as big and as powerful as that 1980 eruption at Saint Helens, which killed 57 people, decimated hundreds of square miles, and caused billions of dollars worth of damage. This 2012 Havre eruption was basically like taking the Saint Helens blast, and putting it underwater. And we would never have even known about it if it hadn't been for someone noticing the pumice raft.
But if the largest eruption of this kind in the past century didn't manage to break the surface of the water, what does it take?
Tracy: So a really good example of a volcano breaking the surface is Surtsey. This erupted off the coast of Iceland in 1963.
Rose: That's Tracy Gregg again.
Tracy: It started on the bottom of the ocean and the first things to come out of the volcanic vent on the bottom of the ocean was just lava. There were no explosions because the water was deep enough and there wasn't enough gas in the magma.
Rose: But the eruption kept going, so the lava started piling up, piling up, piling up, and the weight of the water keeping it down started getting less and less and less
Tracy: So as the lava pile grows and gets closer to the surface the gas that's in there is more likely to be able to explode and when water comes in contact with this really hot lava the water wants to turn into steam and water turning into steam can also create an explosion.
Rose: Remember, all of this is totally invisible to humans at this point. It's happening underwater, and there are no sensors down there to tell anybody that anything unusual is happening.
Tracy: But if you were there in a submarine you could see underwater explosions with steam and flashes of lava and heat. And it looked really cool.
Rose: So this volcanic eruption is just slowly building its way towards the surface. And in fact the first people to notice that anything weird was happening, were fishermen.
Tracy Gregg: It's not far from an island that's famous for its fishing and so the fisherman noticed bubbling in the water and they noticed dead fish in the water and they noticed nasty smells of sulfur in the water and that sulfur is volcanic gas that's coming out of the lava.
Rose: So the fishermen start radioing each other and being like "hey something weird is happening over here." And then, on the November 14th, 1963, a cook on the boat Ísleifur II, radioed in to report smoke, rising from the ocean.
Tracy: And then… big explosions. Big Explosions! Shooting out steam and ash as the lava was blasted into pieces by the water turning into steam and creating these explosions and then all this ash started piling up on the surface of the ocean.
Rose: Thankfully, nobody was injured during the eruption.
Tracy: I mean fortunately in this particular case certainly it was off the coast of Iceland. And so the fishermen were all from Iceland and they were quite familiar with volcanic eruption so they weren't too they weren't too upset. They were annoyed at their inability to go fishing.
Rose: This eruption lasted from November 1963, and didn't officially end until June of 1967. And by the end, there was a whole new island there, formed by this volcano.
The island was named Surtsey, after a legendary figure in Icelandic mythology named Surtr… I think I'm pronouncing that correctly but I'm probably not. He's not a god exactly, more like a giant, and he's often depicted with a fiery sword. A giant of fire, like the volcano, if you will. And the island that bears his name is still there today. It's about a half a square mile, all told. Nobody lives there, but scientists are studying both the geology and ecology of the new island. The first plant life was observed on the island in 1965. In 1983 a group of 70 seals made Surtsey their new breeding spot. In 1984 a gull colony moved in.
And the volcano probably didn't just change the ecology and geology above ground either. There are lots of studies that show that underwater volcanoes, even ones that don't break the surface, can impact the chemistry and biology of the surrounding areas.
So the Surtsey eruption broke the surface because it was able to build up enough lava to wind up close enough to the surface that the pressure could no longer contain the eruption.
But there's another way for an eruption to break the surface too, which is to simply be shallower to begin with. And that's what happened in 1650, off the coast of Greece.
Rebecca: So Kolumbo volcano is quite close to Santorini volcano. It actually was quite a shallow eruption around 200 feet 50 meters depth but it was very powerful and it was a significant volume, probably twice the volume of what was erupted at Havre.
Paraskevi Nomiku (Evi): Kolumbo is the most active submarine volcano in the Mediterranean Sea.
Rose: This is Paraskevi Nomiku
Evi: Most of my friends call me Evi Nomiku, and I'm an assistant professor of geological oceanography at the University of Athens in the department of geology and the environment
Rose: Evi has spent the last ten years studying the Kolumbo volcano, which sits in the water just five miles off the coast of the island of Santorini in Greece. And in 1650, Kolumbo erupted.
The first sign was a few earthquakes, but since earthquakes aren't particularly uncommon in the area most people ignored them. As they got stronger, everybody assumed that the eruption might come from the nearby volcanoes on land, but they didn't seem to be smoking or showing any signs of eruption. Then, the ocean turned a weird color for a couple of days, a sign that the eruption was happening beneath the surface. Then, on September 27th, dense clouds of smoke and ash started to rise from the ocean, bringing with them horrible noxious fumes.
Evi: There were more than 70 people that they were died due to the poisonous gases that they were releasing during the eruption in Santorini.
Rose: Eventually, people saw a peak coming up out of the water.
Evi: There was building a huge cone, and then the people understood that OK an eruption is going on because they saw the peak of that cone.
Rose: A few days later the volcano really blew, and one account from the time called that day, September 29th, 1650, "the most terrible day. The earth quivered and the air was afire. Thick sulphurous steam billowed out of the depths. Then suddenly the clouds caught fire, lightning rent the sky, thunder burst forth and strange forms moved before one's eyes: flying snakes shining spears and lances and whirling blazed torches."
The eruption was so powerful that some sources say it was heard as far as Dardanelles, nearly 250 miles away.
But it wasn't just the gases that caused problems. The eruption also caused a tsunami that swept over the island.
Evi: And of course there was created a huge tsunami that in the height of more than 20 meters. That was all the Eastern part of Santorini was destroyed completely.
The tsunami carried away livestock, destroyed buildings and ruined fishing vessels and other fleets.
In 1650, the eruption wound up killing over 70 people. But that was, 1650. WAY more people live on and travel to Santorini today. Two million people visit every year. In fact, there are so many tourists trying to go to Santorini, that a few years ago the local government voted to limit the number people that were allowed to get off cruise ships each day to 8,000.
And Evi's work has shown that Kolumbo is still a threat.
Evi: We know that this volcano is very active because we found in 2006 a very active hydrothermal vent field at the depth of 500 meters.
Rose: Evi and her team found over 100 active hydrothermal vents around Kolumbo, and they were all letting off super hot gases, which suggest to them that the volcano is still active. But there are no sensors in the ground near Kolumbo, and Evi has been trying to get money to do more studies and send more rovers down there to understand it.
Evi: No unfortunately no. There are not any kind of equipment on the seafloor, only chimneys and bacteria.
Rose: Strangely enough, nobody in Santorini seems all that worried that there's a volcano right offshore that could decimate the island.
Evi: I am from Santorini, I was born in Santorini. OK. My family is still there. I think they do believe that this will not happen in the future.
Rose: And because they can't see the volcano, it's easy to forget about it.
Evi: I think this is happens to all the submarine volcanoes all around the world, because they believe that it's far away from land, they say they say to themselves "OK it's on the seafloor, so we don't need to worry about this volcano."
Rose: But all of Evi's work shows that it's possible Kolumbo could erupt again. In fact, it's easy to imagine another big volcanic explosion in all sorts of parts of the world. One big enough that it causes a tsunami and creates a new island. But what happens next? And would we be able to predict it or react quickly enough? That's what we'll talk about, after this quick break.
[[ADS]]
Rose: So at this point we've established that this kind of eruption can happen. So what happens next depends largely on where the volcano actually is. If it's off the coast of Iceland, chances are it won't kill anybody. If it's off the coast of Santorini, it would be far more dangerous.
If Kolumbo erupted, Evi says there would be some warning signs, like earthquakes. Using sensors scientists can figure out if the earthquakes are caused by just regular tectonic activity, or caused specifically by the volcano.
Evi: You can study the signalds of the earthquakes, and scientists can understand if the earthquakes are volcanic.
Rose: So if they see regular earthquakes that behave like earthquakes caused by magma, they can guess that the volcano might erupt.
Evi: if you see that we have for example for six months of three or four months earthquakes in this specific region, in the Kolumbo area, that means something is going on with the volcano.
Rose: But there's no knowing for sure exactly if, or when it might happen. Which is why Evi wants money to put more detectors down in the ocean near Kolumbo.
But any eruption that breaks the surface near a population center would certainly disrupt flights, and cause general travel chaos.
And after all of that, you might have a brand new island. Like Surtsey, or like the island that was formed off the coast of Tonga.
News Clip: Thrill seeking boaties have given us the chance to get a close up view of an exploding volcano. The eruption is under water just off the coast of Tonga's main island.
In 2009, a submarine volcano 28 miles off the coast of Tonga began spewing ash and pumice out of the ocean.
News Clip: Nature's power on full display, as an underwater volcano burst to the surface spewing columns of hot ash, smoke and steam, thousands of meters into the air. Recreational fisherman Lothar Slabon, originally from Germany, journeyed out to the site to witness the dramatic explosions in what used to be his favorite fishing spot. He said he could see burning seabirds falling from the sky.
Rose: After that 2009 eruption, there was a tiny, unstable island made up of volcanic ash, pumice and rocks. Eventually, the volcano calmed down, but then in December 2014, another eruption boke the surface. And the landmass that began in 2009 got bigger and more stable. It was actually starting to look like a proper new island.
Experts warned anybody from going to the island. It was too dangerous, too unstable, they said. But that didn't stop this guy.
Gianpierro Orbassano (GP): My name is too long. Why everybody call me GP, Orbassano, is my family name.
Rose: GP is short for Gianpierro, and GP used to be a photojournalist, the prospect of getting the first photographs of a brand new island was too exciting to pass up. In fact, he had arranged a special flight in 2009 to see the volcanic eruption when it was first happening. So in 2014 he set out again on a boat with a few friends for the new land mass.
GP: And was not so easy to land. Finally we land and we were the first people going up and putting our feet on top of the island.
Rose: But despite being the first human to set foot on the new land, GP didn't claim the island for himself.
GP: I just put the flag on my soccer team in Italy.
Rose (on the phone): Who's your team?
GP: Torino! Torino.
Rose: And in fact, GP doesn't have a ton of interest in going back. The land is unforgiving, there's no water or shade, and it's incredibly hot.
GP: No it was a very, I can say very very hot, very hot, was a sunny day and all black. And you can imagine it was really really hot.
Rose: And the island isn't solid, the ground is still really soft.
GP: So was not so easy to go up and especially to come down, was all really really fragile, the ground.
Rose: But when they reached the top, it was all worth it.
GP: Volcano create a lake. Because the sea water and rain also came into the hole of the volcano, and there was a green lake, big. it was absolutely fantastic. The view was beautiful was plenty of birds flying all around all around all around as soon as you move thousands seabirds surround you, it was really something.
Rose: For now, GP will wait until the volcano erupts again. If it does, he'll be out there with his camera, but until then, he'll just look at the new island from afar.
But at some point, if the conditions and location are just right, someone will try to claim one of these volcanically formed islands right? They may not have a lot of resources but they do offer the allure of having your very own island. And if you play your cards right, you could even try to turn that island into its own nation.
That's what Roy Bates did back on September 2nd, 1967,when he official declared independence for the nation of Sealand. Sealand isn't a volcanic island. But it does provide an interesting window into what it's like to try and create your own island nation in the modern era. It wasn't a volcano that built the physical land of Sealand, but instead the British navy.
James Grimmelmann: So Sealand used to be called Roughs Tower. It was a coastal defense platform built by the British in the Thames Estuary during World War II.
Rose: This is James Grimmelmann
James: I'm a professor at Cornell Tech. I work on Internet law.
Rose: James wrote a paper on a certain thing that happened on Sealand that we're going to get to in a little bit, but he wanted to begin that paper with a quick history of Sealand.
James: So people had written a little bit about the history before, and I just meant to write a short paper about the big lessons for what it means for law and I just got sucked down the rabbit hole researching the history.
Rose: And we are going to fall down that rabbit hole a little bit here too. So, back to Rough's Tower. It was actually one of a handful of towers built out in the Thames estuary. So World War II ends, and the British Navy abandons them. Then, in the 1960's
James: Pirate radio broadcasters set up there in the hopes of evading their British rules on putting Rock and Roll on the air.
Michael Bates: The United Kingdom only had the BBC, there was no no pop music for the kids were just classical music and an in-house BBC orchestra.
James: And then Britain effectively extended its power far enough to put the pirates out of business. But one of them, a guy named Roy Bates, just stayed anyway. And he moved his family onto this place, and then decided to make his own country called the Principality of Sealand. And he and his family have been there ever since.
Michael Bates: Yeah my name is Michael Bates or Prince Michael of Sealand, depending on the occasion, and I am the reigning monarch of the Principaliy of Sealand.
Michael: When we first went there I was let me think, 14, I was 14 and I was with my dad. Christmas Eve 1966, when we took it over and I went and stayed out there. I left school early at 14 years old in my Easter holidays. I suppose I was at boarding school in Wales.
Rose: Michael's first impressions of Sealand honestly sound kind of terrifying
Michael: It was unreal, you know there was like, down the bottom of the tower, there are rooms all the way down the towers. Each tower is seven floors, and down the bottom of a cormorant bones from the big seabirds, cormorants, where they've managed to find their way down there but couldn't get the angle of attack to fly out. And it was just like it's been left from the war.
Rose: Roy Bates, Michael's dad and the founder of Sealand, passed away in 2012. So now Michael runs the place. And when he dies, he'll pass Sealand on to his kids.
Michael: Well my oldest son James he's, what is he now, 31, he's next in line. And then behind him is Liam who's nearly 30, he's 29 now, and then the next one after that will be, well I suppose do we jump girls these days? I'm not quite sure, my daughter is 26.
Rose (on the phone): Well it's your nation, you get to decide if there are women in charge right?
Michael: We'll get to that one when we get to that one! (laughs)
Rose: Now, according to Sealand, they are a sovereign nation. According to the UK, they are not.
Michael: Well according to the Montevideo Convention, to create your own country you need a population you need a territory you need a government and you need the capacity to enter into relations with other states. Of course we have all of that.
Rose: So the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States is a treaty that was signed in 1933. And that treaty says that for a state to be legitimate it has to have four things. First: population, check, someone lives on Sealand all year round. Second: territory. The Bates claim that by abandoning the towers, the UK gave up their rights to them.
Michael: There was dereliction of sovereignty. The British government walked away and left it back in the back in the 50s.
Third: a government, sure, Sealand has a government. And Fourth: The capacity to enter into relationships with other states. Well, they had the German ambassador out to the tower once to discuss something which… we'll come back to in a second. And Michael says they were once in communication with the French president, and that's quite enough recognition for them.
So, according to the Bateses, Sealand checks off all the boxes. The UK, on the other hand, does not see Sealand as independent at all. And technically, today, Sealand sits in UK water. In 1987, the United Kingdom extended its territory from 3 miles from the coast to 12, which enveloped Sealand. Plus, they don't recognize the German and French chats as legitimate recognition by foreign governments. But the UK doesn't really want to force the question either. So far, there's been no real harm to letting the Bateses claim they operate this nation of Sealand in the Thames Estuary. And removing them would certainly be a media spectacle and probably make the UK look bad and the Bateses look like martyrs. So they just kind of let them be.
So Sealand carries on, continually coming up with new ways to fund their nation and stay in the news.
Michael: We have a football team and it's small for that. We keep losing the ball.
Rose: They even sell Lord and Lady titles online.
Rose (on the phone): If I buy a Lady title what does that mean? What do I get?
MIchael: Well you get a magnificent looking document, framed document, you can put on the wall and you can you can put it on you know identity on your passport. And you're a supporter!
Rose: Over the years Sealand has been at the center of a handful of, odd events. That German ambassador's visit that I mentioned? The one that they count as "entering into agreements with foreign nations?" Well, the German ambassador was there to discuss a hostage situation.
James: Roy Bates got connected with some Germans who had of grand plans to invest a lot of money in the island and turn it into a seaport offshore casino basically develop this thing into a huge new offshore project and the whole thing mostly appears to have been a scam on their part.
Rose: So they lured Roy and his wife off the tower to a meeting, and while the rulers of Sealand were gone, they sent some Germans to land and take the tower over.
James: They landed under false pretenses, tossed his son Michael basically in one of the legs of the tower for a while to imprison him. Then eventually stuck him on a boat for shore.
Rose: So when Roy and his wife realize what has happened they rush back to Sealand.
James: And with the aid of a friend who was a helicopter pilot, they actually successfully invaded Sealand held the one German and two Dutchman under arrest for a while.
And since there was a German national being held on the tower, the German ambassador had to get involved.
James: It's hard to know how seriously to take the whole thing. But if you take the Sealand side of the story seriously, the Germans sent somebody out to take a look, and this amounts to diplomatic recognition of an independent nation. That's probably not right. But a few guys on a platform of the ocean are capable of creating a major diplomatic embarrassment.
Rose: Then there was the fire that nearly destroyed the tower and that the British Coast guard helped put out, and then… there was Havenco.
James: So in the height of the dotcom boom, the last time people were worried about excessive government control of the Internet. Some entrepreneurs with a libertarian bent thought hey if we put some servers on Sealand then we'll be outside the reach of every government in the world. We won't need to worry about Chinese censorship or Saudi attitudes towards pornography or American copyright law. We're going to be an independent jurisdiction and it will be almost anything goes. You know, no child pornography, but you want to have a gambling site? Go on! Put it on Sealand and we'll use Sealand's sovereignty as a way of guaranteeing Internet freedom. So they got some investors they struck a deal with the Bates's and they moved out there and stuck servers in the legs of this platform.
Rose: This brings us to the reason that James wrote his paper on Seland in the first place. Because Havenco, this offshore set of servers, is a classic case study in internet law.
James: It's one of these examples that everybody talks about in their class, because it's so colorful.
Rose: And the question at hand is this: What type of law governs those servers? Is it international law? British law? Sealand law? None of the above? It turns out the answer is… complicated. And James's paper is largely about the three kinds of things we could be talking about when we talk about law, and Havenco. First: national law.
James: These are all of the laws that have been coexistent help it's quite get around so I mentioned you know Saudi pornography laws and American copyright law. Havenco existed so that its clients didn't have to comply with those laws if they didn't want to.
Rose: Second: international law.
James: Which is the law we're talking about when he says that it's the law that says Sealand is an independent state. It's international law that supposedly gives Sealand a right to ignore what every other nation on earth wants.
Rose: And the third kind of law here is Sealand law.
James: The laws of Sealand itself. Those are the laws that say "actually you can't put child pornography on anything you host here." And that also create a justice system. Sealand law was what was being invoked when they put the German on trial after the Civil War.
Rose: So when legal scholars think about Sealand, they have to balance these three kinds of laws and figure out which ones apply in which situations. Of course, this is complicated further by the fact that most countries don't recognize Sealand law at all, since they don't recognize Sealand as an independent nation. We don't have time to get much deeper into into the specific legal ins and outs on this episode. You can read James's whole article on the legal arguments surrounding HavenCo and Sealand online, I'll post a link to it in the show notes. It's totally worth it even if just for the extra Sealand historical bits that I didn't include here, including a RedBull skateboarding special and some perpetual motion machines.
Anyway, ultimately Havenco failed, for a number of reasons, not the least of which was cost.
James: It turned out that criminals had other options. It turned out that putting your servers on a platform off the coast is pretty expensive compared to other options.
Rose: But the whole point of this detour into Sealand and Havenco, is because I wanted to know, what if there was an island, formed by a volcano — see here we are, back on track! — could those who settle on it build something like Havenco? Could they create an offshore nation, free from the laws of the rest of the world, and use it to create a truly open and lawless internet? It's possible!
James: It's an interesting question. I think you see similar questions around what will space colonies look like, and Seasteading obviously raises similar ideas.
Rose: But.. remember, any volcanically formed island is going to be really hostile to live on for a long time. There will be no plant life, no trees, no shade, no power. In that way, it's actually a lot like Sealand.
James: It's a fascinating place! Great adventure! Really bad for building a life across generations. It takes some pretty extraordinary efforts on behalf of the Bates family to make even as much of it as they have. But no one else wants to live there. It's not a great environment for a long term anything to build a complex commercial industrial, you know, post-industrial society on.
Rose: But let's be clear: just because something would be incredibly expensive, ill advised, and generally overly complicated, doesn't mean that someone won't try it! In fact, James thinks that Sealand, and our hypothetical data center on a newly formed volcanic island, are good metaphors in general for the ways that technologists can sometimes try to build an entire culture and world around a single invention or innovation.
James: And I think the same thing is true of a lot of other utopian fantasies about technology. Bitcoin and smart contracts, really interesting, they may have some great applications. I cannot imagine that you want to build your society on a basis of pure smart contract enforcement with no human discretion built into it.
Rose: So if you are waiting, with bated breath, hoping for a submarine volcano with just the right power, at just the right depth, in just the right location, so you can go stake your claim and create your nation, that's what you need to know. And I'll leave you with a word of advice from Michael, the prince of Sealand.
Rose (on the phone): So let's say that there was um, an island created by a volcano, so there's an island now that suddenly just popped up. Let's say someone was to go claim it. Do you have any advice to them as someone who's maintained a sovereign nation for over fifty years? Do's and don'ts?
Michael: don't do it!
No I don't. I don't mean that at all. I don't mean that at all, but, you know, you don't get a lot of help with it.
Rose: So, there you have it. Maybe just … don't?
[music up]
That's all for this episode. To find links for more information about anything we talked about this episode, check the show notes or go to FlashForwardpod.com.
That's all for this future, come back next time and we'll travel to another one.
Fire From the Deep was last modified: May 10th, 2018 by Rose
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text:
Oleg Nikiforenko (; ; born 17 March 2001) is a Belarusian professional footballer who plays for Dinamo Minsk.

Honors
Dinamo Brest
Belarusian Premier League champion: 2019
Belarusian Super Cup winner: 2019

References

External links

2001 births
Living people
People from Mogilev
Sportspeople from Mogilev Region
Belarusian footballers
Association football midfielders
FC Dnepr Mogilev players
FC Dynamo Brest players
FC Rukh Brest players
FC Isloch Minsk Raion players
FC Dinamo Minsk players

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Burt's Buzz
SUNDAY, March 16, 2014, Chilmark Community Center
Director Jody Shapiro in attendance
Dir. Jody Shapiro
Documentary | Canada | 2013 | 88 min.
Burt Shavitz, the eccentric, beekeeping co-founder of Burt's Bees, detached from his skincare empire decades ago, reaping virtually nothing from the company's financial success. Despite that, Burt remains contractually obligated to be the face of his former company. This insightful portrait takes you into the paradox of Burt, who represents a billion-dollar brand while continuing to live in a renovated turkey coop in the backwoods of Maine. You'll laugh out loud and in the end look differently at the brand of every product you use.
This film sponsored by:


text:
package org.elasticsearch.index.query;

import java.util.Collection;

import org.apache.lucene.analysis.Analyzer;
import org.elasticsearch.index.Index;
import org.elasticsearch.index.IndexSettings;
import org.elasticsearch.index.analysis.IndexAnalyzers;
import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MappedFieldType;
import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MapperService;
import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.ObjectMapper;

/**
 * Context object used to create lucene queries on the shard level.
 */
public class QueryShardContext {

    private final MapperService mapperService;
    private final Index fullyQualifiedIndex;

    public QueryShardContext(IndexSettings indexSettings,
                             MapperService mapperService) {
        this.mapperService = mapperService;
        this.fullyQualifiedIndex = indexSettings.getIndex();
    }

    public IndexAnalyzers getIndexAnalyzers() {
        return mapperService.getIndexAnalyzers();
    }

    /**
     * Returns all the fields that match a given pattern. If prefixed with a
     * type then the fields will be returned with a type prefix.
     */
    public Collection<String> simpleMatchToIndexNames(String pattern) {
        return mapperService.simpleMatchToFullName(pattern);
    }

    public MappedFieldType fieldMapper(String name) {
        return mapperService.fieldType(name);
    }

    public ObjectMapper getObjectMapper(String name) {
        return mapperService.getObjectMapper(name);
    }

    /**
     * Gets the search analyzer for the given field, or the default if there is none present for the field
     * TODO: remove this by moving defaults into mappers themselves
     */
    public Analyzer getSearchAnalyzer(MappedFieldType fieldType) {
        if (fieldType.searchAnalyzer() != null) {
            return fieldType.searchAnalyzer();
        }
        return getMapperService().searchAnalyzer();
    }

    /**
     * Gets the search quote analyzer for the given field, or the default if there is none present for the field
     * TODO: remove this by moving defaults into mappers themselves
     */
    public Analyzer getSearchQuoteAnalyzer(MappedFieldType fieldType) {
        if (fieldType.searchQuoteAnalyzer() != null) {
            return fieldType.searchQuoteAnalyzer();
        }
        return getMapperService().searchQuoteAnalyzer();
    }

    /**
     * Return the MapperService.
     */
    public MapperService getMapperService() {
        return mapperService;
    }

    /**
     * Returns the fully qualified index including a remote cluster alias if applicable, and the index uuid
     */
    public Index getFullyQualifiedIndex() {
        return fullyQualifiedIndex;
    }
}


text:
sympathetic ending. As
sympathetic ending. As for the consecutive Free Bop Statement One and Free Bop Statement Two, a flexible intro works up from creamy Johnny Hodges-like alto playing plus juddering, pre-modern jungleband keyboard splashes to attain a series of motifs encompassing key clips and dissonant reed squawks, though never abandoning underlying swing. Conventional and avant-garde simultaneously, Black Rain may be the CD's most evocative track. A soothing duet, characterized by gentle keyboard patterning and graceful bass clarinet breathing, as if Shipp and Walerian were a long-time married couple finishing each other's sentences, it's suddenly ripped apart and replaced with Shipp's key clips and harp-like piano string strums hewing out an ascending sonic path and Walerian's intermittent tongue stops and flute peeps. Concluded with sparse sounds that wouldn't be out of place in a new music recital, the two confirm their versatility and the vitality of the disc. Another application of this international formula is the Ocean Fanfare quartet. Consisting of Polish trumpeter Tomasz Dąbrowski, two Danes, alto and tenor saxophonist Sven Dam Meinild and bassist Richard Andersson, and American drummer Tyshawn Sorey, the fusion results in an exceptional modern mainstream unit on its cleanly recorded CD Imagine Sounds Imagine Silences (Barefoot Records BFREC O40 barefootrecords.com), which consist of six Dąbrowski and three Meinild originals. Despite having composed the bulk of the material, Dąbrowski isn't any more prominent in performance than other members. Like a new drawing superimposed over an existing one, Ocean Fanfare has the instrumentation and left-field orientation of an Ornette Coleman quartet plus the stamina of the Jazz Messengers. Crucially, Sorey's broken time sense and cymbal swishes are less prominent than Art Blakey's, leaving supple booms from Andersson's bass to define the rhythmic bottom. Featuring the drummer's time-clock-like pacing, a track such as Lotus positions crying split tones from the saxophonist and melancholic plunger work from the trumpeter for an emotional narrative. 7 Days to Go extends the Coleman-like comparison, starting off echoing Lonely Woman until the skirmish takes on the strength of a battle with a double bass vamp and interlocked horn bluster. On the other hand the crackling velocity that propels US 12 resembles that of a classic bop 78, with each player's contributions tossed every which way, until a pseudo-march sequence introduces some spectacular brass plunger tones and climaxes with conjoined twin-like horn unison. By the final Meditation (on a Visit from France), the band appropriately trades in blunt reed smears, kazoo-like brass hums and popping bass and drum beats for a stable but buoyant ending. Following trumpet and saxophone tone slacking, the theme slips away leaving behind a bass string pluck and cymbal resonation. Politically Nichi Nichi Kore Ko Nichi by the P.U.R. Collective (ForTune 0056 006 for-tune.pl) is instructive in a non-musical manner since the cohesive seven tracks of free improvisation match a Polish combo of guitarist Maciej Staszewski, drummer Tomek Chołoniewski and Krzysztof Knittel on electronics with two reed players, Alexey Kruglov from Russia and Yuri Yaremchuk from Ukraine. Rather than being at loggerheads like their respective governments, the players create a collective program where the keening vigour of Yaremchuk's bass clarinet and soprano saxophone plus the jagged bites from Kruglov's alto saxophone, basset horn and block flute snuggle alongside the others' expressions like Matryoshka nesting dolls. Unlike these wooden Russian toys no player is more inside or outside than another. You can get an idea of this Eastern Bloc pact on U 01 where chalumeau lowing from the clarinet moves alongside uniform guitar strums as electronics create a convulsive ostinato of peeps and static. Even after the line mutates into a free jazz blowout from the saxophonists, intricate finger-style guitar lines and drum pops mute the explosions enough, while a moving block flute cadenza signals the finale. These ex-Soviets have a sense of humour as well. Cutting through the harsh flamenco-like runs from Staszewski and unorthodox beats from Chołoniewski on Extreme 07, Kruglov inserts some mocking rooster crows that presage his quicksilver reed smears and split tones as the factions unify distinctively. Of course it's still common for a visiting international soloist to hook up with Polish musicians to tour and record. One notable instance of this is Panta Rei (ForTune 0047 034 for-tune.pl), where Marco Eneidi Streamin' 4 consists of the leader, an American alto saxophonist living in Vienna, plus three high-functioning Poles: tenor saxophonist Marek Pospieszalski, bassist Ksawery Wójciński and drummer Michał Trela. Comfortable in two-saxophone situations, Eneidi's communication with Pospieszalski is at the highest level, often suggesting a funhouse mirror, where similar phrases from each are distorted with unique reflections. Ironically titled, Made in Pole Land highlights an emotional two-step which breaks down into speedy tremolos with snorts, horks and nasal buzzes goosed by Wójciński's pacing and Trela's wooden cracks. The swirl of buzzing double bass strings energizes White Bats Yodelling, although whether the flying rodents saluted with violent mammalian split tones, rumbling basso honks and agitated wing-like swishes are Polish or American isn't made clear. What is clear is that, like intrepid (tone) scientists, the two saxophonists chase every phrase and note to the end, wringing each sonic nuance, expansion and implication from it. With measured bumps, but no bombast, the drummer follows up Wójciński's sul ponticello intro to the concluding wordplay of Arco M. Adding additional string twanging later on, both he and Trela maintain the swinging pulse as the soloing of Eneidi and Pospieszalski contrast their intercontinental styles. When one architecturally builds a sleek Le Corbusier-like modernist line, the other counters with rococo detailing; then they switch roles with conclusive cooperation. Panta Rei may have been a first meeting for the American and the Poles, but the high level of musicianship exhibited by all confirms why collaborations involving adventurous Polish stylists and equally impressive out-of-country musicians are becoming increasingly common. What if you could listen in? Now you can! • Read the review • Click to listen • Click to buy New this month to the Listening Room Find the reviews on the following pages: András Schiff: Schubert.....................................................................61 Lars Vogt: Bach – Goldberg Variations...........................................61 Stefano Molardi: Kuhanu - Complete Organ Music....................62 Ives Quartet: Porter String Quartets...............................................63 Soile Isokoski: Chausson, Berlioz and Duparc..............................64 Philidor: Les Femmes Vengées.........................................................65 Barenboim & Dudamel: Brahms: Piano Concertos....................65 Andrew Staniland: Talking Down the Tiger...................................67 Charles Lloyd: Wild Man Dance.........................................................70 Ocean Fanfare: Imagine Sound Imagine Silence.........................72 72 | Oct 1 - Nov 7, 2015 thewholenote.com
STUART BROOMER With each successive CD, Darren Sigesmund has become a more distinctive and accomplished composer and bandleader. His previous one, Strands III, made brilliant use of Eliana Cuevas' wordless vocals on ensemble passages and here he employs two New Yorkers, violinist Mark Feldman and pianist/ accordionist Gary Versace, to create dramatically different instrumental textures in company with his own trombone. While that last CD had a certain Brazilian feel to it, New Quintet (darrensigesmund.ca) sometimes has a distinctly French quality, Feldman's dramatic and impassioned violin combine with the reediness of Versace's accordion to suggest an ancient café ambience. Much of the music has a limpid lyricism but it moves with an underlying rhythmic power, propelled by bassist Jim Vivian and drummer Ethan Ardelli. Sigesmund is as tuneful an improviser as he is a composer, bringing a special, slightly muffled warmth and subtle inflections to his every solo. When Ross Taggart passed away at 45 in January of 2013, he was among Vancouver's most prominent musicians, an accomplished saxophonist, pianist and composer who inspired the love and respect of his community. Several recordings have been dedicated to Taggart since his death, but two new releases highlight the breadth of that community. Legacy, The Music Of Ross Taggart (Cellar Live CL122914480, cellarlive.com) by the Jill Townsend Big Band is a substantial document of his work by a band in which he had played saxophone for a decade. It's a crisp, precise big band with some outstanding soloists, including special guest Campbell Ryga who plays soprano sax on three tunes. Townsend and guitarist Bill Coon have done a fine job of arranging Taggart's small-group music (and even a piano solo) for big band, ranging from fairly conventional, hardswinging fare like Don't Call Before 10 to the CD's finest work, Light at the End of the Tunnel, on which Coon expands Taggart's imaginative harmonies into a lustrous orchestral gem. Reminiscent of Kenny Wheeler's work, it's highlighted by Brad Turner's flugelhorn solo. A very different work is also dedicated to Taggart: A Bowl of Sixty Taxidermists (Songlines SGL 1611-2, songlines.com) by Waxwing, a trio that seems to create its own genre, a kind of jazz suffused with folk music. Much of the music is composed by saxophonist (and over-dubbed multi-instrumentalist) Jon Bentley, who played in Taggart's quartet and possesses a gorgeous tone from the school of Stan Getz. The mood is reflective, at times playful, rather than somber, with cellist Peggy Lee and guitarist Tony Wilson contributing strongly melodic compositions and improvisations to this often spare and resonant music. Taking its title from a phrase of Taggart's, the work is less about loss than passage, a gentle trip into the unknown. Lee's contributions include a distinctive arrangement of the traditional Clementine while Wilson's tunes commemorate both Taggart (For Ross) and drummer Claude Ranger (For Claude), who disappeared in 2000. Canada has had few sustained specialist jazz labels and nothing else like Toronto's Sackville, running from its launch in 1968 by John Norris and Bill Smith until Norris' death in 2010, recording music from stride piano to the avant-garde. Chicago's Delmark has now revived the label, and many of Canada's best jazz recordings are back in circulation, like guitarist Reg Schwager and bassist Don Thompson's Live at Mezzetta (Sackville 2057, delmark.com). The two craft intimate, masterful versions of a series of standards, bringing fresh perspectives to In a Sentimental Mood and Willow Weep For Me. One unusual item from the catalogue is Humphrey Lyttelton in Canada (Sackville SK3033, delmark.com) which matches the English trumpeter with a stellar Toronto supporting cast, including Scottish transplant Jim Galloway on saxophones and the highly flexible rhythm section of guitarist Ed Bickert, drummer Terry Clarke and bassist Neil Swainson, here tempering their more modernist bent. While Lyttelton gained fame in the English trad revival, here he blends a Louis Armstrong influence with a swing style rooted in Basie and Ellington. The music is lively, joyous and consistently well-played, its happiest moments coming on the West Indies-flavoured Caribana Queen. Guitarist Ken Aldcroft and trombonist Scott Thomson present a series of four freely improvised duets on Red & Blue (Trio Records TRP-D503-021, kenaldcroft.com/triorecords. asp). The music is continually shifting and evolving, moving from rapid-fire runs to pointillist exchanges and dialogues in which one offers empathetic support to the other. Aldcroft stays close to the traditional timbre of a lightly amplified jazz guitar, while expanding the vocabulary with percussive effects and skittering chord runs that move in and out of tonal expectations; Thomson's explorations of the trombone include barnyard noises, extreme upper register effects and very rapid tonguing. However, it's what they have in common that's most significant: a willingness to reduce their sounds to whispers and to listen to one another intently and creatively. This is subtle, challenging music that responds best to the same kind of close listening that the musicians bring to it. Scott Thomson also appears on another recent recording that may be the least abstract CD of the year. Led by drummer Dave Clark, the Woodshed Orchestra is a joyous musical free-for-all, part brass band and part parody thereof. On Brass Bandit (Independent, thewoodshedorchestra.com), the 11-member group includes other distinguished improvisers like bassist Michael Herring and saxophonist Karen Ng. Here you might think of it as a New Orleans funeral parade that keeps getting lost. A couple of times it wanders into streets that lead to the Balkans and the Adriatic, while at others it appears to get the sequence confused, celebrating first (Love Letter to New Orleans with a great blatting solo from Thomson) and mourning later (Prayer) with funk in between (The Griff). Everybody in the band sings, including Susanna Hood, though her vocal talents aren't required for group recitatives like Pennie + Mousie's Antidotal Lullabye and A Politician. The CD lasts a brief 26 minutes, but it has energy and spirit to spare. Don't forget to check out the Listening Room at TheWholeNote.com/listening thewholenote.com Oct 1 - Nov 7, 2015 | 73
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CryptozoologyExpand
ParanormalExpand
The Disappearance of Bung Siriboon
ByEmma Kyteler January 19, 2023 January 19, 2023
More than ten years have passed since the mysterious disappearance of thirteen year-old Siriyakorn 'Bung' Siriboon while she was on her way to school in Melbourne, Australia. Despite an intensive search and investigation, no clues have been uncovered as to what happened to Bung that day.
This captivating unsolved case has been puzzling investigators ever since–sparking numerous speculations about the teen's ultimate fate. What secrets does it hide? Why has justice for this young girl been so elusive? Find out in this compelling story of one of the most heartbreaking unsolved cases the country has ever seen.
The Morning of June 2nd, 2011
On the morning of June 2nd, 2011, Bung stepped outside her home on Elsie Street in the suburb of Boronia to begin her 10-minute walk to school. She was dressed in her usual school uniform and carrying her bag. Witnesses reported seeing her making her way along the usual route, but she never made it to class that day.
The disappearance of Bung set off a flurry of activity in the neighborhood. Her parents quickly reported her absence to the police station and neighbors combed the streets trying to find any evidence that would lead them closer to solving this strange case – all coming up with nothing.
The mysterious vanishing of little Bung has left many questions unanswered. Was she taken by someone she knew? Or was there someone waiting for an opportunity to strike? And if so, how could they have managed to take Bung without anyone noticing? The search continues for this missing child, as we hope for answers to what happened on that fateful day over 10 years ago.
The Search for Bung
When Bung vanished in November 2011, a massive search was initiated but no leads were found. The extensive search involved CCTV footage analysis, vehicle tracking and neighbourhood doorknocking, as well as interviews with local sex offenders. Despite all of these efforts, the police could not find any information related to Bung's disappearance – leading many to question whether she had been taken very far away or if the suspect had managed to cover their tracks.
Subsequently, a taskforce was established backed by more resources in order to intensively search for Bung. However, even with greatly increased efforts, the task force closed two years later without uncovering any substantial new evidence regarding her abduction – raising questions over the possibility of pre-existing connections with those involved. Some have speculated that this could explain why after many long years of searching there is still no trace of her whereabouts – making it one of Australia's most mysterious and perplexing missing persons cases.
Sightings and Suspects
The mysterious abduction of Siriyakorn Siriboon, or "Bung" as she was affectionately known, still remains unsolved. Despite the investigation by Taskforce Puma – which investigated over 250 registered sex offenders, searched 1000 homes and collected an impressive 1100 pieces of evidence – the police have yet to produce any tangible results linking the case to an individual suspect.
What makes this case particularly ambiguous is the contradicting witness reports. 15 minutes after Bung left her home for school, someone matching her description was seen in a white Ford Falcon with a white male driver on a nearby main road. At the same time, an Asian girl who appeared to be around Bung's age was spotted in the front passenger seat of a Holden Kingswood station wagon driven by a white man with tattoos – this vehicle being spotted in Rowville, a nearby suburb.
The timeline of these sightings seemed to conflict with what would have been established based on Bung's original leaving home and walking route — leading to speculation that either there had been multiple vehicles involved in her abduction or perhaps even that witnesses were mistaken about what they had seen that morning. Were those descriptions just inaccurate recollections? Or did something more sinister occur? Until further evidence can be presented or unearthed, this case may never be brought to justice and its many questions left unanswered.
The investigation into Bung's sudden disappearance quickly shifted towards one man arrested and interviewed by police twice for claiming he ran Bung over with his car and dumped her body in a reserve – but this lead soon fizzled out as his story didn't add up and kept changing, a search of the reserve discovered nothing, leading police to believe it was a false confession possibly due to mental illness.
However, along with this initial suspect were several individuals considered as potential suspects at one point or another by authorities. Robert Keith Knight, a known pedophile and sex offender who lived nearby at the time she went missing was interviewed and ruled out as a suspect after further investigation of his alibi checking out – however there are rumblings that Knight may have been linked to notorious unsolved child murderer Mr. Cruel.
Knight was later once again arrested on possession charges a few years later – with police claiming he was planning to attack more children at the time of his arrest – but could not be questioned until he killed himself in jail, leaving police without answers. The discourse around his future actions connects him to suspicions surrounding the unsolved crimes conducted by Mr. Cruel whose last suspected offence spanned 20 years ago.
Under renewed scrutiny is whether Bung had been groomed online – looking into her relations on Facebook, Twitter and other popular platforms- but nothing significant surfaced connecting to anyone suspiciously relating back to her vanishing act. Making matters worse there are no publicly named active suspects making this decade old mystery remain painfully unresolved.
The disappearance of Bung Siriboon remains unsolved, despite the passage of time and intense investigation by police and the community. Five years after her disappearance, police released the only relevant information they had regarding the case and offered a $1 million reward for any information that could lead to its resolution. Since then there have been no similar cases of child abductions in Melbourne, which could mean that the abductor was a one-time offender or has been successful in evading capture.
Though much speculation has arisen as to what happened to Bung, there are still no conclusive answers. There is a possibility that she was taken by a stranger or someone with a grudge against her family, or that her disappearance could be linked to other unsolved cases in the area. Despite this lack of new leads or evidence over the years, the reward for information leading to a resolution of Bung's case still stands and it is possible that breakthroughs in technology may finally help bring closure to this case.
Bung's story serves as an important reminder of how important it is to keep our children safe from harm.
The Mysterious Ghost Ship SS Ourang Medan
The Death of Ana Dalay: A Tragic Mystery Surrounding Mexican Singer Gloria Trevi
ByEmma Kyteler
In the 1990s, Gloria Trevi was at the height of her fame, revolutionizing the music industry with her rebellious lyrics and irreverence. She was in a relationship with her manager, Sergio Andrade, a relationship that reportedly began when she was just a teenager. On October 10, 1999, Trevi gave birth to her first child, Ana…
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Welcome to ParaMythical, where all of your questions about mythology, folklore, and the paranormal are answered!
I am Emma Kyteler. I'm a mythology and folklore enthusiast and an avid reader of paranormal research.
I am also a practicing witch, and run the witchcraft blog Eclectic Witchcraft.
This blog is aimed at anyone interested in myths, urban legends, and things that go bump in the night.
So join me as I research all of your favorite cryptozoological monsters!
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Source: The Militant, Vol. VII No. 3, 27 January 1934, p. 4.
In 1920, in order to save the transportation system from collapse, the party Congress, upon Trotsky's recommendation, instituted the so-called political-sections over the railroads, that is, specially picked and militarized party organs, placed over the transport trade unions and the local party organizations. This emergency measure produced results: the transportation was improved. But the workers took a hostile attitude to these polit-sections which infringed upon the trade onion democracy. At the beginning of 1921, these polit-sections were removed and the normal order restored.
The reporter does not offer any explanations for this unconcern on the part of Communists. As Zimin puts it, the administrative reforms introduced by the polit-sections meet with resistance at every step. "It must be stressed – says he – that sabotage is current not only among the links below but also within the directing apparatus of the roads and the N.K.P.S." In this casually tossed off phrase there is impeccably expressed the soul of the present Soviet regime. During the initial years after the Overturn, the havens of sabotage were the bureaus, departments and administrative organs and staffs of all sorts that were manned by the old specialists. The struggle against sabotage was led by means of control from below, through the rank and file workers, that is. Today this inter-relationship has been stood on its head: What incenses Zimin is that sabotage takes place not only amid the workers – this, so to speak, is in the nature of things – but also in the highest staffs whose mission it is to preserve the regime. Without desiring to do so, the political dictator of transportation has defined faultlessly the political bases of the entire Stalinist dictatorship.
The editors of the Pravda explain nothing, criticize nothing, but sit on a high horse. They "call to attention", "place in full view", and "demand immediate explanations". Since the question relating to the quality of products is on the order of the day (or, to put it more precisely, has been for a number of years), the Pravda, in a tone that brooks no contradiction, issues regulations how to improve steel and calico and transportation.
But what about the quality of the Pravda itself? Evidently there is no one around to "call to attention" and "place in full view". In the meantime, the quality of this newspaper, which has at its disposal exceptional resources and possibilities, is extremely low. It is printed on paper of the worst sort; from among the pile of newspapers over the entire world, the Pravda stands out by its ashy color and porous tissue. The print is dreadful, the typography ferocious. But worst of all is the newspaper itself as a newspaper. Instead of news – an incessant din. Instead of political articles – administrative decrees. Every column seeps with fulsome fawning to the "genial leader", the "greatest theoretician" and so forth. And all this is written in the style of a frustrated functionary who has been put in charge of "ideology" because he is good for nothing else.
Toward the end of October, the engineers, technologists and workers of the mine, Butovka, in the Don region, made public the successes they had achieved, in a letter addressed to Stalin. The first victory – they wrote – did not come easily; the agents of the class enemy, disguised in a miner's blouse, offered us rabid opposition, and in the darkness of the mines they worked their dark deeds, trying to put the machines out of order, to flood the shaft, and to obstruct the veins.
Despite the Byzantine terminology that they are compelled to use, the authors of the letter point out clearly how and why the worker is turned into a class enemy. Enumerating the victories, the letter admits casually that "in the sphere of improving the living and cultural conditions ... we still continue to lag behind." What is hidden behind these words? We may gather a partial answer from their inventory of successes and victories: "Individual gardening has been widely extended in our mine ... Our cadres are fully assured of vegetables for the entire winter." This last phrase is printed in bold type in the newspaper, to stress the extent of the victory. Individual gardens imply that after a hard day's labor, the worker must dig away at a little plot of land in the manner of a Chinese peasant; as a consequence of this double labor, the working cadres, the mining aristocracy, that is, are assured of vegetables for the entire winter.
Such is reality even when it is seen through the prism of a laudatory official dispatches!
A good crop in the Ukraine was needed, and Roosevelt had to recognize the Soviet government, before the Stalinist bureaucracy would graciously consent to call a party Congress, after an interval of three and a half years. The party Congress is intended not to determine the policies to be pursued under the difficult conditions but to sing hosannahs to the leaders upon these episodic successes.
But even given the conditions that we mentioned above, a preparatory cleansing of the party was felt needed prior to the calling of the Congress. The cleansing took place under various criteria. No doubt, a certain number of rascals and agents of the class enemy were cleaned out. Under the present regime, it is impossible to judge the percentage that has remained in the party. But the chief aim of the chistka was to terrorize the party prior to the Congress. Of course, the party is sufficiently cowed even without this. But who can tell? Might not the dissatisfaction brewing and collecting in the masses break out into the open in the form of a discussion before the Congress ... Therefore, to prepare for the Congress not a discussion was In order, but a cleansing. This time, everybody was to be kicked out who had ever evinced the slightest inclination toward party discussion. One needs at least three pairs of spectacles to judge the course of the chistka by the Pravda. These people have become so attuned to lying that they cannot halt their proclivities even in those instances where a minute pinch of truth would rebound to their advantage. But, in any case, one thing is clear: "Trotskyism" won't let the bureaucracy rest in peace. "Trotskyism" is no longer referred to as crushed, buried and so forth; on the contrary, the tendency is rather to exaggerate its forces.
Through all the articles and notices on the chistka there runs the red thread of "Trotskyism", and thereto in a double guise; on the one hand, enrolled as "Trotskyites" are those bureaucrats who have been most compromised and whose hides can no longer be saved; and on the other hand, all criticism of bureaucratism in general falls under the category of "Trotskyism". The two symptoms mutually exclude each other. But the Stalinist apparatus can dispense with neither of them; it is necessary that the guilt for the crimes of the Stalinists who are most hated by the populace be loaded upon Trotskyism; but, on the other hand, it is equally necessary to remind those who have a tendency to relied and to be critical and who are courageous that if they let themselves be carried away they will be dealt with as befits Trotskyites.
The Pravda in summing up the results of the cleansing bewails the obstacles that the apparatus has to meet with on the part of the enemies of the party.
These words ring with the inimitable indignation of a frightened bureaucracy: the enemy sows the "seeds of counter-revolution" by means of ordinary questions, remarks and explanations. How tense must be – how saturated with lies, that is – the inter-relations between the workers and Sirs "Cleansers" if it is necessary so viciously to hound ordinary questions, the moment that they threaten to unveil the mechanics of the leadership!