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Die Alte Post in Hamburg ist ein 1847 vollendetes Gebäude an der nach ihr benannten Poststraße in der Hamburger Neustadt. Es wurde nach dem Großen Brand von 1842 nach Plänen von Alexis de Chateauneuf aus dem Bedürfnis errichtet, mehrere der in der Stadt vertretenen Postanstalten in einem Haus zusammenzufassen. Der seinerzeit größte Verwaltungsbau der Stadt gilt als herausragendes Beispiel der sogenannten Hamburger Nachbrandarchitektur und ist eines der ältesten Postgebäude vor Gründung der einheitlichen Reichspost in Deutschland.

Das denkmalgeschützte Gebäude zwischen der Straße Große Bleichen und dem Bleichenfleet enthielt nach vollständigem Umbau 1971 eine Ladenpassage, die die Umwandlung dieses Teils der Hamburger Innenstadt zu einem Passagenviertel einleitete.

Architektur

Der Bau erfolgte von 1845 bis 1847 nach Entwürfen des Architekten Alexis de Chateauneuf, der maßgeblich am Wiederaufbau der Stadt mitwirkte (Alsterarkaden) und als Baumaterial zum Teil auch den bodenständigen Backstein favorisierte. So wurde die Fassade mit unverputzten Ziegelsteinflächen unter Verwendung von gotisierenden Sandsteinelementen im zeitgenössischen Rundbogenstil erbaut. Als Vorbild für den italienisch anmutenden Bau gilt auch der Stil der italienischen Renaissance (je nach Quelle werden Palazzo-Bauten der Regionen Florenz, Venedig oder der Toskana als Vorbilder zitiert).

Charakteristisch ist der hohe Uhrturm, auf dessen Spitze ein optischer Telegraf (auch Flügeltelegraf oder Semaphor) den Endpunkt für eine Nachrichtenverbindung bis zur Elbmündung, dem damals zu Hamburg gehörenden Cuxhaven, bildete. Das heutige Aussehen erhielt der Turm jedoch erst, nachdem er sich für diesen Zweck als zu niedrig erwiesen hatte. Daraufhin wurde dem Turm mit einem Oktogon-förmigen Baukörper ein weiteres Segment aufgesetzt. Vorbild des eleganten, aber regional untypischen 40 Meter hohen Turmes ist der Belfried von Brügge. Am 23. Juli 1848 nahm der neue Endpunkt der Hamburger optischen Telegraphenlinie seinen Betrieb auf. Die Telegraphenlinie wurde jedoch im Jahr darauf wieder eingestellt, als seit dem 15. Oktober 1848 ein elektrischer Telegraf (Morsetelegrafie) auf der für Hamburg wichtigen Verbindung nach Cuxhaven (Meldung von einlaufenden Schiffen) eingesetzt wurde.

Alexis de Chateauneuf hat detaillierte Zeichnungen des Postgebäudes in seiner Publikation Architectura publica veröffentlicht, die posthum 1860 erschienen ist.

Geschichte

Am 2. Januar 1848 wurde in dem Gebäude die Hamburgische Stadtpost (Freistädtisches Postamt der Hamburger Staatspost) eröffnet. Ebenso waren darin das Fürstlich Thurn und Taxis'sche Oberpostamt, das Königlich Hannoversche Oberpostamt und die Königlich Schwedische Post mit ihren Dienststellen untergebracht. Ihre Wappen und Embleme befinden sich noch heute an den Portalen der jeweiligen Eingänge. Weitere in Hamburg vertretene Postanstalten hatten ihren Sitz in anderen Gebäuden.

Mit der Gründung des Norddeutschen Postbezirks 1868 wurde die hamburgische Post dem Norddeutschen Bundes-Oberpostamt übertragen, das seinen Sitz im Gebäude der Stadtpost erhielt und in dem nach Einführung der einheitlichen Reichspost auch die kaiserliche Oberpostdirektion untergebracht war. 1887 zog diese mit der Telegraphendirektion in die neue Oberpostdirektion am Stephansplatz
um. Das alte Postgebäude wurde darauf wieder von der Freien und Hansestadt übernommen und von der Hamburger Verwaltung und als Archiv genutzt.

1924 zog das Hamburgische Welt-Wirtschafts-Archiv (HWWA), das zuvor über mehrere Standorte verteilt war, in das Haus. Im selben Jahr wurde die Alte Post, als eines der ersten staatseigenen Gebäude der Stadt, unter Denkmalschutz gestellt.

Von 1924 bis 1937 war das Gebäude auch Sitz des Instituts für Auswärtige Politik, eines der ersten Friendensforschungsinstitute.

Das Gebäude überstand den Zweiten Weltkrieg ohne große Schäden. Bei der Sturmflut 1962 wurden die Magazinräume des HWWA bis zu 1,60 Meter unter Wasser gesetzt, wodurch ein Teil des Archivs zerstört wurde. 1965 zog das HWWA schließlich aus. Zugleich hatte sich der bauliche Zustand verschlechtert. Um den Bau nicht abreißen zu müssen, einigte sich die Stadt auf eine vollständige Renovierung.

Zwischen 1968 und 1971 erfolgte für 8 Millionen Mark der Umbau mit Entkernung des Inneren und unter Beibehaltung der alten Fassade nach Plänen von Baudirektor H. D. Gropp und Ursula Kresse. Die ursprünglichen vier Geschosse wurden zu sechs Stockwerken ausgebaut. Es enthielt nun eine Ladenpassage, eine Tiefgarage und in den oberen Stockwerken 3000 Quadratmeter Bürofläche, die auch von Senat und Bürgerschaft genutzt wurden. Es folgten mehrfache Neugestaltungen der Ladenpassage (so 1988) und im Jahr 1998 für 2 Millionen Mark eine Grundinstandsetzung, bei der auch das alte Mauerwerk saniert wurde.

Ende 2008 schlossen die letzten Läden in der Passage Alte Post. Das Gebäude wurde 2010 erneut entkernt und durch das Hamburger Architekturbüro Alk Arwed Friedrichsen bis Anfang 2012 neu ausgebaut. Dabei wurden einige historische Details wie Gusseisen-Kandelaber, Fenster und Türen nach den originalen Zeichnungen Chateauaneufs rekonstruiert. Auffälligste Änderung war die Wiedererrichtung einer Balustrade vor dem Gebäude. Diese wurde seitlich und nach oben hin verglast, um sie als Vitrinen nutzen zu können. Durch diesen Schaufensterersatz ließ sich verhindern, dass die Fensteröffnungen des Erdgeschosses bis auf Bodenniveau geöffnet werden mussten. Beim Neuausbau wurden die ursprünglichen Geschosshöhen wiederhergestellt. Um dennoch zu den geforderten Nutzflächen zu kommen, erhielt das Gebäude zwei zusätzliche Staffelgeschosse.

Im März 2012 verlieh eine Jury auf der Internationalen Immobilienmesse MIPIM in Cannes den Special Jury Award 2012 für die Erneuerung der Alten Post. Die Läden im Erdgeschoss und im ersten Obergeschoss werden von Filialen verschiedener Bekleidungsmarken genutzt, die darüber liegenden Etagen sind als Büros vermietet.

Poststraße
Die Poststraße verbindet den Rathausmarkt mit den Hohen Bleichen/ABC-Straße bzw. über die abzweigende Gerhofstraße mit dem Gänsemarkt. Zwischen den Straßen Hohe Bleichen und den kreuzenden Große Bleichen hieß sie ursprünglich Königsstraße. Ihre schmale Verlängerung, die Kleine Königsstraße, endete am Bleichenfleet.

Nach dem großen Stadtbrand wurde die Poststraße parallel zum Jungfernstieg neu angelegt und führte nun über das Bleichenfleet mit der Postbrücke zum Neuen Wall. Von der dortigen Kreuzung führt die Schleusenbrücke zum Rathausmarkt, die als Verbindung ebenfalls erst nach dem Brand entstand. Der Name "Poststraße" wurde später auf die gesamte Königsstraße übertragen.

Literatur
 David Klemm, Hartmut Frank (Hrsg.): Alexis de Chateauneuf. 1799 - 1853. Architekt in Hamburg, London und Oslo. Dölling und Galitz, Hamburg, München 2000. (Schriftenreihe des Hamburger Architekturarchivs), ISBN 3-933374-75-8. Literaturverzeichnis S. 324–330. Ausstellungskatalog.
 Lars Quadejacob: Kind seiner Zeit(en). Der Umbau der Alten Post. In: Architektur in Hamburg, Jahrbuch 2012; Junius-Verlag, Hamburg 2012

Einzelnachweise

Weblinks

Kontorhaus in Hamburg
Kulturdenkmal in Hamburg-Neustadt
Hamburg
Postgebäude in Hamburg
Erbaut in den 1840er Jahren
Bauwerk im Bezirk Hamburg-Mitte


Epilepsia. 2010 Dec;51(12):2397-405. doi: 10.1111/j.1528-1167.2010.02728.x. Epub 2010 Sep 30.
STXBP1 mutations in early infantile epileptic encephalopathy with suppression-burst pattern.
Saitsu H1, Kato M, Okada I, Orii KE, Higuchi T, Hoshino H, Kubota M, Arai H, Tagawa T, Kimura S, Sudo A, Miyama S, Takami Y, Watanabe T, Nishimura A, Nishiyama K, Miyake N, Wada T, Osaka H, Kondo N, Hayasaka K, Matsumoto N.
De novo STXBP1 mutations have been found in individuals with early infantile epileptic encephalopathy with suppression-burst pattern (EIEE). Our aim was to delineate the clinical spectrum of subjects with STXBP1 mutations, and to examine their biologic aspects.
STXBP1 was analyzed in 29 and 54 cases of cryptogenic EIEE and West syndrome, respectively, as a second cohort. RNA splicing was analyzed in lymphoblastoid cells from a subject harboring a c.663 + 5G>A mutation. Expression of STXBP1 protein with missense mutations was examined in neuroblastoma2A cells.
A total of seven novel STXBP1 mutations were found in nine EIEE cases, but not in West syndrome. The mutations include two frameshift mutations, three nonsense mutations, a splicing mutation, and a recurrent missense mutation in three unrelated cases. Including our previous data, 10 of 14 individuals (71%) with STXBP1 aberrations had the onset of spasms after 1 month, suggesting relatively later onset of epileptic spasms. Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay associated with abnormal splicing was demonstrated. Transient expression revealed that STXBP1 proteins with missense mutations resulted in degradation in neuroblastoma2A cells.
Collectively, STXBP1 aberrations can account for about one-third individuals with EIEE (14 of 43). These genetic and biologic data clearly showed that haploinsufficiency of STXBP1 is the important cause for cryptogenic EIEE.
Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2010 International League Against Epilepsy.


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Cleadon 5G mast plans rejected after rainbow alliance campaign against 'ugly blot'
Man, 49, taken to hospital after suffering facial injury in alleged assault in Hebburn shopping precinct
More details revealed on planned council tax rise for South Tyneside
More details of a proposed council tax hike in South Tyneside have been revealed after town hall bosses published their latest spending plans.
By Chris Binding
Updated 25th Jan 2023, 2:07pm
Stock image of a council tax bill.
The medium term financial plan is due to go before the borough's political leaders next week and sets out priority investments, around £3.7million of cuts and a 4.95% council tax rise for 2023/24.
Proposals to increase council tax include a 2% Government levy to ringfence cash for adult social care services and a 2.95% rise in core council tax.
The final bill issued by South Tyneside Council would also include separate levies linked to the region's police and fire and rescue services, although decisions around these 'precepts' are taken by other statutory bodies.
Council tax levels, based on predicted maximum increases for both precepts, could see a Band A property, into which the majority of households in South Tyneside fall, face an annual bill of £1,393.88.
This would represent a weekly increase of £1.36 for a Band A property and an annual increase of £70.87.
An average Band D property, under the same precept estimates, could face an annual bill of £2,090.81, representing a weekly increase of £2.04 and annual increase of £106.29.
Precept figures are expected to be finalised in coming weeks, which could lead to "minor roundings" to the final amounts appearing on residents' household council tax bills.
According to council budget documents, council tax is expected to raise more than £72million for South Tyneside Council in 2023/24, equating to just under half of the council's general fund budget.
However finance chiefs have noted that the council tax rise, while in line with Government limits, is less than half the current rate of inflation.
Councillor Joanne Bell, cabinet member for governance, finance and corporate services, said the local authority had to raise council tax to protect services.
In light of the cost of living crisis, the council chief stressed support would still be available to help eligible residents with council tax bills.
This includes a £100 council tax rebate for households on low income, which is expected to benefit around 12,000 residents, and the council tax reduction scheme, which provides support to more than 18,000 residents.
The local authority is also continuing its support for the borough's main food banks, recognising them as a "valuable port of call" for vulnerable residents.
Cllr Bell continued: "Obviously from our point of view, council tax is one of the only revenue streams that we get in to actually keep our services running that our residents want, need and deserve.
"The proposed rise is still giving us one of the lowest per head count [rates of council tax] and we're the fourth lowest out of 12 councils in the North East region.
"All other authorities are looking at the same kind of council tax increase in order to try and come in with a balanced budget.
"We understand all too well the cost of living and the cost of energy but unfortunately to continue providing the services that we do, council tax is something that we really have to look at carefully and look at the limits."
Cllr Bell added that Central Government sets a percentage limit or "cap" for council tax every year and that councils can be penalised for failing to take advantage of it.
Cllr Bell added: "We have got to be mindful of the fact that, in recent years, if councils haven't gone to the limit of their council tax, it then limits success in Government funding applications because councils haven't taken the opportunity to try and bring some revenue in themselves."
The medium term financial plan, and council tax proposals for 2023/24, will go before South Tyneside Council's ruling cabinet for decision on Februrary 1, 2023.
If approved, the spending plans will be put to a vote of all 54 South Tyneside councillors at a meeting of borough council on February 23, 2023.
South TynesideProposalsSouth Tyneside Council

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Ever since I can remember, I have struggled with maintaining a healthy weight and a healthy diet. Fast food and junk snacks are my favorite things in this world, and that has caused sluggishness and a feeling of not being healthy or comfortable in my own skin. I've tried a bunch of fad diets – none of which worked. They all made me feel bad about myself, and they weren't sustainable.
I finally reached out to a health and wellness coach who I have access to through my employee benefits. Her name is Rachel, and we've spoken on the phone quite a few times. She's my motivation to keep going because I know that if the next time she calls me, I tell her I fell off of my plan, she'll be disappointed.
But what is my plan? Well, I'm glad you asked, 'cause I'm gonna tell ya (even if you didn't ask!). Keep reading to find out what I'm doing to start feeling healthy and fit!
First of all, there's this app. It's amazing! Rachel mentioned it when we first spoke because it helps you to keep track of the calories you're eating. As much as I'd love to be able to eat clean all the time, that goal is unrealistic for someone with a new job, a new apartment, and a new husband. Things get busy, and I don't always have the time to make a good clean meal. Well, according to Rachel, fitness is not just about clean eating. It's actually mostly about your calorie intake.
Your body has a certain calorie level that you need to reach in order to maintain your weight – this is based on a number of factors including your current weight, height, and age. In order to lose weight, you have to be eating less calories than you need to maintain your weight. The MyFitnessPal helps me keep on track of how many calories I eat. I plan my meals in advance and then log them into the app in advance so that I don't forget to log as I eat.
Of course, exercise is good for your body. My exercise routine isn't something I do to keep track of a number on a scale or in an app. My exercise routine is something I do to make me feel good. As it stands right now (because it's summer and extremely nice outside), I go for half-our walks on Tuesdays and Thursdays and hour-long walks on Saturday mornings. On Tuesday, I'll also go for a half-hour swim (weather permitting), and on Thursdays I also lift weights for a half-hour. This way, I'm getting an hour of exercise twice a week, and I'm soaking up some vitamin D for two hours each week. I always feel really good when I take the time to move my body, and that's why I also do yoga each morning – to start my day off by moving and stretching out those limbs.
My fitness plan is for me – no one tells me I have to do things this way. Rachel is an awesome guide, but I didn't stick to the MyFitnessPal calorie-counting for her. And I didn't start the exercise plan for her; all of this is for me to feel my best.
My Crazy Budgeting for Beginners Routine!
I've been a budget-planning freak for a longggg time, but I just started getting into real-life situational budgeting about a month and a half ago. My husband and I moved into our new apartment (the tour for which is coming up soon!), and we've got all of the #adulting to do – including paying the bills.
Which is why I invested in the Plum Paper organizer that I posted a review of last week! I wanted to be have a tangible budget (instead of just the Excel spreadsheet I had been using) because I like to be able to sit down at my desk and view our finances all in one place at-a-glance. If you want to know what I've been doing to run a smooth ship, just keep reading!
At the end of every month, I sit down with my planner, organizer, cell phone, and a calculator. I get on the Internet and log into every single web portal we have for bills – DelMarVa Power, Progressive, our leasing company's site, Comcast, GMC, etc. etc. etc. The list goes on and on 'cause we have a lot of crap for which we have to pay bills. I use these websites to triple-check that we've paid-in-full up until that date, and then I write each bill (name and amount) into my planner on the correct dates for the upcoming month.
Once that's done, I log the total amount of bills into the "Expenses" section of my budget organizer. Then I write in each of Ben's pay-days (which are usually every Thursday) and each of my pay-days (which are usually around the 15th and 30th of each month) into my planner on the correct dates. I add up our estimated income and add that to the "Income" section of my budget organizer.
Hang on folks, 'cause we're just getting started..
Now I've planned out the income and expenses for the coming month. Sometimes, I'll even add in how much I think we're going to spend on groceries at the beginning of each week. Once all of that is written into my planner and organizer, I'll take a look at the first week of the upcoming month.
Using what I know about what's in our bank accounts on that date, I'll add and subtract the incomes and expenses for that first week. I do this religiously at the beginning of every week because I want to make sure that we're on track to maintain all of our bill payments with how much we'll have/be making that week.
I know that this all sounds super crazy, but that's just because it is super crazy. I'm a freak about budgeting because all of the adults in my life never were. I learned from their money mistakes, and now I'll be able to put aside a good chunk of our income each month to use as a down-payment on a house later on – or a good car, or our kids' college funds, or whatever! I'm trying to be a responsible adult about this. Of course, Ben just sees my budgeting as crazy – as would anyone else. But I thought I'd share the process with you all anyway.
So what do you do to maintain your household or personal budget? Share your process in the comments below!


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Q: Extracting mountain peaks from a DEM in QGIS I want to find and extract the location and height of the highest 500 mountain peaks in a given area.
I was thinking to use NASADEM dataset and QGIS, but I did not find any working tools.
I am an intermediate user of QGIS and I just need to know if there are any tools or any calculation over the DEM that I can do.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Voting made easier for students in Illinois
Emma Murphy, Assistant Editor-in-Chief and News Editor
Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a bill on Jan. 22 allowing students to miss part of their school day in order to vote.
The bill says that students will be excused for up to two hours to vote in primary, general, special elections or any vote that requires a popular vote. Ultimately, the amount of time allowed for voting is up to the school to set.
The idea of the bill is to allow students time to vote with no serious repercussions for missing the school day. This will help students who may have sports or activities after school that they may not be able to miss to vote.
"Historically, voter turnout is lowest among 18-24 year-olds. Allowing students to miss school without penalty will hopefully encourage students to take advantage of the opportunity to have a voice in who their representatives are," teacher Libby Day said.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the bill will not be put into effect in time for the state's upcoming primary elections on March 17, but the bill will go into effect June 1.
Students from Thornwood Fractional North and Thornwood Fractional South brought the idea for the new law to Senator Elgie Sims, D-Chicago and he worked with his colleagues to get the bill passed.
Being able to vote during the school day will give students a great opportunity to practice their rights as citizens of the United States of America.
According to NPR, 23.7 million young voters cast their ballots in the last presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. That was nearly 50 percent of voters in the 18-29-year-old category.
Young voters will be playing a crucial role in electing the next president in 2020. Donald Trump and the nominee who the democratic party picks to run for president will be fighting hard to get the youth vote in November.
The League of Women Voters comes to H-F a few times a year to help students register to vote. They were at north and south lunch on February, 18 to register students who are eligible to vote in the primary election on March, 17.
"The League of Women Voters are advocates for all voters to be registered in a timely matter and be a part of the election process," Co-Chair of Voter Service and Nominating Chair of the League of Women Voters Homewood-Flossmoor Roxie Williams said. "This bill will assist us to make sure no one is left behind: everybody has the proper time to get ready and prepare to vote."
From some perspectives, there has been a wave of youthful enthusiasm for the political process, which can be traced back to the 2018 election.
"The average age of a member of Congress is 58 years old, but we are now seeing younger people elected to serve. In 2018, the newly elected Congressmen included 25 people under 40 (which is a record!) and this included the youngest woman ever elected, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Congress is slowly becoming more diverse and inclusive, and this is in part due to a larger turnout among voters aged 18-24," Day said.
Mic Dropped on Lip Sync's Tenth Anniversary
Districts 233 and 161 Share Student Records
Principal Sets Up A Kickback To Motivate Students.
New Principal's Advisory Council Set to Help Improve the Culture of H-F
H-F working to rebuild community after allegations of sexual assault were made public
Breaking Down This Year's Budget
H-F Theater puts on a delightful first show
Blue went Missing
H-F Will Have A New Science Wing
New Changes to H-F


Just added this gorgeous panorama photographed by Instructional Team Leader for the Fine Arts Department -Michael Dean.
The Pittsburgh Carrick High School student Art Show is hung and waiting for the Monday opening reception at 5:30.
Anyone who works in this magnificent building will get a sneak peek during the day. There were ten of us working most of the day Saturday to hang the art and place the tags by each piece.
Awards ceremony is Monday evening at 6:30 PM. Sponsored by CITIPARKS!
How about those Tiffany columns? The marble, the windows, the painted ceiling? And all the student artwork? Wow!
I can't wait for the students to see their artwork on display in such a wonderful setting.
There will be refreshments at the reception.
You have to see it in person to get the full experience.
If you are in the city, please come see the amazing student artwork.


Yup, winter has arrived in our city. We just got our first taste of snow for this winter season. The weather just got down right cold and freezing. I thought it was just going to be a typical cold day and we didn't expect snow this afternoon but we did expect snow last night. We got the flurry of snow at past 4 p.m. this afternoon. The 2 kids, me and MIL were all in the kitchen and Kayla was eating when i got a call from Ralph. He said it was snowing and i just about screamed with excitement, not for me but for my other girl Kayla.. I immediately went to the window next to her and peaked outside. And sure it snow and it was falling heavily and there were big snow flakes,hehehe..Kayla was so happy and so excited and kept asking to go out. The little one was oblivious to what was happening and didn't care. It snowed steadily for about 10 min then it stopped. It was enough to coat the ground and it looked like someone threw a flimsy white garment on the backyard. Kayla went outside for a little bit to play with what little snow that got accumulated on the porch. Well, i guess that's it for today. I got to really bundle up now and stay warm!!!!!
i can feel the excitement of what you wrote today. brings back my reaction to the first time it snowed here this winter.
if i get excited to see it, how much more Kayla. if Inday will see lots of it, she will definitely love it too!


What is is that they say about the children in Lake Wobegon? "… where all the children are above average." Of course, when every child is special then no child is special, and that's the way it is supposed to be. At this past weekend's CRUSY kinnus at Beth El in Pittsburgh, every child was warmly received and brought into the program. There were no special needs. There was only a conscious effort to provide everything that was needed to make the program fully inclusive and accessible.
This post is my periodic plea to congregations to consider what it takes to be accessible to a blind person who happens to walk through your door on Shabbat. It doesn't take much. This year, Beth El's inclusion committee decided to purchase a set of the Braille volumes of Sim Shalom and Torah. They actually only needed to acquire five of the nine volumes of the siddur in order to satisfy the needs of a regular Kabbalat Shabbat, Shaharit, Minha, and weekday morning. Knowing that they were hosting the kinnus, they also purchased the volume of Torah and the haftarah for that specific Shabbat. All of this is easily available from the Jewish Braille Institute.
When my son Solomon arrived at kinnus, he was not special. He dovened just like everybody else, with his Braille siddur. He went up to the Bima and led Torah service. It was no big deal. He just participated in leading a part of the service, something that a couple dozen USY'ers did over the course of the weekend.
However, it was a big deal to his father who was standing in the back of the sanctuary with tears running down his cheeks, because at that moment his son was not special. Like thousands of youth before him, he was given the honor and privilege of participating in a Shabbat with his USY friends.
One day, Solomon might show up at your synagogue. When he does, are you going to make him feel 'special' by requiring him to bring his own very bulky set of books, or are you going to make him feel like a part of the congregation by giving him a book, just as you will undoubtedly do for every other person who walks in?
For more detailed information on how to order a standard Shabbat set of Braille volumes, contact me at Rabbi@AhavasIsraelGR.org.
How well do I see beyond the quirky jerky movements, beyond the wheels on the chair, beyond the blind eyes or augmented ears or impaired speech? Do I fall into the trap of seeing people with disabilities as superhuman just because they live with disabilities? Am I seeing impaired humanity rather than embodying the love and wisdom of believing that the face of God is visible within every human being, learning how to look beneath the physical shell of the individual and find the sparks of unique holiness?
Jacob Artson is a powerful communicator, a talented writer. Jacob Artson has autism. We should not be surprised that these two sentences are mutually inclusive, not exclusive.
My name is Jacob Artson and I am a person just like you.
I am part of a wonderful Jewish family, I go to our local public high school where I am in regular English and social studies classes, I play sports, I love to travel, I enjoy hanging out with my friends, and I care about making this world a better place. The only difference between you and me is that I have lots of labels attached to me, like nonverbal, severely autistic, and developmentally disabled.
It is true that I have many challenges, but there are lots of myths and misconceptions about autism out there. Many purported experts claim that people with autism are not interested in socializing. This is totally ridiculous. I love people, but my movement disorder constantly interferes with my efforts to interact. I cannot start and stop and switch my thinking or emotions or actions at the right time. This can make being in a big group very lonely and that is the worst thing about autism. So next time you see someone like me at your synagogue or at your event, remember that they probably feel really lonely and you could be the person to make their day by smiling at them and letting them know that you know they exist.
Another myth is that the majority of people with autism are mentally retarded. In fact, our bodies are totally disorganized but our cognitive skills are intact and our minds are hungry for knowledge.
Every person alive is encumbered by challenges and blessed with gifts. I used to think that my ratio of challenges to gifts was higher than most people's, but now I realize that my challenges are just more obvious. I have learned that autism can have its advantages. For example, I get a VIP pass at Disneyland and I get to kiss all the beautiful counselors at camp and pretend I don't know any better. On a serious note, not being able to speak means that you spend lots of time listening. In fact, much of what I know I've learned from listening to conversations that other people didn't think I could hear, or listening through the wall to what the teacher in the next classroom was saying. People often ask me how I became such a good writer. The answer is that my inability to speak gives me lots of time to contemplate and imagine, and it also forces me to hear everyone's perspective and think about it because I cannot interrupt or monopolize the conversation like people who have oral speech. In the autism world we say that not being able to speak doesn't mean that you don't have anything to say. In my experience, the converse is also true – just because you can speak doesn't mean that you have anything worth saying.
Since I have been asked to write about including people with disabilities in the Jewish community, I want to share with you the ways in which autism has affected my participation in Jewish life. My family has been my greatest support from the day I was diagnosed. My amazing twin sister Shira is my best friend, hero, chief source of entertainment, and fashion consultant. My ema (mother) is my rock and has never let autism be an excuse for failure. My abba (father) has been my spiritual guide and is also really fun to be with. Even though I know they love me, they have carried a tremendous burden and I always feel guilty about that. Unfortunately, the Jewish community has not always helped ease their burden or mine and often has exacerbated it.
I have found great support in God and Torah. Our people's wisdom has helped me through difficult times and guided me as I strive to become a productive member of society. My bar mitzvah was special because everyone there accepted and celebrated me for exactly who I am. I wrote a siddur commentary and everyone in attendance took turns leading the prayers and reading my words. At the end of the service, everyone came up on the bimah for Adon Olam. I will carry in my mind and heart forever the picture of everyone there smiling at me. I had wonderful experiences when I was in a Jewish preschool and later in kindergarten, even though my teachers had never had a child with autism in their class. What made those experiences successful was the way the teachers modeled inclusion for the other kids. They treated me as a person made in God's image and not as different in any way. In kindergarten, I had amazing peers. They were mostly Persian and inclusiveness is engrained in their culture. They tried all year to get me to interact with them even though I was usually too excited to focus. I've also had wonderful buddies from the Friendship Circle, attended several Jewish camps, participated in a Jewish musical theater program called the Miracle Project, and prayed at Koleinu, a service at Temple Beth Am for kids with special needs.
But there have been obstacles as well. Believe it or not, there is a hierarchy even within programs for kids with special needs. Because many Jewish programs in my community are geared for so-called "higher functioning" children, the first reaction is often that I am too disabled to attend. So whether I'm invited seems to depend on the particular director that year or whether my parents decide to complain and fight for me to participate. Most of these programs could easily accommodate people like me with a little attitude adjustment. My family's efforts to include me in synagogue life have also been a source of great stress. When I was younger I went to synagogue every Shabbat, but the other kids ignored me. My synagogue started a Shabbat morning service for kids with special needs and that gave us a community of sorts, but now I am a teenager and need to find my own place. I was invited to speak at Ikar, a small synagogue in our community, where I was welcomed just like any other member. I was not given icy stares when I got too excited, so my family joined. The kids there say hi to me even when they are not getting community service credit for interacting with me.
The public schools and secular programs I have attended have been much more welcoming and are built on a model of mutual respect rather than pity. The Los Angeles public schools are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic, and they too seem to have a culture of inclusion. The kids at school treat me like family and pull me into everything they do. I go to a secular camp for autistic kids in Aspen every summer and everyone is welcome there. We do cool things like go tubing and kayaking and I am able to participate in everything because I know they will work with me where I'm at. In my secular inclusive sports program, Team Prime Time, the director has taken the time to allow for sharing on several levels, so the kids all respect me for my intelligence and understand how hard I'm working to make a basket or kick the ball. I have also been part of their new volunteer training and have spoken about autism at school, but I have never been invited to participate in volunteer training for any Jewish program I have attended.
So here is a final thought I would like to leave you with.
The best peers and aides I have had didn't have any special background. It doesn't actually take any training to be a leader who models inclusion. It just takes an attitude that all people are made in God's image and it is our job to find the part of God hidden in each person.
I used to get very upset and offended at the idea of being someone's mitzvah project or community service project. But now I see that I also have a role to play in helping create the messianic future. It is easy in our affluent society to become dazzled by the material opportunities and privileges that we have been born with. But I have had to struggle from the day I was born to do many things that other people take for granted. Because of that, I have experienced God's love in a way most children have not. So maybe we are each other's mitzvah project because I can help them see the glories of the world that they have never noticed, and they can teach me how to look like other kids. All in all, who is getting a greater benefit? In the end, together we bring God's glory to all of humanity.
Jacob Artson, 17, is a student at Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. He hopes to become a writer and teacher.


Allis Chalmers - Early B Laser Etched Stainless Steel Manifold Plate 3" x 4-3/4", Hole Spacing 4-1/8"
Allis Chalmers - 170 Gas, 175 Gas Replaces - 70249324, 70249324V, 249324 Overall Length: 34", Shell Diameter: 4-1/4"x9", Shell Length: 16-1/2", Inlet I.D.: 1-15/16", Inlet Length: 3-1/2", Outlet O.D.: 2", Outlet Length: 14"


variable playing speed (100-300%) – this one is so crucial, since it saves so much time! 175-200% is often the norm for me when listening.
bookmarks – as above, it's hard to live without it.
auto-save of current position on power-off – seemingly obvious, right? think again!
physical buttons, especially volume, pause/play and lock – I keep my player in my pocket, and when I'm driving, riding a bike or simply running, I prefer the tactile input, and don't want to look at the screen at all.
aac and aax compatibility – yeah, I use Audible, and would prefer not to waste time on transcoding this stuff to mp3s.
folder browsing and playlists – ideally selected on a PC, but I could live with player-selected playlists that actually work.
good handling of VBR encoded mp3s – believe it or not, there are files which can confuse most players on the market… bookmarks don't work for them, nor fast-forwarding or rewinding.
long battery life – for long trips, either on the road, or in the air.
And I think this is it. I would love to have sound normalization to 0dB, but I'm a realist here, especially with 8h sound files. I can live with good volume slider or buttons.
I used to have Creative Zen, and I liked it very much for its interface, but it didn't have the feature number 1, and it died on me a couple years back. Right now I use Vedia B6 – it doesn't have features no 2, 5, 6 and 8, and is quite an unstable product, to say the least. But after discovering feature number 1, I never looked back.
Tagged Audible, audio books, Creative, features, music, Vedia, Zen. Bookmark the permalink.


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Tevet 24, 5780 Time in Israel: 12:59 AM
Home > Israel News
Israeli High Court Won't Order IDF to Prosecute Soldiers in Protester's 2009 Death
Bassem Abu Rahmeh died after being hit by a teargas grenade during a protest at the West Bank village of Bil'in; his story was documented in the Oscar-nominated film 'Five Broken Cameras'
Revital Hovel
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A Palestinian protester throws stones at Israeli troops while wearing a mask of Bilin villager Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, in Bilin near Ramallah, on Friday, August 27, 2010AP
The High Court of Justice rejected Sunday a petition demanding the prosecution of Israeli service members for involvement in the death of a Palestinian protester in the West Bank in 2009.
The story of Bassem Abu Rahmeh, 30, who died after being struck by a teargas grenade during a protest at Bil'in in 2009, was documented in the Oscar-nominated film "Five Broken Cameras."
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Despite its ruling, the panel of three justices criticized the army's handling of the incident. They noted that soldiers' testimony was taken with considerable delay after the incident and in a manner that undercut the search for the truth and witness credibility, as well as delays in of decisionmaking and the loss of the investigation file.
Abu Rahmeh's mother, Subhiyeh, has been fighting in the courts for nearly a decade, together with Yesh Din. The Military Police investigation began only in 2010, over a year after Abu Rahmeh's death. In 2013, then-Military Advocate General Danny Efroni ordered its closure, citing insufficient evidence to prosecute.
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Two appeals against closing the case were denied, most recently in March 2017 by state prosecutor Shai Nitzan. In the preface to that ruling, Nitzan noted that the military advocate general had stated that the original investigative file was lost and that some evidence, including video of the incident, was impossible to restore. The current appeal to the High Court was based on this decision.
>> Palestinian dies in West Bank after arrest, Israeli army denies claim he was beaten to death
Besides rejecting the appeal because of the policy of not getting involved in decisions of the prosecuting authorities, the justices commented on the behavior of the criminal investigation division and the military advocate general.
Justice Ofer Grosskopf wrote, "It is impossible to complete this ruling without discussing the problems with the authorities' handling of the affair over the course of many years, especially the handling of the case that certainly added personal pain and sorrow for the petitioner and practically hindered the uncovering of the truth."
He added: "The prosecutor's decision shows that the amount of time between the incident to the recording of statements also compromised the credibility of the testimony regarding the possible identity of the soldier who injured the deceased ... [and] the ability to locate the soldiers who, it is claimed, were coached in the manner of the hearing in the weapons employed in the incident."
Justice George Karra discussed the numerous of inquiries and appeals Abu Rahmeh's mother had to make, including three petitions to the High Court over nine years and five months to get clarification on the circumstances of her son's death.
He sharply criticized what he called the state's foot-dragging. "Although I agreed to the legal analysis and the ruling, it is hard to escape the difficult feeling rising from the way in which things were handled, and these circumstances tied our hands when the handling — more correctly, bungling — of the state in the investigation of the incident led to among other things 'damage to the evidence,' and an inability to find the one responsible for the deceased's death. One can only regret this," Karra said.
The High Court rejected the petitioners' request to try the soldiers and their commanders in a disciplinary tribunal, and to take action against the commanders. The justices ruled that the amount of time passed and the difficulties with the evidence also eliminate the possibility of such measures.
Israel High Court


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Hard work got Percy Tau to the English Premier League' says Pitso Mosimane
By Marc Strydom - 21 January 2021 - 15:26
John Stones of Manchester City wins a header under pressure from Percy Tau of Brighton and Hove Albion during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Brighton & Hove Albion at Etihad Stadium on January 13, 2021 in Manchester, England.
Image: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
Al Ahly coach Pitso Mosimane has said that Percy Tau did not make it to Brighton and Hove Albion in the English Premier League (EPL) by talent alone' but by additional hard work and the correct mentality too.
Tau has been recalled by Brighton from his third loan spell' at Anderlecht' since signing for the EPL club in 2018 from Mamelodi Sundowns' where the attacker won the 2016 Caf Champions League under Mosimane.
Mosimane said he does not regret at the time of Tau opting to sign for Brighton' pressing to try to keep the Bafana Bafana styar at the Brazilians for another year' as he believes South Africans are at a disadvantage moving to Europe in terms of their development they receive from youth level.
He said such a disadvantage makes Tau's success in reaching Brighton via three loans in Belgium – where he adjusted to European football and developed his game – more impressive.
"I was saying he should stay one more year' and I'm happy I said that'" Mosimane told an online press conference of the SA Football Journalists' Association.
"Because SA's development' we are a bit behind in terms of the international programme. The training from 12 to 18 years becomes totally different' because if you look at our young boys' they beat Europeans at age 12' 13.
"Those 12' 13-year-olds in Europe' you see a succession plan to being senior players. ... [Such programmes] are about the content and who's teaching that information. But also' the dice is loaded for the Europeans.
" … Even here in Egypt I'm the first black [sub-Saharan African] coach at Ahly in history. I've got Argentineans' Portuguese' big names [to compete against] here.
"But you can't be coming here to have excuses. So you work' survive and prove that South Africans have potential and can survive.
"The same as the players. Look at Percy Tau. We were never sure if he could play at Brighton. Look at him now.
"The boy could have played long [as he went on various loan spells]. It's just that we undervalue what have in the country.
"Percy had to fight to leave [Sundowns]. I was there. I remember the meeting we had with the president of Sundowns [Patrice Motsepe] and Percy – it was one of the most emotional meetings' and I don't want to go there.
"All I'm saying is that Percy did not play in the Premier League today because he's Percy Tau' because he's a good player. It's more than that.
"His lifestyle was different' he invested more in football than in having a social life. Training in the morning with Sundowns' the afternoon going to do his books' upgrading his Grade 12 – without even talking about the degree [a BCom from Unisa].
"Playing Caf Champions League. Training more when everybody was at home. You've got to do a bit of extraordinary things to get to where you want to go.
"To go to the Premier League – ask [ex-Everton star Steven] Pienaar' it's the toughest league in the world. If you can play in the EPL' for me' it's the best players [who do]."
Mosimane added: "It's important that at this point in time the Tau family can know now that they are secure. Nobody in that family can say they did not have funds to go to university."
Tau has had three appearances since Brighton announced his recall on January 8' as a substitute in Albion's penalties FA Cup win against Newport' starting in a 1-0 EPL defeat away to Manchester City' and coming on in their 1-0 away league win against Leeds United on Saturday.
Mosimane was speaking ahead of his team's departure to the Fifa Club World Cup in Qatar' where Ahly meet host club Al-Duhail in the second round on February 4.
SOWETAN | SA, let's not sabotage Tau's dream
Brighton hail 'impressive' Percy Tau league debut against Manchester City
'You can see his quality': Percy Tau may get Brighton league debut against Man ...
Mzansi reacts to Tau's Brighton debut


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Like many great actors Corey Fogelmanis has experience in both film and stage acting, having performed in thirty productions since age six—a full decade! Most notable thus far is his portrayal of the character Farkle Minkus on Disney Channel's Girl Meets World. I will admit that I was unsure of watching the show due to my inability to get into Boy Meets World. However, Fogelmanis' sweet, young voice in the earlier episodes of the reboot and the humor brought by his character slowly caught my interest.
Never would I have expected to find that darling little Minkus was played by someone with so many artistic talents, and someone so close to home. In addition, this young star adds photography to his growing list of talents, too. After spending a great deal of time involved in the arts myself, I found it quite heartwarming to be able to speak with Fogelmanis about his experiences acting, his love of photography, and what he has been up to.
What do you think it is about Girl Meets World that makes it appealing to all ages?
I know a lot of people watch the show because they were fans of Boy Meets World and want to see what Cory and Topanga are up to now. Also, fans of the original show who now have families are watching it with their kids and can relate to what they're going through as parents.
Do you ever find yourself still in character once filming is done for the day?
Since I'm going on my third year of playing Farkle, I know him pretty well so it's easy to jump in and out of character.
You recently filmed for the third installment of Mostly Ghostly, One Night in Doom House. How do you feel about starring in this franchise two films later; does it feel like you have big shoes to fill?
I didn't focus too much on filling someone else's shoes. I was a huge fan of R.L. Stine growing up though, so I wanted to make sure I did a good job with the role and did the book justice. I had a blast shooting up in Vancouver for a month and I'm excited for it to be released!
Acting on screen means moments of your life will be immortal. What about all the time spent doing theater? Does your family come record?
A bunch of the community theater performances I did when I was younger were recorded but due to show licensing restrictions, they're not able to do that anymore. But that's one of the great things about live theater, it happens and then it's done.
Do you get a different feeling being involved in the tech side of theater as opposed to being onstage?
Yes, there is definitely a different feeling not being on stage but it's not any less satisfying. For me, any time that I get to spend in the theater makes me happy. Since I can't commit to a show right now, I'm glad I can still be involved in some way.
Which musical do you hope will give you your big break on Broadway? Would it be a show that already exists or do you have a vision for something entirely new?
Originating a role would be an incredible experience. There are many existing roles that I would love to play as well. I think Pippin is such a brilliantly written show and I would love to be able to do that at some point. Jack Kelly in Newsies is another one on my list.
How did your passion for photography start?
Growing up, my mom always had cameras around the house, so I was exposed to them at a young age. Just in the last couple of years, I've become more interested in the art of photography and have used it as a way to express myself creatively.
Your Instagram is home to many Polaroid photos. Is all of your photography analogue or do you focus on DSLR as well?
Recently I've been focusing on analogue photography, mostly because of the simplicity of it. I love having one shot to get a photo right and not being able to do any editing after the photo is taken. I also enjoy the challenge of it. You have to rely on your creative eye and your knowledge of the camera; there are no auto controls. I do have a nice DSLR Nikon D750. I don't get out with it as much as I'd like to but I try to carry at least one camera with me at all times.
How do you balance screen acting, stage work, photography, and school without overwhelming yourself?
I wish I could say that I never get overwhelmed trying to balance everything, but sometimes I do. I try to focus on one thing at a time, which helps me manage everything.
If you had never been introduced to the arts, what sorts of subjects do you suppose you'd be interested in?
I'm not really sure, I've always been involved in the arts one way or another so that's the only thing I know.
Are there any other projects in the works for fans to look forward to?
We're back shooting our third season of Girl Meets World. We are starting high school, the characters are growing up a bit, and I'm excited for everyone to see it. At the end of 2015, I shot my first film, Mostly Ghostly: One Night in Doom House, which will be released later this year.


In the last article The Pink Elephant in the Room: The Issue of Black Slavery and the Church, I focused on some of the problems affecting Black Americans and how they are linked to the residual effects of slavery and not knowing the divine reason in the midst of serving a Sovereign God for that slavery. In this article I will take a diversion to begin what will be an inadequate survey into some ancient history before resuming the discussion on Black Americans.
A blog format does not really allow me to do what I would like with this subject so there will be some generalizations when I refer to "White people" "Black people" or any people. There are always exceptions to the rule in any people group and I cannot pretend to know who all these exceptions are and where they exist in time. Also, the purpose of dealing with race and history on this blog is not to exalt any race above the other or to pillory any race any more than others. "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God", but the deception of this part of the age is that only Whites have had any historical glory to begin with in conjunction with sinning, whereas Blacks have only sinned in their perpetual state of dismissive primitiveness.
Any Black American child attending the public school system I would wager has more often than not been introduced to history with the absence of Blacks playing any major part of it particularly ancient history. This is reinforced in the American university system, unless you have a renegade professor. If he or she is Black, they are categorized as being an afro-centric revisionist if they make a case for Blacks as the historical founders of ancient civilizations no matter the merits of the claim. In wider society, the apparatus to keep the illusion going is Hollywood and their use of what I call the "magic boxes" of television and movie theaters. This is a most powerful medium because it reaches a wide audience and you can continue the deception because it is not as if after watching a movie or television program you can debate and challenge the producers of the movies as to their historical accuracy.
I have surely never seen a movie offer a disclaimer that historically the people you see acting a part are not the people of that time period and it is just artistic license. Therefore, one can conclude that the deception is deliberate. Unfortunately, the other institution a part of the deception perhaps not deliberately as far as the common people go, is the church. This is carried out by the mostly White Catholic gentile church. No institution is more fond of presenting biblical iconography than Catholics and as it relates to people they are always without exception presented as white unless you investigate further and discover in a more distant time they were depicted as Black.
But in America, you will never see on Time magazine, National Geographic, the history channel or any other media any ancient picture or artifacts that show historical personages to be of deep melanin skin tones and if you do it was probably by accident. So, what has been the consequence of the historical masquerade. It is simply this. The premeditated erasure of Blacks from history has lead to an unfounded sense of white superiority and an exaggerated sense of Black victimization with the added benefit of obscuring the identity of the people needed to conclude the age or "fulfill the time of the gentiles". In the next article I will discuss Egypt and the dwelling in the pyramid of Ham of Whites.
You are right on the money with your contention that black people in America are deliberately whitewashed out of history by religious iconography, literature, books, movies, plays, etc. The white European "god complex", where he pictures himself as god, coupled with the extreme inferiority complex instituted by ignorance deliberate and intentional, has been a powerful and explosive mix.


A river mirrors the distant bank full of leafy trees and a grassy hill.
2. Bridge Over Greenbrier River, Alderson, W. Va.
Bridge Over Greenbrier River, Alderson, W. Va.
3. Concrete and Steel Bridge Across the Greenbrier River at Alderson, W. Va.
Concrete and Steel Bridge Across the Greenbrier River at Alderson, W. Va.
4. Concrete Bridge Across Greenbrier River at Alderson, W. Va.
5. Chesapeake and Ohio Single Track Main Line, East of Alderson, W. Va.
Chesapeake and Ohio Single Track Main Line, East of Alderson, W. Va.
6. Greenbrier River from Bridge at Alderson, W. Va.
Greenbrier River from Bridge at Alderson, W. Va.
Greenbrier River from Bridge at Alderson. House visible on the shore.
7. Looking East at Greenbrier River from Bridge at Alderson, W. Va.
Looking East at Greenbrier River from Bridge at Alderson, W. Va.
View of Greenbrier River from bridge at Alderson. Road visible in the distance.
8. Looking East at Greenbrier River from Bridge at Alderson, W. Va.
View of Greenbrier River from bridge at Alderson.
9. Old Steel Bridge, Looking East along Greenbrier River, Alderson, W. Va.
Old Steel Bridge, Looking East along Greenbrier River, Alderson, W. Va.
Tree lined shore of the Greenbrier River. Steel Bridge in the background.
10. Looking East at Greenbrier River near Alderson, W. Va.
Looking East at Greenbrier River near Alderson, W. Va.
Greenbrier River from near Alderson, looking East.
11. Iron Bridge over the Greenbrier River at Alderson, W. Va.
Iron Bridge over the Greenbrier River at Alderson, W. Va.
Boaters in the foreground. Iron bridge over the Greenbrier River at Alderson. Bridge built in 1881.
12. Iron Bridge Looking South, Alderson, W. Va.
Iron Bridge Looking South, Alderson, W. Va.
Two men standing on old iron bridge looking south.


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Candlelit dinner, fine wine, flowers, and sweet concoctions--looks like you're all set for a romantic evening. But wait, don't forget the music. Love songs go hand-in-hand with romance, so here are several songs you can listen to with your special someone. You can search for the music videos of these songs on Yahoo Music.


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Sutton eatery closed after a brawl is set to reopen
Miss Mansfield on way to smashing charity target
The reigning Miss Mansfield is celebrating the halfway point in the role '" and is well on the way to smashing her charity target.
Jessica Pinnick pledged to raise £5,000 to sponsor a Guide Dog puppy when she was crowned Miss Mansfield and Sherwood 2017 earlier this year.
And the 24-year-old has already raised £3,700.
She said: "I have volunteered for a few years with the charity, I love dogs.
"I also knew Nathan Edge, who lost his sight while I knew him.
"His relationship with his guide dog, Hudson, and how he has given Nathan's independence back is what inspired me."
Jessica has raised money though collections at supermarkets and raffles, as well as being sponsored to tackle a 5km inflatable obstacle course, to name just a few fundraising events.
She also got the chance to travel to another Mansfield and meet the reigning Miss Mansfield in Ohio, USA.
During her trip, Jessica attended a variety of events including a meeting with the Rotary Club, celebrity waitressing at famous American restaurant chain Applebee's and two charity luncheons where she spoke about Guide Dogs.
She said: "Being Miss Mansfield and Sherwood has been amazing.
"It is one of the best things I have ever done. I have been thrown into experiences I never would have done before.
"I am only at six months, so I have it all over again."
Langwith Junction murder: Police hunting killer ask public if they have seen friends or relatives acting strangely


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STYLE: LIGHT LAGER
BREWER: MILLER BREWING CO.
COUNTY: CUYAHOGA, LAKE
A Refreshing Light Lager in a Clear Bottle. A favorite among bartenders, brewers and beer lovers in general, Miller High Life was launched as Miller Brewing Company's flagship beer in 1903. Its crisp, easy-drinking flavor is the epitome of the American.
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MILLER BREWERY
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Miller High Life
Miller Genuine Draft


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Escape from the Nazis: Anna Seghers's Suspenseful Classic
Thomas von Steinaecker
Distant view with a mossy branch and a winding road, by Hercules Segers, 1610–1638
My first encounter with Anna Seghers's novel Das siebte Kreuz (The Seventh Cross) was brief and painful. At some point in the mid-1990s—I must have been in tenth or eleventh grade—our German teacher announced that in the months to come we would be reading excerpts from an antiwar novel written in the days of the Third Reich. The announcement was greeted by the students with incredulity and protest. What? Such a big fat book! On top of that, the antiquated language and a plot that refused to get under way, quite aside from the fact that no one could keep track of all the characters.
I have a vague recollection that the story began with a description of the Rhine landscape I found hard to follow, and that the main character was constantly on the run. There was a feeling of general relief among the students when we were finally able to put the book aside. In all honesty and to my shame, I should add that I don't have a single pleasant memory of any of the other books I read in school, from Goethe's Faust to Günter Grass's The Tin Drum to Paul Auster's Moon Palace.
For almost a quarter of a century, that was my only acquaintance with Anna Seghers—until I recently looked up something in an entirely different context and got snagged on a still from a movie. It showed Spencer Tracy in a Hollywood film called The Seventh Cross. I was amazed: that unreadable old tome had been made into a movie! And with a star actor? My curiosity aroused, I read The Seventh Cross for a second time, and I devoured it in two days. After that, I understood why it was an international bestseller.
It had been a hit almost immediately after it was published in 1942—simultaneously in German by a publisher in exile in Mexico and in an English translation in the United States. Within six months, it had sold 421,000 copies in the US. To date, it has been translated into more than thirty languages. Then, in 1944, the Austria-born director Fred Zinnemann, who would make the western classic High Noon a few years later, filmed The Seventh Cross for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Besides Tracy, the cast included Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, and Helene Weigel (in her only film role during her American exile).
After the war, the novel was published to acclaim in Seghers's native Germany. In 1947, in Darmstadt, Seghers was awarded the most important prize for German-language literature, the Georg Büchner Prize. The same year, she returned to Germany, moved to West Berlin, and joined the Communist party, the newly formed SED, in the zone occupied by the Soviets. She later moved to East Berlin and remained a citizen of the GDR until her death in 1983. In 1961, when Seghers, who had by then become the president of the Writers' League of the GDR, did not condemn the building of the Berlin Wall, Günter Grass wrote her a letter appealing to her conscience, emphasizing the extraordinary position she held for him as well as his colleagues in the Federal Republic (West Germany): "It was you who taught my generation and anyone who had an ear to listen after that not-to-be-forgotten war to distinguish right from wrong. Your book, The Seventh Cross shaped me; it sharpened my vision, and allowed me to recognize the Globkes and Schröders under any guise, whether they're called humanists, Christians, or activists."
Later, after the Willy Brandt era, when West Germans had reconciled themselves to the existence of the GDR, The Seventh Cross assumed the position in the West that it had long held in the East: it became a book assigned in the schools. Indeed, the novel was rediscovered by the members of the '68 generation who were protesting their parents' deep silence about the Third Reich. And the novel continues to be listed in school curricula. It seems to have accomplished the leap into the twenty-first century.
Anna Seghers was born Netty Reiling, in Mainz in 1900, the only child of an upper-class Jewish family. Her father was a dealer in art and antiquities. Seghers always felt close ties to her native city. Decades later, at the age of seventy-five, she wrote in a telegram to the citizens of Mainz, "In the city where I spent my childhood, I received what Goethe called the original impression a person absorbs of a part of reality, whether it is a river, a forest, the stars, or the people."
Archive, Aufbau Verlag, Berlin
Anna Seghers, Paris, circa 1940
She published her first story in 1924, using the pen name Seghers. She married Laszlo Radvanyi, and the couple had two children, Peter (Pierre) and Ruth. Radvanyi was a Marxist, and Seghers herself became increasingly involved in the German Communist Party (KPD); around the same time, on playwright and novelist Hans Henny Jahnn's recommendation, she was awarded the prestigious Kleist Prize for literature. A promising future seemed to lie ahead.
Then, in 1933, as in a stage drama, came the moment of peripeteia, a sudden, total reversal. In the year Hitler came to power Seghers, doubly endangered as both a Jew and a Communist, fled with her family to Switzerland. It was the beginning of a long odyssey. She lived in Paris—separated from her husband, who had been interned in a French concentration camp—until France was occupied by the Nazis in 1940. Alone with their two children, she managed first to organize his release and then orchestrate the family's escape by ship via New York to Mexico City, where she would stay until 1947.
It was in Mexico that she learned of her mother's fate: murdered in 1942 in the Lublin concentration camp in Poland. The message from the Jewish congregation of Mainz was matter-of-fact: "Mrs. Hedwig Reiling arrived in Piaski near Lublin in the month of March, 1942, and died there."
Between May of 1938 and late in the summer of 1939, with world war imminent and in precarious circumstances, Anna Seghers wrote "a little novel," as she called it at first, or as an early working title reads, the "7 Crosses Novel."
According to her telling, there were originally just four copies of the manuscript, all of which she mailed off in hopes of being published. The first copy was destroyed during an air raid; a friend lost another while fleeing the Nazis; the third fell into the hands of the Gestapo; only the fourth copy, addressed to her German publisher in the United States, arrived at its destination. However, she herself hadn't kept a copy of her manuscript because the danger of its being found in her apartment by a police raid—a constant fear of hers, even in neutral Mexico—was too great.
The Boston publishing house Little, Brown accepted the novel for publication, but at first, Seghers, at that time the sole support of her family, saw no money from it. The modest author's advance was withheld in order to pay for the translation. In 1942, the publisher F.C. Weiskopf, by then a friend, wrote her a letter with the happy news that her novel had been selected by the Book of the Month Club: "Be glad, my people, Manna has rained down from heaven." But it wasn't until the following year that Seghers started receiving a monthly royalty payment of $500. The breakthrough came with the Hollywood filming. Seghers was paid the fabulous sum of $75,000 in four installments, the last in 1946. This, at least, brought to an end the time of financial distress.
The Seventh Cross is an example of something rare in the literature of the German language: a brilliantly written novel that keeps alive one of the most important chapters of German history—though I can still see why as a student I thought the book was old-fashioned. The grammar is complex, the language at times curious, its female characters oddly passive. So what gives The Seventh Cross its literary quality?
First, something quite simple: Anna Seghers, it turns out, was a veritable master of suspense. It's obvious why Hollywood grabbed this book—not just for the popular prison-escape motif that makes for breathtaking action, but also because of the cliffhanging delays in the narrative sequence. The central plot, Heisler's escape, is not told straight through; instead, it is constantly interrupted by jumps in the story to one of the more than thirty other characters in the novel. As for Heisler, he is what used to be called "a real man." Rough and inscrutable, even ruthless, he is a man who left his wife and baby for another woman; even amid terror and horror, he is a womanizer who is even allowed, at the end, a flirtation with a waitress.
Aufbau Verlag, Berlin, 1995
A panel from the graphic version of The Seventh Cross, illustrated by William Sharp, 1942; click to enlarge
The book also takes a filmic approach to form. The transition from the last sentence of the prologue, "Where might he be by now?," to the beginning of the first chapter and the description of Franz and his cheerful bicycle ride suggests a classic cross-fade. At the same time, The Seventh Cross is characterized throughout by very strong visual symbolism—as we see in the use of Christian iconography, beginning with the cross in the title. The motif of the seven crosses is not Seghers's invention, but rather a particularly perfidious punishment that was actually meted out in 1936 at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp after an escape (fatally unsuccessful), an incident the author had no doubt heard of. Other Christian references include the allusion to the dragon slayer in the main character's first name; the first night of his flight spent in the Mainz Cathedral; and, not least, the number seven, which turns up not only in the cross of the title, but also in the basic seven-chapter structure of the novel, covering a week, from Monday to Sunday. So, in a certain way, it is also a creation story, at the end of which, although not everything turns out all right, a few things do somehow work out, at least for the protagonist George Heisler.
Such Christian images catch the eye, though their use in the novel is largely unrelated to their original significance. The Mainz Cathedral may have been constructed from the "inexhaustible strength of the people," but it is depicted, alongside descriptions of the "almost excessively proud" bishops and kings, as a "refuge in which one can freeze to death." The seventh cross remains empty; George Heisler is no messiah, but rather an ordinary human being with all his weaknesses who won't let himself be consoled with some abstract future; he is about the here and now. He intends to go to Spain to fight against the fascists.
In contrast to the writing of her advocate Hans Henny Jahnn or of Thomas Mann, Seghers's sentences are artfully simple. Everything serves to create clarity, and describe action, such as Belloni's flight across the rooftops. The vivid descriptions of nature lead me to surmise that the young Netty Reiling intentionally chose the name of an artist as her pen name—that of the Dutch painter Hercules Segers (1590–1638), who was known above all for his realistic landscapes and who, to some degree, influenced Rembrandt. Moreover, Seghers's 1924 doctoral dissertation was titled "Jude und Judentum im Werke Rembrandts" ("The Jew and Jewishness in the Work of Rembrandt"). There, too, she was interested in the depiction of unadulterated reality, for, after all, it was the unassimilated Eastern Jews in all their poverty who served as Rembrandt's models rather than members of the "brilliant Sephardic congregation," the official Jewish community. Rembrandt was much more concerned with "rendering real Jewish individuals from his knowledge of their essential nature and their appearance."
Similarly, Seghers worked "from reality," and with an effect that was admired by her colleagues. But how was it possible for her, living in exile, to present such an intense and accurate picture of contemporary Germany? For one thing, there was the previously mentioned "original impression," that Seghers absorbed in her childhood of the landscape in the environs of Mainz. For another, she did careful, thorough research. Seghers spoke with fellow refugees and read the voluminous KPD-inspired Braunbuch über Reichstagsbrand und Hitlerterror (Brown Book About the Reichstag Fire and the Hitler Terror) and a report by the Munich Communist Party delegate Hans Beimler dealing with his imprisonment in the Dachau concentration camp, from which he escaped to fight, like George Heisler, in the Spanish Civil War, in which he was killed in 1936.
But another ingredient is added to this feast of detailed description and the everyday ordinary, culminating in the character of Ernst the shepherd who stands on his hill literally above everything. It is something that points to a metaphysical (not to be confused with religious) dimension behind the novel's tangibly concrete aspect. It is the voice of the omniscient narrator. It is the invisible and omnipresent intellect hovering over and around the characters and seeing to it that what happens does not remain futile and meaningless, even at moments of the greatest brutality. The voice knows about the "eiserner Bestand," the "emergency reserves" that people find within themselves, or as it says in the remarkable concluding statement of the nameless collective voice: "We all felt how profoundly and how terribly outside forces can reach into a human being, to his innermost self. But we also sensed that in that innermost core there was something that was unassailable and inviolable."
It may be that, in the aftermath of 1945, when the totality of the horrors of National Socialist rule became known, horrors that no doubt exceeded even Anna Seghers's powers of imagination at the time, such a passage sounds almost too benign. Yet it is precisely these authorial passages that touched me most deeply on rereading the book. Today, the gruesome acts of the camp commandant would be presented more graphically; the details of Heisler's flirtation at the end would probably be stretched out; above all, though, a modern author would strike an ironic note, perhaps a cynical one, since now after two world wars we know what a hopeless case our species is. But considering that Anna Seghers, in a moment of extreme existential danger, created, in spite of it all, this literary credo to humanism, this beacon that inspires us, in an ambiguous, crepuscular world full of inhuman barbarity, with the courage never to give up, to retain our humanity no matter what the cost—for that we should and must be grateful.
Adapted from the afterword to Anna Seghers's The Seventh Cross, translated by Margot Bettauer Dembo, which is published by New York Review Books.
Balzac's Novel of Female Friendship
Morris Dickstein
Voluptuous Panic
Noah Isenberg
The Novelist's Complicity
From the Current Issue
—— July 18 ——
Which Way to the City on a Hill?
The Driest Eye
America's Indefensible Defense Budget
Jessica T. Mathews
The Case of Yiyun Li
The Road Taken
Caroline Fraser


Tributes have been paid to a former Newcastle Journal and Chronicle reporter who has died suddenly at the age of 61.
Father of two Dave Black, who worked for the Northumberland Gazette before moving to work for the Journal in 1986, died at home on Sunday.
He leaves his wife of 34 years, Linda, daughter Cassie, son Robbie and step-daughter Donna Anderson.
Linda told the Chronicle: "I loved him so much and we were never apart. He was easy to talk to and he got on with everybody.
Black had spent his final day watching the Super League Grand Final with his wife.
The Journal's print publishing editor, Richard Kirkman, who was Dave's news editor on the paper from 1999 to 2001, said he was a "news editor's dream".
He added: "Dave knew his patch like the back of his hand and his many, many contacts knew and trusted him.
The Journal's business editor, Graeme Whitfield, said: "When I came to be news editor of The Journal, I came to rely on Dave for his professionalism and good humour.


text:
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Awards More Than $15 Million in Grants in the First Quarter of 2017
$1 Million Designated to Work Related to Refugee Assistance and Support
Refugee children play in Domiz camp in northern Iraq, where the IRC provides vital education and protection services. Photo: Peter Biro/IRC
April 05, 2017 06:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The board of directors of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation announced today that it approved 13 grants totaling $15 million during the first quarter of 2017, including $1 million for refugee-related work.
Currently, the Syrian refugee crisis, now in its sixth year, is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. In response to the overwhelming need, the Foundation has provided $5.3 million in grants over the past five years to address the situation close to the epicenter of the Syrian refugee crisis.
This quarter, the board of directors at the Hilton Foundation approved two grants for projects designed to provide relief for refugees: $500,000 to Save the Children for the education of the children of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and $500,000 to the International Rescue Committee for refugee resettlement assistance in the U.S.
"We continue to be guided by our founder, Conrad Hilton's enthusiasm, global view, and sense of compassion," said Peter Laugharn, president and CEO of the Hilton Foundation. "These values compelled us to support those people affected by the tragic conflict in Syria. We are proud to collaborate and partner with Save the Children and International Rescue Committee, both of which are splendid organizations working at the epicenter of the crisis."
Grants in the first quarter of 2017 were awarded to a total of 13 organizations spanning across the Foundation's priority areas, including organizations serving the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people both in the U.S. and internationally.
Following is an overview of all grants awarded in the first quarter of 2017:
Homelessness – Corporation for Supportive Housing will receive $6 million to support the Los Angeles initiative to prevent and end chronic homelessness through continued strengthening of the permanent supportive housing (PSH) industry and engaging mainstream systems to expand, align and coordinate PSH interventions to those they serve. The National Alliance to End Homelessness was granted $1 million to further national policy and advocacy efforts to end chronic homelessness, while Funders Together To End Homelessness received $300,000 to strengthen a national movement among private philanthropy to end homelessness. In addition, Union Station Homeless Services also received $300,000 to bolster organizational capacity as the Coordinated Entry System lead to end homelessness in the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County. Finally, L.A. Family Housing was awarded $700,000 to support and evaluate innovative strategies aimed at ensuring formerly chronically homeless individuals in permanent supportive housing successfully retain and stabilize in their homes.
Disaster Relief and Recovery – Save the Children Federation, Inc. was awarded $500,000 to support education for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. International Rescue Committee received a $500,000 grant to support refugee resettlement assistance within the United States.
Avoidable Blindness – Aravind Eye Foundation received more than $1.9 million to strengthen and consolidate a social enterprise model aimed at improving access to high-quality cataract surgery at five eye health clinics in sub-Saharan Africa.
Substance Use Prevention – The Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America was granted $1 million to utilize the community coalition model to promote adoption of Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) to prevent and reduce adolescent substance use. Community Catalyst will receive $2.2 million to expand and strengthen state-level advocacy campaigns to support adoption of youth SBIRT and reduce barriers to implementation. The Iowa State University Partnership in Prevention Science Institute was awarded $800,000 to promote adolescent health and well-being in rural communities through prevention of substance use and related problem behaviors.
Hospitality – A capacity building grant of $305,000 was awarded to Café Hope, an organization that provides full-service culinary training paired with life skills to youth in the New Orleans metropolitan area.
Catholic Sisters – The Africa Faith & Justice Network received $360,000 to build the capacity of Catholic sisters to mobilize African women to work for social justice and advance the sustainable development goals in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.
For more detailed information on our grantmaking, please visit hiltonfoundation.org/grants.
About the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation was created in 1944 by international business pioneer Conrad N. Hilton, who founded Hilton Hotels and left his fortune to help the world's disadvantaged and vulnerable people. The Foundation currently conducts strategic initiatives in six priority areas: providing safe water, ending chronic homelessness, preventing substance use, helping children affected by HIV and AIDS, supporting transition-age youth in foster care, and extending Conrad Hilton's support for the work of Catholic Sisters. In addition, following selection by an independent international jury, the Foundation annually awards the $2 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to a nonprofit organization doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering. In 2016, the Humanitarian Prize was awarded to The Task Force for Global Health, an international, nonprofit organization that works to improve health of people most in need, primarily in developing countries. From its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than $1.5 billion in grants, distributing $109 million in the U.S. and around the world in 2016. The Foundation's current assets are approximately $2.6 billion. For more information, please visit www.hiltonfoundation.org.
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Julia Friedman, 818-851-3754
julia@hiltonfoundation.org
#humanitarian
#refugees
#Philanthropy
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation on Facebook


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The nation's largest chicken producer, Pilgrim's Pride, failed to use proper safety procedures that allowed a release of 79 pounds of anhydrous ammonia and endangered workers at its Waco, TX, facility on Sept. 28, said officials at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Anhydrous ammonia is a dangerous chemical that can be fatal when inhaled and cause serious burns to the skin.
OSHA cited Pilgrim's Pride Corporation for two repeat and two serious violations under its Process Safety Management Standards. The company faces fines of $122,500.
OSHA issued the two repeat citations to Pilgrim's for failing to implement proper standard operating procedures with accurate information on safety systems and how they worked. The company's process hazard analysis failed to address issues in the plant. This analysis identifies potential hazards associated with the processing of highly hazardous chemicals. Inspectors also found the company's inspections and equipment testing were not completed as scheduled or documented as required. The agency cited Pilgrim's for the same or similar violations at its plants in in Nacogdoches in February 2015 and in De Queen, Arkansas, in July 2013.
Headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, Pilgrim's Pride Corporation is the world's second largest chicken producer, and the largest in the U.S. It can process more than 34 million birds per week, or more than 7 billion pounds of live chicken annually. Pilgrim's operates in 12 U.S. states as well as in Mexico and Puerto Rico with more than 35,000 employees, 100 of them work in Waco.


June's birthstone is the pearl, a brilliant gem that's organic in origin. Pearls, unlike most other gems, are created inside certain species of mollusks, such as oysters and clams. There are two kinds of pearls, natural and cultured. A natural pearl is formed when a small irritant, like a piece of sand, gets trapped inside the mollusk's soft tissue. This causes the animal to secret nacre, a substance known as "mother of pearl", which builds up, layer by layer, to produce a smooth, hardened pearl. Cultured pearls, which makes up the majority of pearls used in jewelry today, are made when an irritant is purposely introduced to the mollusk to facilitate pearl production.
Unlike diamonds and many gem stones, pearls don't need to be cut. They come out of their home ready to wear. Many ancient peoples such as the Persians, Hindus and Romans were drawn to this gem and used them to display their wealth and status. Roman women even wore pearls in their sleep to remind them how rich they were. In India, legend has it that pearls were dewdrops from heaven that fell into the ocean and caught by shellfish during the first rays of the rising sun. Soldiers and warriors wore the gemstones on their swords to symbolize the tears and sorrow that the weapon brings.
Pearls naturally come in many, different colors such as black, blue, gold, lavender, pink and peach as well as the traditional and popular white and off-white varieties. Pearls can also be painted. They hold color, including rich metallics, very well. Pearls can be found all over the world including Mexico, Indonesia, Bavaria, the United States, Japan and Sri Lanka.
The pearl is a gem of modesty and purity. It is worn by many prides to denote these qualities. It has always been believed to be an agent of goodness and is supposed to bring the wearer comfort in difficult times. They are also thought to improve memory and solidify friendships. The gem was even used as a medicine. The Persians believed it could cure insanity, among other diseases. In Ancient China, it was given as an aid to increasing longevity. In modern times, some individuals utilize pearls in drinking water to stabilize hormones or wear them directly on the skin to alleviate headaches.
Pearls are a very sensitive gem. They can become dull if you don't wear them often or if you expose them to chemicals, including perfume and makeup. They should also be re-strung often - at least every other year - which makes them a high-maintenance jewel.
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text:
Why the Extinction of America's Only Native Parrot Matters
The Carolina Parakeet tells a bigger story.
Wikimedia / Tm
Kevin R. Burgio and The Convesation
It was winter in upstate New York in 1780 in a rural town called Schoharie, home to the deeply religious Palatine Germans. Suddenly, a flock of gregarious red and green birds flew into town, seemingly upon a whirlwind.
The townspeople thought the end of the world was upon them. Though the robin-sized birds left quickly, their appearance was forever imprinted on local lore. As author Benjamin Smith Barton wrote, "The more ignorant Dutch settlers were exceedingly alarmed. They imagined, in dreadful consternation, that it portended nothing less calamitous than the destruction of the world."
You and I know that the birds weren't a precursor of mankind's demise – but in a way, there was impending doom ahead. These birds were Carolina parakeets, America's only native parrot. Exactly 100 years ago this February, the last captive Carolina parakeet died, alone in a cage in the Cincinnati Zoo, the same zoo where the last captive passenger pigeon, named Martha, died four years earlier. The last "official" wild Carolina parakeet was spotted in Florida just two years later.
Why did these birds go extinct? It remains a mystery. Given that parrots today are at greater risk for extinction than other major bird groups, is there anything scientists can learn from the Carolina parakeet?
Unraveling Parakeet Mysteries
Over the past six years, I've been collecting information about where the Carolina parakeet was observed over the last 450 years.
I spent hours upon hours reading historical documents, travel diaries and other writings, ranging from the 16th century all the way into the 1940s. I've often become lost in the stories surrounding these parrot observations – from the first accounts of Europeans exploring the New World, to the harrowing tales of settlers traveling the Oregon Trail in the 1800s, to grizzled egg hunters scouring the swamps of Florida in the early 1900s.
The extinct Carolina parakeet, mounted on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Wikimedia Commons
I also dug through natural history museum collections, looking at what many would just see as just some old, dusty, creepy dead birds. But I see them differently: beautiful in their own way, each with a story to tell.
My goal was to unravel some of the lasting mysteries about the Carolina parakeet – like where it lived. Historically, people used to determine a species range by plotting the most extreme observations of that species on a map, drawing a polygon around them and called it a day. Because of this, people long thought Carolina parakeets lived from upstate New York all the way to Colorado and down to the Texas coast.
But birds are often seen in areas where they don't normally go. For instance, the range of the snowy owl – like Hedwig of "Harry Potter" fame – doesn't really extend all the way to Bermuda, though one was once spotted there.
The historic distribution of the extinct Carolina parakeet. The green area represents new understanding of where the eastern subspecies lived. The blue is where the western subspecies lived. The red line is based on a range map for the species published in 1891. Ecology and Evolution (2017)
What's more, scientists don't know what really drove these parakeets to extinction. Some thought it was habitat loss. Some thought it was hunting and trapping. Some thought disease. A few even thought it was competition with nonnative honey bees for tree cavities, where the parakeets would roost and nest.
Thanks to the data I compiled as well as cutting-edge machine learning approaches to analyze those data, my colleagues and I were able to reconstruct the Carolina parakeets' likely range and climate niche. It turned out to be much smaller than previously believed. Generally, their range extended from Nebraska east to Ohio, south to Louisiana and Texas. The eastern subspecies lived mostly along the southeastern coast from Alabama, through Florida and up to Virginia.
We were also able to confirm the longstanding hypothesis that the parakeets in the northwest part of their range migrated southeasterly in the winter, to avoid the blistering cold of the Midwest.
In a world that faces extinction on a scale not seen in the past 65 million years, some of you may wonder: Aren't there more important things to study?
While this may seem rather minor, some scientists consider the Carolina parakeet one of the top candidates for "de-extinction." That's a process in which DNA is harvested from specimens and used to "resurrect" extinct species, not unlike "Jurassic Park" (but way less action and decidedly less Jeff Goldblum).
If someone were to spend millions of dollars doing all of the genetic and breeding work to bring back this species, or any other, how will they figure out where to release these birds? Given the effects of climate change, it's no longer a given that scientists could release birds exactly where they used to be and expect them to flourish.
Whether or not de-extinction is a worthwhile use of conservation effort and money is another question, best answered by someone other than me. But this is just an example of one potential use of this type of research.
In many ways, the history of the Carolina parakeet's decline parallels the history of American growth over the course of the 19th century. All that prosperity came with many terrible costs. As the U.S. expanded and remade the landscape to suit its needs, many native species lost out.
Today, parrots face a serious threat of extinction. Parrot diversity tends to be highest in areas around the world that are rapidly developing, much like the U.S. during the 19th century. So whatever lessons the Carolina parakeet can teach us may be crucial moving forward.
I continue to study Carolina parakeets, and other recently extinct species, in the effort to hear and relate these lessons. As cliche as it is to say, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
This article was originally published on The Conversation by Kevin R. Burgio, Postdoctoral Fellow in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut. Read the original article here.