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Tag Archives: UBC
Canada: University of B.C. – Minister Holder Announces Investment in Quantum Materials Research and Future Technologies
The University of British Columbia awarded major grant from Canada First Research Excellence Fund competition
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Jul 30, 2015 (Marketwired via COMTEX) — Tri-Agency Institutional Programs
Canada could be propelled to the forefront of quantum materials research thanks to an investment by the government into a new research program at the University of British Columbia. The Quantum Matter Institute, which is already acknowledged as a global leader in its field, will use the funds to explore and develop high-tech quantum materials that could lead to pioneering technology in Canada in computing and electronic devices.
Today's announcement follows an open and competitive selection process among Canadian universities and colleges, judged by a panel of Canadian and international experts.
Launched in December 2014 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Canada First Research Excellence Fund will invest $1.5 billion over seven years to propel Canadian colleges and universities to excel globally in research areas that create long-term economic advantages for Canadians.
Today's award is part of the Fund's first $350 million competition. — The Fund is administered by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) on behalf of the three granting agencies: the SSHRC, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
As set out in Economic Action Plan 2015 and the renewed science, technology and innovation strategy, the Government is committed to supporting world-class research talent and infrastructure that is essential to advanced discoveries in both the public and private sectors.
"Our government is investing in research and innovation to create jobs, strengthen the economy and improve the quality of life of Canadians. UBC's Quantum Matter Institute will push Canada to become a world leader in quantum research, develop new industries around this revolutionary field, and create new jobs and opportunities for Canadians."
-Ed Holder, Minister of State (Science and Technology)
"The Canada First Research Excellence Fund has provided Canadian universities with an unparalleled opportunity to take their leading-edge research and make it the best in the world. This will set them on course to make groundbreaking discoveries that will enhance prosperity and change the lives of Canadians and millions around the world forever."
-Ted Hewitt, President, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; and Chair, Canada First Research Excellence Fund steering committee
"We are thrilled with the federal government's vision to invest $66.5 million to help establish UBC as a global centre for high-tech quantum materials research. The groundbreaking scientific discoveries in this field have the potential to create practical applications that could spur new industries and employment here and abroad and provide significant public benefits in areas like health and the environment."
-Arvind Gupta, President and Vice-chancellor, University of British Columbia:
"UBC's quantum matter community is extremely excited about today's funding announcement. Support from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund will propel our Quantum Matter Institute (QMI) to the forefront of the field internationally. By enabling us to fully exploit QMI's state-of-the-art infrastructure and further strengthening our international partnerships, especially with the Max Planck Society of Germany, this Fund will advance Canada's position as a global leader in quantum materials and future technologies."
-Andrea Damascelli, Director, Quantum Matter Institute, University of British Columbia
Leave a comment Posted in Nanotechnology Tagged Nano Computing, Nano Education, Nano-Electronics, Nanotechnology, Quantum Materials, UBC
MIT & University of British Columbia: Nano-Supercapacitors Tiny wires could Provide a Big Energy Boost
Yarns of niobium nanowire can make supercapacitors to provide a surge of energy when it's needed
Wearable electronic devices for health and fitness monitoring are a rapidly growing area of consumer electronics; one of their biggest limitations is the capacity of their tiny batteries to deliver enough power to transmit data. Now, researchers at MIT and in Canada have found a promising new approach to delivering the short but intense bursts of power needed by such small devices.
The key is a new approach to making supercapacitors — devices that can store and release electrical power in such bursts, which are needed for brief transmissions of data from wearable devices such as heart-rate monitors, computers, or smartphones, the researchers say. They may also be useful for other applications where high power is needed in small volumes, such as autonomous microrobots.
The new approach uses yarns, made from nanowires of the element niobium, as the electrodes in tiny supercapacitors (which are essentially pairs of electrically conducting fibers with an insulator between). The concept is described in a paper in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces by MIT professor of mechanical engineering Ian W. Hunter, doctoral student Seyed M. Mirvakili, and three others at the University of British Columbia.
Nanotechnology researchers have been working to increase the performance of supercapacitors for the past decade. Among nanomaterials, carbon-based nanoparticles — such as carbon nanotubes and graphene — have shown promising results, but they suffer from relatively low electrical conductivity, Mirvakili says.
In this new work, he and his colleagues have shown that desirable characteristics for such devices, such as high power density, are not unique to carbon-based nanoparticles, and that niobium nanowire yarn is a promising an alternative.
"Imagine you've got some kind of wearable health-monitoring system," Hunter says, "and it needs to broadcast data, for example using Wi-Fi, over a long distance." At the moment, the coin-sized batteries used in many small electronic devices have very limited ability to deliver a lot of power at once, which is what such data transmissions need.
"Long-distance Wi-Fi requires a fair amount of power," says Hunter, the George N. Hatsopoulos Professor in Thermodynamics in MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, "but it may not be needed for very long." Small batteries are generally poorly suited for such power needs, he adds.
"We know it's a problem experienced by a number of companies in the health-monitoring or exercise-monitoring space. So an alternative is to go to a combination of a battery and a capacitor," Hunter says: the battery for long-term, low-power functions, and the capacitor for short bursts of high power. Such a combination should be able to either increase the range of the device, or — perhaps more important in the marketplace — to significantly reduce size requirements.
The new nanowire-based supercapacitor exceeds the performance of existing batteries, while occupying a very small volume. "If you've got an Apple Watch and I shave 30 percent off the mass, you may not even notice," Hunter says. "But if you reduce the volume by 30 percent, that would be a big deal," he says: Consumers are very sensitive to the size of wearable devices.
The innovation is especially significant for small devices, Hunter says, because other energy-storage technologies — such as fuel cells, batteries, and flywheels — tend to be less efficient, or simply too complex to be practical when reduced to very small sizes. "We are in a sweet spot," he says, with a technology that can deliver big bursts of power from a very small device.
Ideally, Hunter says, it would be desirable to have a high volumetric power density (the amount of power stored in a given volume) and high volumetric energy density (the amount of energy in a given volume). "Nobody's figured out how to do that," he says. However, with the new device, "We have fairly high volumetric power density, medium energy density, and a low cost," a combination that could be well suited for many applications.
Niobium is a fairly abundant and widely used material, Mirvakili says, so the whole system should be inexpensive and easy to produce. "The fabrication cost is cheap," he says. Other groups have made similar supercapacitors using carbon nanotubes or other materials, but the niobium yarns are stronger and 100 times more conductive. Overall, niobium-based supercapacitors can store up to five times as much power in a given volume as carbon nanotube versions.
Niobium also has a very high melting point — nearly 2,500 degrees Celsius — so devices made from these nanowires could potentially be suitable for use in high-temperature applications.
In addition, the material is highly flexible and could be woven into fabrics, enabling wearable forms; individual niobium nanowires are just 140 nanometers in diameter — 140 billionths of a meter across, or about one-thousandth the width of a human hair.
So far, the material has been produced only in lab-scale devices. The next step, already under way, is to figure out how to design a practical, easily manufactured version, the researchers say.
"The work is very significant in the development of smart fabrics and future wearable technologies," says Geoff Spinks, a professor of engineering at the University of Wollongong, in Australia, who was not associated with this research. This paper, he adds, "convincingly demonstrates the impressive performance of niobium-based fiber supercapacitors."
The team also included PhD student Mehr Negar Mirvakili and professors Peter Englezos and John Madden, all from the University of British Columbia.
Leave a comment Posted in Nanotechnology Tagged breakthrough discovery, Canada, MIT, Nano Supercapacitors, Nano Wearables, Nanotechnology, UBC


The following table provides a summary description of achievement in each percentage grade range and corresponding level of achievement that will be used in assessing assignments and test given in this course. Whenever possible, a detailed rubric will be included in assignment material to ensure that students are aware of the specific goals they are required to reach. Any confusion about the individual standards should be discussed with Mr. Dempsey personally.
80–100% Level 4 A very high to outstanding level of achievement. Achievement is above the provincial standard.
70–79% Level 3 A high level of achievement. Achievement is at the provincial standard.
60–69% Level 2 A moderate level of achievement. Achievement is below, but approaching, the provincial standard.
50–59% Level 1 A passable level of achievement. Achievement is below the provincial standard.
Below 50% Insufficient achievement of curriculum expectations. A credit will not be granted.
Level 3 (70–79%) is the provincial standard. Teachers and parents can be confident that students who are achieving at level 3 are well prepared for work in the next grade or the next course.
It should be noted that an evaluation of achievement in the 80–100% range (level 4) does not suggest that the student is achieving expectations beyond those specified for the course, but rather that he or she demonstrates a very high to outstanding level of achievement of the specified expectations, and a greater command of the requisite knowledge and skills than a student achieving in the 70–79% range (level 3). A student whose achievement is below 50% at the end of the course will not obtain a credit for the course.


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1 Rainbow Beach
Inskip 4581, QLD
Rainbow Beach is a 23 km long, curving beach located in Wide Bay between sandy Inskip Point, opposite Fraser Island, and rocky Double Island Point. The open bay faces north-east and the beaches in the bay face variously north, east and north-east as they swing around between the two points. The growing town of Rainbow Beach is located in the centre of the beaches, with the northern end of the large Cooloola National Park extending south of the southern half of the bay. Rainbow Beach is named after the colourful sand dunes that dominate the southern half of the 24 km long beach. The road from Gympie arrives at the middle of the beach where the town of Rainbow Beach is located. The town offers accommodation, a small shopping area and the Rainbow Beach Surf Life Saving Club, which was founded in 1965. The club house is located on a wide, bluff-top foreshore reserve overlooking the beach. There is a ramp from the club to the beach, with additional vehicle access, parking and amenities below the bluffs immediately north of the surf club. Just south of the surf club are Eight Mile Rocks; brown 'coffeerock' outcropping on the beach. The rocks are part of the Pleistocene sand dunes that provide the coloured sands. The main beach (1529) extends from Inskip Point in the north, running due south for 12 km to Eight Mile Rocks. Wave height, which averages nearly 1.5 m in the north, decreases to about 1 m by the town. As the waves decrease, so too the bars change from a rip-dominated double bar in the north, to a single, though still rip dominated, (Fig. 3.2d) bar by the surf club.
The central and northern beach is dominated by rips and is potentially hazardous. Be very careful if swimming here, particularly when waves are breaking. Watch out for the deep rip channels, as well as currents in the longshore troughs. Stay close inshore and on the attached parts of the bar. Definitely swim between the flags at Rainbow Beach. Beware of the strong tidal currents at Inskip Point and, while the southern beach is usually the safest with the lowest waves and few rips, be careful of the vehicle traffic on the beach.
1 Rainbow Beach Inskip 4581 QLD

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We generally don't recommend leaving New West in favour of other cities in the region, but there's something to be said for that old adage "Absence makes the heart grow fonder". As the weather is heating up and school's nearly out, here are five of our favourite campsites worth leaving New West for.
This Washington State Park is located on Whitbey Island, and the drive alone is worth it. The Washington State Parks have not been nearly as chipped away at as the BC Provincial Parks, and it's well equipped with nice spacious campsites, pay showers, flush toilets, and lots of cool historical things to poke around in. Originally built as a coastal defence in World War II, the gun batteries still exist and there's a few nice walking trails suitable for all abilities. Pros: It's huge and there are lots of different sites. Cons: sometimes jets from the nearby naval base go screaming overhead. Like almost everything on Whitbey Island, it is also great kite flying, so bring one along.
Good kite flying on Whitbey Island!
We've been going to Hicks Lake in Sasquatch Provincial Park, near Harrison Lake, for about six years. This is one of those sites that fills up super fast and so you might want to think ahead to make a reservation. The good news is that if you opt to just show up, there's a good chance that the Bench Campground or the Deer Lake Campgrounds, both a part of Sasquatch Provincial Park, will have some space. it's just far enough away that you feel like you're on a vacation, but not so far that you can't abort if the weather turns ugly. Pros: Super swimmable lake, nice forested sites, lots of geocaches if you're into that. Cons: Mega popular and harder to get in. Longish access road is dirt and usually horrendously potholed so you need to take your time.
If ever you've wanted to say that you went on a cruise for your holidays, this is the campsite for you. Porpoise Bay is nestled on the Sunshine Coast, and to access it you need to take the BC Ferries crossing from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale. This is a great weekend camping trip, as the ferry to Langdale is not nearly as pricey as Vancouver Island, and it's just far enough away from the City that you feel like you had a chance to get away. Reservations are a must for any long weekend, but otherwise it seems fairly easy to get a site. There's a nice beach for hanging out on, and flat sites. Pros: very picturesque, away-but-close, and a good playground for kids. Cons: communal campfires rather than each site having a fire ring.
Monck is the furthest one in this list, and it's a completely different climate than the typical coastal campsites we're used to. It's about a 4 hour drive, and is just past Merritt on Highway 5 on Nicola Lake. It's a desert and can be very hot. Sites are quite exposed for the most part, and the ones with trees get snapped up fast. Make sure you have a look at the pictures when making reservations. Pros: very different climate than what we're used to, great swimming lake (cold!), definitely feels like a getaway. Cons: Oh man can it ever be hot and sunny – take lots of hats and sunscreen. Long-ish drive for little kids – consider an extra day if you can.
If you've ever wanted to say that you've stood on the edge of the world this is the park and campsite for you, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. It looks out from kilometres long beaches at the vast Pacific Ocean. The adventure to get there is all a part of the fun. Choose your ferry from Tsawwassen or West Van to Nanaimo and head north. At Coombs on the way you can stop and have lunch and see the goats on the roof. A little further down the road is the amazing Cathedral Grove Provincial Park boasting some of The largest trees in BC. Once at your destination beaches, hiking trails, a plane wreck,Whale watching, surfing or skim boarding at Chesterman Beach are all a short hop away. Pros: Camp privately or in the national park and breathtaking natural wonder Cons basically a full day to get there, ferry cost.
Info on the National Park (there's lots of other places too).
Next PostNext Adventure Playground Pops Up!


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View Obituary Tyler Morning Telegraph Obituaries
Bobby Lee Barrow
Bobby Lee Barrow, of Chapel Hill, went home to be with his Lord and Savior on January 4, 2020, in Chapel Hill at the age of 84. Private graveside services were held on Wednesday, January 8, 2019. Bobby is preceded in death by his grandfather, Evans Johnson, his father, Clifford Barrow, and his mother, Maurice Barrow. He is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Barbara Barrow. They were married in Smith County on September 4, 1959. He is lovingly remembered by his daughter, Julie Rhame and her husband, Terry Rhame of Chapel Hill, daughter, Kathy Whitaker, of Tyler, son, Davy Hobson and his wife, Sharron Hobson, of Tyler, daughter, Jill Smith and her husband, Davey Smith of Kilgore, son James Barrow and his wife Cindy Barrow of Big Sandy, daughter, Barbara Davis and her husband, Larry Davis of Denton. He also leaves behind 18 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. He was born on November 26, 1935 in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. He graduated from Big Sandy High School in 1953. He went on to work for LaGloria Oil and Gas where he retired after 38 years. In 2019, he retired from Chapel Hill ISD. Bobby enjoyed woodworking, gardening, and building. He was a member of the PRCA Rodeo as an award-winning calf roper. In lieu of flowers, Bobby requested that donations be made to the SPCA, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. To view online, please go to www.burkswalkertippit.com .
Burks-Walker-Tippitt Funeral Directors - Tyler
215 E. Front St.


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| Global Justice Blog
Global Justice Academy and Global Development Academy, University of Edinburgh
Peace and Conflict Series
Global Justice Academy Website
Global Development Academy Website
Category: Innovative Initiative Fund
Peacebuilding and Syria: What Hope?
November 20, 2018 Harriet Cornell Human rights, Innovative Initiative Fund, Middle East, Peace, Peace Processes, Political Settlements, Refugees, Syria
Between 13-15 October 2018, the Global Justice Academy co-hosted a weekend of events joining Relief & Reconciliation for Syria with peacebuilding communities in Scotland. This post from Dr George R. Wilkes, reflects on the series of events that took place.
The prospect of an inclusive peacebuilding process in Syria looks bleak now. From the perspective of millions of Syrians who have fled regime controlled areas, atrocity, terror and armed extortion all confront attempts to straddle divisions to talk about peace. Refugees face daily existential pressures in the face of which peace talks appear distant and untimely. Critics of regime 'reconciliations' see the concept reduced to the mechanics of overpowering the regime's outlaws. In regime territory, a more inclusive embrace of populations controlled by Islamist armed groups is undercut by the sense that violence and terror were the inevitable result of a religious fundamentalism shared widely within those populations, and by the international supporters of those forces.
Reflections from the Tenth Aniversary Edition of the Edinburgh Legal Theory Festival: Workshop on Virtue Ethics, Markets, and the Law
June 15, 2018 Harriet Cornell Innovative Initiative Fund, Law and Legal, Theory
The Global Justice Academy recently sponsored one of the workshops at the 10th Anniversary Edition of the Edinburgh Legal Theory Festival. In this blog post, the co-convenors of the Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group—Richard Latta and Joaquín Reyes—report on the issues raised during the workshop.
The workshop on 'Virtue ethics, Markets, and the Law'—held on Tuesday 5thJune, the second day of the week-long Edinburgh Legal Theory Festival (4th-8thJune)—was devoted, as its name suggests, to explore the implications of a virtue-centred approach to legal theory for a wide-ranging variety of related topics, including the relationships between power, virtue and the constitutional state (Dominic Burbidge), algorithmic governance (René Urueña), the Rule of law and the law of equity (Irit Samet), intent to contract and trust (Prince Saprai), and the future of virtue jurisprudence (Chapin Cimino). All sessions were followed by a lively discussion in which the participants had the opportunity to give and receive important feedback on their ongoing research projects.
Legacies of Human Rights Violations: Beyond the Legal Paradigm
May 24, 2018 Harriet Cornell Human rights, Innovative Initiative Fund
In this blog, the organisers of this IIF-sponsored film series reflect on the three events and issues raised. The series took place which took place between January and April 2018 at The University of Edinburgh.
The film series 'Legacies of Human Rights Violations' addressed the contemporary legacies of human rights violations from an artistic, cinematic perspective. The series involved showing four films: I Am Not Your Negro, My Beautiful Laundrette, REwind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape and Testimony, and Kamchatka. The selected films tackled issues as diverse as racial oppression, gender norms and agency and institutionalised state violence. Specifically, the films focused the experiential reality of human rights issues that stands beyond the grasp of the legalist perspective and its disembodied standards of right and wrong. Indeed, our purpose was to shed light on how the structural, deeply entrenched practices of oppression and discrimination affect people's everyday lives, intimate domestic spheres and interpersonal relationships, while also unearthing the everyday, relational forms of dissent, solidarity and resistance that arise in response. The film screenings ensued in a fruitful dialogue across the fields of political theory, anthropology, law, film and music studies. They were well attended and engaged students, staff and the broader public in a discussion on the ethical potentials and limitations of cinema as a mode of creative learning and democratic education.
The first film, I Am Not Your Negro, perhaps most explicitly exposed the limits of the Western liberal understanding of democracy and the supposed neutrality of its legal institutions, as revealed by the structural nature of racial oppression. In the film, the director Raoul Peck tells the story of James Baldwin, an American novelist and social critic, based on his unfinished manuscript Remember This House. At the forefront stands Baldwin's conversations and friendships with prominent figures of the American civil rights movement, such as Medgar Evers, Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr, bringing forth an emotional insight into the struggles for racial equality in the US.
Incarceration in Scotland: a system with positive evolutions in need of a generalisation of its good practices
May 8, 2018 Harriet Cornell Crime and Criminal Law, incarceration, Inequalities, Innovative Initiative Fund, Law and Legal, Punishment, Scotland, UK, United Kingdom
In this guest post, Coline Constantin reflects on the recent seminar that tackled issues around incarceration in Scotland. Coline is reading for an LLM in Human Rights at Edinburgh Law School, and applied for funding for this event from the Global Justice and Global Development Academies' Innovative Initiative Fund.
Scotland has the second highest imprisonment rate in Europe. Although English headlines for issues of overcrowding, under staffing, rising rates of self-harming cases do not find an echo north of the border, the statistic still makes it worth taking a closer look at its system. On Thursday 26 April, an engaged audience gathered at the University of Edinburgh to hear more about the positive developments and challenges of the Scottish system of detention.
Three panellists from different fields of expertise and different view angles on the Scottish situation were invited to cover topics from policy-making, to the implementation and analysis of these policies. Professor Richard Sparks, Convenor of Howard League Scotland and criminologist specialised on the different systems of detention in the UK, took us through his analysis of the particularities of the Scottish case within the UK and European context. Tom Halpin, Chief Executive of Sacro and prominent figure in the reduction of inequalities in the Scottish criminal justice system, gave us a sense of the work that is being done with communities and specific groups of people with convictions to go towards better mentoring and guidance throughout the process. Pete White, Chief Executive of Positive Prisons? Positive Future and fascinating storyteller, treated the audience with a story of his personal experience from his time inside and the aftermath of this life-changing event.
Recent Discussions in Legal Theory at the Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group
April 20, 2018 Harriet Cornell Innovative Initiative Fund, Law and Legal, Theory
In this post, the Co-Convenors of the Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group for 2017-18, Richard Latta and Joaquin Reyes, report on their recent Winter/Spring seminar series and the topics discussed.
The Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group is very grateful for the support of the Global Justice Academy for the Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group's Seminar Series of Spring 2018. This semester we hosted speakers from all over the world to discuss issues in legal theory and beyond legal theory. » Read more
Liberating Comparisons: Report from the Workshop
January 10, 2018 Harriet Cornell Innovative Initiative Fund, Theory
The Liberating Comparisons network emerged out of a workshop by the same name in Edinburgh on 8 December 2017. The workshop drew together scholars from across the UK to explore the potential of comparative methods.
From back left: Jonathan Spencer, Sneha Krishnan, Kesi Mahendran, Juliano Spyer, Sarah Linn, Ian Harper, Mikal Woldu, Patrick Mutahi, Simone Lamont-Black, Indrajit Roy
The workshop started from the premise that comparative methods had the potential to reify or disrupt the way we see the world and our place within it. Our workshop drew together scholars who were interested in the latter: the transformative insights that comparative methods could bring to the complex and important issues of our day.
Reflections from the Edinburgh Legal Theory Group Past Convenors' Colloquium
October 23, 2017 shonaghmcewan Innovative Initiative Fund, Law and Legal
The Global Justice Academy recently sponsored the Edinburgh Legal Theory Group Past Convenors' Colloquium in collaboration with the Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group. In this blog post, Paul Burgess – a third year PhD candidate in the Edinburgh Law School and Co-Convenor of the Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group – reports on the issues raised.
The Colloquium was well attended by staff and students from across The University of Edinburgh. This included several new PhD candidates who had only arrived in the university for the first time that week. Some participants and presenters had travelled from other parts of the world.
Thomas Hobbes: a philosopher of peace?
July 3, 2017 Heather Milligan Citizenship and Belonging, Innovative Initiative Fund, Peace, Theory
The Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) recently hosted a workshop on "Thomas Hobbes and Peace". The event brought together political theorists, intellectual historians, and specialists in international relations theory, and received funding from the Global Justice and Global Development Academies' joint Innovative Initiative Fund. Dr Maximilian Jaede, a postdoctoral fellow at IASH, summarises the papers and key themes discussed at the workshop.
The event was aimed at reconsidering Hobbes's conception of peace, its place in the history of political thought, and its reception today. Speakers approached this theme from a variety of perspectives. While all participants highlighted Hobbes's commitment to peace, there was debate on what precisely Hobbes means by being at peace, and on the interpretation of his ideas in relation to other conceptions of peace.
Prof. Glen Newey (Leiden) highlighted the puzzle of why elements of war seemingly persist within the Hobbesian civil state. In particular, the paper examined Hobbes's distinction between citizens, who are at peace, and slaves, who remain in a state of war towards their master. This suggests a juridical distinction between the states of war and peace. However, the distinction between war and peace may be less clear-cut. Newey emphasised the resistance rights of citizens and the possibility that a Hobbesian state might enslave its own people. In the discussion of this paper, participants expressed different views on the question of whether, and in what way, Hobbes envisions the sovereign and citizens to be at peace with one another.
Prof. Deborah Baumgold (Oregon) offered an interpretation of Hobbes as a political philosopher of peace inspired by Hugo Grotius' The Rights of War and Peace. She presented new historical evidence for Hobbes's likely personal acquaintance with Grotius, and highlighted the similarities of both thinkers' political projects. Like Grotius, Hobbes's aim was to create peace, which Baumgold described as the supreme good (summum bonum) of society. The discussion of this paper raised the questions of whether there is a difference between pursuing peace and merely avoiding war, and what it ultimately means to be a philosopher of peace.
Prof. Patricia Springborg (Humboldt, Berlin) challenged the view that Hobbes was a predecessor of realist theories of international relations. Her paper contrasted realist approaches to war with Hobbes's political theory of peace. Specifically, Springborg discussed Hobbes's opposition to colonial adventurism and emphasised his insistence on the need to maintain a well-balanced political economy. Commentators questioned whether Hobbes's political theory contains a norm of non-interference in other states' affairs. Another theme of the discussion was the possible anachronism of viewing Hobbes as advocate or critic of empire in the modern sense.
Dr Gabriella Slomp's (St. Andrews) talk focused on the connections between peace and friendship in Hobbes's political thought. Hobbes is sometimes blamed for the decline of friendship as an ethical or political ideal in the modern period. Yet, Slomp rejected the view that Hobbesian friendship is necessarily confined to the private sphere. Hobbes was highly conscious of possible political implications of friendship, which he considered to be a source of corruption and a threat to civil peace. The presentation concluded that Hobbes advocated an attitude of universal friendliness, as opposed to bonds of friendship between citizens, as a condition of peaceful coexistence.
Luca Tenneriello (Sapienza Rome) addressed the question to what extent Hobbes considers religious conscience a challenge to civil peace. The paper outlined different meanings of 'conscience' in Hobbes's works, and examined his reasons for considering appeals to religious conscience politically dangerous. In Tenneriello's view, Hobbes insisted on public education as a means to counter this threat. The subsequent discussion focused on differences between Hobbes's views and liberal accounts of liberty of conscience. It was also noted that Hobbes does not seem to acknowledge any positive role of private conscience in regards to making peace or refusing war.
Dr Max Jaede (Edinburgh) presented parts of a book that examines Hobbes's conception of peace in light of debates about liberal world order, international intervention, and peacebuilding in war-torn societies. He rejected the view that Hobbes advocates a negative peace that is based on mere coercion. Rather, Hobbes aims for a positive peace that is realised in accordance with certain principles of justice. Jaede also argued that the internal pacification of Hobbesian states leads to more peaceful international relations. Commentators raised questions such as in what way Hobbes may be said to anticipate liberal conceptions of peace, and how Jaede's interpretation can account for authoritarian elements in Hobbes's political thought.
More about the author:
Dr Maximilian Jaede is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of St Andrews and has taught political theory at the University of Stirling. He has published articles on Hobbes's political thought in History of European Ideas, Hobbes Studies and the Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.
Towards a radical digital citizenship in digital education
June 26, 2017 Heather Milligan Citizenship and Belonging, education, Engagement, Human rights, Inequalities, Innovative Initiative Fund, resources
Dr Callum McGregor (Lecturer in Education, University of Edinburgh) reports and reflects on a recent Edinburgh lecture on digital citizenship and digital education, funded by the Global Justice Academy's Innovative Initiative Fund.
In collaboration with the Global Justice Academy, a number of people recently eschewed the rare evening sun in favour of assembling at Moray House School of Education for a public lecture entitled 'Towards a radical digital citizenship in digital education.' More noteworthy still, was the palpable enthusiasm in the room for striking up a sustained dialogue on social justice and digital education, across a range of standpoints and disciplines. This event, made possible with the support of the Global Justice Academy's Innovative Initiative Fund[i], was organised by a small group of academics, tentatively titled the Forum for Digital Culture and Social Justice (DCSJ)[ii]. The DCSJ forum is at the initial stages of adumbrating a cross-disciplinary research agenda at the confluence of social justice, digital culture and education. The purpose of this event was to catalyse this process by creating space for an inclusive conversation about what digital citizenship is and what it might be, if re-framed as a political project for social justice.
The event was co-chaired by Dr Karen Gregory (Lecturer in Digital Sociology at the University of Edinburgh), and Dr Jen Ross (Senior Lecturer in Digital Education) who fielded questions and comments from participants using the hastag #deresearch, who were watching via the livestream (click here to watch the recording). Proceedings began with an input from members of the aforementioned DCSJ forum, Dr Akwugo Emejulu (Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick) and Dr Callum McGregor (Lecturer in Education, University of Edinburgh). They offered a polemical intervention that sought to disrupt the ways in which dominant cultural narratives construct digital citizenship, by explicating a concept of 'radical digital citizenship', and its implications for digital education. The arguments they advanced drew on a co-authored paper, published in Critical Studies in Education. Professor Emejulu and Dr McGregor argued that radical digital citizenship must push beyond ameliorative conceptions of digital citizenship, wherein the role of education is to bridge the 'digital divide' for the benefit of groups failing to be flexible enough to survive under the conditions of neoliberal techno-capitalism. They proposed that such an educational task involves two co-constitutive elements: (1) critical analysis of the political, economic and environmental consequences of digital technology in everyday life; (2) collective deliberation and action to build alternative and emancipatory techno-social practices.
This was followed by a response from Dr Emma Dowling[iii] (Senior Researcher, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Sociology at the University of Jena) and Dr Huw Davies[iv] (researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute and Convener of the BSA's Digital Sociology study group). These inputs acted as stimuli to a lively and convivial discussion with attendees over tea and coffee. Below, respondents Emma and Huw share their reflections:
Emma Dowling
"The crucial question Akwugo Emejulu and Callum McGregor ask is what makes the digital possible, looking at the extraction of natural resources and gendered, racialised and classed human labour that the development of digital technologies is premised upon. Their analysis makes three core proposals that could orient a radical digital education. First of all they caution against the instrumentalisation of digital education for neoliberal ends and urge for an understanding of what global social relations constitute the digital and condition the effects that digitalisation has. Moreover, their approach signals a commitment to social justice that insists on a critical pedagogy with the capacity not just for an analysis of the power relations behind digitalisation, but a commitment to transforming them. Transforming these power relations requires the identification of key sites of transformation. Undoubtedly these are conflictual terrains of struggle about how the materiality of the digital is spoken about and organised. Naming forms of exploitation is part of the struggle to transform them. A recent example is the way in which critical voices have refused to settle on the term 'sharing economy' that makes invisible the hyper-exploited forms of work undertaken by people providing services such as driving, delivering food or cleaning houses in platform capitalism. The more recent term 'gig economy', while in and of itself not changing those conditions, nonetheless gives a name to these activities as work and draws attention to the precarious ways in which this work is organised. Making sense of the affective structures of precariousness is another way in which agencies for transformation can be unearthed, because this allows for subjective everyday experiences to be deindividualised and related to the social structures that produce them. Critical pedagogies for digital education must do so much more than provide mere skills to process information and compete in an ever-more precarious labour market. Instead, radical digital citizens committed to social justice must be able to question and challenge the forms of exploitation, expropriation and oppression that are entangled in today's algorithms."
Huw Davies
"I found Emejulu & McGregor's Towards a radical digital citizenship in digital education (2016) inspiring. Their paper shows some of the most cited scholarship on digital skills and literacies is 'sociology-lite'. This literature draws-up taxonomies and descriptions of normatively defined skills and literacies which once translated into curriculum plans become part of the problem of digital inequality rather than its solution. Emejulu & McGregor argue we shouldn't disengage 'the digital' from the all the historic and continuing struggles for equality because, despite the utopian rhetoric, digital technology is quickly maturing into another exclusionary and privileging technology of power.
For example, every child from years 1 to 9 in England is to study Computer Science before being offered it as an option at GCSE. However, there is growing concern that the digital economy–far from being the meritocracy that is suggested in the discourse about the 4th industrial revolution–is becoming a 'ruthless stratifier' (Posner, 2017). This is because the dominant mode of production for the digital economy is 'platform capitalism' (Srnicek, 2016): a winner takes all system (Kenney and Zysman 2016) that allows the owners of platforms to operate exploitative employment practices that harness the affordances and fragilities of immaterial labour (Friedman 2014; Hill 2015; Leyshon et al. 2016), such as the ability to code. One of the myths of anti-immigration discourse is that if we close our borders natives will no longer have to compete with foreigners for jobs. But platform capitalism's use of immaterial labour to create a transnational playing field (so that jobs with digital outputs such as software engineering can be put out to tender to an international workforce) means young people will be competing in global market place while having to pay for local living expenses. Therefore, to avoid their exploitation we can't just rely on teaching young people to code (or skills and literacies) they need to be thinking about they can use these skills to challenge the architectures of digital economy's dominant socio-technical structures (Davies & Eynon, forthcoming).
As a respondent, I took the opportunity to argue the most constructive contribution I can make is to help transform Digital Sociology into a respected mainstream subject that can influence the content of curriculums for all ages and levels. I described Digital Sociology as the most effective discipline for challenging platform capitalism. I argued that sociologists are able to draw on strong traditions to challenge the ideologies behind platform capitalism, but to understand code and digital infrastructures and their relationship to the political economy we have some way to go. Then (Digital) Sociology can offer a critique, which can become the foundation ethical alternatives to platform capitalism's monopolies."
[i] The public lecture was also funded with the support of the Institute for Education, Community and Society and the Centre for Research in Digital Education. Also, thanks to Dr Karen Gregory and Dr Jen Ross, who acted as chair and digital chair, respectively. Finally, particular thanks to learning technologist Barrie Barreto for livestreaming and recording the event.
[ii] If you are interested in participating in this group and helping it to develop, please contact Karen Gregory (karen.gregory@ed.ac.uk), Callum McGregor (callum.mcgregor@ed.ac.uk), or Jen Ross (jen.ross@ed.ac.uk).
[iii] Emma's interests cover global social justice, feminist political economy and affective and emotional labour. She is the author of a forthcoming book on the Crisis of Care to be published by Verso Books.
[iv] Huw's research combines social theory with mixed, digital and ethnographic, methods to help critically re-evaluate how we approach young people's digital literacies.
Re-thinking 'the commons': examining dilemmas, exploring solutions
June 9, 2017 Heather Milligan Citizenship and Belonging, food, Inequalities, Innovative Initiative Fund
Dr. Leila Sinclair-Bright is a Career Development Fellow in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. In this article, she reflects on the notion of 'the commons' as recently debated in an interdisciplinary, open forum discussion event in Edinburgh.
Common Dilemmas
This open forum discussion was designed as a starting point for an interdisciplinary exchange of empirical and conceptual work exploring the theme of 'the commons' and collective ownership across different contexts. Excellent papers were presented by Dr. Tahl Kaminer (Edinburgh College of Art), Dr. Marisa Wilson (GeoSciences) and Dr. Kieran Oberman (Politics and International Relations) and followed by open discussion with the audience.
Dr. Kaminer's presentation focused on the influence of the idea of 'the commons' in contemporary urban agriculture and regeneration movements. Kaminer opened by distinguishing the commons from the public space. Originating during the enlightenment, the notion of 'public space' has always been linked to civil society ideals. However, public spaces have long been as much about keeping particular elements of society out, as they have been about providing an arena for open movement and debate. In contrast, within contemporary urban agriculture and regeneration, 'the commons' has become a political movement that seeks to undermine and critique the control of urban space, as well as current economic and political conditions. Here then, the notion of 'the commons' is actually used to challenge the idea of a controlled public realm by various super-structures, from the state to corporations. As a movement, Kaminer suggests that 'the commons' provides an ideal but unachievable horizon that 'rallies the troops', but does not necessarily offer activists achievable, immediate objectives. Kaminer ended by pulling into question the efficacy of the commons movement, positing it more as a conceptual spring-board deployed by a variety of movements to gain traction and raise support for their campaigns, but often not leading to practical change.
Dr. Marisa Wilson's paper examined local modes of governing food commons and how those interact with state and market models of the commons in Cuba. At what scale do we define food sovereignty? While sovereignty is usually defined at the national scale, how do localised models of food sovereignty fit into the national project? Since the late 19th century, food sovereignty has been promoted as a national ideal in Cuba, with individual profiteering denounced as against the national interest. From 1959, this became a top down institutionalised model of food 'commoning' that aimed to redistribute and provide basic food needs for Cuba's population. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Cuban state was increasingly unable to adequately provide for its population's food needs, and practices of local level food provisioning increased and/or became more visible. Local food industries were, however, still justified in terms of a local level fight for collective national food commons, and denunciations of private profit from food sales were equally prevalent at this scale. Simultaneously, powers in the agro-food industry were gradually devolved. More recently, the Cuban state has even begun, somewhat ambivalently, to support local level food networks, but maintains strict controls on their capital inputs. Local food providers thus rely on transnational remittances to supplement their capital input needs. Yet these local/transnational networks are still justified and framed into terms of contributing to the national food sovereignty cause. This fascinating case study revealed the multiple complexities at play around food commoning, and raised questions about the relationship between practices of 'commoning' and scale which also pertain to current discussions around food sovereignty in other contexts, such as Latin America and Scotland.
Dr. Kieran Oberman's presentation, provocatively entitled: 'Against the commons: an egalitarian argument for privatisation', provided a schema of three different models of ownership: egalitarian collective ownership; common ownership; and equal ownership. In the egalitarian collective ownership model, a collective body owns the resource, say land, and everyone has an equal say on how it is used. In the common ownership model, everyone has use rights, but no one has individual ownership rights (so you could not sell the land, for example). In equal division, everyone has an equal share of the property, or the value of the property (for example basic income), and can choose what to do with their share. Collective and common ownership both curb individual freedoms. In the first, one can only act according to the agreements of the collective body; in the second, one only has use rights and individuals cannot enjoy the other rights that might come with ownership. Thus, Oberman suggests that equal ownership should be the starting place for those things which the majority believe should be commonly owned, such as the planet earth and its natural resources. Individuals can then choose to opt for a collective ownership model and pool their resources if they so choose. Oberman's schema provided a useful starting point for assessing why and how different groups chose different models or combinations thereof, as well as highlighting a consideration of what rights are gained or lost in each case.
Re-thinking the Commons
The three presentations provided rich material for further discussion. We began by identifying the need to separate out what different kinds of rights inhere in particular claims of ownership (sale rights, use rights, etc…) rather than simply working with the oversimplified binary of individual ownership/privatisation/commodification: collective ownership/commons/non-commodified realm. Four themes for further enquiry also emerged: how the transition between different ownership models works; how governance affects the very framing of the 'problem' of the commons; what is a common/practices of commoning, and (how?) does transitioning between different ownership models actually change the 'object' in question. It is hoped that this event was the beginning of a set of interdisciplinary working relationships that may lead to further collaboration as a group or between individuals whose research interests intersect.
Dr. Leila Sinclair-Bright completed her doctorate entitled, 'This Land: politics, authority and and morality after Zimbabwean land reform' in 2017 (University of Edinburgh). Her research interests are in labour, property, conflict and politics. While her regional expertise lies in Southern Africa, she is in the early stages of developing her next research project on common property regimes in the UK.
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Comparing Police Discipline in the US and the UK: Lessons for American Law Enforcement – Part 2
Reflections on a Conversation with Mohamedou Ould Salahi
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The sample preparation chips have the format of a microscopy slide (75.5 mm x 25.5 mm x 1.5 mm) and are equipped with female Mini Luer connectors. Their key microfluidic elements are reaction chambers of various volumes in order to extract the target molecules out of a given sample in preparative quantities. These chips can for example be used as nucleic acid extraction devices via magnetic beads simply via applying beads and sample and by using an external magnet to hold the beads in place. These procedures can be done completely manually with a pipette – besides the magnet no additional equipment is necessary – or semi-automated with normal peristaltic pumps found in most life science labs.
Instrumentation: If you are interested in basic instruments for bead actuation and temperature control for the sample preparation chips illustrated in Fig. 63-68 please have a look at our ChipGenie edition P.
Preloaded chips: If you are interested in chips preloaded with dried reagents for nucleic acid extraction and the respective buffer solutions, please do not hesitate to contact us.


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The Blue Velvet Project
Blue Velvet, 47 seconds at a time by Nicholas Rombes
The Blue Velvet Project, #150
by Nicholas Rombes
in Columns, Filmmaking
Second #7050, #117:30
It's as if the movie has gone back in time; Jeffrey and Sandy look so young. "I don't see how they could do that," Aunt Barbara (Frances Bay) says, looking at the robin on the windowsill with the live bug (perhaps one of the black beetles from the beginning of the film) in its beak, "I could never eat a bug." She speaks these words just before inserting something black into her mouth.
In The Plague of Fantasies, Slavoj Žižek suggests that
fantasy does not simply realize a desire in a hallucinatory way: rather, its function is similar to that of Kantian 'transcendental schematism': a fantasy constitutes our desire, provides its co-ordinates; that is, it literally teaches us how to desire.
How does Blue Velvet teach us how to desire? By punishing Frank, the one whose desires are forbidden. And by punishing Dorothy, who has internalized Frank's abusive, murderous desires and turned them on herself, as when she commands Jeffrey to hit her during sex. This chain of desire has to stop somewhere, and it's the robin—and the idea of the robins—that puts an end to it. The mechanized robin is not from our world ("in the dream there was our world, and the world was dark because there weren't any robins") but from a movie world: a prop that helps, as Žižek would say, "coordinate our desires." Maybe it's not surprising that the film's answer to the "trouble" of this world and people like Frank is, in fact, otherworldly, transcendental.
And yet that transcendental vision—the robin—is created with and filmed by the material objects and technologies of this world. In this frame at second #7050 Jeffrey's gaze is directed at his skeptical Aunt Barbara rather than the robin, as if he too shares in her distrust of this bird that Sandy has pinned her hopes on as a symbol of goodness. Jeffrey's secret affinity with his Aunt Barbara is one of the great dark wrinkles in the film, a fact that no matter how you try to smooth out stays stubbornly present, a gap or fissure in the film's ideology. Aunt Barbara recognizes the robin for what it is, but what the film cannot say it is. For sometimes a film's meanings escape the boundaries of the film itself, and it's almost miraculous when this happens.
That's where transcendence lies: not in what the robin is supposed to signify, but in the failure of that very signification.
Over the period of one full year — three days per week — The Blue Velvet Project will seize a frame every 47 seconds of David Lynch's classic to explore. These posts will run until second 7,200 in August 2012. For a complete archive of the project, click here. And here is the introduction to the project.
"Looking for False Performance Beats": Editor Fred Raskin on The Hateful Eight By Jim Hemphill on Dec 28, 2015
The Kindest Denial By Scott Macaulay on Jun 19, 2019
Getting the Shot: Scenes from the Making of the Music Video, "Ready or Not" By Michael Murie on Jan 21, 2013
If You Build It, Will They Come? On the Treefort Film Fest By Brandon Harris on Mar 28, 2014


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BEYONCÉ EXPOSES CHUCK E. CHEESE!!!
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Several residents and animals were rescued from a Boulder, CO apartment building with dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide, according to ABC Denver.
The building manager had called the fire department after figuring out that there was a carbon monoxide poisoning going on in the building. He heard the beeping sound of an alarm and received a call from a resident who said she was feeling ill.
The firefighters arrived on the scene at about 9 a.m., evacuated the building, and began taking tests.
They found that the building had 55 times the maximum recommended level of carbon monoxide in a building.
They rescued several residents, three dogs, and two cats, including a small kitten. They all had to be checked for carbon monoxide poisoning. Levels are checked by measuring the carboxyhemoglobin levels in the blood. This is the evidence that there was a poisoning, and levels go down as people are exposed to fresh air.
Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin with more affinity than oxygen. The brain suffers from lack of oxygen and failure to exhaust toxic materials that damage the brain. Hemoglobin usually carries oxygen to the brain, but not when there is severe carbon monoxide poisoning.
Small animals and children can be the first to suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning. They may suffer worse because they are so much smaller.
One of the areas that is most vulnerable to brain damage is the basal ganglia. DT Pulsipher, RO Hopkins, and LK Weaver wrote that carbon monoxide poisoning may result in focal and diffuse neuropathological changes, such as basal ganglia lesions.
This study assessed basal ganglia volumes using MRIs on day 1, after two weeks, and after six months of 73 patients who were poisoned by carbon monoxide. Of these patients, 28 percent had volume reduction in at least one basal ganglia structure by six months.
Two of these structures, the putamen and the globus pallidus, became important in the study. Smaller putamen and globus pallidus correlated with slower mental processing speed and impaired memory.
The apartment building in Boulder will be ventilated, and the construction crew will have to fix the leak in the boiler room.


At the end of 2013, private equity firms were sitting on a cache of at least $1 trillion, according to a report from Bain & Company. This marks a $159 billion increase from the closeout at the end of 2012. The expected result of this capital bubble isn't just more deals, but at much higher valuations, as well. As Fortune magazine put it, "…the capital tail will wag the deal dog." For more information on that unique M&A scenario, read Dan Primack's article at Fortune/CNNMoney.


Unknown attackers launched a tear gas assault on a train in Hamburg, Germany, leaving at least six injured, while 50 passengers were affected, including a three-year-old girl. A massive police presence was deployed at the Hamburg train station soon after the attack.
The train was travelling to Hamburg Airport was packed when a gas attack overwhelmed passengers.
Paramedics on the scene treated passengers for respiratory ailments, the German paper Bild reported. Two young children, aged three and six, were treated for burning eyes and breathing difficulties.
The latest incident follows a 24 hour period in which the country witnessed an axe attack on a train and at the main railway station in Dusseldorf and a machete attack that injured an 80 year-old man in Dusseldorf earlier on Friday.
On Friday evening passengers on a train in Hamburg on the S-Bahn line 11 were subjected to a tear gas attack by two young assaillants.
The attack occurred just before the train reached Sternschanze station in the centre of Hamburg and passengers had to flee into the station to escape the gas.
Less than a month ago Hamburg airport had to be partially evacuated as the result of a similar attack when an unknown toxin was released through the airport's ventilation system. Some 68 people had needed medical attention for breathing difficulties.
In Düsseldorf, German police arrested a attacker who allegedly went on a rampage with an axe at the city's main station on Thursday night that left at least seven people injured.
The suspect jumped from a bridge in an attempt to escape police, but was apprehended and brought to a nearby hospital with severe injuries. Düsseldorf police later identified the suspect as a 36-year-old "from the former Yugoslavia", while media reports say the man was Bosnian.
German authorities called the suspect a "mentally ill" person who had "acted alone".
In the Swiss city of Basel, police on Friday were hunting for two gunmen who opened fire in a cafe leaving two people dead and a third critically wounded. The victims were identified as Albanians.
A statement from the office of the local prosecutor said two men entered Cafe 56 early on Thursday and opened fire. They escaped on foot in the direction of a nearby railway station.


Robert Dear from North Carolina killed police officer Garrett Swasey, a former athlete turned police officer, near the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Colorado Springs in November, 2015. Though the two were within yards of one another, they saw the world very, very differently. While he was killing Officer Swasey and two clients at the clinic, I was comfortably working in my office only two miles away experiencing a totally different world.
I have heard many projections as to why this gunner targeted Planned Parenthood, and why he chose to shoot and ultimately kill and injure people in our community.
As my wife and I were falling asleep the night of the shooting, we spoke at length about the way people see situations so differently. I see this contrast in perceptions regularly, even among the people of our church. Different people see situations and others differently based on their own values, experiences, and educations that filter their perceptions.
In addition, we all have, to varying degrees, cognitive distortions, which are thought patterns that cause irrational or exaggerated conclusions. Whoever this shooter was, I'm sure we'll learn more about his cognitive distortions that caused him to justify, in his own mind, the tragedy he created. And with each one, we'll shake our heads wondering how he could possibly think that way.
I teach a class on Renewing Your Mind: How To Change Your Brain. A portion of that class deals with our seeing things realistically and then responding responsibly. Therapists that emphasize how behaviors are influenced by our thinking (Cognitive Behavioral and Reality Therapists) often use a list of cognitive distortions to help clients identify their own cognitive distortions so they can respond to life more rationally.
I wrote a blog entitled "What? That's Not What Happened!" listing a few of these cognitive distortions.
Polarized thinking: When we look at things in absolute — all or nothing categories, we are typically thinking too simplistically. Things are seldom exclusively good or bad, black or white, right or wrong. Instead, there are exceptions, explanations, and nuances that cause most people and situations to fall into a gray area between the extremes.
Overgeneralization: When we overgeneralize, we use words like always, never, everyone, best, and worst. Generalizations are seldom, if ever, true. There is typically at least one exception.
Discounting the positives: When we discount the positive accomplishments or qualities of ourselves or others, and focus only on the negative, we or they feel insignificant and powerless.
Jumping to conclusions: (A) Mind reading – we assume that we know what other people are feeling or thinking. When we do this, we think we know the motivations of others. Since we rarely understand our own motivations, to presume to know the motivations of another is a significant projection that is seldom accurate; (B) Fortune Telling – we arbitrarily predict the outcome of events or future development in the lives of others.
Magnification or Minimization: We blow things way out of proportion or we shrink their significance, which distorts their value.
Emotional Reasoning: We draw conclusions based on how we feel, assuming our feelings reflect some reality.
Should Statements: We judge others using words like should, shouldn't, must, and ought. "Have to" is a similar offender. These are sometimes necessary for personal application, and we may sparingly and cautiously use them in reference to those within our chain-of-command, but they can reveal a major distortion of personal significance when used randomly toward others.
Labeling: We draw comfort by simplistically seeing people and situations in categories, boxes, silos, classifications, or stereotypes. This leads to sexism, racism, bigotry, and other generalizations that do not take into account the uniqueness of individuals or specific situations.
Personalization: We assume that what people are doing or saying is about or because of us, when in fact it might not have anything to do with us.
Blame: Our greatest potential for choice is between some event and our response to it. We choose our responses. They are not forced upon us, which is why we are responsible for how we choose to respond. So when we blame, we are giving more power over our lives to others, and denying our own abilities.
We'll never fully know why some acts of violence are justified in the minds of the perpetrator. But all of us have an opportunity to comfort those who have been hurt by cognitive distortions, minimize them in ourselves, pray for healing in the lives of those involved, and do everything we can to learn from horrific tragedies how to respond to actions and views we disagree with in constructive, godly ways.
Thanks Ted. This is solid friend.
This is solid Ted. Thank you.
Thank You and the Good Lord for this for this opportunity.
The man is a terrorist. He targeted Planned Parenthood because he wanted ALL Planned Parenthood Clinics to have fear. This is the way terrorism works. And it is also the way Satan works in the World. He is the master-terrorist, As such, he doesn't have to attack every Christian. But the tragic examples we see of his work in the World and in the Church cause us all to shudder a little and experience fear that is not related to our own personal experience. God has not given us a spirit of fear. That really narrows down the sources of fear in our lives.
Thank you, Ted Haggard! This is really good! Blessings to you and your family.
My prayers go out to the families that lost their loved ones, also prayers to heal the wounded and the so many people involved in this bad situation. May God be near and heal the hurt!
Its very interesting when we take these points an examine ourselfs and our own view of a tragic situation like this. Trying to understand our own actions, let alone the actions of another at a level like this is mind boggling to say the least. Some very good point that will take more the one read to ponder. Thanks for the thought provoking morning time Pastor Ted.
Thank you for taking the time to prepare and share this article, Ted. Perspective is tricky. It was refreshing that you wrote this without a disparaging word about any group or individual, including the shooter. It's too early to express my perspective. I'm not sure that is what people really need. We're flooded with opinions. I appreciate you providing good information for my mind, heart, and soul, and look forward to other articles. I wish you and your family a wonderfully blessed holiday season.
Hi pastor Ted! I noticed this was a relatively older blog but recently posted to the Saint James website. I'm glad you decided to share it! I appreciate the perspective. Not only is it a reasonable self checklist; but also a way to learn and understand the perspectives of the people I encounter in everyday life. As we enter the Holliday season and more time is spent with family; it is a path to understand the perspective of difficult family members and encourage love in those enteractions. Cheers!


announced between 1/15/2000 and 1/31/2000.
the "Malformed Conversion Data" vulnerability.
local users to read it, aka the "RDISK Registry Enumeration File"
attack when the -j option is being used.
for the initial password, instead of md5.
system to be used as a packet amplifier.
gain privileges via a long LIST command.
privileges via a long prompt argument.
remote attackers to hijack user sessions.
cause a denial of service, or access network traffic statistics.
regular expressions in a Visual Basic script in an ASP page.
an extra < in front of the SCRIPT tag.
Reference: BUGTRAQ:20000127 Cobalt RaQ2 - a user of mine changed my admin password..
administrators, and possibly admin (root).
attackers to conduct brute force password guessing.
Reference: BUGTRAQ:20000201 `Microsoft VM for Java' allows reading local files using `getSystemResourceAsStream'.
files via the getSystemResourceAsStream function.


Iconic gardens from the Arts and Crafts era defy definition. Designed to accentuate the beauty and personality of both house and region, these gardens made a lasting impact on gardens worldwide, from public parks to small cottages. Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement, the newest book by renowned landscape historian Judith B. Tankard, surveys the rich history of the era and unlocks the secrets to creating a garden faithful to the movement. Arts and Crafts aficionados and garden designers alike will find inspiration in hundreds of contemporary photographs and historic illustrations detailing works that stretch from Gertrude Jekyll's Munstead Wood to storied California estates.
"The literate authority of Judith Tankard comes through in this enchanting book, reminding us that the ever-alluring Arts and Crafts garden, with its moral imperatives of environmental stewardship and integrated design, is profoundly relevant to our 21st-century needs." -Sam Watters, author of Gardens for a Beautiful America.
0 1 2 3 4 Non-member Attendees: 1 $ 18.00 ea.
0 1 2 3 4 Member Attendees: 1 $ 5.00 ea.


VOICES of September 11th seems to continually adapt as the needs of people affected by September 11th change.
Posted by Willy Franzen on September 11, 2011. Jobs updated daily.
Displaying 1-10 of 793 results.
We all have our own September 11th stories. I shared mine last year when I wrote about the National September 11 Memorial Museum. These stories, whether they are from the front lines or from people thousands of miles away, are what will ensure that we continue to use the memory of those whose lives were lost 10 years ago today as a positive force. VOICES of September 11th is a non-profit organization that was founded by two women who lost loved ones in the attacks to serve as "an information clearinghouse for those affected by the attacks through the use of a Web site, electronic newsletter, direct mailings and media outreach." They are based in New Canaan, CT with a satellite office in New Brunswick, NJ, and they have expanded their mission over the years to include "providing continuity of care to promote resiliency and address the long-term issues" of those who were directly affected by the attacks.
VOICES of September 11th seems to continually adapt as the needs of people affected by September 11th change. They've been quite busy preparing for the 10th anniversary, and I'm sure that the coming years will mark another chapter in the evolution of the organization. To get a better sense of what exactly VOICES does, you should visit their website at VoicesOfSeptember11.org. You'll be able to see exactly what they've been working on. If you like what you see, you may want to consider a job with them. Their Jobs page doesn't show any openings right now, but they do have Internship and Volunteer Opportunities. And you can always reach out to them to see if they might be able to find a place for you to fit into the organization.
How are you commemorating September 11th?


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Home Consumer Confidence Holiday Retail Sales Solid as Online Sales Soar 19%
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Holiday Retail Sales Solid as Online Sales Soar 19%
Robert McKinley, Senior Analyst, 12/26/2019
Holiday retail sales solid, hitting projections of 3-4% growth over last year's shopping season. Specialty apparel was the hottest online retail category. Gizmo sales were driven by Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and Echo Show 5. The most read and most sold book in the U.S. during this holiday season was The Guardians by John Grisham, while the most wished for book in the U.S. during this holiday season was A Warning by Anonymous.
According to the Mastercard SpendingPulse, holiday retail sales increased 3.4% (excluding auto sales) with online sales growing 18.8% compared to one-year ago. The SpendingPulse report details holiday shopping from November 1 through December 24. Key findings of the report indicate e-commerce apparel was up 17% and online retail jewelry sales were up 8.8%. However, department stores saw overall sales decline 1.8% and online sales growth of 6.9%, electronics and appliances were up 4.6%, while the home furniture and furnishings category grew 1.3%.
Mastercard also found holiday e-commerce sales made up 14.6% of total retail and the e-commerce share of overall retail spend for Black Friday was 15.4%, and for Cyber Monday: 24.5%.
Amazon Blockbusters
Meanwhile, Amazon reported more people tried Prime this holiday season than any previous year – in fact, in one week alone, more than 5 million new customers started Prime free trials or began paid memberships. This holiday season, the number of items that were delivered with Prime Free One-Day and Prime Free Same-Day Delivery nearly quadrupled compared to the same time period last holiday season, making this Amazon's fastest holiday yet. Over 100 million items sold by independent third-party sellers – mostly small and medium-sized businesses – were shipped with Prime Free One-Day Delivery over the holidays in the U.S.
In the U.S., the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick 4K, Echo Show 5, Echo Auto, and Amazon Smart Plug were among the most popular items shipped with Prime Free One-Day Delivery during the holidays. Other popular items shipped with One-Day Delivery this holiday season include Melissa & Doug Scratch Art, and the Wyze Cam Indoor Wireless Smart Home Camera.
The best-selling toys in the U.S. this holiday season included the L.O.L. Surprise! Glitter Globe Doll Winter Disco Series with Glitter Hair, Melissa & Doug Scratch Art Box of Rainbow Mini Notes, Nerf N Strike Elite Strongarm Toy Blaster (Amazon Exclusive), Hasbro Connect 4 Game, and Crayola Inspiration Art Case Coloring Set.
Some of the best-selling electronics in the U.S. included Pokémon Sword for Nintendo Switch, Wyze Cam Indoor Wireless Smart Home Camera, and Samsung 128GB MicroSDXC EVO Select Memory Card.
Robert McKinley, Senior Analyst for CardTrak and CardFlash, noted while Amazon reported strong growth across-the-board, the giant retailer did not report any hard numbers. Furthermore, Amazon's holiday news focused on how popular its own products were during the season.
U.S. shoppers who shopped at independent retailers and restaurants on Small Business Saturday, November 30, 2019, reported spending a record high total of an estimated $19.6 billion, according to the 2019 Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey from American Express and the NFIB.
A record number of Britons came out in force to show their support for small independent businesses on the UK's seventh annual Small Business Saturday this year (December 7, 2019). About 17.6 million shoppers across the UK hit their local high streets to provide an important boost for the nation's 5.8 million small businesses. An estimated £800 million was spent in small businesses across the UK on Small Business Saturday, according to Bankcenter.
Super Saturday, December 21st, continues to be the biggest shopping day of the year with an estimated 147.8 million U.S. consumers expected to participate, up from 134.3 million last year, according to the annual survey by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
The number of people shopping on Super Saturday includes both in-store and online activity. The number compares with the 189.6 million unique shoppers over the full five-day Thanksgiving weekend.
As of early December, 86% of holiday consumers had started shopping and they had completed 52% of their purchasing for the season. Last year at the same point, 88% of consumers had started and had completed 58% of their holiday purchases on average. In 2013, the last time there were 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, consumers had completed 50% of their purchases at the same point.
Early Projections
Earlier, Americans indicated they would spend an average of $1,047.83 this holiday season, up 4% from the $1,007.24 they said they would spend last year. Shoppers between the ages of 35 and 44 plan to spend the most at $1,158.63, according to the annual survey by the National Retail Federation (NRF).
The NRF noted consumers began their shopping early this year, with some starting before November. NRF surveys showed that 39% planned to begin by Halloween, and that consumers on average had completed 52% of their shopping as of the Thanksgiving Day weekend.
Nonetheless, NRF's forecast predicts that holiday retail sales during November and December will increase between 3.8% and 4.2% for a total of between $727.9 billion and $730.7 billion.
Holiday Credit
Americans tapping holiday credit early this year as holiday spending drove U.S. credit card debt up by nearly $8 billion in October, now growing by approximately 9% over the prior year. The October surprise is consistent with the erratic pattern of consumer spending and borrowing in 2019. Over the past ten months the monthly YOY (year-on-year) change has range from a revised minus 2.3% (March) to a revised positive 10.2% (July), according to RAM Research.
U.S. revolving credit, (97% credit card debt), increased in October at an annual rate of 8.8%, compared to one-year ago, and follows a revised +0.2% YOY (year-on-year) gain in September, according to CardData.
November Retail Sales
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported retail sales, excluding cars and gasoline, were unchanged (0.2%) from the previous month. November sales declined sharply across categories that are closely tied with holiday gift-giving, including clothing, department stores and sporting goods. Spending at bars and restaurants dropped 0.3% last month, the steepest monthly decline since last December.
The NRF recently reported retail sales in November increased 0.1% seasonally adjusted over October and were up 2.1% unadjusted year-over-year, marking the first half of the holiday season with billions of dollars in shopping left to be done.
Consumer Outlook
The November Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index decreased for four straight months. The November Index now stands at 125.5, down from 126.1 in October. The Present Situation Index – based on consumers' assessment of current business and labor market conditions – decreased from 173.5 to 166.9.
To make matters worse for retailers a recent Oracle report found 77% of consumers anticipate returning some of the gifts they would receive. Twenty percent of those plan to return at least half of the gifts they receive.
Other Sources: RAM Research; CardFlash; CardData; CardTrak; Bankcenter; CardBuzz; PYRPTS; PYVNTS; Ruebud Media; Red3 Media
Consumer Confidence Key to Recession & Payments
Holiday Season Closes With Good and Bad & New Goals
Robert McKinley, Senior Analyst
Robert McKinley, with 34 years experience covering payment cards, is the pro bono Senior Analyst for CardTrak. He is the retired founder of RAM Research, CardWeb and CardTrak. McKinley has long championed for consumers against bad financial business practices while consulting for financial services companies for best business practices. McKinley has no financial interests in any payments-related company and receives no compensation from credit card issuers cited in CardTrak. Full Bio: www.rbm4.com
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text:
BRUCE LEE LIVED HERE
Short Story by Phil Brown
It wasn't exactly the Garden of Eden. We stood on a path in Kent Road Garden in Kowloon Tong surveying this pocket handkerchief remnant of the past, a small patch of colonial order in modern Hong Kong where the past has been so often erased in pursuit of the future.
My son Hamish looked around unimpressed, as the sweat beaded on our brows, as if to suggest it was hardly worth the trek from downtown Tsim Sha Tsui where we were staying in the cool confines of the Sheraton Hong Kong.
"Bruce Lee lived here," I said trying to make it sound more interesting that it probably was. "Well, he lived a few streets south, actually." The Kung Fu star had moved to Kowloon Tong, a sedate suburb known for its grand residences, in 1971, just over a year after we left Hong Kong to move back to Australia.
His house, Crane's Nest, was in Cumberland Road not that far from where we stood. We lived a street over from Kent Road. All the streets around here have English names and they still have them today which seems anachronistic but heartening. Bruce Lee died in the house in Cumberland Road in 1973, apparently of a bad reaction to some medicine he had taken although I prefer the conspiracy theory. It goes kind of like this: Chinese martial arts masters actually had him assassinated for revealing the secrets of their inscrutable mystical arts to the west. That theory concludes that he was killed using the ancient technique of dim mak which involves a deadly touch by a master, one that sets up vibrations in the body so powerful they can kill someone. Cool.
Bruce Lee's house eventually became, for a while, one of the many 'love motels' that proliferated in Kowloon Tong at one stage. By 'love motel' I mean knocking shop. There aren't as many of those 'love hotels' now but they are still there. Around Devon Road and the immediately surrounding streets you're more likely to find schools, kindergartens, and the headquarters for a number of Christian churches alongside vast mansions owned by the super-rich who come and go through electronic gates in limousines with darkened windows that allow them to remain unseen.
You can see the backs of some of these mansions standing in Kent Road Garden which was a stifling experience on this June day.
"You must be shapeless, formless, like water," I said looking around. "When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend."
"What?" Sandra asked. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"That's Bruce Lee," I said. "From Enter The Dragon." Hamish smiled knowingly because we had watched that Bruce Lee classic recently.
Rather than standing sweating in this little colonial park we would have actually been far more comfortable in the nearby mega-mall, Festival Walk, which is probably the main reason most people come to Kowloon Tong which is not exactly on the tourist map.
Festival Walk is a vast, sprawling retail paradise. The air-conditioning is Arctic in the Hong Kong manner … so chilly, in fact, that they have an ice rink in there. You can travel to Festival Walk and back on the MTR from Tsim Sha Tsui without ever seeing the light of day or feeling the heat of the day, an attractive proposition in the steamier months. It gets so humid at times in Hong Kong I recall water used to form on the walls inside our home in Kowloon Tong in the days before the whole world was air-conditioned. We did have boxy old air cons for our bedrooms in those days but the rest of the house was cooled by fans.
One thing's certain - it would be a lot cooler in Festival Walk than it was in Kent Road Garden late on a June morning with, according to the weather forecast, a typhoon brewing.
We had come by MTR on one of my far too regular forays into my Hong Kong past, forays my family has become used to, sometimes reluctantly. But not always.
It guess it might have been hard for them to get a take on what made Kent Road Garden so special to me. It's quiet spot in a bustling city, a little bit of Kowloon that has steadfastly remained the same in an urban landscape that is changing so fast that it takes a certain imaginative spirit to find remnants of the past that can evoke bygone days.
We strolled up and down the well-ordered path, admired the topiary and took note of the graffiti-like scrawl on the wall nearby that said COMMUNIST. That seemed apt and it sparked memories of my boyhood days when Communism was feared and loathed. The years we lived in Kowloon Tong were years when the Cultural Revolution was in full swing and Hong Kong was an enclave attached to China, a country where chaos reigned.
The Vietnam War was raging in Indo-China and the Cold War seemed very real. Hong Kong was a garrison town under threat. The Red Guards had sparked riots and Chines communist militia had made incursions across the border. A Gurkha battalion was brought in to secure the colony.
While we lived in a colonial idyll on the one hand there was a sense that the Communist threat loomed large.
Looking down from Kent Road Garden I could see the railway line, still there. In the 1960s that line was a reminder of the Red Peril because that line went all the way to
Canton, which was a forbidden city in the terrifying land beyond the border.
People who went to China on that train sometimes never returned according to my father. He had lost several employees who had gone to China to visit family and were never heard from again. Working for a construction company owned by a capitalist paper tiger like my dad wouldn't have been acceptable to the rabid Red Guards. We regarded them in the same way people might regard the fanatics of ISIS now and we had seen them on the streets of Kowloon, local cadres demonstrating, shouting, their faces twisted in hate, waving their little red books of Mao's quotations at the police who put down their riots.
The railway line was so close to the Kent Road Garden and it looked so peaceful. When the train ran by it seemed harmless enough. Sometimes we scrambled down there and lingered by the line, sometimes putting our ears to it (if it wasn't too hot) to try to gauge if the train was coming.
When it did rattle by, as a kind of gesture of protest we would gather stones and throw them at the train. I stood in the Kent Road Garden telling Sandra and Hamish this story when I realised that what I was describing was the sort of vandalism that would appal me if I heard my own son had been engaged such errant behaviour. But somehow we felt it was entirely acceptable because we were the colonial masters in this place and chucking stones at the train was an acceptable way of railing against the communist menace. And there it was writ large in graffiti on the wall nearby …COMMUNIST. The rest of the message had been obscured.
I wondered whether Bruce Lee had ever lingered on a path here in the Kent Road Garden. Maybe he did some Kung Fu moves under the trees in the cool of a Kowloon Tong the evening. Whether Lee practised his moves here or not, I know others certainly did. Each morning and afternoon the Kent Road Garden was a favourite gathering place for locals who gathered and practised their Tai Chi routines here. Tai Chi was one of those inscrutable oriental things beyond the ken of us colonial kids. We were mystified by these people who would turn up in the gardens in their pyjamas, slowly moving like so many praying mantis, grasping invisible birds' tails with their outstretched hands. They seemed lost in a mystical world beyond this one, which we should have respected. But instead we would hide behind the nearby bushes and taunt them and we were always amazed that they remained unperturbed and just kept slowly going through the motions as if we weren't even there.
We eventually graduated to throwing little twigs at them in a desperate attempt to break their trances but they just kept on waving their arms like slothful human windmills and in the end, each time, we would give up the ghost and move on top some other misbehaviour.
Every afternoon after school I would get home, don my blue and white rubber-soled sneakers and go out to play and make trouble in one of the several parks in the area, often Cornwall Road Park which was around the corner from our house. There was a small shop in the corner of the park on Cornwall Road and it was run by a local Chinese family who lived in a nearby squatter's area. In those days there wasn't enough public housing to hold all the refugees who flooded into Hong Kong to escape the communists. This family often left their grandma to look after the store which was a mistake which we ruthlessly exploited. We would go in there in a small group and while one kept her busy the others would pinch lollies from the shelves and stuff them into pockets before running off.
We played cricket and softball in the park on Cornwall Road. Kent Road Garden wasn't big enough for that sort of thing but it was on our beat and one of the reasons we went there was to spy on the Chinese schoolgirls who congregated there in the afternoon. There was a little shop in the park selling drinks and ice blocks, popsies we called them then, in the English manner. We would grab a popsy or a bottle of Coke or Green Spot, the favourite orange soft drink and linger there watching as gaggles of girls, in their cute little sailor uniforms, sipped their soy milk nearby. The thought of that made us gag. I had tried soy milk once and the taste was so foreign I spat it out immediately. It was a Chinese drink, we decided, not for us.
I often came here to watch those girls with my Spanish American friend whose name was, rather appropriately, Randy. I'm not telling talks out of school by telling you that he was a dirty little bugger. As 11 year-olds we were developing an interest in girls although I was unsure how it all worked. I had seen some photos in a pornographic magazine a Pakistani friend had brought to school one day and was revolted by that. I had furtively scanned my father's Playboy magazine's when my parents were out but that was the extent of my sex education.
To me it wasn't really about sex. These Chinese girls seemed exotic and ethereal to me. We would sit on a bench and watch them, quite blatantly, as we sipped our dinks or lurk under a tree or behind the topiary and sometimes they would notice us and giggle and say things behind their hands. Randy occasionally made rude gestures towards them, much to my horror.
To me they seemed almost courtly, like the mother of pearl figures on a lacquer screen that was displayed in our living room. A poem I wrote many years later, The Chinese Princess, was inspired by my memory of lurking in Kent Road Garden, watching those school girls.
On the day of our family pilgrimage we were the only people in the Kent Road Garden which was so much smaller than I recalled it. But at least it was still there. But it was too humid to linger for long. I suggested, to mild protests from Sandra and Hamish, who yearned for some air-con, that we might walk past our old family home at 7 Devon Road. I have made visits here on and off since my first trip back to Hong Kong in 1985 and have peered through the gap in the big iron gates to satisfy myself that it was still there. Somehow that comforted me.
So we left Kent Road Garden and I led Sandra and Hamish up to Cornwall Road and then around into Devon Road. From Cornwall it's only around 50 metres or so to our old house but when we go to the appointed spot I was confused. The front wall and gate was no longer there. I could discern where the house next door had been. An American family had lived there, the father something big in Pan Am. They had a tennis court and were very sporty and once brought us a real Christmas tree back from Japan. Their house wasn't there any more having been replaced by a vast Italianate mansion with a Bentley in the driveway. Where the iron gates that had marked the entrance to our driveway once were there was now hoarding. I found a gap and peered through, the sweat on my brow dripping onto my glasses.
What I saw shocked me. The house was gone. It was just a building site where they were probably erecting a vast monstrosity like the one next door.
"It's not there," I said as I leant back and scratched my head. "Can you believe that? They've knocked it down."
It seemed like sacrilege. It was a substantial structure that must have taken some work to get rid of but they had, indeed got rid of it. "Shit," I said.
I was devastated because that house was a symbol for me of everything grand and wonderful about our years in Hong Kong. It was like a little palace or a diplomatic compound with its high walls and its block of servants' quarters out back. In a time of uncertainty it was the one constant. We felt safe there even at the peak of the riots in 1967 when the Cultural Revolution spilled onto the streets of Kowloon. There was a curfew at that time and our house was a safe place in a world gone mad.
On earlier visits I noted that they had added to it, built into the big front garden. At one stage a publishing house was based there and though I couldn't see the familiar faced any more I knew that the essence of the house was probably somewhere in that new complex.
It couldn't have stayed as it was on that big block that spread between the road and the laneway that ran behind most of the blocks in Kowloon Tong. The land was too valuable.
And now some tycoon was building his own palazzo on this scared site. Rightly or wrongly I consider that place my happiest home. Our sudden departure from Hong Kong in late 1969 robbed me of life there but I have internalised that house and I walk through nit in my dreams and now that is the only place it still exists.
We walked away then down Devon Road and around the corner back towards Kowloon Tong station. I decided I wanted to catch a taxi back downtown and there was a rank outside so we jumped into a taxi and sighed with relief because the interior was suitably frigid.
"Tim Sha Tsui," I said to the driver and he just looked at me. "Tsim Sha Tsui. Downtown … Sheraton Hotel, ok?"
He shook his head to signify he hadn't a clue what I was stalking about. Either that or he was pretending not to have a clue what I was stalking about. It was hard to know which.
"Right," I said flinging the door open. Sandra and Hamish followed, flustered. "Let's try this one," I said but I opened the door first and said to the driver, as a kind of question …
"Tsim Sha Tsui?" he shook his head. It was hot as Hades and I was determined to have a nice cool cab ride back to the Sheraton.
"One more," I said and I opened the door of the third taxi at the rank. A few amused passers-by had stopped to watch the flustered gwai lo.
"Tsim Sha Tsui? Sheraton Hotel?" I said and he nodded.
We flung ourselves into the cab and he sped off and soon we were driving downtown on Waterloo Road. I sat back and pictured our house, framed by jacarandas, fringed with bamboo with those big, blue, iron gates and the compound wall that kept the world at bay and made our little colonial enclave safe.
"I can't believe it's gone," I said.
"At least Kent Road Garden is still there," Sandra said.
"Yes," I said wearily. "I guess that's something."