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"Porn Stories" Owning My Friend's Mom P3
Tom Nim Đăng ngày 2/26/2017
Shaking her head and more confused than ever, she reached for her skirt and blouse and put them on, without any underwear. She felt so naughty standing there looking at herself in the mirror, knowing her pussy was bare underneath the skirt and seeing the faint outline of her semi-erect nipples poking through the blouse. 'What would Stacey think if she knew?' Mrs. Clark asked herself. Slipping on a pair of matching heels, Mrs. Clark hurried out of the bedroom, not wanting to take too long and risk upsetting Greg any more.(Erotic Stories)
Once downstairs again, she peered nervously around the corner and saw that Greg and Stacey were both seated at the kitchen table, eating bowls of cereal and having an amiable conversation. Taking a deep breath, she walked into the kitchen, kissed her daughter on the head and then quickly headed to the stove; ostensibly to offer to make breakfast for anyone, should they wish it. In reality she really just wanted to hide the fact that her nipples were prominently poking through her blouse and her face was red with embarrassment. When Stacey and Greg indicated that they did not want anything made for breakfast, she busied herself making some eggs and toast for herself.
While Mrs. Clark was working at the stove, Stacey informed her, "I'm heading to the beach today with Carol and Joan. I'll probably be back around 5pm." Dropping her dirty bowl into the sink, Stacey gave her mom a kiss on the cheek, grabbed her day bag and towel, and rushed out the door.
Once Greg heard the car pull out of the driveway, he cleared his throat and then began giving Mrs. Clark directions. "All right, Anne, turn around and walk over here," pointing to the floor in the middle of the kitchen. On wobbly legs, Anne shuffled over to the spot indicated, head bent low, unable to make eye contact.
"Now remove all of your clothing, Anne," Greg ordered. Blushing furiously, Anne reached up, and, with horribly shaking hands, began to undo the buttons of her blouse. When the last one was undone, she hesitated for a moment, but with a sigh of resignation, her shoulders slumping in defeat, she shrugged the blouse off of her shoulders, and let if fall to the floor. Her naked breasts, with nipples now as hard as rocks, stood prominently on display for her tormentor to see. As humiliated as she was, the weird, twisting feeling in the pit of her stomach wouldn't go away. It just seemed to push her on, force her to comply with his demands. Reaching behind her, she unzipped her skirt, and again, with the slightest of hesitations, she began to shimmy the skirt down her hips. When the newly shaven lips of her vagina came into view, Anne blushed an even deeper color red, which spread down her neck onto the tops of her shoulders. Once the skirt was past her thighs, Anne let gravity do the rest and let it fall about her feet. Stepping to the side with one foot, she used the other to lightly kick the skirt away from her.
Here she stood, completely naked, before her 18 year old tormentor, save for a pair of fuck-me heels. With great effort, Anne fought the urge to cover her newly shaved pussy, but instead kept her hands firmly at her side. Sensing Greg's eyes upon her, she could not bear to look up and meet them. She could only bite her lip and hover in that emotional space somewhere between excitement and crying, as she nervously awaited his next move.
She heard his chair scrape across the floor, as he pushed it back and rose to his feet. The weird twisting feeling in her stomach began to increase as she waited nervously for his next move. Mrs. Clark couldn't bear to raise her head and look at Greg, so she resigned herself to looking at his feet and following their movement.
Had she taken a moment to look up, she would have seen the enormous, shit-eating grin plastered across Greg's face. He looked like a kid in a candy store who had just been told he could have anything he wanted, and as much of it as he wanted. His eyes took in every inch of her body, as he slowly circled about her, nodding his head appreciatively at what he saw. He hadn't thought it possible, but for an 'older' woman, Mrs. Clark had an amazing body. Her breasts were still firm and supple, with no evidence of sagging at all. The nipples, when erect, stood out prominently from her chest, begging for attention. Moving down, she had a nice tight stomach and petite waist which flared beautifully at the hips, accentuating her gorgeously shaped ass. Her legs were lean and slender, and were a perfect end to a perfect body. Aside from being a few inches taller than Stacey, she was a mirror image of her.
Leaving her standing there, Greg walked over to the counter and, rifling through one of the drawers, pulled out the implement he was looking for. He had seen Mrs. Clark use this wooden spoon often, as she cooked the meals, but had never thought about using it in the manner he had planned. Smacking it several times into the palm of his hand, Greg marveled at the sound it made and the stinging sensation it left behind.
With nervous anticipation, Greg stepped in front of Mrs. Clark and said, "Now, Anne, for wearing inappropriate clothing this morning, you are going to be punished."
"But I...You never..." she began to stammer.
"Enough with your blubbering!" Greg shouted, cutting Mrs. Clark off mid-sentence. "You were already told not to wear that clothing, and yet you chose to willfully disobey me. You obviously need to be taught a lesson, and I intend to teach that lesson now," he said with emphasis.
Mrs. Clark wanted to argue with him, wanted to fight what was happening to her, but that sick feeling in her stomach just kept getting stronger, and she felt her willpower quickly draining away. She could only stand there, head lowered, shaking like a leaf, waiting for his next command. As scared and nervous as she was, she also was feeling excitement building from somewhere deep within her.
"Now, Anne, your punishment is not going to be pleasant. I'm not going to lie to you; it's going to hurt like hell, but I need to make sure that you are going to understand how serious it was for you to disobey me," Greg reasoned.
"Please..." she paused as she thought about how best to address Greg. Remembering the stories, and hoping that if she was really respectful, she might be able to weasel out of whatever punishment he had planned for her, she continued, "Sir, I won't disobey you again. I promise. Pleeaaassee," she whined, sneaking a glance at his face. What she saw frightened her. Greg seemed to have grown in size, since the last time she looked, and he now seemed to tower over her, with a steely look of resolve set firmly on his face.
'I'm sorry, Anne, but it's the only way you are going to learn your lesson," Greg said softly shaking his head. He couldn't believe how easy this was going for him. He had expected more resistance, but she was like putty in his hands. "Now cup your tits for me, Anne, and offer them to me," Greg ordered.
Reddening further, Anne hesitated for only a second, before reaching up and cupping each of her breasts, lifting them slightly. Instinctively, Anne knew what was coming, but found herself powerless to resist. The feeling in her stomach was now overpowering. Closing her eyes, she waited for what she knew was surely to come.
SMACK. The first blow landed squarely upon the top of her left breast, leaving a rapidly reddening mark behind. It took a fraction of a second before the pain registered in her mind. Mrs. Clark screamed in pain, and her left breast lit up and felt like it was on fire. She fought the urge to cover her breasts and to turn away from the next blow, since she knew deep down inside what was expected of her. The punishment would only be worse if she moved.
SMACK. With barely enough time to catch her breath, Greg landed the spoon squarely upon her right breast. Another howl of pain erupted from Mrs. Clark, as she tried desperately to stand still for her attacker. Greg marveled at the sound the spoon made, as it bounced off of her breasts, and how the smooth pearly white skin marked and reddened so quickly. His already hardening cock was now rock hard in his jeans, as he enjoyed the sensations the punishment was creating for him. It caught him a bit by surprise, since he hadn't expected his body to react to the discipline in this way.
SMACK-SMACK-SMACK-SMACK. Greg quickened the pace and applied two quick swats to each breast, spreading the strikes around to areas that had yet to feel the sting of the wooden spoons. Mrs. Clark's breasts bounced and reddened under the strikes and she screeched and howled in pain.
Tears were streaming down her face, as she began to cry and sob from the pain. Mrs. Clark was feeling more and more confused as the punishment continued. Despite the intense pain radiating throughout her body, the knot in her stomach was getting stronger, and a strange tingling feeling was now coming from her pussy.
After Mrs. Clark's breasts were an even shade of red, Greg took aim and landed the final two strikes on each hardened nipple. Mrs. Clark shrieked in agony, as the pain shot through her body. It felt as if someone had applied a red hot brand to each of her nipples. The waves of pain were almost too intense for Mrs. Clark, as she felt her legs begin to buckle.
"On your knees, Anne. NOW!" Greg ordered, knowing she wouldn't be able to stay standing much longer. Like a rag doll, Anne dropped to her knees, still holding her breasts in her hands as she had been directed. "Clasp your hands behind your back. Do not, under any circumstance, move them from that position. If you do, we will simply resume the punishment where we just left off. Is that clear Anne?" Greg demanded.
Through sobs, Anne was simply able to nod her head yes as she moved her hands into position..
"Now, Anne, since I own you, I think it important that you learn how to properly suck a cock. Have you ever given a man oral sex before?" Greg asked.
Keeping her head down, Anne nodded her head again.
"How many times?"
Through her sniffles, Anne mumbled, "a couple of times."
"Who was that with?"
"An old boyfriend," she replied.
"And did you like it, Anne?"
"It was OK. I only did it because my boyfriend had asked," she replied.
"And did you swallow his cum, Anne?" Greg asked pointedly.
With a shocked look on her face, she gasped "God no! That's disgusting."
"Well, that's really too bad then, Anne, because from now on, it's going to be your number one protein snack. We'll call it the golden rule. Unless I say otherwise, you will ensure all semen ends up in your belly. Is that clear?" he asked, with a grin on his face.
With a sob, shoulders dropping even further, she nodded her head once and mumbled a yes.
"On with the lesson now. Show me how you learned to suck a cock." By this time, Greg had dropped his pants and had his raging hard-on in hand. Greg had never really considered himself overly big in that department; certainly not as big as any of those male actors in the porn movies. He had even gone so far as to measure it one time, just to see how it compared. Once hard, it measured an even 8" long and 1 ½" wide. Looking at his hard-on now, it seemed to have grown to twice its size. Greg couldn't remember ever being this turned on before.
Scooting forward on her knees, Mrs. C. raised her mouth to his cock and began to lick the head and shaft. After thoroughly licking the cock she began to suck on the head and first few inches of the shaft. Greg gave her a few minutes to 'show' him how she did it, before he stopped her.
"Fuck! That had to be the worst blow job I've ever had!" Greg exclaimed, as he grabbed a handful of her hair at the back of her head, twisting her face towards his. A sneer covered his face as he began to explain, in great detail, what would be expected of her from now on, when it came to oral sex. "You will never use your hands, but, rather, will keep them clasped behind you at all times. Your sole goal will be to see how much of the cock you can get down your throat. This shouldn't come as a surprise to you. You read how all of the women in the stories were expected to give blowjobs."
"Do you believe yourself to be better than those women in those stories?" Greg asked. Without giving her a chance to answer, he pressed on. "Well guess what? You're not better than they are. You're a dirty little whore, just like them. You can protest all you want, but guess what? All it took were a few comments from me, and you were stripping naked in front of me and letting me blow my load all over your tits."
Still holding tight to her hair and twisting her face up to his, he continued on. "You can pretend to be all prim and proper, but when push comes to shove, you like to be treated like a filthy little whore. Just like those women in the stories you were reading." Greg could see his words were really starting to have an effect on her, as tears of shame began to start falling from the corners of her eyes.
"Still don't believe me? OK, with your right hand stick two fingers in your pussy," he ordered, still not releasing his hold on her hair.
As she hesitatingly brought her right hand around the front of her body and reached for her newly shaved pussy, she knew what she was going to find before she even touched it. She could smell her sex from where she knelt, and, just as it had been when she was shaving it, her pussy was intensely aroused and was dripping juices onto the floor beneath her. She tentatively touched her pussy and instantly felt the unbelievable amount of wetness there.
"Go ahead and bury your two fingers into your pussy." After watching her push her two fingers into her cunt, until only the knuckles were visible, Greg ordered "now take them out and hold them up in front of your face."
With her face a deep crimson red, she removed her fingers and held them in front of her. It was immediately obvious that they were covered in her pussy juices. Her body was responding to the situation, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.
"Now you see? You're obviously very aroused. So, let's recap what it took to get you to that state. While your daughter was still here in this house, you willingly stripped naked for me, right here in the kitchen, knowing that she could walk in at any minute. Then, with hardly any resistance at all, you again strip naked for me here in the kitchen, after your daughter had left, but knowing that she could walk back in that door at any minute, and willingly offered me your tits, so that I could beat them with a spoon. You then let me beat them mercilessly, with no resistance what-so-ever. Then you knelt before me and began to suck on my cock."
Taking a breath, Greg continues. "Now throughout all of that, did anyone touch you in a sexual manner? Did anyone stroke your clit or fondle your tits?"
Tears streaming from her eyes now; all she could muster was a small head shake to his very pointed questions.
"And yet, you're dripping like a bitch in heat. All I've done was to humiliate you and cause you pain, and you're getting turned on by it. Face it; you're just like those dirty little whores in your stories. You get turned on by the humiliation and abuse." Greg could see the war being raged behind her eyes as her thinking brain was trying to reconcile the strange emotions coursing through her body. With a shudder, her shoulders slumped, and Greg could see the resignation there, as she quietly agreed with what he was saying.
"Now let's try that blowjob thing again, and let's see if we can get it right this time." Releasing her hair, Greg waited for her first move.
After only a slight hesitation, she placed her right hand behind her back again and clasped it with the left. Then, nudging forward, she once again took the head of his cock into her mouth and began working its length in. She was about to do something she'd never done before, and Greg could see she was both scared and turned on. With each head thrust down, she worked more and more of his cock in, until he finally felt it bump the back of her throat. She immediately began to gag from the contact and began to pull out.
Grabbing her hair again, Greg stopped her from pulling his cock completely from her mouth. "Remember, my little whore, the cock stays in your mouth. I don't give a shit whether you're starting to gag or not. I'm not here for your entertainment or amusement. As my filthy whore, you have a job to do. Now keep sucking." And with that, he pushed her head hard onto his cock, until it was once again pressing on the back of her throat. Of course, she immediately began to gag again, but with his hand holding the back of her head, she was unable to pull out. Greg held it there for a bit, letting her adjust to having a cock pressing against the back of her throat. Once the gagging subsided, Greg coaxed her again. "OK, it's now time to start working that cock down the throat. I want to see the entire length buried in your throat."
Greg could feel her starting to panic beneath me, so he gently eased off on the pressure in her throat, giving her a chance to relax a little. Then without warning, Greg thrust hard back into her mouth, this time pushing past the barrier at the back of her throat, and lodging an inch or two into her throat. She instantly began gagging around his cock, since he held her head in place for several seconds before pulling out of her throat, allowing her to breathe around his cock once more.
"That's a good little whore Mrs. C. You see, you were able to get a cock down your throat. Now, let's try that again."
Pushing on the back of her head again, more slowly this time, Greg once more forced the head of his cock past the barrier in the back of her throat, and sank several inches of it into her throat, before stopping once again. Holding her head in place with both hands, he enjoyed the sensations rippling up from his cock, while her throat alternately pulsed and gripped his cock, as she struggled with the gag reflex. Feeling her squirm beneath him, and knowing that her very breath depended on his whim was an awe-inspiring feeling of power and dominance. It was a feeling Greg knew he would come to enjoy, and, perhaps, even crave in the weeks to come.
Greg pulled out of her throat once more and allowed her a few moments to catch her breath around his cock. Despite the panic she must have been feeling, Mrs. C. maintained her position on the floor with her hands firmly clasped behind her back. Greg began to coo soft words of encouragement to her as he stroked her hair with one hand.
"That's a good whore. You're doing very well. It's feeling great. Now let's keep working more of that cock into your throat. I want to see all 8 inches of it, buried in your mouth."
With a gentle nudge on the back of her head, she began to work its length back into her mouth. This time, he let her do it herself. When it reached the back of her mouth, she paused for a second, and then began pushing hard until it, once again, slipped past and slid into her throat. This time, without any force from Greg, she allowed several more inches into her throat, and began to piston her head back and forth sliding his length in and out of throat. The gagging still occurred but she seemed more able to deal with it, and to continue to function despite being unable to breath.
She continued this for a while, stopping periodically to catch her breath around his cock, before resuming her ministrations to his cock. By the time Greg could feel his orgasm building, Mrs. C. was an awful mess. From her repeated gagging, her face, and chest were covered in her own saliva, long strands of it hanging from her chin. But despite this, she continued to throat his cock, like the whore she was becoming.
Grabbing a handful of hair at the back of her head, Greg began to piston forcefully into her throat, increasing the pace with each thrust, as the orgasm quickly built within him. Within a few seconds his cock was practically a blur, as he hammered away at her throat. With one final thrust, Greg buried the entire length of his cock into her throat and mouth, and let loose a torrent of cum straight down her throat and into her stomach. Mrs. C. Began to thrash underneath him, as she, literally, choked on his semen and cock. As Greg felt the last few spurts exit his cock, he slowly withdrew from her mouth, and allowed her to hack and cough, as she attempted to regain some of her equilibrium. (next part 4)
---------- Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 -----------
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Yet, I think the real reason might be because I love a challenge even when the challenge scares me so much I can't sleep at night. It is doing something new, something that I have never done before nor have any experience with that forces me to confront my fears and be stronger because of it.
I still remember the day my fourth grade teacher showed us an article in a National Geographic magazine about a young woman who had gone to Africa to study chimpanzees. I remember being so amazed that a woman could do such a thing. This was a long time ago and, of course, her name was Jane Goodall. I have followed her career ever since. To me she represents someone who followed her dreams given great obstacles and in doing so, contributed something significant to the world.
More personally, there have been many people in my life particularly when I was younger who believed in me even when I didn't much believe in myself. These people taught me to have faith that the future could be brighter. They encouraged me and showed me through the example of their own lives that there is much to value and much joy in reaching one's goals and fulfilling one's dreams.
For as long as I can remember I have been interested in ecology. As a child I wanted to be a wildlife biologist and even studied biology in college for awhile.
When I joined the Peace Corps as a math teacher and lived in Botswana, Africa, I was as excited about the chance to see some of the largest wild animals on earth as I was about teaching. I cried the time I saw my first wild animal, a giraffe that crossed the road in front of my husband and me. The big, orange African sun was setting behind her and she was as large and wild as anything I could have ever imagined.
However, no matter how many safaris I went on or how many animals I saw, I was always just an observer. On this trip, I will not only get to see many wonderful animals, but by participating in this research project, I will also help to understand them so that they might be protected.
This trip is a dream come true for me really. It combines the things I love most; conservation, adventure, technology, and teaching. I don't think I could ask for anything more.
I think the best part of traveling - aside from learning about new places and people - is what I learn about myself every time I go somewhere. Somehow, being in a new environment where I cannot take for granted many of the comforts I experience here at home and where people often have different beliefs and life experiences, forces me to examine my own life in a way that I don't often do when I am busy here. I am always the wiser for it and I am reminded that as different as people seem to be, we are more similar in the ways that are really important.
While traveling to exotic places is not new for me, it is a new experience being part of a research team. I expect to learn a great deal about river dolphins in particular and about the rainforest in general. I also know I will learn much about the people who make the rainforest their home.
Tolerance and a sense of humor are probably the most important things needed. This trip will require a willingness to forgo the comforts that I take for granted in my every day life here in San Francisco. I will also need a great deal of patience as I don't think river dolphins appear on command.
Planning to transmit information from the Amazon has required that I be very organized. Many pieces have to come together and many different people are needed for this trip to be successful. Keeping everything moving along has been a challenge.
There are also lots of technical skills needed; operating a computer, using a satellite phone, building a website, digitizing images, etc. The list seems to go on and on and new ones are added every day.


I don't buy "fluking out". They are either your picks or they aren't. We hear the same nonsense about the "standard number of picks" ad nauseam in this forum. The Wings have drafted a shitload of decent NHL players from 06-16. Likely more than the Canucks and likely mid pack.
I'll do the research later but I don't think Holland is the drooling mongoloid at the draft table you're making him out to be.
Since Doc and I already proved Detroit's drafting was stellar till 06, we'll focus on the ten years from 07-16.
Janmark-Nylen- solid young player, likely a top 6 guy on some teams.
Mrazek- struggled in a brief showing in Philly, but overall had been a competent 1a/1b goalie.
Rasmussen looks decent. The pundits have said Detroit killed the last draft. I don't think that Holland is the dribbling mess that you think he is.
You've got 10 Detroit players listed, from the past 10 drafts. I would say you 're being pretty generous in your assessments of those players.
I don't think that's any better than the Canucks' output over those 10 years, which puts both of them at the bottom of the pack.
Since the Detroit decline started at close to the same time as the Canucks, who do you think will be back in the playoffs first?
Is that pronounced Buff-ner, Bow-ner or Bo-ner?
Svenchnikov makes it 11. He will play in the league.
Definitely below Detroit for output.
You want to use Schroeder and Gaunce. Detroit has a few more guys who have made the impact these guys have.
Is Blob archiving 5 year old posts now?
I think announcers have always pronounced it BOOG-ner... like something you pick out of your nose.
If we include Svechnikov, then I think we have to include Peterssen, Juolevi, and Dahlen, all of whom will see big-club action this year.
And again, IMO we are talking about 2 of the worst drafting teams in the past decade, so we really are just splitting hairs.
Dahlen wasn't drafted by Vancouver.
Smith isn't out of the league as of yet and is still as good as 44 on Vancouver, they guy who many posters here splash their seed about . If you include Corrado, you may as well include a half dozen other guys the Wings drafted who've played a similar amount of games. May as well total up games played for Vancouver players and Detroit players drafted between 07 and 16.
I would guess it favours Detroit by a fair margin.
Why include Juolevi and Petterson? They haven't played yet. May as well throw in Zadina too.
They pronounce the G?! Seriously?
I was thinking Buff like in enough, Bow like in bough, or Bo like in though.
But an audible G in an ough?
Don't think I've ever come across that.
The English language continues to surprise.
Canucks draft picks between 07-16 have played 2056 NHL games.
Wings picks between 07-16 have suited up for 4151 NHL games.
I don't buy "fluking out". They are either your picks or they aren't.
When you pick 2 players in the 6th and 7th rounds, and they go on to become elite talents who lead your team for a decade, that's fluking out.
Obviously you get credit for the pick, you saw talent. But I don't think that Holland thought for a second that they would become his franchise forwards when he picked them.
That's surprising. But look at the 9 players drafted by the Wings in 2011 - all totally useless, all out of the league 7 years later, but they got 600 NHL games out of them.
I find that very strange - the Wings definitely have a tendency to give marginal prospects an extended shot in the NHL, but they have a ton of guys who flamed out after a couple of years. Whereas the Canucks tweeners typically didn't get a sniff.


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Local brewery scoops 6 medals at state awards
A small country brewery near the town of Myalup in the South West has just won 6 medals for their beers. The medals were awarded at the annual Perth Royal Beer Show Dinner at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel in Perth last Friday night.
Last Friday night, Andrew Harris Director and Brewer at the Old Coast Road Brewery, and his wife Ivanka attended the annual Perth Royal Beer Show Dinner held at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel. It is during the dinner that the results of the annual Sate beer awards are announced.
Mr Harris was pleasantly surprised to learn that out of his 9 beer entries into various categories, that 6 had won medals in their class. "Whilst the medals were all bronze, I was so surprised to learn of the number that had achieved this level" said Mr Harris. "I'm told that the judges were very tough this year, even tougher than at the International Awards" he added. "We are so proud that a small brewer like us has been able to improve our product to the point where we are in such high company".
Mr Harris believes that the State awards will continue to grow in coming years and give small brewers like himself something to aspire to. "When you see your name listed next to the likes of Lion Nathan and Matilda Bay, it really gives you a buzz to know that you can achieve that level of product quality" he said.
Local brewery wins state award	Bravado Brews
Bravado Brews
Local brewery wins state award
Quality brews get stamp of approval

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Benjamin Disraeli's Sybil, or How to Reconnect the Two Nations
Dr Andrzej Diniejko and George P. Landow
[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Authors —> Benjamin Disraeli —> Political Themes & Contexts]
Introduction: A romance and a political manifesto
Sybil; or, The Two Nations, the second of Disraeli's Young England trilogy (1845), is one of the most important mid-nineteenth century Condition-of-England novels. Inspired by the rise of the Chartists, the novel deals with the problems of the growing social and economic disparity between the antagonistic communities in England — the rich and the poor — largely as a result of the Industrial Revolution. The novel, which combines politics and romance, was a best-seller and brought Disraeli much needed royalties: The first edition of the novel sold about 3,000 copies at a guinea and a half, and gave Disraeli a profit of about £1,000. Later, it went through many editions in England and America, and was translated into French in 1870. The novel was praised for its sincere, accurate presentation of the social conditions of the poor, although it did not surpass Coningsby in popularity. In Sybil, Disraeli wrote persuasively about oppression of the working classes, female and child labour, low wages, abominable conditions of housing and work, and the squalor and misery of industrial towns. However, his solution to reconciling social conflicts and restore a national unity appeared to be quite untenable.
Sybil is both an upper class romance and a political manifesto set against the backdrop of the Chartist movement (1838-1857). The novel's romantic plot is secondary to the political message, which calls for a restoration of national unity by means of reinstating royal authority and paternalistic government. As its subtitle indicates, Sybil exposes British society's bitter division of the rich and the poor during the "hungry forties." Disraeli portrayed both the physical and moral degradation of working people with gritty realism, relying on accounts from the Blue Books (reports of parliamentary commissions set up to examine social conditions) and his own eyewitness observations of manufacturing towns in the North. He blamed the working class growing poverty on Utilitarianism and laissez-faire ideology. Disraeli intended Sybil as more than reportage, and the Condition-of-England debate in the novel has a clear political goal. Disraeli argues that England needs the alliance between a supposed benevolent and paternalistic aristocracy and the working classes, which he tried to implement first with the Young England faction in Parliament and then, with a varying success, with his social welfare reforms when he twice served as Prime Minister. In addition, he also wanted to reinvigorate the programme of the Tory party by creating a one-nation conservatism.
A critical view of both country aristocracy and wealthy industrialists
The novel opens on the eve of the 1837 Derby with a glance at the lives of the idle, self-indulgent upper classes. A group of aristocratic young men, including Charles Egremont, the younger brother of Lord Marney, discuss the coming races at a sumptuous London gentlemen's club. Interestingly, Disraeli goes out of his way to emphasize that Lord Marney's peerage is not ancient, for it only dates back three centuries, and he explains that the founder of the family, a servant of one of the favourites of Henry VIII, owed his great fortune to the plunder of the Church estates during the Reformation. During the reign of Elizabeth I, the abbey lands became more valuable, and their owner was elevated to the peerage as Baron Marney. After the outbreak of the Civil Wars, the Egremonts joined the Cavaliers and fought on the side of Charles I, but in 1688, when James II announced his intention to restitute the church estates to their previous owners, the Lord of Marney Abbey became an adherent of 'civil and religious liberty', joining the Whig lords, who called on the Prince of Orange to become king of England as William the Third. During the seventy years of almost continuous Whig rule, Marney Abbey produced a crop of lords who sat in Parliament where they worked chiefly for their own sakes rather than of the nation (Vanden Bosche 91). Rather than simply criticizing the Marneys for their political irresponsibility and even corruption, Disraeli criticizes them essentially as nouveau nobility, something many of his readers might have considered strange, even bizarre.
In Sybil, Disraeli criticised uncontrolled industrialisation as the immoral byproduct of laissez-faire economics. The events of the novel, which appear against the background of the Chartist agitation, take place from 1837 to 1844. The novel exposes the darker side of early Victorian England's prosperity by contrasting the luxurious life of the aristocracy to the extreme poverty of both industrial and agricultural workers. Disraeli showed a concern for the poverty and social instability in the rapidly expanding industrial towns. Disraeli describes with dismay the country town of Marney, the first scene of poverty the novel presents, emphasizing the poor quality of the labouring class dwellings, which lacked the most basic conveniences. The narrator tells the reader that "these wretched tenements seldom consisted of more than two rooms, in one of which the whole family, however numerous, were obliged to sleep, without distinction of age, or sex, or suffering." The poor live in conditions that are not only crowded but also unhealthy and dehumanizing:
With the water streaming down the walls, the light distinguished through the roof, with no hearth even in winter, the virtuous mother in the sacred pangs of childbirth, gives forth another victim to our thoughtless civilization; surrounded by three generations whose inevitable presence is more painful than her sufferings in that hour of travail; while the father of her coming child, in another corner of the sordid chamber, lies stricken by that typhus which his contaminating dwelling has breathed into his veins, and for whose next prey is perhaps destined, his new-born child. These swarming walls had neither windows nor doors sufficient to keep out the weather, or admit the sun or supply the means of ventilation; the humid and putrid roof of thatch exhaling malaria like all other decaying vegetable matter. The dwelling rooms were neither boarded nor paved; and whether it were that some were situate in low and damp places, occasionally flooded by the river, and usually much below the level of the road; or that the springs, as was often the case, would burst through the mud floor; the ground was at no time better than so much clay, while sometimes you might see little channels cut from the centre under the doorways to carry off the water, the door itself removed from its hinges: a resting place for infancy in its deluged home. [Book II, Chapter 3]
Finally, the "hovels" usually don't even have the most basic, essential means of sanitation that could prevent disease, for these homes "were in many instances not provided with the commonest conveniences of the rudest police; contiguous to every door might be observed the dung-heap on which every kind of filth was accumulated, for the purpose of being disposed of for manure, so that, when the poor man opened his narrow habitation in the hope of refreshing it with the breeze of summer, he was met with a mixture of gases from reeking dunghills (Book II, Chapter 3).
Disraeli argued that laissez-faire economics and political policy produced such horrible conditions. Workers were underpaid and unable to sustain a family. Despite the growing wealth created by increased industrial production, trade, and commerce, prosperity lay only in the hands of the upper classes — landed aristocracy, merchants, and mill-owners — while most working people lived in abject poverty.
"Never was such a plunder" — Disraeli's critique of post-Reformation nobility
Sybil centers on the awakening social conscience of Charles Egremont, who becomes increasingly disillusioned with the way many of the aristocracy (including his brother) treat the labouring poor. Charles and his brother therefore represent two opposite poles of the English aristocracy. The former is generous and tender-hearted, whereas the latter is cynical, arrogant, and devoid of sympathy for the agricultural labourers on his estate, who live in a sordid squalor. Disraeli's emphasis upon the plight of the agricultural workers makes clear that the divide into two nations is not solely, or even chiefly, the result of the Industrial Revolution but of upper class irresponsibility.
One day Charles meets two strangers in the ruins of Marney Abbey — a Chartist leader, Walter Gerard, who works as an overseer in a local factory, and a younger Chartist agitator, Stephen Morley, who is also the editor of the local radical newspaper. Egremont discovers that Gerard adheres to 'old faith' (Catholicism) and hears from him about the plight of Catholic monks during the Reformation. In this episode Disraeli argues that the pre-Reformation Church and the old Saxon aristocracy cared for the welfare of common people, whereas the 'new' post-Reformation aristocracy, allied with the middle-class industrialists, is indifferent to the plight of the labouring poor. Gerard points out that, unlike nineteenth-century absentee landlords, 'the monks were never non-resident. They expended their revenue among those whose labour had produced it.' Moreover, 'these holy men too built and planted as they did everything else for posterity: their churches were cathedrals; their schools colleges; their halls and libraries the muniment rooms of kingdoms; their woods and waters, their farms and gardens, were laid out and disposed on a scale and in a spirit that are now extinct: they made the country beautiful, and the people proud of their country.' Hearing this, Charles asks, 'Yet if the monks were such public benefactors, why did not the people rise in their favour?' and Egremont responds with a tale of upper class oppression that produced a civil war against the poor:
'They did, but too late. They struggled for a century, but they struggled against property and they were beat. As long as the monks existed, the people, when aggrieved, had property on their side. And now 'tis all over', said the stranger; 'and travellers come and stare at these ruins, and think themselves very wise to moralize over time. They are the children of violence, not of time. It is war that created these ruins, civil war, of all our civil wars the most inhuman, for it was waged with the unresisting. The monasteries were taken by storm, they were sacked, gutted, battered with warlike instruments, blown up with gunpowder; you may see the marks of the blast against the new tower here. [Book II Chapter 5]
He concludes, 'Never was such a plunder. The whole face of the country for a century was that of a land recently invaded by a ruthless enemy; it was worse than the Norman conquest; nor has England ever lost this character of ravage'. Disraeli's radical point here is clear: the present poverty of the poor resulted not from a just, if indifferent system of laissez faire but from the thievery of families like the Marneys, who stole their present wealth and position not just from the monks but from an entire community.
Two nations
The result of such stealing what Disraeli polemically considers an entire community's wealth is to divide the country into two nations. In a famous passage, which takes place in the ruins of Marney Abbey, Stephen Morley tells Egremont about the division of England into two nations: the rich and the poor Listening to Morley, Egremont responds, "Well, society may be in its infancy . . . but, say what you like, our Queen reigns over the greatest nation that ever existed'. To which Morley responds,
'Which nation . . . for she reigns over two'. . . .'Yes', resumed the younger stranger after a moment's interval. 'Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws'. 'You speak of –', said Egremont, hesitatingly. 'The RICH and the POOR'. [Book II, Chapter 5]
This phrase 'two nations' soon became a popular metaphor for describing the problematic social inequalities facing early Victorian Britain. In Sybil, Disraeli draws his readers' attention to the existence of 'two nations' in England: the ever-growing wealthy industrialists and the mass of the population who are subjected to increasing poverty, social deprivation, physical and moral dehumanisation.
Poor wages, long working hours, unsanitary working and living conditions, high infant mortality, and short life expectancy contributed to human degradation. Published in the same year as Friedrich Engels's The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, Sybil exposes the miserable plight of the British poor. The moving passage that describes a gang of miners leaving a mine has the power of Engels's account of working conditions in 1840s Manchester.
They come forth: the mine delivers its gang and the pit its bondsmen; the forge is silent and the engine is still. The plain is covered with the swarming multitude: bands of stalwart men, broad-chested and muscular, wet with toil, and black as the children of the tropics; troops of youth — alas! of both sexes, — though neither their raiment nor their language indicates the difference; all are clad in male attire; and oaths that men might shudder at, issue from lips born to breathe words of sweetness. Yet these are to be — some are — the mothers of England! But can we wonder at the hideous coarseness of their language when we remember the savage rudeness of their lives? Naked to the waist, an iron chain fastened to a belt of leather runs between their legs clad in canvas trousers, while on hands and feet an English girl, for twelve, sometimes for sixteen hours a-day, hauls and hurries tubs of coals up subterranean roads, dark, precipitous, and plashy: circumstances that seem to have escaped the notice of the Society for the Abolition of Negro Slavery. [Book III, Chapter 1]
After describing the adult miners, Disraeli turns to the young children who emerge from the depths of the earth. These, too, have been ignored by the Evangelical reformers who led the drive against slavery. In fact, says Disraeli, emphasizing the hypocrisy of many Liberal industrialists, "those worthy gentlemen too appear to have been singularly unconscious of the sufferings of the little Trappers, which was remarkable, as many of them were in their own employ." Like G. W. M. Reynolds after him, Disraeli here forces the reader to look at these frail and vulnerable children: "See too these emerge from the bowels of the earth! Infants of four and five years of age, many of them girls, pretty and still soft and timid; entrusted with the fulfilment of most responsible duties, and the nature of which entails on them the necessity of being the earliest to enter the mine and the latest to leave it. Their labour indeed is not severe, for that would be impossible, but it is passed in darkness and in solitude." Drawing on the evidence of Parliamentary Blue Books, Disraeli points out that England allows these children to spend their lives in precisely the conditions of prisons for the most dangerous criminals:
They endure that punishment which philosophical philanthropy has invented for the direst criminals, and which those criminals deem more terrible than the death for which it is substituted. Hour after hour elapses, and all that reminds the infant Trappers of the world they have quitted and that which they have joined, is the passage of the coal-waggons for which they open the air-doors of the galleries, and on keeping which doors constantly closed, except at this moment of passage, the safety of the mine and the lives of the persons employed in it entirely depend. [Book III, Chapter 1]
Disraeli exhibited a remarkable power of empathising with the fate of the poor and downtrodden, and he did so in hopes of creating a party that could solve some of these abuses. He was one of the first authors and statesmen who correctly recognised the imminent social crisis in Britain that might have led to revolution, and he thought he had a means of heading off that revolution. His descriptions of the condition of the labouring classes in Sybil roused social consciences not only among the reading public but also among Victorian journalists, clergymen, and philanthropists. The novel's proposal for bridging the gap between the rich and the poor was far from being feasible — really just wishful thinking — and yet it played its part in the passage of what G. M. Young, the great historian of the Victorian era, considered the turning point of the age — the Factory Act of 1847. According to Young, although the act itself did little to correct many abuses, it signaled a truly radical reconception of government in great Britain — one which pushes aside laissez faire and libertarian beliefs about government and society and begins the centralization of governmental power, which even advocates of the working class like Charles Kingsley, believed inevitably lead to tyranny. Recognizing that in a modern society citizens cannot protect themselves solely by their own efforts, Tories like Disraeli and other reformers made national government responsible for what Engels termed the condition of the working classes. As it turned out decades later when many working men received the right to vote, they voted Tory rather than Liberal, both because Disraeli and the Tories led the fight against poor working conditions in the factories and mines, and because the factory owners were represented in Parliament by Whigs and Liberals. So Disraeli's fanciful solutions were not entirely a matter of fantasy.
Sybil as a symbolic embodiment of one nation
In the ruins of Marney Abbey, Egremont also encounters a third stranger, Gerard's daughter Sybil. Hearing her singing the evening hymn to the Virgin in the distant ruined chapel, he becomes captivated by her angelic voice. Disraeli describes his title character as an angelic lady (donna angelica), making her both the ideal of female purity and a symbolic embodiment of national identity, a descendant, if you will, of Dante's Beatrice and Petrarch's Laura. Sybil, who has been educated at Mowbray Convent and intends to become a Catholic nun, carries out charitable activities among the poor inhabitants of the nearby manufacturing town. When Egremont takes on the disguise of a newspaper reporter and obtains temporary lodgings near Gerard's Mowbray cottage in order to discover the actual living conditions of the poor, he becomes enthralled with Sybil's mysterious personality.
The form of Sybil Gerard was stamped upon his [Egremont's] brain. It blended with all his thoughts; it haunted every object. Who was this girl, unlike all women whom he had yet encountered, who spoke with such sweet seriousness of things of such vast import, but which had never crossed his mind, and with a kind of mournful majesty bewailed the degradation of her race? The daughter of the lowly, yet proud of her birth. Not a noble lady of the land who could boast a mien more complete, and none of them thus gifted, who possessed withal the fascinating simplicity that pervaded every gesture and accent of the daughter of Gerard. [Book II, Chapter 16]
In the company of Father St. Lys, Egremont meets Sybil in the sick chamber of Philip Warner, an impoverished weaver, and is again enraptured by her spirituality and social commitment. Sybil, who regularly engages in acts of charity, awakens his social conscience, drawing his attention to the plight of the working poor. Egremont discovers to his utmost horror the bleakest and poorest corners of England. From now on he has two goals in his life — to win Sybil's love and to improve the conditions of the labouring classes.
Egremont meets Sybil again in London when she accompanies her father at the Chartist National Convention in 1839, which advances the five Chartist demands: suffrage for all men over 21, secret ballot, abolition of the property qualification for MPs and the payment of MPs, and the creation of single-member constituencies. Sybil and Gerard discover with a shock that the reporter, Mr Franklin, is in fact the brother of the despotic Lord Marney, and hence mistakenly assume that he is also an enemy of the people. They do not know that Egremont's visit to Mowbray has already made him sympathize with the oppressed, although he strongly believes that the lower classes cannot win their due rights without assistance from the aristocracy, which must assume its social, moral, and political responsiblities. Egremont here repeats what Disraeli had stated a decade before in The Spirit of Whiggism (1834): 'I deny that a people can govern itself. Self-government is a contradiction in terms'. In Sybil, Egremont, who looks sympathetically on the Chartist movement, speaks similarly:
The People are not strong; the People never can be strong. Their attempts at self-vindication will end only in their suffering and confusion. It is civilisation that has effected, that is effecting this change. It is that increased knowledge of themselves that teaches the educated their social duties. There is a dayspring in the history of this nation which those who are on the mountain tops can as yet perhaps only recognize. You deem you are in darkness, and I see a dawn. The new generation of the aristocracy of England are not tyrants, not oppressors, Sybil, as you persist in believing. Their intelligence, better than that, their hearts are open to the responsibility of their position. But the work that is before them is no holiday-work. It is not the fever of superficial impulse that can remove the deep-fixed barriers of centuries of ignorance and crime. Enough that their sympathies are awakened; time and thought will bring the rest. They are the natural leaders of the People, Sybil; believe me they are the only ones. [Book IV, Chapter 15]
Disraeli insisted that the rejuvenated and conscience-stricken aristocracy whould be the natural ally of working people. As the leader of the Young England splinter group in Parliament, he called on the Conservative Party to defend the cause of the common people and to remedy the social ills caused by the Industrial Revolution, irresponsible landowners, and laissez-faire policies.
An impassable gulf and reconciliation through marriage
When Egremont passionately reveals his love to Sybil, asking for her hand, she turns him down because she believes that the gulf that separates rich and poor is impassable. In the meantime, the House of Commons rejects the Chartist petition after violent riots take place in Birmingham and elsewhere. After the outbreak of riots, Egremont makes an important speech in Parliament in favour of the Chartists, emphasizing the radical ideas that the rights of labour are as sacred as those of property and that the social happiness of the millions should be the government's most important concern. When Egremont meets Sybil again, she is sincerely grateful to him for his support. Worrying about their security, Egremont advises Sybil and her father to leave London because the government may take action against the Chartist convention. However, Gerard refuses to return home, and eventually, both he and his daughter are arrested. Luckily, through the intervention of Lord John Russell, Sybil is discharged from prison, whereas her father is accused of seditious conspiracy, but is held to bail. Three years later Gerard and Sybil become involved in another riot during a strike in Lancashire, when Gerard tries to save the factory of the benevolent manufacturer Mr. Trafford, who has created model industrial relations for his employees. At a large labour demonstration the previous night on the moors outside the town of Mowbray, Gerard was acclaimed a popular hero by the rioters. When the crowd rushes at the troopers, Gerard is killed, Lord Marney is stoned to death, and Mowbray Castle is burnt down. A group of drunken rioters assail Sybil, but Egremont arrives just in time to rescue her:
One ruffian had grasped the arm of Sybil, another had clenched her garments, when an officer covered with dust and gore, sabre in hand, jumped from the terrace, and hurried to the rescue. He cut down one man, thrust away another, and placing his left arm round Sybil, he defended her with his sword, while Harold now become furious, flew from man to man, and protected her on the other side. Her assailants were routed, they made a staggering flight; the officer turned round and pressed Sybil to his heart.'We will never part again', said Egremont.'Never', murmured Sybil. [Book VI, Chapter 12]
When Egremont eventually marries Sybil, they symbolically unite the two nations into one as their marriage makes an ingenious but hardly plausible attempt to bridge the gulf between rich and poor. Their marriage is not the only fantastic element readers encounter by the novel's close: after a jury trial reveals that Sybil has noble Anglo-Saxon blood, she regains possession of her ancient aristocratic title, the right to Mowbray Castle, and the estates that provide her with a handsome — indeed, enormous — income of £40,000 a year. Disraeli thus ends his novel with that trite device one could term "the discovery of the rightful heir," the kind of plot device Oscar Wilde parodied in The Importance of Being Ernest as did Gilbert and Sullivan in their operettas. As absurd as this plot device might seem, Disraeli employed it because it embodied one of his political obsessions, the idea that a 'natural aristocracy' exists not only among the upper classes but also among the impoverished members of English society who had Anglo-Saxon roots. Of course, the dénouement of Sybil is hardly satisfactory for this political novel because it suggests that Disraeli has forgotten his initial emphasis on the nation's bitter divisions and therefore fails to offer any plausible means of social reconciliation. To make things even worse, Egremont and his wife abandon their social work and go for a year-long honeymoon in Italy — an escape from the problems of their country that undermines Disraeli's characterization of them.
Nonetheless, Sybil is the most interesting Condition-of-England novel of the Young England trilogy because it examines critically the social consequences of the Industrial Revolution and the ensuing split of the nation into the rich and the poor. Despite its melodramatic clichés and a highly improbable romantic plot, it influenced other Condition-of-England novels, such Mrs. Gaskell's Mary Barton (1848) and North and South (1855), Charles Kingsley's Yeast (1848) and Alton Locke (1850), and Charles Dickens's Hard Times (1854). In Sybil, as in Coningsby, Disraeli, who described himself as a progressive Tory, argued that an alliance between an enlightened aristocracy and the working class could bridge the gulf between the two alien 'nations' of rich and poor. Like Thomas Carlyle, he called for a revival of the medieval social concord based on hierarchy, paternalism, benevolence, and mutual confidence. Sybil contests the Chartist claim that the people can act for themselves. Disraeli, who wanted to recreate medieval social relations based on hierarchy and paternalism, argues that an enlightened aristocrat like Egremont can become a successful leader of the people, whereas Chartist leaders, in his opinion, proved themselves incapable of leading the people.
Social Commentary and Victorian Illustration: The Representation of Working Class Life, 1837–1880
Blake, Robert. Disraeli. London: Eyre & Spottiswode Publishers, 1967.
Disraeli, Benjamin. Sybil, or The Two Nations. Project Gutenberg.
Fido, Martin. 'From His Own Observation': Sources of Working Class Passages in Disraeli's Sybil, The Modern Language Review, 72(2) (Apr., 1977) 268-284.
Hansard's Parliamentary Debates. Vol. XLIX, London: Thomas Curson Hansard, 1839.
Schwarz, Daniel R. 'Art and Argument in Disraeli's span class ="book">Sybil. The Journal of Narrative Technique, 4(1) (Jan. 1974): 19-31.
Vanden Bossche, Chris R. Reform Acts: Chartism, Social Agency, and the Victorian Novel, 1832–1867. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2014.
Last modified 26 April 2019


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Oct 5, 2018 4:05 pm 2018-10-05T22:05:55-05:00
OpTic Gaming AD carry Arrow plans to "explore other team possibilities"
Which team will Arrow play for next?
Malcolm Abbas
Photo via Riot Games
OpTic Gaming's Noh "Arrow" Dong-hyeon is looking for a new team, the AD carry revealed earlier today via Twitter.
Although Arrow's contract doesn't expire until Nov. 18, according to Riot Games' global contract database, OpTic gave him permission "to explore other team possibilities," Arrow explained in his tweet. Although he seems intent on leaving OpTic, Arrow called his time with the organization "a good experience."
Hello Guys ! It's been long time to tweet information.
I got permission to explore other team possibilities from OpTic Gaming.
It was another good experience and having new friends.
I'll be looking for a New team .
DM's Open(i think so)
RT's appreciated!!!
— Arrow (@ArrowDongTak) October 5, 2018
This is the first roster move since the 2018 NA LCS Summer Split concluded on Sept. 16. It's unknown at this time if Arrow intends to stay in the NA LCS, return to the LCK, or try playing in a new region.
Arrow first joined the NA LCS in the beginning of 2017 as Phoenix1's ADC. And his NA LCS debut split was fantastic. Arrow shined in the lethality era, playing almost exclusively Jhin and Varus in the 2017 Spring Split. His play was recognized by pundits, and he was awarded the 2017 Spring Split MVP.
Arrow remained with Phoenix1 for the entirety of 2017 before moving to OpTic Gaming once franchising hit the NA LCS. Arrow saw lackluster results during his time on OpTic—his team was unable to reach the playoffs in either split.
With the 2018 offseason just over a month away, expect more announcements like Arrow's tweet to be released following the World Championship. According the Riot's contract database, most NA LCS contracts that are set to end this year will expire on either Nov. 17, 18, or 19.
OpTic has yet to comment on Arrow's announcement.


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Gbenga Daniel, wife, have wedding to plan
Olushola Victor
IF you are looking for one of the most eligible bachelors in Lagos, co-founder, Red For Africa, Adebola Williams' name should be mentioned. Through sheer hard work and networking, he has written his name in the history of Nigerian media. But despite his apparent success, something has been missing in his life – a wife, and this became a source of concern for family and close friends.
A day many friends of Williams have been waiting for finally came few days ago when he proposed to his girlfriend, Kehinde Daniel, daughter of former Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel.
When the proposal photos surfaced online, people first wondered who the mystery lady could be. Kehinde, who works with KPMG as an analyst, lives a quiet life despite being a top politician's daughter.
Singer, Omawumi, was the first to announce the good news on her timeline by sharing visuals of Debola, who went on one knee on a boat to pop the question to Kehinde with a placard that read "Marry me."
Now that Williams has the taken the bold step to spend rest of his life with Kehinde, all eyes will shift to Chude Jideonwo to follow suit. The two are long-time friends and business partners.
Oba Adako celebrates 10th anniversary
Bikiya Graham-Douglas announces 4th edition of Beeta playwright competition
Alleged N2bn fraud: Maina prays court for bail over deteriorating health


Since the late 1980s, Free Fishing Weekend events have been held across Wisconsin to coax people to the water's edge without getting soaked for a license. At this workshop, you'll learn how your lake association can use this weekend as a launch pad to invite people of all ages to discover the fish that live in the lakes they love. Participants will receive tools to engage lake association members with their local fisheries, brush up on basic fishing skills during hands-on activities, and become certified to lead community learn-to-fish programs that target adults.
This session will cover the "Baseline Monitoring" methods for citizen stream monitoring with the Water Action Volunteers (WAV) program. This will be a slightly improvised version of our usual 6-hour field training, covering stream temperature, transparency, dissolved oxygen, biotic index, flow and habitat. We WILL go to the stream unless the weather is terribly uncooperative – so dress appropriately and bring hip boots or waders if you have them. All other equipment will be provided for the training and available for loan so that all attendees will leave the session ready to be an active WAV monitor for the 2019 season.


[A couple of years ago, with the help and encouragement of my friend and author, Suzy Becker, I began an illustrated memoir project. I add the word "project" because that's how I think of it. It's not yet the draft of a book, though it may well become such one day. For now, it's more of a project, a work in process, a bit of creative catharsis. It covers a period of time from December 2009 through the following year. It may end up with more, but then I'd have to change the title – something Suzy has suggested anyway. She says the current working title downplays the meaning of the story. We'll see. Or you can decide yourself.
I'm trying to explain to my therapist the core of the sense of dissatisfaction I always feel with myself. We have been through the story many times in the past year. She knows it.
"She left a mess." This would be the professional injection of reality that I pay for.
I make a motion with my hand, drawing a straight, horizontal line in the air like an x-axis. I also can't help but think at the same time that she herself is a mother. I wonder where she falls on my graph of motherhood.
I draw a line rising upward on my imaginary probability plot. I talk with my hands a lot.
"And what makes that space?" she asks.
I don't say it out loud, but it's implied. Who would miss me like that? Who would miss me this long? I can think of no one, a fact that I know is grossly unfair to my partner and to my friends. But it is there, all the same.
She cared about people. I care about people.
She had work that helped people. I work to help people.
People liked her. People like me.
She had friends. I have friends.
She had children. I do not.
"I don't know. Intellectually, I don't know. But it's right there!" More pointing at imaginary things.
My mom has been gone for more than 25 years, but it's like I hear this for the first time. In this particular moment, I hear it in a way unheard before. I feel it in a way I don't remember feeling before.
She has made her point. Experiences are different each time we experience them. There are things that we will revisit again and again, and they'll be different each time. One doesn't replace the other, but adds to it. She describes them as layers, not to be peeled away, but to give depth.
I sit with the tears falling. I pull a tissue from the box on the table. I say that I need to go, that I'm expected at a meeting.
We sit for a few seconds more.
I hand her my check. We say we'll see each other next week. I drive to work, to the meeting, to the rest of my day.
And she is still gone.
Sally, I have been in awe of your professional personage and somewhat intimidated by your many talents and accomplishments. I've followed your Librarian blog for several years now, but I have to tell you that I've found the honesty of your Ordinary Year postings just riveting. I've read through the Chapters posted in one sitting. I just found the blag today – 12/3/14. I am truly sorry for the pain you've been working through, and I thank you for sharing. Much of it has made me think, especially about my own mother, now 97 – I know, I'm very lucky – who lost her own mother at the age of 10. She has never gotten over that event and it still drives much of her thinking and feeling. Reading of your experiences, I can now "get" her in a way that I've never been able to before. Please do keep on sharing. I hope it has been as helpful for you to do so as it has been for me to read.
Thank you so much, Ardis, for these kind words. They mean a lot. I certainly understand your mom and imagine even if I live until I'm 97, I will also always have the event of losing my mom as I did be not a focal point, per se, but certainly an influence on all that I still do and all that I am, even then. I'm glad that you treasure your relationship with her.


18 months after the well-received debut, Get Physical serve up a second instalment of their Cocada series as curated by Brazilian hero Leo Janeiro. In this second volume, which was mixed by the Brazilian DJ and Producer Marye, artists from Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, Cuba and Mexico participate alongside Brazilian talents.
Marye is a new name that emerged in the Brazilian electronic scene and opens the compilation with the hypnotic' Zenith,' then 20 year veteran Bruce Leroys's 'Liberdade' takes a stroll through deep house with dramatic vocal samples. Label boss Roland Leesker contributes a touch of suspense and tension, remixed by IVA who originates from Bolivia and now lives in Barcelona, Mexican duo Reptare invest in more dramatic and ethereal sounds, and Warung regulars Albuquerque and Kaiq collaborate on a delicious house track.
Elsewhere is a veteran of the DJ booths of Brazil, Rodrigo Ferrari, Fran Bortolossi from Caxias do Sul who comes up with a house track that would fit like a glove in sweaty basements of Chicago in the 90's, and chic and elegant grooves from Caio Stanccione's. Leo Janeiro and Nuno Deconto, both part of the first compilation, appear together in this second volume with 'Chima,' a deep house cut full of personality that turns into a perfect anthem to put your hands up in the air. Saulo Ferraro—an exponent of the bustling electronic music scene in Rio de Janeiro— then ups the ante with some outstanding tech house. The power of the Cuban groove is brought to bear on 'Carajillo', making it impossible to stay still as Havana duo PAUZA, AKA Paula Fernandez and Zahira Seanchez, do their thing. Finally Claudia Assef closes things out with a classy techno leaning affair.
This is a multicultural trip through Latin tinged house music that makes for fantastic listening and is being supported by an extensive tour, details of which can be found below.


Necromancy Never Pays has some fine words for Among the Lost.
Here's a review out today from The Bookworm. "Lyrical… and almost spellbinding… I enjoyed it because it wasn't what I expected." I'll take that! Thank you, Bookworm!


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Msdossary lifts FUT Champions Cup December trophy
This past weekend saw more competitive FIFA 19 action go down at London's Gfinity Arena, which hosted the FUT Champions Cup December, and it was Rogue's player Mosaad 'Msdossary' Aldossary who lifted the trophy to earn himself the first-place prize of $40,000 USD as well as 1,500 points, which are needed to climb the standings and qualify for future events.
While he will no doubt have been pleased to win the grand final against Nicolas 'Nicolas99FC' Villalba 8-3 in the end, us at home were treated to a much more entertaining Xbox final between him and young prodigy Donovan 'F2Tekkz' Hunt, where Msdossary claimed the win in the extra time portion of a tense and incredibly close battle.
This is just another trophy in the long list of successes for Msdossary, who stands alongside F2Tekkz (who win the Bucharest event a few weeks ago) as one of the best competitors in FIFA. Can they both continue to dominate into 2019 though?
Photo: Gfinity
FIFA 19 (Switch)
REVIEW. Written by Mike Holmes on the 28th of September 2018 at 10
"It's a solid football sim, make no mistake, but EA Sports is going to have to do better next year."
REVIEW. Written by Ricardo C. Esteves on the 19th of September 2018 at 13
"FIFA 18 was a phenomenal football game, and FIFA 19 follows suit, although not quite to the same degree."
MoAuba wins the FIFA eWorld Cup
ESPORTS. Written by Sam Bishop on the 5th of August 2019 at 11
He made history as the first German player to win the event, also sealing $250,000 with his victory over Msdossary.
Nicolas99FC wins as last 32 FIFA eWorld Cup Finals players confirmed
ESPORTS. Written by Sam Bishop on the 15th of July 2019 at 09
They will all be heading to London's O2 Arena next month, where the best of the best will collide.
FIFA 19 Global Series generates over 680 million mins watched
ESPORTS. Written by Sam Bishop on the 21st of June 2019 at 09
There's been an annual increase in viewership, which bodes well for the upcoming playoffs due to start next month.
TBS to show Eleague FIFA 19 Major finals program
ESPORTS. Written by Sam Bishop on the 31st of May 2019 at 09
This showcases the two finalists of the competition as well as behind-the-scenes footage from the high-stakes event.
FIFA 19's Premier League Team of the Season is here
NEWS. Written by Sam Bishop on the 21st of May 2019 at 14:32
Manchester City and Liverpool fought for the title, and several of their players appear on this list, as revealed via a new video.
War Child UK kits appear in FIFA 19
NEWS. Written by Sam Bishop on the 16th of May 2019 at 14:05
There's also a War Child FC Steam sale too, applying discounts to various other sporting titles from the likes of 2K, Milestone, and more.
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System: Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Developer: EA Sports
Release date: 28 September 2018
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Cannabis and Coronavirus
March 10, 2020 Business Insight , Cannabis
Yesterday, New Frontier Data responded to an "Ask Our Experts" submission on Monday regarding the impact of the COVID-19 virus on the cannabis market.
The response cited the March 7 assessment of 102,000 cases across 90 countries and approaching 3,500 deaths, most of which are in China.
"According to the New York Times, more than 760 million (approximately 54%) of the Chinese population are under quarantine or travel restrictions. Factories are shuttered. Businesses are closed… Factory activity fell to a record low in February, and the timeline to resume full production is uncertain."
New Frontier Data
Vape hardware has already been in short supply, as much of that is sourced from China.
Elizabeth Braw, Director of Modern Deterrence at the Royal United Services Institute wrote "Blindsided on the Supply Side" for ForeignPolicy.com last week, wherein she cites the effects of the Fukushima earthquake in 2011.
"Before the earthquake, the Fukushima region produced, amon other things, some 22 percent of the world's 300 millimeter silicon wafers, which are used in semiconductors; 60 percent of critical auto parts ; and a large share of lithium battery chemicals and the conductive film used in flat panel liquid crystal displays. Indeed the Japanese suppliers did sucha good job that countless global manfacturers had gone single source – that is, they were only using tthe Japanese firms. That's fine most of the time, but not when an earthquake strikes and renders factories unusable."
Elizabeth Braw, "Blindsided on the Supply Side" ForeignPolicy.com
Dun and Bradstreet released a special briefing called "Business Impact of the Coronavirus" in which they stated 51,000 businesses around the world have direct Tier 1 suppliers in the Wuhan region of China, including 163 of the Fortune 1000 companies. Further, they state at least 5 Million companies around the world have secondary suppliers in the region, including 938 of the Fortune 1000.
So what does that mean for Cannabis?
The New Frontier Data response lists a myriad of changes to the cannabis environment in the near future. After SXSW was canceled last week, it's not hard to imagine many more cannabis events around the country will follow suit.
"With over 100 major cannabis conferences scheduled for 2020, the impact of a sustained outbreak on conference and consumer event businesses could be acute. The timing of the outbreak, in the lead up to the busy April season for cannabis, many of the consumer focused 4/20 cannabis festivals may be postponed or canceled to minimize risk of community transmission."
There is certainly also the likelihood that cannatourism will slow considerably, given that people will be less likely to leave their homes.
There is no expectation that demand will decrease, but a near certainty that it will change. Customers may cut back, but it's more likely they'll begin to choose cheaper and longer lasting alternatives, avoiding frequent trips to replenish.
School closings will require employees to stay home, and those businesses will suffer because of lack of workers, while the workers will lose income as a result.
All in all, we have no choice but to sit and wait for it all to shake out before we truly know what the effects of this virus will be.
In the meantime, wash your hands.
coronavirusmarket
If you have a question, suggestion or a link share below!
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Issue 4 – February 2020
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The genteel façade of London's Hampstead is shattered by a series of terrifying murders, and the ensuing police hunt is threatened by internal politics and a burgeoning love triangle within the investigative team. Pressurised by senior officers desperate for a result a new initiative is clearly needed, but what?
Praised by fellow authors and readers alike, this is a truly original crime story, speaking to a contemporary audience yet harking back to the Golden Age of detective fiction. Intelligent, quirky and mannered, it has been described as 'a love letter to the detective novel'.
Above it all hovers Hampstead, a magical village evoking the elegance of an earlier time, and the spirit of mystery-solving detectives.


Stage view gives you the ability to set up a remote computer, netbook or smartphone to view the live service being displayed on the projection screen in an easy to read font on a black background. This is a text only viewer, tough it will show thumbnails of images and presentations.
The first step is to make sure the Remote plugin is activated. You can accomplish this by following the instructions in the Plugin List. The second step is to configure the settings you will use with the web browser. You can find these instructions and settings in Remote.
Open a web browser, type in the Stage View URL you found in Remote and press the Enter key. For this example we will use http://192.168.1.73:4316/stage. You will then be presented with the home page of the OpenLP Stage View. On most browsers you can press F11 to go into fullscreen mode.
At the top right hand side you will see the time of day. This can be changed from 12 hour to 24 hour format in Remote. If you added a note to the the song it will be the next line below the time. See Adding a Service Note for adding notes. Below the note will be the Bible or song verse numbers and one of those will be highlighted. The lyrics or verses highlighted below the verse numbers correspond to the highlighted verse number. In this example V1 is highlighted and the corresponding first verse below it is highlighted.
If there is an image, presentation or media being displayed you will see the title of the displayed item. Below the title will show the next item to be displayed in the Service Manager.
It is possible to create custom stage view with custom styles, javescript and html. To create a custom stage view, go to the OpenLP Data Folder by going to Tools ‣ Open Data Folder. Inside the data folder create a folder names stages. Inside the stages folder you can now create a folder which will be the name of your custom view, an example could be myview. Now copy stage.html, stage.css and stages.js from inside OpenLPs program folder openlp/plugins/remote/html/, and customize them to your needs. Remember to modify stage.html to the other files from the custom stage view folder, for instance stages/myview/stage.css for a custom stage.css.
To access the custom stage view in a browser go to http://myopenlpip:4316/stage/myview.
Live view gives you the ability to set up remote computers that will mirror what your projector is showing. The Live view basically works by taking screenshots of what the projector is showing and then presenting it in a browser. This means that audio and video playback will not be presented in the Live View.
Open a web browser, type in the Main View URL you found in Remote and press the Enter key. For this example we will use http://192.168.1.73:4316/main. You will then be presented with the home page of the OpenLP Live View. On most web browsers you can press F11 to go into fullscreen mode.


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Top Chef: Portland - Episode 12: The Cheesier the Better
By Jason Lee
This week's episode kicks off in the aftermath of the emotional elimination of Maria. Jamie confesses to the other remaining chefs that she feels like Maria "deserves another chance," and that she herself "got one already." Dawn, being the lovely person she is, takes Jamie aside and tells her, "you have to stop giving up your place, cause you deserve your place just like I do, just like Gabe does, just like Shota does." Jamie nods. Message received. It's a beautiful moment and one that showcases how amazing this season's cast is.
The moment is briefly interrupted by Padma walking into the Stew Room. The chefs' hackles are immediately up—is there another challenge that's starting now? Nope. Padma is simply here to tell them that tomorrow will feature the last Quickfire in the Top Chef Kitchen, and that afterwards, they'll be leaving Portland for the pacific coast.
When the chefs walk into the kitchen the next morning, it's decorated with wagons and cast iron skillets. "Rodeo?" I think to myself but Gabe correctly guesses that this is an Oregon Trail-themed Quickfire. Well done, sir.
Always ready with a pun, Padma tells them to "saddle up" for the last few legs of this journey. To accompany this portion of that leg is Vitaly Paley, an award-winning chef and pioneer of the Portland food scene. He'll help Padma and Gregory judge the dishes during this Quickfire, which will task the chefs with creating a modern dish using only the ingredients that people traveling the Oregon Trail would have had.
Accordingly, the pantry is off limits. All the chefs will have at their disposal are those ingredients that Oregon settlers had to work with. Shota thinks longingly of the soy sauce and miso that he can't use, while Dawn and Jamie wish for some type of fresh citrus. Meanwhile, Gabe is aiming for the win. He's been close many times in past Quickfires, but he hasn't yet gotten that "W."
After 30 minutes are up, Jamie is first with her dish. She offers a pan-seared salmon with a walnut pepper sauce. Gregory wants to know the identity of the acid he's tasting, and Jamie tells him that she used some cranberries and lemon oil. Vitaly asks about the crispy bits on top, and they're fried parsnips. It's clear that there's a lot to like, here.
Shota pureed some beef jerky to cure some salmon, which the pairs with a parsnip and apricot puree. It's an interesting approach.
Dawn offers a "trail ride" porridge with lots of fun toppings, including fire-roasted curry squash and a hazelnut bacon relish. Padma notes that 30 minutes is not a lot of time to cook that type of squash, and Dawn notes that it helps to have a woodfire oven.
Finally, Gabe offers each person a whole "campfire trout" with an "Oregon Trail salsa macha" on top. It looks absolutely gorgeous.
After the eating is done, Padma gets straight down to business. Shota and Dawn land in the bottom of the challenge, as Shota's fish ate a little dry and Dawn's porridge was too fishy overall. But Jamie and Gabe get props for their creative and modern dishes. Gabe brought a lot of technique to his dish and smartly used lard and citrus acid to create contrast. As for Jamie, she cooked her salmon beautifully and incorporated a lot of wonderful textural components.
Ever the bridesmaid, Gabe loses out on this Quickfire to Jamie. Teasing Jamie for her quirky personality, Padma mimics Jamie's typical celebration dance by doing a little "pew pew" motion as if she's shooting off two guns in glee. Jamie laughs and is happy to engage in her own encore of the dance.
With that, Vitaly exits stage left and our two guest judges for today's challenge, Dale and Ed Lee, enter stage right, wheeling in a big flat screen television. Apparently, they have a special message about today's challenge. It's from Massimo Bottura, a three-star Michelin chef who, in 2016, saw his restaurant honored as the best in the world. Massimo reminisces about one of his most famous dishes in which he used parmigiano reggiano in five different ways. He recalls how some people thought that he was ruining the cheese, but now, 20 years later, it's been declared the plate of the decade (don't ask me which decade).
For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs will have to do their best to follow in Massimo's footsteps, but with a decidedly more American cheese: Tillamook cheddar. Like Massimo, they'll have to find a way to incorporate the ingredient in five different ways. But unlike Massimo, they'll only have a day to conceptualize their dish.
To aid the chefs in that endeavor, Tillamook invites them to come tour their Tillamook Creamery, where they get up close and personal with Tillamook's cheese-making process. They sample the different products, marveling at the different flavors that emerge through the aging process. It's a slightly less awesome experience than the tour of Parma, Italy that Bryan, Kevin, Melissa, and Stephanie got to experience on the second season of Top Chef: All Stars.
Having tasted everything and had a night to contemplate their creations, each of our four finalists start in on making four very different dishes. Shota is struggling with figuring out how to incorporate cheese into his cooking. While Japan, as a nation, loves cheese (just Google "Arirang Hotdog" if you're interested in the latest cheese trend), it's not an ingredient in high-end Japanese cooking, which is subtle and restrained—two words that are not necessarily associated with cheese. Shota eventually settles on making some sort of cheese/dashi broth.
For his part, Gabe is trying to figure out how to make sure that cheese is the star of his dish. He decides to pair cheddar with its frequent dance partner, the humble apple. He's got some interesting ideas about "activating the pectin" in the apples so he can roast them without them falling apart. In terms of flavors, even though Mexican cuisine doesn't use a lot of cheddar, Tex Mex does, and Gabe is interested in heading in that direction.
Dawn is also heading in a more casual direction with her dish. She intends to make a high-end dish that uses as its starting point the flavors of the glorious Philly cheesesteak. Even though she'll be incorporating some complex techniques, like cooking rib eye steak via sous vide with cheese curds, the essence of the dish will harken back to remembered flavors from her hometown.
Finally, Jamie—who has an extra 30 minutes to cook by virtue of having won the Quickfire—is violating a cardinal cooking rule by combining cheese and fish. She knows that cheese can be a heavy ingredient and so she wants to pair it with something lighter like sea bass. It's a questionable choice, especially since it seems so far from the classic, homey Vietnamese flavors that Jamie does so well.
Eventually, Tom wanders into the kitchen—a rare occurrence this season. He quizzes Dawn on how she'll be using the cheddar in five ways in her dish, expresses skepticism about the lack of mole and chili in Gabe's description of his dish, is pleased by Shota stepping outside of his comfort zone in his dish, and arches one eyebrow in surprise when hearing that Jamie plans to combine cheddar (in five ways!) and sea bass. Though Tom may enjoy implanting second thoughts in his chefs' minds, there's no time for that this episode.
Before we know it, the All Star cast show up, including Nina Compton, the controversial runner-up in Top Chef: New Orleans (for my money, she should have beaten Nicholas Elmi in the finale). Setting the scene for tonight's dishes, Tom notes that success in the challenge depends as much on the chefs' respective thought processes as the actual cooking of their dishes.


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What Happens To Foreign Aid In A Trump Administration?
Marco Ugarte/AP Photo
A street vendor hawks a newspaper emblazoned with an image of Donald Trump with a clown's nose, and a headline that reads in Spanish: "We're screwed!," in front of the Angel of Independence monument, in Mexico City, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016. President-elect Trump's triumph over Hillary Clinton ends eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House. Trump has pledged to usher in sweeping changes to U.S. foreign policy, including building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Foreign aid makes up about one percent of the United States federal budget, supporting development programs and humanitarian initiatives in more than 100 countries. Programs focus on everything from sustainable agriculture to shelter for refugees.
Foreign assistance was not one President-elect Donald Trump's top campaign issues. He has promised to cancel payments to U.N. climate programs and has indicated he plans to focus his attention on domestic issues after his inauguration.
We take a look at how our foreign aid programs have changed under the Obama administration and what they might look like under Trump with Bill O'Keefe, vice president of government relations and advocacy at Catholic Relief Services, an international humanitarian aid agency.
#foreign aid
#humanitarian aid
Teaching Trump: One Post-Election Lesson Plan
Who Might Be In Donald Trump's Cabinet? Plus, More About The Transition
For Second Day, Protesters Gather Outside Trump Tower
Veterans' Support For Trump And Veterans' Health


"Thank you for all of your help in Buying my new home. You have been honest, reliable, kind, patient, helpful...the list goes on and on."
"It was such a pleasure working with you on the sale of my home. If you ever need a reference, just give them my name. I have only good things to say about you."
"I was very pleased with how the home was marketed. I believe that's what led to what I consider a quick sale!"
"I was not actively looking for a house at the time Linda mailed me some listings. One of those listings turned out to be the great house I'm now moving into. The entire experience has been very positive and painless."
"Linda was a great lady to work with, truly interested in what was going on about the property."
"Regarding all services that make a Realtor...Honesty, even though not always what we wanted to hear. Always doing what she said she would do and respected our schedule and privacy. Very very pleased!"


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Warsaw is an urban heat island
udra11 - Fotolia udra11 - Fotolia /
The urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon, which means that it is clearly warmer among the building than outside the city, occurs also in Warsaw. The effect is stronger where there is less green, according to researchers from the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Long-term earth studies conducted in various cities show that in built-up areas air temperature is higher than in suburban or rural areas. The difference may exceed 10 degrees Celsius. This phenomenon is called the "urban heat island".
"Be it the tropics or the polar regions, urban areas have a certain property. Within them there is a surplus of heated air in relation to the environment, natural and agricultural areas - explained Prof. Krzysztof Błażejczyk, bioclimatologist from the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization in Warsaw. - Meanwhile, the city structure interferes with the normal regulation of the heat exchange between the atmosphere and the ground. It is the result of dense, tall buildings and large areas of concrete or asphalt, which absorb heat during the day and return it at night."
"Urban heat island phenomenon is strongest in the summer, especially at night, but also early morning and before noon. This is when surfaces heated during the day return heat, warming their environment to temperatures higher than in suburban neighbourhoods. During the day, the mechanism loses its force, as the sun warms everything up equally" - said the professor.
Eople of Warsaw also experience this phenomenon, especially those living in densely built-up areas, where there is little greenery. "Long-term measurements show that the average temperature difference between the city centre and suburbs is about 2 degrees C. However, there are days when the difference exceeds 10 degrees!" - noted Prof. Błażejczyk.
It might seem that a 2 degrees increase in air temperature is not much. But especially during hot weather, each extra degree causes fatigue. "Our bodies lose their ability to regenerate during the night, when normally they need to cool down a little. Meanwhile, sometimes at night it is as hot as during the day. This could be detrimental to health" - said Prof. Błażejczyk.
Research shows that especially the elderly, the sick and young children have little tolerance for high ambient temperature and overheating the body. Statistics show that the incidence of hospitalisation may increase, as these conditions are favourable for heart and circulatory system diseases. Respiratory allergies also become more severe, as in warmer conditions plants begin to pollen more intensively.
Higher temperature within the city not only affects the health of residents, but also raises the economic (increased use of air conditioning), and even environmental costs (air conditioning in many buildings increases energy consumption). The urban heat island effect can still be combated. The easiest way are green areas, which is sufficiently large clusters reduce the effect and cool down the surrounding concrete.
"The larger the share of green spaces in the cities, the better - explained Dr. Magdalena Kuchcik from the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization. - All green is good: lawns, parks, avenues of trees, allotments, creepers on the walls, roofs transformed into gardens, even water resorvoires. It is best when plant species are varied: not only fashionable and easy to maintain creeping conifers, but also many deciduous plants."
Dr. Kuchcik and her colleagues assessed their actual impact on the environment by measuring day and night temperature and humidity at different locations in the capital. The results confirmed that the urban heat island effect is most intensive in the city centre, for example, at Hoża and Pańska, where the green covers only a few percent of the area, and temperature differences between day and night are the smallest. One of model residential areas, in turn, is at Bernardyńska street, near lake Czerniakowskie, with 67 percent green (most of the plants were planted there about 40 years ago). "The residential area warms up during the day, but beautifully cools down at night" - noted the researcher.
She also mentioned the area at. Włodarzewska street (41 percent green and the adjacent park). Unfortunately, in the opinion of Dr. Kuchcik the area was poorly designed. "Buildings face away from the park, and they are separated from it by a concrete fence. Cooling effect of the lush greenery at the estate is almost imperceptible. This is a wasted potential" - she explained.
Urban heat island phenomenon in selected cities of Central Europe (including Warsaw, Łódź, Budapest, Stuttgart and Vienna) is examined as oart of the international UHI - Urban Heat Island project (implemented within the framework of the EU Central Europe Programme). "The project aims to assess the problem in Central Europe and determine how strong this phenomenon is. It will help look for ways to reduce it" - explained Prof. Błażejczyk. The project will end in 2014.
Urban heat island phenomenon can be prevented mainly by spatial planning. South of Europe has extensive experience in this regard. There, building regulations are changed at the regional level, and the planners are forced to apply certain solutions, said Prof. Błażejczyk.
It does not always work in Poland. "Yes, there are some sensible planners who understand this phenomenon. Authorities, however, often find experts who do not see the problem. We know that the city needs to grow and expand. But we need to do it reasonably, preserve greenery, which we still have. Meanwhile, green areas that still remain are not legally protected from the temptations of investors, more and more are overtaken by developers. It is easy to cram a lot of houses and leave a piece of lawn, spo that everything looks good on paper. But, after all, people must live in such places"- said the expert from the Polish Academy of Sciences.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland, Anna Ślązak
zan/ agt/ mrt/
heat island
Huge bison herd spotted at the edge of the Białowieża Forest
Remains of 3,000-year-old settlement found in capital's Białołęka district
Photos of Warsaw at night from the ISS
Researcher: Warsaw in the 1990s - one of the most chaotic cities in Europe