text:
« The Audacity of Obama's Deficit Reduction Claims | Main | America can work out a system of health insurance without the interference of Obamacare »
David McIntosh - A Genuine Voice for Congress
One of the most interesting races in America will take place on May 8 in the Indiana Republican primary. David McIntosh, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 through 2001, is running for an open seat in the Fifth District.
Since the District is Republican, the winner of the primary is almost certain to win the seat in November.
Back in 1991, I worked with David McIntosh at the White House. He stood up for ordinary Americans in a city where ordinary Americans had little support.
I was working for President George H. W. Bush on the Domestic Policy Council and David was leading Vice President Dan Quayle's Competitiveness Council. We fought together for key issues such as regulatory reform and reducing the burden of government.
As our economy sputters, these issues are as vital today as they were 20 years ago.
Then, the American economy was suffering. Businesses across America and in Indiana were shutting down. Those staying in business were not hiring. The economy wallowed in recession.
The vast majority in Congress had a simple prescription: tax more, spend more, regulate more, and make more decisions in Washington. Like 17th century quacks carrying jars of leaches to suck the blood from an injured patient, the congressional majority marched ahead with its wrong-headed medicine, oblivious to the harm it caused. Powerful interests supported the Congressional majority.
A bad economy and bad economic policy hurts ordinary Americans the most. The salesman, the teacher, the truck driver, the store clerk, the receptionist, the factory worker: these are the hard-working ordinary Americans who are harmed by bad policies in Washington.
A few voices stood up to the congressional majority. Most were well-known, powerful voices. But in all of Washington, no voice rang more clearly and more consistently than that of the young man from Indiana, David McIntosh.
When anyone asked him how he knew the Congressional prescription of more taxes, more spending, and more regulation was wrong, David McIntosh had a simple answer: common sense.
The powerful interests in Washington scoffed at him and his Competitiveness Council. They said he was too young and inexperienced and powerless to stop the congressional majority intent on more taxes, more spending, more regulation, and more power in Washington.
But a miraculous event happened. David McIntosh and his Competitiveness Council succeeded beyond all expectations. As the result of his efforts, job-destroying environmental regulations were delayed. Other job-destroying regulations never happened. The congressional majority and their powerful backers were stunned.
When Mr. McIntosh ran for Congress from Indiana in 1994, you can be sure that the powerful interests that supported the Congressional majority were dead set against him. But when he was elected, the new Republican majority created a subcommittee on regulatory oversight just so that David McIntosh could have the rare distinction of being a freshman with a chairmanship. Imagine that: a freshman congressman from Indiana chairing a committee to reduce federal regulation.
But keeping a lid on overregulation was not all that David did. He put his sharp mind to work solving some of our nation's most difficult problems, such as our ballooning deficit and our broken welfare system. With David's support, the federal budget deficit shrank from a deficit of $164 billion when he entered Congress in 1995 to a surplus of $128 billion when he left in 2001.
If there were a movie made about Mr. McIntosh's times in Congress, Jimmy Stewart, if he were alive, should be the lead. No one could infuriate and confound the Washington establishment more.
Now Mr. McIntosh is running for Congress again. I know this: entrenched interests in Washington still want to tax more, to spend more, to regulate more, and to make more decisions in Washington. Those interests do not want David McIntosh and his values in Congress again. Soon, we will find out what the good folks of Indiana have to say about that.
May 3, 2012 Comments (0) | Permalink
Diana Furchtgott-Roth's blog
DIANA FURCHTGOTT-ROTH
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former chief of staff of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. From 2003 to 2005 she was chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor. Ms. Furchtgott-Roth is a contributing editor for RealClearMarkets.com and a columnist for The Examiner and for Tax Notes. She is editor of Overcoming Barriers to Entrepreneurship in the United States and coauthor of Women's Figures: An Illustrated Guide to the Economics Progress of Women in America. Ms. Furchtgott-Roth received degrees in economics from Swarthmore College and Oxford University.
Green cronyism is alive and well in the Obama administration
Has the time come for us to rethink green jobs policies?
Paul Ryan's rousing speech in Tampa has propelled the Medicare debate back into the spotlight
By choosing budget geek Paul Ryan as his running mate, Romney proves he's serious about economic reform
America can work out a system of health insurance without the interference of Obamacare
The Audacity of Obama's Deficit Reduction Claims
U.S. debt? There's an app for that
How to Get Warren Buffett to Pay His Fair Share
What are Rick Santorum's economic policies, and how would they help Americans?


text:
Gujarat Glows As Epicentre Of India's Development
Today, Gujarat leads the country as the No.1 destination for foreign direct investment. Official figures show Gujarat received the highest FDI during 2020-21 with a 37 percent share of the total such inflows, followed by Maharashtra (27 percent) and Karnataka (13 percent). Behind Gujarat's receipt of FDIs are its industrial and investment friendly policies
By: Nantoo Banerjee
Prime Minister Narendra Modi must be a very happy person today as his dream to make his home state Gujarat an epicentre of India's economic development has finally come true. Modi has been relentlessly trying to make Gujarat the country's choicest investment destination since he became the state's chief minister in 2001. Development of a state does not come easy under India's political system. No amount of enterprise, industrial infrastructure, proximity to raw materials and market matter if a state opposes the government at the centre. Few state leaders know this better than Modi, an advocate for "double engine growth" with a perfect centre-state political cum economic relation. Since 2014, his party has been ruling both the centre and Gujarat. Interestingly, Gujarat's all-India ranking, based on per capita state domestic product (GSDP) went up from 12th in 2000-01 to 4th in 2021-22. Although the credit substantially goes to Gujarat's highly ambitious businessmen, a strong support from the state and union governments has helped make it happen.
None of India's former prime ministers could match Modi's achievement in developing their home states. Not even Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh and Atal Behari Vajpayee. All of them served a full-term or more as the country's prime minister. Nehru, Gandhi and Vajpayee belonged to Uttar Pradesh, one of India's least developed large states. Narasimha Rao was from Andhra Pradesh. Octogenarian Singh hails from Punjab. However, this is not to suggest that those prime ministers held a holistic view of holding the country's interest ahead of their respective states of origin when it came to channelising investments, private or public, and economic development initiatives. Their policies and actions were mostly influenced by groups of highly politically connected and manipulative private business houses. The tradition continues.
Notably, Modi has been working selflessly for his home state for years. Today, Gujarat leads the country as the No.1 destination for foreign direct investment. Official figures show Gujarat received the highest FDI during 2020-21 with a 37 percent share of the total such inflows, followed by Maharashtra (27 percent) and Karnataka (13 percent). Behind Gujarat's receipt of FDIs are its industrial and investment friendly policies. Gujarat is a pioneer of New India's growth story, taking leadership in various sectors including oil refinery, petrochemicals, textiles, dyes and chemicals, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, shipping, ship breaking, steel making and gems and jewellery. The state is now focusing on computer software and hardware.
Last year, Gujarat led the country's rest of the states with a record 17.4 percent GSDP growth, the government said. The GSDP at current prices in 2021-22 was estimated at Rs 19,44,107 crore as against Rs 16,55,917 crore recorded in 2020-21. Gujarat's annual economic growth rate between 2011-22 is well over 12.19 percent. This is remarkable by any standard. Today, Gujarat boasts as many as 46 ports, the largest number in any state. Between April and November 2020, Deendayal (Kandla) Port handled 73.86 million tonnes of cargo traffic. The government has initiated a number of steps to develop a world-class port city at Mundra. The port has a cargo handling capacity of over 200 million tonnes per annum. Last year, the government announced plans to establish pilot projects for containers. It aims to receive an investment of Rs 1000 crore (US$ 137.91 million) from private players.
In fact, projects have been pouring into Gujarat, even through the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. ReNew Power announced plans to establish a solar component manufacturing unit in Gujarat at an initial investment of Rs 1,200 crore (US$ 165.49 million), which is likely to increase to Rs 2,000 crore (US$ 275.82 million). Coal India has signed a power purchase agreement with Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam for the sale of 100 MW solar powers to the company for 25 years. In May 2021, Nikhil Kamath, a co-founder of Zerodha, announced the launch of True Beacon Global, the first alternative investment fund (AIF) in Gujarat's GIFT City. In April 2021, the Singapore Stock Exchange announced the establishment of its offshore office at GIFT City. Among new landmark developments are the building of an international airport over some 1,500 hectares of land and India's largest green industrial smart city spreading over an area of 422 sq.km. Despite initial hiccups and delays in projects like GIFT City and Metro Rail, they are now set to be on fast track with the PM's blessings.
It is not surprising that Prime Minister Modi's home state has now emerged also as a preferred destination for defence manufacturing by private players. The Modi government granted a record 22 licences for defence production units in Gujarat ever since it assumed office in May 2014. Adani Defence Systems and Technologies is a prominent name in the list. Gujarat hardly saw any defence production proposal in the past, with Pipavav being the only major exception.
At a time when most other states are struggling to attract investments in manufacturing and infrastructure, Gujarat is flooded with such proposals under the Modi magic. It has become the darling of all major industrial houses of India, maybe because the government has been willing to give away state-controlled resources (land, gas, electricity, nearly interest-free loans etc.) to private corporations without letting public objections or bureaucracy get in the way. Environmental clearances have fallen victim to the rampant culture of crony capitalism in the state. At the special economic zone in Mundra in the Gulf of Kutch, the Adani Group leased 7,350 hectares from the Gujarat government at a rate of between one and 45 US cents per square metre for a 30-year renewable lease. In turn, the group had reportedly sublet the land to other companies, including state-owned Indian Oil, for as much as US$11 per square metre. The Adanis also developed on this land a coal-fired power plant, the largest coal import terminal in Asia, and a 40-mile railway line linking the port to the national network.
Yet, the fact remains that Gujarat is probably the country's most polluted state as declared by the Central Pollution Control Board in 2010. Due to critical levels of pollution, the union government's environment and forests ministry (MoEF) had banned all new projects and expansion of the existing ones in the industrial cluster of Vapi in Southern Gujarat. In 2012, the pollution control board declared the state's three prominent rivers as the country's most polluted ones. Last year, MoEF listed the Sabarmati as one of India's most polluted rivers. The unchecked flow of untreated industrial effluent into rivers in Gujarat has led to increasing pollution in the Sabarmati, Mahisagar, Narmada, Vishwamitri and Bhadar. Paradoxically, neither the government, nor the industry seems to be much concerned about these reports as both sides work together to make Gujarat the country's most preferred industrial investment destination. (IPA Service)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


GLASGOW GREEN. Cheap parking close to city centre.
GLASGOW. Cheap large parking in CBD.
GLASGOW. Cheap private parking, 20 mins to city centre.
GLASGOW. Cheap lock up parking, 10 mins walk from city centre.
GLASGOW. Cheap secure parking near City Centre.
Single Up and Over Garage Door - reduced to £40!


One of the most useful types of SEO tools is the word counter tool. This helps you determine the total number of words and characters you have used in a content without going through the hassle of counting them one by one. Within just a snap, you will immediately know how many words are there in a sentence, paragraph or article.
Just like other SEO tools, this one is also very easy to use. It can be used by both beginners and advanced users without the help of anyone. If you are still clueless on how to use this, then all you have to do is to copy your article in the box. Then, click enter. It will automatically count the number of words and characters in it.


text:
San Diego Police Searching for Suspect in Grant Hill Carjacking
Chris Jennewein / June 12, 2019
Police Wednesday were searching for a thief who pulled a 19-year-old woman out of her…
Firefighters Subdue Small Brush Fire Near Apartments in Grant Hill
Debbie L. Sklar / February 22, 2019
Firefighters extinguished a small brush fire that broke out Friday morning near apartments in the…
Stabbing During Gang Fight Leaves Man Gravely Injured in Grant Hill
Chris Jennewein / February 9, 2019
A 26-year-old man suffered life-threatening injuries in a roadside stabbing in Grant Hill that is…
Minor Injuries Reported in 2 Crashes Involving Police Curisers
Chris Jennewein / September 14, 2018
Several people suffered minor injuries in two unrelated collisions involving police cruisers in the Grant…
59-Year-Old Man Shot Twice in Grant Hill, Allegedly by His Girlfriend's Son
Chris Jennewein / September 1, 2018
A 59-year-old man was shot twice in the stomach, allegedly by his live-in girlfriend's 27-year-old…
Knife Man Told Grant Hill Girl, 13: Don't Scream or Report Robbery
Ken Stone / May 2, 2018
Authorities reached out to the public Wednesday for help in identifying and locating a thief…
Man Stabbed During Fight Outside Liquor Store in Grant Hill
Chris Jennewein / March 8, 2018
A 34-year-old man suffered a stab wound during a fight with another man in a…
SDSU's Steve Fisher Finally Eligible for Basketball Hall of Fame
Ken Stone / December 21, 2017
Recently retired San Diego State basketball coach Steve Fisher is eligible for selection to the…
Woman in Stolen Car with Child in Back Crashes During High-Speed Chase
Alexander Nguyen / November 14, 2017
A woman in a stolen car with a child in the back seat led police…
Teen Stabbed in Gang-Related Attack in Grant Hill
Debbie L. Sklar / April 14, 2016
A 17-year-old boy was stabbed in a gang-related attack in the Grant Hill neighborhood, police…
Missing Companion of Girl Shot in Grant Hill Found in Tijuana
Chris Jennewein / November 27, 2015
Missing 12-year-old Nelly Espinoza was found safe by her grandfather in Tijuana Friday following an international…
Funeral Set for 14-Year-Old Girl Shot Behind Grant Hill Apartment
Updated at 1 p.m. Nov. 25, 2015 San Diego Police renewed their call Wednesday for information about…
Autopsy: Girl Whose Body Was Found in Grant Hill Was Shot
A 14-year-old girl whose partially decomposed body was found last week in a canyon behind…
Autopsy Planned after Woman's Body Found Behind Grant Hill Apartments
An autopsy is planned Thursday on a partially decomposed female body found behind an apartment complex in…


text:
Sandy Hook Lawsuit: Judge Rules Against Gun Companies
By Michele Gorman On 4/14/16 at 12:53 PM EDT
Stuffed animals left by mourners sit beneath some of the wooden angel figures placed beside a road near Sandy Hook Elementary School for the victims of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 16, 2012. A judge on Thursday ruled against three gun companies in their motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by families affected by the massacre. Mike Segar/Reuters
U.S. Newtown PLCAA Connecticut Guns
In a major blow to gun companies, a judge in Connecticut on Thursday denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by 10 families affected by the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School against the maker of the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle used in the shooting.
The three gun companies named in the case had argued for the lawsuit to be dismissed under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, or PLCAA for short. It's a 2005 federal law that provides gun businesses general immunity from civil lawsuits. Connecticut State Judge Barbara Bellis rejected the gun companies' motion.
The families are suing the maker, distributor and seller of the rifle, which the gunman used to kill 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, in less than five minutes on December 14, 2012. They argue the rifle shouldn't have been entrusted to the general public because it is a military-style assault weapon that is unsuited for civilian use. They say the gun companies knew—or should have known—about the high risks posed by the weapon, including the ability for a shooter to use it to inflict maximum casualties and serious injury.
"We are thrilled that the gun companies' motion to dismiss was denied. The families look forward to continuing their fight in court," Josh Koskoff, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, said in a statement.
The families and attorneys for the three gun companies had met for a crucial hearing on February 22. The defense lawyers had argued to dismiss the lawsuit, saying their clients are shielded by PLCAA, which prevents gun violence victims from taking legal action against firearms distributors whose weapons are used in crimes and fatal shootings.
The Sandy Hook case names Remington Arms Co., the manufacturer of the weapon, as well as Camfour Inc., a distributor of firearms, and Riverview Gun Sales, the now-defunct dealer in East Windsor, Connecticut, that sold the rifle to the shooter's mother in 2010.
PLCAA has been a hot-button issue in the Democratic presidential race. Hillary Clinton has called out Bernie Sanders multiple times for his vote in support of PLCAA when he was a member of the House. As a senator from New York at the time, Clinton had voted against it. Sanders continues to defend his decision to support the measure, citing his ties to Vermont and wish to protect mom-and-pop gun shops from legal action. He also cites his D-minus rating from the National Rifle Association, which he says shows he isn't a friend to the gun lobby.
Sanders's interview with the New York Daily News earlier this month struck a chord with many Americans when the editorial board asked him about the Sandy Hook lawsuit and whether he thinks the victims of a gun-related crime should be able to sue the manufacturer.
"No, I don't," he said, explaining that he doesn't think a dealer should face a lawsuit for selling a gun legally to a customer who then misuses the weapon in a crime.
"But I do believe that gun manufacturers and gun dealers should be able to be sued when they should know that guns are going into the hands of wrong people," he added.
Sanders's remarks weren't different from those he made previously on the campaign trail. But they caused a stir as the presidential race converged on New York for its April 19 primary. Connecticut residents also will vote soon, on April 26. Both states have some of the country's strictest gun laws.
Bellis's decision came just hours before the Democrats will face off in a debate in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, less than 100 miles from where the massacre took place at Sandy Hook Elementary.
After the hearing in February, Bellis set April 19 as her deadline to rule on the case. The two sides are expected to meet next on Tuesday afternoon.
Bernie Sanders Faces Mounting Criticism on Guns
Two Sandy Hook Parents Call Out Sanders on Gun Comments
Gunmaker Argues Immunity in Sandy Hook Lawsuit
Where the Gun Law Backed by Sanders Could Fail


The Metropolitan Nashville Public School (MNPS) district in Tennessee serves 83,000 students in more than 150 schools.
True 21st Century literacy extends beyond the ability to read: it's the development of essential skills to gain more meaning from life, through effective communication, digital proficiency, and the ability to research, understand, evaluate and analyze information in all its forms.
And there happens to be one place in most every school where different types of 21st Century learning come together: knowledge building, research skills, digital literacy, content creation, and a number of other integrated learning experiences.
It's called the school library.
Across the country, school libraries are evolving from the traditional book repository model into modern learning commons: transforming from less of a literature "grocery store" into a dynamic kitchen of learning, where students can create most any learning experience imaginable.
One school district in particular is blazing trails in innovative library and media center design: Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools.
Walking into one of the libraries in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School district is like walking into an elegant café for kids, filled with child-friendly furniture, cozy reading nooks, self-checkout stations, ample collaborative spaces, and the palpable energy of learning. The atmosphere is inviting, engaging and comfortable. It's immediately clear that students are thoroughly engrossed by a learning experience clearly designed with them in mind.
Ham's primary goal is to ensure that the libraries in her district aren't simply large rooms housing hundreds of books. This is why MNPS is making significant investments in technology and renovation.
In late 2014, then-Nashville mayor Karl Dean dedicated newly renovated school libraries at MNPS's Apollo Middle Prep and DuPont Tyler Middle Prep. Both libraries were modernized as part of Limitless Libraries, a joint program between the Mayor's Office, Nashville Public Library and Metro Schools.
"School libraries should be places where students want to go to learn and explore, and these libraries are what an inviting, welcoming school library should look like," Mayor Dean said at the event.
The library spaces at the schools were modernized with the addition of second- floor maker spaces: design and invention areas equipped with 3D printers, computer stations, invention kits, and film production equipment, as well as tools for other creative activities.
Though maker spaces aren't necessarily dedicated spaces in all of the district's libraries, all of Metro Nashville's elementary school libraries—for example—can accommodate small or large maker spaces. What is exactly in those spaces is dictated by the students, whether that's technology-related, craft- or science-related or any hands-on creation station.
The district's larger high school libraries have two or three instructional areas to accommodate both group work and individual study. There is one space in the secondary librarians' office, where they've put a large table for librarians to collaborate with teachers so that the district's library spaces aren't just serving students, but serving everyone.
As Director of Library Services, Ham oversees district school library programs from the central office standpoint. She performs evaluations, plans teams for school library redesign projects, partners with the National Public Library, is in charge of the Professional Development plan for her libraries, and oversees the district's Integrated Library System. She has three staff members and oversees over 130 librarians across 125 libraries.
The Learning Technology and Library Services department helps Metropolitan Nashville Public School to implement technology integration and blended learning within their buildings, ensuring that all of the district's school libraries have high quality collections and engaging learning environments. The department also has a team of people working with schools on design and build phases. The library services team works with architects on the design of the spaces and then with interior designers on the selections: everything from fabric to furniture to fixtures to floor coverings. Mandatory requirements for district libraries include story-time and rug areas in the district's elementary school libraries, dedicated instructional spaces, and no rows of wired computer labs.
Another key aspect of the district's building and renovation cycle is the Planning and Construction office. The office keeps projects within budget while offering alternative resources and partnerships if necessary. Library Services also surveys students to ask what color schemes and other items they'd like to see in their libraries. While lot of what students ask for isn't always possible, it's reaffirming for Library Services to see exactly what students want. Community is also a prime consideration when planning library spaces.
Apart from evolving the function and expectation of school library spaces, Metropolitan Nashville Public School district is also evolving the role and perception of school librarians. Ham sees the collaboration between librarians and teachers as particularly crucial. The district expects librarians to attend team meetings and usually these meetings are instructional. That way, librarians can better help teachers with their curriculum, and provide the perspective and support to make the learning experience better for students.
In the 1940s, Italian educator Loris Malaguzzi stated: "There are three teachers of children: adults, other children, and their physical environment," the latter of which—this physical space— is often referred to as "the Third Teacher".
Today's libraries are in an ideal position to become this "Third Teacher": providing a variety of spaces for collaborating, independent study, or socializing. If designed with foresight, creativity and perseverance, these spaces can motivate learners, support collaborative and formal practice, and adapt to the changing needs of the school community. But while a school library or media center can take on multiple incarnations, a modern learning environment must feature open, inviting and stimulating spaces so that students are fully engaged in their learning. This helps to facilitate a participatory learning culture and build inter-disciplinary real-world problem solving capabilities.
But where should today's librarians and administrators even begin when considering updating or completing renovating their libraries?


text:
Very Best of FB
New Science of Everything FB Page
Alternative History FB
New History Researchers Facebook Posts
Javanese Pyramid FB posts
Gobekli Tepe FB posts
More Alternative History
Alternative Science FB
Free Energy Pages posts
Funky FB science posts
Unsolved Mysteries FB
UFO Alien Disclosure
Giants on Earth FB posts
Crop Circles FB pages
Economics & Society FB
Alternative Economics FB pages
New Economics related FB posts
Our visit to Gosford Hierogliphics
Gunung Padang FB posts
Pyramids and Egypt FB posts
Pyramids in China
Ancient Aliens FB posts
Crop Circles FB posts
UFO Alien Disclosure FB posts
UFOs Aliens ETs
A New Science of Everything Curated FB…
Rupert Sheldrake and Morphogenetic…
Nassim Haramein FB posts
Resonance Foundation FB Posts
Science magazine FB posts
64 Tetrahedron Grid
Vector Equilibrium
Alternative Economics FB posts
RussellBrand
testingjs
Our Sacred Geometry Shop
Who Built the Moon?
WHO BUILT the moon? It shapes our lives, governs our behaviour and keeps the Earth on an even keel. Now a new book poses the mind-boggling question:
Byline: JONATHAN FOREMAN
MAN HAS always been fascinated by the Moon, and viscerally aware of its powers. Cavemen tracked its movements on cave walls. Stone circles were built to reflect its rhythms, and the cult of Moon Goddess is thought to have dominated humanity for thousands of years.
Primitive tribes as distant as Mexico and Mesopotamia worked out that the Moon's movements influenced the tides and correlated with women's menstrual cycles – indeed, most civilisations until ours had used lunar months to measure time.
Even today, seeds are sown by ' biodynamic' farmers in Germany – and by the Prince of Wales at one of his Gloucestershire farms – at certain times of the lunar cycle in the belief that crops grow better 'in the face of the moon'.
Early man was terrified by eclipses and pondered the strange way the Moon mirrored the Sun. The Sun is at its lowest and weakest in midwinter at the very time when the full moon is at its highest and brightest, and the reverse in midsummer.
Many cultures attribute supernatural powers to the Moon: staring at it could send you mad (hence the word lunatic), and full moons could trigger transformations into werewolves and vampires.
Some observers claim there is a significant increase in violent crime and animal bites at the full moon even today, and psychiatric visits increase at the same time.
But is the Moon the key to the very evolution of the human race and human civilisation? That is the startling conclusion of a new book which claims, incredibly, that the Moon is, in fact, an artificial construction.
In other words, it is not like other celestial bodies – the planets, the stars, suns and asteroids – formed by natural processes. Someone or something made it, and placed it in the heavens.
Hokum? Certainly the book's authors, Ian Butler and Christopher Knight, are arch conspiracy theorists, having previously written books about the Masons, the Knights Templar, and the Holy Grail.
They claim the Moon was manufactured by what they call an 'Unknown Creative Agency', primarily to serve as an ' incubator' for life on Earth.
You can almost hear the guffaws of professional scientists, but some of the authors' arguments, though outlandish, are thought-provoking. The Moon has been described by astronomers as 'one of the most peculiar bodies in the solar system', and its origins have long been debated.
Most scientists believe it was formed when an object the size of Mars smashed into the Earth 4.6 billion years ago. The bits of Earth knocked into space eventually formed a sphere – as do all large objects under force of gravity – and began to orbit Earth.
The authors call this the 'Big Whack' theory, and have strong doubts about it. Their main objection is that the Moon is made of the same materials as the Earth, and seems to contain no rock from any object or objects that might have hit it.
They also cast doubt on the theory used to explain the Moon's position, that of 'double impact'.
This holds that the moon was created by the impact of a Marssized object and was then bashed into by a second body coming from another direction, sending it spinning around the Earth in the direction it follows today.
That would be a most extraordinary coincidence, Knight and Butler point out.
As is the fact that this second object also left no unfamiliar materials on the moon. Whatever their difference over the Moon's origins, scientists would generally agree with Knight and Butler that its existence is crucial for intelligent life on Earth – for several reasons.
Most importantly, the Moon's gravitational pull stabilises the axial tilt of the Earth – meaning that the Earth doesn't wobble more wildly on its axis.
FOR IF the Earth weren't at the exact angle it is in relation to the Sun – if it were upright like Mercury, for example – there would probably be no seasons, and extreme variations in temperature. Our oceans would be frozen, but the equatorial regions would be too hot to sustain life.
As it is, the Earth's position and angle of tilt in relation to the Sun allows a comfortably narrow band of temperatures and an average temperature of 14.5C (58F).
Scientists also believe the ebb and flow of tides on Earth caused by the Moon's gravity have played a vital role in evolution. The first organisms to come out of the oceans and live on land were probably mollusc-like creatures stranded in rock pools at low tide.
And four billion years ago, when the newly-formed Moon was much closer to the Earth than it is now, massively stronger tides may have caused fluctuations in the salt content of sea water, causing 'double-stranded 'DNA molecules – the key to all life on Earth – to form out of more primitive singlestranded ones.
Even today the lunar tides exert a powerful influence on global climate.
It is also accepted that the Moon's gravitational force has slowed the spin of the Earth.
If the Moon did not exist, the Earth would spin so fast that a day would take about eight hours.
Butler and Knight argue that with such quick days, and the constant interruptions of equally fleeting nights, complex life forms would not have evolved on our planet.
The authors argue that all these effects depend on the Moon being the exact size that it is, and being in the exact position that it is between the Earth and the Sun, and that this simply cannot be just a fortunate fluke. Above all, they point to what happens during-a total eclipse of the sun – such as the one in Britain on August 11, 1999 – when the Moon, as seen from Earth, appears to be exactly the same size as the far larger Sun.
This might seem to be a happy coincidence, an optical illusion with no purpose, but the authors believe that it is more significant.
It derives from the fact that the Moon is 1/400th the diameter of the Sun, yet the Moon is 400 times closer to Earth than the Sun.
This breathtakingly neat symmetry, say the authors, is a mathematical 'letter from the stars' to the human race from the Unknown Creative Agency – a celestial clue that this has all been carefully designed for our benefit.
One of the more bizarre-sounding suggestions made by Butler and Knight is that the Moon is hollow like the Star Wars' Death Star. Though this idea may sound laughable, scientists accept that the Moon is only about 60 per cent as dense as the Earth – and only 3.3 times denser than water.
The authors' contention that it is completely hollow is based on an incident during the Apollo 13 mission, the Moon landing that almost ended in tragedy when some of the spaceship's oxygen tanks exploded.
After the astronauts had overcome their ship's problems and were on their way back to Earth, a disposable section of the rocket that had brought them there was jettisoned and crashed on the Moon's surface. This 15-ton piece of metal landed close to where a previous Moon mission had established a seismometer – an instrument similar to that used to measure earthquakes. NASA documents quoted by Knight and Butler say that 'The Moon rang like a bell' after being struck, and reverberations lasted for three hours.
According to the authors, space scientists have ignored this supposed 'evidence' of lunar hollowness merely because there is no way that a naturally-formed satellite could be hollow.
So who could have been the architect of this extraordinary, hollow, artificial moon? Knight and Butler believe that there are three candidates: God, extraterrestrials, or human beings who travelled back in time.
The authors think that God is just too easy an answer. They cannot understand how a deity as traditionally conceived would go to the trouble of creating a moon to encourage human life and then allow natural disasters like tsunamis to wipe it out.
ALIENS are seen as more likely moon-makers. But the problem with this explanation is that any possible extraterrestrial life-form would have had to come from so far away that, even with faster-than-light travel, it would take millions of years to get to Earth.
It would be impossible for a civilisation that far away to monitor the development of life on Earth, and Knight and Butler believe that whoever or whatever made the Moon was also a fairly frequent visitor to this planet, 'seeding' our earliest civilisations.
It is for this reason that the authors go for the third option: time-travelling human beings.
Somehow our descendants in the distant future discovered the secret of time travel and came back through black holes, parallel universes or 'wormholes' to a time when our planet was just a 'young lump of unstratified matter' and made the Moon.
Unfortunately, the authors fail to explain why we would have to go back through time to create ourselves and our planet (or why the humans from the future don't just turn up again and give us the cure to the common cold).
If this all sounds rather more like science fiction than science, it's because it is.
Certainly much about the Moon is strange and wonderful and there is much about evolution that we do not understand.
Moreover, there is often a value in examining things 'outside the box' and Butler and Knight's book does throw up some tantalising facts and paradoxes.
But it's also worth remembering the advice of one scientist who said it's important to keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.
* WHO BUILT THE MOON?
by Alan Butler and Christopher Knight, is published by Watkins Publishing
Foster Gamble Interview – Thrive & the Flower of Life
Nexus Article
Water as a fractal of the Unified Field dynamics
Is Gunung Padang the worlds oldest pyramid ?
Planet of the Megaliths
Gaia Satellite Scanning
Australian Hieroglyphics
History of Oil – Black Humor
Origami for the 21st Century
Papaji – Call Off The Search
Homepage | Articles | Our FB Posts | Contact.


It can be difficult to use some types of bedding with bed frames that include side rails in addition to the head and foot boards. This is a guide about choosing bedding for a sleigh bed.
I just bought a sleigh bed with the footboard and also a board on each side of the bed (one end is attached to the headboard and the end is attached to the footboard). Now I am having problems trying to get my dust ruffle and comforter to fit properly. The dust ruffle will not fit right because of the side boards and the comforter won't fit properly because of the footboard. Do you have any suggestions or would it be easier to use a bedspread?
The decorating shows that I have seen on TV, when they have that type of bed, they don't use a dust ruffle, and usually tuck the sides of the comforter under the edge of the mattress.


text:
Paradise Towers
Julie Brennan (Fire Escape), Richard Briers (Chief Caretaker), Brenda Bruce (Tilda), Howard Cooke (Pex), Judy Cornwall (Maddy), Catherine Cusack (Blue Kang Leader), Clive Merrison (Deputy Chief Caretaker), Elizabeth Spriggs (Tabby), Annabel Yuresha (Bin Liner).
Written by Stephen Wyatt
Directed by Nicholas Mallett
Deciding to take a holiday, the Doctor and Mel go to Paradise Towers. Upon their arrival, however, they find the famed complex in ruins. It transpires that, long ago, the adults all went off to fight a war and never returned. Now the only ones left are the Kangs, riotous gangs of teenaged girls; the Rezzies, cannibalistic old women; the Caretakers, who ostensibly look after the Towers; and the cowardly Pex, who had been too scared to go off to war. But another entity also lurks in Paradise Towers: Kroagnon, the building's architect, who has taken mental possession of the Chief Caretaker and the cleaning robots in an attempt to rid his creation of human life forever.
Nisha Nayar, an uncredited extra playing one of the Red Kangs, later appeared in a more substantial speaking part as the Female Programmer in the 2005 two-part story "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways". This made her the second performer to appear in both the classic and new series of Doctor Who.
Julie Brennon, who played Fire Escape, was married At The time to Mark Strickson, who had been the Fifth Doctor's companion Vislor Turlough.
Features a guest appearance by Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker who also later appears in the Torchwood episode A Day in the Death as Henry Parker. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.
Clive Merrison previously played Jim Callum in The Tomb of the Cybermen.
Kroagnon was also responsible for Golden Dream Park, the Bridge of Perpetual Motion and Miracle City.
The TARDIS swimming pool was leaking and has been jettisoned.
There is, according to the Doctor, a spectacular pool on the planet Griophos, although it is for the exclusive use of the Gulmeri, flesh eating octopi.
The Robotic Self activating Megapodic Mark 7Z Cleaners have oxymotive blades.
The Doctor describes an antique telephone as a splendid piece of audioarchitectonicalmetrasynchosity.
Kroagnon 'transplants' his brain into the Chief Caretaker's body via corpoelectroscopy.
A 327 appendix 3, subsection 9 death is a form of execution listed in the Paradise Towers Caretakers' rulebook.
Order Paradise Towers BBC DVD Page


text:
The Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (Scotland) Regulations 2010
Executive Note
Open Instrument without Schedules
There are outstanding changes not yet made by the legislation.gov.uk editorial team to The Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (Scotland) Regulations 2010. Any changes that have already been made by the team appear in the content and are referenced with annotations.
Changes and effects yet to be applied to Schedule 7:
Sch. 7 para. 8(4) omitted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(4)(c)
Sch. 7 para. 2 substituted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(2)
Sch. 7 para. 8(5) substituted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(4)(d)
Sch. 7 para. 13(1) substituted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(8)
Sch. 7 para. 16(2)(a) substituted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(9)
Sch. 7 para. 12(a) word omitted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(7)(a)
Sch. 7 para. 11(2)(a) word substituted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(6)
sch. 7 para. 8(3)(c) word substituted by S.S.I. 2019/71 reg. 27(6)(b)
sch. 7 para. 9(3)(b)(iii) word substituted by S.S.I. 2019/71 reg. 27(6)(c)
sch. 7 para. 15 heading word substituted by S.S.I. 2019/71 reg. 27(6)(d)
sch. 7 para. 15 word substituted by S.S.I. 2019/71 reg. 27(6)(e)(ii)
Sch. 7 para. 6 words inserted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(3)
Sch. 7 para. 8(1) words inserted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(4)(a)(i)
Sch. 7 para. 8(2)(b) words inserted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(4)(b)
Sch. 7 para. 8(1) words omitted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(4)(a)(ii)
sch. 7 para. 1 words omitted by S.S.I. 2019/71 reg. 27(6)(a)
sch. 7 para. 15 words omitted by S.S.I. 2019/71 reg. 27(6)(e)(i)
Sch. 7 para. 9(4) words substituted by S.S.I. 2019/412 reg. 28(4)
Changes and effects yet to be applied to the whole Instrument associated Parts and Chapters:
Whole provisions yet to be inserted into this Instrument (including any effects on those provisions):
Sch. 1(d) words substituted by S.S.I. 2019/412 reg. 28(3)
Sch. 7 para. 12(c) and word inserted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(7)(b)
Sch. 7 para. 12A inserted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(7)(b)
Sch. 7 para. 19 inserted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 9(10)
reg. 15(1)(e)(f) inserted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 5(2)(b)
reg. 15(3)(i)-(k) inserted by S.S.I. 2019/118 reg. 5(3)(b)
reg. 16(2)(a)(ii) words substituted by S.S.I. 2015/100 art. 2 Sch. para. 26
Regulation 5(f)
SCHEDULE 7SSpecified risk material, mechanically separated meat and slaughtering techniques
This schedule has no associated Executive Note
[F1Appointment of Food Standards Scotland as the competent authority]S
1. The [F2Food Standards Scotland] must carry out the duties placed on the Member State in point 11.1 and point 11.2 of Annex V (removal of specified risk material) to the EU TSE Regulation in relation to this Schedule and may grant authorisations for the purposes of point 4.3(a) of that Annex (controls).
F1Sch. 7 para. 1 heading substituted (1.4.2015) by The Food (Scotland) Act 2015 (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Order 2015 (S.S.I. 2015/100), arts. 1(2), 2, sch. para. 26
F2Words in Sch. 7 para. 1 substituted (1.4.2015) by The Food (Scotland) Act 2015 (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Order 2015 (S.S.I. 2015/100), arts. 1(2), 2, sch. para. 26
2. The occupier of any slaughterhouse or cutting plant where specified risk material is removed must—
(a)ensure that staff receive any training necessary to ensure that the occupier complies with the occupier's duties under this Schedule; and
(b)keep records of each person's training for as long as that person works there,
and failure to do so is an offence.
Mechanically separated meatS
3.—(1) Any person who fails to comply with point 5 of Annex V to the EU TSE Regulation (measures concerning mechanically separated meat) is guilty of an offence.
(2) Any person who uses any mechanically separated meat produced in contravention of that point in the preparation of any food for sale for human consumption or of any feedingstuffs is guilty of an offence.
PithingS
4. Any person who fails to comply with point 6 of Annex V to the EU TSE Regulation (measures concerning laceration of tissues) is guilty of an offence.
Tongue harvestingS
5. Any person who fails to comply with point 7 of Annex V to the EU TSE Regulation (harvesting of tongues from bovine animals) is guilty of an offence.
Head meat harvestingS
6. Any person who fails to comply with point 8.1 of Annex V to the EU TSE Regulation (harvesting of bovine head meat) is guilty of an offence.
Removal of specified risk materialS
7.—(1) Any person who removes specified risk material at any premises or place other than premises or a place where that specified risk material may be removed under point 4.1 or point 4.3(a) of Annex V to the EU TSE Regulation (removal of specified risk material) is guilty of an offence.
(2) In the case of a cutting plant, it is an offence to remove—
(a)any part of the vertebral column that is specified risk material from any bovine animal unless the plant is authorised under paragraph 13(1)(a); or
(b)the spinal cord from any sheep or goat aged over 12 months at slaughter, or that has a permanent incisor erupted through the gum, unless the plant is authorised for the purpose of such removal under paragraph 13(1)(b).
Bovine animals in a slaughterhouseS
8.—(1) When a bovine animal is slaughtered in a slaughterhouse or the carcase of a bovine animal is transported to a slaughterhouse following emergency slaughter elsewhere, the occupier of the slaughterhouse must remove all specified risk material (other than those parts of the vertebral column that are specified risk material and specified risk material contained in or attached to offal) as soon as is reasonably practicable after slaughter and in any event before post-mortem inspection.
(2) The occupier must—
(a)as soon as reasonably practicable after post mortem inspection, consign any offal that has been removed from the carcase and that contains or is attached to specified risk material to an appropriate area of the slaughterhouse; and
(b)as soon as reasonably practicable after the offal is consigned there and in any event before the offal is removed from the slaughterhouse, remove the specified risk material.
(3) The occupier must as soon as is reasonably practicable after slaughter consign any meat containing those parts of the vertebral column that are specified risk material to—
(a)a cutting plant authorised under paragraph 13(1)(a);
(b)a cutting plant located in another part of the United Kingdom and authorised under the corresponding provision applicable in that part; or
(c)another Member State in accordance with point 10.2 of Annex V to the EU TSE Regulation (rules on trade and export).
(4) The occupier must identify meat containing vertebral column that is not specified risk material in accordance with point 11.3(a) of Annex V (controls) to the EU TSE Regulation and provide information in accordance with point 11.3(b) of that Annex.
(5) No person may include a blue stripe in the label referred to in Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No. 1760/2000 F3 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No. 820/97 F4, except in accordance with point 11.3(a) of Annex V to the EU TSE Regulation.
(6) Failure to comply with this paragraph is an offence.
F3O.J. No. L 204, 11.8.2000, p.1, last amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 1791/2006 (O.J. No. L 363, 20.12.2006, p.1).
F4O.J. No. L 117, 7.5.1997, p.1.
Sheep and goats in a slaughterhouseS
9.—(1) When a sheep or goat is slaughtered in a slaughterhouse or the carcase of a sheep or goat is transported to a slaughterhouse following emergency slaughter elsewhere, the occupier of the slaughterhouse must remove all specified risk material (other than the spinal cord and specified risk material contained in or attached to offal) as soon as is reasonably practicable after slaughter and in any event before post-mortem inspection.
(3) In the case of a sheep or goat aged over 12 months at slaughter, or that has a permanent incisor erupted through the gum, the occupier must as soon as is reasonably practicable after slaughter—
(a)remove the spinal cord at the slaughterhouse before the post-mortem inspection; or
(b)send the meat to—
(i)a cutting plant authorised under paragraph 13(1)(b);
(ii)a cutting plant located in another part of the United Kingdom and authorised under the corresponding provision applicable in that part; or
(iii)in accordance with point 10.1 of Annex V to the EU TSE Regulation (rules on trade and export), a cutting plant located in another Member State, provided that the [F5Food Standards Scotland] has entered into a written agreement with the competent authority of the receiving Member State and the dispatch is in accordance with that agreement.
(4) In sub-paragraph (3)(b)(iii), "cutting plant" means an establishment—
(a)approved or conditionally approved as such under Article 31(2) of Regulation 882/2004 (registration/approval of feed and food business establishments); or
(b)operating as such under Article 4(5) of Regulation 853/2004 (registration and approval of establishments) pending such approval.
F5Words in sch. 7 para. 9(3)(b)(iii) substituted (1.4.2015) by The Food (Scotland) Act 2015 (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Order 2015 (S.S.I. 2015/100), arts. 1(2), 2, sch. para. 26
Bovine animals, sheep and goats in other places of slaughterS
10.—(1) When a bovine animal, sheep or goat is slaughtered in a place that, for the purposes of point 4(1)(a) of Annex V to the EU TSE Regulation (removal of specified risk material), is an other place of slaughter, the person carrying out the slaughter must remove all specified risk material as soon as is reasonably practicable after slaughter.
Young lamb and goat stampsS
11.—(1) An inspector may stamp a sheep or goat in a slaughterhouse with a young lamb stamp or a young goat stamp if the animal does not have a permanent incisor erupted through the gum and the documentation, if any, relating to the animal does not indicate that it is aged over 12 months at slaughter.
(2) The stamp must mark the meat with a circular mark 5 centimetres in diameter with the following in capital letters one centimetre high—
(a)"MHS"; and
(b)in the case of—
(i)a sheep, "YL"; or
(ii)a goat, "YG".
(3) It is an offence for any person other than an inspector to apply the stamp or a mark resembling the stamp, or to possess the equipment for applying it.
(4) It is an offence to mark a sheep or goat with a stamp that is or resembles a young lamb stamp or a young goat stamp unless it is an animal permitted to be marked in accordance with sub-paragraph (1).
Removal of spinal cord from sheep and goatsS
12. It is an offence to remove the spinal cord or any part of it from a sheep or goat aged over 12 months at slaughter or that had one or more permanent incisors erupted through the gum (other than for the purposes of veterinary or scientific examination) except by—
(a)longitudinally splitting the whole vertebral column; or
(b)removing a longitudinal section of the whole vertebral column including the spinal cord.
[F6Authorisation of cutting plants by Food Standards Scotland] S
13.—(1) The [F7Food Standards Scotland] may authorise a cutting plant to remove—
(a)those parts of the vertebral column of bovine animals that are specified risk material; or
(b)the spinal cord from sheep and goats aged over 12 months at slaughter, or that have a permanent incisor erupted through the gum,
if the Agency is satisfied that the provisions of Annex V to the EU TSE Regulation (specified risk material) and this Schedule will be complied with.
(2) The procedures in regulations 6, 8, 9 and 10 apply, with references to the Scottish Ministers being construed as references to the [F8Food Standards Scotland].
F6Sch. 7 para. 13 heading substituted (1.4.2015) by The Food (Scotland) Act 2015 (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Order 2015 (S.S.I. 2015/100), arts. 1(2), 2, sch. para. 26
F7Words in sch. 7 para. 13(1) substituted (1.4.2015) by The Food (Scotland) Act 2015 (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Order 2015 (S.S.I. 2015/100), arts. 1(2), 2, sch. para. 26
Removal of specified risk material at a cutting plant authorised under paragraph 13(1)S
14.—(1) The occupier of a cutting plant authorised under paragraph 13(1) shall ensure that as soon as reasonably practicable after arrival at the plant of meat and in any event before the meat leaves the plant all specified risk material of the kind to which the authorisation relates is removed from the meat.
Meat from another Member StateS
15. For the purposes of point 10.1 and point 10.2 of Annex V to the EU TSE Regulation (rules on trade and export), where meat containing those parts of the vertebral column of a bovine animal that are specified risk material is brought into Scotland from another Member State, the importer must send it directly to a cutting plant authorised under paragraph 13(1)(a), and failure to do so is an offence.
Staining and disposal of specified risk materialS
16.—(1) The occupier of any premises where specified risk material is removed commits an offence if that occupier fails to comply with point 3 of Annex V to the EU TSE Regulation (marking and disposal).
(2) For the purposes of that point—
(a)staining involves treating the material (whether by immersion, spraying or other application) with—
(i)a 0.5% weight/volume solution of the colouring agent Patent Blue V (E131, 1971 Colour Index No 42051 F9); or
(ii)such other colouring agent as may be approved in writing by the Scottish Ministers or the [F10Food Standards Scotland]; and
(b)the stain must be applied in such a way that the colouring is and remains clearly visible—
(i)over the whole of the cut surface and the majority of the head in the case of the head of a sheep or goat; or
(ii)in the case of all other specified risk material, over the whole surface of the material.
(3) This paragraph does not apply in relation to any specified risk material that is destined for use as provided for in Article 1(2)(b) and (c) of the EU TSE Regulation (scope).
F9Colour Index is published online by the Society of Dyers and Colourists at Perkin House, 82 Grattan Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD1 2JB. See www.colour-index.org.
F10Words in sch. 7 para. 16(2)(a)(ii) substituted (1.4.2015) by The Food (Scotland) Act 2015 (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Order 2015 (S.S.I. 2015/100), arts. 1(2), 2, sch. para. 26
Security of specified risk materialS
17.—(1) Pending consignment or disposal from the premises or place where it was removed, the occupier of the premises or place must ensure that specified risk material is adequately separated from any food, feedingstuff or cosmetic, pharmaceutical or medical product and held in an impervious covered container that is labelled as either—
(a)containing specified risk material; or
(b)Category 1 animal by-products and including the words "For disposal only".
(2) The occupier must ensure that the container is thoroughly washed as soon as is reasonably practicable each time that it is emptied, and disinfected before use for any other purpose.
Prohibition on the sale, supply or possession for sale or supply of specified risk material for human consumptionS
18. It is an offence to sell, supply or possess for sale or supply—
(a)any specified risk material, or any food containing specified risk material, for human consumption; or
(b)any specified risk material for use in the preparation of any food for human consumption.
Executive Note sets out a brief statement of the purpose of a Scottish Statutory Instrument and provides information about its policy objective and policy implications. They aim to make the Scottish Statutory Instrument accessible to readers who are not legally qualified and accompany any Scottish Statutory Instrument or Draft Scottish Statutory Instrument laid before the Scottish Parliament from July 2005 onwards.


text:
All news / Nutriad appoints Key Account Manager in Russia
Multinational feed additives producer Nutriad announces the appointment of Mr Roman Krikovtsov as Key Account Manager for the Russian market.
With roughly 26 million tonnes of feed produced annually, Russia is a strategically important market for Nutriad and the company seeks to increase its' footprint through increased interaction with local producers.
Simon Martyn, Regional Director EMEA, states: "This appointment underlines Nutriad's commitment to the market and will further strengthen our capability to provide support to our customers and distribution partners in Russia as we continue to grow our animal health and nutrition solutions business across species."
Mr Krikovtsov, who is based in Belgorod, will work alongside Nutriad's Technical Manager in Russia, Mr Ilya Afanasiev. Roman brings with him considerable experience in the Russian feed additive and animal health market having serviced customers in the country for almost 10 years.
Commented Mr. Krikovtsov: "Nutriad has achieved strong brand recognition in Russia over the years, building on products with a proven track record and supported by renowned technical experts. I am excited to join the Nutriad team and look forward to working with our customers and partners and supporting them with Nutriad's practical solutions."
Nutriad delivers products and services to over 80 countries through a network of sales offices and distributors. These are supported by four application laboratories and five manufacturing facilities on three continents. Find out more at www.nutriad.com
Source: pigsite.com
Nutriad


text:
Shelly Sanders
On one extraordinary day in 1940, Miriam Talan's comfortable life is shattered. While she gives birth to her second child, the Soviets invade the Baltic state of Latvia and occupy the capital city of Riga, her home. Because the Miriam and her husband Max are Jewish, the Soviets confiscate Max's business and the family's house and bank accounts, leaving them with nothing.Then, the Nazis arrive. They kill Max and begin to round up Jews. Fearing for her newborn son and her young daughter, Ilana, Miriam asks her loyal housekeeper to hide them and conceal their Jewish roots to keep them safe until the savagery ends.
This is the platform on which Daughters of the Occupation (Harper, $16.99) is built. Fiction Editor Yona Zeldis McDonough talks to author Shelly Sanders about the real-life events that inspired her novel.
YZM: The story of Latvian Jews during the Holocaust is less well known than the stories of other Jews in Europe; why do you think that is?
SS: I think the best way to answer this question is by comparing Latvia's Rumbula Massacre to the notorious Babi Yar tragedy in Kiev. Both massacres led to the deaths of a horrifying number of Jews, almost 34,000 in Babi Yar and between 25,000 and 26,000 in Rumbula. Both employed mobile death squads—Einsatzgruppen—to shoot the Jews in pits. Both took place in the Soviet Union in 1941, before gas chambers were used, yet the victims were not acknowledged as Jews until 1991.
There are, however, two slight yet crucial distinctions between Babi Yar and Rumbula. Babi Yar occurred two months earlier than Rumbula. In fact, Babi Yar marked the first time Jews were executed by the Einsatzgruppen, making this genocide historically symbolic. And the Nazis went on to murder Roma and Soviet prisoners of war at Babi Yar for two more years, bringing the total to at least 100,000, the largest number of people killed in one location in WWII. This is another reason Babi Yar has been prominent compared to Rumbula.
I also want to point out that the fate of Jews in the entire Soviet Union has been largely overlooked compared to the rest of Europe because Stalin declared Jews were not a nation and, therefore, could not be targeted by the Nazis. He rammed this anti-Semitic propaganda down the throats of Red Army soldiers and citizens. At the end of the Great Patriotic War, as it was called in the Soviet Union, just a few of the hundreds of mass graves were acknowledged and the victims were not identified as Jews, but as "innocent Soviet victims" and "victims of fascism." It was only when the Iron Curtain fell that these mass graves filled with Jews were recognized.
YZM: How much of this novel is based on fact and how much was invented?
SS: One of the biggest challenges in historical fiction is balancing truth and imagination to ensure facts don't weigh down the story. In Daughters of the Occupation, all of the historical events took place and many of the characters existed, but I fictionalized dialogue and inner thoughts, of course, as well as descriptions of places that no longer exist.
As a former journalist, I begin my writing process as if I'm embarking on non-fiction, with an insane amount of research. For Daughters of the Occupation, I was fortunate to discover a number of self-published memoirs by survivors, including Frida Michelson, who inspired Miriam's character. These brutally honest, unedited accounts offer tremendous insight into what it was like being Jewish under Latvian, Soviet, and Nazi occupations.
To evoke WWII Latvia, I traveled there twice and discovered the old part of Riga's streets and buildings are largely the same as they were in the 1940's. I walked the same cobblestones as the ghetto residents, visited a ghetto house, explored the Art Nouveau district and toured an apartment, much like the one where Miriam first lives, strolled along the Daugava River, and even stood where Janis Lipke, who rescues Miriam, lived and hid Jews.
Then, I put on my journalist's cap and interviewed the curator of the Jews in Latvia Museum and the founder of the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Latvia. A few months later, while I was in New York, I had tea with a survivor of the Riga ghetto, who was writing his own memoir about the war.
By immersing myself in the history, the place, and its people, my goal is to blend fact with fiction, to write memorable characters and a narrative that stays with readers and, in some way, broadens their knowledge of the Holocaust.
YZM: How did you first learn about this family history and what effect did it have on you?
SS: Silence has underscored my life, with my grandmother hiding her Russian Jewish past from her daughters and, in turn, my mother hiding it from me until I was eighteen years old. At the time, I didn't know what to do with this revelation. But after I had my first child, I was overwhelmed with a desire to learn more about my grandmother. The only person who could provide this information was my Aunt Nucia, my grandmother's sister.
Getting information out of Nucia was like peeling an apple with your fingers. She looked at my notebook with suspicion. She answered my questions with questions. Her evasiveness bordered on paranoia. After assuring Nucia I just wanted to be able to tell my daughter about her ancestry, she loosened up and told me about the tall wooden home, on the banks of the Ob River, where she'd grown up with my grandmother and their younger brother. The samovar that bubbled on their table day and night. The antisemitic pogrom that forced them from Russia to Shanghai, which took Jews without papers.
When I asked why my grandmother had concealed her Jewish roots, Nucia abruptly stopped talking. She wouldn't even let me go through the boxes of photos in her bedroom. Before leaving, I snuck into her room and stuffed photos of my grandmother down my shirt. Nucia died a year later. The rest of her photos had disappeared. I don't know what happened to them.
Over the next decade, I had two more children and continued to delve into my maternal past, reading everything I could about Russian Jews, pogroms, Shanghai and Judaism. I went to my town's synagogue and took classes to understand the religion and culture. When I began attending Shabbat services, I had the unnerving sense of having heard the prayers before, of a connection I couldn't define yet couldn't ignore. A few months later, I reclaimed my faith, an emotional experience that felt perfectly natural, as if I was always meant to be Jewish.
The photos I'd taken from Nucia ended up being vital to my discovery of my Latvian-Jewish roots. By tracing the location of the photos, I discovered that my great-grandparents, Sophie Pressman and Max Talan, had lived in Dvinsk, Latvia during the late 1890's. I also located the record of Max and Sophie's 1905 marriage in Riga.
During a meeting in Riga with the curator of the Jews in Latvia Museum, I learned why my grandmother was born in Siberia. Her father, Max, was exiled to Siberia in 1905 because he was involved in a workers' strike showing his solidarity towards those killed in St. Petersburg on Bloody Sunday. This exile saved Max and Sophie's lives. In 1941, when the Nazis occupied Latvia, twenty-six of their relatives in Riga were forced into the ghetto, then shot in the Rumbula massacre. Max's exile meant my grandmother lived. Which meant my mother was born. Which meant I was born.
Today, I understand why my grandmother and Nucia were so guarded about their past. I have a much better appreciation for my freedom, safety and the opportunity to write about my family's history without censorship. I'm proud to finally break the silence that has defined my maternal side and to speak out against the anti-Semitism that destroyed so many branches of my family tree.
YZM: This is also a novel of mothers and daughters; care to comment?
SS: I didn't appreciate what it meant to be a daughter until I had my own. Only then, did I understand the fierce attachment a mother feels for her child. How you physically hurt when they hurt. And I began to see myself more critically as a daughter. I saw how self-absorbed I'd been as a teen, how I'd wanted to be the complete opposite of my mother, how I'd said horrible things in the heat of the moment. I was desperate to be independent, to make my own mistakes, which I did, in spades.
Becoming a mother made me feel vulnerable and strong all at once. It also brought me closer to my mother whose advice I sought regularly. Motherhood was something we had in common. It made me appreciate my mother for the sacrifices she'd made to raise three children. Then, when I looked back at my maternal side and realized we'd all given birth to two daughters, from my great-grandmother down to me, I felt part of something bigger than myself. I was part of a family with women who did whatever they had to do to survive. This pushed me to write a story about mothers and daughters, to make them strong, resilient and imperfect.
YZM: How did the trauma of the war affect the women in this family? Do you feel that trauma was passed down from one generation to the next?
SS: I first came across the term "intergenerational trauma" in a 2018 article in The Atlantic. A researcher found that Holocaust survivors and their children had changes in their genes that were stress-related. I was intrigued. I began reading everything about the subject. I was fascinated by survivors' children and grandchildren describing fears rooted in the Holocaust, though they weren't born until after the war. That's when the idea for a novel exploring intergenerational trauma began to emerge.
In Miriam's family, trauma runs through the generations like a current. While we don't see much of Ilana as an adult we know, through Sarah's recollections, how she's been forever impacted by the Soviet and Nazi occupations. Ilana insists on the curtains being closed in her Chicago home during the day, for instance. This goes back to her childhood when the family had to live in darkness to avoid being seen by Soviet or German bombers. She won't let Sarah take part in sleepovers or go to public places without an adult because, in her mind, she is responsible for 'losing' Monia. She never forgives herself.
As Sarah begins to unravel her mother and Miriam's past, she begins to see how she's been affected by their behavior. Like Miriam, she struggles to open herself up fully to a relationship. Like her mother, she is afraid of being abandoned. All three women have strong exteriors, yet they're fragile inside, riven with conflicting emotions. Sarah's decision to go to Riga, therefore, is driven by her mother's and Miriam's lifelong desire for closure.
YZM: Now that you have written this book, what is your relationship to that past history?
SS: In Daughters of the Occupation, I wanted Sarah to do what I couldn't—talk to her grandmother as an adult. My grandmother died when I was thirteen and more interested in boys than my ancestry. Over the years, there have been many, many times when I wished I could ask her questions and get to know her. Researching and writing this book has given me the chance to walk in her footsteps in Riga, to 'meet' relatives she'd loved and lost, and to fill in some of the blanks of her history.
Like Sarah, I went to Riga looking for closure. Unlike Sarah, I didn't find all the answers I wanted. Now, I have a burning need to find out what happened to my grandmother's cousins and aunts unaccounted for after the war. One cousin, Il'ya, is seated beside my grandmother in a photo where she's around five or six years old. In a later photo, they are beside one another again, both teenagers. They had to be close, considering she'd made the trek from Siberia as a child to visit Riga, for the first photo, and had come from Shanghai for the second one.
After writing about how the Latvian Holocaust forever changed Miriam and her family, I feel an obligation, as my grandmother's namesake and heir, to carry on the Jewish traditions lost within our family. And I need to find out what happened to the people she must have thought about often, to reconcile the past and ensure their names are not forgotten.
Balancing History and Story in Historical Fiction
Author Shelly Sanders shares the historical fiction books that led her to writing her own historical fiction novels, and tips on balancing history and story when pursuing historical fiction.
Lilith Magazine: May 18, 2022
Growing up in suburban Chicago, an hour from the Wisconsin border, I devoured The Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. These novels, which begin in Wisconsin in the late 1800s, were my introduction to historical fiction. Wilder's simple yet insightful words gave me a vivid sense of what it was like to grow up in midwest America: "They were cosy and comfortable in their little house made of logs, with the snow drifted around it and the wind crying because it could not get in by the fire."
Laura was the reason I read and re-read these books. I saw bits of myself in her character, even though I wasn't even born when she was a girl. Making characters relatable, focusing on events that have the greatest impact on protagonists, and engaging the senses are key to captivating historical fiction that is not weighed down by the past. This is what I kept in mind as I researched, outlined, and wrote Daughters of the Occupation (DOTO).
Create Strong Relatable CharactersAlthough history anchors the narrative, it's characters who make the past come alive. How people react to events is crucial to balancing history and story. They have to be compelling, with quirks, flaws, needs, and secrets, and they must resonate with readers. In DOTO, I wanted to show how a young Jewish mother, Miriam, survived the Soviet and Nazi occupations in Latvia. But I was overwhelmed by the prospect of creating a character who'd endured horrific violence 80 years ago.
I shoved my huge pile of notes and reference books aside and focused on Miriam. If she was going to live through pivotal historical events, if she was going to be authentic, I had to know her inside and out. First, I have to admit that Miriam was actually inspired by my Aunt Nucia, a crotchety widow who'd been estranged from her son and grandchildren for decades. Miriam's manicured fingernails, chain smoking, her habit of watering plants with tea, and her contrariness all came from Nucia.
Once I had a clear image of Miriam, I was able to probe deeper, into her essence—what she wanted, how she interacted with others, good and bad habits, what she was like as a mother and grandmother, and what she regretted. Then, I built a character arc for Miriam that corresponded with the historical narrative. To do this, I merged the major events with Miriam's emotional transformation over the course of events.
Here's how I integrated history and fiction:
I drew a straight line with significant historical events noted.
I added a bell curve above this line to indicate spots where my protagonist encounters obstacles.
I compared my character's journey with the sequence of events, making sure that the internal growth of my character corresponded with the external occurrences.
In DOTO, for instance, the first crucial event is the unexpected Soviet occupation. Obviously, this alone would distress Miriam. Still, I wanted to add tension. By putting Miriam in a car on the way to the hospital about to give birth as Soviet tanks roll into Riga, there is maximum drama. Readers are immediately invested in Miriam, who becomes physically and emotionally traumatized by the Soviet occupation.
For Sarah, in 1970s Chicago, the crucial events—losing her mother, pushing against traditional expectations as a woman in a male-dominated industry, discovering her mother's past—are more nuanced, but just as important. Because they shape Sarah's identity. She wouldn't have even considered traveling to Riga unless she'd been stubborn and bereaved.
By interconnecting the past with a distinctive personality, the reader understands how and why a character reacts to certain events. Decisions and interior thoughts feel more believable, more authentic within the context of history.
Focus on Pivotal Events
If you think about best-selling historical fiction, you'll see that writers don't jolt readers from the story with info dumps. Rather, history, plot, and characters are woven seamlessly together. To achieve this synergy in DOTO, I constructed a sequential outline that showed major historical events. This is where you get rid of extraneous facts that bog down the story. You have to be ruthless. You have to 'kill all your darlings,' an expression that refers to the elimination of unnecessary words, plots and turns of phrase.
For DOTO, constructing the outline should have been straightforward, with a glut of inciting events—two occupations, the Jewish ghetto, and mass murder. But I kept getting distracted by tangential occurrences. I'd read so many nonfiction accounts, it was hard to wade through my notes and determine what to keep and what to discard.
The journalist side of me demanded total accuracy while the fiction writer side pressed me to pay full attention to my characters. It was an ongoing battle as I completed the first draft. I ended up overwriting, adding far too many historical details that slowed the narrative. Reading it out loud, hearing whole paragraphs that took me out of the story, helped me get rid of extraneous words.
One decision I made early on, was to limit the atrocities. The extent of Nazi brutality was hard to stomach. There were days I had to stop researching or writing because I was struck by headaches and nausea. I wanted to show readers a little-known part of the Holocaust, but I didn't want to overwhelm people with horrifying details. Sometimes, less really is more.
Engage the Reader's Senses
One of the things I love most about writing historical fiction is the opportunity to immerse myself in the past. In addition to reading everything I can find about the period, place, and people, I study photos and watch films and documentaries set in the time period, to get a sense of the language, expressions, and gestures.
For DOTO, I found a disturbing yet important documentary on Netflix, Einsatzgruppen, which, translated, means 'death squads.' The Nazis were obsessed with filming and taking photos of their gruesome actions, proof of the unimaginable. In Einsatzgruppen, not only is there actual footage of the mass murders in Latvia and elsewhere, the producers interview witnesses, children at the time, now seniors, who describe the sounds, the sight of people marching to their executions, and the helplessness they felt as onlookers.
I was fortunate to travel to Riga twice, where I experienced the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the city that became the setting for DOTO. I ate traditional Latvian food, walked the cobblestone streets, visited an actual ghetto house, and talked to people about their experiences living under communism. When I began writing, I was able to describe how kvass tasted, how the trees' afternoon shadows stretched tall and thin at Rumbula, how voices and footfalls echoed in Soviet buildings.
"Persons appear to us according to the light we throw upon them from our own minds," said Laura Ingalls Wilder, getting to the heart of her genre: character and creativity. If you understand the importance of remarkable people, set amidst a place and time that come alive through words that evoke the senses, then you are well on your way to writing historical fiction that balances history and story.
https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/balancing-history-and-story-in-historical-fiction
CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS August 29, 2019


Razer is getting ready for round two. Following the first real gaming smartphone named simply, Phone, they have introduced the - surprise - Phone 2. Don't be fooled by its lackluster name though: the Phone 2 is everything but boring. Let's take a look at what the brand-new gaming smartphone can do and what its weaknesses are.
Razer is perhaps one of the best loved brands among gamers and one of the most distinctive with its neon green snake triskelion logo becoming a defining hallmark for quality gaming hardware. They've expanded from making just mice, keyboards and headphones to gaming notebooks like the eponymous Razer Blade and even phones including one of the first purpose-built gaming phones in the form of the first Razer Phone though the Blade and Razer Phone weren't officially available in Malaysia when they first made their debut a while back. Fortunately, Razer is bringing in their latest incarnation of the gaming phone writ large, the Razer Phone 2 to Malaysia today.
But with a big, black design and a glowing RGB logo on the back, not to mention the massive front speakers, the Razer Phone 2 definitely has a vibe you won't get on any other flagship. If it appeals to you, you'll likely also love the easy software customisation and the general style the phone brings to Android, and you'll get the most out of your mobile games too.
Much like its predecessor, the Razer Phone 2 offers up a unique proposition. You, the user, want a smartphone with a display with a refresh rate that out-performs every other phone in the world. You also like to play games and blast audio directly at your face, not bounced off your palm or a nearby wall. The Razer Phone goes so far as to assume you want a notification light of many colors shining out from its backside.
Short battery life and just OK photos undermine what is otherwise an amazing phone.
The gaming experience is good however; you're very much at the mercy of the developers and what they bring to the platform. I also can't really help but think it's a solution for a problem that doesn't really exist… if you assess it as a stand alone phone it's actually very good, I'm just not sure that it's $1300 + good.
A niche proposition has some excellent features – including fast refresh rate screen and illuminating rear logo – but a design that can't hold its own against the current crop of flagships. As a stand-out device with points of difference it's sometimes brilliant though.
Clearly the Razer Phone 2 is not for everyone. Much like a Razer Blade laptop isn't meant to be as popular or universally appealing as a Macbook. And we're not just talking about a "gamer" price premium here. The fact of the matter is that most people don't really care about a 120Hz display or want an RGB Chroma logo on the back of their phones. Which, of course, is perfectly fine and well understood by the likes of Razer.
I enjoyed my time with the original Razer Phone. That was quite large in the hand due to its "brick" design. So I was very interested to see what the company had on offer in this second model.
To have a look at the brand new telephone from Razer, particularly from the entrance, you wouldn't actually know this was the Razer Telephone 2, it's so just like final 12 months's mannequin – Razer is clearly channelling its inside Apple or Samsung, with daring confidence within the authentic's design.Heck, even Apple has launched a brand new coloration possibility on this 12 months's iPhone XS vary – with the Razer Telephone 2, you get black with a mirror end or black with a matte end.
The Razer Phone 2 is a great phone for gamers, but just OK for everyone else.
That unfortunately leaves the Razer Phone 2 in the same place its predecessor was at last year—relegated to niche status for a few select users with the hopes that next year finally brings its breakthrough.
Priced at $799, the Razer Phone 2 is one of the few high-end flagships you can buy this year at the sub-$1,000 price point. It improves on the original Razer Phone by adding IP certification, wireless charging, and is still fantastic for gaming. It's an excellent flagship choice as long as your main priority isn't the camera.
Impeccable performance and the smoothest screen you'll find on Android, now improved with a design that's slightly more forgiving on your palms. It's still niche, though, and the higher price does it no favours.
The Razer Phone 2 is far from a reinvention, and if you weren't a fan of the original this is unlikely to convince you otherwise. Instead, Razer has doubled down on its idiosyncratic design choices and backed it up with flagship features like waterproofing and wireless charging - along with a few novelty LEDs.
A short battery life and just OK photos undermine what is otherwise an amazing phone.
The Razer Phone 2 is a 0.5 refresh rather than a complete reimagining of the original 'gaming phone'. It doesn't have the immediate wow factor of the original as a result.
The Razer Phone 2 is far from a reinvention, and if you weren't a fan of the original this is unlikely to convince you otherwise. Instead Razer has doubled down on its idiosyncratic design choices and backed it up with flagship features like waterproofing and wireless charging - along with a few novelty LEDs.
The Razer Phone 2 isn't a re-imagining of the gaming phone, it's merely just an iteration. The cameras and display have been slightly upgraded, and it now has a glass back, wireless charging and a light-up Chroma logo - but also a higher price tag.
Looking down at the glowing black box on the conference table in Razer's San Francisco offices one thing is already clear: The Razer Phone 2 is a better device than the gaming phone the company debuted a year ago. Mostly, because the brick I'm looking at isn't actually the phone itself, but a wireless charging brick outfitted with a bright ring of colorful LEDs.
The Razer Phone 2 delivers a similar key spec to its predecessor, ensuring top-end 120Hz gaming, while dangling gamers' favourites from the brand such as that light-up LED Razer logo. It's a better phone for its advances, but ultimatey it's still a brickphone dressed in glass clothes.
Going back a year or so in time, there was a lot to love about the original Razer Phone. The same goes for the new Razer Phone 2. In fact, many of these lovable traits are shared between the two models. The key difference here seems to be that Razer has been working hard over the last year to make the new model better by address the key issues the previous model had and most importantly, on making it more appealing as an overall package.
When Razer announced its Razer Phone as a 'gaming smartphone', a sizeable number scoffed at the idea - how can it be a gaming smartphone if everyone has the same flagship hardware? In Razer's own words, they were 'carving a new market' , with features like a 120Hz Ultramotion display and HDR, as well as a special fast chip under the hood. Razer says it easily met their sales expectations, and they are ready to announce the Razer Phone 2, a refined model with a number of extra requested features.
Prise en main du Razer Phone 2 : non, il ne s'adresse pas qu'aux gamers !
5.72": Bu boyut akıllı telefonlar için biraz büyük sayılsa da, artık oldukça yaygın. Büyük ekran boyutları yüksek çözünürlükleri mümkün kılıyor. Bu sayede yazım boyutu da büyüyebiliyor. Öte yandan küçük boyutlarda güç tüketimi azalmakla beraber; cihaz boyutu ve ağırlığın yanı sıra fiyat da ucuzluyor.
0.219 kg: Akıllı telefonlar için tipik ağırlık.


text:
IUPUI IUPUI
Santayana, Santayana Edition
santayana, santayana edition, George Santayana, Santayana society, IAT, IUPUI, Institute for American Thought
About Santayana
George Santayana Society
Books by George Santayana
The pagination in these digital editions matches the pagination in the printed critical editions.
Persons and Places (1944, 1945, and 1953) PDF EPUB
The Sense of Beauty (1896) PDF EPUB
Interpretations of Poetry and Religion (1900) PDF EPUB
The Last Puritan (1935, 1936, and 1937) PDF EPUB
The Letters of George Santayana:
Book 1 [1868]–1909 PDF
Book 2 1910–1920 PDF
Book 6 1937-1940 PDF
The Life of Reason:
Introduction and Reason in Common Sense (1905) PDF
Reason in Society (1905) PDF
Reason in Religion (1905) PDF
Reason in Art (1905) PDF
Reason in Science (1906) PDF
Hastings Aesthetics Lectures Notebook
The above link leads to a separate site presenting a scan and a transcription of the notebook of Horatius Bonar Hastings, a student who attended Santayana's 1892–93 aesthetics lectures (offered as Phil 8). These lectures formed the basis for Santayana's The Sense of Beauty (1896), which has become a classic in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. For more information, see this brief history of the notebook or consult the article "Santayana's Lectures on Aesthetics," Overheard in Seville: Bulletin of the George Santayana Society, 22, 2004, 23–28.
Translation of Aristotle's Metaphysics
The above link leads to a separate site presenting a scan and a transcription of Santayana's holograph manuscript of his partial translation of Aristotle's Metaphysics, written out while he was tutoring a couple of philosophy students. You can also read an introduction to Santayana's translation by the transcriber of the manuscript: Introduction to Santayana's translation of Aristotle's Metaphysics.
Agustín Letters
The above link leads to a separate site presenting a scan and a transcription of 110 letters from Agustín Santayana to his son George Santayana. The letters span the twenty years from 1873 to 1893 and reveal origins of and influences on George Santayana's love for thinking. While quoted by scholars and George Santayana himself, these letters have never been published. This collection of documents also includes a letter Agustín wrote to his daughter Susana, a letter Susana wrote to George, a list of goods and their prices from an unnamed market, and the last will and testament of Agustín Ruiz de Santayana y Reboiro. The Santayana Edition is grateful to the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University for the permission to reproduce the documents here.
Westenholz Letters
The above link leads to a separate site presenting a scan and a transcription of 60 letters (dating from 1903 to 1937) from George Santayana to his friend Baron Albert Wilhelm Freiherrn von Westenholz (1879–1939)—in addition to assorted manuscripts, photographs, and drawings. Westenholz, whom Sanatayana identified as "one of my truest friends" (Santayana, Persons and Places, 261), studied at Harvard when Santayana was a professor. Santayana and Westenholz later met several times in Europe, including visits by Santayana to Westenholz's home in Hamburg. Eventually their personal meetings ceased, but they maintained a correspondence that allowed the "friendship to become intellectually closer in later years, without seeming to require personal contacts" (Santayana, Persons and Places, 262). In 2001, the "Textual Commentary" to The Letters of George Santayana, Book One [1868]–1909 (The MIT Press, 2001) noted that "[n]one of the letters that Santayana wrote to his friend Baron Albert von Westenholz have been located" (Letters 1, 422). In 2016, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University noted the addition of the letters Santayana wrote to Westenholz to their archival collection of George Santayana Papers. The Santayana Edition is grateful to Columbia University for permission to reproduce the letters here. See the transcriber's notes for the methodology applied to the transcriptions.
SUPPORT THE EDITION
CONTACT THE EDITION
Three Philosophical Poets: Critical Edition Published
George Santayana Society Meetings Announced
New Santayana Scholarship: Patella's Italian Edition of Santayana's What is Aesthetics?
Locating the Unlocated
Treasures from the Vault: George Santayana's Doctoral Gown
Santayana Edition Twitter
Santayana Edition
Please follow & like Santayana Edition :)
Copyright © The Trustees of Indiana University, Copyright Complaints


ONE: Our bar crew circled up to put the finishing touches on our new fall cocktail menu, which debuts Monday, Sept. 26. That means our summer menu will only be around for a few more days. 'Scuse us while we cry into our Dr. Feelgood.
TWO: We have some excellent news about these barrels of bourbon. Our head distiller Justin Hughey has given them the green light — time to bottle! Subscribe to our newsletter, because that's where we'll reveal the release date this week.
THREE: Did you know that the first spirit we ever made — Vodka — is still our best-selling? It is rated 93 points by Wine Enthusiast, higher than Tito's, Grey Goose, Ketel One and basically ever other vodka you've had. We bottled our latest batch this week as we always do: by filling four bottles at a time on our small bottling line, then labeling, capping, sealing and boxing all by hand.
FOUR: Here's a fun little project we're excited about! We've partnered with our friends at Upland Brewing Co. here in Bloomington to make a stout liqueur that we'll release the last weekend of October. Here's our head distiller Justin Hughey (left) and bartender Kevin Hinkle (right) sampling some just this week.


text:
Sasha Moss May 9, 2017
Three years in, what does the DATA Act tell us about agency spending?
By: C. Jarrett Dieterle
Trying to figure out exactly how much money the federal government spends long has been an exercise in futility for those few brave souls who endeavor to try it. Though the U.S. Treasury has published financial data since the beginning of the republic, the government has an uneven history, to say the least, when it comes to reporting agency expenditures.
Agencies traditionally have employed a hodgepodge of data and spending models that fail to adhere to a common metric. This makes it difficult for lawmakers and policy experts to wrap their arms fully around federal agency spending. Since at least the 1970s, efforts have been afoot to standardize government data, culminating in 2014's Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, also known as the DATA Act.
The bill's purpose was to make expenditures both more transparent and more accessible. It requires Treasury to establish common reporting standards across all federal agencies, with the data posted online in a publicly accessible format.
The DATA Act has been in the news again recently because the first agency reporting deadline is May 9, the third anniversary of the law's passage. Right on cue, the DATA Coalition hosted a panel discussion and "hackathon" last week to let teams of data wonks work with some of the early datasets the agencies have provided.
Keynote speaker Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, emphasized the potential for uniform spending data to shape policy by helping lawmakers better understand the scope and size of government. That, in turn, could allow them to enact more meaningful reforms. As he put it: "If you don't know where you are, it's impossible to know where you're going."
The coalition also hosted a panel featuring three individuals who have been key to creating the uniform financial data standards the agencies now must use: Chistina Ho, deputy assistant Treasury secretary for accounting policy and financial transparency; Dave Zvenyach, executive director of General Services Administration's 18F project; and Kristen Honey, senior policy adviser for the Office of Management and Budget's chief information officer.
The panelists generally were optimistic about the implementation process, though each noted the difficulty involved in pursuing new endeavors within a convoluted bureaucracy like the federal government. Honey was sanguine about the potential for agencies to follow the lead of private industries that use open datasets for productive ends, noting that American taxpayers have "already paid for this data, so they should have access to it."
She pointed to the example of the Department of Veterans Affairs' synthetic dataset published last fall that will help them study mental health issues among military veterans. Honey also predicted that state and local governments were likely to follow suit on open data initiatives, which she hoped would help expose and weed out inefficiencies in government spending and operations across all levels of government.
The panelists also cautioned that many agencies likely will encounter difficulties aggregating and successfully publishing their spending data by the May 9 deadline. The concern was that if reports from the Government Accountability Office and agency inspectors general catalog widespread deficiencies around the first reporting deadline, it could lead the public and lawmakers to doubt the DATA Act's efficacy.
James Madison famously claimed that the power of the purse was "the most complete and effectual weapon" that could be wielded by government. Increasing the standardization and transparency of government spending data will only help strengthen that power.