How do we explain the government's support for Jewish readmission, and the nation's acceptance of it? For what is surprising about the Whitehall Conference of 1655 is not its failure to ratify Cromwell's proposals, but the decision to hold it in the first place, and the absence of fierce popular resistance to it. An outbreak of English anti-semitism in the 1650s, when Jews were being slaughtered by the thousand in Eastern Europe, is not hard to envisage. The traditional association of Jewry with Antichrist and diabolism, and the belief that the Jews had stubbornly and wickedly refused the mercies of the Gospel, do not appear to have lost their imaginative hold. Possibly Jews, like Roman Catholics, benefited during the Interregnum from the proliferation of Puritan sects, whose quarrels disposed some of them to locate Antichrist within the Protestant camp. Yet Anti-Popery remained near the surface of English politics, and one might have expected to find anti-semitism there too. Certainly Jews and Catholics faced a common threat, for if Jews were believed to have any Christian credentials, those credentials were Catholic ones. The small and secret Jewish community, whose existence was revealed to the public by Menasseh ben Israel's campaign, worshipped at the Spanish Embassy – and in 1655 England and Spain were at war.
The Cromwellians' decision to risk the readmission of the Jews is the problem addressed by David Katz's remarkable study. Some historians would seek its solution in economic motives; others might turn to sociologists or anthropologists for guidance. Mr Katz turns instead to the history of ideas, and in particular to a series of intellectual developments which aroused interest in and sympathy for the Jewish predicament. The extraordinary story which emerges is reconstructed with wide-ranging scholarship, and told with elegance and wit. Published within the sober covers of the Oxford Historical Monographs series, this book proves to be a feast.
It is a book about English history, but Mr Katz never forgets the European dimension of his subject. In general, European philo-semitism was a Protestant phenomenon – even if some Catholic rulers, especially in Italy, seem to have granted de facto toleration to Jews without fuss. If the growing concern with Jewish history and Jewish language in the early modern period has one obvious source, it is the Protestant emphasis on Scripture. The Reformation, while it found its saving truths in the New Testament, also restored the honour of the Old. In England the foundation of Regius Chairs of Hebrew at Oxford and Cambridge by Henry VIII, and later the influence of Rabbinical studies on James I's Authorised Version, demonstrated the enhanced academic status of Hebraic studies, which were distinguished by the findings of Edward Pococke and John Lightfoot, and popularised through Baptists and Saturday-Sabbatarian 'Judaisers' such as John Thraske.
The strand of Biblical inquiry which had clearest implications for the position of the Jews was millenarianism. Most 17th-century Puritans believed that they lived in the latter days of the world; many of them thought that the end was imminent; some of them tried to calculate the date. Jews were expected to play a crucial role in the final cosmic drama. St Paul's promise that 'all Israel shall be saved' once 'the fullness of the Gentiles be come in' was taken up by English millenarians, who believed with Thomas Brightman that 'many large and pleasant prophecies do aim at the calling of the Jews.' England, the elect nation, destined to launch the spiritual reconquest of the world, must tolerate Jews in order that they might be converted there, and that the barrier between Jew and Gentile might be removed.
– play on his contemporaries' understanding of the chronological connection between the Flood and the Apocalypse: if the former had occurred in 1656 BC, might not the latter be expected in 1656 AD? 1656 was widely tipped, not least by the mathematician William Oughtred. Not all Puritans presumed to subject God's inscrutable purposes to confident arithmetical computation, but it was hard to avoid the excitement which the various numerical hypotheses aroused. It was no coincidence that the campaign for Jewish readmission, which began in earnest in 1649, reached its peak in the last month of 1655.
named them, as they passed, and understood Their nature, with such knowledge God endued My sudden apprehension.
'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' But what language had He spoken? The language of Paradise was a subject of learned debate. It was also, like so much 17th-century scholarly inquiry, a matter of spiritual urgency: no subject more vividly illustrated Milton's claim that the end of learning was 'to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, and be like him'. Some scholars concluded that God spoke Dutch, a bizarre thesis which attained respectability when it convinced the distinguished Flemish geographer Abraham Ortelius. Latin and Chinese were rival candidates. By the mid-17th century, however, most Englishmen agreed that God spoke Hebrew. This conclusion, reached after much discussion, had significant implications for contemporary attitudes to Jewry.
Not everyone, admittedly, thought this line of inquiry profitable. Hobbes suggested that the Fall had extinguished man's memory of the perfect tongue. There was nevertheless more support for Sir Thomas Browne's view that 'at the confusion of tongues, there was no constitution of a new speech in every family: but a variation and permutation of the old; out of one common language raising several dialects: the primitive tongue remaining still entire.' In that 'primitive tongue', the language of Utopian Adamic innocence, there might lie the key to the universal or philosophical language which Bacon, Comenius and Wilkins aimed to construct, and which Comenius believed would be a 'universal antidote to confusion of thought'. Linguistic studies, cryptography, memory systems – all became caught up in the study of kabbala, which presented the letters of the Pentateuch as configurations of divine light. As Mr Katz observes, 'the Hebraic factor runs through the entire history of artificial languages' – from Bacon to Esperanto.
While 17th-century linguistics promoted a sympathetic interest in Jewish characteristics, another intellectual preoccupation was arousing a more pressing concern with the subject. This was the search for the lost Ten Tribes of Israel, whom Salmanasser had led into captivity. It was agreed that the conversion of all the Hebrews, not merely of European Jews, was an essential precondition of the Second Coming. In the debate over the whereabouts of the Ten Tribes, a new and important possibility was opened up by the discovery of the New World. The American Indians, remarked the Protestant reformer Peter Martyr, seemed 'to live in the golden world of which old writers speak so much: wherein men lived simply and innocently without enforcement of laws, without quarrelling, judges and libels, content only to satisfy nature, without further vexation for knowledge of times to come'.
That the Indians were descendants of Adam, and probably of Noah, was generally accepted: but were the Indians Jews? The European disposition to suppose so is indicated by Columbus's inclusion of a Hebrew-speaking interpreter in a reconaissance party which he sent inland. Yet the identification was hard to prove, despite the acknowledged similarities of custom and religion between the two peoples, and despite the propaganda of the New England Company, which promoted the idea in order to attract Puritan investment. In 1644, however, there came a vital breakthrough. Antonio de Montezinos, a marrano who had recently returned from Quito, testified under oath before Menasseh ben Israel that he had met Israelites of the tribe of Reuben, living secretly in the heart of the interior. Menasseh was convinced; and the tidings were soon gladdening the Puritan missionaries of North America. The public discussion which ensued gained Menasseh ben Israel his introduction into England.
Perhaps Mr Katz's approach to the read-mission of the Jews will strike some readers as suspiciously arcane. Certainly there are aspects of the subject which he touches briefly or leaves aside; and he is least sure-footed when he discusses those arguments for toleration which did not spring from the Hebraic interests which he so brilliantly and so enjoyably illuminates. He might have said more about the example of tolerant Amsterdam, although he is clearly right to argue that there was strong mercantile resistance to Jewish immigration to England, and that the commercial arguments which Englishmen used on behalf of the Jews were often subsidiary to theological ones. Ideally, the book would have covered the Restoration period, for read-mission owed as much to Charles II as to Oliver Cromwell; and Charles, while willing in the 1650s to make promises to Jews (as to almost anyone) to buy support, shared none of Cromwell's millenarian expectations. Indeed, it might be argued that England became safe for Jews when the millenarian bubble burst, and that the Jewish population grew as intellectual philo-semitism declined. Toleration may have been the fruit of indifference rather than of enthusiasm – although in the case of Charles II, who liked variety and eccentricity, one might allow something for curiosity as well. In many ways the England of 1700 was, in modern parlance, a more pluralist society than that of 1650, and Jews were among the beneficiaries of that pluralism.
These points are not incompatible with the findings of Mr Katz's book, which does not pretend to answer all the questions it raises. What it does is to re-create the intellectual climate which made possible the remarkable (and sadly ill-documented) episode of the Whitehall Conference, and to establish the links, both of argument and of personnel, between the long-term development of Hebraic studies and the political campaign for read-mission. The result is an eloquent testimony, not necessarily to the primacy of ideas, but at any rate to their neglected importance. No book has provided stronger evidence of the central place occupied by eschatology in Interregnum politics. That evidence has wide implications, not least in the reminder it provides of the millenarian dimension of Cromwell's foreign policy.
We, who are surprised to find visions of the Second Coming at the heart of political and diplomatic decision-making, may be equally disconcerted by the priority which was accorded them by scholars. Yet the scholars, like the statesmen, were behaving rationally enough. Once the Biblical premises on which Protestants agreed were granted, the arguments which were advanced about Scriptural chronology, about the history of languages and about the lost Ten Tribes, were often perfectly logical. The Book of Revelation was not only the toughest but the most reputable intellectual challenge of the age. Indeed, the difficulty is to understand the grounds on which those Puritan intellectuals who opposed Cromwell at the Whitehall Conference could have resisted the millenarian arguments for readmission.
Royalists, who for the most part shunned millenarianism, had no such problems. They might admit Jews to England from expediency, never from principle. Here Mr Katz's tale, in the telling of which the reader may discern an occasional twinkle in its author's eye, has a somewhat sobering implication for bienpensant intellectuals of any age. The liberal, rational, benevolent, scholarly philo-semites had met very few Jews. Indeed, their arguments may have made headway in England precisely because there were so few Jews there for them to meet. The secret Jews of London, exposed by the readmission campaign, had no gratitude for their would-be champions. It seems likely that the Whitehall Conference failed, not because the opposition's arguments carried conviction, but because long-standing advocates of readmission drew back when faced by the prospect which their investigations had made possible: the prospect, not of the invisible Jewish stereotype of their own amicable creation, but of real Jews, who bled when pricked. The English philo-semites, Mr Katz concludes, 'wanted Hebrew without tears, philo-semitism without Jews'. The irony of his story is that, had they returned later in the century, they would have found Jews without philo-semitism.


DOLLAR ACTIVITY. "I'm quite bullish on the Canadian dollar," says Barry Davenport, who, as vice president of foreign exchange with the Bank of Montreal, might well be expected to be. But he has his reasons. The Canadian dollar climbed above 75.5 cents (U.S. cents) on Tuesday. Davenport believes it could get close to 77 cents on the exchange rate this summer. The spread between higher Canadian interest rates and U.S. rates has widened in recent weeks, increasing the attractiveness of Canadian dollar investments, he said. In addition, the sale or potential sale of several major Canadian companies to foreigners already have or should increase the demand for Canadian dollars.


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Reviews for Genesis [electronic resource]
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Cutting-edge DNA database techniques are put to work by a foulmouthed troublemaker in the office of New York City's chief medical examiner.Medical thriller pioneer Cook (Pandemic, 2018, etc.) kicked off his Laurie Montgomery/Jack Stapleton series in 1992 with Blindsight. By nowthe current book is the 12th in the seriesthe two autopsy mavens are married and she is New York's chief medical examiner. They are raising one kid with autism, another with potential ADHD, and Laurie herself may have to have a double mastectomy. But forget all that, because nobody is reading these books for the character development ("It was hopelessly clear to her that she would most likely never get over her aversion to speaking in front of groups, just like she was likely never to get over her fear of authority figures thanks to her emotionally distant and domineering father") or for the writing ("She could see that sun had cleared the horizon, again bathing that water tower on the neighboring building in golden light. To Laurie it seemed symbolic of having come to a decision"). See, he writes just like a real doctor. On the other hand, the plot is gangbusters. The death of a 10-weeks-pregnant social worker looks like an opioid overdose, but since the woman was not a drug user and there's no daddy on the scene, something seems a little off. Particularly to the brilliant, misanthropic, sociopathically rude and self-important Dr. Aria Nichols, who's been sent over from NYU for her pathology residency. The minute she sees the fetus in the uterus they're dissecting she has an insight. "This wasn't a sperm donor pregnancy. Some bastard had his way with this woman and then abandons her. I can just feel it. Hell, he might have even supplied the drugs or been the reason she decided to take them." The technique she employs to track down that sperm donor is similar to that used in the real-life Golden State Killer case and even more like the method memoirist Dani Shapiro used to find her real father, as described in Inheritance.Cook's spot in the pantheon of page-turning, bestselling thriller authors who write like Siri is secure. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Rediffusion Television: Early Cable TV Delivered Like Telephone
Recently I spent an enjoyable weekend in Canterbury, staying in my friend's flat with a superb view across the rooftops to the city's mediaeval cathedral. Bleary-eyed and in search of a coffee on the Sunday morning, my attention was immediately drawn to one of her abode's original built-in features. There on the wall in the corner of the room was a mysterious switch.
Housed on a standard-sized British electrical fascia was a 12-position rotary switch, marked with letters A through L. An unexpected thing to see in the 21st century and one probably unfamiliar to most people under about 40, I'd found something I'd not seen since my university days in the early 1990s: a Rediffusion selector switch.
If you have cable TV, there is probably a co-axial cable coming into your home. It is likely to carry a VHF signal, either a series of traditional analogue channels or a set of digital multiplexes. "Cable ready" analogue TVs had wideband VHF tuners to allow the channels to be viewed, and on encrypted systems there would have been a set-top box with its own analogue tuner and decoder circuitry.
Your digital cable TV set-top box will do a similar thing, giving you the channels you have subscribed to as it decodes the multiplex. At the dawn of television transmission though, none of this would have been possible. Co-axial cable was expensive and not particularly high quality, and transistorised wideband VHF tuners were still a very long way away. Engineers designing the earliest cable TV systems were left with the technology of the day derived from that of the telephone networks, and in Britain at least that manifested itself in the Rediffusion system whose relics I'd found.
Cable For The '40s
Inside a Rediffusion cabinet in Canterbury. Adam Sampson, (CC BY 3.0).
So imagine for a minute that it's the late 1940s, and a network of VHF TV transmitters (in the lower VHF band from about 50 to 80 MHz) is being put in place across the nation to carry the single BBC 405-line TV channel in glorious monochrome. Some areas of the country can't pick up an acceptable signal, because of annoying geography. Entire cities will miss the chance to see important events, so they are fitted with a network of twisted pair cables in a tree topology of multiple nodes with repeater boxes on street corners.
Of course, you can't take a bundle of twisted pairs and send baseband video down them over any significant distance, so the video had to be modulated onto something. There were tubes available that could do VHF and even UHF in the post-war period, but the twisted-pair network only had a bandwidth somewhere in the HF.
The solution was to vestigial-sideband modulate video for distribution onto an HF carrier. When a second channel arrive in the mid-1950s, different carrier frequencies and opposite sidebands were used to minimise crosstalk for adjacent pairs. For the two-channel 405-line system the frequencies were 4·95 Mhz and 8·45 MHz. Crosstalk due to the overlapping sidebands remained at a point that couldn't be seen on the customer set as long as the cable system had no mismatches. In the home, instead of a broadcast TV set the subscriber had a Rediffusion-branded TV with a built-in demodulator.
At the close of the 1960s the country moved from the 405-line system to a 625-line PAL colour standard, and the Rediffusion systems were upgraded to cope. The selector switch I'd found in my friend's flat dated from this era, by now the cabling to each house possessed multiple twisted pairs for an anticipated multi-channel future. Slightly different carrier frequencies were used, and since most Rediffusion customers at the time also rented a TV set from the company, the viewing equipment was also upgraded.
The Decline and Fall of the Rediffusion Empire
So through the 1970s and early 1980s there were some British cities that still had a 1950s cable TV system. By now the conditions that had given rise to it no longer existed, as the new UHF transmission network had many more channels and thus far fewer low signal areas. The multichannel future was seen as coming from satellite broadcasting instead, and after some ownership changes and mergers the company ceased trading some time at the end of the 1980s.
In most cases the network was then simply abandoned, as was the case in Canterbury, but in a few cities it remained in use for a few more years before shutting down. The Rediffusion boxes I'd seen as a 1990s student in Hull were operated by a local company and carried some of the Sky satellite channels, and because by then the antiquated technology was comparatively open compared to encrypted satellite channels there was a lively hacking scene. The former Rediffusion regional headquarters was a derelict shell on the main road out of town, and there were technical documents aplenty ripe for the taking.
Potted transformers inside a Canterbury switch box. Adam Sampson, (CC BY 3.0).
Drawing on my memories from the time as well as referring to the HackHull site, both the "official" set-top box and the clones were simply upconverters that shifted the HF carrier from the twisted pair up into the range that a standard TV could tune into. A simple enough circuit with a single transistor could do the job, and as I remember it could even be done with a modified mechanical TV tuner. There are sites on the web that incorrectly describe the distribution as being at VHF frequencies and suggest the use of a VHF upconverter: these would work, but by an unintended means. In those devices there is an oscillator somewhere in the VHF range that would produce a harmonic that your UHF TV set could tune into, so when mixed with the HF Rediffusion signal it would still produce a picture on your TV. Subscriber management was simply a case of disconnecting a house at the junction box, and I remember in particular that my student house was not one of the lucky ones that had been left connected by accident.
Years later, all that remains of the Rediffusion networks are a few relics. Switch boxes in older houses and apartments, a few manhole covers, and very occasionally an intact distribution hub. Cable TV in the form of co-axial cable came to most UK cities in the 1990s, but even that is being displaced by internet streaming over fibre and has instead become primarily an internet delivery medium in its own right. The idea that there were once miles of multi-way twisted pair cables snaking around the neighbourhoods simply to deliver a pair of low-ish definition black-and-white TV channels seems bizarre in 2018, but for its time it was at the absolute bleeding edge. If you happen to live in a Rediffusion town, keep an eye out. There have to be some artifacts of the network still remaining.
Posted in classic hacks, Featured, History, Original Art, Video HacksTagged cable TV, Rediffusion, tv
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48 thoughts on "Rediffusion Television: Early Cable TV Delivered Like Telephone"
Wow! As a Yankee, I'd never heard of it.
Xerxes3rd says:
Agreed, I don't think the US ever had anything like that.
MikeIA says:
Possibly a future topic for this series, but when we built our new house out in the country in Iowa twenty years ago, we noticed that a lot of our neighbors had parabolic antennas pointing in the same direction. When we installed a new tv in our bedroom and did a scan for channels, a bunch of interesting UHF channels appeared, including one that was HBO!
A little research on the internet revealed the service known oxymoronically as Wireless Cable…..a tower in a little town about 30 miles away was providing Cable TV over microwave (the parabolic antennas) and some UHF frequencies. Channel assignment seemed to change frequently, but at times we could get premium channels like HBO for free.
Same here in Canada, good story.
johnrpm says:
We had rediffusion when I was young, TV and radio, Clithero kid on sunday afternoons.
Hi, I'm from the UK, these switch boxes were are cable TV and us children were the control 🤣 I can remember only having 3 TV channels and one of those was the radio x
Antron Argaiv says:
Very cool. In another 20 years, they'll be doing this kind of archaeology on the POTS network. It's already falling into disrepair where I live, as the telco abandons it (no future and no profit in maintaining a copper network when everyone wants FTTH).
This sounds like a very early version of DSL (though without the awesomely cool dynamically adaptive multi-carrier scheme)
OwlMan says:
As a kid in the late 1950's through 1960's. our Lincoln council house had piped radio… the 'receivers' were basically a rather simple demodulator+amp with a big speaker and a lot of empty space (yep, opened it up to have a peek). The receiver was attached to a plastic box via a (then) standard 2 pin mains plug and the station was selected by a multiway switch on top. After so many years I can't remember how many channels there were, it was moot anyway beause it was always tuned to the BBC Home service for Two Way Family Faviourites.
MK 2 says:
A similar system called "draadomroep" (literally: wirebroadcast) or radio distribution was widely used in the Netherlands from the 1920's up to 1975. It offered a selection of four(!) stations and a volume control knob. Sound quality was excellent but the limited choice of stations doomed the system.
We definitely had more than four, though I cannot remember anything other than BBC Home Service and (very occasionally) BBC Light Service. I have no doubt that I tried all the positions, but more than 50 years on I really can't remember what was there :-) Now you mention it, there was a volume knob on the side of the wooden box holding the speaker (quite large) and the remainder of the circuit (which was a tag strip mounted on the back of the speaker). Happy days.
Jac Goudsmit says:
I was going to say that :)
The system was run by the Dutch nationalized mail and telephone company PTT (now known as KPN).
For a long time I had a Philips tube radio that has belonged to my parents and had a "radio distri" input and source selector. When the radio receiver stopped working, I connected the input to the headphone output of a small transistor radio and that way I could still record radio shows on my little cassette recorder. Good times.
By the way I saw the actual outlet for the "draadomroep" only once. It was made out of brown bakelite and had a switch to choose from the 4 programs. Note, in the days that the network was active. There were only two national Dutch radio stations, so it was definitely prepared for the future! :)
Sorry, somewhat OT but geek relevant. In the 60's, the most awesome UK import to the USA were the progeny of Gerry/Slyvia Anderson. I remember growing up on "The Thunderbirds", also later in the 70's "UFO" (SHADO), SkyDiver was brilliant (engineeringly implausible, but still kick-ass!).
Miroslav says:
Good old British way: they always had to have their own thing. Bravo … It makes me want to sing "Rule Britannia" for some reason :)
GrahamM says:
I seem to remember that BT did some interactive TV trials in Colchester in 1995. This apparently included a flash cartridge for the SNES, allowing the download of games.
Evaprotoptype says:
Sega Channel was in the US it allowed downloading of games over the tv.
Alexander Wikström says:
At some point along the line one do start to wonder if they could have just switched to coax…
Since the coax probably would be better then the twisted pair. After all, they didn't seem to have any problem adding more twisted pairs, and fiddling around with everything else. Seems more like their failure were down to not taking the step to something less fiddly.
Even though a twisted pair of wires and some good differential signaling can technically give 0.5 Gb/s with ease for fairly good distances (this being standard Gigabit Ethernet and yes the full 1 Gb/s is on two pairs) and even then we have 12 Gb/s per twisted pair in an HDMI cable. Although, an hdmi cable with is individually shielded twisted pairs is kinda "advanced". (Could probably have been manufactured with ease and at a cheap price back in the 60's… Since twisting wires and wrapping foil around them isn't hard…)
Though, biggest downside with all electrical networks for high bandwidths is the high signal loss for a given distance. While an optical fiber generally has far less loss over the same distance. Fibers though typically have far higher losses in connectors, not to mention other connector related issues that electrical standards doesn't have to nearly the same degree. And this being why short distance communication (sub 100 meters) most likely will remain electrical for years to come. (Although, there is always those people that use fiber for the pure reason that it surely must be better, "it is freaking light after all!"…)
"Since the coax probably would be better then the twisted pair."
While coax could handle higher rates than twisted pair, Cat5e TP is handling far higher data traffic than thinNet ever did. Maybe it is because of the crappy coax that was out there, and the likely occurrence of crimping a lousy coax connector. Or maybe because ThinNet wasn't point to point, it could be mis-routed or under/over terminated, oh yeah, let's not forget packet collisions.
Well no ground loops, and less chance of signal leakage. More future-proof, may even incorporate all-optical amplifiers. Cheaper going with plastic instead of glass.
"The idea that there were once miles of multi-way twisted pair cables snaking around the neighborhoods simply to deliver a pair of low-ish definition black-and-white TV channels seems bizarre in 2018, but for its time it was at the absolute bleeding edge. "
If the internet is a series of "tubes" then everyone would be getting their media via pneumatic tube transport (PTT).
Matt Cramer says:
I had assumed the tubes referenced were vacuum, not pneumatic.
If nobody on HAD has built a vacuum tube Ethernet interface, this needs to happen. :)
Dapol says:
Well, the only difference between vacuum and pneumatic tubes is which side you have the lower pressure on.
One sucks, one blows, neither's that great. :)
I think they meant the electrical kind of tube.
But a vacuum driven pneumatic system is also a thing that works. Downside here is that the highest differential pressure would only reach 1 atmosphere. Unless one uses both pneumatic pressure and vacuum, then with the same tube we should be able to reach even larger differential pressures. (Unless our tube has horrid tensile strength.)
I always assumed Sen. Stevens was referring to pneumatic tubes. And I'm an EE!
Funny, how the "series of tubes" has become part of our vocabulary. When The Internet is slow, or down, "the tubes are clogged". Planned network outage is "tube cleaning", etc. Well, maybe it's only at my house that you'll hear this.
I used to holiday in a village in Scotland that due to geography had to have its TV provided in pretty much this way – the village was in the shadow of one of the taller mountains in the area, so while the far side of the loch a few miles away had line of sight on a transmitter mast, the village itself was in the shadow. I believe they ended up with this until the analogue signal was turned off in 2012 – no idea what they do now.
The real fun was when Sky started service, lots of people got excited that they'd finally get decent TV.
Turns out that the same mountain causing the problems with the terrestrial TV transmitter had an outcropping *directly* in the line of sight you needed to get transmissions from the Astra satellite. I did hear that the manager at a local activity center had told his hill team to "take a few of the lads and 5lb of gelignite and have an accident somewhere in the direction of that bloody peak".
BSB wasn't any better – that part of Scotland simply couldn't get the coverage from the tiny Squarials that the Marcopolo based system was using.
Hmm, interesting. There was a company Rediffusion in Switzerland. During the 70s and 80s, their radio and TV stores were a fixture in many small towns. But I didn't know that there was a technology behind that name.
According to Wikipedia they started cable radio in 1931 and tested cable TV in 1953.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rediffusion
Jan Praegert says:
Wer hat`s erfunden? Die Schweizer!
A friend of mine (now dead) designed and installed this system in Burnley and Newcastle and maybe other places, I suppose it really was his life's work.
In 1994 I took a head end and several consumer end units and used them to demonstrate video over power lines at a conference in Paris. I still have the gear and it was a pretty impressive demonstration. At that time it was still working in Burnley though they had moved to a very small building for the head end and just used a consumer satellite dish for the source, some arrangement with BskyB and Sky.
In Burnley they needed to get it to the next town (Padiham) about four miles away without laying cable so they took a leased line from BT and used it for HF, this was before bandwidth limiters were fitted to the telephone lines. It worked well for a long time until one day it didn't, that was when they installed the filters at BT.
I rolled out quite a lot of HDSL using BTs EPS8 and EPS9 "alarm wires" which were originally just naked pairs looped at the exchange distribution frame and connected to another set. Could run them at 2MB/s all day every day until, as you say, BT noticed.
Specifically, they realised that the same wires they were about to start selling ADSL over could be used by other people the same way and "Conditioned" the alarm wires – done by sticking a honking great inductor in place of the DF patch cable and reducing the effective bitrate on one of those lines from "How fast can you wiggle the electrons" to no more than 1200bps, with some horrible ringing artefacts if you tried to go much beyond that.. The lines still worked for their intended purpose of allowing you to close a switch and have a circuit complete setting off a trigger on a remote alarm monitor, but no more than that.
BT in the late 90s were a bit of a nightmare – that the sudden uptake in internet connectivty hugely increased the number of landlines, and BT being BT rather than running copper would put the infamous DACS TDMA pairgain boxes in the lines to split off another line – your nice V34 at 33600 suddenly drops to 9600 because your line's suddenly gone from being an analogue circuit to a digital circuit quantised for minimal speech frequencies and fax machines at a "guaranteed" rate of 2400bps.
On the other hand, they did some cool stuff – one connected city trial (In Swindon I think) had set top boxes which were basically Macintosh motherboards with some exotic modem installed (I think 10broad36 – go look it up – it was a fairly cool tech in its day)
Thanksforallthefish says:
I still have one last EPS8 in my network, can't get FTTC to the site yet (if ever)… It's currently running at 6.5Mbps (ish) which is adequate for the requirement :-)
I remember stumbling across the HackHull site ages ago and being puzzled by how it described I could open the box on the side of my house and rearrange some wires and get free TV. Opening the box just revealed the traps that were used to provide the pay channels, and I was quite bewildered until I realized the site was in England :-P (The cable provider injected a garbage signal that I believe was 4.5mhz downband from the actual TV signal, that the AFC in the TV tuner would latch onto, so if you tuned to HBO for example you'd get a "beep beep beep" over the audio and a herringbone pattern over the video signal, rather than the suppressed sync other cable systems used. One could use a TV with manual fine tuning and get a watchable signal but if you paid for the channel they just installed a notch filter that filtered the garbage signal out. I remember one of the neighbors moved and gave me her traps and I had all the premium channels until AT&T bought out TCI and they changed the system in the early 2000s.)
Matt Brunton says:
BBC Radio Oxford in the 1970/80s used to advertise the fact they broadcast on their FM frequency and "Rediffusion Channel A"
People still refer to programmes being "on the pipe" or "on the relay".
They could only do it because in the densely packed terraced housing owner occupiers were rare so when they nailed the wire to your wall just under the troffin (gutter) people didn't complain but towards the end people would not put up with it so large parts of the network were rendered useless because someone wanted to paint their front wall and just ripped it off leaving it dangling in the road.
problemchild68 says:
As soon as I saw Redifusion mentioned in the email I figured Jenny would be the author. They were a very British company, if you look around the sources on the net archiving this stuff you'll find all about their dev and repair labs and other sites … I believe Edinburgh /Hullwas another ?!?! Either way it shows you what you can do with some twisted pair
http://www.rediffusion.info/FHAusten/
Ron Murray says:
I worked for Rediffusion Industrial Services in the early seventies at the Edinburgh Branch. As far as I know there was no Rediffusion Town System in Edinburgh. Although Livingston New Town had British Relay Cable TV in the Scottish Borders BR provided a service because of poor reception. Our job with RIS was to service cable tv systems in mainly British Transport Hotels such as the Caledonian and North British Hotels in Edinburgh as well as all the others such Turnberry (now Trumped) as well CCTV systems, Internal Telephone & Intercom Systems and Reditune background music systems. The cable TV systems were exactly the same as used by Rediffusion for public cable TV networks. We were all trained at Rediffusions Engineering Training School in Poulton le Fylde.
rogerm1cdq says:
I grew up on a newly built council estate that had redifusion we had 4 tv channels bbc 1 bbc2 ITV and tyne tees tv . plus several national and local radio. my parents also bought me a video console from redifusion that had an adapter. a box wiht a large male din type plug and socket. this plugged in to tv and the cable from the wall switch plugged in to this. the console then plugged in to the side of this via a 1/4″ jack plug.
many years later i moved to a house which still had the redifusion oved cable attached. the whole street did. with the system now defunk. i tapped in to the cable to use it as a long wire for short wave listening. dont know the actual length. but i used to get some dam good signals
z0m8ied0g says:
I was part of HackHull back in the 90s when I was also at University. I remember the rediffusion building (including one of the times it caught fire). I know the authors of the article on the HackHull website and can put you in contact if required.
my dad was a rediffusion engineer, as a kid i got to play with all sorts of cool stuff, the first radio i built was using a signal amplifier box, it had a 64C valve, i used the plastic box upside down to mount the components and a socket to change coils for different vhf bands.
Ahh…hacking cable TV: an activity dear to my heart.
In the 80's, we had cable using addressable Jerrold 450 converters, and one of the channels always had an annoying buzz-saw noise on it (which I recognized as data). Hmmm, I thought to myself, wonder what they're transmitting?
A little research revealed that the channel in question was in the middle of the FM band. A stripped down clock radio provided the means to see the data, and a 6800 D2 kit (think: KIM-1 but for the 6800) allowed me to look at the bits.
Turned out, what was being transmitted was box addresses and channel permission bits (a "1" gave the box access to that channel, a "0" told the box not to display it) — after quite a bit of noodliing, I was able to get all the channels on my box, simply by replacing the address PROM with a circuit board with switches to set the box address to anything I wanted.
Good times. After proving it worked, I lost interest.
Along the way, I discovered the varactor tuner used in the box made a fairly good poor man's spectrum analyzer, when combined with the a sawtooth output of a signal generator and an oscilloscope.
foxpup says:
I live on the vast flat plains of North America and radio based TV was easy to distribute EVERYWHERE in that area. (almost no small villiages lost down in a deep valley) Consequently such a system like this would be totally unnecessary here, but it just goes to show how different situations demand different solutions. Britain's not so level land and higher population density would make wires like this more practical back when they were in use. Having watched way to many episodes of "Last Of the Summer Wine", I often wonder if any part of Britain is level. :-) It seems like the characters are always walking/riding up or down a steep hill. Of course "steep" is relative. In my region its not uncommon for the water to not be sure which way to flow when it rains a lot. Eventually it figures it out, but most of it just sinks into the ground until the ground level and the water table find unity. :-)
And yes, for you Rick and Morty fans out there, we have found "The Perfect Level" on multiple occasions here on the plains of North America. :-) (One of the reasons why many of us wouldn't even consider leaving) :-)
Graham Tanner says:
foxpup, all of "Last Of the Summer Wine" is set in Yorkshire, which is very hilly. Most of those hills are covered in tea plantations, which is where we get 'Yorkshire Tea' from. If you want to ingratiate yourself with those folk you will need to acquire a whippet and a flat cap.
The hilliest part of England is an area known as East Anglia, where there are many active mountaineering groups.
(some of the above is not necessarily true …)
Ive still got the switch in my lounge and the connection box at the side of the house. Never touched them to see whats inside. This is in east sussex.
Sue Reid says:
Would you consider selling me your switch? I'm quite keen to have one for old times sake.
Roger Evans says:
Rediffusion was an extraordinary engineering company. They started out in the 20's distributing radio and TV signals through their own wired relay networks- FIRST in the World. They branched out into making, renting, and selling radios, and subsequently TV's.
In 1950 they introduce the world's FIRST cable TV network in the South East (using twisted pair cables rather than coax), and became a broadcaster. They even expanded into Flight Simulators, and Computers.
hey were the FIRST to pioneer online shopping in the '70's (before the Internet was even thought of). Their system connected a modified domestic TV to a transactional computer via a telephone line. 'Videotext'.
Like many British pioneering companies, they were gobbled up by large corporate entities, with their culture and entrepreneurial spirit destroyed.
This has been help full as I have one in my flat and always wondered what it is
Do you want to sell the switch? Would love one for old times sake.
BrianSkodaman says:
In the early 1970's I worked for a UK company that supplied equipment to Rediffusion for cable TV distribution. It consisted of a PCB with 12 reed switches mounted in a circle that were actuated by a magnet on a metal arm that was attached to a stepper motor in the centre of the board. Every time the motor was energised the arm would turn such that the next reed switch was closed by the magnet & the appropriate TV or radio channel was selected. There would have been one PCB per subscriber but I think it would be mounted in a box on the side of the road, similar to those for cable TV nowadays. As it happens there is a Rediffusion manhole cover only 50 metres from my home.
This is so nostalgic cos I used to live up the road from one of the depots in St Leonard's on sea when I was a little girl. Of course we had Rediffusion so seeing the selector switch bought back so many memories. In fact, I would love to own one so I can put on the wall by the window! Can anyone tell me where I can buy one of these switches? I quite keen.


text:
Q: Macro environment variable visibility with if and include Good day,
I ran into following situation where macro variables are defined as global depending if they are from include or not.... Variables defined in macros should not be visible outside of the macro, right. This fails:
%macro if_env;
    %let a=100;
%mend if_env;
%if_env;
%put &a.;

WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference A not resolved.

This is as expected.
However, I ran into an issue, where the variable bleeds to global space:
I have an include file: C:\TEMP\test.sas, which contains only setting for variables a b c d: (For testing purposes)
%let a=100;
%let B=200;
%let C=300;
%let D=400;

This works also as intended:
%macro if_env;
    %include"C:\TEMP\test.sas";
%mend if_env;
%if_env;
%put &B.;

WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference B not resolved.

All good so far. Now, I added if clause 'include if file exists'-condition:
%macro if_env;
   %if %sysfunc(fileexist(C:\TEMP\test.sas)) %then
   %let C=100
%mend if_env;
%if_env;
%put &C.;

WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference C not resolved.

Last step: Add the actual include to the code:
%macro if_env;
   %if %sysfunc(fileexist(C:\TEMP\test.sas)) %then
   %include"C:\TEMP\test.sas";
%mend if_env;
%if_env;
%put &A.;
%put &B.;
%put &C.;
%put &D.;

100
  200
  300
  400

Umm, not computing. This should not happen. How could %let-command have different namespace depending if it is in an include or not?
Any idea why this happens as it does? Bug or really fancy feature?
Edit:
Very interesting. Based on SAS documentation one should use semicolon at the end of include. Glad to have clarification on the matter. Thanks for the answers.

A: The %include statement is terminated by a semi-colon.
The %if statement is terminated by a semi-colon.
The semi-colon in the macro terminates the %if in the macro.

*

*When the %if evaluates true the %include statement is begun but is terminated by the semi-colon just past the invocation.  Thus the %include statement execution scope is the same as the %put statements.

*When the %if` evaluates false the semi-colon after the invocation is simply a null statement, or stand-alone semi-colon.

This kind of macro programming subtlety is often overlooked.
To force the %include to occur in the macro scope use
... %then %do; %include ...; %end;

or
... %then %include ... %str(;) ;

A: I wouldn't call it a bug in SAS, but rather a bug in your program.  Since your macro is not supplying a semi-colon to terminated the %INCLUDE statement the macro ends before the %include statement runs.  So the local symbol space no longer exists and the %let statements create global macros.
If you format the code so that SAS code and macro code are on different lines it is clearer.
%if 1=1 %then
  %include test
;

Adding %do/%end will allow you to provide the semi-colon for the %include.
%if 1=1 %then %do;
  %include test ;
%end;

If you call this macro inside of another macro then the macro variables will be created as local to that calling macro.  So this is a trick that can be used to push macro variables into the parent environment.
%macro if_env;
  %include test
%mend if_env;
%macro outer ;
 %if_env;
 %put _local_;
%mend outer;

Turn on MLOGIC option to see what is happening.
235  options mlogic source2;
236  %outer ;
MLOGIC(OUTER):  Beginning execution.
MLOGIC(IF_ENV):  Beginning execution.
MLOGIC(IF_ENV):  Ending execution.
NOTE: %INCLUDE (level 1) file TEST is file /.../#LN00048.
237 +%let a=1;
238 +%let b=2;
239 +%let c=3;
NOTE: %INCLUDE (level 1) ending.
MLOGIC(OUTER):  %PUT _local_
OUTER A 1
OUTER B 2
OUTER C 3
MLOGIC(OUTER):  Ending execution.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Tether's commercial paper disclosure places it among global giants
JPMorgan estimates stablecoin operator would be one of the largest investors in the US market
10 Jun 2021 • 3 min read
Disclosures from cryptocurrency provider Tether suggest it has become one of the world's largest investors in the US commercial paper market, rubbing shoulders with the likes of fund managers Vanguard and BlackRock and dwarfing the investments of tech giants like Google and Apple, according to estimates from JPMorgan.
Tether operates a so-called stablecoin, which it says is backed one-for-one by dollar assets. In May, it provided a breakdown of these reserves, which Tether claims included just under $30bn in commercial paper, a short-dated investment similar to cash. Such holdings of companies' short-term debt would make it the seventh largest in the world.
But this reported accumulation has largely gone unnoticed on Wall Street, according to several of the biggest players in the market including bank traders, analysts and money market funds.
"We've got lots of inquiries and heard lots of discussion, but have not seen any active participation," said Deborah Cunningham at Federated Hermes."Until last week we hadn't really heard of them," said a trader at a large bank. "It was news to us."
JPMorgan's analysts said the large commercial paper holdings may suggest that Tether is struggling to find a bank willing to take its cash as a deposit. The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has released guidance saying that banks can take deposits from stablecoin issuers only if the coins are fully backed by reserves.
However, as Tether's reserve holdings have been questioned by regulators such as the New York attorney-general in the past, providing banking services to Tether will "likely raise reputational risk concerns", wrote the JPMorgan analysts.
But Stuart Hoegner, Tether's general counsel, said: "With respect to reputation, we believe we are seeing the opposite: more and more counterparties are comfortable with Tether and our transparency initiatives and are keen to work with us."
"Tether has amply demonstrated, most recently through assurance opinions from [auditor] Moore Cayman, that all issued tethers are, in fact, fully reserved," he added.
Tether said that it funnelled roughly half its reserves into commercial paper. Another 18 per cent is held in fiduciary deposits, more than 12 per cent in secured loans and nearly 10 per cent in corporate bonds, funds and precious metals. Cash made up only 2.9 per cent, according to the company's disclosure.
In a blog post a few days after its reserves report was released, Hoegner said the commercial paper that the company held was purchased through "recognised issuance programmes", the "vast majority" highly rated, and that there were limits on individual issuers and regional exposures. He also said that Tether did not hold any commercial paper issued by cryptocurrency exchanges or affiliated entities.
Hoegner said the commercial paper reserves included "amounts held internationally with further sub-custody at major global institutions".
The $1.1tn commercial paper market is vital for large companies looking to raise cash for short-term needs such as payroll and inventories. Last March, the Federal Reserve stepped in to buy commercial paper as the pandemic led money market funds, one of the biggest buyers, to pull back.
Tether has become one of the most important components of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, with more than 35bn tethers printed so far this year, more than double its supply in January. It is now the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, according to CoinMarketCap, making up the bulk of stablecoin volume.
Tether had stated since its launch in 2014 that its tokens were fully backed by US dollars in bank accounts, before pivoting in February 2019 to say that its reserves included traditional currency, cash equivalents and other assets and receivables.
In February, the operator and the related trading platform Bitfinex pledged to offer more transparency on its reserves under the terms of an $18.5m settlement with the New York attorney-general's office, leading to the most recent disclosures last month.
According to the attorney-general's investigation, there were instances when Tether was not fully backed in the past. In November 2018, it had to transfer a substantial portion of its backing to Bitfinex after a loss of funds, meaning that it no longer met its claim of being fully backed by US dollars. This was later repaid by Bitfinex.
"Tether's claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by US dollars at all times was a lie," said attorney-general Letitia James in February.
Neither Tether nor Bitfinex admitted wrongdoing.
The New York attorney-general's office declined to comment on whether Tether's disclosure, which came in the form of a single-page PDF, was sufficient to meet its requirement on reporting as part of February's settlement.
"Tethers are today, and have always been, fully backed by assets sufficient to cover the amount of tethers in circulation," Hoegner said of its latest disclosure. He said that the New York attorney-general had no clear findings that customers at any point were at risk of being unable to redeem tethers because of a lack of backing.
"We believe that our disclosures thus far prove that all tethers are fully backed with very useful disclosures about the nature of that backing," he added.
Additional reporting by Colby Smith
Funds trim negative US stocks bets
Pullback shrinks scope for amateur traders looking to punish short sellers
Investor News 14 Jun 2021 • 2 min read
Gold under the new regime
A hedge, but not necessarily an inflation hedge


text:
<!DOCTYPE html>

    <title>hasInstance</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="prism.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">

Folktalev2.0.1

GitHub

Support

Contributing

hasInstance

Tests if an arbitrary value is a Just case of a Maybe instance.

Signature

hasInstance(value)

Type(what is this?)

(Variant) => Boolean

Documentation

Tests if an arbitrary value is a Just case of a Maybe instance.

Example:

const Maybe = require('folktale/maybe');

Maybe.Just.hasInstance({ value: 1 });
// ==> false

Maybe.Just.hasInstance(Maybe.Just(1));
// ==> true

Maybe.Just.hasInstance(Maybe.Nothing());
// ==> false

Properties

Source Code

Defined in source/adt/union/union.js at line 95, column 25

hasInstance(value) {
        return Boolean(value)
        &&     adt.hasInstance(value)
        &&     value[TAG] === name;
      }

Stability
stable

Licence
MIT

On This Page

Signature

Documentation

Example:

Properties

Source Code

Authors
Copyright
(c) 2013-2017 Quildreen Motta, and CONTRIBUTORS

Authors

Quildreen Motta

Maintainers

Quildreen Motta <queen@robotlolita.me> (http://robotlolita.me/)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This Elgin County staple is full of quaint shops, good eats and cozy accommodations to end the night. Come for the beach but stay for the town and get to know the locals and their historic railway station leading back to St. Thomas. Port Stanley's Main Beach is one of 26 beaches across Canada that are Blue Flag certified and committed to safety and water quality at International standards.
This small fishing village screams family-friendly fun. Spend the day catching some of the best Lake Erie Yellow Perch, or enjoy a picnic near the newly renovated playground. Although the Port Bruce beach is smaller, it gives you the chance to step away from crowded shorelines and have a more private experience.
From around the region, Grand Bend resonates amongst many – bringing back memories of cherished childhoods, romantic getaways and much more. Whether you make the trip for wild watersports, a weekend getaway or to enjoy the quintessential beach strip, this town has it all. Did we mention above everything else this beach is Blue Flag certified? So much greatness in our region!
This hidden gem, located on the shores of Lake Erie, is a tranquil shoreline getaway perfect for bird watchers, boaters, small-town lovers, and families. Visit a nearby trail, or stop by for the annual Fish Fry to experience everything this port is about. Recently named a Blue Flag beach, Port Glasgow will surely become one of your new favourites.
This town is always great beach escape! Take a romantic stroll along the pier to the picture-perfect lighthouse, or lay out on the sandy beach. Walk into town and dine at a great restaurant, cute café or take a day to the shops for unique boutiques you won't find anywhere else. You can't leave Port Dover without taking a selfie with the palm trees!
A historic lighthouse, a cold-war era submarine, and trails oh my! Port Burwell truly offers things that aren't easily found elsewhere. Take a trip to the HMCS Ojibwa, bike along the Lake Erie Waterfront Trail, or visit the historic lighthouse that holds the secrets of the century. On top of all that, don't forget about this small sandy beach, named Blue Flag certified in 2018, or the dog beach for you and your best friend in the provincial park.
Some of the warmest waters of Lake Erie are found at this hidden gem. Families will love the warm waters and large sandy beach – fitted perfectly with volleyball nets! Take a short walk into town for craft beer and pizza, or the famous Lake Erie perch. Stick around for the weekend in Erieau in one of the local cottages to give yourself plenty of time to kick back and relax.
This historic town is located at the mouth of Lake Erie and is the perfect scenic getaway. Visit local history, take a stroll through town or enjoy the picturesque shoreline on a sunny afternoon. With great food, great people and a great location, Amherstburg gives you the opportunity to visit small town living just a short drive from the big city.
Summer comes and goes in a flash so make the most of it while you can. Explore, share, and make memories that you'll look back on fondly. With so much to see at your back door, what's holding you back!
For more information about local beaches, visit our beach cheat sheets here.


text:
Sabri v. United States
PETITIONER: Basim Omar Sabri
RESPONDENT: United States
LOCATION: Elk Grove Unified School District
DOCKET NO.: 03-44
DECIDED BY: Rehnquist Court (1986-2005)
LOWER COURT: United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
CITATION: 541 US 600 (2004)
GRANTED: Oct 14, 2003
ARGUED: Mar 03, 2004
DECIDED: May 17, 2004
ADVOCATES:
Andrew S. Birrell - argued the cause for petitioner
Andrew Stuart Birrell - argued the cause for Petitioner
Deputy Solicitor General Dreeben - argued the cause for the United States
Michael R. Dreeben - argued the cause for Respondent
Basim Omar Sabri, a Minneapolis landlord and developer, tried to bribe a Minneapolis City Council member who sat on the board of an organization that dispersed funding for economic revitalization of city neighborhoods. Some of the funds dispersed by the organization were federal funds.
Sabri was charged in federal court with bribery. He moved to dismiss the charges, claiming that the section of United States Code that he was charged under was unconstitutional. He claimed that Congress could only regulate the dispersal of federal funds; because the statute did not require the prosecutors to show that the bribery had affected any federal funds, only that it had affected an organization that received federal funds, he argued that it was outside of Congress's power to legislate. The district court sided with Sabri and dismissed the charges.
On appeal, an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals panel reversed. It found that, because federal funds were often mixed with other funds by organizations that distributed them, it would be difficult for prosecutors to prove that the funds affected by an attempted bribe were federal funds. As a result, the government would have to regulate all bribes to organizations that dispersed federal funds in order to meaningfully protect federal funds. Because Congress had authority under the necessary and proper clause and the spending clause (both found in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution) to ensure that government funds were not misspent, the bribery statute was therefore constitutional.
May Congress make it a federal crime to bribe officials of non-federal organizations that distribute some federal funds without requiring prosecutors to prove that the bribe actually affected federal funds?
Media for Sabri v. United States
Opinion Announcement - May 17, 2004
Oral Argument - March 03, 2004
Audio Transcription for Oral Argument - March 03, 2004 in Sabri v. United States
Audio Transcription for Opinion Announcement - May 17, 2004 in Sabri v. United States
William H. Rehnquist:
The opinion of the Court in No. 03-44, Sabri against the United States will be announced by Justice Souter.
David H. Souter:
This case comes to us on a writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit.
The petitioner Sabri, a real estate developer, proposed to build a hotel and retail structures in Minneapolis.
In an effort to forward his plans, he offered three bribes to a City Councilmen according to the grand jury indictment that gave rise to this case.
Sabri was charged with violating 18 U.S. Code 666, which makes it a federal crime to offer a bribe of $5000 or more to an agent of any government receiving federal benefits of at least $10,000 a year.
In 2001 when the bribes were allegedly offered, the City Council of Minneapolis got about $29 million of federal funds.
Sabri moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground that the statute is unconstitutional on its face for failure to require proof of a connection between the federal funds and the bribe as an element of liability.
The District Court agreed with Sabri, but a divided panel of the Eighth Circuit reversed holding that there was nothing fatal in the absence of an express requirement to prove some connection between a given bribe and federally pedigreed dollars.
The Circuit held that the statute was constitutional under the Necessary and Proper Clause in serving the objects of the congressional spending power.
We granted certiorari to resolve a split among the Courts of Appeals over the need to require connections between the bribe and the federal funds.
In an opinion filed today with the Clerk of the Court, we affirm.
Sabri raises what he calls a facial challenge to the statute.
It is fatal, as he sees it, that the statute does not make the connection between the bribe and the Federal funds in the element of the crime to be charged in the indictment and demonstrated proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
But we do not presume the unconstitutionality of Federal criminal statute simply from the absence of an explicit jurisdictional hook.
There is no occasion even to consider the need for such a requirement, where there is no reason to suspect that enforcement of a criminal statute would extend beyond the legitimate interest, cognizable under Article I of the Constitution.
Congress' authority under the Spending Clause to appropriate federal moneys to promote the general welfare and it has corresponding authority under the Necessary and Proper Clause to see that the taxpayer dollars appropriated under that power are in fact, spent on the general welfare, rather than frittered away in graft.
While it is true just as Sabri says that not every bribe or kickback offered or paid to agents of state and local governments will be traceably skimmed from federal bequests, this possibility does not portend enforcement beyond the scope of federal interest.
Money is fungible, bribed officials are untrustworthy stewards of federal funds, and corrupt contractors do not deliver dollar-for-dollar value.
In a postscript we observed that Sabri's challenge amounts to an overbreadth claim.
Our general reluctance to entertain facial challenges is only heightened with respect to this species of suit.
Justice Kennedy has filed an opinion concurring in part in which Justice Scalia has joined; Justice Thomas has filed an opinion concurring in the judgment.
← Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders
Middleton v. McNeil →


text:
Chadian editor subjected to shocking prison conditions
Condemning abuses
The editor of Salam Info, Martin Inoua Doulguet in front of his "cell" at the Central prison of Amsinéné in N'Djamena in Chad.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the release of Chadian newspaper editor Martin Inoua Doulguet and condemns the appalling conditions in which he is serving a three-year jail sentence – sleeping on the ground in an improvised cell and having to pay to use a clean shower and toilet.
The editor of the Salam Info quarterly, Doulguet shares this cell with the two other detainees who built it from palm fronds, plastic sheets and sheet metal. It is just five square metres in area, including the filthy corner that serves as a latrine and shower space. "I have to pay 3,000 CFA francs [4.5 euros] every two weeks to have access to a cleaner shower and toilets," he told RSF.
Arrested on 16 August in connection with his coverage of a case involving a former health minister who was accused by her niece of sexual assault, Doulguet was sentenced to three years in prison on 23 September on charges of libel and "association for the purpose of computer crime." Since then, he has been sleeping on a mat on the ground and has been limited to visits of a just a few minutes at a time that are held "standing in a corridor." His lawyer, Olivier Gouara, who describes these conditions as "atrocious," also says Doulguet has no access to a prison nurse for treatment to the ailments he is suffering.
On the left and middle, the "cell" in which Martin Inoua Doulguet is being detained for four months now. On the right, his toilets and shower.
A French lawyer who recently visited Doulguet said he is also exposed to physical danger. "There is an ill-lit area, a sort of punishment area called the 'boat,' where he was taken after being given a beating and where he was manhandled by the prisoners who are packed in there," the lawyer reported. Doulguet had previously managed to report, with supporting photos, that he was attacked and beaten by prison guards "acting on instructions" on 23 September.
"As well as being deprived of his freedom because of what he wrote, this journalist is being detained in shocking conditions," said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF's Africa desk. "What with beatings and being kept in a cell that poses a threat to his health, everything is being done to humiliate him. We call on the authorities to end the mistreatment and persecution, and to release him provisionally pending the outcome of an appeal."
Doulguet's lawyer told RSF that he has finally received an official copy of his client's sentence and that, as a result, he can at last file an appeal.
Outspoken newspaper
Salam Info and its editor have often been the targets of threats, attacks and sanctions for covering corruption and misgovernance. Just two days after launching the quarterly in February 2018, Doulguet was arrested and held for five days on the grounds that he had published it in the capital after obtaining a publishing permit in the southern city of Bongor.
A few weeks later, Doulguet was detained again for two days as a result of a lawsuit by the local branch of the Red Cross over a story accusing it of misusing its funding. The case was dismissed when it came to court because no Red Cross representative turned up for the hearing. The suit that former mining minister Gomdigué Baïdi Lomey brought against Doulguet over a story about a questionable contract ended in a similar fashion. Doulguet received a series of summonses from the judicial police and then a prosecutor convened a face-to-face meeting between Doulguet and Lomey. But the former minister did not turn up when a court hearing was held on 10 December 2018.
The burned car of journalist Martin Inoua Doulguet, november 19, 2018, N'Djamena, Tchad.
Doulguet has also been the target of criminal acts. His computer was stolen, his car was set on fire in November 2018 and there was an attempted arson attack on his home on the night of 19 July 2019. It was in July 2019 that he was ordered to suspend publishing for three months for allegedly insulting his former boss, the owner of the newspaper Abba Garde.
Doulguet has also been threatened by government officials such as Abakar Mahamat Adoum, who was fired as a presidential adviser shortly after Doulguet published a story questioning his handling of a post office repair contract, and presidential chief of staff Kalzeubé Pahimi Deubet, who was arrested on suspicion of corruption two weeks ago.
Chad is ranked 122nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2019 World Press Freedom Index.
Follow the news on Chad
Second journalist jailed for defamation in Chad
January 8, 2020 Find out more
Chadian editor sentenced to three years in prison
Two Chadian editors detained illegally for defamation
August 20, 2019 Find out more
Subscribe to the newsletter: Chad


For many years, Caterpillar had been the premium brand in hydraulic excavators. Low-cost competition has made inroads into Caterpillar's market share on a global basis, especially in the smaller end of the product range.
Cat responded with an unprecedented leap in product technology and quality.
Now equipped to operate in a different paradigm to its competitors, Cat now needed to tell its story and equip its dealer network to capitalise on the launch.
Our research showed that the building and construction industry historically understood Cat's quality positioning and saw it as an aspirational product.
Our task was to help dealers make the financial case for paying a higher acquisition cost to access much greater value through increased productivity lower total cost-of-ownership (TCO). A finance package from Cat financial was offered – further strengthening the claim for lower TCO.
Research had also highlighted the value of getting operators hands-on with the technology and showed up the use of mobile communications as the priority engagement channel. So at an OEM level, Cat leveraged national industry media and targeted digital communications to create awareness of the new products. This was teamed with sophisticated re-marketing programs featuring customer testimonials and technical data.
Dealers were provided with marketing packs with campaign assets for prospect and customer databases to bring owners/operators into a national series of Demo Day events around Australia.
Cat BCP orders have now comprehensively outstripped supply.


Sterling Machinery Exchange has Plastic Machinery to Buy, Sell or Trade. Plastic Machinery Such as Plastic Injection Molding Machines, Granulators, Extruders, Grinders, Shredders, Thermoformers, Blow Molders and more. If you work with Polyester, Polyethylene, Polyvinyl, Polystyrene, or any other high density plastics please contact us at 626-444-0311 or email us at……….


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Reminder: Historic Shipwreck Avoidance on Stellwagen Bank
March 25, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries, in conjunction with NOAA Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, requests that vessels avoid shipwreck sites on southern Stellwagen Bank within the Sanctuary by keeping gear 400 feet away from each of the site locations listed below.
We recognize that fishermen want to avoid shipwrecks to ensure the safety of the crew and because of the risks of damaging their gear when the gear gets hung up on a wreck or other objects on the ocean floor. Hanging up on a wreck can also cause serious damage to shipwrecks that have historical significance.
For more information read the permit holder bulletin posted on our website.
Read the full release here
NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary seeks advisory council applicants
June 10, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is seeking applicants for six primary and five alternate seats on its advisory council. The council ensures public participation in sanctuary management and provides advice to the sanctuary superintendent.
The sanctuary is accepting applications for the following seats: at large (two primary and one alternate), business industry (one primary and one alternate), conservation (one primary and one alternate), education (one alternate), marine transportation (alternate), mobile gear commercial fishing (primary), and research (one primary).
The application period opened on June 1. Completed applications are due by June 30, 2020. Applications received or postmarked after June 30 will not be considered. To receive an application or for further information, please contact Elizabeth Stokes at 781-546-6004 or by mail at 175 Edward Foster Road, Scituate, MA 02066. Applications can also be downloaded from the Sanctuary's website.
Applicants accepted as members should expect to serve a three-year term. The advisory council consists of 36 primary and alternate members representing a variety of public interest groups. It also includes seven seats representing other federal and state government agencies.
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary's Advisory Council actively recruits for new members and alternates when positions are available. Check their website frequently for updates on how you can help manage New England's only national marine sanctuary.
April 9, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Seeks Public Comment on Revised Management Plan for Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
February 14, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries has released the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Condition Report. Condition reports summarize resources and ecosystem services within a national marine sanctuary, pressures on those resources, current conditions and trends, and management responses to the pressures.
The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Condition Report indicates that water quality in the sanctuary is good, but habitat, living resources, and maritime heritage resources continue to experience human impacts (vessel traffic, fishing, marine debris, ocean noise) and climate change. The condition report also includes an assessment of the sanctuary's ecosystem services, which are benefits that people obtain from the environment, such as seafood and recreation.
The release of the condition report will initiate the review and revision of the management plan for Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Public scoping is the first phase in the revision process, and the public can comment through April 10, 2020, on the scope of issues and programs to be considered within an updated plan. Comments may be submitted online, by mail, or in person at the public scoping meetings.
Public scoping meetings and public comment period through April 10 to solicit input on the scope of issues and programs to be considered within an updated management plan for Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
WHEN and WHERE:
March 11, 6:30-8 p.m., New England Aquarium, Harborside Learning Lab,1 Central Wharf, Boston, MA 02110
March 12, 6:30-8 p.m., Maritime Gloucester, 23 Harbor Loop, Gloucester, MA 01930
March 18, 6:30-8 p.m., Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Admiral's Hall,101 Academy Dr, Buzzards Bay, MA 02532
HOW TO COMMENT:
Online: Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal and use docket number NOAA-NOS-2020-0003.
NOAA Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
175 Edward Foster Road
Scituate, MA 02066
Attn: Management Plan Revision
Stellwagen Bank NMS seeking advisory council applications – Due Nov 30
November 7, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is seeking applicants for three primary and four alternate seats on its Sanctuary Advisory Council. The SAC ensures public participation in sanctuary management and provides advice to the sanctuary's superintendent. The sanctuary is accepting applications for the following seats:
Business Industry (Alternate)
Conservation (Primary)
Education (Alternate)
Marine Transportation (Primary)
Marine Transportation (Alternate)
Recreational Fishing (Primary)
Whale Watch (Alternate)
Completed applications are due by November 30, 2019.
Applications received or postmarked after this date will not be considered.
Applicants accepted as advisory council members should expect to serve a 3-year term. The advisory council consists of 36 primary and alternate members representing a variety of public interest groups. It also includes seven seats representing other federal and state government agencies.
Download an application or contact Elizabeth Stokes (781-546-6004) for an application or more information.
Get more information about the Office of National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Councils.
Right whale researchers attempt to disentangle 'Kleenex'
April 17, 2018 — PROVINCETOWN, Mass. — A prolific North Atlantic right whale mother named Kleenex may eventually be freed from fishing line wrapped around her jaw for the past several years after a rescue effort Thursday on Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
"This is exactly the individual we are desperate to help," said Scott Landry, who leads the center's efforts to free marine animals from fishing gear.
The adult female, well-known to researchers, had been carrying rope wrapped around her upper jaw for at least three years, according to documented sightings. Because there was no trailing line on the rope, the usual technique of slowing the whale and keeping it at the surface by attaching buoys to the entanglement couldn't be used, Landry said. Instead, the rescuers used a cutting arrow fired from the deck of the rescue boat to damage the rope on the animal, he said. The weakened rope should deteriorate and be shed by the whale over time, Landry said.
The entanglement of female right whales in fishing gear has been linked to energy depletion and inability of the females to sustain a pregnancy and a year of nursing a calf.
The critically endangered right whales need robust calving to help stop a decline in population that has has been detected since 2010, according to researchers.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times
Opponents, supporters react to Trump's offshore drilling plan
February 6, 2018 — Environmentalists, fishermen, and state governments are signaling their opposition to the Trump administration's proposed plan to reopen the ocean off Cape Cod and New England to oil and gas exploration.
"We are skeptical of anything the Trump Administration is doing in the marine environment or anything they are proposing to do," said Conservation Law Foundation Vice President Priscilla Brooks.
A 2016 Bureau of Ocean Energy Management report estimated nearly 90 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 327 trillion tons of natural gas existed in mostly unexplored areas of the U.S. continental shelf. The new push for fossil fuel exploration and recovery was announced Jan. 4 with the unveiling of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's Draft Five Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. It is part of President Donald Trump's campaign pledge to make the U.S. more energy independent.
Currently, offshore fossil fuel exploration is controlled by a BOEM plan finalized near the end of the Obama presidency. Obama invoked a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, to give what he said would be permanent protection from drilling to the continental shelf from Virginia to Maine.
But there were doubts that Obama's use of the 1953 law would hold up in court, and the new plan is meant to replace the current one. International Association of Drilling Contractors President Jason McFarland hailed the inclusion of the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and an expansion of Gulf of Mexico drilling areas as an important step in achieving the goal of U.S. energy dominance in the world.
"IADC has long argued for access to areas that hold potential for oil and gas development," McFarland wrote in comments last month, citing a U.S. Energy Information Administration estimate of a 48 percent growth in worldwide energy demand over the next 20 years. "The number and scale of the recoverable resources is large, and can lead to thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars in investment."
But the Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association and the various fishermen's associations have panned the proposal. Last week, the New England Fishery Management Council approved a comment letter to BOEM that requested Mid-Atlantic and Northern Atlantic lease areas be excluded from the exploration and drilling.
Can you hear me? NOAA studies boat noise and fish
January 8, 2018 — NOAA scientists studying sounds made by Atlantic cod and haddock at spawning sites in the Gulf of Maine have found that vessel traffic noise is reducing the distance over which these animals can communicate with each other.
As a result, daily behavior, feeding, mating, and socializing during critical biological periods for these commercially and ecologically important fish may be altered, according to a study published in Nature Scientific Reports.
Three sites in Massachusetts Bay included two inside Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, a region well known to whale-watchers from the Cape because whales feed in the plankton-rich bank, and one inshore south of Cape Ann. All were monitored for three months by researchers at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) laboratory in Woods Hole, and at the sanctuary offices in Scituate.
Vocalizations, such as Atlantic cod grunts and haddock knocks, were recorded by bottom-mounted instruments at each site during spawning in winter and spring.
"We looked at the hourly variation in ambient sound pressure levels and then estimated effective vocalization ranges at all three sites known to support spawning activity for Gulf of Maine cod and haddock stocks," said Jenni Stanley, a marine research scientist in the passive acoustics group at the NEFSC and SBNMS and lead author of the study.
"Both fluctuated dramatically during the study. The sound levels appear to be largely driven by large vessel activity, and we found a signification positive correlation with the number of Automatic Identification System (AIS) tracked vessels at two of the three sites."
AIS is an automatic tracking system, used on ships and by vessel traffic services. It provides information on a vessel, such as its unique identification number, position, course and speed, which can be displayed on a shipboard radar or electronic chart display.
Read the full story at the Wicked Local
Boat noise silencing cod, haddock love songs
December 19, 2017 — Communication among cod comes in the form of vocalized grunts. And for haddock, it's knocks.
Now it appears that increasing traffic noise from large vessels in the Gulf of Maine may be reducing the range of communication for the two species of Atlantic groundfish, according to research by NOAA Fisheries scientists.
The study, undertaken by scientists from NOAA Fisheries' Northeast Fisheries Science Center and published in Scientific Reports, said the decline in the ability to communicate may generate widespread changes in the species' "daily behavior, feeding, mating, and socializing during critical biological periods for these commercially and ecologically important fish."
Cod, for instance, vocalize to attract mates and listen for predators and "not hearing those signals could potentially reduce reproductive success and survival," according to the study.
Using bottom-mounted instruments to record the cod grunts and haddock knocks, scientists spent three months monitoring the sounds made by the two species at three separate spawning sites within the Gulf of Maine — two inside Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and one inshore south of Cape Ann.
"We looked at the hourly variation in ambient sound pressure levels and then estimated effective vocalization ranges at all three sites known to support spawning activity in the Gulf of Maine cod and haddock stocks," said Jenni Stanley, a marine research scientist and lead author of the study. "Both fluctuated dramatically during the study."
The variations of the sound levels, she said, appear to be driven by the activities of large vessels.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times
MASSACHUSETTS: Bluefin tuna seized for size violation donated to homeless shelter
September 14, 2016 — A bluefin tuna was donated to a local homeless shelter after it was seized for a size violation during a routine inspection on Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, the Massachusetts Environmental Police said in a Facebook post.
Police were inspecting a fleet of more than 100 tuna ships on the sanctuary Tuesday when officers located a vessel with a 55-inch bluefin tuna onboard, according to police.
The fish was about 18 inches under the required size limit for the ship's fishing permit category, police said. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) asked that officers seize the tuna because of the violation.
Police transported the fish to Boston, where a NOAA officer took possession of it, according to police. The tuna was then donated to a homeless shelter in the area.
Read the full story at The Boston Globe


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Watch Now! EPLC "Focus on Education" TV Episode on Arts Education
Tune in to the latest episode of EPLC's "Focus on Education" series, which covered Arts Education and aired on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) on October 23.
The following panelists discussed the value of the arts in education, funding and funding cuts for school arts programs, and what parents and others can do to advocate for the programs in the their schools:
• Ron Cowell, President of The Education Policy and Leadership Center;
• Corinna Vecsey Wilson, PCN Host of the "Focus on Education" programs;
• Clyde Mills McGeary, Former Chief, Division of Arts and Sciences, Pennsylvania Department of Education;
• Jamie Kasper, Associate Director, Arts Education Collaborative;
• Dr. Richard D. Nilsen, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
EPLC and PA Cable Network (PCN) have partnered for this monthly program focusing on education issues in Pennsylvania. The first episodes aired February through June and covered school safety issues, student testing, the work of school boards, school funding, drop out prevention, and parent advocacy topics.
"Focus on Education" will be broadcast on PCN at 9:00 p.m. on the 2nd Wednesday of every month, now through December.
To learn more, visit PCN's "Focus on Education" webpage.


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Louis L'Amour Commemorative Stamp
(sample stamp - not actual design)
Louis L'Amour fans are invited to join in a project honoring his forty years as a writer. In Jamestown, North Dakota, Louis' hometown, a project was started in 1998 to obtain a commemorative postage stamp from the U.S. Postal Service in recognition of his immense body of work encompassing the excitement and adventure of the American Frontier.
By 2000 sales of L'Amour's books reached the 300 million mark.
All of his books have portrayed the courageous, tenacious spirit of the men, women and children who settled all regions of our country.
L'Amour's books are translated into 27 languages making him one of the best foreign literature ambassador's we've ever had.
45 motion pictures have been based on L'Amour's books (shown in theaters and on television).
Although Louis' stories have strong man-woman content they can be read by all ages.
Please send your card or letter in support of this project to:
Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee
475 L'Enfant Plaza S.W.
Room 4474 E


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A child-centred recovery – where all young people can thrive
We need to put children and young people at the heart of our plans to rebuild our communities and create a better future.
Creating those opportunities and brighter futures will need Government investment to support the increased demand for local council services for families and children as we rebuild our road to recovery.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an immeasurable impact on all of us, and councils have been at the forefront of local responses since day one. As we move into the next phase of the pandemic, thoughts are turning towards recovery and what that will look like given the significant uncertainties still facing us.
The main challenges for children's services are yet to come. As children return to school, and as the full, long-term impact of the pandemic becomes apparent, councils anticipate a sharp increase in demand for everything from universal support services through to urgent child protection responses. Councils will also be working closely with schools to support children as they return, and to coordinate wider education system responses such as changes to home-to-school transport.
Councils and the Government will need to work swiftly to deal with the immediate challenges to children, young people and their families if we are to avoid long-term damage to their prospects. In particular, supporting families through the next stages of the pandemic, our recovery and the potential long shadow of lockdown impacts will be key to helping our communities to get back on their feet.
We now need councils and the Government to put children's needs at the heart of recovery.
Good planning for families, children, education and employment help us create thriving communities.
Increased demand for children's services
Despite this phenomenal effort, the main challenges for children's services are yet to come. We don't yet know the full impact of the pandemic on children, young people and their families, but councils across the country are expecting a significant increase in demand for services as we move through the coming months.
Rising demand for services means that despite budgets for children's social care rising by more than half a billion pounds in 2018/19, more than eight in ten councils were still forced to overspend to ensure children were protected.
Our ask of Government
The Government must properly fund councils to deliver the effective, holistic and responsive services needed to put children and young people at the heart of recovery.
Helping families and children early on
Providing support early on to families and children helps to prevent longer term problems but to do this councils need Government funding so they can invest in preventative universal and early help services.
We need to make sure mental health support is available, for both children and adults, that local safety nets are properly resourced and well organised to avoid families falling into crisis.
of children's services budgets were spent on preventative services in 2017/18, a reduction from 41 per cent in 2010/11. During this period there had been a corresponding rise in spend on child protection services, most notably for looked after children.
We want to see funding for early help services for children restored to former levels, boosting funding by £1.7 billion. Over the last decade the Early Intervention Grant has fallen by almost two thirds from £2.8 billion in 2010/11 to £1.1 billion in 2018/19.
Getting learning back on track
Schools are also going to be under significant pressure as they work to put children's mental wellbeing at the forefront while helping children to get their learning back on track. They are likely to face challenges ensuring young people return to school, settling children back into routines, supporting children through pandemic-related anxieties, managing behaviour and re-establishing the relationships that enable children to flourish.
Children and young people will have had very different experiences of education when most schools closed in March. Some will have worked with online tutors, or worked through excellent online lessons with the help of their teachers using video calls. Others will have struggled without internet access, or in homes where parents were juggling full time jobs with home education.
increase in the learning attainment gap between children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers since the pandemic.
The Government must work with schools and councils to take dedicated action to prevent the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and young people and their peers from widening by supporting school attendance or home learning where required.
Young people not in employment, education or training
Young people who are currently in education or approaching the juncture to move into further or higher education have found their studies paused or partially continuing online. This means that many will not have had access to face-to-face careers advice and support to progress to further or higher education, training or employment. With young people more likely to experience difficulties in finding employment as the country recovers from the pandemic, supporting them will be key to their future prospects.
The Apprenticeship Levy funding should be paused to avoid any funds expiring during and shortly after the crisis period, particularly where they were earmarked for activity that has since been delayed due to COVID-19 and would not therefore have expired otherwise.
Children's experience of the pandemic
As part of its work to support councils and the Government to deliver a child-centred recovery from the pandemic, the Local Government Association commissioned Achievement for All to carry out a literature review of evidence about children and young people's experiences of the pandemic.
The review is the first part of our work to support councils and government to understand the views of children and young people so that they can incorporate these into their planning and decision-making. Due to the timings of the report, the review focuses largely on experiences of lockdown. We anticipate carrying out further research as time goes on to capture changing views and longer-term impacts, as well as to better understand the varied experiences of different groups of children and young people.
Children's Homes: Barriers and Facilitators to Councils and Small Providers Developing Provision
Councils are reporting increasing difficulties in finding suitable children's home places for the children and young people in their care, especially for children who have more complex or challenging needs. At the same time, councils have been raising concerns about the growth of the largest independent providers of children's homes, with issues around profit-making, financial risk and the ability to ensure the right homes for children all being identified.
This report was commissioned to look at the barriers to councils and smaller providers developing children's homes, alongside what might facilitate this to ensure a varied market that responds to what children need and makes sure they have the homes they deserve. It also proposes a series of recommendations, which the Local Government Association will consider as part of its ongoing work to support councils to ensure that children in care have homes in which they are safe and happy, and where they can fulfil their potential.
Children's homes research (PDF)
Comprehensive Spending Review 2020: LGA submission
This submission, separated into five distinct chapters, sets out how local government can act as the driver to achieve shared priorities between central and local government.
Re-thinking local
The coronavirus pandemic has redefined how we all think about where and how we live.
Re-thinking local: children and young people
The real challenge for children's services is yet to come.
Our children and young people should be getting the best - not just getting by.
Children and young people's mental health
Good mental health is important to everyone in society and councils have a clear role in supporting the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people.


Photograph taken from a Japanese aircraft during the initial high-level bombing attack at 1113 hours on HMS Repulse. Repulse, near the bottom of the view, has just been hit by one 250 kilogram (551 pound) general purpose bomb and near-missed by eight more. Seven missed to port and one to starboard. Prince of Wales is near the top of the image, generating a considerable amount of smoke. At 1100 course was altered to 135 degrees, bringing the heavy ships into starboard quarter line. Admiral Sir Tom Phillips attempted to control both ships via flag signals, resulting in their anti-aircraft batteries being partially or fully masked by the need to keep in line. A few minutes later nine Japanese Type 96 land-based attack bombers of the Mihoro Air Corps from Saigon, Vietnam were sighted approaching from the starboard bow, flying at about 10,000 feet. All ships, except the Vampire, which was outranged, opened fire at 1113. The enemy concentrated a high level bombing attack on the Repulse without worrying about the anti-aircraft; Repulse's 4-inch (101 millimeter) was obsolete. One bomb hit the port hangar, bursting on the armor below the marines' mess deck at 1122. This caused a fire in the catapult deck and fractured a steam pipe, but no damage was done to the engine or boiler rooms and the fire was rapidly got under control. Repulse maintained her 25 knot (46 kilometers per hour) speed. The bomb hit caused concern aboard Phillips's staff on Prince of Wales and heartened the Japanese. Phillips ordered his ships to operate independently, but his force had hours to live. Repulse was sunk at 1223 and Prince of Wales at 1318. Japanese writing in the lower right states that the photograph was reproduced by authorization of the Navy Ministry.