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Tag: Richard Allan
Facebook and Twitter update their policies on political speech and election plans
Last week I posted a long-read about Facebook and the company's struggle to explain its position on free speech. I suggested that there was quite a lot more that the platform could do to boost confidence in its work around elections.
No sooner had I posted this than there were a number of developments which mean an update is required.
You can read the original post, which I think is still accurate, here.
Facebook plans for the 2020 election
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has outlined what the company is planning to do for the 2020 US Presidential election. His statement comes after the platform revealed that they had taken action against a number of accounts seeking to disrupt the election originating in Iran and Russia.
Zuckerberg has admitted that the company was caught on the back foot in 2016 and needs to do more this time around. He says they will do more to secure the accounts of elected politicians, clearly label posts coming from state media organisations and more clearly label posts deemed false by fact-checkers. They also say they will ban political ads aimed at suppressing turnout. Apparently this will also apply to ads originating from politicians – a provision most likely to hit opposition parties boycotting elections.
Whilst these are steps forward, once again Facebook seems to be concentrating its efforts on the US elections.
Facebook plans for the next UK election
At the same time as his boss was speaking, Facebook's VP of Policy Solutions, Richard Allan, was setting out what the company plans to do for the next UK election in a column in the Daily Telegraph.
Allan reiterates the company policy of employing third-party fact checkers (in the UK it is Fullfact), labelling inaccurate posts as such and demoting them. He also repeats the policy of having clear badging on political adverts and keeping them in a political advert library for seven years. What is new is that adverts about social issues like immigration and health will also be treated in the same way.
The company is concerned about hate speech aimed at MPs and candidates and says they will do more to tackle this. They have created a dedicated reporting channel for MPs which they plan to extend to all candidates when an election is called. I think there is a bit of a loophole here as most candidates are already very active and many also receive abuse. If Facebook is honest when it says it wants to tackle this then a more convenient reporting channel should be open to a much wider user base straight away. Also when the election is called a dedicated UK operations centre will be opened – although again, this could be done earlier to help address the harm already being done.
Allan concludes by reiterating the platform's free speech policy and says they will not be fact-checking politicians. However he goes further than the company has done before by identifying that the UK's election laws are not consistent with modern campaigning.
"What constitutes a political ad? Should all online political advertising be recorded in a public archive and should that extend to traditional platforms like billboards, direct mail and newspapers? Should anyone spending over a certain amount on political ads have to declare who their main funders are? Who, if anybody, should decide what politicians can and can't say in their adverts? These are all questions that can only be properly decided by Parliament and regulators."
I would suggest that, although he is quite right that the law is lagging behind modern technology, many of these issues have clearly been decided by the courts or Electoral Commission or by common practice among the political parties. Parliament should be acting, but so too should social media companies such as Facebook.
(It's worth remembering, of course, that Richard Allan was Nick Clegg's predecessor as MP for Sheffield Hallam and is a member of the House of Lords).
Facebook hires election observer
A final Facebook development is that the company has hired Richard Lappin to be Public Policy Manager, Content (Elections). Richard was, until recently, the Deputy Head of Elections at OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. That is the organisation that conducts election observation missions within the OSCE network of 57 member countries.
This is a very positive development. Not only was Richard very good at his job, it shows that Facebook is serious about wanting to reach out to election observers to help them better regulate the content on their platform during elections around the world.
Twitter copies Facebook
I'm sure they came up with their new policy entirely by themselves, but reading Twitter's newly declared statement on the treatment of 'world leaders', you would think they had been reading over the shoulder of Facebook.
They have stated:
"Everything we do starts with an understanding of our purpose and of the service we provide: a place where people can participate in public conversation and get informed about the world around them.
We assess reported Tweets from world leaders against the Twitter Rules, which are designed to ensure people can participate in the public conversation freely and safely.
We focus on the language of reported Tweets and do not attempt to determine all potential interpretations of the content or its intent.
Presently, direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, or foreign policy saber-rattling on economic or military issues are generally not in violation of the Twitter Rules.
However, if a Tweet from a world leader does violate the Twitter Rules but there is a clear public interest value to keeping the Tweet on the service, we may place it behind a notice that provides context about the violation and allows people to click through should they wish to see the content."
OXTEC recommendations for UK electoral reform
The Oxford Technology and Elections Commission has reported and made a series of recommendations for actions the UK should be taking to reflect the impact that online campaigning, including social media, has on elections in the UK.
The Commission's recommendations are divided into those aimed at civil society, parties, the government and platforms themselves.
These range from an industry implementation of a library system similar to that developed by Facebook, improved due diligence and imprinting by the parties and verification of social media accounts by the Electoral Commission. Crucially they also recommend that existing financial reporting rules need to be extended to cover all online campaigning. However they do not explicitly require that those who place online adverts declare the origin of the money they spend which I think is a significant shortcoming.
Overall this is a major contribution to the debate. What needs to happen now is for the government to commit to bring forward legislation to update UK electoral law in this and a number of other areas. Given that we are likely to have a general election in the near future, it seems unlikely that many of the OXTEC proposals will be in place for the next poll. But there are things that could (and need to) be done immediately and a statement from the government that they intend to legislate in this area would be a good start.


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CINEMA AUTOPSY
Film reviews, criticism and discussion by Thomas Caldwell
Tag: science fiction
Film review – Star Trek (2009)
27 April 2009 Thomas Caldwell
The plainly titled Star Trek is the eleventh film that has spun from the much loved science-fiction television series franchise. This new film depicts the
Film review – Knowing (2009)
21 March 2009 Thomas Caldwell
In 1959 a troubled young schoolgirl compulsively writes down a series of numbers, which is then buried in a time capsule. 50 years later, the
Film review – The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
27 December 2008 Thomas Caldwell
The original 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still is one of the all time great classical Hollywood films. It was the first significant
Film review – City of Ember (2008)
Adapted from the novel by Jeanne DuPrau and directed by Gil Kenan (Monster House), City of Ember is a family orientated science-fiction/fantasy about an underground
Film review – Deja Vu (2006)
Tony Scott films tend to be a hit or miss affair. Deja Vu does not miss completely but it certainly isn't a hit either. Denzel
DVD review – Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut (2001), Region 4, Madman
1 March 2005 Thomas Caldwell
The original Donnie Darko is a wonderfully atmospheric film that explores reality and insanity within a psuedo-science-fiction/teen-film framework. Writer/director Richard Kelly's ambiguous debut film is
Thomas Caldwell
Writer, broadcaster, film critic, public speaker and film programmer.
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Film review - Sleeping Beauty (2011)
Film review - The Yellow Sea (2010)
Film review - We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011)
Notes on film: Double Indemnity
Film review - The Lion King (1994)
Film review - The Artist (2011)
Film review - Creation (2009)
Film review - Beautiful Kate (2009)
Film review - Hugo (2011)
Film review - My Blueberry Nights (2007)
Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Thomas Caldwell with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


It's a great time to make a gift to give for the holidays! You'll learn the basics of crochet and make an easy, beginner project. We'll meet on Tuesdays, November 13, 20, & 27. Please bring a skein of yarn and a crochet hook (size 13-N). For novice students in 2nd grade & up. *Registration is required.


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Charanyca apfelbecki is een vlinder uit de familie uilen (Noctuidae). De wetenschappelijke naam is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1901 door Rebel.

De soort komt voor in Europa.

apfelbecki
Dier uit het Palearctisch gebied

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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A 7272 Darbydyar (ideiglenes jelöléssel 1980 DD1) a Naprendszer kisbolygóövében található aszteroida. Zdeňka Vávrová fedezte fel 1980. február 21-én.

Kapcsolódó szócikkek
 Kisbolygók listája (7001–7500)

Jegyzetek

A Naprendszer kisbolygói


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A young and innovative made in Italy luxury jewellery brand begins to compete at an international level facing different and increasingly demanding customers. They require a more contemporary identity that conveys the values of their products while doing so transversally and functionally both online and offline.
To create a social storytelling around the brand we allowed ourselves to be inspired by the symbols of Italian jewellery design and giving it an international flavour. We created a Rivière world through the fusion of images and texts to create a unique experience that hovers between reality and digital.
Still life photography intermingles with images of models immersed in a dreamy atmosphere.
The product, its light and its design, are always at the centre of the tale, featuring in settings together with the indispensable accessory for the elegant and strong women of today.
A social media marketing campaign that provides a unique mix of digital social storytelling and social media strategy.
Rivière jewels are described through a strategy that includes different social media. In a short amount of time the products achieve mention in the international press and alongside the rise of its social reputation ensures an ever increasing fan base.


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Expression profile of circulating microRNAs in the Correa pathway of progression to gastric cancer
Expression profile of circulating microRNAs in the Correa pathway of progression to gastric cancer Lario, Sergio; Brunet-Vega, Anna; Quílez, María E; Ramírez-Lázaro, María J; Lozano, Juan J; García-Martínez, Lorena; Pericay, Carles; Miquel, Mireia; Junquera, Félix; Campo, Rafael; Calvet, Xavier 2018-06-01 00:00:00 BackgroundHelicobacter pylori infection causes long-term chronic active gastritis, a risk factor for the intestinal and diffuse forms of gastric cancer. Most gastric cancers develop in a stepwise progression from chronic active gastritis to precursor lesions of gastric cancer. The early detection of gastric cancer improves survival. Studies with recent evidence have proposed circulating-microRNAs as biomarkers of cancer.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to explore the circulating-microRNA profile from H. pylori infection to gastric adenocarcinoma.MethodsOne hundred and twenty-three patients were enrolled and assigned to the discovery or the validation sets. In the discovery phase, circulating-microRNAs were measured by dye-based quantitative polymerase chain reaction and a selection of circulating-microRNAs was validated by probe-based quantitative polymerase chain reaction. A quality control protocol was used.ResultsOne hundred and sixty-seven circulating-microRNAs were detected. Precursor lesions of gastric cancer and gastric cancer patients showed the downregulation of eight and five circulating-microRNAs, respectively. We further validated the deregulation of miR-196a-5p in precursor lesions of gastric cancer and the deregulation of miR-134-5p, miR-144-3p and miR-451a in gastric cancer. However, circulating-microRNAs exhibited moderate diagnostic performance due to the overlap of circulating-microRNA expression between non-cancer and cancer patients. miR-144-3p/miR-451a expression levels were correlated. Interestingly, these microRNAs are in 17q11.2, a site of rearrangements associated with gastric cancer.ConclusionCirculating-microRNAs are deregulated in precancerous and gastric cancer patients but efforts are needed to improve their diagnostic accuracy. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png United European Gastroenterology Journal SAGE http://www.deepdyve.com/lp/sage/expression-profile-of-circulating-micrornas-in-the-correa-pathway-of-CFFrp7uTJF
Lario, Sergio; Brunet-Vega, Anna; Quílez, María E; Ramírez-Lázaro, María J; Lozano, Juan J; García-Martínez, Lorena; Pericay, Carles; Miquel, Mireia; Junquera, Félix; Campo, Rafael; Calvet, Xavier
United European Gastroenterology Journal
, Volume 6 (5): 11 – Jun 1, 2018
/lp/sage/expression-profile-of-circulating-micrornas-in-the-correa-pathway-of-CFFrp7uTJF
United European Gastroenterology Journal /
© Author(s) 2018
BackgroundHelicobacter pylori infection causes long-term chronic active gastritis, a risk factor for the intestinal and diffuse forms of gastric cancer. Most gastric cancers develop in a stepwise progression from chronic active gastritis to precursor lesions of gastric cancer. The early detection of gastric cancer improves survival. Studies with recent evidence have proposed circulating-microRNAs as biomarkers of cancer.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to explore the circulating-microRNA profile from H. pylori infection to gastric adenocarcinoma.MethodsOne hundred and twenty-three patients were enrolled and assigned to the discovery or the validation sets. In the discovery phase, circulating-microRNAs were measured by dye-based quantitative polymerase chain reaction and a selection of circulating-microRNAs was validated by probe-based quantitative polymerase chain reaction. A quality control protocol was used.ResultsOne hundred and sixty-seven circulating-microRNAs were detected. Precursor lesions of gastric cancer and gastric cancer patients showed the downregulation of eight and five circulating-microRNAs, respectively. We further validated the deregulation of miR-196a-5p in precursor lesions of gastric cancer and the deregulation of miR-134-5p, miR-144-3p and miR-451a in gastric cancer. However, circulating-microRNAs exhibited moderate diagnostic performance due to the overlap of circulating-microRNA expression between non-cancer and cancer patients. miR-144-3p/miR-451a expression levels were correlated. Interestingly, these microRNAs are in 17q11.2, a site of rearrangements associated with gastric cancer.ConclusionCirculating-microRNAs are deregulated in precancerous and gastric cancer patients but efforts are needed to improve their diagnostic accuracy.
United European Gastroenterology Journal – SAGE
Lario, S., Brunet-Vega, A., Quílez, M., Ramírez-Lázaro, M., Lozano, J., García-Martínez, L., Pericay, C., Miquel, M., Junquera, F., Campo, R., & Calvet, X. (2018). Expression profile of circulating microRNAs in the Correa pathway of progression to gastric cancer. United European Gastroenterology Journal, 6(5), 691-701.
Lario, Sergio, Anna Brunet-Vega, María E Quílez, María J Ramírez-Lázaro, Juan J Lozano, Lorena García-Martínez, Carles Pericay, Mireia Miquel, Félix Junquera, Rafael Campo, and Xavier Calvet. "Expression profile of circulating microRNAs in the Correa pathway of progression to gastric cancer." United European Gastroenterology Journal 6.5 (2018): 691-701.


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A Marriage Made in Ski Heaven!
By JF Lanvers
Feb. 7th, 2011 / No Comments
Deer Valley Resort and Freestyle Skiing share a very special kinship. Besides being a central venue during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Deer Valley has – with only two exceptions – hosted yearly Freestyle World Cup events since the beginning of the new millennium. Already in 2003, the resort hosted the World Freestyle Ski Championships and this early February, Deer Valley saw the culmination of this special relation crowned, as it hosted this world event for the second time, an assignment at the measure of Deer Valley's excellence.
This year, Ski Cross (premiered here in 2008,) was added to the series of events and was contained into an ideal, contiguous and complete freestyle stadium, including both Moguls and Aerials. This unique site configuration for viewing the entire show, combined with the perfectionism that has always been Deer Valley Resort's hallmark, has made it the freestyle skiing capital of the world and this might be another excellent reason for timing, if you can, your next ski vacation with an upcoming Deer Valley Freestyle World Cup, as competition schedules always allow to combine day skiing with afternoon or evening events watching.
Like many, I love freestyle skiing because it embodies a skier's expression of his or her on-snow dreams and fantasies; unlike the regimented and sometimes ossified sides of its alpine cousin, freestyle skiing still has a wide open potential for creativity on snow and for pushing even further the envelope of what's possible. This remains true, even though the athletes' technical level keeps on growing by leaps and bounds, in all the events that I have watched during these recent championships.
What's amazing though, is that unlike alpine skiing, in which differences between athletes are often hard to pinpoint, the vast and limitless register of options given to each participant remains wide open and lets the spectator see and appreciate the various styles between competitors and this bodes well for the sport future. Ski Cross is also maturing and showing that it can hold its own as a permanent fixture into the world of freestyle skiing while offering a more diverse and thrilling vision of what's possible on the snow. Halfpipe continues shooting skiers back and forth, higher up in the air, giving them more time and tricks to impress all of us…
I wasn't able to see the Slopestyle event, but heard it was one of a kind (another one!) and can only hope that it will earn a lasting spot in the family. This said, I do have a favorite, and it's moguls. Why? Perhaps I can do it without too many restrictions and can still adapt it to my dwindling technical abilities, slowing reflexes, and practice it on the many runs Deer Valley Resort offers in permanence to its guests. The event that in my view captures the best of freestyle remains the Dual Moguls and was the crowning conclusion of this year's World Championships. It combines skills and mental pressure, repeated and amplified four times in the space of a short evening, and takes the very best out of the greatest champions. I must say that even though I thought I was cheering the whole evening, the performances I saw left me mentally speechless!


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Q: Optimization Question? A farmer has 6000 m of fencing and wishes to create a rectangular filed subdivided into four congruent plots of land. Determine the dimensions of the each plot if the area to be enclosed is a maximum.
A: 375 m by 600m
My Attempt:
Fencing:
6000 = 3x + 3y
(6000-3x)/3 = y
Area
A = xy
A = x(6000-3x)/3
A' = (18,000 - 18x)/9
0 = 18,000 - 18x
x = 1000
why do i keep getting this wrong? Thank you in advance!

A: A rectangular region may be divided into four congruent pieces in many ways.  Regardless of how they're divided, each of their areas is maximized if the total enclosed area is maximized.  (A and 4A are simultaneously maximized.)
$2 \times 2$: Let $x,y$ be the lengths of the enclosed region.  The enclosed area is $A = xy$.  The fencing for the perimeter and the internal fences is $P=3x+3y=6000 \text{ m}$.  We see that $y = 2000 \text{ m} -x$ so $A = x(2000 \text{ m} - x)$ which is a parabola with maximum at $x=1000 \text{ m}$ so $y=1000 \text{ m}$.  Each plot is then $500 \text{ m} \times 500 \text{ m}$
$1 \times 4$: Let $x,y$ be the lengths of the enclosed region, with $x$ being the length of the sides common to neighboring subplots.  Then again $A = xy$ and now $P = 5x+2y = 6000 \text{ m}$.  This time, $y = 3000 \text{ m} - (5/2)x$, so $A = x(3000 \text{ m} - (5/2)x)$.  This parabola takes a maximum when $x=600 \text{ m}$ so $y=1500 \text{ m}$.  Each plot is then $600 \text{ m} \times 375 \text{ m}$
Your error is that you're subdividing incorrectly.
Edit:  Divided $y$ among the lengths of each of the four subparcels.
Edit:  Corrected a stupid units transposition.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This hand-sculptured cushioned seat top has been made with a high grade foam for maximum comfort and durability. The circular seat shape design combined with the foam padding helps keep you comfortable whilst playing long sessions. The seat is covered with a soft velour seating panel to prevent sweating or slipping combined with a quality vinyl trim for long lasting use! Available in 4 colours, please choose your colour from the drop down menu to the right.


The Hercules Bassoon / Bass Clarinet Stand is completely adjustable to accommodate a bassoon or bass clarinet in a variety of positions. The instrument can either face towards or away from the player thanks to the stand's soft yoke. The rest on the foot of the stand even will take a bass clarinet's floor peg in the extended position, meaning it is perfect for clarinettists who need to be able to transition quickly. Adjusting the height of the stand is easy, simply push the lever up to unlock the shaft or down to fix it in place.


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Black History Travel | Heritage Travel | Tennessee | Travel | United States
Do, Eat & Stay: Weekend in Memphis Itinerary
This is an itinerary for having the best weekend in Memphis including where to go, where to eat, and where to stay!
When we decided to take a trip to Tennessee, I just knew we had to stop in the great city of Memphis. Bluff City, the birthplace of Rock and Soul, is an easy drive from where we live in Houston, TX. But somehow, I'd managed to live all my life without spending a weekend in Memphis. Now that we've returned, my only regret is waiting so long! [Check out our post of all the fun things to do in Franklin, TN too!]
If you're also interested in a weekend in Memphis, we've got you covered with everything you need to know about things to do in Memphis, the best area to stay in Memphis, and where to eat while you're there. This itinerary is pretty identical to the itinerary we followed. Feel free to mix and match the activities as it suits you but please note their operating hours. Some of these close relatively early and some are not open at all on Sundays.
At the time of writing this post, we are in the midst of a viral pandemic. However, Memphis did a wonderful job with their safety precautions. Every place listed here offered limited capacity, increased sanitization, temperature checks, social distancing, or all of the above. The city is committed to operating safely and responsibly and it shows.
Here is an itinerary for where to go, stay, and eat for a weekend in Memphis.
[Thank you, Memphis Travel, for hosting us! All information and opinions presented are our own.]
Weekend in Memphis
Day One [Friday]
Discover Your Inner Rock and Soul at the Memphis Rock N Soul Museum
Explore Local Treasures on Beale Street
Day Two [Saturday]
Embrace the Journey to Racial Equality at the National Civil Rights Museum
Unwind at Afternoon Tea at Chez Phillippe at the Peabody Memphis
Waddle with the Duckies at the Peabody Duck March
Day Three [Sunday]
Bike Through Shelby Farms Park
Overton Square
Big River Crossing
Additional Activities for a Weekend in Memphis
Murals and Street Art
Mud Island Park
I Am A Man Plaza
Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum
The Stax Museum of American Soul Music
Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid
Memphis Zoo
Best Area to Stay in Memphis for a Weekend in Memphis
Downtown Memphis – The Peabody Memphis
Where to Eat In Memphis
The Bar-B-Q Shop [1782 Madison Ave]
Sunrise Memphis [670 Jefferson Ave]
Belly Acres [2102 Trimble Place]
Loflin Yard [7 West Carolina Ave]
Arcade Restaurant [540 S. Main Street]
Gus' Fried Chicken [1815 Washington Ave]
Memphis Chess Club [195 Madison Ave]
Some other great places to eat in Memphis are highlighted in this video from Memphis Travel.
The Rock N Soul Museum was one of our favorite stops during our weekend in Memphis. The city claims the title as the birthright of rock and soul music, so a visit here gives you the history of music but also some of the city too. The museum is small which gives it an intimate feel.
It's also interactive [making it an awesome stop for the kids]. You are provided an audio guide [it is sanitized between uses] where you can hear in-depth information on each exhibit in the Smithsonianian affiliate museum. There are even jukeboxes where you can hear full songs.
[Tip: Add them to Apple Music so you can listen to them later! They're cool tunes and it will remind you of your weekend in Memphis whenever you hear it.]
Beale Street is arguably one of the most iconic landmarks in the city so it only makes sense to visit it on the first day of a weekend in Memphis. If you're up for a little debauchery and fun, you'll find plenty of it here. It's three blocks long and each has your choice of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. There's plenty of live music performances on Beale Street too. Stroll down the infamous street and let your ears lead you to the music venue of your choice.
If you prefer a milder variety of fun, you can still revel in the joy of Beale Street during your weekend in Memphis! There are surprisingly quite a few options on Beale Street for you to enjoy. Pop into Beale Sweets Sugar Shack to taste their delicious fudge or sip a [root] beer at A. Schwab Trading Co. [Check out more things to do on Beale Street if you're underage here.]
The National Civil Rights Museum is a must-do during your weekend in Memphis. I've been to a lot of museums in my life but this one tops the list as one of my favorites. It's built around the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. It covers the tragedy in detail but also includes so much more.
It is a very large museum [wear comfortable walking shoes] but everything is so beautifully done that you don't notice that it takes hours to complete. From the origins of slavery to the Montgomery Bus Boycott to the "I Am A Man" movement of Memphis to the election of the nation's first Black President, it is all covered here.
The experience starts outside with the external display of the Lorraine Motel and the audiovisual lessons in the mini-kiosks. Once inside, the entire place from floor to ceiling is packed with content and history. You can sit at a student desk with Ruby Bridges as she integrates a public school or board a bus with Rosa Parks while she changes the face of public transportation. There's a lot here so allocate at least 2 hours to see and experience it all during your weekend in Memphis.
It is also one of the most popular attractions in Memphis so I highly recommend coming early if you want to avoid a queue.
It's only right to add something a little more "chill" to your weekend in Memphis. So your next stop is to Chez Phillippe at the Peabody Memphis for a traditional English afternoon tea. Chez Phillippe is the only place in the city that offers this service so it is truly one of a kind.
The girls were giddy from the moment we entered the restaurant. The interior of the restaurant is as beautiful as you can imagine with high ceilings, mirrored and muraled walls, ornate gold finishes, and perfectly distanced seating.
It's a three-course menu with petite sandwiches, the most delicious warm scone I've ever had in my life, a variety of desserts, and, of course, a fine selection of tea. It is impossible to choose which part of afternoon tea that we enjoyed most [it was every man for himself when the dessert tray came out] so it is safe to say we enjoyed every bit of it.
If you're attending afternoon tea at Chez Phillippe with children like we were, don't worry – it's all incredibly family-friendly. There are even caffeine-free tea options.
Reservations are highly recommended.
The Peabody Ducks are known worldwide and are the next thing you should visit during your weekend in Memphis. What initially started as a joke between friends, has evolved into an aquatic phenomenon for tourists and locals alike. Every day at 11 AM, like clockwork, the Peabody Ducks march from their rooftop "duck condo" down the elevator to the lobby. At 5 PM, they do the reverse and ascend from the lobby back to their quarters.
They are lead by their animated duck master Kenon Walker who skillfully gets them to put on the most adorable show ever. The ducks are, as expected, so fun but Kenon himself is without a doubt just as entertaining as the ducks themselves. His lively attitude really makes the show enjoyable and who knew someone could know so much about ducks? If you get the opportunity to chat with him during your weekend in Memphis, I highly recommend it.
It is recommended that you arrive 30 minutes prior to the show. However, if you can spring it, the earlier you arrive the better so that you can get a good seat. You can also get their Ducky Day package which has all sorts of cool perks like your own Duckmaster cane, a t-shirt, and more.
If it is crowded, be sure to check out the upper level for a bird's eye view. [Get it? Because they're ducks. Thank you, Kenon, for that joke that still makes me giggle.]
Escape the hustle and bustle of Memphis with a visit to Shelby Farms Park. This was one of our favorite stops during our weekend in Memphis. Shelby Farms Park is 4,500 acres worth of green oasis right in the heart of urban Memphis. There is plenty to do here from walking trails, bike rentals, playgrounds, water play, kayaking, and tons more.
What's really special about the park is that it is also a conservancy. Different wetland species of birds, fish, rabbits, snakes, and more call the park home. The most famous residents are the family of buffalo that the park is developed around. A park official brought 6 buffalo there in 1989, and they've called the park home ever since. There are now about 15 buffalo at Shelby Farms Park and are often seen out and about while exploring the park.
[Side note: if you're looking for another Tennessee destination with awesome outdoor activities, check out this list of fun things to do in Pigeon Forge, TN!]
Did the visit to Shelby Farms Park tire you out from all the fun? Great! Unwind and relax at your next stop: Overton Square. It's a shopping destination in the Memphis Theater District with almost two dozen restaurants, entertainment venues, and small shops. If you're visiting with kiddos [or even if you aren't] be sure to stop by Sweet Noshings for gourmet popcorn, bulk candy, fudge, and ice cream. There are also art installations [that are perfect for the gram] and plenty of green space for everyone to stretch out.
There's no better way to end your weekend in Memphis than with a visit to Big River Crossing. It's the longest pedestrian bridge across the Mississippi River and connects the Main Street in Memphis with the Main Street in West Memphis. Visitors are invited to walk, bike, or run across the bridge at their leisure for a unique view of the city. For a special treat, go near sundown to catch the Mighty Lights light show at the top of the hour.
If you have extra time during your weekend in Memphis, here are some additional activities I recommend.
Memphis is home to some of the coolest street art I've seen. Camels & Chocolates has the most in-depth guide to murals in Memphis that I found online. Use her guide to find some cool picture opportunities around the city.
The newly uplifted Mud Island Park is a worthy addition to your itinerary for a weekend in Memphis. In addition to its amphitheater, picnic grounds, and the Mississippi River Museum, it features the new "MEMPHIS" sign that's totally Instagram-worthy.
The I Am A Man Plaza was created to honor the Black sanitation workers that went on strike in 1968 to fight for safe working environments for all workers. In addition to the sculpture stating "I Am A Man" there is also a wall with all the names of the participants of the strike.
Take a walk through history [literally] with a visit to the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum. It is the former home of an abolitionist that aided many runaway slaves on their escape to freedom.
Visit Graceland, the home of the infamous Elvis Presley. His estate, along with his memorabilia, is impeccably maintained and on display for visitors. You'll learn about his life and his music in this full immersion experience.
The Stax Museum of American Soul Music is dedicated to sharing their history [and the funk] of the "Memphis Sound." It's located in the former recording studio of Stax Records and features tons of interactive exhibits with musical instruments, stage costumes, records, and more. There's even a Cadillac in the museum that was formerly owned by the late, great Isaac Hayes.
The Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid, a 535,000 square foot pavilion, is more than just a store – it is a total shopping experience. There's an entertainment patio, an interactive wetlands center, a huge aquarium, an observation deck, and even a wildlife-themed hotel.
Memphis is home to one of the top-rated zoos in the country. Add a visit to the Memphis Zoo to your weekend in Memphis to experience the 76-acre zoo with over 3,500 animals representing 500 different species.
Memphis is the largest city in Tennessee and if you don't want to spend your entire weekend in Memphis in the car, finding the best area to stay in Memphis is important. I highly recommend staying in Downtown Memphis as it has the most options in the city. Also, it will place you closest to all the fun activities.
There is no doubt as to which hotel in downtown Memphis you should stay at: The Peabody Memphis. With a nickname like the "South's Grand Hotel", The Peabody Memphis has a large reputation to live up to. Luckily, it is as legendary as the city itself and pulls off a level of charm and sophistication that would be impossible to find elsewhere.
We've stayed in many hotels but our stay at The Peabody Memphis was extremely unique. It was new and yet somehow beautifully old. Everyone we encountered from the bellhop Eric that helped us with our luggage to the manager in the lobby, was friendly and helpful. The entire experience was filled with Southern charm and highly recommend it for a weekend in Memphis.
Downtown Memphis at The Peabody Hotel is the best area to stay in Memphis for a weekend in Memphis.
Voted #1 ribs in America by the Food Network, The Bar-B-Q Shop should top your list of places to eat during your weekend in Memphis. If you're not a Memphis native, be sure to try the BBQ spaghetti. We've never had anything like it and it was Phil's favorite.
As the self-proclaimed, best breakfast in Memphis, you have to try Sunrise Memphis. This Memphis gem serves lunch too but the breakfast dishes are their specialty with dishes like biscuit sammies, omelette plates, breakfast tacos, and more.
Farm to table is the name of the game at Belly Acres in Overton Square. They serve burgers, shakes, and smiles in the cutest farm-themed ambiance you can imagine. There's even a tractor in the entry and a crop duster on the ceiling.
We are suckers for restaurants with green space, and with an acre of it, trying Loflin Yard was high on our list. Unfortunately, we didn't get to eat there during our weekend in Memphis. Please try their delicious menu of dishes like brisket tacos and spicy sausage po' boys then tell us all about it!
The Arcade Restaurant is the oldest restaurant in Memphis. Located on South Main [and just a short walk from the National Civil Rights Museum], they serve traditional diner food of burgers, pizzas, and sandwiches. Their breakfast is a special treat though [try the Sweet Potato pancakes and thank me later].
We can't discuss places to eat in Memphis without including Gus' World Famous Fried Chicken. Prepare your palate and pack some Tums because the chicken is Spicy [yes, capital S]. But it is a Memphis tradition and totally worth the burn.
Eat, play, or learn – you can do all three at the Memphis Chess Club. This downtown Memphis eatery highlights the classic game of chess in a way that's fun for all ages. You can grab a cup of coffee, order a bite to eat, and then play chess all day long.
With all these great activities, you're sure to have a fun, packed weekend in Memphis.
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Art design by Beck & Stone.
Requiem and Renewal After 9/11
Rebecca Burgess
On 9/11, we know what we mourn, but do we remember what we can honor?
Rebirth has its rhythms the same as decline. After great tragedy, both are possible; neither is inevitable. Perhaps they are even simultaneous, the one cloaking the germinating seed of the other.
Few would have predicted as morning dawned on Monday, September 10, 2001, that it would be impossible to buy an American flag by the end of that week, because more than four-fifths of Americans would be flying one from their homes, cars, and trucks. Fewer still would have predicted that by week's end, Americans would be displaying a unity of will and purpose in an avalanche of civic-mindedness. On September 10, the world was too much with us, William Wordsworth might have intoned, "getting and spending, we [were] lay[ing] waste our powers." Economics and a globalizing commercialism seemed to be the only order of the day, with the harsher side of politics a kind of antiquated afterthought. But on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, as some were being born, and others were starting off their school years or embarking on the first jobs of their careers, nineteen terrorists hijacked four American airplanes, using them as missiles to kill Americans on American soil. And thousands died.
Afterward, some became teachers and some became soldiers.
Thousands gave of their heart's blood at Red Cross stations, desperate how else to help. Hundreds of firefighters and police gave their life, rushing to rescue their injured neighbors at Ground Zero. In New York's Harbor, over six hundred mariners gave their naval assistance to half a million strangers fleeing the sudden destruction of Lower Manhattan. In Canada, thousands of individuals besieged dozens of airports, eager to assist the nearly 60,000 travellers stranded outside the United States.
The ruins of that day's events smoldered for a long time. The globalized networks of trade, business, labor, finance, and media already in place at the turn of the millennium meant that 9/11 inevitably would have a global impact with repercussions throughout the succeeding years. It also meant that these repercussions would be felt at the level of nations and national governments, as well as at the level of civil society and the individual. War after all, as Heraclitus reminds us, is the universal fire. It enlivens as much as destroys what comes in contact with it. It is a fuelling force.
Afterward, in America as abroad, millions of individuals over the next two decades would give of their treasure—their time, talents, and money—through their donations and creativity; through increased political awareness; by founding new businesses and nonprofits; as well as through paying taxes; to fund an array of national and civil responses to the devastation suffered on that day of infamy, 9/11.
Dies Irae
The four airplanes had torn through the steel of the Twin Towers, the concrete of the Pentagon, and the earth of the Pennsylvanian countryside and instantaneously into the American psyche. Despite its post-Cold War economic, military, and cultural might, America was not untouchable. Far from being universally admired, America was loathed by peoples in countries most Americans could not place on a map, who were unapologetically pursuing political goals antithetical to America's peace, guided by a concrete desire to harm.
Commentators on both sides of the Atlantic immediately remarked on America's loss of innocence that September day. What took longer to materialize was a new national intolerance to risk. The federal government quickly created the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration; instituted a color-coded threat level warning system; and passed surveillance legislation through the Patriot Act, which all together completely altered how Americans interacted with their government, travelled, enjoyed their sports and public entertainments, did business, and thought about personal data and privacy—and all before social media took hold.
The heightened focus on security and security measures and the downplaying of the always-existent tensions between these and individual liberties metastasized over the years in favor of the former, all while individuals were blithely removing traditional barriers to their private lives via social media. In April 2013, authorities demanded Bostonians forego their daily lives and remain at home while police conducted a manhunt for Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, even searching door-to-door through the streets of Watertown sans warrants and heavily armed; in March 2020, authorities demanded all Americans to forgo their daily lives and remain at home, in order to "flatten the curve" of the COVID-19 virus. And in 2021, authorities are demanding vaccination passports for those wanting to engage in the simple activities of living.
Most all have readily complied—the Nuremberg Code, HIPPA, usual Conservative Big Government skepticism, the "right to privacy" and "my body my choice," notwithstanding.
Fitting then, for the New York Metropolitan Opera to host their first in-person performance (for the vaccinated) since the COVID lockdowns commenced, on September 11, 2021, the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. Verdi's dramatic Requiem will be their song.
We know what we mourn. But do we remember what we can honor?
Confutatis Maledictis
Were we at war? Osama bin Laden had declared in 1996 that al-Qaida, anyway, was at war with America. Al-Qaida's warfare of choice manifested as intermittent hostilities publicized through spectacular targeting: the 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam; the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole; numerous other half-baked or thwarted attempts such as the Bojinka plot. Only after these came 9/11.
That war is a state of being as much as a political activity or a set of formulized pronouncements is a classic tenet of political theory, reaching at least to the Enlightenment era if not to Homer. But historian William Anthony Hay seems to divorce war from politics: In his Law & Liberty essay on the twenty-year aftermath of 9/11, he writes of an American overreaction—war—to the 9/11 attacks, "that did more harm than the attacks themselves," because of the attention it diverted away from other domestic and global issues, as well as because of some resulting international criticism levied at America. But is not demarking one's friends, from one's enemies, from oneself, the most elementary political task of all, in order to fulfill this principal political duty—to preserve the way of life of one's particular political community, the regime, by defending it from adverse pressures and attacks both from within and without? To put it in Shakespearean terms: "To thine own self be true."
In America, we've made this duty explicit. Presidents, elected and appointed government officials, and every member of the US Armed Forces must swear an oath to defend and protect the Constitution and the United States of America against attack. The basic principle is acknowledged even among those international actors Hay mentions—for instance, by NATO, who invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty within twenty-four hours of the 9/11 attacks, its first since its inception.
Both President George W. Bush and Congress had a constitutional duty to defend and protect America—the country, the people, the institutions, its way of life—against destruction. These were repeatedly attacked before 2001, eliciting legal sanctions and limited airstrikes against targeted terrorist training camps. And so 9/11 came. To speak of America's decision to commit to a muscular military response following 9/11 as an overreaction to a worse loss of life than the Pearl Harbor attack, as Hay does, might be a straightforward pronouncement, but it seems terribly simplistic. It arguably distorts the complex swirl of honor, duty, fear, and competing interests that always defines political activity and international relations, rendering the practice of politics an art and no exact science.
Rex Tremendae Majestatis
Hay writes of "September 11's long shadow," in illustration of how the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the ever-enlarging umbrella of the Global War on Terror was overcompensation for the supposedly isolated incident of 9/11. But a shadow can be of many kinds, distorting as much as revealing whole aspects and dimensions.
True, there have been no hijacked planes successfully turned into missiles against American cities since 9/11—but certainly not for a lack of trying. There was the December 2001 shoe bomb attempt by al-Qaeda operative Richard Reid on American Airlines Flight 63 to Miami; the August 2006 al-Qaeda plot to detonate liquid explosives on transatlantic aircraft; the infamous December 2009 attempt by al-Qaeda "panty bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit; and the October 2010 al-Qaeda plastic-explosives bombing attempt on US-and Canada-bound UPS and FedEx cargo planes. Then there have been al-Qaeda -affiliated, -inspired, -imitated, -encouraged, or -aided terrorist events involving mass shootings, stabbings, and attempted truck bombings: the November 2009 Fort Hood shooting; the July 2015 Chattanooga recruiting center shootings; the June 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting; the October 2017 New York City truck attack; the December 2019 Naval Air Station Pensacola shooting. Nor should we forget the tragically successful 2004 Madrid train bombings or the July 2005 London bombings, which, while not directed to American soil, aimed at harming America in her military and other alliances. To the extent that these attempts were minimized in comparison with 9/11 was no sure thing, especially given what we've repeatedly heard of the often-laughable effectiveness of our security apparatus.
The absence of "another 9/11" since 9/11 we now know is greatly due to one thing: America going to war in Afghanistan. Having combed through nearly a hundred thousand of the 470,000 files the CIA declassified in 2017 from bin Laden's Abbottabad compound, Nelly Lahoud recently summed this up in Foreign Affairs, showing how bin Laden's 9/11 strategy was based on his calculation that America was no more than a paper tiger—he "never anticipated that the United States would go to war in response to the assault." In fact, bin Laden had counted on Americans replicating the Vietnam War protests and demanding the government to withdraw from Muslim-majority countries. And thus bin Laden had no contingency plans for how to secure his organization, its operations, or even his own leadership of them on 9/12. Analyzing communications between al Qaeda members after America's Afghanistan invasion, Lahoud writes that "for the rest of bin Laden's life, the al Qaeda organization never recovered the ability to launch attacks abroad," even though "its brand lived on through the deeds of groups that acted in its name." But neither could these various groups organize effectively into one entity—their factionalism remains too severe.
It's difficult to prove a negative, but it is surely important to consider along with the fact that there hasn't yet been another 9/11 the political reasons why that might be so. America showed a political will to defend itself and to preserve itself after it was directly attacked. This resonated, and not just with America's adversaries. And it introduced a certain sobriety into America's post-Cold War fanciful political thinking, which, while certainly still deficient of seriousness (as events in Kabul most recently testify to), can now acknowledge that China is, for instance, more than a paper threat conjured up by conspiratorial war-loving Right Wingers.
At home, America's response to the 9/11 attacks resonated within the generation of Americans then on the threshold of adulthood—the much-analyzed mysterious Millennials. Americans tend toward ritualistic displays of patriotism, but the Millennial Generation's was no mere display: Millions of young men and women who'd previously never thought of national service volunteered to fight America's post-9/11 wars, whether liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, or politically agnostic.
Since 9/11, 4.59 million men and women have served in the US military and have been discharged as veterans. Between 1.9 and 3.0 million have served directly "in theater" or indirectly "in-theater support" operations related to the post-9/11 wars. Over 7,000 US troops and over 8,000 US-affiliated military contractors have been killed. More than 53,000 troops have been wounded in action according to the Department of Defense, while the Department of Veteran Affairs has given official recognition of some degree of service-related disability to over 1.8 million post-9/11 veterans. Whether related to their service or not—the research is quite tricky here—there have been an additional 30,177 suicides among post-9/11 US service members and veterans since at least 2008. Globally, Brown University's Costs of War project calculates that there have been between 173,000 and 177,000 National Military and Police, 12,468 Allied troops, and over 335,000 civilian direct war deaths since October 2001, with a total estimated 801,000 deaths related to the post-9/11 wars.
These are steep costs, and not just in terms of the lives lost, the millions of family members and friends affected, and the trillions of dollars in revenue that have been and will be paid out in benefits and care by the US (and other) government(s). Without in any way meaning to diminish the devastation these stark numbers represent, I believe it is no less important to honor the positive repercussions of these payments of sacrifice.
Two decades later, to no small degree, what this [9/11] has shown is how a free and equal people, even with a depressing lack of knowledge about the ways of freedom, equality, and democratic citizenship, still rose up to defend themselves, their compatriots, and their way of life.
Nearly five million young Americans voluntarily signed up to give their life away for their country in the wake of 9/11, despite a widespread cultural and academic shaming of anything to do with the military since the days of the Vietnam War. They signed up, despite President Bush repeatedly admonishing the American people to keep on living life as though 9/11 hadn't happened, to go to the mall and buy stuff and take lots of airplane trips. They signed up, despite America's increasing boondoggling in the Middle East. They signed up, despite the rising numbers of deaths and injuries. They signed up, despite a public education system that increasingly portrayed patriotism as a problem, and decreasingly taught any type of civic education at all.
Much has been made of the trope that "America went to the mall while the military went to war"—that out of a nation of three hundred million-plus souls, less than one percent actually has served in the All Volunteer Force in a time of war. But is it really a surprise that Americans heeded official advice and haven't paid much attention to America's foreign wars over the past twenty years, given they were told not to? What is more remarkable, astounding even, is that despite all of these negative pressures, nearly five million young Americans still decided that serving their country was worth the possibility of their future. And their service has forced the country, and especially academic institutions, and even the Democratic Party, to question some of their prejudiced Vietnam-era holdovers.
It was because of 9/11 and post-9/11 veterans that the Ivy League—which famously banned them from campus in the ruckus surrounding the Vietnam War—finally started re-allowing ROTC to operate on their campuses. It was because of 9/11 and post-9/11 veterans that the Democratic Party began to think seriously again about issues of national security and war, after abandoning them to the Republican Party with their shutdown of Henry "Scoop" Jackson's presidential bids in 1972 and 1976. And it was because of 9/11 and post-9/11 veterans that society at large has had to re-examine its prejudiced clichés about who serves in the military, when, and why; as well as about who the modern veteran is. It's this cohort of military veterans who are forcing a reconsideration of veterans as social assets, rather than as just social deficits. To serve these new veterans, over 40,000 nonprofit civic organizations and associations have been formed since 2001. And among veterans themselves, their military service has contributed to their sustained civic and public engagement—research consistently shows that they are more likely to vote, volunteer, and assist their neighbors, than their civilian peers. They are also more likely to run for political office. Indeed, post-9/11 veterans have been running for Congress at relatively higher rates than did their Vietnam-era veteran peers, in closer imitation of the World War II generation.
All of these things contribute to the health of American democracy. In no small measure, because they force a reckoning with our national character, and with the deepest moral and political question of any polity: What makes it worth killing and dying for?
Liber Me
While we can know with some certainty the numbers of Americans who've joined the military in the wake of 9/11, we cannot know the exact numbers of the untold others who've chosen to pursue studies in politics, foreign affairs, history, and national security, or who've pursued careers as public servants, because of 9/11. We cannot know the exact numbers of further others, newly awakened to deep questions of national meaning and civic purpose, who explicitly became teachers after 9/11—hoping to strengthen and preserve the democratic spirit for another generation; to prevent such attacks and warfare in the future; to enable peace to flourish. But all this we know happened. I am one of these individuals; so too are at least two of my siblings; and so also are many of my professional peers.
Hostile attacks from a foreign enemy—war—necessitate some national self-evaluation and reflection. I believe that this in fact is one of the more powerful dynamics underneath the current acrimonious public campaigns about American history, civics, and identity. Well before 9/11, civic education advocates were worried about the hollowing out and diminishing of social studies and civic education in American classrooms, but by the turn of the millennium, as Chester E. Finn, Jr. relates in Where Did Social Studies Go Wrong?, many had turned to broader avenues of education reform, in despair at their lack of progress. The events of 9/11 changed that. The need for a robust civics education that could provide explanations for why some people abhor freedom and seek to obliterate democracy; why the United States is worth preserving and defending; and how our forebears responded to previous attacks upon their country in particular and freedom in general, convinced advocates at various institutions to reinvest in civic education reform.
As these efforts often have, there was a multiplying effect throughout the next two decades, which saw national institutions like the National Endowment for the Humanities and private outfits ranging from the Bill of Rights Institute to the Albert Shanker Institute embark on projects meant to reinvigorate civics teaching and learning. The Civics Renewal Network, the Leon and Amy Kass What So Proudly We Hail project, the American Enterprise Institute's Program on American Citizenship (at which I formerly worked), iCivics, and Eric Liu's Citizen University, among numerous others, all came after 9/11, fuelled by an awareness of the need to foster an engaged, attached, and responsible citizenry who understand who and what they are as a people and a nation. The latest, largest expression of this cross-partisan awareness is the NEH funded Education for American Democracy Initiative, which brought together a national network of more than 300 scholars, educators, practitioners, and students (myself included) to create a "roadmap" for history and civics studies, newly published earlier this year.
Few of these efforts are as profound, unanimous, flawless, or as widespread as many of their advocates would like them to be. Troubling trends persist, including the inability of the civic education community to define what, exactly, civic education is and ought to be. But surely their very existence speaks to an awareness of the vital importance of teaching civic virtue, responsibilities, and rights, for the health and preservation of the American regime.
Ingemisco
How ought a liberal nation-state to preserve its soul, and enable peace to flourish within its borders? And what enables a country to prosecute a war without losing its soul? Consigning political principles to memory and memorializing past events has never been enough to sustain civic unity, let alone a national unity of will and purpose, across an extended republic of fifty states harboring over three hundred million souls. What's needed is a firm foundation of civic knowledge, civic attachment, and civic participation—what earlier generations called patriotism—to perpetuate the acknowledgement of a shared national identity.
Today, we lament the fleetingness of that acknowledgement so remarkably manifest after the 9/11 attacks, with few willing to excavate among its ruins to uncover the causes of its frailty. But even within that "civic moment," Theda Skocpol was casting doubt in PS: Political Science and Politics on the ability of 9/11 and the War on Terror to "revitalize American civic democracy" as previous wars had done, because of the already crumbled infrastructure of civil society. This already existent civic weakness, she argued in 2002, was being further exasperated by a governing class who couldn't or wouldn't understand how to channel popular participation in a war effort, as previous generations had done.
For at least three decades before 9/11, the culture wars about America within America had been going strong, influenced by everything from LBJ's Great Society programs and the Vietnam War to the sexual revolution, to the Clinton impeachment hearings, to the American flag. National identity and patriotism were key intertwined themes of these skirmishes, and the official tally was stark for traditional supporters: in 1990, forty-nine percent of respondents told Gallup that war was "outdated;" also by 1990, the Supreme Court had already struck down criminal laws against burning or defacing the American flag; by 2000 three Congresses had been too divided four times over to vote for a flag protection bill; an equally high amount of Americans believed the media "were too critical of America" as believed the media supported America; school boards around the country were having nationally-profiled fights about whether schools should be teaching that American culture, values, and opinions were good or preferable to other regimes, with many rescinding any such policies. Even though over seventy percent of Americans believed that patriotism was "very important" in 1998 (compared to only forty-three percent in the 1970s), the majority of the public believed that fewer and fewer of their fellow Americans were patriotic enough. But the problem seemed to be more about a lack of knowledge: No one seemed really to know what patriotism was, or whether different generations might express it differently.
This had its own effect on the vitality of civic associations and organizations. From the early 1800s until the 1960s, membership-based voluntary associations were at the center of American public life. "Leaders established civic reputations by helping to organize fellow citizens into membership groups," Skocpol wrote in her PS article, and thus when national crises struck, "leaders knew how to mobilize fellow citizens, and there were well-worn institutional channels through which people could work together and pool resources." But the Civil Rights and feminist movements radically changed the chapter-based membership federations that made up the muscle of US civic life, while the Vietnam War "rendered traditional patriotic associations less appealing to many Americans." Furthermore, all of these civic associations were challenged by a new entrant to the scene in the 1970s and 1980s: professionally run and managed advocacy associations, which did not have individual members so much as lists of monetary contributors. Meanwhile, at the state and local level, nonprofit social agencies were also proliferating, which like advocacy groups, were professionally managed and raised money "from donors, government agencies, or mailing-list adherents, rather than from members who attend meetings and pay regular dues."
What this meant is that on 9/11, there were few well-established channels through which individuals could volunteer together, and "fewer ways to link face-to-face activities in local communities to state and national projects." Where historically in times of war and peace voluntary membership federations would join with local, state, and national public officials to pursue important public projects, in 2001 as in 2021, "partnerships between civic organizations and government are primarily a matter of collaborations among professionals." And in fact, as Skocpol noted, after 9/11 and in the wake of the anthrax attacks later that month, officials "stressed managerial coordination and professional expertise."
This reality helps makes sense of why after 9/11 American civic attitudes changed but American civic behavior barely did, outside of a huge jump in mass TV viewing. In the months after 9/11, the Christian Science Monitor asked: the American "public feels urge[d] to act—but how?"; the New York Times wondered: "Asking for Volunteers, Government Tries to Determine What They Will Do;" while the Wall Street Journal fully acknowledged a conundrum in "Waiting for the Call." The hundreds of thousands of Americans who wanted to do something civically meaningful were essentially hung out to dry, with an excess of emotion and motivation and goodwill for them to somehow make sense of and expend. Is it any wonder, then, that in the ensuing two decades, these have developed even higher levels of government skepticism?
Lux Aeterna
After the 9/11 attacks on Americans on American soil, some gave their blood, some gave their life, and some gave of their talents to protect and preserve America for another generation. Some became teachers, and tended to preserving the soul of the nation through education; others became soldiers, and focused on defending the whole of the nation against hostile outside forces.
Two decades later, to no small degree, what this has shown is how a free and equal people, even with a depressing lack of knowledge about the ways of freedom, equality, and democratic citizenship, still rose up to defend themselves, their compatriots, and their way of life.
Twenty years later, America has endured, battered but like the flag on that revolutionary night, still there. This, we can honor, not mourn.
A response to
September 11's Long Shadow
William Anthony Hay
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Rebecca Burgess is senior editor of American Purpose, a contributing editor for Law & Liberty, associate scholar with the Classics of Strategy and Diplomacy Project, and a visiting fellow with the Independent Women's Forum. Previously, she was a research fellow both in Foreign and Defense Policy and Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
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Film School Follies: Part 18 – Dancing into the Fire
By ScottDS
While we were busy with Natural Born Canadians, two other 35mm films were in pre-production. One was Shooting for the Moon, but since the first thing I did after Canadians was go home for a week-long vacation, I can't say what happened on that set one way or another. All I know is, when we finally watched all three films back to back to back, somehow Canadians was no longer "the worst film in our class" anymore. The other film in prep was In the Nude. At the last minute, I had decided to toss my directing hat into the Canadians ring, knowing that Mike (my co-writer) would most likely be given the directing reins on Nude and would do a fine job.
The following consists of iChat conversations Mike and I had over the span of three days in February. And yes, I transcribed all of this!
No Nudity Required: The Application Process
In the Nude tells the story of Scooter (ostensibly based on me) who has a crush on Anna, a girl in his class. Anna has developed some risqué photos and accidentally leaves them in the school photo lab after everyone's forced to evacuate when the fire alarm goes off. Scooter and his two friends, Matt and Ronnie, decide to break into the photo lab after hours to get a look at the photos.
Scott: "I'm sure there were a ton of scripts written that we never heard about but the big thing was that ours just seemed to have this buzz and people were always interested in it and were looking forward to it and everyone thought it would get made."
Mike: "I wouldn't say that. I think, within our circle of friends... people that knew it, there was a buzz. The [big] buzz didn't happen until the script got out." (After Spoon distributed copies of all three 35mm scripts to the class, people started coming up to us and asking questions about it.)
Scott: "Even then I just remember it was nice to be a part of something that people – once it got out, anyway – that people sort of dug. Maybe if it had been something different and not based on something at Full Sail [that] was about us, maybe people would've felt differently but it had a good thing going on."
Mike: "Yeah. People responded pretty well to it."
Scott: "How did you go about putting your portfolio together, if you remember?"
Mike: "I went out and bought a really nice binder and I wanted to do this neat thing where I created this little logo. I was drawing in Windy's [business] class – that's how much fun it was in [her] class – and I drew this little face that I thought kinda looked like me. I [later] did it in Photoshop and used it as a giant watermark on each page, and then I typed all my info over that. And then what I did was, my [ex-] brother-in-law is in advertising and they use a lot of vellum so I turned [all my paperwork] into PDF files and I e-mailed them to him. He printed them out and FedExed them to me. And then I typed this from the heart 'Why I should direct' [cover letter] and it was a little bit aggressive but it really spoke to how I felt. And I guess I got the job. I do remember in hindsight thinking it probably wouldn't have taken much to get the job!"
A Hard Place and a Rock: The Co-Director and the Faculty Producer
One Full Sail policy that most of us didn't like was their policy of assigning films to more than one director. Canadians had three, including myself. Moon had two (I heard it didn't go too well), and Nude also had two: Mike and another guy named Ryan who will now be known as Ryan #2 (as opposed to the Ryan who worked with me on Canadians).
Scott: "I know no one was a big fan of multiple directors but you guys lucked out with only two. Do you recall when Ryan #2 was first announced?"
Mike: "I didn't know Ryan #2 from Adam when he was announced [...] so it was really like meeting someone out of the blue and [saying], 'I need your help to make this dream of mine come true.' It wasn't the best feeling but I wasn't upset about it for the longest time before [the unpleasantness]. Before that, I was very pleased because there were only two of us, which was fantastic and we seemed to be on the same page [and] I have to give him credit [for that]. It was just in certain areas where he was a little inexperienced and was trying to do things he had seen others do but didn't understand why. He just thought those things would be cool but you have to know why you're doing something."
Scott: "I think if I had selected Nude instead of Canadians and if it had been you, me, and Ryan #2... you and I probably would've been okay but I'm not sure how Ryan #2 would've dealt with the two heavyweights [not physically] who wrote the script."
Mike: "It wouldn't have been the best situation. But if it were you and I, I don't think we would've split days. I think we would've directed together. (All of the 35mm directors split days – X on day 1, Y on day 2, etc. – and did not, in fact, direct together.) This isn't to speak highly of myself but I didn't need anyone to direct In the Nude with me and giving it up to Ryan #2 was difficult at times because he wasn't up for it... so it wasn't the easiest thing in the world."
The faculty producer of In the Nude was a no-nonsense woman named Debbie. A professional script supervisor who was listed in local film guides, Debbie had taught Steve and me the finer points of script supervision in 16mm and was seen in a previous class' making-of documentary, Missing Something, where she was portrayed in a less than flattering light.
Mike: "I was happy, to be honest with you, because even though I saw her be a hard-ass [in the documentary], I was familiar with her, whereas just by looking at Katie, I didn't feel like she was going to be of much use. With Debbie, at least there was a familiarity and what I saw in that [documentary] was not someone who was being abusive or anything. I just saw someone who was like, 'Hey, you weren't getting the job done' and I'm fine with that."
Below, Above, and Straddling the Line: Meet the Crew
The unit production manager on Nude was a guy named Laz (for short). I didn't know him that well and I still don't.
Mike: "There were bad moments and there were good moments. Laz was really unnecessary because Paul [1st A.D. and Sanguinity veteran] and I had it but what Laz ended up doing was kind of what a TV producer does. He did a lot of the dirty work. He just interfered sometimes with scheduling... our dealings with the actors... and with the catering and stuff like that. There was one night where he was interfering with our schedule so Steve [script supervisor and Sanguinity veteran], Paul, and I talked about it and we were ready to have him removed. It was Paul who convinced me to let him handle it because I was like, 'I can't go forward with Laz interfering like this.' My big thing wasn't, 'It's my movie! You can't mess with it!' My big thing was, 'We're trying to learn to be professionals. We have to stay in our roles.' The thing is Laz did [his job] well but he interfered because he didn't see the point to certain things we were doing. I didn't particularly want to work with him again [after 16mm]. [But] in the end it worked and he was game to do the things we asked him to do."
Scott: "Dave was announced as your production coordinator and that lasted for many minutes." (Dave left Nude to serve as script supervisor on Canadians.)
Mike: "I think he went to our first production meeting. I [later] said, 'Screw him. We don't need him.' But I do remember thinking that I would've liked to have someone there as a buffer for Laz. Had there been an extra person between Laz and us, some of those [bad] moments may have been avoided."
Just like they did with Canadians, they announced the crew roster for In the Nude in Rob's class. I already knew Mike would keep the VTR/playback operator position open for me and that's what I did after coming back from my vacation.
Mike: "There was a great crew at the top because... Paul was our 1st A.D. but then we had Seth and Phil... they were fantastic. (Phil was the casting director and later served as an additional 1st A.D. with Seth serving as his 2nd A.D.) Seth was like, 'Whatever I have to do, I'll do it' and he did it well. And Phil wasn't from [our] group of friends but he was somebody who was very serious: 'What needs to get done gets done.' Those two A.D.s were fantastic. They did their job well, they did what they had to do, and they never stepped out of line. They handled the talent, they worked in casting... I could not have made the movie as well as I did without them."
Scott: "And Justin as your director of photography?"
Mike: "Justin, as we've come to know him over the years, is a great guy. He really knew his stuff. He knew the film stocks, he understood everything, and so he was a great person to have there. But Justin has his moments [and] if he doesn't agree with what you're doing, he can get a little bitchy. He's kind of grown out of that [and] there were very few moments where Justin and I had any issues. Mainly it was that one day on the set when we were doing the reshoots at the end of my second day to cover stuff that Ryan #2 hadn't covered. I just overruled him there in front of everybody and he had a little bit of a tantrum in front of the crew but everything was fine. We did it, we got it done, the shots worked – end of story. But never did I think, 'Oh, I wish I had someone else.' I was very happy with Justin."
Scott: "And if you were happy with Justin, then you must've been very happy with Chris (the genius) as production designer."
Mike: "There was a point where Chris went from, 'Oh my God. What am I doing here? I want to be on Canadians' to 'This is kind of cool' to 'I'm so glad I was on In the Nude!' I think at first he was not happy at all that he was there, in the sense that all of his friends were on the other film. I don't think he knew what to make of me at first but that being said, we made a fantastic team and he is awesome. He was probably the most gifted person in our whole class – I think we all kind of conceded that. I kind of pushed him a little bit and let's not forget that even though he's medicated, he suffers from severe ADD and there were times where I had to rein that in. But we had a lot of fun and I love Chris and it was a pleasure seeing him recently."
Scott: "In retrospect, he was much better off with you guys because of the amount of design and creativity involved, not just in the sets but matching locations and that [custom-built] camera rig to shoot inside the ducts [which is how our heroes sneak into the photo lab]. I don't know how he would've reacted to our bull---- on Canadians and our sets wouldn't have required as much. Maybe Chris would've pressed Ryan to shoot on location. At graduation when I won that bull---- set design award, I told Chris afterwards, 'This is yours!' But considering Hitchcock never won an Oscar, that works! Moving on... Steve as script supervisor?"
Mike: "I can't say I relied on him too much but he was my friend on the crew and he was... as kooky and nutty as Steve is, I always found him to be the calm voice of reason in our productions and I consulted with him as much as I could. He was always for what we were doing [and] he may have had some input here and there. I always tried to include him in everything. I invited him to every meeting, as I did [with] Justin. I don't think that happened on every other production.
Scott: "I'm pretty sure that Matt, maybe by virtue of just being Ryan's roommate… I'm pretty sure Matt tagged along to most of our meetings [on Canadians], not when we were working on the script but Matt was usually always a constant and by the time the s--- hit the fan, Matt was one of the few where it was like, 'Okay, Matt's good! We know he's okay and he won't do this or that!' And the fact that other people on the crew [maybe] didn't like [working with] him sort of solidified that for us."
Mike: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Scott: "Exactly! Audio... who cares? Eliezer and Carlo."
Mike: "Audio was a big problem. I trusted Eliezer and thought that he was into what he was doing. And no, they screwed up our whole movie. And they taught me a valuable lesson if I ever direct anything in the future which is: I'm gonna wear headphones the whole f---ing time. I'm gonna be hearing everything [the sound guys] are hearing the whole f---ing time. You can quote that."
Scott: "Don't mince words, Bones. What do you really think? Diane as art director?"
Mike: "Everything I told her to get, she got. She was kind of Laz' lackey... I don't know why that ended up happening. I think Laz got very hands on and if we needed to look for clothes and costumes, he went and looked for them but Diane was kind of Laz and Chris' lackey and she did her job well. I told her I wanted a trucker hat [emblazoned with a non sequitur phrase: "kaboontang"] and she got it for me."
Scott: "I don't know how closely you worked with any of the camera guys individually: Ed, [another] Ryan, Tony, Nick, and Ricky."
Mike: "The camera guys were great. There wasn't a lot of communication with them during pre-pro. Nick was one of the ones who suggested a couple of changes in that first script meeting where I said, 'Does anyone have any ideas? I'll listen to them now' and [his suggestions] actually made it in. But during production, I worked very closely with them. Every shot we got, I was always like, 'Good job. You guys are awesome.' I felt like they were all very happy to be on the shoot, they liked working with Justin, and I think they liked working with me.
Scott: "At least you all had that relationship. By the time we started shooting [on NBC], I couldn't trust half of our camera crew! And it's not like you found out Tony was rewriting the script behind your back with Laz. [...] What about Mike #2 as gaffer?"
Mike: "That was [a case of] 'We care about him; let's give him something to do.' He relied a lot on others. Mike #2's that guy... you want him around and he's got all the smarts in the world but… did he really do anything? No. But he tried."
Next week: pre-production, script revisions, Chris goes to work, and a Canadians camera operator is cast in the lead role with mixed results.
Scott, I get more and more amazed that you guys managed to complete a movie.
Andrew -
It's funny. One of the lab assistants recently posted on Facebook a picture of the Canadians poster hanging in one of the school's hallways (standard procedure for every film poster).
Several (presumably) recent graduates have left comments for the photo and they are full of nothing but bitching and whining... all the same problems we had. Dennis (our class' elder statesman) chimed in with this:
TO SCOTT AND RYAN, folks who actually had something to do with this, is the above set of Posts, not absolutely hilarious ???!!. Just shows how right you guys were, and how insanely wrong the rest of us were. This is why positions are earned....take em, do your role, and shut the Fudge up. Which we finally did and you guys did a great job, along with Jerrod. I think that as time passes our class gets tighter, not on here, bickering like A-Holes. And to the Gal who said she would never be hired as an Editor because of this post.....not true, your work will or wont get you hired, not this assinine thread, this I assure you. But I would not link anyone to this thread...LOL
The point I was trying to make was that this happens with every student film. Obviously, not all of them include a death but there is always stress and peer-pressure and conflict.
And the instructors drilled it into our heads that every moment counts, every project counts... when I was a PA in Los Angeles, I wouldn't even sit down out of fear that Spielberg would happen to visit that day and hire the PA who was standing up! (I exaggerate... slightly.)
As for the Facebook photo, our 35mm instructor (Rob) also commented with a bit of wisdom:
I'm not sure why students are expecting fu&*^#ing Chinatown every time they try to make a film. The big salamis f&*^em up with 100 times the budget and the crew..
Scott, Yeah, I got your point. It sounds like each of the projects was difficult with a lot of upset people. I guess that's to be expected in that sort of environment.
It makes sense to me that as many people as possible would get a chance to direct, as well as do everything else available on the project. In fact, if only a couple people got to direct the entire semester, then there wouldn't really be a lot of incentive for people to go to the school.
I figured you'd get the point... I only added the clarification after reading over my first post. :-)
Not everyone who goes to film school wants to direct. And there are only a limited number of films produced so, inevitably, a few students who want to direct will get the shaft. Such is life.
In 16mm, as I've mentioned before, anyone who wanted to direct could but since each 16mm film only shot for two days, you'd get a situation like we had with Sanguinity where we had 8 or 9 directors and several of them only directed one or two individual shots.
In fact, Full Sail might be unique in this regard. Most film schools don't allow multiple directors, let alone a whole gaggle of them. I think this is Full Sail's way of addressing the very problem you bring up. But the results are mixed to say the least.
Scott, I would say while it may seem like a mess, the finished product isn't really as important as everyone getting a chance to do part of it and being able to point to something they did.
It's easy to say "that's life" but with tuitions these days, schools need to be much more responsive to student, not just some of the students.
What's the point of being able to point to a film and say, "I did that" if the film is total crap? Students should at least try to make a decent movie. I realize the important thing is simply getting the chance to do it but I remember getting into some heated conflicts with people on Canadians. Some folks wanted to use certain camera equipment even though the movie didn't call for fancy camera moves. A crane shot in the middle of the film would've called attention to itself. While it is a learning experience, there needs to be some thought put into the final product and why certain things are done the way they are.
The instructors are partly to blame (at least in our case) for not encouraging certain people but also not reigning in others, not to mention they were the ones that picked completely mundane scripts to film! And sadly, much like in the real film biz, ego plays a huge part in it.
As for being responsive, I can't really speak to that point. If you ask my friend Mike, he'll say, "I went to film school with the intention of writing and directing a movie, and I did just that." On the other hand, someone like my friend Steve simply wanted to work on films in some capacity and he found his niche as script supervisor/editor. I'm sure there were a couple others who wanted to direct but never got the chance (except for 16mm). To them, I'm not sure what to say. I suppose they could've added another 35mm film to the curriculum but our class size wouldn't allow it.
P.S. Happy Easter, everyone!! :-)
You said that the instructors picked the mundane films to produce. Did you ever ask them why they did that?
Joel -
"Mundane" is just my opinion. And I didn't ask anyone anything. It breaks down like this:
In 16mm, we couldn't shoot on location and we only had two shooting days, yet the instructors chose scripts that would've benefited from location shooting and more time (a movie that takes place on a plane, a war movie, a movie set in the future, etc.)
But for 35mm, when we had more time and equipment and we could go on location, the instructors chose scripts that didn't quite take advantage of those "perks." Both Shooting for the Moon and Stepfather took place in living rooms and bedrooms - all of which could be built on stage. Only In the Nude really took advantage of location work and Canadians, which was shoehorned in at the expense of Stepfather, could have but didn't.
Scott, I sounds to me like those are all just some of the problems you're going to find in the real world.
I don't doubt that at all. I think my problem at the time was that, with the instructors choosing which films were produced, it fell out of our hands and we might've been compelled to pick scripts that challenged us. I mean, a 35mm short film which takes place in one room? What's the point? That was my feeling at the time.
Believe me, I'm not crying over spilled milk. :-) Film school, like anything else, is what you make of it.
Film Friday: Terminator Salvation (2009)
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Mischaracterizing The Tea Party
Book Club Reminder -- Tomorrow Night! 8:00 PM EST
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Yoo and Liu--A Tale Of Two Lawyers
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Then We'll Fight In The Shade
Honduras Flopped. Obama Tries Ecuador.
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For Once, I Agree With The New Republic
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New Google Fairness Policy


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The 2015 SaveOne Summit was held in Nashville, TN. It was the first one ever held on a larger scale and was a huge success. Leaders came from 3 different countries, as well as chapter leaders from many states. Sheila and Sonja decided, after seeing this Summit be so fun and educational, that they would alternate years and countries. Join us next year in Vienna for the first ever SaveOne Europe Summit!


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The land was at war, and the king was astonished.
Each time he took prisoners, he would not kill them. Instead, he'd take them to a room where a group of archers stood in one corner and a huge iron door was in the other. The door had engravings of skulls covered with blood.
All the prisoners who went into the room chose to be killed by the archers.
– Sir, may I ask you a question?
– Go and look for yourself.
The soldier opened the door slowly and realized that as he does so, rays of sunshine broke through and the room became filled with light. Then, when the door was completely open, he saw that it lead to a path that would lead to freedom.
– I gave them a choice, but they would rather die than risk opening that door.
How many doors haven't we opened for fear of risk?
How many times have we lost our freedom and died inside, just because we were afraid to open the door of our dreams?