text:
Q: When is the diagonal a closed immersion with open image? Let $A$ be a commutative unital $R$-algebra and consider the  multiplication map $m:A\otimes_R A\rightarrow A$ given by $m(a\otimes b) = ab$ with kernel $I$. The map $m$ is surjective, hence the image of $f: \operatorname{Spec}A\rightarrow \operatorname{Spec}A\times\operatorname{Spec}A$ is $V(I)$.

If we assume that $V(I)$ is also open, then is $f$ an open immersion?

As far as I know, an immersion with closed image is a closed immersion, but an immersion with open image maybe not an open immersion?
Thanks.

A: It's helpful to remember the sheaf-theoretic conditions on immersions: an open immersion $f:Y\to X$ must have that the induced maps $\mathcal{O}_{X,f(y)}\to\mathcal{O}_{Y,y}$ are isomorphisms for all $y\in Y$, while a closed immersion only implies that those maps are surjections. Assuming $f$ is a closed immersion and adding the condition $f(Y)$ open only implies that the kernel of  $\mathcal{O}_{X,f(y)}\to\mathcal{O}_{Y,y}$ is in the nilradical of $\mathcal{O}_{X,f(y)}$, which is not enough to guarantee that we have an open immersion unless $\mathcal{O}_{X,f(y)}$ is reduced for all $y\in Y$.
Here is an explicit example in your specific case. Let $R=k$ be a field and let $A=k[\epsilon]/(\epsilon^2)$. Then $A\otimes_R A\cong k[\epsilon_1,\epsilon_2]/(\epsilon_1^2,\epsilon_2^2)$, so both $\operatorname{Spec} A$ and $\operatorname{Spec} A\otimes_R A$ are single points, and if $\operatorname{Spec} m$ is an open immersion it must be an isomorphism. Hence $m$ should be an isomorphism, but one can immediately see that this is not the case as $1\otimes\epsilon-\epsilon\otimes1$ is in the kernel.

A: I believe the following holds (by an exercise in Atiyah-Macdonald (AM)): Let $B:=A \otimes A$ and let $I:=ker(m)$ be the kernel of the multiplication map.
It follows $V(I) \cup V(I)^c=S:=Spec(B)$. If $V(I)^c=V(J)$ is closed it follows by AM Exercise I.15 that
$$V(I) \cup V(J)= V(I\cap J)=S$$
hence $I \cap J \subseteq \mathfrak{p}$ for all prime ideals $\mathfrak{p}\subseteq B$,
hence $I\cap J \subseteq nil(B)$. Since $V(I) \cap V(J)=V(I+J)=\emptyset$ it follows
$I+J=(1)$ is the unit ideal. Hence if $B$ is a domain it follows $I\cap J =(0)$ and $I+J =(1)$ hence there is by the Chinese remainder theorem an isomorphism
$$ B:=A\otimes A \cong A\otimes A/I \oplus A\otimes A/J \cong A \oplus A\otimes A/J.$$
Hence
$$S:=Spec(A\otimes A) \cong Spec(A) \cup Spec(A\otimes A/J):=S_1 \cup S_2$$
is a disjoint union. It seems the diagonal map $\Delta$ is an open immersion in this case, since $Spec(A)\cong S_1 \subseteq Spec(B)$ is an open subscheme. The two schemes $S_1:=Spec(A),S_2:=Spec(B/J)$ are open and closed in $S$.
Question: "If we assume that $V(I)$ is an open subscheme, then is $f$ an open immersion?"
Answer: If the product $S$ is a reduced scheme it seems the following holds:
Lemma. If $V(I)$ is an open subscheme  it follows the diagonal map $\Delta$ is an open immersion.
Proof.  This holds since $nil(B)=0$ and hence by the above argument it follows the diagonal map $\Delta$  induces an isomorphism between $Spec(A)$ and the image $\Delta(Spec(A))\cong S_1 \subseteq S$.
Example. In general if $S:=Spec(A)$ is a reduced affine scheme and $Z:=V(I)$ is open and closed it follows $V(I)^c=V(J)$ and $I \cap J =(0), I+J=(1)$ hence by the Chinese remainder theorem we get a direct sum decomposition
$$A \cong A/I \oplus A/J$$
and a disjoint union of schemes
$$Spec(A) \cong Spec(A/I) \cup Spec(A/J):=V(I) \cup V(I)^c.$$
Conversely if $A \cong A_1 \oplus A_2$ there are  ideals $I_i\subseteq A$
with $A/I_i \cong A_i$ and $I_1 \cap I_2=(0), I_1+I_2=(1).$ The subschemes $Spec(A_i)\subseteq Spec(A)$ are open and closed.


text:
Q: How fall back to default value if TFS build variables are not set? I want to create a Powershell script that can be executed both on TFS within the context of a build agent and locally. On TFS, various predefined build variables are available, such as $(Build.SourcesDirectory). At the same time, the script is also available within the source tree, so I want to be able to run it locally, where those variables are not set. The shortest way I have found to fall back to a default value there is the following Try..Catch block with the unsettling long exception type:
Try {
    $SourcesDirectory = $(Build.SourcesDirectory)
}
Catch [System.Management.Automation.CommandNotFoundException] {
    $SourcesDirectory = "..\..\Local\Path\To\Sources\Directory"
}

Write-Output $SourcesDirectory

Is there a "nicer" way to accomplish this?

A: Sure, you could use a simple inline-if statement. I'm not sure if $(Build.SourcesDirectory) has any side-effects, but with $env:BUILD_SOURCESDIRECTORY this should work:
$sourcesDirectory = if($env:BUILD_SOURCESDIRECTORY) { $env:BUILD_SOURCESDIRECTORY } else { "..\..\Local\Path\To\Sources\Directory" }

A: You can add the variable to your local environment variables:

*

*Open CMD as Administrator

*Run this command: setx Build.SourcesDirectory "C:\Path"

Now the variables also available in your local machine and you don't need to try/catch orif/else, run the PowerShell script with the variable $env:BUILD_SOURCESDIRECTORY and it will run in your local machine and in the build process as well.
Anyway, you should use $env:BUILD_SOURCESDIRECTORY and not $(Build.SourcesDirectory) to make it work on the build.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


One of the most difficult development challenges we face is how to break the cycle of poverty. In particular, how can children from the poorest families grow up to live better lives than their parents?
This is a question all countries would like to answer. One of the best solutions we have was born in a developing country, and has been replicated all over the world.
I'm talking about Mexico's Oportunidades safety net program. Founded in 2002, Oportunidades was one of the world's first programs to tie income support for poor families to their children's school attendance, medical checkups, and nutrition.
A little over a decade later, Oportunidades has been credited with improving the lives of millions of Mexico's poorest people.
The successor to Oportunidades—Prospera—promises to do much more to bring poor and marginalized people into society and the formal economy.
I was just in Mexico for Prospera's launch, and what I saw convinced me that this program will not only help improve children's health and education. It will give poor families access to the services, vocational training, and financial literacy programs they need to build income and improve their economic security over the longer-term.
My organization, the World Bank Group, is supporting Prospera with a $350 million low-interest loan. We believe that helping the poor learn skills and find good jobs will help raise their income levels and promote economic growth, both of which are vital to our broader goal of ending extreme poverty.
We also think well-structured safety nets represent some of the best investments developing countries can make — and a growing number of countries agree.
Over the last decade, many have come to see these programs as a way to efficiently and affordably support their poorest, most excluded people.
Evidence shows that safety nets can ensure children from extremely poor families go to school, get health checkups, and eat nutritious food—all of which enhances their opportunities later in life. Safety nets can also help those living in extreme poverty get jobs and participate more fully in their country's economy.
Social safety nets cost on average about 1.6 percent of countries' GDP. Less effective alternatives, such as fuel subsidies, can often cost three to four times as much – and do not effectively target the poor. In fact, most fuel subsidy schemes primarily benefit upper-middle-income and wealthy households.
Morocco's primary school dropout rate fell by 57 percent after a safety net program was established in 2008. The program has now been expanded to more than 800,000 students.
Ethiopia ensured that 3.1 million vulnerable people had an adequate food supply by quickly expanding its existing safety net program when a drought hit the Horn of Africa in 2011.
In South Africa, a safety net program increased labor force participation and employment, as beneficiaries were able to afford bus fares to commute to more vibrant labor markets.
We need to expand safety net programs like these to an even greater scale. Today, 870 million people living in extreme poverty still lack access to any kind of social assistance.
Research shows that, where this support is absent, many families tend to keep their children out of school and struggle to provide them with basic nutrition, which has long-term negative consequences on their children's health.
Breaking the cycle of poverty is within our reach, and Mexico's Prospera program provides an important example of how we can get there. In the video below, I'm joined by Arup Banerji, our senior director for labor and social protection, who explains how Prospera can help countries around the world.
Please, watch the video, and then share your ideas on what we can do to break the cycle of poverty wherever it appears.


Hello. long ago I played on the zombiemaniya servers. I played on the PC and after I stopped playing for a while. and now I've just started playing again just having lost all the levels for perk's. I had sharpshooter lvl 49 and berkserker lvl 31 demoliton 25 and the rest I do not remember. I have the name xGhostx or Ghost I do not know for sure. and now I have the name BlooD. thank you! PS: I did not know in those times that I had to assure myself perk's and did not know how.
Please if it is possible at least 3 of these perks to return to me, thank you!
i apologize for given bad english i used google translate.
If you insure your perks or buy anything from shop you can return your perks.
I can't buy for now... and if i insure my perks i can get a return of my lost perks? Remember i don't insured lately. Thank you!
If you remember ur login and pass write to Renz in PM.
Кстати чела вроде банили или пермачем или чем-то другим за читы.
Бурундук говорил в 2к15 что аимщик-рецидивист.
Yeah but i can't buy with my credit card.
what login and pass? how i said i don't insured lately!
No when I stopped playing I did not insured my perks. cuz i don't knowing how it works in that time.


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text:
Kiss them for me, I may be delayed
The book has arrived. Finally. At long last. The wait is over. The first collection of Sinfest strips is available in print form. The first year's worth of strips, all bound like a real book with pages and everything. Cuddle up with it in bed! Stand on a street corner and recite chapter and verse! Read it to your kids as bedtime stories! Have a book burning! Go door to door and convert people! Send copies to the U.N. for review and inspection! Hey, it's all good!
On judgment. People are always going on about how bad it is to judge others, how no one has the right to pass judgment and don't you dare judge me who the hell do you think you are and so on and so forth. Which sort of makes a mockery of our court system, our sporting events, and of course, American Idol. Without judges, these esteemed institutions of American culture would cease to function. And nobody wants that. Without judgment all manner of disputes would go unresolved, athletics would fail to deliver a winner, and we'd have no President. Judgment ain't a bad thing in and of itself. Until, of course, someone judges me, and I'll be all like, "What, you judging me? Don't you dare judge me. Who the hell do you think you are?"
I'm taking you down to Chinatown
On wisdom. At some point in your life you make such a monumental ass of yourself that you can't escape the thought that perhaps you are a total idiot. Maybe you get smashed at a party and pass out in the jacuzi, but not before you put on a bubble wrap toga and run around asking the ladies to "pop" you. Not that this happened to me. Cuz it didn't. Really, it didn't. Anyway, it's at this moment, when you stop and realize what a fool you are, that you approach something called wisdom. It's sort of like a hazing ritual for enlightenment. You must endure much embarrassment before you achieve enlightenment. Before you can know yourself you must first learn to laugh at yourself. Except me. I have no embarrassing stories about me whatsoever. All that stuff about getting smashed and bubble wrap togas--not me. I just made it up.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it
On parents. You know that phase when you're embarrassed of your parents and you just can't take them anywhere? And you can't believe you're related to them and you're convinced you must've been adopted and your real parents must be somewhere worried sick about you? And you wonder why your folks had you at all and why in the world isn't there some qualifying exam to become a parent in the first place? You know, like some American Idol-ish Bachelor-type competition where couples compete for the right to have a kid. Call it "Copulation Island." The contestants would have to go through a battery of tests, each round eliminating one couple and removing their reproductive organs. But they will receive a lovely parting gift: a "You--Out of the Gene Pool!" bumper sticker. Thanks for playing. Buh-bye now.
I got your back
I knew this one girl who always went for guys she couldn't have. Something about wanting a challenge. So naturally I told her she couldn't have me. "I'm off limits, baby. Sorry." And she was all, "Oh really?" And I was like, "Really." And she went, "Why?" And I went, "Because I don't agree with the whole notion of pursuing someone out of some desire to feel challenged. That cheapens the very concept of romance, as if it's all just a game and the goal is to win. No, baby. The goal is to love." And I meant it, too. Cuz, you know, I'm all heart and shit. So anyway, we went out a couple times, but then she met a guy she really couldn't have, and it was game over for me. And I thought to myself: Damn, I played it all wrong.
I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100
So some jazz dude is suing the Beastie Boys for sampling his music. I'm more than a little interested in the issue of artistic ownership, since I too have "borrowed" other people's creations. So far, no law suits. But you never know, especially if I ever make it big. I can see it now. People'll be suing me for the tone of my voice and shit. "Your honor, the defendant spoke with a blatant disregard for my emotionals thus causing me great psychological distress and metaphysical injuriousness which has rendered me incompacified and utterly abjectly discombamboozled, thusly, ergo, i.e., I seek the monetarial damages and compensation of $100 million billion dollars to the googol power times infinity plus one, your honor, sir."
You can't handle the truth!
On censorship. Censorship is confusing. Like, I don't quite understand why "shit" is so unmentionable while the word "hate" is perfectly acceptable. Think about it. You can say "hate" in the classroom, on television, to your parents, to little children, to the Pope, to anyone at all without any worries of impropriety. But say "shit" and all hell breaks loose. What message does this send our impressionable youth? What sort of values are we teaching the kids? That hating is okay compared to the unspeakable sin that is taking a dump. So we're programmed in this Puritan society to feel guilt and shame for taking a crap, but we're free to hate all we want. "Forgive me Father for today I pinched out a loaf that stunk to high heaven. I am a bad bad moral midget of man. Then some dude made a crack about how I fouled up the restroom. Lord, how I hate him. What a jerkweed. As if his shit don't stink --oops, I mean, poop. Sorry, Lord."
I gotta go see about a girl
On self-awareness. To know oneself is tougher than it seems. Cuz we sorta assume we know who we are. Mostly just the good stuff. And maybe some cursory acknowledgment of our faults. But to truly know oneself is a life long task, and even that may not be enough time. We tend to flatter ourselves, then criticize ourselves, without ever really getting acquainted with ourselves. We go hot and cold, we're on again, off again, in a stormy love-hate relationship with our own selves. When our hearts stray, and we do things we really don't really intend, say things we don't really mean, we cover it up and we lie to ourselves and we grow distant from... our own damn selves. Ah, if only we can remain true to who we are, and love who we are, and just be who we are, in spite of ourselves.
Inconceivable!
On life. At any given point in life, you're either in training or you're in the trenches. You're either learning the ropes or paving the way. You're busy searching or busy realizing. And most of us are trainees, bush leaguers, Padawan learners not yet allowed to sit at the Jedi table. We use kidproof light sabers. Simulate battles in the Danger Room. Ride with training wheels. Practice, practice, practice. And we're all so impatient to engage with the real world, eager to change things and make everything perfect forever. And in our haste we defy our higher-ups, set off for the big bad world, and roundly get our asses whipped. And every one of us, sooner or later, end up back in school. But ain't no shame in that. That's the way of the world, the circle of life, the master plan, you dig?
You gotta get yourself connected
On women. Women are burdened with a power that most guys haven't a clue about. The future of humanity depends on them. They are the judges in the great Gene Pool Sweepstakes. They are natural selection. Meanwhile, us guys are walking around picking our noses, driving really fast and watching sports. You know, the important stuff. Cuz when the fourth quarter rolls around, does anything else really matter? Anyway, back to women. They determine whose genes get passed on. They gotta choose wisely. Look around. Comparison shop. Read the fine print. Cuz everyday they're bombarded with guys like me advertising his goods: Check out my chromosomes, ladies. I got all sorts of cool Xs and Ys! I gots the premium choice special blend DNA! Neat recessive stuff, spectacular dominants! Act now! Take my double helix out for a test drive!
I write on the lintels of the doorpost, "Whim"
The process. So I get an idea and I sketch it out and I rework it a bit and I change this around and switch that up and I read it again and I erase that little section and add a little something over there and then I draw a little clock in the second panel just for the heck of it and then I'm like, oh shit now I gotta draw that same damn clock in the other panels too, so I think about whiting that little bugger right off but then I look at it and it looks pretty cool so I suck it up and draw it again and again and again and I'm like, damn, I wish I had a copy machine and then it occurs to me that Photoshop has that copy and paste command, which means I totally wasted my time, but I'm an old school purist who prefers hand drawing every single line myself, so it serves me right!
Watch me dance now!
Drawing comics, like anything in life, is all about trial and error. You try out your ideas, some work, others don't. Sometimes you hit a groove, sometimes you hit a wall. Sometimes people pat you on the back. Sometimes they bust your balls. Sometimes you play it safe. Other times you take a chance. Sometimes you go, "Damn, I'm a super genius." But most of the time you're like, "What the heck am I doing?" Sometimes you're ready to quit. Sometimes you feel like you've just begun. And sometimes, once in a long while, you get one of those epiphanies, them zen moments when it all comes together-- you understand your place in the universe, you are one with everything, the future's looking bright, and you're living in the now.
Ya hearrrrrrd?
Random things at the San Diego ComiCon:
· Security guards searched and detained me when my fully armored Robotech costume set off the metal detectors.
· First time convention goers dropped to their knees, overcome with a feeling of oneness. "I'm home," they said.
· Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes were seen outside the convention hall, selling weed and harrassing patrons.
· Highlight of the Masquerade Ball: An amorous Nightwing getting jiggy on the dance floor, putting the moves on Tank Girl.
· Riots break out when Vampirella versus Elvira: Celebrity Mudwrestling is cancelled.
· A Westside Story type showdown occurs between Jhonen Vasquez and Trent Reznor to decide once and for all who is the gothest of them all.
And Bingo was his name-o
Psychological Test: Imagine you're in a forest. You come across a cup. What kind of cup is it? Do you keep it? You move on and you see a key. What's it look like? What does it open? You walk deeper into the forest and you arrive at a house. What kind of house is it? Does anyone live there? You press on you and come to a body of water. What's it like? Do you dip your hands and feet? Go for a swim? Finally you move out of the forest and come to a gift shop. You walk in and a clerk says, "Thank you for playing our Psychological Test! Please choose from our wide selection of memorabilia to remember your visit! Souvenir cups! Key chains! How about this handsome number: 'I Took A Pyschological Test And All I Got Was This Stupid T-shirt.' Tre chic!" Do you buy anything? Ask to see the manager? Or do you kick the clerk's ass and trash the joint?
What's another word for pirate treasure?
Movie Idea. Bizarre crop circles appear on surfaces across the globe. So the government dispatches Agent J to investigate, who uncovers a massive plot involving a lesbian clone army on planet Ya-Ya. He races home to expose the divine secret of the sisterhood, but a bounty hunter is hot on his trails. To elude his pursuer he travels back in time to the 1970s where he meets funky diva Destiny Bootilicious. After much sex and violence he is bitten by a genetically engineered hamster and fights crime as Stuart-Man. Meanwhile back on earth giant eight-legged freaks run amok, while the Croc Hunter explains how to properly wrestle one to the ground. Suddenly, the Mystery Machine pulls up and the Scooby Doo gang reveals that the big spiders are actually just dragons in disguise, who would've gotten away with it had it not been for you meddling kids.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Catastrophic Impact of Covid Forced Societal Lockdowns
Paul E. Alexander
– January 30, 2021 Reading Time: 21 minutes
The present Covid-inspired forced lockdowns on business and school closures are and have been counterproductive, not sustainable and are, quite frankly, meritless and unscientific. They have been disastrous and just plain wrong! There has been no good reason for this. These unparalleled public health actions have been enacted for a virus with an infection mortality rate (IFR) roughly similar (or likely lower once all infection data are collected) to seasonal influenza. Stanford's John P.A. Ioannidis identified 36 studies (43 estimates) along with an additional 7 preliminary national estimates (50 pieces of data) and concluded that among people <70 years old across the world, infection fatality rates ranged from 0.00% to 0.57% with a median of 0.05% across the different global locations (with a corrected median of 0.04%). Let me write this again, 0.05%. Can one even imagine the implementation of such draconian regulations for the annual flu? Of course not! Not satisfied with the current and well-documented failures of lockdowns, our leaders are inexplicably doubling and tripling down and introducing or even hardening punitive lockdowns and constraints. They are locking us down 'harder.' Indeed, an illustration of the spurious need for these ill-informed actions is that they are being done in the face of clear scientific evidence showing that during strict prior societal lockdowns, school lockdowns, mask mandates, and additional societal restrictions, the number of positive cases went up! No one can point to any instance where lockdowns have worked in this Covid pandemic.
It is also noteworthy that these irrational and unreasonable restrictive actions are not limited to any one jurisdiction such as the US, but shockingly have occurred across the globe. It is stupefying as to why governments, whose primary roles are to protect their citizens, are taking these punitive actions despite the compelling evidence that these policies are misdirected and very harmful; causing palpable harm to human welfare on so many levels. It's tantamount to insanity what governments have done to their populations and largely based on no scientific basis. None! In this, we have lost our civil liberties and essential rights, all based on spurious 'science' or worse, opinion, and this erosion of fundamental freedoms and democracy is being championed by government leaders who are disregarding the Constitutional (USA) and Charter (Canada) limits to their right to make and enact policy. These unconstitutional and unprecedented restrictions have taken a staggering toll on our health and well-being and also target the very precepts of democracy; particularly given the fact that this viral pandemic is no different in overall impact on society than any previous pandemics. There is simply no defensible rationale to treat this pandemic any differently.
There is absolutely no reason to lock down, constrain and harm ordinarily healthy, well, and younger or middle-aged members of the population irreparably; the very people who will be expected to help extricate us from this factitious nightmare and to help us survive the damages caused by possibly the greatest self-inflicted public health fiasco ever promulgated on societies. There is no reason to continue this illogical policy that is doing far greater harm than good. Never in human history have we done this and employed such overtly oppressive restrictions with no basis. A fundamental tenet of public health medicine is that those with actual disease or who are at great risk of contracting disease are quarantined, not people with low disease risk; not the well! This seems to have been ignored by an embarrassingly large number of health experts upon whom our politicians rely for advice. Rather we should be using a more 'targeted' (population-specific age and risk) approach in relation to the implementation of public health measures as opposed to the inelegant and shotgun tactics being forced upon us now. Optimally, the key elements for modern public health include refraining from causing societal disruption (or at most, minimally) and to ensure freedom is maintained in the advent of pathogen emergence while concurrently protecting overall health and well-being. We also understand that at the outset of the pandemic there was little to no reliable information regarding SARS CoV-2. Indeed, initial case fatality rate (CFR) reports were staggeringly high and so it made sense, earlier, to impose strict lockdowns and other measures until such a time as the danger passed or we understood more clearly the nature of this virus, the data, and how it might be managed. But why would we continue this way and for so long once the factual characteristics of this virus became evident and as alluded to above, we finally realized that its infection fatality rate (IFR) which is a more accurate and realistic reflection of mortality than CFR, was really no worse than annual influenza? Governments and medical experts continuing to cite CFR are deeply deceitful and erroneous and meant to scare populations with an exaggerated risk of death. The prevailing opinion of our experts and politicians seems to be to "stop Covid at all costs." If so, this is a highly destructive, illogical, and unsound policy and flies in the face of all accepted concepts related to modern public health medicine. Unfortunately, it seems that our political leadership is still bound to following the now debunked and discredited models of pandemic progression, the most injurious and impactful model having been released upon the world in the form of the Imperial College Ferguson model that was based on untested fictional projections and assumptions that have been flat wrong. These models used inaccurate input and were fatally flawed.
Let us start with a core position that just because there is an emergency situation, if we cannot stop it, this does not provide a rationale for instituting strategies that have no effect or are even worse. We have to fight the concept that if there's truly nothing we can do to alter the course of a situation (e.g., disease), we still have to do something even if it's ineffective! Moreover, we do not implement a public health policy that is catastrophic and not working, and then continue its implementation knowing it is disastrous. Let us also start with the basic fact that the government bureaucrats and their medical experts deceived the public by failing to explain in the beginning that everyone is not at equal risk of severe outcome if infected. This is a key Covid omission and this omission has been used tacitly and wordlessly to drive hysteria and fear. Indeed, the public still does not understand this critically important distinction. The vast majority of people are at little if any risk of severe illness and yet these very people are needlessly cowering in fear because of misinformation and, sadly, disinformation. Yet, lockdowns did nothing to change the trajectory of this pandemic, anywhere! Indeed, it's highly probable that if lockdowns did anything at all to change the course of the pandemic, they extended our time of suffering.
What are The Effects of Lockdowns on the General Population?
On the basis of actuarial and real-time data we know that there are tremendous harms caused by these unprecedented lockdowns and school closures. These strategies have devastated the most vulnerable among us – the poor – who are now worse off. It has hit the African-American, Latino, and South Asian communities devastatingly. Lockdowns and especially the extended ones have been deeply destructive. There is absolutely no reason to even quarantine those up to 70 years old. Readily accessible data show there is near 100% probability of survival from Covid for those 70 and under. This is why the young and healthiest among us should be 'allowed' to become infected naturally, and spread the virus among themselves. This is not heresy. It is classic biology and modern public health medicine! And yes, we are referring to 'herd immunity,' the latter condition which for reasons that are beyond logic is being touted as a dangerous policy despite the fact that herd immunity has protected us from millions of viruses for tens of thousands of years. Those in the low to no risk categories must live reasonably normal lives with sensible common-sense precautions (while doubling and tripling down with strong protections of the high-risk persons and vulnerable elderly), and they can become a case 'naturally' as they are at almost zero risk of subsequent illness or death. This approach could have helped bring the pandemic to an end much more rapidly as noted above, and we also hold that the immunity developed from a natural infection is likely much more robust and stable than anything that could be developed from a vaccine. In following this optimal approach, we will actually protect the highest at risk amongst us.
Where has Common Sense and True Scientific Thought Gone?
There appears to be a surfeit of panic but a paucity of logic and common sense when it comes to advising our politicians and the public in relation to the pandemic. We hear often misleading information from hundreds of individuals who either hold themselves out as being infallible medical experts or are crowned as such by mainstream media. And we are bombarded relentlessly with their ill-informed, often illogical, and unempirical advice on a 24/7 basis. Much of the advice can only be described as being intellectually dishonest, absurd, untethered from reality and devoid of common sense. They exhibit a kind of academic sloppiness and cognitive dissonance that ignores key data or facts, while driving a sense of hopelessness and helplessness among the public. These 'experts' seem unable to read the science or simply do not understand the data, or seem blinded by it. They and our government leaders talk about "following the science" but do not appear to understand the science enough in order to apply the knowledge towards the decision-making process (if there are processes, that is; most political mandates appear random at best and capricious at worst). These experts have lost all credibility. And all this despite the fact that our bureaucrats now have had at their disposal nearly one year of data and experience to inform their decision-making and despite this they continue to listen to the nonsensical advice they receive from people who are not actually experts. Consequently, we are now faced with a self-created medical and societal disaster with losses that might never be reversed.
Sadly, when faced with rational arguments that run counter to the near religiously held beliefs, which hold that lockdowns save lives, bureaucrats and medical experts act as ideological enforcers. They attack anyone who disagrees with them and even use the media as their attack dogs once their fiats are questioned. Even more egregious are the often successful actions aimed at destroying the reputations of anyone holding diverse views related to the Covid pandemic. There is also no interest or debate on the crushing harms on societies caused by decrees made by ideologues. The everyday clinicians and nurses at the forefront of the battle are our real heroes and we must never forget and confuse these Praetorian vanguards with the unempirical and often reckless 'medical experts.' We hold that the very essence of science and logical thought includes the ability and in fact the responsibility to challenge (reasonably) currently held dogmas; a philosophy that appears to be anathema to our leaders and their advisors.
Current Data Concerning Lockdown Effects
Let us start with the staggering statement by Germany's Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Gerd Muller, who has openly cautioned that global lockdown measures will result in the killing of more people than Covid itself. A recent Lancet study reported that government strategies to deal with Covid such as lockdowns, physical distancing, and school closures are worsening child malnutrition globally, whereby "strained health systems and interruptions in humanitarian response are eroding access to essential and often life-saving nutrition services."
What is the actual study-level/report evidence in terms of lockdowns? We present 31 high-quality sources of evidence below for consideration that run the gamut of technical reports to scientific manuscripts (including several under peer-review, but which we have subjected to rigorous review ourselves). We set the table with this, for the evidence emphatically questions the merits of lockdowns, and shows that lockdowns have been an abject failure, do not work to prevent viral spread and in fact cause great harm. This proof includes: evidence from Northern Jutland in Denmark, country level analysis by Chaudhry, evidence from Germany on lockdown validity, UK research evidence, Flaxman research on the European experience, evidence originating from Israel, further European lockdown evidence, Western European evidence published by Meunier, European evidence from Colombo, Northern Ireland and Great British evidence published by Rice, additional Israeli data by Shlomai, evidence from Cohen and Lipsitch, Altman's research on the negative effects, Djaparidze's research on SARS-CoV-2 waves across Europe, Bjørnskov's research on the economics of lockdowns, Atkeson's global research on nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), Belarusian evidence, British evidence from Forbes on spread from children to adults, Nell's PANDATA analysis of intercountry mortality and lockdowns, principal component analysis by De Larochelambert, McCann's research on states with lowest Covid restrictions, Taiwanese research, Levitt's research, New Zealand's research, Bhalla's Covid research on India and the IMF, nonpharmaceutical lockdown interventions (NPIs) research by Ioannidis, effects of lockdowns by Herby, and lockdown groupthink by Joffe. The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) further outlines prominent public health leaders and agencies' positions on societal lockdowns, all questioning and arguing against the effectiveness of lockdowns.
A recent pivotal study from Stanford University looking at stay-at-home and business closure lockdown effects on the spread of Covid by Bendavid, Bhattacharya, and Ioannidis examined restrictive versus less restrictive Covid policies in 10 nations (8 countries with harsh lockdowns versus two with light public health restrictions). They concluded that there was no clear benefit of lockdown restrictions on case growth in any of the 10 nations.
Key seminal evidence arguing against lockdowns and societal restrictions emerged from a recent quasi-natural experiment (case-controlled experimental data) that emerged in the Northern Jutland region in Denmark. Seven of the 11 municipalities (similar and comparable) in the region went into extreme lockdown that involved a travel ban across municipal borders, closing schools, the hospitality sector and other settings and venues (in early November 2020) while the four remaining municipalities employed the usual restrictions of the rest of the nation (moderate). Researchers reported that reductions in infection had occurred prior to the lockdowns and also decreased in the four municipalities without lockdowns. Conclusion: surveillance and voluntary compliance make lockdowns essentially meaningless.
Moreover, in a similarly comprehensive analysis of global statistics regarding Covid, carried out by Chaudhry and company involved assessment of the top 50 countries (ranked as having the most cases of Covid) and concluded that "rapid border closures, full lockdowns, and widespread testing were not associated with Covid mortality per million people." Conclusion: there is no evidence that the restrictive government actions saved lives.
A very recent publication by Duke, Harvard, and Johns Hopkins researchers reported that there could be approximately one million excess deaths over the next two decades in the US due to lockdowns. These researchers employed time series analyses to examine the historical relation between unemployment, life expectancy, and mortality rates. They report in their analysis that the shocks to unemployment are then followed by significant rises (statistically) in mortality rates and reductions in life expectancy. Alarmingly, they approximate that the size of the Covid-19-related unemployment to fall between 2 and 5 times larger than the typical unemployment shock, and this is due to (associated with) race/gender. There is a projected 3.0% rise in the mortality rate and a 0.5% reduction in life expectancy over the next 10 to 15 years for the overall American population and due to the lockdowns. This impact they reported will be disproportionate for minorities e.g. African-Americans and also for women in the short term, and with more severe consequences for white males over the longer term. This will result in an approximate 1 million additional deaths during the next 15 years due to the consequences of lockdown policies. The researchers wrote that the deaths caused by the economic and societal deterioration due to lockdowns may "far exceed those immediately related to the acute Covid-19 critical illness…the recession caused by the pandemic can jeopardize population health for the next two decades."
Overall, the research evidence alluded to here (including a lucid summary by Ethan Yang of the AIER) suggests that lockdowns and school closures do not lead to lower mortality or case numbers and have not worked as intended. It is clear that lockdowns have not slowed or stopped the spread of Covid. Often, effects are artifactual and superfluous as declines were taking place even before lockdowns came into effect. In fact, in Europe, it was shown that in most cases, mortality rates were already 50% lower than peak rates by the time lockdowns were instituted, thus making claims that lockdowns were effective in reducing mortality spurious at best. Of course, this also means that the presumptive positive effects of lockdowns were and have been exaggerated grossly. Evidence shows that nations and settings that apply less stringent social distancing measures and lockdowns experience the same evolution (e.g. deaths per million) of the epidemic as those that apply far more stringent regulations.
What does this all mean?
As a consequence of their (hopefully) well-intended actions, our governments along with their medical experts have created a disaster for people. It means that the public's trust has been severely eroded. Lockdowns are not an acceptable long-term strategy, have failed and have severely impacted populations socially, economically, psychologically, and health wise! Future generations would be crippled by these actions. The policies have been poorly thought out and are economically unsustainable and there is a massive cost to it as it is highly destructive. Our children and younger people are going to be shouldered with the indirect but very real harms and costs of lockdowns for a generation to come at least.
What are the real impacts on populations from these disastrous restrictive policies? Well, the poorer among us have been at increased risk from deaths of despair (e.g. suicides, opioid-related overdoses, murder/manslaughter, severe child abuse etc.). Politicians, media, and irrational medical experts must stop lying to the public by only telling stories of the suffering from Covid while ignoring the catastrophic harms caused by their decree actions. Lives are being ruined and lost and businesses are being destroyed forever. Lower-income Americans, Canadians, and other global citizens are much more likely to be compelled to work in unsafe conditions. These are employees with the least bargaining power, tending to be minority, female, and hourly paid employees. Moreover, Covid has revealed itself as a disease of disparity and poverty. This means that black and minority communities are disproportionately affected by the pandemic itself and they take a double hit, being additionally and disproportionately ravaged by the effects of the restrictive policies.
Why would we impose more catastrophic restrictive policies when they have not worked? We even have government leaders now enacting harder and even more draconian lockdowns after admitting that the prior ones have failed. These are the very experts and leaders making societal policies and demands without them having to experience the effects of their policies. There is absolutely no good justification for what was done and continues to be done to societies, when we know of the very low risk of severe illness from Covid for vast portions of societies! We do not need to destroy our societies, the lives of our people, our economies, or our school systems to handle Covid. We cannot stop Covid at all costs!
How is Population Health and Well-being in the US Affected by Current Public Health Measures?
Businesses have closed and many are never to return, jobs have been lost, and lives ruined and more of this is on the way; meanwhile, we have seen an increase in anxiety, depression, hopelessness, dependency, suicidal ideation, financial ruin, and deaths of despair across societies due to the lockdowns. For example, preventive healthcare has been delayed. Life-saving surgeries and tests/biopsies were stopped across the US. All types of deaths escalated and loss of life years increased across the last year. Chemotherapy and hip replacements for Americans were sidelined along with vaccines for vaccine-preventable illness in children (approximately 50%). Thousands may have died who might have otherwise survived an injury or heart ailment or even acute stroke but did not seek clinical or hospital help out of fear of contracting Covid.
Specifically, and based on CDC reporting (and generalizable to global nations), during the month of June in the US, approximately 25% (1 in 4) Americans aged 18-24 considered suicide not due to Covid, but due to the lockdowns and the loss of freedom and control in their lives and lost jobs etc. There were over 81,000 drug overdose deaths in the 12 months ending in May 2020 in the US, the most ever recorded in a 12-month period. In late June 2020, 40% of US adults reported that they were having very difficult times with mental health or substance abuse and linked to the lockdowns. Approximately 11% of adults reported thoughts of suicide in 2020 compared to approximately 4% in 2018. During April to October 2020, emergency room visits linked to mental health for children aged 5-11 increased near 25% and increased 31% for those aged 12-17 years old as compared to 2019. During June 2020, 13% of survey respondents said that they had begun or substantially increased substance use as a means to cope day-to-day with the pandemic and lockdowns. Over 40 states reported rises in opioid-related deaths. Roughly 7 in 10 Gen-Z adults (18-23) reported depressive symptoms from August 4 to 26. There is a projected decrease in life expectancy by near 6 million years of life in US children due to the US primary school closure. These are some of the real harms in the US and we have not even discussed the devastation falling upon other nations. From June to August 2020, homicides increased over 50% and aggravated assaults increased 14% compared to the same period in 2019. Diagnosis for breast cancer declined 52% in 2020 compared to 2018. Pancreatic cancer diagnosis declined 25% in 2020 compared to 2018. The diagnosis for 6 leading cancers e.g. breast, colorectal, lung, pancreatic, gastric, and esophageal declined 47% in 2020 compared to 2018. From March 25 and April 10 in the US, "nearly one-third of adults (31.0 percent) reported that their families could not pay the rent, mortgage, or utility bills, were food insecure, or went without medical care because of the cost."
Sadly, the very elderly we seek to protect the most are being decimated by the lockdowns and restrictions imposed at the nursing/long-term/assisted-living/care homes they reside in. Just look at the death and disaster New York has endured under Governor Andrew Cuomo with the nursing home deaths and the Department of Health (DOH) Covid reporting. The Attorney General Letitia James deserves credit for her bravery, for it brings to light not only a very dark day in New York's history with Covid but that of the US on the whole given that New York and the accrued deaths make up such a large proportion of all deaths in the US and nursing homes from Covid-19. Deaths as per James may be at least 50% higher than was reported by Cuomo. Cuomo's policy to send hospitalized Covid patients back to the nursing homes was catastrophic and caused many deaths. Gut wrenchingly, across the US nursing homes, reports are showing that the restrictions from visitations and normal routines for our seniors in these settings have accelerated the aging process, with many reports of increased falls (often with fatal outcomes) due to declining strength and loss of ability to adequately ambulate. Dementia is escalating as the rhyme and rhythm of daily life is lost for our precious elderly in these nursing homes, long-term care (LTC), and assisted-living homes (AL) and there is a sense of hopelessness and depression with the isolation from restricting the irreplaceable interaction with loved ones.
The truth also is that many children – and particularly those less advantaged – get their main needs met at school, including nutrition, eye tests and glasses, and hearing tests. Importantly, schools often function as a protective system or watchguard for children who are sexually or physically abused and the visibility of it declines with school closures. Due to the lockdowns and the lost jobs, adult parents are very angry and bitter, and the stress and pressure in the home escalates due to lost jobs/income and loss of independence and control over their lives as well as the dysfunctional remote schooling that they often cannot optimally help with. Some tragically are reacting by lashing out at each other and their children. There are even reports that children are being taken to the ER with parents stating that they think they may have killed their child who is unresponsive. In fact, since the Covid lockdowns were initiated in Great Britain as an example, it has been reported that incidence of abusive head trauma in children has risen by almost 1,500%!
In addition, the widespread mass testing of asymptomatic persons in a society is very harmful to public health. The key metric is not the number of new active cases (i.e. positive PCR test results) being reported and misrepresented by the vocal experts and media, but rather what are the hospitalizations that result, the ICU bed use, the ventilation use, and the deaths. We only become concerned with a new 'case' if the person becomes ill. If you are a case but do not get ill or at very low risk of getting ill, what does it matter if the high risk and elderly are already properly secured? It is also remarkable that while hospitals had nearly 10-11 months to prepare for the putative second wave of Covid, why do these healthcare institutions claim to be unprepared? Are the lockdowns and the resulting loss of businesses, jobs, homes, lives, and anguish that result, really due to government's failures? And what are the reasons for the mass hysteria when most data show that whether prepared or not, most hospitals are not experiencing any more strain on their capacity than seen in most normal flu seasons? Why the misleading information to the public? This makes absolutely no sense.
Are we anywhere ahead today? In no way and we are much worse off today. So why not allow people to make common sense decisions, take precautions, and go on with their daily lives? We know that children 0-10 years or so have a near zero risk of death from Covid (with a very small risk of spreading Covid in schools, spreading to adults, or taking it home). We know that persons 0-19 years have an approximate 99.997 percent likelihood of survival, those 20-49 have roughly a 99.98 percent probability of survival, and those 50-69/70 years an approximate 99.5 percent risk of survival. But this 'good news' data is never reported by the media and "experts." Covid is less deadly for young people/children than the annual flu and more deadly for older people than the flu. We must not downplay this virus and it is different to the flu and can be catastrophic for the elderly. However, the vast majority of people (reasonably healthy persons) do not have any substantial risk of dying from Covid. The risk of severe illness and death under 70 years or so is vanishingly small. We do not lock a nation down for such a low death rate for persons under 70 years of age, especially if they are reasonably healthy people. We target the at-risk and allow the rest of society to function with reasonable precautions and we move to safely reopen society and schools immediately. Moreover, and this cannot be overstated, there are available early treatments for Covid that would reduce hospitalization and death by at least 60-80% as we will discuss below.
Early Multidrug Therapy for Covid Reduces Hospitalization and Death
We must take common-sense mitigation precautions as we go on with life. This does not mean we stop life altogether! This does not mean we destroy the society to stop each case of Covid! We must let people get back to normal life. In fact, the most important information that is being withheld, bizarrely, from the US population is that there are safe and effective treatments for Covid! And most importantly we now know how to treat Covid much more successfully than at the outset of the pandemic. This therapeutic nihilism is very troubling given there are therapeutics that while each on their own could not be considered as being a 'silver bullet,' they can be used on a multidrug basis or as a 'cocktail' approach akin to treatment of AIDS and so many other diseases! This includes responding proactively to higher-risk populations (in private homes or in nursing homes) who test positive for SARS CoV-2 or have symptoms consistent with Covid by intervening much earlier (even offering early outpatient sequenced/combined drug treatment to prevent decline to severe illness while the illness is still self-limiting with mild flu-like illness). Early home treatment (championed by research clinicians such as McCullough, Risch, Zelenko, and Kory) ideally on the first day (including but not limited to anti-infectives such as doxycycline, ivermectin, favipiravir, and hydroxychloroquine, corticosteroids, and anti-platelet drugs that are safe, cheap, and effective) that is sequenced and via a multi-drug approach, have been shown to convincingly reduce hospitalization by 85% and death by 50%.
The key is starting treatment very early (outpatient/ambulatory) in the disease sequelae (ideally on the 1st day of symptoms emergence to within the first 5 days) before the person/resident has worsened. This early treatment approach holds tremendous utility for high-risk elderly residents in our nursing homes and long-term care/assisted-living facilities, including within their private homes, who are often told to 'wait-and-see' and all the while they worsen and survival becomes more problematic. We are talking about using drugs that are used in-hospital but we argue must be started much earlier in high-risk persons. This demands that governments and healthcare systems/medical establishments paralyzed with nihilism step back and allow frontline doctors the clinical decision-making and discretion as before in how they treat their Covid-19 high-risk patients. From where we started 9 to 11 months ago in the US (and Canada, Britain, and other nations), between the therapeutics and an early outpatient treatment approach, this is very good news! We must also not discount the potential damage to normally healthy immune systems that have not been locked down like this before but which otherwise could be expected to fight infection effectively in younger individuals at the least. We have to be concerned about the immune systems of our children that are normally healthy and functional and we have no idea how their immune systems will function into the future given these far-reaching restrictions.
In conclusion, given the cogent argument by Dr. Scott Atlas on the failure of lockdowns and school closures globally and the totality of the evidence presented above and AIER's troubling compilation of the crushing harms of lockdowns, it is way past time to end the lockdowns and get life back to normal for everyone but the higher-risk among us. It is time we target efforts to where they are beneficial. Such targeted measures geared to specific populations can protect the most vulnerable from Covid, while not adversely impacting those not at risk. Why? Because we know better who is at risk and should take sensible and reasonable steps to protect them. Alarmingly, President Biden has already stated that there is nothing that can be done to stop the trajectory of the pandemic, yet fails to recognize that across the US, cases are already falling markedly, even going as far to warn of more deaths. More incredulous is that those in charge and particularly the 'medical experts' continue to fail to admit they were very very wrong. They were all wrong in what they advocated and implemented and are trying now to lay the blame on those of us who looked at the data and science and reflected and weighed the benefits as well as harms of the policies. They are blaming those of us who opposed lockdowns and school closures. They are using the tact that since you opposed these illogical and unreasonable restrictions and mandates, then it caused the failures, thus pretending and not admitting that their policies are indeed the reason for the catastrophic societal failures. Not our opposition and arguments against the specious and unsound policies.
It is very evident to populations that lockdown policies have been extraordinarily harmful. It is way past time to end these lockdowns, these school closures, and these unscientific mask mandates (see State-by-State listing) as they have a very limited benefit but more importantly are causing serious harm with long-term consequences, and especially among those least able to withstand them! Indeed, the Federalist published a very comprehensive description showing how masks do nothing to stop Covid spread. There is no justifiable reason for this and government leaders must stop this now given the severe and long-term implications! Donald A. Henderson, who helped eradicate smallpox, gave us a road map that we have failed to follow here, when he wrote about the 1957-58 Asian Flu pandemic and stated "The pandemic was such a rapidly spreading disease that it became quickly apparent to U.S. health officials that efforts to stop or slow its spread were futile. Thus, no efforts were made to quarantine individuals or groups, and a deliberate decision was made not to cancel or postpone large meetings such as conferences, church gatherings, or athletic events for the purpose of reducing transmission. No attempt was made to limit travel or to otherwise screen travelers. Emphasis was placed on providing medical care to those who were afflicted and on sustaining the continued functioning of community and health services."
Dr. Henderson along with Dr. Thomas Inglesby also wrote, "Experience has shown that communities faced with epidemics or other adverse events respond best and with the least anxiety when the normal social functioning of the community is least disrupted. Strong political and public health leadership to provide reassurance and to ensure that needed medical care services are provided are critical elements. If either is seen to be less than optimal, a manageable epidemic could move toward catastrophe." Overall, they messaged that several options exist for governments of free societies to use to mitigate the spread of pathogens (traditional public health responses which are less intrusive and disturbing) but closing down the society or parts of it is not one of them. These experts never championed or endorsed lockdowns as a strategy when confronting epidemics or pandemics for they knew and articulated the devastation that would fall upon societies that were in many instances potentially irrecoverable.
As Dr. Martin Kulldorff explains, it is critical that the bureaucrats, the public health system, and medical experts listen to the public who are the ones actually living and experiencing the public health consequences of their forced lockdown and other actions. Social isolation due to the lockdowns has devastating effects and cannot be disregarded and government bureaucrats must recognize that shutting down a society leads to suicidal thoughts and behaviour and excess deaths (deaths of despair to name one). I end by perhaps the most cogent phrase by experts (The Great Barrington Declaration): "Those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal. Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing and staying home when sick should be practiced by everyone."
1Dr. Paul Alexander (University of Oxford, University of Toronto, McMaster University-Assistant Professor, Health Research Methods (HEI))
Paul E Alexander MSc PhD, McMaster University and GUIDE Research Methods Group, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada [email protected]
Howard C. Tenenbaum DDS, Dip. Perio., PhD, FRCD(C) Centre for Advanced Dental Research and Care, Mount Sinai Hospital, and Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Ramin Oskoui, MD, CEO, Foxhall Cardiology, PC, Washington, DC [email protected]
Harvey A. Risch, MD, PhD, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT USA [email protected]
Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH, Baylor University Medical Center, Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute, Baylor Jack and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital, Dallas, TX, USA [email protected]
Nicholas E. Alexander
Paul E. Alexander received his bachelor's degree in epidemiology from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, a master's degree from Oxford University, and a PhD from McMaster University's Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact.
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Oil prices fell to below $96 a barrel Monday in Asia amid signs the U.S. economy is struggling.
Benchmark oil for August delivery was down 50 cents to $95.70 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude gave up $2.47 to settle at $96.20 on Friday.
In London, Brent crude fell 63 cents to $117.70 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department said that employers added the fewest jobs in nine months and the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent in June, undermining investor optimism that the world's biggest economy was improving.
Before the dismal jobs report, oil had rebounded from $90 two weeks ago on expectations global supplies will tighten and demand will improve during the next 18 months.
In other Nymex trading in August contracts, heating oil fell 1.5 cents to $3.08 a gallon while gasoline was steady at $3.09 a gallon. Natural gas futures added 2.5 cents at $4.23 per 1,000 cubic feet.


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Wave of reconciliation
By WI Reporters on June 18, 2013 • ( Leave a comment )
LOUISE RENNIE
She's not your average Aussie surfer. Until just over a year ago, she'd never even touched a surf board. But when Jasirah Bin Hitam stands up on a wave, she's in her element.
The 16-year-old from One Arm Point, a remote Aboriginal community in the Kimberley, studies at a Perth girls' school under a scholarship from the Indigenous Youth Leadership Program. Since she's been in Perth, Jasirah has developed a taste for a sport in which Australians excel – but for this Bardi girl, riding the waves has a deeper meaning.
Jasirah (pictured) is among a growing number of Indigenous Australians who have discovered surfing as a way to keep in touch with their culture and identity. The Australian Indigenous Surfing Titles that ran in late May is just one example of how Indigenous surfing is taking off around the nation. However, there's also something about the nature of this sport that makes it an important platform for reconciliation among young people.
"Life back home is pretty chilled," Jasirah says.
Sitting on the Dampier Peninsula, 2446 kilometres north of Perth, One Arm Point has a population of about 300 people from the Bardi nation. For thousands of years, the ocean has been an integral part of life for these saltwater people. For Bardi men, the daily catch includes dugongs, stingrays, crabs, fish and sea turtles.
Jasirah, too, has spent her life in and out of the water. "Just like swimming, fishing, going out on the boat – anything to do with water. I love it," she says.
She's also aware of the spiritual significance that the ocean has for her people. "Way back, my ancestors used to live on an island … so they had a strong connection with the ocean," she says.
This relationship between man and ocean is evident in many of the Bardi dreaming stories. Jasirah recites one she was told at a young age, about how the turtles got out of Hunters Creek and into the sea. "There was this billabong, and they used to catch turtles. There was this old blind guy, and [the other men] gave him, like, rubbish meat … It wasn't very good, and he knew the difference of the taste. So he went and he cut the billabong open, and set all the turtles free."
When Jasirah moved into the boarding house at Presbyterian Ladies' College in late 2011, it was no surprise that she felt like a fish out of water. She recalls it was "pretty tough" coming to a school that had more than a dozen students. "School [back home] wasn't as intense as this school is, so we'd pretty much just rock up … and we wouldn't get homework or assignments to do," she says.
Things started to get easier for Jasirah when she got involved in a surfing program run by the Indigenous Communities Education and Awareness Foundation – a youth-run reconciliation body. ICEA Waves is a surf mentoring program that gives young Aboriginal people like Jasirah a chance to have a go at surfing, by pairing them with non-Indigenous surf mentors.
Jasirah's natural talent shone through as she attended the monthly winter sessions last year. In September, she was the first Indigenous person to compete in the ICEA Classic – an annual surfing event that celebrates Aboriginal and surfing cultures. She also won the Biggest Frother Award for her endless enthusiasm in the program.
Jasirah says she likes surfing because it reminds her of home. "Just getting out in the water – it's really calming," she says. "My dad thinks it's awesome. He's like, 'Yeah you should keep it up!' … he's really proud of me."
For Ingrid Cumming, a Nyoongar woman and CEO of Indigenous consultancy Kart Koort Wiern, surfing has always been a big part of life. Cumming started surfing at five-years-old after watching her father out in the water. She puts her love of surfing down to "that rush of being in the ocean and catching a wave". "It's pretty groovy," she says.
But from a cultural perspective, she says the ocean also has a spiritual importance to her, especially at her preferred surf break – the Cove in Cottesloe. "That particular area holds a very significant storyline about me and my totems and my birth," she says.
The Indigenous history behind Perth's most famous beach – Cottesloe – is largely unknown to its visitors, even those who live nearby. According to Cottesloe Council's records, the location was an ancient ceremonial site known as Mudurup to the Nyoongar people, meaning an area of yellow-finned whiting. As part of the initiation process, young men were brought here to learn about Kurannup – the destination of the spirits beyond the western coast. It was believed that ravens helped to carry the spirits away towards their final resting place over the horizon between Rottnest and Garden Islands.
It's this strong cultural background that makes the Cove a perfect location to hold the ICEA Classic, which strives to incorporate Aboriginal teachings into a day of surfing. In a gathering of Indigenous and non-Indigenous youths, the event usually kicks off with a welcome to country, before a Nyoongar elder tells a dreaming story of the ocean. As for the surfing, once the competition has wound up, anyone from the crowd can jump in and have a go in the Expression Session.
The fourth annual ICEA Classic coming up in August draws a parallel between surfing culture and Aboriginal culture – which are both formed around people's connection to the environment.
ICEA Classic Co-ordinator Oliver Angliss says it's the relaxed nature of the sport that helps break down cultural barriers. "This sort of non-threatening environment is perfect for building relationships, [and therefore] a good opportunity to bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous camps together," he explains. "There are so many young and eager individuals in our local community concerned about reconciliation and wanting to engage and learn about Aboriginal culture … If you find the right medium, you can bring two separate culture groups together in a unified way."
Angliss says he'd love to see some of ICEA's Indigenous participants really take up surfing and continue to have a crack at it throughout their lives.
Jasirah says she's not really interested in competitive surfing, but her goal is to keep improving. As for what she wants to do when she finishes school: "Probably marine biology or something – something to do with the ocean."
Photography: Louise Rennie
Categories: Indigenous affairs, Sport
Tagged as: ICEA
The men's shed


Today's reading in our daily plan is John 3. Take a moment to pray, asking God to speak to you from this passage. Then read, using the following notes and questions to help you get everything out of the passage.
The first half of this chapter is a conversation between Jesus and a guy named Nicodemus. Nic was part of two groups that opposed Jesus: the Pharisees and the Jewish leadership. But he was curious about Jesus, so he decided to talk with him one-on-one. Because of his position he was afraid to meet with him during the day and opted instead to use the cover of night.
Jesus also makes it clear (in verses 10-18) that he came to earth to save people from perishing and to give them eternal life. This happens when Jesus is "lifted up" so people see and put their faith in him.
Jesus also tells Nic (in verses 19-21) that we each have a choice: to love "the light" and live in the truth or to choose evil and remain in the darkness.
In the second half of the chapter we revisit John (the Baptist). In verse 30 he makes a profound statement, "He must become greater; I must become less."
At some point we all must make the choice, for ourselves, to be born again. To put an end to my old life lived in darkness and with myself at the center, and to start a new life lived in the life, where I try to lift up Jesus and make him greater in our lives while we become less.
Those are decisions we make initially, but must make again everyday.
In what area(s) of your life are you choosing to live in the darkness instead of in the light of truth? Is there something you would be embarrassed to talk to God about? Are there secrets in your life you would prefer to keep secret? You will only be free when you move into the light. Confess to God, and talk to a trusted friend, and start to move towards the light and freedom in that area.
What might it look like for you to make more of Jesus and less of yourself today? How about: at work? with your friends? with your family? at church?


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Set Fire to the Rain - Adele
soul Adele female vocalists pop british
"Set Fire to the Rain" is a song performed by English singer-songwriter Adele, released as the third single from her studio album, 21 (2011). The song was composed by Adele and Fraser T Smith. The song has peaked at number one on Billboard Hot 100 in United States.
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, (born 5 May 1988), is a multiple Grammy Award-Winning English singer-songwriter from Enfield, North London. Her debut album, 19, was released in January 2008 and entered the UK album chart at #1. The album has since received four-times Platinum certification in the UK and has sold 5,500,000 copies worldwide. The album included the hugely popular song Chasing Pavements. 19 earned Adele two Grammy Awards in February 2009 for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Show more ...
I let it fall, my heart,
And as it fell, you rose to claim it,
It was dark and I was over,
Until you kissed my lips and you saved me,
My hands, they're strong, but my knees, they're far too weak,
To stand in your arms without falling to your feet,
But there's a side to you that I never knew, never knew,
All the things that you'd say, they were never true, never true,
And the games that you'd play, you would always win, always win,
But I set fire to the rain,
Watched it pour as I touched your face,
Well, it burned while I cried,
'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name,
I lay with you, I just lay there
Closed my eyes, feel you here forever,
You and me together, nothing gets better,
Cause there's a side to you that I never knew, never knew,
All the things you'd say, they were never true, never true,
And the games you'd play, you would always win, always win,
'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name
I set fire to the rain,
And I threw us into the flames,
Well, It felt something died,
'Cause I knew that that was the last time, the last time.
Sometimes I wake up at the door,
That heart you caught must be waiting for ya,
Even now when we're already over,
I can't help myself from looking for ya.
Watched it pour as I touch your face,
'Cause I knew that that was the last time, the last time, oh,
Oh, no,
Let it burn, oh,
Let it burn,
Let it burn
1) Rolling in the Deep
2) Someone Like You
3) Set Fire to the Rain
4) Chasing Pavements
5) Make You Feel My Love
6) Rumour Has It
7) Hometown Glory
8) Turning Tables
9) Don't You Remember
10) One and Only
11) Lovesong
12) Daydreamer
13) Cold Shoulder
14) Take It All
15) He Won't Go
16) Hello
17) I'll Be Waiting
18) Right as Rain
19) Best for Last
20) Crazy for You
21) Melt My Heart to Stone
22) First Love
23) My Same
24) Tired
25) Send My Love (To Your New Lover)
1) Adele - Rolling in the Deep
2) Adele - Someone Like You
3) Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
4) Sam Smith - Stay with Me
5) Amy Winehouse - Rehab
6) Sam Smith - I'm Not the Only One
7) Duffy - Mercy
8) Sia - Elastic Heart
9) Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud
10) Alicia Keys - No One
11) Lana Del Rey - Blue Jeans
12) Alicia Keys - Girl on Fire
13) Duffy - Warwick Avenue
14) Jessie J - Who You Are
15) Emeli Sandé - Next to Me
16) Beyoncé - 1+1
17) Ariana Grande - Tattooed Heart
18) Jessie Ware - Say You Love Me
19) Emeli Sandé - My Kind of Love
20) Whitney Houston - I Have Nothing
21) Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On
22) Beyoncé - Listen
23) Bruno Mars - If I Knew
24) Jessie Ware - Wildest Moments
25) James Morrison - You Give Me Something


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3 Stellar Songwriters You Should Know
July 8, 2020 YabYum Featured Articles Singles
CHAV
"Grow Up Together"
CHAV (Sh-Ah-V) is breaking barriers, aural and otherwise, with their new single "Grow Up Together." The song fuses smooth NeoSoul with alt-pop and conscious hip hop for a chill exploration of a positive relationship. You know the one. For some of us it might still remain a mythical beast or that once glimpsed unicorn. For others, we have found that place of love and mutual respect, rather than one of resignation. A love that fosters a lifetime of support and growth in partnership with another. And CHAV and I promise such a thing is not as elusive or rare as a unicorn. CHAV founded their own progressive pop label, Flat Pop Records, with creative partner Rick Marcello last year which emerged from their art collective FagMass which received recognition from Paper Magazine, Billboard, Afropunk, and others. Mellow out with "Grow Up Together" from CHAV here…
Twitter | Instagram
Kris Delmhorst
"Wind's Gonna Find a Way"
Singer-songwriter Kris Delmhorst is gearing up for the release of her latest album on August 8 and she offered this dulcet number as a sample of what's to come. The Americana-inspired indie-folk is haunting but the underlying message is one of hope. Delmhorst's voice moves from a wispy fragility to steel strong and back again as we move through the track. This oscillations mirror those of the "Wind's Gonna Find a Way," its sorrow and serenity. Long Day in the Milky Way is set for release in August, but you can enjoy "Wind's Gonna Find a Way" right here, right now. And you should.
Danielle Juhre
The smokey, soulful vocals of Danielle Juhre might call to mind famous songbirds like Adele on her new piano ballad, "You & I." The Chicago songwriter grew up on Motown classics and that Soul sound seeps out of her own music. There's an authenticity to Juhre's emotive energy on this track that reinforces the sentiment behind the song. The lyrics on "You & I" speak to the power of love even after the tragedy of heartbreak. You can hear the hurt of that lost love and the hope that lingers on in "You & I" by Danielle Juhre.
Tags: Afropunkalt-popAmericanaballadCHAVDanielle JuhreHip Hopindie musicIndie-folkKris Delmhorstlove songNeoSoulnew musicpianoPopsinger-songwritersongwriter
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7 Super Fun POP Music Videos
The Canterbury Tarot at Aside Theatre Company
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The Marquee is located on the grassed area opposite the Octopus Bay kids splash zone. The Marquee seats approximately 16-20 people and includes 2 x picnic tables plus plenty of grass to spread out. Please note, BBQ facilities are not available in the Marquee and alcohol consumption is not permitted in this area.
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Where are they now? Travis Tomko
Sheldon Gardner
In the news: Former professional wrestler Travis Tomko was arrested Oct. 10, charged with robbing a CVS store in St. Augustine for oxycodone. A pharmacist at the CVS drug store at 175 State Road 312 said Tomko demanded all the 15-mg and 30-mg oxycodone in the safe, according to St. Johns County Sheriff's Office report. Deputies reportedly found Tomko later that day in a restaurant bathroom with needle marks and blood on his arms.
Tomko, 38, of St. Augustine Beach, spent more than 10 years in the ring as "Tyson Tomko" for WWE and TNA and became an enforcer and tag partner.
After posting bond at the St. Johns County Jail in October, Tomko voluntarily checked himself into a rehabilitation facility in Florida for his addiction to pain pills, wrote Tomko's attorney James McCune, of McCune Law in St. Augustine.
How he's doing: Tomko is scheduled to complete one more month of intensive treatment at the rehabilitation facility, which is one of the best in the country, McCune said. He is in an intensive program and is not allowed to leave the facility, and he has a team of doctors and psychiatrists that are helping him with his treatment.
"I have nothing but great things to report about his recovery," McCune said.
McCune said Tomko's therapy is "intense" and he is learning to deal with the issues that caused his opiate prescription addiction, which formed over the years after several injuries he sustained as a professional wrestler.
"He's had countless operations over the last decade to his knees, to his shoulders - you name it," McCune said. "It just caught up with him."
The WWE is paying for the treatment. McCune declined to give the cost of the treatment but said it is "a lot of money."
In September 2007, the WWE began offering substance-abuse rehabilitation assistance to every "contracted talent" who has worked for the company.
Tomko's felony arraignment for the robbery charge is scheduled for Jan. 3 in Circuit Court Judge Wendy Berger's courtroom. McCune said he and the state are in negotiations for a plea deal, but he declined to comment about possible terms.
After Tomko leaves rehab in a month, he plans to enter six months of outpatient treatment in a transitional home at the same facility.
"He's really excited about moving on with his life and cleaning up his act," McCune said.


I have always had a love of horror and zombies horrify me. But for some reason I still love to read about them. The books I have reviewed today are new to me. But I enjoyed them a lot and think I have found some new authors to stalk, ah i mean follow.
Killshot follows a group of teenagers who all meet on top of the school's gym roof to watch 'Icarus' a solar flare due to happen that night. But something goes terribly wrong and they find themselves having to lock themselves inside the school's basement to stop them from being burned alive.
After a full day of hiding they decide to wait until nightfall when it's cooler to venture outside. But when they do, they find themselves in a ghost town. Those they do find have been burned alive.
They set out together to visit their homes and find each one touched by chaos. They find some 'infected' zombie like creatures that they call 'leeches'. It also seems that two of their group, Zander and Liv have been infected by this virus but instead of destroying them it seems to have given them special powers.
Soon they discover that all is not what it seems and that the US government played a part in this virus and have secret underground places for the Powers That Be to retreat to in times of emergencies just like this.
Now Liv has to get to her little brother but has to dodge the leeches, and also the military who are rounding up all survivors to check them for infection.
From the first chapter I was hooked, I liked the group of survivors, each with their own personalities and quirks. I followed along their story like I was one of the survivors.
The writing is fast and descriptive and kept me turning page after page, hoping to uncover the secrets the military are trying to keep hidden, hoping that Liv and her crew got to where they needed to go safely.
It had me both excited and terrified to see what horrors and troubles they would run into next.
Liv's relationship with Zander blossoms throughout and is the sweet to the sour of the problems they face.
I recommend Kill Shot to those that love dooms day, apocalypse stories where pain and love go hand in hand. Where government secrets and underground labs are common.
Who better to have by your side in the middle of a zombie apocalypse than an experienced killer?
This is exactly what happens to Lily, when she knocks on the nearest door begging for help whilst running from zombies. She meets Ryan and even though she is horrified by him being a serial killer, in this new apocalyptic world numbers mean safety so she decides to stay with him for a little while trusting him when he promises he won't hurt her.
Ryan starts to feel something whilst with Lily, something he cannot explain and soon finds himself needing Lily to like him, promising not to kill innocent people ever again and meaning it.
On the road to safety they meet different people and see lots of horror. Even getting separated, they manage to find each other again at a local military safety area and find their group growing in numbers.
But once again the zombies come and overwhelm the guards, breaking into the compound. Ryan's quick thinking gets them out of the area quickly and they even manage to save another group of people.
I enjoyed this adventure with Lily and Ryan. I'm hoping that as the series progresses that Ryan gives up his murdering ways and becomes somebody that the group can depend on.
It's quite a unique story, I don't think I have ever read a zombie story written from the point of view of a serial killer.
I also enjoyed the fact that the story is based in the UK where we don't really have guns, and so the characters were forced to find other weapons, knives, crow bars, baseball bats etc.
The story is written as a diary of a small group of survivors during the days following day one of the zombie apocalypse.
They don't seem like they belong together at first but once you hear their stories of how they are connected and how well they work together, each bringing some vital skill to the group you will see how well organized this group really is.
She tells of their life on the road, the difficulties they face, the undead, the police from other states who have not been properly informed of the outbreak, the bad humans killing and maiming other survivors just because they can or to steal their stuff.
She also tells each of their back stories, and what they were doing on the day 'patient zero' was admitted into the hospital only to die and come back to life.
Days with the Undead is packed from start to finish with action, blood and gore and kept me glued to it. I couldn't get enough of each of their stories as well as their combined effort to survive and couldn't wait to see how it would end.
As for the ending- wow. I didn't see it coming; I was really shocked but it was a fitting end.
It was very well written and I would really like to read more books from this author.
If you like zombie apocalypse books from a survivor's point of view then you will really enjoy this one. I couldn't get enough of it.
Killshot sounds really interesting. I'll have to go check it out.


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The Music and Lyrics »
October: Retrospecitve
What are your three favorite songs off the album October, and how do you feel about the album in 2018?
I Fall Down
I Threw a Brick Through a Window
With a Shout (Jerusalem)
Author Topic: October: Retrospecitve (Read 2788 times)
redapple129
Re: October: Retrospecitve
October feels like a roadmap for how to get from Boy to the three albums that followed while still very much a post-punk album with its own identity. You can hear the martial drums and punch of War on I Threw a Brick and Rejoice, the atmospherics of TUF on Scarlet, the sweeping desert vistas of TJT on Stranger in a Strange Land. I can't say that I come back to it as frequently as I do for many other U2 albums, but it's still in my "very much enjoy" tier.
hollywoodswag
Sorry to resurrect this (although I'll probably do it for a few as I catch back up), but I played the album again the other day and it might be my favorite of the first three albums. I Fall Down is still probably the only song from the album that stands among the absolute highest in my U2 rankings, but as a whole, I wound up really, really enjoying the album. My assessment of it as an album that showed promise is one I still stand by, but I think that looking at it more in the context of when it was written instead of retroactively coming down on it simply because U2 got better with time (although I still think there's validity to that simply because [pun intended] some albums are better than others) made me enjoy it a bit more.
I think I'd probably put it somewhere in my middle tier of album rankings, and likely near the bottom of that grouping, but this is an album I'm starting to truly embrace.
keifer
this album introduced me to U2; the atmosphere in it; the raw passion; transparency; this album holds sacred meaning and feelings for me
It's fascinating to me that October, generally accepted to be on the bottom of the list of U2 albums, has by far the most responses of the Retrospective series of threads.
(As already covered in this thread, I love October.)
It seems like many of the posters here experienced October 10 or more years after it came out. I think coming back to October after already being a fan of their later work would be a completely different experience than hearing it when it first came out. At the time, U2 was not on the radio (other than college radio). They were a niche act that appealed to college students who were bored with mainstream pop/rock and Christians looking for Christian music that didn't suck. (There were alot of Christian sound-alike versions of secular bands at the time. It was horrible. No real Christian artists.)
Boy and October were real art, real music that made you feel something. You didn't have the sheen of the Eno/Lanois years to compare it to. It was four guys around your age that were about something greater than yourself or themselves. The lyrics meant something and the melodies hooked you. In that time, that was a rarity. The Christian world, in particular, took note and U2 would come to inspire a whole crop of young new REAL musicians like Switchfoot and Jars of Clay. The "Praise and Worship" genre evolved and you could hear "Scarlett" in their repetitive "arms up in the air" praise songs.
I think to truly appreciate these early albums you have to know the context of the times and how influential they were in the world of Christianity.
3. With A Shout (Jerusalem)
I first started listening to U2's music in detail shortly after NLOTH was released in 2009 so had purchased the album "October" as part of wanting to get to know the band from their early beginnings.
Initially, I was skeptical about listening to this album from reviews I'd read about it being a commercial flop and an album that the band hadn't been fully happy with. Nevertheless, I took the plunge to see what all the fuss was about.
"Gloria" is my favourite song off this album and has been, pretty much, since first listen. Edge's guitar is something special on this recording and his riff sounds different to anything else he created in the formative years of this band. Adam's bass solo is funk personified and Larry's drum beat absolutely slays throughout!
"Tomorrow" is my second favourite from this album and I have always loved the innocent and haunting nature of the music and Bono's deft vocal pleading and yearning for his Mother. The way the song explodes to a cool crescendo towards the end is magic as well.
"With A Shout (Jerusalem)" often gets overlooked and unfairly forgotten from U2's catalogue I reckon. It has a great beat and great melodic guitar work all topped off with a cracking early-years voice from Bono. Definitely one of U2's more musically complex tracks from their younger years.
Listening to the album now, I tend to skip a few tracks which I've never really gotten into at all but, on the whole, it's still a solid album which managed to produce a handful of great tunes!
The rhythm section shines on this album. I like the energy and passion. Some call it incomplete, but I think "October" is like an unpolished gem.
Joy is an act of defiance
Christian angst at its best without telling yourself and anyone who is listening that you are a miserable sinner. Gloria is one of the best songs written by a 'Christian' band. October poetically speaks of God being unchanging. And With A Shout is teenage zealousy - but with a cocksure assurance of where the singer is going. To put it into perspective; On 'Lights of Home' the singer thought he was nearly there thus displaying a maturity of faith.
With A Shout (Jerusalem) reminds me of my teenage years and when I was the age Bono was then in 1981 Zooropa was out, but I knew loads of blokes who would probably have given an arm or leg to write that song.
To put into further perspective....its funny to think that you assume that With A Shout would be written by a man and not a woman. Is it because there weren't women writing Christian rock songs back then? If there were, was it assumed they would write from a much softer more mystical viewpoint??
(I'm not being sexist - I'm showing up sexism for what it was back in those days).
There's a very masculine energy to their music and Bono's lyrics and singing, especially those first three albums. I love it.
Bono in his youth seems like he's raring for a street brawl but when he charges at you he ends up throwing out his love instead of his fists.
Has he ever changed? I don't think so!
Not entirely changed but he has mellowed with age. His anger and desperation are subdued. I'm happy about that, that he has found his footing, but also enjoy going back in time and feeling that fighting energy. He is still spreading the love, but as a wise father, not the tornado youth. Love hearing from both men.
Its odd you hear him as masculine because I've heard Bono say he hates hearing the early records because he sounds like a girl.
I think he sounds very young also with a higher voice.
I don't think he sounded like a girl even with a higher voice. But I was talking about more than that. The whole band had a very masculine sound and energy - Stranger in a Strange Land for example may have had high vocals but it's a very male song. Bono on stage had this masculine energy, strutting around, climbing stuff, sweating lol, jumping around like he was in a brawl, going into tirades. The themes in the lyrics are very much from a young man's point of view.
The fact that Bono would wear his heart on his sleeve made him different but still entirely masculine.
Bono's different from a lot of guys, I agree, in that he wears his heart on his sleeve. Nevertheless, there is a palpable male energy and lots of testosterone to spare on the first three albums.
I guess it depends on what you mean by masculine but an album about a boy's struggle to become a man is not what I think most people would consider loaded with "testosterone". The lyrics to "The Black Cat" about a boy being taken advantage of by a more experienced, presumably older, girl and the boy feeling troubled by it....not traditional testosterone loaded material. Testesterone loaded would be something more like Van Halen's Finish What You Started or Hot For Teacher.
« Last Edit: September 11, 2018, 10:16:46 PM by Tortuga »