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I stalked these two on some random London steps. I adore the coordinated yellow tie to trousers and chunky Christmas-esk knit of the other!
These boys are very cool and also very 'stylish' probably too stylish to be straight though!!!!
Very cool photograph. I love your blog by the way, i am a serious follower.


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text:
Imaginary Stories
The web presence of writer Lee Robson
The Greatest Moments of Optimus Prime - Part 3
Yeah, I'm fresh out of content again, so it's time for another look at Prime and what makes him so cool...
When IDW got the rights to produce Transformers comics, I was overjoyed to learn that Simon Furman would be writing the series. After an intriguing start with Infiltration, he kicked everything into a higher gear with the second mini-series, Stormbringer, four issues of giant robot action, without a human in sight.
A secret faction of Decepticons dedicate themselves to resurrecting Thunderwing, a Transformer that tore its way through Cybertron, massacring thousands and forcing both Autobot and Decepticon to put aside their differences and fight together before it decimates the entire planet. When Thunderwing is unleashed again, a plan is hatched to stop him by overloading him - a task which falls to the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime - who does it single handedly!
Unfortunately, what could've been a truly classic moment is let down by some confusing artwork. Still, the intention's there.
The one thing that becomes apparent during all of the best Optimus Prime moments is how completely fucking useless the rest of the Autobots are without him...
On a side note, Stormbringer also made me geek out massively when I saw this panel:
But that, as they say, is another blog post...
Please, feel free to leave a comment...
The bumper sized FutureQuake 2019 edition features the short story The Farm by myself and Brett Burbridge, and is available directly from FutureQuake, priced £6.50 (+ shipping) and Comixology, priced $1.99.
The 13th Stone is an English folk horror inspired one-shot by me, Bryan Coyle and Bolt-01, available from Comixology, priced $2.99.
The Godcutter Affair is the latest Velicity Jones adventure by myself, Bryan Coyle and Bolt-01, available in Aces Weekly volume 37, priced £6.99.
Mansion Of Madness is a collection of horror stories, curated by myself and Dan Hill, and is available from Comixology priced $3.99.
Joe Pineapples: Thirty-Seven by me, Alex Paterson and Bolt-01 is available in Zarjaz #32, available from FutureQuake, priced £3.00 (+ shipping).
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text:
Through the Looking Glass: The Disclosure of Ultimate Ownership and the G8 Action Plan
At the recently concluded G8 Summit at Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, leaders of the G8 economies agreed new measures to clamp down on money-laundering, tax evasion and tax avoidance, including the G8 Action Plan to prevent the misuse of companies and legal arrangements[1] (the "Action Plan").
The Action Plan
The agreed Action Plan sets out eight core principles designed to ensure the integrity of beneficial ownership and basic company information and the timely access to that information by law enforcement and tax authorities. Those core principles are that:
1. companies should know who ultimately owns and controls them and that information should be adequate, accurate, and current;
2. beneficial ownership information should be accessible onshore to law enforcement and tax authorities;
3. trustees of express trusts should understand the beneficial ownership of the trust;
4. authorities should understand the risks to which their anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing regimes are exposed and implement effective and proportionate measures to target those risks;
5. the misuse of financial instruments and of certain shareholding structures which may obstruct transparency, such as bearer shares and nominee shareholders and directors, should be prevented;
6. financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions should be subject to effective anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing obligations and be required to identify and verify the beneficial ownership of their customers;
7. effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions should be available for companies, financial institutions and other regulated businesses that do not comply with their respective obligations, including those regarding customer due diligence; and
8. national authorities should cooperate effectively to combat the abuse of companies and legal arrangements for illicit activity.
Many of the principles repeat measures or initiatives already in force or under way, particularly in Europe under the Money Laundering Directives. Principles 1, 3 and 5 are however of particular note: if implemented, aspects of these may result in new and material changes to the way corporate structures are administered in many jurisdictions.
The first principle requires that the beneficial ownership information held by companies is "adequate, accurate, and current". This is in line with a draft of a 4th European Anti-Money Laundering Directive. Indeed, European companies are already familiar with the requirement to demonstrate beneficial ownership in the context of existing anti money-laundering (AML) checks required when opening bank accounts or engaging professionals. In addition, listed companies in developed markets will typically have a program to ascertain beneficial ownership so as to be engaged with their owners for corporate governance reasons. However the requirement that the information be kept "current" will impose practical difficulties (and entail perhaps considerable expense). Regulators will also have to decide how hard companies must press if they reach an entity organized in a jurisdiction where the information is not available and what the consequences for shareholders will be for non-disclosure.
The third principle requires that trustees of express trusts should understand the beneficial ownership of the trust. This sounds simple in practice but difficulties may arise where there are sub-trusts. Changes in the law may be required to compel disclosure by beneficiaries of such arrangements.
The fifth principle appears on its face to say that the use of nominee shareholders and nominee directors should be prevented. It is common, and indeed necessary for ease of transferability of widely held equity and debt issues (both in the US and Europe), for listed companies to have large numbers of nominee shareholders on their registers. Retail holdings in particular are often held this way to reduce the costs of investment through pooled registered shareholdings. If all personal and corporate shareholdings (of whatever size) are required to be individually registered there are obvious implications both in terms of the administrative burden placed on companies, the likely increased cost to shareholders and the efficient operation of securities markets and timely completion of market transactions.
The experience of the UK government with the tax disclosure treaties with Lichtenstein and Switzerland suggests that substantial amounts of money have been hidden from tax authorities through complex "offshore" arrangements (tax evasion), and some of that money may have been "earned" illicitly (money-laundering). The issue is whether the measures announced by the G8 will be any more effective in countering either tax evasion or money-laundering than the existing FATF arrangements against money-laundering, and the existing exchange of tax information treaties.
Questions also arise as to the interaction between the G8 measures and the legitimate rights of citizens to privacy (for example under the European Convention on Human Rights), particularly if the information on the registers of beneficial ownerships are to become publically available.
Building on the agreed principles, the UK Government has announced[2] that it intends to introduce new rules requiring UK companies to obtain and hold information on who ultimately owns and controls them. This information is to be held in a central registry maintained by Companies House, where it will be accessible to law enforcement agencies and tax authorities. A consultation on the detailed scope and implementation of the new rules, including whether the ultimate beneficial ownership information should be publicly available, will be published by the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills later in the summer.
In advance of the G8 agreement the UK secured agreement from the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies (including Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man; and Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands)[3] to action plans of their own.
U.S. implementation will be difficult given the inconsistent and often very limited state standards for requiring and verifying beneficial ownership at incorporation. State secretaries of state and other authorities responsible for the process of corporate and other business organization formation have limited budgets and resources and generally accept filings that meet the facial requirements of short, standard forms. The lack of reliable, accessible beneficial ownership information has been an obstacle to finalizing the pending U.S. Treasury AML regulatory initiative to require banks and certain other financial institutions to obtain beneficial ownership information for legal entity customers as part of the customer due diligence process.
Legislation to require consistent state standards and access to beneficial ownership information by government authorities has been introduced in the U.S. Congress by Senator Levin and others as early as 2008 in response to money-laundering enforcement concerns. While supported by the Administration, this legislation has not progressed beyond the committee hearing stage because of opposition from various quarters, including the United States Chamber of Commerce, the American Bar Association, participants in the securities markets and state secretaries of state and other state governmental officials. It has been argued that detailed beneficial ownership determination and reporting requirements would deter new business organization and capital formation and market efficiency in the United States and would represent an intrusion by the federal government on the long tradition of state government primacy with respect to the regulation of business organization formation and governance.
On June 18, 2013, the White House issued its G-8 Action Plan for Transparency of Company Ownership and Control. Key to the plan are advocacy of comprehensive legislation to require "identification and verification of beneficial ownership information at the time a company is formed" and finalizing the Treasury regulations that clarify and strengthen the customer due diligence obligations for U.S. financial institutions and will include the requirement "to identify beneficial owners." Enacting legislation is likely to continue to be an uphill battle, and even if legislation were enacted, it is anticipated that it would be several years before consistent standards were implemented by the states and systems were in place to access the information.
France and Germany were signatories to the Action Plan but no specifics have yet been published on how the principles will be implemented. It is worth noting that both French and German law already includes a number of provisions aimed at identifying ultimate beneficial owners; in France including a national register of French trusts, which identifies beneficial owners and is accessible to tax authorities.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/207644/Common_Principles.pdf.
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/g8-2013-new-rules-to-bring-unprecedented-transparency-on-company-ownership.
[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-welcomes-huge-step-forward-in-global-fight-against-tax-evasion.
We will continue to monitor these and other related developments and keep you updated as both regulation and market practice unfolds. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's lawyers are available to assist with any questions you may have regarding these developments. Please contact the Gibson Dunn lawyer with whom you usually work, or any of the following:
In France:
Benoit Fleury (+33 156 43 1315, bfleury@gibsondunn.com)
Jean-Philippe Robé (+33 156 43 1316, jrobe@gibsondunn.com)
In Germany:
Markus A. Nauheim (+49 89 189 33 122, mnauheim@gibsondunn.com)
Michael Walther (+49 89 189 33 180, mwalther@gibsondunn.com)
In the UK:
Nicholas Aleksander (+44 20 7071 4232, naleksander@gibsondunn.com)
James Barabas (+44 20 7071 4253, jbarabas@gibsondunn.com)
Jeffery Roberts (+44 20 7071 4291, jroberts@gibsondunn.com)
Selina S. Sagayam (+44 20 7071 4263, ssagayam@gibsondunn.com)
Michael D. Bopp – Washington, D.C. (+1 202 955 8256, mbopp@gibsondunn.com)
Lee G. Dunst - New York (+1 212 351 3824, ldunst@gibsondunn.com)
Amy L. Goodman – Washington, D.C. (+1 202 955 8653, agoodman@gibsondunn.com)
John F. Olson – Washington, D.C. (+1 202 955 8522, jolson@gibsondunn.com)
Benjamin H. Rippeon – Washington, D.C. (+1 202 955 8265, brippeon@gibsondunn.com)
Amy G. Rudnick – Washington, D.C. (+1 202 955 8210, arudnick@gibsondunn.com)
Linda Noonan - Washington, D.C. (+1 202 887 3595, lnoonan@gibsondunn.com)
© 2013 Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Attorney Advertising: The enclosed materials have been prepared for general informational purposes only and are not intended as legal advice.


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Board index » RPG » Sharky's End (Non-LotR RPG) » Fire and Blood
Post subject: Fire and Blood
Posted: July 23rd, 2013, 10:57 am
Turwaithion
In the aftermath of the Red Wedding, Westeros is in chaos. The armies of the North and Riverlands under King Robb Stark have been destroyed in a brutal betrayal by the Freys of the Crossing. While the forces of Stannis Baratheon march for the Wall at the behest of the Night's Watch, House Lannister consolidates its hold on King's Landing and subjugates the final remnants of Tully and Stark resistance.
While the lords play their game of thrones, the Riverlands are turned to ash. Outlaw bands and sellswords ravage the countryside, while hedge knights come and go as they please, joining forces with the highest bidder. In the chaos on the banks of the Trident, it is every man for himself in a sea of blood.
So, our characters are all minor persons who survived the massacre of the Northern army, deserters or sellswords, hedge knights etc. Everyone has their own motivation for doing what they do, and find themselves caught up in the War of the Five Kings. Expect spoilers from the subsequent ASOIAF books.
My Character:
Name: Ser Willem Renwyk
Allegiance: House Hornwood (formerly)
Physical Description: Willem is a man of middling height, with black hair that falls to the nape of his neck. His skin is rough and chapped from the northern winds, and he has walked with a limp since the Battle of the Green Fork when a Lannister footsoldier sliced into his knee with a dagger. He has a scar splitting his bottom lip from a near-miss from a poleaxe he sustained fighting in the Greyjoy Rebellion as a squire on Pyke.
Garb: Ser Willem wears a simple coat of mail under a leather jerkin, and breatplate, spaulders and vambraces, covered by the Hornwood surcoat, and wears a closed helm plundered from a Lannister that he has blackened to reduce its shine. He wears a stout pair of back leather gauntlets and high boots that are slightly large for him, as he took them from a dead Stark soldier after his own were damaged.
Weapons: Willem carries a simple *beep* sword on his left hip, having lost or abandoned his shield and other weapons during his flight from the Red Wedding, save for the eating knife he used to kill the Frey who came to cut his throat.
Homeland: The North
Personality: Willem is a sober man, who has seen too much bloodshed in his life to hold anything in high regard except for his own survival and the survival of his countrymen. As a knight in the service of House Hornwood, he was honour-bound to follow his lord to battle, but feels little fealty now that the house is without a mature heir. However, the vows he made as a knight compel him to help the innocent, which often causes great conflict with his base pragmatic nature, and he often has nightmares of the deaths of smallfolk and the blood on his hands as a warrior.
History: Ser Willem was born to a minor knight and a miller's daughter, and grew up in relative poverty. However, his father taught him the basics of sword play, and as he came of age, Willem's father negotiated that he should squire to a household knight of House Hornwood. His first battle came soon after, where Willem accompanied the knight he squired, Ser Martin Blackfen, into the breach at Pyke during Greyjoy's Rebellion. There, Ser Martin was killed by an Ironman, who was in turn killed by Willem, who stood over his friend and master's body, killing any Ironborn who attempted to take it for plunder. For his heroism, he was knighted alongside Ser Jorah Mormont, and he replaced Ser Martin in the household of the Lord of Hornwood. He served there as a guard, as his skill with a blade was not enough that he should be an instructor. When Robb Stark called his banners to march south, Willem dutifully accompanied his lord. He fought in the Hornwood company and accompanied his lord to the wedding of Edmure Tully, where the Freys of the Crossing betrayed the North and put the guests to the sword. Ser Willem killed the Frey who attempted to kill him, and bolted towards the river. Along the way, he managed to save a camp follower, Sage, and her infant daughter, after Sage pleaded with him to help them escape. Together, the three of them floated down the river, away from the Twins, and into the Riverlands while the Northern armies died.
Son of Bellatrix
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The next election will take place from May 16 to May 18, 2017.
Every student has the right to take part in the election in their institution, including Erasmus students. The election is organised by ÖH members.
To vote you must present a valid student ID.
The Executive is made up of GRAS, VSStÖ, FLÖ and FEST.
The Executive of the University Representation is made up ofVSStÖ, GRAS and KSV-LiLi.


text:
\section{Introduction}
\label{intro}

Early maps of double--lobe radio galaxies (e.g. Mitton \& Ryle, 1969) showed amorphous blobs of radio emission
symmetrically placed each side of the central galaxy. Rees (1971) suggested
that an unknown object in the galactic nucleus channels energy to the radio lobes through jets. There is now almost universal agreement that the central object in radio galaxies
is a supermassive black hole (Rees 1984), and that the high energy activity in the nucleus is powered by accretion (Salpeter, 1964), most likely through an accretion disc (Lynden--Bell, 1969). Thus the relativistic jets seen to emanate from the nucleus are ultimately powered by accretion of matter on to the central black hole (see the reviews by Begelman, Blandford \& Rees, 1984; Heckman \& Best, 2014; Blandford, Meier \& Readhead, 2019).

Blandford \& Znajek (1977, hereafter BZ77) proposed a radical new mechanism in which the jets  from galactic nuclei are powered by direct electromagnetic extraction of the spin energy
from the central black hole. This is the Blandford--Znajek (BZ) mechanism.

In Section~\ref{sec:BZbasic} we provide a brief overview of this mechanism, which invokes a spinning black hole situated in an aligned magnetic field. We note
 that the central black hole is tacitly assumed always to have negligible electric charge,
that is, any current entering the hole is assumed to be balanced by a precisely opposing current entering elsewhere, so that there is an effective current through the hole.
In Section~\ref{sec:Addcharge} we draw attention to the analysis by Wald (1974; see also King et al., 1975; Petterson, 1975; Gibbons et al., 2013) in which he finds that if the black hole is surrounded by a plasma which contains mobile charges, it will acquire a specific electric charge. The charge is exactly such as to render the BZ mechanism inoperative. We provide a brief discussion in Section~\ref{Discuss}.

\section{The Blandford--Znajek mechanism
\label{sec:BZ}}

\subsection{The basic mechanism; the uncharged black hole \label{sec:BZbasic}}

Black holes are generally assumed to have zero net electric charge. The reason is that if for example
a Schwarzschild (non--rotating) black hole is given a charge, the neighbourhood of the hole then acquires an electric field. If (and only if) charge separation is allowed, charged particles in the surrounding astrophysical plasma move parallel or antiparallel to the electric field. In this way the black hole selectively acquires charges so that it moves quickly towards zero net charge. Charge separation is well known to occur in electrical media in which the charge carriers are able to move independently. It occurs for example in electrolytes (Debye \& H\"uckel, 1923) and in ionized astrophysical plasmas (Salpeter, 1954), and it affects the rates of nuclear burning in stars
(e.g. Clayton, 1968). The timescale to reach zero net charge is typically quite short in realistic astrophysical environments (see, for example, the discussion by Cardoso et al., 2016). Thus, Blandford (1987) asserts that ``charged, Kerr--Newman black holes are irrelevant to astronomy''.

Soon after black holes were recognised as a realistic astrophysical possibility,
Wald (1974) devised an elegant method to
compute the effect on the electromagnetic field structure when a black hole, with zero net charge,  is placed in a uniform magnetic field. King et al. (1975) extended this result to consider  more general aligned magnetic field structures. Wald (1974) showed that for a spinning (Kerr) black hole, with zero net electric charge, and with spin aligned with an external uniform magnetic field ${\bf B}$ in a vacuum, the
spin induces an electric field with ${\bf E \cdot B \neq 0}$ (for a classical analogy, see Ruffini \& Treves, 1973).
Wald assumed a field uniform at infinity, but King et al. (1975) showed that the field structure near the hole is essentially
the same for any realistic aligned field. Wald also noted that an electric field with $\bf E \cdot B \neq 0$ would lead to movement of any external charged particles. King et al. (1975) showed that the induced electric field structure is such that $\bf E \cdot B$  has opposite signs near the poles and near the equator of the spinning hole. This implies that  charges of one sign would be attracted towards the poles, whereas charges of the opposite sign would be attracted to a band near the equator.

This result led BZ77 to consider a spinning black hole at the centre of an accretion disc with the disc providing the required currents to give rise to an aligned magnetic field.
The Bardeen--Petterson effect (Bardeen \& Petterson, 1975) ensures that the central disc and black hole spin are generally aligned, and so by symmetry the magnetic field should also be aligned with the spin.
BZ77 then noted that if the black hole is surrounded by a conducting medium the structure of the induced electric field found by Wald (1974) and by King et al. (1975)  must produce an effective electric current through the black hole, returning through the surrounding medium (see, for example, Thorne \& Blandford, 1982; Blandford, 1987). Any dissipation of this current's energy in the surrounding material then taps the spin energy of the black hole.

This is the BZ--mechanism. It provides, in principle, a mechanism for the continuous extraction of energy from a spinning black hole. BZ77 speculated that it could be used to power the astrophysical jets seen to emanate from active galactic nuclei (see also Blandford, Meier \& Readhead, 2019). The luminosity $L_{\rm BZ}$
 produced by this process is, on dimensional grounds,
\begin{equation}
\label{BZpower}
L_{\rm BZ} \sim a^2 \times \frac{B^2}{8 \pi} \times \frac{ 4 \pi R_{\rm s}^3}{3} \times \frac{c}{R_s}.
\end{equation}
for a black hole of mass $M$, Schwarzschild radius $R_{\rm s} \sim 2GM/c^2$, dimensionless spin parameter
$a$, where $0 \le a^2 \le 1$, placed in a magnetic field of strength  $B$, i.e. approximately the magnetic energy contained by the formal `volume' of the hole, emitted every light crossing time of the hole, and moderated by the amount of spin energy available.

For a `fiducial' field strength (Begelman, Blandford \& Rees, 1984; but see Ghosh \& Abramowicz, 1997) of
\begin{equation}
B \sim 2 \times 10^4  M_8^{-1/2} \: {\rm G},
\end{equation}
this gives a luminosity
\begin{equation}
L_{\rm BZ} \sim 2 \times 10^{45} a^2 M_8 \: {\rm erg\, s^{-1}},
\label{BZpower2}
\end{equation}
where $M_8$ is the mass of the black hole in units of $10^8 M_\odot$. This is comparable to the Eddington luminosity
\begin{equation}
L_E \sim 1.3 \times 10^{46} M_8 \: {\rm erg\, s^{-1}}.
\end{equation}

BZ77 investigated this process using the force--free approximation in a charge--separated plasma in which particle inertia and interparticle collision terms can be ignored (see also Komissarov, 2004). Since then a number of authors have investigated this mechanism assuming that the surrounding medium could be modelled using the MHD approximation in which collision terms dominate, often by numerical means (see for example the reviews by Davis \& Tchekhovskoy, 2020; Komissarov \& Porth, 2021). However, in all these investigations, it is implicitly assumed that the movements of charges in any surrounding plasma do not permit a change in the net electrical charge of the black hole.

\medskip

\subsection{The acquisition of charge and its implication
\label{sec:Addcharge}}

The discussion of Section~\ref{sec:BZbasic} above assumes, as is usually the case in astronomy, that the spinning black hole has negligible net electric charge.
However, in his seminal paper, Wald (1974) reasoned that a black hole would be surrounded by a standard astrophysical plasma in which the possibility of charge separation would exist.
In this case, it is to be expected that the electric field drives the charges in such a way as to lead to a drop in electric potential along the magnetic field lines (cf. Komissarov, 2004).
He argued further that for a spinning black hole in an aligned magnetic field ${\bf B}$ the movements of charge carriers (i.e. currents)  induced by the electric field with ${\bf E \cdot B \neq 0}$, together with the fact that the charge carriers are individually mobile, would lead to the hole selectively accreting net charge in such a way as to nullify the effects of the electric field.

Specifically, Wald showed that the net charge reaches the value
\begin{equation}
Q = 2BJ
\label{charge}
\end{equation}
in geometrized units (where $J = Ma$ is its total angular momentum).
Then the charge on the hole remains constant, removing the need for currents, which might then drive the BZ effect.

This result was confirmed and generalised by Petterson (1975), who showed that the precise
value $Q'$ of the critical charge in units of $Q$ depends on the distribution of the source
currents of the magnetic field.

The charge $Q'$ is utterly negligible ($Q'^2 \ll M^2$) in gravitational terms (Wald, 1974;
Zajacek et al, 2018; Zajacek \& Tursunov, 2019), so the spacetime metric is still to a high approximation uncharged Kerr, in agreement with the remark by Blandford (1987) quoted above. In particular the motion of uncharged particles is effectively identical to the case $Q'=0$. But charged particle motion is very different, and strongly influenced by the charge $Q'$. This is another illustration of how extremely weak gravity is by comparison with electromagnetism.
Thus, if the surrounding conducting medium is treated as a realistic space plasma which permits a net flow of charge into the black hole, then rather than providing a continuous process for removing spin energy from the hole, the induced electric currents are an initial transient effect which continues only until the black hole acquires the charge $Q' \simeq 2BJ$ (cf Zajacek et al.,  2018; Zajacek \&  Tursunov 2019)\footnote{For all conceivable boundary conditions far from the hole its net charge tends monotonically to $Q'$.}.

The energy released in this transient is, using the above numbers,
\begin{equation}
E_Q \sim L_{\rm BZ} \times \frac{R_{\rm s}}{c} \sim 2 \times 10^{48} a^2 M_8^2 \: {\rm erg},
\end{equation}
i.e. the transient emits the luminosity $L_{\rm BZ}$ for a time $\sim R_{\rm s}/c \sim 10^3M_8\,{\rm s}$.
Once the black hole acquires this charge, the torque on it vanishes and no more spin energy can be extracted.

More recently numerical modelling of the BZ--mechanism has been
undertaken using Particle--In--Cell (PIC) plasma methods, which permit
independent mobility of individual charges. In principle these
techniques should be able to test Wald's fundamental hypothesis that a
spinning black hole immersed in a magnetic field should acquire a net
charge. The same technique has also been applied to ionised plasma
surrounding rotating neutron stars (e.g. Kalapotharakos et al., 2018).
However, in contrast to the neutron star case, where Kalapotharakos et
al. (2018) treat the inner boundary with some care, noting that they
ensure "current closure of charge carriers that reach the stellar
surface", modelling of the black hole case is often done with inner
boundary conditions which either prevent or ignore the acquisition of
charge by the black hole. For example, Parfrey et al (2019, see also Crinquand et al., 2019) do not comment on charge acquisition, and
Hirotani et al. (2021) impose that
${\bf E\cdot B} = 0$ and that both the radial component of the electric field and the
meridional component of the magnetic field vanish at the inner
boundary\footnote{Note added in proof: Parfrey (private communication) informs us that, during the timespan of the simulations presented in Parfrey et al (2019), the black hole both acquires an electric charge and exhibits an outflow of electromagnetic energy.}.

\section{Discussion}
\label{Discuss}

The BZ mechanism is a standard cited mechanism for producing steady jets in objects that contain accreting black holes -- galactic nuclei and some X--ray binaries. And indeed the process is often cited in papers which concern numerical MHD simulations of jets and outflows produced by magnetic accretion discs (see the review by Davis \& Tchekhovskoy, 2020). We have argued above, in line with the original ideas of Wald (1974; see also Gibbons et al., 2013)
that in a realistic space plasma which permits a net flow of charge into the black hole
the BZ mechanism cannot tap the spin energy of a black hole continuously, and is therefore not a viable mechanism for powering continuous astrophysical jets.

This is primarily because the conducting medium surrounding the black hole should be treated as an astrophysical plasma with mobile charge carriers. When charge separation is allowed, along with the
possibility of a net flux of charge into the black hole,
any spinning black hole quickly acquires the net electrical charge $Q'$, and the electric fields which drive the currents required for the BZ mechanism are nullified. The same process of charge separation which ensures that a non--rotating black hole has zero charge also ensures that a rotating hole acquires the charge $Q'$ that makes the BZ mechanism inoperative.
We have noted that these ideas need to be tested, for example using PIC
plasma simulation techniques. For example, it might be that collective plasma effects serve to
counteract the tendency of the black hole to acquire charge\footnote{We
thank the referee for stressing this possibility.}.

There are, of course, many other kinds of astrophysical objects which do not contain black holes and nevertheless produce jets (Burgarella et al., 1993; Smith, 2012). The jets emitted by young stellar objects are particularly spectacular (see the review by Ray \& Ferreira, 2021). Thus the application of Occam's
razor\footnote{`Do not multiply hypotheses', or put simply, `don't invent two theories for the same thing'.}
has long suggested that the BZ mechanism, even if it were viable, is in fact not required for the production of astrophysical jets (Livio, 1997; see also Pringle, 1993; Price, Pringle \& King, 2003). In addition, Russell, Gallo \& Fender (2013) have shown that the jet production mechanism in binary X--ray sources is not consistent with the prediction of the BZ mechanism that the jet power should depend on the the square of the dimensionless jet spin parameter (see equation~\ref{BZpower2}).

Thus, following Occam, if one is forced to choose a single mechanism capable of producing all astrophysical jets which emanate from accreting objects, then the most likely choice would be some form of MHD process resulting from poloidal magnetic field threading the accretion disc (Livio, 1997; Livio et al., 1999). A mechanism like this is already discussed by Blandford \& Znajek (1977), and early ideas on this process are given by Blandford \& Payne (1982)  and, in the protostellar case, by Pudritz \& Norman (1983, 1986).

\section*{Acknowledgments}

We thank Bob Carswell, Gary Gibbons, Chris Nixon, Colin Norman, Kyle Parfrey, Roger Blandford
and Roman Znajek for helpful comments,
and the referee for a thoughtful report.

\bigskip
\bigskip
\section*{ REFERENCES}
\bigskip
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Begelman, M.C., Blandford, R.D., \& Rees, M.J., 1984, Rev. Mod. Phys., 56, 255

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Blandford, R.D., 1987, in {\it Three Hundred Years of Gravitation}, Cambridge University Press,
eds S. Hawking \& W. Israel,  pp. 277 -- 329

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Blandford, R.D.,  Meier, D.  \& Readhead, A.  2019, ARA\&A, 57, 467

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Blandford, R.D., \& Payne, D.G., 1982, MNRAS, 199, 883

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Blandford, R.D., \&  Znajek, R. L. 1977, MNRAS 179, 433

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Burgarella, D., Livio, M., \& O'Dea, C.P. (eds), 1993, {\it Astrophysical Jets}, Cambridge University Press

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Cardoso, V., Macedo C. F. B., Pani, P., \& Ferrari, V., 2016, JCAP, 054

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Clayton, D.D., 1968, {\it Principles of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis}, Univ. of Chicago Press

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Crinquand, B., Cerutti, B., Dubus, G., Parfrey, K., Philippov, A.,  2021, A\&A, 650, A163

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Debye, P., \&  H\"uckel, E., 1923, Physikalische Zeitschrift, 24, 185

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Ghosh, P, \& Abramowicz, M.A., 1997, MNRAS, 292, 887

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Gibbons, G.~W., Mujtaba, A.~H., \& Pope, C.~N.\ 2013, Classical and Quantum Gravity, 30, 125008

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Heckman, T.M., \& Best, P. N., 2014, ARA\&A, 52, 589

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Hirotani, K., Krasnopolsky, R., Shang, H., Nishikawa, K., Watson, M.,  2021, ApJ, 908, 88

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Kalapotharakos, C., Brambilla, G. Timokhin, A. Harding, A. K. \& Kazanas, D.,
2018, ApJ, 857, 44

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Komissarov, S.S., 2004, MNRAS, 350, 427

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Komissarov, S.S., \& Porth, O., 2021, NewAR, 92, 101610

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Livio, M.,  1997,  in {\it Accretion Phenomena and Related Outflows} eds D.T. Wickramasinghe,
L. Ferrario, \& G.V. Bicknell, ASP Conference Series 121, 845

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Livio., M., Ogilvie, G,I., \& Pringle, J.E., 1999, ApJ, 512, 100

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Lynden--Bell, D., 1969, Nature, 223, 690L

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Mitton., S., \& Ryle, M., 1969, MNRAS, 146, 221

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Parfrey, K., Philippov, A., Cerutti, B., 2019, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122c5101

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Petterson, J.~A.\ 1975, Phys Rev D,12, 2218

\noindent
Price, D.J., Pringle, J.E., \& King, A.R., 2003, MNRAS 339, 1223

\noindent
Pringle, J.E., 1993,  in {\it Astrophysical Jets}, Cambridge University Press, eds Burgarella, D., Livio, M., \& O'Dea, C.P.

\noindent
Pudritz, R.E., \& Norman, C.A., 1983, ApJ, 274, 677

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Pudritz, R.E., \& Norman, C.A., 1986, ApJ, 301, 571\noindent

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Ray, T.P, \& Ferreira, J.  2021, NewAR, 93, 101615

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Rees, M.J., 1971, Nature, 229, 312

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Rees, M.J., 1984, ARA\&A, 22, 471

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Ruffini, R. \& Treves, A.\ 1973, \aplett, 13, 109

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Russell, D.M., Gallo, E., \& Fender, R.P., 2013, MNRAS, 431, 405

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Salpeter, E.E., 1964, ApJ, 140, 796

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Smith, M.D.,  2012, {\it Astrophysical Jets and Beams} Cambridge University Press

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\end{document}

\acknowledgments

\bibliographystyle{aasjournal}

\end{document}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


These homely and exquisite cinnamon buns will make you lick your fingers time and time again! A recipe from our guest Chef Shelly Gilad from Shelly's Humble Kitchen.
These cold winter nights treat yourself to a hot cup of canelazo, a traditional holiday drink from Ecuador.


The Commission meets approximately four times per year in regularly scheduled meetings and as necessary by telephone conference meetings. The Commission also conducts formal hearings as a Court of Judicial Discipline. The Commission reviews all complaints received. No complaint will be decided solely on the basis of claims made by the complainant. All allegations warranting an investigation will be investigated.
After initial inquiry, the Commission may dismiss the complaint or conduct a limited or full investigation. A complaint against a judge may be dismissed by the Commission at any time during the investigation if the charge is found to be without merit.
After dismissal of a complaint, the Commission has the authority to confidentially caution judges regarding their conduct.


Setting up a platform for Rapid application development is the BEST POSSIBLE architecture that you can introduce to run an IT development center with optimized utilization of skilled resources.
Our approach for application development framework is based on the fact that every application is collection of some modules and every module is designed around one or more data models.
Traditional approach of an application development wastes effort of Developers / Programmers in writing repetative code before they start implementing actual business logic. If you think that Data Modeling and further coding for Form Development, List View with Pagination and Search, Detail View, Edit / Delete Controls, Model / Entity Definition, DB Queries for CRUD operations, Action Controller, REST API and Role Based Security are prerequisites for a module then we have a solution to automate these tasks of developers and let them focus on the business requirements of a module.
No restriction of programming language. It's upto you how do you want your code to be generated.
Web based management of your applications and modules.
Standardisation of coding pattern is supposed to help every IT development center in many ways. Most of the organizations understand the value of standardisation and so they enforce policies around it too. But, in real scenario standard coding practice is not seriously followed due to tremendous pressure to meet delivery date and make the application functional irrespective of how coding is being done behind the scene.
It would be worth comparing our RAD solution with your current development practice.
Happy to help you improve the productivity of your development center by 500% unlike anything else.
Contact us for a demo or POC in your center.


This topic was modified 6 months ago by abuomama.
Also receiving these messages when trying to update a new custom post type… an y idea on an update for this?
Everyone, thanks for reporting this. As outlined in this thread: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/save-problem/#post-10801939, the cause has been identified and a solution is now available in the GitHub master branch and will be releasing 6.2.1 this week.
As a heads up 6.2.1 has been released.


text:
<?php

namespace Trungtnm\Backend\Commands;

use Lookitsatravis\Listify\Commands\AttachCommand;

class ListifyAttach extends AttachCommand
{
    /**
     * The name and signature of the console command.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $signature = "trungtnm:listifyAttach {table} {column=position}";

    /**
     * The console command description.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $description = 'Generate a migration and run it immediately for adding position column used by Listify to a database table.';

    /**
     * Create a new command instance.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
    }

    /**
     * Execute the console command.
     *
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function handle()
    {
        parent::fire();
        //do the migration
        \Artisan::call('migrate');
        // Dump the migration message to the console.
        $this->info("Successfully run artisan:migrate to add new column into specific table");
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: how to differentiate between fgets reaching EOF and reaching error I have a question about the fgets()
char *fgets(char *str, int strsize, FILE *stream);

fgets()' document says:

On success, the function returns the same str parameter. If the End-of-File is encountered and no characters have been read, the contents of str remain unchanged and a null pointer is returned.
If an error occurs, a null pointer is returned.

*

*How do you differentiate between above two situations - fgets reaching EOF(END OF FILE) & error whilst reading file?

*Also, when an error occurs whilst fgets reads file, does fgets keep track of whatever has been read up to that point in the str?

*How do you check if fgets immediately reaches EOF?

A: Referring your 1st question:

How do you differentiate between above two situations - fgets reaching EOF(END OF FILE) & error whilst reading file?

If fgets() returned NULL, call ferror() for the file pointer which just before had been used with the fgets() call, which returned NULL. If ferror() returns a  non zero value, then fgets() failed, else it had reached the end-of-the file.
Example:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>

#define LINE_LEN_MAX (42)

int main(int argc, char ** argv)
{
   if (1 >= argc)
   {
     errno = EINVAL;
     perror("main() failed");
     exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
   }

   {
     FILE * fp = fopen(argv[1], "r");
     if (NULL == fp)
     {
       perror("fopen() failed");
       exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
     }

     for (char line[LINE_LEN_MAX];
       NULL != fgets(line, LINE_LEN_MAX, fp);)
     {
       printf("%s", line);
     }

     if (0 != ferror(fp))
     {
       perror("fgets() failed");
       exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
     }

     fclose(fp);
   }

   return EXIT_SUCCESS;
 }

The other to question can be answered straight forward from the docs:
Question 3:

How do you check if fgets immediately reaches EOF?

Answer:

If end-of-file is encountered and no characters have been read into the array, the contents of the array remain unchanged and a null pointer is returned.

Question 2:

when an error occurs whilst fgets reads file, does fgets keep track of whatever has been read up to that point in the str?

Answer:

If a read error occurs during the operation, the array contents are indeterminate and a null pointer is returned.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
var gulp = require('gulp'),
  nodemon = require('gulp-nodemon'),
  livereload = require('gulp-livereload'),
  sass = require('gulp-ruby-sass');

gulp.task('sass', function () {
  return gulp.src('./public/css/*.scss')
    .pipe(sass())
    .pipe(gulp.dest('./public/css'))
    .pipe(livereload());
});

gulp.task('watch', function() {
  gulp.watch('./public/css/*.scss', ['sass']);
});

gulp.task('develop', function () {
  livereload.listen();
  nodemon({
    script: 'server.js',
    ext: 'js swig',
  }).on('restart', function () {
    setTimeout(function () {
      livereload.changed();
    }, 500);
  });
});

gulp.task('default', [
  'sass',
  'develop',
  'watch'
]);


A Japanese garden can be a true work of art. This one is great for you who keen to bring simplicity and serenity to your garden. It is designed to give you a peaceful place where you can relax and re-balance your Zen; meditation, to gain inspiration, and reflect on the events of your life. To make a Japanese garden remember that less is more, so stick just to a few types of plants. Japanese gardens are often sparsely planted, so the spaces around the plants are as important as the plants themselves. This can also help to create the effect of a bigger garden.
Many Japanese garden features traditional aspects like Koi ponds full of fish, exotic bridges to trap evil spirits, and mysterious paths that beckon you to walk a little deeper into the garden. To make the best Japanese garden, start with simple accents; utilize bamboo in your garden by creating a bamboo entry way or fences, showcase the different of green and moss, etc. Intimate spaces and secluded retreats are common in Japanese gardens, so creating an island oasis that you need to access with a bridge or an area that is hidden slightly from view can be the perfect addition to your garden. Now check out these 8 stunning Japanese garden ideas that will blow your mind below to inspire you.
This garden features a beautiful pond that is filled with koi, and the edge of the water is lined with small shrubs and accent pieces. There is also a narrow waterfall that adds a soothing trickle to the environment.
If you have large space, consider to make a pond. Pond is perfect for a Japanese garden with koi to swim around. To complete the design, add a moss covered with rocks throughout the area.
This Japanese garden combines a rock wall and a waterfall to create a beautiful place for the water to trickle down into the pond. Moss can be seen on the rocks, and the wooden bridge gives you a convenient place to walk.
This rock bird house is designed to make this corner of the garden a little retreat. Bamboo is used readily here; the fence is made from it as well as the water faucet that aims the water into the hallow stone.
This rock garden that has water falling from above to create a unique environment that would be perfect for meditation.
It is said that spirits can only walk in straight paths, so many Japanese gardens create zigzag bridges to trap evil spirits, which gives you the chance to free yourself from their grasp. Adorable.
This Japanese garden utilizes rocks and water to create an intimate location where you can sit and enjoy the sounds of nature. The wall on the other side of the bridge is the perfect space to relax.
Another great idea to make a Japanese garden is by using small stones to cover the ground. But don't forget to add a lot of shrubs to create a sense of contrast.


Like other developed countries, the population of Japan is unevenly distributed and centralizes into big cities like Tokyo and Osaka. Some people living in those cities away from their original places want to pay their tax to their hometown, so a new taxpaying system was designed. As part of the local tax, a new tax scheme had started a few years ago, in which taxpayers can choose to divert part of their residential tax to a specified local government.
Consequently, most municipalities prepared lots of kinds of gifts for their taxpayers to get more income. They return their products of about 20~30% value of received tax. That led taxpayers to pay tax to them.
Dairy farming municipalities offer their products like meat, and dairy products. Fishery ones offer seafood. Lots of cities manufacturing watches, PCs, and home electrical appliances offer their products as gifts in return. This stimulates their industries and the scramble for taxpayers is getting fierce, though it's good for taxpayers.
The following picture shows a robot cleaner Roomba, which I got for free by diverting a part of my residential tax to another city.
Today was a long-waited perfect day off without restraint. Even if I got days off, I have to carry my smartphone for communication with the ward of my office, but today was fully free from work. My wife and I went for a drive to see a big cherry tree which belongs to the kind, "Edo-higan". Its age is said to be more than 300 years. The worldwide well-known cherry trees are the variety called "Somei Yoshino". The cherry trees planted along the Potomac are this man-made kind. "Edo-higan" blooms a few weeks earlier than "Somei Yoshino".


text:
Michael Beasley reportedly joins Lakers on one-year contract
By Kurt HelinJul 20, 2018, 6:56 PM EDT
Because a locker room with Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee, and Rajon Rondo — with LaVar Ball circling around it — did not have enough distractions…
Michael Beasley, welcome to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Free agent Michael Beasley has agreed to a deal with the Lakers, league sources tell Yahoo.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 20, 2018
It's one year for $3.5 million.
Beasley is another eccentric guy for the Lakers' collection. Remember when he changed teams from Minnesota to Phoenix and rather than move his stuff he just had a big estate sale and sold it all? Beasley by himself isn't a distraction at this point, but all of those personalities in one locker room and… I do not envy Luke Walton right now.
Beasley had a solid offensive campaign for the Knicks last season, averaging 13.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists playing more than 22 minutes a night (he also started 30 games for them). He can attack off the dribble and score, gets to the line, and shot 39.5 percent from three — the man has embraced his role as a scorer off the bench and he can get the Lakers some buckets.
He's also going to give up a lot of buckets because he does not play defense (he did rebound a little better last year, but that's only when the guy missed despite his lack of D).
How Walton fits all this together remains to be seen. Beasley played 93 percent of his minutes last season at the four, where the Lakers will start Brandon Ingram but also rotate LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma through. Guys are versitle and basketball is evolving to being positionless, but that's a lot of guys eating up minutes for similar roles.
At the price they are paying, this is a decent signing by the Lakers. Beasley will get them points if he stays healthy (he did play 74 games last season). I'm sure Magic/Pelinka will sell this as "adding another veteran playmaker to our roster," and they will ignore all the baggage that comes with it. All those guys are on one-year contracts, the Lakers are looking farther down the road at much bigger targets than the new guys in the locker room.
But man, that Laker locker room this season is going to be a piece of work.


It was our third doubleheader and first road games of the season. The day began at Ducksfield and we split up and drove to Vienna to play the Wanderers again. It was a scorcher that day, over 80 degrees with no wind and the sun beaming right into our dugout the entire day. We came away with the sweep winning the first game 9-1 by mercy rule and the second game 22-0 also by mercy rule (in the 3rd inning).
We faced both of the pitchers on opening day and I had no trouble adjusting to the timing then. However, for some reason it took me a little longer the second time. Maybe it was because the fences were 40 feet shorter on the field in Vienna than our home field and I got a little too anxious. The first game was not my best at the plate, but I did have an RBI and a walk. All that matters is we won so I was happy about that. Everyone was firing on all cylinders in the second game. We scored 10 runs in the first inning. I was 4-4 with three doubles, one triple, 7 RBI, and two runs. Needless to say, I got my timing down the second time. All you gotta do is "think right center"; the wise words of Coach Bee. With the two wins, we stood with a record of 4-2 which was good for 3rd in the conference. I was a little thrown off guard after the games when a couple of the players asked if I wanted to stay for a little while and watch the baseball game that was going on at the time. It's just another difference from college ball in the US. There, we would all load up on a big charter bus, go to the games, and then leave after we were able to talk to our parents for a few minutes. Everything is just more laid back from what I am used to. With that said, I was fortunate enough to have been coached by high intensity, enthusiastic coaches from the time I was 11 years old. I am the player I am today because of them and for that I am forever grateful.
We were supposed to play a single game on Friday against the Sharx, but a monsoon decided to sink the field. It was all underwater in the morning, and by the afternoon it had cleared up pretty well, but still deemed unplayable. The lake was gone the next morning and by the middle of the first game it was completely dry like it had never even rained. It was probably in the mid 70s that day. The way the field dries up blows my mind. We didn't take any water off of it ourselves, it all absorbed and disappeared on its own within one day. The field is right outside our window and I felt like I was staring outside all day to see how it was looking. Perks of being in the clubhouse!
The second game was a different story. The import pitchers are allowed to pitch game 2 of doubleheaders. More often than not, these games are a pitchers duel. We kind of traded runs until the end of the game. In the first inning, I sent the ball over the leftfielders head for an RBI triple. Cue the waffle defense…When the Sharx import was up to bat with first base open later in the game, our coaches decided to intentionally walk her to load the bases. The intentional walks are like the MLB, you don't even have to throw a pitch. The next batter hit a ground ball to me at third and we got the out at home. After that we had a couple errors that allowed them to take the lead 2-1. Eidy threw a no-hitter so that was the only way that they could get on base and score. In the 6th inning, we got out lead off runner on first on a single up the middle and I came up to the plate. Intentional walk. Bottom of the 6th? Tie game? Go ahead run to 2nd? No outs? I'll take it! I popped up to the pitcher in the previous at bat. She dropped it and I got on base, but I'm not perfect. I'm not going to get a hit to the outfield every time. They didn't want to see the import-import battle again I guess. Jokes on them though, both runners scored and we won the game 4-2. We are still in third place at 5-3 and the race is very close. We have a little break and our next games are in a couple weeks against the only team we haven't played yet and the team that beat us twice. Looking forward to some more good games!


CREB Binding Protein antibody LS-C688216 is a biotin-conjugated rabbit polyclonal antibody to human CREB Binding Protein (CREBBP). Validated for IHC and WB.
Recombinant CREBBP (Asn2141-Leu2442) expressed in E. coli.
The antibody is a rabbit polyclonal antibody raised against CREBBP. It has been selected for its ability to recognize CREBBP in immunohistochemical staining and western blotting.
Western blot of recombinant CREBBP / CBP. This image was taken for the unconjugated form of this product. Other forms have not been tested.


text:
Death Among Us #Suspense #Reading @StephenBentley8 @Shalini_G26
Who knew death could be so eclectic?
Relish this mesmerizing murder mystery mash-up of short stories.
Murder and mystery have been the staple of literature and films for years. This anthology of short stories will thrill and entertain you. Some will also make you laugh out loud. Others will stop and make you think.
Think of this murder mystery short story anthology as a book version of appetisers or starters, hors d'oeuvre, meze, or antipasti. It can be read as fillers between books or, as is the case in some countries, as a bookish meze – in its own right.
There's murder mystery styles and locations to suit all tastes: detective fiction, serial killers, scifi, histfic, England, Los Angeles, San Francisco, The Great Lakes, Las Vegas, the Nevada desert, Mexico and more in an exquisite exposition of the art of short story telling.
These stories come from an international cast of authors; some with bestselling books, others are emerging or new talents. Their roots, cultures, and life experiences are as diverse as their writing styles.
But one thing binds them together: they know how to tell a story.
The ten authors who have contributed to the anthology are:
Stephen Bentley
Greg Alldredge
Kelly Artieri
Michael Spinelli
L. Lee Kane
Kay Castaneda
Aly Locatelli
Justin Bauer
Posthumously by 'G'
The stories include the 2019 SIA Award-Winning Murder Mystery Short Story 'The Rose Slayer' by Stephen Bentley.
Each author introduces his or her stories and the theme that lays behind them. By the time you finish the book, you will agree the result is a mesmerising murder mystery mash-up.
Amazon Universal Link to Kindle http://mybook.to/DeathAmongUsAnthology
Amazon Paperback http://getbook.at/PaperbackDeathAmongUs
eBook Link to all other bookstores https://books2read.com/b/deathamongus
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45013377-death-among-us
BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/books/death-among-us-an-anthology-of-murder-mystery-short-stories-by-stephen-bentley-and-justin-bauer
Ten outstanding authors have contributed three short stories to this anthology creating a wide assortment of murder mysteries to chill your blood. Check out my review here: https://jacqbiggar.com/2019/08/15/death-among-us-an-anthology-of-murder-mystery-short-stories-bookreview-mystery/
As there are over 20 stories, I will add two excerpts from two stories below:
From Justice is Never Served by Robbie Cheadle
The baby in the crib started to moan and thrash about as the temperature in the room dropped dramatically. The narrow lips of the dark shape at the newly opened door twisted into something that passed as a smile, an action which transformed her ugly face into a picture of pure evil and malevolence.
From The Neighbours by Aly Locatelli
She found herself filled with bitterness and remorse as the door opened and two detectives filed in. One was tall and thin, the other short and stocky. Such a cliché it almost made her laugh. She bit her tongue, reached for her coffee, and said nothing. The two detectives introduced themselves as Detectives Spinner and Boyd, but the names were soon forgotten.
Author/authors bio
Stephen Bentley is a former UK Detective Sergeant, barrister, and author of a bestselling undercover cop memoir. He also writes crime fiction.
Tweets by StephenBentley8
https://www.instagram.com/author_stephen_bentley/
Greg Alldredge grew up in the United States reading all the excellent Science Fiction and Fantasy of the past decades. He hopes to add his voice, in a small way, to the giants of the genres. He wants to write stories he himself would want to read and hopes to be successful as a storyteller first.
Tweets by MrAlldredge
https://www.instagram.com/greg.alldredge/
Kelly Artieri is a professional illustrator and award-winning author of a personal memoir 'A Spot in My Heart.' Living in the Buffalo, New York area, Kelly is a passionate storyteller about real life. Now she is using her creative voice at story telling murder mystery style.
Tweets by SpotInMyHeart
https://www.instagram.com/kellyellenart/
Robbie, short for Roberta, Cheadle is a South African author with six published children's picture books in the Sir Chocolate books series for children. She has also authored the Silly Willy series and a fictionalised biography about her mother's life as a young girl growing up in an English town in Suffolk during World War II.
Tweets by bakeandwrite
https://www.instagram.com/cheadlerobbie/
Michael Spinelli is married with two children, a transplant from New York to Florida. Mike enjoys family time, reading, watching movies and of course, writing things that increase your heart rate.
Tweets by WAKENOVELLA
L. Lee Kane, M.A., known as Linda, is the author of several adult fiction books, and children's books. She lives with her husband, two dogs, and seven horses in the Central Valley of California.
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https://www.instagram.com/lindakane8955/
Kay Castaneda is retired from a career as a college writing instructor and special education tutor. She earned a B.A. and M.A. in English at Indiana University. Her publications include poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction in literary journals plus articles about education for scholarly reference books.
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Aly Locatelli is a 25-year-old book blogger and reviewer from the UK. She has been doing that for over five years and now started freelancing as a beta-reader, editor and proof-reader. Aly also aspires to be a writer. This is the first time any of her work has been published.
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Born in Columbus, Ohio, Justin Bauer studied English Literature at the Ohio State University, graduating in 2016. He is the author of three books.
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'G' or Gerry died in 2017. He used the name 'G' when writing short stories. This is how he described himself not long before his untimely death: G is a 69 yo Hippie, world traveler, straight talker/writer, with no regrets. He's been writing since he found a sharp crayon and empty wall space.
The audiobook of the anthology will be available very soon.
A link to the retail sample on Soundcloud which is here http://bit.ly/2W7mFgI
CategoriesGuest Post, JBIGGARBLOG TagsAnthologies, Award winning author, bestselling author, book blast, book passion, Book Trailer, connecting with readers, Murder mystery, reading, recommended reading, suspense
8 Replies to "Death Among Us #Suspense #Reading @StephenBentley8 @Shalini_G26"
Thank you so much Jacquie for this wonderful and detailed post ❤
This set is well worth a read!
Stephen Bentley says:
Thanks, Jacqui, for sharing. I already commented on your review of our book. Thanks for that too!
Happy to share, Stephen. Loved the anthology!
I've read this one. So many good stories. The authors did a great job.
They really did. Some were sad, and others just plain creepy 🙂
Thank you, Jacquie, for this lovely post about Death Among Us
Wishing you much success!
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Reminder of some Key Dates
With the Football League fixture list due to be published at 9.00am tomorrow, here are a reminder of some key dates for the upcoming season.
As we return to the Football League after a five-year absence, our League Two campaign will begin on Saturday 03 August.
The decision to start the season slightly earlier than usual follows a ballot of clubs, in which a majority opted for the chosen date as it allows for an extra weekend match.
Five of our League Two matches have been set aside for midweek, whilst four matches will be played in just 12 days over the Christmas and New Year period.
The regular season draws to a close on Saturday 03 May 2014, with the League Two Play-Off Final set to occur at Wembley Stadium three weeks later.
Our Capital One Cup campaign will commence on w/c 05 August, as we make the trip to Prenton Park to face Tranmere Rovers in the First Round.
Should we defeat Ronnie Moore's men, then we could potentially meet a Premier League outfit in the Second Round, which takes place w/c 19 August.
FA Cup with Budweiser
As a member of the Football League, we will now enter the FA Cup with Budweiser at the First Round stage, which is penciled in for Saturday 09 November.
The Second Round has been scheduled for Saturday 07 December, whilst the Third Round, in which Premier League and Championship teams enter, is set for Saturday 04 January 2014.
Johnstone's Paint Trophy
Meanwhile, we will also participate in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy next term, which is a regionalised competition involving teams from League One and League Two.
The First Round takes place on w/c 02 September. However, 16 teams will receive a bye for this round, and will therefore proceed straight to the Second Round.
Teams to receive a bye will be announced by the Football League at a later date.
The provisional dates (subject to alteration) for our League Two are as follows:
Sat 03 Aug - Matchday 1
Sat 07 Sep - Matchday 6
Tue 17 Sep - Matchday 8
Sat 28 Sep - Matchday 10
Sat 05 Oct - Matchday 11
Tue 22 Oct - Matchday 14
Sat 02 Nov - Matchday 16
Sat 14 Dec - Matchday 20
Thu 26 Dec - Matchday 22
Sun 29 Dec - Matchday 23
We 01 Jan - Matchday 24
Sat 04 Jan - Matchday 25
Tue 28 Jan - Matchday 29
Sat 01 Feb - Matchday 30
Sat 01 Mar - Matchday 34
Tue 25 Mar - Matchday 38
Sat 05 Apr - Matchday 40
Tue 08 Apr - Matchday 41
Mo 21 Apr - Matchday 44
Sat 03 May - Matchday 46
Remember to check www.mansfieldtown.net at 9.00am tomorrow morning to see our full League Two fixture list for the 2013/14 campaign.


text:
Jim Akers: Have 'Godfidence' to pursue your purpose
December 13, 2022 May 10, 2022 by Greg Gerber
Jim Akers grew up in Spokane, graduated college and moved to southern California where he lived until his granddaughter was born a year ago, which prompted a move back to the Pacific northwest. There, he spent 35 years in the paper industry, 25 of them as a senior corporate executive.
He started working in distribution for a paper company that was eventually purchased by International Paper. Then he switched to the manufacturing side before returning to distribution. His company manufactured printing paper and corrugated boxes, distributed simple things like toilet paper and copier paper, as well as designing and distributing sophisticated things like the boxes used to package cell phones.
Before Jim left the company, he was responsible for 23 locations employing 1,200 employees and generating $1 billion annually in revenue.
He loved the creative aspect of packaging, but thrived in developing people to work in specific jobs. His job was stressful, especially with 1,200 depending upon Jim to be successful, including everyone from blue collar employees working as drivers and warehouse staff to salespeople earning more than $1 million a year.
"No stress means being in a pinewood box with a lily in your hand," he explained. "But, like a rubber band, some stress is essential. You have to be stretched to have enough resistance to hold everything else together.
"There was some stress in my job in trying to figure out how to create opportunities that excited people to follow a vision we laid out for them," he added. "Having them want to be part of something great required a commitment to build something great."
As is often the case, once people have achieved some level of success, an even bigger challenge exists to keep being successful, he explained.
"If you've been to the mountaintop, you had to go through some valleys to get there. So, you want to stay on the mountain, but life doesn't work that way," he said. "God gives us mountaintop experiences to inspire us to see what he has available to us. Then when we go into the valleys, we know he's still there and calling us to something even greater while promising to never abandon us."
Married for nearly 40 years, Jim and his wife have two sons and a 1-year-old granddaughter. He loves golf and even plays in winter months sometimes.
"When you're managing a lot of people in a big organization, it can seem like you're trying to push on a string. It's hard to make progress because you're trying to move a lot of parts," he explained. That's why I like golf. It's just me and the results are mine. Many times when I golf, I'm not really focused on the score, but just going for a walk to clear my mind."
Jim is a collector of books and built a wonderful library consisting of hundreds of books in his new home. He enjoys classics, but really loves biographies, especially those about business leaders.
"One of the greatest gifts you can leave your children and grandchildren is a great library," he said. "I do read electronic books, but really love the feel of a book in my hands."
Jim likes movies, too, such as inspirational family-friendly films, like Remember the Titans, as well as comedies, like Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Navigating an unreliable world
Jim wrote several books, the most recent one, Godfidence: Reliable Confidence for Navigating an Unreliable World, was released in March.
"For a long time, I used to ask God why he put me in certain circumstances. Now, at age 62, I realize he's not going to tell me why," he said. "The better questions are, 'What do you want me to do with this Lord?' 'Where are you leading me?' Then trusting him by taking the next step in that direction."
Jim was pushed into an unexpected transition when he was pushed out of corporate life and a job he loved over nothing he had done.
"It's such a tragedy to feel pushed out of jobs after you turn 50. But, as long as God has us breathing, we still have purpose to our lives," he explained. "When forced to make a transition, we often think about why we didn't deserve it. We feel defeated, think our best days have passed and we are incapable of going forward."
However, that's inaccurate because everything we have experienced in our lives prepares us for the next great chapter, whatever that may be. Rather than looking within ourselves for answers, we should look to our Creator instead to discover the purpose he put in us, Jim added.
Before turning 50, Jim's most important accomplishments were being a husband and father as well as helping people grow in their careers.
"We will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in June 2022. The dividends of spending a lot of time with my sons is that they and their wives still like hanging out for us," said Jim. "Professionally, I poured into people and watched their careers grow as they became capable leaders themselves.
"Even though I earned a lot of awards, if you look around my office today, you don't see any of the trophies or crystal awards I earned," he added. "But, you do see photos of people I worked with because they were what I most valued."
In Godfidence, Jim writes about being 30 and looking for confidence in all the wrong places. His life was about winning success, power, prestige, money, cars, clubs, etc. But, as he zeroed in on the fourth quarter of his life, Jim realized it involved something even bigger. It wasn't about what he got out of life, but what he could give back to others.
God fired him from his career
When people get fired or lose something important to them, many times they blame others and say they took something from them. But, Jim had a different revelation.
"In the sovereign, providential hand of God, nothing is outside of his purview or his control. So, I realized God fired me by doing whatever it took to get my attention," he explained. "When we sit idly and just go through the motions of life, God is often begging us to talk to him. Because I was comfortable, I didn't approach God for that conversation and didn't realize he had other things for me to do."
Early in his career at International Paper, Jim was tagged as a "high-potential" which meant he was being developed as someone to become a senior vice president or even CEO someday. As Jim approached his 53rd birthday, his career was right on track. But, within a 24-hour period, without warning it was all gone.
"On a Thursday, my entire team of 300-plus salespeople, sales leaders and division managers were all in a room celebrating the fact we had just completed another great year," said Jim. "We were giving out awards and everyone was in a great mood.
"On Friday, I got a call telling me the company CEO wanted to meet with me on Monday – and she's flying in just for the meeting," Jim added. "When I walked into the meeting on Monday morning, I was told the company was going in a different direction and that all the group vice president jobs were being eliminated, including mine. My 35-year career was over just like that. There were no warning signs at all indicating this was even a possibility."
After recovering from the initial shock, Jim had to assess his life and determine what he was going to do next.
"In hindsight, I took comfort in knowing God had been preparing me for this moment all along," he said. "Because my wife and I are valiant savers, losing my job wasn't going to be a financial hardship at the time. But, I did have to call my son who was attending law school and my younger son who was also in college and tell them, 'Guess what?' It wasn't something anyone imagined."
After being fired, Jim wrote a personal letter to 10 men for whom he had the utmost respect. Some were business connections; others were people from church and some were long-time friends. He laid out the situation and asked to meet with them individually for a conversation.
"It took me a while to work through all that, but I came to the conclusion the next thing I was going to do had to be enhancing God's kingdom, and it had to be something I believed in and was excited about," Jim explained.
"I also knew it had to do with people I would enjoy being with and pouring my life into, and they could pour into me," he added. "Those three elements became the screens I now use to filter everything with which I get involved."
Years ago, Jim wrote a book titled "Principles Work!: Six Principles for Winning at Home and Work." In it, he exuded a confidence that made him look tough on the outside, but on the inside, he was upside down.
"All the elements of confidence that I had were worldly based. I thought I could dig into a couple of new goals, grab this problem by the tail and beat it," he explained. "But the more I tried to do that, the more defeated I became.
"I had a Bible I probably got for a confirmation or graduation present when I was around 16 years old. I had the book for 40 years. I had made lots of notes and underlined many passages," he added. "One of the verses I highlighted was Jeremiah 29:11.
"In that passage, God says, 'For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future,'" Jim explained. "But that verse was conditional and I didn't notice it until I got to that stage in my life. 'Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.'"
Reading those passages caused Jim to realize he needed to get his spiritual grounding back. In fact, it became the essential element of his recovery.
"When I started praying to God, looking for his guidance and surrendering myself to his will, then the focus for my next steps became clear," he explained.
Quiet expectation
The period in Jim's life following his abrupt dismissal from International Paper was very quiet. Everyone expected him to get another job immediately working for another company. In fact, he expected it himself.
"But, you know what, the phone didn't ring at all. I also resisted any outplacement work because I decided to give it all over to God," he said.
"Prior to getting fired, I really had no appreciation for people who had gone through depression or serious circumstances that kept them out of the game," he added. "Suddenly, it was as though I was standing on the edge of a grave wondering about drugs, alcohol, infidelity – all those things."
Fortunately, he never ventured in that direction, primarily because he sought God every day instead.
"I'd start each morning by saying, 'I'm not enough today, Lord, but you are.' That went on for almost three years," he explained. "In the end, although it took a while for me to find my bearings, I felt called to write. I was already an accomplished speaker, but I knew my messages could help others."
It was almost three years to the date from his departure at International Paper until Jim released his second book, "Tape Breakers: How to Maximize Your Impact with People You Love, Teams You Lead and Causes That Stir Your Hearts." That book was the first step in Jim's new life.
"In Tape Breakers, there is a lot of the old outward, confident Jim coming out in the writing and it does have an element of faith to it," he explained. "But, my next book tells the rest of the story."
"Godfidence" is what emerged after Jim had been broken and he allowed God to refocus his attention, redefine his purpose and build a life under God's foundation rather than his own.
Hitting the wall
One section of Godfidence describes what it takes to finish an assignment once you've hit the wall. He cites research conducted by Fuller Theological Seminary which examined 2,930 people mentioned by name in the Bible and found there was enough data on 100 of them to know how they finished.
"The majority of people failed later in life. How did that happen to these godly men and women?" Jim asked. "They knew God and they knew his plan. They were instructed in all these things, yet they failed. Why?
"It turns out their focus ended up ultimately turning away from God and his goodness," he added. "Look at the contrast between Judas and Job. Judas lived with Jesus every day, but eventually took his eyes off of Jesus. Job never failed to honor God or celebrate what God was doing, even in the midst of tremendous pain and disappointment."
To live a successful life full of confidence requires people to pursue God and lay everything out for him and accept the direction he wants them to go, he explained. The purpose God has for people may not be grand at all.
The last chapter of Godfidence is titled One-On-One with Jesus. It describes YOFO – the fact that You Only Finish Once. The essence of finishing well necessitates that we fix our heart on God's purposes for our lives.
"A purpose that may be as simple God saying, 'Jim, your assignment is to pray these five people or caring for this one individual.' Would that be enough?" he asked. "Sometimes it is hard to accept God's greater purpose because our current culture, hyped by social media say everything must be grand.
"I had to change my thinking to say, 'Lord, don't let me concern myself with the size or scope of what I am doing, but that it just pleases you,'" Jim explained. "Did I honor you today, God? That's where people can rejuvenate and find purpose."
It can be found through the magic of mentoring. For people struggling with a sense of purpose, Jim has an easy solution.
"Ask yourself if I took all my life experience, both good and bad, and poured that into one person, like a single mother or a young athlete, could it be life changing for both of us," he explained. "We think impact has to be grandiose, but God often wants us to impact one life at a time."
Forming a foundation
Years ago, Jim elected to defer some of his compensation to retirement at which time he would receive it as a lump sum or spread over five years. Either way, it would be taxed as regular income later in his life. But, after losing his job, Jim received a rather large amount of deferred compensation of which 59% was going to wind up being used to pay taxes.
So, Jim and his wife took a different route. They formed a family foundation. As a result, the tax bill went down and they have money to give away as a blessing to others.
"My boys and their wives are all part of the foundation in directing where that money goes every year to advance God's kingdom," said Jim. "My oldest son does an excellent job managing the investments so we have money to impact things like homelessness, hunger and human trafficking.
"We are motivated to make the foundation grow so we can impact more people and bless other organizations doing really heavy lifting with their godly work," he added.
Jim also selects five people to provide one-on-one coaching services every year. He works with people to strengthen their businesses, but more importantly, to develop their faith.
"I get really excited about having coaching conversations with them because we don't just talk about business, but about life, family and how my clients can best fulfill those roles," he said.
"I have met people for whom I hope it doesn't rain the day of their funeral otherwise nobody will show up. They didn't have any impact on the lives of others," he added. "But, every one of us has the opportunity and ability to touch somebody's life. That interaction could change their life forever and work to influence God's kingdom, too."
What's the next step
For anyone wanting to find and pursue their God-given purpose, Jim offers some advice.
"When you get up in the morning, simply ask God, 'What's my next best right step that would bring you glory today?' Then get busy doing that," said Jim. "Also, look for ways to serve others without thinking about what you can get in return. Even if it's the humblest of circumstances, figure out a place to serve.
"Finally, identify who you want to remember you and what you want to be remembered for," he added. "People will remember us more for things we did near the end of our lives than they will for what we did when we were younger. Answer those questions, and your purpose will produce itself."
To connect with Jim, visit www.jimdakers.com.
Jim's books are available at these links. If you click on them, Forward From 50 might earn a small commission.
Godfidence: Reliable Confidence for Navigating an Unreliable World
Tape Breakers: How to Maximize Your Impact with People You Love, Teams You Lead and Causes That Stir Your Hearts
Principles Work!: Six Principles for Winning at Home and Work
Does your purpose have to 'feel good' to others?
Is it important to understand God's will for your life?


It's been talked about for years. When an earthquake in California tore down the freeway in the Bay Area, the conversation picked up steam. As young urban professionals decided they did not want to wallow in the suburbs built by their race-conscious parents, real estate in the urban core increased in value. Now, as New Orleans continues to rake in billions of dollars to rebuild parts of New Orleans not even affected by Hurricane Katrina, there is the possibility that Interstate 10 will meet the wrecking ball.
If it happens, who will benefit from this massive public works project? Who will get the jobs? Whose businesses will be allowed to prosper? Who's calling the shots, and who will pay the final cost?
Chosen city officials, higher ups with a Boston consulting firm and a cabal of do-gooders all eager to put their stamp on sacred ground that has been the long cherished domain of the city's African-American culture and commerce recently gathered at Joseph Craig Elementary School in the heart of Tremé. As they braced themselves to sit at the 17 circular tables decorated with giant colorful maps, Black markers, ink pens and yellow Post-it notes, most were unaware that their words and actions were seen by many in the room as harbingers of an effort to permanently alter the cultural and racial landscape of their city.
They were gathering for one of the recent meetings of the I-10 Livable Claiborne Communities study put on by the city of New Orleans and Goody Clancy, the multi-million dollar urban consulting firm that has planned major – and some say disruptive – urban projects across America. In fact, Goody Clancy was at the forefront of the controversial Unified New Orleans Plan.
The initial Livable Claiborne Communities study workshop held at Dillard University.
A long-standing topic of controversy, the more than 50-year-old elevated expressway over Claiborne Avenue has taken its fair share of criticism. Talk of possibly removing the elevated 1-10 along Claiborne to achieve economic and social revitalization of the area strikes some as odd, if not disingenuous, considering the elevated expressway was erected despite the protest of mostly Black residents and business owners who foretold that plan would signal a downturn for their communities. With the building of the expressway, many Black business owners and homeowners saw the investments in their homes and thriving businesses demolished as buildings were torn down to make way for the thoroughfare. Many believe that the construction of the Claiborne overpass shares at least part of the blame for the decline of the Tremé neighborhood in the 1960s and 1970s.
If there was one overriding theme to the gathering, it was a matter of examining who's making the decision whether to tear down Interstate 10 along North Claiborne Avenue and who is benefitting from that decision. Without mincing words even as he positioned himself as a menacing force against racism, community leader Jerome Smith walked up to the microphone uninvited but totally prepared.
Among the prominent White activists present were Pat Evans of Tremé 4 Tremé. But it was those from city government who drew attention. A casually dressed member of the mayor's press office, who spent most of the meeting texting and asking media which media they were working for, walked around informing city staff what they could and could not say. One of those staffers was Bill Gilchrist, a savvy New Yorker who is with the mayor's office of Place-Based Planning, which can be interpreted as either an oxymoron or a redundant phrase depending on the perspective.
Tia Vice, a staffer with Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer's office, arrived late to the meeting and did not speak with the press but did sit at one of the assigned tables. Other city workers were seen conversing with people in the audience but not engaging in much exchange with the media.
When it comes to gentrification and the accelerated nature of it in New Orleans, apparently not all Whites are impacted equally.
Beth Butler, a White social community leader who works in the finance industry, is well aware of what is happening in the Bywater and Holy Cross neighborhoods, two heavily gentrified neighborhoods that stand to benefit the most from their new demographics. But it will come with a price.
Those "grunge" kids, the socially clairvoyant offspring of the Kurt Kobain generation sporting pierced noses, tattoo-splattered necks, arms and ankles that intersect with drug and alcohol use, primarily have a history of homesteading and loafing off their parents pockets and the generosity of strangers even as they enjoy the protection of well-fed dogs. They prey on vacant and abandoned properties while paying little if any rent. Moreover, they often, almost by osmosis and because of their race, receive police protection from the mostly Black and long-standing occupants of the neighborhood, according to those who have witnessed this component of the gentrification movement.
Studies have historically shown that these very same rent increases disproportionately affect those who can least afford them. As a result, the inward migration of young Whites from places such as a working class Mount Horeb, Wisc., near Madison to the wealthier enclaves of New Hampshire, Boston and New York continues unabated. For their part, native and indigenous New Orleanians who have borne the brunt of the city's physical and economic decline suddenly find themselves pushed out by the rising economic and political forces eager to turn a unique cultural fabric into a smorgasbord of tattoo shops, pizza parlors, art galleries and late-night bars catering to their individual and specific clienteles.
Along Loyola Avenue in front of the renovated Hyatt Regency Hotel, a new streetcar line recently opened. It takes riders, ostensibly mostly tourists and convention goers, along the Loyola Avenue corridor, on to Canal Street and along the city's riverfront. It is the same red streetcars that have been traversing Canal Street for nearly two decades, eventually connecting with the Canal Street and St. Charles Avenue streetcars.
But the comparisons end there. Strategically placed on the route on Loyola are swanky new steel gray transit shelters, loaded with the accoutrements of comfortable seating, maps and a large television monitor to give updates on upcoming trains. When African-American transit riders were displaced to the darkened caverns of lower Canal Street and Marais Street, they found themselves waiting in the oppressive heat last summer for any number of transit buses that were re-routed for the streetcar construction.
Calls to the Regional Transit Authority offices as well as Councilwoman Palmer, who chairs the council's transportation committee, went mostly unheeded. That is until callers into WBOK AM 1230 voiced their frustration. Within days, new, green rugged reinforced benches were installed. Almost 99 percent of those RTA customers were Black, many of them getting off from work late at night and having to wait hours for their bus.
Conversely, the new shelters on Loyola resemble the Parthenon in Greece, a monument to time and history that was not built in a single day either. They rest prominently on the neutral ground across from the U.S. Post Office, Entergy, the Hyatt and the Union Passenger Terminal. While everyday New Orleanians sit or stand at the green, littered-infested shelters on Broad Street, people boarding streetcars on Loyola are treated to the luxuries of first-class travel.
These fancy shelters and the streetcar line were built from a kitty of federal dollars but they serve as microcosms of another ongoing problem, the capital improvement of a section of the city hardly damaged during Hurricane Katrina but one that has received a disproportionate share of the federal largesse.
Another similar streetcar line is now being planned for North Rampart and St. Claude avenues. That line, which has now journeyed from the planning stages to an imminent reality, will take riders from the city's downtown theaters and shops all the way into the Bywater, Marigny and Holy Cross neighborhoods.
The new Rampart line did not go unnoticed by key people in attendance.
"This is just another thrill ride for tourists," stated Jacques Morial, who lives a block from the interstate and who is determined to make sure that the communities that bore the brunt of urban decay with the highway construction in the 1960s aren't left holding more broken promises after its planned demolition.
Morial pointed out how the Interstate that was built in the 1960s devastated the 6th and 7th wards from a cultural standpoint, as well as having a spillover effect on the 8th. When those decisions were made, African Americans had little if any political clout, and even less economic sway. Now, the conversation continues to happen behind closed doors, and it all adds to the negative perception and reality of the Livable Claiborne Communities conversation.
"Nothing without us is for us," said Morial.
To be sure, throughout the three-and-a-half hour session, mistrust was the operative word. People went back and forth, from planning destinations to plausible deniability. If one person suggested one thing, another person questioned the motives. Often, it was done along racial lines, from the subtleties of culture to the obvious exclusion by race.
Lisa Green-Derry, one of the participants at one of the livelier tables, said everything historically that has happened with this process and everything post-Katrina has resulted in African-Americans not trusting those Whites in charge to do the right thing. She told her colleagues at the table that such mistrust would ultimately hinder any progress, whether the interstate comes down or not.
Green-Derry added that much of that distrust is "based on cultural equity" and the lack of it when it comes to post-Katrina New Orleans runs rampant.
Even an astute White female participant noticed the disparities presented by those in attendance, and questioned quietly why the bulk of the session's participants were from either the city, the consulting firm or other stakeholders, and not the people from the community who will be the most adversely affected. They, she noted, were fewer in number, albeit not silenced by being outnumbered.
David Dixon, principal for Goody Clancy, had the misfortune of having to follow Jerome Smith's opening salvo. He had the even more awesome responsibility of trying to convince his skeptics that the same Interstate Highway system that forever altered their culture and community would miraculously transform them by coming down.
"We'd like to sit down with you," Dixon said as he addressed the crowd, fired up by Smith's opening but pragmatic enough many of the decisions have already been made.
The slick and fancy green brochures and colorful charts and PowerPoint demonstrations dominating the discussion, Goody Clancy was well prepared for its audience comprised of urban planners, neighborhood organizers and government workers who are seeking to rebuild New Orleans in their image, with hardly little to none from input but neighborhood people.
To be sure, overhead projector slides used by Goody Clancy presented a well-orchestrated, carefully concocted capsule of a concrete calamity suddenly going contemporary. At the intersection of North Claiborne and St. Bernard avenues there is as an ongoing reminder of how progress for some translates into misery for many. The high on-ramp from Claiborne near Elysian Fields is shown in one slide torn down. Underneath what was once a high ramp are now visitors—primarily tourists overrunning locals who yearn for their history and cultural preservation – inside a festival-like environment where music, food, crafts and urban gentrifiers occupy the landscape, while citizens who grew up around the corner try to figure out if they're in an Orleans wonderland or Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Mona Lisa Saloy, a writer, faculty member at Dillard and head of the recently formed 7th Ward Neighborhood Association, told the audience that she and others haven't all hopped aboard the tear-it-down bandwagon.
Saloy and her allies cite the resulting "10,000 cars a day" flooding streets in the 7th Ward and Gentilly. Moreover, they questioned the motives of those calling for the tear down.
That same individual pointed out to Saloy that the 70,000 residents of New Orleans East use the interstate daily, as do north shore and Mississippi residents who work in New Orleans.
"Can you imagine what our neighborhoods would look like with 10,000 cars per day passing through. And, what about the 18 wheelers, and dump trucks? There's more for 'Black' residents to loose then what's being told," Saloy's colleague wrote.
In the end, the fancy brochures with the colorful catch phrases of "sustainable solutions," "equitable access," "economic prosperity," "enhance transportation choice and access," "guarantee managed change to benefit the existing community" and "Scenario 1, 2 or 3 "What I…" carried the day. They became the coded language for those in the business of altering community landscapes and the feared language among those in no position to lose anything more.
But such individuals, many from out of town, some of them riding bikes on newly paved streets with special bike lanes and others enjoying the economic impact of a gentrifying New Orleans, left this particular meeting well aware that people such as Jerome Smith have served notice that this civil rights movement won't be determined by interlopers, planners and corrupt politicians. This will be a people's movement, predicated on the notion that their vested and historical interests will never be mortgaged for a fancy schematic drawing where cultural shape shifters perform a chameleon like transformation of their community.
For as Jerome Smith stated before he ended his lecture, the next time he comes back to visit these community builders, he's bringing with him the ones who stand to lose the most.
Lovell Beaulieu is a journalist and writer in New Orleans.