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THOMAS A KEMPIS, Imitatio Christi (The Imitation of Christ)
In Latin, decorated manuscript on paper
Southern France (?), c. 1450-1475
ff. vi (modern paper) + 53 + vi (modern paper) folios, watermark, char à deux roues, Briquet 3538, Perpignan, 1466 (not listed in Piccard online), early foliation in ink top outer corner recto is visible on from f. 14, 14-32, completed in modern pencil, missing three leaves, one possibly cancelled (collation i-iii12 iv10 v10 [-1, before f. 47, 9, and 10; 10 possibly cancelled], horizontal catchwords, quire and leaf signatures with a letter designating the quire and an Arabic numeral the leaf lower outer corner recto, lightly frame rule in lead with all rules full length (justification 144-142 x 107-105 mm.), written in a cursive gothic bookhand in 33-32 long lines, majuscules touched with red, red running titles (some partially trimmed) and rubrics, red paragraph marks, two-line alternate red or blue initials, some with dark yellow highlights, darkened along the edges, a few stains in the outer margins, a few worm holes, corners and some edges of the first two and last seven leaves with modern repairs, overall very good condition. Bound in a modern vellum over pasteboard with two leather ties, title on spine in ink, "De immitacione," in pristine condition, no wear. Dimensions 207 x 143 mm.
Close to one thousand surviving manuscripts, as well as hundreds of printed editions and translations, witness the popularity of the Imitation of Christ during the later Middle Ages. Widely disseminated, it became an essential text not only for monasticism but for lay spirituality. This manuscript, with its pointing hands and other signs of use, witnesses the dissemination of the spirituality of the Devotio moderna into Southern France in the third quarter of the fifteenth century. Any foundational library of important medieval texts is incomplete without a copy of this work.
1. Evidence of the watermark, a cart with wheels like 8-petalled flower heads (split across two pages, for example ff. 2 and 10), which is not a common one, suggests this was likely copied in Southern France, perhaps in the region around Perpignan, in the third quarter of the fifteenth century. The script, which is a careful cursive gothic, rather upright, certainly looks French. Note in particular the 'd' with two loops and pointed bowl, the short 'r' and rows of minims with pointed tops, "qui" is abbreviated in the northern fashion (an abbreviation found in Southern France and Catalonia, but not in Italy). The opening words in a rounded Gothic text script and the long-topped tironian sign used for "et" (and) lend support to an origin in Southern France (and we can also point to the dark yellow used to highlight some of the pen initials).
The abundant use of red paragraph marks that divide the text into short maxims is a notable and interesting feature of this copy.
The early foliation, now partial, begins with "14" on f. 14, showing that this was always either a text bound independently (or perhaps the first text in a longer volume); the last folio is now quite dark, suggesting that it has been in this position for a considerable time.
2. Numerous annotations throughout are evidence of use; there are no lengthy notes, but instead the type of additions one expects in a work for personal spiritual development and meditation, rather than academic study: f. 1, a carefully drawn hand; f. 2rv, "nota," side brackets, and a pointing hand, ff. 6v and 7v, pointing hand with long finger (the second very long, with "nota bene" alongside); ff. 8v and 13, faces in profile alongside the text, with large pointing hands; ff. 8v and 14, line drawings of a woman; ff. 15rv and 18, pointing hand and "nota"; f. 23v, prominent side brackets and pointing hand; short reader's notes, ff. 30v, 33, 34.
ff. 1-53v, Incipit libellus deuotus et multum vtilis compositus a domino Iohanne Gerson quondam cancellario parisiensi postea monacho cartusiensi. De immitacione christi et contemptu omnium vanitatum. Capitulum primum, incipit, "Qui sequitur me non ambulat in tenbris etc. dicit dominus ….; f. 13v, Incipit liber secundus. De interna conuersatione. Capitulum primum, incipit, "Regnum dei intra vos est dicit dominus …; f. 21, Tabula tercii liber, De interna consolatio et interna christi locutione ad animam fidelem. Capitulum primum, incipit, "Audiam quid loquatur in me domine deus … [f. 53v, ends in Book III, near the beginning of chapter 59], … atque ibi mors et infernus//" [missing the end of the chapter].
Thomas a Kempis, Imitatio christi, ed. Pohl, 1904, and Lupo, 1982; this manuscript now includes three books, arranged in the order found in Pohl's and most other printed editions. One leaf missing after f. 46v, which ends in Book III, chapter 49, "Querat alius hoc alius illud//" (three lines from the end of the chapters); f. 47 begins in Book III, chapter 50, "//[exte]riorum iudicare neque …" (six lines from the end of the chapter). On f. 21, the scribe copied "Tabula tercii libri" (the table of the third book), but did not in fact copy a table of chapters; all three books here begin directly with the text. The manuscript now ends very near the end of book three; since the manuscript has been rebound, it is impossible to judge whether it was once followed by the fourth book. We should note, however, that many copies of the Imitatio did not include all four books.
Delaissé, 1956, is a diplomatic edition of Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, MS 5855-61, copied by Thomas a Kempis in 1441, which includes the Imitatio christi, as well as other texts by Thomas. Many manuscripts of the Imitatio differ in the number of books they include and in their order. The earliest dated copy of book one was copied in 1424; all four books can be found in a dated manuscript from 1427, but there was certainly considerable variability, especially in the early manuscripts, and in different regions (English copies, for example, often include only books 1-3). Compared with the usual printed texts including Pohl's edition, the Brussels autograph of 1441 includes four books, arranged book 1, 2, 4, 3.
What is interesting about Delaissé's edition is not only its demonstration of his method of physical or "archeological" analysis brought to bear as proof for the autograph status of the Brussels manuscript, but his reasoning that Thomas did not compose his text as a treatise per se but rather as a series of "rapiaria" or hastily written notebooks of observations on how Christ's life could serve as a model in the contemporary world. Perhaps it is the very informality of the work that contributed to its great impact.
Axters, 1971, assembled a lengthy inventory of the surviving manuscripts. Since then, the estimate of the number of surviving manuscripts and printed editions of the Imitatio has increased steadily. Van Engen, 1988, p. 8, suggested there were 750 manuscripts, and that the text was printed in more than 3,000 editions from the first edition in 1472 down to the last century, fifty of which date before 1500; Van Engen, 2008, p. 9, mentions 900 fifteenth-century manuscripts and one hundred early printed editions; Von Habsburg, 2011, suggests there are 800 manuscripts, and more than 740 printed editions from its composition up to 1650, making it the most frequently printed book in the sixteenth century apart from Bible, with over 100 editions before 1500. During the fifteenth century it was translated into French, German, Dutch, Middle English, Castilian, Catalan, Italian, and Portuguese among other languages.
The Imitatio Christi ("The Imitation of Christ") has been called "the most influential devotional book in Western Christian History" (Van Engen, 1988, p. 8), and it has been the subject of countless scholarly works, many of which have been concerned with the lively and enduring debate about the identity of its author. It has been ascribed to a very long list of authors including Jean Gerson, Chancellor of Paris (d. 1429), as here (and many others, Augustine, Bernard, Bonaventure and to a presumed Italian Abbot, "John Gersen," and to Geert Grote (1340-1384) himself). Delaissé's critical study, published in 1956, of the Brussels manuscript (MS 5855-61) that was signed and dated by Thomas a Kempis in 1441, was key to convincing most scholars that it was by Thomas, and he is widely accepted as the author today.
Thomas a Kempis (1379/80-1471), or Thomas of Kempen, born in Kempen, Germany, was part of the second generation of the Devotio Moderna after Geert Groote, the founder of this religious movement. He was educated in a school of the Brothers of the Common Life in Groote's native Deventer, Holland, and then became a canon at the Agnietenberg priory (Mount Saint Agnes), near Zwolle, a priory of the Congregation of Windesheim, where his brother John served as prior. He made his profession there in 1406, and was ordained in 1413. He was a prolific author, composing numerous devotional tracts, as well as a Chronicle of the priory.
In this work, Thomas encapsulated the spirituality of the Devotio moderna, or the New Devout, especially their emphatic emphasis on Christ, the importance of the Bible, the recommendation of the use of the vernacular for religious writings, and their focus on the interior life and a calm withdrawal from the world. The importance of the Bible, especially the Gospels, is found throughout the Imitation, since hearing and reading the Bible in the right spirit is central to a desire to follow Christ (book one, chapter five). The degree to which Thomas himself internalized the Bible is found in the astounding number of scriptural citations found throughout the work; Becker, 2002, lists 3,815 scriptural sources in the Imitation.
Ampe, A. L'Imitation de Jésus-Christ et son auteur, Rome, 1973.
Axters, Stephanus Gerard. De imitatione Christi : een handschriften-inventaris bij het vijfhonderdste verjaren van Thomas Hemerken van Kempen d. 1471, Kempen-Niederrhein,1971.
Becker, Kenneth Michael. From the Treasure-house of Scripture: An Analysis of Scriptural Sources in De Imitatione Christi, Turnhout, 2002.
Bijdragen over Thomas a Kempis en de Moderne Devotie: uitgegeven ter gelegenheid van de vijfhonderdste sterfdag van Thomas a Kempis (-1471), Brussels, 1971.
Delaissé, L. M. J. Le manuscript autographe de Thomas à Kempis et 'l'imitation de Jésus-Christ'; examen archéologique et édition diplomatique du Bruxellensis 5855-61, Paris and Antwerp, 1956.
Lupo, Tiburzio, ed. De Imitatione Christi, Vatican City, 1982.
McNeil, B. "L'imitation de Jésus-Christ," Paris, 2002.
Pohl, M.J., ed. De Imitatione christi quae dicitur libri IIII, in Thomae Hemerken a Kempis opera omnia (vol. 2), Freiburg, 1904, pp. 3-264.
Post, R. R. The Modern Devotion: Confrontation with Reformation and Humanism, Leiden, 1968.
Van Engen, John H. Devotio Moderna: Basic Writings, New York, 1988.
Van Engen, John H. Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: the Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages, Philadelphia, 2008.
Von Habsburg, Maximilian. Catholic and Protestant Translations of the Imitatio Christi, 1425-1650 : from Late Medieval Classic to Early Modern Bestseller, Farnham, Surrey, England, and Burlington, Vermont, 2011.
Briquet watermarks online
http://www.ksbm.oeaw.ac.at/_scripts/php/BR.php
Piccard watermarks online
https://www.piccard-online.de/einfueh.php?sprache=en
Latin Library: text of the Imitatio Christi in Latin
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/kempis/kempis1.shtml
English version of the Imitatio christi
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/kempis/imitation.toc.html
V. Scully. "Thomas à Kempis," in The Catholic Encyclopedia, New York, Robert Appleton Company, 1912
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14661a.htm


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News Buddha Buzz
Climate Activist Wynn Bruce's Self-Immolation Raises Questions Within and Beyond the Buddhist Community
The practicing Buddhist set fire to himself in an apparent protest of climate change. Plus, Myanmar's military sentences Aung San Suu Kyi to five more years in prison and kills civilians, including a Buddhist monk.
Alison Spiegel and Lena Rubin
US Supreme Court Building, Capitol Hill, Washington DC, USA. | Alan Novelli / Alamy Stock Photo
Nothing is permanent, so everything is precious. Here's a selection of some happenings—fleeting or otherwise—in the Buddhist world this week and next.
Activist Wynn Bruce's Self-Immolation Raises Questions Within and Beyond the Buddhist Community
On Friday, April 22, Wynn Bruce, a 50-year-old man from Boulder, Colorado, set fire to himself in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. He died soon after. According to the Washington Post, Bruce's father and others who knew him say that the activist's self-immolation was a protest of climate change.
Following Bruce's death, some Buddhist practitioners took to social media to share their views on his actions. Buddhist climate activist Kritee Kanko, who said she was a friend of Bruce, said on Twitter that his self-immolation was a "fearless act of compassion." Kanko and fellow teachers at the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, where Wynn frequently participated in retreats, later specified that they had no knowledge of Bruce's intentions, and they would have tried to stop him if they did. Soto Zen teacher and author Brad Warner disagreed with Kanko on Twitter, calling it a suicide in a reply to her initial statement. Bruce's father, Douglas, told the Washington Post, "I agree with the belief that this was a fearless act of compassion about his concern for the environment."
PBS and others point out that Bruce praised Thich Nhat Hanh around the time of the Zen master's death in January—a meaningful observation given Nhat Hanh's statement on Thich Quang Duc, the infamous Vietnamese monk who set himself on fire on June 11, 1963, protesting the South Vietnamese government's treatment of Buddhists. In a letter sent to Martin Luther King, Jr. on June 1, 1965, Nhat Hanh wrote:
To burn oneself by fire is to prove that what one is saying is of the utmost importance. There is nothing more painful than burning oneself. To say something while experiencing this kind of pain is to say it with the utmost of courage, frankness, determination and sincerity.
According to the International Campaign for Tibet, 131 men and 28 women have self-immolated since 2009 in protest of Chinese oppression.
Read more about Bruce's life, including more from his father, here in the Washington Post, and more on the response from the Buddhist community here in an article from PBS News Hour.
Myanmar Military Sentences Aung San Suu Kyi to 5 More Years in Prison
In a closed door trial on Wednesday, Myanmar's military sentenced deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to five more years in prison on corruption charges claiming that she illegally accepted gold and cash payments totaling $600,000 from former Yangon chief minister Phyo Min Thein. Suu Kyi has denied these charges. The military had previously sentenced Suu Kyi to six years on corruption charges, so her complete sentence now equals eleven years.
The Junta Also Torches Villages, Killing Civilians and Buddhist Monk
Last weekend, Myanmar's junta also set fire to nine villages in the Wuntho township in the northwestern part of the country, killing three civilians, the news website the Irrawaddy reports. One of those civilians was a Buddhist monk that asked the military not to burn houses, locals say. According to the Irrawaddy, roughly 30,000 people from the Wunthro and nearby Kawlin
townships have been displaced this month.
Zen Buddhist Center Opens in Dublin, Ireland
This past weekend, a center for Zen Buddhism in Ireland opened its doors. Reverend Myōzan Kōdō Kilroy, a Soto Zen Buddhist priest in the lineage of Nishijima Roshi, will be the guiding teacher of the Dublin Zen Centre. Kilroy is also the founding president of the Irish Buddhist Union, and serves as a representative of the Buddhist community on the Dublin City Interfaith Forum. According to recent census figures, there are approximately 10,000 Buddhists in Ireland, an 11 percent increase from 2011.
Artist Takashi Murakami's Upcoming L.A. Exhibit Features Arhats, or Buddhist Saints
In May, the Broad Museum in Los Angeles will open an exhibit by world-famous artist Takashi Murakami titled, Takashi Murakami: Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow. This is the museum's first solo exhibition from the 60-year-old, Japan-born artist. Among the works is a 32-foot long painting titled "100 Arhats," named for the Buddhist saints who have achieved nirvana. Other paintings incorporate depictions based on Daoist immortals, as well as "colorful, cartoonishly grotesque figures and motifs" from Japanese and Chinese history, a New York Times reviewer writes.
May 4, 11, 18: Clinical psychologist Sameet Kumar, Ph.D hosts a three-part workshop on integrating Buddhist teachings and practices to help you navigate the inner journey of grief in these challenging times. Register for the Mindful Grieving Workshop here.
Alison Spiegel is Tricycle's web editor.
Lena Rubin is Tricycle's former special projects editor.
The Wisdom of the Body: Connecting with Your Inner Resilience
Kathy Cherry
Culture Art
New Retrospective of Mayumi Oda's Work Stuns at Tibet House
By Frederick M. Ranallo-Higgins
A New Monument Addresses the Erasure of Japanese American Incarceration
By Amanda Lim Patton
Ideas How We Live
Our Obsession with Growth Must End
By Lewis Richmond

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Janet Jackson headed to Detroit's Little Caesars Arena in July
Posted By Sonia Khaleel on Mon, Feb 10, 2020 at 11:33 AM
lev radin / Shutterstock
Janet Jackson is coming to Detroit in 2020 for her Black Diamond World Tour.
The songstress, who just announced her North American tour dates, will descend upon Little Caesars Arena on Friday, July 24, at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $49.95 and go on sale at 12 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13. Tour dates for the rest of the world will be revealed soon.
Fans will be able sing along to music from the Grammy-Award winner's 12 multiplatinum albums, including Rhythm Nation 1814. (Her Rhythm Nation tour 30 years ago was her first headlining concert tour.) Jackson will also share music from her forthcoming album Black Diamond, which is anticipated this year.
Jackson, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, has also won a Golden Globe and a plethora of Billboard Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, and American Music Awards. The multitalented artist has also received two Emmy nominations and an Oscar nomination, and she continues to be one the best-selling artists of all time.
Get our top picks for the best events in Detroit every Thursday morning. Sign up for our events newsletter.
Tags: Janet Jackson, Black Diamond, tour, Little Caesars Arena, LCA, Detroit concerts, Image
« Eminem performed 'Lose Yourself' at… | Rage Against the Machine is heading… »
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How wireless charging of electric cars could change mobility in cities.
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- Transportation (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=25)
- - CHICAGO: Transit Developments (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=101657)
VivaLFuego Mar 26, 2007 2:50 PM
^ Mayor,
#1: I'd advise research alternate routes for the way home, rather than on the way to work; AM inbound service will only see minor cuts and will still be functional. Focus more on the PM for the first phase of 3-track
#2: When a bus is so obviously defective, write down or remember the 4-digit bus number and call in a complaint.
Chicago3rd Mar 26, 2007 2:53 PM
Too bad CTA couldn't have come up with the idea for a bus #11 Express. Nope...would have made too much sense.
And this come Friday at the "special" board meeting Krusie should be a man and when he says thumbs up to the 3 track approach and to the signals working....if they don't and there is a total melt down he should offer to step down.
Also, since we have so many stations closed are those people who we are paying going to be at Fullerton and Belmont assisting? I am concerned about people holding the doors open and I am concerned about people stuffing the trains so the doors will not close and all this causes delays. How are they going to police the people?
spyguy Mar 26, 2007 4:11 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/26/us...hp&oref=slogin
A Rail System (and Patience) Are Stretched Thin in Chicago
By LIBBY SANDER
The century-old elevated train system here is as much a city fixture as the towering skyline and the piercing blue waters of Lake Michigan.
But deteriorating tracks and trains, chronic budget shortfalls and a region ever more dependent on rail service are forcing Chicagoans to confront the possibility that the system, commonly known as the El or the L, may be at a breaking point.
"We're living on borrowed time," said Frank Kruesi, the president of the Chicago Transit Authority, which runs the rail service. "The fact is, there's no magic wand when we're looking at modernizing a system that's 100 years old in a very dense urban environment."
The El, with its 1,190 rail cars and 222 miles of track, is the rail component of the transit authority, the second-largest public transit system in the country after New York's. The C.T.A.'s trains and buses serve the city and 40 suburbs, logging 1.55 million rides daily. The El alone accounted for more than 195 million rides last year.
Many neighborhoods have thrived in recent years in part because they attracted residents eager to take advantage of the easy access to downtown that the trains afforded, some riders say. But the rail system is splitting at the seams, having carried 31 million more riders in 2005 than in 1985 on a fleet of cars with an average age of 27 years.
"I've been riding the El pretty much all my life, and I've never seen performance anywhere near this bad," Alexander Facklis, 37, a rider on the Blue Line, said during a recent morning commute when a stalled train slowed most service. "There are delays every single day."
For years, the story of the El has been one of too little money and costly patchwork maintenance, transit experts say.
Along with two other transit systems, Metra and Pace, which link Chicago to the suburbs by bus and by rail, the C.T.A. depends on a financing formula of fares and sales taxes that has not changed since 1983. The state auditor general has called the system's financial condition "precarious."
The Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees the three transit agencies, is trying to persuade state lawmakers to approve a $10 billion infusion of state and local money over the next five years. The C.T.A. needs $5.8 billion to bring its system, including buses, into a state of good repair, officials say.
"We call this 'the year of decision,' " said Stephen E. Schlickman, the executive director of the regional authority. The choice, Mr. Schlickman said, is between a "world-class transit system" and an economic downturn that, he predicted, a hobbled transit system would most likely bring about.
The combination of slow zones, construction projects and packed rail cars has unleashed complaints from riders at community meetings and on blogs like C.T.A. Tattler, which refers to one of the most troubled routes, the Blue Line, as the "Blues Line."
Jeff Gonzales, 40, sitting across the aisle from Mr. Facklis, said it used to take him 35 minutes to travel from his home in the Logan Square neighborhood to his job in the Loop. "Now, it takes an hour and 10 minutes," he said.
Not far from where Mr. Facklis's and Mr. Gonzales's train had ground to a halt, a derailment in a tunnel last July caused a smoky fire and forced passengers on a packed rush-hour train to evacuate below ground and crawl to safety. The derailment sent 152 people to the hospital and snarled commutes on trains and buses around the city for hours.
Commute times have since doubled along that line, riders say, as deteriorating ties on many stretches of track have forced trains to travel as slowly as 15 miles per hour in some spots. The El's slower trains prevent it from carrying as many passengers per hour as transit systems in Atlanta, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay Area, according to a state performance audit released this month.
Next month, work is set to begin on a $529.9 million expansion of the system's third-busiest rail line, the Brown Line, which winds through some of the city's most congested neighborhoods. Ridership on that line is up 83 percent since 1979, according to recent figures, and officials at the Chicago Transit Authority predict the overhaul will increase capacity by 33 percent.
In the meantime, though, riders are bracing for more than two and a half years of track closings that could reduce the capacity of already packed trains by as much as 40 percent at peak travel times.
But transit officials say the work is a necessary evil. Without it, the system would almost certainly fall into a chronic state of disrepair.
Helen Harrison, an administrative assistant who says the El is her only mode of transportation, faults Mayor Richard M. Daley for not paying enough attention to the problems. Ms. Harrison, 50, said she wondered how the transit system would handle an influx of tourists should Chicago win a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, a dream of Mr. Daley's. (The city is currently competing with Los Angeles to become the United States' bidder for the Games.)
"Mayor Daley should concentrate his efforts on this rather than on the Olympics," Ms. Harrison said.
Mr. Daley, who by law appoints several members of the C.T.A.'s oversight board, has said that luring the Olympics to Chicago could draw more federal money to assist with long-term upgrades to the system.
But for some, coping with the immediate future is more pressing.
"The notion that we're supposed to prepare for a doubling of our commute time for the next two and a half years is so laughable to me I haven't been able to get my arms around it," said Peter Skosey, a transit expert with the Metropolitan Planning Council, a nonprofit advocacy group. "I'm going to make sure my bike tires are inflated."
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/2...nsit600ku2.jpg
Chicagoans are confronting the possibility that the city's century-old, and deteriorating, elevated train system may be at a breaking point.
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/4...sit2650sl4.jpg
Riders of the El system in Chicago transferring between the Red Line and the Brown Line, which serves some of the city's most congested areas.
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/5...sit3650ki6.jpg
The El has been undergoing patchwork maintenance as ridership has risen, tracks have deteriorated and financing has been limited.
sentinel Mar 26, 2007 5:32 PM
^^^It's one thing for this to appear in the Tribune or the Sun-Times, but it's now an embarrassement at the national level, for everyone to see on the front page of the online NYTimes. This really makes me ashamed to be an Illinoisian, the fact that Springfield has the final say on how the RTA operates, where their money comes from and contributing the most to decadence of the CTA - it's a complete embarrassement and I hope that Blago is detroyed because of this.
j korzeniowski Mar 26, 2007 5:45 PM
Originally Posted by sentinel (Post 2718975)
yeah, my sister fw'd that article to me, and i thought, 'oh nice, now everybody knows ...'
i love chicago to death, and i am still glad i moved back after living in europe for 3.5 years, but the cta is always in the back of my mind, clouding that civic pride.
i apologize in advance if this has been brought up, but is there a date (or time period) when the assembly votes on any possible new funding? (when the movingbeyondcongestion.org 'year of decision' lobbying effort sinks or swims?) secondly, and i don't think i want to know the answer as i believe viva' has already alluded to it, but what are the chances of getting new funding beyond the $110 mil the cta needs this year? will they even get that $110 mil??
and on and on ...
Originally Posted by Chicago3rd (Post 2718610)
Generally, the "X" express routes only operate on 4-lane or wider arterials (Ashland, Western, Irving Park, Garfield, Cicero, King drive...or for example, the 53A Pulaski Limited only operates in the south where Pulaski is 4-lanes), since there is barely more than zero running time savings by having expresses operate on 2 lane urban streets. This is why there aren't express routes on many heavily-trafficked streets like Halsted, 79th, Belmont, etc.
Of course, streets like Lincoln could have dedicated bus lanes and not have parking, but that's an aldermanic and CDOT issue, not CTA.
MayorOfChicago Mar 26, 2007 7:04 PM
Originally Posted by VivaLFuego (Post 2718601)
I actually have already abandoned my morning usage of the train over the past few months. I use to just take the bus if it was already at the light waiting near my house, but I finally gave up and just started waiting for it myself. I hadn't been able to board a Brown Line train for weeks at Diversey because they were all at capacity. I was only able to get downtown by getting on a Purple Line (which almost always had room for people at Diversey) and then either waitinig for a Brown Line or just walking from Merch. Mart.
The bus wasn't bad until very recently, when everyone else started trying it out as an alternative. I'm a huge transit nut, so I know every route and possibility for getting downtown. At Racine and Diversey, the #11 is the only one that makes sense in the morning.
With capacity reduced by 13% in the mornings, I can't imagine getting on any trains when I have been waiting for between 1 to up to 3 full trains to pass through Diversey every single morning before being able to board. Then of course you have to feel the wrath of people at Armitage and Sedgwick who always have to wait longer. Those people at Sedgwick can be pretty vicious in the mornings, their patience with it all completely gone now. I don't know why they don't just take a bus or walk downtown. So much faster if you think about it.
I'm actually walking home tonight after work :) Figured with warmer weather I can just ditch the $75 monthly pass and walk to and from work. It'll take around an hour and 15 minutes, but the bus takes an hour anyway. Exercise, here I come :twoguns:
All CTA bus stops have a clear space for any bus loading or unloading to pull completely into. They took away the parking from the streets so that this "could" occure. The idea about taking parking spaces away from those of us who live in the neighborhoods was to ensure that automobiles and "express" buses can pass by a bus that is stopped at a bus stop. It is hard to believe CTA doesn't believe it takes any time to load passengers. Shaving off time could make the trips a lot shorter for those traveling the greatest distances. (P.S. we all have seen buses can pass each other on 2 lanes only....like when they are bunched up and stuff).
Another idea is that the Lake Shore Drive "X" buses that terminate at Foster should actually start picking people up from the North Garage to Lake Shore Drive.
^ my bus on Friday:
1) Blew through every stop sign
2) Drove through red lights if no one was coming
3) Didn't stop at multiple stops when the cord was pulled because people didn't pull it "soon enough"
We passed TWO busses on the way downtown that were ahead of us, and I ended up getting to work in 30 minutes instead of an hour. It was amazing. I think they could very readily do express on a 2 lane road, and it certainly saves more time than zero!!! It's a LOT of stopping and a LOOOOT of time missed at stoplights when you have to pull the bus over every two blocks and pick people up.
pip Mar 26, 2007 8:16 PM
Originally Posted by MayorOfChicago (Post 2719176)
It is no joke about walking often being almost as fast as taking the CTA.
brian_b Mar 27, 2007 12:03 AM
I can remember 3 or 4 years ago when the system was in much better shape that rollerblades or a bike on the lakefront path was faster (or at worst the same amount of time) as the rush hour busses (to/from east Lakeview).
I know a number of people that skipped the busses any time the weather was nice enough. I'd say it's even more important this summer. And I fear that the lakefront path is going to become hopelessly congested.
MayorOfChicago Mar 27, 2007 2:45 AM
Walked home tonight. Hour and 25 minutes to go 4.3 miles compared to one hour on the bus. Not too bad! I walk pretty slow as well, and having to stop and what seemed like every damn red light going north on Wells.
the urban politician Mar 27, 2007 3:42 AM
Bring Back Streetcars!
Busy Bee Mar 27, 2007 4:03 AM
I second that emotion.
pyropius Mar 27, 2007 5:43 AM
Does anyone have a good map of the former streetcar system? My grandfather, who grew up in the Austin neighborhood, has described it and it sounded quite extensive.
Originally Posted by pyropius (Post 2721007)
NOT my maps...from a transitfan's AOL page...streetcar maps from 1914, the network generally even grew a bit through about the 1940s.
http://hometown.aol.com/ctapacefan/map1914n.gif
http://hometown.aol.com/ctapacefan/map1914s.gif
^ How freaking handy would that be!!!!
I'm always fascinated when they repave a street, Fullerton, Halsted, whatever - and you can see the old tracks still embedded in the road when they scrape up the asphalt. They just threw down a new street over the old bricks and rails. I swear there were some on Sheffield when I lived over there last year. It really made me stop and look when I walked by those old bricks and the rails - right there in front of my apartment. What a fast paced and busy life the city must have had back then.
What fascinates me is how such a system could be built 100 years ago and we cannot even get a feeder system downtown between the west loop and Streeterville (even though smaller cities do....Portland created its StreetCar outside their Transit Agency).
J. Will Mar 27, 2007 3:36 PM
Holy smokes! That streetcar map makes Toronto's current 11-line streetcar system look like peanuts. Do you guys know how many people per day it carried? And did they use buses back then as well, or was surface transport entirely streetcars? Up here, almost all surface transit downtown is streetcars. Only a few streets like Bay, Sherbourne, and Wellesley use buses instead of streetcars.
http://www.chicagobus.org/history
Great website with pictures of the old streetcars. I also highly, highly recommend watching the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" because it touches at one point about the history of the electric streetcars and how Standard Oil, the precursor to Exxon Mobil (?) bought many streetcars en masse in the 40's-50's throughout many cities in the country and let them rust away in wreckage yards to make way for the explosion of their gas-consuming automobiles (also discussed at lenght on a recent PBS documentary).


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Lloyd's News
Warming Arctic Is Key to Understanding Climate Change Risks, Experts Say
HONG KONG/BRUSSELS – The environmental transformation happening in the Arctic is key to understanding the potential global impacts of climate change, an Alaska Native leader and a polar explorer told the Reuters Next conference on Monday [Jan. 11]. With climate …
UK Regulators Approve Lloyd's Special Purpose Vehicle to Attract New Forms of Capital
Lloyd's announced it has received regulatory approval to set up a new multi-insurance special purpose vehicle, which aims to attract new forms of capital. A key milestone for the Future at Lloyd's strategy, the new platform will make it easier …
Report: Despite Pandemic-Driven Emission Redux, We're Headed to 3-Degrees Warming
A new report finds that despite a brief dip in carbon dioxide emissions caused by the pandemic, the world is still heading for a temperature rise in excess of 3°C this century, a mark that is well beyond the Paris …
Lloyd's Moves to End Insurance and Investments in Coal for Climate Sustainability
The Lloyd's market is moving to end its insurance of coal and oil sands businesses while at the same time ceasing investments in such carbon-producing assets by Jan. 1, 2022. As part of its plan to accelerate the transition to …
First Coronavirus Business Interruption Trial Gets Underway
The owners of a restaurant in the heart of the New Orleans French Quarter are asking a Louisiana judge to order some Lloyd's of London insurers to cover losses from the Covid-19 outbreak — the first of a growing number …
Lloyd's, Insurtech Parsyl Launch Insurance Facility for COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments
Lloyd's and insurtech start-up Parsyl Inc. announced the launch of the Global Health Risk Facility (GHRF), which will provide billions of dollars of insurance coverage, together with risk mitigation services, to help protect and support the global distribution of COVID-19 …
Record Return of Merger Activity Leads to Massive Growth in M&A Insurance Market
LONDON – A record rebound in merger activity this year and a rise in litigation has brought with it an upsurge in insurance policies that give companies and private equity firms cover for when a deal goes wrong, industry officials …
How to Address the Next Uninsurable Pandemic — A Black Swan Event
There aren't many contexts where $2 trillion seems like a paltry sum. Then a pandemic comes along. The economic fallout from COVID-19 has left insurers issuing existential warnings and businesses discovering they weren't covered. It's resulted in courts packed with …
Arch Insurance International Renames Barbican Syndicate 1955
Arch Insurance International has announced the change of name of Barbican Syndicate 1955 to Arch Syndicate 1955, with effect from Jan. 1, 2021. The rebranding of Syndicate 1955 forms part of the ongoing integration of Barbican Insurance Group into Arch …
New Insurance Group Inigo Gets Approval from Lloyd's to Start Underwriting in January
Inigo Ltd., the new London insurance group that has raised $800m in start-up capital from a group of blue chip global investors, announced that it has received approval in principle from the Corporation of Lloyd's and will start underwriting for …


Oatmeal is made up of ground oats. These ground oats come in many forms; steel cut, milled and rolled. You may decide to have them thick or even thin. This all depends on the texture that you like the most or the amount of time you have to prepare them.
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Wonder water appears like a new hype, but it's an interesting principle discovered by some researchers at Organic Gardening magazine. Sign up to your free Extra - Care card at the local CVS pharmacy or at CVS. It goes as the easiest way of buying medicine.
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text:
Social Media Endorsement Regulations
Sharon Siegel, Esq.
Do you promote your brand or company on social media? Do you have endorsements for your brand or company on Instagram or Twitter? That's great for your business, but may be a minefield when it comes to consumer protection regulations. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been active in patrolling social media for deceptive advertising and endorsements, and then issuing flurries of warning letters and guidance documents, and also bringing enforcement actions. This federal agency is more hip than you might think.
Most recently, in April 2017, the FTC sent more than 90 letters to celebrities, marketers, and other "influencers" warning them to "clearly and conspicuously disclose their relationships to brands when promoting or endorsing products through social media." This resulted from the FTC's review of Instagram posts, where the agency found murkiness when it comes to who is getting paid for endorsing products, who is employed by companies producing these products, who is getting free stuff from these companies, and the like. The FTC explains that "if there is a material connection between an endorser and an advertiser, that connection should be clearly and conspicuously disclosed unless it's already clear from the context of the communication." And the FTC is working on its catchy #clearandconspicuous, #disclosures, and #materialconnection campaigns.
Last year, the FTC made a big splash by settling an enforcement action against Lord & Taylor. (#disclosure: That's where I buy my dresses.) The FTC charged that Lord & Taylor did not disclose that it was paying for native advertisements, including one in an on-line magazine and another on Instagram. This type of ads can seem indistinguishable from the media where they appear, which make them particularly tricky for consumers. The FTC also charged that the retailer failed to disclose that it gave 50 on-line fashion "influencers" the same dress to wear and then paid them to post Instagram pictures of themselves in that dress.
Also last year, the FTC settled a high-profile enforcement action against Machinima, an on-line gaming network, for failing to disclose that it paid "influencers" to post YouTube videos and other on-line endorsements of Microsoft's Xbox One gaming system and certain games. The FTC claimed that it was deceptive for Machinima to engage in this type of campaign without disclosing its financial stake.
What's the lesson in all this? When in doubt, DISCLOSE. And make sure that it's easy to see -- not hidden in a hyperlink or in small print or accessible only after scrolling down.
social media endorsements legal regulations rules


If you need a truly eye-catching gift or just want to make your own Christmas tree more festive, try making these honeycomb ornaments.
Depending on the size of the ornament you want, gather six to 12 Whisker Graphics Middy Bitty Bags of the same pattern and color and cut in half vertically so that the side folds remain intact.
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Turn each folded ornament inside out.
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Run a piece of Divine Twine down the center of the ornament and tape in place with clear tape. Glue the last two sections together so that the ornament forms a circle.
On every other open page of the ornament, place a dot of glue in the top third of the ornament (using the same placement for each dot). Let dry.
On the remaining alternating pages, place a dot of glue in the bottom third of the ornament (using the same placement for each dot). Let dry.
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Tie a pom-pom or jingle bell to the bottom of the ornament, if you desire.
Wrap Whisker Graphics Divine Twine around one finger 75 to 100 times. I used the Gold Metallic Divine Twine.
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Tie the three inch piece of twine tightly around the bundle.
Snip all the loops above and below your tie.
Trim the twine until it forms a round pom-pom shape.


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Thomas Saunders
Born in Cedar Rapids, IA
Born on Oct 17, 1963
Departed on Dec 3, 2018
Thomas Phillip Saunders, 55, of Cedar Rapids, died suddenly of natural causes Monday, December 3, 2018 at his home. Funeral Mass: 11:00 am Friday, December 7, 2018 at St. Matthew Catholic Parish in Cedar Rapids. A visitation will take be held from 4-7 pm Thursday, December 6, 2018 at Cedar Memorial Funeral Home. Private Family Inurnment: Cedar Memorial Park Cemetery.
Tom was born October 17, 1963, the son of Phillip and Roberta (Carrothers) Saunders, in Cedar Rapids. He graduated from Washington High School in 1982 and later went on to Hawkeye Community College to pursue photography. Tom moved to Oregon where he worked for Cub Foods until his return home to Cedar Rapids in 1999. He began his career at the Marion Hy-Vee working in the Meat Department, where he was worked for the last nineteen years.
Tom was an avid Chicago Cubs fan and in his younger days, enjoyed hunting with his father. More than anything, he loved being a father to his only daughter, Regan. She was the best gift he could have ever hoped for.
Survivors include his daughter, Regan Saunders; parents, Phillip and Roberta Saunders; brother, Jim (Susan) Saunders; uncle and aunt, Dale and Peg Carrothers; and niece, Olivia Saunders.
He was preceded in death by his grandparents.
Memorials may be directed to the family in memory of Tom.


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In the 2005 earthquake, the school in Noon Bagla collapsed, killing fourteen children.
The AHS foundation appealed for support for new school buildings to be constructed.
The children in the village were frightened of being inside concrete buildings as a result of the deaths of their friends.
The psychological ordeal faced by these children was reported by the schools headmaster, and recognised by friend of the foundation Raymond Elderton, who donated funds to sponsor the provision of a playground for them.
Ray travelled to Noon Bagla and helped erect the playground himself, and was overwhelmed by a surge of excited, happy children who had never seen swings, slides and a roundabout before.


When a major winter storm washed away Wednesday's match, the Los Amigos High boys' soccer team did not let the weather dampen their spirits.
Senior goalkeeper Daniel Roman noted that "nobody really wants to play on Saturday," but the Lobos were able to get excited about a chance to compete for first place.
Junior striker Francisco Lopez scored in the seventh minute, and the visiting Lobos defeated Santiago 1-0 on Saturday in a makeup of their first Garden Grove League meeting.
Los Amigos (11-2-1, 5-1 in league) won the battle of ranked teams in the CIF Southern Section, forging a three-way tie atop the league standings. Santiago (15-3-2, 5-1), ranked fourth in Division 2, and Loara (9-4-2, 5-1) are also tied for first.
The Lobos, ranked seventh in Division 5, are seeking their first league title since 2013. Los Amigos has a team full of experience, which includes a trio of double-digit goal scorers in Gustavo Oleta, Alfonso Montano and Lopez.
"This team reminds me a lot of my 2006 CIF championship team," Lobos coach Chris Sandro said. "They're friends on and off the field. They're really experienced. We have 16 seniors out of 23 guys, and the other seven are juniors.
Following the rain, the natural grass field at Santiago had an element of unevenness. Sandro said he wanted the ball played directly to teammates, with the ball likely to get away if it did not land at a player's feet.
"On offense, I always yell, 'Feet,' " Sandro said. "By that, I mean, I want the ball on somebody. Find somebody's feet. Do not kick it up in the air. Don't give him a through ball. Hit his feet.
The Lobos executed for the game's only goal early on. Montano put the ball on Lopez, who found himself in space in the middle and was able to take advantage.
Roman made eight saves for the Lobos, none bigger than when he knocked down a missile from the left side of the box by Jesus Nino in the 77th minute.
The Cavaliers earned a close-range free kick above the box in stoppage time, but Daniel Gutierrez's attempt to go over the defensive wall in front sailed wide of the left elbow of the goal.
For most of the afternoon, the Lobos' back line of Pedro Leyva, Brandon Alfaro, Allen Ocampo and Julio Vega prevented the Cavaliers from producing quality scoring chances.


The final version of this article with its full bibliographical information is available. To access the article, click here (Vol. 8 (2019), No. 1 pp. 13-19).
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When Mugu Zakka Bako arrived at the scene of twin bomb blasts on May 20, 2014, at a busy market in the city of Jos, Nigeria, he saw more than the destruction and injured people.
He saw Muslims and Christians working shoulder to shoulder, helping to rescue people from the debris. They consoled and talked with each other said Bako, peace coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Nigeria.
"If not for the peace work that has been taking place in Plateau State [Jos is its capital] over the last number of years, this kind of incident could easily have erupted into religious violence," agreed Matthew Tangbuin, MCC Nigeria program advisor and business manager.
Tangbuin is referring to intensive peacebuilding work that many groups in Jos, including MCC's partners, are doing to defuse violence and encourage connections between Muslims and Christians.
Plateau State lies in an area between Nigeria's largely Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south and is home to diverse religious and ethnic groups. The attack, which killed 122 people, was the first large-scale incident of violence in Jos during the past two years.
MCC staff and its partners are safe, although several witnessed the explosion. Others were close enough for debris to fall on them outside the MCC office, which is about 595 metres from the explosion. Many people connected with MCC knew someone killed or injured in the blasts. Some spending hours searching through charred bodies to find loved ones. Seven volunteers working for MCC's partner, Faith Alive Clinic, were killed or are presumed dead.
Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, people in Jos commonly attribute it to Boko Haram. This group of Islamist militants, who oppose education for girls and other Western influences, got worldwide attention in April after abducting and threatening to sell more than 270 school girls in northeast Nigeria.
But people are tired of the violence, Dave Klassen, MCC representative in Nigeria, which may make them more determined to work for peace and more open to listening to their friends who discourage a violent response.
"People have a united front against Boko Haram," he said.
One of MCC's largest partners, Emergency Preparedness Response Teams (EPRT), has created a web of volunteers across Plateau State trained to recognize growing tensions and defuse them.
At the bombings in Jos, EPRT volunteers were there, many in official capacity as first responders, Klassen said. Yet even as they worked to save lives or direct traffic, they were alert for signs of follow-up violence.
MCC's peacebuilding work has been a priority in Nigeria since 2001. Primarily, MCC works behind the scenes, and has sent more than 35 Nigerians to peacebuilding training to learn about topics such as conflict prevention, trauma healing, restorative justice and advocacy.
"Many have come back dramatically transformed," Klassen said. He sees them at work for other organizations, where they develop and strengthen connections between Christians and Muslims.
No one can draw a definitive line between the ongoing peacebuilding work of many organizations and the lack of violence following the bombings, Klassen said. Yet the peaceful response is hopeful for Nigerian peacemakers.


We never outgrow the need for a family. "Never venture out alone"- a lesson shared by Desiree in this great story about older youth adoption from Casey Family Programs.
FFF has a webpage dedicated to resources for youth and young adults.
Adoption Month calendar of ideas for celebrating the month from Adoptive Families magazine.
Fairfax County Department of Family Services is hosting an Adoption Awareness Month Event on November 18. Come join the fun!
Ideal for all families, this free workshop offer practical suggestions for making meaningful changes to improve your family's overall health and wellness. Join Dr. Klimenko and FFF in Herndon. Youth 14 and older are welcome. Refreshments served. More information HERE.
Whether at home or around the IEP meeting table, many of us struggle with conflict in our personal and professional lives. Join two professional mediators for a free Cruising through Conflict: How Harnessing Brain Chemistry can Tame Tough Conversations training, Monday, December 5 in Fairfax.
Q: Our adoptive family is struggling to find counselors who understand our specific needs. It seems like most of the therapists we try don't recognize or know how to help us with the attachment and trust issues that we are dealing with our daughter. Any suggestions?
A: Yes, we hear this concern from a lot of formed families. Selecting the right provider, for behavioral and mental health, physical health, psychoeducational evaluation and even tutoring can be really challenging for adoptive, foster and kinship families raising children and youth with "extra-special" needs.
While FFF does not endorse any specific providers, our updated Formed Families Resource Directoryis chock full of organizations, agencies and private providers that other families have found helpful. Download your copy HERE!
The Child Welfare Information Gateway offers a guide to Selecting and Working With a Therapist Skilled in Adoption.
Our friends at the Center for Adoption Supports and Education (C.A.S.E.) have established a Training for Adoption Competency program. A Directory of Adoption-Competent Professionals is also available. Consider asking potential providers if they are adoption competent or are willing to take the training.
In addition, NAMI has a guide for families choosing evidence based practices in mental or behavioral health.
Support groups and other connections between adoptive and foster parents and kinship caregivers are great sources of information about tried and true providers. Our friends at NewFound Families offer a weekly Facebook chat and a number of support group opportunities.
Above all, take the time to develop a set of questions to discuss with potential providers. Trust and open communication between parents or caregivers and service providers is critical to effective treatment. Schedule a "test drive" appointment to meet the provider and discuss his or her experiences and comfort with addressing your family's needs. As appropriate, the child or youth in your care should also meet the provider and discuss treatment goals.
We are thankful for all the free and low-cost training events available to parents, caregivers and professionals in our area. Take advantage of these great offerings from FFF and friends!
November 6- "ADD and Loving It" film screening and discussion, sponsored by Fairfax ADHD Resource Group, Fairfax.
November 6- NAMI of Northern Virginia FallFest, Herndon.
November 7- Screening of Resilence: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope film, sponsored by the Fairfax Trauma Informed Care Network, Fairfax.
November 10, 6 PM- Building Healthy Families: LEAN Essentials workshop with Dr. Klimenko, hosted by FFF, in Herndon.
November 10, 11 AM- Mindfulness and Movement for Caretakers webinar, sponsored by PEATC.
November 10, 5 PM- What To Do During Police Encounters: Town Hall and Resource Fair, hosted by Alexandria and Arlington DSS, Arlington.
November 13- Exceptional Schools Fair, Washington, DC.
November 17- Moving on to Life in the Community Transition Resource Fair, Hosted by Fairfax County Public Schools Parent Resource Center, Burke.
November 29- Becoming an Active Member of Your Child's IEP Team, Arlington Public Schools Parent Resource Center, Arlington.
January 19, 2017- The Power of Play: A Relationship-Based Approach to Improving Behavior workshop hosted by Loudoun County Public Schools Parent Resource Services, sponsored by FFF, Ashburn.
Our Formed Families Forward Stronger Together peer support groups for youth and young adults ages 14-22, and for parents and caregivers, started up in October. The facilitated groups meet two Tuesday evenings a month in Fairfax and dinner is provided!
We have a great group of youth and young adults, and of parents and caregivers, who have initiated our 2016-17 groups. Stronger Together has open enrollment so we welcome new youth and young adults who have personal lived experience with social services, special education, mental health services or substance use treatment.
Opioids - What's all the hype?
Did you know that one person in the US will die from an opioid-related overdose every 20 minutes? That marijuana and alcohol are gateways for opioid abuse and that addiction to alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and other opioids places a youth or adult at much higher risk for heroin addiction? That opioid and other drug overdose-related deaths are increasing at rates not seen in years?
Formed Families Forward participated in a recent community training about the opioid epidemic in Virginia, held at GMU. As an October 31 study reports, there is a concerning rise in opioid-related poisonings in children and teens. Learn more HERE about the epidemic and strategies for community and families to increase awareness and responsiveness.
professionals who care about special needs, adoption, foster care and kinship care. We share events, data, and other resources that help make raising formed families a little easier!


text:
Climate change activists arrested for using…
Climate change activists arrested for using scaffolding to block train in Harvard headed to coal plant
By Stefan Geller | Boston Herald
PUBLISHED: January 3, 2020 at 11:49 a.m. | UPDATED: January 3, 2020 at 6:43 p.m.
Four climate activists were arrested Friday morning after they built scaffolding atop train tracks in Harvard in an attempt to block a train headed to a coal plant in New Hampshire.
The protesters blocked the train on the Pan Am Railroad tracks at the end of Depot Road overnight, and after refusing to disperse were taken into custody early Friday morning, according to state police.
Timothy DeChristopher, 38, of Pawtucket, R.I.; Adam Rice, 30, of South Portland, Maine; Cody Pajic, 21, of Pembroke; and Gia Neswald, 50, of Turners Falls were charged with trespassing, walking or standing on railroad tracks and obstruction of a passing train.
They were booked at the state police barracks in Leominster and transported to Clinton District Court for arraignment.
According to a spokeswoman for the Climate Disobedience Center, the protesters were acting on the part of the No Coal No Gas campaign, which is pushing to shut down the Merrimack Generating Station in Bow.
"This latest blockade is part of the ongoing effort — organized by a grassroots coalition across New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and Vermont — to shut down the last major coal plant in New England without a shut down date, in response to the climate emergency," a statement from the Climate Disobedience Center read.
climate activists
Stefan Geller | Reporter
Stefan Geller is a general assignment reporter at the Boston Herald. An Arlington resident and graduate of UMass Amherst, he previously worked for the weekly newspaper the Needham Times.
Follow Stefan Geller	@StefanGeller
More in Crime & Public Safety
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Loughlin's husband pleads to get out of prison, as fellow college scam defendant wins pardon
Deadly road rage in Belmont: Man accused of yelling racial slurs before fatally striking Black victim
Woman dies after trying to rescue dogs from burning home


This time last year, we were wrapping up the demolition phase for our big 3-room-project. On the agenda was the second floor bathroom, master bedroom and laundry room, and because all of these rooms shared at least one wall, it made the most sense for us to dive in head first. No looking back, no way. What followed was days and days of tiling, closet building and paint deciding (among countless other to-dos), and finally – finally! – we've reached the very end of the tunnel. You guys, the laundry room is done!
To be fair, after completing the bathroom and bedroom renovations, we put the laundry room on temporary hold while we focused on the back patio this past summer. We had gotten the room to the point where the cabinets were in place and the butcher block countertop had been cut, and the washing machine and dryer had been hooked up for months. Although we were thisclose to calling it done before the outdoor season started calling our name, we didn't really wrap it up until this month. And we couldn't be happier! That ostrich wallpaper. Those gold knobs. We think it wins the award of cutest room in our house. So, so cute.
The first phase of laundry room deconstruction and reconstruction had us making the room smaller than it was. Above, the wall with our laundry sorter is the backside of our bathroom's shower. We borrowed space from this room to make the bathroom larger, and we've no regrets. Our laundry room is appropriately sized for its purpose (probably more so, really!), and there's still plenty of room to move about as we toss clothes into the machine or pull our tees out of the dryer.
At the eleventh hour, we asked our contractors if they could add two recessed lights in addition to our central fixture. This was before we installed our cabinets, so there was a bit of guesswork and a lot of crossing our fingers involved! Our fear was that the counter space would feel too dark otherwise, and since then, we've said countless times, thank goodness we thought to ask them! When in doubt and if at all possible, always err on the side of more lighting – and add dimmers! The brass flush mount was inspired by a fixture I spotted in a bathroom (of all places) at the Chicago Athletic Association. Side note, Chicago locals, give yourself an afternoon and take a look around this gem – grab a drink in The Drawing Room, dine at Cherry Circle Room (or the Shake Shack downstairs!), have a staycation in the hotel and make sure to check out every nook and cranny. The building is stunning!
It's been nice having the sink so close to the bed, if only for my middle-of-the-night-must-have-a-glass-of-water habit; we picked up this glass carafe for that very reason! A bar of laundry soap sits on a stone dish, perfect for rubbing onto stains before throwing clothing into the washing machine or to use as regular ol' hand soap.
Just like we did in our kitchen, we added a tip out tray to those typically wasted front panels below the sink. Inside, we tuck away Magic Erasers, scrubber pads and extra tough stain gel.
Several months ago, the base cabinet was transformed into Libby's domain with the help of this adorable cathole, her safe haven of sorts, and one that she absolutely loves. (If we can't find her lounging on the couch, she'll be curled up in her cabinet!) The lowest upper cabinets contain the things we grab most often, like cleaning supplies and a few of our everyday towels. The higher cabinets house even more towels, extra bedding and photo albums – something I've been meaning to drag out of the attic for a while now! Let's just say it took me a good few hours to put those albums away. Nostalgia for days.
Despite having walls full of ostriches, we couldn't not hang at least one photo. We went through a box of artwork from our old home (yes, we still have a lot of art in storage!), but everything felt overly colorful or competed too much with the wallpaper. In the end, we decided on something more personal, and we chose a photo of us with our friends taken on a vacation earlier this year. Although it's a colorful sunset photo, I converted it to black and white and had it printed and framed through Framebridge. Also in this little corner, we filled our favorite jars with DIY suds, Libby's food and these (awesome!) wool dryer balls.
Okay, ready for the before and afters? When we bought this house, this room was being used as a small bedroom, evidenced by the drywalled closet. Now, it's much smaller than before, and we swapped the plumbing to the opposite wall to make room for our plans. It's tiny, efficient, and it packs a big, fat punch.
Wallpaper: Beware the Moon | Cabinets: Aspen White Shaker | Frosted glass pocket door | pocket door hardware | Navy striped rug | DIY laundry sorter | white step stool | Brass cabinet hardware | Ceiling flush mount | DIY butcher block countertop | Purist chrome faucet | Porto Fino sink | Retractable clothesline | Storage jars | Metallic gold frame | Water carafe | Animal planter (unavailable, similar) | For bedroom sources, you can also shop our house!
For a full rundown on how we got from point A to B, click on any thumbnail below to take you to the original post!
This looks so great! I'm in the super early stages of planning our laundry reno and our space is pretty small so this is a great inspiration for me and hope you won't mind a couple of questions! What are the dimensions of your laundry room? I think ours is about 5×6. And how do you like the stacked units? I'm trying to decide between putting ours side by side or stacking them.
So inspiring. Gorgeous!! Such a great idea to have it were you need it near the clothes! Love the hideaway for your cat giving her a safe place away from the boys!
everyday I have been reading thru and cathing up I am inspired to imagine what I could do in my wee rental railroad. Declutter is a big one for me and its a goal for this year.
My laundry room is attached to my master bedroom as well. My house was built in 1952. This gives me a ton of ideas. My laundry room is so narrow! I'm struggling to find machines that aren't way to big. I'll likely end up stacking them, but there is still the depth issue.
I love your laundry room remodel!


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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<title>SplitNode</title>
<meta name="date" content="2015-09-10">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../../stylesheet.css" title="Style">

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weka.classifiers.trees.ht

Class SplitNode

java.lang.Object

weka.classifiers.trees.ht.HNode

weka.classifiers.trees.ht.SplitNode

All Implemented Interfaces:

java.io.Serializable

public class SplitNode
extends HNode

Class for a node that splits the data in a Hoeffding tree

Version:

$Revision: 10169 $

Author:

Richard Kirkby (rkirkby@cs.waikato.ac.nz), Mark Hall (mhall{[at]}pentaho{[dot]}com)

See Also:

Serialized Form

Field Summary

Fields inherited from class weka.classifiers.trees.ht.HNode

m_classDistribution

Constructor Summary

Constructors

Constructor and Description

SplitNode(java.util.Map<java.lang.String,WeightMass> classDistrib,
         Split split)

Construct a new SplitNode

Method Summary

Methods

Modifier and Type
Method and Description

java.lang.String
branchForInstance(Instance inst)

Return the branch that the supplied instance goes down

void
graphTree(java.lang.StringBuffer buff)

int
installNodeNums(int nodeNum)

boolean
isLeaf()

Returns true if this is a leaf

LeafNode
leafForInstance(Instance inst,
               SplitNode parent,
               java.lang.String parentBranch)

Return the leaf that the supplied instance ends up at

int
numChildred()

Number of child nodes

void
setChild(java.lang.String branch,
        HNode child)

Add a child

void
updateNode(Instance inst)

Update the node with the supplied instance

Methods inherited from class weka.classifiers.trees.ht.HNode

classDistributionIsPure, getDistribution, numEntriesInClassDistribution, toString, totalWeight, updateDistribution

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

SplitNode

public SplitNode(java.util.Map<java.lang.String,WeightMass> classDistrib,
         Split split)

Construct a new SplitNode

Parameters:

classDistrib - the class distribution

split - the split

Method Detail

branchForInstance

public java.lang.String branchForInstance(Instance inst)

Return the branch that the supplied instance goes down

Parameters:

inst - the instance to find the branch for

Returns:

the branch that the supplied instance goes down

isLeaf

public boolean isLeaf()

Description copied from class: HNode

Returns true if this is a leaf

Overrides:

isLeaf in class HNode

Returns:

numChildred

public int numChildred()

Number of child nodes

Returns:

the number of child nodes

setChild

public void setChild(java.lang.String branch,
            HNode child)

Add a child

Parameters:

branch - the branch for the child

child - the child itself

leafForInstance

public LeafNode leafForInstance(Instance inst,
                       SplitNode parent,
                       java.lang.String parentBranch)

Description copied from class: HNode

Return the leaf that the supplied instance ends up at

Overrides:

leafForInstance in class HNode

Parameters:

inst - the instance to find the leaf for

parent - the parent node

parentBranch - the parent branch

Returns:

the leaf that the supplied instance ends up at

updateNode

public void updateNode(Instance inst)

Description copied from class: HNode

Update the node with the supplied instance

Specified by:

updateNode in class HNode

Parameters:

inst - the instance to update with

installNodeNums

public int installNodeNums(int nodeNum)

Overrides:

installNodeNums in class HNode

graphTree

public void graphTree(java.lang.StringBuffer buff)

Overrides:

graphTree in class HNode

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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


LONDOL UNIT TRUST is a Fixed Unit Trust based in or near Bool Lagoon, Cadgee & Joanna in South Australia, Australia. LONDOL UNIT TRUST is a registered Australian Business Name with the Australian Business Number (ABN) of: 84774437228.
This business was first added to the ABN register on 6th May 2016 and has been trading for 2 years.
LONDOL UNIT TRUST last updated Australian Business Name information on 16th June 2016.


text:
First lizard genome sequenced
by Haley Bridger, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Photo by David E. Scott, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Aiken, SC, USA
(PhysOrg.com) -- The green anole lizard is an agile and active creature, and so are elements of its genome. This genomic agility and other new clues have emerged from the full sequencing of the lizard's genome and may offer insights into how the genomes of humans, mammals, and their reptilian counterparts have evolved since mammals and reptiles parted ways 320 million years ago. The researchers who completed this sequencing project reported their findings August 31 online in the journal Nature.
The green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis) – a native of the Southeastern United States – is the first non-bird species of reptile to have its genome sequenced and assembled. Broad researchers have assembled and analyzed more than 20 mammalian genomes – including those of some of our closest relatives – but the genetic landscape of reptiles remains relatively unexplored.
"Sometimes you need to be at a certain distance in order to learn about how the human genome evolved," said Jessica Alföldi, co-first author of the paper and a research scientist in the vertebrate genome biology group at the Broad Institute. "You have to look out further than you were looking previously."
Lizards are more closely related to birds – which are also reptiles – than to any of the other organisms whose genomes have been sequenced in full. Like mammals, birds and lizards are amniotes, meaning that they are not restricted to laying eggs in water. "People have been sequencing animals from different parts of the vertebrate tree, but lizards had not been previously sampled," said Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, scientific director of vertebrate genome biology at the Broad and senior author of the Nature paper. "This was an important branch to look at."
Four hundred species of anole lizards have fanned out across the islands of the Caribbean, North America, Central America, and South America, making them an appealing model for studying evolution. Although much is known about their biology and behavior, genomic information may be a critical missing piece for understanding how the lizards have become so diverse. "Anoles are rich in ecology and morphology and have just the right amount of diversity to make them interesting yet tractable to study," said Jonathan Losos, an author of the paper, professor at Harvard University, and author of the book Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree: Ecology and Adaptive Radiation of Anoles. "But a big stumbling block in studying them has been that they have not been great organisms for classical genetic study. The genome is going to revolutionize our ability to study that aspect of their evolutionary diversification."
One of the questions this newly sequenced genome may help resolve has to do with the origin of conserved, non-coding elements in the human genome. These regions do not contain protein-coding genes but are thought to have critical roles since they have remained unchanged for millennia. Scientists wondered where these mysterious elements came from and hypothesized that they may be the relics of transposons – jumping stretches of DNA that were at one time able to copy and paste themselves throughout the genome. In humans, many of these so called "jumping genes" have lost their jumping ability, but in anole lizards, they continue to hop.
"Anoles have a living library of transposable elements," said Alföldi. The researchers aligned these mobile elements to the human genome, and found that close to 100 of the human genome's non-coding elements are derived from these jumping genes. "In anoles, these transposons are still hopping around, but evolution has used them for its own purposes, turning them into something functional in humans."
In addition to insights into human and mammalian genomes, the anole lizard's genome also offers up clues about how lizard species evolved to populate islands in the Greater Antilles. Much like Darwin's finches, anoles adapted to fill all of the ecological niches the islands have to offer. Some lizards have short legs and can walk along narrow twigs; others are green in color with big toe pads suited for living high up in trees; others are yellow and brown and live in the grass. But unlike the finches, lizards on different islands have independently evolved diverse communities of these twig, canopy, and grass dwelling species – almost identical lizard species have evolved in parallel on the islands of Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica.
"These lizards have been compared to Darwin's finches and in many respects they are similar," said Losos. "They show the workings of natural selection as species adapted to different habitats. But the difference is in the case of the lizards, this evolution has happened four times, once on each of the different islands."
By sampling the genomes of more than 90 species, the researchers were able to make a preliminary map of how these species evolved to colonize the islands.
"This is setting the stage for the research community to be able to look for signatures of adaptation in a very informative and well thought through way," said Lindblad-Toh.
The researchers were also able to create a parts list of proteins found in green anole eggs, which they compared with those found in eggs from chickens and found that both bird and lizard egg genes are evolving rapidly. They also found many genes in the anoles genome associated with color vision, which anoles rely on to identify choice mates (males and females of some species display vividly colored flaps of skin beneath their necks called dewlaps).
"Anoles have extremely good color vision – some species can even see in the ultraviolet range," said Losos. Other studies have shown that anoles can distinguish between similar colors and patterns. "It's pretty clear that one function of the dewlap is to distinguish one species from others and that they use the dewlap to determine whether another individual is in another species or not."
The researchers performed the first analysis of several other unusual features in the anole genome, including microchromosomes – tiny chromosomes sometimes found in reptiles, amphibians, and fish but never in mammals. They also found a complete lack of isochores, regions of the genome with high or low concentrations of the nucleotides "G" (guanine) and "C" (cytosine) which give human chromosomes a distinct banding pattern.
Additionally, the team found the sex chromosomes of the lizard – something that researchers had only been able to hypothesize about before. Like mammals, green anoles appear to have XX and XY chromosomes (unlike birds, in which males have two identical sex chromosomes called ZZ and females have two different ones known as ZW). The lizard's X chromosome turned out to be one of its many microchromosomes.
Each of these insights is the fruit of collaborative efforts among scientists with expertise in the study of proteins, gene family evolution, green anole behavior and biology, computational analysis, and more. "This work represents a partnership between biologists and computational biologists," said Federica Di Palma, a co-first author of the paper and assistant director of the Broad's vertebrate genome biology group. "We were able to leverage all of these views to gain insight into genome evolution in general."
Competition puts the brakes on body evolution in island lizards
More information: Alfoldi J et al. "The genome of the green anole lizard and a comparative analysis with birds and mammals." Nature August 31, 2011 doi:10.1038/nature10390
Provided by Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Citation: First lizard genome sequenced (2011, August 31) retrieved 17 January 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2011-08-lizard-genome-sequenced.html
Lizards 'Shout' Against a Noisy Background
Brainy lizards pass test for birds
How important is geographical isolation in speciation?
Tree lizard's quick release escape system makes jumpers turn somersaults
Mobile DNA elements in woolly mammoth genome give new clues to mammalian evolution
Scientists uncover how an explosion of new genes explain the origin of land plants
The mysterious, legendary giant squid's genome is revealed
Jumping genes threaten egg cell quality
Nitrogen-fixing genes could help grow more food using fewer resources


The intention is to support the release of Swedish films either in a single or in numerous markets outside of Sweden. Release implies any viewing and promotional materials, campaigns and marketing-related expenses. These expenses must be clearly specified.
The grant is only available in relation to the release of Swedish films – with a minimum duration of 60 minutes – for distribution outside of Sweden. In order to meet the application requirements for this support, a film must supply a Certificate of Origin stating its Swedish origin. The main producer of the film must be Swedish, and the Swedish contribution to the production of the film, in terms of creative collaboration and workforce, must be substantial. The Swedish Film Institute has the power to issue a Certificate of Origin.
The grant should be considered an extra resource enabling a more robust film release. The distributor should not account for this funding as a cost related to the rights holder (sales agent/producer) in the P&A.
Distributors may only apply for support for films that have been completed in the past three years, calculated from the date of the international premiere, or if the film has yet to screen internationally, from the date of its Swedish premiere, from the time the application is submitted.
Those distributors granted support are required to credit the Swedish Film Institute as a distribution support agent in all markets for which they have received funding.
When and how does the application process occur?
Application has to be completed on specific forms, and support is granted at four meetings per year. Ensure that all required documents, i.e. release and marketing plan, release and marketing budget and budget estimates, are submitted at the time of application.
The deadline for the application is four weeks after the closure of each of the following film markets: European Film Market (EFM), Marché du Film (MIF), Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and American Film Market (AFM).
The maximum awarded amount per film and country/territory is SEK 250,000. The term territory implies that the film is sold for distribution in a number of countries, for example the Nordic countries or North America. The maximum total amount of support a film may be granted (in all countries/territories) is SEK 600,000. The minimum amount to apply for is SEK 50,000. The distributor must match the support granted by the Swedish Film Institute. When calculating the distributor's matching funds, this amount may not include funding from other external institutions, such as Creative Europe.
Each application is processed by the Swedish Film Institute's International Department, along with an external advisory group. Final decision is made by the CEO of the Swedish Film Institute.
How is the support paid out?
The grant is issued to the film's Swedish producer, and is paid in two instalments. 75 percent of the approved grant is paid within 14 days after the Swedish Film Institute has received a copy of the long form agreement between the distributor and the sales agent/producer as well as other required appendices (see below). The remaining 25 percent is paid once the Swedish Film Institute has received an approved tax declaration of the grant as well as other required appendices (see below).
How is the funding declared?
The distributor verifies and accounts for expenses by supplying certified invoice copies. A written analysis of the release and marketing of the film, as well as substantial statistics (e.g. admissions, VOD viewings, festival screenings, information on sub licensing deals, press clippings, et cetera) for analysis and additional follow-up – with verified and certified data – should also be supplied at this time.
The abovementioned accounting documentation must reach the Swedish Film Institute within six months of the film's premiere. The Swedish Film Institute withholds the right to call the distributor, producer and sales agent into a financial assessment meeting.
All account reporting to be submitted via specific forms.
In the event that a film which has been granted support is not released within the time frame stated in the application, either the entire funding amount or part of it may be reclaimed. Repayment of the entire grant – or a portion of it – can be demanded should the distributor veer from the original plans provided with the application, either the release and marketing plan or the budget estimate.
Please also refer to the General Conditions.


text:
Watch: Bronwen Lewis styles it out in Welsh for Harry
23 Apr 2022 2 minute read
Harry Styles (Credit: Publicity pic) and Bronwen Lewis (Credit: @BronwenLewis_)
Bronwen Lewis is back with her latest offering – and if you're a Harry Styles or One Direction fan you're going to love it.
The singer who loves to take popular songs and cover them in Welsh, has recorded her take on Style's latest chart-topper 'As It Was'.
The song debuted at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Styles' second chart-topping song, after 'Watermelon Sugar'. It also entered at the top of the UK Singles chart where it remains this week, becoming his second number one song in the UK, after 'Sign of the Times'.
The glorious @Harry_Styles – As It Was in Welsh/Cymraeg 🏴
Happy Saturday 🤍 @HSHQ #AsItWas pic.twitter.com/mWebfuHgqT
— B R O N W E N (@BronwenLewis_) April 23, 2022
Bronwen's take on Harry Styles comes after her last offering, 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' – a globe hit from the Disney movie Encanto.
The song about the Madrigal family's estranged uncle has been sung in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Japanese and Chinese – but as far as we know, this is the first Welsh language version.
ENCANTO. YN GYMRAEG.
That's the tweet.
🏴🤣💃🏻 #Bruno pic.twitter.com/syTnicncjS
— B R O N W E N (@BronwenLewis_) March 10, 2022
Bronwen, a former contestant on The Voice, has made something of a name for herself with her videos that promote the Welsh language on social media platforms such as TikTok and Twitter.
She recently thrilled her fans with Yma o Hyd, a beautiful Welsh version of Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac for Halloween, accompanying herself on keyboards, and prior to that brought us Runaway by The Corrs.
Bronwen hit the headlines in June when she gave Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard a harmonious rendition of the Welsh national anthem ahead of Wales' round 16 Euro 2020 clash with Denmark.
Elizabeth Bowen
Bronwen is amazing. What a voice. I don't think Wales is doing enough for her. She should be singing the National Anthem at international matches etc
liz Bowen