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Book Review: The Nine Lives of Pakistan
By Uzair Qadri on 12:42 am May 17, 2021 No Comment
If there is one word that sustains the description of Pakistan throughout its political existence, it is FEUDAL. Read any book of note on Pakistan, Feudalism is always a visceral theme running through it. Ayesha Jalal, Faisal Devji, Tariq Ali, Akbar S. Ahmad, Ahmad Rashid, Hussain Haqqani, Aatish Taseer, Mohammad Hanif, Kamila Shamsie, Fatima Bhutto – the writings of all of them, from politics to society to military to economy of Pakistan, manifest a complex interplay of feudal forces.
But this renders the narrative about the country flawed and repulsive, if the entirety of things isn't taken into consideration. It can't be that one can reduce a nation of 220 million people to such simplistic observations. While there is always an element of truth in such observations, Pakistan isn't about medievalistic feudalism only – though it is present in everything that Pakistan has, from a trickle to a torrent. Despite all its contradictions and absurdities, the country is well alive and trundling forward. In the last four decades, the country has gradually shrivelled its horizons of progress, but there is no doubt that Pakistan is the most modern Muslim nation-state in the world. The country has been loathed, deprecated, condemned, demonised and dehumanised to almost an irredeemable extent.
There is that unique something about the country which appeals, bewitches and intrigues many a people. Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of Indian cricket, much to his credit, has said it often, even mentioned it in his book, 'A Century isn't enough': "Pakistan has a certain ruggedness in it which makes it one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Every cricketer must visit the country at least once during his career."
Declan Walsh's book, 'The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Divided Nation', documents the feudal society of Pakistan, besides the dimensions of tribalism, terrorism, sufism, salafism, red tapism, urbanism, ethnicism, elitism, povertarianism, regionalism and much more. Declan Walsh has covered Pakistan for over a decade for The New York Times and The Guardian and was expelled from the country in 2013 citing security sensitivities. The good thing is that the unceremonious expulsion hasn't left the author bitter about the country. He has tried multiple times since to get his visa back to the country, but hasn't succeeded yet. The book is a fluent read. The reporter's eye of the author makes the book one of the best about the country in the last one decade and more. Walsh was in Pakistan in the most perilous times of the existence of that nation. Post-9/11, Pervez Musharraf allying with Bush in its 'war on terror' meant the country going into an abyss from forces within and without. But if the country has survived today, proving every doomsayer wrong, it indicates the resilience of its people.
The book consists of 11 chapters, encompassing literally every hue of the complex tapestry of the country that Pakistan is. The first chapter is very pointedly titled as, Insha'Allah Nation. Insha'Allah is an Arabic word which translates as 'by the will of Allah'. It is almost a permanent leitmotif of any conversation across the Muslim lands in the world. It has also become quite fashionable in the politically correct statements of many a person who doesn't profess Islam. Rightly so. But the word also signifies a certain detachment from the pragmatic hassles of life when in practice. It captures the belief of common people in the inability of humans to change the course of their lives. At many a place, the word is used to express blatant lies. The author has tried, and tried very beautifully, to denote acquiescence of mundane responsibilities like being aware, responsive to the pulls and pressures of the realities confronting them, holding an opinion about society and politics, murky corruption and subversion of its institutions at the hands of its landed gentry-turned-political class by the common Pakistani. It can effortlessly be termed as a serious Insha'Allah syndrome.
The second chapter is about the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) incident of 2007 in the heart of its capital, Islamabad. The incident made the elites of Pakistan realise that the danger of radicalism is hitting home, and there is no way out of it except to make it go kaput. The then President, military man Pervez Musharraf, finally acted because the relations with China were coming under strain after some Chinese citizens were attacked by the reluctant fundamentalists from Red Mosque madrassa. The usual litany of how Pakistan turned inwards from the free-market early riser in 1960s and 1970s to the start of its downward trajectory with the rule of General Zia-ul-Haq to becoming the source of a majority of bad news with the dawn of the new century is mockingly broached by almost every author and commentator on Pakistan. But what sets the book apart is that it mentions the Sufi commingling, mysticism and almost heretic practices of people, by the standards of puritanical Islam, visiting Sehwan Sharif, the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (Usman Marwandi), in the Jomshoro District of Sindh province in the same chapter. It is only such contradictions which let the nations in South-Asia to be full of life. Pakistan being a case in point.
The third chapter is about the founding father of the Pakistan state, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and how his vision of Pakistan being a Muslim majority secular state got shattered with a slew of riots after his death and the loss of its eastern limb, Bangladesh, in 1971. The usual stuff that he was a whiskey drinking, ham eating, cigar smoking Muslim, who had a stiffer upper lip than Earl and his cosmopolitan tastes, married to a Parsi, 24 years younger, has been written about umpteen number of times. Here the violence of partition and the genesis of the Kashmir dispute have been given lyrical brushes in eloquent prose.
The fourth chapter is about the tribes, tribalism, tribal wars, tribal hospitality and tribal justice in the northwestern parts of the country. The chapter can easily be called the marrow of the book. It sums up how the tribal conflicts resulted in the rise of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and its subsequent delocalisation across the whole of Pakistan. One likes the fact that the author hasn't compressed the tribes of Pakistan to being antediluvian and out-dated in their lifestyle, timelessly lurking in the 18th century. The change of tribal life post-9/11 and rise of TTP is very interesting. The entrenched misogyny, poor educational and healthcare facilities, and the famished land, a characteristic recipe for disaster, is exploited by political musclemen.
The fifth and the sixth chapters are about the fight for democracy, the liberal spaces and priceless struggles waged by the civil society members, led by Asma Jahangir, (the fierce lawyer-cum-activist) fighting the well-scaffolded hypocrisies of the Pakistani society. The sixth chapter is about the infamous blasphemy laws of Pakistan, the persecution of minorities, Salman Taseer and the complete disconnect of the Pakistani rich with the downtrodden, raging, seething and ill-fed poor. The feudalism, but in a very lovely prose!
Chapter seven is very important from the perspective of how intelligence agencies work and their omnipresence, the spy wars, and how the dispensability of the low-level intelligence personnel is carried out in practice. It throws complete light on the origins of ISI (Inter-services Intelligence), it's being the bugbear on the socioeconomic aspects of life in the country and its megalomaniacal impression of being well-organised and well-being in the perceptions of European countries and the United States. Pertinent to mention is the fact that its foundations were set by William Cawthorn, a British Army officer, who later went on to head the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. The sterling success of the agency in the Afghan war and putting Taliban in power in Kabul, it's failures in 1965 and 1971 wars with India, and it's reverses in the war against Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are all put in proper perspective. The author writes about how the agency makes any manoeuvre, bonafide and malafide, literally impossible, as has been well-documented by Mohammad Hanif in 'A Case of Exploding Mangoes' and Pankaj Mishra in 'The temptations of the West'. The Osama bin Laden episode of 2011 has been given a refreshing light.
Often enough these days on YouTube and other sites, we find comparisons drawn between Mumbai and Karachi, the respective commercial capitals of India and Pakistan. The author has somewhat similarly named Chapter eight as 'Minimum City', having taken the cue from Suketu Mehta's book, 'Maximum City: Mumbai'. Karachi is home to around 2.0 crore people, almost none of whom are in a position to call the city their own. The chaos, target killings, murderous police, swanky cars, muhajirs (the refugees of partition), Altaf Hussain of MQM (Muttahida Quami Movement), the port, crocodile shrine of Monghpir, money and well-aligned roads make the city of Karachi the hollering engine of Pakistan. It is the most liberal city in the country, which has witnessed more blood on its streets in the recent times than any city in Pakistan.
The chapters nine, ten and eleven are about the Baluchistan province, which with its cavernous slopes, rock defiles and mineral subterraneans is surely the quaintest of the provinces in Pakistan. The province constitutes about 44 per cent of the area of the country, with only 6 per cent of the population of the country inhabiting it. Its utter backwardness, the world of Bugti tribe and the reluctance by the rulers in Islamabad to make its populace the participants in any development measure, including the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), are mentioned. In the end chapters, the revoking of the visa of the author and his meeting with an ex-sleuth of ISI in Europe, all make the book a must read for anybody who is interested in knowing and understanding things about Pakistan.
My rating of the book is 4.8 out of 5.
—mohammeduzair27@gmail.com
Book Review: The Nine Lives of Pakistan added by Uzair Qadri on 12:42 am May 17, 2021
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× Watch Live: News 9 at Noon
× Breaking News: OSDH: 10,001 New COVID-19 Cases Reported Statewide, 39 Virus-Related Deaths Added To Provisional Death Count
@4PM
Earthquake Shakes Dover In Kingfisher County
Monday, February 5th 2018, 3:51 am
An earthquake shook up residents near Dover, Oklahoma.
The 3.7-magnitude quake struck at 2:20 a.m. Its epicenter was located three miles north of Dover, six miles south of Hennessey, 12 miles north of Kingfisher and 43 miles north northwest of Oklahoma City.
The quake was about two and a half miles deep.
The earthquake was originally reported as a 4.5 magnitude by the U.S. Geological Survey but was later downgraded.
At this time, there are no reported injuries or damages associated with this earthquake.
A small earthquake shook up resident's near Dover, Oklahoma.
3.9 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Lincoln County
News 9 A 3.9 magnitude earthquake shook residents Monday morning in Lincoln County. The Oklahoma Geological Survey reports the quake was recorded at 6:12 a.m. 5.6 miles away from Sparks, 17.4 miles north northeast of Shawnee and 28.7 miles from Choctaw. Official
4.0 Magnitude Earthquake Rattle Kingfisher County
News 9 Several earthquakes rattled homes overnight Thursday north of the Oklahoma City metro. The USGA reported at least three earthquakes in Kingfisher County. The biggest quake had a 4.1 magnitude and took place just before 1 a.m. There are currently no report
3.6 Magnitude Earthquake Rattles Major County
News 9 A small earthquake was reported Sunday night in Major County in northern Oklahoma, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
OCC, OGS To Meet About Recent Earthquakes
While Oklahoma has seen a steady decrease in earthquakes over the past couple of years, they're still happening and geologists want to know why.
Kingfisher Co. Quakes Prompt Quick Action
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission is taking action following a spike in earthquakes in Kingfisher County.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Events leading to police gunfire 'happen so quickly'
As videos of a Muncie police-action shooting make clear, fast-moving events can leave officers with a split second to decide whether to shoot.
Events leading to police gunfire 'happen so quickly' As videos of a Muncie police-action shooting make clear, fast-moving events can leave officers with a split second to decide whether to shoot. Check out this story on thestarpress.com: http://tspne.ws/2uKbDTD
Douglas Walker, dwalker@muncie.gannett.com Published 6:40 p.m. ET July 19, 2017
Image from a Muncie Police Department body camera on March 24, 2017, when two officers fired at a moving vehicle.(Photo: Provided by the Muncie Police Department)
MUNCIE, Ind. – As body-camera videos of a Muncie police-action shooting – released this week to The Star Press – make clear, fast-moving events can leave officers with a split second to decide whether to fire their guns.
On March 24, two city patrolmen had followed a fleeing car into the fenced-in parking lot outside Muncie's southside post office.
They left their SUV to check on the condition of – and assess any risk posed by – a woman who had jumped out of the car.
Grider sentenced to 80 years for attempted murder
Man shot by officer is going to prison
Within 20 seconds, the driver of the Cavalier, Charles K. Dinkins, drove in the direction of the officers, and the woman, at a high rate of speed, drawing gunshots from the patrolmen.
After a brief pause, more shots were fired at the Cavalier when it again came in close proximity to the officers, as Dinkins apparently sought a way out of the enclosed lot.
In all, about 30 gunshots were fired that early morning. Dinkins was hit by two of the bullets, but apparently did not suffer life-threatening wounds.
Police Chief Joe Winkle said Wednesday – a day after Dinkins was convicted of four crimes stemming from the March incident – that it was easy to "sit back and second guess" in the wake of such shootings.
"It happens so quickly," the chief said. "It's amazing how quickly (events can unfold). ... You're reacting. You're hoping your training kicks in."
Winkle said body-camera recordings provide a "tremendous tool for training," allowing other officers to view the situations and contemplate how they might react.
The patrolmen involved – Sean Dennis and Jonathan Thornton – were on administrative leave for about two months while the incident was investigated by Indiana State Police.
Officers are routinely examined and counseled by a department psychologist in the wake of shootings.
"He sees them as long as he thinks he needs to see them," Winkle said.
In June, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman said after reviewing the ISP investigation – and the body-camera footage – he had concluded the officers' use of their firearms was justified.
Both officers testified at this week's trial that they were in fear for their lives when they opened fire at the Cavalier.
Dennis told jurors he continued to shoot as Dinkins drove out of the lot because he was concerned about the danger he posed to other officers, and citizens he might encounter. (The wounded driver's vehicle came to a stop after hitting a parked pickup truck not long after emerging from the lot.)
Winkle said based on his wild and erratic driving, the officers could not assume Dinkins would not re-enter the lot.
Hoffman agreed.
"The question is, was he going to come back and come at them again, and was he going to hit somebody else?" the chief deputy prosecutor said. "There were dual concerns in the officers' minds, I think.
"The self-defense statute is the same as self-defense or defense of others," Hoffman said. "If you have a reasonable belief that your life is in danger or subject to great bodily harm, or that of another, then you can use deadly force."
Hoffman said his evaluation of police-action shootings took into consideration how quickly police are sometimes forced to react.
"That's one of the many factors," he said. "Typically, in almost all of the police-action shootings I've looked at, things escalate very quickly.
"In a matter of seconds, and sometimes milliseconds."
Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. Follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.
Read or Share this story: http://tspne.ws/2uKbDTD
Tensions rise between Mayor and MSD
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From the documentary: Journey to the Self: An Intimate Portrait of Jaspar Lepak.
I have a personal take on the passing of David Bowie which I will share in time, and may not be appreciated by the die-hard Bowie fans. But for now, I think one of his best collaborations of the '90s was this: sadly it cleared the dance floor at the time.
RIP David Bowie – you were undoubtedly a game changer!
Arthur Lipsett: Waaay ahead of his time!
clip 4 of the "JOURNEY TO THE SELF: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF JASPAR LEPAK"
clip 5 of the "JOURNEY TO THE SELF: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF JASPAR LEPAK"
jaspar lepak "winter flower" from "Wide World"


Ever wanted more world types to choose from when you start up a new Minecraft world? Well, this is your mod! More World Types Mod adds around 18 new world types! One of which is the popular Skylands that the End took over. Kurtss definitely did an amazing job on this mod. Let's now run through a few of the new world types!


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Home Capital Raising
AlphaPoint gets additional $5.6M in funding to fuel product expansion for digital asset exchanges
Tim Scheve, CEO of Janney & FINRA Board of Governors member appointed to AlphaPoint board as independent director and Jan Mayle, formerly of Bond Desk and TIPS, joins as company advisor...
AlphaPoint, a provider of white-label blockchain asset exchange software; announced today that it has raised $5.6 million in new funding. The financial technology company's last major round of venture capital funding came in late 2018; when they successfully raised $15 million.
This funding brings the total capital raised by AlphaPoint in its 6 ½ year history to $23.9 million. AlphaPoint's white label exchange and brokerage technology have helped power over 150 customers across 35 countries globally, serving over 1 million end-users and enabling 100 million in annual trades across their client portfolio.
The new funding will be allocated towards platform development and roll-out of sophisticated exchange features; like margin trading, integrated advanced brokerage capabilities, and premium liquidity solutions to customers.
"This capital injection enables AlphaPoint to continue delivering on our mission to enable access to digital assets globally. We are still in the early days of adoption and utilization of blockchain technology. Stay tuned in 2020…as we will soon announce the release of a series of new liquidity, leverage, and lending products and solutions to our customers."
– Igor Telyatnikov, Co-Founder &. CEO, AlphaPoint
Board Moves
On the heels of the fundraising effort, AlphaPoint has expanded its board of directors and advisory board with the addition of two new capital markets veterans. The first is Tim Scheve, President, and CEO of Janney Montgomery Scott, LLC; a full-service brokerage and asset management firm with $750M revenues, $90B client assets, and nearly 2,000 employees serving individual, corporate, and institutional clients. Tim also serves on the FINRA Board of Governors since 2018. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) is a private self-regulating organization that oversees all brokerage firms in the U.S. and provides regulatory oversight for certain aspects of the securities industry.
Also joining the firm as a company advisor is Jan Mayle; a veteran C-Suite fintech executive specializing in strategy and product management for financial services and electronic trading technology firms. He is currently CEO and founder of The Mayle Group, LL; which provides consulting, advising, and mentoring services to early and growth-stage fintech companies with a focus on the evolution of financial markets, wealth management, and financial analytics.
Crypto software firm AlphaPoint joins Bermuda Monetary Authority Innovation Hub
AlphaPoint, a white label software company powering crypto exchanges, has announced its membership in the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) Innovation Hub, an innovation track formed by the BMA. Participation in the Innovation Hub will...
BITPOINT utilizes AlphaPoint technology to upgrade its crypto exchange for Latin America
Today it was announced that Latin American-based crypto exchange BITPOINT will be using AlphaPoint technology for its upgraded exchange platform. The new platform is now live and offering on-ramp and off-ramp capabilities to the...
AlphaPoint launches Yield Platform to power crypto lending, staking and rewards
Digital asset software company AlphaPoint today announced the launch of the AlphaPoint Yield Platform available for use by marketplace and wallet operators using the company's technology. Exchange and brokerage operators will have the ability...
AlphaPoint-powered Thai crypto exchange ERX receives regulatory approval
ERX today announced that it has been granted a Digital Assets exchange license by the Thai SEC for operation in Thailand. Built using AlphaPoint's white label Digital Asset Exchange software, ERX's trading platform launch represents a...


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A conversation with Amanda Glassman on November 13, 2013
(Photo courtesy of the Center for Global Development)
Amanda Glassman — Director of Global Health Policy and Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development (CGD)
Cari Tuna — President, Good Ventures
Holden Karnofsky — Co-Founder, GiveWell
Note: These notes give an overview of the major points made by Ms. Glassman in the conversation.
Amanda Glassman is the Director of Global Health Policy and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development.
Good Ventures and GiveWell spoke to Ms. Glassman about promising opportunities for philanthropy in global health, including mental health interventions in the developing world, behavioral-economics-inspired interventions in health and nutrition, and improving monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and prioritization among major global health funders.
According to The Lancet's 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study, depression is one of the biggest contributors to the burden of disease in developing countries. Mental health services in low- and middle-income countries tend to use antiquated techniques and to make little use of therapy and cost-effective interventions.
There are studies that demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of certain mental health interventions in low- and middle-income countries. Trials are currently ongoing for community-based mental health care models, which are fairly affordable (for example, the MANAS trial in India http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21159375?dopt=Abstract). These promising mental health interventions are likely more cost-effective than many interventions subsidized by aid today in terms of health impact.
Most mainstream funders do not fund mental health interventions. This may be because of stigma around mental health issues or a perception that it is difficult to improve mental health, and –as a non-communicable disease- there are no cross-border externalities that characterize infectious diseases and the rationale for their control. Exceptions are the Wellcome Trust, which funds experiments, some at a large scale, in cost-effective mental health care, and Grand Challenges Canada, led by Dr. Peter Singer. It would be beneficial to encourage funders to put more resources into this area; however, there are currently few potential grantees that could scale up quickly.
Early childhood nutrition affects cognitive skills later in life, impacting learning, wages, and mental health. Christina Paxson and Norbert Schady found that among children in Nicaragua who had been poorly nourished, over one half qualified as functionally impaired based on their performance on cognitive tasks. Interventions to improve childhood nutrition are thus one way to improve mental health.
Behavioral economics and interventions in health and nutrition
There has been a great deal of research on using financial incentives to encourage better health and nutrition behaviors in the developing world. That research continues to produce exciting results.
Non-financial incentives have been less well-studied. Paternalistic policies that prevent people from making decisions that have high negative externalities should be studied further. For example, to encourage saving, financial transfers could be deposited into bank accounts rather than given in cash. This might help people accumulate enough money to invest in productive assets.
One-time interventions can lock people in to healthy habits. For example, a program in South Africa subsidized vegetables. People continued to buy vegetables at an elevated rate six months after the end of the program, showing that the program caused lasting change in their habits. In the US, Dan Buettner's Blue Zones project encouraged mayors to compete to adopt a package of interventions designed to promote health in their cities. The interventions included walking groups, bike paths, and reduced portion sizes in restaurants. These packages of interventions have the potential to lead to large improvements in health outcomes.
Improving practices of global health funders
Within global health, one of the most cost-effective activities for a philanthropist may be to work to improve the practices of major global health funders. About $28 billion per year is spent on global health aid. This accounts for about a third of total aid. Health is the biggest category for US aid. It is important to make sure that funds are spent as efficiently as possible.
More funders should publicly advocate for transparency and evidence of results in global health aid. The Gates Foundation attempts to tacitly influence decision makers to improve M&E, and the efficiency and effectiveness of global health funders. However, in the public domain, it is much more vocal about fundraising and advocacy for global health.
The Gates Foundation has recently provided a grant to PATH to collect more accurate data on immunization coverage, and to Johns Hopkins to support more frequent and accurate measurement of contraceptive prevalence. The Foundation and its partners have yet to explicitly connect those monitoring results to GAVI's funding of countries, but it likely will in the future. To Ms. Glassman's knowledge, the Foundation has not undertaken similar M&E for AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) or malaria. The Global Policy and Advocacy Group at the Foundation funded CGD's research and working group on improving the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's (GFATM) cost-effectiveness. CGD worked closely with the AIDS team at the Foundation, which emphasizes efficiency (procuring health supplies and services at the lowest possible cost). Ms. Glassman also sees performance management (ensuring that health results are measured accurately and achieved) as the first priority.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of GFATM monitors GFATM's work. The OIG focuses on ensuring that funds were spent for the precise purpose that they were budgeted for rather than on determining whether programs had the desired results. The Secretariat itself has very limited staff and budget to monitor the results of GFATM programs (2 full-time it seems), yet the OIG –dedicated mainly to financial audit- employs about 36 people. It is an expression of the relatively low priority of performance measurement and evaluation, versus financial and fiduciary audit. The majority of GFATM's employees work on grant management rather than M&E. GFATM should make improving performance management its top priority.
GFATM and its partners should document the interventions that are funded by its monies within each country. It should also rigorously measure a few, important indicators related to the diseases it focuses on for each of the 20 or so countries receiving the most funds to address each disease. Collecting good data is difficult, but this level of monitoring should be feasible. The monitoring should be observational rather than experimental. Experiments can be expensive, and GFATM is one of many actors working on each disease, making attribution of impact difficult.
For example, for malaria, GFATM should track case rates (if possible), bed net use by households, and appropriate diagnosis and treatment of malaria cases. In AIDS, retention rates are critical, as is incidence and prevalence among key populations. These indicators could be tracked via a random sample of healthcare facilities and households and program enrollees in target areas. GFATM could pay for performance on these indicators. Paying against objective indicators would likely improve the quality of data collection.
The World Bank's Health Results Innovation Trust Fund undertakes this kind of verification of health coverage indicators. It primarily uses data from healthcare facilities. It employs data from other sources, such as household surveys, as checks on the healthcare facility data. It is experimenting to determine how many different checks on the primary data should be used to strike the right balance between expense and data quality.
GFATM may hesitate to more closely monitor performance because it was heavily criticized when its audits found evidence of fraud and corruption. However, if GFATM could document impressive results from its programs, it could argue that it is an effective organization even though some small-scale corruption occurs. Another reason that GFATM may be reluctant to improve performance management is that recipients have a seat on its board. Cost is unlikely to be the main restriction on GFATM's M&E.
Mark Dybul, the executive director of GFATM, could choose to start a major M&E initiative, ideally in cooperation with PEPFAR and a consortium of the most AIDS aid-dependent countries. Donors seem to lack the coordination and interest in M&E to push the GFATM secretariat to undertake more M&E.
The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has expressed interest in paying for more rigorous M&E in countries that receive the most AIDS funding from GFATM. This M&E would track how money is spent and offer suggestions for improvement. GFATM would likely welcome such an initiative.
More information on these ideas is included in CGD's recent report More Health for the Money.
Priority setting
By governments
In most countries, health spending by governments vastly outpaces international health aid, so governments set most health priorities. There are a few highly aid-dependent countries where donors have huge influence on health priorities. However, there are only about four countries in the world where aid accounts for more than 40% of health spending. If current growth trends continue, low- and middle-income countries will become less dependent on aid over time.
CGD ran a working group to assess whether developing countries have explicit mechanisms to allocate new funds and reallocate existing funds to cost-effective interventions and products, and how well they work to inform resource allocation. CGD found that there are successful efforts to explicitly prioritize in many countries using essential medicines lists, health benefits plans and health technology assessment. However, these efforts are nascent and require greater support.
The UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) advises that country's National Health Service on the most cost-effective uses of funds within each disease area. This is part of the reason why the UK spends less on health than the US yet has better health outcomes. NICE International is setting up a support hub to facilitate health priority-setting pilots with interested countries.
By global funders
Large funders such as GAVI and GFATM require co-financing from recipient countries for certain projects. It is unclear whether co-financing makes recipient countries allocate funds more or less efficiently. New allocation rules have recently been established to determine the split of resources between countries and between diseases, based on country GDP and disease burden, among other factor. Under discussion but not yet in place is the use of cost-effectiveness criteria to determine which technologies (medicines, diagnostics, devices) should be eligible for funding by both organizations. CGD will continue to study the implications and where possible the effects of the new allocation and eligibility policies on efficiency and effectiveness.
Donors have not yet been able to reach consensus on additional diseases to add to the mandate of GFATM beyond AIDS, TB, and malaria. However, GFATM might accept funds to start working on a new disease if such consensus exists.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) does high-quality research on disease prioritization based on disease burden, but this research could receive greater attention from the global health community. This limited attention may be because many in the global health community are primarily concerned with raising money for the diseases that they work on rather than prioritizing between diseases.
More information on CGD work on priority-setting is available here: http://www.cgdev.org/publication/priority-setting-health-building-institutions-smarter-public-spending


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Home>Local>Atlantic>Can Republicans beat the state senator who spurned them?
State Sen. Dawn Addiego. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for the New Jersey Globe)
Can Republicans beat the state senator who spurned them?
It's Addiego versus Stanfield in state's premier legislative race
By Joey Fox, September 24 2021 3:24 pm
Four years ago, State Sen. Dawn Addiego (D-Evesham) was in the fight for her political life.
Addiego, a Republican former assemblywoman and county freeholder, won her first term to the state's Burlington County-based 8th Senate district uncontested in 2011, and was re-elected by 27 points in 2013 on Gov. Chris Christie's coattails. But in 2017, running in a district that Hillary Clinton had carried and fighting the toxic influence of Donald Trump in the suburbs, Addiego found herself in an unexpectedly competitive race.
She ultimately beat Democrat George Youngkin by around four points, 52-48%. Though Addiego's margin was well lower than in earlier races, she had proved something: she could survive even in the Trump-era Republican Party.
Today, Addiego is once again in the fight for her political life – and a lot has changed in the four years she's been off the ballot.
To the shock of New Jersey's political observers, Addiego announced in January 2019 that she was switching parties from Republican to Democrat, giving Democrats their largest Senate majority since the early 1980s.
"As gridlock in Washington dominates the news, it has become increasingly clear that in order to effect change you have to be part of the discussion and not on the outside looking in," she said at the time. "The people of the 8th district did not elect me to be content in the role of loyal opposition."
Democrats, especially Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford), embraced her with open arms. Addiego gave Sweeney one additional vote in his quest to retain control of his caucus, and in return benefited from having a party affiliation that seemed to better match her rapidly changing district.
Meanwhile, Republicans cried foul, and quickly began strategizing for how to take down the traitor in their midst. They held both Assembly seats in 2019 despite spirited Democratic campaigns to flip them – and despite the increasingly Democratic nature of Burlington County.
The sum of these many moving parts will finally come to a head this November, with Republicans fielding Assemblywoman Jean Stanfield (R-Westampton) in what is widely regarded as the "marquee" legislative race of the year.
Only one candidate will emerge victorious: the party loyalist turned party switcher, or her former political ally turned political rival. Has New Jersey legislative politics ever been quite so cinematic?
The senator and the sheriff
Unlike some other districts, where Democrats or Republicans – or both – insist they're well ahead, both parties are aware that the 8th district race will be a dogfight no matter who wins.
"I think this is the marquee legislative race in the entire state right now," said Dan Scharfenberger, the executive director of the Senate Republican Majority Campaign Committee. "I think it will be a real referendum on Dawn Addiego."
Michael Muller, the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee's executive director, concurred about the district's extremely competitive nature, though he disagreed on its direction.
"It's the quintessential swing district that has been very competitive in recent years," he said. "It's been burgeoning for Democrats, and we right now have been running an exceptional race."
The biggest issue in the race – or, at least, what Republicans want to be the biggest issue in the race – is Addiego's party switch. Addiego's reasoning at the time was that the Republican Party had moved far from its center-right roots, and that her own positions remained unchanged but fit better in the Democratic Party.
Muller said that such messaging can only be an asset for Addiego in a district that has long preferred moderate legislators.
"Senator Addiego has always been a moderate, centrist type of representative," Muller said. "To the voters, she always had an ability to win crossover support from the left and right of the spectrum… She's in a great position heading into the fall."
But Scharfenberger made the counterargument that the party switch demonstrates Addiego's political rootlessness, rather than any deeply held values.
"Imagine, overnight, making a complete 180 in everything that you vote for, stand for, and fight for in the State Senate," he said. "What people understand in the short span of an election is a fake politician… That's everything about Dawn Addiego. People really recognize that."
Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University, noted that, whatever voters may think of Addiego's party switch, it has certainly galvanized the Republican party faithful.
"If you're an involved Republican, there's a sense of betrayal, and it may motivate you to work harder," Rasmussen said. "There's no question that the organizational Republicans are far more motivated, and they're working overtime to make sure they pay her back in kind."
"Dawn Addiego is an exciting candidate for us to beat," Scharfenberger agreed. "It's certainly creating a lot of excitement within the Republican party to unseat her."
Scharfenberger added that Republicans are excited to contrast Addiego's history with that of Stanfield, who served as sheriff of increasingly blue Burlington County for nearly 20 years before ascending to the Assembly.
"[Stanfield was] a tough-as-nails Burlington County sheriff for so many years, who has served the people here in South Jersey so well with integrity every step of the way," he said. "You'll always know where Jean Stanfield stands."
Democrats have gone on the airwaves with two ads slamming Stanfield, perhaps in recognition of the assemblywoman's longtime positive image in the district. Addiego had also significantly outraised Stanfield as of pre-primary election campaign finance reports, and state Democrats are making a huge investment on her behalf.
This last factor is among the things that makes Rasmussen skeptical of Republican chances in the district this cycle.
"[Republicans are] up against a tsunami of money," he said. "They're up against the rapidly changing voter registration statistics. They're up against a governor who's going to do very well in the district. It's a lot to contend with. Can they win? Of course they can win. I'm not counting them out… But I would say that there are some daunting factors that they're running up against."
Whose side is history on?
Depending on which data you look at, the 8th district could either be a lock for Republicans or a golden opportunity for Democrats.
Focusing on past state legislative elections, you might think Republicans have the district in the bag. Addiego's party switch notwithstanding, Republicans haven't lost an election in the 8th district since former Assemblyman John Sweeney (D-Florence) broke through to win a single term in 1973. Prior to the Trump era, it was unusual for Democrats to even get 40% of the vote.
(Former 8th district Assemblyman Francis Bodine switched parties from Republican to Democrat in 2007 after losing the support of the Burlington Republican Party organization, but was unable to win an election for the State Senate that year.)
Republicans' success in the district matches a trend prevalent in the state's suburban counties: even when Democrats break through on a federal level, voters are liable to stick with the moderate Republican legislators they've been electing for decades.
It's why former State Sen. Diane Allen, now the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, was able to hold on for so long in the Burlington County-based 7th district, even as it voted overwhelmingly for Democratic presidential candidates.
Yet as Rasmussen points out, although the 8th district has continued to support Republican legislative candidates, it's zoomed to the left in virtually every other respect.
"The numbers are just moving so quickly and so strongly against [Republicans], that for them to be successful they're going to have to buck that statewide and countywide trend that we're seeing," Rasmussen said.
It's true that Democrats have seen remarkable success in Burlington County in recent elections. Between 2017 and 2021, the board of county commissioners went from 5-0 Republican to 5-0 Democrat. Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown), meanwhile, performed strongly in the county in his 2018 victory over Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-Toms River) in the 3rd district – and then romped even more thoroughly in 2020.
"I really am having a hard time seeing where the numbers work, even for a popular longtime politician like Stanfield," Rasmussen said. "I know it's a swing district. I see that. But I also see that Burlington County is on the move, and it is moving away from Republicans, as it has been for the last five or 10 years."
Fourteen townships, five boroughs, and a town
The district itself covers a total of 20 mostly suburban South Jersey municipalities: 15 in Burlington County, four in Camden County, and one – Hammonton – in Atlantic County. Individually, none of them have a population greater than 50,000, meaning that no one town or city dominates the district.
The fragmentation of the district's population also means that neither party has a consistent, large base of votes to grow on. While some municipalities like Pine Hill and Westampton are heavily Democratic, and others like Southampton and Waterford are more Republican, candidates can't count only on friendly territory to win.
Instead, the battle for the district is fought in swing areas such as Evesham (the largest municipality in the district), Hainesport, and Medford.
In 2020, on his way to a seven-point victory districtwide, President Joe Biden won all three; the 4,000 votes Biden netted out of Evesham in fact accounted for nearly half of his overall 9,000 vote margin.
When Addiego won as a Republican in 2017, she too carried Evesham, Hainesport, and Medford, along with most of the district's municipalities beyond its most consistently Democratic areas.
One further consideration in this year's race is the district's Black population. Burlington County is around 16% Black, and while most Black residents in the county are found in the more Democratic 7th district, 8% of the 8th district was Black as of the 2010 Census – a large enough community to be decisive in close elections.
None of the six candidates running for the seat this year are Black. But Addiego's vote share is likely to be correlated with where the district's Black population is concentrated, primarily in Pine Hill and around Lumberton – just as Youngkin's was in 2017. Of the seven municipalities won by Youngkin, who is white, six had Black populations greater than 15% as of the 2010 Census.
The race for the lower chamber
As can sometimes happen in the event of a dramatic State Senate race in New Jersey, the Assembly candidates running in the 8th district have fallen out of the limelight to some extent, but both parties are confident that their side has the far superior slate.
Republicans are running Hammonton Councilman Michael Torrissi and Acting Manchester Township Administrator Brandon Umba, whom Scharfenberger described as "such great candidates."
Even still, Scharfenberger said that 8th district Republicans are running as the "Stanfield team," and the focus clearly remains on the top of the legislative ticket.
"If you're going to vote for Jean Stanfield, we need you to vote for Mike Torrisi and Brandon Umba," he said. "We need to send more Republicans, not less, back to the legislature to make the kind of reforms that we're talking about in these campaigns."
Democrats are fielding one of their two 2019 nominees, Mark Natale, as well as Lenape Regional High School District Board of Education member Allison Eckel, identically described by Muller as "really great candidates."
In addition to waxing poetic about their own nominees, Muller and Scharfenberger both slammed their opponents in no uncertain terms. According to Scharfenberger, Natale is a "pretty clueless" perennial candidate who "doesn't really have any idea of what he's doing"; according to Muller, Torrissi is "another bad actor on taxes," and Umba is "a pig at the trough."
But for all the harsh words, and despite the campaigning that the four candidates are doing, Rasmussen thinks it may not make too much of an impact on the final result.
"[The Assembly candidates are] not what's motivating individual behavior," he said. "They are along for the ride to some extent. They are going to be tied to the fate of the top of the ticket."
Six weeks to go
In most of the state's legislative districts, it's possible to at least attempt to handicap the result this November. An urban district in North Jersey? Probably Democratic. A sprawling district along the Jersey Shore? Most likely Republican.
The 8th district is not one such predictable district. Democrats have a demonstrably strong Senate candidate; so do Republicans. Republicans have a recent history of victories to show for themselves; so do Democrats, albeit not on a legislative level. Both parties are campaigning, spending, and messaging as though the race will be a toss-up until the very end.
For Democrats, the next month and a half is an opportunity to prove that joining their side pays political dividends. For Republicans, it's a chance to mercilessly slam a politician who turned her back on them.
And for the voters of the 8th district, it means another six weeks of knocks on their front doors, flyers slid into their mailboxes, and ads cluttering their TV stations. Whatever the parties may do to try and win, the end of this story is in their hands.
This story was updated at 9:16 a.m. on September 27 to correct an error. Brandon Umba is no longer the Lumberton Township Administrator; he is currently the Acting Manchester Township Administrator.
Bateman will campaign for district 16 Republicans
Republicans nominate Munoz, Matsikoudis in District 21
Republicans hold fundraising lead in district 2
Tagged Allison Eckel, Brandon Umba, Dan Scharfenberger, Dawn Addiego, Francis Bodine, George Youngkin, Jean Stanfield, Mark Natale, Micah Rasmussen, Michael Muller, Michael Torrissi
Gubernatorial candidates each get another $700k in matching funds


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← What's the Point of Math?
A year or so ago I stumbled across Reuben Hersh's "Under-represented Then Over-represented: A Memoir of Jews in American Mathematics" in the pages of a recent Best Writing on Mathematics volume.
A fascinating prequel to Hersh's observations and memories can now be found at an exhibit on display at the Center for Jewish History on 16th Street. Transcending Tradition: Jewish Mathematics in German-Speaking Academic Culture will be available from the time of this writing until January 2014. Admission is free.
The exhibit tells its story in three epochs, beginning in years previous to 1871, following through the days of the Wilhelmine Empire, and focusing at last on the days of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) and the immediate aftermath.
pre 1871: Leopold Kronecker (Berlin), Rudolph Lipschitz (Breslau), Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (Königsberg).
Much of the biographical content can of course be read from home on Wikipedia, but certain facts from the display are unlikely to be encountered elsewhere. The exhibits, with large photographs and reproductions of handwritten correspondence, offer a sense of communion that it's difficult to feel over the internet. I certainly learned some things I didn't know before.
For instance, even as late as the mid 19th century, baptism was a prerequisite for holding an academic position in Germany. The eventual admittance of Jews into academic institutions (as students) was as much motivated by questions of social control (eg the regulation of Jewish medical practitioners) as by liberal political motives.
At the end of the Weimar Republic there were 94 full professorships in mathematics in the German states, and of these 28 were occupied by Jews or scholars of Jewish descent. After 1933, 127 mathematicians, including five women, were driven out of Germany, as a result of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, a Nazi ordinance with an obvious subtext.
Much of the exhibit focuses on the German Mathematical Society (DMV). This institution was formed largely because of the efforts of Jewish mathematician Georg Cantor in Halle, around 1890. In the Nazi era, under the leadership of Wilhelm Süss (and others), the organization was used as a political tool for the persecution of mathematicians with Jewish associations. There are issues related to the continuity of the DMV during the war which I do not fully understand. However, the exhibition says that the society was reestablished in the French occupation zone in 1948 by Erich Kamke, who lost his professorship in 1937 because of a Jewish spouse. Certain scholars, in particular Max Dehn, refused to rejoin. After 1948 Süss had a change of heart and began to deliberately approach Jewish emigre mathematicians.
It is said that the first individual to appreciate the scale of the mass dismissals of German mathematicians during the Nazi period was Max Pinl, who published his findings in Jahresbericht der DMV despite considerable opposition during the mid to late 1960's.
The exhibition features some interesting personal profiles. There is a board dedicated to the Jewish graduate students of Hilbert and the oral culture of mathematics they helped to initiate at Göttingen. Orality was a distinguishing feature of the department in the first 3rd of the 20th century.
I had been unaware of the particularly tragic circumstances in which Hausdorff was placed by the war. In 1938, aged 74, facing age related prejudice in addition to religious persecution, Hausdorff was not able to secure a position abroad, despite letters of appeal (several of them displayed) written on his behalf by figures such as Courant, Weyl, and Von Neumann. He spent the duration of the war under Nazi rule.
Emmy Noether, who has a board almost to herself, was displaced. Additionally she had a brother Fritz (also a mathematician, at Breslau) who emigrated to the Soviet Union during the war, where he was arrested in 1937 in Stalinist persecutions and shot in 1941.
There is a storyboard describing the history of Moses Mendelssohn and his descendants. Two of his granddaughters married mathematicians, and the offspring of one of these unions was Kurt Hensel, discoverer of the Henselian ring.
Hans Hahn, the thesis supervisor of Gödel, describes an abiding interest in philosophy, and says that he was "almost unfaithful to mathematics, so enticed was I by the charms of philosophy." This is an interesting remark from the advisor of one of the most philosophical of modern mathematicians. Incidentally Gödel was not Jewish, though he did flee the atmosphere of Vienna in 1936 after his friend and colleague Moritz Schlick was shot dead by a pro-Nazi student.
The exhibition, which is traveling around the world (most recently it was in Chicago) is both touching and disturbing. With free admission in a beautiful neighborhood, a visit makes a profitable use of a summer afternoon.
However pleasing it would be if Cantor was indeed a "Jewish mathematician", to call him that seems a bit of a stretch. His mother (according to what I've read) came from a Catholic family not known to have been Jewish. His father, on the other hand, was apparently of Jewish descent (the father's parents belonged to the Portuguese Jewish community in Kopenhagen) but was baptized into Lutheranism after having moved, as a child, with his mother (i.e. Georg's grandmother) to St. Petersburg.
Actually Hausdorff did not survive the Nazi persecution, committing suicide when he was to be deported.
And I think you mean racial prejudice, not religious. Hausdorff had no interest in Judaism.
Will definitely go see the exhibit. Thanks for the info, Hunter!


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text:
For Keyboards, Bass & Drums II opus 637.mp3
For Keyboards, Bass & Drums III opus 638.mp3
For Keyboards, Bass & Drums IV opus 639.mp3
Frank Rothkamm [ Marx Engels Lenin ]
In one of the defining texts of Marxist-Leninist theory, "Concerning Questions of Leninism" the Russian Joseph introduces rhetoric that would later be taken up by the American Donald: you proceed with your arguments as a dialogue with yourself, in public.
You are both the question and the answer, you move along by answering your own questions, you are the dialectic movement revealed. Like the King, who is sure of Divine Providence, you are two persons and the spirit that moves everything, which actually makes you three persons in one.
Yes, indeed, Stalin and Trump.
Are these the right surnames?
To make a long story short, the answer is: Yes.
In an aptly titled chapter in "Concerning Questions of Leninism", which is the all capitalized "THE MAIN THING IN LENINISM", Stalin writes: "Is this thesis correct? I think it is correct. This thesis follows entirely from the definition of Leninism. Indeed, if Leninism is the theory and tactics of the proletarian revolution, and the basic content of the proletarian revolution is the dictatorship of the proletariat, then it is clear that the main thing in Leninism is the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the elaboration of this question, the substantiation and concretisation of this question." To make a long story short: the main thing is dictatorship.
Should I repeat this once more?
No, because the main thing is dictatorship. The editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica have this to say about our main thing: "Dictatorship, [is a] form of government in which one person or a small group possesses absolute power without effective constitutional limitations. The term dictatorship comes from the Latin title dictator, which in the Roman Republic designated a temporary magistrate who was granted extraordinary powers in order to deal with state crises." So, accordingly, we can find a dictator whenever we find a state in crisis.
Is this historically correct?
Yes, because we can always find a time when a difficult or important decision must be made, thus fulfilling the very definition of a crisis. The question is not what decision is made but who makes the decision. It appears that a decision is not to be judged on its own terms, but by the source of the verdict:
Who makes the decision?
Indeed, this points to our submission to power, to follow a leader: Who, not what. Very similar to your chances of making it in Hollywood, it all depends on who you know, not what you know. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. The main thing is the will to power, brought about by class struggle, which is Capital coming to terms with its own contradictions.
The main thing is not to know thyself, as in the Delphian maxim of antiquity, but to be known to others or to brand the others, so they are yours.
The main thing is not the interpretation of Descartes's "cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am) but to change it to "me, me, et ego" (Me, myself and I).
This cult of the personality is at the core of Marxism-Leninism. The "proletarian revolution removes all exploiting groups from power and places in power the leader of all the toilers and exploited,...", writes Stalin, as the Lenin-appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Replace all others with yourself and accept grandiloquent titles like "Brilliant Genius of Humanity," "Great Architect of Communism," and "Gardener of Human Happiness".
But is all this going too far?
It is "foreign to the spirit of Marxism-Leninism to elevate one person, to transform him into a superman", writes another General Secretary, Khrushchev, but only long after the death of Stalin. Is it foreign to the spirit, or, is perhaps the very spirit of Marxism-Leninism to transform man into superman???
Catalog No: FLX73 (LN454)
Title: Marx Engels Lenin
Sound Artist: Frank Rothkamm
Visual Artist: Holger Rothkamm
Label: Flux Records
Length: 16:47 (1007s)
Composed: 2016
Instruments: Williams WP1
Roland JV-1080
Korg M3R
Tags: Progressive Rock in Opposition
80s hair
200 ALBUMs
111 PDFs
1 BIO
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text:
A mesotherm (from Greek μέσος mesos "intermediate" and thermē "heat") is a type of animal with a thermoregulatory strategy intermediate to cold-blooded ectotherms and warm-blooded endotherms.

Definition
Mesotherms have two basic characteristics:
 Elevation of body temperature via metabolic production of heat.
 Weak or absent metabolic control of a particular body temperature.

The first trait distinguishes mesotherms from ectotherms, the second from endotherms. For instance, endotherms, when cold, will generally resort to shivering or metabolizing brown fat to maintain a constant body temperature, leading to higher metabolic rates. A mesotherm, however, will experience lower body temperatures and lower metabolic rates as ambient temperature drops. In addition, mesotherm body temperatures tend to rise as body size increases (a phenomenon known as gigantothermy), unlike endotherms. This reflects the lower surface area to volume ratio in large animals, which reduces rates of heat loss.

While extant mesotherms are relatively rare, good examples include tuna, lamnid sharks (e.g., the great white shark), the leatherback sea turtle, some species of bee, naked mole rats, hyraxes, and echidnas.

Historically, the same word was used by de Candolle to describe plants that require a moderate degree of heat for successful growth. In his scheme, a mesotherm plant grew in regions where the warmest month had a mean temperature greater than  and the coldest month had a mean temperature of at least .

Dinosaur thermoregulation
The thermoregulatory status of dinosaurs has long been debated, and is still an active area of research. The term 'mesothermy' was originally coined to advocate for an intermediate status of non-avian dinosaur thermoregulation, between endotherms and ectotherms. A more technical definition was provided by Grady et al, who argued for dinosaur mesothermy on the basis of their intermediate growth rates, and the empirical relationship between growth, metabolism and thermoregulation in extant vertebrates.

This viewpoint was challenged by D'Emic, who argued that because growth rates are sensitive to seasonal variation in resources, dinosaur maximum growth rates were underestimated by Grady et al. Adjusting dinosaur rates upwards by a factor of two, D'Emic found dinosaurs to grow similarly to mammals, and thus were likely endothermic. However, sensitivity to seasonal variation in resources should be true for all vertebrates. If all vertebrate taxa were similarly adjusted, the relative differences in rates does not change. Dinosaurs remain intermediate growers and good candidates for mesothermy.

Nonetheless, the dinosaur mesothermy hypothesis requires further support to be confirmed. Fossil oxygen isotopes, which can reveal an organism's body temperature, should be particularly informative. Recently, a study of theropod and sauropod isotopes offered some support for dinosaur mesothermy. Feathered theropods are probably the best candidates for dinosaur endothermy, yet the examined theropods had relatively low body temperatures . Large sauropods had higher body temperatures , which may be reflective of mesothermic gigantothermy. Future isotopic analysis of small, juvenile dinosaurs will better resolve this question.

See also
Heterothermy
Gigantothermy
Poikilotherm
Argentine black and white tegu#Endothermic behavior

References

Thermoregulation

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


It all began with "Throw Ya Gunz". Onyx's first single, it was released in late 1992, a few months before their debut album, BacDaFucUp, and it introduced Sticky as the cleanup hitter that would shut down the song with a bang.
While "Throw Ya Gunz" came first, it was the group's second single, "Slam" that introduced Onyx – and Sticky Fingaz – to the world at large. A certified hit, it reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and Sticky's closing verse was memorized by millions.
Nearly a decade after their debut, Onyx came back with the sequel, BacDaFucUp Part II, which naturally included a return to their biggest hit with "Slam Harder". While nowhere near as popular as their first album – they were no longer on Def Jam and the music industry had changed so much – they still brought it and Sticky still ended nearly every track.
The following year came Triggernometry, a lukewarm effort that did have some bright spots including "Champions", which finds the group, particularly Sticky, employing a more melodic flow that isn't always perfect but is always intriguing.
Of course, it wasn't just on albums on which Sticky shined, either. He closes "See You in Hell" originally a freestyle for a DJ Clue tape as well as its sequel, also originally a Clue freestyle before being packaged as part of a Def Jam sampler with DMX's debut, It's Dark and Hell Is Hot, and ultimately winding up on the group's lost tapes compilation album, Cold Case Files: Murder Investigation.
In fact, it wasn't just Onyx songs on which he shut down the track. He provided the final verse on numerous guest spots in three different decades, including "Strange Fruit" along with Tragedy Khadafi & Cappadonna off Pete Rock's 1998 Soul Survivor, the remix of Gang Starr's "Full Clip" a year later, "Soldierz" in 2001 along with X-1 off fellow Onyx groupmate Fredro Starr's debut, Firestarr, and went back and forth with Fredro on DJ Kay Slay's "My Brother's Keeper", which also featured Outlawz, in 2014.
On Onyx's stellar third album, Shut 'Em Down, Sticky rose to another level. He outperformed everyone, including red-hot guest DMX, on the album's title track: "Sticky F-I-N-G-A-Z, the crazy, Cajun blazin' bullets for days and days/Grazin', amazin' I'm the guy that's lacin', Purple Hazin', hard to be phasin'/Lord of all this hell that I'm raisin'/God of the Underground, I'm gunnin' 'em down with a thunder pound/We gonna shut 'em down!" From that track's remix, which featured Noreaga and Big Punisher, to the ninety-second solo salvo "Take That," to the epic back and forth with Method Man on the Onyx/Wu-Tang collaboration, "The Worst," Stick was virtually flawless over 16 tracks, helping to make it Onyx's most complete album.
Eminem's second major label album, The Marshall Mathers LP, was destined to be a monster and it exceeded expectations, becoming certified diamond (10+ million copies sold). In the middle of the album, came a track called "Remember Me?" A departure from the rest of the album, it was classic Hip Hop and had originally been slated to appear on Dr. Dre's 2001, but when Eminem heard it, he wanted it on his album.
When it was finally released in May of 2001, Sticky's long-awaited solo debut managed to exceed the lofty expectations that had been placed upon it. A concept album that blurs the line between fact and fiction, Blacktrash: The Autobiography of Kirk Jones tells the story of Kirk Jones (Sticky) upon his release from jail and his struggle to acclimate to life on the outside. In the rarest of Hip Hop feats, it's a concept album that actually works: "The collection plays like a sonic movie tracing the turbulent life of its principal character, Kirk Jones, who is played by Sticky. Each of the guests on the album, including Eminem ('What If I Was White') and Raekwon ('Money Talks'), also portrays a character in the story." Sticky covers it all.
There's the party track – "Get It Up," also the first single – the existential question conversation – "Oh My God" – and a phenomenal courtroom scene – "State vs. Kirk Jones," with a stellar cast, including Canibus as the prosecutor, Redman as the defense attorney, various witnesses, and Rah Digga in the role of the judge. Despite its brilliance, the album was not commercially successful and was missed by many fans, leading at least one writer (me) to label it the most underrated album in Hip Hop history.
Even if he never records another song, Sticky Fingaz's place in Hip Hop history is secure. Don't believe me? Go listen to an Onyx song from the '90s and you'll find yourself eagerly awaiting his verse.


In 2019 we will our popular summer series of 5Rhythms dance classes right on Brighton Beach (UK). In 2019 we will also be offering sunsets sessions in the San Francisco Bay area (USA)- details TBC.
For the UK Friday night "Sunset Sessions" we use silent disco headsets to start the dance in a beautiful beach front studio, with windows wide open to the seashore as the sun sets. Mid session, when we are fully warmed up, we head outside to dance by sea and sky. There are no steps to learn, nothing to get right, just being with our own body as we move to the music. All classes are guided by accredited 5Rhythms teacher Tess Howell.
There are 35 headsets available and these events regularly sell out, advance booking is highly recommended via the meetup link to the left. Sorry we can't "save" people places without a booking, nor can we magically create more headsets once all of the places are sold out!!
Be warmly welcomed, we very much hope to see you there.