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FIGHTING THE LOST WAR section - vnafmamn.com
by Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu
It is now becoming a repeated but no less discomfiting phenomenon in American politics that when support for the war cools, snide attacks on soldiers grow. When troops came home from Korea – never a popular war in the post–WW II euphoria – they were considered "suckers" by many for going to the war that wasn't. Harry Truman, who sent troops to fight, denigrated the war, calling it a "police action." From that point forward Americans gave it little attention or credibility.
As a result of intense, bitter fighting Korea in three years ate up almost as many American soldiers as Vietnam did in a decade. But upon return, soldiers found a country that had gone on without them, simply ignoring their sacrifice. Hollywood managed to make two good films on Korea – Pork Chop Hill and The Bridges of Toko–ri. The next time film portrayed Korea it was in the anti– war satire M*A*S*H. That is the only image of the Korean War most Americans hold today if they recall it at all. Little wonder veterans feel that they were in the "Forgotten War."
Conversely, Vietnam is the war no one seems able or willing to forget. Perhaps because so many icons of yesterday's media made their bones during the war and are unable to let go of the defining moment in their lives. Major media figures pass Vietnam on to their juniors like oral histories among Pygmy tribes, to the point that reality is glossed over in a haze of self–promoting memories. As a consequence, even thirty years beyond, every issue involving the military must still pass through their warped Vietnam lens.
Incredibly, most of the people feverishly comparing any military action the U.S. undertakes to "another Vietnam" were not born or even cognizant of world events during the actual war. Some learned about it at the knee of activist parents, others from Journalism school academics frozen in a time warp of campus leftist ideology that is constantly stuck in a 1960s groove.
The most telling intellectual progress about Vietnam made on campus for almost 40 years has been in revisionism. "We opposed the war, but supported the troops," they tell us now. Oh, really? Then I suppose the taunts of "baby killer," "murderer," and "pigs" were all an exercise in intellectual protest. And the paper bags of dog crap tossed over fences at wounded servicemen lying outside on stretchers at Travis Air Force in California were, like the borrowed medals John Kerry tossed over the White House fence, simply "an expression of discontent." Whatever, their "support" was too subtle, to "nuanced" for this returning GI to perceive.
Liberals hated soldiers then and still do. At the Clintons' first inaugural, newly hired staffers sneered at the Air Force fighter jets flying overhead until one suddenly said, "Hey, wait a minute. Those are ours now!" Their view of the military has always been an "us versus them" paradigm. No less now than at the height of the Vietnam days when crowds chanted "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, the NLF is going to win!" and waved Viet Cong flags at the troops.
Thirty years ago we watched a spectacle of John Kerry and the Winter Soldier bunch – composed of largely fraudulent "veterans" and overt traitors like Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden – indelibly stain the honor of every legitimate Vietnam vet. Kerry's Senate testimony paved the way for a parasitic political career constructed on the heroism, sacrifice, and dedication of men and women whose reputations are tarnished to this day by his reprehensible behavior.
The few realistic films such as Hamburger Hill and The Hanoi Hilton, were panned. Those that trashed the troops, such as Platoon, Coming Home Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and the entire Rambo series, were gushed over for their "gritty realism." Never mind that the thesis was flawed, these films, we were assured, "told it like it was." Baloney.
Despite mounds of contrary evidence each and every one of the latter portrayed the Vietnam veteran as baby–raping, murdering, fratricidal, alcoholic, suicidal, drug–besotted losers who were unable to readjust to society, reduced to living in a Kenmore box under the overpass. Exactly the story that Kerry and company have consistently promoted since the 1970s. (Actually not terribly different than the behavior of his mentor, the senior Senator from Massachusetts, except that the latter eschews the cardboard box for the Kennedy Hyannis compound.)
But liberals, ever fond of quagmires, remain sunk in their narcissist perceptions. A recent best selling book, Keeping Faith, written by Frank Schaeffer, father of a Marine from Massachusetts, detailed how shocked and stunned their circle of "Volvo driving friends" were when they learned that the young man had enlisted. They treated it as a tragedy, as if he had been stricken with a fatal disease, or involved in an awful traffic accident. "What happened?" they were asked quietly at cocktail parties. "He had so much going for him." The implication was clear: only losers join the military.
Whenever liberals dislike or distrust anything they label it as stupid. Hence Ronald Reagan was a buffoon, Bush a moron, and today's soldiers are called ignorant, incompetent, and incapable of finding employment anywhere other than in a military establishment that will recruit anything with a pulse as long as it will kill. It is the ultimate in sophomoric snobbery from a bunch of moral and physical cowards who are content to slop at the trough of freedom that is filled by the blood and sweat of patriots they despise.
In fact today's soldier is a cut above any that the country has produced, including the properly honored "greatest generation" of the Second World War. The troops who bravely crossed the beaches at Normandy were young conscripts, average age 19. Few had graduated high school. They accomplished the mission given them and won the war. Today's soldiers patrolling remote Afghan villages, crowded Baghdad streets, Columbian jungles, and Abu Sayeff strongholds in Mindanao are older, better educated, more mature, and more technologically savvy than any of their predecessors. They are accomplishing a more complex mission equally effectively. And they are winning this war.
One thing has not changed: American soldiers are magnets for children and the oppressed wherever they go. In his final book, To America, the late, great historian Stephen Ambrose noted that when "German, Japanese, or Russian armies come into a village children flee from them in fear." Conversely, "when American GIs arrive the children run to them, knowing that they will be treated kindly and given food and candy." It is the same today.
Several legitimate support–the–troops charities that send "care packages" to deployed soldiers find odd requests from the field. The soldiers want crayons, pencils, rulers, notebooks, school supplies, hard candies, and toys. Why? To give away to kids, of course, as they walk the streets of the towns, villages, and cities they patrol.
At a recent dinner with my friend and colleague Ralph Peters we discussed the present military personnel situation. Ralph succinctly remarked that the all–volunteer military was "good for the military, but bad for the country." In other words, the socialization process that accompanied a conscript military had a positive effect on the country. However, the professional character of a volunteer military results in a much more effective machine for breaking things and killing people, the ultimate mission of any military organization.
Since the mid–1970s Americans have voted for the latter. It is unlikely to change at this point any time soon. But the sad part is that more Americans – including more lawmakers – are without the experience of military service than at any time in our history. It makes the military a remote, unknown, somewhat suspicious organization.
We should better know the men and women who make up the military. Take the time to learn who they are. These soldiers are your fellow countrymen, your family, friends, and neighbors. They are us.
Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu has been an Army Green Beret lieutenant colonel, as well as a writer, popular speaker, business executive and farmer. His most recent book is Separated at Birth, about North and South Korea.
(Source: Frontpagemag)
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You are at:Home»Opinion»Duncan McLeod»Icasa must favour the little guys
Duncan McLeod
Icasa must favour the little guys
By Duncan McLeod	 6 March 2013 17 Comments
Ladies and gentleman, we have a price war. South Africa's mobile operators are competing more aggressively with one another on price than at any other time in the industry's 20-year history.
Prepaid rates, in particular, have tumbled. And, whatever telecommunications industry bosses argue, it's due in no small part to regulated reductions in the wholesale fees the operators charge each other to carry calls between their networks. These "termination rates" fell to 40c/minute on 1 March, from a startlingly high R1,25/minute in peak times a few years ago.
They need to come down further.
High termination rates favour larger industry players in that they make it harder for new, smaller ones to compete effectively. Because new entrants have fewer customers than the incumbents, most of their calls are placed to other networks. High termination rates therefore make it more difficult for them to compete on price and to win customers.
Cell C, licensed 13 years ago as South Africa's third mobile operator, struggled to gain a strong foothold in the market — arguably as much because of bad strategy as an unfavourable regulatory environment — but in recent years has emerged as a street fighter willing and able to take on the big boys.
Under former CEO Lars Reichelt, it began work on a much-needed third-generation (3G) mobile network. Reichelt also infused a sense of coolness into what had become a stale brand.
Now, under the direction of former Vodacom boss Alan Knott-Craig, Cell C has launched an all-out assault on MTN and Vodacom, slashing rates and dramatically simplifying tariff structures in an industry that had made an art form of product complexity.
It's clear Knott-Craig has rattled his competitors, especially Vodacom. MTN has come to the party, too. Last week it cut the cost of its One Rate anytime prepaid plan. Perhaps more significantly, it felt compelled to reveal the average cost of a call on its most popular prepaid plan, MTN Zone: 88c/minute, it says. Zone is complex, providing discounts based on time of day, network load and caller location, but appears to be hugely popular among MTN customers — the operator claims churn to other networks is less than 2%/month.
All this leaves 8ta in a pickle. The Telkom-owned fourth network (which may or may not be changing its name soon) is barely out of nappies, yet is being forced into a bruising battle. It's showing it's prepared to fight, though, last Friday chopping its prepaid rates to 95c/minute on per-second billing, undercutting Cell C. But whether the loss-making 8ta will ever win more than a sliver of market share in voice is debatable.
Its real advantage — the one it needs to draw on if it's going to succeed — is in the still fast-growing data market. Its exclusive access to a big chunk of spectrum that can be used to build a 4G broadband network will be crucial.
Still, 8ta arguably has a valuable role to play in the voice market in keeping the bigger players in check. Even Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub conceded last week it may make sense for 8ta to continue to enjoy an "asymmetric" termination rate regime, where it receives more from other operators than it pays them.
Joosub and MTN SA boss Karel Pienaar argue that after 13 years Cell C doesn't deserve the same as 8ta. It's true that asymmetry, if too aggressively applied, can distort the market and lead to inefficiencies. But it's the smaller players, especially Cell C, that are leading the charge to lower retail prices. The regulator must find ways of encouraging them without intervening in ways that could damage the industry. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
Duncan McLeod is editor of TechCentral; this column is also published in Financial Mail
8ta Alan Knott-Craig Cell C Duncan McLeod Karel Pienaar Lars Reichelt MTN Shameel Joosub Telkom Vodacom
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
package frc.team4828.landrovaltoast;

import jaci.openrio.toast.core.command.AbstractCommand;
import jaci.openrio.toast.core.command.IHelpable;
import jaci.openrio.toast.lib.log.Logger;

import java.util.Objects;

class Commands {
    static class MyCommand extends AbstractCommand implements IHelpable {    // IHelpable is optional, but provides a help message
        public String getCommandName() {
            return "logTest";
        }

        Logger logger = new Logger("LogTest", Logger.ATTR_DEFAULT);

        public void invokeCommand(int argLength, String[] args, String fullCommand) {
            if (args.length == 0) logger.info(getHelp());
            else if (Objects.equals(args[0], "severe")) logger.severe("SEVERE");
            else if (Objects.equals(args[0], "info")) logger.info("INFO");
            else if (Objects.equals(args[0], "warn")) logger.warn("WARN");
            else if (Objects.equals(args[0], "error")) logger.error("ERROR");
            else if (Objects.equals(args[0], "raw")) logger.raw("RAW");
            else if (Objects.equals(args[0], "debug")) logger.debug("DEBUG");
        }

        public String getHelp() {
            return "Put type of log as argument to test logging. Argument types: severe, info, warn, error, raw, debug";
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Melbourne Renovation -Villa Alba
The location is superb, just across the Yarra River where Johnston St, Collingwood ends and Studley Park Road, Kew begins. The Yarra was a natural barrier to the city's expansion so the early homes built in this area of Melbourne turned their backs on the working class terrace house, and gave way to the grand Villa's of Studley Park, Kew. Early photos show that the villa was on a much larger property than it is today.
Front entrance to Villa Alba with interested spectator in the foreground.
Villa Alba was built by William Greenlaw in 1882. Greenlaw's wife's family had purchased the property in 1862. Greenlaw was the General Manager of one of Victoria's early banks, the Colonial Bank of Australasia which went belly up in the depression of the 1890's.
Wedding Notice in The Argus 25th July 1862 – there's nothing like an accountant marrying into money. St Francis's church is the oldest Catholic Church in Melbourne.
The Greenlaw's had spent a fortune on the property. According to the Villa Alba Preservation committee, Greenlaw "threw caution to the winds and turned his modest house, Villa Alba, into a mansion in keeping with its neighbours in Studley Park, Kew. He then gave Paterson Brothers, Melbourne's leading decorators, free rein in his new interiors and topped off their work with loads of fashionable Aesthetic and Artistic Furnishings". It goes on "While this exercise in conspicuous consumption contributed to Greenlaw's insolvency, demotion and death (in 1895), his and his wife's profligate spending will eventually benefit Australians".
And indeed it did.
Greenlaw was obviously careful enough, and even though he personally became bankrupt, the house was in his wife's name and out of the reach of creditors. Mrs Anna Greenlaw managed to hold onto the property until 1918 although she rented it out shortly after her husband's death. She did, however sell all of the contents in order to earn some cash:
Notice in The Age, 20th March 1897 noting the riches from within the Villa.
In 1918 the property was transferred to Samuel Fripp who owned it until 1950 to the Royal Women's Hospital, initially to house nurses and subsequently a post-natal convalescence hospital for mothers and babies. It was held by several hospitals until 1999 when it was sold to the Society of Jesus for use by Xavier College.
A community group led by Sir Rupert Hamer was established in 1984 with a view to preserving the property which by then was in poor repair. In 2004 Villa Alba Museum Incorporated gained title to the house and it has been managed by that community group ever since. It is open on the first Sunday of each month.
These days the house is subject to constant restoration and renovation, with the committee trying to get it back to its earlier condition, although I must say that it is most interesting the way that it is currently presented.
Despite the tough time that it has had, there are many original features that indicate the highly ornate nature of the decorations within the Villa.
Fireplace and surrounds in the Drawing Room
Here's where you go – from the days when the Villa was a nurse's residence.
Fancy work on the solid plaster after restoration. Much of the original stencilling was painted over by the Royal Women's Hospital to "brighten the place up". The brickwork under the plaster is evident.
Staircase detail, incredibly ornate and in wonderful condition.
Large combustion stove in the kitchen towards the rear of the house – there's also a more modern version to the right.
Much of the original garden was taken over by Xavier, however there is still about 3/4 of an acre of grounds around the Villa.
The plantings hark back to the Victorian era when the house was built.
West side garden with Acanthus Mollis (Oyster Plant) in the foreground. The Acanthus motif is a favourite in Corinthian Columns.
View to the rear of the property – Wisteria Lined walkway.
Rear of property with citrus trees shading the windows.
Entrance to the kitchen at the rear of the property. Not quite as ornate as the front door but good enough for the servants who worked for the Greenlaw's.
So if you're at a loose end on the first Sunday of the month, you could do far worse that a visit to see one of Melbourne's perpetual renovations. The volunteers attending on the day showing the visitors through were fantastic.
Related Tag: House Renovations Melbourne


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Home→Celebrities→Demi Lovato Is 'Awake and with Her Family' Following Apparent Overdose
Demi Lovato Is 'Awake and with Her Family' Following Apparent Overdose
Demi Lovato is "awake and talking" after being hospitalized following an apparent overdose, a source close to the situation tells.
The "Sober" singer, 25, was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital from her Hollywood Hills home on Tuesday, multiple sources previously confirmed. A Lovato insider previously said the star was in "stable" condition.
The star's publicist also released a statement Tuesday evening confirming Lovato is recovering. "Demi is awake and with her family who want to express thanks to everyone for the love, prayers and support. Some of the information being reported is incorrect and they respectfully ask for privacy and not speculation as her health and recovery is the most important thing right now."
According to E! News, Lovato's mom Dianna De La Garza and her 16-year-old sister Madison De La Garza were seen at the hospital in the afternoon.
A representative for the Los Angeles Fire Department previously told they "transported a 25-year-old female patient to a local hospital," while the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed both departments "responded to a medical emergency" in the area of her Hollywood Hills home.
Audio of the emergency call obtained by TMZ revealed the pop star was unconscious upon their arrival and revived with Narcan — an emergency medication to reverse the effects of a narcotic overdose. While TMZ reported the overdose was heroin related, the Lovato insider claimed to that it was not.
According to The Blast, Lovato and other people at her home were "uncooperative" with police and would not tell responders what drugs she took when questioned about her overdose. LAPD officers collected an "item of evidence" related to illegal drugs that is not typically associated with heroin, the outlet reports.
Lovato has battled addiction, mental illness and disordered eating for years. In 2010, she entered treatment, where she was treated for bipolar disorder, bulimia, self-harm and addiction. She relapsed after she left the treatment center, then entered a sober living facility for a year.
But even after treatment, insiders say she still struggled with her private pain. "Demi was never really clean and sober from all of her demons," a Lovato source told. "She has been fighting depression and anxiety for quite some time — and is still in such a dark place. She was sober for awhile, but not completely sober for six years."
Last March, Lovato revealed she celebrated six years of sobriety, but in June she released a new song, "Sober," on which she revealed that she had relapsed.
"Mama, I'm so sorry I'm not sober anymore / And daddy please forgive me for the drinks spilled on the floor," she sang on the heartbreaking piano ballad. "And I'm sorry for the fans I lost who watched me fall again / I wanna be a role model, but I'm only human."
At the end of the track, Lovato sings: "I'm sorry that I'm here again / I promise I'll get help / It wasn't my intention / I'm sorry to myself."


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Fired Georgia police sergeant indicted in paramedic's death
by: AP News
William Talley
Mugshot from Talley's May 2019 arrest
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — A grand jury has indicted a fired Georgia police sergeant on murder charges in the fatal shooting of a paramedic with whom authorities say he was having an affair.
According to the Ledger-Enquirer, the indictment says William Talley shot Kelly Levinsohn in the back of the head. Talley was indicted Tuesday on malice murder and felony murder charges in the May slaying.
Homeless Savannah man sentenced to life in prison for 2018 murder
Murder of 13-year-old girl shines spotlight on teen dating violence
He was fired by Columbus police after the shooting and remains jailed in Muscogee County.
His lawyer says he can't afford the $1 million bond.
Assistant District Attorney Robin King says Talley remains on suicide watch. He's been declared mentally competent to stand trial.
Authorities say Talley took Levinsohn's truck, wrecking it and injuring himself after the shooting. He was arrested following a standoff with police.
More Georgia News Stories
by MICHAEL WARREN, Associated Press / Jan 18, 2021
ATLANTA (AP) — The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund launched a $40 million scholarship program on Monday to support a new generation of civil rights lawyers, dedicated to pursuing racial justice across the South.
With that whopping gift from a single anonymous donor, the fund plans to put 50 students through law schools around the country. In return, they must commit to eight years of racial justice work in the South, starting with a two-year post-graduate fellowship in a civil rights organization.
by AP News / Jan 18, 2021
ATLANTA (AP) — Speakers at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday celebration in Atlanta called Monday for a renewed dedication to nonviolence following a turbulent year in which a deadly pandemic, protests over systemic racism and a divisive election capped by an attack on the U.S. Capitol strained Americans' capacity for civility.
"This King holiday has not only come at a time of great peril and physical violence, it has also come during a time of violence in our speech — what we say and how we say it," said the Rev. Bernice King, the slain civil rights leader's daughter. "It is frankly out of control and we are causing too much harm to one another."
by WSAV Staff / Jan 18, 2021
OSSABAW ISLAND, Ga. (WSAV) - Eleanor "Sandy" Torrey West died Sunday, on her birthday, at her home in Garden City at the age of 108.
West was the last private owner and resident of Ossabaw Island. Her family sold it to the state of Georgia in 1978.


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Since May, the Safe and Sound series — what Zander playfully calls "Live-in-the-Drive" — has had a total of 14 concerts featuring musicians from the Boston area. By Claire H. Guo
A Driveway Full of Shining Eyes
Even though Boston Symphony Hall stands silent today, its music is "coming to life again" in Benjamin Zander's driveway. "Since May, Benjamin Zander's two-car driveway on Brattle Street has slowly filled with live music; the audience now reaches 200 guests, spread out across the driveway and down the street, all wearing masks."
By Claire H. Guo and Jennifer Luong
Boston's Symphony Hall, with its imposing 60-foot-high coffered ceilings, is widely considered one of the finest music halls in the world. For the first time in 139 years, it stands silent.
But elsewhere in Boston, the music missing from Symphony Hall is coming to life again. Since May, Benjamin Zander's two-car driveway on Brattle Street has slowly filled with live music; the audience now reaches 200 guests, spread out across the driveway and down the street, all wearing masks.
Zander, the 81-year-old founder and conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, has a smile that takes over his face and a full head of white hair that floats like its own cloud. On a Saturday afternoon in May, Zander had an idea and called up the Boston Philharmonic's Assistant principal cellist, Velléda C. Miragias. "Would you come to my house and bring your cello?" he asked. That day in Zander's driveway, she played an hour of solo Bach Suites — her first time playing outside her home since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Something kind of miraculous happened, which is [that] people stopped. They gathered around to listen. Cars stopped, they put down their windows. I put out a few chairs," Zander says. "And so we decided to do more of them."
The spontaneous endeavor became a weekly affair. Since that first call in May, the Safe and Sound series — what Zander playfully calls "Live-in-the-Drive" — has had a total of 14 concerts featuring musicians in the area, including students from the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and world-renowned flautist Carol Wincenc. Listeners began arriving early to reserve spots in the driveway and others gathered in and across the road, all socially distanced, to hear the unfiltered music cascade down Brattle Street.
Beyond the physical guests, the live Facebook streams have reached virtual audiences of up to 13,000 with comments pouring in from countries around the world, including Scotland, Argentina, and Japan.
Zander's house is no stranger to strangers. A sign outside his blooming front garden reads "More beauty in the back, please peek!" He welcomes passersby and concert guests to enjoy the flowers in his backyard, asking, "Why would I have such a beautiful garden and not want to share it?"
In one letter, neighbor Harold Nassau details his transition from visiting Zander's gardens to discovering the concerts, thanking him for the experience.
"I cannot begin to tell you how beautiful and moving it was to listen to the music. These months have been so devastating, so inhuman, so painful for us all," Nassau wrote. "As I listened to the music — so elegant and refined and beautiful — I felt awakened feelings that had seemed lost." Nassau left in tears.
In numerous other letters to Zander, neighbors thank him for his warmth and generosity of spirit. During the concerts, he offers sweaters and pulls out sofa cushions for some older audience members sitting on the asphalt. Concerned by the noise of traffic, Zander even spent the most recent concert standing in the middle of his street, guarding the delicate sound of string instruments against the hum of motors and engines.
"I found that people drove slower because they didn't want to run me over," Zander says, laughing. "And then the traffic noise was a little less."
For musicians in particular, the concert series has offered a respite from the complete discontinuation of live music during the pandemic. After five months of not being able to play with others, one performer burst into tears while playing for Safe and Sound.
"We [musicians] were probably the first to be cut off from the scene because of the nature of how we play — we're so close to each other, and the audience is close, and we are probably going to be the last ones to be back on the scene," Miragias says. "It is emotionally very difficult because our life is wrapped around playing together, for people."
In addition to the emotional toll of not performing, many of Miragias's fellow musicians have faced a complete loss of income, some having to relocate and file for unemployment, others even exploring alternate career paths.
"[There is] no end in sight. You have a guess and you hear some rumors — then you hear about the MET [Orchestra] canceling for two years, so then that just adds to the anxiety," Miragias says.
The Safe and Sound Concert Series contrasts with classical music's regimented, precise, and restrictive image. Musicians came each week with little to no rehearsal, dropping out briefly mid-performance as the wind blew or as pages needed turning. Sometimes bells would ring in the nearby Armenian church. On one occasion, everyone started to yell, "Run!" as a lightning storm fell.
"One of the problems with our lives is that [they have] become too predictable. Recordings of perfectly produced music have done tremendous harm to classical music," Zander says. "Classical music is something that should be felt with excitement and warmth and love and inspiration, and [it should] not be too careful. And in these concerts there's no chance we are too careful. It's full of fun."
One listener from Maryland felt the same way.
"What will we do without you?" Tony Hyatt writes. "You have opened my mind up to a whole new world of music. I have played many concerts as a woodwind artist, and played so starched and restricted. Now my own playing moves me in a different way."
Zander describes himself and others — performers, musicians, conductors, and listeners — as having been "starved for classical music and for live music." There's something about live music in particular, he thinks, that cannot be replaced.
"Music is as omnipresent as leaves on the trees. But live music is something very different," Zander says. "Everyone who is used to eating vegetables out of the can, and then eats corn off the cob, knows that it is a totally different experience."
When asked about his role in the concert series, Zander insists that he did very little. He has just gathered an audience of shining eyes, as he puts it.
"The aim of all of this is to create shining eyes," Zander says. "My definition of success is not wealth, fame, or power, but how many shining eyes do I have around me?"
The magazine of The Harvard Crimson


LONDON June 3 -- Nickel fell more than 5 percent to a four month-low and zinc lost around 4 percent on Thursday on the back of persistent worries about the health of the euro zone economy, traders said.
Selling pressure has escalated as the euro dropped to a session low versus the dollar.
Nickel CMNI3 for three months delivery on the London Metal Exchange fell to $18,600 a tonne, its lowest since mid-February and was at $18,670 a tonne by 1445 GMT, versus Wednesday's $19,650 a tonne.
Zinc CMZN3 tumbled as low as $1,729.25 a tonne and was last at $1,736.50 a tonne versus $1,801 a tonne.


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NME Radar
Working Men's Club: the Yorkshire group reviving killer new-wave power pop
Jonathan Garrett Apr 17, 2019 2:09 pm BST
Credit: Press
Lead singer Sydney Minsky-Sargeant explains why the band behind riotous debut single 'Bad Blood' are nothing if not misunderstood
The mercurial, teenaged frontman for Working Men's Club is not one to mince words. We're less than 10-minutes into our interview with Sydney Minsky-Sargeant and he has already made it quite clear that he's got no enthusiasm for indie music circa 2019. "The reason there aren't as many popular guitar bands right now is because they keep reproducing the same shit," he tells us from his bedroom in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. "No one should be surprised it's dying."
There's a certain irony here (not lost on Minsky-Sargeant) considering his band – rounded out by Jake Bogacki, Giulia Bonometti, and Liam Ogburn – has been hailed as leaders of a burgeoning post-punk renaissance. Breathless reviews greeted their debut 7", and the blistering salvos of 'Bad Blood' and b-side 'Suburban Heights' earning them comparisons to Manchester royalty The Fall, and as well as contemporary acts like Brooklyn's indie-rock kingpins Parquet Courts.
"No one should be surprised guitar music is dying" – Sydney Minsky-Sargeant
Add to it a string of live dates through summer, including as openers for Fat White Family, and all outward signs would point to Working Men's Club being well positioned to take up the mantle as the latest of "guitar music's saviours". Minsky-Sargeant, despite all available evidence on the band's single, seems curiously indifferent to its resuscitation.
"I really love Suicide and a lot of the 70s new wave bands. I love drum machines and synthesizers too. So it poses a problem in terms of which way we go." Minsky-Sargeant's restlessness suggests many might have them pegged all wrong.
Indeed, their eclectic live set showcases more of the electronic influences Minsky-Sargeant mentions. In fact, there's perhaps more in common with Southend iconoclasts These New Puritans. They too were once precocious teenagers, themselves tipped as post-punk's next great hopes, but chose to dive headlong into a far more fascinating and otherworldly abyss. It's a comparison that Minsky-Sargeant doesn't dispute.
Want proof? Take current live favourite 'Cook A Coffee'. The motorik beat and an elasticated bassline dominate as the song builds to an urgent climax – guitars nearly an afterthought. The song offers a tantalising glimpse of where they might be headed musically, and is equally notable for its unflinching takedown of a certain television presenter.
"It's about Andrew Neil, who is a presenter on the BBC and a complete right wing piece of shit." Yes, the same Andrew Neil who, in a now infamous viral clip from several months ago, danced like a lobotomized fool during his show's end credits while a decidedly unimpressed Bobby Gillespie watched from the couch in stone-faced silence.
Which begs the question: are Working Men's Club a political band? This prompts Minsky-Sargeant to take a momentary pause. "I consider myself to be political," he says, haltingly, "but I'm not going to put that tag on Working Men's Club. If people choose to interpret [my lyrics] politically, they're probably not wrong. And I'll add that in this current climate we're in, you'd be stupid not to have an opinion and speak up on it."
It remains remarkable how much they've achieved with so little. After all, he is still just 17, fronting a band that has been together scarcely more than a year. In addition to the avalanche of accolades it has received, the aforementioned 7" sold out a week prior to its street date thanks to pre-orders. And to top it off, there is a rumoured record deal allegedly in its final stages.
Heady days indeed, but Minsky-Sargeant would never let on if he's feeling the heat. "For a lot of bands, their first single is meant as the overview of the first album, but I don't think that is going to be true for us. There is much more to Working Men's Club, and what's to come is going to be even better than 'Bad Blood.'" Clearly, he much prefers to fan the flames.
Credit: Getty
Evan Rachel Wood calls out 'Stranger Things' for Jim Hopper's toxic behaviour
Freddie Mercury of Queen, Billie Eilish and Lewis Capaldi. Credit: Phil Dent/Redferns / Leon Neal/Getty Images / Ian Gavan/Getty Images
Queen, Billie Eilish, Lewis Capaldi albums among the UK's best-selling vinyl records in 2019 so far


text:
Q: How do I implement Sailfish version of Hadoop on my Computer? Sailfish is a version of Hadoop that is more efficient than regular Hadoop. I am confused on how I can implement this version of Hadoop from the following Github repo: https://github.com/sriramsrao/sailfish .

A: Doe, I see the repository you have mentioned is too old. Even the last commit was 6 years before. Since there the world has moved quite far. I would suggest you to take a look at latest version of Hadoop from Hortonworks, Cloudera or MapR. I am sure they would be much more faster and well maintained than the one you have mentioned.
Hope this helps !

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A Recent Question from a Reader: I am in landscape construction, running a sod installation crew to be exact. I work for my brother-in-law and we were discussing some issues he is having with the one salesperson that he has on staff and asking my advice on how to implement a commission into the person's salary. The goal for the company would be to compensate the person fairly and also motivate the salesperson to track down more business and follow through with placing the order in our system. How do you change the system over fairly so both sides see the advantages? Any insight you would have on this kind of situation would be greatly appreciated.
The fact that you have a relatively short sales cycle and you sell a physical item both work in your favor. These help make the move to a commission base much easier than a salesperson who is selling something that requires long lead-times and/or is a service.
Since the person is on board already, it will be important for them to feel like the new plan is going to allow them to make even more than before. At the same time, you need to make it a variable cost, thus lowering your break-even point.
Don't do a draw or advance (or anything like) that unless you are 100% sure of the formula. More often than not, these tend to blow up on people leaving everybody really ticked off at each other.
Set the person up with a base plus commission. The base should be enough to feed, clothe, and keep them warm. In other words, put it at a point where the caliber of person you're hiring can survive, but really can't do much more than that. This keeps them hungry and pushing. Then, add a commission or bonus on top of that. The key is you need to do the payout within two weeks after the period (month) ends to keep it relevant and current. If your business model is scalable enough to allow you to really achieve some big profits if you grow substantially, then have an escalator clause in the bonus plan which pays out more if they sell more. You do need rules in place that mandate that in order for them to receive the commission, they have to enter the order in the system correctly, service the customer, and work to obtain payment if there's a problem. It is critical that you spell these out in the bonus / commission plan to avoid any confusion and to ensure correct behavior from the start.
Don't cap the plan. Allow them to make an unlimited amount. It's in your best interest, and certainly don't allow yourself or anyone else to be offended by how much they're making. Remember, if it's all variable: the more they make, the more you make.
When setting it up, take the person's last year volume (assuming they were performing at the level you want them to be at) and put in place a base plus bonus that would get them back to an equivalent amount they made last year. Doing this will help you sell it to them. Any additional sales then become extra money to them and you. After you've established a history with the person, you can work to move the base down even lower. The easiest way is to never give them a raise since their raise comes by selling more. For established sales teams where a person can get up to speed within 3 months, I like a 50/50 split between base and commission. The longer the sales curve, the higher the base. For example: 65/35. In all cases, however, a high performer is going to be achieving so much in bonus that it works out to 30/70.
>A couple of other items: Make sure you and the salesperson are in agreement as to how you will compensate for sales where somebody else has to come along and assist. Also, make sure there is a good understanding as to how to handle leads and marketing activities. I've seen salespeople become so fixated on the commission / bonus that they scream and holler wanting others to get the leads, do the marketing, attend the trade shows, etc, allowing them to only show up and close. This can become very problematic if the business model can't afford it and your entire company is not in agreement with the expectations for each employee.


Juneko will lead a group of lucky individuals in creating these lovely fiber art heart-shaped pins.
Bring your own embellishments such as beads and buttons. Not sure what to bring? The photo shows suggested embellishments.
This workshop is for anyone 12 and older, no matter your skill level. Interested in joining us? Give us a call at the Friends Bookstore and Gallery (360-816-6216) to reserve a spot.


I'm not sure why it's taken me 27 years to learn this, but there exists an incomparable chasm between the act of losing someone forever due to natural causes, and the forced question of letting another go. There is nothing more painful than the unresolve.
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text:
"Who Gets Kissed?"
"Researchers at UW-Madison developed a new sweet corn variety coined 'Who Gets Kissed?'..."
The breed's name pays homage to an old tradition where communities would come together to husk corn and dance, according to the release. When a person found corn, they could kiss one other person in the group....
Hey... University of Wisconsin! What happened to yes means yes? Doesn't this "one other person in the group" have significant personhood and bodily autonomy?
From a Civil War discussion group:
I must not forget the ever popular corn husking bees where the finder of the red ear was in great luck, for he or she was privileged to take a kiss from the prettiest girl or the handsomest man there. Let me tell you there was lots of tears shed (in private) and some heartaches caused by the red ear of corn.
From Forgotten Stories:
What laughing and talking and romping, as the dry leaves were plucked from the ear!... What sly jokes went about as to which of the girls the lucky finder would kiss, that being his free full right and privilege; and when at length the talisman was found, what a shout of triumph from the discovery, and what a trepidation and giggling amongst the girls! Our illustration represents a husking party at the moment when the red husk has been unearthed. The gentleman is about to not only claim, but to enforce, his privilege, and, from the expression in the lady's face, it is not improbable that she fully expected this mark of esteem should the husk be found by this particular cavalier.
Sorry to step on a commercial product of my university, but the name celebrates a tradition of coerced sexual behavior. I know... they landed an ear of corn on a distant comet and I — with no comparable achievements of my own — just want to talk about what shirts they wore.
Tags: corn, festivities, kissing, Matt Taylor's shirt, political correctness, sexual harassment, University of Wisconsin
" I — with no comparable achievements of my own — just want to talk about what shirts they wore."
"What are you wearing" has its own rapey implications. There's no place to hide.
The restraint on kissing the girls was the old timers aphrodisiac...which brought old Aphrodite's back into harvest festivals.
Puritans meet lusty Wisconsiners. The war goes on.
Wouldn't "Who Gets Cornholed?" be more appropriate?
Dr.D said...
Why worry about this now? This is from the past, a long time ago.
A good Cornhusker was worth his or her weight in gold. Just needed good powers of concentration and forearm strength. Then automation killed off yet another job.
Now all those former cornhuskers have to be Policemen in New York City where, surprisingly, forearm strength can be useful.
Lyle Smith said...
That scientist is like the coerced woman in the picture. You sir will give our community what we want. Abide!
If this tradition had truly been offensive to the women of the community, it would have stopped. The women appreciated the ability to ignore social conventions just as much as the men did.
Why no picture or discussion of the attractive man who is forced to allow the ugly old woman to kiss him?
I know..no one gives a shit about men.
I — with no comparable achievements of my own — just want to talk about what shirts they wore.
To be fair, there are very, very few people whose achievements are comparable to Matt Taylor's. But yes, if women can't discuss anything but his shirt, then a reason for their relative lack of success in STEM is immediately suggested.
Can you imagine a conversation between the Curies?
"Zut alors, Pierre! I cannot go forth and discover radium because your shirt, it is too hideous and offends all persons of my gender."
"Ma cherie, Marie, this shirt it is merely in the spirit of fun."
Madam Curie runs weeping from the room.
"I know... they landed an ear of corn on a distant comet..."
What happened to yes means yes?
My girlfriend went to a Navajo "Squaw Dance" - an "Auntie" can make any man dance with her, and he has to give her money afterwards.
It seems my version of blogger censored the passage where you called the researchers assholes and brought down the fury of the Twitterverse on them.
BarrySanders20 said...
Lighten up, Frances. Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss.
They wouldn't be a-shuckin' if they feared a kiss at the end.
12/5/14, 10:04 AM
Alexander said...
I'm all for making institutions live up to whatever standards they insist on lecturing the rest of us about. Which - I think - is the spirit of our host's post.
So yes, UW, why are you promoting historical cis-male white privilege, rape culture, microagression, et al.?
AA: Sorry to step on a commercial product of my university, but the name celebrates a tradition of coerced sexual behavior.
Doesn't attendance at the event indicate a desire to participate in the tradition?
Sigh...I remember the old phrase, "Spend all your kisses". Weren't those the good old days?
SomeoneHasToSayIt said...
Nothing wrong with a little reminder now and then that, if they wanted to, Men could take and do whatever they wanted (like they do in Islam).
We have only 'agreed' to be civil and respectful.
Women would be wise to remember that, and not overplay the feminist hand.
Speaking of Matt Taylor's shirt, the Orion spacecraft is back!
Althouse? You should rename it Steakhouse with all the conservative red meat you're offering up.
She's putting you on.
You must provide affirmative consent before progressing to the next stage of the process.
"Women would be wise to remember that, and not overplay the feminist hand."
"My generation of boys is f**ked," says Rupert, a young German video game enthusiast I've been getting to know over the past few months. "Marriage is dead. Divorce means you're screwed for life. Women have given up on monogamy, which makes them uninteresting to us for any serious relationship or raising a family. That's just the way it is. Even if we take the risk, chances are the kids won't be ours. In France, we even have to pay for the kids a wife has through adulterous affairs.
"Doesn't attendance at the event indicate a desire to participate in the tradition?"
No. Not if you're in a small community where this is the social life available. There is coercion of a type, not the most forcible coercion, but coercion, similar to the coercion to pray when someone says grace at a family Thanksgiving dinner.
Dewave said...
I thought the president had made coerced kissing cool again?
Hard to blame an ad campaign for picking up on behaviour modelled by the most powerful and popular elected official in the land.
Small price to pay to have the privilege of being female in the Western World.
Again, there are many forms of society that could exist, and ones where the genders are not "equal", as they are not in most of nature, could be prevalent.
I wouldn't rock the boat too much.
We're all still paying dearly for the mistake of the 19th amendment.
but coercion, similar to the coercion to pray when someone says grace at a family Thanksgiving dinner.
There's no "coercion to pray" when someone says grace, merely an expectation of quiet respect while those who wish to say grace do so.
Does who can't do(land ships on comets), criticize the shirt.
Time to repeal the 19th amendment.
Ann is getting all social justice warrior-ey this morning. I wonder why?
"There's no "coercion to pray" when someone says grace, merely an expectation of quiet respect while those who wish to say grace do so."
Amen brother.
All four of the Progressive amendments were mistakes. We have already gotten rid of one of them, now it is time to repeal the other three.
Aw fer chrisakes perfesser. Give it a rest.
If they wanted to be malicious they would have named their discovery-whining c*nt.
Our past was Just SOOOOOO Horrible!
mikee said...
Was the participation in the husking forcible? Or did everyone participating know that when a red ear of corn was found, someone (including themselves, possibly) would be kissed?
The tradition is no more non-consensual than a game of spin the bottle.
Pat Moynihan's famous phrase, "defining deviancy down" is not just applicable here to the actions described, but to those who go out of their way to condemn the actions.
Bob R said...
Seems to me it's a standard kissing game like spin the bottle or post office. Participation is consent. Yes, there may be social pressure to participate, but I'll need something more than Althouse's deep knowledge of 19th century rural folkways to convince me it was genuinely coercive.
Drago said...
Was the shirt the "kisser" wearing appropriate and "chick-affirming"?
Ann Althouse said...There is coercion of a type, not the most forcible coercion, but coercion,
And then there is the mental anguish of not knowing whether to prepare to be upset that you were singled out as the most desirable woman in the room or upset that you were not.
richard mcenroe said...
Wait a minute... they DEVELOPED a new strain of corn... you mean they MODIFIED an ORGANISM? And this went on at YOUR school?!
c'mon, Ann, you want to say it. Getting a kiss at a cornhusking party is a MICROAGGRESSION! You should write it up for Rolling Stone.
Yeah. Forcing a guy to kiss a girl is awful.
Just ask Titus.
Anybody else see Rolling Stone's retraction of the UVA rape story?
@Gahrie, yeah, I read about it. Now will UVa President Teresa Sullivan formally apologize to the campus fraternity system for her rush to judgement? Not holding my breath.
Researchers in the Critical Ag Studies program are developing their own variety, to be called "That's Not Funny!"
MaxedOutMama said...
How about covering the Rolling Stones/UVA recantation to add a touch of gravitas?
You cannot beat hot buttered kisses that start with a red ear and end in a shotgun marriage.
Mary Beth said...
I suspect that the husk of the red corn might not look exactly like the others, maybe a bronze hue in part of the leaves. But, whether obvious or not, which one it was was known to some of the older members of the group who made sure that one person of a current wooing pair (or a flirting pair that haven't reached the wooing stage yet) got the red ear, thus letting the young lovers have an "group approved" public kiss.
They could have named the corn "we know what you're up to and we approve", but that's kind of wordy. Their choice is better.
Oh, for heaven's sake. Ann! There was no coercion involved. These were bees, or working parties.
If a woman or a man found a red ear and did not want to participate, she or he could give the ear of corn to another. Married people generally did, if they knew someone who was interested in another:
http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-did-red-ear-corn-signify-463080
Furthermore, it was somewhat like a Sadie Hawkins dance, in that a woman could, if bold enough, pick a man and have him kiss her. So it was entirely gender-nonspecific. It was more a way to overcome shyness than anything else, plus put a little excitement into a basically dull task.
I cannot think of a more mistaken ground for cultural angst, except perhaps the Shirt of Gender Disdain.
I am so tired of fainting couches.
Quaestor said...
Yes Means Yes has nothing to with sex other than sexual politics. It's a naked coup against justice and academic freedom intended to demote men to a status of a tolerated minority with second-class academic status, and to elevate "Women's Studies" and its professors to campus dominance.
There is coercion of a type, not the most forcible coercion, but coercion, similar to the coercion to pray when someone says grace at a family Thanksgiving dinner.
Whoa! There's no way to know who is praying and who is not; who sincerely petitioning a deity, and who is merely paying a modicum of respect to one's host, a duty any civilized person owes to society. Althouse has pushed the definition of coercion way past the breaking point.
I'm going out on a limb and perhaps be banned: A false accusation of rape is a more heinous and damaging crime than rape. "Jackie" of UVA should face a minimum of 65 months of active prison time.
buwaya puti said...
This was just "spin the bottle".
In my old country we had equivalent games.
And it was always the girls who wanted to play. I suspect it was girls that invented it.
That's even more provocative as your avatar points his accusatory finger.
No doubt social justice warriors think "spin the bottle" is a tool of the patriarchy and must be destroyed. Little boys pulling the pigtails on girls should be banned as well. Put those boys into concentration camps.
"There is coercion of a type, not the most forcible coercion, but coercion, similar to the coercion to pray when someone says grace at a family Thanksgiving dinner."
Or when ISIS kills your father and brothers and sells you and your mother into slavery.
Helen Dragas, a member of the university's governing Board of Visitors, said Friday that U-Va. needs to continue its focus on preventing sexual assault.
"Despite doubts that have been cast on the Rolling Stone story, we need to keep our eyes on the prize, which is nothing less than zero tolerance for rape," Dragas said. "There will be time enough to look back and ask hard questions of our administrators about how rapes have gone unreported and unanswered, and I have no doubt our Board of Visitors will do just that. But for now our primary concern must be for the well-being of our students. We need to get this right for them, and do so with no hesitation or concern for image."
Oops. Wrong thread.
That's a corny tradition. (Such low hanging fruit, I know)
I remember, having spent some months in Newfoundland Canada in small villages, that the girls were quite aggressive and complained that the boys weren't. I think this corn kissing tradition is something the mothers invented.
What about the Puritan practice of bundling. The courting couple laid in bed together. Theoretically one stayed outside of the covers, but they could huddle together for warmth. Talk about rules that are more honored in the breach than the observance. Anyway, Puritans got married young without expensive and ineffective courtship rites.
Smilin' Jack said...
Jeeeezus...is that picture historically accurate? You couldn't coerce me enough to kiss that gargoyle if you held an M-16 to my head. Never mind kissing,how did those creatures ever manage to reproduce? Surely in Wisconsin the men had far more attractive cows available.


You may have been dreaming your your wedding day all your life and the time is finally here to begin planning. Your wedding is the day you've always anticipated, and you want nothing to go wrong. Dreaming up a perfect wedding is easy; however, carrying it out and paying for the wedding can be difficult. How can you have what you desire and stay on budget? This article has helpful tips to plan your wedding.
TIP! Plan your transportation wisely. Try having taxis and limos available for people who don't have transportation after the wedding.
Do not go on a crash diet to fit in the dress. If you rush the weight loss process, your health will surely suffer. Of course, you would not want to pass out as you are saying your vows. Rather, get a dress with an integrated corset so that it can be easily adjusted.
TIP! Fashionable brides who love the look of luxury may wish to glam up their bouquets with sparkling embellishments like rhinestones, Swarovski crystals, or even diamonds. You can accomplish this by including some heat-fixed or adhesive crystals, some costume jewelry or an heirloom that is treasured.
If your family will be traveling a far distance to your wedding, invite them to extend their trip a little. Everyone can save if you stay longer, as you will likely get a great discount from the hotel. This allows them to celebrate your wedding with you and have a great vacation afterwards!
Don't leave your guests waiting while you, your new spouse and the wedding party have an hour long photo shoot. Many photographs, including the bridal part and the groomsmen, can be taken before the ceremony. This means that your guests won't have to wait as long at the reception for you to get there.
Try to arrange to hold your reception in mid-day. You can cut down on bar costs when you have a reception during the day, when people tend to drink less. Also, lunch receptions will typically be cheaper than dinner receptions and allow you to either increase the quality of food or allocate the rest of your food and alcohol budget to another need for the wedding.
Now, it is time to start planning your wedding. You want everything to be perfect, but not if you have to go bankrupt for it. This article has hopefully helped you learn how to do just that. Take advantage of the wisdom here and have fun at your wedding!
« Finding What Percentage is Absinthe?


text:
Bitcoin Tops $42,000 As Yellen Lauds
Yellen praised an upcoming order from Biden in a statement on Treasury's website that was later removed, saying it strikes the right balance between fostering innovation and addressing potential risks
Bitcoin | Janet Yellen | cryptocurrencies
Bloomberg Last Updated at March 9, 2022 15:11 IST
Bitcoin jumped above $42,000 amid a sharp rally in digital tokens, spurred by optimism about a sweeping U.S. overhaul of crypto oversight that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called "historic."
The largest cryptocurrency rose as much as 10% to $42,427, its highest level since March 2. Ether climbed 8% while so-called privacy coins like Monero posted large gains. The crypto advance came as a broad risk-on rally embraced European stocks.
Yellen praised an upcoming executive order from President Joe Biden in a statement on the Treasury's website that was later removed, saying it strikes the right balance between fostering innovation and addressing potential risks. That boosted sentiment in an industry that has long called for greater regulatory direction.
"For years, the crypto market has been hindered by a lack of regulatory clarity in the U.S.," said Hayden Hughes, chief executive officer of trading social-media platform Alpha Impact, in a message Wednesday. "If clear guidelines are passed, this could be a watershed moment for the industry."
Yellen said the department's efforts under the executive order would complement work that's already been done, including the report the President's Working Group on Financial Markets put out last year on stablecoins.
In the since-removed statement dated March 9, Yellen said the approach outlined in the order "will support responsible innovation that could result in substantial benefits for the nation, consumers, and businesses."
Even after Wednesday's rally, Bitcoin remains within the range of $33,000 to $48,000 where it's traded most of this year. After diverging from stocks early last week, cryptocurrencies gave up most of those gains as the war in Ukraine escalated, pouring cold water on the argument that they're a safe haven in times of geopolitical turmoil.
Privacy Upside
Privacy coins — so called for the higher degree of anonymity they afford users — were some of the biggest winners over the past 24 hours, with Monero jumping 21% and Zcash up 17%, based on CoinGecko data. The gains were driven by speculation that they may get payment traffic displaced by the sanctions on Russia.
"The recent surge in privacy coins is mostly driven by traders speculating on the possibility that we will see capital flight" into them, said Ben Caselin, head of research and strategy at crypto exchange AAX, in a message Wednesday.
While privacy coins allow for a higher degree of anonymity, the networks they live on are less decentralized and less secure than Bitcoin, and limited in market cap, he said. "Rather than a new trend, current uptake is likely to be limited, with more volatility ahead."
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text:
\section{Introduction}

Spectroscopic and spectrophotometric studies show that about 70\% of TNOs
present a mantle of complex organics on their surfaces ( Brunetto et al.
\cite{Brunetto2006}).
Long term processing by high energy particles and solar radiation on icy
bodies, induces the formation of organic species in their outer layers,
resulting in a mantle that covers the unprocessed original ices (Moore et
al. \cite{Mooreetal83}; Johnson et al. \cite{Johnetal84}; Strazzulla \&
Johnson \cite{StrazzullaJo91}). Until recently, the only case of a TNO with a
surface covered basically by a thick layer of water ice was Charon (Buie
et al.\cite{Buieetal1987}, Marcialis et al. \cite{Marcialisetal1987}), and it
has been considered an intringuing case because of the need of a resurfacing
mechanism like cryovolcanism or collisons with micro-meteorites
(Brown \cite{Brown2002}; Cruikshank \cite{Cruik1998}).
Recently, it has been showed that (55636) 2002 TX$_{300}$ (Licandro et
al. \cite{LicTX}) and (13308) 1996 TO$_{66}$ (Brown et al. \cite{BrownTO66})
also have surface composition similar to Charon. During last year the
spectra of five other objects were published, revealing that their surfaces
are also covered by fresh water ice: (136108) 2003 EL$_{61}$ (Trujillo et
al. \cite{TrujEL61}), its biggest satellite  S/2005 (136108) 1 (Barkume et
al. \cite{BarSatellite}) and during the review process of this paper 2003
OP$_{32}$, 1995 SM$_{55}$ and 2005 RR$_{43}$ (Brown et al. \cite{BrownFamily}).
The spectra of these TNOs show all the same characteristics, they are neutral
and featureless in the visible and show strong water ice absorption bands in
the near infrared. All these TNOs, except Charon, are located
in a narrow region of the orbital parameters space (41.6 $<$a$<$ 43.6 AU, 25.8
$<$i$<$ 28.2 deg., 0.10 $<$e$<$ 0.19). The existence of a population of TNOs with
Charon-like surfaces and similiar orbital parameters needs to be explained
as it can have a strong impact in the knowledge of the trans-neptunian belt
formation theories and/or resurfacing mechanisms.

In this paper we present visible and near-infrared spectroscopy of a member of
this group, (145453) 2005 RR$_{43}$ (a,e,i = 43.06AU,
0.14, 28.54 deg.) and derive compositional information using scattering models.
Finally we describe different scenarios that can explain the existence of this
population of TNOs.

\section{Observations and analysis of the spectrum}

We obtained the visible spectrum of 2005 RR$_{43}$ with the 4.2m William Herschel telescope (WHT) and the near-infrared spectrum with the 3.58m "Telescopio Nazionale Galileo" (TNG) both  at the "Roque de los Muchachos" Observatory (Canary Islands, Spain).

The visible spectrum (0.35-0.95$\mu$m) was obtained on 2006 Sep. 23.18 UT
using the low resolution grating (R158R, with a dispersion of 1.63 $\AA$/pixel)
of the double-armed spectrograph ISIS at WHT,
and a 4" slit width oriented at the parallactic angle. The tracking was at
the TNO proper motion.

Three 900s exposure time spectra were obtained by shifting the object by 10"
in the slit to better correct the fringing. Calibration and extraction of the
spectra were done using IRAF and following  standard procedures
(Massey et al. \cite{Massey1992}). TNO spectra were averaged and the reflectance
spectrum was obtained by dividing the spectrum of the TNO by the spectrum of
the solar analogue star Hyades 64 obtained the same night just before and
after the observation of the TNO at a similar airmass. Final spectrum presented
in Fig. 1 was smoothed using a smoothing box-car of 15 pixels to improve the
S/N.

The near-infrared spectrum was obtained on 2006 Sep. 29.15 UT, using the low
resolution spectroscopic mode of NICS (Near-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer)
at the TNG based on an Amici prism disperser. This mode yields a complete
0.8-2.4 $\mu$m spectrum. A 1.5" slit width corresponding to a spectral
resolving  power $R\simeq34$ quasi-constant along the spectrum was used. The
observing and reduction procedures were as described in Licandro et al.
(\cite{Lic2002}). The total "on object" exposure time was 11160s.

To correct for telluric absorption and to obtain the relative reflectance,
solar analogue star Hyades 64 and two G-2 Landolt stars (115-271 and 98-978,
Landolt \cite{Landolt}) were observed at different airmasses during the night.
The reflectance spectrum of the TNO was obtained using all the SA stars,
averaged and then normalized to fit the visible one using the overlapping
spectral region between 0.85-0.95 $\mu$m. The combined visible and
near-infrared (VNIR) spectrum is presented in Fig. 1
together with the spectra of the other members of the group.

\begin{figure}
	\centering
	\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{RR43fig1.ps}
	\caption{ Spectrum of 2005 RR$_{43}$, normalized at 0.55 $\mu$m,
	together with the spectra of the other members of the group
	shifted in the vertical axis for clarity. References in table 1.}
 	\label{Fig1}
 \end{figure}

The VNIR spectrum reveals three important characteristics:
(a) The visible is featureless within the S/N. There is no clear evidence of
any absorption reported for other TNOs (e.g Lazzarin et al. \cite{Lazzarin};
Fornasier et al. \cite{Fornetal2004a}); (b) It is neutral (the spectral slope,
computed between 0.53 and 1.00 $\mu$m, is $S'=0.4\pm1\%/1000\AA$), far from
the more characteristical red slopes in the TNb (Fornasier et
al. \cite{Fornetal2004b}); (c) It presents two deep absorption bands centered at 1.5 and 2.0 $\mu$m, indicative of water ice.

The flat visible spectrum is indicative of the lack (or very low abundance) of complex organic and/or silicates in the surface of this TNO.

The depth of the water ice bands is a good indicator of its abundance on the surface of icy objects, it is also a reasonably good marker of the size of the icy particles and of the contamination by non-ice components (Clark et al.\cite{Clarkbands}). We computed the depth of the bands, \textit{D}, with respect to the continuum of the spectrum as \textit{D=1-R$_{b}$/R$_{c}$}, where \textit{R$_{b}$} is the reflectance in the center of the band and \textit{R$_{c}$} is the reflectance of the continuum at 1.2 $\mu$m. For 2005 RR$_{43}$, $D$ is 70.3$\pm$2.1\% and 82.8 $\pm$4.9\% at 1.5 $\mu$m and 2.0 $\mu$m respectively, beeing the deepest water ice absorption bands ever observed in a TNO.

Thus, we conclude that the surface of 2005 RR$_{43}$ is composed by a large fraction of large sized (or a thick layer of) water ice particles, and none or a very small fraction of complex organics or silicates.

This is confirmed by scattering models. We use the simple
one-dimensional geometrical-optics formulation
by Shkuratov et al. (\cite{Shkuratov}), to obtain information about the
surface composition.

It is important to determine if water ice is in amorphous or crystalline state as it can be indicative of resurfacing processes. Crystalline water ice can be easily identified by an absorption band at 1.65 $\mu$m. This band has been detected in the spectrum of TNOs Charon (Brown \& Calvin \cite{BrownCharon}) and 2003 EL$_{61}$ (Trujillo et al. \cite{TrujEL61}), the only TNOs that have spectra similar to 2005 RR$_{43}$ and sufficiently high signal-to-noise to see this band. Unfortunately, the relatively poor S/N of our spectrum does not allow us to clearly detect this feature.

So we first tried to model 2005 RR$_{43}$ spectrum with pure amorphous water ice, but all the tests we made produced a band at 1.5 $\mu m$ narrower than that seen in the spectrum (see Fig. 2). We then tried with pure crystalline water ice obtaining a better fit. Finally we used an intimate mixture of crystalline and amorphous water ices obtaining even better results and improving the fit above 2 $\mu$m, although this part of the spectrum is too noisy to be a significant constraint. We thus conclude that water ice in the surface of 2005 RR$_{43}$ is, at least in a significant fraction, crystalline.

On the other hand, all these models allow a small percentage of minor components such as amorphous carbons or silicates (e.g. Olivine), up to 5\%. We notice that the S/N of the spectrum and the model itself do not allow us to make a detailed study of the surface mineralogy. An important parameter to include, that could help to better constraint the models and, in particular, determine the abundance of minor dark constituents, is the albedo of the TNO, as even a small amount of them can darken the surface significantly.

\begin{figure}
	\centering
	\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{RR43fig2.ps}
	\caption{Best fits of the spectrum with the Shkuratov approximation (intimate mixtures of amorphous water ice (AWI), crystalline water ice (CWI) and olivine (O)). Model 1: 95\% AWI (70 $\mu$m) + 5\% O (30 $\mu$m) ; model 2: 95\% CWI (50 $\mu$m) + 5\% O (30 $\mu$m); model 3: 55\% AWI (60 $\mu$m) + 40\% CWI (70 $\mu$m) + 5\% O (30 $\mu$m). The width of 1.5 $\mu$m band is best fitted with crystalline water ice.}
	\label{Fig2}
\end{figure}

\section{Discussion and conclusions}

To date, about 40 TNOs have been observed spectroscopically in the
near-infrared. Among them only seven exhibit a spectrum similar to that of
2005 RR$_{43}$. Table 1 summarizes their 1.5 $\mu$m band depth (\textit{D})
and spectral slope $S'$ computed as in Sec. 3 for 2005 RR$_{43}$.
Notice that all of these TNOs have
very deep water ice absorptions, $D > 40$\% {\ and $S'\sim 0$.}

\begin{table}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{l c c c l}
\hline
\hline
object & H$_V$ & \textit{S'} & \textit{D} & Ref \\  \hline \hline
Charon & 0.9 & -0.6 & 41.5$\pm$3.4\% & (1,2)\\ \hline
1995 SM$_{55}$ & 4.8 & 2.4& 70.2$\pm$5.9\% & (3,4)\\ \hline
1996 TO$_{66}$ & 4.5 & 4.5 & 59.1$\pm$1.9\% & (3,5,6)\\ \hline
2002 TX$_{300}$ & 3.3 & 1& 64.1$\pm$3.9\% & (7)\\ \hline
2003 OP$_{32}$ & 4.1 & -1.1& 64.2$\pm$2.5\% & (4,8)\\ \hline
(136108) 2003 EL$_{61}$ & 0.2 & -0.4& 40.7$\pm$ 2.1\% & (8,9) \\ \hline
S/2005 (136108) 1 & 3.5 & NA & 69.1$\pm$1.0 \% & (10) \\ \hline
2005 RR$_{43}$ & 4.0 &  -0.4 &70.3$\pm$2.1 \% & (11)\\ \hline
\end{tabular}

\caption{H: absolute magnitud; \textit{S'}: spectral gradient; \textit{D}:
absorption at 1.5 $\mu$m.
References: 1. Brown \& Calvin \cite{BrownCharon},
2. Fink \& DiSanti \cite{Fink}, 3. The online updated database from
Hainaut \& Delsanti \cite{MBOSS}, 4. Brown et al. \cite{BrownFamily},
5. Brown et al.\cite{BrownTO66}, 6. Noll et al.\cite{NollTO66},
7. Licandro et al.\cite{LicTX}, 8. Tegler et al.\cite{TegEL61},
9. Trujillo et al \cite{TrujEL61},
10. Barkume et al.\cite{BarSatellite}, 11. This work.
}
\end{table}

Brown et al. (\cite{BrownFamily})
noticed that, excluding Charon, these objects present very similar spectral
properties and orbital parameters (see Fig. 2 of Brown's paper).
On the other hand, the spectra and colors of other TNOs in the neighbourhood
of the cluster, e.g. (20000) Varuna (Licandro et al.  \cite{LicVaruna}) or
(50000) Quaoar (Jewitt \& Luu \cite{JewittQuaoar}), are different from the
spectrum of 2005 RR$_{43}$ and present the variety of colors and composition
observed in other regions of the TNb. Thus, we also conclude that objects in
Table 1 (except Charon) are part of a population clustered in the space of
parameters and with similar surface properties different from those of the
objects in the neighbourhood.

There are other smaller TNOs, with no photometric or spectroscopic data
published, that according to their orbital parameters, could be also members
of this population like 1995 GJ, 1999 OK$_{4}$, 1999 RA$_{215}$, 2003 FB$_{130}$,
2005 PM$_{21}$. Photometric and/or spectroscopic observations are needed.

Water ice surfaces with no traces of organics should not be common in the TNb
assuming that the original chemical composition of all TNOs is very similar:
objects composed of abundant water ice, some molecular ices like CO, CO$_2$,
CH$_4$,N$_2$ and silicates.  Long term processing by high energy particles and
solar radiation induces the formation of complex organic species in the outer
layers of the TNOs resulting in a dark and usually red mantle that covers the
unprocessed original ices. Thus, the existence of a population of TNOs with
no signs of organics, in a very narrow region of the space of orbital
parameters is an intriguing fact that needs to be explained.
We discuss three different scenarios that need to be further studied:

1) {\bf Collisional family}:
The destruction of the irradiation mantle by an
energetic collision has been proposed by Licandro et al. (\cite{LicTX}) to
explain the fresh surface of one of the member of this population,
2002 TX$_{300}$. Such an impact breaks the
irradiation mantle and produces enough energy to sublimate a certain amount
of ices on the upper layers of the body (Gil-Hutton \cite{Gil-Hutton}).
The material sublimated by the collision can be globally redeposited over the
TNO on a timescale of tens of hours (Stern \cite{Stern}) and the low vertical
diffusion velocity of the ice ensures that large particles can be formed with
a high efficiency while being downward transported and deposited on the
surface.
Brown et al. (\cite{BrownFamily}) proposed that the TNOs listed
in Table 1 (but Charon) are fragments produced by a catastrophic
collision suffered by 2003 EL$_{61}$. This would explain the rapid rotation of
this large object, the existence of two satellites orbiting it, and the clustering
of objects in a small region of the TNb with similar surface properties.

Although this scenario appears promising, it has several problems:
First, the low mean intrinsic collisional
probability makes highly improbable a catastrophic collision with a large
projectile capable of providing enough kinetic energy to disperse large
fragments to their present positions, even in a TNb more massive that the
present one.
Second, it is difficult to model the collisional process to
produce such a family working with so few members and given the large
uncertainties in their orbital elements.
Third, the current dispersion in orbital elements of the fragments shows orbital
elements expected from a too high dispersive velocity of 400 m/s. Brown et al.
argued that only 2003 EL$_{61}$ does not fit withing a smaller velocity of 140
m/s and argued that this TNO has large excursions in eccentricity over time
owing to chaotic diffusion within the 12:7 mean-motion resonance (MMR) with Neptune.
If this is the case, following the analysis by Nesvorny and Roig (\cite{NesRoig01}) of the 12:7 MMR with
Neptune, and cited by Brown et al. (\cite{BrownFamily}), the chaotic diffusion enlarge
the initial eccentricity of any orbit near its borders in such a way that
it becomes Neptune grazing and the body escapes in less than $10^8\; yr$,
dispersing very fast any object in its vicinity.
But the collision must have happened in the distant past,
when the belt was far more crowded with large objects (Morbidelli
\cite{Morbi2007}).
Fourth, if the collision happened in the distant past, the effects of
long term processing by high energy particles and solar radiation should be
present and are not. Gil-Hutton (\cite{Gil-Hutton}) shows that the time scale
required to form a black irradiation mantle of carbon residues in a TNO
is $\sim$ 6 x 10$^{8}$ years. The competition of this effect with
resurfacing due to high frequency
impacts will increase the time scale to 10$^{9}$ years while intermediate
states would result in red spectra. Moreover the efficiency of this process
depends on the presence of organics on the surface so the absence of an
irradiation mantle can  be explained by the loss of organics or the absence
of them in the original composition. Thus, a possible solution of this problem
is that the loss of organics was produced by the collision and recondensation
process that formed the family.

2) {\bf Originally Carbon Depleted Population}:
 Another possible scenario is a population of objects
originally carbon depleted, strongly concentrated in the space of orbital
parameters, and in a region that it is dynamically unstable
(the hot population). But this has also several problems:
why carbon depleted objects
were formed in a narrow region of the solar nebula and remained grouped until
present time?. However, the existence of a population of carbon depleted TNOs
is an interesting case, as it could be the origin of the population of carbon
depleted Jupiter family comets already noticed by A'Hearn et al. (\cite{Ahearn})
and whose origin remains unknown.

3) {\bf Continuous resurfacing process}:
Another possible scenario is that these objects are exposed to a mechanism
that replenishes their surfaces permanently with fresh material from their
interiors like cryovolcanism. Anyhow, it is difficult to explain why this
mechanism affects so efficiently this group of TNOs and only this group.

In conclusion,
the spectrum of TNO 2005 RR$_{43}$ in the visible and near-infrared range shows
that its surface is covered by large water ice grains. Scattering models reveal
that the observed water ice is, at least in a significant fraction,
crystalline. 2005 RR$_{43}$ spectrum is very similar to those of TNOs Charon,
1996 TO$_{66}$, 2002 TX$_{300}$, 2003 OP$_{32}$, 1995 SM$_{55}$,
(136108) 2003 EL$_{61}$ and
S/2005 (136108). It also has orbital elements very similar to those of these
last four TNOs, supporting the existence of a population of TNOs with their
surface covered by fresh water ice and almost no complex organics.
The lack of complex organics suggests
a signficant smaller fraction of carbonaceous volatiles like CH$_4$
in this population than in "normal" TNOs.
Such carbon depleted population of TNOs could be the origin of
the population of carbon depleted Jupiter family comets already noticed
by A'Hearn et al. (1995). The origin of this population needs to be
further investigated.

\begin{acknowledgements}
We wish to thank Ted Roush for providing optical constants and Humberto Campins for his usefull comments.

\end{acknowledgements}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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