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The Seventh Roots of Unity
I mentioned the other day that I had "known" for a long time that the three cube roots of two were algebraically indistinguishable. When I say I "knew" it, I mean that I had read somewhere that the Galois Group of x^3-2 was S3, the symmetric group. In other words, all permutations of the roots were allowed. This bothered me: I knew you could swap the complex roots, but how could you swap one of the complex roots with the real root? I wrote about this the other day.
This question led to another question: is it always the case that the roots of an irreducible cubic equation are algebraically indistinguishable, or is it possible for the splitting field to have a more specific structure? Specifically, can you write a cubic equation whose Galois group is C3, the cyclic group?
This turns out to be a pretty interesting question, which I was able to answer in the affirmative. I recently stumbled across some old scribbled notes of mine relating to this problem, and I think I'd like to sketch out what I did for the sake of posterity. So here goes…
You start by considering the seventh roots of unity...yes, those seven points in the complex plain located 51.4 degrees apart. We can throw away the obvious root and realize that the remaining six are the roots of the sixth-degree equation:
x^6 + x^5 + x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x + 1 = 0.
We can take the first complex root and call it omega, and then the other roots are simply omega raised to the power of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. And of course the seventh power brings you back to one.
I said you start with the first complex root, but of course the beauty of algebra is that it doesn't matter which one you pick. None of them are distinguishable from any of the others. Yet despite this indistinguishability, there is an order to the roots which flows from their cyclic relationship. It's all very suttle.
What we're going to do is take combinations of these roots to create the roots of a cubic equation. And we'll see that those roots will inherit some of the cyclic nature of the omegas which begat them. You should be able to guess where we're going from here...we're just going to add together complex conjuates, so the (hoped-for) roots of the cubic are:
w^1 + w^6 = A
w^2 + w^5 = B
w^3 + w^4 = C
And I'm claiming that A, B and C are the roots of a cubic equation (with integer coefficients). It's not hard to see why this has to be so. You know that the coefficients of any equation are generated by the elementary symmetric polynomials in the roots:
A + B + C
AB + BC + CA
How can we caluculate these? It looks like it's going to be a fair bit of work, but it turns out to be a piece of cake. The sum of the roots is the most obvious...the sum of A, B and C is just the same as the sum of the omegas, which is just -1. The other sums and products are only slightly harder...because the products of expressions in powers of omega are themselves just powers of omega, and because of the near-symmetries in the A's B's and C's, they collapse with little difficulty. It's not hard to show that A, B and C satisfy the equation:
x^3 +x^2 -2x -1 = 0
Now all we have to do is show that there is a cyclic relationship between the roots...in other words, if you replace A with B, then you have to replace B with C and C with A. Let's leave that for tomorrow...
Posted by Marty Green at 9:04 PM 4 comments:
Automorphisms of the Splitting Field
I learned something over the last few days that has made a big difference in the way I understand Galois theory. I told you the other day that my friend in West Bengal had shown me how to generate functions of the five roots of the quintic which were themselves solutions of a sixth-degree equation, the so-called "resolvent". (It seems the term "resolvent" is used to describe both the functions of the roots and the resulting equation.) In the course of our follow-up discussions, the question arose as to the Galois Group of x^4-2=0....that is, the allowable permutations of the fourth roots of two.
The Galois Group describes the set of automorphisms of the splitting field of a polynomial, and it is well know that any automorphism must map roots of the polynomial to each other. So people normally describe the automorphisms in terms of where they send the roots. My correspondent made the observation that in the present case, the mappings seemed to correspond to flips and rotations of the four points on the circle whose radius was the fourth root of two...in other words, the dihedral group of four elements, or D4.
What I realized is that while all this is technically correct if we just restrict ourselves to looking at the fourth roots of two, it gives a very deceptive picture of what the field automorphisms really look like. Mathematicians are always overly proud of economy of analysis, so having proven that an automorphisms is fully defined by its action on the roots, they are happy to ignore everything else that is going on. And in this case, there is indeed much more going on.
It is true that the splitting field of the polynomial is generated by the fourth roots of two, which are located 90 degrees apart on the circle in the complex plane of that radius. But this same field also includes two more bigger circles that will be of great interest...a second circle containing the fourth roots of four (including the ordinary square roots of two), and third circle containing the fourth roots of eight.
The funny thing about automorphisms of the field is that if you describe them in geometric terms, like flips and rotations, it turns out these three rings behave very differently. The automorphism which rotates the inner ring clockwise simultaneously rotates the outer ring counterclockwise! And the middle ring gets flipped horizontally and vertically. In other words, the complex plane is not smoothly transformed, but rather it is completely scrambled...as it must be. That is the nature of pure algebra...the proximity between two points has absolutely no significance. How can it if rational points are always mapped to each other, while irrational points are swapped about?
So I worked out all the automorphisms of the fourth roots of two, keeping track of all three "rings" of roots instead of focussing just on the inner ring. It completely changed my perspective on the nature of automorphisms. For example, I have always known that the cube roots of two are theoretically indistinguishable in Galois theory. Obviously the two complex roots can be swapped with each other...I had no problem with that. But why are you allowed to pick one of those complex roots and swap it with the real root? Doesn't that just seem wrong? And the answer is...not when you simultaneously look at what the cube roots of four are doing at the same time. It turns out that while the real cube root of two is being swapped with its positive complex conjugate, the cube root of four is being swapped with its negative conjugate. So the overall symmetry of the complex plane is somehow restored.
When I wrote last year about the Galois Group of {x^5-2 = 0}, I laboriously tracked the logic of where the roots had go assuming you started by rotating them counter-clockwise. What I didn't realize was the bigger, much more beautiful picture. There are actually four concentric rings worth looking at...the fifth roots of two, four, eight, and sixteen. The automorphism which rotates the inner ring counter-clockwise simultaneously rotates the next ring counter-clockwise by two notches, and so forth, so the outer ring is actually rotated clockwise. There is a complete symmetry! It gets much more intricate when you start considering the allowable permutations between the fifth roots of unity...when you mix these in you ultimately get what is called the Frobenius Group, a set of twenty automorphisms in all. But all those re-shufflings, which appear so arbitrary and downright cock-eyed when you only look at the fifth roots of two, become so much more aesthetically satisfying when you consider what all four rings are doing simultaneously.
In Which I Get Help From an Unexpected Source
I learned something new about the fifth-degree equation over the last few days. The other day I told you that the reason you can't solve the quintic has something to do with the fact that there exists no set of functions on five letters which "map to themselves under all permutations". Or something like that. Well, it turns out there is...only there isn't. Here's what I learned.
I had constructed these three functions on four letters (corresponding to the four roots of a quartic equation:)
AB + CD = p
AC + BD = q
AD + BC = r
We can see that no matter how you re-shuffle A, B, C and D, you get back the same three functions p, q and r. I said that the reason you can't solve the quintic was that there is no comparable set of four functions on five letters (A, B, C, D and E) which is similarly preserved on taking permutations of letters.
And that's true. But what I didn't know is that you can construct a set of six functions on those five letters which have the desired property...sort of.
I had almost concluded that there were no such functions, and I posted a question on stackexchange.com here to see if I was right. I wasn't. One Balarka Sen pointed out that there were a number of such functions, including one called Dummit's Resolvent, which seems to have been discovered only twenty years ago by a math professor from the U of Vermont. Dummit's functions look something like this:
AA(BE + CD) + BB(CA + DE) + CC(DB + EA) + DD(EC + AB) + EE(AD + BC)
There are actually six of these functions...you can generate the other five by suitable permutations of the A's, B's and C's, as Sen explains in his answer to my question on stackexchange.
Now, what people say next is a little misleading: they say that these six functions generate a sixth-degree equation, and therefore they're not going to help you solved a fifth-degree. That's not quite true. It might be a sixth-degree equation of a simpler form than the fifth-degree which you started from. It's certainly not a sixth-degree equation of the most general type, because the permutations of the roots cannot be more complicated than the permutations of the five letters which generated them. In other words, the Galois Group of the sixth degree equation cannot be bigger than S5, the permutation group on five elements. But could it be a simpler Galois Group? Maybe it could...
But here's where group theory actually gives us some guidance. I said that Dummet's functions are similar by analogy to my p, q and r which gave me a third-degree resolvent to the general fourth-degree equation. But in one crucial respect they fail to do what p, q and r do. It's true that unlike my p, q and r, Dummits functions are more numerous than the five roots that generated them. That's a problem, but it's not decisive. The real problem is that there are no (non-trivial) permutations on the five letters which leave all six of Dummit's functions in place.
I'm going to leave it for another day to tell you why I consider this circumstance to be critical. Suffice it to say (for now) that there are indeed permutations of A, B, C and D which leave my p, q, and r in place, and the set of all such permutations forms what they call a normal subgroup of S4. But before we get there, I have to tell you one more thing. In one way or another, I've been working on this problem off and on for most of forty years. It's a great problem and I don't think it gets its due in the undergraduate curriculum....I've talked about that previously. So when I posted the question the other day on stackexchange, asking about the existence of these functions, I wasn't sure what I'd get, and I was happy to get a pretty clear answer from that fellow Sen. Now here's the kicker...it turns out that out Balarka Sen is a thirteen-year-old kid from India.
Thirteen years old????
Posted by Marty Green at 9:28 AM 3 comments:
Towers of Normal Subgroups
When we left off last week, I told you that I thought my way of understanding the quintic equation was different from what you'll find anywhere else. Today I want to elaborate on that.
When I took third-year algebra many years ago, the proof of the unsolvability of the quintic came about three-quarters of the way through the course, and it was just another corollory of a lemma in a long chain of proofs and lemmas that began with something about a "tower of normal subgroups" that had no physical or pictorial motivation. Later, when I asked the prof why you couldn't solve the quintic, she asked me: which line of the proof did you not understand?
That's not what math is to me. When I "understand" something in math, it's not because I've examined the proof line by line and verified that there are no flaws...it means on some level I actually understand it. I tried to explain this to the prof, but she just waved me off dismissively, as though my idea of understanding was just kid's stuff...that real mathematicians worked with logic and rigor and didn't waste their time with airy-fairy ideas about "understanding" things.
Well, just because I had one prof that didn't "get it", does that make me special? Of course not. But over the years I've encountered this attitude repeatedly. It's part of the culture of university professors to take that kind of attitude, and they're awfully smug about it. But I've never bought into it. That's whenever they say there's no "intuitive" way to understand these things, I'm determined to prove the opposite.
The other day I wrote about functions of the roots which map to each other under permutations of the roots. Those correspond to the "normal subgroups" they talk about in Galois theory...or, more correctly, they correspond to the quotient groups which are generated by those normal subgroups. The problem with the way Galois theory is presented is that they stick exclusively to those abstract concepts and never make them concrete by actually showing you those functions that I laid out for you in my last post. If you doubt me, search the internet and see if you can find anyone else talking about things like AB + CD mapping to AC + BD when you swap B and C. You won't find it. But that's the essence of the Galois group of the fourth degree equation.
To show how different my approach is from the traditional, we just have to compare the way Herstein treats the question. I used to have a copy of Herstein, but over the years it's gone astray. (It was actually Bill Leslie's copy...sorry about that, Bill!) If you read Wikipedia, you'll see that Herstein's text was considered the definitive undergraduate treatment for many years. More importantly, Herstein was noted (according to Wikipedia) for his clarity and knack for making things understandable.
As I said, I don't have it in front of me, but I remember a few things about it that stood out. Like every other authority, he's pretty clear that since the fifth degree is unsolvable, it's a waste of time trying to understand why by working your way up through the third and fourth, which are solvable. Then, to emphasize the pointlessness of trying to find sense in the pattern, he writes out the full (and horrifying) solution of the third degree in terms of the coefficients, concluding by saying that the fourth degree is even uglier.
This is completely opposite to my approach, which is to write out the solutions of the third and fourth not in terms of their coefficients, but implicitly in terms of symmetric functions of the roots. And I do it not to show how complicated and ugly they are, but how simple and beautiful.
From everything I've read, there is no one out there who tries to explain these things the way I do (although I give some credit to one Fiona Brunk for her clear and insightful historical narrative on an older website of hers). Oddly enough Herstein hails from Winnipeg (as I do); and in that connection I ought to mention one more ex-Winnipeger, the old-school Jewish genius Robert Israel whose name will be familiar to frequenters of internet math discussion groups, who graduated from St. John's high school just a few years ahead of me, and whose beautiful sister Susan was mooned over longingly by my older brother when we were all in junior high school together. (Aside to my wonderful sister-in-law: give it a rest, Donna! it was forty years ago!) In this discussion on stackexchange.com, Robert says he doesn't think there is a "dumbed-down simple explanation".
Maybe not, depending on how "dumb" you expect. But I still think that's no excuse to throw up your hands and reject the idea of understanding these things altogether.
Posted by Marty Green at 12:34 PM No comments:
Why You Can't Solve the Quintic Equation
Last year I wrote a series of blogposts talking about why you can't solve a quintic equation. I worked through a lot of preliminaries but never really got around to answering the question. Recently someone on stackexchange.com asked for an intuitive explanation of the unsolvability, and I posted and answer. I think I surprised myself at how well I was able to put everything in a nutshell, and so I'm reposting my answer here.
Let the roots of an equation be A, B, C, etc. We are told that the unsolvability of the general quintic equation is related to the unsolvability of the associated Galois group, the symmetric group on five elements. I think I can tell you what this means on an intuitive level.
For three elements A, B, and C, you can create these two functions:
AAB + BBC + CCA
ABB + BCC + CAA
These functions have the interesting property that no matter how you reshuffle the letters A, B and C, you get back the same functions you started with. You might reverse them (as you would if you just swap A and B) or they might both stay put (as they would if you rotate A to B to C) but either way you get them back.
For four elements, something similar happens with these three functions:
AB + CD
AC + BD
AD + BC
No matter how you reshuffle A, B, C and D, you get these three functions back. They might be re-arranged, or they might all stay put, but either way you get them back.
For five elements, there exists no such group of functions. Well, not exactly...there is a pair of huge functions consisting of sixty terms each that works, similar to the ones I drew out for the cubic equation...but that's it. There are no groups of functions with three or especially four elements, which is what you would actually want.
If you try to create functions on five letters with this symmetry property, you'll convince yourself that it's impossible. But how can you prove it's impossible? You probably need a little more group theory for that. I'll have a some more to say about that when we return. For now I want to concentrate on the "intuitive", as opposed to the "rigorous" reason why you can't solve the quintic.
For the third degree equation, I identified these functions:
AAB + BBC + CCA = p
ABB + BCC + CAA = q
A, B and C are the roots of a cubic, but p and q are the roots of a quadratic. You can see that because if you look at pq and (p+q), the elementary symmetric polynomials in p and q, you will see they are symmetric in A, B and C. So they are easily expressible in terms of the coefficients of our original cubic equation. And that's why p and q are the stepping stone which gets us to the roots of the cubic.
Similarly, for the fourth degree, we identified these functions:
You can rewrite the previous paragraph word for word but just take everything up a degree, and it remains true. A, B, C, and D are the roots of a quartic, but p,q and r are the roots of a cubic. You can see they must be because if you look at the elementary symmetric polynomials in p, q and r, you will see they are symmetric in A, B, C and D. So they are easily expressible in terms of the coefficients of our original quartic equation. And that's why they are the stepping stone which gets us to the roots of the quartic.
And the intuititve reason why the fifth degree equation is unsolvable is that there is no analagous set of four functions in A, B, C, D, and E which is preserved under permutations of those five letters. I think Lagrange actually understood this intuitively fifty years before Galois. You probably needed a little more group theory to make it completely rigorous, but that's another question.
In particular think Lagrange would have understood the algebraic tricks whereby you went from, say, A B and C to p and q. It involves taking linear functions which mix A B and C with the cube roots of unity and examining the cube of those functions. Its a reversible process, so you can work backward the other way (by taking cube roots of functions in p and q) to solve the cubic. A very similar trick works for the fourth degree. I think Lagrange was able to show conclusively that the same trick does not work for the fifth degree...that's the "intuitive" proof. The "rigorous" proof would have had to show that in the absence of the obvious tricks (analogous to the 3rd and 4th degree), there was no other possible tricks that you could come up with.
I think I'm going to close by saying that the explanation presented here is very different from what you'll find elsewhere. When we come back, I'll elaborate on this point in some more detail.
Answers to Jewish Pop Quiz
For the last couple of months I've been distracted from the physics, so I've been filling time by republishing articles of mine that have previously appeared in the print edition of Winnipeg's Jewish Post. I've still got some more stacked up in the archives, and I do like having them up on the internet, but in the meantime I've written up some interesting stuff on the Fifth Degree Equation, a topic which you might remember from a year and a half ago. I think I'm going to put my new stuff up next week, so we'll be interrupting the Jewish theme at least temporarily. Until then, here's the last (for now) of my Jewish series.
Jewish Pop Quiz
Last week I left you with seven questions on Jewish culture that would have been child's play for any kheder yingel in a typical shtetl of Old Russia. Here are the answers, as promised:
1. What is the deal with the shor she-nagakh es ha-porah?
The case of "the ox who gores the neighbors cow" was an endless torment to the young Talmudist, who was expected to be able to explain the differing degrees of liability falling on the owner of the offending animal, depending on whether the beast was know to have a previous history of erratic behavior. I wasn't there myself, but I'm guessing that more hours were spent arguing this question than any other single point of the law.
2. What is the opposite of hayadayim yedey eysav?
"The hands are the hands of Esau, but the voice is the voice of Jacob": ha-kol kol yaakov. These two catch-phrases came to express the dichotomy between violence and reason. During the Second Intifada, when two Israelis were lynched after straying into Ramallah, a chilling poster was widely circulated showing the famous picture of an Arab raising his bloody hands from a second-story window, over the caption: ha-yadayim yedey oslo.
3. What is the controversy over the beytzah she-noldah be-yom tov?
They say that the monks of the Middle Ages argued endlessly over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but it turns out we could do them one better. The question about what you are allowed to do with an egg that was laid (or was it hatched?) on the Sabbath was taken up by the maskilim as an archtypical example of rabbinical nitpicking. I actually can't remember if the problem was the laying or the hatching; I just remember that when I asked Rabbi Weizmann, he answered (in all seriousness): "what difference does it make when it was _______?"
4. What is the difference between a shtut milguf and a shtut milbar?
The Talmudic tractate Tagrei Lod (The Merchants of Lydda) was named in honor of that city known for its mercernary business practises. One particular sore point for the Talmudist was knowing the difference between a markup or commission taken internally or externally, which couldn't have been easy to calculate in Ancient Palestine prior to the invention of decimal notation.
5. What is the solution to the problem of shnayim ukhzin be-talis?
Shnayim ukhzin be-talis…two men are arguing over a tallis; zeh omer ani matzati…this one says "I found it first"…the law says: yekhlukoh…it must be divided. No, not cut in half with a scissors like Solomon and the baby…just sold and the proceeds divided.
6. Where would you apply the doctrine of kol dalim gevar?
In Talmudic Law, the adjudicator is permitted, in certain circumstances, to consider the vehemence with which the litigant argues his case in assessing the relative credibility of the parties. I guess as a legal principle this falls somewhere between "might makes right" and "the squeaky wheel gets the grease."
And lastly, a bit of a trick question:
7. Who was Baba Kama?
This question came up in the blood libel trial of Mendel Beyliss in 1912. Not everyone knows that Beyliss was defended by a "dream team" to rival the one later put together for OJ Simpson. These were mostly Christian lawyers, progressive-minded Russians who considered the accusations an embarrasment for their country. It happened that one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution was Catholic priest Justin Pranaitas who claimed to be an expert in the Talmud. Now, as every Jewish child knew, some of the books of the Talmud have names that sound like Ukrainian grandmothers: Baba Kama, Baba Metzia, Baba Bitra, etc. So on cross-examination, one of the Jewish lawyers on the dream team asked the Pranaitas if he could tell the Court who Baba Kama was. It is said that when the priest answered in all seriousness that he "did not know that person", the mirth and hilarity among the Jewish spectators in the gallery knew no bounds.
As a final word, it ought to be remembered that Beyliss was ultimately acquitted by an all-Russian jury which included (if Wikipedia is to be believed) no less than seven members of the Black Hundreds! This not-insignificant detail was omitted from Bernard Melamed's loose finctionalization "The Fixer" (1968). People who want to know the real story ought to ignore Melamed and hunt down a copy of Maurice Samuel's "Blood Libel" (1966).


Electric vehicles get the lion's share of the attention in the world of futuristic automotive technology, and for good reason–automakers are quickly sending reasonably priced EVs down the pipeline, and startups like Coulomb and Better Place are hard at work building an EV charging infrastructure. But we can't count out hydrogen fuel cell technology quite yet. Toyota–the automaker perhaps best known for producing hybrid vehicles–now claims that it will be able to produce a $50,000 hydrogen sedan by 2015, according to Green Car Reports.
That's not an impressive price considering that there are multiple sub-$40,000 EVs being released later this year (including the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt), but consider this: Toyota claims that the cost to build hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has plunged 90% in under 10 years. And Toyota is far from the only automaker to invest in fuel cell technology. GM, Honda, and Daimler all have research programs of their own.
But while startups like SunHydro are convinced that hydrogen technology will end up being practical, it seems like most automakers are only investing in fuel cell vehicles as a backup plan. After all, it's unlikely that we'll have three fueling infrastructures (gasoline, electric, and hydrogen), and automakers appear to be rushing out EVs as fast as possible. It's always wise to have a backup plan, though, right?


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Watch 23 minutes of Wolfenstein 2 action in the 'Nazis in New Orleans' video
By Andy Chalk 2017-09-26T21:27:20.268Z
It's actually about 18 minutes of gameplay and a cutscene, but let's not quibble.
We've seen some really good Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus teasers showcasing characters old and new: The Milkshake Nazi, Big Brother, Blitzmensch, and the "interesting" characters of the new American revolution, to name a few. This video is different: It's 23 minutes of straight-up gameplay that shows off a little bit of everything, from stealthy silenced pistols to dual-wielded automatic shotguns.
You'll also catch a glimpse of bits and pieces of the game that don't rely on a pulled trigger, like the weapon upgrade screen, the newspapers that can be found and read, and the obligatory "align the overhead crane so you can get across the room" puzzle. But it's really all about the action, and while I don't think you can get a true feeling for how a game plays by watching someone else play it, this does look pretty great.
It also does a fine job of illustrating the truth of the statement that there are a lot of things you can do with a hatchet and a Nazi, too.
A cutscene kicks in at around the 13:30 mark, followed by more gameplay of a slightly different sort. It's great stuff, very Tarantino-esque, but it's a bit spoilerish too. If you want to experience the twists and turns of Terror Billy's Adventures in The Big Easy, you'd be best to stay away from it.
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus comes out on October 27.
Machine Games
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Whose History is it Anyway? ~ Empowering Communities of Color to Identify and Preserve Their Own Stories
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In recent years, the field of historic preservation has attempted to reconcile its "white" roots with the need to preserve the full American story. Preservationists have long bemoaned the lack of representation of communities of color in the National Register of Historic Places and have voiced concern over the alarming loss of properties that tell the story of indigenous communities and people of color across the American landscape. However, although awareness exists, how successful have efforts been to plan for the long-term preservation of stories and places important to people of color? In all this well-intended enthusiasm, have preservationists made adequate efforts to elevate the voices of community members and engage them fully in telling their own story? Whose history is it anyway?
This webinar will discuss efforts to tell stories and save places associated with Arizona's rich ethnic heritage. Panelists will discuss efforts underway to preserve stories and places in this state and beyond using unique strategies to overcome barriers that prevent us from telling the full story.
Join us for a program given by a panel of community members, historians, and subject matter experts who will share their experiences uncovering stories of diverse communities. We will kick-off with a keynote presentation by Dr. Eduardo Obregón Pagán of Arizona State University, hear presentations and stories from people across the state, and end with a lively afternoon panel discussion to help inform, inspire, and empower participants to record the histories of their own communities.
Dr. Eduardo Obregón Pagán is the Bob Stump Endowed Professor of History at Arizona State University. As a versatile interdisciplinary historian, his research explores the complex experiences and interplay of the West's diverse populations. He has published in literary, geology, and sociology journals, and is the author of "Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A." (2004), "Historic Photos of Phoenix" (2007), "Remembering Phoenix" (2010), and "Valley of the Guns: The Pleasant Valley War and the Trauma of Violence" (2018). In addition, he has been active as a public historian as a co-host on the popular PBS and PBSUK series "History Detectives," on several domestic and international television shows, and on documentaries. He also serves the adjunct curator of history at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum.
Taz Khatri, the principal and founder of Taz Khatri Studios, is a licensed architect in Arizona, California, and Oregon. She has over 20 years of experience in a variety of building types including healthcare, commercial, multifamily residential, and single-family residential. Taz, of East Indian heritage, came to America when she was eight years old from Mozambique. She's lived in Phoenix for 23 years after living in Indianapolis. She went to high school in Mesa and did her Bachelor and Master of Architecture at Arizona State University (go Sun Devils!). She lived in Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco for a total of six years but then she came to her senses and moved back to Phoenix. She lives with her cat Regina in a duplex she renovated in the Avalon Neighborhood of Central Phoenix. Taz is a faculty associate at Arizona State University teaching at The Design School part time. She also writes about architecture. You can find her most current writing on Redshift, an online magazine published by Autodesk, tazkhatri.com, and bloomingrock.com. Taz is also the Membership Chair of the National Organization of Minority Architects Arizona Chapter and serves on the Arizona Historic Sites Review Committee. Taz loves being an urban dweller and enjoys riding her bike, going for walks, and relaxing in the shade in urban parks with her boyfriend, supporting local restaurants and businesses, and hanging out with her family at the Khatri Manzil, a home she designed for her parents.
Participants:
Desiree Aranda is an independent cultural heritage consultant and planner based in Phoenix. She is also a co-founder and co-chair of the national nonprofit, Latinos in Heritage Conservation. Her prior experience includes working for the San Francisco Planning Department and San Francisco Heritage, a local preservation advocacy nonprofit. Desiree has spent the last decade working with communities to document and preserve important places, particularly those associated with communities of color and other marginalized social groups. She sees heritage conservation as a tool for social justice and intergenerational healing. Desiree holds a bachelor's of arts in sociology and women's studies and a master's of science in planning.
Josefina Contreras Cardenas is a native of Tucson (S-cuk Son to the First Nation Tohono O'odham People). She is named Inik Ce Cauyo Kalan' in the Náhuatl-Mexica language. She is of Mexican descent to the Escalante family, Rincon Mountain settlers. Born in a barrio where her father was raised, she grew-up in one of the last remaining ranch-well (acequia) irrigation farms along the Santa Cruz River. Josefina has been married for 39 years; her husband is from Jalisco, Mexico. They have three children (now owners, trainer and jockey at the historical Rillito Race Track) and two grandchildren, the fourth generation raised below Sentinel Peak at the original birthplace of the City of Tucson. Josefina has been a community organizer for 30 years. She has been the defender for the preservation of Barrio Kroeger Lane from the development of Rio Nuevo and is founder of Rancho Chuk Shon – the initial vision for the O'odham Family Monument, the transformation of Tucson's Original Birthplace from a landfill to a Multi-Cultural Family gathering site that includes a Lienzo Charro'- equestrian site. Her family has received numerous trophies for their horsemanship in the Tucson Rodeo Parade, which also included participation by their children's school. She graduated from Cholla High School in 1979, the same year she was crowned "Reina de las Fiestas Patrias." She has been recognized in a San Xavier District Council of Tohono O'odham Nation Resolution and received a National Grant from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. In 2017 she received a Tohono O'odham Grant for Economic Development.
Langston Emerson Guettinger, Architectural Historian/Historic Preservation Specialist with Logan Simpson, has worked throughout the Western U.S. on a wide variety of projects in Washington State, Oregon, Northern California, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and New Mexico. These projects have taken place at an array of public and private institutions and most recently include preparing historic context documents for the Colorado cities of Pueblo and Greeley, writing an architectural context for the Los Barrios Viejos National Historic Landmark nomination, as well as completing National Register nomination forms for buildings and structures within Arizona. Through these efforts, Langston has interfaced with a multitude of interested parties from state historic preservation offices (SHPOs) to affected members of the public. He is an adept investigator within the historic record and is skilled at collating an array of research into a succinct narrative. Langston has also prepared historic structure reports, as well as numerous determinations of eligibility where his research has centered upon historic homesteads, Arizona's early built environment, and historic development within the National Park Service (NPS).
Shareé Hurts is the Strategic Partnerships Program Manager for APS working with community partners to create, innovate, and implement programs that benefit Arizonans. Prior to APS, Shareé spent ten years in the healthcare industry, primarily focused on Medicaid. Specializing in project management, organizational governance, and proposal development. In addition to her career in the corporate sector, Shareé has continued her passion of serving. This led to her passion project of serving through teaching. Shareé is an adjunct faculty member at South Mountain Community College currently teaching within the Storytelling Institute. A native of the California Bay Area before calling Phoenix home, Shareé enjoys traveling with her two children and spending time with family and friends. Shareé has a bachelor's degree in political science from ASU West and a master's degree in law from the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, ASU.
Jennifer Levstik has over 20 years of experience in cultural resources management and historic preservation. She has worked throughout the Southwest, California, Oregon, Nevada, Wyoming, and Colorado, and has broad experience as an architectural historian, archaeological field director, and planner. She was the former Lead Planner for the Tucson Historic Preservation Office and has extensive experience preparing National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nominations, Historic American Buildings Survey, Engineering Record, and Landscape-level documentation (HABS/HAER/HALS), Building Condition and Assessment documentation, and historic preservation survey and master plans. Jennifer serves as an adjunct instructor with the University of Arizona's College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture; is the Vice-Chair of the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission, and serves on the board of the Southern Arizona Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). She has authored hundreds of technical reports, national register nominations, academic and public history articles, as well as online publications for the Society of Architectural Historians.
Mark Reavis is Heritage Preservation Officer and Neighborhood Planner in the City of Flagstaff's Planning and Development Services Department. He is responsible for compliance with City ordinances for National Register Districts within Flagstaff (Townsite, Northside Residential, Railroad, and Southside) Overlay Districts (Townsite & Downtown). He is also responsible for Section 106 reviews for Federal Undertakings and meets yearly requirements as a Certified Local Government (CLG) in conjunction with the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office. He writes and administers preservation grants, updates his community's historic inventory and design review documents, and reviews and permits all modification to homes over 50 years. He is part of a local team for Comprehensive Neighborhood planning with recent completion of Southside Plan (to be adopted). Mark also manages an architecture and community planning and design firm specializing in preserving unique quality of life aspects of the Rocky Mountain Region through creative, comprehensive, and affordable implementable designs. An architectural practice was maintained throughout the majority of his professional career to maintain efficiency and continuing knowledge of community planning and development, architecture, construction techniques, and building trades providing licensed services to private clients as well as a component of public service.
Dr. Jack Reid is a historian of American mobility. His article "I Wanted to Get Up and Move" documents the labor migrations of African American lumber workers leaving the South in search of opportunity in the forests of northern Arizona. Based upon a rich collection of oral history accounts, the article showcases the voices of the migrants themselves and contextualizes their journeys within the wider sweep of American history. Reid's first book, "Roadside Americans" (UNC Press, 2020), explores the ways in which the history of hitchhiking in the United States intersected with broader cultural shifts in the 20th century. In both cases, Reid investigates how race, class, and gender inform Americans' access to mobility and perceptions of the nation's roadways. Reid is currently the Learning Specialist at Northern Arizona University's Academic Success Centers. When not working, Jack enjoys spending time with his daughter and wife as well as reading, writing, and exploring new places.
Eduardo Pagán
Taz Khatri
Desiree Aranda
Josefina Cardenas
Langston Guettinger
Shareé Hurts
Jennifer Levstik
Mark Reavis
Jack Reid
info@azpreservation.org
BE SOCIAL WITH US!
© 2021 by Arizona Preservation Foundation • Proudly created by Anamorphics


Key Issues in Creative Writing explores a range of important issues that inform the practice and understanding of creative writing. The collection considers creative writing learning and teaching as well as creative writing research. Contributors target debates that arise because of the nature of creative writing. These experts from the UK, USA and Australia specifically examine creative writing as a subject in universities and colleges and discuss both the creative knowledge and the critical understanding informing the subject and its future. Finally, this volume suggests ways in which addressing current issues will produce significant disciplinary knowledge that will contribute to the success of creative writing in current and future academic environments.


text:
Bermuda seeks Islamic finance business at Singapore summit
"Open for Islamic business:" That's the message Business Bermuda took to the World Islamic Banking Conference: Asia Summit in Singapore, reports the Royal Gazette.
"After a whirlwind of meetings, events, conferences, and media interviews in Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, and Hong Kong, Business Bermuda concluded the 2012 Asia Business Development Drive on a high note," A Business Bermuda statement said.
The WIBC took place yesterday and Tuesday.
"This year, for the first time, Business Bermuda was invited to be a part of the WIBC Asia 2012 through exhibiting and the opportunity to speak," the statement said.
Leading the delegation was Cheryl Packwood, CEO of Business Bermuda, joined by Mr. P Jeyaratnam, Business Bermuda's representative in Southeast Asia, Srikumar TE, managing director of Apex Funds Services Ltd, Kung Whooi Phing, director at Conyers Dill & Pearman in Singapore, and Yelena Packwood, marketing and sales executive of Business Bermuda.
"With over 500 industry leaders in attendance, there was an overwhelming interest in the opportunities available for Islamic finance clients in Bermuda, especially in the areas of Takaful and Re-Takaful in light of Bermuda's strength as one of the top re/insurance jurisdictions in the world," the statement said.
"As one of the few Islamic finance centres in the Western hemisphere, Bermuda's unique position to expand the Islamic finance market, now valued at over US$1.1 trillion, was cause for much excitement."
Hussain AlQemzi, CEO of Noor Islamic Bank said that "in order to ensure an orderly evolution of Islamic finance from a niche segment into the mainstream international financial markets, it is vital to further enhance the industry's capabilities for cross-border activities, which in turn will encourage innovative product development, robust and standardised regulatory frameworks and the long term stability of the industry".
Ravi Menon, Governor of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, opened the conference by stating, "Islamic Finance must strike roots in the key financial centres of the world … and it can grow into diverse areas such as trade and infrastructure development."
Ms Packwood then gave a speech on how Bermuda was ideally suited bridge the gap between Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America.
She presented and participated in a panel discussion on the topic, "Opening New Frontiers for Islamic Finance — New Geographies, New Developments, and New Products."
After the panel discussion, Ms Packwood was invited to be a guest speaker to present on the role of Bermuda in bridging the divide between East and West at an invitation-only Islamic finance forum hosted in Malaysia in September for decision makers in the world of Islamic Finance.


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text:
Afghanistan: what lies ahead?
Pakistan's expenditure puzzle
Afghanistan debacle marks demise of the 'American Century'
Afghanistan is much more than an intelligence failure or an error of policy judgment
Mushahid Hussain August 24, 2021
The writer is the Chairman of the Senate's Defence Committee.
August 15 will probably go down in history as the day that marked the formal end of the 'American Century' and the beginning of the 'Asian Century'. On that day, the US-propped Kabul regime collapsed, with its head fleeing with around $169 million cash stashed in his luggage, and the ignominious, panicky exit of the American military coincided with the surprisingly swift but subdued return of the Afghan Taliban back to power after 20 years. Messy exits are now a hallmark of the US in the Third World countries it once dominated, but 'incompetence' was never an adjective that described the American way of doing things, until Kabul last week.
The dizzying speed of these developments reinforce what Lenin once said: "There are decades when nothing happens; and then there are weeks when decades happen!"
There is now a glimmer of hope that the 42-year old Afghan conflict can perhaps come to an end after three Afghan Wars (1979-1989 'Afghan Jihad' funded by the US against the Soviet occupation), then the Afghan Civil War (1989-2001), and finally the 'War of Terror' undertaken by the US after 9/11.
President Carter's National Security Adviser Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski claimed in his memoir, Power and Principle, that Carter had signed a directive on July 3, 1979, to start funding the dissident Afghan Mujahideen with an initial funding of $695,000 which would be distributed by the CIA via Pakistan. This was six months before the Soviet military invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.
Eventually, Afghanistan became the centre of CIA's biggest covert operation after WWII, codenamed Operation Cyclone. When the Geneva Accords were signed a decade later, providing the framework for the defeated Red Army's exit from Afghanistan, almost $5 billion had been funnelled for this guerilla war, with Saudi Arabia providing matching funds to the American money ($2.1 billion each), plus another $1 billion from other countries over a 10-year period. Over 100,000 Afghan Mujahideen had been trained and armed, besides about 10,000 Arab and other Muslim volunteers. The Afghan Taliban, who now are in power, are the ideological offspring of the Afghan Mujahideen, some actually having fought in the war against the Red Army.
During an interview with French newspaper Le Nouvelle Observateur published in its issue of January 15-21, 1998, Dr Brzezinski was asked whether he had regrets in funding a struggle that spawned religious extremism, destabilising parts of both the Muslim and Western worlds, he answered without batting an eyelid: "What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet Empire? Some agitated Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and end of the Cold War?"
It was largely an American-created genie that the US tried, albeit abortively, to put back into the bottle when Washington, under President George W Bush, launched the 'War on Terror' after 9/11. Pakistan was coerced into joining the war, although India was the first in the region to offer unstinted cooperation to the American war effort. And Saudi Arabia too was cajoled into the post 9/11 war effort because it feared American reprisals as 15 of the 19 hijackers that attacked the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington were from Saudi Arabia (of the remaining four, two were from Egypt and one each from Lebanon and the UAE).
America's Afghanistan Project came unstuck for three reasons starting in 2003.
First, that year, an over-confident US went to war with Iraq, instead of stabilising and strengthening Afghanistan. The US shifted attention to Iraq, fighting a war of choice because of Bush's ideological foreign policy fixation, when he labelled Iraq, Iran and North Korea as part of the 'Axis of Evil', although none of these countries had anything to do with 9/11; and, in fact, Iran had actively cooperated with the US in the removal of the Taliban regime.
The second reason was an inability to learn lessons from history due to imperial hubris and US duplicity with allies like Pakistan. Just before the Anglo-American invasion of Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, a top-secret British delegation was in Moscow seeking 'expert advice' from the Russian experience in Afghanistan. Their advice was instructive, but never followed: "You will make the same bad choice we did, you will go in, you will lose, many of you will die and then you'll be forced to retreat, which will be good for us".
Regarding duplicity with allies, for example, in his book, Lawless World, Philippe Sands reveals the contents of a telephone conversation between President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair on January 30, 2003, just a few weeks before the launch of the war on Iraq on March 20. In that conversation, Bush tells Blair that he "wanted to go beyond Iraq in dealing with WMD proliferation, mentioning in particular Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea and Pakistan", at a time when Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were supposedly US allies. And by 2005, the US, in another example of double-dealing with Pakistan, violating its own laws as well as IAEA rules, went ahead to sign a major civil nuclear deal with India, with a view to roping in India against China, backed later by massive armaments and sophisticated technology to India, to the detriment of Pakistan.
The third reason for failure – apart from the confusion why the US was in Afghanistan – was the US perpetuating its military presence by propping up a small self-serving corrupt Kabul elite dependent on doleouts from Washington. To expect any self-respecting Afghan soldier to lay down his life for such a corrupt clique was delusional, to say the least. The Washington Post did an excellent expose of the deception and lies that lay at the heart of America's ill-fated Afghanistan Project, by publishing the Afghanistan Papers in November 2019, as there was a yawning chasm between was publicly stated and what was privately believed.
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Afghanistan debacle has evoked memories of Cambodia and Vietnam 1975 or Iran 1979, where the departing American ambassador announced somewhat bitterly: "Till yesterday, we were ruling this country!"
Afghanistan is much more than an intelligence failure or an error of policy judgment. It has turned out as the nemesis of the US policy of 'regime change' in the Third World, which the US attempted 72 times during the Cold War, 1945-1989.
Over 75 years ago, when the US emerged as the victor of WWII, it was heralded as the harbinger of the 'American Century'. This view was reinforced when the Afghan War against the Soviet Union sparked the collapse of the USSR and the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, symbolised by the demolition of the Berlin Wall. The sole superpower's President, George HW Bush, triumphantly proclaimed in 1991: "What we say goes!"
That was 30 years ago. Today, the image, clout and confidence of the sole superpower lies buried in the debris of the destruction of the war in Afghanistan, which has lived up to its reputation as 'the graveyard of empires', devouring the American superpower, as it did earlier with Britain and Soviet Union – the superpowers of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Sher Ali | 1 year ago | Reply
Well articulated opinion
نکاح پر نکاح
عدالتی ریلیف ملنے کے باوجود شکوے
پاکستان میں کوئی من موہن سنگھ نہیں آئے گا
امریکا چین محاذ آرائی اور اْس کے مضمرات
حمزہ شہباز کی واپسی ناگزیر
سفر ہے شرط


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
require "login/engine"

require "devise"
require 'omniauth-github'
require 'omniauth-twitter'
require 'omniauth-facebook'
require 'omniauth-google-apps'

module Login
  mattr_accessor :config

  def self.layout
    config[:layout] || "application"
  end
end

Login.config = {}


The origins of the Old Stortfordian Lodge lay in the hands of several Old Boys and Masters of the School, whose ideas and initiatives led to its foundation. Their wish to form a Lodge centred on the School which would accommodate those living some distance away. The Lodge was established primarily for the association and convenience of Old Stortfordians and adapted the School Badge as its Crest.
The School Badge and Lodge Crest depict the School's geographical position on the borders of Hertfordshire and Essex. The open book is a Bible with 'Verbum Dei', the Word of God, since the School originated from a non-conformist background. The scroll beneath the Badge carries the words 'Soli Deo Gloria', 'Glory to God Alone'. Sponsored by Stortford Lodge No. 409, the Lodge was consecrated by the RW Bro Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey in the School Memorial Hall.


text:
Browse Funeral Homes
Funeral home name
All Regions Perth CBD Perth North Perth South Perth Hills North West WA South West WA
Perth South
Seasons Funerals - Kelmscott
cnr Albany Hwy & Armitage Rd
Kelmscott Western Australia 6111
Seasons Funerals has been helping families in and around Perth celebrate the lives of their loved ones since 1990, when Steve Erceg opened his first funeral home in Armadale. With all four of Steve's daughters working at Seasons, it's very much a family business!
We truly believe that a life should be celebrated and that your final farewell should contain the opportunity to tell your story. To let your loved ones celebrate your life. To let the world know who you were.
Seasons constantly strives to find new and better ways to improve the funeral service experience for our families and to make things as easy as possible during a difficult time. We've built local chapels so that services can be held closer to home. We've moved away from the sombre black dress of the past. We've embraced the technology available to us today to provide a modern approach to services.
We are immensely proud of the fact that we are consistently recommended to people who need to organise a funeral by the families that we have helped over the years. It is truly a great honour to work within this industry and help families in Perth to create a tribute that really does celebrate life.
The core values of Seasons values are those of Storytelling, Innovation, Familyness and Over-service. We live and breathe these values as we go about the business of helping you arrange a heartfelt goodbye to your loved ones.
Seasons has eight branches across Perth in Balcatta, Canning Vale, Kalamunda, Kelmscott, Malaga, Mandurah, Redcliffe and Wanneroo.
1800 732 7•• 1800 732 766
Reveal number
seasons.com.au
CROWE Terence
CROWE: Family and Friends are invited to Celebrate the Life of Mr Tere...
View Notice
CARLING Ronald
CARLING: Family and friends are warmly invited to the Funeral Service ...
BISHOP Jack
Bishop: Family and Friends are warmly invited to the Funeral Service f...
CHEFFINS Celia
CHEFFINS: Family and Friends are warmly invited to attend the Memorial...
PROSSER Ruby
PROSSER: Family and friends are warmly invited to the Funeral Service ...


text:
KLAJIC v. CASTAIC LAKE WATER AGENCY
Jill KLAJIC, et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. CASTAIC LAKE WATER AGENCY, Defendant and Respondent.
Decided: July 20, 2001
Jennifer Kilpatrick, for Plaintiffs and Appellants. Robert H. Clark, General Counsel, and Kane, Ballmer & Berkman, R. Bruce Tepper, Jr., Los Angeles, for Defendant and Respondent.
Petitioners,1 water users in the Santa Clarita Valley area, appeal from the judgment of the trial court denying their petition for writ of mandate. Petitioners sought to compel respondent Castaic Lake Water Agency (the Agency) to divest itself of its ownership of all of the stock of respondent Santa Clarita Water Company (the Water Company), and to comply with its own enabling statute, which limits the Agency to the wholesale distribution of water.
At issue in this appeal is the interpretation and application of Water Code 2 section 12944.7. That section allows a wholesale water agency to sell water at retail "only pursuant to written contract with ․ a water corporation ․ subject to regulation by the Public Utilities Commission․" The Agency contends that the retail sales contract it executed in connection with its purchase of the Water Company complies with section 12944.7. Petitioners contend, as the result of the Agency's purchase of the Water Company, that the latter has become the alter ego of the Agency. Thus, they argue, the contract does not satisfy the requirements of the statute and so the Agency remains limited to selling water at wholesale.
We hold, as a matter of law, that the contract contemplated in section 12944.7 is one between the Agency and a separate entity, for the Agency's use of that entity's facilities. We further conclude that the entity must remain both separate and subject to regulation by the Public Utilities Commission during the life of the contract. In denying the writ petition here, the trial court failed to determine whether, at the close of the stock purchase transaction, the Water Company remained separate from the Agency so that the section 12944.7 contract could endure. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment.
1. The parties.
The Agency was created by the Legislature in the Castaic Lake Water Agency Law. (West's Ann. Wat.Code Appen., § 103-1 et seq., hereinafter, the Agency Act.) Section 103-15 of the Agency Act describes the Agency's purpose: to "acquire water and water rights ․ and provide, sell, and deliver that water at wholesale only ․ through a transmission system to be acquired or constructed by the agency." (Agency Act, § 103-15, italics added.) Operating in the Santa Clarita Valley area of Los Angeles County (id. § 103-2), the Agency provides water to four local water utilities, the largest of which was the Water Company.
Until the transaction here at issue, the Water Company was a for-profit California corporation and a public utility subject to regulation by the Public Utilities Commission (the PUC). As a water "purveyor,3 " its purpose was to distribute and sell water to its 21,000 domestic, industrial, and commercial accounts within the Agency's boundaries. In addition to its purchases of water from the Agency, the Water Company owned 15 water wells and had access to two fresh-water aquifers in the eastern groundwater basin of the Santa Clara River with the ability to extract 15,000 acre/feet of water yearly.
Petitioners are property owners, residents, and taxpayers in the area covered by the Agency who claim to be beneficially interested in the issuance of a writ because, if the Agency suffers adverse financial consequences from its purchase of the Water Company, petitioners' water rates will increase; and if water must be rationed, they will suffer greater adverse consequences than they would if the Water Company remained a separate purveyor.
2. The challenged transaction.
The challenged transaction between the Agency and the Water Company involved two inextricably connected parts. In the contract portion, the Water Company and Agency executed an agreement to permit the Agency to sell water directly to consumers (hereinafter, the Retail Service Agreement). In the condemnation proceeding, the Agency concurrently took by eminent domain all of the outstanding stock of the Water Company in order to give the Agency complete control of the Water Company.
Specifically, on August 11, 1999, the Agency approved the Retail Service Agreement. That Agreement recites that it was made on August 31, 1999, and that "[a]s a part of a possible settlement of the Agency Condemnation Action, [the Water Company] agreed to contract with the Agency to grant to the Agency the right to sell water directly to consumers within the area in which [the Water Company] operates." (Italics added.) The Agreement further recites that "The Agency and [Water Company] intend that this grant to the Agency shall satisfy the requirements of Section 12944.7 ․ and [shall] be liberally construed to effect the purposes of Section 12944.7․"
Simultaneously, the Agency's directors passed Resolution No.2065 to effectuate the condemnation portion of the transaction. Resolution 2065 authorized the condemnation of all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of the Water Company. (Agency Act, § 103-15, subd. (g).) The resolution declared that public interest and necessity require the acquisition of the Water Company's capital stock "to advance the business and statutory purposes of the Agency, including, but not limited to, providing, delivering and selling wholesale water within the Agency's jurisdiction as well as providing retail service pursuant to Water Code section 12944.7 ․" (Italics added.)
The Agency planned to finance this two-part transaction by issuing up to $70 million in retail system revenue certificates of participation through an installment purchase agreement with its own financing corporation.
On August 12, 1999, the Agency filed its complaint to condemn and acquire all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of the Water Company.4 (Castaic Lake Water Agency v. Santa Clarita Water Co., Case number BC 215065.)
3. The writ petition.
On August 23, 1999, after the above resolutions were passed and the Retail Sales Agreement was signed, but before the final judgment was issued in the condemnation action and before the transaction was closed, petitioners filed their petition "for peremptory writ of mandate or prohibition." (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 1085, 1086, 1102, 1103.) The amended petition 5 alleged that the Agency's condemnation of the Water Company stock and retail sale of water violates the Agency Act. (Agency Act, § 103-15.) Petitioners also challenged as ultra vires the terms and conditions of the financing arrangement. Petitioners requested that the trial court issue a writ of mandate or prohibition to require the Agency and the Water Company to cease violating the language of the Agency Act, which limits the Agency to selling water "at wholesale only," and to cease its attempt to acquire the Water Company.6
4. The challenged transaction closes.
A week after the petition was filed, on September 1, 1999, the Agency executed a new stock purchase agreement to purchase the Water Company's stock for $63 million in cash, averting the financing arrangement challenged in the petition.
The next day, on September 2, 1999, a stipulation for judgment for $63 million was entered in the eminent domain action. The judgment stated that the Agency was authorized by the provisions of section 12944.7 to enter, and did enter, into written contracts with retail water purveyors to sell water to any ultimate water consumer within the Agency's jurisdiction. The judgment also recited that the Agency was empowered by Article 16, section 17 of the California Constitution to acquire shares of a water company for the purpose of furnishing water for public purposes.
On September 3, 1999, the consideration of $63 million in cash was transmitted to the shareholders of the Water Company, the Retail Service Agreement was delivered, and the court executed a final order condemning in favor of the Agency all rights, title, and interest in the Water Company's outstanding shares.
Thereafter, in connection with the stock purchase, the Water Company issued a number of resolutions designed to wind up the Water Company's business, dissolve the corporation, distribute its remaining assets to the Agency, and accept the resignation of three of the Water Company's directors and its secretary.7
5. The ruling on the petition.
At the hearing, originally scheduled to consider petitioners' motion for a stay of the transaction, petitioners cited the legislative history of section 12944.7 to argue that the effect of the transaction was to merge the Water Company with the Agency so that the two organizations would "be [ ] operated as a unified entity," one becoming the alter ego of the other. Additionally, petitioners argued, whatever company existed after the merger would no longer be regulated by the PUC. The net result of the transaction, petitioners claimed, is that the Retail Sales Agreement does not comply with section 12944.7, and the Agency may not sell water at retail.
In its defense, the Agency argued that the language of the statute is clear, precluding resort to its legislative history, and that the Retail Sales Agreement is a contract that complies with the letter of section 12944.7. The Agency never addressed the effect of the transaction on the Water Company, i.e., after the transaction closed, what form the Water Company took and whether the Water Company even continues to exist as an ongoing concern, separate from the Agency. Although the Agency asserted that "[t]he water company is subject to PUC regulations" (italics added), it flatly disagreed that section 12944.7 requires the Water Company to remain subject to PUC control during the life of the contract in order for the Retail Sales Agreement to comply with the statute. Counsel for the Agency argued, "You don't see any continuing obligation to be regulated by the PUC in 12944.7․"
The court admitted into evidence the legislative history of section 12944.7, and ruled "it does appear ․ that 12944.7 is sufficiently clear and is applicable here, and it does override Section [103-]15" of the Agency Act limiting the Agency to wholesale water distribution. (Agency Act, § 103-15.) The court denied the writ petition and petitioners' appeal ensued.
1. Writ of mandamus and standard of review.
A traditional writ of mandate under Code of Civil Procedure section 1085 8 is a method for compelling a public entity to perform a legal and usually ministerial duty. (Kreeft v. City of Oakland (1998) 68 Cal.App.4th 46, 53, 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 137.) The trial court reviews an administrative action pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 1085 to determine whether the agency's action was arbitrary, capricious, or entirely lacking in evidentiary support, contrary to established public policy, unlawful, procedurally unfair, or whether the agency failed to follow the procedure and give the notices the law requires. (Kreeft, supra, at p. 53, 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 137; Lewin v. St. Joseph Hospital of Orange (1978) 82 Cal.App.3d 368, 387, 146 Cal.Rptr. 892.) "Although mandate will not lie to control a public agency's discretion, that is to say, force the exercise of discretion in a particular manner, it will lie to correct abuses of discretion. [Citation.] In determining whether an agency has abused its discretion, the court may not substitute its judgment for that of the agency, and if reasonable minds may disagree as to the wisdom of the agency's action, its determination must be upheld. [Citation.]" (Helena F. v. West Contra Costa Unified School Dist. (1996) 49 Cal.App.4th 1793, 1799, 57 Cal.Rptr.2d 605.)
"In reviewing a trial court's judgment on a petition for writ of ordinary mandate, we apply the substantial evidence test to the trial court's factual findings." (Kreeft v. City of Oakland, supra, 68 Cal.App.4th at p. 53, 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 137.) Thus, foundational matters of fact are conclusive on appeal if supported by substantial evidence. (Clark v. City of Hermosa Beach (1996) 48 Cal.App.4th 1152, 1169-1170, 56 Cal.Rptr.2d 223.) However, we exercise our independent judgment about legal questions. (Kreeft, supra, at p. 53, 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 137; Saathoff v. City of San Diego (1995) 35 Cal.App.4th 697, 700, 41 Cal.Rptr.2d 352.) With these rules in mind, we turn to the question of the meaning of section 12944.7.
2. Section 12944.7 contemplates the Agency will contract with an entity that will remain separate from the Agency for the duration of the contract period.
Section 12944.7 states in relevant part: "Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, any public agency which has executed a contract with the state for a water supply ․ may sell any water available to that agency directly to any ultimate water consumer within the agency. If the principal act of the public agency restricts the agency to the wholesale distribution of water, the right to sell water directly to consumers may be exercised by the agency only pursuant to written contract with ․ a water corporation, if any exists, subject to regulation by the Public Utilities Commission and serving water at retail within the area in which the consumer is located." (Italics added.)
Here, the Agency Act restricts the Agency to the wholesale distribution of water. (Agency Act, § 103-15.) Therefore, to sell water at retail, the Agency must comply with the second sentence of section 12944.7. At issue is the meaning of the word "contract" in that second sentence. This is a legal question over which we exercise our independent judgment. (Kreeft v. City of Oakland, supra, 68 Cal.App.4th at p. 53, 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 137.)
Petitioners contend that the contract contemplated by the Legislature in section 12944.7 is similar to a lease for use of the retail purveyor's facilities to sell water directly to retail consumers. Based on the challenged transaction here, under which the Agency took the Water Company by eminent domain, petitioners argue that the Retail Service Agreement does not satisfy the statute's contract requirement. By contrast, the Agency takes the position that it complied with every condition of section 12944.7. The Agency asserts it (1) had a contract-the Retail Service Agreement-(2) with a water company (3) that was subject to PUC regulation at the time the Agreement was entered into. The Agency, however, omits to discuss the nature of the entire challenged transaction. That is, the Agency offered no analysis about whether the transaction is actually a merger or, as a result of the deal, whether the Water Company has become the alter ego of the Agency, and what effect that transformation might have on the Retail Service Agreement.
a. The rules of statutory interpretation.
In determining the nature of the contract required by section 12944.7, we apply the usual rules of statutory interpretation. "The fundamental rule of statutory construction is to ascertain the intent of the Legislature in order to effectuate the purpose of the law. In doing so, we first look to the words of the statute and try to give effect to the usual, ordinary import of the language, at the same time not rendering any language mere surplusage. The words must be construed in context and in light of the nature and obvious purpose of the statute where they appear․ The statute ' "must be given a reasonable and commonsense interpretation consistent with the apparent purpose and intention of the Legislature, practical rather than technical in nature, and which, when applied, will result in wise policy rather than mischief or absurdity." ' " (Kotler v. Alma Lodge (1998) 63 Cal.App.4th 1381, 1390-1391, 74 Cal.Rptr.2d 721, citations omitted.) " '[The] language of a statute should not be given a literal meaning if doing so would result in absurd consequences which the Legislature did not intend.' [Citations.]" (People v. Pieters (1991) 52 Cal.3d 894, 898, 276 Cal.Rptr. 918, 802 P.2d 420.) "If the language of a statute is clear, we should not add to or alter it to accomplish a purpose which does not appear on the face of the statute or from its legislative history." (Kotler v. Alma Lodge, supra, at p. 1391, 74 Cal.Rptr.2d 721, citations omitted.) "Thus, '[t]he intent prevails over the letter, and the letter will, if possible, be so read as to conform to the spirit of the act.' [Citation.]" (People v. Pieters, supra, at p. 899, 276 Cal.Rptr. 918, 802 P.2d 420.)
b. Section 12944.7 plainly contemplates an arm's length contract for use.
The language of the statute is clear on its face. Section 12944.7 grants the agency the right to sell water at retail "only pursuant to written contract with " another entity. (§ 12944.7, italics added.) It is so elementary that it hardly need be stated that " '[t]here must be at least two parties to a contract․' " (1 Witkin, Summary of California Law (9th ed. 1987) Contracts, § 7, p. 44; Civ.Code, §§ 1550, 1556.) An interpretation which allows the Agency here to enter into a contract with itself would render the contract a nullity (Luis v. Orcutt Town Water Co. (1962) 204 Cal.App.2d 433, 444, 22 Cal.Rptr. 389), defeat the plain meaning of the word "with," and would be neither a reasonable nor a commonsense interpretation of the requirement that the Agency have a contract to sell water at retail.
It is further manifest that the two parties to the contract must maintain their separate existences during the life of the contract, or at any time that the agency seeks to sell water at retail. Otherwise, the italicized language that the right to sell at retail is made "only pursuant to written contract with " would be rendered superfluous. Stated differently, the Legislature could have granted the wholesaler Agency the absolute right to sell water at retail without requiring a contract, and so its inclusion of the second sentence in section 12944.7 clearly manifests the Legislature's intent there be a contract, which a fortiori, must be between two separate parties, each time the Agency sells water at retail.
Therefore, to comply with section 12944.7, whenever a wholesaler agency sells water directly to the consumer, it must be doing so pursuant to a contract with a water company that exists as an entity, be it a wholly owned subsidiary or otherwise, independent from the wholesaler agency.
For these same reasons, we also conclude that a water company, with whom the wholesaler-agency contracts, must remain subject to PUC regulation throughout the life of the contract. The Agency argued that there is no "continuing obligation to be regulated by the PUC" once the transaction is closed. We reject this "nanosecond" argument because it renders section 12944.7's requirement of PUC regulation pointless and surplusage. (Kotler v. Alma Lodge, supra, 63 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1390, 1391, 74 Cal.Rptr.2d 721.)
Our interpretation of the statute comports with the legislative history of Assembly Bill 2827,9 which became section 12944.7. As explained by a proponent, the Department of Water Resources, in its enrolled bill report, "[b]efore the wholesale agency could make retail sales in its service area, it would need to make a contract allowing the retail sales with the public or private entity that would normally make the retail sales." (Dept. of Water Resources, Enrolled Bill Report Re: AB 2827, August 29, 1990, supra, at p. 1, italics added.) Continuing, the enrolled bill report summary states, "[t]o protect the current retailers, the bill would require [the Agency] to make a contract with the retailer before making the retail sales. In negotiating the contracts, the respective agencies would be able to work out their various interests." (Dept. of Water Resources, Enrolled Bill Report Re: AB 2827, supra, at p. 3, italics added.)
Indeed the record indicates the Department of Water Resources put AB 2827 forward expecting that it "would authorize State Water Project contractors which are wholesale agencies to provide retail service by contract with the entities which are empowered to sell water at retail. Such retail entities could 'rent' distribution capacity to a State Water Contractor, and would bill the consumer much in the same fashion as your local telephone company bills for the benefit of both itself and the long-distance carriers with which its customers also have a contractual relationship. [¶] Current retail water purveyors ought not to oppose this bill, inasmuch as it can be implemented only pursuant to contract." (Proposed Legislation to Preserve Historical Tax-Exempt Financing Option of State Water Contractor Agencies, attached to letter to Steven Macola, Consultant to the Senate Agriculture and Water Resources Committee, from David N. Kennedy, Director, Department of Water Resources, dated June 28, 1990, underline in original; italics added.)
We hold that in enacting section 12944.7, the Legislature contemplated a contract, entered into after arms-length negotiations, granting the Agency the permission to use-as opposed to take over and own-the Water Company's facilities. The Water Company could, for example, be a wholly owned subsidiary of, or wholly separate from, the Agency; but whatever form it takes, it must be distinct from the Agency and remain subject to PUC regulation to comply with the statute.
Turning to the judgment here under review, the trial court correctly concluded as a matter of law that section 12944.7 "override[s]" the portion of section 103-15 of the Agency Act that limits the Agency to wholesale distribution of water. That is the purpose behind the statute. The ruling that section 12944.7 can authorize the Agency to sell water at retail, however, only addresses half of the question raised by the writ petition. Omitted from the judgment below is whether, as the result of the challenged transaction, the Water Company continues to exist as an entity sufficiently separate from the Agency and continues to be subject to PUC regulation in order to enable the contract to endure.
3. The case must be remanded.
Petitioners argued at length before the trial court that, as the result of the challenged transaction, the Water Company was dissolved, the two companies merged, and the Water Company became the Agency's alter ego, with the result that the contract could not satisfy section 12944.7. The Agency responds by suggesting that the condemnation portion of the challenged transaction, by which it acquired all of the Water Company's stock, is legal but irrelevant, and that the Retail Sales Agreement, standing alone, satisfies the contract requirement of section 12944.7.
We do not disagree with the Agency that it was lawfully empowered to acquire the Water Company (Cal. Const., art. XVI, § 17) and that it has the authority to exercise the right of eminent domain to take property for any facility reasonably required for the importation and transmission of water. (Agency Act, § 103-15, subds. (e) and (g).) However, we reject the Agency's argument that the challenged transaction can be separated into discrete, unrelated parts and still comply with section 12944.7.
A case in point is Luis v. Orcutt Town Water Co., supra, 204 Cal.App.2d 433, 22 Cal.Rptr. 389. To recover his losses after his store was destroyed by fire, the plaintiff sued the Orcutt Town Water Company, which supplied water to the town, and Union Oil Company, a private water company, which also supplied water to the town. The complaint alleged that contracts between the defendants obligated them to provide water in case of emergencies. (Id. at pp. 436-437, 22 Cal.Rptr. 389.) The complaint further alleged that Union owned all of the stock of and managed and operated the Water Company so that the Water Company was the alter ego of Union. In affirming the sustaining of the defendants' demurrers without leave to amend, the appellate court held, inter alia, "if the alter ego theory were pleaded effectively and if the doctrine is applied, it pleads the contract upon which plaintiff relies out of existence; with only one entity to consider the contract becomes a nullity because it is impossible for a legal entity to contact with itself." (Id. at p. 444, 22 Cal.Rptr. 389, first italics original, second italics added.)
As in Luis, if at any point the Agency actually merged with the Water Company or the Water Company became the alter ego of the Agency, then the Retail Service Agreement, intended to comply with section 12944.7, "becomes a nullity because it is impossible for a legal entity to contact with itself." (Luis v. Orcutt Town Water Co., supra, 204 Cal.App.2d at p. 444, 22 Cal.Rptr. 389.) In that case, the Agency would no longer have a contract pursuant to section 12944.7 by which it could sell or deliver water at retail without violating its own enabling act. Logically, if as the result of the challenged transaction, a merger did occur, or the Water Company did become the alter ego of the Agency on September 3, 1999, then the Retail Service Agreement existed for at most four days.
The question of whether the corporation exists as a separate corporate entity under the alter-ego doctrine, "is one for the trier of fact and is reviewed on appeal according to the usual standards for sufficiency of the evidence to support the conclusion. [Citation.]" (Mid-Century Ins. Co. v. Gardner (1992) 9 Cal.App.4th 1205, 1213, 11 Cal.Rptr.2d 918.) Here, the trial court did not address this issue, notwithstanding that petitioners raised it and supplied exhaustive evidence in support of their alter ego contention. The form the Water Company has taken, and will ultimately take as the result of the challenged transaction, is central to resolving the issue properly raised in the writ, namely whether the Agency is authorized by section 12944.7 to sell water at retail. It is a factual question premised in the first instance on whether the Water Company became the alter ego of the Agency, whether the corporate veil must be pierced, and if so, whether, in fact, the companies are one and the same. (Mid-Century, supra, at p. 1213, 11 Cal.Rptr.2d 918.) Until such factual questions are resolved by the trial court, we may not review this question. (Kreeft v. City of Oakland, supra, 68 Cal.App.4th at p. 53, 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 137.) 10
The judgment is reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Respondent to pay costs of appeal.
1. Petitioners are Jill Klajic, Lynn Plambeck, Joan Dunn, and Jackie Bettencourt.
2. Hereinafter, all statutory references shall be to the Water Code, unless otherwise stated.
3. Section 103-4.8 of the Agency Act defines "purveyor" as "a retail water distributor which has facilities connected to the agency's water transmission system on April 15, 1986, or is under contract with the agency for water on that date."
4. On August 25, 1999, petitioners filed a notice of related cases in the condemnation proceeding, notifying the court of the pending petition for writ of mandate and the complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief. On September 14, 1999, twelve days after judgment was entered in the condemnation action, the trial court entered an order finding that the condemnation action was not related to the mandamus actions under Los Angeles County Superior Court Local Rule 7.3.
5. The petition was amended on September 1, 1999.
6. Concurrently, petitioners filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief seeking a declaration that the structure of the financing scheme for the Agency's acquisition of the Water Company's stock violated sections 103-15 and 103-28 of the Agency Act. Petitioners dismissed the declaratory relief action on October 18, 1999.
7. The record does not contain executed versions of these resolutions.
8. Code of Civil Procedure section 1085 states in pertinent part, "A writ of mandate may be issued by any court, except a municipal court, to any inferior tribunal, corporation, board, or person, to compel the performance of an act which the law specially enjoins, as a duty resulting from an office, trust, or station․"The Agency contends that the petition should have been denied on the procedural ground that petitioners' attack on the transaction could have been brought as a validation action under Code of Civil Procedure section 860 et seq. Hence, the Agency argues, where petitioners had a remedy at law, the mandamus action could not lie. The Agency is wrong.Section 103-19 of the Agency Act states, "An action to determine the validity of any bonds, warrants, promissory notes, contracts, or other evidences of indebtedness of the kinds authorized by subdivision ․ (o) ․ of Section 15, may be brought pursuant to [Code of Civil Procedure section 860]." This section allows for a validation action whenever a challenge is made to the validity of financing. The action is to determine the validity of "bonds, warrants, ․ contracts, or other evidences of indebtedness." (Agency Act, § 103-19, italics added.) Because all of the items enumerated in section 103-19 refer to forms of financing, under the principle of ejusdem generis, "contracts" in this context necessarily refers to contracts for financing. (Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. San Diego County Dist. Council of Carpenters (1979) 25 Cal.3d 317, 331, fn. 10, 158 Cal.Rptr. 370, 599 P.2d 676.) Once the Agency restructured the transaction here to be an all-cash deal, the petition no longer attacked the financing scheme, and a validation action concerning financing no longer provided petitioners with an adequate remedy at law by which to challenge the Agency's statutory authority to sell water at retail. Therefore, the petition for writ of mandate/prohibition was properly brought.
9. The Agency sponsored section 12944.7 through Senator Kelley in response to then-recent changes to the Federal tax law to allow the Internal Revenue Service to tax the municipal bonds of a water wholesaler who sold at retail. (Dept. of Water Resources, Enrolled Bill Report Re: AB 2827, dated August 28, 1990, signed by David Kennedy, Dept. Head, p. 2.)
10. The Agency argues that the relief petitioners seek is ineffective because the transaction that petitioners want to prohibit has already been consummated. The argument is unavailing because at the time petitioners filed their writ petition, the transaction had not been closed. Just two weeks after the writ petition was filed and one week after the petition was amended, the Agency arranged to pay cash for its transaction and rapidly entered into a stipulation for judgment in the condemnation action. The Agency cannot be heard to complain because it assumed the risk of hurriedly closing the all-cash transaction seemingly to avoid the consequences of the writ petition's allegations. (Gogerty v. Coachella Valley Junior College Dist. (1962) 57 Cal.2d 727, 732, 21 Cal.Rptr. 806, 371 P.2d 582.)
ALDRICH, J.
KLEIN, P.J., and CROSKEY, J., concur.


mangas to have been published in France in the 1990s, and thus participated in the advent of a market that now accounts for 32% of comic book sales. But this work of Yukito Kishiro has also imposed, in just nine volumes, the pantheon of science fiction in general, and cyberpunk in particular.
Gally, cybernetic heroine of "Gunnm" – Yukito Kishiro / Kodansha Ltd.
and even four) on Pandora. But this is not the only newsGunnm.
2001, Ghost in the Shell), and expresses itself on paper dramatically, with a rich and dynamic design.
"Gunnm Mars Chronicle", both prequel and final arc of Gally's story – Yukito Kishiro / Kodansha Ltd.
But Gunnm has also remained an unfinished work for a long time, when an event (a priori an accident) prevents Yukito Kishiro from drawing and forces him to rush to an end in 1995. A beautiful ending. But for the mangaka, the story is not over, he wants to send Gally into space. What he will do from the year 2000 with Gunnm Last Order, a suite in 19 volumes that will unfortunately weaken the science fiction monument that Gunnmby dint of artificial digressions and interminable fights.
It's the same forGunnm Mars Chronicle, third and last act of the series, which accompanies the reissue of the original manga (unless it is the other way around) and which tells the origins of Gally, when she was called Yoko and she was an orphan on Mars. It's hard to know if the author is sincere or opportunistic (let's give him the benefit of the doubt), but wanting to lift the veil on all the mysteries of Gally's past, like Hollywood prequel and spin-off, may seem counter-productive. productive. The temptation is great to leave the expanses of the red planet to return to this corner of the dump, where everything really began.
The art book "Gunnm Ars Manga" is available November 16 – Yukito Kishiro / Kodansha Ltd.


Through an educational and informational support network, CEDA is committed to the enhancement of the lives of all persons affected by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
* increase public awareness of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
* provide accurate, timely information about the condition to affected patients, their families and health care personnel.
* encourage the establishments of EDS self-help groups in communities across Canada.
Since our beginning in November of 1996, a great deal has been accomplished. We have maintained contact with many areas of the medical community across Canada. We have created an on-line listserv community which strives to strengthen the bond with many who suffer from this syndrome. We have established several provincial support networks which allow for a regional source of support for our members and links to needed medical care and representation. We have established a source of support and link via a quarterly newsletter and have launched an important EDS Learning CD-ROM.
We have so much more to do, and with your help we can achieve it all!