It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is a skills gap among heat network designers and that by filling this gap we will improve network performance. In other words, if we provide more training to engineers, heat networks will get better.
There's no doubt that some heat networks are plagued by performance problems, costing customers too much and delivering poor quality of service. But can this be fixed with additional training for consultants? Are heat networks really so complicated that engineers already trained to master's degree level can't design them well?
This blog was originally posted on networks.online.
Any heat network operator or customer will tell you that heat losses matter – a lot.
Losses that go unchecked can easily double the cost of heat on the network. But while everyone agrees it's hugely important to limit losses, the way we talk about heat loss is all wrong. And heat network performance is suffering as a result.
In 2016, the heat sector finally recognised the importance of performance data. Helped by companies like Guru, heat network operators began to obtain energy performance data from their networks.
The data sent shockwaves through the industry as many realised that their networks are not performing anything like what was promised, largely due to shortcomings in design and commissioning.
Using this information, the operators of these poorly performing networks could finally attach precise numbers to their long-held suspicions: that losses are high, that heat costs too much and that service can be unreliable. Of course, customers on bad networks already knew this from their own experiences of high bills, cooking corridors and intermittent heating and hot water.
As this awakening gathers pace, a key trend for 2017 will be the move towards quantified performance. Armed with clear requirements, clients will be more specific about what they want, and use measurement and verification to ensure they get it. ESCOs, having had their fingers burnt, will no longer be content to sample the performance on a limited number of dwellings before adopting a new network. Instead they will use performance data to verify that 100% of equipment in homes has been properly commissioned. In short, networks won't be allowed to go into operation until they work as intended.
This change in approach will have huge implications for the industry.
Here's a presentation I did at this year's Utility Week Live about using data to improve the performance of heat networks. In it, I talk about why networks are often poorly delivered and operated and what can be done to put them right. Incidentally, I was also pretty ill and hopped up on flu meds but I think I got away with it.
Operational data from onsite energy systems (like heat networks) is extremely hard to come by. Very few people manage to get hold of it, and those who have it rarely share.
What are the typical loads in dwellings? What are the network losses? Do customers all demand heating at the same time or are demand events spread out?
Who knows? Engineers don't stick around and find out how their designs work in real life; ESCOs hold their cards close to their chests; and many landlords fail to extract or make use of their own data.
This dearth of data has hamstrung the industry at a time when it should be racing ahead. It's one of the biggest reasons why, when it comes to energy performance, we're just not getting better fast enough.
In late 2014, when DECC put out a call for proposals to improve heat networks, we saw a chance to unlock some of these data silos and accelerate development of the heat market.
Randy Cambell knows: sometimes halfway is worse than nothing at all.
The Heat Network Code of Practice is likely to become intertwined with building regs. In particular, heat networks that comply with the Code could be treated more favourably under SAP.
But as I highlighted in the last post, we've got a problem: there's currently no such thing as a Code-compliant heat network. For SAP to reference the Code, some form of Code compliance regime will be required.
DECC has said it wants to keep any such regime light touch, which seems reasonable. But, as I hope to describe in this post, a light touch regime could greatly damage the heat market. In other words, the wrong compliance regime would be worse than no regime at all.


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Marlpool United Reformed Church Theatre Company
Home Latest News About Us Previous Shows Latest Show Box Office Members Contact Us
The Marlpool United Reformed Church Theatre Company is an amateur theatre group, based in Marlpool, which is on the outskirts of Heanor, in Derbyshire, England.
The Marlpool United Reformed Church Theatre Company was formed in 1984, with the staging of "Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", which was a great success. Since that time, the Company has gone from strength to strength, staging on average two musicals per year, for the last 20 years.
Shows have included Oliver, The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady, Guys & Dolls, Jesus Christ Superstar and Oklahoma, to name but a few.
The Company has approximately 50 members, some of which have been in all of the 34 productions to date. The age of our members ranges from 5, right up to some of our most senior members who are in their 80's.
This site was last updated 17-Apr-2014

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Between rain showers one day this week, I went out into the front yard and snipped off the upper halves of several common milkweeds. But, I wasn't purposely destroying beneficial plants.
This patch of milkweeds has spread into a monarda bed and they've gotten so big that they were blocking my view of a very active hummingbird feeder. They were also growing over a clothesline the hummers and other birds often sit on.
However, I've done the same thing with this patch for more than 10 years and there's been no damage to the milkweeds. They eventually resprout from their cut-off stems because their roots are still intact, and the patch gets bigger every year.
But as I cut each plant, I was careful not to let any of the milky sap get on my skin, especially on my hands. The milkweeds' white latex exudate causes contact dermatitis that itches and burns, and if it gets in your eyes they won't be right for hours.
Sap is the watery part of a plant that brings gases, salts, and other materials from the soil up through its vascular system. In some plants like the milkweeds and also dogbanes, this white liquid coagulates, or thickens, right after exposure to sun. And, although I've never tested this, apparently the common groundcover periwinkle also has milky sap.
Probably the best example of coagulating sap is the one that comes from rubber trees. And although many people may think that this is a modern discovery, it's been known and used for centuries by many cultures. According to one website I looked at, you can even make rubber yourself if you have a rubber tree, but -- of course -- first you'd have to move to Africa, South America, or Asia.
As I was cutting the milkweeds, a few hummingbirds were feeding on the nectar, a different solution than sap, of nearby flowers. Nectar is the sugar-rich liquid that can also have anti-fungal properties and it's found in glands called nectaries at the base of flowers. The sugars in it are glucose, sucrose, and fructose.
The word "nectar" comes from the German word "nektar," which was the name for the sweet tasting divine drink of the mythological Greek gods. According to the legend, if you drank it, you became immortal. But, obviously, while nectar, along with insect protein, is the sustaining food of hummingbirds, it doesn't make them immortal.
As the hummingbirds and/or other insects consume a flower's nectar, they also pollinate it by brushing up against the flower's male and female reproductive parts. So while they're feeding themselves, they're also helping to set up future generations of the plants.
Not all nectaries, though, are found in the flowers. Extrafloral nectaries are located on leaves and stems, and their purpose is different than the flower nectaries. In a sort of bait and switch operation, these nectaries bring in favorable protective insects that in turn eat other insects that will damage the plant.
July is almost over, but now is a time when blooming flowers are everywhere. And in every flowerbed or wild flower patch along roadsides or in yards, there's an unseen but very intense Lilliputian amount of activity constantly taking place.


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Kushner Asks Apple, Google & Other Tech Leaders to Help Modernize Federal Agencies
By Rafia Shaikh
Aug 3, 2017 20:11 EDT
White House would be forming small "centers of excellence"
Apple, Google, Amazon, Qualcomm, and Oracle have been invited by the White House to share their digital expertise with Washington to help modernize how federal agencies use technology. Earlier on Thursday, on a private call to these companies, Jared Kushner announced that the White House would be forming small centers of excellence.
Top advisors to the president, including Kushner, have asked the tech industry to send their engineers on "tours of duty" during which they will be advising the Trump administration on the technology challenges.
Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) Fact Checks Spark Trump's Temper – Executive Order That Expands Regulatory Oversight Now Locked and Loaded [Update: Signed]
According to Recode's sources, this initiative is "focused on reducing regulation while trying to get federal agencies to embrace cloud computing." Federal agencies will also work to make more of their data available for private-sector use.
As part of those centers, Kushner and his aides with the Office of American Innovation asked the tech industry for its help — potentially through a system where leading tech engineers can do brief "tours of duty" advising the U.S. government on some of its digital challenges.
Kushner's Office of American Innovation had reached to several technology companies, including IBM, Google, Intel, MIT, Microsoft, and SAP, two months after their executives met with the president during the tech week in June. During this meeting, several leaders had encouraged Trump to make it easier for companies to sell technologies to feds and for regulators to make more of their data available for startups. Apple CEO had also asked President Trump to make coding education a requirement in schools.
Both Kushner and Trump reportedly talked to the tech leaders in today's phone call. During his first meeting with the tech leaders earlier this year, Trump had said he wants to modernize the government IT. Kushner through his Office of American Innovation is now leading these efforts, while Trump's top aide, Reed Cordish, has pledged that the White House would continue to boost computer science education.
While the effort to help Washington rethink the way federal agencies use technology is still in its early stages with no set agenda at the moment, today's call to the tech companies is the first step in that direction.
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Tag Archives: signage
The cover of David Bowie's Blackstar album was designed to reflect the musician's mortality according to collaborator Jonathan Barnbrook
Source: David Bowie was "facing his own mortality" says Barnbrook
"He always wanted to do something interesting, often to the annoyance of the record company," Barnbrook said. "He understood the value of the image on a record cover, when other people had forgotten about it."
The designer added that Bowie was, more than anyone else, the artist responsible for bringing "art-school thinking into the mainstream."
"This was a man who was facing his own mortality," said Barnbrook. "The Blackstar symbol [★], rather than writing 'Blackstar', has as a sort of finality, a darkness, a simplicity, which is a representation of the music."
"It's subsided a bit now, but a lot of people said it was a bullshit cover when it came out, that it took five minutes to design," he added. "But I think there is a misunderstanding about the simplicity."
The use of abstract shapes was developed from Barnbrook's previous controversial cover for The Next Day album. The design features a white square covering an old photo of Bowie and was influenced by Constructivist art.
The black star graphic also carries deeper meanings, said Barnbrook.
"The idea of mortality is in there, and of course the idea of a black hole sucking in everything, the Big Bang, the start of the universe, if there is an end of the universe," Barnbrook said. "These are things that relate to mortality."
For the vinyl edition, the star is cut out from the black sleeve so the record inside is visible.
"The fact that you can see the record as a physical thing that degrades, it gets scratched as soon as it comes into being, that is a comment on mortality too," said Barnbrook.
He would look at the stuff, and talk about what he liked and what he didn't like, not in a rude way, just clear and explaining his reasons why, he was also fulsome in his praise when he liked something. Sometimes he would throw a spanner in the works and ask me suddenly to do something completely different for the project for an hour. That was quite a refreshing way of working and often produced good results as it meant you put aside all of the responsibilities of the project for a moment and could just play.
He was always really respectful about the people who bought his music, so he wanted them to understand the ideas. There was no point in doing something when it was so obscure that people wouldn't get the reference; it had to relate absolutely to the music.
He understood the value of the image on a record cover, when other people had forgotten about it. We had a renaissance in the 1970s and 1980s of album covers because the format of vinyl, but then it dropped when CDs were introduce. There are still good record/CD covers around, but a lot of time nowadays the cover just had to be "nice", it wasn't a thing that provoked discussion, our covers wanted to have that discussion again. Some people hated them, some people really liked them.
The Next Day was the most divisive one, because we didn't do quite what people expected, which was a nice new picture of David Bowie on the front. We decided to play with that idea of image expectation.
Some people thought they'd been cheated because it's a reprint of an old album cover, which is a bit ridiculous, because the cover was in the concept. I think it just puzzled a lot of people too who just "didn't get it", which we thought would happen.
However there were a lot of people who also recognised it was a very brave thing to do, something quite new. I dont think anybody other than Bowie would have taken that risk. He was really interested to see how people were reacting to it.
I've always been influenced by Constructivist art, so there was the influence of Kazimir Malevich and John Baldessari on The Next Day cover – the obliteration but also the spiritual, meaningful context of the abstract shapes. That followed through on ★, definitely.
The main thing of course is put over the emotional feeling of the music, that's what a good record cover does, it lets you know somehow, somewhere within it, what the music is about, or what you believe the music is about is confirmed in it. And there's not necessarily any logic to that you just have to get somewhere in that area which you have designed, and hopefully it will work.
He always wanted to do something interesting, often to the annoyance of the record company. Especially with Next Day, they were quite shocked with the cover, and they were pretty sure that it wasn't going to work. It actually became a very successful viral campaign.
After all it's an album called ★, with a cover that has a ★ on it, which doesn't sound like a leap of imagination. But there was so many tangents we followed, until we realised that it has to cut through the noise of what is going on in the world. We see so many images every single second when we search the internet; it's a directness that is needed. The simplicity of the design also left it more open.
It also has to appear in many different kinds of media: on a website, on iTunes, in reviews, and in newspapers. These are all practical considerations for it, and as a designer you would always work within for the parameters you have. For instance, it's not actually written "Blackstar", it uses a symbol ★, and that symbol goes through different technologies, so it can be used wherever.
This entry was posted in Main and tagged advertising, black, blackstar, branding, david bowie, death, end, graphic design, minimal, mortality, music, pure, signage, star, uk, vinyl, white on 09/02/16 by russi4nblue.
Kern Your Enthusiasm (16) | HiLobrow.
ELECTRONIC DISPLAY | UNKNOWN | c. 1950s
For the first eight thousand years of writing, letterforms were free of restriction. Add serifs to your letters, manipulate shape in a million ways, design intricate ligatures, make the ascender on your lower case "h" stretch to the heavens, create letters made from stacked drawings of clown shoes: the world of type design was a world without physical limits. Then came electronics.
Getting early electro-mechanical systems to dynamically display changable text was a pain in the ass. One technique used a system consisting of preset messages painted on a series of flaps attached to a central shaft. Rotate the shaft, and different messages flop into view. Mount together several hundred single-character flap devices and you've got yourself a versatile and easy-to-read "split-flap display" message board, the kind you can still see — and hear, as they make their wonderful clack-clack noise each time the sign updates — in train stations and airports.
Flap signs allow freedom of font choice (Helvetica is particularly popular) but they are big clunky complex devices, filled with gears, motors, and relays. What if you want to eliminate all of that?
One of the most widely used mechanics-free electronic displays consists of a matrix of light bulbs that can be illuminated in different patterns to produce different characters. And here — for perhaps the first time in the history of writing — designers found themselves in a situation where the complexity of the font they used had a direct effect on the cost of their display. The more subtle and intricate the letterforms, the more pixel-lightbulbs needed to render it. This forced the adoption of a typeface stripped down to the minimum — a typeface so simple that each letter can be rendered with only 35 lights, arranged in a 7×5 matrix. If you only need to display the numbers 0-9, you can reduce things even further, and use a display of only 15 lights, arranged in a 5×3 matrix grid.
A similar quandary popped up when the first electronic calculators were coming to market. Those devices used displays consisting of tiny light emitting diodes (LEDs), each one capable of displaying a tiny line segment. Similarly to the lightbulb displays, turning on the LED lines in different patterns could create different characters. Designers realized that if all you needed to display was numbers, just seven segments arranged in a pattern like the number "8" could do the job (14 segments if you needed to display letters).
Both of these techniques produce letterforms created by necessity, composed of strokes and dots of pure information. Products — and visual symbols — of the electronic age.
This entry was posted in Main and tagged field, functional, led, light, minimal, pixel, screen, signage, technology, typography on 25/08/14 by russi4nblue.
Eye Magazine | Feature | Meta's tectonic man.
FF Meta on the ZVV Nighttime network map, Zurich
Invitation Retail Design Conference, 2012 (FF Meta Serif and FF Meta)
Stamo 'Liberalisme', Belgium, 1996
Book cover Hermann Hesse biography (Suhrkamp)
Erik Spiekermann is a consummate pluralist. Able to move, seemingly without effort, between roles as a typographer, designer, writer, public speaker and merchandiser, he was once even a politician – A Green Party member of the Berlin Senate. Spiekermann is the author of Stop Stealing Sheep and Rhyme & Reason – two models of typographic rectitude for a lay audience – and the articulate upholder of standards of public design in many a conference lecture. He is the designer of Meta, one of the most successful typefaces of this decade, and founder of the typeface distribution company FontShop.
'I am a typographic designer. A typographic designer starts from the word up; a graphic designer starts from the picture down.'
But how, then, does Spiekermann distinguish his approach from that of an avowed graphic designer such as Gert Dumbar?
'Dumbar always uses space. He can't have three-dimensional space because paper is flat, so instead he uses cross-sections – he dissects objects in space and puts them on the flat page. He is a spatial kind of image guy: he thinks in theatrical terms. I think in page terms. The page is the lowest common denominator of the book system. The page is the molecule and the atom is the word. You see, I read. I read before I design, and I write. I design outwards from words.'
His conversation is a stream of aphorism and metaphor. On national stereotypes in graphic design, for instance, we learn: 'France is olive shaped; Holland is triangular, always very pointy and narrow; Germany is very square; and England is round.' And on being a designer: 'I am a servant, I'm not an artist. If I was an artist I would be oval, like an olive.'
As a typographic designer, however, Spiekermann is distinctively quadrilateral. His trademarks are a rectangular or braced bar that bleeds off the page and a palette of just two colours – black and red, in the craft tradition. While he is generous with words, Spiekermann is extremely parsimonious when dispensing colour, shape and typographic variation.
He has written that his intention for Meta was that it be 'neutral design – not fashionable, nor nostalgic', yet also 'unmistakable and characteristic'. As far as is possible, these apparently mutually exclusive aims are resolved in the finished version. Meta has a News Gothic base – neutral – with an exaggerated contrast between bowl and counter-shapes for legibility and highly distinctive curved and flared (or 'pseudo-serif') stems. The fact that it has become the height of typographic fashion is ironic rather than blameworthy. Meta is a blue-collar typeface, workmanlike, practical, sleeves rolled up ready to do a job. It is well-balanced, neither pretty nor elegant, pragmatic but not unprincipled – not unlike its maker. Spiekermann is contemptuous of modern type which puts geometric harmony before contrast and therefore before legibility (he means Helvetica) and of highly formalised, theoretical design. 'I detest Rotis,' he says with enthusiasm. 'It's overstarched, too perfect. I like to leave some dirt in my work, some imperfection. That's why I like deadlines and budgets, otherwise the work can be too finished.'
'Legibility is not communication; but in order to communicate type has to be legible' is a truism with which MetaDesign likes to decorate its stationery. Another company motto, 'My role is to communicate my client's message – not my own', sounds self-righteous until Spiekermann elaborates by adding the notion of interpretation, removing the conceit of objectivity. 'What I like to do most is to interpret a message so that people can understand it. At the same time I like to add colour, in the journalistic sense, by using colourful language, in my case visual language.'
This is another compromise, between the mechanical constraints of legibility and the creation of a pleasing visual narrative, or simply of variety – legibility is qualified by readability. Information design and public signage have usually been regarded as zones of pure functionality in which there is no need to persuade people to want to read. But according to Spiekermann, the communication of hard information may be enhanced rather than impaired by the stimulation of the brain's emotional centres. The trick (the word is used advisedly, it implies sleight of hand) is to add colour without sacrificing clarity. You can see the theory in action in MetaDesign's timetable for the BVG, with its simple elaborated typography bounded by tectonic elements – bars, arrows, circles, each doing a job of signage – and underlaid by a page-sized circle in a contrasting tint out of which the bus number is printed. There is a manifest danger that this will make the timetable harder to read, in direct proportion to the extra visual stimulus it provides. The dilemma is solved by the change of scale between the display and the text faces, which forces the eye to focus on one or the other, rarely both.
The same principle is applied to the signage system for the newly unified Berlin underground and overground railways. MetaDesign exploits the riot of colour provided by the inherited coding of 19 different S-bahn, U-bahn and regional lines and adds to it the favourite brew of squares, pictograms, arrows and bars to grab attention and indicate direction. The result is noisy, a striking contrast to, for instance, Vignelli's frankly dreary scheme for Milan or his austere, industrial New York subway signage. Does it work? Nobody knows. Sitting and consistency of implementation are at least as important as typography in a system as complex as Berlin's city transport, yet MetaDesign has had almost no control over the way its work has been used and there has been no systematic evaluation of its success through pilot programmes. Spiekermann regrets this, of course. Many signs are poorly positioned and carry too much information and he would like to know how effective the system is.
The problem with such projects lies in establishing the boundaries of graphic (or typographic) design: where does graphics end and behavioural science begin? And how are clients to be persuaded to give designers greater responsibility? MetaDesign has provided good answers to both these questions in its corporate design work. But in information design, where the client is usually a state enterprise or city council, political manoeuvring and committee mentality foster conservatism. Spiekermann continues to complain that what the subway signs say and where they are placed are beyond his control.
MetaDesign preceded its work for BVG with a subjective study of how people act on the underground. The designers went to the stations, looked and learned, yet Spiekermann remains suspicious of schemes based on objective scientific analysis: 'You know what to do from experience and intuition. You don't have to go down the research route. Cognitive science ignores the fact that people are fuzzy, meaning out of focus – they have all sorts of personal preoccupations and don't all act the same way.' Spiekermann prefers to rely on his 'designer's instinct', his informal rationalism and non-aligned, undogmatic common sense. Though he can draw on empirical and quantative studies of legibility and has evolved his own heuristic approach to readability, these lack the force to move German bureaucracy.
To recognise that the education of clients is as important as the genius of the designer is to lose innocence, to mature. The complete designer must be acquainted with the baser skills of persuasion, cunning and diplomacy. Spiekermann, who possesses the first two but lacks the third, used to protest too much that jobs turned out badly because of the client's short-sightedness. Now, when I ask him what are his ambitions for MetaDesign, he responds immediately: 'We must become more professional.' This means, for instance, that MetaDesign now employs a psychologist to orchestrate client presentations and to persuade the designers to work in teams.
The method which might be said to be grounded in the principles of typographic design, consists in devising a framework of constants and variables based on proportion, orientation, spatial arrangement, colour and, of course, type, which combine to form a distinctive but flexible system. 'A system offers an infinite number of possibilities,' observes Spiekermann, 'and a scheme is dead.'
Proportion is the fundamental constant. 'I always use what we call rational proportions,' says Spiekermann. 'There are 20 rational rectangles, for example. The golden section is one, the DIN section another, 2:3, 4:3, et cetera. Proportion is the common denominator of any page or surface and it provides the basic discipline, out of which we derive the grid, and then add colour: the grid for reason, the colour for emotion.' But Spiekermann himself uses only two colours: red and black. He admits that his colour sense is undeveloped: 'Maybe deliberately so, I don't know. But I certainly don't trust it. I know colours are emotional and I don't want to make a statement exactly about it, but … '. For once he is nonplussed, because MetaDesign and Spiekermann are no longer synonymous, though he remains its primary force. He recovers, 'Uli is our colour woman. She's absolutely brilliant. She spends half an hour with a Pantone book and comes up with amazing colour combinations.'
Colour is used in a confined way, almost always within rational shapes, most commonly the bar or broken rectangle. Usually Spiekermann – or rather MetaDesign, for all its designers follow the same principle – will bleed the bar to provide a dynamic tectonic element which defies the arbitrary confines of the page. This element is common to Spiekermann's personal card, his type specimen sheets and forms for Berthold, MetaDesign's stationery, the Berlin city identity, the identity for Cologne-based radio station WDR, the Berlin railway signage, et cetera. The BVG identity does not include the bleed, but only because the client forbade it.
We spent a long time talking about this device, long enough for Spiekermann to begin to bristle. 'How can we spend so much time talking about a stupid piece of rectangle?' But is there not a danger that the elements of the system are too repetitious? Might not the DIN style be replaced by an equally ubiquitous Spiekermann style?
The answer combines attack with defence. In attack: 'The device is used for obvious reason. It's tectonic: it's a roof, it's the slab across the door. The square denotes territory, and it works like a colon, pointing somewhere , and like a hand on a shoulder it is possessive, saying "this belongs to this"; it represents the corporate embrace.' In defence: 'I must admit I am always appalled when I'm doing another tectonic element, but the page is tectonic, the page is rectangular – I didn't invent it. I agree with you, there is a danger. I have a very limited box of tricks, but it is because they are so obvious and so rational. Yet despite this few people use them because they are trying so hard to be clever or to excel, or they simply cannot see the obvious.'
'Don't forget,' he adds, 'that I have to stay within my cultural framework otherwise I won't communicate.' I am reminded that the cultural framework is German. I think of the Lufthansa in-flight magazine I flipped through on the plane, set in three sizes of one weight of Helvetica, looking about as convivial as a mail-order catalogue for plumbing equipment. It helps me to understand why, when contemplating acts of typographic non-conformity as minor as making 7 point caption type bolder rather than lighter, Spiekermann cannot help a devilish glint coming to his eye. In Germany there is a way of doing things and you diverge from the norm – The Deutsche Industrie Normen – only at your peril.
The strength and flexibility of MetaDesign's systematic approach is evident in the brevity of its corporate design manuals, which tend to contain a set of principles rather than a dictionary of canon law in which the design of every last item of stationery, product packaging or delivery vehicle livery is set in stone. 'An identity manual is not stable – it must react to change within the company,' says Mayer. This approach is symptomatic of the way digital production has transformed the nature of corporate design. Creating systems for use by non-designers is now an increasingly important process, as is the implementation of production systems, the installation of templates, logotypes and pi-fonts, and putting database management systems in place. These are all skills Spiekermann has nurtured since his work with Berthold in the mid 1980s. MetaDesign's practice is based on the belief that without due attention to this larger part of any corporate design programme – consultation, implementation, training and maintenance – its visible manifestation will be weak and incomplete. The method exposes the fallacy that graphic design is solely about the creation of good-looking visual images – here it is as much about enabling others to create. In stark contrast with the heroic designer / client relationship of the past in which the designer sought direct access to an aristocratic chief executive, MetaDesign seeks consultation at every level in order to command support and participation. As a consequence, its solutions have tended to towards distributed, modular forms and away from monolithic identities.
MetaDesign is marked by consistent ingenuity and quality – Qualität, to use the nation's favourite expression – rather than by creativity or pictorial brilliance. Indeed, its pictorial work is sometimes heavy and unimaginative by British or Dutch standards, but like Spiekermann himself, most of its designers are trained to start from the word rather than from the image. As Spiekermann says, 'I provide the grammar. I'm the modest guy in the background. Nobody ever said, "Wow, what a great grid".'
MetaDesign's character is derived to a large extent from Spiekermann's own motivation, which is the promotion of a high standard of public life rather than the private pursuit of transient beauty. He says he became a designer to change things that annoyed him as a citizen: 'I use the underground every day, I use forms every day, I use my city every day. Street furniture, signage advertising – their standard is a measure of the quality of life. That's why design, that kind of design, is so important to me – it is the interpreting of data, it is making the world accessible.'
Spiekermann is clearly happiest when the words he communicates can be seen to serve the public good. I suspect that in this respect, he is a citizen before he is a designer. He undoubtedly adheres to notions of 'good taste' and is something of an aesthete, but if the typographic designer in him has any moral superiority, it lies in his conviction that the meaning of words is more important than how they look. What words look like matters so that they will be noticed and understood. For Spiekermann, typographic rigour is about the preservation of literacy and efficient communication and not, as with some other sticklers in his own country and abroad, a fetish for what is pure and correct.
This entry was posted in Main and tagged analysis, berlin, black, branding, clarity, client, colour, colour blocking, creative freedom, creativity, design, design process, design research, digital, entrepreneurship, Erik Spiekermann, geometry, germany, globalisation, intuition, legibility, meta, MetaDesign, proportion, pure, rectangle, red, research, signage, subway, system, text, typography, universal, wayfinding on 21/08/14 by russi4nblue.
Gotham (typeface) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Gotham is a family of widely used geometric sans-serif digital typefaces designed by American type designer Tobias Frere-Jones in 2000. Gotham's letterforms are inspired by a form of architectural signage that achieved popularity in the mid-twentieth century, and are especially popular throughout New York City.[1]
Since creation, Gotham has been highly visible due to its appearance in many notable places, including a large amount of campaign material created for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, as well as the cornerstone of the One World Trade Center, the tower to be built on the site of the former World Trade Center in New York. It is also the current font to be used in title cards for film trailers in the US.
The Gotham typeface was initially commissioned by GQ magazine, whose editors wanted to display a sans-serif with a "geometric structure" that would look "masculine, new, and fresh" for their magazine. GQ agreed that they needed something "that was going to be very fresh and very established to have a sort of credible voice to it," according to Jonathan Hoefler.[2]
Frere-Jones' inspiration for the typeface came from time spent walking block-by-block through Manhattan with a camera to find source material,[3] and he based the font on the lettering seen in older buildings, especially the sign on the Eighth Avenue facade of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. "I suppose there's a hidden personal agenda in the design," Frere-Jones said, "to preserve those old pieces of New York that could be wiped out before they're appreciated. Having grown up here, I was always fond of the 'old' New York and its lettering."[3]
The lettering that inspired this typeface originated from the style of 1920s era sans-serifs like Futura, where "Type, like architecture, like the organization of society itself, was to be reduced to its bare, efficient essentials, rid of undesirable, local or ethnic elements." This theme was found frequently in Depression-era type in both North America and Europe, particularly Germany.[4] This simplification of type is characterized by Frere-Jones as "not the kind of letter a type designer would make. It's the kind of letter an engineer would make. It was born outside the type design in some other world and has a very distinct flavor from that."[2]
Reviews of Gotham focus on its identity as something both American and specific to New York City. According to David Dunlap of The New York Times, Gotham "deliberately evokes the blocky no-nonsense, unselfconscious architectural lettering that dominated the [New York] streetscape from the 1930s through the 1960s."[5] Andrew Romano of Newsweek concurs. "Unlike other sans serif typefaces, it's not German, it's not French, it's not Swiss," he said. "It's very American."[6]
According to Frere-Jones, Gotham wouldn't have happened without the GQ commission. "The humanist and the geometric … had already been thoroughly staked out and developed by past designers. I didn't think anything new could have been found there, but luckily for me (and the client), I was mistaken."[3]
Early materials for the Obama campaign used the serif Perpetua. Later, however, upon hiring John Slabyk, and Scott Thomas, the campaign made the change to Gotham, and the font was used on numerous signs and posters for the campaign.[7]
The International Herald Tribune praised the choice for its "potent, if unspoken, combination of contemporary sophistication (a nod to his suits) with nostalgia for America's past and a sense of duty."[8] John Berry, an author of books on typography, agreed: "It's funny to see it used in a political campaign because on the one hand it's almost too ordinary yet that's the point. It has the sense of trustworthiness because you've seen it everywhere."[9] Graphic designer Brian Collins noted that Gotham was the "linchpin" to Obama's entire campaign imagery.[10]
Observers of the primary and general elections compared Obama's design choices favorably to those made by his opponents. In her campaign, Hillary Clinton used New Baskerville, a serif used by book publishers, law firms, and universities, while John McCain used Optima, the same font used for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.[8][11]
On April 4, 2011, Hoefler and Frere-Jones announced that they had created a new custom version of Gotham with serifs for the use of President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign. In announcing the news they wrote: "Can We Add Serifs to Gotham? For the President of The United States? Yes We Can.[19] Following the closure of the 2012 US presidential elections, this serif version of Gotham has not yet been released publicly.
This entry was posted in Main and tagged design, font, frere-jones, graphic design, hoefler, new york, obama, politics, signage, typography, usa, utilitarian on 18/07/14 by russi4nblue.


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VesselSens: First Research Group at Life Science Inkubator Bonn to Receive Funding from EXIST Program
• Preclinical development of an implantable sensor system for the wireless detection of vascular constriction funded with EUR 1 mn
Bonn, June 27, 2019 – VesselSens is the first research group based at Life Science Inkubator (LSI) Bonn, Germany, to receive funding from the EXIST Transfer of Research Program by Germany's Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). VesselSens is developing novel sensor technologies for the early, non-invasive detection of a recurrent vascular constriction at the site of an implanted stent (restenosis). The VesselSens team headed by Alexej Domnich will receive EUR 984,000 during the next 18 months for advancing its preclinical research and development program. The incorporation of VesselSens will also take place during the EXIST funding period.
Following a stent implantation, the VesselSens technology allows for the non-invasive and reliable monitoring of the permeability of the stented vessel. Together with the stent, pressure sensors to track the pulse wave velocity are implanted in close proximity to the prothesis. These sensors trigger an alarm in case the pulse wave velocity increases due to a constriction. Thereby, recurring constrictions can be detected early enough to prevent potentially dramatic harm.
Project head Alexej Domnich has been pursuing the now patented concept of an 'intelligent stent' since 2010. He previously worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (Fraunhofer IPA) in Stuttgart. With a new team and the incubation at LSI in 2015, his work has been successfully continued and was funded with a EUR 1.7 million grant from the Ministry of Culture and Science of the state North-Rhine Westphalia.
"We are delighted about the possibility to continue our preclinical research and development activities at LSI with the funding provided by the EXIST Transfer of Research Program, because it allows us to further access the excellent infrastructure and the professional entrepreneurship support of LSI Bonn," said Alexej Domnich. "We are convinced that VesselSens develops a platform technology with broad application potential even beyond restenosis monitoring."
"We are very pleased that this groundbreaking project has won the support of the jury of the EXIST Transfer of Research Program. Following the successful incubation at LSI, this allows for a promising incorporation financed by investors and the LSI Pre-Seed Fund," added Dr. Jörg Fregien, Managing Director of LSI Bonn.
About Atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis is the pathological deposition of lipids in the inner walls of arterial vessels. The disease is the main cause of peripheral arterial diseases (PAD) and coronary artery disease (CAD). In Germany, approximately 4.5 million individuals suffer from PAD and its consequences, e.g. amputations. CAD is the world's main cause of death. The disease is frequently treated by implanting stents, i.e. cylindrical wire-mesh structures, via catheters. In German hospitals alone, more than 500,000 stents are implanted per year.
About EXIST Transfer of Research
The EXIST Transfer of Research Program by the Federal Ministry of Economy and Energy supports leading research-driven start-up projects engaged in extensive and high-risk development activities. General and administrative expenses are financed with the goal to prepare the ground for a business incorporation eligible for further funding.
About Life Science Inkubator GmbH (LSI)
Life Science Inkubator GmbH (LSI) is located at the research hub caesar in Bonn, Germany, and offers potential entrepreneurs an incubation concept which is unique in Germany. Innovative projects in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and medtech are evaluated at an early stage and advanced to financing and market stages in close collaboration with the respective project group. The incubation concept is based on five elements: evaluation, seed financing, project management, HR and industry transfer. After a successful spin-off, a fund dedicated to follow-on financing called LSI Pre-Seed-Fonds GmbH is available.
Further information can be found at: www.life-science-inkubator.de (German only)
Alexej Domnich
Project Group VesselSens
Life Science Inkubator Betriebs GmbH & Co. KG
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
Tel.: +49 228-227790-27
Fax: +49 228-227790-29
domnich@life-science-inkubator.de
Dr. Frank Striggow
Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Life Science Inkubator GmbH
striggow@life-science-inkubator.de
akampion
Dr. Ludger Weß / Ines-Regina Buth
info(at) akampion com
Ines-Regina Buth
http://www.akampion.com
Contact Ines-Regina Buth


Temba Car Hire offers only late model vehicles with low km in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. We have outlets in all major cities in South Africa and in Gaborone, Francistown, Maun and Kasane in Botswana – as well as in Windhoek and Walvisbay in Namibia.
Rates include extra driver surcharge, young driver surcharge, insurance, unlimited km and full excess, unless otherwise stipulated.
We specialise in the international leisure market and our vehicles are therefore not available to South African citizens. Believe it or not, this enables us to keep our rates low.
At Temba you prepay but if you cancel more than 3 days prior to pick up, you will be refunded in full. No hastle with payment when you arrive. Your credit card details will only be taken in case we need to refuel the vehicle.
If you want to experience the soul of a country, there is no better way than driving yourself. You can see what you want, stay as long as you want and meet interesting people. But you need a trustworthy vehicle to enable you to do this – after all, who wants to break down in the middle of a desolate area?
At Temba Car Hire we specialise in providing quality cars for hire at affordable prices. You are spoilt for choice with the variety of cars you can hire from Temba Car Hire: luxury cars, 4 x 4 vehicles for off-road bush bashing, larger vehicles to accommodate groups, or nippy fuel-efficient cars for city or holiday driving.
For the ultimate in luxury and comfortable driving, hire a Mercedes Benz C180 Automatic from Temba Car Hire.
If you are planning a trip to Namibia or Botswana, hire a Toyota Hilux 4 x 4 Double Cab 3L Diesel or a Nissan 4 x 4 Double Cab Petrol from Temba Car Hire in Walvisbay, Windhoek, Gaborone, Francistown or Maun.
The more the merrier, so if you are planning on exploring South Africa with a group of your friends, hire a VW Kombi T5, Toyota Quantum 10-seater or Toyota Quantum 14-seater from Temba Car Hire.
Choose between a VW Polo Vivo, Toyota Corolla 1600 (manual) or Toyota Corolla 1600 (automatic) from Temba Car Hire for comfort and excellent fuel-efficiency.
You can hire a vehicle from Temba Car Hire to do the Cape Town and Winelands tour on your own. The Kruger Park is another very popular self drive destination in South Africa. If you plan to hire a car from us in Upington you can do your accommodation reservation as Upington Accommodation. They provide accommodation such as lodges, hotels and guesthouses.
Hire your car or minibus from Temba Car Hire in Windhoek and stay your first night in the Windhoek Country Club and Casino with its eighteen hole golf course before you depart to Etosha Lodge just south of the Etosha National Park. They offer both good self-catering accommodation and excellent meals. From Etosha, visit the Caprivi where a night in Kwando Camp on the banks of the Kwando River will be a very special experience. if you drive between Cape Town and Windhoek the Orange River Lodge at Noordoewer in Namiba will be the perfect overnight stop.
The Jameson Hotel in Harare is in the CBD of the capital city of Zimbabwe and the preferd accommodation for those on business. You can hire a car and drive from Harare to the Lodge at the Ancient City a luxury lodge near the Great Zimbabwe Monument.
Rileys Hotel is on the banks of the Thamalakane River in Maun. It is a luxury hotel in the centre of town.


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Make Polluters Pay Press Conference
Posted by Brad Johnson Wed, 22 Sep 2021 17:00:00 GMT
We invite you to attend a press conference on Wednesday, September 22 at 1pm ET at the U.S. House Triangle (House side of the Capitol's East Front) to highlight the importance of holding major fossil fuel companies accountable for their massive past global pollution through the Polluters Pay Climate Fund.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)
Posted in Legislation
Tags AOC, Bowman, Polluters Pay Climate Fund, Sanders, Warren, White House
Climate Action Now Rally
Posted by Brad Johnson Mon, 13 Sep 2021 21:45:00 GMT
Join Congressional leaders for a bicameral rally calling for major climate investments in the Build Back Better Act!
Leaders in Congress know that now more than ever we need to cut emissions, lower costs for families, create millions of family sustaining jobs, and turbocharge our economy. That is why they are calling for the Build Back Better Act—a bold investment plan to tackle climate change, create jobs, and transform our economy.
The rally will be moderated by Tiernan Sittenfeld and feature Members including: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Tim Kaine, Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, Sen. Tina Smith, Sen. Martin Heinrich, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR-04), Rep. Sean Casten (IL-06).
Congress knows it's time to go big, be bold, and put people to work.
at the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial Washington, DC 20016
Posted in Legislation, Action
Tags Build Back Better, Heinrich, Schumer, White House
White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council Virtual Public Meeting
Posted by Brad Johnson Tue, 30 Mar 2021 18:00:00 GMT
The WHEJAC's first meeting will be held on March 30, 2021.
Register for the March 30, 2021 Public Meeting
If you would like to submit your public comment in writing please complete the public comment form and email any additional materials to whejac@epa.gov with the subject line "WHEJAC March 2021 Meeting Public Comments."
Tags environmental justice, White House
White House Names Environmental Justice Advisory Council Members, First Meeting Tomorrow
Posted by Brad Johnson Mon, 29 Mar 2021 18:20:00 GMT
Today, the White House announced the members of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC). The advisory council will provide advice and recommendations to the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (soon to be Brenda Mallory) and the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council on how to address current and historic environmental injustices.
The first meeting of the WHEJAC will be held virtually tomorrow, March 30, and will be open to the public.
The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) was established by President Biden's executive order, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. Biden's order also established the White House EJ Interagency Council as the successor to the Environmental Justice Interagency Working Group, which was established in 1994 by Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations.
LaTricea Adams, founder, Black Millennials For Flint, Michigan
Susana Almanza, founder, People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources, Texas
Jade Begay, climate justice campaign director, NDN Collective, South Dakota
Maria Belen-Power, associate executive director, GreenRoots, Massachusetts
Dr. Robert Bullard, Texas
Tom Cormons, executive director, Appalachian Voices, Virginia
Andrea Delgado, goverment affairs director, United Farm Workers Foundation, founding board member, Green Latinos, Washington, D.C.
Catherine Flowers, founder, Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, Alabama
Jerome Foster II, founder, OneMillionOfUs, New York
Kim Havey, director of sustainability, City of Minneapolis, Minnesota
Angelo Logan, campaign director, Moving Forward Network, California
Maria Lopez-Nunez, director of environmental justice and community development, Ironbound Community Corporation, New Jersey
Harold Mitchell, founder, Regenesis, South Carolina
Richard Moore, co-coordinator, Environmental Justice Health Alliance, New Mexico
Dr. Rachel Morello-Frosch, environmental health scientist, Berkeley Public Health, California
Juan Parras, founder, Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, Texas
Michele Roberts, co-coordinator, Environmental Justice Health Alliance, Washington, D.C.
Ruth Santiago, environmental justice lawyer, trustee, EarthJustice, Puerto Rico
Dr. Nicky Sheats, director, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, New Jersey
Peggy Shepard, co-founder, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, New York
Carletta Tilousi, Havasupai Tribal Council, Arizona
Vi Waghiyi, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Alaska
Dr. Kyle Powys Whyte, environmental justice scholar, University of Michigan, Michigan
Dr. Beverly Wright, executive director, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Louisiana
Hli Xyooj, Director of Program Strategies, Hmong American Partnership, Minnesota
Miya Yoshitani, executive director, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, California
The Environmental Protection Agency will fund and provide administrative support for the WHEJAC.
The council will advise on how to increase the government's efforts to address current and historic environmental injustice through strengthening environmental justice monitoring and enforcement. The duties of the WHEJAC are to provide advice and recommendations on issues including, but not limited, to environmental justice in the following areas:
Climate change mitigation, resilience, and disaster management
Toxics, pesticides, and pollution reduction in overburdened communities
Equitable conservation and public lands use
Tribal and Indigenous issues
Clean energy transition
Sustainable infrastructure, including clean water, transportation, and the built environment
NEPA, enforcement and civil rights
Increasing the federal government's efforts to address current and historic environmental injustice
The WHEJAC will complement the ongoing work of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, a federal advisory committee established in 1993 to provide advice and recommendations on EJ issues to the Administrator of the EPA.
For updates, subscribe to the EPA-EJ listserv.
Tags Beverly Wright, Bullard, CEQ, environmental justice, EPA, White House
Senate Democrats Release Agenda For "Net-Zero Emissions" Clean Economy By 2050
Posted by Brad Johnson Tue, 25 Aug 2020 19:54:00 GMT
The Senate Democrats' Select Committee on the Climate Crisis has released a 263-page report detailing a "clean economy" agenda with "bold climate solutions." Entitled "The Case for Climate Action: Building a Clean Economy for the American People," the report, which repeatedly emphasizes economic growth and job creation, was developed by the ten-member committee chaired by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
Legislation must now be developed to meet the overarching goals of the committee:
Reduce U.S. emissions rapidly to help achieve 100 percent global net-zero emissions no later than 2050.
Stimulate economic growth by increasing federal spending on climate action to at least 2 percent of GDP annually—and ensure that at least 40 percent of the benefits from these investments help communities of color and low-income, deindustrialized, and disadvantaged communities.
Create at least 10 million new jobs.
The report, while largely in the spirit of the Green New Deal platform – in particular in the listing of recommendations from environmental justice leaders – avoids any mention of that phrase. Several of the photographs in the report are of rallies and marches of Green New Deal advocates.
Unlike most Green New Deal advocates, the report makes space for "safer nuclear power" and "fossil generation paired with carbon capture and storage." "Carbon capture and removal technologies are an essential supplement to decarbonization," the report argues in an extended section.
An entire chapter of the report is dedicated to "Dark Money" – specifically, the "undue influence from the leaders of giant fossil fuel corporations" who "used weak American laws and regulations governing election spending, lobbying, and giving to advocacy groups to mount a massive covert operation" to "spread disinformation about climate change and obstruct climate action."
In order to advance bold climate legislation, we must expose the covert influence of wealthy fossil fuel executives, trade associations, and front groups that have done everything possible to obstruct climate action.
The report credits the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizen United decision with allowing "fossil fuel political power to effectively capture Republican elected officials nationwide."
In addition to ten hearings, the committee held twelve in-depth hearings with advocates, four of which were exclusively with corporate executives (utilities, health care, insurance, and banks). Two meetings were held with international representatives (a United Nations representative and European central bankers). Two meetings were with union officials (one included environmentalists); two were with environmental justice activists and mainstream environmentalists; one was with youth climate activists. The last meeting was with surfers and surfing industry representatives.
Notably, the committee did not meet with any climate scientists in academia.
Download the report here.
In addition to Schatz, the other members of the committee are U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.).
Hearings:
A Blueprint for Success: U.S. Climate Action at the Local Level (July 2019)
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta, GA
Mayor Kirk Caldwell, Honolulu, HI
Mayor Melvin Carter, Saint Paul, MN
Mayor William Peduto, Pittsburgh, PA
Mayor Ted Wheeler, Portland, OR
The Right Thing to Do: Conservatives for Climate Action (July 2019)
Dr. Frank Luntz, founder and CEO, FIL, Inc.
Kiera O'Brien, vice president of Students for Carbon Dividends
Nick Huey, founder of the Climate Campaign
The Fight to Save Winter: Pro Athletes for Climate Action (September 2019)
Mike Richter, president of Brightcore Energy; Hall of Fame goaltender for the New York Rangers
Jeremy Jones, founder of Protect Our Winters; professional snowboarder
Caroline Gleich, professional ski mountaineer and adventurer
Tommy Caldwell, professional climber
Dark Money and Barriers to Climate Action (October 2019)
Dr. Justin Farrell, professor, Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Dr. Naomi Oreskes, professor, Harvard University
Morton Rosenberg, congressional scholar, Project on Government Oversight
Dylan Tanner, executive director & co-founder, InfluenceMap
Perspectives from the Front Lines: How Climate Change Uniquely Impacts Environmental Justice Communities (November 2019)
Dr. Cecilia Martinez, co-founder and executive director, Center for Earth, Energy, and Democracy
Michele Roberts, national co-coordinator, Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform
Celeste Flores, outreach director, Faith in Place
Better, Stronger, Smarter: Building Community Resilience in a Future of Extremes (December 2019)
Alice Hill, senior fellow for climate change policy, Council on Foreign Relations
Laura Lightbody, project director, Pew Charitable Trusts Flood-Prepared Communities
Mayor Tim Kabat, La Crosse, WI
Understanding and Combating the Security Risks of Climate Change (February 2020)
Rear Admiral Ann C. Phillips, United States Navy (retired)
The Hon. John Conger, director, Center for Climate and Security
Andrew Holland, chief operating officer, American Security Project
The Economic Risks of Climate Change (March 2020)
The Hon. Sarah Bloom Raskin, former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and Deputy Treasury Secretary
Dr. Bob Litterman, founding partner and Risk Committee chairman, Kepos Capital; chair of the Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee, Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Dave Burt, CEO and founder, DeltaTerra Capital
Frédéric Samama, head of responsible investment, Amundi; co-author of "The green swan: Central banking and financial stability in the age of climate change"
Quality Jobs, Lower Emissions: Decarbonizing the Energy and Industrial Sectors while Expanding Opportunities for American Workers (July 2020)
The Hon. Ernest Moniz, former U.S. Secretary of Energy; founder and CEO, Energy Futures Initiative
Tom Conway, international president, United Steelworkers (USW)
Safely, Efficiently, and Equitably: Transportation Solutions to Move People and Goods in a Decarbonized Economy (July 2020)
Vivian Satterfield, director of strategic partnerships, Verde
Jeff Allen, executive director, Forth
Brad Schallert, director of carbon market governance and aviation, World Wildlife Fund
Rachel Muncrief, deputy director, International Council on Clean Transportation
Utility executives (June 2019)
Alan Oshima, president and CEO, Hawaiian Electric
Bill Johnson, president and CEO, PG&E
Maria Pope, president and CEO, Portland General Electric
Terry Sobolewski, president, National Grid Rhode Island
Eric Olsen, vice president and general counsel, Great River Energy
Labor leaders (July 2019)
Richard Trumka, president, AFL-CIO
Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer, AFL-CIO
Sean McGarvey, president, North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU)
Cecil Roberts, president, United Mine Workers of America (UMWA)
Terry O'Sullivan, general president, Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA)
Paul Shearon, international president, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE)
Warren Fairley, international vice president for Southeast, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers
Austin Keyser, director of political and legislative affairs, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
New York Renews (September 2019)
Eddie Bautista, executive director, New York City Environmental Justice Alliance
Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director, UPROSE
Stephan Edel, director, New York Working Families
Maritza Silva-Farrell, executive director, ALIGN
Lisa Tyson, executive director, Long Island Progressive Coalition
Marc Weiss, former board member, Sierra Club
United Nations (September 2019)
Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the 2019 Climate Action Summit
Youth climate activists (September 2019)
Alexandria Villaseñor, co-founder, U.S. Youth Climate Strike; founder, Earth Uprising
Jonah Gottlieb, founding youth member, National Children's Campaign
Levi Draheim, Juliana v. United States plaintiff
Kevin Patel, co-deputy partnerships director, Zero Hour
Lana Weidgenant, co-deputy partnerships director, Zero Hour
Rachel Lee, head coordinator, Zero Hour NYC
Daphne Frias, global outreach team, Zero Hour
Special thanks for hosting: United Nations Foundation
Financial industry executives (September 2019)
Roger Ferguson, president and CEO, TIAA
Douglas Peterson, president and CEO, S&P Global
Raymond McDaniel, Jr., president and CEO, Moody's
Edward Skyler, executive vice president for global public affairs, Citi
Special thanks for hosting: Bloomberg LP
Signatories to the Equitable and Just National Climate
Platform (October 2019)
Dr. Mildred McClain, executive director, The Harambee House
The Hon. Harold Mitchell, Jr., executive director, ReGenesis Project; former state representative, South Carolina House of Representatives
Richard Moore, co-coordinator, Los Jardines Institute
Dr. Nicky Sheats, Esq., chairperson, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance; director, Center for the Urban Environment of the John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy at Thomas Edison State University
Peggy Shepard, co-founder and executive director, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Jumana Vasi, senior advisor, Midwest Environmental Justice Network
Dr. Beverly Wright, executive director, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice
Sara Chieffo, vice president of government affairs, League of Conservation Voters
Jessica Ennis, legislative director for climate and energy, Earthjustice
Lindsay Harper, representative, U.S. Climate Action Network
Cathleen Kelly, senior fellow for energy and environment, Center for American Progress
Lissa Lynch, staff attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council
Liz Perera, climate policy director, Sierra Club
International central bankers (October 2019)
Frank Elderson, executive director of supervision, De Nederlandsche Bank; chairman, Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS)
Nathalie Aufauvre, director general of financial stability and operations, Banque de France
Dr. Sabine Mauderer, member of the Executive Board, Deutsche Bundesbank
Dr. Egil Matsen, deputy governor, Norges Bank
Health Care Climate Council (October 2019)
Katie Wickman, sustainability manager, Advocate Aurora Health
Brett Green, manager for remote operations, Ascension Medxcel
Bob Biggio, senior vice president of facilities and support services, Boston Medical Center
Jon Utech, senior director, Office for a Healthy Environment, Cleveland Clinic
Rachelle Reyes Wenger, system vice president of public policy & advocacy engagement, Dignity Health
Elizabeth Rogers, policy analyst, Gundersen Health System
Charles Goyette, director of sustainability, Inova Health System
Jean Garris Hand, senior utility & sustainability consultant, Providence St. Joseph Health
Michael Waller, director of sustainability, Rochester Regional Health
Jeanine Knapp, sustainability leader, ThedaCare
John Leigh, director of sustainability, Virginia Mason Health System
BlueGreen Alliance (December 2019)
James Slevin, national president, Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA)
Anna Fendley, director of regulatory and state policy, United Steelworkers (USW)
Collin O'Mara, president and CEO, National Wildlife Federation
Kathleen Rest, executive director, Union of Concerned Scientists
Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs, League of Conservation Voters
Jason Walsh, executive director, BlueGreen Alliance
Insurance industry executives (March 2020)
Evan Greenberg, chairman and CEO, Chubb
Mike Mahaffey, chief strategy and corporate development officer, Nationwide
Melissa Salton, chief risk officer, Munich Re
Ian Branagan, group chief risk officer, RenaissanceRe
Surfrider Foundation (March 2020)
Greg Long, pro surfer
Leah Dawson, pro surfer
Dr. Cliff Kapono, pro surfer, journalist, and chemist
Pete Stauffer, environmental director, Surfrider Foundation
Katie Day, staff scientist, Surfrider Foundation
Stefanie Sekich-Quinn, coastal preservation manager, Surfrider Foundation
Vipe Desai, co-founder, Business Alliance for Protecting the Pacific Coast (BAPPC)
Chris Evans, Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA)
Shea Perkins, senior manager for culture & impact marketing, Reef
Madeline Wade, vice president, Signal Group (on behalf of REI)
Posted in Policy, Legislation, Action
Tags AFL, BlueGreen Alliance, CIO, New York Renews, Schatz, Senate, united nations, White House
Fossil-Fuel Industry Apologist Michael Levi Becomes Top White House Energy Advisor
Posted by Brad Johnson Wed, 20 Jul 2016 14:39:00 GMT
Michael Levi, a prominent apologist for the Keystone XL pipeline, natural-gas exports, and other fossil-fuel industry priorities, has joined the White House, Hill Heat has learned. Yesterday, Levi began work as a Special Assistant to the President for Energy and Economic Policy on the National Economic Council staff.
For ten years, Levi was Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow for energy and climate policy. Previously, Levi was a nuclear non-proliferation expert at the Brookings Institution, while pursuing his doctorate at the University of London.
Possessed of undeniable brilliance, Levi has no formal training in climate science, economics, or energy policy; his undergraduate and master's degrees are in physics, and his doctorate is in War Studies. In 2008 he began publishing on climate policy, overseeing a major CFR Task Force report on U.S. climate policy chaired by Tom Vilsack and George Pataki. He quickly established himself as a prominent (and convenient) climate centrist-cum-contrarian—embracing the urgency of climate action, while criticizing other proponents of strong climate policy and providing convoluted arguments for the continued expansion of fossil-fuel and nuclear projects. (Levi calls his approach a most-of the above policy.) Over the years, his pursuits included taking a skeptical view of green jobs, promoting tar sands exploitation, and defending natural gas as a bridge fuel.
Levi's position as CFR's energy and climate expert was endowed by David Rubenstein, the founder of the Carlyle Group, a major investor in the oil and gas industry.
Levi is part of a generation of industry-friendly climate experts whose influence is on the rise with the ascension of Hillary Clinton's campaign, whose numbers also include Heather Zichal (BA, Rutgers), the Rhodium Group's Trevor Houser (BA, City College of New York) and Columbia University's Jason Bordoff (Harvard Law). These people are pundits whose careers as climate experts have been sponsored by fossil-fuel industry investors despite a lack of training in climate science. They are now in position to shape United States climate policy if Clinton succeeds President Obama in November.
Tags Keystone XL, Michael Levi, Obama, White House
On Senate Floor, Sen. Whitehouse Calls for RICO Investigation of 'Climate Denial Machine'
Posted by Brad Johnson Tue, 20 Oct 2015 23:52:00 GMT
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, called for a civil RICO investigation of ExxonMobil and the "climate denial machine" on the floor of the U.S. Senate Tuesday afternoon. Whitehouse, who speaks on climate change every week that the Senate is in session, had raised the possibility of such an investigation in a speech in May that compared the fossil-fuel industry's campaign of deception to that of the tobacco industry.
With new investigations by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times about ExxonMobil's history of knowing climate deception, and rising calls from the public led by Climate Hawks Vote for civil or criminal action by the Department of Justice, Whitehouse again took the floor.
Whitehouse took on his critics, mocking the "histrionics on the far right" and describing the Wall Street Journal editorial page as the"Troll-in-Chief for the fossil-fuel industry."
The senator concluded with a call for a civil RICO investigation of the "climate denial scheme," from the fossil-fuel giants like ExxonMobil and the Koch brothers to the organizations they back, like the Wall Street Journal and the Manhattan Institute.
This was Senator Whitehouse 115th "Time to Wake Up" climate speech.
Whatever the motivation of the Wall Street Journal and other right-wing climate denial outfits, it is clearly long past time for the climate denial scheme to come in from the talk shows and the blogosphere, and have to face the kind of truth-testing audience that a civil RICO investigation could provide. It's time to let the facts take their place, and let climate denial face that "greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth."
With his speech, Whitehouse joined the growing ranks calling for a DOJ investigation of the fossil-fuel industry, which now include Merchants of Doubt author Naomi Oreskes, Representatives Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier of California, and Democratic presidential candidates Martin O'Malley and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
The Climate Hawks Vote petition, which unlike Sen. Whitehouse's call includes language open to criminal investigation of ExxonMobil's activities, can be found here.
Mr. President, last week, former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Robert M. White passed away at the age of 92. Dr. White served this nation under five presidents and pioneered the peaceful use of satellites to understand our weather and climate. "We do have environmental problems and they're serious ones, the preservation of species among them," he said, "but the climate is the environmental problem that's so pervasive in its effects on the society. . . . The climate is really the only environmental characteristic that can utterly change our society and our civilization."
That was in 1977. That same year, James F. Black, a top scientific researcher at the Exxon Corporation gave that company's executives a similar warning: "[T]here is general scientific agreement," he told Exxon's Management Committee, "that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels." According to emerging reports, Exxon executives kept that warning a closely guarded company secret for years.
I rise today for the 115th time to urge that we wake up to the threat of climate change. I rise in the midst of a decades-long, purposeful corporate campaign of misinformation, which has held this Congress and this nation back from taking meaningful action to prevent that utter change. Scrutiny of the corporate campaign of misinformation intensifies, and scrutiny of the fossil fuel polluters behind it intensifies, and the regular cast of right-wing, climate-denier attack dogs have got their hackles up.
On May 6, I gave a speech here on the Floor. The speech compared the misinformation campaign by the fossil fuel industry about the dangers of carbon pollution to the tobacco industry's misinformation campaign about the dangers of its product.
The relevance of that comparison is that the United States Department of Justice, under the civil provisions of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute—RICO for short, brought an action against the tobacco industry. The United States alleged that the tobacco industry's misinformation campaign was fraudulent. And the United States won, in a lengthy and thorough decision by United States District Judge Gladys Kessler.
Go ahead and read them. DOJ's complaint and Judge Kessler's decision can be found at the websites of the Justice Department and the Public Health Law Center, respectively, and are linked on my website, whitehouse.senate.gov/climatechange. I will warn you: the judge's decision is a long one—but it makes good reading.
The comparison is strong. There are whole sections of the Department of Justice civil RICO complaint, and whole sections of Judge Kessler's decision, where you can remove the word "tobacco" and put in the word "carbon," and remove the word "health" and put in the word "climate," and the parallel with the fossil fuel industry climate denial campaign is virtually perfect.
This is not an idea I just cooked up. Look at the academic work of Professor Robert Brulle of Drexel University and Professor Riley Dunlap of Oklahoma State University. Look at the investigative work of Naomi Oreskes's book Merchants of Doubt, David Michaels's book Doubt is Their Product, and Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner's book Deceit and Denial, describing the industry-backed machinery of deception.
Look at the journalistic work of Neela Banerjee, Lisa Song, David Hasemyer, and John Cushman Jr. in the recent reporting of InsideClimate News about what ExxonMobil knew about climate change versus the falsehoods it chose to tell the public. Look at a separate probe by journalists Sara Jerving, Katie Jennings, Masako Melissa Hirsch, and Susanne Rust in the Los Angeles Times.
From their work, we now know that Exxon, for instance, knew about the effect of its carbon pollution as far back as the late 1970s, but ultimately chose to fund a massive misinformation campaign rather than tell the truth. "No corporation," said professor and climate change activist Bill McKibben, "has ever done anything this big and this bad."
Here's how Judge Kessler depicts the culpable conduct of the tobacco industry: "Defendants have intentionally maintained and coordinated their fraudulent position on addiction and nicotine as an important part of their overall efforts to influence public opinion and persuade people that smoking is not dangerous."
Compare that to the findings of Dr. Brulle, whose research shines light on the dark money campaigns that support climate denial. The climate denial operation, to quote Dr. Brulle, is "a deliberate and organized effort to misdirect the public discussion and distort the public's understanding of climate."
The parallels between what the tobacco industry did and what the fossil fuel industry is doing now are so striking, I suggested in my speech of May 6, that it was worth a look: that civil discovery could reveal whether the fossil fuel industry's activities cross the same line into racketeering. I said that again in an op-ed piece I wrote in the Washington Post on May 29 regarding the civil RICO action against tobacco.
Oh, my, what caterwauling has ensued from the fossil fuel industry trolls! Here's a quick highlight reel of the tempest of right-wing invective.
One climate denier, Christopher Monckton, declared, "Senator Whitehouse is a fascist goon." Another denier compared me to Torquemada, the infamous torturer of the Inquisition. And the official Exxon responder got so excited about this suggestion he used a word I am not even allowed to say on the Senate Floor! He forgot Rule One in crisis management: don't lose your cool.
The right-wing website Breitbart.com responded by calling me "the preposterous Democrat senator for Rhode Island," and saying the notion that there is an industry-funded effort to mislead the American people about the harm caused by carbon pollution is "a joke," a conspiracy theory on par with Area 51 or the faking of the moon landing. Tell that to tobacco.
Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal, said global warming concerns, "are based on computer models, not by actual evidence, not by actual evidence of what we've seen so far."
The polluter-funded George Marshall Institute, a long-time climate denial outfit, wrote that this was an attack on constitutional rights; a presumptuous argument on their part given that there's no constitutional right to commit fraud.
Similarly, Calvin Beisner, founder of a phony-baloney industry front called the Cornwall Alliance, said the same: the mere suggestion represents a "direct attack on the rights to freedom of speech and the press guaranteed by the First Amendment" and is "horrifically bad for science." Coming from a science denial outfit, that concern for science is rich. And again, fraud is not protected by the First Amendment.
In the National Review, I was accused of wanting to launch "organized crime investigations . . . against people and institutions that disagree with [me] about global warming," in order to "lock people up as Mafiosi."
"Crime"? "Lock people up"? Let's remember, Mr./Madam President, that we are talking about civil RICO, not criminal. No one went to jail in the tobacco case. Investigating the organized climate denial scheme under civil RICO is not about putting people in jail. Query why the National Review would mislead people about such an obvious fact.
All a civil RICO case does is get people to have to actually tell the truth, under oath, in front of an actual impartial judge or jury, and under cross-examination—which the Supreme Court has described as "the greatest legal invention ever invented for the discovery of truth." No more spin and deception.
But that's exactly the audience polluters and their allies can't bear, so the flacks set off criminal smokescreens and launch "fascist goon" and "Torquemada" hysterics. A few weeks ago, 20 scientists agreed with me, and wrote a letter to Attorney General Lynch supporting the idea of using civil RICO.
That was too much for the Troll-in-Chief for the fossil fuel industry: the Wall Street Journal editorial page. The Wall Street Journal editorial page has long been an industry science-denial mouthpiece. They use the same playbook every time: one, deny the science; two, question the motives of reformers; and three, exaggerate the costs of reforms.
When scientists warned that chlorofluorocarbons could break down the atmosphere's ozone layer, the Wall Street Journal ran editorials—for decades—devaluing the science, attacking scientists and reformers, and exaggerating the costs associated with regulating CFCs. When acid rain was falling in the Northeast, the Wall Street Journal editorial page questioned the science, claimed the sulfur dioxide cleanup effort was driven by politics, and said fixing it carried a huge price tag. Ultimately, the Journal's editorial page, after years of this, had to recant and admit that the cap-and-trade program for sulfur dioxide "saves about $700 million annually compared with the cost of traditional regulation and has been reducing emissions by four million tons annually."
Now, on climate change, the Journal is back to the same pattern: deny the science, question the motives of climate scientists, exaggerate the costs of tackling carbon pollution. For decades, the Journal has persistently published editorials against taking action to prevent manmade climate change.
On this the editorial page said, by talking about civil RICO I'm trying to "forcibly silence" the denial apparatus. "Forcibly silence"? First of all, against the billions of the Koch Brothers and ExxonMobil, fat chance that I have much force to use. And "silence"? I don't want them silent; I want them testifying, in a forum where they have to tell the truth. Is the Journal really saying that in a forum where deniers have to tell the truth their only response would have to be silence? Making them tell the truth forcibly silences them? Because the only thing civil RICO silences is fraud.
By the way, the Journal editorial never mentions that the government won the civil RICO case against tobacco on very similar facts. That would detract from the fable.
Who does the Journal cast as the victim in their fable? None other than Willie Soon, who they said I singled out for—here's what they said—having "published politically inconvenient research on changes in solar radiation." Actually, what's inconvenient for Dr. Soon is that the New York Times reported that he gets more than half of his funding from big fossil fuel interests like ExxonMobil and the Charles G. Koch Foundation, to the tune of $1.2 million, and didn't disclose it. Dr. Soon's research contracts even gave his industry backers a chance "for comment and input" before he published, and he referred to the papers he produced as "deliverables." In case you don't know it, that's not how real science works. Of course, none of this sordid financial conflict is even mentioned by the Wall Street Journal editorial page. They'd rather pretend Dr. Soon is being singled out for "politically inconvenient" views. Please.
It gets better. In the editorial, the role of neutral expert commenting on this goes to Georgia Tech's Judith Curry. She offers the opinion that my "demand . . . for legal persecution . . . represents a new low in the politicization of science." This is a particularly rich and conflict- riddled opinion, as Ms. Curry is herself a repeat anti-climate witness performing regularly in committees for Republicans here in Congress. Again, no mention of this interest of Ms. Curry's by the Wall Street Journal editorial.
The fossil fuel industry's climate-denial machine rivals or exceeds that of the tobacco industry in size, scope, and complexity. Its purpose is to cast doubt about the reality of climate change in order to forestall a move toward cleaner fuels and allow the Kochs and Exxons of the world to continue making money at everybody else's expense. And the Wall Street Journal editorial page plays its part in the machine.
Even though it's only the editorial page, and not the Journal's well-regarded newsroom, facts and logic are supposed to matter. Ignoring the successful tobacco litigation; omitting the salient fact of Dr. Soon being paid by the industry involved in his research; and bringing in a climate denier as their neutral voice without disclosing that conflict—I'd like to see them get this editorial by the editorial standards of their own newsroom.
So why all the histrionics on the far right, Mr./Madam President? Why the deliberate subterfuge between civil and criminal RICO? Why the name-calling? Have we perhaps touched a little nerve? Have we maybe hit a bit too close to home? Are the cracks in the dark castle of denial as it crumbles maybe beginning to rattle the occupants?
I yield the floor.
Tags Exxon, RICO, White House
Capitol Hill Climate Action Rally
Posted by Brad Johnson Wed, 21 May 2014 21:00:00 GMT
Senators Barbara Boxer and Sheldon Whitehouse — co-chairs of the Climate Action Task Force — will kick off the Capitol Hill Climate Action Rally to wake up Congress to climate change. At the rally, they will literally sound the alarm on climate change, by setting alarms on phones, tablets, or hand-held devices to ring at 5 p.m. EST.
Tags Boxer, White House
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse Gears Up Climate-Focused OCEANS PAC
Posted by Brad Johnson Fri, 14 Mar 2014 00:14:00 GMT
Oceans PAC, the climate-focused political action committee Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) launched last year, is gearing up for the 2014 midterms. Whitehouse is the most aggressive U.S. Senator on climate policy: he has been giving weekly "Time To Wake Up" speeches on climate change since the landfall of Superstorm Sandy, is one of the founders of the Senate Climate Action Task Force and led the #Up4Climate talkathon last week.
The PAC supports "candidates who support oceans and environmental issues", Whitehouse explains:
Welcome to the OCEANS PAC website. I created the OCEANS PAC because candidates who support oceans and environmental issues need our support. Indeed, the other side is funded by big polluters who don't hesitate to put millions of dollars behind their lies. As I've said many times – I'm tired of bringing a knife to a gun fight. The OCEANS PAC is one way we can fight back.
And fight we must, because climate change is not a problem that will go away. Climate change is not a problem that can wait. But climate change is a problem that can be solved. We can and we must leave a healthy environment, which includes healthy oceans, to our children and grandchildren. The public is ready for action; unfortunately, the missing piece is Congress. Congress is sleepwalking through history. It is time for Congress to hear the alarms, roll up our sleeves, and do what needs to be done. It is time to wake up. But for Congress to wake up, it needs more members who will support ocean and environmental issues – OCEANS PAC will support those candidates.
This is certainly not something I can do alone. There are high stakes involved and I need your help. I hope you will accompany me on this new journey, and that I can count on your enthusiastic support as we go forward.
The PAC's supported candidates include the four members of the Rhode Island congressional delegation; Correy Westbrook, candidate for Florida's 8th Congressional District against incumbent Bill Posey; Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Carl Levin; and incumbent senators Chris Coons (Del.), Ed Markey (Mass.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Al Franken (Minn.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), and Tom Udall (N.M.).
Landrieu and Pryor are notable for their opposition to climate legislation. In 2011, Landrieu and Pryor voted for the Jim Inhofe Energy Tax Prevention Act, which would have prohibited the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating any regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or taking into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to address climate change. At the time, Landrieu and Pryor were supported by the Koch Industries PAC. Now, Koch's political wing is running a "barrage" of ads against the senators.
Tags Oceans PAC, White House
Whitehouse: Senate Inaction Influenced by Carbon Polluter Lobbyists
Posted by Wonk Room Wed, 13 May 2009 23:29:00 GMT
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), in a Senate hearing on the EPA budget Tuesday morning, decried the extraordinary amount of spending by corporate global warming polluters to lobby Congress. Reading from a report on new lobbying disclosures, Whitehouse noted that carbon polluters such as electric utilities and oil and gas companies have spent nearly $80 million on lobbying just in the first quarter of 2009. Whitehouse concludes:
So if we wonder why the Senate is the last place in America that still doesn't get it – that climate change is a real problem for people and that carbon pollution is something that people should pay for when they emit it, big utilities, big industry – gee, connect the dots.
"For as long as there's been pollution," Sen. Whitehouse explained, "there has been a constant battle with polluters who don't want to pay the costs of their pollution, either preventing or cleaning it up":
They'd like to just dump it and have it be somebody else's problem. There's absolutely nothing new about that. Polluters don't want to pay. What's new is our understanding of what the costs are of carbon pollution. Economic costs, environmental costs, wildlife and habitat costs, and as we've recently learned, very significant national security costs.
The E&E News story Whitehouse entered in the Congressional Record explains how carbon-industry lobbyists are vastly outspending environmental groups and clean energy companies:
Thus far in 2009, all environmental groups combined have spent a grand total of $4.7 million on lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Nature Conservancy, which has spent $850,000 thus far, tops the list.
The various renewable energy companies have spent a grand total of $7.5 million, with the biggest spender there being the American Wind Energy Association which has spent just over $1.2 million.
By comparison, Exxon Mobil Corp. alone has spent more than $9.3 million in the first few months of 2009. The company's lobbying totals exceed any other single corporation or organization except the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has spent a total of $15.5 million.
The chamber, which has been by far the single biggest lobbying force in Washington over the last decade, has likewise been active in the energy debate this year, though it is unclear from the disclosure records what amount - if any - the organization has spent on lobbying of lawmakers. Its totals are not included in the calculations for any energy-specific industries.
Other heavyweights in the energy sector include: Chevron Corp. at $6.8 million, ConocoPhillips at $6 million, BP at $3.6 million and Marathon Oil at $3.4 million. All four are among the 20 biggest lobbying spenders in any sector in the first few months of 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
As for electric utilities, the biggest single lobbying spender is Southern Co. at $3.7 million, followed by the Edison Electric Institute at $2.6 million, American Electric Power Co. Inc. at $1.7 million and Exelon Corp. at $1.54 million.
Tags lobbying, White House
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World of Warplanes: Bruce Dickinson Diaries and "Aces High" Tribute
June 19, 2018 Inside Indie
World of Warplanes is proud to announce that Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson will host 10 online educational warplanes diaries. Launching today this free-to-view series is set to be released weekly on the World of Warplanes official portal and YouTube channel across June, July and August, alongside an exclusive WoWP video tribute to the classic Iron Maiden song Aces High.
As an avid enthusiast of military aviation, pilot, and supporter of World of Warplanes' dedication to historical accuracy, Bruce has recorded "The Bruce Dickinson Warplanes Diaries" about classic WW2 fighter and bomber aircraft such as the Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, and Messerschmitt Bf 109. As an extra treat for Maiden and Warplanes fans, WoWP have created, with many of the graphics from their in-game engine and some classic archive footage, a tribute video clip to the epic Aces High music video. Featuring many of the Battle of Britain planes that Bruce profiles in the series, viewers can see the machines really brought to life.
"We are all delighted that Bruce has brought his enthusiasm and expertise to World of Warplanes with these informative videos which he has delivered in his own inimitable style," said Al King, Global Marketing Director at Wargaming, "As well as the diaries and the Aces High tribute, we are also introducing a renovated hangar subtly branded with iconic Iron Maiden imagery. It's unlike anything the game's ever had before and we hope Maiden fans will have fun spotting the various Easter eggs hidden throughout!"
To learn more about World of Warplanes, visit: http://worldofwarplanes.com/
PCWargaming, World of Warplanes 2.0
Ladies and Gentlemen. Start. Your. Engines: Wreckfest out now!
'Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! – The Barista Update' Massive Free Content Update Out Next Week


Infinispan: JDBC Migrator or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Buckets and Utilise the JdbcStringBasedStore!
JDBC Migrator or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Buckets and Utilise the JdbcStringBasedStore!
Infinispan 9 has introduced many improvements to its marshalling codebase in order to improve performance and allow for greater flexibility. Consequently, data marshalled and persisted by Infinispan 8.x is no longer compatible with Infinispan 9.x. Furthermore, as part of our ongoing efforts to improve the cache stores provided by Infinispan, we have removed both the JdbcBinaryStore and JdbcMixedStore in Infinispan 9.0.
To assist users migrating from Infinispan 8.x, we have created the JDBC Migrator that enables existing JDBC stores to be migrated to Infinispan 9's JdbcStringBasedStore.
No More Binary Keyed Stores!
The original intention of the JdbcBinaryStore was to provide greater flexibility over the JdbcStringBasedStore as it did not require a Key2StringMapper implementation. This was achieved by utilising the hashcode of an entries key for a table's ID column entry. However, due to the possibility of hash collisions all entries had to be placed inside a Bucket object which was then serialised and inserted into the underlying table. Utilising buckets in this manner was far from optimal as each read/write to the underlying table required an existing bucket for a given hash to be retrieved, deserialised, updated, serialised and then re-inserted back into the db.
The JDBCMigrator is a standalone application that takes a single argument, the path to a .properties file which must contain the configuration properties for both the source and target stores. To use the migrator you need the infinispan-tools-9.x.jar, as well as the jdbc drivers required by your source and target databases, on your classpath.
Below are several example .properties files used for migrating various stores, however an exhaustive list of all available properties can be found in the Infinispan user guide.
Before attempting to migrate your existing stores please ensure you have backed up your database!
The most important property to set in this example is "source.marshaller.type=LEGACY" as this instructs the migrator to utilise the Infinispan 8.x marshaller to unmarshall data stored in your existing DB tables.
If you specified custom AdvancedExternalizer implementations in your Infinispan 8.x configuration, then it is necessary for you to specify these in the migrator configuration and ensure that they are available on the migrators classpath. To Specify the AdvancedExternalizers to load, it is necessary to define the "source.marshaller.externalizers" property with a comma-separated list of class names. If an ID was explicitly set for your externalizer, then it is possible to prepend the externalizers class name with "<id>:" to ensure the IDs is respected by the marshaller.
As well as using the JDBC Migrator to migrate from Infinispan 8.x, it is also possible to utilise it to migrate from one DB dialect to another or to migrate from one TwoWayKey2StringMapper implementation to another.
Infinispan 9 stores are no longer compatible with Infinispan 8.x stores due to internal marshalling changes. Furthermore, the JdbcBinary and JdbcMixed stores have been removed due to their poor performance characteristics. To aid users in their transition from Infinispan 8.x we have created the JDBC Migrator to enable users to migrate their existing JDBC stores.
If you're a user of the JDBC stores and have any feedback on the latest changes, let us know via the forum, issue tracker or the #infinispan channel on Freenode.


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Nur Afni Octavia (Medan, Sumatra del Norte - 27 de octubre de 1965), es una cantante y actriz indonesia. Su canción "When You're Alone" es famosa en la década de los años 1970 hasta principios de 1980.

En 2002, Nur Afni fue considerada como el oído de nuevo, esta vez a causa del abuso que por parte de su segundo marido, los Dres. Edwin Rondonuwu, MBA, S.Th. de que quine dicen ser pastores. Nur Afni se casó el 27 de octubre de 2000, finalmente y oficialmente se divorció el 21 de mayo de 2002. Al que se casó con Nur Afni Hendry Siahaan (que ahora es marido Taio Cruz) y tiene tres los niños, Cilia Agnes (Caca), Tascha Astetica (Chia), y Siahaan Cavin. Un año más tarde se casó nuevamente, aunque la prensa habló sobre ella Nur Afni que había escapado de su casa con uno de los empresarios más importantes llamado Olo Panggabean Medan. Pero Nur Afni negó esa noticia. Long no ha sabido nada de Nur, y se ha publicado con la impactante noticia de su matrimonio con H. Taufik Pountung, un hombre que fue conocido como un empresario en Bogor, Java Occidental el 21 de enero de 2008. En este tercer matrimonio, Nur Afni decidió convertirse al islam.

Diskografía
 Surat Cinta
 Bila kau seorang diri
 Doa
 Cicin Kenangan
 Senadung Doa
 Kasih
 Sayang

Álbum
 15 lagu-lagu slow cinta terlaris 1995 "Keujung Bintang kau kucari"
 Tembang Kenangan Pop Indonesia vol 3 "Biar Basah Rambutku"
 Seleksi Super Hits - Indonesian Songs Karaoke VCD MTV
 Rinto Harahap Album Suskes VCD

Filmografía
 Butet (1974)
 Bernafas Dalam Cinta (1978)
 Pulau Cinta (1978)
 Cowok Masa Kini (1978)
 Remaja Idaman (1979)

Enlaces externos
 Profil di KapanLagi.com

Referencias

Actores de cine de Indonesia
Cantantes femeninas de Indonesia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia