text:
Maurice Glasman
On Faith and Citizenship
This text was first delivered as the Boutwood Lecture at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University on 8 November 2018. We are delighted to have permission from Lord Glasman to share it again here.
I would like to thank the Master and fellows of Corpus Christi College for the invitation to give the Boutwood Lecture this evening. I join an extremely distinguished list of speakers and I am greatly honoured by it.
I did my undergraduate degree in history 36 years ago at St Catherine's College and even then I used to think about the meaning of the 'Body of Christ' as I stared at the grey dimly lit college over the road, and why that was significant. I have had many years to consider the relationship between citizenship, faith and the body politic. The meaning of being embodied, of incarnation, and I am grateful for the invitation to speak to you tonight.
It is one of the most basic assumptions of Enlightenment thought, whether it be Utilitarian, Marxist or Liberal, deontological or consequentialist, that society is becoming increasingly secular and desacralised and that this is a good thing. It is further assumed that citizenship is a far more rational and just concept than faith as the basis of political community. More rational, in that each citizen is assumed to be a free and equal person capable of working out rules of association on the basis of public reason and more just in that it is based on the equal treatment of each person as a rational being. Faith is seen as an archaic relic of pre-modern societies, and further, it is a source of division within polities that is based upon inherited dogma rather than public reason. Faith is to be considered as at best a private matter which expresses a personal preference or inclination. Faith was wrong and it was bad. This is despite the empirical data that throughout the world faith is an increasingly important political category with a growing number of adherents and that the great crimes of the 20th century were committed by aggressively secular political regimes which delighted in the renunciation of piety and humility and claimed the higher rationality of science and technical power. Relativism and relativity, evolution and revolution, left carnage in their wake.
The suggestion I will be pursuing in this lecture is that the exclusive claim to moral and political authority made by modernist rationality is mistaken and unsustainable as the basis of a democratic political community and that the concepts of faith and citizenship are better conceived as mutually supportive rather than necessarily opposed. Further, I will entertain the idea that faith can redeem the promise of citizenship as it draws on covenantal ideas of sacrifice, solidarity and sacredness that are inconceivable within a contractual framework based upon mutual advantage alone. This was true even of the French Revolution. In 1789, there were only two concepts, Liberty and Equality. They accepted Kant's argument that individual rights were based upon 'reciprocal domination' in that liberty was distributed equally between citizens bound by the golden rule of mutual respect for persons. Reason alone could form the basis of political community, even though its universal claims were best expressed in French.
These two abstract and generalisable concepts, freedom and equality, proved incapable of sustaining the shared ethos required for political association and were challenged in various ways by traditions and institutions that claimed that they were less free and less equal under the new regime. In 1848, the men and women who marched outside the Hotel de Ville under the banners of their banned guilds with Jesus the 'divine proletarian' as their common saint were making an argument similar to the one developed here, which is that the commodification of labour and the subordination of the Church to the State had a common cause. An unconstrained rationality that turned out to be unreasonable. In response, Fraternity was added to create the enduring revolutionary trinity.
Fraternity re-articulated the non-contractual relationships that the revolution of reason had claimed to abolish. It referred to the inherited and unchosen obligations of family, the solidarity of Christian community and religious orders as well as the relations of workers in the outlawed guilds and corporations. One hundred and thirty years later the dock workers of Solidarity in Poland walked behind the image of the Virgin Mary to make a similar point to their Communist bosses. Another way of putting all this is that there has been no greater driver of scientific rationality over the past four centuries than Cambridge University, and that was embedded in the institutional network of colleges in which the greatest number in the world were named after Christ and the Saints with a specific Chaplain in each, charged with sustaining the bonds of the corporate body. It really is a delight to be making this argument at Corpus Christi College.
One of the arguments being made here is that politics draws upon what my late friend, political philosopher and graduate from Jesus College Glen Newey called 'pre-political matter' and that political science and political philosophy wilfully excludes that 'stuff' from its analysis and thus is incapable of both prediction and moral intervention. To witness the combination of confusion and contempt that characterised the academic response to the Brexit vote is a case in point. The reverence for the liberties of the free-born English that united Christopher Hill and E.P. Thompson was entirely absent from the progressive academic left. I would suggest that the inability to interpret or act effectively in the world is not the fault of the world, but of the theory.
This argument about the mutually re-enforcing role of Faith and Citizenship is born out of my life experience which led me to change my mind on this issue and was fundamental to the development and articulation of Blue Labour as a form of paradoxical politics. Religious and secular, traditional and modern, radical and conservative, it sought to resist the domination of both capitalism and the administrative state by reconciling estranged interests and traditions in a broad-based democratic politics of the Common Good. Central to this is the tradition of Catholic Social Thought with its notion of decentralised institutions that constrain commodification and state centralised through upholding solidarity, subsidiarity and status.
One of the fundamental assumptions made here is that one of the constitutive features of our contemporary culture and society is that it is constituted by a plurality of faiths. It is also the case that the overwhelming majority of immigrants to our country consider their dignity and ethics to derive from their faith and their number grows. They are also considerably poorer than longer settled communities. They do not make a public-private distinction between their conception of public life and ethics, between citizenship and faith. Faith is now definitively plural, and that changes the dynamics of the ethical argument concerning the reconciliation of the relationship between citizenship and faith because the fear is not one of domination but of exclusion and the depletion of a vital democratic politics in which the poor play a leading role.
The first example I will give you is that of Living Wage Campaign led by The East London Communities Organisation, known as TELCO, which then became London Citizens and which is now Citizens UK. During the first decade of this century I was centrally involved in this campaign in which the contracted out cooks, security guards and cleaners, who were no longer part of the corpus of modern corporations, the ones who were no longer invited to the Christmas Party and belonged to no union, the ones who came in after you finished and who had left before you started, played a leading role.
TELCO was distinctive because it was based upon broad-based community organising, overwhelmingly between faith congregations who would join as institutions. It turned out that the poor immigrant workers had far greater trust in their faith institutions than in the political and civic institutions that were the main carriers of politics, such as the political parties or the trade unions. Based on the political method of organising developed by Saul Alinsky in Chicago in the 1940's it built relationships between faith communities and developed leaders within them. It did this through a combination of extensive one-to-one conversations and leadership training which taught the importance of relational power as a means through which poor people could negotiate a better life and resist the domination of money and the State.
I came across them because, between 1996 and 2012, I was lecturer and then Reader in political theory at London Metropolitan University, which was previously London Guildhall University and before that City of London Poly. My students were mostly Muslim, overwhelmingly religious and entirely uninterested in my second year lectures on the History of Political Thought which went through Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Marx and Mill and even less interested in my third year course on contemporary Theories of Justice. In the seminars, Crusades and Jihad were far more vivid concepts than the categorical imperative or the original position. My students did have a strong concept of justice and of politics but it was not expressed in liberal political philosophy. As someone who was far more interested in democracy as a practice of self-government than in constitutions and policy, I wished to find a local form of politics through which my students could do a politics that sought to find a common ground rather than repeat unresolvable arguments in a polarised and often angry environment.
Democratic politics is precisely the way we live together under conditions of civic peace and community, and organising offered a way in which religious people could actively engage in politics without renouncing their faith and resist conforming to the secular demand of the liberal polity that this be renounced in favour of abstract general reasoning. I thought that the kind of community organising developed by TELCO offered a means through which my students could actively participate in politics, do a politics that was not a party politics and that this could be a part of their degree. I affiliated my University department to TELCO.
It was a transformative experience. Not, unfortunately, for my students, but for me. What was initially an instrumental motivation became an ethical one.
The Living Wage Campaign itself emerged out of conversations between different faith congregations; Catholic, Muslim and a variety of Protestant denominations. I was invited to a 'retreat' on family life. As someone who was recently divorced and who assumed sole responsibility for the breakdown of my marriage I had grave reservations about what family life could even mean. I was a reluctant participant in the retreat which took place in an 'urban convent' that looked like a Brezhnev era Department of Energy in Minsk. When I entered the room a found three nuns, several lay members of Catholic congregations, a handful of Muslims from the East London Mosque, three men and two women, four members of a local black church who were all women and a member of Unison. As each gave their reflection on family life it became clear that their shared sentiment was that there were enormous pressures on the family ranging from the attraction of money and drugs, and a lack of time with their children to care for their parents, which was their definition of 'family life'. This was due, they said, to low wages and the need to either take two jobs or work long hours just to put food on the table and pay the bills and rent. Out of this emerged a common commitment between different Christian and Muslim representatives to the Living Wage, to the idea that getting paid enough to live doing one job would give more time to attend to the relational responsibilities of being an adult. They asserted that if you worked, you should be paid enough to live.
The dignity of labour, the obligations of love, the need for rest were carried within each of the faith traditions and they found common cause on an issue that directly affected their lives, namely the compulsion of finance capital to turn what was not produced for sale on the market, human beings, into a commodity, a factor of production, to be exploited and discarded due to the imperative of maximising returns on investment at the highest rate and the greatest speed. The conversation between the faiths had led to a radical political economy based upon conservative social assumptions, the importance of family, work and the preservation of a human status for workers.
To my surprise, at that time, sex was never mentioned, nor was abortion, or the immaculate conception, but what was held sacred between the communities was the dignity of work which was being degraded, a recognition of contribution by those who had been excluded from permanent employment and from any recognition by their employer. Faith gave an ethical form to a demoralised life based on short term contracts with no negotiating power. The battle between isolated people and concentrated capital was a no contest. Through the commitments of faith they began to organise, to build their relationships, build their power and act in the world to change things. A classical conception of citizenship shared between many different secular political traditions was renewed through an affirmation of common citizenship by people of faith.
While I should have been writing research papers on the distinction between neutrality and impartiality in liberal theory I was enjoying myself out on the streets of East London working out how to win these battles which we took to universities, hospitals, banks and retail outlets. And over time we started to win. The universities were the worst. Paying the cleaners enough to live, was, apparently, an impediment to their development as world class research centres. If you want to know, LSE was the worst.
One of the rules of organising is make your opponent live up to their rule book, and thankfully, most mission statements written by contemporary institutions are a genre of self-regarding fatuous fantasy that are entirely at odds with their actions. The banks, universities and accountancy firms were invariably committed to diversity, inclusivity, accessibility and building a relationship with the local community. A great deal of the negotiating strategy consisted in workers reading out sections of this stuff to their employers and asking in what way earning 15 times what they earned was consistent with those aspirations? In the case of the LSE we dug up their founding statement and it turns out the Webbs actively stated that the university should pay its workers enough to live. It is the only time I have ever been grateful to the Fabians.
What was considered when it started as a weird and doomed attempt to defy the laws of globalisation grew so strong that in a slightly compromised form it has become a national law and I ended up in the House of Lords. Sometimes it is more rational to believe in miracles. The terrible conclusion is that if I had done my research as I should, I would never have been invited to give this lecture this afternoon.
The key features I wish to stress from the Living Wage Campaign are the following. The first is that faith provided a resource to resist the domination of capital. Second that it took the form of a political economy and not a desire to impose religious laws. Third, that it was pluralist and any attempt to impose a particular religious view was resisted from within. Fourth, it facilitated citizen participation. Fifth, that it generated relationships between, and a shared commitment to, a Common Good between estranged communities that were otherwise competing for scarce resources in poor areas. Sixth that it developed leaders from within those communities who had a following and whose lives were transformed by the experience. Seventh, that it almost invariably led to the end of contracting out and the restoration of the corporate body within institutions so that cooks, cleaners and security guards could expect some kind of meaningful pathway within the firm or institution. It restored some sense of a body to a corporation, and some kind of balance between its component parts. And finally it was led, and conceived of, by the faith communities themselves, working within their own traditions. This is what I meant when I said that faith could redeem the lost promise of citizenship based upon participation, political coalitions and action.
The second example I will give is far more recent.
I returned last Monday from two weeks in Iraq participating in the pilgrimage of the Arbaeen. In this, up to 20 million Shia Muslims walk to the city of Karbala on the anniversary of the 40th day of the murder of their beloved Imam Hussein by the Umayyad Caliph Yazid, 1,338 years ago.
I cannot say that I have even begun to fully understand what I witnessed walking from Najaf and Imam Ali's Shrine to those of Hussein and Abbas forty miles away in Karbala. All I can say is that a part of me is still stranded on that desert road and the awe I sensed in the pilgrims as the golden domes came into view. I met families who had walked from Iran and Lebanon, from Azerbaijan and Bahrain but overwhelmingly they walked from the 38 corners of Iraq, from Basra and Baghdad, Babylon and Kirkuk. It is the biggest foot pilgrimage in the world and according to the government statistics, almost half the Shia population of Iraq make the journey. It was an old story in more ways than one. While I should have been writing this lecture I was walking and talking with pilgrims about the relationship between citizenship and faith.
I will first give a brief outline of the story that is being commemorated in the Arbaeen pilgrimage. I will then give an account of the practices I witnessed on the road and finally I will reflect on its political meaning and the relevance to the argument I am making here.
The historical account I will present is that which was told to me by the Iraqi Shia, which they believe to be historically true. It is neither a scholarly nor an impartial rendering.
The story begins with the death of Muhammad and the rightful succession to the leadership of the expanding Caliphate which he bequeathed. For the Shia, Ali was not only the Prophet's son-in-law, married to his daughter Fatima and anointed by Muhammad as his successor, but also a virtuous, brave and pious man worthy of being an Imam, of leading the faithful. His speeches and sayings indicate an opposition to the territorial expansion of Islam, a concern with justice and inequality and an almost Aristotelian concern for moderation. Ali was not appointed Caliph and the Islamic Empire continued to expand westward with its capital moving to Damascus and with it the riches and conquests associated with maritime trade. The Caliphate had moved a long way from the desert with its slow trains of laden camels. The empire of the sea brought with it not only the bounty of conquest but the lavish rewards connected to the control of maritime rather than landed trade routes. It created a volume and velocity of wealth accumulation that we would associate with the Atlantic trade of the City of London in the 18th Century. Damascus inherited the maritime trade of Athens and Phoenicia. It was a dramatic transformation from the nomadic to the settled, from the agricultural to the urban, from the desert to the sea.
Ali, in contrast, became a farmer, wrote his own copy of the Koran and preached in Medina of the purity of the old ways, of the nobility of humility and honour. Passed over three times for the caliphate he became the leader of the desert Arabs in defiance of the decadence of Damascus. When he did become Caliph at the fourth attempt he moved the capital to Kufa, a desert town as far from the sea as could be. He called a halt to territorial expansion and named corruption and wealth as the principle enemies of the Muslim community, or Umma. The cultural, geographical, class and spiritual differences between the family of Muhammad in the East and the Umayyads in Damascus turned into armed conflict as the Governor of Sham, of which Damascus was capital, Muaviya, refused to pledge his loyalty to Ali. Battles were fought which turned out to be indecisive but which revealed a great deal about the virtues and vices of each side.
For the Shia, Muaviya fought through bribery, intrigue and intimidation, Ali through open conflict, a mighty double bladed sword, white Arabian stallions and a spirit of accommodation to the defeated. In the Battle of Saffin, for example, he allowed Muaviya's forces access to the water of the Euphrates which were under his control. This was because it would be dishonourable to use thirst as a weapon of war. This gesture was to prove of considerable importance. Imam Ali was killed by a blow to the head from a poisoned sword while making his morning prayers at the Grand Mosque in Kufa. He asked to be put on a camel and to be buried wherever the camel took him and that place was Najaf.
His eldest son Hassan, also known as the peacemaker and the bridge-builder, a Shia Pontifex Maximus, was declared Caliph. This was disputed in Damascus and Hasan relinquished the crown in a deal with Muaviya, which stated that when Muaviya died Hassan would become Caliph on the grounds that it avoided bloodshed. He was much younger than Muaviya but died of poisoning, commonly believed to be at the hand of his wife, who had struck a deal with Muaviya. When Muaviya died he welched on the deal, saying it was with Hassan and not his younger brother Hussein and passed the caliphate onto his own son, Yazid.
Yazid is the archetypal villain in this foundational story. His first act as the new Caliph, was to demand the pledge of allegiance from Hussein, Muhammad's grandson and Ali's son. This Hussein refused to do saying that he could not pledge allegiance to someone who flouted the laws of Islam, ruled like a tyrant and governed through bribery and deception. Followed by a small group of 72 followers and his family, he left Medina so as not to be the cause of bloodshed in the holy city and trekked towards Kufa and was then surrounded by an army of tens of thousands led by Yazid's representative within sight of the Euphrates. The place of their doom became known as Karbala.
Deprived of food and water Yazid's tactic was to wait for Hussein's camp to either surrender or die of thirst. The blockade became known as the days of the Ashura and the children were the first to die. Hussein took his infant son out in front of the besieging army and held him up saying that the great grandson of The Prophet was dying for lack of water and their response was to shoot off an arrow into the baby's heart. This is played out on the pilgrimage through the construction of many reverse nativity scenes. There is a baby in a crib, there is a mother, there are three wise men, but they're all dead. Hussein's half-brother Abbas, unable to bear the crying of the children made a run to the Euphrates on his white steed to get a pitcher of water but had both his hands, and then his head chopped off on his way back. Abbas is a particular hero of the Arab Shia, a great horseman, a loyal brother and a true friend. I was in his shrine on the day of Arbaeen and the devotions to him were remarkable.
Hussein's response was to engage the enemy in man to man combat. The response of Yazid was to rain down arrows until all his followers were killed. Hussein came out to fight alone and was eventually slain by a blow from behind. He was beheaded and his head was taken to Damascus as proof of mission accomplished, much like the fingers of the dismembered journalist Jamal Khashoggi were to be taken to the Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman as proof of his death. Hussein died saying his prayers with one tear for Muhammad and the other for Jesus, who the Shia regard as one of the three all-time great Prophets, along with Moses and Muhammad. There is much that is Christ-like about the depiction of the life and death of Hussein but there aren't many images of Jesus pondering his death and sharpening his sword, as was recounted by his surviving sister Zainab when visiting him in his tent the night before he died. The army sacked the camp of Hussein, raping and stealing from the family of Muhammad and taking his sister Zainab in chains to Damascus. That day is Ashura and the place it happened was Karbala. Zainab managed to preserve the life of Hussein's elder son, who became the fourth Imam and she got her brother's head back from Yazid. Forty days after his death, the head was reunited with the body and the unity of the Corpus Husseini was restored. That day is known as the Arbaeen and that was the pilgrimage to Karbala that I participated in last week.
All this happened 1,338 years ago but the ideas of wickedness and heroism it embodies are annually renewed in the collective memory of the Shia through the pilgrimage.
The practices of the Arbaeen are meant to embody the virtues of Hussein and to honour the stand he took against the usurpation of Islam by Yazid. Pilgrims are urged to begin their walk, wherever they are walking from, with no money. They are to trust in the hospitality of strangers and the Shia along the way are urged to share their homes, their food and their water with the pilgrims. Many millions of people are housed and fed along the way. It was the most extraordinary act of trust and hospitality that I have ever witnessed.
Throughout Najaf and all the way along to road to Karbala I witnessed hundreds of makeshift food kitchens, pots the size of tables bubbling with rice and meat, a constant supply of tea and water. People told me that they save all year in order to buy the food and utensils in order to feed the pilgrims along the way. I saw millions of people walking and I also saw hundreds of thousands of people working and serving them and it was all voluntary. I thought of David Cameron and the Big Society and I thought we had a lot to learn from the Iraqi Shia.
There are temporary medical stands to serve the pilgrims manned by doctors, many of them trained in Cardiff, who leave work for a month to stand by the side of the road healing the sick and attending to the exhausted. For a week I saw no money exchanged between anyone for anything. It was not until I got to Karbala that stalls emerged selling Hussein merch but the food, the tea and coffee was still free. There were buggy fixing stalls to mend the strollers that bounced along the stony sandy path that ran parallel to the packed road. I saw millions of people, walking from all directions to Karbala to show their love for Hussein. I saw young men staying up all night to prepare food having served all day. They washed up the enormous pots, they chopped the meat and soaked the rice. As I sat, drinking the tea they had made me and smoking my cigarettes I asked them why they did it. The answer was always the same, 'for Hussein'.
When I pushed for an underlying principle, or maxim that they derived from Hussein, the answer was 'sharing the water'. It became a distinctive feature of Shia thought, given the experience of Hussein, his family and his followers, that the highest value is given to 'sharing the water'. When you sit down to eat people will immediately give you their water. The behaviour of Ali at the battle of Saffin, in contrast to that of Yazid at Karbala, is constantly raised.
That week I witnessed a sustained act of solidarity built around the practices of the world as it should be. Karbala, I must say, felt like a much more comfortable place to be a Jew than my constituency Labour Party but that is another story. You might say that by the Rivers of Babylon, I sat down and I wept when I remembered exile. The pilgrimage was an assertion, led overwhelmingly by the poor, for whom Hussein is seen as a champion, of the world as it should be in defiance of the world as it is.
And that leads to the politics and its relevance to this reflection on the relationship between citizenship and faith.
I spoke to two of the four Grand Ayatollahs, Hakim and Fayed; with several of the leading scholars of Najaf as well as with many pilgrims and servers on the road and all agreed on the meaning of Yazid. He embodied the vices of the world as it is, the realities of power. There are four components to this. The first is the monopoly of power, or of tyranny. A refusal to share and a will to dominate. He could not share power with Hussein who had to surrender or die. The second is the use of violence, particularly the calculated use of rape and murder, in order to enforce that domination. The third is the systematic use of corruption as means of sustaining power. The best definition of corruption was given by Machiavelli in The Discourses, the private use of public goods. As far as the Shia are concerned, Yazid and Muaviya stole the wealth of the community for their own personal gain. The fourth component is that of hypocrisy, the compliment that vice always gives to virtue, the contradiction between the political discourse and practice. I thought of Stalin and Pinochet, above all I thought of ISIS, or Da'esh as they are known out there. They were Yazid reborn.
That is why I was on the pilgrimage, to honour the sacrifice of the Shia in making their stand against ISIS who refused to share power with anyone in the oneness of their hate, who used rape and violence to impose their domination, who claimed to represent the authentic meaning of Islam while stealing and looting and grabbing the land of anyone who was not them. They were the enemies of all of us, a real living menace to human life, democracy, liberty and justice and they were beaten. For that I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude and an awareness that this could not have been done on the basis of rational self-interest alone, and the ethics of that resistance were to be found within the traditions of the Shia Religion. In this case, faith did redeem the promise of citizenship.
When ISIS exploded into life in 2014 as the latest incarnation of Sunni domination, the Shia required no explanation as to who they were. They were Yazid, and like Hussein they were obligated to make their stand. It was the dirtiest war of modern times with crucifixions, child suicide bombers, booby traps and yet the Shia endured and defeated them. After more than a thousand years of subjugation the Shia are finally free to practise their religion and participate in the political life of their society. They are no longer in exile in their own home. They have emerged from occultation.
The Arbaeen was banned by the Ottomans, it was discouraged by the Hashemite Monarchy, it was banned again by Saddam Hussein, who bombed the shrines of Karbala in the 1991 uprising. It has been consistently attacked and bombed by ISIS and other Islamist groups but it grows each year as an assertion of freedom and of the public ethos of the Iraqi Shia community.
And that leads to what was constantly referred to in Iraq, by clerics and politicians and by the people on the street as the 'Hussein Revolution'. The meaning of that is up for grabs but there seemed to be a consensus on fundamental points between the Ayatollahs, politicians and pilgrims on the road, whether secular or religious, conservative or communist. The first is to a politics of non-domination. They are committed to a Federal Constitution which would give considerable democratic autonomy to the Kurds and the Sunni, and protect the religious freedoms to the Yezidis and Christians as well as the many other treasures of the inherited culture of Mesopotamia. In terms of Catholic Social Thought they are committed to subsidiarity; in terms of civic republicanism they support federalism. There is also a widespread commitment to democracy as the best form of accountability of political leaders. The view of the religious authorities of Najaf, and most particularly Ayatollah Sistani, who is revered across all of Shia society, is that there should be no religious imposition in religion and no interference by the state in the internal governance of faiths. They constantly contrasted their teachings with those of Iran and the rule of the Jurists. The fourth lies in the political economy implied by 'sharing the water'.
The best way to describe this is to use the three authors described in Tim Rogan's superb book, The Moral Economists, that was published this year. R.H. Tawney, who was a previous speaker in this lecture series, argued that the concept of incarnation, of the embodiment of virtue in Jesus, led to the necessity of embedding virtue in the body politic, in the institutions of society that uphold a non-pecuniary good in defiance of the incentives to greed and vice pursued by capitalism. I could see in the Arbaeen that the incarnation of virtue in Hussein, in the re-uniting of his body, gave form to the resistance to Yazid and the assertion of a different moral practice that was reconstituted each year through the pilgrimage. In terms of the second author, Karl Polanyi, the resonance is clear. Polanyi argued that the essence of capitalism was the attempt to turn creation itself, human beings and nature into commodities in the form of labour, energy, land and food markets with fluctuating prices. When I informed my hosts that we had privatised water in Britain and it was a source of profit they were aghast. The privatisation of water is certainly not on the agenda in Iraq. Polanyi argued that a social democracy, a decentralised form of vocational and locational self-government, was the alternative to statist nationalism as the political response to the menace that the pressures of commodification brings as people seek shelter from the market storm. It is the clearest expression of what E.P Thompson described as a 'moral economy' that was covenantal and not contractual, that was not based on the immediate satisfaction of self-interest but a sense of mutual concern and solidarity.
The renunciation of the sacred is not a requirement of reason. Proof of that is the way that nature is commodified, exploited and degraded in the present economic system in which, in the words of Marx, 'everything sacred is profaned'. A sense of the sacred in relation to the status and nature of human beings and how we should treat each other is a condition of a humane society and these are held across faith communities with far greater durability than in secular or materialist theories. What I described as the politics of the Common Good in terms of London Citizens and the Living Wage, and in the Arbaeen, in terms of resistance to ISIS and the political possibilities of contemporary Iraq are an attempt to indicate the ways in which faith and citizenship require each other. Christian and Islamic, as well as socialist and civic republican thought, need each other in order to preserve their sense of the sacred in preserving the integrity of society and the practice of reciprocity from the instrumental reason of markets and the state.
We live in what the Italian theorist, Antonio Gramsci, called an interregnum. A time in between times, during which 'the old is dead and the new cannot be born, when there is fraternisation of opposites and all manner of morbid symptoms pertain'. As I travel through the country in a further attempt to not do my homework, I encounter fear and confusion, polarisation and a culture of denunciation and hate. That is not the way I think about it. This is a moment of great political promise as well as peril and the good outcome is tied to the renewal and reconciliation of citizenship and faith through building a diverse and robust body politic based on democratic self-government, locational and vocational. The faith communities of East London and the experience of the Arbaeen in Iraq indicate the ways in which faith strengthens citizenship within a framework of non-domination. It offers a way out of the interregnum.
© Maurice Glasman
Maurice Glasman is a political theorist, academic, social commentator and Labour life peer in the House of Lords. He is Director of the Common Good Foundation and is best known as a founder of Blue Labour, a term he coined in 2009.


A new game has been announced for Xbox One titled "Get Even" which allows for online players to sneak into your single player game as enemy characters and cause havoc.
I like the idea but we'll see how they implement it into the gameplay. This could be a feeding ground for online trolls. Also, how are you going to be able to not discern a real player from a bot? If I see an enemy sporadically jumping and crouching around like a moron, I'll have a pretty good inclination that its some idiot online.
Further details are sure to come, stay tuned friends.


The Fighting Hawks erased a 21-point 3rd quarter deficit and rallied to beat Northern Arizona 38-31 to win their 9th straight victory, and capture a share of the Big Sky Conference title.
North Dakota (9-2, 8-0) went ahead for good with 2:43 left in the 4th quarter when Deion Harris returned an interception 40 yards for the go-ahead pick-6. The play capped off an incredible comeback that included 28 unanswered 2nd half points by UND.
The Fighting Hawks were down 31-10 against the Lumberjacks (5-5, 4-3), early in the 3rd quarter, before a 15-yard touchdown run by UND's John Santiago started the comeback. Luke Fiedler then hauled in a 2-yard pass from running back Brady Oliveira for another touchdown, and then Demun Mercer tied the game with a 10-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Keaton Studsrud with just 3:21 left in the game.
The pick-6 by Harris capped off the scoring and comeback. Northern Arizona would reach the UND 20, before turning the ball over on downs with just 29 seconds remaining.
For North Dakota, quarterback Keaton Studsrud went 13 of 34 for 252 yards, while running back Brady Oliveira ran for 103 yards. Demun Mercer finished with 10 catches for 137 yards.
The win gives the Fighting Hawks a share of their first Big Sky Conference Championship. Earlier this week, UND cracked the FCS Playoff Committee's Top 10 rankings for the first time.


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Q: How to find nearest frineds MongoDb I have 3 MongoDb collections:

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I have one user_id.
Need to find latest locations of his contacts (users_contacts), ordered by distanse from his current location (nearest will be at the top of results).
How can I create MapReduce functions? Thanks to anyone who can provide a C# sample.

A: You need to take a look at Near/geoNear functionality
http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/reference/operator/near/
something like
places.EnsureIndex(IndexKeys.GeoSpatial("loc"), IndexOptions.SetGeoSpatialRange(-500, 500));
var query = Query.Near("loc", 50, 50, 5);
var cursor = places.Find(query).SetLimit(20);
foreach (var hit in cursor) {
    // process hit
}

Now in your case you would like to query users_contacts
  var query =  Query.And(Query.EQ("user_id", "<id>"),Query.Near("loc", x, y, r));
    var cursor = users_contacts.Find(query)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


as related by Sister Drusilla Trussoni (Cecilia Agnes) to Carol A. Hagen.
Add tags for "Goat's milk in our coffee--rattlesnakes for bounty--". Be the first.
library:placeOfPublication <http://experiment.worldcat.org/entity/work/data/38108061#Place/wis> ; # Wis.?
schema:about <http://experiment.worldcat.org/entity/work/data/38108061#Person/trussoni_family> ; # Trussoni family.
schema:about <http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1238656> ; # Wisconsin--Genoa.
schema:location <http://experiment.worldcat.org/entity/work/data/38108061#Place/wis> ; # Wis.?


Captain Truscott's letter ("We can vote Kaine out," Oct. 11 Readers Write), while I applaud it, failed to chronicle the reign of terror against Republicans over the past few years.
On Oct. 17, 2016, the Republican campaign headquarters in Hillsborough, North Carolina, was firebombed. The terrorists left a spray-painted message "… Republicans leave town or else." During the inauguration, the rioting across our land was simply evil. Then a Sanders supporter opens fire on a Republican House softball team, wounding Rep. Scalise seriously. Sen. Rand Paul is viciously assaulted while mowing his lawn. Both he and his wife have received "credible" death threats.
Tim Kaine's son, Linwood, was convicted of misdemeanor charges for his role in the disruption of a Minnesota rally for President Trump in December of 2017. Young Kaine and others entered the state capitol, donned the famous black clothing, like that used by "Antifa," and resisted arrest. This while wearing masks to conceal their identity. Sen. Kaine said he approved of his son's actions and was proud of him. I guess the nuts don't fall far from the tree.
Sen. Kaine is part of the leadership in the Democratic Party who have called for incivility, confrontation and harassment, even "kicking" Republicans. Arson, vandalism, assault, death threats, have all been condoned, even if not called for. A conspiracy of silence seems to be their mantra. The actions of these related groups are horrifyingly similar to the actions of the Brown Shirts and the SS in 1930s Germany.
If we are to keep our land free, we need to send a message to the Democratic leadership that their tactics are unacceptable. So I urge, I beg that we cast not a single vote for a Democratic candidate on Election Day. If you can't vote for a Republican, vote third party, but please do not vote for these terrorists!


text:
in five volumes, with explanatory notes, and there are few books that contain so much of literary history or are really more valuable to the student of literature. Besides this they are full of comical extravaganzas, vivacious talk, eloquent and poetic dreamings, and all sorts of fancies nowhere else to be found in English literature. Blackwood's Magazine long since sowed all its wild oats and became a staid, respectable and highly meritorious periodical. But the brilliant days of "Maga" are still worthy of recall.
PROFESSOR JOHN WILSON,
ONE OF THE KINGS OF MEN.
(1785–1854.)
THE republication of some of the earlier works of Professor John Wilson, the famous "Christopher North" of Blackwood's Magazine of seventy-five years ago, will give new pleasure to a generation that never knew, or have known but little, of that famous grog-drinking, prize-fighting teacher of moral philosophy, who was a prime favorite with our grandfathers, and was one of the chief characters of Edinburgh town in the days of George IV. For years and years the name of "Christopher North '' was a household word wherever Blackwood's Magazine was known, a rallying point and tower of strength to the old Tory party. Carlyle in his reminiscences says:
The broad-shouldered, stately bulk of the man struck me; his flashing eye, copious disheveled hair, and rapid, unconcerned progress like a plow through stubble. Wilson had much nobleness of heart and many traits of noble genius, but the central tie beam seemed wanting always; very long ago I perceived in him the most irreconcilable contradictions, Toryism with sans-culottism; a noble, loyal, and religious nature not strong enough to vanquish the perverse element it is born into. Hence, a being all split into precipitous chasms and the wildest volcanic tumults. * * * Wilson seems to me always by far the most gifted of our literary men, either then or still.
Wilson's life reads almost like a romance. He was born in Paisley, Scotland, the son of a rich manufacturer, in 1785, and was educated at Glasgow and Oxford. As a young man he was noted for his strength, activity, and eccentricity. He was a robust six-footer that could run, jump, swim, and fight with any one going. He was a man thoroughly alive and helped in all ways to keep up athletic sports—even prize-fighting. He was noted as a boxer, and once he met with a rough character as he was passing a bridge, the man obstructing his way. Wilson offered to fight him, and the man made no objection, saying that he was so and so, a well-known professional pugilist. This daunted Wilson not a jot. Off went his coat and in a few minutes he polished off the prize-fighter in a style that astonished him. Gasping from his defeat he could only say: "You are either Jack Wilson or the devil." In his literary reminiscences De Quincey says of him : "Cock fighting, wrestling, pugilistic contests, boat racing, horse racing, all enjoyed Mr. Wilson's patronage ; all were occasionally honored by his personal participation. I mention this in no unfriendly spirit toward Professor Wilson; on the contrary, these propensities grew out of his ardent temperament and his constitutional endowments—his strength, speed, and agility—and being confined to the period of youth can do him no dishonor among the candid and the judicious." In 1820, having lost his fortune through the default of a dishonest trustee of his estate, he was elected to the professorship of moral philosophy in the University of Edinburgh over so able a competitor as Sir William Hamilton, one of the finest scholars and ablest metaphysicians of the time, but politics in those days swayed such choices more than qualifications. Three years prior to this he had allied himself to Blackwood's Magazine, then first started, and though he may not have been, strictly speaking, the editor of "Maga," there is no doubt that for many years he exercised a sort of censorship over all contributions, and had an unrestricted right of publishing whatever he chose to write. It was for "Maga" that he wrote his still famous papers, "The Noctes Ambrosianae," and it is by these papers that his fame in literature will be tested. And to-day it makes very good reading, and whoever wishes to know what was currently thought and said of the literary productions of the early part of the present century should at least turn the pages of "Noctes Ambrosianae." Lockhart had something to do with them, and Maginn contributed a few numbers, but the main work was done by Professor Wilson, who delighted to draw his own portrait as Christopher North. The whole series has been collected and published, and they belong to the literature of the past. Whoever reads them must be prepared to find a good deal of prejudice on the high Tory side of literature and politics. Lots of scurrilous flings will be found, not only at the cockneys, Lamb, Hunt, and Hazlitt, but even at Macaulay and those who adopted the liberal side of English politics. But any one who can accommodate himself to these matters—as surely most Americans can—much more any one who can enter into the spirit of those past days, merry and leisurely as they were —will find the "Noctes" most delightful reading.
The wit, the humor, the apparent reality of it all,

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Clodovil
Is Clodovil Dead or Still Alive? Clodovil Birthday and Date of Death
Clodovil Death
Clodovil passed away on March 17, 2009 at the age of 71 in Brasilia, Federal District, Brazil. Clodovil's cause of death was stroke.
Clodovil death quick facts:
When did Clodovil die?
How did Clodovil die? What was the cause of death?
How old was Clodovil when died?
Where did Clodovil die? What was the location of death?
Brasilia, Federal District, Brazil
Clodovil Birthday and Date of Death
Clodovil was born on June 17, 1937 and died on March 17, 2009. Clodovil was 71 years old at the time of death.
Birthday: June 17, 1937
Clodovil - Biography
Clodovil Hernandes (Elisiário, June 17, 1937 – Brasília, March 17, 2009) was a Brazilian fashion stylist, television presenter, and politician. Hernandes made his fame as a fashion stylist during the 60s and 70s, after which he was invited to work on television. His dedication and fame on television lasted for over 40 years and various television stations. In his political career, Hernandes was known for statements deemed inappropriate, often directed at other famous personalities. Among other controversies, he was accused of racism and antisemitism. Hernandes was the first openly gay congressman in Brazil.
Tags: Born in 1937 Brazilian Died in 2009 Stylist
Chris Brown, Dead or Alive?
Liv Tyler, Dead or Alive?
Céline Dion, Dead or Alive?
Anthony Bourdain, Dead or Alive?
Bernie Mac, Dead or Alive?
Adam Levine, Dead or Alive?
Beyonce Knowles, Dead or Alive?
River Phoenix, Dead or Alive?
Ashley Tisdale, Dead or Alive?


text:
New solo PA
New solo PA Jan 6, 2017 5:36:51 GMT -7 heynewguy (Ol' Bill), Maddog, and 1 more like this
Post by John on Jan 6, 2017 5:36:51 GMT -7
Here's what I would have to use for an acoustic solo PA if I didn't get anything new:
Carvin PA head. Fantastic unit for what it is. 12 channels, two monitor mixes (w power), built in effects, graphic eq for left/right FOH and each monitor mix has it's own graphic eq! Four built in power amps! Sub out, phantom power....an impressive unit! But it's overkill, and with the road case, weighs about 55lbs. This would be used with two 1x15 cabinets (almost 40lbs each). And the only monitors I have are 1x12. (probably 35lbs?)
So I've bought this:
The two towers are Alto Troupers. 3x6.5" speakers with horn. Built in 3 channel mixer w line out, built in 200 watt power amp, blue tooth your phone/ipod. 23lbs each! The speaker on top is a 1x8" 140 watt powered speaker I'll use as a monitor. 12lbs! Daisy chain everything. I got to hook it all up yesterday, and it all works as I thought it would. (Meaning not only does everything work, but the tone and control over everything is decent.) There's a BOSS pedal on top of the left tower to give you a frame of reference.
Here's another pic with a guitar for frame of reference. This will all fit easily in my little hatchback.
Here's a pic of the 1x8 monitor compared to the 1x15 cab
If I was a younger man, I'd keep/use (at least for a while) the big and heavy PA, but I'm sick of humpin heavy/bulky gear. I'm at a station in life where I can spend a little for convenience in weight and size. Besides, I'll sell the PA head and the two 1x15 cabs...that will pay for what I just bought. I went to check out a local acoustic solo place last night. And it was upstairs. And I thought....man, hauling that PA head and those two 1x15 up this flight of stairs? Not for me!
Those tower speaker for FOH have a surprising amount of bass. I thought they'd be thin. Not deep thumping bass, but for vocals, I actually have to turn the bass down.
Will this be crushing loud? No, but it's an acoustic solo...it's not supposed to be.
Last Edit: Jan 6, 2017 5:50:13 GMT -7 by John
More Mel Bay.....Less Ebay!
Mark N
New solo PA Jan 6, 2017 6:08:46 GMT -7 thatstatuemoved likes this
Post by Mark N on Jan 6, 2017 6:08:46 GMT -7
Right on!! Looks cool...and of course, lighter is always better.
Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada....not Woodstock Canada because there are other places in Canada called Woodstock so it's Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada
Post by Maddog on Jan 6, 2017 6:21:34 GMT -7
Older and wiser......
-Lee
"People sleep easy in their beds because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you."
Location: "Deep in the Heart of Texas" (Near the Alamo)
///O-O\\\ John and Yoko |||- -|||
premiumplus (Dave)
Everyone I meet is fighting a battle I know nothing about.
New solo PA Jan 6, 2017 6:31:05 GMT -7 BritInvasion likes this
Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Jan 6, 2017 6:31:05 GMT -7
Looks great. You don't need a sledge hammer to drive a tack.
"Tone, tone, tone, tone. Is there a substitute?" -Dr.Z
Love my Z amps.
BritInvasion
"The Beatles saved the world from boredom" - George Harrison
New solo PA Jan 6, 2017 7:59:04 GMT -7
Post by BritInvasion on Jan 6, 2017 7:59:04 GMT -7
Location: Valley Forge PA USA ...... Scene of the other British Invasion
Everything is temporary.
New solo PA Jan 6, 2017 8:08:12 GMT -7 via mobile
Post by Michael on Jan 6, 2017 8:08:12 GMT -7
I say "Smart move John!"
thatstatuemoved
New solo PA Jan 6, 2017 8:41:38 GMT -7 BritInvasion and premiumplus (Dave) like this
Post by thatstatuemoved on Jan 6, 2017 8:41:38 GMT -7
Great move--after moving recently--less is better
1 Black Z-Lux Head
1 Black Maz 38 Studio Combo
1 Red M-12 studio combo 1-12
1 Cure combo
1 Black Z open back 1-12
American Standard Telecaster
Tom Anderson Classic
Fender strat plus with lollars
A bunch of pedals
New solo PA Jan 6, 2017 9:28:49 GMT -7 roscoenyc likes this
And I think it's worth mentioning...to hook all this up: 2 xlr cables and 3 power cables.. That's IT.
Of course, that doesn't include getting from the instrument(s) to the first Trouper.
Last Edit: Jan 6, 2017 11:22:12 GMT -7 by John
New solo PA Jan 6, 2017 10:46:58 GMT -7 via mobile
Post by Rockerfeller on Jan 6, 2017 10:46:58 GMT -7
We use the Alto 12's for monitors and they take a beating and work great.
A lot of acoustic gigs can be done with only one speaker and unless it's a big room, two can be overkill.
What we really need to see is what Dolly you're using.
PS. Didn't you retire from playing music live?
1x12 Convertible Cab x2
Nash Tele's
New solo PA Jan 6, 2017 11:36:08 GMT -7 thatstatuemoved and Mark N like this
Post by John on Jan 6, 2017 11:36:08 GMT -7
Jan 6, 2017 10:46:58 GMT -7 Rockerfeller said:
1) I know lots of these gigs can be played with one. But all it will take is 1 wide room, and I'll need two for dispersion (more than actual power). They're a brand new model, so discounts are slim. But I was able to beat up Musicians Fiend a bit for 15% off the price. (I had to email a competitor's discount to MF to get them to do it...sheesh..) So for such a good price, I went ahead and got the second one. (street price is $200...I got them for $170) And the 1x8 was $110. And that's a powered speaker!
2) I retired from playing in full, loud, electric bands that have me out until the middle of the night several weekends a month. But for acoustic solo....yeah, I'll come play your bar/restaurant's patio from 5-7pm for more money than I would make with a band. Oh, you want to hire me for a private party? $350 plus food and drink. (undeclared cash will be fine, thank you) And I'm STILL in bed before midnight. I don't have to put up with dictatorships, questionable/drunk/troublesome bandmates. I don't have to play crappy gigs that I wouldn't have booked. I don't have to travel 8 hours in a car for no money. (yeah, that happened) And most of all, I'm not out late. That's what kills me the most.
New solo PA Jan 6, 2017 13:33:56 GMT -7 heynewguy (Ol' Bill) likes this
Post by zpilot on Jan 6, 2017 13:33:56 GMT -7
I think eventually we all go through this.
I was considering a small new Carvin PA head. 8 channels (smallest they make), 2x 250 watt amps and other bells/whistles. only 10lbs, 7.5" high (would definitely fit in equipment case) But I would still need to buy three speakers. (I'd probably just buy three 10" PA/monitor cabinets.
But as nice, small, light and feature filled as the Carvin mixer would be, it's still overkill and the cost of the mixer plus 3 cabinets would be considerably more than what I spent. The 2 troupers combined are about the same cost as the Carvin mixer alone. So the three cabinets (needed for the carvin mixer) would jump the cost by that amount. And I didn't really see any additional benefit.
One thing that's a PITA....for those who love powered speakers: It requires TWO cables going to each speaker. One for the signal, another for the AC power. If you use unpowered cabinets, it's only the 1 line needed.


text:
Q: Getting all selected values from an ASP ListBox I have an ASP ListBox that has the SelectionMode set to "Multiple". Is there any way of retreiving ALL selected elements and not just the last one?
<asp:ListBox ID="lstCart" runat="server" Height="135px" Width="267px" SelectionMode="Multiple"></asp:ListBox>

Using lstCart.SelectedIndex just returns the last element (as expected). Is there something that will give me all selected?

A: You can use the ListBox.GetSelectedIndices method and loop over the results, then access each one via the items collection. Alternately, you can loop through all the items and check their Selected property.
// GetSelectedIndices
foreach (int i in ListBox1.GetSelectedIndices())
{
    // ListBox1.Items[i] ...
}

// Items collection
foreach (ListItem item in ListBox1.Items)
{
    if (item.Selected)
    {
        // item ...
    }
}

// LINQ over Items collection (must cast Items)
var query = from ListItem item in ListBox1.Items where item.Selected select item;
foreach (ListItem item in query)
{
    // item ...
}

// LINQ lambda syntax
var query = ListBox1.Items.Cast<ListItem>().Where(item => item.Selected);

A: use GetSelectedIndices method of listbox
  List<int> selecteds = listbox_cities.GetSelectedIndices().ToList();

        for (int i=0;i<selecteds.Count;i++)
        {
            ListItem l = listbox_cities.Items[selecteds[i]];
        }

A: try using this code I created using VB.NET :
Public Shared Function getSelectedValuesFromListBox(ByVal objListBox As ListBox) As String
    Dim listOfIndices As List(Of Integer) = objListBox.GetSelectedIndices().ToList()
    Dim values As String = String.Empty

    For Each indice As Integer In listOfIndices
        values &= "," & objListBox.Items(indice).Value
    Next indice
    If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(values) Then
        values = values.Substring(1)
    End If
    Return values
End Function

I hope it helps.


text:
Johann Heinrich Arnold (* 1697 in Fürth; † 1770 in Karlsruhe) war ein badischer Werkmeister.

Leben
Arnold war ursprünglich seit 1721 Zimmermann in Karlsruhe. 1729 wurde er als Werkmeister Mitglied der Bauverwaltung in der Markgrafschaft Baden-Durlach, wo er 1743 zum Baumeister im Rang eines Rechnungrats befördert wurde. 1752 übernahm er als Kammerrat die fürstliche Bauaufsicht. 1755 wurde er Mitglied des markgräflichen Bauamts. Arnold hat als Architekt zahlreiche Pläne für Kirchen und Profanbauten in der Markgrafschaft entworfen, wobei er zumeist für Umbauten und Erweiterungen verantwortlich war. Darüber hinaus war er auch als ausführender Baumeister tätig.

Werke

Anmerkungen

Architekt (Karlsruhe)
Zimmerer
Badener
Deutscher
Geboren 1697
Gestorben 1770
Mann

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text:
Road Test: SEAT Leon ST 1.6 TDI SE Business
By Alex Grant / 5 years ago / Road Tests / No Comments
SEAT has packaged popular fleet options into a well-targeted Leon. Alex Grant tries it.Sector: Lower Medium Price: £20,650 Fuel: 68.9mpg CO2: 105g/km
Although SEAT's first SUV isn't far from showrooms, the Leon ST is shows that a practical compact estate car needn't be a boring choice, even if it's leading on whole-life costs rather than its emotional qualities.
Offered on the hatchback and the ST, the SE Business trim is a new addition for 2016, and formalises what was already a commonly-chosen spec for the Leon into its own version. There had been a high fleet take-up for the SE trim and Technology Pack, this makes both standard and adds motorway-friendly adaptive cruise control, rear parking sensors and the Convenience Pack with automatic lights, wipers and a rear-view dimmer. All for £255 over the basic SE.
Curiously, what you don't get is an Ecomotive option. SEAT is offering 108bhp and 148bhp 1.6 and 2.0-litre diesel engines with this trim level, the former lacking the lower suspension, low rolling resistance tyres and aerodynamic body treatment of the most efficient Leon ST. It means CO2 emissions of 105g/km instead of 94g/km, and fuel economy at 68.9mpg – 9.5mpg lower than the Ecomotive can muster, on paper at least.
The big issue for motorway use is that this doesn't come with six gears. It's a brilliant small diesel engine; quiet, lively and with the tiniest thirst for heavy oil when it's driven sensibly. But that extra gear probably accounts for as much of the fuel savings as the rest of the Ecomotive kit, especially for long-distance drivers. However, doing without these add-ons also strips almost £1,000 from the P11d price, which means it's a whole-life consideration that varies on mileage.
Otherwise, though, SEAT's first foray into the lower-medium estate segment is a convincing one and the Leon feels rather upmarket for less than £21,000 on the road. It's neatly designed with a hint of Audi on the outside, and that unmistakeable VW Group build quality – albeit stripped of a little of its plusher features – on the inside. Unsurprisingly, it feels like a Golf to drive; precise, well-weighted and comfortable, if quite firmly sprung, and the engine only feels laboured when the boot is full. Drivers regularly hauling heavy loads or four adult passengers may find the 2.0-litre TDI better suited.
Beneath a sporty silhouette, also manages to be incredibly practical. There's a lengthy, completely flat load area with under-floor storage once the seats are folded down, and the passenger seat optionally folds too. SEAT also appears to have fixed the dim-witted infotainment system, which no longer lags as the navigation whittles down its list of postcodes, and this can be equipped with the excellent Android Auto and Apple CarPlay systems as a £150 option. It's well worth having.
The Tiguan-based Alteca is likely to steal some of the Leon's user-chooser presence when it launches later this year – it could even get an equivalent trim level. But for those who can live without the raised driving position and rugged design, the ST won't leave them wanting.
All the space, comfort and style a long-distance driver could need, and a great alternative to the segment's default options for user-choosers and job-need applications alike. Enough to make six gears feel like an odd omission.
Previous: Volvo Cars to launch UK's 'largest and most ambitious autonomous driving trial' from 2017
Next: New convertible car sharing scheme launches


Bruce Betting Offer | We offer Best Odds Guaranteed on All Bags & Begs greyhound races!
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For startup companies strapped for funds, making it to product launch can take a long time. Most get there in three to five years, but for others it can take longer, even a decade.
The University of Minnesota's new Discovery Capital Investment Program will help accelerate the process of turning breakthrough research into a commercially available product by providing startups the seed funding needed in the highly critical early stages. The program, part of the Office for Technology Commercialization, will invest up to $350,000 in qualifying startup companies formed from university technology that are currently developing their product or service. The amount must be matched by an equal or greater investment from an outside investor and approved by the U's Discovery Capital board of advisers.
Companies interested in receiving funds must submit a business plan and an investor presentation outlining the fundamentals of the business opportunity. The university will choose eligible companies for funding based on the university's potential return on investment, its interest in commercializing technology developed through federally funded research and its desire to keep faculty involved with early-stage companies.
To be eligible for the Discovery Capital Investment Program, a startup must have a license agreement from the U valid for the same field of use it indicates when submitting a business plan for the funding. Companies that have previously received equity capital from other outside investors will not be considered.
Startups interested in applying for the funding should contact their representative with OTC's Venture Center.
Last Modified: July 24, 2017 - 2:24pm.


The bankruptcy of the Monarch airline may represent a loss of 40 million euros for Madeira. The company brought to the Region close to 40 thousand passengers. The Madeiran hotels suffered with the sudden end of Monarch.
The National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC) today reported that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with easyJet to allow Portuguese passengers of the bankrupt Monarch Airlines in the UK to return to Portugal.
In a statement, ANAC said that "in order to ensure passenger protection, it has signed a protocol of collaboration with the airline easyJet to facilitate the return of all passengers affected" by the crisis of the airline Monarch Airlines, "to meet in the United Kingdom on October 2, 2017 and with a return trip to Portugal until October 15" this year.
The regulator points out that "all other passengers with marked and confirmed flights, with departures and arrivals after these dates, should apply for reimbursement and compensation".
The ANAC adds that "for this purpose, the protocol provides for the possibility of returning to Portugal on the easyJet airline, based on 'rescue tariffs', and the marking of the trips is done through" the aviation regulator.
"The performance of ANAC, under this protocol, is exceptional in the face of the emergency potential that the situation of the airline Monarch Airlines entails for passengers retained in the United Kingdom who are not able to return to Portugal," he continues, referring that the passengers covered by the protocol should contact through the electronic address: reservaspassageirosmonarch@anac.pt.
"ANAC will continue to monitor the situation in liaison with the UK Authority and the European Commission in order to bring passengers who wish to return to Portugal and will inform future developments on its online page if it is justified" , he concludes.
If there is a gap in the market – which there clearly is – then someone will step in to fill it.
I agree, once Ryanair sort out their problems I bet they bid for paths. Possibly TAP will reinstate direct flights to/from London.
Yes so glad the UK is leaving the EU when the collapse of Monarch could have been avoided … perhaps the EU will now realise the damage it will do to itself by trying to 'make Britain suffer'. Great Britain will become great again without the EU.
The EU are ending up punishing themselves and their members. Foresight is a wonderful thing, they should remember that.
Absolutely, some company will quickly snap up the new openings. I doubt it will be Ryanair for the Madeira connection though, as they have been refusing to pay the ridiculous airport fees ANA wants in Funchal. There have been Ryanair plans for Madeira, but the rights for the Madeira airport are completely out of proportion, as ar the harbour fees, and Ryanair has stated not being willing to pay these, thus ending negotiations. As for Faythe's remarks, please explain how the EU can be linked the Monarch collapse. Monarch has been balancing on the edge of the precipice for ages and its collapse is no surprise. I shall not enter a political Brexit debate here.
Of course, always blame someone else. Foreigners of preference.


When the toxin invades channels in the cells with this disease produces cellular damage until killing them.
In the venom from the Centruroides tecomanus scorpion from Colima, south-west state of Mexico, over a hundred proteins have been found and identified a "possible" toxic effect against cancer cells, reveals a scientific study.
The preliminary investigation is carried out by specialists of the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Colima (UCOL), who have identified peptides (amino acid molecules) that destroy cancer cells in vitro.
Laura Leticia Valdez Velazquez, head of research, said that when the toxin, derived from scorpion venom, invades channels in the cells with this disease it produces cellular damage until killing them.
Centruroides tecomanus species is one of the most poisonous scorpions of the country. The UCOL already has the genetic sequences of the protein components of the venom.
The scientific team took advantage of the great number of scorpions found in Colima. They began with the collection and extraction of poison, inoculating and immunizing rabbits as part of the teaching career in Pharmaceutical Chemistry Biologist. From this they decided to study the venom with the support of Lourival Possani, from the Institute of Biotechnology of the National Autonomous University od Mexico (UNAM).
The researcher explains that UCOL undertook the task of characterizing each component from the arachnid toxins, one of the most poisonous of the continent. Currently it has identified a group of peptides (about 10) in order to evaluate the have greater toxic effect against lymphoma cells.
"The venom toxins act on ion channels of the cancer cell damaging them. Our interest is for the cell to be selectively removed. We have found that these peptides have affinity with these cells, that is, they could specifically bind to them and induce cancer death".


The nation's leading scorer is Howard's James Daniel, a seasoned junior who plays for a fast-paced team that isn't great. How emblematic of him.
Today I'm officially removing the disclaimer "It's early" from my 2015-16 lexicon. It's not early anymore.
Most of the teams we spend our time talking about have now played 15 or so games, and even the conference seasons are at last well underway. We've now seen 20 percent of all the major-conference games we're going to get in 2016, so forgive me if I feel like I have a pretty good — albeit still adjustable — understanding of where the season's headed on January 13.
To my eyes these are the four factors (if you will) driving this unique season, in order of importance….
Kansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Michigan State, et al., are all fine teams that nevertheless would be ground into a fine neutral-floor powder by the Duke, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Arizona teams we saw last season. Last year was unusually strong at the top. This year is unusually weak. I trust this isn't merely Grandpa Simpson-variety carping on my part; ideally it is instead something I looked into and wondered about before the start of the season. More importantly a diagnosis of no great teams doesn't have to be a dyspeptic lament.
True, when people have said "no great teams" in the past it has customarily been the nut graf in a larger decline-of-the-game critique. I, on the other hand, am a decline skeptic of long standing. From my chair the game is alive and well and fun to watch, and this season the entertainment will consist in part of an NCAA tournament that is there for any Cinderella's taking.
To take one obvious example, this should be a great year to predict a 16-over-1 upset. Not that it will happen, of course, it's just likely to be more likely than in most seasons. Happenstance dictates that some seasons really do host stronger assemblages of talent in Durham, Lexington, and elsewhere than do other seasons. This is one of those "other" seasons.
For recent historical precedents I nominate seasons like 2011, 2013 or 2014. You'll notice that UConn tends to dominate the postseason vacuums created by NGT years. You've been warned.
Last season an average major-conference game that didn't go into overtime had 64 possessions. So far this season that number is 69. This eight percent acceleration in pace has resulted in (well, what do you know?) an eight percent increase in points scored per 40 minutes in major-conference play compared to last year.
Mind you, teams can still go slow if they really want to: Virginia and Miami played a 58-possession game last night. To repeat a point I've offered previously, my concern with regard to the bad old days was never that they gave rise to the relatively slow-paced likes of Wisconsin and Virginia. My concern regarding said days was instead that they gave rise to pale imitations of the Badgers and Cavaliers, mounted by teams that weren't nearly as good at basketball.
The counterintuitive impact of shortening the clock has been a greater degree of tempo heterogeneity. You might assume that shoehorning all action within the confines of 30 seconds would narrow the range of possible stylistic choices where pace is concerned. Go figure, teams in major-conference play are displaying a more diverse array of tempos, statistically speaking, than they did one year ago today. Different fans will vote as they see fit, but personally I prefer "heterogeneous with a faster mean" to "homogeneous with a slower mean." So I'm happy.
At one stroke Simmons would have given KU a category 5 roster, and all this "no great teams" talk would require serious reconsideration. The problem with letting freshmen attend school wherever they wish is that they act like they can, you know, attend school wherever they wish. The nerve.
Note that the team choice made by one (incredible) freshman can have significant ramifications for the entire season. I would cite this as one trait that's more pronounced in college basketball than in any other team sport, professional or college. And I love that this is the case, maybe because it's a nice idiographic counterweight to the nomothetic tendencies of yours truly and his ilk who are always tracking thousands of possessions and droning on about probabilities and tendencies.
Last year gave us not only a freshman like Karl-Anthony Towns but also Jahlil Okafor, D'Angelo Russell, Stanley Johnson, Justise Winslow, Myles Turner, Trey Lyles, Devin Booker, Kelly Oubre, Rashad Vaughn, and Tyus Jones.
This year not so much. Simmons is Simmons, I suspect Brandon Ingram will correctly get more noise and attention thrown his way as soon as Duke plays someone of note, and for all the sturm und drang surrounding Skal Labissiere it's at least a bit ironic that Jamal Murray's been more or less as good as expected. While we're on the subject I also think Diamond Stone is being a tad more DeMarcus Cousins-like than people are choosing to realize, but there you are.
In sum we have Simmons alone on a mountaintop, with guys like Ingram, Murray, Stone and one or two others holding down the "very good in their own right" fort. This is a normal-or-slightly-worse freshman class following hard on the heels of an extraordinary one, and that has left a good deal of blue sky for old guys. As a result the non-Simmons players having the largest impacts this season are almost without exception veterans: Buddy Hield, Denzel Valentine, Kris Dunn, Georges Niang, etc.
The most common way to talk about a college basketball season is as though it were a red line on a stock ticker. Each season the sport is either said to be "up" or "down," and in recent years the latter has been the most popular selection by far.
I wonder if a better metaphor for each discrete college basketball season might be a sandwich, something comprised of some layers that we like more than others. Do I wish we had some of last season's freshman still around or that Simmons had enlisted my invaluable help in choosing a school? You bet, and I'd love to see all of the above playing in category 5 locales at this season's pace. See? Layers.
Enjoy the EASV! I know I will.
This entry was posted in hoops, in many ways the work of a critic is easy, wednesday wonderings on January 13, 2016 by johngasaway.


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Home News Connecticut Inmate Awarded $250Ok After Giving Beginning in Cell
Connecticut Inmate Awarded $250Ok After Giving Beginning in Cell
Connecticut officials are demanding over $ 250,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by an inmate after giving birth alone in her cell without medical assistance.
Connecticut officials recently agreed to settle a lawsuit by a state prison inmate who "gave birth in a toilet in her cell and claims she was denied medical care." Despite agreeing to pay more than $ 250,000, officials have not admitted any wrongdoing.
A female prisoner tied up in prison. Image via Wikimedia Commons / User: OfficerBimblebury. (CCA-BY-4.0)
According to the lawsuit, Tianna Laboy, an inmate at the York Correctional Institution Women's Prison in Niantic, "complained of severe abdominal pain and bloody discharge in the hours before the birth in 2018, but was informed that medical staff was unavailable." On February 13, 2018, she gave birth "five weeks early, without medical assistance" in her cell's toilet. After the traumatic birth, the child had to spend two weeks in the intensive care unit and is "now in the care of Laboy's mother".
Shortly after the child was born, "two UConn Health staff who provided medical care in the prison were dragged out of prison and told not to return while the matter was being investigated." However, their licenses are still up-to-date on the state's Department of Health website. In addition, there are "no records of disciplinary actions or pending charges against her".
Two weeks after the incident, the state announced a change in medical care for inmates. Rather than having UConn Health responsible for inmate health, the Corrections Department is taking on "in response to growing concerns about medical care for inmates across the state."
Following the incident, the Corrections Department investigated the matter and discovered "a number of missteps, including the fact that nurses did not associate Laboy's abdominal pain with premature birth."
Of the $ 250,000 settlement agreement, $ 83,000 will go towards attorneys' fees, while approximately $ 112,000 will go to a trust for Laboy's daughter. Another $ 55,000 will be used "for 23-year-old Laboy, who is serving a seven-year prison sentence in the state women's prison for failing to fatally stabbing a male companion in New Britain in 2017," said Kenneth Krayeske, one of the lawyers who Laboy represented. It is important to note, however, that the agreement does not include things like "required medical training for staff that would improve conditions" in prison, Krayeske said. He added:
"It's just money … It's not about the terms of your detention and it's not about some of the bigger problems. We have not received any injunctions or promises from the state that this will not happen again. "
Swell:
Inmate who gave birth in the cell receives $ 250,000 settlement
The inmate who gave birth on the toilet in the CT cell will receive $ 250,000 in severance pay
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Former NY Times Executive Editor Tells Politico: David Brock Is Right, The Times Gives Hillary Clinton Unfair Scrutiny
Blog ››› March 21, 2016 11:12 AM EDT ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
According to Politico's Glenn Thrush, Jill Abramson, the former New York Times executive editor, said in a recent interview that she agreed with Media Matters founder David Brock that the Times has given an unfair "level of scrutiny" to Hillary Clinton.
Over the past year, the Times has repeatedly bungled reporting on Hillary Clinton's use of email, falsely claiming in a July report that Clinton was under criminal investigation, a story for which they issued numerous corrections. The Times' public editor Margaret Sullivan criticized the paper for publishing a "sensational" story with "major journalistic problems." In response to that report and several other issues with the paper's journalism David Brock called on the Times to commission a review of its reporting on Clinton.
Politico's Glenn Thrush reported March 21 that Abramson, in an interview, said she "agree[d]" with Brock that the Times gave the Clintons "an unfair 'level of scrutiny,'" saying Hillary Clinton "'does get more scrutiny" than other candidates - especially male candidates.'" From Politico:
A couple of years back, a friend of Hillary Clinton's told me the candidate-to-be was "disappointed" that the first woman to edit the New York Times -- veteran investigative reporter Jill Abramson -- wasn't more sympathetic to her plight as a feminist pioneer in politics.
In fact, both the candidate and her more volatile spouse went a lot further, venting to people around them that they saw the country's most powerful paper as a kind of special prosecutor in a blue plastic bag, whose top editors were bent on scouring them with an alacrity not directed at other politicians ("They are out to get us," the former president told a friend more recently).
No way, says Abramson, whose personal association with the Clintons goes back nearly 40 years. (Little-known fact: the woman who led coverage of the Clintons at the Times for a decade -- as Washington bureau chief, and then as executive editor -- briefly worked as a consultant on one of Bill Clinton's campaigns in Arkansas.) But Abramson lingers on the larger point of media fairness to Hillary Clinton, and gingerly concedes something few editors would ever admit.
"She does get more scrutiny" than other candidates - especially male candidates, Abramson told me during a 50-minute interview for POLITICO's "Off Message" podcast last week. When I asked her if Clinton's arch-defender David Brock had a point when he lashed the Times for giving the Clintons an unfair "level of scrutiny," she interrupted - to agree.
"Yeah, I do," said Abramson - who was ousted in 2014 after reportedly complaining that her compensation package was inferior to that of her male predecessor, Bill Keller.
"[W]e, for some reason, expect total purity from a woman candidate," added Abramson, who rose to the top job in 2011. "I did not feel, during my regime, that we were giving her way more scrutiny than anyone else." But, she said, "Where I think Hillary Clinton faces, you know, certainly more of a burden is that the controversies she's been in are immediately labeled, you know, Travel-gate or Email-gate... if you actually asked people what about any of these controversies bothers them, they don't know anything specific about any of them."
And Abramson isn't overly impressed by the one Clinton storyline getting the most attention: the lingering probe into the former secretary of state's "homebrew" email server during her Foggy Bottom tenure. Like Whitewater, the scandal was uncovered by a New York Times reporter; like Whitewater, it is regarded as a deus ex machina by Republicans facing political gloom; and like Whitewater, it will likely turn out to be more froth than flood, in Abramson's view. "I won't say nothing - but very little," she said, referring to the sum significance of Clinton's scandals.
When I asked if the Times email stories (executed after her departure, in 2015) were "a big deal," Abramson - who has taken pains not to criticize her former paper or its current editors - paused.
"It depends on, you know, what your definition of "big deal" is, but I'm not going to play Bill Clinton for you here," she said, referring to the former president's infamous what-is-is monologue during his Monica Lewinsky deposition. "The issue, to me, that's at the crux is that everything that we know that was classified was classified after the fact, after the emails were sent. And so, why is that a big deal? And the fact that she had this private email is something that, you know, I've read widely, a lot of people in the government - Colin Powell, let's face it, got much bigger speaking fees than Hillary did."
Bill Clinton, David Brock


What happens when a group of people from disparate backgrounds, working in different fields and different cultures suddenly realise that they are an ACTUAL community and that's where their strength lies?
That's what happened to me while taking part in the third instalment of the Fire Starter Festival Performance trilogy.
Over the past three years a bunch of us have been self-organising and resourcing a series of sessions broadly around the theme of performance. We have been challenging commonly held views around measuring what matters, focusing on outcomes, seeking complex solutions and asking some questions about why we do what we do and what we measure what we measure?
Last year's session used a fishbowl technique to encourage involvement from a range of https://firestarterfestival.com/2017/05/05/lighting-a-bonfire-of-performance-measures/.
From that session, the small gang gathered more interested members and we were able to put on two larger events at #FSF2018 on 'Impact Heresy' and 'A Whole New World'.
Wow – what a turnout, we were a sell-out show! Brilliant discussions and presentations from a range of people keen to challenge the norm and do things differently. Twitter and Sli.do (our fancy app) recorded it all for us (even trending at one point).
Previous What are you going to do about it?
I want to keep talking – count me me!


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The Wind (Artemis Records)
The heartfelt, dark piano ballad "Please Stay" resonates on Warren Zevon's last album, The Wind, recorded after he found out he had mesothelioma, a rare lung cancer. Released two weeks before his death on September 7, 2003, Zevon lived long enough to see both his daughter Ariel give birth to twin boys and his final album's release.
Featuring guest appearances by longtime friends Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Dwight Yoakam, Don Henley, Jackson Browne, and Emmylou Harris, everyone comes together to help Zevon go out strong. And that he does.
From the blues-y strut of "Rub Me Raw", the rustic rock of "Dirty Life and Times", and a cover of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" that signals both acceptance and respect for death, Zevon delivers maybe not his best album, but a solid one without a weak spot.
Brought to life even more so with the help of his friends', especially the backing vocals by Petty ("The Rest of the Night") and Springsteen ("Disorder in the House", which also featuring Springsteen on electric guitar, and "Prison Grove"). The Wind is a heart pounding, teary-eyed listen from start to finish, a gripping collection of meaningful, lyrically astute songs from a man who looks death in the face and keeps doing what he does best - making memorable music. I'll give it an A-.
Warren Zevon: Life'll Kill Ya Warrior: The Wars of Gods and Men
[Issue Sixty-Three // November-December 2003]


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