text:
Elena Kagan: Would She Turn Supreme Court Into We the People?
Mike Sacks,
The Christian Science Monitor | Report
Washington – They are fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, opera lovers and salsa dancers, long-winded pedants and quick-witted conversationalists, cancer survivors and nonagenarian swimmers, West Coasters and East Coasters, Winnebago drivers and airplane pilots. Aside from being nine of the most powerful men and women in the United States, the Supreme Court justices are also a lot like We the People.
But when we talk about the court looking like America, we also mean things such as the justices' religions, races, genders, and sexual orientations. We mark our progress as a society by the diversity of these traits on the court. And President Obama's nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan makes plain how far we've come, and for some, how much further we have to go.
If Ms. Kagan is confirmed after US Senate hearings scheduled to start June 28, then the court will have certain demographics represented in numbers that 50 years ago would have seemed unimaginable: three women, three Jews, six Roman Catholics. Kagan's confirmation also would mean that, for the first time, the court would be left without any white Protestant males, who until 1993, commanded a majority of the court.
Yet as commentators, court watchers, and interest groups remind us, a cast of nine characters made up of two religions, three races, one sexual orientation, and an all-Ivy-League pedigree are hardly avatars of the nation's self-image.
But would justice be served any differently if the court looked more like America? As the US political process has grown more pluralistic, that question is complicated by the debate about whether justice can be completely blind and adhere to the letter of the law as if it was unambiguously laid down by the Founding Fathers, or whether modern reality suggests that a justice's background and life experience can fairly factor into a modern interpretation of a 223-year-old Constitution.
What one looks like is not a proxy for what one believes, warned Justice Thurgood Marshall at his retirement press conference in 1991. Responding to a reporter's question about whether President George H.W. Bush had any obligation to name a minority candidate to succeed Justice Marshall, the nation's first African-American justice said, "My dad told me way back that you can't use race. For example, there's no difference between a white snake and a black snake. They'll both bite."
He meant that race should not be used as an excuse for "doing wrong"; rather it should be a factor to consider in the broader effort to "pick the best person for the job." And, for Marshall, "doing wrong" meant contributing to the increasingly conservative Supreme Court's dismantling of liberal landmarks he'd helped build as a lawyer and justice.
By those definitions, Marshall suggested, Bush's nominee, Clarence Thomas, was "the wrong Negro" to succeed him, where there was a direct line between his experiences as a black man in America to his votes in favor of affirmative action and against the death penalty. Indeed, Justice Thomas's strict originalism – adherence to a literal interpretation of the Constitution – certainly changed the direction of the court's so-called "black" seat.
"The point of the 'black' seat," says Elie Mystal, editor of the popular online legal tabloid Above the Law, "is to recognize and appreciate the fact that there was in this country a people with a historical position of servitude and our commitment to work our way out of that. Thomas goes against those things."
And, echoing Marshall, Ms. Mystal adds: "It's not about black and white; it's about where you stand on civil rights."
Yet to many, Thomas is a political and jurisprudential ideal. In his 19 years on the bench, he has held fast to the "colorblind Constitution," consistently coming to conservative results in cases in which race has played a role. Where Marshall looked favorably upon affirmative action policies, calling them "race-conscious measures designed to remedy past discrimination," Thomas believes they constitute "racial discrimination, plain and simple." And where Marshall cited contemporary studies showing racial imbalance to insist that the death penalty "is in all instances cruel and unusual punishment forbidden by the Eighth Amendment" to the Constitution, Thomas looks to the Founders' generation and their comfort with capital punishment to conclude that "it is clear that the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit the death penalty."
"Thomas approaches the law by trying to look at the history or intent of the Constitution and its framers," says Carrie Severino, policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative advocacy group. Thomas's rock-ribbed originalism, then, as opposed to "voting differently based on your identity," Ms. Severino insists, "is the test of whether one is being principled judicially."
Thomas's approach received a public relations boost in the 2005 confirmation hearings for Chief Justice John G. Roberts, when Justice Roberts compared the judges' work to that of umpires – simply calling balls and strikes within the Constitution's preset strike zone. His compelling metaphor – and his flawless performance in those hearings – changed the game for future nominees who might dare to suggest they'd judge any differently.
Under Roberts's rubric, minority candidates would now have to testify that they, like Thomas, would engage in cold constitutional calculus, not Marshall's empathy-inflected jurisprudence.
Accordingly, when Sonia Sotomayor sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee last summer, she appeared positively robotic in agreeing with the Republicans' demands that she disavow any suggestion that her life experience would influence her judging.
Specifically, she sought to obscure the real significance of her oft-delivered line: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."
The "wise Latina" statement clashed with the notion that judges must do nothing more than look to the history or intent behind the law at issue. Justice Sotomayor's Democratic supporters, not at all willing to turn the historic nomination of the first Latin-American to the Supreme Court into a dragged-out national referendum on constitutional interpretation, claimed the quote was taken out of context. But the entire speech, given in 2001, was about "whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society." She claimed that "aspiration to impartiality is just that – it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that [women and people of color] are by our experiences making different choices than others."
Yet when it came time for Sotomayor to defend her speech, she repeatedly demurred, casting herself as a strict constructionist on the Constitution's text and history.
Unseized upon by either side in the Sotomayor hearings was her comment in the same "wise Latina" speech that "Justice Clarence Thomas represents a part but not the whole of African-American thought on many subjects." Indeed, his personal experience with affirmative action left him feeling as if he'd been stamped with a "badge of inferiority," as he put it in a 1995 opinion. To this day, according to his autobiography, his Yale diploma, upon which he placed a sticker reading "15¢," sits in his basement.
But diversity as simply an aesthetic versus experience that comes to bear in interpreting the law will not disappear. It affects every potential next "first" on the court – such as the first Asian-American, the first gay, or the first atheist.
But are identity politics antithetical to an independent judiciary?
"The court is not a representative body, and it's not clear its function is to be a representative body in any way," says Barry Friedman, vice dean of the New York University Law School in New York City and author of "The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution." However, Mr. Friedman concedes, "in deciding legal questions, it does become important for the court's long-term credibility to reach conclusions that are acceptable to the American people."
One way to stay credible is to have justices whom Americans identify with and admire.
"As a minority, it is gratifying and yes, important, for me to see people of color on the Supreme Court and in other positions of leadership," says Viet Dinh, a law professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and a former high-ranking official in George W. Bush's Department of Justice. "When I see a Justice Thomas or a Justice Sotomayor," continues Mr. Dinh in an e-mail interview, "I am inspired by their example, for the simple reason that they have overcome so much, that they made it there not because of their race, but in spite of it."
Dinh, too, may one day be another's inspiring example. A prominent conservative lawyer who came to the United States in 1978 as a 10-year-old Vietnamese refugee; clerked for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor; and went on to help draft the USA Patriot Act after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; he could very well end up on a Republican president's shortlist for a Supreme Court vacancy.
And if high-profile nominations to the federal courts of appeal are any indication of which demographic is next in line for Supreme Court representation, Asian-Americans appear to be on deck.
Mr. Obama recently nominated Goodwin Liu, whom The New York Times called a "liberal legal rock star," to the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Professor Liu, a 39-year-old University of California, Berkeley, law professor, has faced the kind of Republican Senate scrutiny reserved for lower-court nominees whose confirmations appear to be little more than steppingstones to the Supreme Court.
In endorsing Liu, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) trumpets on its website his many qualifications, then states that the "confirmation of Professor Liu would help promote diversity in the federal judiciary, where Asian Pacific Americans are significantly underrepresented." Such a broad reason for support could as easily apply to Dinh, despite his and Liu's ideological differences.
But while NAPABA has taken no stand on whether diversity's value is aesthetic or experiential, Billy Chan, the Asian-American Bar Association president, has sided with Sotomayor's now-disavowed speech. "[Liu] brings more than his superior qualifications as a lawyer and a teacher. He brings his perspective as a person of color raised and working in the United States," wrote Mr. Chan in an April letter to the editor in the San Francisco Chronicle.
He chided conservatives for assuming "judges can magically remove themselves from life experience and make decisions purely on the facts and the law … [they] are affected by their background and life experience as well as their intellectual analysis, and it is unrealistic to pretend otherwise."
But upon this sentiment, Dinh, Chan's fellow Asian-American, disagrees. "Justice O'Connor loved saying that a wise old woman thinks the same as a wise old man," says Dinh, voicing the very sentiment Sotomayor contested in her 2001 speech. "I think it is a profound mistake to assume that a person will think a certain way or approach the law from a certain perspective because of their backgrounds, be it race, gender, religion, or even political affiliation."
In the beginning, long before religion, race, and Roe v. Wade, there was geography. Starting with George Washington's first batch of Supreme Court justices, "the need for geographic diversity was a matter of practicality," says David Yalof, author of the book "Pursuit of Justices: Presidential Politics and the Selection of Supreme Court Nominees." Until Congress created the courts of appeal in 1891, the justices "rode circuit," traveling to their home regions to hear appeals arising out of federal courts.
And geography played a role in President Lincoln's appointment of Justice Stephen J. Field, who came to the court to represent the country's newly admitted Pacific Coast states. His formative experiences in California's unregulated gold rush boomtowns led him to become the architect of the Supreme Court's turn-of-the-century laissez-faire, pro-property rights jurisprudence.
Political loyalty also mattered to the early presidents. Chief Justice John Marshall's Federalist Party affiliation animated perhaps the most important case in Supreme Court history: 1803's Marbury v. Madison. President Adams appointed Marshall in 1801 so as to entrench the Federalists' political philosophy in a national government about to be taken over by their ideological antagonists, Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican Party. By establishing judicial review – or the court's power to strike down an act of Congress – Marshall's Marbury opinion sent a warning to the Jefferson administration and Congressional allies to tread lightly in setting national policy that may be at odds with the Federalists on the court.
Loyalty and geography governed even the nomination of the court's first Catholic, Roger B. Taney. "There is no evidence that [President] Jackson meant to appeal to a Catholic constituency [with Taney]," Mr. Yalof notes.
In the tense antebellum period, presidents sought to maintain the court's sectional balance to stave off the Union's dissolution. When Taney, a slave-holding Marylander, became chief justice in 1836, he represented the sensibilities of the important border state as the court began hearing many cases that divided its justices along regional lines. But Taney's majority opinion in the 1857 Dred Scott case, which found that African slaves and their free descendants could never be US citizens, helped hurl the country toward the Civil War.
Although regional representation continued through and beyond the war, it ceased for a century as political shorthand. Instead, presidents sought political loyalists from every section of the country: Lincoln primarily selected Unionists, Gilded Age presidents largely nominated free marketers, and Franklin D. Roosevelt exclusively seated New Dealers.
"As we get more comfortable with … 'firsts,' we will begin to fight more along ideological lines and not be hampered by demographic diversity," suggests Guy-Uriel Charles, founding director of the Center on Law, Race and Politics at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
If Professor Charles is correct, then Kagan is the future. She is poised to become the court's third woman and Jew on the current Supreme Court, but one would be hard-pressed to find her jurisprudence questioned or assumed on the basis of her gender or religion. Instead, she has been assailed from the right for her liberal positions in memos to Thurgood Marshall, for whom she clerked in the late 1980s. The left has criticized her for being too deferential to a president's wartime authority in her role as Obama's solicitor general. Further, Kagan will not be expected to speak for all women or Jews, just as Justice John Paul Stevens – whom she has been nominated to replace as he retires – was not expected to speak for all white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant men.
Nevertheless, gender and religion do remain salient in their own distinct ways, argues Charles.
"I think we would all be worried if we had a Supreme Court that was all male," Charles says. A lack of parity could appear to be "discrimination in favor of a particular group rather than the luck of the draw" now that there are so many qualified women for the job.
However, a court evenly split by sex would look suspicious to Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network. With women's "more involved child-caring responsibilities," Severino says, "the kind of person that's going to have spent the amount of time necessary to be in the pretty slim group of people qualified for a Supreme Court nomination is disproportionately going to be male."
Still, she's "happy that we're getting to a place in which Kagan wasn't necessarily chosen because she's a woman," in contrast to how the public perceived President Reagan's 1981 nomination of Justice O'Connor, who came from relative obscurity as a state appeals court judge in Arizona.
As women inch toward parity on the bench, Catholics and Jews are a Senate's vote away from constituting the entire court, reflecting the fact that these religious minorities are part of the American political mainstream. This does not mean, though, that minority religious representation will remain uncontroversial.
"When you have your first Muslim that's appointed to the Supreme Court, it will be a big deal," says Charles, considering the fact that the court and the country continue to be deeply divided on national security issues arising out of 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It will eventually happen, whether in five or 50 years, and it's going to raise some issues for some people, but after it happens, it's going to be less of an issue."
Then there's the question of limited seating. "The court only has nine members, so you can't do an adequate job of representing all of America at once," says David Lat, founding editor of Above the Law and a right-leaning libertarian. As a gay Asian-American, he runs the numbers per his own demographics. Asian-Americans are 5 percent of the population and gays are 10 percent. Both groups currently claim no justices, but will be proportionally overrepresented upon the confirmation of just one.
Kevin Cathcart, the executive director of Lambda Legal, a gay rights advocacy organization, takes a longer view and finds that the court has some catching up to do. "If you look at the justices over the court's history or even in the last 20 years, the number of them that have been women or people of color is staggeringly low."
Nevertheless, says Mr. Cathcart, "the likelihood of getting an openly gay person on the Supreme Court will be much improved when we live in a society in which openly gay people can more reasonably aspire to positions throughout the federal bench."
But rising through the judicial system is hardly the only route to a seat on the court – 39 of the 111 justices over time have not been judges before. By nominating Kagan, Obama may have started a trend back toward tapping nonjudges for the court, which had not been repeated after President Nixon's 1971 nominations of William Rehnquist, a Justice Department lawyer, and Lewis Powell, a prominent corporate attorney in private practice.
But although Cathcart has seen "dramatic increases" in the acceptance of gay people in law firms, academia, and elected office over the past two decades, he believes the confirmation process for openly gay nominees selected from those fields will be a significant obstacle as long as sexual orientation remains politicized in the Senate.
Gender, race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are all critical components in the court's most politically charged and bitterly divisive issues, from abortion and affirmative action to national security and gay rights. Even if the results in these cases often seem zero-sum, all sides recognize the symbolic importance of a more diverse bench making the decisions.
But when those decisions ultimately boil down to answering "yes" or "no" on questions of great public interest, explains Friedman, the author of a book on the court and public opinion, "it's not going to be uncommon for people to divide 5-4," whatever their backgrounds.
So the court, staffed by men and women nominated and confirmed for their ideological fealty to one of two political parties, doesn't threaten kaleidoscopic chaos in its judgments.
Rather, the court is more like an ever-improving pair of 3-D glasses. Whether a justice comes to a decision aided by – or in spite of – his or her life experiences, a diverse bench enriches the court, united or divided, and may more clearly see and reflect American attitudes in their most true-to-life details.
It may be a gradual evolution for minority justices who start out as "avatars of their entire communities" to be regarded as fully absorbed additions to age-old ideological factions, says Wajahat Ali, a Pakistani-American lawyer and political commentator. "But America is one of those places, just by virtue of its creation, [where] these things really can occur."
Matt Rocheleau contributed research.
Mike Sacks


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


xJson a super-simple HTML/JSON based Templating engine that is fast, tiny (less than 2kB when compressed) and easy to use.
It is more powerful than you can imagine.
xJson does very few things (data templating), but it performs extremely well.
See the Pen xJson Basics by AlbertSY (@AlbertSY) on CodePen.
If you want to see more samples, take a tour here.
Some are very basic, some are more sophisticated. But all are very easy to handle. Take a tour here.
Please find all the api documentation here.


text:
I Aint Afraid Of No Ghosts
According to GamesIndustry, Activision is "realigning" staff and "reviewing [their] options regarding those titles that [they] will not be publishing". Basically, Activision-Blizzard has submitted its release schedule without any mention of Ghostbusters, Terminal Reality, 50: Cent's Blood on the Sandwich (cool) and Brutal Legend.
Staff at High Moon Studios and Radical Entertainment are being realigned, while the good folk at Massive Entertainment and Swordfish are wondering whether their studios will be sold, or worse, closed. Activision's CEO Mike Griffith also declared Vivendi Games Mobile and Sierra Online as "non-strategic business units".
"We are focused on improving efficiency across the combined organisation and are concentrating on businesses where we have leadership positions that are aligned with Activision Publishing's long-term corporate objectives," he said in a statement.
"We have conducted a thorough review of Vivendi Games' brand portfolio and are retaining those franchises and titles that are a strong fit with our long-term product strategy. We are reviewing our options regarding those titles that we will not be publishing."
Thankfully, fluff like Crash Bandicoot and Ice Age are still planned for release, alongside The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. "We are very excited to add such recognisable and successful brands as Crash Bandicoot, Ice Age and Spyro, which reinforce our leadership position in movie-based and family entertainment video games," said Griffith.
Update: Destructoid have done the unthinkable and actually asked the Sierra PR team. "It is not cancelled and will not be cancelled," said Mr PR. We'll hopefully hear more later today.
Tags: Ghostbusters
There's a new Ghostbusters game in production at Illfonic
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Fixed-layout eBooks are created with the exact graphic design layout as their print book counterparts that cannot be altered by any reader, as opposed to the standard "reflowable" formats in eBook files. Fixed-layout eBooks are a popular format today, especially for children's picture books, cookbooks, coffee table books, travel books and business/textbooks, which contain heavy formatting, and lots of tables and graphics.
DiTech offers you fixed Layout ePUB conversion services, creating fully-functional HTML- based eBook files with provision for including enhancements to make them more interesting and interactive. Fixed Layout eBooks are created with "full-bleed" (edge-to-edge) artworks through a complex production process, more akin to typesetting a page on the device screen. It involves manipulating the fixed format layout publication file, controlling the page layout, position images and embeds fonts, to create a single image page spread with layered elements.
All the prominent eBook retailers (Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Apple, Kobo) and the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), have developed precisely fixed layout formats and our team of expert media designers, technologists and graphic designers are fully trained and equipped to produce such eBooks while retaining printed page fidelity and providing scope for richer presentation possibilities. Fixed Layout format eBooks are ideally suited for titles which contain multicolumn text pages, page design, design elements, illustrations, artistic photography, fixed aspect ratios, original art, colour and graphics that impact reading comprehension and enjoyment.


text:
/*!
	@file
	@author		Albert Semenov
	@date		01/2009
*/
#ifndef COLOUR_WINDOW_CELL_DATA_H_
#define COLOUR_WINDOW_CELL_DATA_H_

#include <MyGUI.h>

namespace demo
{

	class ColourWindowCellData
	{
	public:
		ColourWindowCellData()
		{
		}

		ColourWindowCellData(const MyGUI::Colour& _colour, const std::string& _name) :
			m_colour(_colour),
			m_name(_name)
		{
		}

		const std::string& getName() const
		{
			return m_name;
		}

		const MyGUI::Colour& getColour() const
		{
			return m_colour;
		}

	private:
		MyGUI::Colour m_colour;
		std::string m_name;
	};

} // namespace demo

#endif // COLOUR_WINDOW_CELL_DATA_H_

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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The Elite Ace Backpack is the first non-meal management bag in the Six Pack Luxury Line. The Ace is the pinnacle of performance in a superbly organized and trend setting backpack. Made with tough ballistic nylon and methodically designed with 10+ pockets for precise organization this is the ultimate day to day backpack for the Six Pack Fitness Elite. With dual full length side pockets, laptop sleeve, soft accessories pocket and large main compartment, this fitness bag will keep your life as focused as your fitness plan, while keeping your fashion forward professional style in sync.


Here, after drawing the string, I've used ribbon tangles to define spaces that are filled with other tangles. For me, this is a simple way of creating a Zentangle from randomly chosen designs.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen.


The North Carolina Department of Insurance received a Dwelling insurance rate filing from the N.C. Rate Bureau on Wednesday, Feb. 7. The N.C. Rate Bureau, which is not part of the Department of Insurance, represents all companies writing property insurance in the state. The Rate Bureau requested a statewide average rate increase of 18.9 percent, varying by territory, with a requested effective date of Oct. 1, 2018. This filing includes a requested increase of 40.5 percent for extended coverage (wind) policies, but a decrease of 20.8 percent for fire polices, making the statewide average request an increase of 18.9 percent.
Dwelling insurance policies are not homeowners insurance policies. Dwelling policies are offered to non-owner-occupied residences of no more than four units, including rental properties, investment properties and other properties that are not occupied full-time by the property owner.
The Rate Bureau has also requested revisions to the current geographic rating territories. The proposed territory revisions are the same territory definitions applicable to homeowners' policies.
The filing will be reviewed by Department of Insurance experts to determine what, if any, rate adjustments are warranted. If NCDOI and the Rate Bureau do not initially agree on the proposed rate changes, a public hearing will be called in which both parties would present their cases to a hearing officer, who would then determine the appropriate rate level.
The filing is available for public review on the Department of Insurance website (http://www.ncdoi.com/PC/Default.aspx) and the SERFF Filing Access (https://filingaccess.serff.com/sfa/home/NC). Enter the SERFF Tracking Number NCRI-131370773.
In person during a public comment forum from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, March 23, 2018, in the Second Floor Hearing Room at the Albemarle Building, 325 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh.
By email sent to: [email protected] Comments will be accepted through March 23, 2018.
By mail sent to: N.C. Department of Insurance, Attn. Tricia Ford, Legal Division, 1201 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1201.


A man was killed by a northbound A train Monday afternoon in Harlem, police and fire department officials said.
The incident at the 125th Street Station at St. Nicholas Avenue was reported at 3:04 p.m.
Emergency responders found an unidentified adult male underneath the train. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A preliminary assessment indicated that the death was accidental, police said.


text:
For many Newcastle teenagers in the mid-sixties, the Club a'Gogo was their own piece of Heaven. The unlicensed part of the club, known as the Young Set was an exciting place to go to get away from the humdrum routines of daily life. It was a place where people could meet friends, make new ones, see some of the UK's best bands, dance to excellent music and generally have a great evening in a club with an atmosphere second to none.
Perhaps the night wouldn't end when the Young Set closed at around 11.00pm. For older teenagers or those who could convince the door staff they were over 18, they could continue partying into the small hours next door in the Jazz Lounge, the licensed room that catered for a slightly older clientele.
Many ex-Club a'Gogo members and attendees, now into their late sixties or seventies remember the club with great affection. Over the last decade or so advances in technology and the familiarisation with social media have reunited a lot of the Club a'Gogo crowd that were around in the mid-sixties, some of whom hadn't seen each other for decades. They now have the means of reliving times gone by and sharing their memories of club nights and other social activities with their contemporaries. Not only do some remember their evenings inside the Club a'Gogo but also the anticipation and growing excitement before they actually set foot in the place. Some recall being in the queues that formed outside the club, in particular if a popular band was due to appear. Often on a busy night the queue would stretch back along Percy Street as far as the Co-op store near Gallowgate. Others remember the queue turning into Leazes Lane towards St James Park football ground. For those in the queue the excitement would build as they approached the club doorway past Jeavons record shop and Faglemans the jewellers. But the anticipation didn't end at the ground floor entrance to the club.
The Club a'Gogo doorway wasn't an elaborate fixture worthy of a top city music venue. Neither was the stairway leading up to the Young Set and Jazz Lounge on the second floor. The corridor leading to the stairs and the flights of stairs were uncarpeted. They were purely functional with a shared route to several businesses including a canteen for Newcastle bus crews on the first floor. But once past the door staff, the music filtering down from the second floor was a taste of what was to come. On ascending the stairs the sound of recorded Soul music, Tamla Motown or Rhythm & Blues music became more recognisable – the Four Tops, Junior Walker, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, the Isley Brothers or the Rolling Stones. Then at the top of the stairs a short walk and a left turn into Heaven for an evening of unrivalled enjoyment.
Back in 1962 when Mike Jeffery opened his Newcastle venue, the Club a'Gogo, as a Jazz and Latin American club he would never have contemplated that a few years later his venture would become one of the country's top clubs for rock and beat music; a club that is still revered over five decades later. Neither would he have thought that the Club a'Gogo would eventually be honoured by the City of Newcastle for generations to come.
For the last year husband and wife team, Paul and Jools Donnelly have put a lot of energy into campaigning for the Club a'Gogo to be commemorated with a blue plaque. The couple are too young to have been around when the Club a'Gogo was thriving but they are both passionate about Newcastle's musical heritage, in particular the music and mod scene in the mid-sixties.
Armed with a lot of facts about the Club a'Gogo's illustrious musical history and a petition signed by a lot of ex-Gogo club members, the Donnellys convinced the authorities that the Club a'Gogo was indeed worthy of blue plaque.
Mike Jeffery and his iconic club no longer exist. Mike was killed in a plane crash in 1973. The building that housed the Club a'Gogo was demolished in 1987 to make way for the Eldon Gardens Shopping Centre.
Well it's not possible to place a plaque on a building that is no longer there. The only option would be to mount it at a spot relevant to the old Club a'Gogo. As the club was actually on the second floor of the Handyside Buildings, the best street level spot would be the site of the afore mentioned doorway leading to the flights of stairs that accessed the upper floors. The problem is that all the adjoining buildings are gone so there are no longer any visible points of reference to help locate the position of the long lost portal to the Club a'Gogo.
A few weeks ago I was asked if I knew the position of the Club a'Gogo doorway. I could only stab a guess based on old photos of the Handyside Building in relation to some photos I had taken of the Eldon Gardens Shopping Centre back in 2007 for the Club a'Gogo page on this site. However, with a combination of old and new technology it is possible to come up with a fairly accurate grid reference. By overlaying a 1940s Ordnance Survey map, which shows both the Handyside Arcade and what was to become the entrance to the Club a'Gogo, over an up-to-date aerial shot of Percy Street the old Gogo doorway in relation to it's modern surroundings can be pinpointed.
I believe the unveiling of the plaque will take place early in 2022. So if you're an old Club a'Gogo member or attendee and you're interested in being a part of the ceremony keep an eye on the local Newcastle media or one of the Club a'Gogo Facebook pages.
Rog's Blog1965Club A'GogoClubsMike JefferyNewcastle
1 month ago 4 Comments
john woodland
Strange place. Many stories. Met Jimi there and shook his hand - organised by our manager Ray Graham. Miss those times. I used to finish my gig and go there on my own.
Iain Hart
Memories of the Club a Gogo. Saw John Mayall's Bluesbreakers a few times, Spencer Davis (when their system packed up and did an acoustic set), Georgie Fame and his Blue Flames, Wilson Pickett and when Geno Washington wanted a good entrance onto the stage asked my friend John McNee and I to shoulder carry him across the floor. and many more - We were fortunate to look older so got into the Jazz lounge.
Iain Hart ex South Shields now in Kent
This is really major exciting news!
It's strange, that during the years I was signed with Michael, and knew him as the perceptive, inspirational, whimsical person he was - for some reason, I never knew exactly what part of England he was from, or all this history concerning Club A Go Go - such a rich, vital part of history!
Because of your website, so many amazing doors opened to me and it's almost as tho Michael, himself - like a sort of Wizard of Oz, had magically orchestrated these events - starting from the brilliant Brian Wheeler article in Shindig Magazine, "The Original Electric Lady," then getting my home studio up and running, getting gigs again and working on an animated series based around a long-forgotten character I'd enacted back then, called "Astrogirl," it all wouldn't have been possible without this connection!
I really want to be part of the ceremony about the Plaque!
Please let me know when it's going to happen and I'll hope to be there.
Oh - PS - wanted to mention another thing Michael would've been happy about, I did a new album of songs in my "mini-Electric Lady" home studio, called "Box of Crayons ? " which is on all the streaming sources, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Tik Tik, Amazon, and iTunes! Plus now, working on a new one, called "Bonded Courier" so I really think Michael would be smiling now…


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Q: mvn --version throws ClassNotFoundException Through chef I have installed the maven in a amazonlinux2 instance. When I run the "mvn --version" command as a ec2-user I am getting proper output like below one but when I run the same command as ROOT I am getting ClassNotfoundException error. Not sure what is missing. I checked the directory permissions and everything looks good. Able to see the java version on both the linux user account.
As EC2-User:
$ mvn --version
Apache Maven 3.0.3 (r1075438; 2011-02-28 18:31:09+0100)
Maven home: /opt/apache-maven-3.0.3
Java version: 11.0.14.1, vendor: Eclipse Adoptium
Java home: /usr/java/jdk-11.0.14.1+1
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: "linux", version: "4.14.290-217.505.amzn2.x86_64", arch: "amd64", family: "unix"

As ROOT user:
# mvn --version
Error: Could not find or load main class \
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: \

A: Issue has been resolved after modifying the .mavenrc file which is present in the /root/ home dir. There was a plenty of space between two arguments which was separated by a new line character. I removed everything and kept a single space between two arguments in the MAVEN_OPTS variable defined in the .mavenrc file.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Casino Apps – iPhone Versus Android
Anderson Silva (Marcelo Alonso/Sherdog)
History Lessons: Meca World Vale Tudo 2 and the Early Anderson Silva
Every fighter in the UFC, whether champion, legend or debutant, has to start somewhere. That somewhere usually isn't the big show. Occasionally, multiple future stars end up gathered on a single regional card. At the time, this card may not seem significant, but years down the road, we can look back in hindsight and marvel at how stacked that event turned out to be. That's exactly what we'll do in this series, called History Lessons.
So, let's jump in the time machine and travel back. The date was Aug. 12, 2000, and the location was Curitiba, Parana, Brazil. It was time for Meca World Vale Tudo 2.
When Anderson Silva steps into the Octagon at UFC 168 in an attempt to reclaim the UFC middleweight crown, he'll do so as an established legend. Fans already discuss his standing among the greatest mixed martial artists of all time. That legacy, however, was just starting to form back in the year 2000. Silva had fought three times previous to that August night at Meca World Vale Tudo 2. The first two times came in a single-night tournament at an event in 1997, where he defeated Fabricio Camoes in a finals bout that lasted more than 25 minutes. The other was a decision loss to Luiz Azeredo in May 2000. That left "The Spider" with a 2-1 mark when he entered the ring to fight at Meca World Vale Tudo's second offering.
Silva, just 25 years old at the time, was fighting as a welterweight at that point in his career, but he was unleashing just as much damage as he would come to be known for later in his career. His opponent that night, Jose Barreto, would find out as much. Barreto had never fought before, and after enduring a striking barrage from Silva that left him on the mat after just 66 seconds, Barreto would never fight again.
"The Spider," of course, was just getting started on his run to greatness. His victory over Barreto was the first in a nine-fight streak that included a win over Hayato "Mach" Sakurai for Shooto's middleweight (168-pound) crown and a victory over Carlos Newton at Pride 25. Stunningly, Silva won just three out of five appearances under the Pride banner, with the victory over Newton being his last. He was submitted by Daiju Takase at Pride 26 and by Ryo Chonan via the now-famous flying scissor heel hook at Pride Shockwave 2004. From Silva's win over Barreto, it would be nearly six years before he landed a series of knees to score a knockout of Chris Leben at Ultimate Fight Night 5 in 2006, thus announcing his arrival in the UFC. From there, we all know the rest. Silva picked up the title in his very next fight and held it for almost nearly seven years before falling victim to a Chris Weidman knockout.
Silva's early years were spent as a member of the Chute Boxe Academy fight team, but he wasn't even the camp's top representative at Meca World Vale Tudo 2. It was a different Silva that took top billing that night.
Wanderlei Silva was already an established veteran of 14 fights when he entered the ring that night. He had fought under the bright lights of Pride and had made a couple of journeys to the UFC, even fighting for the light heavyweight strap in a failed bid against Tito Ortiz at UFC 25. His record stood at 11-3 and he already had a long string of vicious knockout victories. The then 24-year-old Silva was preparing to add another victim to that list.
That unknowing victim was Todd Medina. The 30-year-old hadn't accomplished much to that point in his career, going just 4-5, but he had been a participant in the UFC 5 tournament. At UFC 5, in 1995, Medina scored a TKO victory over Larry Cureton, before falling via TKO to Dave Beneteau.
Medina forced Wanderlei against the ropes, only to pay for his troubles by eating a series of knees. It only took 39 seconds before Medina crumbled. "El Tiburon" continued to put up more losses than wins until late in his career. It was only upon his return to action in 2008 that Medina found sustained success. He submitted Shannon Ritch and followed that victory with five more over the course of 2008 and 2009 before again fading back into inactivity.
Meanwhile, the fight would mark Wanderlei's last on a stage that didn't involve Pride or the UFC. His next appearance came at Pride 10, where he knocked out Guy Mezger. From there, he eventually captured the Pride middleweight championship and reigned over the division until dropping the title to Dan Henderson in his very last Pride fight. He moved on to the UFC after that and has had several memorable performances, though he has never challenged for a belt.
Silva seemed to be the name of the night for Meca World Vale Tudo 2. In addition to Anderson and Wanderlei, Assuerio Silva also competed on the seven-fight card. The heavyweight was still struggling to establish himself as a prospect at the time and had just a 3-2 record. He was welcoming Rodrigo da Silva to the pro ranks on that night, and the two engaged in a sloppy battle both on the feet and on the ground. Each man connected with a stomp to the head of their downed opponent, but it was Assuerio's stomp that ended the fight.
Rodrigo lost his next two fights over the span of six years, then returned in 2010 to go 5-2 over seven outings, with his most recent win coming in August 2012. Assuerio, meanwhile, scored two more wins and earned entry into the Pride promotion, where he won his first two fights before suffering a split decision loss to Aleksander Emelianenko. He fought sparingly in Brazil over the next two years before getting the call from the UFC. Over two separate stints inside the Octagon, he faced Tim Sylvia, Brandon Vera and Cheick Kongo, losing all three fights.
Murilo "Ninja" Rua was the other notable Chute Boxe name to appear at Meca World Vale Tudo 2. It was only the second fight of his career, coming on the heels of a submission win over Adriano Verdelli at the first Meca World Vale Tudo event. He was paired with Israel Albuquerque, a fight who had only one pro fight, a loss, under his belt. Albuquerque suffered a shoulder injury just past the 90-second mark of the first round, resulting in a submission win for Ninja. Rua would go on to win three more fights and fight to a draw against Akihiro Gono before landing in Pride, where he went on to amass a 6-7 promotional record. Ninja has since gone on to compete under the Strikeforce, EliteXC and Dream banners, but with limited success. After a three-fight losing streak that included a knockout loss to Tom Watson and a TKO defeat at the hands of Paulo Filho, Ninja called it a career.
This was a card that gave us an early glimpse of the destructive power of Anderson Silva, and it paved the way for Wanderlei to once and for all secure a spot on the rosters of the world's biggest MMA promotions. Meca 2 may not have contained a lengthy list of fighters who went on to the UFC or Pride, but with the combined accomplishments of Anderson and Wanderlei, it is a remarkably noteworthy event in MMA's history.
Anderson SilvaAssuerio SilvaMeca World Vale Tudo 2Murilo "Ninja" RuaPrideUFCWanderlei Silva
UFC 168: Weidman vs. Silva II Weigh-in Video and Results
UFC Fight Pass: Special Presentation Video
What Now For McGregor?
Conor McGregor has Finally Realised That UFC Moved on Without Him


In addition to the initial answer given, if you're looking for a fixer upper, make sure and ask about the 203k loan. It's a purchase loan that also gives you funds to fix up the property all in one loan. It's an FHA product. It's perfect for homes that need TLC.
Can I Qualify for a home without Paystubs?


Enjoy life each day and the great pleasures that come with it, making each day a masterpiece, resulting in a life of meaning and accomplishments.
"To know what you know and what you do not know. That is true knowledge."
I will be your host while you are visiting. This site was originally created to provide information about my consulting business, present research results for the Overton Genealogy surname project, and exhibit my music recordings and recording studio capabilities. Since retiring in 2014 and ending my contracts, I have spent my time caring for my aging father, learning new skills and reinventing old ones. I attended the Knoxville Bartending School in Knoxville in November and loved the experience. It brought back memories when as a young man in the 70s living in Flordia working as a bartender.
My objective for the Overton Genealogy surname project is to provide information about the Overton surname within the United States from the first emigrate to today's descendants as well as related surnames and provide research service for those in search of their Overton ancestors within the United States. If you want to know more, select Genealogy from the main menu above.
My passion for music has led me to practice and record music in my music studio. I had set it up to produce podcast and video tutorials for my consulting business, but I am enjoying singing and focusing on developing my vocals as well as having fun in the studio. If you want to listen to my recordings, select My Music from the main menu above where there is a listing of my songs as well as a few videos that I created. I have also added a menu link that is a short bio of Jim Ebert and a link to his website as well. Jim trained me in the use of Pro Tools and studio recording when I lived in North Virginia. Jim is a well-known music producer, and it was an honor to have worked with him. You can listen to my music video, "That's Life," at the bottom of this page that I sang and recorded in my studio.
This website will expand and new features will be added as time allows. If while visiting, you find broken links or other annoyances during your visit, please email me so that I can correct it and not annoy others that may follow after you.
Working for the government, I delivered multi-million dollar technology projects on time, within schedule, and on budget. Developed innovative business systems and technology strategies building on business process reengineering, business and technical architecture, project management and operations research expertise. Talent for developing technology solutions that meet complex business processes while bridging the communication gaps between information technology and non-technology professionals.
Contains detailed genealogical information on my ancestors from 1753 to the present day. In the FamilyTreeDNA Overton project, this DNA group is referred to as Clan 3. This Clan first appeared in the mid-1700s in Amelia County, Virginia.
The site is managed by Steve Randall Overton, a member of Clan 3 and an Overton DNA project administrator on FamilyTreeDNA.com.
Contains detailed genealogical information on all the known Overtons in the United States. Information on this site is an accumulation of years of research collected by Nevel Overton-Slack and being made available to any Overton researcher.


Atiku Abubakar says fraud indictment is unconstitutional and has challenged it in courts.
"There is no personal thing involved here... Commissioners have no choice but to apply the constitution... Once you have been indicted, INEC cannot do anything about it," Maurice Iwu, the INEC chairman, said in a press conference.
Abubakar says the indictment is unconstitutional and politically motivated, and has challenged it in the courts.
Iwu said any legal challenge to the list would be appealed by the commission.
Diplomats say the omission of Abubakar, who would have been one of three front-running candidates in a close race, will hurt the credibility of the poll, which should mark the first transition from one elected government to another in Nigeria's 47-year independent history.
The list of approved candidates included the names of Umaru Yar'Adua, the presidential candidate of Olusegun Obasanjo, the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) president, Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).


We are one of 40 community-based public providers of mental health, substance abuse, and developmental disability services throughout Virginia. The Commonwealth has designated the 40 CSBs as the single point of entry into publicly funded behavioral health and developmental services. HRCSB is supported through local, state and federal funds. We provide an array of programs and supports directly and through partnerships with other providers.
HRCSB strives to provide excellent services and to partner with each individual to achieve his or her best recovery. We support infants and toddlers, school-aged youth, and adults across their lifespan. Programs are licensed by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. Services may have eligibility requirements.
Our depth and breadth of services allows for a meaningful supervision experience as you work toward licensure. We are capable of providing the appropriate experiences to set you on your way. Visit our Employment page to view opportunities within our agency.


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The Truth About Cars | Future Vehicles | Jeep | News Blog | Product Planning | Production | SUVs
Jeep Patriot and First-gen Compass are Truly Dead; 2018 Wrangler Details Leaked
By Steph Willems on December 30, 2016
Amid all the hand wringing and social media sobbing over the celebrities we've lost in 2016, no one thought to mention the Jeep Compass and Patriot — strong-selling, affordable yet archaic vehicles that were loathed by the automotive press.
Well, the decade-old twins are dead. Gone. Finito. Pushing up daisies. The Toledo Blade reports that the Patriot and Compass ceased production on December 23, paving the way for a much-improved second-generation global Compass.
While the new, larger Compass prepares for its launch, the next-generation of the Jeepiest of all Jeeps — the 2018 Wrangler — remains heavily shrouded. We've seen details leaked about its appearance and drivetrain, but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles remains silent on a production timeline. Well, always count on a union representative to spill some beans.
According to the Blade, FCA's Toledo assembly plant will cease production of the Jeep Cherokee in early April to make way for the next-gen Wrangler. The move is part of a larger game of production musical chairs that's only just begun. A six-month shutdown follows the Cherokee's Toledo exit, during which time the plant will retool for body-on-frame assembly.
Bruce Baumhower, president of United Auto Workers Local 12, told the Blade that production of the 2018 Wrangler will begin in November. Pre-productions models should appear "much earlier."
As the plant gears up for the new Wrangler, production of the existing model should continue uninterrupted, Baumhower said. He added that the current generation should see production wrap up in March 2018. After that, the line will convert to next-gen Wrangler pickup production — a shadowy model that has played a starring role in the fevered dreams of Jeep aficionados for years.
Once out of Toledo, Cherokee production moves to the Belvidere, Illinois facility recently vacated by the Heaven-bound Patriot and Compass. Retooling is already underway at that plant, UAW officials claim.
(H/T to Tom!)
[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]
Posted in Future Vehicles, Jeep, News Blog, Product Planning, Production, SUVs
Tagged as 2018 Jeep Wrangler, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Jeep, jeep wrangler, Product Planning, production, Toledo Assembly
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53 Comments on "Jeep Patriot and First-gen Compass are Truly Dead; 2018 Wrangler Details Leaked..."
V8 Hemi Wrangler? :-) Please?
DenverMike
It's not as crazy as it sounds. Considering how much 4-door Wranglers weigh and especially their killer wind resistance, a Hemi V8 would fit the bill, nothing insane. Perhaps de-tuned for economy. None are real "Hemis" anyway.
RobertRyan
@EAF
They already sell the 6.4 in the Cherokee, that has not made much difference. FCA has a lot of problems at the moment. It will be interesting to see how they attempt to resolve them.
The 6.4 would be the SRT. It's not exactly built for the green movement, but gets a respectable 19 hwy mpg, for what it is.
The 5.7 Hemi gets 22 hwy, to the 3.6 Grand Cherokee's 26 hwy. Not bad either, for the Hemi. Except more could be done, like a 2.70 gear ratio, and not tuned for hauling ass or towing, unless you opt for that specific package or edition.
Big Al from Oz
January 1st, 2017 at 2:33 pm
RobertRyan,
I just came back from my sister's and they have just bought a 5.7 Grand Cherokee to pair it up with their diesel Grand.
My sister's husband said the FE ranges between 18 to 20 litres per 100km. That's 14 to 15 mpg (US).
The 5.7 Ram I had last year with the 5.7 achieved similar FE results. The lighter Grand Cherokee's poor FE is most likely different operators.
The diesel is nearly double in FE.
So I think the FE figures quoted above by that person are a bit of a fantasy.
January 1st, 2017 at 9:57 am
Sure, I could see wanting a V8 if you were running 40″ tires or just like doing burnouts with expensive off-road tires (isn't that what we always see done with those Hemi conversions on TJ/JKs?!), but for most Wrangler owners, the current Pentastar V6 is enough.
To me, more importantly, I'd like to see another transfer case option (along with of course that the Wrangler still has the manual lever over a push button or worse on the touch screen). I assume Jeep will again have the NP231, which I'd like to also see something like the NP242 also made available (the NP242 was previously used as an upgrade with the original Jeep Liberty that added a full-time setting along with the part-time and 4-low… which is very useful for winter driving/ mixed road conditions).
Why does it gotta be just for burnouts or 40″ tires? A V6 Wrangler in 4-Lo is fine for off-road, but V8 power would be just right the rest of the time, and hardly overkill for a 4-door Wrangler, because occasional passengers, baggage, small trailer, 33″ tires and it's similar to pushing a shed down the highway.
January 2nd, 2017 at 4:49 pm
Why? Because that's exactly what you see people do with a Hemi conversion on YouTube.
I actually drive a lifted TJ and tow a trailer with it. It's all about weight.
January 2nd, 2017 at 10:50 pm
So any dude going to all the trouble (and it is a lot of trouble!), of doing the V8 conversion, is just gonna finish the conversion and put up a Youtube video of him driving it around like a normal Wrangler owner, then leave it close to stock, in terms of wheels/tires/lift/suspension? Really??
What do you expect when a dude installs a supercharger in a Mustang GT? How do you think his videos will go down?
A regular V8 (nothing SRT/SVT/SS) in a midsize truck wouldn't make it a race truck.
If you ask me, all midsize trucks should have a V8 option. Especially considering how heavy midsize SUVs and pickups are getting.
All midsize AWD/4WD SUVs have a problem with weight, but the Wrangler has exponentially worse aerodynamics. And I don't know any Wrangler owners that don't occasionally pull a trailer with it ;)
EAF,
The VM V6 diesel is a far better option than the Hemi, especially in a rustic tractor like vehicle.
The V8 will work well, but the diesel will just as goog traction, using nearly half the fuel.
Big Al From 'Murica
January 2nd, 2017 at 11:10 am
Just offer both and let the market decide. I'm guessing even with some pent up demand for a Wrangler Diesel the V8 would outsell it in the US. Diesel just makes less sense in the US market in most areas of the Country. Yes, there are places where Diesel cost is on par with Gas, but most places it costs more and some places you have to go out of the way to get it.
Modern diesels are not Cummins 4BTs…they are incredibly complex when saddled with the emissions stuff they require today and much of the allure the old school ones have. In rigs that work hard and pull the tradeoff is worth it. In something like this that may see trail duty (if the buyer is savvy enough to opt for the diesel they probably do some off roading) but overall the tradeoff is dicier. For most jeep buyers in the US honestly the best choice remains the V6.
Also the aftermarket has superchargers for late model jeeps. That would get my vote over the V8 but I doubt FCA wants to invest in an OEM development given the limited applications.
Flipper35
Mopar has been working on a forced induction Pentastar. Reports vary from 400-450hp.
Flipper35,
The V6 in the blown Maserati is based on the Pentastar.
It's not that BAFO wasn't serious, but he's living in the past. So far, he's only had access to pre-emissions diesel pickups from Thailand. Nothing nearly as complicated as our DEF, full emissions diesels.
It's true if you don't need explosive power in a commercial and heavy-duty way, diesels don't make any sense, not for private, light duty. The savings at the pump aren't great enough. At this point, diesel fuel would have to be around free.
There's way too many sensors, hoses, high pressure fuel/oil/air/coolant lines, valves and misc, just waiting to ruin your day, and or cost you a lot of money, all in the name of clean diesel emissions.
Pre-emissions, yeah I was a happy diesel pickup owner. Simpler than contemporary gas engines at the time.
OldManPants
What do you call that stick barkeeps use to swipe the foam off a brewski?
A "stick"?
Whatever, I've learned to use a mental one on the first couple of paragraphs of nearly all TTAC articles except Bozi's.
Drunk and medicated again?
I'm kinda surprised, but not that surprised. Cheap to build leftovers have been an FCA trademark thus far. I bet they would like to turn back the clock and undo Avenger/Sebring decommissioning, from what I remember people were buying those.
@28-Cars-Later
Problems are a plenty, latest rumour and a very strong one,,that FCA will have to unload Alfa Romeo, Maserati and their Electronics division to stay afloat.
davefromcalgary
Bye bye Patriot.
Cheap. Square and handsome. Selectable center low speed center diff lock. Tough engine (crap FE doesnt bother me).
This and the SX4 hatch top my list of effective non-truck AWD vehicles I'd want to bang around jobsites and mountain roads around here.
Yeah, this vehicle is so 'me' that I'm now feeling forced to decide. I'm able to drive so little and gently that I'm not that afraid of FE or build quality. Non-Japanese is a real option.
What puzzles me is that "hill start assist" is necessary for either AT.
This isn't in your CUV kill zone?!
Well, yes, but people seem to like it and I think you can see out of it too which is a huge plus.
I had a Patriot 4×4 6A rental like two months ago and the FE was okay. Despite the EPA numbers it really wasn't worse in that area than a AWD Escape or Outlander Sport.
That 4-cylinder though, it is not an impressive engine. Even if you are cool with relative slowness it is quite coarse. I think I'd have to spring the extra $$ for something with a V6.
"Even if you are cool with relative slowness it is quite coarse."
I have an ace up my sleeve there: over 45 years of driving I've become convinced of an absolute correlation between depressing that flappy thing under one's right foot (not the bigger one in the middle) and the amount of sensory disturbance one notices from any engine.
Armed with that certainty, I would chance my ability to modulate that 4-cylinder's nasty.
By all accounts and backed up by Danio, the 2.4 world engine is quite reliable. Good enough for me given what I'd want it to do.
ajla,
These vehicles are the cheapest vehicles of their type you can buy.
You will not have a well balanced prestige product. Only Chinese SUVs/CUVs are cheaper than these in Australia.
The Patriot could have been something had they bothered to update/upgrade it at all.
Updates/upgrades are not Sergio's way. What he's done to Fiat models – take a good selling model and produce it unchanged until the sales drop, then kill it – is what he's been doing to Dodge, Chrysler, and will do to all Jeep models eventually. He's a deal-maker, not a car guy.
"Update" regarding cars is now as loathed a word as it is for my work computer. It's the Patriot's miraculous escape from any that makes it attractive.
MrIcky
Patriots are like the modern incarnation of the Eagle. They didn't really look like much but they could get done what needed getting done. I appreciate them for what they are. And I've never seen a Patriot commercial showing a bunch of outdoorsy hipsters carting a canoe in front of a green screen forest- so bonus points.
mister steve
About a month ago in Arizona, I was "upgraded" to a Jeep Patriot. Damn, what a piece of work that car was. This was the low-rent front wheel drive version with a 2 liter engine and CVT transmission.
The upside was the seats were comfortable enough to put on 1,500 miles in the week we had it, and the boxy design offered good visibility.
But the downside was you could put your foot down and wait for the car to accelerate. And wait some more. It was truly a chore to drive over even the slightest hills on the interstate between Phoenix and Prescott, and forget about being able to zip through the heavy freeway traffic in Phoenix. This thing just didn't move.
Aside from the seats, the interior was pretty inferior as well. Swathed in cheap plastic, very little covered storage and a speedo that had numbers so small it was difficult to read.
if you think that Patriot's interior was bad, you should see the garbage that launched in 2007.
MRF 95 T-Bird
I could actually see someone needs inexpensive new wheels for themselves or their kid look at the leftovers at a FCA Jeep dealer. The last Dart's for $15-20k. 200's for $20k and up plus the Patriot and Compass in the $20-25k range.
who is buying $15-25k cars for their kids?
You'd be surprised. Folks who want their kids in a reliable vehicle and don't want to deal with a $4-6k bill at their local Autohaus for their 10-15 year old BMW or Benz.
You're right, but nobody should be surprised. In the old days, you gave your kid your old car and got a new one. Today, you look for a smaller car than the family car that's easier to maneuver, with all the latest safety features and crash protection to qualify for the lowest insurance rate, and a base engine with acceleration times that teaches your kid patience and not to take chances.
It's a very select and dwindling segment of the American population that can pursue this optimal and completely rational solution.
JimZ,
Like the US, here many moms and dads buy their kids cars.
My friend just bought his 16 year old daughter a 2 litre diesel Golf.
geozinger
I like the new Compass a great deal. It would probably keep me out of a BEV or a hybrid of some stripe.
I trolled my wife with a Patriot awhile back. She's been itching for another CUV, but I can't stand most of them. I like the 80's era Cherokee vibe that the Patriot emanates, but she likes the current Grand Cherokee. We decided that the Compass would be acceptable to both of our demands.
For cheap wheels, the current and now deceased Compass/Patriot would be high on my list, appropriately optioned.
Rday
Must be alot of people out there with nothing to do except mourn the passing of another FCA product. FCA is on its last leg as a result of poor.corrupt management and unions. Have one of their Fiat vans but i don't think it will stand the test of time so i am selling it soon. Poor quality and construction using dodge carvan powertrain on a vehicle that is almost twice as heavy. Love the way the van handles but hate the fact that FCA managed to cheapen it out and shorten its life, thereby ripping off the end consumer. Too bad but when you have a con man like Sergio running the show, what else can you expect.
FCA's power train warranty is a joke. another ripoff of the customer.
I once had hope for Chrysler but now I think it will be gone in five years.
China happy! Make loom foah us! We alleady can say "L" in bling!
Know our theme song?
"Kill Japs – Kill Japs – Kill Moah Japs!"
(We got it off you guys… xie xie!)
Chinese firms may scoop up the carcass.
So is that PRC's theme song now?
How could it be otherwise? Pretty much everybody in Japan's old Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere is waiting with popcorn for the show despite their own tensions with the Chinese.
That will be an interesting show to watch, but I suspect the Japanese Defense Forces have access to nuclear warheads (either their own or those of US origin). The GE Mark nuclear design of Fukushima Daiichi I was particular good at enriching uranium which is why it was so popular stateside. These were the only ones of the GE Mark I/II type of the 45 or so reactors in Japan and they were also the oldest. I speculate, and have read speculation, this design was chosen because USG wanted Japan to enrich its own uranium during the Cold War and have its own secret stockpile of weapons in the event of an all out conflict.
One of the Thousand Points of Fright about Thump's victory is the possibility that Japan's starkly crazy Right will feel emboldened and gain significant public support in the inevitable territorial showdowns with China.
I am certain that any US Democratic admin (or sane Republicans) would back away and let Japanese forces get creamed in a few maritime battles before jumping in to mediate negotiations that would ensure the Chinese got whatever concessions they demanded.
The Chinese would of course have skillfully picked their confrontations to widely and obviously avoid any threat to US bases while launching an enormous global propaganda campaign waving the nuclear skull & crossbones while simultaneously claiming the role of victim and the public in all the democracies would swallow it whole, squawking for an end to America's imperial aggression, especially in a nuclear superpower's back yard.
Japan would have been ground between two giant millstones, the Chinese would have regionally gained incalculable Face along with disputed offshore resources and we'd have kept the only things that matter to us there, our bases, without any American body bags and certainly without missile trails across the Pacific.
I fear Thump's utter ignorance and kindergarten mentality allied with Japanese fanatics in their government, military and keiretsu could make the inevitable and necessary neutering of Japan's sovereignty have a very different, possibly cataclysmic trajectory.
The Fridge is strong with this one.
In my Presidential expectations outline I noted I believed foreign policy would shift to a rapprochement with the Soviets but cool with the Chinese possibly into a new Cold War in an effort to divide the efforts of Moscow and Beijing (assuming The President/Secy Tillerson follow Kissinger's ideas, which I wouldn't but well…).
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2016/12/no-fixed-abode-sorry-bout-chief/#comment-8742209
Now you bring an interesting angle into this mix with the Japanese situation. Their society was already well below replacement rate and their air, soil, and water have been contaminated by the Fukushima disaster so I expect to see an above average die off in the near term (say next five years). Assuming this happens, the Japanese will be backed up against a wall and could become reckless as you describe. If they do in fact have access to nuclear weapons, it could certainly complicate the situation… of course Trump is the master of doing the unexpected so in such a situation he may *not* back Toyko's aggression (look to see rhetoric coming out of DC and Toyko in the coming months, and see if Trump starts withdrawing US forces from their bases). A Chinese/Japanese armed conflict could actually further US power in Asia as they destroy each other, assuming it does not lead to the destruction the world of course (always a plus).
Buy your Japanese assembled cars now people, while its still there.
I don't think we should hang too much hope on Japan's ability to destroy China.
India and Pakistan now….
Going nuclear, anything is possible.
I personally don't see India/Pakistan happening but stranger things have happened.
I think India-Pakistan is by far the likeliest candidate for the globe's first nuclear exchange.
China is a patient, masterfully calculating and relentless geopolitical player. Absent any incendiary stupidity from Thump goading the worst of the Japanese, I see the Chinese achieving their expansionist goals through a thousand skillful cuts against their opponents and lavish development spending among their clients.
But the Indo-Pak situation is largely fueled by religion and, of course, has a rich history of mindless hatred allowed to become vicious slaughter (Wiki calls it genocide but they all look alike to me); there wouldn't *be* a Pakistan without that history.
However I need to research fallout models for such an exchange before becoming too optimistic.
Well it's good to see some non aggressive political discussion.
Some of what I read is plausible.
I see it this way. The US needs to tread carefully with the Chinese. The Chinese are using much soft power, similar to how the West (US) achieved dominance. This soft power is largely ignored by the media. The whole Pacific region has had vast amounts of "aid" and assistance fom the Chinese over the past couple of decades. Africa is also well serviced by the Chinese.
The US must stop thinking it must be dominant as the rise of China is inevitable. What the West needs to do is take the Chinese on by remaining dominant in trade. This is how to keep the Chinese at bay.
The US, now more than ever must strengthen its global trade, ie, Pacific Trade agreement with 13 other nations. Doing this will greatly reduce the Chinese influence (soft power) in the Pacfic region.
The US is not as representative in trade as it once was globally, so it must rely on others. To achieve this the US can't set the "rules" as stringently as it was able to do after WW2. The US does not carry enough influence as it once had.
Thumps ideals of making ' Murica Great Again will destroy or greatly reduce the US'es position.
As a business man, why does Thump want to compete with the Chinese in manufacturing? This will only bring the US'es standard of living closer to China's.
Thump is fighting the wrong "war".


Russia and the United States have traded barbs at an ill-tempered emergency session of the UN Security Council called by Moscow after the US army launched a barrage of cruise missiles against a Syrian government airbase, Al-Jazeera said.
Syria's army said six people were killed in the early hours of Friday morning after the US fired nearly 60 Tomahawk missiles at Shayrat airbase, in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town that killed scores of civilians earlier this week, Al-Jazeera added.
Vladimir Safronkov, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN, "strongly" condemned the US for what he called a "flagrant violation of international law and an act of aggression".
"The consequences of this for regional and international stability could be extremely serious," he told the Security Council.
Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and has been bombing rebel-held areas in Syria since September 2015, Al-Jazeera explained.
For her part, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said the missile strikes were "fully justified" and warned that Washington was ready to take further military action, Al-Jazeera reported.
"The United States took a very measured step last night," she told the council. "We are prepared to do more, but we hope it will not be necessary." Al-Jazeera added.
Mounzer Mounzer, deputy Syrian ambassador to the UN, called the US strike a "barbaric, flagrant act of aggression" that will embolden "terrorist groups" to use chemical weapons in the future, according to Al-Jazeera.


It's not every day you see five U.S. presidents in one YouTube video. Debuted at the All-Star game last night, this piece profiles Americans who are volunteering in their communities, in and effort to drive people to serve.gov and find volunteer opportunities to engage in. Narrated by Presidents Obama, Geroge W. Bush, Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Carter, it's posted to the Corporation for National and Community Service's YouTube channel.
In partnership with Serve.gov and that platform that powers it, All for Good, we launched Video Volunteers a few weeks ago - to connect YouTubers with volunteer opportunities at nonprofits who need help created videos for their causes. Learn how you can get involved by going to youtube.com/videovolunteers.


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Adult flour beetles are red-brown, slender, and about 1/8-inch long. Both red and confused species look very similar. They can be distinguished by looking at the antennae.
The house mouse is a small rodent, a mouse, one of the most numerous species of the genus Mus. As a wild animal the house mouse mainly lives associated with humans, causing damage to crops and stored food. The house mouse has been domesticated as the pet or fancy mouse, and as the laboratory mouse which is one of the most important model organisms in biology and medicine. It is by far the most commonly used genetically altered laboratory mammal. House mice have an adult body length (nose to base of tail) of 7.5-10 cm (3.0-3.9 in) and a tail length of 5-10 cm (2.0-3.9 in). The weight is typically 10-25 g (0.4-0.9 oz). They vary in color from white to grey and light brown to black.
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We have bed bugs and cockroach infestation in our high-rise rental buildings. We got the pest control services from Metro King Pest Control and they did marvelous job to make our property pest free.
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Catching up with Jackie Dallas – Proud Short Film
by Leona Chen | Jul 3, 2019
Last year we wrote about the PROUD Short Film created, produced and directed by Asian American actress Jackie Dallas. Since then, PROUD (www.proudshortfilm.asia) has been chosen to be screened at numerous film festivals both in the U.S. and internationally. It is also the proud recipient of "Best Short Film" award from the Independent Talents Film Festival. Check out our recent interview with Jackie Dallas to find out more about her journey and the Proud Short Film.
If you haven't seen the film yet, now is your chance! Proud Short Film is on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe to the @dotasia channel for more original videos AND @jaxdallas to see more of her work!
Why Get a .Asia Domain?
.Asia is the designated web address for Asia and Asian communities world wide.
When you register a .Asia domain you are joining an online, global community that supports and brings together Asians from every part of the world. Show your Asian pride whether you are from Los Angeles, Beijing or New Delhi.
More About Asia
by Leona Chen | May 12, 2022 | Interviews, Resources
In some ways, I abandoned my culture when I was young because I was trying so hard to fit in. My parents were, and still is very cultural. Growing up, there was always Indian music playing, our house was full of Bengali literature, my Dad's hero was poet Rabindranath Tagore, and he also loved the films of Satyajit Ray. I was surrounded by culture and yet I couldn't fully embrace it at the time.
AAPI Heritage Month: Interview with Zhou Fang
by Leona Chen | May 3, 2022 | Community, Interviews, Resources
Celebrating May as Asian American Pacific Islander Month has become an important tradition here at .Asia. We are excited to present an interview series featuring some of our Asian American and Asian Canadian friends and partners from the domain name industry. Through...
Other interview posts...
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month – A Conversation with Todd Han, President and CEO of Dynadot.com
Asian Americans contribute significantly to the development of small and medium size businesses in the U.S. In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this May, we are dedicating our post to our channel partner Dynadot.com, founded by Asian...
Other posts in this series...
by Leona Chen | May 26, 2021 | Community, Interviews, Resources
My Favorite Asian American Artists in 2021
by Karry Yu | May 18, 2021 | Community, Resources
Here are some of my favorite Asian American artists and entertainers in films, music, and performing art. I've followed their journey for many years. During the pandemic, art became a form of therapy for me.
Asian American Sustenance and Food Culture
by Leona Chen | May 3, 2021 | Community, Resources
Food is a vital part of culture. Through food we are joined via a shared experience. It is a connection to our earliest memories, our heritage and some say, an intercultural communicator.
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month – A Conversation with Raymond King
May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in the U.S. and Asian Heritage Month in Canada. Whether you are Asian American or Asian Canadian, May is a time to celebrate and take joy in Asian culture and community.
This May, we are dedicating our post to our channel partner Porkbun.com, founded by Asian American tech entrepreneur Raymond King.
A Conversation with Director Feng-I Fiona Roan – Winner of HBO Asian American Visionary Award
by Leona Chen | Sep 27, 2019 | Community, Interviews, Resources
JIEJIE, Mandarin for sister, is directed by Asian-American writer and director Feng-I Fiona Roan. Her film won the prestigious HBO Asian Pacific American Visionary Award in 2018. At its heart, JIEJIE is an Asian American story of first-generation immigration experience from the view of a child. We caught up with Fiona to discuss what it was like growing up Asian-American in both Asia and the US, and her next big project – AMERICAN GIRL.
Celebrating Asian Heritage Month in May
May is a month for celebrating the many cultural and societal contributions and achievements of overseas Asian communities in North America. It marks the observance of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in the United States, and Asian Heritage Month in Canada.
How Some Are Finding Creative Ways To Encourage Asian Representation in Media
by Leona Chen | Mar 5, 2019 | Community, Resources
With 2018 being a banner year for Asian representation in media, 2019 is gearing up to be a blockbuster sequel. Promoting inclusion and representation in mainstream media is a job that is never really finished. For decades Asian-American actors and actresses have worked hard to gain the opportunities in front of the camera that is now giving rise to the more realistic portrayals of Asian-Americans in television and films.
PROUD of your heritage? So are we!
by Leona Chen | Oct 24, 2018 | Community, Resources
It's been inspiring to read the outpour of support for Asian representation in Western pop culture since the Crazy Rich Asians movie's blockbuster success this August. Dubbed as #AsianAugust, the summer of 2018 has seen more Asian actors celebrated in Western media than ever before. From the big screen to small screen, from movies such as 'Searching' starring John Cho; to Netflix's 'To All the Boys I've Loved Before' starring Asian teenager Lana Condor; to Canada's 'Kim's convenient store'; Asian actors dominated conversations regarding diversity and representation in the West.


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Is a Conflict a Conflict, Disclosed or Not? Goodwill of Omaha's Tangled Ball of Relationships
Ruth McCambridge
Tangled ball / Valerie Everett
November 27, 2016; Omaha World-Herald
NPQ has for some weeks been following the Omaha World-Herald's investigation of Goodwill Omaha as it exposed various problems in that organization, starting with large executive salaries that ate up a disproportionate piece of the budget, low and sometimes sub-minimum wages for workers with disabilities, and allegedly unsavory business practices. Since the start of the series, the CEO has resigned and the board has publicly declared that it is engaged in a top-to-bottom review of organizational practices.
But, some familiar with such situations might ask why the board has not been reconstituted. That question is even now more front-and-center as a follow-up story asserts that the organization is shot through with conflicts of interest and has spent more than $5 million in no-bid contracts with two companies whose executives sit on the nonprofit's board. In all, the charity has done business with eight of its recent board members' companies.
Readers may remember that the original articles identified some nepotism on executive staff, but this new article reveals that smaller no-bid contracts were awarded to family members and friends of Goodwill Omaha leaders, including to a company employing the ex-CEO's daughter. Four ex-employees told the World-Herald that contracts for many types of goods and services went to family members and friends of the nonprofit's leadership team.
But "the fish rots from the head," as the saying goes (and Woods Bowman once put it in an article on conflicts and fraud in nonprofits). Joe Lempka is the current chair of the board and is an executive at Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc., which has not had to go through a competitive bidding process with Goodwill Omaha since 1995 despite being awarded $4.1 million to build both the new headquarters of the organization as well as a few of its stores over the last ten years. Lempka is also apparently a personal friend of ex-Goodwill Omaha CEO Frank McGree, having recently gone on a European vacation with him.
Joe Lang, another board member, is the principal architect with RDG Planning & Design, which has received $903,000 in no-bid contracts to design the Goodwill headquarters and several retail stores. Meg McGree Krause, daughter of Frank McGree, is on staff at RDG and helped design the Goodwill headquarters. Still, says the board, these tangled personal/professional relationships did not affect their judgment as board members in setting Frank McGree's salary. Many people who understand human nature might beg to disagree.
But Goodwill was not hiding the facts. In fact, it has disclosed a plethora of business relationships on its 990 form, including with Kiewit, RDG, the insurance company Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., First National Bank, and the Omaha law firm Baird Holm, also confirming those with Investors Realty, the Omaha law firm Fraser Stryker, and American National Bank. In all, according to this article, seven of the 21 board members at Goodwill are employed at one of these firms with an eighth having just resigned.
At the very least, this sets up the perception of a self-dealing system of insiders without the proper arms' length judgment the public might hope for with any charity. In 2007, Rick Cohen wrote about other organizations that disclosed conflicts:
"Commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass." Or perhaps Emerson might have said, "Engage in conflict of interest, and sooner or later, you'll be found out." Connecting the dots between family members and their businesses or their personal lives doesn't take much digging. In nearly every instance profiled here, the conflicts of interest were discovered by intrepid newspaper reporters and then followed up on by government agencies. The pathetic defense of some alleged miscreants that they had publicly disclosed their conflicts of interest—and then blithely pursued the self-aggrandizing booty nonetheless—fails to provide the immunity of "hide in plain sight."
And so it has gone with Goodwill of Omaha. A persistent reporter managed to invade the "family" atmosphere and challenge practices inappropriate to a nonprofit with a brand that shouts, "We selflessly care about others!"
"My first reaction is just sadness," said Dave Renz, a nationally renowned expert on nonprofit governance. "What you are describing here is a process that seems to undermine the trust that is essential for a nonprofit's donors, its constituents, its community. It's not all that unusual. But it is unacceptable."
Omaha-based Angela Eikenberry, another national governance expert, says that beyond the legal requirements, "There's an ethical duty here—a duty to avoid the appearance of anything strange or anything that seems like a conflict. So, yeah, this kind of raises the eyebrows, doesn't it?"
Many nonprofit executives and board members are unaware that IRS regulations impose requirements on how 501(c)(3) charities engage in transactions with insiders. The "intermediate sanctions" rules have been in force for more than 15 years, but the word is only slowly getting out.
Renz said the Goodwill Omaha scenario reminds him of certain "old-style practices" that have become blessedly more retro in an age of greater transparency He cautions against even "the perception of quid pro quos."
"It's a board's job to ensure that the brand of the organization isn't sullied by the practices of that organization," said Renz. "Quite frankly, the cleanest way for an organization that's taking great care is to just not engage in these kind of relationships. […] Boards (around the country) are recognizing that there needs to be more care taken…to keep these processes clean."—Ruth McCambridge
Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.
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Not looking forward to the climb.
Before I start I have to correct Day 1 with reference to the height we climbed up Burgundy Chapel Combe, I said we climbed 210 feet, I should have said mtrs!
This morning we weren't particularly looking forward to the climb from Lynmouth up to Lynton, we went over the railway on 3 occasions, I've included the last bridge crossing over the railway in the images I've posted, it's long way down you know.
We hit the hill only 6 mins after leaving the River Lyn View B&B which was extremely comfortable and the breakfast beat both of us, the bucket of tea and coffee we had must have been a record in itself.
Once we had reached Lynton we headed on the SWCP* out towards The Valley of the Rocks were ferrel goats and more of the famous Exmoor Ponies wandered. We didn't stay too long in the valley however we did climb up to Castle Rock, you can see the goats and a wide shot of Castle Rock and a famous shot that you'll see elsewhere when people refer to Castle Rock in the images I've uploaded..
We then headed down a short stretch of road toward Lee Abbey and round to Crock Point again I've uploaded an image looking back from here toward Lee Abbey.
The walk was relatively easy (apart from the early climb to Lynton) but we were now entering into a wooded part toward Woody Bay which was very undulating, this gave us some great views until we came to a waterfall before the walk became a little easier, and from here and through Heddon's Mouth the views were pretty spectacular both up and down the coast, but this also meant a climb up 900 feet (274 mtrs) in a short distance to Peter Rock, oxygen intake the order of the day here.
It was around this point where we with two other sets of walkers and we kept passing each other, it almost felt like we were in a relay race. Oddly we hadn't really came across too many other coastal walkers up to this point, most had seemingly been locals or what we'd call day walkers.
We then headed toward the highest point on the SWCP* Great Hangman Hill I've linked to a 360 I took at the top. The walk toward Great Hangman took us down into Sherrycombe where there is a waterfall, which apparently saw during WWII a German U-Boat replenish it's fresh water supply the climb up from Sherrycombe was steep at first but plateaued out and was easier as we neared the peak.
We walked on from here to Little Hangman which gave great views toward Combe Martin and the bay.
I'll mention here that we meet some walkers before heading down into Sherrycombe who are from Devon and shamed us as they had actually done around 400 miles of the SWCP*, we chatted for a while feeling very jealous, but not so jealous as they still had a way to go before reaching Lynmouth, hopefully they did before dark.
We arrived at our next B&B Blair Lodge Guest House where again a warm welcome with tea and cakes from Rachel and Nick.
So far all of the accommodation has been 4 star rated and they have all lived unto that reputation. Another well done to Lets Go Walking who have created a great intinerary with some places to stay.
Again there was a lot of scree along the walk created by Ice Age action some 10,000 years ago.
Total time out including stops photo opportunity, enjoying tea and cake, 7 hours 10 mins. Total 21 hours 40 mins.