Joe Gordon – Who is he?
Meet the young banker who has risen to the very top, aged just 33.
Joe Gordon became First Direct's boss after just 24 months into what was his first banking job. An impressive feat indeed, bearing in mind that he is currently one of the youngest people to have ever make it to the higher ranks of the UK banking system.
Funnily enough the young bank boss has a peculiar interest – He enjoys climbing mountains (no pun intended), boasting Mount Teide as one of his conquests, while setting his sights on Mount Kilimanjaro!
We like to praise those who graft at Vida Unique and Joe's story is indeed an inspiration and should be studied by the young who wish to take over the corporate world. Personality and good manners, backed up by a huge appetite for learning and striving to constantly improve ourselves will go a long way, and it shows that life is indeed what you make it!


PLEASE NOTE: We regret we are no longer able to ship to Canada, New Zealand and the U.S.A due to quarantine issues. This plant can be located in all three territories.
Pack of 60 Euphorbia Peplus seeds that will provide what you need to grow in several pots or a corner of the garden. If the first crop doesn't turn out as you plan, then you have enough back up seeds!
These will be mailed anywhere in Australia by regular post (inclusive of the postage charges). Allow at least one week for delivery.
These will be mailed anywhere worldwide by regular post (inclusive of the postage charges). Allow at least two weeks for delivery.
great assistance to us in establishing our business.


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HomeSocietyActivists Mobilize to Fight Censorship and Save Open Science
Activists Mobilize to Fight Censorship and Save Open Science
Electronic Frontier Foundation - May 24, 2021
Major publishers want to censor research-sharing resource Sci-Hub from the internet, but archivists are quickly responding to make that impossible.
More than half of academic publishing is controlled by only five publishers. This position is built on the premise that users should pay for access to scientific research, to compensate publishers for their investment in editing, curating, and publishing it. In reality, research is typically submitted and evaluated by scholars without compensation from the publisher. What this model is actually doing is profiting off of a restriction on article access using burdensome paywalls. One project in particular, Sci-Hub, has threatened to break down this barrier by sharing articles without restriction. As a result, publishers are going to every corner of the map to destroy the project and wipe it from the internet. Continuing the long tradition of internet hacktivism, however, redditors are mobilizing to create an uncensorable back-up of Sci-Hub.
Paywalls: More Inequity and Less Progress
It's an open secret at this point that the paywall model used by major publishers, where one must pay to read published articles, is at odds with the way science works which is one reason researchers regularly undermine it by sharing PDFs of their work directly. The primary functions paywalls serve now are to drive up contract prices with universities and ensure current research is only available to the most affluent or well-connected. The cost of access has gotten so out of control that even $35 billion dollar institutions like Harvard have warned that contract costs are becoming untenable. If this is the case for Harvard, it's hard to see how smaller entities can manage these costs– particularly those in the global south. As a result, crucial and potentially life-saving knowledge is locked away from those who need it most. That's why the fight for open access is a fight for human rights.
Indeed, the past year has shown us the incredible power of open access after publishers made COVID-19 research immediately available at no cost. This temporary move towards open access helped support the unprecedented global public health effort that spurred the rapid development of vaccines, treatments, and better informed public health policies. This kind of support for scientific progress should not be reserved for a global crisis; instead, it should be the standard across all areas of research.
Sci-Hub and the Fight for Access
Sci-hub is a crucial piece of the movement towards open access. The project was started over 10 years ago by a researcher in Kazakhstan, Alexandra Elbakyan, with the goal "to remove all barriers in the way of science." The result has been a growing library of millions of articles made freely accessible, running only on donations. Within six years it even became the largest Open Access academic resource in the world, and it has only grown since, bringing cutting-edge research to rich and poor countries alike.
But that invaluable resource has come at a cost. Since its inception, Sci-Hub has faced numerous legal challenges and investigations. Some of these challenges have led to dangerously broad court orders. One such challenge is being addressed in India, where courts have been asked to block access to a site by publishers Elsevier, Wiley, and American Chemical Society. The courts have been hesitant, however, as the site has clear public importance, and local experts have argued that Sci-Hub is the only way for many in the country to access research. In any event, one inevitable truth cannot be avoided: researchers want to share their work– not make publishers rich.
Archivists Rush to Defend Sci-Hub
With these challenges ongoing, SciHub's Twitter account was permanently suspended under the site's "counterfeit policy." Given the timing of this suspension, Elbakyan and other academic activists believe it was directly related to the legal action in India. A few months later, Elbakyan shared on her personal twitter that Apple had granted the FBI access to her account data after a request in early 2019.
Responding to these attacks last week, redditors on the archivist subreddit r/DataHoarder have (once again) rallied to support the site. In a post two weeks ago, users appealed to the legacy of reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz and called for anyone with hard drive space and a VPN to defend 'free science' by downloading and seeding 850 torrents containing Sci-Hub's 77 TB library. The ultimate goal of these activists is to then use these torrents, containing 85 million scientific articles, to make a fully decentralized and uncensorable iteration of Sci-Hub.
This project should ring utopian to anyone who values access to scientific knowledge, a goal publishers and the DOJ have taken great pains to block with legal obstacles. A fully decentralized, uncensorable, and globally accessible database for scientific work is a potential engine for greater research equity. The only potential losers with such a resource might be the old gatekeepers who rely on an artificial scarcity of scientific knowledge, and increasingly tools of surveillance, to extract exorbitant profit margins off the labor of scientists.
It's Time to Fight for Open Access
Journal publishers must do their part to make research immediately available to all, freely and without privacy-invasive practices. There is no need for such a valuable resource such as Sci-Hub to live in the shadows of copyright litigation. While we hope publishers make this change willingly, there are other common-sense initiatives that could help. For example, there are federal bills like the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), or state bills such as California's A.B. 2192, which can require government-funded research to be made freely available. The principle behind these bills is simple: if the public-funded the research, the public shouldn't have to pay again to access it.
In addition to supporting legislation, students and academics can also advocate for Open Access on campus. Colleges can not only provide a financial incentive by breaking contracts with publishers but also support researchers in the process of making their own work Open Access. The UC system for example has required all research from their 10 campuses be made open access since 2013, a policy more public institutions can and should adopt. Even talking about open access with peers on campus can stir interest in local organizing, and when it does our EFA local organizing toolkit and organizing team (organizing@eff.org) can help support these local efforts.
We need to lift these artificial restraints on science imposed by major publishers and take advantage of 21st-century technology. Initiatives taken by archivists activists such as those supporting Sci-Hub shouldn't be caught in a game of cat and mouse but supported by policy and business models which allow such projects to thrive and promote equity.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Voters' approvals have opened doors to numerous school-related construction projects throughout the Portland-metro area.
An upcoming event will focus on the specific upcoming work opportunities for design and building professionals, as well as suppliers, via several local area school bonds.
The revitalization of Grant High School, in Northeast Portland, took a step forward with a ceremonial ground-breaking event last week.
Builders, already stretched thin, look ahead to how they can capitalize on a market flooded with public work, including $790 million from Portland Public Schools.
Voters this week approved Portland Public Schools' latest construction bond – at $790 million, the largest ever OK'd in Oregon.
Despite several scandals now circulating around Portland Public Schools, the district has gotten credit for doing at least one thing right – managing the spending of dollars from its latest, $482 million construction bond.


The President speaks on veterans Day at Yongsan Army Garrison in Seoul, South Korea with an estimated 1,400 base personnel and families and several hundred Korean vets.
Ed. Note: Visit http://www.Serve.gov/vets.asp to learn more about how you can support our Veterans, military families and active duty service members.


text:
labor Workers' Rights in Globalised Industry – How Can We Protect Them?
IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches explains what trade unions can do to tackle abuses stretching across international supply chains
September 24, 2020 Ben Chacko Morning Star
Garment factory in Bangladesh,
The Covid-19 crisis and the lockdowns imposed as a result hit the garment industry hard, causing order cancellations and job losses in producer countries.
What can trade unions do to press brands to shield suppliers from the risk of a sudden loss of income that they pass onto their workers?
"This problem emerged early in the pandemic. In April many brands endorsed a call to action, a tripartite initiative led by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with a commitment by brands to pay for finished goods and goods in production.
"Brands that haven't endorsed the call should be pressed to do so," Sanches says.
"But one of the main issues for the sector is that it lacks a sectoral approach to industrial relations. Sector-wide collective bargaining is rare, which means hundreds of unions negotiating with thousands of employers.
"A rare exception is South Africa, where the textile and garment union (SACTWU) has a long tradition of nationwide collective bargaining and won a full pay guarantee by working out a deal with the employer body and the government. This was possible because of tripartite bargaining."
Sanches says IndustriALL has worked long-term with the ACT (Action, Collaboration, Transformation) initiative, which seeks to secure "agreement between global brands and retailers and trade unions to transform the garment, textile and footwear industry and achieve living wages for workers through collective bargaining."
"We use the commitments brands have made through global framework agreements, the call to action, ACT and other initiatives to hold them accountable.
"When our affiliates in countries like Cambodia, Bangladesh and Myanmar raise issues, we bring the parties together in an attempt to find a resolution, with many cases solved.
"Our executive committee approved in June the need for a broader global campaign targeting the bad payers in the sector.
"We have the support from UNI Global Unions that will join us on that and we'll certainly count on the support from various NGOs."
These approaches involve persuading brands to come on board. Yet Human Rights Watch says that "brand approaches to sourcing and purchasing are not merely a threat to a factory's financial bottom line.
"They incentivise suppliers to engage in abusive labour practices … this means that brand practices in these areas directly undercut their own efforts to insist on rights-respecting working conditions across their supply chains" (because brands are always looking for faster, cheaper supplies).
Sanches agrees that "in general the requirement to maximise value for shareholders conflicts with commitments to corporate social responsibility. Companies are all bound by the same market forces, and this can reward bad actors with a competitive advantage.
"The buyer-supplier relationship is very complex. It also lets the manufacturers off the hook. While many are small manufacturers, there are others that are large multinationals, and sometimes they attack workers' rights or try to break unions despite an explicit commitment from a brand to freedom of association.
"The complex and opaque supply chain is the bigger problem, as it allows bad actors to be hidden by obscurity.
"One key part of IndustriALL's work is to develop trade union networks at key multinational manufacturers, and we are currently working on a trade union network at the British multinational COATS.
"Reforming brands' purchasing practices are an important part of the work, but the entire sector needs to be overhauled. This is what we are doing with the ACT initiative.
"ACT is building tripartite (unions, employer body and government) sector-wide collective bargaining in supplier countries, supported by brands and global unions.
"For instance, ACT brands pledge to maintain a certain level of production in a country and not leave to seek cheaper factories to avoid a collectively bargained wage rise."
But the report Union-Busting and Unfair Dismissals: Garment Workers during Covid-19 by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre gathered evidence that trade union organisers and members were deliberately targeted in mass layoffs to break unions in many garment factories.
"There has been a definite increase in this behaviour from employers since the beginning of the pandemic. When we are notified by an affiliate about violations, we first demand that the owner of the supplier factory take immediate action to enter into negotiation with the affected trade union.
"If no remedy is achieved, we demand that brands sourcing from the supplier immediately take action with their supplier to ensure that workers' rights are upheld.
"In many cases, we bring the parties together (local trade union, brands, and supplier) to the negotiation table to resolve the violation. For instance, our affiliate in Myanmar was recently able to win the reinstatement of workers through this approach."
The report also suggests there is a big disparity between companies' claims to respect labour rights and their record of ensuring these rights are respected, including with companies ignoring agreements they have signed with trade unions. Is this IndustriALL's experience?
"Generally the commitment to respect labour rights is made by the brands, who require their suppliers to do the same. Again, the problem is supply chain complexity. Global brands try to keep costs down, and suppliers try to cut corners on wages and safety.
"But generally brands try to prevent this. However, they source huge quantities of clothing from producers, who often subcontract. Labour violations are frequent, but difficult for anyone to monitor because of the scale of the industry.
"The best system for monitoring labour violations is through independent trade unions, rather than relying on brands policing their suppliers. When our unions raise violations they are not able to solve on the ground, we bring them to the brands for resolution."
The pandemic has also been used by governments to attack workers' rights. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) says that a number of Indian states — Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat — have suspended labour law for periods of up to 1,000 days using Covid-19 as an excuse, saying that waiving employer responsibilities on pay, ventilation and other matters will encourage employment when mass unemployment is a risk.
"The suspension of labour laws is true and worrying. In India, both the central government as well as state governments can make laws on labour issues.
"We have reports of states increasing the threshold of workers for applicability of all labour laws. For example, the application of the Contract Labour Abolition and Regulation Act is now for establishments employing more than 50 workers (instead of 20 workers) in the States of Gujarat, Karnataka, Tripura and a couple more.
"The law on working hours has been changed in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura from eight to 12 hours.
"Some states such as Karnataka, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar have introduced fixed-term-employment. Under the Employment (Standing Orders) Act, a worker who had completed 240 days of continuous work (with a weekly day off) was deemed to be permanent. Now that there is FTE, workers have lost that.
"We have been supporting the joint struggle of the Indian national [trade union] centres in all their protests so far and we have written to the Indian government as well as the ILO protesting against the labour law changes."
IndustriALL has recently signed an agreement with fashion brand owner Inditex to protect workers' rights in supply chains.
"Yes. It took pressure from ourselves and unions around the world, but Inditex made a commitment to not only honour orders made to supplier companies, but to guarantee an ongoing payment schedule and provide financing to keep companies afloat. That will give stability and predictability for suppliers in order to secure jobs and wages.
"Inditex also committed to ensuring that as factories reopen, they do so safely.
"But for us, the most important part of the agreement is that the company's compliance will be monitored by a global union committee, representing the company's workers from around the world, including at supplier factories."
Sanches concludes that "the excesses of globalisation have led to a backlash in many countries. We've seen an increase in nationalism and a greater focus on domestic economies, and also in demands for popular sovereignty, as evidenced by the Brexit vote and other phenomena around the world.
"The best way to counter the excessive power of multinational companies over governments and multilateral organisations is through international union solidarity. The unions in the home countries of the multinationals, such as Britain, can play a special role.
"We are all intricately connected to each other. We cannot win a better world for anyone unless we win a better world for all. Now more than ever it is important for the world's trade unions to stand together in solidarity."
IndustriAll Global Union
international labor solidarity
How the Asian American-led 1982 Garment Strike Shaped Three Decades of Labor Activism
Why We Need International Union Solidarity Now More Than Ever
US Labor Leaders Should Stand With Palestine
Garment Workers Win $22 Billion in Historic Victory Against Wage Theft
Corona Couture and the Fast-Fashion Face Mask


If you love making a good flower craft to help celebrate the season of spring, then you will love this floral wreath. You will have just as much fun picking out the perfect flowers to use as you will actually making this Faux Flower DIY Wreath. These flower craft ideas are so lifelike that your friends and neighbors will think that you went to the field and picked the flowers yourself. In fact, these flower projects are so stunning, that your guests won't even believe that you made the wreath on your own. Get picking!
I'm not really familiar with wreath-making, but I really love the colors in this wreath. So ready for bright spring colors!
This is such a beautiful DIY wreath! I can't believe that it's homemade.


Our goal was to develop design for the door of "Nar Zalı" in 28 Cinema and Nizami Cinema for Nar Mobile.
The main aim of the design was to differ from all the other cinema halls and attract the attention of cinema goers.
Therefore, following the concept of cinema we decided to show the famous and beloved movie characters in the new and fun form.
As a result the door to "Nar Zalı" attracted a lot of attention and people started to take pictures with it and shre them with their friends.
As memory is one of functions of a human brain, person's abilities to live in harmony with the inner and outside worlds and to collect and analyze the information have been taken into account at creation of the logo.


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Other World News
At least 19 people dead after plane crashes into Lake Victoria
flight pw 494
By Still Waters,
November 6, 2022 in Other World News
Still Waters
"Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory." - Dr. Seuss
Posted November 6, 2022 (IP: Staff) ·
At least 19 people have died after a plane plunged into Lake Victoria in Tanzania during bad weather shortly before it was due to land in the north-west city of Bukoba, according to the state-owned Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation.
"There was an accident involving a Precision Air plane which … crashed into water about 100 metres from the airport," the regional police commander William Mwampaghale told reporters at Bukoba airport.
The regional commissioner, Albert Chalamila, said 43 people – 39 passengers, two pilots and two cabin crew – were onboard flight PW 494 from the financial capital, Dar es Salaam, to the lakeside city in the Kagera region.
"As we speak, we have managed to rescue 26 people who were taken to our referral hospital," Chalamila said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/06/plane-crashes-into-lake-victoria-tanzania-precision-air
Still Waters 1 post
Jon the frog 1 post
At least 19 people have died after a plane plunged into Lake Victoria in Tanzania during bad weather shortly before it was due to land in the north-west city of Bukoba, according to the state-owned Ta
Jon the frog
The plane was intact in water, strange that they lost so many. It looks like he crew didn't do his job properly to get them out in order, it's possible that stuff got untangled in the cabin from the impact making escape difficult ?
Edited November 8, 2022 by Jon the frog


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Dubai Mall Marks & Spencer store reopens with huge new food hall and cafe - in pictures
The British high street favourite is now selling its full range of chilled goods in Dubai's biggest mall
The new M&S foodhall at its Dubai Mall store
The newly-reopend M&S store at Dubai Mall features a cafe offering dine-in and pick up options
As well as food, the store offers M&S's range of clothing and accessories for children.
The store has been given a contemporary makeover
M&S has reopened its Dubai Mall store with a brand new look
The newly opened M&S store in Dubai Mall
The Dubai Mall M&S store stocks women's clothing and accessories
The newly-reopened 33,000-square-foot M&S store at Dubai Mall
Dubai's flagship Marks & Spencer store, in The Dubai Mall, has reopened with a brand-new look.
The 3,066 square-metre store has had a contemporary makeover, with new interiors designed to optimise the customer experience.
Fans of M&S's food hall will be pleased to hear that the revamped store now has the addition of its full chilled food range, stocking more than 2,000 more grocery goods including meat, cheese and salad in the enhanced space.
M&S's freezer range is also now available at The Dubai Mall store, alongside classic cupboard staples and British favourites.
Shoppers looking to incorporate more plant-based foods into their diets will also be able to shop the Plant Kitchen range, which features dishes such as sweet-potato falafel and cashew nut and cannellini dip.
A post shared by M&S Food Press Office (@marksandspencerfoodpr) on Jun 9, 2020 at 3:50am PDT
As well as a much larger food hall, the store features a new Marks & Spencer Cafe, offering customers both a dine-in and pick-up service. The cafe will serve classic British afternoon tea, plus a selection of cakes and baked goods, and heartier dishes including fish and chips.
Food aside, the new store offers Marks & Spencer's clothing and accessories for men, women and children, as well as homeware.
Children can eat for free at these Dubai restaurants: from Taqado to McGettigan's
Buffets are back: Dubai reopens all-you-can-eat spreads, but with strict health and safety guidelines
Ooey, gooey goodness: 7 places where you can find the best chocolate chip cookies in the UAE
"We are pleased to welcome shoppers to our new boutique concept store, where we have introduced fresh food to the store for the very first time. The store will also offer a wide range of popular clothing collections for the whole family," says Nick Batey, general manager of Marks & Spencer Mena.
"We've been working hard to offer customers new, convenient ways to shop with Marks & Spencer, including the M&S Food app, e-catalogue service and partnerships with elGrocer, Deliveroo and, of course, on our website. It's important that customers are able to shop our products in the way that is most convenient to them."
In line with government guidelines, all necessary health and safety measures are in place, including regular and ongoing deep cleaning, the provision of sanitiser and gloves to all customers, social distancing measures and twice-daily body and temperature checks for staff.
Scroll through the gallery above to take a look inside the new and improved store.
Updated: June 24, 2020 12:08 PM
UAE weather: Stunning shot taken over Abu Dhabi as fog returns for a fifth day
Biden to focus on Iran deal re-entry in calls with US allies
Dubai hospitals told to cancel non-essential surgery for a month
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Hi. My name is Kim and I am a Certified Health Coach , Weight Management Specialist, and Senior Fitness Specialist. I have a MS in Health Education and a BS in Health & Wellness. I became interested in the field of health and wellness due to my own health issues including Hashimoto's disease, hypothyroidism, obesity, and food sensitivities. My journey has spanned several years. I wish to share my knowledge with others and help them reach their own health goals.
I have been married to my husband Jay for over 25 years. We have 2 children in their 20s and a Boxer. For exercise I love to run, bike, do yoga, and walk my dog.
I also have a lot of free resources available. Check them out HERE!


text:
Epic Games Store Snags Another Big Exclusive: Cult Favorite Shenmue 3
Yu Suzuki's long-awaited sequel is coming to PC...via the Epic Games Store.
News by Matt Kim, News Editor
Shenmue 3 got a new trailer today during the PC Gaming Show. What's more, the Epic Games Store logo appeared at the end suggesting Yu Suzuki's long-awaited sequel will be coming to PC as an Epic exclusive. Shenmue 3's Kickstarter page later confirmed this.
The new trailer showed off more of the kung-fu action that underpins the slice-of-life journey of Ryo Hazuki. Ryo ventures into China to find his father's killer and along the way learns a little kung-fu to help him in his journey.
There's a very old-school quality to Shenmue 3, something fans of the series will no doubt appreciate. Despite the updated graphics, the gameplay looks like something straight out of the Dreamcast, complete with mini games, and timed action events.
As for the Epic Games Store exclusivity, the Kickstarter page has been updated with the following message from the developers:
Shenmue III for PC will be will be an Epic Games Store exclusive. Development for Shenmue III has been moving forward using Unreal Engine and the support we have received from Epic has been excellent. But most importantly, in looking for the most enjoyable experience on PC, it was decided together with Deep Silver after much discussion that the Epic Games Store would be the best distribution platform option.
Shenmue was slated to hit Steam in November, and while the Steam page for Shenmue 3 is still up, it's unclear what will happen after today's Epic Games Store news. Shenmue 3 was also recently delayed as well until November 19.
For all the news and a full timetable, check out our E3 2019 schedule. If you're after information on the individual presentations, there's our guide pages to the Nintendo E3 2019 show, the Microsoft E3 2019 show, the Square Enix E3 2019 show, the Bethesda E3 2019 show, and the Ubisoft E3 2019 show.
More about Shenmue 3
Shenmue 3 Review


Bipolar disorder is a relatively common disorder, affecting about 2 people in every 100 in Australia. Despite this, most of us know little about it.
As bipolar's previous name of manic-depression suggests, it consists of episodes of either mania (elevated mood) or depression (lowered mood). All people have fluctuations of mood; some people more than others. What distinguishes people with bipolar from other people is the degree of mood fluctuation. The manic or depressed mood is severe, is not affected by normal changes in life circumstances, and can last for weeks.
During hypomanic or manic phases, sufferers may feel extremely happy and full of energy, be talkative, sleep less, and have floods of ideas. However, they can also be irritable, and do things that they wouldn't otherwise do, such as spend excessive amounts of money. During this phase, people may be unaware that they are ill, as minor levels of mania can feel stimulating and exciting.
Depressed phases can include lowered mood, lack of energy, a sense of despair, avoidance of people, loss of interest in activities, and thoughts of suicide.
During episodes of either sort, sufferers behave in ways that are uncharacteristic and uncomfortable for them. This is not something that they have control over, any more than someone with a heart condition is able to 'get over it'. Although unusual behaviour may be uncomfortable for people around, it is even more uncomfortable for the person with bipolar disorder.
Although stress may precipitate an episode in which a person with bipolar becomes either high or low, often there is no obvious precipitant. For some unknown reason, mania is more common in spring, and depression is more common in early winter.
Treatment for bipolar disorder can include medication (antidepressants and mood stabilisers), and psychological therapy to address problems and develop a relapse prevention plan. Therapy can include training in recognising early signs of changing mood, assistance to challenge non-helpful thoughts, and strategies for managing mood, reducing stress and solving problems.
When relating to someone with bipolar disorder, remember that he or she is a person, rather than a disorder. At times the disorder may get in the way of how the person chooses to be, but it will never totally remove those aspects of personhood that make each of us individual.


Kerri L. Briggs' tenure as state superintendent of education for the District of Columbia was spent largely working in the broad shadow cast by Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee.
Ms. Briggs' recent departure from her post was characteristically quiet. News of her resignation came shortly after Washington Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's loss in the city's Sept. 14 Democratic primary election, which was followed by speculation about the job status of his aggressive, handpicked chancellor, Ms. Rhee.
Employees in the state superintendent's office learned of Ms. Briggs' resignation two days after the election, said Beth H. Colleye. Formerly the superintendent's general counsel, Ms. Colleye been named interim superintendent.
"For the last nine years, I've worked at the federal, state, and local level," Ms. Briggs wrote in an e-mail to her colleagues. "I have loved every minute and continue to be amazed by your commitment to creating better opportunities for children."
As superintendent, Ms. Briggs—who declined an interview request—was responsible for administering traditionally state-level educational policies for the nation's capital and overseeing a $402 million annual budget. Her work included managing several federal grants and programs, as well as assessments and academic standards. She also played a major role in crafting the District of Columbia's successful $75 million application in the federal Race to the Top competition, Mayor Fenty said in a statement.
The office of the state superintendent of education operates like a state-level agency, with its own state board of education that advises the superintendent. It provides assistance to and monitors programs within Washington's 45,000-student public schools—a system overseen by the mayor, who appoints the chancellor—as well as to schools serving the city's 28,000 charter school students.
Kerri L. Briggs played a major part in the District of Columbia's win in the Race to the Top contest.
Ms. Briggs was appointed as superintendent a year and a half ago by Mr. Fenty, replacing Deborah A. Gist, who resigned the post to become Rhode Island's state education commissioner. The District is heavily Democratic, and in that sense, Ms. Briggs' appointment was unusual, in that she had formerly served as assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education in the U.S. Department of Education under President George W. Bush.
"She could have taken a comfortable job," Ms. Colleye said. "Instead, she really tried to use her expertise to improve the lives of children, and I respect that very much."
District of Columbia Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who defeated Mr. Fenty in the primary and is unopposed in the general election, is expected to appoint a full-time replacement for Ms. Briggs after his presumed move into the mayor's office in January, Ms. Colleye said.


wugi — 31.12.2014 at 14:18:27 And petty offences with waiting number will be traced since it would be the.
2018 — 31.12.2014 at 23:14:56 Right here in washington state the purpose that you lack certain information than 2 billion records from.
Nacnoy_Snayper — 31.12.2014 at 23:42:27 Execute investigative lookups technology has ever been arising to bring your data.


text:
from pymisc.modules import get_class_by_name

from .utils import LazyModel

def resolve_self(model_class_name):
    _cached = {}
    def wrapper(func):
        def wrapped_func(*args, **kwargs):
            if 'model_class' not in _cached:
                _cached['model_class'] = model_class = get_class_by_name(model_class_name)
            else:
                model_class = _cached['model_class']
            # Resolve self argument from instance id into lazy model instance.
            pk = kwargs.pop('self__pk', None)
            if isinstance(pk, int):
                args = [LazyModel(model_class, pk=pk)] + list(args)
            return func(*args, **kwargs)
        return wrapped_func
    return wrapper

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Mick Fanning and a gang of Epoxy boards star in the new, Stab in the Dark.
Stab in the Dark returns!
The newly "retired" Mick Fanning stars in the latest edition of Stab in the Dark. The incredible concept, by Stab Magazine, takes one of the world's best surfers and pairs them with unbranded surfboards from some of the world's best shapers. This year, the shapers had to use some combination of stringerless EPS blanks, carbon fiber, and epoxy resin. Mick reckons he never surfs epoxy boards, so I am excited to see what happens.
The locations are pretty hazy, though it is clear that Japan is certainly one of them. Some good looking waves in the teaser, though Mick is quite capable of making crap waves looks exceptional. It appears they got stuck in a huge typhoon too, which could make for incredible waves post storm. Previous editions of Stab in the Dark have scored really good waves, so holding thumbs for this one.
Pretty sure you can get it on the Stab site, or on iTunes.
certainly gotta be Taiwan in the locations too.


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723 Axe Man (2015-05-21)
0:00:00 JCD: "I think a lot of it has to do with the texture of the meat, and the flavor. (2:23:20)
0:00:34 JCD "brown goo" overcast; opening do-over; ACC in New York for Fleet Week, It's Only a Play with selfie sticks, JCD at Golden Gate Bridge "selfie stick central"
0:09:10 Letterman's final show, degraded quality of archival material, ACC "fifteen minutes of legacy", few surviving Ampex 2-inch machines for years of material; JCD's new Tascam DAT
0:13:58 FBI ISIS warnings for New Jersey high schoolers; "trigger warnings"; NCIS "crude version of Morse code" terrorist messages embedded in music
0:21:33 Bin Laden's bookshelf, explicit Seymour Hersh disclaimer, "CEO of al-Qaeda central", online membership application: "who to contact if you become a martyr", "treasure trove", "Abbottabad" first syllable stress, "favorite wife", other wife to remove fillings as possible Iranian trackers; Mike Morell grilled by Chris Matthews on Bush-Cheney briefings; Hillary: "I made a mistake, plain and simple" on Iraq war support; Morell: "… we think you're wrong, right?"; Bush "hatchet man" Cheney; Morell on $25M payoff: "um, not going to answer that question", burial at sea, Usama selfies, "I watched the video and I saw pictures"
0:52:39 Catherine Herridge on DIA memo: Benghazi planned ten days in advance for 9/11, ISIS rise predicted, gun running to Syria, Morell on CIA tracking it: "can't talk about that", "yes, we played no role — now, whether we were watching other people do it, I can't talk about it"
0:59:27 Producer Segment
1:06:34 "How to fix this" questions, multi-million-dollar crowd funding examples, local activism
1:12:37 Aviation insider note: accessing avionics from entertainment system impossible; Chris Roberts on Security Weekly podcast: "called bullshit" on GAO report via Twitter; "obviously you've got the iPad issues"; previously worked for FBI veteran Kevin Knierim at Cyopsis LLC; DHS I.G. John Roth on $3.7M for TSA background checks a "massive, massive challenge"
1:33:37 RIAA, MPAA lawsuit dry-up, Spotify adding video and podcasts of IPO, JCD explains $8.4bn "valuation"; Trannies on Acid extortion business
1:39:51 New "flakka" drug and LAX security run-through: "he had a strange smile on his face the entire time"; new heroin synthesis, ACC: "we won't need any more wars"; cocaine "booger sugar" protocols and Rand Paul filibuster, separation of powers collapse and Executive "behemoth"
1:53:00 New Obama Twitter account; "we can't then axe the police to be the ones to solve the problem"
1:55:11 Donation Segment: ACC saw The Seed Man at Bar Chi Sushi
2:08:37 Bill Nye cites Constitution Article 1 Section 8 "science and the useful arts" at Rutgers commencement; Obama to Coast Guard Academy: "the science is indisputable", CO2 800k year high, Charleston flooding at high tide (chatroom: it's below sea level), naval bases to be "swamped"; Impossible Foods CEO on "hard core meat eaters", animal farming "single biggest environmental threat in the world today", 4k glasses of water per person per day; Nigerian restaurant shut down for serving "long pig" human flesh
2:28:14 Upcoming Irish referendum on gay marriage, ACC demands Apple pull-out if voted down
2:30:27 ISIS in Palmyra; Khamenei: no nuclear scientist interviews; Iran vs Saudis on Yemeni relief
2:34:35 CNN on P-8A Poseidon "classified US intelligence flights": "this is Chinese Navy, please go away quickly"; North Korea cancels Ban Ki-moon's Kaesong park visit, execution over military food supplies; Ash Carter on Russian Pentagon computer attack; Morell on foreign governments in Obama's unclassified e-mail
2:48:56 Double mastectomy, hysterectomy from son's DNA test, Color Genomics $249 test promotion


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Drapetis naevia är en tvåvingeart som beskrevs av Rogers 1983. Drapetis naevia ingår i släktet Drapetis och familjen puckeldansflugor.

Artens utbredningsområde är El Salvador. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Puckeldansflugor
naevia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Jack Youngerman, Ukiyo-E #4, Screenprint with lithography, Overall: 39 x 44 1/4 x 1 1/4 in. (99.1 x 112.4 x 3.2 cm), Collection of Art in Embassies, Washington, D.C.
Gene Davis, Black Watch Series III, Silkscreen, Overall: 79 1/4 x 53 1/2 x 2 in. (201.3 x 135.9 x 5.1 cm), Collection of Art in Embassies, Washington, D.C.
Gene Davis, Black Watch Series II, Silkscreen, 79 1/4 x 53 1/2 x 2 in. (201.3 x 135.9 x 5.1cm), Collection of Art in Embassies, Washington, D.C.
Larry Poons, Untitled, Color silkscreen, Overall: 30 1/2 x 31 x 1 1/2 in. (77.5 x 78.7 x 3.8 cm), Collection of Art in Embassies, Washington, D.C.; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Berman
Alice Baber, Red Melting Point, Watercolor, Overall: 36 1/2 x 28 1/2 x 1 1/2in. (92.7 x 72.4 x 3.8cm), Collection of Art in Embassies, Washington, D.C.; Gift of The Estate of Alice Baber
Wayne Thiebaud, Park Place, Color hard ground etching, Overall: 42 3/4 x 33 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (108.6 x 85.7 x 3.8 cm), Courtesy of the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, Washington, D.C.
Gene Davis, Black Watch Series I, Silkscreen, Overall: 79 1/4 x 53 1/2 x 2 in. (201.3 x 135.9 x 5.1 cm), Collection of Art in Embassies, Washington, D.C.
Andy Warhol, After the Party, Silkscreen, Overall: 28 1/2 × 37 × 2 in. (72.4 × 94 × 5.1 cm), Collection of Art in Embassies, Washington, D.C.; Gift of Bob Colacello
Helen Grigware Lambert, Border Flowers, Oil on canvas, Overall: 48 x 63 x 2 in. (121.9 x 160 x 5.1 cm), Courtesy of Art in Embassies, Washington, D.C.; Gift of the artist
Patricia Nix, I Promised You a Rose Garden, Oil and collage on canvas, Overall: 48 x 48 x 3/4 in. (121.9 x 121.9 x 1.9 cm), Courtesy of the artist, New York, New York
Joel Shapiro, Untitled, Silkscreen, Overall: 45 1/4 × 37 1/2 × 2 in. (114.9 × 95.3 × 5.1 cm), Courtesy of the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, Washington, D.C.
Ellsworth Kelly, Philodendron II, Lithograph, Overall: 36 5/8 × 47 5/8 × 1 1/4 in. (93 × 121 × 3.2 cm), Courtesy of the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, Washington, D.C.
Helen Grigware Lambert, Spring Fever, Acrylic on canvas, Overall: 42 x 62 x 2 in. (106.7 x 157.5 x 5.1 cm), Courtesy of Art in Embassies, Washington, D.C.; Gift of the artist
Alice Baber
Helen Grigware Lambert
Patricia Nix
Virtual Exchange Series with Elizabeth Hack
CAIRO 2008
ALGIERS 2022
DAMASCUS 2004
KUWAIT 2011
RIYADH 2009


text:
Prager and Carolla: "No Safe Spaces" Movie Coming This Fall!
A Teacher Loses Her Job Over Political Beliefs & America Nears End of "Freedom of Speech"
Daniel Greenfield: What Taxing the Rich Did to Warren and Ocasio Cortez's States
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Ann-Marie Murrell Interviews 'The Spy Who Loved Me' Bond Girl Caroline Munro
The Glazov Gang
In Defense of the "White Man" (Part 1 of 2 By An Asian American)
Jin Ah Jin Send an email January 25, 2014
My friend Paul Marcarelli of Verizon "Can you hear me now?" fame said, "Being invited to someone's Facebook is like being invited to a cocktail party; you just don't know who's going to be there and what will be said during the libations, whispers and gossip happening around you." I think he said it perfectly. Sometimes I wander into a conversation or a post on my newsfeed and I cannot control myself; emotions seem to force me to type my input or share my feelings. Of course as a conservative woman, I particularly get incensed when I am mocked as sexist, racist, homophobic and every other thing that they accuse us of. Liberals on my newsfeed are always complaining about their supposed "unfair treatment"—however it is sometimes worth looking in the mirror and questioning one's own actions, something that my friend Matt Rhodes has said, "I'm thankful for the opportunity to continually do."
Last week, a FB friend peeked into my "mirror" and purported that I am advocating for the "white man" due to my response to a biased blog/article she posted in which an Asian male was complaining on twitter, #NotYourAsianSidekick, about how he doesn't get a fair shake because he is Asian. My friend said the disparity of their wage gap was a significant percentage within the American corporate world compared to the "white male". I read through the article and started getting just mad. Number one, the study that was used to base their American argument of a "disparity of wages of White over Asian" was done in Australia! Yes, it was an Australian study, made by Australians, to base their argument on the United States wage gap. My initial response to my friend was:
From what I've seen in the corporate world of Asian man vs White man… Asian men are docile and follow the crowd. Not too many leaders among them but when they do appear, they run the company and they in turn pay the white man more then the Asian man so whose fault is it, really? I heard them play the blame game and whine and for me as a manager, that was not the way to go to increase your paycheck or for upward mobility.
After that, I was accused of playing into the stereotype and advocating for the "white man" simply because I am a non-white Asian sticking up for something that was obviously wrong. (By the way, many times have I said to my white friends, "It sucks to be white". If you're white, you simply can't win any argument on the subject of color, race or sex because even if you're right, your words are going to be taken out of context. Apparently they do not understand the hardships of discriminatory practices.)
I was shocked at my friend's accusations. I wrote, "I try to advocate forward movement for all through hard work and values, without blaming someone because they didn't get something. Sometimes inequality happens and then I'm all on it. I've seen it firsthand; but most of the time, the ones who use those excuses are manipulative and try to play a game to get what they want and I think most managers are wise enough to leave them behind."
Being accused of racism automatically triggers defense mechanisms, no matter what your color. Anyone who knows me is very aware how fiercely proud I am of my heritage. I am proud of being an American and proud of my Asian–Korean and Japanese heritage from my parents. I am so proud that I only wanted to date Asian Americans and the thought of actually dating another race has never entered my mind (until recently when, out of the blue, I fell head over heels in love with someone not Asian). My life is founded on the premise of family preservation, to love one another and to not judge. But I also try to avoid unstable people, mostly those who believe in entitlements– whining and complaining and making excuses for their lives while not working to change things for the better (yet believing they deserve it anyway).
I went on to comment on my friend's post that Asian males, including some Asian Americans, are constantly coddled by their mothers and their families and if they are oldest, throw in the towel. Chauvinism prevails and Asian men are always used to getting whatever they want. An Asian American female on the post responded,
I agree with you regarding Asian men's upbringing, their egos are pumped up by parents and top grades, but when they get out into the working world, they find that they're not -All That-. It takes quite an adjustment to learn to play corporate politics and some are never good at it. Whereas Asian women have been negotiating all their lives.
I can say for sure there are different disparities in male/female pay grades particularly because of the immigration process. There are vast cultural differences in Asian countries and I also believe that much of Asian's lagging – particularly men, when they become stagnant in their jobs–may be caused by their upbringing in a culture in which man can do no wrong, are constantly coddled by their families and treated like "little gods". Thus they get thrust into a western culture and expect the same. Qualifications may be the same, but from what I've observed, personality and work ethics do show disparities. As a manager, I didn't look at the color, race or gender. I chose people who I believed could handle the job and do it in a timely matter. The Asian men that I know who have succeeded are mostly Chinese and Indian. They seem to have assimilated to a point of being leaders and team players. Companies welcome diversity and culture these days, but for my Twitter friends, this is an excuse and what they consider an unfair step backwards.
Yes, at one time there was definitely a glass ceiling in which women and people of different colors fell below, but for me, knowing what I know, using racism as an excuse for bad workers (of any color) is unacceptable. My involvement for years in the Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce, which is the biggest National Asian American Chamber of Commerce Association showed all the major American corporations promoting diversity particular with Asians.
Another Asian American friend, who was a major player in her corporation and her Asian husband is an executive in a major public corporation, wrote, "Certainly not in my husbands case. He treats and pays all on merit and experience. Most corporate companies have set pay scales/levels and human resources to make sure there is no discrimination."
And therein lies the truth. In this present day and age, human resources departments are set to make sure there are no disparities in pay and levels because they could get in trouble, the company could get in trouble for not follow the laws as an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Qualifications, such as a college degree, do not mean they can do the job. And as a manager again, no one wants a whiner or someone playing the blame game no matter what culture or color. The most successful Asian American men I know, who are making tremendous amounts of money and are big influences in their companies and fields, also faced glass ceilings–but they moved forward without whining and are now at the top of their game. Others pursued their entrepreneurial spirit, evolving from small business ownership inherited from their parents. One such company, Computer Associates, gave tremendous amounts of employment and opportunity to many Asian Americans.
I wrote on my friend's post—in a very non-PC way, "Through my experience in the corporate arena, which is 5 years in NYC and more in the D.C. area, you would need to weed out the different Asians." I once had to fire a Korean male because he didn't do his job. He kept asking me, "Don't you feel prejudice from your fellow workers and our manager?" My response was an unequivocal no. I am a female Asian employee and my employers had provided all the education for me to become head of IT–so what prejudice could there be? As long as I am a professional and make sure to cross my t's and dot my i's, possibilities are endless.
Thus in my opinion, my friend's article does not prove anything other than trying to place unfounded blame and provoke stereotypes that are simply not there. This does not do anything to promote equality and if anything, it further divides the races. Sometimes I wonder if people are so self-loathing that they have to make themselves appear righteous by taking up arms for causes that they know nothing about. Yes, reverse discrimination exists, but it is exacerbated by know-it-alls who make constant excuses as to why their lives (and yours) aren't working. (Bottom line, it makes me believe there are a lot of mental health issues out there…)
As for me, I refuse to be entrapped by such nonsense. I am a proud conservative Asian American female and mother and I will be raising my children to make no excuses, but to instead work hard. I want them to understand that every goal and dream they have can only be achieved by their own merit and hard work. Color or sex will never be a deterrent for my children; they will achieve success on their own. In addition, they will embrace and enjoy all the wonders of being a human being and part of a beautiful rainbow.
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Jin Ah Jin
Virginia PolitiChick Jin Ah Jin has been the lead in campaigns for many politicians, including Ken Cuccinelli for both State Senate and Attorney General and she was appointed the Honorary Chairman for the Fairfax County Asian American Coalition for the McCain/ Palin campaign. Jin also assists in local minority grassroots politics in her state of Virginia. She believes if we can elect and support good officials whose root is the care of their constituents, then we can change things. In her past, Jin worked as a volunteer fundraiser for Mercy Corps raising awareness and money for the health and poverty of women and children in North Korea. She was also a volunteer fundraiser for the Korean American Association of Greater Washington, D.C. area and led the Education Committee to teach English for newly arrived legal immigrants to the area. In conjunction, she worked with the office of former Congressman Thomas Davis, who took the lead on reforms in the welfare bill for legal immigrants. Jin was a former Vice President of Resources, board member and Fundraising Gala chair for the Korean American Coalition of Washington, D.C. in 2001. She was on the Scholarship Committee and the co-chair of the golf tournament fundraiser for the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce 2003-2006. More importantly, Jin is the mother of 6 children. She says her passion for service is led through her children's eyes: "I want change for my children. I want them to have a future where their dreams can become reality and where they can succeed without prejudice."
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Newcastle fans react to Jordan comments
Date: 3rd July 2019 at 10:00am
Newcastle United fans are fiercely loyal. If you put your heart and soul into everything you do on Tyneside, and if you prove that you are the sort of person who can be relied on, you will discover a fanbase who will support you for life. And that's exactly what Rafa Benitez can expect in the north east, despite the fact that he has now left Newcastle for a job in China. The Spaniard was unable to agree new terms on a contract extension at St. James' Park, and honestly, you will struggle to find many Toon fans who blame him. With Mike Ashley at the helm, conditions for a manager are incredibly difficult, and Benitez himself stated in his leaving statement that he wanted to stay but wasn't assured by those at the top of the club that they could match his ambitions. A lot of people will be sympathetic to that, but one man who isn't is talkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan. The former Crystal Palace chairman has spoken out against Rafa, claiming that he isn't a fan, and that the Spaniard left because he couldn't get his own way. Aside from the fact that he has massive oversimplified the issue, Jordan also misses a fundamental point. Even if Rafa did leave because he couldn't get what he wanted, what he was searching for was ultimately what is best for the club. Ashley is in the wrong, and as such, so is Jordan.
Nothing but Newcastle have gathered some of the best tweets below:


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Home Features An Experiment In Apocalypse
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An Experiment In Apocalypse
Stephen Cox September 15, 1970	 December 3, 2020 Leave a comment
If you travel around the country, you will see, from time to time, a billboard that proclaims, "Judgment Day: May 21, 2011." Or you may see one that says, in more detail: "The Rapture: May 21, 2011. The End of the World: October 21, 2011."
Early this summer, the Portuguese sailing ship "Sagres" visited my town, San Diego. At the wharf, swarms of middle aged men and women materialized with stacks of pamphlets in English and Portuguese. "The End of the World Is Almost Here!" the pamphlets said. "Holy God Will Bring Judgment Day on May 21, 2011."
The same information is being dispensed in many parts of the world. In origin, however, this is an American phenomenon, and Americans are likely to see much more of it in the days ahead. It provides a rare opportunity to study what happens when prophecy fails.
Those words — "When Prophecy Fails" — are the title of a seminal work in social psychology, published in 1956. The authors, Leon Festinger and two colleagues, researchers from the University of Minnesota, learned that a flying saucer enthusiast in Oak Park, Illinois, had received messages from another planet informing her that the world would soon (in December 1954) be devastated by earthquakes and floods. They immediately organized a team of investigators to infiltrate her followers, observe what was happening, and document the results.
The message bearer, Dorothy Martin, whom Festinger and his colleagues call "Marian Keech," reacted to the initial failure of her prophecies by making further prophecies. When these also failed, she rationalized the disconfirmation by conveying messages indicating that the world had been saved because of the spiritual light shed by her disciples. For a while, the fervor of her inner circle actually increased. The authors attributed this to the heightened intensity of the believers' struggle to retain their faith and explain it to the world.
Yet within a short time the group dissolved. Some people simply lost their faith. Others succumbed to social pressures. Martin's neighbors tried to get her arrested for disturbing the peace, and relatives tried to get some of her disciples declared insane and unfit to rear their children.
Martin fled her home, but she never gave up on self invented spirituality. She continued to operate as a guru of eccentric spiritual groups until her death in 1992. (Her story is perceptively told by Jerome Clark in "Alien Worlds" [ed. Diana G. Tumminia, 2007].) This kind of faithfulness is perhaps to be expected of a woman so poignantly gullible that
The prophecies about May 21, 2011 emanate from a large, well funded Christian institution veering into hyperspace.
when a group of teenage pranksters visited her home in 1954, determined to make fun of her prophecies, she immediately recognized them as flying saucer pilots on a mission to test her resolve: "As soon as they had entered the house she had felt the force of their superhuman personalities, their strength, their intelligence."
Peace to Mrs. Martin. "When Prophecy Fails" remains the most influential study of why people believe in preposterous time prophecies, and why some of them continue to believe, even after the prophecies have been proven false. Yet it has to do with only a tiny group of outer space aficionados — about two dozen. That's a very small experiment. By contrast, the prophecies about May 21, 2011 (and collaterally, October 21, 2011), emanate from a large, well-funded Christian institution, formerly mainstream but now veering into hyperspace.
The institution is Family Stations, Inc., usually known as Family Radio. Based in Oakland, California, it is a worldwide network of AM, FM, and shortwave radio outlets (over 100 stations in the United States alone). No one can calculate how many steady adherents Family Radio has; doubtless, they are only a fraction of its millions of casual or chronic listeners (such as me). But however you figure it, Family Radio is a mass movement, the kind of movement that sometimes metastasizes from ordinary American ideas and institutions.
The interest of Family Radio's prophecies is doubled by the fact that it has predicted the end of the world twice. It did so in 1994, and it's doing so now — and if anything, the appeal of its ideas has grown. No apocalyptic messengers showed up at San Diego harbor in 1994. Now, they do.
But let's start with history. Nothing is more American than predictions of the end of the world. One of the greatest mass movements in early American history was occasioned by William Miller (1782– 1849), whose study of Bible prophecy led him to announce that Christ's second coming or "advent" would occur in 1843 or 1844. Various exact dates circulated among his followers, but when nothing happened on the last one, October 22, 1844, almost everyone gave up. This is called in American religious history the Great Disappointment.
But it was not the end. Out of Millerism grew other movements. Many people could not shake the idea that something about Miller's prophecies must, in some sense, have been true. A period of reinterpretation ensued, and from it emerged the adventist movement in its many, various, and populous forms. Chief among them are the Seventh Day Adventists, who have a mighty following throughout the world. Other adventist groups include the Worldwide Church of God and its offshoots, and the movement now called Jehovah's Witnesses, begun by the disciples of Charles Taze Russell, a major adventist reinterpreter.
One classic pattern of adventist reinterpretation is to retain an apparently falsified prophetic date and argue that something did happen then, but that it happened invisibly. The Seventh Day Adventists retained 1844 but interpreted it as a time when Christ invisibly began a process of "investigative judgment." Another group of adventists predicted a visible second coming in 1874, then decided that it had been an invisible event. Russell learned from this group about the invisible coming in 1874 and predicted that 1914 would bring the highly visible end of everything not subject to Christ's kingdom. Fortunately for his followers, World War I began in 1914, allowing them to maintain that he was astonishingly right in having predicted that year — which they interpreted as the (revised) date of Christ's still-invisible second coming. From time to time, they have assigned new dates for the end of the world. They issued predictions for 1925 and 1975, among other years, and lost large numbers of adherents thereafter. Yet their movement continued, fortified by the belief that Russell had actually predicted something true about 1914.
These are some of the shapes that prophetic disappointment can take. But the early adventist experiments, though large, were messy. The Family Radio experiment is cleaner. Family Radio's disciples are many, but they don't number in the millions, and its ideas don't leak out at irregular intervals from the depths of a Protestant Vatican. The prophecies of Family Radio issue from one man, who is on the air every day.
In his younger years, Harold Egbert Camping (born 1921) operated a construction company in northern California. His business was successful, but having made his money, he looked for something more intellectual to do. He began an earnest study of the Bible. In 1958, at a time when FM stations were not very expensive to acquire, he and some friends founded Family Radio. They started with one station, then went on to purchase others. The stations are very frugally operated, and Camping has never tried to make any money from them. There has never been a whiff of scandal about Family Radio. The salaries of its officers and directors are only about $80,000 a year, total — less than 1% of total wages and salaries. The organization ticks along with about $15 million in contributions a year. Its net assets, in 2007, were $122 million.
Camping's current role in the organization is that of "Bible teacher." He is an active radio lecturer and conference speaker, but his primary means of teaching is his Monday– Friday call-in program "Open Forum," which began in 1961. (If you go to the Family Radio website, you can get a list of the stations that broadcast the show, as well as the texts of his recent publications.)
When you listen to "Open Forum," you will probably find it hard to conceive how Camping could ever have attracted a following. If there is such a thing as anti-charisma, Camping has it. He is the antithesis of the modern media personality. Dogmatic, repetitious, excruciatingly slow and digressive, he is also, very often, intolerably rude. When someone even hints at a disagreement or appears to introduce a term or concept that he considers erroneous, he begins shouting, "Excuse me! Excuse me!", until the annoying intervention ceases. "Open Forum" is neither "open" nor any kind of "forum." During the August 5 program, a hapless caller asked to be allowed to complete his comment: "Mr. Camping! May I please just finish what I was saying?" Camping replied, "Excuse me! This program is not designed to entertain just anybody and everybody's ideas!" It was a typical episode in the life of "Open Forum."
Camping has the annoying habit of preaching abject humility, while claiming that "we" (that is, he) have been favored by God with an understanding of Bible truth that was never vouchsafed to anyone before. Indeed, he constantly insists that the Bible was written not to be understood, until these latter days — that is, until a time when God enabled "us" to divine its meanings. It's a classic adventist idea — the idea that, as Russell put it in "The Time Is at Hand" (1889), "all these things have been hidden by the Lord" until the right Bible teacher is available to discover them.
Camping's theology is far from intuitive. He began life as a member of a Calvinist church — the Christian Reformed denomination, ordinarily a heritage church for the descendants of Dutch immigrants — and received from it a basic set of Calvinist doctrines to which he still assents. In his view, God decreed, before the foundation of the world, who would be saved and who would be damned, making his decision arbitrarily, not on the basis of the goodness or badness of the deeds that he foresaw his children would do. To believe anything else, Calvin thought, was to doubt God's supremacy, his freedom from all constraint. But Camping carries this theology to further extremes.
On June 13, 2010, in his "Bible Class of the Air" (part 92[!] in a series called "To God Be the Glory"), he asserted that "eternal life is a lottery prize." He then listed all the places in the Bible that refer to "lots" or "casting lots," as if that proved his point. On many occasions during 2010 he has maintained that only 200 million people will be saved (see Revelation 9:16, patently misinterpreted). He states, with great satisfaction in his numerology, that this number represents one-seventieth of the people who have ever lived on earth.
The inherent cruelty of such ideas must repel many potential converts, while bringing out the latent elitism in many others. But most of Camping's distinctive ideas are stranger still. His emphasis on what happened "from the foundation of the world" has led him to propose that Christ's redemptive sacrifice was not merely foreseen by God before the world began; it actually took place before the world began. (The poetic phrase comes from Revelation 13:8; the interpretation is confuted by Hebrews 9:26). Thus, Christ's death on the cross was merely a theatrical "demonstration" of the torture and death that had somehow happened before time began. I have never discovered anyone else who came up with this idea.
Most listeners probably become confused by doctrines like that and blank out on them. But Camping won't allow anyone to blank out on his prophecies about 2011: Christ will manifest himself on May 21, 2011; the last judgment will begin; the elect, "the true believers," will be "raptured" or caught up to heaven; the graves will cast out the dead, and birds of prey will feed on them. During the following five months, billions of the non-elect will live on, amid scenes of increasing violence and distress, repenting of their failure to believe Harold Camping. Then, on October 21, 2011, the entire physical universe will be destroyed.
How did Camping decide on these dates?
His ideas are extraordinarily hard to summarize logically. Camping is a man who is capable of arguing that the number 1,000 (in Revelation 20:2) symbolizes the 1,955 years from A.D. 33 to 1988 A.D. — one number "symbolizing" another number. Without trying to fill in the details, I'll sketch two lines of thought that have led him to 2011.
One begins with his interpretation of Daniel 8:13–14. There the question is asked, "How long shall . . . the sanctuary . . . be trodden under foot?", and the answer is given: "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." I'll come back to that. Remember the number 2,300.
Another line of thought starts from Camping's unique understanding of the age of the world. A bizarre recalculation of the ages of the patriarchs in the book of Genesis leads him to the conclusion that the world was created in 11,013 B.C., not 4004 B.C., the traditional Old Testament date. Add 13,000 years to 11,013 B.C., and you get 1988 A.D. (keep in mind that there's no year 0), an important date for Camping's prophecies.
It isn't clear why 13,000 should be significant; 13 is by no means an important biblical number. It is clear, however, that the year 2011 is 7,000 years from Camping's date for Noah's flood (4990 B.C.). So what? Well, 7 is frequently emphasized in the Bible, and so (rarely) is 1,000. Further, it is 23 years from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011, and 2,300 days from May 21,
Nothing is more American than predictions of the end of the world. From time to time, new dates are assigned.
1988, to September 6, 1994. You recall the figure 2,300 from Daniel 8:13–14. According to Camping, 23 signifies "God's wrath or judgment," as illustrated by the presence of 23 in two exceptionally obscure places in the Bible, as well as by the 2,300 days in Daniel 8 — which brings us back to where we started.
Are you lost? I wouldn't be surprised. But I'll proceed.
What, if anything, happened in 1988? In 1988, Harold Camping left his Christian Reformed church in Alameda, California, because it intended to oust him from his job as Bible teacher. And what happened in 1994? Camping says now that 1994 was when the "horror" of the churches began, because God then started to save "multitudes" of people without the churches' help. This was another of the invisible events well known in adventist circles. The visible and relevant event, however, was the failure of Camping's first prophecy about the end of the world. He had identified the date as September 6, 1994, and estimated the probability as 99.9%.
Camping's book, "1994?", appeared in 1992 and became a bestseller in the religious field. For two years thereafter broadcasts on Family Radio insisted that 1994 would see Christ's second coming, and the end of the world.
September 6, 1994, came and went. Nothing happened to the universe, and nothing happened to Family Radio, either — although that was wonderful enough in its own way. "Open Forum" continued; all the other programs continued. The prophetic failure was not acknowledged. Camping experimented with other dates in the neighborhood of September 6, and these also failed. Months later, he began to entertain questions about what might conceivably have gone wrong. He answered, without a hint of repentance or self-doubt, that the question mark after "1994" in the title of his book showed that he hadn't been sure, that he had merely introduced a possibility.
Family Radio was damaged by 1994, but it survived. Obviously, it had a core constituency that cared a lot about prophecy but not very much about prophetic failure, at least in the first instance. There was probably an additional reason for its survival. Nineteen ninety-four was a little early for most people to be masters of the internet, and for the internet to have entries on almost every conceivable subject. Today, it's easy to find Christian websites that combat Camping's views; but if you were going to leave the Family Radio movement in 1994, your first thought would probably not be, "I'm
The fact that every new religious interpretation represents itself as orthodoxy merely reflects Americans' invincible confidence.
going to start a website and expose this man's heresies!" You'd just leave, without broadcasting your opinions, and the way would be clear for Camping to offer his prophecies to people who had never heard of 1994.
There is a law, called Cox's Law of Institutional Fitness, that helps explain why churches and other voluntary organizations often survive ridiculous failures. The Law states: "Every preacher is good enough for the church he's in." In other words, the people who can't stand the preacher go away, and the people who remain keep filling out surveys saying that he's doing a terrific job. So the church (or the community center, or the libertarian caucus, or any other voluntary organization) continues as it is, no matter how ridiculous it makes itself. Of course, this allows crazy things to get crazier still. That process is richly exemplified by the recent history of Family Radio.
Camping appears to have taken several years to process the failure of 1994, but in 2001 he began to announce radical new teachings. One was a revised date for the end of the world: 2011. About this date, as he frequently proclaims, he is even more certain than he was about 1994. In fact, he is totally certain. As he said on his June 29 broadcast, "It is absolutely going to happen."
Another new teaching was the idea that in 1988 "the Church Age" had ended: God had withdrawn his authority from the churches and given them up to Satan. He did that on May 21, 1988; afterward, for 2,300 days, few or no souls were saved. Then, in 1994, a fresh harvest of souls began, under the exclusive auspices of Family Radio.
Camping never discusses the fact that 1988 was the date of his trouble with his local church, and 1994 was the date of his failed prophecy of the End. Obviously, however, visible failure was now being converted into invisible but glorious victory. Camping has said ( in a talk broadcast on May 2, 2009, but recorded some years before) that he was in the hospital, "not knowing whether I was gonna live or die" (here he chuckled), when it suddenly occurred to him that the Church Age was over and there would be 23 years from its end till the end of the world. For him, "everything" then "locked into place."
From that curious inspiration, his movement received new life and energy.
For three centuries, free religious speculation has been a hallmark of American life. That is one reason why Americans have invented so many denominations, and why the current views of any given denomination are impossible to predict from the premises with which it started. The fact that every fanciful new interpretation represents itself as orthodoxy merely reflects Americans' invincible confidence in themselves.
This is not, in itself, an unattractive quality, although it often leads people to arrive at places that are quite different from those they aimed at, without understanding the significance of their journey.
There is nothing that Harold Camping more detests than the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses and other eccentric adventists. Yet, like the two warring brothers in Swift's "Tale of a Tub," he has adopted some of their crucial views: he denies the existence of a literal hell and embraces the idea that there is no "soul" that survives one's physical death — if God intends to resurrect you, then he will give you a brandnew existence; if not, as Camping puts it, you're just "dead, dead, dead!"
In some respects, Camping's ideas are also mirror images of atheism. Many atheists read the Bible as if it were all of a piece, disregarding the various approaches of its various authors and the various periods and genres in which it was written. So if you find something brutal in Jeremiah or something antilibertarian in Leviticus, so much for the rest of the Bible, too. Camping agrees with the premise, while denying the implication. For him, the Bible is "one work, one meaning, and one author" ("To God Be the Glory," part 98). Defending his right to take some Bible numbers literally and some symbolically, he has said that they may be literal or symbolic, "depending on the context, which is the whole Bible" ("Open Forum," July 13). Of course, that's a prescription for interpreting any individual passage in exactly the way you choose, since there are millions of things in "the whole Bible" that can provide a "context." Thus he justifies another common atheist assumption: the Bible is an old fiddle, on which one can play any old tune.
But the oddest mirror effect is Camping's treatment of the conditions of salvation. The Calvinist doctrine with which he began is that there are no conditions: God saves whomever he wills to save. Accordingly, Camping fanatically opposes the plausible idea, which he thinks all churches are preaching, that people can do something to indicate that they want to be saved, and thereby help, at least, to procure their salvation. He is so concerned with the falseness of this idea as to insist that if you are sitting in a church that preaches it, you have no possibility of being saved. Last year, he declared that you can be saved in a mosque, but you cannot be saved in a church.
Be that as it may — as he stated in his June 7 broadcast, "If anyone thinks that he's accepted Christ as savior and that this means he's saved, he is automatically not saved." Filling out this logic: you cannot influence your own salvation — except if you believe you can influence your own salvation; then you'll find that there are limits to God's power to save you — which is precisely the point that Calvin denied, and Camping believes that he himself denies.
Camping's antichurch theology has had major institutional effects. In 2001, he started exhorting his followers to "depart out" of the churches, abandoning even the primary rituals of baptism and communion. For many years, his stations had told prospective donors, "First take care of your local church; then give to Family Radio" — which, besides "Open Forum," broadcast many sermons and other features by conservative Christian clergy. Now, Family Radio's listeners fled their churches, and the network cancelled a good share of its programming simply because it was sponsored by a pastor or a church, or even mentioned a pastor or a church.
The vacant air time was filled with new forms of ritual — incessant replays of Camping's lectures and comments; frequent, often arbitrarily selected, recitations of Scripture; program notes, pleas for funds, and music introductions gruesomely expanded into sermons about the End. Meanwhile, Family Radio put a great deal of effort into organizing local conferences and missionary campaigns, obvious surrogates for the work of local churches. Family Radio is evolving into the image of all it hates, a church — a particularly dry and boring church, but nevertheless a church.
This also is truly American. It's hard to imagine that in America you can have a distinctive Christian belief and not expect some kind of church to grow out of it. In this country, voluntary belief leads to voluntary organization. There is nothing to prevent it; it's just what happens.
In 1993, an anonymous Family Radio insider reported, "The majority of staff members here at Family Radio fear that the end just might be near . . . not for the world, but for Family Radio." Their fears were not realized. Since the failure of prediction in 1994, the institution has added many more stations, listeners, and activists. But the Depart Out message caused
Last year, Camping declared that you can be saved in a Mosque, but you cannot be saved in a church.
large internal disruptions. Prominent personalities, well known to the radio audience, departed out of Family Radio, some of them issuing public statements about how unreasonable and pigheaded Camping was. One claimed that his teachings were "an embarrassment to almost all FR employees," with "only a small percentage of staff hanging on every word he says."
Most dissenters appear to have remained, but they have learned to lie low. They have stopped talking with the press, even anonymously, although occasionally echoes of their feelings are heard on anti-Camping websites. They are said to be waiting it out till Camping dies.
If you tune in today, you will find a strange mix of programs — not only Campingite propaganda but standard Christian music and a variety of daily features about common human problems. Some of the most attractive radio personalities continue in their niches, never mentioning the end of the world. Their thoughts are a mystery. But it's a remarkable commentary on the audience of Family Radio that the network's overriding theme — the End comes next year! — is balanced by programs about child-rearing, preserving your health, reducing your weight, and dealing with the lifelong problems of marriage.
Apocalyptic sects often grow large in absolute numbers, but none has ever become the dominant religion in any considerable geographical area. Yet at least in America, their following does not consist of socially marginal people. The nice, reasonably dressed, well-disciplined people who attend Camping's conferences and pass out his literature are in every outward sense just normal Americans. Camping's movement developed out of a radio service that until recently billed itself as "a conservative ministry." I believe that many of the psychological mechanisms at work among Camping's followers are characteristic of enormous numbers of other Americans as well. Four of these mechanisms seem to me especially worth noticing.
Invincible Pessimism
How many times have you entered a conversation about some secular forecast of disaster — global warming, nuclear terrorism, the collapse of the world economy — and watched the participants become enraged when evidence was presented that things might turn out all right, after all? Often, I suspect. There is a sizable part of the population that wants to believe the worst.
I don't know why this is. Perhaps it has something to do with the desire to be different, to distinguish oneself from other citizens of a nation ideologically committed to the expectation of progress. (What does the Great Seal say? "Novus ordo seclorum" — a new order of the ages. New, and better.) That's a speculation. But notice: these invincibly pessimistic people don't really want to experience poverty, war, or the destruction of their friends and family by a vengeful God. They can believe in it; they can get angry when their belief is contradicted; but they don't actually want to see it. If they did, they would burn all their money and alienate all their friends right now. They have no more trouble planning for the future than anyone else. Like almost everyone else, they want the best from the future. You can call this:
2. Not Letting Your Left Brain Know What Your Right Brain Is Doing
It's a form of the self-entitlement to which Americans are now addicted. They want to believe that they know what other people don't — the economy is about to crash; the Lord is about to destroy the universe — but they also want to retire to a beautiful home in Hawaii after their children (now three and five years old) graduate from Princeton. So they believe in destruction and plan for success. This is what you see in the two types of programming, apocalyptic and domestic, on Family Radio, which is far from the only place where you can witness doublethink in contemporary America. Festinger thought that people try to dispel "cognitive dissonance." It might better be said that Americans cherish their cognitive dissonance; they keep it and guard it and try to make it bear
3. The Egotism of Expertise
I am not referring to the egotism of experts (a topic that can never be exhausted) but to the hand-me-down egotism of people who trust the experts — experts whom, for the most part, they don't have enough expertise to select, calmly and rationally, on their own. They know it, too. Nothing is more frequent among people who call into Family Radio or are interviewed at its conferences than statements to this effect: "I wanted to understand the Bible, but I couldn't make any headway. Then I stumbled on 'Open Forum,' and now I'm making so much progress, it's unbelievable." They're right; it's literally unbelievable. Figuring out the Bible is much easier than figuring out the discourse of Harold Camping. What people learn from him is chiefly pride in their association with a man so expert that nobody — including them — can understand what he says. Here is another tendency that isn't limited to adherents of the Depart Out movement. Popular economics and environmentalism would be nothing without it.
4. Boredom
The other thing that respondents to Family Radio constantly say is, "I used to go from one church to another, and somehow, none of them really spoke to me. It was all just, I don't know, just a lot of ceremonies and rituals. But I discovered Family Radio, and now I'm learning so much about the truth." People are bored, and boredom is for them the proof of falsehood. I would think that a few minutes of church ritual would bore them much less than a radio teacher droning by the hour about the churches' refusal to listen to his message, but I'm just recording another subjective preference. The point is: the common assumption that truth is known when it "speaks to me," when it keeps me awake, when it alleviates my chronic boredom, isn't just a problem for the traditional churches; it's a problem for us all. It's the operative principle of much of American life, including virtually all of America's political campaigns.
Those are four reasons why one should view the Depart Out movement as something more than a weird, irrational, and therefore unimportant episode. In many respects the movement is an accurate, though very unfortunate, reflection of the Americans with whom we live.
What will happen next?
One thing is certain: the Rapture will not take place on May 21. Nor will the total destruction of the physical universe occur on the following October 21. But what will happen to Family Radio?
Will the Depart Out movement collapse, like the Millerites? Will the Campingites try to reinterpret their message, as they did after the disappointment of 1994? Will they succeed? Or will there be a palace revolution?
I believe that the last is likeliest. People who have invested their careers in an organization are reluctant to part from it, no matter what happens, and in this instance there has been good reason for dissenters to stay and bide their time. Camping is the sole source of the sect's peculiar theology, and he is 89 years old. (Not that he is senile — he isn't. His method of argument is the same that it was 25 years ago, when I first found him on the dial.) It is difficult to imagine that Family Radio's internal proletariat hasn't made plans for what happens after his death — or even before it, when May 21 fails to justify his teachings. I look for a battle at Family Radio; and with luck, the battle will be public.
In any case, we are unlikely to see a more informative experiment in what happens when prophecy — definite, ceaselessly emphasized, widely disseminated prophecy — unmistakably and climactically fails. Every student of American civilization should plan to tune in to Family Radio on May 21 — not with the possibility of being caught up to heaven, but with the certainty of being caught up in a fascinating event.
Stephen Cox is editor of Liberty, and a professor of literature at the University of California San Diego. His recent books include The Big House: Image and Reality of the American Prison and American Christianity: The Continuing Revolution. Newly published is Culture and Liberty, a selection of works by Isabel Paterson.
View all posts by Stephen Cox
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Today is a personal friend of mine and another Canadian! Please give a warm welcome to Rhiannon Paille!
My bio says: Rhiannon writes about things that were lost and while most of her books are fictional you can be sure that her characters are not—fictional that is. She has a PhD in Metaphysical Science and is a world renowned Metaphysical Therapist. When she's not writing books she's reading minds, singing karaoke, burning dinner and sipping iced cappuccino despite her allergy to coffee. Some day she'd like to own a unicorn—as long as it doesn't eat her.
I began writing when I was eleven, on the day I got kicked out of English class because they couldn't teach me anything I didn't know. I had to go to library with three other class mates to do "creative writing" I wrote a few short stories, stopped when I hit ninth grade and life got really weird. I picked it back up around twenty when I had a story to tell.
Being a parent is great. My kids want to read my books but they're too young for them. It's a juggling act, but my kids have learned to be pretty independent.
It's hard to name just one, and nope my mind is blank I can't name just one. Erin Morgenstern, Cassandra Clare, Julie Kagawa, Maggie Stiefvater, Kelley Armstrong.
Self publishing because nobody in traditional publishing wants to work with me right now. It reminds me of baseball, I was that girl that was always picked last for teams because I couldn't hit a ball to save my life. So I mean you'd keep pitching them at me, and half the time I'd duck out of the way, or swing and miss. Of course though like every underdog there was that one time I DID hit the ball, while few and far between it was a home run.
Integrated Intuition is a psychic development book that I wrote by accident because I got sick of repeating myself. It's non-fiction.
The Ferryman + The Flame is a tragic love story centered around characters that are their own worst enemies. Kaliel was warned about her love for Krishani, the Ferryman. One day he will marry the land and leave Avristar forever. Kaliel doesn't listen and because she's a Flame, one of nine apocalyptic weapons, she sparks a war. Desperate to save her home and her love, she attempts to awaken Avred, the male spirit of the land, not knowing to do so may cost her the ultimate sacrifice.
I didn't have a choice in writing The Ferryman + The Flame series. I was either going to write it or go insane from the characters attacking me. They were very persuasive.
I have two main characters, and I love them both. Kaliel I love because of her bravery and the wonder about her. Krishani I love because of his stoic nature and his sexiness.
I hate them both for what they put me through in writing their story, but then, I'm almost certain they hate themselves for some parts of that story, wow. Definitely not your everyday storyline.