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Posts Tagged 'Cars'
Boris – Trump's Gauleiter of Britain
A gauleiter was the Nazi officer in charge of a gau, an administrative district of the Third Reich. After the Italian Fascists' military incompetence was revealed, and the Nazis had to intervene on their behalf in countries like Greece, they started to refer to Mussolini sneeringly as the 'gauleiter of Italy.' For all the Duce's pretensions to military power and seniority in the relationship between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Hitler stopped telling him his war plans after the invasion of Belgium. This was for the simple reason that after he found out about the planned invasion, the Duce told the Belgians. When Hitler asked him why he had betrayed his plans, Musso simply responded that he wanted them to put up a better fight.
Something similar is, I feel, happening in the relationship between Trump's USA and Bozo, our clown prime minister. Oh, the Americans have been the dominant partner in the Special Relationship ever since the attempt to retake Suez from Nasser in the '50s collapsed because the US wouldn't back it. But a few days ago Trump showed how much he trusted or felt he needed to rely on support from his European allies, including Bozo. He had the Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, whacked out by drone without telling us or anyone else. American soldiers are, however, being rushed to Iraq. At the moment Britain and the other Europeans are urging a de-escalation of the situation, which the Iranians have, not unreasonably, described as an act of war. But you can bet that if conflict does break out – and may God help us all if it does – Trump will almost certainly demand the rest of Europe to get in line, and strong arm Britain to do so. Not that I don't believe Bozo would be only too willing.
Critics of Bozo's wretched Brexit deal with Trump have pointed out that it could potentially give the Americans ownership of large sections of the British economy and industry. Cheap American imports threaten British manufacturing, specifically the motor industry, and agriculture. But that's the deal Boris wants.
It could wreck our economy, and make us economically dependent on the US. Just as Trump would demand our military support for his unilateral military adventures.
Just as Hitler eventually reduced Mussolini to puppet dictator of an Italy heavily reliant and dominated by Nazi Germany.
Tags:Adolf Hitler, Assassinations, Cars, Donald Trump, Imports, Manufacturing Industry, Mussolini, Nasser, Qaxem Soleimani, Suez, third reich, World War II
Posted in Agriculture, Belgium, Economics, Egypt, Fascism, Germany, History, Industry, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Nazis, Politics | 4 Comments »
£70 Bn Black Hole in Tory Spending Pledges
Despite all the Tory bluster, as Mike has pointed out Labour's spending plans are properly costed and have the support of 163 leading economists. They have sent a letter to the Independent stating their support, saying
It seems clear to us that the Labour party has not only understood the deep problems we face, but has devised serious proposals for dealing with them.
We believe it deserves to form the next government.
Labour spending plans are backed by leading economists
The Tories, however, have always claimed that they are the party of proper fiscal responsibility, who truly understand economics. In contrast to profligate, spendthrift Labour, they can be trusted with wise, frugal expenditure.
So how do their manifesto pledges stand up?
Not well. According to an article in Tuesday's I, they've got a black hole to the tune of £ 70 bn in theirs.
The article by Hugo Gye reads
The Conservatives face a £70bn black hole in their spending plans after making a string of manifesto promises without explaining how to pay for them.
Boris Johnson has pledged to build dozens of hospitals, create a new rail network and set up a hi-tech "gigafactory" to make electric cars. He is also promising national insurance cuts, a new system of social care and relief for indebted students. None of his policies is costed in the party manifesto revealed on Sunday. They add up to £52.2bn in added capital investment, and an extra £20.6bn on the annual bill for day-to-day spending, according to figures calculated by I.
The Conservative manifesto proposed a rise in day-to-day spending of £2.9 bn as well as £3.6bn in tax cuts. But it also contained a number of policies with no price tag attached.
The biggest is Northern Powerhouse Rail, a new network linking Liverpool to Hull via Manchester and Leeds, which will cost £39 bhn. Other promised capital projects not costed by the manifesto include building 40 new hospitals and the construction of a gigafactory to make eco-friendly vehicles.
Tory sources said future investment plans would be funded by a £100 bn pot of capital expenditure, only £22 bn of which has so far been allocated to specific projects. The shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said, "With no evidence behind any of their figures, it looks like the Conservatives' fake news approach applies to their manifesto too."
The deputy Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, added: "Boris Johnson's relationship with numbers has all the hallmarks of his relationship with the truth – nonexistent."
That's precisely how it seems to me.
The fact that these pledges are not costed suggests very strongly to me that, like his promise to build 40 new hospitals, they're lies. The Tories have no intention of honouring them. They're only interested in slashing welfare spending and privatising the NHS and anything else they can get their hands on for the benefit of their rich corporate donors, Donald Trump and the American private healthcare industry, and the hedge funds. And they are going to wreck this country to do so.
Don't be fooled by them. Labour really stands for restoring the welfare state, public infrastructure and the NHS. And it's all properly costed.
They are the party of economic sense. Not the loony, lying Tories.
Tags:'I' Newspaper, Cars, Conservatives, Corporate Donors, Donald Trump, Ed Davey, Hedge Funds, Hugo Gye, Hull, Independent, John McDonnell, Labour Party, Leeds, Lib-Dems, Liverpool, Manchester, NHS Privatisation, Private Healthcare Companies, Privatisation, Public Services, Railways, Vox Political
Posted in America, Banks, Economics, Education, Electricity, Environment, Health Service, Hospitals, Industry, Politics, The Press, Welfare Benefits | 1 Comment »
Prof Simon on the Technology of Blade Runner that Exists Today
This is another fascinating video from Professor Simon Holland. As I said in an earlier blog piece, November 2019 is the date Ridley Scott's SF classic Blade Runner is set, based on the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. Prof Simon here examines some of the technology that has now been developed, which is similar to that of the movie. This includes robots, flying cars and 'a polaroid which allows you to see round corners'.
He begins with robots, stating that most of them have been developed by the pornography industry. These are the Real Dolls, androids which have been designed to look like real women. There's a few photographs of these, shown with their owners or manufacturers. Mercifully, both have their clothes on. But some have also been developed by the military, and these, Prof Simon says, comparing them to Blade Runner's replicants, are scarier. The robots shown at this point are the humanoid – roughly – and quadrupedal machines developed by the American firm, Boston Dynamics. A gun-toting humanoid robot shows its shooting skills in a range out in the deserts. Despite being repeatedly struck and pushed over by a man with a hockey stick, the robot manages to hit its target. When the pistol it's using runs out of ammo, they throw it a rifle, which it catches with both hands and then proceeds to use. Another humanoid robot is shown carefully walking along a stony path simulating rough terrain, while one is also shown trying to pick up a box while another man with a hockey stick knocks the box away and tries to knock the robot over. The quadrupedal robots include the Big Dog machine and related robots, which got their name because they look somewhat like headless mechanical dogs. Big Dog was designed for carrying equipment, and one is shown with four saddlebags walking around trying not to be forced over. Two lines of similar machines are shown pulling a truck.
The 'polaroid that sees round corners' is also shown, and it appears to be a mobile app. He also shows photographs of a number of flying cars that have been developed. As for the taxis on demand that appear in the movie, he quips that he'll just call Uber.
But he also raises the important point about why our expectations of the future are inaccurate. He argues that it's because we've forgotten how very different the world was back in the 1960s when the book was written. This is shown through another set of photographs of the fashion of the period, though I think they come more from the 1970s. Certain the pic of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John from Saturday Night Fever does. He goes on to point out how we have technology that was unknown when he was growing up – computers are everywhere and cursive handwriting a thing of the past. We evolve into the future, rather than making quantum leaps into it. He also cheerfully observes that he shares a Blade Runner obsession with his younger, near-lookalike, Adam Savage.
At the end of the video he examines an interesting photo he's been sent by a viewer. This is a photo of the Earth from space, with a mark that looks like a UFO. But it isn't. Unlike today's digital cameras, those used by the astronauts used photosensitive film, which could get marked and spoiled by dust. This is what's happened to the photo here.
Prof Simon is a genial, entertaining host, and it's fascinating that some of the technology featured in Blade Runner is being developed. Scientists and engineers have been working on the flying cars since the 1990s, and one of the tech firms has said that they intend to put them into service as flying taxis next year. This seems unlikely. Critics have pointed out that the noise generated by their engines would be colossal, making their use very unpopular. Living in a city in which they were in general operation would be like living in an airport. The SF artist and book illustrator, Jim Burns, also comments on one of his paintings, which show such cars in use, that there are prohibitive safety aspects. What about accidents? Nobody would like to be around when it starts raining bits of aircar and body parts.
The robots we've developed are different from Blade Runner's replicants, which are artificial, genetically engineered creatures, and therefore biological rather than simply technological. We're nowhere near creating anything that complex. The military robots instead remind me of the machines from Robocop and the ABC Warrior from the '90s movie, Judge Dredd, in which Megacity 1's toughest lawman was played by Sylvester Stallone, as well as the robots in Chappie, which came out a few years ago. Despite the very impressive sophistication of these machines, however, they mercifully aren't as intelligent as humans. This means we don't have to worry about the world of 2000 AD's 'ABC Warriors' or the Terminator movies becoming reality quite yet. But even so, watching these machines walk, move and shoot is disturbing, demonstrating their lethal potential and efficiency as fighting machines. Looking at them, I think the fears many scientists and members of the lay public have about them as a potential threat to the human race are justified.
Tags:'Chappie', ABC Warriors, Adam Savage, Aircraft, Armed Forces, Blade Runner, Boston Dynamics, Cars, Computers, genetic engineering, Jim Burns, Judge Dredd, Philip K. Dick, Photograph, Robocop, Robots, Simon Holland, Sylvester Stallone, The Terminator, Uber
Posted in America, Art, Astronomy, Comics, Film, LIterature, Science, Space, Technology | Leave a Comment »
3D Imaging Technology Inspired by Star Wars' Holochess
This is awesome. This video from What the Future on the CNET channel on YouTube discusses Voxon Photonics VXI device. As the video's host, talking to the company's CEO, Gavin Smith, explains, this is a that uses a volumetric display to create three dimensional images. However, the device isn't holographic, like its fictional inspiration in Star Wars, nor does it use Virtual Reality. Smith explains that it uses a very rapidly moving screen on which the image is built up in layers like a 3D printer. The screen moves too rapidly for the eye to follow it, and so the layers all blur into one image. At the moment, the device has a transparent cover to stop people reaching into the image. However, this isn't necessary and the screen isn't moving fast enough to do any harm.
The device debuted at the Tokyo Fair in 2018, and has found a number of applications. It comes with various devices that can rotate or otherwise manipulate the image. It's been used for gaming, medical imagining, education at universities and schools, cars and video conferencing. However, the machine currently retails at $9,800 so they recognise it's not a consumer device just yet. However, it's price compares with that of other technologies when they first appeared.
Although it hasn't happened yet, Smith and his company would like it to feature in the context that inspired it. They'd like it to appear in the Millennium Falcon at Disneyworld as a working holochess table, and they've devised a version that would make it possible. This uses a helical spinning screen rather than the type of screen the device normally uses.
This is absolutely amazing. When I was growing up, the SF predicted that we'd have 3D TV, but this definitely hasn't happened so far. But with this device, we could be well on the way. As Max Headroom said when he briefly reappeared to do the channel ident for Channel 4,, 'The future is now!'
Tags:'What the Future', 3D Imaging, Cars, Channel 4, CNET, Computer Games, Disneyworld, Holograms, Max Headroom, Schools, Science Fiction, Tokyo, Universities, Video Conferencing, Virtual Reality, Youtube
Posted in America, Education, Film, Industry, Japan, Medicine, Technology, Television | Leave a Comment »
Trump Post-Brexit Trade Deal Will Bring Hardly Any Real Benefits
This is very revealing. According to the BBC World Service, a post-Brexit trade deal between Britain and America would only increase the economy by 0.1%. And that would be 15 years from now.
As the Skwawkbox and Mike over at Vox Political have both pointed out, this means that the Tories will have sold Trump and the American companies backing him our NHS, workers' rights, and environmental and consumer protections for hardly anything. In fact, Mike points out that even the 0.1% growth may not happen, as the economy is already faltering, and so any gains made later may be swallowed up by the losses that are occurring now.
This is despite yesterday's Times enthusiastically hyping Trump's offer of a trade deal with America. Zelo Street effectively ripped that piece of propaganda apart by pointing out that we would only get the deal if we became America's poodle, a point that was also made by one of the columnists in today's I. The Sage of Crewe also refuted what Trump's negotiator, John Bolton, and the Times clearly thought would be an attractive demonstration of the deal's benefits. Bolton stated that it would be easy to make such deals quickly for manufacturing and industry, but that service sector would take a bit longer. Nevertheless, next year could see cheap American cars coming into Britain. The Sage of Crewe pointed out the other side of the coin: British cars would be undercut by cheap American imports.
I can remember when something similar happened to the motorcycle industry with the Japanese way back in the 1990s. This was when the Japanese economy started contracting and there wasn't quite so much a market for their bikes. Their solution was to start exporting cheap bikes to Britain, which would undercut our own, domestically made machines. Even those produced by Japanese manufacturers over here. As you might expect, British bike manufacturers, including the management of Japanese companies over here, were extremely upset and started arranging meetings about what they could do about this threat to British industry and jobs. I'd be interested to hear if British car firms are planning something similar to combat the similar threat John Bolton is making to them. But guessing from the glowing way the Times was pushing Trump's grotty trade deal, I doubt we'd read of one in that Murdoch rag.
But the Americans would wait until after Brexit before requiring us to fall in line with their policy over Iran and the involvement of the Chinese firm Huawei in the 5G network.
Put simply, this deal would make us into America's poodle. We'd have our industries and agriculture picked off by the Americans for their benefit, as the Zelo Street article also points out. He also states that Bolton is lying through his teeth about Congress easily passing such a deal. Congress' Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has said that it won't pass any deal unless the Good Friday Agreement is honoured.
The Zelo Street article concludes by stating that BoJob loves to say that Britain is a vassal state of the EU, but doesn't mention how this deal would make us a vassal state of America by the back door.
See: https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2019/08/us-trade-deal-if-well-be-their-poodle.html
And Mike and the Skwawkbox point out how the BBC hid the news that Trump's deal would bring hardly any benefits to Britain by putting on the World Service. This is the Beeb's service for the rest of the world, not Britain. Presumably the people actually affected by it don't count. Mike concludes in his turn that its shows once again that the Beeb is the Tories' propaganda arm, and wonders if Ofcom are aware of it?
See: https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2019/08/14/boris-johnson-would-sell-out-our-nhs-and-our-rights-to-trumps-us-for-practically-nothing/
I'm not surprised by any of this. The Americans were less than altruistic in the deals they made for their entry into the Second World War. They drove a very hard bargain with us after the War. They and the Russians both wanted the dismemberment of the British Empire so that their goods could be allowed into our former colonies. It was also thanks to their demands for payment that Newfoundland became a province of Canada. Before then it was another British colony. However, we had to give it, or sell it to the Canadians in order to raise the money to pay the Americans.
I've also met former members of the aircraft industry, who were also very bitter at the way America had demanded cutting edge technical information from this sector after the War. The Americans' breaking of the sound barrier by the X-1 rocket plane, flown by Chuck Yeager, was a tremendous achievement. But it was solidly based on British research, some of which was, in its turn, based on captured German material. But the British project had to be closed down and its results and information handed over to the Americans as part of their price for coming to our aid.
Counterpunch and some of the American left-wing news sites on YouTube have also pointed out that the lend-lease arrangements under the Marshal Plan also weren't altruistic. This was the American economic scheme to build Europe and the rest of the free world up after the War using economic aid. But there were also strings attached, which meant that the aid went chiefly to American companies.
You can conclude from this that the American state and capitalism drives a very hard bargain, and that such deals are very one-sided. As many left-wing sites have argued over and over again in their discussion of the 'Special Relationship'. Which actually means far less to the Americans than it does to us. That was shown very clearly by Clinton's reaction to German unification. This made Germany the strongest economy in Europe, and Clinton showed, as Beeb newsman John Sargeant managed to get the Prime Minister to acknowledge, that Germany was now America's most important partner in Europe, not Britain.
And I'm also not surprised at the Tories and Murdoch ardently supporting this sell-out of our country. The Tories admire American capitalism and its lack of worker protection and welfare state. I can remember previous episodes where the Americans were promising a better economic deal if we abandoned Europe and joined them. And the Tories cheering such schemes nearly always owned businesses in America. And in fact, as far back as 1925 the Tories, or a section of them, were forming plans for the political reunion of Britain and the US.
And that shows exactly what Johnson and the Tories are like. Now and in the past, and I've no doubt in the future, they are willing to sell out British industry, the welfare state, our precious NHS and workers, all in return for the victory of unfettered capitalism and their squalid economic gain.
Tags:'I' Newspaper, Aircraft, Bill Clinton, Boris Johnson, Brexit, British Empire, Cars, Chuck Yeager, Congress, Conservatives, Crewe, Donald Trump, Huawei, Imports, John Bolton, John Sergeant, Motorcycles, Nancy Pelosi, Newfoundland, NHS, NHS Privatisation, Rupert Murdoch, Skwawkbox, The Times, Trade, Vox Political, Welfare State, Workers' Rights, World Service, World War II, X-1 Rocket Plane, Zelo Street
Posted in Agriculture, America, Canada, China, Economics, Environment, European Union, Germany, Health Service, History, Industry, Iran, Japan, Politics, Radio, Television, The Press, Welfare Benefits, Working Conditions | 7 Comments »
The Rise and Fall of Modern Architecture, Environmentalism and a Humane Planned Environment
Last Futures: Nature, Technology and the End of Architecture, by Douglas Murphy (London: Verso 2016).
This is one of the books I've been reading recently, and it's fascinating. It's about the rise and fall of Modern architecture, those grey, concrete, Brutalist eyesores that were built from the 1950s onwards. This book shows how they were seen at the time as the architecture of the future, widely praised and admired until opposition against this type of architecture came to head in the 1970s.
Megastructures' Design and Ideology in the Age of Space Travel and the Car
Murphy shows that this type of architecture drew its inspiration from space travel, as well as underwater exploration. It was optimistic, and came from a time when it was believed that the bureaucratic state could plan and build better communities. In Britain part of its stimulus came from the massive congestion in British towns caused by the growth in motor traffic. With the number of motor vehicle accidents rising, The British government published a report recommending the clearance of the older areas of towns. Pedestrians and motor vehicles were to be kept separate. There were to be submerged roads and motorways, while pedestrians were given raised walkways and under- and overpasses. At the same time, the post-war housing crisis was to be solved. Homes were to be made as cheaply as possible, using the methods of industrial production. Concrete panels and other items were to be prefabricated in factories, and then assembled on site by smaller crews of workers than traditionally used in house-building. The masses were to be housed in new estates, or projects in America, and most notoriously in tower blocks. Architects also drew their inspiration from the American architect and guru, Buckminster Fuller and his massive geodesic domes. A series of world expos from the 1930s onwards across the world portrayed megastructures as the architecture of a brilliant future of space colonisation. Giant metal frames were to be built above the cities themselves. As it was believed that society was going to be more mobile, 'plug-in' cities were designed. In Archigram's design of that name, cranes would move along these frames, building and tearing down new structures as and when they were needed. This idea reached its culmination in architectural designs in which the space-frame was all there was, the interior occupied by nomadic hippies. In Britain, the architect Cedric Price to the logic of structures that could be easily altered and rearranged to logical extreme. His design for a new university campus, the Potteries Thinkbelt, was based in a railway yard, so that trains could haul around the various structural elements and place them in new configurations as required.
The architecture for these projects threatened to be monotonous, so architects attempted to provide for this. The Habitat 67 building designed by the Israeli-Canadian architects, Moshe Safdie, was modular. Each element was a self-contained box. However, these could be added and arranged in a number of different ways to create flats of different dimension, in an overall block of great complexity. A Dutch architect believed that the solution was for the state to provide the frame work for a housing block, with the residents building their own homes to their tastes. Another British architect, designing a housing block in one of the northern cities, tried to solve this by opening an office in the city, where people could drop in and give him their ideas, criticisms and suggestions. The result was a long, concrete block of housing, which nevertheless had some variety. At points there were different designs in the concrete, and woods of different colours were also used in some places.
Geodesic Domes and Space Age Megacities
There were also plans to use geodesic domes to allow the construction of massive cities in places like the arctic. One plan for a town in the Canadian north had it lying under an inflatable dome to protect it from the harsh environment. The town would be located near a harbour, to provide easy communications with the rest of Canada. It would be heated using the water used to cool the nuclear reactor, that would provide it with its power. People would enter and leave it through airlocks, and to cope with the sixth-month long darkness of the arctic winter, a powerful lamp would be mounted on tracks above the dome to provide an artificial sun, and thus simulate daylight in temperate regions. And to cope with the white nights of the arctic summer, the glass panels in the dome would darken to simulate evening and night in temperate climes. The French submarine explorer and broadcaster, Jacques Cousteau, was involved in a plan to build a floating city off Monte Carlo. Buckminster Fuller himself had plans to enclose Manhattan under a massive dome. There were plans for pyramid cities the size of mountains, along with the arcologies of Paul Soleri. These were also mountain-sized, but resembled termite mounds.
Modernism and the Green Movement
The architects of these cities were also deeply influenced by the nascent green movement, and the publication of Rachel Carson's classic Silent Spring and the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth. This predicts the fall of civilisation some time before 2100, due to population exceeding food production, environmental degradation and resource depletion. These environmental concerns were taken up by the hippies, many of whom deliberately chose the dome as the architecture of their communes. They wanted a technological future in which humanity lived in harmony with nature. The communalist movement in the US produced the massive influential Whole Earth Catalogue, which spread its ideals and methods to a wider audience.
Decline and Abandonment
But this modernist vision fell out of favour in the 1970s through a number of factors. The commune movement collapsed, and its members drifted off to join the mainstream, where many became the founders of the IT revolution. The social changes that the megastructures were intended to provide for didn't occur. There were a series of scandals following disasters at some of these structures, such as the fire at the Summerland holiday resort in the Isle of Man, which killed fifty people. Much of this new housing was shoddily built, using dangerous and substandard materials. In some instances there was corruption between the builders and local politicians. They were also blamed for increased social problems, like crime. At the same time, grass roots activists protested against the destruction of already living, working class communities in the name of progress. There was also widespread scepticism at the ability of the bureaucratic state to plan successful new cities and estates. And for a moment it seemed that the collapse of civilisation predicted by the Club of Rome wasn't going to happen after the passing of the energy crisis and the oil boom of the 1980s. At the same time, much of the antipathy towards concrete housing blocks in the West was simple Conservative anti-Communism because they resembled those of eastern Europe, where the same views and techniques had been adopted.
These result was that Modernist architecture fell out of favour. Many of the housing estates, tower blocks, town centres and university campuses built in it were demolished or else heavily modified. In its place emerged post-modernism, which consciously drew on the architecture of past age and was itself largely a return to the French style of architecture that existed from the late 19th century to the First World War. This had been abandoned by some progressive and socialist architects because they felt that it had expressed and embodied the capitalist values that had produced that War. Thatcher and the Tories enthusiastically supported this attack on architectural Modernism, and the emphasis that was placed instead on the home represented the return of the Conservative values of family and heritable property.
The only remnants of Modern architecture are now the High-Tech buildings of the modern corporate style, as well as shopping malls, airports, and university campuses, while the environmental domes intended to preserve nature, which are ultimate descended from the Stuttgart Winter Garden, built in 1789, and the Crystal Palace, have survived in the notorious Biosphere experiments in the 1990s, which collapsed due to internal wrangling among other things.
Biodomes and the Corporate Elite
While Murphy is scathing about some of the projects he discusses – he rails against the domed arctic city as trite and resembling something out of 2nd-rate Science Fiction novels – he warns that the problems this style of architecture was designed to solve has not gone away. Although widely criticised, some of the predictions in Limits to Growth are accurate and by rejecting Modernist architecture we may be closing off important solutions to some of these problems. The environmental dome has returned in plans by the new tech companies for their HQs, but they are shorn of the underlying radical ideology. And as the unemployment caused by automation rises and the environment continues to deteriorate, biodomes will only be built for the corporate rich. They will retreat to fortress cities, leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves.
Conclusion: Modernist Planning Still a Valid Approach in Age of Mass Unemployment and Environmental Crisis.
It's a fascinating book showing the links between architecture, politics, environmentalism and the counterculture. While it acknowledges the defects of this style of architecture, the book also shows clearly how it was rooted in an optimistic view of human progress and the ability of the bureaucratic state to provide suitable housing and institutional buildings to serve its citizens' needs. And it does a very good job at attacking the Tories' abandonment of such schemes in the name of the free market. Much of the architecture of this style is, in my opinion, still monumentally ugly, but some of it sounds awesome. Like the domed city of the arctic north. It is a space-age city, and one that could be easily built on the Moon or elsewhere. For all the author's denunciations of it, I found its design highly inspiring. And I believe him to be right about the intentions of the global elite to hide in their private fortified cities if and when the policies they have demanded and implemented cause the environment and civilisation to collapse.
This is a warning we cannot afford to ignore. We need to get the corporatists and neo-liberals out, and proper Green governments in!
Tags:'Last Futures: Nature Technology and the End of Architecture', 'Limits to Growth', 'Silent Spring', Airports, Arctic, Big Business, Buckminster Fuller, Cars, Cedric Price, Club of Rome, Communes, Computers, Conservatives, Corporatism, Counterculture, Crystal Palace, Douglas Murphy, Hippies, Housing, Isle of Man, Modernism, Monte Carlo, Moshe Safdie, Paul Soleri, Rachel Carson, Railways, Science Fiction, Shopping Malls, Stuttgart, the Moon, the Rich, Tower Blocks, Universities, Winter Gardens, World War I
Posted in America, Architecture, Canada, communism, Crime, Education, Environment, Factories, France, Germany, History, Industry, Israel, LIterature, Netherlands, OIl, Politics, Science, Socialism, Space, Technology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
'I' Newspaper: Rail Franchise System Not Working and Needs to be Changed
I found this report in the I newspaper on our country's failing rail network. The article states that a recent report has found that the current system of rail franchising doesn't work and cannot continue as it is. The article, 'Rail franchising 'no longer delivers clear benefits', on page 4 of today's paper, 27th February 2019, by Neil Lancefield runs
Britain's rail franchise system no longer delivers clear benefits and cannot continue in its current form, according to the man leading an official review of the network.
Keith Williams told industry leaders that operators were not adapting to changing consumer demands.
The contracting out of passenger services has drawn heavy criticism, with some contracts failing and customer complaints rising. The rail industry has said it accepts that the status quo cannot continue.
Mr Williams was appointed by the Government last year to lead its "root-and-branch" Rail Review. Speaking in London, he said: "I have heard a great deal about the franchising model… driving growth in passengers and benefits to services.
"But with this growth, the needs of passengers have changed, while many of the basic elements of our rail system have not kept pace. Put bluntly, franchising cannot continue the way it is today. It is no longer delivering clear benefits for either taxpayers or farepayers."
Mr Williams said the current "one-size-fits-all" approach to franchising did not work for every part of the UK and every passenger. Delivering the annual Bradshaw Address, named in honour of George Bradshaw, the author of Victorian railway guides, he added: "I believe for the railway to be successful it needs to put passengers at its heart."
His comments came as MPs warned that rail passengers faced "another difficult year", with further timetable alterations and more engineering works.
Okay, this isn't a condemnation of rail privatisation, but of the way the franchise system, in which they are given to private operators, is managed. The attitude seems to be that if this was fixed, then everything would work perfectly. As Williams says, he has heard a great deal about how franchising has driven growth in passengers and benefited service.
This is absolute rubbish. I've seen no evidence that privatisation has been behind the growth in passengers or brought any benefits whatsoever. You could speculate that any growth in passenger numbers may be due to a variety of factors, like the increasing cost of running a car, difficulties finding a parking space, traffic congestion and delays and other factors such as the ban on drink driving. As for the benefits of privatisation, the British taxpayer is now paying more in subsidies to the rail network than it did when it was all under state ownership as British Rail. And the service is actually worse. It was almost 20 years ago, when I remember talking about it to a rail engineer. It was bad then, and is now even poorer. We have seen one train company after another fail, and have to be taken back into public management. Unfortunately, this doesn't last, and that section of the rail network is almost inevitably given to another wretched private rail company. Services are being axed, as in so much of the service industries, in order to boost shareholder dividends and executive pay.
It is not the franchise system that is failing, but privatisation. There is a growing movement to see the railways renationalised, and even Tories like the wretched Lady Olga Maitland have backed it at times. Labour have pledged to it, and this is one of the party's policies that is immensely popular. But this is too much for the corporate establishment, which clearly wants to try and preserve this part of Thatcher's grotty legacy – though the railway was actually privatised by John Major – as long as it can.
Rail privatisation, like the rest of Thatcherism, is a dismal, utter failure. Get rid of it, get rid of the Tories and renationalise them. And get Corbyn into No.10.
Tags:Bradshaw Guides, British Rail, Cars, Conservatives, Dividends, Franchising, Jeremy Corbyn, John Major, Keith Williams, Labour Party, Lady Olga Maitland, Management, Margaret Thatcher, Nationalisation, Privatisation, Railways, Shareholders, Subsidies, Tax, Traffic
Posted in Industry, LIterature, Politics, Uncategorized, Wages | 1 Comment »
Private Eye on the Real Reason James Dyson Is Moving His Business to Singapore
A week or so ago I put up a number of posts reporting and commenting on the outrage James Dyson caused when he announced that he was moving his company's HQ to Singapore.
Dyson has been given a great deal of support from this country, and in the West Country he was regarded, or at least presented by the local media as a local hero. But he's done this before. A few years ago he demanded that Bath give him more land to expand his business. They refused, so he decided instead to expand in the Far East. He needn't have done so. If there was no room at Bath, he could have happily gone to other south-western towns. He already has plants in Malmesbury and Bristol, for example. Or gone further afield, like Wales or the north, which would also have been glad to have him. But he didn't.
It was especially hypocritical as Dyson was telling everyone within earshot a few years ago that we should have joined the Euro. Then he decided he was backing Brexit. Now it appears that he has gone to Singapore partly because they've signed a trade agreement with the EU, which would make it easier for him to export his goods to them from there rather than Blighty.
Private Eye has run two pieces on Dyson in this fortnight's edition for 8th-21st February 2019. And they make it very clearly that he's going for the same reasons every exploitative multinational is heading abroad due to neoliberalism: to take advantages of countries with low tax rates, where workers can be hired and fired almost at will. The first article, 'Bye-Bye Suckers!' on page 7, runs
So Sir James Dyson's relentless bullishness about post-Brexit Britain was so much hot air. The man who will now move his HQ to Singapore evidently has little real faith that Brexit will unleash the potential he has long claimed.
Th benefits of Singapore are likely to go beyond the proximity to his Asian empire that Dyson claims. By moving east it will also be easier to reduce workers' rights. As Dyson told the BBC's Andrew Marr last year: "This is controversial, but since I don't know what orders I'm going to get next month or next year, industry, manufacturing industry's very volatile. Not being able to flex your workforce is another big reason why you wouldn't start a manufacturing business or expand a manufacturing business." Elsewhere, he agreed bluntly, it was easier to hire and fire."
This is not the most generous response to what the UK has given Dyson. Since 2012 his group has sucked up around 100m pounds in tax credits, ie discounts on its corporation tax bill. IN 2011 the then chancellor George Osborne brought in a special tax break for buyers of "energy efficient hand-dryers", which meant…Dyson airlades.
There's more information in the Eye's 'In the City' column, entitled 'Singapore fling' on page 41. This runs
What is it that so attracts billionaire inventor, entrepreneur and avid Brexiteer Sir James Dyson to Singapore? Last month he announced that his privately owned Dyson group was switching legal residence to the Far East city state for "commercial reasons" and "future-proofing". This followed the decision to produce the Dyson electric car in Singapore from 2020.
The Dyson party line is that the imminent move is nothing to do with Brexit or tax – it will still pay UK tax on UK operations – but all to do with Singapore being a lot closer to China, its main market, than Wiltshire. Who knew? Dyson's 2bn pound move from hairdryers and bagless vacuum cleaners into cars is his biggest gamble.
So what does Singapore have over a "no deal" Brexit Britain – which Dyson welcomed? What about:
* A recent free trade agreement with the EU, to go with ones with China and the United States, plus the Singapore Freeport;
* International companies who headquarter themselves in Singapore can see corporation tax (currently 17 per cent, compared with 19 per cent in the UK) fall to 10 or 5 per cent or even zero, thanks to lengthy tax breaks and generous incentives, especially for those who create jobs;
* No tax on dividends – the Dyson family could have paid 38 per cent on the 86m pound dividends for 2017 (down from 111m) from the parent Weybourne Group;
* No capital gains tax on a future sale or inheritance tax (IHT) (Dyson is 71);
* Less stringent corporate disclosure and governance requirements for private companies (a Dyson moan);
* Finally, no risk from a Corbyn government targeting the rich.
Dyson moved control offshore once before – to Malta in 2009 – then returned in 2013. He has also legitimately taken advantage of film tax schemes and IHT-efficient investments in agricultural land. Still, Singapore tax and access attractions clearly played no role in the move east by this latter-day Stanford Raffles, who assured Leave voters that no deal with the EU was no problem because "they'll come to us". Now it seems Dyson has decided to go to them.
Tags:'Leave' Campaign, Andrew Marr, Bath, Brexit, Bristol, Cars, Euro, George Osborne, James Dyson, Jeremy Corbyn, Malmesbury, Manufacturing Industry, Media, Neoliberalism, Private Eye, Tax, the Rich, West Country, Wiltshire, Workers' Rights
Posted in China, Economics, England, European Union, Industry, Politics, Singapore, Wales, Working Conditions | 2 Comments »
Elon Musk's Launch of Sports Car into Space, and Fear Factory's Version of 'Cars'
And now for something a bit lighter.
This week, Elon Musk's Space-X company launched a sports car into space, complete with a dummy pilot. This was supposedly inspired by David Bowie's Starman, and Iggy Pop's The Passenger. You probably saw the pictures in the paper.
What it reminded me most strongly of, however, was the video for Fear Factory's version of the Gary Numan hit, Cars. Fear Factory are an American Heavy Metal/Industrial band, and Numan himself appears in the video as a driver of a car in space.
The video includes scenes of the band driving through a futuristic network of brightly tunnels, while alphanumerics scroll down the screen, which is clearly inspired by The Matrix trilogy. Then Numan himself drives at speed through a city. He's also driving a car in space and collides with a satellite. This is then followed by the scenes of a crash, and the lead singer walking towards an upturned car from which a woman and the firemen are fleeing. It ends with a shot of the other wrecked car in space floating away.
And in between the lead singer inserts one of the band's CDs into the car's player, and there's a creepy kid in the back, who looks just like he came out of Village of the Damned.
Take a look at the video, and see the similarities between it and Musk's venture. He really should have had this on his playlist, as well as Bowie and Iggy Pop.
Tags:'Starman', 'The Matrix, 'The Passenger', Cars, David Bowie, Elon Musk, Fear Factory, Gary Numan, Iggy Pop, Science Fiction, Space-X
Posted in America, Film, Music, Popular Music, Space, Technology, The Press | 1 Comment »
Alex Jones: People Are Having Sex with their Cars
More madness from the ever fertile imagination of Alex Jones. In this clip from The Majority Report, host Sam Seder and friends comment on a clip from Jones' InfoWars show, in which the conspiracy theorist rants about how there is a movement encouraging people to have sex with cars.
He starts off by talking about sex robots, before going on to claim that people are having sex and marrying their dogs and cats, and are having sex with cars. He then claims that if you identify as blind, and pour 'Draino' into your eyes to blind yourself, the governments of the US, Britain and Canada will pay you money to support yourself as you were mentally ill. He then goes on to say that he fancies buying one of these sex robots just to torch it. We need, he says, to form a human union and defy the elites, who are controlling us. They want to make normal sex biologically impossible, in order to absorb us into the Matrix. People have been brainwashed into this by Hollywood.
Seder and his crew make the point that they have no doubt that some men will insert their penises into whatever they can find. His female co-host states that when she was working on Death and Taxes there was indeed a man arrested for having sex with his car. She was part of a jailhouse protest to get him released. There's a lot of joking about what the chants were 'Ha-ha, ho-ho, let the carf***er go!' But there's hardly a movement for people to have sex with their vehicles.
They also speculate that Jones himself has personally bought one of these sex robots, and this whole segment is him trying to explain it away in case anybody else has seen it and come to the conclusion that Jones is a pervert.
Okay, there are people out there building sex robots. One of these appeared a little while ago on Philip Schofield's show on ITV. There was even a Spanish brothel stocked exclusively with robots, which closed down after three works. One of the sentient robots on the Channel 4 SF series, Humans, which was based on the Swedish TV series, 'Real Humans', was one of the machines in an all robot brothel. Which incidentally escapes and goes on the run after killing one of the customers. I think Ray Kurzweil has also predicted that in a very few years people will be having sex with robots. One of the underground comics in America is Wet Satin, whose female creator writes stories based on women's sexual fantasies. One of illustrations from the comic, at least as it appears in Dez Skinn's survey of comics across the world, has a woman in the tender embrace of C-3PO. This surprised me, as I'd assumed that R2D2's best mate was a little too camp to be an object of sexual desire for women. But obviously not. And Tanith Lee wrote an SF story about a woman, who has a romance with a robot, The Silver Metal Lover, way back in the 1970s.
But sex robots are just a progression from blow-up dolls, and while they are being developed, there's no movement for people to marry them or outlaw normal human reproduction in favour of everyone having sex with machines. At the moment, the sex robots are pretty crude. They're not really sentient machines, like all the other robots being developed at the moment. The type of mechanical people, with whom you could have a proper relationship, like C-3PO are a very long way off. Most people, I guess, won't find them attractive, and will regard anyone with the money to buy them with the same contempt they regard those men, who buy inflatable women.
And yes, there are people, who have sex with their cars. Jones waxes somewhat graphic about this, talking about 'fully lubed-up tailpipes' and claiming that normal peeps, who won't have sex with robots or cars, will be attacked as prejudiced or homophobic. Way back in the 1990s Channel 4 screened a documentary late one evening about people, who were sexually attracted to cars. I stayed up to watch part of it, as I've got a strong tolerance for weirdness. But this was too weird and creepy even for me, and I turned it off and went to bed, feeling somewhat soiled. I have a feeling it comes from a peculiar mental disorder, in which people attribute human features and characteristics onto inanimate objects. This goes much further than simply giving your car a name, or referring to it as 'he' or 'she'. This is more like the mad German woman, who married the Berlin Wall a few years ago. This story got a few laughs on Have I Got News For You. And then there was J.G. Ballard's infamous novel, Crash, filmed by David Cronenberg, which is all about a secret society of perverts, who get off on car crashes. The film was highly praised by the British small press SF magazine, The Edge, but sent the Daily Mail into a frothing rage, and they organised a campaign against it. It flopped massively over here, taking only a few tens of thousands of pounds before it was banned.
So while there are mentally ill perverts and transgressive writers, like Ballard, who explore cars and sexuality, like the sex robots there is absolutely no movement to normalise this. I can't imagine a time when anyone, who has sex with an automobile or similar inanimate object won't be regarded as a pervert, or simply a person with severe mental health problems. No-one's going to accuse anyone of being unfairly prejudiced or 'homophobic' towards people with this kind of prejudice. And incidentally, that comment from Jones shows his prejudice against gay rights by equating homophobia and homosexuality with what are actually forms of mental illness.
As for people pouring drain cleaner into their eyes deliberately to blind themselves, this shows Jones' anti-welfare outlook. He clearly thinks that such people should not receive state aid after damaging themselves. But these people do need help, most pressingly before they actually decide to harm themselves. I've known people, who suffered from very severe depression and were prone to self-harm. It's not something they'd voluntarily do, if they could avoid, but brought about by a mental condition that they'd far rather not have. Jones is therefore severely misrepresenting them if he thinks that those, who do suffer self-harm, willingly and cheerfully go about it. Again, it also shows Jones' own prejudices. He thinks someone, who blinds themselves with drain cleaner, would do it for the same reasons some people identify with the opposite biological gender. Er, no, Alex. There's a difference between self-harm, and transgenderism, regardless what some of the Republicans say about male to female transpeople being 'castration fetishists'.
Jones is clearly wrong in just about everything he says here about there being a secret conspiracy to normalise and promote these sexual practices. He doesn't have anything really profound to say about the prospect of robot prostitution or sex robots. But it is clear that he has a very vivid, lurid imagination.
Tags:'Crash', 'Death and Taxes', 'Humans', 'Real Humans', 'The Silver Metal Lover', Alex Jones, Animals, Berlin Wall, Cars, Channel 4, Daily Mail, David Cronenberg, Dez Skinn, Gays, Homophobia, Infowars, ITV, J.G. Ballard, Philip Schofield, Prostitution, Ray Kurzweil, Republican Party, Robots, Sam Seder, Sam Seder's Majority Report, Science Fiction, Self-Harm, Star Wars, Tanith Lee, The Edge, Transgendered People, Underground Comics
Posted in America, Canada, Comics, Disability, England, Film, LIterature, Mental Illness, Psychology, Sweden, Technology, Television, Welfare Benefits | Leave a Comment »


At first glance, Jake, Shayna, Seneca, and Conner seem like average teens. Maybe even like some kids you know. But they're special. They know that magic, spells, and prophecies are real.
In Crossroads and the Dominion of Four, author C. Toni Graham continues the tale introduced in Crossroads and the Himalayan Crystals. The teens have accepted their fate as defenders of the Otherworld. The realm's mythical beings have chosen sides in a deadly magical war, but it's not always clear to whom they pledge their allegiance. Jake, Shayna, Conner and Seneca must use their new magical abilities to battle treacherous creatures and face life-altering crossroads. Only a powerful druid and her loyal minions stand in their way to fulfilling their destiny of becoming the prophesized Dominion of Four.
The Crossroads series brings together creatures and humans as they fight for the common goal of returning harmony to the Otherworld and rid the realm of evil forever. Teen readers and fans of action-packed fantasy genres will enjoy this thrilling saga.
Crossroads and the Dominion of Four is a phenomenal, addictive piece of fiction that left me shocked and astonished. Never before have I read such a unique, imaginative, enthralling piece of literature; C. Toni Graham, the author of this sensational novel, is incredibly talented because she knows just how to capture his reader's imagination from the very first page. As I read this book, I struggled to put it down, so much so that I found myself reading it into the early hours of the morning thanks to Graham's incredible talent to hold the reader's attention. Already I would implore you book lovers to read this book because it is incredibly unique and unlike anything you have read before. At this point in my review, I should mention that this is book two in the series; however, I have read this as a standalone and so could you as it is brilliant and references the first book so you won't get lost!
Crossroads and the Dominion of Four is a sensational read in which readers will be taken on an incredible journey. Without spoiling the first book or giving too many things away, this book follows Jake, Shayna, Conner, and Seneca as they accept their fate to be defenders of the underworld. They will have to use their gifted magical abilities to battle deathly creatures and deathly events, and this book lovers is the premise of this wonderful book!
This incredible book is gripping and glorious. The vivid, rich world of the land we encounter is sensational and will send all readers minds into overdrive. I found this book to be surprising also as there are twists and turns galore laced throughout this book. One thing is for sure when you read Crossroads, and that is you will never be bored! Reading this book is a joy and never once did I want it to end, this is a sign of a true literary talent, and so I thank the wonderful author for writing such a brilliant book! Every detail in Crossroad is superb and thought out, C. Toni Graham is a descriptive writer and so the reader is easily able to get lost in her words and imagine the land in this book perfectly. Never before have I read a fantasy novel that was so in-depth, truly every detail was immaculate, and this is rare to find these days within literature.
C. Toni Graham is a talented author and a genuine wordsmith. Her tale is gripping and consistent from beginning to end. As the reader reads this book, they will be taken on an unforgettable journey which will unfold bit by bit at a perfect pace that will keep the reader engrossed. Graham's vivid writing will enable the reader to fall madly in love with this book and be kept hooked because you simply can't help but do this! The fluidity alone in her book is sensational and unlike anything, I have read before, never once did I find myself getting bored of the story or even the characters. Graham managed to continually shock and surprise me thanks to her fantastic plot devices such as twists and turns. Overall C. Toni Graham is a talent to watch out for!
To summarise my thoughts on the brilliant and riveting Crossroads and the Dominion of Four, I would say if you are a reader who is looking to read a phenomenal piece of literature that will keep you hooked from beginning to end then this incredible book is for you! This superb book gets Five Stars from me!
Thank you so much for reading book lovers, I deeply appreciate it and love discussing wonderful books with all of you so please, comment below and let me know your thoughts on Crossroads and the Dominion of Four; do you see yourself reading this book? Is it not your usual cup of tea? Let me know all of those brilliant thoughts of yours below! Thank you so much again for reading!


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Niko Marr
This rubric this time will tell you about a linguist of Scottish descent who greatly contributed to the study of Georgian language – his name is Niko Marr. Did you know that Niko Marr grew up in Guria? His mother, Aghati Maghularia, was a Gurian woman, and his father was a Scottish agronomist,...
Ietim Gurji
Ietim Gurji (Dabghishvili) was born in Tbilisi in 1875, in a family of a poor knacker (currier). His ancestors were Georgians who were captured by the Turks and converted to Islam. Last name Gurji (Georgian) was coined at that time. The national poet's father Ibrahim settled in Tbilisi and...
Fari-Khanum Sofieva
"A hundred years ago, when men in the village of Karajala in Georgia were drinking hot tea by the fire and women were busy with household chores, Fari-Khanum Sofieva left her mark in the world history and became the first Muslim woman to win an election. According to various sources,...
Sergo Parajanov
"I am Armenian, born in Georgia and I was kept in Russian prison for Ukrainian nationalism" – said the 20th century Georgian film director of Armenian origin, Sergo Parajanov. The film director who was accepted, loved and valued in and outside of Georgia. For centuries Georgia was based on the...
Mako Saparova
Today I want to tell you a story about Mako Saparova, a woman who was so courageous and zealous that she managed to choose a profession that was considered unacceptable for women at that time and became one of the leading figures of the Georgian theatre company in the 1870s. "Among...
Lesya Ukrainka
Better known under her literary pseudonym, Lesya Ukrainka was one was one of Ukraine's foremost writers, whose work and physical existence was equally nourished by two countries – Ukraine and Georgia. When she was very young, Lesya Ukrainka wrote for her younger sibling "The ancient history of...
Gayane Khachaturian
"Silence is emptiness and I love emptiness that's been filled. I think that every person has his own box of emptiness. He fills the box on purpose, to make his life easier" – Gayane Khachaturian is a Tbilisi-born artist, whose ancestors where ancient Armenians – Zoks. A 12-year old Gayane, who...
The world history of chess entails only a dozen individuals because grandmasters refuse to give up the title of world champion for years. Iron Tigran born and raised in Tbilisi held the status of the world champion in 1963-1966. Famous chess player Tigran Petrosian was born in Tbilisi in 1929,...
Mushthaid Garden
Legend has it that Mushthaid Garden was built by an Iranian nobleman in the 19th century in Tbilisi. Mushthaid was a religious leader of Iranian Shias in Azerbaijan and a political figure. The name of the garden comes from his religious title – Mujthahid. According to encyclopaedia, Mushthaid...
Harutyun Sayatyan
As early as in the 18th century, during the reign of Erekle II in Georgia, a man of Armenian origin, who loved playing the lute and Kamancheh, reciting poems and had an incredible creative talent, appeared on the streets of Tiflis. His full name was Harutyun Sayatyan but they called him...
Kists
The most important thing that made Georgia stand out throughout the centuries was its diversity, acceptance and hospitality. And how did Georgians and Kists coexist for centuries? As history tells us, social and cultural relations between Georgians and Kists, their brotherhood, marriage,...
Georgian Muslims
Society is not very familiar with Georgian Muslims, some of whom live in Ajara. Islam has the largest number of followers after Christianity in Georgia. Islamization of Ajara Region is related to occupation of Georgian provinces by the Ottoman Empire. Centuries later, local population maintained...
Samtskhe-Javakheti
Armenians make up a majority of the population in Samtskhe-Javakheti region (about 50-52%). Armenian culture, traditions and customs are closely linked to Christianity. Generally, Armenians are one of the first Christian nations in the world. Conversion of Armenians to Christianity is related...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The ninth annual South Asia Regional Rounds, hosted in partnership with the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi, will take place from 22 to 25 November, 2018 in Delhi.
The ninth annual South Asia Regional Rounds, hosted in partnership with the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi, will take place from 22 to 25 November, 2018 in Delhi. Registration is now open!
Please note that teams from the countries/regions listed below must apply to South Asia Regional Rounds in order to qualify for the International Rounds in Oxford. Teams should check which Regional Round applies to them, if there is no applicable Regional Round they may apply directly to the International Rounds.
Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.


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Tennessee Football Opponent Preview: Vanderbilt Commodores
Which team will earn its sixth win in the final game of the season?
By Conner Knapp@ConnerHKnapp Nov 20, 2018, 2:57pm EST
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Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
It's finally here — the end of the 2018 college football regular season.
Tennessee will conclude the season by heading to Nashville to square off against Vanderbilt with each team at five wins. The winner on Saturday will earn a bowl berth and extend its season while the loser will end 2018 with a pretty bitter taste in its mouth.
The feel around Tennessee is markedly different coming off a 50-17 loss against Missouri than after its 24-7 win over No. 11 Kentucky, but the Vols still have a chance to get to a bowl game, which would be an unquestionable success for Jeremy Pruitt in his first year.
Vanderbilt is a 3.5-point favorite over Tennessee.
Vanderbilt has dealt with much of the same inconsistency which has plagued Tennessee in 2018.
After starting the season 2-1 with its only loss being a 22-17 loss at Notre Dame, Vanderbilt lost by 23 points to South Carolina and then narrowly escaped with a win over FCS Tennessee State. The Commodores lost their next three before winning two of their last three against Arkansas and Ole Miss to set up a winner-take-all — "all" being bowl eligibility — showdown against Tennessee in the final game of the season.
Vanderbilt's record looks much like it usually does at this time of year, but it has gotten hot at the right time, especially with its momentum-building win last week over Ole Miss. The Commodores also have a pretty balanced offensive attack, something which has given the Volunteers trouble this season.
Vanderbilt got its biggest win of the season last week when it defeated Ole Miss 36-29 at home.
Ole Miss scored the first 13 points before Vanderbilt roared back to take a 19-13 lead. The teams went back and forth in the second half, with Ole Miss kicking a field goal with 0:40 left in the game to tie the score at 29-29, which was the score at the end of regulation.
Vanderbilt scored a touchdown on its first possession of overtime. After starting on the Vanderbilt 12-yard line thanks to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, Ole Miss appeared to have scored on fourth down of its possession, but A.J. Brown was ruled to have bobbled the ball in the end zone and the game ended in a 36-29 Vanderbilt win.
Vanderbilt quarterback Kyle Shurmur completed 22 of 34 passes for 191 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. Ke'Shawn Vaughn rushed for 127 yards and a touchdown for the Commodores.
Impact Players
QB Kyle Shurmur — Vanderbilt's career leader in touchdown passes as of last Saturday, Shurmur could be a problem for Tennessee's young secondary. Shurmur has completed 61.4 percent of his passes this season and has thrown for 20 touchdowns against six interceptions.
RB Ke'Shawn Vaughn — Tennessee's primary problem defensively will be Vanderbilt's balance. In addition to Shurmur, the Commodores have Vaughn in the backfield, who has rushed for 976 yards and 10 touchdowns on 138 carries in 2018.
CB Joejuan Williams — A 6'3", 210-pound corner, Joejuan Williams is an NFL Draft prospect after just three seasons at Vanderbilt. Williams leads the SEC with 10 passes defended and is second in the conference with four interceptions.
Game Outlook
Obviously, the implications of this game can not be overstated.
Tennessee has not lost three straight games to Vanderbilt since 1926. The winner of this game will extend its season and go to a bowl game. A win would make Tennessee fans feel much better about the first year of the Jeremy Pruitt era.
Vanderbilt is justified in being favored over Tennessee — it's about on par with the Vols and is playing at home — but this is a winnable game for the Vols and, more importantly, one they almost have to win.
The difference in 5-7 and 6-6 will be monumental in the minds of Tennessee fans over the next nine months, not to mention the embarrassment of losing to Vanderbilt three straight years for the first time in almost a century.
Coming off an embarrassing loss and coaching a game his team has to win, we will learn a lot about Jeremy Pruitt this week.


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Home Health & Beauty Ageing prisoners 'dying in front' of officers
Ageing prisoners 'dying in front' of officers
Image caption Many prisons are not designed to cater for an ageing group of inmates
The ageing jail population has left prison officers providing care for a growing number of older inmates "dying in front of them", officers have said.
The warning from the Prison Officers' Association (POA) has come as new figures revealed the oldest prisoner in England and Wales was 104 years old.
The data showed there were 13,617 inmates aged above 50 out of a prison population of 82,710 in June 2019.
The Prison Service said it was working to meet the needs of elderly prisoners.
More and more inmates were frail, incontinent or had dementia, the POA said.
Media captionA former prison officer says staff are increasingly being asked to care for older prisoners
"You're looking at young prison staff that are trained to be prison officers that are becoming carers," said Dave, who has worked in prisons as a custodial manager for more than 30 years.
The former officer, who did not want his real name used, said when he started work older prisoners were transferred to less secure jails when they approached the end of their sentences but that had changed.
"Now you're getting older prisoners starting big sentences and the young prison officers are coming straight from university, with very, very little life experience and then they're having to deal with major traumatic events like somebody dying in front of them or caring for somebody that is at the end of their life."
His concerns were echoed by the chief inspector of prisons, Peter Clarke, who said the Prison Service should consider whether a new type of accommodation was needed, specifically designed to deal with older prisoners.
"It feels to me as if they're trying to shoehorn this problem into existing accommodation instead of thinking more radically," Mr Clarke said.
The ex-prisoner's view
Ken Denton, from West Yorkshire, was released from prison in June after serving a sentence for fraud and threats to kill. Aged 53, he was housed in an over-50s wing at a Yorkshire prison.
"When you look at some of the prisons, you know, they're three or four landings high, thin ladder stairways, how do you expect an elderly person to climb them?
"When they come in, you are assessed and they'll say well you should be located 'flat' but if there's no space where you going to put somebody? How can you put somebody at second or third landing? You can't, it's inhumane.
"I saw people with cancer, saw people with diabetes, long term prisoners that need their medication but can't get to their medication because the medication hatch is on the second floor and they've got to go to a lift but they can't get into the lift because there's no staff to take them.
"If you needed a wheelchair, it might take you three to four months to get a wheelchair because one had to be designed for yourself and it also had to come from the specific local authority in the area you came from."
The Prison Service said: "An ageing prison population poses particular challenges, which is why we work closely with local councils and healthcare providers to make sure we meet the needs of elderly prisoners.
"Last year, a report by the chief inspector of prisons found there was good work ongoing to adapt prisons for older inmates, and we have updated guidance for governors on how to best support them."
However, national chair of the POA, Mark Fairhurst, said the system was failing to meet the needs of elderly inmates.
"We need more disabled access cells situated at ground floor level. We need 24-hour healthcare and we need proper training for staff."
Tougher prison sentences and the rise in the number of those convicted of historic sexual offences are believed to be part of the reason for the ageing prison population.
In 2016, 101-year-old Ralph Clarke was jailed for 13 years for committing 30 child sex offences dating from the 1970s and 80s. He was believed to be the oldest person convicted in British legal history.
Image caption Peter Clarke, the chief inspector of prisons, said the issue of an ageing prison population had to be addressed
Dr Mary Turner, reader in health services research at Huddersfield University, said: "People tend to get longer sentences, even in older age, now than they might have done in the past and there are now more older people going into prison than there are being released."
She said the situation was not sustainable.
"We can't just see these numbers going up and up and trying to cope with it in a prison environment so we're going to get to a point where we have to think of alternatives and we have to find solutions."
She said options could include building secure care homes and considering alternatives to custodial sentence for older offenders.
How dangerous is life inside our prisons?
PM plans prison places and extends stop-and-search
Why do prisoners only serve half their sentence?
Peter Clarke warned the number of men over 50 being held in jails would rise to more than 14,000 by 2022, representing 17% of the prison population.
"The Prison Service has so far has said that it's not going to develop an overall strategy to deal with this issue," the chief inspector of prisons said.
"When prisoners get older, less capable physically or infirm, they don't provide an escape risk, they still have to be held in custody very often and it's not to say they wouldn't present a risk to the public if they were completely at liberty.
"But the question is do they need to be held still in levels of security which are not needed for their physical capabilities and which inevitably are very expensive as well?"
UK prisons
Read more: www.bbc.co.uk
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module Azure::RecoveryServicesSiteRecovery::Mgmt::V2018_01_10
  module Models
    #
    # The properties of an add vCenter request.
    #
    class AddVCenterRequestProperties

      include MsRestAzure

      # @return [String] The friendly name of the vCenter.
      attr_accessor :friendly_name

      # @return [String] The IP address of the vCenter to be discovered.
      attr_accessor :ip_address

      # @return [String] The process server Id from where the discovery is
      # orchestrated.
      attr_accessor :process_server_id

      # @return [String] The port number for discovery.
      attr_accessor :port

      # @return [String] The account Id which has privileges to discover the
      # vCenter.
      attr_accessor :run_as_account_id

      #
      # Mapper for AddVCenterRequestProperties class as Ruby Hash.
      # This will be used for serialization/deserialization.
      #
      def self.mapper()
        {
          client_side_validation: true,
          required: false,
          serialized_name: 'AddVCenterRequestProperties',
          type: {
            name: 'Composite',
            class_name: 'AddVCenterRequestProperties',
            model_properties: {
              friendly_name: {
                client_side_validation: true,
                required: false,
                serialized_name: 'friendlyName',
                type: {
                  name: 'String'
                }
              },
              ip_address: {
                client_side_validation: true,
                required: false,
                serialized_name: 'ipAddress',
                type: {
                  name: 'String'
                }
              },
              process_server_id: {
                client_side_validation: true,
                required: false,
                serialized_name: 'processServerId',
                type: {
                  name: 'String'
                }
              },
              port: {
                client_side_validation: true,
                required: false,
                serialized_name: 'port',
                type: {
                  name: 'String'
                }
              },
              run_as_account_id: {
                client_side_validation: true,
                required: false,
                serialized_name: 'runAsAccountId',
                type: {
                  name: 'String'
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      end
    end
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
in: Films, 1935 films, Drama films, PG-rated films
The Littlest Rebel
The Littlest Rebel is a 1935 American dramatic film directed by David Butler. The screenplay by Edwin J. Burke was adapted from a play of the same name by Edward Peple and focuses on the tribulations of a plantation-owning family during the American Civil War. The film stars John Boles, Karen Morley, and Shirley Temple as the plantation family and Bill Robinson as their slave with Jack Holt as a Union officer.
The film was well received, and, in tandem with the Temple vehicle Curly Top, was listed as one of the top box office draws of 1935 by Variety. The film was the second of four cinematic pairings of Temple and Robinson. In 2009, the film was available on videocassette and DVD in both black-and-white and computer-colorized versions.
The film opens in the ballroom of the Cary plantation on Virgie's sixth birthday. Her slave Uncle Billy dances for her party guests, but the celebration is brought abruptly to an end when a messenger arrives with news of the assault on Fort Sumter and a declaration of war. Virgie's father is ordered to the Armory with horse and side-arms. He becomes a scout for the Confederate Army, crossing enemy lines to gather information. On these expeditions, he sometimes briefly visits his family at their plantation behind Union lines.
One day, Colonel Morrison, a Union officer, arrives at the Cary plantation looking for Virgie's father. Virgie defies him, hitting him with a pebble from her slingshot and singing "Dixie". After Morrison leaves, Cary arrives to visit his family but quickly departs when slaves warn of approaching Union troops. Led by the brutal Sgt. Dudley, the Union troops begin to loot the house. Colonel Morrison returns, puts an end to the plundering, and orders Dudley lashed. With this act, Morrison rises in Virgie's esteem.
One stormy night, battle rages near the plantation. Virgie and her mother are forced to flee with Uncle Billy when their house is burned to the ground. Mrs. Cary falls gravely ill but finds refuge in a slave cabin. Her husband crosses enemy lines to be with his wife during her last moments. After his wife's death, Cary makes plans to take Virgie to his sister in Richmond. When Colonel Morrison learns of the plan, he aids Cary by providing him with a Yankee uniform and a pass. The plan is foiled, and Cary and Morrison are sentenced to death.
The two are confined to a makeshift prison where Virgie and Uncle Billy visit them daily. A kindly Union officer urges Uncle Billy to appeal to President Lincoln for a pardon. Short on funds, Uncle Billy and Virgie sing and dance in public spaces and 'pass the cap'. Once in Washington, they are ushered into Lincoln's office where the President pardons Cary and Morrison after hearing Virgie's story. The film ends with Virgie happily singing "Polly Wolly Doodle" to her father, Colonel Morrison and a group of soldiers.
Shirley Temple as Virgie Cary, the six-year-old daughter of plantation owner Herbert Cary
John Boles as Herbert Cary, a plantation owner, a Confederate officer, and Virgie's father
Jack Holt as Colonel Morrison, a Union officer
Karen Morley as Mrs. Cary, Herbert's wife and Virgie's mother
Guinn Williams as Sergeant Dudley, a brutal Union officer
Frank McGlynn, Sr. as President Abraham Lincoln
Bill Robinson as Uncle Billy, a Cary slave
Willie Best as James Henry, a Cary slave
Bessie Lyle as Mammy Rosabelle, a Cary slave
Hannah Washington as Sally Ann, a Cary slave
PG-rated films


text:
Unger je priimek več znanih oseb:
 Felix Unger (*1946), avstrijski zdravnik kirurg, član SAZU
 Franc Unger (1800—1870), avstrijski botanik, paleontolog in fiziolog
 Josef Unger (1828—1913), avstrijski pravnik
 Karoline Unger, altistka
 Maks Unger (1888—1962), dirigent in skladatelj
 Makso Unger (1888—1962), hrvaški dirigent
 Marko Unger (*1967), slovenski častnik
 Viljem Unger (1805—?), slovenski pravnik
 Willi Unger (*1920), nemški častnik
 William Unger (1872—1936), avstrijski slikar in grafik

Zunanje povezave

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Why Egypt Crushes at Squash
The country just won the sport's biggest tournament for the seventh time in 12 years. Its secret lies in politics and geography.
By Philip Sopher
On Friday, Egypt's Ramy Ashour won the squash World Open—basically the Wimbledon of squash. The tournament attracts the best players from around the world. But the final game lacked a certain element of suspense: Both players, Ashour and Mohamed El Shorbagy, were Egyptian. Even that was predictable. Egyptians dominated the international rankings this year—including El Shorbagy and Ashour, three of the Professional Squash Association's top five players based on tournament results are Egyptian. As of Friday, Egypt has won seven of the past 12 World Opens—in the history of the tournament, which began in 1976, only Australia and Pakistan have more World Open titles. Egypt's prowess in the sport is beginning to extend to international women's tournaments, junior tournaments, and even American college sports: Egyptian men have won the last three U.S. Intercollegiate Individual Championships, a tournament for the best players attending U.S. universities.
How did so many Egyptians get so good at squash?
The dominance of Egyptian players dates back to squash's earliest days as an internationally competitive sport. After being invented at a British prep school in the 19th century, the sport spread throughout the empire, including to Egypt. The British built clubs for their colonial officers in Cairo and Alexandria, but Egyptian ball boys and service staff had access to the squash courts in off-hours.
The sport's first great international champion was F. D. Amr Bey, an Egyptian diplomat who started playing while stationed in England. He went on to win six consecutive British Open championships—then the sport's biggest international competition—in the 1930s. His success inspired Egypt's ball boys, one of whom, Mahmoud El Karim, racked up four of his own British Open championships in the 1940s.
Egypt didn't produce many international champions between the 1950s and the 1990s. Repeated wars and domestic turmoil during the period made it difficult for the country's best players to travel for tournaments while based in Egypt. "All the top players left the country and lived in Europe, and that's when the drop [in Egyptian squash] happened," Amr Shabana, a four-time squash world champion from Egypt, told me. The best players who stayed in Egypt couldn't tour internationally. "[T]he country was on lockdown," Shabana said.
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak hits a squash ball. (Farouk Ibrahim/AP)
But in the late 1980s, Shabana, then 10 years old, and another player named Ahmad Barada, age 12, planted the seeds of Egypt's resurgence when they started playing together at Cairo's Maadi Club. Because Egypt's remaining squash talent couldn't tour, those players trained and competed in Cairo, meaning Barada and Shabana could practice and compete against some of the country's best from a very young age. As Shabana explained, "There's a quote that says 'you're only as good as the people around you.' Around us were the best players—maybe not the best in the world, but we thought they were." And they were also helped by the geography of Cairo, where, Shabana said, the squash clubs were all within a half hour's drive of one another. (This is in contrast to the U.S., where the major squash hubs are scattered between Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.) The result was a tight squash community centered on Cairo's clubs. "This is the main reason squash thrived," Shabana said. "Everybody pushed each other. This was I think quite unique."
Beyond exposure to top professionals, Shabana and Barada had other advantages. The most noteworthy is that the rules of Egyptian tournaments permitted them to play many more matches than they would have been able to in England or the U.S. A 10-year-old Shabana competed in the bracket for players under 12, the U12, as well as the Under-14, Under-16, Under-19, and men's tournaments, meaning he could potentially play five matches a day. More rigid conventions in the U.S. and England guide young players to compete in one bracket at a time, meaning they might only play one-fifth as many matches as their Egyptian counterparts have.
At the same time that Shabana and Barada were honing their art on the local level, President Hosni Mubarak—a squash player in his own right—was promoting squash's prestige at the national level. In 1996, Mubarak brought a major international tournament to Egypt, and had a glass court built in front of the pyramids. Barada, then 19, reached the finals, and Mubarak congratulated him personally. Barada later reached second place in the Professional Squash Association's World Rankings.
Shabana says Barada's ranking gave Cairo's young squash community a new target. Seven years later, at the age of 24, Shabana beat it, becoming the first Egyptian to win the World Open in 2003. After that, Shabana says, "the kids younger than me ... wanted to beat me."
"Around us were the best players—maybe not the best in the world, but we thought they were."
Mubarak, who was deposed in 2011, increased squash's popularity, but not its accessibility. The sport remains an upper-class game in Egypt, populated by those who can get access to and pay fees for the same athletic clubs that the British built near the turn of the 20th century. Yasser El Halaby, a four-time Intercollegiate Champion from Princeton, explained to me that squash, for all the glory its players have attained, is not widely played in Egypt. He noted that there are a few thousand people who play squash in the country of some 82 million people. But the game's profile—El Halaby says it's Egypt's second-most-popular sport, after soccer—means it draws some of the country's best athletes. In most other parts of the world, this is not the case. "LeBron James is not playing squash," El Halaby pointed out.
The reasons Egypt became so dominant in squash—the sport's national prestige, combined with the access talented young people have to the country's top players—persist to this day. Amr Khaled Khalifa, who in 2010 won squash's Junior World Championship, the sport's biggest tournament for players under 19, grew up training at the same club as and hitting with Shabana and Barada. He was just 11 when Shabana became a world champion. "I started playing squash at the Maadi Club, where world champions used to play," he told me via email. "I had the chance to watch them training, which inspired me to take squash seriously and set my goals." And, like his predecessors, he played as much as he could starting at a very young age, practicing twice a day and playing 15 tournaments a year.
Despite the fact that this year's squash world champion and the runner-up are Egyptian, Shabana said he believes the end of Egypt's squash dominance is in sight. "I think it's changing a bit," he said. The top Egyptian players are once again living outside of Egypt due to lack of government support for the sport. "I'm living in Toronto, Ramy [Ashour] is mostly based in New York now, [El Shorbagy] is in England, and quite a high percentage of players now go to college in England and America. So there's a gap," he said. Though the logic works—it will be hard for the current Egyptian juniors to train with the best players in the world if none of them live in the country—Shabana's view is contrarian. Results in junior tournaments suggest that an Egyptian successor will rise after the country's current champion retires.


Episode 110: Darrell Steinberg - Serious Talk. Seriously.
Episode 110 is split between two of our mayoral candidates: Angelique Ashby and Darrell Steinberg.
Darrell and I chat about what pushed him into politics; the difference between his previous campaigns and the one for Mayor of Sacramento; what he loves about Sacramento; and how he relaxes when he isn't running for office.
Thank you for listening, Listeners, and thank you for sharing, Sharers, to my conversation with Darrell Steinberg!
Joe Kye is performing June 10 at Beatnik Studios! You do not want to miss your chance to see Joe perform!


I found your site finally. I read your book several years ago and was very impressed. It has given me an insight about the Scriptures as well as providing Bible portions to back up the facts. I applaud you as certainly there is a place prepared for you with the Lord. As well for the incredible people who were involved in helping this ministry.
Good to see there are still a few sites that preach the truth about Predestination.
Thank you all for the immpressive detail information you guys have on your site.This are hidden truth that are clearly seen in various so-called Christian body, I stumbled upon your site and I didn't regret a single seconds spent please include my Email for any newsletter has I have bookmark your site. Thank your very much once again and may God see you aLl through this good work.
Good things here. Very Nice!
I searched Google to see if it was biblical for Christians to be Praying for the Dead, and came across your article on the subject. I've been here reading on topic after topic ever since. So I thought it was about time I signed your Guestbook. God has blessed you, I encourage you to keep up the good work.
I love your stuff. What Church are you affiliated with? Presbyterian?
Sola Scriptura is a myth. Nowhere in scripture is this Protestant man-made philosophy taught. The Roman Catholic Church has long ago debunked this theory, which has no basis in the Bible.
We were looking for a Church and came across one of your pages. My husband and I will be coming back to this site in the next days. We have been unable to find a faithful congregation so this site will have to suffice for now. We definitely know faithful teaching when we read it, and we've read it here. I would ask for more information on doctrine, but your website seems pretty comprehensive! Thanks so much!
It looks like the love and hearts of Christians are growing cold everywhere, not just in Canada. I am just so disheartened by the dishonesty and sexual immorality of the world today among Christians. It's almost like they don't care anymore about chastity or honor. Not even important enough to teach the children anything except birth control. I don't think it will be long before our Lord returns. But it is good to see there is one web site still preaching the truth in this miserable world to these poor excuses for Christians. Pardon my disdain.
I don't see what's wrong with Christian Rock, divorce when needed, free will or with saying OMG. You're dealing in legalism, and we are not under law anymore. Other than that, it's a nice site with some good stuff.
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Palm oil is contained in half of the supermarket products, as well as being widely used as cooking oil among fast-growing populations in Asia Pacific, and increasingly used as biodiesel feedstock. Its global production has almost doubled over 2000-2017, now leading the production of vegetable oils, with Indonesia and Malaysia accounting for almost 90.0% of palm oil production growth.
Palm oil is a permanent crop, harvested all year round. Despite its controversy due to the environmental and social impacts linked to its production, its versatility, affordability and its much higher yield compared to its major competitors (soya, rapeseed and sunflower) producing more oil from less land, have positioned the oil as a key commodity for both food security and clean energy production.
Food security: Palm oil is the most affordable and efficient vegetable oil, requiring less land per output of oil and offering opportunities to feed the exponentially growing population.
Sustainable expansion: With more stringent environmental policies, sustainable practices will become increasingly important in future agricultural development and long-term palm oil expansion. There are opportunities to reconcile oil palm expansion and forest conservation with targeted expansion into degraded and existing agricultural land. Latin America, where part of the recent palm oil tree expansion is occurring, has the chance to make a significant contribution to sustainability and forest conservation.
Waste management & renewable energy: The palm oil industry has the potential to reduce its greenhouse emissions and generate electricity from the methane containing waste produced in palm oil mills.
Lack of alternatives: The lack of economically competitive substitutes that could be used at the same scale without becoming problematic will continue to drive up global demand.
New technologies: The combination of new digital technologies such as blockchain with Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning, has the potential to solve the supply chain's transparency problem.
Bad reputation: Ethical labels are becoming a critical marketing tool to the credibility of companies making sustainability commitments. With rising concerns about climate change, biodiversity and forest conservation possibly impacting future palm oil demand, potential bans on the use of the commodity in certain applications could come into place. An example is the recent EU ban on palm oil-based biofuels. This could further increase the arable land required to meet growing global demand, putting even more pressure on natural areas around the world.
Full transparency & traceability: Although companies are increasingly committed to sustainable sourcing, most struggle to achieve supply chain transparency beyond the mill to the plantations. Collaboration among all stakeholders is required to overcome this barrier. The use of disrupting digital technologies such as blockchain, Internet of Things and DNA molecular tagging has the potential to shake up the palm oil industry, overcoming the current challenges in achieving supply chain transparency and traceability.
The new strategy briefing titled Palm Oil: From Controversial to Sustainable Commodity provides a comprehensive analysis of the changing landscape of the palm oil industry, analyzing its trends, drivers, barriers and challenges, using cross-industry data from seven different systems in Passport.


text:
chennai to shirdi flight package
By Sri Sairam Subhayatra
See all Articles by Balaji GCGet Updates on TravelGet Updates on Balaji GC
History and Mysteries of Shirdi Sai Baba
The famous Shirdi Sai Baba also presents several mysteries for his biographers. But if we regard his known history alone, his life comes out as highly fascinating enough. His birth year, month and date are not known but his death was on 15th Oct 1918. He was born at Pathri (District Parbhani) under Nizam's Dominion and moved over to Shirdi as a grown up. Details of almost all his youthful years till arrival in Shirdi are unknown like the 18 dark and unknown years of Jesus Christ. It seems that chennai to shirdi flight package Sai Baba has mentioned that he was a soldier for Rani of Jhansi (1857) and so his year of birth would have been perhaps between 1835 to 1840.
However, biographer Narasimhaswamiji, Founder-President of All India Sai Samaj, has stated that his parents were Brahmins who handed him over at a tender age to a fakir. What follows merely in outline is said to be as per Baba's own accounts. The fakir died after five years and the child went to the care of one Gopal Rao Deshmukh (called 'Gurudeva'), a great devotee of Tirupati Balaji. After spending nearly ten years in pious learning from Gurudeva, Sai went westward from native Pathri and arrived in Shirdi. But he did not at once settle down at Shirdi. He went on some wanderings and then returned there.
His initial years in Shirdi were spent as an ascetic living under a neem (margosa) tree. Later he shifted to a mosque and lived there all his life, for nearly 50 years. He called the mosque "Dwarkamayi" (The place in Dwarka where Krishna was born). This is just one instance of his puzzling identity-dichotomy, whether a Muslim or Hindu. He preached ways to attain god. He spoke of love and brotherhood. Celibacy, truth and austerity marked his life. He wore a single piece kufni, distributed vibhuti and would tell the devotees "Allah Malik" and "Allah bala karenge". He would do 'japa' and 'dhikr', the utterance of god's name. He would do namaz and chant Al-Fatiha . He did not however indulge in or perform any detailed rituals of worship.
Sai was how he was referred to after his fakir-like life began in Shirdi, and his real name was not known. He preached from the Hindu texts such as Ramayana, Bhagwat Gita etc and from Kuran. As per the accounts of his contemporaries, he was chennai to shirdi flight package very familiar with these scriptures. He recommended worship, prayers, patience, faith and love. He preached Hindu-Muslim unity. All his preaching was oral and he did not leave any writings.
It seems that he would tell the Hindus, "Continue your Rama worship, and worship the stones which your forefathers worshipped". He presented to the Hindu followers, things like lingams, padukas, pictures and coins with Hindu gods etc. To Muslims, he would only advise the following of the tenets of the Kuran. To those Hindus who thought he was a Muslim, it seems he would say, "I am a Muslim, don't come to me". Several Hindu devotees regarded him as a Satguru Samartha. A Guru is an ordinary teacher, a Satguru tries to show the pathway to god and a Satguru Samartha is a guru with siddhi attainments leading you to god. It is said that Baba told the Hindus who came to him as followers, "I am a brahmin. Give me dakshina. This place where I am sitting is not a mosque; it is a brahmin's mosque. It is Dwaraka Mayee".
He himself is said to have come out of a three day Samadhi (death) in 1886. He was a clairvoyant. It seems that the elements like fire, air and water obeyed his orders. He could order storms to cease and cold breeze to blow, to save people or comfort them. He blessed childless couples and they had children. He is credited with being physically present at more than one place. He could cure the incurably sick. He could restore the eyesight to the blind. He could light lamps with just water. Many chennai to shirdi flight package of those who witnessed the miracles or benefitted from them, have left accounts of them. His miracles were meant to help the distressed and not to demonstrate his divine nature. All these entailed his being regarded as a living god by some of his close admirers/disciples.
At the age of nearly 80, Sai Baba passed away at 3 pm on 15th Oct 1918. His body lays interred in what is called a Samadhi Mandir now. There are huge bundles of writings about Sai Baba from those who lived during his times or subsequently.
There are nearly 2000 Sai Temples around the world. The Shirdi Sai Sansthan is perhaps the richest temple-sansthan in India after Tirupati.
https://www.srisairamsubhayatra.org/shirdi-flight-packages-from-chennai.php
Sri Sairam Subhayatra
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