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What Is Nihilism?
Epistemological
Mereological
Russian movement
Nirvana and nihilism
Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche
Deleuze's interpretation of Nietzsche
Lyotard
Baudrillard
Transcendentalism or methodological naturalism
Nihilism is the philosophical viewpoint that suggests the denial of, or lack of belief in, the reputedly meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism, which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Moral nihilists assert that there is no inherent morality, and that accepted moral values are abstractly contrived. Nihilism may also take epistemological, ontological, or metaphysical forms, meaning respectively that, in some aspect, knowledge is not possible, or reality does not actually exist.
The term is sometimes used in association with anomie to explain the general mood of despair at a perceived pointlessness of existence that one may develop upon realising there are no necessary norms, rules, or laws.
Nihilism has also been described as conspicuous in or constitutive of certain historical periods. For example, Jean Baudrillard and others have called postmodernity a nihilistic epoch and some religious theologians and figures of religious authority have asserted that postmodernity and many aspects of modernity represent a rejection of theism, and that such rejection of theistic doctrine entails nihilism.
Nihilism has many definitions, and thus can describe multiple arguably independent philosophical positions.
Metaphysical nihilism is the philosophical theory that posits that concrete objects and physical constructs might not exist in the possible world, or that even if there exist possible worlds that contain some concrete objects, there is at least one that contains only abstract objects.
Extreme metaphysical nihilism is commonly defined as the belief that nothing exists as a correspondent component of the self-efficient world. The American Heritage Medical Dictionary defines one form of nihilism as "an extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence." A similar skepticism concerning the concrete world can be found in solipsism. However, despite the fact that both deny the certainty of objects' true existence, the nihilist would deny the existence of self whereas the solipsist would affirm it. Both these positions are considered forms of anti-realism.
Epistemological nihilism is a form of skepticism in which all knowledge is accepted as being possibly untrue or as being impossible to confirm as true.
Mereological nihilism (also called compositional nihilism) is the position that objects with proper parts do not exist (not only objects in space, but also objects existing in time do not have any temporal parts), and only basic building blocks without parts exist, and thus the world we see and experience full of objects with parts is a product of human misperception (i.e., if we could see clearly, we would not perceive compositive objects).
This interpretation of existence must be based on resolution. The resolution with which humans see and perceive the "improper parts" of the world is not an objective fact of reality, but is rather an implicit trait that can only be qualitatively explored and expressed. Therefore, there is no arguable way to surmise or measure the validity of mereological nihilism. Example: An ant can get lost on a large cylindrical object because the circumference of the object is so large with respect to the ant that the ant effectively feels as though the object has no curvature. Thus, the resolution with which the ant views the world it exists "within" is a very important determining factor in how the ant experiences this "within the world" feeling.
Existential nihilism is the belief that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. With respect to the universe, existential nihilism posits that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose and unlikely to change in the totality of existence. The meaninglessness or meaning of life is largely explored in the philosophical school of existentialism.
Moral nihilism, also known as ethical nihilism, is the meta-ethical view that morality does not exist as something inherent to objective reality; therefore no action is necessarily preferable to any other. For example, a moral nihilist would say that killing someone, for whatever reason, is not inherently right or wrong.
Other nihilists may argue not that there is no morality at all, but that if it does exist, it is a human construction and thus artificial, wherein any and all meaning is relative for different possible outcomes. As an example, if someone kills someone else, such a nihilist might argue that killing is not inherently a bad thing, or bad independently from our moral beliefs, because of the way morality is constructed as some rudimentary dichotomy. What is said to be a bad thing is given a higher negative weighting than what is called good: as a result, killing the individual was bad because it did not let the individual live, which was arbitrarily given a positive weighting. In this way a moral nihilist believes that all moral claims are void of any truth value. An alternative scholarly perspective is that moral nihilism is a morality in itself. Cooper writes, "In the widest sense of the word 'morality', moral nihilism is a morality."
Political nihilism follows the characteristic nihilist's rejection of non-rationalized or non-proven assertions; in this case the necessity of the most fundamental social and political structures, such as government, family, and law. An influential analysis of political nihilism is presented by Leo Strauss.
The Russian Nihilist movement was a Russian trend in the 1860s that rejected all authority. After the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, the Nihilists gained a reputation throughout Europe as proponents of the use of violence for political change. The Nihilists expressed anger at what they described as the abusive nature of the Eastern Orthodox Church and of the tsarist monarchy, and at the domination of the Russian economy by the aristocracy. Although the term Nihilism was coined by the German theologian Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743–1818), its widespread usage began with the 1862 novel Fathers and Sons by the Russian author Ivan Turgenev. The main character of the novel, Yevgeny Bazarov, who describes himself as a Nihilist, wants to educate the people. The "go to the people – be the people" campaign reached its height in the 1870s, during which underground groups such as the Circle of Tchaikovsky, the People's Will, and Land and Liberty formed. It became known as the Narodnik movement, whose members believed that the newly freed serfs were merely being sold into wage slavery in the onset of the Industrial Revolution, and that the middle and upper classes had effectively replaced landowners. The Russian state attempted to suppress the nihilist movement. In actions described by the Nihilists as propaganda of the deed many government officials were assassinated. In 1881 Alexander II was killed on the very day he had approved a proposal to call a representative assembly to consider new reforms.
Medical nihilism is the view that we should have little confidence in the effectiveness of medical interventions. Jacob Stegenga proposed the term in the book Medical Nihilism. It is a work in philosophy of science that deals with contextualized demarcation of medical research. Stegenga applies Bayes' Theorem to medical research then argues for the premise that "even when presented with evidence for a hypothesis regarding the effectiveness of a medical intervention , we ought to have low confidence in that hypothesis."
The concept of nihilism was discussed by the Buddha (563 B.C. to 483 B.C.), as recorded in the Theravada and Mahayana Tripiṭaka. The Tripiṭaka, originally written in Pali, refers to nihilism as 'natthikavāda' and the nihilist view as 'micchādiṭṭhi'. Various sutras within it describe a multiplicity of views held by different sects of ascetics while the Buddha was alive, some of which were viewed by him to be morally nihilistic. In the Doctrine of Nihilism in the Apannaka Sutta, the Buddha describes moral nihilists as holding the following views:
Giving produces no beneficial results
Good and bad actions produce no results
After death, beings are not reborn into the present world or into another world
There is no one in the world who, through direct knowledge, can confirm that beings are reborn into this world or into another world
The Buddha then states that those who hold these views will not see the danger in misconduct and the blessings in good conduct and will, therefore, avoid good bodily, verbal and mental conduct; practicing misconduct instead.
The culmination of the path that the Buddha taught was Nirvana, "a place of nothingness… nonpossession and… non-attachment… [which is] the total end of death and decay". In an article Ajahn Amaro, a practicing Buddhist monk of more than 30 years, observes that in English 'nothingness' can sound like nihilism. However the word could be emphasised in a different way, so that it becomes 'no-thingness', indicating that Nirvana is not a thing you can find, but rather a state where you experience the reality of non-grasping.
In the Alagaddupama Sutta, the Buddha describes how some individuals feared his teaching because they believe that their 'self' would be destroyed if they followed it. He describes this as an anxiety caused by the false belief in an unchanging, everlasting 'self'. All things are subject to change and taking any impermanent phenomena to be a 'self' causes suffering. Nonetheless, his critics called him a nihilist who teaches the annihilation and extermination of an existing being. The Buddha's response was that he only teaches the cessation of suffering. When an individual has given up craving and the conceit of 'I am' their mind is liberated, they no longer come into any state of 'being' and are no longer born again.
The Aggivacchagotta Sutta records a conversation between the Buddha and an individual named Vaccha that further elaborates on this. In it Vaccha asks the Buddha to confirm one of the following, with respect to the existence of the Buddha after death:
After death a Buddha reappears somewhere else
After death a Buddha does not reappear
After death a Buddha both does and does not reappear
After death a Buddha neither does nor does not reappear
To all four questions, the Buddha answers that the terms 'appear', 'not appear', 'does and does not reappear' and 'neither does nor does not reappear' do not apply. When Vaccha expresses puzzlement, the Buddha asks Vaccha a counter question to the effect of: if a fire were to go out and someone were to ask you whether the fire went north, south east or west how would you reply? Vaccha replies that the question does not apply and that a fire gone out can only be classified as 'out'.
Thanissaro Bikkhu elaborates on the classification problem around the words 'reappear' etc. with respect to the Buddha and Nirvana by stating that a "person who has attained the goal [Nirvana] is thus indescribable because [they have] abandoned all things by which [they] could be described". The Suttas themselves describe the liberated mind as 'untraceable' or as 'consciousness without feature', making no distinction between the mind of a liberated being that is alive and the mind of one that is no longer alive.
Despite the Buddha's explanations to the contrary, Buddhist practitioners may, at times, still approach Buddhism in a nihilistic manner. Ajahn Amaro illustrates this by retelling the story of a Buddhist monk, Ajahn Sumedho, who in his early years took a nihilistic approach to Nirvana. A distinct feature of Nirvana in Buddhism is that an individual attaining it is no longer subject to rebirth. Ajahn Sumedho, during a conversation with his teacher Ajahn Chah comments that he is "determined above all things to fully realize Nirvāna in this lifetime… deeply weary of the human condition and… [is] determined not to be born again". To this Ajahn Chah replies "what about the rest of us, Sumedho? Don't you care about those who'll be left behind?". Ajahn Amaro comments that Ajahn Chah could detect that his student had a nihilistic aversion to life rather than true detachment. With his response, Ajahn Chah chided Ajahn Sumedho about the latter's narrowness and opened his eyes to this attitude of self centred nihilism.
The term nihilism was first used by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743–1819). Jacobi used the term to characterize rationalism and in particular Immanuel Kant's "critical" philosophy to carry out a reductio ad absurdum according to which all rationalism (philosophy as criticism) reduces to nihilism—and thus it should be avoided and replaced with a return to some type of faith and revelation. Bret W. Davis writes, for example, "The first philosophical development of the idea of nihilism is generally ascribed to Friedrich Jacobi, who in a famous letter criticized Fichte's idealism as falling into nihilism. According to Jacobi, Fichte's absolutization of the ego (the 'absolute I' that posits the 'not-I') is an inflation of subjectivity that denies the absolute transcendence of God." A related but oppositional concept is fideism, which sees reason as hostile and inferior to faith.
With the popularizing of the word nihilism by Ivan Turgenev, a new Russian political movement called the Nihilist movement adopted the term. They supposedly called themselves nihilists because nothing "that then existed found favor in their eyes". This movement was significant enough that, even in the English speaking world, at the turn of the 20th century the word nihilism without qualification was almost exclusively associated with this Russian revolutionary sociopolitical movement.
Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) posited an early form of nihilism, which he referred to as leveling. He saw leveling as the process of suppressing individuality to a point where an individual's uniqueness becomes non-existent and nothing meaningful in one's existence can be affirmed:
Levelling at its maximum is like the stillness of death, where one can hear one's own heartbeat, a stillness like death, into which nothing can penetrate, in which everything sinks, powerless. One person can head a rebellion, but one person cannot head this levelling process, for that would make him a leader and he would avoid being levelled. Each individual can in his little circle participate in this levelling, but it is an abstract process, and levelling is abstraction conquering individuality.
—  Søren Kierkegaard, The Present Age, translated by Alexander Dru with Foreword by Walter Kaufmann, 1962, pp. 51–53
Kierkegaard, an advocate of a philosophy of life, generally argued against levelling and its nihilistic consequences, although he believed it would be "genuinely educative to live in the age of levelling [because] people will be forced to face the judgement of [levelling] alone." George Cotkin asserts Kierkegaard was against "the standardization and levelling of belief, both spiritual and political, in the nineteenth century," and that Kierkegaard "opposed tendencies in mass culture to reduce the individual to a cipher of conformity and deference to the dominant opinion." In his day, tabloids (like the Danish magazine Corsaren) and apostate Christianity were instruments of levelling and contributed to the "reflective apathetic age" of 19th century Europe. Kierkegaard argues that individuals who can overcome the levelling process are stronger for it, and that it represents a step in the right direction towards "becoming a true self." As we must overcome levelling, Hubert Dreyfus and Jane Rubin argue that Kierkegaard's interest, "in an increasingly nihilistic age, is in how we can recover the sense that our lives are meaningful".
Note, however, that Kierkegaard's meaning of "nihilism" differs from the modern definition, in the sense that, for Kierkegaard, levelling led to a life lacking meaning, purpose or value, whereas the modern interpretation of nihilism posits that there was never any meaning, purpose or value to begin with.
Nihilism is often associated with the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who provided a detailed diagnosis of nihilism as a widespread phenomenon of Western culture. Though the notion appears frequently throughout Nietzsche's work, he uses the term in a variety of ways, with different meanings and connotations. Karen L. Carr describes Nietzsche's characterization of nihilism "as a condition of tension, as a disproportion between what we want to value (or need) and how the world appears to operate." When we find out that the world does not possess the objective value or meaning that we want it to have or have long since believed it to have, we find ourselves in a crisis. Nietzsche asserts that with the decline of Christianity and the rise of physiological decadence, nihilism is in fact characteristic of the modern age, though he implies that the rise of nihilism is still incomplete and that it has yet to be overcome. Though the problem of nihilism becomes especially explicit in Nietzsche's notebooks (published posthumously), it is mentioned repeatedly in his published works and is closely connected to many of the problems mentioned there.
Nietzsche characterized nihilism as emptying the world and especially human existence of meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. This observation stems in part from Nietzsche's perspectivism, or his notion that "knowledge" is always by someone of some thing: it is always bound by perspective, and it is never mere fact. Rather, there are interpretations through which we understand the world and give it meaning. Interpreting is something we can not go without; in fact, it is something we need. One way of interpreting the world is through morality, as one of the fundamental ways that people make sense of the world, especially in regard to their own thoughts and actions. Nietzsche distinguishes a morality that is strong or healthy, meaning that the person in question is aware that he constructs it himself, from weak morality, where the interpretation is projected on to something external.
Nietzsche discusses Christianity, one of the major topics in his work, at length in the context of the problem of nihilism in his notebooks, in a chapter entitled "European Nihilism". Here he states that the Christian moral doctrine provides people with intrinsic value, belief in God (which justifies the evil in the world) and a basis for objective knowledge. In this sense, in constructing a world where objective knowledge is possible, Christianity is an antidote against a primal form of nihilism, against the despair of meaninglessness. However, it is exactly the element of truthfulness in Christian doctrine that is its undoing: in its drive towards truth, Christianity eventually finds itself to be a construct, which leads to its own dissolution. It is therefore that Nietzsche states that we have outgrown Christianity "not because we lived too far from it, rather because we lived too close". As such, the self-dissolution of Christianity constitutes yet another form of nihilism. Because Christianity was an interpretation that posited itself as the interpretation, Nietzsche states that this dissolution leads beyond skepticism to a distrust of all meaning.
Stanley Rosen identifies Nietzsche's concept of nihilism with a situation of meaninglessness, in which "everything is permitted." According to him, the loss of higher metaphysical values that exist in contrast to the base reality of the world, or merely human ideas, gives rise to the idea that all human ideas are therefore valueless. Rejecting idealism thus results in nihilism, because only similarly transcendent ideals live up to the previous standards that the nihilist still implicitly holds. The inability for Christianity to serve as a source of valuating the world is reflected in Nietzsche's famous aphorism of the madman in The Gay Science. The death of God, in particular the statement that "we killed him", is similar to the self-dissolution of Christian doctrine: due to the advances of the sciences, which for Nietzsche show that man is the product of evolution, that Earth has no special place among the stars and that history is not progressive, the Christian notion of God can no longer serve as a basis for a morality.
One such reaction to the loss of meaning is what Nietzsche calls passive nihilism, which he recognises in the pessimistic philosophy of Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer's doctrine, which Nietzsche also refers to as Western Buddhism, advocates separating oneself from will and desires in order to reduce suffering. Nietzsche characterises this ascetic attitude as a "will to nothingness", whereby life turns away from itself, as there is nothing of value to be found in the world. This mowing away of all value in the world is characteristic of the nihilist, although in this, the nihilist appears inconsistent:
A nihilist is a man who judges of the world as it is that it ought not to be, and of the world as it ought to be that it does not exist. According to this view, our existence (action, suffering, willing, feeling) has no meaning: the pathos of 'in vain' is the nihilists' pathos – at the same time, as pathos, an inconsistency on the part of the nihilists.
—  Friedrich Nietzsche, KSA 12:9 , taken from The Will to Power, section 585, translated by Walter Kaufmann
Nietzsche's relation to the problem of nihilism is a complex one. He approaches the problem of nihilism as deeply personal, stating that this predicament of the modern world is a problem that has "become conscious" in him. According to Nietzsche, it is only when nihilism is overcome that a culture can have a true foundation upon which to thrive. He wished to hasten its coming only so that he could also hasten its ultimate departure.
He states that there is at least the possibility of another type of nihilist in the wake of Christianity's self-dissolution, one that does not stop after the destruction of all value and meaning and succumb to the following nothingness. This alternate, 'active' nihilism on the other hand destroys to level the field for constructing something new. This form of nihilism is characterized by Nietzsche as "a sign of strength," a willful destruction of the old values to wipe the slate clean and lay down one's own beliefs and interpretations, contrary to the passive nihilism that resigns itself with the decomposition of the old values. This willful destruction of values and the overcoming of the condition of nihilism by the constructing of new meaning, this active nihilism, could be related to what Nietzsche elsewhere calls a 'free spirit' or the Übermensch from Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Antichrist, the model of the strong individual who posits his own values and lives his life as if it were his own work of art. It may be questioned, though, whether "active nihilism" is indeed the correct term for this stance, and some question whether Nietzsche takes the problems nihilism poses seriously enough.
Martin Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche influenced many postmodern thinkers who investigated the problem of nihilism as put forward by Nietzsche. Only recently has Heidegger's influence on Nietzschean nihilism research faded. As early as the 1930s, Heidegger was giving lectures on Nietzsche's thought. Given the importance of Nietzsche's contribution to the topic of nihilism, Heidegger's influential interpretation of Nietzsche is important for the historical development of the term nihilism.
Heidegger's method of researching and teaching Nietzsche is explicitly his own. He does not specifically try to present Nietzsche as Nietzsche. He rather tries to incorporate Nietzsche's thoughts into his own philosophical system of Being, Time and Dasein. In his Nihilism as Determined by the History of Being (1944–46), Heidegger tries to understand Nietzsche's nihilism as trying to achieve a victory through the devaluation of the, until then, highest values. The principle of this devaluation is, according to Heidegger, the Will to Power. The Will to Power is also the principle of every earlier valuation of values. How does this devaluation occur and why is this nihilistic? One of Heidegger's main critiques on philosophy is that philosophy, and more specifically metaphysics, has forgotten to discriminate between investigating the notion of a being (Seiende) and Being (Sein). According to Heidegger, the history of Western thought can be seen as the history of metaphysics. And because metaphysics has forgotten to ask about the notion of Being (what Heidegger calls Seinsvergessenheit), it is a history about the destruction of Being. That is why Heidegger calls metaphysics nihilistic. This makes Nietzsche's metaphysics not a victory over nihilism, but a perfection of it.
Heidegger, in his interpretation of Nietzsche, has been inspired by Ernst Jünger. Many references to Jünger can be found in Heidegger's lectures on Nietzsche. For example, in a letter to the rector of Freiburg University of November 4, 1945, Heidegger, inspired by Jünger, tries to explain the notion of "God is dead" as the "reality of the Will to Power." Heidegger also praises Jünger for defending Nietzsche against a too biological or anthropological reading during the Nazi era.
Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche influenced a number of important postmodernist thinkers. Gianni Vattimo points at a back-and-forth movement in European thought, between Nietzsche and Heidegger. During the 1960s, a Nietzschean 'renaissance' began, culminating in the work of Mazzino Montinari and Giorgio Colli. They began work on a new and complete edition of Nietzsche's collected works, making Nietzsche more accessible for scholarly research. Vattimo explains that with this new edition of Colli and Montinari, a critical reception of Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche began to take shape. Like other contemporary French and Italian philosophers, Vattimo does not want, or only partially wants, to rely on Heidegger for understanding Nietzsche. On the other hand, Vattimo judges Heidegger's intentions authentic enough to keep pursuing them. Philosophers who Vattimo exemplifies as a part of this back and forth movement are French philosophers Deleuze, Foucault and Derrida. Italian philosophers of this same movement are Cacciari, Severino and himself. Jürgen Habermas, Jean-François Lyotard and Richard Rorty are also philosophers who are influenced by Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche.
Gilles Deleuze's interpretation of Nietzsche's concept of nihilism is different – in some sense diametrically opposed – to the usual definition (as outlined in the rest of this article). Nihilism is one of the main topics of Deleuze's early book Nietzsche and Philosophy (1962). There, Deleuze repeatedly interprets Nietzsche's nihilism as "the enterprise of denying life and depreciating existence". Nihilism thus defined is therefore not the denial of higher values, or the denial of meaning, but rather the depreciation of life in the name of such higher values or meaning. Deleuze therefore (with, he claims, Nietzsche) says that Christianity and Platonism, and with them the whole of metaphysics, are intrinsically nihilist.
Postmodern and poststructuralist thought has questioned the very grounds on which Western cultures have based their 'truths': absolute knowledge and meaning, a 'decentralization' of authorship, the accumulation of positive knowledge, historical progress, and certain ideals and practices of humanism and the Enlightenment.
Jacques Derrida, whose deconstruction is perhaps most commonly labeled nihilistic, did not himself make the nihilistic move that others have claimed. Derridean deconstructionists argue that this approach rather frees texts, individuals or organizations from a restrictive truth, and that deconstruction opens up the possibility of other ways of being. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, for example, uses deconstruction to create an ethics of opening up Western scholarship to the voice of the subaltern and to philosophies outside of the canon of western texts. Derrida himself built a philosophy based upon a 'responsibility to the other'. Deconstruction can thus be seen not as a denial of truth, but as a denial of our ability to know truth. That is to say, it makes an epistemological claim, compared to nihilism's ontological claim.
Lyotard argues that, rather than relying on an objective truth or method to prove their claims, philosophers legitimize their truths by reference to a story about the world that can't be separated from the age and system the stories belong to—referred to by Lyotard as meta-narratives. He then goes on to define the postmodern condition as characterized by a rejection both of these meta-narratives and of the process of legitimation by meta-narratives.
In lieu of meta-narratives we have created new language-games in order to legitimize our claims which rely on changing relationships and mutable truths, none of which is privileged over the other to speak to ultimate truth.
This concept of the instability of truth and meaning leads in the direction of nihilism, though Lyotard stops short of embracing the latter.
Postmodern theorist Jean Baudrillard wrote briefly of nihilism from the postmodern viewpoint in Simulacra and Simulation. He stuck mainly to topics of interpretations of the real world over the simulations of which the real world is composed. The uses of meaning were an important subject in Baudrillard's discussion of nihilism:
The apocalypse is finished, today it is the precession of the neutral, of forms of the neutral and of indifference…all that remains, is the fascination for desertlike and indifferent forms, for the very operation of the system that annihilates us. Now, fascination (in contrast to seduction, which was attached to appearances, and to dialectical reason, which was attached to meaning) is a nihilistic passion par excellence, it is the passion proper to the mode of disappearance. We are fascinated by all forms of disappearance, of our disappearance. Melancholic and fascinated, such is our general situation in an era of involuntary transparency.
—  Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, "On Nihilism", trans. 1995
In Nihil Unbound: Extinction and Enlightenment, Ray Brassier maintains that philosophy has avoided the traumatic idea of extinction, instead attempting to find meaning in a world conditioned by the very idea of its own annihilation. Thus Brassier critiques both the phenomenological and hermeneutic strands of Continental philosophy as well as the vitality of thinkers like Gilles Deleuze, who work to ingrain meaning in the world and stave off the "threat" of nihilism. Instead, drawing on thinkers such as Alain Badiou, François Laruelle, Paul Churchland, and Thomas Metzinger, Brassier defends a view of the world as inherently devoid of meaning. That is, rather than avoiding nihilism, Brassier embraces it as the truth of reality. Brassier concludes from his readings of Badiou and Laruelle that the universe is founded on the nothing, but also that philosophy is the "organon of extinction," that it is only because life is conditioned by its own extinction that there is thought at all. Brassier then defends a radically anti-correlationist philosophy proposing that Thought is conjoined not with Being, but with Non-Being.
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Iran, 2008, 82 minutes, Colour.
1.An Iranian drama, contemporary, Iraq and its history with Iran?
2.A border story, the carts, the guards, the people coming across, honesty and dishonesty, smuggling?
3.The terrain, the border, the desert, the gates, the town and the hospital, the train ride, the city and the hotel, the shrine? The musical score?
4.The introduction to the boy, the room and the beds, the flashback, the journey during the credits to the border, his mates, the banter, the work, carrying goods, the visitors, letter-writing and love letters?
5.The intensity of the boy, his watching, the woman and the old man, his bringing things back for them, discovering they had gone, the hospital, the arguments about the corpse, the taxi, carrying the body, her money in the bag, his paying his fare, the car, the taxi driver, the breakdown (and the fraud)? Going back to get the cart, carrying the corpse, getting to the border? The phone number, the mobile phone?
6.The woman and her story, covered, coming into Iran, the story of the body, the argument about the money, being stranded with the coffin, the old man, the boy coming with the cart, their walking to the border, her return to Iraq and covering up?
7.His waiting, the long time, the people coming through the border, the wealthy man, the covered woman, the child, getting past the guards, the boy letting them through, especially the little girl, his being questioned later about recognising them? His denial?
8.The men at the border, their camaraderie, jokes, the man at the store, translating from Arabic? The young man and the letter? Reading the letter?
9.His train ride, coming to the town, the hotel room, watching, meeting the woman, seeing her with the child, her silence, her coming to the room, the discussion, the truth about the smuggling, their marriages of convenience, his upset?
10.The end, insight into characters, situations, their future?


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                  "kind": "Literal",
                  "name": "height",
                  "value": 55
                },
                {
                  "kind": "Literal",
                  "name": "width",
                  "value": 55
                }
              ],
              "concreteType": "ResizedImageUrl",
              "kind": "LinkedField",
              "name": "resized",
              "plural": false,
              "selections": [
                {
                  "alias": null,
                  "args": null,
                  "kind": "ScalarField",
                  "name": "src",
                  "storageKey": null
                },
                {
                  "alias": null,
                  "args": null,
                  "kind": "ScalarField",
                  "name": "srcSet",
                  "storageKey": null
                }
              ],
              "storageKey": "resized(height:55,width:55)"
            }
          ],
          "storageKey": null
        }
      ],
      "storageKey": null
    },
    {
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      "kind": "ScalarField",
      "name": "estimate",
      "storageKey": null
    },
    {
      "alias": null,
      "args": null,
      "concreteType": "SaleArtworkHighestBid",
      "kind": "LinkedField",
      "name": "highestBid",
      "plural": false,
      "selections": [
        {
          "alias": null,
          "args": null,
          "kind": "ScalarField",
          "name": "amount",
          "storageKey": null
        }
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      "storageKey": null
    },
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      "alias": null,
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      "kind": "ScalarField",
      "name": "internalID",
      "storageKey": null
    },
    {
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      "args": null,
      "kind": "ScalarField",
      "name": "isHighestBidder",
      "storageKey": null
    },
    {
      "alias": null,
      "args": null,
      "kind": "ScalarField",
      "name": "isWatching",
      "storageKey": null
    },
    {
      "alias": null,
      "args": null,
      "concreteType": "CausalityLotState",
      "kind": "LinkedField",
      "name": "lotState",
      "plural": false,
      "selections": [
        {
          "alias": null,
          "args": null,
          "kind": "ScalarField",
          "name": "bidCount",
          "storageKey": null
        },
        {
          "alias": null,
          "args": null,
          "concreteType": "Money",
          "kind": "LinkedField",
          "name": "sellingPrice",
          "plural": false,
          "selections": [
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              "kind": "ScalarField",
              "name": "display",
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  "type": "SaleArtwork"
};
(node as any).hash = '6c0923162fe684b3f6480a175056bc8c';
export default node;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
November 10, 2016 9:17am PT by Eriq Gardner
Entertainment Giants Say They Are Owed Millions in Merchandise Royalties
Discovery, CBS, Fox, NBCU and others are objecting to the assumption of licensing agreements in a planned bankruptcy auction of Delivery Agent Inc.
From Game of Thrones pub glasses to Shark Week tank tops, big content studios have a bit of a problem at the moment on the e-commerce front.
In September, Delivery Agent Inc., a company specializing in running digital platforms that sell licensed merchandise on behalf of entertainment companies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after testing the waters on an IPO and running into a liquidity crisis. Founded in 2005 with venture funding, Delivery Agent counts CBS, NBC, Fox, Time Warner and many other top media brands as partners, has generated more than $800 million in revenue and has recently been exploring ways to commercially leverage internet-connected televisions. But a proposed sale of the company through a bankruptcy auction led by Hillair Capital Investments is causing a fuss in federal bankruptcy court because some of Delivery Agent's partners say they are owed substantially more than the debtor is claiming.
Discovery, for instance, asserts in court papers filed earlier this month that its licensing deal provides a royalty of 14 percent on all sales at the Discovery Channel Store and an annual minimum guaranteed royalty payment of $1 million, but that it hasn't received any payments since the second quarter of 2015. Objecting to a cure amount listed as "$0.00," Discovery claims the true amount is $1.6 million.
HBO says it also is owed money. To cure obligations, the debtor proposes paying the pay TV network $619,385, but HBO responds the amount is inaccurate due to alleged overstatement of expenses and use of an incorrect revenue share percentage. After making an audit, HBO claims at least $1.2 million is due.
"Without the underlying licensed rights granted under the Agreements, any purchaser of Debtor's assets would fail to have a license from HBO to distribute and/or sell HBO licensed goods, and in turn, any attempt by such purchaser to do so would be unauthorized and would constitute infringement," writes the network's lawyers.
Some companies like CBS and Showtime object to Delivery Agent's buyer assuming licensing agreements because the company has defaulted and can't provide adequate assurance of future performance. Other companies like Warner Music subsidiary Rhino Entertainment say they've been left without meaningful information to figure out what is really owed.
Court papers reveal more: For items sold at the CBS Store and the Star Trek Store, Delivery Agent proposes making a $288,046 payment to cover royalty obligations. The debtor also proposes $116,899 to cover Fox, though the broadcaster says its own books indicate it should be more like $157,052. Then there's Bravado International Group, which sells merchandising for some of the biggest acts in the music business including Adele, Guns N' Roses and Lady Gaga. More than $3 million has been proposed to cover royalties due under this licensing agreement.
Maybe the most unique objection comes from NBC Universal, whose agreements with Delivery Agent have allowed the online sale of items including a Mr. Robot-inspired fsociety mask.
The entertainment giant is throwing a flag to the transfer of all material deemed to be "works made for hire" including the look and feel of store sites, URLs and customer data. According to its latest filing, "There is no valid basis for the Debtors to assert that the Work Product, URLs, or customer data under applicable nonbankruptcy law that can be sold, and the fact that Delivery Agent has commenced a bankruptcy case does not expand its property rights beyond those it held on the Petition Date."
The parties are scheduled to be in Delaware Bankruptcy Court next week to discuss all of this.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Am going to say this now and hopefully never again. But…It's like this people.
If you're following more people than are following you on Utterli, Twitter, or wherever I happen to receive a request from you – I won't follow you back. Period.


Such an interesting design. It was a different gift for my niece on her birthday. The cupcakes were very yummy.
Recently bought these cupcakes for a friend. It was delivered to her address. Excellent service!
Yummy cupcakes. My kids loved them.


Classes young athletes in the children's sports school of the Leningrad Regional Council of Trade Unions: children in morning exercises, the workout at the gym.
Competitions USSR Championship in Athletics in the city of Tallinn.
Pentathlon competitions among youths in Moscow.
Friendly football match in Moscow between teams "Dynamo" (Moscow) and the Yugoslav players.
Competitions sailing on lakes of Trakai in Lithuania.
Great sports festival at the Central Stadium.
Lenin in honor of "team.
Home torch relay in Kiev at the tomb of the unknown soldier on the hill of Fame.
Opening event at the stadium 11 th Spartakiad in honor of 40 years of the Soviet armed forces: competition in running, in wrestling, jumping into the water, in the triathlon.
Volleyball match teams of Romania and the USSR. 4-th parachute jumping championship in Bratislava.
Classes figure swim team athletes in the Moscow Palace of Water Sports.
Competitions athletes paratroopers in the All-Union sports days in Moscow.
Championship of the USSR in motor racing around the city of Minsk.
Race at 30 km from the town of Pushkin to the Palace Square in Leningrad.
European Championships in Athletics in Stockholm.
Match Volleyball Women's national teams of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.
Volleyball match between teams of the USSR and Poland.
USSR Championship in sailing on the Black Sea coast, in Odessa.
Competitions motor boats on the farm "40 Anniversary of October" Brest region.
Championship of the USSR on towns in Chelyabinsk.
Meeting in Riga, GM M. Tal returned from Yugoslavia to the World Chess Championship.
Hockey match between Dynamo and Spartak.
Sports agricultural machinery factory workers Frunze: athletics, swimming, football, basketball. -Union marathon competitions in rowing and canoeing in the city of Astrakhan.
Boxing match between the athletes he.
Rodeo championship of the USSR in the vicinity of Yerevan.
Speeches at the Moscow racecourse on national sports athletes of Kyrgyzstan.
World Championships pentathlon in the suburbs of London.
Sports School 703 Moscow School.
Students involved in gymnastics, basketball.
Classes students Kaunas children's sports school swimming and diving.
Championship of Russia on the cycling sport in the city of Nalchik.
Sports staff Moscow Automobile them.
Production processes in the shops of the plant.
Match hockey at the rink Automobile Plant.
Match boxers of Hungary and the USSR in Moscow.
Swimming school in Rostov-na-Donu in a children's swimming pool.
Gymnastics competitions at the Sports Palace in Moscow.


You know MMM, I know this is not the point of the article (great article, BTW), but if your friends were concerned about Mrs. MM getting her payment, couldn't they just pay her themselves, regardless of how the deal was done? I don't know if there would be some sort of legal conflict in doing that (I am not from the US) but it makes no sense for me that they would lose a good deal because of this. 2.8% is stil less than 6%.
Everyone throws the term friend around. But let's be clear: you WALK the walk.
And live crazy strong Mustache, Live crazy strong.
When it comes to friends or family and money I will almost always err on the side of "don't worry about it" but it's definitely an attitude that took a long time to learn. I distinctly recall raging on my roommate/bestfriend over how to split up the pots and pans we had purchased when we were moving out, cooler heads eventually prevailed but it could just as easily have gone the other way and that would have been so incredibly stupid. I've seen many friendships ruined over petty garbage such as perceived slights in amount of times picking up the cheque, I have some uncles and their families who have some sort of feud regarding a repair bill for a tractor. 15 years of hating someone over a repair bill for a couple grand, how is that worth it?!
Great article. I keep this one book marked on my favorites bar. Thanks again.
This is an old article but I read it because I am still settling my own emotions in this area.
Last week I finished replacing the roof on my rental cabin. I am well beyond FIRE and could easily afford to hire someone to do it.
At a recent meetup a fellow MMMer pointed out that working on a roof is inherently risky. I'm also 55 next month and lets face it roofing is brutally hard work especially in the hot Sun.
So why did I do it?.. More to the point, why did I immediately price materials from Home Depot and take the big assed (but old, used for pulling the Wife's horse trailer) F250 to pick up 1500lb of architectural shingles and start ripping the old roof off at the God awful hour of 6am the next morning? Did I call even one roofing contractor to get a quote?.. Nope!
I'd like to think I have some high and mighty ideals about voluntary discomfort (it was voluntary and it was definitely back breaking).. But the honest reason is I did it out of habit.
Habits of ingrained frugality built up over 30 years or so of learning and doing everything myself because I can. Naturally I have saved a fortune doing this over the years and these habits are just hard to break.
I love this post of yours – one of your best. You're sending such a great message MMM, thanks so much for taking the time and effort to run this blog. My husband and I have spent the last 2 months selling off stuff we don't use, including an expensive 4WD truck and caravan. Our finances have improved enormously and we are so happy to have found your blog. No longer weighed down by unnecessary stuff, and our debts are already much better. We are very grateful for your advice, so thank you.
MMM & co., the last couple weeks I've been drafting a 'Thank you!!" comment in my mind, and this seems like the perfect blog entry to comment under. If I look back at all the things I've achieved in 2018, and how all these things have impacted our family savings and all of our life, well it's quite unbelievable. And all of this without my family even realizing that I've got a plan.
I probably won't retire much earlier than the regular age – I'm 43 and just started on the road – but being able to put myself in the position of strength like I have done this past year already sort of feels like retirement already, after 20 years of having to beg some agency for my salary (aka "applying for research grants"). I have retired from my old fearful self, doubled my net worth, learned a ton of new things, and cut down our family's CO2 emissions by half in the process.
I can't say that all of this happened because of this blog, I've always been quite a badass. What you, MMM, have done is give me focus, and pretty damn good practical suggestions to put the badassity to work. And this was life-changing, and for this I want to thank you. Thank you so much MMM. All the best in 2019 and beyond!
Wow, thank you James – that is all so great to hear and I love your attitude about life!


Snowed in and stir crazy?
Ok, let's admit it--- there are only so many times you can take the kids sledding, have a snowball fight, and create your very own Frosty...... now what?? Here is a surefire way to keep the kids busy!
Fill spray bottles with water and a drop of food coloring- let the kids make rainbow snow.
Let the kids build mini snowmen. Use things around the house to decorate it.


text:
What if a Company Maximized Jobs Over Profits?
Mark Bonchek
All over Silicon Valley, venture capitalists are asking entrepreneurs "How scalable is your business model?" What they really mean is, "Can you grow without having to hire people?"
In our digital economy, value creation and job creation don't always go together. Consider that Whatsapp just sold for $19 billion with only 55 employees. It used to be that business growth led to job growth. But as machines get smarter, labor becomes a reluctant necessity. Companies only hire as a last resort.
But what if the purpose of a company was to employ people? Instead of hiring enough people to make the greatest profit, it would make enough profit to hire the greatest number of people.
Put simply, these "job entrepreneurs" maximize jobs instead of profits. There is a precedent in this. "Social entrepreneurs" seek to maximize purpose over profits. They take a social problem, like health, poverty, or the environment, then work on finding a business model that can remedy the problem. They seek to make enough profit to make the greatest social impact.
Job entrepreneurs take a similar approach. They start with a group of people they seek to employ, then work on finding a sustainable business model that leverages their talent and experience. This isn't about job placement. There are many organizations that help people find jobs in other companies. Job entrepreneurs bring people directly onto their own payroll.
One pioneer in the "job entrepreneur" movement is Dave Friedman. Two years ago, Friedman left his position as a Fortune 100 executive to start a new venture. His goal was to employ people on the autism spectrum – individuals who have traditionally been unemployable.
Friedman considered creating a traditional startup, but he realized that his goal was different. He didn't want to maximize profits but rather employment. Many advised him to setup a non-profit. But Friedman didn't want to rely on grants and donations. He believed the business needed to generate a sustainable profit to foster discipline and efficiency. He also wanted his employees to know that their jobs weren't just charity, bringing a source of authentic empowerment.
Some advised Friedman to create a social enterprise, but the models didn't really apply. Friedman wasn't changing how the product was made (e.g. organic or sustainable) or where it was sold (e.g. low-income buyers). He was focused on changing who gets hired. Like social entrepreneurs, WHY mattered more than HOW MUCH. But in this case WHO mattered more than HOW or WHERE.
Without an existing model to guide him, Friedman set out to make his own. He had a powerful belief that people on the autism spectrum represent an exceptional yet hidden workforce. But he needed a business model that would turn what others saw as a deficit into a source of competitive advantage.
Friedman found his answer in what he calls "Process Execution" jobs. These are labor-intensive activities such as website maintenance, data entry, and software testing. Many companies struggle to fill these positions. But the repetitiveness and attention to detail are well-suited to the talents and abilities of people with autism.
As much as possible, Friedman downplays the fact that his employees have autism. He is not looking for charity. He wants to compete on the same playing field as other companies providing similar services. But on the inside, AutonomyWorks is unlike any of its competitors. Friedman has redesigned the way work is structured, organized, and managed to suit his employees.
With these changes, Friedman has found that not only can AutonomyWorks match traditional competitors, but it can produce better quality at a lower price. By generating profits, he is able to hire more people and fulfill his mission. In the process, he has empowered an overlooked workforce and relieved families of the costs of supporting autistic relatives.
Another company following a similar model is Shinola, a Detroit-based manufacturer originally known for its shoe polish. Shinola has recently reinvented itself to create jobs for unemployed auto workers. Like AutonomyWorks, Shinola started with jobs and worked backward to the business model. In this case, auto workers have unique skills in light manufacturing and upholstery. So Shinola produces watches, leather goods, and handcrafted bicycles. A traditional entrepreneur wouldn't set out to make this combination of products. But for a job entrepreneur in Detroit, it makes all the sense in the world.
So what does it take to be a job maximizer?
Choose Your Talent. Who do you want to employ? AutonomyWorks focuses on people with autism. Shinola focuses on former auto workers. There are many other segments of the labor force who are underemployed or underutilized.
Find Your Market. What products or services can these workers best make or provide? This is where the entrepreneurial magic comes into play. You need to find something that suits your people and also generates a sustainable profit. Friedman recommends looking for markets where work has been off-shored or automated, and that have low capital requirements.
Design Your System. What innovations do you need to meet the unique needs and bring out the best in your workers? This might involve rethinking hiring, process design, management, or organizational culture. The key is turning people's disadvantage in society into your company's competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Over the last twenty years, we have successfully created an entirely new economic sector in which social entrepreneurs maximize purpose over profit. It's time to turn this entrepreneurial spirit on a new goal: job creation. We need more people like Dave Friedman and more companies like Shinola — job maximizers and employment entrepreneurs.
Mark Bonchek is the Founder and CEO (Chief Epiphany Officer) of Shift Thinking. He works with leaders and organizations to update their thinking for a digital age. Sign up for the Shift newsletter and follow Mark on Twitter at @MarkBonchek.
This article is about ENTREPRENEURSHIP


SpaceX has commissioned further inspections on a Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, which launches 64 small satellites, a decision to keep the starter landed for several days until after the Thanksgiving vacation, officials said Saturday.
Falcon 9 would remove Monday from Vandenberg – a military base around 140 miles northwest of Los Angeles – but SpaceX announced the launch in a tweet saturday.
The Falcon 9 rocket launches 64 satellites on a rideshare mission organized by Spaceflight, a launcher for small bets in Seattle. The 64 payloads, ranging in size from a Rubik's cube to a refrigerator, are owned by a host of US and international operators, including the US government, research institutes and commercial companies.
The launch will make a record for the most satellites ever put in circulation on an American rocket, but it will fall under the global 104 spacecraft market launched on an Indian rocket last year.
The forthcoming launch is also remarkable as it will be SpaceX's first flight to reuse the same Falcon 9 first-stage booster third time.
Booster awarded Spaceflight's SSO-A rideshare mission flew twice from Florida: May 11th from NASA's Kennedy Space Center with Bangladesh's Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite and again August 7th from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with Indonesia's Merah Putih Telecom payload.
On both occasions, the first stage landed on SpaceX's navy ship in the Atlantic and returned to the port for inspections, some limited refurbishment and reuse.
SpaceX has launched a former flute first-step booster 17 times, most recently on Thursday's launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with Qatar's Esplanade 2 communications satellite. But all the first stages so far have just flown twice.
It changes with SpaceX's next mission because the company aims to reuse Falcon 9 boosters up to 10 times without rebuilding and up to 100 times with periodic reviews. The latest iteration of the Falcon 9 design, commonly known as the "Block 5" version, contains upgrades of previous designs to make it easier to reuse the rockets.
SpaceX plans to restore the first step back onboard its West Coast drone ship in the Pacific after space flight multitatel solution.
Several people who work with the ranshare payroll charges said that the delay was ordered by SpaceX to solve the rocket concern.
An employee of a company that owns payloads to run on the Falcon 9 rocket said the launch will be delayed after Thanksgiving and another customer on the SSO-A launch said in a tweet that the flight will be delayed by five or six days.
"Unfortunately, Spaceflight SSO-A) the launch is delayed by 5-6 days due to some further inspections of the SpaceX rocket," officials tweeted from an account associated with the MinXSS 2 CubeSat mission that flies to orbit on Falcon 9.
T He rides on the airplane with 15 microsatellites and 49 CubeSats. Seven CubeSats were not ready in time for a November launch, and technicians replaced them with ballast that will stay aboard Spaceflight's dual installation modules, which makes mass and balance calculations for launch unaffected, "said Jeff Roberts, Spaceflight Head of Mission for SSO – A mission.
Microsatellites and CubeSats come from 17 countries: USA, Australia, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Great Britain, Germany, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Poland, Canada, Brazil and India.
Rockets are usually launched with one or two primary satellites and sometimes carry additional secondary payload to fill unused capacity, but the SSO-A launch follows another model.
There is no primary payload on the SSO-A mission. Spaceflight bought full capacity for the Falcon 9 launch in 2015, and satellite owners booked their launch with Spaceflight, not with SpaceX.
Spaceflight has provided rideshare launches on rockets before, including India's PSLV and Russia's Soyuz, but these missions flew on launches that transport larger satellites in the primary payload spot.
The rideshare arrangement allows satellite owners to share the cost of a rocket launch instead of paying for the entire mission.
SpaceX tested the Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday night at Vandenberg in a regular countdown test before flying at Space Launch Complex 4-East. Techniques planned to return the rocket to a nearby hangar for attachment with the SSO-A load bundle, already encapsulated inside Falcon 9's nest facility.
Spaceflight's unique spacecraft modules, called the upper and lower free airplanes, will separate from Falcon 9's top scene for about 357 miles (575km) bypass after lifting from Vandenberg.
"We refer to them as free airplanes because they are exactly what they are. There are no propulsion systems on board. They only contain all avionics and dispensers for the command to distribute," said Roberts.
The top free plane is based on a commonly used secondary payload adapter, called an ESPA ring – built by Moog. The lower free aircraft is Spaceflight's own design, according to Roberts.
Four of the microsatellites launched on the SSO-A mission will separate directly from the adapter plates on Falcon 9 second leg after it has been circulated. The other 60 will distribute from the free flight sheets in a timed sequence over the next five hours.
The free airplane modules will unveil sail after satellite expansion to help bring the dispensers back to earth's atmosphere.
"All is integrated, the entire structure has been encapsulated, and SpaceX has broken (reversed) the encapsulated structure horizontally to match the rocket," said Roberts Spaceflight Now.
With all the satellites now aboard the free airplane modules There are no plans to delay the launch if engineers detect a problem with one of the payloads. It is a hands-off approach designed to ensure that a satellite problem does not affect the others.
"At this time, the train still leaves the station," said Roberts in an interview.
"I'm very excited, and it's pretty much how the team feels," said Roberts. "This is the culmination of almost three years of work of this team, and in the last 60 days, many people have worked 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, so they make a lot of effort to make this successful for us and for all our customers.


text:
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    include_once(APPPATH."views/fe/common/header_top.tpl.php");
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    <?php
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             <?php include_once(APPPATH.'views/fe/common/message.tpl.php'); ?>
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                        //show_msg("error");
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                        //pr($posted);
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Welcome to Jobshoppa, please Signup

Registration is totally FREE and wont take more than a minute

* Required field

				<?php
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Registration is FREE

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Full Name * :

                    <input name="txt_name" id="txt_name" type="text" size="48" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_name"] ?>"/>

Email Address * :

                    <input name="txt_email" id="txt_email" type="text" size="48"  value="<?php echo $posted["txt_email"] ?>"/>

Confirm Email Address * :

                    <input name="txt_con_email" id="txt_con_email" type="text" size="48" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_con_email"] ?>"/>

Login  Details

Public Username * :

                    <input name="txt_username" id="txt_username" type="text" size="48" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_username"] ?>" />

Password * :

                    <input name="txt_password" id="txt_password" type="password" size="48" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_password"] ?>"/>

Confirm Password * :

                    <input name="txt_con_password" id="txt_con_password" type="password" size="48" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_con_password"] ?>" />

Contact  Details

Mobile Number * :

                    <input name="txt_contact" id="txt_contact" type="text" size="48" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_contact"] ?>" />

Fax Number :

                    <input name="txt_fax" id="txt_fax" type="text" size="48" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_fax"] ?>"/>

 Formats : 01234567890

Landline Number :

                    <input name="txt_landline" id="txt_landline" type="text" size="48" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_landline"] ?>" />

 Formats : 01234567890

Skype IM :

                   <input name="txt_skype" id="txt_skype" type="text" size="48" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_skype"] ?>" />

MSN IM :

                    <input name="txt_msn" id="txt_msn" type="text" size="48" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_msn"] ?> "/>

YAHOO IM :

                    <input name="txt_yahoo" id="txt_yahoo" type="text" size="48" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_yahoo"] ?>"/>

Facebook  Profile :

                    <input name="txt_facebook" id="txt_facebook" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_facebook"] ?>" type="text" size="48" />

Address

Address * :

                    <input type="text" name="txt_address" id="txt_address" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_address"] ?>" size="48"/>

County * :

                    <select style="width:192px;" name="opt_state" id="opt_state" onchange='call_ajax_get_city("ajax_change_city_option_auto_complete",this.value,"parent_city");'>
                        <option value="">Select county</option>
                        <?php echo makeOptionState('',decrypt($posted['opt_state'])) ?>
                    </select>

City/Town * :

                    <select style="width:192px;" name="opt_city" id="opt_city" onchange='call_ajax_get_zipcode_list("ajax_change_zipcode_option_auto_complete",this.value,opt_state.value,"parent_zip");'>
                        <option value="">Select city</option>
                        <?php echo makeOptionCity(' state_id="'.decrypt($posted['opt_state']).'"',$posted['opt_city']) ?>
                    </select>

Post Code * :

                    <input type="text"  name="txt_zip" id="txt_zip" onkeyup="get_zipcode_name(this.value)" autocomplete="off" style="width:180px;"/>

                   <?php /*?> <select name="opt_zip" id="opt_zip">
                        <option value="">Select postal code</option>
                        <?php echo makeOptionZip(' city_id="'.decrypt($posted['opt_city']).'"',decrypt($posted['opt_zip'])) ?>
                    </select><?php */?>

					<input type="hidden" name="opt_zip" id="opt_zip" />

Type 3 characters to get postal code suggestion.

Professional Profile

Date of Birth * :

                      <input name="txt_dob" type="text" id="txt_dob" readonly="readonly" size="48" value="<?php echo $posted['txt_dob']; ?>"/>

Profile Photo  :

                    <input name="f_image" type="file" id="f_image" size="40" />

                    [upload file type only jpg,jpeg,png]

Website   :

                    <input name="txt_website" id="txt_website" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_website"] ?>" type="text" size="48" />

Tell us more about you * :

                    <textarea cols="" rows="4" name="txt_about_me" id="txt_about_me"><?php echo $posted["txt_about_me"] ?></textarea>

Skills * :

                    <input name="txt_skills" id="txt_skills" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_skills"] ?>" type="text" size="48" />

Qualification * :

                    <textarea cols="" rows="4" name="txt_qualification" id="txt_qualification"><?php echo $posted["txt_qualification"] ?></textarea>

Business Name * :

                    <input name="txt_business_name" id="txt_business_name" value="<?php echo $posted["txt_business_name"] ?>" type="text" size="48" />

Category * :

                <?php
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text:
Case against HS2
HS2 Route
Posted on 11th September 2017 by Penny
Brine fields add 'Spicy' geotechnical problems to HS2 route
One of the big issues to come out of Wednesday's debate in Westminster Hall was the major problems caused by geotechnical issues on the route chosen by Hs2 Ltd. We've raised this before – see here and here. So it is good to see it raised in Parliament. Here is what Antoinette Sandwich (MP for Eddisbury) and Esther McVey (Tatton) had to say:
Antoinette Sandbach
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr McCabe. I am pleased to have secured this debate on a matter of immense importance to me and my constituents. If phase 2b is to go ahead, it is vital that it be done properly. At such a high cost to the taxpayer—£55.7 billion—and with budgets having risen significantly since High Speed 2 was first announced, the route must be designed so as to avoid unnecessary cost to the taxpayer and with minimum disruption to the communities that it affects.
The proposed route of HS2 through my constituency of Eddisbury will not only cause significant environmental damage and noise disruption to many areas, but come at a particularly high cost to the taxpayer because of the unique geotechnical challenges of routing HS2 through an area of current and historical salt mining and across land with a long history of significant subsidence risk. HS2's route through Eddisbury must be looked at again, and the serious and valid concerns raised by independent experts, academics and local people need to be taken into account to find a route that works better both for the local communities and for the taxpayer….
…I also wish to raise the decision last year to realign the route through Eddisbury 800 metres to the west, and the concerns that have been raised about taking it through an area with a greater amount of wet rockhead—unstable ground liable to subsidence as a result of salt. HS2's decision to move the route came about because the original 2013 proposed route went through the area where the UK's strategic gas reserves are stored. It was of course practical to move the route away from the gas reserves, but moving it 800 metres to the west has caused other problems, because it still goes through an area with geotechnical challenges that are not easy to engineer around and where there will be a significant cost to the communities and the taxpayer.
TerraConsult Ltd produced an independent geotechnical report on the proposed change of route and concluded that there would be an increase of 11% in the route length over wet rockhead. HS2's lead ground engineer has called the ground conditions in the Cheshire salt area "spicy", referring to the engineering challenges of building a high-speed railway line in that area, and HS2's own consultant, Wardell Armstrong, recognises the risks of building HS2 through Eddisbury in its report on salt-related ground instability.
The Government must recognise the risks in the area and move the route away entirely. Alarmingly, before making route choice proposals, HS2 had not done any detailed ground surveys for use as a baseline to track ground movement. As far as I am aware, those surveys have still not been carried out.
The engineering challenges require significantly increased height and length of the embankments and viaducts—up to 26 metres. There will be two additional crossings of the Trent and Mersey canal, one at the location of previous subsidence at Billinge. That comes at an estimated additional cost to the taxpayer of £750 million and significantly increases the noise and visual damage for communities.
The route alternatives set out in the TerraConsult report should be looked at and given serious consideration. The decision document issued in July, following the recent consultation, does not contain any reference to the TerraConsult report or the points made in it. Was it considered in detail before a decision on the route in Eddisbury was made? If it was, why has HS2 to date failed to disclose the AECOM report, to which the Minister has referred in correspondence, despite numerous requests to do so?….
Ms Esther McVey (Tatton) (Con)
I congratulate my hon. Friend and neighbour on securing this important debate. I endorse all the points that she is making, in particular those about safety, security, suitability and cost. My constituency, too, is full of brine fields and wells where salt has dissolved and been pumped out, which creates craters underground. Ros Todhunter, a geologist who lives in Lostock Green in my constituency, has also discussed land movement. Railway engineers talk about permitted movement of 5 mm, but we could be looking at 0.5 metres. As my hon. Friend has said, there should be discussions with people who know the land well—their families have farmed this land for hundreds of years and they know about problems under the earth that, I am afraid, the Government have so far not looked into.
I am grateful for my right hon. Friend's intervention, because I have met Ros Todhunter and am aware that Ministers and HS2 have had high-level technical reports from her explaining some of the real difficulties in my right hon. Friend's constituency and mine. A deep worry is that HS2 does not seem to be disclosing the appropriate level of technical reports to experts who are meant to be giving expert opinion highlighting proper concerns which are right to express at this stage in advance of a serious engineering project. One such expert is one of the most eminent professors in the field of salt subsidence, who wrote to the Secretary of State more than 18 months ago to emphasise that ground-level surveys ought to be started now, so that HS2 can identify subsidence and problem areas.
I say to the Minister that it would be extremely beneficial for MPs across the House who are affected by HS2 to be regularly updated by the engineering team on the detailed design of the route, to ensure that there is an appropriate level of scrutiny and to allow valuable input in the process. Reports regarding route decisions and sift documents ought to be shared with Members as a matter of course, not kept from us. There simply has to be better engagement, and with an acute awareness and understanding of local issues.
From Hansard.
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