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Too diverse?
Is Britain becoming too diverse to sustain the mutual obligations behind a good society and the welfare state?
by David Goodhart	/ February 20, 2004 / Leave a comment
Britain in the 1950s was a country stratified by class and region. But in most of its cities, suburbs, towns and villages there was a good chance of predicting the attitudes, even the behaviour, of the people living in your immediate neighbourhood.
In many parts of Britain today that is no longer true. The country has long since ceased to be Orwell's "family" (albeit with the wrong members in charge). To some people this is a cause of regret and disorientation – a change which they associate with the growing incivility of modern urban life. To others it is a sign of the inevitable, and welcome, march of modernity. After three centuries of homogenisation through industrialisation, urbanisation, nation-building and war, the British have become freer and more varied. Fifty years of peace, wealth and mobility have allowed a greater diversity in lifestyles and values. To this "value diversity" has been added ethnic diversity through two big waves of immigration: first the mainly commonwealth immigration from the West Indies and Asia in the 1950s and 1960s, followed by asylum-driven migrants from Europe, Africa and the greater middle east in the late 1990s.
The diversity, individualism and mobility that characterise developed economies – especially in the era of globalisation – mean that more of our lives is spent among strangers. Ever since the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago, humans have been used to dealing with people from beyond their own extended kin groups. The difference now in a developed country like Britain is that we not only live among stranger citizens but we must share with them. We share public services and parts of our income in the welfare state, we share public spaces in towns and cities where we are squashed together on buses, trains and tubes, and we share in a democratic conversation – filtered by the media – about the collective choices we wish to make. All such acts of sharing are more smoothly and generously negotiated if we can take for granted a limited set of common values and assumptions. But as Britain becomes more diverse that common culture is being eroded.
And therein lies one of the central dilemmas of political life in developed societies: sharing and solidarity can conflict with diversity. This is an especially acute dilemma for progressives who want plenty of both solidarity – high social cohesion and generous welfare paid out of a progressive tax system – and diversity – equal respect for a wide range of peoples, values and ways of life. The tension between the two values is a reminder that serious politics is about trade-offs. It also suggests that the left's recent love affair with diversity may come at the expense of the values and even the people that it once championed.
It was the Conservative politician David Willetts who drew my attention to the "progressive dilemma." Speaking at a roundtable on welfare reform (Prospect, March 1998), he said: "The basis on which you can extract large sums of money in tax and pay it out in benefits is that most people think the recipients are people like themselves, facing difficulties which they themselves could face. If values become more diverse, if lifestyles become more differentiated, then it becomes more difficult to sustain the legitimacy of a universal risk-pooling welfare state. People ask, 'Why should I pay for them when they are doing things I wouldn't do?' This is America versus Sweden. You can have a Swedish welfare state provided that you are a homogeneous society with intensely shared values. In the US you have a very diverse, individualistic society where people feel fewer obligations to fellow citizens. Progressives want diversity but they thereby undermine part of the moral consensus on which a large welfare state rests."
These words alerted me to how the progressive dilemma lurks beneath many aspects of current politics: national tax and redistribution policies; the asylum and immigration debate; development aid budgets; EU integration and spending on the poorer southern and east European states; and even the tensions between America (built on political ideals and mass immigration) and Europe (based on nation states with core ethnic-linguistic solidarities).
Thinking about the conflict between solidarity and diversity is another way of asking a question as old as human society itself: who is my brother? With whom do I share mutual obligations? The traditional conservative Burkean view is that our affinities ripple out from our families and localities, to the nation and not very far beyond. That view is pitted against a liberal universalist one which sees us in some sense equally obligated to all human beings from Bolton to Burundi – an idea associated with the universalist aspects of Christianity and Islam, with Kantian universalism and with left-wing internationalism. Science is neutral in this dispute, or rather it stands on both sides of the argument. Evolutionary psychology stresses both the universality of most human traits and – through the notion of kin selection and reciprocal altruism – the instinct to favour our own. Social psychologists also argue that the tendency to perceive in-groups and out-groups, however ephemeral, is innate. In any case, Burkeans claim to have common sense on their side. They argue that we feel more comfortable with, and are readier to share with, and sacrifice for, those with whom we have shared histories and similar values. To put it bluntly – most of us prefer our own kind.
The category "own kind" or in-group will set alarm bells ringing in the minds of many readers. So it is worth stressing what preferring our own kind does not mean, even for a Burkean. It does not mean that we are necessarily hostile to other kinds or cannot empathise with outsiders. (There are those who do dislike other kinds but in Britain they seem to be quite a small minority.) In complex societies, most of us belong simultaneously to many in-groups – family, profession, class, hobby, locality, nation – and an ability to move with ease between groups is a sign of maturity. An in-group is not, except in the case of families, a natural or biological category and the people who are deemed to belong to it can change quickly, as we saw so disastrously in Bosnia. Certainly, those we include in our in-group could be a pretty diverse crowd, especially in a city like London.
Moreover, modern liberal societies cannot be based on a simple assertion of group identity – the very idea of the rule of law, of equal legal treatment for everyone regardless of religion, wealth, gender or ethnicity, conflicts with it. On the other hand, if you deny the assumption that humans are social, group-based primates with constraints, however imprecise, on their willingness to share, you find yourself having to defend some implausible positions: for example that we should spend as much on development aid as on the NHS, or that Britain should have no immigration controls at all. The implicit "calculus of affinity" in media reporting of disasters is easily mocked – two dead Britons will get the same space as 200 Spaniards or 2,000 Somalis. Yet everyday we make similar calculations in the distribution of our own resources. Even a well-off, liberal-minded Briton who already donates to charities will spend, say, ?200 on a child's birthday party, knowing that such money could, in the right hands, save the life of a child in the third world. The extent of our obligation to those to whom we are not connected through either kinship or citizenship is in part a purely private, charitable decision. But it also has policy implications, and not just in the field of development aid. For example, significant NHS resources are spent each year on foreign visitors, especially in London. Many of us might agree in theory that the needs of desperate outsiders are often greater than our own. But we would object if our own parent or child received inferior treatment because of resources consumed by non-citizens.
Is it possible to reconcile these observations about human preferences with our increasingly open, fluid and value-diverse societies? At one level, yes. Our liberal democracies still work fairly well; indeed it is one of the achievements of modernity that people have learned to tolerate and share with people very unlike themselves. (Until the 20th century, today's welfare state would have been considered contrary to human nature.) On the other hand, the logic of solidarity, with its tendency to draw boundaries, and the logic of diversity, with its tendency to cross them, do at times pull apart. Thanks to the erosion of collective norms and identities, in particular of class and nation, and the recent surge of immigration into Europe, this may be such a time.
The modern idea of citizenship goes some way to accommodating the tension between solidarity and diversity. Citizenship is not an ethnic, blood and soil concept but a more abstract political idea – implying equal legal, political and social rights (and duties) for people inhabiting a given national space. But citizenship is not just an abstract idea about rights and duties; for most of us it is something we do not choose but are born into – it arises out of a shared history, shared experiences, and, often, shared suffering; as the American writer Alan Wolfe puts it: "Behind every citizen lies a graveyard."
Both aspects of citizenship imply a notion of mutual obligation. Critics have argued that this idea of national community is anachronistic – swept away by globalisation, individualism and migration – but it still has political resonance. When politicians talk about the "British people" they refer not just to a set of individuals with specific rights and duties but to a group of people with a special commitment to one another. Membership in such a community implies acceptance of moral rules, however fuzzy, which underpin the laws and welfare systems of the state.
In the rhetoric of the modern liberal state, the glue of ethnicity ("people who look and talk like us") has been replaced with the glue of values ("people who think and behave like us"). But British values grow, in part, out of a specific history and even geography. Too rapid a change in the make-up of a community not only changes the present, it also, potentially, changes our link with the past. As Bob Rowthorn wrote (Prospect, February 2003), we may lose a sense of responsibility for our own history – the good things and shameful things in it – if too many citizens no longer identify with it.
Is this a problem? Surely Britain in 2004 has become too diverse and complex to give expression to a common culture in the present, let alone the past. Diversity in this context is usually code for ethnic difference. But that is only one part of the diversity story, albeit the easiest to quantify and most emotionally charged. The progressive dilemma is also revealed in the value and generational rifts that emerged with such force in the 1960s. At the Prospect roundtable mentioned above, Patricia Hewitt, now trade secretary, recalled an example of generational conflict from her Leicester constituency. She was canvassing on a council estate when an elderly white couple saw her Labour rosette and one of them said, "We're not voting Labour – you hand taxpayers' money to our daughter." She apparently lived on a nearby estate, with three children all by different fathers, and her parents had cut her off. (Evidence that even close genetic ties do not always produce solidarity.)
Greater diversity can produce real conflicts of values and interests, but it also generates unjustified fears. Exposure to a wider spread of lifestyles, plus more mobility and better education, has helped to combat some of those fears – a trend reinforced by popular culture and the expansion of higher education (graduates are notably more tolerant than non-graduates). There is less overt homophobia, sexism or racism (and much more racial intermarriage) in Britain than 30 years ago and racial discrimination is the most politically sensitive form of unfairness. But 31 per cent of people still admit to being racially prejudiced. Researchers such as Isaac Marks at London's Institute of Psychiatry warn that it is not possible to neatly divide the population between a small group of xenophobes and the rest. Feelings of suspicion and hostility towards outsiders are latent in most of us.
The visibility of ethnic difference means that it often overshadows other forms of diversity. Changes in the ethnic composition of a city or neighbourhood can come to stand for the wider changes of modern life. Some expressions of racism, especially by old people, can be read as declarations of dismay at the passing of old ways of life (though this makes it no less unpleasant to be on the receiving end). The different appearance of many immigrants is an outward reminder that they are, at least initially, strangers. If welfare states demand that we pay into a common fund on which we can all draw at times of need, it is important that we feel that most people have made the same effort to be self-supporting and will not take advantage. We need to be reassured that strangers, especially those from other countries, have the same idea of reciprocity as we do. Absorbing outsiders into a community worthy of the name takes time.
Negotiating the tension between solidarity and diversity is at the heart of politics. But both left and right have, for different reasons, downplayed the issue. The left is reluctant to acknowledge a conflict between values it cherishes; it is ready to stress the erosion of community from "bad" forms of diversity such as market individualism but not from "good" forms of diversity such as sexual freedom and immigration. And the right, in Britain at least, has sidestepped the conflict, partly because it is less interested in solidarity than the left, but also because it is still trying to prove that it is comfortable with diversity.
But is there any hard evidence that the progressive dilemma actually exists in the real world of political and social choices? In most EU states the percentage of GDP taken in tax is still at historically high levels, despite the increase in diversity of all kinds. Yet it is also true that Scandinavian countries with the biggest welfare states have been the most socially and ethnically homogeneous states in the west. By the same token the welfare state has always been weaker in the individualistic, ethnically divided US compared with more homogeneous Europe. And the three bursts of welfarist legislation that the US did see – Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, Harry Truman's Fair Deal and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society – came during the long pause in mass immigration between the first world war and 1968. (They were also, clearly, a response to the depression and two world wars.)
In their 2001 Harvard Institute of Economic Research paper "Why Doesn't the US Have a European-style Welfare State?" Alberto Alesina, Edward Glaeser and Bruce Sacerdote argue that the answer is that too many people at the bottom of the pile in the US are black or Hispanic. Across the US as a whole, 70 per cent of the population are non-Hispanic whites – but of those in poverty only 46 per cent are non-Hispanic whites. So a disproportionate amount of tax income spent on welfare is going to minorities. The paper also finds that US states that are more ethnically fragmented than average spend less on social services. The authors conclude that Americans think of the poor as members of a different group, whereas Europeans still think of the poor as members of the same group. Robert Putnam, the analyst of social capital, has also found a link between high ethnic mix and low trust in the US. There is some British evidence supporting this link too. Researchers at Mori found that the average level of satisfaction with local authorities declines steeply as the extent of ethnic fragmentation increases. Even allowing for the fact that areas of high ethnic mix tend to be poorer, Mori found that ethnic fractionalisation still had a substantial negative impact on attitudes to local government.
Finally, Sweden and Denmark may provide a social laboratory for the solidarity/diversity trade-off in the coming years. Starting from similar positions as homogeneous countries with high levels of redistribution, they have taken rather different approaches to immigration over the past few years. Although both countries place great stress on integrating outsiders, Sweden has adopted a moderately multicultural outlook. It has also adapted its economy somewhat, reducing job protection for older native males in order to create more low-wage jobs for immigrants in the public sector. About 12 per cent of Swedes are now foreign-born and it is expected that by 2015 about 25 per cent of under-18s will be either foreign-born or the children of the foreign-born. This is a radical change and Sweden is adapting to it rather well (the first clips of mourning Swedes after Anna Lindh's murder were of crying immigrants expressing their sorrow in perfect Swedish). But not all Swedes are happy about it.
Denmark has a more restrictive and "nativist" approach to immigration. Only 6 per cent of the population is foreign-born and native Danes enjoy superior welfare benefits to incomers. If the solidarity/diversity trade-off is a real one and current trends continue, then one would expect in, say, 20 years' time that Sweden will have a less redistributive welfare state than Denmark; or rather that Denmark will have a more developed two-tier welfare state with higher benefits for insiders, while Sweden will have a universal but less generous system.
What are the main objections, at least from the left, to this argument about solidarity and diversity? Multiculturalists stress Britain's multiple diversities, of class and region, which preceded recent waves of immigration. They also argue that all humans share similar needs and a common interest in ensuring they are met with minimum conflict; this, they say, can now be done through human rights laws. And hostility to diversity, they conclude, is usually a form of "false consciousness."
Critics of the dilemma also say, rightly, that the moral norms underpinning a community need not be hard for outsiders to comply with: broad common standards of right and wrong, some agreement on the nature of marriage and the family, respect for law, and some consensus about the role of religion in public life. Moreover, they add, there are places such as Canada (even Australia) which are happily combining European-style welfare with an officially multicultural politics. London, too, has US levels of ethnic diversity but is the most left-wing part of Britain.
In the autumn 2003 issue of the US magazine Dissent, two academics, Keith Banting and Will Kymlicka, show that there is no link between the adoption of multiculturalist policies in countries like Canada, Sweden and Britain, and the erosion of the welfare state. But many of the policies they describe are either too technical (allowing dual citizenship) or too anodyne (existence of a government body to consult minorities) to stimulate serious tax resistance. They also assume too swift a reaction to growing diversity – these are forces that take effect over decades, if not generations. Similarly, two British academics, Bhikhu Parekh and Ali Rattansi, have offered a critique of the solidarity vs diversity thesis (partly in response to Prospect articles) which also assumes an implausibly rapid connection between social cause and effect. They argue that because the expansion of Britain's welfare state in the late 1940s coincided with the first big wave of non-white immigration into Britain, ethnic diversity cannot be a drag on social solidarity. But the post-1945 welfare state was the result of at least 100 years of experience and agitation. The arrival of a small number of immigrants in the 1940s and 1950s was unlikely to have much bearing on that history. Parekh, Kymlicka and others also argue that labour movement strength, not ethnic homogeneity, is the best indicator of the size of a welfare state. But labour movements themselves are stronger where there are no significant religious or ethnic divisions. In any case, we are not concerned here with the formation of welfare states so much as with their continued flourishing today.
A further point made by the multiculturalists is more telling. They argue that a single national story is not a sound base for a common culture because it has always been contested by class, region and religion. In Britain, the left traces democracy back to the peasants' revolt, the right back to Magna Carta, and so on. But while that is true, it is also the case that these different stories refer to a shared history. This does not imply a single narrative or national identity any more than a husband and wife will describe their married life together in the same way. Nor does it mean that the stress on the binding force of a shared history (or historical institutions like parliament) condemns immigrants to a second-class citizenship. Newcomers can and should adopt the history of their new country as well as, over time, contributing to it – moving from immigrant "them" to citizen "us." Helpfully, Britain's story includes, through empire, the story of many of our immigrant groups – empire soldiers, for example, fought in many of the wars that created modern Britain.
I would add a further qualification to the progressive dilemma. Attitudes to welfare have, for many people, become more instrumental: I pay so much in, the state gives me this in return. As we grow richer the ties that used to bind workers together in a risk-pooling welfare state (first locally, later nationally) have loosened – "generosity" is more abstract and compulsory, a matter of enlightened self-interest rather than mutual obligation. Moreover, welfare is less redistributive than most people imagine – most of the tax paid out by citizens comes back to them in one form or another so the amount of the average person's income going to someone they might consider undeserving is small. This, however, does little to allay anxieties based on perceptions rather than fiscal truths. And poor whites, who have relatively little, are more likely to resent even small transfers compared with those on higher incomes.
Despite these qualifications it still seems to me that those who value solidarity should take care that it is not eroded by a refusal to acknowledge the constraints upon it. The politician who has recently laid most stress on those constraints, especially in relation to immigration, is the home secretary, David Blunkett. He has spoken about the need for more integration of some immigrant communities – especially Muslim ones – while continuing to welcome high levels of net immigration into Britain of over 150,000 a year.
Supporters of large-scale immigration now focus on the quantifiable economic benefits, appealing to the self-interest rather than the idealism of the host population. While it is true that some immigration is beneficial – neither the NHS nor the building industry could survive without it – many of the claimed benefits of mass immigration are challenged by economists such as Adair Turner and Richard Layard. It is clear, for example, that immigration is no long-term solution to an ageing population for the simple reason that immigrants grow old too. Keeping the current age structure constant over the next 50 years, and assuming today's birth rate, would require 60m immigrants. Managing an ageing society requires a package of later retirement, rising productivity and limited immigration. Large-scale immigration of unskilled workers does allow native workers to bypass the dirtiest and least rewarding jobs but it also increases inequality, does little for per capita growth, and skews benefits in the host population to employers and the better-off.
But large-scale immigration, especially if it happens rapidly, is not just about economics; it is about those less tangible things to do with identity and mutual obligation – which have been eroded from other directions too. It can also create real – as opposed to just imagined – conflicts of interest. One example is the immigration-related struggles over public housing in many of Britain's big cities in the 1970s and 1980s. In places like London's east end the right to a decent council house had always been regarded as part of the inheritance of the respectable working class. When immigrants began to arrive in the 1960s they did not have the contacts to get on the housing list and so often ended up in low quality private housing. Many people saw the injustice of this and decided to change the rules: henceforth the criterion of universal need came to supplant good contacts. So if a Bangladeshi couple with children were in poor accommodation they would qualify for a certain number of housing points, allowing them to jump ahead of young local white couples who had been on the list for years. This was, of course, unpopular with many whites. Similar clashes between group based notions of justice and universally applied human rights are unavoidable in welfare states with increasingly diverse people.
The "thickest" solidarities are now often found among ethnic minority groups themselves in response to real or perceived discrimination. This can be another source of resentment for poor whites who look on enviously from their own fragmented neighbourhoods as minorities recreate some of the mutual support and sense of community that was once a feature of British working-class life. Paradoxically, it may be this erosion of feelings of mutuality among the white majority in Britain that has made it easier to absorb minorities. The degree of antagonism between groups is proportional to the degree of co-operation within groups. Relative to the other big European nations, the British sense of national culture and solidarity has arguably been rather weak – diluted by class, empire, the four different nations within the state, the north-south divide, and even the long shadow of American culture. That weakness of national solidarity, exemplified by the "stand-offishness" of suburban England, may have created a bulwark against extreme nationalism. We are more tolerant than, say, France because we don't care enough about each other to resent the arrival of the other.
When solidarity and diversity pull against each other, which side should public policy favour? Diversity can increasingly look after itself – the underlying drift of social and economic development favours it. Solidarity, on the other hand, thrives at times of adversity, hence its high point just after the second world war and its steady decline ever since as affluence, mobility, value diversity and (in some areas) immigration have loosened the ties of a common culture. Public policy should therefore tend to favour solidarity in four broad areas.
Immigration and asylum About 9 per cent of British residents are now from ethnic minorities, rising to almost one third in London. On current trends about one fifth of the population will come from an ethnic minority by 2050, albeit many of them fourth or fifth generation. Thanks to the race riots in northern English towns in 2001, the fear of radical Islam after 9/11, and anxieties about the rise in asylum-led immigration from the mid-1990s (exacerbated by the popular press), immigration has shot up the list of voter concerns, and according to Mori 56 per cent of people (including 90 per cent of poor whites and even a large minority of immigrants) now believe there are too many immigrants in Britain. This is thanks partly to the overburdened asylum system, which forces refugees on to welfare and prevents them from working legally for at least two years – a system calculated to provoke maximum hostility from ordinary Britons with their acute sensitivity to free riding (see latest Mori/Prospect poll on page 16). As soon as the system is under control and undeserving applicants are swiftly removed or redirected to legitimate migration channels, the ban on working should be reduced to six months or abolished. A properly managed asylum system will sharply reduce the heat in the whole race and immigration debate.
Immigrants come in all shapes and sizes. From the American banker or Indian software engineer to the Somali asylum seeker – from the most desirable to the most burdensome, at least in the short term. Immigrants who plan to stay should be encouraged to become Britons as far as that is compatible with holding on to some core aspects of their own culture. In return for learning the language, getting a job and paying taxes, and abiding by the laws and norms of the host society, immigrants must be given a stake in the system and incentives to become good citizens. (While it is desirable to increase minority participation at the higher end of the labour market, the use of quotas and affirmative action seems to have been counter-productive in the US.) Immigrants from the same place are bound to want to congregate together but policy should try to prevent that consolidating into segregation across all the main areas of life: residence, school, workplace, church. In any case, the laissez-faire approach of the postwar period in which ethnic minority citizens were not encouraged to join the common culture (although many did) should be buried. Citizenship ceremonies, language lessons and the mentoring of new citizens should help to create a British version of the old US melting pot. This third way on identity can be distinguished from the coercive assimilationism of the nationalist right, which rejects any element of foreign culture, and from multiculturalism, which rejects a common culture.
Is there a "tipping point" somewhere between Britain's 9 per cent ethnic minority population and America's 30 per cent, which creates a wholly different US-style society – with sharp ethnic divisions, a weak welfare state and low political participation? No one knows, but it is a plausible assumption. And for that tipping point to be avoided and for feelings of solidarity towards incomers not to be overstretched it is important to reassure the majority that the system of entering the country and becoming a citizen is under control and that there is an honest debate about the scale, speed and kind of immigration. It is one thing to welcome smart, aspiring Indians or east Asians. But it is not clear to many people why it is such a good idea to welcome people from poor parts of the developing world with little experience of urbanisation, secularism or western values.
Welfare policy A generous welfare state is not compatible with open borders and possibly not even with US-style mass immigration. Europe is not America. One of the reasons for the fragmentation and individualism of American life is that it is a vast country. In Europe, with its much higher population density and planning controls, the rules have to be different. We are condemned to share – the rich cannot ignore the poor, the indigenous cannot ignore the immigrant – but that does not mean people are always happy to share. A universal, human rights-based approach to welfare ignores the fact that the rights claimed by one group do not automatically generate the obligation to accept them, or pay for them, on the part of another group – as we saw with the elderly couple in Leicester. If we want high tax and redistribution, especially with the extra welfare demands of an ageing population, then in a world of stranger citizens taxpayers need reassurance that their money is being spent on people for whose circumstances they would have some sympathy. For that reason, welfare should become more overtly conditional. The rules must be transparent and blind to ethnicity, religion, sexuality and so on, but not blind to behaviour. People who consistently break the rules of civilised behaviour should not receive unconditional benefits.
The "localisation" of more tax and redistribution would make it possible to see how and on whom our taxes are spent. More controversially, there is also a case ? as Meghnad Desai has argued ? for introducing a two-tier welfare system. Purely economic migrants or certain kinds of refugees could be allowed temporary residence, the right to work (but not to vote) and be given access to only limited parts of the welfare state, while permanent migrants who make the effort to become citizens would get full access to welfare. A two-tier welfare state might reduce pressure on the asylum system and also help to deracialise citizenship ? white middle-class bankers and Asian shopkeepers would have full British citizenship, while white Slovenian temporary workers would not. Such a two-tier system is emerging in Denmark. Indeed it already applies to some extent in Britain: migrants on work permits and spouses during the two-year probationary period cannot get most benefits. If we want to combine social solidarity with relatively high immigration, there is also a strong case for ID cards both on logistical grounds and as a badge of citizenship that transcends narrower group and ethnic loyalties.
Culture Good societies need places like London and New York as well as the more homogeneous, stable, small and medium-size towns of middle Britain or the American midwest. But the emphasis, in culture and the media, should be on maintaining a single national conversation at a time when the viewing and listening public is becoming more fragmented. In Britain, that means strong support for the "social glue" role of the BBC. (The glue once provided by religion no longer works, and in any case cannot include immigrants of different faiths.) The teaching of multi-ethnic citizenship in schools is a welcome step. But too many children leave school with no sense of the broad sweep of their national history. The teaching of British history, and in particular the history of the empire and of subsequent immigration into Britain, should be a central part of the school curriculum. At the same time, immigrants should be encouraged to become part of the British "we," even while bringing their own very different perspective on its formation.
Politics and Language Multiculturalists argue that the binding power of the liberal nation state has been eroded from within by value diversity and from without by the arrival of immigrant communities with other loyalties. But the nation state remains irreplaceable as the site for democratic participation and it is hard to imagine how else one can organise welfare states and redistribution except through national tax and public spending. Moreover, since the arrival of immigrant groups from non-liberal or illiberal cultures it has become clear that to remain liberal the state may have to prescribe a clearer hierarchy of values. The US has tried to resolve the tension between liberalism and pluralism by developing a powerful national myth. Even if this were desirable in Britain, it is probably not possible to emulate. Indeed, the idea of fostering a common culture, in any strong sense, may no longer be possible either. One only has to try listing what the elements of a common culture might be to realise how hard it would be to legislate for. That does not mean that the idea must be abandoned; rather, it should inform public policy as an underlying assumption rather than a set of policies. Immigration and welfare policies, for example, should be designed to reduce the fear of free riding, and the symbolic aspects of citizenship should be reinforced; they matter more in a society when tacit understandings and solidarities can no longer be taken for granted. Why not, for example, a British national holiday or a state of the union address?
Lifestyle diversity and high immigration bring cultural and economic dynamism but can erode feelings of mutual obligation, reducing willingness to pay tax and even encouraging a retreat from the public domain. In the decades ahead European politics itself may start to shift on this axis, with left and right being eclipsed by value-based culture wars and movements for and against diversity. Social democratic parties risk being torn apart in such circumstances, partly on class lines: recent British Social Attitudes reports have made clear the middle class and the working class increasingly converge on issues of tax and economic management, but diverge on diversity issues.
The anxieties triggered by the asylum seeker inflow into Britain now seem to be fading. But they are not just a media invention; a sharp economic downturn or a big inflow of east European workers after EU enlargement might easily call them up again. The progressive centre needs to think more clearly about these issues to avoid being engulfed by them. And to that end it must try to develop a new language in which to address the anxieties, one that transcends the thin and abstract language of universal rights on the one hand and the defensive, nativist language of group identity on the other. Too often the language of liberal universalism that dominates public debate ignores the real affinities of place and people. These affinities are not obstacles to be overcome on the road to the good society; they are one of its foundation stones. People will always favour their own families and communities; it is the task of a realistic liberalism to strive for a definition of community that is wide enough to include people from many different backgrounds, without being so wide as to become meaningless.
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Interesting article, but...... Does the author understand population and immigration data? What is the definition of "immigration"? It appears that the NOM net overseas migration data is being referred to but that includes returning UK citizens, EU citizens, and other temps such as international students, working holiday visa backpackers etc. and dependents. With no distinction being made between permanents/citizens and temps, the "immigration" is inflated through conflation of definitions (the present NOM definition is via the UN and according to Vince Cable a 'statistical anomaly'). Further, it suggests a need to limit "immigration" which would require restrictions on EU citizens, and in turn on the 2 million (?) UK citizens resident in the EU..... they would return... and then blow out the NOM......which would then be described as 'ruunaway immigration' defeats the purpose doesn't it? That's the point isn't it? Inflated numbers gain more attention, but what really lies behind this strategy? I hope it's not 'greenwashing' as used by the US based John Tanton network which has links to Population Matters UK......
David Goodhart
David Goodhart is Director of the Integration Hub at the Policy Exchange think tank and founding editor of Prospect Magazine
More by David Goodhart
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Tampa native, original Gerber baby turns 90-years-old today
by: Lila Gross
Posted: Nov 21, 2016 / 10:49 AM EST / Updated: Nov 21, 2016 / 10:49 AM EST
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Ann Taylor Cook — the real, honest-to-goodness Gerber baby — turns 90-years-old today.
Ann Turner Cook is originally from Tampa Bay and spent her lifetime teaching English and becoming an Amercian Mystery Novelist.
But Cook will no doubt always be best known for her picture on the Gerber labels.
Cook was about 4 months old in 1927 when family friend Dorothy Hope Smith sketched the image in charcoal. Using a neighbor's baby as a model wasn't so unusual in the artist enclave of Westport, Conn., and nobody thought much about it. Least of all Cook's dad, who for 27 years wrote and drew "Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy," a daily comic strip that ran in 500 newspapers.
The next year, Gerber put out the call for images that could be used in ads for its new baby food products, and Smith submitted the drawing.
"She wrote me (later) that she had thought it was kind of unfinished, and if they liked it she could finish it properly," Cook said of the sketch. "But they were smart enough that they didn't want anything done to it."
Her likeness started appearing on the products in 1928 and became the official trademark in 1931.
"The logo is the essence of who we are," said David Yates, vice president of Gerber's North America operations. "It is the epitome of a happy, healthy baby and the symbol of trust we have with parents. It's everything to our company."
Cook didn't have much contact with Gerber after the label came out, although around 1950 the company paid her a lump sum to settle any ownership issues after someone else came forward and claimed to be the Gerber Baby. She wouldn't say how much, but it was enough for her and her husband to buy a car and put a down payment on a house.
She participated in the 50th-anniversary celebration in 1978, then reconnected with the company again in the '90s, flying to its Michigan headquarters for anniversary celebrations.
Gasparilla / 12 hours ago
Polk County / 21 seconds ago

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
namespace StockTrendPredictionActor
{
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.Threading.Tasks;
    using Common.Logging;
    using Common.Model;
    using global::StockTrendPredictionActor.Interfaces;
    using Microsoft.ServiceFabric.Actors;
    using Microsoft.ServiceFabric.Actors.Runtime;

    [StatePersistence(StatePersistence.None)]
    public class NotificationActor : Actor, INotificationActor
    {
        private static readonly ILogger Logger = LoggerFactory.GetLogger(nameof(NotificationActor));

        public NotificationActor(ActorService actorService, ActorId actorId)
            : base(actorService, actorId)
        { }

        public Task NotifyLowStockProducts(List<ProductStockPrediction> productStocks)
        {
            Logger.Debug(nameof(this.NotifyLowStockProducts));

            IStockEvents events = this.GetEvent<IStockEvents>();
            events.OnLowStockProducts(productStocks);

            return Task.FromResult(0);
        }

        protected override Task OnActivateAsync()
        {
            Logger.Debug(nameof(this.OnActivateAsync));

            return base.OnActivateAsync();
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
2nd / 24th Infantry Battalion Memorial Tree Print Page
Photographs supplied by Chris McLaughlin
A tree commemorates those who served with the 2nd / 24th Infantry Battalion during World War Two.
Victoria's 2nd / 24th Infantry Battalion was raised in Wangaratta in July 1940. It was part of the 26th Brigade, with the 2nd / 23rd and 2nd / 48th Battalions. The brigade was initially part of the 7th Division but in early 1941 became part of the 9th Division. The 2nd / 24th trained at Bonegilla before sailing for the Middle East in November 1940.
The 2nd / 24th entered Tobruk on 10 April 1941 and helped defend the "fortress" for the next eight months. The 2nd / 24th saw extensive service at Tobruk, manning the Red Line at a number of different locations and participating in the bitter fighting in the Salient. The Red Line was Tobruk's outer line of defence and consisted of a series of concrete pillboxes forming a semi-circle around the town. In October the majority of the 9th Division, except the 2nd / 13th Infantry Battalion, was evacuated by sea. The 2nd / 24th was evacuated on the night of 20 October, sailing to Alexandria. The division was transferred to Palestine and Syria for rest and garrison duties.
Tone & Greta Roads, One Mile Creek Bike Path, Wangaratta, 3677
Plaque :
Planted on 18. 10. 1992 as a memorial to members of "Wangaratta`s Own" 2/24th Australian Infantry Battalion and the citizens who so warmly fostered the Battalion here during its formation in 1940.
Alan MacFarlane President Battalion Association
Cr. Kevin T. Gleeson Mayor City of Wangaratta


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Ecotoxicological research is extremely relevant, not least in a development context. Ecotoxicology is also a field of research in which a too simplistic vision can have important harmful consequences. One of ecotoxicology's central problems is the combined action of several pollutants: if you mix two toxic substances, is their combined effect the sum of the individual substances or are there synergetic or antagonistic interactions? This question is the subject of Dr. Otitoloju's prize-winning publications. The attraction of this research lies in the author's combination of an international standard of work with an obvious relevance to the local context. The author uses locally-occurring marine benthic organisms as model organisms and in well-organized experiments he exposes them to a gradient of known mixtures of heavy metals. The obtained response (mortality) is compared with prognostications based on the response observed during exposure to individual pollutants. The results are remarkable and suggest mainly antagonistic interactions.
What appeals to me in the present study is the author's endeavour – despite the less favourable logistical conditions that probably prevail in Lagos – to enter the international field with conceptually interesting research of a sufficiently high standard to be accepted by international journals, without losing sight of its relevance to the local context. There can be no doubt that this study is of value in determining limiting values for pollution in coastal environments in and around Nigeria and in this way can contribute to a more environment-friendly expansion of the economy in the region.
Having said that, it may also be pointed out that a few comments are in order regarding the present studies. For instance, in the discussion of one of the publications the idea is suggested that it would perhaps be possible to exploit the antagonistic interactions between zinc and cadmium in the management of cadmium-contaminated aquatic systems. This is potentially a very dangerous suggestion (for one thing because it is based on a study with a very restricted number of species), which can perhaps be abused for not tackling the problem of cadmium-contamination at the source. There are, otherwise, inherent limitations in this type of study, which the author does not really take into account: in his research mainly binary mixtures are used, but this also ignores the complexity of the natural habitats, with more pollutants and interactions with all manner of other factors. But this can be countered by the fact that in one of the submitted studies the author does attempt to replicate the mixtures of pollutants, namely in Lagos Lagoon.
In sum, these publications attract my attention because an excellent attempt is made to deliver very sound research that meets the standards employed internationally, not by blindly copying the research of European or North American examples, but by adopting precisely the good elements of these examples in a study that is directly relevant to its own region.


text:
Re: I'm wondering if you can help me find a certain 45rpm.
Jason Groth <[log in to unmask]>
Wed, 29 Aug 2012 09:12:49 -0400
Well, there was a version by Dizzy Gillespie recorded in 1951 --
http://youtu.be/3F5hI4p5w4g
And this Louis Jordan version, from 1949 (although the video claims 1946)
-- http://youtu.be/jX_ABMcwd6o
Not sure if these are anywhere close, but they are jazz versions of the
song.
On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 8:51 AM, James Roth <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Good morning and thank you for responding.  I guess I didn't explain
> clearly.
> The record was not a children's record.  I simply remembered it from the
> time I was 5.
> It was my sister's record. She was 15 at the time.
> It was jazz, but I don't remember the band, only a little bit about the
> label design.
> I DO remember that I liked the music and the end sounded cool [to me].
> Simply put: Does anyone know a jazz version of School Days which was
> recorded in the very, early 50s?
> Thanks again.
> Ben
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Biel
> Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 7:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] I'm wondering if you can help me find a certain
> 45rpm.
> -------- Original Message --------
> From: Roger Kulp <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tue, August 28, 2012 4:28 pm
> Offhand  I can't think of any record labels for children that had a circle
> on the top of this era.It didn't look like this by any chance?
>  http://www.flickr.com/photos/14901487@N05/3534286713/
> Roger
> That picture is for that specific record only.  This one might be more
> likely because the circles are part of the label format (the pictures
> inside the circle are specific to that one record but the circles are on
> others.)
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/14901487@N05/3534293463/in/pool-88391541@N00/
> But neither of these are 45s.  Indeed, is the record Ben remembers really
> a 45 rather than a 7-inch 78?  45 was a rather new format in 1951.  But it
> might not be a childrens record.  It might be a regular record.
> Mike Biel  [log in to unmask]
>  From: Thomas Stern <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 11:05 AM
> try here: http://www.kiddierekordking.com/
> Best wishes, Thomas.
> [log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of James Roth
> Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 8:55 AM
> Subject: [ARSCLIST] I'm wondering if you can help me find a certain 45rpm.
> Hello All
> I'm wondering if you can help me find a certain 45rpm.
> When I was about 5 (1951), my sister had this jazz recording of School
> Days.
> I don't remember the name of the band, since I wasn't really aware of such
> details at 5.
> I DO remember that the label was rather colorful.  It's had a circle at
> the top of it.
> It was played by a small band and, if I recall, there was a saxophone.
> The piece had a neat (cool) ending.  That's how it sounded to me back then.
> The soloist played the equivalent of C-E-C-Geeeeeeeeeeeee, but it might
> have been in a different key.
> It wasn't a chord.  The notes were played separately and the last note
> lasted a longer than the first three.
> Does that ring a bell for anyone?
> It would be a miracle.
> Ben Roth
Jason Evans Groth


text:
Tom Benjey's Weblog
Carlisle Indian School, students including football players, band members, single-wing, Jim Thorpe, Pop Warner, Angel DeCora, Lone Star Dietz
On Thursday, August 9, Heather Woolridge of WITF, the Central PA PBS affiliate, conducted interviews at Craighead House for a 5-minute segment they are producing in conjunction with the upcoming PBS series The Great American Read. She interviewed Johnson Coyle, President of Craighead House Committee, Sarah Fischer, Education Coordinator, Twig George, daughter of Jean Craighead George, and me.
The topic was Jean Craighead George's My Side of the Mountain, a book that has changed many people's lives. Why it didn't make PBS's top 100 list is a mystery to me. Perhaps its readers aren't ardent PBS viewers. I have no idea. Even though it was overlooked by PBS, WITF is giving it a look.
I don't know what John, Sarah and Twig said but I tried to emphasize the impact My Side of the Mountain has had on so many people. It has turned numerous nonreaders into readers, some of which have become voracious readers. Trish Carlucci's story in the Summer 2016 edition of Craighead House Chronicles discusses one such example. Summer 2016 5.5 x. 8.5 cropped Trish
Men and women alike constantly tell me that My Side of the Mountain was their favorite book growing up and want their children to read it. It is even in several states' curricula.
It is my understanding that each of the five one-hour theme episodes that follow the two-hour launch episode will be organized into 10-minute segments that PBS affiliates can choose to show or replace with pieces of their own. WITF's segment will cover John Updike and Jean Craighead George. It's not clear when this piece will run. We hope to find out before the series kicks off on September 11.
Tags: falconry, Great American Read, PBS, Sam Gribley, WITF
Posted in Jean Craighead George, Publishing | Leave a Comment »
The Tebow Thorpe Intersection
Earlier this summer you read about my ill-fated attempt to see Tim Tebow play minor league baseball against the Harrisburg Senators at City Island. Since that time, I've thought about who else played at that island in the Susquehanna River over a century ago.
Called Hargest's Island in 1902, a crude baseball field there was home turf for Harrisburg Athletic Club for whom Carlisle Indian School grad and Dickinson College student Charles Albert Bender pitched one summer. The future hall-of-famer even hurled a game against the visiting Chicago Cubs. Chief Bender lost but acquitted himself well. So well, that by season's end he had been signed by Connie Mack to pitch for the Philadelphia Athletics. The rest, as they say, is history.
Baseball wasn't the only sport in which Carlisle Indians competed on Hargest's Island. In 1908, 8,000 people attended the first annual statewide track and field meet sponsored by the Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The Carlisle Indians defeated ten colleges to take first place honors. Several Carlisle athletes performed well. Among them was Jim Thorpe, rounding out his first season of competition. He came in second in the 220-yard hurdles and 16-pound shotput, and first in the high jump. Not bad for someone new to the sport.
Jim Thorpe runs the high hurdles in the Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Meet on Hargest's Island
The 1912 event was the source of an often-heard legend about the Carlisle Indians. Their team did not run 20 miles to a game, defeat their opponents and run home. Lewis Tewanima and Jim Thorpe were training for the Olympic Games to be held in Stockholm that year and did not compete as members of the team. As part of his training regime, distance running Hopi Tewanima ran from Carlisle to Hargest's Island, waved to his friends, circled the track, and ran back to Carlisle.
Jim Thorpe returned in 1915 to compete there as a member of the Harrisburg Islanders minor league baseball team. A parallel of Thorpe and Tebow is that that both competed on City Island in baseball, not either's first sport. Both camein to prominence for their exploits in college football. Tebow was a Heisman Trophy winner and Thorpe would have been had that award existed in 1911 and 1912. His prominent position in the College Football Hall of Fame attests to that.
Tags: City Island, Tim Tebow
Posted in Carlisle Indian School, Dickinson College, Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs, Football, Jim Thorpe | Leave a Comment »
What the Kennedys are to politics, the less-famous Craigheads are to nature—a prolific and accomplished clan. ~ Kirkus Reviews
The results are in from the 2018 Green Book Festival and Glorious Times: Adventures of the Craighead Naturalists won an award. It was named Runner-Up in the Biography/Autobiography category behind The Man Who Knew Everything by Marilee Peters. With Angel's Wings by Stephanie Collins received Honorable Mention.
Other winners can be found at: http://bruceharing.brinkster.net/portal/content.asp?ContentId=615
Tags: Green Book Festival
Posted in Craighead House, Craighead Naturalists, Frank Craighead | Leave a Comment »
Craigheads Are to Nature What Kennedys Are to Politics
A new review of Glorious Times is just in from Kirkus Reviews:
An encyclopedic, multigenerational chronicle examines a family's extraordinary contributions to wildlife biology, conservation, and nature literature.
What the Kennedys are to politics, the less-famous Craigheads are to nature—a prolific and accomplished clan. Benjey (Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs, 2011, etc.) traces their ancestry to Scottish-Irish immigrants who settled in central Pennsylvania in 1733. In 1868, a railroad bisected the family farm. A great-great grandson built a depot, Craighead Station, and started grain, lumber, and coal businesses. A mansion, still standing by Yellow Breeches Creek, connected generations of Craighead children with flora and fauna. Five siblings, born between 1890 and 1903, graduated from college. Frank Craighead Sr. became a U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist. His brother, Eugene, became a state entomologist for Pennsylvania. Frank's twins, Frank Jr. and John, gained fame as self-taught teenage falconers. They later studied grizzlies, devised the first radio-tracking collars for large animals, and battled National Park Service bureaucrats over bear management. They wrote the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, authored National Geographic articles, and produced lectures, photographs, books, films, and television programs. Their sister, Jean Craighead George, wrote more than 100 children's books about animals and nature. Best known are Julie of the Wolves, a Newbery Medal winner, and My Side of the Mountain, a Newbery Honor work made into a movie. Five Craigheads achieved name recognition, but Benjey approaches the family as an ecosystem, deftly covering three dozen members over three centuries. He includes a family tree (indispensable) and a useful index and endnotes. Largely chronological, the book alternates between sections following entire generations through decades and chapters highlighting key individuals or topics. Benjey displays prodigious research skills and enthusiastic storytelling. With extensive family cooperation, he weaves interviews, letters, school yearbooks, family photos, and public records into such detailed scenes that he seems to have been present. He often sounds like a Craighead. Granular details about extended family members occasionally tread close to tedium, but overall, this comprehensive, impressive synthesis of the historical, familial, social, economic, and natural forces that created the famous Craigheads is well-told.
The author skillfully fills a scholarly, historical niche, producing an environmental and biographical work with broad popular appeal.
Don't forget the Livestream of my interview/talk tomorrow. NCTC will broadcast it at 2:00 p.m. EDT on June 28.
Here is the link to the NCTC's Livestream site: https://livestream.com/nctc
The broadcast interview will then be archived here for on-demand viewing: https://nctc.fws.gov/resources/knowledge-resources/video-gallery/conservation-action.html
Here's the description they have posted on their broadcast webpage: https://nctc.fws.gov/broadcasts
Tags: JFK, Kennedys, Kirkus Reviews, NCTC, RFK
Posted in Craighead House, Craighead Naturalists, Frank Craighead, Jean Craighead George, John Craighead | Leave a Comment »
A Chance to See Me Interviewed
On Thursday, I drove down to Shepherdstown, West Virginia to the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) where, as part of the Craighead House contingent, I attended the Balancing Nature and Commerce workshop held by the Conservation Fund nearly a year and a half ago. Returning to this beautiful rustic campus that honors the Craigheads so prominently in their great hall was a delight.
One morning on the last trip, the Craighead group met for breakfast with Mark Madison, Fish and Wildlife Service Historian, to discuss ways in which they could support Craighead House. This meeting led to Mark having four window-size foamboards made to help tell the Craighead story, initially at the Craighead 80/85 Anniversary Celebration last September and permanently as static displays in windows easily viewed from the porch facing the parking lot.
This time I wasn't coming as a student as on the first trip. Mark invited me to be interviewed in their television studio. Since I had already prepared a PowerPoint presentation that I use to accompany in-person talks, I brought that along. He liked the title page so well that he used it as the title screen for the broadcast.
The NCTC doesn't normally broadcast live, probably because a little editing is often needed to fit the taped sessions into their timeslots. Mine is no different. It will be broadcast at 2:00 p.m. EDT on June 28—this coming Thursday. It will remain on their site for some time, after which it will be available from their archive.
Tags: Cooper's hawk, Eagle scouts, falconry, National Geographic, Tetons
My Evening with Tim Tebow
Upon hearing that Tim Tebow had been assigned to play for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies AA minor league team, I thought there was a chance he would come to Harrisburg to play against the Senators. Looking up the Senators' schedule told me they would be coming to town June 5-7. Wanting to attend the game, I contacted a friend, the local undertaker and lifelong Phillies fan who frequently goes to Senators' games to see if he would want to see Tebow. He was most definitely up for it, but which game should we go see?
I ruled out June 7 because it was a day game and I didn't want to fry in the hot sun in the bleachers. We picked the evening of the 6th for reasons lost to memory. When thunderstorms were forecast—and experienced—we patted ourselves on the back for having made a wise decision.
However, the game was played and Tebow went one for four with an RBI single, a run scored and a put out at third base with a good throw from his position in left field. Not a record day by any means but a respectable performance. Word has it that he happily signed autographs before the game.
Wednesday the 6th started overcast, with a spritz of rain in the morning, but cleared in the afternoon suggesting a clear coolish evening, a great night to watch a baseball game. We started early to have time to eat at the ballpark before the start of the 6:30 game. On the way to pick up our friends, we saw that traffic on I-81 North (the direction to Harrisburg) was backed up for miles. Seeing that taking an alternate route was necessary, we took back roads and found that a tractor-trailer accident (an all-too-frequent occurrence on I-81) blocked traffic just before the Miracle Mile interchange. We zipped over to the Miracle Mile and got on the interstate, finally making good time with the light traffic. Things went well until the last mile.
The Senators play on an island in the middle of the Susquehanna, with bridges bringing in traffic from both sides of the river. Traffic was backed up for a good half mile before the bridge and another half mile on it. We watched clock as we inched forward to the parking lot entrance. We arrived there with just enough time to park and walk to our seats before the game started.
We were shocked to see an attendant holding a parking lot full sign. He handed us a map to a parking garage a good mile away off the island in the city of Harrisburg. My friend was unable to walk such a distance, so I drove around city streets seeking a close enough place to park but found none. His wife spotted a good restaurant and suggested that we eat there. We did.
After a leisurely meal—kitchen staff appeared to take a break while preparing our orders—we got back in the car to head home. My friend suggested we try to find the broadcast of the game on the radio. A not long search across the AM band landed on what was clearly a baseball game and the announcer was certainly not ready for the big leagues. Eventually, he mentioned the Senators, so we knew we had the right game.
As we drove, we heard the last part of the home half of the 7th inning. Binghamton led 1-0. In the top of the 8th, with Rumble Ponies on 2nd and 3rd, the Binghamton pitcher came up the bat. Tim Tebow was announced as a pinch hitter. We felt a lot better because we had missed little of what we wanted to see because he wasn't in the game until that point. With 1st base open, the pitcher probably didn't risk giving him anything good to hit. After three fouls on a 3-2 count the pitcher walked him. The next batter up hit an RBI single, moving Tebow to 2nd base. A later play moved him to 3rd. When the Binghamton left fielder hit a fly ball to the warning track, Tebow raced home.
We waited to see if he was part of a double switch and would remain in the game. He wasn't.
So, instead of sitting in our seats grumbling for 8 innings because Tebow wasn't in the game, we enjoyed a nice meal and a happier drive home.
Tags: Binghamton Rumble Ponies, City Island, Hargest's Island, Harrisburg Senators, Tim Tebow
Glorious Times is Bridesmaid
Every now and then one of my books gets a minor award. Last June, Midwest Book Review named Glorious Times: Adventures of the Craighead Naturalists a Reviewer's Choice. Now, The Green Book Festival has picked it for the Runner-Up in the Biography/Autobiography category. The Man Who knew Everything by Marilee Peters was the winner and With Angel's Wings by Stephanie Collins was Honorable Mention. Several categories only had Winners, no Runner-Ups or Honorable Mentions. The Biography/Autobiography category must have been more crowded than most.
http://www.greenbookfestival.com/
Posted in Frank Craighead, Jean Craighead George, John Craighead | Leave a Comment »
Jim Thorpe Movie
For years—decades actually—film makers and wannabe film makers have flowed through Cumberland County Historical Society on an almost monthly basis to learn more about Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indians. They leave convinced more than ample material exists for a feature film, surely enough for a TV movie. But little tangible has resulted. Many of them visit Wardecker's Menswear, formerly Blumenthal's, where Freddie Wardecker gives them a tour through the artifacts in his store, regales them with stories about the Carlisle players and teams, and shows them the log in which each player's name is recorded, under which a list of his purchases follows. Invariably, he suggests they contact Robert W. Wheeler, author of the definitive Jim Thorpe biography.
I sometimes get contacted by these folks, often wanting answers to questions they have on the teams and players. Often, they require some research on my part to answer. Recently, I've received questions about Thorpe's time with the New York football Giants. (He played for them in 1925.) The reason why those questions were coming now was answered last night, when a press release announced that a biopic about Jim Thorpe was to be made and one of the backers was the Giants' owner.
Variety reported that Angelina Jolie, in partnership with Escape Artists Productions' Todd Black and Steve Tisch, would be producing Bright Path: The Jim Thorpe Story. This production will break new ground by having a Native American actor play a Native American title character in a major motion picture. Martin Sensmeier, whose parents are Tlingit and Koyukon-Athabascan, is perhaps best known for his role in The Magnificent Seven remake alongside Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, and Vincent D'Onofrio.
With backing this film has, it seems certain, as certain as anything is in Hollywood, this film will actually be produced.
Variety article: http://variety.com/2018/film/news/angelina-jolie-escape-artists-producing-native-american-athlete-jim-thorpe-1202801404/
Tags: Angelina Jolie, Martin Sensmeier, New York Giants, Steve Tish
Posted in Carlisle Indian School, Jim Thorpe | Leave a Comment »
Fields of Friendly Strife
Another book arrived in the mail this month: Fields of Friendly Strife: The Doughboys and Sailors of the WWI Rose Bowls by Timothy P. Brown. It wasn't a book I had ordered but I was expecting it, but not necessarily in hardback. The author had a copy sent to me in appreciation of the little bit of assistance I gave him:
I also spent an enjoyable afternoon and evening with Tom Benjey, author of Keep A-goin': The Life of Lone Star Dietz. Tom provided additional perspective on the publishing process and, since Lone Star Ditz coached the 1918 Mare Island Marines, he acted as a sounding board for some of my interpretations of the football world of 100 years ago.
That Dietz also coached the Washington State College teams of 1915-17, including the 1916 Washington State Rose Bowl team, and that many of his WSC players later played on the Mare Island teams perhaps provided me a little different perspective than some others would have. It seems that other writers are more interested in my books these days than are readers. Oh well.
Tim shared with me his preference for ebooks. I shared that my books don't generally adapt well into ebooks because of the number of photos and illustrations they usually contain. Another, equally important, factor is that ebooks have plateaued at about 25% of the market. That means that three-quarters of books sold are printed on paper. Likely is that more than three-quarters of books of the type Tim and I write are print books because the bulk of ebooks are novels and other books having few illustrations. Books that people keep on their bookshelves for later reference are almost always of the paper variety.
A side effect of the leveling out of ebook sales is the resurgence (probably too strong a word) of independent book stores.
https://www.amazon.com/Fields-Friendly-Strife-Doughboys-Sailors-ebook/dp/B077T2RBL9
Tags: Mare Island Marines, Rose Bowl
Posted in Football, Lone Star Dietz | Leave a Comment »
Trailer for Glorious times
At long last, I've put together a short trailer for Glorious Times: Adventures of the Craighead Naturalists. I'd appreciate hearing comments about it. The trailer can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ROqbDlxs9g
A Music Video
The Carlisle Indian School March
Email: Tom@Tuxedo-Press.com
Facebook: Prostate Cancer and the Veteran
Facebook: Tom Benjey
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tombenjey
Twitter: @TomBenjey
08092011 ESPN The Magazine QB Sneak quote
1905 Carlisle-Massillon Game
1909 Aggies
1914 Joint Congressional Investigation of Carlisle Indian School
Author interviewed regarding the early origins of the Wildcat play
Guiding the White Brethren – Fall 2012 NMAI Magazine
Lone Star Dietz
Sports Illustrated Single-Wing Article by Tim Layden
The Merman's Prophecy by Emma Newashe
Tuxedo Press
2018 WITF Great American Read
December 26, 2015 100th Anniversary of Rose Bowl
June 20, 2014 interview by Cary Burkett of Harrisburg PBS affiliate WITF fm 89.5
October 6, 2008 Interview with 106.5 The Arch, St. Louis, MO
Reservation Maps
Native American population map
Tuscarora Reservation map 1890
Wisconsin Reservation map
Single-Wing Sites
Delphi Single-Wing Forum
Direct Snap
National Single-Wing Coaches Association
Pop Warner's Single-Wing Trilogy
Single-Wing Hall of Fame
Wildcat Formation
1916 Rose Bowl
Brown University at the 1916 Rose Bowl
Oklahoma's Carlisle Indian School Immortals
Wisconsin's Carlisle Indian School Immortals
1908 Puck magazine parody of Carlisle
About Tom Benjey
Assault on the Redskins and Lone Star Dietz


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OpenText™ Trading Grid™ Messaging Service / AS2 Services allows the secure exchange of all business and supply chain transactions using EDI or XML standards. No matter which protocol, Trading Grid masks the complexities of diverse Internet communication standards such as AS2, AS3, SFTP, FTPS.
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Microsoft Excel Adapter, known as Trading Grid for Excel, allows users to create electronic documents such as purchase orders or invoices with Microsoft Excel. This is an easy and inexpensive way for business partners to send or receive electronic purchase orders and invoices.


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Released: December 1991
Select ratingGive Timewyrm: Revelation 1/5Give Timewyrm: Revelation 2/5Give Timewyrm: Revelation 3/5Give Timewyrm: Revelation 4/5Give Timewyrm: Revelation 5/5Cancel rating
This is the fourth novel in Virgin's New Adventures line of novels.
This happens after the other novels in the Timewyrm arc.
The appearances by other incarnations of the Doctor happen inside the Doctor's mind.
This is the final novel in the Timewyrm arc. It follows on from Timewyrm:Genesys, Timewyrm: Exodus, and Timewyrm: Apocalypse.
The first Doctor looks like a human in his sixties. He is physically quite frail, but has a keen intellect. He is paternalistic towards his companions, and has a degree of arrogance towards others. He sometimes forgets his companions' names.
The third Doctor has white hair, a large nose, and tends to dress as a society dandy. He has a love of technology, historical name-dropping, and vehicles.
The fifth Doctor is much younger-looking than his other incarnations. He wears old-style cricketing clothes and a sprig of celery. He is much more vulnerable and innocent than his other incarnations and more like an older brother to his companions.
Ace was a teenaged delinquent in 1980s Perivale. She invented her own homemade explosive called nitro-nine, and prefers her nickname of Ace to her real name of Dorothy. She she was swept away from Perivale by a timestorm, ending up on Iceworld in the far future. Ace met the Seventh Doctor in Dragonfire and became his companion. During her travels with the Doctor she has grown up considerably. However, she has been hurt by the way the Doctor has manipulated her. In particular, she was hurt by the way he tricked her in The Curse of Fenric and the way he forced her to face the evil she sensed in a house her 13 year old self had burnt down in Ghost Light . She calls the Doctor "Professor".
The Timewyrm is a malevolent creature of immense power from ancient Gallifreyan legend. She was created during Timewyrm:Genesys when a cybernetic alien called Ishtar interfaced with the Doctor's TARDIS. In Timewyrm: Exodus the Doctor dispersed her form, apparently destroying her. However, she returned in Timewyrm: Apocalypse and the Doctor has been hunting her ever since.
There are several references to TV stories that are important for the Doctor's characterisation, and the plot. Katarina and Sara Kingdom died in The Daleks' Masterplan and Adric died in Earthshock All three were companions of the Doctor. The Doctor manipulated Ace in Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric. The Third Doctor visited a parallel universe ruled by fascists in Inferno.
This book follows on from Timewyrm:Genesys, Timewyrm: Exodus and Timewyrm: Apocalypse .


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Q: iTunes' clandestine proxy settings Problem:
One user's iTunes consults a defunct HTTP proxy, but only for iTunes Store HTTP requests -- other iTunes web requests are unproxied.  How do I dismiss this spurious proxy setting?
Background:
It's not as easy as Internet Options.
Years ago my network had a mandatory HTTP proxy at 172.31.1.1:8080.  When we switched to the 192.168.1/24 space and eliminated the proxy, this user's iTunes -- the only iTunes user at the time -- could no longer contact the iTunes Store, an operation which fails with "unknown error -9808".
This has been the case through several iTunes.exe upgrades over the years and prevents, among other things, activation of a new or newly upgraded iPhone.
wireshark and TCPView confirm that this user's iTunes.exe is attempting to contact the long-defunct http proxy when attempting to reach the iTunes Store, but is otherwise unproxied.  Curious details:

*

*No other iTunes.exe HTTP traffic for this user is affected -- iTunes can successfully make HTTP chatter at Apple's servers.

*No other web traffic at all is proxied, whether this user or others, iTunes or browser, etc.

I cannot find the spurious proxy setting anywhere in the registry nor on disk, though perhaps I haven't thought of every place to look and every format to look for.  Other users who have experienced the same error code all seem to have unrelated web configuration problems (certificate validation, for example).
UPDATE in response to Phoshi's excellent suggestion, reinstallation hasn't done the trick.

A: Found it!  iTunes.exe was apparently incorrectly enforcing disabled proxy settings from Mozilla Firefox, but only for iTunes Store connections.
In the affected user's prefs.js, the following was specified:
user_pref("network.proxy.http", "172.31.1.1");
user_pref("network.proxy.http_port", 8080);
user_pref("network.proxy.ssl", "172.31.1.1");
user_pref("network.proxy.ssl_port", 8080);

However, network.proxy.type was implicitly set to its default value of zero, meaning "don't use a proxy."  I don't know if iTunes was calling out to the user's default browser (Firefox), partially parsing the prefs.js settings itself, or what.
In any case, I removed these settings via about:config, and all is well.
Thanks for all the suggestions, and thanks most to a sysadmin friend who suggested I search through the filesystem as well, rather than the just the registry.

A: Have you considered simply... reinstalling it?
You could try using Revo Uninstaller to uninstall it and remove everything left behind (This may include your music, but revo won't delete anything without your explicit permission, so make sure to check over what it's asking you) and then reinstall it. Not sure if you have to go through any special procedure (like telling apple you're going to uninstall it, so to not mess up ownership stuff, or whatever), as I've so far avoided iTunes like the plague, but make sure of that first.

A: Have you tried using iTunes while logged on as a different user on that computer? Perhaps the proxy setting is stored in the user profile and all you need to do is create the user a new profile on the computer.

A: I found this thread after attempting an itunes uninstall with Revo at highest setting.
I noticed that 5 files in \program files\mozilla firefox\defaults\pref  were marked as itunes leftovers. channel-prefs.js, firefox.js, firefox-branding.js, firefox-|10n.js and reporter.js.   I didn't notice any firefox entries during the registry sweep, but this occured before the file sweep that caught my attention.
This may be a blue herring and I personally don't know if it impacts or informs any answers already given. But the original question seemed to regard a mozilla/firefox user and the coincidence was interesting. :)
**edit-> I decided to let revo delete the firefox files. As expected, this broke my firefox installation.  X-D

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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The recent happenings in MH (Maharashtra) are against the principle of nationhood and are directly related to anti-national activities. In my view, nobody has a right to speak anything against any region of India and beating up is a height of atrocities and this spreading of contempt within regions of India is a dangerous portent. Govt must take strict action against all who are involved in anti-national activities.
But what we feel is that political parties want to take advantage of it. This is the reason why no action has been taken place either by MH govt or by central govt. We seriously condemn this heinous act of central govt as well as state govt of MH.
This is very ridiculous that now every political parties in MH want to grab this opportunities for their vote bank which is dangerous portent of any civil society and against nationality. Mockery of the episode is that CHACHA-BHATIJA of MH started fighting saying he is the "Real MH Manus".
Though it has pained us much to the great extent but if you see the whole hog the reason behind no action, you can understand. It seems, both govt (state and central) will not do anything because they know very well that economically Bihar is nowhere in India; doesn't contribute much for India as nation. This is one of the hard fact.
Friends, take it very positively and start contributing in development process of the state.
Let us work towards making strong Bihar. Now this is the high time for this which is the best option for well being of the nation too. Bihar is known for revolution and we have done many revolutions in the past. Now TIME has come for "Silent revolution in Bihar" i.e. for development ".
"The lord is the strength of the strong"


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