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Home » Blogs » John Michael Spinelli's blog » Ohio Governor Sets Sails for Education and Jobs
Ohio Governor Sets Sails for Education and Jobs
Submitted by John Michael Sp... on February 6, 2008 - 16:42
OhioNews Bureau
ONB COLUMBUS: After one year in office, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland used his State of the State speech Wednesday to readjust the state's sails, hoping to generate enough wind power through a new jobs program, increased investment in infrastructure and the reorganization of primary and secondary education that will give high school seniors a leg up on college to steer the ship of state to calmer seas and more prosperous shores.
"The state of our state is resolute," Strickland said, hoping that by saying so it would make it so. He said that despite setbacks from home foreclosures and jobs losses, "Ohio is challenged, but we will not back down."
Ohio GOP leaders sought to paint a different picture of the state's fortunes under Strickland's leadership. Citing their own set of statistics that painted a far more dour picture than the one Strickland spoke of in his address, they said Ohio ranks in the top five states for large-scale layoffs, 3rd in home foreclosures last year, with filings up 88 percent, unemployment insurance claims were the 4th highest in the nation in 2007 and 3rd in the nation in the most recent job loss reports.
Speaking to a House Chamber packed with Ohio's 132 elected representatives and onlookers, including first lady, Francis, who looked down from the ornate gallery seats, Strickland, who as recently as last week had to ask agencies under his control to shutter facilities, trim staff and reduce operating expenses to make up for a projected budget shortfall next of between $733 million and $1.9 billion, made vision, practicality, challenge and cooperation the themes of his speech.
"What would we do if we had that spirit? What could we do if we weren't afraid? ... If we weren't afraid to work in common purpose for the common good? ... If we weren't afraid to put aside legitimate differences and seek innovative solutions? ... If we weren't afraid to risk an occasional setback in pursuit of lasting success? ... If we weren't afraid to trust each other? [Gov. Strickland, SOTS]
His introduced his proposed programs by reiterating the theme that framed his budget proposal introduced last year at this time during his first state of the state speech. He said it was important to "live within our means and invest in what's important."
STRICKLAND ON JOBS
"This 1.7 billion dollar jobs stimulus package will create more than 80,000 new jobs while also investing in the infrastructure and industries that will light our path to the future.
My plan is simple. We will issue 1.7 billion dollars in new bonds. Legally those dollars will only be allowed to be used for the specific purposes outlined and for no other purpose. And we will require every dollar to be audited by our state's independently elected state auditor." [Gov. Strickland, SOTS]
With Senate President Bill Harris and House Speaker John Husted sitting behind him on the elevated marble dais of the chamber, Strickland described in broad strokes his plans to revive Ohio's ailing economy by creating 80,000 new jobs through the Building Ohio Jobs program, which he proposes to fund with the sale of $1.7 billion in bonds.
In addition to the 250 new schools built last year, he ticked off a list of major employers and the jobs they were either creating or retaining. From Ford and GM to Amlin and Cardinal Health, to Continental Airline and Good Year, he said proposed investments from these corporate giants would create many needed jobs.
In reality, Ohio lost more than 15,000 jobs in 2007, and prospects of the damage a new recession could have on Ohio, which was one of three states that didn't bounce back from the last recession in 2001, was on everyone's mind.
A key component to his jobs program is investing in more needed and necessary infrastructure. To this end, the silver-haired, soft-spoken governor who hails from poverty in southern Ohio said he wants to pour $250 million in solar, wind and new cola technology; $150 million into infrastructure; $100 million into bioproducts – his show and tell demonstration consisted of a coffee cup made of corn plastics.
Continuing, he called for $200 million investment into biomedical products; $200 million to further redevelopment downtown areas; $400 million in the Clean Ohio Fund, which addresses brownfields and other polluted but potential development sites; $400 more for the Ohio Public Works Commission, which provides infrastructure funding for local jurisdictions, like cities, counties, waste water authorities and others. He also called for more investment in distribution infrastructure, so a company like Avon, which will locate a major distribution facility in Zanesville, Ohio, located about 80 miles east of Columbus, the capital.
"Watching, wishing, and waiting will not create Ohio jobs. But a bold and balanced investment in Ohio will." [Gov. Strickland, SOTS]
STRICKLAND ON SCHOOLS
"Schools are our solutions," he said, adding that "we need to create learning cultures" to keep up competitive.
Tying the success of Ohio's future to the connection between jobs and education, Strickland, who said his first term would be a failure if he didn't fix Ohio's school funding problem, bowled over his audience by calling for the creation of a cabinet-level Director of Education, who would do for primary and secondary education what Chancellor Eric Fingerhut has done for higher education, by reorganizing under one person. The current state board of education and the superintendent of schools they appoint, would become advisors to the Education director.
Strickland said he'll take Ohio from the "top 10 most expensive tuition rates" to the bottom ten..
The proposal that brought the loudest round of applause and brought many legislators, especially Democrats, to their feet was Strickland's announcement of the Seniors to Sophomores program. It would give certain qualifying graduating seniors the choice of either completing their last year of high school or completing it, cost free, at a college or community college close to them. Course work completed would count towards college credit, and Strickland said in addition to the significant cost savings to Ohio families, students who then went onto college would start as sophomores.
"Building on the existing Post Secondary Enrollment Options plan, today I am announcing that I have directed the Chancellor to give every twelfth grader who meets the academic requirements a choice of spending their senior year in their home high school, or spending it on a University System of Ohio campus."[Gov. Strickland, SOTS]
He listed six keys to his education plan. First among them was keeping pubic education strong. Because economic prosperity is linked to education, he said Ohio will be both visionary and practical in its solutions.
Stating what seemed to be the obvious, he said education is only as good as the quality of teachers. Strickland called for investing more in great teachers and said testing and assessments will continue, but they will be used as guides to further his idea that "specific, personal education programs" should be pursued for every student.
STIRRING STRAINS OF SUCCESS THROUGH VISION AND PRACTICALITY
"The scripture says: 'Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.'"
And so we must cast aside fear, cast aside indifference, and summon the spirit and courage that brought the first Ohioans to this land. [Gov. Strickland, SOTS]
Like a cheerleader trying to rally the squad after a tough first half, Strickland touted Ohio's prominence in various areas. He said Ohio remains 3rd in the nation in manufacturing, 5th among states with Fortune 500 companies, 7th in bio-resources and, if it were a country, it would rank 26th among the world's nations.
He focused the attention of listeners by first acknowledging the sacrifices the Ohio National Guard has made in the war in Iraq, which constitute the largest deployment since World War II. With the color guard having left the chamber just minutes before his speech, he called for the creation of a department of Veterans Affairs
Recalling the pioneers who set out to seek opportunity in lands that lay to the west of the eastern seaboard, Strickland made his point that Ohio was built by people who were rugged and used their wits to survive in a land full of opportunity and obstacles.
He told the story of how the flatboats that were used by settlers to get here where dismantled and reused to build the cabins of the day. Adding to this theme of vision and practicality, he elicited a ripple of laughter by saying Ohio was the birthplace of both aviation, and the parachute.
In a short recitation of major accomplishments during his first year, the first Democratic governor in 16 years spoke of the property tax reduction for seniors 65 years and older, his expansion of health care coverage for children, the increase in state share of public education from 48% to 54% and the freezing of tuition by colleges.
SUBPRIME LENDERS ARE WARNED
He also expressed his frustration with subprime lenders who he said were not accepting their responsibility in creating the mortgage mess that has put Ohio among the nation's leaders in home foreclosures.
He called their actions shameful, and said the state, if needed, would take a tougher course with them, including the passing new laws to bring them to account on their lending practices.
But instead of working with us, the subprime lenders stayed silent. That is unacceptable. Quite frankly, they should be ashamed. We will not sit idly by and watch subprime lenders weaken our families and communities.
If they refuse to work with us to protect Ohio homeowners then we will take action. I have ordered my Director of Commerce to draft rules that will include many elements of the foreclosure compact and will require the industry to follow them.
I'm committed to doing whatever it takes to get subprime lenders to accept responsibility, including pursuing additional legislation if necessary.
CONCERNED COMMENTS
In the milieu that followed his speech, ONB caught up with several Republican legislators to gage their view of the governor's speech.
Kevin DeWine, a member of the Ohio House and the next leader of the Ohio GOP, said he was "unimpressed" with the good governor's vision and practicality and said "he missed an opportunity" to do what's important.
DeWine, who released a statement later, said...
"This is an administration that has presided over the loss of 12,000 jobs in the last year, and now they're predicting a nearly two-billion dollar budget deficit. It will take more than additional bond debt and a takeover of the education department to fix that. We've heard this speech before. His job creation plan sounds like a repackaged version of the Third Frontier program." [Kevin DeWine, GOP Statement]
Lynn Wachtmann, a fiscal and social conservative Republican House member from northwest Ohio, said it was just another example of Strickland's "big government" solutions to problems. Anti union by philosophy, he said the teacher's unions would be a stumbling block in implementing Strickland's new vision for reorganizing primary and secondary education.
John Michael Spinelli is a former Ohio Statehouse government and political reporter and business columnist. He now serves as the OhioNews Bureau Chief for ePluribus Media Journal. Find ONB archives here.
If readers have a news tip or story idea about Ohio politics or government, contact the OhioNews Bureau at: ohionews@epluribusmedia.org
Ohio, Jennifer Brunner, Ted Strickland, Governor of Ohio, Democrats, Republicans, Recession, Ohio Democratic Party, Ohio Republican Party, Ohio Governor, Home Foreclosures, Subprime Lenders, state revenues, stateline.org
John Michael Spinelli's blog
susie dow
February 6, 2008 - 20:43
Bond sales
How does it look for future bond sales given fiscal realities in the US? I keep hearing the muni bonds remain strong.
Anyone know?
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text:
(Humanist Society Scotland / The McGill Tribune)
Off the Board, Opinion
Missed connections: Exchange can be isolating
by Emma Carr on October 10, 2018
Emma Carr Author
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Before I left for my exchange term at the University of Edinburgh last winter, I sat in Leacock 132, half-listening to a mandatory safety presentation, when one line caught my attention: "This is going to be the best five months of your life." The idea terrified me: I was by no means hoping to peak at 20. Still, there was a part of me that wanted to believe this fantasy. Only two months later, I found myself sitting on the edge of my squeaky twin bed at four a.m., jet-lagged and teary-eyed, praying that the presenter was just being hyperbolic.
When I first settled in Edinburgh, I wasn't consumed by excitement or post-arrival jitters. Instead, I felt an overwhelming pressure to have "the greatest time of my life," without being entirely sure what that entailed. I spent my hours of free time in the middle of the night, courtesy of jet-lag, reading personal essays written by students claiming that studying abroad was life-changing. I scrolled through my fellow travellers' polished Facebook albums of far-off places. From my late-night research, I deduced that, for everyone else, exchange was as exhilarating and wondrous as advertized. I felt obligated to live a similarly exciting, adventurous, and problem-free existence during my own exchange term, and was disappointed in myself for failing to do so.
Adjusting to my new and temporary life in Edinburgh was difficult. Yes, I spent time exploring the city, meeting new people, planning adventures, and traveling around the countryside. But, I also navigated a foreign healthcare system with a fever, slept on suspect mattresses in derelict hostels, and spent many nights alone in my bedroom. Though I had predicted the early adjustment period would be a challenge, nearly half-way through my program, I was still nostalgic for my familiar life back at McGill, and felt isolated without my usual support networks. At a particularly sensitive moment, I found myself welling up after receiving a Facebook invitation to an event in Montreal, and I lamented giving up a comfortable semester back at McGill. Every time I expressed frustration and defeat, I worried that I would come across as unappreciative to people back home, and I was concerned that I was not taking advantage of all the opportunities available to me.
Things did become easier over time. I became more content spending time alone, and Edinburgh became less foreign to me. Ultimately, I have come to appreciate that my bouts of vulnerability and loneliness were just as formative as my other adventures abroad. I expected to have the best time of my life while still achieving some sort of personal growth, but these ambitions were incompatible: It would be impossible to challenge myself without facing any obstacles. In the absence of close friendships, I ventured to become more independent, and, by the end of the semester, undertook a solo trip to the west coast of Scotland.
Was my exchange term in Edinburgh the best five months of my life? I hope not. In fact, I have never felt more relieved to return to a recognizable routine as the moment my plane touched down in my hometown of Chelsea, New York. But, when I reminisce with people back home about my travels, the hardships fade to the background, and I find myself feeling a little nostalgic for Edinburgh's grey skies and my solo adventures.
exchange, international, mcgill, student, students

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The market faced 1-2 cent losses in KC and Chicago, while MGEX fell 7 cents, as there was a risk-off mentality to start the month. The sideways trend continues, with crop concerns still minor since the growing season remains long and spring will have a major effect on the crop. An Australian exporter lowered their W. Aussie production estimate due to recent frost, while our Aussie team raised their estimates. Black Sea wheat exports were increased by UkrAgroConsult to 54.1 MMT, up 12% from last year's total. U.S. cash markets remain firm, although a slight dip in values could be in the cards, as mills continue to cover demand ahead of the holiday season. The USD continues to fade from the high set last week and approaching the 97 level, while Crude Oil and equities are both lower this morning, as well. Look for grain to recover some of the losses seen yesterday, but wheat needs to see some major crop issue to break this trend.


text:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace ComparingFloats
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            double firstValue = double.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
            double secondValue = double.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
            double eps = 0.000001;
            bool equal = Math.Abs(firstValue - secondValue) < eps;
            if (equal)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("true");
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("false");
            }
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
2,127,155 views | Charles P. Smith • TED@WellsFargo
How the US can address the tragedy of veteran suicide
Veterans in the United States take their own lives at an alarming rate. Suggesting new ways to prioritize mental health in the military, veterans advocate Charles P. Smith offers a data-driven plan to help prevent suicide and ensure service members get proper care before, during and after active duty.
This talk was presented at a TED Institute event given in partnership with Wells Fargo. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
Read more about the TED Institute.
Participate in FOCUS, a program for marines in various stages of transition and recovery.
Learn more about Grey Team, preventing veteran suicides across South Florida.
Journey forward with Veteran's PATH, reconnecting veterans with strength and service.
Learn more about Objective Zero, which connects the military community to peer support, wellness and mental health resources.
Charles P. Smith
Veteran's advocate
Charles P. Smith is a branch manager with Wells Fargo. He is also a veteran's advocate with more than fifteen years of military experience, including four years as a Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy.
Charles P. Smith's resource list
US Department of Veterans Affairs | Explore
Veteran Suicide Data and Reports
Learn what the suicide epidemic looks like. It affects people without regard to race, color or creed — and, in the veteran community, it can be at as much as a 50 percent higher rate than the general population.
US Department of Defense, 2020 | Article
Casualty Status Report
Behind every number, there is a name that gave their life in a belief system that is inherent with military service. All gave some, some gave all.
Veterans Administration | Explore
S.A.V.E.: VA Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training
See what training you can take to get involved and become an active part of the conversation in order to save a life.
Sebastian Junger | Twelve, 2020 | Book
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
Sebastian Junger, a journalist, took his experiences of writing in combat zones and applied his lessons to what it's like for a veteran to leave elite and cohesive units and transition to a civilian world that seems chaotic, unfocused and without a purpose. He does a wonderful job of weaving his personal experiences into his observations and expressions of how to better understand veterans and what they go through as they try to assimilate into the civilian population.
About TED Institute
Every year, TED works with a group of select companies and foundations to identify internal ideators, inventors, connectors, and creators. Drawing on the same rigorous regimen that has prepared speakers for the TED main stage, TED Institute works closely with each partner, overseeing curation and providing intensive one-on-one talk development to sharpen and fine tune ideas. The culmination is an event produced, recorded, and hosted by TED, generating a growing library of valuable TED Talks that can spur innovation and transform organizations.
Read more about the TED Institute


The class is default constructable.
Create a sql builder with a string with optional placeholders.
Replace a sqlbuilder placeholder with a list of sql placeholders with index.
Replace a placeholder with a value.
Replace a placeholder conditionally with a value.
returns the resulting sql string.
returns the resulting sql string implicitly.
Helper class for building sql statements.
Sql statments take placeholders, which can be filled with values for execution. Those placeholders are limited to take scalar values and only where scalar values are expected in the sql statement.
Sometimes the user needs to pass sets of values. Since it is not directly supported by sql the user has to build a list of placeholders into the sql statement. If the number of needed placeholders is not known at compile time, a sql statement needs to be created dynamically.
Anoter problem is, that placeholders are not allowed everywhere in the sql statment. To parametrise e.g. the table name, again the user has to replace the table name before passing the sql to the database.
This class has helpers for both cases.
Placeholders here start with a percent character followed by alphanumeric characters.
The varname specifies the placeholder and the count the number of generated placeholders.
This generates a sql statement with 3 sql placeholders and fills those with values from a std::set.
This method replaces a sqlbuilder placeholder with a value. Note that no escaping is done so that passing user input may result in sql injection.
This adds a condition to the replace method. This helps when optional conditions are needed.
"select foo from mytable where bar = 17 %cond"


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text:
"I haven't really proposed (phasing out aid to Israel) in the past."
— Rand Paul on Monday, August 4th, 2014 in comments to reporters
Did Rand Paul propose cutting off aid to Israel?
By Louis Jacobson on Thursday, August 7th, 2014 at 11:58 a.m.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in a 2011 interview with ABC News' Jonathan Karl.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., took a trip to Iowa in early August, hoping to gain support in the key presidential caucus state. But Paul ended up attracting some controversy.
Yahoo! News reported that when Paul was asked whether he thought the United States should phase out aid to Israel, he answered, "I haven't really proposed that in the past. We've never had a legislative proposal to do that. You can mistake my position, but then I'll answer the question. That has not been a position — a legislative position — we have introduced to phase out or get rid of Israel's aid. That's the answer to that question. Israel has always been a strong ally of ours and I appreciate that. I voted just this week to give money — more money — to the Iron Dome, so don't mischaracterize my position on Israel." (He made his comments in neighboring Omaha, Neb.)
A chorus of commentators, relying on comments he made early in his Senate tenure, charged that Paul was rewriting history. For instance, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz tweeted, "Rand Paul has absolutely supported ending US aid to Israel, and he needs to stop trying to rewrite history."
So was Paul correct when he said, "I haven't really proposed (phasing out aid to Israel) in the past"? We took a closer look.
Back in 2011, when Paul was just settling into the Senate, he proposed a budget that was more fiscally conservative than the proposals offered by his Republican contemporaries. In a bid to cut $500 billion from the federal budget, Paul proposed a spending outline that would have eliminated foreign aid entirely.
Paul's cuts weren't targeted at Israel specifically, which gets about $3 billion a year from the United States, mostly in military assistance. But by cutting all aid to foreign countries, Paul's proposal would have zeroed out Israel's aid.
Paul's 2011 budget proposal wasn't easy to locate on the Web, but using the Wayback Machine -- an Internet archive -- we were able to find a 65-page budget proposal released by Paul's office in March 2011. Citing a pattern of squandered and unwise spending on foreign governments, the report offered a straightforward bottom line on foreign aid: "Eliminate all international assistance."
His proposal went on to address the situation of Israel specifically, leading off the section with a quote from Stanford University economist Alvin Rabushka: "Free money is the scourge of Israel's economy. It is the difference between a free, prosperous Israel and a statist, dependent Israel."
The section on Israel says this:
"While this budget proposal does eliminate foreign aid to Israel, it is not meant to hurt, negate, or single out one of America's most important allies. This proposal eliminates all foreign aid to all countries. Israel's ability to conduct foreign policy, regain economic dominance, and support itself without the heavy hand of U.S. interests and policies, will only strengthen the Israeli community. The elimination of all foreign aid, including provisions to Israel, is not necessarily a new idea. In 1996, during an address before the U.S. Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that his nation would eventually wean itself from dependence on U.S. foreign aid. Prominent Israeli politicians and economists alike have called for the end of foreign aid. Among them is economist Amon Gafney, who served as governor of the Bank of Israel from 1970 to 1981. He pointed out that foreign aid has caused Israel to suffer from ―Dutch Disease, a situation in which a generous gift brings short-term benefits but impairs a country's long-term competitiveness."
In the run-up to the release of this budget document, Paul defended his zeroing-out strategy for foreign aid -- and its effect of ending aid for Israel -- in at least three separate interviews.
The Wolf Blitzer interview. Paul sat for a Jan. 26, 2011, interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Here's an excerpt:
Blitzer: "You want to end all foreign aid as well, is that right?"
Paul: "Yes, and in fact, the other day Reuters did a poll, 71 percent of American people agree with me that when we're short of money, where we can't do the things we need to do in our country, we certainly shouldn't be shipping the money overseas. …"
Blitzer: "What about the $2 billion or $3 billion that goes every year to Israel? Do you want to eliminate that as well?"
Paul: "Well, I think what you have to do is you have to look. When you send foreign aid, you actually (send) quite a bit to Israel's enemies, Islamic nations around Israel get quite a bit of foreign aid, too."
Blitzer: "Egypt gets almost the same amount?"
Paul: "Almost the same amount, so really you have to ask yourself, are we funding an arms race on both sides? I have a lot of sympathy and respect for Israel as a democratic nation, as a fountain of peace and a fountain of democracy within the Middle East. But at the same time, I don't think funding both sides of the arms race, particularly when we have to borrow the money from China to send it to someone else. We just can't do it anymore. The debt is all-consuming and it threatens our well being as a country."
The Jonathan Karl interview. Then, on Feb. 3, 2011, Paul sat for an interview with ABC News' Jonathan Karl. Here's a portion of their conversation:
Paul: "I'm not singling out Israel. I support Israel. I want to be known as a friend of Israel, but not with money you don't have. We can't just borrow from our kids' future and give it to countries, even if they are our friends. ... I think they're an important ally, but I also think that their per capita income is greater than probably three-fourths of the rest of the world. Should we be giving free money or welfare to a rich nation? I don't think so."
Karl: "And you think they can handle their own defense?"
Paul: "I think they're probably 10 years ahead of any neighboring country. I think their defense is very significant, and I think probably well in advance of any of their potential enemies."
Karl: "Would you leave any foreign aid intact?"
Paul: "No."
Karl: "None?"
Paul: "No. I just don't think you can give people's money away when we can't rebuild bridges in our country."
The Dave Weigel interview. Slate.com blogger Dave Weigel interviewed Paul at the conservative CPAC conference.
"People emphasize too much the cuts to one particular country," Paul told Weigel, referring to Israel. "We had $500 billion of cuts. The cuts to that one particular country were three-fifths of 1 percent of it."
Interestingly, the public and media skepticism about Paul's proposal to end all foreign aid, including aid to Israel, led the senator to backtrack.
Paul's own website includes a second version of Paul's budget proposal, dated May 2011 -- two months after the first one was released. This one treats foreign aid differently.
First, the new proposal scraps the section on Israel in its entirety. Indeed, Israel isn't mentioned anywhere in the 65-page document. And second, Paul's new bottom line for foreign aid wasn't to cut it to zero. Rather, the proposal said, "Freeze foreign aid funding at $5 billion." Though the report doesn't say so explicitly, that would have been enough to cover the outlays for Israel.
This provides strong evidence that Paul, after taking fire for his foreign-aid policy in January, February and March 2011, abruptly reversed course.
This approach -- keeping some foreign aid in the budget -- appears to be what Paul pursued in the version of his budget that actually got voted on by the Senate. The Senate voted down Paul's proposal, with just seven voting in favor and 90 against.
Paul's office didn't respond to a query for this article, but after commentators began to question the seeming inconsistency of his positions earlier this week, his office released a statement to media outlets. The most relevant part for this fact-check is this:
"Sen. Rand Paul has never proposed any legislation that targeted Israel's aid and just last week voted to continue and increase funding to the State of Israel. Sen. Paul is a strong supporter of the Jewish state of Israel. In 2011, Sen. Paul proposed a budget resolution that did not include certain foreign assistance programs in an effort to balance the budget in five years. Subsequent budget proposals made by Sen. Paul have included up to $5 billion for foreign assistance to account for U.S.-Israel security interests."
While the statement his office released is correct that Paul's original proposal never targeted Israeli aid -- Israeli aid would have been swept up in the across-the-board nixing of all foreign aid -- this response doesn't support the notion that he hadn't "really proposed (phasing out aid to Israel) in the past." The record shows he did, both in writing and in interviews.
Paul said, "I haven't really proposed (phasing out aid to Israel) in the past." That's rewriting history.
Not only did Paul say he would eliminate all foreign aid during multiple media interviews in January and February of 2011, but as late as March of that year, his office released a budget proposal that included a zeroing-out of foreign assistance, with a section specifically inserted to defend the effect that policy would have on Israel.
Paul is free to change his position, but saying he never held the position in the first place is flatly contradicted by his past statements and documents. We rate the claim Pants on Fire.
Published: Thursday, August 7th, 2014 at 11:58 a.m.
Researched by: Louis Jacobson
Edited by: Angie Drobnic Holan
Subjects: Federal Budget, Foreign Policy, Israel
Yahoo! News, "Rand Paul says he never proposed ending aid to Israel — even though he did," Aug. 4, 2014
Office of Rand Paul, "Fiscal Year 2012 Budget of the Federal Government," March 2011 (via the Wayback Machine)
Office of Rand Paul, "Fiscal Year 2012 Budget of the Federal Government," May 2011
CNN, Wolf Blitzer interviews Rand Paul, Jan. 26, 2011 (accessed via Nexis)
ABC News, "Subway Series with Sen. Rand Paul," Feb. 3, 2011
Politico, "Rand Paul: End 'welfare' to Israel," Feb. 4, 2011
Slate, "Smearing Ron and Rand Paul," Feb. 18, 2011
CNN, "Rand Paul argues that he never proposed ending foreign aid to Israel," Aug. 4, 2014
Slate, "Here's Rand Paul's Response to That Whole Israel Funding Kerfuffle," Aug. 5, 2014
Text of S. Con. Res. 20 (Rand Paul budget submitted 2011)
Congressional Research Service, "U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel," April 11, 2014
Hot Air, "Rand Paul: I've never proposed cutting off aid to Israel; Update: Paul's office responds," Aug. 4, 2014
Email interview with Dave Weigel, journalist with Slate.com, Aug. 7, 2014
Email interview with Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, Aug. 6, 2014


Mexico Automotive Summit brings together the most influential business and political leaders in the Mexican automotive industry, including the interviewees featured in Mexico Automotive Review. It features constructive debate on key topics, combined with targeted networking opportunities, and elaborates emerging business opportunities through the detailed insights of the industry's primary stakeholders.
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Google is one of the big internet companies who willingly participated in NSA surveillance program. Concerned lately about First Amendment rights, they have appealed to the FISA Court. They are now requesting that they be allowed to publish the number of surveillance requests submitted to them.
Google filed its request to the FISA Court last week. If granted, Google will be permitted to publish the number of requests made under the surveillance agreement with the NSA. This published data will show the number of national security requests made as separate from the criminal requests. The specific request is to allow publication of the number of disclosures made in compliance with FISA as part of the total number of national security requests received.
This filing with the FISA Court comes after the US Department of Justice and the FBI rejected Google's request. The two entities claimed such publication of the numbers to be against the law. Concerns regarding the apparent clash between privacy rights and national security matters remain. The public and prominent human rights organizations continue to pursue the issue. Companies like Google are caught in the middle and seek alternative solutions to satisfy all parties.
The filed request clarifies that Google wishes to show users what they are sharing with the NSA. It claims that the information publicized by The Guardian and The Washington Post is false. And Google now wants to calm the public by being more transparent with users. The request then aims to show the public what is being requested for national security purposes. It is not clear, however, what information will really be seen in the proposed publications, or if it will disclose what they are really sharing with the NSA.
The question now is if Google is really trying to keep distance from US spying programs. And if this because they are truly concerned about user rights and welfare.Some speculate that it is more because of the passionate public response to the disclosed spying activities. Google has felt the sudden decrease in user trust through the significant dip in the use of Google services. Analysts suspect that Google simply does not want to lose its patrons. This move to publish surveillance requests is then a type of damage control to win back former Google fans.
Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and some other companies involved in the NSA snooping program have already given out similar information. They have all made deals with the government about releasing the numbers of surveillance requests they receive. These companies also reacted to the information published by the two news companies. Speculation arose that the companies who participated in the NSA's PRISM program allowed direct access to their data servers. They wish to counter these and any reports that they allowed this access, and to assert that they are not merely following the whims of the NSA.
It seems that there is precedent for Google's request to be granted. Meantime there is little real information on what data the NSA is collecting under PRISM. Meantime, users continue to limit their use of services connected with the companies participating in the NSA surveillance program. Privacy and security companies also continue to see an increase in user downloads. This points to the use of tools, primarily virtual private networks (VPNs), as the immediate user solution to unwanted NSA snooping. Please read more here on VPN privacy and security features.


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Tag Archives: Dick Wilson
IN A SPIN, TWICE: CLUB BOHEMIA OFFICIALLY OPENS! (October 17, 2019) and FAT CAT MATTHEW RIVERA'S HOT CLUB!
You might be walking along Barrow Street, on the Bleecker Street side of Seventh Avenue South (all this conjecture is taking place in Greenwich Village, New York City, New York, the United States); you could look up and see this sign.
You might just think, "Oh, another place to have an ale and perhaps a burger," and you'd be correct, but in the most limited way.
Surprises await the curious, because down the stairs is the sacred ground where the jazz club Cafe Bohemia existed in the Fifties, where Miles, Lester, Ben, Coltrane, Cannonball, Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and Pettiford played and live sessions were recorded.
Here's the room as it is now. Notice the vertical sign?
This isn't one of those Sic Transit Gloria Mundi posts lamenting the lost jazz shrines (and certainly there is reason enough to write such things) BECAUSE . . .
On Thursday, October 17, yes, this week, the new Cafe Bohemia will open officially. This is important news to me and I hope to you. So let me make it even more emphatic.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, THE NEW CAFE BOHEMIA OPENS.
That is as emphatic as WordPress permits. I was there on September 26, for the club's trial run (more about that below) and I was delighted to find very friendly staff, good food and drink, pleasing sight lines and a receptive crowd, so it was a nostalgic return to a place I'd never been.
But back to current events. On this coming Thursday, there will be two shows, an early show at 6:45 and a late one at 9:30. These shows will be, as they say in retail, "value-packed"! Each show will feature wonderfully entertaining and enlightening record-spinning of an exalted kind by Fat Cat Matthew Rivera, bringing his Hot Club to the Village on a regular basis, AND live jazz from the Evan Arntzen Quartet including guitarist Felix Lemerle, string bassist Alex Claffy, and drummer Andrew Millar. Although the Bohemia hasn't yet posted its regular schedule, their concept is both ambitious and comforting: seven nights of live jazz and blues music of the best kind.
Evan Arntzen, photograph by Tim Cheeney
Buy tickets here for the early show, here for the late one. It's a small room, so be prepared. (I am, and I'll be there.) And here is the Eventbrite link for those "who don't do Facebook."
If you follow JAZZ LIVES, or for that matter, if you follow lyrical swinging jazz, I don't have to introduce Evan Arntzen to you. And if, by some chance, his name is oddly new to you, come down anyway: you will be uplifted. I guarantee it.
But who is Matthew Rivera?
I first met Matt Rivera (to give him his full handle, "Fat Cat Matthew Rivera," which he can explain to you if you like) as a disembodied voice coming through my speakers as he was broadcasting on WKCR-FM a particularly precious musical reality — the full spectrum of jazz from before 1917 up to the middle Fifties, as captured on 78 RPM disks.
It isn't a dusty trek into antiquity: Matt plays Miles and Bird, Gene Ammons and Fats Navarro next to "older styles." Here's Matt in a characteristically devout pose, at Cafe Bohemia:
and the recording (you'll hear it on this post) that is the Hot Club's theme song:
About two weeks ago, I visited the Fat Cat in his Cafe Bohemia lair and we chatted for JAZZ LIVES. YouTube decided to edit my long video in the middle of a record Matt was spinning, but I created a video of the whole disk later. Here's the nicely detailed friendly first part:
and the second part:
and some samples of the real thing. First, the complete WHO?
DEXTERITY, with Bird, Miles, and Max:
and finally, a Kansas City gem featuring tenor player Dick Wilson and Mary Lou Williams and guitarist Floyd Smith:
Cafe Bohemia isn't just a record-spinning listening party site, although the Fat Cat will have a regular Hot Club on Monday nights. Oh, no. When I attended the club's trial run on September 26, there was live jazz — a goodly helping — of the best, with Mara Kaye singing (acoustically) blues and Billie with the joyous accompaniment of that night's Cafe Bohemia Jazz Band: Jon-Erik Kellso, trumpet; Evan Arntzen, clarinet and tenor saxophone; Matt Munisteri, guitar; Brian Nalepka, string bass. Here's their opening number, ST. LOUIS BLUES:
The first word Mara utters on that video is "Wow," and I echo those sentiments. Immense thanks are due owner Mike Zieleniewski and the splendid Christine Santelli as well as the musicians and staff.
See you downstairs at Cafe Bohemia on Thursday night: come over and say hello as we welcome this birth and rebirth to New York City.
Posted in "Thanks A Million", Bliss!, Generosities, Hotter Than That, Ideal Places, It's All True, Jazz Titans, Jazz Worth Reading, Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!, Pay Attention!, SURPRISE!, Swing You Cats!, That Was Fun!, The Heroes Among Us, The Real Thing, The Things We Love, Wow!
Tagged 14 Barrow Street, Alex Claffy, Andrew Millar, Art Blakey, Ben Webster, Cafe Bohemia, Cannonball Adderley, Charlie Parker, Christine Santelli, Dick Wilson, Evan Arntzen, Fat Cat Matthew Rivera, Felix Lemerle, Floyd Smith, Frank Newton, Hot Club, James P. Johnson, jazz club, jazz club reborn, Jazz Lives, jazz on 78, Jon-Erik Kellso, Lester Young, listening party, Mara Kaye, Mary Lou Williams, Matt Munisteri, Max Roach, Michael Steinman, Mike Zieleniewski, Miles Davis, Oscar Pettiford, Pete Brown
DAN MORGENSTERN REMEMBERS FRIENDS AND HEROES (Part One: March 3, 2017)
Posted on March 7, 2017 | 15 comments
On Friday, March 3, 2017, I had the immense honor of visiting Dan Morgenstern at his home on the Upper West Side of New York City. I brought my video camera. Dan and I sat in his living room and he graciously talked about the wonderful people he has encountered. I am writing this simply, without adjectives, because I truly don't know how to convey the pleasure of being able to ask this delightful man questions about his friends and heroes. Our heroes, too.
Dan offered telling portraits of Lester Young, Mary Lou Williams, Tony Fruscella, Brew Moore, Lee Wiley, Donald Lambert, Willie "the Lion" Smith, Dick Wilson,Olivia de Havilland, Andy Kirk, Ben Webster, Curly Howard, Bud Powell, Jack Teagarden, Jimmy Rushing, Teddy Wilson, Stan Getz, Joe Thomas, Jimmy Rowles, Buster Bailey, Eddie Condon, Vic Dickenson, and more.
My premise, which Dan had approved of, was that I would ask him about people, "Talent Deserving Wider Recognition" in the DOWN BEAT phrase, who didn't get the attention they deserve. I thought it best to speak of musicians who have moved on, because if the conversation was about the living (who are also deserving of recognition!) someone's feelings might be hurt by being left out.
We spent more than four hours together, and the cliche that the "time just flew" is appropriate. I recorded twelve segments, and present the first three here. Look for the others soon. If you've never heard or seen Dan in person, you will soon delight in his enthusiasm, wit, sharp recollection of details — the kind of telling details that a novelist would envy — and graciousness. And he was seriously pleased to be able to tell true first-hand stories to you — this audience of people who know who Hot Lips Page is.
We have another afternoon session planned, with a list of people we did not talk about the first time. As I say, I have kept my language restrained for fear of gushing, but we are blessed to have such a generous wise unaffected fellow in our midst. Of course he has great material to share with us, but he is a magnificent storyteller. And for those who savor such details: Dan is 87. Amazing, no?
Posted in "Thanks A Million", Bliss!, Generosities, Ideal Places, Irreplaceable, It's All True, Jazz Titans, Pay Attention!, Swing You Cats!, That Was Fun!, The Heroes Among Us, The Real Thing, The Things We Love, Wow!
Tagged Andy Kirk, Ben Webster, Brew Moore, Bud Powell, Buster Bailey, Curly Howard, Dan Morgenstern, Dick Wilson, Donald Lambert, Eddie Condon, Hot Lips Page, Jack Teagarden, Jazz Lives, Jimmy Rowles, Jimmy Rushing, Joe Thomas, Lee Wiley, Lester Young, Mary Lou Williams, Michael Steinman, Olivia de Havilland, Stan Getz, Teddy Wilson, Tony Fruscella, Vic Dickenson, Willie "the Lion" Smith
FROM THE STUDIOS OF STATION KLZ: THE DUKE VISITS COLORADO (1942)
More on eBay from the seller "anystuffyouwant" — some remarkable photographs, all new to me.
The first — not an Ellingtonian — is the short-lived tenor saxophonist Dick Wilson, who died in late 1941, less than two weeks after his thirtieth birthday. He played and recorded with Andy Kirk, a Mary Lou Williams small group, and he can also be heard on one of Jerry Newman's uptown recordings with Harry Edison and Count Basie. I've never seen a portrait of him in action, and I recall that Billie Holiday thought he was one of the most appealing men she'd ever known.
The next group of photographs shows the Ellington band — broadcasting over KLZ and in a ballroom. (I presume that they were on their way to California, but do not know if this tour pre-or-post dates JUMP FOR JOY. However, the string bassist is Junior Raglin, not Jimmie Blanton.)
"Everybody look handsome!"
and an autographed portrait of the Rabbit, Mister Johnny Hodges:
Anyone for trombones? From left, Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, Juan Tizol, Lawrence Brown, and in front, Mister Ben Webster:
What would the Ellington band have been without stylish Sonny Greer? Finally, two people who didn't get photographed as often as I would like. One, the utterly irreplaceable Ivie Anderson:
The other, a master of sounds — Tricky Sam Nanton:
I've heard the Ellington band of that period on recordings and live airshots for many decades now, but these photographs bring the sound even closer to me. The other photographs I've posted from the same seller were all autographed to "Rollie": did (s)he take these? All mysterious, but the evidence that remains — even when slightly damaged by dampness — is wonderfully evocative. (My post on Rollie's photographs can be seen here.)
The seller also has been displaying pictures of the Lunceford and Hampton bands . . . wonderful finds!
Posted in "Thanks A Million", Irreplaceable, It's A Mystery, It's All True, Jazz Titans, Pay Attention!, Swing You Cats!, The Real Thing, The Things We Love
Tagged Andy Kirk, Ben Webster, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Dick Wilson, Duke Ellington, Ebay, Harry Edison, Ivie Anderson, Jazz Lives, Jerry Newman, Jimmie Blanton, Jimmie Lunceford, Joe Nanton, Johnny Hodges, Juan Tizol, JUMP FOR JOY, Junior Raglin, KLZ, Lawrence Brown, Lionel Hampton, Mary Lou Williams, Michael Steinman, rare photographs, Sonny Greer, Tricky Sam Nanton
GREATNESS SIGNS ITS NAMES
A few more remarkable pages from the recent eBay explosion — Joe's autograph book, most of the signatures from 1936-40 with a few later additions. Some of the appeal is deeply simple: Sidney Bechet touched this object and it has his power. For me, these pages also summon up a time and place where people would throng around jazz players and singers and ask (or demand) their autographs — a time in our recent past when Jess Stacy and Edythe Wright (obviously left-handed) were stars rather than footnotes. Whatever their appeal to others, these pages resonate.
Roy Eldridge and guitarist John Collins, presumably from their 1939 appearance at the Arcadia Ballroom in New York City.
More members of that same band: Truck Parham, the short-lived and legendary Clyde Hart, Joe Eldridge, Billy Bowen, Dave Young, Harold "Doc" West.
To some, Blanche Calloway is notable only because she was Cab's sister — but she recorded with Louis and led good bands in the Thirties.
What would Philip Larkin say? As a vocal stylist, Banks was more odd than memorable, but he had been the figurehead for some of the hottest records ever made — not simply in 1932-33, but for all time — the Rhythmakers — records that Larkin thought were one of the high points of Western art.
Noble Sissle's band also gave Sidney Bechet a regular gig in the Thirties.
Andy Kirk's men were exceptionally polite, adding sweet-natured wishes as well as their names — the outstanding signature on that page is that of saxophonist Dick Wilson, influential, handsome, and short-lived.
A few Goodmen and women: Peg LaCentra, Harry James, Lionel Hampton, Harry Goodman, Benny himself, Gordon "Chris" Griffin, both Gene Krupa and Dave Tough — this page, like others in the book, suggests that Joe asked musicians to sign in on relevant pages at different occasions. I haven't yet figured out whether he glued the photos onto the pages before asking for autographs or after . . .
More heroes: Red Norvo, Mildred Bailey, and the other vocalist in Norvo's band, Terry Allen.
Two other minute points of swing anthropology come to mind. I wonder when the practice of musicians identifying themselves by their instrument was in fashion? And — as my friend David Weiner has pointed out — the often hasty signatures are further proof of authenticity: a studio portrait of, say, Glenn Miller with "his" name signed in a flowing hand is more likely to be the creation of a secretary in his office: the Mildred and Red signatures above, for one example, are much more likely to be real — the product of someone standing up, leaning on a small book for support.
Ultimately, these pages are resilient evidence that once all our heroes and heroines were alive — they had fountain pens, you could ask them to sign your book, perhaps have a few sentences of conversation.
Posted in "Thanks A Million", Irreplaceable, Jazz Titans, Pay Attention!, Swing You Cats!, The Things We Love
Tagged Andy Kirk, autographs, Benny Goodman, Billy Banks, Blanche Calloway, Clyde Hart, Dave Tough, David Weiner, Dick Wilson, Ebay, Gene Krupa, Harry James, Jazz Lives, John Collins, Lionel Hampton, Michael Steinman, Mildred Bailey, Noble Sissle, Peg LaCentra, Philip Larkin, Red Norvo, Roy Eldridge, Sidney Bechet, signatures, Swing Era
THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE
Jo Jones once told an interviewer that he was writing a book, THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE, a chronicle of musicians he was devoted to who had died too young. He recalled saxophonist Dick Wilson, hospitalized and on a no-salt diet, — begging his friends to bring him salt. Someone did and the thoughtless kindness hastened the saxophonist's death.
But this post isn't about excessive sodium. Today is November 21, 2011, and because it is Coleman Hawkins' birthday — even though he is no longer here to enjoy the attention — radio station WKCR-FM plays his music for 24 hours.
I always think of Hawkins as being aware of his purpose. His playing reveals a strong, focused individual: neither tentative nor timorous. He seems to have known he was meant to be the king of the tenor saxophonists, whether he was competing with Lester Young or Sonny Rollins. Hawk was a gladiator, intolerant of limitations, a musician who would test others — asking a youthful Oscar Peterson to play IT'S THE TALK OF THE TOWN — but in B natural. In photographs, Hawkins has the amused swagger of the man who knows he can back up anything he says. Yet late in his career he became indifferent to anything but his horn and cognac, the latter often taking precedence. To say only that he "was an alcoholic" is the most limited judgmental of assessments.
His contemporary (and his equal) Lester Young seems a man with an almost unbearable sensitivity, deeply wounded, carrying a lifetime of hurt — from being exiled from the family band to his victimization in the US military, to hearing his music taken over by younger copyists. I can see why Lester eventually did not care whether he lived or not.
But the mystery of Hawkins — a powerful man defeated — leads me to the question of why some musicians prevail and others succumb. Some players seem to be — and I write this without moral condemnation — eternal children, deeply in love with play to the exclusion of all else. Consider Bix Beiderbecke, Jimmie Blanton, Charlie Christian, Charlie Parker. That sweetly intense focus is both their glory and their doom. No one can say that they were meant to live to be middle-aged or more.
Some musicians, surrounded early on by situations where alcohol is the common bond, expected reward, the needed stimulus, lose their balance. When once a drink or two was the impetus to be loose enough to improvise, to "get in the zone," the servant becomes the master. At the ends of their careers, both Hawkins and Young had no interest in food. Too, some of these players seemed to cultivate relationships only with their instruments. They had friends and colleagues on the bandstand, yes — but not spouses or lovers. Monogamy has never been the universal panacea, but sympathetic intimate companionship can do a great deal to keep loneliness and despair at bay.
I cannot take Louis as my sole example (tempting as it is) but he was conscientious about his health, had a loving wife and a home, preferred marijuana to alcohol, and took joy in his existence and its simple pleasures. Perhaps we all need these balances in our life: to be grateful for simple things, to keep our pleasures from overwhelming us, to cultivate a sunny disposition. Then again, who knows what mixture of nurture and nature is at work? Perhaps I wish only that both Hawkins and Lester had been happier in their twilights. It is something I would wish for all of us, not just musicians.
Posted in Awful Sad, It's A Mystery, Jazz Titans, The Things We Love
Tagged alcohol, Bix Beiderbecke, Charlie Christian, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, death, Dick Wilson, Jazz Lives, Jimmie Blanton, Jo Jones, Lester Young, Louis Armstrong, Michael Steinman, monogamy, Oscar Peterson, Sonny Rollins, WXCK-FM
HEARING IS BELIEVING: GORDON AU / TAMAR KORN (Dec. 16, 2010)
If you close your eyes, something interesting might happen. Listen deeply.
Last Thursday, I made a pilgrimage to Williamsburgh in Brooklyn, New York, and eventually arrived at RADEGAST, a beer garden on the corner of Berry and North Third Streets. The Grand Street Stompers were playing: they are directed by trumpeter Gordon Au (always a good thing) and this edition was all-star: Emily Asher, trombone; Dennis Lichtman, clarinet; Nick Russo, guitar / banjo; Rob Adkins, bass. And Tamar Korn sang.
Before anyone embarks on the first video, the viewers I call the Corrections Officers should know that Radegast is the darkest club I have ever been in. Cozy but Stygian. My video camera was not entirely happy. So the result is nocturnal, visually.
Also, the dance floor in front of me was properly filled with dancers: once your eyes get accustomed to the whirling shadows you can discern the most graceful pair, in harmony with each other and the music.
Because of the season, Gordon chose to play I SAW MOMMY KISSING SANTA CLAUS. Leaving aside the psychological associations: adultery, roleplay with costumes, the primal scene, love-for-sale . . . it's a Thirties tune that I can hear in my head as a Teddy Wilson Brunswick . . . or what would Fats have done with this? This version has some of the rocking motion of a Goodman Sextet circa 1941, thanks to Nick and Dennis; also echoes of a Fifties date for, say, Ruby Braff and Benny Morton, courtesy of Gordon, Emily, and Rob:
The same flavors continue into I'M CONFESSIN' — with the addition of the remarkable Tamar Korn, singing from her heart while standing to the left of Rob's bass. Catch the whimsical contrast between Tamar's air-trajectories and Gordon's muted answers: is he our modern Hot Lips Page? And Emily Asher's tone gets bigger, broader, and more lovely every time I hear her:
With music like this, who couldn't weather the storm? Homage to Irving Berlin and more of that Thirties combination of sweet-tart vocals and hot playing, I'VE GOT MY LOVE TO KEEP ME WARM. I've always admired Tamar as a singer who doesn't cling to safe routines, and her reach continues to expand into space:
I knew the next performance was Serious Business when someone turned on the light above the music stand. I didn't immediately recognize the pretty melody Dennis was delicately playing, but I knew I had heard it once. Then Gordon braved the way into . . . . THE SOUND OF MUSIC, which came back to me from 1962. As the performance progressed and everyone relaxed (Rodgers' melody takes a few unexpected turns), I had a different aural epiphany.
Joe Glaser, Louis Armstrong's manager, was obsessed with the quest for more popular hits for Louis. Sometimes this worked: consider MACK THE KNIFE and HELLO, DOLLY! But Joe missed this one! I can hear an imagined All-Stars version of this song (with banjo) that would have been extraordinary. And Gordon might have felt it too, as he launched into his solo with a passage that suggests Louis — hinting at the bluesy flourishes of the Hot Seven and the cosmic scope of the 1932 Victor sides. Then Nick's chimes before settling into a very non-von Trapp Family (say that three times) segment backed by Rob's Hintonian bass. Hear and see for yourself:
Tamar returned, for one of her classics — LOVER, COME BACK TO ME — that would have pleased Sigmund Romberg, especially if he'd had some of the delicious German beer that Radegast offers all and sundry. And she swings out on invisible trumpet (meeting Gordon's!) in her second outing.
But I have to apologize to the gifted tenor saxophonist who appeared to the right and began to swing out. Who are you, kind Sir? Are you the ghost of Dick Wilson?
Finally, in honor of the season and of Elvis, Tamar creates a mourning rockabilly interlude in BLUE CHRISTMAS, with Nick going a-sliding along. (I can hear Louis and Trummy Young doing this one, too. Where was Joe Glaser?):
I hope the only thing of yours that's blue this holiday season is the sky. Or socks, lingerie, or a fleece sweatshirt!
Posted in "Thanks A Million", Irreplaceable, Jazz Titans, Pay Attention!, Swing You Cats!, The Heroes Among Us, The Real Thing, The Things We Love
Tagged Benny Goodman Sextet, Benny Morton, Brooklyn, Charlie Christian, Dennis Lichtman, Dick Wilson, Elvis Presley, German beer, Gordon Au, Grand Street Stompers, hit records, Hot Lips Page, jazz blog, Jazz Lives, jazz video, Joe Glaser, Louis Armstrong, Michael Steinman, Milt Hinton, Nick Russo, RADEGAST, Rob Adkins, rockabilly, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Ruby Braff, Sigmund Romberg, Tamar Korn, Teddy Wilson, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Trummy Young, von Trapp family, Williamsburgh, YouTube
THE ELUSIVE FRANK NEWTON
Posted on July 31, 2008 | 14 comments
I've been thinking a great deal about the remarkable jazz trumpeter Frank Newton in the last few weeks, even before having the opportunity to repost this picture of him (originally on JazzWax) — taken in Boston, in the late Forties, with George Wein and Joe Palermino.
Jazz is full of players who say something to us across the years, their instrumental voices resounding through the murk and scrape of old records. Some players seem to have led full artistic lives: Hawkins, Wilson, Milt Hinton, Jo Jones, Bob Wilber come to mind at the head of a long list. Others, equally worthy, have had shorter lives or thwarted careers. Bix, Bird, Brownie, to alliterate, among a hundred others. And all these lives raise the unanswerable question of whether anyone ever entirely fulfills him or herself. Or do we do exactly what we were meant to do, no matter how long our lifespan? Call it Nurture / Nature, free will, what you will.
But today I choose Frank Newton as someone I wish had more time in the sun. His recorded legacy seems both singular and truncated.
Frank Newton (who disliked the "Frankie" on record labels) was born in 1906 in Virginia. He died in 1954, and made his last records in 1946. A selection of the recorded evidence fills two compact discs issued on Jasmine, THE STORY OF A FORGOTTEN JAZZ TRUMPETER. His Collected Works might run to four or five hours — a brief legacy, and there are only a few examples I know where an extended Newton solo was captured for posterity. However, he made every note count.
In and out of the recording sudios, he traveled in fast company: the pianists include Willie "the Lion" Smith, James P. Johnson, Teddy Wilson, Sonny White, Mary Lou Williams, Buck Washington, Meade Lux Lewis, Kenny Kersey, Billy Kyle, Don Frye, Albert Ammons, Joe Bushkin, Joe Sullivan, Sonny White, and Johnny Guarneri. Oh, yes — and Art Tatum. Singers? How about Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Maxine Sullivan, and Ella Fitzgerald.
Although Newton first went into the studio with Cecil Scott's Bright Boys in 1929 for Victor, the brilliant trumpeter Bill Coleman and trombonist Dicky Wells blaze most notably on those sessions.
It isn't until 1933 that we truly hear Newton on record. This interlude, lasting less than a minute, takes place in the middle of Bessie Smith's "Gimme A Pigfoot," one of four vaudeville-oriented songs she recorded at her last session, one organized by John Hammond, someone who re-emerges in Newton's story. It was a magnificent all-star band: Jack Teagarden, Chu Berry, Benny Goodman (for a moment), Buck Washington, guitarist Bobby Johnson, Billy Taylor on bass. Hammond wanted Sidney Catlett on drums, but Bessie refused: "No drums. I set the tempo." For all the rent-party trappings of the song, "Pigfoot" is thin material, requiring a singer of Bessie's majesty to make it convincing.
What one first notices about Newton's solo is his subversive approach, his unusual tone and attack. In 1933, the jazz world was rightly under the spell of Louis, which led to understandable extroversion. Project. Hit those high notes loud. Sing out. If you were accompanying a pop or blues singer, you could stay in the middle register, be part of the background, but aside from such notable exceptions as Joe Smith, Bubber Miley, trumpets were in the main assertive, brassy. Dick Sudhalter thought Newton's style was the result of technical limitations but I disagree; perhaps Newton was, like Tricky Sam Nanton, painting with sounds.
Before Newton solos on "Pigfoot," the record has been undeniably Bessie's, although with murmurings from the other horns and a good deal of Washington's spattering Hines punctuations. But when Newton enters, it is difficult to remember that anyone else has had the spotlight. Rather than boldly announce his presence with an upwards figure, perhaps a dazzling break, he sidles in, sliding down the scale like a man pretending to be drunk, whispering something we can't quite figure out, drawling his notes with a great deal of color and amusement, lingering over them, not in a hurry at all. His mid-chorus break is a whimsical merry-go-round up and down figure he particularly liked. It's almost as if he is teasing us, peeking at us from behind his mask, daring us to understand what he is up to. The solo is the brief unforgettable speech of a great character actor, Franklin Pangborn or Edward Everett Horton, scored for jazz trumpet. Another brassman would have offered heroic ascents, glowing upwards arpeggios; Newton appears to wander down a rock-choked slope, watching his footing. It's a brilliant gambit: no one could equal Bessie in scope, in power (both expressed and restrained) so Newton hides and reveals, understates. And his many tones! Clouded, muffled, shining for a brief moment and then turning murky, needling, wheedling, guttural, vocal and personal. Considered in retrospect, this solo has a naughty schoolyard insouciance. Given his turn in the spotlight, Newton pretends to thumb his nose at us. Bessie has no trouble taking back the spotlight when she returns, but she wasn't about to be upstaged by some trumpet-playing boy.
Could any trumpet player, jazz or otherwise, do more than approximate what Newton plays here? Visit http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/bessie/gimmieapigfoot.ram to hear a fair copy of this recording. (I don't find that the link works: you may have to go to the Red Hot Jazz website and have the perverse pleasure of using "Pigfoot" as a search term.)
The man who could play such a solo should have been recognized and applauded, although his talent was undeniably subtle. (When you consider that Newton's place in the John Kirby Sextet was taken by the explosively dramatic Charlie Shavers, Newton's singularity becomes even clearer.) His peers wanted him on record sessions, and he did record a good deal in the Thirties, several times under his own name. But after 1939, his recording career ebbed and died.
Nat Hentoff has written eloquently of Newton, whom he knew in Boston, and the man who comes through is proud, thoughtful, definite in his opinions, politically sensitive, infuriated by racism and by those who wanted to limit his freedoms. Many jazz musicians are so in love with the music that they ignore everything else, as if playing is their whole life. Newton seems to have felt that there was a world beyond the gig, the record studio, the next chorus. And he was outspoken. That might lead us back to John Hammond.
Hammond did a great deal for jazz, as he himself told us. But his self-portrait as the hot Messiah is not the whole story. Commendably, he believed in his own taste, but he required a high-calorie diet of new enthusiasms to thrive. Hammond's favorite last week got fired to make way for his newest discovery. Early on Hammond admired Newton, and many of Newton's Thirties sessions had Hammond behind them. Even if Hammond had nothing to do with a particular record, appearing on one major label made a competing label take notice. But after 1939, Newton never worked for a mainstream record company again, and the records he made in 1944-1946 were done for small independent labels: Savoy (run by the dangerously disreputable Herman Lubinsky) and Asch (the beloved child of the far-left Moses Asch). The wartime recording ban had something to do with this hiatus, but I doubt that it is the sole factor: musicians recorded regularly before the ban. Were I a novelist or playwright, I would invent a scene where Newton rejects Hammond's controlling patronage . . . and falls from favor, never to return. I admit this is speculation. Perhaps it was simply that Newton chose to play as he felt rather than record what someone else thought he should. A recording studio is often the last place where it is possible to express oneself freely and fully. And I recall a drawing in a small jazz periodical from the late Forties, perhaps Art Hodes' JAZZ RECORD, of Newton in the basement of an apartment building where he had taken a job as janitor so that he could read, paint, and perhaps play his trumpet in peace.
I think of Django Reinhardt saying, a few weeks before he died, "The guitar bores me." Did Newton grow tired of his instrument, of the expectations of listeners, record producers, and club-owners? On the rare recording we have of his speaking voice — a brief bit of a Hentoff interview — Newton speaks with sardonic humor about working in a Boston club where the owner's taste ran to waltzes and "White Christmas," but using such constraints to his advantage: every time he would play one of the owner's sentimental favorites, he would be rewarded with a "nice thick steak." A grown man having to perform to be fed is not a pleasant sight, even though it is a regular event in jazz clubs.
In addition, John Chilton's biographical sketch of Newton mentions long stints of illness. What opportunities Newton may have missed we cannot know, although he did leave Teddy HIll's band before its members went to France. It pleases me to imagine him recording with Django Reinhardt and Dicky Wells for the Swing label, settling in Europe to escape the racism in his homeland. In addition, Newton lost everything in a 1948 house fire. And I have read that he became more interested in painting than in jazz. Do any of his paintings survive?
Someone who could have told us a great deal about Newton in his last decade is himself dead — Ruby Braff, who heard him in Boston, admired him greatly and told Jon-Erik Kellso so. And on "Russian Lullaby," by Mary Lou WIlliams and her Chosen Five (Asch, reissued on vinyl on Folkway), where the front line is bliss: Newton, Vic Dickenson, and Ed Hall, Newton's solo sounds for all the world like later Ruby — this, in 1944.
In her notes to the Jasmine reissue, Sally-Ann Worsford writes that a "sick, disenchanted, dispirited" Newton "made his final appearance at New York's Stuyvesant Casino in the early 1950s." That large hall, peopled by loudly enthusiastic college students shouting for The Saints, would not have been his metier. It is tempting, perhaps easy, to see Newton as a victim. But "sick, disenchanted, dispirited" is never the sound we hear, even on his most mournful blues.
The name Jerry Newman must be added here — and a live 1941 recording that allows us to hear the Newton who astonished other players, on "Lady Be Good" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" in duet with Art Tatum (and the well-meaning but extraneous bassist Ebenezer Paul), uptown in Harlem, after hours, blessedly available on a HighNote CD under Tatum's name, GOD IS IN THE HOUSE.
Jerry Newman was then a jazz-loving Columbia University student with had a portable disc-cutting recording machine. It must have been heavy and cumbersome, but Newman took his machine uptown and found that the musicians who came to jam (among them Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian, Hot Lips Page, Don Byas, Thelonious Monk, Joe Guy, Harry Edison, Kenny Clarke, Tiny Grimes, Dick Wilson, Helen Humes) didn't mind a White college kid making records of their impromptu performances: in fact, they liked to hear the discs of what they had played. (Newman, later on, issued some of this material on his own Esoteric label. Sadly, he committed suicide.) Newman caught Tatum after hours, relaxing, singing the blues — and jousting with Newton. Too much happens on these recordings to write down, but undulating currents of invention, intelligence, play, and power animate every chorus.
On "Lady Be Good," Newton isn't in awe of Tatum and leaps in before the first chorus is through, his sound controlled by his mute but recognizable nonetheless. Newton's first chorus is straightforward, embellished melody with some small harmonic additions, as Tatum is cheerfully bending and testing the chords beneath him. It feels as if Newton is playing obbligato to an extravagantly self-indulgent piano solo . . . . until the end of the second duet chorus, where Newton seems to parody Tatum's extended chords: "You want to play that way? I'll show you!" And the performance grows wilder: after the two men mimic one another in close-to-the-ground riffing, Newton lets loose a Dicky Wells-inspired whoop. Another, even more audacious Tatum solo chorus follows, leading into spattering runs and crashing chords. In the out- chorus, Tatum apparently does his best to distract or unsettle Newton, who will not be moved or shaken off. "Sweet Georgia Brown" follows much the same pattern: Tatum wowing the audience, Newton biding his time, playing softly, even conservatively. It's not hard to imagine him standing by the piano, watching, letting Tatum have his say for three solo choruses that get more heroic as they proceed. When Newton returns, his phrases are climbing, calm, measured — but that calm is only apparent, as he selects from one approach and another, testing them out, taking his time, moving in and outside the chords. As the duet continues, it becomes clear that as forcefully as Tatum is attempting to direct the music, Newton is in charge. It isn't combat: who, after all, dominated Tatum? But I hear Newton grow from accompanist to colleague to leader. It's testimony to his persuasive, quiet mastery, his absolute sense of his own rightness of direction (as when he plays a Tatum-pattern before Tatum gets to it). At the end, Newton hasn't "won" by outplaying Tatum in brilliance or volume, speed or technique — but he has asserted himself memorably.
Taken together, these two perfomances add up to twelve minutes. Perhaps hardly enough time to count for a man's achievement among the smoke, the clinking glasses, the crowd. But we marvel at them. We celebrate Newton, we mourn his loss.
Postscript: in his autobiography, MYSELF AMONG OTHERS, Wein writes about Newton; Hentoff returns to Newton as a figure crucial in his own development in BOSTON BOY and a number of other places. And then there's HUNGRY BLUES, Benjamin T. Greenberg's blog (www.hungryblues.net). His father, Paul Greenberg, knew Newton in the Forties and wrote several brief essays about him — perhaps the best close-ups we have of the man. In Don Peterson's collection of his father Charles's resoundingly fine jazz photography, SWING ERA NEW YORK, there's a picture of Newton, Mezz Mezzrow, and George Wettling at a 1937 jam session. I will have much more to write about Peterson's photography in a future posting.
Posted in It's A Mystery, Jazz Titans
Tagged Albert Ammons, Art Hodes, Art Tatum, Benjamin T. Greenberg, Benny Goodman, Bessie Smith, Bill Coleman, Billie Holiday, Billy Taylor, Bix Beiderbecke, Bubber Miley, Buck Washington, Cecil Scott, Charles Peterson, Charlie Parker, Charlie Shavers, Chu Berry, Clifford Brown, Count Basie, Dick Sudhalter, Dick Wilson, Dicky Wells, Dizzy Gillespie, Don Byas, Ebenezer Paul, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Newton, Frankie Newton, George Wein, Harry Edison, Helen Humes, Hot Lips Page, Hungry Blues, J.C. Higginbotham, Jack Teagarden, James P. Johnson, jazz blog, JazzWax, Jerry Newman, Joe Bushkin, Joe Guy, Joe Smith, Joe Sullivan, John Chilton, John Hammond, John Kirby Sextet, Johnny Guarneri, Johnny Williams, Kenny Clarke, Kenny Kersey, Louis Armstrong, Marc Myers, Mary Lou Williams, Maxine Sullivan, Meade Lux Lewis, Mezz Mezzrow, Michael Steinman, Milt Hinton, Nat Hentoff, Ruby Braff, Sid Catlett, Sonny White, Teddy Bunn, THE JAZZ RECORD, Thelonious Monk, Tiny Grimes, Tricky Sam Nanton, Willie "the Lion" Smith


Littoral Combat Ship, the U.S. Navy, its mission and its physical assets have undergone many complete metamorphoses over the country's 227-year history.
Despite all of the recent talk of the "new" navy, there is no greater symbol of U.S. Sea Superiority than the nuclear Aircraft Carrier. And. there is arguably no bet- ter namesake for the soon-to-be commissioned CVN- 76 than President Ronald Reagan, whose mission of a 600-ship Navy helped to define a generation.
A nuclear aircraft carrier is often likened to a stand- alone city, home to 6.000 personnel and self-sustain- ing for up to 90 days at a time, with everything from the most state-of-the-art land-based machine shop to a full dental and surgical unit.
Yet these modern manufacturing marvels are the biggest piece in an elaborate web of military might, designed not simply as the platform to launch and recover aircraft, but to serve as the nerve center and processing point for increasing amounts of informa- tion.
Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) features a completely redesigned pilothouse — the first major redesign, and the first ever designed using 3-D product modeling. The opening at the aft end brings the on-deck weapons elevator under cover, allowing for weapons handling during flight operations.
TankRadar® STaR. It will bring intelligence and integration to your tank monitoring—offering a superior range of functions.
The new STaR system features a 3-in-1 solution that integrates Level Gauging, High Level and Overfill Alarm systems in a single unit—designed as independent, intrinsically safe, measuring channels. As a result, it's easy to install, maintain and operate.
STaR takes advantage of a new sensor technology for safer and more reliable loading and discharge. And it's future-proof—the integration capabilities of STaR ensure compatibility with new and emerging software.
STaR is the latest proof of our technology leadership.
No wonder that nearly 60% of all the new tank gauging installations in the marine market are designed and delivered by us.


text:
import os
from distutils.core import setup
from Cython.Distutils import Extension
from Cython.Build import cythonize

CUR_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
SRC_DIR = os.path.join(CUR_DIR, 'src')
TPM_DIR = os.path.join(SRC_DIR, 'tpm')
include_dirs = [SRC_DIR]
src_files = ["pytpm/_tpm.pyx"]

# TPM library and path to the library.
library_dirs = [os.path.expanduser("~/lib/tpm")]
libraries = ['tpm']

ext_modules = [
    Extension(
        "pytpm._tpm", src_files,
        include_dirs=include_dirs,
        library_dirs=library_dirs,
        libraries=libraries
    )
]

setup(
    name='pytpm',
    packages=['pytpm'],
    package_dir={'pytpm': 'pytpm'},
    package_data={'pytpm': ['*.pxd', '*.pyx', '*.pxi']},
    ext_modules=cythonize(ext_modules)
)


text:
Shelby Who? Shelby SuperCars Changes Its Name
Last we heard about the Shelby SuperCars Tuatara, it was finding new buyers in Dubai – 10 in fact. When you're selling a $1.3-million super car, that is a blow out showing. The Tuatara, as its name implies, is nothing like anything out there. In the rarefied company of exotics, that isn't an easy feat.
The Tuatara looks futuristic, like a concept car. The company brought on Jason Castriota, a big time designer, to pen the car's design. The Tuatara is a replacement for the much cruder Aero and Ultimate Aero.
The Ultimate Aero gave the Bugatti Veyron a run for its money, capturing the title of world's fastest road going car for a time. For the most part, those in the automotive world came to refer to the Aero by the SSC tag.
We all equate Shelby with Carroll Shelby and the Ford Mustangs right? Well most of us. But the fact is that Shelby SuperCars has nothing to do with either of those.
Instead, Shelby comes from the last name of the company's founder – Jerod Shelby. Despite that, Inside Line reports that Carroll Shelby Licensing wasn't too keen with this confusion going on in the marketplace. A settlement between the two entities was reached and the result is that the company has changed its name to SSC.
That is what most of us have called them anyway, but it's official now at least. It'd be interesting to know what was involved with the suit though. Its a sketchy legal area given that the founders name is indeed Shelby too. If it wasn't he wouldn't have any grounds to continue use of the name.
For both companies, settlement is the best decision. SSC has gotten a lot of attention for its products. The famous name might have helped get them on the map, but they are past that point. Now the focus can be on the 1,350 horsepower Tuatara.


Now it's back to school many children are still struggling to focus and stay on task in class. This can impact a child's school experience, the family home and their confidence.
As a parent it can be difficult knowing what to do, and if there's a natural alternative to medication.
Nutritional medicine is a natural, gentle and effective method of treating children who are experiencing learning and behavioural challenges.
It's easy to see how food directly impacts your child, but it's harder to know how environmental toxins, heavy metals and gut health are influencing a child's brain.
Research tell us that mood, behaviour, focus and concentration can all suffer if a child is nutrient deficient, has gut bacterial imbalances and food intolerance.
After years in practice, I've helped children with developmental disorders, ranging from ADHD, anxiety, sensory processing disorder and autism, using natural and research based treatment.
What treatment can I expect?
From here I gain valuable information and identify the underlying cause so we form a treatment plan together that includes food, lifestyle and supplements that will support your child's brain health.
Book your initial 60 minute appointment where you'll attend without your child so we can talk through what's happening and how natural therapy can help.
It has been very rewarding seeing children flourish at school, gain self—confidence, build friendships and have better health. It's a true pleasure to support parents and see the positive changes it makes for the whole family.


Let's start with the less than great news: Petfood sales in the US are expected to grow only 1.1% this year, according to the latest report from Packaged Facts, Pet Food in the US, 11th edition (September 2014). Perhaps even more troubling, sales for dry dog food in mass market outlets, one of the largest petfood categories, have fallen 1.4%.
In fact, the mass market channel—supermarkets, drugstores, mass merchandisers, military commissaries and select club and dollar stores—is the main drag on US petfood sales overall, showing only 1.2% growth while comprising 24% of all US petfood market sales. And, because dry dog food makes up so much of mass market sales, its decline is barely offset by strong growth rates for other categories, such as 27.3% for frozen/refrigerated dog food, 4.5% for dog biscuits/treats/beverages, 8.5% for cat snacks/beverages and 8.3% for frozen/refrigerated cat food, Packaged Facts says.
But there is good news. The main reason the US petfood market will register any positive growth this year is because of the strength of the pet specialty channel, which accounts for a total of 29% of US petfood market sales: 20% for pet specialty chains and 9% for independent pet stores. According to data from GfK (cited in Packaged Facts' report), petfood sales in that channel increased 6.5% from 2012 to 2013, including a 7.2% rise for dog food overall and a 6.7% gain for dry dog food. That type of healthy growth is expected to continue.
Treats also remain strong players in pet specialty, with dog treat sales growing 10.3% in 2013 and cat treats, 7.9%. The categories really shining in pet specialty are, no surprise, ones such as natural (11.7% growth), grain-free (32.4%), limited ingredient (26.6%), freeze-dried (50.9%) and frozen/refrigerated (16.6%). Many of those categories fall under the umbrella of premium petfoods, and for the overall US petfood market, premium products account for 42% of sales.
Thanks at least partially to expanding market share of premium petfoods, particularly superpremium dog food products, Packaged Facts projects that US petfood sales will end up at US$28.5 billion this year, up from US$28.2 billion in 2013. Though not as healthy as the 4.7% rise from 2012 to 2013, the growth rate is expected to rebound in 2015, to 3%, then range from 3.5% to 4.5% from 2016-2018.
However, Packaged Facts offers some warning signs, factors that could derail future growth. A key factor is that one of the main drivers behind sales growth for several years now—getting pet owners to trade up to higher-priced foods—may have hit a ceiling this year. (Volume sales of petfood in the US and other developed markets have seen flat to little growth for some time; the volume of petfood sold in US mass market outlets has declined by 0.8% this year and by 1.5% in pet specialty from 2012 to 2013.) So, while premium petfoods are projected to continue to sell strong and drive growth in the market, they "can no longer be expected to do all the work," the Packaged Facts report says.
Another concern is that, while pet ownership in the US is increasing, "at its current pace, pet population growth is not sufficient to drive higher levels of market growth," says David Sprinkle, research director for Packaged Facts. As of 2013, 56.5% of all US households owned some kind of pet—only a slight increase from 55.9% in 2011.
Yet, there is still a bright spot among these warning signs: Pet ownership among lower-income households (defined as learning less than US$60,000 a year) is rising, with an 18% gain from 2009 to 2013. "What's more, by virtue of simple math, the lower-income group harbors far more potential pet owners since it accounts for a majority of the US population," says David Lummis, lead pet market analyst for Packaged Facts, writing in Pet Product News International.


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Virtual Events and A Whole Lot More.
We need to create better and more engaging virtual event experiences. We need to better approximate the valuable face-to-face encounters and experiences that physical events create.
There's nothing like walking into an over-crowded trade show floor and hearing the buzz of attendees and exhibitors. It's similar to walking into a popular restaurant or bar. The buzz permeates the environment. If I were to login to the world's most popular virtual event, there's hardly an indicator to tell me so.
The closest thing we have today is a list of avatars (also known as profile images) in a given event area. If I see a long list of other attendees listed, then I know the area is quite popular and there must be something going on (e.g. perhaps there's a live chat session occurring). Beyond that, it's hard to tell that "there's a 'there' there".
To address this, event platforms and event planners should consider augmenting the experience with sensory stimulation. The two relevant senses are sight and sound. With sight, one could imagine "heat maps" that signal to attendees where the action lies. Or, animation to direct users to a popular area – or, that something is important is happening in a given location.
Incorporating sound can be a challenge in a B2B environment, since many users mute their computer speakers while at work. So perhaps one uses visuals to encourage attendees to enable their sound. Then, platforms could "inject" show floor chatter into the environment, adjusting the level of intensity based on the amount of activity or people present.
Better yet, platforms could allow attendees to speak into a common audio channel. If I'm in the Networking Lounge, I'm then able to converse with others (via audio) in addition to text chat. Perhaps the system allows for comment moderation, so that one person is enabled to speak at any one time (a challenge that takes care of itself when folks assemble in person).
Text chat is great, but virtual events need to go beyond text to create richer and more engaging person-to-person interactions. That means audio (as outlined above) as well as video. Bandwidth availability varies depending on where you're located – but if you have sufficient bandwidth, virtual events should allow you to network and connect with others the "old fashioned way" – with a smile, a greeting and a hello. Not with a "LOL" or a smiley.
In addition, virtual event experiences need to better enable a community to form. This is done with effective tools to connect like-minded individuals – and, applications to encourage and foster person-to-person interactions (e.g. blogging, status updates, etc.).
Build the functional elements into the imagery. For Flash-based platforms, the images and the functional areas occupy the same SWF. There are cost and "repeatability" considerations in going this route, so other options can be considered.
Before the creative team designs an image, determine what functional elements are included in the event area. Size these elements (by pixel counts) and then have the creative team design around that. For instance, if you're designing at a width of 1024 pixels and you embed a chat window 512 pixels wide, then you have 256 pixels on each side of the chat area.
Have your designers make the most of each 256-pixel segment, rather than designing an elaborate image that has its most compelling 512 pixels covered and never seen.
I've listed 3 ways that virtual event experiences can be improved. Drop a comment below to let us know how you'd improve virtual events.
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Social Media Sharing Falling Short? Why You Should Keep Trying.


Some of the most beautiful sunsets come in the wake of an intense storm.
It's the perfect stage for those awe-inspiring views. Clouds on the horizon, moisture in the air, clarity for miles – then the light hits it just right and it takes your breath away.
As I sat admiring one of these spectacles, something I believe God made just for us to enjoy, I realized what a parallel into our lives it is.
How many times do I go through a storm in my circumstances – the kind that I'm worried my little car won't make it home in – only to come out on the other side in awe of what happened?
Over a break in college, I drove across state to visit my grandma. It was a pretty great visit – we had girl time, made green smoothies and watched Ever After, thoroughly enjoying ourselves. The weekend came to an end and I got up early to leave, only it was raining pretty hard.
I thought to myself, oh, I'll be fine! I've driven in the rain before! Off I went into the darkness despite the warning signals going off in my head. I kid you not, the road was covered in 3 inches of rain, but I thought, "surely it will clear up and I'll be fine." I got to the freeway and literally could not see a thing for the wall of water coming down.
I was determined though and set on my course so obviously turning back was not an option.
It was time to take a turn for a side highway that would shoot me out onto the main one back home. At this point, I was pretty nervous. I'm on high alert as I can barely make out the road in front of me. I think I'm doing pretty good when I hit a body of water. I'm going 65mph in the pouring rain of the dark, early morning, and my little 4 cylinder car hits a literal river in the road.
Freaking out puts in mildly. My car slows down to 40mph as water rushes over the top of my car. I am screaming, "JESUS!" at the top of my lungs over and over again. After what seemed like an eternity (when in reality was only a few seconds) I emerged on the other side hysterical. I start screaming at God, "Please don't make me do that again!" repeatedly as I am crying. Shortly after I pull over at the next stop and catch my breath.
The rain stopped shortly after and the rest of the drive home was simply beautiful. I thought back over the stressful first hour of my trip and had to wonder at God's protection. That could seriously have ended badly. I found out later that shortly after I left town, they declared a state of emergency because of how much rainfall they were getting and closed the roads down due to the hazardous travel conditions.
I learned some powerful lessons on that trip. One, don't start travelling in a torrential downpour especially when you drive a tiny little car that can't handle extreme weather. Secondly, I learned how stubborn I can be. God put the spotlight on my self-sufficiency masquerading as independence – the "I don't need anyone's help, I can do all things on my own" desperately needed to be brought into the light and dealt with.
It took an intense situation, one that I would have avoided if I had known all the details beforehand, to bring out a problem area in my life.
God knew I needed to get self-sufficiency out of my life so that I could live a life of surrender in God. He used a trying circumstance to bring me face to face with the condition of my heart. It was critical for this to happen, or control would've kept me on the throne of my heart instead of allowing God to have that rightful place. I was trusting in myself, not God.
Of course he was going to allow me to experience that so it could lead to a greater level of freedom and ultimately, intimacy with God.
That's what he is after in the end, our hearts. He uses the trying circumstances in our lives, the storms, to be the thing that dislodges the thorns in our hearts. Trials are uncomfortable, hard and stretching – and exactly what we need to make us better people.
God uses the storms in our lives to bring about breathtaking beauty. The breathtaking beauty is us friends. It's us healed and whole and running free.
This new year, I invite you to join me as I take a look back at some of the hard situations I've had to go through this past year and ask God what he was doing in the midst of it. Let's take some inventory and see how we've grown and how we still need to grow. If there's one resolution I want to have this year and every year for the rest of my life it's to get rid of everything keeping me from growing closer to Jesus; because really, there is no greater thing to strive for.


text:
Q: How i can use value_counts in many columns in an efficient way? i'm looking for use value_counts in many columns and i know that i can use df.island.value_counts() but i want a loop or something more efficient to don't put the name of each column of the DataFrame. It's important to say that I know the specific columns with i want apply this function. The code that i'm using is:
data_url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cmdlinetips/data/master/palmer_penguins.csv"

df = pd.read_csv(data_url)
df.select_dtypes(object).head() # I use this to know the columns that has variables categorical. I want this because i'm looking to know what categorical variables they has, and that is why i'm using value_count

df.island.value_counts()

A: categories = df.select_dtypes(object).head() # this is a dataframe object
categorical_columns = categories.columns # this is an iterable which contains strings of column headers

counter_dict = {}

# loop through each column, add values to dict
for column in categorical_columns:
    counter_dict[column] = df[column].value_counts()
    # each item in dict has column title as key and value_counts series as value

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange