text:
>John Boyd and the OODA Loop
>All thinking people interested in successful conflict resolution should be familiar with the essential work of USAF Col. John Boyd.
Col. Boyd is best known for his concept of the "Observe-Orient-Decide-Act" ("OODA") loop, which describes the analytic processes used by one actor to evaluate and respond to threats by other actors.
A recent biography of Col. Boyd is highly recommended, as is this collection of related links.
Along with his landmark strategic and tactical thinking, Col. Boyd also was known for his famous "To be or to do?" lecture, delivered frequently to young officers poised on the knife edge of great success and great achievements:
"Tiger, one day you will come to a fork in the road," he said. "And you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go."
He raised his hand and pointed. "If you go that way you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and you will get good assignments."
Then Boyd raised his other hand and pointed another direction.
"Or you can go that way and you can do something – something for your country and for your Air Force and for yourself. If you decide you want to do something, you may not get promoted and you may not get the good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. You will be true to your friends and to yourself. And your work might make a difference."
He paused and stared into the officer's eyes and heart. "To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do."
"Which way will you go?"
Those who do not have force must use intelligence in order to prevail. More importantly, even those with force at their disposal must learn to use those assets wisely if they expect to win over the long term.
>Armed Resistance and the Holocaust
>The consistently-excellent Dave Kopel has written another terrific article, this time on Jewish armed resistance against the Nazis during WWII.
Please read the whole thing.
>It's Not Paranoia When They ARE Out to Get You
Posted on July 23, 2007 | Comments Off on >It's Not Paranoia When They ARE Out to Get You
>Much kerfuffle has been made over Congresswoman McCarthy's HR 2640, which gained NRA support in an effort to "appear reasonable" and allegedly restrict access to guns by mentally-disturbed folks.
Here is what "being reasonable" gets you, with a hat-tip to Rivrdog.
Any chance of getting a similar list re police officers and other government officials with histories of mental illness, drug/alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and other no-nos?
What about broad-based support to require the purchaser's permission for government access to mental health records prior to the purchase of a printing press, a computer, or a pen?
UPDATE 7/24/07: Although the questioner is either a plant for the G or a complete doofus, get a load of the "mental health angle" on this gun control question from the YouTube Democratic Presidential debate.
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>Why the Gun is Civilization
Posted on July 18, 2007 | Comments Off on >Why the Gun is Civilization
>Essential stuff from the Munchkin Wrangler:
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender…
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>AAR – WRSA Intermediate Rifle Clinic – Kooskia, ID – July 7-8
>The WRSA Intermediate Rifle clinic in Kooskia, ID on 7/7-8 was a terrific combination of good people, practical instruction, and challenging shooting exercises.
The class began on a beautiful Saturday with a safety briefing and a listing of objectives for the weekend:
· Improve students' practical shooting skills
· Evaluate existing gear and share what works/does not work
· Keep all firearms running (from both malfs and maintenance issues)
· Get hits on target quickly (in that order)
Long guns were mostly ARs in various configurations, with two M1As thrown in for diversity's sake. Most rifles were iron-sighted, although there were a few optical sighting devices such as an ACOG and a Trijicon Reflex. Pistols were mostly Glocks, but 1911s and Springfield XDs also took the line. Gear ran the gamut from full-on tactical rigs to GI web slings with pants pocket "mag pouches."
The training began with loading/reloading/unloading drills designed to establish a skillset baseline and expose folks to the need for tactile familiarization with their weapons. As would be emphasized throughout the weekend, the overall objective was to get people exposed to various skills so that they could practice and attain proficiency at home.
Next came the concept of "after-action drills", by which the shooter ensures that the target just engaged is no longer a threat and that there are no other threats present. As would recur over the weekend, folks had to "unlearn" prior range habits of relaxing and lowering their weapons immediately after firing the prescribed number of shots. Instead, all students were encouraged after each shot series to:
– Look left and right while keeping their muzzle on the first target
– Then scan left and right, pivoting from the hips and directing their muzzles in the direction of the scan
– Then, only after each step above is completed, should the shooter lower his/her rifle
I know that I had a great deal of trouble remembering to follow these steps after each shot, and will be working on driving them into my subconscious via my personal practice sessions.
From after-action drills, we moved to malfunction clearance drills, including Type 1 (dead round or empty chamber), Type 2 (stovepipe failure to eject), and Type 3 (double-feed failure to feed). Students practiced each clearance drill several times, and were encouraged to drill extensively on each type of malfunction at home.
Following reviews of carrying, ready and firing positions, along with a recap of the BRASS/6 Steps elements of firing a good shot, all shooters confirmed their zeroes. .30 cal shooters zeroed at 25 yards, with .223 shooters using a 50 yard zero.
The rest of day #1 was spent on firing exercises from 3 yards to 50 yards, with an emphasis on accurate, rapid fire. However, "accuracy" was defined as all hits within the "A" zone of a standard IPSC target, with separate hits producing distinct wound channels to be preferred over tiny group sizes. .30 cal shooters were given the option of firing a single round per target, while .223 shooters were required to fire two shots on each target.
We started slowly with single targets, and introduced all shooters to the idea of near-distance sight offset. For example, a typical iron-sighted AR will have its iron approximately 2" above boreline, such that for precision shooting at close distances, one's point of aim will need to be considerably higher than point of impact in order to deliver an incapacitating shot to the brain. M1A and M1 shooters, with their rifles' greatly reduced sightline to boreline offset, had much less work to do in this section.
As the afternoon progressed, so did the shooters, who moved to multiple targets from multiple practical positions and then multiple targets while moving. Most challenging was a multiple target with mandatory reload drill. We also conducted our first scenario on Saturday, in which each shooter had five rounds to engage four 10" pieces of steel from a high ambush position at approximately 40 yards distance. By the end of the day, all shooters had received a full day of instruction and practice, with total rounds expended in the vicinity of 100-120. Class dismissed, and everyone planned to rendezvous at the local greasy spoon the next day at 730 am for our next stage.
Day #2 opened clear and sunny, and all shooters spent the first two hours reviewing clearance drills and moving accuracy drills. Our next scenario unfolded near the site's treeline, where each student was asked to move casually towards an opening in the woods slightly behind a small rise in the terrain. As the student started up the terrain feature, he was confronted with three Canadian grey wolves (a/k/a 10" hanging steels) that needed to be dispatched promptly. The student was then required to retreat at a fast (but safe) pace over the broken terrain, where he would need to engage and defeat an assigned IPSC target. Given that each shooter was allowed only five rounds, everyone ran the drill three times, with improvements in target acquisition, accuracy, and speed of movement noted on each successive pass.
On both days, gear issues made themselves known to the shooters, with folks learning that pants pockets don't work well for rapid reloads, but that some high-quality gear also had deficiencies. Given that the courses of fire were intentionally designed to require reloads (despite low shot counts), everyone developed a pretty good idea of what worked and what didn't in their personal equipment.
We then moved to the second range area, where two-man student teams encountered the "Valley of Death". Imagine a gravel pit with a large pile of 4" rubble on the shooter's right, a large (50 yard) opening, and a small earth berm on the shooter's left. In the clearing were 10 10" hanging steels, with 3 more steels on the right behind the rubble pile and 1 more steel on the left by the berm. Distance from the starting point to the 10 steels was a lasered 130 yards. Each team member had 8 rifle rounds, plus unlimited pistol rounds. The objective was to kill all of the targets intelligently while minimizing your own exposure. Several lessons were learned by the teams, including:
– Why safety glasses are essential when someone is shooting at the rocks in front of you
– If you get fixated on finding a single target hidden by shadows and not firing, the other targets will kill you
– Terrain is your friend
– Failure to use terrain will get you dead
– Absent radios, splitting your team means that each element will be operating independently, whether that's the plan or not
– 16 rounds is not a lot of rifle ammo to engage 14 targets, even at < 150 yards
– You may need your pistol for distances a LOT longer than you thought
To that final point, we then switched to pistols for some familiarization exposure. Starting at seven yards and moving backwards at lasered five-yard intervals, shooters were asked to place three rounds on their steel target from offhand, kneeling, and (at longer distances) prone. We then switched to some more traditional pistol-on-steel work, including finishing the day with a three-target El Presidente shoot-off.
All in all, our first shoot in Kooskia was a successful weekend, and one that all participants enjoyed greatly. We also will post some lessons learned and "gear tips" later in this space.
UPDATE: Some gear we discussed/used (no commercial interest in any):
1) Singlepoint AR sling set
2) Larry Vickers multipoint sling
3) Blackhawk gloves
4) Kramer horsehide inside waistband holster
5) Suarez tactical bag
6) Camelbak hydration kits
7) Magpul rifle mag loops
8) White's hi-arch boots
9) Ciener AR15 .22 LR conversion kits
10) AR mag belt clip
11) Blow-out kits
12) Eyeglass frames
13) Mad Dog knives
>The Day After: 24 Hours Following a Nuclear Blast in an American City
>Please take the time to download this recent joint Harvard/Stanford report on what the first 24 hours would be like in a typical American city hit without warning by a 10-kiloton fission weapon.
You also should take the time to read this press release and this report on the medical facility impact of such an attack.
Key section:
Among the study's findings:
– A 20-kiloton detonation would leave debris tens of feet thick in downtown areas with buildings 10-stories or higher. Roughly half of the population in downtown areas would be killed, mainly from collapsing buildings. Most of those surviving the initial blast in downtown areas would be exposed to a fatal dose of radiation.
– While the main effects from a 20-kiloton explosion would be from the blast and the radiation it releases, a 550-kiloton explosion would create additional and substantial casualties from burns. Such an explosion would superheat the blast zone, causing buildings to spontaneously combust. Mass fires would consume cities, reaching out nearly four miles (6.3 km) in all directions from the detonation site.
– A 550 kiloton detonation in New York would result in a fallout plume extending the length of Long Island, resulting in more than 5 million deaths. – A 550 kiloton detonation in Washington, D.C. would destroy hospitals in the District, but its fallout plume would also incapacitate hospitals in Baltimore, nearly 40 miles away.
The researchers note that in all four cities studied, hospitals are concentrated in the area most likely to be destroyed. Another weak link is the inability of the nation's hospital system to treat the burn victims a 550-kiloton detonation would create. A 550-kiloton detonation in Atlanta, the least densely populated of the four cities studied, would result in nearly 300,000 serious burn victims.
"The hospital system has about 1,500 burn beds in the whole country, and of these maybe 80 or 90 percent are full at any given time," Bell said. "There's no way of treating the burn victims from a nuclear attack with the existing medical system."
Now, consider whether you should adjust your plans accordingly.
Oh, and by the way, these folks are reliable providers of radiological measurement and training supplies.
You and the Swarm
Posted on July 9, 2007 | Comments Off on You and the Swarm
Thanks to John Robb's excellent Global Guerillas blog, we have this link re swarm theory.
Start here, then read all of John's linked material.
Then cogitate.
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>Colorado Multigun's Camp Guernsey Invitational Multi-Gun – 8/11-12
Posted on July 9, 2007 | Comments Off on >Colorado Multigun's Camp Guernsey Invitational Multi-Gun – 8/11-12
>Join the Colorado Multigun Team at fabulous Camp Guernsey, Wyoming on August 11-12 as they present the Camp Guernsey Invitational Multi-Gun, designed to test a competitor's skills shooting rifle, carbine, and pistol to their effective ranges at practical targets in the natural terrain. They're even holding a night-firing exercise, with no night-vision gear requirement.
You know you want to be there, so just go do it!
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>July's Practical Shooting Events at Langhorne Rod & Gun, Langhorne, PA
Posted on July 5, 2007 | 1 comment
>From Dr. Pacer from Langhorne R&GC:
Greetings to the Patriots of PA. Hope you all took time to remember what July 4 really stands for!
I'd like to take this opportunity to "Remind" you about some "important" dates this month cycle at Langhorne Rod and Gun Club, Inc.
First, this Saturday (July 7) at 9 (set up) 10:00 start is the second
"Action Pistol/Defensive Accuracy practical day "Only Hits Count". Jason has posted his COF, which I transfer here for convenience:
Out to Lunch:
Gun in holster (or at ready) from a seated position, stand and engage two
hostile, one friendly. Movement is required, lack of movement is a penalty,
three shots per hostile strong hand only while holding baby.
Open Late Nights:
Gun in instant access safe (code 1234)
From a reclined position on a cot, get up and retrieve gun from instant
access safe. Engage two hostile, two friendly. Four shots per hostile.
Can you loan me a dollar?
Gun in holster, bad breath distance from Hostile 1. Draw and fire Hostile 1
from retention position, move, engage hostile #2 & #3, find friendly 1 being
detained by hostile #4. Three shots per hostile.
Mondays:
Gun in holster. Engage hostile 1-5, three shots per hostile, any order you
see fit.
Secondly, on July 14 there is a a NRA Range Safety Officer Course. If you
are interested in becoming a range officer for the various events at
Langhorne, and /or looking for work hours the same way, PLEASE contact me
ASAP so I can order materials!
Thirdly: As a neat trial by fire and "wake up" we are running a
Practical Rifle COF on July 15 that has a decidedly defensive application.
His post on the topic:
For those that attended the Sniper competition, this is going to be run the
same way. It will be a mixture of shooting, and non-shooting events,
including reloading, 100/200 score shooting, running, and other challenging
but safely controlled activities. This competition will be SOMEWHAT
PHYSICALLY DEMANDING, and as before will be an individual effort
REQUIRED GEAR:
1 – Semi-automatic, centerfire rifle capable of reliably firing at least
fifteen rounds in one loading. (e.g. M4, AR15,
Kalashnikov variant, G3, FAL, M1A). With at least five magazines, and 200
rounds of ammunition.
A SLING IS REQUIRED. It must be able to support the rifle reliably when on
your shoulder.
1a – A handgun with holster that is capable of firing ten rounds without
reloading, or extra magazines if not.
2 – Field removable Combat optic, with BUIS, or Iron sights exclusively.
3 – Sunscreen, Hat, Eye and Ear protection
4 – Physical fitness and endurance sufficient to endure a full day of
competitive shooting, running events, and other physically demanding tasks.
5 – Range experience, and discipline to follow instructions, and observe
basic safety rules.
6 – A personal water supply, such as a camelback, or big honkin' jug and a
7 – A rucksack, which must be sized sufficiently to contain all gear you
will use that day.
8 – A Tee shirt, any color, any design, that fits you, and that you've said
your final good-bye's to.
9 – Attentiveness to the match, and willingness to pitch in with target
changes, score recording, etc.
10 – PA shooters – Extra 20/30 round magazines to share with the Jersey
shooters.
11 – Lunch, snacks, sodium tablets, whatever you need.
It's better if I don't reveal the CoF too precisely, but there are events
included such as these:
1 – The Tacticathalon (mixture of live firing events ranging from handgun to
LMG).
2 – Oscar's nasty garbage can.
3 – The preposition problem.
4 – Monica's war.
5 – Monica's war, with a "load"
6 – The brownwater commando.
7 – The Mogadishu mile.
8 – Me and my optic, and my backup irons.
9 – the Mad Minute.
10 – The Tee shirt killer
Some or all of these may be included, or altered at the match director's
leisure (Remember the first event of the Sniper comp?) Targets will range
from polymer reactive, through realistic humanoid, through paper/cardboard.
I'm running the event, and will handle it with all the energy and
professionalism that I tried to bring to the first match.
SAME SAFETY RULES WHICH WILL BE STRINGENTLY ENFORCED.
I'm sorry but we're not providing lunch on this one. If you have a PACT
timer, please bring it to allow us to speed up the individual effort stages.
Mark your magazines on the bottom of the floorplate with some identifying
mark to make sure you get them back.
Let me know if you're coming, and if you're bringing anyone so I have a
rough head count. Some of these events are full line, others are individual,
so I can take more shooters than the last match. No pre-registration
required. Members: $15.00 Non-members: $25.00
Start time will be 9:30am SHARP.
Finally, on August 4, the grounds will be crawling with WOMEN for the
National Wild Turkey Federation Women in the Outdoors event.
Girlshunt2 has lined up instructors for the following seminars (roughly two hours each):
Basic Step Aerobics
Dutch Oven Cooking
Talk to the Animals
Talkin'Turkey
Trap Shooting
$50 gets your lady four seminars, a Lunch, a one year membership in Women in
the Outdoors and a one year subsrciption to women in the outdoors magazine.
Pass it on and help make these events a BLAST! For directions, go here.
Der Prez
Walter Mitty's Second Amendment
A classic from Jeff Snyder, as originally published in the American Handgunner and on the web by the Federal Observer.
Hopefully, you won't yourself described below:
By Jeff Snyder
Once upon a time, there was a people who inhabited a majestic land under an all-powerful government. Now this government had the resources to control practically every aspect of human existence; hundreds of thousands of "public servants" could access the most personal details of every citizen's life because everyone was issued a number at birth with which the government would track him throughout his life. No one could even work in gainful employment without this number.
True, the government left certain domains of individual action largely free, particularly matters concerning speech and sex. These activities posed no real threat to the state. When not used to entertain and divert, the power of speech was used principally to clamor for more or better goods from the state, or for "reforms" to make the state work "better," thereby entrenching the people's dependency. And insofar as sex was concerned, well, the people's behavior in this area also really had no effect on the scope of state power. In fact, the rulers noted that people's preoccupation with matters of sexual morality — whether premarital, teenage pregnancy, adultery, divorce, homosexuality or general "who's zooming who" — diverted the people's attention from the fact that they were, for economic and all other intents and purposes, slaves.
Slaves, though, who labored under the illusion that they were free. The people were a simple lot, politically speaking, and readily mistook the ability to give free reign to their appetites as the essence of "personal freedom."
In that fruitful land, the state took about 50 percent of everything the people earned through numerous forms of taxation, up from about 25 percent only a generation earlier. However, this boastful people, who believed themselves to be the freest on earth, retained the right to keep and bear arms. Tens of millions of them possessed firearms just in case their government became tyrannical and enslaved them.
In that land, an astronomical number of regulations, filling more than 96,000 pages in the government's "code of regulations," were promulgated by persons who were not elected by the people. The regulators often developed close relationships with the businesses they regulated, and work in "agencies" that had the power both to make law — and to enforce it.
The agencies were not established by the government's constitution, and their existence violated that instrument's principle of separation of powers. Yet the people retained the right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government, some day, ceased to be a "government of the people."
In that land, the constitution contemplated that the people would be governed by two separate levels of government — "national" and "local." Matters that concerned the people most intimately — health, education, welfare, crime, and the environment — were to be left almost exclusively to the local level, so that those who made and enforced the laws lived close to the people who were subject to the laws, and felt their effects.
So that different people who had different ideas about such things would not be subject to a "one size fits all" standard that would apply if the national government dealt with such matters. Competition among different localities for people, who could move freely from one place to another, would act as a reality check on the passage of unnecessary or unwise laws.
But in a time of great crisis called the Great Economic Downturn, the people and their leaders clamored for "national solutions to national problems," and the constitution was "interpreted" by the Majestic Court to permit the national government to pass laws regulating practically everything that has been reserved for the localities.
Now the people had the pleasure of being governed by not one, but two beneficient governments with two sets of laws regulating the same things. Now the people could be prosecuted by not one, but two governments for the same activities and conduct. Still this fiercely independent people retained the right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government, some day, no longer secured the blessings of liberty to themselves or their posterity.
In that fair land, property owners could be held liable under the nation's environmental legislation for the cleanup costs associated with toxic chemicals, even if the owners had not caused the problem.
Another set of laws provided for asset forfeiture and permitted government agencies to confiscate property without first establishing guilt.
Yet the people retained the right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government denied them due process by holding them liable for things that were not their fault. (The Majestic Court had long ago determined that "due process" did not prevent government from imposing liability on people who were not at fault. "Due process", it turned out, meant little more than that a law had been passed in accordance with established procedures. You know, it was actually voted on, passed by a majority and signed by the president. If it met those standards, it didn't much matter what the law actually did.)
Oh well, the people had little real cause to worry. After all, those laws hardly ever affected anyone that they knew. Certainly not the people who mattered most of all: the country's favorite celebrities and sports teams, who so occupied the people's attention. And how bad could it be if it had not yet been the subject of a Movie of the Week, telling them what to think and how to feel about it?
In that wide open land, the police often established roadblocks to check that the people's papers were in order. The police — armed agents of the rulers — used these occasions to ask the occupants whether they were carrying weapons or drugs. Sometimes the police would ask to search the vehicles, and the occupants — not knowing whether they could say no and wanting to prove that they were good guys by cooperating — would permit it.
The Majestic Court had pronounced these roadblocks and searches lawful on the novel theory, unkown to the country's Founding Forebears, that so long as the police were doing this to everyone equally, it didn't violate anyone's rights in particular.
The roadblocks sometimes caused annoying delays, but these lovers of the open road took it in stride. After all, they retained their right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government, some day, engaged in unreasonable searches and seizures. In that bustling land, the choice of how to develop property was heavily regulated by local governments that often demanded fees or concessions for the privilege. That is, when the development was not prohibited outright by national "moistland" regulations that had no foundation in statutory or constitutional law.
Even home owners often required permission to simply build an addition to their homes, or to erect a tool shed on their so-called private property. And so it seemed that "private property" became, not a system protecting individual liberty, but a system which, while providing the illusion of ownership, actually just allocated and assigned government-mandated burdens and responsibilities.
Still, this mightily productive people believed themselves to live in the most capitalistic society on earth, a society dedicated to the protection of private property. And so they retained the right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government ever sought to deprive them of their property without just compensation.
Besides, the people had little cause for alarm. Far from worrying about government control of their property, the more immediate problem was: what to buy next?
The people were a simple lot, politically speaking, and readily mistook the ability to acquire and endless assortment of consumer goods as the essence of personal freedom.
The enlightened rulers of this great land did not seek to deprive the people of their right to bear arms. Unlike tyrants of the past, they had learned that it was not necessary to disarm the masses. The people proved time and time again thaty they were willing accomplices to the ever expanding authority of the government, enslaved by their own desire for safety, security and welfare.
The people could have their guns. What did the rulers care? They already possessed the complete obedience that they required.
In fact, in their more Machiavellian moments, the rulers could be heard to admit that permitting the people the right to keep and bear arms was a marvelous tool of social control, for it provided the people with the illusion of freedom.
The people, among the most highly regulated on earth, told themselves that they were free because they retained the means of revolt. Just in case things ever got really bad. No one, however, seemed to have too clear an idea what "really bad" really meant. The people accepted the fact that their government no longer even remotely resembled the plan set forth in their original constitution. And the people's values no longer remotely resembled those of their Founding Forebears. The people, in their naiveté, really believed that the means of revolt were to be found in a piece of inanimate metal! Really it was laughable. And pathetic.
No, the rulers knew that the people could safely be trusted with arms. The government educated their children, provided for their retirement in old age, bequeathed assistance if they lost their jobs, mandated that they receive health care, and even doled out food and shelter if they were poor.
The government was the very air the people breathed from childhood to the grave. Few could imagine, let alone desire, any other kind of world.
To the extent that the people paid any attention to their system of government, the great mass spent their days simply clamoring for more or better "programs", more "rational" regulations, in short, more of the same. The only thing that really upset them was waste, fraud, or abuse of the existing programs. Such shenanigans brought forth vehement protests demanding that the government provide their services more efficiently, dammit! The nation's stirring national anthem, adopted long ago by men who fought for their liberty, ended by posng a question, in hopes of keeping the spirit of liberty alive. Did the flag still fly, it asked, over the land of the free?
Unfortunately, few considered that the answer to that question might really be no, for they had long since lost an understanding of what freedom really is.
No, in this land "freedom" had become something dark, frightening, and dangerous. The people lived in mortal terror that somewhere, sometime, some individual might make a decision or embark upon a course of action that was not first approved by some government official.
Security was far more preferable. How could anyone be truly free if he were not first safe and protected?
Now we must say goodbye to this fair country whose government toiled tirelessly to create the safety, fairness and luxury that all demanded, and that everyone knew could be created by passing just the right laws. Through it all, the people vigorously safeguarded their tradition of firearms ownership.
But they never knew — and never learned — that preserving a tradition and a way of life is not the same as preserving liberty. And they never knew — and never learned — that it's not about guns.
>Read It Aloud – To Yourself and Then to Others
>A lot of people have fought, bled, and died for the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence.
A lot more will do so in the coming exciting times.
On this 231st Independence Day, give yourself the gift of reading aloud one of mankind's greatest statements of first principles.
Then share that gift with others.
And thank God for the courage of the men listed below.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Massachusetts:
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Pennsylvania:
George Clymer
George Taylor
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
Abraham Clark
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
Matthew Thornton
UPDATE: Those interested in Jefferson's rough draft for the Declaration (featuring a list of grievances prior to editing by the Coninental Congress), check it out here – with hat-tip to the good folks at Samizdata.
>Teach Your Children Well (Or Not)
>Thanks to Instapundit, take a look at this
lovely article on how to teach children to accept militarized police nonsense.
Make sure to check out the photos as well.
Think anyone mentioned the fate of Kathryn Johnston to the kiddies?
What about the friendly officers in that case and others?


The short week spent in The Gambia came to an impulsive end. It is a beautiful country and actually most of the people we gave the benefit of a doubt proved to be mostly helpful and resourceful. Banjul is one of the most neglected capitals I have seen, and through the stinky, pot holed, garbage ridden streets there was a lot of shouting, hissing and different ways of not making us feel welcome. Blessed we were, running into the city's angel, a good hearted man with a clear mind and vision of wanting to make things better. No places to stay in the whole city, this man owned a few rooms currently occupied. But a good man don't shrug his shoulders at lost souls – he immediately let us have his private room while he stayed other places during our visit. And people say Muslims are not a peaceful people. The city had not much to offer, except for this kind man, his stories and ideas to make Banjul a more communal place to live in. The sad history of this country as with so many other former colonies traces back hundreds of year and is still so present today. The slave trade, the hardships of colonization, the post independence period and neo colonialism have made people bland, flippant and their very crucial day to day living makes it hard to care for the future. When you have no social security, no back up from the government and no sense of what a society is supposed to be or do for you, people tend to care for little but their reality. A reality which is far more real than a western reality. Mind you, people of the west, we still have no idea how spoiled we are, how privileged we are and how much damage we have done – and are still doing. Good hearted people are born in the most difficult of conditions, and the greediest souls are born into richness. Unfortunately it is evident in many people here, they let the circumstances beat the goodness out of them. A traveller becomes a tourist – a "toubab" – becomes a bag of money – becomes a resource – becomes a need. Hence we wouldn't be left alone. Kids, grown ups, men and women constantly asking for money, for sweets, for company, to look into their shop, buy something, eat something, give us something. Country side as well as in the capital as well as in the touristic sea side. I won't buy the kids sweets no matter how many tourists before gave them the habit. This experience is so crucial. What we've seen so far is so complex, and any way I describe it will only make it sound negative. But to see those structures in the world, the structures of imbalance, of the contra points of rich and poor, the way people behave when they have too much or too little. That's the education, that's the difference between the traveller and the tourist. The Gambia is after all a functioning country, many people love it and there's many people to love within it. Most taxis, most food stores and most hotel services are not trying to cheat us of our money, the fares are the same if you stick to local buses, and the food wares all have price tags on them. I would still hope that people coming here keep in mind the consequences of history, how there is a red line strumming through the last five hundred years that we, "the west" are blissfully ignorant of today, whilst here, it's visible in every part of the culture. To be proud still, to appreciate freedom, to have and to share, or to seek and to hope. I expect all West Africa to give us it's truth, the rest of the story we never heard. There's no Ebola, no malaria, to internal war, no pickpockets, no aids and no kidnapping so far. The Gambia is hereby classified as safe. Now, ridden yourselves of prejudices. So far we haven't seen any other traveller along the road.


text:
Q: GCC's UTF-8 output displays incorrectly in Eclipse's build console I am using Eclipse Mars.1 Release (4.5.1), Win7 SP1 and gcc 5.2.1 (for Cortex architecture, from https://launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded). When I try to compile C code encoded in UTF-8 (with BOM), gcc output appears in ANSI, incorrectly of course. My workspace and project have default encoding set to UTF-8.
Adding gcc switch -finput-charset=UTF-8 doesn't change anything.
For sample code (in C):
#error some code here /* diacritics in comment żółćąę */

I get the following result in Eclipse's build console:
arm-none-eabi-gcc -c -mcpu=cortex-m3 -mthumb -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wextra -Wchar-subscripts -Werror=implicit -finput-charset=UTF-8 -g -ggdb3 -fverbose-asm -Wa,-ahlms=./out/logbook_entry_ext2.lst -pipe  -MD -MP -MF ./out/logbook_entry_ext2.d -Os -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -I . -Itests/aceunit/ -Itests/ -Itests/inc/ logbook_entry_ext2.c -o out/logbook_entry_ext2.o

logbook_entry_ext2.c:32:2: error: #error some code here
 #error some code here /* diacritics in comment żółćąę */

Files encoded in ANSI (cp1250 in case of my locale - Central European languages) appear correctly.
The same applies to Eclipse's parsers (e.g. 'Problems' window - encoding is broken there in similar way).
I'm sure someone has overcome this problem, because it's silly to use ANSI encoding in 21st century, however most discussions one can google are about encoding strings and identifiers, which are not the case here.
EDIT: My exact question is how to solve this problem in Eclipse, e.g. by changing encoding of Eclipse's build console. Unfortunately I haven't found such setting so far (only for debug consoles).

A: ANSI isn't an encoding, it's an organization.  perhaps you meant ASCII ?  either way, that's probably not the issue.
you said your system locale is set to Windows 1250 (codepage 1250).  that's really the problem here: you're attempting to use UTF-8 content in an incompatible encoding.
the mojibake you've shown there suggests that's the real problem.  if you take "żółćąę" and convert that byte sequence from a CP-1250 to UTF-8 encoding, you end up with "żółćąę".  the iconv utility can be used to confirm this:
$ iconv -t UTF-8 -f CP1250 <<<'żółćąę'
żółćąę

i imagine when Eclipse launches a command shell to run tools (like gcc),  it uses your native locale (CP-1250).  so feeding it UTF-8 content would corrupt things.
the easy answer (imo) is to use UTF-8 everywhere instead of any Windows-specific encoding (like CP-1250).  Windows defines this as CP-65001.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Biografia
Nato da Emily Mittnacht e William C. Atkinson, dopo avere frequentato le scuole pubbliche, praticò la professione forense sino al 1895, quando divenne Procuratore presso il Foro della Pennsylvania. Nel 1889 sposò Margaret Forster Black, da cui ebbe due figli.

Intorno al 1900, a seguito di una grave crisi personale, si avvicinò alla scuola di pensiero del New Thought. Tale scuola, allora molto nota, propugnava il raggiungimento di benessere e felicità tramite lo studio delle filosofia e della teologia. Trasferitosi a Chicago, riprese l'attività di avvocato iniziando nel contempo l'attività di scrittore, presso l'editore Flower & Towne, legato anch'esso alla scuola del New Thought. In seguito aprì una propria scuola, la Atkinson School of mental science.

Prima del 1920 (anno dal quale iniziò a firmare i testi con il proprio nome), utilizzò numerosi pseudonimi: Theodor Sheldon (con il quale firmò Vim Culture, 1913), Magus Incognito, I Tre Iniziati (Autori del volume "Kybalion", ispirato alla filosofia ermetica). Il più noto, tuttavia, è  Ramacharaka Yoghi: quello con il quale firmò dal 1900 al 1915  opere le più importanti; viene tramandato, ma forse è solo "leggenda metropolitana", che tale pseudonimo sia stato scelto in onore dell'omonimo mentore del Maestro indiano Baba Bharata, col quale fu a lungo in contatto spirituale. Ramacharaka, nato nel 1799 in India, conoscitore dei testi conservati nelle biblioteche lamaiste, avrebbe trasmesso a Baba Bharata le conoscenze in essi trattate. Vi sono indizi, non certezze, che durante l'esposizione mondiale svoltasi a Chicago nel 1892  Atkinson si sia ivi incontrato con lo swami Vivekananda, discepolo di Ramakrishna. Ramacharaka Yoghi è l'autore del commento a La Luce Sul Sentiero, opera trasmessa da ignota fonte a Mabel Collins.

Nel 1920, ritenuti i gruppi aderenti al New Thought troppo settari e poco concreti, uscì dal movimento e si dedicò alla ristrutturazione organica del complesso delle sue opere, aggiornandole e pubblicando nuovi compendi come l'Energia mentale. Morì nel 1932.

Opere
Le sue opere godettero di vasta popolarità anche in Italia, negli anni venti, con edizioni "Bocca" e "Atanor". Negli anni ottanta le case editrici Fratelli Melita Editori, I Dioscuri e Bastogi pubblicarono la ristampa anastatica di alcune opere, oggi in parte disponibili presso altri editori (Venexia, Giunti-Demetra). I testi di Atkinson manifestano  profondità e attualità di pensiero. Con linguaggio piano scevro di compiacimento dialettico, l'autore espone le dottrine più occulte delle diverse religioni e filosofie. Attraverso una loro rilettura critica, alla luce sia del pensiero pragmatico che di Emerson, Atkinson avvia alla ricerca indipendente di soluzioni a domande perenni: la missione dell'uomo nella storia del mondo e l'intima ragione della sofferenza personale, e vuole rendere prossima una soluzione di radicale letizia. Anche nella lettura critica di un testo occulto ed ermetico come La luce sul sentiero (sulla cui reale provenienza, peraltro, l'autrice Mabel Collins fornì di volta in volta diverse versioni), cultura ed afflato umanitario si fondono perfettamente, per poi esprimersi pienamente nelle 14 lezioni di Filosofia Yoga ed occultismo orientale. Il suo Cristianesimo Mistico fu oggetto di attenta disamina nella Chiesa nel periodo conciliare, mentre un best Seller francese degli anni settanta, il Terzo Occhio (il cui autore si presentò,nel 1956 col nome di Rampa,quale Lama tibetano fuggito all'estero) è debitore di intere parti del suo La Vita dopo la Morte. Le emergenze attuali rendono sempre più moderno il pensiero di Atkinson. Per Massimo Scaligero, lo Yoghi Ramacharaka è stato capace di esprimere in idee viventi, atte a poter essere assimilate con profitto dagli occidentali moderni, il valore noetico dello "Yoga", così sviluppandolo a nuova forma.

Molti libri di Atkinson, alias Ramacharaka, in traduzione italiana sono stati pubblicati in specie dalla casa editrice Bocca negli anni 1920-1955, poi dalle edizioni Napoleone negli anni settanta e Bussola negli anni ottanta, dalle edizioni I Dioscuri e dalla Fratelli Melita Editori negli anni novanta, dalla casa editrice Venexia dopo il 2000; e da Giunti-Demetra. I volumi compaiono talora in ristampe anastatiche; altre volte sono stati ricomposti o reimpaginati.

Libri di William Walker Atkinson in traduzione italiana (tra parentesi è indicato il nome o lo pseudonimo usato dall'autore) editi da Venexia Editrice sono:

La Scienza del respiro (Yogi Ramacharaka)
L'Energia mentale: il segreto della magia (W. W. Atkinson)
La Cura dell'acqua (Yogi Ramacharaka)
Il Kybalion (I Tre Iniziati)
La Guarigione psichica (Yogi Ramacharaka)
La Vita oltre la morte (Yogi Ramacharaka)
Hatha Yoga (Yogi Ramacharaka)
La Dottrina segreta dei Rosacroce (Magus Incognito)
Il Segreto del successo (W.W. Atkinson)
La Luce sul sentiero: il vero sapere  [la prima parte del Corso avanzato di filosofia yoga e di occultismo orientale che commenta il classico dell'esoterismo di Mabel Collins] (Yogi Ramacharaka)
Il Segreto della memoria (W. W. Atkinson)
La Suprema sapienza (Yogi Ramacharaka)
Cristianesimo mistico (Yogi Ramacharaka)
Respirazione e salute (W. W. Atkinson)
Jnana Yoga (Yogi Ramacharaka)
Il segreto della chiaroveggenza e dei poteri occulti (Swami Panchadasi)
Quattordici lezioni sulla filosofia Yoga. Club del Libro.
La vita dopo la morte. Giunti Demetra (2007).

Bibliografia
Massimo Scaligero, Dallo yoga alla Rosacroce, Roma, 1972.
 Enciclopedia del ocultismo y la parapsicologia, voce: "William Walker Atkinson". Gale Group ed., 5ed., 2001.

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

Teosofi statunitensi

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Home News by Topic Discrimination and Xenophobia
Court denies trademark protection to anti-Muslim group
By Euro-Islam -
Outspoken anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller felt the need to protect her brand.
Geller, perhaps best known for leading the charge in 2010 against construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in New York, is the founder of "Stop Islamization of America," a group that wants to educate Americans about "Islamic domination and expansionism." It has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rebuffed the controversial blogger's attempt to trademark "Stop the Islamisation of America," upholding the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's finding that the name disparages Muslims. (The word "Islamization" appeared with an "s" and a "z" in different parts of the opinion — the court found the spelling variation "immaterial.")
The trademark board can refuse applications for trademarks that disparage persons, institutions, beliefs or national symbols. The board had denied Geller's application, finding that the words "Stop the Islamisation of America" associated Islam with terrorism, a characterization many Muslims are likely to find offensive.
Geller agreed. In an e-mail to The Washington Post, Geller said the ruling is "evidence of how the federal government, and especially the courts, continue to bend over backwards to kowtow and placate Muslim sensitivities … they are afraid of the response from Islamic supremacists." Geller plans to appeal the decision, which she called "unconstitutional."
anti-Muslim group
Previous articleNew Mexico television interview with local Muslim captures passerby's 'Taliban' insult
Next article'Black Mass' at Harvard: Not a black and white issue
Euro-Islam
http://euro-islam.info
New project for Media Monitoring of Islamophobia releases first report: Most UK news coverage of Muslims is negative
German, Turkish, German Turkish or Turkish German? New investigative video series...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
136 Children's Legal Rights Journal [Vol. 39:2 2019] decisions. A conclusive grounds decision is whether, on the balance of probabilities, it is more likely than not that the individual is a victim of human trafficking or slavery. 47
HOCA has five working days from receipt of a referral to decide whether there are reasonable grounds to believe an individual is a potential victim of human trafficking or modern slavery.48 HOCA may require additional information from the first responder or from specialist NGOs or social services.49 The threshold at the reasonable grounds stage is "from the information available so far, I believe but cannot prove" that the individual is a victim of trafficking or modern slavery.50 If a finding of reasonable grounds is reached, suspected victims are given a place within a government-funded safe house if necessary.51
The suspected trafficking victim is granted a reflection period of forty-five days.52 This reflection period enables a victim to recover from any immediate physical and/or psychological trauma before deciding whether to support an investigation or prosecution. The period can be extended if the victim has suffered severe trauma, or if more information that will assist HOCA in reaching a conclusive grounds decision is required. 53
During the reflection period, HOCA collects further information about the potential victim from the first responders or other agencies.54 This information is required to make a conclusive decision about whether the referred person is indeed a victim of human trafficking or modern slavery. A conclusive grounds decision will be made as soon as possible following the end of the recovery and reflection period.55 The timescale for making a conclusive grounds decision is based on all the circumstances of the case.56 The threshold for a conclusive grounds decision is that "it is more likely than not" that the individual is a victim of human trafficking or modern slavery.57
Where the victim is a child, first responders use the NRM's Guidance for Child First Responders.58 Where the age of the victim has not been established, the victim is treated as a child until age is determined.59 Where there is an age dispute and there is an ongoing age assessment, referral to the NRM should not be delayed if the victim is believed to be a child.60 Section 51 of the 2015 Act contains a provision for the "Presumption about Age" for child victims of trafficking in England and Wales.61
Potential child victims do not need to consent to their referral.62 A referral into the NRM process and subsequent decisions do not replace or supersede established child protection
48 National Referral Mechanism, supra note 37.
53 HOME OFFICE, NATIONAL REFERRAL MECHANISM: GUIDANCE FOR CHILD FIRST RESPONDERS, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-referral-mechanism-guidance-for-child-first-responders (last updated Mar. 23, 2016).
58 HOME OFFICE, supra note 53, at 3.
61 Modern Slavery Act 2015 § 51.


Rachel Gross, center, has put together a collection of outdoor equipment with either historic value or connected to personal stories for an exhibit at the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula. Gross, a University of Montana Davidson Honors College professor, holds snowshoes from 1962, while student Jenna McCrorie, left, holds modern snowshoes and student Natalie Mongeau holds snowshoes from the 1930s.
Among the items in the exhibit is a Chouinard-Frost ice ax, made by the Patagonia company founder's earlier venture, Great Pacific Ironworks.
A cross-country ski waxing kit from about 1980, donated by Julie Kahl, has a variety of treatments for making skis grip or glide better, depending on temperature and snow conditions.
If we go there to get away from it all, why do we take it all with us?
That's the puzzle Rachel Gross wants to ponder in her new Historical Museum at Fort Missoula exhibit. "Outdoor Gear Stories from the Treasure State" collects both the equipment and stories that connect people to their experiences in the wilderness.
The "stuff" ranges from an ice ax made by Yvon Chouinard's (pre-Patagonia) Great Pacific Ironworks shop to handmade sleeping bags from the do-it-yourself Frostline kits. Gross said donations fell into two categories: Items with historic or collector value, and souvenirs connected to personal stories.
Natalie Mongeau, one of Gross' student assistants, interviewed H. Duane "Hamp" Hampton about his favorite equipment. He loaned her a Trapper-Nelson wooden packboard designed for World War II soldiers to support anything from a rucksack to a munitions load. Hampton told Mongeau how he hauled his cast-iron skillet and tin cans of food into hunting camp, and packed out the elk quarters on the way home.
For Julie Kahl's loved-to-death Great Pacific Ironworks T-shirt, it was the link to a famous company's early days. For Mike Fredrickson's 1980s WhisperLite camping stove, it was the connection to years of family backpacking adventures with a tool that hasn't changed design for decades.
Gross has spent a decade researching the outdoor recreation industry and is working on book compiling her findings. She said her central question is why people consistently go shopping on their way to the wilderness, when they seek a natural place apart from modern life.
Outdoor Gear Stories from the Treasure State opened on Tuesday at the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula and closes April 21. A public reception and tour of the exhibit takes place Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The exhibit is free to Missoula County residents and open noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday at 3400 Captain Rawn Way south of Big Sky High School.


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text:
Wind Wire: British entry
The UK's Renewable Energy Systems (RES) is expanding into the Turkish wind market, acquiring six projects totalling nearly 500 MW from an undisclosed seller.
The projects, which range from 50 to 120 MW, are located in western and south-central Turkey. They represent a total potential investment of nearly EUR750 million, RES says. Applications for production licences, the first stage in the permission process for the six projects, were lodged with the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (Emra) in November 2007, when Emra last opened its doors for applications. RES expects the first licence to be issued in the next few months and hopes the projects can be completed by 2013. "We have been actively reviewing our expansion in the Mediterranean markets and have identified the Turkish market as one of the major growth areas for our business," says Jean-Marc Armitano, chief executive officer of RES Mediterranean, based in southern France. The company opened a subsidiary firm, RES Anatolia, in Istanbul at the end of last year to investigate what it calls Turkey's large, untapped economic potential for wind energy.
Wind project sales


The story of how God chooses David as king over Israel is filled with important insights. Look at Eliab, David's eldest brother, with all his attributes: tall, handsome and strong; yet Samuel was led to choose David, the youngest and least regarded among his siblings.
We tend to give precedence to outward appearances, rank, affluence, anything vain or indeed whatever is easy on the eyes. We turn our nose up at people we deem inferior to us. God, however, looks beyond that. He looks for a good heart, character and attributes that engender the fear of Him, respect, humility, care, peace, love and unity among his people.
Is there a situation that you are considering at the moment? A judgement you have to make or a decision you have to take? What factors are influencing you? Are you also listening, as Samuel was, to the Spirit of God?
What kind of Messiah do we really need? It's certainly not a re-run of David, Solomon, or any from the past. Jesus, who they called Son of David", redefined what that Messiah would look like.
He came from God – he was God's provision, not man's idea. He took on human flesh – raising us up – rather than bringing our hopes down with the inevitability of human corruption. He was totally secure in who he was, where he came from, why he was here – rather than anxiously clinging onto to a failing power. He was the perfect servant of humanity and his mission was unsullied by human desire for supremacy. He came to give of himself rather than take for himself. He included the marginalised rather than seeking popularity. He came for you; he came for me. His Kingdom began before time and would stretch beyond time.
This is the King God has given us – not in response to our braying demands but from the fullness of his undying love. Here is the Prince of Peace; here is the Saviour of the World. He is here now, risen from death, alive! And today he offers himself: will you accept me as your King? Will you trust me? Will you receive me? Do it today while there is still time: Open your heart and say, "Yes Lord, I receive you. You are the King of my heart and my life." Amen.
So is that it? Just one long sorry tale? Well not quite. Because there's another Old Testament story – which surfaces through the history books and bubbles up through the crowning of kings and taking of land but isn't really the subject of them.
It's the story of faith kindled and sustained in the lives of individual people. It's the story of moments and responses. It's the cry of Hagar the outsider. It's the bravery of life-saving midwives named Shiprah and Puah. It's the steadiness of an unimportant woman called Ruth.
It's the perseverance of Samuel in searching for the right person to anoint as king. It's the wisdom of a humble leader called Abigail. It's the courage of Nathan to confront David. It's the repentance of David and the prayer of Solomon, even though these were just moments in time, long forgotten, it seems, just a few years later. It's the spirit of Elijah, the passion of Amos, the tenderness of Hosea, the tears of Jeremiah, the insight of Isaiah, the vision of Nehemiah.
This is the thin line running through the Hebrew Bible – the story of faith. And this is the line of which we are inheritors – we who continue to live by faith today. Numerous as grains of sand on the seashore.
Just a few of the many highlights from our recent Half-Term Holiday Club.
You can also watch our puppets, Steve and Evie here. and Professor Buzz Brain here.
And a Space Animation with Soundscape by the Neptunian team. To find the other team animations, search youtube for "Captain Cork Holy Trinity" and you'll find them all.


text:
Charging towards an electrified future
April 12, 2018 By Editor
As vehicle manufacturers continue to face unprecedented challenges, due to disruptive technology and a higher level of environmental consciousness, the growing list of countries that have committed to going electric-only is a good indication that the demand for electric vehicles (EV) is set to boom.
As such, the automotive industry is in the midst of a significant transition – one that offers a promising investment opportunity. Just as the internal combustion engine (ICE) displaced horses as the means to propel vehicles in the late 1800s, the electric engine is set to be the largest disrupter in the automotive market 120 years later.
This promising outlook for the electric car has already had an impact on many industries, shining a spotlight on potential investment avenues such as lithium-ion batteries and the elements used in their production. For example, with an increasing list of countries now introducing bans on petroleum and diesel-fueled cars, the rise of electric vehicles has contributed to the soaring price of cobalt – a key ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles.
According to Bloomberg, Samsung has joined Apple in taking an unprecedented step by reportedly negotiating directly with a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo to secure cobalt supplies. "The element is an essential component in the rechargeable batteries used in smartphones, but increasing competition — mainly from electric car manufacturers — has made an already-scarce element even more valuable."
Companies that we see as offering investment potential in this respect include Glencore – a large producer of copper, nickel, and cobalt, all of which are critical elements in the manufacturing of electric vehicles – as well as Anglo American Platinum, the world's largest primary producer of platinum.
Earlier this month, Glencore Plc agreed to sell around a third of its cobalt production over the next three years to Chinese battery recycler GEM Co Ltd. Currently the largest purchaser of cobalt in the world, China is vying to be the leading manufacturer of electric vehicles. The deal between Glencore and GEM will see China purchase 50% of the global supplies of cobalt by the end of 2018.
While there may be questions around the relevance of platinum with the onset of EVs, the mass adoption of pure EVs is still many years, if not decades, away. As a result, platinum and its derivatives will remain critical in reducing carbon emissions through their use in catalytic converters, in both the ICE as well as in hybrid EVs that make use of both fuel and batteries.
Other stocks to watch that may not necessarily be obvious candidates to benefit from the ongoing transition in the automotive industry include Alphabet (Google) – who are currently investing large amounts of capital in the autonomous vehicle market and Continental – who produces technologically enhancing products ranging from electric mobility and automated driving components to vehicle infotainment systems.
The onset of electric vehicles, however, has not happened overnight. Although their origins can be traced back long before the invention of the internal combustion engine, it was only in the 1960s following the need to reduce exhaust emissions along with our dependency on crude oil, that the electric vehicle came back into vogue.
A significant driver of the more recent push for EVs is the Electric Vehicle Initiative (EVI) – a body that was established in 2009 with the purpose of bringing together representatives from member governments and partners bi-annually to share knowledge on policies and programmes that support EV development. Ten countries are currently members of this initiative – including China, the United Kingdom, the United States and South Africa, among others – representing the vast majority of the global EV market.
This initiative recently launched the EV30@30 campaign, which set the ambitious goal of 30% market share for EVs in the member countries by the year 2030.
Although some motor vehicle manufacturers have committed to phasing out petrol and diesel-only vehicles by a specific date, we believe that investors should treat the transition as a longer-term, global megatrend, as opposed to an overnight development. Abandoning traditional motor vehicles in favor of elective vehicles will happen, but it may occur over a much longer timeframe than originally anticipated.


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86-й отдельный зенитный артиллерийский дивизион - воинская часть вооружённых сил СССР в Великой Отечественной войне. Имелось три различных формирования дивизиона.

86-й отдельный зенитный артиллерийский дивизион Западного и Брянского фронтов

В составе действующей армии с 22 июня 1941 года по 14 июня 1942 года.

На 22 июня 1941 года входил в состав 2-го стрелкового корпуса, дислоцировался в Минске. Повторил боевой путь корпуса, отступая из-под Минска к Кричеву. После переформирования управления корпуса в управление 50-й армии, стал армейским дивизионом.

По состоянию на 1 октября 1941 года дивизион располагал только четырьмя 76-мм зенитными орудиями и двумя крупнокалиберными зенитными пулемётами.. После начала операции «Тайфун» попал в окружение близ Брянска, вышел 23 октября 1941 года в составе 48 человек в Манаенки близ Белёва, утратив материальную часть.. В ноябре 1941 года отправлен на укомплектование, после укомплектования направлен в состав 20-й армии армии.

14 июня 1942 года переименован в 50-й отдельный зенитный артиллерийский дивизион

Подчинение

86-й отдельный зенитный артиллерийский дивизион ПВО страны

В составе действующей армии с 28 июня 1941 года по 9 мая 1945 года.

На вооружении дивизиона состояли малокалиберные зенитные орудия . С начала войны отражал атаки противника, отходил на Тарнополь, принимал участие в обороне Киева, в августе 1941 года вышел в район Харькова, принимал участие в его обороне.

В 1942-1943 годах базируется на территории станции Таловая в Воронежской области. В марте 1943 года перебазировался на станцию Лиски для охраны железнодорожного моста через Дон и станции. Осенью 1943 года, двигаясь за наступающими войсками, базировался в Дарнице, Нежине, Сарнах, прикрывая от налётов объекты коммуникаций, скопления войск и имущества.

Закончил войну в 1945 году в Польше

Командир дивизиона капитан Орлов (по состоянию на 1943 год)

Подчинение

86-й отдельный зенитный артиллерийский дивизион ПВО Тихоокеанского флота

Сформирован до 1938 года.

В составе действующей армии с 9 августа 1945 по 3 сентября 1945 года.

Принимал участие в Советско-японской войне

Входил в состав 280-й бригады ПВО Тихоокеанского флота. Предположительно прикрывал от налётов аэродромы авиации Тихоокеанского флота Романовка, Николаевка, Новороссия.

Примечания

Ссылки
 Справочники на Солдат.ру
 Перечень № 31 артиллерийских частей и подразделений (отдельных дивизионов, батальонов, батарей, рот и отрядов ), со сроками их вхождения в состав действующей армии в период Великой Отечественной войны 1941-1945
 Перечень № 11 Перечень №11 соединений, частей и подразделений войск ПВО страны, входивших в состав Действующей армии в период Великой Отечественной войны 1941-1945 гг.
 Перечень № 20 органов управления, соединений, кораблей, частей и учреждений Тихоокеанского флота и Северо-Тихоокеанской флотилии, входивших в состав Действующей армии в период Великой Отечественной войны.

Зенитные дивизионы СССР во время Великой Отечественной войны
Соединения Тихоокеанского флота


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Home Internet Top 10 Best Free Anime Streaming Sites 2021!
Top 10 Best Free Anime Streaming Sites 2021!
10 of the Best 2021 Anime Streaming Sites – Anime! Most people like Anime, you also like watching Anime! So if you don't know what Anime is here, the meaning of Anime is the style of Japanese films and television animation, usually intended for adults and children alike.
In 1917 it really returned as a new art style in the late 1960s. This Japanese style of animation is now known as an anime that is highly valued in western cartoon culture.
Here are 5 of the Best Free Anime Streaming Sites to Watch Anime.
10 Of The Best Free Anime Streaming Sites 2021
1. 9Anime.to
2. Masterani.me
3. KissAnime.ru
4. AnimeFreak.tv
5. Chia-Anime.tv
6. AnimeSeason.com
7. Anime Haven
8. Soul-Anime
9. Watch-Anime.Net
10. Anilinkz Anime Stream
Final Words About Watch Sites (Streaming Anime)
Anime Streaming is very well-liked by teenagers in India, moreover the internet today is very wide so without bothering to wait for the anime series that appear on tv appear.
9 This instance is one of the best-considered sites for web anime streaming sites that give you access to watch all your favorite shows in HD, it has a very large anime database that you can sort through genre, release date, language type, etc. You don't need to register yourself or pay monthly or annual subscriptions.
Masterani, an anime streaming site for watching cartoon (anime) content for free in full HD quality videos. Masterani not only lets users stream movies but has a large list of anime tv shows, anime OVA (original video animations) and ONA (original net animations) and more. So Masterani is a complete solution for every anime lover who likes to watch anime cartoons and tv shows.
KissAnime is one of the best anime sites for streaming or downloading animes. It also has communities, active chat rooms, manga collections, etc. You can search for anime by genre or randomly. All types of animes including sub or dub versions are also available. This site is considered the best for anime streaming sites because of its fast loading speed and configurable video quality.
AnimeFreak.tv is a streaming site to watch all anime episodes and they serve thousands of episodes with the help of AnimeFreak anime series after being released. This is a huge selection of anime titles that you sort through genre, popularity, the latest anime trends. Just select the anime title from the right side and start watching online.
Watch all your favorite anime from 360p to 1080p with this Chia-Anime.tv. Chia-Anime.tv has a large library of animes including all anime mainstreams series. This site is a place for sub and anime versions that are easy to find by looking at anime thumbnails.
KissAnime: 25 Best Alternatives Sites Like KissAnime
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It comes with a hygienic interface and shows simple navigation through a complete list of series, highest rating series, genres, etc. Makara, You are able to watch free online anime both from your taste or animes who are tending to follow anime info. Most of the animes available are subbed with the HD video quality. If subbed anime is your thing, then continue, try this site. Also, this site has the least adverts! so there are no buggy ads!
Anime Haven can be considered a paradise for lovers of the anime series. This website is good for computers and smartphones. Because of the importance of visitors so that they can easily watch the video can also be downloaded and users can also choose the quality of the image. Want to streaming or downloading, it's still free!
Soul-Anime does not only provide streaming anime videos, you can also download it for free too! If you want to download just press the green button, just one click! With a total of more than 3000 anime series and more than 5000 episodes, all the subtitles are in English.
The Anime Watch also allows users to watch anime series for free and of course high quality! This site is also rumored to be one of the biggest anime sites that anime lovers often visit. Of course, continuing to update the series with various series, it won't be difficult to find what you're looking for. You can even search for anime with a release date or year between 1950-2016 !.
Anilinkz is a site that is believed by many anime lovers just try to open the site and you will be immediately surprised at this site you can Chatbox where you can interact with other users or you can ask for help from other users to find the free anime series that you are looking for.
Best 25 Alternatives to AnimeStreams
All of these websites contain a large number of Anime episodes if you are truly a fan of Anime episodes such as dragon ball and a number of other Japanese Dubbed episodes so that you can enjoy all the streaming sites. So much information about the 10 Best Anime Streaming Sites 2021. If you have an updated anime site, you can contact me via email, this post will continue to be updated.
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The attorneys handling Ohio morcellator cancer cases at The Onder Law Firm and Heninger Garrison Davis, LLC have teamed together to combine their vast expertise in handling claims of individuals against large, billion dollar corporate empires in order to most effectively represent persons and families impacted by cancer growth due to a surgery using a Morcellator. These seasoned litigators have represented countless families in the aftermath of numerous hazardous product warnings and drug recalls. Aware that Ohio morcellator cancer lawsuit claims are very serious, these national pharmaceutical and medical device law firms havecommitted their significant resources to provide its clients with the best morcellator cancer legal representation in Ohio possible.
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Tennis Database
Tennis Article
Gauff's dream run continues at Wimbledon
Ben Somerford
Photo: TT
Cori "Coco" Gauff reacts after winning a point against Slovenia's Polona Hercog in a Women's singles match during day five of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London
American teenage sensation Cori Gauff's amazing run at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships has continued with a come-from-behind win over Polona Hercog on Friday.
Gauff triumphed 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 7-5 over the Slovenian in front of a strong crowd to move into the last 16 at Wimbledon.
The 15-year-old lost the first set and then trailed 5-2 in the second, before launching an amazing fightback.
Gauff, who is the youngest player to qualify for Wimbledon in the Open era, had shocked former champion Venus Williams in the first round and ex-Wimbledon semi-finalist Magdalena Rybarikova before her latest win.
"I always knew I could come back whatever the score was," Gauff said.
"The crowd was amazing. Even when I was down match point they were still cheering me on."
Gauff will next face Romanian world number seven Simona Halep, who beat Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-1, in her hardest test yet in the fourth round.
Elsewhere on Friday, last year's runner-up Kevin Anderson was bundled out Argentina Guido Pella 6–4, 6–3, 7–6 (7–4).
World number one Novak Djokovic got past Hubert Hurkacz 7–5, 6–7 (5–7), 6–1, 6–4.
Sports Pundit staff writer @bensomerford Australian journalist who specialises on all sports, focusing on football, tennis, basketball and racing, having written for global publications including FourFourTwo, AAP, Inside Futbol and many more....
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As the home of swimming, here at Zoggs you will find all of the must-have swimming accessories to help you and your family get the most out of every swim. Helping people of all ages enjoy everything that swimming has to offer, our accessories are made from top quality materials to ensure a long lasting durability that will see you through plenty of pool hours.
With a range of accessories including bags suitable for kids, triathlons and gym bags, as well as towels for all ages. Our accessories also include nose and ear plugs, and our incredibly popular silicone Aqua Plugz.


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Home » Best Beaches » The Most Beautiful White Sand Beaches
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The Most Beautiful White Sand Beaches
Written by Carmela Rodriguez on September 3, 2018
Written by Carmela Rodriguez
Carmela is a journalist from London. She's traveled from Asia to South America, where she got (temporarily) lost in the Peruvian Amazon. She quit the rainy UK and moved to Medellín, Colombia, where she has lived for two years
← Back to 'Best Beaches Around the World'
If you would describe yourself as the ultimate beach-bum, you simply need to visit at least one of the world's most beautiful white sand beaches. There are a lot of beaches in the world with white sand, but we've rounded up a list of the ultimate, white sand beaches. And trust us — the sand is not just white, it's shimmering white. From exotic beaches in Cuba, through to white sand coves in Greece, here's our selection of the whitest beaches in the world:
By Zizoo
1. Playa Pilar, Cuba
It's easy to see why world-renown writer Ernest Hemingway's favorite beach in Cuba was Playa Pilar. For locals in-the-know, Play Pilar is the best beach in the Caribbean. It has luminous white sand and perfectly clear Caribbean waters. The best bit is that as Cuba lacks the same style of tourism as other Caribbean islands, the beach isn't spoiled by hundreds of tourists yachts. It also comes with an added sprinkle of culture, as you can spot Cuba's classic 1950s cars driving behind the beach.
By Cuba
2. Hyams Beach, Australia
Hyams Beach in New South Wales, Australia, has been labeled the whitest sand beach in the world by the Guinness Book of Records. It's an incredible, white sand beach with crystal clear turquoise waters. The beach looks equally beautiful year-round and has plenty of activities, such as snorkeling, skiing, and jet skiing. The sand is honestly so white, you'll be blinded. Bring your sunglasses!
By Flight Network
3. Navagio Beach, Greece
Navagio Beach in Zakynthos, Greece, is also known as Shipwreck Beach thanks to the large shipwreck that sits in the middle of the cove. It's one of the most iconic, picturesque beaches in the world, and the small cove has white pebbles and beautiful blue waters. The wreckage that sits on the sand is an MV Panagiotis Freightliner wreck that ran into bad weather in 1980. There are rumors the ship was smuggling contraband such as cigarettes and wine leading to its third name as Smugglers' Cove. It's best to visit the beach from April to July, or September to October, when the small cove is less crowded with tourists.
By pixers.se
4. Boulders Beach, South Africa
Boulders Beach in Cape Town South Africa is a perfect white sand beach best known for its large African penguin colony. Kick back on the beach and watch the penguins enjoying their home and playing in the sea. Any time of year is a great time to visit.
By Cape Town Tourism
5. Whitehaven Beach, Australia
Australians always talk about how their country has the best beaches in the world and they aren't lying. No list of the whitest beaches could be complete without mentioning Whitehaven Beach on the Whitsunday Islands in Australia. The beach is an incredible white strip of sand with miles of vivid blue water. It's located in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef and is known to be one of the most unspoiled beaches in the world. The beach can even be explored by helicopter, where you can get a bird's eye view of its pristine sands.
By Queensland Blog
6. Kauna'oa Bay, Hawaii
Kauna'oa Bay is a stunning, white-sand crescent-shaped beach that's one of the most popular spots in Hawaii. The beach is located on Hawaii's Big Island and has crystal clear waters. There are tons of tropical fish swimming in the sea so be sure to bring a snorkel and an unwater camera. Part of the beach belongs to the Westin Mauna Kea Beach Hotel but don't worry, there's also public access.
By Readyshore
7. Grand Anse Beach, Grenada
Few beaches in the world look like they have come straight from a 'Wish you were here' postcard, and Grand Anse Beach in Grenada is one of them. The pristine beach is the longest in Grenada, stretching two miles along the coast in the southwest. The area is synonymous with luxury, with a host of resorts and water sports nearby attracting large volumes of people every day. Thankfully, due to the size of the beach, it never feels too crowded. Find a spot on the powdery sand and look out onto the capital, Fort George, across the azure water on a clear day.
By Youtube
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Calling for A Radical Shift: Keep Afrikaans but…
[intro]The University of Free State (UFS) has been running a No-to-Racism Campaign. The campus communities are encouraged to take a stand against all forms of intolerance. As part of this process the university hosted an Assembly on 28th April. Papers were presented on a range of issues that included sport, the curriculum and language policy. The latter drew the most submissions. We provide here a summary of the submission by Dr Willy Nel, a lecturer in the Faculty of Education.[/intro]
The allegation that the Afrikaans language gets used to exclude some and privilege others has been made loudly at many forums of the university. Given the historical moment of collective introspection and abhorrence of the violent expressions against African nationality difference that is gripping the country, it is opportune for the UFS to open the language issue afresh.
I submit that Afrikaans be retained as a medium of teaching but in a translated format with the main medium of delivery being English. Where practicable, in terms of Afrikaans majority numbers per module, consideration can be given to translation from Afrikaans to English. This submission is by no means meant to denigrate the Afrikaans language because such denigration can never serve the Human Project of our vision. It is meant to bring students together in one class space, as far as possible, for the creative tension that difference may bring in service of continuous transformation. Sotho, like Afrikaans, should also serve as a translated language from English, the medium of instruction at UFS.
Our Language Future
1. My input rests on the assumption that our language landscape at the UFS Bloemfontein campus shifted already, as borne out by empirical evidence concerning our student demographic. Already lecturers and managers are exercising different options to the parallel dispensation, e.g. just yesterday I taught a class of first year students in the medium of English with simultaneous translation into Afrikaans which only one student took advantage of. Another example is the English medium in which most meetings and formal gatherings are held on this campus. So, I will not belabour the point of advocating for a change in language practice; the change is here and it points towards English as medium of communication with Afrikaans and Sotho as simultaneous translated languages.
2. Before I get to my main arguments, I would like to take issue with an embedded assumption in the title of this dialogue: parallel language. This assumption rests on the inherited claim to normality of having English and Afrikaans as languages of teaching and learning in South Africa. Through explicit omission, this assumption commits violence against the many other South African languages which we are apartheid-conditioned to not even think of as mediums of teaching and learning. The assumption betrays the psycho-political damage yet to be acknowledged by the leaders who dreamed up the title of this dialogue.
3. "South Africa is a strange and morally tangled place to live in" (Vice, 2010:323), Samantha Vice wrote in her paper "How do I Live in This Strange Place?" This paper sparked outrage in white circles because some people interpreted her call to an "inward moral project" (p.339) as that she asked of them to remain silent on all matters political. Francis Nyamnjoh recently reiterated his social anthropological analysis of 2006 that our world, as frontier Africans, "is characterized by…interconnections, inextricable entanglements, creative interdependencies" (Nyamnjoh, 2015:6).
Realsing Social Justice
4. Living in such a world of entanglement places on us a responsibility of hard work to realise social justice. Amilcar Cabral, in his 1965 essay "Tell no lies, Claim no easy victories", cautioned his comrades not to become complacent by halting their political consciousness project as victory over Portuguese colonisation in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde `became certain.
5. What are these entanglements in linguistic terms? Probably every South African language contains words, phrases and meanings derived from other South African languages. By bringing into our expression of thoughts languages different to the one that mainly carries our meaning we link ourselves to the speakers of those languages, consciously or not. A South African linguistic conscience can therefore never be purist nor exclusionist. How we then deal with the pragmatic choices we have to make should exemplify this conscience. Differently put, the reasons we advance for our pragmatic language choices should be informed by the entangled linguistic conscience we, in any case, live.
6. Our pragmatic choices should, therefore, be informed by a strive for inclusivity, not exclusion, or, as Nyamnjoh (2015) put it "a winner takes all logic". As we make our choice for English it should not be accompanied by triumphalist expressions exclaiming a victory over the "language of the oppressor", the misguided label given to Afrikaans by over-enthusiastic activists.
7. We are not just private persons, we are entangled in a web of public roles; student, resident, citizen. As public persons we should be aware of the shame and guilt that complicity in violent participation brings. The inward moral project to deal with the shame and guilt that Samantha Vice suggested to her fellow white South Africans, is one that black South Africans can surely also heed.
Horror & Fascination
8. If black South Africans regard Afrikaans as that which invokes horror, we will do well to note that such an abjection is also another entanglement or braid of "horror and fascination" (Kristeva, 1982:209). When we reject contact with Afrikaans from such a position of abjection, we simultaneously express "an unwillingness to have a face-to-face confrontation with the abject" (p.209).
9. Abjection is the revulsion we feel, at a deep psychological level, for that which we reject but which is also part of us; faeces or human excrement comes to mind as an easy example. We do not want to handle it, nor be confronted with it because it is too ghastly to contemplate but still we have some connection to it, as our uncomfortable jokes many times exemplify. The entangled South African linguistic consciousness is linked to this abject of language rejection. The same linguistic consciousness makes us aware of our speech in which the rejected language so liberally features; the Afrikaans word "deurmekaar" is one such reminder when we cannot find the exact descriptive word in the other language we use at the time.
10. Inasmuch as the language shift would pragmatically retain Afrikaans as a simultaneously translated language we should use the fascination that the abjection for its former politically strong position invokes. The fascination that many non-Afrikaans speakers have for the language is rooted in its establishment as an academic medium. This fascination should move us to fast-track the development of Sotho, as another pragmatic language choice, for simultaneous translation.
Avoiding the Pitfalls
11. It is through such praxis that we will avoid the pitfalls of only justification and implementation discourses around the use of English for inclusion and move towards a transformative discourse (Artiles, Harris-Murri & Rostenberg, 2006). The justification discourse is undergirded by an individualistic view of social justice which emphasises access and the power of individual merit. The implementation discourse, although having a communitarian view of social justice, is constrained by the thrust for community consensus at the expense of minority dissent. A transformative discourse seeks complex understandings and practices in all their incompleteness. A transformative discourse works against marginalization at the same time that it notes historical and structural inequities.
12. In conclusion, recognizing that incompleteness is a given in whatever social endeavour we embark upon, the language shift at the UFS should happen such that this university is still attractive to speakers of the Afrikaans and Sotho languages. In an environment that is mono-anything, chances are good that new forms of oppression might arise. It is better to live and deal with the tensions and oppressions that we know than planning for an unknown.
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