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Today is Halloween. For some it has it's roots in Pagan festivals such as the Gaelic Samhain, the Welsh Calan Gaeaf or the Cornish Allentide. For others it is a festival of purely Christian origin. Either way, it's definitely about death. At the end of October everything around you seems to be dying. The leaves are falling from the trees, plants wither away, even the sun is not looking too good. It's really not surprising that, gathered around a fire, surrounded by flickering shadows and contemplating the long winter ahead, the thoughts of our ancestors turned a bit morbid.
The transition between the very end of harvest and the darker half of the year was seen as a liminal time, which means 'on the threshold'. Celtic people believed whatever separated our world from the world of gods, powerful spirits and the dead became less distinct. For Gaelic people this meant that the aos sí, the fairy folk, could easily pass into our world. So you had to be pretty careful. Gaelic fairies are not at all like the ones you meet in children's fairy stories. They are volatile and capricious. If you left offerings of food and drink outside their dwellings at Samhain, they might allow your livestock to survive the winter. The aos sí lived underground, beneath great mounds of earth. When the mounds were excavated in later times by archaeologists, they were found to be ancient burial mounds. So likely the aos sí are a folk memory of ancient, long dead ancestors. This explains why people also believed Samhain was a time when their dead relatives might be able to return to them. This doesn't seem to be something they were afraid of. Candles would be left burning to guide the dead back home.
From at least the sixteenth century, the celebrations often included people dressing up and going form house to house asking for small gifts in return for a verse or a song. In some areas of Ireland and Wales, they also brought along the decorated skull of a horse. In the early 1850s, a man named William Hackett of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society describes a parade of youths, blowing cow horns and led by a man dressed in a white sheet topped with a horses head. The poem they recited, he said, was obviously pagan and contained two names that would not be tolerated, had they been uttered elsewhere. Mysteriously, he goes on to say that archaeologists will know which names he means. I, however, do not know. The homes visited by such processions could expect good fortune as a reward for their gifts or terrible disasters if they refused to comply. Perhaps originally the visitors represented the fairies or the souls of the dead and were accepting gifts on their behalf. It's easy to see how the tradition of trick or treating might have come about. The Halloween lanterns, which were carved from turnips and carried on the procession, may have represented the souls of the dead. But perhaps they were just added to make the whole ordeal seem more frightening.
As well as honouring the dead, people also believed that the blurring of the world of fairies and magic with our own gave them powers of divination. There are many games and customs associated with Halloween which are about predicting who a person will marry, or who will die in the following year. Roasting nuts over a fire was supposed to indicate whether your lover would be faithful or not. If the nut cracks or jumps, that is not a good sign. Apples were often used in divining your future spouse. If you could cut off the peel in one single length and throw it over your shoulder, the way it landed would reveal the first letter of your future partner's name. Or if you ate an apple while gazing into a mirror, their face would appear behind your shoulder. If you saw a skull however, it meant that you would die before you married. Most of these seem to have been games played by young women, but the Scottish poet Robert Burns tells us about one played by men. Three luggies (dishes) would be placed on the hearth. One contained clean water, one dirty water and the third was empty. Each man would be blindfolded and asked to dip his fingers in one of the bowls, which had been shuffled about to prevent cheating. If he chose the bowl of clean water, he would marry a maid, the dirty water meant he would marry a widow and the empty bowl, that he would die a bachelor. Speaking as a widow myself, I don't much care for being likened to a bowl of dirty water, but luckily, we live in more enlightened times.
Death was very much on the minds of people celebrating Calan Gaeaf in Wales. There, everyone would write their names on stones and place them around a bonfire. When the fire died down, everyone would run home because there was an evil spirit about. This spirit took the form of a tailless black sow and a headless woman who would devour their souls, which is pretty disquieting. In the morning, they would go back and look at the stones. If anyone's was missing, it meant that they would die in the following year.
Apples feature very heavily in the Cornish Halloween festival of Allentide, named for Saint Allen, about whom we know nothing. The most important part of the celebration was the giving of shiny red apples to family and friends as tokens of good luck. There was a time when no child would sleep happily on Halloween night without an Allen Apple tucked safely beneath their pillow. Apples are a pretty big feature of Halloween in general. Bobbing for apples is well known, but we came across a more dangerous version associated with Allentide. A cross would be made from two pieces of wood and four candles would be placed on each arm of the cross. It would be hung from the ceiling with apples dangling on strings underneath. The purpose was the same, to get a bite of the apple, but if you weren't quick enough, the hot wax from the candles would drip in your face.
Some of the older Christian beliefs connected with Halloween are no less disturbing. All Hallows Eve was a day to pray for the souls of the recently departed. You might find groups of men dressed in black walking the streets and ringing a mournful sounding bell to remind us all about it. People believed that the souls of people who had died during the year could not get to heaven until All Saints Day on November 1st. So if any of the dead had any grievance with you, Halloween was their last chance to get at you. So it was best to go about in disguise on that day. It was also possible that all the dead could rise up from their graves on that night, for a wild and hideous carnival known as the Danse Macabre. The image features in many medieval church decorations and reminds us that whoever we are, death awaits us all.
Posted on October 31, 2015 October 31, 2015 Categories british and brilliantTags allentide, british isles, calan gaeaf, danse macabre, fairies, halloween, samhainLeave a comment on Night Of The Living Dead
Today is the anniversary of the 1938 CBS radio broadcast of 'The War of the Worlds' which was directed and narrated by Orson Welles. It was one of a series of plays called 'Mercury Theatre on the Air', broadcast live between 8 and 9 pm Eastern Standard time on a Sunday night. History would have you believe that it caused nationwide panic and hysteria. This is not really true.
The play was an adaptation of the 1898 novel of the same name by H G Wells about a Martian invasion of Earth. The play used a modern setting and transferred the action from the south of England to New Jersey. The broadcast almost didn't happen at all. Five days before it was due to air, its writer, Howard Koch, was finding it almost impossible to adapt the novel into a play. Together with his secretary and producer he managed to work out a script, but it was still quite boring. Welles heard a recording of the first draft two days later and thought it needed more urgency and excitement; eyewitness accounts and newsflashes. The script was reworked overnight and the names of real people and places were added. But CBS thought that made it too real and several had to be changed, which was probably just as well. The following day, Saturday, the play was rehearsed with a sound effects team and on Sunday the orchestra arrived and they were all set for their live broadcast of the play.
The programme was listed in the Sunday newspapers as a drama and the New York Times had it among their leading events of the week as "Tonight – Play: H G Wells War of the Worlds." It was also stated clearly at the beginning of the broadcast that it was a play. Yet popular myth makes us think that everyone who listened to it believed that they were really being invaded by Martians. The first two thirds of the drama are presented as new flashes interspersed with musical interludes. If you tuned in during this part, as some people clearly did, it would be easy to believe that you were listening to a news story unfolding in real time. Though if you were paying attention, you might notice that events escalate rather quickly. But radio was in its infancy and perhaps people weren't wise to that sort of thing.
Just over half an hour into the performance, the station supervisor received a telephone call asking him to interrupt the broadcast to make an announcement about its fictional content. With the planned break less than a minute away, he waited. The planned break announcement clearly stated that it was a play. By this time a few policemen had begun to arrive. Soon the room was full of policemen, and CBS employees struggled with them to prevent them from breaking into the studio and stopping the show. As the play ended, the producer's phone began to ring. It was the mayor of a mid-western town who was furious because he said there was rioting in the streets. But he had to hang up on the angry mayor, because, at that moment, the police burst in. Everyone involved in the play was hustled straight into a back room and locked in. Meanwhile other network employees gathered up all scripts and records of the broadcast and either destroyed them or locked them away.
Then, the press were let loose on the cast. They were faced with a barrage of questions. How many deaths did they think they had caused? Did they know about the riots? The traffic accidents? The suicides? Of course, they had been shut up in a studio and didn't know anything. They were mortified. The station's telephone switchboard was jammed with incoming calls and Welles thought his career was over.
The cast were eventually let out by a back door and Welles went straight to an all night rehearsal of a play at the Mercury Theatre that was due to open the following week. One of the cast members arrived late, shortly after midnight, and told everyone that the news about War of the Worlds was being flashed in Times Square. They all went out to have a look. The lighted bulletin that surrounded the New York Times building read: "ORSON WELLES CAUSES PANIC."
After the night rehearsal, Wells had only three hours sleep before he was called to a press conference. Reporters accused him of making his play too dramatic. While he was very sorry, and not a little surprised, to hear that his broadcast had caused so much upset, he does point out it is not the business of a melodrama to be more boring than real life.
While there was some panic amongst listeners, particularly those who had tuned in part way through, the widespread hysteria was largely an invention of the press. Very few, if any, people believed America was being invaded by Martians, because people aren't generally that stupid. In 1938 the world was an uncertain place, teetering on the brink of world war. Radio broadcasts were often interrupted by news from Europe. For the most part, the people contacting radio stations, newspaper and the police thought that the Germans were invading New York. If you missed the bit where they mentioned the Martians, this could be an easy mistake to make. Many newspapers assumed that all the phone calls and scattered reports of people fleeing their homes was evidence of a mass panic. In fact, this kind of reaction was not a common one. There was a problem in the town of Concrete, Washington, where the broadcast coincided with a power blackout. This meant that the phone lines were also down and they were unable to call friends to calm their fears, or hear the assurance that it was just fiction. So people were pretty upset there. Once the press heard about it, their experience was soon known all over America.
The New York Times would have us believe that the streets of the city were heaving with people anxious to leave town. Yet a reporter from another newspaper remembers, as he sped in a taxi towards the CBS studio that evening, that the streets were almost deserted. Only a tiny amount of listeners had actually heard the broadcast, and if they had anything to complain about it they had mostly forgotten about it in a few days. Newspapers, on the other hand, went on and on for weeks about what a terrible and unreliable thing radio was.
It's interesting to learn that, in the late thirties, newspapers were losing a lot of advertising revenue to the new medium of radio. So they had a vested interest in discrediting it. Meanwhile, a short and hastily written play that was heard by almost no one, secured Welles's fame as a dramatist.
Posted on October 30, 2015 Categories brilliant americansTags america, new york, orson welles, radio, theatre, war of the worlds1 Comment on Melodrama
photo credit: daniel torres jr.
On this day in 1964, a pair of amateur jewel thieves, Allan Kuhn and Jack Murphy, broke into the American Museum of Natural History in New York and got away with stones worth $410,000. The gems were part of the Morgan-Tiffany collection and included the 'Star of India', a star sapphire the size of a golf ball. It is one of the largest such stones in the world. Also taken were the Midnight Star Sapphire which is a large violet stone, the DeLong Star Ruby, the Eagle Diamond, several emeralds, two large aquamarines and over a hundred other natural diamonds. Historically speaking, the collection was priceless, but because the premiums were prohibitively high, it was not insured.
Murphy and Kuhn, along with their accomplice Roger Clark, had come to New York from Miami to visit the World's Fair. They also saw a film, Topkapi, which is about a jewellery theft at a Museum in Istanbul. The prosecution would later suggest that they were inspired by the plot. When they visited the City's Natural History Museum and saw the gems, they began to hatch their plan. They made frequent visits to the museum and thought they could easily get in by climbing up the outside and getting in through a window.
It does seem to have been remarkably easy. They climbed over an eight-foot fence and up a ladder on the outside of the building. This took them up to the fourth floor, where the Gem Hall was situated. From there, they climbed to the floor above, tied a rope to a pillar and used it to swing down to a window ledge. Every one of the nineteen sash windows of the Gem Hall had been left open. A gap of two inches at the top provided ventilation. It was an easy matter to slide down the window and get in. Using a glass cutter, they emptied a case of diamonds and a case of emeralds. Then, they turned their attention to the case containing the Star of India, the DeLong Ruby and the Midnight Star. Here, the glass cutting went less well and they had to smash their way into the case. It was noisy, but no one seemed to hear. When they lifted the Star of India from its display, they saw a needle pop up. It was the only stone that had been attached to an alarm. When they heard nothing, they assumed it was a silent alarm and left quickly with their haul. In fact the battery on the device had been dead for months and no alarm sounded anywhere.
The theft was not discovered until the following morning. No prints were found, but the men hadn't been very discreet about their operation. The place where they had been staying was soon found and searched. There, the police found a floor plan of the museum, books about gems and their accomplice Roger Clark. He told them that Murphy and Kuhn had flown to Miami. There was a bit of a fiasco in which they were all arrested, released on bail and then arrested again for a different crime. Then the police were faced with the problem that the men they had under lock and key were the only ones who could help them recover the jewels. Kuhn was allowed to return to Miami under a heavy police escort. The case had been highly publicised and they found themselves struggling to stay one step ahead of the reporters that pursued them everywhere. On January 8th 1965, two bags were recovered from a locker at Miami's bus station. Inside were the Star of India, the Midnight Star, five emeralds and two aquamarines. The ruby and smaller gems were still missing.
The three men were sentenced to three years on Riker's Island for their crime. The DeLong Ruby was recovered eight months later, after a $25,000 dollar ransom was paid, from inside the roof on a Miami telephone box. The Eagle Diamond and other smaller stones were never recovered.
Most of the stones taken in the robbery have a well documented provenance, we know where they came from. This is not so with the Star of India. We know that it was mined in Sri Lanka. George Frederick Kunz, who acquired it for the collection, told us that it had a three hundred year history, but he never told us what it was or how he got hold of the stone in the first place. Perhaps October 29th 1964 was not the first time it was stolen.
Posted on October 29, 2015 October 29, 2015 Categories brilliant crimeTags america, gems, museum, new york, star of india, theftLeave a comment on Night At The Museum
My favourite fact for October 28th is an event mentioned by Robert Chambers in his Book of Days. It involves a form of punishment meted out by a community on one of its members. Although it can happen at any time, Chambers tell us that he definitely heard of it happening on this day, though he doesn't tell us where or to whom. But it's pretty good, so let's go with it.
Known as 'Riding the Stang' in the north of England and 'Rough Music' in the South, in this instance it was a punishment for a husband who mistreated his wife. It was intended to draw attention to the person, humiliate them and generally make them take a long, hard look at themselves.
Everyone would gather together all their pans, kettles, tin lids, shovels, buckets, pokers, cow horns, really anything they could find that would make an awful noise when rattled and banged. Then they would go to the persons house in the early hours of the morning and give them a bit of a concert. They would also shout and jeer and implore the miscreant to show himself. Often the proceedings would be led by someone who took the part of a herald who would read the charges in the form of a short poem, with the crowd joining in where appropriate. Here is an example:
Ran, tan, tan; ran, tan, tan,
To the sound of this pan
This is to give notice that (insert name)
Has beaten his good woman!
For what, and for why?
'Cause she ate when she was hungry,
And drank when she was dry.
Ran, tan, ran, tan, tan;
Hurrah hurrah! for this good woman!
He beat her, he beat her, he beat her indeed,
For spending a penny when she had need.
He beat her black, he beat her blue;
When Old Nick gets him, he'll give him his due;
Ran, tan, tan; ran, tan, tan;
We'll send him there in this old frying-pan;
Hurrah hurrah! for his good woman.
Unsurprisingly, it's also known as 'rantantaning'. This treatment could go on for several days. Sometimes they would build an effigy of the person and tie it, facing backwards, to a mule and parade it around the town. Sometimes the offender himself would be hoisted onto a pole and carried about. It's really the same thing as being rode out of town on a rail. Chambers assures us that, in the case he describes, the community managed to achieve what the local constabulary and magistrates had failed to do. They reformed a brutal husband. Of course, whether this is a good thing or not rather depends on what your fellow villagers decide is a bad thing.
Robert Chambers helpfully provides us with a list of other punishments that have used public humiliation as the key to reform, such as the stocks and pillory which had all been banned by 1862. There was one we hadn't heard of though. It is the 'Drunkard's Cloak'. Drunkenness had been made an offence in 1551, and was particularly frowned upon during the Commonwealth. The culprit was forced to parade around the town wearing a barrel. It was also known as a Newcastle Cloak. It looks pretty uncomfortable and quite heavy. It would definitely stop you drinking though, as there's no way you could get a glass up to your mouth when you've got a barrel on.
Posted on October 28, 2015 October 27, 2015 Categories british and brilliantTags british isles, punishment, riding the stang, robert chambers, rough musicLeave a comment on Crime And Punishment
Seasoned Traveller
Today I am celebrating the life of Ida Pfieffer who died on this day in 1858. She had a fairly unassuming but difficult life until she was forty-five. Then she became an explorer, she journeyed alone and went around the world, not once, but twice. She travelled a total of 150,000 miles over sea and 20,000 miles over land.
Ida was born in Vienna in 1797 and grew up with five brothers. She enjoyed all sorts of sports and outdoor games and was allowed to dress in boy's clothes and she dreamed of a life of adventure. When she was nine, her father died and her mother tried to make her wear dresses instead. She was so upset by the idea that she made herself ill. Her boys clothes were returned to her on the advice of her doctor. She didn't really take to female attire until she was thirteen. Around that time her mother employed a tutor for her. As they later fell in love, these two events are probably not unconnected.
Unfortunately, they were forbidden to marry and she eventually married a lawyer called Mark Pfeiffer when she was twenty-two. He was twenty-four years older than her and had a grown up son. Pfeiffer lost his job after exposing corruption amongst government officials. Then he managed to lose the money she had inherited from her father by lending it to someone who didn't pay it back. She struggled to support herself, her two sons and sometimes her husband by teaching drawing and music. When her mother died in 1831, she inherited enough to give her sons a good education and have a little left over. Her husband died in 1838 and once her sons had grown up and left home, she started to make travel plans.
When she told everyone of her plans to visit the Holy Land, they thought she was mad. So, in 1842 she told them she was off to visit a friend in Constantinople. She set off there by way of the Danube and the Black Sea. But then she went on to Syria and Palestine, then back via Egypt, Sicily and Italy. She was gone for nine months. The book she published of her travels funded her next journey. Her style of writing is pretty straightforward and matter-of-fact. She can be a little judgemental sometimes but often she is surprisingly open-minded, considering the time she was writing. In Constantinople, she found the Turkish people more honest than the Europeans she met, which was not a commonly held opinion.
In 1845 she travelled through Iceland and Scandinavia. This time, as well as publishing her journals she also sold geological and botanical specimens that she had collected along the way. She seems to have found the people she met kind and helpful for the most part. Though in Iceland, she found the diet rather dull and admitted that it was her 'misfortune not to be fond of fish'.
The proceeds from that expedition funded a much grander plan. In May 1846, she set off around the world. She told her family that she was only going to Brazil. She did go to Brazil, but from there she went round Cape Horn, across the Pacific to Tahiti, then on to China, across India, Persia and Asia Minor, back to Constantinople and down to Greece, before returning to Vienna in November 1848. Her account of this journey was published as 'A Lady's Voyage Round the World.' It was extremely successful and was translated into both English and French. Her journals are packed with details about her journey. We learn that monkey is much nicer to eat than parrot. At Cape Horn, when the captain told her that on one journey, the current was so strong that his ship: "danced, turning round in the passage at least a thousand times." Far from being afraid, she was disappointed that the ship didn't turn even once.
This was still not enough for Ida. In 1851, with a grant of £150, she set off around the world again, this time in the other direction. She travelled to Capetown, then on to Singapore and Borneo. Here, against the advice of others she visited the Dyak tribe, who were known to be headhunters. When she met them and saw their display of shrunken heads, she thought the Europeans had really done far worse things in their history. Ida found the Dyak to be good-natured and honest and said: "I should be inclined to place them, in these respects, above any of the races I have ever known."
In Sumatra, again against the wishes of her advisers, she met with the Batak. They were known cannibals who had never let any Europeans into their territory. They treated her as an object of curiosity and passed her from tribe to tribe. She was uncomfortable, as they made it clear they might eat her. But she managed to persuade them that she was far too old and tough to make a good meal. From Indonesia, she recrossed the Pacific to California, travelled down to South America, then up to New Orleans, onward to the Great Lakes and Niagara, over to New York and back across the Atlantic, arriving in Liverpool in 1854. She travelled home via the Azores, where she visited her son.
Her last trip was to Madagascar in 1857. She accidentally became involved in a coup and was imprisoned for a time by Queen Ranavalona. On her journey home, she contracted malaria, from which she never recovered. She died in Vienna, a year later.
Ida Pfeiffer had dreamed of adventures and travelling the world as a child. Although she had to let go of those dreams for a long time, the financial hardships she endured during her marriage coupled with her boisterous upbringing gave her the confidence to face the many challenges she encountered. I love it when I come across a woman who, freed from the shackles of domestic responsibility, manages to build a whole new life for herself. Ida is all the more remarkable for having done it all in the mid-nineteenth century.
Posted on October 27, 2015 October 27, 2015 Categories brilliant adventures, brilliant europeans, brilliant womenTags adventure, around the world, ida pfeiffer, womenLeave a comment on Seasoned Traveller
A Warning From History
Unusually today, I am celebrating someone's death. Gilles de Rais was executed on this day in 1440 and, if the charges brought against him were true, the world was a better place for it. He was accused and found guilty of torturing and killing perhaps over a hundred children between 1431 and 1440. No one knows how many. I have no desire to go into the nature of these crimes, and beyond a certain point, I cannot do so, as many of the details were so shocking that they were stricken from the record.
What I can do is take a look at his increasingly odd behaviour that led up to the point where he thought it would be okay to lure children into his castle and murder them. De Rais was born into a wealthy family. His parents both died when he was ten and he was raised by his maternal grandfather. He inherited a great deal of wealth and acquired more through his marriage to Catherine de Thouars in 1420.
De Rais was a soldier who fought bravely alongside Joan of Arc and seems to have saved her life more than once. He was recognised for his valour following the siege of Orleans in 1429. He even officiated at the coronation of King Charles VII. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431 and, although he wasn't present, he seems to have gone a bit wrong after that. The following year his grandfather died, leaving the sword and breastplate that should have gone to Gilles to his younger brother René. It was a protest against Gilles's profligate spending of his fortune. It didn't stop him because the year after that, he'd sold most of his property and was down to his last two castles.
By 1434 he had left the army to pursue his own interests. He built a Chapel of Holy Innocents, where he officiated wearing robes of his own design. He also poured a lot of his financial resources into a mystery play about the Siege of Orleans. The play had 140 speaking parts and required 400 extras. He also provided unlimited food and drink for his audience and lavish costumes that were worn once, discarded and made anew for subsequent performances. His family became increasingly concerned about his spending habits and gained a royal edict that forbade him from selling any more property and anyone else from doing business with him.
In 1435 he fled to Brittany and by 1438, according to witnesses at his trial, he had become involved with the occult. He was trying to use alchemy to summon a demon in the hope that it could restore his wealth. When the demon failed to appear, he was asked for, and happily provided, the body parts of a child as a sacrifice. He was arrested and tried in 1440 after he kidnapped and imprisoned a cleric. He was sentenced to be hanged and the burned along with two of his servants, but spared the burning part at the last moment.
His daughter Marie built a memorial on the site of his execution, which oddly became a place of pilgrimage for pregnant mothers who wished to pray for an abundance of breast milk. There have been efforts in recent years to exonerate Gilles de Rais and many have suggested that the charges were made up by his enemies. I am very wary of absolving anyone who may have been guilty of such horrific crimes. I also think it's as well to be circumspect when looking at people who are apparently very public spirited, dress flamboyantly and enjoy the company of children.
The crimes of Gilles de Rais are often thought to be the inspiration behind the story of Bluebeard, a man who murders not children, but his wives and hides their bodies in a cellar for his subsequent wives to discover. Quite when or why it was decided that murdering wives was less of a problem than murdering children isn't clear. It seems the same to me. It's an extremely bloodthirsty story and it's heroine is rather a passive character who is eventually rescued by her brothers. If you're looking for a heroine with a bit more about her, have a look at Fitcher's Bird, which clearly has the same roots as Bluebeard. She fools her murdering magician husband, rescues her sisters, escapes in disguise and lures him to his death with a decorated skull.
Posted on October 26, 2015 July 23, 2016 Categories dead brilliantTags bluebeard, fitcher's bird, gilles de rais1 Comment on A Warning From History
Today is Saint Crispin's Day which, if you know your Shakespeare, you might recognise as the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. This was a battle in which the English army, led by King Henry V, beat the French. The odds were against the English. They had just fought another battle at Harfleur, were ravaged by dysentery, had marched for miles and were outnumbered six to one. The English won mainly because they were pretty great with a longbow. King Edward III had made a law that every man in England must practise his longbow skills every Sunday. There is evidence of where the practice grounds were all over the country in places called things like 'Butt Road'. A butt was the name for a target. Hence, the people of Shepshed, Leicestershire who live on Butthole Lane are very proud of its name and refuse to change it, despite all the jokes.
But I digress, The Battle of Agincourt is also famous because of the rousing speech Shakespeare gave to the king in his play Henry V. It's all about how much more glorious their victory will be because there are so few of them and how everyone at home will be sorry they missed it. It ends like this:
And gentlemen in England, now a bed,
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here;
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon St. Crispin's day.'
As for Saint Crispin himself, we don't know much about him. He shares his feast day with his twin brother Crispinian. They fled from Rome, or from Canterbury, after their father was killed. In some stories they settled in Soissons in France and in others in Faversham, Kent. They preached Christianity in the day and at night, they earned their living making shoes. Perhaps they provided cheap shoes for the poor, perhaps an angel provided them with leather. They seem to have been martyred some time in the third century. The story of their martyrdom includes them having thongs cut from their flesh and being thrown into the sea with millstones around their necks. Also maybe the man who was torturing them became so angry and frustrated that he fell into a vat of boiling oil.
None of these vague stories explain why they were martyred or how they came to be venerated. But they became the patron saints of shoemakers. Anyone who made shoes got a day off to celebrate Saint Crispin's Day and choose from among their number, a King Crispin. Emperor Charles V once tried to get his shoes fixed on Saint Crispin's day and found himself invited to a massive party instead. The only other interesting reference I could find to Saint Crispin's day celebrations was in the town of Tenby in Wales, some time previous to 1858. The people of the town would build an effigy of the saint on the eve of his feast day and hang it from a steeple. The next day they would cut it down and carry it round in a procession to visit every shoemaker in town. There, they would read a document which they said was the last will and testament of Saint Crispin and leave behind an article of the effigy's clothing in what Robert Chambers tells us was 'a memento of the noisy visit'. When there was nothing left of Saint Crispin but his padding, they made it into a football and kicked it round the town until they were tired. I don't think this was meant to be an honour to Saint Crispin or the shoemakers. Possibly the shoemakers didn't think so either because they used to do exactly the same thing to Saint Clement on his feast day. Saint Clement is the patron saint of blacksmiths. I can only assume that the shoemakers and blacksmiths of Tenby didn't get on.
Posted on October 25, 2015 October 25, 2015 Categories brilliant saintsTags agincourt, saint crispin, saint crispinian, saints, shoemakers, tenbyLeave a comment on Band Of Brothers


This is a great looking box of brisket! Wish I could sample it!
Score/Reasons = 9, an perfect example of what a 9 (excellent) brisket box is.
Suggestions/Comments = There is nothing that I can add to this to make it better. Stuff in an extra burnt end in for the volunteers?
Score/Reasons = 8, The burnt ends look like an afterthought. I would remove a couple slices and make your chunks larger.
Score/Reasons = 9. This entry has great balance, color and appears to be nice and moist. Wonderful presentation on the slices and the burnt ends, as they fill the box right up. It makes me want to dig right in.
Comments: Slices 5, 7 and 8 have distracting objects that could have been plucked off with tweezers. I'm hoping the light object on slice 8 is a parsley stem and not something foreign.
9 - Looks moist, nice balance, presented well.
Score/Reasons: 8 - Lagal box, but slices look dry. In addition, the slices are not as untiform as they could be. BE's look great.
Suggestions/Comments: Use slices that are unform in shape and line them up that way. Omit the non-conforming slices. Put a glaze or moisten the slices to make them look moist.
Could be a 9 if the all slices look as clean and neat as the first four. Burnt ends look terrific.
8 - Great looking brisket. Appears moist and I'd love to try it.
Suggestion: Two samples have a dark area at the top of the slice. Don't know if they are injection spots or loose bark. For better visual impact and uniformity...leave those slices out.
Score/Reasons = 9, great presentation.Meat looks juicy.
Suggestions/Comments = This is what I like to see for a brisket box.Maybe could of gone with one less slice of brisket?
9. This meat looks delicious!
Score/Reasons= 9 Good looking box. Uniform and well balanced.
Score/Reasons = 8, I can see a light sheen, but the cracking in the slices makes the meat look a bit dry. BEs look great from this angle!
Suggestions/Comments = why put 10 slices in the box when the 7th one is discolored? Leaving that one out would have made the box look better (NOT a scoring factor). Good framing of the garnish (AGAIN - NOT a scoring factor).
Score = 9, Great looking brisket box. Nice color to the bark, slices all look uniform.
Comment: the only negatives I have is there are some "meat crumbs" on the face of the slices and they look a little dry. This is not enough to bring the score down for me.
Score 8. This entry would be presented better if the brisket slices were reduced. More is not always better. I would suggest that the cook pick the better slices and reduce the amount in the box slightly.
A little more attention to evenly place the slices and maybe a spritz or brush of au jus would then garner a score of 9. Nice smoke ring and nice bark. I'd be willing to assist with your taste and tenderness scores.
Score/Reasons = 8, the slices are uneven and looks a bit dry.
Suggestions/Comments = try to make sure slices of the same size are placed in the box and add just a bit of sauce to make the meat look moist. Just a suggestion, most presents brisket in the manner presented here, Try to figure some way to present your box so it is eye catching and different than the common presentation.
I can't find anything wrong with this, looks like a 9 all the way. Nice cuts, meat looks just right, and always happy not to see a bunch of gravy slathered on the slices. Burnt ends are hard to see but will give benefit of the doubt that they're moist but not too wet.
8= box lacks uniformity, burnt ends have a sauce, possibly too much, and slices don't have a glaze making them appear to be dry. Still looks tasty to me.
Beautiful box. Looks wonderful. Meat appears nice and moist without sauce everywhere.
Score 9,Very nice presentation, definitely something I want to try.
8 -meat looks great in color. Placed well in box. Burnt ends look appealing. The slices has nice smoke ring however the slices are not layer even in the box giving it an uneven look.
Nice uniform slices. Looks moist. Very appetizing.
8. Spacing of the slices could be improved. Slices appear somewhat dry.
9....Nice box. Burnt ends have a nice bark. Slices look good.
The ten slices is a little to much. Sliced thin because of tough meat? Slices look a little dry. Spritz before closing box.
Appearance 7- very full box, always good. Make the slices look a little more uniform. Smoke ring is really nice, but not supposed to used to judge the meat, but, as we all know, judges eat with their eyes, so, flaunt that smoke ring if it is good.
9 - Excellent looking box. looks flavorful. Evenly sliced. Great looking burnt ends.


text:
package org.asynchttpclient.netty.ssl;

import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLEngine;

import org.asynchttpclient.AsyncHttpClientConfig;

public class JsseSslEngineFactory extends SslEngineFactoryBase {

    private final SSLContext sslContext;

    public JsseSslEngineFactory(SSLContext sslContext) {
        this.sslContext = sslContext;
    }

    @Override
    public SSLEngine newSslEngine(AsyncHttpClientConfig config, String peerHost, int peerPort) {
        SSLEngine sslEngine = sslContext.createSSLEngine(peerHost, peerPort);
        configureSslEngine(sslEngine, config);
        return sslEngine;
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Romney continues his habit of making politically tone-deaf statements. Here, he says he's not concerned about the "very poor." This is not surprising to anyone who pays attention to his economic policy proposals, but it's not really something he should say out loud unless his son made a birthday wish that compelled him to tell the truth for a day.
Romney does state that he's not concerned about the "very rich." However, that's about as true as "People" magazine saying it doesn't care about celebrity gossip. Besides, as the past 30 years indicate, the country is clearly doing its best for the wealthy.
It takes a great deal of cognitive dissonance to accuse President Obama of "dividing the nation" and engaging in "class warfare," as Romney has charged, for daring to discuss the country's growing income inequality while blatantly demonstrating disregard for the poor. Is this the type of unifying rhetoric he expects will cause the lower, middle, and upper classes to join hands and sing songs of brotherhood and love?
I imagine the Romney campaign's spin would go something like this: Unlike Democrats, who want a permanent underclass that is dependent upon them so that they can retain power, Romney wants the poor to strive for the middle-income status that will arouse a passing interest from him. Only problem is that repealing the Affordable Care Act isn't going to help the poor, nor are continued tax breaks for the so-called "job creators" who are not actually required to create jobs and are usually rewarded for not doing so.
It's unfortunate. You'd think that after creating so many poor people during his time at Bain Capital, Romney would have a bit more pride of ownership regarding them.


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In response to the recently unveiled Senate Health Care Bill proposal, members of the Democratic Party and residents of Maury County Tennessee share their personal stories about how the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) affected their lives. The Senate Bill is being hurried into a vote before July 4th, and aims to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with a plan that deeply cuts Medicaid and would cause 24 million americans to lose their health care coverage by 2024. Please contact your state representatives and urge them not to support the Senate Health Care Bill.


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When you a stay at The Abbey Great Malvern in Malvern, you'll be in a shopping district, just steps from Malvern Museum and Great Malvern Priory. This 4-star hotel is 16.2 mi (26.1 km) from Wye Valley and 0.2 mi (0.3 km) from Malvern Theatres.
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text:
Website: www.stjohnschurchmd.org
St. John's Church is Open!
with Safe Practices , Including Social-Distancing
Normal Mass Schedule.
ENGLISH || SPANIS
VISITORS and PARISHIONERS
Purpose & Mission Statements for St. John the Evangelist Church: Clinton, MD
PURPOSE STATEMENT: To help every individual experience the love of Jesus, become more like Christ, and after completion of earthly life, enter eternal life in glory with him forever.
(PPC January 13, 2020)
MISSION STATEMENT: Becoming "Christ to Others" by active participation in the devotions, programs, and activities of the parish; Liturgy which we celebrate with great care and devotion, Stewardship of Time, Talent, and Treasure, and The New Evangelization.
(PPC March 18, 2019)
WEEKEND MASSES:
Saturday:5:00 pm(Vigil), 7:00 pm (in Spanish) - Sunday: 8:00, 9:45, 11:30 am, 1:00 pm and 4:00 & 8:00 pm (in Spanish)
Monday through Saturday, 8:30 am; Rosary follows daily Mass
Holy Days Masses: As announced
BULLETIN DEADLINE:
Friday 11:00 am (1 week prior)
ST. JOHN'S SCHOOL TUITION ASSISTANCE FOR 2021-2022
St. John the Evangelist RE-Opening plan for Religious Education 2020-2021
General Registration Information
Plan de reapertura de la Paroquia San Juan el Evangelista para la Educación Religiosa 2020-2021
Información general de registro
Lee Mas.....
Message : from our Pastor
St. John's Church is open: with Safe Practices, Including Social-Distancing: - Normal Mass Schedule.
Houses of worship can open for gatherings not to exceed 25 percent capacity. Otherwise, they can maintain online services, drive-in services, and outdoor services of 250 people or less, as long as they maintain appropriate social distancing.
https://www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/3504/County-Phased-Reopening
PARISH OFFICE CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic
Saint John's Rectory Office and Food
Pantry will be closed starting
March 17,2020 until further notice.
Let's pray that this virus goes away quickly.
Rectory Staff
Debido a la pandemia de Covid 19, St. John's Rectory y Food Pantry estarán cerrados a partir del 17 de marzo hasta nuevo aviso.
Oremos todos para que el virus desaparezca
rápidamente.
ADW:Coronavirus Resources and Information
Guidelines for Celebration of Mass and Holy Communion What to expect when public Masses begin to resume
Saints Corner
GoTo the "Calendar of Saints"
LEARN MORE ABOUT TODAY'S SAINT/FEAST!
St. Hilary of Poitiers, B&D
BIRTH: c 310 DEATH: c 367
Hilary of Poitiers (Latin: Hilarius; c. 310 – c. 367) was Bishop of Poitiers and a Doctor of the Church. He was sometimes referred to as the "Hammer of the Arians" (Malleus Arianorum) and the "Athanasius of the West" His name comes from the Latin word for happy or cheerful. In addition to his important work as bishop, Hilary was married and the father of Abra of Poitiers, a nun and saint who became known for her charity. His optional memorial in the General Roman Calendar is 13 January. In the past, when this date was occupied by the Octave Day of the Epiphany, his feast day was moved to 14 January. …
Our Lady of Guadalupe Prayer
Your continued contributions are greatly appreciated.
St. John the Evangelist, Clinton, MD - contribute via: - Online Giving or Texting
- Please click the link below or call the texting number, as secure ways, to contribute via Online Giving, powered by ParishSOFT Giving.
Online (click link) ⇒: https://giving.parishsoft.com/App/Giving/stjohnclinton
Texting (call #) ⇒ Call to contribute via text : (301) 478-8868
Coronavirus Dispensation and Prayers
Public Masses may resume starting June 9 in the Archdiocese of Washington following the restrictions on the size of public gatherings in each individual jurisdiction.
The dispensation issued by Archbishop Gregory from the obligation to attend Mass during this time remains in effect. All persons who are subjects of the Archbishop of Washington no matter where they may be, and all other persons who are actually present in the Archdiocese of Washington who are under the obligation, are dispensed from the obligation until further notice (cann. 87 §1, 91)…...https://adw.org/coronavirus/
Visit the Media Portal to view the latest statements
Catholic Standard will also continue to provide information in the coming days.
https://adw.org/coronavirus-dispensation-and-prayers/
The Mass airs every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. on WDCW-50
through free online streaming at adw.org/tvmass
St. John the Evangelist Church
MASSES ONLINE (youTube)
Mass Celebrant: St. John's Priest
Praying through the Covid-19 Pandemic
Facebook: SaintJohnevangelist
With or without a Facebook account, one may watch Masses from this Facebook page as they are being live-streamed (08:30 AM Monday through Saturday in English, 10:00 AM Sunday in English, other times in Spanish) or, at their convenience, later.
The Bible: Old and New Testaments
ST. JOHN'S PARISH
PER the
Many people feel powerless in the face of this pandemic. We see in a devastating way how widely a virus spreads person to person. We have confidence that God allows the good that we do, our prayer and our actions, to make a positive impact on brothers and sisters. As Pope Francis encourages us, "Let us call upon him today, firmly rooted in prayer, for without prayer all our activity risks being fruitless and our message empty." (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 259)
This page is intended to provide helpful guidance to Catholics in the Archdiocese of Washington regarding participation in Sunday Mass during the Coronavirus pandemic. A PDF containing this information is available to download here to help parishes communicate this information to parishioners.
What is a Dispensation from Mass?
A dispensation from the diocesan Bishop releases Catholics from fulfilling their Sunday obligation (Mass). Since public Masses are cancelled in the Archdiocese of Washington until further notice, this means that if you live in the Archdiocese of Washington, the right thing to do is to stay home for your safety and the safety of others. Catholics in the archdiocese are also encouraged to watch our local TV Sunday Mass. The Mass airs every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. on WDCW-50 and through free online streaming at:
adw.org/tvmass
Celebrate Sunday & Daily HOLY MASSES
(Updates Implemented as officially provided/received)
-- Masses: Sunday, Daily via Catholictv.org:
http://www.catholictv.org/masses/catholictv-mass/
-- The Mass airs every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. on WDCW-50
-- via free online streaming at: adw.org/tvmass
http://www.catholictv.org/masses/national-shrine-mass
https://www.nationalshrine.org/mass/
https://www.watchthemass.com/
Please note that the Pope is televising his morning Mass for people who cannot get to church.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/taglist.chiesa-e-religioni.Chiesa.messa.html
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
* Daily TV Mass *
www.youtube.com/dailytvmass
EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network): https://www.ewtn.com/
Sunday Mass: https://www.ewtn.com/tv/schedule/united-states/
Daily Mass: https://www.ewtn.com/radio/podcasts/daily-mass-ENMASS
Mass at SETON Shrine: Livestream
Weekday Masses will be live streamed at 9:00 am on Facebook. You can click here to our Facebook page
Saints often made an act of spiritual communion when they couldn't receive the Eucharist at Mass. The ultimate goal of our lives should be communion with God and an act of spiritual communion can help a person draw closer to that goal.
http://www.romcal.net/output/2021.htm
Catholic Calendar/Holy Days of Obligations: CatholicCalSites
New Parishioner? Please click this link, select a method, complete and provide your form. Thanks!
This form can also be downloaded-- from: http://stjohnschurchmd.org/parish-forms

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Teoretsko računarstvo je skup tema računarstva koje se uglavnom fokusiraju na apstraktne, logičke i matematičke aspekte računanja, kao što je teorija računanja, analiza algoritama te semantika programskih jezika. Iako nije jedinstvena tema, njeni praktičari oblikuju istaknutu grupu unutar istraživača u računarstvu.

Djelokrug

Nije lako precizno opisati teoretska područja; ACM-ov SIGACT, a koji opisuje svoju zadaću kao promociju teoretskog računarstva, veli
"Polje teoretskog računarstva je shvaćeno toliko široko, da obuhvaća algoritme, podatkovne strukture, računsku teoriju složenosti, raspodijeljeno računarstvo, paralelno računarstvo, VLSI, strojno učenje, računsku biologiju, računsku geometriju, teoriju informacije, kriptografiju, kvantno računarstvo, računsku teoriju brojeva i algebru, programsku semantiku i verifikaciju, teoriju automata te proučavanje slučajnosti. Rad u ovom polju je često istaknut naglaskom na matematičku tehniku i rigor."
Čak i tad "teoretičari" u računarstvu sebe vide na razne načine. Neki svoj rad doživljavaju kao "'znanost' koja leži u podlozi računarstva" , iako ovo zanemaruje eksperimentalnu znanost u neteoretskim područjima kao što je istraživanje programskog inženjerstva.

Organizacije
 EATCS, European Association for Theoretical Computer Science
 SIGACT
 Nizozemsko udruženje za teoretsko računarstvo

Časopisi i novinske brošure
 Information and Computation
 Theory of Computing (časopis s otvorenim pristupom)
 Formal Aspects of Computing
 Journal of the ACM
 SIAM Journal on Computing
 SIGACT News
 Theoretical Computer Science
 Theory of Computings Systems
 Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science
 International Journal of Foundations of Computer Science
 Foundations and Trends® in Theoretical Computer Science

Konferencije
 Godišnje ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing (STOC)
 IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS)
 Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA)
 International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP)
 Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS)
 European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA)
 Algebraic Methodology And Software Technology (AMAST)
 IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science (LICS)
  International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC)
 (APPROX/RANDOM)
 Computational Complexity Conference (CCC)
 Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures (SPAA)
 ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC)
 Computability in Europe (CiE)

Vidi još
 Formalna znanost

Izvori
 SIGACT home page
 Challenges for Theoretical Computer Science, nacrt iz 2000.

Vanjske poveznice
 SIGACT direktorij dodatnih teorijskih poveznica
 Usenet comp.theory

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Soap making has been going on in some form for thousands of years. There is evidence dating back to around 2800BC when the Babylonians, Mesopotamians and Egyptians made soaps by mixing fat, oils and salts. These were likely to have been used for washing cooking implements rather than personal care. Thankfully, Soap making has come a long way since then! With better, more refined ingredients as well as interesting shapes, packaging and fragrances. At Scottish Fine Soaps we've been making luxury soap since our inception in 1974 and it is something we take a lot of pride in. We use a vegetable base for our soaps along with other top quality ingredients, each selected for their performance, safety and stability.
You might have noticed the phrase "Triple Milled" on our soap packaging and wondered what this means. Triple milling is a process that can only be done effectively in commercial manufacturing with specialised machinery. Firstly all the soap ingredients are churned together. This mix is then rolled out to just a few millimetres thick using heavyweight steel rollers. This process is repeated three times. This extreme pressure exerted by the steel rollers ensures that the mixture is well blended and extremely dense. This density is the main reason why our soap bars should never crumble or turn "sludgy"- even at the very end of the bar.
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text:
Ansell boosts profit after PPE sales lift
Author AAP 25 Aug 2020
Protective gloves and clothing maker Ansell has hiked its full-year profit by 42.1 per cent after strengthening its position in the global personal protective market on the back of the coronavirus pandemic.
Net profit for the 2019/20 year was $US158.7 million ($A220.6 million), after a 7.7 per cent lift in revenue to $US1.6 billion ($A2.2 billion).
"A number of our products are being used in the fight against COVID-19, particularly our Exam & Single Use Gloves along with Chemical Protective Clothing, which have been tested and certified to recognised standards for protection from infective agents," CEO Magus Nicolin said on Tuesday.
Sales of medical exam and single-use gloves rose by 18.2 per cent in the second half of the year due to significant demand created by the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Ansell expects to see continued sales increases in the new financial year, adding that pricing would remain "dynamic".
Sales of chemical protective clothing was up 31.8 per cent in the second half, prompting Ansell to increase production capacity to meet demand in 2020/21.
"The impact of COVID-19 on the global economy and the markets in which Ansell operates continue to evolve," the company said.
"Although we cannot predict the severity of COVID-19 around the world, we do expect it to remain a challenge through F2021 and possibly into F2022 as well."
Ansell will pay a final dividend of US28.25 cents per share, taking the total dividend for the year to US50 cents.
US Congress approves funding stopgap averting govt shutdown
Gold steady as investors wait for Fed
Virgin suspends all international flights
Strawberry growers receive $350k in relief
Oil falls as investors reassess risks
Protective gloves and clothing maker Ansell has hiked its full-year …


text:
IRS changes policies after NH family deals with identity theft
Woman says someone claimed deceased daughter as dependent
Andy Hershberger
The IRS is changing one of its rules after a woman from Strafford became the victim of an income tax scam.
The IRS is changing one of its rules after a woman from Strafford became the victim of an income tax scam.Click to watch News 9's coverage.While coming to grips with the death of her daughter last year, things got worse for Lori Weeks when she tried to file her tax return."It was a kick in the gut," Weeks said. "It was grief on top of grief."Just over one year after her 7-year-old daughter, Madison, was killed in a car crash, Weeks and her husband were filing their tax return when they learned that someone had claimed their deceased child as a dependent."I think the most disturbing thing is that there are people out there who are waiting for children to die so they can steal their identity," Weeks said.Because of the fraud, the Weeks were unable to file their return. That led to hours online and on the phone with state and federal agencies."Everybody had a different answer as to what place I should call, who I should talk to, what paperwork I should file," Weeks said.She said the IRS would only tell her that Madison's Social Security number was used three times. It gave no information about who used it, what information was stolen and how it happened.U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., got involved and criticized the IRS for not being more open with victims of that type of crime.Weeks said it took about a month-and-a-half to get her real return processed. She is now speaking out about policies that she called unnecessarily difficult on already-fragile families."Maybe this is the cause that I can get behind, and I can make Madison proud and help other families," she said.The IRS sent a letter Thursday to Ayotte saying it will change its policies to allow people in similar situations to get copies of the fake returns that were filed.
STRAFFORD, N.H. —
Click to watch News 9's coverage.
While coming to grips with the death of her daughter last year, things got worse for Lori Weeks when she tried to file her tax return.
"It was a kick in the gut," Weeks said. "It was grief on top of grief."
Just over one year after her 7-year-old daughter, Madison, was killed in a car crash, Weeks and her husband were filing their tax return when they learned that someone had claimed their deceased child as a dependent.
"I think the most disturbing thing is that there are people out there who are waiting for children to die so they can steal their identity," Weeks said.
Because of the fraud, the Weeks were unable to file their return. That led to hours online and on the phone with state and federal agencies.
"Everybody had a different answer as to what place I should call, who I should talk to, what paperwork I should file," Weeks said.
She said the IRS would only tell her that Madison's Social Security number was used three times. It gave no information about who used it, what information was stolen and how it happened.
U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., got involved and criticized the IRS for not being more open with victims of that type of crime.
Weeks said it took about a month-and-a-half to get her real return processed. She is now speaking out about policies that she called unnecessarily difficult on already-fragile families.
"Maybe this is the cause that I can get behind, and I can make Madison proud and help other families," she said.
The IRS sent a letter Thursday to Ayotte saying it will change its policies to allow people in similar situations to get copies of the fake returns that were filed.


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Douglas Lee "Doug" LaMalfa (* 2. Juli 1960 in Oroville, Butte County, Kalifornien) ist ein US-amerikanischer Politiker der Republikanischen Partei. Seit Januar 2013 vertritt er den ersten Sitz des Bundesstaats Kalifornien im US-Repräsentantenhaus.

Privatleben
Doug LaMalfa besuchte die Las Plumas High School in Oroville (Kalifornien) und machte 1978 seinen Abschluss an der Briggs High School in Briggs (Kalifornien). Am Butte College in seiner Heimatstadt Oroville erlangte er 1980 einen Associate Degree (Associate of Arts). Danach studierte er bis 1982 an der California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo und schloss dort mit einem Bachelor of Science in Agronomie und Wirtschaftswissenschaft ab. Später wurde er in vierter Generation Manager der familieneigenen Reisplantage und einer der Direktoren der California Rice Commission.

Politik
Ab 2002 schlug er als Mitglied der Republikanischen Partei eine politische Laufbahn ein. Zwischen 2002 und 2008 war er Abgeordneter für den zweiten Sitz in der California State Assembly; von 2010 bis 2012 gehörte er dem Staatssenat an, wo er in neun Ausschüssen saß und den vierten Distrikt vertrat.

Bei den Kongresswahlen des Jahres 2012 wurde LaMalfa im ersten Wahlbezirk von Kalifornien in das US-Repräsentantenhaus in Washington, D.C. gewählt, wo er am 3. Januar 2013 die Nachfolge von Mike Thompson antrat. Dabei schlug er den Demokraten Jim Reed mit 58 zu 42 % der Wählerstimmen. Zuvor hatte der nicht mehr kandidierende Wally Herger dieses Gebiet vertreten. Nach bisher vier Wiederwahlen in den Jahren 2014 bis 2020 kann er sein Amt bis heute ausüben. Seine aktuelle, insgesamt vierte, Legislaturperiode im Repräsentantenhaus des 117. Kongresses läuft noch bis zum 3. Januar 2023.

Die Primary (Vorwahl) seiner Partei für die Wahlen 2022 am 7. Juni konnte ohne Gegenkandidaten gewinnen. Er trat am 8. November 2022 gegen Max Steiner von der Demokratischen Partei an. Er konnte die Wahl mit 74,4 % der Stimmen für sich entscheiden und wird dadurch auch im Repräsentantenhaus des 118. Kongresses vertreten sein.

Ausschüsse
Er ist Mitglied in folgenden Ausschüssen des Repräsentantenhauses:
 Committee on Agriculture
 Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit
 Conservation and Forestry (Ranking Member)
 Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
 Highways and Transit
 Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
 Water Resources and Environment

Kontroversen
LaMalfa gehörte zu den Mitgliedern des Repräsentantenhauses, die bei der Auszählung der Wahlmännerstimmen bei der Präsidentschaftswahl 2020 für die Anfechtung des Wahlergebnis stimmten. Präsident Trump hatte wiederholt propagiert, dass es umfangreichen Wahlbetrug gegeben hätte, so dass er sich als Sieger der Wahl sah. Für diese Behauptungen wurden keinerlei glaubhafte Beweise eingebracht. Der Supreme Court wies eine entsprechende Klage mit großer Mehrheit ab, wobei sich auch alle drei von Trump nominierten Richter gegen die Klage stellten.

Weblinks

 Webpräsenz beim Kongress (englisch)
 LaMalfa bei Ballotpedia (englisch)

Einzelnachweise

 Wiederwahl 2016 bei Ballotpedia

Mitglied des Repräsentantenhauses der Vereinigten Staaten für Kalifornien
Mitglied des Senats von Kalifornien
Mitglied der California State Assembly
Mitglied der Republikanischen Partei
US-Amerikaner
Geboren 1960
Mann


Patients with diabetes who agree to receive text message reminders may be more likely to take their medication as advised, a study in the journal Clinical Therapeutics has found.
US researchers found that 85 per cent of patients who received text messages reminding them to take their oral medication adhered to their treatment regime, compared with just 77 per cent of those who did not participate in the programme.
Among those taking chronic anti-diabetes medication, the adherence rates were even better, with 91 per cent of the SMS group taking their medication as advised.
'This research provides strong evidence that technology can play a vital role in improving medication adherence, even among older patients,' said Dr Brian Solow, chief medical officer at OptumRx, which operates a text messaging adherence programme.
'This is of great importance to all stakeholders in health care because poor medication adherence can lead to inferior treatment outcomes, higher hospitalisation rates and increased health care costs,' he pointed out.
A free NHS service, called the 'New Medicine Service', was recently launched in community pharmacies across England to support patients during the first months of a new treatment and help them adhere to their medication regimen.


When training new shooters, especially those new to concealed carry or rookie law enforcement officers, I always provide a solid foundation of basic marksmanship.
There is, however, another critical element of preparedness and training for those relying on a firearm for defensive purposes. When I started out many years ago in a law enforcement career, my training sergeant left me with a quote I will never forget: "Don't let your equipment defeat you." I find myself constantly using that doctrine still today, for both myself and students. It applies today more than ever due to the constant new choices and technology for all firearms-related gear.
So what exactly am I referring to? Simply put, do not allow your selection of equipment be a hurdle to success in defending yourself. Tools must be deployed effectively and quickly when your life or the lives of others are at risk. If the gear you utilize for concealed carry impedes your ability to respond and deploy accurate fire…then that gear may in fact defeat you.
The following are areas where I regularly see students struggling with their concealed carry gear.
How may your handgun defeat you? Not a good fit for your hand. Too many added features that interfere with reliable operation. Safety and de-cocker mechanisms that the shooter cannot manipulate well, especially under stress. Sights that are barely visible. A magazine release that won't allow for mags to drop free and clear when an emergency reload s needed.
The choices are endless. Caliber, make and model, single or double stack magazines to name a few. Not to mention the add-ons…night sights, red dot sights, laser, extended mag or slide release, etc. To me, the simpler and more reliable the better! Don't get me wrong, I like some added features such as night sights….but I can live without most.
Bottom line: Does the handgun go "bang" every time you need it to? Does it have reasonable accuracy? Does it function well with all brands and types of ammo? Are the sights easily visible and highly functional? Is it easy to operate without lots of unnecessary manipulation? Can I shoot the gun well and do I have confidence in it and my ability and training?
Check out this list of great 9mm guns to get you on the right track.
How may your magazines defeat you? Not feeding ammunition properly, not allowing the slide to lock back, and possibly interfering with ejection/extraction. Again, to mention but a few!
I like to address the magazine separately because it is critical to proper functioning. My suggestion, use good factory made magazines for your defensive pistol, and test them! There are some excellent aftermarket mags for certain handgun platforms. But day in and day out, I use original factory mags for everyday carry.
After hard use in training you may want to consider having a second set of mags for every day carry. Inspect your mags and never hesitate to replace if needed. Also consider carrying a spare magazine for your carry pistol. Something I rarely see CC folks do.
Revolver carriers must make sure that their speed loaders and/or speed strips match the revolver they carry.
How may ammunition defeat you? There are two ways–not cycling in your handgun of choice, or not firing when you pull the trigger. There are a variety of causes, most commonly old ammo, hard primers, poorly made reloads, etc.
Another cause is human-induced and may seem obvious, but I have seen it often enough to mention, including among experienced shooters. Inattention or misunderstanding of the caliber of ammunition your handgun requires. This can of course lead to injury to both shooter and gun.
Most folks train with ball/FMJ ammo, as do I. However, I never fail to test the ammunition I carry every day in my sidearm. This is to determine if the ammo will feed and cycle without fail in my carry gun. All who have been shooting a semiauto handgun have probably experienced some failures to feed with certain types of ammo. Some handgun platforms and models are more prone to this than others. Bottom line, shoot a magazine or cylinder full of that costly defensive ammo, just to make sure.
How may your carry system defeat you? Not allowing you to access your firearm quickly, wearing your gun in a way that others can access it, having too many retention devices to defeat in order to get the gun into play, forcing you to draw in ways you're not accustomed to. These are but a few of the issues that can occur.
Your holster or carry system must secure the handgun properly. That means retaining the gun in a way that prevents unintentional loss to gravity or another person, while giving you easy, rapid access. The shortest path to such a system is a sturdy belt and holster for waistline carry or a designated compartment for off-body carry (purse, pack, brief case, etc.). You must train with the holster system that you intend to use on a daily basis.
Your decision to train cannot be minimized. In fact it may well be the most critical factor. You cannot and most likely will not prevail in a defensive encounter if you have not drawn your carry pistol from its holster under stress. Or have not fired some rounds down range in the last year. Or you're using magazines with ammo that you've not tested together. Can you clear a handgun malfunction quickly if need be?
Have you induced any stress into your training regimen? Realize your shooting efficiency will most likely drop off considerably during a high stress event…unless you have taken your training time seriously.
My final thoughts…keep your gear simple, know it's reliable, and have confidence in it gained through much good training.


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Green party ORaH launches campaign for circular fashion industry
June 8, 2015 Joy Mitra	economic development of the country, sewing machine as a prize, sustainable products of long-lasting value
The Sustainable Development of Croatia (ORaH) party held a press conference in Zagreb on Sunday to promote the concept of the circular economy in the fashion industry.
The party's leader Mirela Holy said that the campaign was targeting the young, creative generation and women and that its purpose was to raise public awareness of the circular economy because this concept was not known in Croatia.
Holy invited young fashion designers to send photographs of their creations made from old, discarded clothing and material to the email address [email protected] by June 25. She said that designers would have a chance to present their creations at a fashion show scheduled for July 2 and that the winner would get a sewing machine as a prize.
"In order for this entire concept to be fully sustainable and circular, the sewing machine is in excellent condition, but it's not new; it has been used. It's an industrial sewing machine that should enable the winner to create new value," Holy said. "We believe that there are excellent designers in Croatia and that their ideas should spearhead a new kind of economic development of the country," she added.
"The circular economy is a completely different concept because it imitates flows in nature and the eco system and nothing in it is waste. All materials are either reprocessed and new materials are made from them or products themselves are remade for a different purpose and products of more lasting values are made from them. A linear economy creates the need for buying new products whose shelf life is becoming shorter and shorter, while a circular economy promotes sustainable products of long-lasting value," Holy said.
The party has decided to promote the concept through the fashion industry first because it encourages consumerism.
The campaign manager, designer and stylist Tea Stankovic, said that designers were instructed to take a peek into their grandmother's wardrobe or second-hand clothes shops, and designer Ivana Popovic showed the "circular design" of her handbag and trousers.
["source – dalje.com"]
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EE Publishers Home»	Uncategorised articles»Nedbank and EE Publishers seminar: Enabling small-scale embedded generation in SA
Nedbank and EE Publishers seminar: Enabling small-scale embedded generation in SA
April 18th, 2019, Published in Uncategorised articles
Nedbank and EE Publishers are hosting a morning seminar on:
"Ensuring a just energy transition in South Africa".
TIME: Breakfast: 09h00 to 10h00; Seminar 10h00 to 13h30; Lunch and refreshments: 13h30 to 14h30
VENUE: Nedbank Main Auditorium, 135 Rivonia Road, Sandton, Johannesburg
PARKING: Ample parking is available
COST: R150 pp (inc VAT) payable at the door (cash or credit card)
The seminar covers the need for a just energy transition in South Africa to ensure environmental sustainability and reduce the carbon intensity of South Africa – issues of job creation, education, training, re-skilling and geo-location of clean energy resources for maximum impact and least cost.
Click here to book your seat at any of the seminars
Click here to book sponsorship opportunities at the seminars
Thabang Chiloane
Prof. Mark Swilling
Zwelinzima Vavi
Dr Roediger Lotz
Mike Levington
Mr. Thabang Chiloane is currently the divisional executive for the Nedbank Group Strategic Relations & Public Affairs division
Thabang Chiloane is a well-experienced communication professional whose work in government has provided him with innumerable contacts and invaluable understanding and insights into the working of government.
Between 2006 and 2008, Chiloane was in charge of communications for the deputy president of South Africa. Earlier in his career, he headed up communications for the Kwazulu-Natal Provincial Government, the National Department of Housing and the Kwazulu-Natal Department of Transport. He also spent two years as director, news service at the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS).
A graduate of the Argus School of Journalism, Thabang also has a Bachelor of Communications degree from the Charles Sturt University in Australia, and holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Regenesys Business School in Johannesburg.
Thabang serves as a Member of the Council of the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) representing Organised Commerce and Industry. He also chairs the Information Communication, Technology and Governance Committee. He also serves on the Council Executive Committee, Audit Committee, Planning and Resources Committee and the Student Services Council at TUT.
Thabang's journalism experience includes stints with Pretoria News and the SABC, where he won the African Journalist of the Year award in 1999. His current work in the private sector at Nedbank completes the proverbial circle.
He has no personal investments in the energy space and thus not conflicted.
Since 1 January 2019, Prof. Mark Swilling has served as Chairman of the Board of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), after having been appointed an Independent Non-Executive Director in August 2014.
Since 2015, Prof. Swilling has been Distinguished Professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition at Stellenbosch University, and since 2003, he has been Professor of Sustainable Development in the School of Public Leadership at Stellenbosch University.
From 1998 to 2003, Prof. Swilling was an Executive Director of the Spier Group of Companies, and from 1993 to 1997, he was Director and Professor at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management at University of the Witwatersrand.
Prof. Swilling holds a PhD from the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick (1994); an Honours degree from the Department of Political Studies, University of the Witwatersrand (1983); and Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Witwatersrand (1981).
Since 2007, Prof. Swilling has been a member of the International Resource Panel (convened by UN Environment), and an Edward P. Bass Distinguished Environmental Scholar for 2018, Yale University, USA.
He is a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Sheffield and Utrecht, and in 2010 he received the Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer Award for best contribution to sustainability in leadership education.
With Eve Annecke, Prof. Swilling is co-author of Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World, and his next book is The Sustainability Age: Just Transitions in a Complex World (2019).
Zwelinzima Joseph Vavi was born on 20 December 1962 on a farm in Hanover, Northern Cape, the 10th child in a family of 12. He was a child labourer, working on neighbouring farms. He matriculated in 1983 and attended Maritaaz Technical College where he obtained a secretarial qualification.
Vavi's career in the labour movement started in 1984 when he was working as a clerk on the Uranium plant of Vaal Reefs no 8 shaft, where he joined the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) as an organizer in 1987. Subsequently, he was fired from AngloGold following a massive miners' strike. He then joined Congress of the South African Trade Unions (COSATU) as a volunteer in 1988.
From 1988 to 1992, he was the regional secretary of COSATU in Western Transvaal. From 1990 to 1992, he was an interim Chair of COSATU in Vaal Triangle sub-region. He also served as COSATU's deputy general secretary from 1993 to 1999. From 1999 to 2015, he served as the General Secretary of COSATU. He served on the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) Commission on globalisation. In 1999, Vavi succeeded Mbhazima Shilowa, former the Gauteng Premier, as general secretary of COSATU.
In May 2010, the African National Congress (ANC) threatened to charge Vavi with ill-discipline. He has been critical of the ANC and government's economic policies especially the 1996 Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) policy.
In August 2013, Vavi was suspended by COSATU, and in 2015, Vavi spoke out against the expulsion of National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the biggest union in the COSATU federation. NUMSA was expelled for allegedly contravening COSATU's constitution.
In March 2015, the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of COSATU voted vote to expel Vavi, his support for NUMSA being one of the major factors contributing to his expulsion.
Vavi subsequently formed the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), of which NUMSA is its biggest member union. Vavi currently serves as General Secretary of SAFTU.
Dr Ruediger Lotz
Dr Ruediger Lotz is Deputy Head of Mission and Head of the Economics and Global Issues Department at the German Embassy, Pretoria, South Africa.
He entered the German diplomatic service in 1993. Since then he has worked in various fields both within the Federal Foreign Office in Germany and abroad.
From 2013 to 2016, Dr Lotz was head of the Ministry´s Department for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Prior to this, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Colombia, Austria (OSCE), Afghanistan and Serbia. He also was assigned to the UN mission in Kosovo, the International Civilian Office in Kosovo and the office of the European Union special representative in Northern Macedonia.
Before coming to South Africa, Dr Lotz was posted to the German Embassy Ankara, Turkey, where he held the position of Head of the Embassy's Economic Section. At the same time, he was Germany´s Regional Coordinator for Refugees and Migration, following refugee-related issues in all countries from Greece to Pakistan.
Dr Lotz studied law in Berlin, Lausanne and León, and holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard University´s Kennedy School of Government. His PhD thesis covered legal regulations for Dismissals in Labor Law in Germany and Spain, respectively.
Besides German, he speaks four other languages: English, French, Spanish and Serbian. Dr Lotz is married and has two children.
Mike Levington has over 25 years' experience of structuring and marketing commodity and energy transactions in London, New York and South Africa.
In 1998, he became head of commodities for Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), a leading South African investment bank. Within that portfolio, Mike was also responsible for managing RMB's interest in Nufcor International Ltd, and the Marketplace Company, a company that specialised in establishing electricity markets and managed the New Zealand and Singapore wholesale electricity markets. Mike established an energy practice for RMB that advised clients, including large corporates and BEE companies, which were interested in investigating opportunities in the South African energy sector.
In 2005, he became chief investment officer of Worldwide African Investment Holdings (now Phembani Holdings), a leading BEE investment house that focused on the sub-Saharan energy space. He successfully implemented Worldwide's entry into the coal-mining sector, and served for a number of years on the Coal Industry Task Team (CITT), a committee representing stakeholders in the coal mining and beneficiation sector.
In 2008, Mike established Navitas Holdings (Pty) Ltd as a general energy investment holding company that is the 100% owner of Kabi Energy (Pty) Ltd, a black-owned and controlled renewable energy development and investment company.
Mike been heavily involved in the South African energy sector. Until April 2017, after 3 years as interim CEO and vice chair of the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA), mike chaired its Green Economy Working Group. He also served as a board member of the South African Renewable Energy Council (SAREC) until April 2017.
Mike has also represented the solar PV industry on a number of stakeholder working groups as a member of:
Expert Reference Group (ERG) for the SIP8 and SIP10 Strategic Environmental Assessment processes.
BUSA Energy Task Team making input to the Eskom War Room in 2015
NEDLAC Business Energy Task Team.
Ministerial Advisory Council for Energy (MACE), and chairman of the MACE IRP Working Group making recommendations to Minister Joemat-Petterssen on the 2016 Update to IRP.
BRICS Energy and Green Economy Working Group.
IDC / SANEDI / SAPVIA / SAWEA Steering Committee for the Battery Energy Storage for Solar PV and Wind, to establish the pathway for battery storage to be introduced into South Africa.
Extending pump life expectancy
Guideline for short interval control in mining published
Nedbank and EE Publishers seminar: Enabling embedded generation in SA
Gallery: Africa Automation Fair 2019


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It is finally time to start acting on POPIA says Xperien
The Protection of Personal Information Act is a piece of South African regulation that has been spoken about at length over the better part of the past decade, but in recent years it seems like discourse over POPIA (or POPI) has died down slightly.
It really shouldn't have though, especially with the far reaching effects of a similar regulation in GDPR is having a significant influence in how technology companies conduct their business and handle data.
POPIA is expected to prove as pivotal when it comes into effect, and as local technology asset disposal experts Xperien warns, the time has finally come for South African businesses to act upon it.
This as the proposed 1st April 2020 date (yes we thought it was an odd choice of date too) for POPIA to be finalised and brought to the fore inches closer. Added to this is the fact that chairperson of the Information Regulator, advocate Pansy Tlakula, has already sent a request to President Cyril Ramaphosa to bring the outstanding aspects of the POPIA into effect.
According to Xperien CEO Wale Arewa, after the aforementioned commencement date, companies will have 12 months to get their systems and processes in place to comply with the Act for the processing and storing of personal information.
"The POPIA Act will ensure that companies are responsible when collecting, processing, storing and sharing personal information and once the Act is effective, they will be held accountable. The penalties will be harsh, lack of compliance will lead to fines of up to R10 million and a jail sentence of up to 10 years," he warns.
Speaking specifically to the storage elements contained within POPIA, the Xperien CEO notes that new corporate policies for data storage will be required, especially with piles of hard drives and SSDs lying around storage rooms and data centres.
"Disposing of old computer equipment used to be a mindless process, but those methods of the past are no longer an option with the introduction of new laws and regulations. The days of piling it up in storage or simply selling it off to staff or second-hand retailers or even dumping it in a landfill, are over," he points out.
Data at end-of-life will become a massive challenge for most businesses, big and small, he adds. This as it is often assumed that once data has been marked for disposal, it no longer requires much attention. Arewa stresses that it is essential for data security and the protection of personal, proprietary and confidential information that data is permanently destroyed, deleted or erased from devices.
"Even using the old hard drives for target practice or drilling holes in them will not satisfy the prescriptions of the PoPI Act and nor does a factory reset," says the Xperien CEO.
With POPIA looming once again, Arewa points to the expensive lessons that some companies have learned as a result of GDPR, particularly if local businesses do not want to incur massive penalties.
"It might make sense to have one compliance project that covers all bases, POPI and the GDPR alike," he concludes.
[Image – Photo by Taylor Vick on Unsplash]
Robin-Leigh Chetty
When he's not reviewing the latest smartphones, Robin-Leigh is writing about everything tech-related from IoT and smart cities, to 5G and cloud computing. He's also a keen photographer and dabbles in console games.
Tags: dataNewspopiPoPIAprotection of personal informationRegulationSouth AfricaXperien