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The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 07/23/14
Guests: Mauricio Marin, Dale Baich, Thomas Kaplan
RACHEL MADDOW, HOST: We`ve got some breaking news tonight. Thanks for joining us this hour. It has happened again, and apparently it`s just going to keep happening as long as the courts in this country keep letting these things go forward as if what we are doing in this country with our execution process right now is something other than what it really plainly is, which is human medical experimentation on live prisoners. There has been tonight another dramatically botched execution in the United States. The most botched one yet by some measures. This time it`s happened in the state of Arizona. An experimental combination of drugs that the state had never used before. The state would not say where they got the drugs before tonight`s attempt on an execution. The state fought legally until the very last minute to keep that secret, and then they injected those drugs with the secret source. They injected those drugs into a man at the state prison tonight in Arizona, again, the first time Arizona had ever tried this exact procedure, they`re making it up as they go along now, the man did not die as planned. He gasps and made noises and stayed alive for nearly two hours. We`re about to speak with a witness who was there in person to see that execution tonight. State prisons in the United States have been engaged in these experiments about ways to kill people for the last several years since 2011 and 2012 when manufacturers of the drugs that prisons had typically used for lethal injections began to cut off the supply initially to U.S. prison execution teams and ultimately to the entire United States because they figured that was the only way they could keep them out of prisons. They objected to their drugs being deliberately misused to kill people in this country and the drug manufacturers decided to block their use for that purpose. That started in 2011 and 2012. And what`s happened since then has been an escalating series of experiments, basically. It`s chaos. The state of Arizona at one point resorted to illegally importing some of the last remaining stocks of the old drugs from a dodgy black market drug supplier that they found operating out of a back of a driving school in west London, in England. As states got caught for trying to get drugs illegally, and as the legal supply dried up, the experimentation on live prisoners started all over the country. In 2012, the state of South Dakota became the first state in the country to try to kill someone not with drugs purchased from the manufacturer, but with drugs made especially for them at a compounding pharmacy. Compounding pharmacies are much less regulated than other manufacturers. They are not factories who produce drugs for the manufacturers. They just make small batches of drugs on order, usually one pill at a time. And so it was a controversial thing for South Dakota to resort to that kind of less regulated source for their drugs that they wanted to use to kill people. The results from that first execution with compounded drugs, surprised. Quote, at the -- excuse me. "As the drug was administered, the clean shaven prisoner wearing orange inmate pants with a white blanket wrapped around his body began clearing his throat and then gasping heavily. He then snored for about 30 seconds but his eyes remained opened throughout. His skin turned pale. It eventually gained a purplish hue." So the guy turned blue and he gasped loudly throughout. His eyes stayed open during the entire process. This is not what anybody was expecting to happen. That was in 2012 in South Dakota. Since then states have come up with new experiments about ways to try to kill people, state after state after state has taken measures to hide where they`re getting their drugs from. It`s widely believed that many if not most states now are getting drugs from compounding pharmacies the way that South Dakota did. But they`re now keeping that information secret from the public. All the states that are doing this, all across the country, are trying to prevent the public from knowing where they`re getting their drugs from. And as states have been running out of drugs or they have found that the drugs don`t work all that well, and they turn people blue and they make them gasp and stare for a long while, while they`re supposed to be peacefully dying, the system over this last two years without much debate has just logistically become more chaotic and more experimental over time. And this year, in the year 2014, it has started to fall completely apart. In January in Oklahoma, drugs from a compounding pharmacy were used, the prisoner they were trying to kill in Oklahoma, he gave what he thought would be his last words. He said, "I love everybody, I love the world, love my daughters for me, I`m going to miss you always." He thought those would be his last words on earth. But then they injected him. It did not go the way it was supposed to. And it turns out that his real final words were, "I feel my whole body burning." That was January in Oklahoma. "I feel my whole body burning." Then one week later -- that was Oklahoma. One week after that in Ohio, another botched experiment made national headlines when the man that Ohio was trying to kill with a new experimental combination of drugs, he spent more than 25 minutes writhing and gasping in front of horrified witnesses. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: An execution at this Ohio state prison appears to go horribly wrong. The execution was done with a new two-drug lethal injection method which was used for the first time in the United States. Witnesses say this man, Dennis McGuire, convicted of rape and murder, convulsed and appeared to struggle for breath during his execution. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say anywhere from 10 to 13 minutes, Mr. McGuire appeared to be gasping for air. I don`t know if it was air hunger or exactly what it was. But all I got to tell you is the description, he gasped deeply. It`s kind of a rattling, guttural sound. There was a -- sort of a snorting through his nose. A couple of times he definitely appeared to be choking. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: McGuire received a combination of a set of the midazolam and the pain killer hydromorphone. A mixed Ohio created as a substitute option. The producer for Ohio`s preferred drug had objected to its use in executions. A prison spokeswoman declined to comment. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: That was in January. The midazolam there was a new experiment by Ohio. The prisoner gasping and choking for more than 20 minutes. They described that execution as going horribly wrong. But the experiments must go on. Apparently, and in April -- that was just January. In April, Oklahoma decided that they would try again. Remember, Oklahoma`s last execution had been the "I feel my whole body burning" guy? So this time, Oklahoma switched up their drug experiment. They decided that they would give midazolam a try. They`d give the same drug a try that had led to that execution going so horribly wrong in Ohio just a few months before in January. So Oklahoma in April went ahead with the same drug as the botched experiment used in Ohio in January. And Oklahoma`s experiment, yes, it turns out that was the worst botch yet, at least before today. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Shortly after the state began pumping a lethal combination of drugs into the arm of Clayton Lockett, convicted of shooting a woman and burying her alive, something went wrong. Reporter Graham Lee Brewer of the "Oklahoman" was one of the official witnesses. GRAHAM LEE BREWER, REPORTER, THE OKLAHOMAN: He began kicking his feet, lifting his head and his chest off the gurney, grimacing. Clinching his teeth and a couple of moments he actually mumbled. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: And that horror show in Oklahoma, the man they were trying to kill, gasped and writhed for more than 43 minutes. The authorities on the scene in Oklahoma actually tried to stop that killing once it was already underway. They tried to halt the execution, they pulled the blinds so the witnesses couldn`t see. They called the execution off after they had already started it. We don`t know if they tried to revive him, we do know. We do know that he did eventually died. They say he died of a heart attack. And after that one in Oklahoma in April, for a while, the country stopped the experiments. Stopped trying out new ways to kill prisoners with deliberately misused drugs. But apparently the experiments must go on. And tonight in Arizona, they took another stab at it, they used the same drug that botched the execution in April in Oklahoma, which was the same drug that botched the execution in Ohio in January, they used midazolam again, and this time it went on and on and on, not for 23 minutes, not for 43 minutes. Tonight it went on and on and on for nearly two hours. It took so long, that during the execution, the prisoner`s lawyers had time to run out of the execution chamber and file a new application for a stay of execution while it was underway. Look at this. This is the brief they filed during the execution after it had already been injected. The Arizona Department of Corrections began the execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood III at 1:52 p.m., five minutes later at 1:57 p.m. the Corrections Department reported that Mr. Wood was sedated but five minutes later at 2:02 he began to breathe. A minute later at 2:03 his mouth moved. Mr. Wood has continued to breathe since that time. He has been gasping and snorting for more than an hour. At 3:02 p.m., at that time, staff rechecked for sedation. He is still alive. "This execution has violated Mr. Wood`s Eight Amendment right to be executed in the absence of cruel and unusual punishment. We respectfully request that this court stop the execution and require that the Corrections Department use the life-saving provisions required in its execution protocol." He was still alive more than an hour into it when his lawyers left the chamber where they were watching him trying to kill him, and they tried to stop it. They tried to get him revived. They tried to say this isn`t working more than an hour into it. And eventually he did finally die. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MICHAEL KIEFER, ARIZONA REPUBLIC: I`m Michael Kiefer from the Arizona Republic. This is the fifth execution I`ve witnessed. I`ve seen them done with thiopental or pentobarbital. It usually takes about 10 minutes, the person goes to sleep. This was not that. This -- it looked like that at the beginning for maybe the first seven minutes. He closed his eyes, he went to sleep, then he started gasping, and he did. He gasped for more than an hour and a half. And when the doctor would come in to check his consciousness he would turn the mike on, you could hear a deep snoring, sucking air sound. And this went on for more than an hour and a half. The whole process took -- well, you know, about two hours from start to finish. He was, you know, clearly struggling for breath. And that`s atypical because, as I said, usually an execution takes 10, 11 minutes, and you see virtually nothing. One wondered if someone was going to come in and stop the procedure because, you know, we -- you know, Troy and I were looking at each other saying, he`s not dying. The process all started at about 1:30. And by 1:40, they had the first line in. By 1:50, he was saying his -- the curtain opened, he said his last words, then the -- by 1:53 the procedure started, by -- let`s see, 1:57 he was unconscious, and then at about 2:05 or 2:03 he started gasping, and that continued constantly. I counted more than 640 -- I counted like 660 times, and that finally started to peter out at 3:33. By 3:36 it stopped. And then he called -- Director Ryan called the death at 3:48. MAURICIO MARIN, KOLD-TV: This is the first time I`ve seen an execution, and yes, it was an excruciating sort of experience to go through. It took, as I mentioned, about two hours to go through the whole process. I counted about 660 times he started to gasp, kind of looked like as if he was trying to breathe or catch air in his lungs. TROY HAYDEN, FOX 10 NEWS PHOENIX: It was very disturbing to watch. You know, Joe Wood is dead, but it took him two hours to die. And to watch a man lay there for an hour and 40 minutes gulping air, I can liken it to -- if you catch a fish and throw it on the shore, and when the fish opens and closes its mouth. So the two drugs worked, he eventually died. But I can`t imagine, this is what the criminal justice system had hoped for when they came up with this new drug protocol. And it was tough for everybody in that room. And at a certain point you wondered if he was ever going to die. It was serious. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: That was tonight in Arizona. The governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, has now ordered a review of the matter. This week the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals federal court had intervened in this case unusually to try to get the state to disclose the source of these drugs they wanted to be used, and the qualifications of the medical team that killed him. They tried to get that, the Supreme Court overruled the Circuit Court but then this is what happened when the state of Arizona did go ahead. The experiments must go on. Joining us now is Mauricio Marin. He`s reporter for CBS`s Tucson affiliate which is KOLD-TV. He witnessed the execution today, he was there in person. Mar. Marin, thanks very much for joining us tonight. I appreciate you being with us. MARIN: Of course. MADDOW: I understand that this was the first execution you`ve witnessed. What can you tell us about what you saw today and how different it was from what you might have been expecting? MARIN: Honestly, I was trying to prepare myself for this execution, trying to talk to reporters who have dealt with this in the past. They typically told me a lethal injection would take anywhere between 10 minutes or so. To be in the execution room, to see him laying down for nearly two hours was just -- just to watch it was -- just to watch it was just incredible. I couldn`t believe the execution took two hours by lethal injection. MADDOW: Was any attempt made to stop the execution or revive him? Could you tell anything in terms of the way the medical team was attending him? MARIN: Looking around in the witness room, you could see some concern on the faces of the people in charge there, looking on the other side of the glass where he was laying. We saw at least four times that there was medical staff to check in on him. They checked his vitals. It appeared that they`re looking for his heart rate, looking at his eyes, if he was still sedated or not. Those four times when they checked him, they did say that he was sedated and finally 4:00, the order came in and said that Wood had died. MADDOW: Mauricio Marin, reporter for CBS Tucson, KOLD-TV. I imagine this is a very difficult day for you. Thanks for joining us. MARIN: Thank you, good night. MADDOW: Thank you, good night. We`ve got lots more ahead. On this and a number of other stories tonight. Please stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: We`re covering breaking news out of this botched execution tonight in Arizona, in which the prisoner that they were trying to kill took nearly two hours to die. We just this moment received word from federal court in Arizona that says, District Court in Arizona, a judge in response to a request from the man`s lawyers has just ordered the state of Arizona, just ordered the Arizona Department of Corrections, to preserve this man`s body and to draw blood from it immediately. It`s an emergency motion for preservation of evidence that has been granted by federal court in Arizona. They`re ordering the Pima County Examiner`s Office and the Arizona Department of Corrections. And I quote, "to immediately preserve all physical evidence related to the body of Joseph Rudolph Wood III. Specifically the Medical Examiner`s Office is directed to make an immediate draw of blood before 8:00 p.m. local time tonight," which is 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time. From the following locations, they want blood from his left and right femoral veins, his left and right subclavian veins and his left and right ventricles in his heart. The Medical Examiner`s Office is also being ordered by federal court to preserve tissues from his brain, liver and a muscle from a location other than from the leg or arm where the IV was set. Obviously the man`s lawyers -- he`s dead, but the man`s lawyers are looking to preserve evidence here because they see this case, at least between them and the state of Arizona as not over in terms of what happened here. Again, Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona has ordered an immediate investigation into what happened and what went so terribly wrong here. One of the lawyers for this prisoner joins us next. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HAYDEN: It was very disturbing to watch. You know, Joe Wood is dead, but it took him two hours to die, and to watch a man lay there for an hour and 40 minutes gulping air. I can liken it to if you catch a fish and throw it on the shore, the way the fish opens and closes its mouth. So the two drugs worked he eventually died. But I can`t imagine this is what the criminal justice system had hoped for when they came up with this new drug protocol. And it was tough for everybody in that room. At a certain point you wondered if he was ever going to die. It was serious. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: That was Troy Hayden who`s a FOX reporter out of Phoenix, Arizona. He witnessed the execution of Joseph Wood tonight in Arizona. That execution is the latest in a series of botched lethal injections in a number of states. Again, as he said, it took nearly two hours for this man to die tonight. Mr. Wood`s execution follows a dramatic legal battle in which the United States Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Arizona were both ruling on whether this execution could go forward right up until the very last minute, including the issue of the source of the drugs that were used to try to kill him being kept secret by the state of Arizona and the state of Arizona also keeping secret the medical qualifications if any of the team who carried out what seems to have been a horribly botched effort to kill this guy. Joining us now is Dale Baich. He is one of Joseph Wood`s attorneys. He was also there to witness this tonight in Arizona. Mr. Baich, I`m sure this has been a very challenging day. Thank you for joining us. DALE BAICH, ATTORNEY FOR JOSEPH WOOD: Thank you, Rachel. MADDOW: Tonight you said after this happened, I have never witnessed an execution that took that long. The state of Arizona today conducted a failed experiment. Why do you say that and what did you see? BAICH: This was the 11th lethal injection that I witnessed, and I had never -- I have never seen a lethal injection procedure take this long. It was an experiment because the state of Arizona decided to follow the lead of the state of Ohio and use the mixture of hydromorphone and midazolam to carry out this execution, when they were fully aware of the problems that had occurred in Ohio. MADDOW: We`ve just had word from the district court in Arizona, federal court in Arizona, that they have granted an emergency motion for the preservation of evidence in Mr. Wood`s case, obviously he has died after this long, long process. Tonight they`re ordering an immediate blood draw before 8:00 p.m. local time tonight from six different positions in the man`s body. They`re also asking or actually ordering the medical examiner of Pima County to take tissues from his brain, his liver and his muscles. What is this preservation of evidence about and what will this information be used for? BAICH: Well, we will have experts review the results of those tests. But, you know, we hope that the Pima County medical examiner complies with the court order. We`re getting word that the medical examiner says he doesn`t have time to get it done. MADDOW: Wow. BAICH: And he`s not going to comply with the court order, so that`s something that we`ll be working on as the night goes on. MADDOW: How do you work on that, if the court has made the order and the medical examiner is going to flout it? What`s your recourse? BAICH: We will go back to the judge and ask him to issue an order to show cause as to why the medical examiner is not complying with the order of the federal court. MADDOW: Midway through this execution, which again you know was the longest one you`ve ever seen. It`s certainly the longest one I`ve ever heard of, and I just have a layman`s understanding of this stuff. You file, you and your team filed papers asking the federal court to intervene in the middle of the execution. He had already been injected with these drugs, something was clearly wrong, it was taking a very long time. That emergency stay request basically asked for the execution to be stopped and for the state of Arizona to try to bring him back. To try to induce -- I guess, to reverse the process, life saving measures at that point. Is there a protocol in place wherein Arizona has agreed to do that? Is that what you were hoping or expecting the corrections department to do? BAICH: Well, under the protocol, there is a procedure for resuscitating the prisoner if he is in distress during the process. And about an hour into the proceeding, I asked two of the lawyers, who were in the room with me to go out and contact our office. And we filed papers with the Federal District court, the Ninth Circuit, and the Arizona Supreme Court. The Arizona Supreme Court issued an order that the labels of the drugs be preserved as well as any residual drug that exists. So there`s a lot of work to do. There`s evidence there and we need to collect it now. MADDOW: Bill Baich, one of Mr. Joseph Wood`s attorneys, a man who was killed tonight in Arizona, an execution that took nearly two hours. Mr. Baich was a witness to that execution. Thank you for helping us understand what happened. Please stay in touch with us as this ongoing legal fight takes place, particularly as you try to get the Arizona officials there to agree -- to comply with those court orders. I appreciate your time. BAICH: OK. Thank you. MADDOW: Thank you. It will be fascinating to see in Arizona as the governor of Arizona has ordered a review after this process. It will be fascinating to see if Arizona officials who are part of the chain of custody here of this body, including the medical examiner`s office, whether they comply with this direct order from a federal judge that this man`s blood and tissues are to be preserved so there can be some inquiry into what happened here. The lethal injection process in this country, whether or not you are in favor of the death penalty or against it, the logistical process of killing people by means of injecting them with deliberately wrong quantities of pharmaceuticals that are designed for a different purpose -- this process is officially and totally in chaos right now. It is a mess. We`ll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: It is a major news day today. And there`s an important update on the Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 case. That`s of course the plane that`s believed to have been shot down by a missile when it crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday. A key part of the investigation into that crash will concern the plane`s two black boxes. Cockpit voice recorder and the Flight Data Recorder. The Dutch Safety Board is the agency that`s heading up the investigation now. And the Dutch took custody of those two recorders yesterday. They sent them to the U.K. for expert testing. Now there was some concern that because it took so long to recover them because of where they were, there were some concern that those black boxes might have been tampered with while they were in the hands of the pro-Russian separatists who control that ground, who recovered the black boxes, but who are also the people accused of culpability for possibly having shot down the plane. The important update today is that the investigators looking at those boxes today, they have said that so far they no reason to believe that any tampering has happened. After examining the first of those black boxes, the investigators say there is no evidence that it was tampered with in anyway. They say they were able to successfully download the information on that black box recorder. Investigators say they will begin examining the other black box tomorrow. A full analysis of both of them may take weeks, but at least they have started and they say so far it`s working. And that is good news. A very small piece of it on a day when there isn`t much. More ahead, stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HERMAN CAIN, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A poet once said, life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, but it`s never easy when there`s so much on the line. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Herman Cain is a person who ran for president in 2012. At one point Herman Cain was the Republican frontrunner for president, and in that presidential candidate`s debate in August 2011, what Herman Cain came cited as the words of a poet were actually the words from the lyrics to the theme song of the Pokemon movie. Mr. Cain later said they were the closing song of the 2000 Olympics. But no, actually they really were from the Pokemon movie. And who can blame him? Who doesn`t love Pokemon? At least Mr. Cain did not preened the lyrics were his own work. They were Pokemon`s work. Anyway, that was the mistake made, the claiming the words were his own. That was the mistake made by now vice president then presidential candidate, Joe Biden, when he ran for president in 1988. His 1988 presidential effort was derailed largely by the revelations that he had plagiarized a campaign speech from a British politician. Mr. Biden at the time said it was an honest mistake, but that plagiarism revelation basically killed that 1988 campaign for him. And then there were last year`s revelations about Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Remember that? We first broke the news on this show that Senator Rand Paul had given a speech in Virginia in support of Ken Cuccinelli`s run for governor there. In that speech Rand Paul read out loud whole paragraphs long sections of the Wikipedia entry for the sci-fi movie, "Gattaca." Rand Paul just copied and pasted the Wikipedia page and then delivered it as a speech. It soon emerged that Rand Paul had also given a different speech where he just read out loud the Wikipedia page from a different movie. From the movie "Stand and Deliver." People didn`t realize that Rand Paul had a real plagiarism problem. He had plagiarized a right-wing think tank in a speech at Howard University. He had plagiarized part of his State of the Union response from the Associated Press. Whole huge sections of his most recent book had just been lifted verbatim, directly copied from other people`s work. Rand Paul is a serial habitual playing plagiarist. He has been stealing people`s stuff in every conceivable context for years. All the time. Even since he`s been a senator. See, nobody realized that when he said he was a free market guy, he actually just meant that he`s a thief. (LAUGHTER) At least when it comes to other people`s words. But now there is a new one. A new plagiarism scandal, and this time it`s a Democrat in the Senate and one who is up for a very tough re-election campaign this year. It`s Montana Senator John Walsh, he`s the Democratic junior senator from Montana. He was appointed to the seat in February when Senator Max Baucus stepped up to become ambassador to China. But John Walsh has to run for the seat now for the first time in purple state Montana against a very well funded Republican challenger named Congressman Steve Danes. Danes is pretty conservative for a statewide elected in Montana but Senator Walsh has been trailing him in both fundraising so far and in polling so far. Senator John Walsh is the only Iraq or Afghanistan combat veteran in the United States Senate. He was a general of the Montana National Guard. He led combat operations in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. The "New York Times" broke the news today, that after he returned from Iraq, when he was pursuing a graduate degree at the U.S. Army War College in 2007, the general turned in his final paper for his master`s degree at the War College. Turns out whole sections of that master`s thesis were lifted without attribution from think tank reports published by Harvard and by the Carnegie Endowment. The "New York Times" confronted Senator Walsh with the evidence of the copied material yesterday on Capitol Hill. He told the paper yesterday that he didn`t believe he had plagiarized. If he did it wasn`t intentional. Today the senator`s campaign gave us a statement about it. They said this was unintentional and it was a mistake. There were areas that should have been cited differently. But it was completely unintentional. Senator Walsh released every single evaluation that he received during his 33-year military career, which shows an honorable and stellar record of service to protecting Montana and serving his country in Iraq. Admitting that it was a mistake, admitting that it happened and saying it was unintentional is obviously the right way to try to find a path out of this. Right? But the evidence that he did it is very clear. And it`s extensive. This wasn`t an incidental sight here and there, it`s throughout the paper. The War College may now face the question of whether or not they end up rescinding his degree. Since plagiarism is obviously against the rules of the school. And of course the people of Montana will have to decide if this will affect who they want to be their junior senator come November, when they get their first chance at voting on the man who is now serving as their senator, John Walsh. Apparently nobody minded when Rand Paul did it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Will people mind about Senator John Walsh having once done it, too? We`ll find out. And if ethics scandals are your field of interest today, Senator John Walsh plagiarizing his master`s thesis turns out that`s just one of a list today. The even bigger story is not just an ethics scandal in today`s news, it`s an ethics scandal about ethics and that big weird story is next. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: Aside from Hillary mania and Rudy Giuliani`s ill-fated run for office in 2008, when he genius decided to skip all of the early states. Aside from the disastrous run of Rudy and the ongoing saga of Hillary Clinton, the last time the country took a New York politician seriously as a presidential contender was 30 years ago. It was Mario Cuomo. Mario Cuomo was the beloved governor of New York for 12 years in the `80s and early `90s. And in 1984, the year after he took office, he delivered the keynote speech at the tail of two city speech at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. He delivered a speech directly taking on the president at the time, Ronald Reagan. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. MARIO CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: There is despair, Mr. President. In the faces that you don`t see. In the places that you don`t visit, in your shining city. Mr. President, you ought to know that this nation is more a tale of two cities than it is just a shining city on a hill. Maybe, Mr. President, if you stopped in at a shelter in Chicago, and spoke to the homeless there. Maybe, Mr. President, if you asked a woman who had been denied the help she needed to feed her children because you said you needed the money for a tax break for a millionaire or for a missile we couldn`t afford to use. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: That speech more than anything else probably elevated New York Governor Mario Cuomo to presidential contender status. He did not end up running for president, this was very early on in his governor days and he ended up just becoming a long serving governor of New York state instead. But everybody thought he was going to be a Democratic president. And to the extent that New York has a political family dynasty, it is Mario Cuomo`s family. It`s the Cuomo family. The young fellow you see there standing next to the former governor, Mario Cuomo, is Mario Cuomo`s son, Andrew Cuomo, who is the current governor of New York state. Andrew Cuomo is a Democrat, obviously. He was elected in a landslide in 2010. He`s now running for reelection to a second term and he is leading by a mile. But hanging over Governor Andrew Cuomo`s entire first term has been a slew of government corruption cases in New York state. One after another. You remember, Andrew Cuomo took over -- this about what else has happened in New York state politics in recent years. Andrew Cuomo took over for the guy who had to take over for the guy who resigned in the hooker scandal. Right, that`s how he got there. Right? The Eliot Spitzer guy. So that was the environment Andrew Cuomo was coming into at the executive branch of New York state politics. The state legislature was a different style of utterly corrupt, within a two-day span last year, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York announced that his office was bringing federal corruption charges against a New York state senator, a New York city councilmember, two party leaders for trying to sell the New York City mayoral race. And then he said he was also bringing bribery charges against a state assemblyman for trying to sell legislation. All in the space of 48 hours. That was accompanied by all this news footage of New York state elected officials doing perp walks. It`s not the kind of thing that engenders confidence in government. And so newly elected governor of New York, maybe with presidential aspirations, Andrew Cuomo, was going to clean up his state. The corrupt state of New York politics. He was going to reform the disgusting mess that is New York state politics and its ethics. That would be part of his political legacy, right? He tried to get good government reforms passed in the state legislature, but that legislation failed. And then Andrew Cuomo decided that he would create a commission tasked with rooting out public corruption at every level and then making recommendations about what New York state needed to do differently to avoid having half the state legislature getting arrested every couple of years. The commission was called the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption. It was made up of district attorneys, former prosecutors, former police commissioners and others in state government. They had a year and a half remit for doing their work and importantly they had subpoena power, that could commission -- the commission could compel anyone they wanted to, to turn over documents. And no one was supposed to be above the mandate of this commission. When the governor announced that he was creating it, he said that their mandate was broad, the state attorney general explained that everybody was fair game from top to bottom in New York state government. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN (D), NY ATTORNEY GENERAL: The governor in this executive order has the -- the governor has this power to direct me to investigate and inquire into any matter relating to the public peace, public safety and public justice of the state. That covers everything. There`s jurisdiction to look at any aspect of the state government. It is not specifically directed at the legislature by any means. The commission is empowered to investigate any and every aspect of the state government that relates to the issues the governor has pointed to in his executive order. But this is going to be a commission uniquely empowered to take a full top to bottom review and identify wrongdoing and make recommendations for reform. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: A full top-to-bottom review, the commission is empowered to investigate any and every aspect of the state government. A fully top-to- bottom review. This is clearly something the governor thought would help his re-election bid. Two weeks after he announced the creation of the commission, his campaign began running these ads about how Governor Cuomo was going to restore trust between New Yorkers and their elected officials. Well, today the "New York Times" published a massive, multipage story, the result of a three-month investigation that found that Governor Cuomo`s office stopped that ethics commission from doing its work, when its work got even close to touching the governor. Quote, "The governor`s office deeply compromised the panel`s work, objecting whenever the commission focused on groups with ties to Mr. Cuomo or on issues that might reflect poorly on him." As the "Times" describes, when the investigators were looking into a media buying firm, that counted Governor Cuomo as one of its clients, according to the "Times," when the governor`s office heard about that subpoena, a senior aide called the commission and, quote, "issued a simple directive, pull it back." And the subpoena was swiftly withdrawn. There was also the time that the commission sought to subpoena the Real Estate Board of New York, whose members happen to be one of Governor Cuomo`s most generous supporters. According to the "Times" again the governor`s office again stepped in to shut that subpoena down. It was a long time story today is a stunning litany, documenting how, according to the "Times," Governor Cuomo`s office stopped the state`s own commission from doing the work that he was telling the public was going to restore faith in their government. Nine months after Governor Andrew Cuomo created that commission, he unceremoniously shut it down way early. Half way through its supposed remit. And that left a lot of people with unanswered questions. One of those people happens to be the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, Preet Bharara, the same guy whose office brought those public corruption cases last year against that huge list of New York state lawmakers. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced in April of this year that he was going to be looking into the work of this ethics commission. His office had taken possession of all of the commission`s records. He says he`s looking into why the commission`s work was cut short just nine months into its tenure. Governor Cuomo`s office gave the "Times" a 13-page statement in response to the "Times`" reporting today, they called the "Times`" premise for their story legally, ethically, and practically false. They told the "Times" that it was incorrect to presume that the commission was legally independent of the governor`s office. Quote, "We could not interfere with the commission that we creation, staffed and controlled, and that reported to us. Can`t be independent of us. It is us." It is rarely a great day to be a governor of New York who has aspirations for higher office. But today was a particularly bad day to be a governor of New York with aspirations for higher office. And joining us is Thomas Kaplan. He`s one of the reporters on this story for "The New York Times." Mr. Kaplan, thank you for joining us. THOMAS KAPLAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Thanks for having me. MADDOW: Congratulations on persuading anybody in any publishing business to let you publish that many words on any one subject. KAPLAN: Thank you. MADDOW: Let me ask about the Governor Cuomo`s response. He says that the premise is wrong. This was his own commission. He therefore wasn`t interfering in its work, he was simply preventing it from doing something which would have been inappropriate. KAPLAN: Well, legally, he`s right in some ways. He established this commission with an executive order. But when he described it when he created it, it was a different story. You showed the commercial. He called it independent. He went on a barn storming tour of the state to promote it. He called it totally independent. He said it could investigate whatever it wanted to investigate. At one point he even said it could investigate him. Explicitly. He named himself. So that is a very different portrayal compared to the way he describes it now. MADDOW: Why didn`t -- do you know, why didn`t members of the ethics commission squawk publicly about these calls they were getting from the governor`s office steering them away from people close -- people at entities close to the governor? KAPLAN: There was a lot of discussion about this internally. A lot of members of this panel were elected district attorneys. They were not used to this kind of sort of political crusher and some talked about even sort of forming a group and resigning in protest. But Governor Cuomo is very powerful. It would have been picking a fight with the most powerful elected official in New York. And I think ultimately a lot of these commission members felt their best approach was to try to push back internally but publicly to kind of keep a steely face. Otherwise, they would have sort of lost credibility and the whole purpose of this would have gone up in smoke. MADDOW: We have known for a few months that the U.S. attorney has taken in records on this case, has been pursuing an investigation. We know it`s a very aggressive U.S. attorney in this jurisdiction. In terms of your reporting and what you were able to document at the "Times," there do seem to be ethical questions raised about the governor`s behavior here. Does there appear to be anything plainly illegal in what he did? KAPLAN: That`s the big question right now. It`s clear that the U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is very interested in this. It was highly unusual, he went on the radio a few months ago and sharply criticized the governor. I mean, when do you ever see a U.S. attorney do that? So he`s clearly looking at this. His office has issued subpoenas. They are calling in a staff member from this commission to testify in front of a grand jury. So they`re clearly looking at this. But what their investigation will find. I think we just don`t know yet. MADDOW: Did the commission accomplish anything before it was cut off at the head? KAPLAN: Well, lawmakers did agree to pass some new ethics laws. Nothing major. Some tougher bribery penalties, better enforcement of state election law. And they did begin some investigations, which now have been turned over to the U.S. attorney`s office and some other prosecutors. And it`s possible that those cases will turn into something. So we`ll see. But it certainly did not accomplish anything to match the way it was described with such fanfare when it was started. MADDOW: Thomas Kaplan, reporter for the "New York Times" in this ethics -- epic ethics piece today on Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York. Thanks for helping us to understand it. Appreciate it. KAPLAN: Thank you. MADDOW: All right. A most incredible thing happened today at the New York Stock Exchange that has absolutely nothing to do with stocks or politics but it`s incredible and it happened on tape. And that`s sort of a "Moment of Zen" we`ve got coming up in just a moment. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MADDOW: You know how Jon Stewart at the "Daily Show" ends his show with the "Moment of Zen"? This is my plagiarism, my affectionate plagiarism of Mr. Stewart, my shameless rip-off nominee for today`s "Moment of Zen" in America. It took place at the New York Stock Exchange today. One of the things that happened at the stock exchange is that they used the closing of the exchange as an honor. Basically the stock exchange arrives at its closing time and they ring the closing bell, which goes on for a long time. It rings and rings and rings. And then the guest of honor who they`ve invited to the exchange bangs the gavel to formally close the trading day. Well, today the guest of honor was Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Pith, who was just award the nation`s highest military award. He was just given the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary valor and heroism fighting in Afghanistan. But here is what happened when this Medal of Honor recipient gaveled the session shut today. Watch what happened. Watch. And then a second big round of applause comes from the crowd. The man does not know his own strength. Nor could he be expected to. I realize it`s not quite zen. But it was a moment of something. And it was all good. It was all good and we needed that today. That does it for us tonight, we`ll see you again tomorrow. THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END


Describe briefly the products and services for which your trademark should be protected.
"Who sleeps on his rights can lose it." - We strongly recommend the monitoring of your mark. We inform you about new confusingly similar applications, so that you can act against imitators and copycats in time. Trademark monitoring means for you the security, to take advantage of the opportunity to appeal against the new registrations timely before the deadline. In addition we advise you in case of a violation of your brand.
The aforementioned trademark owner himself.
AS A BRAND OWNER YOU ENJOY THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT. YOU CAN TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST THE USE OF YOUR TRADEMARK.
AS A TRADEMARK OWNER, YOU MAY USE THE ® MARK ("REGISTERED TRADEMARK").
AS A TRADEMARK OWNER, YOU MAY GRANT THIRD PARTIES A RIGHT TO USE YOUR TRADEMARK.
THE PROTECTION IS VALID AFTER REGISTRATION FOR 10 YEARS AND CAN BE EXTENDED AS OFTEN AS DESIRED FOR EACH ADDITIONAL 10 YEARS.
Our Headquarter-office is located in Munich, Germany, but our clients are located across Europe and the USA and around the world. If your travels bring you to Munich, feel free to stop in and say hello—it is always nice to put a face with a name. In the meantime, please use the information below to contact us. We're never more than a phone call or email away.
Für weitere Informationen, nutzen Sie bitte dieses Formular. Gerne kontaktieren wir Sie dann direkt.
In principle, trademarks can be registered in any country worldwide, eg as a Japanese or Brazilian brand, at the respective trademark offices.
Example: A holder of a German trademark would like to extend its protection to Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Poland. In this case, an application for international registration will be filed with WIPO in Geneva on the basis of the German mark (basic mark).
In order to enable applicants to register trademarks faster and more cheaply, a large number of countries, including most of the countries of Western and Eastern Europe, have become a special association for the international registration of trademarks (IR trademarks), the so-called Madrid Agreement about the international registration of trademarks and the Protocol of the Madrid Agreement.
Thus, with the IR brand, brand protection can be achieved in many countries at a relatively low cost with a single application.
The Madrid Agreement and the Protocol make it possible to submit a single application for international trademark registration to the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) in Geneva, instead of a large number of national filing procedures. The prerequisite for the application for international registration is that the applicant has a so-called basic mark in a Contracting State.
The audit is the same as for individual national trademark applications. Accordingly, in each claimed country, contradictions based on prior rights can be raised. In each country, the respective trademark office can check the brand for absolute grounds for refusal.
The protection period is 10 years and can then be extended as often as desired.
* Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have a single European case law and trademark registration office (Benelux Office). Under the Madrid Agreement, trademark protection is claimed as if it were a country (Benelux). The protection therefore causes only a fee.
** The Netherlands Antilles belonged to the territory of the Netherlands, to which Belgian trade mark law does not apply. There is a separate trademark and trademark office. Protection is granted through its own extension of the protocol.


The following black and gold artwork pieces are the most beautiful digital portrait paintings. Pop culture figures, public figures, and close friends selected for this royalty art series inspired by Afrofuturism art.
The art series represent luxury, fashion, beauty, creativity and modern royalty. Creating the royalty art series was inspired by the Art Nouveau era in illustration periods. The style of painting also emphasizes symbolism, zodiac references, and inspiration from Jean-Micheal Basquiat.
Over 400+ hours of painting have been used to create the series so far. I cannot imagine the time it would take to paint these portraits with oil on canvas at the scale that I produce them. Each piece range to 20-60 hours of painting.
When I first begin the art series I never thought that I would be spending 60 hours on a single painting. However, as I worked on each piece I learned the value of not rushing the art and creative process.
Once in a while when I get a client for a project I find myself rushing because of deadlines, which I hate but that's what naturally happens when you are working for someone else. The art that I personally create, I do so with a passion that allows me to be patient and enjoy the process even more. Painting requires patience and great art takes time to create. This is a lesson and discipline that I am still learning.
The more I paint the more I'm learning to take my time with each piece that I create.
What makes an individual the person that they are? I think it's their purpose, passion, heart, beliefs, spirituality, experiences, and their thoughts. We can never know a person 100%, but if we know enough of these things about them then we have a glimpse of who they are. A genuine person is getting more and more difficult to find in today's day and age.
Nevertheless, they are out there. As I create the artworks in the Royalty series, these are thoughts that run through my mind. It's more than just a beautiful artwork. I find that I am pushing the boundaries of what art means to me as an artist and that allows the art pieces to progressively get better. Capturing and illustrating the kings and queens I chose in the series is opening my mind to all of these internal discussions.
It's a challenge to do so in an artwork, but I care about every detail in the pieces. Each element is crucial to the visual success and completion of the art produced. We are all kings and queens who have been influenced by different cultures, environments, and circumstances. However, we are still kings and queens. The moment we realize this, we allow ourselves to become more than the average person. This mentality embeds a confidence, vision and refined will in a person.
The digital portrait paintings series begin in 2016. Gold, luxury, and culture were the key factors that triggered the collection to what it's become so far. Much of the process can be seen on my Instagram page @kenallouis. I often share the process, step by step, and speed paintings of some of the artworks on the social media. Follow me to stay updated as the series continue to develop.
Combination of colors like black and gold, complimentary colors, various tones and hues make the series as unique as possible. Every artwork created I push the boundaries and discover different elements in art that are the best fit for the piece.
I use two different methods when painting the skin for some of the illustrations. I sometimes sample skin colors or use the traditional oil painting technique, which involves blending the main colors used for painting the human skin.
Along with these hues I use black to blend and mix the colors to get the tones I desire in making each piece. Although some of the art pieces the skin is stylize or metalic in appearance because I make them reflective and shiny deliberately.
The process for each of the artworks has taken between 20-26 hours of painting/revision. Certain pieces I would take a break from for about two days and later come back to with fresh eyes as well as a renewed mind.
Taking time away is very important because it allows me to see what I would consider flaws that I was not pleased with and correct them visually.
Although the time has passed us, where we no longer have kings and queens who govern the world in Monarchy.
At least not as much as it once was, but today some new kings and queens who influence culture, society, industries and the masses. These kings and queens are viewed either as idols, heroes, celebrities and much more.
I believe we were all created to be kings and queens. However, not everyone is capable of leading, teaching, guiding and influencing others. In life, there has to be a balance between the elite and the average. This royalty art series collection is an ongoing project and reflection of these thoughts I have.
Painting each figure requires a very attentive mindset and precision regarding lighting the figures.
Creating all of the artworks in this series required a lot of time and research on each artwork illustrated.
Finding information on their hobbies, zodiacs and things that interest them was one of the most difficult things to do before creating the illustrations. The crystals pertain to each art piece and are symbolic to each one.
Progressively with the creation of each piece in the series the techniques and detail focus on the artworks continue to develop.
My goal with the art series is to make each art piece in the collection stand out in their own unique way.
Aside from the all in gold FKA Twigs illustration, the Winnie Harlow illustration is definitely the premier example of my vision for the series. We are more valuable than anyone could ever afford.
Only a select few of the illustrations are available in print via the Kenal Louis Fine Art America store page. Prints available on canvas, paper, metal and acrylic. If you would like the commission a piece send me an email at info[at]kenalsworld.com.


This is My MTH New York Central Hudson released in 2008. Enjoy and tell me what you think or ask questions.
And, the rest of my look at the Acela set. I would definitely recommend getting this set if you can get it, purely on its beautiful detail, paint job, and smooth running. Even if modern trains aren't usually your favourite, this could be the one for you… However, they are getting hard to find now. I searched for this one for the better part of a year. Then, as a nice partner train, you can get the Acela HHP-8 engine, and some Amfleet cars to go with it.
Ok so here it is! The review and operation of the TCS KAT24 Stay alive DCC decoder. It is truly a great decoder for flawless operations but has one big FLAW. Let's see it!


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Project acronym 15CBOOKTRADE
Project The 15th-century Book Trade: An Evidence-based Assessment and Visualization of the Distribution, Sale, and Reception of Books in the Renaissance
Researcher (PI) Cristina Dondi
Summary The idea that underpins this project is to use the material evidence from thousands of surviving 15th-c. books, as well as unique documentary evidence — the unpublished ledger of a Venetian bookseller in the 1480s which records the sale of 25,000 printed books with their prices — to address four fundamental questions relating to the introduction of printing in the West which have so far eluded scholarship, partly because of lack of evidence, partly because of the lack of effective tools to deal with existing evidence. The book trade differs from other trades operating in the medieval and early modern periods in that the goods traded survive in considerable numbers. Not only do they survive, but many of them bear stratified evidence of their history in the form of marks of ownership, prices, manuscript annotations, binding and decoration styles. A British Academy pilot project conceived by the PI produced a now internationally-used database which gathers together this kind of evidence for thousands of surviving 15th-c. printed books. For the first time, this makes it possible to track the circulation of books, their trade routes and later collecting, across Europe and the USA, and throughout the centuries. The objectives of this project are to examine (1) the distribution and trade-routes, national and international, of 15th-c. printed books, along with the identity of the buyers and users (private, institutional, religious, lay, female, male, and by profession) and their reading practices; (2) the books' contemporary market value; (3) the transmission and dissemination of the texts they contain, their survival and their loss (rebalancing potentially skewed scholarship); and (4) the circulation and re-use of the illustrations they contain. Finally, the project will experiment with the application of scientific visualization techniques to represent, geographically and chronologically, the movement of 15th-c. printed books and of the texts they contain.
The idea that underpins this project is to use the material evidence from thousands of surviving 15th-c. books, as well as unique documentary evidence — the unpublished ledger of a Venetian bookseller in the 1480s which records the sale of 25,000 printed books with their prices — to address four fundamental questions relating to the introduction of printing in the West which have so far eluded scholarship, partly because of lack of evidence, partly because of the lack of effective tools to deal with existing evidence. The book trade differs from other trades operating in the medieval and early modern periods in that the goods traded survive in considerable numbers. Not only do they survive, but many of them bear stratified evidence of their history in the form of marks of ownership, prices, manuscript annotations, binding and decoration styles. A British Academy pilot project conceived by the PI produced a now internationally-used database which gathers together this kind of evidence for thousands of surviving 15th-c. printed books. For the first time, this makes it possible to track the circulation of books, their trade routes and later collecting, across Europe and the USA, and throughout the centuries. The objectives of this project are to examine (1) the distribution and trade-routes, national and international, of 15th-c. printed books, along with the identity of the buyers and users (private, institutional, religious, lay, female, male, and by profession) and their reading practices; (2) the books' contemporary market value; (3) the transmission and dissemination of the texts they contain, their survival and their loss (rebalancing potentially skewed scholarship); and (4) the circulation and re-use of the illustrations they contain. Finally, the project will experiment with the application of scientific visualization techniques to represent, geographically and chronologically, the movement of 15th-c. printed books and of the texts they contain.
Project acronym ADaPt
Project Adaptation, Dispersals and Phenotype: understanding the roles of climate, natural selection and energetics in shaping global hunter-gatherer adaptability
Researcher (PI) Jay Stock
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Summary Relative to other species, humans are characterised by considerable biological diversity despite genetic homogeneity. This diversity is reflected in skeletal variation, but we lack sufficient understanding of the underlying mechanisms to adequately interpret the archaeological record. The proposed research will address problems in our current understanding of the origins of human variation in the past by: 1) documenting and interpreting the pattern of global hunter-gatherer variation relative to genetic phylogenies and climatic variation; 2) testing the relationship between environmental and skeletal variation among genetically related hunter-gatherers from different environments; 3) examining the adaptability of living humans to different environments, through the study of energetic expenditure and life history trade-offs associated with locomotion; and 4) investigating the relationship between muscle and skeletal variation associated with locomotion in diverse environments. This will be achieved by linking: a) detailed study of the global pattern of hunter-gatherer variation in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene with; b) ground-breaking experimental research which tests the relationship between energetic stress, muscle function, and bone variation in living humans. The first component tests the correspondence between skeletal variation and both genetic and climatic history, to infer mechanisms driving variation. The second component integrates this skeletal variation with experimental studies of living humans to, for the first time, directly test adaptive implications of skeletal variation observed in the past. ADaPt will provide the first links between prehistoric hunter-gatherer variation and the evolutionary parameters of life history and energetics that may have shaped our success as a species. It will lead to breakthroughs necessary to interpret variation in the archaeological record, relative to human dispersals and adaptation in the past.
Relative to other species, humans are characterised by considerable biological diversity despite genetic homogeneity. This diversity is reflected in skeletal variation, but we lack sufficient understanding of the underlying mechanisms to adequately interpret the archaeological record. The proposed research will address problems in our current understanding of the origins of human variation in the past by: 1) documenting and interpreting the pattern of global hunter-gatherer variation relative to genetic phylogenies and climatic variation; 2) testing the relationship between environmental and skeletal variation among genetically related hunter-gatherers from different environments; 3) examining the adaptability of living humans to different environments, through the study of energetic expenditure and life history trade-offs associated with locomotion; and 4) investigating the relationship between muscle and skeletal variation associated with locomotion in diverse environments. This will be achieved by linking: a) detailed study of the global pattern of hunter-gatherer variation in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene with; b) ground-breaking experimental research which tests the relationship between energetic stress, muscle function, and bone variation in living humans. The first component tests the correspondence between skeletal variation and both genetic and climatic history, to infer mechanisms driving variation. The second component integrates this skeletal variation with experimental studies of living humans to, for the first time, directly test adaptive implications of skeletal variation observed in the past. ADaPt will provide the first links between prehistoric hunter-gatherer variation and the evolutionary parameters of life history and energetics that may have shaped our success as a species. It will lead to breakthroughs necessary to interpret variation in the archaeological record, relative to human dispersals and adaptation in the past.
Project acronym AFRISCREENWORLDS
Project African Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies
Researcher (PI) Lindiwe Dovey
Host Institution (HI) SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES ROYAL CHARTER
Summary A half century since it came into existence, the discipline of Film and Screen Studies remains mostly Eurocentric in its historical, theoretical and critical frameworks. Although "world cinema" and "transnational cinema" scholars have attempted to broaden its canon and frameworks, several major problems persist. Films and scholarship by Africans in particular, and by people of colour in general, are frequently marginalised if not altogether excluded. This prevents exciting exchanges that could help to re-envision Film and Screen Studies for the twenty-first century, in an era in which greater access to the technological means of making films, and circulating them on a range of screens, means that dynamic "screen worlds" are developing at a rapid rate. AFRISCREENWORLDS will study these "screen worlds" (in both their textual forms and industrial structures), with a focus on Africa, as a way of centring the most marginalised regional cinema. We will also elaborate comparative studies of global "screen worlds" – and, in particular, "screen worlds" in the Global South – exploring their similarities, differences, and parallel developments. We will respond to the exclusions of Film and Screen Studies not only in scholarly ways – through conferences and publications – but also in creative and activist ways – through drawing on cutting-edge creative research methodologies (such as audiovisual criticism and filmmaking) and through helping to decolonise Film and Screen Studies (through the production of 'toolkits' on how to make curricula, syllabi, and teaching more globally representative and inclusive). On a theoretical level, we will make an intervention through considering how the concept of "screen worlds" is better equipped than "world cinema" or "transnational cinema" to explore the complexities of audiovisual narratives, and their production and circulation in our contemporary moment, in diverse contexts throughout the globe.
A half century since it came into existence, the discipline of Film and Screen Studies remains mostly Eurocentric in its historical, theoretical and critical frameworks. Although "world cinema" and "transnational cinema" scholars have attempted to broaden its canon and frameworks, several major problems persist. Films and scholarship by Africans in particular, and by people of colour in general, are frequently marginalised if not altogether excluded. This prevents exciting exchanges that could help to re-envision Film and Screen Studies for the twenty-first century, in an era in which greater access to the technological means of making films, and circulating them on a range of screens, means that dynamic "screen worlds" are developing at a rapid rate. AFRISCREENWORLDS will study these "screen worlds" (in both their textual forms and industrial structures), with a focus on Africa, as a way of centring the most marginalised regional cinema. We will also elaborate comparative studies of global "screen worlds" – and, in particular, "screen worlds" in the Global South – exploring their similarities, differences, and parallel developments. We will respond to the exclusions of Film and Screen Studies not only in scholarly ways – through conferences and publications – but also in creative and activist ways – through drawing on cutting-edge creative research methodologies (such as audiovisual criticism and filmmaking) and through helping to decolonise Film and Screen Studies (through the production of 'toolkits' on how to make curricula, syllabi, and teaching more globally representative and inclusive). On a theoretical level, we will make an intervention through considering how the concept of "screen worlds" is better equipped than "world cinema" or "transnational cinema" to explore the complexities of audiovisual narratives, and their production and circulation in our contemporary moment, in diverse contexts throughout the globe.
Project acronym ALTERUMMA
Project Creating an Alternative umma: Clerical Authority and Religio-political Mobilisation in Transnational Shii Islam
Researcher (PI) Oliver Paul SCHARBRODT
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
Summary This interdisciplinary project investigates the transformation of Shii Islam in the Middle East and Europe since the 1950s. The project examines the formation of modern Shii communal identities and the role Shii clerical authorities and their transnational networks have played in their religio-political mobilisation. The volatile situation post-Arab Spring, the rise of militant movements such as ISIS and the sectarianisation of geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East have intensified efforts to forge distinct Shii communal identities and to conceive Shii Muslims as part of an alternative umma (Islamic community). The project focusses on Iran, Iraq and significant but unexplored diasporic links to Syria, Kuwait and Britain. In response to the rise of modern nation-states in the Middle East, Shii clerical authorities resorted to a wide range of activities: (a) articulating intellectual responses to the ideologies underpinning modern Middle Eastern nation-states, (b) forming political parties and other platforms of socio-political activism and (c) using various forms of cultural production by systematising and promoting Shii ritual practices and utilising visual art, poetry and new media. The project yields a perspectival shift on the factors that led to Shii communal mobilisation by: - Analysing unacknowledged intellectual responses of Shii clerical authorities to the secular or sectarian ideologies of post-colonial nation-states and to the current sectarianisation of geopolitics in the Middle East. - Emphasising the central role of diasporic networks in the Middle East and Europe in mobilising Shii communities and in influencing discourses and agendas of clerical authorities based in Iraq and Iran. - Exploring new modes of cultural production in the form of a modern Shii aesthetics articulated in ritual practices, visual art, poetry and new media and thus creating a more holistic narrative on Shii religio-political mobilisation.
This interdisciplinary project investigates the transformation of Shii Islam in the Middle East and Europe since the 1950s. The project examines the formation of modern Shii communal identities and the role Shii clerical authorities and their transnational networks have played in their religio-political mobilisation. The volatile situation post-Arab Spring, the rise of militant movements such as ISIS and the sectarianisation of geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East have intensified efforts to forge distinct Shii communal identities and to conceive Shii Muslims as part of an alternative umma (Islamic community). The project focusses on Iran, Iraq and significant but unexplored diasporic links to Syria, Kuwait and Britain. In response to the rise of modern nation-states in the Middle East, Shii clerical authorities resorted to a wide range of activities: (a) articulating intellectual responses to the ideologies underpinning modern Middle Eastern nation-states, (b) forming political parties and other platforms of socio-political activism and (c) using various forms of cultural production by systematising and promoting Shii ritual practices and utilising visual art, poetry and new media. The project yields a perspectival shift on the factors that led to Shii communal mobilisation by: - Analysing unacknowledged intellectual responses of Shii clerical authorities to the secular or sectarian ideologies of post-colonial nation-states and to the current sectarianisation of geopolitics in the Middle East. - Emphasising the central role of diasporic networks in the Middle East and Europe in mobilising Shii communities and in influencing discourses and agendas of clerical authorities based in Iraq and Iran. - Exploring new modes of cultural production in the form of a modern Shii aesthetics articulated in ritual practices, visual art, poetry and new media and thus creating a more holistic narrative on Shii religio-political mobilisation.
Project acronym ARCTIC CULT
Project ARCTIC CULTURES: SITES OF COLLECTION IN THE FORMATION OF THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN NORTHLANDS
Researcher (PI) Richard Charles POWELL
Summary The Arctic has risen to global attention in recent years, as it has been reconfigured through debates about global environmental change, resource extraction and disputes over sovereign rights. Within these discourses, little attention has been paid to the cultures of the Arctic. Indeed, it often seems as if the Circumpolar Arctic in global public understanding remains framed as a 'natural region' - that is, a place where the environment dominates the creation of culture. This framing has consequences for the region, because through this the Arctic becomes constructed as a space where people are absent. This proposal aims to discover how and why this might be so. The proposal argues that this construction of the Arctic emerged from the exploration of the region by Europeans and North Americans and their contacts with indigenous people from the middle of the eighteenth century. Particular texts, cartographic representations and objects were collected and returned to sites like London, Copenhagen, Berlin and Philadelphia. The construction of the Arctic thereby became entwined within the growth of colonial museum cultures and, indeed, western modernity. This project aims to delineate the networks and collecting cultures involved in this creation of Arctic Cultures. It will bring repositories in colonial metropoles into dialogue with sites of collection in the Arctic by tracing the contexts of discovery and memorialisation. In doing so, it aspires to a new understanding of the consequences of certain forms of colonial representation for debates about the Circumpolar Arctic today. The project involves research by the Principal Investigator and four Post Doctoral Researchers at museums, archives, libraries and repositories across Europe and North America, as well as in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic. A Project Assistant based in Oxford will help facilitate the completion of the research.
The Arctic has risen to global attention in recent years, as it has been reconfigured through debates about global environmental change, resource extraction and disputes over sovereign rights. Within these discourses, little attention has been paid to the cultures of the Arctic. Indeed, it often seems as if the Circumpolar Arctic in global public understanding remains framed as a 'natural region' - that is, a place where the environment dominates the creation of culture. This framing has consequences for the region, because through this the Arctic becomes constructed as a space where people are absent. This proposal aims to discover how and why this might be so. The proposal argues that this construction of the Arctic emerged from the exploration of the region by Europeans and North Americans and their contacts with indigenous people from the middle of the eighteenth century. Particular texts, cartographic representations and objects were collected and returned to sites like London, Copenhagen, Berlin and Philadelphia. The construction of the Arctic thereby became entwined within the growth of colonial museum cultures and, indeed, western modernity. This project aims to delineate the networks and collecting cultures involved in this creation of Arctic Cultures. It will bring repositories in colonial metropoles into dialogue with sites of collection in the Arctic by tracing the contexts of discovery and memorialisation. In doing so, it aspires to a new understanding of the consequences of certain forms of colonial representation for debates about the Circumpolar Arctic today. The project involves research by the Principal Investigator and four Post Doctoral Researchers at museums, archives, libraries and repositories across Europe and North America, as well as in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic. A Project Assistant based in Oxford will help facilitate the completion of the research.
Project acronym Asterochronometry
Project Galactic archeology with high temporal resolution
Researcher (PI) Andrea MIGLIO
Summary The Milky Way is a complex system, with dynamical and chemical substructures, where several competing processes such as mergers, internal secular evolution, gas accretion and gas flows take place. To study in detail how such a giant spiral galaxy was formed and evolved, we need to reconstruct the sequence of its main formation events with high (~10%) temporal resolution. Asterochronometry will determine accurate, precise ages for tens of thousands of stars in the Galaxy. We will take an approach distinguished by a number of key aspects including, developing novel star-dating methods that fully utilise the potential of individual pulsation modes, coupled with a careful appraisal of systematic uncertainties on age deriving from our limited understanding of stellar physics. We will then capitalise on opportunities provided by the timely availability of astrometric, spectroscopic, and asteroseismic data to build and data-mine chrono-chemo-dynamical maps of regions of the Milky Way probed by the space missions CoRoT, Kepler, K2, and TESS. We will quantify, by comparison with predictions of chemodynamical models, the relative importance of various processes which play a role in shaping the Galaxy, for example mergers and dynamical processes. We will use chrono-chemical tagging to look for evidence of aggregates, and precise and accurate ages to reconstruct the early star formation history of the Milky Way's main constituents. The Asterochronometry project will also provide stringent observational tests of stellar structure and answer some of the long-standing open questions in stellar modelling (e.g. efficiency of transport processes, mass loss on the giant branch, the occurrence of products of coalescence / mass exchange). These tests will improve our ability to determine stellar ages and chemical yields, with wide impact e.g. on the characterisation and ensemble studies of exoplanets, on evolutionary population synthesis, integrated colours and thus ages of galaxies.
The Milky Way is a complex system, with dynamical and chemical substructures, where several competing processes such as mergers, internal secular evolution, gas accretion and gas flows take place. To study in detail how such a giant spiral galaxy was formed and evolved, we need to reconstruct the sequence of its main formation events with high (~10%) temporal resolution. Asterochronometry will determine accurate, precise ages for tens of thousands of stars in the Galaxy. We will take an approach distinguished by a number of key aspects including, developing novel star-dating methods that fully utilise the potential of individual pulsation modes, coupled with a careful appraisal of systematic uncertainties on age deriving from our limited understanding of stellar physics. We will then capitalise on opportunities provided by the timely availability of astrometric, spectroscopic, and asteroseismic data to build and data-mine chrono-chemo-dynamical maps of regions of the Milky Way probed by the space missions CoRoT, Kepler, K2, and TESS. We will quantify, by comparison with predictions of chemodynamical models, the relative importance of various processes which play a role in shaping the Galaxy, for example mergers and dynamical processes. We will use chrono-chemical tagging to look for evidence of aggregates, and precise and accurate ages to reconstruct the early star formation history of the Milky Way's main constituents. The Asterochronometry project will also provide stringent observational tests of stellar structure and answer some of the long-standing open questions in stellar modelling (e.g. efficiency of transport processes, mass loss on the giant branch, the occurrence of products of coalescence / mass exchange). These tests will improve our ability to determine stellar ages and chemical yields, with wide impact e.g. on the characterisation and ensemble studies of exoplanets, on evolutionary population synthesis, integrated colours and thus ages of galaxies.
Project acronym AveTransRisk
Project Average - Transaction Costs and Risk Management during the First Globalization (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries)
Researcher (PI) Maria FUSARO
Summary This project focuses on the historical analysis of institutions and their impact on economic development through the investigation of a legal instrument – general average (GA) – which underpins maritime trade by redistributing damages' costs across all interested parties. This will be pursued through the comparative investigation of GA in those European countries where substantial data exists: Italy, Spain, England, France and the Low Countries (1500-1800). Average and insurance were both created in the Middle Ages to facilitate trade through the redistribution of risk. Insurance has been widely studied, average – the expenses which can befall ships and cargoes from the time of their loading aboard until their unloading (due to accidents, jettison, and unexpected costs) – has been neglected. GA still plays an essential role in the redistribution of transaction costs, and being a form of strictly mutual self-protection, never evolved into a speculative financial instrument as insurance did; it therefore represents an excellent case of long-term effectiveness of a non-market economic phenomenon. Although the principle behind GA was very similar across Europe, in practice there were substantial differences in declaring and adjudicating claims. GA reports provide unparalleled evidence on maritime trade which, analysed quantitatively and quantitatively through a novel interdisciplinary approach, will contribute to the reassessment of the role played by the maritime sector in fostering economic growth during the early modern first globalization, when GA was the object of fierce debates on state jurisdiction and standardization of practice. Today they are regulated by the York-Antwerp Rules (YAR), currently under revision. This timely conjuncture provides plenty of opportunities for active engagement with practitioners, thereby fostering a creative dialogue on GA historical study and its future development to better face the challenges of mature globalization.
This project focuses on the historical analysis of institutions and their impact on economic development through the investigation of a legal instrument – general average (GA) – which underpins maritime trade by redistributing damages' costs across all interested parties. This will be pursued through the comparative investigation of GA in those European countries where substantial data exists: Italy, Spain, England, France and the Low Countries (1500-1800). Average and insurance were both created in the Middle Ages to facilitate trade through the redistribution of risk. Insurance has been widely studied, average – the expenses which can befall ships and cargoes from the time of their loading aboard until their unloading (due to accidents, jettison, and unexpected costs) – has been neglected. GA still plays an essential role in the redistribution of transaction costs, and being a form of strictly mutual self-protection, never evolved into a speculative financial instrument as insurance did; it therefore represents an excellent case of long-term effectiveness of a non-market economic phenomenon. Although the principle behind GA was very similar across Europe, in practice there were substantial differences in declaring and adjudicating claims. GA reports provide unparalleled evidence on maritime trade which, analysed quantitatively and quantitatively through a novel interdisciplinary approach, will contribute to the reassessment of the role played by the maritime sector in fostering economic growth during the early modern first globalization, when GA was the object of fierce debates on state jurisdiction and standardization of practice. Today they are regulated by the York-Antwerp Rules (YAR), currently under revision. This timely conjuncture provides plenty of opportunities for active engagement with practitioners, thereby fostering a creative dialogue on GA historical study and its future development to better face the challenges of mature globalization.
Project acronym BAHAMAS
Project A holistic approach to large-scale structure cosmology
Researcher (PI) Ian MCCARTHY
Host Institution (HI) LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY
Summary The standard model of cosmology, the ɅCDM model, is remarkably successful at explaining a wide range of observations of our Universe. However, it is now being subjected to much more stringent tests than ever before, and recent large-scale structure (LSS) measurements appear to be in tension with its predictions. Is this tension signalling that new physics is required? For example, time-varying dark energy, or perhaps a modified theory of gravity? A contribution from massive neutrinos? Before coming to such bold conclusions we must be certain that all of the important systematic errors in the LSS tests have been accounted for. Presently, the largest source of systematic uncertainty is from the modelling of complicated astrophysical phenomena associated with galaxy formation. In particular, energetic feedback processes associated with star formation and black hole growth can heat and expel gas from collapsed structures and modify the large-scale distribution of matter. Furthermore, the LSS field is presently separated into many sub-fields (each using different models, that usually neglect feedback), preventing a coherent analysis. Cosmological hydrodynamical simulations (are the only method which) can follow all the relevant matter components and self-consistently capture the effects of feedback. I have been leading the development of large-scale simulations with physically-motivated prescriptions for feedback that are unrivalled in their ability to reproduce the observed properties of massive systems. With ERC support, I will build a team to exploit these developments, to produce a suite of simulations designed specifically for LSS cosmology applications with the effects of feedback realistically accounted for and which will allow us to unite the different LSS tests. My team and I will make the first self-consistent comparisons with the full range of LSS cosmology tests, and critically assess the evidence for physics beyond the standard model.
The standard model of cosmology, the ɅCDM model, is remarkably successful at explaining a wide range of observations of our Universe. However, it is now being subjected to much more stringent tests than ever before, and recent large-scale structure (LSS) measurements appear to be in tension with its predictions. Is this tension signalling that new physics is required? For example, time-varying dark energy, or perhaps a modified theory of gravity? A contribution from massive neutrinos? Before coming to such bold conclusions we must be certain that all of the important systematic errors in the LSS tests have been accounted for. Presently, the largest source of systematic uncertainty is from the modelling of complicated astrophysical phenomena associated with galaxy formation. In particular, energetic feedback processes associated with star formation and black hole growth can heat and expel gas from collapsed structures and modify the large-scale distribution of matter. Furthermore, the LSS field is presently separated into many sub-fields (each using different models, that usually neglect feedback), preventing a coherent analysis. Cosmological hydrodynamical simulations (are the only method which) can follow all the relevant matter components and self-consistently capture the effects of feedback. I have been leading the development of large-scale simulations with physically-motivated prescriptions for feedback that are unrivalled in their ability to reproduce the observed properties of massive systems. With ERC support, I will build a team to exploit these developments, to produce a suite of simulations designed specifically for LSS cosmology applications with the effects of feedback realistically accounted for and which will allow us to unite the different LSS tests. My team and I will make the first self-consistent comparisons with the full range of LSS cosmology tests, and critically assess the evidence for physics beyond the standard model.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Home Home & Office Networking
Symantec: APTs can afflict anyone
Advanced persistent threats not just targeted at senior executives of enterprises and government agencies but SMBs and junior staff too, exec says, adding that employee education vital to curbing such attacks.
Written by Liau Yun Qing, Contributor on May 2, 2012
No company is small enough or any employee junior enough to escape from persistent cybercriminals capable of deploying advanced persistent threats (APTs) to get the information they seek, says one Symantec executive, thus debunking the myth that such threats only apply for enterprises and government agencies.
According to Ilias Chantzos, senior director of Symantec's government affairs programs for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) regions, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are not immune to being victims of APT attacks. This is particularly so if they have valuable information stored or can be used as "stepping stones" for cybercriminals to reach larger organizations, he said.
His observations were corroborated by Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report 2011, which was released on Monday. In the report, it stated that 18 percent of APTs identified last year were targeted at companies with up to 250 employees, while half were aimed at organizations with less than 2,500 employees.
Junior employees were not spared either, Chantzos added, saying that those who do not have direct access to confidential information can still be targeted. The report showed that 42 percent of APTs were directed at executive-level, senior-level and research and development (R&D) staff, but 6 percent of victims also came from the human resource department.
Elaborating, he said these attacks might appear as innocuous as a recruitment officer receiving an e-mail from an unknown source with a virus-laden attachment titled "CV". Once downloaded and opened, the malware would infect the company's network as well as the printer if the document was printed. Most employees, he added, would not know they had been targeted by cybercriminals.
That said, the senior director also pointed out that the term APT has been "used and misused" too often to describe many things. "Just because something is terrible, doesn't mean it's an APT."
The security vendor defines APTs as different from other attacks as they use highly customized tools and intrusion techniques, and stealthy methods to reduce the risk of detection. Its aim is to gather high-value, national objectives such as military, political, or economic intelligence.
These attacks are usually well-funded and well-staffed, and can be operating with the support of military or state intelligent organizations, with organizations of strategic importance such as government agencies, defense contractors, high profile manufacturers and critical infrastructure the usual targets, it added.
Web-based attacks to increase
Chantzos also noted that while e-mail was the main platform used to transmit malware, cybercriminals are increasingly turning to Web-based attacks, driven by the increase in Web activities such as social networking sites and improved graphical interfaces.
For instance, some rogue app developers created Facebook "Unlike" plugins to capitalize on the rise of the social networking site's popularity. The plugin allows users to indicate they do not like a post on the site, but upon clicking it, will activate the malware and infect others in their online social circle, described the executive.
Thus, any organization with Web presence could be a target of such attacks, including government agencies, he added.
However, the senior director pointed out that for these public sector agencies, implementing a security process to guard against APTs is a long process. This is because they run in silos and have different security needs, which means they need to prioritize which data needs to be protected more than others. So for the Ministry of Health, it would need to put more effort in safeguarding citizens' health information than regulating employees' use of Facebook at work, for example, he said.
As such, government agencies need to know who will be targeting them and what needs to be protected in order to architect its security policies, he said. This would involve protecting the perimeters of their critical infrastructure and endpoint devices as well as control the data transmission between Web, e-mail and mobile devices.
APT attacks can also originate internally, so there needs to be an authentication system to know which users have accessed what data, when they did it and whether the data complies with access policies, Chantzos added.
These organizations will need to accept the possibility that such attacks might be successful too, he advised. Instead of thinking of security implementations as silver bullets, government agencies need to have a backup plan such as disaster recovery, mechanisms to manage and contain attacks, and archiving to ensure that it is still able to function in spite of an attack, he stressed.
The preparation would include educating employees on the necessary procedures in case of an attack, he said, adding that even the best technology would fail if people were unaware of these processes.
Microsoft: This new browser feature is 'huge step forward' against zero-day threats
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Fewer ransomware victims are paying up. But there's a catch


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