Our Facilities Management department provides a high standard of maintenance to our care homes. Team members not only maintain excellent facilities for the Colten community as a whole, but contribute to ensuring an enriching residents' experience through fit-for-purpose, high-quality buildings and facilities. Here we catch up with Director of Facilities Steve Taylor to find out a little more about him.
Job title and brief description of role: Director of Facilities. My role is extremely diverse in being responsible for providing operational leadership to the facilities team, developing a positive safety culture to Colten Care, selecting and managing service providers and not least leading with the development of a carbon reduction plan. The overall aim is to drive up the quality and efficiency of the Facilities Department in order to provide the very best support to our care homes.
Career history: Over the last 25 years I have provided Facilities Management services to a number of organisations. I have worked across many industries and sectors, including leisure and retail, financial institutions, higher education and, most recently, a pharmaceutical production plant.
Interests: I love travelling and experiencing different cultures and, when allowed…playing golf at the weekends and going to see live bands.
A: It has to be the six-million-dollar man.
A: Experiencing the Cuban culture. An incredible country that has many facets to it and misperceptions aplenty.
A: Nothing really, but I avoid walking under ladders, breaking glass and looking at magpies!
A: Aside from a lift engineer an hour with David Attenborough would be amazing .
A: Make my wife and myself a large coffee. ??
A: My first day at school…absolutely loved it!
A: I love the old classics, currently watching The Good Life and I really got into Breaking Bad!
A: Fig rolls, although that may present a problem too!
A: Singing and playing the drums.
A: Beating Phil Collins at pool!
A: I would love to be able to bring my grandad back to life. He was an incredible man and was a big influence on who I am today.


text:
Direkt ins Herz ist ein Fernsehfilm aus der Tatort-Krimireihe. Der Film ist der 13. Fall des Kölner Ermittler-Teams Max Ballauf und Freddy Schenk. Der vom Westdeutschen Rundfunk und Colonia Media produzierte Beitrag wurde am 6. August 2000 im Ersten Programm der ARD zum ersten Mal gesendet.
Das Ermittlerteam hat es dabei mit einem sehr komplexen Fall auf verschiedenen Ebenen zu tun.

Handlung
Auf offener Straße wird ein Mann erschossen, aber niemand hat etwas gehört oder gesehen. Der Rechtsmediziner stellt fest, dass der Schuss mit einem militärischen Scharfschützengewehr Steyr HS abgegeben worden sein muss. So ein Modell kann über drei Kilometer zielgenau treffen, wird aber heutzutage kaum noch eingesetzt.

Ballauf befragt Elisabeth, die ehemalige Freundin des Toten, und sie gibt an, mit Charly und seiner neuen Freundin ein gutes Verhältnis zu haben. Sie betreiben sogar zusammen einen Internethandel mit Modeartikeln. Franka, seine jetzige Freundin, macht allerdings nicht den Eindruck einer trauernden Witwe. Sie gibt an, dass sie ihn zwar sehr gemocht hat, aber richtige Leidenschaft war es eigentlich nicht.

Die Ermittler sehen sich auf dem Dach eines Versicherungsgebäudes um, welches sie als Standort des Schützen vermuten. Noch während sie auf dem Dach sind, wird eine zweite Person erschossen. Ballauf kann den Schützen zwar sehen, aber nicht aufhalten. Das neue Opfer ist Helge Pool, ein Geschäftsmann und genau wie Charly 53 Jahre alt. Schenk lässt nach allen bekannten kriminell gewordenen Scharfschützen fahnden, die mit .50er Kaliber arbeiten. Vor kurzem wurde einer dieser Zielgruppe, ein Stankowsky, mit einem Kopfschuss aus dem Rhein gefischt. Die Ermittler stoßen in diesem Zusammenhang auf einen alten Überfall, bei dem ca. 9 Millionen DM erbeutet wurde. Da sich zwei der vier Täter noch immer im Gefängnis befinden, vermutet Ballauf, dass Turger, der als Erster von ihnen entlassen wurde, sich möglicherweise an den Haupttätern rächen wollte.

Bei der Fahndung nach den Scharfschützen, die in der Lage sind, solche präzisen Schüsse abzugeben, stoßen sie auf Roland Weller. Er besitzt mittlerweile eine eigene Schießsportanlage. Von ihm erfahren sie, dass ihre Gruppe damals aus 7 Leuten bestand. Sie wurden vom Verfassungsschutz zu Scharfschützen ausgebildet, da man in der Haft geeignete Gefangene gesucht hat, um der Terrorismusgefahr in Deutschland besser begegnen zu können. Sie sollten in den Haftanstalten die Terroristen aushorchen und erhielten nach ihrer Entlassung zum Dank einen "Persilschein": Schenk observiert Weller und verfolgt ihn am Abend bis zu einem Nachtlokal. Dort trifft er sich mit Turger und fährt mit ihm zurück zur Schießanlage. Als Schenk Weller anspricht und er sofort die Waffe zieht, schießt Schenk ihn nieder. Turger versteckt sich zwar im Gebäude, doch Schenk kann ihn stellen. Im Verhör beschuldigt er seinen Knastkumpel Weller, auf die beiden Männer geschossen zu haben. Doch da Turger der Mann ist, den Ballauf nach den Schüssen auf das zweite Opfer gesehen hatte, und Schenk die Tatwaffe ausfindig machen kann, steht er als Täter fest.

Die Recherchen zu den Opfern ergeben, dass sie sich kannten. Sie waren vor 33 Jahren beide in einer Kompanie der Bundeswehr. So stellt Ballauf die Theorie auf, dass es dann auch noch mehr dieser "alten Kumpel" gibt, die sich immer mal wieder getroffen haben, um "ein Ding zu drehen". Nach einigen Jahren Ruhephase werden sie dann wieder aktiv. Die Zuarbeit wird von Kleinkriminellen wie Turger erledigt, die mitunter dann für die eigentlichen Täter ins Gefängnis gehen.
Stankowsky war Kopf der Bande und der Mittelsmann zwischen der Gruppe Straftäter, die damals als Scharfschützen ausgebildet wurden und zum Teil immer noch im Gefängnis sitzen, und den Kumpeln seiner alten Kompanie. Bei dem Versuch, diese Gruppe ausfindig zu machen, erfahren sie, dass Walter – Charlys Zwillingsbruder – eine Rolle spielt und auch Elisabeth in die Geschäfte von "Charly und seiner Gruppe" verstrickt ist. Um ihre Machenschaften nicht auffliegen zu lassen, schreckt die Gruppe sogar vor einer Entführung von Ballauf und Franka nicht zurück. Bei dem Versuch zu fliehen gelingt es nur Ballauf, unbeschadet zu entkommen. Er überwältigt einen der Männer und kann Schenk zu Hilfe holen. Als sie Franka retten wollen, schießt ihr Walter in den Kopf. Da die Polizei mittlerweile auch eingetroffen ist, werden alle festgenommen.

Hintergrund
Bei der Analyse des Überfalls gibt Ballaufs früherer Kollege Bernd Flemming (Martin Lüttge), der inzwischen im Ruhestand ist, Hilfestellung.
Assistentin Lissy will das Team verlassen. Sie hat gekündigt und möchte eine Gesangskarriere starten.

Trivia
Freddy Schenk fährt in dieser Episode ein seltenes Model der Mercedes-Benz Baureihe W 111, ein 280 SE 3.5 Coupé ("Heckflosser") in einer ungewöhnlichen silbergrauen Lackierung. Dieses geräumige zweitürige Fahrzeug wurde nur in den Jahren 1969–71, hergestellt, meist in gold-metallic. Es ist für sechs Personen zugelassen (3 v, 3 h) und besitzt werkseitig weder Nackenstützen noch Sicherheitsgurte. Diese waren aber gegen Aufpreis erhältlich. Zum Drehzeitpunkt war es bereits ein Oldtimer.

Rezeption

Einschaltquoten
Bei der Erstausstrahlung am 6. August 2000 verfolgten 8,20 Mio. Zuschauer diese Tatort-Folge, was einem Marktanteil von 27,09 % entsprach.

Kritik
Die Kritiken auf Direkt ins Herz sind durchweg positiv. Die Handlung ist verstrickt, und aus zwei sinnlos erscheinenden Morden entwickelt sich eine recht verzwickte Geschichte.

Stefanie Rufle findet bei moviesection.de lobende Worte bei diesen interessanten Fall, "was man vor allem auf die Präsenz dieser beiden überzeugenden Kommissare und die tragische Liebesgeschichte zurückführen kann."

Weblinks

Einzelnachweise

Direkt ins Herz
Deutscher Film
Filmtitel 2000

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Where Is America Diversifying the Fastest? Small Midwestern Towns.
Article subtitle:
Columbus, Ind., hometown of Cummins and Mike Pence, embodies a new kind of immigrant melting pot far from the big city; 'a snowball effect'
One in seven residents in Columbus, Ind., a city of about 50,000, was born outside the United States. Public school students collectively speak more than 50 languages and dialects at home. Roughly three dozen foreign companies operate in the area.
A 45-minute drive south of Indianapolis, the manufacturing and transportation hub set in the middle of sprawling farmland is emblematic of how the nation's growing ethnic and racial diversity, building for decades in coastal cities and other immigration hubs, is gaining in new areas across the U.S.
The first detailed data released from the 2020 Census on Thursday showed that the non-Hispanic white population declined for the first time in the nation's history as growing numbers of Hispanics and Asians pushed the share of residents who identify as a minority to roughly four out of every 10 people.
These changes are most apparent in pockets of the Midwest and northern Great Plains, which diversified at a faster rate than the rest of the nation during the past decade....
The more diversity you have...the easier it is to sell global companies...
CAIRCO Notes
The Wall Street rejoices in this magnificent step toward globalization, open borders, and diversity.
Americans. of course, were never consulted regarding the destruction of their sovereign nation.
Neither the Census or the WSJ has differentiated between legal immigrants and illegal aliens living at taxpayer expense in America.
What's Ahead for Whites, by Jared Taylor, American Renaissance, August 6, 2021:
... Please look at this graph. On the left are changes in the number of American whites by decade. From 1970 to 1980 – the left-most bar – we grew by more than 11 million. By the decade of 2010 to 2019, our numbers shrank by more than 16,000. But look at the annual breakdown for that decade in the graph on the right. We were still growing from 2010 to 2015, but started losing ground in 2016. In the last three years, the country lost more than half a million whites....
And we're getting more non-whites. The top line on this table shows that in the decade from 2000 to 2019, we got 10 million more Hispanics. Also, 4.3 million more Asians. 3.2 million more blacks, 1.7 million more mixed-race people, and a few more American Indians. As I just mentioned, our numbers shrank. In 1960, whites were nearly 90 percent of the population. By about 2040, we are projected to be a minority. Every white child age 16 or under is already a minority.
Under Joe Biden, illegals are pouring across the border at the highest rates in 20 years.
If you think this is a "great replacement," Wikipedia says you believe in "a white nationalist conspiracy theory."...
You've heard of Critical Race Theory, which says all white people have unfair privileges and oppress everyone else whether we want to or not. That's just our nature....
Not one elected official talks about the interests of whites. I can't remember when a politician even said anything good about white people. We are citizens of this country, but we might as well be stateless people who are just allowed to live here. Our government treats us like an embarrassment....
The bitter truth is, we can't save the whole country. We built it and we made it great, but it's not ours anymore.
Our goal should be local autonomy and eventual independence, so encourage all secession movements....

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Röda Elitböckerna är en skönlitterär bokserie () utgiven av B. Wahlströms bokförlag i början på 1960-talet. Ryggarna är röda och sidorna randiga i rött och grått.

Bokserier
Skönlitteratur
Wahlströms bokförlag


Whether an online retailer or a bricks-and-mortar store, too many options can actually be a bad thing. For example, if a restaurant has a choice of 20 entrees on its menu what does that tell the consumer? Many would argue it tells the shopper that, for the most part, the restaurant has no specialty dish and that it does, at best, offer a lot of entrees reasonably well, but none with super-high quality. No chef in a kitchen can make 20 entrees equally well under the evening-rush time pressure. The lesson for online retailers is don't offer myriad options if the site doesn't have the infrastructure to back it up and deliver to the highest quality. Garnering a reputation for doing a few things extremely well, rather than a reputation for providing a lot of mediocre products adequately, is worth much more in any marketplace. A site can always add products later, once a good reputation is secured.
One of the main criticisms of online retailing over shopping in a bricks-and-mortar store is that the potential buyer can't actually pick up a product and hold it in their hands. To counter this, eCommerce stores need to provide as many details, high resolution photographs, and video content about a product as possible. An increasing number of online retailers, for example in particular in the automobile industry and real estate, offer 3-D and 360 degree views of their product offerings. As growing numbers of online consumers have access to affordable, unlimited data plans and high-speed bandwidth, such viewing innovations will only become increasingly available from more retailers.
Free shipping is the future of online retail. An increasingly large number of online consumers disclose in surveys that they will abandon their browsing and shopping cart if they find out free shipping is not being offered. Beyond free shipping, even if it standard USPS 2-9 day delivery, retailers need to also offer faster deliver for those shoppers willing to pay for it: for example, two-day and overnight delivery. In some geographic areas, especially those near a retailer's distribution center, same-day delivery is becoming increasingly possible, or same-day pickup. A variety of cheap and speedy delivery options are becoming the standard in online retail.
Particularly for those companies whose only, or main, interaction with online consumers is through their Web site, basic sales, marketing and presentation rules are increasingly important. Ensuring that the customer experience is the best it can be entails attention to all the details of the sales process.


text:
Anthony Fauci Only Knows His Narrow Field of Expertise
Written by Zachary Yost
«The Spanish government has just "authorized" the military to prepare planes for aerial spraying of disinfectants across major metro areas as confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise, reported La Razón News.
The order was first published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado, the country's official gazette, on Friday, that "authorizes the NBQ (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) units of the Armed Forces and the UME to use biocides authorized by the Ministry of Health in disinfection efforts to deal with the health crisis caused by the coronavirus."
According to the order, "the most effective disinfection techniques are the use of aerial means because through them, with nebulization, thermonebulization and micronebulization techniques, all surfaces are reached quickly, avoiding reliance on manual application, which it is slower, and sometimes it does not reach all surfaces because there are obstacles that prevent reaching them."
The order continues to say "aerial disinfection" missions will be conducted "regularly" as long as the pandemic continues to ravage the country.
On Friday, Spain reported 5,252 new infections, the most significant jump in cases in more than a week, pushing up total cases to 184,948, with 19,478 deaths. The surge in cases could suggest that curve flattening via strict social distancing measures are not working, hence why the government has called up the military to conduct aerial disinfectant spraying missions.
La Razón News said the 43rd Air Force Group would operate Canadair CL-415 aerial firefighting planes that will most likely be outfitted with special sprayers to create an even stream of disinfectants while blanketing a metro area.
Each CL-415 has a range of 1,518 miles with a 1,620-gallon tank that can be mixed with chemicals. The plane is amphibious and can refill on a body of water.
Spain has deployed unmanned aerial systems and ground-based robots to spray disinfectants on the street level. Still, the move by the government to blanket entire towns with disinfectants via airplanes suggests that current efforts are failing to suppress the virus.»
Zero Hedge («SPAIN "AUTHORITIES" MILITARY PLANES TO SPRAY DISINFECTANTS OVER CITIES», in INFOWARS, April 18, 2020).
«A new study conducted by 17 medical professionals, most of whom are connected with Stanford University, concluded that, based upon initial data, the fatality rate of the coronavirus is no worse than the seasonal flu, and likely, once additional tests had been conducted and analyzed, even lower.
The first inkling that concerns over the virus were vastly overblown was an article written by two of the 17 in the Wall Street Journal in late March:
If it's true that the novel coronavirus would kill millions without shelter-in-place orders and quarantines, then the extraordinary measures being carried out in cities and states around the country are surely justified.
But there's little evidence to confirm that premise — and projections of the death toll could plausibly be orders of magnitude too high. [One order of magnitude overstates the fatality rate by a factor of 10.]
Fear of Covid-19 is based on its high estimated case fatality rate — 2% to 4% of people with confirmed Covid-19 have died, according to the World Health Organization and others.
So if 100 million Americans ultimately get the disease, two million to four million could die.
We believe that estimate is deeply flawed. The true fatality rate is the portion of those infected who die, not the deaths from identified positive cases.
In other words not everyone who gets infected develops the disease. Not even close. The difference is "between an epidemic that kills 20,000 and one that kills two million" wrote the doctors. "If the number of actual infections is much larger that the number of cases — orders of magnitude larger — then the true mortality rate is much lower as well. That's not only plausible but likely on what we know so far."
What they did know was published on April 11. After testing some 3,300 people in Santa Clara County, California, the "number of confirmed positive cases in the county was 956, 50-85-fold lower than the number of infections predicted by this study."
This translates into an infection death rate of between 0.12 percent and 0.2 percent, far lower than predictions that the death rate of the virus would be between 2.0 and 4.0 percent, with the WHO predicting a death rate of 3.4 percent.
A week later Andrew Bogan, one of the 17, summarized the report's finding, also in the Journal. The results of the study suggest "that the large majority of people who contract COVID-19 recover without ever knowing they were infected, and that the U.S. infection fatality rate may be more than an order of magnitude lower [less than one-tenth of original predictions] than authorities had assumed.
Those "authorities" also assumed powers never granted, overriding common sense, destroying wealth, and infringing on precious rights, all in the name of fighting a virus that, according to these medical professionals, is now turning out to be no more virulent than the flu.
Bogan asked:
If policy makers were aware from the outset that the COVID-19 death toll would be closer to that of seasonal flu than the millions of American deaths predicted by early models dependent upon inputs that now look inaccurate, would they have risked tens of millions of jobs and livelihoods?
This writer asks a different question:
After the best economy in history, the lowest unemployment in decades, China finally being put in its place on trade, and America and Americans being, for the first time in years, put first, how is it possible that somebody in a small village in China ate a bat and we suddenly have a worldwide pandemic that is destroying our economy, with an election coming up?
If additional studies now underway confirm the study's conclusions, then it is hoped that the American people will discover that they have not only been lied to, but have also been manipulated in such a way as to give government vastly more control over their lives than few could have imagined. If that hope is fulfilled, then the old saying "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me" will serve as checks against those unconscionable and unconstitutional infringements.»
Bob Adelmann («New Study: Coronavirus Fatality Rate No Worse Than Seasonal Flu», in The New American, 19 April 2020). See here
«The "Global Citizen" Lady Gaga "One World At Home" Concert to support the World Health Organization is the moment when Hollywood draws the line in the sand as blatantly as possible between the American people and Hollywood's globalist masters.
Thats right. As over 20 million Americans fight to file for unemployment, small businesses that have been around for decades permanently close.
And the measly $1200 check hasn't reached as many as promised by now. The Satanists in Los Angeles want all eyes on their million dollar quarantines to support the foreign entity lead by the Chinese-installed Director Tedros, who propagandized three cholera outbreaks in Ethiopia and has now directly caused the deaths of thousands of Americans due to touting Chinese propaganda.
Yes, liberal snowflakes, Bad Orange Man isn't going to send the largest donation per year to the World Health Organization. That can now be the dishonor of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
For anyone even slightly aware of the actual truth behind the Chinese SARS devastation, Hollywood has revealed themselves as they truly are: arrogant misinformed spoiled assholes who would rather support a foreign power that is responsible for sending the United States over a cliff than support the efforts of their own Republic.»
Jon Bowne («HOLLYWOOD CHOOSES PROPAGANDA OVER PATRIOTISM», in INFOWARS, April 19, 2020). See here and here
Lady Gaga's Gestapo Fetiche
«A White House petition calling for the investigation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has amassed nearly 300,000 signatures, triple the threshold that requires an official government response.
The petition that began last week, called "We Call For Investigations Into The 'Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation' For Medical Malpractice & Crimes Against Humanity" reads as follows:
As we look at events surrounding the "COVID-19 pandemic," various questions remain unanswered. On Oct. 18th of 2019, only weeks prior to ground zero being declared in Wuhan, China, two major events took place. One is "Event 201," the other is the "Military World Games," held in none other than Wuhan. Since then a worldwide push for vaccines & biometric tracking has been initiated.
At the forefront of this is Bill Gates, who has publicly stated his interest in "reducing population growth" by 10-15%, by means of vaccination. Gates, UNICEF & WHO have already been credibly accused of intentionally sterilizing Kenyan children through the use of a hidden HCG antigen in tetanus vaccines.
Congress & all other governing bodies are derelict in duty until a thorough and public inquiry is complete.
Additionally, a separate petition rejecting the use of Bill Gates' planned mass vaccinations and microchip ID technology has also accrued over 38,000 signatures in a week.
"ID2020 is a plan put in place by bill gates to impose mass public vaccination and show 'vaccine status' through a microchip or 'ID' injected under the skin," the petition reads.
"This is the mark of the beast the bible has warned us about, folks."
The minimum requirement for an official White House response to "We The People" petitions is 100,000 signatures, meaning the Trump administration must address the public's concerns about Bill Gates and his connections to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.»
Infowars.com («WHITE HOUSE PETITION PASSES 100K SIGNATURE THRESHOLD TO HAVE BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION INVESTIGATED FOR CONNECTIONS TO WUHAN OUTBREAK», April 19, 2020).
«The CDC estimates that 61,000 Americans died from the flu during the 2017–18 flu season (with a range of 46,000 to 95,000 deaths). Few of us even remember that event. Stores stayed open, folks met and worked, and everyone lived as normal.
Taking sixty-one thousand deaths as our baseline, how deadly does a virus have to be to justify the destruction of our livelihoods and economy in general?
Half as deadly? No that wouldn't make sense. But neither would "as deadly," either.
Would twice as deadly cross the panic threshold? But that would be just twice something we didn't notice while it was happening. So maybe even double is not enough.
No one is ever safe, ever. But we all lived lives in a world of uncertainty. That is, until many panicked and allowed governments to drive us into our own caves, so to speak.
But who incited panic? Media and social media initially sounded the alarm, sparking fear. However, it was government that provided justification for that fear, wrapping dour pronouncements in a veneer of supposed science and truth. Soon the panic threshold was breached. While the various media live off provocative headlines, government lives off fear.
So we end up with this strange symbiotic relationship: with the aid of a friendly media, government justifies the fears it propagandizes; constituents panic and turn to both government for help and the media for information. Certainly, it has to be this way. Why? Because government rules through the consent of the governed.»
Jim Fedako («EXACTLY HOW MANY DEATHS ARE NEEDED TO JUSTIFY GIVING GOVERNMENTS CONTROL OF EVERYTHING?», in INFOWARS, April 20, 2020). See here
«Amidst an investigation into the question of whether Spain's draconian lockdown laws are constitutional, people are being fined a whopping €2,000 euros for "disrespecting" a police officer.
Unlike other European countries, people in Spain aren't even allowed to go out to exercise during the coronavirus quarantine.
Citizens are only allowed to visit their nearest grocery store and only one person can be in a vehicle at a time unless the other person is classed as "vulnerable" or there is a medical emergency.
The lockdown is enforced via a network of roadblocks at which drivers are quizzed as to their intentions by aggressive police, some of whom carry guns. A physiotherapist was hit with a €600 euro fine for going to see a client after police stopped him when he was driving home.
The €2,000 euro fine for "disrespecting" a police officer is obviously completely arbitrary and easily open to abuse as a form of revenue generation.
"The guidelines state a standard €601 penalty for unauthorized movement outside the home without good reason that can be increased to up to €2000 if the offender responds with an "inappropriate attitude" to law enforcement officers, reports the Local.
People who cannot provide identification to police are fined €700 euros, while a trip to a second home earns a €1500 euro fine. The biggest fine – a gargantuan €10,400 euros – is reserved for anyone who attempts to "to organize or participate in a gathering, party or celebration."
According to journalist Jason O'Toole, who is locked down in Madrid, tensions are "running high" and people are now being arrested for going out "too frequently" to the grocery shop.
This has prompted some judges, solicitors, law professors, and NGOs to complain that the onerous fines are "unconstitutional."
"There's an investigation now underway by the Defensor del Pueblo (Spanish Ombudsman) to see if the fines are "correct and proportional," because they want to "protect the rights of the citizens." It's a move that has even been welcomed by La Abogacia del Estado," writes O'Toole.
"The Ministry of Justice is now questioning whether the fines are legally sound and says it's possible many cases could be thrown out of court on a technicality. They say, for example, those apprehended might get off scot-free if the police didn't first give them a formal warning – like a yellow card in football."»
Paul Joseph Watson («SPAIN: £2,000 FINE FOR "DISRESPECTING" A POLICE OFFICER DURING LOCKDOWN», in INFOWARS, April 20, 2020).
«YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki says that any videos that go against the almighty wisdom of the pro-China World Health Organization violate YouTube's policies and are subject to deletion.
In her first interview since the U.S. coronavirus lockdown began, Wojcicki discussed how the platform has responded to the pandemic by removing thousands of videos and redirecting over 10 billion views to corporate media outlets.
"We really focus on authoritative information for our users, and making sure we can raise that," Wojcicki said Friday on CNN's Reliable Sources podcast.
Wojcicki explained how censorship is a core focus of YouTube, describing how the platform removes content it deems "misinformation," especially if it contradicts the World Health Organization.
"We also talk about removing information that is problematic," Wojcicki continued. "We've had to update our policy numerous times associated with COVID-19."
"So of course, anything that is medically unsubstantiated, so people saying like, 'take vitamin C, take turmeric, like those are/or will cure you.' Those are the examples of things that would be a violation of our policy."
"Anything that would go against World Health Organization [WHO] recommendations would be a violation of our policy," Wojcicki added. "And so remove is another really important part of our policy, and making sure we don't have information that's false on our platform for our users."
Remember, this is the same globalist organization that criticized President Trump for rightly banning travel to and from China in January, refused to acknowledge Taiwan's existence at China's behest, and actively disseminated Chinese Communist Party propaganda lying about the severity of the coronavirus and calling Trump racist for branding the disease as the "Chinese virus."
As a result, Trump halted U.S. funding for WHO – between $400-500 million annually – last week over its poor response to the coronavirus pandemic and its new role as China's de facto public relations arm.»
Jamie White («YOUTUBE CEO: 'ANYTHING THAT GOES AGAINST W.H.O. IS A VIOLATION OF YOUTUBE POLICIES'», in INFOWARS, April 20,2020).
«From California to New Jersey, Americans are protesting in the streets. They are demanding an end to house arrest orders given by government officials over a virus outbreak that even according to the latest US government numbers will claim fewer lives than the seasonal flu outbreak of 2017-2018.
Across the US, millions of businesses have been shut down by "executive order" and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed to levels not seen since the Great Depression. Americans, who have seen their real wages decline thanks to Federal Reserve monetary malpractice, are finding themselves thrust into poverty and standing in breadlines. It is like a horror movie, but it's real.
Last week the UN Secretary General warned that a global recession resulting from the worldwide coronavirus lockdown could cause "hundreds of thousands of additional child deaths per year." As of this writing, less than 170,000 have been reported to have died from the coronavirus worldwide.
Many Americans have also died this past month because they were not able to get the medical care they needed. Cancer treatments have been indefinitely postponed. Life-saving surgeries have been put off to make room for coronavirus cases. Meanwhile hospitals are laying off thousands because the expected coronavirus cases have not come and the hospitals are partially empty.
What if the "cure" is worse than the disease?
Countries like Sweden that did not lock down their economy and place the population under house arrest are faring no worse than countries that did. Sweden's deaths-per-million from coronavirus is lower than in many lockdown countries.
Likewise, US states that did not arrest citizens for merely walking on the beach are not doing worse than those that did. South Dakota governor Kristi Noem said last week, "we've been able to keep our businesses open and allow people to take on some personal responsibility." South Dakota has recorded a total of seven coronavirus deaths.
Kentucky, a strict lockdown state, is five times more populated than South Dakota, yet it has some 20 times more coronavirus deaths. If lockdown and house arrest are the answer, shouldn't those numbers be reversed, with South Dakota seeing mass death while Kentucky dodges the coronavirus bullet?
When Anthony Fauci first warned that two million would die, there was a race among federal, state, and local officials to see who could rip up the Constitution fastest. Then Fauci told us if we do what he says only a quarter of a million would die. They locked America down even harder. Then, with little more than a shrug of the shoulders, they announced that a maximum of 60,000 would die, but maybe less. That is certainly terrible, but it's just a high-average flu season.
Imagine if we had used even a fraction of the resources spent to lock down the entire population and focused on providing assistance and protection to the most vulnerable – the elderly and those with serious medical conditions. We could have protected these people and still had an economy to go back to when the virus had run its course. And it wouldn't have cost us six trillion dollars either.
Governments have no right or authority to tell us what business or other activity is "essential." Only in totalitarian states does the government claim this authority. We should encourage all those who are standing up peacefully and demanding an accounting from their elected leaders. They should not be able to get away with this.»
Ron Paul («RON PAUL: WHAT IF THE LOCKDOWN WAS ALL A BIG MISTAKE?», in INFOWARS, April 20, 2020).
«A man recently released from jail due to coronavirus concerns was arrested again after allegedly carrying out a carjacking and attacking a separate victim with a hammer in San Jose, according to police.
James Mitchell Correa, 25, was freed from Santa Clara County jail on April 10 while awaiting trial for a prior carjacking and related charges – including violating parole – despite protestations from the district attorney's office, who cited Correa's violent history and gang affiliations and said he posed a threat to public safety.
San Jose Police say Correa was wanted in connection with "a pair of attacks Wednesday in San Jose in which he is accused of commandeering someone's car by saying that he had a gun, and the separate hammer attack," the Mercury News reports.
Correa was eventually arrested again and is now being held without bail at Santa Clara County jail.
"Once again, a judge has given more rights to the criminal than they're giving to victims and residents of the city," said San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia. "This judge got lucky by this individual being apprehended. Had he hurt anyone else or caused my officers harm, that would have been a difficult burden to carry."
"If you let a misdemeanor offender without this history out, I wouldn't hold you accountable since you can't predict that person would do something like this, but [Correa] had all the signs of someone who was going to hurt someone."
Prisoners across the country are being freed under the guise of concerns about 'overcrowding' in jails and possible spread of coronavirus among inmates.
Santa Clara County jails have reportedly seen a 26 percent decrease in population since early March.»
Dan Lyman («Criminal With 'Violent History' Freed Due to Coronavirus Arrested in Carjacking, Hammer Attack», in NEWSWARS, April 20, 2020).
Tiananmen Square. See here
«A number of police departments around the country are using drones manufactured by a company with ties to the Chinese government in order to enforce COVID-19-related lockdowns, prompting concerns from experts who say the drones may serve as a way for the east Asian communist regime to spy on the United States.
Already, 43 law-enforcement agencies in 22 states are surveilling Americans with the help of drones made by China's Da Jian Innovations (DJI), ensuring citizens remain in their homes and observe social-distancing rules.
"Should people be concerned? Yes. Everyone should always be concerned," says Brett Velicovich, former Army intelligence worker and author of the book Drone Warrior.
(…) "It's about China's long-term goal, not COVID," said Barry Bryer, a Virginia resident who flies drones. "People will give away their right to privacy because of the coronavirus, but do they know what they are signing up for?"
Velicovich, meanwhile, urged America to heed the warnings of the intelligence community about Chinese-made drones.
"I can tell you that U.S. intelligence knows the impact of their reports and if they are saying that this is going back to the Chinese, then there is something there," he said.
The news comes as some state and local governments seek to monitor and control citizens' activities to keep them in line with social-distancing protocols.
New York Mayor Bill De Blasio is urging the city's residents to snitch on neighbors who do not obey stay-at-home orders (after he already threatened to shutter churches and synagogues that meet in violation of his ban on gatherings of more than 10 people).
And some state governments, such as New Mexico's, are hiring companies to use citizens' cellphone data to track their movements and determine whether they're really social distancing.
While it's certainly alarming that American law enforcement is using Chinese technology to spy on fellow Americans — a fact that should be considered in the question of whether China's dissemination of the virus was deliberate — the bigger problem is that we're allowing our own government to surveil us in the first place, whether by using Chinese-made or American-made equipment.
Sadly, as history has repeatedly shown, many are all too willing to hand over their rights at the first sign of a crisis.»
Luis Miguel («U.S. Cities Enforce Social Distancing With Drones - Donated by China», in The New American, 20 April 2020).
«Westport, Connecticut police are going to be testing a "pandemic drone" that monitors citizens' temperatures from almost 200 feet away and detects sneezing and coughing as well as heart and breathing rates.
Produced by the Canadian company Draganfly, the drones will be used by the police department "to enhance town services, advance public safety, promote the efficient use of taxpayer dollars, engage residents, and encourage growth in the local economy."
Westport police titled the operation the "Flatten the Curve Pilot Program."
According to a Draganfly press release, "The pandemic drone will be equipped with a specialized sensor and computer vision systems that can display fever/temperature, heart and respiratory rates, as well as detect people sneezing and coughing in crowds, and wherever groups of people may work or congregate. The technology can accurately detect infectious conditions from a distance of 190 feet as well as measure social distancing for proactive public safety practices."
"One of the major problems for cities and towns like Westport in managing and responding to a pandemic like the COVID-19 virus, is finding out who could be infected and how widespread the disease has spread," Westport First Selectman Jim Marpe said in a recent statement. "One way to do this is to look for underlying symptoms. By teaming up with Draganfly and the UniSA team led by Defence Chair of Sensor Systems Professor Javaan Chahl, we are able to remotely look at valuable lifesaving data and better manage current and future health emergencies."
Westport will use the drones to monitor potential at-risk groups like seniors, crowds gathering downtown and at beaches, train stations, parks and recreation areas, shopping centers and basically all areas where people frequently gather.
Police say the technology will not be used to spy on private properties and note that the drones do not use facial recognition technology.
"This program has been tested for approximately the last five days," Westport Police Lt. Anthony Prezioso told Patch. "It is anticipated that this will continue to be in effect through the summer months of July and August as we anticipate the need to continue to work to reinforce social distancing measures in order to limit and control the spread of the COVID-19 virus."»
Kelen McBreen («CT POLICE TESTING HIGHLY INVASIVE DRONES TO ENFORCE SOCIAL DISTANCING», in INFOWARS, April 21, 2020).
«Not content merely to issue unconstitutional coronavirus edicts and to hope cops catch people in the act of violating them, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is now urging people to report violators to the city so police can "immediately" enforce his orders.
De Blasio, who has already threatened to shutter churches and synagogues that meet in violation of his ban on gatherings of more than 10 people, posted a video on Twitter Saturday alternately praising New Yorkers for their submissiveness and chastising those who fail to bow to his dictates.
De Blasio first flatters his audience by telling them how "extraordinary" they "have been at social distancing" despite the difficulties inherent in avoiding others in a city with a population density of over 26,000 people per square mile. "You've done an amazing job," he says, and then thanks those who have heeded his orders.
"But," he adds, "we still know there's some people who need to get the message. And that means sometimes making sure the enforcement is there to educate people and make clear we've got to have social distancing." ("Educate," of course, sounds so much nicer than "threaten," "fine," or "arrest.")
Fortunately, "now it's easier than ever" to snitch on your neighbors, de Blasio continues. "When you see a crowd, when you see a line that's not distanced, when you see a supermarket that's too crowded — anything — you can report it right away so we can get help there to fix the problem."
How can New Yorkers so easily tattle on each other? "It's a simple as taking a photo," explains de Blasio. Add the location and text it or send it through an app to the city, "and we will make sure that enforcement comes right away."
While some will undoubtedly turn their neighbors in, as has happened all across the country as liberties have been restricted in recent weeks, others saw de Blasio's video for what it really was and responded accordingly. "I don't want to say this is the dumbest idea anyone's ever cooked up," quipped Molly Jong-Fast, "but this is the dumbest idea anyone's ever cooked up."
"War is peace, Big Brother loves you," tweeted Ned Ryun.
David Burge posted a photo of the former East German Stasi, infamous for its extensive network of citizen-informers, with the caption "Comrade citizen! Report all suspected anti-distancing activities to friendly New York Ministry of Social Cleanliness!"
Others replied to de Blasio's video with evidence of his own violations of shelter-in-place and social-distancing orders. Jim Rockaway supplied a picture of the mayor's appearance in a crowded hospital waiting room Friday. More than one person reminded de Blasio of his daily walks, complete with security detail, in a park 12 miles from his home. (De Blasio has defended the practice as necessary for him to continue with his mayoral duties.)
De Blasio, naturally, considers his curtailment of others' freedom a small price to pay for saving lives. "Sending that photo," he said in the video, "is going to help make sure that people are kept apart, and that's going to stop the disease from spreading, and that's going to save lives."
But is it? It may stop some people from catching COVID-19, yet only a tiny percentage of those who contract the disease will die from it, and most of them have other life-threatening conditions already. Meanwhile, the government- and media-induced panic over the disease and the economic damage from the lockdowns are already causing an increase in suicides, and people are dying at home from potentially treatable conditions because they are afraid to go to hospitals that they have been led to believe are jam-packed with patients and coronaviruses. The destruction of the social fabric caused by isolation and snitching will undoubtedly have ill effects for years to come, particularly if politicians insist on maintaining these policies in one form or another for months.
None of this seems to matter to de Blasio, who is only concerned with being seen "doing something" to prevent a coronavirus crisis — never mind the Constitution, which probably didn't cross his mind any more than it did that of New Jersey's governor. But what else would one expect from a communist-sympathizing mayor?»
Michael Tennant («De Blasio Urges New Yorkers to Snitch on Social-distancing Violators», in The New American, 20 April 2020).
«(...) There are over 317,000 illegal aliens residing in North Carolina, according the New American Economy.»
Dan Lyman («State Officials Pledge to Share Coronavirus Checks With Illegals», in NEWSWARS, April 21, 2020). See here
«New figures from the UK's Office of National Statistics show that the number of deaths from flu and pneumonia is three times higher than the total number of coronavirus deaths this year.
The figures show that there were 18,500 total deaths in England and Wales in the week up until April 10, which is around 8,000 above what would be considered "normal" at this time of year. Around a third of those 18,500 are linked to coronavirus.
"But the figures for 2020 also show the impact of flu and pneumonia compared to coronavirus," reports the BBC. "The number of deaths from flu and pneumonia – at more than 32,000 – is three times higher than the total number of coronavirus deaths this year."
The report points out that the 18,500 death figure is the highest since January 2000, "when there was a bad flu outbreak." The number of deaths recorded in the week up until April 10 in 2015, when there was also a particularly deadly flu season, is also relatively close to the number of recorded coronavirus deaths in the same week this year.
Back in February, a leaked government document suggested coronavirus would infect 80 per cent of Brits and killed 500,000. So far, the number of coronavirus deaths recorded by hospitals across the whole of the UK stands at 17,337.
Supporters of the lockdown policies assert that social distancing measures have kept death numbers relatively low based on what was previously predicted.
Others point to the fact that NHS hospitals are four times emptier than normal and overspill hospitals built to prevent existing hospitals from being overwhelmed were never used to claim that the coronavirus threat was exaggerated.
Whatever the case, the British government has not indicated when it will start to lift lockdown measures despite other European countries already beginning to relax them.»
Paul Joseph Watson («UK ONS FIGURES SHOW THREE TIMES MORE DEATHS FROM FLU & PNEUMONIA THAN CORONAVIRUS», in INFOWARS, April 21, 2020).
«Food-security remains a significant problem during coronavirus lockdowns. The next big issue unfolding is the shuttering of the nation's food plants could drive food inflation sky high.
On Wednesday, Tyson Fresh Meats, the beef and pork subsidiary of Tyson Foods, released a statement that said its plant in Waterloo, Iowa, will suspend operations until further notice.
The company said the Waterloo location is its largest pork plant, has been running at reduced output "due to worker absenteeism."
Tyson is planning to test all 2,800 workers for COVID-19 at the facility later this week.
"Protecting our team members is our top priority and the reason we've implemented numerous safety measures during this challenging and unprecedented time," said Steve Stouffer, group president of Tyson Fresh Meats.
"Despite our continued efforts to keep our people safe while fulfilling our critical role of feeding American families, the combination of worker absenteeism, COVID-19 cases and community concerns has resulted in our decision to stop production."
Stouffer warned that the closure of the pork plant could ripple through the production chain and cause significant disruptions to the "nation's pork supply:"
"The closure has significant ramifications beyond our company, since the plant is part of a larger supply chain that includes hundreds of independent farmers, truckers, distributors and customers, including grocers," Stouffer said. "It means the loss of a vital market outlet for farmers and further contributes to the disruption of the nation's pork supply."
The company said workers would be "compensated while the plant is closed." There was no firm timeline on when the plant would reopen. However, there were several factors, including the "outcome of team member testing for COVID-19."
We noted over the weekend that meat prices across the country are surging as food processing plants are closing because of the virus.
The latest plant closure was China-owned Smithfield Food's factory in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the largest pork processing plant in the US, due to a coronavirus outbreak, could leave Americans without pork products.
Also, health officials in Illinois closed Hormel's Rochelle Foods plant last Friday, a move that could trigger a shortage of Spam products.
And it appears food inflation could be imminent as coronavirus is leading to the shutdown of food manufacturing plants across the country.»
Zero Hedge («NATIONS'S LARGEST PORK PLANT CLOSES AMID FOOD SHORTAGE FEARS», in INFOWARS, April 22, 2020).
«Dr. Anders Tegnell, the state epidemiologist of Sweden, recently told the Swedish news agency TT that the Scandinavian country's more relaxed approach to fighting the coronavirus pandemic is beginning to yield results. Tegnell said the latest figures on infection rates and fatalities indicate the crisis is starting to stabilize.
"We're on a sort of plateau," Tegnell told the Swedish news agency TT.
A report in the U.K. newspaper The Sun on April 20 noted that Sweden recorded just 40 coronavirus deaths and 392 cases that day "as the country continues to avoid lockdown restrictions."
The Sun observed that Sweden is the only country in Europe not to have implemented lockdown measures on the public.
The 392 new confirmed cases is the smallest jump since April 12 and takes Sweden's total confirmed cases to 14,777, observed The Sun.
We compared Sweden's coronavirus statistics to Portugal's since both countries have nearly identical populations. (Portugal: 10,252,000; Sweden: 10,236,000) A report from Statistica.com showing the number of COVID-19 cases in Europe by country, as of Apr 21, 2020, revealed that Portugal had 20,863 cases, compared to Sweden's 14,777. Sweden's neighbor, Norway, with half Sweden's population at 5,333,000, also had half the number of cases at 7,113, as might be expected. So even with its more relaxed restrictions. Sweden is faring as well as its neighbor, on a per capita basis.
The Sun reported that government ministers in Sweden have promised a huge increase in COVID-19 testing so that frontline works can be screened for the virus.
The report quoted Swedish Health Minister Lena Hallengren, who said: "We are talking about testing and analysis capacity of 50,000, perhaps as many as 100,000, a week."
A report in Britain's Daily Mail on April 20 observed that the Swedish government maintains that its strategy is right because people need to "understand and accept" measures over the long term rather than be forced into obeying them.
"If everyone takes their responsibility, together we will overcome it," the report quoted Prime Minister Stefan Löfven.
The report cited Swedish officials who say that "people in Sweden have a high level of trust in government agencies," with the result that advisory measures are widely followed.
Sweden's pandemic strategy has been described as trusting the public to act responsibly. Rather than imposing wide-ranging bans and restrictions, authorities have advised people to maintain good hand hygiene, work from home, and practice social distancing. In other words, the same as all other countries, only without the heavy hand of the state.
One point that might be worth considering in view of Sweden's approach to handling the COVID-19 pandemic is — if less draconian measures produce results as effective as shutting down a nation's economy, then why not take the less-intrusive approach?»
Warren Mass («Sweden's "Quarantine Lite": Even Without a Strict Lockdown, Nation Stabilizes COVID-19 Cases», in The New American, 21 April 2020).
Flag of Sweden
Flag of Portugal
The "Portuguese Empire". See here and here
Oliveira Salazar: The last Portuguese Statesman
"Politically, there exists only what the public knows to exist."
Oliveira Salazar
"I was presented to him once… a most amazing man [Salazar]… one of the greatest Historical enigmas…"
25 April 1974: The red revolution in Lisbon which overthrew the "Portuguese Empire"
As the COVID-19 shutdown across the US continues, one cannot but help see the importance of specialization and the division of labor time and time again, as many Americans deal with true shortages of goods for the first time in their lives.
Specialization has allowed us to enjoy a much more prosperous life than we would were we all to do everything ourselves. However, as with everything in this imperfect world, specialization comes with certain tradeoffs that are important to understand. As the unemployment numbers continue to rise by millions more every week, as meager savings are eliminated, and as our highly organized society slides into chaos it is important to understand the way in which an unbalanced intellectual specialization has contributed to bringing about the current crisis.
In his 1930 book The Revolt of the Masses, Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset addresses what he considers to be a strange byproduct of the prevalence of specialization in everything, specifically the intellectual sphere. "Previously," he writes, "men could be divided simply into the learned and the ignorant, those more or less the one, and those more or less the other." Now, however, a new kind of person has emerged, "an extraordinarily strange kind of man," who cannot be called "learned for he is formally ignorant of all that does not enter into his specialty," yet at the same time cannot be considered "ignorant because he is 'a scientist' who 'knows' very well his own tiny portion of the universe." Thus, Ortega y Gasset says that the only fitting name for such a person is a "learned ignoramus."
There can be no doubt that numerous learned ignoramuses can be found in all parts of society, but most importantly they are very clearly involved in the response to the COVID-19 virus, as sweeping calls for months of lockdown make clear.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and seen by many as the face of the federal virus response, has perhaps made the most ridiculous assertion, stating at a White House briefing on April 1 that "we could 'relax social distancing' once there's 'no new cases, no deaths,' but the real turning point won't come until there's a vaccine." Similarly, Dr. Zeke Emanuel, an architect of Obamacare and current advisor to Joe Biden, declared that it will be impossible to return to "normalcy" for eighteen months and that no matter the economic cost: "The truth is we have no choice….We cannot return to normal until there's a vaccine."
Such ideas are frankly madness, and would take an incalculable toll on the health and wealth of all Americans. Tens of millions of Americans find themselves out of work or with reduced hours or pay. The idea that society could continue to exist in such a state betrays a lack of any understanding of the social order.
Smithfield Foods is shutting down a meat processing plant that produces 4 to 5 percent of all the pork in the entire country, and its CEO warned that "the closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply. It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running."
Mass unemployment will inevitably lead to an increase in suicide and substance abuse and the stay-at-home orders have already led to increased domestic violence. New instances of outrageous police conduct in the name of enforcing lockdowns emerge everyday. It is no exaggeration to say that in eighteen months there would likely not be any society left to "reopen."
Truly, only learned ignoramuses could suggest such an obviously catastrophic course of action. Those plebeians who dare to question "experts" such as Fauci and Emanuel are lectured to listen to their betters, who use "science" to understand the situation and are far more knowledgeable. In other words, "stay in your lane." Yet such critics miss their glaring contradiction. Public health officials certainly have a role to play, but they themselves are not experts at everything. By definition, they do not fully understand the other consequences and considerations that must be weighed and balanced, and they, of course, are lacking in the local dispersed knowledge needed to make such decisions. Yet that does not stop them from making declarations dripping with arrogance, such as Fauci's assessment of the implosion of the economy and the resulting unemployment and hardship as being merely "inconvenient from an economic and a personal standpoint." As Ortega y Gasset pointed out, learned ignoramuses are "ignorant, not in the fashion of the ignorant man, but with all the petulance of one who is learned in his own special line."
The phenomenon of the learned ignoramus can be seen in every field and at all levels of intellectual life and popular punditry. However, the current crisis reveals the damage such "experts" can wreak upon civilization itself.
Ortega y Gasset fully recognized the important role that specialization has in making modern life possible; however, he calls for a balanced intellectual specialization, in contrast to the unbalanced status quo that he fears threatens the advancement of scientific discovery itself. Two such balanced intellectuals are without a doubt Ludwig von Mises and F.A. Hayek; although economists, they could be more accurately called social thinkers whose work encompassed far more than that of the typical economist today.
Rather than insular, unbalanced specialization, Mises argued that "He who wants to achieve anything in praxeology must be conversant with mathematics, physics, biology, history, and jurisprudence." Hayek similarly warned that "Unless you really know your economics or whatever your special field is, you will be simply a fraud. But if you know only economics and nothing else, you will be a bane to mankind, good, perhaps, for writing articles for other economists to read, but for nothing else."
Undoubtedly, the entire situation would look entirely different from the chaotic disruptive mess it is now if our public health officials and social scientists were trained in the mold of Mises and Hayek. Whereas both men stressed the complex and ultimately fragile nature of the social order, and therefore the need for broad understanding of this complexity, the learned ignoramus, in the words of Ortega y Gasset, "believes that civilization is there in just the same way as the earth's crust and the forest primeval."
Every time the "experts" demand that life be halted into the indeterminate future, they vindicate Ortega y Gasset's observation that the learned ignoramuses are ignorant of the very nature of the social order itself and are therefore a menace to its preservation. This crisis demonstrates how prescient Ortega y Gasset's warning was. Hopefully it is not too late to prevent a true societal catastrophe. (in INFOWARS, April 17, 2020).
Marcadores: Zachary Yost
Anthony Fauci Only Knows His Narrow Field of Exper...
Viruses 101: How Overprotecting People from COVID ...
Bill Gates' Vaccine Agenda A Win-Win for Big Pharm...
Fanning Wuhan Virus Hysteria: Media's Latest Anti-...
Technocratic Agenda Dominates COVID-19 Panic
Marxist UN WHO Boss Must Be Put on Trial, Critics Say


The Henderson County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Wednesday morning to approve a new Hendersonville High School for $59 million, lowering the curtain on a political drama that has dragged on for more than four years.
The vote came at 11:48 a.m., one hour and 48 minutes after County Commission Chair Grady Hawkins opened a joint meeting meeting with the School Board to discuss a renovation-new construction plan that blends the historic Stillwell building with a second classroom building, a cafeteria, band and chorus room and auxiliary gym. Commissioners raised some questions and expressed some concerns over the details but the atmosphere overall was far more cordial than previous meetings where the two boards were divided.
Noting that he spent 40 years as a civil engineer, Commissioner Bill Lapsley asked a series of questions about the plans.
"For better or for worse, when I look at this type drawing, a lot of past experiences come to mind," he said.
For starters, he said a right-turn-in right turn-out entrance and exit could create problems.
Next, he said, the courtyard space is far smaller than the outdoor area students currently use — about 5,000 square feet less. "It's really less space than what the students are using now," he said. The plan the county commissioners have endorsed for an all new school had almost double the current space.
"That's one of the tradeoffs," he said. "You can go up and have more common space or you can go out" with a larger footprint.
Lapsley also had problems with the look and feel of the enclosed courtyard.
"When you look at this courtyard area ... my vision is we're looking at a three-story rear-end of the Stillwell building." He encouraged the architects "to make it a little more atrractive because I think most people are going to be very disappointed when they stare up at this three-story backside of the building."
Time of construction: it's about the same amount of time as the original plan.
Security: "I think this is covered well in both the designs," he said.
Student safety during construction: Part of the phasing "is very tight" and could put students near cranes and heavy construction activity. "They're going to be very very close" to the construction. Students "are going to get curious and lean up against the fence" and "hassle the contractors."
Modular units: None are proposed. "I want to make sure everybody understands there's no gymnasiums or cafeteria for 18 months," he said. "I just want to make sure everyone understands what's going to happen if this alternative is selected." On the whole, though, he said the plan meets his demand of no modular units. "The parents and the teachers and the students, it's easy for us to say, they can live with it for a month or two but year or more than a year, it's going to be a significant backlash from the people involved."
Lifespan of new vs. renovation. Still no question, all-new alternative would last longer than renovation, he said.
Quality of materials: He is satisfied materials are equal to the original plan and not inferior to cut costs.
Phasing: The proposed phasing is OK.
Cost: After a review of the initial, it was clear that several items were not included. But once the two sides sat down and reviewed everything they and agreed on the $59.2 million cost. "We've got to live with the number," he said. "I honestly believe you can build a quality project for this money."
"It's my belief and I understand that this is a School Board decision," she said. "At the end of the day you've got to come up with a plan that's going to meet the needs of our chidlren and I just want to make sure that was first and foremost. I like this plan."
"I heard comments and I hear a lot more negative about Hendersonville Bearcats than any other school I've had to deal with in the last 19 years," Commissioner Charlie Messer said. "We're not the only county in the state that has problems with the School Board and people in the county not agreeing with them..... My overall concern is the pricetag." But, he added: "Time is money. We need to get this thing started. ... I can live with the controversy of everything else coming down the road."
Commissioner Michael Edney, an HHS graduate, father of one HHS graduate and another scheduled to enroll next year, asked a series of questions about the configuration of a renovated Stillwell building and about parking.
"I think the parking is more than the other one," said School Board member Jay Egolf, HHS class of 1989. "I do like the fact that the new building is not on (Highway) 25 or close to 25. I think that's plenty of parking. When I was there I got a ticket one time and for next two or three months I kept parking there and putting the same old ticket" on the windshield.
Commission Chair Grady Hawkins suggested that a committee made up of county commissioners and School Board members — the newly resurrected Joint Facilities Committee— could explore the parking question.
Edney called the Stillwell renovation an "inferior product" that could be made better if the county spent $3 million or $4 million more. "It's adequate but it's not the best plan we could do," Edney said.
Chairman Amy Lynn Holt and Egolf defended the plan, saying it was safer and more workable than any other proposal.
Hawkins said the architects have the expertise to renovate the building and along with the county's construction manager at risk can accomplish the job despite challenges.
"We'll have to rely on the expertise of Vannoy and Co. and make do with what we've got there," he said.
Not having a cafeteria and a gym for a year "is definitely a sacrifice," Craven said. "Is it ideal? No. Can we get through it? Absolutely."
Craven said he's talked with his children, all heading to HHS, about the project.
"We understand what sacrifice really means but we are building a school not only for him and for his buddies but also for his little sister. This is what the community wants, this is what the board voted on and it's not an inferior product by any stretch of the imagination. "
"We certainly hope that you guys will support that and do your magic with funding," said Mary Louise Corn. "We believe and I think you believe — otherwise you wouldn't have bought the Boyd lot — and the community believes we need to stay where we are and make the best that we can."
"It's been a long journey hasn't it?" Rick Wood said. "At times it's been very painful but I'm encouraged by the way we're working together to try to see this project through. This is not a perfect plan, no plan would be. Certainly we could spend more and do certain things. We have a lot of needs in our county for schools after this project is over. It's the right plan to move forward with now, (even if it's) not perfect."
Hawkins told School Board members that problems remain but "those are all in your court." It's up to the School Board to figure out "if Hendersonville Middle can make enough lunches to bring over. I do know there's a finite amount of land ... and a finite number of parking spaces."


text:
Browse: Home / movie reviews / Movie Review: Star Wars — The Last Jedi
Movie Review: Star Wars — The Last Jedi
By Jack Silbert on January 2, 2018
Among the downers related to my extended hospitalization and rehabilitation was that I didn't get to see Rogue One in the theaters. Since age 8, I'd seen every Star Wars movie on the big screen, as the good Lord intended. I eventually rationalized to myself that Rogue One was a Star Wars story but not an official, you know, Episode. So my streak is intact! And I'm glad, because this is one of the best Star Wars movies yet.
"Wait, what? But I read in such-and-such article that…" Feh, I don't read any of the articles. Forget it, Jake, it's Star Wars. You're either on-board or you're not. Me, I'm all in, baby. Now, where were we? The Empire did some bad stuff, and the Resistance resisted. The Force Awakens was a thrilling rejuvenation of the series, and a true joy for us dorks of a certain age. Yet as I looked back on it, the film felt more and more like an exercise in nostalgia and a re-telling of A New Hope for the younger set out there. But, no complaints, as it was so entertaining and uplifting.
The Last Jedi, on the other hand, has to almost completely rely on its own merits and storytelling — and pretty much succeeds spectacularly. Characters introduced in Awakens continue to grow and flourish: kickass Rey who the Force is strong in, Poe the rebellious rebel pilot, Finn the reformed Stormtrooper, and Kylo Ren who had some real daddy issues last time around. Inner conflict reigns supreme in this installment. Rey and Ren are both torn between the twin sides of the Force, while Finn wavers between cowardice and heroism.
OK, they did bring in a real nostalgic ringer with Luke Skywalker. But he too is conflicted — chilling on the island or returning to his long-shirked Jedi responsibilities. Will he play Yoda to youthful Rey?
The movie isn't perfect. Early on, I worried about the series' Disneyfication, as Finn's storyline felt entirely too video-game-ready. But the film got better and better as it went on, with larger issues taking precedence. When all is said and done, The Last Jedi has it all — thrilling action, enough heart, and even some positive lessons for the kiddies. It's a fitting farewell for Princess Leia and definitely gave me a new hope for future episodes.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 10s movies, Star Wars
One response to "Movie Review: Star Wars — The Last Jedi"
Toe Jam
October 27, 2019 at 6:24 pm	| Permalink | Reply
I dunno mang, that film kind of sucked some deep Wookie ass cavity, across the board. The throne room fight was cool and all but what a painful experience it was trying to get through that pile of bantha fodder. Such a wasted opportunity.
The new characters are for the most part, pointless and lame, the cgi characters too over the top and video game looking….. that whole casino scene is complete throw away filler content of the worst order. They did a total disservice to the Skywalker character/legacy. It's a painful flick to get through, perhaps just a peg above the prequel nightmare. In a way, the throne room fight was like the Darth Maul scene in that first train wreck revival. A spark of what could have been. Is this really the best film these hacks can deliver? Last Jedi was such a bummer that I didn't even bother with Solo.
Time limit is exhausted. Please reload the CAPTCHA. 8 × =
« New Year's Resolutions 2018	Movie Review: The Shape of Water »


text:
all ages site
News - Hellraiser Comics Launch On 23 March 2011
An exclusive here at Revelations - the artwork for Cover C of Issue 2 by Tim Bradstreet!
At the Tolling of a Bell
Free Prelude Comic - Click the cover below!
Written by Clive Barker with Christopher Monfette, art by Leonardo Manco , colors by Juan Manuel Tumbrú, lettering by Johnny Lowe, cover by Tim Bradstreet , edited by Ian Brill, published by BOOM! Studios
"One of the greatest horror franchises of all time returns, now under the control of its original creator! Clive Barker has touched Hellraiser only twice: once to write The Hellbound Heart, and once more to write and direct the original Hellraiser film. Now witness Barker's long-awaited return to tell a new chapter in the series' official continuity - a trajectory that will forever change the Cenobites... and Pinhead! So prepare your soul for an epic journey into horror from one of the medium's greatest voices, and starring one of the medium's greatest characters, in an unforgettable new chapter of Hellraiser."
Click on the cover above for a free downloadable 'Prelude to Hellraiser', set ahead of events in the first issue, then read on for our exclusive chat with co-writer, Chris Monfette, giving us an insight into the challenges and rewards of interpreting Hellraiser...
A Revelatory Interview with Chris Monfette
By Phil and Sarah Stokes, 18 March 2011
Revelations : "If we can jump back a short while, to your work on Seduth, what did you take from that experience that guided your approach to showing Clive your outline for Hellraiser?"
Chris Monfette : "Seduth felt a little like climbing Everest before you'd even hiked the foothills, or swimming the channel before you'd mastered the deep end of the pool. It was my first professional comic gig, and to accomplish it the way that Clive imagined required my unlearning all the traditional rules of story and composition. By its nature, Seduth was a more precisely constructed affair. Because we had this epic scope, yet only a single issue, the jagged, dreamlike presentation of the narrative - like a record skipping from major beat to major beat - and the exact framing and composition of the images had to be precisely planned and intricately described. I was far more involved in dictating the exact layout and paneling of each page than a writer traditionally should be... Then Gabe Rodriguez would come in and elevate the script to ridiculous heights. And since we were consciously aiming for that strange, surreal presentation, we were forced to use every element of the medium - plus the advantages of the 3D format - to propel us through the weirdness, to transition through narrative space; the consequence being that we never had the square footage for more dramatic grace notes or intimate character development.
"Here, however, we're telling a deeper, more straightforward narrative over eight issues. So where Seduth was about how much information we could fold into a single, artistically complex page, Hellraiser has the advantage of a longer, slower burn; more deeply developed characters; and exquisitely crafted, albeit simpler, layouts to heighten the horror. This is much purer storytelling, but what I think Seduth equipped me to handle was a better sense of pacing and transition. How to keep the story moving. A sense of when to fill the page with action, and when to let a single frame speak for itself. And really how to just get out of Leonardo Manco's way and let him work his magic. "
Revelations : "It's some time since you first spoke to us about your desire to write a Hellraiser story - given the options available to you, what convinced you to pick up this narrative at the end of Hellbound (Hellraiser 2) rather than at another point in the movie series?"
Chris Monfette : "Almost inarguably, everything after the third film is crap, and even the third film falters beneath the weight of what had already become a mainstream horror icon. There had been a handful of Hollywood projects in the last few years that I had geekishly, passionately wanted to pursue - the Nightmare on Elm St. remake, the upcoming Monster Squad reboot, and, of course, the Hellraiser redux... I had very specific ideas about how to make those franchises work, one of those being what will eventually become the endgame to these first eight issues of Hellraiser. So when Clive called to come aboard this project, my head had already been wandering the hallways of Hell, exploring my own semi-pro fan-fic... But I knew that the character of Pinhead, after decades of cinematic abuse, had simply become tired. I was weary, the fans were weary; the idea of another truly great Hellraiser film seemed increasingly, tragically unlikely. And it made we wonder about Pinhead's own ennui over those twenty-odd years, his own personal sense of demonic boredom - because he does, on some level, still cling to his human curiosities and ambitions. What if he wanted more? What if he saw Hell for the trap - the box - that it had become? And from that starting point came the idea that in order to escape it, he'd have to confront the one woman who'd truly bested him, and through that, we'd in turn see that Kirsty had also been spending these last few decades in darkness. "
Revelations : "You open issue 1 with a great quote about Hell from Gian Carlo Menotti and, in later issues, you draw upon quotes such as C.S. Lewis's "The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." What's your own view of how the Hellraiser mythos might ensnare its victims?"
Chris Monfette : "Each issue of Hellraiser will open with a quote about the nature of Hell because, as Lewis says, we so often come to it unknowingly, unprepared. How often do we look up only to realize that we've stumbled into a bad situation, a terrible time in our lives, without the realization of how we came to be there? Because the steps are small. The path narrows. And while that's certainly true for Pinhead, I wanted to show readers how that has - and will - become true of Kirsty, as well. Hopefully, on some metaphysical level, the audience will take that same journey with us, not recognizing that each turn of the page takes them deeper and deeper into Hell. But we're doing it, at least I hope, through character this time... Hellraiser had its metaphors of subversion, of combating social taboos with its leather clad villains and intense sexuality; Hellbound pushed it further with surrealistic imagery that evoked Argento or Fulci; and this series - which I like to think of as the cap to that trilogy - hopefully finds a degree of its terror by exploring the more human horrors, by bounding off to Hell through human and inhuman hearts. Hellbound hearts."
Revelations : "What are your hopes for this series - is it an enclosed 8-issue series or the jumping off point for an alternative direction of the Hellraiser story?"
Chris Monfette : "I'll say this... The end of the series will offer readers a vastly different vision of Hell than we've seen before, and it'll leave both Kirsty and Pinhead in a place that should simultaneously feel like a finish and a beginning. For me, this has always been a torch-passing series for the readers, a place where one could lay the mythology to rest with some satisfaction, or where you could pull back the camera and explore an even deeper, more terrifying future."
Revelations : "How have you worked with Clive on the project and are there aspects you wrote that surprised (or particularly delighted!) him?"
Chris Monfette : "After Down, Satan!, Son of Celluloid, Seduth and a few other projects along the way, Clive and I have developed a collaborative relationship that's fundamentally about trust. Clive trusts that I respect his vision and can build upon his themes, his voice; and I trust that Clive's instinct is always to push the boundaries of imagination and challenge the audience, myself included. So to that effect, the process is very natural. I had a vision of the endgame, of connecting Pinhead's story back to Kirsty, and where Clive's initial outline was very, very different, he offered up the Harrowers, invented Cenobites, brought a number of themes and ideas to the table, and somehow we married those notions into something unique and original."
Revelations : "Whose idea was it to do an additional vignette outside the main story arc (it's a bit like one of the old Marvel Hellraiser comic books) and how did you decide on a topic for this prelude?"
Chris Monfette : "Boom wanted to give fans a flavor of what the series was trying to accomplish, a cost-free assurance to diehard fans that this is the classic version of Pinhead - Clive's Pinhead - and a teaser for new fans of the kinds of visceral horror to come. Because it's unconnected to the mythology we're developing in the series, we had the freedom to simply enjoy some bloody fun with the project as a one-off. I initially suggested a few potential set-ups - one in a 1950's S&M brothel, one in a bombed out German village post-WWII - but the image of an inmate sitting in an electric chair, brandishing the box, kept pulling at me... It was tremendous fun, and I'm hopeful that fans will enjoy it as a straight-up bit of gruesome fun."
Revelations : "What should we look forward to in future issues/projects?"
Chris Monfette : "As any Doctor Who fan might exclaim: "SPOILERS!" So I don't want to give too much away. But I can say that the next two issues will offer readers a handful of new - incredibly bizarre - Cenobites and that issue three will explore the origins of Kirsty's Harrowers while connecting very slightly with some of Clive's other mythologies. There's also a very subtle cameo in issue two that I hope fans will pick up on...
"As for myself, I have a film called Deep Cuts in development with a company called American Original. Jeff Katz (Wolverine, Shoot 'Em Up, Freddy vs. Jason) and his partner Rich Marincic are producing with an eye to film later this year or early next. It's a uniquely scary, incredibly bloody mish-mash of horror sub-genres as they ricochet and collide with one another during one terrifying night in New Orleans. We've got ghosts, vampires, slow moving zombies, fast moving zombies, hostel scenarios, cursed objects, undead serial killers, etc. all packed into a single film. I'm hoping it'll be a fun, visual, terrifying feast - or rather, a genre buffet - for horror fans. And as soon as we launch this issue of Hellraiser, I'm about to start scripting another project that'll examine the connection between horror and music. Susperia by way of The Ring. Very excited."
Issue one - available from all good comic retailers from 23 March 2011 or subscribe direct at Boom! Studios.
A gallery of cover art for the Prelude and other Hellraiser issues is here.


Exterior graphics are a cost-effective way to promote your business, trade show or meeting. Our custom exterior signs make a bold statement and are ideal for almost any outdoor application. Our premium weatherproof graphics are long lasting and will stand up against the elements. They feature a durable backing that was specially created for exterior uses. In addition, our exterior graphics can be easily removed as your message changes.
Advertise your service, business, product or event with a high-impact, custom exterior sign. A removable wall graphic is perfect for when you want to make a bold statement that will capture peoples attention. We can create a custom exterior graphic that will convey your message the way you want.
Create a painted-on look to your wall with our unique concrete-conforming wall graphics. These graphics are made out of a unique material that allows them to conform to the wall, creating a clean and tasteful look. These graphics are great for brick, concrete and cinder block.
Custom outdoor and sidewalk floor graphics are the perfect way to encourage customers to visit your business or event. These floor graphics and decals can be custom designed to suit your needs. They are available in a variety of shapes and sizes. Our sidewalk decals and floor graphics stickers will adhere to a number of outdoor surfaces, including pavement, brick, and asphalt. These are durable to provide long-term use.
You will find that we carry a variety of exterior graphics to meet any need.
Our bold, custom exterior signs will make your statement loud and clear. You can create a great first impression, direct customers and deliver your brands message with a customized exterior graphic from Sticker Genius.


Goatland has installed a Biodigester at the Swetes Village farm, which is generating clean methane from manure. This produces electricity for use on the farm in addition to methane for cooking.
Stop by and take a look at the innovative and proactive approach to waste management; that creates value from waste.


Metal additive manufacturing (metal AM), or metal 3D printing, has the potential to profoundly change the production, time-to-market, and simplicity of components and assemblies. Unlike conventional or subtractive manufacturing processes, such as drilling, which creates a part by removing material, additive manufacturing builds a part using a layer-by-layer process directly from a digital model, without the use of molds or dies that add time, waste material, and expense to the manufacturing process. Additive manufacturing has been used as a design and prototyping tool for decades, but the focus of additive manufacturing is now shifting to the direct production of components, such as medical implants, aircraft engine parts, and jewelry.
Additive manufacturing is not a single type of technology or process. However, all additive manufacturing systems employ a common layer-by-layer approach, but they use a wide variety of technologies, materials, and processes.
The Association for Metal Additive Manufacturing formed in 2017 as a voice for metal AM companies with captive/in-plant metal AM operations, as well as those companies manufacturing such products for sale on the open market, material suppliers to those companies, and equipment suppliers that support the metal AM industry. Membership is limited to commercial entities and will not include academic institutions, government agencies, research-only organizations, or professional societies. These non-commercial entities are important and can contribute but their role will be ancillary.