text:
Sonnets in colour
Painting. Poetry. Synergy
Transform your space
Expand your vision
Art of Synergistic Seeing
Divine Comedy of Shakespeare's Sonnets
Elegy in colour: Rilke on transcending living and dying
May 16, 2015 by Elena Maslova-Levin
Lena Levin. Night's candles are burnt out…. . 2014. Click the image to see more.
Believe it or not, I had never really thought about it till last week. Or if I have, it was more about how language shapes and constrains our understanding of love — but not about what love really is, the reality this word points to. This reality of love must predate language, both in the evolution of humankind (just think about dogs!) and in an individual life story, beginning in the circle of parental love; it is this un-linguistic reality that I have never even tried to think about. In retrospect, I believe this is because the concept of love seemed unproblematic, just as any concept which matches direct experience easily and organically, like "apple", or "joy", or "sky". You wouldn't just pause to think "What is apple?", would you?
I was shaken out of this blissful, un-thinking, dog-like understanding of love about three weeks ago, when I joined an online course on Shakespeare. Come to think about it, it had to happen sooner or later: how can one work with Shakespeare's sonnets without facing this challenge? The first play to be studied in the course was "Romeo and Juliet"; but it was not the play itself that problematised love for me, but some discussions on the course forums: a surprising number of them revolved around one or another way of devaluing Romeo and Juliet's love ("puppy love", "physical love", "childish infatuation", "superficial", "just hormones" — I am sure you get the gist). Let me share with you my favourite recording of the first balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet"; had I been asked what love is three weeks ago, I might have pointed to it and say: This is love.
[x_video_embed type="16:9″] [/x_video_embed]
After reading these forum discussions, I knew it mightn't have worked. I am not generally given to the well-known "someone is wrong on the internet" syndrome, but I felt as though these conversations bared a hidden rupture in the very fabric of life. Here was a difference in worldview so painfully deep that it makes no sense to argue, but it — in a sense — hurts just to see it. But I couldn't put my finger on the source of this frustration until I read one of the introductory lectures to the second play of the course ("A Midsummer Night's Dream"), "What is love?" by Joshua Calhoun.
Calhoun's core point is that the English word "love" is ambiguous: it covers a range of disparate experiences, and it is this ambiguity Shakespeare exposes and plays with in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Greeks, he believes, got it right (or at least less wrong) with their four different words:
Agape for charity, compassion, the love of God for man and of man for God,
Eros for sexual passion,
Philia for affectionate regard and friendship, and
Storge for child-parent relationship.
Calhoun writes:
"I like to think of these as Grecian urns, appropriately labeled so that love can be sorted out. The English language dumps all four containers—Eros, Agape, Storge, Phile—in the middle of the floor in a big pile, much like my daughter used to do with her toys when she was a toddler."
But is that so? Languages move from specific to abstract along with the humankind's attempts to increase knowledge and understand reality — and ambiguity and abstraction are very different things. If dumping all the toys in a big pile is a metaphor for ambiguity, then abstraction would be figuring out that some toys belong to the same category (for example, sorting them by colour), or, at a still higher level of abstraction, discovering the very concept of "toy" (as opposed to other, "grown-up", things).
The existence of many different kind of toys doesn't make the word toy ambiguous, and there is a good test for that: one can talk about toys without meaning anything more specific. If I say "Kids love toys", I don't necessarily have any specific toys in mind, and you — if you hear or read it — are not supposed to disambiguate this statement and figure out which particular toys I meant. Compare this with the word word, which can mean "a unit of language" or "a piece of news", but it cannot mean both at the same time. If I say: "the first word of this sentence", I mean the former, and if I say "I received word from home", I mean the latter. In either case, the listener would resolve the ambiguity, that is, pick the meaning appropriate to the context.
What about love, then: is it ambiguous, as Calhoun argues, or is it a valid abstraction? When one says "love", does one always mean something more specific, something which would nicely fit in one of those Greek urns? Or are there contexts where these distinctions don't matter, and, furthermore, it is essential not to make such distinctions to grasp the meaning? Here is an example of such a context, a quote from Alan Watt's "The Wisdom of Insecurity":
"The further truth that the undivided mind is aware of experience as a unity, of the world as itself, and that the whole nature of mind and awareness is to be one with what it knows, suggests a state that would usually be called love. For the love that expresses itself in creative action is something much more than an emotion. It is not something which you can "feel" and "know," remember and define. Love is the organizing and unifying principle which makes the world a universe and the disintegrated mass a community. It is the very essence and character of mind, and becomes manifest in action when the mind is whole."
In this context, the word love cannot, I believe, be replaced with either of the more specific Greek alternatives. This thought itself could not have been expressed without a concept abstract enough to cover all kinds and types and shapes of love. Another example, even more to the point, from Joseph Campbell's essay "The Mythology of Love":
"We can safely say, therefore, that whereas some moralists may find it possible to make a distinction between two spheres and reigns—one of flesh, the other of the spirit, one of time, the other of eternity—where ever love arises such definitions vanish, and a sense of life awakens in which all such oppositions are at one."
One can, of course, disagree with these thoughts — but I happen to believe that Shakespeare expressed a similar sensation of essential unity of all forms of love in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (and, moreover, in the parallels between this comedy and the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet).
In thinking about these two plays, and the meaning of love in them, I've come to a somewhat idiosyncratic metaphor of love as water: it can be in a glass, in a pool, in a river, in an ocean, in a waterfall; one can drink it, wash something in it, swim in it, stand in front of it in awe and wonder, and one can drown in it. Shapes are different, experiences are different, but it's still water. And so love can take different shapes, and be experienced in a variety of ways, from rapture to agony, from comic to tragic — but it's still love. For me, denying the truth of Romeo and Juliet's love sounds like saying that there is no water in Niagara since one can neither drink from it nor swim in it.
Language can constrain the mind and force it into superfluous divisions and dangerous metaphors, but the concept of love seems to give an example of the opposite situation: language provides us with a unified abstract concept, which has psychological validity for some people, while the others see it as an ambiguous umbrella term for experiences that have little, if anything, in common. In the latter case, nothing remains but to stick adjectives in front of it for disambiguation, or try and narrow the concept to one or another "right" sort of love. In a sense, it is a case of ambiguity after all, but on another level: love can point either to specific experiences or to the unified reality behind all of them.
In the essay already quoted above, Campbell tells of five degrees of love "through which a worshiper is increased in the service and knowledge of his God" in Indian theology. The first four are described through appropriate social relationships: servant-master, friends, parent-child, spouses (in this order). But what is the fifth, highest degree of love? Campbell writes:
"It is passionate, illicit love. In marriage, it is declared, one is still possessed of reason. One still enjoys the goods of this world and one's place in the world, wealth, social position, and the rest. Moreover, marriage in the Orient is a family-made arrangement, having nothing whatsoever to do with what in the West we now think of as love. The seizure of passionate love can be, in such a context, only illicit, breaking in upon the order of one's dutiful life in virtue as a devastating storm. And the aim of such a love can be only that of the moth in the image of al-Hallaj: to be annihilated in love's fire."
What is recognised here, I believe, is that a human society is built around taming the natural energy of love into a range of "useful", constructive forms, which maintain the community and its order rather than disrupt it, just like we do it with fire and water. If we try and understand "true love" in terms of these experiences only, it is bound to feel ambiguous. But just as fire and water, love cannot be fully domesticated; it doesn't make it less of a love, rather more — and that's the truth of Romeo and Juliet's love. Their love is, of course, formally sanctified — they are married, albeit in secret; but it still has the same quality of a devastating storm breaking against the social order, of a moth flying towards fire, of the highest and purest degree of love. "The underlying thought here, Campbell continues, is that in the rapture of love one is transported beyond temporal laws and relationships, these pertaining only to the secondary world of apparent separateness and multiplicity."
So, what is love, after all? I agree with Alan Watts that one cannot "define" it, but Joseph Campbell comes close in linking the unified concept of love to Schopenhauer's contemplation of the ability of an individual to put themselves and their life in jeopardy for the sake of another (in "The Foundation of Morality"). This ability comes "…out of an instinctive recognition of the truth that he and that other in fact are one. He has been moved not from the lesser, secondary knowledge of himself as separate from others, but from an immediate experience of the greater, truer truth, that we are all one in the ground of our being."
This is love.
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[content_band inner_container="true" no_margin="true" padding_top="5px" padding_bottom="5px" border="horizontal" bg_color="#ddb57a"] Related posts:[/content_band]
On metaphors of love and the pain of betrayal
On Romeo's story as a hero's journey
Filed Under: Bookshelf, Love, Sensuality Tagged With: Alan Watts, Joseph Campbell, moocspeare, William Shakespeare


Vintage Christmas photos from the 1920s.
A classic '20s storefront! This is the Sport Mart at 1303 F St. N.W., Dec. 1923 in Washington D.C.
Here you see a portion of the Lionel "Early Period" line as it was between 1919 and 1924 - as they were displayed and sold in their Day. Lionel began transitioning to a whole new line and look of trains in 1924. "0" gauge trains in the foreground - one Standard Gauge set in the rear. And just look at all the other great toys in this window!
That's no cap-gun in the center, either!
Another storefront, same era. That's Lionel's largest 0 gauge train set prior to 1924, but missing one car.
Notice the odd-looking early Christmas lights strung across the top of the window with the exhaust-tip bulbs. These are either carbon filament or the very earliest of the tungsten types, putting this picture earlier than the one above. This is also in Washington DC - photo dated 1921.
This is the Dickey family of Washington, D.C. in 1923. Mr. Dickey was a prominent attorney.
Hauck Family. No other information available.
This same picture turned up colorized. Whoever did this did an amazing job, but I preserve the black and white version because whoever did it could have had no way of knowing the original colors of all those ornaments and so on.
The Dickey family again - 1921.
1921. Remember Santa in space ships in the '50s? This is a publicity shot for a TB drive. Before we had penecillin, TB was the AIDS of Pre WW II days. Terribly contagious, you could pick it up from a pay phone or at the movies. Drives went on incessantly.
Dec.19, 1922 - Washington, D.C.: Rep. Vincent Morrison Brennan, R.-Michigan, eavesdrops on House proceedings via modern, convenient AM radio.
The Dickey family again - 1929.
That wind-up tin ship on the floor is to die for with collectors. They fetch prices beyond those of the rarest old trains today because guess what? They were meant to float on water and most have long since rusted out or were sunk! - but true works of beauty in their day.
Dated 1924. "1,000 Toys in One."
Although this photo was labled "1947," I didn't believe it. That Lionel train and everything else I see are early 1920s. But in the blowup you can see an Auburn rubber toy car - definitely 1940s -the only giveaway. I'm leaving the picture here, anyway.
Scrutinize the kids. Some seem to have dirty faces, but really their cheeks are chapped by the cold outside and the dry hot air of steam heat indoors. A common problem in those days that was taken as normal. This is Macy's in New York - 1925.
Christmas in the Postal Dead-Letter Office. Also 1925.
An Oldsmobile dealership in 1921 - down the chimney and out!
Speaking of Christmas windows .. Saks Fifth Avenue, Dec 1920.
Sorry, PETA: Those were very different times.
Here's a fun Christmas party ..Volunteers of America - 1925.
Their facial expressions seem as dead as that poor tree. Scarcely a needle left on it.
Christmas 1921 for the James J. Davis family of Washington DC. The boy seems mystified as to why that big Pullman car floor toy won't fit on the American Flyer "O" gauge track. A rather modest Christmas for the U.S. Secretary of Labor under Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, wouldn't you say?
A modest, but very tidy putz dated 1928 with a Lionel #253 engine pulling two "Classic Period" 610 cars.... and for the first time - a couple of very small Japanese cardboard houses! And don't you love the little "penny-toy" cars and trucks? Some of those could even have been Cracker Jack prizes. I can remember getting neat little metal toys from Cracker Jacks in the 40s. The prizes must have been even better in the '20s.
Those street lights are very simple bent and straight metal tubes on metal dish bases that came in sets of 8, as they were really a C-6 light-string in disguise. They were very inexpensive compared with the fancy Lionel and Ives train accessories and are still often found. Some say they were "Noma," but i don't know.
Dec 16,1923: Don Manuel Tellez -"Charge de Affairs" of Mexico - and family. The little girl is "Emily."
Did i say the "first Japanese cardboard houses" in the previous photo? What are these little houses all over the Tellez's putz? Gosh, i wish the quality were better!
(New Dec 2009 This one was sent by Rob Shoeberlein of the Maryland state Archives with the vague date reference that it was taken before the 1920s, but there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is sometime between 1918 and the mid '20s. The boy's costume is a dead give away to the early Twenties, but mainly it's the train makes me certain. That's Lionel's humble #33 locomotive pulling three humble #100 series Standard Gauge freight cars. The #114 boxcar has been added to Lionel's smallest starter set #37. It still has just the circle of track that came with that set. ( 42" diameter circle for size reference.) Production of this "Early Period" style ceased in 1923. We see also see that the locomotive's headlight has been replaced with a C-6 Christmas light cone bulb, as often happened with the old trains because they fit the same sockets, and those style bulbs were not available pre WW I. We also see three of Lionel's street lights - two #58s and one #57 "Broadway." These streetlamps were available from the mid teens to the 1950s, but not that kind of train. These early sets were rather tinny and poorly engineered, but nevertheless expensive!" That set without the boxcar sold for $18.50 - that's easily the equivalent of $250 today - and came with no transformer. There were too many different kinds of power across the country to include a transformer that would work for everyone, in those days, and many homes had no electricity at all. My late Uncle Jim Sutter had the passenger version of this set as a kid, and ran it from a car battery. The acid ate a hole through Grandma's rug and into the floor and we heard the story of it every Christmas ever after.
Here's a larger Lionel set from the same period. The #50 locomotive shown pulling #35, #35, #36 cars was only made in 1923 and '24 - a medium sized Early-Period engine, one of two to feature the new, improved "Super Motor," which was to power Lionel's golden "Classic Period" beginning one year later and continuing to about 1937. This picture gives a good idea how BIG this gauge of trains was, and it's by no means the largest model.
"A Keen Christmas - 1920:" The Christmas tree of Mrs. A.M.Keen, ca. 1920. Washington, D.C.- Harris & Ewing glass negative.
This putz could be from earlier than the Twenties. There is nothing in it except the minature light bulbs that could not go back to 1900, but even those bulbs are of very early types - doubtless carbon filaments with the exhaust tips exposed on top.
We have a catalogue page identifying that mysterious, strange locomotive going in and out of those tunnels on the floor.
It's by an all-but-forgotten American train maker - name of "Howard Electric Trains"
In business from only 1904 to 1910, HOWARD was the first to have operating electric headlights on toy electric train engines. Their trains were quite high-quality and sturdy for the times. Each piece came in a dovetailed, slide-top wooden box. The track was sectional, but of a doomed 2" gauge. Talk about rare! Train collector Dave McEntarfer who sent this and several other vintage pictures tells me that just 3 are still known to exist. It ran on 4 big dry cell batteries or 3 2-volt wet cells. It isn't possible to tell which year this page is from because HOWARD had the exact same catalog for all 6 of its years.
Rob Shoeberlein has done it again. To follow are three more vintage Christmas displays whose train contents date them surely between 1924 and the Early '30s... the Lionel "Classic Period." They are three different displays appearing to be from three different houses.
This is the stuff that train collectors dreams are made of. We have a big Lionel #402 or #402E (remote control reverse) standard gauge twin-motor locomotive pulling it's matched set of passenger cars #419,#418,and #490 - the size of big picnic bread loaves and with little swivel parlor seats inside. Flagship Set #403 or 403E in the 1924 through 1926 catalogs and continued throughout the decade.
On the other end of the track, some freight cars have been added to the big set - the giant, unwieldly #219 crane and three of the smaller 500 series freights. On the inside track are a couple of Lionel's pre-1924 smaller 0 gauge trains. Behind the big #403 set is Lionel's grand and massive #840 power station, which can only be likened to a tin wedding cake. And the whole rest of the layout is just loaded with Lionel bungalos, villas and other buildings, accessories and lamposts. That appears to be a small German station in the right foreground ...Bing, perhaps.
I like this one-train dogbone layout with it's three trees! It has charm. The train is headed by a Lionel #10 or #10E engine, Lionel's second smallest Classic Period standard gauge engine , the #8 being the smallest. That set usually has three cars... combine, pullman and observation. I only see two, here. We see a Lionel metal bungalo on the left - probably a #184 - and the widely found Lionel #122, not #124 station on the right. The difference was that the #124 had external light fixtures in addition to a light inside. Otherwise, both were identical and of standard gauge size and sold for decades. And we see a couple of automatic signals and some other things. And again we have a very strange control box on the left - if in fact that's what it was. It could be a box to contain batteries and speed controls - if the house had no electric There seem to be no lights on the trees. But then - it may have nothing to do with the train at all. To tell you the truth - I have no idea what that thing is. Another proudly home-made contraption? Radio? A quack medical machine? But I suspect it worked the train.
Of interest is that complicated stuff behind the bungalo on the left. That's a toy stationary steam engine apparently belted up to some wheels and pulleys to animate something - I see a little German tin windmill and pond, perhaps with a little fountain - and perhaps it's to pass for the local power station as well.
Not much Christmas showing, but this picture is dated Dec. 1921, Washington DC - a house built in 1876. Can you imagine the interior of such a place, of having Christmas in it?
The negative is damaged, but I just had to include it.
A Christmas 1920 - Washington, D.C. - Blowup showing exquisite detail.


A task is something that must be completed to achieve a greater goal. A lack of tasks, or incremental steps to achieve something greater is often why people never accomplish the things they want to in life. Goal setting in life has been historically linked to being more successful.
The task list has a history, believe it or not. A man named Charles Schwab, a steel tycoon, and a guy who was obsessed with increasing economic efficiency, wanted to find a way to make his workers more productive. He sent out a memo and stated that he would award handsomely any individual who could improve the productivity of his employees. This led to a meeting with PR Guru Ivy Lee who suggested that each employee write down 6 tasks and rank them according to priority. After 90 days of testing this method, productivity improved and the task list was born.
Let's talk about the importance of assigning tasks the right way. It's quite simple to walk over to Joe's desk and tell him he needs to pull and analyze the financials from last quarter. But to get Joe to actually do that job and do it properly is a whole other ball game. Task lists are not fun but they are important. Here's why.
Marketing Guru, Simon Sinek talks about a chemical called Dopamine. It motivates us to achieve incremental goals. It rewards motivated behavior. It makes us feel good when we check things off the "to do list" or reach project milestones.This chemical is the main reason why task lists work in the first place and why they are such an important part of project management.
Assigning tasks can be tricky and simply giving a task to the wrong person could cause a lot of problems. Here's are some common mistakes that managers make and how you can overcome them.
Assigning tasks without consent. Just like we did with Joe earlier, many managers have the mindless habit of handing out tasks like Halloween candy ( except on Halloween kids actually want the candy). This method won't fly with millennials either – they don't appreciate authority and top-down approaches and feeling like they are being forced to do things they don't want to do. It's more important to take a collaborative approach and ensuring that assignees are confident that they can complete the work. Use time estimation techniques, and take an agile approach. (Which BTW if you haven't seen the video you need to stop right now and go watch it!) You'll feel more confident that the task will be completed and the assignee will feel great about completing the task.
Mismatched skills: Hard vs. Soft When you think about mismatched skills, you often think about hard skills right away. You wouldn't put your marketing person to take care of accounting – that's a given. But the less obvious mismatched skills are the soft skills. For example, maybe you have a social media guru in your office who's an absolute genius at attracting attention for your company online. Let's say you include them on your roster of people to man the booth at a trade show. Unfortunately, your social media person has zero, real-life social skills and so sending them to a trade show where they have to meet people face-to-face may be uncomfortable for them and a waste of time for you. Keep an eye on soft skills when assigning tasks.
Assigning multiple people to a task. Here's one we hear about all the time at work places and at school. When two or more people are assigned to a task, and nothing gets done. In this case it's important to be clear about each person's responsibility in completing the task. For example, let's say the task is to create a marketing plan. You've assigned it to two people. Now you can't say, "Ash and Alex – go make me a marketing plan" but that won't work because you were not specific enough. Alex and I will be sitting around wondering and possibly even arguing about who's going to do what. The best way to approach it would be Ash, you do all the research required to build the marketing plan and Alex, you put it all together. This way, the sub tasks are clear and there will be no confusion.
Make it hard to see current and upcoming list of things to do with clear priorities. Here's the deal. If task lists are not in people's faces, they have a hard time staying focused and on track. Make sure that everyone can see the task list in a centralized location, plus make sure that they can see the dependencies that have an effect on their tasks etc. Knowing that someone is waiting for them to complete their task by a specific time will help keep your team accountable.
Take action and make it a group ritual to cross off the tasks from the list. whether you use whiteboard, PM software or stickers – doesn't matter, as long as people get their daily dose of dopamine.
It will keep the team feeling great about the tasks that they were assigned and keeps them both accountable and happy to work.


Enjoy a sweet little treat! Chocolate Kisses make a great addition to candy dishes, desserts, gifts and more.
Delicious Hershey's chocolates are sure to delight.
Tasty kosher and gluten-free candy.
Perfect for sharing with friends, family and coworkers.
Each chocolate candy is individually wrapped with a signature plume.
A kosher and gluten-free candy, perfect for crowd-pleasing!
Give yourself enough time to get organized. Decide on a theme, including colors, patterns, and props before buying your treats. Finding candy accordingly to your colors will be much easier.
Be sure to select a variety of candy types including chocolates, marshmallows, lollipops, and baked goods. Also, a wide array of jar shapes, from apothecary jars to bowls to pastry platters and trays; these are a great way to give your buffet depth.
Favor bags and boxes are a great way to accessorize your candy buffet! From organza bags to take-out boxes, your guests will love taking these treats home.
Assume .5 lbs. (8 oz.) of candy per guest.
Ex: 50 lbs. (800 oz.) for 100 guests.
5 lbs. of candy will fill a 1 gallon jar.
Hershey's Kisses Milk Chocolates are great bowl fillers and come in a wide variety of colors.
Hershey's Kisses Chocolate is known around the world for its iconic shape, festive flags, and delicious chocolate taste. Introduced in 1907, it got its name from the way the chocolate "kissed" the conveyor belt during manufacturing. The plume was added in 1921 and trademarked by Milton Hershey in 1924.
Today, Hershey's Kisses Chocolate comes in a wide variety of colors and flavors. While great for snacking and sharing, Hershey's Kisses Chocolate can also be used for baking, gifts, party favors, and crafts.


I started this blog five years ago today. In my initial post, I warned that I wouldn't be blogging much. Two days later, I discovered Britney Spears had "borrowed" one of my rings without permission. Of course, I had to share that online, and after that, I couldn't stop.
That's exactly what "Wear What You Want" is all about. I think y'all should know what fashion is considered "safe" for what time and place; decide when it's appropriate to live dangerously style-wise; then anticipate and cope with the consequences. If you decide to sport pink hair and full-sleeve tattoos in your small conservative town, more power to you — just don't be outraged when you catch people staring at your deliberate outrageousness. If you end up on a fashion publication's "Disaster Area" page now and then, rejoice! It's a great story to tell people. I speak from experience.
I'm the one in the leopard. Click for original post.
In other words, "Never Is the Next New Thing™." It's more than a philosophy like "Wear What You Want"; it's an acknowledgement of reality. I've seen it in my business as well as in the fashion world. People who told me they'd never wear skull jewelry or big jewelry are buying those pieces from me. My multi-finger ring sets that stores totally dismissed in 2008 were copied by Topshop this year. The luxury-goods experts who told me my accessibility through social media would ruin my business are now saying no business can exist without a social-media presence. So-called impossible things — both good and bad — happen every day in fashion, in business, and in life in general. Just because no one else is doing it yet doesn't mean you shouldn't wear what you want, create what you want, and say what you want, as long as no one loses an eye in the process. (Hurting my excellent sense of aesthetics doesn't count as an evil act, as much as I hate to admit it.) Change is inevitable and you can be a follower or a leader. Yeah, it's scarier to lead … but it's a helluva lot of fun too.
Tell Me About It ... Stud!
5 years! Holy cow… I'm so proud of you!!
I love the new look and I love the new motto.
Thank you for posting as often as you do and thank you for the GREAT and witty and interesting writing. Why can't everyone write like you?
Here's to another 5 years, Wendy! I think I have been reading you nearly from the beginning, and although I don't comment on every post, I still read every one.
I love your attitude, and think you're one of the most badass bloggers out there. Keep up the great work and rock on, Ms. B!
I'd kill for that skull ring. Nevermind, my next husband/thing will be wealthy and it will be mine, LOL! Congrats on 5 years, you rock!
I'm definitely in favor of any man who buys you this ring!
So glad I met you thanks to blogging!
Great new tag, though I have a real soft spot for the former one. And I sense I have been reading this blog for 5 years???!
"Wear What You Want" will always be my personal philosophy!
Please give some of your quick wit to figuring out the corollary to "Never is the next new thing"- what quick turn of phrase encompasses those edgy things I embraced immediately that I detest now?
"Coming to my senses"? LOL.
Happy 5 year blogaversary Wendy!! I love the new motto!
The new header looks great! Congrats!
Thanks for your great ideas, as always!
Jeggings. I have more than one pair. Who knew?
here's to many more years!!
Happy Blog-oversary and Anniversary, Wendy! You've definitely been an inspiration to me for a number of years. Keep doin' what you do!
Happy Blogiversay. I like the new header and the motto. I had not heard the B. Spears story before.
Wendy, you're an inspiration. Congratulations on five years blogging and eleven happy years of marriage!
The first thing I noticed when your page opened up was the new skull ring design. Love it.
I prefer your old motto which has inspired me not once, but I understand the new one is the logical next step. Wow! 5 years? congratulations!!
Wendy, an adorable boutique opened up down the street from my office — it's called FITZROY (fitzroyboutique.com) and it's full of fun fashion goodness, so I think of you and the ginger gent when I walk past.
Congratulations on your five years of blogging Wendy. I admire you in so many ways; you are a constant inspiration.
Heppy Blogversary Wendy! You are truly an inspiration in business and in the blogging world.
Congrats!! My five was in December.
I've thoroughly enjoyed this blog for five years! Hope for more to come!
Congratulations Wendy! I've been reading your blog over the past couple years… your talent for sharp wit and gorgeous bling keeps us all coming back. Love the new banner and motto, cheers to a fresh start!
Many Cognratulations! I love this post and everything you're doing. I just wished I'd found you sooner! Here's to the next Never!
You're a pioneer lady and I daresay you'll continue to be so!


text:
William Burges (1827–1881) was an English architect, born in London.  He trained under Edward Blore and Matthew Digby Wyatt.  His works include churches, a cathedral, a warehouse, a university, a school, houses and castles.  Burges's most notable works are Cardiff Castle, constructed between 1866 and 1928, and Castell Coch (1872–91), both of which were built for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute.

For most of the century following his death, Victorian architecture was neither the subject of intensive study nor sympathetic attention and Burges's work was largely ignored.  However the revival of interest in Victorian art, architecture, and design in the later twentieth century has led to a renewed appreciation of Burges and his work.

The list includes all known buildings by Burges, and significant alterations or additions made by him to existing structures.  Unexecuted designs are not listed.

Key

Works

Notes

References

Gothic Revival architecture
Burges

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


To prevent berries from bleeding, toss them in flour, and then gently fold them into batter.
These were good. I made them with half white and half whole wheat flour, and 2 eggs instead of the egg substitute. Next time I'll skip the topping, the muffins don't need it!
To tluvgolf I went to the site you suggested for a better blueberry muffin (cooksillustrated) but you have to become a member to get the recipes. Thanks, but there are too many free recipe sites out there to be bothered with cooks illustrated.
Very good blueberry muffins and low in fat, relatively. I will reduce the sugar amount to 3/4 cup next time since a little sweet for me. But definitely will make again!
Easy and delicious! I did use 1/2c white flour and 1/2c whole wheat flour. Next time I'll add more blueberries, just personal preference. Healthy, low calorie snack that's yummy!
but this one is better- http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=19363- it takes a cup of blueberry with a teaspoon of sugar in a small pan over medium heat and cooks for about 6 minutes mashing the berries this cools and when the batter is in the muffin pans you swirl a teaspoon of this mixture into each muffin and wow does this ever make the blueberry muffin POP.
These muffins were very moist and delicious. I took them on a girls getaway, the girls all loved them and they traveled very well.
I made a few changes as my husband has een told to watch his sugars. I used ff plain yogurt instead of buttermilk and real eggs. I used 1/2 sugar and 1/2 splenda and 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white flour. I also had to use frozen blueberries as frest were jut too expensive. There are no leftovers. They were that good.


Captain Haddock reading Tintin – with umbrella. In 2016 we are proud to offer our customers a new special collection, based on a magnificent poster created by Hergé in 1946 to promote the launch of Tintin magazine. This new series, named "Lisez Tintin" after the title of the poster, will be completed over the year by the following key characters and friends of Tintin: Captain Haddock, the Thom(p)sons, Professor Calculus, and of course the faithful Snowy! Each figurine in this collection is strictly limited to 2,000 copies. Each figurine comes with a certificate of authenticity.


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A utility in the making: The municipalization of Boulder, Colorado
"The things that need to be done are not rocket science but you need to know how to do them."
Herman K. Trabish Contributing Editor
Flickr user Yuya Sekiguchi
The City of Boulder, Colorado, is fighting for its dream of a municipal electric utility.
Xcel Energy, which now provides Boulder's electricity, does not think city leaders are going about municipalization in a legal or practical way.
The City of Boulder has an 18-month, 600-step transition plan to take over Xcel's electrical system.
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"Xcel is waiting for us to stumble and we intend to show them we know what we are doing," Heather Bailey, executive director of energy strategy and electric utility development for the City of Boulder, told Utility Dive. "The things that need to be done are not rocket science but you need to know how to do them."
Boulder's ambitious plan
Bailey and Boulder's transition team are getting input from investor-owned utilities, other municipal utilities, local experts, and the American Public Power Association. They have formulated a high-level, eighteen-month transition plan with seven major functional areas. And they have a 600-step to-do list.
"To seamlessly integrate an electric utility," explained the final report from PowerServices, Inc., Boulder's municipalization consultant, the city must "manage multiple uncertainties and create a path forward" despite the fact that the Xcel-Boulder dispute remains a "complex process highly influenced by acquisition legal and regulatory proceedings."
PowerServices Inc
The key objectives, PowerServices reported, are safe and reliable system operations, cost effective and reliable wholesale power, minimal transitional costs and customer impacts, and getting more renewables into the generation mix.
These objectives will come through either of two scenarios. One foresees "coordination with Xcel Energy to provide wholesale power and services at acquisition (Day 1) until interconnection construction is completed (Day 2)." Power supply and operations would be stable over a gradual two-year transition period.
Another foresees Boulder taking over "all aspects of utility operations immediately upon acquisition (Day 1) and prior to completion of interconnection construction." In that scenario, Boulder would be on its own.
"We are planning for the worst and hoping for the best," Bailey said. "I suspect we will end up somewhere in the middle." For now, her team is working to identify best practices and establish standards, procedures, and policies.
The dispute with Xcel Energy
The dispute over municipalization centers on Xcel-owned infrastructure within the Boulder city limits that the city believes should be turned over at a fair price through a district court condemnation proceeding.
An October 2013 decision by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) ruled condemnation should be settled in a regulatory proceeding.
"It is state law," Xcel spokesperson Michelle Aguayo told Utility Dive. "The PUC made it very clear the Colorado Supreme Court has upheld that time and again."
It is not just what is best for Xcel Energy or Boulder, Aguayo said. "It is what is best for the grid and for all the customers of Colorado. They are looking at reliability, at safety, and at what state law has dictated."
The process seems to be "testing the relative importance of competing values," explained Pace University Law School regulatory authority and former Texas regulator Karl Rabago. "The interests of a democratically convened local government in the health and welfare of its citizens" are set against "the property-and-investment-backed profit expectation interests of a corporation operating as a monopoly."
Sources who asked not to be named said Xcel's dissatisfaction is with inadequate details provided by the city about the Xcel infrastructure it wants. The lawsuit prevented Aguayo from addressing that issue specifically but she told the Boulder Daily Camera Xcel has "too many unanswered questions."
Xcel's website echoes Aguayo, reporting that Boulder's failure to settle forced it to take legal action.
"The city has provided a detailed inventory to Xcel," responded Boulder Senior Assistant City Attorney Kathy Haddock, though it cannot be publicly disclosed. "During negotiations, the city also provided Xcel a mapbook showing the locations of all Xcel facilities the city intended to acquire, and its negotiators had several meetings with Xcel."
But first, jurisdiction must be established. "The PUC has 'primary jurisdiction' so even if the courts resolve the ultimate issues, there is an argument that the matter must be heard at the PUC," Rabago explained. "The exception is that when there are clear issues of law and no real issues of fact, the courts are an acceptable place to start."
Boulder is prepared to fight for municipalization all the way to FERC and the Colorado Supreme Court
Boulder is ready for a five year battle that could go before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Colorado's Supreme Court, municipalization advocate Ken Regelson said.
Xcel knows the utility must be operational by the end of 2016 or the city must ask voters for a third approval of the plan, so it is "throwing up as much legal dirt as it can to hold onto the $30 million per year in profits it earns in Boulder," Regelson explained. "But they're kidding themselves. We first got a 54% voter approval. And when Xcel spent millions trying to reverse that, we got a 62% approval. We know how to talk to Boulder voters and they want this."
The issue will also go back to Boulder voters if legal and regulatory proceedings set the value of Xcel's poles and wires higher than the initial ballot measure's $214 million limit.
Boulder's path forward
Heather Bailey is a veteran of regulatory complexities. She helped establish programs at the Public Utility Commission of Texas, was involved in creating a Lower Colorado River Authority transmission subsidiary, and consulted for NextEra Energy when it formed its transmission company. Her response to the dispute is to move ahead on plans for the municipal utility.
Bailey's Solar Working Group wants to expand the city's privately-owned 14 megawatts of installed solar capacity and add community-owned solar gardens. They want to build a resilient distributed power supply through Boulder's 26 energy-based local businesses. "A lot of them never got to do business locally because Xcel wouldn't talk to them," Bailey said. "We have begun creating partnerships."
Control of Xcel's poles and wires is crucial, Bailey said. It is the only way Boulder can choose its own energy mix, structure its grid to incorporate micro-grids and energy storage, and make its own rules for where and how it can expand distributed solar and cogeneration. "We need that ownership," she said.
If they have to go back to voters, municipalization advocates can argue Xcel is using legal delays to hold on to profits the city could use to pay down debt, reinvest in infrastructure, inject into the local economy, or drive innovation, Bailey said. "Today we have no control over how to use it."
Filed Under: Generation, Transmission & Distribution, Regulation & Policy
Major US utilities plan nationwide charging network, anticipating 22M EVs by 2030
Within a decade, more than 100,000 fast-charging stations will be needed to support adoption of electric vehicles, according to the Edison Electric Institute. But some areas face significant barriers to growth, say experts.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Max Henry Ririe was born September 2, 1923 in Ririe, Idaho to James Edmond Ririe and Verna Fannie Perry Ririe. He married MarDean Dalley of Weston, Idaho on January 28, 1945. They had four children: Linda, Carolyn, Susan and Kirk.
Max served in the Army during World War II in Hawaii. He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and has spent his career designing solutions to farm equipment problems. He and MarDean were owners of AgParts until recently, a potato harvester parts manufacturing company.
Max and MarDean live outside of Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Have something else written by or about Max Henry Ririe? Let us know about it, and share it with the family!


text:
USBIG NEWSLETTER VOL. 7, NO. 42, NOV.-DEC. 2006
This is the Newsletter of the USBIG Network (www.usbig.net), which promotes the discussion of the basic income guarantee (BIG) in the United States. BIG is a policy that would unconditionally guarantee a subsistence-level income for everyone. If you would like to be added to or removed from this list please email: Karl@Widerquist.com.
1. THE SIXTH USBIG CONGRESS, FEB. 23-25, 2007
2. OBITUARIES: MILTON FRIEDMAN, ANTONIO MARIA DA SILVEIRA, RICHARD CLEMENTS, AND LEONARD GREENE
3. REPORT FROM THE 11TH BIEN CONGRESS, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
4. SOUTH AFRICAN REACTION TO TUTU'S BIG ENDORSEMENT AT THE BIEN CONGRESS
5. BASIC INCOME STUDIES: ESSAY PRIZE AND SECOND ISSUE
6. U.S. GREEN PARTY REAFFIRMS BIG SUPPORT IN CHALLENGE TO DEMOCRATS
7. BIG DISCUSSED BY SOCIAL DEMOCRATS IN AUSTRIA
8. NAMIBIA: BIG COALITION REPLIES TO CRITIQUE BY THE IMF
9. EUROPEAN UNION: PRIME MINISTER OF LUXEMBOURG SUPPORTS EU-WIDE MINIMUM INCOME
10. UPCOMING EVENTS
11. NEW PUBLICATIONS
12. NEW DISCUSSION PAPERS
13. NEW LINKS
14. LINKS AND OTHER INFO
The tentative schedule for the 2007 USBIG Network Congress is attached to this email. The Congress will included dozens of participants from around the United States and as far away as Ireland and Australia. The conference will have sessions on the politics of BIG; economic issues of BIG; Family, Care Work, and Gender; a tribute to the work of Robert Harris; and a debate between Phil Harvey, of Rutgers University and Karl Widerquist, of Tulane University, over the relative merits of income guarantees and job guarantees. Speakers include Fred Block, of UC-Davis; Dalton Conley, of NYU; Nicolaus Tideman, of Virginia Tech; William DiFazio, of St. John's; Senator Eduardo Suplicy, of the Brazilian federal government, and Stanley Aronowitz, of CUNY.
The conference will be held in conjunction with the Eastern Economics Association (EEA) Annual Meeting at the Crowne Plaza Manhattan Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. All USBIG participants are welcome to attend any of the EEA's hundreds sessions. All USBIG participants must register for the EEA, but USBIG participants are entitled to register for the members price of $45 without paying the EEA membership fee, saving more than half of the registration price. Instructions for registration will be on the USBIG website soon.
Four basic income advocates died in November 2006. Noble-Laureate Milton Friedman (Nov. 16), Brazilian economist Antonio Maria da Silveira (Nov.21), former director of the Citizens Income Trust (Britain) Richard Clements (Nov. 23), and inventor and philanthropist Leonard Greene (Nov. 30). Below is a short discussion of the role of each in the debate over the basic income guarantee.
Milton Friedman, the economist who most popularized BIG in the United States, died November 16, 2006. Friedman was on the most influential economists of the Twentieth Century. His work has been influential in diverse areas of economic theory, but most particularly in the area of monetary economics. Although his proposal of a strict rule for increasing the money supply each year by a given percentage has been largely discarded, his critical work on the mistakes made by the central bank that led to the Great Depression and other economic downturns has simply become part of common knowledge.
More than his contribution to the science of economics, Friedman is known for popularization of free market libertarianism in numerous books, articles, and a television show on the Public Broadcasting System. He opposed government regulation of industry and the privatization of state-owned industries right up to and including the Post Office. He was an early advocate of public school choice and of the privatization of Social Security. Thus, he became known as a spokesperson for conservative republicanism, but his libertarianism was never quite in line with traditional American conservatism. As early as the 1960s, he opposed the military draft and supported the legalization of drugs. None of his proposals seemed more out-of-line with the 1980-2006 conservative revolution than his advocacy of the basic income guarantee under the name of the negative income tax (NIT).
Welfare state policy in the United States, and to some extent across the industrialized world, has been dominated by an uneasy marriage of the liberal desire to help the poor with the conservative desire to force the poor to become better people. So, we have a hugely complex system that is stingy with some of the people who need it most, generous with people who fit into arbitrary categories, and makes everyone jump through hoops to meet the conditions of eligibility. One might expect a free-market libertarian to oppose using the tax system either to help or to improve the poor, but to a free market libertarian it is clear which of the two is the greater danger.
To a libertarian, government interference, control, and humiliation of the poor is a waste of time and money and whatever it might do to improve the poor, it does not make them more free. Through this kind of reasoning, Friedman became a supporter of the basic income guarantee.
"He believed that if you wanted to fight poverty you should give the poor more money and let them figure out how to use it," as Renée Montagne of National Public radio summarized his thinking. He, therefore, advocated BIG in the form of the NIT: a small in-cash grant to everyone who had a low income with a low "marginal tax" rate that would give them plenty of incentive to earn money on the private market if they could.
Friedman did so much to popularize BIG that many BIG supporters today tend to forget that he never lost his free market attraction to the idea that perhaps the government should do nothing for the poor. Friedman's support for the NIT almost always came with the disclaimer to the effect that as long as we are spending money to help the poor, we might as well use the most efficient method to help them. He even sometimes described the negative income tax as a transitional program toward the complete abolition of all government assistance to the poor—not quite what most BIG advocates hope for.
Nevertheless there is good reason to think of Friedman as a champion of the BIG movement. Friedman's NIT was broad and generous to those who needed it most. Daine Pagen, of the Caregivers Credit Campaign complained that many recent articles on Friedman treated the NIT as the precursor to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Although the EITC is a form of negative tax that was an outgrowth of the NIT movement, it is actually a very narrow and water-down alternative. Friedman's NIT was a comprehensive solution to poverty aimed at everyone, not only at low-income workers as the EITC is.
Under the NIT, the government would make no judgment about why a person was poor. It would help everyone in need, and create an incentive system so that everyone who worked more had more a higher take-home pay. It would leave it up to the individual to decide whether that was in their best interest. This kind of thinking is diametrically opposed to "welfare reform" under Temporary Assistance to Needed Families, which is designed to force ever single parent into the labor market whether or not she believes the needs of her children make that impossible.
Friedman wrote extensively on the NIT between 1960 and 1980, but he paid less attention to the topic in the last 25 years of his life. However, in an interview with Brazilian Senator and economist Eduardo Suplicy in 2000, Friedman reiterated his support for BIG. When Suplicy asked what Friedman thought of basic income as an alternative to the NIT, Friedman responded, "A basic or citizen's income is not an alternative to a negative income tax. It is simply another way to introduce a negative income tax."
A quick web search will produce thousands of articles on Friedman. For a broad view of his career and contributions, see Samuel Brittan in the Financial Times: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cb74eef8-7599-11db-aea1-0000779e2340.html
Antonio Maria da Silveira
Antonio Maria da Silveira, professor of economics at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, died on November 21. According to his long-time friend, Eduardo Suplicy, "Antonio Maria was the first Brazilian economist who proposed the institution of a guaranteed minimum income program through a negative income tax. It was in the article Redistribuição de Renda (Redistribution of Income), published in Revista Brasileira de Economia, in April 1975." Drawing inspiration from Economists as diverse as J. M. Keyns and F. A. Hayek, Antonio Maria argued that it would soon become feasible for the government to secure a decent living for everyone. Suplicy credits him with being a consistent voice in favor of a basic income guarantee right through the passage of a bill to gradually phase in a basic income in Brazil. Suplicy's tribute to Antonio Maria da Silveira is in the December issue of the BIEN NewsFlash (www.basicincome.org).
Richard Clements
Richard Clements, former director of the Citizens Income Trust (CIT), died November 23, 2006. According to the CIT, "The Citizen's Income Trust has been sorry to hear of the death of Richard Clements. After being editor of Tribune and running Neil Kinnock's office, Richard was Director of the Citizen's Income Trust from 1993 to 1996, when sadly he had to retire because of his own ill health and to look after his wife Bridget. He was a most effective Director, and we were very sorry when he had to leave. Not surprisingly, he was particularly good at raising the profile of the Citizen's Income debate in the press." Clements was also a campaigner against nuclear weapons and editor of the British left-wing newspaper, the Tribune. The British newspaper the Guardian article on Clements is on the web at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1955580,00.html.
Leonard Greene
Can you imagine a better way to make a fortune than to invent a product that saves lives? Can you imagine a better thing to do with a fortune than use to fight poverty and disease? Leonard Greene made his fortune inventing safety products for airplanes. His stall warning device (a safety feature that is now standard equipment on commercial aircraft) has saved an uncountable number of lives. After Greene was a well established business owner with dozens of patents and a multimillion-dollar business to his credit, he founded the Institute for SocioEconomic Studies, which funded research on healthcare policy and on the Basic Income Guarantee. Greene wrote two books on the Basic Income Guarantee, Free Enterprise Without Poverty and The National Tax Rebate. Greene's BIG idea was simple: What if they United States replaced everything it is now doing to maintain someone's income and replaced it with a basic income in the form of a tax credit or tax rebate? Greene found that the revenue currently devoted to tax deductions, welfare policies, farm subsidies, and many other programs could be redirected to a basic income large enough to virtually eliminate poverty in the United States. His ideas have not caught on with mainstream politicians, but they have continuing appeal. His idea for redirecting all U.S. income support spending into a basic income has been virtually reinvented by Charles Murray in his latest book, In Our Hands, and the idea of BIG in the form of a tax credit is very much the idea behind the BIG bill submitted in the 109th Congress by Representative Robert Filner. He is survived by eight children. He son, Donald Greene died in United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. Leonard Greene died November 30, 2006 at the age of 88.
When I volunteered to write the USBIG Newsletter in 2000, I did no realize how many obituaries I would have to write. It is a particularly sad duty that I have never quite gotten used to. Friedman's death, following Herbert Simon in 2001, James Tobin in 2002, John Kenneth Galbraith early this year, marks the end of an era when the great economists who seemed to disagree on everything else, all seemed united behind the guaranteed income as the best way to reform anti-poverty policy. Friedman was first among these because of long-term efforts to popularize the idea. Although Friedman considered himself a liberal (or libertarian) who believed freedom was the overriding value that should guide policy and who believed that freedom conflicted with egalitarianism and economic equality, he had something to teach egalitarians. His logic (if you really want to help the poor, give them money and let them decide how to use it) leads me inevitably to the belief that unconditional assistance, in the form of some kind of basic income guarantee, must be the centerpiece of any truly egalitarian program. It has also made me suspicious of anyone who calls himself egalitarian but advocates conditional assistance to the poor. There can't be egalitarianism without respect for the poor, and how can we say we respect the poor if we advocate policies designed to promote "equality but..."? For example, I support equality but only for the truly needed. I support equality but only if they are willing to work. I support equality but not one of them is going to get their hands on one red cent of my tax dollars if they've ever refused a job. I can't help but be suspicious. I can't help but come back that that idea, if you really care about the poor, if you really want to help them, you will give them money unconditionally, with no supervision, without asking for anything in return. Sometimes it takes a libertarian spot a true egalitarian.
-Karl Widerquist
Cape Town South Africa was host to the Eleventh Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) held on November 2-4, 2006. It was sponsored by the Economic Policy Research Institute and principally organized by Ingrid Van Niekerk of EPRI. It was held on the campus of the University of Cape Town on the side of Table Mountain overlooking the city and the cape.
This conference was a big moment for BIEN. It is the first conference held outside of Europe and the first conference since it made the decision to expand to a worldwide network in 2006, and it proved to be a success. A good number of BIEN's base membership from the north made the trip and there were a large number of participants from South America, Southern Africa, and Australia. There were more than 100 participants from all the continents except Antarctica, which unfortunately has gone unrepresented again this year.
A popular topic at the conference was the advantages of BIG in the third world. Developing countries with poor government infrastructure and accountability and with large black market economies have a great deal of difficulty administering conditional income support systems or supervising make-work programs. A small but universal grant is one way these countries can effectively aid the least advantaged. Other issues discussed at the Congress included universal child support grants, global or regional basic income guarantees, and trade union and feminist support for BI.
Philippe Van Parijs noted that one of the most striking features of this conference compared to its predecessors was the presence of religion. Plenary speakers included one of leaders of the South African Council of Churches, and Namibia's Lutheran bishop and SWAPO member of parliament, Zephania Kameeta, who implored the participants to create a fund to begin a small fund out of private donations that could someday lead to a basic income. Desmond Tutu, Noble Peace Prize Laureate and Archbishop Emeritus of the South African Anglican Church, addressed the Congress by video tape and gave a forceful plea for BIG. Tutu's address can be viewed on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf3n-L5FDy0. Islam was also represented at the Congress. Shamshad Sayed discussed the relationship between basic income and the Islamic responsibility of Sakah, or mandatory charity, in which each Moslem is responsible to give 2.5 percent of her wealth each year toward poverty eradication.
At close of the Congress, BIEN members held their Eleventh General Assembly meeting, at which new statutes were approved, and the Australian Basic Income Network (BIGA) was approved as BIEN's eleventh national affiliate. Most members of BIEN's Executive Committee were re-elected, except for Jurgen De Wispelaere, who chose to step down. Dublin was approved for the 2008 conference venue, and Sean Healy will join the committee as conference organizer.
Tutu's address and the BIEN Congress (see preceding article) received considerable attention in the national media and among government officials. South Africa's Minister for social development Zola Skweyiya endorsed the basic income grant (as BIG is known in South Africa). This endorsement is an important moment because, although there is strong grassroots support for BIG in South Africa, this is the first time that a cabinet-level member of the ruling ANC party has endorsed it. However, under South Africa's party-driven electoral system, Skweyiya had to stress that this endorsement was his personal view and to the ANC's view. The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomed and applauded the statement by Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya in support of BIG. According to andnetwork.com, the opposition Democratic Alliance party renewed its effort to push for BIG after Skweyiya's endorsement. Skweyiya faced considerable criticism in the press for his endorsement, and substantial opposition in the treasury department persists. However, Linda Daniels, of the Pretoria News, speculated that this round of debate could lead to the introduction of a cash grant for HIV-positive people and other chronically ill individuals.
South African newspaper and magazine articles on BIG following the conference included: (1) Cape Town's Sunday paper's headline read: "Tutu pleads for Basic Income Grant", (2) Business Day, "Skweyiya calls for basic income grant for the poor" (3) Business Report (South Africa), "Nature's bounty is an asset for all, forever" December 5, 2006. This editorial by Margaret Legum of the South African New Economics Network, argued for following the Alaska model in Africa, (4) Independent (Cape Town, South Africa), "Deal with extreme poverty, Da Silva tells SA", http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=6&art_id=qw116247096125B265, (6) Donwald Pressly, Cape Town, South Africa, "Skweyiya sticks by his call for basic income grant," November 20, 2006 02:03, and (7) Linda Daniels, Pretoria News, "Social grants on cards for chronically ill" November 21, 2006, http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=125&art_id=vn20061121043819287C546879.
Basic Income Studies Essay Prize 2006
Basic Income Studies (BIS) awarded its first Essay Prize at the Eleventh Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) in Cape Town, South Africa, November 4, 2006. The award is designed to encourage promising research on basic income and related policies. The BIS Essay Prize is awarded to an essay that exemplifies the high standard of quality and original basic income research that BIS hopes to promote. The winning essay will be published in BIS. The 2006 Essay Prize was awarded to Michael Howard's article entitled, "A NAFTA Dividend: A proposal for a guaranteed minimum income for North America." In his article, Michael Howard of the University of Maine, applies Thomas Pogge's argument for a global resource dividend on a regional basis in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Three other essays were awarded an Honourable Mention: "Good for women? Advantages and risks of basic income from a gender perspective" by Julieta Elgarte (Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina); "Why Switzerland? Basic Income and the Development Potential of Swiss Republicanism" by Eric Patry (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland); and "Australia's Disabling Income Support System" by Jennifer Mays (Queensland University of Technology, Australia). These essays made important contributions to the examination of the argument over basic income from the perspective of feminism, republicanism, and the disabled rights movement respectively.
Announcement Basic Income Studies, Volume 1, Issue 2
Basic Income Studies (BIS) will release its second issue in December 2006, with new research articles by Stuart White on basic income and reciprocity, Simon Wigley on basic income and cumulative advantage, and Philip Harvey on the cost of a basic income compared to a negative income tax scheme. Volume 1, Issue 2 also carries a research note by economic historians Guido Erreygers and John Cunliffe, in which they introduce a virtually unknown social constitution drafted in Brussels in 1848, in which an unconditional basic income figured prominently. In the debate section, guest-editor Loek Groot presents five short comments by an interdisciplinary group of scholars discussing the possibility of using experimental research design in the study of basic income proposals. Contributions to this debate discuss the reasons for conducting a basic income experiment (Loek Groot), the questions such a design needs to answer (Karl Widerquist), and the comparative advantage and disadvantages of social experiments over the study of natural experiments (Hans Peeters and Axel Marx) or laboratory experiments (José Noguera and Jurgen De Wispelaere), and a critical comment on the entire debate (add Ilka Virjo). The book review section features critical reflections on recent books by Ailsa McKay (reviewed by Almaz Zelleke), Clive Lord (reviewed by Laura Bambrick) and Russell Muirhead (reviewed by José Noguera). BIS is published by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress), sponsored by Red Renta Basica (RRB) and BIEN and supported USBIG.
The US Green Party has reaffirmed its support for the basic income guarantee in its challenge to the new Democratic leaders in Congress issued November 27, 2006. Quoting Jim Coplen, a co-chair of the national Green Party, the Green Party writes, "The Democrats' proposed 75 cent increase is just a minimal improvement over the Republicans. Working Americans need a living wage, and all Americans deserve the basic income guarantee." http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2006_11_27.shtml.
In view of the campaign for the Federal elections of October 1st, 2006, the Austrian basic income network was invited to a meeting with the head of the Social Department of the City of Vienna, Renate Brauner (Social Democratic Party). Brauner tried to convince the representatives of the network, that though she shares the analysis regarding the raising poverty in Austria and the failing distribution of wealth the Social Democrats are not ready to give up work as the cornerstone of their social policy. She urged basic income supporters not to argue against the policy of full employment, by referring to the network's statement that full employment has to be called "a myth".
During the election campaign the Social Democrats and the Green Party both pleaded for a means tested basic income ("Grundsicherung"): 800 Euros for everyone who works or is not able to work and whose income or social benefits is less than this amount. The Social Democrats, who won the majority of the votes and are leading the coalition talks, surprisingly declared the "Grundsicherung" to be a condition for any coalition government with the conservative "People's party". With the help of the mass media whose interest suddenly increased dramatically (TV, large daily newspapers and their online issues) a lively discussion about "Grundsicherung", basic income, taxes, the future of work and "Leistung" (effort) is on the way. Different members of our network have been asked for interviews in the actual debate and use the possibility to point out the basic income idea.
A means tested basic income, as it is favoured by the Social Democrats, would certainly be helpful to stop the rising poverty in Austria. There are 460.000 poor people in Austria and another 600.000 who are threatened by poverty. But the concrete concept is not acceptable, in the view of the Austrian BI-network as well as in the view of the Austrian Green party. The critic concentrates on three main points: 1) the concept contains the condition, that available wealth has to be utilized, 2) further it has to be proofed that there is no job (with no regards to the job conditions) available and moreover 3) social insurance benefits like unemployment benefits or the Austrian "Notstandshilfe" are partly turned into social benefits without the desirable legal framework.
Despite the fact that the Green party pleads for another form of means tested basic income, like the majority of the Non-Profit Organisations in the Social Sector, organised in the Austrian Anti-Poverty-Network, it is not possible to gain "official" political support for the Basic Income idea. The Green spokesman for Social Affairs, Karl Öllinger, recently conceded that it would be "exciting to think about the separation of work and income in our time" but he doesn't believe that it is possible to finance a basic income.
-From BIEN
BIEN NewsFlash 41 (September 2006) reported that in its recent "Country Report" on Namibia (No. 06/153 April 2006), the International Monetary Fund indicated that the recent proposal to introduce a Basic Income Grant (BIG) providing a monthly cash grant to all Namibians below 60 years old would be very costly, and may jeopardize macroeconomic stability. The Namibian Basic Income Grant Coalition responded to the IMF, in a detailed letter which was printed in the Namibian Insight Magazine. The BIG Coalition stated that the IMF's calculations were deliberately flawed. The IMF responded that they were apparently not aware that a recuperation of the money through the tax system forms part of Namibia's BIG proposal. And yet the tax recuperation was always part of the proposal, and is well documented, Claudia and Dirk Haarmann from the Namibian BIG coalition argue. In their letter, they explicitly referred to the Brazilian law on basic income: "The IMF points to Brazil as a possible role model in terms of its cash-transfer programme. We could not agree more! The Bolsa Familia programme, which the IMF refers to, has in itself already universalised and replaced four previous fragmented cash-transfer systems. It is currently extended to 11.2 million families. Moreover, the latest developments seem to have gone by unnoticed in the IMF's recommendations. President Lula has signed a law (10.835/2004), which - addressing the shortcomings of the current conditional cash-grant system - enacts the gradual implementation of a BIG in Brazil! Thereby Brazil is the first country to have taken this bold empowerment step for the poor. The question is, when is Namibia ready to follow this role model and introduce a BIG?" For further information and to get a copy of the letter to Insight Magazine, please send an e-mail to Claudia & Dirk Haarmann <cd.haarmann@gmx.net>
Recent newspaper and magazine articles on BIG in Namibia include: (1) Namibian Broadcasting Corporation Today's News, "KAMEETA BIG: The fight to eradicate poverty is not a privilege, but an obligation." November 13, 2006 http://www.nbc.com.na/news/today.php?newsid=823, (2) Denver Isaacs, The Namibian (Windhoek) November 16, 2006 http://allafrica.com/stories/200611160154.html, (3) Denver Isaacs, The Namibian, "BIG Coalition Takes Aim At the IMF," November 21, 2006 http://allafrica.com/stories/200611210224.html, and (4) New Era (Windhoek), "Namibia: Churches Challenge IMF On BIG," November 21, 2006, http://allafrica.com/stories/200611210505.html
On November 11, 2006, Jean-Claude Juncker, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, gave an interview to the prominent German daily "Frankfurter Rundschau". The article was entitled "Europe needs a basic income for all", and in the interview Juncker made a strong plea for minimum standards in the whole EU. He seems to think every EU-citizen is entitled to a minimum standard of living, but remains unclear whether this would have all the other features BIEN normally associated with an unconditional basic income.
The interview has been posted at http://www.gouvernement.lu/salle_presse/Interviews/2006/11novembre/20juncker_rundschau/
IS HARD WORK CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING? THE WORK ETHIC IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL WARMING AND ROBOTICS
Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006
1:00-3:30 pm Central Library seminar room
735 Broughton St. Victoria BC, Canada
Sponsored by Livable Income for Everyone. For full background information for this event go to: http://www.livableincome.org/events.htm
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE GERMAN BASIC INCOME NETWORK
Berlin, Germany December 16-17, 2006:
The German Basic Income Network (Netzwerk Gruindeinkommen) will hold its General Assembly at the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin on December 16-17, 2006. An opening discussion forum on "Working differently and living better with a basic income" shall take place on the evening of December 15 (7pm), with the participation of Götz Werner and Wolfgang Engler. During the next two days, talks and workshops shall provide further opportunities to foster the German debate on basic income.
For further information: http://www.grundeinkommen.info/.
THE BASIC INCOME GUARANTEE IN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
New York, NY, May 6-8, 2007:
Within the framework of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University (New York City), Richard Caputo organizes a session on "The basic income guarantee in international perspective". The Conference is scheduled for 6-8 May 2007 at the Sheraton New York. Interested persons should contact Richard Caputo at caputo@yu.edu.
CITIZENS INCOME NEWSLETTER
The third edition of 2006 Citizen's Income Newsletter, including the main article, "Why we Ought to Listen to Zygmunt Bauman," by Ian Orton. It also contains book reviews, a review article of Welfare Reform and Political Theory edited by Lawrence Mead and Christopher Beem. The article is on the web at:
http://www.citizensincome.org/resources/newsletter%20issue%203%202006.shtml.
BAY, Ann-Helén and PEDERSEN, Axel West
The Limits of Social Solidarity: Basic Income, Immigration and the Legitimacy of the Universal Welfare State
Acta Sociologica, Vol. 49, No. 4, 419-436 (2006)
Abstract: Does mass immigration and increasing ethnic diversity challenge the legitimacy of the universal welfare state? Assuming that basic income can be seen as a radical extension of the universal welfare state, we pursue this question by investigating whether popular reactions towards a basic income proposal are susceptible to persuasion that invokes attitudes towards immigration. The study is based on survey data covering a representative sample of the Norwegian electorate. We find that a comfortable majority express sympathy with the idea of a basic income, and that the structure of initial support for the basic income proposal is well in line with established findings concerning attitudes towards welfare state institutions and redistributive policies more generally. However, by applying a persuasion experiment, we show that negative attitudes towards immigration can be mobilized to significantly reduce the scope of support for a basic income proposal among the Norwegian electorate.
SHEAHEN, Allan, Security of Income Should be US Right
Guest Columnist, the Los Angeles Tribute
Partly in remembrance to Milton Friedman, the author argues for taking $1 billion Los Angeles County currently spends on homeless and converting it into a negative income tax. Authors' address: alsheahen@prodigy.net
HARMAN, Eva Can It Start Small, But End BIG? Expanding Social Assistance in South Africa.
Human Rights Review (2006) Vol. 7 issue 4. p 81-99.
Abstract: Generating heated politics in South Africa is a proposal to introduce a universal basic income grant, known as "BIG." The "gaps" in the existing system of social assistance grants have caught the attention of activists and politicians across the political spectrum. Most concur on the need to expand the system, but the issue of how its "gaps" should be closed is a matter of great political divergence. To cast light on the significance of these debates, I show how the system's "gaps" are more complicated than measurements of poverty and inequality may suggest. Following the social and economic relations that develop around social grants, my analysis foregrounds a tension in the existing assistance system. Social grants provide a critical source of income for recipients and their kin, assisting them to confront the challenging realities of current labor market conditions. At the same time, social grants act as conduits for historical forces to articulate with local conditions and reshape relationships between citizens, the state, and the market. This tension points to the ambiguity of the BIG proposal and of its potential to engender a larger transformation.
Author's email: emharman@fulbrightweb.org
LEVY, Horacio & SUTHERLAND, Holly (2006), 'A Basic Income for Europe's Children?', University of Essex: Institute for Social and Economic Research, EUROMOD Working Paper em4/06, September 2006, 30p. Downloadable at http://ideas.repec.org/p/ese/emodwp/em4-06.html
This paper explores the prospects for a guaranteed income for every child in the European Union and its potential effects on child poverty, taking as one starting point the ideas set out by economist Anthony Atkinson. It examines the extent to which existing levels of financial support for children through national taxes and benefits fall short of a series of illustrative minimum levels of income corresponding to proportions of median income. It estimates the cost of bringing the amount of support up to these levels for all children as well as the corresponding impacts on income poverty among EU children. From this the cost in each country of providing basic incomes for children is estimated such that potential EU child poverty reduction targets are met. This cost could be met at national level or, alternatively, at EU level. The effect of financing the guaranteed child income using a European flat tax is investigated. The analysis uses EUROMOD, the European tax-benefit microsimulation model and illustrates the implications of the choices that must be made when designing such a scheme for the extent of redistribution between countries and towards children.
VAN PARIJS, Philippe (2006), Bottom-up Social Europe. From subsidiarity to Euro-Dividend, Plenary address at the conference organized at the initiative of the Finnish presidency of the European Union, The EU's evolving Social Policy and National Models. Seeking a New Balance, Helsinki, 9-10/11/2006, available as DOCH 165, Université catholique de Louvain: Chaire Hoover d'éthique économique et sociale, November 2006.
In matters of social policy, the subsidiarity principle makes a lot of sense, but direct EU involvement is indispensable to prevent Europe ending up doing worse than the US in terms of social solidarity. Imposing minimum standards will be insufficient. EU-level funding of the most redistributive component of the social transfer system will be required. There are three models for organizing such funding: a means-tested "Euro-Stipend" as proposed by P. Schmitter and M. Bauer; co-payment as often practised for social assistance by member states and their local authorities; and a EU-wide universal basic income or Euro-Dividend, be it initially restricted to a specific age group, such as children. Only the third model is consistent with the preservation of healthy and diverse national welfare states. The conditions for the political feasibility of such an active EU involvement in social policy are not yet fulfilled, however. They include the thickening of an EU-wide civil society, EU-level electoral institutions that foster the construction and defence of an EU-wide general interest and the democratization of competence in English as the EU's lingua franca.
The Public Administration Case Against Participation Income
Jurgen De Wispelaere and Lindsay Stirton
No. 157, November 2006
"The possible Transition from the Bolsa-Família Program towards a Citizen's Basic Income"
Senator Eduardo Matarazzo Suplicy
No. 158 November 2006
DEMOCRACY AT RISK
The Australian website, Democracy at risk, includes a section with papers on the National Dividend (a version of the basic income guarantee).
www.keypoint.com.au/~democracyatrisk
LIVABLE INCOME FOR EVERYONE (LIFE)
Livable Income For Everyone has made a major updated to its website with a large number of new articles on the web at: http://www.livableincome.org/.
DESMOND TUTU SUPPORTS BASIC INCOME
The videotaped address that Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel Laureate and one of the great figures of the anti-apartheid struggle) made at the Eleventh BIEN Congress is on the web on YouTube.com. For a direct link go to:
available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf3n-L5FDy0.
BELGIAN BASIC INCOME PARTY LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE
Vivant, a Belgian political party that supports basic income, has launched a new website entitled "Enjoy Living". English version is on the web at http://www.vivant.org/site/en/home/
WORLD CITIZENS ACTION
This group initiated by Lisinka Ulatowska supports a plan for a Basic Income for all funded by the United Nations . The plan includes four phases.
1. Create a Draft Plan consisting of basic income approaches from around the world, how to implement them and endorsements by interested world leaders.
2. Circulate this among all Heads of State and Government, world leaders, experts and grass roots and insert feedback into the document; combine this with a lobby via the UN until informed world public opinion is buzzing in support and several Governments decide to go ahead.
3. Create a universal structure to implement the basic income, which can eventually accommodate all governments as they are ready. This would include helping Governments and communities to decide on an approach and training people to implement it, and the necessary financial consultants and banking facilities. Consult with and lobby Governments via the UN.
4. When sufficient governments have joined, apply for status as a Specialized Agency of the UN.
See or http://www.worldcitizensaction.com or contact Lisinka Ulatowska: <lisinkalu@versatel.nl>
For links to dozens of BIG websites around the world, go to http://www.usbig.net/links.html. These links are to any website with information about BIG, but USBIG does not necessarily endorse their content or their agendas.
The USBIG Network Newsletter
Editor: Karl Widerquist
Research: Paul Nollen
Copyediting: Mike Murray and the USBIG Committee
The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network publishes this newsletter. The Network is a discussion group on basic income guarantee (BIG) in the United States. BIG is a generic name for any proposal to create a minimum income level, below which no citizen's income can fall. Information on BIG and USBIG can be found on the web at: http://www.usbig.net.
You may copy and circulate articles from this newsletter, but please mention the source and include a link to http://www.usbig.net. If you know any BIG news; if you know anyone who would like to be added to this list; or if you would like to be removed from this list; please send me an email: Karl@Widerquist.com.
As always, your comments on this newsletter and the USBIG website are gladly welcomed.
-Karl Widerquist, USBIG Coordinator. Karl@Widerquist.com


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Laughing Kookaburra
Dacelo novaeguineae novaeguineae
Eastern Australia
Woodlands and forests
Estimated Wild Population
McCormick Bird House
Laughing kookaburras have a white chest and head, dark brown wings, a brown back, brown stripes around their eyes, and a reddish-colored tail with black bars. They often kill their prey by grasping them with their beak and striking them against their perch. These birds live in territorial groups of three or more birds. Mature offspring feed and protect their siblings before moving on to nests of their own.
Interesting Fact 1
Laughing kookaburras feed on snakes, lizards, insects, and rodents—a diet that made it popular with Australian settlers.
They received their name—as well as their nickname, "bushman's clock"—from their laughter-like call, which often comes at early dawn and dusk.
Only the dominant male and female breed in each territorial group, but the entire group helps rear their chicks.
Species Survival Plan®
We cooperate with other members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to manage the zoo population of this species through a Species Survival Plan®.
Commitment to Care
Lincoln Park Zoo prioritizes individual well-being over everything else. Guided by scientific research, staff and volunteers work to provide the best welfare outcomes for each individual in the zoo's care.
Animals Depend On People Too
When you ADOPT an animal, you support world-class animal care by helping to provide specially formulated diets, new habitat elements, and regular veterinary checkups.
The Wish List is full of one-of-a-kind items for the zoo's animals, including nutritious snacks and enrichment items to keep them active and healthy.
Browse the Wish List
Wildlife face many daunting challenges—some global, like planet-wide climate change, and some that affect individuals, like an animal ingesting plastic—but now is not the time to despair. None of these problems are too big for us to come together and solve.